Hearts and affections with Peace that when he shall return to make inquisition for blood transgression and sin we may by him and that league and Covenant of Peace concluded with thee in him be delivered from wrath to come and for him receive forgivenesse of sins and Inheritance among them who are sanctified by Faith in him O let us not have our portion with unbeleevers nor our part with the disobedient for then we shall certainly perish but think upon us O Lord for good that we may be saved with that remnant who have their Robes washed and whitned in the blood of the Lambe who have separated themselves from the children of Belial and Table of Devills and keep themselves unspotted from the World and so both they and we may be presented in our Bodies our Soules and Spirits holy blamelesse and undefiled at the comming of our Lord. Holy God keep as from the contagion of sin and sinners preserve us in thy truth and love in the Vnity and Communion of thy one true holy Catholique Church that having the Seale of Gods Servants in our Forcheads we may cry and sing eternally Salvation to our God who fitteth on the Throne and to the Lambe Amen The CONCLUSION Heb. 11. from the 32. verse to the end of the Chapter And what shall I say more for the time would faile me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Iephthah of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousnes obtained promises stopped the mouthes of Lyons c. THe Apostle now coms to a Conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a preâ—â—â—on cutting short his Discourse and cursorily casting up the residue of the Faithfull which were to be inserted in this Catalogue even all the Succession of Beleevers who lived from the time of the Judges ruling under God in Israel till that present Age wherein he Wrote to these Hebrews nominating onely some shortly touching their works and patience intimating onely and hinting at others by their acts and sufferings by which we may guesse and conjecture at their Names and Persons And having thus compleated his Designe and Canon he gives a full Testimoniall and Certificate of approbation in the two last Verses both of these thus in the close either expressed or alluded to and of those foregoing whom he had honoured with a larger Narrative and more distinctly and aithfully insisted on and more amply commended I shall therefore here leave my former Method in the respective Observance of the Apostle and summarily and briefly run over these subsequent Examples and Presidents of Faith as they lye here in their severall order contracted and so follow his Abridgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words following in course And what shall I more say If these Hebrews be of tractable and teachable Spirits enough is said already to establish and strengthen them in the holy Faith and what needs more then enough sufficient is said what is more is ex abundantia The time would faile me c. An Hyperbolicall expreson importing thus much So numerous is the company of the Faithfull Ancients and so many their Faithfull Actions in the holy Registery that a full enumeration of them and what is Recorded of and concerning them would exceed the bulk of an Epistolar Exhortation and Remonstrance and rise into a large and exact History These here mentioned will serve strongly to make good the Induction and thereby prove the Position Faith is the substance of things hoped the evidence of things not seen c. and therefore it is unnecessary altogether to enlarge further and therefore also take them more succinctly and compendiously Thus your Painters being to deliniate a Croude or a Thronged Multitude doe not take them whole and in full but draws them out by the Pole and presents you nothing but the tops and crowns of their Heads amassing their bulks altogether Gideon whose faithfull expedition is Recorded Judges 6. and 7. whose stratagem with the number of three hundred men struck a Panick fear into the numerous Mideanitish Army that they Fled and killed each other Baracks Prowesse and Faith was manifested That with a small inconsiderable Body he durst encounter and did totally Rout the vast and well-provided Army of Sisera King Iabins Captain Generall Iudges 4. and 5. Samson follows whose Faith was greater then his admired and renowned strength admired it was because it lay in those excrescences of his Body his Heires which in other Men are of the least use and most weaknesse Renowned it was to a Proverb and deservedly for without any offensive or defensive Weapons by his bare Arme of Flesh he tore in pieces a Lyon like a Kid Iudges 14.5.6 when his Hands were bound he brake the Cords like scorched Flax and being loosed with the law-bone of an Asse flew a thousand Men Iudges 15.14 c. when he was Beseiged and immured by the Philistines he carried away the Gates of the City with the two Posts Barr and all Iudges 16.3 and by leaning upon the two middle Pillart of the House the whole Fabrick dissolved Iudges 16.30 Iephthah is the last mentioned of the Iudges though he was before Samson as Barack was before Gideon who notwithstanding was first here nominated You may finde the History of his Resolution and Noble Attempts against the Ammonites in the defence of Israel Iudges 11. I shall referre you to the Text and leave them after a not very impertinent Digression and two Practicall Observations The Digression aimes at a Fact of Samsons and Iephtha's and depends on these following Quaeries 1. Whether Samson in that his last mentioned Enterprize was not Felo de se guilty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of selfe-murder which not onely the Rule of Faith but reason it selfe condemns as sinfull and unnaturall Arist lib. 5. Eth. cap. 11 But to wave some mens conjectures Saint Augustines Answer seems to me most cleare who accounts this inter beroica an extraordinary act proceeding from an extraordinary motion of Gods Spirit in no wise or case imitable For saith he lib. 1. de Civitate Dei cap. 21. Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat he had a secret or private Order for it And more fully cap. 26. of that Book Non humanitas deceptus sed divinitus jussus nec arrans sed obediens It was not a crime but duty in him And he adds this reason Cum Deus jubet seque jubere sine ullis ambagibus intimat quis obedientiam in crimen vocet quis obsequium pietatis accuset If God command and clearly intimates his command this supersedes the guilt and absolves it from disobedience 2. Concerning Iephtha's Vow Whether it in it selfe were rash Whether he executed this rash Vow and in the Execution thereof did sin against the Law of God This in Saint Augustines judgement is Magna ad dijudicandum difficilima Quaestio Tom. 4. quaest sup Iud. lib. 7. cap. 49. a great
contemplative Heathen as 1. That there is a God ens entium an Eternall being of and from himself the being of all things 2. That this God is to be Worshipped as the Soveraigne Infinite Wise Good All-sufficient Creator 3. That because he is Infinitely Wise and Good therefore he is not to be Worshipped Formally but Devoutly and Piously Animadverto ipsos Deos Plin. in Pan. ad Traj Imp. non tam occuratis adorantium praecibus quam innocentia sanctitate laetari And he tells in the very beginning of that Oration That it was an Institution and thereupon a Custome among them Vt rerum agendarum initium à precationibus caperunt quod nihil rite c. And thus farr sober Reason and Nature may conduct us But then holy Religion and Faith super-adds 4. That the devout holy Worship of God is to Worship him according to his will and Word which is the Revelation of his will and that Part which concerns his Worship we usually terme his Ordinances and Institutions 5. That those Ordinances and Institutions the Observation whereof is the Worshipping of God according to his will being no dictates of Reason nor determinations of Nature but Decrees of Gods Wisedom we must not canvas nor dispute them but reverently and humbly performe them Rom. 9.20 6. That the Dutifull Reverend Devout and hamble observance of those Institutions God in his wisedom hath prescribed is a most proper act of Faith And it is observed of Moses here By Faith or through Faith he kept the Passe-over and the sprinkling of blood c. The first Part. Q. How did Moses evidence his Faith in this Ordinance and the observation of this rite A. The Answer is obvious and is branched into three resolves any of which will clear the Devotion and Faith of this service 1. Moses did what he had speciall warranty and strong Authority for he did what for the matter and how for the manner as he was commanded in which respect Moses is said to he faithfull in all his Masters house Heb. 3.2 as a trusty diligent servant what he had order for concerning either the Common-wealth or Church of the Hebrews their rites and offices of Religion or the duties of policy their sacred or civill affaires he proclaimed enacted celebrated observed and executed 2. Moses having sufficient security and good assurance from God that the Sprinkling of the Blood upon the Deoreposts would be a signall difference to the destroying Angell that he could not mistake in his designe staggered not through unbeleife that is disputed not the improbabilities of the attempt canvassed not the impotency of the means nor scrupled the successe but kept to his first hold and principles Gods promise and veracity 3. Moses in this rituall contemplated Christ the true Passe-over and this service was a Typicall representation of the Blood of Sprinkling the Lambe of God Jesus Christ who is our Passe-over 1 Cor. 5.7 This anser I rather approve for these Reasons 1. Because this sutes most with the Apostles designe which was To comfort the Hebrews in their sufferings for Christ And thus he seemeth to Argue à minore ad majus from the lesse to the greater If your former Fathers according to the Flesh of whom you are come by the killing of a Lambe and effusion of its Blood rested ascertained of Gods favour and their Deliverance from the Egyptian Captivity then much more ought you their Successors who have Christ the true Lambe of God Sacrificed for you and his Blood shed to be strong in faith and firmly resolved of Gods greater savour who hath supplyed you with greater assurance and of your Deliverance from your present pressures and future Enemies and from your last and worst Enemy Death and him who had the power of Death the Devill and so this corresponds perfectly with the more formall and direct argumentation Heb. 9.13.14 For if the Blood of Bulls and Geats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God 2. This Exposition seems to continue the Apostles allusion Heb. 