favour Now the Angels are sent forth to minister for them who are Heirs of Salvation Besides in two other things the peculiar affection of the Prince would be most evident to that Nation 1. If he put on their habit and attire himself according to their fashion 2. If he fixt his residence among them Now the Son of God was cloathed with our flesh and found in fashion as a man and for ever appears in it in Heaven and will at the last day invest our bodies with glory like to his own He now dwells in us by his Spirit and when our warfare is accomplisht he shall in a special manner be present with us in the eternal Mansions As God incarnate he converst with Men on Earth and as such he will converse with them in heaven There he raigns as the first-born in the midst of many Brethren Now all these Prerogatives are the fruits of our Redemption And how great is that Mercy which hath raised Mankind more glorious out of its ruines The Apostle breaks out with a Heavenly astonishment Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! that we who are Strangers and Enemies Children of Wrath by nature should be dignified with the honorable and amiable title of his Sons 'T was a rare and most merciful condescension in Pharaoh's Daughter to rescue an innocent and forsaken Infant from perishing by the waters and adopt him to be her Son but how much greater kindness was it for God to save guilty and wretched Man from Eternal Flames and to take him into his Family The Ambition of the Prodigal rose no higher than to be a Servant whaâ— an inestimable favour is it to make us Children When God would express the most dear and peculiar affection to Solomon he saith I will be his Father and he shall be my Son this was the highest honour he could promise and all believers are dignified with it 'T is the same relation that Christ hath when he was going to Heaven he comforted his Disciples with these words I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God There is indeed a diversity in the foundation of it Christ is a Son by Nature we are by meer Favour he is by Generation we are by Adoption Briefly Jesus Christ hath made us Kings Priests unto God his Father These are the highest Offices upon Earth and were attended with the most conspicuous Honour and the Holy Spirit chose those bright Images to convey a clearer notice of the glory to which our Redeemer hath raised us Not only all the Crowns and Scepters in this perishing World are infinitely beneath this dignity but the honour of our innocent state was not equal to it Secondly The Gospel is a better Covenant than that which was establisht with Man in his Creation and the excellency of it will appear by considering 1. 'T is more beneficial in that it admits of Repentance and Reconciliation after sin and accepts of Sincerity instead of perfection The Apostle magnifies the Office of Christ By how much he is a Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises The comparison there is between the Ministry of the Gospel and the Mosaical oeconomy And the excellency of the Gospel is specified in respect of those infinitely better promisses that are in it The ceremonial Law appointed Sacrifices for sins of ignorance and error and to obtain only legal impunity but the Gospel upon the account of Christ's all-sufficient Sacrifice offers full Pardon for all Sins that are repented of and forsaken Now with greater reason the Covenant of Grace is to be preferr'd before the Covenant of Works For the Law considered Man as holy and endued with perfection of Grace equal to whatsoever was commanded 'T was the measure of his Ability as well as Duty and requir'd exact Obedience or threatned extreme Misery The least breach of it is fatal A single Offence as certainly exposes to the curse as if the whole were violated And in our lapsed state we are utterly disabled to comply with its Purity and Perfection But the Gospel contains the Promises of Mercy and is in the hands of a Mediator The tenor of it is That Repentance and Remission of Sins be preached in the Name of Christ. And if we judge our selves we shall not be judged 'T is not if we are innocent for then none could be exempt from Condemnation But if the convinced Sinner erect a Tribunal in Conscience and strips Sin of its disguise to view it in its native deformity if he pronounce the Sentence of the Law against himself and glorifie the Justice of God which he cannot satisfie and forsake the Sins which are the causes of his sorrow he is qualified for pardoning Mercy Besides The Gospel doth not only apply Pardon to us for all forsaken Sins but provides a Remedy for those Infirmities to which the best are incident Whilst we are in this mortal state we are exposed to Temptations from without and have Corruptions within that often betray us Now to support our drooping Spirits our Redeemer sits in Heaven to plead for us and perpetually renews the Pardon that was once purchased to every contrite spirit for those unavoidable frailties which cleave to us here The promise of Grace is not made void by the sudden surprizes of Passions If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous The rigour of the Law is mollified by his Mediation with the Father A title of Love and Tenderness God deals not with the Severity of a Judg but He spares us as a man spares his own son that serves him And as He pardons us upon our Repentance so He accepts our hearty though mean services Now the Legal that is unsinning and compleat Obedience cannot be performed the Evangelical that is the sincere though imperfect is graciously received God doth not require the duties of a Man by the measures of an Angel Unfeigned Endeavours to please Him unreserved Respects to all his Commands single and holy aims at his Glory are rewarded Briefly Although the Law is continued as a Rule of living yet not as the Covenant of Life And what an admirable exaltation of Mercy is there in this new Treaty of God with Sinners 'T is true the first Covenant was holy just and good but it made no abatements of favour and 't is now weak through the flesh that is The carnal corrupt Nature is so strong and impetuous that the restraints of the Law are ineffectual to stop its desires and therefore cannot bring Man to that Life that is promised by the performance of the Condition required But the Gospel provides an Indulgence for relenting and returning Sinners This is the language of God in that Covenant I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their Iniquities
Compleatness of Christ's Satisfaction proved from the Causes and Effects of it The Causes are the Quality of his Person and Degrees of his Sufferings The Effects are His Resurrection Ascension Intercession at Gods right hand and his exercising the Supreme Power in Heaven and Earth The excellent Benefits which God reconciled bestows on Men are the Effects and Evidences of his compleat Satisfaction They are Pardon of Sin Grace and Glory That Repentance and Faith are required in order to the partaking of the Benefits purchased by Christ's Death doth not lessen the Merit of his Sufferings That Afflictions and Dâ—ath are inflicted on Believers doth not derogate from their All-sufficiency THe Third thing to be considered is the Compleatness of the Satisfaction that Christ hath made by which it will appear that Gods Justice as well as Mercy is fully glorified in his Sufferings For the proof of this I will first consider the Causes from whence the compleatness of his Satisfaction arises Secondly The Effects that proceed from it which are convincing Evidences that God is fully appeas'd The Causes of his compleat Satisfaction are two 1. The Quality of his Person derives an infinite value to his obedient Sufferings Our Surety was equally God and as truely Infinite in His Perfections as the Father who was provoked by our Sins therefore he was able to make Satisfaction for them He is the Son of God not meerly in respect of the honour of his Office or the special Favour of God for on these accounts that Title is communicated to others but his only Son by Nature The sole preheminence in Gifts and Dignity would give Him the title of the first-born but not deprive them of the quality of Brethren Now the wisdom and justice of all Nations agree that Punishments receive their estimate from the quality of the Persons that suffer The Poet observes that the Death of a vertuous Person is more precious than of Legions Of what inestimable value then is the death of Christ and how worthy a Ransom for lost mankind For although the Deity is impassible yet he that was a Divine Person he suffered A King suffers more than a private person although the strokes he endures in his body cannot immediatly reach his honour And 't is specially to be observed that the Efficacy of Christs Blood is ascribed to his Divine Nature This the Apostle declares In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of Sins who is the image of the invisible God Not an artificial Image which imperfectly represents the Original As a Picture that sets forth the Colour and Figure of a Man but not his Life and Nature But the essential and exact Image of his Father that expresses all his glorious Perfections in their immensity and eternity This is testified expresly in Hebr. 1.3 The Son of God the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person having purged by himself our sins is set down on the right hand of Majesty on High From hence arises the infinite difference between the Sacrifices of the Law and Christs in their value and vertue This with admirable Emphasis is set down in Hebr. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Wherein the Apostle makes a double Hypothesis 1. That the Legal Sacrifices were ineffectual to purifie from real guilt 2. That by their Typical Cleansing they signified the washing away of moral guilt by the Blood of Christ. 1. Their insufficiency to expiate Sin appears if we consider the subject Sin is to be expiated in the same nature wherein 't was committed now the Beasts are of an inferiour rank and have no communion with Man in his nature Or if we consider the object God was provoked by Sin and He is a Spirit and not to be appeased by gross material things His Wisdom requires that a rational Sacrifice should expiate the guilt of a rational Creature And Justice is not satisfied without a proportion between the Guilt and the Punishment This weakness and insufficiency of the Legal Sacrifices to expiate Sin is evident from their variety and repetition For if full Remission had been obtained The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin 'T is the sense of Guilt and the fear of Condemnation that required the renewing of the Sacrifice Now under the Law the Ministry of the Priests never came to a period or perfection The Millions of Sacrifices in all Ages from the erecting the Tabernacle to the coming of Christ had not vertue to expiate one Sin They were only shadows which could give no refreshment to the inflamed Conscience but as they depended on Christ the body and substance of them But the Son of God who offered himself up by the Eternal Spirit to the Father is a Sacrifice not only Intelligent and Reasonable but incomparably more precious than the most noble Creatures in Earth or in Heaven it self He was Priest and Sacrifice in respect of both His Natures His entire Person was the Offerer and Offering Therefore the Apostle from the excellency of his Sacrifice infers the unity of its Oblation and from thence concludes its Efficacy Christ did not by the Blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood He entred in once to the Holy Place having obtained eternal Redemption for us and by one Offering He hath for ever perfected them who are sanctified Upon this account God promised in the New-Covenant That their Sins and Iniquities He would remember no more having received compleat satisfaction by the Sufferings of his Son 'T is now said that once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed for all men once to die and after Death comes Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin As there is no other natural death to suffer between Death and Judgment so there is no other propitiatory Sacrifice between his all-sufficient Death on the Cross and the last coming of our Redeemer There is one Consideration I shall adde to shew the great difference between Legal Sacrifices and the Death of Christ as to its saving vertue The Law absolutely forbids the eating of Blood and the peoples tasting of the Sin-offerings to signifie the imperfection of those Sacrifices For since they were consumed in their Consecration to Gods Justice and nothing was left for the nourishment of the Offerers 't was a sign they could not appease God The Offerers had communion with them when they brought them to the Altar and in a manner
Blood of the slain Sacrifice So our Redeemer first performed what was necessary for the Expiation of Sin and then He past through the visible Heavens and ascended before the Throne of God to appear as our Advocate He made an oblation of Himself on the Earth before He could make intercession for us in Heaven which is the consummation of his Priestly Office The first was a proper Sacrifice the second is a commemoration of it Therefore He is said To appear before his Father by Sacrifice Besides what hath been discours'd of the order and dependance of these parts of his Priestly Office which proves that He had accomplisht the expiation of Sin before He was admitted into Heaven to intercede for us There are two other Considerations which manifest the compleatness of his Satisfaction 1. The manner of his Intercession 2. It s omnipotent Efficacy 1. The manner of it He doth not appear in the form of a Suppliant upon his Knees before the Throne offering up tears and strong cries as in the day of his flesh but He sits at Gods right hand making intercession for us He sollicits our Salvation not as a favour to him but as the price of his Sufferings and as due to his infinite Merit His Blood in the same manner pleads for our Pardon as the blood of righteous Abel call'd for vengeance against the Murderer Not by an articulate voice but by suing to Justice for a full recompence of it In short His Intercession is the continual representation of his most worthy Passion 2. The omnipotent Efficacy of his Intercession proves that God is fully satisfied He frees us from the greatest Evils and obtains for us the greatest Good in the quality of Mediator If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole world He disarms the Anger of God and hinders the effects of his Indignation against repenting Sinners Now the prevalency of his Mediation is grounded on the perfection of his Sacrifice The blessedness of Heaven is confer'd on Believers according to his Will Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am to see my glory His request is effectual not only because He is Gods Son and in highest favour with Him but for his meritorious Sufferings 'T is for this reason that the Office of Mediator is incommunicable to any Creature There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all The Apostle makes a Parallel between the unity of the Mediator and of the Deity which is most Sacred and inviolable For the right of Intercession as 't is an authoritative act is founded in Redemption they cannot be divided And we may observe by the way How the Popish Doctrine that erects as many Advocates as Angels or Saints or whoever are Canonised is guilty of Impiety and Folly Of Impiety In taking the Sovereign Crown from the Head of Christ to adorn others with it as if they had more credit with God or compassion for Men And of Folly In expecting benefits by their Intercession who have no satisfactory Merit to purchase them The numerous Advocates that are conceived by superstitious Persons in their Fancies are like the counterfeit Suns that are drawn in the Clouds by Reflexion as in a Glass which although they shine with a considerable brightness yet they are only Suns in appearance and derive no quickening Influences to the Earth The blessed Spirits above who enjoy a dependant Light from the Sun of Righteousness yet convey no Benefits to Men by Meritorious interceding for them We obtain Grace Glory only upon the requests of our Redeemer Briefly The acts of his Priest-hood respect the Attributes which in a special manner are to be glorified in our Salvation By his Death He made Satisfaction to Justice by his Intercession he sollicites Mercy And they both join together with the same readiness and warmth to dispense the Benefits which He purchased for his People Thirdly The Compleatness of his Satisfaction is fully proved by the glorious issue of his Sufferings This will be most evident by considering the connexion and dependance which his Glory hath upon his Humiliation And that is twofold 1. A dependance of Order His Abasement and Sufferings were to precede his Majesty and Power As in Nature things pass from a lower state to Perfection This Order was necessary For being originally in the form of God it was impossible he should be advanced if he did not voluntarily descend from his Glory that so he might be capable of exaltation He was first made a little lower than the Angels and after raised above them 2. A dependance of efficacy Glory is the reward of his Sufferings This is expresly declared by the Apostle Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the Death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow The mark of that homage that all creatures pay to him This exaltation is correspondent to the degrees of his abasement His Body was restored to Life and Immortality and ascended on a bright Cloud God's Chariot being attended with Angels and the everlasting Gates opened to receive the King of Glory He is set down at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in Heaven this signifies that Divine Dignity to which He is advanced next to his Father For God being an infinite Spirit hath neither right nor left hand in strict sense Our Redeemers Honour is the same and His Empire of the same extent with his Fathers Thus the Apostle interprets the words of the Psalmist that the Messiah should sit at the right hand of God till he made his Enemies his Footstool by reigning for he must reign till he hath put all his Enemies under his feet And Saint Peter tells us That the Father hath made him Lord and Christ That is by a Soveraign trust hath committed to him the Government of the Church and the World not devesting himself of his essential Dominion but exercising it by Christ. The height of this Dignity is emphatically set forth by the Apostle The Father hath seated him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion which titles signify the several degrees of Glory among the Angels and every name that is named not only in this World but that which is to come that is hath given him a transcendent and incommunicable Glory the use of names being to signify the quality of Persons In short he is made the Head of the Church and Judge of the World Angels and Men shall stand before his Tribunal and receive their Eternal decision from him Now
