the Eyes c. which Characters are proper only to that inward and spiritual Sense of the Law that was decyphered upon those outward Signs and Ceremonies Which Sense seems to have been very little taken notice of by the sottish Vulgar for only the Ceremony it self was Matter of Law to them which if they observed they were not punishable by that Law though they never took notice of its spiritual Sense and Meaning which made them neglect that inward Purity which was pictured on those outward Signs and place the whole of their Righteousness in an outside ceremonious Pageantry Hence is that of St. Paul 2 Cor. 3. 13 14 15. I used saith he great plainness of Speech And not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look unto the end of that which is abolished But their Minds were blinded for until this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading the Old Testament which Vail is done away in Christ By which Vail he means those outward Shadows and Types in which the mystical Sense of the Law was wrapt and involved and it seems they were so taken with the Pomp and Gaity of the outside that they never minded that rich Treasure of Sense that was contained within it and which the Apostle here calls the End of that which is abolished yea to this day saith he the Vail of outward Ceremonies stands so much in their Light that they cannot discern the internal Sense of the Old Testament but now saith he it is done away by Christ. Now that the Eternal Word hath pitched his Tabernacle in our Nature those outward Types wherein this inward Purity of Soul was so obscurely intimated are vanished like Clouds before the Sun and in their room are introduced the most pure and spiritual Laws of the Gospel which are no longer couched in Types and Ceremonial Shadows but in plain and naked Propositions Now internal Holiness is palpably declared to be the great Design of Religion that we should cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This therefore is another Instance of Christ's tabernacling among us full of Truth viz. the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws which heretofore he mystically represented to the Iews by outward Rites and Ceremonies 3. Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical Way of his conversing among the Iews is the Condition and Quality of his Church and Kingdom The Eternal Word designing to erect a glorious Kingdom in the World drew as it were a rude Scheme or Draught of it in the Form and Model of the Iewish Polity For first he erects a Kingdom among them of which himself was King to typify that Spiritual Kingdom which afterwards he meant to establish in the World then he adopts the Iews to be his Children by the external Sign of Circumcision who are therefore called a Holy Seed which was an Emblem of that holy Seed which afterwards he designed to beget to himself by spiritual Regeneration which is therefore called the Circumcision of the Heart whose Praise is not of Men but of God His delivering them from the Bondage of Egypt and leading them through the Red-Sea and the Wilderness into Canaan typified his delivering of his future Church from the Bondage of Sin and Satan and leading it by his own gracious Presence through the Red-Sea of Blood and Persecutions and the Wilderness of the World to the Canaan of eternal Rest. His giving the Law on Mount Sinai in Fire was a Figure of his delivering the Gospel by the Spirit which came down in fiery cloven Tongues at the Feast of Penteâ—ost Thus his erecting the Ark in the Wilderness was also another Type of that Spiritual Kingdom which afterwards he meant to erect in the World The divers Ornaments and Instruments of that Tabernacle represented the Diversity of spiritual Gifts and Functions in the Christian Church it s being covered with Skins without and adorned with Gold within shadowed the mean and contemptible Form wherein the Christian Church first appeared to the World notwithstanding the inward Glory and Purity with which it was adorned and embellished The Glory of God appearing in the Tabernacle denoted the Presence of Christ in his Church which he hath promised to continue to the end of the World it s being removed from Place to Place and finding no Rest till it was lodged in the Temple prefigured the persecuted State of the Primitive Church which was hunted up and down the World by the mighty Nimrods of the Earth and could find no Rest till it was transported to the Heavenly Temple By these and such like Types and Shadows did the Eternal Word prefigure the State and Condition of his future Church that so when it came to be erected in the World the Iews might know and own it having seen it before-hand so exactly decyphered and adumbrated in the very Frame and Model of their own Polity But when he came to tabernacle in our Nature he gave actual Being to those Things which before he only shadowed and represented for then he erected this glorious Church of which the Iewish was only a