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings where he represents Christ made perfect by sufferings as the first-born of the Israelites consecrated for the whole Succession and the Devill who had the power of Death to the destroying Angell And then makes the paralell and thus amplifies it As the miraculous preservation of the First-born was to your Progenitors an assurance of their after Deliverance so the perfecting of Christ by sufferings doth at once both sanctifie and enoble your present sufferings and secures you of an after Redemption and state of Glory So that the result from these premised suppositions is this You Hebrews have stronger grounds of consolation and greater expressions of mercy and grace then was indulged or licensed to your Predecessors even in Moses his time when God deals most powerfully and mercifully with them and was most free and full in the declarations of his mercy They had but the Sprinkling of Blood for a Testimony You have the blood of sprinkling given you for so this favour is called Heb. 12.24 they the blood of a Lambe out of the Flock You the Blood of the Lambe of God who is also the great Shepherd of your Soules They had Moses to Solemnize this You have Christ the Mediator Moses his Lord and Master in his own Person to sacrifice this Q. But what was this Passe-over A. That Feast or Solemnity so called or a memoriall of the Passe-over For at that Feast they did Eat the Lambe in memory of the Angells passing by the Hebrews in the fatall destruction of the First-born of Egypt and then also they departed thence So that it either Denotes the Lambe then Eaten or the whole Feast all the whole Sacramentall-action is the Passe-over Exod. 12.11 27. And thus shall ye eat it with your loynes girded your shooes on your feet and your staffe in your hand and ye shall cat it in hast it is the Lords Passeover And ye shall say It is the sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the Housee of the Children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our Houses And Ezod 13.9 ver And it shall be for a figne unto thee upon thine hand and for a memoriall between thine eyes that the Lords Law may be in thy mouth for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egyht Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he kept the Passeover and the sprinkling of Blood that Feast and Solemnity of the Passeover and that commemorative Rite or Sacraement of the Sprinkling of Blood Q. But how did Moses keep
is alwayes Victorious whether he Conquer by Prowesse or by Patience If Faith teach not his Hand to fight yet it will teach his Body to suffer it either acts wonderfully or endures nobly And there is as much gallantry nay truely more because greater magnanimity in cheerfull undergoing of hardnesse then involuntary undertaking For undertakers and very forward ones too many times faint and flag and give over whereas a sufferer shews his resolution and clears all suspition of falshood or inconstancy to his undertaking Indeed a true Beleever is the same in every contingency and state of affaire and is equally resolved and disposed both for prosperity and adversity and when most afflicted his Faith is most glorious for then it appears in those eminent Graces of humility meeknesse resignation c. which otherwise perhaps had been obscured And so it is of very faithfullnesse that God suffereth the faithfull to suffer even that the tryall of their Faith might be much more precious then Gold though tryed with fire 1 Peter 1.7 The Devill and the World opposeth to them the Passengers Argument to Christ on the Crosse If thou be the Son of God come downe from the Crosse c. Mat. 27.40 And is it not a notable reply to answer with Christ in Prayer by Faith Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me yet not my will but thine be done It was a weaknesse in Gideon to argue thus with the Angel If the Lord be with us why then it all this befallen 〈◊〉 Judges 6.13 A strange reasoning to a considering man to conclude God doth net love because the World hates this certainly is an infirmity in Faith and David acknowledgeth so much though withall he acknowledgeth himselfe to have been overtaken with it and so continued until he neut into the House of God and diligently enquired after the wayes of Gods Providence and there he found though the depth of his judgements are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out what was obvious and legible That no successe or prosperity of the wicked hath power enough to make them happy or entitle them to Gods favour no adversity or crosse emergent can make without any sullen Stoicisme a godly man miscrable Psal 73. Because and his Reasons are strong the wicked man in his best estate hath no hold hat what will fayle him when be most needs and need he must but the Godly hath a strong hold which as long as he is godly will be a Sanctuary and Protection to him his dependance and hope in God who never fayleth them who trust in him Saint Paul gives us an experiment of this truth That God loves when he chasteneth for we are saith he 2 Cor. 4.8.9 perplexed that may very well be and frequently it is so because of impendent or incumbent sadnesses and disasters but not in dispaire for we live by Faith and our hope is an anker of the soule both sure and stedfast Persecuted we may be we must be Ye shall have tribulation saith Christ Iohn 16.33 Shall suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 forsaken ye cannot be For what can separate us from the love of God in Christ Romans 8.39 Cast downe humbled 2 little but not destroyed not cast off or rejected and this condition is so farr from being miserable that it is honourable and comfortable The former is expressed in the 10.11.14 Verses The latter in the 16.17.18 Verses Nay an Ancient goes yet higher Quanto quis severius patitur tazto melius coronabitur the greater their crosses the more glorious shall be their crownes the more their crosses the more their crownes And agreeably to this the Schoolemen have assigned and assured to the Martyrs the