|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2024 15:24:02 GMT -5
PERIOD I.
FROM THE FALL TO THE FLOOD though this period was the most distant from Christ's incarnation; yet then was this glorious building begun.
I. As soon as man fell, Christ entered on his mediatorial work. Then it was that he began to execute the work and office of a mediator. He had undertaken it before the world was made. He stood engaged with the Father to appear as man's mediator, and to take on that office when there should be occasion, from all eternity. But now the time was come. Christ the eternal Son of God clothed himself with the mediatorial character, and therein presented himself before the Father. He immediately stepped in between a holy, infinite, offended Majesty, and offending mankind. He
was accepted in his interposition; and so wrath was prevented from going forth in the full execution of that amazing curse that man had brought on himself.
It is manifest that Christ began to exercise the office of mediator between God and man as soon as ever man fell, because mercy began to he exercised towards man immediately 537 There was mercy in the forbearance of God, that he did not destroy him, as he did the angels when they fell. But there is no mercy exercised toward fallen man but
through a mediator. If God had not in mercy restrained Satan, he would immediately have seized on his prey. Christ began to do the part of an intercessor for man as soon as he fell; for there is no mercy exercised towards man but what is obtained through Christ's intercession. From that day Christ took on him the care of the church, in the exercise of all his offices. He undertook to teach mankind in the exercise of his prophetical office; to intercede for fallen man in his priestly office; and to govern the church and the world as a king. He from that time took upon
him the care of defending his elect church from all their enemies. When Satan, the grand enemy, had conquered and overthrown man, the business of resisting and conquering him was committed to Christ. He thence forward undertook to manage that subtle powerful adversary. He was then appointed the Captain of the Lord's hosts, the Captain of their
salvation. Henceforward this lower world, with all its concerns, devolved upon the Son of God: for when man had sinned, God the Father would have no more to do immediately with this world of mankind, that had apostatized from and rebelled against him. He would henceforward act only through a mediator, either in teaching men, or in governing, or bestowing any benefits on them.
And therefore, when we read in sacred history what God did, from time to time, towards his church and people, and how he revealed himself to them, we are to understand it especially of the second person of the Trinity. When we read of God appearing after the fall, in some visible form or outward symbol of his presence, we are ordinarily, if not universally, to understand it of the second person of the Trinity. John i. 18. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." He is therefore called
"the image of the invisible God," Col. i. 15. intimating, that though God the Father be invisible, yet Christ is his image or representation, by which he is seen.
Yea, not only this lower world devolved on Christ, that he might have the care and government of it, and order it agreeably to his design of redemption, but also in some respect the whole universe. The angels from that time are subject to him in his mediatorial office, as is manifest by the scripture history, wherein we have accounts of their acting as ministering spirits in the affairs of the church. And therefore we may suppose, that immediately on the fall of Adam, it was made known in heaven among the angels, that God had a design of redemption with respect to fallen man; that Christ had now taken upon him the office and work of a mediator between God and man; and that
they were to be subservient to him in this office. And as Christ, in this office, has been solemnly installed the King of heaven, and is thenceforward, as God-man, the Light, the Sun of heaven, (agreeable to Rev. xxi. 23.) so this revelation made in heaven among the angels, was as it were the first dawning of this light there. When Christ ascended into heaven after his passion, and was solemnly enthroned, then this Sun rose in heaven, even the Lamb that is the light of the New Jerusalem.
II. Presently upon this the gospel was first revealed on earth, in these words, Gen. iii. 15. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." We must suppose, that God's intention of redeeming fallen man was first signified in heaven, before it was signified on earth, because the business of the angels as ministering spirits of the Mediator required it; for as soon as ever Christ had taken on him the work of a mediator, it was requisite that the angels should be ready
immediately to be subservient to him in that office: so that the light first dawned in heaven; but very soon after the same was signified on earth. In those words of God there was an intimation of another surety to be appointed for man, after the first surety had failed. This was the first revelation of the covenant of grace; the first dawning of the light of the gospel on earth.
This lower world before the fall enjoyed noon-day light; the light of the knowledge of God, the light of his glory, and the light of his favor. But when man fell, all this light was at once extinguished, and the world
reduced back again to total darkness; a worse darkness than that which was in the beginning of the world,(Gen.i. 2.)
Darkness was upon the face of the deep, a darkness a thousand times more remediless than that.
Neither men nor angels could find out any way whereby this darkness might be scattered. It appeared in its blackness when Adam and his wife saw that they were naked, and sewed fig-leaves; when they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden, and hid themselves among the trees. When God first called them to an account, and said to Adam, "What is this that thou hast done? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat?" Then we may suppose that their hearts were filled with shame and terror. But these words of God,
(Gen. iii. 15.) were the first dawning of gospel light, after this dismal darkness. Before this there was not one glimpse of light, any beam of comfort, or the least hope. It was an obscure yet comprehensive revelation of the gospel; not indeed made to Adam or Eve directly, but contained in what God said to the serpent.
Here was a certain intimation of a merciful design by "the seed of the woman," which was like the first glimmerings of the light in the east when the day first dawns. This intimation of mercy was given, even before sentence was pronounced on either Adam or Eve, from tenderness to them, lest they should be overborne with a sentence of condemnation, without having any thing held forth whence they could gather any hope.
One of those great things that were intended to be done by the work of redemption, is more plainly intimated, viz. God subduing his enemies under the feet of his Son. God's design of this was now first declared.
Satan probably had triumphed greatly in the fall of man, as though he had defeated the designs of God in his creation. But in these words God gives him a plain intimation, that he should not finally triumph, but that
a complete victory and triumph should be obtained over him by the seed of the woman.
This revelation of the gospel was the first thing that Christ did in his prophetical office. From the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, God was doing those things that were preparatory to Christ's coming to effect redemption, and were forerunners and earnests of it. And one of those things was to foretell and promise it, as he did from age to age, till Christ came. This was the first promise given, the first prediction that ever was made of it.
III. Soon after this, the custom of sacrificing was appointed, to be a standing type of the sacrifice of Christ, till he should come, and offer up himself a sacrifice to God. Sacrificing was not a custom first established
by the Levitical law, for it had been a part of God's instituted worship from the beginning. We read of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, offering sacrifice, and before them Noah, and Abel. And this was
by divine appointment; for it was part of God's worship in his church, which was offered up in faith, and which he accepted. This proves that it was by his institution; for sacrificing is no part of natural worship. The light of nature doth not teach men to offer up beasts in sacrifice to God; and seeing it was not enjoined by the law of nature, to be acceptable to God, it must be by some positive command or institution; for God has declared his abhorrence of such worship as is taught by the precept of men without his institution. (Isa. xxix. 13.) And such worship as hath not a warrant from divine institution, cannot be offered up in faith, because faith has no foundation where there is no divine appointment. Men have no warrant to hope for God's acceptance, in that which is not of his appointment, and in that to which he hath not promised his acceptance: and therefore it follows, that the custom of offering sacrifices to God was instituted soon after the fall; for the Scripture teaches us, that Abel
offered "the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof," Gen. iv. 4. and that he was accepted of God in this offering, Heb. xi. 4. And there is nothing in the story intimating that the institution was first given when
Abel offered up that sacrifice to God; but rather that Abel only complied with a custom already established.
It is very probable that sacrifice was instituted immediately after God had revealed the covenant of grace, (Gen. iii. 15.) as the foundation on which the custom of sacrificing was built. That promise was the first stone laid towards this glorious building, the work of redemption; and the next stone, the institution of sacrifices, to be a type of the great sacrifice.
The next thing that we have an account of, after God had pronounced sentence on the serpent, on the woman, and on the man, was, that God made them coats of skins, and clothed them; which, by the generality of divines, are thought to be the skins of beasts slain in sacrifice. For we have no account of any thing else that should be the occasion of man's slaying beasts, except to offer them in sacrifice, till after the flood. Men were not wont to eat the flesh of beasts as their common food till after the flood. The first food of man before the fall, was the fruit of the trees of paradise; and after the fall, his food was the produce of the field: Gen. iii. 18. "And thou shalt eat the herb of the field." The first grant that he had to eat flesh, as his common food, was after the flood: Gen. ix. 3. "Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." So that it is likely that these skins with which Adam and Eve were clothed, were the skins of their sacrifices. God's
clothing them with these was a lively figure of their being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. It was God that gave them this clothing; for it is said, God made them coats of skins, and clothed them. The righteousness
with which we are clothed, is of God. It is he only clothes the naked soul.
Our first parents, who were naked, were clothed at the expense of life. Beasts were slain, in order to afford them clothing. So doth Christ, to afford clothing to our naked souls. The tabernacle in the wilderness, which signified the church, was covered with rams' skins died red, as though they were dipped in blood, to signify that Christ's righteousness was wrought out through the pains of death, under which he shed his precious blood.
We observed before, that the light that the church enjoyed from the fall of man, till Christ came, was like the light which we enjoy in the night; not the light of the sun directly, but as reflected from the moon and other
luminaries; which light prefigured Christ, the Sun of righteousness that was afterwards to arise. This light they had chiefly two ways; one was by predictions of Christ to come; the other was by types and shadows, whereby his coming and redemption were prefigured. The first thing that was done to prepare the way for Christ in the former of these ways, was in that promise noticed in the foregoing particular; and the first thing of the latter kind, was that institution of sacrifices that we are now upon. As that promise in Gen. iii. 15. was the first dawn of gospel-light after the fall in prophecy; so the institution of sacrifices was the first hint of it in types.
The former was done in pursuance of Christ's prophetical office; in the latter, Christ exhibited himself in his priestly office. The institution of sacrifices was a great thing done towards preparing the way for Christ's coming, and working out redemption. For the sacrifices of the Old Testament were the main of all the Old-Testament types of
Christ and his redemption; and it tended to establish in the minds of God's visible church the necessity of a propitiatory sacrifice, in order to the Deity's being satisfied for sin; and so prepared the way for the reception of the glorious gospel, that reveals the great sacrifice in the visible church, and not only so, but through the world of mankind. For from this institution of sacrifices all nations derived the custom of sacrificing to the gods, to atone for their sins. No nation, however barbarous, was found without it. This is a great evidence of the truth of the christian religion; for no nation except the Jews, could tell how they came by this custom, or to what purpose it was to offer sacrifices to their deities. The light of nature did not teach them any such thing. That did
not teach them that the gods were hungry, and fed upon the flesh which they burnt in sacrifice; and yet they all had this custom; of which no other account can be given, but that they derived it from Noah, who had it from his ancestors, on whom God had enjoined it as a type of the great sacrifice of Christ. However, by this means all nations of the world had their minds possessed with this notion, that an atonement or sacrifice for sin was necessary; and a way was made for their more readily receiving the great doctrine of the gospel, the atonement and sacrifice of Christ.
IV. God soon after the fall began actually to save the souls of men through Christ's redemption. In this, Christ, who had lately taken upon him the work of mediator between God and man, did first begin that work, wherein he appeared in the exercise of his kingly office, as in the sacrifices he was represented in his priestly office, and in the first prediction of redemption by Christ he had appeared in the exercise of his prophetical office. In that prediction the light of Christ's redemption first began to dawn in the prophecies of it; in the institution of sacrifices it first began to dawn in the types of it; in this, viz. his beginning actually to save men, it first began to dawn in the fruit of it. It is probable, therefore, that Adam and Eve were the first fruits of Christ's redemption; it is probable by God's manner of treating them, by his comforting them as he did, after their awakenings and terror. They were awakened, and ashamed with a sense of their guilt, after their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked, and sewed fig-leaves to cover their nakedness; as the sinner, under the first awakenings, is wont to endeavor to hide the nakedness of his soul, by a fancied righteousness of his own. Then they were further terrified and awakened, by hearing the voice of God as he was coming to condemn them. Their coverings of fig leaves do not answer the purpose; but notwithstanding these, they ran to hide themselves among the trees of the garden, because they were naked, not daring to trust to their fig-leaves to hide their nakedness from God.
Then they were further awakened by God's calling of them to a strict account. But while their terrors were raised to such a height, and they stood, as we may suppose, trembling and astonished before their Judge, without any expedient whence they could gather any hope, then God took care to hold forth some encouragement, to keep them from the dreadful effects of despair under their awakenings, by giving a hint of a design of mercy by a Saviour, even before he pronounced sentence against them. And when after this he proceeded to pronounce sentence, whereby we may suppose their terrors were further raised, God soon after took care to encourage them, and to let them see, that he had not wholly cast them off, by taking a fatherly care of them in their fallen, naked, and miserable state, by making them coats of skins and clothing them. Which also manifested an acceptance of those sacrifices that they offered to God,
which were types of what God had promised, when he said, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This promise, there is reason to think, they believed and embraced. Eve seems plainly to express her hope in and dependence on that promise, in what she says at the birth of Cain, Gen. iv. 1. "I have gotten a man from the Lord;" i. e. as God has promised, that my seed should bruise the serpent's head; so now has God given me this pledge and token of it, and I have a seed born. She plainly owns, that this child was from God, and hoped that her promised seed was to be of this, her eldest son; though she was mistaken, as Abraham was with respect to Ishmael, as Isaac was with respect to Esau, and as Samuel was with respect to the first-born of Jesse. And especially does what she said at the birth of Seth, express her hope and dependence on the promise of God; Gen. iv. 25. "For God hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." Thus it is exceeding probable, if not evident, that as Christ took on him the work of mediator as soon as man fell; so that he now immediately began his work of redemption in its effect, and that he immediately encountered his great enemy the devil, whom he had undertaken to conquer, and rescued those two first captives out of his hands; therein baffling him, soon after his triumph over them, whereby he had made them his captives. And though he seemed sure of them and all their posterity, Christ the Redeemer soon showed him, that he was mistaken. He let him see it, in delivering those first captives, and so soon gave him
an instance of the fulfilment of that threatening, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head;" and in this instance a presage of his subduing all his enemies under his feet.
After this we have another instance of redemption in one of their children, righteous Abel, as the Scripture calls him; whose soul perhaps was the first that went to heaven through Christ's redemption. In him we have at least the first recorded instance of the death of a redeemed person. If he was the first, then as the redemption of Christ began to dawn before in the souls of men in their conversion and justification, in him it first began to dawn in glorification; and in him the angels began first to do the part of ministering spirits to Christ, in going forth to
conduct to glory the souls of the redeemed. And in him the elect angels in heaven had the first opportunity to see so wonderful a thing as the soul of one of the fallen race of mankind, that had been sunk by the fall into such
an abyss of sin and misery, brought to heaven, and in the enjoyment of heavenly glory, which was a much greater thing than if they had seen him returned to the earthly paradise. Thus they saw the glorious effect of Christ's redemption, in the great honor and happiness that was procured for sinful, miserable creatures.
V. The next remarkable thing that God did in further carrying on this great redemption, was the first uncommon pouring out of the Spirit, through Christ, in the days of Enos. We read, Gen. iv. 26. "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." The meaning of those words has been considerably controverted among divines. We cannot suppose the meaning is, that then first men performed the duty of prayer. Prayer is a duty of natural religion, and a duty to which a spirit of piety does most naturally lead men. Prayer is the very breath of a spirit of piety; we
cannot suppose therefore, that holy men before, for above two hundred years, had lived without prayer. Therefore some divines think, that the meaning is, that then men first began to perform public worship, or to call upon the name of the Lord in public assemblies. However, thus much must necessarily be understood by it, viz. that there was something new in the visible church of God with respect to calling upon the name of the Lord; that there was a great addition to the performance of this duty; and that in some respect or other it was carried far beyond what it ever had been before, which must be the consequence of a remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God.
If it was now first that men were stirred up to meet in assemblies to assist one another in seeking God, so as they never had done before; it argues something extraordinary as the cause, and could be from nothing but the uncommon influences of God's Spirit. We see by experience, that a remarkable pouring out of God's Spirit is always attended with such an effect, viz. a great increase of the performance of the duty of prayer.
When the Spirit of God begins a work on men's hearts, it immediately sets them to calling on the name of the Lord. As it was with Paul after the Spirit of God had arrested him; Behold, he prayeth! so it has been in all remarkable effusions of the Spirit of God recorded in Scripture; and so it is foretold it will be in the latter days. It is foretold, that the Holy Spirit will be poured out as a spirit of grace and supplication, Zech. xii. 10. See also Zeph. iii. 9. "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." And when it is said, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,"Gen. iv. 26. no more can be intended by it, than that this was the first remarkable season of this nature that ever was. It was the beginning, or the first, of such a work of God. In this manner such an expression is commonly used in Scripture: so, 1 Sam. xiv. 35. "And Saul built an altar unto the Lord; the same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord." In the Hebrew it is, as you may see in the margin, that altar he began to build unto the Lord. Heb. ii. 3. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which first began to be spoken by the Lord?"
It may here be observed, that from the fall of man, to our day, the work of redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable communications of the Spirit of God. Though there be a more constant influence of God's Spirit always in some degree attending his ordinances; yet the way in which the greatest things have been done towards carrying on this work, always have been by remarkable effusions, at special seasons of mercy, as may fully appear hereafter in our further prosecution of our subject. And this in the days of Enos, was the first remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God that ever was. There had been a saving work of God on the hearts of some before; but now God was pleased to bring in a harvest of souls to Christ; so that in this we see that great building, of which God laid the foundation immediately after the fall of man, carried on further, and built higher, than ever it had been before.
VI. The next thing I shall notice, is the eminently holy life of Enoch, who, we have reason to think, was a saint of greater eminency than any that had been before him; so that in this respect the work of redemption was carried on to a still greater height. With respect to its effect in the visible church in general, we observed above how it was carried higher in the days of Enos than ever it had been before. Probably Enoch was one of the saints of that harvest; for he lived all the days that he did live on earth, in the days of Enos. And with respect to the degree to which this work was carried in the soul of a particular person, it was raised to a greater height in Enoch than ever before. His soul, built on Christ, was built up in holiness to a greater height than any preceding instance. He was a wonderful instance of Christ's redemption, and of the efficacy of his grace.
VII. In Enoch's time, God more expressly revealed the coming of Christ than he had before done. Jude 14, 15. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Here Enoch prophesies of the coming of Christ. It does not seem to be confined to any particular coming of Christ;
but it has respect in general to Christ's coming in his kingdom, and is fulfilled in a degree in both his first and second coming; and indeed in every remarkable manifestation Christ has made of himself in the world, for the saving of his people, and the destroying of his enemies. It is very parallel in this respect with many other prophecies of the Old Testament; and, in particular, with that great prophecy of Christ's coming in his kingdom, whence the Jews principally took their notion of the kingdom of heaven, Daniel vii. 10. "A fiery stream issued, and came forth from
before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." And in Daniel vii. 13, 14. "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." And though it is not unlikely that Enoch might have a more immediate respect in this prophecy to the approaching destruction of the old world by the flood, which was a remarkable resemblance of
Christ's destruction of all his enemies at his second coming, yet it doubtless looked beyond the type to the antitype. And as this prophecy of Christ's coming is more express than any preceding it; so it is an instance of the increase of that gospel-light which began to dawn presently after the fall of man; and of that building which
is the subject of our present discourse, being yet further carried on, and built up higher than it had been before.
And here, by the way, I would observe, that the increase of gospel-light, and the progress of the work of redemption, as it respects the church in general, from its erection to the end of the world, is very similar to the
progress of the same word and the same light, in a particular soul, from the time of its conversion, till it is perfected and crowned in glory. Sometimes the light shines brighter, and at other times more obscurely; sometimes grace prevails, at other times it seems to languish for a great while together; now corruption prevails, and then grace revives again. But in general grace is growing: from its first infusion, till it is perfected in glory, the kingdom of Christ is building up in the soul. So it is with respect to the great affair in general, as it relates to the universal subject of it, and as it is carried on from its first beginning, till it is perfected at the end of the world.
VIII. The next remarkable thing towards carrying on this work, was the translation of Enoch into heaven. Gen. v. 24. "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him." Moses, in giving an account of the genealogy of those that were of the line of Noah, does not say concerning Enoch, he lived so long and he died, as he does of the rest;
but, he was not, for God took him; i. e. he translated him; in body and soul carried him to heaven without dying, as it is explained in Heb. xi. 5. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death." By this wonderful work of God, the work of redemption was carried to a greater height, in several respects, than it had been before.
When showing what God aimed at in the work of redemption, or what were the main things he intended to bring to pass; among other things I mentioned the perfect restoration of the ruins of the fall, with respect to the elect, both in soul and body. Now this translation of Enoch was the first instance of restoration with respect to the body. There had been many instances of restoring the soul of man by Christ's redemption, but none of redeeming and actually saving the body, till now. All the bodies of the elect are to be saved as well as their souls. At the end of the world, all their bodies shall actually be redeemed; those that then shall have been dead, by a resurrection; and others, that then shall be living, by causing them to undergo a glorious change. There was a number of the bodies of
saints raised and glorified, at the resurrection of Christ; and before that there was an instance of a body glorified in Elijah. But the first instance of all was this of Enoch. By this, the work of redemption was carried on still further; as, this wonderful work of God afforded a great increase of gospel-light to the church, hereby it had a clearer manifestation of a future state, and of the glorious reward of the saints in heaven. We are told, 2 Tim. i. 10. "That life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel." What was said in the Old Testament of a future state, is very obscure, in comparison with the more full, plain, and abundant revelation given of it in the New. But yet even in those early days, the church of God, in this instance, was favored with an instance of it set before their eyes, in that one of their brethren was actually taken up to heaven without dying; which we have
all reason to think the church of God knew then, as they afterwards knew Elijah's translation. And as this was a clearer manifestation of a future state than the church had enjoyed before, so it was a pledge or earnest of that future glorification of all the saints which God intended through the redemption of Jesus Christ.
IX. The next thing that I shall observe, was the upholding of the church of God in that family from which Christ was to proceed during that great and general defection which preceded the flood. The church of God, in all
probability, was small, in comparison with the rest of the world, from the time that mankind began to multiply; or from the time, Gen. iv. 16. "When Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod;" which being interpreted, is the land of banishment. The church seems to have been kept up chiefly in the posterity of Seth: for this was the seed that God appointed instead of Abel whom Cain slew. But we cannot reasonably suppose that Seth's posterity were one fiftieth part of the world: "For Adam was one hundred and thirty years old when Seth
was born." But Cain, who seems to have been the leader of those that were not of the church, was Adam's eldest child, and probably was born soon after the fall, which doubtless was soon after Adam's creation; so that there was time for Cain to have many sons before Seth was born;
besides many other children, that probably Adam and Eve had before this time, agreeably to God's blessing, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth;" and many of these children might have children.
The history of Cain before Seth was born, seems to imply, that there were
great numbers of men on the earth: Gen. iv. 14, 15. "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth: and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall
come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." And all who existed when Seth was born, must be supposed to stand in equal capacity of multiplying their posterity with him; and therefore, Seth's posterity were but a small part of the inhabitants of the world.
But after the days of Enos and Enoch, (for Enoch was translated before Enos died,) the church of God greatly diminished, in proportion as multitudes of the line of Seth, born in the church of God, fell away, and joined with the wicked world, principally by means of intermarriages with them: as Gen. vi. 1, 2, 4. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.—There were giants in the
earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown." By the sons of God here, are doubtless meant the children of the church. It is a denomination often given them in Scripture. They intermarried with the wicked world, and so had their hearts led away from God: and there was a great and continual defection from the church. The church, that used to be a restraint on the wicked world, diminished exceedingly, and so
wickedness went on without restraint. Satan, that old serpent the devil, that tempted our first parents, and set up himself as the God of this world, raged exceedingly; and every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence. It seemed to be deluged with wickedness then, as it was with water afterwards; and mankind in general were swallowed up in it. And now Satan made a most violent and potent attempt to devour the church of God; and had almost done it. But yet God restored it in the midst of all this flood of wickedness and violence. He kept it up in that line of which Christ was to proceed. He would not suffer it to be destroyed, for a blessing was in it. There was a particular family, a root whence the branch of righteousness was afterwards to shoot forth. And therefore, however the branches were lopped off, and the tree seemed to be
destroyed; yet God, in the midst of all, kept alive this root, by his wonderful redeeming power and grace, so that the gates of hell could not prevail against it.
Thus I have shown how God carried on the great affair of redemption; how the building went on during this first period, from the fall of man, till God brought the flood on the earth. And I would observe, that though the Mosaic history during that space be very short, yet it is exceedingly comprehensive and instructive. And it may also be profitable for us here to observe, the efficacy of that purchase of redemption which had such great effects so many ages before Christ actually appeared.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2024 15:34:54 GMT -5
PART II.
FROM THE FLOOD TO THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM.
I proceed now to show how the same work was carried on from the beginning of the flood till the calling of Abraham. For though that mighty, universal deluge overthrew the world: yet it did not overthrow this building of God, the work of redemption. This went on; and instead of being overthrown, continued to be built up, in order to a further
preparation for the great Saviour's coming into the world, for the redemption for his people.
I. The flood itself was a work of God that belonged to this great affair, and tended to promote it. All the mighty works of God from the fall of man to the end of the world, are reducible to this work; and if seen in aright view, will appear as parts of it; and so many steps for carrying it on;and doubtless so great a work, so remarkable and universal a catastrophe, as the deluge was, cannot be excepted. Thereby God removed out of the way the enemies and obstacles that were ready to overthrow it. Satan seems to have been in a dreadful rage just before the flood, and his rage then doubtless was, as it always has been, chiefly against the church of God to overthrow it; and he had filled the earth with violence and rage against it. He had drawn over almost all the world to be on his side, and they listed under his banner against Christ and his church. We read, that the earth was filled with violence; and doubtless that violence was chiefly against the church, in fulfilment of what was foretold, I will put enmity
between thy seed and her seed. Their enmity and violence was so great, and the enemies of the church so numerous, the whole world being against it, that it was come to the last extremity. Noah's reproofs, and his preaching of righteousness, were utterly disregarded. God's Spirit had striven with them a hundred and twenty years, but all in vain; and the church was reduced to so narrow limits, as to be confined to one family.
There was no prospect of any thing else but of their totally swallowing up the church, and that in a very little time; and so wholly destroying that small root that had the blessing in it, whence the Redeemer was to proceed.
And therefore, God's destroying those enemies of the church by the flood belongs to this affair of redemption; for it was one thing that was done in fulfilment of the covenant of grace, as it was revealed to Adam: "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head." 616616 Gen. iii. 15. This was only a destruction of the seed of the serpent in the midst of their most violent rage against
the seed of the woman, when in the utmost peril by them.
We read in Scripture of scarce any destruction of nations but that one main reason given for it is, their enmity and injuries against Gods church; and doubtless this was one main reason of the destruction of all nations by the flood. The giants that were in those days, in all likelihood, got themselves renown by their great exploits against heaven, and against Christ and his church, the remaining sons of God that had not corrupted themselves.
We read, that just before the world shall be destroyed by fire, "the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, shall gather together against the church as the sand of the sea, and shall go up on the breadth of the earth,
and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and then fire shall come down from God out of heaven, and devour them," Rev. xx.8, 9. And it seems there was that which was very parallel to it, just before
the world was destroyed by water. And therefore their destruction was a work of God that did as much belong to the work of redemption, as the destruction of the Egyptians belonged to the redemption of the children of Israel out of Egypt, or as the destruction of Sennacherib's mighty army, that had compassed about Jerusalem to destroy it, belonged to God's redemption of that city from them.
By means of this flood, all the enemies of God's church, against whom that little handful had no strength, were swept off at once. God took their part, appeared for them against their enemies, and drowned those of whom they had been afraid, in the flood of water, as he drowned the enemies of Israel that pursued them in the Red sea.
Indeed God could have taken other methods to deliver his church: he could have converted all the world instead of drowning it; and so he could have taken another method than drowning the Egyptians in the Red sea.
But that is no argument, that the method he did take, was not a method to show his redeeming mercy to them.
By the deluge the enemies of God's people were dispossessed of the earth, and the whole earth was given to Noah and his family to possess it in quiet; as God made room for the Israelites in Canaan, by casting out their enemies from before them. And God thus taking the possession of the enemies of the church, and giving it all to his church, was agreeable to that promise of the covenant of grace: Ps. xxxvii. 9-11. "For evil-doers hall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall nherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
II. Another thing belonging to the same work, was God's wonderfully preserving that family of which the Redeemer was to proceed, when all the rest of the world was drowned. God's drowning the world, and saving Noah and his family, were both reducible to this great work. The saving of Noah and his family belonged to it two ways, viz. as from that family the Redeemer was to proceed, and it was the mystical body of Christ that was there saved. The manner of saving those persons, when all the world besides was so overthrown, was very wonderful. It was a wonderful type
of the redemption of Christ, of that redemption that is sealed by the baptism of water, and is so spoken of in the New Testament, as 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. "Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." That water which washed away
the filth of the world, that cleared the world of wicked men, was a type of the blood of Christ, that takes away the sin of the world. That water which delivered Noah and his sons from their enemies, is a type of the blood that delivers God's church from their sins, their worst enemies. That water which was so plentiful and abundant, that it filled the world, and reached above the tops of the highest mountains, was a type of that blood, which is sufficient for the whole world; sufficient to bury the highest mountains of sin. The ark, that was the refuge and hiding-place of the church in this time of storm and flood, was a type of Christ, the true hiding-place of the church from the storms and floods of God's wrath.
III. The next thing I would observe is, the new grant of the earth God made to Noah and his family immediately after the flood, as founded on the covenant of grace. The sacrifice of Christ was represented by Noah's building an altar to the Lord, and offering a sacrifice of every clean beast, and every clean fowl. And we have an account of God accepting this sacrifice: and thereupon he blessed Noah, and established his covenant with him, and with his seed, promising to destroy the earth in like manner no more; signifying that it is by the sacrifice of Christ, God's
favor is obtained, and his people are in safety from destroying judgments, and obtain the blessing of the Lord. And God now, on occasion of this sacrifice that Noah offered, gives him and his posterity a new grant of the earth; a new power of dominion over the creatures, as founded on that sacrifice, and so founded on the covenant of grace. And
so it is to be looked upon as a different grant from that which was made to Adam, Gen. i. 28. "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." That grant was not founded on the covenant of grace; for it was given to Adam while he was under the covenant of works, and therefore was antiquated when that covenant ceased. Hence it came to pass, that the earth was taken away from mankind by the flood: for the first grant was forfeited; and God had never made another after that, till after the flood. If the first covenant had not been broken, God never would have drowned the world, and so have taken it away from mankind; for then the first grant made to mankind would have stood good. But that being broken, God after a while destroyed the earth, when the wickedness of man was great.
But after the flood, on Noah's offering a sacrifice that represented the sacrifice of Christ, God in smelling a sweet savor, or accepting the sacrifice—as it was a representation of the true sacrifice of Christ, which is a sweet savor indeed to God—gives Noah a new grant of the earth, founded on that covenant of grace which is by the sacrifice of Christ, with a promise annexed, that now the earth should no more be destroyed, till the consummation of all things; (Gen. viii. 20-22; ix. 1-3, 7.) The reason why such a promise, that God would no more destroy the earth,
was added to this grant made to Noah, and not to that made to Adam, was because this was founded on the covenant of grace, of which Christ was the surety, and therefore could not be broken. And therefore it comes to pass now, that though the wickedness of man has dreadfully raged, and the earth has been filled with violence and wickedness, one age after another, and much more dreadful and aggravated wickedness, being against so much greater light and mercy; especially in these days of the gospel: yet God's patience holds out; God does not destroy the earth: his mercy and forbearance abides according to his promise; and his grant established with Noah and his sons abides firm and good, being founded on the covenant of grace.
IV. On this God renews with Noah and his sons the covenant of grace, Gen. ix. 9, 10. "And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you," &c.; which was the covenant of grace; of which even the brute creation have his benefit, that it shall never be destroyed again until the consummation of all things. By this expression in Scripture, my covenant, is commonly to be understood the covenant of grace. The manner of expression, I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you, shows plainly, that it was a covenant already in being, and that Noah would understand by that denomination the covenant of grace.
V. God's disappointing the design of building the city and tower of Babel belongs to the great work of redemption. For that was undertaken in opposition of this great building of God of which we are speaking. Men's going about to build such a city and tower was an effect of the corruption into which mankind were now fallen. This city and tower was set up in opposition to the city of God, as the god to whom they built it, was their pride. Being sunk into a disposition to forsake the true God, the first idol they set up in his room, was their own fame. And as this city and tower had their foundation laid in the pride and vanity of men, and the haughtiness of their minds, so it was built on a foundation exceedingly contrary to the nature of the kingdom of Christ, and his redeemed city, which has its foundation laid in humility. Therefore God saw that it tended to frustrate the design of that great building which was founded in Christ's humiliation: and therefore the thing displeased the Lord, and he baffled and confounded the design. God will frustrate and confound all other designs, that are set up in opposition to the great work of redemption. Isaiah ii. representing God setting up the kingdom of Christ in the world, foretells how, in order to it, he will bring down the haughtiness of men, and how the day of the Lord shall be on every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, &c. Christ's kingdom is established, by bringing down every high thing to make way for it, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. "For the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." What is done in a particular soul, to make way for the setting up of Christ's kingdom, is to destroy Babel in that soul.
They intended to have built Babel up to heaven. However, that building of which we speak shall reach to heaven indeed, the highest heavens, at the end of the world, when it shall be finished: and therefore God would not suffer the building of his enemies, in opposition to it, to prosper. If they had prospered in building that city and tower, it might have kept the world of wicked men, the enemies of the church, together, as that was their design. They might have remained united in one vast, powerful city; and so have been too powerful for the city of God.
This Babel is the same with the city of Babylon; for Babylon in the original is Babel. But Babylon is always spoken of in Scripture as chiefly opposite to the city of God, as a powerful and terrible enemy, notwithstanding this great check put to the building of it in the beginning. But it probably would have been vastly more powerful, and able to vex if not to destroy the church of God, if it had not been thus checked.
Thus it was in kindness to his church, and in prosecution of the great design of redemption, that God put a stop to the building of the city and tower of Babel.
VI. The dispersing of the nations, and dividing the earth among its inhabitants, immediately after God had caused the building of Babel to cease. This was done so as most to suit the great design of redemption. And particularly, God therein had an eye to the future propagation of the gospel among the nations. They were so placed, their habitation so limited, round about the land of Canaan, as most suited that design. Deut. xxxii. 8. "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Acts xvii. 26, 27. "And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him." The land of Canaan was the most conveniently situated of any place in the world, for the purpose of spreading revealed light among the nations in general. The Roman empire, the chief part of the civilized world, in the apostolic age, was in
the countries round about Jerusalem. The devil seeing the advantage of this situation of the nations for promoting the great work of redemption, and the disadvantage of it with respect to the interests of his kingdom, afterward led away many nations into the remotest parts of the world, to get them out of the way of the gospel. Thus he led some into America; and others into northern cold regions, that are almost inaccessible.
VII. Another thing I would mention in this period, was God's preserving the true religion in that line from which Christ was to proceed, when the world in general apostatized to idolatry, and the church was in imminent danger of being swallowed in the general corruption. Although God had lately wrought so wonderfully for the deliverance of his church, and had shown so great mercy towards it, as for its sake even to destroy all the rest of the world; and although he had lately renewed and established his covenant of grace with Noah and his sons; yet so prone is the corrupt heart of man to depart from God, and to sink into the depths of wickedness, darkness, and delusion, that the world soon after the flood fell into gross idolatry; so that before Abraham the distemper was become almost universal. The earth was become very corrupt at the time of the building of Babel; even God's people themselves, that line of which Christ was to come. Josh. xxiv. 2. "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods." The other side of the flood means beyond the river Euphrates, where the ancestors of Abraham lived.
We are not to understand, that they were wholly drawn off to idolatry, to forsake the true God. For God is said to be the God of Nahor: Gen. xxxi. 53. "The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us." But they partook in some measure of the general and almost universal corruption of the times; as Solomon was in a measure infected with idolatrous corruption; and as the children of Israel in Egypt are said to serve other gods, though there was the true church of God among them; and as there were images kept for a considerable time in the family of Jacob, the corruption being brought from Padan-Aram, whence he fetched his wives.
This was the second time that the church was almost brought to nothing by the corruption and general defection of the world from true religion.
But still the true religion was kept up in the family from which Christ was to proceed. Which is another instance of God's remarkably preserving his church in a time of a general deluge of wickedness; and wherein, although the god of this world raged, and had almost swallowed up God's church, yet he did not suffer the gates of hell to prevail against it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2024 15:38:29 GMT -5
PART III.
FROM THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM TO MOSES.
I proceed now to show how the work of redemption was carried on from the calling of Abraham to Moses. And,
I. It pleased God now to separate that person of whom Christ was to come, from the rest of the world, that his church might be upheld in his family and posterity till that time. He called Abraham out of his own country, and from his kindred, to go into a distant country, that God should show him; and brought him first out of Ur of the Chaldees to Charran, and then to the land of Canaan.
It was before observed, that the idolatrous corruption of the world was now become general; mankind were almost wholly overrun with idolatry. God therefore saw it necessary, in order to uphold true religion in the world, that there should be a family separated from all others. It proved to be high time to take this course, lest the church of Christ should wholly be carried away with the apostacy. For Abraham's own country and kindred had most of them fallen off; and without some extraordinary interposition of Providence, in all likelihood, in a generation or two more, the true religion in this line would have been extinct. And therefore God called Abraham, the person in whose family he intended to uphold the true religion, out of his own country, and from his kindred, to a far distant country, that his posterity might there remain a people separate from all the rest of the world; that so the true religion might be upheld there, while all mankind besides were swallowed up in heathenism.
The land of the Chaldees, whence Abraham was called, was the country about Babel. Babel, or Babylon, was the chief city of Chaldea. Learned men suppose by what they gather from the most ancient accounts of
things, that it was in this land idolatry first began; that Babel and Chaldea were the original and chief seats of the worship of idols, whence it spread into other nations. And therefore the land of the Chaldeans, the country
of Babylon, is in Scripture called the land of graven images; Jer. l. 35, 38.
"A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.—A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols." God calls Abraham out of this idolatrous country, to a great distance from it. And when he came there, he gave him no inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on; but he remained a stranger and a sojourner, that he and his family might be kept separate from all the world.
This was a new thing: God had never taken such a method before. His church had not in this manner been separated from the rest of the world till now; but were wont to dwell with them, without any bar or fence to keep them separate; the mischievous consequence of which had been found once and again. Before the flood, the effect of God's people living intermingled with the wicked world, without any remarkable wall of separation, was, that the sons of the church joined in marriage with others, and thereby almost all soon became infected, and the church was almost brought to nothing. The method that God then took to fence the church was, to drown the wicked world, and save the church in the ark. Before Abraham was called, the world was become corrupt again. But now God took another method; he did not destroy the wicked world, and save Abraham, and his wife, and Lot, but calls these persons to go and
live separate from the rest of the world. This was a new and great thing, that God did toward the work of redemption. It was about the middle of the space of time between the fall of man and the coming of Christ; about two thousand years before the great Redeemer was to appear. But by this calling of Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, a foundation was laid for upholding the church in the world, till Christ should come. For the world having become idolatrous, there was a necessity in order to this, that the seed of the woman should be thus separated from it.
And then it was needful that there should be a particular nation separated from the rest of the world, to receive the types and prophecies that were to be given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming; that to them might be committed the oracles of God; that by them the history of God's great works of creation and providence might be preserved; that Christ might be born of this nation; and that from hence the light of the gospel might shine forth to the rest of the world. These ends could not well be obtained, if God's people, through all these two thousand years, had lived intermixed with the heathen world. So that the calling of Abraham may be looked upon as a kind of new foundation laid for the visible church of God, in a more distinct and regular state. Abraham, being the person in whom this foundation is laid, is represented in Scripture as though he were the father of all the church, the father of all them that believe; a root whence the visible church rose as a tree, distinct from all other plants. Of
this tree Christ was the branch of righteousness; and from it, after Christ came, the natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles were grafted in. So that Abraham still remains the father, the root of the church. It is the same tree which, from that small beginning in Abraham's time, has in these days of the gospel spread its branches over a great part of the earth, and will fill the whole in due time, and at the end of the world shall be transplanted from an earthly soil into the paradise of God.
II. There accompanied this a more particular and full revelation and confirmation of the covenant of grace than ever before. There had been before this two particular and solemn editions or confirmations of this covenant; one, to our first parents, soon after the fall; the other, to Noah and his family, soon after the flood. And now there is a third, at and after the calling of Abraham. It is now revealed to Abraham, not only that Christ should come; but that he should be his seed; and promised, that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. And God repeated the promises of this to Abraham. The first promise was when he first called him, Gen. xii. 2. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." The same
promise was renewed after he came into the land of Canaan, (Gen. xiii. 14-17.) Again after Abraham had returned from the slaughter of the kings,(Gen. xv. 5, 6.) And a fourth time, after his offering up Isaac, (Gen. xxii.16-18.)
In this renewal of the covenant of grace with Abraham, several particulars concerning it were revealed more fully than before; not only that Christ was to be of Abraham's seed, but also, the calling of the Gentiles, that all
nations should be brought into the church, all the families of the earth made blessed. And then the great condition of the covenant of grace, which is faith, was now more fully made known. Gen. xv. 5, 6. "And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Which is much noticed in the New Testament, as that for which Abraham was called the father of believers. And as there was now a further revelation of the covenant of grace, so there was a further confirmation of it by seals and pledges; particularly,
circumcision, which was a seal of the covenant of grace, as appears by the first institution of it, Gen. xvii. It there appears to be a seal of that covenant by which God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, (Gen. xvii. 5, 9, 10.) And we are expressly taught, that it was a seal of righteousness of faith, Rom. iv. 11. Speaking of Abraham, the apostle says, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith.