the Church from all these will be the last Glorious Act of Christs Regal Office And 't is observeable the Day of Judgment is call'd the Day of Redemption with respect to the final accomplishment of our Felicity that was purchas'd by the infinite Price of his Sufferings The day of Christs Death was the Day of Redemption as to our Right and Title for then our Ransom was fully paid and 't is by the Immortal efficacy of his Blood that we partake of the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God but the Actual enjoyment of it shall be at the last day Therefore the perfection of all our Spiritual Priviledges is refer'd to that time when Death our Lâ—st Enemy shall be overcome The Apostle saith and not only they but our selves also which have the first Fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies During the present Life we are taken into Gods Family in the quality of his Children but the most Solemn Act of our Adoption shall be at the last Day In this there is a similitude between Christ and his Members for although he was the Son of God by his marvelous Conception and own'd by him while he perform'd his Ministry upon the Earth yet all the Testimonies of Gods Favour to him were not comparable to the Declaration of it in raising him from the Grave Then in the face of Heaven and Earth He said Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee So in this Life God acknowledges and treats us as his Children he cloaths us with the Righteousness of his Son feeds us with his Word defends us from our Spiritual Enemies but the most Publick Declaration of his favour shall be in the next Life when all the Children of the Resurrection shall be born in a Day Add further although the Souls of Believers immediately upon their Separation are receiv'd into Heaven and during the sleep of Death enjoy admirable Visions of Glory yet their Blessedness is imperfect in comparison of that excellent degree which shall be enjoyed at the Resurrection As the Roman Generals after a compleat Conquest first enter'd the City privately and after having obtain'd License of the Senate made their Triumphant entry with all the magnificence splendour becoming the Greatness of their Victories So after a Faithful Christian hath fought the good fight and is come off more than a Conquerour he enters privately into the Coelestial City but when the body is rais'd to Immortality he shall then in the company and with the acclamations of the Holy Angels have a Glorious entry into it I will briefly consider why the Bodies of the Saints shall be rais'd and how the Divine Power will be manifested in that last Act. 1. The General reason is from Gods Justice As the Oeconomy of Divine Providence requires there must be a Future State when God shall sit upon a judicial Throne to weigh the Actions of all Men and render to every one according to their quality so 't is as necessary that the Person be Judged and not one Part alone The Law Commands the entire Man compos'd of his Essential Parts the Soul and Body And 't is obeyed or violated by both of them Although the Guilt or Moral Goodness of Actions is chiefly Attributed to the Soul because 't is the Principle of them yet the Actions are imputed to the whole Man The Soul is the Guide the Body the Instrument 't is reasonable therefore that both should receive their recompence We see the Example of this in Humane Justice which is a copy of the Divine The whole Man is punisht or rewarded The Soul is punisht with Disgrace and Infamy the Body with Pains the Soul is rewarded with Esteem and Honour the Body with External marks of Dignity Thus the Divine Justice will render to every one according to things done in the Body whether Good or Evill 2. The special reason of the Saints Resurrection is their Union with Christ for he is not only our Redeemer and Prince but our second Adam the same in Grace as the first was in Nature Now as from the first the Soul was destroyed by Sin and the Body by Death so the second restores them both to their Primitive state the one by Grace the other by a Glorious Resurrection Accordingly the Apostle saith that by Man came Death and by Man came the Resurrection from the Dead Christ removed the Moral and Natural impossibility of our Glorious Resurrection the Moral by the infinite merit of his Death whereby Divine Justice is satisfied that otherwise would not permit the Guilty to be restor'd to Eternal Life and the Natural by his rising from the Grave to a Glorious Imortality For his Infinite Power can do the same in all Believers 'T is observable the Apostle infers the Resurrection of Believers from that of Christ not only as the Cause but the Original Example For the Members must be conform'd to the Head the Children to their Father the younger to the elder Brother Therefore he is call'd the first-fruits of them that sleep and the first begotten of the Dead In Christ's Resurrection ours is so fully assur'd that the event is infallible Now no less than Infinite Power is requisite to raise the Bodies of the Saints from the dust and to transform them into the similitude of Christs 1. To raise them Nothing is more astonishing to Nature than that the Bodies which after so many Ages in the perpetual circulation of the Elements have past into a thousand different Forms one part of them being resolved into Water another evaporated into Air another turn'd into Dust should be restor'd to their first State What Wisdom is requisite to separate the Parts so mixt and confounded what Power to recompose them what Vertue to reinspire them with new Life It may seem more difficult than to revive a Dead Body whose Organs and matter is not chang'd of which we have Examples in the Scripture When the Spirit of the Lord plac't Ezekiel in the midst of a Valley cover'd with bones and caused him to consider attentively their Number which was very great and their extream dryness he askt him whether these bones could live upon which as one divided and ballanc't between the seeming Impossibility of the thing in it self and the consideration of the Divine Power to which nothing is impossible he answered Lord thou knowest Upon this God commanded him to Prophesie upon those bones and speak to them as if they had been endued with Sense and Understanding O ye dry Bones hear the Word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord God unto these Bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring in flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put Breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am
Babylon But at the coming of Christ Judea was a Province of the Roman Empire Herod an Edomite sate on the Throne and as the Tribe of Judah in general so the Family of David in particular was in such a low state that Joseph and Mary that were descended from him were constrain'd to lodg in a stable at Bethlehem And since the blessed Peace-maker hath appear'd on the Earth the Jews have lost all Authority their Civil and Ecclesiastical State is utterly ruin'd and they bear the visible marks of infamous Servitude 2. The Second famous Prediction is by an Angel to Daniel when he was lamenting the ruine of Jerusalem who comforted him with an assurance that the City should be rebuilt And further told him That from the going forth of the Commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two Weeks the streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times And after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the People of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and to the end of the war desolations are determined The clear intent of the Angels Message is That within the space of seventy Prophetical Weeks that is four hundred and ninety years according to the Exposition of the Rabbins themselves after the issuing forth the order for the rebuilding Jerusalem the Messiah should come and be put to Death for he sins of Men which was exactly fulfil'd 3. The time of the manifestation of the Messiah is evidently set down in the Haggai 2.6 7 8 9. I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with Glory saith the Lord of hosts The Silver is mine and the Gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The Glory of the latter shall be greater than that of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace The Prophet to encourage the Jews in building the Temple assur'd them that it should have a surpassing Glory by the presence of the Messiah who is call'd the Desire of all Nations and being the Prince of Peace his coming is described by that blessed effect and in this place will I give Peace saith the Lord of Hosts The second Temple was much inferiour to Solomons as in Magnificence and external Ornaments so especially because defective in those Excellencies that were peculiar to the first They were the Ark of the Covenant and the appearance of Glory between the Cherubims the fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifices the Urim and Thummim and the Holy Ghost who inspir'd the Prophets But when the Lord came to his Temple and perform'd many of his Miracles there this brought a Glory to it infinitely exceeding that of the former For what comparison is there between the shadowy presence of God between the Cherubims and his real presence in the humane Nature of Christ in whom the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily How much inferiour were the Priests and Prophets to him who came from Heaven and had the Spirit without measure to reveal the Counsel of God for the Salvation of the World 2. The particular Circumstances foretold concerning the Messiah are all verified in Jesus Christ. It was foretold that the Messiah should have a fore-runner to prepare his way by preaching the Doctrine of Repentance that he should be Born of a Virgin and of the Family of David and in the Town of Bethlehem that he shold go into Egypt be cal'd forth from thence by God that his chief residence should be in Galilee the region of Zebulon and Nephthali that he should be poor and humble and enter into Hierusalem on the Fole of an Ass that he should perform great miracles in restoring the Blind the Lame the Deaf and Dumb that he should suffer many afflictions Contempt Scorn Stripes be Spit on Scourg'd betray'd by his familiar Friend sold for a sordid Price that he should be put to Death that his hands and feet should be bored and his side pierc'd that he should dy between Thieves that in his Passion he should taste vinegar and gall that his garments should be divided and Lots be cast for his Coat that he should be buried and his Body not see corruption but rise again the third day that he should ascend to Heaven and sit at the right hand of God and all these Predictions are exactly fulfil'd in the Lord Christ. 3. The consequents of his Coming are foretold 1. That the Jews should reject him because of the meanness of his appearance They neither understood the Greatness and Majesty nor the Abasement of the Messiah described in their Prophesies not his Greatness that the Son of David was his Lord that he was before Abraham who rejoyced to his Day for they did not believe the Eternity of his Divine Nature They did not understand his humiliation to Death Therefore 't was objected by them that the Messiah remains for ever and this Person saith he shall dy They fancied a carnal Messiah shining with Worldly pomp accompanied with thundring legions to deliver them from Temporal Servitude so that when they saw him without form and comeliness and that no Beauty was in him to make him desireable they hid their Faces from him they despised and esteemed him not Thus by their obstinate refusal of the Messiah they really and visibly fulfil'd the Prophecies concerning him 2. That the Levitical Ceremonies and Sacrifices should cease upon the Death of the Messiah and the Jewish Nation be dissolved Although the legal Service was establisht with great solemnity yet there was alwayes a sufficient indication that it should not be perpetual Moses who delivered the Law told them that God would raise another Prophet whom they must hear And David compos'd a Psalm to be sung in the Temple containing the establishment of a Priest not according to the order of Levi but Melchisedec who should bring in a Worship Spiritual and Divine And we see this accomplisht all the Ceremonies were buried in his grave the Sacrifices for above sixteen hundred years are ceast Besides the destruction of the Holy City and Sanctuary the Jews are scatter'd in all parts and in their dreadful dispersion suffer the just punishment of their Infidelity 3. It was Prophesied that in the time of the Messiah Idols should be ruin'd and Idolaters converted to the knowledg of the true God That he should be a Light to the Gentiles and to him the gathering of the People should be And this is so visibly accomplisht in the conversion of the World to Christianity that not one jot or title of Gods Word hath fail'd so that besides the Glory due to his Power and Mercy we are obliged to honour him as the Fountain of Truth I will now