largest share and measure in the accidentalls of Eternall blisse what is over and above the essentialls belonging to them Aquinas Suppl per 3. qu. 96. art 12. How true this supposition is that there are such accidentalls of beatitude and that they are belonging to Martyrs I define not yet I beleeve this to be among the Piè Credenda But this I am sure of is an infallible Divine Truth That whether God chastise his Children with Rods as he doth every Son or cherish them with externall additions whether they be in adversity or prosperity he is equally a Father to them in both estates and equally a Father of mercies Hebr. 12.5 c. to them And as in all so chiefly in these dispensations he hath ends and purposes of Infinite Wisedome and Goodnesse and God is pleased by these unpleasant Providences to manifest his own glorious Attributes and his servant eminent Graces So they prove excellent Methods to set forth Gods glory and set forward mans salvation for hereby God makes known his infinite Power and Wisedome by bringing light out of darknesse good out of evill extracting Cordialls and Restoratives out of Poyson curing desperate distempers by corrections his infinite goodnesse suffering the Bush to burne but not to wast and consume the Body to smart but the Soule to joy the Body to be weak but the Spirit strong in the Lord and in the power of his might sustaining their infirmities and supporting in their greatest sadnesses even to a Miracle Vt intelligeritis neminem esse qui ant sine ratione velit poename subire aeut tormenta siue Deo possit sustinere saith Minutius Faelix Oct. None would suffer those torments Christians did unlesse they had good grounds for it neither indeed could any suffer them unlesse he had a good God an Almighty Father to hold him up and succour him And yet as the same Ancient Quod corporis vitia sentimus patimur non est poenae militia est Their sufferings are not truely punishments they are exercises and conquests over the World the malice of men and corruptions and rebellions of lust and nature But besides this The patient submission and resignation of Gods servants under the Crosse discovering Graces which otherwise would be concealed and unknown Had not Job contested with and baffled the Devills policy and pretences by his dependance on God in the greatest miseries the Devill could invent or inflict his Faith and fincerity had been either under suspition or under a Cloud his constancy and adhaerence to God in those great conflicts and tryalls both cleared and experimented his innocency for in such exigents the case is cleared That God is beleeved loved and obeyed in and for himselfe without any mereinary servile respects Christ is followed for his Doctrine not his Loaves The innocent sufferer that endures for Gods sake all the evills of the World cannot be suspected to drive a secular designe it is evident he seeks for Heaven and the enduring substance in that continuing City Times of suffering times of tryall then we are Christs probationers whether we be fit to be admitted into the society and number of his Disciples then Christs Souldiers and whether we be fit to be listed into the Roll and taken into their
things of good report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.8 For though it be true that a good report and opinion of men be no good foundation to build upon yet it is a good stone in the building and he that intends to rayse a faire Structure must not onely have a good Foundation that is for the most part invisible but he must have faire stones which alwayes appear a good report is a good mans comfort not his confidence that wherein he may rejoyce not that whereunto he must trust and he will seek it not so much that he may find it as it may follow him not because he affects it but deserves it Sequi debet gloria non appeti It is servile to Court a good name it is dessolute to contemne it But though these all obtained a good report yet they obtained not the Promises God having provided c. Not the Promises that is not the objects or things Promised or rather the full draugth of what was represented in those Promises For indeed Promises they had and they received what was Promised in particular reference unto themselves as it is above expressed ver 33.34 But the generall Promife or that happinesse which concerned them as a community or whereof they were participate as a full body or society with all Beleevers from Abel to the end of the World with all these their Predecessors and all their Successors in the holy Faith they received not inasmuch as this consisted in a state of perfection which they could not receive till they were incorporated into the society of Beleevers under the Dispensation of the Gospel and New Testament for whom it was chiefly and principally intended without whom none of all these were in a capacity to receive this perfect consummation and blisse So that here the enquiry will be First What was the Promise which they received not What the provision made for us What the full perfection of all both them and us But because one Resolution will satisfie all these Demands and Interrogatories And the clearing any one of the three will be the decision and finall determination of the rest Therefore I shall return onely one Answer to the Quaeries yet in order thereunto I shall give you the severall conjectures and judgements which I find in this instance declare what I conceive most rationall and satisfactory allowing to others the same liberty which I challenge to my selfe to take what they like best or ought to doe according to the Rules of