happiness from his adjudging them thereunto so that he is to all Men their Alpha and Omega in Creation in Redemption in Superiority and Government and in that final irreversible and eternal Judgment he will at last pass upon them Fourthly This important Truth is evident from hence The supreme End of all God's Works is his Glory now 't is plain that the glory God designed to himself by the making and forming of Man 't is all given up and handed unto him in by and through the Son upon that account he that honours the Son honours the Father the creating Work of our Lord Jesus his redeeming Work his mediatory Government all his Workings and Operations by the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts and Spirits of Men and his final Judgment at last they are but to collect and bring in a Revenue of Glory for the Father and when the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father all the Glory of it will for ever center in him This will farther appear the larger View we take of the Particulars First In the Creation of Man by the second Person how greatly does the glory of God's Power manifest it self in bringing into being such a creature as Man first was so stupendiously constituted and ever after so fearfully and wonderfully propagated compounded part of Heaven and part of Earth between an Angel above and a Beast that perisheth below a spark of Divinity and Eternity put into a lump of mouldering Clay intended to be separated after a dreadful manner and as wonderfully to meet again and be reunited such is the Soul breathed into the Body a Creature made able still to mount upwards be guided by his nobler part and cleave to his Maker as his chief good and also under possibility of being influenced by his meaner and lower part and still sinking down into vanity sensuality and folly a Creature so made as to be of everlasting duration and a future Subject of mighty Rewards and Punishments and his Person by reason of the wonderful and unbounded workings of his Soul a Stage of stupendious Transactions wherein the whole Trinity are most eminently manifested all the Angels both above and below most highly concern'd and in which the welfare of all the rest of the Creatures and of this lower part of the World is much bound up this Creature although he may derive himself from the eternal pleasure of all the Persons in the Godhead yet his Creation was the peculiar Act and Operation of the second Persons and the Glory of that Creation results to the Deity through him Secondly The Glory of God's innate Mercy and Goodness is exceeding transparent from hence no sooner had Man lost himself but the flood-gates of Divine Bounty are let open by the undertakings of the Son nothing imaginable nothing possible could so display Divine Grace as Christ's undertaking to leave Heaven and become Man and do what he did for Man's sake no Glass but this could have shew'd at once the compleat and intire Glory of that Attribute the Faculties of Angels and Men though they are large and inquisitive comprehensive and sagacious yet they are quite silenc'd and extasiz'd by this Transaction the Object quite over-matching the Faculty when God gives his Son and himself in him what Creature can think himself into the Heighths and Depths of that Gift or pretend to span its Dimensions in his Imagination all we can utter upon this Subject is what St. Paul in a Sacred Extasie says in the 8th of the Romans What shall we say to these things and improve it as he does there by that holy Interrogation He that has given us his Son will he not with him also freely give us all things Thirdly How transparent is the Glory of God's Justice in punishing Sin upon his own Son and redeeming the World by no less a Sacrifice than the Blood of God this is to exalt the Glory of that Attribute to its utmost heighth and for ever to abase Man and lay him as low as he can be this is a stupendious Instruction to the prophane ignorant World to let them see what Sin is and what the sense is God has of it and how hard a thing it is for a rebellious creature to be reconciled again unto God when we consider the absolute boundless Dominion and Soveraignty God has over us as our Maker and the uncontroulable Authority that is inherent and resides in that infinite Being that gives being to all besides himself and whose Laws are in their nature perfect and the very quintessence of all rectitude we must needs then reflect upon that rebellious Evil and Poyson that is in Sin no contradiction can consist with such a Being as God is and therefore no Man can oppose him and prosper whil'st Man abides in a state of subjection and conformity to him he is happy and nothing can make him miserable but when he turns aside to Rebellion and the Madness and Folly of Sin he becomes naked a dread and terror a frightful Ghost to himself and renders himself exposed to all the Misfortunes and Miseries his Being is capable of Fourthly By the second Person is given up unto God the glory of his rectoral and magistratical Authority over all his Creatures and therefore in the second Psalm God calls him his King being both from him and for him this is done by Christ's Rule and Government as Head of the Church the whole Creation is put into subjection to him and he that is in our own nature our Redeemer and Saviour him has God made to be Ruler and Lord of all By his Government all the Divine Attributes are clearly and evidently display'd all the righteous Methods of Government pursu'd and all the true and noble Ends of it brought about and accomplished All the various Turnings and Windings of Humane Affairs here below as they are under the Mediator's regulation are but subservient to a discovery and manifestation of God's Wisdom his Power his Grace and other Divine Attributes and through them all perfect Methods are pursu'd and at last the right Ends will be attained giving every Man according to his Works and setling Rewards and Punishments in their due places In two respects the Excellency of Christ's Government does chiefly appear 1st In respect of the World as he is King of Nations And 2dly In respect of the Church as he is King of Saints With respect to the World the Glory of Christ's Government appears eminent in these four things 1. In his providential Endeavours in the course and motion of Humane Affairs for their Information Reformation and Salvation bringing Men out of Satan's Kingdom and embodying them with his Church over-ruling things in the course of the World to tend that way his Heart is still upon Salvation and his ultimate design to make Men eternally happy 2. In respect of those spiritual invisible Influences and Convictions by which he more nearly treats with the World about their Eternal Welfare and all
the behalf of Mankind He it is that by his own Arm brings Salvation and singly undergoes the Burden and Weight of all Humane Miseries and Misfortunes the care of all the concerns that belong to Mankind are laid upon him and the recovery of the fallen Posterity of apostate Adam is solely left to his Undertaking Conduct and Manage ever since that first Promise concerning him set forth by the Seed of the Woman Mankind has been his Care and the Church his peculiar Province the Faith of all the Holy Men in the first times was built upon his promised and intended coming It was prophesied of him in the 72 Psalm Prayer also shall be made for him continually that is for his coming and incarnation before he did come and for the success of his Kingdom and his second coming after he was come It is he that hath been with the Church in all Ages and appeared so often to the Fathers in the Patriarchal times in humane shape to confirm their Faith and assure his future Incarnation and when the fulness of time for his being born of a Woman and born under the Law that is standing in Man's steed and obliged to the mediatory righteousness God required from him came the whole course of his Life his Sufferings Death and Resurrection and his Intercession above are all on the Churches account to make a full and ample provision for all the Declensions and Apostasies of Humane Nature and secure Man's Eternal Happiness with himself for ever so that 't is evident that God's making the World at first by the second Person was in