Body of Divinity

CHAP. III. Of CHRIST'S being Man.

NOw I am to show in the next place that he was man.

Christ is set forth three ways in the Scripture:

• 1. Christus in promisso, so the Patriarchs and Saints beheld him under the old Covenant, he was set forth unto Adam in the seed of the woman, Gen. 3. 15. to Abraham as the seed in whom all Nations are blessed, to Jacob as S • iloh, to Job as Goel, to David as the Messiah, to Zacharias, as the man whose name is the Branch, to Malachi as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings.
• 2. Christus in carne, 1 Joh. 14. 2 Tim. 3. 16.
• 3. Christus in Evangelio, Christ as he is discovered and set forth in the Gospel, that is the glass wherein we behold the glory and excellency of Christ, 2 Cor. 3. 18. But I am now to speak of his Incarnation, or his being a true man.

• 1. He had the name of a man.
• 2. He came of the race of mankind.

He is called Man, 1 Tim 2. 5. Luk. 23. 47. The Son of man, Dan. 7. 13. Matth. 8. 20. & 16. 13. Mark 10. 45. Apoc. 1. 13. This the Scripture foretold before, in saying, That the seed of the woman should crush the Serpents head, and that in the seed of Abraham all Nations should be blessed; and that a branch should spring out of the root of I • sse: Therefore the Apostle saith, He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And he that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. More particularly Christ is called The Son of Mary, Luke 1. 31, 44. the holy Ghost goes further and shows of what Tribe he was, Heb. 7. 14. nay of what family, Rom. 1. 3.

2. He had the birth and growth of a man, he was conceived in the womb of his mother as a man, Luke 1. 31. He was born in the usual time as a man, Luk. 2. 7. swaddled like a man, Luk. 2. 12. He grew up as a man both in respect of body and mind Luk. 2. 40, 52. and therefore he was a true man.

3. The same thing is proved evidently by the story of the Gospel, which ascribes to him the parts, the sufferings, the actions and affections that are peculiar to man. He had the essential parts of a man, a body, as it was written, A body thou hast given me, and they took his body from the cross and laid it in a sepulcher, a soul Matth. 20. 28. & 26. 35, 38. Luke 23. 46. John 10. 15. & 5. 21. Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom and Will which are proper to the reasonable soul are given unto him. He did dispute and reason. He had the integral parts of a man, as bones, flesh, hands and feet, They pierced his hands and his feet, A Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. They crowned his head with a crown of thorns, and one of the soldiers thrust a spear into his side, and forthwith came out water and blood, he lift up his eyes to Heaven, he kneeled on his knees and prayed, sure he was very man that had all the parts of a man.

4. He had the infirmities which accompany the whole nature of mankind. He was Hungry, Matth. 4. 2. Thirsty, John 4. 7. Wept, John 11. 35. was Weary, he died, as other men do, giving up the Ghost, John 19. 30.

5. He had the actions of a man, he sat down to meat, he drank of the fruit of the Vine, he sat upon the Well, he went from Jericho toward Jerusalem. He opened his mouth and taught them, he touched the Leaper, saying, I will be thou clean, he did sleep, He cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. So he took upon him the very nature of man, and was made in all things like unto us, but without sin.

6. He had likewise the affections of a man, His soul was heavy to death, he sighed in his Spirit, he was straitened in his Spirit, and testified that one of them should betray him, he mourned and wept for Lazarus, he looked upon them angerly, he cried out, I thirst. Joy, Luk. 10. 21. Anger, Mark 10. 14. Grief, Mat. 26. 38. Love, Mark 10. 21. John. 11. 5, 13. Zeal, John. 2. 17. Fear, Heb. 5. 7. as in a man were found in him.

Now there are divers good Reasons why Christ was to be Man.

First, He was to be a Mediator, a middle person betwixt God and Man, and therefore was to take upon him man's nature, that he might familiarly converse with man, and acquaint them with the whole counsel of his Father, and therefore the Apostle saith, There is one Mediator betwixt God and man, the man Christ I • sus. And S ^t John, That which we have heard, and have seen, and have looked upon with our eyes, of the word of life. He must be man that he might converse with men and be subject unto their senses, and so was a fit person to interpose himself, and make concord betwixt God and man.

Secondly, He was to be man, 1. That he might satisfy God's justice in suffering for man the things which man's sins did deserve, and which were to be in ••• cted upon man according as it was threatened, In the day thou sinnest, thou shall • die. Mans nature had sinned, man's nature must suffer for sin, that as by a man came sin, and so death, so by a man might come righteousness and the resurrection from the dead.

The Godhead was too strong to suffer, for it is not possible that the excellent Essence of God should endure or bear any punishment, any evil, any misery, without which yet man's sins could not be expiated; therefore did the Godhead clothe itself with flesh, that he might suffer in the human nature, that which it was impossible it should suffer in that high and superexcellent nature.

The Manhood was too weak to bear and overcome in suffering, and to deserve by suffering. The Godhead was too strong to bear or suffer, wherefore the Godhead was to borrow weakness, as I may so say, of the manhood, and to lend power to it, that that great work might be done which could not be effected without a wonderful concurrence of exceeding great weakness and exceeding great power.

The Justice of God required that the same nature should be punished that had offended, Rom. 8. 3. He could not else have suffered the penalty, Gen. • . 24. See Heb. 7. 27. & 9. 22. Without shedding of blood there could be no expiation of s •• ; there must be active obedience performed in our stead to the Law, Gal. 4. 4, 5. else he could not have communicated to us. Union is the ground of Communion, Ephes. 1. 21. Titus 3. 4.

2. That he might honor and dignify the nature of man, by advancing it far above all Principalities and Powers, yea above every name that is named, and so God might declare his infinite and unsearchable grace to that frail and feeble nature which came of the dust, by making it the chief of all his workmanship and head over all: Therefore hath he attained by inheritance a more excellent name then Angels, being called the Son of God, in carrying, as I may term it, the human nature to the Divine, that nature was exalted above all other natures. A woman of some place is dignified by matrimony with a King above all those that were her superiors before; so that now of all natures next to the Divine nature, the human nature by being so nearly united to it, is become the most excellent and glorious nature. So God willing to show the height and length, the breadth and depth of his love which passeth all understanding, hath thus glorified the seed of Abraham, even above the nature of Angels, for he took not the nature of Angels, but took the seed of Abraham.

Thirdly, This was done to foil, crush and confound Satan so much the more, in causing that nature which he envied, supplanted and polluted, to become so pure, perfect and glorious, and to triumph over him and lead him captive▪ and tread him underfoot and make a show of him openly. The Lord would punish Satan in his envy, and make him feel the effect of his power and goodness, in doing so very much against him by a man, to fulfill that, that The seed of the woman should crush the serpents head, and to cause him to fall from heaven like lightening before the second Adam, how much soever he gloried, as it were, in his conquest over the first Adam.

Last of all, The Lord pleased to do this for our greater consolation and assurance, that we might know without all doubt we should find him a faithful and a merciful high-Priest. For in that he suffered temptation, he knows how to succor them that are tempted. Christ was to be a man of sorrow, and to have experience of infirmities, that by bearing our sorrows he might be fitted to relieve and succor us in all our sorrows; for he that hath endured any misery himself, is made more tender in compassion, and more able in knowledge to afford comfort unto them that must after taste of the same afflictions. He knows the weight of sin, the intolerableness of God's wrath, the violence of Satan's temptations, and the trouble of being wronged and abused by men. We can bring no misery to him but what himself bare or the like, so now we are assured to find him most pitiful to us, that for our sakes was content in our nature to be most afflicted. You see now that Christ was man, and why he was to be so.

Consider how he was made man, and that was wonderfully miraculous above the course of nature and beyond the common custom, that he might be wonderful in his entrance into the world, who was to be wonderful in the course of his life. For he was not made of the seed of man by copulation as other persons are, but a Virgin did conceive and bring forth a Son. Mary descended by direct line from David and Abraham, a mean and contemptible maiden whom no man regarded, because she was poor, she was a chosen vessel to be the Mother of our Savior, and the holy Ghost did over-shadow her, and the power of the most High come on her to frame a man in her womb of her substance, as you have the Angel telling Joseph in the first of Matthew, and Mary in Luke 1. 35. This was so done,

• 1. (Say some of our Divines) To free the manhood from the stain of sin wherewith those are polluted which are begotten by carnal generation, though the holy Ghost could as easily have sanctified the substance of a man as of a woman, to frame of it the human nature of Christ.
• 2. To show the greatness of his love to man by transcending the course of nature for his restitution, and that the making of the second Adam might no less commend the power of God then the making of the first, for it is no more beyond the power of nature to produce a man of a Virgin, then to frame a man of the dust of the earth. This is a great mystery, God manifested in the flesh, 1 Tim. 3. 16. The second person did assume human nature to it, so as these two make one person, John 1. 14. Rom. 1. 3. The second person (I say) for it is not proper to say that the Divine nature was made flesh, but the second person, though the second person have the Divine nature in him and is God. For though God was made flesh, yet it was not the Divine nature in all the persons that was incarnated, but the very person of the Son subsisting in the Godhead.

The Schoolmen have divers curious questions,

• 1. Whether it was convenient for God to be incarnate.
• 2. Whether it was necessary for the repairing of mankind, that the Word should be Incarnate.
• 3. Whether God should have been Incarnate, if man had not sinned. Aquinas part. 3. quaest. 1. Artic. 1, 2, 3.

That Christ should have come although man had not sinned, will scarce be made good. The Scripture acknowledgeth no other cause of Christ's coming in the flesh but to save sinners, and redeem them who are under the Law, and so subject to the curse, Matth. 1. 21. & 9. 13. & 18. 11. Gal. 4. 5.

Christ was born of a Virgin, but such a one as was espoused to a man, Luke 1. 27. and that for these reasons.

• 1. To avoid the infamy and suspicion of immodesty.
• 2. That her Virginity might be the better evidenced, viz. He bearing witness to whom it specially belonged to understand how things were, and who was most worthy to be believed in that matter.
• 3. That she might have a most intimate helper in bearing all other cares and troubles.
• 4. To represent our spiritual conjunction with Christ, for we are espoused to him, and yet we ought to be virgins, cleansed from all pollution both of flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. 7. 1. see 2 Cor. 11. 2. Rev. 14. 4.

The place where Christ was born was Bethlehem, which signifies a house of bread, the best place for the Bread of life; and in Ephratah a most fruitful place.

In the year 3967. say some, others say it is uncertain in what year. In the 42 year of Augustus his reign.

For the month there is great difference also.

Epiphanius thinketh he was born in the 6 ^th of January. Beroldus at the middle of September. Clemens Alexandrinus at the Spring-time. Others at the 25 ^th of December.

Scaliger objects that the winter time was not fit for a Master of a Family to undertake so long a journey with his wife to be taxed; also that Shepherds are not wont in the night time to watch their flocks at that time of the year. Vossius de Natali Jesus Christi.

D ^r Drake in his Chronology gives probable grounds why Christ was not born in December, but rather about August or September. God of purpose concealed the time of Christ's birth, as he did the body of Moses, as well foreseeing how it would have been abused to superstition, had it been exactly known.

Interpreters indeed render the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Vigilare or excubare, but it may be better translated sub dio agere: It properly notes to live in the fields, as the original of the word shows, which agrees to the daytime, as well as to the night. In England (saith Vossius ) we have travelled both before and after the Nativity of Christ.

For the day of our Savior's Nativity, it is not certain this was the day which we celebrate. Some learned Divines gather from the computation of the time when the Angel saluted our Lord's Mother (being the sixth month, Luke 1. 26.) that this cannot be the day, though 'tis true the tradition is ancient.

Scultetus thus concludes the fourteenth Chapter of his Delit. Evang. Tac • nte Scriptura taccamus & nos, & Christum servatorem in tempore natum adoremus, et si, in quo temporis puncto natus sit ignoramus.

A late Writer saith that opinion of the Romans is true, which held that Christ was born on the 25 day of December, and undertakes to demonstrate it. As for the day, saith scaliger, Unius Dei est, non hominis de • inire.

This Jesus of Nazareth perfect God and man, is that Messiah promised of old. What ever was said of the Messiah was accomplished by him and him alone.

The first Christians believed in him, Luke 1. 68. Christ much instructed his Disciples in this great truth, Luke 24. 25, 26, 27, 44, verses. The Apostles proved this great doctrine, Acts 18. 24, 27. & 26. 22▪ 23. & 28. 23.

Arguments that prove this Jesus to be the Messiah.

All the times of exhibiting the Messiah delivered in the Old Testament are expired, Acts 13. 32. See 1 Pet. 1. 10. The Old Testament speaks of a twofold coming of Christ, in a state of humility, and glory: The Jewish Rabbins could not reconcile these two; the Talmudists distinguished of a twofold Messiah, Ben-Israel or Ben-Ephraim, and Ben-David. The Prophets speak not of several persons but of several states of one person. See Ezck. 37. 24.

Gen 49. 10. The power of ruling and authority of judging is departed from Judah and hath been a long time, Therefore Shiloh (the Messiah) is come.

Hag. 26, 7. 9. The outward glory of the first Temple was greater, all the vessels of the first Temple were beaten gold, Dan. 5. 2, 3. of the second brass; but Christ honored the second Temple by his own Presence, Doctrine and Mira • les.

〈…〉 Jews confess that there were five things in which the latter Temple was in ••••• ur to the former,

First, Heavenly fire came down visibly on their Sacrifices. They had the Ark of the Covenant: The Cloud, a witness of the Divine presence. Urim and Thummim: And lastly a succession of Prophets, which the latter Temple wanted. Rain. in loc. & de lib. Apoc. tom. 2. Praelect. 134, 135.

Dan. 9. 24, 26. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy City, to finish the transgression. That is, The time that the Jews were to live in their own land, and enjoy their own worship after their return out of Captivity.

We are wont to apply the seventh number to days, that a perfect week should comprehend seven full days. So Dan. 10. 2. Levite. 23. 15. The Prophecy cannot • e understood in this common and usual manner, so Seventy weeks rise but to Four hundred and ninety days, within which space of time none of those things were consummated of which the Angel so specially prophesieth.

Weeks are also taken in Scripture for years not days, so that every week makes seven ordinary years; so that phrase is used, Gen. 29. 47. Levite. 25. 8. So it is here taken by Interpreters generally, and they fill up the sum of Four hundred and fifteen years, in the space of which the God of heaven would work wonderful things which the Angel Gabriel recites here particularly. Montac. Appar. 2.

By this the times of the Messiah are past, for when the Messiah came the Sacrifice was to cease, and there was a sealing up of the vision and Prophets, this is ceased; there is now no Vision nor Prophecy among the Jews.

Here only in Hebrew and twice here 25. & 26. verses, Messias cometh, a mere proper name, hence made famous, John 1. 41. & 4. 25. Broughton on Dan. 9. 25.

Some Heretics opposed Christ's Deity.

Arius said Christ was an excellent creature, but not of the same substance with the Father.

Paulus Samosatenus, more fitly Semisathanas, held Christ was but a mere man; so did Ebion.

He was homo verus, but not homo merus, Augustine on 1 John 1. A true man, but not a mere man: He was truly God, equal to the Father; and truly man, like to us in all things, sin only excepted.

Servetus a Spaniard burnt at Geneva in Calvin's time, denied that Christ was God's Son till Mary bore him. He said, Christ was not the eternal Son of God, but the Son of the eternal God.

If this be truly believed that Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the world, it will work a resolution to cleave to Christ, though all the world forsake him, nothing will make us shrink from Christ though it cost us our lives, and all our comforts.

2. If we believe this because it is written in the Bible, in the Old and New Testament the word of truth, then we must forbear what the Word forbids, and give ourselves to be ruled by him, and expect salvation from him according to the direction of that Word, then we will believe the whole Word, if we believe this which of all other parts of it hath least of sense and human reason.

Some Heretics opposed Christ's manhood.

1. The Marcionites which held that Christ had not the true substance, but only the semblance or show of a man, alleging Phil. 2. 7. but there a true not counterfeit likeness is understood, even as one man is like another, and Rom. 8. 3. similitude is not referred to flesh, but to sinful flesh, John 1. The Word was made flesh, not by mutation, as the water was turned into wine, John 2. 19. nor by confusion, by mingling the God-head and manhood together, but the second Person of the Trinity took a human body and soul into his Divine Nature.

Secondly, The Manichees, which said, He had the true substance of man, but that he brought his body from heaven, alleging 1 Cor. 15. 47. and had it not by birth of the Virgin Mary, but that is spoken of the Person of Christ not of his manhood itself.

Thirdly, The Valentinians who held that Christ had an aerial body, and assumed nothing of Mary but only passed as thorough a channel.

Fourthly, Apollinaris confessed the flesh of a man in him, but not the soul, but that this Deity was in staed of his soul. See Matth. 26. 39. The whole man must be redeemed, and in its own nature, the soul is the principal part of man, sin specially adheres to it, and it is a true rule, What Christ did not assume he did not redeem.

Fifthly, The Ubiquitaries will have his manhood everywhere, and so they destroy the very being of his manhood. Each Nature retains their several essential Properties, and it is the property of the humanity to be contained in one place at once. The Papists also offer indignity to Christ's manhood, in that they would have his body to be in divers places at once.

6. Others held his body impassible. His body was not immediately created by God, nor did he bring it from Heaven, but he was a man of our stock and nature, Heb. 2. 11, 16, 17. he is often called the Son of man.

7. The Jews look for a Messiah to come in outward pomp, yet some of their Rabbins say In regio Messiae nihil mundanum aut carnal. By those Arguments, John 5. 30. Acts 17. 2, 3. & 18. 28. Rom. 16. 26. one saith, many Jews have been convinced.

So you see what the Scripture tells of the Incarnation of Christ, and how he was made of the seed of David according to the Prophecy that went before. Now we are to speak something of the Union of these two Natures.

They are united in a personal Union, such I mean, as that both Natures concur to the constituting of one individual Subsistence, as it is evident by this, that the works and sufferings proper to one of the Natures are ascribed unto the whole Person, which could not be truly affirmed, if both of these Natures were not conjoined in one Person.

The Actions or Properties of the God-head and Manhood both could not be given to whole Christ, if the God-head and Manhood both do not constitute one Person of Christ.

For the second Person in Trinity did assume to itself that frail Nature so soon as ever it had a being, but had no personal Subsistence in itself, so that it personally subsists by virtue of its so close and near an Union with the Person of the Son, and so whole Christ might be the Son of God, and the God of Glory might be crucified, and the blood of God might redeem us, and so whatsoever was done or suffered might be attributed to the whole Christ, the God-head being interested into that which the Humanity did and suffered, because of this unspeakable Union betwixt them.

