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
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
them they are come to is to Mount Sion of which for the clearer comprehension of the Apostles meaning by it some things may be particularly considered of that Mount as it stood circumstanced under the Law and this in especial that the great Honour that is put upon it in Scripture is principally with respect to the Temple that then stood upon the top of it and which was meant and signified by it this was the place whither all the Males were to come three times a Year and the solemn part of all the Jewish Worship could be no where else performed and their private Worship where ever they were at home or abroad upon Solomon's request to God at the first dedication of it was generally directed towards this place This we may see in the case of Jonah who in the Whale's Belly thought of directing his Prayer towards this Holy Temple and the Prophet Daniel when it was pulled down and lay in Rubbish prayed even then towards it three times a day as we see in the 6th of Daniel This Temple placed upon Mount Sion was the only sanctified House where the mighty God was pleased to take up his dwelling since the World began the Tabernacle was small and ambulatory and but preparative to this glorious sanctified solemn Fabrick the City of Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan were only holy relatively and upon collateral accounts the City with reference to the Temple the place of God's residence but the Temple was inherently Holy made so by God's own dedication and descent into it at the first this was the place where day and night God was served without ceasing according to his own ordination and therefore he is said to love it above all the dwelling places of Jacob. Here the long expected Messiah the Son of God Christ himself was brought and all that the Law required performed about â—im in this Sacred House But sure we are the Apostle intended nothing literal about this Mount his drift is wholly spiritual and therefore having premised thus much of the literal typical State of this Mount we must now examine what it means in this place and as it lyes in the comparison and the sense intended seems very obvious by Mount Sion the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God the same thing is intended and this is the meaning ye are come to all that was typified by them and all that was promised on the Churches behalf to them to every Promise made to the Church under those denominations which is no other but the Gospel-state and the blessed Priviledges and Administrations thereof in its fulness and glory the Apostle declares the meaning of these places to be spiritual and neither of private interpretation nor literal signification that the Jews might cease doting upon them in that low and mean sense and might be convinced that the Gospel vertually contains all that was excellent in them Mount Sion as was before said had its value from the Temple that stood upon it and therefore when the Gospel is prophesied of by it 't is said the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains Now instead of this material Temple every Christian under the Gospel is himself a living Temple of the Holy Ghost a Temple wherein God dwells and all spiritual Worship and Service is continually offered up and the whole Church is one intire living Temple wherein God is always spiritually served so 't is expressed in the 2d of Ephes Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord And he that is arrived at this true Gospel-state and all the glorious Enjoyments of it to have access to the Father through the Son by that one Spirit he is come to the true Mount Sion and the real Temple where God will dwell for ever he abides in the nearest access to God he is capable of and in all those holy and sanctified Qualifications which the Temple signified as it was then the Seat and Center of all the true Worship of God The second thing the Apostle tells the Jews they are come to is the heavenly Jerusalem the City of the living God and although the signification of this is the same with Mount Sion yet it is greatly farthering to the Apostle's design the mention of it that so the Jews might think nothing valuable amongst them was lost but all to be found with great advantage in the profession of the Gospel the whole Religion of that National Church of the Jews being contained in this City and therein vertually comprised the whole state of the Gospel The Catholick Church with great reason and signification under the Gospel every where spread and under no confinement is stiled a City and is called Jerusalem a vast difference there was between coming to that dreadful barren Mount Sinai in the Wilderness of Horeb and the City of the living God Several things are considerable in this City to heighten the comparison taking it to be made either with Mount Sinai or Jerusalem literal 1st The Noble and Honourable Government of this City 'T is governed by the great Charter of the Gospel none have any Rule but the living God himself no Laws are in force here but what come from Christ's own Mouth the Gospel Church is built up and managed as the Temple was which was the soul and glory of this City in every particular by God's own punctual direction and there is his delight there his Soul rests where he is served by Laws of his own composing and enacting 2dly This City is a place of invincible strength and security the Jews knew to their cost the earthly Jerusalem was not so here 's the Mount Sion that cannot be moved the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it 't is sure to remain against all opposition till it be safely taken up into Heaven from whence it came 3dly The Inhabitants of it are all united 't is a City compact together not with carnal and earthly but spiritual Ligaments there is such an union in it as God has chosen and takes pleasure in amidst great variety they have but one Head they all minister under him as fellow-citizens for the good of each other they are all guided and animated by one Spirit and they all tend to one and the same end 4thly 'T is a City of wonderful Beauty the City of the great King the Palace of the living and eternal God as the Psalmist says comprehensively and prophetically of it under the name of Sion Beautiful for scituation is mount Sion the joy of the whole earth this Beauty lyes in the Presence of God and in its Sanctity and in that Image and Superscription of God that it
