best Man upon Earth could not stand before God under that dispensation which addition to the story God for some especial ends we may be assured gave to the Apostle by Revelation there being no such thing recorded by Moses himself In the 22th Verse the Apostle comes to the second Part of the comparison the affirmitive Part shewing what it is that the believing Jews when they embraced Christianity came to but ye are come to mount Sion 1st This in general is to instruct the converted Jews that by the Gospel they are come to and embodyed with the true Catholick Church called in scripture the fulness of him that filleth all things of which the National Church of the Jews was but a Type and a Figure 2dly That this true Catholick Church is partly in Heaven and partly on Earth And 3dly The Apostle by intermixing these parts together in his account of them gives them to understand that they are all of one piece and together make but one Church and one Body under one Head things in Heaven and things on Earth being united in Christ as their common head and by telling them they are come they are come to this Catholick Church the Apostle signifies this unto them that as their Fathers after several Days Travel upon their coming out of Egypt and by great and solemn preparations came at last to Mount Sinai so they and their Fathers having travelled through the former dispensation which was the great preparative to this they are now safely arrived hither and are come to all the Glories and Priviledges of the Gospel they are come in respect of Relation and Communion to all that part of the Church that is in Heaven and to all the true and real parts of it upon Earth not now confin'd to any National Constitution whatever and this is the best state and utmost that we can attain to in this World The Apostles drift here is not at all to describe the Church Triumphant but the Militant Church the force of this Discourse lies in preferring the state of the Gospel Church here upon Earth beyond and before that of the legal and judicial Church and the Apostle chooseth to represent them both by two Mounts one where the Law was given which was the greatest thing belonged to the Judaical oeconomy and the other from whence the Gospel first issued If you ask why the Apostle represents the Gospel state by Mount Sion and Jerusalem that were places proper and peculiar to the Jews there are several accounts may be given of it 1st Because those places had Spiritual and Gospel significations even as the Jews enjoy'd them and so the Apostle represents by them the better to engage the Jews what they truly and really signified and speaks of them in their own native and proper representation Mount Sion consisted of two parts on the highest part the Temple was built and on the other the Palace of their Kings so that this Mount was typically comprehensive of their Civil and Ecclesiastical state 2dly The Gospel first issued from thence and it was prophesied that so it should do Esau 2.3 out of Sion shall go forth the Law speaking of the Gospel and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And the same Prophet tells us the deliverer shall come out of Sion and upon that account in Psal 133. God is said from Mount Sion to command the blessing even life for evermore the meaning is Christ himself came into the Temple upon Mount Sion in Jerusalem and from thence in person issued out the Proclamation of the Gospel and therefore the Apostle keeps up the Honour of this Mount and this City because it had ever been by right and designation the seat of the true Worship of the only true God in opposition to all Idolatry and upon that account called the City of the Living God and in regard of the most glorious Types and Prefigurations were therein included and at last therein appeared the great end and substance of them all the glorious Person of God-Man of Christ himself it seems in a sort necessary if the Church were denominated by any one place it should be from this as being comprehensive of the whole Church and State of the Jews and the very center of it the Catholick Church under the Gospel being under confinement to no one place more then another no one place could so give a denomination to it as it might do to a National Church and therefore this place is made choice of by the Holy Ghost and being comprehensive of all God's sacred institutions of old of the Jewish Church Litterally and the Gospel Church Spiritually The Catholick Church universally thereupon is denominated from it and by it to the end of the World To which we may add in the Third place That since all the promises in the Old Testament that are made to the Gospel Church to the end of the World are made to it under those names of Sion and Jerusalem that therefore it seems necessary to keep up those names as it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to do to the end of the World to shew the punctual fulfilling of those promises in all Ages What Mount Sion and Jerusalem signified will not be compleated till the Consummation of all things upon which account God was said to take up his rest and dwell there for ever Nothing therefore seems so proper so decent and fit as to denominate the Gospel-Church by those terms and as it was in the Apostles times a great help to them to find out what Christ was to do and suffer by what was signified and typified of him under the Law so it will be to the very end of the World a marvellous help to the Church to understand the glorious methods of his Kingdom and Government by looking back and seeing how it was set forth in the prefigurations of it that belonged to Jerusalem and Mount Sion It pleaseth the Holy Ghost throughout the whole Scripture most frequently to represent the Gospel in Judaical Types and Phrases and two reasons we may probably suppose for it 1st To shew what an exact Agreement and Harmony there is in all God's Dispensations how every shadow truly represented the substance and every counter-part punctually agrees with the original And 2dly As a means to promote the conversion of the Jews in the latter times when they shall lay to heart and consider that all their own Religion expressed in their own Language is truly and fully to be found in the Christian Religion that the Law therein is exactly conster'd into the Gospel and every particular thing they most valued they shall here find by name expressed and fully to be enjoyed in the substance and perfection of it But for the more punctual and exact discovery of the Apostles sense in these Verses it will be needful to consider the particulars to which he tells the believing Jews they were come severally and distinctly The First thing he tells
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
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