Doctrine of Christ crucified as the onely way to Justification and Salvation laid open and asserted in the four preceding Propositions And from what hath been spoken we may First conclude with the Apostle that 1 Cor. 3.11 Other Foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ and his merits This is a foundation of Gods own laying 1 Pet. 2.6 Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone elect and pretious he that believeth in him shall not be confounded And whosoever attempts to lay any other foundation or to draw men off from this Foundation must needs expect to be confounded in the issue Three sorts of builders we meet with even amongst those that pretend to Christianity who attempt to lay other foundations or at least are in danger to draw men off from this sure Foundation 1. The Papists who though they have devised many Ceremonies and complemental expressions of honour unto Christ in their way of Worship yet are found to betray him in their Doctrine while they salute him with so many Ave's There are two Points of Popery which are detestable to every true Christian as having an apparent tendency to draw men off from that honour which they owe to Christs Merits and that trust which they ought to repose in Him alone First The adoration and invocation of Saints departed To omit their Canonizing of those for Saints that either had never any other place but in the Popish Calendars their Utopian Saints as Christopher and George and such like as also those who though they have lived upon earth yet it may justly be suspected they never lived in Heaven their Prophane and traiterous Saints their Becket and Faux c. And yet this tends much to render their Religion ridiculous that they should undertake to make them Saints that were either no men or no honest men and expect help from those that stand in need of help themselves though it shall never be afforded them To omit this I say that the Divine Worship which they bestow upon the best and most undoubted Saints the Apostles or Evangelists yea or the Blessed Virgin her self is no better than gross Idolatry We reverence the Mother of our Saviour inasmuch as He that is Mighty hath magnified her and therefore we and all generations do deservedly call her Blessed Luke 1.48 49. We honour the memory of the Apostles and Martyrs in Heaven and those dayes which our Church appoints annually for keeping up the remembrance of them do put us in minde to bless God for his Graces bestowed on them and the benefits which we may hope to receive both by their Doctrine and Examples But to give Divine Honour to any of these so as to worship them or invocate their help either as absolute donors or yet as intercessours we believe to be as palpable idolatry as to worship any of the Heathen gods And certainly if the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints in Heaven were capable of understanding the superstitious vanity of those that worship them and of communicating their mindes to us on earth they would declare their utmost abhorrency and detestation of that undue honour which is given them Beside is it not gross Sottishness for men to believe that their whispers should be heard by the Saints in Heaven and the whispers of so many thousands as may be conceived to be praying to one Saint at the same time except they can either shew some reason that perswades them to this belief or else a promise that such prayers should be heard And what can be more evident then the wrong that is done to Jesus Christ by substituting many mediatours of Intercession as if himself were either not able or not at leasure to receive all the petitions that are put up to him at the same time or else had not so much goodness and compassion in him towards his people as the Saints have which should make us to expect a speedier redress by calling upon them then by calling upon himself The Apostle tells us 1 Tim 2.5 that There is but one God and one Mediatour between God and man the man Christ Jesus And as the owning or worshipping of more gods then one is as absurd and impious as to worship none at all so the owning or invocating more then one Mediatour is an high wrong to Jesus Christ our onely Mediator and Advocate 2. Their Doctrine of Merits doth lay another foundation beside Jesus Christ When they teach a Merit either of condignity or yet of congruity in our good Works yea are so super-arrogant as to teach their Doctrine of supererogation A monstrous term invented to express a monstrous Notion in Divinity and that which doth apparently tend to draw men off from building their Faith wholly upon the foundation of Christs Merits and to part the glory of their Salvation between him and the Saints departed Doubtless this is such a gross and apparent contradiction to the Doctrine of the Gospel Roâ—a 11.6 Eph. 2.9 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.5 that themselves could not but be sensible of it did not that gain which accrues to them by dispensing these merits from the Popes treasury blind their eyes that they cannot see a truth which would be so unprofitable to them to own Secondly some new Projectors amongst us who if they did terminate their speculations within the compass of Philosophical points we would easily allow them to make themselves proud with conceiting that they have found out a device to see further into a Milstone then their poor blind Fore-fathers But when they will attempt to alter the old Bodies of Divinity under pretence of solving I know not what Phaenomend in the Divine providence they must give us leave to look a little into their proceedings in matters wherein our Free-hold is so neerly concerned How happy did the Protoplasts conceit themselves when they thought of being like God to know both good and evil and how great happiness do many conceit in attempting such a scutiny into every thing that not only Nature but Religion also must discover all its secrets to their refined reason When these persons have first performed such wonders in Nature as to grasp all the Air that incircles the Earth in their fist or to embrace Heaven in their arms or to lade the Ocean dry with a Nut-shell then we shall believe that the vastness of their Reason may not onely comprehend those matters of Faith which we poor Mortals have admired for so many ages but also perfect their devices for climbing up to the Lunar Orbe and examine the Religion that is professed there But they might do well first to discover the contradictions that are to be met with in the old Systems of Divinity and that by men that have so much seriousness and humility as to understand them in a competent and candid manner and next to reconcile the contradictions which are so palpable in some of their Hypotheses by
away sooner then one iota or tittle of his Word fail till all be fulfilled And therefore if we make it appear that such a thing was promised by God to the Fathers that the Son of God should be Incarnate to the end that he might be a Mediator between God and man and the Authour of Eternal Salvation to us I suppose no man that reads this will doubt but that in the fulness of Time these promises would take effect Now that God did all along to the Fathers of the Old Testament make such a promise will be evident by considering First The Names and Titles that are applied to him that was promised to come as the Messiah which will shew that he was foretold to be such an one as should be truly God and truly Man Secondly The Offices that are applyed to him which will shew that he was foretold to come as the Saviour of the World First I say the Names and Titles which up and down the Old Testament are given to the Messiah that was promised do shew that for his Person he should be God and Man and some of them also do point at his Office 1. Gen. 3.15 We find him stiled The Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents head His Humanity is denoted in his being the Seed of the Woman his Divinity in that Office that is ascribed to him To break the Serpents head which may very fitly be interpreted by that expression of the Apostle He was manifest to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 Now no person can enter into the strong mans house except he be stronger then he To the same purpose is that other expression where he is called Gen. 22.18 The Seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the Earth shall be blessed which as it foretels his humane Nature which should be born of the Seed of Abraham so it shews that he was to come as a general good to the world not onely to be the glory of his people Israel Lu. 2.31 but also to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles that both Jews and Gentiles might through him be delivered from that curse which they were liable unto through Sin and might be partakers of the blessedness that he hath purchased by his Sufferings and Obedience And this likewise foreshews that he should be the Son of God in that his sufferings and obedience are represented of such infinit value as to purchase so great and general benefits to Mankind 2. He is sometimes called by the name of Shiloh Gen. 49.10 by which word is understood the Messiah as is evident by the Caldee-Paraphrase and most of the Ancient Rabbies who in this place for Shiloh do read Messiah As to the signification of this word some derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Secundine that contains the Embryo in the womb and in this sense it may denote that the Messiah should be born an Infant and also say some that he should be born of a Woman without a Natural Father Others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send