to the EPHESIANS. To affoil this Difficulty alto: Firf1: ; 'jerome, and others upon this place, they refer it to. God's Decree ; fay they, What God bath decreed to be done, tho it be to come, the Scripture (peaks of it as if it were now prefent, yea, as if it were paf1:. As in Rom. 8. 30. Who11t he did predeflinatc, them he alfo called; and whom he called, them he a!fo jn.fli· fed ; tmd whom he j•tflificd, them he alfo glorified. Becaufe in God"s Decree thefe things are fo Cure, as if they were done at the prefent, yea, as if they were paft,' they are tanqaam pr£teritllnt, as things paf1:, which cannot be undone again. But tho this be a truth, yet it is not fo fpoken here, in refpeCt of God's De– cree only or chiefly, that we are faid to be raifed 11p agai1z, and to fit together in Chriff in heavenly Placu: For if you mark it, it is fomething that was done upon Jefus Chrif1:'s having been railed up, and fet at God's right hand firft, as a Head, (as v. 20 ofthe firf1: Chapter bath it) that we are thereupon laid to be railtid up, and to lit together with him. He cloth not therefore wholly refer this to God's Decree, but he refers to what was done in Chrif1:, when he was raifed up, and now litteth in heavenly Places. He cloth not, I C1y, refer to God's Decree, which was before all Worlds ; but to the RefurreCtion of ChriO:, which was done long lince the World began. Others, they fay this, That it refpeCteth the Work of Faith and Hope in us 5 for by Faitlf, and by Hope, we may fee our !elves raifed, and fet in heavenly pla– ces; and we believe we fhall be railed with ChriO:, and fi1all fit togetherwith him in heavenly places. And becaufe that Faith cloth make things to come as pre– fem, therefore C1y they, the ApoO:le cloth fpeak in the Language of Faith: He hath .•·aifed 111 11p, and he hath made 111 (it togethe>· in he.ven!y PlateJ iJt Chriff. :J./jJ ClliJJ illo in Cfl!!o per JPent, 6'- ille cum nobis per j}>iritllm: He is here with us below by his Spirit, and we with him in Heaven by Faith, and by Hope. And thisalfo is a Truth. Ram. 6. 8. If we be dead with Chrijl, we believe that we ]bail alfo live with him. And as all things .are prefent to God that are to come, who calleth things that are not, as if they were: fo it is true, that all things are pre– !ent to Faith; for it enableth us to look upon things in our proportion, as God cloth: As in Rom. 8. I I. If the Spirit of him that raiftd 11p 'Jejiu fiwn the Dead, dwell ill ;•ozt; he that raifed up Chrijl from the Dead, ]ball aljo q11ick._oz J'OIIr mortal Bodies, by hi1 Spirit that dwelleth in y011. Now for this meaning alto, I deny not, but that it is part of it, as I fi1all Chew you anon; but it is not all : For if fo, (as Za11chy well obferveth) then in the firf1: place, they in the Old TeO:ament, who by Faith faw the Promifes afar off, might believe themfelves raifed, and fet together in heavenly places, in Chrif1: Je– fus that was to come. But I fay f1:ill, the Apof1:1e here pitcheth upon what was aCtually done in Chrif1: already, after the time of the Old TeO:ament, when Chri!1: did rife again; and upon his being raifed, and fet ·in Heaven, we are faid to be raifed, and to fit with him. And then, in the fecond place, it is not faid to be paf1:, becaufe Faith believes it fhall be done; but it is propounded here as re– ally done in Chrif1:, and therefore propounded to our Faith to believe in it ; fo as Faith believes it, becaufe in Chrif1: it is done for us. You will then fay to me, what is it that is imported here? . I take the Words to import our being railed in ChriO:, as in a Head,as in a com– mon Perfon, and in his being railed, and fitting in heavenly places, we are laid alfo to be fo. For the dif1:inCter underO:anding ofthis: Some do interpret the Words [we are raifod in Chrijl] and impute it only to this, that ChriO: having railed our Nature in himfelf,it is as a Pawn that we fi1all be ad– vanced likewife, and fo though Cbrif1: rofe but as a fingle Man, yet becaufe the Human Nature is carried up to Heaven, that is an evidence that our Nature fhall tome thither.too ; that he being advanced, we being his kindred, fhall be ad~ vanced alfo: and fo now it is a Pledg ofour RefurreCtion. And this alfo is agreat Truth, fo~· when Chrif1: went to Heaven, there were mutual Pledges given ofour commg thither, he carried our Nature to Heaven, to Chew, that our Nature * 0 d 2 being 2Il ~) Serm.XVl. ~
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