Ja; They believed in Jehovah and his Servant Mofes; fo they were baptized to, hoped or trufted in Mofes who was Vice-Aleim. So the Law of Jehovah is moftly called the Law of Moses. I Cor. x. 2. And were all baptized unto Mofes in the Cloud and in the Sea. So Baptism alludes to Water at the Flood, to the Red-Sea, and the Cloud. John iii. 5. Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Except the Body of Wickedness, which is diffolved by Sin, as the Earth was by Water or Baptism, of which Water is the Emblem, and new formed by the Operation of the Holy Spirit, of which the Operation of the Spirit or the Air is the Emblem, the Man remains under the Curfe as the old Earth was *; except the extravagant Lufts be diffolved as the extraordinary Abundance of the firft Earth was, the Man cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

The fanctified Water in Baptism destroys, drowns, and washes off the old Man which was unclean and dead in Sin; regenerates us, makes us of the clean Kind, capable of, and thereby puts us into a State of Life. See Cranmer of the Lord's Supper..

* In Confequence of the Curfe on the Earth, it was diffolved, fo every Part of it washed by Water and made clean; then reformed or new made by the Spirit; fo Man in Confequence of his Sin is under the Curfe of Diffolution by Death, is washed clean by Water in Baptifm, and new made by the Holy Spirit.

Se

So I Pet. iii. 18. That he [Chrift] may of fer us to God, being put to Death in the Flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which [Spirit] alfo he went and preached unto the Spirits [now] in* Prifon, which fometime were disobedient,

when

*This Text among many others hath been a knotty one to the Commentators, and several strange Notions have been deauced from it, which are too well known to need repeating. Our Author by inferting now, The Spirits (now) in Prison, hath cleared the main Difficulty, but a word or two will make it plainer and more obvious; and indeed every Word in it deferves a particular Confideration. By which (Spirit) alfo he [Chrift] went and preached unto the Spirits in Prifon.

Chrift went and preached.] 'Tis now paft difpute that the whole Gofpel was preached to the Fathers as well as to us, that the whole of Chriflianity was well known to, and believed by fome (though renounced as now by others) from the Fall downwards, and confequently that there always hath been a Church of Believers, in which the Aleim acted each his economical Part in the Covenant. That by the Terms of the Covenant, the fecond Perfon had the Rule, and hath now, and why, would be too long to go about to prove here. Mr. H. and others have done it fufficiently. I fhall cite one Text, John xvi. 13. When he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all Truth: He fhall not fpeak of himself; but whatsoever he fhall hear that fhall he fpeak: [All that was to be taught or made known, the whole of the Means and Method of Man's Recovery, Duty, Rewards, &c. were fettled at the first making the Covenant, fo no Room to make any Addition.] He fhall receive of mine, all Things that the Father [the Effence Jehovah Aleim] has, are mine. As Chrift had this Rule in fome Sort before his Incarnation, this fhews how he preached by the Spirit, i. e. the Holy Spirit. The Text adds mogeudes proceeding, tranflated, went and preached. 'Tis well worth obferving that there are dif

ferent

when once the long suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah, while the Ark was a pre-. paring,

ερχομαι

ferent Words used for the Procedure, or Coming-forth to adminifter, of the Son and Spirit before, and fince the Completion of the Types, spxoua, is used for their real coming out fince or at the Completion of the Types, and mogevoμas before. John' viii. 42. xvi. 28. Chrift when on Earth fays, no TH Θε8, παρα το Θεό, παρα το παίρος, Speaking of the Holy Ghoft's Proceffion or Coming-forth at Pentecoft. John xv. 26. But when the Comforter fhall come whom I will fend. Here sexual is applied to their Coming forth to perform the grand Parts they had undertaken : But as the Church was governed by the fame Divine Perfons before the Manifeftation of Chrift in the Flesh, though in a different Manner, the other Word is used, xv. 26. The Spirit of Truth who Exogevlar. (not who hath, or did, or will, but who now proceeds, he was then performing his Part, which he is faid to come forth to do, but his coming forth then was not in that Manner or to that Degree it was afterwards. Obferve the Contradiftinction the Words are used in. But when the Comforter 20 is come, who ExTOGEVEla now proceeds. So in the Text before us, Chrift's Proceffion to rule or adminifter in his Part before his Incarnation, by which (Spirit) Togudes proceeding he preached, &c. This fhews the Words relate entirely to Adminiftration, not to Manner of Existence. And that if they will prove from Scripture the Proceffion of the Holy Spirit, they may the Son's likewife. I don't know whether our Criticks in Greek, have obferved the different Ufage of the two Words, if not, I recommend it to their Confideration, and beg they would tell us the ftrict Meaning of them, and wherein they differ. It is a material Point if I take it right. But to proceed,

