every Man comes naturally to speak and understand this heavenly Language when he is born of the Spirit and brought up in the Nurture and Instruction of the Holy Ghost The prophane part of the World are ever deriding this and making it a constant part of their diversion Now what a profound solid part of Discretion do such Men act who have in contempt the Result and Effects of Infinite Wisdom The Papists have a Saying That never any Dog barked at a Crucifix but he run mad The Moral of that Fable is very good and may serve to instruct a prophane Protestant God himself gives a very solemn and withal dreadful Caution and Premonition to all prophane Scoffers by the Prophet Esaias Be not Mockers saith he lest your Bands be made strong that is lest I chuse your Delusion and give you irrecoverably up to your own prophane sence which will be found at last to be the worst sort of Madness I will not believe any will be so unnecessary critical and nice as to blame the Title of this small Tract in regard the Catholick Church under the Gospel is so very often in Scripture denominated by Mount Sion called the Mountain of the Lord's House which is to be set up upon the top of the Mountains And to this Mount Sion that is to the Gospel-Catholick Church are some way or other related all the blessed and glorious Spirits that are extant the fallen Angels are only excluded for by coming to this Mount the Apostle tells us we are come to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect A great part of a true Christian's Life and I am sure the best part of it is a Converse with Spirits the best and noblest part of Man is a Spirit and he must shortly for some time exist only in that part and when the Body is reunited to it that second Coalition and Constitution will be altogether Spiritual for a Soul and a Spiritual Body conjoyned will render a Man not less Spiritual than he was while he existed singly in his Soul but will make him perfectly like to an Angel so we are told by our Saviour That in the Resurrection the Saints shall be like to the Angels of God Upon this account God is training us up and gradually fitting and preparing of us for this state he is acquainting us as much as our present condition will allow with himself and other Spirits here that so we may joyfully resign up our earthly state to become of their number and at last abide in that condition that will be purely Spiritual without any sort of Terrene Allay and such who live without any Communion with Spirits here and have no sort of foretaste nor any preparative relish of that state must needs if they any way make use of the thinking faculty leave their Bodies with very great Amusements The Mount of Spirits Hebrews 12.18 For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest Verse 19. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Ver. 20. For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart Ver. 21. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Ver. 22. But we are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels Ver. 23. To the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Ver. 24. And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel THis Epistle is a Funeral Sermon preached at the Interment of the Law the material Body of Moses God himself buried long before and no man ever knew the place of his Sepulture and now his mystical Body his Doctrine growing old and ready to vanish away ripe for abolition or rather dissolution not so much by being repealed or rescinded but its use ceasing the end and substance of it appearing and its glory being naturally and of course swallowed up and dissolved into a greater glory that excels The Holy Ghost himself by this Epistle lays it honourably in the grave and so we have the Sepulchre of this mystical Body of Moses abiding with us at this day And happy had it been for the whole Nation of the Jews if this Sermon had had its due effect upon them God in his wise and gracious Providence gave them this Warning this Holy Instruction and Admonition to prevent their obstinate adhaesion to the Mosaical Rites and violent opposition of the Gospel thereby which ended in a very few years after the writing of this Epistle in the sad and utter Ruine of their Temple their City and themselves The Penman of this Epistle by such Probabilities as come very near to a Certainty appears to be St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and that Person whom it pleased God so eminently to make use of in the glorious Fulfilling of that early prophetick Prediction God shall perswade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Sem. The exact Time when this Epistle was written is very uncertain Antiquity affords us little or no Information about it what Knowledge we can have of it must be by consulting the Scripture and comparing it with it self It seems reasonable to suppose that St. Paul wrote it after his Release at Rome from two Years Imprisonment there with which the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends wherein is contained an Ecclesiastical History of the Church for about 28 Years after our Saviour's Resurrection unto the 7th Year of Nere that he wrote it after his Release appears from hence that Chap. 13. v. 23. he intends and promiseth a Journey with Timothy which had he been a Prisoner and not in his own power is not reasonable to think he would have done 'T is likewise very probable to be written before the sharpest and most violent Persecutions fell upon the believing Jews before the slaughter Herod made at the instance of the Jews of St. James and those at Jerusalem because he tells them in this Epistle they had not yet resisted unto Blood and 't is very evident to be writ and to be well known to the Jews before St. Peter wrote his second Epistle for therein he seems very plainly to refer to this Epistle and if so then 't is plain also beyond denial the Author of it was St. Paul And Account says he that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
