! kinds of them; and every thing is beft in its place, and kind, and proportion to the whole, though not fimply and in it felf. It is best that in a body there fhould be a Foot, as well as an Head, though fimply, and in it felf the Head be more excellent. The Wifdom of God appears not only in the individual matures of things; but in their references and proportions to other things, and to the abole, whereof they are parts: fo it is better, and the Wildom of God appears more, in that there was both a Legal and a Gofpel Difpenfation of Chrift and his Benefits, though the Gospel Difpenfation be in it felf far the more excellent. Therefore this is a third Beam of his Glory that fhines forth herein, viz. his manifold Wifdom. As there is infinite Wifdom in every thing God doth, fo he would have us fee it. 4. This variety of Difpenfation manifefts the Lords abfolute Freedom, and Liberty, and Soveraignty in the ufe of Means and Inftruments, that he is not tyed to any of them: He can work by little or by great means, by few or many. He can difpenfe the fame Grace to his Church either in a Family-way, or in a Nation, or in all Nations. For the Church of God was first a Family, then in populo Ifraelitico, and now in popalo Catholico. He can reveal himself either by ordinary or extraordinary perfons; either in a more immediate way, or in a mediate way. He hath not limited himself to one way, or time, or manner of fpeaking, left we fhould afcribe the Glory to the Means, to the Tools, rather than the bleffed Workman and Author. Therefore he is pleafed ever and anon to change the Means, to break his Tools, as it were, and throw them away, and make new ones. Hence, if men begin to think that a Temple at Jerufalem hath any Salvation in it, he will burn it up, and be worshipped in spirit and truth in every Cottage; as Job. 4. pure Incense every wbere, Mal. 1.11. 5. The fifth Beam of Divine Glory that fhines forth in this variety of Administration is the Glory of peculiar Goodness,n bich the Lord will receive by this means from every Saint of his, according to his peculiar dealing with him. Some will blefs him for Multitude and Excellency of Means, others will admire his Power and Grace in working by fmall and weak means: Some will praife him for one kind of Difpenfation, others for another kind. As for inftance. A New-Teftament Saint will praise God, that he caufed him to live in the Noon-day, and under the highest Meridian of Gofpel-Light; when the Earth was full of the Knowledge of the Lord. Oh, what fhould I have been, if my lot had fallen under former times of Ignorance and Darkness. But another in thofe former dark times, (as for inftance, Abrabam) he will admire and wonder at God's Mercy, that when Darkness was round about him; yet the Lord opened opened his eyes, to fpy the Sun of Righteousness peeping up; and caused him then to rejoyce to fee Chrift's Day: That his Fleece was wet, when the rest of the Earth was dry; his Heart drawn after God and Christ, when the means were fo fcant and fmall. One Believer will blefs God, that the Lord was known to him by his Name Jebovak: Another will admire that he did enable him to believe on God Almighty. Some will bless him, that they have seen the Accomplishment of his Promifes and Predictions; and not one thing bath failed of all the Good that God hath spoken, as Josh. 23. 14. Another under former Difpenfations will admire,that his Heart was wrought to embrace the Promiles afar off, and that the Lord made Faith to him, to be the. fubftance of things not feen. Beloved, the Lord makes his Goodness fpecial and peculiar, by variety of Difpenfations, even to Believers living in the fame age, and in the fame place that though in general they be all alike made partakers of the fame common Salvation; yet fuch variety there is in the Lords dealings with them, in regard of Circumstances; that in one respect or other, in regard of one circumftance or other, every one hath experience of peculiar loving Kindness, fingular strains of Mercy; that he can fay wich Paul, never fuch a pattern of Mercy; I have more to blefs God for, than any other in all the world befide. It is fo, much more in feveral ages: So that look as that variety of Wisdom, in fo many feveral things before noted, did declare the infinitenefs of God's Wifdom: So in like manner thefe various kinds and ways of Goodness, being all laid together, will yield the luftre of infinite Goodness, fo far as finite Creatures can contain or conceive it. I fay, when all the particulars are computed, and put together in one fum Total (as they fhall be, when that general Affembly of all the Saints and Angels fhall meet together at the great Day, when they fhall all compare Notes as it were.) It will then appear, that there is no channel wherein Mercy hath not run, no expreflion of loving Kindness that hath been omitted: So manifold have his Difpenfations been, that every Age, and every Perfon fhall be able to bring in their feveral and peculiar portions into the common Treafury of God's Mercies and Praífes; and they fhall all fay and fing tother that Song of Praises in Pfal. 40. 5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful Works which thou baft done, and thy Thoughts which are to usward: They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: If I would declare and Speak of them, they are more than can be numbred. I hall conclude, for the prefent, with three words of Use both from what hath been faid to day, and in the laft Difcourfe upon this Subkea. 1. We may gather fome Chronological Light. 