of this he hath given evident and abundant demonstration both that he perfectly hates sin and that he will severely punish it where not pardoned and purged As 1. In his casting down the Angels that sinned not sparâ—ng them though high and glorious creatures but throwing them down to hell and reserving them in chains of darkness to the Judgment of the great day 2 Pet. 2 4. Jud. 6. 2. And in his casting man out of Paradise and inflicting upon us all the Sentence of Death upon the account of his owâ— offence we being all in him and in him offending Rom. 5.12 18 19. 3. And in his not sparing his only begotten Son when â—e stept in between God and us to Ransom and deliver us from perishing in the first Death Though he was his only begotten Son yet he pleased to bruise him and make his Soul an offering for sin and did not release us from the punishment of it to destruction upon his only praying and interceding for us without his suffering to the shedding of his Blood or powring out of his Soul unto death and therein being made a curse for us Isa 53.4 5 6 10. Gal. 3.13 Rom. 8.32 And surely if sin be so odious to him that he would not let it pass unpunished in his own Son when but imputed to him and undertaken for by him for us how can it be expected that any other person not saved from it by him but abiding in it and committing and practising it to the death especially also against Christs gracious calls and counsels and endeavours to reclaim us shall escape his Judgment If such things were done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry tree As himself said Luk. 23.31 4. And in the great and terrible day that he hath appointed whereof he hath given faith or Assurance to all men in his having raised up Christ from the dead Act. 17.30 31. And the dreadful punishments and destructions which he hath decreed and threatned then to execute upon the wilful and impenitent sinners There is a Judgment appointed to be after Death as well as there was one pronounced before it Heb. 9.27 Rom. 5.16 An Eternal Judgment Heb. 6.3 A day of the Destruction and Perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3.7 The Judgment of the great day Jude 6. When Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with all his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.6,7 8. When all the workers of iniquity shall perish being destroyed with as everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength or mighty power When all that are proud and all that work wickedness shall be like stubble and the day of the Lord that burneth like an oven shall utterly consume them and neither leave them root nor branch Mal. 4.1 5. Yea and in those many terrible judgments and destructions of ungodly sinners which God hath oftentimes and in all ages and places signally executed in this world are demonstrations of the severity of his anger against sin and of the power of his wrath prevailing against all the policy or strength of the sinner to withstand it and as certain Types Tastes or Ensamples of the Eternal vengeance in the great day to come to be executed and endured Such was the overflowing of the Old World the World of the ungodly with a Flood in the days of Noah 2 Pet. 2.5 The burning up of Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent Cities with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven for their great wickedness Setting them forth as ensamples of suffering eternal Vengeance as the Apostle saith Jude 7. â— 2 Pet. 2.6 The overthrow of Pharoah in the Red Sea the destructions of Saul Nabal c. The destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and the like Psal 9.16 17. Yea and that men are not only in danger of but in the way to perishing naturally and generally in and of themselves is evident too for if we mind the ways men generally walk in we shall find they are such as God hath threatned his Judgments to and revealed his wrath from Heaven against Rom. 1.18 Both so as to exclude from the Kingdom and the Glory to come and so as to destroy with everlasting destruction such as walk in them for are not the generality of men either proud persons and such he hath denounced destruction upon being hateful and abominable to him Mal. 4.1 Isa 2.11.12 Prov. 2.17 Or covetous and such God abhorreth Psa 10.3 Or Idolaters or Fornicators or Adulterers at least in heart Mat. 5.28 Or abominable defilers of themselves with mankind or effeminate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.9 10. delicate sost persons or Thieves or Lyers or Extorâ—ioners or Drunkards or Revilers or Murtherers or the like None of which may have any part in the Kingdom of God or of Christ but in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death A death infinitely more dreadful then the bodily Death however inflicted though in the most lingring painful and tormenting manner that ever was devised or heard of being the punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Eph. 5.3 4 5 6. Rev. 21.8 22.15 Mat. 25.41 46. At the best are not men too generally walking and passing their times as our Saviour saith of the old World and of the Sodomites in the days of Noah and Lot in eating and drinking marrying and being given in marriage buying selling building planting with a neglect of the safety of their Souls and yet upon those that so walk Destruction will come as the Flood and Fire did upon the men of those days there mentioned by him Luk. 17.26 27 28. c. Yea what need we further Testimony then that of the Apostle proving all men both Jews and Gentiles to be under Sin Rom. 3.9 19. Their throat is an open Sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of Asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in all their ways and the way of Peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes And whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty or obnoxious to judgment in the sight of God This to the first Point which tends to shew us Vse 1. Our miserable state in our selves that we might be low and little in our own eyes and not lift up our selves and walk either proudly and stoutly as if all were well with us and we in no danger of seeing evil or slothfully and securely in not earnestly looking out for a remedy yea against that it's useful to shew us 2. Our need great need of a Saviour and to inquire diligently after
