THE MOUNT OF SPIRITS, THAT Glorious & Honourable State To which BELIEVERS ARE Called by the GOSPEL, EXPLAINED In some MEDITATIONS upon the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Verses of the 12th Chapter to the Hebrews: With some Previous Reflections upon that whole EPISTLE, and the People of the JEWS.  Psalm 1.2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in his Law doth he meditate day and night. 
London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns, at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel, 1691.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
'TIS an uneasy Reflection, but a very reasonable Supposition, That no Person will view over this small Collection of some few uneven Thoughts, with any Delight comparable to what I had in the composing of it; those Satisfactions are, I well know, personal, and in their nature not transferrable, or else I would hearty remit them to every Reader; the Meditations herein contained did, I confess, much affect and delight me while they were upon the Anvil, though perhaps herein I shall prove to resemble a mean active Preacher, that warms only his own Affections and starves those of his Auditors; I have this to solace myself withal, [let the Effect otherways be never so small] That I sought out these things for no other reason, but because I myself had pleasure therein, and originally designed an entire confinement of them to my own private satisfaction; possibly, by their publication, I shall be told, I have mistaken my Talon, and meddled with things that are too great and too high for an ordinary Genius, and have brought myself under the correction of that old Axiom, Prestat de Carthagine Tacere quam pauca dicere; 'Tis better to say nothing of Carthage, than to say but a little. I will not contend with this Reproof, nor yet labour after any farther Excuse than what I find made for me in that good-natured modern Expression, In magnis voluisse sat est. The Matters here treated of, are I well know of a sublime Nature, and require the deepest Consideration and Caution; and therefore I have all along proposed to myself what I am sure is the safest Method; which is, to walk by the Light of Revelation, and take the Scriptures in all that I have said for my only Guide; if Men will understand any thing aright of God's Eternal Counsels and Designs, touching the Making, Ruling, and Saving, of the World, here they must have it; 'tis to no purpose to hearken to any other Instructor, but the Holy Ghost, about these Matters, for none knows the Mind of God herein, but the Spirit of God alone; the Wisdom and Philosophy of the World has, after its utmost Inquiries and Pursuits after these things, attained no farther, but to record their own insufficiency and folly; the Holy Scriptures, as they are the great Luminary placed by God in this lower Firmament, to inform and enlighten the rational part of the World in all Sacred Things, so they are the Rule and the Standard by which all Divine and Religious Concerns are to be tried and determined: 'Tis a sorry change, and a very mean shift, to forsake the infallible Determinations of God that he has transmitted unto us upon Record; and by an Appeal from them, to put Religion upon trial by the failing uncertain Opinions and Practices of Men: It ought to be made a perpetual Memorandum in the Church, in order to their constant Direction, that when our blessed Saviour came, and the greatest Points that ever were debated on Earth were then on foot, Whether he were the True Messiah, or No? And whether the Religion established by him was to dissolve and discharge the Mosaical oeconomy, and of right to succeed it? Our Saviour and the Apostles insist not upon any one Proof, but what they fetched from the Old Testament; not a word of the Church then, nor any of those Humane Authorities, the pressing of which upon the Minds of Men has so pestered and disordered the World ever since, and whenever they contested either with the Jews, the Gentiles, or with Satan himself, they never used other Weapon than the Scriptures, nor was any other Medium so much as once mentioned by them to determinate Divine Things by, although that Age was as much filled with the Noise of Tradition and the Church as any that hath been since. St. Paul, when he is treating of the deepest Points, flies to that Interrogatory Appeal, But what saith the Scripture? And I doubt not but the glorious State of the Church in the last times, so much fore-spoke of, will consist in a strict and close Agreement with the Canon of the Scriptures, and appearing in the Splendour of an Entire Conformity to the Laws of Christ, utterly rejecting all Humane Authorities, and all such Constitutions of which Christ himself is not the Author, and such as by which the Antichristian Fabric has been chief erected. 'Tis of great remark, That the last Item God gave to the Church of the Jews, when the Spirit of Prophecy ceased, and with which the Old Testament is closed, was to prevent an invasion of Humane Traditions, and to oblige them to an exact Conformity and Obedience to what he himself had prescribed them, Remember the Law of Moses, my Servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the Statutes and the Judgements. And our Saviour's last Direction to his Disciples, when he left the World, was, That they should teach all Nations to observe whatsoever he had commanded them; to prevent all other Legislators from usurping Authority in the Church.  
In the following Discourse, I have also applied myself (as much as the Matter would give me leave) to the use of Scripture-Phrases, as thinking to all Inquirers into these Matters, those would prove the most acceptable Words, and also, because the Scripture is best expressed by itself; Scripture-Notions sound best and are most properly uttered in Scripture-Expressions, and what in one place looks obscure, is often so expressed in another, as renders it obviously intelligible and easy; we can never be too much inur'd to Scripture-Expressions, because the Scriptures contain in them, after an admirable manner, a Sacred Language, and Holy Dialect, dictated by God himself, for him and his People to converse together in; here it is that holy Men have of old, and all good Men, to the end of the World, will constantly learn, in what Language to express their Prayers and their Praises, and how to utter themselves in all their Approaches to the Most High, and in whatsoever converse they shall happen to have with him; 'tis the Treasury of all Divine Utterance and Expression, both from God to Man, and from Man to God, and which the Holy Ghost will principally make use of in all the intercourse that will be between Christ and the Church to the end of the World, and will very particularly make such skilful in, who are to bring down the Lively Oracles, and to administer in Sacred Things; every Man comes naturally to speak and understand this heavenly Language, when he is born of the Spirit, and brought up in the Nurture and Instruction of the Holy Ghost. The profane part of the World are ever deriding this, and making it a constant part of their diversion: Now what a profound solid part of Discretion do such Men act, who have in contempt the Result and Effects of Infinite Wisdom? The Papists have a Saying, That never any Dog barked at a Crucifix, but he run mad. The Moral of that Fable is very good, and may serve to instruct a profane Protestant; God himself gives a very solemn, and withal, dreadful Caution and Premonition to all profane Scoffers, by the Prophet Esaias, Be not Mockers, (saith he) lest your Bands be made strong; that is, lest I choose your Delusion, and give you irrecoverably up to your own profane sense, which will be found at last to be the worst sort of Madness.  
I will not believe any will be so unnecessary critical and nice, as to blame the Title of this small Tract, in regard the Catholic Church under the Gospel is so very often in Scripture denominated by Mount Zion, called the Mountain of the Lord's House, which is to be set up upon the top of the Mountains: And to this Mount Zion, that is, to the Gospel-Catholick Church, are some way or other related all the blessed and glorious Spirits that are extant, the fallen Angels are only excluded; for by coming to this Mount, the Apostle tells us, we are come to God the Judge of all, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, to an innumerable company of Angels, and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect. A great part of a true Christian's Life, and I am sure the best part of it, is a Converse with Spirits; the best and noblest part of Man is a Spirit, and he must shortly for some time exist only in that part, and when the Body is reunited to it, that second Coalition and Constitution will be altogether Spiritual, for a Soul and a Spiritual Body conjoined, will render a Man not less Spiritual than he was while he existed singly in his Soul, but will make him perfectly like to an Angel; so we are told by our Saviour, That in the Resurrection the Saints shall be like to the Angels of God. Upon this account God is training us up, and gradually fitting and preparing of us for this state; he is acquainting us (as much as our present condition will allow) with himself and other Spirits here, that so we may joyfully resign up our earthly state, to become of their number, and at last abide in that condition that will be purely Spiritual, without any sort of Terrene Alloy; and such who live without any Communion with Spirits here, and have no sort of foretaste, nor any preparative relish of that state, must needs (if they any way make use of the thinking faculty) leave their Bodies with very great Amusements.   

The Mount of Spirits.  
Hebrews 12.18. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness and tempest.  
Verse 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard, entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more.  
Ver. 20. For they could not endure that which was commanded: and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.  
Ver. 21. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.  
Ver. 22. But we are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels:  
Ver. 23. To the general assembly, and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.  
Ver. 24. And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.  
THis Epistle is a Funeral Sermon preached at the Interment of the Law, the material Body of Moses God himself buried long before, and no man ever knew the place of his Sepulture, and now his mystical Body, his Doctrine, growing old and ready to vanish away, ripe for abolition, or rather dissolution, not so much by being repealed or rescinded, but its use ceasing, the end and substance of it appearing, and its glory being naturally and of course swallowed up and dissolved into a greater glory that excels. The Holy Ghost himself by this Epistle lays it honourably in the grave, and so we have the Sepulchre of this mystical Body of Moses abiding with us at this day: And happy had it been for the whole Nation of the Jews, if this Sermon had had its due effect upon them, God in his wise and gracious Providence, gave them this Warning, this Holy Instruction and Admonition, to prevent their obstinate adhaesion to the Mosaical Rites, and violent opposition of the Gospel thereby, which ended in a very few years after the writing of this Epistle, in the sad and utter Ruin of their Temple, their City and themselves.  
The Penman of this Epistle, by such Probabilities as come very near to a Certainty, appears to be St. Paul, the great Doctor of the Gentiles, and that Person whom it pleased God so eminently to make use of in the glorious Fulfilling of that early prophetic Prediction; God shall persuade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Sem.  
The exact Time when this Epistle was written is very uncertain, Antiquity affords us little or no Information about it, what Knowledge we can have of it must be by consulting the Scripture and comparing it with itself: It seems reasonable to suppose, that St. Paul wrote it after his Release at Rome, from two Years Imprisonment there, with which the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends, wherein is contained an Ecclesiastical History of the Church for about 28 Years after our Saviour's Resurrection unto the 7th Year of Nere; that he wrote it after his Release, appears from hence, that Chap. 13. v. 23. he intends and promiseth a Journey with Timothy, which had he been a Prisoner, and not in his own power, is not reasonable to think he would have done: 'Tis likewise very probable to be written before the sharpest and most violent Persecutions fell upon the believing Jews; before the slaughter Herod made at the instance of the Jews of St. James and those at Jerusalem, because he tells them in this Epistle, they had not yet resisted unto Blood: and 'tis very evident to be writ, and to be well known to the Jews, before St. Peter wrote his second Epistle, for therein he seems very plainly to refer to this Epistle; and if so, then 'tis plain also beyond denial the Author of it was St. Paul: And Account [says he] that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. Now 'tis well known St. Paul writ no other Epistle to the Jews, but only this, and that St. Peter refers particularly to this, his next words seem to infer, As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things: as if he should have said, Do you Jews, whose fatal day is coming, and near at hand, account Christ's long suffering to be salvation, according as Paul, by a Divine Wisdom given to him, has written to you, in an Epistle of his, particularly directed to you, and has also in all his other Epistles unto the Gentiles, generally discoursed of this matter, in which there are some things hard to be understood.  
This Epistle is directed to the Believing Hebrews, who of all the Converts of the Apostles Ministry, and the first Age of the Church, were in the greatest danger of relapses, and needed the strongest and most renewed supports, and that upon several accounts.  
First, Because the Religion they left, was in its original of God's own institution, and most strongly founded upon the highest Divine Evidences, and practised by their Forefathers for a succession of many Ages and Generations, with singular Attestations of God's Presence and Blessing, above all the Nations of the Earth; the remembrance of which being strenuously pressed upon them, [as no doubt it was] by their Brethren of the Circumcision, might often occasion them to look back, and meditate a retreat from the Christian Doctrine.  
Secondly, To be embodied with the Gentiles, and the Uncircumcision, as by the Gospel they were to be, and coaless with them into one Church state, was a thing to which they were born and bred, and every way inur'd, to the greatest antipathy and opposition.  
And, Thirdly, Because the Persecutions they met with, were generally more grievous and pressing, and less tolerable, than what any Christians of that Age encountered withal, none embraced the Christian Profession upon greater peril than they, the whole Body of the Jews being enraged much more against such, than against the Gentil Believers, and in what place soever they met with any of the Jewish Converts, their business was to heat the Furnace of Persecution seven times hotter, as appears evidently where ever they went, in the case of all the Apostles, and particularly of Saint Paul.  
As no man besides that Blessed Apostle, none of those Divine Ambassadors God at any time employed to treat with the World, were ever so honoured, as to be called up into the third Heavens, and receive their Instructions immediately from thence, so no man could have a greater Province upon his hand, nor a weightier Task to perform, as God himself told Ananias in the 9th of the Acts: He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my Name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.  
First, The Apostleship of the Uncircumcision, and by the Ministry thereof, obliged to depose all the Gods of the Nations, and engage in their utter subversion, and to clear the World from that Mist of Darkness they had been so long hoodwinked withal, and that Religious Rubbish they had so long lain under.  
Secondly, And which he found the more difficult Task, to bring the Circumcision, his Brethren according to the flesh, the Jews, to a twofold assent; first, to behold Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified as the true Messiah, to look unto this Jesus as the Author and Finisher of all Salvation, that great and only Sacrifice intended from the beginning, to make the Atonement between God and Man, and once to be offered up in the end of the World to that purpose, that according to all the Predictions of Moses and the Prophets, this Jesus the Son of Mary born at Bethlem, was exactly the Person that was by himself to complete the Work of Man's Redemption, and that in persuance of those Predictions, by offering up himself to God upon the Cross he actually had done it; which two things by the way, made the difference between the Baptism of John the Baptist, and that of Christ and the Apostles after the Resurrection; the Baptism of John the Baptist was, to initiate men into this belief, that that same Jesus of Nazareth whom he pointed them unto, [for he pointed to the very person, whom all the Prophets before had but at large foretold; and therefore our Saviour says he exceeded all the Prophets that went before him, and was more than a Prophet] and they beheld Preaching and working of Miracles, and going about doing Good, was the true Messiah foretold from the beginning, the very individual Person that was to redeem and save the World, and therefore in the 7th of Luke, v. 29. they that were baptised with his Baptism are said to justify God, by believing his Testimony concerning the Messiah. The Baptism of Christ and the Apostles after the Resurrection, [for the Apostles baptised with John's Baptism before] was to initiate men into this belief, that that same Jesus that was to do it, actually had done it, by his Death, Sufferings and Resurrection, and so was entered into his mediatory Dominion.  
Secondly, To bring the Jews to assent to this as a certain and undoubted verity, that Shiloh being actually come, there would of necessity follow a change of the whole state of Religion, a new oeconomy would ensue, the times of reformation being come, all things were to become new, and a Temporal Reign of the Messiah upon the Mosaical Policy [which they thought unalterable] in the Land of Palestine, was an absolute Dream and Delusion: And although this Apostle had in many other of his Epistles confuted several of their chief Doctrines, and battered down many of their chiefest and strongest Forts, as they were made use of to stand in opposition to Christ, and fence out the Gospel, as that touching Justification by Works, and those concerning the true use of Circumcision and all the Mosaical Ceremonies; yet in this he very particularly lays the Axe to the Root of the Tree, and the design of the whole Epistle is to supersede the Law by the Gospel, to place Christ in the room of Moses, and to make the Law speak out plain its own natural and genuine use and designment, and that in the very nature of it; it was no longer to continue, then until the times of Reformation, being but a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things themselves: And in the doing of this, he accommodates himself chief to them of the Circumcision, for those he well knew would with the greatest difficulty become Proselytes to this Doctrine, and the Methods by which he gins, and by which he proceeds throughout this Whole Epistle in order to this matter, are of admirable consideration to the Church in all succeeding Ages.  
Upon two things the stress of his whole Discourse seems to be chief and principally laid, First, In respect of the Person that publisheth and delivers the Gospel: And, Secondly, In respect of the Nature and super-exceeding Excellency of the Doctrine published and delivered, the Gospel in the very kind and constitution of it, utterly exceeding all the Dispensations of God that ever preceded it, being the very natural, genuine and proper Issue and Product of them, all Divine Revelations since the World began tended to Christ and the Gospel as their ultimate End and Centre.  
Although God had by sundry Ways, and by divers Persons, both Angels and Men, at several times, distinctly declared his Mind to the World, yet he never before spoke by his Son, this is the Memorial of the Gospel throughout all Generations, that it was first published by the Lord, and after confirmed by those that heard him: it came first from the Oracle of his Sacred Mouth, and was sanctified by his most Blessed Lips, and upon that account well may it be called, as it is, in the 1st of Timothy, The glorious Gospel of the blessed God.  
'Tis true, that all former Divine Revelations brought to us either by the Ministry of Angels, or Men, were the Voice of God, and had him for their Author; but herein lies the peculiarity of the Gospel Glory above them all, that now he speaks to us without any intermediate Instrument, personally Himself in his Son, he comes Himself from Heaven, Tabernacles in Humane Flesh, becomes Emanuel, converseth with us, and speaks Face to Face with us in our own Nature: Let us with an Holy Astonishment [as Moses said in another case] turn aside and view this great Sight, and cry out with the Psalmist in Holy Admiration, Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou shouldest so visit him: and consider deeply what infinite condescension was this, that when nothing else would serve to recover the lost World, God comes from Heaven himself, to treat with us about our recovery; so that no man can now reasonably say, who shall ascend into Heaven to instruct us from thence, or who shall fetch Divine Knowledge beneath from the Deeps, for all that we need to know, and all that we can know, is brought home to our Doors, is put into our Hearts, and into our Mouths, by God himself in the fashion of a Man, and like to us in all things, sin only excepted.  
Two things the Apostle seems to insinuate, in his very first entrance and the beginning of this Epistle: God who at sundry times and divers manners spoke in time passed unto the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son: First, That it was the same God that spoke now, that spoke before by Moses and the Prophets, and so prevents their taking prejudice against the Gospel, as if it came from any other hand than the God of Israel, or were built upon any other Foundation than Moses and the Prophets.  
And, Secondly, That God speaking now by his Son, we may reasonably expect to hear more than ever was yet known, and all that we are like ever to know by way of Revelation from above; such a Person as He, may well be supposed to bring down all God's Errand to the World at once, he has none greater to send by; and upon that account it is, that the Gospel times are called in Scripture, the last times, because no more Revelation is to be expected.  
If we consider Christ as he is God, he is exalted far above all Heavens, and beyond all reach of Comparisons; if we consider him in that conjunction as he was Man, even in that state he is Heir of all things; he is the Firstborn of every creature, and in all things has the pre-eminence; he exceeds the noblest of creatures, the Angels, those glorious Spirits, who in their very make and constitution were nearest of kin of all others to their Creator, and are called Elohim, a sort of Gods; for God never said unto any of them, thou art my Son, this day [speaking both of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection] have I begotten thee: but at the Son's first arrival in the World, to give an eternal Instance of his Divinity, he commands all the Angels of God to worship him, and to worship him with the greatest Prostration and Adoration imaginable; for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, used upon this occasion, intimates. That the Apostle should treat so much, when he is dealing with the Jews, of the Preference of Christ above the Angels, we may well conceive, when we consider, that he himself in this Epistle declares, that the Law was the Word spoken by the Angels, and Gal. 3. says, that it was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator; not as if this were to be taken, as Grotius and some learned men have conceived, that the Law upon Mount Sinai was originally given forth by a created Angel there, for it was most certainly published authoritatively by God himself there present; nor is it any where said to be originally given forth by Angels, but to be spoken by them, and given forth by their Manage and Ministry: In the 68th Psalm, we are told, The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands, the Lord is among them, as in Sinai: by which 'tis evident enough, the glorious and eternal Jehovah was there personally present, after a very peculiar and eminent manner: And in Stephen's last Sermon, he tells the Jews, in that Historical Recapitulation of their whole Affairs, that they had received the Law by the disposition of Angels, and had not kept it. So that the meaning is, the delivery of the Law was by the Ministration of Angels, and their ordering of things upon Mount Sinai, though it was uttered by God himself; but the delivery of the Gospel is singly by the Ministry of the Son of God in person: And when we are told the Law was the Word spoken by Angels, and that it was ordained by Angels, it is in this sense, and no other to be understood; and well may it be so styled, if we reflect upon these several things:  
1st, The whole heavenly Host of Angels, those glorious Guards of Spirits, that attend the Eternal Jehovah, were all there present in a solemn and particular manner, (such as we not where else read of) in their courses, and order, to execute what their Supreme Lord came about, and beholding with wonder and admiration, the Wisdom of the Supreme Legislator, in giving forth those wise Laws to the World, upon which the legal Dispensation was chief founded; which was the reason, perhaps, made them so earnest afterwards, to look down into the Gospel Dispensation, [having seen so much of the legal, and been such Actors in it] and behold the glory of that, for by it the Apostle tells us expressly, the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto them; and by beholding the second Person incarnate, they saw somewhat more of Heaven upon Earth, than they could see in Heaven itself.  
2dly, It was by the Ministry of Angels that those prodigious Terrors were effected, by which the People were so awed, and taught to reverence the Law, God raised by them the Smoke, and the Fire, at Mount Sinai.  
3dly, It was they that shook and rend the Rock.  
4thly, It was they that sounded the Trumpet:  
And, 5thly, [from the consideration of which the great Emphasis of the Apostle's Speech chief ariseth] 'twas they framed and effected the articulate Voices and Words from God, by which he spoke to the People, and by which the Law was conveyed to their Ears, that is, the Angels received the Law from God's Mouth, and uttered it by Sounds and Expressions to the People, and thereby became so the publishers of the Law, as that it is truly and very properly called the word spoken by Angels: and may be very significantly said, to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator.  
IT will be a thing in its nature most instructing, and full of the greatest spiritual delight and satisfaction, to consider over the Apostles first Point, those glorious Excellencies of Christ that are appertainant unto him, by which he hath the preference of all that went before him, and by which he is infinitely exalted beyond what ever can possibly succeed him; and therefore a Revelation made, and a Religion settled by him, must needs, with the supremest Authority, command our utmost obedience.  
First he informs us, of two transcendent, supereminent and unparalled Qualifications of this glorious Person by whom God now speaks; first, that he hath appointed him Heir of all things; and, secondly, that by him, he made the Worlds. The first of these relates chief to his Assumption of the Humanity, and as he is Man, this is an eternal statute of the Trinity, that the second Person humbling himself to become Man, and assuming the Humane Nature to the Divine, as he was Man, should be Heir of the whole Creation, and inherit as a Prince and a Saviour all created Supremacy and Glory, and therefore he himself often affirms in St. John, that all authority and judgement is given unto him, upon this very account, because he is the Son of Man, [a Title only given to him in Scripture by himself and by no other, and another expression of the Seed of the Woman] that very Humane Nature that looked so meanly, and was such a stumbling-block to the Faith of the Jews, and the Philosophy of the Gentiles, had annexed unto it, the Lordship and Dominion of all, this could not simply belong to the Humane Nature in itself, but was by Divine Ordination of the Father, by him of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named; and therefore the Apostle saith, that God has appointed him heir of all things, and by this insinuates to the Jews, that if he were Heir of all things, then has he power in the Church to alter and settle what Religion he pleaseth, dispose of their Ecclesiastic Fabric as he thought good, and that if they did intent to keep those eminent and peculiar Privileges they had above the rest of the World, they must own him, and enjoy all from him, and under him, because God has ordained him Heir of all things.  
But the second is that I shall chief insist on, by which the Apostle inculcates his Divinity, that by him God made the worlds; this is a discovery that at first view seems rather to stupefy and amuse [the Object so far exceeding the Faculty] than any way to encourage us to contemplate, or inquire, or farther to think over this matter, nor can any one Meditation about it be drawn from any other Topick, than pure Revelation; this is a great Oracle let fall from Heaven for the instruction of the Church, and we must with all humble and thankful adoration, inquire how far the Holy Ghost has informed us in this matter, and not farther gaze, lest we lose ourselves in vain, fruitless and unbecoming Speculations.  
By whom also he made the worlds. By the Worlds, is not meant as some have conceived, several Successions of the same World, but 'tis meant in the sense the Jews took the word, to whom the Apostle accommodates himself, and they reckoned upon three Worlds, that above, of Angels and Spirits; that beneath them, of Sun, Moon and Stars; and this inferior World in which we converse: the Apostles drift is to show, that what was any where created, was created and made by him, and that according to St. John, without him was nothing made that was made; and this appears to be his meaning from Col. 1.16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible.  
[By whom] not as a created instrument any way inferior to himself, so it cannot be taken, for we are told by Sr. John, that the word by which all things were made, was in the beginning with God, and was God, but by him as his own eternal Word, Wisdom, and Power; that is to say, the making of the World was an act peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity, and the whole Deity in making the World, acted by the second Person, for 'tis not said absolutely, that Christ made the World, but God by him; which notifies to us the order of working in the Trinity, and the distinct subsistence and operations of the persons, and not bare instrumentality: True it is, that the act of each Person in the Trinity is in some sense the act of all the three, yet by the Trinity a threefold Record is said to be born in Heaven, and distinct acts are applied to each of the three, and God does appear to us under distinct actings in the same eternal and blessed Essence by that threefold Record.  
To make this deep and important Point as plain and overt as we can, the best way is to view over those Scriptures where the Holy Ghost treats most expressly touching this matter; St. John gins his Gospel with a great discovery of it, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, the same was in the beginning with God; all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. The Apostle's design in this Gospel, is evidently to begin it with the Divinity and Godhead of Christ, as the rest had begun theirs with the Original and History of his Humanity and Incarnation; and this Declaration of his Divinity must needs be very short, for no man can write a History of God, or make any Narrative of his Eternal Existence, the Apostle therefore in a few words tells us all that was needful and proper to be told about his Divinity, and all that could be known about the Man Christ Jesus, as he was God, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. [In the beginning] 'tis an allusion to what Moses says about the Creation, In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth; that is, before any thing created was extant; and so here St. John says, In the beginning was the word, that is, Christ was extant when all things else began; and so he was, and was in being before them, and did not then begin to be; he was before time, or any thing that was created had a beginning, 'tis in a short way to express him eternal, the expression [that he was] is evidently taken out of the 8th Chapter of Proverbs, from the 23d to the 31st Verse, where the Word St. John speaks of, is represented as present with God in all the Business that relates to this World, and principally and especially in the work of Redemption, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, when there was no depths I was brought forth, when there was no fountains abounding with water; and in the 30th Verse, Then I was with him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable parts of this Earth, and my delights were with the sons of men; of which we can conceive no more, but that God's Works being known unto him and present with him from all eternity, the Word the second Person in the Trinity, by whom they were to be made, managed, and finally disposed, was with him in that particular concern and relation from all eternity, and God took the same complacency in them, as if they had been actually in being; the Apostle's words are a plain Syllogism, Christ was in the beginning, not created, but existing before all created beings, And was; and if you ask where he was, he was with God, and therefore must needs be God, upon these premises, that Christ was before all, and was with God. It may be undeniably concluded, he was God, for nothing but God, could precede all beginning, and creation, and exist with himself.  