that are made he hath upon the compleating our Redemtion by the rising of Christ from the Dead made the First-Day Sacred for his Service and Praise there being the clearest illustration of his Perfections in that Blessed Work God is more pleased in the contemplation of the new World than of the old The latter by its extraordinary Magnificence hath lessen'd the dignity of the former as the greater Light obscures the less Therefore the Sabbath is changed into the Lords-Day And what a just reproach is it to Man that he should be inobservant and unaffected with this glorious Mercy wherein he may alwaies find new cause of Admiration O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts how deep a brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this The admiring of any other thing in comparison of this Mystery is the effect of Inconsideration or Infidelity 2. It produces the most sincere and lasting pleasure As the taste is to meat to allure us to feed for the support of our bodies that is delight to Knowledge to excite the mind to seek after it But it s vast capacity can never be satisfied with the knowledge of inferior things The pleasure is more in the acquisition than in the possession of it For the mind is diverted in the search but having attained to that knowledge which cannot fill the rational appetite 't is disgusted with the fruits of its travel and seeks some other object to relieve its langour From hence it is that variety is the spring of delight and pleasure is the product of novelty We find the pleasure of the first taste in learning something new is alwayes most sensible The most elegant compositions and excellent discourses which ravisht at the first reading yet repeated often are nauseous and irksome The exercise of the mind on an object fully known is unprofitable and therefore tedious whereas by turning the thoughts on something else it may acquire new knowledge But the Apostle tells us that the Mystery of our Redemption contains all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge to intimate their excellence and abundance the unsearchable riches of Grace are laid up in it There is infinite variety and perpetual matter for the inquiry of the most excellent understanding no created reason is able to reach its height or sound its depths by the continual study and increase in the knowledge of it the mind enjoys a persevering pleasure that far exceeds the short vehemence of sensual delights 2. It excels other Sciences in the certainty of its Principle which is divine Revelation Humane Sciences are built upon uncertain maximes which being admitted with precipitation and not confirm'd by sufficient Experiments the Mind can never fully acquiesce in them Those Doctrines which were esteemed in one Age the vanity of them is discovered in another Modern Philosophy discards the Antient. But the Doctrine of Salvation is the Word of Truth its original is from Heaven it bears the characters and marks of its Divine descent 'T is confirmed by the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 'T is alwaies the same unchangeable as God the Author and Christ the Object of it who is the same yesterday to day and for ever And the knowledg which the sincere and enlightned Mind hath of it is not uncertain opinion but a clear solid and firm apprehension 'T is a Contemplation of the Glory of God with open face This appears by the effects it produces in those that have received the true tincture of it in their Souls they despise all things which carnal Men admire in comparison of this inestimable Treasure 2. The Doctrine of the Gospel exceeds all practic Sciences in the excellency of its end and the efficacy of the means to obtain it The end of it is The Supreme Happiness of Man the restoring of him to the Innocence and Excellency of his first state And the means are appointed by infinite Wisdom so that the most insuperable obstacles are removed and these are the Justice of God that condemns the guilty and that strong and obstinate aversion which is in corrupted man from true Felicity Here is a Mediator reveal'd who is able to save to the uttermost who hath quencht the Wrath of God by the Blood of his Divine Sacrifice who hath expiated Sin by the value of his Death and purifies the Soul by the vertue of his Life that it may consent to its own Salvation No less than a Divine Power could perform this work From hence the superlative excellency of Evangelical Knowledg doth arise all other Knowledg is unprofitable without it and that alone can make us perfectly blessed This is Life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent I will briefly consider how ineffectual all other Knowledge is whether Natural Political or Moral to recover us from our Misery The most exact insight into Natural things leaves the Mind blind and poor ignorant of Happiness and the way to it Solomon who had an extraordinary measure of Natural Knowledg and was able to set a just price upon it tels us that the increase of knowledg was attended with proportionable degrees of sorrow For the more a man knows the more he discerns the insufficiency of that knowledg to supply his defects and satisfie his desires He was therefore weary of his Wisdom as well as of his Folly The Devils know more than the profoundest Philosophers yet their Knowledge doth not alleviate their Torments 'T is so far from directing how to escape misery that it will more expose to it by enlarging the Faculties and making them more capable of Torment 'T is the observation of St. Ambrose that when God discovered the Creation of the World to Moses He did not inform him of the greatness of the Heavens the number of the Stars their Aspects and Influences whether they derive their light from the Sun or have it inherent in their own bodies from whence Eclipses are caused how the Rainbow is painted how the Winds fly in the Air or the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea but so much as might be a foundation of Faith and Obedience and left the rest Quasi marcescentis sapientiae vanitates as the vanities of perishing wisdom The most knowing Philosopher though encompast with these sparks yet if ignorant of the Redeemer shall lie down in sorrow for ever And as natural so political Knowledge in order to the governing of Kingdoms and States hath no power to confer happiness upon man It concerns not his main interest 't is terminated within the compass of this short life and provides not for Death and Eternity The Wisdom of the World is folly in a disguise a specious Ignorance which although it may secure the temporal state yet it leaves us naked and exposed to Spiritual enemies which war against the Soul And all the moral knowledg which is treasur'd up in the Books of the Heathens
our eyes from it to vanity Here the complaint is more just Ad sapientiam quis accedit quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit we content our selves with slight and transient glances but do not seriously and fixedly consider this blessed design of God upon which the beginning of our happiness in this and the perfection of it in the next life is built Let us provoke our selves by the example of the Angels who are not concern'd in this Redemption as man is for they continued in their fidelity to their Creator and were alwayes happy in his favour and where there is no alienation between parties reconcilement is unnecessary yet they are Students with us in the same Book and unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery they are represented stooping to pry into these secrets to signifie their delight in what they know and their desire to advance in the knowledge of them With what intention then should we study the Gospel who are the Subject and end of it CHAP. VII The simple Speculation of the Gospel not sufficient without a real Belief and Cordial Acceptance The Reasons why the Jews and Gentiles conspir'd in the contempt of it How just it is to resign up the Understanding to Revelation God knows his own Nature and Will and cannot deceive us We must believe the things that are clearly revealed though we do not understand the manner of their existence Although they are attended with seeming contradictions No Article of Faith is really repugnant to Reason We must distinguish between things incomprehensible and inconceivable Between corrupt and right Reason How Reason is subservient to Faith Humility and Holiness qualifie for the belief of the Gospel-mysteries A naked belief of Supernatural Truths is unprofitable for Salvation An effectual Assent that prevails upon the Will and renders the whole Man obsequious is due to the quality of the Gospel-Revelation THe simple Speculation of this glorious Mystery will be of no profit without a real belief of it and a cordial acceptance of Salvation upon the terms which the Divine Wisdom prescribes The Gospel requires the Obedience of the Understanding and of the Will unless it obtains a full possession of the Soul there is no saving efficacy derived from it And such is the sublimity and purity of the Object that till Reason is sanctified and subdued it cannot sincerely entertain it I will therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal Reason hath made against it and shew how just it is that the Humane Understanding should with reverence yield up it self to the Word of God that reveals this great Mystery to us The Apostle tells us that Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of the Gospel Reason cannot hear without great astonishment for the appearing contradiction between the terms that God should be made Man and the Eternal die The Jews esteem'd it an intolerable Blasphemy and without any Process of Law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus That being a man he should make himself equal with God And they upbraided him in his Sufferings that he could not save himself If he be the King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe on him The Gentiles despised the Gospel as an absurd ill-contrived Fable For what in appearance is more unbecoming God and injurious to his Perfections than to take the frail garment of Flesh to be torn and trampled on Their natural Knowledg of the Deity enclin'd them to think the Incarnation impossible There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of Nature For natural Union supposes the parts incompleat and capable of Perfection by their joyning together But that a Being infinitly perfect should assume by personal Union a nature inferiour to it self the Heathens lookt on it as a Fable forg'd according to the model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope And the Doctrine of our Saviours Death on the Cross they rejected as an impiety contumelious to God They judged it inconsistent with the Majesty and Happiness of the Deity to ascribe to Him that which is the punishment of the most guilty and miserable In the account of carnal Reason they thought more worthily of God by denying that of Him which is only due to the worst of men Celsus who with as much Subtilty as Malice urges all that with any appearance could be objected against our Saviour principally insists on his Poverty and Sufferings the Meanness and Misery of his condition in the world 'T was fit saith he that the Son of God should appear as the Sun which renders it self conspicuous by its own light But the Gospel having declared the Word to be the Son of God relates that he was a man of Sorrows that had no power to defend himself and was deserted by his Father and Followers scourged with Rods and shamefully executed He could not reconcile so many things that seem'd utterly incompatible as Sovereignty and Servitude Innocence and Punishment the lowest of humane Miseries Death with the highest of divine Honours Adoration Briefly Nothing was more contrary to Flesh and Blood than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the World who did not rescue himself from his Enemies and to expect Immortality from him that was overcome by Death Now the Causes of this Infidelity are 1. The Darkness of the Mind which is so corrupted by Original Pravity that it cannot behold Heavenly Mysteries in their proper light so as to acquiesce in the truth of them The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned There is no proportion between the Natural Understanding and Supernatural Truths For although the rational Soul is a Spirit as 't is distinguisht from corporeal Beings yet till 't is purged from Errour and vitious Affections it can never discover the Divinity of things Spiritual so as to embrace them with certainty and delight As there must be a Spirit of Revelation to unvail the object so of Wisdom to enlighten the eye that it may be prepar'd for the reception of it As Heaven is only seen by its own Light So Christ is by his own Spirit Divine Objects and Faith that discerns them are of the same original and of the same quality The natural Understanding as the effects declare is like the Funeral Lamps which by the Antients were put into Sepulchers to guard the ashes of their dead Friends which shine so long as they are kept close a thick moist vapour feeding them and repairing what was consum'd but in opening the Sepulchres and exposing them to the free air they presently faint and expire Thus natural Reason whilst conversant in things below and watching with the dead that is in the Phrase of the Antients studying the Books of Men who have left the world it discovers
infinitly above the ordinary course of Nature The Maxims of Philosophy are not to be extended to Him We must adore what we cannot fully understand But those things are against Reason and utterly inconceivable that involve a contradiction and have a natural repugnancy to our Understandings which cannot conceive any thing that is formally impossible And there is no such Doctrine in the Christian Religion 2. We must distinguish between Reason corrupted and right Reason Since the Fall the clearness of the Humane Understanding is lost and the light that remains is eclipsed by the interposition of sensual lusts The carnal Mind cannot out of Ignorance and will not from Pride and other malignant habits receive things spiritual And from hence ariseth many suspicions and doubts concerning supernatural Verities the shadows of darkned Reason and of dying Faith If any Divine Mystery seems incredible 't is from the corruption of our Reason not from Reason it self from its darkness not its light And as Reason is obliged to correct the Errors of Sense when 't is deceived either by some vicious quality in the organ or by the distance of the object or by the falsness of the medium that corrupts the image in conveying of it So 't is the office of Faith to reform the judgment of Reason when either from its own weakness or the height of things Spiritual 't is mistaken about them For this end supernatural Revelation was given not to extinguish Reason but to redress it and enrich it with the discovery of Heavenly things Faith is called Wisdom and Knowledg it doth not quench the vigour of the Faculty wherein 't is seated but elevates it and gives it a spiritual preception of those things that are most distant from its commerce It doth not lead us through a mist to the inheritance of the Saints in light Faith is a rational Light For 1. It arises from the consideration of those Arguments which convince the Mind that the Scripture is a Divine Revelation I know saith the Apostle whom I have believed And we are commanded Alwaies to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us Those that owe their Christianity meerly to the Felicity of their Birth without a sight of that transcendent excellency in our Religion which evidences that it came from Heaven do not believe aright As the Eye that is clouded with a Suffusion so that all things appear yellow to it when it judges things to be yellow that are so its judgment is vitious Because it proceeds not from the quality of the object but from its own indisposition So those that believe the Gospel upon a false Principle because 't is the Religion of their Country though in its self the word of Truth yet they are not right Believers 'T is not Judgment but Chance that enclines them to embrace it The Turks upon the same reason are zealous votaries of Mahomet as they are Disciples of Christ. 2. Faith makes use of Reason to consider what Doctrines are revealed in the Scripture and to deduce those Consequences which have a clear connexion with supernatural Principles Thus Reason is an excellent instrument to distinguish those things which are of a Divine Original from what is spurious and counterfeit For sometimes that is pretended to be a Mystery of Religion which is only the fruit of Fancy and that is defended by the sacred respect of Faith that Reason ought not to violate which is but a groundless imagination so that we remain in an Error by the sole apprehensions of falling into one as those that die for fear of Death The Bereans are commended for their searching the Scriptures whether the Doctrines they heard were consentaneous to them But 't is a necessary Duty that Reason how stiff soever should fully comply with God where it appears reasonable that He hath spoken Briefly The richest Ornament of the Creature is Humility and the most excellent effect of it is the sense of the weakness of our Understanding This is the temper of Soul that prepares it for Faith partly as it puts us on a serious consideration of those things which are reveal'd to us in the Word Infidelity proceeds from the want of consideration and nothing hinders that so much as Pride Partly as it stops all curious enquiries into those things which are unsearchable and principally as it entitles to the Promise God will instruct and give Grace to the humble The knowledg of Heaven as well as the Kingdom of Heaven is the inheritance of the poor in spirit A greater progress is made in the knowledg and belief of these Mysteries by humble Prayer than by the most anxious study As at Court an hour of Favour is worth a years attendance Man cannot acquire so much as God can give And as Humility so Holiness prepares the Soul for the receiving of Supernatural Truths The Understanding is clarified by the purification of the Heart 'T is not the difficulty and obscurity of things reveal'd that is the real cause of Infidelity since men believe other things upon far less Evidence but 't is the prejudice of the lower Faculties that hinders them When all Affections to sin are mortified the Soul is in the best disposition to receive Divine Revelation He that doth the will of God shall know whether the Doctrine of the Gospel came from Heaven The Spirit of God is the alone Instructer of the Spirit of Man in these Mysteries so as to produce a Saving Belief of them That Knowledg is more clear and satisfying that we have by his Teaching than by our own Learning The Rational Mind may discern the Literal Sense of the Propositions in the Gospel and may yield a naked assent to the truth of them but without supernatural irradiation by the Spirit of Life there can be no transforming and saving Knowledg and Belief of them And as the vast expansion of Air that is about us doth not preserve Life but that part which we breath in so 't is not the compass of our Knowledg and Belief though it were equal to the whole revealed Will of God that is vital to the Soul but that which is practised by us The Apostle saith Though he had the understanding of all Mysteries and all Knowledg and all Faith yet if it were not joyned with Love the Principle of Obedience it were unprofitable There is the same difference between the Speculative Knowledg of these Mysteries and that which is Affectionate and Operative as between the wearing of Pearls for Ornament and the taking of them as a Cordial to revive the fainting spirits In short Such a Belief is required as prevails upon the Will and draws the Affections and 〈◊〉 the whole Man obsequious to the Gospel For 〈◊〉 a Faith is alone answerable to the quality of the Revelation The Gospel is not a meer Narrative but a Promise Christ is not represented only as an innocent Person dying but as the Son