and super-exceeding Excellency of the Doctrine published and delivered the Gospel in the very kind and constitution of it utterly exceeding all the Dispensations of God that ever preceded it being the very natural genuine and proper Issue and Product of them all Divine Revelations since the World began tended to Christ and the Gospel as their ultimate End and Center Although God had by sundry Ways and by divers Persons both Angels and Men at several times distinctly declared his Mind to the World yet he never before spake by his Son this is the Memorial of the Gospel throughout all Generations that it was first published by the Lord and after confirmed by those that heard him it came first from the Oracle of his Sacred Mouth and was sanctified by his most Blessed Lips and upon that account well may it be called as it is in the 1st of Timothy The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 'T is true that all former Divine Revelations brought to us either by the Ministry of Angels or Men were the Voice of God and had him for their Author but herein lyes the peculiarity of the Gospel Glory above them all that now he speaks to us without any intermediate Instrument personally Himself in his Son he comes Himself from Heaven Tabernacles in Humane Flesh becomes Emanuel converseth with us and speaks Face to Face with us in our own Nature Let us with an Holy Astonishment as Moses said in another case turn aside and view this great Sight and cry out with the Psalmist in Holy Admiration Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldest so visit him and consider deeply what infinite condescention was this that when nothing else would serve to recover the lost World God comes from Heaven himself to treat with us about our recovery so that no man can now reasonably say who shall ascend into Heaven to instruct us from thence or who shall fetch Divine Knowledge beneath from the Deeps for all that we need to know and all that we can know is brought home to our Dores is put into our Hearts and into our Mouths by God himself in the fashion of a Man and like to us in all things sin only excepted Two things the Apostle seems to insinuate in his very first entrance and the beginning of this Epistle God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son First That it was the same God that spake now that spake before by Moses and the Prophets and so prevents their taking prejudice against the Gospel as if it came from any other hand than the God of Israel or were built upon any other Foundation than Moses and the Prophets And Secondly That God speaking now by his Son we may reasonably expect to hear more than ever was yet known and all that we are like ever to know by way of Revelation from above such a Person as He may well be supposed to bring down all God's Errand to the World at once he has none greater to send by and upon that account it is that the Gospel times are called in Scripture the last times because no more Revelation is to be expected If we consider Christ as he is God he is exalted far above all Heavens and beyond all reach of Comparisons if we consider him in that conjunction as he was Man even in that state he is Heir of all things he is the First-born of every creature and in all things has the pre-eminence he exceeds the noblest of creatures the Angels those glorious Spirits who in their very make and constitution were nearest of kin of all others to their Creator and are called Elohim a sort of Gods for God never said unto any of them thou art my Son this day speaking both of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection have I begotten thee but at the Son 's first arrival in the World to give an eternal Instance of his Divinity he commands all the Angels of God to worship him and to worship him with the greatest Prostration and Adoration imaginable for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used upon this occasion intimates That the Apostle should treat so much when he is dealing with the Jews of the Preference of Christ above the Angels we may well conceive when we consider that he himself in this Epistle declares that the Law was the Word spoken by the Angels and Gal. 3. says that it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator not as if this were to be taken as Grotius and some learned men have conceived that the Law upon Mount Sinai was originally given forth by a created Angel there for it was most certainly published authoritatively by God himself there present nor is it any where said to be originally given forth by Angels but to be spoken by them and given forth by their Manage and Ministry In the 68th Psalm we are told The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of thousands the Lord is among them as in Sinai by which 't is evident enough the glorious and eternal Jehovah was there personally present after a very peculiar and eminent manner And in Stephen's last Sermon he tells the Jews in that Historical Recapitulation of their whole Affairs that they had received the Law by the disposition of Angels and had not kept it So that the meaning is the delivery of the Law was by the Ministration of Angels and their ordering of things upon Mount Sinai though it was uttered by God himself but the delivery of the Gospel is singly by the Ministry of the Son of God in person And when we are told the Law was the Word spoken by Angels and that it was ordained by Angels it is in this sense and no other to be understood and well may it be so stiled if we reflect upon these several things 1st The whole heavenly Hoast of Angels those glorious Guards of Spirits that attend the Eternal Jehovah were all there present in a solemn and particular manner such as we no where else read of in their courses and order to execute what their Supream Lord came about and beholding with wonder and admiration the Wisdom of the Supream Legislator in giving forth those wise Laws to the World upon which the legal Dispensation was chiefly founded which was the reason perhaps made them so earnest afterwards to look down into the Gospel Dispensation having seen so much of the legal and been such Actors in it and behold the glory of that for by it the Apostle tells us expresly the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto them and by beholding the second Person incarnate they saw somewhat more of Heaven upon Earth then they could see in Heaven it self 2dly It was by the Ministry of Angels that those prodigious Terrors were effected by which the People were so
aw'd and taught to reverence the Law God raised by them the Smoak and the Fire at Mount Sinai 3dly It was they that shook and rent the Rock 4thly It was they that sounded the Trumpet And 5thly from the consideration of which the great Emphasis of the Apostle's Speech chiefly ariseth 't was they framed and effected the articulate Voices and Words from God by which he spake to the People and by which the Law was conveyed to their Ears that is the Angels received the Law from God's Mouth and uttered it by Sounds and Expressions to the People and thereby became so the publishers of the Law as that it is truly and very properly called the word spoken by Angels and may be very significantly said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator 'T will be a thing in its nature most instructing and full of the greatest spiritual delight and satisfaction to consider over the Apostles first Point those glorious Excellencies of Christ that are appertainant unto him by which he hath the preference of all that went before him and by which he is infinitely exalted beyond what ever can possibly succeed him and therefore a Revelation made and a Religion setled by him must needs with the supreamest Authority command our utmost obedience First he informs us of two transcendent supereminent and unparalled Qualifications of this glorious Person by whom God now speaks first that he hath appointed him Heir of all things and secondly that by him he made the Worlds The first of these relates chiefly to his Assumption of the Humanity and as he is Man this is an eternal statute of the Trinity that the second Person humbling himself to become Man and assuming the Humane Nature to the Divine as he was Man should be Heir of the whole Creation and inherit as a Prince and a Saviour all created Supremacy and Glory and therefore he himself