all such things and so the Creatures are now enjoyed not by vertue of Man's first right to them in Creation but by vertue of Christ's Purchase and Redemption St. Paul ranks things in this order All things are yours speaking to the Saints and you are Christ's and Christ is God's To a Believer every Creature is good not as it was originally so made but as it is by Christ restored into that condition the Curse removed and as it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer to a Man unrenewed and unreconciled to God in the Mediator God's original Curse upon the Creatures still remains and he enjoys them with that doleful circumstance That his Table is a Snare and upon that account the Holy Ghost tells us That a little that a righteous man has is better than the great riches of the wicked and that to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure Solomon lays it down as an undoubted Maxim That the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked where-ever Adam's original Rebellion is upheld and promoted there the primitive Curse then pronounced upon the Creatures remains 't is only removed by Christ to those that have interest in him and are reconciled to God by him Secondly As the Curse upon the Creatures is in all Ages gradually taken off as to their use and enjoyment to such as believe and obey the Gospel so by vertue of the Price Christ has paid and the restoring recovering Power put into his Hand thereupon the whole Creation at last shall be rescued from the Slavery and Deformity it has lain under and be restored to its primitive Beauty and Excellency we may say in this case as St. Paul says of Death For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive As the Creatures fell and died as it were with Man so shall they be restored and have a resurrection in his recovery their Restoration is one part of Christ's Purchase as they were cursed for Adam's sake so they shall be again revived and blessed for Christ's sake who can imagine that the Creation shall always groan under Bondage to the Lusts Passions and Debaucheries of Men and not at last put on again its beautiful Garments and in a right and due manner be serviceable to that end which was the use and delight of Man while he lived in communion with his God for which it was originally made This Restoration will be accomplished at Christ's second coming for then will be the great Jubile the Creation has so long groaned after Many Passages there are in Scripture that give in Evidence to this Truth but I will endeavour the Proof of it only from three Texts the first of which as to the proof of this Matter is very probable the other two very positive the first is in the 65th of Esau The wolf and the lamb shall feed together and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock and dust shall be the serpents meat they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord. This seems to me a plain Prophesie of the Deliverance and Restoration of the Creatures When the primitive Order of Creation was lost as Man fell into Rebellion against God so the Creatures fell into Rebellion against him and into implacable enmity one against another This seems to be a Prophesie of the Creatures recovery and of their reconciliation towards Man and towards each other Some take it for a metaphorical Description of the future Effects of the Gospel upon the Spirits of wicked bestial and unreasonable Men and that Reconciliation and Harmony the Gospel should produce amongst Mankind But I conceive this Text is literally to be understood and cannot be fairly so taken for divers considerable Reasons 1st Because the time to which this Prophesie relates and in which it is to be accomplish'd is when there shall be a new Heavens and a new Earth and what more proper to conceive than that when the Heavens and Earth are to be new the Creatures should have new Qualities and Conditions It is plain so to be if you look back to the 17th Verse and read on to this For behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind And from thence to the 25th and last Verse is a perfect Description of the State of this new Heaven and new Earth and the happy condition the Creation shall be restored unto This new Heaven and new Earth is to be at Christ's second coming when the restitution of all things is to be for the new Heavens and new Earth and the restitution of all things in Scripture-phrase are the same and what time so likely so fit and proper for this to be effected as then and 't is certain it must be then or never The other Prophesie of this Matter in the 11th Chapter of this Prophesie in these words The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lye down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them and the cow and the bear shall feed their young ones shall lye down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox and the sucking child shall play upon the hole of the asp is to be when knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea which is but an expression of the same time before mentioned in other words it shall be when Christ shall come and shall set all to rights 2dly It seems more reasonable to take this Text literally than metaphorically allowing for the Rhetorick of the prophetick Stile because these opposite Creatures are said to lye down and quietly cohabit one with another retaining their own distinct and proper Natures still though a Lion lye down with a Lamb yet he is a Lion still the very life of the Prophesie lyes in that that a Lion whil'st a Lion shall lye down with the Lamb the creature is the same only the hurtful enmity removed Now should we take it metaphorically the Gospel-change is rather to make a Lion a Lamb to alter the very Nature and Disposition and to infuse new Habits and Qualities and so a Lamb would lye down with a Lamb and not a Lion or a Wolf with a Lamb if we take it in strict sence and then what is intended to signifie would not well agree to what is signified 3dly Some Parts and Passages of these Prophesies cannot fairly be construed in any such metaphorical sense as that the Lion shall eat Straw like the Ox and Dust shall be the Serpents Food by which the removal of the Creatures enmity one to another and their devouring one another as an effect thereof seems to be singly and literally signified and an account given how they shall live in that state when