Union ordinarily and in things natural is the joining together of two things by one common bond, but this Union is not so effected, but it is performed by the voluntary and powerful Act of the one of the things to be united, assuming and taking to itself the other after a manner incommunicable.

There have been many similitudes to make us conceive how God should become man, from iron thoroughly fired, there is iron and fire too, of the soul and body which make one Person, of the Scion engraffed in the Tree, of the Jewel in a Ring, of a Planet in its Orb, all which may something illustrate; but there is as much dissimilitude as similitude in them. Only there are these rules which are good to observe.

First, There are two Natures but not two Persons, Aliud & aliud, but not Alius & alius, as there are in the Trinity, it is a Union of Natures , yet not a natural but a supernatural and mystical Union.

Secondly, The Scripture expresseth it, 1 John 14. The Word was made flesh, it was not turned into flesh as the water was made wine, not by any confusion, as if the Divine Nature were made the Human, or the Human the Divine. When we say the Divine Nature took our Human Nature upon him, we must not think that that human Nature consisting of a soul and body was one entire person, as it is in us, for though it was particular, yet it did not subsist of itself before the Union of the God-head to it.

Thirdly, This personal Union is inseparable, for when Christ appeared like man in the Old Testament that was n •• an Incarnation, because separable.

Fourthly, By this means the Virgin Mary is truly called Deipara the mother of God, so in Scripture she is expressly called The mother of the Lord, for she brought him who was God and Man, though she did not bring forth his Deity, the whole Person of Christ was the subject of conception and nativity, though not all that was in that Person.

Consider lastly, The end of this Incarnation, which is this, God and man became one in Person, that God and man might become one in the Covenant of Grace, Gal. 4. 4, 5. Before this, man was at as great a distance with God, as the apostate Angels, but now by this means as he is made sin for us, so are we made righteousness by him, not that this benefit extends to all, but only to those men who are under the Covenant; and therefore Gal. 3. all the mercies which Abraham had are limited to a spiritual seed; therefore as the mystery is great for the truth, so for the comfort of it, and why should faith think it such an unlikely matter to adopt for his children when God hath united our nature to him?

CHAP. IV. Of Christ's Offices.

SO much may serve concerning Christ's Natures, both what they be, Manhood and God-head. And

Secondly, How they are united into one Person by a personal Union. Christ's Offices in the next place are to be treated of. Wherein consider,

• 1. His calling to his Office.
• 2. The Office to which he was called, or which is all one. The efficient cause of these Offices, and the matter or parts of them.

For the cause of the Lord's undertaking these Offices, it was the will and calling of his Father who is said to anoint him , that is to say, to appoint him to them, and sit him for them, and himself saith, Him hath God the Father sealed, that is to say, ratified and set apart to that work, as a Prince by his Seal doth give Commission to any of his Subjects to undertake such and such a work, furnishing him with Authority to fulfill the same. And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews saith particularly concerning his Priesthood, that he did not make himself a Priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; and this calling was ratified with an Oath, saying, That the Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a Priest forever, to let us know the certainty and immutability thereof. Now this observation makes to the exceeding great commendation of the goodness of God, that he himself would take care to provide for us a perfect and sufficient helper against this our misery. If we had bethought ourselves of a remedy, and procured it for ourselves, so much less had been the glory of his grace. But when he to whom it little pertained in regard of any good he should get by it, but that he counts it a benefit to manifest his grace by doing good to us; when he (I say) bethought himself of a way to effect this work, and took order to send a Person that was perfectly sufficient to work it out: Now this honor is enlarged exceedingly, and the glory of the work redoundeth wholly to him, and then it must be confessed to be altogether of his grace. It is true indeed that Justice and Mercy do meet together in this work, and each show itself in perfection, for that he pardoneth our sins and saveth us. Now that Jesus Christ hath deserved pardon of sin and salvation for us, it is a part of righteousness. For he is righteous (saith the Scripture) to forgive us; but in that he himself found out a means to satisfy his Justice, and after a sort to tie his righteousness to do this for us, this is of mere mercy and grace, for mercy is the beginning and first cause of our deliverance, but yet mercy sees justice satisfied, and so accomplisheth the whole work, not with any wrong, injury or offense to justice, and with the help of it. So we see our Lord Jesus Christ came to undertake this work, the manhood of his own accord did not put himself to do it, the Angels did not persuade him, we did not entreat him or hire him. Nay we nor any other creature had an hand in assigning him to it, but the Father being offended with us, and finding the way of his justice shut against us by our sins, made a Covenant with the Son that he should undertake it, and appointed it to be done by the way of taking our felsh, resolving that that Person should be the raiser up of lost and fallen man to happiness and felicity.

Now for the Offices themselves which Christ undertook, we must learn them by the Titles which the Scripture giveth unto him. These Titles are a Savior, a Redeemer, a Mediator, a Surety, a Christ, a Lord, and in explicating these six Titles, I shall sufficiently declare the Offices of our Lord.

First, I say he was a Savior, A Savior is a Person that undertaketh to free any that are in distress through the want of good things, and the presence of evil, from that misery under which they lie, by taking away those evils from them, and conferting those good things upon them. Now he is therefore called by the name of Jesus which signifies a Savior, because he was to deliver his people from that misery whereinto Adam and themselves had plunged themselves, removing those extreme evils which lay on them, and bringing unto them those great benefits whereof they were deprived. Even among us when any City or Commonwealth is oppressed by a Tyrant who spoileth them of their Liberty and Lands, and holds them in slavery and beggary; if any person arise and put down that Tyrant, and restore every man his Goods and Liberty, free them from their miseries, and restore them the free use of their Country and Laws, this man is a Savior of such a City: so is the Lord Jesus to us. Therefore is he frequently entitled, The salvation of God: Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God, and our God the God of our salvation. So was he figured by all the Judges whom God raised up to help his people, for it is said, God raised them up Savior's which saved them out of the hands of their enemies, and God raised them up a Savior, even such and such a one, they were Types of Christ the great Savior, That saveth us out of the hands of our enemies, as that holy man telleth in this Song. This is the first Title Jesus, and the reason of it, and it was his Name by which he was commonly known and called, and now known and called, a name of infinite sweetness to us, of infinite honor and praise to him; For how much comfort did oppressed Nations receive at the hearing of such a Deliverer? How much honor did they show unto him? And therefore when the Apostle telleth us of our subjection unto Christ's Authority, he ascribeth it unto this Name, as showing us, that this is the foundation of his requiring, and our yielding all honor and obedience to him. He takes not upon him to be honored only, because he will be honored, or because he is in himself worthy of it in regard of Excellency, but because he hath deserved it at our hands, and is perfectly worthy of it in regard of the things he hath done for us. Baptism saves representatively, Joshua temporally, Ministers instrumentally, Jesus principally.

Christ delivers his people from their spiritual slavery, the bondage of sin, Satan, the Law, Death, Hell.

The slavery of sin and Satan is all one, the Devil hath dominion over the soul only by sin, our lusts are his strong holds, Satan is cast out when sin is broken, 2 Tim. 2. 26. See 1 John. 3. 8.

Where he comes to be a Savior

First, He breaks all the yokes of sin, Rom. 7. 14, 17. & 8. 2. He delivers his servants,

• 1. From the guilt of sin, whereby the sinner is bound over to punishment, Christ hath discharged the debt for us, Rom. 8. 1. Gal. 3. 13.
• 2. From the stain and defilement of sin, 1 Cor. 6. 11. and that partly by repairing the image of God in the soul which sin had defaced, and by imputing all his righteousness to them, so that the soul stands covered over before God with the beauty of Christ Jesus, Revel. 1. 5.
• 3. From the reigning power of sin by his Spirit, Rom. 6. Acts 3. 26. Titus 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18.

Secondly, Christ delivers his people from the yoke of the Law both Ceremonial and Moral.

• 1. He hath totally delivered his people from the ceremonial Law, those ceremonies that concerned the public external Worship of God, and their private conversation, multitude of observations, and some costly.
• 2. He hath freed them from the burden of the Moral Law,
  • 1. From it as a Covenant of life, they have life by Christ.
  • 2. From the curses of it, Gal. 3. 13.
  • 3. The rigor of it.
  • 4. As it brings wrath and the Spirit of bondage, 2 Tim. 1. 7.
  • 5. From the irritation of it, for by accident it provokes a man's corruption, Rom. 7. 8.
  • 6. As it increaseth the guilt of sin, Christ hath taken all the guilt upon his own shoulders.

Thirdly, Christ sets all his servants free from the yoke of Death and Hell, the first and second death; this is proved out of 1 Cor. 15. 25, 26, 54. John. 11. 26. Revel. 2. 10. & 20. 6. 1 Thes. 1. ult. Christ delivers his people from the curse of Death.

• 1. Meritoriously by undergoing death, Heb. 2. 14, 15. In morte Christi obiit mors, he endured the wrath of God due to all God's people.
• 2. He effectually applies this to his people in the administration of the Covenant of Grace.

The Papists abuse the name of Jesus four ways:

• 1. In making it a name of wonder, using it idly and foolishly in their talk, O Jesus!
• 2. In a superstitious worshipping of the letters and syllables, bowing at the sound of the word, Vox Jesus, vel audita, vel visa, is worshipped by them. They say this is the name which God gave his Son after he had submitted to death for us. This name Jesus was given to Christ long before his exaltation. It is common to others, Jesus the son of Sirach, and Joshua Heb. 4. 8. They do not bow at the Name of Christ or Immanuel, or at the mention of any other Person in the Trinity.
• 3. In making it a name of a Sect, the Jesuits are so termed from it. Vide Bezam in 1 Cor. 2. 21. They should rather be called Ignatians of Ignatius the first author of their Society and Order.
• 4. In abusing it for a charm to cast out Devils. The Scripture indeed saith, By thy Name, but the meaning is by thy power have we cast out Devils.

They abuse that place, Acts 3. 16. His Name hath made this man strong, that is, say they, the Apostles pronounced the Name Jesus, and the pronunciation of this name hath a force of driving away Devils, or doing other miracles, the Name of Christ there is Christ himself or his power.

The Jews out of the word Jesus make the number of • 16. by the Letters, and there they have curses and blasphemies scarce to be named. Calverts Annot. on the blessed Jew of Morocco.

The Arminians say, Salvation may be had without knowledge of, or faith in Christ Jesus. Vide Musaeum contra Vedel. c. 9. Act. 4. 12. Some of the ancient Fathers before the rising of the Pelagian Heresy, who had so put on Christ, as Lipsius speaks, that they had not fully put off Plato, have unadvisedly dropt some speeches, seeming to grant, that divers men before the Incarnation, living according to the dictates of right reason, might be saved without faith in Christ. The Quession is not, Whether a Gentile believing in Christ may be saved? But, Whether a man by the conduct of Nature without the knowledge of Christ, may come to heaven? The assertion whereof we condemn as wicked Pelagian Socinian Heresy: and think that it was well said of Bernard, That many laboring to make Plato a Christian, do prove themselves to be Heathens. The Patriarchs and Jews believed in Christum exhibendum & moriturum, as we in him Exhibitum & mortuum. Gen. 12. 3. & 49. 10. Psal. 27. 8. & 110.

Bowing at the name of Jesus is defended by Montague, Orig. Eccles. part. 1. pag. 123. And Parre on the Romans seems from Zanchi and Pareus to justify it, but it is generally disliked by the soundest Divines.

〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 The second Title by which he is termed, is a Redeemer, by which is expressed in part the manner how he saved us, even by buying us out of the hands of our enemies. For to save signifieth to deliver without intimating the means of delivering, but to redeem noteth also the way how the deliverance was accomplished, even by paying a price, a valuable consideration, in regard of which the party captived, and forfeited to death or bonds should be restored to his liberty and good estate again. And this kind of deliverance is the fairest deliverance, & the only way of procuring deliverance, when a person is made miserable by his own default, and fallen into the hands of Justice joined with perfect strength, so that there is neither reason to use violence against him, nor possibility to proceed by violence. It was so with us, our misery came in regard of God from our own default, so that he was tied by the rules of his own justice to cast us off from himself, and from the enjoyment of those benefits that he had once bestowed upon us. And such is the weighty power and omnipotent arm of the most high, that it was impossible to pull us from out of the hands of his justice, whether he would or no. Wherefore then remained alone this way of buying us out of his hands, by laying down a sufficient ransom for us, and so did Jesus, he laid down his life as a ransom for many.

One was made free among the Romans, Vi, precio, manumission. Christ by force hath delivered us from sin and Satan, Col. 2. 13, 14. paid the price to his Father, 1 Tim. 2. 6. a price every way equivalent to the debt, and hath manumitted us also from the justice of God.

The price which he paid to redeem us was no less then that of his own most precious blood, as Peter tells us, by which it came to pass that Justice being satisfied, the Lord God of heaven willingly released us from his curse and wrath, and the punishment due to our sins. Indeed in regard of Satan and the flesh we are to them in unjust captivity, as I may speak, as was Israel in Egypt to Pharaoh. The Devil had by fraud, craft, subtlety, guile, made us his slaves, and by force kept us under his servitude, wherefore God dealeth not with him by way of composition but compulsion, drawing us out of his power in spite of his heart, but with his Father he effecteth our deliverance another way, even by compounding and paying for our deliverance. You see why and how he is a Redeemer, and therefore this Title is often given him, The Lordthy Redeemer, and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel.

All that is in God is offended by sin, and all in sin, yet two Attributes of his are especially offended by it:

• 1. His Justice, that whereby he cannot but punish sin where ever he finds it under the guilt of it.
• 2. His holiness, whereby he cannot but hate sin where ever he finds it in competition with him.

There are two things in sin, the commanding and condemning power of it, Vis dominandi & vis damnandi, Rom. 8. 2. In Christ's death there are two things;

• 1. The price or value of it.
• 2. The power and efficacy of it. The price of Christ's death takes away the condemning power of sin, and so God's Justice is satisfied, the power of Christ's death takes away the commanding power of sin, and so his holiness is appeased. Faith lays hold on the price of Christ's death which takes away the condemning power of sin, by new obedience we partake of the virtue and efficacy of Christ's death whereby the commanding power of sin is taken away.

Christ is a Savior by his merit and power. He doth conquer for us by his merit, and in us by the efficacy of his Spirit. Christ's merit is necessary:

1. In regard of the difference of the enemies, God and the Law are our enemies by right, the Devil and the World out of malice. God could not be overcome, therefore he must be reconciled; the Law could not be disanulled, therefore it must be satisfied. In regard also of the Devil that fights against us as a tempter, so Christ was to overcome him by his power, and as an Accuser, so Christ was to overcome him by his merit, Rom. 8. 34.

Secondly, Because of the different quality and respect in which Satan is an enemy.

• 1. He had a legal right as God's executioner, Ephes. 2. 14.
• 2. He had an usurped power, John 2. 32. the Lord made him an executioner, we made him a Prince, by the merit of Christ Satan is put out of office.

Secondly, Christ is a Savior by power, and the efficacy of his Spirit, 1 Cor. 15. 57. Rom. 16. 20. John 10. 24.

• 1. It is bestowed upon us by virtue of Christ's intercession, Heb. 7. 25. Rom. 5. 10. Zech. 3. 2.
• 2. It is sued out by prayer, Rom. 1. 27.
• 3. It is conveyed to us in the Ministry of the Word, Psal. 8▪ 2. Isa. 53. 1. Rom. 1. 16. 2 Cor. 10. 5.
• 4. This power is received and given by faith, 1 Pet. 5. 10.

But the third Title followeth, He is called a Mediator betwixt God and man, and a Mediator of the New Covenant. A Mediator is a Person that laboreth to set at agreement two or more parties that be at variance, and therefore it is required that he be interested into both parties, and have such a right in both, that in reason both should and so far as they are good and wise both will hearken and consent unto him. So Christ is a middle Person betwixt God and man, that he might fitly discharge the great work of making a peace betwixt God and man whom sin had set at odds, and of reconciling the one to the other that were grown to be at enm • ty one with another. The first Covenant the Covenant of works was such as needed no Mediator, and therefore it was made without a Mediator by the Persons covenanting alone without any coming betwixt, for there was perfect amity betwixt them, and that Covenant gave Laws for the continuing and perfecting of that amity. For the Creator loved the creature as he needs must, because there was nothing in the creature that came not from his own work, and so must needs be pleasing to him, for it is impossible that the Creator should hate the creature so long as nothing is found in it, but that which he puts in him: and the creature also loved the Creator, perceiving in him nothing but love and favor, by which he had done much good for him already, and was willing to do more, and not willing to do him any evil except himself should pull it upon himself by sinning, which he had not yet done, and which he knew himself able to forbear doing. So this first Covenant needed no Mediator, the persons being perfectly united in good accord and love. But the second Covenant was to be made betwixt parties mortally offended, and exceedingly fallen out one with another. For God the Creator was justly become an enemy to man, that is, incensed against him, and fully resolved to punish him with great and heavy punishments, and man the creature was unjustly become an enemy to God the Judge, hating him and muttering against him, because of the just punishment which he was to feel from him for his sins. Wherefore this Covenant must be made by a Mediator, a person that could and would as it were go between these two, offer to either reasonable conditions of agreement and labor to win them to accept of these conditions, that so enmity might cease and peace be settled between them. So did Christ, he came betwixt his Father and us, offered to his Father the condition of satisfying his Justice, and to us the condition of being accepted into favor notwithstanding our sin, upon our conversion to him. The Lord most good is exceeding willing to embrace the condition, yea he did offer it to Christ upon that condition, that his justice might be duly satisfied some other way without man's ruin, he would save him, only man stands off and is not willing to return to God again, and Christ hath more to do to persuade us to accept of favor on his terms, then to persuade him as it were to accept us on those terms: yet he doth persuade, win and draw all those to it to whom the benefit of this Covenant redoundeth, therefore is he a Mediator of the New Covenant.

Christ is the treasury of all that riches of grace which God in his eternal pleasure intended to bestow on his elect, 1 John 5. 11. Ephes. 1. 22. Acts 3. 15. It was God's great plot to make Christ Canalis grati • to all the reasonable creatures, to the creature fallen the channel of the grace of Reconciliation, to the Angels the channel of the grace of confirmation.

Reasons why God would have all deposited in the hand of a Mediator,

• 1. Man fallen could receive no good thing from God immediately, the change of the Covenant brought in a change of the government, John. 5. 22. All must come to us by virtue of a Covenant, God dealt with man at first in a Covenant-way, Adam and Christ were both heads of the Covenant, 1 Cor. 15. 47. God appointed them.
• 2. Nothing can be conveyed to us without a payment in reference to the old debt, and a purchase in reference to the new benefit, only a Mediator could do this. There is more righteousness required to justify man fallen then Adam had in innocence, or the Angels have in heaven: that answered but the precept of the Law, yours must answer the curse; you are bound to the precept as a creature, to the curse as a transgressor, and there is more holiness required to your sanctification, not only a conformity to God in his Law, but a destroying of the old Image. All the holiness of the Angels could not mortify one sin.