His enjoyment was rais'd above what the most glorious Spirits are capable of All his Faculties were pure and vigorous never blunted with Sin and intimately united to the Deity How cutting then was it to his Soul to be suspended from the perfect vision of God To be divorc'd as it were from himself and to lose that Paradise He alwaies had within Him If all the Angels of Light were at once depriv'd of their glory the loss were not equal to this dreadful eclipse of the Sun of Righteousness As if all the Stars were extinguisht the darkness would not be so terrible as if the Sun the fountain of light were put out Whatever his Sufferings were in kind yet in degree they were answerable to the full and just desert of Sin and surpast the power of the Humane or Angelical Nature to endure In short His Sorrows were only equall'd by that Love which procured them And as the Sufferings infflicted by the hand of God so the Evils He endured from men declare the infiniteness of our Redeemers Love to us For the further discovery of it 't is necessary to reflect upon his Death which is set down by the Apostle as the lowest degree of his Humiliation in which the succession of all his Bodily Sufferings is included it being the complement of all And if we consider the quality of it the Goodness of our Redeemer will be more visible in his voluntary submission to it Two Circumstances make the kind of death which is to be suffered very terrible to us Ignominy and Torment and they eminently concur in the Death of the Cross. 1. The greatest Ignominy attended it and that in the account of God and Men. As honour is in honorante it depends upon the esteem of others so infamy consists in judgment of others Now in the acount of the World every Death inflicted for a Crime is attended with disgrace But that receives its degrees from the manner of it To be executed privately is a favour but to be made a spectacle to the multitude encreases the dishonour of one that suffers When Death is speedily inflicted the sence of shame is presently past but to be exposed to publick view for many Hours as a Malefactor whilst the Beholders detest the Crime and abhor the Punishment is an heavy aggravation of it Beheading which is suddenly dispatcht by a Sword a military Instrument and therefore more honourable was a Priviledg But to hang on the Cross was the most conspicuous mark of the publick Justice and Displeasure a special Infamy was concomitant with it Among the Jews hanging on a Tree was branded with the Curse Therefore God commanded that the bodies of those that were hanged on a tree should be taken down in the Evening that the Land might not be defiled with a Curse And the judgment of other Nations was answerable for it was only inflicted on the most infamous Offenders as Fugitives Slaves Thieves and Traitors such whom the lowness of their Quality or the height of their Crimes rendred unworthy of any respect Hence 't is that Cicero to aggravate the Cruelty of Verres in crucifying a Roman Citizen calls it an unnamed wickedness No Eloquence could equal the evil of it 2. The pain of that Death was extreme The Hands and Feet those parts wherein the complexion of the Nerves meet and are of exquisite Sence were nailed Crucified persons suffered a slow Death but quick Torments They felt themselves die Therefore in pity the Soldiers broke their Legs to put a period to their Misery And to compleat their Punishment they were judg'd unworthy of Burial the last consolation of the dead they were deprived of Repose in the bosom of the Earth our common Mother and exposed as a prey to Birds and Beasts Now the Son of God endured no gentler or nobler Death than that of the Cross. His pure and gracious Hands which were never stretcht out but to do good were pierced and those Feet which bore the Redeemer of the World and for which the Waters had a reverence were nail'd His Body the precious workmanship of the Holy Ghost the Temple of the Deity was destroyed He that is the Glory of Heaven was made the scorn of the Earth The King of Kings was crucified between two Thieves in Jerusalem at their Sacred Feast in the face of the World His naked Body was exposed on the Cross for three Hours only covered with a Veil of Darkness This was such a stupendious submission of the Son of God that his Death astonisht the Universe in another manner than his Birth and Life his Resurrection and Ascension Universal Nature relented at his last Sufferings The Sun was struck with horrour and withdrew its light it did not appear crown'd with beams when the Creator was with thorns The Earth trembled and the Rocks rent the most insensible creatures sympathis'd with Him and 't is in this we have the most visible instance of Divine Love to us The Scripture distinctly represents the Love of God in giving his Son and the Love of Christ in giving Himself to die for Man and both require our deepest consideration The Father exprest such an excess of Love that our Saviour himself speaks of it with admiration God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting Life If Abraham's resolution to offer his son was in the judgment of God a convincing Evidence of his Affection how much more is the actual sacrificing of Christ the strongest proof of God's Love to us For God had a higher Title to Isaac than Abraham had The Father of Spirits hath a nearer claim than the Fathers of the Flesh. Abraham's readiness to offer up his son was Obedience to a Command not his own choice 't was rather an act of Justice than Love by which he render'd to God what was his own But God Spared not his own Son in whom he had an Eternal Right And He was not only free from Obligation but not sued to for our Salvation in that wonderful way For what Love of Men or of the most charitable Spirits in Heaven could have conceived such a thought that the Son of God should die for our Redemption It had been an impious Blasphemy to have desired it so that Christ is the most absolute gift of God to us Besides The love of Abraham is to be measured by the Reasons that might excite it For according to the amiableness of the object so much greater is the love that gives it Many endearing cirumstances made Isaac the joy of his father yet at the best he was an imprafect mortal creature so that but a moderate affection was regularly due to him Whereas our Redeemer was not a meer Man or an Angel but God's only begotten Son which Title signifies his unity with him in his state and perfections and according to the Excellency of his Nature such
came to seize upon him though by one word he could have commanded Legions of Angels for his rescue yet he yeilded up himself to their Cruelty 'T was not any defect of power but the strength of his Love that made him to suffer He was willing to be Crucified that we might be Glorified our Redemption was sweeter to him than Death was bitter by which it was to be obtained 'T was excellently said by Pherecides that God transformed himself into Love when he made the World but with greater reason 't is said by the Apostle God is Love when he redeemed it 'T was Love that by a miraculous condescension took our Nature accomplishing the desire of the mystical Spouse Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth 'T was Love that stoop't to the form of a Servant and led a poor despised life here below 'T was Love that endur'd a Death neither easie nor honourable but most unworthy the glory of the Divine and the innocency of the Humane nature Love chose to die on the Cross that we might live in Heaven rather than to enjoy that blessedness and leave Mankind in misery CHAP. X. Divine Mercy is magnified in the excellency of the state to which Man is advanced He is inricht with higher Prerogatives under a better Covenant entitled to a more glorious Reward than Adam at first enjoyed The Humane Nature is personally united to the Son of God Believers are spiritually united to Christ. The Gospel is a better Covenant than that of the Law It admits of Repentance and Reconciliation after Sin It accepts of Sincerity instead of Perfection It affords supernatural Assistance to Believers whereby they shall be victorious over all opposition in their way to Heaven The difference between the Grace of the Creator and that of the Redeemer The stability of the New-Covenant is built on the Love of God which is unchangeable and the Operations of his Spirit that are effectual The mutability and weakness of the Humane Will and the strength of Temptations shall not frustrate the merciful Design of God in regard of his Elect. The glorious Reward of the Gospel exceeds the Primitive Felicity of Adam in the place of it the highest Heaven Adam's life was attended with innocent Infirmities from which the glorified Life is entirely exempt The Felicity of Heaven exceeds the first in the manner degrees and continuance of the fruition THe Third Consideration which makes the Love of God so admirable to lapsed Man is the excellency of that state to which he is advanc'd by the Redeemer To be only exempted from Death is a great favour The grace of a Prince is eminent in releasing a condemned Person from the punishment of the Law This is sufficient for the Mercy of Man but not for the Love of God He pardons and prefers the guilty He rescues us from Hell and raises us to Glory He bestows Eternity upon those who were unworthy of Life The excellency of our condition under the Gospel will be set off by comparing it with that of innocent Man in Paradise 'T is true he was then in a state of Holiness and Honour and in perfect possession of that Blessedness which was suitable to his Nature yet in many respects our last state transcends our first and redeeming Love exceeds creating If Man had been only restor'd to his forfeited Rights to the enjoyment of the same Happiness which was lost his first state were most desirable And it had been greater Goodness to have preserv'd him innocent than to recover him from ruine As he that preserves his Friend from falling into the hands of the Enemy by interposing between him and danger in the midst of the Combat delivers him in a more noble manner than by paying a Ransom for him after many daies spent in woful Captivity And that Physician is more excellent in his Art who prevents Diseases and keeps the Body in health and vigour than another that expels them by sharp Remedies But the Grace of the Gospel hath so much mended our condition that if it were offer'd to our choice either to enjoy the innocent state of Adam or the renewed by Christ it were folly like that of our first Parents to prefer the former before the latter The Jubilee of the Law restor'd to the same Inheritance but the Jubilee of the Gospel gives us the Investiture of that which is transcendently better than what we at first possest Since The Day-spring from on High hath visited us in tender mercy we are enricht with higher Prerogatives and are under a better Covenant and entitled to a more glorious Reward than was due to Man by the Law of his Creation First The Humane Nature is raised to an higher degree of Honour than if Man had continued in his Innocent state 1. By its intimate Union with the Son of God He assum'd it as the fit Instrument of our Redemption and preferr'd it before the Angelical which surpast Man 's in his Primitive State The Fulness of the God-thead dwells in our Redeemer bodily From hence it is that the Angels descended to pay Him homage at his Birth and attended his Majesty in his disguise The Son of Man hath those Titles which are above the Dignity of any meer Creature He is King of the Church and Judg of the World he exercises Divine Power and receives Divine Praise Briefly The humane Nature in our Redeemer is an associate with the Divine and being made a little lower then the Angles for a time is now advanced far above all Principalities and Powers 2. In all those who are partakers of Grace and Glory by the Lord Jesus Adam was the Son of God by Creation but to be joyned to Christ as our head by a union so intimate that he lives in us and counts himself incompleat without us and by that union to be adopted into the line of Heaven and thereby to have an interest in the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel to be constituted Heirs of God and coheirs with Christ are such discoveries of the dignity of our supernatural state that the lowest Believer is advanced above Adam in all his honour Nay the Angels though superior to Man in the excellency of their nature yet are accidently lower by the honour of our alliance Their King is our Brother And this relative dignity which seems to eclipse their Glory might excite their envy but such an ingenuous goodness dwells in those pure and blessed Spirits that they rejoyce in our restoration and advancement To this I shall add that as the Son of God hath a special relation to Man so the most tender affections for him To illustrate this by a sensible instance Angels and Men are as two different Nations in Language and Customs but under the same Empire and if a Prince that commands two Nations should employ one for the safety and prosperity of the other it were an Argument of special
to perfection The Waters of the Spirit have a cleansing vertue upon Believers till every spot be taken away and their purified Souls ascend to Heaven 2. The Grace of the Spirit shall make true Christians finally victorious over Temptations to which they may be exposed And those are various Some are pleasant and insinuating others are sharp and furious and are managed by the Devil our subtile and industrious Enemy to undermine or by open battery to overthrow us And how difficult is it for the Soul whilst united to Flesh to resist the charms of what is amiable or to endure the assaults of what is terrible to sense But the renewed Christian hath no reason to be afrighted with disquieting fears that any sinful temptation may come which notwithstanding his watchfulness may overcome him irrecoverably For 1. Temptations are External and have no power over our spirits but what we give them A voluntary resistance secures the victory to us And the Apostle tells us Greater is he that is in Believers then he that is in the World God is stronger not only in himself but as working in us by the vigorous assistance of his Grace to confirm us than the Devil assisted with all the delights and terrours of the world and taking advantage of that remaining concupiscence which is not intirely extinguished is to corrupt and destroy us 2. All Temptations in their degrees and continuance are ordered by Gods Providence He is the president of the combat none enters into the lists but by his call in all Ages the Promise shall be verified God will not suffer his People to be tempted above what they are able They shall come off more then Conquerours through Christ that loves them And as St. Austin observes more powerful Grace is necessary to fortifie Christians in the midst of all opposition then Adam at first received This is visible in the glorious issue of the Martyrs Who loved not their Lives unto the Death For Adam when no person threatned him nay against the prohibition of God abusing his Liberty did not abide in his Happiness when 't was most easie to him to avoid Sin But the Martyrs remain'd firm in the Faith not only under Terrors but Torments And which is the more admirable in that Adam saw the Happiness present which he should forfeit by his Disobedience and the Martyrs believed only the future Glory they were to receive This proceeded only from God who was so merciful as to make them faithful Briefly Unless there were a power above the Divine the Elect are â—ecured from final Apostacy Our Saviour tells us that his Father is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of his hand His Invariable Will and Almighty Power prevents their perishing Indeed if it were only by the strength of Natural Reason or Courage that we are to overcome Temptations some might be so violent as to make the strongest to faint and fall away But if the Divine Power be the Principle that supports us it will make the weakest victorious For the Grace of God makes us strong and is not made weak by us From hence we may fully discover the advantage we have by the Gospel above the terms of the first Covenant Restoring Mercy hath better'd our Condition We have lost the integrity of the first and got the perfection of the second Adam Our Salvation is put into a stronger and safer hand I give saith our Redeemer unto my sheep eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand That is an inviolable Sanctuary from whence no Believer can be taken Christ is our Friend not only to the Altar but now in the Throne Our Reconciliation is ascribed to his Death our Conservation to his Life He that was created in a state of Nature could sin and die but He that is born of God can't sin unto death the new birth is unto Eternal Life In short