all these hurtful qualities introduced by Man's sin at the first shall be removed 't will be hard with any tolerable and sober sense to put a mystical and metaphorical meaning upon these Passages and those that have attempted it have much justified the literal interpretation by their misfortune in the attempt and if it seem necessary to take any part of the Prophesie literally it will be a probable ground to suppose the whole ought so to be taken and the truth is the Prophets do seem often plainly to foretel that the Creatures shall be all reconciled to each other and brought into their due and primitive obedience unto Man according to that Passage in the Prophet Hosea In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of the heaven and with the creeping things of the ground that is as I take it they shall be restored and reduced to that order they were first made in and a metaphorical sense put upon this Prophesie would seem very heterodox and foreign to what by the Context the Prophet seems to intend and aim at The second Scripture I shall insist on is that of St. Paul in the 8th of the Romans v. 21. Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now this is highly probable to be one of those Discourses of St. Paul which St. Peter mentions in which there are some things hard to be understood for St. Peter where he quotes St. Paul for his writing in his Epistles of those things is there speaking of the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness the Season when the Creatures restoration is to be There are many things hard to be understood in Scriptures and without all doubt many very many things within its bowels that lye undiscovered and untaken notice of as yet for 't is a Book intended for the instruction of the Church and to exercise her care and industry in all Ages it will be with the Church in the last period of the World as it was with the Disciples when they went to Emaus Christ will open their understandings and give them a clear view of the Scriptures and of all things therein contained touching himself and the glory of his Kingdom and the restitution of all things For the clear understanding of this Text in hand it will be necessary to take in the Context from the 18th Verse For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God the last part of the 18th Verse is that as I think from which the Apostle takes the rise of his whole Discourse in these Verses are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us and proceeds in the 19th Verse to shew there will be such a glory for the whole Creation expects it their deliverance being to be contemporary with it For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestations of the Sons of God the meaning seemeth to be that he speaketh not of the glory of Heaven in the 18th Verse but of that glory that shall be revealed in the Saints here in this World before the conclusion of it when the whole World shall become the Kingdom of Christ and his Saints and so the force of the comparison lyes the stronger the sufferings that we have in this World are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us even in this World and then in Verse 19 proceeds to shew there shall be such a glory For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God that is there is an expectancy in the whole Creation of such a day when the Sons of God are manifested and revealed in the glory that is promised them then the whole Creation shall enjoy a Restoration and Jubile 'T is of great moment here to take notice that the Apostles Antithesis is not between the Sons of God and the Sons of Men of any sort but between the Sons of God and the Creature by which is certainly meant the inanimate part of the World which is said in its way to expect for nothing is more common in Scripture than to apply rational Acts to irrational Creatures as calling upon the Heavens and the Earth to hear and many such like For the creature Verse 20. was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope that is the whole Creation was cursed and subjected to vanity by the just judgment of God for Man's sin but yet so that it remains in hope and why because in Verse 21. the Creature it self shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God because there is a restoration belongs to it and the opposition is still between the Sons of God and the Creature and cannot with any tolerable sense be made between Man and Man The scope of St. Paul in this place seems clearly to be this That the Creature being under a curse and under a preternatural subjection and usage not suitable to its first make and designment by reason of Man's sin and being unwillingly subjected thereunto did in its way dislike it groan to be delivered from it and naturally tended to its primitive state and use which it was to be restored unto when the Sons of God should be manifested and Christ should set up his glorious Kingdom here upon Earth This Interpretation though without doubt it contains the natural and genuine sense of the Apostle is by some contradicted by understanding the word Creature in another sense that is to say by taking it to mean the Gentiles and that part of the World who say they were unwillingly subjected by the Devil to all the bondage of the Heathenish Worship and Religion and groaned to be delivered from under it Now both the Text it self and the Context utterly refuse this interpretation For first we must represent the Apostle thus speaking For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation of the Gentiles waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God The Apostle does not make the opposition to lye between the Sons of God and the Sons of Men of any sort but between the Sons of God and the irrational part of the World and makes the groaning of that after the manifestation of the Sons of God a reason why there shall be such a manifestation and in Verse 20. when he says the Creature was made subject to Vanity he
points chiefly at the irrational part of the World which was made so by God's curse upon Man and upon it for Man's sake but 't is very improper to say the Gentile World was made subject to Vanity and understand as they do Vanity to be their Idolatry unwillingly because what they did in that was voluntary what they chose and what they highly applauded themselves in and to say the Devil had subjected them to their Idolatry in hope which those that thus interpret do and must say is plainly to say the Devil subjected them to Idolatry in order to a deliverance unto Salvation which is absurd to suppose And in Verse 21. the Apostle lays the Emphasis so as points clearly at the irrational and Iowest part of the World Because says he the creature it self he does not in the least seem to intend Mankind or any sort of them but the lowest and meanest part of the World and that he must needs mean by saying the creature it self in the most diminutive sense of the Creature for 't is evidently to distinguish between the Creature and the Sons of God and not to make the Antithesis between one sort of Men and another And in Verse 22. he tells you the whole Creation or every Creature groaneth and travaileth in pain for deliverance he tells you before the Creature was in expectancy and now he tells you it groans and travaileth in pain and this Creature is the whole Creation or every Creature 't is the very same word that is used all along this Context and therefore 't is the same thing he discourseth of Let any Man in these Verses read the Gentile World instead of the word Creature and whole Creation or as it is better to be rendred every Creature and then see what an awkward