[Was the Word.] The Reasons why the Apostle chooseth to express Christ when he writes of his Divinity by the name of the Word, seem to be two, and they both result from that other undeniable evidence he gives of his Divinity, that he was not only before the World with God, but that the World was actually made by him, and that without him nothing was made that was made: The first reason of his being called the Word, is because words are the express Image of Ourselves, of our Wisdom, Counsels, and Will, and so was Christ the very express Image of God, the Deity in that work of creation uttered and expressed itself in its eternal Wisdom, Counsels and Will, by the second Person, as the voice of all the three, and so he is called the Word. Secondly, He is called the Word with particular reference to the History Moses gives us of the manner of Creation; the Creatures were all originally framed by God's speaking, for says he, God said of every thing, let it be, and it was; he said, let there be light, and it was so. The Psalmist speaking of the Creation expresseth it thus, He spoke, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast, Psal. 33.9. God spoke, and the Creation was effected; the method of it is so represented, and it being performed by the second Person, and God speaking solely by him, he is thence called the Word. And this seems to be all the knowledge we can attain to about this deep and profound Expression, and we must know withal, that the Expression is metaphorical, and suited to our frame and capacity.  
In the first of the Colossians, from the 15th Verse to the 19th, we find the Apostle's expression very full in this matter, who is [says he] the image of the invisible God, and the firstborn of every creature; for by him were all things created, which are in heaven, and that are in earth, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning and firstborn from the dead, that in [or among] all things he might have the preeminence. In the 15th Verse the Apostle lays down these two deep and grand fundamenral Truths: First, That he is the image of the invisible God, the same that he affirms in the first of this Epistle to the Hebrews, That he is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person: And, Secondly, That he is the firstborn of every creature. The Apostle's meaning in the first of these, in both Texts, is principally to assert and prove the Divinity of Christ appearing in the fashion of a Man, and to give us to understand, that the second Person in the Deity united unto the Humanity, though he be so distinct from the Father, as that the Father and he bear a distinct and twofold Record, yet he is essentially God, and has all the Qualifications of the Deity appurtenant unto him, he is the brightness of his Father's glory. Now his glory is the radiation of his excellency, and Christ being the brightness of his glory, is the perfection of his glory, and so an essential part of his being, and in that conjunction of God and Man wherein he is visible, he is the very Image of the invisible God, and represents the inaccessible and invisible Deity unto us, [the great thing the Wisdom and Philosophy both of Jews and Gentiles stumbled at] and renders it the object of our knowledge, our delight, our communion, and unutterable satisfaction: the Humane and Divine Nature being united in one person, and making and constituting but one Person, he that sees what is visible and can be seen in that Person, is said and truly so to see that Person, as he that sees a Man, is truly said to see the whole Man, though he do not actually see the Soul of that Man, nor distinctly and particularly the Understanding, Will and Affections of which that Man is constituted, but by their effects in corporeal Operations, the Deity was as visible in the Humane Person of Christ, as the Soul is in the Fabric of any Man we converse with; and in this sense our Saviour himself says, he that seen him hath seen the Father, by the Effects, and his Mighty Operations; he that sees that Person where the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, has seen God himself, that is, has seen that express visible Image of his Person, set forth for us to converse with him by, and through which the Godhead acts and shows itself by its omnipotent effects, according to that of St. John, No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten son in the bosom of the father he declares him; that is, the Humane Nature of Christ united to the Deity, is that Image whereby God is pleased to reveal and manifest himself to us, and all that is acted in, by, and through that Image, is the Actings of God.  
Secondly, The Apostle says he is the firstborn of every creature, by which the Apostle no way refers to the order of time in which things were made, but his meaning is, that his Humane Nature in that conjunction with the Divine, has the preference to all Humane Being's, God has given him the right of Primogeniture, and the Dominion appurtenant to the Firstborn, and made him Heir of all things, as he is said in the 89th Psalm to make David his firstborn, higher than all the kings of the earth, not by any priority of Time, nor by virtue of that Dominion he had in Palestine, but as he was a Type and Representation of Christ, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, God has made the Man Christ Jesus Lord of the whole Creation, and given him the precedence of all things in Heaven and Earth; St. Peter tells us, he is gone into heaven, angels, and authorities, and powers being made subject unto him: and this as being his Firstborn from all Eternity in purpose, and as our Saviour styles himself, the Beginning of the creation of God, he decreeing from everlasting, that all that should be created, should be created by him, and not only so, but for him, and be entirely his property, as he was the blessed Mediator God and Man in one person: In a word, he is the Firstborn amongst the Elect, they are all chosen in him, the eldest Brother in the Family of God, whereunto is annexed the Dominion and Power over the whole Creation, whence he is called the Firstborn of every Creature.  
What is more briefly expressed by St. John, that all was created by him that was created, and what is in few words said in this Epistle, that by him God made the Worlds, is here enlarged by the Apostle into particulars, showing that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, they were all made by him, the Apostle instanceth in the noblest and highest sort of Creatures as comprehensive of all the rest, even all the Supreme Rulers and Governors amongst Angels and Men, all were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist, as their Maker he must needs precede them, and by whom they were originally created, by him they must needs live, move, and have their being.  
And as he is the Source of all Natural Creation, so he is the Spring of the New Creature, and of all Spiritual Life, being called in the 18th Verse, the head of his body, the church, the firstborn from the dead: he that first risen himself as victorious over the Grave, and by whose influence, as an effect of that Victory, all others shall rise, that in both the Creations, both Natural and Spiritual, in the whole concerns of this World and the next, he might have the pre-eminence, for it pleased the father, that in him should all fullness dwell, that that blessed Person, our Saviour and Mediator, should be as full of perfection and as glorious as all the glory of Heaven and Earth created and uncreated could possibly make him.  
The most material difficulty that seems to result from these Illuminations, the Holy Ghost has been pleased to give us in Scripture touching these matters, is this, If the Divinity and the Humanity in that conjunction, constitute but one entire person, how can so much be properly and distinctly ascribed to Christ as Man, all things must needs belong to him as God; but the Holy Ghost makes them appurtenant to him as Man: the Reasons of which seem most probably to be these,  
First, To Honour and Recommend to the World, that Humane Nature Christ debased himself to assume, that because he in that Nature performed the Work of the Mediator, and all the suffering part lay upon that; therefore God has highly exalted it above all created things.  
Secondly, Because all the additional Glory that accrued unto Christ by virtue of his performance of the Law of his Mediatorship, must needs fall upon his Humanity, for there could be no addition made, nor nothing accrue cumulative to his Divinity, nothing could be added to him as God, and therefore 'tis attributed to him as Man.  
Thirdly, The Constitution of Christ as he appeared visibly to the World, and wherein he acted all, was Man, the Prophecies and Promises that preceded him pointed to him as Man, the Humanity was the Temple of the Deity, in the Humanity he suffered, died, and risen again, and performed all his Mediatory Work, 'twas all promised and designed to be performed by a Man, visibly, and Humane more, though acted by the second Person in the Deity; and therefore all the Glory is attributed in Scripture to his Humane part, without which the Work of Redemption could not have been effected; so we have it in the 5th of John, all Authority is there said by Christ himself to be given to him, Because he is the son of man; which Expression I take to relate to his Office, as Mediator, which he could not have performed had he not been Man; and so the sense of it is this, that because Christ is the true Seed of the Woman, that real Son of Man prophesied of by the Prophet Daniel, by whom the World is to be redeemed and saved; therefore all the Supremacy and Authority appurtenant to that Office, by God's ordination, belongs to him.  
From what hath been discoursed upon this Argument, that the Lord Jesus Christ is he by whom all things were originally created, we may arrive at a twofold conclusion, and safely establish these two most important Truths.  
First, That the Foundation of all God's Designs and his Eternal Counsels and Purposes, touching Angels and Men, and the whole that was made by him, was laid in his creation of all by the second Person in the Trinity.  
And, Secondly, That all the Works of the first Creation, were so framed and made, that they might lie in a direct subserviency to the new Creation, and the manifestation of God's infinite Grace in redeeming and saving the World by the second Person becoming Man and incarnate.  
I shall apply myself chief to the former of these: Our discovery of this Matter is a part post, no Man was conversant with God's Counsels from everlasting, all Men are eternally silenced with God's Question and Demand to Job, he may say to all, as he said to him, Where were ye when I laid the foundations of the earth? where were the Counsels of your Hearts? where were your Thoughts and Contrivances then? ye were so far from instructing or assisting the Almighty, that ye were not in being, nor knew any thing what he was about to do; what we know therefore, is what God is pleased since to reveal to us, and from the providential future effects which our eyes behold, from both which we are plentifully instructed herein; Moses indeed in his Writings is silent about this matter, the full Relation of it was reserved for the Days of the Gospel, when it came to be known how, and by whom, the World was to be redeemed, than we are more particularly told how, and by whom it was made, the blessed Person of our Lord Jesus Christ is represented to us, as the Alpha and Omega of all, the Beginning and the Ending of the Creation of God, in whom there is a recapitulation of the whole, God designing after things were scattered, disordered and lost by sin, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to bring all, Jews and Gentiles, Angels and Men, the whole Creation into one Head, and under one Rule in him, as the Apostle expresseth it in the first of the Ephesians, that he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are one art, even in him: and so as God was pleased to make all by him, he recovers all back again through him, and under him.  
In discoursing this deep and mysterious Point, what ever advance is made towards the right understanding of it, be it never so small, the design ought to be in every step that is taken, to do it with perspicuity and evidence, that so it may not be rendered a Notion obscure and useless, but a Truth wherein the comfort, satisfaction, and interest of every Christian may appear much concerned.  
And in order to this, I will take a distinct and threefold Consideration of all the Works of God's Hands: 1st, Of the Angels; 2ly, Of Mankind; 3ly, Of all the rest of the Creatures.  
Two things are eminently and principally to be considered about the Creation of the Angels; 1st, That they were so made, that some of them might apostatise and fall, and that others of them should keep their first and original station: 2ly, That all of them should be under the Lordship and Dominion of Christ, as the great Recoverer of Mankind, and the Mediator and Head of the Church, Moses in his History of the Creation gives us no account of the Angels, nor does the New Testament inform us any thing of the manner of their Creation; so that when they were made, in what part of the six days, or how, whether of pre-existing Matter, or as the Soul of Man and other parts of the Creation, without any such pre-existing Matter, and whether when made, they had all an equal vision and fruition of God [because it seems difficult to conceive how any created Being could turn aside from that Vision] or whether they sinned in God's presence and in foro Coeli, because their Judgement is so heavy and irreversible, are things unrevealed, by the Scriptures passed over in silence, nor can they by searching, or any humane endeavour be found out.  
The Angels that fell being of the noblest nature and complexion, nearest unto God of any that he made, and of greatest power and influence, their fall was it that first introduced Sin and Apostasy amongst Men, and occasioned all the Rebellion of this lower World against God; and upon that account we are told by St. John, for this cause was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil: as comprehensive of all the Apostasy both of Angels and Men; and therefore it is, that they first fell of all other Creatures under the Lordship and Dominion of Christ as Mediator, by virtue of that declaratory Promise, [from which the mediatory Dominion of Christ bears actual date] the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Hence it came to pass that the apostate Angels, who by the Temptations they laid before our first Parents and so early assaulted them withal, appeared to be of an aspiring Temper, and not contented with that present station, which by their first and original make they were placed in, but attempted something farther, beyond those bounds God by the Law of their Creation had confined them to, [which could be nothing else but to deify themselves, for God had already made them above every thing but himself] they fell from that glory they had received from the second Person in the Trinity [by whom they were made] as God, into an absolute subjection to him, [as his Enemies and Vassals] as he was Man, and by God's most just, wise, and holy Judgement, saw themselves subjected to that very Nature, they so maliciously [with respect both to God and Man] sought the ruin of; and the same Nature wonderfully assumed to the Divine, by the second Person, and in that glorious and splendid Conjunction, the World recovered, and a Dominion established over all the Rebellions, Apostasies, and Declensions, both of Angels and Men.  
The Devil having been thus a Liar and a Rebel from the beginning, and using all the fraudulent endeavours possible, to have all the Creation [to their final and utmost Ruin] his Associates therein, and God having been pleased in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness, to encounter all his Designs and Endeavours by the second Person incarnate, whom he constitutes a Prince and a Saviour, and sets him as his King upon his Holy Hill, and declares his Decree from everlasting, to establish his Kingdom with all Authority and Power; the World has been ever since under a twofold Dominion, that of Satan, and that of Christ; and these two Kingdoms, that of the Fallen Angels, and that of the Mediator, have stood in direct opposition, and in all Ages contested each other, the Contest grew high very early in the World, and continued so till the Flood; the four great Monarchies since have all ofthem been Satan's Allies and Instruments, and Factors for his Interest, not only by their multiplied Idolatries, thereby throwing [as much as in them lay] the true God out of the World, but by their proud and insolent defiance of him, and placing themselves in his room upon all occasions: To what inconceivable Insolence and Pride were those first Babylonian Monarch's arrived at? we need no other account of it, but to read what the Prophet Esaw tells them, Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. The Persian Monarchy, that next succeeded, much affected to retain and improve the Grandeur and Height of their Predecessors, and if it were possible to out do them; one Instance they gave of that, in which they greatly prided and valued themselves, which was to make their Laws unalterable; the Laws of the Medes and Persians were not to be changed, as if they had arrived at once to all the Wisdom and Foresight of God himself. The folly of this insolent Project, of this vain Exaltation of Humane Wisdom and Power beyond its due bounds, and setting themselves in the supreme Legiflator's place, the Scripture has sufficiently recorded to its eternal shame and confusion, in one Instance we have of it in the Book of esther's: Ahasuerus, upon the Petition of Haman, made an Edict, that all the Jews in his Territories should be upon a prefixed day slain and destroyed; after, upon the Petition of Mordecai and Esther, he altered his purpose, and had a mind to have all the Jews saved; the first Law could not be altered nor reversed by their fundamental Constitution, and therefore Abasuerus had no other way, but he makes another Law after the same form and manner that he made the former, wherein 'tis thus decreed, The king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their lives, to destroy, to slay and cause to perish all the power of the people and province that should assault them, both little ones and women, and take the spoil of them for a prey. By which he downright settles a Civil War by two unalterable Laws in the Bowels of his Dominions, and in all his Territories commands his Subjects to massacre and destroy each other, nay, even in his own Palace, for upon this second Edict the Jews slew 500 Men in Shusan the King's Palace. The last Monarchy of Rome had so far advanced Idolatry and carried on Satan's concerns, that they ransacked the whole Creation for Deities, and arrived to Thirty thousand Gods, and the Emperors came to such a degree of impudent Pride and Impiety, as downright to deify themselves; the Kingdoms and Powers of the World have lain from the beginning in his hands, and therefore 'tis said upon the full recovery of the World, The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ: the Kingdom of the Mediator has consisted but of a few, it pleasing God in his infinite Wisdom to declare the glory of that rather in quality than quantity.  
This Kingdom of the fallen Angels is sometimes called in Scripture, the Kingdom of Darkness, and sometimes the Kingdom of Satan, and he is himself sometimes called the Prince of this World, and the Prince of the Power of the Air, that old Serpent the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the World; the original of it was Apostasy and Rebellion against the Supreme Sovereign, and an endeavour to set up a Counter-Soveraignty in the creature against him, and 'tis carried on and will be till the end of his Reign, with all possible counter-working to the Kingdom of the Mediator, and all the gracious and glorious Designs and Purposes of God therein.  
The chief of the fallen Angels is reckoned the Prince of this Kingdom, and all the fallen Angels and fallen Men (unrecovered) are embodied in it as his Subjects; 'tis carried on and supported by these two things, First, A malignant Opposition to God, for his manage of the whole Affairs of the Creation by the second Person incarnate: And, Secondly, By an insatiable appetite to throw off all Bonds and Ties of Obedience to their Supreme Sovereign and Maker, and enjoy the uninterrupted possession of a lawless Life, suitable to their degenerate and apostate Inclinations. The woeful state they arrive at by this [to let us know no Man can oppose God and prosper] , First, Ever to labour and endeavour with a certainty of disappointment, for the fallen Angels know very well their purposes and designs shall never be accomplished. And, Secondly, To lie under a constant sense of ill doing, and under guilt and terror in what ever they act: And, Thirdly, To stand bound over to the dreadful Justice of God, and be sentenced at the Judgment-Seat by that Man whom he hath appointed, to the endless and utmost Misery and Horror, of all which the fallen Angels and many of their adherents are sufficiently informed.  
From the beginning God has not been pleased to set himself at any time against this Kingdom of his confederate Enemies and Rebbels, by the Thunder of his Power, and as it were most easy for him to do, in a moment to grind them to Powder, but in the profound depths of his Wisdom, [who is wonderful in council and excellent in working] suffers the continuance of it for great and holy ends and purposes, and opposeth it [and will at last utterly ruin it] by a still small voice, in those Methods by which the Mediator's Kingdom is to be erected, that is, the Laws of his Grace, and the mighty Influences of his Spirit; and hence it is, that in every Generation we find a continued contest and opposition between the renewed and recovered part of the World, and all apostate Angels and Men, God contesting by his Grace and Spirit in the Hearts of his Servants, all the violent Assaults that the Powers of Darkness, the whole Race of degenerate Angels or Men could bring upon them; and upon that account, has had some faithful Servants in all Ages, upon whose Fidelity and Ability in this way of Combat, he has staked down his Interest, and with whom he has trusted his Glory, nor can he by this Method ever fail of the Glory due to him, or by such an Adventure ever come short of it, for 'tis trusting his Glory with his Grace, and the one stands upon as sure a foundation as the other, and both in their nature . Instances of this kind the Scriptures abound withal, but that which in a particular case seems the most eminent of them all, and most remarkable, is the Case of Job and the Trial he went through.  
Whoever will nicely consider his Case, shall find it a Story of wonderful distinction and circumstance, the whole Business of Religion being by consent put upon trial in him: Job was declared by God himself, [and Satan denied it not] to be the best Man than living, one that had not his like in all the Earth; but Satan objects unto God against him, and affirms, that though he was so eminent, and had the priority of all the Religious Party then extant, yet all his Religion was but Hypocrisy, built upon a secular bottom, and that if God brought him once to trial, it would appear so to be, and himself manifested thereby to be a most notorious Hypocrite and Dissembler: Had this in reality proved true, Satan had carried his point, for it had been an undeniable evidence, that God had had no faithful Servants, nor had there been any such thing as true and sincere Piety and Religion in the World; for if the very best of all Men proved upon trial but a rotten falsehearted Hypocrite, the consequence had been very plain, that all the rest of the same profession must needs have been much more so: The trial proceeds with all the possible advantage Satan could wish to obtain his end, and he is permitted to go to the utmost extent of all the Artifices he had, in order to stir up and provoke in Job, all the exorbitant Passions, unruly Ferments, and irreligious profane Workings that belong to Humane Nature, and usually appear upon such occasions, in order to bring him to calumniatè Providence, and even reproach God himself:  
1st, By Afflicting his Body; 2ly, By Ruining his Estate; And, 3ly, By laying him, as to his present state and condition, under the sharpest Judgements and severest Censures of his best and most devout Friends; yet for all this, and all that Satan could do by himself or his Agents, yet the Grace of Sincerity [the main thing Satan struck at] carried him triumphantly through all, to the utter confusion of Satan and all his malicious Charges against him; such a Sincerity he appeared to have as is the Badge of God's Israel, and that Mark whereby the Lord knows those that are his: Job indeed discovered much Weakness, and manifold Infirmities, [which belong to the best Servants God has, so gracious is he in his acceptance of them] but that was in no sort the Point under question, whether Job were a Man of Infirmities or no, but the Matter put upon trial was, whether Job was an Hypocrite or no, and in the main of his state and condition one under allegiance to Satan, or a true and faithful Subject and Servant to God, and that was by the carriage of the whole business clearly determined against Satan, by Job's perfect and entire Submission unto God, [so far was he from Cursing him to his Face] and total Resignation of himself to him in a way of trust and affiance, though he should proceed to kill him, and justifying of himself to the utmost in his Sincerity, and keeping his Integrity throughout his whole Exercise and Trial clear and untainted to the very last, and rancountering Satan's Accusation with that holy submission in the very height of his Agony, when the News of all his Misfortunes at once came upon him, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh, and blessed be the Name of the Lord; than which Expression nothing could more positively and expressly confute all the Charges and Accusations Satan brought against him, for he declared quite contrary to Satan's suggestions, so far was he from Cursing God to his Face, and therefore the Holy Ghost immediately records the Victory on Job's side in the next Verse, In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.  
But the greatest, most general, and most powerful Contest, that ever happened between the Strength and Force of these Kingdoms, appears to be the last of all, wherein Satan with all the Powers that belong to his Kingdom, will discover himself in his strongest and utmost Efforts, and wherein he will at last perish, this is by a spiritual Babylon reared up by him in the days of the Gospel, and a System of Religion composed by him, to encounter the Mediator withal in his own way; this was the grand Infernal Project, when the Gospel began to prevail against all opposition, and Temporal Power would serve the Devil's turn no longer; and herein he proves so successful, as to delude and intoxicate the Nations of the Earth, and make them drunk with his Compositions, and to erect a spiritual and mighty Monarchy, now of great and long continuance, founded upon wonderful Artifice and Strength; this was the great Secret revealed of old, to that greatly beloved of God, the Prophet Daniel, that out of the fourth and last Temporal Monarchy of Rome, should arise another Monarchy, upon the dissolution of that, divers from all the rest, that should mightily prevail, speak great words against the Most High, wear out the saints, change times and laws, and continue his power until a time and times and the dividing of time: [which is after punctually explained in Scripture to be 1260 Years, the exact time of this Monarchy's continuance] and should by a mighty Power in Spirituals, resemble the great Power the Roman Monarches had in Temporals, have the same situation, and much the same subjects in Spirituals, that the other had in Temporals: This is the Popish Fabric, the erecting of which is the Masterpiece of Satan, and the greatest Effect of the Wisdom and Process of the fallen Angels since they left their first state, who have with their utmost vigour employed themselves herein; and the affirmation of this cannot seem strange, since we are directly told by the Holy Ghost, that the coming of the man of sin is after the working of Satan.  
The case was plainly this: The Messiah so often promised from the beginning, in the fullness of time (that is, in the exact time wherein all the Predictions of his coming did concentre) comes, and assumes Humane Nature, completes the work of Man's Redemption, and by one Offering for ever perfects them that are sanctified, proclaims the Gospel, publishes a new Law of Grace, and issues out a general Proclamation for all the World both Jews and Gentiles without exception to come in, and upon the terms of this new recovering Law to be saved.  
Satan very sensibly feeling this fatal Blow, and finding his Kingdom fundamentally struck at, and that unless foam new Infernal Counsels were taken up, his interest could not longer be supported, turns every stone to invert and invalidate this gracious Design of God, and this glorious Kingdom of the Mediator now shining forth in its native lustre and splendour. To deny the Fact, would have made him ridiculous, and to endeavour to stop the Success of the Gospel if it went on, he well knew was impossible; and therefore resolves upon this Method as his last and only Remedy, to Blow with Christ's Heifer, to Erect a Religion seemingly founded upon the Gospel, and extremely like it, that yet should be destructive to all the ends of it, and by this to supersede the Gospel itself, and have this false and spurious counterpart taken in the room of it, this is the Papacy, a false dead Image of the Christian Religion, animated by the spirit of Satan, and a thing in its nature utterly ruinous and destructive to it.  
This Structure in Scripture is called Babylon, with reference to the first Babel, being like that set up in direct opposition to God, and to confront his Authority: As God is pleased that Jerusalem, where his Worship and Ordinances were so solemnly settled, by his own appointment, shall keep up its Name and denominate the true Church throughout all Generations to the very end of the World, so he is pleased to stigmatize the Name of Babylon, and by it eminently and emphatically to denominate the very worst of his Enemies until Christ's second coming and the period of all; the Names that are given to this Ecclesiastical Monarchy, [for there be several others though Babylon be the chief] the Holy Ghost instructs us that they are spiritually to be understood, and relate to its spiritual and ecclesiastical Abominations; when 'tis called Egypt and Sodom, 'tis to signify the Filth of it, and the cruel Bondage the Saints undergo there; when 'tis called and particularly denominated Babylon, 'tis to signify its Grandeur, Tyranny, and Idolatry, all which were eminent in that Monarchy.  
Although this Spiritual Monarchy arise out of the ashes of the fourth and last Temporal Monarchy of Rome, yet St. John writing during the continuance of that Monarchy, the Holy Ghost chooseth to represent it by that first Monarchy of Babylon, and there: seems to be a peculiar resemblance between this Ecclesiastical Monarchy and that, and that in several things:  
1st, In the continuance and time of its duration 1260 Years, being near about the time that the Babylonian Monarchy lasted.  
2dly, In respect that all the holy and sanctified Utensils of the Temple were captived in Babylon, and there profaned as all the Sacred Institutions of the Gospel are captived and profaned in this Mystical Babylon, how shamefully have the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and the other Holy Institutions and Ordinances of the New Testament been profaned and abused under the Papal Reign?  
3dly, This Ecclesiastical Mornarchy is set forth and described by that of the Babylonian, after a very peculiar manner, in respect of the sore Persecutions the Church meets with under both, the Holy Ghost makes the one typical and representative of the other.  
4thly, The Babylonian Monarchy was not ruined by a common Providence, but by peculiar and extraordinary Judgements; they are three times in one Chapter called the Vengeance of his Temple. And so shall this Papal Babylonian State be ruined after a peculiar manner, by the brightness of Christ's coming, and by the glory of his Power.  
5thly, And that which I think the principal Reason why the Holy Ghost brands this Ecclesiastical Monarchy with the Name of Babylon, though it arose out of the Ruins of the Roman Monarchy, and have its situation at Rome, is this, to keep up and maintain the Harmony and due decorum of the Visions set forth in the Revelation, and the Representations and Expressions thereof: Now it is plain, that in the Revelation, the true Church is represented under the Gospel by Jewish Similitudes and Expressions, and the Enemies of it are represented in the Names of those great Enemies the Jews had to their Church and State. The three most remarkable Calamities that befell the Jews, was first in Egypt, secondly in Babylon, and thirdly from the Outrages of Antiochus; and upon that account we find Egypt often mentioned in the Revelations, and the sore Bondage and Persecutions of the Church reckoned from thence, and in regard the Jewish Church and State, with their City and Temple, were totally ruined, and themselves captivated by the Monarchy of Babylon, their constant and avowed Enemy, therefore the grand Enemy of Christ and the Gospel, the Antichristian State, is called: Babylon, and perhaps the Persecutions and Desolations of Antiochus are represented by God and Magog, when Satan shall be let lose.  
This Ecclesiastical Structure is also in Scripture styled Antichristian, and the Monarchy of it Antichrist, and that not only for the general opposition it makes, and the tendency it has against Christ and his Interest, but for this peculiar reason, because there is a Vice Head, and a Vice Christ, and so a False Christ set up in the Church; Christ's Place is by this Monarchy notoriously usurped, it being enthroned by its Head, the Man of Sin, in the Temple of God, as God, and most impiously and impudently personating Christ in all his mediatory Authority.  