often affirms in St. John that all authority and judgment is given unto him upon this very account because he is the Son of Man a Title only given to him in Scripture by himself and by no other and another expression of the Seed of the Woman that very Humane Nature that look'd so meanly and was such a stumbling-block to the Faith of the Jews and the Philosophy of the Gentils had annexed unto it the Lordship and Dominion of all this could not simply belong to the Humane Nature in it self but was by Divine Ordination of the Father by him of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named and therefore the Apostle saith that God has appointed him heir of all things and by this insinuates to the Jews that if he were Heir of all things then has he power in the Church to alter and settle what Religion he pleaseth dispose of their Ecclesiastick Fabrick as he thought good and that if they did intend to keep those eminent and peculiar Priviledges they had above the rest of the World they must own him and enjoy all from him and under him because God has ordained him Heir of all things But the second is that I shall chiefly insist on by which the Apostle inculcates his Divinity that by him God made the worlds this is a discovery that at first view seems rather to stupifie and amuse the Object so far exceeding the Faculty than any way to encourage us to contemplate or enquire or farther to think over this matter nor can any one Meditation about it be drawn from any other Topick than pure Revelation this is a great Oracle let fall from Heaven for the instruction of the Church and we must with all humble and thankful adoration enquire how far the Holy Ghost has inform'd us in this matter and not farther gaze lest we lose our selves in vain fruitless and unbecoming Speculations By whom also he made the worlds By the Worlds is not meant as some have conceived several Successions of the same World but 't is meant in the sense the Jews took the word to whom the Apostle accommodates himself and they reckoned upon three Worlds that above of Angels and Spirits that beneath them of Sun Moon and Stars and this inferior World in which we converse the Apostles drift is to shew that what was any where created was created and made by him and that according to St. John without him was nothing made that was made and this appears to be his meaning from Col. 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible By whom not as a created instrument any way inferior to himself so it cannot be taken for we are told by Sr. John that the word by which all things were made was in the beginning with God and was God but by him as his own eternal Word Wisdom and Power that is to say the making of the World was an act peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity and the whole Deity in making the World acted by the second Person for 't is not said absolutely that Christ made the World but God by him which notifies to us the order of working in the Trinity and the distinct subsistence and operations of the persons and not bare instrumentality True it is that the act of each Person in the Trinity is in some sense the act of all the three yet by the Trinity a threefold Record is said to be born in Heaven and distinct acts are applied to each of the three and God does appear to us under distinct actings in the same eternal and blessed Essence by that threefold Record To make this deep and important Point as plain and overt as we can the best way is to view over those Scriptures where the Holy Ghost treats most expresly touching this matter St. John begins his Gospel with a great discovery of it In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Apostle's design in this Gospel is evidently to begin it with the Divinity and Godhead of Christ as the rest had begun theirs with the Original and History of his Humanity and Incarnation and this Declaration of his Divinity must needs be very short for no man can write a History of God or make any Narrative of his Eternal Existence the Apostle therefore in a few words tells us all that was needful and proper to be told about his Divinity and all that could be known about the Man Christ Jesus as he was God In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning 't is an allusion to what Moses says about the Creation In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth that is before any thing created was extant and so here St. John says In the beginning was the word
all the Persons upon Earth is fingled out for it and he is told of God that in him all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed and this is called after in Scripture the blessing of Abraham being first pronounced to him which is the Blessing of the Messiah nor is any thing more particularly revealed touching the Messiah before his actual coming save that out of the numerous Posterity of Abraham one particular Tribe is singled out and one Family of that Tribe and 't is declared that Christ should come of the Tribe of Judah and of the House and Lineage of David That the Covenant of Grace was established with Abraham is plain from what the Apostle says Gal. 3. v. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying in thee shall all nations be blessed which must needs be the Gospel because it refers to all Nations what particularly belong'd to the Jews went no farther than that Nation and the same Apostle in his grand Dispute with the Jews about Justification proves the Gospel-Method of Justification to be the true Method because Abraham was justified that way and was of more antiquity than the Law taking the Law for the whole Jewish oeconomy from the original of it for the first beginning of that was Circumcision and Abraham was justified in a Gospel-way that is had Righteousness imputed to him before he was circumcised and Circumcision was to him but a Seal of the Righteousness which he had being yet uncircumcised from whence the Apostle infers that Righteousness came not by the Law nor the Operations thereof but by Faith this was the first instance this of Abraham's in which we find any Man in Scripture justified and 't was intended to be an Instance of God's future and final Justification of Believers both Jews and Gentiles under the Gospel to the World's end and that the Law in the complex Notion of it was only a School-master to conduct and lead Men to Christ is very evident because both the Covenants were made with Abraham and the Gospel-Covenant had the precedence and the other though first in actual execution was in its nature but declarative and expressive of it and conductive to it and very proper and signifying it was that Christ should come from the Loins of Abraham who stood related to God as a publick person not only the natural Father of the Jew but the spiritual Father of all the faithful both Gentiles and Jews for although Christ as concerning the Flesh came of the Jews who were a holy enclosure unto God and under his own peculiar Regiment and it was a singular advantage to them to have it so and in some respect it was absolutely necessary that it should be so that so he might be born under the Law and under an obligation to all the righteousness of the legal Dispensation which he came to fulfil and might be a Minister of the Circumcision as the Apostle speaks for the truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers yet he came as a publick Person in no sort confin'd to the