Abraham's family and posterity must be kept separate from the rest of the world, till Christ should come; and this sacrament was the principal wall of separation. Besides, God gave Abraham a remarkable pledge of the fulfilment of the promise he had made him, in his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him. Chedorlaomer seems to, have been a great emperor, who reigned over a great part of the world at that day; and though he had his seat at Elam, which was not much, if any thing, short of a thousand miles distant from the land of Canaan, yet
he extended his empire so as to reign over many parts of the land of Canaan, as appears by Gen. xiv. 4-7. It is supposed by learned men, that he was a king of the Assyrian empire at that day, which had been before begun by Nimrod at Babel. And as it was the honor of kings in those days to build cities for the seat of their empire, (Gen. x. 10-12.) so it is conjectured, that he had gone forth and built him a city in Elam, and made that his seat; and that those other kings who came with him, were his deputies in the several cities and countries where they reigned. But yet as mighty an empire as he had, and as great an army as he came with, Abraham, only with his trained servants, that were born in his house, conquered and subdued this mighty emperor, the kings that came with him, and all their army. This he received of God as a pledge of what he had promised, viz. the victory that Christ his seed should obtain over the nations of the earth, whereby he should possess the gates of his enemies.
It is plainly spoken of as such in the 41st of Isaiah. In that chapter is foretold the future glorious victory the church shall obtain over the nations of the world, (Isa. xli. 1, 10, 15.) This victory of Abraham over such a great emperor and his mighty forces, is spoken of as a pledge and earnest of victory to the church, Isa. xli. 2, 3. "Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet."
Another remarkable confirmation Abraham received of the covenant of grace, was when he returned from the slaughter of the kings; when Melchisedec the king of Salem, the priest of the most high God, that great type of Christ, met him, and blessed him, and brought forth bread and wine. The bread and wine signified the same blessings of the covenant of grace, that the bread and wine does in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. As Abraham had a seal of the covenant in circumcision that was equivalent to baptism, so now he had a seal of it equivalent to the Lord's supper. And Melchisedec's coming to meet him with such a seal of the covenant of grace, on the occasion of this victory, evinces, that it was a pledge of God's fulfilment of the same covenant. (Gen. xiv. 19, 20.)
Another confirmation of the covenant of grace, was the vision he had, in the deep sleep that fell upon him, of the smoking furnace, and burning lamp, that passed between the parts of the sacrifice, (Gen. xv.) The sacrifice signified that of Christ. The smoking furnace that passed through the midst of that sacrifice first, signified the sufferings of Christ. But the burning lamp that followed, which shone with a clear bright light, signifies the glory that followed Christ's sufferings, and was procured by them.
Another remarkable pledge that God gave Abraham of the fulfilment of the covenant of grace, was his giving of that child of whom Christ was to come, in his old age, (Heb. xi. 11, 12. and Rom. iv. 18-25.) and his delivering Isaac, after he was laid upon the wood of the sacrifice to be slain. This was a confirmation of Abraham's faith in the promise that God had made of Christ, that he should be of Isaac's posterity; and was a representation of the resurrection of Christ. (Heb. xi. 17-19.) And because this was given as a confirmation of the covenant of grace, therefore God renewed that covenant with Abraham on this occasion, (Gen. xxii. 15-18.)
Thus you see how much more fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham's time than ever it had been before; by means of which Abraham seems to have had a clear view of Christ the great Redeemer, and the future things that were to be accomplished by him. And therefore Christ informs us, that "Abraham rejoiced to see his day,
and he saw it. and was glad," John viii. 56. So great an advance did it please God now to make in this building, which he had been carrying on from the beginning of the world.
III. The next thing is God's preserving the patriarchs for so long a time in the midst of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and from all other enemies. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were those of whom Christ was to proceed; and they were now separated from the world, that in them his church might be upheld. Therefore, in preserving them, the great design of redemption was carried on. He preserved them, and kept the inhabitants of the land where they sojourned from destroying them; which was a remarkable dispensation of providence. For the inhabitants of the land were at that day very wicked, though they grew more wicked afterwards. This appears by Gen. xv. 16. "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Canaanites is not yet full:"
as much as to say, though it be very great, yet it is not yet full. And their great wickedness also appears by Abraham and Isaac's aversion to their children marrying any of the daughters of the land. Abraham, when he was old, could not be content till he had made his servant swear that he would not take a wife for his son of the daughters of the land. And Isaac and Rebecca were content to send away Jacob to so great a distance as Padan-Aram, to take him a wife thence. And when Esau married some of the daughters of the land, we are told, that they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca.
Another argument of their great wickedness, was the instances we have in Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which were some of the cities of Canaan, though they were probably most notoriously wicked; and likely to have the most bitter enmity against these holy men; agreeable to what was declared at first, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." 617617 Gen. iii. 15. Their holy lives were a continual condemnation of their wickedness. Besides, it could not be otherwise, but that they must be much in reproving their wickedness, as we find Lot was in Sodom; who, we are told, vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds, and was to them a preacher of righteousness.
And they were the more exposed to them, being strangers and sojourners in the land, and having as yet no inheritance there. Men are more apt to find fault with strangers, and to be irritated by any thing in them that offends, as they were with Lot in Sodom. He very gently reproved their wickedness; and they say upon it, "This fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a ruler and a judge;" and threatened what they would do to him. But God wonderfully preserved Abraham and Lot, Isaac and Jacob, and their families, amongst them, though they were few in number, and they might quickly have destroyed them; which is taken notice of as a wonderful instance of God's preserving mercy towards his church, Psa.cv. 12-15. "When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea,
he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."
This preservation was, in some instances especially, very remarkable; when the people of the land were greatly irritated and provoked; as they were by Simeon and Levi's treatment of the Shechemites, in Gen. xxxiv.
30, 31. God then strangely preserved Jacob and his family, restraining the provoked people by an unusual terror on their minds. Gen. xxxv. 5. "And the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob."
And God preserved them, not only from the Canaanites, but from all others that intended mischief to them. He preserved Jacob and his company, when pursued by Laban, full of rage, and a disposition to overtake, him as an enemy. God met him, rebuked him, and said to him, "Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad." How
wonderfully did he also preserve him from Esau his brother, when he came forth with an army, with a full design to cut him off! How did God, in answer to his prayer, when Jacob wrestled with Christ at Penuel, wonderfully turn Esau's heart, and make him, instead of meeting him as an enemy with slaughter and destruction, to meet him as a friend and brother, doing him no harm!
And thus was this handful, this little root that had the blessing of the Redeemer in it, preserved in the midst of enemies and dangers: which was not unlike to preserving the ark in the midst of the tempestuous deluge.
IV. The next thing I would mention is, the awful destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities. This tended to promote the great work designed two ways: First, as it tended powerfully to restrain the inhabitants of the land from injuring those holy strangers that God had brought to sojourn amongst them. Lot was one of those
strangers; he came into the land with Abraham; and Sodom was destroyed for their abusive disregard of Lot, the preacher of righteousness. And their destruction came upon their committing a most injurious and abominable insult on Lot, and the strangers that were come into his house, even those angels, whom they probably took to be some of
Lot's former acquaintance come to visit him. They in a most outrageous manner beset Lot's house, intending a monstrous abuse and act of violence on those strangers, and threatening to serve Lot worse than them.
But in the midst of this God smote them with blindness; and the next morning the city and the country about it was overthrown in a most terrible storm of fire and brimstone; which dreadful destruction, as it was in the sight of the rest of the inhabitants of the land, and therefore greatly tended to restrain them from hurting those holy strangers any more; it so hurt them, and probably was one principal means to restrain them, and preserve the patriarchs. And when that reason is given, why the inhabitants of the land did not pursue after Jacob, when they were so provoked by the destruction of the Shechemites, viz. that the terror of the Lord was upon them; it is very probable, that this was the terror which was set home upon them. They remembered the amazing destruction of Sodom, and the cities of the plain, that came upon them for their abusive treatment of Lot, and so durst not hurt Jacob and his family, though they were so much provoked to it.
Another way that this awful destruction tended to promote this great affair of redemption, was, that hereby God remarkably exhibited the terrors of his law, to make men sensible of their need of redeeming mercy. The work of redemption never was carried on without this. The law, from the beginning, is made use of as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.
But under the Old Testament there was much more need of some extraordinary, visible, and sensible manifestation of God's wrath against sin, than in the days of the gospel; since a future state, and the eternal misery of hell, is more clearly revealed, and since the awful justice of God against the sins of men has been so wonderfully displayed in the sufferings of Christ. And therefore the revelation that God gave of himself in those days, used to be accompanied with much more terror than it is in these days of the gospel. So when God appeared at mount Sinai to give the law, it was with thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud. Some external, awful manifestations of God's wrath against sin were on some accounts especially necessary before the giving of the law: and therefore, before the flood, the terrors of the law handed down by tradition from Adam served for that purpose. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years himself, to proclaim God's awful threatening's denounced in the covenant made with him, and how dreadful the consequences of the fall were; and others, that conversed
with Adam, lived till the flood. And the destruction of the world by the flood served to exhibit the terrors of the law, and manifested the wrath of God against sin; in order to make men sensible of the absolute necessity of redeeming mercy. And some that saw the flood were alive in Abraham's time.
But this was now in a great measure forgotten; therefore God was pleased again, in a most amazing manner, to show his wrath against sin, in the destruction of these cities; which was the liveliest image of hell of any thing that ever had been; and therefore the apostle Jude says, "They suffer the vengeance of eternal fire," Jude 7. God rained storms of fire and brimstone upon them; probably by thick flashes of lightning. The streams of brimstone burnt up all these cities; so that they perished in the flames of divine wrath. By this might be seen the dreadful wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; which tended to show the necessity of redemption, and so to promote that great work.
V. God again renewed and confirmed the covenant of grace to Isaac and Jacob. To Isaac in these words; Gen.xxvi.3,4. "And I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And afterwards to Jacob; first, in Isaac blessing him and his seed, wherein he acted and spoke by extraordinary divine direction, Gen. xxvii. 29. "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over
thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: Cursed be every one that curses thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." And therefore Esau, not included in this blessing, missed of being blessed as an heir of the benefits of the covenant of grace. This covenant was again renewed and confirmed to Jacob at Bethel, in his vision of the ladder that reached to heaven; which was a symbol of the way of salvation by Christ. The stone that Jacob rested on was a type of Christ, the stone of Israel, which the spiritual Israel rests upon; as is evident, because it was anointed, and made use of as an altar. But we know that Christ is the anointed of God, and is the only true altar. While Jacob was resting on this stone, and saw this ladder, God appears to him as his covenant God, and renews the covenant of grace with him; as in Gen. xxviii. 14. "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Jacob had another remarkable confirmation of this covenant at Penuel, where he wrestled with God, and prevailed; where Christ appeared to him in the form of that nature which he was afterwards to receive in a personal union with his divine nature.—And God renewed his covenant with him again, after he left Padan-Aram, and was come up to Bethel, and where he had the vision of the ladder; as you may see in Gen. xxxv. 10-15. Thus the covenant of grace was now renewed much oftener than it had been before. The light of the gospel now began to shine much brighter, as the time of Christ's appearing drew nearer.
VI. The next thing I would observe, is God's remarkably preserving the family of which Christ was to proceed from perishing by famine, by the instrumentality of Joseph. When there was a seven-years famine approaching, God was pleased, by a wonderful providence, to send Joseph into Egypt, there to provide for Jacob and his family, and to keep the holy seed alive, which otherwise would have perished. Joseph was sent into Egypt for that end, as he observes, Gen. l. 20. "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to save much people
alive." How often had this holy root, that had in it the future branch of righteousness, the glorious Redeemer, been in danger of being destroyed! But God wonderfully preserved it. This salvation of the house of Israel, by the hand of Joseph, was upon some accounts very much a resemblance of the salvation of Christ. The children of Israel were saved by Joseph their kinsman and brother, from perishing by famine; as he that saves the souls of the spiritual Israel from spiritual famine is their near kinsman, and one that is not ashamed to call them brethren. Joseph was a brother they had hated, sold, and as it were killed; for they had designed to kill him. So Christ is one that we naturally hate, and by our wicked lives, have sold for the vain things of the world, and by our sins have slain. Joseph was first in a state of humiliation; he was a servant, as Christ appeared in the form of a servant; and then was cast into a dungeon, as Christ descended into the grave. When he rose out of the dungeon, he was in a state of great exaltation, at the king's right hand as his deputy, to reign over all his kingdom, to provide food, to
preserve life; and being in this state of exaltation, he dispenses food to his brethren, and so gives them life. So Christ was exalted at God's right hand to be a Prince and Saviour to his brethren, received gifts for men, even for
the rebellious, them that had hated and sold him
VII. After this there was a prophecy of Christ, on some accounts more particular than any before, in Jacob's blessing his son Judah. This was more particular as it showed of whose posterity he was to be. When God called Abraham, it was revealed that he was to be of Abraham's posterity. Before, we have no account of any revelation concerning Christ's pedigree confined to narrower limits than the posterity of Noah: after this it was confined to still narrower limits; for though Abraham had many sons, yet it was revealed, that Christ was to be of Isaac's posterity. And then it was limited still more; for when Isaac had two sons, it was revealed that Christ was to be of Israel's posterity. And now, though Israel had twelve sons, yet it is revealed that Christ should be of Judah's posterity. Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Respect is chiefly had to his great acts, when it is said here. Gen. xlix. 8. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" And then this prediction is
more particular concerning the time of Christ's coming, as in Gen. xlix. 10. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of
the people be." The prophecy here, of the calling of the Gentiles consequent on Christ's coming, seems to be more plain than any had been before, in the expression, "to him shall the gathering of the people be." Genesis 49:10 Thus you see how that gospel-light which dawned immediately after the fall of man, gradually increases.
VIII. The work of redemption was carried on in this period, in God's wonderfully preserving the children of Israel in Egypt, when the power of Egypt was engaged utterly to destroy them. They seemed to be wholly in the hands of the Egyptians; they were their servants, and were subject to the power of Pharaoh: and Pharaoh set himself to weaken them with hard bondage. And when he saw that did not do, he set himself to extirpate their race, by commanding that every male child should be drowned. But after all that Pharaoh could do, God wonderfully preserved them; and not
only so, but increased them exceedingly; so that, instead of being extirpated, they greatly multiplied.
IX. Here is to be observed, not only the preservation of the nation, but God's wonderfully preserving and upholding his invisible church in that nation, when in danger of being overwhelmed in the idolatry of Egypt.
The children of Israel being long among the Egyptians, and servants under them, and so not having advantages to keep God's ordinances among themselves, and maintain any public worship or instruction, whereby the true religion might be upheld, and there being now no written word, they by degrees, in a great measure, lost the true religion,
and borrowed the idolatry of Egypt; and the greater part of the people fell away to the worship of their gods. This we learn by Ezek. xx. 6, 7, 8; xxiii.8.
This now was the third time that God's church was almost swallowed up and carried away with the wickedness of the world; once before the flood; the other time, before the calling of Abraham; and now, the third time, in Egypt. But yet God did not suffer his church to be quite overwhelmed: he still saved it, like the ark in the flood, and as he saved Moses in the midst of the waters, in an ark of bulrushes, where he was in the utmost danger of being swallowed up. The true religion was still kept up with some; and God had still a people among them, even in this miserable, corrupt, and dark time. The parents of Moses were true servants of God, as we may team by Heb. xi. 23. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and
they were not afraid of the king's commandment." I have now shown how the work of redemption was carried on from the
calling of Abraham to Moses; in which we have seen many great things done towards this work, and a great advancement of this building, beyond what had preceded
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2024 15:43:06 GMT -5
PART IV. FROM MOSES TO DAVID.
I proceed to the time which reaches from Moses to David.
I. The first thing that offers itself is the redemption of the church of God out of Egypt; the most remarkable of all in the Old Testament, the greatest pledge and forerunner of the future redemption by Christ, and much more insisted on in Scripture than any other of those redemptions. And indeed it was the greatest type of Christ's redemption of any providential event whatsoever. This was by Jesus Christ, for it was wrought by him who appeared to Moses in the bush; the person that sent Moses to redeem that people. But that was Christ, as is evident, because
he is called the angel of the Lord, Exod. iii. 2, 3. The bush represented the human nature of Christ, who is called the brunch. This bush grew on mount Sinai or Horeb, a word that signifies a dry place, as the human nature of Christ was a root out of a dry ground. The bush burning with fire, represented the sufferings of Christ, in the fire of God's wrath. It burned, and was not consumed; so Christ, though he suffered extremely, yet perished not; but overcame at last, and rose from his sufferings.
Because this great mystery of the incarnation and sufferings of Christ was here represented, therefore Moses says, I will turn aside, and behold this great sight. A great sight he might well call it, when there was represented, God manifest in the flesh , suffering a dreadful death, and rising from the dead.
This was the glorious Redeemer who redeemed the church out of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh; as Christ, by his death and sufferings, redeemed his people from Satan, the spiritual Pharaoh.
He redeemed them from hard service and cruel drudgery; so Christ redeems his people from the cruel slavery of sin and Satan.
He redeemed them, as it is said, from the iron furnace; so Christ redeems his church from a furnace of fire and everlasting burnings.
—He redeemed them with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and great and terrible judgments on their enemies; so
Christ with mighty power triumphs over principalities and powers, and executes terrible judgments on his church's enemies, bruising the serpent's head.
He saved them, when others were destroyed, by the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb; so God's church is saved from death by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, when the rest of the world is destroyed. God brought forth the people sorely against the will of the Egyptians, when they could not bear to let them go; so Christ rescues his people out of the hands of the devil, sorely against his will, when his proud heart cannot bear to be overcome.
In that redemption, Christ did not only redeem the people from the Egyptians, but he redeemed them from the devils, the gods of Egypt; for before, they had been in a state of servitude to the gods of Egypt, as well as to the men. And Christ, the seed of the woman, did now, in a very remarkable manner, fulfil the curse on the serpent, in bruising his head: Exod. xii. 12. "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment." Hell was as much, nay more engaged in that affair, than Egypt was. The pride and cruelty of Satan, that old serpent, was more concerned in it than Pharaoh's. He did his utmost against the people, and to his utmost opposed their
redemption. But it is said, that when God redeemed his people out of Egypt, he "broke the heads of the dragons in the waters, and broke the head of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat for the people inhabiting the wilderness," Ps. lxxiv. 12-14. God forced their enemies to let them go, that they might serve him; as Zacharias observes with respect to the church under the gospel, Luke i. 74, 75.
The people of Israel went out with a high hand, and Christ went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire. There was a glorious triumph over earth and hell in that 547 deliverance. When Pharaoh and his hosts, and Satan by them, pursued the people, Christ overthrew them in the Red sea; the Lord triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he cast into the sea, and there they slept their sleep, and never followed the children of Israel any more. The Red sea represented Christ's blood, because the apostle compares the children of Israel's passage through the Red sea to baptism, 1 Cor. x. 1, 2.—But we all know that the water of baptism represents Christ's blood.
Thus Christ, the angel of God's presence, in his love and his pity,redeemed his people, and carried them in the days of old as on eagles' wings, so that none of their proud and spiteful enemies, neither Egyptians nor devils, could touch them.
This was quite a new thing that God did towards this great work of redemption. God never had done any thing like it before; Deut. iv. 32, 34. This was a great advancement of the work, that had been begun and carried on from the fall of man; a great step taken in Divine Providence towards a preparation for Christ's coming into the world, and working out his great and eternal redemption: for this was the people of whom Christ was to come. And now we may see how that plant flourished which God had planted in Abraham. Though the family of which Christ was to come, had been in a degree separated from the rest of the world before, in the calling of Abraham; yet that separation appeared not to be sufficient.
For though by that separation, they were kept, as strangers and sojourners, from being united with other people in the same political societies; yet they remained mixed among them, by which means they had been in danger of wholly losing the true religion, and of being overrun with the idolatry of their neighbors. God now, therefore, by this
redemption, separated them as a nation from all others, to subsist by themselves in their own political and ecclesiastical state, without having any concern with the heathen nations, that the church of Christ might be upheld, and might keep the oracles of God; that in them might be kept up those types and prophecies of Christ, and those histories and other divine previous instructions, which were necessary to prepare the way for Christ's coming.
II. As this people were separated to be God's peculiar people, so all other people upon the face of the whole earth were wholly rejected and given over to heathenism. This was one thing that God ordered in his providence to prepare the way for Christ's coming, and the great salvation he was to accomplish; for it was only to prepare the way for the more glorious and signal victory and triumph of Christ's power and grace over the wicked and miserable world, and that Christ's salvation of mankind might become the more sensible. This is the account the Scripture itself
gives us of the matter, Rom. xi. 30, 32. The apostle, speaking to the Gentiles that had formerly been heathens, says, 619619 Romans xi.30-32. "As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that,through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all:" i. e. It was the will of God, that the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, should be concluded in visible and professed unbelief, that so God's mercy and Christ's
salvation towards them all might be visible. For the apostle is not speaking only of that unbelief that is natural to all God's professing people as well as others, but that which appears, and is visible; such as the Jews fell into, when they openly rejected Christ, and ceased to be a professing people. The apostle observes, how that first the Gentiles, even the Gentile nations, were included in at professed unbelief and open opposition to the true religion, before Christ came, to prepare the way for the calling of the Gentiles, which was soon after Christ came, in order that God's mercy might be the more visible to them; and that the Jews were rejected, and apostatized from the visible church, to prepare the way for the calling of the Jews, which shall be in the latter days. So that it may be seen concerning all nations, Jews and Gentiles, that are redeemed by Christ, from being visibly aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, without hope, and without God in the world.
We cannot certainly determine precisely at what time the apostacy of the Gentile nations from the true God, or their being concluded in visible unbelief, became universal. Their falling away was a gradual thing, as we observed before. It was general in Abraham's time, but not universal: for then we find Melchizedec, one of the kings of Canaan, was priest of the most high God. And after this the true religion was kept up for a while among some of the rest of Abraham's posterity, besides the family of Jacob; and also in some of the posterity of Nahor, as we have instances in Job, and his three friends, and Elihu. The land of Uz, where Job lived, was possessed by the posterity of Uz, or Huz, the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, of whom we read, Gen. xxii. 21. Bildad the Shuhite was of the offspring of Shuah, Abraham's son by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 1, 2. and Elihu the Buzite, was of Buz the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. So the true religion lasted among some other people, besides the Israelites, a while after Abraham. But it did not last long: and it is probable that their total rejection, and giving up to idolatry, was about the time when God separated the children of Israel from Egypt to serve him. For they are often put in mind on that occasion, that God had now separated them to be his peculiar people; or to be distinguished from all other people upon earth, to be his people alone; to be his portion, when others were rejected. This seems to imply, that God now chose them in such a manner, as was accompanied with a visible rejection of all other nations in the world; that God visibly came, and took up his residence with them, forsaking all other nations. As the first calling of the Gentiles, after Christ came, was accompanied with a rejection of the Jews; so the first calling of the Jews to be God's people, when they left Egypt, was accompanied with a rejection of the Gentiles.
Thus all the nations in the world, except the Israelites, and those who embodied themselves with them, were given up to idolatry; and so continued till Christ came, which was about fifteen hundred years. They were concluded so long a time in unbelief, that there might be a thorough proof of the necessity of a Saviour; that it might appear by so long a trial, past all contradiction, that mankind were utterly insufficient to deliver themselves from that gross darkness and misery, and subjection to the devil; that all the wisdom of the heathen philosophers could not deliver
them from their darkness, for the greater glory to Jesus Christ, who, when he came, enlightened and delivered them by his glorious gospel. Herein the wonderful wisdom of God appeared, in thus preparing the way for Christ's redemption. This the Scripture teaches us, 1 Cor. i. 21. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
III. The next thing done towards the work of redemption, is God's giving the moral law in so awful a manner at mount Sinai. This was another new step taken in this great affair. Deut. iv. 33. "Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?"
And it was a great thing, whether we consider it as a new exhibition of the covenant of works, or given as a rule of life. The covenant of works was here exhibited as a schoolmaster to lead to Christ, not only for the use of that nation, under the Old Testament, but for the use of God's church throughout all ages of the world. It is an instrument that the great Redeemer makes use of to convince men of their sin, misery, and helpless state, and of God's awful and tremendous majesty and justice as a lawgiver, in order to make men sensible of the necessity of Christ as a Saviour. This work of redemption, in its saving effect on men's souls, in all its progress, is not carried on without the use of this law delivered at SinaiIt was given in an awful manner, with a terrible voice, exceedingly loud and awful, so that all the people in the camp trembled; and even Moses himself, though so intimate a friend of God, said, "I exceedingly fear and quake. Hebrews xii. 21. " The voice was accompanied with thunders and lightnings, the mountain burning with fire to the midst of heaven, and the earth itself shaking and trembling. This was done in order to make all sensible how great that authority, power, and justice were, that stood engaged to exact the fulfilment of this law, and to see it fully executed. Here might he understood, how strictly God would
require the fulfilment; and how terrible his wrath would be against every transgressor. Men, being sensible of these things, might thoroughly prove their own hearts, and know how impossible it is for them to obtain salvation by the works of the law, and be assured of their absolute need of a mediator.
If we regard the law given at mount Sinai—not as a covenant of works,but—as a rule of life, it is employed by the Redeemer, from that time to the end of the world, as a directory to his people, to show them the way in which they must walk, as they would go to heaven: for a way of sincere and universal obedience to this law is the narrow way that leads to life.
IV. The next thing observable in this period, was God's giving the typical law, those precepts that did not properly belong to the moral law. Not only those laws which are commonly called ceremonial, which prescribe the ceremonies and circumstances of the Jewish worship, and their ecclesiastical state; but also those that were political, for regulating the Jewish commonwealth, commonly called judicial laws, were many of them typical. The giving this typical law was another great thing that God did in this period, tending to build up the glorious structure of
redemption. There had been many typical events of providence before, that represented Christ and his redemption, and some typical ordinances, as particularly those two of sacrifices and circumcision: but now, instead of representing the great Redeemer in a few institutions, God enacts a law full of typical representations of good things to come. By these, that nation were directed every year, month, and day, in their religious actions, and in their conduct, in all that appertained to their ecclesiastical and civil state, to something of Christ; one observance exhibiting one
doctrine, or one benefit; another, another; so that the whole nation by this law was, as it were, constituted in a typical state. Thus the gospel was abundantly held forth to that nation; so that there is scarce any doctrine of it, but is particularly taught and exhibited by some observance of this law; though it was in shadows, and under a vail, as Moses put a vail on his face when it shone—To this typical law belong all the precepts which relate to building the tabernacle, set up in the wilderness, and all its form, circumstances, and utensils.
V. About this time was given to the church the first written word of God.
This was another great thing done towards the affair of redemption, a new and glorious advancement of the building; which God has given for the regulation of faith, worship, and practice to the end of the world. This rule grew, and was added to from that time, for many ages, till it was finished, and the canon of Scripture completed by the apostle John. It is not very material, whether the first written word was the ten commandments, written on the tables of stone with the finger of God, or the book of Job; and whether the book of Job was written by Moses, as
some suppose, or by Elihu, as others. If it was written by Elihu, it must have been before this period; but yet could not be far from it, as appears by considering whose posterity the persons spoken of in it were, together
with Job's great age, before it was written.
The written word of God is the main instrument employed by Christ, m order to carry on his work of redemption in all ages. There was a necessity now of the word of God being committed to writing, for a steady rule to God's church. Before this, the church had the word by tradition, either by immediate tradition from eminent men inspired, that were living, or else by tradition from former generations, which might be had with tolerable certainty in ages preceding this, by reason of men's long lives. Noah might converse with Adam, and receive traditions from him; and Noah lived till about Abraham's time: and the sons of Jacob lived a considerable time to deliver the revelations made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to their posterity in Egypt. But the distance from the beginning of
things was become now so great, and the lives of men become so short— being brought down to the present standard about the time of Moses— and God having now separated a nation to be a peculiar people, to be the keepers of the oracles of God; God saw it to be a convenient time now to commit his word to writing, to remain henceforward for a steady rule throughout all ages. And therefore, besides the book of Job, Christ wrote the ten commandments on tables of stone, with his own finger. After this, the whole law, as containing the substance of the five books of Moses, was by God's special command committed to writing, which was called "the book of the law," and was laid up in the tabernacle, to be kept there for the use of the church, Deut. xxxi. 24-26.
VI. God was pleased now wonderfully to represent the progress of his redeemed church through the world to their eternal inheritance, by the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness, from Egypt to Canaan. Here all the various steps of the redemption of the church by Christ were represented, from the beginning to its consummation in glory. The state they are redeemed from is represented by Egypt, and their bondage there, which they left. The purchase of their redemption was represented by the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, which was offered up that night in which God slew all the first-born of Egypt. The beginning of the application of the redemption of Christ's church in their conversion, was represented by Israel's going out of Egypt, and passing through the Red sea in so extraordinary and miraculous a manner. The travel of the church through this evil world, and the various changes
through which me church passes, was represented by the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness. The manner of their being conducted by Christ, was represented by the Israelites being led by the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. The manner of the church's being supported in their progress, supplied with spiritual food, and daily communications from God, was represented by his supplying the children of Israel with manna from heaven, and water out of the rock. The dangers that the saints must meet with in their course through the world, were represented by the fiery flying serpents in the wilderness. The conflicts the church has with her enemies, were represented by their battle with the Amalekites and others. And innumerable other particulars might be mentioned, which were lively images of what the church and saints meet with in all ages of the world. That these things were typical, is manifest from 1 Cor. x. 11. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Here the apostle is speaking of those very
things which we have now mentioned, and he says expressly, that they happened unto them for types; so it is in the original.
VII. Another thing here must not be omitted, which was a great and remarkable dispensation of Providence, respecting the whole world of mankind, in this period; viz. the shortening of man's life. It was now brought down from being between nine hundred and a thousand years, to about seventy or eighty. The life of man began to be shortened
immediately after the flood. It was brought down the first generation to six hundred years, and the next to between four and five hundred years.
So the life of man gradually grew shorter and shorter, till about the time of the great mortality which was in the congregation of Israel, after they had murmured at the report of the spies, and their carcasses fell in the
wilderness, whereby all the men of war died. Then the life of man was reduced to its present standard, as Moses observes in that psalm which he wrote on occasion of that mortality: Psal. xc. 10. "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
Man's life being cut so very short, tended to prepare the way for poor, short-lived men, the more joyfully to entertain the glad tidings of everlasting life, brought to light by the gospel; and more readily to embrace a Saviour, that purchases and offers such a blessing. If men's lives were still commonly about nine hundred years, how much less would be the inducement to regard the proffers of a future life; how much greater the temptation to rest in the things of this world, and to neglect any other life but this! This probably contributed greatly to the
wickedness of the 549 antediluvians. But now how much greater motives have men to seek redemption, and a better life than this, by the great Redeemer, since the life of man is not one twelfth part of what it used to be, and men now universally die at the age when formerly they used to be but setting out in the world.
VIII. The same work was carried on in preserving that people, of whom Christ was to come, from totally perishing in the wilderness, by a constant miracle of forty years' continuance. I observed before how God preserved those of whom the Redeemer was to proceed in a very wonderful manner; as Noah and his family from the flood; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their families, from the wicked inhabitants of Canaan; and Jacob and his family from perishing by the famine, by Joseph in Egypt. But this preservation of Israel in the wilderness, was on some accounts more remarkable than any of them; for it was by a continual miracle of so long duration. There was, as may be fairly computed, at first two millions of souls in that congregation. But if miraculous support had been withheld, they must all have perished, in less than a month's time, so that there would not have been one of them left. But yet this vast multitude subsisted for forty years together, in a dry barren wilderness, without sowing, reaping, or tillage. Their bread was daily rained down to them out of heaven, and they were furnished with water out of a rock; and the same clothes with which they came out of Egypt, lasted all that time. Never was any instance like this, of a nation being so upheld for so long a time together. Thus God upheld his church by a continual miracle, and kept alive that people in whom was the blessing, the great Redeemer of the world.
IX. God was pleased, during this time, to give a further revelation of Christ the Redeemer in the predictions of him. Three prophecies deserve particular notice. The first is that of Balaam, Numb. xxiv. 17-19. "I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city." This is a plainer prophecy of Christ, especially with regard to his kingly office, than any former one. But we have another, that God gave by Moses, plainer still, especially with regard to his prophetical office, in Deut. xviii. 18, &c. "I will raise up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his month, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him," &c. This is a plainer prophecy of Christ than any before. All the preceding prophecies were in figurative, mystical language. The first prophecy was so, That the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, That in their seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, were also mystical; and not so particular, because the expression, thy seed, is general, and not plainly limited to any particular person. The prophecy of Jacob in blessing Judah, Gen. xlix. 8. is in mystical language; and so is that of Balaam, which speaks of Christ under the figurative expression of a star. But this is a plain prophecy, without being veiled at all in any mystical language.
There are several things contained in this prophecy of Christ. Here is his mediatorial office in general, Gen. xlix. 16. Here it is revealed how he should be a person to stand between them and God, a being of such awful majesty, holiness, and justice, that they could not have come to him, and have intercourse with him immediately, without a mediator to stand between them; because, if they came to such a sin-revenging God immediately, they should die; God would prove a consuming fire to them. And here is a particular revelation of Christ with respect to his prophetical office: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee," 621621 Deut. xviii. 18 &c. And further, it is revealed what kind of a prophet he should be; a prophet like unto Moses, who was the head and leader of all the people, and who, under God, had been their redeemer, to bring them out of the house of bondage. He was
their shepherd, by whom God led them through the Red sea and the wilderness, was an intercessor for them with God, and was both a prophet and a king in the congregation; for Moses had the power of a king among them. It is said of him, Deut. xxxiii. 5. that he was king in Jeshurun, was the prophet by whom God built up his church, and delivered his instructions of worship. Thus Christ was to be a prophet like unto Moses; so that this is both the plainest and fullest prophecy of Christ that ever had been from the beginning of the world to this time.
The next prophecy respects the calling of the Gentiles, which should be after Christ's coming, Deut. xxxii. 21. Here is a very plain prophecy of the rejection of the Jews and calling the Gentiles. As they moved God to jealousy, by that which was not God, by casting him off, and taking others, that were no gods, in his room; so God declares that he will move them to jealousy in like manner, by casting them off, and taking others, who had not been his people, in their room. The apostle Paul takes notice of this prophecy, as foretelling the calling of the Gentiles, in Rom. x. 19,20. "But I say, Did not Israel know? First, Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that
sought me not; I was made manifest to them that asked not after me." Thus you see how the light of the gospel, which first began to dawn and glimmer immediately after the fall, gradually increases the nearer we come to Christ's time.
X. Another thing by which God carried on this work in this time, was a remarkable pouring out of his Spirit on the young generation in the wilderness. The generation that was grown up when they came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, was a very froward and perverse generation. They were tainted with the idolatry and wickedness
of Egypt, and were not weaned from it. Ezek. xx. 6-8. Hence they made the golden calf in imitation of the idolatry of Egypt, that was wont to worship a bull or an ox;and therefore cattle are called the abomination of the Egyptians, i. e. their idol. With this generation God was exceeding angry, and swore in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest. But the younger generation, who were under twenty years old when they came out of Egypt, were not so, Numb. xiv. 31. "But your little ones,whom ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in; and they shall know the land that ye have despised." This was the generation with whom the covenant was renewed, as we have an account in Deuteronomy, and that entered into the land of Canaan. This generation God was pleased to make a people to his praise, and they were eminent for piety; as appears by many things said about them; particularly, Jer. ii. 2, 3. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase." Here the
generation that went after God in the wilderness, is spoken of with very high commendations, as eminent for holiness. Their love to God is distinguished like the love of a bride at her espousals, when they followed
him through that dreadful wilderness, after they went back from Kadesh Barnea, Deut. viii. 15. "Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water." Though this generation had a much greater
rial, than the generation of their fathers had before they came to Kadesh Barnea, yet they never murmured against God, as their fathers had done: but their trials had a contrary effect upon them, to awaken, convince, and
humble them, and fit them for great mercy. They were awakened by those awful judgments of God inflicted on their fathers, whereby their carcasses fell in the wilderness. God poured out his Spirit with those awakening providences, and their own travel in the wilderness, and the word preached to them by Moses; whereby they were humbled, and at length multitudes of them were savingly converted; as Deut. viii. 2, 3. "And thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in
thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee," &c. And Deut. viii. 15. "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness,—that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end." And therefore it is said, Hos. xiii. 5. "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." God allured them, and brought them into that wilderness, and spake comfortably to them, as it was foretold that he would do afterwards, Hos. ii. 14.
Those terrible judgments that were executed in the congregation after their turning back from Kadesh-Barnea, in the matter of Korah, and the matter of Peor, were chiefly on the old generation, whom God consumed in the wilderness. Those rebellions were chiefly among the elders of the congregation, who were given up to their hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels, and God was grieved with their manners forty years in the wilderness.
That this younger congregation were eminent for piety, appears by all their history. The former generation were wicked, and were followed with curses; but this was holy, and wonderful blessings followed them. God did great things for them; he fought for them, and gave them the possession of Canaan. And it is God's manner, when he hath very great mercies to bestow on a visible people, first, to fit them for such mercies, and then to confer them. So it was here: they believed in God, and by faith overcame Sihon and Og, and the giants of Canaan; and are commended for cleaving to the Lord: Josh. xxiii. 8. Joshua says unto them, "Cleave unto the Lord, as ye have done unto this day. Joshua xiii. 8 " But when Joshua and all that generation were dead, there arose another that knew not the Lord. This pious generation showed a laudable and fervent zeal for God on several occasions; as on occasion of
Achan's sin; but especially when they suspected the two tribes and a half had set up an altar in opposition to the altar of burnt-offering. There never was any generation of Israel of which so much good and so little evil is mentioned. It is further observable, that in the time of this generation was the second general circumcision, whereby the reproach of Israel was fully rolled away, and they became pure; and when afterwards they were polluted by Achan, they purged themselves again.
The men of the former generation being dead, and God having sanctified this to himself, he solemnly renewed his covenant with them, as we have a particular account in Deut. xxix. We find that such solemn renovations of the covenant commonly accompanied any remarkable pouring out of the Spirit, causing a general reformation: so we find it was in Hezekiah's and Josiah's times. It is questionable whether there ever was a time of so great a flourishing of religion in the Israelitish church, as in that generation; and as, in the Christian church, religion was in its most
flourishing circumstances in the day of its espousals, in the apostles' days,so it seems to have been with the Jewish church in the days of its first establishment in the times of Moses and Joshua.
Thus God, at this time, gloriously advanced the work of redemption, both by his word and Spirit. Hereby the work of redemption was promoted, not only as it was in itself a glorious instance of redemption in its application, but as this was what God used for the orderly establishment of the Israelitish church, when it was first settled in the regular observance of God's ordinances in Canaan: even as the pouring out of the Spirit, in the beginning of the Christian church, was a great means for establishing the Christian church in all succeeding ages.
XI. The next thing I would observe, was God's bringing the people of Israel by Joshua, and settling them in that land where Christ was to be born, and which was the great type of the heavenly Canaan, which Christ has purchased. Joshua was of Joseph's posterity, and was an eminent type of Christ, and is therefore called the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Gen. xlix. 24. Being such a type, he bore the name of Christ. Joshua and Jesus are the same name, the one Hebrew, the other Greek: and therefore, in the New Testament, originally written in Greek, Joshua is called Jesus, Acts vii. 45. "Which also our fathers brought in with Jesus,"i.e. Joshua; Heb. iv. 8. "If Jesus had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day;" i. e. if Joshua had given them rest. God wonderfully gave his people possession of this land, conquering its former inhabitants, and the mighty giants, as Christ conquered the devil.
He first conquered the great kings on the eastern side of Jordan, Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan; and then divided the river Jordan, as before he had done the Red sea; causing the walls of Jericho to fall down at the sound of the trumpets of the priests. That sound typified the sound of the gospel by the preaching of gospel ministers, the walls of the accursed city Jericho, signifying the walls of Satan's kingdom. After this he wonderfully destroyed the mighty host of the Amorites under the five kings, causing the sun and moon to stand still, to help the people against their enemies, at the prayer of the typical Jesus; plainly intimating, that God would make the whole course of nature to be subservient to the affair of redemption; and that every thing should give
place to the welfare of God's redeemed people.
Thus did Christ show his great love to his elect, that he would make the course of nature to give place to their happiness and prosperity; and showed that the sun and moon, and all things visible and invisible, were theirs by his purchase. At the same time, Christ fought as the captain of their host, and cast down great hailstones upon their enemies, by which more were slain than by the sword of Israel. And after this Christ gave the people a mighty victory over a yet greater army in the northern part of the land, gathered together at the waters of Merom, as the sand of the seashore, Josh. xi. 4.
Thus God gave the people whence Christ was to proceed, the land where he was to be born; where he was to live, preach, and work miracles; to die, and rise again; and whence he was to ascend into heaven, as the land which was a great type of heaven.
XII. Another thing that God did towards carrying on this affair, was his
actually setting up his stated worship among the people, as it had been
before instituted in the wilderness. This worship was appointed at mount
Sinai; it was to make way for the coming of Christ; and the innumerable
ceremonial observances of it were typical of him and his redemption. But
there were many parts of their instituted worship that could not be
observed in the wilderness, by reason of their unsettled state there. And
there were many precepts that respected the land of Canaan, and their
places of habitation there; which therefore could not be put in practice,
till they came into that land. But now, when this was brought to pass, God
set up his tabernacle in the midst of his people, as he had before
promised them, Lev. xxvi. 11. "I will set my tabernacle amongst you." The
tabernacle was set up at Shiloh, Josh. xviii. 1. and the priests and the
Levites had their offices appointed them, and the cities of refuge, and
now the people were in a condition to observe their feasts of the first fruits, and their feasts of ingathering, and to bring all their tithes and appointed offerings to the Lord; and most parts of God's worship were set up, though there were some things that were not observed till afterwards.
XIII. The next thing was God's wonderfully preserving that people, from this time forward, when all the males went up, three times in the year, to the place where God's ark was. The people of Israel were generally surrounded with enemies, who sought all opportunities to destroy them, and dispossess them of their land. Till David's time, there were great numbers in the land of the remains of the Canaanites, and the other former inhabitants of the land, who were bitter enemies to the people of Israel: and these had, three times in the year, a fair opportunity of
overrunning their country, and getting possession of their cities, when only the women, and those who were not able to go up, were left behind.