ill-cohering sense is imposed upon the Apostle thereby The third Scripture I shall insist on for the proof of this Point seems more plain and positive than any Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began This Text is part of St. Peter's Sermon the effect of which was so famous a conversion his Point was to prove that that same Jesus whom they crucified was the true Messiah that he was risen again but not to be seen by them any more upon Earth which perhaps the Jews expected to justifie the truth of his Resurrection and to render him in a capacity to be such a temporal Messiah as they look'd for this seems preventively spoken to forbid any such expectation he tells them the Heavens whither he was ascended must contain him until the restitution of all things What can be more plain than that these two things result from this Text 1st That Christ will again appear in the end of the World for the Heavens must contain him but until that is to a determinate time 2dly That his appearing again will be in those times wherein all things shall be restored whatever is defiled defaced disordered and misplaced by sin shall be reduced in those times to its primitive beauty and order as a very particular effect of Christ's Redemption and they are called times of restitution because they will precede and last some time before the day of Judgment which is usually expressed in Scripture singularly by one positive determinate day the day of Judgment to all good Men will be much more than a restitution it will bring them to a far better state than ever they were made in but these are called times of restitution of all things not only Men but all the Creation shall partake of the benefits of these times and these restoring times are such as God hath spoken of by the mouth of all his holy Prophets all or most of them have some way or other more or less mentioned this glorious Kingdom of Christ towards the end of the World but 't is not so evident that they have all or most of them spoken of the day of Judgment the Apostle gives them to know that that very Jesus whom they crucified was the only true Saviour of the World was ascended into Heaven as a mighty Conquerour and would from thence return and before time ended bring with him times of restitution and let the whole Creation feel the effects of his Redemption by an universal Jubile and restoring it under his government to its original order beauty and glory after which it has a natural tendency and in its way perpetually groans having ever since the fall of Man and the curse thereupon imposed upon it unwillingly lain under a sad and grievous oppression from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And thus we see by the very first Design and Platform in Creation God by making the World by his Son has placed in the whole Creation after its fall and misery ever since a natural tendency to come under his mediatory Rule and Dominion as its only Deliverer and Saviour and by whom God from everlasting designed its freedom and happiness should be retrieved and restored These times of restitution of all things are the same with the new Heavens and new Earth St. Peter speaks of in his Epistles and St. Paul points at the same when he speaks of the manifestation of the Sons of God and the glorious liberty of the Children of God The Scripture gives us a positive Account of many great and glorious things that will there be effected by the Mediator before his Kingdom ends the Lord shall descend according to St. Paul in the Clouds with the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God the Dead in Christ-shall rise first and be caught up with all the Saints then alive to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall be ever with him this is called the first Resurrection all his Enemies upon Earth and the Antichristian State shall be utterly confounded and ruined the Heavens and the Earth shall be burnt that is plain in St. Peter and probably out of their Ashes and Ruines will result the new Heavens and new Earth for 't is not probable that new ones will be intirely created as it was at first 't is usual in Scripture to call that a new Creation which is only changed in quality and condition Some of the Subjects and Inhabitants of this new Heaven and new Earth will without doubt be the converted Jews at which that passage in the 66th of Esau seems positively to point For as the heavens and the earth which I shall make shall remain before me so shall your seed and your name remain that is they shall abide all along the continuance of this new Heaven and this new Earth which I shall make and shall be contemporary therewith The Prophet in that Chapter and in the preceding is largely discoursing of these glorious times and of the restoration of the Jews This new World will most probably last for a
1000 Years but how and in what order and manner and in what succession all these things will be effected and whether the new Heavens and the new Earth will precede the first Resurrection or not are Questions not pertinent to be asked because they are as yet impossible to be resolved Thus we have seen by what hath been discoursed upon this Argument how all the great and eternal Designs of God touching this World were laid in his creation of it by the second Person and that by him all the glorious and blessed ends God proposed to himself there by are brought to pass and accomplished as all was made by him so all was made for him and the glory of all results to God through him The Apostle in this Epistle sets forth many Qualifications of the blessed Person of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Jews might think themselves no losers by changing their Legislator by taking him instead of Moses in respect of his Divine Nature he was infinitely exalted above all comparisons in respect of his Humane Nature he was exalted above the Angels as a Prophet he exceeded Moses as far as the Master of a Family exceeds his Servant for he is the Son in his own house and as a Priest he much exceeded Aaron by once for all offering up himself a compleat and perfect Sacrifice and shedding thereby the Blood of God for the Sins of the World and as a King and Priest together by reason of his absolute perfection in Sanctity and Soveraignty and that he is the great Reconciler of Earth and Heaven the great Peace-maker between God and Man he that brings down and proclaims Peace upon Earth and Good-will towards Men the true King of Salem he infinitely preceded Melchisedech having also the power of an endless Life and being indeed without beginning or ending of Days which Melchisedech was only in Historical Figure and in the Type And throughout the