Art and Religion And there are foure severall Opinions in this Point The first and in my conceit the worst as being meerly conjecturall and phantasticall is the received interpretation and common Tenet of the present Romish Doctors who affirme That these received not the promise because immediately after death they were not received into Heaven But as they fancy the separated foules of these faithfull ones departed into a subterraneous place bordering upon the confines of Hell or rather the upper or higher Region of Hell which they call Limbus Patrum where they were in durance and detained Prisoners untill Christs Ascention into Heaven whereupon having received their liberato and dismission they were received and admitted into the Seat of Glory Whereas Beleevers under the Gospel have an higher Priviledge thereby even to passe immediately after their departure into Heaven This is their Resolution But in truth what measures or degrees of felicity these all received by Christs Ascention or what immunities or liberties is not the postulate or matter of inquiry here For it will be granted that they received larger favours then before were indulged to or allowed them and that thereby their joyes and felicities were encreased and multiplyed For if the Angels themselves obtained by Christs comming into the World an addition and augmentation of light and knowledge and so consequently of glory and happinesse as the Apostle very positively assirmes they did Eph. 3.10 that new c. then we need not scruple to give to the Soules of Beleevers some accidentall measures and increments of felicity thereby neither can it be any prejudice to the Faith to acknowledge that God would and did perfect their beatitudes and blisse at divers times and in different degrees for their blisse was not completed simul semel altogether and at once and that the most eminent principall and noblest perfection was reserved for this great solemnity of Christs Resurrection and Ascention And yet further it may be granted as very probable that the degrees of future happinesse shall be proportioned to the measures and degrees of Grace and Revelation which God hath respectively and in severall successions imparted to his Church And if so then it will follow That as confessedly God hath exhibited greater abundance of Revelation and Grace unto the Beleevers under the Gospel then to those under the Law so those shall be partakers of higher Formes or Sears of happinesse then these all could Neither doe these liberall concessions any whit advantage the Romanists perswasion or conceit because they no way conclude or infer their Position for they peremptorily exclude the Soules of these all from Heaven and not onely so but keep them under restraint confine shut them up in under ground Vaults and Cells not far from Hell And this Position we reject as contrary to an Old Testament Revelation Eccl. 12.7 the spirit returns unto God who gove it Which words of the Wise Man though they doe not in terminis terminantibus expresse Language determine whether their Soules return to God mediately or immediately upon their separation yet the context makes the meaning plain and the Text a clear proof of their immediate return for as the dust immediately after the departure of the Soule returns to what it was even so the Soule after its divorce from the Body returns immediately to its Creator And this is also agreeable to Gods just and gracious dealings with his chosen in all Generations to reward the work of Faith labour of love patience of hope to order and appoint to Travellers when at their Journyes end their resting place To Runners when their Course is finished the Prize To Crown his Souldiers who have fought the good fight of Faith with Glory To receive his Servants when they performed their duty and done their work into his presence and to enter them into their Masters joyes settle and possesse his Children of their Inheritance which resting Place Prize Crown of Glory Glorious Presence Joyes and Inheritance hath been purchased and bought and so demised and granted to the these all in this place as well as to the succeeding Generations For although then Christ had not actually suffered and so they not actually ransomed yet even then he being the Lambe slain before the Foundation of the World Legally or in the Eye of the Law or rather of the just Judge and Soveraigne Lord he did suffer and they were Redeemed inasmuch as God had Decreed that satisfaction made
on the Crosse to his justice should be as available to them as to us and the merits of Christs death as imputable to them as to us And upon that account God accepted these all as his Redeemed ones Even as an honest Creditor will release his Debtor when a faithfull Solvent Surety or undertaker makes satisfaction or gives security to content and according to desire and demand And as Jesus Christ was yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. so the vertue of his death is Eternall both à parte ante and à parte post is from and to all Eternity But besides all this premised we have expresse Evidence for our Plea and Cause for the precedent Verses of this Chapter where it is set down in plain Language that some of these all had passed from Earth to Heaven and particularly instanced in Enoch and Elijah and it s said of Abraham that he looked for a City and that sure was a free Priviledged Place conspicuous eminent and glorious not a close dark hole or Prison and of the Patriarkes that they aymed at Patriam Caelestem an Heavenly Country and that jam tum illis paratum even then prepared for them