And yet they were remarkably preserved throughout all generations at such seasons, agreeably to the promise, Exod. xxxiv. 24. "Neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year." So wonderfully did God order affairs, and influence the hearts of their enemies. They were full of enmity against Israel, desired to dispossess them of their land, and often had so fair an opportunity, that the whole country was left naked and empty of all that could resist them. It would have been only for them to go and take
possession; and yet we never read, in all their history, of any of their enemies taking these opportunities against them; which could be no less than a continual miracle, which God, for the preservation of his church, kept up for so many generations. It was surely a wonderful dispensation of Divine Providence to maintain and promote God's great design of redemption.
XIV. God's preserving his church and the true religion from being wholly extinct in the frequent apostacies of the Israelites in the time of the judges. How prone was that people to forsake the true God, who had done such wonderful things for them, and to fall into idolatry! and how did the land, from time to time, seem to be almost overrun with it! But yet God never suffered his true worship to be totally rooted out: his tabernacle stood, the ark was preserved, the book of the law was kept from being destroyed, God's priesthood was upheld, and he still had a church among the people. Time after time, when religion seemed to be almost gone, then God granted a revival, and sent some angel, or raised up some eminent person, to be an instrument of their reformation.
XV. God's preserving that nation from being destroyed, although they were so often subdued and brought under the dominion of their enemies. It was a wonder, not only that the true religion was not wholly rooted out, and so the church destroyed that way; but also that the very nation in which that church was, was not utterly destroyed; they were so often brought under the power of their enemies. One while they were subdued by Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia, another while they were brought under the Moabites; now they were sold into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan; then they were under the dominion of the Midianites; now they were sorely distressed by the children of Ammon; and then by the Philistines. But yet God, in all these dangers, preserved them, and kept them from being wholly overthrown. From time to time, when it was come to extremity, and God saw that they were upon the very brink of ruin, then he raised up a deliverer, agreeable to Deut. xxxii. 36. "For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants; when he seeth their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left."—Those
remarkable dispensations of Providence are very elegantly set forth by the psalmist, Psal. cvi. 34, &c.—These deliverers were all types of Christ, the great redeemer and deliverer of his church;and some of them very remarkably so; as, Barak, Jephthah, Gideon, and Samson, in very many particulars; and above all in the acts of Samson, as might be shown, were it not that this would take up too much time.
XVI. It is observable, that when Christ appeared to manage the affairs of his church in this period, he often appeared in the form of that nature which he took upon him in his incarnation. So he seems to have appeared
repeatedly to Moses, and particularly at that time when God spake to him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend, and he beheld the similitude of the Lord, (Numb. xii. 8.) after he had besought him to show him his glory; which was the most remarkable vision that ever he had of Christ.
There was a twofold discovery that Moses had of Christ: one was spiritual, made to his mind, by the word that was proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation," Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7."
Another was external; which was that which Moses saw, when Christ passed by, and put him in a cleft of the rock. What he saw was doubtless a glorious human form, in which Christ appeared to him, and in all likelihood the form of his glorified human nature, in which he should afterwards appear. He saw not his face; for it is not to be supposed that any man could subsist under a sight of the glory of Christ's human nature as it now appears.
So it was a human form in which Christ appeared to the seventy elders, of which we have an account, Exo24. 9, 11. "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet, as it were a paved work of sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his
clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." So Christ appeared afterwards to Joshua in the form of the human nature, Josh. v. 13, 14.
"And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, he lift up his eyes, and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." And so he appeared to Gideon, Judg. vi. 11, &c. and so also to Manoah, Jud13: 17-21. Here Christ appeared to Manoah in a representation both of his incarnation and death; of his incarnation, in that he appeared in a human form; and of his death and
sufferings, represented by the sacrifice of a kid, and by his ascending up in the flame of the sacrifice; intimating, that it was he that was the great sacrifice, that must be offered up to God for a sweet savor, in the fire of his wrath, as that kid was burned and ascended up in the flame. Thus Christ appeared, time after time, in the form of that nature he was afterwards to assume; because he now appeared on the same design and to carry on the same work.
XVII. Another thing I would mention, done in this period towards the work of redemption, is the beginning of a succession of prophets, and erecting a school of the prophets, in Samuel's time. There was something of this spirit of prophecy in Israel after Moses, before Samuel. Joshua and many of the judges had a degree of it. Deborah was a prophetess; and some of the high-priests were inspired with this spirit; particularly Eli.
That space of time was not wholly without instances of those that were set apart of God especially to this office, and so were called prophets. Such an one we read of Judg. vi. 8. "The Lord sent a prophet unto the children of
Israel, which said unto them," &c. Such an one he seems to have been of whom we read, 1 Sam. ii. 27. "And there came a man of God to Eli," &c. But there was no such order of men upheld in Israel, for any constancy,the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision."
But in Samuel there was begun succession of prophets, maintained continually from that time, at least with very little interruption, till the spirit of prophecy ceased, about Malachi's time: and therefore Samuel is spoken of in the New Testament as the beginning of this succession of,prophets, Acts iii. 24. "And all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have foretold of these days." After Samuel was Nathan, and Gad, Iddo, and Heman, Asaph, and others. And afterwards, in the latter end of Solomon's reign, we read of Ahijah; and in
Jeroboam and Rehoboam's time we read of prophets; and so continually one prophet succeeded another till the captivity. In the writings of those prophets who are inserted in the canon of Scripture, we read of prophets as being a constant order of men upheld in the land. And even during the captivity there were prophets still, as Ezekiel and Daniel; and after the captivity, as Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi.
And because God intended a constant succession of prophets from Samuel's time, therefore in his time was begun a school of the prophets;that is, a school of young men, trained up under some great prophet, who was their master and teacher in the study of divine things, and the practice of holiness, to fit them for this office as God should call them to it. Those young men were called the sons of the prophets; and oftentimes they are termed prophets. These at first were under the tuition of Samuel.
Thus we read of Samuel's being appointed over them, 1 Sam. xix. 20. "And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them." The company of prophets of whom we read 1 Sam. x. 5. were the same. Afterwards we read of their being under Elijah. Elisha was one of these sons; but he desired to have a
double portion of his spirit, as his successor, as the eldest son was wont to have a double portion of the estate of his father; and therefore the sons of the prophets, when they perceived that the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha, submitted themselves to him, and owned him for their master, as they had done Elijah before him, 2 Kings ii.15. "And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they bowed themselves to the ground before him." Elisha being their master, or teacher, he had the care of them; as you may see, 2 Kings iv. 38. "And Elisha came unto Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and see the
pottage for the sons of the prophets." In Elijah's and Elisha's time, there were several places where there resided companies of these sons of the prophets; as at Bethel, at Jericho, and at Gilgal, unless that at Gilgal and Jericho were the same: and possibly that which is called the college, where the prophetess Huldah resided, was another at Jerusalem; see 2 Kings xxii. 14. It is there said of Huldah the prophetess, that she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college. They had houses built, where they used to dwell together; and therefore those at Jericho being multiplied, and finding their house too little for them, desired leave of their master and teacher Elisha, that they might go and hew timber to build a bigger; as you may see, 2 Kings vi. 1, 2. At some times there were numbers of these sons of the prophets in Israel; for when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, it is said, that Obadiah took a hundred of them, and hid them by fifty in a cave, 1 Kings xviii. 4.
These schools of the prophets being set up by Samuel, and afterwards kept up by such as Elijah and Elisha, must be of divine appointment; and accordingly we find, that those sons of the prophets were often favored with a degree of inspiration, while they continued under tuition: and God commonly when he called any prophet to the constant exercise of the prophetical office, and to some extraordinary service, took them out of these schools; though not universally. Hence the prophet Amos, speaking of his being called to the prophetical office, says, that he had not been educated in the schools of the prophets, and was not one of the sons of the prophets, Amos vii.14, 15. But Amos taking notice of it as remarkable, that he should be so called, shows that it was God's ordinary manner to take his prophets out of these schools; for therein he did but bless his own institution.
Now this remarkable dispensation of Providence—God beginning a constant succession of prophets in Samuel's time, which was to last for many ages; and to that end establishing a school of the prophets under Samuel, thenceforward to be continued in Israel—was a step that God took in the great affair of redemption. For the main business of this
succession of prophets was, to foreshow Christ, and the glorious redemption he was to accomplish, and so to prepare the way for his coming; as appears by that fore-mentioned place, Acts iii. 24. and Acts x. 43. "To him give all the prophets witness;" and Acts iii. 18. "But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets,
that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled."
The Old-Testament church was not wholly without light, but had not the light of the sun directly, only as reflected. Now these prophets were the luminaries that reflected the light of the sun; and accordingly they spoke abundantly of Jesus Christ, as appears by what we have of their prophecies in writing. And they made it very much their business, when they studied in their schools or colleges, and elsewhere, to search out the work of redemption; agreeable to what the apostle Peter says of them, 1 Pet.i.10,11. "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired, and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,and the glory that should follow." We are told, that the church of the Redeemer is built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, the Redeemer himself being the chief corner-stone, Eph. ii. 20.
This was the first thing of the nature that ever was done in the world; and it was a great thing that God did towards further advancing this great building of redemption. There had been before occasional prophecies of Christ, as was shown; but now the time drawing nearer when the Redeemer should come, it pleased God to appoint a certain order of men, in constant succession, whose main business it should be, to point out Christ and his redemption, and as his forerunners to prepare the way for his coming; and God established schools, wherein multitudes were
instructed and trained up to that end, Rev. xix. 10. "I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2024 16:25:11 GMT -5
PART V
FROM DAVID TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY.
I come now to the fifth period of the times of the Old Testament,
beginning with David, and extending to the Babylonish captivity; and
would now proceed to show how the work of redemption was therein
carried on.—And here,
I. The first thing to be noticed is God's anointing that person who was to
be the ancestor of Christ, to be king over his people. The dispensations of
Providence through the last period, respect the people whence Christ was
to proceed; but now the Scripture leads us to consider God's providence
towards that particular person whence Christ was lo descend, viz. David.
It pleased God at this time remarkably to select out this person, from all
the thousands of Israel, and to put a most honourable mark of distinction
upon him, by anointing him to be king over his people. It was only God
that could find him out. His father's house is spoken of as being little in
Israel, and he was the youngest of all the sons of his father, and was least
expected by Samuel to be the man whom God had chosen. God had
before, in the former ages of the world, remarkably distinguished the
persons from whom Christ was to come; as Seth, and Noah, and
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. But the last that we have any account of
God's marking out in any notable manner, the very person of whom
Christ was to come, was in Jacob's blessing, his son Judah; unless we
reckon Nahshon's advancement in the wilderness to be the head of the
tribe of Judah. But this distinction of the person of whom Christ was to
come, in David, was very honourable; for it was God's anointing him to be
king over his people. And there was something further denoted by
David's anointing, than was in the anointing of Saul. God anointed Saul
to be king personally; but God intended something further by sending
Samuel to anoint David, viz. to establish the crown of Israel in him and
his family, as long as Israel continued to be a kingdom: and not only so,
but what was infinitely more still, establishing the crown of his universal
church, his spiritual Israel, in his seed, to the end of the world, and
through eternity.
This was a great dispensation of God, and a great step taken towards a
further advancing of the work of redemption, according as the time drew
near wherein Christ was to come. David, as he was the ancestor of Christ,
so he was the greatest personal type of Christ of all under the Old
Testament. The types of Christ were of three sorts; instituted,
providential, and personal. The ordinance of sacrificing was the greatest
of the instituted types; the redemption out of Egypt was the greatest of
the providential; and David the greatest of the personal ones. Hence
Christ is often called David in the prophecies of Scripture; as Ezek. xxxiv.
23, 24. "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them,
even my servant David;—My servant David a prince among them;" and so
in many other places. He is very often spoken of as the seed and the son
of David.
David being the ancestor and great type of Christ, his being solemnly
anointed by God to be king over his people, that the kingdom of his
church might be continued in his family for ever, may in some respects be
looked on as an anointing of Christ himself. Christ was as it were
anointed in him; and therefore Christ's anointing and David's anointing
are spoken of under one scripture, Psal. lxxxix. 20."I have found David
my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him. 553 And David's throne
and Christ's are spoken of as one: Luke i. 32. "And the Lord shall give him
the throne of his father David." Acts ii. 30. "David—knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to
the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne."
Thus God beginning the kingdom of his church in the house of David,
was, as it were, a new establishing of the kingdom of Christ; the
beginning of it in a state of such visibility as it thenceforward continued
in. It was planting the root, whence that branch of righteousness was
afterwards to spring up, the everlasting king of his church; and therefore
this everlasting king is called the branch from the stem of Jesse. Isa. xi. 1.
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots." Jer. xxiii. 5. "Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall
reign and prosper." So Jer. xxxiii. 15. "In those days, and at that time, I
will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land." So Christ, in the
New Testament, is called the root and offspring of David, Rev. xxii. 16.
It is observable, that God anointed David after Saul to reign in his room.
He took away the crown from him and his family, who was higher in
stature than any of his people, and was in their eyes fittest to bear rule; to
give it to David, who was low of stature, and in comparison of despicable
appearance. So God was pleased to show how Christ, who appeared
despicable, without form or comeliness, and was despised and rejected of
men, should take the kingdom from the great ones of the earth. And also
it is observable, that David was the youngest of Jesse's sons, as Jacob the
younger brother supplanted Esau, and got the birthright and blessing
from him; and as Pharez, brother of Christ's ancestor, supplanted Zarah
in the birth; and as Isaac, another of the ancestors of Christ, cast out his
elder brother Ishmael: thus was that frequent saying of Christ fulfilled,"
The last shall be first, and the first last."
II. The next thing I would observe, is God's preserving David's life, by a
series of wonderful providences, till Saul's death. I before took notice of
the wonderful preservation of other particular persons who were the
ancestors of Christ; as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; and have observed
how, in their preservation, the work of redemption itself may be looked
upon as preserved from being defeated, and the whole church, which is
redeemed through him, from being overthrown. But the preservation of
David was no less remarkable than that of any others already noticed.
How often was there but a step between him and death. The first instance
of it we have in his encountering a lion and a bear, when they had caught
a lamb out of his flock, which, without miraculous assistance, could at
once have rent this young stripling in pieces, as easily as they could the
lamb that he delivered from them. So the root and offspring of David was
preserved from the roaring lion that goes about seeking whom he may
devour, and conquered him, and rescued the souls of men, that were as
lambs in the mouth of this lion. Another remarkable instance was, in
preserving him from that mighty giant Goliath, who was strong enough to
have torn him to pieces, and given his flesh to the beasts of the field, and
to the fowls of the air, as he threatened. But God preserved him, and gave
him the victory over Goliath, so that he cut off his head with his own
sword, and thus was made the deliverer of Israel. So Christ slew the
spiritual Goliath with his own weapon, the cross, and delivered his
represented people. And how remarkably did God preserve David from
being slain by Saul, when he first sought his life! He gave him his
daughter to be a snare to him, that the hand of the Philistines might be
upon him, requiring of him a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that so
his life might be exposed to them. The same divine care was evident in
preserving him afterwards, when Saul spake to Jonathan, and to all his
servants, to kill David; and in inclining Jonathan, instead of his killing
him, as his father commanded, to love him as his own soul, and to be a
great instrument of his preservation, even so as to expose his own life to
preserve David; though one would have thought that none would have
been more willing to have David killed than Jonathan, seeing that he was
competitor with him for the crown. Again, Saul threw a javelin at him, to
smite him even to the wall; and sent messengers to his house, to watch,
and to kill him, when Michal, Saul's daughter, let him down through a
window. He afterwards sent messengers once and again, to Naioth in
Ramah, to take him, and they were remarkably prevented by miraculous
impressions of the Spirit of God; and afterwards, when Saul, being
resolute in the affair, went himself, he also was among the prophets. How
wonderfully was David's life preserved at Gath among the Philistines,
when he went to Achish the king of Gath, and was there in the hands of
the Philistines, who, one would have thought, would have despatched
him at once, he having so much provoked them by his exploits against
them. He was again wonderfully preserved at Keilah, when he had
entered into a fenced town, where Saul thought he was sure of him. And
how wonderfully was he preserved from Saul, when he pursued and
hunted him in the mountains! How remarkably did God deliver him in
the wilderness of Maon, when Saul and his army were compassing David
about! How was he delivered in the cave of Engedi, when, instead of
Saul's killing David, God delivered Saul into his hands in the cave! David
cut off his skirt, and might as easily have cut off his head. He was
delivered in like manner in the wilderness of Ziph; and afterwards
preserved in the land of the Philistines, though David had fought against
the Philistines, and conquered them at Keilah, since he was last among
them. This, one would think, would have been sufficient warning to them
not to trust him, or let him escape a second time, if ever they had him in
their hands again; but yet now, when they had a second opportunity, God
wonderfully turned their hearts to befriend and protect, instead of
destroying him.
Thus was the precious seed that virtually contained the Redeemer, and all
the blessings of his redemption, wonderfully preserved, when hell and
earth were conspired to destroy it. How often does David himself take
notice of this, with praise and admiration, in the book of Psalms!
III. About this time, the written word of God, or the canon of Scripture,
was augmented by Samuel. I have before observed, that the canon of
Scripture was begun and the first written rule of faith and manners was
given to the church, about the time of Moses. Joshua probably enlarged
it, and wrote the last chapter of Deuteronomy, and most of the book of
Joshua. Others think that Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and part of the first book
of Samuel, were written by Samuel. However that was, of this we have
good evidence, that Samuel made an addition to the canon of Scripture;
for Samuel is manifestly mentioned in the New Testament, as one of the
prophets whose writings we have in Scripture, Acts iii. 24. "Yea and all
the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have
spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." By that expression, "as
many as have spoken," is meant, as many as have spoken by writing.
And the way that Samuel spoke of these times of Christ and the gospel,
was by giving the history of those things that typified, and pointed to
them, particularly what he wrote concerning David. The Spirit of God
moved him to commit those things to writing, chiefly because they
pointed to Christ, and the times of the gospel; and, as was said before,
this was the main business of all that succession of prophets that began in
Samuel. That Samuel added to the canon of the Scriptures seems further
to appear from 1 Chron. xxix. 29. "Now the acts of David the king, first
and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer."
Whether the book of Joshua was written by Samuel or not, yet it is the
general opinion of divines, that the books of Judges and Ruth, and part of
the first book of Samuel, were penned by him. The book of Ruth was
penned for this reason, that though it seemed to treat of private affairs,
yet the persons chiefly spoken of were of the family whence David and
Christ proceeded, and so pointed to what the apostle Peter observed of
Samuel and the other prophets, in the third chapter of Acts. These
additions to the canon of the Scripture, the great and main instrument of
the application of redemption, are to be considered as a 554 further
continuation of that work, and an addition made to that great building.
IV. Another thing God did towards this work, at that time, was his
inspiring David to show forth Christ and his redemption, in divine songs,
which should be for the use of the church, in public worship, throughout
all ages. David was himself endued with the spirit of prophecy. He is
called a prophet, Acts ii. 29, 30."Let me freely speak to you of the
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is
with us unto this day; therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath," &c. So that herein he was a type of Christ, that
he was both a prophet and a king.
The oil that was used in anointing David was a type of the Spirit of God;
and the type and the antetype were given both together; as we are told, 1
Sam. xvi. 13. "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the
midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from
that day forward:" and it is probable, that it now came upon him in its
prophetical influences. One way that this Spirit influenced him was by
inspiring him to show forth Christ, and the glorious things of his
redemption, in divine songs, sweetly expressing the breathings of a pious
soul, full of admiration of the glorious things of the Redeemer, inflamed
with divine love and elevated praise; and therefore he is called the sweet
psalmist of Israel,2 Sam. xxiii. 1. The main subjects of these songs were
the glorious things of the gospel; as is evident by the interpretation that is
often put upon them, and the use that is made of them in the New
Testament: for there is no one book of the Old Testament that is so often
quoted in the New, as the book of Psalms. Joyfully did this holy man sing
of those great things of Christ's redemption, that had been the hope and
expectation of God's church and people from the beginning; and joyfully
did others follow him in it, as Asaph, Heman, Ethan, and others; for the
book of Psalms was not all penned by David, though the greater part of it
was. Hereby the canon of the Scripture was further enlarged by an
excellent portion of divine writ.
This was a great advancement that God made in this building; and the
light of the gospel, which had been gradually growing, was exceedingly
increased by it: for whereas before there was but here and there a
prophecy given of Christ in a great many ages, here Christ is spoken of by
his ancestor David abundantly, in multitudes of songs, speaking of his
incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, his
satisfaction, intercession; his prophetical, kingly, and priestly office; his
glorious benefits in this life and that which is to come; his union with the
church, and the blessedness of the church in him; the calling of the
Gentiles, the future glory of the church near the end of the world, and
Christ's coming to the final judgment. All these things, and many more,
concerning Christ and his redemption, are abundantly spoken of in the
book of Psalms.
This was also a glorious advancement of the affair of redemption, as God
hereby gave his church a book of divine songs for their use in that part of
their public worship, viz. singing his praises, throughout all ages to the
end of the world. It is manifest the book of Psalms was given of God for
this end. It was used in the church of Israel by God's appointment: this is
manifest by the title of many of the Psalms, in which they are inscribed to
the chief musician, i.e. to the man that was appointed to be the leader of
divine songs in the temple, in the public worship of Israel. So David is
called the sweet psalmist of Israel, because he penned psalms for the use
of the church of Israel; and accordingly we have an account that they
were actually made use of in the church of Israel for that end, even ages
after David was dead; as 2 Chron. xxix. 30. "Moreover, Hezekiah the king,
and the princes, commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord,
with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer." And we find that the
same are appointed in the New Testament to be made use of in the
christian church, in their worship: Eph. v. 19. "Speaking to yourselves in
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." Col. iii. 16. "Admonishing one
another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." So they have been, and
will, to the end of the world, be made use of in the church to celebrate the
praises of God. The people of God were wont sometimes to worship God
by singing songs to his praise before; as they did at the Red sea; and they
had Moses's prophetical song, in the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy,
committed to them for that end; and Deborah, Barak, and Hannah sung
praises to God: but now first did God commit to his church a book of
divine songs for their constant use.
V. The next thing I would notice, is God's actually exalting David to the
throne of Israel, notwithstanding all the opposition made to it. God was
determined to do it, and he made every thing give place that stood in its
way. He removed Saul and his sons out of the way; and first set David
over the tribe of Judah; then, having removed Ishbosheth, set him over
all Israel. Thus did God fulfil his word to David. He took him from the
sheep-cote, and made him king over his people Israel, Psal. lxxviii. 70, 71.
And now the throne of Israel was established in that family in which it
was to continue for ever.
VI. Now first it was that God proceeded to choose a particular city out of
all the tribes of Israel to place his name. There is several times mention
made in the law of Moses, of the children of Israel bringing their
oblations to the place which God should choose; as Deut. xii. 5-7. and
other places; but God had never proceeded to do it till now. The
tabernacle and ark were never fixed, but sometimes in one place, and
sometimes in another; but now God proceeded to choose Jerusalem. The
city of Jerusalem was never thoroughly conquered, or taken out of the
hands of the Jebusites, till David's time. It is said in Joshua xv. 63. "As for
the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could
not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at
Jerusalem unto this day." But now David wholly subdued it, as we have
an account in 2 Sam. v. And now God proceeded to choose that city to
place his name there, as appears by David's bringing up the ark thither
soon after; and therefore this is mentioned afterwards as the first time
God proceeded to choose a city to that end. 2 Chron. vi. 5, 6. xii.
13.Afterwards God proceeded to show David the very place where he
would have his temple built, viz. in the threshing-floor of Araunah the
Jebusite.
This city of Jerusalem is therefore called the holy city; and it was the
greatest type of the church of Christ in all the Old Testament. It was
redeemed by David, the captain of the hosts of Israel, out of the hands of
the Jebusites, to be God's city, the holy place of his rest for ever, where he
would dwell. So Christ, the Captain of his people's salvation, redeems his
church out of the hands of devils, to be his holy and beloved city. And
therefore how often does the Scripture, when speaking of Christ's
redemption of his church, call it by the names of Zion and Jerusalem!
This was the city that God had appointed to be the place of the first
gathering and erecting of the christian church after Christ s resurrection,
of that remarkable effusion of the Spirit of God on the apostles and
primitive Christians, and the place whence the gospel was to sound forth
into all the world; the place of the first christian church, that was to be, as
it were, the mother of all other churches through the world; agreeable to
that prophecy, Isa. ii. 3, 4. "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem: and he shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many people," &c. Thus God chose mount Zion whence
the gospel was to be sounded forth, as the law had been from mount
Sinai.
VII. The next thing to be observed here, is God's solemnly renewing the
covenant of grace with David, and promising that the Messiah should be
of his seed. We have an account of it in the 7th chapter of the second book
of Samuel. It was done on occasion of the thoughts David entertained of
building God a house. On this occasion God sends Nathan the prophet to
him, with the glorious promises of the covenant of grace. It is especially
contained in these words, 2 Sam vii. 16. "And thy house and thy kingdom
shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established
for ever." Which promise has respect to Christ, the seed of David, 555 and
is fulfilled in him only: for the kingdom of David has long since ceased,
any otherwise than as it is upheld in Christ.
That this covenant, now established with David by Nathan the prophet,
was the covenant of grace, is evident by the plain testimony of Scripture,
Isa. lv. 1-3. There we have Christ inviting sinners to come to the waters,
&c. And in "Isa. lv. 3. he says, "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear
and your souls shall live; and I will make with you an everlasting
covenant, even the sure mercies of David." Here Christ offers to poor
sinners, if they will come to him, to give them an interest in the same
everlasting covenant that he had made with David, conveying to them the
same sure mercies. But what is that covenant, in which sinners obtain an
interest when they come to Christ, but the covenant of grace?
This was the fifth solemn establishment of the covenant of grace with the
church after the fall. The covenant of grace was revealed and established
all along. But there had been particular seasons, wherein God had in a
very solemn manner renewed this covenant with his church, giving forth
a new edition and establishment of it, revealing it in a new manner. The
first was with Adam; the second with Noah; the third with the patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the fourth was in the wilderness by Moses;
and now the fifth is made to David.
This establishment of the covenant of grace, David always esteemed the
greatest smile of God upon him, the greatest honour put upon him; he
prized it, and rejoiced in it above all the other blessings of his reign. You
may see how joyfully and thankfully he received it, when Nathan came to
him with the glorious message, 2 Sam. vii. 18., &c. And so David, in his
last words, declares this to be all his salvation, and all his desire; "He hath
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for
this is all my salvation, and all my desire."
VIII. It was by David that God first gave his people Israel the possession
of the whole promised land. I have before shown, how God giving
possession of the promised land belonged to the covenant of grace. This
was done in a great measure by Joshua, but not fully. Joshua did not
wholly subdue that part of the promised land that was strictly called the
land of Canaan, and that was divided by lot to the several tribes; but there
were great numbers of the old inhabitants left unsubdued, as we read in
the books of Joshua and Judges; and there were many left to prove Israel,
and to be as thorns in their sides. There were the Jebusites in Jerusalem,
and many of the Canaanites, and the whole nation of the Philistines, who
all dwelt in that part of the land that was divided by lot, and chiefly in
that which belonged to the tribes of Judah and Ephraim.
And thus these remains of the old inhabitants of Canaan continued
unsubdued till David's time; but he wholly subdued them all. Which is
agreeable to what St. Stephen observes, Acts vii. 45. "Which also our
fathers brought in with Jesus (i. e. Joshua) into the possession of the
Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, unto the
days of David." They were till the days of David in driving them out,
before they had wholly subdued them. But David entirely brought them
under. He subdued the Jebusite, the whole nation of the Philistines, and
all the rest of the remains of the seven nations of Canaan; 1 Chron. xviii.
1. "Now after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and
subdued them, and took Gath and her towns out of the hands of the
Philistines."
After this, all the remains of the former inhabitants of Canaan were made
bond-servants to the Israelites. The posterity of the Gibeonites became
servants before, hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the house of
God. But Solomon, David's son and successor, put all the other remains
of the seven nations of Canaan to bond-service; at least made them pay a
tribute of bond-service, 1 Kings ix. 20-22. And hence we read of the
children of Solomon's servants, after the return from the Babylonish
captivity, Ezra ii. 55. and Neh. xi. 3. They were the children or posterity of
the seven nations of Canaan, that Solomon had subjected to bond-service.
Thus David subdued the whole land of Canaan, strictly so called. But then
that was not one half, nor quarter, of the land God had promised to their
fathers. The land often promised to their fathers, included all the
countries from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. These were the
bounds of the land promised to Abraham, Gen. xv. 19. "In that same day
the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying. Unto thy seed have I given
this land, from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river
Euphrates." So again God promised at mount Sinai, Exod. xxiii. 31. "And
I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines,
and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the
land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee." So again,
Deut. xi. 24. "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread, shall
be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river
Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be." Again, the
same promise is made to Joshua: Josh. i. 3, 4. "Every place that the sole
of your feet shall tread upon, have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses;
from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river
Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, towards the
going down of the sun, shall be your coast." But the land of which Joshua
gave the people possession, was but a little part of this land. And the
people never had possession of it, till now when God gave it them by
David.
This large country did not only include that Canaan which was divided by
lot to those who came in with Joshua, but the land of the Moabites and
Ammonites, the land of the Amalekites, and the rest of the Edomites, and
the country of Zobah. All these nations were subdued and brought under
the children of Israel by David. And he put garrisons in the several
countries, and they became David's servants, as we have a particular
account in the 8th chapter of 2d Samuel: and David extended their
border to the river Euphrates, as was promised; see the 3d verse: 2 Sam.
viii. 3. "And David smote also Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of
Zobah, as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates." And
accordingly we read, that Solomon his son reigned over all the region on
this side the river, 1 Kings iv. 24. "For he had dominion over all the region
on this side the river, from Tiphsah even unto Azzah, over all the kings on
this side the river." This Artaxerxes king of Persia lakes notice of long
after: Ezra iv. 20. "There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem,
which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and
custom was paid unto them."
So that Joshua, that eminent type of Christ, did but begin the work of
giving Israel the possession of the promised land; but left it to be finished
by that much greater type and ancestor of Christ, even David, who
subdued far more of that land than ever Joshua had done. And in this
extent of his and Solomon's dominion was some resemblance of the great
extent of Christ's kingdom; which is set forth by this very thing, Psal.
Ixxii. 8. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river
unto the ends of the earth." See also 1 Kings viii. 56.
IX. God by David perfected the Jewish worship, and added to it several
new institutions. The law was given by Moses, but yet all the institutions
of the Jewish worship were not given by Moses; some were added by
divine direction. So this greatest of all personal types of Christ did not
only perfect Joshua's work, in giving Israel the possession of the
promised land, but he also finished Moses's work, in perfecting the
instituted worship of Israel. Thus there must be a number of typical
prophets, priests, and princes, to complete one figure or shadow of Christ
the antetype, he being the substance of all the types and shadows. Of so
much more glory was Christ accounted worthy, than Moses, Joshua,
David, and Solomon, and all the great prophets, priests, and princes,
judges, and saviours of the Old Testament put together.
The ordinances of David are mentioned as of parallel validity with those
of Moses, 2 Chron. xxiii. 18. "Also Jehoiada appointed the offices of the
house of the Lord by the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had
distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt-offerings of the
Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing,
as it was ordained by David." 556 The worship of Israel was perfected by
David, by the addition he made to the ceremonial law, (1 Chron. xxiii.
&c.) consisting in the several orders and courses into which the Levites
were divided, and the work and business to which he appointed them,
different from what Moses had appointed them to; and also in the
divisions of the priests, the sons of Aaron, into four and twenty courses,
assigning to every course their business in the house of the Lord, and
their particular stated times of attendance there. He also appointed some
of the Levites to a new office, that of singers, particularly ordering and
regulating them in that office, ( 1 Chron. xxv. ) Others of the Levites he
appointed by law to the several services of porters, treasurers, officers,
and judges: and these ordinances of David were kept up thenceforth in
the church of Israel, as long as the Jewish church lasted. Thus we find the
several orders of priests, and the Levites, the porters, and singers, after
the captivity. And we find the courses of the priests appointed by David
still continuing in the New Testament; Zacharias the father of John the
Baptist was a priest of the course of Abia; which is the same with the
course of Abijah appointed by David, 1 Chron. xxiv. 10.
Thus David as well as Moses was made like to Christ the Son of David, in
this respect, that by him God gave, in a manner, a new ecclesiastical
establishment, and new institutions of worship. David did not only add to
the institutions of Moses, but by those additions he abolished some of the
old institutions that had been in force till that time; particularly those
laws which appointed the business of the Levites, which we have in the 3d
and 4th chapters of Numbers, which very much consisted in their charge
of the several parts and utensils of the tabernacle. But those laws were
now abolished; and they were no more to carry those things, as they had
been used to do. But David appointed them to other work instead of it; 1
Chron. xxiii. 26. "And also unto the Levites, they shall no more carry the
tabernacle, nor any vessels of it for the service thereof:" a sure evidence
that the ceremonial law given by Moses is not perpetual, as the Jews
suppose; but might be wholly abolished by Christ: for if David, a type of
the Messiah, might abolish the law of Moses in part, much more might
the Messiah himself abolish the whole.
David, by God's appointment, abolished all use of the tabernacle built by
Moses, and of which he had the pattern, from God: for God now revealed
it to David to be his will, that a temple should be built instead of the
tabernacle. This was a great presage of what Christ, the Son of David,
would do when he should come, viz. abolish the whole Jewish
ecclesiastical constitution, which was but as a movable tabernacle, to set
up the spiritual gospel-temple, which was to be far more glorious, of
greater extent, and was to last for ever. David had the pattern of all things
pertaining to the temple showed him, even in like manner as Moses had
the pattern of the tabernacle: and Solomon built the temple according to
that pattern which he had from his father David, which he received from
God. 1 Chron. xxviii. 11, 12. "Then David gave to Solomon his son the
pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries
thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours
thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat, and the pattern of all that he
had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the
chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the
treasuries of the dedicated things." And, ver. 19. "All this, said David, the
Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the
works of this pattern."
X. The canon of Scripture seems at or after the close of David's reign to be
added to by the prophets Nathan and Gad. It appears probable by the
Scriptures, that they carried on the history of the two books of Samuel
from the place where Samuel left it, and finished them. These seem to be
called the book of Samuel the seer, and Nathan the prophet, and God the
seer, 1 Chron. xxix. 29. "Now the acts of David the king, first and last,
behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book
of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer."
XI. The next thing I would notice, is God's wonderfully continuing the
kingdom of his visible people in the line of Christ's legal ancestors, as
long as they remained an independent kingdom. Thus it was without any
interruption worth notice. Indeed the kingdom of all the tribes of Israel
was not kept in that line; but the dominion of that part in which the true
worship of God was upheld, who were God's visible people, was always
kept in the family of David, as long as there was any such thing as an
independent king of Israel; according to his promise to David; and not
only in the family of David, but always in that part of David's posterity
whence Christ was legally descended. So that Christ's legal ancestor was
always on the throne, excepting Jehoahaz, who reigned three months,
and Zedekiah; as you may see in Matthew's genealogy of Christ.
Christ was legally descended from the kings of Judah, though not
naturally. He was both legally and naturally descended from David He
was naturally descended from Nathan the son of David; for Mary his
mother was one of the posterity of David by Nathan, as you may see in
Luke's genealogy: but Joseph, the reputed and legal father of Christ, was
naturally descended of Solomon and his successors, as we have an
account in Matthew's genealogy. Jesus Christ, though he was not the
natural son of Joseph, yet by the law and constitution of the Jews, was
Joseph's heir; because he was the lawful son of Joseph's lawful life,
conceived while she was his legally espoused wife. The Holy Ghost raised
up seed to him. A person, by the law of Moses, might be the legal son and
heir of another, whose natural son he was not; as sometimes a man raised
up seed to his brother. a brother, in some cases, was to build up a
brother's house; so the Holy Ghost built up Joseph's house. Joseph being
in the direct line of the kings of Judah, of the house of David, he was in
this respect the legal heir of the crown of David; and Christ being legally
his first-born son, he was his heir; and so Christ, by the law, was the
proper heir of the crown of David, and is therefore said to sit upon the
throne of his father David.
The crown of God's people was wonderfully kept in the line of Christ's
legal ancestors. When David was old, and not able any longer to manage
the affairs of the kingdom, Adonijah, one of his sons, set up to be king,
and seemed to have obtained his purpose. All things for a while seemed
fair on his side, and he thought himself strong. But Adonijah was not the
ancestor of Joseph, the legal father of Christ; and therefore how
wonderfully did Providence work here! what a strange and sudden
revolution! All Adonijah's kingdom and glory vanished away as soon as it
was begun; and Solomon, the legal ancestor of Christ, was established in
the throne.
And after Solomon's death, when Jeroboam had conspired against the
family, and Rehoboam carried himself in such a manner that it was a
wonder all Israel was not provoked to forsake him, (as ten tribes actually
did,) and set up Jeroboam in opposition to him; and though he was a
wicked man, and deserved to have been rejected altogether from being
king; yet he being the legal ancestor of Christ, God kept the kingdom of
the two tribes, in which the true religion was upheld, in his possession.
And though his son Abijam was another wicked prince; yet God still
continued the crown in the family, and gave it to Abijam's son, Asa. And
afterwards, though many of the kings of Judah were very wicked men,
and horribly provoked God, as particularly Jehoram, Ahaziah, Ahaz,
Manasseh, and Amon; yet God did not take away the crown from their
family, but gave it to their sons, because they were the ancestors of Christ.
God's remembering his covenant established with David, is given as the
reason why God did thus, notwithstanding their wicked lives; 1 Kings xv.
4. speaking of Abijam's wickedness, it is said, 1 Kings xv. 4. "Nevertheless,
for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set
up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:" so, speaking of
Jehoram's great wickedness, it is said, 2 Chron. xxi. 7. "Howbeit the Lord
would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant he had
made with David, and as he promised to give a light unto him, and to his
sons for ever." 557
The crown of the ten tribes was changed from one family to another
continually. First, Jeroboam took it; but the crown descended only to his
son Nadab. Then Baasha, who was of another family, took it; and it
remained in his posterity but one generation after his death. And then
Zimri, who was his servant, and not of his posterity, took it; from whom
Omri, who was of another family, took it. The crown continued in his
family for three successions: and then Jehu, who was of another family,
took it. The crown continued in his family for three or four successions;
and then Shallum, that was of another family, took it. The crown did not
descend at all to his posterity; but Menahem, who was of another family,
took it; and it remained in his family but one generation after him. Then
Pekah, who was of another family, took it: and after him Hoshea, that was
still of another family, took it. So great a difference was there between the
crown of Israel and the crown of Judah; the one was continued evermore
in the same family, and with very little interruption, in one right line; the
other was continually tossed about from one family to another, as if it
were the sport of fortune. The reason was not, because the kings of
Judah, at least many of them, were better than the kings of Israel; but the
one had the blessing in them; they were the ancestors of Christ, whose
right it was to sit on the throne of Israel. But with the kings of Israel it
was not so; and therefore Divine Providence exercised a continual care,
through all the changes that happened through so many generations, and
such a long space of time, to keep the crown of Judah in one direct line, in
fulfilment of the everlasting covenant he had made with David, the
mercies of which covenant were sure mercies; but in the other case there
was no such covenant, and so no such interposing care of Providence.
And here it must not he omitted, that there was once a very strong
conspiracy of the kings of Syria and Israel, in the time of that wicked king
of Judah, Ahaz, to dispossess him and his family of the throne of Judah,
and to set one of another family, even the son of Tabeal, on it; as Isa. vii.
6. "Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach
therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal."
And they seemed very likely to accomplish their purpose. There seemed
to be so great a likelihood of it, that the hearts of the people sunk within
them; they gave up the cause. It is said, "The heart of Ahaz and his people
was moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." 623623
Isaiah vii. 2. And on this occasion God sent the prophet Isaiah to
encourage the people, and tell them that it should not come to pass. And
because it looked so much like a lost cause to Ahaz and the people,
therefore God directs the prophet to give them this sign of it, viz. that
Christ should be born of the legal seed of Ahaz, as Isa. vii. 14. "Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." This was a good sign, and
a great confirmation of the truth of what God promised by Isaiah, viz.
that the kings of Syria and Israel should never accomplish their purpose
of dispossessing the family of Ahaz of the crown of Judah, and setting up
the son of Tabeal; for Christ the Immanuel was to be of them.
XII. The building of the temple was a great type of three things, viz. of
Christ, especially his human nature; of the church; and of heaven. The
tabernacle seemed rather to represent the church in its movable,
changeable state, in this world. But that beautiful, glorious, costly
structure, the temple, that succeeded the tabernacle, seems especially to
represent the church in its glorified state in heaven. This temple was built
according to the direction and the pattern shown by the Holy Ghost to
David, in the place where was the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite,
in mount Moriah, 2 Chron. iii. 1. ; the same mountain (and probably in
the very same place) where Abraham offered up his son Isaac; for that is
said to be in the land of Moriah, Gen. xxii. 2. and was called the mountain
of the Lord, as this of the temple was, Gen. xxii. 14. "And Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said to this day, In the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen." This was the house where Christ
dwelt, till he came to dwell in human nature. That his body was the
antetype of this temple, appears from what he says, "Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up," speaking of the temple of his body.
This continued to be the house of God, the place of worship for his
church, till Christ came; the place that God chose, where all their
sacrifices were offered up, till the great sacrifice came. Into this temple
the Lord came, even the messenger of the covenant. Here he often
delivered his heavenly doctrine, and wrought miracles; here his church
was gathered by the pouring out of the Spirit, after his ascension. Luke
xxiv. 53. "And they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing
God." And respecting the multitudes that were converted by that great
effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, it is said, Acts ii. 46. "And
they continued daily with one accord in the temple." And the sacred
historian, speaking of the apostles, says, Acts v. 42. "And daily in the
temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus
Christ!" And thence the sound of the gospel went forth, and the church
was spread into all the world.