Satan and the rest of his Associates, having thus from the beginning declared their enmity to God, and peculiarly to the Seed of the Woman, and the Interest and Kingdom of Christ as Mediator, and pursued it in all Ages with the greatest Rage and Malice imaginable, and having in the Antichristian Reign for 1260 Years, which began at the fall of the Roman Empire; [for the Beast and the ten Kings, which are the shivers of that Empire, are expressly said to take their Power in one hour] and St. Paul tells us, he that does let will let, till he be taken out of the way; which is to tell us in other words, that till the Temporal Monarchy of Rome fell, the Spiritual Monarchy could not be erected, I say, having brought their Apostate Practices and Principles to the utmost culmen and height they could arrive at, they will then grow ripe for destruction, the Judge will appear to stand at the door, Christ will bring these lapsed Angels and their Associates to their final doom, and destroy them and all their contrivances by the spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming, he will at last come to judgement with all his Holy Angels, and according to that ancient Prophecy of Enoch, with all his Saints, he will come first in his Father's glory, to manifest before all, that he and the Father are one, and that the essential glory of God is his. 2dly, In his own glory, the glory of his mediatory Kingdom, having by his Humiliation, Suffering, Death and Resurrection, conquered the Grave, Death, Hell, Sin and all the Effects of it, and acquitted a peculiar glory to himself thereby: And, 3dly, In the glory of the Angels, who are all his Attendants, not only in the glory they received from him in their first creation, but the glory they have acquired through him in keeping their first state, and the glory of all their faithful service and conformity to him and his Kingdom to the end: and this honour will all the Saints than have, not only to appear with him in glory, but to sit in judgement with him, as his mystical body, and as part of the reward of their works that follow them, and join in the Sentence pronounced by him.  
The first Sentence he pronounceth will probably be upon these apostate Spirits, who were the first created Rebels, and them he will doom to eternal darkness and misery; and so these Angels that could not content themselves with the glory they had in their first creation from the second Person as God, come to be fatally sentenced by him for their aspiring Impieties as he is Man; as they were made by him, so were they made for him, to come under his mediatory Authority, and be finally disposed by him, and with this tormenting aggravation, that he is accompanied and glorified therein by the blessed Angels, whose company they forsook, and in opposition to whom they have all along carried on a distinct interest, and by all the Saints, the whole body of the Church, which they have so maligned and persecuted since the World began.  
So let all thine Enemies perish, O Lord; then will it be said, the Mystery of God is finished, the Spirits Influences completed, the Mediator's Kingdom perfected and delivered up, the Wicked are gone to their own place, the Saints are all come safe home to their Father's House, and rest for ever: God is all in all: Amen, Hallelujah.  
Touching the other part of the Angels, those that kept their first state, of whom the Scripture makes such honourable mention, as sometimes to call them Morning stars, sometimes Sons of God, Angels of Light, Chariots of God, his Hosts, his Ministers, the Elect Angels; who with respect to their Nature are called Spirits; with respect to their Dignity, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers; and with respect to their Office and Employment, Angels and ministering Spirits; [for Angel is a word relates to their Employment and not to their Nature,] and we find Men sometimes in Scripture by virtue of their Offices and Employments called Angels. In the order of the Jewish Synagogues, there was one that chief prayed for the People and blessed them, and him they called the Angel of the Synagogue; and that I believe St. John relates to when he writes to the Angels of the seven Churches; how these, I say, were designed in a particular manner to all their future use, service and happiness in their creation at the first by the second Person in the Trinity, will very manifestly appear, if we consider, first, the dependence they have upon him, and, secondly, their subjection and serviceableness unto him. First, Their dependence upon him: The Scripture informs us, that after the disorder and scattered, confused, miserable state of things, that Sin had introduced and occasioned, God was pleased to recapitulate and gather all together into one head, according to St. Paul, Eph. 1.10. That he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are one art even in him: and erect an unalterable Kingdom wherein his Soul should rest, under the rule of the second person incarnate, with a distribution of several effects of his Government suitable to Divine Wisdom, Justice, and Goodness, as the state of the World then stood; [for it was of old eminently foretold of him, that the Sceptre of his Kingdom should be a right Sceptre] wicked Angel's, and Men obstinately and finally impenitent and wicked, were to remain enchained by his power, until he pronounced their last Sentence; the elect Angels were to come under his Headship and Rule, [he being their Head though he be not their Redeemer, and their Security though not their Satisfaction] and be secured thereby against all created danger of relapsing, and embodied with all the saved amongst Men, as Subjects of one entire Kingdom under the same Monarch and Sovereign.  
And thus it pleased God, that neither the happiness of Angels nor Men should be fixed or perfected by his creating Power, exerted by the second Person at the first, but by his restoring, recovering, establishing Power, exerted in the same person becoming Man, and fulfilling all the Laws of that mediatory Kingdom God designed [for the praise of his Grace and Glory] to erect in and by him.  
So that we see the eternal design of creating these Angels, by the second person was, that first they might come under his Headship, and be secured in all their created glory by him in that future state of Mediatorship he was designed unto: and secondly, that they might be ministerial and serviceable to all the ends of his Kingdom and Government, wherein as the Apostle tells us, 1 Coloss. v. 20. By the blood of his cross all things in Heaven and Earth are reconciled to God, and also things in Heaven, and things on Earth one to another, or else 'twere not to be thought that the Angels, who remain spotless and untainted of sin, should ever enter into any converse with such a defiled apostate creature as Man, much less to undertake a Ministry and Service on his behalf, whereas now, by virtue of that Reconciliation, by the Blood of his Cross, their great delight is in the Ministry of Reconciliation, and to be ministering Spirits on their behalf who shall be Heirs of Salvation.  
Two wonderful things by Christ's assumption of the Humane Nature, and by the Blood of his Cross are brought to pass: 1st, That the Angels, the more noble Creatures, and who never fell under the least stain of any guilt, should become Servants to poor miserable apostate Man. 2dly, That the Establishment and Security of all the created angelical Glory, should depend upon that Assumption and Christ so circumstanced, for he took not on him the Nature of Angels, but in the Nature of a much more inferior Creature, became their Security, their Sovereign and Head, and by this glorious contrivance of the blessed God, Man upon Earth is set upon his legs and recovered, the Tabernacle of Adam that was fallen is raised up again, and the Angels that kept their first state are secured in ever so doing, it having pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell, and that every part of the Creation, should some way or other own their happiness to him, and that upon the truest reason, to him every Knee should bow, both of things in Heaven, and things on Earth, even to him.  
Secondly, If we take a distinct consideration of Man, the noblest part of this lower World, and the Lord of it, we shall soon discover, that all the future designs of God, relating to him, were laid in his creation of him at the first, by the second Person in the Trinity, and this will appear several ways:  
First, Man we know was originally made in such a state as lasted but a while, Man created in Honour abode not, that innate freedom of choice he was made withal with reference to good or evil, [which was the bottom Adam first stood upon] God well knew and foresaw, would not secure him long, but would soon decline, and the tendency of Man's free choice would be ever in partem deteriorem; yet so it pleased God to make him, and not in the first state to secure him, because his designs lay quite otherways; [and who shall council infinite Wisdom?] the Scenes of this World, as now it is, were all before him, he intended Man for a second Creation, from whence should arise the Glory he designed to himself by him and from him, and Man's Happiness and Rest for ever, and both these Creations were to be performed by the second Person in the Trinity; and therefore so soon as Man fell, and discovered the impotency of that first state, God declares his recovery in the second Person, and puts forth his hand and lifts him up to a better, upon which never any blot nor stain should come, in which both the Soul of God and Man should rest for ever, and this by that gracious, yet withal then mysterious Promise, That the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; by which Promise, the foundation of all men's recovery and future happiness is laid in the second Person, designed for the Assumption of the Humane Nature; so that it evidently appears, that when God made Man by the second Person in a state that was not to endure, his design was to recover and remake him by the same blessed Person in that nature he had so made; God at the first made Man by the second Person in the Image of God, and that being lost, brings forth the second Person in the Image of Man, and therein Man is recovered and saved, for he was made in the likeness of Men, and found in fashion of a Man, so that the union of the two Natures in the second Person, is the great Cornerstone upon which the welfare and happiness of all created Being's, and most eminently and particularly of Man's, is built up and established.  
Secondly, This will appear from the mighty and stupendious Undertake of the second Person incarnate on the behalf of Mankind, He it is that by his own Arm brings Salvation, and singly undergoes the Burden and Weight of all Humane Miseries and Misfortunes, the care of all the concerns that belong to Mankind are laid upon him, and the recovery of the fallen Posterity of apostate Adam is solely left to his Undertaking, Conduct and Manage, ever since that first Promise concerning him, set forth by the Seed of the Woman, Mankind has been his Care, and the Church his peculiar Province; the Faith of all the Holy Men in the first times was built upon his promised and intended coming: It was prophesied of him in the 72 Psalms, Prayer also shall be made for him continually: that is, for his coming and incarnation before he did come, and for the success of his Kingdom, and his second coming after he was come: It is he that hath been with the Church in all Ages, and appeared so often to the Fathers in the Patriarchal times in humane shape, to confirm their Faith, and assure his future Incarnation, and when the fullness of time for his being born of a Woman and born under the Law [that is, standing in Man's steed and obliged to the mediatory righteousness God required from him] came, the whole course of his Life, his Sufferings, Death and Resurrection, and his Intercession above, are all on the Church's account, to make a full and ample provision for all the Declensions and Apostasies of Humane Nature, and secure Man's Eternal Happiness with himself for ever; so that 'tis evident, that God's making the World at first by the second Person, was in order to the discovery of his manifold Wisdom and infinite Grace, in redeeming and recovering it by the same blessed Person.  
Thirdly, This will appear from hence, because that the whole Dominion and Sovereignty over Mankind, the entire disposal of Man, is committed unto him, how correspondent is it to all God's revealed purposes, touching his own Glory, and Man's Happiness, that a mediatory Dominion should be vested in the second Person, that the creating and redeeming Right over Man should all concentre in him; sometimes we are in Scripture told of his creating Right: so in the first of St. John's Gospel, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not: sometimes we are told of his Right by Redemption, The Father [so he himself tells us] judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement to the Son: and the reason given for it is, because he is the Son of Man, the true Seed of the Woman, and the only Mediator between God and Man, and upon that account 'tis said he will judge the World by that man whom he hath appointed; the ordering, governing, and final disposal of Man, belongs alone to this blessed Person, he that made us and knew our original frame, he alone could best tell how to recover and remake us, and from everlasting 'twas God's pleasure it should be so: In his Redemption all is taken care for, all is recovered and fetched back, not a Hoof of what was made and lost is left behind, there is a Plaster provided for every Sore, and a Remedy for every Malady, an infinite Treasury of Grace provided and suited to all depraved humane Faculties, to unite Man again to his Maker and Redeemer, with cords of love and bands of a man, to influence the whole Soul of Man, to convince his Understanding, and govern him in a way of true Wisdom and Knowledge, to seize his Affections with the most heart-affecting Motives and most glorious Objects, and to fix the unruly Will in a right Path, out of which it should never again wander: All the Workings since Adam's fall of the Souls of Men towards God, and the Influences of God and his Spirit upon them, they are all transacted, managed, and will be finally judged of by the second Person; this is the Kingdom of God, and the great Realm of Christ within Men, not a Divine Whisper into any Man's Breast by the Holy Ghost, but 'tis from the Mediator, and a consequent of his Ordination and Government: the great Effect of Christ's ascending Conqueror into Heaven, was the sending down the Holy Ghost, and till he did so the Holy Ghost could not in that glorious eminent manner appear as afterwards he did, for he came from Heaven with the Ratification of that Peace and Reconciliation that Christ had purchased, this we are positively told in the 7th of St. John's Gospel, The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified. It appears to be an eternal determination by the blessed Trinity, that till the mediatory Work was all completed, and Christ was ascended and had made his triumphant appearance in Heaven as a Conqueror, the Holy Ghost should not be sent down; and therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples plainly, Unless I go away the comforter cannot come, and it is expedient for you, upon that account, that I do go away, for if I go I will send him unto you: this is the grand effect of Christ's ascension, to procure the descent of the Holy Ghost, that great Engine of Salvation, the Sword of the Lord in Christ's hand, the mighty Operator by which the Mediator erects his Kingdom, and without whose Influences upon the Souls of Men, to change and remark them, no Laws of Grace, no Terms of Salvation, though never so easy, would ever have proved effectual for Man's Recovery and Happiness; this is the great effect of what Christ hath purchased for the World, for Men to receive an ability from Heaven to believe and obey what God requires of us; had not this been, the Conditions of the Gospel would have been as little performed as those of the Law: this sending down the Holy Ghost from Heaven, St. Peter tells us, the Angels desire to look into, 'tis an Allusion unto the Cher●bims, that were made with their Faces looking upon the Mercy-seat, to let us know, that the Angels above diligently behold the glorious effects of God's Grace to this lower World; and two sights they have had by their attentiveness thereon, which were both stupendious and wonderful; First, The second Person leaving Heaven, descending upon Earth, becoming Man, and making his abode for a time here; And, secondly, Upon his return, so soon as the second Person ascended, the Holy Ghost coming down to manage all the concerns Christ left behind him here below.  
And as all the Operations of the Holy Ghost upon the Spirits of Men, are under the Mediator's Conduct, so the Behaviour of all Men is noted in his Book, and laid up in his Records, in order to a future Judgement: which Judgement is of everlasting duration, for after he has given up the Kingdom to the Father, both the Righteous and the Wicked will for ever remain in the same posture and condition his Judgement left them, the Wicked will be for ever miserable, by virtue of his Sentence, and the Righteous enjoy their everlasting portion of happiness, from his adjudging them thereunto; so that he is to all Men, their Alpha and Omega, in Creation, in Redemption, in Superiority and Government, and in that final, irreversible and eternal Judgement he will at last pass upon them.  
Fourthly, This important Truth is evident from hence, The supreme End of all God's Works is his Glory: now 'tis plain, that the glory God designed to himself, by the making and forming of Man, 'tis all given up and handed unto him, in, by, and through the Son; upon that account, he that honours the Son honours the Father, the creating Work of our Lord Jesus, his redeeming Work, his mediatory Government, all his Workings and Operations by the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts and Spirits of Men, and his final Judgement at last, they are but to collect and bring in a Revenue of Glory for the Father, and when the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father, all the Glory of it will for ever centre in him.  
This will farther appear the larger View we take of the Particulars:  
First, In the Creation of Man by the second Person, how greatly does the glory of God's Power manifest itself, in bringing into being such a creature as Man first was, so stupendiously constituted, and ever after so fearfully and wonderfully propagated, compounded part of Heaven and part of Earth, between an Angel above, and a Beast that perisheth below, a spark of Divinity and Eternity, put into a lump of mouldering Clay, intended to be separated after a dreadful manner, and as wonderfully to meet again and be reunited; such is the Soul breathed into the Body, a Creature made able still to mount upwards, be guided by his nobler part, and cleave to his Maker as his chief good, and also under possibility of being influenced by his meaner and lower part, and still sinking down into vanity, sensuality and folly; a Creature so made, as to be of everlasting duration, and a future Subject of mighty Rewards and Punishments; and his Person, by reason of the wonderful and unbounded workings of his Soul, a Stage of stupendious Transactions, wherein the whole Trinity are most eminently manifested, all the Angels both above and below most highly concerned, and in which the welfare of all the rest of the Creatures and of this lower part of the World is much bound up; this Creature although he may derive himself from the eternal pleasure of all the Persons in the Godhead, yet his Creation was the peculiar Act and Operation of the second Persons, and the Glory of that Creation results to the Deity through him.  
Secondly, The Glory of God's innate Mercy and Goodness, is exceeding transparent from hence; no sooner had Man lost himself but the floodgates of Divine Bounty are let open by the undertake of the Son; nothing imaginable, nothing possible, could so display Divine Grace, as Christ's undertaking to leave Heaven and become Man, and do what he did for Man's sake; no Glass but this, could have showed at once, the complete and entire Glory of that Attribute, the Faculties of Angels and Men, though they are large and inquisitive, comprehensive and sagacious, yet they are quite silenced and extasized by this Transaction, the Object quite over-matching the Faculty; when God gives his Son and himself in him, what Creature can think himself into the heights and Depths of that Gift, or pretend to span its Dimensions in his Imagination? all we can utter upon this Subject is what St. Paul [in a Sacred Ecstasy] says in the 8th of the Romans, What shall we say to these things? and improve it as he does there, by that holy Interrogation, He that has given us his Son, will he not with him also freely give us all things?  
Thirdly, How transparent is the Glory of God's Justice, in punishing Sin upon his own Son, and redeeming the World by no less a Sacrifice than the Blood of God; this is to exalt the Glory of that Attribute to its utmost height, and for ever to abase Man, and lay him as low as he can be: this is a stupendious Instruction to the profane ignorant World, to let them see what Sin is, and what the sense is God has of it, and how hard a thing it is for a rebellious creature to be reconciled again unto God, when we consider the absolute boundless Dominion and Sovereignty God has over us, as our Maker, and the  Authority that is inherent and resides in that infinite Being, that gives being to all besides himself, and whose Laws are in their nature perfect, and the very quintessence of all rectitude, we must needs then reflect upon that rebellious Evil and Poison that is in Sin, no contradiction can consist with such a Being as God is, and therefore no Man can oppose him and prosper: whilst Man abides in a state of subjection and conformity to him, he is happy, and nothing can make him miserable, but when he turns aside to Rebellion and the Madness and Folly of Sin, he becomes naked, a dread and terror, a frightful Ghost to himself, and renders himself exposed to all the Misfortunes and Miseries his Being is capable of.  
Fourthly, By the second Person is given up unto God the glory of his rectoral and magistratical Authority over all his Creatures, and therefore in the second Psalm God calls him, his King, being both from him, and for him; this is done by Christ's Rule and Government, as Head of the Church, the whole Creation is put into subjection to him, and he that is in our own nature our Redeemer and Saviour, him has God made to be Ruler and Lord of all: By his Government all the Divine Attributes are clearly and evidently displayed, all the righteous Methods of Government pursued, and all the true and noble Ends of it brought about and accomplished. All the various Turn and Wind of Humane Affairs here below, as they are under the Mediator's regulation, are but subservient to a discovery and manifestation of God's Wisdom, his Power, his Grace, and other Divine Attributes, and through them all, perfect Methods are pursued, and at last the right Ends will be attained, giving every Man according to his Works, and settling Rewards and Punishments in their due places.  
In two respects the Excellency of Christ's Government does chief appear: 1st, In respect of the World, as he is King of Nations; And, 2dly, In respect of the Church, as he is King of Saints.  
With respect to the World, the Glory of Christ's Government appears eminent in these four things:  
1. In his providential Endeavours in the course and motion of Humane Affairs, for their Information, Reformation, and Salvation, bringing Men out of Satan's Kingdom, and embodying them with his Church, overruling things in the course of the World to tend that way, his Heart is still upon Salvation, and his ultimate design to make Men eternally happy.  
2. In respect of those spiritual invisible Influences and Convictions by which he more nearly treats with the World about their Eternal Welfare, and all the Long-suffering he exercises to that purpose.  
3. By his mighty overruling all the violent and raging Oppositions made by the World and the Powers thereof, against Him, his Church, and his Interest, and doing it in such a manner, as that whatever is most maliciously intended against them, shall be rendered useful and subservient to them.  
4. By his complete Conquest over and final Judgement upon all his incorrigible Enemies at last.  
Secondly, With respect to the Church, there he is most eminently triumphant in his Glory and Government, for he dwelleth in Heaven, and ruleth on Earth, but reigneth in Zion; the Church is his peculiar Province, where he displays the manifold Wisdom of God in curious variety:  
1. They are all redeemed with his own Blood; St. Peter tells us, We are not redeemed with corruptible things.  
2. They bear his Image; look upon the Frame and Constitution of every true Christian, and if you ask whose Image and Superscription is this, the answer is, it is Christ's; and therefore the same treatment he met with here below, the very same will always attend the Church; every Christian is a Member of the New Creation, Christ has remade him all over; herein lies the great Power and Glory of Christ's Kingdom, in remaking and new making of the Sons of Men, and this New Creation, 'tis an Abomination to the fallen Angels and all apostate and unrecovered Men, and so will be to the end of the World.  
3. The tender Heart and gracious Disposition of Christ is most transparently beheld in the Government of his Church, of his own House and Family; 'tis here you may have the report of all his unwearied Kindness, and unutterable Forgiveness, of all his Attendance upon, and Endurance of, the froward and perverse Spirits of Men; here you may see all the fulfilling of the good pleasure of his Goodness, and the work of Faith with power, and all those gentle, easy and obliging Methods he useth to gain Souls to himself and render them happy, how many Faults he bears with and forgives in his People, how many Temptations he shields them from, and how many sore Lapses he pities them in, and recovers them from under, and puts forth his Hand, as he did to Peter, to every sinking Soul: what that eminent Apostle and Servant of Christ said of himself, is much more verified in his great Master and ours; upon him lies continually the care of all the Churches, and of every particular Member, and that not only in one Age, but throughout every Generation.  
Laftly, The Greatness and Excellency of this Government appears herein, that he makes all subservient unto it, and brings all his Subjects safely to their Eternal Inheritance; all Humane Motions are so overruled, as to promote the great Work of Salvation; as all things were designed in their first make, to be serviceable to the manifestation of Divine Grace therein, so they are made to be in the future Revolutions of all Ages: how glorious and wonderful an Enclosure is the Church out of this profane apostate World? God the Father is the Supreme Benefactor, sets the great Wheel going, For the Son does nothing but what he sees the Father do: And in the great Volume of God's Book, this peculiar Memorandum is made, and 'tis recorded of him, that he came to do the Father's Will; I come to do thy will, O God. All that Christ does is but the Execution of the Father's designs; the Holy Ghost is their peculiar Comforter and Companion, the grand Operator in Christ's Kingdom, and that mighty Instrument by which all is effected, that heart-changing, life-reforming, wonder-working Spirit, by which all the stubborn, unruly, unconquerable Lusts of Men, all the Wills of the Flesh and of the Mind are all subdued, Leopard's Spots quite washed away, Ethiopian Skins made white, and Men old in sinning, and such as are accustomed to do evil, are so instructed, convinced and changed, that they readily learn to do well, resign up themselves as Temples for that blessed Spirit to dwell in, and are no more led by depraved, unruly Appetites, but wholly conducted and managed by that safe and blessed Adviser.  
Here's the great delight of God, in the Creation restored, in Man new made, and remade, by the mighty workings of the Holy Ghost in the Mediator's hand's; God says of these Men, the world is not worthy of them; but the World are quite of another opinion, for they cry out, Away with such fellows from the earth, it is not fit they should live.  
Thirdly and lastly, As it appears that the whole design of God, touching both Angels and Men, was laid in his first creation of them by the Son, so is it in reference to all the rest of the Creation: the inferior Creatures were so made as that God would receive all the Homage of them from Man, they were made for his use and put in subjection to him; Man's Habitation is this lower World, and the Creatures are the Furniture of it given to him of God; and as the Dominion and Sovereignty of this inferior part of the World was vested in Man, by an unalterable Law of Creation, so it has ever since been involved in his condition, while Man abode in his primitive state, all the rest of the Creatures kept their original lustre and beauty: In Man's fall, they also fell; when Man fell into Rebellion, this lower World fell under a Curse for his sake, and that Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is renewed and restored by that gracious Covenant of God sealed in the Blood of the Mediator; so at last when the Church is completed, the whole Creation shall be restored to its original and first created Glory.  
The Scripture gives plain evidence to both these things:  
First, That the Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is restored and the Church built up: but 'tis in this sense to be taken, and no farther, that the Curse is taken off from the Creatures. As to Man's use and enjoyment of them, the Curse upon them lay in two things:  
1st, A natural defacing of them, and degrading them from their original Image; for at first every thing was very good and there was no deformity nor any such production as Briers and Thorns:  
And, 2dly, By inverting the use they were created for, [which was to be a Blessing] and laying the enjoyment of them by Man under a Curse and a Judgement for Sin's sake.  
In respect of the first, The Creatures contilive alike to all, and will do so till the restitution of all things; the Creatures are naturally the same to good and bad, and enjoyed by both alike, without any such distinction or change.  
But as to their enjoyment and use the difference is plain; As Man is by the Mediator reconciled unto God, so he comes to a sanctified enjoyment of and right to all the Creatures; for God in the gift of his Son, has with him also freely (by a second Donation) given us all such things: and so the Creatures are now enjoyed not by virtue of Man's first right to them in Creation, but by virtue of Christ's Purchase and Redemption: St. Paul ranks things in this order, All things are yours, [speaking to the Saints] and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. To a Believer every Creature is good, not as it was originally so made, but as it is by Christ restored into that condition, the Curse removed, and as it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer; to a Man unrenewed and unreconciled to God in the Mediator, God's original Curse upon the Creatures still remains, and he enjoys them with that doleful circumstance, That his Table is a Snare; and upon that account the Holy Ghost tells us, That a little that a righteous man has, is better than the great riches of the wicked, and that to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure. Solomon lays it down as an undoubted Maxim, That the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: wherever Adam's original Rebellion is upheld and promoted, there the primitive Curse then pronounced upon the Creatures remains; 'tis only removed by Christ, to those that have interest in him, and are reconciled to God by him.  
Secondly, As the Curse upon the Creatures is in all Ages gradually taken off, as to their use and enjoyment, to such as believe and obey the Gospel, so by virtue of the Price Christ has paid, and the restoring recovering Power put into his Hand thereupon, the whole Creation at last, shall be rescued from the Slavery and Deformity it has lain under, and be restored to its primitive Beauty and Excellency; we may say in this case as St. Paul says of Death, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive: As the Creatures fell and died as it were with Man, so shall they be restored, and have a resurrection in his recovery; their Restoration is one part of Christ's Purchase; as they were cursed for Adam's sake, so they shall be again revived and blessed for Christ's sake; who can imagine that the Creation shall always groan under Bondage to the Lusts, Passions and Debaucheries of Men, and not at last put on again its beautiful Garments, and in a right and due manner be serviceable to that end [which was the use and delight of Man while he lived in communion with his God] for which it was originally made? This Restoration will be accomplished at Christ's second coming, for than will be the great Jubilee the Creation has so long groaned after.  
Many Passages there are in Scripture that give in Evidence to this Truth, but I will endeavour the Proof of it only from three Texts; the first of which, as to the proof of this Matter, is very probable, the other two very positive; the first is in the 65th of Esau, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. This seems to me a plain Prophecy of the Deliverance and Restoration of the Creatures: When the primitive Order of Creation was lost, as Man fell into Rebellion against God, so the Creatures fell into Rebellion against him, and into implacable enmity one against another. This seems to be a Prophecy of the Creatures recovery, and of their reconciliation towards Man, and towards each other: Some take it for a metaphorical Description of the future Effects of the Gospel upon the Spirits of wicked, bestial and unreasonable Men, and that Reconciliation and Harmony the Gospel should produce amongst Mankind: But I conceive this Text is literally to be understood, and cannot be fairly so taken, for divers considerable Reasons:  
1st, Because the time to which this Prophecy relates, and in which it is to be accomplished, is when there shall be a new Heavens and a new Earth; and what more proper to conceive, than that when the Heavens and Earth are to be new, the Creatures should have new Qualities and Conditions? It is plain so to be, if you look back to the 17th Verse, and read on to this, For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind: And from thence, to the 25th and last Verse, is a perfect Description of the State of this new Heaven and new Earth, and the happy condition the Creation shall be restored unto: This new Heaven and new Earth is to be at Christ's second coming, when the restitution of all things is to be; for the new Heavens and new Earth, and the restitution of all things in Scripture-phrase, are the same; and what time so likely, so fit, and proper for this to be effected as then? and 'tis certain it must be then or never. The other Prophecy of this Matter in the 11th Chapter of this Prophecy in these words: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play upon the hole of the asp, is to be when knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; which is but an expression of the same time before mentioned in other words, it shall be when Christ shall come and shall set all to rights.  