said He that abideth in him sinneth not He that sinneth wandreth from the way hath neither seen him nor known him 1 Joh. 3.6 Thus the believing on him preserves from perishing from the way whereas they that believe not are apt to perish So 1. Either by running out of the Doctrine and way of truth into false Doctrines and Heresies of Damnation being with specious pretences and appearances presented to them as through want of stable rootedness in Christ and dependance on him the Galatians were in the way to have done and as God oft hath left them to do who believed not the truth but have had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. Either fear of men or desire of their favour or will to be rich or the appearing probability of falshood cause those that believe not in Christ to erre from the faith into by-ways of Judgment 1. Tim. 6.10 2. Or else by running into ways of worldiness uncleanness covetousness discontents and unrighteous practices as the Israelites into lusting after evil things Idolatries Fornication and as Demas that forsook Paul having loved this present World 2 Tim. 4 10. And of both these ways of perishing out of the way the Apostle John warnes the believers in 1 John 2.15 16 17 18 19 c. First of perishing from the way by loving the world or the things of the world the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh or the pride of life ver 15.16 And then of the Deceivers 〈◊〉 and Antichrists when he saith ver 18. Little Children it is the last times and as ye have heard that Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists c. Of whom also he warnes 2 Joh. 8. Look to your selves that we loose not the things that we have wrought And as a preservative against both prescribes the faith of Christ or the believing on him 1 Joh. 2.24 25 28. Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you if that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you ye also shall continue in the Father and in the Son namely so as neither by the love of the world nor by the Antichrists to be drawn out from them and this is the promise which he hath promised eternal life And in 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know that ye have everlasting life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God 2. There is also a perishing in the end and that 's a sad perishing indeed its sad to perish from the way for that also leads to perishing in the end and will end in it unless rich and marvellous grace and mercy prevent but yet by mercy it may be prevented the lost may be found again as is implied and signified in the parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat and the lost child found Luk. 15. The last of which though he lay and perisht with hunger yet came to himself again and being made sensible of it and remembring his Fathers house arose and returned to it So as it 's said of him This my Son was dead but is alive again was lost but is found Namely he was perisht out of the way to happiness but is now brought back into it and found in it again But they that perish in the end are lost for ever as it is said of Amalek His latter end is that he shall perish forever Num. 24.20 There is indeed a perishing in the end in a sence which may be of less mischief yea for mercy Viz. When men perish in the end of their designs and undertakings for that may be in order to their being led to Repentance of such a perishing diverse passages may be understood in which the holy Ghost led his people to pray against their enemies as Let the wicked perish at the presence of God Psal 68.2 Let them be put to shame and perish Psal 83.17 And diverse the like which may possibly be taken in such a charitable as well as in some cases in a harsher sense but to perish in a proper sense as to mens persons in the end is horrible and inconceivably miserable Whether it be 1. At the end of their lives so as their hopes become as the giving up of the Ghost and when they part with their breath their hopes utterly fail them and they go from this life to the dreadful prison to be there reserved against the day of Wrath and then to be brought forth to a worser state of misery and destruction As it is said The Hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be as a Spiders web Job 8.13 14. As it was with the rich man who fâ—red deliciously every day but at his death was carried into Hell there to be tormented till Death and Hell give up their Dead to be judged at the great day as it is said Rev. 20.13 14. Luk. 16.21 26. Or whether it be at the end of the World at the great Judgment when Christ shall sit upon his Throne or Tribunal seat and pass that dreadful Sentence upon the unbelieving Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Whereupon they shall go into everlasting punishment and perish with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power Mat. 25.41 46. 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. To either of which those sentences of the Psalmes about the wickeds perishing may be also applied especially those perishings from their hopes and designes here not awakning them to timely Repentance Indeed it may seem that some that shall perish in that great end of the World the Day of the Lord may not be quite perished from all hope till then by that saying of our Saviour That many shall say at that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonderful works to whom he shall say Depart from me c. As if they should plead at that day with some hope of finding mercy but plain it is that they who believe not on Christ but live and dye in their unbelief shall dye in their sins John 8.24 Their sins unpardoned and fast bound upon them and they bound over to suffer the punishment of them and that in the final Judgment in Soul and Body reunited The fearful and unbelieving shall be cast into the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death An horrible end decreed to the workers of iniquity and such as cannot be expressed and therefore the Apostle Peter saith What shall their end be that obey not the Gospel As implying it to be unutterably miserable 1 Pet. 4.17 But in none of these senses shall the believer on the Son of Man perish Neither in that which is his hope and design as a believer which is the glorifying of God