Jewish Nation but equally related to all Mankind and therefore we find that one of the Evangelists derives his Pedegree from Adam From a triumvirate of Divine Favorites Men highly beloved of God and of great Heavenly Renown Heirs of all the Promises for Isaac and Jacob inherited all the Blessings of Abraham this People had their Original in those three God did not only epitomize his future gracious Proceedings with the World in the Covenant of his Grace and as it were appropriate himself to that triumvirate as their peculiar property by stiling himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob but so far honours them after death and when they had left this World as throughout all Generations to set forth the blessed state of the saved by their sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven as if the very Company and Presence of those blessed Patriarchs to whom the Promises of Life and Salvation through the Messiah were first personally made would add much to our happiness there and as if their state above were the utmost felicity any could hope for or attain to for these Fathers sake of theirs they are to this day beloved of God and God owes them for what he promises he owes and intends them a kindness as shall be shewn hereafter for their sakes for as in those three the natural and the promised and spiritual Seed did both inhere and concenter so at last their natural Seed according to the Flesh shall also become Heirs of the Promise and the reason of it we have from St. Paul because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance The Consideration of three things will let us into a right account of that People First That God did intend by the impalement of them to himself to put in his Claim to the World generally run quite away from him into gross Idolatry the Worship of the Sun and other parts of the Creation and become Subjects of that Kingdom set up by the fallen Angels against him by this to challenge a part of the work of his hands and to have some select part of the World ruled and governed by Laws and Institutions of his own ordaining the great tendency of which were to prevent and over-rule that fatal miscarriage of Mankind in worshipping the Creature instead of the Creator and placing an Idol in the room of the true God and therefore throughout the whole Mosaical Institution there is a sacred Antiparistasis against Idolatry a total contradiction in every Ceremony of the Jewish Worship to it and the whole so contrived as to make that People utterly seperate themselves from the Sins of the Nations in that particular and to bring them up with the utmost detestation of it One constant Memorial of himself in a most eminent manner God by his Law placed amongst them which was the observance of the Sabbath intended as a constant weekly Memorandum against Idolatry and to put them in mind who it was that made the Heavens and the Earth and rested the seventh day from the works of his hands and upon this account it pleased God that Idolatry and breach of the Sabbath had the same punishment And as the Laws and Constitutions of this People were thus framed to secure them against Idolatry so the providential dealings of God with them all along tended this way God himself undertaking the particular charge and government of them which necessarily made them a Church and a State conjoyned together and exercising that government in such a way as might be expected from such a Soveraign and might in the highest manner oblige them to their obedience to him by mighty and open-face discoveries of himself by stupendious Miracles amazing Signs and Wonders and by an out-stretched Arm of Power subduing all
their Enemies before them that People above all others might utter that Expression Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy doings and supplying them also with whatever they stood in need of and at last setling them in a Land that was the glory of all Lands and a Land for which God cared continually and had his eye ever upon it to make it fruitful their Story in Egypt their Travels in the Wilderness and their Possession at last of the Land of Canaan with the various Events that befel them there are the profoundest and most stupendious part of all History and the greatest outward and visible Declaration of the mighty Soveraignty that is above that has been yet made since the World began Secondly God by taking the Government of this handful of People into his own hand and vouchsafing to be their peculiar Legislator first did intend a publick Instruction and Information to the rest of the World besides and therefore he himself declares to them that the Nations round about them should admire their wise Laws and that proceeded so far and was so far verified that the whole Body of the Jewish Laws Moses and the Prophets was by Ptolemy King of Egypt translated into the Greek Tongue the most universal Language at that time and so the greatest part of the World became conversant with it and it proved a marvellous providential Preparative for the Conversion of the Gentiles 't was easie Prejudice removed to perceive the difference between the religious Worship and Service of the true God and the superstitious Follies of Idolatry between a devout serving the Maker and Preserver of all things and the doting folly of adoring nothing for such is an Idol in the Apostle's sense though it be materially a piece of Stone or Wood or some such thing yet 't is nothing of that for which 't is taken to be and so is truly and vertually nothing And their Constitution was so framed that any Man might become a proselite and incorporate himself into that Religion that became convinced of the excellency of it Secondly This National Constitution was intended to prepare the World for that universal Law of the Gospel which was to be published in due time and that two ways First By being a standing Monument and constant Memorial of the true God and his Worship and a Preservative of the Notices thereof And secondly As it contained in its Bowels a discovery that the Gospel was that Blessing wherewith God intended to bless the World from the beginning and being it self a Witness upon Record to it The third thing to conduct us into a right Notion of this People is to consider that the Scripture informs us that God's whole transaction with this People was in a great measure with design to signifie things that should be spoken of after they are set forth we are told for Examples and Types they were in their very constitution the shadow of somewhat to come but not the thing it self In finding out therefore the divine signification of this People we shall come to the truest and best comprehension of them The first and great design of God by them was to make way for the Messiah to make them Harbingers for him not only in reserving them distinct from the World that Christ might receive his Humanity from that People and proceed from them and so from Abraham according to the flesh but that the offering up of himself as a Sacrifice for the World and the necessity and perfection thereof might be signified thereby the whole ceremonial Law was but a preparative Scene for the Gospel the end of it was Christ's offering up himself and to declare this great truth that no Humane Offerings not the First-born of Mens Bodies if God had required it would make a sufficient Attonement for the Sins of their Souls but that a better Offering was necessary