2dly, It seems more reasonable, to take this Text literally than metaphorically, [allowing for the Rhetoric of the prophetic Style] because these opposite Creatures are said to lie down and quietly cohabit one with another, retaining their own distinct and proper Natures still; though a Lion lie down with a Lamb, yet he is a Lion still; the very life of the Prophecy lies in that, that a Lion whilst a Lion shall lie down with the Lamb, the creature is the same, only the hurtful enmity removed. Now, should we take it metaphorically, the Gospel-change is rather to make a Lion a Lamb, to alter the very Nature and Disposition, and to infuse new Habits and Qualities, and so a Lamb would lie down with a Lamb, and not a Lion or a Wolf with a Lamb, if we take it in strict sense; and than what is intended to signify, would not well agree to what is signified.  
3dly, Some Parts and Passages of these Prophecies cannot fairly be construed in any such metaphorical sense, as that the Lion shall eat Straw like the Ox, and Dust shall be the Serpent's Food, by which the removal of the Creatures enmity one to another, and their devouring one another as an effect thereof, seems to be singly and literally signified, and an account given how they shall live in that state, when all these hurtful qualities introduced by Man's sin at the first shall be removed; it will be hard, with any tolerable and sober sense, to put a mystical and metaphorical meaning upon these Passages, and those that have attempted it have much justified the literal interpretation by their misfortune in the attempt, and if it seem necessary to take any part of the Prophecy literally, it will be a probable ground to suppose the whole aught so to be taken: and the truth is, the Prophets do seem often plainly to foretell, that the Creatures shall be all reconciled to each other, and brought into their due and primitive obedience unto Man, according to that Passage in the Prophet Hosea, In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; that is, as I take it, they shall be restored and reduced to that order they were first made in, and a metaphorical sense put upon this Prophecy, would seem very heterodox and foreign, to what by the Context the Prophet seems to intent and aim at. The second Scripture I shall insist on, is that of St. Paul, in the 8th of the Romans v. 21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now: this is highly probable to be one of those Discourses of St. Paul, which St. Peter mentions, in which there are some things hard to be understood; for St. Peter, where he quotes St. Paul for his writing in his Epistles of those things, is there speaking of the new Heavens and new Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness, the Season when the Creatures restoration is to be. There are many things hard to be understood in Scriptures, and without all doubt, many, very many things within its bowels that lie undiscovered and untaken notice of as yet; for 'tis a Book intended for the instruction of the Church, and to exercise her care and industry in all Ages; it will be with the Church in the last period of the World, as it was with the Disciples when they went to Emaus, Christ will open their understandings, and give them a clear view of the Scriptures, and of all things therein contained, touching himself, and the glory of his Kingdom, and the restitution of all things. For the clear understanding of this Text in hand, it will be necessary to take in the Context from the 18th Verse, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God: the last part of the 18th Verse is that (as I think) from which the Apostle takes the rise of his whole Discourse in these Verses, [are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us,] and proceeds in the 19th Verse to show, there will be such a glory; for the whole Creation expects it, their deliverance being to be contemporary with it, For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestations of the Sons of God: the meaning seemeth to be, that he speaketh not of the glory of Heaven in the 18th Verse, but of that glory that shall be revealed in the Saints here in this World before the conclusion of it, when the whole World shall become the Kingdom of Christ and his Saints; and so the force of the comparison lies the stronger, the sufferings that we have in this World, are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us even in this World; and then in Verse 19, proceeds to show there shall be such a glory, For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God; that is, there is an expectance in the whole Creation of such a day: when the Sons of God are manifested and revealed in the glory that is promised them, than the whole Creation shall enjoy a Restoration and Jubilee. 'Tis of great moment here to take notice, that the Apostles Antithesis is not between the Sons of God, and the Sons of Men, of any sort, but between the Sons of God and the Creature; by which is certainly meant the inanimate part of the World, which is said in its way to expect; for nothing is more common in Scripture, than to apply rational Acts to irrational Creatures, as calling upon the Heavens and the Earth to hear, and many such like: For the creature, Verse 20. was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope: that is, the whole Creation was cursed and subjected to vanity, by the just judgement of God for Man's sin, but yet so that it remains in hope; and why? because in Verse 21. the Creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God, because there is a restoration belongs to it, and the opposition is still between the Sons of God and the Creature, and cannot with any tolerable sense be made between Man and Man.  
The scope of St. Paul in this place seems clearly to be this, That the Creature being under a curse, and under a preternatural subjection and usage, not suitable to its first make and designment, by reason of Man's sin, and being unwillingly subjected thereunto, did in its way dislike it, groan to be delivered from it, and naturally tended to its primitive state and use, which it was to be restored unto, when the Sons of God should be manifested, and Christ should set up his glorious Kingdom here upon Earth. This Interpretation, though without doubt it contains the natural and genuine sense of the Apostle, is by some contradicted, by understanding the word [Creature] in another sense; that is to say, by taking it to mean the Gentiles, and that part of the World who (say they) were unwillingly subjected by the Devil to all the bondage of the Heathenish Worship and Religion, and groaned to be delivered from under it: Now both the Text itself, and the Context, utterly refuse this interpretation; For, first, we must represent the Apostle thus speaking, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the Gentiles waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God. The Apostle does not make the opposition to lie between the Sons of God and the Sons of Men of any sort, but between the Sons of God, and the irrational part of the World, and makes the groaning of that, after the manifestation of the Sons of God, a reason why there shall be such a manifestation; and in Verse 20. when he says the Creature was made subject to Vanity, he points chief at the irrational part of the World, which was made so by God's curse upon Man, and upon it for Man's sake; but 'tis very improper to say the Gentile World was made subject to Vanity, [and understand, as they do, Vanity to be their Idolatry] unwillingly, because what they did in that, was voluntary, what they chose, and what they highly applauded themselves in, and to say the Devil had subjected them to their Idolatry in hope, [which those that thus interpret do and must say] is plainly to say, the Devil subjected them to Idolatry, in order to a deliverance unto Salvation, which is absurd to suppose. And in Verse 21. the Apostle lays the Emphasis so, as points clearly at the irrational and jowest part of the World, Because, says he, the creature itself, he does not in the least seem to intent Mankind or any sort of them, but the lowest and meanest part of the World, and that he must needs mean, by saying, the creature itself, in the most diminutive sense of the Creature; for 'tis evidently to distinguish, between the Creature, and the Sons of God, and not to make the Antithesis between one sort of Men and another: And in Verse 22. he tells you, the whole Creation, or every Creature groaneth and travaileth in pain for deliverance; he tells you before, the Creature was in expectance, and now he tells you, it groans and travaileth in pain; and this Creature is the whole Creation, or every Creature: 'tis the very same word that is used all along this Context, and therefore 'tis the same thing he discourseth of. Let any Man in these Verses read the Gentile World, instead of the word Creature, and whole Creation, (or, as it is better to be rendered, every Creature) and then see, what an awkward ill-cohering sense is imposed upon the Apostle thereby.  
The third Scripture I shall insist on, for the proof of this Point, seems more plain and positive than any, Acts 3.21. Whom the heavens must receive, until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. This Text is part of St. Peter's Sermon, the effect of which was so famous a conversion; his Point was to prove, that that same Jesus whom they crucified was the true Messiah, that he was risen again, but not to be seen by them any more upon Earth, which perhaps the Jews expected, to justify the truth of his Resurrection, and to render him in a capacity to be such a temporal Messiah as they looked for; this seems preventively spoken, to forbid any such expectation, he tells them, the Heavens, whither he was ascended, must contain him until the restitution of all things: What can be more plain, than that these two things result from this Text?  
1st, That Christ will again appear in the end of the World, for the Heavens must contain him, but until, that is, to a determinate time.  
2dly, That his appearing again, will be in those times wherein all things shall be restored, whatever is defiled, defaced, disordered, and misplaced by sin, shall be reduced in those times to its primitive beauty and order, as a very particular effect of Christ's Redemption; and they are called times of restitution, because they will precede and last some time before the day of Judgement, which is usually expressed in Scripture singularly by one positive determinate day; the day of Judgement to all good Men, will be much more than a restitution, it will bring them to a far better state than ever they were made in: but these are called times of restitution of all things, not only Men, but all the Creation shall partake of the benefits of these times; and these restoring times are such as God hath spoken of by the mouth of all his holy Prophets, all or most of them, have some way or other, more or less, mentioned this glorious Kingdom of Christ towards the end of the World, but 'tis not so evident that they have all or most of them spoken of the day of Judgement: the Apostle gives them to know, that that very Jesus, whom they crucified, was the only true Saviour of the World, was ascended into Heaven as a mighty Conqueror, and would from thence return, and before time ended, bring with him times of restitution, and let the whole Creation feel the effects of his Redemption by an universal Jubilee, and restoring it under his government to its original order, beauty and glory; after which it has a natural tendency, and in its way perpetually groans, having ever since the fall of Man and the curse thereupon, imposed upon it, unwillingly lain under a sad and grievous oppression from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men.  
And thus we see by the very first Design and Platform in Creation, God by making the World by his Son has placed in the whole Creation after its fall and misery, ever since, a natural tendency to come under his mediatory Rule and Dominion, as its only Deliverer and Saviour, and by whom God from everlasting designed its freedom and happiness should be retrieved and restored.  
These times of restitution of all things, are the same with the new Heavens and new Earth St. Peter speaks of in his Epistles, and St. Paul points at the same when he speaks of the manifestation of the Sons of God, and the glorious liberty of the Children of God.  
The Scripture gives us a positive Account of many great and glorious things that will there be effected by the Mediator before his Kingdom ends: the Lord shall descend according to St. Paul in the Clouds, with the Voice of the Archangel, and the Trump of God; the Dead in Christ-shall rise first, and be caught up with all the Saints then alive, to meet the Lord in the Air, and so shall be ever with him; this is called the first Resurrection: all his Enemies upon Earth, and the Antichristian State shall be utterly confounded and ruined, the Heavens and the Earth shall be burnt, that is plain in St. Peter, and probably out of their Ashes and Ruins will result the new Heavens and new Earth, for 'tis not probable that new ones will be entirely created as it was at first; 'tis usual in Scripture to call that a new Creation which is only changed in quality and condition. Some of the Subjects and Inhabitants of this new Heaven and new Earth, will without doubt be the converted Jews, at which that passage in the 66th of Esau seems positively to point; For as the heavens and the earth, which I shall make, shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain; that is, they shall abide all along the continuance of this new Heaven and this new Earth which I shall make, and shall be contemporary therewith. The Prophet in that Chapter, and in the preceding, is largely discoursing of these glorious times, and of the restoration of the Jews. This new World will most probably last for a 1000 Years; but how, and in what order, and manner, and in what succession, all these things will be effected, and whether the new Heavens and the new Earth will precede the first Resurrection or not, are Questions not pertinent to be asked, because they are as yet impossible to be resolved.  
Thus we have seen, by what hath been discoursed upon this Argument, how all the great and eternal Designs of God, touching this World, were laid in his creation of it by the second Person, and that by him all the glorious and blessed ends God proposed to himself there by, are brought to pass and accomplished; as all was made by him, so all was made for him, and the glory of all results to God through him. The Apostle in this Epistle sets forth many Qualifications of the blessed Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Jews might think themselves no losers by changing their Legislator, by taking him instead of Moses; in respect of his Divine Nature, he was infinitely exalted above all comparisons; in respect of his Humane Nature, he was exalted above the Angels; as a Prophet, he exceeded Moses, as far as the Master of a Family exceeds his Servant, for he is the Son in his own house; and as a Priest, he much exceeded Aaron, by once for all offering up himself a complete and perfect Sacrifice, and shedding thereby the Blood of God for the Sins of the World; and as a King and Priest together, by reason of his absolute perfection in Sanctity and Sovereignty, and that he is the great Reconciler of Earth and Heaven, the great Peacemaker between God and Man, he that brings down and proclaims Peace upon Earth and  towards Men, the true King of Salem; he infinitely preceded Melchisedech, having also the power of an endless Life, and being indeed without beginning or ending of Days, which Melchisedech was only in Historical Figure and in the Type: And throughout the whole Epistle, shows the wonderful excellency of the Gospel above that of the Law, not only from its Original and Founder, but also from the Nature and Constitution of it, being a heavenly Frame pitched by God himself; the other but an earthly one, and all the Appurtenances to it, the Sacrifice, the Ordinances of Worship, the Covenant, and the efficacy of the whole suitable thereunto; and all this to bring the Jews to own the truth of their own Religion, to acknowledge their true and natural Messiah, of whom as purtaining to the flesh Christ came; after his departure and ascension, Christ, who compassionately wept over Jerusalem and that People, while he was upon Earth, was pleased to afford them this glorious Luminary, to follow them with this Instruction, and to kindle this Heavenly Lamp before them, that aught to have been a Light to their Feet, and a Lantern unto their Paths, to have led them from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion, from Mount Zion literal to Mount Zion spiritual, and from the earthly to the heavenly Jerusalem; but the success proved otherways, for the State of the Jews, the governing part of that Nation, together with the Body of the People, continued in the utmost rage and opposition they could possibly express, against Christ and his Doctrine, till that remove of their oeconomy and Worship, which is here but spiritually and doctrinally laid before them, and tendered to them for their information and instruction, came to be materially, sensibly and dreadfully put in execution, to their utmost horror and confusion.  
That People being chief concerned in this Epistle, and having been so stupendious a Stage of singular Blessings and extraordinary Judgements, a short Digression touching that People and Nation in particular, cannot in this place seem either heterogeneal or impertinent.  

A short Digression touching the Jews.  
The Jews who were so long proprietors of the true God, and in possession of the only instituted Religion of which he was the Author, of whom it might for many Ages be said, considering and comparing them with the rest of the World, That Salvation was of the Jews; that People that had so much advantage above all others every way, and that made so great a divine and religious Figure in the World, and so true a one, for so long together, having in Promises, Types, and Significations, the Christian Religion itself amongst them, (for out of that Root it sprang,) there it was in Oar, though it was afterwards coined and stamped, and that as yet do remain as wonderful Monuments both of Divine Justice and Mercy, and the Subjects of many Prophecies to be yet fulfilled to this very day, a right Account of this People, and a due and serious Consideration of them, cannot but be of excellent use to all the ends of the Christian Religion.  
Their Original was from Abraham, they never pretended to derive themselves higher, and therefore encountered our Saviour with what they most valued themselves upon, We have Abraham for our father; he was the first friend God was pleased to make to himself upon Earth, and with him it was that God personally established the Covenant of Grace in all the Essentials and Substantials of it, and the legal Covenant, as the Type, Figure and Forerunner of that; in his Natural Capacity he was the Father of the Jews, [but restrictively by the Seed of the Promise in Isaac] with whom the Covenant of Circumcision was made, an Institution of great Sanctity and Distinction, and whereby they obliged themselves against all false Gods and Idolatry, to the Worship of the only true God, as he himself declared the meaning of it to be; and in his Spiritual Capacity, as one that believed and obeyed what God revealed to him, and followed him fully; he was the Father of all the faithful, who have ever since all gone to Heaven by treading in the steps of their Father Abraham: but this must not be so strictly taken as if these two Seeds of Abraham were always subjectively divers, for they were often the same; and this the Apostle proves at large in the 9, 10, 11 Chap. to the Romans, in the Instances of Isaac and Jacob, and the Remnant of Israel, that were at that time saved, who were both Heirs according to the Flesh; and according to the Promise, the Gospel was all virtually uttered unto him in that one expression, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed: the meaning of which was, that the Promise of the Messiah having yet lain at large and in very general terms, and proceeded no farther than the first Promise made of him, that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head, God would graciously advance one step farther, and not only enlarge that Promise, by declaring, that in the Seed of the Woman all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, but also make it known of what People of all the Nations and Kindred's of the Earth the Messiah should come, and from whose Loins, according to the Flesh, he should proceed; and this honour is done to Abraham, and he of all the Persons upon Earth is singled out for it, and he is told of God, that in him all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, and this is called after in Scripture, the blessing of Abraham, [being first pronounced to him] which is the Blessing of the Messiah: nor is any thing more particularly revealed touching the Messiah before his actual coming, save that out of the numerous Posterity of Abraham, one particular Tribe is singled out, and one Family of that Tribe, and 'tis declared, that Christ should come of the Tribe of Judah, and of the House and Lineage of David.  
That the Covenant of Grace was established with Abraham, is plain from what the Apostle says, Gal. 3. v. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed: which must needs be the Gospel, because it refers to all Nations; what particularly belonged to the Jews went no farther than that Nation; and the same Apostle, in his grand Dispute with the Jews about Justification, proves the Gospel-Method of Justification to be the true Method, because Abraham was justified that way, and was of more antiquity than the Law, [taking the Law for the whole Jewish oeconomy from the original of it] for the first beginning of that was Circumcision, and Abraham was justified in a Gospel-way, [that is, had Righteousness imputed to him] before he was circumcised, and Circumcision was to him but a Seal of the Righteousness which he had being yet uncircumcised; from whence the Apostle infers, that Righteousness came not by the Law, nor the Operations thereof, but by Faith; this was the first instance, this of Abraham's, in which we find any Man in Scripture justified, and 'twas intended to be an Instance of God's future and final Justification of Believers both Jews and Gentiles under the Gospel to the World's end, and that the Law, in the complex Notion of it, was only a Schoolmaster to conduct and lead Men to Christ is very evident, because both the Covenants were made with Abraham, and the Gospel-Covenant had the precedence, and the other, though first in actual execution, was in its nature but declarative and expressive of it, and conductive to it; and very proper and signifying it was, that Christ should come from the Loins of Abraham who stood related to God as a public person, not only the natural Father of the Jew, but the spiritual Father of all the faithful, both Gentiles and Jews, for although Christ, as concerning the Flesh, came of the Jews, who were a holy enclosure unto God, and under his own peculiar Regiment, and it was a singular advantage to them to have it so, and in some respect it was absolutely necessary that it should be so, that so he might be born under the Law, and under an obligation to all the righteousness of the legal Dispensation, which he came to fulfil, and might be a Minister of the Circumcision [as the Apostle speaks] for the truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers, yet he came as a public Person in no sort confined to the Jewish Nation, but equally related to all Mankind; and therefore we find, that one of the Evangelists derives his Pedigree from Adam.  
From a triumvirate of Divine Favourites, Men highly beloved of God, and of great Heavenly Renown, Heirs of all the Promises, [for Isaac and Jacob inherited all the Blessings of Abraham] this People had their Original; in those three God did not only epitomise his future gracious Proceed with the World in the Covenant of his Grace, and as it were appropriate himself to that triumvirate as their peculiar property, by styling himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; but so far honours them after death and when they had left this World, as throughout all Generations to set forth the blessed state of the saved, by their sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, as if the very Company and Presence of those blessed Patriarches, to whom the Promises of Life and Salvation, through the Messiah, were first personally made, would add much to our happiness there, and as if their state above, were the utmost felicity any could hope for, or attain to, for these Father's sake of theirs they are to this day beloved of God, and God owes them, [for what he promises he owes] and intends them a kindness, [as shall be shown hereafter] for their sakes, for as in those three the natural and the promised and spiritual Seed did both inhere and concentre; so at last, their natural Seed according to the Flesh, shall also become Heirs of the Promise, and the reason of it we have from St. Paul, because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.  
The Consideration of three things will let us into a right account of that People:  
First, That God did intent by the impalement of them to himself, to put in his Claim to the World, generally run quite away from him into gross Idolatry, the Worship of the Sun, and other parts of the Creation, and become Subjects of that Kingdom set up by the fallen Angels against him, by this to challenge a part of the work of his hands, and to have some select part of the World ruled and governed by Laws and Institutions of his own ordaining; the great tendency of which were, to prevent and overrule that fatal miscarriage of Mankind, in worshipping the Creature instead of the Creator, and placing an Idol in the room of the true God; and therefore throughout the whole Mosaical Institution, there is a sacred Antiparistasis against Idolatry, a total contradiction in every Ceremony of the Jewish Worship to it, and the whole so contrived as to make that People utterly separate themselves from the Sins of the Nations in that particular, and to bring them up with the utmost detestation of it. One constant Memorial of himself in a most eminent manner God by his Law placed amongst them, which was the observance of the Sabbath, intended as a constant weekly Memorandum against Idolatry, and to put them in mind who it was that made the Heavens and the Earth and rested the seventh day from the works of his hands; and upon this account it pleased God, that Idolatry and breach of the Sabbath had the same punishment: And as the Laws and Constitutions of this People were thus framed to secure them against Idolatry, so the providential deal of God with them all along tended this way, God himself undertaking the particular charge and government of them, [which necessarily made them a Church and a State conjoined together] and exercising that government in such a way as might be expected from such a Sovereign, and might in the highest manner oblige them to their obedience to him, by mighty and open-face discoveries of himself, by stupendious Miracles, amazing Signs and Wonders, and by an outstretched Arm of Power, subduing all their Enemies before them; that People, above all others, might utter that Expression, Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy do? and supplying them also with whatever they stood in need of, and at last settling them in a Land that was the glory of all Lands, and a Land for which God cared continually, and had his eye ever upon it to make it fruitful; their Story in Egypt, their Travels in the Wilderness, and their Possession at last of the Land of Canaan, with the various Events that befell them there, are the profoundest and most stupendious part of all History, and the greatest outward and visible Declaration of the mighty Sovereignty that is above, that has been yet made since the World began.  
Secondly, God by taking the Government of this handful of People into his own hand, and vouchsafing to be their peculiar Legislator, first did intent a public Instruction and Information to the rest of the World besides, and therefore he himself declares to them, that the Nations round about them should admire their wise Laws; and that proceeded so far, and was so far verified, that the whole Body of the Jewish Laws, Moses and the Prophets, was by Ptolemy, King of Egypt, translated into the Greek Tongue, the most universal Language at that time; and so the greatest part of the World became conversant with it, and it proved a marvellous providential Preparative for the Conversion of the Gentiles; 'twas easy [Prejudice removed] to perceive the difference between the religious Worship and Service of the true God, and the superstitious Follies of Idolatry, between a devout serving the Maker and Preserver of all things, and the doting folly of adoring nothing; for such is an Idol in the Apostle's sense, though it be materially a piece of Stone or Wood or some such thing, yet 'tis nothing of that for which 'tis taken to be, and so is truly and virtually nothing: And their Constitution was so framed, that any Man might become a proselyte and incorporate himself into that Religion, that became convinced of the excellency of it. Secondly, This National Constitution was intended to prepare the World for that universal Law of the Gospel, which was to be published in due time and that two ways: First, By being a standing Monument and constant Memorial of the true God and his Worship, and a Preservative of the Notices thereof; And, secondly, As it contained in its Bowels a discovery, that the Gospel was that Blessing wherewith God intended to bless the World from the beginning, and being itself a Witness upon Record to it.  
The third thing to conduct us into a right Notion of this People, is to consider, that the Scripture informs us, that God's whole transaction with this People was in a great measure with design to signify things that should be spoken of after; they are set forth, we are told, for Examples and Types, they were in their very constitution the shadow of somewhat to come, but not the thing itself: In finding out therefore the divine signification of this People, we shall come to the truest and best comprehension of them.  
The first and great design of God by them was to make way for the Messiah, to make them Harbingers for him, not only in reserving them distinct from the World, that Christ might receive his Humanity from that People, and proceed from them, and so from Abraham, according to the flesh, but that the offering up of himself as a Sacrifice for the World, and the necessity and perfection thereof might be signified thereby; the whole ceremonial Law was but a preparative Scene for the Gospel, the end of it was Christ's offering up himself, and to declare this great truth, that no Humane Offerings, not the Firstborn of men's Bodies, if God had required it, would make a sufficient Atonement for the Sins of their Souls, but that a better Offering was necessary to reconcile God and the World: the Law of the Ten Commandments the end of it was Christ; the Apostle tells us Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness, and Righteousness was the great end of the Law, and so Christ must needs be the end of it; we are expressly told, the law written in stone is done away; and it is now only in force as part of the Law natural, and as reestablished by Christ, and made part of the new Law of Grace, and obliges upon the terms thereof. Two great ends there were in it, 1st, To discover Sin, and thereby the absolute necessity of a Saviour. 2dly, To restrain it until Christ's actual coming and the commencement of the Gospel. In both respects it was added, because of Transgression, and was but a Schoolmaster still to teach us the Gospel-Lesson, and bring us to Christ.  
Secondly, God in the depths of his infinite and unfathomable Counsels determining with himself, that few in respect of the body and bulk of Mankind should be finally and eventually saved, gave this instance of it at first, in separating but a small handful of People to himself, in respect of the Nations of the Earth, and making his part and peculiar to consist but of a few, 'tis not to be doubted, but that the inherent Attribute of Grace and Goodness in God is rendered more transparent to Men than any of the other, yet so it pleased infinite Wisdom to order it, that the manifestation of it should lie in the quality of the salvation, rather than in the quantity saved; the Righteousness of God in dealing with all Men will be like the great Mountains, but his Judgements herein are like the great Deeps: the People of the Jews were in their constitution truly Types and Representatives of the Saints and the saved Church, and many, very many of them were personally of that number, but they had all of them, not one excepted, that signification appurtenant to them, and literally and typically those Qualifications:  
1st, They were chosen of God and separated from the rest of the World, and called out to be his peculiar Treasure.  
2dly, They were devoted and dedicated unto God, and had received his mark in their flesh.  
3dly. They enjoyed the worship of the true God and all divine privileges.  
4thly. Whatever they possessed they owed it to God's free donation, even their temporal inheritances in the land of Canaan. Now take these things in their true and spiritual sense and they are the perfect Constitution of a true and sincere Believer under the Gospel.  
Thirdly, By the whole Transactions of God with this People, this general Intimation was given to the World, That no outward Administrations, though of the most advantageous Circumstances, and accompanied with the most prevailing Motives, no Miracles, no extraordinary Operations, no Prophets, no Divine Oracles whatever, would reduce Men to their obedience to God, and such a conformity to him, as is absolutely necessary to make them Happy, unless there went together with it, some Divine Efficacy to change the faculties of men's minds, and make a Man inwardly another thing, than what by his degeneracy and apostasy he has made himself; nothing did more plainly and evidently discover itself in the whole transaction of God with this People, then that there could be no Law given, that would singly, and of itself, without foreign Assistance, introduce Righteousness, that there was an absolute necessity the Holy Ghost should be sent down from Heaven, if ever Mankind were made fit to go thither, and such a Covenant made with the World, as would give to Men a new Heart and a new Spirit, and such a Covenant God declares [having found fault with this] that he would make, whereby he would write his Laws in men's Hearts, and put them into their inward parts, and so possess them with his Grace, and lock them up to himself by his fear, that they should not departed from him.  