2. We may fee the rife of all the old Heathenifh Superftitions. And, 3. See the Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel. Ufe 1. Here is fome Inftruction and Light may be gathered as to that Question which may easily arife in your thoughts, namely, how long this Old-Teftament Administration lafted? The Anfwer may be gathered from all that hath been faid upon this Subject, that it lafted precifely four thousand years. This will appear, if you compute and put thofe feven Old-Teftament Difpenfations together, which were formerly spoken to. The first Difpenfation from Adam to Noah was fixteen hundred fifty fix years. The fecond from Noah to the Promife made to Abraham, was four bundred twenty seven years. The third from Abraham to the coming out of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. The fourth from the coming out of Egypt, to the Dedication of the Temwas four hundred eighty seven years. The fifth from the Temple to the Captivity, was four hundred years. The fixth, namely, from the Captivity to the Return, was feventy years. The laft Old-Teftament Difpenfation from the Return to the Meffiab's Death, was four hundred and ninety years: And from the Death of Christ to the Destruction of the Temple, and City, and Nation, whereby the Lord did put all that Old Difpenfation to a full end was forty years: AU which Sums put together, amounts exactly to four thousand years: So long did that Old Teftament Difpenfation laft. Ufe 2. We may here fee the rife of all the old Heathenish Superstitions. They were the Corruption of Old-Teftament Difpenfations. As Popery is nothing cife but Chriftianity corrupted by a curfed mixture of Paganism and Judaifm with it; fo in like manner Turcifm is. Ufe 3. We may learn from hence the Glory of the Mystery, yea the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery of the Gofpel; in that it was fo long, and with fo great variety of Difpenfation held forth to the Church of God of old. Surely it was no small matter, which the Lord made ufe of fuch various Providences and Difpenfations to reveal: For they did all tend to, and aim at this, Col. 1. 26. The Mystery which hath been hid from Ages, and from Generations; ver. 27. the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery. Therefore learn to prize the Gospel according to this worth, and this value, that God hath put upon it. To flight it, is to flight all the Glory, and Glorious Difpenfations of God from the beginning of H the the World to this day. For this they did all look at. A Man acknowledges the Glory of the Mystery in two things. 1. When he believes it for himself, with application to himself in particular. 2. When he walks worthy of it. But to disbelieve the Promifes, and to disobey the Commands of lt, is to defpife the Gospel, 2 Theff. 1. 8. And to do fo under fuch a clear Difpenfation of it, as in New Teftament times, certainly the deepest place in Hell will be their Portion. Wo unto thee Chorazin, wo unto thee Bethfaida. For if the mighty Works that have been done in thee, bad been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in duft and ashes. May we not fay, wo unto thee, O London, wo unto thee, O Dublin. For if the Preaching that hath been preach'd in thee,had been in Rome, they would have been convinced, they would have repented before this day. fe 4. Let me repeat a little, and reinculcate thefe things upon you which have been delivered as Reafons, but might have been handled as Ufes of the Point. I beseech you, give unto God the Glory due unto his Name in all his Difpenfations. Praife him for his Condefcention to our Weakness. Obferve the Harmony that is among his Works. His manifold Wifdom. His abfolute Freedom and Soveraignty. And lastly, and above all, his peculiar Goodness Labour to get your Hearts up to this. As a Man is never bumbled enough, till this Convition pierce his Confcience, that he is the chief of Sinners: So a Man is never thankful enough, till he look upon himself as the greatest, ftrangest Object of free Grace in all the world; till he can fay, Never fuch a pattern of Mercy as my felf! And now, having fhewed that the Gospel was preached to them of Old, and that in divers manners, and at fundry times (one fignal Inftance whereof is the Types and Ceremonies) I have in thefe preliminary Difcourfes made way for what I have promised to speak unto, namely, the Types and Shadows of the Old Testament. That which next remains is, that we speak to them more particularly, which we shall proceed unto hereafter, the Lord aflifting. Romans -Adam, who was the Figure of Him that was to come. HAT the Gospel was preached to them under the Old Testament, THA as well as to us under the New; and that it was revealed to them ia feveral ways and manners of Discovery; and in a gradual way, in several pieces and parcels, hath been formerly fhewed. One fignal Inftance we gave of thofe divers ways and manners was this, That the Gofpel was preached to them of old by legal Types and Ceremonics. Now concerning thefe (not to infift upon the Analysis of the Chapter) the Text gives you this Doctrine. Dor. That the Lord was pleafed in his infinite Wisdom to design and ordain certain perfons under the Old Teftament, to be Types or Figures of the Meffiah, who was to come. It will be requifite here, 1. To explain the Nature of a Type, to fhew you what a Type is. 2. The Reasons why the Lord fpake in this way. 3. To come to a more particular Diftribution and Enumeration of them. 1. For the Nature of a Type. For the opening of this, because it is a Subject both difficult and ufeful to be rightly understood, and will give light to all that follows to be spoken upon the Types; I fhall therefore 1. Give you a brief Defcription of a Type. 2. Some Rules for the better understanding of them. 3. The Differences and Agreements between a Type and other things of like nature. 4. The Names and Phrafes by which it is expreffed in Scripture. 1. For the Defcription of a Type, what it is. I fhall content my felf with the Apoftles Definition of it: That a Type is a Shadow of good things to come, Hebr. 10. 1. The Law having a Shadow of good things to come, Col. 2. 17. Which are a Shadow of things to come, but the Body is of Chrift. There be three things included in this Defcription. 1. There is fome outward or fenfible thing, that reprefents fome other bigher thing. H 2 2. There |