As the Mercy of God is glorified in the whole work of our Salvation so especially in the first and last Grace it confers upon us In Vocation that prevents us and Perseverance that crowns us according to the double change made in our state translating us from Darkness to Light and from the imperfect Light of Grace to the full Light of Glory I have more particularly discours'd of this Advantage by the New Covenant in regard the Glory of God and the comfort of true Christians is so much concern'd in it For if Grace and Free-Will are put in joint commission so that the efficacy of it depends on the mutability of the Will which may receive or reject it the consequence is visible that which is impious to suppose the Son of God might have died in vain For that which is not effectual without a contingent condition must needs be as uncertain as the condition on which it depends So that although the Wisdom of God so admirably formed the design of our Salvation and there is such a connexion in his Counsels yet all may be defeated by the mutability of Mans desires And the most sincere Christians would be alwaies terrified with perplexing jealousies that notwithstanding their most serious Resolutions to continue in their Duty yet one day they may perish by their Apostasie But the Gospel assures us that God will not reverse his own Eternal Decrees And that the Redeemer shall see the travel of his Soul and be satisfied and that Believers are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation 3. There is an excellent manifestation of Divine Love in the glorious reward that is promised to Believers which far exceeds the primitive felicity of Man Adam was under the Covenant of nature that promised a reward sutable to his obedience and state The manner of declaring that Covenant was natural 1. External by the discovery of God's Attributes in his Works from which it was easie for man to collect his duty and his reward 2. Internal by his natural faculties By the light of Reason he understood that so long as he continued in his original Innocence the Creator who from pure goodness gave him his being and all the happiness which was concomitant with it would certainly preserve him in the perpetual enjoyment of it But there was no promise of Heaven annexed to that Covenant without which Adam could attain no knowledg nor conceive any hopes of it If there had been a necessary connexion between his perfect Obedience and the life of Glory it would have been revealed to him to allure his will for there can be no desire of an unknown good And whereas in the Covenant God principally and primarily regards the promise and but secondarily the threatning the exercise of goodness being more pleasing to him than of revenging justice 't is said that God expresly threatned Death but he made no promise of Heaven by which 't is evident it did not belong to that
Covenant For it was easier for Man to understand the quality of the punishment that attended sin than to conceive of Celestial Happiness of which he was incapable in his animal state 'T is true God might have bestowed Heaven as an absolute gift upon Man after a course of obedience but 't was not due by the condition of the first Covenant A natural work can give no title to a supernatural reward Mans perseverance in his duty according to the Original Treaty had been attended with Immortal Happiness upon the Earth but the blessed Hope is only promised in the Gospel and unspeakably transcends the felicity of Nature in its consummat state This Reward is answerable to the unvaluable treasure which was laid down for it The Blood of the Son of God as 't is a Ransom to redeem us from misery so 't is a Price to purchase glory for Believers 'T is called the Blood of the New-Testament because it conveys a title to the Heavenly Inheritance Our impunity is the effect of his Satisfaction our positive happiness of his redundant merit God was so well pleased with his perfect Obedience which infinitely surpasses that of any meer creature that he promised to confer upon those who believe in him all the glorious qualities becoming the Sons of God and to make them associates with him in his Eternal Kingdom The compleat happiness of the Redeemed is the Redeemers recompence in which he is fully satisfied for all his sufferings Now the transcendent excellency of this above the first state of Man will more distinctly appear by considering I. The place where 't is enjoyed and that is the Heaven of Heavens Adam was put into the Terrestrial Paradise a place sutable to his natural being and abounding with all pleasing objects but they were such as creatures of a lower kind enjoyed with him But Heaven is the Element of Angels their native seat who are the most noble part of the Creation 'T is the true Palace of God intirely separated from the impurities and imperfections the alterations and changes of the lower World where he reigns in Eternal Peace 'T is the Temple of the Divine Majesty where his exellent Glory is revealed in the most conspicuous manner 'T is the habitation of his holiness the place where his honour dwells 'T is the sacred Mansion of Light and Joy and Glory Paradise with all its pleasures was but a shadow of it II. The Life of Adam was attended with innocent infirmities For the body being composed of the same principles with other sensitive creatures 't was liable to hunger and thirst and weariness and was to be repaired by food and sleep Adam was made a living Soul therefore subject to those inclinations and necessities which are purely animal And although whilst innocent no disease could seize on him yet he was capable of hurtful impressions though he should have been preserved from death yet he was perishable His life was in a perpetual flux 't was Immortal not meerly from the temperament of his Body but to be sustained by the power of God in the use of means From hence it follows that Adam in his natural state was not capable of the vision of God Heaven is too pure an Air for him to have lived in The Glory of it is inconsistent with such a temper'd Body Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven The faculties would be confounded with its overcoming brightness Till the sensitive powers are refin'd and exalted to that degree that they become spiritual they cannot converse with glorified objects Now the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with Celestial qualities The Natural shall be changed into a Spiritual body and be preserved as the Angels by the sole vertue of the quickning Spirit The life above shall flourish in its ful vigour without any other support than the Divine power that first created it And as the body shall be spiritual so truely immortal and free from all corruptive change as the Sun which for so many ages hath shined with an equal brightness to the World and hath a dureable fulness of light in it In this respect the Children of the Resurrection are equal to the Angels who being pure Spirits do not marry to perpetuate their kind for they never die And the glorified body shall be cloathed with a more Divine beauty in the Resurrection than Adam had in the Creation The glory of the second Temple shall excel that of the first In short the first Man was of the Earth earthy and could derive but an earthy condition to his descendents But the Lord Christ is from Heaven and is the principle of an Heavenly and Glorious life to all that are united to him III. The felicity of Heaven exceeds the first in the manner and degrees of the fruition and the continuance of it 1. The Vision of God in Heaven is immediate Adam was a spectator of God's Works and his understanding being full of Light he clearly discover'd the Divine Attributes in their effects The stroaks of the Creators Hand are engraven in all the parts of the Universe The Heavens and Earth and all things in them are evident testimonies of the excellency of their Author The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen And the knowledg that shined in his soul produced a transcendent esteem of the Deity in whom Wisdom and Power are united in their supreme degree and a superlative love and delight in him for his goodness Yet his sight of God was but through a Glass an eclipsing medium For inferior beings are so imperfect that they can give but a weak resemblance of his infinite perfections But the sight of God in Heaven is called the seeing of him as he is and signifies the most clear and compleat knowledge which the rational soul when purified and raised to its most perfect state can receive and out-shines all the discoveries of God in the lower World Adam had a visible copy of his invisible beauty but the Saints in Heaven see the glorious Original He saw God in the reflection of the Creature but the Saints are under the direct beams of Glory and see him face to face All the Attributes appear in their full and brightest lustre to them Wisdom Love Justice Holiness Power are manifested in their exaltation And the glorified Soul to qualify it for converse with God in this intimate manner hath a more excellent constitution then was given to it in the Creation A new edge is put upon the faculties whereby they are fitted for those objects which are peculiar to Heaven The intellectual eye is fortified for the immediate intuition of God Adam in Paradise was absent from the Lord in comparison of the Saints who encompass his Throne are in the presence of his Glory Besides 'T is the peculiar excellency of the Heavenly Life that the Saints every moment enjoy it without
any allay in the highest degree of its Perfection The Life of Adam was alwaies in a circle of low and mean functions of the Animal Nature which being common to him and Beasts the acts of it are not strictly Humane But the Spiritual Life in Heaven is entirely freed from those servile necessities and is spent in the eternal performance of the most noble actions of which the intelligent Nature is capable The Saints do alwaies contemplate admire love enjoy and praise their everlasting Benefactor God is to them all in all In short That which prefers the Glory of Heaven infinitely before the first state of Man is the continuance of it for ever 'T is an unwithering and never-fading Glory Adam was liable to Temptations and capable of Change he fell in the Garden of Eden and was sentenc'd to die But Heaven is the Sanctuary of Life and Immortality 't is inaccessible to any evil The Serpent that corrupted Paradise with its Poison can't enter there As there is no seed of Corruption within so no cause of it without Our Redeemer offer'd Himself by the Eternal Spirit and purchased an eternal Inheritance for his People Their Felicity is full and perpetual without encrease for in the first moment 't is perfect and shall continue without declination The Day of Judgment is called the Last Day For Daies and Weeks and Months and Years the Revolutions which now measure Time shall then be swallowed up in an unchangeable Eternity The Saints shall be for ever with the Lord. And in all these respects the Glory of the Redeemed as far exceeds the Felicity of Man in the Creation as Heaven the bright Seat of it is above the fading beauty of the terrestrial Paradise CHAP. XI Redeeming Love deserves our highest Admiration and humble Acknowledgments The illustration of it by several Considerations God is infinitely amiable in Himself yet his Love is transient to the Creature 'T is admirable in Creating and Preserving Man more in Redeeming him and by the Death of his Son The discovery of God's Love in our Redemption is the strongest persuasiue to Repentance The Law is ineffectual to produce real Repentance The common benefits of Providence are insuffâ—cient to cause Faith and Repentance in the guilty Creature The clear discovery of pardoning Mercy in the Gospel can only remove our Fears and induce us to return to God The transcendent Love of God should kindle in us a reciprocal Love to Him His Excellency and His ordinary Bounty to Mankind cannot prevail upon us to love Him His Love to us in Christ only conquers our Hatred Our Love to Him must be sincere and superlative The despising of Saving Mercy is the highest Provocation It makes the Condemnation of Men most just certain and heavy 1. ' THis Redeeming Love deserves our highest Admiration and most humble acknowledgments If we consider God aright it may raise our wonder that He is pleased to bestow kindness upon any created being For in Him is all that is excellent and amiable and 't is essential to the Deity to have the perfect knowledg of Himself and perfect Love to Himself His Love being proportioned to his Excellencies the act is infinite as the object And the perfections of the Divine Nature being equal to his Love 't is a just cause of admiration that 't is not confined to himself but is transient and goes forth to the Creature When David looked up to the Heavens and saw the Majesty of God written in Characters of light he admires that Love which first made Man a litle lower then the Angels and Crowned him with Glory and Honour and that providential care which is mindful of him and visits him every moment Such an inconceivable distance there is between God and Man that 't is wonderful God will spend a thought upon us Lord what is Man that thou takest knowledge of him or the Son of Man that thou makest account of him Man is like to vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away His being in this world hath nothing firm or solid 't is like a shadow that depends upon a cause that is in perpetual motion the light of the Sun and is alwayes changing till it vanishes in the darkness of the night But if we consider Man in the quality of a sinner and what God hath wrought for his recovery we are overcome with amazement All temporal favours are but foils to this miraculous Mercy and unspeakably below the least instance of it without it all the priviledges we enjoy above inferior Creatures in this life will prove aggravations of our future misery God saw us in our degenerate state destroyed by our selves and yet O Goodness truly Divine he loved us so far as to make the way for our recovery High Mountains were to be levelled and great depths to be filled up before we could arrive at blessedness all this God hath done He hath brought the Curse of the guilty upon the innocent and exposed his beloved Son to the Sword of his Justice to turn the blow from us What astonishing goodness is it that God who is the Author and end of all things should become the means of our Salvation And by the lowest abasement What is so worthy of admiration as that the Eternal should become mortal that being in the form of God he should take on him the form of a Servant that the Judge of the World should be condemned by the guilty that he should leave his Throne in Heaven to be nailed to the Cross that the Prince of Life should taste of Death These are the great Wonders which the Lord of Love hath performed and all for sinful miserable and unworthy Man who deserved not the least drop of that Sweat and Blood he spent for him and without any advantage to himself for what content can be added to his felicity by a cursed Creature Infinite Love that is as admirable as saving Love that passeth Knowledge and is as much above our comprehension as desert In natural things admiration is the effect of ignorance but here 't is increased by Knowledg For the more we understand the excellent Greatness of God and the vileness of Man the more we shall admire saving Mercy And the most humble acknowledgments are due for it When David told Mephibosheth that he should eat bread with him at his Tâ—ble continually he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldest look on such a dead Dog as I am A speech ful of gratitude and humility yet he was of a Royal extraction though at that time in a low condition With a far greater sense of our unworthiness we should reflect upon that condescending Love that provides the Bread of God for the food of our Souls without which we had perisht for want David in that divine thanksgiving recorded in the Scripture reflects upon his own meanness and from that magnifies the favour of God towards him Who am I