order to the discovery of his manifold Wisdom and infinite Grace in redeeming and recovering it by the same blessed Person Thirdly This will appear from hence because that the whole Dominion and Soveraignty over Mankind the intire disposal of Man is committed unto him how correspondent is it to all God's revealed purposes touching his own Glory and Man's Happiness that a mediatory Dominion should be vested in the second Person that the creating and redeeming Right over Man should all concenter in him sometimes we are in Scripture told of his creating Right so in the first of St. John's Gospel He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not sometimes we are told of his Right by Redemption The Father so he himself tells us judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son and the reason given for it is because he is the Son of Man the true Seed of the Woman and the only Mediator between God and Man and upon that account 't is said he will judge the World by that man whom he hath appointed the ordering governing and final disposal of Man belongs alone to this blessed Person he that made us and knew our original frame he alone could best tell how to recover and remake us and from everlasting 't was God's pleasure it should be so In his Redemption all is taken care for all is recover'd and fetch'd back not a Hoof of what was made and lost is left behind there is a Plaister provided for every Sore and a Remedy for every Malady an infinite Treasury of Grace provided and suted to all depraved humane Faculties to unite Man again to his Maker and Redeemer with cords of love and bands of a man to influence the whole Soul of Man to convince his Understanding and govern him in a way of true Wisdom and Knowledge to seize his Affections with the most heart-affecting Motives and most glorious Objects and to fix the unruly Will in a right Path out of which it should never again wander All the Workings since Adam's fall of the Souls of Men towards God and the Influences of God and his Spirit upon them they are all transacted managed and will be finally judged of by the second Person this is the Kingdom of God and the great Realm of Christ within Men not a Divine Whisper into any Man's Breast by the Holy Ghost but 't is from the Mediator and a consequent of his Ordination and Government the great Effect of Christ's ascending Conqueror into Heaven was the sending down the Holy Ghost and till he did so the Holy Ghost could not in that glorious eminent manner appear as afterwards he did for he came from Heaven with the Ratification of that Peace and Reconciliation that Christ had purchased this we are positively told in the 7th of St. John's Gospel The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified It appears to be an eternal determination by the blessed Trinity that till the mediatory Work was all compleated and Christ was ascended and had made his triumphant appearance in Heaven as a Conqueror the Holy Ghost should not be sent down and therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples plainly Unless I go away the comforter cannot come and it is expedient for you upon that account that I do go away for if I go I will send him unto you this is the grand effect of Christ's ascention to procure the descent of the Holy Ghost that great Engine of Salvation the Sword of the Lord in Christ's hand the mighty Operator by which the Mediator erects his Kingdom and without whose Influences upon the Souls of Men to change and remark them no Laws of Grace no Terms of Salvation though never so easie would ever have proved effectual for Man's Recovery and Happiness this is the great effect of what Christ hath purchased for the World for Men to receive an ability from Heaven to believe and obey what God requires of us had not this been the Conditions of the Gospel would have been as little performed as those of the Law this sending down the Holy Ghost from Heaven St. Peter tells us the Angels desire to look into 't is an Allusion unto the Cherâ—bims that were made with their Faces looking upon the Mercy-seat to let us know that the Angels above diligently behold the glorious effects of God's Grace to this lower World and two sights they have had by their attentiveness thereon which were both stupendious and wonderful First The second Person leaving Heaven descending upon Earth becoming Man and making his abode for a time here And secondly Upon his return so soon as the second Person ascended the Holy Ghost coming down to manage all the concerns Christ left behind him here below And as all the Operations of the Holy Ghost upon the Spirits of Men are under the Mediator's Conduct so the Behaviour of all Men is noted in his Book and laid up in his Records in order to a future Judgment which Judgment is of everlasting duration for after he has given up the Kingdom to the Father both the Righteous and the Wicked will for ever remain in the same posture and condition his Judgment left them the Wicked will be for ever miserable by vertue of his Sentence and the Righteous enjoy their everlasting portion of
them they are come to is to Mount Sion of which for the clearer comprehension of the Apostles meaning by it some things may be particularly considered of that Mount as it stood circumstanced under the Law and this in especial that the great Honour that is put upon it in Scripture is principally with respect to the Temple that then stood upon the top of it and which was meant and signified by it this was the place whither all the Males were to come three times a Year and the solemn part of all the Jewish Worship could be no where else performed and their private Worship where ever they were at home or abroad upon Solomon's request to God at the first dedication of it was generally directed towards this place This we may see in the case of Jonah who in the Whale's Belly thought of directing his Prayer towards this Holy Temple and the Prophet Daniel when it was pulled down and lay in Rubbish prayed even then towards it three times a day as we see in the 6th of Daniel This Temple placed upon Mount Sion was the only sanctified House where the mighty God was pleased to take up his dwelling since the World began the Tabernacle was small and ambulatory and but preparative to this glorious sanctified solemn Fabrick the City of Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan were only holy relatively and upon collateral accounts the City with reference to the Temple the place of God's residence but the Temple was inherently Holy made so by God's own dedication and descent into it at the first this was the place where day and night God was served without ceasing according to his own ordination and therefore he is said to love it above all the dwelling places of Jacob. Here the long expected Messiah the Son of God Christ himself was brought and all that the Law required performed about â—im in this Sacred House But sure we are the Apostle intended nothing literal about this Mount his drift is wholly spiritual and therefore having premised thus much of the literal typical State of this Mount we must now examine what it means in this place and as it lyes in the comparison and the sense intended seems very obvious by Mount Sion the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God the same thing is intended and this is the meaning ye are come to all that was typified by them and all that was promised on the Churches behalf to them to every Promise made to the Church under those denominations which is no other but the Gospel-state and the blessed Priviledges and Administrations thereof in its fulness and glory the Apostle declares the meaning of these places to be spiritual and neither of private interpretation nor literal signification that the Jews might cease doting upon them in that low and mean sense and might be convinced that the Gospel vertually contains all that was excellent in them Mount Sion as was before said had its value from the Temple that stood upon it and therefore when the Gospel is prophesied of by it 't is said the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains Now instead of this material Temple every Christian under the Gospel is himself a living Temple of the Holy Ghost a Temple wherein God dwells and