whole Epistle shews the wonderful excellency of the Gospel above that of the Law not only from its Original and Founder but also from the Nature and Constitution of it being a heavenly Frame pitch'd by God himself the other but an earthly one and all the Appurtenances to it the Sacrifice the Ordinances of Worship the Covenant and the efficacy of the whole sutable thereunto and all this to bring the Jews to own the truth of their own Religion to acknowledge their true and natural Messiah of whom as purtaining to the flesh Christ came after his departure and ascension Christ who compassionately wept over Jerusalem and that People while he was upon Earth was pleased to afford them this glorious Luminary to follow them with this Instruction and to kindle this Heavenly Lamp before them that ought to have been a Light to their Feet and a Lanthorn unto their Paths to have led them from Mount Sinai to Mount Sion from Mount Sion literal to Mount Sion spiritual and from the earthly to the heavenly Jerusalem but the success proved otherways for the State of the Jews the governing part of that Nation together with the Body of the People continued in the utmost rage and opposition they could possibly express against Christ and his Doctrine till that remove of their oeconomy and Worship which is here but spiritually and doctrinally laid before them and tendred to them for their information and instruction came to be materially sensibly and dreadfully put in execution to their utmost horror and confusion That People being chiefly concerned in this Epistle and having been so stupendious a Stage of singular Blessings and extraordinary Judgments a short Digression touching that People and Nation in particular cannot in this place seem either heterogeneal or impertinent A short Digression touching the Jews The Jews who were so long proprietors of the true God and in possession of the only instituted Religion of which he was the Author of whom it might for many Ages be said considering and comparing them with the rest of the World That Salvation was of the Jews that People that had so much advantage above all others every way and that made so great a divine and religious Figure in the World and so true a one for so long together having in Promises Types and Significations the Christian Religion it self amongst them for out of that Root it sprang there it was in Oar though it was afterwards coin'd and stampt and that as yet do remain as wonderful Monuments both of Divine Justice and Mercy and the Subjects of many Prophesies to be yet fulfilled to this very day a right Account of this People and a due and serious Consideration of them cannot but be of excellent use to all the ends of the Christian Religion Their Original was from Abraham they never pretended to derive themselves higher and therefore encountred our Saviour with what they most valued themselves upon We have Abraham for our father he was the first friend God was pleased to make to himself upon Earth and with him it was that God personally established the Covenant of Grace in all the Essentials and Substantials of it and the legal Covenant as the Type Figure and Forerunner of that in his Natural Capacity he was the Father of the Jews but restrictively by the Seed of the Promise in Isaac with whom the Covenant of Circumcision was made an Institution of great Sanctity and Distinction and whereby they obliged themselves against all false Gods and Idolatry to the Worship of the only true God as he himself declared the meaning of it to be and in his Spiritual Capacity as one that believed and obeyed what God revealed to him and followed him fully he was the Father of all the faithful who have ever since all gone to Heaven by treading in the steps of their Father Abraham but this must not be so strictly taken as if these two Seeds of Abraham were always subjectively divers for they were often the same and this the Apostle proves at large in the 9 10 11 Chap. to the Romans in the Instances of Isaac and Jacob and the Remnant of Israel that were at that time saved who were both Heirs according to the Flesh and according to the Promise the Gospel was all virtually utter'd unto him in that one expression In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed the meaning of which was that the Promise of the Messiah having yet lain at large and in very general terms and proceeded no farther than the first Promise made of him that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head God would graciously advance one step farther and not only enlarge that Promise by declaring that in the Seed of the Woman all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but also make it known of what People of all the Nations and Kindreds of the Earth the Messiah should come and from whose Loins according to the Flesh he should proceed and this honour is done to Abraham and he of
thing than what by his degeneracy and apostasie he has made himself nothing did more plainly and evidently discover itself in the whole transaction of God with this People then that there could be no Law given that would singly and of itself without foreign Assistance introduce Righteousness that there was an absolute necessity the Holy Ghost should be sent down from Heaven if ever Mankind were made fit to go thither and such a Covenant made with the World as would give to Men a new Heart and a new Spirit and such a Covenant God declares having found fault with this that he would make whereby he would write his Laws in Mens Hearts and put them into their inward parts and so possess them with his Grace and lock them up to himself by his fear that they should not depart from him If we begin with this People in Egypt and consider them there it is plain the generality of them had fallen in with the Religion of the Country notwithstanding all the colateral inducements they had and all the obligations they lay under to the contrary and totally forgotten the true God this seems plain from what Moses in Exodus replied unto God when he commanded him to go to them and tell them The God of their fathers had sent him unto them Moses Answers when I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say what is his Name or as it is better rendred what God is he what shall I say unto them 'T is plain from hence that Moses was well aware of the success he was like to have and that the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob was a thing that the people at that time had no notion at all of and upon their entrance into Canaan when Joshua had by Gods direction circumcised them God himself declares this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you which reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry in Egypt which was rolled away by their being devoted by Circumcision to the true God and his Worship some learned men have supposed that the people were not circumcised in Egypt and that their uncircumcision there was that reproach that was rolled away but 't is I conceive a mistake for we are told in Josh 5. v. 5. Now all the People that came out speaking of Egypt were circumcised but all the People that were born in the Wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt them they had not circumcised And in the 4. v. that is said to be the reason of their being now circumcised those that came out of Egypt 't is expresly said were circumcised now if they were circumcised by Moses after their coming out then the reproach of Egypt was rolled away before and this circumcising could not be it if they were as I believe they were circumcised before they came out of Egypt then uncircumcision could not be the reproach of Egypt here meant and 't is probable they were all circumcised there because Pharaohs Daughter so soon as she had taken Moses out of the water and looked upon him knew him to be an Hebrew Child which is likely she did by the mark of circumcision If you ask how Circumcision and their Idolatry could stand together the answer is They kept up that Right without any regard to the ends of it just as the Posterity of Esau and Ishmael do to this day who are the greatest Idolaters in the World though circumcised and constant observers of that Right No sooner were they come into the Wilderness though by such stupendious deliverances as the World before had never been acquainted withal and although they had a Miracle by the Cloud and the Pillar of Fire always in their eye yet while Moses was gone into the Mount to treat personally with God about their concerns they fell greedily into the Egyptain Idolatry a great demonstration they had been used to it before and set up the Calves to declare in the Highest manner their disloyalty to God their King their uneasiness under his Government and that his Rule and their unruly Humours would never sute together and withal to signifie their wretched ingratitude for all he had done for them against Pharaoh and the Egyptians And to testifie their utmost satisfaction and delight in what they had so done the Text says Exod. 32. v. 6. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Suitable to this was their carriage all along in the Wilderness so Stephen told their successors that for Forty Years in the Wilderness they took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of their God Remphan Figures which they made to Worship them and had not sacrificed unto God as they ought the 78 Psalm is a Holy recapitulation of all the disloyal undutiful and unthankful treatment God had from them If we follow them to their last settlement into Canaan their constant spiritual Whoredom there was intolerable provoking the most high to his face their whole behaviour was utterly to testifie their dislike of God and his Government and that they desired not him of all others to rule over them but rather subjected themselves to the meanest Idol the two tribes of Judas and Benjamin that kept longest in their Integrity yet soon fell to the Worship of Baal and before the great Captivity they had set up the most odious Idol-worship in the very House of God this was plainly shewn in vision to Ezekiel when he was in Babylon upon the first Captivity there he saw Men in the Temple worshipping the Sun Women weeping for Tamuz and many more Abominations and in the 19th of Jeremiah God tells them by his Prophet Jerusalem and Judah shall be destroyed because they have burnt incense to all the hoast of heaven The ten Tribes early deserted the true God and fell down before the Calves at Dan and Bethel and at last under one of their apostate Kings those Idols were removed to Samaria the Metropolis of the ten Tribes and placed there to put the utmost Honour and Credit upon them that possibly could be this was done by Omri of whom the Scripture records that he did worse than all that went before him because he made Laws to bring these Idols from Dan and Bethel to Samaria the Royal and Capital City of the ten Tribes for so it is called in the 7th of Esau to affront the God of Israel in the highest manner and as much as in him lay to obliterate the Name and Mention of him amongst those Tribes in his own chosen and peculiar Country The Holy Ghost has left a perpetual Brand throughout all Ages upon these Statutes of Omri and in the 6th of the Prophet Micah tells the People nothing they did should prosper because they kept the
New Covenant This New Covenant is also called a Testament because the great Promulgation of it was to be a consequent of Christ's death and the Gospel that Law and Covenant of Grace the Legacy he left to the World was to be dispensed to the Legatees by his grand Executor the Holy Ghost And whatever we read of God's Covenants in the Old Testament 't is to be reduced to one of these two for the Apostle in the 8th and 9th Chapters of this Epistle calls the Mosaical Covenant the first Covenant and the old Covenant the whole Mosaical oeconomy was included in it and reckoned as part of it but it was chiefly denominated from Mount Sinai because there was the most solemn promulgation of the most essential part of it The Covenant God made with Man in his Innocency was peculiar to him in that state and went no farther is not at all continued in any force since the fall By a Covenant of God in the Scripture sence of it is meant a Law promulged wherein God obliges himself to such rewards and punishments and Men stand obliged to such duty and performance this was the case of the Old Covenant at Sinai and so is the case under the Gospel God has in Christ obliged himself to the salvation of the World upon such and such terms and Man stands obliged to the performance of them if ever he will be happy 'T is a vain and a wild conceit to think the Gospel offers Salvation otherways then upon conditions to be performed on our part the first Proclamation of it is with this condition annexed he that believes shall be saved And Faith is every-where used in the Gospel as a Word comprehensive of all that is therein required of us Punctually to pursue the Apostles drift in this place by this expression the best way is to shew in what particulars this new covenant to which he tells the Believing Hebrews they were come exceeded the old which was the point he designed to himself to make good 1st Both Covenants agreed in this they both had a Mediator an internuncius between God and Man which was to inform us of the vast distance sin had