XIII. It is here worthy to be observed, that in Solomon's reign, after the
temple was finished, the Jewish church was risen to its highest external
glory. The Jewish church, as to its ordinances and constitution, is
compared to the moon, Rev. xii. 1. "And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and
upon her head a crown of twelve stars." This church was like the moon in
many other respects, but especially that it waxed and waned like the
moon. From its first formation, which was in the covenant made with
Abraham, when this moon began to appear, it had been gradually
increasing in its glory. This time, wherein the temple was finished and
dedicated, was about the middle between the calling of Abraham and the
coming of Christ, and now it was full moon. After this the glory of the
Jewish church gradually decreased, till Christ came; as I shall have
occasion to show more particularly.
Now the church of Israel was in its highest external glory. Now Israel was
multiplied exceedingly, so that they seemed to have become like the sand
on the sea-shore, 1 Kings iv. 20. Now the kingdom of Israel was firmly
established in the right family, the family of which Christ was to come.
Now God had chosen the city where he would place his name; and had
fully given his people the possession of the promised land.—They now
possessed the dominion of it all, in quietness and peace, even from the
river of Egypt, to the great river Euphrates; all those nations which had
formerly been their enemies, quietly submitted to them; none pretended
to rebel against them. Now the Jewish worship in all its ordinances was
fully settled: instead of a movable tabernacle, they had a glorious temple;
the most magnificent, beautiful, and costly structure, that ever had been,
or has been since. Now the people enjoyed peace and plenty, and sat
every man under his vine and fig-tree, eating and drinking and making
merry, 1 Kings iv. 20. They were in the highest pitch of earthly prosperity,
silver being as plenty as stones, and the land full of gold and precious
stones, and other precious foreign commodities, which were brought by
Solomon's ships from Ophir and other parts of the world. Now they had a
king reigning over them who was the wisest of men, and probably the
greatest earthly prince that ever was: their fame went abroad into all the
earth, so that they came from the utmost parts of the earth to see their
glory and their happiness.
Thus God was pleased, in one of Messiah's ancestors, remarkably to
shadow forth the kingdom of Christ and himself reigning in his glory.
David, a man of war, a man who had shed much blood, and whose life
was full of troubles and conflicts, was a more suitable representation of
Christ in his state of humiliation, wherein he was conflicting with his
enemies. But Solomon, a man of peace, was a representation more
especially of Christ exalted, triumphing and reigning in his kingdom of
peace. And the happy glorious state of the Jewish church at that time,
remarkably represented two things:—1. A glorious state 558 of the church
on earth, in the latter ages of the world; those days of peace, when nation
shall not lift sword against nation, nor learn war any more. 2. The future
glorified state of the church in heaven. The earthly Canaan never was so
lively a type of the heavenly Canaan as it was then, when the happy
people of Israel indeed enjoyed it as a land flowing with milk and honey.
XIV. After this the glory of the Jewish church gradually declined more
and more till Christ came; yet the work of redemption went on. Whatever
failed or declined, God still carried on this work from age to age; this
building was advancing higher and higher. It went on, even during the
decline of the Jewish church, towards a further preparation of things for
the coming of Christ, as well as during its increase; for so wonderfully
were things ordered by the infinitely wise Governor of the world, that
whatever happened was ordered for good to this general design, and
made a means of promoting it. When the Jews flourished, and were in
prosperity, he made that to contribute to the promoting of this design;
and when they were in adversity, God made this also contribute to the
same. While the Jewish church was in its increasing state, the work of
redemption was carried on by their increase; and when they came to their
declining state, from Solomon's time till Christ, God carried on the work
of redemption by that. The very decline itself, was one thing that God
employed as a further preparation for Christ's coming.
As the moon, from the time of its full, is approaching nearer and nearer to
her conjunction with the sun; so her light is still more and more
decreasing, till at length, when the conjunction comes, it is wholly
swallowed up in the light of the sun. So it was with the Jewish church
from the time of its highest glory in Solomon's time. In the latter end of
Solomon's reign, the state of things began to darken, by his corrupting
himself with idolatry, which much obscured the glory of this mighty and
wise prince; and troubles also began to arise in his kingdom. After his
death the kingdom was divided, and ten tribes revolted, and withdrew
their subjection from the house of David, apostatizing also from the true
worship of God in the temple at Jerusalem, and setting up the golden
calves of Bethel and Dan. And presently after this the number of the ten
tribes was greatly diminished in the battle of Jeroboam with Abijah,
wherein there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen
men; which loss the kingdom of Israel probably never in any measure
recovered.
The ten tribes finally apostatized from the true God under Jeroboam. The
kingdom of Judah was greatly corrupted, and from that time forward
more generally in a corrupt state than otherwise. In Ahab's time the
kingdom of Israel did not only worship the calves of Bethel and Dan, but
the worship of Baal was introduced. Before, they pretended to worship
the true God by these images, the calves of Jeroboam; but now Ahab
introduced gross idolatry, and the direct worship of false gods in the
room of the true God; and soon after, the worship of Baal was introduced
into the kingdom of Judah, viz. in Jehoram's reign, by his marrying
Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. After this God began to cut Israel short,
by finally destroying and sending into captivity that part which was
beyond Jordan, 2 Kings x. 32, &c. Then Tiglath-Pileser subdued and
enslaved all the northern parts, 2 Kings xv. 29.; and at last all the ten
tribes were subdued by Salmaneser, and they were finally carried away
captive out of their own land. After this also the kingdom of Judah was
carried captive into Babylon, and a great part of the nation never
returned. Those who returned were but a small number, compared with
what had been carried captive; and for the most part after this they were
dependent on the power of other states. They were subject one while to
the Kings of Persia, then to the monarchy of the Grecians, and then to the
Romans. And before Christ's time, the Jewish church was become
exceeding corrupt, overrun with superstition and self-righteousness. And
how small a flock was the church of Christ in the days of his incarnation !
God, by this gradual decline of the Jewish state and church from
Solomon's time, prepared the way for the coming of Christ several ways.
1. The decline of the glory of this legal dispensation, made way for the
introduction of the more glorious dispensation of the gospel. The
evangelical dispensation was so much more glorious, that the legal
dispensation had no glory in comparison with it. The ancient
dispensation, even as it was in Solomon's time, was but an inferior glory,
compared with the spiritual glory of the dispensation introduced by
Christ. The church, under the Old Testament, was a child under tutors
and governors, and God dealt with it accordingly. Those pompous
externals are called by the apostle, weak and beggarly elements. It was fit
that those things should be diminished as Christ approached; as John the
Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, speaking of Christ, says, John iii. 30.
"He must increase, but I must decrease. It is fit that the twinkling stars
should gradually withdraw their glory, when the sun is approaching
towards his rising point. The glory of the Jewish dispensation must be
gradually diminished, to prepare the way for the more joyful reception of
the spiritual glory of the gospel. If the Jewish church, when Christ came,
had been in the same external glory that it was in, in the reign of
Solomon, men would have their eyes so dazzled with it, that they would
not have been likely, joyfully to exchange such great external grandeur,
for only the spiritual glory of the despised Jesus. Again,
2. This gradual decline of the glory in the Jewish state, tended to make
the glory of God's power, in the great effects of Christ's redemption, the
more conspicuous. God's people being so diminished and weakened by
one step after another, till Christ came, was very much like the
diminishing of Gideon's army. God told Gideon, that the people with him
were too many for the conquest of the Midianites, lest Israel should vaunt
itself, saying, "My own hand hath saved me. 624624 Judges vii. 2. " And
therefore all that were fearful were commanded to return; and there
returned twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand.
But still they were too many; and then, by trying the people at the water,
they were reduced to three hundred men. So the people in Solomon's
time were too many, and mighty, and glorious for Christ; therefore he
diminished them; first, by sending off the ten tribes; then he diminished
them by the captivity into Babylon; and then they were further
diminished by their great and general corruption when Christ came; so
that Christ found very few godly persons among them. With a small
handful of disciples, Christ conquered the world. Thus high things were
brought down, that Christ might be exalted.
3. This prepared the way for Christ's coming, as it made the salvation of
those Jews who were saved by Christ to he more sensible and visible.
Though the greater part of the Jewish nation was rejected, and the
Gentiles called in their room; yet a great many thousands of the Jews
were saved by Christ after his resurrection, Acts xxi. 20. They being taken
from so low a state under temporal calamity in their bondage to the
Romans, and from a state of so great superstition and wickedness, it
made their redemption the more sensibly and visibly glorious.
XV. I would here take notice of the additions which were made to the
canon of Scripture in or soon after the reign of Solomon. There were
considerable additions made by Solomon himself, who wrote the books of
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, probably near the close of his reign. His Song
of Songs, as it is called, is wholly on the subject we are upon, viz. Christ
and his redemption, representing the high and glorious relation, union,
and love, that is between Christ and his redeemed church. And the sacred
history seems, in Solomon's reign, and some of the next succeeding, to
have been enlarged by the prophets Nathan and Ahijah, Shemaiah and
Iddo. It is probable that part of the history which we have in the first of
Kings, was written by them. (See 2 Chron. ix. 29. xii. 15. xiii. 22.)
XVI. God wonderfully upheld his church and the true religion through
this period. It was very wonderful, considering the many and great
apostacies of that people to idolatry. When the ten tribes had generally
and finally forsaken the true worship, God kept up the true religion in the
kingdom of Judah; and when they corrupted themselves, as they very
often did exceedingly, and idolatry was 559 ready totally to swallow up
all, yet God kept the lamp alive. When things seemed to be come to an
extremity, and religion at its last gasp, he was often pleased to grant
blessed revivals by remarkable outpourings of his Spirit, particularly in
Hezekiah's and Josiah's time.
XVII. God remarkably kept the book of the law from being lost in times of
general and long-continued neglect of it. The most remarkable instance of
this kind was its preservation in the time of the great apostacy, during the
greatest part of the long reign of Manasseh, which lasted fifty-five years,
and the reign of Amon his son. This while the law was so much neglected,
and such a careless and profane management of the affairs of the temple
prevailed, that the book which used to be laid up by the side of the ark in
the Holy of Holies, was lost for a long time; and nobody knew where it
was. But yet God preserved it from being finally lost. In Josiah's time,
when they came to repair the temple, it was found buried in rubbish. It
had been lost so long that Josiah himself seems to have been much a
stranger to it. (See 2 Kings xxii. 8., &c.)
XVIII. God remarkably preserved the tribe of which Christ was to
proceed, from being mined through the many and great dangers of this
period. The visible church of Christ from Solomon's reign was mainly in
the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Benjamin, which was annexed to them,
was but a very small tribe, and that of Judah exceeding large; and as
Judah took Benjamin under his protection when he went into Egypt to
bring corn, so the tribe of Benjamin seemed to be under the covert of
Judah ever after. And though, on occasion of Jeroboam's setting up the
calves at Bethel and Dan, the Levites resorted to Judah out of all the
tribes of Israel, (2 Chron. xi. 13.) yet they were also small, and not
reckoned among the tribes. Many of the ten tribes, it is true, on that
occasion, for the sake of worshipping God in the temple, left their
inheritances in their several tribes, and settled in Judah, and so were
incorporated with them, as we have account in the chapter just quoted, (2
Chron. xi. 16.) yet the tribe of Judah was so much the prevailing part, that
they were called by one name, Judah. Therefore God said to Solomon, 1
Kings xi. 13. "I will not rend away all the kingdom: but will give one tribe
to thy son, for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I
have chosen." So when the ten tribes were carried captive, it is said, there
was none left but the tribe of Judah: 2 Kings xvii. 18. "Therefore the Lord
was very wroth with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was
none left but the tribe of Judah only." Whence they were all called Jews, a
word derived from Judah.
This was the tribe of which Christ was to come; and in this chiefly did
God's visible church consist, from Solomon's time. This people, over
whom the kings who were legal ancestors of Christ, and of the house of
David, reigned, was wonderfully preserved from destruction during this
period, when they often seemed to be upon the brink of ruin, and just
ready to be swallowed up. So it was in Rehoboam s time, when Shishak
king of Egypt came against Judah with a vast force. Of this we read in the
beginning of 2 Chronicles xii. So it was again in Abijah's time, when
Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand
chosen men; a mighty army! 2 Chron. xiii. 3. Then God wrought
deliverance to Judah, out of regard to the covenant of grace established
with David, as is evident by 2 Chron. xiii. 4,5. and the victory they
obtained was because the Lord was on their side, as you may see, 2
Chron. xiii. 12.. So it was again in Asa's time, when Zerah the Ethiopian
came against him with a larger army of a thousand thousand and three
hundred chariots, 2 Chron. xiv. 9. On this occasion Asa cried to the Lord,
and trusted in him, being sensible that it was nothing with him to help
those that had no power: 2 Chron. xiv. 11. "And Asa cried unto the Lord
his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with
many, or with those that have no power." And accordingly God gave them
a glorious victory over this mighty host.
So again it was in Jehoshaphat's time, when the children of Moab, and
the children of Ammon, and the inhabitants of mount Seir, combined
together against Judah with a mighty army, a force vastly superior to any
that Jehoshaphat could raise; and Jehoshaphat and his people were
greatly afraid: yet they set themselves to seek God on this occasion, and
trusted in him; and God told them by one of his prophets, that they need
not fear them, nor should they have any occasion to fight in this battle,
they should only stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And
according to his direction, they only stood still, and sang praises to God;
and God made their enemies do the work themselves, by killing one
another; and the children of Judah had nothing to do, but to gather the
spoil, which was more than they could carry away. (2 Chron. xx.)
So it was again in Ahaz's time, when Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah
the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, conspired against Judah, and
seemed to be sure of their purpose; of which we have spoken already. So
it was again in Hezekiah's time, when Sennacherib, that great king of
Assyria, and head of the greatest monarchy then in the world, came up
against all the fenced cities of Judah, after he had conquered most of the
neighbouring countries. He sent Rabshakeh, the captain of his host,
against Jerusalem, who in a very proud and scornful manner insulted
Hezekiah and his people, as being sure of victory; and the people were
trembling for fear, like lambs before a lion. Then God sent Isaiah the
prophet to comfort them, and assure them that their enemies should not
prevail; as a token of which he gave them this sign, viz. that the earth, for
two years successively, should bring forth food of itself, from the roots of
the old stalks, without their ploughing or sowing; and then the third year
they should sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them,
and live on the fruits of their labour, as they were wont to do before. (See
2 Kings xix. 29.) This is mentioned as a type of what is promised in 2
Kings xix. 30, 31. "And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah,
shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of
Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape, out of mount
Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." The corn springing again
after it had been cut off with the sickle, and bringing forth another crop
from the roots, represents the church reviving again, and flourishing, like
a plant after it had seemingly been cut down past recovery. When the
enemies of the church have done their utmost, and seem to have gained
their point; when they have overthrown the church, so that its being is
scarcely visible, but is like a living root hid under ground; there is in it a
secret life that will cause it to flourish again, and to take root downward,
and bear fruit upward. This was now fulfilled. The king of Assyria had
already carried captive the ten tribes; and Sennacherib had also taken all
the fenced cities of Judah, and ranged the country round about, and
Jerusalem only remained: and Rabshakeh had in his own imagination
already swallowed that up, as he had also in the fearful apprehensions of
the Jews themselves. But God wrought a wonderful deliverance; he sent
an angel, that in one night smote a hundred fourscore and five thousand
in the enemy's camp.
XIX. In the reign of Uzziah, and the following reigns, God was pleased to
raise up a set of eminent prophets, who should commit their prophecies
to writing, and leave them for the use of his church in all ages. We before
observed, how that God began a constant succession of prophets in Israel
in Samuel's time, and many of these prophets wrote by divine inspiration,
and so added to the canon of Scripture. But none of them are supposed to
have written books of prophecies till now. Several of them wrote histories
of the wonderful dispensations of God towards his church. This we have
observed already of Samuel, who is supposed to have written Judges and
Ruth, and part of the first of Samuel, if not the book of Joshua. And
Nathan and Gad seem to have written the rest of the two books of
Samuel: and Nathan, with Ahijah and Iddo, wrote the history of Solomon,
which is probably that which we have in the first book of Kings. The
history of Israel seems to have been further carried on by Iddo and
Shemaiah: 2 Chron. xii. 15. "Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are
they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and Iddo the seer,
concerning genealogies ?" And after that the history seems to have 560
been further carried on by the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani: 2 Chron.
xx. 34. " Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold
they are written in the book of Jehu son of Hanani, who is mentioned in
the book of the kings of Israel." 1 Kings xvi. 1, 7. And then it was further
continued by the prophet Isaiah: 2 Chron. xxvi. 22. "Now the rest of the
acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos
write." He probably did it as well in the second book of Kings, as in the
book of his prophecy. And the history was carried on and finished by
other prophets after him.
Thus the prophets, even from Samuel's time, had been adding to the
canon of Scripture by their historical writings. But now, in the days of
Uzziah, did God first raise up a set of great prophets, not only to write
histories, but to write books of their prophecies. The first of these is
thought to be Hosea the son of Beeri, and therefore his prophecy, or the
word of the Lord by him, is called the beginning of the word the Lord;
Hos. i. 2. "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea;" that is, the
beginning, or the first part, of the written word of that kind, viz. that
which is written in books of prophecy. He prophesied in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of
Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. There were many other
witnesses for God raised up about the same time to commit their
prophecies to writing, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and probably
some others: and so from that time forward God seemed to continue a
succession of writing prophets.
This was a great dispensation of Providence, and a great 'advance made
in the affair of redemption, which will appear, if we consider, that the
main business of the prophets was to point out Christ and his
redemption. They were all forerunners of the great prophet. The main
end why the spirit of prophecy was given them was, that they might give
testimony to Jesus Christ, the great Redeemer, who was to come.
Therefore, the testimony of Jesus, and the spirit of prophecy, are spoken
of as the same thing; Rev. xix. 10. "And I fell at his feet to worship him:
and he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of
thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And therefore we find, that
the great and main thing that the most of the prophets in their written
prophecies insist upon, is Christ and his redemption, and the glorious
times of the gospel. And though many other things were spoken of in
their prophecies, yet they seem to be only as introductory to their
prophecy of these great things. Whatever they predict, here their
prophecies commonly terminate.
These prophets, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, wrote chiefly to prepare
the way for his coming, and to exhibit the glory that should follow. And in
what an exalted strain do they all speak of those things! Many other
things they speak of in men's usual language. But when they enter upon
this subject, what a joyful heavenly sublimity is there in their language!
Some of them are very particular and full in their predictions of these
things, and above all the prophet Isaiah, who is therefore deservedly
called the evangelical prophet. He seems to teach the glorious doctrines
of the gospel almost as plainly as the apostles did. The apostle Paul
therefore takes notice, that the prophet Esaias is very bold, Rom. x. 20. i.
e. according to the meaning of the word in the New Testament, is very
plain, he speaks out very plainly and fully; so being very bold is used 2
Cor. iii. 12. we use great boldness of speech, or boldness, as in the margin.
How plainly and fully does the prophet Isaiah describe the manner and
circumstances, the nature and end, of the sufferings and sacrifice of
Christ, in the 53rd chapter of his prophecy. There is scarce a chapter in
the New Testament itself which is more full upon it. And how much, and
in what a glorious strain, does the same prophet speak, from time to time,
of the glorious benefits of Christ, the unspeakable blessings which shall
redound to his church through his redemption ! Jesus Christ, of whom
this prophet spoke so much, once appeared to him in the form of the
human nature, the nature he should afterwards take upon him. We have
an account of it in Isaiah 6 at the beginning: Isaiah vi. 1. "I saw also the
Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple," &c. This was Christ, as we are expressly told in the New
Testament. (See John xii. 39-41. )
And if we consider the abundant prophecies of this and the other
prophets, what a great increase is there of gospel light! How plentiful are
the revelations and prophecies of Christ, compared with what they were
in the first period of the Old Testament, from Adam to Noah; or to what
they were in the second, from Noah to Abraham; or to what they were
before Moses, or in the time of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges! This
dispensation was also a glorious advance of the work of redemption by
the great additions that were made to the canon of scripture. Great part of
the Old Testament was written now from the days of Uzziah to the
captivity into Babylon. And how excellent are those portions of it! What a
precious treasure have those prophets committed to the church of God,
tending greatly to confirm the gospel of Christ! and which has been of
great comfort and benefit to God's church in all ages since, and doubtless
will be to the end of the world.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2024 8:30:21 GMT -5
PART VI.
FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY TO THE COMING OF
CHRIST.
I come now to the last subordinate period of the Old Testament, viz. that
which begins with the Babylonish captivity, and extends to the coming of
Christ, being near six hundred years; and shall endeavour to show how
the work of redemption was carried on through this period.—But before I
enter upon particulars, I would observe three things wherein this period
is distinguished from the preceding ones.
1. Though we have no account of a great part of this period in the
scripture history, yet the events of it are more the subject of scripture
prophecy, than any of the preceding periods. There are two ways wherein
the Scriptures give account of the events by which the work of
redemption is carried on; one is by history, and another is by prophecy;
and in one or the other of these ways we have in the Scriptures an
account how the work of redemption is carried on from the beginning to
the end. Although the Scriptures do not contain a proper history of the
whole, yet the whole chain of great events, by which this affair hath been
carried on from the commencement to the finishing of it, is found either
in history or prophecy. And it is to be observed, that where the Scripture
is wanting in one of these ways, it is made up in the other. Where
scripture history fails, there prophecy takes place; so that the account is
still carried on, and the chain is not broken, till we come to the very last
link of it in the consummation of all things.
And accordingly it is observable of this space of time, that though it is so
much less the subject of scripture history, than most of the preceding
periods, (there being above four hundred years of which the Scriptures
give us no history,) yet its events are more the subject of prophecy, than
those of all the preceding periods put together. Most of those remarkable
prophecies of the book of Daniel, and most of those in Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel, against Babylon, Tyrus, Egypt, and many other nations, were
fulfilled in this period.
Hence the reason why the Scriptures give us no history of so great a part
of this time, is not because the events were not so important, or less
worthy of notice, than those of the foregoing periods; for they were great
and remarkable. But there are several reasons which may be given for it.
One is, that it was the will of God that the spirit of prophecy should cease
in this period, (for reasons that may be given hereafter,) so that there
were no prophets to write the history of these times; and therefore God
designing this, took care that the great events of this period should not be
without mention in his word. It is 561 observable, that the writing
prophets in Israel, were raised up at the latter end of the foregoing
period, and at the beginning of this; for the time was now approaching,
when, the spirit of prophecy having ceased, there was to be no inspired
history, and therefore no other scripture account but what was given in
prophecy.
Another reason may be, for the suspension of inspired history, that God
in his providence took care, that there should be authentic and full
accounts of the events of this period preserved in profane history. It is
very worthy of notice, that with respect to the events of the five preceding
subordinate periods, of which the Scriptures give the history, profane
history gives us no account, or at least of but very few of them. There are
many fabulous and uncertain accounts of things that happened before;
but the commencement of authentic profane history is judged to be but
about a hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar's time. The learned Greeks
and Romans used to call the ages before that the fabulous age; but the
times after that they called the historical age. And from about that time to
the coming of Christ, we have undoubted accounts in profane history of
the principal events; accounts that wonderfully agree with the many
prophecies that relate to those times.
Thus the great God, who disposes all things, took care to give an
historical account of things from the beginning of the world, through all
those former ages concerning which profane history is silent; and ceased
not till he came to those ages in which profane history related things with
some certainty. And concerning those times he gives us abundant account
in prophecy, that by comparing profane history with those prophecies, we
might see the agreement.
2. This last period of the Old Testament seems to have been remarkably
distinguished from all others by great revolutions among the nations of
the earth, to make way for the kingdom of Christ. The time now drawing
nigh wherein Christ, the great King and Saviour of the world, was to
come, great and mighty were the changes that were brought to pass in
order to it. The way had been preparing for the coming of Christ from the
fall of man, through all the foregoing periods; but now, the time drawing
nigh, things began to ripen apace for his coming; and therefore Divine
Providence now wrought wonderfully. The greatest revolutions that any
history has recorded, since the flood, fell out in this period. Almost all the
nations far and near, within the knowledge of the Jews, were overturned
again and again. All lands were in their turn subdued, captivated, and as
it were emptied, and turned upside down, and that most of them
repeatedly, in this period; agreeable to that prophecy, Isa. xxiv. 1.
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty; he maketh it waste, and
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof."
This began with God's visible church, in their captivity by the king of
Babylon. And then the cup from them went round to all other nations,
agreeable to what God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah xxv. 15-27. Here
special respect seems to be had to the great revolutions in the times of the
Babylonish empire. But after that there were three general overturnings
before Christ came, in the succession of the three great monarchies of the
world, after the Babylonish empire. The king of Babylon is represented in
Scripture as overturning the world: but after that, the Babylonish empire
was overthrown by Cyrus, who founded the Persian empire in the room of
it; which was of much greater extent than the Babylonish empire in its
greatest glory. Thus the world was overturned the second time. And then,
the Persian empire was overthrown by Alexander, and the Grecian set up,
which was still of much greater extent than the Persian. And thus there
was a general overturning of the world a third time. After that, the
Grecian empire was overthrown by the Romans, and the Roman empire
was established; which vastly exceeded all the foregoing empires in power
and extent of dominion. And so the world was overturned the fourth
time.
These several monarchies, and the great revolutions of the world under
them, are abundantly spoken of in the prophecies of Daniel. They are
represented in Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold, silver, brass, and iron,
and Daniel's interpretation of it, (Dan. ii. ) in the vision of the four beasts,
and the angel's interpretation of it, (Dan. vii. ) And the succession of the
Persian and Grecian monarchies is more particularly represented in the
8th chapter, in Daniel's vision of the ram and the he-goat, and again in
the 11th chapter.
Beside these four general overturnings, the world was kept in a constant
tumult between whiles; and indeed in a continual convulsion through this
whole period. Before, the face of the earth was comparatively in
quietness; though there were many great wars among the nations, yet we
read of no such mighty and universal convulsions and overturnings as
there were in this period. The nations of the world, most of them, had
long remained on their lees, without being emptied from vessel to vessel,
as is said of Moab, Jer. xlviii. 11. Now these great overturnings were
because the time of the great Messiah drew nigh. That they were to
prepare the way for Christ's coming, is evident by Scripture, particularly
by Ezek. xxi. 27. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no
more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." The prophet,
by repealing the word overturn three times, has respect to three
overturnings, as in the Revelation viii. 13. The repetition of the word woe
three times, signifies three distinct woes; as appears by what follows,
Revelation ix. 12. "One woe is past;" and Revelation xi. 14. "The second
woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly."
It must be noted, that the prophet Ezekiel prophesied in the time of the
Babylonish captivity; and therefore there were three great and general
overturnings to come after this prophecy, before Christ came; the first by
the Persians, the second by the Grecians, the third by the Romans; and
then Christ, whose right it was to take the diadem, and reign, should
come. Here these great overturnings are evidently spoken of as
preparatory to the coming and kingdom of Christ. But to understand the
words aright, we must note the particular expression, " I will overturn,
overturn, overturn it," i.e. the diadem and crown of Israel, or the supreme
temporal dominion over God's visible people. This God said should be no
more, i.e. the crown should be taken off, and the diadem removed, as it is
said in the foregoing verse. The supreme power over Israel should be no
more in the royal line of David, to which it properly belonged, but should
be removed away, and given to others, and overturned from one to
another: first the supreme power over Israel should be in the hands of the
Persians; then it should be overturned, and be in the hands of the
Grecians; and then it should be overturned again, and come into the
hands of the Romans, and be no more in the line of David, till that very
person should come, who was the Son of David, whose proper right it
was, and then God would give it to him.
That those great shakings and revolutions of the nations of the world,
were all to prepare the way for Christ's coming, and setting up his
kingdom in the world, is further manifest by Haggai ii. 6, 7. "For thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the
heavens, and the earth, and the sea and the dry land: and I will shake all
nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house
with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." And again, Haggai ii. 21-23. It is
evident by this, that these great revolutions and shakings of the nations,
whereby the thrones of kingdoms and their armies were overthrown, and
every one came down by the sword of his brother, were to prepare the
way for the coming of him who is the desire of all nations.
The great changes and troubles that have sometimes been in the visible
church of Christ, (Rev. xii. 2. ) are compared to the church's being in
travail to bring forth Christ: so these great troubles and mighty
revolutions, were, as it were, the world's being in travail to bring forth the
Son of God. The apostle, in the 8th of Romans, represents the whole
creation as groaning and travailing in pain together until now, to bring
forth the liberty and manifestation of the children of God.—So the world
as it were travailed in pain, and was in continual convulsions, for several
hundred years together, to bring forth the first-born child, and the onlybegotten Son of God. And those mighty revolutions were as so many
pangs and throes in order to it. The world being so long a time kept in a
state of war and bloodshed, prepared the way for the coming of the Prince
of peace, as it showed the great need the world stood in of such a prince,
to deliver the world from its miseries.
It pleased God to order it in his providence, that earthly power and
dominion should be raised to its greatest height, and appear in its utmost
glory, in those four great monarchies that succeeded one another, and
that every one should be greater and more glorious than the preceding,
before he set up the kingdom of his Son. By this it appeared how much
more glorious his spiritual kingdom was than the most glorious temporal
kingdom. The strength and glory of Satan's kingdom in these four mighty
monarchies, appeared in its greatest height: for, being the monarchies of
the heathen world, the strength of them was the strength of Satan's
kingdom. God suffered Satan's kingdom to rise to so great a height of
power and magnificence before his Son came to overthrow it, in order to
prepare the way for the more glorious triumph of his Son. Goliath must
have on all his splendid armour when the stripling David comes against
him with a sling and a stone, for the greater glory of David's victory. God
suffered one of those great monarchies to subdue another, and erect itself
on the other's ruins, appearing still in greater strength, and the last to be
strongest and mightiest of all; that so Christ, in overthrowing that, might
as it were overthrow them all at once. The stone cut out of the mountain
without hands, is represented as destroying the whole image, the gold,
the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay; so that all became as the chaff
of the summer threshing-floor.
These mighty empires were suffered thus to overthrow the world, and
destroy one another. And though their power was so great, yet they could
not uphold themselves, but fell one after another, and came to nothing;
even the last of them, which was the strongest, and had swallowed up the
earth. It pleased God thus to show in them the instability and vanity of all
earthly power and greatness; which served as a foil to set forth the glory
of the kingdom of his Son, which never shall be destroyed, Dan. ii. 44. "In
the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and
it shall stand for ever." So greatly does this kingdom differ from all those
kingdoms: they vanish away, and are left to other people; but this shall
not be so left, but shall stand for ever. God suffered the devil to do his
utmost, and to establish his interest, by setting up the greatest, strongest,
and most glorious kingdoms in the world, before the despised Jesus
overthrew him and his empire. Christ came into the world to bring down
the high things of Satan's kingdom, that the hand of the Lord might be on
every one that is proud and lofty, and every high tower, and every lofty
mountain; as the prophet Isaiah says, chap, ii. 12 &c. And therefore these
things were suffered to rise very high, that Christ might appear so much
the more glorious in being above them. Thus wonderfully did the great
and wise Governor of the world prepare the way for the erecting of the
glorious kingdom of his beloved Son Jesus.
3. Another thing for which this last space of time before Christ was
particularly remarkable, was the wonderful preservation of the church
through all those overturnings. The preservation of the church was on
some accounts more remarkable through this period, than through any of
the foregoing. It was very wonderful that the church, which now was so
weak, and in so low a state, and mostly subject to the dominion of
heathen monarchies, should be preserved for five or six hundred years
together, while the world was so often overturned, and the earth was rent
in pieces, and made so often empty and waste, and the inhabitants of it
came down so often every one by the sword of his brother. I say, it was
wonderful that the church in its weak and low state, being but a little
handful of men, should be preserved in all these great convulsions;
especially considering that the land of Judea, the chief place of the
church's residence, lay in the midst of the contending parties, was very
much the seat of war amongst them, and was often overrun and subdued.
It was sometimes in the hands of one people, and sometimes another,
and very much the object of the envy and hatred of all heathen nations. It
was often almost ruined by them, often great multitudes of its inhabitants
being slain, and the land in a great measure depopulated; and those who
had them in their power, often intended the utter destruction of the
whole nation. Yet they were upheld; they were preserved in their captivity
in Babylon, in all the dangers they passed through under the kings of
Persia, in the much greater dangers under the empire of the Greeks, and
afterwards when the world was trodden down by the Romans.
Their preservation through this period was also peculiarly remarkable, in
that we never read of the church suffering persecution in any former
period in any measure to such a degree as they did in this, under
Antiochus Epiphanes, of which more afterwards. This wonderful
preservation of the church through all these overturnings of the world,
gives light and confirmation to what we read in the beginning of the 46th
psalm: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.—
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof
roar, and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof." Thus I have taken notice of some general things wherein this
last period of the Old-Testament times was distinguished. I come now to
consider how the work of redemption was carried on in particulars.
I. The first thing that here offers, is the captivity of the Jews into Babylon.
This was a great dispensation of Providence, and such as never was
before. The children of Israel in the time of the judges, had often been
brought under their enemies; and many particular persons were carried
captive at other times. But never had there been any such thing as
destroying the whole land, the sanctuary, and the city of Jerusalem, and
all the cities and villages of the land, and carrying the whole body of the
people out of their own land into a country many hundred miles distant,
and leaving the land of Canaan empty of God's visible people. The ark had
once forsaken the tabernacle of Shiloh, and was carried captive into the
land of the Philistines: but never had there been any such thing as
burning the sanctuary, utterly destroying the ark, carrying away all the
sacred vessels and utensils, breaking up all their stated worship in the
land, and the land lying waste and empty for so many years together.
How lively are those things set forth in the Lamentations of Jeremiah!
The work of redemption was promoted by this remarkable dispensation
in these following ways.
1. It finally cured that nation of their idolatry. The prophet Isaiah,
speaking of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, speaks of the
abolishing of idolatry as one thing that should be done to this end: Isaiah
ii. 18. "and the idols he shall utterly abolish." When the time was drawing
near, that God would abolish heathen idolatry, through the greater part of
the known world, as he did by the preaching of the gospel, it pleased him
first to abolish heathenism among his own people; which he did by their
captivity into Babylon. This was a presage of that abolition of idols, which
God was about to bring to pass by Christ through so great a part of the
heathen world.
This nation, that was addicted to idolatry for so many ages,
notwithstanding all reproofs, warnings, corrections, and all the
judgments God inflicted on them for it; were now finally cured. So that
however some might fall into this sin afterwards, as they did about the
time of Antiochus's persecution, yet the nation, as a nation, never showed
any propensity to this sin any more. This was a remarkable and
wonderful change in that people, and what directly promoted the work of
redemption, as it was a great advancement of the interest of religion.
2. One thing that prepared the way for Christ's coming, and for setting up
the glorious dispensation of the gospel, was the taking away many of
those things wherein consisted the glory of the Jewish dispensation. In
order to introduce the glorious dispensation of the gospel, the external
glory of the Jewish church must be diminished. This the Babylonish
captivity did many ways.
563 First, it removed the temporal dominion of the house of David, i e.
the supreme and independent government of themselves. It took away
the crown and diadem from the nation. The time now approaching when
Christ, the great and everlasting King of his church, was to reign, it was
time for the typical kings to withdraw. As God said by Ezekiel chap. xxi.
26. "He removed the crown and diadem, that it might be no more, till he
should come whose right it was." The Jews henceforward were always
dependent on the governing power of other nations, until Christ came, for
near six hundred years; except about ninety years, during which space
they maintained a sort of independence by continual wars under the
dominion of the Maccabees and their posterity.
Again, by the captivity, the glory and magnificence of the temple were
taken away, and the temple that was built afterwards was nothing in
comparison with it. Thus it was meet, that when the time drew nigh that
the glorious antetype of the temple should appear, that the typical temple
should have its glory withdrawn.
Moreover, they lost by the captivity the two tables of the testimony
delivered to Moses, on which God with his own finger wrote the ten
commandments on mount Sinai. These seem to have been preserved in
the ark till the captivity.—These were in the ark when Solomon placed the
ark in the temple, 1 Kings viii. 9. "There was nothing in the ark, save the
two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb." We have no reason
to suppose any other, but that they remained there as long as that temple
stood. But the Jews speak of these as finally lost at that time; though the
same commandments were preserved in the book of the law. These tables
also were withdrawn on the approach of their antetype.
Another thing that was lost was the Urim and Thummim. This is evident
by Ezra ii. 63. "And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat
of the most holy things, till there should stand up a priest with Urim and
Thummim." We have no account that this was ever restored; though the
ancient writings of the Jews say the contrary. What this Urim and
Thummim was, I shall not now inquire; but only observe, that it was
something by which the high priest inquired of God, and received
immediate answers from him, or by which God gave forth immediate
oracles on particular occasions. This was now withdrawn, the time
approaching when Christ, the antetype of the Urim and Thummim, the
great word and oracle of God, was to come.
Another thing that the ancient Jews say was wanting in the second
temple, was the Shechinah, or cloud of glory over the mercy-seat. This
was promised to be in the tabernacle: Lev. xvi. 2. "For I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy-seat." And we read elsewhere of the cloud of glory
descending into the tabernacle, Exod. xl. 35. and so we do likewise with
respect to Solomon's temple. But we have no account that this cloud of
glory was in the second temple. And the ancient accounts of the Jews say,
that there was no such thing in the second temple. This was needless in
the second temple, considering that God had promised that he would fill
this temple with glory another way, viz. by Christ's coming into it; which
was afterwards fulfilled. See Haggai. ii. 7. "I will shake all nations and the
desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith
the Lord of hosts."
When Moses built the tabernacle and altar in the wilderness, and the first
sacrifices were offered on it, fire came down from heaven, and consumed
the burnt-offering, as in Lev. ix. 24. also when Solomon built the temple,
and offered the first sacrifices, 2 Chron. vii. 1. And this fire was never to
go out, but to be kept alive with the greatest care, as God commanded,
Lev. vi. 13. "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go
out." And there is no reason to suppose the fire kindled in Solomon's time
ever went out till the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. But then
it was extinguished, and never was restored. We have no account of its
being given on building the second temple, as we have at the building of
the tabernacle and first temple. But the Jews, after their return, were
forced to make use of their common fire instead of it, according to the
ancient tradition of the Jews. Thus the lights of the Old Testament go out
on the approach of the glorious Sun of righteousness.
3. The captivity into Babylon occasioned the dispersion of the Jews
through the greater part of the known world, before the coming of Christ.
For the whole nation being carried away far out of their own land, and
continuing in a state of captivity for so long a time, they got possessions,
built houses, and settled themselves in the land of their captivity,
agreeable to the direction that Jeremiah gave them, (Jer. xxix. ) And
therefore, when Cyrus gave them liberty to return to the land where they
had formerly dwelt, many of them never returned; they were not willing
to leave their settlements and possessions there, to go into a desolate
country, many hundred miles distant, which none but the old men among
them had ever seen; and therefore they were but a small number that
returned, as we see in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Great numbers
tarried behind, though they still retained the same religion with those
that returned, so far as it could be practised in a foreign land. Those
messengers that we read of in the 7th chapter of Zechariah, that came to
inquire of the priests and prophets in Jerusalem, Sherezer and Regem-
melech, are supposed to be messengers sent from the Jews that remained
still in Babylon.
Those Jews who remained in that country were soon, by the great
changes that happened in the world, dispersed thence into all the
adjacent countries. Hence we find, that in Esther's time, which was after
the return from the captivity, the Jews were dispersed throughout all
parts of the vast Persian empire, which extended from India to Ethiopia;
Esth. iii. 8. "And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain
people scattered abroad, and dispersed among the people in all the
provinces of thy kingdom," &c. And so they continued dispersed till
Christ came, and till the apostles went forth to preach the gospel. But yet
these dispersed Jews retained their religion. Their captivity, as before
observed, thoroughly cured them of their idolatry; and it was their
manner, as many of them as could, to go up to Jerusalem at their great
feasts. Hence we read in the 7th chapter of Acts, that at the great feast of
Pentecost, there were Jews abiding at Jerusalem out of every nation
under heaven. These had come up from all countries where they were
dispersed, to worship at that feast. And hence we find, in their history,
that wherever the apostles went preaching through the world, they found
Jews. They came to one city, and to another city, and went into the
synagogue of the Jews.
Antiochus the Great, about two hundred years before Christ, on a certain
occasion, transplanted two thousand families of Jews from the country
about Babylon into Asia the Less; and so they and their posterity, many of
them, settled in Pontus, Galatia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and in Ephesus;
and from thence settled in Athens, and Corinth, and Rome. Whence came
the synagogues in those places in which the apostle Paul preached.—Now,
this dispersion of the Jews through the world before Christ came, did
many ways prepare the way for his coming, and setting up his kingdom in
the world.
This was a means of raising a general expectation of the Messiah through
the world, about the time that he actually came. For the Jews, wherever
they were dispersed, carried the Holy Scriptures with them, and so the
prophecies of the Messiah; and being conversant with the nations among
whom they lived, they, by that means, became acquainted with these
prophecies, and with the expectations of the Jews concerning their
glorious Messiah. Hence, the birth of such a glorious person in Judea,
about that time, began to be the general expectation of all nations, as
appears by the writings of learned heathens, which are still extant;
particularly the famous poet Virgil, who lived in Italy a little before
Christ, has a poem about the expectation of a great prince that was to be
born, and the happy times of righteousness and peace he was to
introduce; some of it very much in the language of the prophet Isaiah.