and so it may denote his Office that he should be sent by God the Father into the world for the Salvation thereof Others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Peace and so likewise it may denote his Office that he should be the Author of Peace and Reconciliation between God and man and should purchase eternal Happiness for us and therefore he is called our Peace Eph. 2.14 However we interpret this word yet still it speaks the Messiah to be such a Person and designed to such an Office as I said before 3. He is elsewhere stiled A Prophet whom the Lord should raise up to Israel like unto Moses Deut. 18.15 The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet this both shews that he should be a real and not a fantastical Person and it sets before us one of those Offices which he should undertake in order to our Redemption He shall be raised up in the midst of thee of thy brethren and this shews that he was to be the Son of Man That this Prophesie belongs to Christ is evident from Acts 3.22 and Chap. 7.37 4. Psal 80.15 David calls him The Man of Gods right hand and the Son of man whom he had made strong for himself And this shews both the truth of his Divine Nature where in he was the man of Gods right hand the Son of God Phil. 2.7 equal to the Father in Power and Glory in Blessedness and Eternity and also it foretels that God the Father should prepare him a body in which he might suffer for our sins and which by the Hypostatical union with the Divine Nature was made strong to undergo that wrath of God and to break through the bonds of Death which no meer man would have been able to do likewise by the Union of the Divinity with the Humanity of Christ his suffering should become of infinit value and Heb. 9.14 This blood of Christ being offered up by the Eternal Spirit should be able to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Further David calls him his Lord who was foretold to be his Son after the flesh Ps 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool now the same person being in different respects Davids Son and Davids Lord this shews him to be both the Son of God and the Son of Man 5. He is called Immanuel Isa 7.14 which shews the admirable and unconceivable Union of the Divine Person of the Word with that flesh that he took upon him God was pleased to dwel with men on earth 1 King 8.12 and to pitch his Tabernacle amongst us in a more near and especial manner when the Word was pleased to be made flesh Joh. 1.14 And this stupendious Transaction was not for nothing but for this end that being a middle Person between God and us Medium participationis one that did partake of both Natures he might fitly stand as a middle Person Job 9.33 and lay his hand upon us both 6. We have other Titles given to him in that eminent Scripture Isa 9.6 7 which serve to denote both his Natures and Offices To us a Child is born to us a Son is given This shews the humane Nature of Christ which should be taken into that near Union with the Person of the Son of God And the Government shall be upon his shoulders This denotes that Kingly Office which Christ as our Mediator did undertake And his Name shall be called Wonderful in regard of the Ineffable Union of the two Natures in the Person of one Mediator to which agrees that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh Further he is called
Councellour not onely in respect of his divine Nature 1 Cor. 1.24 which is called The Wisdom of the Father but chiefly in respect of his Office in the Church as our Mediator he is our Prophet who is sent to reveal unto us the Will of God and the way to Heaven He is called The mighty God which denotes him that was before said to be born of a Woman to be also God equal with the Father The everlasting Father or Father of Eternity not as if the first Person in the Trinity had taken our Nature or suffered to satisfie his own Justice but onely to denote the Eternity of his Divine Nature who was our Mediator Though as man he was conceived in time in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin yet as God he was begotten of his Father before all Words even from everlasting Further Eph. 1.14 he is called The Prince of Peace to note the end of his coming to make Peace between God and us And finally it is said Col. 1.20 that of the encrease of his government there shall be no end c. to note both the great encrease of his Kingdom Dan. 2.35 that Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands shall fill the earth And withal that his Kingdom shall not be subject to those vicissitudes and decayes to which other Kingdoms are subject 1 Cor. 15.25 He shall reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet 7. Further that evangelical Prophet Isaiah chap. 42.1 calls him Gods servant whom he did uphold his Elect in whom his soul delighted As to his Divine Nature he was God equal with the Father Phil. 2.7 but in respect of this Office of Mediator as he was Gods Elect whom the Father did choose to appoint and accept as our surety and a propitiatory Sacrisice in our behalf so he was in some respect the servant of the Father and tells us that he came into the world to do the Will of his Father Nor may we therefore Joh. 4.34 with the Arians think that Christ's being sent by the Father and being called his Servant doth argue any inequality between the Father and the Son nor yet with the Macedonians that the holy Ghost being sent from the Father and the Son Jo. 15.26 this doth argue him to be unequal or inferiour to them both For that Rule in divinity is very rational as well as Orthodox that Missio Obedientia non tollunt aequalitatem Personarum in Sacrâ Trinitate The Fathers sending the Son and the Father and Son sending the holy Ghost doth not argue the Father to be above the Son nor them both to be above the holy Ghost but onely denotes that order in which each person in the Sacred Trinity is pleased to transact its several operations 8. Jer. 23.6 He is termed by Jeremiah The Lord our Righteousness the name Jehovah which is no where in Scripture applied to any Creature doth argue him to be truely God and the other word shews the end of his coming into the World even to make reconciliation for iniquity Dan. 9.24 and to bring in everlasting Righteousness 9. The Messiah is frequently stiled by the name of David Jerem. 30.9 Ezek. 34.23 24. and chap. 37.24 25. Hosea 3.5 To which may be added other places which are not so express as the former Psal 132.10 Isaiah 37.35 and chap. 55.3 Amos 9.11 Acts 13.34 and chap. 15.16 Now the reason why he is called by this Name may be either 1. Because he was to be born of the Posterity and Family of David in which respect he is called a Branch of David Jerem. 23.5 and a Rod of the stem of Jesse Isa 11.1 And in the New Testament he is said to be raised up in the house of David Luke 1.69 and to be made of the seed of David John 7.42 Rom. 1.3 2 Tim. 2.8 He is also called The root of David Revel 5.5 and the off-spring of David Revel 22.16 2. Or else he may be called David because the promise was renewed in a special and solemn manner to David that of his seed should come the Messiah 2 Sam. 7. and 1 Chron. 17. Or 3. because David was in some sort a Type of Christ as namely in that David was both a King and a Prophet as Christ was King Priest and Prophet but chiefly in respect of his wise and happy administration of his Kingdom and Government And these Prophesies do betoken both the humane Nature of Christ who should come of the Seed of David and his Divine Nature in that he was to be King of the Church which is called The Israel of God Gal 6.16 10. Zech. 9.9 The Prophet Zechariah calls him the King of Israel which shews both his Power and Authority to rule his Church and also his Humanity in that he is said to sit upon an Ass and a Colt the foal of an Ass And though Christ did not in his life-time take upon him the temporal jurisdiction over Israel but tells his Disciples they were mistaken in looking for this and tells Pilate that his Kingdom was not of this world that is Joh. 18.36 according to the fashion of earthly Kingdoms yet doth he in all ages in a spiritual sense govern his Church feeding his flock like a Shepherd and ruling his enemies with a rod of Iron And further the same Prophet calls him Gods Shepherd Zech. 13.7 that is a Shepherd of God the Fathers appointment and the man that was his fellow which denotes his Divine Nature wherein he was equal to the Father And this Shepherd is said to be smitten Mat. 26.31 and the sheep of the flock to be scattered from him which is a Prophefie of what Christ in his humane Nature did suffer as our Saviour himself interprets it 11. In Malachi the last of the Prophets he is called the Lord whom they sought after and the Angel Mal. 3.1 or Messenger of the Covenant in whom they delighted And as the name Jehovah being here applyed to Christ doth shew him to be truely God so the name Angel doth both denote his real existence and his Office likewise as being appointed by the Father to ratifie and fulfil that Covenant which he had made with the Fathers even the Covenant of Life and Salvation which was expressed in these words Jer. 31.31 I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people And further Mal. 4.2 He is called the Sun of Righteousness which should arise upon the earth with healing in his wings Which denotes both the excellency of his Nature being like the Sun the most glorious and excellent of all bodies and likewise the greatness and commonness of his benefits the Sun is a common good to the world giving Light and Life to all Creatures that are capable of it and so this Sun of Righteousness shall come with healing in his wings to all that will receive him to heal the wounds which sin