made between them what a vast gulph there was fixed between Heaven and Earth and that 't was impossible there should be any converse between God and Man by vertue of any Covenant without some third Person interposing and herein this New Covenant has infinitely the preference the Mediator of it being of so glorious a composition and constitution and so adapted to this matter as is wonderful to conceive he that intercedes to bring God and Man together is himself both after a stupenduous and wonderful manner united in one and the same Person 2dly This New Covenant delivers us from all the Fear Bondage and Condemnation which the Old Covenant brought upon us the Law left Men to answer to God for their disobedience without either assistance or remedy and so the case of every Man was that when the law came sin revived and he dyed by coming to the Mediator of this New Covenant we are totally discharged from any concern with the Law or the first Covenant the satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice is fully accepted in our stead for all our disobedience of the Law of Works and by this New Covenant we are wholly discharged from any obligation to the Old God found fault with it and it being in its nature and designment to prepare for a better Covenant it grew Old and upon the publication of the Gospel is quite vanished away 3dly This New Covenant much exceeds the other in its nature and constitution for it always admits of Repentance and Pardon which the other never did 't is an intire Law of Grace accepts of sincerity of intention in the stead of perfection of action and is accommodated with all imaginable tenderness to the weak and frail constitution of Man since his fall 4thly And wherein the Glory of this New Covenant chiefly lies and wherein it fundamentally exceeds the other and displays eminently the Glory of God's Grace and Goodness to the World a Divine ability is given from Heaven for the performance of every part of it whatever is required is given the great security of Mens Salvation under this New Covenant is that we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation and that when Men work out their salvation 't is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure 't is his power that is perfected in weakness and grace only that proves sufficient for us in this case the ways and methods by which this Divine assistance of the Holy Ghost from above is conveyed into the Hearts and spirits of Men is admirable but known only to God and out of the compass of all humane discovery a Man born after the Spirit is compared to the Wind the effects of which we know but we know nothing whence it comes nor whither it goes how far God is pleased at first in some to move and excite humane abilities and still to reward their motion Heaven-ward with more and farther grace and how far he is pleased in others to reward with Divine assistance endeavours purely Natural and Human is a knowledge too high for us and what we cannot by searching attain to this we are sure of that grace is never wanting to such as make a faithful improvement of what power they have he that under the Gospel does but what he can do will be sure to be enabled to do what he should do I make no question but that generally speaking grace comes in to the assistance of Humane endeavours and is grafted at first upon such natural improvements as are preparative to the reception of Christ and the Gospel but 't is not always so but Grace breaks in upon some in the height of their carreer against Christ and the Gospel as it did upon St. Paul to make him an instance in this point and makes a perfect conquest of the Soul unto Christ where there is nothing but a Wicked Profane opposition against him Had not this Divine assistance been a gracious appurtenant to the Covenant of Grace Mankind had never reaped the benefit of it no terms of Salvation that were consisting with the Holiness and Justice of God though never so condescending and easie without this would ever have made Mankind happy so desparate and as to their own power irrecoverable an apostacy are all Men subjected to so that if either we consider the Mediator of this New Covenant or the Covenant it self we shall perceive the great advantage the Apostle has of his side in the comparison and what a foolish choice the believing Jews would make to depart and apostatize from this New Covenant and this Mediator to Moses and Mount Sinai The last thing the Apostle mentions and which he couples and conjoyns with the Mediator of this New Covenant as
are often ignorant and so his Writings seems to us the more difficult and obscure Thus we have taken a brief view of the Apostle's Comparison of the Law with the Gospel in this short Epitome of both and seen the wonderful preference the Gospel has to the Law and the great and eminent Advantages and Priviledges of the one above the the other and the glorious Inhabitants of this Spiritual Mount Sion and the Heavenly Jerusalem not only all the true Saints upon Earth the Church of the first-born written in Heaven but even God himself Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant all the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect nothing could be more destructive and ruinous to the true Interest of the believing Hebrews than to turn their backs upon such a Communion to go back to the Old Covenant that God upon Man's account found fault with and again put on that Legal Yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear the Jews much boasted of and rested in those literal Typical Advantages they had above the rest of the World upon which they might with very good reason value themselves and therefore the Apostle's business is to manifest to them how much by embracing the Gospel they changed for the better that instead of a Legal Temporary Temple built upon Mount Sion and an Earthly Jerusalem they are come to the true signified Mount Sion to the Spiritual and Heavenly Temple which is Christ Mystical where God dwells for ever and the Heavenly Jerusalem the name of which is Jehovah Shammai that is the glorious spiritual worship of the Gospel and the state of the Catholick Church in all its parts those on Earth and those in Heaven and thereby to all that was signified by and all that was any where promised unto Jerusalem and Mount Sion instead of that Dreadful Appearance of the Angels upon Mount Sinai with which they were so terrified and from which they were kept at so great a distance they are now come to an innumerable Company of Angels that is to a sweet Fellowship Brotherhood and Communion with them all which is implyed in their being said to be come to them under the Law 't was