all spiritual Worship and Service is continually offered up and the whole Church is one intire living Temple wherein God is always spiritually served so 't is expressed in the 2d of Ephes Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord And he that is arrived at this true Gospel-state and all the glorious Enjoyments of it to have access to the Father through the Son by that one Spirit he is come to the true Mount Sion and the real Temple where God will dwell for ever he abides in the nearest access to God he is capable of and in all those holy and sanctified Qualifications which the Temple signified as it was then the Seat and Center of all the true Worship of God The second thing the Apostle tells the Jews they are come to is the heavenly Jerusalem the City of the living God and although the signification of this is the same with Mount Sion yet it is greatly farthering to the Apostle's design the mention of it that so the Jews might think nothing valuable amongst them was lost but all to be found with great advantage in the profession of the Gospel the whole Religion of that National Church of the Jews being contained in this City and therein vertually comprised the whole state of the Gospel The Catholick Church with great reason and signification under the Gospel every where spread and under no confinement is stiled a City and is called Jerusalem a vast difference there was between coming to that dreadful barren Mount Sinai in the Wilderness of Horeb and the City of the living God Several things are considerable in this City to heighten the comparison taking it to be made either with Mount Sinai or Jerusalem literal 1st The Noble and Honourable Government of this City 'T is governed by the great Charter of the Gospel none have any Rule but the living God himself no Laws are in force here but what come from Christ's own Mouth the Gospel Church is built up and managed as the Temple was which was the soul and glory of this City in every particular by God's own punctual direction and there is his delight there his Soul rests where he is served by Laws of his own composing and enacting 2dly This City is a place of invincible strength and security the Jews knew to their cost the earthly Jerusalem was not so here 's the Mount Sion that cannot be moved the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it 't is sure to remain against all opposition till it be safely taken up into Heaven from whence it came 3dly The Inhabitants of it are all united 't is a City compact together not with carnal and earthly but spiritual Ligaments there is such an union in it as God has chosen and takes pleasure in amidst great variety they have but one Head they all minister under him as fellow-citizens for the good of each other they are all guided and animated by one Spirit and they all tend to one and the same end 4thly 'T is a City of wonderful Beauty the City of the great King the Palace of the living and eternal God as the Psalmist says comprehensively and prophetically of it under the name of Sion Beautiful for scituation is mount Sion the joy of the whole earth this Beauty lyes in the Presence of God and in its Sanctity and in that Image and Superscription of God that it
THE MOUNT OF SPIRITS THAT Glorious Honorable State To which BELIEVERS ARE Called by the GOSPEL EXPLAINED In some MEDITATIONS upon the 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Verses of the 12th Chapter to the Hebrews With some Previous Reflections upon that whole EPISTLE and the People of the JEWS Psalm 1.2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night London Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers-Chappel 1691. THE PREFACE TO THE READER 'T IS an uneasie Reflection but a very reasonable Supposition That no Person will view over this small Collection of some few uneven Thoughts with any Delight comparable to what I had in the composing of it those Satisfactions are I well know personal and in their nature not transferrable or else I would heartily remit them to every Reader the Meditations herein contained did I confess much affect and delight me while they were upon the Anvil though perhaps herein I shall prove to resemble a mean active Preacher that warms only his own Affections and starves those of his Auditors I have this to solace my self withal let the Effect otherways be never so small That I sought out these things for no other reason but because I my self had pleasure therein and originally designed an intire confinement of them to my own private satisfaction possibly by their publication I shall be told I have mistaken my Talent and medled with things that are too great and too high for an ordinary Genius and have brought my self under the correction of that old Axiom Prestat de Carthagine Tacere quam pauca dicere 'T is better to say nothing of Carthage than to say but a little I will not contend with this Reproof nor yet labour after any farther Excuse than what I find made for me in that good-natur'd modern Expression In magnis voluisse sat est The Matters here treated of are I well know of a sublime Nature and require the deepest Consideration and Caution and therefore I have all along proposed to my self what I am sure is the safest Method which is to walk by the Light of Revelation and take the Scriptures in all that I have said for my only Guide if Men will understand any thing aright of God's Eternal Councels and Designs touching the Making Ruling and Saving of the World here they must have it 't is to no purpose to hearken to any other Instructor but the Holy Ghost about these Matters for none knows the Mind of God herein but the Spirit of God alone the Wisdom and Philosophy of the World has after its utmost Enquiries and Pursuits after these things attained no farther but to record their own insufficiency and folly the Holy Scriptures as they are the great Luminary placed by God in this lower Firmament to inform and enlighten the rational part of the World in all Sacred Things so they are the Rule and the Standard by which all Divine and Religious Concerns are to be tryed and determined 'T is a sorry change and a very mean shift to forsake the infallible Determinations of God that he has transmitted unto us upon Record and by an Appeal from them to put Religion upon tryal by the failing uncertain Opinions and Practices of Men It ought to be made a perpetual Memorandum in the Church in order to their constant Direction that when our blessed Saviour came and the greatest Points that ever were debated on Earth were then on foot Whether he were the True Messiah or No And whether the Religion established by him was to dissolve and discharge the Mosaical oeconomy and of right to succeed it Our Saviour and the Apostles insist not upon any one Proof but what they fetch'd from the Old Testament not a word of the Church then nor any of those Humane Authorities the pressing of which upon the Minds of Men has so pester'd and disordered the World ever since and whenever they contested either with the Jews the Gentiles or with Satan himself they never used other Weapon than the Scriptures nor was any other Medium so much as once mentioned by them to determinate Divine Things by although that Age was as much filled with the Noise of Tradition and the Church as any that hath been since St. Paul when he is treating of the deepest Points flies to that Interrogatory Appeal But what saith the Scripture And I doubt not but the glorious State of the Church in the last times so much fore-spoke of will consist in a strict and close Agreement with the Canon of the Scriptures and appearing in the Splendor of an Entire Conformity to the Laws of Christ utterly rejecting all Humane Authorities and all such Constitutions of which Christ himself is not the Author and such as by which the Antichristian Fabrick has been chiefly erected 'T is of great remark That the last Item God gave to the Church of the Jews when the Spirit of Prophesie ceased and with which the Old Testament is closed was to prevent an invasion of Humane Traditions and to oblige them to an exact Conformity and Obedience to what he himself had prescribed them Remember the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and the Judgments And our Saviour's last Direction to