Christ had an instrumental fitness for the Office of a Mediator, to answer all God's ends, which were either,

I. Principal which respect God,

First, The manifestation of his own excellencies to the creature,

• 1. His manifold Wisdom is declared in the Gospel.
• 2. His Love to take a human Nature to an actual Union with the Godhead.
• 3. The Mercy of God was never before discovered.
• 4. His Justice in bruising his own Son.
• 5. Sovereignty, for Christ to be his servant.

Secondly, The Communication of his Goodness to the creature, the ground of communication is union, there is the fullest union betwixt God and Christ.

II. Less principal.

In reference to man, so God hath two ends, Reconciliation and Communion, Luk 2. 14.

• 1. Reconciliation, 1 Tim. 2. 6. a price every way answerable to the wrong God hath sustained by sin.
• 2. Communion, Christ in his bosom the seat of love and secrecy, by Christ we have a manuduction to God.

He was near to God whom he would accept, and near to us whom we may trust, he pleads with God for us, and treats with us for God, he was faithful to him and merciful to us, tender of his honor and our salvation.

There is a controversy between the Papists and us, An Christus sit Mediator secundum utramque naturam? Bellarm. Tom. 1. de Christo Mediator, c. 1, 3, 4. & 5, 6, 7, 8. Aquinas part. 3. Quaest. 26. Art. 2. say, Christ is Mediator only as man, not as God, they urge that Text 1 Tim. 2. 5. we say, Christ as God-man is Mediator, Christ calls himself the Son of man, is he not therefore the Son of God? In Christo solus Deus non est Mediator, nec solus homo, sed Deus homo, saith à Lapide in 1 Tim. 2. 5. The God-head concurred with the manhood in all the acts of Mediatorship, and that place 1 Tim. 2. 9. proves that Christ qui fuit homo which was a man is our Mediator, but not qua homo as a man.

The Papists say that Saints are Mediators to God, see 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one Mediator (say they) of Redemption, but of Intercession there are many. The Papists make the Saints Mediators of Satisfaction, Redemption is nothing else but the payment of a price of Satisfaction. See John 14. 6. Ephes. 2. 18. & 3. 12. why may not the Manichees so defend their two principles? although it be said there is one God, they may elude it by saying there is but one good God, and the Scriptures are to be understood of him, but there is another evil God. No man (saith Sadeel against the Papists) must expect integram salutem à Christo diviso.

We are to understand that place 1 Tim. 2. 5. exclusively, one, and but one, as in the former part of the verse, there is one God, one and but one. Vide Estium ad loc.

You may as well say an intercessor of mediation, as a Mediator of Intercession: for Intercessor and Mediator are both one. The Papists received this from the Gentiles, the devils (their gods) which were reputed of the lower sort, were made as means to come unto the higher, whence they were called also Dii medi • ximi, that is, God's only for Intercession, as if Neptune would speak to Jupiter, he made Mercury his means and intercessor. M ^r Deering upon the 4 ^th Chapter to the Heb. v. 14, 15, 16.

Christ is also called a Surety of the new Covenant. Now a Surety is a person that undertaketh something, therefore it is used of a person that undertaketh to see another man's debt satisfied, and it is applied to those which present a child to be baptized, because they undertake to do that for the child which is specified in the charge, to use the means there mentioned of bringing them to believe and repent. I say a Surety undertaketh some things. He that is a surety in case of debt undertaketh the debt, he that is a surety of any covenant undertaketh to see the covenant performed, and undertaketh to and for both parties, that one may not doubt of the other in regard of any insufficiency or other hindrance. So Christ is a Surety in his Fathers behalf to us that he should undoubtedly pardon us if we turn, let us not be farther careful about that, but only strive to believe, and he will deserve remission of sins, and do that for us which shall without fail procure his Father to accept and pardon us. Again he undertaketh for us too that we shall repent and turn to him, and he will cause us to come to him, and will make a sufficient Atonement. He undertaketh, I say, that there shall be a sufficient Atonement made, and that we shall turn to him, and for him that he shall accept the atonement; so that all the labor and pains for the effecting of the agreement lieth upon Christ, and he hath done it all, God would not trust us, for he knows that we cannot satisfy his Justice, nor would ever turn to him. Christ saith well, I will cause them to turn. We would never trust God through the conscience of our sins which knowing him to be angry doth bitterly accuse, but Christ undertaketh, let us not fear he will pacify him and free us, only let us turn. So you see the reason of this Title, a Surety of the new Covenant. For Christ could not be a Mediator by any other means but by being a Surety, seeing without him neither could God in Justice accept us, nor would, nor could we yield him satisfaction, or turn to him.

It is a Question between the Papists and us, An Christus aliquid sibi morte meruerit?

The Papists say Christ merited something for himself, viz. Corporis gloriam & nominis exaltationem, the exaltation of the Name Jesus, wherein he was despised, that men should bow to it, and all the good things he was possessed of after death.

The Scripture seems to oppose this Isa. 9. 6. Zech. 9. 9. John 17. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 30. He suffered for our sins, and rose again for our justification. He went to the Father to prepare a place for us, to intercede for us, and that we might sit together with him in heavenly places. The Surety quà Surety cannot do or suffer anything for himself but for those for whom he is a Surety. All that Christ did was for us, he was a Prophet and Priest for us. The human nature when it is united to the Godhead is worthy of all the glory.

Bellarmine urgeth that place, Ephes. 2. 8, 9, 10. His humiliation is not held to be the meritorious cause of his exaltation, but his exaltation is described as a following reward of his humiliation. By the name Jesus Christ is meant Jesus himself, as Estius confesseth, see Act. 3. 16.

5. Now follows the Title Christ to be considered, the word signifies Anointed, John 1. 41. & 4. 25. Quis nescit Christum ab Unction appellari? August. Anointing is pouring oil upon a thing or person; this oil was used to Kings, as Saul, David, Solomon, Jehu, Joash; and to Priests, as to the High-priest at the time of his admission to succeed in his Fathers room, and to all the Priests when they were first admitted unto their function for them and theirs; and it was also used to Prophets sometimes, and to holy things that were to be consecrated to God. Thus the Tabernacle and other instruments were anointed.

It served to set these things apart to cause God to accept them for his own use, and so to design those persons to those offices, assuring themselves and others, that God would accept and assist them in their places, that he did give them Authority and would give them gifts fit for that place. Now therefore our Lord Jesus is called Christ, because he was anointed with the Spirit, The oil of gladness, above his fellows, as the Apostle speaketh, in which Title are comprehended three special offices of his, a Priest, Prophet and King.

Christ had the wisdom of a Prophet, the holiness of a Priest, and the power of a King. He was a King to take away our Rebellion, a Prophet to take away our ignorance, a Priest to take away our guilt. Some were Priests and Prophets, so was Samuel: Some a Priest and a King, so was M • lchisedech: some a Prophet and a King, so was David: none but Christ was a Priest, a Prophet and a King, Trismegistus, a great King, a great Priest, and a great Prophet.

There is a difference between the anointing of the Kings, Priests and Prophets of the Old Testament, and the anointing of Christ.

• 1. In the efficient cause, they were anointed mediately by other Prophets and Priests, Christ immediately by God himself.
• 2. In respect of the matter, they were anointed with external oil, he with internal, that is, invisible of the Spirit.
• 3. In respect of the end, they were anointed for an earthly and worldly Kingdom, he for an heavenly and eternal.
• 4. In respect of the effect, Christ's anointing profits us, the anointing of the Spirit descends from him as the Head upon us his members, John. 1. 16. He was anoin ted, 1. Extensive, so as King, Priest and Prophet. 2. Intensive, others were but sprinkled, Psal. 133.

Now for his priestly function, it is the first in order of nature, though in time of executing it be not first. For God must be first reconciled unto the creature by the taking away of sin, afore any good thing can be done to him, or for him.

He is called our Priest, Psal. 110. 4. A great high Priest in the house of God. Heb. 2. 17. & 3. 1. A faithful high-Priest. Heb. 2. 17. A high-Priest of good things to come, Heb. 9. 11. Our Advocate, 1 John 2. 2. A Ransom, 1 Tim. 2. 6. The Lamb of God, John 1. 29. The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, Revel. 13. 8. A Propitiation, Rom. 3. 25. Our Peace, Ephes. 2. 14.

The Kingly and Prophetical Office are both grounded on his Priestly Office, the end of this was to apply the fruit and benefit of all, though Christ entered upon all his three Offices at once.

This Priesthood must be considered in its properties and parts. The properties of Christ's Priesthood are these:

• 1. It is not a Typical but a Real Priesthood, in which not the shadows of things which cannot take away sin are offered, but the thing which itself was the complement of all the shadows, so it differs from the Aaronical Priesthood, for it was but a type for the time being.
• 2. This is an eternal Priesthood not to be determined sooner then this whole world must determine; Christ is called A Priest forever. See Heb. 7. 24. & 8. 6. The virtue of this Priesthood began with the first sinner that was pardoned, and continues to the last, by him are all accepted that are accepted, and without him none were nor can be accepted. The Fathers that lived before he was offered enjoyed the benefit of his offering as well as we that live after, neither was the fruit any other, or less to them then to us, because that blood was reputed by God as shed from the beginning, and the Priesthood a Priesthood that hath no end in regard of the efficacy of the Sacrifice.
• 3. It is a holy Priesthood, Heb. 7. 26. & 9. 14. It behooveth us to have an holy Priest separate from sinners; the high-Priest offered for his own and the people's sins, but Christ was stricken for our iniquities. He was holy in his Nature, harmless in his Life, undefiled in both. All the Sacrifices of the Law were to be without blemish, the Priests were to be without corporal blemishes, a type of Christ's moral holiness, 2 Cor. 5. ult.
• 4. It is an unchangeable Priesthood, because it was made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment, but according to the power of an indissoluble life. This Priesthood receiveth not any alteration in regard of the person sustaining it, not in regard of itself, for as there is one Priesthood so one Priest. The Levitical Priests died, and the son succeeded the Father, so that though the Priesthood continued and was of long continuance, yet the Priest did not continue, but our Priest continues one as well as the Priesthood, so it is an unchangeable Priesthood, and therefore compared also to Melchizedek, of whom we hear once for all and no more, a shadow of the unchangeableness of the Priesthood of Christ, who therefore is called of that order, for Melchizedek's Priesthood was never derived, but Christ was likened to it, and he resembled Christ in it.

You have the Properties of the Priesthood, consider its parts. The Acts to be done by the Priest are parts of the Priesthood. The parts of the Priesthood of Christ are two,

1. To expiate or make propitiation for sin, or to perform the work of our Redemption, and to apply it, for thus he doth expiate. He performeth it by two things, the offering of his own self once for all to his Father, as in all the sufferings of his life, so in the last and worst of all in the Garden and on the tree, whereon he bare our sins, and was made a curse for us according as it is written. His Person was the Priest God and man. The Sacrifice was the humanity, the Lamb of God that sin-offering, trespass-offering, burnt-offering of a sweet savor, acceptable unto God, and the Altar which consecrated the Sacrifice was the Godhead, by virtue of which merit was added to the sufferings of the humanity, so he purged our sins by himself, and made his soul, that is, himself a Sacrifice for sin. And besides this Offering of himself, he first took upon him the form of a servant, that is, was made obedient to his Fathers will to keep the Law in all things as one of us should have done, and that in our stead. He was made under the Law for us, and hath brought in eternal righteousness. For we must not alone satisfy God for our unrighteousness, but also perform perfect righteousness, else we could not be admitted into his favor; wherefore the Sacrifice of the Law was first washed, and then the parts laid on the Altar in the burnt offering. And though Christ considered as a creature, his humanity must needs be subject to his Father, yet in such sort and manner by being made under the Law given to Adam, as the Prince must be subject to his Father, but not in the quality of Groom or Squire, that were an abasement to him, and more then could be required of him, but for some offense.

Now this work of Christ whereby he offered himself to his Father,

• 1. Is perfect and exact obedience to the Law, as if he had been a son of Adam alone, not God and man.
• 2. In suffering of his wrath and curse and just punishment, as if he had not fully kept, nay as if he had fully broken the Law. I say this offering did satisfy his Justice, and make as it were perfect recompense and amends for the sins of mankind. God was as much honored, and his Law as much magnified in that it was so performed, and he so obeyed by this one Person so great and worthy, as if all men had perfectly obeyed that Law in their kind, and the Justice of God in hating sin, and perfection of his authority in binding to punishment those that would not obey, was as abundantly demonstrated in that so admirable a Person suffered for it, as if all mankind had suffered to all eternity.

Socinus saith, The dignity of the Person makes nothing to the value of the suffering. Grotius replies, Poenam hanc inde fuisse aestimandam, quod is qui poenam ferebat erat Deus, etsi eam non ferebat qua Deus, & citat Act. 20. 28. 1 Cor. 2. 8. The dignity of the whole Person, saith he, contributes much to this estimation, therefore it is emphatically called in Scripture, The blood of the Lord, 1 Cor. 11. 27. The blood of Christ, Heb. 9. 14. The blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God, 1 John 1. 7. Grot. de Satisf. Christi. c. 8.

Now after the making of this satisfaction follows the application of it. For the sin-offering was not alone killed, but also the blood of it sprinkled upon the offerer, and no man was esteemed purged from his sin, till the blood of the Sacrifice was sprinkled upon him. Therefore David saith, Wash me with hyssop and I shall be cleaner then snow, and we are said to be chosen to life through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, that is to say, the giving of the virtue and merit of Christ's death unto us, signified by that sprinkling. Now this application of the sufferings and obedience of our Savior to us is done in time, and severally and particularly to and for each when he pleaseth to bestow himself upon him, and it is inseparably and immediately joined in time and nature with justifying faith, which at what time he workethin us, at that time he maketh all he hath ours, and in present possession giveth us his flesh and blood, that is to say, the merit of his Passion and the work of our Redemption which in that flesh and blood he accomplished.

This is the first part of his Priesthood, Redemption: the second is Intercession whereby he pleadeth our cause in the presence of his Father, partly having done it already, in the day of his flesh he offered up prayers for us, and partly forever, when sitting at God's right hand he intercedeth for us, that is, presents himself with the merit of his life and obedience as ours, done in our behalf, and imputed unto us to take away the stain of our sins, and to cause the Lord to accept us, and our prayers and services, and pass by all our sins and offenses.

Christ appeareth in Heaven for his people:

• 1. As an agent, a Lieger Ambassador, so Pareus interprets Heb. 9. 24. Christ's agency in Heaven is a continual Intercession; which should it cease but for a moment, what should become of his people here upon Earth? Should Christ cease to appear in Heaven for us (as he must do, if he should come and abide here upon earth a thousand years together; for he cannot in his Human Nature appear both in Heaven and Earth at the same time) all that time Heaven must be without an Agent, an Intercessor.
• 2. As an Advocate, 1 John. 2. 1. appears for us.
• 3. As an Attorney, Revel. 3.
• 4. As a Solicitor. M. Brinsleys Christ's Mediatorship.

Christ's Intercession consists in these particulars:

• 1. Christ represents our Persons to God the Father before the throne of grace, Heb. 9. 24. He appears as an Attorney for his Client, Exod. 28. 12, 29. He tenders all his sufferings to God in our behalf. Christ prayers ex vi pretii, we ex vi promissi. He tenders to God all his promises, and the ancient decrees and purposes, John 7. 13.
• 2. He adds his own desires that they may be accomplished, John 17. 24.
• 3. He makes answer to anything which is objected against any of these: as the devil is an Accuser, so he is an Advocate, 1 John 1. 2.
• 4. Christ doth this constantly and earnestly, Rev. 8. 21.
• 5. He tenders also your desires, mixeth his incense with your odors, and he tenders them as his own, as truly as he bears your sins he prays your prayers.

Christ's Intercession:

• 1. Began immediately upon the fall, he began to be Intercessor when he began to be a Priest, this was part of his Priestly Office, Revel. 13. 8. Heb. 3. 4. Before he came in the flesh he interceded vi pretii praestandi, since he ascended into heaven, he intercedes vi pretii praestiti.
• 2. His Intercession was effectual in all ages of the world, ever since there was a golden Altar, and an Altar of Incense, one referred to Christ's oblation, the other to his Intercession, Heb. 7. 25. Rev. 8. 2.
• 3. His Intercession is of as great extent as all God's promises and Christ's purchase, Lev. 16. 12, 13. John. 16. 24.
• 4. All the long prayers Christ hath made for the accomplishment of the promises and necessities of the Church God hath heard, Zech. 1. 12, 13. & 3. 23. John. 1. 41. see 22.

Because

• 1. Christ hath with God the Father one and the same will, John. 10. 30.
• 2. Because of the acceptation of his Person, Ephes. 1. 6. Cant. 5. 6.
• 3. They are all offered on the Altar of his Godhead, Heb. 9, 14.

So Christ's Priesthood hath two parts:

• 1. The work of our Redemption.
• 2. The applying of it,

By Intercession forus, and then by bestowing his blood upon us to purge our consciences, and actually to justify us, for these two go still together, that the whole work may be Christ's.

The Effects of this Priestly Office:

• 1. Satisfaction, This is implied in all those places where Christ is said to lay down his life as a price for sin, and to become an Atonement for our iniquities. Justice is satisfied by declaring a due measure of hatred against sin, and a due respect of his honor who is wronged by it.
• 2. Reconciliation with God, God is reconciled with us in Christ.
• 3. Obtaining of Remission of sins.
• 4. Communication of his Spirit and Graces, By his stripes we are healed.

The Priestly Office of Jesus Christ is the greatest Magazine and Store-house of comfort and grace on this side Heaven to all Christians. Paul opens and presseth it on the Hebrews laboring with unbelief the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ. Both the Kingly and Prophetical Offices of Jesus Christ are principiated in this, Revel. 1. 16, 18. See verse. 13. Antichristianism is an invasion on the Priestly Office of Christ, the Mass (that Incruentum Sacificium ) is a derogation to the Sacrifice of Christ, their prayers to Saints to his Intercession, their satisfaction to his Satisfaction. The Pope is styled Pontifex maximus, Christ did by one Sacrifice perfect forever those that are sanctified.

This Office of Christ is set up out of mere love and compassion for the relief of distressed souls. Christ's princely Office is for terror, Psal. 2. there is a mixture of terror in his prophetical Office, The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

The Covenant of Grace is laid upon the satisfaction of Christ, Heb. 9. 14, 15. He made full satisfaction to Divine Justice for all our sins, else the Lord might come on the Debtor if the Surety had not made full satisfaction to the Creditor, Ephes. 5. 2. Christ did more fully satisfy God and Divine Justice then if all we had gone to hell, and been damned to all eternity, the debt was now paid all at once, not by a little weekly, the Divine Justice would have been satisfying, not satisfied by us.

