38. Secondly, We have declared, in the entrance of this discourse, that the Messiah was the means promised for the delivery of man- kind from that woful estate of sin and misery whereinto they had east themselves. This was declared unto all in general; this they believed whom God graciously enabled thereunto. But how this deliverance should be wrought in particular by the Messiah; how the works of the devil should be destroyed; how God and man should be reconciled; how sinners might recover a title unto their lost happi- ness, and be brought to an enjoyment of it,—this was unknown not only unto all the sons of men, but also to all the angels in heaven themselves. Who, then, shall unfold this mystery, which was hid in the counsel of God from the foundation of the world? It was utterly beyond the reason and wisdom of man to give any tolerable conjec- ture how these things should be effected and brought about; but all this is fully declared by this prophet himself. In his doctrine, in what he taught, doth this great and hidden mystery of the re- conciliation and salvation of mankind open itself gloriously to the minds and understandings of them that believe, whose eyes the god of this world hath not blinded,—and to them alone; for although this promise of the Messiah was all that God gave out unto Adam, and by him unto his posterity, to keep their hopes alive in their miser- able condition in the earth, yet such was its obscurity, that, meeting with the minds of men full of darkness, and hearts set upon the pur- suit of their lusts, it was, as to the substance of it, utterly lost to the greatest part of mankind. Afterwards the thing itself was again
400 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERO. XVII.
retrieved unto the faith and knowledge of some, by new revelations and promises; only the manner of its accomplishment was still left hid in the depths of the bosom of the Almighty. But, as we said, by the preaching of Jesus both the thing itself and the manner of it are together brought to light, made known, and established be- yond all the power of Satan to prevail against it. This was the work of the promised prophet, this was done by Jesus of Nazareth ; who is therefore both Lord and Christ.
39. Thirdly, We have also declared how God, in his wisdom and sovereignty, restrained the promise unto Abraham and his posterity, shadowing out among them the accomplishment of it in Mosaical rites and institutions; and these also received manifold explications by the succeeding prophets. From the whole, a system of worship and doctrine did arise, which turned wholly on this hinge of the promised Messiah, relating in all things to the salvation to be wrought by him. But yet the will and mind of God was in this whole dis- pensation so folded and wrapped up in types, so veiled and shadowed by carnal ordinances, so obscured and hid in allegorical expres- sions, that the bringing of it forth unto light, the removal of the clouds and shades that were cast upon it, with a declaration of the nature, reason, and use of all those institutions, was a work no less glorious than the very first revelation of the promise itself. This was that which was reserved for the great prophet, the Messiah; for that God would prescribe ordinances and institutions unto his church, whose full nature, use, and end, should be everlastingly un- known unto them, is unreasonable to imagine. Now, this is done in the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual end, use, and nature, of all those sacrifices and typical institutions,—which, unto them who were conversant only with their outside, servile perfor- mance, were an insupportable yoke of bondage, as the Jews find them unto this day, being never able to satisfy themselves in their most scrupulous attendance unto them,—are all made evident and plain, and all that was taught by them accomplished. This was the work of the prophet like unto Moses. He fulfilled the end and unveiled the mind of God in all those institutions And he hath done it so fully, that whoever looks upon them through his declara- tion of them cannot but be amazed at the blindness and stupidity of the Jews, who, rejecting the revelation of the counsel of God by him, adhere pertinaciously unto that whereof they understand aright no one tittle or syllable; for there is not the meanest Christian, who is instructed in the doctrine of the gospel, but can give a better ac- count of the nature, use, and end, of Mosaical institutions, than all the profound rabbins in the world either can or ever could do, he that is least in the kingdom of God being greater in his light and knowledge than John Baptist himself, who yet was not behind any
SECT. 39-41.] THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 401
of the prophets that went before him. This, I say, is that which the promised prophet was to do; and, moreover, he was to add the in- stitutions of his own immediate revelation, even as Moses had given them the law of ordinances of old. And in this super-institution of new ordinances of worship, thereby superseding those instituted by Moses, was he like unto him, as was foretold.