his Disciples when he left the World was That they should teach all Nations to observe whatsoever he had commanded them to prevent all other Legislators from usurping Authority in the Church In the following Discourse I have also applied my self as much as the Matter would give me leave to the use of Scripture-Phrases as thinking to all Inquirers into these Matters those would prove the most acceptable Words and also because the Scripture is best expressed by it self Scripture-Notions sound best and are most properly utter'd in Scripture-Expressions and what in one place looks obscure is often so expressed in another as renders it obviously intelligible and easie we can never be too much inur'd to Scripture-Expressions because the Scriptures contain in them after an admirable manner a Sacred Language and Holy Dialect dictated by God himself for him and his People to converse together in here it is that holy Men have of old and all good Men to the end of the World will constantly learn in what Language to express their Prayers and their Praises and how to utter themselves in all their Approaches to the Most High and in whatsoever converse they shall happen to have with him 't is the Treasury of all Divine Utterance and Expression both from God to Man and from Man to God and which the Holy Ghost will principally make use of in all the intercourse that will be between Christ and the Church to the end of the World and will very particularly make such skilful in who are to bring down the Lively Oracles and to administer in Sacred Things
Petition of Mordecai and Esther he altered his purpose and had a mind to have all the Jews saved the first Law could not be altered nor reversed by their fundamental Constitution and therefore Abasuerus had no other way but he makes another Law after the same form and manner that he made the former wherein 't is thus decreed The king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together and to stand for their lives to destroy to slay and cause to perish all the power of the people and province that should assault them both little ones and women and take the spoil of them for a prey By which he downright settles a Civil War by two unalterable Laws in the Bowels of his Dominions and in all his Territories commands his Subjects to massacre and destroy each other nay even in his own Palace for upon this second Edict the Jews slew 500 Men in Shusan the King's Palace The last Monarchy of Rome had so far advanced Idolatry and carried on Satan's concerns that they ransack'd the whole Creation for Deities and arrived to Thirty thousand Gods and the Emperors came to such a degree of impudent Pride and Impiety as downright to deifie themselves the Kingdoms and Powers of the World have lain from the beginning in his hands and therefore 't is said upon the full recovery of the World The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ the Kingdom of the Mediator has consisted but of a few it pleasing God in his infinite Wisdom to declare the glory of that rather in quality than quantity This Kingdom of the fallen Angels is sometimes called in Scripture the Kingdom of Darkness and sometimes the Kingdom of Satan and he is himself sometimes called the Prince of this World and the Prince of the Power of the Air that old Serpent the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the World the original of it was Apostasie and Rebellion against the Supreme Soveraign and an endeavour to set up a Counter-Soveraignty in the creature against him and 't is carried on and will be till the end of his Reign with all possible counter-working to the Kingdom of the Mediator and all the gracious and glorious Designs and Purposes of God therein The chief of the fallen Angels is reckon'd the Prince of this Kingdom and all the fallen Angels and fallen Men unrecovered are embodied in it as his Subjects 't is carried on and supported by these two things First A malignant Opposition to God for his manage of the whole Affairs of the Creation by the second Person incarnate And Secondly By an insatiable appetite to throw off all Bonds and Ties of Obedience to their Supreme Soveraign and Maker and enjoy the uninterrupted possession of a lawless Life sutable to their degenerate and apostate Inclinations The woful state they arrive at by this to let us know no Man can oppose God and prosper is First Ever to labour and endeavour with a certainty of disappointment for the fallen Angels know very well their purposes and designs shall never be accomplished And Secondly To lye under a constant sense of ill doing and under guilt and terror in what ever they act And Thirdly To stand bound over to the dreadful Justice of God and be sentenced at the Judgment-Seat by that Man whom he hath appointed to the endless and utmost Misery and Horror of all which the fallen Angels and many of their adherents are sufficiently informed From the beginning God has not been pleased to set himself at any time against this Kingdom of his confederate Enemies and Rebbels by the Thunder of his Power and as it were most easie for him to do in a moment to grind them to Powder but in the profound depths of his Wisdom who is wonderful in councel and excellent in working suffers the continuance of it for great and holy ends and purposes and opposeth it and will at last utterly ruine it by a still small voice in those Methods by which the Mediator's Kingdom is to be erected that is the Laws of his Grace and the mighty Influences of his Spirit and hence it is that in every Generation we find a continued contest and opposition between the renewed and recovered part of the World and all apostate Angels and Men God contesting by his Grace and Spirit in the Hearts of his Servants all the violent Assaults that the Powers of Darkness the whole Race of degenerate Angels or Men could bring upon them and upon that account has had some faithful Servants in all Ages upon whose Fidelity and Ability in this way of Combate he has stak'd down his Interest and with whom he has trusted his Glory nor can he by this Method ever fail of the Glory due to him or by such an Adventure ever come short of it for 't is trusting his Glory with his Grace and the one stands upon as sure a foundation as the other and both in their nature immoveable Instances of this kind the Scriptures abound withal but that which in a particular case seems the most eminent of them all and most remarkable is the Case of Job and the Tryal he went through Whoever will nicely consider his Case shall find it a Story of wonderful distinction and circumstance the whole Business of Religion being by consent put upon tryal in him Job was declared by God himself and Satan deny'd it not to be the best Man then living one that had not his like in all the Earth but Satan objects unto God against him and affirms that though he was so eminent and had the priority of all the Religious Party then extant yet all his Religion was but Hypocrisie built upon a secular bottom and that if God brought him once to tryal it would appear so to be and himself manifested thereby to be a most notorious Hypocrite and Dissembler Had this in reality proved true Satan had carried his point for it had been an undeniable evidence that God had had no faithful Servants nor had there been any such thing as true and sincere Piety and Religion in the World for if the very best of all Men proved upon tryal but a rotten false-hearted Hypocrite the consequence had been very plain that all the rest of the same profession must needs have been much more so The tryal proceeds with all the possible advantage Satan could wish to obtain his end and he is permitted to go to the utmost extent of all the Artifices he had in order to stir up and provoke in Job all the exorbitant Passions unruly Ferments and irreligious profane Workings that belong to Humane Nature and usually appear upon such occasions in order to bring him to calumniatè Providence and even reproach God himself 1st By Afflicting his Body 2ly By Ruining his Estate And 3ly By laying him as to his present state and condition under the sharpest Judgments and severest Censures of his best and most