hath made upon the soul Isa 61.2 and to pour in the oyl of Joy and consolation unto them that mourn in Son 12. Prov. 30.1 I may add that some conceive him to be understood by Ithiel and Vcal Ithiel signifieth God with me and so is to the same purpose with Immanuel and may signifie the Union of the Divinity and Humanity in Christ our Mediator Vcal signifieth power and strength and so may note the strength of his humane Nature by virtue of the Hypostatical Union of the Divine Person both to undergo all those sufferings that were to be laid upon it and also to give infinite value to these sufferings that they might make a perfect satisfaction to Gods Justice as I said before and be a sufficient price to purchase Eternal Salvation for us To these I might add divers other names that are given to the Messiah in the Old Testament but these are sufficient and indeed the very name Messiah as it speaks him to be anoynted of God to that threefold Office of Prophet Priest and King to which Offices men used to be set a-part by the ceremony of Vnction so they suppose him to be such a person as should be qualified and made meet for these Offices and to this end it was necessary that he should be God and Man that he might be a middle person between both Having considered his Names Titles let us proceed in the second place to take a view of what the Old Testament speaks of the Offices to which the Messiah was designed by God the Father And there will be the less need to dwell long upon this because I have spoken something of it upon the former Head We commonly believe that Jesus Christ in order to the accomplishing of this great business of our Salvation As he was pleased to stoop so low as to take our Nature into that neer Union with his Divine Person so that he was both truly God of the substance of his Father and truely Man consisting of a reasonable soul and humane flesh So in the hypostatical Union of these two Natures he did perform the office of a Prophet of a Priest and of a King to his Church And that we may see that we neither wrong Christ in imputing that to him which may either be dishonourable or disagreeing to him nor yet our selves or others in entertaining fond and groundless conceits as Articles of our Religion I shall therefore endeavour to shew you that Christ was promised to the Fathers of the Old Testament as one that should undertake and go through with each of these Offices First it was foretold that he should be a Prophet one that should both by his own preaching and the preaching of his Apostles while he was upon the earth and after his Ascension by giving the holy Ghost to his Ministers shew unto us the will of his Father and all things that should be necessary for us to know believe and do in order to our pleasing God in this world and everlasting enjoying of him in the world to come This is evident from that promise which God made by Moses Deut. 18.15 The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me and him shall ye hear in all things to which agrees that voice which came from Heaven Mat. 17.5 in our Saviour's Transfiguration This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Again the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of Christ saith Isa 61.1 2 3. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord And this our Saviour when he was upon earth applyed to himself and told the people that they had then seen that Scripture fulfilled before their eyes Luke 4.18 Secondly that he should be our High-priest one that should do that in reality and substance which was done onely typically by all the Oblations enjoyned in the ceremonial Law that he should offer up an expiatory and propitiatory sacrifice to Gods justice even his own body and thereby make an Atonement for us Surely saith that Evangelical Prophet he hath born our griefs Isa 53.4 5 6. and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all And again By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many vers 11. for he shall bear their iniquities And further vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressours and he bare the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressours Of whom the Prophet speaks all this you may hear from St. Philip's exposition of this place to the Eunuch Acts 8.34 35. 1 Pet. 2.22 and from St. Peter's application of it to our Saviour Therefore he is called The Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 and he is said to swallow up death in victory Isa 25.8 and his people are called The ransomed of the Lord Isa 35.10 Thirdly It was foretold that he should be a King not that his Kingdom should be of this World that is after the manner of worldly Kingdoms Joh. 18.36 as the carnal Jews did conceit of which errour himself doth convince them But that he should have such a Kingdom wherein he should Rule his own people as a Shepherd doth his Sheep and his enemies with a rod of Iron so as to restrain their fury against his people to disappoint their devices and to dash in pieces at last those that are his implacable enemies This was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah Isa 40.10 11. Behold the Lord shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him he shall feed his Flock like a Shepherd he shall gather the lambs in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young And by David Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance Ps 2.8 9. and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel So again the Prophet Jerem. Jer. 23.5 Behold a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgement and righteousness And who is this but he whom he calls in the next verse The Lord our Righteousness To this end he is so often called David Ezek. 37.24 25. and said to sit upon the throne of his father David Not in a literal sense as some conceit as if he should come in person to Reign upon earth and set up his Throne in the same place where
understand that in his measure and according to his capacity he was perfect in all those Excellencies that did appertain to his Nature And as the Understanding is one of the noblest and the leader of the other Faculties of mans soul we must therefore conceive that to be made perfect in Knowledg so far as to be capable of rightly understanding whatsoever was necessary or suitable to the Nature of man to know That this Light was pure and free from being mixed with any darkness of Ignorance or Error And that the Will and Affections were perfectly subjected to the dominion of the Understanding so that they did then as readily obey and execute its Dictates as the Members of our Body do now move themselves at the appointment of the Will Nor are we to imagine that in this estate of perfect holiness and happiness in which man was placed there was any such drawing downward of the sensitive Appetite as might either disturb the peace of the soul by the contrariety of its motion to the dictates of Reason or else dispose and incline man to swerve from the right way But even as we believe the Saints in Heaven when their bodies shall be re-united to their souls to be made perfect in holiness Heb. 12.23 and nothing to remain in them that may tend either to disturb the perfection of their happiness or to draw them away from serving and enjoying him that is the chiefest good So we may most reasonably believe that in mans first Creation there was no manner of defect or error in his Understanding nor any discording motions arising from the union of the soul and body nor yet any clouds arising from the sensitive Appetite to darken the light of Reason And whereas there are some that conceive the Fall of man to have been occasioned by his Inadvertency that being of a Finite though perfect understanding he did not therefore apprehend or consider all things at once And therefore fixing his mind wholly upon the pleasantness of the Fruit so as not at the same time duly to consider the strictness of Gods command and the threatning that was annexed to it he did hereby come to violate Gods precept by embracing that pleasant fruit Neither doth this evince any shortness of sight or natural ignorance or error to have been in man from his Creation For if he did not consider all those things together which he ought to have considered yet had he power and capacity sufficient to have apprehended all things necessary to be considered at once for else we should lay a fault upon the Goodness or Wisdom of God in the Creation of man if we believe him to have permitted such a defect in his Nature as must needs occasion his sinning The default therefore is to be imputed to mans want of putting in execution that power which God had given him Man fell not because he wanted knowledg enough to hold him upright but because he did not put forth that power which his Creator had given him to apprehend the strictness of his Law and the certainty of the inflicting the penalty that was annexed in case of mans disobedience By what hath been spoken we may be put in mind to reflect with sadness of heart upon that happiness which once our Nature did enjoy Eccles 7.29 Thus God made man upright but he sought out many inventions And how art thou fallen from Heaven O thou that wast made but little lower than the Angels How unlike is man now to that Exquisite piece which our Creator sent forth of his hands perfect in beauty Now the course of Nature is inverted and as all things in mans soul were once governed with singular order and harmony so now there is as great discord and