Model and Platform delivered it from the Egyptian Bondage of Wickedness and Idolatry and by his own glorious Presence conducted the Members of it through all the Persecutions of an enraged World to the Canaan of eternal Rest and therefore this also is another plain Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth the State and Condition of his Church which before was so obscurely represented 4. And lastly Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure and typical Way of his conversing among the Iews is the glorious Recompences which he hath so plainly and clearly promised to his Subjects For this he also obscurely typified to the Iews for as I have already hinted by that Canaan which he bestowed upon them after their tedious Travel through the Wilderness he did darkly represent to them that Canaan above flowing with infinite Delights which he hath promised to bestow upon his faithful Servants after they have pass'd through the Wilderness of this World So also by their Sabbaoths and especially their Year of Iubilee wherein they were to rest from all their Labours and keep a perpetual Festivity He did obscurely decypher to them that Sabbaoth of Rest and Iubilee of endless Pleasure which vertuous Souls shall enjoy in Heaven after they have finished their Labours here on Earth as you may see at large Heb. 4. Now by these and such like Shadows of their Law which possibly the Prophets by Divine Inspiration might expound to them those who were wise and good among them it is very probable were instructed in the Article of eternal Life Hence it may be might arise that famous Controversy among the Iews concerning the Written and Oral
altogether consists in serving your selves but to disobey so dear a Friend to whom we are obliged by such stupendous Favours when he enjoins us nothing but the Means of our own Happiness is such a Piece of monstrous and unnatural Baseness as the Devil himself can hardly parallel O unkind that we are that we will not be good to our selves for our Saviour's sake and that when he conjures us to it as he doth even by all the Love that we owe him For so Iohn 14. 15. If ye love me saith he keep my Commandments Consider what mighty things I have done for you how I left my Throne in Heaven for your sakes and became a miserable mortal Man And now that I am going from you and am offering up my Life to redeem you if ever I have merited any Love at your hands express it in keeping my Commandments 'T is no great matter that I require of you 't is only that you would be kind to your selves that you would let Misery alone and endeavour to be as happy as Heaven can make you This is all the Requital that I expect at your hands that you would be as good and happy as I would have you and this which is the sum of all my Commands I conjure you strictly to observe even by all the Love that you owe me O blessed Iesus one would have thought thou hadst been requiring some mighty Trial of our Love to thee that we should do some great Thing for thee to which nothing could prompt us but only our Gratitude and Kindness But when thou only requirest us to express our Love to thee in doing that which is the highest Expression of our Love to our selves can we be so disingenuous as not to do that for thy sake to whom we are so infinitely obliged which we are bound to do for our own sakes as well as thine 5. And lastly Hence I infer what a glorious Thing it is to do Good since the Son of God having so great an Opportunity of doing Good to the World thought it worth his While to come down from Heaven and assume our Natures and undergo our Miseries as if he esteemed it more glorious and becoming the Majesty and Divinity of his Person to dwell upon Earth with poor miserable Mortals among whom he might do the greatest Good than to sit above upon the Throne of Heaven and receive the most humble Adorations of Angels for 't was only for an Opportunity of doing the greatest Good that he exchanged the Glory and Happiness of Heaven chusing rather to become a miserable Man to make others good and happy than to continue among those infinite Delights with which the Heavenly State abounds What a most glorious Thing then is it to do Good when our most wise Redeemer chose it before Heaven it self when he thought it more eligible to come down upon Earth and make us happy than to dwell in the Bosom of his Father and shine in Heaven with the Brightness and Glory of his Divinity And if there be nothing in Heaven so glorious as doing Good what is there upon Earth that may be compared unto it What dim what sullied Things are all the Pomps and Splendors of this World compared with the Glory of doing Good to others when God preferred it before Heaven it self To conquer Kingdoms to lead the World in Triumph after us how mean and inconsiderable are they compared with that Glory which the Son of God forsook meerly to do Good to the World A Thing which he esteemed so great and illustrious that he did not only leave Heaven for it but scorned and despised the Kingdoms of the Earth finding nothing below that was worthy of him but only to go about doing Good For this was his constant Imployment as you may see Acts 10. 