would either reflect upon His Wisdom as if He had not upon just reason establisht an alliance between the Offence and the Penalty or upon His Power as if He were not able to vindicate the Rights of Heaven And after His giving a Law and declaring the according to the tenor of it He would dispense Rewards and Punishments if Sin were unrevenged it would lessen the sacredness of his Truth in the esteem of Men. So that the Law and Lawgiver would be exposed to contempt By all which it appears that the Honour of God was infinitely concerned in His requiring satisfaction for the breach of his Laws Temporal Magistrates are bound to execute wise and equal Laws for the preservation of publick order and civil societies 'T is true there be some cases wherein the Lawgiver may be forced to dispense with the Law as when the sparing of an offender is more advantage to the State than his punishment Besides there is a superior Tribunal to which great Offenders are obnoxious and good Magistrates when through weakness they are fain to spare the guilty refer them to God's Judgment But 't is otherwise in the Divine Government For God is infinitely free from any necessity of Compliance There is no exigency of Government that requires that any Offenders should escape his Severity Neither is there any Justice above his which might exact Satisfaction of them Besides the Majesty of his Laws is more Sacred than of those which preserve Earthly States and ought to be more inviolable The sum is to declare Godâ—s hatred of Sin which is essential to his nature to preserve the honour of the Law which otherwise would be securely despised to prevent sin by keeping up in Men an holy fear to offend God which should be an eternal respect of the rational Creature to Him 't was most fit that the presumptuous breach of Gods Command should not be unpunished Now when the Son of God was made a Sacrifice for Sin and by a bloody Death made expiation of it the World is convinced how infinitely hateful Sin is to him the dignity of the Law is maintained and Sin is most effectually discouraged There is the same terror though not the same rigor as if all mankind had been finally condemned Thus it appears how becoming God it was to accomplish our Salvation in such a manner that Justice and Mercy are revealed in their most noble and eminent effects and operations 2. The reality of the satisfaction made to Divine Justice is next to be proved This is the center and heart of the Christian Religion from whence all vital and comforting influences are derived and for the opening of it I will first consider the requisites in order to it which are 1. The Appointment of God whose Power and Will are to be considered in this transaction 1. His Power for 't is an act of supremacy to admit that the sufferings of another should be effectual to redeem the offender God doth not in this affair sustain the Person of a Judge that is the Minister of the Law and cannot free the guilty by transferring the punishment on another but is to be considered as Governour who may by pure Jurisdiction dispense in the execution of the Law upon those considerations which fully answer the ends of Government The Law is not executed according to the Letter of it for then no sinner can be saved but repenting Believers are free from condemnation Nor is it abrogated for then no obligation remains as to the duty or penalty of it but Men are still bound to obey it and impenitent Infidels are still under the Curse The Wrath of God abides upon them But 't is relaxt as to the punishment by the merciful condescension of the Lawgiver Some Laws are not capable of relaxation in their own nature because there is included moral iniquity in the relaxation As the commands to love God and obey Conscience can never lose their binding force 'T is an universal rule that suffers no exception God cannot deny himself therefore he can never allow sin that directly opposes the perfections of His Nature Besides some Laws cannot be relaxt ex hypothesi upon the account of the Divine Decree which makes them irrevocable as that all who die in their impenitency shall be damned Now there was no express sign annext to the Sanction of the original Law to intimate that it should be unalterable as to the letter of it The threatning declared the desert of Sin in the Offender and the right of punishing in the Superior but 't is so to be understood as not to frustrate the power of the Law-giver to relax the punishment upon wise and just reasons The Law did neither propound nor exclude this expedient for judging without passion against the Sinner it is satisfied with the punishment of the Crime For 't is not the evil of the sufferer that is primarily designed by the Law but the preservation of publick order for the honour of the Lawgiver and the benefit of those that are subjects So that the relaxing the punishment as to the person of the Sinner by compensation fully answers the intent of the Law 2. As by the right of Jurisdiction God might relax the Law and appoint a Mediatour to interpose by way of Ransom so he hath declared his will to accept of Him The Law in strictness obliged the Sinning person to suffer so that he might have refused any other Satisfaction Therefore the whole Work of our Redemption is referred to His Will as the primary cause Our Saviour was sent into the World by the order of God He was sealed that is authorised for that great Work by commission from Him He was called to His Office by the voice of his Father from heaven Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased God anointed him with the Holyâ—Ghost and with Power which signifies as the enduing of Him with the Graces of the Spirit so the investing Him in the dignity of Mediator as Kings Priests and Prophets were And both were necessary for his Graces without his Office are unprofitable to us and His Office without His capacity of no advantage In short the Apostle observes this as the peculiar excellency of the New Covenant and the foundation of our hopes that the Mediatour was constituted by a solemn Oath The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec 2. The Consent of our Redeemer was necessary that he might by Sufferings satisfie for us For being the Lord from Heaven there was no Superiour Authority to command or Power to compel him 'T is true having become our Surety 't was necessary He should be accountable to the Law But the first undertaking was most free When one hath entred into Bonds to pay the Debt of an insolvent person he must give satisfaction but 't is an act of liberty and choice to make himself liable Our
Glorious Trinity were equally provok'd by our Sin and to obtain our Pardon the Son with the consent of the Father deposits his Interest into his Hands and as a Mediator intervenes between us and him who in this Transaction is the Depositary of the Rights of Heaven and having performed what Justice required he reconciled the World to God that is to the Father Himself and the Eternal Spirit In this Cause his Person is the same but his Quality is different he made Satisfaction as Mediator and receiv'd it as God 'T is in this sense that the Apostle saith We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Not to exclude the other Persons but in regard the Father as the First Person is the Protector of Justice our Mediator in appeasing Him appeases the others also 3. The Death of Christ is represented under the notion of a Sacrifice offer'd up to God For the more full understanding of this we must consider that Sacrifices were of two kinds 1. Some were Eucharistical They are called Peace-offerings by which the Sacrificer acknowledged the Bounty of God and his own unworthiness and rendered Praise for a favour received and desired the Divine Blessing 2. Expiatory The Sin-offerings for the averting of Gods wrath The Institution of them was upon a double Reason 1. That Man is a sinner and therefore obnoxious to the just indignation and extreme displeasure of the Holy and Righteous God 2. That God was to be propitiated that he might pardon them These Truths are engraven in the natural Consciences of Men as appeares by theâ—â— pretended Expiations of sin among the Heathens But are more clearly reveal'd in the Scripture Under the Law without the effusion of Blood there was no Remission To signifie that God would not forgive Sin without the atonement of Justice which required the Death of the Offender but it being tempered with Mercy accepted a Sacrifice in his stead And that there was a Substitution of the Beast in the place of the guilty Offender appeares by the Law concerning Sacrifices 1. None were instituted for Capital Offences as Murder Idolatry Adultery c. Because the Sinner himself was to be cut off But for other Sins which although in strictness they deserved Death yet God who was the King of Israel was pleased to remit the Forfeiture and to accept the life of the Sacrifice for the Life of the Sinner 2. The guilty Person was to offer a clean Beast of his own to signifie the Surrogation of it in his stead For in the relation of a Possessour he had a dominion over it to apply it to that use 3. The Priest or the person that offer'd was to lay his hands on the head of the Sacrifice thereby Consecrating it to God and Devoting it in his stead to bear the Punishment For this reason 't was called a Sin and a Curse 4. The Confession of Sin by the People or the Priest as in the day of Atonement signified that the guilt of all met on the Sacrifice for Expiation 5. The Blood was to be shed wherein the vital spirits are an express representation what the Sinner deserved and that it was accepted for his Life 6. Lastly The deprecating of God's Anger was joyned with the Sacrifice As when a Man was slain and the Murderer was not found the Elders of the City next to the dead Body were to kill an Heifer in a Valley and to pray that innocent Blood might not be laid to their charge otherwise the Land could not be clensed from the guilt of Blood but by the Blood of the Murderer 2. The Effects of these Sacrifices declare their nature And they are answerable to their threefold respect to God to Sin to Man To God that his Anger might be appeased to Sin that the fault might be expiated to Man that the guilty person might obtain Pardon and Freedom from Punishment Thus when a Sacrifice was duly offered 't is said to be of a sweet savour unto the Lord and to atone him Lev. 1.17 and the Remission of Sins with the Release of the Sinner followed The Priest shall expiate it that is declaratively and it shall be forgiven him Now there was a double Guilt contracted by those that were under the Mosaical Dispensation 1. Typical From the breach of a Ceremonial Constitution which had no relation to Morality Such were natural Pollutions accidental Diseases the touching of a dead Body c. which were esteemed vicious according to the Law and the Defiled were excluded from Sacred and Civil Society Now these Impurities considered in themselves deserved no punishment For involuntary and inevitable Infirmities and corporeal things which do not infect the inward man are the marks of our abject and weak state but are not in themselves sinfull Therefore Ceremonial Guilt was expiated by a Ceremonial Offering For 't is according to the nature of things that Obligations should be dissolved by the same means by which they are contracted As therefore those Pollutions were penal merely by the positive Will of God So the exercise of his Supreme Right being tempered with Wisdome and Equity he ordained that the guilt should be abolisht by a Sacrifice and that they should be fully restored to their former Priviledges Thus the Apostle tells us that the Blood of those Sacrifices Sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh that is communicated a legal Purity to the Offerers and consequently a right to approach the holy Place Now the reason of these Institutions was that the legal Impurity might represent the true defilements of Sin and the Expiatory Sacrifices prefigure that great and admirable Oblation which should purge away all Sin 2. A real Guilt which respects the Conscience and was contracted from the breach of the Moral Law and subjected the Offender to Death temporal and eternal This could not be purged away by those Sacrifices For how is it possible the Blood of a Beast should cleanse the Soul of a Man or content the Justice of an offended God Nay on the contrary they reviv'd the guilt of Sin and reinforced the rigour of the Law and were a publick profession of the Misery of Men For this reason the Law is called the Ministry of Death As the Moral contained a declaration of our guilt and Gods right to punish so all the parts of the Ceremonial were either arguments and convictions of Sin or images of the punishment due for them But as they had a relation to Christ who was their Complement so they signified the expiation of moral guilt by his Sacrifice and freed the Sinner from that temporal Death to which he was liable as a Representative of our freedom from Eternal Death by the Blood of the Cross. This will appear more clearly by considering 1. That all kinds of placatory Sacrifices are referred to Christ in the New Testament 2. That all their Effects are attributed to him in a sublimer and most perfect
to perpetuity all that shall address to God by Him Since He ever lives to make Intercession The Pardon that He once purchased shall ever be applied to contrite Believers The Covenant that was sealed with his Blood is eternal and the Mercies contained in it 2. The perfection of his Sacrifice is evident by its expiating universally the guilt of all transgressions 'T is true Sins in their own nature are different some have a crimson guilt attending them and accordingly Conscience should be affected But the Grace of the Gospel makes no difference The Apostle tells us that the Blood of Christ cleanseth from all sins Whatever the kinds degrees and circumstances are As the Deluge overflowed the highest Mountains as well as the least Hill so pardoning Mercy covers Sins of the first magnitude as well as the smallest Under the Law one Sacrifice could expiate but one Offence though but against a carnal Commandment but this one washes away the guilt of all Sins against the Moral Law And in that Dispensation no Sacrifices were instituted for Idolatry Adultery Murder and other Crimes which were certainly punisht with Death But under the Gospel Sins of what quality soever if repented of are pardoned The Apostle having reckoned up Idolaters Adulterers and many other notorious Sinners that shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven tells the Corinthians that such were some of them but they were sanctified and justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 'T is true Those who sin against the Holy Ghost are excepted from Pardon But the Reason is Because the Death of Christ was not appointed for the Expiation of it And there being no Sacrifice there is no Satisfaction and consequently no Pardon The Wisdome and Justice of God requires this Severity against them For if he that despised Moses Law died without Mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace that is They renounce their Redeemer as if he were not the Son of God and virtually consent to the cruel Sentence past against Him as if he had blasphemed when He declared Himself to be so and thereby out sin his Sufferings How reasonable is it they should be for ever deprived of the Benefits who obstinately reject the Means that purchased them 2. The Death of Christ hath procured Grace for Men. We made a Forfeiture of our Original Holiness and were righteously deprived of it And till Divine Justice was appeased all influences of Grace were suspended Now the Death of Christ opened Heaven and brought down the Spirit who is the Principle of Renovation in us The world lay in wickedness as a Carcass in the grave insensible of its horror and corruption The Holy Spirit hath inspired it with a new life and by a marvellous change hath caused Purity to succeed Pollution 3. The receiving Believers into Heaven is a convincing proof of the all-sufficiency of his Sacrifice For Justice will not permit that Glory and Immortality which are the Priviledges of the Righteous should be given to guilty defiled Creatures Therefore our Saviour's first and greatest work was to remove the bar that excluded us from the place of Felicity 'T is more difficult to justifie a Sinner than to glorifie a Saint The Goodness of God inclines Him to bestow Happiness on those who are not obnoxious to the Law but his Justice was to be aton'd by Sufferings Now what stronger Argument can there be that God is infinitely pleased with what His Son hath done and suffered for his People than the taking of them into his Presence to see his Glory The Apostle sets down this order in the work of our Redemption That Christ being made perfect by Sufferings that is having consummated that part of his Office which respected the expiation of Sin He became the Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him To sum up all 't is observable that the Scripture attributes to the Death of Christ not only Satisfaction whereby we are redeemed from Punishment but such a redundant Merit as purchases for us Adoption and all the glorious Prerogatives of the Children of God Upon these accounts his Blood hath a double Efficacy As the Blood of the Covenant it procured our peace as the Blood of the Testament it conveyes to us a Title to Heaven it self according to that of St. Paul we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by his Blood I will remove two slender prejudices against this Doctrine 1. That Repentance and Faith are required in order to the partaking of the precious benefits which Christ hath purchased doth not lessen the Merit of his Death and the compleatness of the Satisfaction made to God by it For we must consider There is a great difference between the payment of that the Law requires by the Debtor and the payment of that which was not in the original Obligation by another in his stead Upon the payment of the first actual freedom immediately follows If a Debtor pays the sum he ows or a Criminal endure the punishment of the Law they are actually discharged and never liable to be sued or suffer again But when the same that the Law requires is not paid but something else by another the release of the guilty is suspended upon those condâ—tions which he that freely makes satisfaction 〈◊〉 the Governour who by favour accepts it are â—â—eased to appoint Now 't is thus in the transaction of our Redemption Christ laid down his Life for us and this was not the very thing in strict sense that the Law required For according to the threatning the Soul that sins shall die the Delinquent in his own person was to suffer the penalty and there was no necessity natural or moral that obliged God to admit of his Satisfaction for our discharge If the Law had exprest that the sinner or his surety should suffer there had been no need of a better Covenant But in this the Grace of God so illustrously appears that by his appointment the punishment of the guilty was transfer'd to the Innocent who voluntarily undertook for them In this respect God truly pardons sin though he received intire Satisfaction for he might in right have refused it Now these things being supposed although the Blood of Christ was a price so precious that it can only be valued by God that received it and might worthily have redeemed a thousand Worlds yet the effects of it are to be dispensed according to the Eternal Covenant between the Father and the Son and the tenor of it is revealed in the Gospel viz. that Repentance and Faith are the conditions upon which the obtaining pardon of sin and all the blessings which are the consequents of it depends thus Christ who makes Satisfaction and God that accepts