Another way by which this dispersed state of the Jews prepared the way
for Christ was, that it showed the necessity of abolishing the Jewish
dispensation, and introducing a new dispensation of the covenant of
grace. It showed 564 the necessity of abolishing the ceremonial law, and
the old Jewish worship: for, by this means, the observance of that
ceremonial law became impracticable even by the Jews themselves. The
ceremonial law was adapted to the state of a people dwelling together in
the same land, where was the city which God had chosen; where was the
temple, the only place where they might offer sacrifices; and where alone
it was lawful for their priests and Levites to officiate, where they were to
bring their first-fruits, where were their cities of refuge, and the like. But
by this dispersion, many of the Jews lived more than a thousand miles
distant, when Christ came; which made the observance of their laws of
sacrifices, and the like, impracticable. And though their forefathers might
be to blame in not going up to the land of Judea when they were
permitted by Cyrus, yet the case was now, as to many of them at least,
become impracticable; which showed the necessity of introducing a new
dispensation, that should be fitted, not only to one particular land, but to
the general circumstances and use of all nations of the world.
Again, this universal dispersion of the Jews contributed to make the facts
concerning Jesus Christ publicly known through the world. For, as
observed before, the Jews who lived in other countries, used frequently to
go up to Jerusalem at their three great feasts, from year to year; by which
means, they could not but become acquainted with the wonderful things
that Christ did in that land. We find that the great miracle of raising
Lazarus excited the curiosity of those foreign Jews who came up at the
feast of the passover to see Jesus; John xii. 19-21. These Greeks were
foreign Jews and proselytes, as is evident by their coming to worship at
the feast of the passover. The Jews who lived abroad among the Greeks,
and spoke their language, were called Greeks, Hellenists, and Grecians,
Acts vi. 1. These were not Gentile Christians; for this occurred before the
calling of the Gentiles.
By the same means the Jews who went up from other countries became
acquainted with Christ's crucifixion. Thus the disciples going to Emmaus
say to Christ, whom they did not know, Luke xxiv. 18. "Art thou only a
stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which have come to
pass there in these days;" plainly intimating, that the things concerning
Jesus were so publicly known to all men, that it was wonderful to find any
man unacquainted with them. And so afterwards they became acquainted
with the news of his resurrection; and when they returned into their own
countries, they carried the news with them, and made these facts public
through the world, as before they had made the prophecies of them.
After this, those foreign Jews who came to Jerusalem, took great notice of
the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the wonderful effects of it;
and many of them were converted by it. There were Parthians, Medes,
Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, and the parts
of Libya about Cyrene, and the strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Cretes and Arabians. And so they not only carried back the news of these
facts, but Christianity itself, into their own countries with them; which
contributed much to the spreading of it through the world.
Again, the dispersion of the Jews opened a door for the introduction of
the apostles in all places where they came to preach the gospel. For
almost in all places where they came to preach the gospel, they found
synagogues of the Jews, where the Holy Scriptures were wont to be read,
and the true God worshipped; which was a great advantage to the
apostles in spreading the gospel through the world. For their way was,
into whatever city they came, first to go into the synagogue of the Jews,
(they being of the same nation,) and there to preach the gospel unto
them. And hereby their new doctrine was taken notice of by their Gentile
neighbours, whose curiosity excited them to hear what they had to say;
which became a fair occasion to the apostles to preach the gospel to them.
This is the account we have in the Acts of the Apostles. And these Gentiles
had been before, many of them, prepared in some measure, by the
knowledge they had of the Jewish religion, of their worship of one God,
their prophecies, and expectation of a Messiah. This knowledge they
derived from the Jews, who had long been their neighbours; which
opened the door for the gospel to have access to them. And the work of
the apostles with them was doubtless much easier, than if they never had
heard any thing before of such a person as the apostles preached, or any
thing about the worship of one only true God. So many ways did the
Babylonish captivity greatly prepare the wav for Christ's coming.
II. The next particular that I would notice is, the addition made to the
canon of Scripture in the time of the captivity, in those two remarkable
portions of Scripture, the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel. Christ
appeared to each of these prophets in the form of that nature which he
was afterwards to take upon him. The prophet Ezekiel gives an account of
his thus appearing to him repeatedly, as Ezek. i. 26. "And above the
firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the
appearance of a sapphire-stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was
the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it;" and so Ezek. viii.
1, 2. So Christ appeared to the prophet Daniel: Dan. viii. 15, 16. "There
stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice
between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man
to understand the vision." There are several things which make it evident,
that this was Christ; but I cannot now stand to mention particulars.
Christ appeared ai:ain as a man to this prophet, Dan. x. 5, 6. "Then I lift
up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen,
whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like
the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as
lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass,
and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." Comparing this
vision with that of the apostle John in the 1st chapter of Revelation,
makes it manifest that this person was Christ. And the prophet Daniel, in
the historical part of his book, gives an account of a very remarkable
appearance of Christ in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, with Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Dan. iii. 2.5. "Lo, I see four MEN loose,—and
the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2024 8:31:32 GMT -5
Christ not only appeared here in the form of the human nature, but he
appeared in a furnace, saving those persons who believed on him from
that furnace; by which is represented to us, how Christ, by coming
himself into the furnace of God's wrath, saves those that believe in him
from that furnace, so that it has no power on them; and the wrath of God
never reaches or touches them, so much as to singe the hair of their head.
These two prophets, in many respects, were more particular concerning
the coming of Christ, and his glorious gospel-kingdom, than any of the
prophets had been before. They mention those three great overturnings
of the world that should be before he came. Ezekiel is particular in several
places concerning the coming of Christ. The prophet Daniel is more
particular in foretelling the time of Christ's coming than ever any prophet
had been before, (Dan. chap. ix.) He foretold, that it should be seventy
weeks, i.e. seventy weeks of years, or seventy times seven years, which is
four hundred and ninety years, from the decree to rebuild and restore the
state of the Jews, till the Messiah should be crucified. This must be
reckoned from the commission given to Ezra by Artaxerxes, whereby the
very particular time of Christ's crucifixion was pointed out, which never
had been before. ( Ezra vii.)
The prophet Ezekiel is very particular in the mystical description of the
gospel-church, in his vision of the temple and city, towards the latter part
of his prophecy. The prophet Daniel points out the order of particular
events that should come to pass relating to the christian church after
Christ was come, as the rise of Antichrist, the continuance of his reign, his
fall, and the glory that should follow.—Thus does the gospel-light still
increase, the nearer we come to the time of Christ's birth.
III. The next particular I would mention is, the destruction of Babylon,
and the overthrow of the Chaldean empire by Cyrus. The destruction of
Babylon took place on that night in which Belshazzar the king, and the
city in general, were drowned in a drunken festival, which they kept in
honour of their gods, when Daniel was called 565 to read the handwriting on the wall, Dan. v. 30. and it was brought about in such a
manner, as wonderfully to show the hand of God, and remarkably to fulfil
his word by his prophets, which I cannot now stand particularly to relate.
Now that great city, which had long been an enemy to the city of God, was
destroyed, after it had stood ever since the first building of Babel, which
was about seventeen hundred years. If the check which was put to the
building of this city at its beginning, whereby they were prevented from
carrying it to that extent and magnificence they intended, promoted the
work of redemption, much more did this destruction of it.
This was a remarkable instance of God's vengeance on the enemies of his
redeemed church; for God brought destruction on Babylon for the
injuries they did to God's children, as is often set forth in the prophets. It
also promoted the work of redemption, as thereby God's people who were
held captive by them, were set at liberty to return to their own land in
order to rebuild Jerusalem; and therefore Cyrus is called God's shepherd,
Isa. xliv. and xlv. 1. And these are over and above those ways wherein the
setting up and overthrowing the four monarchies of the world did
promote the work of redemption.
IV. What next followed was the return of the Jews to their own land, and
the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus, as soon as he had
destroyed the Babylonish, and erected the Persian empire on its ruins,
made a decree in favour of the Jews, that they might return to their own
land, and rebuild their city and temple. This return of the Jews out of the
Babylonish captivity is, next to the redemption out of Egypt, the most
remarkable of all the Old-Testament redemptions, and most insisted on
in Scripture, as a type of the great redemption of Jesus Christ. It was
under the hand of one of the legal ancestors of Christ, viz. Zerubbabel, the
son of Shealtiel, whose Babylonish name was Sheshbazzar. He was the
governor of the Jews, and their leader in their first return out of captivity;
and, together with Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest, had the
chief hand in rebuilding the temple. This redemption was brought about
by the hand of Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest, as the redemption out
of Egypt was brought about by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
The return out of the captivity was a remarkable dispensation of
Providence. It was remarkable, that the heart of a heathen prince, Cyrus,
should be so inclined to favour such a design. He not only gave the people
liberty to return, and rebuild the city and temple, but gave charge that
they should be helped with silver and gold, with goods, and beasts, as we
read in Ezra i. 4. And afterwards God wonderfully inclined the heart of
Darius to further the building of the house of God with his own tributemoney, and gave command to their bitter enemies, the Samaritans, who
had been striving to hinder them, to help them without fail, by furnishing
them with all that they needed in order to it, and to supply them day by
day. He made a decree, that whosoever failed of it, timber should be
pulled down out of his house, and he hanged thereon, and his house
made a dunghill, ( Ezra vi. ) After this, God inclined the heart of
Artaxerxes, another king of Persia, to promote the work of preserving the
state of the Jews, by his ample commission to Ezra, ( Ezra vii. ) He helped
them abundantly with silver and gold out of his own bounty, and offered
more, as should be needful, out of the king's treasure-house,
commanding his treasurers beyond the river Euphrates to give more, as
should be needed, unto a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures
of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of oil, and salt,
without prescribing how much. He gave leave to establish magistrates in
the land; freeing the priests of toll, tribute, custom, and other things,
which render this decree by Artaxerxes the most full and ample in the
Jews' favour of any that had been given for the restoring of Jerusalem;
and therefore, in Daniel's prophecy, this is called the decree for restoring
and building Jerusalem; and hence the seventy weeks are dated.
After this, another favourable commission was granted by the king of
Persia to Nehemiah, ( Nehemiah. chap. ii.)—It was remarkable, that the
hearts of heathen princes should be so inclined. It was the effect of his
power, who hath the hearts of kings in his hands, and turneth them
whithersoever he will; and it was a remarkable instance of his favour to
his people.
Another remarkable circumstance of this restitution of the state of the
Jews to their own land was, that it was accomplished against so much
opposition of their bitter indefatigable enemies, the Samaritans, who, for
a long time together, with all the malice and craft they could exercise,
opposed the Jews in this affair, and sought their destruction. One while
they were opposed by Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabeel, Rehum, and
Shimshai, as in Ezra iv. and then by Tatnai, Shetharboznai, and their
companions, as in Ezra v. and afterwards by Sunballat and Tobiah, as we
read in the book of Nehemiah.
We have showed before, how the settlement of the people in this land in
Joshua's time promoted the work of redemption. On the same accounts
does their restitution belong to the same work. The re-settlement of the
Jews in the land of Canaan belongs to this work, as it was a necessary
means of preserving the Jewish church and dispensation in being, till
Christ should come. If it had not been for this restoration of the Jewish
church, temple, and worship, the people had remained without any
temple, or land of their own, that should be as it were their headquarters,
a place of worship, habitation, and resort. The whole constitution, which
God had done so much to establish, would have been in danger of utterly
failing, long before the six hundred years had expired, which was from
about the time of the captivity till Christ. And so all that preparation
which God had been making for the coming of Christ, from the time of
Abraham, would have been in vain. Now that very temple was built that
God would fill with glory by Christ's coming into it, as the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah told the Jews in order to encourage them in
building it.
V. The next particular I would observe, is the addition made to the canon
of the Scriptures soon after the captivity by the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah, who were prophets sent lo encourage the people in their work
of rebuilding the city and temple; and the main argument they use to that
end, is the approach of the coming of Christ. Haggai foretold that Christ
should be of Zerubbabel's legal posterity. This seems to be the last and
most particular revelation of the descent of Christ, till the angel Gabriel
was sent to reveal it to his mother Mary.
VI. The next thing I would take notice of, was the pouring out of the Spirit
of God that accompanied the ministry of Ezra the priest after the
captivity. That there was such an effusion of the Spirit of God, that
accompanied Ezra's ministry, is manifest by many things in the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah. Presently after Ezra came up from Babylon, with the
ample commission which Artaxerxes gave him, whence Daniel's seventy
weeks began, he set himself to reform the vices and corruptions he found
among the Jews; and his great success in it we have an account of in the
10th chapter of Ezra. So that there appeared a very general and great
mourning of the congregation of Israel for their sins, which was
accompanied with a solemn covenant that the people entered into with
God; and this was followed with a great and general reformation, as we
have there an account. And the people about the same time, with great
zeal, earnestness, and reverence, gathered themselves together to hear
the word of God read by Ezra; and gave diligent attention, while Ezra and
the other priests preached to them, by reading and expounding the law,
and were greatly affected in the hearing of it. They wept when they heard
the words of the law, and set themselves to observe it, and kept the feast
of tabernacles, as the Scripture observes, after such a manner as it had
not been kept since the days of Joshua the son of Nun,(Neh. viii.) After
this, having separated themselves from all strangers, they solemnly
observed a fast, by hearing the word, confessing their sins, and renewing
their covenant with God. And they manifested their sincerity in that
transaction, by actually reforming many abuses in religion and morals; as
we learn from the 9th and following chapters of Nehemiah.
It is observable, that it has been God's manner, on every remarkable new
establishment of the state of his visible church, to afford a remarkable
outpouring of his Spirit. So it was on the first establishment of the church
of the 566 Jews at their coming into Canaan under Joshua; so it was now
in this second settlement of the church in the time of Ezra; and so it was
on the first establishment of the christian church after Christ's
resurrection; God wisely and graciously laying the foundation of those
establishments in a work of the Holy Spirit, for the lasting benefit of his
church, thenceforward continued in those establishments. And this
pouring out of the Spirit, was a final cure of the nation of that particular
sin which just before they especially run into, viz. intermarrying with the
Gentiles: for however inclined to it they were before, they ever after
showed an aversion to it.
VII. Ezra added to the canon of the Scriptures. He wrote the book of Ezra;
and he is supposed to have written the two books of Chronicles, at least of
compiling them, if he was not the author of the materials, or all the parts,
of these writings. That these books were written, or compiled and
completed, after the captivity, the things contained in the books
themselves make manifest; for the genealogies contained therein, are
brought down below the captivity; as1 Chron. iii. 17, &c We have there an
account of the posterity of Jehoiachin for several successive generations.
And there is mention in these books of this captivity into Babylon, as of a
thing past, and of things that were done on the return of the Jews after
the captivity, (1 Chron. ix. ) The chapter is mostly filled up with an
account of things that came to pass after the captivity into Babylon, as
you may see by comparing it with what is said in the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah. And that Ezra was the person who compiled these books, is
probable by this, because they conclude with words that we know are the
words of Ezra's history. The two last verses are Ezra's words in the history
he gives in the two first verses of the book of Ezra.
VIII. Ezra is supposed to have collected all the hooks of which the Holy
Scriptures did then consist, and disposed them in their proper order.
Ezra is often spoken of as a noted and eminent scribe of the law of God,
and the canon of Scripture in his time was manifestly under his special
care. The Jews, from the first accounts we have from them, have always
held, that the canon of Scripture, so much of it as was then extant, was
collected, and orderly disposed and settled, by Ezra; and that from him
they have delivered it down in the order in which he disposed it, till
Christ's time; when the christian church received it from them, and have
delivered it down to our times. The truth of this is allowed as undoubted
by divines in general.
IX. The work of redemption was carried on and promoted in this period,
by greatly multiplying the copies of the law, and appointing the constant
public reading of them in all the cities of Israel in their synagogues. It is
evident, that before the captivity, there were but few copies of the law.
The original was laid up beside the ark; and the kings were required to
write out a copy of it for their use, and the law was required to be read to
the whole congregation of Israel once every seventh year. And we have no
account of any other stated public reading of the law before the captivity
but this. And it is manifest by several things that might be mentioned,
that copies of the law were exceeding rare before the captivity. But after
this, the constant reading of the law was set up in every synagogue
throughout the land. First, they began with reading the law, and then
they proceeded to establish the constant reading of the other books of the
Old Testament. And lessons were read out of the Old Testament, as made
up of both the law and the other parts of the Scripture then extant, in all
the synagogues, which were set up in every city, and wherever the Jews in
any considerable number dwelt. Thus we find it was in the time of Christ
and the apostles. Acts xv. 21. "Moses of old time hath in every city them
that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath-day." This
custom is universally supposed, both by Jews and Christians, to be begun
by Ezra. There were doubtless public assemblies before the captivity.
They used to assemble at the temple at their great feasts, and were
directed, when they were at a loss about any thing in the law, to go to the
priest for instruction; and they used also to resort to the prophets'
houses: and we read of synagogues in the land before, Psal. lxxiv.
8. But it is not supposed that they had copies of the law for constant
public reading and expounding through the land before. This was one
great means of their being preserved from idolatry.
X. The next thing I would mention, is God's remarkably preserving the
church and nation of the Jews, when they were in imminent danger of
being universally destroyed by Haman, as in the book of Esther. This
series of providence was very wonderful in preventing this destruction.
Esther was doubtless born for this end, to be the instrument of this
remarkable preservation.
XI. After this the canon of Scripture was further enlarged in the books of
Nehemiah and Esther; the one by Nehemiah himself. Whether the other
was written by Nehemiah, or Mordecai, or Malachi, is not of importance
for us to know, so long as it is one of those books that were always
admitted and received as a part of their canon by the Jews, and was
among those books which the Jews called their Scriptures in Christ's
time, and as such was approved by him. For Christ often in his speeches
to the Jews, manifestly approves and confirms those books, which
amongst them went by the name of the Scriptures, as might easily be
shown.
XII. After this the canon of the Old Testament was completed and sealed
by Malachi. The manner of his concluding his prophecy seems to imply,
that they were to expect no more prophecies, and no more written
revelations from God, till Christ should come. For in the last chapter he
prophesies of Christ's coming; Malachi iv. 2, 3. "But unto you that fear my
name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and
ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread
down the wicked; for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet, in
the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Then we read in
Malachi iv. 4. "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I
commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and
judgments," i.e. Remember and improve what ye have; keep close to your
written rule, as expecting no more additions to it, till the night of the Old
Testament is over, and the Sun of righteousness shall at length arise.
XIII. Soon after this, the spirit of prophecy ceased among that people till
the time of the New Testament. Thus the Old-Testament light, the stars of
the long night, began apace to hide their heads, the time of the Sun of
righteousness now drawing nigh. We before observed, how the kings of
the house of David ceased before the true king and head of the church
came; and how the cloud of glory withdrew, before Christ, the brightness
of the Father's glory, appeared. And now the spirit of prophecy ceased.
The time of the great prophet of God was now so nigh, it was time for
their typical prophets to be silent.
We have now gone through the time of which we have any historical
account in the writings of the Old Testament; and the last thing
mentioned, by which the work of redemption was promoted, was the
ceasing of the spirit of prophecy.—I now proceed to show how the work of
redemption was carried on through the remaining times before Christ. In
this we have not that thread of scripture history to guide us that we have
had hitherto; but have these three things, viz. the prophecies of the Old
Testament, human histories, and some occasional evidence of things
which happened in those times, in the New Testament. Therefore,
XIV. The next particular that I shall mention under this period, is the
destruction of the Persian empire, and setting up of the Grecian empire
by Alexander. This came to pass about sixty or seventy years after the
times wherein the prophet Malachi is supposed to have prophesied, and
about three hundred and thirty years before Christ. This was the third
revolution that came to pass in this period, and was greater and more
remarkable than either of the foregoing. It was very remarkable on
account of the suddenness of that conquest which Alexander made, and
the greatness of the empire he set up, which much exceeded in extent all
the foregoing.
This event is much spoken of in the prophecies of Daniel. This empire is
represented by the third kingdom of brass in Daniel's interpretation of
Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Dan. ii. 567 And in Daniel's vision of the four
beasts, it is represented by the third beast that was like a leopard, that
had on his back four wings of a fowl, to represent the swiftness of its
conquest, Dan. vii. and is more particularly represented by the he-goat in
Dan. viii. , that came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and
touched not the ground, to represent how swiftly Alexander overran the
world. The angel himself expressly interprets this he-goat to signify the
king of Grecia, Dan. viii. 21. "The rough goat is the king of Grecia; and the
great horn that is between his eyes is the first king," i.e. Alexander
himself.
After Alexander had conquered the world, he soon died; and his
dominion did not descend to his posterity, but four of his principal
captains divided his empire between them. Now that being broken, and
four stood up for it, four kingdoms stand up out of the nation, but not in
his power; as in the 11th chapter of Daniel. The angel after foretelling the
Persian empire, proceeds to foretell Alexander, Dan. xi. 3. "And a mighty
king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according
to his will.'' Then he foretells, in the 4th verse, the dividing of his
kingdom between his four captains: Dan. xi. 4. "And when he shall stand
up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four
winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion
which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others
besides those. Of these four captains, one had Egypt and the
neighbouring countries on the south of Judea; and another had Syria and
the neighbouring countries north of Judea; and these two are called the
kings of the north and of the south. (Dan. xi. )
Now, this setting up of the Grecian empire did greatly prepare the way for
Christ's coming, and for the erection of his kingdom. Besides the ways
common to others in this period, there is one peculiar to this revolution,
which remarkably promoted the work of redemption; and that was, that it
made the Greek language common in the world. To have one common
language understood and used through the greater part of the world,
must greatly prepare the way for the setting up of Christ's kingdom. This
gave advantage for spreading the gospel through all nations, with vastly
greater ease, than if every nation had a distinct language, and did not
understand each other. For though some of the first preachers of the
gospel had the gift of tongues, so that they could preach in any language;
yet all had not this particular gift; and they who had could not exercise it
when they would, but only at special seasons, when the Spirit of God was
pleased to inspire them in this way. And the churches in different and
distant parts of the world, as at Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, Corinth, &c.
could not have had that communication of which we have an account in
the book of Acts, without a common language.—After the Grecian empire
was set up, many in all these countries well understood the Greek
language; which wonderfully opened the door for mutual communication
between those churches which were so far separated one from another.
Again, making the Greek language common through so great a part of the
world, did wonderfully make way for the kingdom of Christ, because it
was the language in which the New Testament was to be originally
written. The apostles propagated the gospel through many scores of
nations; and if those nations could not have understood the Bible any
otherwise than as it was translated into so many languages, it would have
rendered the spreading of the gospel vastly more difficult. But by the
Greek being made common to all, they all understood the New Testament
of Jesus Christ in the language in which the apostles and evangelists
originally wrote it. As soon as ever it was written by its original penmen,
it immediately lay open to the world in a language that was commonly
understood.
XV. The next thing I notice is the translating of the Old Testament into
the Greek language, which was commonly understood by the Gentiles.
This is commonly called the Septuagint, or the translation of the Seventy;
and is supposed to have been made about fifty or sixty years after
Alexander's conquests. This is the first translation that ever was made of
the Scriptures that we have any credible account of. The canon of the Old
Testament had been completed by the prophet Malachi but about a
hundred and twenty years before in its original. Hitherto the Scriptures
had remained locked up among the Jews in the Hebrew tongue, which
was understood by no other nation; but now it was translated into a
language that was commonly understood by the nations of the world.
This translation of the Old Testament is still extant, and is of great use.
The Jews have many fables about the occasion and manner of this
translation; but the truth of the case is supposed to be this, that
multitudes of the Jews living in other parts of the world besides Judea,
and being born and bred among the Greeks, the Greek became their
common language. These not understanding the original Hebrew, they
procured the Scriptures to be translated for their use into the Greek
language: and so henceforward the Jews, in all countries, except Judea,
were wont in their synagogues to make use of this translation instead of
the Hebrew.
This translation of the Scriptures into a language so commonly
understood through the world, greatly prepared the way for setting up
Christ's kingdom in the world. For the apostles commissioned to preach
through the world, made great use of the scriptures of the Old Testament,
and especially of the prophecies concerning Christ that were contained in
them. By means of this translation, and by the Jews being scattered every
where, they had the Scriptures at hand in a language understood by the
Gentiles. Hence they principally made use of this translation in their
preaching and writings wherever they went. In all the numerous
quotations out of the Old Testament in their writings, they are made
almost every where in the very words of the Septuagint. The sense is the
same as in the original Hebrew; though the words are different. But yet
this makes it evident, that the apostles in their preaching and writings,
commonly made use of this translation. And this translation was
principally used in christian churches through most nations of the world,
for several hundred years after Christ.
XVI. The next thing is the wonderful preservation of the church when it
was eminently threatened and persecuted under the Grecian empire. The
first time they were threatened was by Alexander himself. When
besieging the city of Tyre, he sent to the Jews for assistance and supplies
for his army. Out of a conscientious regard to their oath to the king of
Persia, they refused; but he being a man of a very furious spirit, agreeable
to the scripture representation of the rough he-goat, marched against
them, with a design to cut them off. When he met the priests going out to
him in their priestly garments, God wonderfully turned his heart to spare
them, and favour them, as he did the heart of Esau when he met Jacob.
After this, one of the kings of Egypt, a successor of one of Alexander's
four captains, entertained a design of destroying the nation of the Jews;
625625 On the death of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Lagus assumed the
regal title in Egypt. He was succeeded by Ptolemy Philadelphus,
Evergetes, and Philopater. This last, no doubt, is the person to whom our
author here alludes. He was a cruel tyrant, revengeful and debauched.
Having been at Jerusalem, during his expedition to Syria, and having
been denied an entrance into the temple, he was greatly enraged against
the whole body of the Jews. There were great numbers of them at
Alexandria; these he degraded into slaves. The only condition by which a
mark of disgrace with hot iron, and consequent slavery, could be avoided,
was to offer sacrifice to his gods. Out of many thousands, only three
hundred yielded by base compliance. These being excommunicated by
their brethren, roused Philopater into greater fury He meditated nothing
less than the utter ruin of the whole nation, beginning with those of
Alexandria. He ordered them to be brought into the Hippodrome, an
immense place without the city where the people usually assembled to see
public races and diversions, and gave a peremptory injunction that five
hundred elephants should be let loose upon them in that place. The first
appointed day, the king, who was to have been present, overslept himself
after a nocturnal debauch. The second passed by a similar
disappointment. On the third day the king came to the Hippodrome, and
the elephants were let loose upon the defenceless Jews.—But, by a
wonderful providence, these animals turned upon the spectators and
soldiers, and great numbers were killed by them. This, attended with
some other circumstances of affright, induced the tyrant to desist from
his cruel purpose.—W. but was remarkably and wonderfully prevented by
a stronger interposition of Heaven for their preservation.
But the most wonderful preservation of them all in this period was under
the cruel persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and
successor of another of Alexander's 568 four captains. The Jews were at
that time subject to the power of Antiochus; and he being enraged against
them, long strove to his utmost utterly to destroy them, and root them
out; at least all of them that would not forsake their religion, and worship
his idols. He did indeed in a great measure waste the country, and
depopulate the city of Jerusalem; and profaned the temple, by setting up
his idols in some parts of it; and persecuted the people with insatiable
cruelty; so that we have no account of any persecution like this before.
Many of the particular circumstances of this persecution would be very
affecting were there time to insist on them. This cruel persecution began
about a hundred and seventy years before Christ. It is spoken of in the
prophecy of Daniel, Dan. viii. 9, 25. xi. 31-38. and in the New Testament,
Heb. xi. 36-38.
Antiochus intended not only to extirpate the Jewish religion, but, as far as
in him lay, the very nation; and particularly laboured to the utmost to
destroy all copies of the law. And considering how weak they were, in
comparison with a king of such vast dominion, the providence of God
appears very wonderful in defeating his design. Many times the Jews
seemed to be on the very brink of ruin, just ready to be wholly swallowed
up; and their enemies often thought themselves sure of obtaining their
purpose. They once came against the people with a mighty army, with a
design of killing all, except the women and children, and of selling these
for slaves; and so confident were they of obtaining their purpose, and
others of purchasing, that above a thousand merchants came with the
army, with money in their hands, to buy the slaves that should be sold.
But God wonderfully stirred up and assisted one Judas, and others his
successors, called the Maccabees, who, with a small handful in
comparison vanquished their enemies time after time, and delivered their
nation. This also was foretold by Daniel, Speaking of Antiochus's
persecution, he says, Daniel xi. 32. "And such as do wickedly against the
covenant, shall be corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their
God, shall be strong and do exploits."
God afterwards brought this Antiochus to a fearful, miserable end, by a
loathsome disease, under dreadful torments of body and horrors of mind;
which was foretold, in these words, (Dan. xi. 45.)" Yet he shall come to his
end, and none shall help him." After his death, there were attempts still
to destroy the church; but God baffled them all.
XVII. The next thing is the destruction of the Grecian, and setting up of
the Roman, empire. This was the fourth revolution in this period. And
though it was brought to pass more gradually than the setting up of the
Grecian empire, yet it far exceeded that, and was much the greatest and
largest temporal monarchy that ever was in the world; so that the Roman
empire was commonly called all the world; as in Luke ii. 1. "And there
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed:" i.e. all the Roman empire.
This empire is spoken of as much the strongest and greatest of any of the
four: Dan. ii. 40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron:
forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces, and subdueth all things: and as iron
that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces, and bruise." Dan. vii. 7, 19,
23. The time when the Romans first conquered and subdued the land of
Judea, was between sixty and seventy years before Christ. Soon after this,
the Roman empire was established in its greatest extent; and the world
continued subject to it henceforward till Christ came, and many hundred
years after.
The nations being thus united under one monarchy when Christ came,
and when the apostles went forth to preach the gospel, greatly prepared
the way for the spreading of the gospel, and the setting up of Christ's
kingdom in the world.—For the world being thus subject to one
government, it opened a general communication, and so opportunity was
given for the more swift propagation of the gospel. Thus we find it in the
British dominions, the communication is quick from one part to another.
There are innumerable difficulties in travelling through different nations,
that are under different independent governments, which there are not in
travelling through different parts of the same realm, or different
dominions of the same prince. So the world being under one government,
that of the Romans, facilitated the apostles' travelling.
XVIII. About the same time learning and philosophy were risen to their
greatest height in the heathen world.—Almost all the famous
philosophers among the heathen, were after the captivity into Babylon.
Almost all the wise men of Greece and Rome flourished in this time.
What these philosophers in general chiefly professed as their business,
was to inquire, wherein man's chief happiness lay, and how to obtain it.
They seemed earnestly to busy themselves in this inquiry, and wrote
multitudes of books about it, many of which are still extant; but they were
exceedingly divided, there having been reckoned several hundreds of
different opinions which they had concerning it. Thus they wearied
themselves in vain, wandering in the dark, not having the glorious gospel
to guide them. God was pleased to suffer men to do the utmost that they
could with human wisdom, and to try the utmost extent of their own
understandings in order to find out the way to happiness, before the true
light came to enlighten the world. God suffered these great philosophers
to try what they could do for six hundred years together; and then it
proved by the events of so long a time, that all they could do was in vain;
the world not becoming wiser, better, or happier under their instructions,
but growing more and more foolish, wicked, and miserable. He suffered
this, that it might be seen how far reason and philosophy could go in their
highest ascent, that the necessity of a divine teacher might more
convincingly appear. God was pleased to make foolish the wisdom of this
world—to show men the folly of their best wisdom—by the doctrines of
his glorious gospel, which were above the reach of all their philosophy.
See 1 Cor. i. 19-21.
After God had showed the vanity of human learning, when set up in the
room of the gospel, God was pleased to make it subservient to the
purposes of Christ's kingdom, as a handmaid to divine revelation.
Thereby the vanity of human wisdom was shown, and the necessity of the
gospel appeared; and hereby a handmaid was prepared to the gospel. An
instance of this we have in the apostle Paul, who was famed for his much
learning, (Acts xxvi. 24. ) being skilled in the learning not only of the
Jews, but also of the philosophers. This he improved to subserve the
gospel; as he did in disputing with the philosophers at Athens, Acts xvii.
22, &c. By his learning he knew how to accommodate himself in his
discourses to learned men, having read their writings; and he cites their
own poets. Dionysius, a philosopher, was converted by him, and was
made a great instrument of promoting the gospel. And there were many
others in that and the following ages, who were eminently useful by their
human learning in promoting the interests of Christ's kingdom.
XIX. Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire was raised to its
greatest height, and also settled in peace. About four and twenty years
before Christ, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, began to rule as
emperor of the world. Till then the Roman empire had of a long time
been a commonwealth under the government of the senate: but then it
became an absolute monarchy. This personage, as he was the first, so he
was the greatest of all the Roman emperors: he reigned in the greatest
glory. Thus the power of the heathen world, which was Satan's visible
kingdom, was raised to its greatest height, after it had been strengthening
itself more and more from the days of Solomon, which was about a
thousand years. Now the heathen world was in its greatest glory for
strength, wealth, and learning.
God did two things to prepare the way for Christ's coming, wherein he
took a contrary method from that which human wisdom would have
taken. He brought his own visible people very low, and made them weak;
but the heathen, his enemies, he exalted to the greatest height, for the
more glorious triumph of the cross of Christ. With a small number in
their greatest weakness, he conquered his enemies in their greatest glory.
Thus Christ triumphed over principalities and powers in his cross.
Augustus Caesar had been for many years establishing his empire, and
subduing his enemies, till the very year that Christ was born: when, all his
enemies being subdued, 569 his dominion over the world seemed to be
gloriously settled. All was established in peace; in token whereof the
Romans shut the temple of Janus, which was an established symbol
among them of there being universal peace throughout the empire. And
this universal peace, which was begun that very year in which Christ was
born, lasted twelve years, even till the year that Christ disputed with the
doctors in the temple.
Thus the world, after it had been, as it were, in a continual convulsion for
so many hundred years together—like the four winds striving together on
the tumultuous raging ocean, whence arose those four great monarchies
—was now established in the greatest height of the fourth and last
monarchy, and settled in quietness. Now all things are ready for the birth
of Christ. This remarkable universal peace, after so many ages of tumult
and war, was a fit prelude for ushering the glorious Prince of peace into
the world.
Thus I have gone through the first grand period of the whole space
between the fall of man and the end of the world, viz. from the fall to the
time of the incarnation of Christ; and have shown the truth of the first
proposition, viz. That from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ,
God was doing those things which were preparatory to Christ's coming,
and were forerunners of it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 7:46:22 GMT -5
PART VII.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE FIRST PERIOD.
Before I proceed to the next period, I would make some few remarks, by
way of improvement upon what has been said under this.
I. From what has been said, we may strongly argue, that Jesus of
Nazareth is indeed the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world; and so
that the christian religion is the true religion, seeing that Christ is the
very person so evidently pointed at, in all the great dispensations of
Divine Providence from the very fall of man, and was so undoubtedly in
so many instances foretold from age to age, and shadowed forth in a vast
variety of types and figures. If we seriously consider the course of things
from the beginning, and observe the motions of all the great wheels of
providence, we shall discern that they all tend hither. They are all as so
many lines, whose course, if it be observed and accurately followed, will
be found to centre here. It is so very plain in many things, that it would
argue stupidity to deny it. This person, sent from God, came into the
world with his commission and authority, to do his work, and to declare
his mind. The Governor of the world, in all his great works towards Jews
and Gentiles, down to the time of Christ's birth, has declared it. It is a
plain and evident truth, that he who was born at Bethlehem, who dwelt at
Nazareth and Capernaum, and who was crucified without the gates of
Jerusalem, must be the great Messiah. Blessed are all they that believe in
and confess him, and miserable are all that deny him. This shows the
unreasonableness of the deists, who deny revealed religion, and of the
Jews, who deny that this Jesus is the Messiah foretold and promised to
their fathers.
Here should any object, That it may be, some cunning men contrived this
history, and these prophecies, on purpose to prove that he is the Messiah.
To such it may be replied, How could such a thing be contrived by
cunning men to point to Jesus Christ, long before he ever was born? How
could they know that any such person would be born? And how could
their subtlety help them to foresee and point at an event that was to come
to pass many ages afterwards? For no fact can be more evident, than that
the Jews had those writings long before Christ was born: as they have
them still in great veneration, in all their dispersions through the world.
They would never have received such a contrivance from Christians, to
prove Jesus to be the Messiah, whom they always denied; and much less
would they have been made to believe that they always had those books in
their hands, if they had been an imposition.
II. What has been said, affords a strong argument for the divine authority
of the books of the Old Testament, from that admirable harmony there is
in them, whereby they all point to the same thing. For we may see by
what has been said, how all the parts of the Old Testament, though
written by so many different penmen, and in ages so distant, harmonize
one with another. All agree in one, and centre in the same event; which it
was impossible for any one of them to know, but by divine revelation.
Now, if the Old Testament was not inspired by God, what account can be
given of such an agreement? for if these books were written without any
divine direction, then none of these penmen knew that there would come
such a person as Jesus Christ into the world; his coming was only a mere
figment of their own brain: and if so, how happened it, that this figment
of theirs came to pass ? How came a vain imagination of theirs, which
they foretold without any manner of ground for their prediction, to be
exactly fulfilled? and especially how did they come all to agree in it, all
pointing exactly to the same thing, though many of them lived so many
hundred years distant one from another?—This admirable consent and
agreement in a future event, is therefore a clear and certain evidence of
the divine authority of those writings.
III. Hence we may learn how weak and ignorant the objection is, against
the Old Testament being the word of God, because it consists so much of
warlike histories and civil transactions. Here, say some, we have histories
of their kings and rulers, their wars with neighbouring nations, and the
changes that happened in their state and government: but other nations
used to keep histories of their public affairs, as well as they; why then
should we think that these histories which the Jews kept are the word of
God, more than those of other people? What has been said, shows the
folly and vanity of such an objection. For hereby it appears, that the case
of these histories is very different from that of all others. This history
alone gives us an account of the first original of all things; and this alone
deduces things down to us in a wonderful series from that original, giving
an idea of the grand scheme of Divine Providence, as tending to its great
end. And, together with the doctrines and prophecies contained in it, the
same book gives a view of the whole series of the great events of Divine
Providence, from the origin to the consummation of all things; exhibiting
an excellent and glorious account of the wise and holy designs of the
supreme Governor in all.—No common history has had such penmen.
This history was all written by men who came with evident signs and
testimonies of their being prophets of the most high God, immediately
inspired.—And though histories, yet containing those great events of
providence by which it appears how God has been carrying on the
glorious work of redemption from age to age, they are no less full of
divine instruction, and those things that show forth Christ, and his
glorious gospel, than the other parts of the Holy Scriptures.
To object against a book's being divine, merely because it is historical, is a
poor fancy; as if that could not be the word of God which gives an account
of what is past; or as though it were not reasonable to suppose, that God,
in a revelation he should give mankind, would give us any relation of the
dispensations of his own providence. If so, it must be because his works
are not worthy to be related: or because the scheme of his government,
and the series of his dispensations towards his church, and the world he
has made, is not worthy that any record should be kept of it.
The objection, That it is a common thing for nations and kingdoms to
write histories and keep records of their wars, and the revolutions that
come to pass in their territories, is so far from being a weighty objection
against the historical part of Scripture, as though it were not the word of
God, that it is a strong argument in favour of it. For if the light of nature
teaches all civilized nations to keep records of the events of their
government and the series of their administrations, and to publish
histories for the information of others, how much more may we expect
that God would give the world a record of the dispensations 570 of his
government, which doubtless is infinitely more worthy of a history for
our information? If wise kings have taken care that there should be good
histories written of the nations over which they have reigned, shall we
think it incredible, that Jesus Christ should take care that his church,
which is his nation, his peculiar people, should have in their hands a
certain infallible history of their nation, and of his government of them?
If it had not been for the history of the Old Testament, how woefully
should we have been left in the dark about many things which the church
of God needs to know! How ignorant should we have been of God's
dealings towards mankind, and towards his church, from the beginning!
We should have been wholly in the dark about the creation of the world,
the fall of man, the first rise and continued progress of the dispensations
of grace towards fallen mankind. We should have known nothing how
God at first set up a church in the world, and how it was preserved; after
what manner he governed it from the beginning; how the light of the
gospel first began to dawn in the world; how it increased, and how things
were preparing for the coining of Christ.
If we are Christians, we belong to that building of God that has been the
subject of our discourse: but if it had not been for the history of the Old
Testament, we should never have known what was the first occasion of
God's going about this building, how the foundation of it was laid, and
how it has gone on from the beginning. The times of the history of the Old
Testament are mostly such as no other history includes; and therefore, if
God had not taken care to give and preserve an account of these things
for us, we should have been wholly without them.
Those that object against the authority of the Old-Testament history, may
as well object against Moses's account of the creation; for, in the former,
we have a history of a work no less important, viz. the work of
redemption. Yea, this is a far greater and more glorious work. If it be
inquired which of the two works, that of creation, or that of providence, is
greatest? it must be answered, the work of providence; but the work of
redemption is the greatest of the works of providence.—And let those who
make this objection consider what part of the Old-Testament history can
be spared, without making a great breach in that thread or series of
events by which this glorious work has been carried on.—This leads me to
observe,
IV. That, from what has been said, we may see much of the wisdom of
God in the composition of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, i.e. in the
parts of which it consists. Let us briefly take a view of the several parts of
it, and of the need there was of them.
It was necessary, for instance, that we should have some account of the
creation of the world, of our first parents, and their primitive state; of the
fall, of the old world, and its degeneracy; of the universal deluge, and the
origin of nations after this destruction of mankind.
It seems necessary, moreover, that there should be some account of the
succession of the church of God from the beginning. God suffered all the
world to degenerate, and took one nation only to be his people, to
preserve the true worship and religion till the Saviour of the world should
come. In them the world was gradually prepared for that great light, and
those wonderful things of which he was to be the author. Thus they were
a typical nation, that in them God might shadow forth and teach, as
under a vail, all the future glories of the gospel. It was therefore necessary
that we should have some account of this; how it was first effected by the
call of Abraham, and by their being bond-slaves in Egypt, and how they
were brought to Canaan. It was necessary that we should have some
account of the revelation which God made of himself to that people, in
giving their law, in the appointment of their typical worship, wherein the
gospel is vailed, and of the formation of their civil and ecclesiastical state.