If we begin with this People in Egypt, and consider them there, it is plain the generality of them had fallen in with the Religion of the Country, [notwithstanding all the collateral inducements they had, and all the obligations they lay under to the contrary] and totally forgotten the true God; this seems plain from what Moses, in Exodus replied unto God, when he commanded him to go to them, and tell them, The God of their fathers had sent him unto them; Moses Answers, when I come unto the Children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say, what is his Name, or as it is better rendered [what God is he] what shall I say unto them? 'Tis plain from hence, that Moses was well ware of the success he was like to have; and that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, was a thing that the people at that time had no notion at all of, and upon their entrance into Canaan, when Joshua had by God's direction circumcised them, God himself declares, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, which reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry in Egypt, which was rolled away by their being devoted by Circumcision to the true God and his Worship; some learned men have supposed that the people were not circumcised in Egypt, and that their uncircumcision there was that reproach that was rolled away, but 'tis I conceive a mistake, for we are told in Josh. 5. v. 5. Now all the People that came out (speaking of Egypt) were circumcised, but all the People that were born in the Wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised: And in the 4. v. that is said to be the reason of their being now circumcised; those that came out of Egypt 'tis expressly said were circumcised, now if they were circumcised by Moses after their coming out, than the reproach of Egypt was rolled away before, and this circumcising could not be it, if they were (as I believe they were) circumcised before they came out of Egypt; then uncircumcision could not be the reproach of Egypt here meant, and 'tis probable they were all circumcised there, because Pharaohs Daughter so soon as she had taken Moses out of the water and looked upon him knew him to be an Hebrew Child, which is likely she did by the mark of circumcision: If you ask how Circumcision and their Idolatry could stand together; the answer is, They kept up that Right without any regard to the ends of it, just as the Posterity of Esau and Ishmael do to this day, who are the greatest Idolaters in the World though circumcised, and constant observers of that Right: No sooner were they come into the Wilderness, though by such stupendious deliverances as the World before had never been acquainted withal, and although they had a Miracle [by the Cloud and the Pillar of Fire] always in their eye, yet while Moses was gone into the Mount to treat personally with God about their concerns, they fell greedily into the Egyptain Idolatry, [a great demonstration they had been used to it before] and set up the Calves, to declare in the Highest manner their disloyalty to God their King, their uneasiness under his Government, and that his Rule and their unruly Humours would never suit together; and withal to signify their wretched ingratitude for all he had done for them against Pharaoh and the Egyptians: And to testify their utmost satisfaction and delight in what they had so done, the Text says, Exod. 32. v. 6. And they risen up early on the morrow, and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings: and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and risen up to play. Suitable to this was their carriage all along in the Wilderness; so Stephen told their successors, that for Forty Years in the Wilderness they took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of their God Remphan, Figures which they made to Worship them, and had not sacrificed unto God as they ought: the 78 Psalm is a Holy recapitulation of all the disloyal undutiful and unthankful treatment God had from them: If we follow them to their last settlement into Canaan, their constant spiritual Whoredom there was intolerable, provoking the most high to his face, their whole behaviour was utterly to testify their dislike of God and his Government, and that they desired not him of all others to rule over them, but rather subjected themselves to the meanest Idol; the two tribes of Judas and Benjamin that kept longest in their Integrity, yet soon fell to the Worship of Baal, and before the great Captivity they had set up the most odious Idol-worship in the very House of God; this was plainly shown in vision to Ezekiel, when he was in Babylon upon the first Captivity, there he saw Men in the Temple worshipping the Sun, Women weeping for Tamuz, and many more Abominations; and in the 19th of Jeremiah, God tells them by his Prophet, Jerusalem and Judah shall be destroyed, because they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven. The ten Tribes early deserted the true God, and fell down before the Calves at Dan and Bethel; and at last, under one of their apostate Kings, those Idols were removed to Samaria, the Metropolis of the ten Tribes, and placed there to put the utmost Honour and Credit upon them that possibly could be; this was done by Omri, of whom the Scripture records, that he did worse than all that went before him; because he made Laws to bring these Idols from Dan and Bethel to Samaria, the Royal and Capital City of the ten Tribes, (for so it is called in the 7th of Esau) to affront the God of Israel in the highest manner, and as much as in him lay to obliterate the Name and Mention of him amongst those Tribes in his own chosen and peculiar Country: The Holy Ghost has left a perpetual Brand throughout all Ages upon these Statutes of Omri, and in the 6th of the Prophet Micah tells the People, nothing they did should prosper, because they kept the statutes of Omri; that is, they went to Samaria, and worshipped the Calves there, according to the Laws and Institutions of Omri, rendering these Laws thereby the most odious of all their Idolatrous Laws, because Omri did not only fall in with Jeroboam and the rest of that wicked Crew in their Idolatrous Veneration and Worship, but put the highest Honour and Countenance imaginable upon those Idols, that so they might by them supersede the true God, and root out his Religion for ever.  
The long and sore Captivity the two Tribes underwent in Babylon, proved a cure to them for aught we find of their Idolatry, but they had no inclination to rebuild the Temple, nor to return to Jerusalem; and after their return, they continued in all their other Impieties till they came to the very highest they could arrive at, which was to be the Betrayers and Murderers of the Son of God himself, and by their own importunity to pull down the dreadful guilt of the most sacred Blood, that alone could save them, upon their own and their Posterities heads. After the Gospel was published, their rage and opposition to it was such, that St. Paul, notwithstanding all his love to them, and zeal for them, giveth this dismal account of them, that they pleased not God, and were contrary to all men, forbidding the Gospel [what in them lay] to be preached unto the Gentiles; the learned and ruling part of them were so blinded with prejudice, that they would admit of no Testimony that Moses and the Prophets gave to our Saviour, though never so plain and convincing, nay, they would not admit that a Prophet could come out of Galilee, because Christ was of Nazareth, and yet if they had but consulted the second Book of Kings, ch. 14. v. 25. they had there found, that Jonah, one of their eminent Prophets, was of Gathhepher, a chief City in Galilee, and belonging to the Tribe of Zebulon: and even at their last gasp, when all our Saviour's Predictions in the 24th of Matthew and in the other Evangelists came to be executed upon them, when they saw the abomination of desolation before their eyes, that was, Jerusalem encompassed with Armies, and Titus besieging them, the History of their vile and shameful behaviour then, is scarce credible, were it not transferred to Posterity by one of themselves there personally present.  
The Natural Instruction of all this, and of the whole Behaviour of that People under all those outward Means and Privileges they enjoyed, is, That the Gospel became necessary, God might well say as to all outward Dispensations, after his Transactions with this People, What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done? yet have no Fruit. Had not this trial been made, the Gospel-glory had not shone so bright, nor had the World known the Value of that inestimable Effect of Christ's Purchase and Ascension, the sending down the Holy Ghost from Heaven to complete the Work of Man's Salvation, and to sanctify, remake and save the World.  
Fourthly, By this Covenant of peculiarity God entered into with the Jews, founded as upon outward Dispensations, so also upon temporal Rewards and Punishments, he would by the punctual and exact performance in both kinds, insure to the World, the positive certainty of those future Rewards and Punishments the Gospel proposeth to us in the World to come; upon this account we find with great exactness the effects both of God's Justice and Mercy to this People. Hence may be learned how great is his Goodness, and how dreadful also is his Justice: What People were ever so blessed as this People? ever so born with and forgiven as they were? never were they failed in any one temporal Promise, though they were all made with Conditions of Obedience annexed; they seem to be at the utmost pitch and enjoyment of all their temporal Promises in the days of Solomon, the Grandeur and Splendour of that Court was exceeding great and magnificent, and great Homage paid to it by all the Nations round about; the Holy Ghost records that Divine and Heavenly Benediction that attended those happy Days, and tells us they were Times wherein there was neither evil Accident nor Occurrent: but the end of his Reign shows us how fading and decaying we shall find all created Happiness, and that the end of all temporal Promises is at last but a Grave and Room to repose our Bodies; this was signified to and certainly well understood by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived to possess nothing in Canaan but a Buryingplace, the Field of Machpelah; they were instructed to look after better things through those, [though their Posterity did not] a heavenly Country was in their eye, and a City that has Foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God; and therefore it is the Scripture tells us, God was not ashamed to be called their God; because their hopes and expectations were not earthly, but suitable to such a Being and Benefactor as he is, and such as he expected those should have whom he intended to honour and own for his; for Twenty nine Years of Solomon's Reign, the whole Twelve Tribes of Israel came up to the Temple at Jerusalem, and worshipped in the Beauties of Holiness there; then was verified what the Psalmist says so elegantly and emphatically in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord, for there are set thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David. But Twenty nine Years was but a small continuance of time, their sins shortened those happy days, Jerusalem literal was not compacted together, the Ten Tribes went off and apostatised in the first Year of Rehoboam, and never came to worship there more.  
The Judgements of God upon this People have been stupendious and dreadful, no part of the World have drunk so deep of the Cup of God's Severity as they have, and God himself interprets this to us, when he tells us in the Third of Amos, You only have I known of all the nations of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities: You have I singled out of all the Earth to make both my Mercy and my Justice known by, that all the World might understand me, by my proceed with you; as I have discovered more Grace and Favour to you than to all the World besides, to let Mankind know my Nature is not cruel, but that I am the Lord merciful and gracious, long-suffering and slow to anger, yet at last will not spare the guilty; so will I punctually punish you, and that before all the World, for your manifold Iniquities, that my Justice thereby may be also made manifest. God's sharp Proceed with them in the Wilderness, devouring them by Death; their sad and dreadful Captivities out of the Promised Land, when they were settled there; their being in the just judgement of God left to Betray and Crucify their long expected Messiah, and the dreadful Judgement that in a few Years after befell them thereupon, ending in the total ruin both of their Church and State, and their miserable forlorn Condition to this hour, are all sufficiently convincing Evidences of this Truth.  
The ten Tribes, for their abominable Idolatries, were early removed and captived by Salmanaser, and to this day never again heard of, seem as lost, only survive in the Promises made for their restoration, and all we know of them is, that the Scripture tells us out of what places at last they shall be recalled. The other two Tribes, about a Hundred and twenty Years after or somewhat more, went into Babylon, suffering the loss of all in a sore Captivity; they returned indeed and continued a petty inconsiderable State, which was at the best under the Maccabees, till Christ came; but then when the glory of all they hoped for, and the substance of all their Religion signified, appeared, then was the Judgement of God completed upon them. What account can be given of this, that these peculiar People of God, in covenant with him above all the Earth, to whom the Promises of the Messiah were chief and primarily made, of whose flesh he came, that they of all the World should be his crucifiers; what account, I say, but this, that God would complete his Judgements for all their Rebellions upon them above all others? and 'tis a thing of great remark and observation, that in the 6th Chap. of Isaiah, where that fatal and dreadful Rejection of the Jews, from the advantage they might have had from Christ and the Gospel at his coming, is foretold and recorded; we never find God more gloriously magnified, nor his praise more celebrated in Heaven, than upon this occasion: In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And in the 8th Verse, Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. So clear and evidently just were God's proceed with this People, in suffering them to reject Christ and the Gospel, who had so often and so long rejected him, and bring at last a total ruin upon themselves, their City and whole Country by the Romans, that the whole heavenly Host admire and adore his Actings herein, and give their utmost Suffrage thereunto.  
But although all these Miseries have befallen this People, and all the Judgements threatened in the Law of Moses have been most righteously executed upon them, yet God, according to his ancient Promise, has not totally and utterly destroyed them, but has subjected them in hope, and will at last revive them with a glorious and merciful Revival and Resurrection; which is the Point shall be last considered about this People.   

Touching the Calling of the Jews.  
The Calling of the Jews is a Matter that has been variously treated of, and there has been considerable Advocates on both sides; but to me it seems, that no Man that with due diligence reads what the Scriptures informs us about this Matter, can fairly deny, but that the Jews will at last be called into the Christian Church, and embodied with it, and their restoration will be very glorious; the whole stream of the prophetic part of the Old Testament runs this way, God has upon all occasions by his Prophets declared himself very plain in this Point, that he would not by any of his Judgements utterly raze that People out of the World, but that there should be hope in their end, and that although he had in punishing many other Nations made a full end with them, that their Names should be no more remembered, yet he would not do so with the Jews, for he had married himself unto them, and although he would with the exactest severity punish them for their Sins and take vengeance upon their Inventions, yet he would not make a full end with them, but reserve them to be Objects and Spectacles of his Mercy at the last: so in the 31st of Jeremiah he declares, That the sun, moon, and stars, should as soon cease from enlightening the world, as the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before him for ever; which in a great measure our own eyes behold made good at this day, in the forementioned 6th of Isaiah, where their rejection from the advantages of the Gospel at its first publication and to this day is so solemnly and dreadfully declared by the Prophet; the last Verse of that Chapter is a plain witness to this, But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance therefore. Though they look like a dead Tree without Leaves, yet there shall be a secret Life within: A holy seed that shall be the substance thereof.  
To set down all that the Prophets have left upon record, touching this restoration of the Jews at the last, were to transcribe a considerable part of their Writings, and therefore I shall confine myself in the proof of this Point to a narrow compass, and insist only upon some few Scripture Evidences, but such as I take to be very concluding and enough to convince in this matter.  
First, If there appear any Promises in the Old Testament for the restoring and recovering of the ten Tribes, as there appear very many that Judah and Israel should be again united, and those two broken and divided Sticks made into one, then 'tis past question, that those Promises are yet to be made good and accomplished; the ten Tribes have never yet been restored since they were captived by Shalmaneser, and God himself declared by his Prophet Hosea, in the first of Hosea, that he would make a great difference between the Captivity of the ten Tribes, and the other two, in point of duration and continuance of time, even so far, that the ten Tribes should seem as utterly cast away, yet in the 10th and 11th Verses he promises they shall be at last restored and embodied with the other two.  
Secondly, When God speaks by his Prophets, as he very often does, of a second restoration that he would vouchsafe the Jews, 'tis as I conceive very plain, that it is yet to come, and cannot be interpreted to be already past: The Text I shall chief insist on for both these Points, is in the 11th Chapter of Isaiah, Verse the 11th, and so to the end of the Chapter. It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time, to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And Verse the 16th, There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was unto Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. This seems a direct foretelling of the recovery of the ten Tribes out of their captivity, for these were the very places whither they were carried and dispersed; but the two Tribes we know were captived into Babylon, and Babylon here is not so much as once named; and there were many particular Prophecies that concerned the recovery of the two Tribes from thence: In the 49th Chapter of this Prophecy we find great Joy and Admiration expressed by the two Tribes, under the name of Zion, [by which they are very often expressed; and well might they be so, the other Tribes being gone, and they only in possession of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the true Worship] at the restoration of the ten Tribes: Verse 21. Thou shalt say in thy heart, [speaking of Zion] Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone, these where had they been? They looked on them as lost, but now behold them with rejoicing and wonder.  
The plain meaning of the Prophecy seems to be, that as God had graciously recovered the two Tribes out of Babylon, so he would set his hand the second time, to recover the ten Tribes out of those remote Countries where they were captived and dispersed, and make a glorious restoration of all the Tribes; and this Prophecy, as I conceive, is not yet fulfilled, for it relates evidently to the times of the Messiah, and is generally granted both by Jews and Christians so to do, and then to be fulfilled; according to the judicious Note of Calvin upon the place, Itaque haec [says he] de Babilonica redemptione intelligi non possunt, sed ad regnum Christi referri debent: These things cannot be interpreted of the deliverance out of Babylon, but aught to be referred to the days of the Messiah: and the Context puts it out of all doubt, for the Chapter gins with the Messiah, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jessey. And every Verse after in the Chapter appears evidently a Description of what shall happen under his Kingdom and Government.  
Two things are objected against this, to prove that this second Deliverance of the Jews often promised, is not yet to come, but is already passed.  
First 'tis said, That this second Deliverance is spoken with reference to that out of Egypt, which is meant as first, and the Deliverance out of Babylon as this second; but this Objection is wonderful impotent, for besides that it does not cohere nor fit the case, because the People were not captived in Egypt, but came at first voluntarily thither, and were after bred and born there, though they were we know kept in sore bondage, yet they were not Captives there; 'tis to make the Prophet intent otherways than he speaks, and that when he says God would a second time bring the Jews out of Assyria, and Cush, and Elam, he meant, he would a second time bring them out of Babylon; and should it be admitted, that the Jews were, when they came out of Babylon, called out of all those places, yet it was but the first time, and this second Call must needs be yet to come: But the Prophet Zachary decides this Matter, and puts it out of all question, for after the Babylonish Restoration was over, he prophesieth the very same thing, and directly foretells the restoration of the ten Tribes, Zach. 10. v. 9, 10. They shall remember me in far countries, and I will bring them again out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and Lebanon. The Babylonish restoration could not be this, that God says he would again bring about, for that was effected when the Prophet wrote, and the two Tribes were at that time come home, and in their own Country: So that 'tis very plain, there was a second Restoration of the Jews to be, after the Deliverance out of Babylon was over.  
Secondly 'tis said, That this second Restoration of the Jews the Prophets so much point at, and so often foretell, was accomplished at the coming of Christ by those Converts amongst the Jews that then embraced the Gospel; but this is utterly out of the way of all right reasoning about this matter, for St. Paul absolutely denies, that the conversion of that remnant of the Jews in those times, that those few that then received the Gospel, that that was the glorious state of the Jews foretold and prophesied of in the Old Testament, which he calls their fullness, [though it was an evidence God had not even then totally cast off his People] but on the contrary, looks upon that season as their very lowest ebb, and calls that season their fall, their diminishing, their casting away; and in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 3. he tells us, their minds were blinded, for until this day (says he) remains the vail untaken away in the reading the Old Testament; [that is, he means upon the bulk and body of that People] which Vail he tells you in the 16th Verse, when it shall turn to the Lord shall be taken away; but at that day when he wrote the Veil remained upon them. In the 11th of the Romans, v. 11. By their fall (says he) salvation is come to the Gentiles, and clearly refers it to another season, that is, when the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in, that the Jews should have their fullness, and then all Israel shall be saved, and Christ not only be a Light to lighten the Gentiles, but the Glory of his People Israel; for, says he, God has concluded them [that is, the bulk and body of them] at this time under unbelief, that he might hereafter have mercy upon them all.  
'Tis also farther objected upon the whole matter, 1st, That the ten Tribes were never lost, nor are not in any sense extinct; 2dly, That what calling they were to have is passed already. He that affirms the first is obliged to tell us what came of the ten Tribes since their Captivity, and give some good satisfying account where they now are, which there is not a Man upon Earth that can do: He that affirms the second must either show when they were called and restored, or else must deny that there are any promises made for it, for if it be promised in Scripture, that Judah and Israel should be again united, as 'tis plain enough to be, and the ten Tribes restored; then if those promises do not appear yet to have been fulfilled, 'tis an invincible argument that the fulfilling of them is yet to come, for the Scripture cannot be broken, but must have its punctual accomplishment one time or other.  
But to come to a due and right consideration of these two things, it will be necessary to take a view of their original Captivity, the History of which we have in the second Book of Kings, chap. 17. In the time of Hoshea's Reign, Shalmaneser came up against Samaria, the Capital City of the ten Tribes, and after three Years siege took it; and the Text says, carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: And in the 18th verse, after a recapitulation of all their heinous and God-provoking sins, 'tis said, Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only, under which name, that part of the Tribe of Benjamin that adhered to Judah is comprehended; for a Considerable part of the Tribe of Benjamin joined with the ten Tribes in the Idolatry of the Calves, and underwent their Fate: And in the 24th verse 'tis said, The King of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelled in the cities thereof; by which 'tis plain, they were so effectually removed out of Canaan, that they were placed in a far and remote Country, and their own Country was Peopled with other Inhabitants; a thing very unusual and rarely, if ever heard of in Conquered Nations, and in which a particular Hand of God seems to appear; and this continued till our Saviour's time, for the inheritance of the ten Tribes was much of it possessed by Assyrians, then with a mixture of some Jews; which Jews were moftly of the two Tribes that returned out of Babylon, who, after their return, got into possession of divers parts belonging to the ten Tribes formerly, the Samaritans, who inhabited a very considerable part of the inheritance of the ten Tribes, were all Assyrians, and well known to remain there ever since Shalmaneser's Conquest, and had the Jews in the utmost detestation, and would have no converse with them of any sort, this is all briefly expressed by Grotius in his judicious annotation upon the 4th Verse of the 4th Chapter of John, Samariam intellige (says he) illam partem Terrae promisse in quâ manserunt assyrii post quam caetera decem tribubus olim possessa Judaei a Babilonia reduces receperunt, ab urbe enim olim regni capite nomen mansit regioni, by all which it appears sufficiently evident that in our Saviour's time, the ten Tribes were not come back, but their Country was generally possessed by Assyrians and Jews of the two Tribes, 'tis like some few of the ten Tribes might be amongst them, though Shalmaneser did not leave such numbers behind him as Nabuchadnezzar did, but swept the Country more clear in order to a new Peopling of it; So clear that it appears by the 27th Verse of the 17th Chapter of the second Book of Kings, That not one individual Priest was left in the whole Country; by which Providence God seemed to point at the long and lasting duration of that Captivity, and the hopelesness of any sudden return, whatever small part of the ten Tribes might possibly stay behind or get into other adjacent Countries, are not sure to be reckoned for the ten Tribes, when all the Ruling part and the Bulk and Body of them were gone, no more than those Nabuchadnezzar left (though they far exceeded in number) were to be reckoned for the two Tribes, when the chief of them and the Bulk of them were in Babylon, and the Scripture every where reckons the two Tribes to be there during their Captivity, and above fifty Thousand returned, those few of the ten Tribes that were in Canaan in our Saviour's time were of three sorts, First, such as upon the first setting up of the Calves by Jeroboam had fled to Jerusalem, (which diverse did) to enjoy the true worship and service of God and settled there; those upon the removal of the ten Tribes by Shalmaneser 'tis likely might at least some of them return home to their former Inheritances: 2dly, Those few that were left behind when Shalmaneser transplanted them, for some few of the meaner poorer sort were probably left: And 3dly, Those that upon the decree of Cyrus came back which some few people did, that were near home and had fled into the adjacent Countries, but the Bulk and Body of the ten Tribes were gone, and had not then returned, nor have they had any restoration to this day, but remain, as to our knowledge of them, buried and lost in their first Captivity.  
The reason why Shalmaneser placed them in Halah and Habor by the River Gozan and in the Cities of the Medes, may well be collected from hence, 1st, That those were the most uninhabited places of any parts of his Dominions; And 2dly, Because those places were at so very great a distance from the land of Canaan, that they might have no thoughts nor opportunities of returning, and for the matter of fact of these two reasons, it is proved from Strabo and the best Geographers: now the ten Tribes being so circumstanced at first in their Captivity, 'tis very probable to believe they settled and continued there, or were by (to us) unknown accidents removed, till all the Memorials of them were as now they be quite lost and extinguished: this Captivity of the ten Tribes was above a 120 Years before the Babylonish Captivity, and there is not the least colour of proof they returned during that time; Nay, 'tis certain they remained in Captivity, when the other two Tribes were in Babylon; but 'tis urged by some, and great stress laid upon it to little effect, that they being within the Dominions of Cyrus, and his decree reaching all his Territories, they might return when the two Tribes came out of Babylon; for his decree set them all at liberty so to do, but this comes to no more than arguing from a bare possibility against a plain matter of fact to the contrary: The prophecies and promises that concern the Restoration and Conversion of the Jews, are not to be reckoned as fulfilled and accomplished from any possibilities or probabilities that they might be so in any age, that were to trifle with God's veracity, but from an actual, specifical execution and performance: The ten Tribes I acknowledge, were within the Dominions of Cyrus, and by that decree might have returned, but 'tis certain in fact the Body of them did not, and that is easily supposed in the general, because we find those that had been but a few Years settled in Babylon were loath to return; and much more might the ten Tribes that were at so great a distance, and when the two Tribes came out of Babylon had been settled in those remote parts very near two hundred Years, and all those dead long before that knew the Country, and had been personally removed from thence, and that they did not return is positively proved from Ezra 2. v. 1. And from Neh. 7. and the 6th Verse, where 'tis expressly said, those Jews that returned into Palestine, were those that had been carried away by Nabuchadnezzar; and we are further assured, they consisted only of the two Tribes, because they took account of them and registered them by their Genealogies, and Families, and so they were returned every one to their own City, and 'tis said they came to Judah every one to their own City; Esdras was one of them that returned out of Babylon, and by his second Book it plainly appears, (so far as his Authority goes) that they reckoned the ten Tribes to remain then in their captivity, and shows how they had settled themselves there, and those that then lived must needs know that matter: True it is, that from the Decree in the first Year of Cyrus, to the sixth Year of Darius Nothus, when the Temple was finished, was 46 Years; so long was it e'er the Temple was completed, reckoning, besides the times of its actual building, those of the stops and intervals that interposed; and to that the Jews relate, when they told our Saviour, Forty six Years was this Temple in building: during which time some few scattered Jews belonging to the ten Tribes, that had fled upon Shalmaneser's conquest into the adjacent parts, returned into Palestine; but it does not appear that they were of any other Tribes, but those of Ephraim and Manasseh: but this was so inconsiderable a thing, in respect of the return of the whole ten Tribes, that in Ezra and Nehemiah no notice at all is taken of it; and the building of the City and the Temple, and repeopling the Country, is wholly ascribed to the two Tribes that went out of Babylon. Now no Man can think, if he would, that if that vast body of the ten Tribes had been then restored, but that they would have had a great hand in resetling that Country, and eminent mention would have been made by the Holy Ghost of it. So that 'tis plain the body of the ten Tribes settled by Shalmaneser by the River Gozan and in the Cities of the Medes, came not back upon Cyrus his Decree, but in the wise and secret Providence of God were reserved for a more glorious Restoration, which is yet to come.  
From the rebuilding the Temple, till our Saviour's time, there is not the least intimation in any story of the return of the ten Tribes: In Ahasuerus' time they were dispersed all over the Persian Empire; that is plain from what Haman said to King Ahasuerus, in the third of Esther, There is a certain people (speaking of the Jews) scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom. And I think 'tis utterly impossible to find any Call or Conversion of them to this day, such as is prophesied of, and St. Paul tells us of, such a body as those Ten Tribes must needs consist of, could be never called or restored, without filling the World with a very great Story; since our Saviour's time, we hear of nothing but Judgements upon that People, of their Slaughter and Ruin by Titus, Trajan, Adrian, and other Emperors, but not a word of any Restoration or general Conversion of the body of the ten Tribes that were carried so far eastward; some speak much of the flourishing of the Christian Religion in Judea and about Jerusalem in and after Constantine's time, but that did not arise what ever it was from the number of Christian Jews there, so much as from the great conflux of other Christians that came from all Parts, and many of them settled their Dwellings there with respect to the holy Sepulchre, and the City and Country where our Saviour had lived and wrought all his Miracles.  