We are not able to make any Atonement for sin, Micah 6. 6, 7. Psal. 49. 7, 8. The Jews to this day believe, that God is atoned by Sacrifices; the Papists, that he is pacified by penance, and works of Supererogation: But God now rejects all those things of his own appointment, Heb. 10. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. and Christ is set forth as a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood.

The Arminians although in words for show they profess the satisfaction of Christ, yet indeed they (no less then the Socinians ) deny and overthrow the satisfaction of Christ, and the efficacy of his merit. They place not the nature of Christ's satisfaction in that he on the Cross sustained the person of the elect (for this they deny) and so satisfied God the Father for them, as if they had satisfied him in their own person; But in that, that he got the Father a right and will of entering into a New Covenant with men, which he might make with them upon any condition as well of works as faith. Also they deny that the end of the satisfaction or merit and death of Christ is the application of the reconciliation and remission of sins.

Sacrifices of the Old Testament were,

• 1. Living things.
• 2. Not living, but solid, as bread.
• 3. Not living, and liquid, as wine and oil.

There was always Destructio rei oblatae, if it was a living thing it was slain, answerable to which Christ is said to be a Lamb slain, Heb. 9. 22. if it were not living and solid it was bruised, so Christ was bruised for our iniquities, if it was not living and liquid it was poured out, so Christ.

Some object against the equity of this, How could God punish an innocent person for the nocent?

This was equal since all parties were agreed,

• 1. God the Father, Matth. 3. 17.
• 2. Christ, Heb. 10. 7. There was the ordination of the Father and free submission in Christ. It is no injury to require the debt of the Surety.

Again, Some object this, How could Christ being one Person expiate the offenses of so many thousands?

Adam by virtue of his public capacity could ruin all, Rom. 5. 15. to the end, therefore Christ might much more expiate the offenses of many, because of the dignity of his Person. And for this reason his sufferings though but temporary might compensate Justice for the eternal torments of sinners, since sufferings are not finite in their merit and efficacy though discharged in a short time, Act. 20. 28. God was more pleased with his sufferings then displeased with Adams sin.

The Socinians make this the only cause of Christ's suffering to be an example to us, this is the less principal. They say, God may have that liberty which man hath, a man may forgive his neighbor offending without satisfaction, and so may God.

God could have pardoned sin without satisfaction, Quid omnipotent potentius? saith Austin. But this way of Christ's suffering was expedient

First, In reference to God:

1. That God might manifest,

• 1. His hatred of the corruptions of his elect.
• 2. The truth of his threatenings, In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death.
• 3. The exactness of his Justice, both in punishing those that are out of Christ (when Christ himself suffered so much from his Father) and in pardoning his people, Rom. 3. 25, 26. give Christ unto us, but of Justice to pardon those that were in Christ.
• 4. His mercy mixed with justice to all men that are saved, now justice is satisfied, and mercy magnified, that which is done by our Surety is counted as done by our own persons.

Secondly, In reference to Christ:

• 1. To declare the transcendency of his love, rather then we should be forsaken forever he would undergo for a while the loss of his Fathers love, Mat. 27. 46. in his apprehension.
• 2. To show the reality of his Incarnation, he had not only the excellency of our nature, but all the common infirmities.
• 3. To show his great condescension, he denied himself in all his glory for a time.
• 4. To declare the completeness of his satisfaction, he had all manner of calamities in sense, and the loss of his Fathers love, the Divine Vision was suspended.
• 5. That he might by all this declare himself to be a perfect Mediator.

Thirdly, In reference to Satan:

That he might answer all his objections, he desired nothing more then the death of Christ, he had his desire and his Kingdom was overthrown by it.

Fourthly, In reference to his Children:

That they might have encouragement to come to God by him, that they might have strong consolation our remission is more honorable, to be forgiven on satisfaction, sets the person offended in the same state of Innocency that before: our happiness is more sure, being by the blood of the Son of God.

Christ's death is not only to merit but also to satisfy, for there is a difference between merit and satisfaction merit properly respects the good to be obtained, satisfaction the evil that is to be removed. As a man merits a reward which is good, but satisfieth for that fault which is committed.

2. Merit properly respects the good of him that meriteth, or him for whom he meriteth, satisfaction respects the good of him for whom the satisfaction is made. Three things make up satisfaction.

• 1. Ordination of the Judge.
• 2. Submission of the Surety.
• 3. Acceptation of the sinner.

Satisfaction is nothing but that quo alicui plene satissit. This the Scripture expresseth by Redemption, Expiation, Reconciliation.

Satisfactionis vocabulum in hoc negotio Scriptura non usurpavit, rem tamen ipsam docuit manifestism Rivet. Disp. 13. de Satisf. Christi. The word satisfaction is not found in the Latin or English Bibles applied to the death of Christ: In the New Testament it is not at all, in the Old but twice, Numb. 35. 31, 32. But the thing it itself intended by that word, is everywhere ascribed to the death of our Savior, there being also other words in the original Languages, equivalent to that, whereby we express the thing in hand. It is a term borrowed from the Law, applied properly to things, thence translated unto persons, and it is a full compensation of the Creditor from the Debtor. Hence from things real it was, and is translated to things personal, Isa. 53. 12. The word Nasa argueth a taking of the punishment of sin from us, and translating it to himself, and so signifieth satisfaction, so doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 used by Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 24. in the room thereof. Mr. Owen of Redemption, l. 3. c. 7.

Of Christ's Priesthood you have heard, now you shall hear of his Prophecy, a work annexed to Priesthood, for the same persons were to teach the people that were to offer up Sacrifice for them, although some did teach that might not offer up Sacrifices.

These Titles are given to Christ in respect of this Office. He is called, Dan. 8. 13. Palmoni, The revealer of secrets. The Doctor, Matth. 23. 28. Law-giver, Jam. 4. 12. Counselor, Isa. 9. 6. Revel. 3. 18. Chief Prophet of his Church, Act. 3. 22. & 3. 37. that Prophet, by an excellency, Mark 2. 6. John 1. 18. & 15. 15. & 3. 32. & 14. 25. The Angel of the Covenant, Mal. 3. 1. The Apostle of our profession, Heb. 3. 1. A faithful witness. Apoc. 1. 5. A witness, Isa. 55. 4. The light of the Church, and of the world, Isa. 60. 1. Luk. 2. 32. and The author and finisher of our faith, Heb. 12. 2. He is the great Prophet like unto Moses, yea far above Moses, whom God hath raised up in his Church to teach them all truth. The Prophets Office was to teach the people the things which pertained to their duty, that they might please God and attain his promises.

Now Christ is also the teacher of the Church which taught the will and whole counsel of God concerning our salvation, that Prophet whom Moses did foretell, and whom the people expected for this end in that time that he lived, as the words of the Samaritan woman show. See Deut. 18. 8. John 15. 15. & 17. 8.

The matter or parts of this prophetical Office was teaching or revealing the will of God: This teaching of Christ is double, External and Internal; externally he taught,

• 1. By the Ministry of his Prophets in the times that went before his coming into the world, whom he raised u • for that end, that they might reveal so much of his will as was necessary for them to know. Peter telleth us that he spake to the Spirits that were then in prison, and that the Gospel was preached to them that were dead, meaning his Prophets in former time, whom Christ by his Spirit stirred up for that end.
• 2. He taught himself in person when he had taken our flesh upon him for the space of three years and a half, or as some think of four years, going up and down and teaching the Doctrine of the Kingdom, saying, Repent and believe the Gospel, and confirming his Doctrine with miracles and signs of all sorts to the astonishment of all that heard the report of them, as the Story of the Gospel written by the four Evangelists doth plainly show.
• 3. He taught by his Apostles, Evangelists and Prophets, men which he stirred up with extraordinary gifts and power to preach everywhere, sending them out first whilst himself lived, into all the Country of Judea, and then after into the whole world, and not only so, but moving some of them to write in books, and leave to the Churches use those holy Scriptures which are the perfect rule of our Faith and Obedience, and do sufficiently, plainly and perfectly instruct the whole Church and each member of it to the saving knowledge of God and Christ, so that if there were never another book extant in the world, yet if a man had these writings for all substantial points truly translated into a tongue understood by him, and had no other helps to make him understand the same but his own reason and understanding according to the true principles of it, by reading only and barely those writings he should come and that certainly and infallibly to the knowledge of all things necessary for his salvation. Neither is anything requisite to the right understanding of the Scriptures in points of necessity to life and salvation, but alone the diligent perusing and meek receiving of the same.

And yet Christ performeth this outward teaching in a fourth degree by the Ministry of his servants from time to time, the Pastors and Teachers of all ages, whom he raiseth up and instructeth in the knowledge of his truth that they may instruct the people. And this is the outward teaching, the inward is noted where he saith, You shall be all taught of God, it is the work of his Spirit putting into the mind a light to conceive the things taught, and inclining it to hearken and consent to them; of which there are two degrees, the first fainter and lesser, breeding a kind of belief or opinion; the second is more deep and stable by which men are rooted and grounded in faith, and do firmly believe the known truth, and are guided and ruled by it.

The Properties of Christ's Prophetical Office are two:

• 1. He is a great Prophet, as the people say Luk. 7. 16. indeed the greatest of all the Prophets, that reveals all things, as the woman of Samaria could say, He shall show us all things.
• 2. He is a faithful Prophet in all his house, as Moses also was faithful, and his faithfulness stands in this, that he did acquaint his Church with the whole will of God without adding and diminishing, as Moses did, and that he did as fully accomplish all the things typified, as Moses did declare and set them down; but it stands not in this, that he gave a particular direction for all external things about his worship and government, as Moses did, for that we are sure he hath not done in his Gospel, neither indeed was to do.

The Pope opposeth Christ in his Prophetical Office, in making himself infallible, he brings in new Sacraments unknown to Christ and his Apostles, Christ is the only absolute Doctor of his Church, Matth. 23. 8. See Matth. 17. 5. Revel. 5. 7, 8. The Church of Rome hath added Traditions, Will-worship; human Inventions to the Scripture.

Mahomet is extolled by many as the great Prophet of the world.

So you have the Prophetical Office of Christ, now follows the third, viz. He is King, to which we may add that of Lord, because his Kingdom and Lordship signify in a manner the same thing, both serving to express the power and authority which he hath, and exerciseth in and over his Church, Psal. 72. per tot. Isa. 9. 6. Micah 5. 2. 1 Tim. 6. 14.

There is a three-fold Kingdom of Christ mentioned in the holy Scripture:

• The first is his Kingdom of power or excellency, whereby he being God is the supreme Lord of all things, Psal. 24. 1.
• 2. The Kingdom of his grace, whereby he rules in the hearts of all his elect ever since the world began, Psal. 2. 6. Zech. 9. 9. Ier. 23. 5. Ezek. 37. 22. Luk. 11. 20. & 17. 21.
• 3. Of glory, whereby he himself is now in endless and perfect felicity, and of which happiness his Saints shall one day partake, Luk. 23. 42. & 12. 32. Luk. 13. 29. 1 Cor. 6. 9. 2 Pet. 2. 11. Crakanth. of the P • pes Tempor. Monarc. cap. 2. See more there.

This Government is a right of immediate executing the sovereign authority of God over all creatures, in ordine ad salutem, in order to the salvation of his elect, John. 3. 34, 35. Christ was born a King, but he entered not into his Kingly Office till after his resurrection, Psal. 2. 6, 7. He was a Priest and Prophet on earth. Yet this is that which brings in the benefit of all the other Offices, and makes us partakers of all the good in Christ.

Of which the means are outwardly his Word and the Ministry thereof, and inwardly his holy Spirit worketh in and by the Word.

The parts of it are,

First, Governing and guiding his Subjects in the ways which he hath appointed them to walk in, and subduing the temptations of Satan, and the world, and lusts of the flesh to them, and rewarding them at the last with eternal glory.

Secondly, Confounding and destroying all his enemies, and treading them under his feet.

The properties of it are,

• 1. It is not a civil or earthly, but a spiritual Kingdom, John 18. 36. 1 Cor. 15. 47. Rom. 14. 1. which doth look to the Spirit, reacheth to the conscience and spiritual things, it is not carnal nor of this world, nor looketh to the outward man alone. The King is spiritual, viz. the Lord from Heaven, the Subjects are spiritual, viz. the Church regenerate, the Law whereby the Church is governed is spiritual, viz. the Gospel, the goods bestowed upon the Church are spiritual, as remission of sins, the Spirit of grace, and the manner of government is spiritual.
• 2. Universal, and that in four respects,
  • 1. In respect of all ages and times, other Kings have the time of their rise and fall, this dominion is eternal, it shall have no end.
  • 2. In respect of all places, Rev. 5. 9. to the end.
  • 3. In respect of all creatures, Rev. 5.
  • 4. In respect of all things and actions. For him hath God the Father made Lord and King, and he doth powerfully administer his Church to the sanctification, preservation and salvation of those which refuse not to submit. Christ doth one thing more then all Kings for their Subjects, for he maketh his Subjects, seeing all by nature are his enemies, but by his Word and Spirit he subdueth them to the obedience of his will, 1 Cor. 14. 25. that he may glorify himself and his Father in their salvation.
• 3. Absolute, Rev. 19. Christ is Lord Paramount, 1 Tim. 6. 14.

He is a King by a threefold right:

• 1. Of birth, Gal. 4. 1.
• 2. Of donation, Psal. 2. 8. John. 17. 2.

• 3. Conquest, Rev. 1. 18.

  He is King in Heaven in respect of his glory, in Earth in respect of his grace, in hell in respect of his justice.

Christ as Mediator is the Churches head, 1 Cor. 11. 32. Ephes. 1. 22. & 4. 15. & 5. 28. Col. 1. 1. & 2. 18, 19.

He is their head , Ration Unionis, Ration Regiminis, Ration Influentiae, 1. In respect of Union. 2. In respect of Guidance. 3. In respect of Influence. The Government of the Church is upon his shoulders, Isa. 9. 6. & 22. 21, 22. Matth. 28. 19, 20. Ephes. 1. 20, 21. Psal. 68. 18. He is the only head and King of his Church, the Government of the Church is part of his Kingly Office. He as Mediator hath the Government of the Church committed to him.

• 1. The Church Mystical, the number of all the Saints of God whether Militant or Triumphant.
• 2. The Church Political, particular Churches gathered with their Officers, as the seven Churches in Asia. Christ is the head of both.

The original and fountain of all Government is God the Father, Son and holy Ghost, he hath a primitive and absolute Sovereignty over all men.

• 1. As he gives them what being he will.
• 2. As he appoints them what end he will.
• 3. As he gives them what Law he will, this is Regnum essentiale, Thine is the Kingdom.

Secondly, All the Persons of the Trinity have committed or delegated this power into the hands of Christ as he is Mediator, both God and Man, Mat. 12. 18, 19. Dan. 7. 13, 14.

Four things qualified Christ for this: He hath

• 1. A Spirit of wisdom and counsel, Isa. 11. 2.
• 2. Of courage there to, and Isa. 31. 4.
• 3. Of meekness and moderation.
• 4. Is faithful, Isa. 9. 6.

Thirdly, Christ delegates this power (as he hath the government of the Church) three ways:

• 1. To the Angels, they are principalities and powers.
• 2. To the Magistrates, By him Kings reign.
• 3. To Church-officers, Ephes. 4. 11, 12. These are to continue so long as his Mediatory Kingdom shall last.

It is fit that Christ and he alone should govern the Church.

First, Because the Church is his own, his own body and house, Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 12. Ephes. 4. 16. Heb. 3. 6.

It is his,

• 1. By purchase, He hath purchased to himself a peculiar people.
• 2. By Covenant, I entered into Covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine.
• 3. By Regeneration, They are one Spirit.

Secondly, The Church is his great Depositum, and Praemium.

• 1. The great pledge God hath committed to his trust, John 17. 2.
• 2. The great reward of all his services, Eph. 1. 21, 22.
• 3. There is none qualified for the Churches government but he.

This Sovereignty of Christ as Mediator is twofold:

First, In the spiritual Kingdom, by which he rules in the hearts of all, especially his Saints, Luk. 17. 21. Rom. 14. 17.

This consists in six things:

• 1. He sets up a throne in the souls of his people, that they look on him as a King, Rev. 4. 3.
• 2. As a spiritual King he gives Laws to the soul, Rom. 13. 5.
• 3. He will punish their enemies, 1 John. 3. 18.
• 4. He bestows both gifts and graces, Rev. 4. 5.
• 5. He rules in their hearts and ways, John. 16. 14.
• 6. He hath the key of heaven and hell, Rev. 11. 17.

Secondly, He hath a Sovereignty committed to him as Mediator God-man, i • the providential Kingdom, Psal. 8. 4, 5. compared with Heb. 2. 5. Ephes. 1. 21. Pro. 8. 15. 21, 22.

2. All the great things in providence are ascribed to Christ Mediator; he brought the flood, Gen. 6. 3. compared with 1 Pet. 3. 18, 19. he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he gave the Law, Heb. 26, 27.

3. He shall accomplish all the Prophecies, Rev. 19. 13. He shall judge the world, Act. 17. 30, 31. therefore he rules it, else he could not proportion to men rewards and punishments, if he did not employ them.

4. He shall give up his Kingdom to his Father, 1 Cor. 15. 34. the Lord Jesus hath all this Sovereignty for the Saints sake, that they might have interest in it, John. 17. 2. & 3. 35.

We should take heed of doting on an earthly Christ, Kingdom, Inheritance, or Preferment by Christ; the Apostles expected earthly preferment; the Millenaries say, Christ shall destroy all Monarchies, and be Monarch alone, and his Saints shall be great persons here.

The Jews deny Christ's Kingly Office, they say, he shall be an earthly King, and shall conquer all Nations, and bring them into the Land of Canaan, and there shall bless them with abundance of all things. The Papists speak of a carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament.

The Pope hath invaded Christ's Kingly Office by making laws which shall immediately bind the consciences of men. He saith he is Christ's Vicar, and the Head of the Church. They say, there is a twofold head of the Church, 1. Imperial, Principal, Invisible: so Christ. 2. Ministerial, Secondary, Visible: so the Pope: This is a mere contradiction. To be head argueth preeminence, to be ministerial argueth subjection and inferiority.

Most in the world oppose the Kingly Office of Christ, his Laws, Psal. 2. 4. See Phil. 2. 10. There are three Kingdoms contrary to the Kingdom of Christ, that of sin, Satan, and Antichrist.

