Again,he is to be king then no otherwise than as subordinate or vicegerent of God the Father,as Moses was in the wilderness,and as the high priests were before the reign of Saul,and as the kings were after it.For it is one of the prophecies concerning Christ that he be like,in office,to Moses:"I will raise them up a prophet,"saith the Lord,"from amongst their brethren like unto thee,and will put my words into his mouth";and this similitude with Moses is also apparent in the actions of our Saviour himself,whilst he was conversant on earth.For as Moses chose twelve princes of the tribes to govern under him;so did our Saviour choose twelve Apostles,who shall sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel:
and as Moses authorized seventy elders to receive the Spirit of God,and to prophesy to the people,that is,as I have said before,to speak unto them in the name of God;so our Saviour also ordained seventy disciples to preach his kingdom and salvation to all nations.And as when a complaint was made to Moses against those of the seventy that prophesied in the camp of Israel,he justified them in it as being subservient therein to his government;so also our Saviour,when St.John complained to him of a certain man that cast out devils in his name,justified him therein,saying,"Forbid him not,for he that is not against us is on our part."
Again,our Saviour resembled Moses in the institution of sacraments,both of admission into the kingdom of God and of commemoration of his deliverance of his elect from their miserable condition.As the children of Israel had for sacrament of their reception into the kingdom of God,before the time of Moses,the rite of circumcision,which rite,having been omitted in the wilderness,was again restored as soon as they came into the Land of Promise;so also the Jews,before the coming of our Saviour,had a rite of baptizing,that is,of washing with water all those that,being Gentiles,embraced the God of Israel.This rite St.John the Baptist used in the reception of all them that gave their names to the Christ,whom he preached to be already come into the world;and our Saviour instituted the same for a sacrament to be taken by all that believed in him.
For what cause the rite of baptism first proceeded is not expressed formally in the Scripture,but it may be probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses concerning leprosy;wherein the leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the camp of Israel for a certain time;after which time,being judged by the priest to be clean,he was admitted into the camp after a solemn washing.And this may therefore be a type of the washing in baptism,wherein such men as are cleansed of the leprosy of sin by faith are received into the Church with the solemnity of baptism.There is another conjecture drawn from the ceremonies of the Gentiles,in a certain case that rarely happens:and that is,when a man that was thought dead chanced to recover,other men made scruple to converse with him,as they would do to converse with a ghost,unless he were received again into the number of men by washing,as children new born were washed from the uncleanness of their nativity,which was a kind of new birth.This ceremony of the Greeks,in the time that Judaea was under the dominion of Alexander and the Greeks his successors,may probably enough have crept into the religion of the Jews.But seeing it is not likely our Saviour would countenance a heathen rite,it is most likely it proceeded from the legal ceremony of washing after leprosy.And for the other sacrament,of eating the Paschal Lamb,it is manifestly imitated in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper;in which the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine do keep in memory our deliverance from the misery of sin by Christ's Passion,as the eating of the Paschal Lamb kept in memory the deliverance of the Jews out of the bondage of Egypt.Seeing therefore the authority of Moses was but subordinate,and he but a lieutenant to God,it followeth that Christ,whose authority,as man,was to be like that of Moses,was no more but subordinate to the authority of his Father.The same is more expressly signified by that that he teacheth us to pray,"Our Father,let thy kingdom come";and,"For thine is the kingdom,the power,and the glory";and by that it is said that "He shall come in the glory of his Father";and by that which St.Paul saith,"then cometh the end,when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God,even the Father";and by many other most express places.
Our Saviour therefore,both in teaching and reigning,representeth,as Moses did,the person God;which God from that time forward,but not before,is called the Father;and,being still one and the same substance,is one person as represented by Moses,and another person as represented by His Son the Christ.For person being a relative to a representer,it is consequent to plurality of representers that there be a plurality of persons,though of one and the same substance.