The ten Tribes, as to any knowledge we have of them, are certainly the bulk and body of them lost; he that will deny it, is obliged to prove what is become of them, and where they be; but 'tis no good Argument to infer from thence, that either they are totally, finally, and really lost, or shall never be recalled; 'tis out of the compass of all rational conception to think such a vast number of People should be wholly extinct and not propagate Posterity, no instance can be given of any such thing; but their being does not at all depend upon our knowledge of their being, they may exist in many parts of the World, and we not know it, and so may be lost as to us, though not in themselves; 'twould be no good way of arguing, to deny the existence of all parts of the World, and all Inhabitants of it, that are not to us particularly known and discovered: And as to their Calling, it is a very potent Argument to me they shall be called, because they are at the present in such a lost unknown state; for the Prophets, and especially Isaiah, do in many places intimate, that their condition by the ordination of God should be such, that they should seem as utterly lost and passed all hope of recovery; so Zion is introduced, speaking, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children? The Prophet Zachariah seems to point at their wonderful recovery, in that expression, I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day; and also the Prophet Isaiah when he says, Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion traveled she brought forth her children. And the whole Scripture seems to design it as a most glorious Work of God's Power, wherein he would eminently appear to call home those his ancient People, out of a most forlorn, seemingly lost and desperate condition; and Saine Paul himself, who best understood this matter, calls their recovery and restoration, in the 11th of the Romans, which, as he says, there was after that time to happen, life from the dead. 2dly, 'Tis said by some, That what Calling they are to have, is passed already; and this they chief ground upon what was discoursed before, of the Advantages they had by the Gospel in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles, and what Numbers of them were then converted, in so much that the Epistle to the Hebrews is directed to the believing Hebrews, and St. Peter and St. James write to the twelve Tribes scattered: That some of the ten Tribes, as well as of the other two, did embrace the Gospel in those times, is out of question, and that the Apostles met with many of them in Heathen Countries, where they went to preach, is very evident; the occasion of their dispersion, besides those common accidents by which Nations come to inhabit and dwell one amongst another, was chief upon this twofold account: 1st, Wheresoever they were at any time carried captive, many of them stayed behind and never returned: And, 2dly, When they were to be removed as Captives by their Conquerors, many of them, fearing the consequences of their Captivity, fled into other Countries, to conceal themselves, and there continued; and so the Apostles found some of them almost every where dispersed, as they went about preaching, and occasionally converted part of them: and upon that account those Epistles are directed to the Strangers scattered, and to the twelve Tribes, reckoning a part for the whole, and to keep up the Honour and Memory of the Tribes, and to make good St. Paul's assertion, That God even then, had not quite cast off his People; though 'tis likely of some of the ten Tribes there were but a very few that became Christians, a very mean, small, inconsiderable handful, in respect of the body and bulk of them.  
But let the Conversion the Jews had in the Apostles times be put as far as it will or can be put, it is certain, if St. Paul be infallible, that those that make that to be the great Conversion and Restoration of that People, foretold in the Old Testament, are undoubtedly mistaken; for all the Jews that were then converted, St. Paul, in the 11th of the Romans, makes to be no more than a small Remnant, like that in the time of Elias, which Elias did not see it was so inconsiderable, and opposeth it to the bulk and body of that People; no Man would think it a reasonable and fair dealing with the Scriptures, if any should say, that in Elias his time, the body of the Jews were free from the Idolatry of Baal, because seven thousand of them were; 'tis the same thing to say, the Jews were called and restored to the Church in the Apostles times, because a small Remnant of them were then converted; St. Paul, as plain as words can express, distinguisheth between the Call of that Remnant then, and the general Call of that People which he terms their Fullness, and which he refers all along to a future season, when the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in: 'twere a strange thing to conceive, that that Season wherein the Holy Ghost tells us, Wrath was come upon that People to the uttermost, that that should be the Season wherein all the glorious Predictions concerning their Call and Restoration should be accomplished.  
And 'tis not to be passed over, without much observation, that the Prophet Isaiah, having in the forementioned 11th Chapter of his Prophecy, so positively foretold the restoration of the Jews, and particularly of the ten Tribes, and in the last Verse of that Chapter declared, There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. The twelfth Chapter following is the very Song in Terminis set down and indicted by the Holy Ghost, which the Jews shall sing at that glorious time of their recovery and restoration. Chap. 12. And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation: I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and my glory, he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his Name, declare his do amongst the people, make mention that his Name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.  
So that as there was a solemn Song sung unto God, upon the mighty deliverance out of Egypt, for 'tis said in Exodus, than sang Moses and the children of Israel this song; even so upon this mighty and wonderful restoration and recovery of the Jews shall this solemn Song of Thanksgiving be sung by them all, to the Praise and Honour of that great God, that hath brought again together these poor dry Bones, and made a People and Nation of them, and has remembered his Promise of old, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and declared thereby his faithfulness and truth to this his ancient Inheritance, according to that of the Psalmist, He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a Law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. Though their Posterity, by their sins, have brought a long suspension upon these Promises, yet the Entail is not cut off, for it shall last through a thousand Generations.  
In the New Testament this Point is largely discussed, and as I conceive very plainly determined by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, having professed there his great zeal for, and love to, the Jews, that were his own flesh, he proposeth this Question, Hath God (says he) cast away his people? He answers it with the most sacred, and withal the most vehement and abhorrent Negation, God forbidden; just as he answers that Question in the 6th Chapter, Shall we sin, that grace may abound? (which was one of the vilest scandals that could be put upon St. Paul's Doctrine and the Gospel,) He answers, God forbidden. So that the case is so far very clear, that God has not cast off his People, and 'twere a great piece of impiety, when we reflect upon the Promises made to them, and the Prophecies yet unfulfilled concerning them, so to think. The Apostle makes good this point, that God had not cast off his People, by this twofold answer to that Question; 1st, That some of them, amongst whom himself was one, had embraced the Gospel at that time, and that although the bulk of that People remained in unbelief, yet 'twas then as 'twas in Elias his time, there was a remnant of Believers amongst them according to the election of Grace; so that God had not quite cast off his People even then. And, 2dly, He answers, that hereafter, when the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in, that Blindness, that then in part happened unto them, should be removed, and so all Israel should be saved: His words are in the 25th and 26th Verses, For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. He tells the Gentiles before, that they were like a wild Olive grafted into a good Olive, and did partake of the Root and Fatness of it; they must not boast against the Branches, for thou dost not bear the Root, [says he] but the Root thee: The Apostle brings in the only objection the Gentiles could make in the 19th Verse, Thou wilt say, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by Faith. Be not highminded, but fear. And in the 24th Verse tells them, For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive-tree; how much more shall these that be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree? The Apostle in these Verses intimates to the Gentiles, that he would not have them exalt themselves too much over the Jews, and therefore reveals to them this Mystery, that Blindness was happened in part unto Israel, until the Fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and then all Israel should be saved; and for this quotes that passage in the 59th of Isaiah, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: The plain meaning of which, and of the Context all along, is this, that the converted Gentiles should not over magnify themselves, as if they were so the true Church, that the Jews were utterly excluded; for as some of them embraced the Gospel then, so the exclusion of the rest was but for a time, till the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and then the Jews should have their fullness also, and so all Israel should be saved, and have such a reviving as he calls before, life from the dead; the conversion of some Jews at that time [amongst which was St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles] being visible and notorious to all, was no Mystery at all, nor can he be supposed to refer to that, when he tells them he would discover a Mystery to them; for in Scripture phrase a Mystery contains somewhat sacred, and somewhat secret: But 'twas a great Mystery and a marvellous Secret, that the body and bulk of the Jews were suffered by God's just judgement to lie in unbelief till the fullness of the Gentiles was come in, and that then the Jews should all be called, the Veil taken off their faces, and so all Israel should be saved; and this he says expressly is God's Covenant unto them when he shall take away their sins. By all Israel, 'tis past all denial he means the Jews; for in the preceding Verse he says, Blindness was happened to Israel in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and then all Israel should be saved, where the opposition is plain enough between Jew and Gentile; and he means the same thing by Israel, where he speaks of Israel in part, and all Israel, and the Quotation he brings solely respects the Jews, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. No Man can ever so mistake, as to think that Prophecy belonged to the Gentiles, or any part of them; For this (says he) is my covenant unto them; and as concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. So that this calling of the Jews, that, according to St. Paul, is yet to come, for there has never been since his time, any such juncture, with reference to the Jews, as could be called their fullness, or such a revival, and such a reception of them into the Christian Church, as could be called Life from the Dead, or has it yet so turned unto the Lord, that the Veil has been taken off them; this calling, I say, of the Jews, aught to be established as an undoubted Doctrine of the Christian Church, St. Paul having not in very many Points declared himself more fully, as I conceive, than he has done in this; nor is there any thing material that can possibly be objected against this genuine and clear Interpretation of the Apostle's sense before given, who has largely and with great exactness and accuracy treated upon this Subject, and as I conceive for ever determined it.  
I come in the last place to the consideration of this particular apartment of this Epistle in the 12th Chapter, from the 18th Verse to the 24th. The Apostle in these Verses is vigorously pursuing the chief design of this whole Epistle, which is to encourage and persuade the believing Jews, to stand fast in the profession of the Gospel; and in order to it, not to forsake the Christian Affemblies, [which was in those days usually the first step to Apostasy] notwithstanding all the specious Allurements they had to return to the Mosaical Institutions, and notwithstanding all the sore and pressing Persecutions they underwent for their Professions sake; and the chief Motives he insists on all along for their so doing, are from the Author of the Gospel, and the Excellency of the Gospel itself, the Preference it hath to the Law, the great Privileges they are arrived at thereby, and how worthy the Gospel was in all respects to be suffered for. In these Verses he seems to make an epitomizing comparison between both the Dispensations, that of the Law, and this of the Gospel, and as he says in the 8th Chapter, speaking of the Priesthood of Christ, Of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum, or head, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So what he says here in these Verses seems to be such a recapitulation of his whole comparative Discourse between the Law and the Gospel.  
The particular induction of these Verses gins in the 15th Verse: Looking diligently, lest any man fail [or fall away] from the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness spring up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled: lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, like Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears; Which is in other words to say, take great heed lest any of you Apostatise from the Christian Doctrine to Judaisme, and that by such example many others be seduced to do the like: For in so doing you will resemble profane Esau, who so easily as upon the pressure of a little temporary hunger, and the relief of one poor meal, sold his birthright and primogeniture, upon which God had entailed the Priesthood and the Dominion of the Family, the double portion, and the blessing of the Covenant, for so long as God was served within private walls, and before the Tabernacle and Temple were erected, to the first born was appurtenant the Priesthood, and the right of performing all Holy and sacred Ministrations before the Lord; and upon these accounts the Apostle calls him Profane Esau: the apostatising Jews would resemble him, and that in a twofold respect.  
1st, Because the Gospel that contained all the glorious privileges, was their peculiar birthright, the promises being made originally, as we are told in the 9th of the Romans; to them, Christ came of them, and first offered himself to them, and the Gospel was preached in the first place to the Jews, and tendered to them as their particular Right, before it reached the Gentiles.  
2dly. If out of the impatience of some Temporary persecution and to obtain some present worldly ease and repose, they should quit and forsake the Gospel, they would become like profane Esau, who despised all his Spiritual Privileges, to satisfy his present appetite, and sold them for so mean a carnal advantage as one poor meal.  
Before we come to a distinct consideration of each particular of the Apostles comparison, and for the clearer understanding of it, some things may be previously noted; First, We have here set forth, how much more Honourable the call of a Christian is then that of a Jew, and how much greater and nobler attainments we arrive at by the Gospel, than ever the Jews could pretend to by the Law: And this is done, First, Negatively, By showing that we are past and not come to those lower and more terrene Dispensations and Methods of the Law; but we are come to all the wonderful privileges and advantages of the Gospel, it has been God's way from the Beginning to proceed gradually in the Reveration of his love and good will to the World, and still to advance farther and farther in discoveries of himself, and in methods of Grace, till at last the intercourse between God and Man upon the assumption of the Human Nature to the Divine, is as near as it can be, and Men come to have access to God, in the manner the Apostle tells us, Eph. 2. ver. 18. For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father; which is to Worship in the Grace, Glory, and Efficacy of the whole Trinity, and to have as much Communion and Fellowship with each Person distinctly, and as much enjoyment of them, as we are capable of in this lower World.  
Secondly, The Apostle here sets before the believing Jews, the form of giving the Law, and the effects of it, both which had in them all the discouragement and dissuasive imaginable from deserting the Gospel and returning to that; for the giving forth of the Law was with all the amazing affrighting Terror that possibly could be, to represent the eternal Majesty and Sovereignty of God the Supreme Legislator: The dreadful Consequences of breaking his Laws, and falling under his Justice and Wrath, and how fearful a thing it is for a sinner without some reconciliation to fall into the Hands of the living God, and the effect of this dreadful promulgation was suitable to it, for the People fell under the Highest consternation, and petitioned that God would please to speak for the future to them by Moses, being far unable to endure any such personal converse with the Almighty: Nay, even Moses himself, that had so long, and so intimately conversed with God, was not able to abide by this dreadful appearance, but fell into a paroxysm of quaking and fear, and this sufficiently represented by the vast distance there was between God and Man, in this dispensation, and how impossible it was for Man under that Law, ever to approach unto God with any comfort and satisfaction.  
Thirdly, By the Apostles so punctually setting forth the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai, and opposing that singly, to the Fabric and State of the Gospel, is contained this insinuation, that it was comprehensive of their whole constitution; the highest Privilege and Honour the Jewish Church had to boast of, and that wherein they did most eminently stand distinguished from the rest of the World, was, their being brought unto Mount Sinai, and God Personally meeting them there, and himself delivering his Law unto them: By this they were most eminently in their public national State taken into Covenant with God above all the kindreds of the Earth, and constituted there by a political State and a National Church unto himself; and the Apostle reckons it as one of their highest privileges, the giving of the Law. Now the force of the Apostles Discourse lies in this, the greatest thing you have to boast is your Law, and God's giving it himself to you upon Mount Sinai, thence came all your National Privileges, and that was indeed no other than a splendid Ministration of Death, Man stood there before God under the greatest Gild, Condemnation and Misery, and God ap peared with the severest and most awful aspect that Man could behold him in; nothing but Thunders, Earthquakes, Voices, Fires, and dreadful Horror round about him: The Pardon, the Peace, the Reconciliation, the near Approach unto God that Man stood in need of, these things belong to Mount Zion, to which we are come by the Gospel, and 'tis a very sorry change for any Jew that had embraced the Christian profession and viewed the Glory of this spiritual Mount, and the Inhabitants of it to return back to Mount Sinai, and all the dreadful circumstances appurtenant to it.  
I come now to the distinct consideration of each particular in these verses, For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, or as some better read it [the fire that burned;] the Apostles scope is to discover the Excellency and Glory of the Gospel-state by a Negative comparison of it with that of the Legal, and 'tis one good step towards the showing what a thing is, to show comparatively [when the comparisons lie near] what it is not, you are not come (says he) unto that mount that might be touched; coming to that Mount which your Fathers came to, is quite out of date; that is not your present business, that is not the Dispensation God calls you to now; but you are by his call come to another Mount, a much nobler and better state of things, we are said to be come to that to which God calls us unto, and to which he requires our attendance and obedience; the People came to this Mount after very great preparatives of God's own appointment; we by the Gospel came to Mount Zion without any such typical preparations; this Mount was Mount Sinai in Arabia in the Wilderness of Horeb, called sometimes the Mount of God, which probably St. Paul when he traveled there (as in one of his Epistles he tells us he did) had seen. Three things are observable of it, 1st, It was a very great and high Mountain. 2dly, That it was in a vast and Barren Desert, had a most retired and solitary Situation: And, 3dly, That it was a Mountain full of fruitless unprofitable Shrubs and Bushes, from whence it had its denomination.  
Now in regard that all God's proceed are originated in infinite Wisdom, and so perfect and complete, and every circumstance of them carries in its bowels wonderful Instruction, 'tis not only our Duty, but our great Advantage and Interest by searching to find it out, especially in things of this nature, where every thing was impregnated with future and typical significations.  
For the first, God's choosing to appear and deliver his Law from the top of such a Mountain, was to set before the People his Highness and Majesty, and to represent his supreme Sovereignty over them, and the great distance that by this dispensation he was at from them; we read in Scripture of many sacred Transactions upon Mountains, as being nearer Heaven and more removed from Earth; and our Saviour himself from such a Pulpit uttered that famous Sermon of his recorded in the 5th of Matthew. God's Appearances to the World from the beginning have been suited to his Designs and Intendments thereby; so when he appeared to Abraham, to give him the Promise of the Messiab, he appeared in the form of a Man; when he appeared to Moses, to insure him the People should survive their Afflictions and Sorrows in Egypt, because his presence was amongst them, he appeared as Fire in a Bush, and the Bush not consumed by the Fire, because he dwelled in it; and when he appeared to Joshua, who was to be his Captain, and sight his Battles in Canaan, he appeared as an armed Man, with a naked Sword in his hand; so here, being to deliver, as the supreme Legislator, his Laws to the People, his Appearance is all Majestic, to represent the Sanctity and Severity of his Laws, and the dreadful destruction would accompany the breach of them: For let us but consider distinctly and particularly how this Mount was circumstanced, and we shall see nothing could to flesh and blood be more awing and dreadful, the Lord himself, the eternal Jehovah, descended like devouring Fire upon it, the Mount was thereupon all over Fire and Smoak, with Blackness and Darkness, and quaked exceedingly, Thunders and terrible Voices filled the Air, and above all, there sounded in their cars that most dreadful sound of the Trumpet, that waxed louder and jouder, and the voice of words, after all, with which they were so terrified, that they could not endure the consternation of it, and earnestly petitioned they might never hear it more. And what could be less expected, since this was the first general discovery, in a way judicial, God made to the World of their Apostasy and Rebellion, and the first time he by a comprehensive Law set it before them? We could not expect to hear of God in any other way, or that he would with any other aspect show himself upon such an occasion; the Law belonged to Man from the beginning, and was so imprinted in his constitution, that he was a Law to himself; it was also correspondent to, and inherent in, the holy nature of God, that made him in his Image, but God thought it not fit to promulgate it in such a Systeme till now, nor to set before him in Tables of Stone, what was originally written, however defaced in the fleshly Table of the Heart; but herein, as in a Glass, he shows unto Man at once his deformed and apostate Face, and all the Rebellions of Adam and his Posterity ever since; the discovery of which must needs be dreadful to Man, and accompanied with the highest displeasure in God; and therefore nothing was visible in this whole Transaction, but Tokens of Wrath and Displeasure; in a way judicial, nothing could more awfully represent. God's coming, to take a strict Account of, and give a final Judgement upon the World, than this Appearance; the sweet and gentle Calls of the Gospel (satisfaction being interposed) are quite of another nature.  
Secondly, This Mountain was situated in a vast barren and fruitless Desert, to signify to us, the Nature of the Dispensation (as to Man's advantage by it) as barren and fruitless as the Desert itself, the Law being suitable to the holy Nature of God, and Man's corrupt and depraved Nature and Inclination lying in direct opposition to it, nothing but ruin and destruction could accrue unto Mankind thereby, the Law being, according to the Divine Nature, holy, just, and good, and Man being originally made in that Image, this Law before his fall would have been his great delight and satisfaction, and it had been natural to him to have lived in conformity to it, but having degenerated from that Image and lost it, this Law becomes to him Death and Condemnation, God could not repeal it, nor Man perform the Duties of it, nor make any suitable satisfaction for his disobedience, and so Mankind must needs lie down in sorrow, and by the fear and dread of this Law be all their life-time subject to bondage; how impossible was unsinning obedience to a creature, the thoughts of whose heart was evil, and only evil, and continually evil? God could not repeal it, he could no more dissolve and destroy or contradict that Law, as to the matter of it, than he could contradict his own Existence; as for instance, when he commands no other Gods to be worshipped but himself alone, this could never be repealed without God's denying himself; and so when he commands, that Men should not Steal, nor Lie: this is so founded in the rectitude, veracity, and justice of God, that it can never be reversed, because they are eternal Principles inherent in the Nature and Being of God, as well as the counterpart of Man's original Frame: The result of this matter is plainly this, As no Man could possibly be happy, while in Rebellion against his Maker, and in some respect against himself, so no Man could ever be happy under this Law, that fully discovered his Rebellion unto him, and inflicted the Penalties due to it, without any provision of Relief, or the discovery of any Remedy or Help in this case; Man could never keep this Law, nor make any adequate compensation for the breach of it, and therefore it only served to make this discovery to him, that thereby he was irrecoverably lost, and that his happiness and help must arise some other way. So that of all places this Mount Sinai yields the least desirable Fruit to Mankind, and is of all others the most formidable and destructive, and no Man that is once discharged from the dreadful consequences that attend it, could ever more mistake his own interest, than to meditate a retreat to the Soil of Horeb and Sinai.  
If it be asked, how we come ever to be freed from the Obligation of the Law, if the Law be in itself of such an unalterable Nature; the answer is, We never were, nor can be, free from an obligation to the matter of it, while the World endures there will be an obedience due to it; but our freedom and discharge from it lies in this, there being no Remedy provided by the Law itself for our breach of it, and Man himself being utterly at a loss in that matter, and never able to provide any, God himself in the deepest profoundest contrivance of infinite Wisdom, finds out a way to make a satisfaction on our behalf to himself, for all our transgressions of it; and so although the Law, as to the nature of it, be not thereupon repealed, yet upon plenary satisfaction made, the Penalty is relaxed, and our blessed Redeemer in his own Person having suffered all the Penalties the Law inflicted, the whole power of legislation and giving Laws to the World, is henceforward put into his hand, all Power in Heaven and Earth henceforth is his, the Mediator is now the only Legislator, and no Law is in force, but what he promulgeth; and thereupon as it was delivered upon Mount Sinai to the Jews, 'tis by him dissolved, and we come under obligation to it, not only as it is the Law Natural, but by virtue of a new edition of it in the Laws of the Gospel, with which it is incorporated and now enjoined, and becomes obligatory upon the gracious terms thereof and no other.  
The third circumstance considerable, with reference to this Mount, is this, That it was not only situated in the barren Wilderness of Horeb, and was itself a most barren fruitless place, full of nothing but unprofitable Shrubs, fit only for the fire, but it was also a Place of wonderful retreat from all the Business and Company of the World, a Place extremely solitary and retired, in the midst of a vast and uninhabited Wilderness, and to this day remains the most desolate part of the known World; here it was God was pleased to call the People out to meet him; here he chose, of all the parts of the Earth, to deliver his Law to them, and not without great expression and signification.  
1st, This was to let us know, that when God speaks to us, we should have nothing to do, but singly to attend him; that supersedes all other occasions, is of greatest import, and all other affairs are to be postponed. God having great things to transact with the People that came out of Egypt, in order to sundry future as well as present designs of highest moment and consequence, kept them Forty Years in the Wilderness at his own finding and providing, that so nothing might interpose between him and them, nor interrupt that converse he designed to have with them, and that trial he meant to make of them: when we are to deal and transact with God, we should say to all the World as Abraham said to his Servants when he was ascending the Mount to sacrifice Isaac, Stay you here, while I go and worship yonder.  
2dly, This was to signify to us, that when God powerfully declares himself in the efficacy of his Law, he will bring Men into such a solitude, as that no diversions whatever shall relieve them, he will set them nakedly before him without the least shelter to cover or conceal them; many are the cover Men make to conceal themselves and their nakedness from God, and many the subterfuges to which they retire from him, but one time or other God will have every living Man removed from all worldly concerns to make his Appearance before him; he will call every Family and every Person apart, and set their sins in order before them, after they have accustomed themselves to such mean and low conceptions of him, that at last they think him to be like themselves, and thereby render the Notion of God nothing but an Idol in their own degenerate fancy. God's choosing this place to deliver his Law, aught to be a great and awful consideration to every Man that makes it his business to hid himself by diversion from God, and the best part of himself, which is his Conscience, the great present Relief that both evil Men and evil Angels find, is by diverting themselves with the Noise and Business of this World, from a solemn consideration of the relation there is between God and them, and how great an accountant every creature must needs be to his Maker, ill Men would soon fall into great Agonies, was there nothing in their view but God and themselves, for they carry about with them their own condemnation: 'Twas truly and excellently said by a Heathen Author, Prima est haec ultio quod se judice Nemo nocens absolvitur. Every such Man is in Practicals, what St. Paul tells us an Heretic is in Doctrinals, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Man condemned of himself; and 'tis impossible to discharge such a Man. The meaning of the Apostle, I take to be, that he that had at his first entrance into Christianity, that had at his Baptism made a public Profession of the true orthodox Doctrine of the Gospel, and after fallen in with corrupt and heretical Opinions contrary to it, had thereby openly condemned himself, and pulled down what he before had built up: So 'tis with all Men that profess to know God, and in Works deny him; that are convinced of the Law, that it is good, and of the obligation they have to it, but yet never measure their own Practices by it; sooner or later they will be all brought into the circumstances the People were in at this Mount Sinai; David diverted himself long from the sense of his Murder and Adultery, but at last God singled him out, and so treated with him apart from all the concerns of his Kingdom, as filled him with the deepest Anguish and Sorrow. How wise and happy a choice is it to enter into our Closets betimes, to commune with our own Hearts and be still, and to let our Reins instruct us in the still Season of the Night, to set God before us, and all the World at a distance behind us, and take a right and perfect view of our own state with reference to God, and never take up our rest till we are arrived to those Terms he requires to qualify us for our reconciliation to him, that we may upon good grounds reckon ourselves amongst the Called, the Faithful, and the Chosen. Under the Gospel there is one sure neverfailing trial of a safe condition, he that sincerely and as an honest Man ought to do a thing, endeavours a perfect conquest over his most prevailing and predominant Sin, that Man is a sincere Man in the Gospel account, and without all controversy in the high road to Everlasting Happiness; 'tis our great wisdom to possess ourselves now with those thoughts we shall be sure to have when God summons us to make our Appearance before him; whatever it is that keeps us from so doing, engages us to the highest folly, and renders a Man the Scripture-Fool, that is, the Fool in God's account, which is the true Fool, a Man made up and constituted of folly about his greatest concerns; when the mirth and pleasant part of the World is a diversion from this, we may well say of Laughter that it is Madness, and when we employ ourselves in the wisest and most serious part of the World, in order to secure us from this, we do but seed upon Vanity and Lie, a deceived Heart leads us aside, and we cover ourselves with such a sorry garment as will shortly be stripped from us, and we shall be left exposed and naked; how great and how miserable a Fool is that Man that is top full of this World, and the Business of it, and thinks of nothing else, when God calls him privately aside, and tells him, This night shall thy soul be taken from thee; and from henceforward, to all eternity, thou shalt have nothing to do but to converse with thy own Sins and with me in the effects of my Justice.  
