41. nounced openly, that he found no fault in him: PART III. and put for title of his condemnation, not as the Jews required, that he pretended to be king; but simply, that he was king of the Jews; and notwithstanding their clamour, refused to alter it; saying, What I have written, I have written. of his office was of the elect. As for the third part of his office, which was to The third part be king, I have already shewn that his kingdom to be king, unwas not to begin till the resurrection. But then der his Father, he shall be king, not only as God, in which sense he is king already, and ever shall be, of all the earth, in virtue of his omnipotence; but also peculiarly of his own elect, by virtue of the pact they make with him in their baptism. And therefore it is, that our Saviour saith (Matth. xix. 28) that his apostles should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, When the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory: whereby he signified that he should reign then in his human nature; and (Matth. xvi. 27) The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. The same we may read, Mark xiii. 26, and xiv. 62; and more expressly for the time, Luke xxii. 29, 30, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed to me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. By which it is manifest, that the kingdom of Christ appointed to him by his Father, is not to be before the Son of Man shall come in glory, and make his apostles judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. But a man may here ask, seeing there is no marriage in the kingdom of VOL. III. I I 41. PART III. heaven, whether men shall then eat and drink? What eating therefore is meant in this place? This is expounded by our Saviour (John vi. 27), where he saith, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give you. So that by eating at Christ's table, is meant the eating of the tree of life; that is to say, the enjoying of immortality, in the kingdom of the Son of Man. By which places and many more, it is evident that our Saviour's kingdom is to be exercised by him in his human nature. Christ's authority in the nate to that Again, he is to be king then, no otherwise than kingdom of as subordinate or vicegerent of God the Father, as God, subordi- Moses was in the wilderness; and as the high-priests of his Father. were before the reign of Saul; and as the kings were after it. For it is one of the prophecies concerning Christ, that he should be like, in office, to Moses: I will raise them up a prophet, saith the Lord (Deut.xviii. 18) from amongst their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words into his mouth; and this similitude with Moses, is also apparent in the actions of our Saviour himself, whilst he was conversant on earth. For as Moses chose twelve princes of the tribes, to govern under him; so did our Saviour choose twelve apostles, who shall sit on twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And as Moses authorized seventy elders, to receive the Spirit of God, and to prophecy to the people, that is, as I have said before, to speak unto them in the name of God; so our Saviour also ordained seventy disciples, to preach his kingdom and salvation to all nations. And as when a complaint was made to Moses, against 41. those of the seventy that prophecied in the camp PART III. of Israel, he justified them in it, as being subservient therein to his government; so also our Saviour, when St. John complained to him of a certain man that cast out devils in his name, justified him therein, saying, (Luke ix. 50) Forbid him not, for he that is not against us, is on our part. God, subordi Again, our Saviour resembled Moses in the in- Christ's authority in the stitution of sacraments, both of admission into the kingdom of kingdom of God, and of commemoration of his de- nate to that liverance of his elect from their miserable condition. of his Father. As the children of Israel had for sacrament of their reception into the kingdom of God, before the time of Moses, the rite of circumcision, which rite having been omitted in the wilderness, was again restored as soon as they came into the Land of Promise; so also the Jews, before the coming of our Saviour, had a rite of baptizing, that is, of washing with water, all those that being Gentiles embraced the God of Israel. This rite St. John the Baptist used in the reception of all them that gave their names to the Christ, whom he preached to be already come into the world; and our Saviour instituted the same for a sacrament to be taken by all that believed in him. From what cause the rite of baptism first proceeded, is not expressed formally in the Scripture; but it may be probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses, concerning leprosy; wherein the leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the camp of Israel for a certain time; after which time being judged by the priest to be clean, he was admitted into the camp after a solemn washing. And this may therefore be a type of the washing in baptism; 41. Christ's authority in the nate to that PART III. wherein such men as are cleansed of the leprosy of sin by faith, are received into the Church with the solemnity of baptism. There is another conkingdom of jecture, drawn from the ceremonies of the Gentiles, God, subordi- in a certain case that rarely happens: and that is, of his Father. When a man that was thought dead chanced to recover, other men made scruple to converse with him, as they would do to converse with a ghost, unless he were received again into the number of men by washing, as children new-born were washed from the uncleanness of their nativity; which was a kind of new birth. This ceremony of the Greeks, in the time that Judea was under the dominion of Alexander and the Greeks his successors, may probably enough have crept into the religion of the Jews. But seeing it is not likely our Saviour would countenance a heathen rite, it is most likely it proceeded from the legal ceremony of washing after leprosy. And for the other sacrament of eating the Paschal lamb, it is manifestly imitated in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; in which the breaking of the bread, and the pouring out of the wine, do keep in memory our deliverance from the misery of sin, by Christ's passion, as the eating of the Paschal lamb kept in memory the deliverance of the Jews out of the bondage of Egypt. Seeing therefore the authority of Moses was but subordinate, and he but a lieutenant of God; it followeth that Christ, whose authority, as man, was to be like that of Moses, was no more but subordinate to the authority of his Father. The same is more expressly signified, by that that he teacheth us to pray, Our Father, let thy kingdom come; and, For thine is the kingdom, the power and the 41. glory; and by that it is said, that He shall come PART III. in the glory of his Father; and by that which St. Paul saith, (1 Cor. xv. 24) then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; and by many other most express places. the same God by Moses and Our Saviour, therefore, both in teaching and One and reigning, representeth, as Moses did, the person of is the person God; which God from that time forward, but not represented before, is called the Father; and being still one and Christ. the same substance, is one person as represented by Moses, and another person as represented by his son the Christ. For person being a relative to a representer, it is consequent to plurality of representers, that there be a plurality of persons, though of one and the same substance. CHAPTER XLII. OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. FOR the understanding of POWER ECCLESIASTICAL, what, and in whom it is, we are to distinguish the time from the ascension of our Saviour, into two parts; one before the conversion of kings, and men endued with sovereign civil power; the other after their conversion. For it was long after the ascension, before any king or civil sovereign embraced and publicly allowed the teaching of Christian religion. on the apostles. And for the time between, it is manifest, that of the holy the power ecclesiastical was in the apostles; and spirit that fell after them in such as were by them ordained to preach the gospel, and to convert men to Christi |