Christ is our Lord: This name is often given to Christ, Psal. 110. 1. Mat. 22. 44. John 13. 13. Act. 2. 36. 1 Cor. 2. 8. & 8▪ 5, 6. The Apostle takes delight still to mention this title The Lord, Col. 1. 19. 1 Cor. 10, 21. & 11. 20. Jude v. 3. It is called The table of the Lord, and the body and bread of the Lord, because we are so ready to forget Christ's authority, therefore he is very often called Lord in the New Testament, Rev. 1. 5. Phil. 2. 10.

Christ is Lord:

• 1. As God, John. 20. 28.
• 2. As man both in respect of the hypostatical Union, and by the merit of his passion, by which he hath gained a dominion to himself over men redeemed by him, Luk. 2. 18.
• 3. From God's Ordination, Act. 2. 36. Phil. 2. 9, 10, 11.

He is Lord by right,

• 1. Of Creation, John. 1. 3.
• 2. Of Redemption, 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Pet. 1. 18.
• 3. Preservation and Government, Ephes. 5. 23.

He is Lord two ways:

• 1. In general, as over all creatures, King of Nations, Ier. 10. 7.
• 2. In special, as head of his Church, King of Saints, Rev. 15. 3.

The King is Lord over all the Subjects, but in special manner over the Queen, by a double right, as King and Husband, Ephes. 1. penult.

There are three privileges of his Lordship.

• 1. He is Lord alone, he hath no co-partner, Ephes. 4, 5.
• 2. Is Lord over all creatures inwardly and outwardly, the good to defend them, the wicked to offend them.
• 3. Is Lord forever,

This Attribute when given to God the Father or Christ, usually signifieth his Sovereignty and Dominion, Thus saith the Lord God, that is, he that hath Sovereign power over you. When this Title is given to Christ in the New Testament as a distinctin between God and the Lord, 1 Cor. 8. 6. Ephes. 4. 5, 6. Phil. 2. 11. it signifieth that Christ is he through whom all good from God is derived to us, and through whom all our services are offered to God, that he is our Mediator.

We should pray, Let thy Kingdom come, labor for a true personal reign of Christ, that Christ and he only may be Lord of our souls, we should be glad to have him reign in our Families, public Assemblies, his Truths, Ordinances and Government.

If we receive Christ into our hearts, we must receive him only and absolutely upon his own terms, and in all his Offices, and into every room of our hearts, and that forever.

We become the servants of God four ways:

• 1. By an act of Election in God, Act. 9. 15.
• 2. By Purchase, 1 Cor. 6. 21. & 7. 23.
• 3. By Conquest, Servus quasi servatus in bello, Luke 1. 74, 75.
• 4. By mutual Covenant, we at last choose God for our Lord and Master.

To be a servant hath two things in it:

First, Inward reverend affection.

Secondly, Ready outward subjection.

We must first do the work of God, Christ did his Fathers work, John 9. 4 • . Psal. 40. 7, 8.

Secondly, Do his work only, we cannot serve two contrary Masters.

CHAP. V. Of CHRIST'S double state of Humiliation and Exaltation.

HItherto of our Lord's Natures and Offices, now of his acts by which in those Natures he fulfilled those Offices. They are all brought to a Dichotomy by our Lord himself, when he saith, Ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter into his glory? and by the Apostle S ^t Paul, saying, He humbled himself, and God hath greatly exalted him.

First then for his Humiliation, it was of necessity for our Redemption, because he that is to satisfy for sin must bear punishment. The bearing of punishent, as being a suffering of some evil and undesirable thing, cannot be but an abasement.

This abasement was twofold:

1. In submitting himself to obey the whole Law in our behalf in the form and quality of a servant, even as if he had been no other then a bare man, so that he was found in fashion as a man, and made in the likeness of men, that is, was put to serve and obey as mere men are. To be subject to God and obedient to the author of being, is no abasement at all, but to be in such sort and degree subject, as if he were a mere son of Adam, of no more excellency then a man, this was an abasement. That the heir of some noble-man or great person be inferior to his Father, and do whatsoever he shall employ him in suitable to his quality and condition, is no abasement; nay it is an honor to him, but if some slave whom the son did please to affect should play the thief and runagate, and the son requesting his fathers favor in his behalf, should be answered, I am content to pardon him for your sake son, upon condition that you will be scullion in his room this seven years, and hereupon should serve his Father in that homely office of the kitchen for the term appointed, this now were a great abasement for the son. So for our Lord Jesus Christ in his Humanity to be subject and serviceable to his heavenly Father in an obedience suitable to his worth and dignity, had been no humiliation; but to be subject in the quality of a mere man, nay a sinful man, and be put to obey the Law, and such a Law, and so to obey it as if he had been of no higher offspring then the loins of his mother, this was a great abasing. He submitted himself to be under the authority of his mother, as another child, and to live as a Prentice to Joseph's Trade, as another child to go up to the Feasts to be circumcised, to bear injuries, to pray with weeping tears for sins, but our sins, and so in the rest; Here was a great and chief part of his humiliation, so our Apostle witnesseth; God sent his Son made of a woman, made under the Law, that he might redeem them that were under the Law, and as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Psal. 40. 6. He alludeth to the civil Ordinance, Exod. 21. 5, 6. both his ears were bored thorough, his obedience was double to that of others. D ^r Hampton on Rom. 5. 19.

But this obedience was not so great a Humiliation as was requisite, a more difficult burden was required at his hands and a labor more tedious, he must suffer also those evils of all kinds which we should have suffered, as if the fore-mentioned Son of some noble Personage for the winning of his Fathers favor to a runaway servant, should not be put alone to serve an apprenticeship in the scullery, but also to be grievously whipped with rods, as the slave himself should have been for his offense.

The sufferings therefore of our Lord Jesus come to be considered of, which O that we could seriously consider. It were impossible for any man not to repent, not to believe, not to obey that would address himself to the frequent and serious meditation of these sufferings, if withal he were informed of the motive, end, and fruit of the same.

Now all of the things endured by Christ may be referred to those of his Infancy and Elder time.

First, To be born of a poor and mean parent, void of all earthly honor and state, although she were the Heir of the greatest family and noblest blood in the world, and had as due right as was possible to a rich and honorable Kingdom. The Virgin Mary and Joseph both were of the famous linage of David, he the next Heir male, she the next Heir female to the crown of Israel and Judah, but usurpers had laid violent hands upon that Principality, and the whole Tribe of Judah, specially the linage of David was so far depressed and obscured, that now the Heir to the Crown was unknown and neglected, and the family of such honor even raked up in the dunghill of meanness and contempt, glad to apply themselves to base and carnal occupations, as the Carpenter or the like. This was an abasement to Christ that he was not born of David's posterity all the while it was of esteem, note and honor in the world, but now that the Scepter was quite departed from the Tribe, now that it was even cast down to the dust, and no man of note or power in it; now must he be born of that Family, now must he take flesh of that linage.

Secondly, The manner of his birth also was very base and beggarly, for his Father and Mother coming to Bethlehem upon occasion of taxing (when there was à great concourse of people to that little Town) were so coursly entertained, that her time of Travel being come perhaps a little before she looked for it, she was thrust into an out-house, an odd corner, a poor stable, there to cry out and be delivered without any attendance or regard. What could be more ignoble and contemptuous? The Son of God was born in a stable and laid in a manger, as if he had been worthy of no better esteem then a very vagrant. Thus was he born and in this simple fashion did he enter into the stage of the world, as if he had been a person of no esteem or reputation.

And thirdly, no sooner was he born, and the thing made known to the world, but that his life was sought for by the malice and craft of Herod, who had usurped that Kingdom which was due unto him. For he having notice that the King of Israel was born (as is the manner of Tyrants to seek the destruction of the right Inheritor) dissembled with the Wisemen, pretending that his purpose was to come and worship him, and learning by them what he could for that purpose, intended in very deed to have made him away, by which means he was compelled for the saving of his life to take a long and tedious journey down into Egypt, no Question with great labor and weariness to himself as well as to his Parents.

Thus you have the sufferings of our Savior's Infancy; next consider his whole life, and what was it but a suffering of all misery, both in the whole course of it, and in the conclusion of all at his death.

For the course of his life it was private and public. For his private life until his thirty years he lived a Carpenter He that was sufficient to have governed all the Monarchies under the Sun, to have ruled the whole world, to have led mighty Armies, and to have read a Lecture of Wisdom to Angels and Archangels, he was servant to his Father, a Carpenter, and spent his time obscurely in a manual occupation, handling the Mallet and Chezil, and doing the work of a mean laborer, burying as it were all his Divine Excellencies under the thick and dark cloud of a poor Trade, and not showing forth so much as a glimpse of his heavenly glory, but that at one time at the age of twelve years he peeped a little out of the Cloud, when at a feast in Jerusalem he disputed with Doctors to the astonishment of all the hearers and beholders. He was cast down from all honor and made to inherit contempt and baseness.

But come we to his public life, where he was to take upon him a glorious function fit for himself, even to be the Minister of the Circumcision, a Prophet to the people Israel.

First, He entered into this function with a great toil and labor, for by and by after his Baptism and Calling to public view, he was thrust forth into the wilderness there to be tempted of the Devil, not for a few hours or days, but for full forty days together. There he did challenge all the powers of darkness, and hand to hand did enter the lists to fight a combat with all the Devils of hell. There was he singled forth, and they let loose to try the utmost of their mighty and subtle temptations, three principal ones are mentioned, but no question he stood not against so little as three thousand, for what would not Satan assay to do him mischief? What evils did he not by word or suggestion labor to draw him to? when he had him for so long a space of time at so great a disadvantage all alone in the wilderness and fasting, he would strain himself to the utmost of his wicked wit to have poisoned him with some taint of wickedness, that he might have killed the whole body of his Church in him the Head thereof, as he destroyed all mankind in the first Adam the common root of it. It is certain that our Lord was armed with power and wisdom to discover and resist his temptations, and knew he should, could and would be victorious, but no doubt the combat was troublesome and tedious, and filled his righteous soul with unspeakable dolour and anguish. Let a virtuous and honorable Matron be shut up so many days together in one room with a base and loathsome adulterer, there to suffer all his impure solicitations, will not her misery be so much the greater in sense by how much herself is more shamefaced and honest, and more abhorrent from all such impurity? so it was with the soul of our blessed Savior. That great and foul polluter of himself and mankind the Devil, had liberty given him to try what ever he could do with all his crafty and abominable temptations to draw our Lord Jesus from his God, and to make him as all other men were, a sinner. The most valiant person in the world armed with the best weapons for defense, and furnished with so much prowess and skill that he knew he should be conqueror and unwounded, would yet find it unspeakably troublesome to ward oft the multitude of blows of ten thousand at once, assailing him with such fiery darts and poisoned weapons, that each of them had they but fastened to draw blood would have been mortal unto him. Had any of Satan's temptations fastened on the soul of Christ, he had been made a sinner, and so separated from the Union with the second Person, and so himself with all his members that depended upon him had perished eternally. Doubtless though he knew he should overcome, yet the bearing off, putting by and resisting so many mighty blows and subtle thrusts must needs be extremely tedious and bitter unto him, by how much he was more perfectly holy, and did more detest all such manner of temptations.

Thus his sufferings from Satan were horrible, though in the issue harmless, yea and glorious, but now think what he bare in his whole life after.

Five things are most intolerable to the nature of man in passing of his life, Poverty, Reproach, Labor, Danger and Sorrows, he was laden with all these in all extremity.

First for Poverty, Though he were very rich (saith S ^t Paul) yet he became poor for our sakes; he had been no slothful nor prodigal Person in his private life, but he was a Servant to his father in law, and the calling was poor, so that he could get nothing but from hand to mouth, and therefore being to leave his Trade, and become a Minister and Preacher of the Gospel, he had no house nor home of his own to dwell in, no stock nor revenues to live upon, but was fain to live of pure alms, and though he was no beggar , yet as if he had been a beggar, to maintain himself altogether by the kindness of others. The Foxes have holes, the Fowls nests, but the Son of man hath not whereon to rest his head. We read of a bag he had, but it was not filled with the fruits of his own hand or stock, but with the gifts and alms of others. He had it, but he had it of alms: it was enough, but at other men's voluntary cost. What ingenuous spirit doth not feel it an abasement to be so maintained? You see his Poverty, he was of so low estate that indeed he had nothing at all, but what good people would bestow upon him.

Again, for Reproach, How insufferable a thing is that to worthy natures to be standard, reviled, ill-spoken of, and laden with false accusations and calumniations? Doth it not seem unto us a heavier thing then death? Who is not so tender of his good name that the least blemish and aspersion cast upon him, seemeth more smarting then the cutting of a sword? But our Savior had all manner of disgraces cast upon him, not by mean, base, beggarly and despised companions; but by the Scribes, Pharisees, Elders, High-Priests and Rulers of the City, men of most fame and reputation not for command and wealth alone, but also for learning and piety. These did seek to discredit him out of their repining envy, these vilified his Person, depraved his best actions, and did cast the worst imputation they could upon him. They vilified our Savior's person by the baseness of his parents, his kindred and profession, Is not this Joseph's son, is not Mary his mother, and his brethren James and Ioses, Simon and Jude? Is not he the Carpenter? They gave it forth that he was a 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 drunkard, a glutton, a rioter, a companion with the basest fellows, even Publicans and sinners, they depraved his actions:

1. His Doctrine as heretical crossing Moses his Law, and treasonous that he forbad to pay tribute unto Caesar.

2. His miracles as magical, they reported that he did all those miracles for which the people did so much honor him, not by the power and singer of God, but by the black Art of hellish conjuration, even by the aid and working of Beelzebub the chief of Devils. These said he was a wicked and profane fellow, a man that did not regard the Sabbath of the Lord. These were bold to lay to his charge that horrible and sacrilegious crime of blasphemy, saying, Why doth this man blaspheme? and for thy blasphemy we seek to stone thee. Lo! to be traduced of men famous for knowledge and religion, and for honor and wealth, as a boon companion, as a wine bibber, a fellow for harlots, a profane polluter of the Sabbath, an horrible blasphemer of God; this was the bitter cup which our Lord Jesus was fain to drink. Could he suffer greater and more intolerable ignominy? Nay at one time they were so audacious as to tell him to his face, Thou art mad and hast a Devil?

Now consider thirdly his Labor, his travel on foot, many a weary step and long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Galilee, and from quarter to quarter, and Country to Country, sometimes on foot with sweat and toil till he was even weary and tired again, glad to sit down and rest him, as once at the Well of Jacob, sometimes by Sea in a Ship when the furious winds conspired against him, and raised such a storm, as if the ship must have been swallowed up in the vast belly of the waves, and as if the Devil would have watched his opportunity to have drowned him sleeping; for as for riding upon a beast he never took that ease unto himself except alone one time, and that the last of all that he went to Jerusalem, and then poorly mounted upon the bare back of a silly fole of an Ass that was never accustomed to the saddle before, with a jerkin or a coat or two cast on him instead of better furniture. A toilsome life indeed to do nothing else but go afoot from City to City, and sometimes also to be ready to be pressed to death with the throng of a rude and unmannerly multitude. You have his Labors, now consider

Fourthly, His Dangers. He lived in quietness and safety enough during his Carpenters employment, but when he came to be a Minister he was still persecuted. At Nazareth his own City where he was not born but bred up, the first Sermon (as I think) that ever he preached there, because he was somewhat plain in telling them of their faults, they laid violent hands upon him, and would have broke his neck down a steep hill on which the Town was built. After as he grew more famous for wonders, so he was more hated and maligned by the Rulers, many times they conspired to take and entrap him, sent Officers to apprehend him, took up stones to dash out his brains, and commanded that whosoever knew where he was should make it known that they might apprehend him, and that he which would confess him to be the Christ should be excommunicated, insomuch that he was called A stone of offense, and a sign to be spoken against; and he saith, The world hateth me, yea they have hated me without a cause; Insomuch that he could not walk openly amongst them, but was fain to hide himself after a sort, and to fly for his life, for they were scarce ever without some or other device to take him and put him to death. You have heard of his Perils, let us speak

Fifthly of his Sorrows, He was a man of Sorrows, full of grief and tears, for he was not a stone or a piece of iron that all these things did not touch him, but he was sensible of these evils, and felt the heat of his Fathers displeasure against him for our sins, for which he had undertaken to answer in all these things, and especially the memorial of his last passion did wonderfully grieve and trouble him, Luk. 12. 50. How am I straitened or pained till it be accomplished? not with such a grief as made him unwilling to come to it, but with such as made him desire that it were once over. He often set his thoughts a work upon his last sufferings, he foretold his Disciples of it some four or five times, no question but he considered of it himself many hundred times, and not one of them without a vehement working of sorrow, as if one of us should know that some two or three year hence he must be put to the rack, or burned at a stake, he could not but bestow full many a heavy thought upon that hour; so did our Lord, without all controversy, with many frequent requests, and humble, tearful, mournful prayers, supplicating to God for aid and help against that hour, according as the many complaints and prayers made by David his Type in the Psalms, do manifestly evince.

Now come we to the last scene of this Tragedy, his end: The conclusion of his life (just like a Tragedy) was most distressed and lamentable of all the other parts, whether you consider the things he suffered from God immediately; or the things he endured before, in, and after his death.

The first and great work of his Passion was the agony and bloody sweat, grief, astonishment and extreme heaviness which he sustained in the garden. He began to be heavy and greatly grieved, saith one Evangelist: and To be astonished, saith another: and He was in an agony, saith the third; in so much that great drops of blood trickled from him to the ground. The two tormentingst passions that man doth wrestle withal in this life, more insufferable then any rack or disease of the body are sorrow and fear, which if they be in the greatest extremity that can be are the greatest miseries that can be. Now so they were in him, for the word saith, he complained thus, My soul is sorrowful round about even to death; so much as was enough to have killed him, not with the suddenness of it, for that kills easily and quickly, but with the extreme inwardness and weight of it, and his fear is called astonishment and amazement.

There is 1. An amazement of wonder in regard of the strangeness of some accident beheld, as the people were amazed at Christ's miracles and doctrine.

2. An amazement of horror, when a man stands agast and astonished at the greatness of some evil befalling him or like to befall him, and so was our Savior taken with the highest degree of fear, even amazement, Mark 14. 33. It was not such a fear as did drive him out of his wits, or take away from him the use of reason, but such as did even surcharge his soul and so afflict him, (that as we use to say) he knew not what to do nor how to bear it, these two passions put him in an agony, that is to say an extraordinary great strife or wrestling. The infinite wrath of God due to him for our sins, as much as if he had committed them (for the surety is as much liable to the payment of the debt, as if he had in person borrowed the money himself for himself) did discover itself to him in all extremity, procuring to him the extremist sorrow that might be, because he felt the tediousness of it for the present, and the extremist fear that might be, because he feared the continuance of it for the future, not with a fear of reason that did doubt of the event of his sufferings, but with a passion of fear, which the beholding of a terrible thing, so terrible as God's infinite anger will stir up in a creature, though he be never so sure to escape it, and hence came that extreme conflict which dissolved his flesh and made him sweat bloody drops, whilst his faith and obedience strove against his fear and sorrow to keep him from murmuring or impatient fits, from all repenting of his having undertaken the work, from all doubting or despairing of God's love or unwillingness to go through with the work, but to hold his heart still in the highest pitch of obedience, which he shown, saying, Matth. 26. 39. Not my will, that is, natural desire, not resolute purpose be fulfilled, but thine.