to reconcile God and the World the Law of the Ten Commandments the end of it was Christ the Apostle tells us Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness and Righteousness was the great end of the Law and so Christ must needs be the end of it we are expresly told the law written in stone is done away and it is now only in force as part of the Law natural and as re-established by Christ and made part of the new Law of Grace and obliges upon the terms thereof Two great ends there were in it 1st To discover Sin and thereby the absolute necessity of a Saviour 2dly To restrain it until Christ's actual coming and the commencement of the Gospel In both respects it was added because of Transgression and was but a Schoolmaster still to teach us the Gospel-Lesson and bring us to Christ Secondly God in the depths of his infinite and unfathomable Councels determining with himself that few in respect of the body and bulk of Mankind should be finally and eventually saved gave this instance of it at first in separating but a small handful of People to himself in respect of the Nations of the Earth and making his part and peculiar to consist but of a few 't is not to be doubted but that the inherent Attribute of Grace and Goodness in God is rendred more transparent to Men than any of the other yet so it pleased infinite Wisdom to order it that the manifestation of it should lye in the quality of the salvation rather than in the quantity saved the Righteousness of God in dealing with all Men will be like the great Mountains but his Judgments herein are like the great Deeps the People of the Jews were in their constitution truly Types and Representatives of the Saints and the saved Church and many very many of them were personally of that number but they had all of them not one excepted that signification appurtenant to them and literally and typically those Qualifications 1st They were chosen of God and separated from the rest of the World and called out to be his peculiar Treasure 2dly They were devoted and dedicated unto God and had received his mark in their flesh 3dly They enjoy'd the worship of the true God and all divine priviledges 4thly Whatever they possessed they owed it to Gods free donation even their temporal inheritances in the land of Canaan Now take these things in their true and spiritual sense and they are the perfect Constitution of a true and sincere Believer under the Gospel Thirdly By the whole Transactions of God with this People this general Intimation was given to the World That no outward Administrations though of the most advantagious Circumstances and accompanied with the most prevailing Motives no Miracles no extraordinary Operations no Prophets no Divine Oracles whatever would reduce Men to their obedience to God and such a conformity to him as is absolutely necessary to make them Happy unless there went together with it some Divine Efficacy to change the faculties of Mens minds and make a Man inwardly another
carefully with tears Which is in other words to say take great heed least any of you Apostatize from the Christian Doctrine to Judaism and that by such example many others be seduced to do the like For in so doing you will resemble profane Esau who so easily as upon the pressure of a little temporary hunger and the relief of one poor meal sold his birthright and primogeniture upon which God had entailed the Priesthood and the Dominion of the Family the double portion and the blessing of the Covenant for so long as God was served within private walls and before the Tabernacle and Temple were erected to the first born was appurtenant the Priesthood and the right of performing all Holy and sacred Ministrations before the Lord and upon these accounts the Apostle calls him Profane Esau the apostatizing Jews would resemble him and that in a twofold respect 1st Because the Gospel that contained all the glorious priviledges was their peculiar birth-right the promises being made originally as we are told in the 9th of the Romans to them Christ came of them and first offered himself to them and the Gospel was preached in the first place to the Jews and tender'd to them as their particular Right before it reached the Gentiles 2dly If out of the impatience of some Temporary persecution and to obtain some present worldly ease and repose they should quit and forsake the Gospel they would become like prophane Esau who despised all his Spiritual Priviledges to satisfie his present appetite and sold them for so mean a carnal advantage as one poor meal Before we come to a distinct consideration of each particular of the Apostles comparison and for the clearer understanding of it some things may be previously noted First We have here set forth how much more Honourable the call of a Christian is then that of a Jew and how much greater and nobler attainments we arrive at by the Gospel then ever the Jews could pretend to by the Law And this is done First Negatively By shewing that we are past and not come to those lower and more terrene Dispensations and Methods of the Law but we are come to all the wonderful priviledges and advantages of the Gospel it has been God's way from the Beginning to proceed gradually in the Reveration of his love and good will to the World and still to advance farther and farther in discoveries of himself and in methods of Grace till at last the intercourse between God and Man upon the assumption of the Human Nature to the Divine is as near as it can be and Men come to have access to God in the manner the Apostle tells us Eph. 2. ver 18. For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father which is to Worship in the Grace Glory and Efficacy of the whole Trinity and to have as much Communion and Fellowship with each Person distinctly and as much enjoyment of them as we are capable of in this lower World Secondly The Apostle here sets before the believing Jews the form of giving the Law and the effects of it both which had in them all the discouragement and disswasive imaginable from deserting the Gospel and returning to that for the giving forth of the Law was with all the amazing affrighting Terrour that possibly could be to represent the eternal Majesty and Soveraignty of God the Supream Legislator The dreadful Consequences of breaking his Laws and falling under his Justice and Wrath and how fearful a thing it is for a sinner without some reconciliation to fall into the Hands of the living God and the effect of this dreadful promulgation was suitable to it for the People fell under the Highest consternation and petitioned that God would please to speak for the future to them by Moses being far unable to endure any such personal converse with the Almighty Nay even Moses himself that had so long and so intimately conversed with God was not able to abide by this dreadful appearance but fell into a paroxism of quaking and fear and this sufficiently represented by the vast distance there was between God and Man in this dispensation and how impossible it was for Man under that Law ever to approach unto God with any comfort and satisfaction Thirdly By the Apostles so punctually setting forth the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai and opposing that fingly to the Fabrick and State of the Gospel is contained this insinuation that it was comprehensive of their whole constitution the highest Priviledge and Honour the Jewish Church had to boast of and that