Persecutors he had certainly obtained it He tells his Disciples that upon his request his Father would send twelve Legions of Angels for his rescue But he resigned the whole Power of his Will to his Fathers not my will but thy will be done was his Voice at his privat Passion in the Garden He submitted the act and exercise of his will not what I will but what thou wilt he saith in another Evangelist he yielded not only the faculty and exercise of his will to do what God enjoyned but in that manner which was pleasing to Him Not as I will but as thou wilt he expresses in the words of a third Now what is there in Heaven or Earth that can move our Wills to entire Obedience if this marvellous Pattern doth not affect us Let the same Mind be in you that was in Christ saith the Apostle How glorious is it to do what he did and what a reproach to decline what he suffer'd who had the Holiness of God to give excellency to the Action and the infirmity of Man to endure the sharpness of the Passion 3. Love to Mankind is exprest by our Saviour in a peculiar manner For although God is Infinitely Good to us yet he doth not prefer the happiness of Man before his own Blessedness The Salvation of the whole World were not to be purchas'd with the least diminution of the Divine Felicity But the Son of God suffer'd the extremest Evil to procure the most sovereign Good for us who were in Rebellion against his Laws and Empire Briefly The Life of Christ contains all our Duties towards God and Man exprest in the most perfect manner or Motives to perform them We may clearly see in his deportment innocent Wisdom prudent Simplicity compassionate Zeal perfect Patience the courage of Faith the joy of Hope the tenderness and care of Love incomparable Meekness Modesty Humility and Purity He spent the night in Communion with God and the day in Charity to Men. He perfectly hated Sin and equally loved Souls The nearest and readiest way to Perfection is a serious regard to his Precedent For the causes of all Sin are either the desire of what he despised or the fear of what He suffer'd He voluntarily deprived himself to Riches Honours Pleasures to render them contemptible and endured outrages of all sorts the contradiction of Sinners and the sharpest Sufferings to make them tolerable He ascended Mount Calvary to his Cross before he ascended from Mount Olivet to his Throne He was naked before He was cloathed with Light and crowned with thorns before with Glory And thus he powerfully teaches us to follow his steps who suffered for us If a Physician of great esteem in a Disease takes a bitter Potion it would perswade those who are in the same danger to use the same Remedy Since the Son of God to purchase our Happiness denied himself the enjoyment of worldly delights and endured the worst of temporal Evils nothing can be more effectual to convince us that the Pleasures of the world are not considerable as to our last end and that present Afflictions are so far from being inconsistent with our supreme Blessedness that they prepare us for it In short His excellent Example not only enlightens our Minds to discover our Duty but inables and excites to perform it As the Eye in beholding visible objects receives their Image so by contemplating the Graces that are conspicuous in our Redeemer we derive a similitude from them We all saith the Apostle with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord that is by viewing in the Gospel the Life of Christ which was glorious in Holiness We are changed into the same Image from â—lory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord that is gradually fashioned in Grace according to his likeness And what can more powerfully move and perswade us to Holiness than to consider the President that Christ hath set before us For how honourable is it to be like the Son of God By conformity to Christ we partake of the Divine Perfections The King of Heaven will acknowledge us for his Children when we bear the resemblance of our elder Brother Besides the motive of Honour Love doth strongly incline to follow Holiness in imitation of our Redeemer This is one difference between Knowledge and Love the understanding draws the object to it self and transforms it into its own likeness Thus material objects have an immaterial existence in the mind when it contemplates them But Love goes forth to the object loved the Soul is more where it loves than where it lives that is there is more of its intellectual presence its thoughts and desires and it always affects a resemblance to it Thus Love humbled God and made him like to us in Nature and Love exalts Man by making him like to God in Holiness for it excites us to imitate and express in our actions the Vertues of him who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory 3. In order to the restoring of Holiness to lapsed Man the Lord Christ purchas'd and conveys the Spirit to them A state of Sin includes a total privation of Holiness and an active contrariety against it The Sinner is dead as to the Spiritual Life and aâ—â—â—nable to revive himself as a carcase is to break the gates of Death and return to the light of the world but he lives to the Sensual Life and expresses a constant opposition to the Law of God He is without strength as to his Duty not able to conceive an holy thought or to excite a sincere and ardent desire towards Divine things but hath strong inclinations of Will and great Power for that which is evil Now to restore Spiritual Life to the dead Soul and to conquer the living enmity that is in it against Holiness no less than the Divine Power was requisite And the effecting this is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Except a man be born of water and of the Holy Ghost he cannot see the Kingdom of God And the Apostle saith That according to his Mercy He saves us by the washing of Regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost As in the Creation where all the Persons concurr'd 't was the motion of the Spirit that conveyed the Life of Nature So in the Renovation of the World where they all cooperate 't is the powerful working of the Spirit that produces the Life of Grace He visits us in the grave and inspires the breath and flame of Heaven to animate and warm our dead hearts 'T was requisite not only that the Word should take Flesh but that Flesh should receive the Spirit to quicken and enable it to perform the acts of the Divine Life 'T is for this reason the third Person is frequently stiled in Scripture the Holy Spirit That Title hath not an immediate respect to his Nature but to the Operations which are assign'd to
Him in the admirable Oeconomy of our Redemption 'T is not upon the account of his essential and eternal Purity which is common to all the Persons but in regard of his Office to infuse Holiness into the depraved Soul and renew the Divine Image that he is so call'd Now Jesus Christ purchased the Spirit by his Humiliation and Sufferings and conveys Him to us in his Exaltation and Glory 1. He purchas'd the Spirit by his Sufferings For since Man fell from his original Innocence he is justly depriv'd of special Grace that is necessary to heal and recover him And till by a perfect Sacrifice Divine Justice was appeased that had shut the Treasury of Heaven and the Forfeiture taken off he could not obtain the eternal Riches God must be reconciled before He will bestow the Holy Spirit a Gift so great and so precious the earnest of his peculiar Love and special Favour to us Therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples who were extremely afflicted for his departure from them That it was expedient he should go away for otherwise the Spirit would not come whose Office was to convince and convert the World The departure of Christ implied his Death and Ascension both which were requisite in order to the sending of Him If the Blood of Christ had not been shed on the Cross the Spirit had not been poured forth from Heaven The effusion of the one was the cause of the effusion of the other The Rock that refreshed the Israelites in the Desert did not powre forth its miraculous waters till it was struck by the Rod of Moses to instruct us That Christ our Spiritual Rock must be struck with the Curse of the Law the mystical Rod of Moses to communicate the Waters of Life to us that is the Spirit who is represented in Scripture under that element 2. Our Redeemer confers the Spirit after his glorious Exaltation When he ascended on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men After his triumph over Principalities and Powers He dispenc'd his Bounty in this rich Donative For the Holy Spirit was first given to Christ as the reward of his excellent Obedience in dying that was infinitely pleasing to God to be communicated from him to Men. And he received the Spirit in the quality of Mediator upon his entrance into Heaven The Psalmist declares this Prophetically Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for Men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them He acquired a right to those Treasures by dying but he takes possession of them after his Ascension Now He is Crown'd He holds forth the Scepter of his Royalty Therefore 't is said that when Christ was upon the Earth the Holy Spirit was not given because Jesus was not Glorified If it be objected that Believers before the Ascension of Christ were partakers of the Spirit the answer is clear 1. It was upon Christ's interposing in the beginning as Mediator and with respect to his future Death and Ascension that the Spirit was given to them 2. The degrees of communicating the Spirit before and after the Ascension of Christ are very different whether we consider the gifts of the Spirit those extraordinary abilities with which the Apostles were endued or the fruits of the Spirit the Sanctifying Graces that are bestowed on Believers the measure of them far exceeds what-ever was conveyed before The Spirit Descended as in a dew upon the Jewish Nation but 't is now powred forth in showers upon all flesh Now in the stile of Scripture things are said to be when apparently and eminently they discover their being So that comparatively to the Power and Virtue of the Spirit discovered in the Church since the Glorification of Christ he was not given before All the former manifestations are obscured by the excess and excellency of the later And not only the Decree of God which is sufficient to connect those things that have no natural dependence but there are special reasons for the order of this Dispensation for the great end of the Spirit 's coming was to reveal fully to the World the way of Salvation to discover the unsearchable riches of Grace to assure Men of happiness after this Life that they might be reduced from a state of Rebellion to Obedience and their affections be refined and purified from all Earthliness and made Angelical and Heavenly Now the Principal demonstrations which he used to perswade Men of these things are the Death and Resurrection of Christ without which these Mysteries had been under a cloud That the Instruction therefore of the Spirit might be clear and effectual it was necessary Christ should Suffer and enter into Heaven and accomplish those things he was to teach And from hence we may observe that the Sanctifying Grace of the Spirit is only the concomitant of the Evangelical Mercy The Gospel and the Spirit are the Wings by which the Sun of Righteousness brings healing and life to the World The declaration of the Law from Mount Sinai was Divine but not accompanied with the efficacy of Grace Therefore 't is called the ministration of Death It conveyed no Spiritual strength as delivered by the hands of Moses considering him precisely in the quality of the legal Mediator but threatned a Curse to the breakers of it All the promises of Mercy scattered in the Books of Moses belong to the Covenant of Grace The Gospel is called the Law of the Spirit of Life and the Ministration of the Spirit that is the Spirit of Holiness and Comfort from whom true and Eternal Life proceeds 〈◊〉 is solely communicated by it The discovery of the Divine Goodness in the Works of Creation and Providence is natural and without the renewing power of the Spirit There is a correspondence between the external Revelation of Mercy and the internal Grace of the Spirit in their Original as the one is supernatural so is the other Not but that the Heathens had some fainter beams of the Sun of Righteousness for he inlightens every man that comes into the World and some lower operations of the Spirit whereby they were reduced from Intemperance Incontinency and other gross Vices to the practice of several Vertues that respect the Civil Life And of this we have an eminent instance recorded by Diogenes Laertius That Polemo half-drunk crown'd with Roses and in the dress of a Harlot rather than of a Man coming into the School of the severe Zenocrates hearing him discourse of Temperance as by a Charm was so perfectly changed that casting away the Garland from his Head and the lascivious Ornaments that were about him and which was more considerable his vicious Habits from his Soul he that entered in a Reveller come forth a Philosopher so corrected and composed in his manners that he was called the Dorick tone which of all others was the most solemn and majestical in the Musick of