to no godly edifying Or leading men to walk in a road of Practices Observations and Performances of External duties without the Root the great mystery of godliness the right understanding perception and receit of the grace of God in Christ so as to the renewing them in the Spirit of their mind about which there is in many both Teachers and Professors of Religion exceeding great blindness and thence incertainty and confusion in their apprehensions The labour of the foolish wearying every one of them because they know not the way into the City Eccles 10.15 Much zeal there is and may be about the outward form and time of Baptisme the manner and way of Praying receit of the Supper or Communion Hearing Fasting the times and places of Worship with its Formes and Ceremonies yea and about walking in divers Religious practices when yet inwardly pride and arrogancy confidence in our selves our own frames or works with unbelief and rejection of the Grace and Truth of God Despising Hating and even Persecuting men because differing in their modes and apprehensions Envy Malice Covetousness Fraud and such like things lurk and bear sway underneath And yet men are apt to think all is well with them and incourage themselves and one another to expect Gods Kingdom Crying Peace peace where God speaks not peace and healing the hurts slightly that should be made sound like those in Jeremiahs days that thought their having Gods Temple and Worship among them should secure them from Judgment though their hearts were uncircumcised and their ways and doings naught and unmended But it s good to take heed to sound Doctrine the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his holy ones taught and instructed by him for they spake what they knew and testified what they see not stearing our course by the multitude for so we should be rejecters of the Truth For Christs Doctrine was not so crouded after as to be heartily imbraced by the most for then would he not have said We speak what we know and testifie what we have seen and no man receiveth our testimony wherein after signification of his own and his holy Servants fitness for teaching others and faithfulness in teaching he faults and complains of the too great want of credit to and receit of their faithful teachings by the generality of men which he yet signifyeth to be the more inexcusable because he spake but hitherto of things Earthly or done upon earth and therefore thence argues their greater unfitness and incapacity for Heavenly things more properly and in a fuller sense such If I have told you Earthly things and ye believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of Heavenly v. 12. As implying also his fitness and ability for declaring the heavenly things the things done or to be done in Heaven also Yea and he further signifies his only fitness and sufficiency for declaring them in what he adds viz. when he saith ver 13. And no man hath ascended up into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man who is in Heaven Signifying as his own descent from and yet being in Heaven so that none but He That Son of Man is fit or able to declare the things of Heaven because none else came down thence furnished with the Knowledge of them And whereas Nicodemus might still be more amazed at these intimations of his coming down from Heaven ascending up to Heaven and being in Heaven even while he see and heard him on the Earth speaking to him he adds the words of the Text. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Of which he gives the reason in the next verses For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life c. Whence we may note by the way that Christ did not for Regenerating Nicodemus Preach to him some particular love or special manifestation of it to him more than to others but generally love or grace even the love of God to the World As the Apostle Paul also tells us that that which saved him and others from their natural and sinful state was the appearance of the love and pity of God to mankind Tit. 3.3 4. He saith not it was some peculiar love to them more then to others that was made to appear as the object upon which their eyes and hearts were fastned but the love of God to man more indefinitely and generally And therefore they are not to be heard who rejecting the Testimony of Gods love and grace to mankind and to the World make it their first and main business to Preach special and particular love to some elect and chosen ones as the way to bring Souls in to God Let us follow the way our Saviour hath walked in before us Preach to men Gods good will and love as testifyed to all in general in the gift of Christ and leave it to God to bear testimony to the word of his grace and to work therewith opening their understandings and perswading their hearts to imbrace it and evidencing and bearing witness to them as he who knows their hearts sees good Act. 14.3 15.8 CHAP. II. The words of the Text considered its parts Four main points thence Observed The first point spoken to viz. The Type of the Brazen Serpent lifted up in some brief notes upon it LET us veiw the words themselves which I have chosen to treat on wherein we have 1. The main thing asserted viz. That the Son of Man must be lifted up 2. The manner of it proposed by way of similitude As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up 3. The end of it declared viz. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Eternal Life We may note from the words also these several notes or points 1. That Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness that 's supposed and implied 2. That the Son of Man must be lifted up that 's mainly asserted 3. That this latter must answer to the former The lifting up the Son of Man must answer to the lifting up the Serpent by Moses in the Wilderness As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up 4. That the end of the Son of Mans being so lifted up is That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life To the first Point which is the comparison or that by which the lifting up of the Son of Man is illustrated and set forth viz. Moses his lifting up the Serpent in the Wilderness I shall speak more briefly the other points being more principally intended And in speaking thereto I note 1. The thing set up A Serpent 2. The cause or reason of