-The Spirits in Prifon.) Several Questions arife here, When did he preach? To whom, and where? If to Men, why is it faid to the Spirits, and not to Men? And what

paring, wherein few, that is, eight Souls, were Javed by Water, The like Figure whereunto, Baptifm

is this Prifon? I think the Text determines evidently (as many allow) that it was before the Flood, after it was threatned, and before the Execution, because it is then they were difobedient, and we know that the Men of that Age were ac tually preached to by Noah, who was a Prophet, a Type of Christ, and affifted by the Holy Spirit. But why are they called Spirits and not Men? It was to Men he preached doubtless, and on Earth, but when the Apostle wrote, their Bodies were dead and rotten, and their Souls only exifted, as to Life I mean and Senfation: And Spirit, is a common Word for the Immortal Part of us. Num. xvi. 22. O Al, O Aleim, of the Spirits of all Flefh. 1 Cor. xii. 10. To another difcerning of Spirits, Seeing into the Souls or Minds of Men, which was one of the Gifts or Powers of the Holy Ghost given to the Apostles, &c. By the by, as Spirit is ufed for Power, not only the invifible Agent, but Action or Effect, we may explain 1 Cor. xiv. 32. The Spirits of the Prophets, (Powers communicated from the Spirit Jehovah, delegated to the Prophets) are fubject to them. The Impulfes upon their Minds, (for that is the direct Meaning of the Word or Spirit) do not force them to act, but it is at their Difcretion to follow them, when most proper: So no neceffity for two to speak together. Heb. xii. 9. We have had Fathers of our FlefhWe gave them Re

verence, fhall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits, the Creator and Former of our Souls? v. 23. which is the parallel of the Text, only speaking of those in the oppofite Condition, Ye are come to the General Affembly and Church of the First Born, who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the Spirits of juft Men made perfect, and to Jefus; (here we fee the Church confifts of the Living and Dead) we know that the fuft at Death are carried into the Bofom of the Father of the Faithful-are with Chrift, not their Bodies but Souls or Spirits, and being made perfect either is their having finish

ed

Baptifm doth now fave us, (not (only) the putting away of the Filth of the Flesh, but the Anfwer of a good Confcience towards God) by the Refurrec tion of Jefus Chrift. This needs no Explanation. The Unbelievers were destroyed by the Waters of the Flood, those who believed were faved in the Ark; fo the carnal Man is drowned in Baptifm not by the Ordinance of washing off the Filth of the Flesh, but by Salt, by Hope, which he calls Interrogatio in Deum, The Anfwer of a good Confcience towards God. So the Cloud was Darkness to, and the Red-Sea deftroyed the Egyptians; and the Cloud was Light to, and the Red-Sea faved those who then trusted in Mofes; fo the Cloud, or he who was in it, from Time to Time destroyed the Unbelievers by Fire, Plague, or &c. and faved those who

ed their Course, or as Chrift is faid to be made perfect the third Day, i. e. raifed from the Dead, the Apoftle may mean those who rose with Chrift, but either Way the Spirits means the Souls, of which fome are in Paradife waiting the Revelation of the Day of Recompence, when their foy shall be full. But the Spirits or Souls of bad Men are referved in Chains of Darkness, (as St. Jude words it of the fallen Angels, and which the Apocrypha makes the Darkness in Egypt to be typical of, and fays they were imprisoned in it) unto the Judgment of the Great Day, like Felons condemned but not fentenced, and kept in a Dungeon or clofe Confinement till the Sentence be pronounced and executed. The Spirits were in their Bodies when Chrift by the Holy Spirit preached to them, but in Prifon when the Apostle wrote. 1. Pet. iv. 6. For this Caufe was the Gofpel preached to them that are dead. Dead when the Apostle wrote, but alive when they were preached to.

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