disorder in all our facultieâ— and the exercises thereof Now the Will and Affections do sometimes with their insinuation enveagle and bribe the Reason of man either to shut its eyes or else to pronounce false sentence upon things that differ Isa 5.20 to call good evil and evil good Or if they cannot prevail to do this they then rise up like unruly Subjects against the commands of their Sovereign and shake off that yoke of obedience which God in Nature hath laid upon them as in those incontinent persons who do with Medea in the Poet Videre meliora probare but deteriora sequi Nor hath the Understanding it self though freer from corruption than the other faculties wholly escaped without depravation but partly through a dimness and short-sightedness in it self is subject to Ignorance and Error and partly through the ill neighbourhood of a depraved Will and disordered Affections it is wofully swerved from its original Rectitude and Integrity The wonderful Wisdom and Power of God is manifest in making such variety of Features in mens Faces that amongst the many myriads of men that live upon the face of the Earch there are not any two so exactly alike but they are to be distinguished by him that looks heedfully upon them And the sad and wonderful mischief of sin is as manifest in that it hath begotten as much variety in mens minds as is in their Physiognomies so that you can hardly meet with two men so exactly of one mind that you will need to lay a thread upon them to know them apart From the beginning doubtless it was not so For as the God of Truth is but one and there is but one way of Truth we may believe that God who made the mind of man on purpose to apprehend the Truth did not put such various tempers into mens minds at first as might make them to have such different thoughts of the same thing of which some must needs be false For Cujus contrarium verum est c. contrary conceptions of the same object cannot both be true Now if Truth be so valuable or rather unvaluable a Jewel that the wise Man adviseth us to buy it at any rate Prov. 23.23 but to sell it at no rate then certainly Error which is contrary to it must needs be as evil and undesirableâ— as being not onely a debasing and perverting of the first and leading Faculty of the Soul and a drawing it beside the Truth which it was made on purpose to contemplate but also in that it produceth so many pernicious consequents in the world When God confounded the Language of the builders of Babel it is said That they were scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth Gen 11.3 and left off to build the City And that confusion of Mind and Language which hath befallen us as the just desert and proper fruit of our fins hath hindred the building up of the Church of God and the edifying of mens souls to Eternal Life And hath scattered and severed men one from another in their Affections and Associations Hence have issued Schisms and making of parties one for Paul another for Apollos a third for Cephas 1 Cor. 1.12
fallen may be raised up and we our selves may be clear from the blood of them that wilfully and obstinately resolve to perish Acts 20.26 CHAP. IV. An Introduction to the Doctrine of Christ our Mediator shewing how far the Light of Nature will lead us toward Eternal Happiness and wherein it comes short The various acceptions of the Words Christ and Mediator in the Scriptures opened for preventing Erronious constructions of those places of Scriptures THe Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 that The invisible things of God even his Eternal Power and Jodhead are clearly seen and to be understood by the things that are made The Philosophers and as many amongst the Heathens as did improve the Light of Nature and study the Book of the Creatures as they ought could not but apprehend that this stately Fabrick of Heaven and Earth could not be reared up without an Architect yea that Praesentem refert quaelibet herba Deum The smallest Creatures that are in the World may convince us that there was some first cause to Create or produce them upon the Earth And as every Workman is more noble then his Work so he that made all Things must be a more Noble and Excellent Being then any or all of those Creatures And this was sufficient to convince them that there is a Being Infinite in all Excellencies and Perfections in Wisdom Power Goodness c. who had a Being before any of the Creatures even from all Eternity and gave beginning and being to all things beside Himself and this is that Supream Being and first Cause which we call GOD. And he that duly considers himself and all Things else to be Creatures might easily from hence conclude that this Supream Being which gave beginning and being to all things ought by them all to be Loved and Served and Adored as he Acts 17.28 In whom they live and move and have their beeing And as Reason binds us to believe the Maker of Heaven and Earth infinitly to excel the most excellent of all the Creatures so it must be thought very unreasonable to entertain any dishonourable thoughts of God to subject our Maker to our own making or to carve out him from the stock of a Tree who formed Us and all other Creatures out of nothing To impute to him those Quarrels Rapes Adulteries Incests and other Enormities which the Heathens fathered upon their gods For if we esteem these the fruits of the most debauched Natures amongst men and every man accounts them faults wheresoever they are then sure to impute these Acts to that Supream Being that infinitly excels whatsoever is excellent in us and is free from whatsoever is evil or imperfect in us must needs be a great wrong to our Maker and to be esteemed no better then a project of the sensitive Appetite in man to excuse its own highest enormities by fancying the same to have been acted by him that made us and whom we ought as near as we can to resemble in our Affections and Practises Beside the like exercise of Reason would readily shew us that the first Cause and Mover of all things is but one and that to conceit more than one infinite Being or first Cause is equally absurd as to believe none at all And consequently they might easily have seen that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a most absurd Chimera fancied by idle and extravagant brains Yea further Reason might be ready to prompt us that as we owe our beginning and being and whatsoever we do enjoy to this first Cause the Lord our Maker so we owe to him the best and fairest of those fruits that we can possibly bring forth as a testimony of our thank fulness to him for his favours vouchsafed unto us And as the infinit perfections that are in him may reasonably be supposed to oblige him to love what is like them and to abhor what is contrary so whosoever doth desire to please his Maker must endeavour to be like him in his Imitable Attributes of Holiness Justice Goodness and Mercy c. and that whosoever doth not endeavour to frame his Heart and Life to a conformity to the Nature and Will of God cannot please him nor be said to answer the ends of his Creation Nor yet can reasonably expect to partake of those rewards which Nature prompts us to hope for from the goodness of God in pleasing him nor to be free from those punishments which Nature tells us we are to expect to suffer from the Justice of God in displeasing and provoking him Thus far I say the Light of Nature and right Reason will easily carry any man who doth not violently disturb it in its proceedings And from hence the Apostle Ro 1.20 c. in the forecited place doth conclude that even the Gentiles though they had not enjoyed the written Law of God yet would be without excuse before Gods Tribunal for that they had not walked up to these Dictates of Reason but had entertained dishonourable apprehensions concerning him whom Reason did prompt them to believe to be their Maker Some of them denying the being of God others by multiplying it confounding their own conceptions touching a first cause Most of them by the impious practices which they imputed to their gods dishonouring that God in whose Throne they set these Idols And all of them by their own impious and wicked lives coming short of that obedience which the Law of Nature did oblige them to pay to him that made them As to this light that shines unto us from the Heavens and all the host thereof the earth and the Sea and all that therein is the Psalmist tells us Ps 19.3 4. That it is gone forth into the ends of the world and that there is no Speech nor Language where the voice of it is not heard But that this is not sufficient to lead a man to heaven without a further guide is evident both in that the Lord hath thought meet to set up a clearer Light before his own people in all ages the light of the Law and the Prophets to the Jews and the light of the Gospel to us Christians which though they differ in the way of administration the services of the Law pointing them to Christ that was to come the services of the Gospel pointing us to Christ as already come and also in the clearness of them the Law representing Christ in Types and shadows the Gospel taking off the vail from Moses face and letting us with open face 2 Cor. 3.18 as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord Yet I say That as the light of the Gospel is sufficient to us Christians so was the light of the Law and Prophets sufficient to the Jews to point them to Christ who was represented in all their typical oblations and expiations and who is the onely way to eternal Righteousness and Salvation Now forasmuch as the great God of heaven and earth who maketh nothing in