Hence the Schools distinguish of a double will in Christ: 1. His Divine will, so as God he desired the same thing with his Father. 2. Human, and that is either Voluntas desiderii naturalis, the bent of nature to its own conveniency; or Veluntas desiderii rationals & deliberati, his sanctified judgment submitted the desires of human nature to the will of God. Here is no repugnancy but a diversity of wills. Christ is to be considered under a different relation, in the first part of the prayer he speaks as man; in the second as Mediator, see Matth. 26. 42. Heb. 4. 16. 2. If we consider Christ as man, there is no repugnancy of wills; we must distinguish between the innocent vellieties of human nature, and the resolutions of reason.

This prayer was conceived, 1. With submission, If it be possible, not my will.

2. Drawn forth upon convenient reason.

If it be objected, How could this stand with Christ's holiness, the Law requires a conformity in the first motions and the very inclinations of the heart?

It may be answered, 1. That Christ's sufferings were rather appointed by God's Decree then his Law.

2. Suppose God's Decrees were a Law to Christ, as they were to him being a Mediator, yet positive Laws blot not out natural affections: Though Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son, yet he was to have a natural affection to save his life. Christ was indeed obliged to this, and it was a duty in him to declare

1. His bitter sense of God's wrath, Psal. 90. 11.

2. The reality of his human nature, by abhorring what was destructive to it.

3. To show his esteem of Divine consolation.

Now God's Justice was satisfied, now his Name was honored with an obedience as honorable to him as all the service of all the men in the world could have been. Thus did our blessed Savior suffer in the garden from God alone.

Then follows from the Jews, his Apostles and friends, and his enemies, and the common people.

His Apostles, one betrays him, sels him for ready money, and for a little too, the price of a slave, thirty silverlings, so many half crowns, in all three pound fifteen shillings. Lo the goodly price at which the Pharisees and this Judas valued him, O infinite indignity! But what did the other disciples, Most of them left him and fled: The Shepherd was smitten and the flock was scattered; they afforded him no more assistance then a company of sheep would to him that tended them, if thieves come to murder him; but run one this way, another that, and left their Savior all alone; in the same sort did all his friends that had received so many and great benefits from him by his miraculous cures of themselves or their friends, they all disappeared, not one would open his lips to defend and justify him against the lewd aspersions that were cast upon him; but one of his disciples among all the rest denies him, forswears, abjures him.

Now for his enemies the Pharisees, first they send their ministers and servants with the Traitor to take him, who coming to the place laid violent hands upon him, and binding his hands behind him, like a thief they carry him away to them that had appointed them that service. Secondly, Themselves hire false and perjured wretches to bear witness against him of many things, and when that course would not take effect, at last upon his own most true, holy and constant concession, that he was (as indeed he was) the Son of God; in solemn manner, with pretended gravity and grief, and with rent garments, the high Priest stands up and condemns him of blasphemy and unto death, to which sentence each of the Elders gave his suffrage. Then the servants buffet him with their graceless hands, spit on him with their slovenly mouths, and mock and jest at him with their petulant tongues▪ and thus they pass away the time abusing him all night, till in the morning early the high Priests (quickly up for a bad business) bring him to the Civil Governor, and there accuse him of the falsest crimes that might be, Sedition and Treason, as if he forbad to pay Tribute, moved the people, and sought to make himself a King; besides his blasphemy in counterfeiting (as they interpreted it) to be the Son of God.

Now see what he suffers from the Gentiles and Jews both together. Pilate to rid his hands of him sends him to Herod, Herod entertains him with mocks and taunts, and sends him away scoffingly arrayed in purple. Pilate dares not loose him, but to please the people and asswage their rage by a little yielding causeth him to be sorely scourged with rods, according to the manner of the Romans, till his back was all gore blood, and his skin and flesh torn with wounds and wails, and then clapping a Crown of piercing thorns upon his head, he brings him forth in this fashion to be gazed upon by the people, who all shouting and hooting at him out of disdain, as accounting him undoubtedly a blasphemous impostor, because pretending to be the Messiah, from whom they looked for the restitution of their earthly Kingdom; he was so far from doing that, as now he could not (so they thought) deliver himself from the hands of men. Then Pilate sets him in balance with a seditious murderer, and they require the murderer to be saved and him to be crucified; renouncing him and denying him before Pilate, as not the lawful King of the Jews, but a grand Impostor, and will have no nay, but with importunate clamours enforce the timorous Judge to condemn him. Now is sentence solemnly pronounced upon him, That for as much as he was a Seditious person, a Traitor, and one that went about to usurp the Kingdom against the Royal dignity of C • sars Imperial Majesty, therefore he should be taken by the Roman Officers and led to a place without the City, where malefactors▪ used according to the fashion of the Romans, with their basest slaves to be nailed to a Cross, and so hang till they were dead. No sooner was the sentence passed but that it began to be executed. The soldiers seize upon him, and having gotten him as a Dove among Kites, a Sheep among Lions, they sport themselves with mocking, deriding and abusing him by words and gestures of counterfeit honor, which are the greatest dishonors, thereby upbraiding him with folly that would needs make a King of himself.

To the place of crucifying they lead him bearing his own Cross, till he being spent with watching, bleeding, weariness and grief, was no longer able to bear it; then they compelled another whom they met to bear one end of it after him. So being arrived at the dismal place of dead men's skulls, they offer him the potion of malefactors, wine mingled with myrrh, as it is thought to intoxicate his brain, which he refusing, they stretch his hands and legs till all his bones might be told, and so nailing one hand to one horn of the Cross, the other to the other, and his feet to the stump at the bottom, they leave him hanging, and that also betwixt two thieves, with a scornful superscription of his fault, I. N. R. I.

Jerusalem was chosen for the place of his suffering, Ibi peractum est verum hoc & summum sacrificium, ubi reliqua legis sacrificia umbrae istius. Ludovic. Viv. de verit. Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 15.

His soul was filled with unspeakable grief in the sense of the curse of the Law which there he bare, and so vehement was his anguish that he cried out for thirst, when they gave him the cold comfort of a little vinegar and gall, with a scoff to make it relish the bitterer, Let us see if Elias will come. All the people wag their heads at him; the Pharisees they insult over him, with Oh thou that didst destroy the Temple. His poor mother and some friends stood by and lamented him, till at the end of three full hours, he mightily crying did give up the ghost into his Fathers hands. So he died a most vile and shameful death, a most hard and painful, a most execrable and cursed death, the death of the Cross.

The death of the Cross was 1. A shameful death, Heb. 12. 2. & 13. 13. Isa. 53. 12. A filthy death, Alexander ab Alexandro so termeth it, Mors turpissima, Bernard. Therefore Julian called Christ the crucified or staked God: And the Jews continue still in railing on Christ and cursing him, and ignominiously call him Talui, him that was hanged, in which the Christians glory, Gal. 6. 14. They teach their children to curse Christ. The Turks mock us at this day with our crucified God. He died In medio latronum tanquam latronum maximus. He was counted a malefactor by wicked men, Matth. 26. 65. Good men looked on him as an Impostor, Luk. 24. 21. God looked on him as a malefactor, Heb. 9. 28.

Tully saith, Facinus est vincire civem Romanum, scelus verberare, quid dicam in crucem tollere? It is a great offense to bind a Citizen of Rome, a greater to beat him, the greatest to set him on the Cross.

2. It is a painful death, He endured the cross, Heb. 12. 2. Christ's strong cries like women's in their travel, argued strong pain, Acts 2. 24. see Lament. • . 24. Bruising hath pain, Gen. 3. 15. Isa. 53. 10. He was nailed in the hands and feet the most sinewy and sensitive parts, Psal. 22. 16.

3. It was a cursed death, Gal. 3. 13. that is, yielded himself to a cursed death for us; so the Fathers gloss it. It was a cursed death by the decree and appointment of God, Deut. 21. 23. Christ's hanging on the Cross seems to be prefigured by the Heave offering, of which the Law makes mention: and the brazen Serpent, Numb▪ 21. 1. was a Type of Christ crucified, John 3. 14, 15. & 12. 32, 33. The reason was, That he might free us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. The Prince of darkness would not let so great an advantage pass without proving once more whether in this last hideous pang of death he might not prevail to have fastened some stain of sin upon the pure soul of that immaculate and now dying Lamb of God. He could not have fitly been said to have triumphed over them on the Cross, if he had not properly grappled and fought with them there, wherefore assuredly the whole band of that hellish kingdom of darkness was let loose upon our Savior, he having at once the Creator and the creatures, men and devils against him, and yet maintaining himself in perfect faith and patience, might indeed make a full satisfaction to the Divine justice for the miserable disobedience of man.

Christ died for the reprobate five ways.

• 1. By way of proclamation, Remission of sins is proclaimed to thee if thou wilt believe, Luke 24. 47. Act. 13. 38. & 10. 43.
• 2. By way of obligation, Thou art bound to believe that thy sins may be forgiven thee in Christ, Mark 1. 15. Rom. 7. 2.
• 3. By way of obsignation.
• 4. By way of general merit, John 3. 16.
• 5. By way of special intention too, for all that thou knowest, Act. 8. 22. M. Fenners Hidden Manna.

That is an Argument of great fame but little credit used by the Arminians , Quod unusquisque tenetur credere, hoc verum, &c. That which everyone is bound to believe, is true: But everyone is bound to believe that Jesus Christ died for him, Therefore it is true that Jesus Christ died for everyone.

The first object of faith is not to believe that Christ died for us, but that there is salvation in no other, Act. 4. 12. To believe that Christ died for me is one of the heights of Religion, Rom. 8. 33. Gal. 2. 20. Faith is grounded on the word, assurance on experience. A wicked man going on in sin is not bound to believe that Christ died for him. Adams disobedience is general and universal, not in power alone, but in act too, it maketh all sinners. The obedience of Christ hath a potential universality, and is sufficient to make all righteous, but actually it justifies the faithful only, D ^r Hampton on Rom. 5. 19.

Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to believe in Christ according to the first degree of faith, John 3. 18. that is, by a true and lively assent to believe, That Jesus is the Savior of all that truly believe in him, and having this faith thou art bound to believe that he is thy Savior, that he died for thy sins, and rose again for thy justification; but every individual person is not bound to believe that Christ died for him, for then the greater part of men should be bound to believe untruths, so some answer it.

Others say that all generally have the offer of Christ to whom the Gospel is preached, Act. 13. 38, 39. yet Christ died not alike for all as the Arminians hold, but for the Elect more especially, so as not only to save them if they believe, but also that they may believe and so be saved, John 17. 2, 6, 9. Acts 13. 48. Phil. 1. 29. Vide Davenant. Dissertat. de morte Christi. Mori pro aliquo, proprie est, morte sua aliquem à morte liberare, seu mori alicujus loco, ut ipse vivat. 2 Sam. 18. 33. Rom. 5. 6, 8. 2 Cor. 5. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 16. & 4. 9. Act. Synod. nation. Dordrecht. Artic. 2. exam. Vide plura ibid.

Testator Scriptura Christum pro omnibus mortuum, nusquam autem pro singulis, nec disertis nec aequivalentibus verbis. Quamobrem Omnes in hac proposition, aut not at gentes pariter & Iudaeos, Rom. 3. 9. aut not at varia hominum genera, ut 1 Tim. 2. 5. aut denique omnes & singulos fideles, ut 2 Cor. 5. 14, 15. Id. ib. p. 133. Vide plura ibid. Ponit enim aliquando Scriptura pro omnibus multos. Gen. 17. 4. & 22. 18. Aug. de Civit. Dei. l. 20. c. 23.

Now after his death follow two things more for his further humbling, viz. his burial and his descending into hell.

For his burial, the Scripture is plain in it, Matth. 27. 59, 60. Luke 23. 53. and there are good reasons for it.

1. To fulfill the Scripture, Isa. 53. 9.

2. To show that he was truly dead, for none but those that are dead use to be buried; and Pilate would not grant that he should be buried, until by diligent search he found that Christ was dead.

3. To bury sin, Rom. 6. 4.

4. That his resurrection might be the more evident, to which the manner of his burial belonged; for therefore was he laid in a new sepulcher, in which none yet ever lay, least they should say that he rose again not by his own virtue, but by the touch of some other there buried, 2 King. 13. 21.

5. To sanctify our burial, and sweeten the grave to us.

6. That he might conquer death in his strongest hold, Job 17. 13.

It was an honor to be buried of so worthy a man and with such store of ointment, but to be put prisoner into the dungeon of death the grave, and to seem to be swallowed up of death by giving so far way unto it, that it might also bear him as it were captive into its strongest hold, this was an abasement. Had our Savior rose again so soon as the soldier had run him through the midriff with a spear; or so soon as Joseph had taken him down from the Cross, and then shown himself in glory in an instant, all his enemies would have been dismayed, and he should have put them to confusion; but in tarrying so long afore he rose till he might be laid in a Tomb as other dead men are, he even yielded himself, as it were, for a space to the flouts of his enemies, this was to abase him yet lower then dying.

Now for Christ's descending into hell there is a deal of quarrelling about it , in so much that one saith, It is a kind of descent into hell to read the Controversies about it. This Article is grounded on most evident words of Scripture, Psal. 16. 10. Acts 2. 25. S ^t Austin might justly say, Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud Inferos Christum? And all men agree in this (as Bellarmine de Christo l. 4. c. 6. hath well observed) that Christ some way descended into hell, but the question (saith he) is altogether about the exposition of this Article, for the whole difficulty lieth in the word Hell.

The Word Scheol is taken four ways in Scripture.

• 1. For the grave, Psal. 16. 10.
• 2. For the place of the damned, Luke 16. 23.
• 3. For the torments of hell, 1 Sam. 2. 6.
• 4. For extreme humiliation or abasement, Isa. 14. 15.

In like manner (saith Altingius ) to descend into hell is taken four ways.

• 1. To be buried, Gen. 42. 38.
• 2. To come into the place of the damned, Numb. 16. 33.
• 3. To feel the torments of hell, 1 Sam. 2. 6.
• 4. Extremely to be abased, Matth. 11. 23.

I shall rehearse four several expositions of this Article, and deliver my judgment at last.

First, Some Interpret it of the inward sorrows of Christ's soul, which were very great, as the Scripture testifieth, Mark 14. 33, 34. and as appears by Christ's prayer thrice repeated to his Father that the cup might pass from him, by his agony and bloody sweat, Luke 22. 24. By his words uttered upon the Cross; and lastly by that testimony of the Apostle, Heb. 5. 7. The word Hell is often put Metaphorically for great and grievous troubles here suffered, Psal. 18. 5. & 116. 3. Psal. 86. 13. Jonah 2. 2. But this exposition can in no wise stand with the order and series of the Creed, for since there is mention made of Christ's descent into hell after his death and burial, it cannot be understood of that which happened before his death.

They which expound this Article thus, give this reason thereof. The former words, Was crucified, dead and buried, do contain (say they) the outward sufferings of Christ. Now because he suffered not only outwardly in body, but also inwardly in soul, therefore these words may be so interpreted. But this reason is invalid, for neither is it true, that by the first words only bodily torments are expressed, but those of the soul also are meant; for Christ was wounded for our transgressions, bore our iniquities, and made his soul an offering for sin: And by the words of David and Peter (whence this Article hath its foundation and original) it is most evident that these words ought to be understood of that which Christ suffered after death: For the word Hell is not to be taken otherwise in the Creed then in those places of Scripture whence the Creed is taken; but it is manifest to any one that is not altogether blind, that David and Peter speak of that which happened to Christ after his death.

Secondly, Others say that Christ after his Passion upon the Cross, did really and locally descend into the place of the damned.

Many of the Ancient Fathers, the Papists, some Lutherans and Protestants follow this Exposition. One Reverend Divine, now with God, held that Christ descended locally into hell to suffer in his soul the miseries of the damned, and urged for his opinion Ephes. 4. 9. where the Apostle (saith he) makes Christ's descending into the lowest parts of the earth in such a kind of suffering in the local hell, opposite to his ascending far above all heaven, as the highest degree of advancement and lowest degree of abasement that could befall a creature. And Acts 2. 24. 31. to take soul (said he) there for the dead corpse is so hard a kind of phrase, that howsoever it must be yielded to in some places where the circumstances of the place and the thing spoken of compelleth, yet so to take it in a place where there is no such necessity, seemeth unreasonable. The literal text therefore here (saith he) is agreeable to those texts which speak of Christ's sufferings, He made his soul a sacrifice for sin, which could not be so well done any way, as by giving it to suffer the fullness of God's wrath in the place of extremist torment, which might seem to be signified by burning the sin-offering after it was killed , to show that not alone death was suffered by our Savior, but also the torments of hell; and the words of David (saith he) Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, may very fitly import so much, when he speaks of it as of a strange thing that a soul should be in hell and not left there. And Peter, Acts 2. 24. telling us, that God did loose the pains of death, might seem to import so much, seeing the pains of death may well be interpreted, those pains which follow after death, and in regard of which to those that know what death is, death is only painful; otherwise from the pains of natural death, Christ was no more freed, neither were they more loosed from him then from every other man, seeing every man sees an end of his outward torments by dying. Paul also might mean this in mentioning of a cursed death, and saying, He did bear the curse for us: The greatest part of the curse of the Law is, To be cast into the place of the damned, and into their torments, though not into the sinful things that accompany their torments. David as a figure of Christ saith in one Psalm, Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell: Now the lowest hell is not the grave, but the infernal pit which is far lower then the grave: This (saith the same worthy Divine) commends God's justice and mercy, and Christ's love, and shows the abominableness and vileness of our sins, more then anything else could do. All this notwithstanding, others hold that Christ's local descent into hell is an unwarrantable conceit, and contrary to the word of truth and sound reason. Vide Sandford. de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 36, &c.

Neither in the Creed nor Scriptures, where mention is made of hell with relation to Christ, is the word gehenna used, which is always restrained to the hell of the damned; but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which word designs the state of the dead in general, and is used of all with no difference.

In all the New Testament it occurs but once, Luke 16. 23. where necessarily it signifies the hell of the damned; and yet not there from the force and propriety of the word (for it is of larger extent) but from the circumstances which are there used. For as Bucer learnedly notes, the rich man is not simply said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, in inferno, seu in gehennâ, because in torments and in flame.