It seems exceeding necessary that we should have some account of their
being actually brought to Canaan, the country promised them and where
they always dwelt; that we should have a history of the successions of the
church of Israel, and of those providences towards them, which were
most considerable and fullest of gospel mystery; that we should have
some account of the promised external glory of that nation under David
and Solomon, and a very particular account of David, whose history is so
full of the gospel, and in whom began the race of their kings; and that we
should have some account of the building of the temple, which was also
full of gospel-mystery.
And it is a matter of great consequence, that we should have some
account of Israel's dividing from Judah, and of the ten tribes' captivity
and utter rejection, and therefore a brief history of them till that time;
that we should have an account of the succession of the kings of Judah,
and of the church, till their captivity into Babylon; of their return from
captivity, and resettlement in their own land, with the origin of the last
state of the church before Christ came.
A little consideration will convince any one, that all these things were
necessary, and that none of them could be spared; and in the general,
that it was necessary we should have a history of God's church till such
times as are within the reach of human histories. It was of vast
importance that we should have an inspired history of those times of the
Jewish church, wherein there was kept up a more extraordinary
intercourse between God and them, while he used to dwell among them
as it were visibly, revealing himself by the Shechinah, by Urim and
Thummim, and by prophecy, and so more immediately to order their
affairs. And it was necessary that we should have some account of the
great dispensations of God in prophecy, after the finishing of inspired
history; for which it was needful that there should be a number of
prophets raised who should foretell the coming of the Son of God, and the
nature and glory of his kingdom, as so many harbingers to make way for
him, and that their prophecies should remain in the church.
It was also a matter of great consequence that the church should have a
book of divine songs given by inspiration from God, wherein there should
be a lively representation of the true spirit of devotion, of faith, hope, and
divine love, of joy, resignation, humility, obedience, repentance, &c. as in
the Psalms; also that we should have from God such books of moral
instructions as we have in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, relating to the
affairs and state of mankind, and the concerns of human life, containing
rules of true wisdom and prudence for our conduct in all circumstances;
and that we should have particularly a song representing the great love
between Christ and his spouse the church, adapted to the disposition and
holy affections of a true christian soul towards Christ, and representing
his grace and marvellous love to, and delight in, his people, as in
Solomon's Song. It is important that we should have a book to teach us
how to conduct ourselves under affliction, seeing the church of God here
is in a militant state, and God's people through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of heaven. The church is for a long time under trouble,
meets with fiery trials, and extreme sufferings, before her time of peace
and rest in the latter ages of the world. Therefore God has given us a book
most proper in these circumstances, the book of Job; and though written
on occasion of the afflictions of a particular saint, it was probably at first
given to the church in Egypt under her afflictions there; and is made use
of by the apostle to comfort Christians under persecutions, James v. 11.
"Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord;
that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." God was also pleased,
in this book of Job, to give some view of the ancient divinity before the
giving of the law.
Thus, from this brief review, I think it appears, that every part of the
scriptures of the Old Testament is very useful and necessary, and no part
of it can be spared without loss to the church. And therefore the wisdom
of God is conspicuous in ordering, that the scriptures of the Old
Testament should consist of those very books of which they do consist.
Before I dismiss this particular, I would add, that it is very observable,
that the history of the Old Testament is large and particular where the
great affair of redemption required it; even where there was most done
towards this work, most to typify Christ, and to prepare the way for him.
Thus it is very particular in the history of Abraham 571 and the other
patriarchs; but very short in the account we have of the time which the
children of Israel spent in Egypt. It is large in the account of the
redemption out of Egypt, and the first settling of the affairs of the Jewish
church and nation in the time of Moses and Joshua; but much shorter in
the times of the judges. So again, it is large and particular in the times of
David and Solomon, and then very short in the history of the ensuing
reigns. Thus the accounts are large and short, just as there is more or less
of the affair of redemption to be seen in them.
V. From what has been said, we may see, that Christ and his redemption
are the great subject of the whole Bible. Concerning the New Testament,
the matter is plain; and by what has been said, it appears to be so also
with respect to the Old Testament. Christ and his redemption is the great
subject of the prophecies of the Old Testament, as has been shown. It has
also been shown, that he is the great subject of the songs of the Old
Testament; and the moral rules and precepts are all given in
subordination to him. Christ and his redemption are also the great
subject of the history of the Old Testament from the beginning all along;
and even the history of the creation is brought in as an introduction to the
history of redemption that immediately follows it. The whole book, both
Old Testament and New, is filled up with the gospel; only with this
difference, that the Old Testament contains the gospel under a vail, but
the New contains it unvailed, so that we may see the glory of the Lord
with open face.
VI. By what has been said, we may see the usefulness and excellency of
the Old Testament. Some are ready to look on the Old Testament as being
out of date, and as if we in these days of the gospel have but little to do
with it. But this is a very great mistake, arising from want of observing
the nature and design of the Old Testament, which, if it were observed,
would appear full of the gospel of Christ, and would in an excellent
manner illustrate and confirm the glorious doctrines and promises of the
New Testament. Those parts of the Old Testament which are commonly
looked upon as containing the least divine instruction, are mines and
treasures of gospel-knowledge; and the reason why they are thought to
contain so little is, because persons do but superficially read them. The
treasures which are hid underneath are not observed. They only look on
the top of the ground, and suddenly pass a judgment that there is nothing
there. But they never dig into the mine: if they did, they would find it
richly stored with what is more valuable than silver and gold, and would
be abundantly requited for their pains.
What has been said, may show us what a precious treasure God has
committed into our hands, in that he has given us the Bible. How little do
most persons consider what a privilege they enjoy, in the possession of
that holy book, the Bible, which they have in their hands, and may
converse with as they please. What an excellent book is this, and how far
exceeding all human writings! It reveals God to us, and gives us a view of
the grand design and glorious scheme of providence from the beginning
of the world, either in history or prophecy. It reveals the great Redeemer,
his glorious redemption, and the various steps by which God
accomplishes it from the first foundation to the top-stone! Shall we prize
a history which gives us a clear account of some great earthly prince, or
mighty warrior, as of an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Marlborough? and
shall we not prize the history that God gives us of the glorious kingdom of
his Son Jesus Christ, the Prince and Saviour, and of the great transactions
of that King of kings, and Lord of armies, the Lord mighty in battle; and
what he has wrought for the redemption of his chosen people?
VII. What has been said, may make us sensible how much most persons
are to blame for their inattentive, unobservant way of reading the
Scriptures. How much profitable matter do the Scriptures contain, if it
were but observed! The Bible is the most comprehensive book in the
world. But what will all this signify to us, if we read it without observing
what is the drift of the Holy Ghost in it? The psalmist, begs of God, Psal.
cxix. 18. "That he would enlighten his eyes that he might behold
wondrous things out of his law." The Scriptures are full of wondrous
things. Those histories which are too commonly read as if they were only
private concerns of particular persons, such as of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and Joseph; of Ruth, Joshua, the Judges, David and the Israelitish
princes, are accounts of vastly greater things, things of greater
importance and more extensive concernment, than they who read them
are commonly aware of.
The histories of Scripture are but too commonly read, as if they were
written only to entertain men's fancies, when the infinitely great things
contained in them are passed over without notice. Whatever treasures the
Scriptures contain, we shall be never the better for them if we do not
observe them. He that has a Bible, and does not observe what it contains,
is like a man who has a box full of silver and gold, and does not know it,
nor observe that it is any thing more than a vessel filled with common
stones. He will be never the better for his treasure; and so might as well
be without it. He who has plenty of the choicest food stored up in his
house, and does not know it, will never taste what he has, and will be as
likely to starve as if his house were empty.
VIII. What has been said, may show us how great a person Jesus Christ
is, and how great his errand into the world, seeing there was so much
done to prepare the way for his coming. God had been preparing the way
for him through all ages of the world from the very beginning. If we had
notice of a certain stranger being about to come into a country, and
should observe that a great preparation was made for him, great things
were done, many alterations made in the state of the whole country,
many hands employed, persons of great note engaged in making the
preparation; and all the affairs and concerns of the country ordered so as
to be subservient to the design of entertaining that person, it would be
natural for us to think, surely this is some extraordinary person, and it is
some very great business that he is coming upon. How great a person
then must he be, for whose coming the great God of heaven and earth,
and Governor of all things, spent four thousand years in preparing the
way! Soon after the world was created, and from age to age, he has been
doing great things, bringing mighty events to pass, accomplishing
wonders without number, often overturning the world in order to it. He
has been causing every thing in the state of mankind, and all revolutions
and changes in the habitable world, from generation to generation, to be
subservient to this great design.—Surely this must be some great and
extraordinary person, and a great work indeed it must needs be, about
which he is coming.
We read, (Matt. xxi. 8-10.) when Christ was coming into Jerusalem, and
multitudes ran before him, having cut down branches of palm-trees, and
strewed them in the way; and others spread their garments in the way,
crying, " Hosanna to the Son of David," that the whole city was moved,
saying, Who is this? They wondered who that extraordinary person
should be, that there should be such preparation made on occasion of his
coming into the city. But if we consider, what great things were done in
all ages to prepare the way for Christ's coming, and how the world was
often overturned to make way for it, much more may we cry out, Who is
this? What great person is this? and say, (as in Psal. xxiv. 8, 10.) "Who is
this King of glory," that God should show such respect, and put such vast
honour upon him? Surely this person is honourable in God's eyes, and
greatly beloved of him; and surely it is a grand errand upon which he is
sent.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 7:52:49 GMT -5
PERIOD II.
FROM CHRIST’S INCARNATION TO HIS RESURRECTION.
Having shown how the work of redemption was carried on through the
first period, from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, I come now
to the second period, viz. the time of Christ’s humiliation, or the space
from his incarnation to his resurrection. And this is the most remarkable
article of time that ever was or ever will be. Though it was but between
thirty and forty years, yet more was done in it than had been done from
the beginning of the world to that time. We have observed, that all which
had been done from the fall to the incarnation of Christ, was only
preparatory for what was now done. And it may also be observed, that all
which was done before the beginning of time, in the eternal counsels
between the persons of the blessed Trinity, chiefly respected this period.
We therefore now proceed to consider the second proposition, viz.
That during the time of Christ’s humiliation, from his incarnation to his
resurrection, the purchase of redemption was made.
Though many things had been done in the affair of redemption, though
millions of sacrifices had been offered; yet nothing was done to purchase
redemption before Christ’s incarnation. No part of the purchase was
made, no part of the price was offered till now. But as soon as Christ was
incarnate, the purchase began.—And the whole time of Christ’s
humiliation, till the morning that he rose from the dead, was taken up in
this purchase. Then the purchase was entirely and completely finished.
As nothing was done before Christ’s incarnation, so nothing was done
after his resurrection, to purchase redemption for men. Nor will there
ever be any thing more done to all eternity. That very moment when the
human nature of Christ ceased to remain under the power of death, the
utmost farthing was paid of the price of salvation for every one of the
elect.
But for the more orderly and regular consideration of the great things
done by our Redeemer to purchase redemption for us, I would speak of
his becoming incarnate to capacitate himself for this purchase;—and of
the purchase itself.
PART I.
OF CHRIST’S INCARNATION.
christ became incarnate, or, which is the same thing, became man, to put
himself in a capacity for working out our redemption. For though Christ,
as God, was infinitely sufficient for the work, yet to his being in an
immediate capacity for it, it was needful that he should not only be God,
but man. If Christ had remained only in the divine nature, he would not
have been in a capacity to have purchased our salvation; not from any
imperfection of the divine nature, but by reason of its absolute and
infinite perfection: for Christ, merely as God, was not capable either of
that obedience or suffering that was needful. The divine nature is not
capable of suffering; for it is infinitely above all suffering. Neither is it
capable of obedience to that law which was given to man. It is as
impossible that one who is only God, should obey the law that was given
to man, as it is that he should suffer man's punishment.
And it was necessary not only that Christ should take upon him a created
nature, but that he should take upon him our nature. It would not have
sufficed for Christ to have become an angel, and to have obeyed and
suffered in the angelic nature. But it was necessary that he should become
a man, upon three accounts.
1. It was needful in order to answer the law, that the very nature to which
the law was given, should obey it. Man's law could not be answered, but
by being obeyed by man. God insisted upon it, that the law which he had
given to man shall be honoured, and fulfilled by the nature of man,
otherwise the law could not be answered for men. The words, "Thou shalt
not eat thereof," &c. were spoken to the race of mankind, to the human
nature; and therefore the human nature must fulfil them.
2. It was needful to answer the law that the nature that sinned should die.
These words, "Thou shalt surely die, Genesis ii. 17. " respect the human
nature. The same nature to which the command was given, was that to
which the threatening was directed.
3. God saw meet, that the same world which was the stage of man's fall
and ruin, should also be the stage of his redemption. We read often of his
coming into the world to save sinners, and of God's sending him into the
world for this purpose.—It was needful that he should come into this
sinful, miserable, undone world, in order to restore and save it. For man's
recovery, it was needful that he should come down to man, to man's
proper habitation, and that he should tabernacle with us: John i. 14. "The
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
Concerning the incarnation of Christ, I would observe these following
things.
I. The incarnation itself; in which especially two things are to be
considered, viz.
1. His conception; which was in the womb of one of the race of mankind,
whereby he became truly the Son of man, as he was often called. He was
one of the posterity of Adam, a child of Abraham, and a son of David,
according to God's promise. But his conception was—not in the way of
ordinary generation, but—by the power of the Holy Ghost. Christ was
formed in the womb of the Virgin, of the substance of her body, by the
power of the Spirit of God. So that he was the immediate son of the
woman, but not the immediate son of any male whatsoever; and so was
the seed of the woman, and the son of a virgin, one that had never known
man.
2. His birth.—Though the conception of Christ was supernatural, yet after
he was conceived, his human nature was gradually perfected in the womb
of the virgin, in a way of natural progress; and so his birth was in the way
of nature. But his conception being supernatural, by the power of the
Holy Ghost, he was both conceived and born without sin.
II. The second thing I would observe concerning the incarnation of
Christ, is the fulness of the time in which it was accomplished. It was
after things had been preparing for it from the very first fall of mankind,
and when all things were ready. It came to pass at a time, which in
infinite wisdom was the most fit and proper: Gal. iv. 4. "But when the
fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law."
It was now the most proper time on every account. Any time before the
flood would not have been so fit a time. For then the mischief and ruin
that the fall brought on mankind, was not so fully seen. The curse did not
so fully come on the earth before the flood, as it did afterwards: for
though the ground was cursed in a great measure before, yet it pleased
God that the curse should once, before the restoration by Christ, be
executed in an universal destruction, even of the very form of the earth,
that the dire effects of the fall might be seen before the recovery. Though
mankind were mortal before the flood, yet their lives were almost a
thousand years in length, a kind of immortality in comparison with what
the life of man is now. It pleased God, that the curse, Dust thou art, and
unto dust thou shalt return, should have its full accomplishment, and be
executed in its greatest degree on mankind, before the Redeemer came to
purchase a never-ending life.
573 It would not have been so fit a time for Christ to come, before Moses;
for till then mankind were not so universally apostatized from the true
God; they were not fallen universally into heathenish darkness; and so
the need of Christ, the light of the world, was not so evident. The woeful
consequence of the fall with respect to man's mortality, was not so fully
manifest till then; for man's life was not so shortened as to be reduced to
the present standard, till about Moses's time.
It was most fit that the time of the Messiah's coming should not be till all
nations, but the children of Israel, had lain long in heathenish darkness;
that the remedilessness of their disease might by long experience be seen,
and so the absolute necessity of the heavenly Physician.
Another reason why Christ did not come soon after the flood probably
was, that the earth might be full of people, that he might have the more
extensive kingdom, that the effects of his light, power, and grace, might
be glorified, and that his victory over Satan might be attended with the
more glory in the multitude of his conquests. It was also needful that the
coming of Christ should be many ages after Moses, that the church might
be prepared by the Messiah's being long prefigured, foretold, and
expected. It was not proper that Christ should come before the
Babylonish captivity, because Satan's kingdom was not then come to its
height. The heathen world before that consisted of lesser kingdoms. But
God saw meet that the Messiah should come in the time of one of the four
great monarchies. Nor was it proper that he should come in the time of
the Babylonish, the Persian, or the Grecian monarchy. It was the will of
God that his Son should make his appearance in the world in the time of
the Roman, the greatest and strongest monarchy, which was Satan's
visible kingdom in the world; that, by overcoming this, he might visibly
overcome Satan's kingdom in its greatest strength and glory, and so
obtain the more complete triumph over Satan himself.
It was not proper that Christ should come before the Babylonish
captivity. For, before that, we have not histories of the state of the
heathen world, to give us an idea of the need of a Saviour. Besides,
learning did not much flourish, and so there had not been opportunity to
show the insufficiency of human learning and wisdom to reform and save
mankind. Again, the Jews were not dispersed over the world, as they were
afterwards; and so things were not prepared in this respect for the
coming of Christ. The necessity of abolishing the Jewish dispensation was
not then so apparent as it was afterwards, by reason of the dispersion of
the Jews; neither was the way prepared for the propagation of the gospel,
as it was afterwards, by the same dispersion. Many other things might be
mentioned, by which it would appear, that no other season before that
very time in which Christ came, would have been proper for his
appearing.
III. The next thing that I would observe concerning the incarnation of
Christ, is the greatness of this event. Christ's incarnation was a greater
and more wonderful thing than ever had yet come to pass. The creation of
the world was a very great thing, but not so great as the incarnation of
Christ. It was a great thing for God to make the creature, but not so great
as for the Creator himself to become a creature. We have spoken of many
great things that were accomplished between the fall of man and the
incarnation of Christ: but God becoming man was greater than all. Then
the greatest person was born that ever was or ever will be.
IV. Next observe, concerning the incarnation of Christ, the remarkable
circumstances of it. He was born of a poor virgin; a pious holy person, but
poor, as appeared by her offering at her purification: Luke ii. 24. "And to
offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A
pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons." Which refers to Lev. v. 7. "
And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons." And this poor virgin was espoused to a
husband who was but a poor man. Though they were both of the royal
family of David, which was the most honourable, and Joseph was the
rightful heir to the crown; yet the family was reduced to a very low state;
which is represented by the tabernacle of David being fallen, Amos ix. 11.
"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close
up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as
in the days of old."
He was born in the town of Bethlehem, as was foretold: (Mic. v. 2.) and
there was a very remarkable providence of God to bring about the
fulfilment of this prophecy, the taxing of all the world by Augustus
Caesar, (Luke ii.) He was born in a very low condition, even in a stable,
and laid in a manger.
V. Observe the concomitants of this great event.—And,
1. The return of the Spirit; which indeed began a little before, but yet was
given on occasion of his birth. I have before observed how the spirit of
prophecy ceased, not long after Malachi. From about the same time
visions and immediate revelations ceased also. But on this occasion, they
were granted anew, and the Spirit in these operations returns again. The
first revealed instance of its restoration is the vision of Zacharias, the
father of John the Baptist, (Luke i.) The next is the vision which the
Virgin Mary had, (ibid.) The third is the vision which Joseph had, (Matt.
i.) In the next place, the Spirit was given to Elisabeth, (Luke i. 41.) Next, it
was given to Mary, as appears by her song, (Luke i. 46, &c.) Then to
Zacharias again, ( ibid. ver. 64.) Then it was sent to the shepherds, (Luke
ii. 9.) Then it was given to Simeon, (Luke ii. 25.) Then to Anna, ( ver. 36.)
Then to the wise men in the east. Then to Joseph again, directing him to
flee into Egypt; and after that directing his return.
2. The next concomitant of Christ's incarnation is, the great notice that
was taken of it in heaven, and on earth. How it was noticed by the
glorious inhabitants of the heavenly world, appears by their joyful songs
on this occasion, heard by the shepherds in the night. This was the
greatest event of Providence that ever the angels had beheld. We read of
their singing praises when they saw the formation of this lower world:
Job xxxviii. 7. "When the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy." And so they do, on this much greater occasion, the
birth of the Son of God, who is the Creator of the world.
The glorious angels had all along expected this event. They had taken
great notice of the prophecies and promises of these things: for we are
told, that they desire to look into the affairs of redemption, 1 Pet. i. 12.
They had been the ministers of Christ in this affair of redemption, in all
the several steps of it from the very fall of man; as in God's dealings with
Abraham, with Jacob, and with the Israelites. And doubtless they had
long joyfully expected the coming of Christ; but now they see it
accomplished, and therefore greatly rejoice, and sing praises on this
occasion.
Notice was taken of it by Elisabeth and the Virgin Mary before the birth of
Christ; not to say by John the Baptist before he was born, when he leaped
in his mother's womb as it were for joy, at the voice of the salutation of
Mary. Elisabeth and Mary most joyfully praise God together, with Christ
and his forerunner in their wombs, and the Holy Spirit in their souls. And
afterwards what joyful notice is taken of this event by the shepherds, and
by those holy persons, Zacharias, and Simeon, and Anna! How do they
praise God on the occasion! Thus the inhabitants of heaven, and the
church on earth, unite in their joy and praise on this occasion.
Great part of the universe takes joyful notice of the incarnation of Christ.
Heaven takes notice of it, and the inhabitants sing for joy. This lower
world of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, take notice of it. It pleased
God to put honour on his Son, by wonderfully stirring up some of the
wisest of the Gentiles to come a long journey to see and worship him at
his birth. They were led by a miraculous star, signifying the birth of that
glorious person who is the bright and morning-star, going before, and
leading them to the very place where the, young child was. Some think
they were instructed by the prophecy of Balaam, who dwelt in the eastern
parts, and who foretold Christ's coming as a star that should rise out of
Jacob. Or they might be instructed by that general expectation there was
of the Messiah's coming about that 574 time, from the prophecies the
Jews had of him in their dispersions in all parts of the world.
3. The next concomitant of the birth of Christ was his circumcision. But
this may more properly be spoken of under another head, and so I will
not insist upon it now.
4. The next concomitant was his first coming into the second temple,
when an infant, on occasion of the purification of the blessed Virgin. We
read, Hagg. ii. 7. "The desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this
house, (or temple) with glory." And in Mal. iii. 1."The Lord, whom ye
seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant." And now was the first instance of the fulfilment of these
prophecies.
5. The last concomitant I shall mention is the sceptre's departing from
Judah, in the death of Herod the Great. The sceptre had never totally
departed from Judah till now. Judah's sceptre was greatly diminished in
the revolt of the ten tribes in Jeroboam's time; and the sceptre departed
from Israel or Ephraim at the time of the captivity of the ten tribes by
Shalmaneser. But it remained in the tribe of Judah, under the kings of the
house of David. And when the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried
captive by Nebuchadnezzar, the sceptre of Judah ceased for a little while,
till the return from the captivity under Cyrus: and then, though they were
not an independent government, as they had been before, but owed fealty
to the kings of Persia; yet their governor was of themselves, who had the
power of life and death, and they were governed by their own laws; and so
Judah had a lawgiver from between his feet during the Persian and
Grecian monarchies. Towards the latter part of the Grecian monarchy,
the people were governed by kings of their own, of the race of the
Maccabees, for near a hundred years; and after that they were subdued by
the Romans. But yet the Romans suffered them to be governed by their
own laws, and to have a king of their own, Herod the Great, who reigned
about forty years, and governed with proper kingly authority, only paying
homage to the Romans. But presently after Christ was born he died, as we
have an account, Matt. ii. 19. and Archelaus succeeded him; but was soon
put down by the Roman emperor; and then the sceptre departed from
Judah. There were no more temporal kings of Judah after that, neither
had that people their governors from the midst of themselves, but were
ruled by a Roman governor sent among them; and they ceased to have
the power of life and death among themselves. Hence the Jews say to
Pilate, " It is not lawful for us to put any man to death," John xviii. 31.
Thus the sceptre departed from Judah when Shiloh came.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 7:59:27 GMT -5
PART II.
THE PURCHASE OF REDEMPTION
Having thus considered Christ's coming into the world, and his taking on
him our nature, to put himself in a capacity for the purchase of
redemption, I come now to show what is intended by the purchase of
redemption to make some general observations concerning those things
by which this purchase was made—and then to consider those things
more particularly which Christ did and suffered, by which that purchase
was made.
SECT. I.
The purchase itself, what?
By Christ purchasing redemption, two things are intended, his
satisfaction, and his merit. All is done by the price that Christ lays down,
which does two things: it pays our debt, and so it satisfies; it procures our
title to happiness, and so it merits. The satisfaction of Christ is to free us
from misery, and the merit of Christ is to purchase happiness for us.
The word purchase, in this connexion, is taken either more strictly or
more largely. It is oftentimes used more strictly, to signify only the merit
of Christ; and sometimes more largely, to signify both his satisfaction and
merit. Indeed most of the words used in this affair have various
significations. Thus sometimes divines use merit for the whole price that
Christ offered, both satisfactory, and positively meritorious. And so the
word satisfaction is sometimes used, not only for his propitiation, but
also for his meritorious obedience. For in some sense, not only suffering
the penalty, but positively obeying, is needful to satisfy the law. The
reason of this various use of these terms seems to be, that satisfaction and
merit do not differ so much really as relatively. They both consist in
paying a valuable price, a price of infinite value: but only that price, as it
respects a debt to be paid, is called satisfaction; and as it respects a
positive good to be obtained, is called merit. The difference between
paying a debt and making a positive purchase is more relative than
essential. He who lays down a price to pay a debt, does in some sense
make a purchase: he purchases liberty from the obligation. And he who
lays down a price to purchase a good, does as it were make satisfaction:
he satisfies the conditional demands of him to whom he pays it. This may
suffice concerning what is meant by the purchase of Christ.
SECT. II.
Some general observations concerning those things by which this
purchase was made.
1. And here observe, That whatever in Christ had the nature of
satisfaction, was by virtue of the suffering or humiliation that was in it;
but whatever had the nature of merit, was by virtue of the obedience or
righteousness there was in it. The satisfaction of Christ consists in his
answering the demands of the law on man, which were consequent on the
breach of the law. These were answered by suffering the penalty of the
law. The merit of Christ consists in what he did to answer the demands,
which were prior to man's breach of the law, or to fulfil what the law
demanded before man sinned, which was obedience.
The satisfaction or propitiation of Christ consists either in his suffering
evil, or his being subject to abasement. Christ did not only make
satisfaction by proper suffering, but by whatever had the nature of
humiliation and abasement of circumstances. Thus he made satisfaction
by continuing under the power of death, while he lay buried in the grave;
though neither his body nor soul properly endured any suffering after he
was dead. Whatever Christ was subject to that was the judicial fruit of sin,
had the nature of satisfaction for sin. But not only proper suffering, but
all abasement and depression of the state and circumstances of mankind
below its primitive honour and dignity, such as his body remaining under
death, his body and soul remaining separate, &c. are the judicial fruits of
sin. And all that Christ did in his state of humiliation, that had the nature
of obedience, moral virtue or goodness, had the nature of merit, in it, and
was part of the price with which he purchased happiness for the elect.
2. Both Christ's satisfaction for sin, and also his meriting happiness by his
righteousness, were carried on through the whole time of his humiliation.
Christ's satisfaction for sin was not by his last sufferings only, though it
was principally by them; but all his sufferings, and all his humiliation,
from the first moment of his incarnation to his resurrection, were
propitiatory or satisfactory. Christ's satisfaction was chiefly by his death,
because his sufferings and humiliation in that was greatest. But all his
other sufferings, and all his other humiliation, all along had the nature of
satisfaction; the mean circumstances in which he was born; his being
born of a poor virgin, in a stable, and laid in a manger; his taking the
human nature upon him in its low state, and under those infirmities
brought upon it by the fall; his being born in the form of sinful flesh, &c.
And so all his sufferings in his infancy and 575 childhood, and all that
labour, contempt, reproach, temptation, and difficulty of any kind which
he suffered through the whole course of his life, was of a propitiatory and
satisfactory nature.—And so his purchase of happiness by his
righteousness was also carried on through the whole time of his
humiliation till his resurrection: not only in that obedience he performed
through the course of his life, but also in the obedience he performed in
laying down his life.
3. It was by the same things that Christ hath satisfied God's justice, and
also purchased eternal happiness. He did not make satisfaction by some
things, and then work out righteousness by other different things; but in
the same acts by which he wrought out righteousness, he also made
satisfaction, but only taken in a different relation. One and the same act
of Christ, considered with respect to the obedience there was in it, was
part of his righteousness, and purchased heaven: but considered with
respect to the self-denial, and difficulty, and humiliation, with which he
performed it, had the nature of satisfaction for sin, and procured our
pardon. Thus his going about doing good, preaching the gospel, and
teaching his disciples, was a part of his righteousness, and the purchase
of heaven, as it was done in obedience to the Father; and the same was a
part of his satisfaction, as he did it with great labour, trouble, and
weariness, and under great temptations exposing himself hereby to
reproach and contempt. So his laving down his life had the nature of
satisfaction to God's offended justice, considered as his bearing
punishment in our stead: but considered as an act of obedience to God,
who had given him this command, that he should lay down his life for
sinners, it was a part of his righteousness and purchase, and as much the
principal part of his righteousness as it was the principal part of his
satisfaction. And to instance in his circumcision, what he suffered in it,
had the nature of satisfaction: the blood that was shed therein was
propitiatory blood; but as it was a conformity to the law of Moses, it was
part of his meritorious righteousness. Though it was not properly the act
of human nature, he being an infant; yet the human nature being the
subject of it, and being the act of his person, it was accepted as an act of
his obedience, as our mediator.—And even his being born in such a low
condition, has the nature of satisfaction by reason of the humiliation that
was in it; and of righteousness, as it was the act of his person in
obedience to the Father, what the will of the human nature did acquiesce
in, though there was no act of the will of the human nature prior to it.—
These things may suffice to have been observed in general, concerning
the purchase Christ made of redemption.
SECT. III.
Those things in particular by which the purchase was made.—Christ's
obedience and righteousness.
I now proceed to consider the things that passed during the time of
Christ's humiliation, and first, with respect to his obedience and
righteousness. And this is subject to a threefold distribution. I shall
therefore consider his obedience, with respect to the laws which he
obeyed—the different stages of his life in which he performed it—and the
virtues he exercised in his obedience.
I. The first distribution of the acts of Christ's righteousness is with respect
to the laws which he obeyed. But here it must be observed in general, that
all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one law, and that
is what the apostle calls the law of works, Rom. iii. 27. Every command
that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of
God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right
which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came
into the world to fulfil and answer the covenant of works; that is, the
covenant that is to stand for ever as a rule of judgment. The covenant that
we had broken, was the covenant that must be fulfilled.
This law of works indeed includes all the laws of God that ever have been
given to mankind; for it is a general rule of the law of works, and indeed
of the law of nature, That God is to be obeyed, and that he must be
submitted to in whatever positive precept he is pleased to give. It is a rule
of the law of works, That men should obey their earthly parents: and it is
certainly as much a rule of the same law, That we should obey our
heavenly Father: and so the law of works requires obedience to all the
positive commands of God. It required Adam's obedience to that positive
command, Not to eat of the forbidden fruit; and it required obedience of
the Jews to all the positive commands of their institution. When God
commanded Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, the law of works required
him to obey: and so it required Christ's obedience to all the positive
commands which God gave him.
But, more particularly, the commands of God which Christ obeyed, were
of three kinds; they were such as he was subject to either merely as man,
or as he was a Jew, or purely as Mediator.
1. He obeyed those commands which he was subject to merely as man.
These were the commands of the moral law, which was the same with
that which was given at mount Sinai, written in two tables of stone, which
are obligatory on mankind of all ages and all nations of the world.
2. He obeyed all those laws he was subject to as he was a Jew. Thus he
was subject to the ceremonial law, and was conformed to it. He was
conformed to it in his being circumcised the eighth day; and he strictly
obeyed it in going up to Jerusalem to the temple three times a year; at
least after he was come to the age of twelve years, which seems to have
been the age when the males began to go up to the temple. And so Christ
constantly attended the service of the temple, and of the synagogues.
To this head of his obedience may be reduced his submission to John's
baptism. For it was a special command to the Jews, to go forth to John
the Baptist, and be baptized of him; and therefore Christ, being a Jew,
was subject to this command: and therefore, when he came to be baptized
of John, and John objected, that he had more need to come to him to be
baptized of him, he gives this reason for it, That it was needful that he
should do it, that he might fulfil all righteousness. (See Matt. iii. 13-15.)
3. Christ was subject to the mediatorial law; or that which related purely
to his mediatorial office. Such were the commands which the Father gave
him to teach such doctrines, to preach the gospel, to work such miracles,
to call such disciples, to appoint such ordinances, and finally to lay down
his life: for he did all these things in obedience to the commands he had
received of the Father, as he often tells us, (John x. 18. xiv. 31.) These
commands he was not subject to merely as man; for they did not belong
to other men: nor yet was he subject to them as a Jew; for they were no
part of the Mosaic law: but they were commands he had received of the
Father, that purely respected his mediatorial office.
Christ's righteousness, by which he merited heaven for himself, and all
who believe in him, consists principally in his obedience to this
mediatorial law: for in fulfilling this law consisted his chief work and
business in the world. The history of the evangelists is chiefly taken up in
giving an account of his obedience to this law. This part of his obedience
was attended with the greatest difficulty; and therefore his obedience in it
was most meritorious. What Christ had to do in the world by virtue of his
being Mediator, was infinitely more difficult than what he had to do
merely as a man, or as a Jew. To his obedience to this mediatorial law
belongs his going through his last sufferings, beginning with his agony in
the garden, and ending with his resurrection.
As the obedience of the first Adam, wherein his righteousness would have
consisted, if he had stood, would have mainly consisted in his obedience
to that special law to which he was subject as moral head and surety of
mankind, even the command of abstaining from the tree of knowledge of
good and evil; so the obedience of the second Adam, wherein his
righteousness consists, lies mainly in his obedience to that special law to
which he was subject as mediator and surety for man.
Before I proceed to the next distribution of Christ's righteousness, I
would observe three things concerning his obedience to these laws.
576 1. He performed that obedience to them which was in every respect
perfect. It was perfect with respect to the work commanded; and the
principle from which he obeyed. It was perfect with respect to the end he
acted for; he never had any by-ends, but aimed perfectly at such as the
law of God required. It was perfect with respect to the manner of
performance: every circumstance of each act was perfectly conformed to
the command. It was perfect with respect to the degree of the
performance: he acted wholly up to the rule.—It was perfect with respect
to the constancy of obedience, without any interruption; and with respect
to perseverance. He held out in perfect obedience to the very end, in all
the changes he passed through, and all the trials that were before him.
The meritoriousness of Christ's obedience, depends on the perfection of
it. If it had failed in any instance, it could not have been meritorious: for
imperfect obedience is not accepted as any obedience at all in the sight of
the law of works, to which Christ was subject. That is not accepted as
obedience to a law that does not fully answer it.
2. Christ's obedience was performed through the greatest trials and
temptations that ever any obedience was. His obedience was attended
with the greatest difficulties, and most extreme abasement; which was
another thing that rendered it more meritorious and thankworthy. To
obey another when his commands are easy, is not so worthy, as it is to
obey when it cannot be done without great difficulty.
3. He performed this obedience with infinite respect to God, and the
honour of his law. The obedience he performed was with infinitely greater
love to God, and regard to his authority, than that of angels. The angels
perform their obedience with a sinless perfection of love; but Christ
performed his with infinite love. Though the human nature of Christ was
not capable of love absolutely infinite, yet Christ's obedience in that
nature, is the obedience of his person, as God-man; and therefore there
was infinite love manifest in that obedience. And this, together with the
infinite dignity of the person who obeyed, rendered his obedience
infinitely meritoriousII. The second distribution of the acts of Christ's obedience, is with
respect to the different parts of his life, wherein they were performed.
And in this respect they may be divided into those which were performed
in private life, and those which were performed in his public ministry.
1st, Those acts he performed during his private life.—He was perfectly
obedient in his childhood. He infinitely differed from other children, who,
as soon as they begin to act, begin to sin and rebel. He was subject to his
earthly parents, though he was Lord of all, Luke ii. 51. and was found
about his Father's business even when a child, Luke ii. 42.—He then
began to fulfil the mediatorial law, which the Father had given him. He
continued his private life for about thirty years, dwelling at Nazareth in
the house of his reputed father Joseph, where he served God in a private
capacity, and in following a mechanical trade, the business of a carpenter.
2dly, Those acts which he performed during his public ministry, which
began when he was about thirty years of age, and continued for the three
last years and a half of his life.—Most of the evangelic history is taken up
in giving an account of what passed during that time. Indeed all the
history of Matthew, except the two first chapters; the whole of Mark; all
the gospel of John; and all of Luke, except the two first chapters;
excepting also what we find in the evangelists concerning the ministry of
John the Baptist. Christ's first appearing in his public ministry, is what is
often called his coming in Scripture. Thus John speaks of Christ's coming
as future, though he had been born long before.
Concerning the public ministry of Christ, I would observe the following
things.
1. The forerunner of Christ's coming in his public ministry was John the
Baptist. He came preaching repentance for the remission of sins, to make
way for Christ's coming, agreeable to the prophecies of him, Isa. xl. 3-5.
and Matt. iv. 5, 6. It is supposed that John the Baptist began his ministry
about three years and a half before Christ; so that John's ministry and
Christ's put together, made seven years, which was the last of Daniel's
weeks; and this time is intended in Dan. ix. 27. "He will confirm the
covenant with many for one week." Christ came in the midst of this week
of years, as Daniel foretold,"And in the midst of the week he shall cause
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." 627627 Daniel ix. 27.
John the Baptist's ministry consisted principally in preaching the law, to
awaken and convince men of sin, to prepare them for the coming of
Christ, and to comfort them, as the law is to prepare the heart for the
entertainment of the gospel. A very remarkable outpouring of the Spirit
of God attended John's ministry; and the effect of it was, that Jerusalem,
and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, were awakened and
convinced. They went out to him, and submitted to his baptism,
confessing their sins. John was the greatest of all the prophets who came
before Christ, Matt. xi. 11. "Among those that are born of women, there
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist;" i.e. he had the most
honourable office. He was as the morning-star, which is the harbinger of
the approaching day, and forerunner of the rising sun. The other
prophets were stars that gave light in the night; but those stars went out
on the approach of the gospel-day. Now the coming of Christ being very
nigh, the morning-star comes before him, the brightest of all the stars, as
John the Baptist was, in the sense mentioned, the greatest of all the
prophets. And when Christ came in his public ministry, the light of that
morning-star decreased too; as we see, when the sun rises, it diminishes
the light of the morning-star. So John the Baptist says of himself, John
iii. 30. "He must increase, but I must decrease." And soon after Christ
began his public ministry, John the Baptist was put to death; as the
morning-star is visible a little while after the sun is risen, yet soon goes
out.
2. Christ's entrance on his public ministry was by baptism, followed with
the temptation in the wilderness. His baptism was as it were his solemn
inauguration, by which he entered on his ministry; and was attended with
his being anointed with the Holy Ghost, in a solemn and visible manner,
the Holy Ghost descending upon him symbolically, in a visible shape like
a dove, attended with a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matt. iii. 16, 17. After this he was led by
the devil into the wilderness. Satan made a violent attack upon him at his
first entrance on his work; and now he had a remarkable trial of his
obedience; but he got the victory. He who had such success with the first
Adam, had none with the second.
3. I would take notice of the work in which Christ was employed during
his ministry. And here are three things chiefly to be noticed, viz. his
preaching, his working of miracles, and his calling and appointing
disciples and ministers of his kingdom.
(1.) His preaching the gospel. Great part of the work of his public ministry
consisted in this; and much of that obedience by which he purchased
salvation for us, was in his speaking those things which the Father
commanded him. He more clearly and abundantly revealed the mind and
will of God, than ever it had been revealed before. He came from the
bosom of the Father, perfectly knew his mind, and was in the best
capacity to reveal it. As the sun, as soon as it is risen, begins to shine; so
Christ, as soon as he came into his public ministry, began to enlighten the
world with his doctrine. As the law was given at mount Sinai, so Christ
delivered his evangelical doctrine, (full of blessings, and not curses,) to a
multitude on a mountain, Matt. v.-vii.
When he preached, he did not teach as the scribes, but as one having
authority; so that his hearers "were astonished at his doctrine:" 628628
Mark i. 22. He did not reveal the mind and will of God in the style of the
prophets, as, "Thus saith the Lord;" but in such a style as this, "I say unto
you," "Verily, verily, I say unto you." He delivered his doctrines, not only
as the doctrines of God the Father, but as his own doctrines. He gave
forth commands, not (as the prophets were wont to do) as God's
commands, but as his own. He spake in such a style as this, "This is my
commandment," John xv. 12. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I
command you," ibid. 14.
(2.) Another thing that Christ was employed in during 577 the course of
his ministry, was working miracles. Concerning which we may observe,—
Their multitude. Besides particular instances, we often have an account of
multitudes coming at once with diseases, and his healing them. They
were works of mercy. In them was displayed not only his infinite power
and greatness, but his infinite mercy and goodness. He went about doing
good, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
and the proper use of their limbs to the lame and halt; feeding the
hungry, cleansing the leprous, and raising the dead.
They were almost all of them such as had been spoken of as the peculiar
works of God, in the Old Testament. So with respect to stilling the sea,
Psal. cvii. 29. "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are
still; walking on the sea in a storm, Job ix. 8. "Which alone—treadeth
upon the waves of the sea;" and casting out devils, Psal. Ixxiv. 14. "Thou
breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces." So as to feeding a multitude in
a wilderness: Deut. viii. 16. "Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna;"
telling man's thoughts, Amos iv. 13. "Lo, he that declareth unto man what
is his thought—the Lord, the God of hosts is his name;" and raising the
dead, Psal. ixviii. 20. "Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death."
So as to opening the eyes of the blind, Psal. cxlvi. 8. "The Lord openeth
the eyes of the blind;" healing the sick, Psal. ciii. 3. "Who healeth all thy
diseases;" and lifting up those who are bowed together, Psal. cxlvi. 8.
"The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down."