Elect Angels to procure the confirmation of them in their estate of holiness and happiness But in this I determine nothing because the holy Scriptures are so sparing in speaking of it The usual acception of this word Mediator is to signifie him that reconciles parties that be at difference and in this sense Jesus Christ the word made flesh is truely and properly called a Mediator to reconcile God and man because he interposeth himself between God and us in this difference that sin hath made to reconcile Gods justice to us by making satisfaction for our sin and to reconcile us to God by sanctifying our natures and making us conformable to his will in this life inchoatly and at death perfectly CHAP. V. The holy Scriptures being owned at least in outward profession by men of all professions that lay claim to the common name of Christianity we may therefore take it for granted that Arguments drawn from them should put an end to all strife amongst us The design and method of the four following Chapters proposed THe Reverence we owe to the authority of the holy Scriptures doth oblige every good Christian not onely to account it a necessary piece of humility to subscribe to the doctrine thereof as the will and pleasure of him that made us and to whom we owe all obedience but also to esteem it the safest and most prudential course to entertain and embrace the truths thereof as the Word of him who is Wisdom it self and therefore cannot err or be deceived and Goodness it self and therefore we may be sure he will not endeavour to seduce or delude us So that though there be divers things contained in this Sacred Volume which our shallow capacities cannot reach to comprehend yet we finde reason enough to impute it to the defects of our Nature and not to any over-sight in those Sacred Writings that we cannot always see a reason of every thing therein delivered And the Soveraign Authority and infinite Wisdom of him that inspired those holy men that wrote these Books is a sufficient argument to move us to a reverent submission to those matters of Faith which surpass the reach of our reason and therefore as every sober Professor of Christianity makes the Word of God the foundation of his Faith so the best Arguments that can be produced for the confirming of our Belief in that Faith which hath been delivered unto us will be such as are fetched from this Sacred Promptuary of holy Writ And as I was mentioning it before Chap. 2. for the honour of the Word of God that men of all Sects and perswasions who center in the common Profession of the Christian Religion do at least pretend great reverence to these Writings and whether in good earnest or in design to put off their opinions the more plausibly in the world do endeavour to represent even their most heterodox and incredible Notions as the Doctrine of the Spirit of God in the Scripture we may therefore very reasonably expect that Arguments drawn from the Scriptures should be convineing to them and an end of all strife And further that the fair and plain meaning of the words of Scripture which is most obvious to every man of understanding and which hath been received by the Church of God in all ages should be embraced by them as well as by us as the ground upon which all Arguments are to be built It being as absurd in matters of Reason and Faith for one or a few men to expect that his or their single Vote for some singular meaning of a plain Text of Scripture should be heard in opposition to the judgement of the Church of God in all ages as in matters of sense it would be for one man confidently and contentiously to pronounce that colour to be white or red which all his Neighbours and people of all Ages before him have received under the notion of black We may therefore take it for granted that Arguments drawn from the plain and obvious sense of the Scripture such as hath been received by the Church in all Ages should be accounted sufficient both to confirm the faith of those that are serious in Christianity and also to convince or at least put to silence those that are dissenting from us In order therefore to the confirming of us in the belief of this Truth which is the substance of the whole Doctrine of the Gospel that The Word made flesh or God the Son manifest in the flesh hath truely and really undertaken and performed the Office of a Mediator to reconcile God and man I shall propound these four general Heads to be considered and confirmed First That the Lord did promise to Adam after his fall and to all the Fathers and Prophets of the Old Testament his own Son to become man and in the Union of these two Natures to perform all those Offices which were necessary in order to our Redemption and Salvation Secondly That the Time which was appointed for the accomplishing of these promises and Prophesies and for the sending of the Son of God into the World is long since expired and consequently that we ought stedfastly to believe that our Saviour is already come in the flesh Thirdly That we have full and sufficient grounds to believe that the same Jesus whom the New Testament holds forth unto us and in whom we and all the Churches of God in all Ages have believed is that very Person who was promised to the Fathers to come as the Messiah or Saviour of the World Fourthly That the Apostles and Evangelists in the New Testament do hold forth unto us such a Christ as was really and truly God and Man Hypostatically united in one Person and who did in a real and proper sense satisfie Gods Justice for our sins and purchase eternal Salvation for us by his Merits On this Rock is the Church of God built Matt. 16.18 On this have every one of us built our particular Faith and in this we had need to be fully and persectly setled And he that is confirmed in the truth of these four Positions is confirmed in the whole Doctrine of the Gospel Let us then proceed by the assistance of the good Spirit of God to the opening and confirming of them in order CHAP. VI. The first Proposition confirmed in its two Branches viz. First That God did promise to the Fathers of the Old Testament to send his Son into the World to take our Nature upon him Secondly That he promised that in the Vnion of these two Natures he should perform all those Offices which were necessary in order to our Redemption and Salvation ALL the Promises of God are Yea 2 Cor. 1.20 and Amen Faithfulness and Truth as being the Words of the God of Truth Tit. 1.2 who cannot lye Hath he spoken it and shall it not stand Hath he promised and shall he not make it good Mat. 5.18 Behold Heaven and Earth shall pass
those who willingly entertain the truth and he drew unto him divers Jews and Greeks to be his followers This was Christ who being accused by the Princes of the Nation before Pilate and afterward condemned to the Cross by him yet did not they who followed him from the beginning forbear to love him for the ignoming of his death for he appeared to them alive the third day after according as the divine Prophets had before testified the same And divers other wonderful things of him and from that time forward the Race of Christians who derived their name from him hath never ceased Thus we see Josephus confesseth the great works which he did and withall the truth of his Doctrine and certainty of his Resurrection And which we may greatly wonder at he who in flattery had before called Vespasian the Messiah when he comes to write this History whether it overslipped him or whether it was forced from him by the over-ruling hand of God he confesseth that this Jesus was the Christ. Yea the Turks cannot but confess that Jesus did very many great and wonderful works and therefore they preferr him before Moses and set him next to their Mahomet and say He was a good man and a great Prophet And some of the Jews say that Jesus was a very holy man and highly in favour with God who enabled him to do all these works and yet they will not believe him to be the Messiah Pilate himself who condemned him most unjustly to death yet is said afterward to have written to Tiberius a relation of his many Miracles Whereupon Tiberius was willing to admit him into the number of their gods and wrote to the Senate to that end But the Senate refused alledging one of their Laws that none should be admitted into the number of their gods but whom the Senate did first propose themselves Which as it shews the vanity of minde to which even the wiser sort of the Heathens were delivered up that they could conceit that they could either keep out him who was truly God by a Vote in the Senate or by a more favourable Vote when they were in a kinder mood make him a God who was none before So it â—hâ—ws the Providence of God in not permitting his own blessed Son who as to his divine Nature was equal to the Father to be ranked amongst them that were no gods as equal with them The Evasion whereby some of the modern Jews are said to endeavour to keep off this Argument from the Miracles which Jesus wrought from convincing them that he was the true Messiah is so absurd that the very mentioning of it will proclaim it ridiculous They say that as to those works which he did he came to do them by this means He got once into the Holy of holies and stole out thence the name Jehovah which was there written upon a Plate of Gold and for fear lest it should be taken from him he cut a hole in his Thigh and put the Plate therein and by vertue of that Name they say he did all those miracles Every man will easily see the absurdity of this without my spending of words to confute it However hereby it is evident that men of all Nations and Professions are convinced of the many miracles which