night Visions were seen to be brought nigh to the ancient of days to whom the Dominion Glory and Kingdom was given And that phrase because he is the Son of Man in this view of it implies also because of his equity reasonableness sound judgment wisdom and discretion with freedom from all bruitish ignorance self-will unrighteousness cruelty unreasonableness partiality and such other passions and dis-affections as too commonly blind other Governours or persons that exercise Authority Such may be the reasons of Christs being stiled or stiling himself the Son of Man Every of them worthy to be duly considered by us and rightly improved for moving us to love and thankfulness to God High-prizings and ready receit of closing and complying with the Lord Jesus Christ in his addresses to us his gracious calls to and counsels of us turning at his reproofs obeying his commands and submitting to his rule and Government in all things Having hope and confidence in his graciousness who hath shewed such love and respect to us and is so nearly related to yea become one with us But I shall pass on to the remaining particulars now to be considered from this Scripture in hand by us CHAP. V. A twofold sence of the Phrase of lifting up and what is imployed in it in the latter sense especially THE next thing then to be considered by us is That this Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ must be lifted up Concerning which Phrase it is to be minded that it signifies two ways as used in the Scriptures 1. To lift up Is sometimes to take away or so to lift up as to take away by lifting up from the place or station one is set in by putting him to death and so the phrase of lifting up is used in the interpretation of the Dream of Pharoahs chief Baker Where it is said Gen. 40.19 Yet within three days shall Pharoah lift up thine head from off thee and hang thee on a Tree And in ver 20. It is said of Pharoah That he lifted up the head of the chief Baker hanging the chief Baker as Joseph had interpreted ver 22. And in this sense to lift up is to take away more properly by such a death as in which the body is lifted up from the Earth as to be hanged on a Tree And so it s applyed also to our Saviour with respect to his death and the manner of it as the Jews also understood him John 12. For having said And I if I be lifted up will draw all men to me It is added this spake he as signifying what manner of death he should dye As implying That the Phrase of lifting up had respect to his Death and that the Jews understood it of a way of dying is apparent in the next verse where it follows The people answered him we have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever how sayst thou then the Son of Man must be lifted up who is this Son of Man Plainly implying that they understood his words after an use of it in the Syriack Language then frequently or usually spoken by them to import a taking him away by death And then the Evangelistâ— noteâ— in the verse before that this he spake signifying what or what manner of death he should dye may plainly include in it his being hanged on a Tree as Pharoahs chief Butler was in a sort And as Christ is said to have been in his being Crucified Act. 5.30 The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree And the same expression is used by the same Apostle Peter Act. 10.39 And by the Apostle Paul it 's implyed in Acts. 13.29 in saying They took him down from the tree And more plainly in Gal. 3.13 In saying Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us As it is written Cursed is every one that is hanged on a tree Where the same way of punishing that is called by Moses a hanging on the tree is applied to Christs being Crucified Though yet possibly there may be more in that expression signifying what manner of death he should dye Viz. That he should dye as a Sacrifice as a publick propitiatory Sacrifice for us a ransome for all 1 Tim. 2.6 And in this sense Christ was lifted up by men they lifted him up from the Earth so as to take away his life from off the Earth or to cut him off from the Land of the living As the phrase is Isa 53 8. And so it was fore-said by our Saviour John 8.28 When ye have lifted up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self c. Where it is evident that he was to be lifted up in this sense by the Jews For it was the Jews The hands of wicked men that slew him and hanged him on the tree that lifted him up in this sense And in that sense it behoved him to be lifted up even by men that all things written of him might be fulfilled As it is said When they had fulfilled all things written of him they took him down from the Tree That is When they had put him to death the death of the Cross slain him and hanged him on the tree with all the spite and violence against him they used in reviling him giving him Vineger to drink parting his Garments and casting lots on his Vesture piercing him with a Spear in his side c. for all these things were fore-prophesied of him They took him down c. Implying that their so slaying him and putting him to death their hanging him on a tree was written of before and therefore was to be fulfilled for the Scripture cannot be broken as is said by himself John 10.35 That is They must be fulfilled as he also implyed in his saying to Peter Thinkest thou not that I could pray the Father and he would send me more then twelve Legions of Angels But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Mat. 26.54 ver 56. All this was done that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled See also Act. 3.18 Mat. 27.35 With Psal 22.16 69.21 Zech. 12.10 With John 19.34.37 As also he must and ought thus to have been lifted up that the purpose of God might be accomplished For they did herein whatsoever his hand and his counsel had before determined to be done As is said Acts 2.23 4.27.28 That so we might be redeemed from the curse of the Law by his being made a Curse for us as is said Gal. 3.13 Now seeing he was thus lifted up and there was such a necessity for it too this sense of his being lifted up must necessarily if not most directly be here included And to the use of the word lifting up in this sense might be referred the lifting up of the Talent of Lead with the Epha into which it was cast signifying