Several appurtenant Circumstances the Apostle reckons up to this Mount, to which they were not come, which they might contemplate with much satisfaction, and the more highly value Gospel-Attainments:  
1st, That it might be touched; the meaning of which was only this, that the intangibility of it by Man or Beast, was only by virtue of Divine Sanction and Command, and so it was but figuratively so; but the Mount in itself might be touched, and was a carnal earthly thing suitable to that dispensation, which was but an earthly Tabernacle pitched by Man; but Mount Zion, he compares it withal, is a thing impossible to be touched, and is in its own nature purely spiritual; the sum is, your Fathers came with their Bodies to a Mount that might be touched, though it must not be touched; but by the Gospel, you are come in your Spirits to a Mount that cannot corporally be touched, that is altogether heavenly and spiritual. 2dly, It was full of Fire. 3dly, There was Blackness. 4thly, Darkness: And, 5thly, Tempests. Fire is of all parts of the Creation most dreadful to flesh and blood, and in itself terrifying, tormenting, devouring; and therefore, to make his Majesty the more dreadful, God 'tis said descended upon the Mount in Fire, and the Law here given is thence called a fiery Law; in the 5th of Deut. we find the People three times together expressing their dreadful fear of this Fire; and the Psalmist alludes to this in the 97th Psalm, when he says, A fire goeth before him. As the most dreadful part of the Creation, Hell itself is oftenest set forth by it; this Fire was accompanied with Blackness, Darkness, Tempest, Lightnings, Thundrings, and Earthquakes, the most affrighting astonishing Composition that could be set before Humane Eyes, and in that conjunction rendering each other more terrifying and amazing, all representing the obscurity and severity of that Dispensation, and the sad and sore Punishments the Law inflicted upon every transgressor; as Hell is called Fire, so 'tis also called the Blackness of Darkness; and by the Tempest, was signified what Storms and Confusions the Law makes in the Minds of convinced Sinners, when no Remedy appears. 'Tis not now possible to conceive, what a terrifying, heart-breaking, killing Sight, that Mount was so circumstanced, and the Apostle gives them no small ground of consolation, when he tells them they are not come to this Mount: 'Tis true, that all this is called by the Holy Ghost, in the New Testament, Glorious, but 'tis meant of the Glory of God's Justice and of his severity, which we are told is much excelled, and in a sort eclipsed by the Glory of his Grace and Mercy.  
6thly, and 7thly. To complete the Terror of this Mount the Apostle mentions the sound of the Trumpet, by which God summoned the People to appear before Him, and the voice of words which the people were not able to bear the hearing of: Of the sacred use of Trumpets we read much in Scripture, sometimes to summon to great Judgements, and sometimes preparative calls to great Mercies, they were used in calling Assemblies, and in a solemn manner in proclaiming the Jubilee every 50th Year; upon which account the People were said to be blessed that heard the joyful sound: There was also every first Day of the 7th Month, a Memorial of blowing of Trumpets to summon the People to the Day of expiation, the preaching of the Gospel is often typically represented, by a Trumpet sounding, 'tis also in the Revelation, introductive of all the great Judgements towards the end of the World, the seven Trumpets there are said to sound for that purpose; and in the very last coming of Christ, he is said to come with the Voice of the Archangel and the Trumpet of God: This that the People heard here was not a real Trumpet, but the sound of one, possibly the Voice of the Archangel uttered in the sound of a Trumpet, as perhaps the Voice of the Archangel and the Trumpet of God when Christ shall come, is only the Voice of the Archangel uttered in the sound of a Trumpet, this Trumpet upon Mount Sinai is said to wax louder and louder; signifying God's nearer approach until he uttered the Law unto them: The sound of it was most terrifying and dreadful, and had this signification, That God will call all Flesh before him and alarm them to receive the Judgement pronounced by his Laws, and the call will be so loud that no Mortal Ear can exclude it.  
To the sound of the Trumpet is added the voice of words, with which the People were so greatly affrighted, their fear arose not only from the Matter of the Words, but from the manner of their delivery, and that dreadful sound in which they were uttered, as appears by their petition put up, which was not that God should not speak to them any more, but that he would speak by Moses, and not himself personally any more lest they should die. This appears in the recapitulation of this story in Deut. 5. the People are there said to desire Moses; Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say. The Apostle adds, they could not bear that which was commanded, the weight of the Law was unsupportable; and to add to the terror of all Disobedience to it, if so much as Man or Beast touched the Mountain from whence it was delivered it was immediately to die; and even Moses himself who had often been so near unto God, and so conversant with him, was not able to abide this dreadful scene, but fell into consternation and horror, [an evident intimation, that the best Man upon Earth could not stand before God, under that dispensation;] which addition to the story, God for some especial ends (we may be assured) gave to the Apostle by Revelation, there being no such thing recorded by Moses himself.  
In the 22th Verse the Apostle comes to the second Part of the comparison, the affirmitive Part, showing what it is that the believing Jews when they embraced Christianity came to, but ye are come to mount Zion: 1st, This in general is to instruct the converted Jews, that by the Gospel they are come to, and embodied with the true Catholic Church, called in scripture, the fullness of him that filleth all things; of which the National Church of the Jews was but a Type and a Figure: 2dly, That this true Catholic Church is partly in Heaven and partly on Earth. And 3dly, The Apostle by intermixing these parts together in his account of them, gives them to understand, that they are all of one piece and together make but one Church and one Body under one Head, things in Heaven and things on Earth being united in Christ as their common head, and by telling them they are come, they are come to this Catholic Church: the Apostle signifies this unto them, that as their Fathers after several Days Travel upon their coming out of Egypt, and by great and solemn preparations, came at last to Mount Sinai; so they and their Fathers having traveled through the former dispensation, which was the great preparative to this, they are now safely arrived hither, and are come to all the Glories and Privileges of the Gospel, they are come in respect of Relation and Communion to all that part of the Church that is in Heaven, and to all the true and real parts of it upon Earth, not now confined to any National Constitution whatever; and this is the best state and utmost that we can attain to in this World. The Apostles drift here is not at all to describe the Church Triumphant, but the Militant Church; the force of this Discourse lies in preferring the state of the Gospel Church here upon Earth, beyond and before that of the legal and judicial Church, and the Apostle chooseth to represent them both by two Mounts, one where the Law was given, (which was the greatest thing belonged to the Judaical oeconomy;) and the other from whence the Gospel first issued. If you ask why the Apostle represents the Gospel state by Mount Zion and Jerusalem, that were places proper and peculiar to the Jews; there are several accounts may be given of it.  
1st, Because those places had Spiritual and Gospel significations even as the Jews enjoyed them; and so the Apostle represents by them [the better to engage the Jews] what they truly and really signified, and speaks of them in their own native and proper representation: Mount Zion consisted of two parts, on the highest part the Temple was built, and on the other the Palace of their Kings; so that this Mount was typically comprehensive of their Civil and Ecclesiastical state.  
2dly, The Gospel first issued from thence, and it was prophesied that so it should do, Esau 2.3. out of Zion shall go forth the Law, (speaking of the Gospel) and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And the same Prophet tells us, the deliverer shall come out of Zion; and upon that account in Psal. 133. God is said from Mount Zion to command the blessing, even life for evermore; the meaning is, Christ himself came into the Temple upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and from thence in person issued out the Proclamation of the Gospel, and therefore the Apostle keeps up the Honour of this Mount, and this City, because it had ever been by right and designation the seat of the true Worship of the only true God, in opposition to all Idolatry, and upon that account called the City of the Living God; and in regard of the most glorious Types and Prefigurations were therein included, and at last therein appeared the great end and substance of them all; the glorious Person of God-Man of Christ himself; it seems in a sort necessary, if the Church were denominated by any one place; it should be from this, as being comprehensive of the whole Church and State of the Jews, and the very centre of it, the Catholic Church under the Gospel being under confinement to no one place more than another, no one place could so give a denomination to it, as it might do to a National Church, and therefore this place is made choice of by the Holy Ghost, and being comprehensive of all God's sacred institutions of old, of the Jewish Church Literally, and the Gospel Church Spiritually: The Catholic Church universally thereupon is denominated from it, and by it, to the end of the World.  
To which we may add in the Third place, That since all the promises in the Old Testament that are made to the Gospel Church to the end of the World, are made to it under those names of Zion and Jerusalem, that therefore it seems necessary to keep up those names [as it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to do] to the end of the World, to show the punctual fulfilling of those promises in all Ages. What Mount Zion and Jerusalem signified will not be completed till the Consummation of all things, upon which account God was said to take up his rest and dwell there for ever: Nothing therefore seems so proper, so decent, and fit, as to denominate the Gospel-Church by those terms; and as it was in the Apostles times a great help to them to find out what Christ was to do and suffer, by what was signified and typified of him under the Law, so it will be to the very end of the World a marvellous help to the Church to understand the glorious methods of his Kingdom and Government, by looking back and seeing how it was set forth in the prefigurations of it that belonged to Jerusalem and Mount Zion.  
It pleaseth the Holy Ghost throughout the whole Scripture most frequently to represent the Gospel in Judaical Types and Phrases, and two reasons we may probably suppose for it.  
1st, To show what an exact Agreement and Harmony there is in all God's Dispensations, how every shadow truly represented the substance, and every counterpart punctually agrees with the original.  
And 2dly, As a means to promote the conversion of the Jews in the latter times, when they shall lay to heart and consider, that all their own Religion expressed in their own Language, is truly and fully to be found in the Christian Religion, that the Law therein is exactly construed into the Gospel, and every particular thing they most valued they shall here find by name expressed, and fully to be enjoyed in the substance and perfection of it.  
But for the more punctual and exact discovery of the Apostles sense in these Verses, it will be needful to consider the particulars [to which he tells the believing Jews they were come] severally, and distinctly.  
The First thing he tells them they are come to, is to Mount Zion, of which for the clearer comprehension of the Apostles meaning by it, some things may be particularly considered of that Mount as it stood circumstanced under the Law; and this in especial, that the great Honour that is put upon it in Scripture, is principally with respect to the Temple that then stood upon the top of it, and which was meant and signified by it; this was the place whither all the Males were to come three times a Year, and the solemn part of all the Jewish Worship could be no where else performed, and their private Worship where ever they were at home or abroad, (upon Solomon's request to God at the first dedication of it) was generally directed towards this place. This we may see in the case of Jonah, who in the Whale's Belly thought of directing his Prayer towards this Holy Temple; and the Prophet Daniel, when it was pulled down and lay in Rubbish, prayed even then towards it three times a day, as we see in the 6th of Daniel. This Temple, placed upon Mount Zion, was the only sanctified House where the mighty God was pleased to take up his dwelling since the World began; the Tabernacle was small and ambulatory, and but preparative to this glorious, sanctified, solemn Fabric; the City of Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan, were only holy relatively and upon collateral accounts, the City with reference to the Temple, the place of God's residence, but the Temple was inherently Holy, made so by God's own dedication, and descent into it at the first; this was the place where day and night God was served without ceasing, according to his own ordination, and therefore he is said to love it above all the dwelling places of Jacob. Here the long expected Messiah, the Son of God, Christ himself was brought, and all that the Law required performed about ●im in this Sacred House: But sure we are the Apostle intended nothing literal about this Mount, his drift is wholly spiritual; and therefore, having premised thus much of the literal, typical State of this Mount, we must now examine what it means in this place, and as it lies in the comparison, and the sense intended, seems very obvious; by Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the City of the living God, the same thing is intended and this is the meaning, ye are come to all that was typified by them, and all that was promised on the Church's behalf to them, to every Promise made to the Church under those denominations, which is no other but the Gospel-state and the blessed Privileges and Administrations thereof in its fullness and glory; the Apostle declares the meaning of these places to be spiritual, and neither of private interpretation nor literal signification, that the Jews might cease doting upon them in that low and mean sense, and might be convinced that the Gospel virtually contains all that was excellent in them; Mount Zion (as was before said) had its value from the Temple that stood upon it, and therefore when the Gospel is prophesied of by it, 'tis said the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains. Now, instead of this material Temple, every Christian under the Gospel is himself a living Temple of the Holy Ghost, a Temple wherein God dwells, and all spiritual Worship and Service is continually offered up, and the whole Church is one entire living Temple, wherein God is always spiritually served, so 'tis expressed in the 2d of Ephes. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: And he that is arrived at this true Gospel-state, and all the glorious Enjoyments of it, to have access to the Father, through the Son, by that one Spirit, he is come to the true Mount Zion and the real Temple, where God will dwell for ever, he abides in the nearest access to God he is capable of, and in all those holy and sanctified Qualifications which the Temple signified, as it was then the Seat and Centre of all the true Worship of God.  
The second thing the Apostle tells the Jews they are come to, is the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of the living God, and although the signification of this, is the same with Mount Zion, yet it is greatly farthering to the Apostle's design, the mention of it, that so the Jews might think nothing valuable amongst them was lost, but all to be found with great advantage in the profession of the Gospel, the whole Religion of that National Church of the Jews being contained in this City, and therein virtually comprised the whole state of the Gospel. The Catholic Church, with great reason and signification, under the Gospel every where spread, and under no confinement, is styled a City, and is called Jerusalem; a vast difference there was between coming to that dreadful, barren Mount Sinai, in the Wilderness of Horeb, and the City of the living God. Several things are considerable in this City to heighten the comparison, taking it to be made either with Mount Sinai or Jerusalem literal:  
1st, The Noble and Honourable Government of this City: 'Tis governed by the great Charter of the Gospel; none have any Rule but the living God himself; no Laws are in force here, but what come from Christ's own Mouth; the Gospel Church is built up and managed as the Temple was [which was the soul and glory of this City] in every particular, by God's own punctual direction, and there is his delight; there his Soul rests where he is served by Laws of his own composing and enacting.  
2dly, This City is a place of invincible strength and security; the Jews knew to their cost the earthly Jerusalem was not so: here's the Mount Zion that cannot be moved; the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it; 'tis sure to remain against all opposition, till it be safely taken up into Heaven, from whence it came.  
3dly, The Inhabitants of it are all united; 'tis a City compact together, not with carnal and earthly, but spiritual Ligaments; there is such an union in it as God has chosen and takes pleasure in; amidst great variety, they have but one Head; they all minister under him as fellow-citizens for the good of each other; they are all guided and animated by one Spirit, and they all tend to one and the same end.  
4thly, 'Tis a City of wonderful Beauty, the City of the great King, the Palace of the living and eternal God, as the Psalmist says comprehensively and prophetically of it under the name of Zion, Beautiful for situation is mount Zion, the joy of the whole earth: this Beauty lies in the Presence of God, and in its Sanctity, and in that Image and Superscription of God that it bears; here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness, and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes: and this City, as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem, and the City of the living God, is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem, as it abode during the whole state of the Law; for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians, that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai; but Jerusalem, which is above, says he is free, which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of; the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above, the Heavenly State, that is plain by the Context, but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth: the thing to be enquired after is, upon what account 'tis called the heavenly Jerusalem, and Jerusalem above, and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it, and that upon several accounts:  
1st, It comes originally down from Heaven, Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it.  
2dly, All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here, both the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by their gracious Presence and Influences; and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place, and their Abode for ever; and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come, God, the Judge of all, Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and an innumerable company of Angels; the Angels are all as ministering Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it, and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City.  
3dly, It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth, the blessed Angels, and the Saints departed, as well as the Saints living on Earth, are parts of it, and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly, and Jerusalem above.  
4thly, All the true Members of it, even upon Earth, are holy and heavenly Persons, their conversation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their City-conversation is in Heaven, and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there. And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholic Church under the Gospel, which is not fixed to any one earthly place, nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity, but is free, is the Mother of us all, comes from above, and returns thither; it may be said of it as it was of Christ, when he was the Son of Man upon Earth, he was also the Son of Man in Heaven; and so this Jerusalem, this heavenly City, whilst it is upon Earth, it is also in Heaven: the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly, and the whole World, both Jews and Gentiles, are comprehended in it, making, as the Apostle speaks, of them twain one new man.  
The third think Believers are said to come to, is an innumerable company of Angels; the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel, where it is said, speaking of God, Thousand thousands minister unto him, and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, ye are come to Miriads of Angels, which is well rendered, an innumerable company of Angels; and this is made good several ways:  
1st, We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them, they are part of Christ's Household, only inhabit a Story above us; for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Sovereign, and make but one Incorporation; they all join together in the same Adoration and Worship, for God hath said, let all the Angels of God worship him, and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns, in all the Affairs of his House and Family.  
2dly, We are come to these Angels by having a secret, invisible, yet constant and sweet Communion with them; great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us, and the converse they have with us, taking notice of all our private Devotions, and farthering us therein, by many unthought of and undiscerned, yet very advantageous circumstances, such as lies in their way to administer, and also by being present in the public and solemn Assemblies of the Church, where they not only join and concur in the Worship and Service performed, but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in, they are aiding and assisting, and both in the private and public Worship of the Saints, continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels; and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven; as the Saints here look upwards and rejoice in their fixed and established Happiness and Glory above, so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below, and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves, and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery, and taking such complacency in it, and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Sovereign and Head to that purpose, their whole Endeavours tend that way, and to assist in the completing of the Church, as it is their peculiar Province, so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction.  
3dly. We are come to those Miriads of Angels, as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church, and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry, in general, they have the care of all the Elect, the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping, we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him, as they did about Elisha of old. How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general, and each individual Member of it, by the Angelical Ministry? the manner of which, though we enjoy the benefit, is to us unknown; and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World, so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen, and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary; this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates, who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul, but the Angel's work upon us only as external Operators, and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suited thereunto, and from our present Inclination and Disposition, suitable to which they accommodate their Actings, but they convey not, as the Holy Ghost does, any inward Power of Acting, nor any new Abilities to our Souls.  
4thly, As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general, and of every Member of it in particular, in order to accuse, calumniate and misrepresent before God, so these blessed Angels are constant Spectators and public Notaries of all the Proceed of the Church, and all the Actings and Sufferings of every Member thereof, in order to bear a faithful Witness before God, and be a punctual Record thereof at the Day of Judgement: And in this sense we are come unto them, they are not only present in public Assemblies, but conversant in the Closet of every Saint, and take an exact view of all their devout and fervent Addresses unto God; upon this account it is that St. Paul tells us, that the Apostles by their Preaching and Suffering were a Spectacle to Angels, the holy Angels beheld their Spiritual Courage and Conquest with wonderful satisfaction; and upon this account it is, that St. Paul chargeth Timothy, before the Elect Angels, to look well to the discharge of his Work and Office, because they are Witnesses appointed of God to take punctual notice of his Behaviour therein; and the Presence of the Angels is made an Argument by the Holy Ghost for the well-ordering ourselves and all our Actions in Church-Assemblies.  
5thly, The Angels as they are God's Officers, employed for the guard and security of the Church, so they are also for the revenging of his Wrath upon their Enemies, so it often was under the Old Testament, and so it is under the New, and will continue till the end; that wretched profane Herod, who added to all his former wickedness to shut up John in Prison, and after added to that addition to cut off his Head to please a Dalilah, and at last came to make himself his own Idol, by taking to himself that glory that should have been ascribed to God, at last an Angel smote him and dispatched him to his own place, by a woeful and miserable Catastrophey: the Angels stood all ready when our blessed Saviour was led to the Cross, to have rescued him upon the least Command; this our Saviour himself told the Jews, when he was encompassed with a Roman Guard, he could upon request to his Father have more than twelve legions of angels to rescue and assist him, which exceeded the number of Men the Romans than had in their whole Army, for their Army at that time did not consist of twelve Legions; and in the Revelations we find the Angels constantly employed by God as the great Executioners of his Wrath upon the Church's Enemies to the end of the World.  
6thly, We are come to this innumerable company of Angels, as to our truest Friends and most faithful Companions, for they never leave us till they have brought us home.  
1st, To the rest of our Souls in Heaven, for they wait upon every dying Believer to comfort and cheer his spirit so soon as ever it hath left the Body, and safely to convey it into that Blessed fellowship above, and into that glorious place and state of rest called Abraham's Bosom.  
And 2dly, They will be assisting and instrumental [though it be effected by the mighty Power of God] to call and raise the Bodies of the Saints out of their Graves at last: when Christ comes to effect the first Resurrection, he will be attended with all his Glorious Angels, and by their Ministry the Dead in Christ shall rise first, the Trumpet that will sound to summon them out of their ashes will be an Angelical sound, probably the Voice of the Archangel; and when they arise out of the Earth, they will together with all the Saints then living, be caught up by the Angels and conveyed by them to meet the Lord in the Air, [the last office the Angels will have to perform,] and so will ever abide with him. Whose heart would not burn within him upon the contemplation of these things, that God should be such a lover of Men, that the Eternal Son should by his death redeem them; his own spirit by his influences come down and dwell in them; and all the Angels in Heaven made their Guardians; and their whole Ministry and Service employed on their behalf.  
How blessed a condition does the Gospel instate us in above the Law, in reference to this particular: When Man first fell by sin, the Angels became his most avowed Enemies, and Executioners of Wrath, that went out against him; for the Cherubims stood with a flaming Sword to keep the Tree of Life, and to shut Man out of Paradise, he made his Angel's Spirits, and at that time his ministers a flame of fire. When the Law was given upon Mount Sinai, and Man considered only in his natural state, the Angels were most dreadful and terrible in their appearance; but now under the Gospel, Angels and Men by the Blood of the Cross are embodied into one Fellowship and Society, united in and under one head, engaged in the same Worship and Service, and enjoy a sweet and most endeared communion each with other; all which is fully insinuated and intimated by the Apostle in telling the Believing Jews they were come to this innumerable company of angels.  
4thly, The Apostle tells them, they are come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in Heaven: This is an expression of that part of the Catholic Church here upon Earth, to which by the Gospel all Believers come, and with which they are incorporated and embodied; two things are intended hereby, to show the preference of the Gospel-state before that of the Legal.  
1st, That instead of the Assembly of all the Males three times a Year at Jerusalem, which is called in Scripture the great congregation, they are come now to the great Assembly of all the Members of the true Catholic Church amongst Mankind, to all the true servants of God both of Jews and Gentiles, that any where call upon God in Spirit and Truth, and that God would have such a general Assembly, and such an universal Church of the firstborn throughout all Nations, without any farther respect to the Jews or their Church, was a secret undiscovered till the Gospel Revelation came.  
2dly, That this assembly consists only of real and true Saints, such as have the right of the first born: the great inheritance that men are born capable of in this World, is the possession of Heaven at last; those that obtain that are the eldest sons of this lower World, and the firstborn amongst Mankind in the Scripture sense; and none obtain this inheritance but such as are eternally elected in Christ to it, and therefore the Apostle when he names the Church of the firstborn, adds, as explanatory of it, whose names are enrolled in Heaven, that is in the Lamb's Book of Life, in the Roll of God's eternal purposes and counsels, there they are Registered, and not in an Earthly Register as the Jews were; this Church of the firstborn is called in Scripture, the first fruits of the whole Creation, unto God and the Lamb; they are said to be Heirs to God and joint-heirs with Christ; they are made Kings and Priests unto God, and so have all the Title and Right of Primogeniture appurtenant unto them. This infinitely exceeds the state of the Jews who were but a typical People; their general Assembly was but a national Assembly; and though many excellent particular Saints were amongst them, yet they were in their National Constitution but a figure and representation of this true Saintship, and the whole that belonged to them was but a shadow and Image of this true Catholic Church, and not the thing itself; they were enroled indeed but it was upon Earth, and upon an Earthly account to preserve their Tribes distinct, and so to adjust their Earthly inheritances in Canaan.  
The greatest difficulty that seems to be in this part of the Apostles Comparison, is, what is meant by this expression, the general assembly; since there neither was, nor ever will be, a time that all the Members of the Church under the Gospel shall meet together till Christ's second coming; the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used, I take to signify the same thing, and the latter to be exegetical of the former; 'tis not meant of the Church, of the firstborn of all assembling in any one place, but of that Church every where assembling in several and distinct parts, 'tis spoken in opposition to the Assemblies of the Jews, who were but one particular nation assembling at one place in Jerusalem, to which they were confined; the generality the Apostle means, does not arise from their meeting all in one place, but from their meeting without confinement all the World over: to this general Assembly of the Gospel-Church every Believer is come, and to it is united, but 'tis after a Spiritual manner, and therein lies the excellency of this Union; this Assembly where ever or in what parts soever they are met are animated by one Spirit; they have the same Faith and Hope, the same Privileges and Enjoyments, and [wherein the Life of the Union lies] they are all united under one common Head, and are but one Body belonging to it, and so the sense seems to be this, [which contains in it the force of the Apostles comparison;] ye are not after an Earthly manner come with your Bodies to any such assembly as that at mount Sinai, nor as that of the Males at the earthly Jerusalem, but ye are come which is infinitely better, in your Souls and Spirits, unto the Society and Fellowship of all the Sanctified and saved throughout the World, who now  Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, and are all present together in one Spirit, though corporally divided, having but one common interest, rejoicing in the welfare and prosperity of each other, and closely united in their mutual prayers and concerns each for other.  
This is of all others the most truly Honourable and Noble Society that we can converse with in this World, here the Blessing is commanded life for evermore: here's the Crown of all Man's glory and Happiness to be obtained; he that is no Member of this Association is under a black Character, and comes no farther than the Assembly of the fallen Angels and their Associates: the Scripture informs us, that the Wrath of God abides upon every such Man, and the Judge stands at the Door shortly to execute it; the foundation of this Glorious Happy and Blessed Assembly stands sure, and this is the seal of it, the Lord knows them that are his, they are those God has eternally designed for Happiness and Glory, their Record is on high, their Names are in the Roll of God's eternal Determinations: And this aught to seem strange to none, for no Man can with any tolerable sense conceive that infinite Wisdom should make any thing and not at the same time design it to its utmost end; 'tis contradicted by our own finite and imperfect discretion, who still have our eyes upon the ultimate end of all that we enterprise, and to me it seems that the whole system of those objections that are made against the Doctrine of God's Decrees touching men's eternal condition is fully discarded with this one consideration; that God infinitely foreseeing and perfectly knowing from all eternity whatever any creature he made would do, and how he would behave himself when he should be brought into being and existence, 'twas all one for him in point of Justice to determine his condition before he was made, as to determine it at the day of Judgement, after all the actions of his Life were over, the prescience of God cannot with any tolerable satisfaction to our own reason be denied, for whatever potentiality God created, he must needs know and foresee the utmost extent of it, or else he could not design any certain end to himself by it, but might remain ignorant of the success and event of a Creature which he had from himself given being to, which is absurd to suppose, for infinite knowledge must needs comprehend and look beyond all finite actions, and therefore when God made Man with freedom of choice he must needs foreknow [that made that faculty] which way his will would incline, and the utmost journey it could possibly lead him, or else he must remain wholly ignorant what would be the suceess of his own Work, and incapable of making any certain determination with himself about him. We find in Scripture prescience and election always go together, and prescience has the precedence, so in St. Peter's first Epistle he calls those to whom he wrote, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, and St. Paul in his deep and solemn discourse about this matter tells us, whom he did foreknow them also he did predestinate.  
5thly, They are said to come to God the Judge of all, they are come to the Lord paramount of the Church, the great author and end of all transactions therein; coming to him and drawing near to him in Scripture Phrase, is coming to partake of his Fovour and Grace, or else coming to the Judge of all, were of all conditions the most dreadful; the wicked he keeps at a distance, and is said to know afar off; this is of all attainments the most Superlative, all that the Heart of Man can wish is included herein, to come to his Maker with acceptation, and to find favour in his sight, whose favour is better than Life itself; and to have the Supreme Judge of all on his side: As this mighty Judge was accompanied with all possible terror and dread at Mount Sinai, and all the People kept upon pain of Death at a great distance from him, to tell us how far removed from God every Man is by the Law, and in his sinful estate, so by the Gospel we are come as near to him as humane nature will admit, and he appears to us in all the glory of his reconciling Grace, and receives us into intimate fellowship and converse with him; for this is the declared state of the Gospel, We have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and the blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin.  