21. And now is it possible that after this great Example we should think Beneficence a cheap or vulgar Thing Can we think it a Dishonour to stoop to the meanest Offices whereby we may serve the Souls or Bodies of our Brethren when the Son of God came down from Heaven and vailed his Glory in mortal Flesh for no other End but to do Good O foolish Creatures that we are did we but understand and consider what a magnificent Thing it is to supply the Necessities of Men and contribute to their Happiness we should doubtless embrace it as our greatest Preferment and think our selves bound to bless God for ever for furnishing us with Occasions of doing Good that he doth deem us worthy of such an illustrious Imployment to have some share with himself in the Glory of it that he will vouchsafe to us an Opportunity to honour and magnify our selves by acting this Divine this Godlike Part in the World Never then let us think that we dishonour our selves though we stoop never so low when it is to do Good no though it be to visit a Beggar to dress the Sores of a poor Lazar to instruct or comfort the meanest Wretch in all thy Neighbourhood For now thou actest the Part of God in doing the most glorious Thing in all the World a Thing for which the greatest Princes may envy thee and the blessed God for ever applaud thee Now thou art doing that which the Son of God came down from Heaven to do and which he thought more worthy of his Choice than to reign over Angels in Heaven So that either we must say that He was unwise for preferring it before Heaven or else we must acknowledge that we are infinitely foolish in preferring any Thing in the World before it II. I now proceed to the Second Proposition And dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth For that these later Words full of Grace and Truth belong to the former And dwelt among us you may plainly see by the Parenthesis in your Bible by which they are interrupted and broken off from one another In the Explication of these Words I shall do these Two Things 1. Enquire what is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us 2. What we are to understand by his being full of Grace and Truth 1. What is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he pitched his Tabernacle among us which seems plainly to refer to God's dwelling in the Tabernacle under the Mosaic Law For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes immediately from the Hebrew Shacan and differs from it only by the Greek Termination and from Shacan comes the word Shechinah by which the Hebrews were wont to express God's glorious Presence upon Earth and especially his Habitation in the holy Tabernacle between the two Cherubims where he is said to dwell 1 Sam. 4. 4. and 2 Sam. 6. 2. because from thence God was wont to speak and discover himself by a visible Brightness and Glory And accordingly this Presence or Habitation of God is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Customs derived from the Heathens in Compliance with the Iews or Prohibitions of those magical and idolatrous Customs in which the Iews had been educated in Egypt and to which they were always very prone and inclinable So that merely to comply with the Iews in what was innocent and to restrain them in what was hurtful and idolatrous the Eternal Word was fain to impose a vast number of Positive Laws upon them which contained nothing but what was purely indifferent and might have been done or undone without any Prejudice to the Eternal Rules of Goodness And accordingly Ezek. 20. 24 25. it is said that because their Eyes were after their Fathers Idols therefore God gave them Statutes that were not good that is had no intrinsick Goodness in them and Iudgments whereby they should not live And that God imposed these Things not as good in themselves but as accommodated to the present State and Temper of the Israelites is evident from what the Psalmist says Ps. 51. 16. Thou desirest not Sacrifiâ—e thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings though it is evident he had a farther End in imposing very many of these sacred Rites namely to shadow out by them the Mysteries of the Gospel and give them some preludious Hints of that glorious Kingdom of Christ that was afterwards to be established in the World But by this means the Iewish Law was multiplied into so many Precepts and those many of them so expensive and burthensom that the Apostle calls it a Yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. and else where a Yoke of Bondage Gal. 5. 1. Thus while the Eternal Word tabernacled among the Iews his Laws were very rigid and cumbersom being clogg'd with so vast a number of positive Rites and Observances But when he came to tabernacle in our Flesh he abolished all these numerous Ceremonies and imposed nothing upon the World but what is sweet and easy and full of Grace And hence himself tells us Matth. 11. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Yoke is gracious for so it is in the Greek and my Burthen is light for it imposes nothing upon us but what is most agreeable to our rational Natures nothing but what we our selves if we were wise and good should reckon our selves obliged to though he had never enjoined it For all the Duty he requires of us results immediately from the Frame of our Natures and the unalterable Relations we stand in to God and the World For the Sum of all Christian Duty is contained in those three Generals to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World and these must necessarily oblige us so long as we carry such Beings about us and continue in such Relations Whilst God is our God and Creator we cannot be disobliged from living godly that is from honouring and loving him from fearing and trusting in him from serving and adoring him for unless we could destroy our Relation to him and cease to be his Creatures the Dueness of these Acts of Homage and Worship from us to him must necessarily abide for ever Whilst we continue to be reasonable Animals we cannot be freed from the Obligation of Sobriety which consists in governing our Passions and Appetites by our Reason for till we can lay by our Reason which is the superiour Principle of our Nature and step into another Form of Beings it will be always fit that our inferiour Powers should be subject to its Conduct and Government Whilst we continue in the Society of Men and are Members of the Body of Mankind we cannot be released from the Tyes of Righteousness which contains in it Charity and all other sociable Virtues and till we cease to be related to Mankind it can never cease to be reasonable for us to do what becomes our Relation that is to be just benign and charitable to one another So that all that the Word incarnate hath enjoined us is to do what we our selves must needs acknowledge is most just and reasonable and what we should choose to do before any thing in the World were we not prejudiced against it by our own base Lusts and unreasonable Passions So that in respect of those gracious Laws he gave us whilst he dwelt among us he may well be said to dwell among us full of Grace 3dly He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of that full Pardon and Remission which he hath granted to Sinners in his Gospel in Contradistinction to that partial and incompleat Pardon which he gave when he tabernacled among the Iews For whilst the Eternal Word as his Father 's Representative reigned over the Nation of Israel he gave no other Pardon but temporal by the Law of Moses which was the Rule and Instrument of his Government And I 'm sure that from the 20th of Exod. to the 27th of Deut. in which compass that whole Law is comprized there is not the least mention of any other Pardon or Forgiveness allowed to Offenders but only what respects their temporal Punishment nay in some Cases this was not allowed as particularly in the Cases of Blasphemy Idolatry and Murther no not though they heartily repented of it For all that Pardon which the Mosaick Law allowed was indulged to them upon their offering up Propitiatory Sacrifices which in these exempted Cases were not allowed of but yet the Apostle tells us of all these Sacrifices in general that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats could not take away Sin Heb. 10. 4. that they did sanctify only to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 7. 13. that they could not make him that did the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9. 9. that is that they only released Offenders from the Obligation to Civil and Ecclesiastical Punishments but could by no means free them from the eternal Punishments of the other Life Not that I make the least Doubt but that truly penitent Offenders were forgiven the eternal Punishment then as well as now and forgiven too for the sake of Iesus Christ the Lamb that was intentionally slain from the Beginning of the World but by what hath been said it's plain they were not forgiven by Virtue of that Law whereby the Eternal Word reigned over the House of Israel but rather by Virtue of that Gospel which was first preached to Adam and afterwards to the Patriarchs wherein Christ the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of Abraham is promised in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed 'T is true the Sacrifices of the Law were typical of the Sacrifice of Christ and so consequently was that temporal Pardon obtained by them typical of that eternal Pardon which we do obtain by the great Propitiation of our Saviour for so the Apostle tells us that the Law had in it a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. But we must not imagine that eternal Remission which is the Effect of Christ's real Sacrifice could ever be obtained by