wherein they did most eminently stand distinguished from the rest of the World was their being brought unto Mount Sinai and God Personally meeting them there and himself delivering his Law unto them By this they were most eminently in their publick national State taken into Covenant with God above all the kindreds of the Earth and constituted there by a political State and a National Church unto himself and the Apostle reckons it as one of their highest priviledges the giving of the Law Now the force of the Apostles Discourse lies in this the greatest thing you have to boast is your Law and God's giving it himself to you upon Mount Sinai thence came all your National Priviledges and that was indeed no other then a splendid Ministration of Death Man stood there before God under the greatest Guilt Condemnation and Misery and God ap peared with the severest and most awful aspect that Man could behold him in nothing but Thunders Earthquakes Voices Fires and dreadful Horror round about him The Pardon the Peace the Reconciliation the near Approach unto God that Man stood in need of these things belong to Mount Sion to which we are come by the Gospel and 't is a very sorry change for any Jew that had embraced the Christian profession and viewed the Glory of this spiritual Mount and the Inhabitants of it to return back to Mount Sinai and all the dreadful circumstances appurtenant to it I come now to the distinct consideration of each particular in these verses For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire or as some better read it the fire that burned the Apostle's scope is to discover the Excellency and Glory of the Gospel-state by a Negative comparison of it with that of the Legal and 't is one good step towards the shewing what a thing is to shew comparatively when the comparisons lie near what it is not you are not come says he unto that mount that might be touched coming to that Mount which your Fathers came to is quite out of date that is not your present business that is not the Dispensation God calls you to now but you are by his call come to another Mount a much nobler and better state of things we are said to be come to that to which God calls us unto and to which he requires our
sincere Man in the Gospel account and without all controversie in the high road to Everlasting Happiness 't is our great wisdom to possess our selves now with those thoughts we shall be sure to have when God summons us to make our Appearance before him whatever it is that keeps us from so doing engages us to the highest folly and renders a Man the Scripture-Fool that is the Fool in God's account which is the true Fool a Man made up and constituted of folly about his greatest concerns when the mirth and pleasant part of the World is a diversion from this we may well say of Laughter that it is Madness and when we employ our selves in the wisest and most serious part of the World in order to secure us from this we do but seed upon Vanity and Lies a deceived Heart leads us aside and we cover our selves with such a sorry garment as will shortly be stript from us and we shall be left exposed and naked how great and how miserable a Fool is that Man that is top full of this World and the Business of it and thinks of nothing else when God calls him privately aside and tells him This night shall thy soul be taken from thee and from henceforward to all eternity thou shalt have nothing to do but to converse with thy own Sins and with me in the effects of my Justice Several appurtenant Circumstances the Apostle reckons up to this Mount to which they were not come which they might contemplate with much satisfaction and the more highly value Gospel-Attainments 1st That it might be touched the meaning of which was only this that the intangibility of it by Man or Beast was only by vertue of Divine Sanction and Command and so it was but figuratively so but the Mount in it self might be touched and was a carnal earthly thing sutable to that dispensation which was but an earthly Tabernacle pitch'd by Man but Mount Sion he compares it withal is a thing impossible to be touched and is in its own nature purely spiritual the sum is your Fathers came with their Bodies to a Mount that might be touched though it must not be touched but by the Gospel you are come in your Spirits to a Mount that cannot corporally be touched that is altogether heavenly and spiritual 2dly It was full of Fire 3dly There was Blackness 4thly Darkness And 5thly Tempests Fire is of all parts of the Creation most dreadful to flesh and blood and in it self terrifying tormenting devouring and therefore to make his Majesty the more dreadful God 't is said descended upon the Mount in Fire and the Law here given is thence called a fiery Law in the 5th of Deut. we find the People three times together expressing their dreadful fear of this Fire and the Psalmist alludes to this in the 97th Psalm when he says A fire goeth before him As the most dreadful part of the Creation Hell it self is oftenest set forth by it this Fire was accompanied with Blackness Darkness Tempest Lightnings Thundrings and Earthquakes the most affrighting astonishing Composition that could be set before Humane Eyes and in that conjunction rendring each other more terrifying and amazing all representing the obscurity and severity of that Dispensation and the sad and sore Punishments the Law inflicted upon every transgressor as Hell is called Fire so 't is also called the Blackness of Darkness and by the Tempest was signified what Storms and Confusions the Law makes in the Minds of convinced Sinners when no Remedy appears 'T is not now possible to conceive what a terrifying heart-breaking killing Sight that Mount was so circumstanced and the Apostle gives them no small ground of consolation when he tells them they are not come to this Mount 'T is true that all this is called by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament Glorious but 't is meant of the Glory of God's Justice and of his severity which we are told is much excelled and in a sort eclipsed by the Glory of his Grace and Mercy 6thly and 7thly To compleat the Terrour of this Mount the Apostle mentions the sound of the Trumpet by which God summoned the People to appear before Him and the voice of words which the people were not able to bear the hearing of Of the sacred use of Trumpets we read much in Scripture sometimes to summon to great Judgments and sometimes preparative calls to great Mercies they were used in calling Assemblies and in a solemn manner in proclaiming the Jubile every 50th Year upon which account the People were said to be blessed that heard the joyful sound There was also every first Day of the 7th Month a Memorial of blowing of Trumpets to summon the People to the Day of expiation the preaching of the Gospel is often typically represented by a Trumpet sounding 't is also in the Revelation introductive of all the great Judgments towards the end of the World the seven Trumpets there are said to sound for that purpose and in the very last coming of Christ he is said to come with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and the Trumpet of God This that the People heard here was not a real Trumpet but the sound of one possibly the Voice of the Arch-Angel uttered in the sound of a Trumpet as perhaps the Voice of the Arch-Angel and the Trumpet of God when Christ shall come is only the Voice of the Arch-Angel utter'd