They were in general such works as were images of the great work which
he came to work on man's heart; representing that inward, spiritual
cleansing, healing, renovation, and resurrection, of which all his
redeemed are the subjects.—He wrought them by his own power, and not
as the other prophets did. They were wont to work all their miracles in
the name of the Lord; but Christ wrought in his own name. Moses was
forbidden to enter into Canaan, because he seemed by his speech to
assume to himself the honour of working only one miracle. Nor did Christ
work miracles as the apostles did; but by his own authority and will:
Thus, saith he, "I will, be thou clean," Matt. viii. 3. And in the same strain
he put the question, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" Matt.ix. 28.
(3 ) Another thing that Christ did in the course of his ministry, was to call
his disciples. He called many disciples, whom he employed as ministers.
He sent seventy at one time in this work: but there were twelve that he set
apart as apostles, who were the grand ministers of his kingdom, and as it
were the twelve foundations of his church. (See Rev. xxi. 14.) These were
the main instruments of setting up his kingdom in the world, and
therefore shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
4. I would observe how he finished his ministry. And this was, in giving
his dying counsels to his disciples, and all that should be his disciples,
which we have recorded particularly in the 1—In instituting a solemn
memorial of his death, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, wherein we
have a representation of his body broken, and of his blood shed.—In
offering up himself a sacrifice, to God in his last sufferings. This act he
did as God's minister, as God's anointed priest; and it was the greatest act
of his public ministry, the greatest act of his obedience, by which he
purchased heaven for believers. The priests of old used to do many other
things as God's ministers; but the highest execution of their office was
their actually offering sacrifice on the altar. So the greatest thing that
Christ did in the execution of his priestly office, and the greatest thing
that he ever did, and the greatest thing that ever was done, was the
offering up himself a sacrifice to God. Herein he was the antetype of all
that had been done by all the priests, in all their sacrifices and offerings,
from the beginning of the world.
III. The third distribution of the acts by which Christ purchased
redemption, regards the virtues that he exercised and manifested in
them. Christ in doing his work for our redemption, exercised every
possible virtue and grace. Indeed there are some particular virtues that
sinful man may have, which were not in Christ; not from any defect of
virtue, but because his virtue was perfect, and without defect. Such is the
virtue of repentance, brokenness of heart for sin, mortification, and
denying of lust. Christ had no sin of his own to repent of, nor any lust to
deny. But all virtues which do not presuppose sin, were in him in a higher
degree than in any mere creature. Every virtue in him was perfect. Virtue
itself was greater in him than in any other; and it was under greater
advantages to shine in him than in any other. Strict virtue shines most
when most tried: but never any virtue had such trials as Christ's had.
The virtue that Christ exercised in his work may be divided into three
sorts, viz. the virtues which more immediately respect God, those which
immediately respected himself, and those which immediately respect
men.
1. Those virtues which more immediately respect God. There appeared in
him a holy fear and reverence towards God the Father. Christ had a
greater trial of his virtue in this respect than any other had, from the
honourableness of his person. This was the temptation of the angels that
fell to cast off their worship of God and reverence of his majesty, that they
were beings of such exalted dignity themselves. But Christ was infinitely
more worthy and honourable than they; for he was the eternal Son of
God, and his person was equal to the person of the Father: and yet, as he
had taken on him the office of mediator, and the nature of man, he was
full of reverence towards God. He manifested a wonderful love toward
God. The angels give great testimonies of their love towards God, in their
constancy and agility in doing his will; and many saints have given great
testimonies of their love, who, from love to God, endured great labours
and sufferings: but none ever such testimonies of love to God as Christ
has given. He manifested the most wonderful submission to the will of
God. Never was any one's submission so tried as his was. And he
manifested the most wonderful spirit of obedience that ever was
manifested.
2. In this work he most wonderfully manifested those virtues which more
immediately respected himself; as humility, patience, and contempt of
the world. Christ, though he was the most excellent and honourable, yet
was the most humble; yea, he was the most humble of all creatures. No
angel or man ever equalled him in humility, though he was the highest in
dignity and honourableness. Christ would have been under the greatest
temptations to pride, if it had been possible for any thing to be a
temptation to him. The temptation of the angels that fell was the dignity
of their nature, and the honourableness of their circumstances; but Christ
was infinitely more honourable than they. The human nature of Christ
was so honoured as to be in the same person with the eternal Son of God,
who was equal with God; and yet that human nature was not at all lifted
up with pride. Nor was the man Christ Jesus at all lifted up with pride
with all those wonderful works which he wrought, of healing the sick,
curing the blind, lame, and maimed, and raising the dead. And though he
knew that God had appointed him to be the king over heaven and earth,
angels and men, as he says, Matt. xi. 27. All things are delivered unto me
or my Father;" though he knew he was such an infinitely honourable
person, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God; and though he
knew he was the heir of the Father's kingdom: yet such was his humility,
that he did not disdain to be abased and depressed down into lower and
viler circumstances and sufferings than ever any other elect creature was;
so that he became least of all, and lowest of all. The proper trial and
evidence of humility, is stooping or complying with those acts or
circumstances, when called to it, which are very low, and contain great
abasement. But none ever stooped so low as Christ, if we consider either
the infinite height that he stooped from, or the great depth to which he
stooped. Such was his humility, that though he knew his infinite
worthiness of honour, and of being honoured ten thousand times as
much as the highest prince on earth, or angel in heaven; yet he did not
think it too much when called to it, to be bound as a malefactor, to
become the laughing-stock of the vilest of men, to be crowned with
thorns, to have a mock robe put upon him, and to be crucified like a slave
and male-factor, 578 as one of the meanest and worst of vagabonds and
miscreants, and an accursed enemy of God and men, who was not fit to
live. And this was not for himself, but for some of the meanest and vilest
of creatures, even some of those accursed wretches that crucified him.
Was not this a wonderful manifestation of humility, when he cheerfully
and most freely submitted to this abasement?—And how did his patience
shine forth under all the terrible sufferings which he endured; when he
was dumb, and opened not his mouth, but went as a lamb to the
slaughter!—And what contempt of the glory of this world was there, when
he rather chose this meanness, and suffering, than to be invested with the
external glories of an earthly prince, as the multitude often solicited him!
3. Christ, in a wonderful manner, exercised those virtues which more
immediately respect other men. And these may be summed up under two
heads, viz. meekness, and love.
Christ's meekness was his humble calmness of spirit under the
provocations that he met with. The greatness of provocation lies in two
things, viz. in the degree of opposition by which the provocation is given;
and, secondly, in the degree of the unreasonableness of that opposition,
or in its being very causeless, and without reason, and the great degree of
obligation to the contrary. Now, if we consider both these things, no man
ever met with such provocations as Christ did, when he was upon earth.
How much he was hated, what abuses he suffered from the vilest of men;
how great his sufferings, and how spiteful and contemptuous they were in
offering him those abuses! How causeless and unreasonable were these
abuses, how undeserving he was of them, yea how much deserving of the
contrary, viz. of love, and honour, and good treatment at their hands! If
we consider these things, no man ever met with a thousandth part of the
provocation that Christ met with from men: and yet how meek was he
under all! how composed and quiet his spirit! how far from being in a
ruffle and tumult! When he was reviled, he reviled not again; and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. No
appearance was there of a revengeful spirit: on the contrary, what a spirit
of forgiveness did he exhibit! so that he fervently and effectually prayed
for their forgiveness, when they were in the highest act of provocation
that ever they perpetrated, viz. nailing him to the cross: Luke xxiii. 34.
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
And never did there appear such an instance of love to men. Christ's love
to men, especially in going through his last sufferings, and offering up his
life and soul under those sufferings, which was his greatest act of love,
was far beyond all parallel. There have been very remarkable
manifestations of love in some of the saints, as in the apostle Paul, the
apostle John, and others; but the love to men that Christ showed when on
earth, as much exceeded the love of all other men, as the ocean exceeds a
small stream.
And it is to be observed, that all the virtues which appeared in Christ
shone brightest in the close of his life, under the trials he met with then.
Eminent virtue always shows brightest in the fire. Pure gold shows its
purity chiefly in the furnace. It was chiefly under those trials which Christ
underwent in the close of his life, that his love to God, his honour of God's
majesty, his regard to the honour of his law, his spirit of obedience, his
humility, contempt of the world, his patience, meekness, and spirit of
forgiveness towards men, appeared. Indeed every thing that Christ did to
work out redemption for us appears mainly in the close of his life. Here
mainly is his satisfaction for sin, and here chiefly is his merit of eternal
life for sinners, and here chiefly appears the brightness of his example,
which he hath set us for imitation.—Thus we have taken a brief view of
the things whereby the purchase of redemption was made with respect to
his righteousness that appeared in them.
SECT. IV.
Christ's sufferings and humiliation.
Among those things in particular by which the purchase was made, we
must reckon the sufferings and humiliation to which Christ was subject,
whence arose the satisfaction he made for sin.
I. He was subject to uncommon humiliation and suffering in his infancy.
His mother not only suffered in bearing him, but when her travail came
upon her, it is said, "there was no room in the inn," Luke ii. 7. She was
forced to betake herself to a stable; where Christ was born. And we may
conclude, that his mother's circumstances in other respects were
proportionably strait and difficult, and that she was destitute of the
conveniences necessary for so young an infant which others were wont to
have. Besides, he was persecuted in his infancy. They began to seek his
life as soon as he was born. Herod, the chief man of the land, was so
engaged to kill him, that, in order to it, he killed all the children in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under.
And Christ suffered banishment in his infancy, was driven out of his
native country into Egypt, and without doubt suffered much by being
carried so long a journey, when he was so young, into a strange country.
II. Christ was subject to great humiliation in his private life at Nazareth.
He there led a servile, obscure life, in a mean, laborious occupation; for
he is called not only the carpenter's son, but the carpenter: Mark vi. 3. "Is
not this the carpenter, the brother of James and Joses, and Juda, and
Simon?" By hard labour he earned his bread before he ate it, and so
suffered that curse which God pronounced on Adam, (Gen. iii. 13. "In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Let us consider how great a degree
of humiliation the glorious Son of God, the Creator of heaven and earth,
was subject to in this, that for about thirty years he should live a private
obscure life among labouring men, and all this while be overlooked, not
taken notice of in the world, more than other common labourers. Christ's
humiliation in some respects was greater in private life than in the time of
his public ministry. There were many manifestations of his glory in the
word he preached, and the miracles he wrought: but the first thirty years
of his life he spent among ordinary men, as it were in silence. There was
not any thing to make him to be taken notice of more than any ordinary
mechanic, only the spotless purity and eminent holiness of his life; and
that was in a great measure hid in obscurity; so that he was little taken
notice of till after his baptism.
III. Christ was the subject of great humiliation and suffering during his
public life, from his baptism till the night wherein he was betrayed.
1. He suffered great poverty, so that he had not where to lay his head,
(Matt. viii. 20. compared with John xviii. 1, 2. and Luke xxi. 27. and chap.
xxii. 30.) So that what was spoken of Christ in Cant. v. 2." My head is
filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night," was literally
fulfilled. And through his poverty he doubtless was often tried with
hunger, thirst, and cold. Matt. iv. 2. xxi. 18. His mother and natural
relations were poor, not able to help him; and he was maintained by the
charity of some of his disciples while he lived. So we read in Luke viii. at
the beginning, of certain women that followed him, and ministered unto
him of their substance. He was so poor, that he was not able to pay the
demanded tribute, without a miracle. See Matt. xvii. 27. And when he ate
his last passover, it was not at his own charge, but that of another, as
appears by Luke xxii. 7, &c. And from his poverty he had no grave of his
own to be buried in. It was the manner of the Jews, unless they were
poor, to prepare themselves a sepulchre while they lived. But Christ had
no land of his own, though he was possessor of heaven and earth; and
therefore was buried by Joseph of Arimathea's charity, and in his tomb,
which he had prepared for himself.
2. He suffered great hatred and reproach. He was despised and rejected
of men; one of little account, slighted for his low parentage, and his mean
city Nazareth. He was reproached as a glutton and drunkard, a friend of
publicans and sinners; was called a deceiver of the people; sometimes
was called a madman, and a Samaritan, and one possessed with a devil.
(John vii. 20. viii. 48. and John x. 20.) He was called a blasphemer, and
was accounted by many a wizard, or one that wrought miracles by the
black art, and by communication with Beelzebub. 579 They
excommunicated him, and agreed to excommunicate any man that
should own him. (John ix. 22.) They wished him dead, and were
continually seeking to murder him; sometimes by force, and sometimes
by craft. They often took up stones to stone him, and once led him to the
brow of a hill, intending to throw him down the precipice, to dash him in
pieces against the rocks.
He was thus hated and reproached by his own visible people: John i. 11.
"He came to his own, and his own received him not." And he was
principally despised and hated by those who were in chief repute, and
were their greatest men. Indeed the hatred was general. Into whatever
part of the land he went, he met with hatred and contempt; in
Capernaum, and Jericho; in Jerusalem, which was the holy city, even
when he went to the temple to worship; also in Nazareth, his own city,
among his own relations, and his old neighbours.
3. He suffered the buffetings of Satan in an uncommon manner. One time
in particular, he had a long conflict with the devil, when he was in the
wilderness forty days, with wild beasts and devils; and was so exposed to
the devil's power, that he was carried about by him from place to place,
while he was otherwise in a very suffering state.—So much for the
humiliation and suffering of Christ's public life, from his baptism to the
night wherein he was betrayed.
IV. I come now to his last humiliation and sufferings, from the evening of
the night wherein he was betrayed to his resurrection. And here was his
greatest humiliation and suffering, by which principally he made
satisfaction to the justice of God for the sins of men. First, his life was
sold by one of his own disciples for thirty pieces of silver; which was the
price of the life of a servant, Exod. xxi. 32. Then he was in dreadful agony
in the garden. There came such a dismal gloom upon his soul, that he
began to be sorrowful and very heavy, and said, that his "soul was
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and was sore amazed. 629629
Mark xiv. 33. " So violent was the agony of his soul, as to force the blood
through the pores of his skin; so that while his soul was overwhelmed
with amazing sorrow, his body was clotted with blood. The disciples, who
used to be as his friends and family, at this time above all appeared cold
towards, and unconcerned for him, at the same time that his Father's face
was hid from him. Judas, to whom Christ had been so very merciful, and
who was treated as one of his family or familiar friends, comes and
betrays him in the most deceitful, treacherous manner. The officers and
soldiers apprehend and bind him; his disciples forsake him, and flee; his
own best friends do not stand by him to comfort him in this time of his
distress. He is led away as a malefactor to appear before the priests and
scribes, his venomous, mortal enemies, that they might sit as his judges.
Now they had got him into their hands, they sat up all night, to have the
pleasure of insulting him. But because they aimed at nothing short of his
life, they set themselves to find some colour to put him to death, and seek
for witnesses against him. When none appeared, they set some to bear
false witness; and when their witness did not agree together, they
examined him, in hope to catch something out of his own mouth. They
hoped he would say, that he was the Son of God, and then they thought
they should have enough. But because they see they are not like to obtain
this, they adjure him, in the name of God, to say whether he was or not:
and when he confessed that he was, then it was a time of rejoicing with
them, which they show, by spitting in his face, blindfolding him, and
striking him in the face with the palms of their hands and then bidding
him prophesy who it was that struck him; thus ridiculing him for
pretending to be a prophet. And the very servants have a hand in the
sport: Mark xiv. 65. "And the servants did strike him with the palms of
their hands."
During the sufferings of the night, Peter, one of the chief of his own
disciples, instead of standing by to comfort, appears ashamed to own
him, and denies and renounces him with oaths and curses. And after the
chief priests and elders had finished the night in so shamefully abusing
him, in the morning, (the morning of the most wonderful day that ever
was,) they led him away to Pilate, to be condemned to death by him,
because they had not the power of life and death in their own hands. He
is brought before Pilate's judgment-seat, and there the priests and elders
accuse him as a traitor. And when Pilate, upon examining into the matter,
declared he found no fault in him, the Jews were but the more fierce and
violent to have him condemned. Upon which Pilate, after clearing him,
very unjustly brings him upon a second trial; and then not finding any
thing against him, acquits him again. Pilate treats him as a poor
worthless fellow; but is ashamed on so little pretence to condemn him as
a traitor.
And then he was sent to Herod to be tried by him, and was brought before
his judgment-seat; his enemies followed, and virulently accused him
before Herod. Herod does not condemn him as a traitor, or one that
would set up for a king, but looks upon him as Pilate did, as a poor
worthless creature, not worthy to be noticed, and makes a mere laugh of
the Jews accusing him as dangerous to Caesar, as one setting up to be a
king against him; and therefore, in derision, dresses him up in a mock
robe, makes sport of him, and sends him back through the streets of
Jerusalem to Pilate with the mock robe on.
Then the Jews prefer Barabbas before him, and are instant and violent
with loud vociferations to Pilate, to crucify him. So Pilate, after he had
cleared him twice, and Herod once, very unrighteously brings him on
trial the third time, to try if he could not find something sufficient to
crucify him. Christ was stripped and scourged: thus he gave his back to
the smiters. After that, though Pilate still declared that he found no fault
in him; yet so unjust was he, that for fear of the Jews he delivered Christ
to be crucified. But before they execute the sentence, his spiteful and
cruel enemies take the pleasure of mocking him again; they get round
him, and make a set business of it. They stripped him, put on him a
scarlet robe, a reed in his hand, and a crown of thorns on his head. Both
Jews and Roman soldiers were united in the transaction; they bow the
knee before him, and in derision cry, Matt. xxvii. 29."Hail, king of the
Jews." They spit upon him also, take the reed out of his hand, and smite
him on the head. After this they led him away to crucify him, made him
carry his own cross, till he sunk under it, his strength being spent; and
then they laid it on one Simon, a Cyrenian.
At length, being come to mount Calvary, they execute the sentence which
Pilate had so unrighteously pronounced. They nail him to his cross by his
hands and feet, then raise it erect, and fix one end in the ground, he being
still suspended on it by the nails which pierced his hands and feet. Now
Christ's sufferings are come to the extremity: now the cup, which he so
earnestly prayed might pass from him, is come; he must, he does drink it.
In those days crucifixion was the most tormenting kind of death by which
any were wont to be executed. There was no death wherein the person
experienced so much of mere torment: and hence the Roman word,
which signifies torment, is taken from this kind of death.—Besides what
our Lord endured in this excruciating corporeal death, he endured vastly
more in his soul. Now was that travail of his soul, of which we read in the
prophet; now it pleased God to bruise him, and to put him to grief; now
he poured out his soul unto death, as in Isa. liii. And if the mere
forethought of this cup made him sweat blood, how much more dreadful
and excruciating must the drinking of it have been! Many martyrs have
endured much in their bodies, while their souls have been joyful, and
have sung for joy, whereby they have been supported under the sufferings
of their outward man, and have triumphed over them. But this was not
the case with Christ; he had no such support; but his sufferings were
chiefly those of the mind, though the other were extremely great. In his
crucifixion Christ did not sweat blood, as he had done before; not because
his agony was now not so great, but his blood had vent another way. But
though he did not sweat blood, yet such was the sufferings of his soul,
that probably it rent his vitals; when his side was pierced, there came
forth blood and water. And so here was a kind of literal fulfilment of that
in Psal. xxii. 14. "I am poured out like water;—my heart is like wax, it is
melted in the midst of my bowels."
580 Now under all these sufferings the Jews still mock him; and wagging
their heads say, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three
days, save thyself: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross."
630630 Matthew xxvii. 40. And even the chief priests, scribes, and elders,
joined in the cry, saying, "He saved others, himself he cannot save.
631631 Mark xv. 31. " And probably the devil at the same time tormented
him to the utmost of his power; and hence it is said, Luke xxii. 53. "This is
your hour, and the power of darkness."
Under these sufferings, Christ, having cried out once and again with a
loud voice, at last said, IT IS FINISHED, (John xix. 30.) "and bowed the
head, and gave up the ghost." And thus was finished the greatest and
most wonderful thing that ever was done. Now the angels beheld the
most wonderful sight that ever they saw. Now was accomplished the main
thing that had been pointed at by the various institutions of the
ceremonial law, by all the typical dispensations, and by all the sacrifices
from the beginning of the world.
Christ being thus brought under the power of death, continued under it
till the morning of next day but one. Then was finished that great work,
the purchase of our redemption, for which such great preparation had
been made from the beginning of the world. Then was finished all that
was required in order to satisfy the threatenings of the law, and all that
was necessary in order to satisfy divine justice; then the utmost that
vindictive justice demanded, even the whole debt, was paid. Then was
finished the whole of the purchase of eternal life. And now there is no
need of any thing more to be done towards a purchase of salvation for
sinners; nor has ever any thing been done since, nor will any thing more
be done for ever and ever.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 8:01:22 GMT -5
PART III.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE SECOND PERIOD.
In surveying the history of redemption, we have now shown how this
work was carried on through the two former of the three main periods
into which this whole space of time was divided, viz. from the fall to the
incarnation of Christ, and from thence to the end of the time of Christ's
humiliation. In the first of these periods, we have particularly explained
how God prepared the way for Christ's appearing and purchasing
redemption; and in the second period, how that purchase was made and
finished. I would now make some improvement of what has been said on
both these subjects considered conjunctly.
SECT. I.
An use of reproof.
I begin with an use of reproof; a reproof of unbelief, of self-righteousness,
and of a careless neglect of the salvation of Christ.
1. How greatly do these things reprove those who do not believe in, but
reject, the Lord Jesus Christ! i.e. all those who do not heartily receive
him. Persons may receive him in profession outwardly, and may wish that
they had some of those benefits that Christ has purchased, and yet their
hearts not receive him. They may be hearty in nothing that they do
towards Christ; they may have no high esteem of, nor any sincere respect
to, Christ; they may never have opened the door of their heart to him, but
have kept him shut out all their days, ever since the salvation has been
offered to them. Though their hearts have been opened to others, their
door flung wide open to them, with free admittance at all times; though
they have been embraced, and the thrones of their hearts have been
allowed them; yet Christ has always been shut out, and they have been
deaf to all his calls. They never could find an inclination of heart to
receive him, nor would they ever trust in him.
Let me now call upon such to consider, how great is their sin, in thus
rejecting Jesus Christ. You slight the glorious person, for whose coming
God made such great preparation in such a series of wonderful
providences from the beginning of the world, and whom, after all things
were made ready, God sent into the world, bringing to pass a thing before
unknown, viz. the union of the divine nature with the human in one
person. You have been guilty of slighting that great Saviour, who, after
such preparation, actually accomplished the purchase of redemption; and
who, after he had spent three or four and thirty years in poverty, labour,
and contempt, in purchasing redemption, at last finished the purchase by
closing his life under such extreme sufferings as you have heard; and so
by his death, and continuing for a time under the power of death,
completed the whole. This is the person you reject and despise. You make
light of all the glory of his person, and of all the glorious love of God the
Father, in sending him into the world, and all his wonderful love
appearing in the whole of this affair. That precious stone which God hath
laid in Zion for a foundation in such a manner, and by such wonderful
works as you have heard, is a stone set at nought by you.
Sinners sometimes are ready to wonder why unbelief should be looked
upon as a great sin; but if you consider what you have heard, how can you
wonder? If this Saviour is so great, and this work so great, and such great
things have been done in order to it; truly there is no cause of wonder
that the rejection of this Saviour is so provoking to God. It brings greater
guilt than the sins of the worst of heathens, who never heard of those
things, nor have had this Saviour offered to them.
II. What has been said, affords matter of reproof to those who, instead of
believing in Christ, trust in themselves for salvation. Is it not a common
thing with men to take it upon themselves to do that great work which
Christ came into the world to do? to trust in their prayers, their good
conversations, the pains they take in religion, the reformation of their
lives, and their self-denial, in order to recommend them to God, to make
some atonement for their past sins? Let such consider three things :
1. How great a thing that is which you take upon you. It is to do the work
of the great Saviour of the world.—Though you are poor, worthless, vile,
and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which
the only-begotten Son of God became man; and in order to which God
employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of his
providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this
work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourself sufficient for; as
though your prayers, and other performances, were excellent enough for
this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of
yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it
cost so much. It was not to be obtained even by him, so great and glorious
a person, at a cheaper rate than his going through a sea of blood, and
passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath. And how vain
must your arrogance appear in the sight of God, when he sees you
imagining yourself sufficient, and your worthless, polluted performance
excellent enough, for the accomplishing of that work of his own Son, to
prepare the way for which he was employed in ordering all the great
affairs of the world for so many ages!
2. If there be ground for you to trust, as you do, in your own
righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that
God did from the fall of man to prepare the way for it, is in vain. Your
self-righteousness charges God with the greatest folly, as though he has
done all things in vain, to bring about an accomplishment of what you
alone, with your poor polluted prayers, and the little pains you take in
religion, are sufficient to accomplish for yourself. For if you can appease
God's anger, and commend yourself to him by these means, then you
have no need of Christ; Gal. ii. 21. "If righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain."
If you can do this by your prayers and good works, Christ might have
spared his pains; he might have spared his blood; he might have kept
within the bosom of his Father, without coming down into this evil world
to be 581 despised, reproached, and persecuted to death. God needed not
to have busied himself, as he did for four thousand years, causing so
many changes in the state of the world all that while, in order to bring
about that which you can accomplish in a few days, only with the trouble
of a few religious performances. Consider, what greater folly could you
have devised to charge upon God than this, that all those things were
done so needlessly; when, instead of all this, he might only have called
you forth, and committed the business to you, which you think you can do
so easily. Alas! how blind are natural men! and especially how vain are
the thoughts which they have of themselves! How ignorant of their own
littleness and pollution! What great things do they assume to themselves!
3. You that trust to your own righteousness, arrogate to yourselves the
honour of the greatest thing that ever God himself did. You seem not only
sufficient to perform divine works, but such is your pride and vanity, that
you are not content without taking upon you to do the very greatest work
that ever God himself wrought. You see by what has been said, how God
has subordinated all his other works to this of redemption. God's works
of providence are greater than those of creation; and all his works of
providence, from the beginning of the generations of men, were in order
to make way for the purchasing of redemption. To take on yourself to
work out redemption, is a greater thing than if you had taken it upon you
to create a world. What a figure you would make, if you should seriously
go about to create a world: or decking yourself with majesty, should
pretend to speak the word of power, and call an universe out of nothing,
intending to go on in order, and say," Let there be light; Let there be a
firmament," &c. But then consider, that in attempting to work out
redemption for yourself, you attempt a greater thing than this, and are
serious in it, and will not be dissuaded from it. You strive in it, are full of
the thought that you are sufficient for it, and big with hopes of
accomplishing it.
You take upon you to do the very greatest and most difficult part of this
work, viz. to purchase redemption. Christ can accomplish other parts of
this work without cost; but this part cost him his life, as well as
innumerable pains and labours. Yet this is that part which self-righteous
persons go about to accomplish for themselves. If all the angels in heaven
had been sufficient for this work, would God have set himself to effect
such things as he did in order to it? and would he ever have sent his own
Son, the Creator of the angels, into the world, to have done and suffered
such things?
What self-righteous persons take to themselves, is the same work that
Christ was engaged in when he was in his agony and bloody sweat, and
when he died on the cross, which was the greatest thing that ever the eyes
of angels beheld. Great as it is, they imagine they can do the same that
Christ accomplished by it. Their self-righteousness does in effect charge
Christ's offering up himself in these sufferings, as the greatest instance of
folly that ever men or angels saw, instead of being the most glorious
display of the divine wisdom and grace. Yea, self-righteousness makes all
that Christ did through the whole course of his life, all that he said and
suffered, and his incarnation itself, and not only so, but all that God had
been doing in the great dispensations of his providence from the
beginning of the world to that time, as nothing but a scene of the most
wild, extreme, and transcendent folly.
Is it any wonder, then, that a self-righteous spirit is so represented in
Scripture, and spoken of, as that which is most fatal to the souls of men?
And is it any wonder, that Christ is represented in Scripture as being so
provoked with the Pharisees and others, who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and were proud of their goodness, and thought that
their own performances were a valuable price of God's favour and love?
Let persons hence be warned against a self-righteous spirit. You that are
seeking salvation, and taking pains in religion, take heed to yourselves
that you do not trust in what you do. Harbour no such thoughts, that God
now, seeing how much you are reformed, how you are sometimes
affected, will be pacified towards you, and will not be so angry for your
former sins; that you shall gain on him by such things, and draw his heart
to show you mercy. If you entertain the thought, that God is obliged to do
it, and does not act justly if he refuse to regard your prayers and pains; if
you quarrel with God, and complain of him for not doing it, this shows
what your opinion is of your own righteousness, viz. that it is a valuable
price of salvation, and ought to be accepted of God as such. Such
complaining of God, and quarrelling with him, for not taking more notice
of your righteousness, plainly shows that you are guilty of arrogance,
thinking yourself sufficient to offer the price of your own salvation.
III. What has been said on this subject, affords matter of reproof to those
who carelessly neglect the salvation of Christ. These live a senseless kind
of life, neglect the business of religion and their own souls, not taking any
course to get an interest in Christ, or what he has done and suffered, or
any part in that glorious salvation he has purchased. They have their
minds taken up about the gains of the world, or the vanities and pleasures
of youth, and make light of what they hear of Christ's salvation, to that
degree, that they do not at present so much as seek after it. Let me here
apply myself to you in some expostulatory interrogations.
1. Shall so many prophets, and kings, and righteous men, have their
minds so much taken up with the prospect, that the purchase of salvation
was to be wrought out in ages long after their death; and will you neglect
it when actually accomplished? You have heard what great account the
church in all ages made of the future redemption of Christ; how joyfully
they expected it, how they spoke of it, how they studied and searched into
these things, how they sung joyful songs, and had their hearts greatly
engaged about it, though they did not expect that it would be
accomplished till many ages after their death, 1 Pet. i. 10-12. How much
did Isaiah and Daniel, and other prophets, speak concerning this
redemption! And how much were their hearts engaged, and their
attention and study fixed upon it! How was David's mind taken up in this
subject! He declared that it was all his salvation, and all his desire; 2 Sam.
xxiii. 5. How did he employ his voice and harp in celebrating it, and the
glorious display of divine grace therein exhibited! and all this although
they beheld it not as yet accomplished, but saw that it was to be brought
to pass so long a time after their day.—And before this, how did Abraham
and the other patriarchs rejoice in the prospect of Christ's day, and the
redemption which he was to purchase! And even the saints before the
flood were affected and elated in the expectation of this glorious event,
though it was then so long future, and it was so very faintly and obscurely
revealed to them.
Now these things are declared to you as actually fulfilled. The church now
has seen accomplished all those great things which they so joyfully
prophesied of; and you are abundantly shown how those things were
accomplished: Matt. xiii. 17. "Verily I say unto you, that many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not
heard then." And yet, when these things are thus abundantly set before
you as already accomplished, how light do you make of them! How
unconcerned are you about them, following other things, and not so
much as feeling any interest in them! Indeed your sin is extremely
aggravated in the sight of God. God has put you under great advantages
for your eternal salvation, far greater than those saints of old enjoyed. He
has put you under a more glorious dispensation; has given you a more
clear revelation of Christ and his salvation; and yet you neglect all these
advantages, and go on in a careless course of life, as though nothing had
been done, no such proposals and offers had been made you.
2. Have the angels been so engaged about this salvation which is by Christ
ever since the fall of man, though they are not immediately concerned in
it, and will you who need it, and have it offered to you, be so careless
about it? You have heard how the angels at first were subjected to Christ
as mediator, and how they have all along been ministering spirits to him
in this affair. In all the great dispensations which you have heard of from
the beginning of the world, they have been active and as a flame of fire
582 in this affair, being most diligently employed as ministering spirits to
minister to Christ in this great affair of man's redemption. And when
Christ came, how engaged were their minds! They came to Zacharias, to
inform him of the coming of Christ's forerunner.—They came to the
Virgin Mary, to inform her of the approaching birth of Christ. They came
to Joseph, to warn him of the danger which threatened the new-born
Saviour, and to point out to him the means of safety. And how were their
minds engaged at the time of the birth of Christ! The whole multitude of
the heavenly hosts sang praises upon the occasion, saying, " Glory to God
in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men." And afterwards,
from time to time, they ministered to Christ when on earth; at the time of
his temptation, of his agony in the garden, at his resurrection, and at his
ascension. All these things show, that they were greatly engaged in this
affair; and the Scripture informs us, that they pry into these things: 1 Pet.
i. 12. "Which things the angels desire to look into." And how are they
represented in the Revelation as being employed in heaven in singing
praises to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb! Now, shall
these take so much notice of this redemption, and of the purchaser, who
need it not for themselves, and have no immediate concern or interest in
it, or offer of it; and will you, to whom it is offered, and who are in such
extreme necessity of it, neglect and take no notice of it?
3. Did Christ labour so hard, and suffer so much to procure this salvation,
and is it not worth the while for you to be at some labour in seeking it?
Did our salvation lie with such weight on the mind of Christ, as to induce
him to become man, to suffer even death itself, in order to procure it?
And is it not worth the while for you, who need this salvation, and must
perish eternally without it, to take earnest pains to obtain an interest in it
after it is procured, and all things are ready?
4. Shall the great God be so concerned about this salvation, as often to
overturn the world to make way for it; and when all is done, is it not
worth your seeking after? What great, what wonderful things has he
done; removing and setting up kings, raising up a great number of
prophets, separating a distinct people from the rest of the world,
overturning nations and kingdoms, and often the state of the world; and
so has continued bringing about one change and revolution after another
for forty centuries in succession, to make way for the procuring of this
salvation! And when at the close of these ages, the great Saviour comes,
passing through a long series of reproach and suffering, and then
suffering all the waves and billows of God's wrath for men's sins,
insomuch that they overwhelmed his soul; after all these things done to
procure salvation for sinners, is it not worthy of your being so much
concerned about it, but that it should be thrown by, and made nothing of,
in comparison of worldly gain, gay clothing, or youthful diversions, and
other such trifling things?
O! that you who live negligent of this salvation, would consider what you
do! What you have heard from this subject, may show you what reason
there is in that exclamation of the apostle, Heb. ii. 3. "How shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation?" And in Acts xiii. 41. "Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work
which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you."
God looks on you as great enemies of the cross of Christ, as adversaries
and despisers of all the glory of this great work. And if God has made
such account of the glory of salvation as to destroy many nations, in order
to prepare the way for the glory of his Son in this affair; how little account
will he make of the lives and souls of ten thousand such opposers and
despisers as you, who continue impenitent, when your welfare stands in
the way of that glory! Why surely you shall be dashed to pieces as a
potter's vessel, and trodden down as the mire of the streets. God may,
through wonderful patience, bear with hardened careless sinners for a
while; but he will not long bear with such despisers of his dear Son, and
his great salvation, the glory of which he has had so much at heart, before
he will utterly consume without remedy or mercy.
SECT. II.
An use of encouragement.
I will conclude with a second use, of encouragement to burdened souls to
put their trust in Christ for salvation. To all such as are not careless and
negligent, but make seeking an interest in Christ their main business,
being sensible in some measure of their necessity, and afraid of the wrath
to come; to such, what has been said on this subject holds forth great
matter of encouragement, to venture their souls on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as motives proper to excite you so to do, let me lead you to consider
two things in particular.
1. The completeness of the purchase which has been made. You have
heard, that this work of purchasing salvation was wholly finished during
the time of Christ's humiliation. When Christ rose from the dead, and was
exalted from that abasement to which he submitted for our salvation, the
purchase of eternal life was completely made, so that there was no need
of any thing more to be done in order to it. But now the servants were
sent forth with a message, Matt. xxii. 4. "Behold, I have prepared my
dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come
unto the marriage." Therefore, are your sins many and great? Here is
enough done by Christ to procure their pardon. There is no need of any
righteousness of yours to obtain your pardon and justification: no, you
may come freely, without money and without price. Since therefore there
is such a free and gracious invitation given you, come, come naked as you
are; come as a poor condemned criminal; come and cast yourself down at
Christ's feet, as one justly condemned, and utterly helpless. Here is a
complete salvation wrought out by Christ, and through him offered to
you. Come, therefore, accept of it, and be saved.
2. For Christ to reject one that thus comes to him, would be to frustrate
all those great things which God brought to pass from the fall of man to
the incarnation of Christ. It would also frustrate all that Christ did and
suffered while on earth; yea, it would frustrate the incarnation itself. All
the great things done were for that end, that those might be saved who
should come to Christ. Therefore you may be sure Christ will not be
backward in saving those who come to him, and trust in him; for he has
no desire to frustrate himself in his own work. Neither will God the
Father refuse you; for he has no desire to frustrate himself in all that he
did for so many hundreds and thousands of years, to prepare the way for
the salvation of sinners by Christ. Come, therefore, hearken to the sweet
and earnest calls of Christ to your soul. Do as he invites and as he
commands you, Matt. xi. 28-30. "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.''
PERIOD III. FROM CHRIST’S RESURRECTION TO THE END
OF THE WORLD.
In discoursing on this subject, we have already shown how the work of
redemption was carried on through the two first of the THREE PERIODS
into which we divided the whole space of time from the fall to the end of
the world. We are now come to the third and last period, beginning with
Christ’s resurrection; and would show, that the space of time from the
end of Christ’s humiliation to the end of the world is all taken up in
bringing about the great effect or success of Christ’s purchase
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 12:21:25 GMT -5
PART 1
Scriptural Representations of this Period.
NOT but that there were great effects and glorious success of Christ’s
purchase of redemption before, even from the beginning of the
generations of men. But all that success which; as before, was only
preparatory by way of anticipation, as some few fruits are gathered before
the harvest. There was no more success before Christ came, than God saw
needful to prepare the way for his coming. The time of the successor
effect of Christ’s redemption is after the purchase has been made, as the
proper time for the world to enjoy the light of the sun is the daytime, after
die sun is risen, though we may have some small matter of it reflected
from the moon and planets before. And even the success of Christ’s
redemption while he himself was on earth, was very small in comparison
of what it was after.
But, Christ having finished that greatest and most difficult of all works,
now is come the time for obtaining the end, the glorious effect of it.
Having gone through the whole course of his sufferings and humiliation,
Christ is never to suffer any more. But now is the time for him to obtain
the joy that was set before him. Having made his soul an offering for sin,
now is the time for him to see his seed to have a portion with the great,
and to divide the spoil with the strong.
One design of Christ in what he did in his humiliation, was to lay a
foundation for the overthrow of Satan’s kingdom; and now is come the
time to effect it, as Christ, a little before his crucifixion, said,
"Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this
world be cast out." (John 12:31)
Another design was, to gather together in one all things in Christ. Now is
come the time for this also: John 12:32. "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men unto me;" which is agreeable to Jacob’s prophecy of Christ, that
"when Shiloh should come, to him should the gathering of the people be,"
Genesis 49:10. Another design is the salvation of the elect. Now when his
sufferings are finished, and his humiliation perfected, the time is come
for that also . Hebrews 5:8, 9. "Though he was a Son, yet learned
obedience by the things which he suffered: and being made perfect, he
became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
Another design was, to accomplish by these things great glory to the
persons of the Trinity. John 17:1. "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." Another design was the glory of
the saints. John 17:11."As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." And all the
dispensations of God’s providence henceforward, even to the final
consummation of all things, are to give Christ his reward, and fulfil his
end in what he did and suffered upon earth, and to fulfil the joy that was
set before him.
Before I enter on the consideration of any particular things accomplished
in this period, I would briefly observe how the times of this period are
represented in Scripture.
1. The times of this period, for the most part, are in the Old Testament
called the latter days. We often, in the prophets of the Old Testament,
read of things that should come to pass in the latter days, and sometimes
in the last days, evidently referring to gospel times. They are called the
latter days, and the last days; because this is the last period of the series
of God’s providences on earth, the last period of the great work of
redemption; which is as it were the sum of God’s works of providence; the
last dispensation of the covenant of grace on earth.
II. The whole time of this period is sometimes in Scripture called the end
of the world, 1 Corinthians 10:11. "Now all these things happened unto
them for exsamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the world am come." And the apostle, Hebrews 9:26. in this
expression of the end of the world, means the whole of the gospel-day,
from the birth of Christ to the of judgment: "But now once in the end of
the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
This space of time may well be called the end of the world; for this whole
time is taken up in bringing things to their great end and issue. Before,
things were in a kind of preparatory state; but now they are in a finishing
state. An end is now brought to the former carnal state of things, which
by degrees vanishes, and a spiritual state begins to be established more
and more. Particularly, an end is brought to the former state of the
church, which may be called its worldly state, in which it was subject to
carnal ordinances, and the rudiments of the world. The end is brought to
the Jewish commonwealth, in the destruction of their city and country.
After that, an end is brought to the old heathen empire in Constantine’s
time. The next step is the finishing of Satan’s visible kingdom in the
world, upon the fall of Antichrist, and the calling of the Jews. And last
will come the destruction of the outward frame of the world itself, at the
conclusion of the day of judgment. Heaven and earth began to shake, in
order to a dissolution, according to the prophecy of Haggai, before Christ
came, that so only those things which cannot be shaken may remain, i.e.
that those things which are to come to an end may terminate, and only
those things may remain which are to remain eternally.
In the first place, the carnal ordinances of the Jewish worship came to an
end, in order to make way for the establishment of that spiritual worship,
which is to endure to all eternity:
"Jesus saith unto the woman, Believe me, the hour cometh, when ye
shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father." (John 4:21)
Verse 23. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such
to worship him." This is one instance of the temporary world coming to
an end, and the eternal world beginning. And then, the outward temple
and the city Jerusalem came to an end, to give place to the setting up of
the spiritual temple and city, which are to last for ever. Another instance
of removing those things which are ready to vanish away, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain, is the bringing to an end the
old heathen empire, to make way for the empire of Christ, which shall last
to all eternity. After that, upon the fall of Antichrist, an end is put to
Satan’s visible kingdom on earth, to establish Christ’s kingdom, which is
an eternal kingdom; as the prophet Daniel says, chapter 7:27. "And the
kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High,
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve
and obey him;" which is another instance of the ending of the temporary
world, and the beginning of the eternal one. And then, lastly, the very
frame of this corruptible world shall come to an end, to make way for the
church to dwell in another dwelling-place, which shall last to eternity.