2. The Evangelists have professedly delivered to us the History of our Savior even to his ascension, neither yet have they made even the least mention of this his descent into hell, which they would never surely have omitted, if they had judged it a thing necessary to salvation. Moreover, blessed Luke in the Preface of his Gospel, tells Theophilus, That he having had perfect understanding of all things from the first, would write to him in order, that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed, ad verbum, in which he had been catechized, but of descent ne gry quidem, whence it appears that it was no part of the Catechism which Theophilus learnt and certainly knew.

3. Blessed Paul, 1 Cor. 15. 1, 2, 3, 4. where he rehearseth certain chief heads of the Gospel, which he had preached to the Corinthians, rehearseth the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but not this descent into hell, yet that was a fit place to have rehearsed it in if he had preached any such thing. Therefore it is manifest enough that he preached it not nor is it necessary to be known; he affirmeth to the Corinthians that which he preached would suffice them to salvation, if they were not wanting to themselves.

4. If Christ did go into the place of the damned, then either in soul or in body, or in his Godhead. But his Godhead could not descend, because it is everywhere; and his body was in the grave till the third day; and as for his soul it went not to hell, but presently after his death it went to Paradise, that is, the third heaven, a place of joy and happiness, Luke 23. 43. which words of Christ must be understood of his manhood, or soul; and not of his Godhead.

Some think by Paradise no certain place is designed, but that is Paradise where ever Christ is, and wheresoever God may be seen; because therefore the soul of the thief was to follow Christ and to see God, it is said to be with him in Paradise.

Many modern Interpreters (saith Sandford de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, l. 3. p. 39.) much favor this opinion, and cite Austin and Beda as Authors of it, quam vere ipsi viderint. He saith he cannot approve this interpretation whosoever is the Author of it; for Christ spake of that Paradise where then he was not. But if Paradise be nothing but the place whence God was seen, when the thief hung on the Cross he was in Paradise. Paradise is put often for heaven in the New Testament, Rev. 2. 7. 2 Cor. 2. 4.

There is an analogy between the first and second Adam. The first Adam was cast out of Paradise the same day he sinned, therefore the second Adam did enter into heaven the same day he made satisfaction.

Some say that to descend into hell is a popular kind of speech which sprung from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the receptacle of the souls under the earth. As we use to say commonly, that the sun is under a cloud, because it is a vulgar form of speech, and yet it is far enough from our meaning for all that, to imagine the cloud to be indeed higher then the sun.

Thirdly, Some almost confound this Article with Christ's burial, and make one sense of both, because those words Sheol, Hades, Infernus, often in Scripture note the grave.

Both many Ancient and Modern Divines have taken Christ's descent into hell in that sense. This seems to some to be the reason wherefore the Nicene Creed mentions only Christ's burial and no descent into hell; and Athanasius his Creed, his descending into hell without speaking a word of his burial: Neither Irenaeus, Augustine, Tertullian nor Origen, when they recite the rule of faith, mention Christ's descent into hell. Vide Rivet. Cathol. Orthodox.

But this seems not so probable an interpretation,

1. Because He was buried goes next before these words, neither can these be added exegetically because they are obscurer then the former.

2. It is not likely that in so succinct and short a Creed the same Article should be twice put, or the same thing twice said by changing the words. Vide Chamier. contract. â Spanh. Tom. 2. lib. 5. c. 3. & Calvin. Institut. l. 2. c. 16. Sect. 8, 9, 10. & Bellarm. de Christo, l. 4. c. 14.

Fourthly, Some interpret this article of Christ's descending into hell, by his going to the dead, and for a time ( viz. even to the resurrection) continuing in the state and under the dominion of death; and this seems to be the most genuine exposition of all, for it keeps both the propriety of the words and the distinction of the Articles, and it is drawn from Peters words, nor is this opinion urged with any great difficulty. Hell signifieth the state of the dead, the condition of those that are departed this life, common to good and bad, the being out of this land of the living, when the soul and body are separated and do no more walk upon the earth to be seen of men and converse with them.

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin words for hell, both in the Scripture and other sit Authors are used for the state of the dead, Psal. 89. 47, 48. Psal. 30. 3. Isa. 38. 18, 19. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Peters words, Acts 2: 24. sufficiently confirm this exposition. The whole state of the dead is called a descent, because although some of the dead ascend into Heaven, yet all which are buried descend into the earth, whence from the first condition of the descent of carcasses the whole other state of the dead is called a descent. To descend often in the Acts of the Apostles noteth not a descent from a higher place into a lower, but only a deporture from one place into another. Sometimes it signifieth to pass from a lower place to a higher. See Iud. 11. 37. & 15. 11. So Juvenal,

CHAP. VI. Of CHRIST'S Exaltation.

HItherto of Christ's humiliation. The first of these kind of actions he did to fulfill his great Offices in his Person consisting of two Nature • God-head and manhood.

I proceed to the second kind of actions needful to the same purpose. For if Christ had not overcome his humiliation, but had been overcome of it, then had he not been a perfect Savior, then had he not been the Son of God, nor the King of Israel, for a King, Lord and God must conquer. Now this Glorification is the raising of himself to a most high and honorable estate, for so it is said, He was to suffer and to enter into his glory, that is, that glory which God had appointed for him, and he by submitting himself to such meanness for God's honor sake, fully deserved for himself and all his members with him. Therefore the Apostle saith, God hath greatly exalted him, for this is the mighty one upon whom God had laid strength, and he was to divide the spoil with the mighty according to Isaiah's Prophecy. Now this Glorification of our Savior (say some) hath three degrees, Resurrection, Ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Four degrees, say Estey and others, of which two are past, viz. his Resurrection and Ascension, one is present, viz. his sitting at God's right hand, the last is to come, viz. his judging of all the world.

For his Resurrection, that is the first degree of his Glory, death had separated his soul from his body, and carried his body for a time prisoner into the Sepulcher, but it was impossible he should be held of it, saith the Apostle; and therefore God having loosed the sorrows of death did raise him up again no more to return to corruption.

Of this Resurrection we have large proof in the Scriptures.

First, Each of the Evangelists insisteth upon the narration of it, and the Apostles in their Epistles do frequently mention and affirm it, and in their several Sermons declare and publish it unto all the people. Matth. 28. 1. describes it thus, In the end of the Sabbath, that is, the Jewish Sabbath which was Saturday, as it began towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary to see the Sepulcher, and behold there was a great earthquake: and Mark thus Chap. 16. 2. Early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the Sepulcher at the rising of the Sun: And Luke thus, Chap. 24. 1. Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning they came unto the Sepulcher bringing the spices which they had prepared. John thus, Chap. 26. 1. And the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher The women when it was very early upon our Lord's day in the morning came out of the City, and by that time the Sun was rising they came to the very Sepulcher and found Christ risen before: For so soon as the morning did peep, and the first day of the week began to show itself, he reduced his soul unto his body, and raised it up, the Angel at the same time rolling away the stone, and astonishing the keepers, and before the women could come into the Sepulcher he was departed thence. So he was part of three nights and three days in the grave, and rose the third day according to that he had foretold. He died upon Friday about three of the clock, and was buried that even, and lay in the grave that part of Friday, taking the day for the natural day. All Saturday he lay in the grave the night and the day. The first day of the week in the morning he lay but a very short space, and in the very beginning of it rose, that it might appear he lay there not out of necessity, but because he thought it fit to stay so long there to make it appear that he was truly dead. The women came and sought him but were informed by the Angels that he was risen, yet could not make the Apostles believe it. This Peter did preach Acts 2. this Paul preached Acts 13. this Paul inculcateth 1 Cor. 15. and Peter in his Epistle also. It is so necessary a point of our Christian Faith, that without it all our Faith is vain and falleth to the ground. David fore-told it in all the parts of it, as Peter interprets him, Acts 2. His soul was not left in hell, nor did his body see corruption, that is, putrefy at all. A man consists of two parts a soul and a body, there can be no resurrection after the separating of these two, unless the soul be re-united to the body again, and both lifted up out of the state of death, therefore did the God-head to whom both soul and body were united, restore the soul to the body again, preserving it from putrifaction, that it might be a fit dwelling place for the soul, and so having joined them together, the body rose and went abroad and showed itself to the Apostles, no longer a weak, feeble, mortal and corruptible body, but a glorious, impassible, incorruptible and most beautiful body, for it lost all its imperfections in the grave. And this Resurrection fell upon the third day after his death, as himself said, John 2. 18. the third day he should rise. The day began as we ordinarily account, howsoever perhaps by special institution the Sabbaths may be accounted to have begun otherwise, at the peep of the morning when men begin to stir about business then did Christ stir also, he was to lie no longer then the first day of the week, because he intended to challenge that day to himself to be the Lord's day, and the Christian Sabbath, whence it came in process of time to have that name; before the third day he was not to rise, that he might show himself truly dead, and stay a sufficient while under the arrest of death for the accomplishment of our satisfaction. Now this Resurrection was performed by the power of his Deity, for all the while that he continued dead, his soul and body were both united to the God-head, as it were a sword pulled out of the scabbard, which the man holdeth still one in one hand the other in the other, and so can easily put the same together again. For the Apostle saith, Rom. 1. 4. He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead, that is, by that his resurrection which is virtually the resurrection of all, seeing by virtue thereof all his people rise to glory. Therefore is he termed The first fruits of them that die, 1 Cor. 5.

16. And the first begotten from the dead, Col. 1. 18. because by virtue of his Resurrection the Saints rise to glory and enjoy from him this prerogative of overcoming death, as the first fruits sanctify the lump, and as the first-born hath the privilege above all the children. In time some rose before him, but in virtue none, for all that rose did rise by the efficacy and merit of him, and his rising again. And this Resurrection was necessary for divers purposes:

1. To make way for his farther Glorification, that he might reign as Lord of Lord's, and King of Kings, for he could not have possessed fullness of Glory had he not been still in the Sepulcher. The soul indeed might have been perfectly glorified, but whole Christ could not have been fully glorified, if the body had not risen to partake of the glory of heaven with the soul. Now seeing the body was helpful to and in the performance of the work of Redemption, suffering great abasement, it was not equal that it should be any longer deprived of the reward when once Justice was fully satisfied upon it.

It was necessary also to fulfill the Prophecies and Types that went before: David's Prophecy Peter presseth, Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption: the type of Jonah our Savior telleth of, Matth. 12. 40. and both were to be ac • omplished.

Lastly, It was necessary for the confirmation of our Faith, that we might be assured he was the Son of God and had perfectly accomplished this great work he undertook, therefore Paul saith, That he rose again for our justification, that is, to declare and prove that he had perfectly fulfilled all that was necessary to satisfy for our sins, and to procure for us, as the Apostle calleth it everlasting righteousness. When the Surety is apprehended for the Debtor, there is no getting out of the Creditors hand till he have discharged the whole debt, therefore when the Surety gets out of prison and is at large, the debt is fully satisfied▪ so it is in this case, so that we could not have rested upon him as a full and perfect Savior, if he had not risen; but now our Faith doth evidently acknowledge him to be a perfect Savior, and hath full assurance to ground upon since in him salvation is to be had. And for the end and use of this Resurrection, it was to quicken our soul, first that we might rise to newness of life, as the Apostle S ^t Peter saith, and at length to quicken our mortal bodies too, 1 Pet. 4. 5. that the Head being risen the members might rise with him.

The Resurrection of Christ should work on us so that we should live to him, 2 Cor. 5. 15. Ephes. 1. 19, 20. and that four ways. From the knowledge of his Resurrection we should be assured:

1. That the Lord will raise the Church or us out of our lowest afflictions, Hos. 6▪ 2, 3. Isa. 26. 19. Ezek 37. 3, 4. and that should engage us to improve all our power for him.

2. That Christ hath likewise power to raise up our souls to spiritual life, as our first rising is by the life of Christ as he recovered his life, so the increase of it is by the improvement of his Resurrection by Faith, Phil. 3. 11. Rom. 6. 4, 5.

3. It assures us of the Resurrection of our bodies, Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 15. John. 11. 24.

4. Of an inheritance and glorious estate, 1 Pet. 1. 3, 4.

Now you have the Doctrine of the Resurrection as the Scriptures deliver the same.

The second Degree of Christ's Glorification is his Ascension, which was a change of place, a transferring of his glorified body and soul into the upper Region of the world out of this lower room thereof. A body cannot be in more places then one, because it is circumscriptable, and our Savior's body though glorified retaineth yet still the nature of a body, though it have laid aside all the natural imperfections of a body, and therefore our Savior's body could of itself move upward, because it was rid of that gross weightiness which doth always accompany a natural compound body. Now this Ascension of our Savior is in Scripture often related, two of the Evangelists tell of it, and S ^t Luke again in the Acts of the Apostles. Mark hath it thus, Chap. 16. 19. He was received up into Heaven. Luk. thus Chap. 24. 51. He was parted from them and caught up into Heaven. Again in Acts 1. 9, 10, 11. While he spake thus he was taken up, and a Cloud received him up out of their sight. Now this Ascension be fell forty days after his Resurrection, Act. 1▪ 3. when he had conversed with them and informed them of all things necessary for their Apostolical function, both that he might thus confer with them of all such necessary things, and that by often showing himself he might give sufficient and undeniable proof of his Resurrection. And after this was done Luke telleth how an Angel spake to them about it, and told them of his returning again, and that the Heavens should contain him till the time appointed.

Thus did he fulfill the Prophecy that went before concerning this matter, for David had said long before, Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast given gifts unto men. This was also typed by the High-Priests entering into the most holy place upon atonement day after the Sacrifice of expiation offered, therefore Christ the true High Priest entered into the holy place not made with hands, even into very Heaven, there to appear before God for us, Heb. 6. 20. & 7. 26. & 84. The cause of his ascending was, because the earth was no fit place for a person so glorious to abide in, for either he must show forth that glory of his, and then men could not have endured to converse with him: or else he must not show it forth, and then he had deprived himself of his deserved glory. Wherefore it was necessary that he should betake himself to a place and company capable of that glory, even into the highest Heavens, where he might enjoy and declare that infinite great glory which his Father was to bestow upon him for a reward of his sufferings. And this his Ascension was even a taking possession of that glorious estate for us, that we might be fully assured of his drawing us his members after him, that at last in due time we might be where he is to behold his glory, and therefore he told his Disciples, That he went to prepare a place for them, and that in the fit season he would return again to take them with him that head, and body might be both together. And in the mean space this his Ascension is become a means of drawing our hearts after him to a longing desire of being with him, that we might set our affections on things above where Christ our Head is. For seeing Christ our Lord did leave earth to go into Heaven, it is evident that Earth is a far meaner place, and Heaven a far more excellent. Wherefore it is necessary for us to raise up our hearts to that which is the most happy place and state.

Now the third Degree of his Glorification follows, that is, His sitting down at the right hand of his Father, whereof many Scriptures also make mention, Heb. 10. 12. & 1. 3▪ & 12. 2. & 8. 1. Ephes. 1. 20. Now this is a figurative kind of speech, and denoteth the high advancement of his humanity next to the Divinity above all other creatures, both in respect of admirable gifts and boundless authority. For to be at God's right hand signifieth a state of excellent glory, as he that is next the King in honor standeth or sitteth at his right hand, Gen. 48. 18. 1 King. 2. 19. Psal. 45. 9. Matth. 20. 20, 21. This is called a sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high, it is the dwelling of the fullness of the God-head in him bodily, in that very body of Christ the God-head hath poured forth all sorts of excellencies as much as a creature is possibly capable of, and he is actually invested with all power in Heaven and Earth. Christ hath a Name above all names far above all Principalities and Powers, and Thrones, and Dominions. Where he must abide till he make all his enemies his footstool. Our Lord Jesus Christ is adorned with more abundance of Wisdom, Power, Goodness, Love, Joy, Mercy, Holiness, and whatsoever qualities tend to make him in whom they are excellent, glorious and happy, then all the creatures of God laid together, so that all the heavenly Army worship and adore him, and cast themselves down at his feet, and are most ready to yield him absolute and perfect obedience, knowing him to be preferred by his Father to that Dignity. That so he might receive a most ample reward for that exceeding great abasement to the lower parts of the earth, to which he did voluntary submit himself for his Fathers glory sake, and that he might become a fit Head and King to his Church, able to guide and rule them at all times, and to sub due all their and his enemies under him and them, Dan. 2. 44. & 7. 14, 27. Mar. 14. 62. Rom. 8. 3. Ephes. 1. 21, 22.

I should now speak of Christ's judging the quick and dead at his second coming, which some Divines make the last degree of his glory, but there will be a fitter place to handle that elsewhere. I shall therefore in the next place draw some useful Corollaries from the Glorification of our blessed Savior.

FIRST, We must labor so seriously to contemplate this unutterable glory of our Head Christ Jesus, till we be translated into the same image from glory to glory, endeavoring to show forth the power of his Resurrection and Ascension in rising to newness of life, and in ascending up on high in our desires and affections▪ We must be raised up together with him, and with him sit together in heavenly places. If the Resurrection of Christ have not a powerful impression on our souls, to make us rise out of the filthy grave and rotten Sepulcher of a wicked life to a holy and godly conversation; If his Ascension and sitting at his Fathers right hand, have not a like powerful impression upon our souls to raise us up to all heavenliness of mind, making us in desire and will even as it were to ascend after him, and sit there with him, the bare saying that we believe these Articles, shall little avail to our happiness; I beseech you therefore, let us all endeavor to make a practical use of these heavenly and supernatural truths which are revealed to us. Christ is risen, say to thyself, why do not I rise with him from all looseness, vanity, wickedness, uncleanness, injustice and abominable lusts? Christ is ascended and hath taken his place in Heaven, Why do not I cast off all earthly base affections? and lift up my soul and aspire to that high-place. We say we love Christ, and that we are his members, let us show our love to him, and union with him by being thus made conformable to his Resurrection and Ascension. Yea let us long for his appearance, and thirst after the great Day when he shall come to judge the quick and dead. What good wife would not▪ often long for the coming of her absent husband, and for her going to partake with him in his state of glory? This world is a dunghill, and all the things in it are baser, compared to that estate of Christ, then dirt and dung compared to gold. O let us show that we know and believe these things by filling our souls with holy and heavenly desires and affections! Contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ rising out of the grave, contemplate his ascending up to his Father, contemplate him sitting at the right hand of his Father, contemplate him coming to Judgment, till these things have banished all love of sin in thee, all earthliness of Spirit, and made thee in some measure like unto him in these things. If the Spirit of grace and glory rest upon us, it will thus glorify us and raise us up. A Christian man is not glorious, because he hath obtained more outward preferment or wealth, but because he hath obtained a more effectual and working knowledge of Christ his Head, and is made more and more suitable to the spiritual glory of such a Mediator. Hitherto should our chief desires and endeavors run. What do we musing, tiring and tormenting ourselves in studying earthly things, nay evil and sinful things? Do these studies and cogitations accord with the heavenly nature, which our blessed Savior maketh them partakers of, that are engraffed into him by Faith, and enlivened by the mighty work of his Spirit. In vain do we call ourselves Christians, and look to be brought to that glorious estate, whereto he hath already assigned all true Christians, if we do not show ourselves thus in our measure for the present glorified with Christ.