Image from glory to glory how much more the Vision of his unveiled Face Our Graces here are but as the rude draught and first colours of the Divine Image that shall then be in its perfection We know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The similitude between the Saints above and Christ is so exact that if one should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and were not directed by the Light of that place he would be apt to think every glorified Saint he meets to be more than a creature St. John the beloved of Christ and as clear-sighted as any of the Apostles mistook an Angel for God and would have adored him although he did not appear in his full glory The Kingdoms of the world with all their splendour are no more in compare to it than a dead spark to the Sun in its brightness The very Bodies of the Saints shall be raised from the Grave and beautified with eternal Ornaments They shall be Companions with the Angels and conformed to the glorious Body of Christ. Briefly In the present state we are not capable to receive the full knowledg of Heaven What we understand is infinitely desirable but the most glorious part is still undiscovered The Apostle tells us Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for those that love him All that is beautiful or sweet here is but a shadow of that Glory a drop of that vast Ocean of delights For all that is desirable in the Creatures and is disperst among them is united in God as the Original in an infinite and indeficient manner with all the Prerogatives that the Creatures have not Celestial Blessedness as much exceeds our most raised thoughts as God is more glorious in himself than in any representations made of him by the shadows of our earthly Imaginations There is a greater disproportion between the condition of a Saint on Earth and in Heaven than between the Life of an Infant in the Womb and of the same person when advanc'd to the Throne and attended with the Nobility of a Nation St. John declares Now we are the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be Who knows the full signification of being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ of partaking in that glorious Reward which is given to him for his great Services to the Crown of Heaven Who can tell the weight the number and measure of that Blessedness To him that overcomes saith our Redeemer will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne We have reason to break forth in the Language of the Psalmist How great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee and supply the defects of our understanding with a Holy admiration that is the only measure of those things that are above our measure Besides the Reward as in excellency 't is Divine so in duration 't is perpetual Heaven is an inheritance as safe as great Here we are subject to time that carries us and all our goods down its swift stream but there Eternity that is fixt and unchangeable embraces us in its bosome We shall be secure and at Rest for no Person shall take away our Crown we shall reign for ever and ever At Godâ—s right hand are pleasures for evermore that can never abate or end As his Liberal Hand bestows so his Powerful preserves our Happiness The Blessed shall sing Everlasting Hymns of Glory and Songs of thanksgiving to the Great Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier who hath prepared and purchased that felicity for them and hath brought them to the secure possession of it Now can there be a more powerful motive to Obedience than Infinite and Eternal Blessedness what can pretend to our Affections in competition with it Carnal pleasures only gratifie our viler part the Body in its vilest state but the Joys of Heaven are Spiritual and Sublime and proportioned to our noblest and most capacious Faculties Earthly delights cannot satisfie our senses but the Peace of God passes understanding One hours enjoyment of it is better than an Eternity spent in the pleasures of sin What inexcusable madness is it to prefer painted trifles before that inestimable Treasure Who can truely believe there is such an excellent Glory but he must love it and vigorously endeavour to obtain it Who would not go to the Celestial Canaan though the way lies through a Wilderness where no Flower or Fruit grows All temporal evils are not only to be endured but chearfully embraced in order to the possessing of it The Apostle tells us I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not comparable with the Glory that shall be revealed in us And he was the most fit person to make the comparison having made tryal of both States For he was a Man of Sorrows that had past through affliâ—ctions of all kinds and he was ravisht up to Paradise where he heard those things that exceed all expressions of Humane Words Now after a serious estimate he declares that the Eternal weight of Glory infinitely outballances the Light and momentany troubles of this Life Thus from what hath been said concerning the greatness of the recompences hereafter we may understand how powerful they are to deter Men from Sin and to allure them to Holiness 2. That these objects may be effectual our Saviour hath clearly revealed them and given us convincing evidence and assurance of their reality The Heathens had only some glimmerings and suspicions of a future state They were under doubts concerning the Nature of the Soul whether mortal or incorruptible wavering between the assent and denial and inclining to this or that part as Sense perswaded them to believe themselves only as Bruits or Reason to acknowledge themselves Men. Socrates before his Judges speaks as one that desired Immortality and in his last Discourses to his Friends he endeavours to perswade them but could not conquer his own doubts nor assure himself All his discourses end in Conjectures and uncertain guesses Besides the Hell which they fancyed was made up of such ridiculous and senseless terrours that could only affect Children who were not arrived to the perfect use of Reason And their apprehensions of Happiness in the next Life were so extravagant that what the Philosopher said in general of Hope that 't is the Dream of waking Men is more justly applicable to the Hope of the Heathens in respect of the future reward For as the illusions of a Dream have many times a real Subject but environ'd with so many fantastick Imaginations as spoils all the proportions of it so their Opinion had a foundation in Truth but was mixt with many Errours inconsistent with perfect felicity And as the pleasure of
the Lord. And immediately there was a general commotion among them they joyn'd together the sinews and flesh came upon them and the skin cover'd them And upon a second Prophesy they were all inspir'd with the Breath of Life and stood up an exceeding great Army Now whether this was really represented to his outward senses or only by the efficacy of the Spirit to his imagination no doubt so strange a Spectacle vehemently affected him as with Joy in hope of the miraculous Restoration of Israel which that Vision foretold so with admiration of the Divine Power But when the Trumpet of the Arch-Angel shall sound the Universal Jubilee and call forth the Dead from all their Receptacles when the Elements as Faithful Depositaries shall effectively restore what was committed to them How Admirable will the Power of God appear 2. No less than Infinite Power is able to change the raised Bodies into the likenesse of Christs The Apostle speaks with an exaggeration of it For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our Vile Bodies that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself This resemblance will be only in the Person of Believers All Men shall rise to be judged but not all to be transform'd There is a Resurrection to Death as well as to Life Unhappy Resurrection Which only serves to make the Body the Food of Eternal Death But the Saints who endeavoured to be like to Christ in purity shall then have a perfect conformity to him in Glory and Immortality How Glorious the Body of Christ is we may conjecture in part by what the Apostle relates to Agrippa At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me Which was no other but the Light of the Face of Christ that struck him with Blindnesse One Ray of this reflecting upon the first Martyr Saint Stephen in his Sufferings gave an Angelical Glory to his countenance And Saint John tells us when he appears we shall be like him He alludes to the rising of the Sun but with this difference when the Sun appears in the Morning the Stars are made invisible but the Bodies of the Saints shall be cloathed with a Sun-like lustre and shine in the midst of Christs Glory Omnipotency alone that Subdues all things can raise and refine them from their Dross unto such an admirable Brightness The Angels will be surpris'd with wonder to see Millions of Stars spring out of the Dust. The Lord Jesus Christ will be admir'd in all them that Believe 2. Their Bodies shall be raised to a Glorious Immortality In this the General Resurrection is Different from that which was Particular as of Lazarus by the one Death was overcome and put to flight only for some time for his second life was no more exempt from Death than his first But by the other Death shall be swallowed in Victory and lose its force for ever Then shall our true Joshua be magnified in the sight of the whole World and the Glorious number of Saints shall cast their Crowns at his Feet and sing the Triumphant Song Thou hast Redeem'd us to God by thy Blood and rescued us by thy Power from all our Enemies and art worthy of Honour and Glory and Blessing for ever CHAP. XXII The extraordinary working of the Divine Power is a convincing proof of the Verity of the Christian Religion The internal Excellencies of it are clear marks of its Divinity to the purified Mind The external Operations of God's power were requisite to convince men in their corrupt state that the Doctrine the Gospel came from God The miraculous owning of Christ by the whole Divinity from Heaven The Resurrection of Christ the most important Article of of the Gospel and the demonstration of all the rest How valuable the Testimony of the Apostles is concerning it That 't was impossible they should deceive or be deceived The quality of the Witnesses considered There cannot be the least reasonable suspicion of them 'T is utterly incredible that any humane temporal respects mov'd them to feign the Resurrection of Christ. The nature of the Testimony considered It was of a matter of fact and verified to all their Senses The Uniformity of it secures us there was no corruption in the Witnesses and that it was no illusion They seal'd the truth of it with their Blood The Miracles the Apostles did in the Name of Christ a strong demonstration that he was rais'd to a glorious life That Power was continued in the Church for a time The Conclusion how reasonable it is to give an entire Assent to the truth of Christianity 'T is desperate Infidelity not to believe it and the highest Madness to pretend to believe it and to live in disobedience to it 1 FRom what hath been discours'd concerning the extraordinary working of the Divine Power we have a most convincing proof of the Verity of the Christian Religion For since God hath by so many miraculous Effects the infallible indications of His Favour to the Person of Jesus Christ justified his Doctrine no reasonable doubt can remain concerning it Indeed the internal excellencies of it which are visible to the purged Eye of the Soul are clear marks of its Divinity The Mystery of our Redemption is made up of various parts in the Union of which such an evident Wisdom appears that the rational Mind unless enslaved by prejudice must be ravisht into a compliance Even that which most offends Sense the Meanness of our Saviours condition in the world and the miseries to which He was expos'd do so perfectly correspond with his great design to make Men holy and heavenly that it appears to be the effect of most wise Counsel And such a Beauty of Holiness shines in the Moral part as clearly proves God to be its Authour It denounces war against all Vices and commands every Vertue All that is excellent in humane Institutions it delivers with infinite more authority and efficacy And what natural reason did not reach to it fully describes in order to the Glory of God and the Happiness of Man Now as God the Authour of Nature hath by Tasts and Smells and other sensible qualities distinguish'd things wholsom from noxious even to the lowest living Creatures So He hath much more distinguish'd objects that are saving from deadly that is the true Religion from the false by undoubted evidences to any who will exercise their Spiritual Senses and sincerely desire to know and obey it And that all the wise and holy embraced it in the face of the greatest discouragements is an unanswerable Argument that 't is pleasing to God For how is it possible that the Good God should suffer those to fall into mortal Errour who from an ardent Affection to Him
was a type of his lying in the Grave and Resurrection Moses in his Prophetical David in his Kingly Office praefigur'd him The Priestly Office being the Foundation of the other two and that upon which our Salvation principally depends was illustrated by two Glorious types Melchisedec and Aaron The one the high Priest in ordinary the other the Priest of God by extraordinary designation I will briefly touch upon the resemblance between him and Christ. Although Sacrifices were offer'd from the Beginning yet he is the first to whom that Title is given as called to that office in a special manner The Divinity of Christs Person the Eternity of his Office and the Infinite Value of his Oblation were shadowed forth by him Melchisedec is introduc'd into the Sacred story as one descending from Heaven and ascending thither without any account of his Birth or Death The silence of the Scripture is Mysterious for the Spirit conducted Holy Men in their Writings The Levitical Priests descended by Natural Generation from their predecessours and had successours in their Office which was annext to the race of Levi. But Melchisedec is represented without Father and Mother without Beginning and End of Days whose Priesthood was permanent in himself For things and Persons have a double being real in themselves and notional as they exist in the mind so that no mention being made of his coming into the World or leaving it the silence of the Scripture is equivalent to his continual duration Now in this was an adumbration of Christ who was the Eternal Son of God and really came from Heaven to execute his office and ascended thither And although his oblation was finisht on the Earth and his intercession shall cease in Heaven yet the effects of it shall be Eternal in his People and the Glory of it in himself The Apostle observes an other resemblance between the Supreme Quality of Melchisedec King of Salem and Jesus Christ He was King of Righteousness and Peace He Govern'd his Subjects in Righteousness and never stain'd those hands with humane Blood that were employed in the Sacred office of the Priesthood And by those Glorious Titles are signified the benefits our Saviour conveys to his People He is the true King of Righteousness By which is not intended the Righteousness that justifies before God in which respect he is call'd the Lord our Righteousness and is said to have brought in Eternal Righteousness for that respects his Priestly office in that quality he acquir'd it But that Title signifies his giving most Righteous Laws for the Government of the Church and his dispensing Righteous Rewards and Punishments Eternal Life and Death by which he preserves the Majesty of his Laws and secures the obedience of his Subjects And he is King of Peace by which we are not to understand his temper and disposition nor our peace with God for reconciliation is grounded on his Sacrifice nor peace with Conscience the effect of the other but that which depends on his Royalty As the King of Peace he keeps his Subjects in a calm and quiet Obedience all their Thoughts and Passions are regulated by his Will The Laws of secular Kings are only exposed to the eyes or proclaimed to the ears of their Subjects but His are engraven in their hearts By the inward and Almighty efficacy of his Spirit he inclines them to their Universal Duty and will bring them to Eternal Peace in his Glorious Kingdom First From hence we have an irrefragable Argument of the Truth and Divinity of the Gospel For 't is evident by comparing the antient Figures with the present Truth the Copies with the Original the Pictures with the Life that Eternal Wisdom contrived them For no created Understanding could frame so various Represenâ—ations of Christ and all exactly agreeing with him at such a distance before His appearance And if we compare the Predictions with the Events 't is most clear that only the Divine Knowledg could reveal them For otherwise how was it possible that the Prophets so many Ages before the Coming of Christ should predict those things concerning Him that exceeded the foresight of all the Angels of Light What Intelligence could there be between Moses and David and Isaiah that lived such a distance of time from one another to deliver such things as meet in him as their Centre And these Prophecies are conveyed to us by the Jews the most obstinate Enemies of Christianity who although they reverence the Letter yet abhor the accomplishment of them So that there can be no possible suspicion that they are feigned and of a later Date than their titles declare Their successive fulfilling is a perpetual Miracle to justifie the truth of our Religion Our Saviour used this Method for the instruction of his Disciples These are the words which I spake unto you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me And St. Paul fram'd a powerful Demonstration from the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ. In his Writings he deciphers the riddles of the Law and removes the Veil to discover the Face of Christ engraven by the Divine Artificer Briefly by shewing the consent between the two Testaments he illuminates the Old by the New and confirms the New by the Old Now what Religion is there in the World whose Mysteries were foretold by the Oracles of God and figured by his Institutions above two thousand Years before 't was exhibited Whose Doctrine perfectly accords with the most antient venerable and Divine Writings Can that Religion be any other than Divine which God did so expresly predict and pourtray in such various manner for the receiving whereof He made such early Preparations in the World Certainly without offering the greatest violence to our rational Faculties none can disbelieve it He degrades himself from the dignity of being a Man that refuses to be a Christian. 2. From hence we may understand the incomparable Happiness of Christians not only above the Heathens who by Divine Desertion were wholly Strangers to the Covenants of Mercy but above God's peculiar People The Messiah was the expectation and desire of Heaven and Earth Before his coming the Saints had some glimmerings of Light which made them inwardly languish after the blessed Manifestation of it But that was reserved for Believers in the last Ages of the World That antient Promise the Morning Blush of the Gospel-Day That the Seed of the Woman should break the head of the Serpent and the Serpent bruise his heel signified the bloody Victory the Messiah should obtain over Satan but how little of it was understood One may as well from the sight of the Root foretel the dimensions of a Tree the colour figure and taste of its Fruits as from that Prediction have discover'd all the parts of our Mediator's Office and the excellent benefits resulting from it The Incarnation Crucifixion Resurrection and