Jesus wrought when he was upon Earth And forasmuch as he wrought these on purpose to confirm the truth of his being the Messiah that was promised we may therefore conclude that this Truth is hereby setled as such a Rock that the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail against it The second Argument 2 Argument shall be drawn from Jesus his fulfilling all the Prophesies that went before concerning the Messiah All things did concur in his Person which were foretold concerning the Person of the Messiah and all things were done and suffered by him that were foretold to be done and suffered by the Messiah and therefore he was the true Messiah This was another great Argument which Jesus himself used Search the Scriptures for they are those that testifie of me John 5.39 And tells them that if they did not shut their eyes they might plainly see all things so exactly fulfilled in him that if they did not believe in him Vers 45 46 47. Moses himself would bear witness against them For if they had believed Moses writings and rightly understood them they would have believed Jesus to be the Messiah So when Jesus after his Resurrection was going with the two Disciples to Emmaus Luk. 24.25 26 27. he began at Moses and so through all the Prophets expounded unto them those things which were written concerning himself and blames them for that they had searched and understood the writing of the Prophets no better Acts 17.2 3. And the Apostle Paul at Thessalonica entered into the Synagogue three Sabbath dayes And reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ And again it is said elsewhere Acts 18.28 that St. Paul mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus is Christ It is very observable that the Evangelists in relating many of the passages of our Saviours life do refer to the Prophesies that foretold these things This and This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by this and the other Prophet and then was fulfilled the saying of the Prophets c. Luk. 24.44 So Jesus saith These are the words that I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Yea he was so exact in accomplishing all the Prophesies that when he was upon the Cross in extremity of pain and knew that all things were fulfilled save only that one Prophesie which foretold that they should give him Vinegar to drink he therefore gives occasion for the fulfilling of it before he would die John 19.28 Vers 30. and when that was done he said It is finished and then gave up the Ghost Now that we may be the more sensible how Jesus did fulfil all the Prophesies that went before concerning the Messiah let us consider it in these several Branches 1. It was foretold that the Messiah should spring from the Loyns of Abraham and in the Line of the House of David Gen. 22.18 and Chap. 49.8 Isa 11.1 Now this was exactly fulfilled as we see Mat. 1. Luk. 3. where the Pedegree is traced up to David and thence to Judah and so to Abraham And for this very purpose we may conceive these Genealogies to be set down even to satisfie us that Jesus came of these Families as it had been foretold concerning him 2. It was foretold that he should be born of a Virgin Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall
blessed for ever Rom. 5.9 to be Davids Son Mat. 22.42 and Davids Lord also There were also some other things foretold concerning the Messiah As that he should call the Gentiles enter into the second Temple ruine the Idols of the Heathen silence their Oracles c. But of these I have spoken in the last Chapter Also there are some lesser matters as that he should be called a Nazarite that he should be brought up and preach in Galilee and the like But these things which I have mentioned are some of the chief things that are contained in the Prophesies concerning the Messiah To sum up therefore the Argument If all things that were foretold concerning the person of the Messiah or concerning what he should do and suffer upon earth did concur in that Jesus in whom we believe then may we conclude him to be the true Messiah But all things did concur in his person as to his Conception Birth c. and all things were done and suffered by him which the Prophers foretold concerning the Messiah Therefore we may undoubtedly believe that the same Jesils in whom we believe is the true Messiah who was promised to come into the world CHAP. IX The fourth Proposition confirmed viz. That the Apostles and Evangelists of the New Testament do hold forth unto us such a Christ as was really and in a proper sense God and Man hypostatically united in one Person And who did in a real and proper sense satisfie Gods justice for our sins and purchase eternal Salvation for us by his Merits WE have proceeded so far as to shew evident proof of these truths that the Son of God was promised to the fathers of the Old Testament to take our Nature upon him and to become our Saviour and that the time for the fulfilling of these Promises yea the set time is long since come and withal that the same Jesus in whom we believe is that very Messiah who was promised to the fathers And me-thinks to men of moderately clear Reason and competent Modesty this might be sufficient both to satisfie all doubts and also to stop their mouths from cavilling at or contradicting our Christian Faith But because first there are a generation of people so wise in their own eyes that they conceit themselves to see something more in the name of Christ then the Churches of God in all ages have seen And secondly do talk of a perfection of righteousness by walking up to the dictates of I know not what light within And thirdly do seek for the confirmation of all points of Faith out of the New Testament as if the Old Testament were too old to be good I shall therefore for the convincing of these men if possible or at least for the stopping of their mouths and withal for the strengthning of our Faith against the cavils of seducers without and the suggestions of Satan within endeavour from the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists to prove First that Christ was really such as we believe him to be and such as the Prophets foretold him to be The Son of God made Man or The Word made Flesh Secondly that he did fully and in a true and proper sense make satisfaction to Gods justice for our sins and that there is no way to be saved but by his Merits First That Christ was such as we believe him to be and such as the Prophets did foretel that he should be viz. God and Man or the Word made flesh Deut. 17.6 By the mouth of two or three witnesses saith God in the Law shall every word be established And it is our comfort that God hath given us not onely two or three witnesses Heb. â—2 1 but even a whole cloud of witnesses to establish this Word of Faith Christ chose twelve Apostles to be witnesses of what he did and spake upon earth and besides them there are many other witnesses of this Truth First the Angels whose Ministry God was pleased to use in the revealing of this great Mystery to the World Before he was conceived in the Womb the Angel speaking to Zacharias calls him The Lord as to his Divine Nature Luke 1.17 and speaks of his coming after John Baptist as to his humane Nature And speaking to the B. Virgin v. 30.31 he tells her that she should conceive in her Womb and bear a Son This notes his humane Nature And he shall be called The Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall â—ive him the Throne of his father David This notes the truth of his Divinity And â—hen he was conceived in the Womb Mat. 1.20 21. an Anâ—el tells Joseph that That which was conceived in the Blessed Virgin was of the holy Ghost and that she should call his Name Jesus because he should save his people from their sins Behold both his Humanity in his Conception and his Divinity in his Office to save his people And again when he was born the Angel saith to the Shepherds Luk. 2.10 11. To you is born a Saviour which is Christ the Lord he is born this notes his Humanity he is Christ the Lord that notes his Divinity Again after his Resurrection an Angel saith unto the Women that Christ who was crucified was risen up again Mat. 28.5 6. That shews that he was truely man Come see the place where the Lord lay Act. 1.11 That shews him to be truely God Yea after he was ascended into Heaven they say of him This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven his Ascention which was a change of Place notes his Humanity his coming to Judge the world his Divine Power and Authority So that all along the Angels witness him to be truely God and truely Man 2. We have the testimony of many Pious Persons in the New Testament which though to a Jew or Heathen it be of little value yet to all that profess obedience to the holy Scriptures it is of great moment Let us see the confession of Zachary Luk. 1.68 He calls him the Lord God of Israel who had visited his people so as to Redeem them a clear testimony of both his Natures vers 43. And Elizabeth calleth the Blessed Virgin vers 47. The mother of her Lord. And the Blessed Virgin her self calls him that was conceived in her Womb The Lord her Sauiour a clear proof of his two Natures 3. John Baptist gives testimony to this whose testimony may well be reckoned distinctly from other Saints because he was sent especially about this Message to bear witness of Christ Joh. 1.29 He calls him The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Here he gives Testimony both to his Divinity in that he was able to make satisfaction to Gods justice and to take away sin and to his Humanity in that he was a Lamb that had a body to sacrifice