firmly believed whoever should see an Angel so great the distance was thought between Mankind and them should certainly die we are now Men and Angels all of the same Family and Houshold and the Saints on Earth have the whole Ministry and Service of the Angels employed on their behalf they are now always ascending and descending about their Affairs and there is a most endeared and intimate Relation and Affection between all the Myriads of Angels above and the Saints below instead of the National Church of the Jews assembled at Jerusalem they are come to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born whose Names are written in Heaven To the general Assembling of the true Catholick Church who Assemble and Worship all the World over in Spirit and Truth without any confinement to any place whatever they are come to them so as to be of the same Body and Society with them to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and so as to partake of all their Spiritual and Heavenly Advantages and they are come to all the parts of this Catholick Communion as well those in Heaven as those on Earth even to God himself which is as far as they can come the judge of all under the Law they were not suffered so much as to approach the outward signs of his Presence but under the Gospel they have free access to himself and to his very Throne which is now become a Throne of Grace and nothing appears now from thence but a Scepter of Mercy held forth they are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect not only to the Fellowship and Fraternity of all the Saints living from the Fraternity of an outward Typical and only National Church but to those in the Heavenly state all those mentioned in the 11th Chap. before and all the Apostles and those Blessed Saints they had conversed with in the first times of the Gospel who were then removed and gone to their rest even to them by the Gospel-state they were come with them they are embodyed as Members of the same Society and with them in a short time they are sure to be resident And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant a Saviour as well as a Mediator and a Mediator not of the Sinai but of the Sion Covenant a Covenant bringing grace life and peace a Mediator not like Moses a meer Man a Servant a Sinner himself trembling in his Office and weary of his Burden and whose Ministry was like his Person decaying vanishing and dying But to the Son himself in his own House able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him in that he liveth for ever to make Intercession for them and to the Blood of sprinkling infinitely exceeding all the Blood that was sprinkled under the Law for that brought sin yearly and daily into remembrance but those that are sprinkled with this are for ever perfected and to them there remains no more Sacrifice for sin and this Blood they are come to speaks a better Language quite than the Blood of Abel did although the Blood of both was most unjustly shed and they were both wickedly murdered and slain yet they speak two different Languages Abel's Blood called and cried unto God for vengeance upon Cain but this pleads and cries aloud for pardon and forgiveness even for those very Persons that were most guilty of it and deepliest concerned in it so that none are excluded from the benefit of it The Apostle winds up all with deep and solemn Admonitions and Cautions to the Believing Jews not to play fast and lose with the Gospel 't is of such Jews St. James writes in his Epistle directed to the Twelve Tribes when he tells them A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and let not such a man think says he to obtain any thing from the Lord for he halts between two Opinions and is unresolved whether he shall be a Jew or a Christian the Apostle conjures them upon their utmost peril not to refuse him that speaks from Heaven which is no other than God himself speaking by his Son and declaring by a solemn voice from Heaven even from the excellent Glory that he was his Beloved Son in whom he was well pleased which beloved and blessed Son of God might well be said to speak from Heaven because we are expresly told he was also in Heaven when he spake here upon Earth he proceeds to mind them that the Legal state was like an old House ready to fall upon their heads for he that once by his voice shook the Earth at Mount Sinai and made the Mount to tremble will now once more shake both Heaven and Earth and dissolve the Apostle tells them their whole Religious Constitution and Fabrick and this taking away of things that are shaken is in order to this that things that cannot be shaken which are the blessings and glories and sure mercies of the Gospel may remain the Gospel is the last and only remedy that God has provided for sinful Man 't is a fearful thing to fall into his hands and not have this to plead to fall into the hands of the living God without an interest in Jesus the Mediator of this New Covenant and the Blood of sprinkling appurtenant thereunto he that has once embraced the Gospel and then out of choice refuseth it and turns his back upon it refuseth his remedy and thereby renders his Cure desperate and impossible and to such a man nothing can possibly remain but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment The Consideration of this Glorious and Honourable state to which by the Gospel we are come this Celestial Mount of Spirits should always inflame our minds with holy and thankful Contemplations and also with fervent and devout adoration of that infinite goodness that has made such provision for the happiness recovery and welfare of rebellious and apostate Man that has opened the flood-gates of Heaven and showr'd down all the blessings and glories thereof upon the World by the descent of the second person into Human Nature how happy were it if instead of mean low and perishing satisfactions Men would solace themselves with this heart-satisfying and everlasting Salvation let us follow the example of Moses who when God proclaimed his Name unto him and caused all his goodness to pass before him the Text says Moses made haste and bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped he only heard the report of what we possess and enjoy our whole business therefore should be to exalt the Praises of so Gracious a Benefactor and to Magnifie that Glorious being that has all possible Perfection to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be taken away and to whom all Blessing and Honour and Praise and all Worship and Service and Adoration will be due throughout all Generations from time to time till time ceaseth and is dissolved in Eternity and thence Eternally FINIS