and that in several things 1st In the continuance and time of its duration 1260 Years being near about the time that the Babylonian Monarchy lasted 2dly In respect that all the holy and sanctified Utensils of the Temple were captived in Babylon and there prophaned as all the Sacred Institutions of the Gospel are captived and prophaned in this Mystical Babylon how shamefully have the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and the other Holy Institutions and Ordinances of the New Testament been prophan'd and abus'd under the Papal Reign 3dly This Ecclesiastical Mornarchy is set forth and described by that of the Babylonian after a very peculiar manner in respect of the sore Persecutions the Church meets with under both the Holy Ghost makes the one typical and representative of the other 4thly The Babylonian Monarchy was not ruined by a common Providence but by peculiar and extraordinary Judgments they are three times in one Chapter called the Vengeance of his Temple And so shall this Papal Babylonian State be ruined after a peculiar manner by the brightness of Christ's coming and by the glory of his Power 5thly And that which I think the principal Reason why the Holy Ghost brands this Ecclesiastical Monarchy with the Name of Babylon though it arose out of the Ruins of the Roman Monarchy and have its situation at Rome is this to keep up and maintain the Harmony and due decorum of the Visions set forth in the Revelation and the Representations and Expressions thereof Now it is plain that in the Revelation the true Church is represented under the Gospel by Jewish Similitudes and Expressions and the Enemies of it are represented in the Names of those great Enemies the Jews had to their Church and State The three most remarkable Calamities that befel the Jews was first in Egypt secondly in Babylon and thirdly from the Outrages of Antiochus and upon that account we find Egypt often mentioned in the Revelations and the sore Bondage and Persecutions of the Church reckoned from thence and in regard the Jewish Church and State with their City and Temple were totally ruined and themselves captivated by the Monarchy of Babylon their constant and avowed Enemy therefore the grand Enemy of Christ and the Gospel the Antichristian State is called Babylon and perhaps the Persecutions and Desolations of Antiochus are represented by God and Magog when Satan shall be let loose This Ecclesiastical Structure is also in Scripture stiled Antichristian and the Monarchy of it Antichrist and that not only for the general opposition it makes and the tendency it has against Christ and his Interest but for this peculiar reason because there is a Vice Head and a Vice Christ and so a False Christ set up in the Church Christ's Place is by this Monarchy notoriously usurped it being enthroned by its Head the Man of Sin in the Temple of God as God and most impiously and impudently personating Christ in all his mediatory Authority Satan and the rest of his Associates having thus from the beginning declared their enmity to God and peculiarly to the Seed of the Woman and the Interest and Kingdom of Christ as Mediator and pursued it in all Ages with the greatest Rage and Malice imaginable and having in the Antichristian Reign for 1260 Years which began at the fall of the Roman Empire for the Beast and the ten Kings which are the shivers of that Empire are expresly said to take their Power in one hour and St. Paul tells us he that does let will let till he be taken out of the way which is to tell us in other words that till the Temporal Monarchy of Rome fell the Spiritual Monarchy could not be erected I say having brought their Apostate Practices and Principles to the utmost culmen and heighth they could arrive at they will then grow ripe for destruction the Judge will appear to stand at the door Christ will bring these lapsed Angels and their Associates to their final doom and destroy them and all their contrivances by the spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming he will at last come to judgment with all his Holy Angels and according to that ancient Prophesie of Enoch with all his Saints he will come first in his Father's glory to manifest before all that he and the Father are one and that the essential glory of God is his 2dly In his own glory the glory of his mediatory Kingdom having by his Humiliation Suffering Death and Resurrection conquered the Grave Death Hell Sin and all the Effects of it and acquited a peculiar glory to himself thereby And 3dly In the glory of the Angels who are all his Attendants not only in the glory they received from him in their first creation but the glory they have acquired through him in keeping their first state and the glory of all their faithful service and conformity to him and his Kingdom to the end and this honor will all the Saints then have not only to appear with him in glory but to sit in judgment with him as his mystical body and as part of the reward of their works that follow them and joyn in the Sentence pronounced by him The first Sentence he pronounceth will probably be upon these apostate Spirits who were the first created Rebels and them he will doom to eternal darkness and misery and so these Angels that could not content themselves with the glory they had in their first creation from the second Person as God come to be fatally sentenced by him for their aspiring Impieties as he is Man as they were made by him so were they made for him to come under his mediatory Authority and be finally disposed by him and with this tormenting aggravation that he is accompanied and glorified therein by the blessed Angels whose company they forsook and in opposition to whom they have all along carried on a distinct interest and by all the Saints the whole body of the Church which they have so malign'd and persecuted since the World began So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord then will it be said the Mystery of God is finished the Spirits Influences compleated the Mediator's Kingdom perfected and delivered up the Wicked are gone to their own place the Saints are all come safe home to their Father's House and rest for ever God is all in all Amen Hallelujah Touching the other part of the Angels those that kept their first state of whom the Scripture makes such honourable mention as sometimes to call them Morning stars sometimes Sons of God Angels of Light Chariots of God his Hoasts his Ministers the Elect Angels who with respect to their Nature are called Spirits with respect to their Dignity Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers and with respect to their Office and Employment Angels and ministring Spirits for Angel is a word relates to their Employment and not to their Nature and we find Men sometimes in Scripture by vertue of their Offices
the Long-suffering he exercises to that purpose 3. By his mighty over-ruling all the violent and raging Oppositions made by the World and the Powers thereof against Him his Church and his Interest and doing it in such a manner as that whatever is most maliciously intended against them shall be rendred useful and subservient to them 4. By his compleat Conquest over and final Judgment upon all his incorrigible Enemies at last Secondly With respect to the Church there he is most eminently triumphant in his Glory and Government for he dwelleth in Heaven and ruleth on Earth but reigneth in Sion the Church is his peculiar Province where he displays the manifold Wisdom of God in curious variety 1. They are all redeemed with his own Blood St. Peter tells us We are not redeemed with corruptible things 2. They bear his Image look upon the Frame and Constitution of every true Christian and if you ask whose Image and Superscription is this the answer is it is Christ's and therefore the same treatment he met with here below the very same will always attend the Church every Christian is a Member of the New Creation Christ has remade him all over herein lyes the great Power and Glory of Christ's Kingdom in remaking and new making of the Sons of Men and this New Creation 't is an Abomination to the fallen Angels and all apostate and unrecovered Men and so will be to the end of the World 3. The tender Heart and gracious Disposition of Christ is most transparently beheld in the Government of his Church of his own House and Family 't is here you may have the