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clear: Keep me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust: that is, (as the Chaldee explains it,) in thy word have I put my trust, or hope for salvation, psalm xvi. 1: and ver. 2, I have said unto the Lord, Adonai: and again, ver. 8, &c., I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. But here the eunuch's question unto Philip will interpose itself, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other? I can no way brook their opinion, who think the psalmist speaks all this in the person of Christ, as his figure, but rather in this, as in many other psalms, and in the two last forecited especially, some passages there be which cannot be literally applied but to the psalmist himself, others which cannot be applied to any one but Christ, that is, to God, or the Word incarnate: and verse 9, My heart is glad, &c., contains a feeling expression of that joy or exultation of spirit which did possess all the faculties both of David's body and soul. But what was the object of this his exultation, or the ground of his joy? He expresseth it, ver. 10, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. But the same question here interposeth again; Doth he speak all this of himself, or of some other? Whatsoever may be thought of the former clause of that verse, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, (which, as some think, might be meant both of Christ and David, though in a different measure,) most certain it is, that the latter clause, thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption, was not literally meant of David, much less fulfilled in him, but literally meant of him alone, and literally fulfilled in him alone, whom David in spirit called

Lord, though he then foresaw he should truly be his 704 Son. This undoubted truth we learn from St. Peter, Acts ii. 29-31: Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto 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 to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. And St. Paul, Acts xiii. 36, 37, more fully and more punctually to our animadversions upon this latter clause, expounds it thus: David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. In this, as in many other psalms, the comfort which did arise from the sweet contemplations was David's own, or the psalmist's, who foresaw that great mystery whereof we now treat, but the fountain of their comfort was Christ, or God incarnate, who was to be raised from the dead. David in this psalm did rejoice in heart, that albeit he knew his nature to be like the grass that withereth, albeit he knew his soul should be divorced from his body, yet this divorce he knew (by faith) should not be perpetual; that albeit he could not but expect his body, his flesh and bones should rot in his sepulchre, as the body and flesh of his forefathers, to whom he was to be gathered, had done, yet he foresaw in spirit, that even his body should at length be redeemed from corruption by the resurrection of that Holy One, whose body, though separated for a time from his immortal soul, was not to see or feel any corruption. Finally, though David

and other psalmists forecited (if others they were) did perfectly and explicitly foreknow that they were to die, yet had they as true implicit belief of that which our apostle explicitly delivers, Coloss. iii. 3, 4: that their life was hid with Christ in God: that when Christ, who was their life, should appear, they should also appear with him in glory.

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6. To the former general query, in what sense we are said by St. John to be born of God,' we answer, that to be born of God, is all one with that of St. Peter, to be born of immortal seed; but what is that immortal seed whereof St. Peter saith we are born again? That, in one word, is the flesh and blood of the Son of man, who is also the Son of God. So he himself instructs us, John vi. 53-55: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. That is meat and drink indeed which nourisheth us not to a bodily but to a spiritual and immortal life, which presupposeth an immortal seed. Unto all these ends and purposes, to our new birth, to our nourishment and growth in spiritual life, the flesh and blood of the Word or Son of God were consecrated by his sufferings upon the cross, and by his resurrection from the dead. He was, according to his human nature, both the Priest appointed to obtain these blessings, and to award them ex officio; and withal the sacrifice, by whose participation they are really and actually conveyed unto all that do or shall inherit the immortality of soul and body.

7. But if his flesh and blood be the seed of immortality, how are we said to be born again by the 705 word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever? Is this word by which we are born, the same with that immortal seed of which we are born? It is the same, not in nature but in person. May we not in that speech of St. Peter, by the word, understand the word preached unto us by the ministers who are God's seedsmen? In a secondary sense we may, for we are begotten and born again by preaching, as by the instrument or means, yet born again by the eternal Word, (that is by Christ himself,) as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth. Thus much St. Peter's words in that place will enforce us to grant according to the letter. For having before declared, that the word of God (by which we are born again) doth live and endure for ever, he thus concludes; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter i. 25.

8. The gospel itself (taken in the largest sense) is but the declaration of the evangelists and apostles upon the prophetical predictions concerning the incarnation, the birth, the death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ. And Christ himself, who was put to death for our sins, and raised again for our justification, is the Word which we all do or ought to preach. The gospel written or preached by us cannot be that Word, which by the gospel is preached unto us. This Word, in the literal assertive sense, can be no other than the eternal Word or Son of God made flesh, and consecrated in the flesh to be the seed of immortality. And if we take the gospel, not according to the outward letter or bark, but for the heart or substance of the gospel, or for the glad tidings of life, (which is the primitive signification of this word evayyéλiov, or

gospel,) that is no other than the Word made flesh, or manifested in the flesh. To this purpose saith our evangelist, or rather the angel of the Lord, Luke ii. 10, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: (this is no more than the prophet saith, All flesh shall see the glory of the Lord.) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Lord he was long before, and this Lord was made flesh before that day wherein he was born, but first manifested in the flesh upon that day, and manifested to be the Saviour of all people, or all flesh, some eight days after, yet not then completely made Christ until his resurrection. Again, the gospel, in its prime or principal sense, is no other or no more than the great mystery of godliness which was inwrapt in the volume of Moses and the prophets, but not revealed or unfolded until the Word was made flesh, was circumcised in the flesh, and made King and Christ: Without controversy, saith St. Paul, 1 Tim. iii. 16, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. All these testimonies put together amount to this point, that the Son of God, manifested in the flesh, was that Word which, in St. Peter's language, is preached by the gospel. And if we do not preach this Word unto our hearers, if all our sermons do not tend to one of these two ends, either to instruct our auditors in the articles of their creed concerning Christ, or to prepare their ears and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions, we do not preach the gospel unto them, we take upon us the name of God's ambassadors, or of the ministers of the gospel, more than in vain.

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