in the sound of a Trumpet this Trumpet upon Mount Sinai is said to wax louder and louder signifying God's nearer approach until he uttered the Law unto them The sound of it was most terrifying and dreadful and had this signification That God will call all Flesh before him and alarum them to receive the Judgment pronounced by his Laws and the call will be so loud that no Mortal Ear can exclude it To the sound of the Trumpet is added the voice of words with which the People were so greatly affrighted their fear arose not only from the Matter of the Words but from the manner of their delivery and that dreadful sound in which they were uttered as appears by their petition put up which was not that God should not speak to them any more but that he would speak by Moses and not himself personally any more least they should die This appears in the recapitulation of this story in Deut. 5. the People are there said to desire Moses Go thou near and hear all that the Lord our God shall say The Apostle adds they could not bear that which was commanded the weight of the Law was unsupportable and to add to the terror of all Disobedience to it if so much as Man or Beast touched the Mountain from whence it was delivered it was immediately to die and even Moses himself who had often been so near unto God and so conversant with him was not able to abide this dreadful scene but fell into consternation and horror an evident intimation that the
more cause to be concerned in the joy than the others because they themselves have travelled through all the stages of Salvation and all the Methods by which Souls come to glory and are now experimentally informed what blessedness attends and waits upon every converted saved Soul 4. They have communion with the Church here below by being present with Christ and beholding his blessed intercession for it taking unspeakable delight and satisfaction therein they behold all the concerns of the militant Church constantly presented before the Father by the Son and so are conversant with it and have the same vital love and concern for it that animates the whole 3dly Our being said to be come to them implies some effect of that as an attainment and some communion that is had with them on our part 1. We have communion with them in this respect when ever we address our selves to God and perform any Worship to the Divine Majesty we do it with this certain assurance and knowledge that he is incompassed with the holy Angels and all the Souls of the perfected and blessed and so in every act of Divine Worship we have a sort of communion with them he that converseth with any great King has a relative communion with his whole Court as appurtenant to him 2. We are come unto them and have a communion with them upon this account because we are in the same state that brought them thither we are in possession of the very same title to glory that brought them to it we have in faith what they have in fruition and we are continually waiting to be removed to them we are therefore truly said to be come to them because we are of the same Houshold and Family and there is nothing wanting but our dissolution to bring us actually into their Company and into the same Place where they now are And lastly we are come to them so as to receive great incouragement from them in our Christian Course by contemplating what it has brought them unto we are much animated to follow their example and much advantaged every way by setting before us their glorious and blessed state and condition 7thly We are here said to be come to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant Here the Apostle sets down the Alpha and the Omega of all this catholick Society this Jesus is the Sourse and Center of all the great Corner-stone upon which all the Structure depends In two things the force of the Apostle's comparison lies 1. They are come to Jesus himself a Saviour and a Mediator far exceeding Moses And 2. to a much better Covenant of which he is the Mediator The preference of Christ to Moses as a Mediator is largely discoursed of in this Epistle Moses was but a typical Mediator employed as a middle person between God and the People but Christ is the Son in his own House In this case God-man is the Mediator and God is the person mediated unto which consideration perhaps may help to unfold that difficult expression of St. Paul to the Galat. A mediator is not a mediator of one but God is one In two things the Apostle makes the especial difference between Christ and Moses to lie 1. Christ was the Surety of the Covenant unto God on the Peoples part and so they are sure not to fail in the performance of their part under Moses the People constantly failed in their part and he was no way to undertake or perform for them 2. Christ confirmed the Covenant by his own Death which Moses did not what he did was by the Blood of other Creatures of Bulls and Goats what Christ did he did by his own Blood and by the offering up of himself and therefore coming to such a Mediator as he is Jesus a Saviour as well as a Mediator that has redeemed the Church with his own Blood and such a Mediator as he is that lives for ever to make intercession is infinitely better than to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea After all the Promises Predictions Types and Prefigurations of him the Apostle tells the believing Jews they are at last come to this Jesus to this Mediator and Saviour their Fathers having travelled through so many Ages and Dispensations before they arrived at his appearing it would be the very last degree of all folly and contradiction to their own interest to think of drawing back and returning to those terrene Elements by which he was figuratively represented and which have now by his appearance totally spent themselves in his signification coming to him as Mediator of this new Covenant implies coming to all the Benefits and Advantages of this Covenant for all the Promises of God are in him yea and in him Amen 't is certain the Apostle by calling Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant intends to shew the excellency of the Gospel-state beyond that at Mount Sinai for the Law there given is said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator which Mediator was Moses by consent both of God and the People upon which account they are said to be baptized into him and in regard God designed Christ as the glorious Mediator of a better Covenant he well approved of what the People said when they desired that God would not himself speak any more to them but deliver his Commands by Moses because it was a Preparative intimation of the necessity of a better Covenant attended with a more sufficient Mediator who had no sins of his own to account for and so could approach unto God without that dread and fear that accompanied Moses in the service he performed Two things will be necessary to be explained fully to unfold the Apostle's sense 1. What is meant by a Mediator 2. What is meant by the New Covenant By a Mediator here is meant one that represents the People and intercedes to God on their behalf which was the circumstance of Moses that these two qualifications might be eminently appurtenant to Christ to compleat him for that service in a way infinitely exceeding Moses he is God and Man in one person as Man a full and perfect representative of all Mankind and as God such an Intercessor as procures Salvation to the uttermost for all that come to God by him and not only in Moses way by a bare representation of the Peoples condition before God but by his own inherent Merit procuring all the grace favour and acceptation on their behalf they could either hope for or desire 2dly By the New Covenant we are sure Mount Sion is opposed to Mount Sinai and the Gospel set in opposition to the Law we find in the New Testament mention but of two Covenants the law given upon Mount Sinai which is said to grow old and to be ready to vanish away and is called the first Covenant and the Gospel preached of old to Abraham and published at large by Christ and his Apostles which is called the