But secondly, let this thought make us to loath our sins, and heartily to lament them when we consider of them, because they offend so great and wonderful a person that is so highly advanced over all and withal so good and glorious, and one that hath done so much for us, and doth so particularly know and observe us and all our actions. That Lord of Lord's, and King of Kings, that only blessed Potentate who inhabiteth eternity, who dwelleth in that light which is inaccessible, whom no creature saw nor can see; this eminent person he seeth us at all times, in all places and companies, he is a witness of all our actions that shall be the Judge, he taketh particular and precise notice of our whole carriage. O shall we dare to offend his pure and glorious eyes with things so abominable to him, as those must needs be, for which himself was put to suffer, such things as he did suffer before he entered into his glory! Do we not think that Christ hateth sin with a most perfect hatred, and shall not we strive to conform ourselves to him, and to please him that is so incomparably much greater then all other creatures? Do but think what an one our Lord is, and how displeasing sin is in his sight, and then it is not possible for us to love it if we either love ourselves or him. And it is a sure truth, that God will sanctify these Meditations to such, as will exercise themselves therein to beat down sin in them, and to work an hatred of it in their souls; Oh rhat each of us could retire ourselves often from the world, and put himself in mind of Christ's glory, and say to himself, if I follow voluptuousness, and give myself to wantonness, drunkenness, gaming, idleness, riot or unthriftiness, these are the things that glorious Savior of mankind abh orreth, and shall I dare to provoke him against me? We are careful to shun those things which we know will offend great men in the world, not alone Kings and Princes, but men of inferior rank, that are of place in the Countries where we dwell, and shall we not avoid that which will displease him, whose greatness is so great that all height set in balance with his is mere meanness, baseness and contemptibleness? Admonish thyself often of this point, beseech him that knows how loathsome sin is to himself, to make it abominable to thee for his sake and this will cause thee to loath it. The true knowledge of Christ to conceive him to be so exceeding excellent as he is, will force any reasonable creature to study to please him, and to cast away far from him all that will provoke him, and that is all sin and wickedness, for that his soul hateth, and then is our leaving of sin and casting away evil deeds truly acceptable to him, when it hath its original in this knowledge of him, and love to him.

Thirdly, This glory of Christ following his sufferings must become a pillar to our Faith, and a sure Argument to make us trust perfectly upon him and him alone. For is he not able to the utmost to save those which come unto God by him, hath he not made it more then manifest, that he hath fully satisfied his Fathers justice, and answered for our sins. He bare the sins of mankind even of the world, as the Scripture speaketh indefinitely, that no man should through unbelief exclude himself. I say he bare all the sins of men upon his body on the Tree, there he undertook to offer up a perpetual Sacrifice, and to make an atonement to his Father for us.

Now you see him no more in an Agony, no more Crucified, no longer lying in the Grave, but entered into his Glory. O rest upon him, rest upon him, rest upon him perfectly! How many, how great soever those sins be that you have committed, for his entering into Glory maketh it manifest, that he hath satisfied for them all to the full, and if you renounce yourselves and all other merits, he can and will cause them all to be pardoned and blotted out of the Debt-book of his heavenly Father. If we can go to Christ for pardon of sin, he is so glorified that his intercession applying his Redemption to us shall surely make us safe. To him therefore run, on him cast thyself, on him rely for the plenary and certain remission of all thy sins, all aggravations of them notwithstanding, yea go to him and rest upon him for power against them all, and for strength to overcome them, and to vanquish all Satan's temptations, and to make thee a perfect conqueror; for this glory hath he received as the Head of the Church for the use and benefit of his Church, and of all and each of those in his Church that shall seek to him and believe in him. He will justify, he will sanctify, he will save. He can do it perfectly, he will do it certainly, only so that we rest upon him for it, and seek to and call upon him for it. All that call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved, all that long and desire to be saved and do trust in him, and cry to him to be saved from the guilt, power, punishment of their sins, shall be saved, for therefore hath he ascended and is glorified that he might become a perfect Savior to his Church. If he had not entered into Glory by sufferings we should have had no benefit by his Glorification, but because he did in this manner convey himself to Glory, therefore is he become a Captain of our Salvation, as the Author to the Hebrews speaketh. Let us run to him in all our fears, doubts, temptations, weaknesses, for doth not the Scripture tell that he hath received gifts for men? even gifts to bestow upon men, not to keep to himself alone, but with a liberal hand to distribute unto men, yea even to the rebellious that God might dwell among them. Cleave to Christ, rest on him, stay upon him, he should lose the glory of his glory, the subordinate use of his glory, if he did not save them from whom he did both so suffer, and so enter into his glory.

Again, Let all the Saints learn to adore, admire, honor, love, serve, obey this glorious person, this surpassing excellent person, the Mediator God and Man, even the man whom God hath so exalted, let us see him by Faith as they by sight see him in Heaven, that we may honor, praise, magnify and exalt him as they do, and obey him, submit ourselves to him in our measure as they. Faith, Faith must be our guide, we see not Christ with this mortal eye, we must see him by the eye of Faith. I mean by a lively and full apprehension and persuasion of this his glorious being which the Scripture doth set forth before our eyes, and if we unfeignedly and undoubtedly believe that he is such a one, the great glory whereunto he is entered will make us to glorify him, highly to esteem of him, devoutly to worship, to bow the knees of our soul always, and of our body on fit seasons to him, and to count it out happiness to be subject unto a person so highly advanced by God. This is the whole work of those immortal and blessed Spirits which are nigh unto him, because their knowledge is more full and perfect too, but the more we inform ourselves of the excellency of Christ, the more shall our souls stoop to him, and the more shall we esteem it not our duty alone, but our felicity to be at his command. God is ascended, our Lord Jesus is ascended with the joyful voice of all Saints and Angels, which with a divine and heavenly music entertain him there, they sing All honor be unto the Lamb; let our souls sing forever, let us cast ourselves down before him, let us exalt his great and glorious Name, let our hearts, tongues and lives confess to him, that he is the Lord of glory to whom all glory is to be given, that by glorifying him we may glorify the Father that sent him, for He that honors not the Son, doth not neither honor the Father.

Christ glorified hath not laid down any of his Offices:

First, Because certain acts of Office are to be performed in Heaven, John 14. 2.

Secondly, Christ hath not yet given up his Kingdom to his Father, 1 Cor. 15. 24.

Thirdly, It appears by enumeration of the several acts that Christ performs as Mediator in Heaven in reference to each of his Offices:

I. To his Prophetical, so

1. He gives gifts to men, furnisheth them with abilities for the Churches service, Ephes. 4. 11, 12.

2. He sends them forth, and will uphold them, Rev. 1. 16. the Witnesses shall prophesy till they have finished their Testimony.

3. He takes the measure of the truths taught, Ezek 40. 3. his business is to resign doctrines.

4. He concurs with his Messengers in their Ministry, 2 Cor. 5. 12. & 31. 2. Isa. 57. 18. Heb. 12. 24, 25.

5. When ungodly men prevail against any the Lord raiseth up others in their spirit and power.

II. To his Priestly Office, so

1. As a public person he represents your persons, Heb. 9. 24. See Exod. 28. 12, 29. by this means you are made accepted, Ephes. 1. 6. 2. You have a memorial, Psal. 112. 6. God is always mindful of you.

2. The High Priest was to sprinkle the blood before the Mercy-seat, Levite. 16. 15. Christ offers there the price of his own blood, whereby you obtain Mercy, and have it continued, for the blood was carried into the holy place to abide always before the Lord.

3. He hath taken possession for you as your Priest, this gives actual right, as the price paid a meritorious right.

4. He is careful to receive your services, Levite. 1. 1, 2. to sanctify them, Exod. 28. 3. Revel. 8. 3, 4. and to offer them to his Father, the smoke of the incense comes up out of the Angels hand.

III. To his Kingly Office, Mat. 28. 18. Eph. 1. 21, 22.

1. In his present dispensations:

1. In protecting his people from danger, Isa. 4. 5. Mic. 5. 5.

2. In preserving his Truths and Ordinances, Rev. 14. 1, 2.

3. By confounding his enemies.

2. In his preparations for the time to come:

1. He prepares Grace for his people, Col. 3. 3. 1 John. 5. 11.

2. Prepares Prayers for them, Luk. 21. 31, 32.

3. Prepares Glory for them, 1 Cor. 2. 9. John. 14. 2.

God's people should exercise Faith on Christ as glorified, and in Office in Heaven:

1. An act of persuasion, that he takes care of them still.

2. Of reliance for thyself and the Church, 1 John. 2. 1. Psal. 55. 22.

3. Look upon none but Christ, Prov. 3. 5.

4. Quiet thy soul in trouble, Psal. 127. 2.

5. Triumph over dangers.

CHAP. I. Of the Church of CHRIST.

THe principal matter required of our parts in the Apostles Creed, is, to believe things concerning God and the Church. God is the first object of our Faith, we must know and believe in him so far as he is revealed in his Nature, Properties and Works. Male vivitur, si de Deo non been creditor. August. de civit. Dei lib. 5. cap. 10. After Articles concerning the several Persons in the Trinity, followeth this, I believe the holy Catholic Church. This was added to the former (saith August. Enchirid. cap. 56.) upon special consideration. For the right order of a confession did require, that after the Trinity the Church should be mentioned, as the house after the owner, the Temple after God, and the City after the builder. And he cannot have God for his Father, which hath not the Church for his Mother.

1. The Act of Faith, in these words (tacitly implied) I believe.

2. The Object of this Faith, the Church, described by two Properties, vi • .

1. Sanctity, in that it is called Holy.

2. Universality, in that it is styled Catholic.

Concerning the act of this Faith [ I believe ] though it be not prefixed to the beginning of this Article, as neither to the rest which follow it; yet it is to be understood; the former [ I believe ] which precedes the Article of the holy Ghost, communicating itself to this and the subsequent, and that chiefly for two Reasons:

The one to teach us, that the principal object of our Faith is God himself, considered in Unity of Essence, and Trinity of Persons, and therefore to each of the Persons, there is either a [ Believe ] prefixed, or the particle (in) set before, to show that on them we are to build the certainty and assurance of our hope; but as for these Articles of the Church, The forgiveness of sins, The Resurrection of the body, and the like, they being creatures are but the secondary objects of our Faith, not to be trusted upon immediately in themselves, and therefore have not a Credo, a [ Believe ] apart to themselves, but prefixed to one of the Persons, I believe in the holy Ghost.

The other, to set out and divide by this means unto every of the Persons a special work, Creation to the Father, Redemption to the Son, Sanctification to the holy Ghost.

Question is made, What the words are which are to be supplied in this Article, The holy Catholic Church, whether I believe, or I believe in? I believe, as is generally determined by the Orthodox.

Kahal in Hebrew ordinarily translated Ecclesia, sometimes Synagoga, is taken for an Assembly or Congregation, and that sometimes in the evil part for an Assembly of wicked men, as Gen. 49. 6. Psal. 2 • . 5. sometimes in the good sense for an Assembly of men gathered together for a holy or civil use or end, Nehem. 5. 13. 1 Sam. 17. 47. 1 Chron. 13. 2. Deut. 23. 1, 2, 3. Psal. 8. 22, 23. Gnedah or Hedah ordinarily translated Synagoga, doth also signify an Assembly or Congregation gathered at set hours and places appointed. Sometimes it notes a rebellious, tumultuous and evil Assembly, Psal. 106. 17, 18. Numb. 16. 48. and sometimes an orderly and lawful Congregation, as Psal. 1. 5. Ier. 30. 20. Exod. 12. 19, 47. Gnedah signifieth something more noble then Kahal, as being the special. Ecclesia in profane Authors signifieth an Assembly of Citizens, which by the voice of the Crier was called from their domestic affairs, and the rest of the multitude to hear the sentence of the Senate: so it is all one with Concio which is derived à Ciendo, because all were called by public Edict into the Assembly. In the New Testament it is once taken for a disorderly and confused Assembly, Act. 19. 32, 39, 40. But that one place excepted, it is ever taken for a multitude or society with a disposition or relation to Religion. And so it notes,

1. The company of all the faithful, Mat. 16. 18. Ephes. 1. 21, 22. & 4. 16. & 5. 25, 26. Col. 1. 18, 24. Ephes. 5. 27, 32. it is also taken indefinitely for every multitude and society of believers in Christ, Act. 2. 47. Gal. 1. 13. 1 Cor. 15. 9. & 12. 20. Act. 5. 11. & 8. 1.

2. More particularly it signifieth any Assembly gathered together for the worship of God, Act. 9. 31. & 14. 23. 1 Cor. 11. 16.

The Church in its primary signification may be defined, A multitude or society of faithful men called out of all mankind corrupted by the Ministry of the Word according to the good pleasure of God, united as living members to Christ their Head, and in him partaking of grace in this life, and glory in the life to come, to the praise of God's wisdom, power, and riches of his mercy.

1. It is a multitude, 1 Cor. 10. 17. and that out of every Nation, Language, Tribe and People, Apoc. 5. 9.

2. It is a society of men not of Angels, Heb. 12. 22. See Ephes. 3. 10.

L'Empereur in his Theses saith, If the word Church be generally taken, it is certain that the Angels also belong to it, for the Church is the body of Christ, Ephes. 1. 23. but Christ is the Head not only of men, but also of Angels, Col. 2. 10, 18, 19. They are our fellow-servants, Revel. 19. 10. and fellow-brethren, Job 1. 6. by Christ Ephes. 3. 15.

3. A society of the faithful called effectually and savingly out of the world or mankind corrupted, by the Gospel.

The Church is either Jewish or Christian, the Christian either Primitive or Successive, and they again in respect of Manners are Pure or Impure, in respect of Worship, Sound or Idololatrical; in respect of Doctrine, Orthodox or Heretical; in respect of mutual Communion, Catholic or Schismatical.

There are divers and glorious Elogies of this Church visible in the Scriptures, it is called, The City of God, Heb. 12. 22. The heavenly Jerusalem, there also. Jerusalem which is from above, Gal. 4. 26. The house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christ's sheepfold, John 10. 16. The Spouse of Christ, Cant. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Revel. 21. 9. The body of Christ, Eph. 1. 22, 23. Col. 1. 18.

The Church is Triumphant or Comprehensorum, and Militant or Viatorum.

1. Triumphant, viz. that part of men who having overcome the flesh, the world and the Devil, now reign with God and Christ gloriously in Heaven.

2. Militant, viz. that part of men which yet conflict with those adversities. That distinction relies on the words of the Apostle, Ephes. 3. 15. The Apostle speaks of the Triumphant Church, 2 Tim. 4. • 6, 7. Heb. 12. 23. Revel. 7. 9. Hence their error is refuted who think, that the souls of the dead do sleep even to the Resurrection, or who think that the souls of the godly and faithful till that time are excluded from the vision of God and heavenly glory. See 2 Cor. 5. 6, 7, 8. Phil. 1. 23. Revel. 14. 13. the Apostle speaks of the Militant Church, 1 Tim. 6. 12. That which is spoken to one is understood of all, Gal. 5. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 11. 1 John 5. 4. Ephes. 6. 11, 12.

The Church is Militant either in deed or in show only and profession, those indeed belong to the Militant Church which are called according to purpose, viz. the truly faithful and elect. Those are the true members of the body of Christ, who by faith are united to Christ and engraffed in him, who are partakers of the holy Ghost, who draw grace and spiritual life from Christ, Rom. 8. 9. Col. 2. 19. Ephes. 5. 25, 26, 27. but the wicked and hypocrites only in name and profession belong to the Church, for they have no true Communion with Christ, they no more belong to the mystical body of Christ, then a wooden thigh or dry arm to the body of a natural man. For they want life, sense and motion, and receive no influence from the Head, they are (as is commonly said) in the Church not of the Church, 1 John 2. 19. Hence arose the distinction of the Church into Visible and Invisible. The Invisible Church consists only of those who are endued with true faith and holiness, but these are known to God and Christ alone, 2 Tim. 2. 19. John. 10. 14. therefore in respect of us that Church (which alone truly and properly is the Church on earth) is called Invisible.

The Church is a society of men, not as men (for so a number of Turks, or a nest of Arians might be the body of Christ) but as believers: and therefore the Church as the Church cannot be seen, but believed. Bellarmine himself saith, Videmus coetum hominum qui est Ecclesia, sed quod ill coetus sit vera Christi Ecclesia, non videmus, sed credimus; and what say we more?

That is the visible Church which consists of men professing the true Faith and Religion any way, whether in truth or counterfeitly and falsely, of good and evil, of elect and reprobate. This Church is mixed, whence it is compared to a great house in which there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honor, some for reproach, 2 Tim. 2. 20. To a field in which there are Tares as well as wheat, Matth. 13. to a net in which fishes of all kind, good and bad are gathered. See D ^r Featley against Fisher about the visibility of the Church. Jackson's raging Tempest on Matth. 8. 23. p. 25. D ^r Taylor on Rev. 12. p. 294. M ^r Baxter's Infants Church-membership, pag. 176. Par. on Rom. 11. verse. 4. pag. 160, 161.

Again, The Church is either Particular, viz. a company of the faithful which is contained in some particular place, 2 Cor. 1. 1. & 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Or Universal (Catholic) which consists of all that everywhere call upon the name of God, 1 Cor. 1. 2. The Apostle calls it, The general Assembly, Heb. 12. 23. It is General

1. In respect of time , it had a being in all times and ages ever since the giving of the promise to our first parents in Paradise.

2. In respect of the Persons of men, it consists of all sorts and degrees of men, Act. 16. 34.

3. In respect of place, because it hath been gathered from all parts of the earth, specially now in time of the New Testament, Revel. 5. 9.

4. In respect of Doctrine therein professed.

This name Catholic is not given to the Church in Scripture, but was imposed by men, yet consonant to the Scripture.

The Church was first entitled Catholic in opposition to the visible Church of the Jews, Act. 10. 15, 34. the full importance of this term Catholic is set down, Revel. 5. 8, 9.

This Catholic Church is called Holy, 1 Cor. 14. 33. & Revel. 11. 2. because Christ the Head of it is holy, Heb. 7. 26. and he makes the Church partaker of his holiness, John 17. 19. because it is called with a holy calling, and is separated from the world, 2 Tim. 1. 9. because the holy Word of God is committed to it, Rom. 3. 2.