report of all his unwearied Kindness and unutterable Forgiveness of all his Attendance upon and Endurance of the froward and perverse Spirits of Men here you may see all the fulfilling of the good pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith with power and all those gentle easie and obliging Methods he useth to gain Souls to himself and render them happy how many Faults he bears with and forgives in his People how many Temptations he shields them from and how many sore Lapses he pities them in and recovers them from under and puts forth his Hand as he did to Peter to every sinking Soul what that eminent Apostle and Servant of Christ said of himself is much more verified in his great Master and ours upon him lyes continually the care of all the Churches and of every particular Member and that not only in one Age but throughout every Generation Laftly The Greatness and Excellency of this Government appears herein that he makes all subservient unto it and brings all his Subjects safely to their Eternal Inheritance all Humane Motions are so over-ruled as to promote the great Work of Salvation as all things were designed in their first make to be serviceable to the manifestation of Divine Grace therein so they are made to be in the future Revolutions of all Ages how glorious and wonderful an Enclosure is the Church out of this prophane apostate World God the Father is the Supreme Benefactor sets the great Wheel going For the Son does nothing but what he sees the Father do And in the great Volume of God's Book this peculiar Memorandum is made and 't is recorded of him that he came to do the Father's Will I come to do thy will O God All that Christ does is but the Execution of the Father's designs the Holy Ghost is their peculiar Comforter and Companion the grand Operator in Christ's Kingdom and that mighty Instrument by which all is effected that heart-changing life-reforming wonder-working Spirit by which all the stubborn unruly unconquerable Lusts of Men all the Wills of the Flesh and of the Mind are all subdued Leopards Spots quite washed away Ethiopian Skins made white and Men old in sinning and such as are accustomed to do evil are so instructed convinced and changed that they readily learn to do well resign up themselves as Temples for that blessed Spirit to dwell in and are no more led by depraved unruly Appetites but wholly conducted and managed by that safe and blessed Adviser Here 's the great delight of God in the Creation restored in Man new made and remade by the mighty workings of the Holy Ghost in the Mediator's hand 's God says of these Men the world is not worthy of them but the World are quite of another opinion for they cry out Away with such fellows from the earth it is not fit they should live Thirdly and lastly As it appears that the whole design of God touching both Angels and Men was laid in his first creation of them by the Son so is it in reference to all the rest of the Creation the inferior Creatures were so made as that God would receive all the Homage of them from Man they were made for his use and put in subjection to him Man's Habitation is this lower World and the Creatures are the Furniture of it given to him of God and as the Dominion and Soveraignty of this inferior part of the World was vested in Man by an unalterable Law of Creation so it has ever since been involved in his condition while Man abode in his primitive state all the rest of the Creatures kept their original lustre and beauty In Man's fall they also fell when Man fell into Rebellion this lower World fell under a Curse for his sake and that Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is renewed and restored by that gracious Covenant of God sealed in the Blood of the Mediator so at last when the Church is compleated the whole Creation shall be restored to its original and first created Glory The Scripture gives plain evidence to both these things First That the Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is restored and the Church built up but 't is in this sense to be taken and no farther that the Curse is taken off from the Creatures As to Man's use and enjoyment of them the Curse upon them lay in two things 1st A natural defacing of them and degrading them from their original Image for at first every thing was very good and there was no deformity nor any such production as Briers and Thorns And 2dly By inverting the use they were created for which was to be a Blessing and laying the enjoyment of them by Man under a Curse and a Judgment for Sin 's sake In respect of the first The Creatures contiliue alike to all and will do so till the restitution of all things the Creatures are naturally the same to good and bad and enjoyed by both alike without any such distinction or change But as to their enjoyment and use the difference is plain As Man is by the Mediator reconciled unto God so he comes to a sanctified enjoyment of and right to all the Creatures for God in the gift of his Son has with him also freely by a second Donation given us
thing than what by his degeneracy and apostasie he has made himself nothing did more plainly and evidently discover itself in the whole transaction of God with this People then that there could be no Law given that would singly and of itself without foreign Assistance introduce Righteousness that there was an absolute necessity the Holy Ghost should be sent down from Heaven if ever Mankind were made fit to go thither and such a Covenant made with the World as would give to Men a new Heart and a new Spirit and such a Covenant God declares having found fault with this that he would make whereby he would write his Laws in Mens Hearts and put them into their inward parts and so possess them with his Grace and lock them up to himself by his fear that they should not depart from him If we begin with this People in Egypt and consider them there it is plain the generality of them had fallen in with the Religion of the Country notwithstanding all the colateral inducements they had and all the obligations they lay under to the contrary and totally forgotten the true God this seems plain from what Moses in Exodus replied unto God when he commanded him to go to them and tell them The God of their fathers had sent him unto them Moses Answers when I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say what is his Name or as it is better rendred what God is he what shall I say unto them 'T is plain from hence that Moses was well aware of the success he was like to have and that the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob was a thing that the people at that time had no notion at all of and upon their entrance into Canaan when Joshua had by Gods direction circumcised them God himself declares this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you which reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry in Egypt which was rolled away by their being devoted by Circumcision to the true God and his Worship some learned men have supposed that the people were not circumcised in Egypt and that their uncircumcision there was that reproach that was rolled away but 't is I conceive a mistake for we are told in Josh 5. v. 5. Now all the People that came out speaking of Egypt were circumcised but all the People that were born in the Wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt them they had not circumcised And in the 4. v. that is said to be the reason of their being now circumcised those that came out of Egypt 't is expresly said were circumcised now if they were circumcised by Moses after their coming out then the reproach of Egypt was rolled away before and this circumcising could not be it if they were as I believe they were circumcised before they came out of Egypt then uncircumcision could not be the reproach of Egypt here meant and 't is probable they were all circumcised there because Pharaohs Daughter so soon as she had taken Moses out of the water and looked upon him knew him to be an Hebrew Child which is likely she did by the mark of circumcision If you ask how Circumcision and their Idolatry could stand together the answer is They kept up that Right without any regard to the ends of it just as the Posterity of Esau and Ishmael do to this day who are the greatest Idolaters in the World though circumcised and constant observers of that Right No sooner were they come into the Wilderness though by such stupendious deliverances as the World before had never been acquainted withal and although they had a Miracle by the Cloud and the Pillar of Fire always in their eye yet while Moses was gone into the Mount to treat personally with God about their concerns they fell greedily into the Egyptain Idolatry a great demonstration they had been used to it before and set up the Calves to declare in the Highest manner their disloyalty to God their King their uneasiness under his Government and that his Rule and their unruly Humours would never sute together and withal to signifie their wretched ingratitude for all he had done for them against Pharaoh and the Egyptians And to testifie their utmost satisfaction and delight in what they had so done the Text says Exod. 32. v. 6. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Suitable to this was their carriage all along in the Wilderness so Stephen told their successors that for Forty Years in the Wilderness they took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of their God Remphan Figures which they made to Worship them and had not sacrificed unto God as they ought the 78 Psalm is a Holy recapitulation of all the disloyal undutiful and unthankful treatment God had from them If we follow them to their last settlement into Canaan their constant spiritual Whoredom there was intolerable provoking the most high to his face their whole behaviour was utterly to testifie their dislike of God and his Government and that they desired not him of all others to rule over them but rather subjected themselves to the meanest Idol the two tribes of Judas and Benjamin that kept longest in their Integrity yet soon fell to the Worship of Baal and before the great Captivity they had set up the most odious Idol-worship in the very House of God this was plainly shewn in vision to Ezekiel when he was in Babylon upon the first Captivity there he saw Men in the Temple worshipping the Sun Women weeping for Tamuz and many more Abominations and in the 19th of Jeremiah God tells them by his Prophet Jerusalem and Judah shall be destroyed because they have burnt incense to all the hoast of heaven The ten Tribes early deserted the true God and fell down before the Calves at Dan and Bethel and at last under one of their apostate Kings those Idols were removed to Samaria the Metropolis of the ten Tribes and placed there to put the utmost Honour and Credit upon them that possibly could be this was done by Omri of whom the Scripture records that he did worse than all that went before him because he made Laws to bring these Idols from Dan and Bethel to Samaria the Royal and Capital City of the ten Tribes for so it is called in the 7th of Esau to affront the God of Israel in the highest manner and as much as in him lay to obliterate the Name and Mention of him amongst those Tribes in his own chosen and peculiar Country The Holy Ghost has left a perpetual Brand throughout all Ages upon these Statutes of Omri and in the 6th of the Prophet Micah tells the People nothing they did should prosper because they kept the
carefully with tears Which is in other words to say take great heed least any of you Apostatize from the Christian Doctrine to Judaism and that by such example many others be seduced to do the like For in so doing you will resemble profane Esau who so easily as upon the pressure of a little temporary hunger and the relief of one poor meal sold his birthright and primogeniture upon which God had entailed the Priesthood and the Dominion of the Family the double portion and the blessing of the Covenant for so long as God was served within private walls and before the Tabernacle and Temple were erected to the first born was appurtenant the Priesthood and the right of performing all Holy and sacred Ministrations before the Lord and upon these accounts the Apostle calls him Profane Esau the apostatizing Jews would resemble him and that in a twofold respect 1st Because the Gospel that contained all the glorious priviledges was their peculiar birth-right the promises being made originally as we are told in the 9th of the Romans to them Christ came of them and first offered himself to them and the Gospel was preached in the first place to the Jews and tender'd to them as their particular Right before it reached the Gentiles 2dly If out of the impatience of some Temporary persecution and to obtain some present worldly ease and repose they should quit and forsake the Gospel they would become like prophane Esau who despised all his Spiritual Priviledges to satisfie his present appetite and sold them for so mean a carnal advantage as one poor meal Before we come to a distinct consideration of each particular of the Apostles comparison and for the clearer understanding of it some things may be previously noted First We have here set forth how much more Honourable the call of a Christian is then that of a Jew and how much greater and nobler attainments we arrive at by the Gospel then ever the Jews could pretend to by the Law And this is done First Negatively By shewing that we are past and not come to those lower and more terrene Dispensations and Methods of the Law but we are come to all the wonderful priviledges and advantages of the Gospel it has been God's way from the Beginning to proceed gradually in the Reveration of his love and good will to the World and still to advance farther and farther in discoveries of himself and in methods of Grace till at last the intercourse between God and Man upon the assumption of the Human Nature to the Divine is as near as it can be and Men come to have access to God in the manner the Apostle tells us Eph. 2. ver 18. For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father which is to Worship in the Grace Glory and Efficacy of the whole Trinity and to have as much Communion and Fellowship with each Person distinctly and as much enjoyment of them as we are capable of in this lower World Secondly The Apostle here sets before the believing Jews the form of giving the Law and the effects of it both which had in them all the discouragement and disswasive imaginable from deserting the Gospel and returning to that for the giving forth of the Law was with all the amazing affrighting Terrour that possibly could be to represent the eternal Majesty and Soveraignty of God the Supream Legislator The dreadful Consequences of breaking his Laws and falling under his Justice and Wrath and how fearful a thing it is for a sinner without some reconciliation to fall into the Hands of the living God and the effect of this dreadful promulgation was suitable to it for the People fell under the Highest consternation and petitioned that God would please to speak for the future to them by Moses being far unable to endure any such personal converse with the Almighty Nay even Moses himself that had so long and so intimately conversed with God was not able to abide by this dreadful appearance but fell into a paroxism of quaking and fear and this sufficiently represented by the vast distance there was between God and Man in this dispensation and how impossible it was for Man under that Law ever to approach unto God with any comfort and satisfaction Thirdly By the Apostles so punctually setting forth the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai and opposing that fingly to the Fabrick and State of the Gospel is contained this insinuation that it was comprehensive of their whole constitution the highest Priviledge and Honour the Jewish Church had to boast of and that wherein they did most eminently stand distinguished from the rest of the World was their being brought unto Mount Sinai and God Personally meeting them there and himself delivering his Law unto them By this they were most eminently in their publick national State taken into Covenant with God above all the kindreds of the Earth and constituted there by a political State and a National Church unto himself and the Apostle reckons it as one of their highest priviledges the giving of the Law Now the force of the Apostles Discourse lies in this the greatest thing you have to boast is your Law and