inseparably appurtenant to both is the Blood of Sprinkling which he says speaks better things than the Blood of Abel this is particularly and emphatically mentioned because the death and suffering of Christ the shedding of his precious Blood was the greatest performance of his mediatory Work here upon Earth the grand Fundamental of the New Covenant and of all the effects and consequences of it all was purchased by this as the price of it and in regard the Jews had been much accustomed under the Old Covenant to the shedding of Blood without which there was no remission the Apostle instructs them that this New Covenant infinitely excels the other in that very particular and he calls it the Blood of Sprinkling because there was no Blood at any time offered under the Law but part of it was sprinkled and as the Old Covenant at Horeb was confirmed by Moses the Mediator of it by sprinkling the Blood of the Oxen then sacrificed so this New Covenant is ratified by the sprinkling of Blood but 't is such Blood as of which all that was shed before was but typical and such Blood as is of an infinite value the Blood of God himself and as the Apostle in the 9th Chap. makes the comparison if the blood of bulls and goates says he could serve for Legal Typical and Ceremonial Purifications how much more shall the blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offer'd up himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works so that by this expression the Apostle calling this blood the blood of sprinkling we are to understand that this is the soul purifying soul-justifying and soul-saving blood of which all the Sacrific'd Blood since the World began since Abel's first Sacrifices were but a Type and Prefiguration 't is being sprinkled with this that gives entrance and admittance into Heaven the true sanctuary of which admittance into the Earthly sanctuary by the sprinkling of blood was but a Type and this blood as 't is of transcendent Power and Vertue so it has a general and universal efficacy so the Prophet Esau tells us Esau 52.15 Where 't is Prophesied that Christ should with his Blood sprinkle many Nations which refers to that universal advantage the gentile World should reap by it this blood is not like the blood of the legal sacrifices that was often shed and reached but to one Nation this blood is of that infinite value that the whole race of Mankind the whole World are sprinkled with it in order to Justification and Salvation and there needs no repetition of it for by this one Sacrifice offer'd up Christ has for ever perfected them that are sanctified and there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin this blood the Apostle says speaks better things then the blood of Abel which was a consideration of great moment unto the Jews Some modern interpreters for I see it in no ancient Author conceive by the blood of Abel here is not meant his own blood but the blood of the sacrifices he slew which were the first we read of that God accepted and he gave such a Testimonial to them that in the foregoing Chapter the Apostle says upon that account he is yet spoken of not as 't is vulgarly rendred yet speaketh but is yet spoken of That which induc'd them to make this meaning of the Apostles Words was I suppose the little advantage there seems to be in the comparison to compare the blood of a Saviour with the blood of a murdered Man then which nothing could speak worse for it must needs call for vengeance and punishment and therefore there seems at first view to be little commendation given to the blood of Christ by saying that it speaks better things then the blood of Abel for it could not speak worse but to say it speaks better things then the very first sacrifice we read of that God accepted and gave testimony to of the best Man then in the World carries great advantage in the comparison this interpretation upon this account seems probable and is plausable but 't is not as I conceive the sense of the Apostle and to me it seems rejected By the words upon this account that the voice and cry that Abel's blood is said to have was after his death and God tells Cain his Brothers blood cryed unto him and so it was Abel's own blood that cryed now 't is plain the Apostle in saying that Christ's blood speaks better things then the blood of Abel speaks alludes to the speaking and crying of Abel's blood from the ground unto God as 't is recorded in Genesis the Jews had not only many false and pernicious instructors ready to diswade them from receiving the Gospel at first but after any of them had received it there were many false Judaizing Apostles who endeavour'd all they could to engage them to a relapse and apostasie either in whole or in part the Apostles business as has been often suggested is to prevent this latter and to establish such as had received the Christian Doctrine but were in danger of drawing back Now 't is most certain that amongst other discouragements that were suggested to the Believing Hebrews this was one of the chief and with which they were much affected that they and their rulers having shed the blood of this Mediator and taken it upon themselves and their posterity and some of the Apostles having openly to their faces reproached the Jewish Nation with it that they had been the betrayers and murderers of this Holy and Blessed Jesus the Son of God they could not reasonably hope for nor expect any benefit from that blood they had so murderously shed To obviate this objection the Apostle after he had mentioned the Mediator of this New Covenant and his blood wherewith he sprinkles the World to which he tells them by the Gospel they were come adds this which is of peculiar force and reference to the Jews and very emphatically argumentum ad hominem that this blood speaks better things then the blood of Abel Abel was murdered and his blood spake and cryed from the Ground to Heaven for yengeance upon his brother that murdered him but Christ was Betrayed and Murdered and his blood calls and cries aloud for pardon and forgivness for his very betrayers and crucifiers so that none of them need to fall into Cain's desparation and quit the Gospel upon any such sad consideration for this Blood though it was shed like Abel's yet had quite another Cry and Language attended it it called for no vengeance upon any man but for Peace Pardon and Reconciliation for all men even the very worst of his Enemies and Crucifiers and this renders the Comparison of wonderful advantage and efficacy to that end for which it was intended Nothing is more usual in St. Paul's Writings especially in his Epistle to the Romans than to answer Objections that were then well and commonly known without reciting them of which we at this day
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