them in mind that without shedding of blood the blood of Christ the Lamb of God there could be no remission of sin obtained And that their laying their hand upon the sacrifice that was offered up for them might stir them up to put forth an hand of Faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ And by washing their bodies in water they might be put in mind Zech. 13.1 to apply themselves to that Fountain set open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness That this was the signification of their ceremonial Cleansings and Expiations and that Christ by the sheding of his blood did accomplish that for us really and effectually which was shaddowed in these Ceremonies is very evident in that of the Apostle Heb. 1.12 Not by the blood of Calves or Goats as the high Priest amongst the Jews was wont to enter into the most holy Place but by his own blood he entred once into the holy Place having obtained eternal Redemption for us Hence he sheweth the excellency of Christ's sacrifice beyond those Typical sacrifices Those Priests offered often He offered but once they entred into the holy Place made with hands He into the holy Place made without hands even into Heaven whither he went as our Head to prepare a place for us and to shew that he had purchased eternal Redemption for us and an interest in that Inheritance which he went to take possession of for us And he goes on to argue à fortiori Vers 13. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh in a legal sense Vers 14. then how much more shall the blood of Christ c Seeing the Sacrifice which Christ offered was of infinit value as being offered up by the Eternal Spirit or Divine Nature which was Hypostatically united to the humane Nature it is therefore sufficient to make a full and perfect Attonement for us And further Vers 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament c. Which shews very evidently that Christ was the thing intended by those ceremonial Oblations that his blood did that in a real and effectual manner which those sacrifices did Legally and Typically and withal that his death was intended purposely for the Redemption of Transgressions 4. It is said Gal. 3.13 that Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us He was subject to that accursed death and to the wrath of God for the present for this end that he might deliver us from this wrath and curse of God and from that eternal death which our sins had made us liable unto There was no reason for Christs suffering as to any thing in himself 1 Pet. 1.22 Vers 24. For He had done no evil neither was any guile found in his mouth but he bare our sins in his body upon that Tree whereon he suffered that shameful painful and accursed death 5. The Apostles do plainly pronounce that we are redeemed by the death of Christ The Apostle Paul saith Rom. 3.24 25. We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption of Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiation through Faith in his blood Here the Apostle doth expresly say that Christ is a Redeemer and a Propitiation for us and shews us that the onely way to have our sins pardoned is by Faith in his blood So the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.18 19. We are redeemed not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the most precious blood of Christ that Lamb without spot and blemish To which agrees that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 1.30 He is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption And again 1 Cor. 6.20 2 Pet. 2.1 1 Tim. 2.5 6. We are bought with a price And St. Peter calls Christ The Lord that bought us So elsewhere it is said There is one God and one Mediatour between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for us To this agrees that Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the remission of sins And further chap. 2.14 The Hand-writing that was against us is said to be nailed to his Cross 6. St. Paul tells us That Jesus Christ hath purchased that Righteousness for us which we could not obtain by the works of the Law that is by our own personal Obedience to the Law of God If man had from his first Creation continued in perfect obedience to the Law of his Creator there would have been no need of Christs dying But man had sinned and come short of this Obedience and therefore Christ died to expiate this guilt which we had contracted by our disobedience Gal. 2.21 If righteousness come by the Law saith the Apostle then Christ died in vain There would have been no need of Christs death if man could have been righteous by his own good works but Christ therefore died because we were condemned before God and he took our guilt upon him Acts 13.39 And By him all that believe are justified from all those things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses God sent forth his Son made of a Woman Gal. 4.4 made under the Law subject to the obedience and to the curse of the Law to redeem them that were under the Law 7. The Apostles tell us That whatsoever Christ did or suffered it was for our sakes and to purchase Reconciliation and Salvation for us Rom. 4.25 He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification and our sins are said to be forgiven us 1 Joh. 2.12 for his Names sake In which respect Christ calls his flesh our meat Joh. 6.57 and his blood our drink because as our bodies are kept alive by Bread so are our souls by his Merits As the living Father hath sent me and I live by him so he that eateth me that is applies me to his soul by Faith he shall live by me By these and many other Testimonies of the Evangelists and Apostles of Jesus Christ it is sufficiently evident to every man whose eyes are not blinded by the God of this world that Christ did offer up himself an Expiatory sacrifice for our sins and that through his Merits and Sufferings alone it is that we obtain the forgiveness of our sins and eternal Salvation CHAP. X. From the foregoing Discourses two Cautions are deduced First That we take heed of laying any other Foundation then that which is laid viz. Jesus Christ Three sorts of Persons that build beside this Foundation Secondly That we take heed what we build upon this Foundation WE have seen the
also the prevalency of this Temper is many times conspicuous To this many of their groundless Doubts and fears as to their spiritual Estate do owe their beginning which though they represent themselves as the fruits of tenderness of Conscience and are seldom or never to be found but in persons of truly tender Consciences as many bad weeds do not grow but in the best soyl yet they are evil in themselves as being a false judgement passed upon our selves and a denying the great things which God hath done for our souls and as to their tendency which is ordinarily the hindering of the soul from its vigorous actings in good duties and from taking due comfort in the performances which Gods Spirit hath carried it through These I say are to be imputed to the constitution of the body helped on by Satans Temptations If any enquire upon hearing this How we may distinguish these workings of Fancy from the true and genuin Motions of Conscience and truly know what impulses we are to follow and what to reject I answer 1. Look to the Constitution of thy Body or if thou hast not much skill in such matters be content to receive the advice of those that are able and competent Judges of it Art thou of a sanguin Constitution and findest the motions that solicite thee to a prosecution of them to be of that nature Or art thou naturally inclined to Melancholy and findest such motions in thee as are suitable to that humour It will be a great right done to Conscience to forbear to impute those motions to it which our own Reason may shew us to come from another cause 2. Observe when the temper of thy Body doth alter and see whether these motions and inclinations do alter with it It is sufficiently evident that the temper of mens bodies doth admit of alteration The Sanguin temper will alter by age or sickness or worldly cares The Melancholick will vary by change of Air or Dyet or by the use of Physick beside those lucid intervals wherein most Melancholick persons do meet with an abatement of that humour Now ask thy own experience whether these motions do not ebb and flow according to the abating and encreasing of these Distempers in thy body If so there is great reason to impute these motions and inclinations not to Conscience but to the temper of thy body and it would be a great wrong to the sacred name of Conscience to father them upon it Secondly Even the motions of Lust will sometimes deceive us under the pretence of being the dictates of Conscience This may seem very strange to them that have never been willing to put themselves to the trouble of examining the motions which they have followed whence they have come But it is very palpable to every man that with a discerning eye and unbyassed mind looks upon them Sometimes the lust of the Eye Covetousness and Ambition lapps it self in the Mantle of Conscience Come see my zeal 2 King 10.16 for the Lord of Hosts saith Jehu when every man knows that it was somewhat else and not true zeal that made him drive so furiously Yea some may go so far as not only to deceive others but themselves also in this point as in their denying Tythes and other Payments 't is too too palpable that Covetousness hath taken the place and office of Conscience and yet sets so bold a face upon it as if it were pure Conscience that guided these men to such practises Sometimes that lust of malice and revenge may put us forward to serve it under the notion of Conscience So the Scribes and Pharisees persecuted Christ out of malice and yet with a great shew of Zeal and Conscience And those others of whom our Saviour fore-tels that they would persecute his Apostles Joh. 16.2 and verily think they did God good service in doing it Now if any enquire of the manner how these lusts come to prevail so far as to deceive us under the name of Conscience I need say no more then I did upon the former Head viz That the Impetuousness of these motions in the mind may be apt to make us mistake them for some extraordinary Inspirations which we ought not to resist But to undeceive us in this point it may be very useful to consider 1. That what motions soever do encline us to any thing that is forbidden by the Law of God are evil and to be rejected Now the motions of lust do alwayes stir us up to do that which is contrary to Gods Law and therefore are to be opposed though never so suitable and grateful to our sensitive appetite Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony we ought to look and whatsoever persons or motions are contrary to that this very thing is sufficient to convince us that they are not of God 2. If we find our selves to be zealously carried forward onely in some things that tend to our own profit or pleasure and careless and remiss in other things we have great reason to conclude these zealous motions not to proceed from Conscience but a worse Principle 2 Kings 10.28 29. Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel and was very zealous in it as that which was a fair pretence for cutting off the house of Ahab that none might be left to lay claim to the Crown and also to dazle the eyes of the people that they might not rise up in opposition to him who shewed himself so zealous in executing the Lords pleasure But from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat the serving of the golden Calves at Dan and Bethel from these he departed not because he thought the continuance of this to be a good piece of policy to keep the people from returning to Jerusalem to worship lest they should also carry back the Kingdom to the House of David Hereby Jehu did discover that it was not zeal for God but Covetousness and Ambition that made him so strict in obeying Gods commands in other respects And if any man find the same temper and tendency in his zeal he will have just reason to suspect the same things concerning it 3. Satans temptations and suggestions may sometimes impose upon men under the notion of Conscience and inspirations from the Spirit of God The Apostle tells us that Satan hath an art to transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 to represent his temptations as the advice of some good Angel or as the motions of the holy Spirit of God He had the impudence to cite the Scripture in his tempting of our Saviour Mat. 4.6 and therefore it is no marvel if he seduce so many ignorant people to pervert the Scriptures for the encouraging of themselves to do that which is quite contrary to the meaning of the Scriptures Yea we have very strong reasons to perswade us that those raptures and Enthusiasms which have possessed some of them have been nothing else but an higher
6. Those that spend more Zeal in crying out against indifferent things then in reproving apparent ungodliness may justly be suspected by us Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest Idols saith the Apostle dost thou commit Sacriledge It is true that in respect of the Authority of him that commands there is no small commandment and the breach of any of Gods Laws is a great sin But yet in respect of the nature of the Command Christ sometimes speaks of a first and great Commandment Mat. 22.38 Mat. 5.19 and sometimes of one of the least Commandments and he that is scrupulous in smaller matters and careless in greater doth betray himself to have a diseased Conscience Sermon on Acts 26.9 as I have elsewhere shewed And therefore those that Cry out with such a loud and bitter cry against things which in the judgement of the soberest of themselves are in their own Nature indifferent as if they were palpable Idolatry and yet have made no bones of sacriledge injustice and shedding of innocent blood it is a shrewd sign that they are Seducers and have a design to impose upon us 7. Those that contradict the sense of the Church of God in all ages are to be suspected as Innovators and that their opinions are rather new then good It is true that the antiquity of an errour doth not excuse it for there have been errours in the Church ever since the time of the Apostles But yet the constant judgement of the Church of God in all Ages concerning any point in controversie or concerning the meaning of any controverted Scripture gives us good encouragement to believe it and to disbelieve them that oppose it because it is not probable that our gracious God would leave his Church in the dark through so many ages and never discover the Truth till now of late 8. Lastly we may know them from the direction that God himself gives us Deut. 18. ult VVhen a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be affraid of him Those that pretend to a gift of prophecy as many have done in our age though they should by often shooting at random hit the Mark sometimes yet if they miss in anything that they foretel as we have seen it in our frequent experience this is a sure sign that the Lord hath not sent them but they speak of their own heads and we have reason to fear that they have not onely belyed the Lord in saying Thus saith the Lord Jer. 23.31 when the Lord hath not spoken but also that they have had a further design even to entice us to the embracing of their errours by these pretences Upon whomsoever we see any of these Marks we have reason to suspect them to be of those that lye in wait to deceive and therefore should avoid them and take Solomons counsel Prov. 19.27 to Cease or forbear to hear the instruction that tends to cause us to err from the ways of Wisdom To conclude I shall give you a recapitulation of what hath been spoken a little varying from my former Method You have heard 1. That there are many Winds of false doctrine stirring to try who are stable 2. That Seducers use a great deal of subtilty and diligence lying in wait to deceive 3. That a great number are by them tossed to and fro and carried about 4. That even those that are of honest affections and good lives are in danger of being ensnared by them and therefore he that thinketh he standeth should take heed lest he fall 5. That especially those that are children and weak in knowledge are in great danger and consequently that we should labour to be men and not children in understanding 6. Lastly that God hath appointed the Office of the Ministry in the Church as a special preservation from errours Now the Lord Joh. 5.29 of his Mercy grant to all of us Grace and Wisdom to search the Scriptures 1 Joh. 4.1 and to try the spirits whether they be of God and to hold fast the Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 now when so many have made shipwrack of both that so we may not be drawn away with the errour of the wicked to depart from our own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3.17 18. but may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Grant this O Lord we beseech thee through the Merits of thy dear Son and the working of thy Holy Spirit To which glorious Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without end Amen FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR HEAVENLY WISDOM described by its seven Properties An ASSIZE SERMON Preached in the CATHEDRAL at SARVM July 9th 1665. at the Wiltshire-Assizes Before the Right Honourable his Majesties Judges of Assize and Nisi Prius for the WESTERN Circuit In the Sheriffalty and at the request of THOMAS MOMPESSON Esquire By Paul Lathom M. A. Pro. 4.7 Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding Printed by T. M. 1666. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR Heavenly WISDOM described By its Seven PROPERTIES James 3.17 But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie WIsdom is the soul of Nature the eye of the Soul the light of the Eye the sun of that Light the copy of Heaven the standard of the Earth the helm of Reason the guardian of Life the glory of Men the mirror of Angels the shaddow or reflection of God himself who is as the Psalmist speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 covered with Light as with a Garment Psal 104.2 It is Wisdom that makes a man Denizon of the upper Regent of the lower World correspondent of both Without which we should be but clods of moving Earth steept to dirt in Phlegm and kneaded into humane shape This general term Wisdom divides it self ut analogum in sua analogata into worldly Policy moral Prudence and Christian Wisdom Worldly Policy trades in the World as its City from whence it seems to take its name Now all that is in the world is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.18 or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasures Profits or Honours That which designes riches as its end our Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earthly that which designes pleasures Jam. 3.15 he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sensual that which designes honour he stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devilish because it imitates that great sin of the Devil Pride And of all worldly wisdom in general St. Paul pronounceth that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolishness before God 1 Cor. 3.19 Moral Prudence whether we take it for a practical