Because the world is thus coming to an end by various steps and degrees,
the apostle perhaps uses this expression, that (not the end but) the ends
of the world are come on us; as though the world has several endings one
after another. The gospel-dispensation a is a finishing state: it is all spent
in finishing things off which before had been preparing, or abolishing
things which before had stood.
It is all spent as it were in summing things and bringing them to their
issues, and their proper fulfillment. Now all the old types are fulfilled, an
the predictions of all the prophets from the beginning of the world shall
be accomplished in this period.
III. That state of things which is attained in the events of this period is
called a new heaven and a new earth: Isaiah 45:17, 18. "For behold, I
create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice for ever in
that which I create: for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her
people a joy." And chapter 66:22. "For as the new heavens and the new
earth which shall remain before me; so shall your seed and your name
remain." See also chapter 51:16. As the former state of things, or the old
world, by one step after another, is through this period coming to an end;
so the new sate of things, or the new world, which is a spiritual world, is
beginning and setting up. In consequence of each of the old state of these
finishings of the state of things, there is the beginning of a new and
eternal state. So that which accompanied the destruction of the literal
Jerusalem, was an establishing of the spiritual. So with respect to the
destruction of the old heathen empire, and all the other endings of the old
state of things; till at length the very outward frame of the world itself
shall come to an end; and the church shall dwell in heaven, which will be
a new habitation. Then shall the utmost be accomplished that is meant by
the new heavens and the new earth. (See Revelation 21:1.) The end of
God’s creating the world, was to prepare a kingdom for his Son, (for he is
appointed heir of the world,) which should remain to all eternity. So far
as the kingdom (if Christ is set up in the world, so far is the world brought
to its end, and the eternal state of things set up-so for are all the great
changes and revolutions of the world brought to their everlasting issue,
and all things come to their ultimate period-so far are the waters of the
long channel of divine providence, which has so many branches, and so
many windings, emptied into their proper ocean, which they have been
seeking from the beginning of their course, and so are come to their rest.
So far as Christ’s kingdom is established in the world, so far are things
wound up and settled in their everlasting state, and a period put to the
course of things in this changeable world; so far are the first heavens and
the first earth come to an end; and the new heavens and the new earth,
the everlasting heavens and earth, established in their room. This leads
me to observe,
IV. That the state of things which is attained by the events of this period,
is what is so often called the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God.
We very often read in the New Testament of the kingdom of heaven. John
the Baptist preached, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand; and so did
Christ and his disciples after him; referring to something that the Jews in
those days expected, and called by that name. They seem to have taken
their expectation and the name chiefly from that prophecy of Daniel in
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel 2:44. "In the days of these kings shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom;" together with chapter 7:13, 14.
Now this kingdom of heaven is that evangelical state of things in the
church, and in the world, wherein consists the success of Christ’s
redemption in this period. There had been often great kingdoms set up
before; as the Babylonish, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman
monarchies. But Christ came to set up the last, which is not an earthly
kingdom, but a heavenly, John 18:36. "My kingdom is not of this world."
This is the kingdom of which Christ speaks, Luke 22:29. "My Father hath
appointed to me a kingdom." This kingdom began soon after Christ’s
resurrection, and is accomplished in various steps from that time to the
end of the world. Sometimes by the kingdom of heaven, is meant not only
that spiritual state of the church which began soon after Christ
resurrection; but also that more perfect state which shall obtain after the
downfall of Antichrist; and sometimes that glorious and blessed state to
which the church shall be received at the day of judgment. So 1
Corinthians 15:50. "This I say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God." – Under this head I would observe several things
particularly, for the clearer understanding of what the Scripture says
concerning this period.
1. The setting up of the kingdom of Christ is chiefly accomplished by four
successive great events, each of which is in Scripture called Christ’s
coming in his kingdom. The first is Christ’s appearing in those wonderful
dispensations of providence in the apostles’ days, in setting up his
kingdom, and destroying its enemies, which ended in the destruction of
Jerusalem. This is called Christ’s coming in his kingdom,
"Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not
taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."
(Matthew 16:28)
(And Matthew 24.) The second is that which was accomplished in
Constantine’s time, in the destruction of the heathen Roman empire. This
is represented as Christ’s coming, and is compared to his coming to
judgment, (Revelation 6 at the latter end.) The third is that which is to be
accomplished at the destruction of Antichrist. This also is represented as
Christ’s coming in his kingdom in the 7th and in other places. The fourth
and last judgment, which is the event principally signified in scripture by
Christ’s coming in his kingdom.
2. Each of the three former is a lively image, or type, of the fourth and
last, viz. Christ’s coming to the final judgment, as the principal
dispensations of providence before were types of his first coming. As
Christ’s last coming to judgment is the resurrection of the dead, so is each
of the three forgoing with a spiritual resurrection. That the coming of
Christ which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem was preceded by a
glorious spiritual resurrection of souls in the calling of the Gentiles
through the preaching of the gospel. Christ’s coming in Constantine’s
time, was accompanied with a glorious spiritual resurrection of the
greater part of the known world in a restoration of it to a visible church
state, from a state of heathenism. Christ’s coming at the destruction of
Antichrist, will be attended with a spiritual resurrection of the church
after it had been long as it were dead, in the times of Antichrist. This is
called the first resurrection in the 20th chapter of Revelation.
Again, as Christ in the last judgment will gloriously manifest himself
coming in the glory of his Father, so in each of the three foregoing events
Christ gloriously manifested himself in sending Judgments upon his
enemies, and in showing favour to his church. As the last coming of
Christ will be attended with a literal gathering together of the elect from
the four winds of heaven, so were each of the preceding attended with a
spiritual gathering in of the elect. As this gathering together of the elect
will be effected by God’s angels with a great sound of a trumpet;
(Matthew 24:31.) so were each of the preceding spiritual ingatherings
effected by the trumpet 4 e gospel, sounded by the ministers of Christ. As
there shall precede the last appearance of Christ, a time of great
degeneracy and wickedness, so this has been, or will be, the case with
each of the other appearances. Before each of them is a time of great
opposition to the church: Wore the first, by the Jews; before the second,
in Constantine’s time, by the heathen; Wore the third, by Antichrist; and
before the last, by Gog and Magog, as described in the Revelation.
By each of these comings of Christ, God works a glorious deliverance for
his church. The first, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, was
attended with bringing advancement of the church in from persecution,
the countenance of civil authority and her triumph over heathen
persecutors. shall be at the downfall of Antichrist, will with an
advancement of the church in glorious prevalence of truth, liberty, peace,
and joy, which we so often read of in the prophetical parts of Scripture.
The lost will be attended with the advancement of the church to
consummate glory in heaven.
Each of these comings of Christ is accompanied with a terrible
destruction of the wicked, and the enemies of the church: the first, with
the destruction of the persecuting Jews, which was amazingly terrible;
the second, with dreadful Judgments on the heathen persecutors of the
church; the third, with the awful destruction of Antichrist, the most cruel
and bitter enemy that ever the church had; the fourth, with divine wrath
and vengeance on all the ungodly. – Further, there is in each of these
comings of Christ an ending of the old, and a beginning of new, heavens
and a new earth; or an end of a temporal state of things, and a heavens
and a new earth; or an end of a temporal state of things, and a beginning
of an eternal state.
3. I would observe, that each of those four great dispensations which are
represented as Christ’s coming in his kingdom, are but so many steps and
degrees of the accomplishment of one event. They are not the setting up
of so many distinct kingdoms of Christ; but only several degrees of the
accomplishment of that one event prophesied of, Daniel 7:13,14. "And I
saw in the night-visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought
him near before him. And them was given him dominion and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which shall
not be destroyed." This is what the Jews expected, and called "the coming
of the kingdom of heaven;" and what John the Baptist and Christ had
respect to, when they said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." This
great event is accomplished by several steps.
4. When Christ came with the preaching of the apostles, to set up his
kingdom in the world, which dispensation ended With the destruction of
Jerusalem, then it was accomplished in a glorious degree; when the
heathen empire was destroy in Constantine’s time, it was fulfilled in a
farther degree; when Antichrist shall be destroyed, it will be
accomplished in a yet higher degree; but when the end of the world is
come, then will it be accomplished in its not perfect degree of all. And
bemuse those four great events are but images one of another, and the
three former but types of the last, and since they are all only several states
of the accomplishment of the same thing; hence we had them all from
time to time prophesied of under one, as in the prophecies of Daniel, and
in the 24th chapter of Matthew, where some things seem more applicable
to one of them, and others to another.
Thus it appears, that as there are several steps of the accomplishment of
the kingdom of Christ, so in each one of the event is accomplished in a
further degree than in the foregoing. That in the time of Constantine was
a greater and further accomplishment of the kingdom of Christ, than that
which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem; that which shall be at the
fall of Antichrist, Will be a further accomplishment of the same thing,
than that which took place in the time of Constantine; and so on with
regard to each; so that the kingdom of Christ is gradually prevailing and
growing by these several great steps of its fulfilment, from the time of
Christ’s resurrection to the end of the world.
5. The great providences or God between these four events, are to make
way for the kingdom and glory of Christ in the great event following.
Those dispensations of providence towards the church and the world,
before the destruction of the heathen empire in the time of Constantine,
seem all to have been to make way for the glory of Christ, and the
happiness of the church in that event. And so the great prove after that,
till the destruction of Antichrist, and the beginning of the glorious times
of the church which follow, seem all calculated to prepare the way for the
greater glory of Christ and his church in that event; and the following
ones to the end of the world seem to be for the greater manifestation of
Christ’s glory at the consummation of all things. – Thus I thought it
needful to observe those things in general concerning this last period,
before I take notice of particular providences by which the work of
redemption is carried on through this period, in their order. Before I
proceed, I will briefly answer an INQUIRY, viz. Why the setting up of
Christ’s kingdom after his humiliation, should be so gradual, since God
could easily have finished it at once? – Though it would be presumption
in us to pretend to declare all the ends of God in this, yet doubtless much
of his wisdom may be seen in it; and particularly in these two things.
1. In this way the glory of God’s wisdom is more visible to the observation
of creatures. If it had been done at once, or in a very short time, there
would not have been such opportunities for creatures to perceive and
observe the particular steps of divine wisdom, as when the work is
gradually accomplished, and one effect is held forth to observation after
another. It is wisely determined of God, to accomplish his great design by
a wonderful and long series of events, that the glory of his wisdom may be
displayed, in the whole series, of events, that the glory of his perfection
may be seen, in particular successive manifestations. If all that glory
which appears in these events had been manifested at once, it would have
been too much for us; it would have overpowered our sight and
capacities.
2. Satan is more gloriously triumphed overse – God could easily by act of
almighty power, at once have crushed, Satan. But by giving him time to
use his utmost subtlety to hinder the success of what Christ had done and
suffered, he is not defeated merely by surprise, but has large opportunity
to ply his utmost power and subtlety again and again, to strengthen his
own interest all that he can by the work of many ages. Thus God destroys
and confounds him, and sets a Christ’s kingdom time after time, in spite
of all his stable machination, and great works, and by every step advances
it still higher and higher, till at length it is fully set up, and Satan perfectly
and eternally vanquished. – I now proceed to take notice of the Particular
events, whereby, from the end of Christ’s humiliation to the end of the
world, the success of Christ’s purchase has been or shall be accomplished.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 12:22:38 GMT -5
PART 2
How Christ was capacitated for ef ecting his purpose.
As the incarnation of Christ was necessary in order to his being in a near
capacity for the purchase of redemption; so his resurrection and
ascension were requisite in order to the success of his purchase.
1. His resurrection. It was necessary in order to Christ’s obtaining the end
and effect of his purchase of redemption, that he should rise from the
dead – For God the Father had committed the whole affair of redemption
to his Son, that he should not only purchase it as priest, but actually bring
it about as king; and that he should do this as Godlyman. God the Father
would -have nothing to do with fallen man in a way of mercy but by a
mediator. But in order that Christ might accomplish the success of his
own purchase as God-man, it was necessary that he should rise from the
dead. Therefore Christ, after he had finished this purchase by death, rises
from the dead, to fulfil the and of his purchase. This matter God the
Father had committed unto him, that he might, as Lord of all, manage all
to his own purposes:
"For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." (Romans
14:9.)
Indeed Christ’s resurrection (and so his ascension) was part of the
success of what Christ did and suffered in his humiliation. For
though Christ did not properly purchase redemption for himself, yet
he purchased, eternal and life and glory for himself as a reward of
what he did and suffered: Philippians 2:8, 9. "He humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also bath highly exalted him." And it may be looked
upon as part of the success of Christ’s purchase, since he did not rise
as a private person, but as the head of the elect church; so that they
did, as it were, all rise with him. Christ was justified in his
resurrection, i.e. God acquitted and discharged him hereby, as
having done and suffered enough for the sins of all the elect: Romans
4:25. "Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our
justification." And God put him in possession of eternal life, as the
head of the church, as a sure earnest that they should follow. For
when Christ rose from the dead, that was the beginning of eternal life
in him. His life before his death was a mortal life, a temporal life; but
after his resurrection it was an eternal life: Romans 6:9. "Knowing
that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no
more dominion over him." Revelation 1:18. "I am he that liveth, and
was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen." – But he was
put in possession of this eternal life, as the head of the body; so that
the whole church, as it were, rises in him. And now he who lately so
much, is to suffer no more for ever but has entered into eternal glory.
This resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to
pass; because hereby Christ rested from the great and difficult work
of purchasing redemption, and received God’s testimony, that it was
finished. The death of Christ was the greatest and most wonderful
event that ever came to pass; but that has a great deal in it that is
sorrowful. But the resurrection of Christ, that sorrow is turned into
joy. The Head of the church, in that great .... [rest is missing in Ages
version]
PART 3
Established Means of Success.
CONSIDER those dispensations of Providence, by which the means of
this success were established after Christ’s resurrection.
I. The abolishing the Jewish dispensation. This indeed was gradually
done, but it began from the time of Christ’s resurrection, in which the
abolition of it is founded. For the Jewish dispensation was not fitted for
the practice of the world in general, or for a church of God dwelling in all
parts of the world: nor would it have been practicable by them. It would
have been impossible for men living in all parts of the world to go to
Jerusalem three times a year, as was prescribed in that constitution.
When therefore God had a design of enlarging his church, as he did after
Christ’s resurrection, it was necessary that this dispensation should be
abolished. If it had been continued, it would have been a great block and
hindrance to the enlargement of the church. Besides, their ceremonial
law, by reason of its burdensomeness, and great peculiarity of some of its
rites, was a wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles, and would
have kept the Gentiles from complying with the true religion. This wall
therefore was broken down to make way for the more extensive success of
the gospel; as Ephesians 2:14, 15.
II. The next thing in order of time seems to be the appointment of the
Christian sabbath. For though this was gradually established in the
christian church, yet those things by which the revelation of God’s mind
and will was made, began on the day of Christ’s resurrection his
appearing then to his disciples, John 20:19. And afterwards, his
appearing was from time to time on that day rather than any other, John
20:26. This appointment was confirmed by his sending down the Holy
Spirit so remarkably on that day, Acts 2:1. and afterwards by directing,
that the public worship of Christians should be on that day, which may be
concluded from. Acts 20:7. 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2. and Revelation 1:10.
And so the day of the week appointed to be the day of the churches holy
rejoicing to the end of the world, and the day of their stated public
worship. And this is a very great and principal means of the success
which the gospel has had in the world.
III. The next thing was Christ’s appointment of the gospel-ministry, by
commissioning and sending forth his apostles to teach and baptize all
nations. Of these things we have an account in Matthew 28:19, 20. "Go
ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world." There were threathings done by
this one commission of Christ to his apostles, viz.
1. The appointment of the office of the gospel-ministry. – For this
commission which Christ gives to his apostles, in the most essential parts
of it, belongs to all ministers; and the apostles, by virtue of it, were
ministers or elders of the church.
2. Something peculiar in this commission, viz. to go forth from one nation
to (Another, preaching the gospel in all the world. The apostles had
something above what belonged to their ordinary character as ministers;
they had an extraordinary power of teaching and ruling, which extended
to all the churches; and not only all the churches which then were, but all
that should be to the end of the world by their ministry. And so the
apostles were, in subordination to Christ, made foundations of the
christian church. See Ephesians 2:20. and Revelation 21:14.
3. Here is an appointment of Christian baptism. This ordinance indeed
had a beginning before; John the Baptist and Christ baptized. But now
especially by this institution is it established as an ordinance to be upheld
in the christian church to the end of the world.-The ordinance of the
Lord’s supper had been established before just before Christ’s crucifixion.
IV. The next thing to be observed, is the enduing the apostles, and others,
with extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost; such as the
gift of tongues, the gift of healing of prophecy, etc. The Spirit of God was
poured out in great aboundance in this respect; so that not only ministers
but very great part of the Christians through the world were both old and
young; not only officers, and more honourable persons, but the meaner
some of people, servants, and handmaids, agreeable to Joel’s prophecy,
Joel 2:28, 29. of which prophecy the apostle Peter takes notice, that it is
accomplished in this dispensation, Acts 2:11. How wonderful a
dispensation was this! Under the Old Testament but few had such
honours put upon them, by God. Moses indeed wished that all the Lord’s
people were prophets, Numbers 11:29. whereas Joshua thought it much
that Eldad and Medad prophesied. But now we find the wish of Moses
fulfilled. And this continued in a very considerable degree to the end of
the apostalic age, or the first hundred years after the birth of Christ,
which is therefore called the age of miracles.
This was a great means of the success of the gospel, and of establishing
the christian church, not only in that age, but in all ages to the end of the
world. For Christianity being established through so great a part of the
known world by miracles, it was after that more easily continued by
tradition; and by means of these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost,
the apostles and others were enabled to write the New Testament, to be
an infallible and perpetual rule of faith and manners to the church. And
these miracles recorded in those writings are a standing proof of the truth
of Christianity to all ages.
V. The next thing is the revealing of those glorious doctrines fully and
plainly, which had under the Old Testament been obscurely revealed. The
doctrine of Christ’s satisfaction and righteousness, his ascension and
glory, and the way of salvation, were under the Old Testament in a great
measure hid under the vail of types and shadows, and more obscure
revelations, as Moses put a vail on his face to hide the shining of it; but
now the vail of the temple is rent from the top to the bottom. Christ, the
antetype of Moses, shines; his face is without a vail; 2 Corinthians 3:12,
13, and 18. Now these glorious mysteries, which were in a great measure
kept secret from the foundation of the world, are clearly revealed.
Ephesians 3:35. Romans 16:25. "According to the revelation of the
mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made
manifest;" and, Colossians 1:26. "Even the mystery which hath been hid
from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints."
Thus the Sun of righteousness, after it is risen, begins to shine forth
clearly, and not by a dim reflection as before. – Christ, before his death,
revealed many things more clearly than ever they had been in the Old
Testament: but the great mysteries of Christ’s redemption, reconciliation
by his death, and justification by his righteousness, were not so plainly
revealed before Christ’s resurrection. Christ gave this reason for it, that
he would not put new wine into old bottles; and it was gradually done
even after his resurrection. In all likelihood, Christ much more clearly
instructed them personally after his resurrection, and before his
ascension; as we read that he continued with them forty days, speaking of
the things pertaining to the kingdom, Acts 1:3. and that "he opened their
understandings, that they might understand the scriptures," Luke 24:45.
But the clear revelation of these things was principally after the pouring
out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, agreeable to Christ’s promise,
John 16:12, 13. "I have yet many things to say unto on, but ye cannot bear
them now. Howbeit, when the spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you
into all truth. Ibis clear revelation of the mysteries of the gospel, as they
are delivered, we have chiefly through the hands of the apostle Paul, by
whose writings a child may come to know more of the doctrines gospel in
many respects, than the greatest prophets knew under the darkness of the
Old Testament.
Thus we see how the light of the gospel, which began after the fall, and
gradually increased to dawn immediately at through all the ages of the
Old Testament, is now come to the light of perfect day, as the brightness
of the sun shining forth in his unvailed glory.
VI. The next thing that I would observe, is the appointment of the office
of deacons in the christian church, which we have an account of in the 6th
chapter of the Acts to take care for the outward supply of the members of
Christ’s church, and the exercise of that great christian virtue charity.
VII. The calling, qualifying, and sending the apostle Paul. This was begun
in his conversion as he was going to Damascus, and was one of the
greatest means of the success of Christ’s redemption that followed: for
this success was more by the labours, preaching, and writings of this
apostle, than all the other apostles put together. For, as he says, 1
Corinthians 15:10. he laboured more abundantly than they all. As he was
the apostle of the Gentiles, so it was mainly by his ministry that the
Gentiles were called and the gospel spread through the world. and the
other nations of Europe, have the gospel among them chiefly through his
means; and he was more employed by the Holy Ghost in revealing the
glorious doctrines of the gospel by his writings, for the use of the church
in all ages, than all the other apostles taken together.
VIII. The next thing I would observe, is the institution of ecclesiastical
councils, for deciding controversies, and ordering the affairs of the
church of Christ, of which we have an account in the 15th chapter of Acts.
IX. The last thing I shall mention under this head, is the committing the
New Testament to writing. Ibis was all written after the resurrection of
Christ by the apostles themselves, except the gospels of Mark and Luke
and the book of the Acts. he that wrote the gospel of Mark, is supposed to
be the son of Mary, in whose house they were praying for Peter, when be,
brought out of prison by the angel, came and knocked at the door; of
which we read,
"And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of
Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many
were gathered together, praying." (Acts 12:12.)
He was the companion of the apostles Barnabas and Paul: Acts 15:37. 11
And Barniibas determined to take with them John, whose surname was
Mark." – He was Bamabas’s sister’s son, and seems some time to have
been a companion of the apostle Paul: Colossians 4:10. "Aristarchus, my
fellow-prisoner, saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas;
touching whom ye received commandment: if he come unto you, receive
him." The apostles seem to have made great account of him as appears by
those places, and also by Acts 12:25. "And Barnabas and Saul returned
from Jerusalem, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark;"
and Acts 13:5. "And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word
of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John to their
minister;" and 2 Timothy 4:11. "Only Luke is with me; take Mark and
bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry."
He who wrote the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, was a great
companion of the apostle Paul. Beside the last-mentioned place, he
speaks of himself as accompanying Paul in his travels, and therefore
speaks in the first person plural; We went to such a place; We set sail, etc.
He was greatly beloved by the apostle Paul: he is that beloved physician
spoken of, Colossians 4:14. The apostle ranks Mark and Luke among his
fellow-labourers, Philemon 24. "Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my
fellow-labourers."
The books of the New Testament are either historical, doctrinal, or
prophetical. The historical books are the writings of the four evangelists,
giving us the history of Christ, his purchase of redemption, his
resuffection and ascension; and the Acts of the Apostles, giving an
account of the eat things by which the christian church was first
established and propagated. The doctrinal books are the epistles; most of
which we have from the great apostle Paul. And we have one prophetical
book, which takes place after the end of the history of the whole Bible,
and gives an account of the great events which were to come to pass, by
which the work of redemption was to be carried on to the end of the
world.
All these books are supposed to have been written before the destruction
of Jerusalem, excepting those which were written by the apostle John,
who lived the longest of all the apostles and who wrote after the
destruction of Jerusalem, as it; supposed. To this beloved disciple it was
that Christ revealed those wonderful things which! were to come to pan in
his church to the end of time; and he was the person who put the
finishing hand to the nation of Scripture, and sealed the whole of it. So
that now the canon of Scripture, that great and standing written, rule,
which was begun about Mose’s time is completed and settled, and a curse
denounced against him that adds any thing to it, or diminishes any thing
from it. And so all the stated means of grace were finished in the
apostolical age, or before the death of the a apostle John, and are to
remain unaltered to the day of judgment. Thus far we have considered
those things by which the means of grace were given and established in
the christian church.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2024 12:23:45 GMT -5
PART 4
How the Success was Carried On.
FROM Christ’s resurrection till the fall of Antichrist, is the appointed day
of Zion’s troubles. During this space Of time, some part or other of the
church is under persecution; and great pad of the time, the whole church,
or at least the generality of God’s people, have been persecuted. For the
first three hundred years after Christ, the church was for the most part in
a state of great affliction the object of reproach and persecution; first by
the Jews, and then by the heathen. – After this, from the beginning of
Constantine’s time, the church had rest and prosperity for a little while;
which is represented in Revelation 7 at the beginning, by the angel’s
holding the four winds for a little while. But presently after, the church
again suffered persecution from the Arians. After that Antichrist rose, the
church was driven away into the wilderness, was kept down in obscurity,
contempt, and suffering, for a long time before the Reformation by
Luther and others. And since the Reformation, the church’s persecutions
have been beyond all that ever were before. And though some of God’s
church sometimes have had rest, yet to this day, for, the most part, the
true church is very much kept under by its enemies, and some parts of it
under grievous persecution. And so we may expect it will continue till the
fall of Antichrist. Then will come the appointed day of the church’s
prosperity on earth, the set time in which God will favour Zion, the time
when the saints shall not be kept under by wicked men, but wherein they
shall reign, as it is said, Revelation 5:10. "And the kingdom shall be given
to the people of the saints of the Most-High," Daniel 7:27.
The suffering state of the church is in Scripture represented as a state of
the church’s travail, (John 16:20,21. and Revelation 12:1, 2.) striving to
bring forth that glory and prosperity which shall be after the fall of
Antichrist, and then shall she bring forth her child. This is a long time of
the church’s trouble and affliction, though it be but for a little season, in
comparison of the eternal prosperity of the church. Hence under the long
continuance of this affliction, she cries out, (Revelation 6:10.) "How long,
O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth?" And we are told, that 6. white robes were given
unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest
yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren
that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." So, Daniel 12:6.
"How long shall it be to the end of these wonders."
It is to be observed, that during the time of these sufferings of the church,
the main instrument of their sufferings has been the Roman government.
Rome therefore in the New Testament is called Babylon; because, as of
old the troubles of the city of Jerusalem were mainly from that adverse
city Babylon, so the troubles of the christian church, the spiritual
Jerusalem, during the long time of its tribulation, are mainly from Rome.
Before the time of Constantine, the troubles of the christian church were
from heathen Rome: since that time, its troubles have been mainly from
antichristian Rome. And as of old, the captivity of the Jews ceased on the
destruction of Babylon, so the time of the trouble of the christian church
will cease with the destruction of the church of Rome, that spiritual
Babylon.
PART 1
THE SUCCESS OF REDEMPTION FROM THE RESURRECTION
OF CHRIST TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.
I WOULD now show, how the success of Christ’s purchase of redemption
was carried on from Christ’s resurrection to the destruction of Jerusalem.
In speaking of this I would,
1. take notice of the success itself; and,
2. the opposition made against it by its enemies; and,
3. the terrible judgments of God on those enemies.
I. I would observe the success itself. Soon after Christ had entered into
the holy of holies with his own blood, them began a glorious success of
what he had done and suffered. – Having undermined the foundation of
Satan’s kingdom, it began to fall space. Swiftly did it hasten to ruin, which
might well be compared to Satan’s falling like lightning from heaven.
Satan before had exalted his throne very high in this world, even to the
very stars of heaven, reigning with great glory in his heathen Roman
empire; but never before had he such a downfall as he had soon after
Christ’s ascension. He had, we may suppose, been very lately triumphing
in a supposed victory having brought about the death of Christ, which he
doubtless gloried in as the greatest feat that ever he did; and probably
imagined he had totally defeated God’s design by him. But he was quickly
made sensible, that lie had only been ruining his own kingdom, when he
saw it tumbling so fast so won after, as a consequence of the death of
Christ. For Christ, having ascended, and received the Holy Spirit, poured
it forth abundantly for the conversion of thousands and millions of souls.
Never had Christ’s kingdom been so set up in the world. There probably
were mom souls converted in the age of the apostles, than had been
before from the beginning of the world till that time. Thus God so soon
begins gloriously. to accomplish his promise to his Son, wherein he had
promised, That he should see his seed, and that the pleasure of the Lord
should prosper in his hand, if he would make his soul an offering for sin.
And,
1. Here is to be observed the success which the gospel had among the
Jews; for God first began with them. He being about to reject the main
body of that people, first calls in his elect from among them. It was so in
former great and dreadful judgments of God on that nation; the bulk of
them were destroyed, and only a remnant saved, or reformed. The bulk of
the ten tribes was rejected, when they left the true worship of God under
Jeroboam, and afterwards more fully in Ahab’s time; but yet there was a
remnant of them reserved. Many left their possessions in these tribes,
and settled in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And afterwards there
were seven thousand in Ahab’s time, who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
From the captivity into Babylon, only a remnant of them ever returned to
their own land. So now the greater part of the people were rejected
entirely, but some few were saved. And therefore this Holy Ghost
compares this reservation of a number that were converted by the
preaching of the apostles, to those former remnants: Romans 9:27.
"Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." – See Isaiah
10:22.
The glorious success of the gospel among the Jews after Christ’s
ascension, began by the pouring out of the Spirit upon the day of
Pentecost. (Acts 2.) So wonderful was this effusion, and so remarkable
and swift the effect of it, that we read of three thousand who were
converted to the christian faith in one day, Acts 2:41. and probably the
greater part of these were savingly converted. And after this, we read of
God’s adding to the church daily such as should be saved, (verse 47.)
Soon after, we read that the number of them were about five thousand.
Thus were not only a multitude converted, but the church was then
eminent in piety, as appears by Acts 2:46, 47, 4:32. Thus the christian
church was first formed from the nation of Israel; and therefore, when
the Gentiles were called, they were added to the christian church of
Israrel, as the proselytes of old were to the Mosaic church of Israel. They
were only grafted on the stock of Abraham, and were not a distinct tree;
for they were all still the seed. of Abraham and Israel; as Ruth the
Moabitess, and Uriah the Hittite and other proselytes of old, were the
same people, an ranked as the seed of Israel.
The christian church began at Jerusalem, and from ,thence was
propagated to all nations: so that this church of Jerusalem was the
mother of all other churches in the World; agreeable to the prophecy,
Isaiah 2:3, 4. "Out of so Zion go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem: and he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many
people." So that the whole church of God is still his spiritual Jerusalem.
After this, we read of many thousands of Jews in Jerusalem that believed,
Acts 21:20. And we read of multitudes of Jews who were converted in
other cities of Judea, and in other parts of the world. For it was the
manner of the apostles to go first into the synagogues of the Jews, and
preach the gospel to them, and many in one Place and another believed;
as in Damascus, Antioch, and many other places.
In this pouring out of the Spirit, at the Pentecost, began that first great
dispensation which is called Christ’s coming in his kingdom. Christ’s
coming thus in a spiritual manner for the glorious erection of his
kingdom in the world is represented as his coming down from heaven,
whither, he had ascended, John 14:18. "I will not leave you comfortless; I
will come unto you." And verse 28. "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I
go away, and come again unto you." And thus the apostles began to see
the kingdom of heaven come with power, as he promised them, Mark 9:1.
2. After the success of the gospel had been so gloriously began among the
Jews, the Spirit of God was next wonderfully poured out on the
Samaritans; who were the posterity of those whom the king of Assyria,
removed from different parts of his dominions, and settled in the land
which had been inhabited by the ten tribes, whom he carried captive.
These had received the five books of Moses, and practiced most of the
Mosaic rites, and so were a sort of mongrel Jews. We do not find them
reckoned as Gentiles in the New Testament: for the calling of the Gentiles
is spoken of as a new thing after this, beginning with the conversion of
Cornelius. But yet it was an instance of making those a people who were
no people: for they had corrupted the religion of Moses and did not go up
to Jerusalem to worship. They had another temple of their own in mount
Gerizim; which is the mountain of which the woman of Samaria speaks,
when she says, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. Christ there
does not approve of their separation from the Jews; but says, that they
worshipped they knew not what, and that salvation is of the Jews. But
now salvation is brought from the Jews to them by the preaching of
Philip, (excepting that before Christ had some success among them,) with
whose preaching there was a glorious pouring of the Spirit of God in the
city Samaria; where we are told, that "the people believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of Christ, and were
baptized, both men and women; and that there was great joy in that city,"
Acts 8:8-12.
Thus Christ had a glorious harvest in Samaria; according to what he said
to his disciples at Jacob’s well, three or four years before, on occasion of
the people of Samaria appearing at a distance in the fields coming to the
place where he was. John 4:35, 36. The disposition which the people of
Samaria showed towards Christ and his gospel, showed that they were
ripe for the harvest; and now the harvest is come by Philip’s preaching.
There used to be a most bitter enmity between the Jews and Samaritans;
but now, by their conversion, the christian Jews and Samaritans are all
happily united for in Christ Jesus is neither Jew nor Samaritan, but
Christ is all in all. This was a glorious instance of the wolf dwelling with
the lamb, and the leopard lying down with the kid.
3. The next thing to be observed is the calling the Gentiles. This was a
great and glorious dispensation, much Spoken of in the Old Testament,
and by the apostles, as a most glorious event, This was begun in the
conversion of Cornelius and his family greatly to the admiration of Peter,
who was used as instrument of it, and of those who were with him, Acts
10:and 11:The next instance was the conversion of great numbers of
Gentiles in Cyprus, Cyrene and Antioch, by the disciples who were
scattered a by the persecution which arose about Stephen, Acts 11:19- 21.
And presently upon this the disciples began to be called Christians first at
Antioch, (Verse 26.)
After this vast multitudes of Gentiles were converted in different of the
world, chiefly by the ministry of the apostle Paul, multitudes flocked into
the church of Christ in a great number of cities where the apostle came.
So the number of Gentile members of the christian church soon far
exceeded that of its Jewish members; yea, in law than ten years time after
Paul was sent forth from Antioch to preach to the Gentiles, it was said of
him and his companions, that they had tamed the world upside down:
Acts 17:6. "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither
also." But the most remarkable instance, seems to be that in Ephesus,
which was a very great city, Acts 19:There was also a very extraordinary
ingathering of souls at Corinth, one of the greatest cities in all Greece.
And after this many were converted in Rome, the chief city of all the
world; and I the gospel was propagated into all parts of the Roman
empire. Thus the gospel-sun which had lately risen on the Jews, now rose
upon, and began to enlighten, the heathen world, after they had
continued in gross heathenish darkness for so many ages.
This was a great and new thing, such as never had been before. All
nations but the Jews, and a few who had occasionally joined them, had
bee rejected from about the time of Moses. The Gentile had been covered
with the thick darkness of idolatry; but now at the joyful sound of the
gospel, they began in all Pam to forsake their idols, and to cast them to
the moles and to the bats. They now learned to worship the true God, and
to trust in his Son Jesus Christ. God owned them for his people; and
those who had so long been afar off, were made nigh by the blood of
Christ. Men, from being heathenish and brutish, became the children of
God; were called out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness, and brought into
God’s marvellous light. In almost all countries throughout the known
world there were christian assemblies, and joyful praises were sung to the
true God, and Jesus Christ the glorious Redeemer. Now that great
building which God began soon after the fall of man, rises gloriously in a
new manner now Daniel’s prophecies concerning the last should succeed
the four heathenish in be fulfilled; now the stone cut out of the mountain
without hands, began to smite the image on its feet, and to it in pieces,
and to make great advances towards filling earth; and now God gathers
together his elect the four winds of heaven, by the preaching of the
apostles and other ministers, (the angels of the christian church sent
forth with the great sound of the gospel-trumpet,) before the destruction
of Jerusalem, agreeable to what Christ foretold, Matthew 24:31.
II. I would proceed now, in the second place, to take notice of the
opposition which was made to this success of Christ’s purchase by the
enemies of it.-Satan, who lately was so ready to triumph and exult, as
though he had gained the victory in putting Christ to death, now finding
himself fallen into the pit which he had digged and finding his kingdom
failing so fast, and seeing Christ’s kingdom make such amazing progress,
was filled with the greatest confusion and astonishment: and hell seemed
to effectually alarmed to make the most violent opposition against it.
And, first, the devil stirred up the Jews, who had before crucified Christ,
to persecute the church: for it is observable, that the persecution which
the church suffered during this period, was mostly from the Jews. Thus
we read in the Acts, when the Holy Ghost was poured out at Pentecost,
how the Jews mocked, and said, These men are full of new wine; and how
the scribes and Pharisees, and the captain of the temple, were alarmed,
and bestirred themselves to oppose and persecute the apostles. They first
apprehended and threatened them, and afterwards imprisoned and beat
diem; and breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, they stoned Stephen in a tumultuous rage; and were not
content to persecute those that they could find in Judea, but sent abroad
to Damascus and other places, to persecute all that they could find every
where. Herod, who was chief among them, stretched forth his hands to
vex the church, and killed James with the sword, and proceeded to take
Peter also, and cast him into prison.
So in other countries we find, that almost wherever the apostles came, the
Jews opposed the gospel in a most malignant manner contradicting and
blaspheming. How many things did the blessed apostle Paul suffer at
their hands! how violent and blood-thirsty did they show themselves
towards him, when he came to bring alms to his nation! In this
persecution and cruelty was fulfilled that saying of Christ,
"Behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some
of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city." (Matthew
23:34.)
III. I proceed to take notice of the judgments which were executed on
those enemies of Christ, the persecuting Jews.
1. The bulk of the people were given up to judicial blindness of mind and
hardness of heart. Christ denounced such a woe upon them in the days of
his flesh; Matthew 13:14, 15 – This curse was also denounced on them by
the apostle Paul, Acts 28:25, 26, 27. and under this curse, this judicial
blindness and hardness, they remain to this very day, having been subject
to it for about seventeen hundred years, being the most awful instance of
such a judgment, and monument of God’s terrible vengeance, of any
people. That they should continue from generation to generation so
obstinately to reject Christ, so that it is a very rare thing that any one of
them is converted to the christian faith – though their own Scriptures of
the Old Testament, which they acknowledge, are so full of plain
testimonies against them-is a remarkable evidence of their being
dreadfully left of God.
2. They were rejected from being any longer God’s visible people. They
were broken on from the stock of Abraham, and since that have no more
been reputed his seed, than the Ishmaelites or Edomites, who are as
much his natural seed as they. The greater part of the two tribes were
now cast off, as the ten tribes had been before, and another people were
taken in their room, agreeable to the predictions of their own prophets;
Deuteronomy 32:21. "They have moved me to jealousy with that which is
not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will
move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, I will provoke
them to anger with a foolish nation;’ and Isaiah 65:1. "I am sought of
them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not." –
They were visibly rejected by God’s directing his apostles to turn away
from them, and let them alone; Acts 13:46, 47. "Then Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from You, and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles: for so
hath the Lord commanded its." And so Acts 18:6. and 28:28.
Thus far we have had the scripture history to guide us: henceforward we
shall have the guidance only of scripture prophecy, and human histories.
3. The third and last judgment of God on those enemies of the success of
the gospel which I shall mention, is the terrible destruction of their city
and country by the Romans. – They had great warnings and many means
used with them before this destruction. First, John the Baptist warned
them, and told them, that the axe was laid at the root of the tree; and that
every tree which should not bring forth good fruit, should be hewn down,
and cast into the fire. Then Christ warned them very particularly, and
told them of their approaching destruction, at the thoughts of which he
wept over them. And then the apostles after Christ’s ascension
abundantly warned them. But they proved obstinate, and went on in their
opposition to Christ and his church, and in their bitter persecuting
practices. Their so persecuting the apostle Paul, of which we have an
account towards the end of the Acts of the Apostles, is supposed to have
been not more than seven or eight years before their destruction.
After this, God was pleased to give them one more very remarkable
warning by the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, written, it is
supposed, about four years before their destruction; wherein the plainest
and clearest arguments am set before them from their own law, and from
their prophets, for whom they professed such a regard, to prove that
Christ Jesus must be the Son of God, that all their law: typified him, and
that the Jewish dispensation must needs have ceased. For though the
epistle was more immediately directed to the christian Hebrews, yet the
matter of the epistle plainly shows that the apostle intended it for the use
and conviction of the unbelieving Jews. And in this epistle he mentions
particularly the approaching destruction, chapter 10:25. "So much the
more, as ye see the day approaching;" and in verse 27. he speaks of the
approaching judgment and fiery indignation which should devour the
adversaries.
But the generality of them, refusing to receive conviction, God soon
destroyed with such terrible circumstances, as the destruction of the
country or city since the foundation of the world can parallel; agreeable to
what Christ foretold,
"For then shall be tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of
the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Matthew 24:21.)
The first destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was very terrible,
as it is in a most affecting manner described by the prophet Jeremiah, in
his Lamentations; but that was nothing to the dreadful in and wrath
which they suffered in this destruction. God as Christ foretold, brought
on them all the righteous blood that had been shed from the foundation
the world. Thus the enemies of Christ are made his footstool after his
ascension, agreeable to God’s promise in Psalm 110. and he rules them
with a rod of iron. The briars and thorns set themselves against him in
battle: but he went through them; he burned them together.
This destruction of Jerusalem was in all respects agreeable to what Christ
had foretold of it, Matthew 24 as appears by the account which Josephus
gives of it, who was then present, who had a share in the calamity, and
who wrote the history of their destruction. Many circumstances
resembled the destruction of the wicked at the day of judgment; by his
account, it was accompanied with many fearful sights in the heavens, and
with a separation of the righteous from the wicked. Their city and temple
burnt, and razed to the ground; and the ground on which the city stood
was ploughed, so that one stone was not left upon another, Matthew 24:2.
The people had ceased for the most part to be an in dependent
government after the Babylonish captivity; but the sceptre entirely
departed from Judah on the death of Archelaus, when Judea was made a
Roman province. After this, they were cast off from being the people of
God; but now their very city and land are utterly destroyed, and they
carried away from it; and so have continued in their dispersions through
the world for now above sixteen hundred years.
Thus there was a final end put to the Old Testament world: all was
finished with a kind of day of judgment, in which the people of God were
saved, and his enemies terribly destroyed. – Thus does he who was so
lately mocked, who was so lately mocked, despised, and spit upon by
these Jews, and whose followers they so malignantly persecuted, appear
gloriously exalted over his enemies
|
|