God's giving it himself to you upon Mount Sinai thence came all your National Priviledges and that was indeed no other then a splendid Ministration of Death Man stood there before God under the greatest Guilt Condemnation and Misery and God ap peared with the severest and most awful aspect that Man could behold him in nothing but Thunders Earthquakes Voices Fires and dreadful Horror round about him The Pardon the Peace the Reconciliation the near Approach unto God that Man stood in need of these things belong to Mount Sion to which we are come by the Gospel and 't is a very sorry change for any Jew that had embraced the Christian profession and viewed the Glory of this spiritual Mount and the Inhabitants of it to return back to Mount Sinai and all the dreadful circumstances appurtenant to it I come now to the distinct consideration of each particular in these verses For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire or as some better read it the fire that burned the Apostle's scope is to discover the Excellency and Glory of the Gospel-state by a Negative comparison of it with that of the Legal and 't is one good step towards the shewing what a thing is to shew comparatively when the comparisons lie near what it is not you are not come says he unto that mount that might be touched coming to that Mount which your Fathers came to is quite out of date that is not your present business that is not the Dispensation God calls you to now but you are by his call come to another Mount a much nobler and better state of things we are said to be come to that to which God calls us unto and to which he requires our
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
New Covenant This New Covenant is also called a Testament because the great Promulgation of it was to be a consequent of Christ's death and the Gospel that Law and Covenant of Grace the Legacy he left to the World was to be dispensed to the Legatees by his grand Executor the Holy Ghost And whatever we read of God's Covenants in the Old Testament 't is to be reduced to one of these two for the Apostle in the 8th and 9th Chapters of this Epistle calls the Mosaical Covenant the first Covenant and the old Covenant the whole Mosaical oeconomy was included in it and reckoned as part of it but it was chiefly denominated from Mount Sinai because there was the most solemn promulgation of the most essential part of it The Covenant God made with Man in his Innocency was peculiar to him in that state and went no farther is not at all continued in any force since the fall By a Covenant of God in the Scripture sence of it is meant a Law promulged wherein God obliges himself to such rewards and punishments and Men stand obliged to such duty and performance this was the case of the Old Covenant at Sinai and so is the case under the Gospel God has in Christ obliged himself to the salvation of the World upon such and such terms and Man stands obliged to the performance of them if ever he will be happy 'T is a vain and a wild conceit to think the Gospel offers Salvation otherways then upon conditions to be performed on our part the first Proclamation of it is with this condition annexed he that believes shall be saved And Faith is every-where used in the Gospel as a Word comprehensive of all that is therein required of us Punctually to pursue the Apostles drift in this place by this expression the best way is to shew in what particulars this new covenant to which he tells the Believing Hebrews they were come exceeded the old which was the point he designed to himself to make good 1st Both Covenants agreed in this they both had a Mediator an internuncius between God and Man which was to inform us of the vast distance sin had made between them what a vast gulph there was fixed between Heaven and Earth and that 't was impossible there should be any converse between God and Man by vertue of any Covenant without some third Person interposing and herein this New Covenant has infinitely the preference the Mediator of it being of so glorious a composition and constitution and so adapted to this matter as is wonderful to conceive he that intercedes to bring God and Man together is himself both after a stupenduous and wonderful manner united in one and the same Person 2dly This New Covenant delivers us from all the Fear Bondage and Condemnation which the Old Covenant brought upon us the Law left Men to answer to God for their disobedience without either assistance or remedy and so the case of every Man was that when the law came sin revived and he dyed by coming to the Mediator of this New Covenant we are totally discharged from any concern with the Law or the first Covenant the satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice is fully accepted in our stead for all our disobedience of the Law of Works and by this New Covenant we are wholly discharged from any obligation to the Old God found fault with it and it being in its nature and designment to prepare for a better Covenant it grew Old and upon the publication of the Gospel is quite vanished away 3dly This New Covenant much exceeds the other in its nature and constitution for it always admits of Repentance and Pardon which the other never did 't is an intire Law of Grace accepts of sincerity of intention in the stead of perfection of action and is accommodated with all imaginable tenderness to the weak and frail constitution of Man since his fall 4thly And wherein the Glory of this New Covenant chiefly lies and wherein it fundamentally exceeds the other and displays eminently the Glory of God's Grace and Goodness to the World a Divine ability is given from Heaven for the performance of every part of it whatever is required is given the great security of Mens Salvation under this New Covenant is that we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation and that when Men work out their salvation 't is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure 't is his power that is perfected in weakness and grace only that proves sufficient for us in this case the ways and methods by which this Divine assistance of the Holy Ghost from above is conveyed into the Hearts and spirits of Men is admirable but known only to God and out of the compass of all humane discovery a Man born after the Spirit is compared to the Wind the effects of which we know but we know nothing whence it comes nor whither it goes how far God is pleased at first in some to move and excite humane abilities and still to reward their motion Heaven-ward with more and farther grace and how far he is pleased in others to reward with Divine assistance endeavours purely Natural and Human is a knowledge too high for us and what we cannot by searching attain to this we are sure of that grace is never wanting to such as make a faithful improvement of what power they have he that under the Gospel does but what he can do will be sure to be enabled to do what he should do I make no question but that generally speaking grace comes in to the assistance of Humane endeavours and is grafted at first upon such natural improvements as are preparative to the reception of Christ and the Gospel but 't is not always so but Grace breaks in upon some in the height of their carreer against Christ and the Gospel as it did upon St. Paul to make him an instance in this point and makes a perfect conquest of the Soul unto Christ where there is nothing but a Wicked Profane opposition against him Had not this Divine assistance been a gracious appurtenant to the Covenant of Grace Mankind had never reaped the benefit of it no terms of Salvation that were consisting with the Holiness and Justice of God though never so condescending and easie without this would ever have made Mankind happy so desparate and as to their own power irrecoverable an apostacy are all Men subjected to so that if either we consider the Mediator of this New Covenant or the Covenant it self we shall perceive the great advantage the Apostle has of his side in the comparison and what a foolish choice the believing Jews would make to depart and apostatize from this New Covenant and this Mediator to Moses and Mount Sinai The last thing the Apostle mentions and which he couples and conjoyns with the Mediator of this New Covenant as