Several things result from this Supreme Privilege of the Gospel, That we are come to God, the Judge of all, as reconciled to him, and having his righteous judgement on our side:  
First, That he will certainly revenge the Church's Cause upon all their implacable Enemies, who alone is the Judge of all Causes and Complaints, and whatever Controversy hath been at any time in any Age between Satan and the Church, and between the wicked, profane, persecuting part of the World and the Church, God the Judge of all will determine it on the Church's side, will vindicate their innocency, and their faithful adherence to him, his own interest and theirs being the same: And how great a comfort aught this to be to every sincere Christian, however persecuted and oppressed by Men, to consider, that yet the righteous God is of his side, and that the Supreme Judge, who cannot do unrighteously, whose Judgement is the very perfection of Justice, and whose Judgement is final and irreversible, will be sure to give judgement for him at last, and reward his Enemies with shame and confusion.  
2dly, He will certainly recompense all his Servants for every faithful service they shall perform for him; the reward of all their Works will be sure to follow them into the next World; this is the great stay and support to all true Christians under their present pressures, that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord: this St. Paul encouraged himself in the prospect of, in the midst of all the Heroclitons and Hurricanes of Persecution he met with, There is, says he, laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me.  
3dly, All the dreadful fears and apprehensions of God that ever since the fall have inhabited the minds of Men, are by this access unto God discharged and dismissed; this is that which hath kept the whole World in bondage all their days, the fear of God as their Judge standing at the door, ready to execute Wrath upon all Disobedience; this is the inward invisible Wound Mankind carry about them; this is the inward heart-afflicting Fear and Terror of every sinner: nor can he any way discharge or disburden himself of it, for 'tis engraven in his being and is part of himself, every Man's own Conscience, which is the ability he has to judge of himself, with reference to the Judgement of God, is God's Viceroy, and whether he will or no, will give in evidence for God against him, and justify truth against carnal and corrupt interest. What sad and doleful reflections has the sense of God's judgement occasioned in Men? Men think of God and are troubled, and say with Job, Destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. How uneasy are Men in all Humane Comforts and Enjoyments where the sense of this abides? A Man that has God for his Enemy at last, and nothing but this present World for his Portion, is meanly and woefully circumstanced; now by the Gospel, all this is removed, we come to the Judge of all as our best friend, and are able to say with an holy boast and ex●ltation, Who shall condemn? 'tis God the Judge of all that justifies; who shall lay any thing to our charge? since the Supreme Judge of all the World is for us? what now can trouble us? what is it can now engender sorrow in our breasts? we are now impregnable against ever being made truly miserable, he that has God of his side can never be made unhappy; the false corrupt judgement of this wicked degenerate World, will be of mean value with us and little concern us, since the Judge of all is on our side, and we are secure of being by his judgement made eternally happy; for as the Apostle tells the suffering Saints, God will reward tribulation to them that trouble them, but to those that are troubled, eternal rest and glory.  
6thly, We are said to be come to the spirits of just men made perfect; that is, completed in the full reward of their Christian course; the Apostle mentions all the parts of the Gospel, Catholic Church, both in Heaven and in Earth, to manifest to what a Noble and Honourable Society we are joined and incorporated by the Faith of the Gospel, and how desperate and irrecoverable an evil Apostasy from such a Communion were; this Expression throws that foolish, idle Fiction of Purgatory quite out of doors, 'tis by this Expression of the Apostle excommunicated and utterly cast out of the Catholic Church for ever; for all the departed Saints are reckoned here to be in one only condition, they are not some in one state and some in another, but they are all perfect and complete, which utterly confutes all the fictitious doting Dreams of such a refining state as Purgatory, every departed Saints spirit is in a state of perfection with God, they are all in his presence, and therefore they are by the Apostle in this enumeration placed next unto him.  
The best way of considering this Expression, is to discover what prospect we can gain by it into the other World, and what can be certainly collected from it of the state of the blessed in Heaven. These three things are very plainly deductive from hence: 1. That all the Saints departed are in a state of Perfection and enjoy a blessed Communion with God. 2. That they also enjoy a Communion with the Church militant here. And, 3. That the Church here enjoy also a Communion with them; both which last particulars are implied in our being said to be come unto them. The Souls departed hence, have this Communion with the Church below; 1. They worship as they do him that sits on the Throne and the Lamb, they adore the Merit of Christ's Blood, and the Glory of free Grace for ever; and wheresoever any Gospel-worship is offered up upon Earth, they are present in spirit and concur in it, the Service and Worship of Heaven is of the very same nature with that of the Saints upon Earth, though performed in the Royal Presence, and in the heavenly Temple, and in some respects differently circumstanced. 2. They have a tender regard to all the labouring, fight, striving Servants of Christ here below, wishing a happy success to them, well remembering that themselves were lately in that condition, the state of the Church here that is at Sea and tossed with many storms, no doubt is much in their minds, though they are safely arrived themselves in the Harbour of Eternal Rest and Happiness. 3. They rejoice greatly in all the Church's prosperity, and particularly in its increase; if the conversion of sinners on Earth cause great joy in Heaven, no doubt but the Spirits made perfect are partakers of it as well as the Angels, for they are altogether as one Society, and they are equally capable of it as they are, for they are like the Angels of God, and they have much more cause to be concerned in the joy than the others, because they themselves have traveled through all the stages of Salvation, and all the Methods by which Souls come to glory, and are now experimentally informed what blessedness attends and waits upon every converted saved Soul. 4. They have communion with the Church here below, by being present with Christ, and beholding his blessed intercession for it, taking unspeakable delight and satisfaction therein, they behold all the concerns of the militant Church constantly presented before the Father by the Son, and so are conversant with it, and have the same vital love and concern for it that animates the whole.  
3dly, Our being said to be come to them, implies some effect of that as an attainment, and some communion that is had with them on our part; 1. We have communion with them in this respect, when ever we address ourselves to God and perform any Worship to the Divine Majesty, we do it with this certain assurance and knowledge, that he is encompassed with the holy Angels and all the Souls of the perfected and blessed, and so in every act of Divine Worship we have a sort of communion with them, he that converseth with any great King, has a relative communion with his whole Court as appurtenant to him. 2. We are come unto them, and have a communion with them upon this account, because we are in the same state that brought them thither, we are in possession of the very same title to glory that brought them to it, we have in faith what they have in fruition, and we are continually waiting to be removed to them; we are therefore truly said to be come to them because we are of the same Household and Family, and there is nothing wanting but our dissolution to bring us actually into their Company, and into the same Place where they now are: And lastly, we are come to them so, as to receive great encouragement from them in our Christian Course, by contemplating what it has brought them unto; we are much animated to follow their example, and much advantaged every way by setting before us their glorious and blessed state and condition.  
7thly, We are here said to be come to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. Here the Apostle sets down the Alpha and the Omega of all this catholic Society; this Jesus is the Source and Centre of all, the great Cornerstone upon which all the Structure depends: In two things the force of the Apostle's comparison lies, 1. They are come to Jesus himself a Saviour, and a Mediator far exceeding Moses: And, 2. to a much better Covenant, of which he is the Mediator. The preference of Christ to Moses as a Mediator, is largely discoursed of in this Epistle, Moses was but a typical Mediator, employed as a middle person between God and the People, but Christ is the Son in his own House. In this case God-man is the Mediator, and God is the person mediated unto; which consideration perhaps may help to unfold that difficult expression of St. Paul to the Galat. A mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. In two things the Apostle makes the especial difference between Christ and Moses to lie, 1. Christ was the Surety of the Covenant unto God on the People's part; and so they are sure not to fail in the performance of their part: under Moses the People constantly failed in their part, and he was no way to undertake or perform for them. 2. Christ confirmed the Covenant by his own Death, which Moses did not; what he did was by the Blood of other Creatures, of Bulls and Goats; what Christ did, he did by his own Blood, and by the offering up of himself; and therefore coming to such a Mediator as he is, Jesus a Saviour as well as a Mediator, that has redeemed the Church with his own Blood; and such a Mediator as he is, that lives for ever to make intercession, is infinitely better than to be baptised into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea.  
After all the Promises, Predictions, Types, and Prefigurations of him, the Apostle tells the believing Jews, they are at last come to this Jesus, to this Mediator and Saviour, their Father's having traveled through so many Ages and Dispensations before they arrived at his appearing, it would be the very last degree of all folly and contradiction to their own interest, to think of drawing back and returning to those terrene Elements, by which he was figuratively represented, and which have now by his appearance totally spent themselves in his signification, coming to him as Mediator of this new Covenant, implies coming to all the Benefits and Advantages of this Covenant, for all the Promises of God are in him, yea, and in him Amen; 'tis certain the Apostle, by calling Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant, intends to show the excellency of the Gospel-state beyond that at Mount Sinai, for the Law there given is said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator, which Mediator was Moses, by consent both of God and the People; upon which account they are said to be baptised into him, and in regard God designed Christ as the glorious Mediator of a better Covenant, he well approved of what the People said when they desired, that God would not himself speak any more to them, but deliver his Commands by Moses, because it was a Preparative intimation of the necessity of a better Covenant, attended with a more sufficient Mediator, who had no sins of his own to account for, and so could approach unto God without that dread and fear that accompanied Moses in the service he performed. Two things will be necessary to be explained, fully to unfold the Apostle's sense, 1. What is meant by a Mediator; 2. What is meant by the New Covenant. By a Mediator here, is meant one that represents the People, and intercedes to God on their behalf, which was the circumstance of Moses; that these two qualifications might be eminently appurtenant to Christ, to complete him for that service in a way infinitely exceeding Moses, he is God and Man in one person; as Man, a full and perfect representative of all Mankind; and as God, such an Intercessor as procures Salvation to the uttermost for all that come to God by him, and not only in Moses way, by a bare representation of the People's condition before God, but by his own inherent Merit procuring all the grace, favour and acceptation on their behalf they could either hope for or desire.  
2dly, By the New Covenant we are sure Mount Zion is opposed to Mount Sinai, and the Gospel set in opposition to the Law; we find in the New Testament mention but of two Covenants, the law given upon Mount Sinai, which (is said to grow old, and to be ready to vanish away) and is called the first Covenant, and the Gospel preached of old to Abraham, and published at large by Christ and his Apostles, which is called the New Covenant: This New Covenant is also called a Testament, because the great Promulgation of it was to be a consequent of Christ's death; and the Gospel that Law and Covenant of Grace, the Legacy he left to the World, was to be dispensed to the Legatees by his grand Executor the Holy Ghost: And whatever we read of God's Covenants in the Old Testament, 'tis to be reduced to one of these two; for the Apostle in the 8th and 9th Chapters of this Epistle, calls the Mosaical Covenant, the first Covenant, and the old Covenant, the whole Mosaical oeconomy was included in it, and reckoned as part of it, but it was chief denominated from Mount Sinai, because there was the most solemn promulgation of the most essential part of it. The Covenant God made with Man in his Innocency, was peculiar to him in that state, and went no farther, is not at all continued in any force since the fall. By a Covenant of God in the Scripture sense of it, is meant a Law promulged, wherein God obliges himself to such rewards and punishments; and Men stand obliged to such duty and performance; this was the case of the Old Covenant at Sinai, and so is the case under the Gospel; God has in Christ obliged himself to the salvation of the World upon such and such terms, and Man stands obliged to the performance of them if ever he will be happy: 'Tis a vain and a wild conceit to think the Gospel offers Salvation otherways, then upon conditions to be performed on our part; the first Proclamation of it is with this condition annexed, he that believes shall be saved: And Faith is  used in the Gospel, as a Word comprehensive of all that is therein required of us. Punctually to pursue the Apostles drift in this place by this expression, the best way is to show in what particulars this new covenant to which he tells the Believing Hebrews they were come, exceeded the old, which was the point he designed to himself to make good.  
1st, Both Covenants agreed in this, they both had a Mediator, an internuncius between God and Man, which was to inform us of the vast distance sin had made between them, what a vast gulf there was fixed between Heaven and Earth, and that 'twas impossible there should be any converse between God and Man, by virtue of any Covenant without some third Person interposing, and herein this New Covenant has infinitely the preference; the Mediator of it being of so glorious a composition and constitution, and so adapted to this matter as is wonderful to conceive; he that intercedes to bring God and Man together, is himself both (after a stupenduous and wonderful manner) united in one and the same Person.  
2dly, This New Covenant delivers us from all the Fear, Bondage, and Condemnation, which the Old Covenant brought upon us, the Law left Men to answer to God for their disobedience, without either assistance or remedy, and so the case of every Man was, that when the law came sin revived, and he died; by coming to the Mediator of this New Covenant, we are totally discharged from any concern with the Law or the first Covenant, the satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice is fully accepted in our stead, for all our disobedience of the Law of Works, and by this New Covenant we are wholly discharged from any obligation to the Old, God found fault with it, and it being in its nature and designment to prepare for a better Covenant, it grew Old, and upon the publication of the Gospel is quite vanished away.  
3dly, This New Covenant much exceeds the other in its nature and constitution, for it always admits of Repentance and Pardon, which the other never did, 'tis an entire Law of Grace, accepts of sincerity of intention, in the stead of perfection of action, and is accommodated with all imaginable tenderness to the weak and frail constitution of Man since his fall.  
4thly, And wherein the Glory of this New Covenant chief lies, and wherein it fundamentally exceeds the other, and displays eminently the Glory of God's Grace and Goodness to the World; a Divine ability is given from Heaven for the performance of every part of it, whatever is required is given: the great security of men's Salvation under this New Covenant is, that we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation, and that when Men work out their salvation, 'tis God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure; 'tis his power that is perfected in weakness, and grace only that proves sufficient for us in this case, the ways and methods by which this Divine assistance of the Holy Ghost from above, is conveyed into the Hearts and spirits of Men is admirable, but known only to God, and out of the compass of all humane discovery, a Man born after the Spirit is compared to the Wind, the effects of which we know, but we know nothing whence it comes nor whither it goes, how far God is pleased at first in some to move and excite humane abilities, and still to reward their motion Heaven-ward with more and farther grace, and how far he is pleased in others to reward with Divine assistance, endeavours purely Natural and Human, is a knowledge too high for us, and what we cannot by searching attain to, this we are sure of, that grace is never wanting to such as make a faithful improvement of what power they have, he that under the Gospel does but what he can do, will be sure to be enabled to do what he should do, I make no question but that generally speaking grace comes in to the assistance of Humane endeavours, and is grafted at first upon such natural improvements as are preparative to the reception of Christ and the Gospel, but 'tis not always so, but Grace breaks in upon some in the height of their career against Christ and the Gospel, as it did upon St. Paul, to make him an instance in this point, and makes a perfect conquest of the Soul unto Christ, where there is nothing but a Wicked Profane opposition against him.  
Had not this Divine assistance been a gracious appurtenant to the Covenant of Grace, Mankind had never reaped the benefit of it, no terms of Salvation that were consisting with the Holiness and Justice of God, though never so condescending and easy without this, would ever have made Mankind happy; so desperate [and as to their own power] irrecoverable an apostasy are all Men subjected to, so that if either we consider the Mediator of this New Covenant, or the Covenant itself, we shall perceive the great advantage the Apostle has of his side in the comparison, and what a foolish choice the believing Jews would make to departed and apostatise from this New Covenant and this Mediator, to Moses and Mount Sinai.  
The last thing the Apostle mentions, and which he couples and conjoins with the Mediator of this New Covenant, as inseparably appurtenant to both, is the Blood of Sprinkling, which he says, speaks better things than the Blood of Abel; this is particularly and emphatically mentioned, because the death and suffering of Christ, the shedding of his precious Blood, was the greatest performance of his mediatory Work here upon Earth, the grand Fundamental of the New Covenant, and of all the effects and consequences of it, all was purchased by this as the price of it, and in regard the Jews had been much accustomed under the Old Covenant to the shedding of Blood, without which there was no remission; the Apostle instructs them, that this New Covenant infinitely excels the other in that very particular, and he calls it the Blood of Sprinkling, because there was no Blood at any time offered under the Law but part of it was sprinkled, and as the Old Covenant at Horeb was confirmed by Moses the Mediator of it, by sprinkling the Blood of the Oxen then sacrificed, so this New Covenant is ratified by the sprinkling of Blood, but 'tis such Blood as of which all that was shed before was but typical, and such Blood as is of an infinite value, the Blood of God himself, and as the Apostle in the 9th Chap. makes the comparison, if the blood of bulls and goats says he, could serve for Legal, Typical, and Ceremonial Purifications, how much more shall the blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God; purge your Consciences from dead Works, so that by this expression the Apostle calling this blood the blood of sprinkling, we are to understand that this is the soul purifying, soul-justifying, and soulsaving blood, of which all the Sacrificed Blood since the World began, since Abel's first Sacrifices were but a Type, and Prefiguration, 'tis being sprinkled with this, that gives entrance and admittance into Heaven, the true sanctuary, of which admittance into the Earthly sanctuary by the sprinkling of blood was but a Type, and this blood as 'tis of transcendent Power and Virtue, so it has a general and universal efficacy, so the Prophet Esau tells us, Esau 52.15. Where 'tis Prophesied, that Christ should with his Blood sprinkle many Nations; which refers to that universal advantage the gentile World should reap by it, this blood is not like the blood of the legal sacrifices, that was often shed, and reached but to one Nation, this blood is of that infinite value, that the whole race of Mankind, the whole World are sprinkled with it in order to Justification and Salvation, and there needs no repetition of it, for by this one Sacrifice offered up, Christ has for ever perfected them that are sanctified, and there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin; this blood the Apostle says speaks better things than the blood of Abel, which was a consideration of great moment unto the Jews. Some modern interpreters [for I see it in no ancient Author] conceive by the blood of Abel here, is not meant his own blood, but the blood of the sacrifices he slew, which were the first we read of that God accepted, and he gave such a Testimonial to them, that in the foregoing Chapter the Apostle says upon that account he is yet spoken of, not as 'tis vulgarly rendered yet speaketh, but is yet spoken of: That which induced them to make this meaning of the Apostles Words, was I suppose the little advantage there seems to be in the comparison; to compare the blood of a Saviour with the blood of a murdered Man, than which nothing could speak worse, for it must needs call for vengeance and punishment, and therefore there seems at first view to be little commendation given to the blood of Christ by saying that it speaks better things than the blood of Abel, for it could not speak worse, but to say it speaks better things than the very first sacrifice we read of that God accepted and gave testimony to, & of the best Man than in the World, carries great advantage in the comparison; this interpretation upon this account seems probable and is plausable, but 'tis not as I conceive the sense of the Apostle, and to me it seems rejected. By the words upon this account, that the voice and cry that Abel's blood is said to have, was after his death, and God tells Cain his Brother's blood cried unto him, and so it was Abel's own blood that cried; now 'tis plain, the Apostle in saying that Christ's blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel speaks, alludes to the speaking and crying of Abel's blood from the ground unto God, as 'tis recorded in Genesis, the Jews had not only many false and pernicious instructors ready to dissuade them from receiving the Gospel at first, but after any of them had received it, there were many false Judaizing Apostles who endeavoured all they could to engage them to a relapse and apostasy either in whole or in part, the Apostles business as has been often suggested is to prevent this latter, and to establish such as had received the Christian Doctrine, but were in danger of drawing back. Now 'tis most certain, that amongst other discouragements that were suggested to the Believing Hebrews, this was one of the chief, and with which they were much affected, that they and their rulers having shed the blood of this Mediator, and taken it upon themselves and their posterity; and some of the Apostles having openly to their faces reproached the Jewish Nation with it, that they had been the betrayers and murderers of this Holy and Blessed Jesus the Son of God, they could not reasonably hope for nor expect any benefit from that blood they had so murderously shed. To obviate this objection, the Apostle after he had mentioned the Mediator of this New Covenant and his blood wherewith he sprinkles the World, to which he tells them by the Gospel they were come, adds this, [which is of peculiar force and reference to the Jews, and very emphatically argumentum ad hominem] that this blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel, Abel was murdered and his blood spoke and cried from the Ground to Heaven for yengeance upon his brother that murdered him, but Christ was Betrayed and Murdered, and his blood calls and cries aloud for pardon and forgiuness for his very betrayers and crucifiers, so that none of them need to fall into Cain's desperation, and quit the Gospel upon any such sad consideration, for this Blood, though it was shed like Abel's, yet had quite another Cry and Language attended it, it called for no vengeance upon any man, but for Peace, Pardon, and Reconciliation for all men, even the very worst of his Enemies and Crucifiers; and this renders the Comparison of wonderful advantage and efficacy to that end for which it was intended. Nothing is more usual in St. Paul's Writings [especially in his Epistle to the Romans] than to answer Objections, that were then well and commonly known, without reciting them, of which we at this day are often ignorant, and so his Writings seems to us the more difficult and obscure.  
Thus we have taken a brief view of the Apostle's Comparison of the Law with the Gospel in this short Epitome of both, and seen the wonderful preference the Gospel has to the Law, and the great and eminent Advantages and Privileges of the one above the the other, and the glorious Inhabitants of this Spiritual Mount Zion, and the Heavenly Jerusalem, not only all the true Saints upon Earth, the Church of the firstborn written in Heaven, but even God himself, Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, all the Blessed Angels, and the Spirits of just Men made perfect; nothing could be more destructive and ruinous to the true Interest of the believing Hebrews, than to turn their backs upon such a Communion, to go back to the Old Covenant that God upon Man's account found fault with, and again put on that Legal Yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear; the Jews much boasted of, and rested in those literal Typical Advantages they had above the rest of the World, upon which they might with very good reason value themselves; and therefore the Apostle's business is to manifest to them, how much by embracing the Gospel they changed for the better; that instead of a Legal Temporary Temple built upon Mount Zion, and an Earthly Jerusalem, they are come to the true signified Mount Zion, to the Spiritual and Heavenly Temple, which is Christ Mystical, where God dwells for ever, and the Heavenly Jerusalem, the name of which is Jehovah Shammai, that is, the glorious spiritual worship of the Gospel, and the state of the Catholic Church in all its parts, those on Earth, and those in Heaven, and thereby to all that was signified by, and all that was any where promised unto Jerusalem and Mount Zion, instead of that Dreadful Appearance of the Angels upon Mount Sinai, with which they were so terrified, and from which they were kept at so great a distance, they are now come to an innumerable Company of Angels, that is, to a sweet Fellowship, Brotherhood, and Communion with them; all which is employed in their being said to be come to them: under the Law 'twas firmly believed whoever should see an Angel [so great the distance was thought between Mankind and them] should certainly die; we are now Men and Angels all of the same Family and Household, and the Saints on Earth have the whole Ministry and Service of the Angels employed on their behalf, they are now always ascending and descending about their Affairs, and there is a most endeared and intimate Relation and Affection between all the Myriads of Angels above and the Saints below; instead of the National Church of the Jews assembled at Jerusalem, they are come to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, whose Names are written in Heaven. To the general Assembling of the true Catholic Church, who Assemble and Worship all the World over in Spirit and Truth, without any confinement to any place whatever, they are come to them, so as to be of the same Body and Society with them, to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Household of God, and so as to partake of all their Spiritual and Heavenly Advantages, and they are come to all the parts of this Catholic Communion, as well those in Heaven as those on Earth, even to God himself [which is as far as they can come] the judge of all: under the Law they were not suffered so much as to approach the outward signs of his Presence, but under the Gospel they have free access to himself, and to his very Throne, which is now become a Throne of Grace, and nothing appears now from thence but a Sceptre of Mercy held forth, they are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect, not only to the Fellowship and Fraternity of all the Saints living, from the Fraternity of an outward, Typical, and only National Church, but to those in the Heavenly state, all those mentioned in the 11th. Chap. before, and all the Apostles, and those Blessed Saints they had conversed with in the first times of the Gospel, who were then removed and gone to their rest, even to them by the Gospel-state they were come, with them they are embodied as Members of the same Society, and with them in a short time they are sure to be resident, And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, a Saviour as well as a Mediator, and a Mediator not of the Sinai, but of the Zion Covenant, a Covenant bringing grace, life, and peace; a Mediator not like Moses, a mere Man, a Servant, a Sinner, himself trembling in his Office, and weary of his Burden, and whose Ministry was like his Person, decaying, vanishing, and dying. But to the Son himself in his own House, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, in that he liveth for ever to make Intercession for them, and to the Blood of sprinkling, infinitely exceeding all the Blood that was sprinkled under the Law, for that brought sin yearly and daily into remembrance, but those that are sprinkled with this are for ever perfected, and to them there remains no more Sacrifice for sin, and this Blood they are come to speaks a better Language quite than the Blood of Abel did, although the Blood of both was most unjustly shed, and they were both wickedly murdered and slain, yet they speak two different Languages, Abel's Blood called and cried unto God for vengeance upon Cain, but this pleads and cries aloud for pardon and forgiveness, even for those very Persons that were most guilty of it, and deepliest concerned in it, so that none are excluded from the benefit of it.  
The Apostle winds up all with deep and solemn Admonitions and Cautions to the Believing Jews, not to play fast and lose with the Gospel; 'tis of such Jews St. James writes in his Epistle directed to the Twelve Tribes, when he tells them, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways; and let not such a man think (says he) to obtain any thing from the Lord, for he halts between two Opinions, and is unresolved whether he shall be a Jew or a Christian, the Apostle conjures them upon their utmost peril not to refuse him that speaks from Heaven, which is no other than God himself speaking by his Son, and declaring by a solemn voice from Heaven, even from the excellent Glory, that he was his Beloved Son in whom he was well pleased, which beloved and blessed Son of God might well be said to speak from Heaven, because we are expressly told he was also in Heaven when he spoke here upon Earth; he proceeds to mind them that the Legal state was like an old House ready to fall upon their heads, for he that once by his voice shook the Earth at Mount Sinai, and made the Mount to tremble, will now once more shake both Heaven and Earth, and dissolve, the Apostle tells them, their whole Religious Constitution and Fabric; and this taking away of things that are shaken, is in order to this, that things that cannot be shaken which are the blessings, and glories, and sure mercies of the Gospel, may remain, the Gospel is the last and only remedy that God has provided for sinful Man, 'tis a fearful thing to fall into his hands, and not have this to plead, to fall into the hands of the living God, without an interest in Jesus the Mediator of this New Covenant, and the Blood of sprinkling appurtenant thereunto: he that has once embraced the Gospel, and then out of choice refuseth it, and turns his back upon it, refuseth his remedy, and thereby renders his Cure desperate and impossible, and to such a man nothing can possibly remain but a certain fearful looking for of Judgement.  
The Consideration of this Glorious and Honourable state to which by the Gospel we are come, this Celestial Mount of Spirits, should always inflame our minds with holy and thankful Contemplations, and also with fervent and devout adoration of that infinite goodness that has made such provision for the happiness, recovery and welfare of rebellious and apostate Man, that has opened the floodgates of Heaven, and showered down all the blessings and glories thereof upon the World, by the descent of the second person into Human Nature; how happy were it if instead of mean, low, and perishing satisfactions, Men would solace themselves with this heart-satisfying and everlasting Salvation, let us follow the example of Moses, who when God proclaimed his Name unto him, and caused all his goodness to pass before him, the Text says, Moses made haste, and bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped, he only heard the report of what we possess and enjoy, our whole business therefore should be to exalt the Praises of so Gracious a Benefactor, and to Magnify that Glorious being that has all possible Perfection, to whom nothing can be added, and from whom nothing can be taken away, and to whom all Blessing and Honour, and Praise, and all Worship, and Service, and Adoration will be due throughout all Generations, from time to time, till time ceaseth and is dissolved in Eternity, and thence Eternally.  
FINIS.