Heb. 11.10.16 And hereupon Haymo thus concludes Nunc verò quiescunt in animae in heatudine Regui Caelestis ineffabili laetitia perfruontes It seems this conceit of the present Romaniscs was not at that time a Catholike truth or else he was mistaken The second is that of some of the Ancient Fathers who referr this common perfection to be received solely to the day of the Resurrection supposing That no Soules enter into Heaven or enjoyes the beatificall Vision till the day of the generall Resurrection But although the souls be extinguished at the time of their separation from the Body yet they did lye in seeret receptacles in a profound or deep sleep untill the Resurrection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their Glory For so some of them conceive That Heaven shall not be opened till the day of Judgement unlesse to a few priviledged persons And of this opinion was Irenous Iust Martyr Tertull. August Ambrose Iohn 22. and the Greeke Church still maintains it The Text upon which they ground this perswasion is Apoc. 6.9.10.11 I saw under the Altar the soules of them that wore slain for the Word of God c. Indeed there are severall Expositions of this place Some making it Allegoricall Others Figurative c. Whatsoever the true meaning is Certainly the Text strongly proves the Immortality of the humane Soules by their subsistence after separated But whether their Conclusion let others judge Indeed some later Divines have moderated the supposition Neither with the Romanists dooming their soules to inferior Vaults if not infernall Nor placing in severall resting receptacles yet withall allowing them no residence in Heaven the Throne of Gods Glory But they pretend they are carried into Abrahams bosome or which is all one with them to Paradise thus distinguishing Paradise from Heaven which distinction they attempt to prove from these following places of holy Scripture First from Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise From which words they thus argue how concludingly let others examine That Paradise must needs import a Place or Seate of blessednesse because it is promised as a mercifull reward and favour and this reward the enjoyment of the society of Iesus yet Heaven it cannot be because that Kingdom of blisse was not opened till Christ made the first entry and took Possession thereof at his Ascension when he was solemnly inaugurated intoch is Kingly Office And so they Expound Christs descent into Hell to signifie a state of separation or common receptable of Spirits so that with them both are Seats of Glory but the one far excelling the other And this they in the second place strengthen from 2 Cor. 12. supposing Saint Paul had two Revelations One When he was caught up into the third Heaven The other When into Paradise which say they was the place from whence Laezarus his soule was called back But that the chief and highest degree of blisse is reserved for the last day they infer from Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.8 But the now common received opinion which is all I adde by way of censure is That all the soules of the saints departed goe straightwayes to Heaven upon their separation To this purpose compare Heb. 10.19 with Heb. 12.22.23.24 which words seem to have this sense The spirits of the just could not be perfect unlesse they were in Heaven enjoying the society of God Christ and the Angels and by enjoyment of these their being in Heaven is concluded So 2 Cor. 5.1 If our Earthly Tabernacle c. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have immediately thereupon a building of God c. as soon as the Tabernacle is dissolved Otherwise the Apostle would not have said we have but we hope or expect and to expect is but in reference to a reversion to have supposes Possession For here we hope for Heaven we have it not and here we desire we may have For so it follows ver 2. In this we groane c. Yet we would not have desired to be uncloathed ver 4. but upon this account and assurance That as soon as we were uncloathed we would be cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life And further yet We are willing to be absent from the Body that we might be present with the Lord ver 8. of the same Chapter Hence St. Paul saith Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ And St. Stephen when he dyed thus Prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and he Prayed so because he beleeved for this was a Prayer of Faith Iesus would receive his Spirit But super totam materiam we shall anon find as hath been proved and shall be further that waving the supposition upon which this second judgement is given it yet comes neer the mark and the truth if it be not the truth it selfe And therefore we passe to the third The third is that which is commonly asserted by most of the Writers of the Reformed Churches who apprehend this promise to relate to Christs Incarnation and with these the words are thus Paraphrased they obtained not the promises that is The promised Messas had not in their times assumed the humane nature and become flesh So Beza Non obtinuerunt they obtained not that is Eminus viderunt Christum they looked for Christ to come they saw him as Abraham afar off So Major Non sunt consecuti promissionem viz. promissum semen mulieris the promised Seed of the Woman And so Calvin Iunius Piscator and certainly their judgement herein is true the dispensation under Christ more glorious then that under the Law and greater perfections received and better provision made by Christs comming then was before insomuch that our Saviour affirmeth