had fore-determined to be done Those things saith Peter Acts 3. 18. which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer hee hath so fulfilled Yet saith S. Paul Acts 13. 27. They that dwell at Ierusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabboth day they have fulfilled them in condemning him So then God is said to fulfill all things which were written of Christ because he did order and direct all the counterplots and malicious intentions of his enemies according to the models and inscriptions which had been exhibited in the old testament Iudas his treachery against his Lord and Master with its accursed successe was exactly forepictured by Achitophels treason against David The malice of the high Priest and elders was foretold and forepictured by the like proceeding of their predecessors against Jeremie and other of Gods Prophets which were Christs forerunners and types and shadowes of his persequutions They then fulfilled the Scriptures in doing the same things that their predecessors had done but in a worse manner and degree albeit they had no intention or ayme to worke according to those models which their predecessors had framed nor to doe that unto Christ which the Prophets had foretold should be done unto him For so S. Peter Acts 3. 17. Now Brethren I wote that through ignorance yee did it as did also your Rulers 5. But here I must request all such as reade these and the like passages of Scriptures not to make any other inferences or constructions of the holy Ghosts language or manner of speech then such as they naturally import and such as are congruous to the rule of faith If wee say no more then this God did order or direct the avarice of Iudas the malice of the high Priest the popularity of Herod and ambition of Pilat for accomplishing of that which he had fore-determined concerning Christ wee shall retaine the forme of wholsome doctrine In thus speaking and thinking wee think and speake as the Spirit teacheth vs. But if any shall say or think that God did ordaine either Iudas to be covetous or the high Priests to be malicious or Herod and Pilat to be popular and ambitious to this end and purpose that they might respectively be the betrayers and murtherers of the sonne of God this is dangerous The orthodoxall truth and wholsome forme of expressing it in this and the like point is acutely set downe in that distinction which for ought I find was unanimously embraced by the Anciēts and by all at this day that be moderate acknowledged to be true Deus ordinavit lapsū Adami non ordinavit ut Adamus laberetur God did dispose or order Adams fall for by his all-seeing providence and all ruling power he turn'd his fall into his owne and our greater good but he did not decree ordaine or order that Adam should fall or commit that transgression by which hee fell For so hee should have beene the Author both of Adams first sinne and of all the sinnes which are necessarily derived to us from him For no man I think will denie that God is the sole Author of all his owne ordinances and decrees or of whatsoever hee hath fore-decreed or fore-determined us for to doe CHAP. 12. Of the severall senses of Scripture especially of the literall and mysticall WIthout knowledge of Scriptures there can be no true knowledge of Christ and to know the Scriptures is all one as to know the true sense and meaning of them intended by the holy Spirit I will not here dispute whether every portion of Scripture in the old Testament admit more senses intended by the holy Spirit than one or whether in some sense or other every passage in Moses writings in the Prophets in the booke of Psalmes or sacred Histories doe point either immediatly or mediatly at Christ or at Him that was to come But that divers places alledged by the Evangelist out of the old Testament to prove that Jesus whom the Jewes did crucifie was their expected Messias admit more senses I take as granted The question is how many senses either the places alledged by the Evangelists or Apostles or other passages in the old Testament may respectively admit And in this Quaere I will not be contentious but onely crave that liberty which I willingly grant to others in all like cases that is to make mine owne division and to follow mine owne expressions of every severall sense or branch of this division that so I may referre the particular explication of every type of every Prophecie or other praenotion of Christ which hath beene fulfilled without perplexity or confusion to its proper or generall head That sense of Scripture in my expression may happily be referred unto the literall which in some other mens language would be accounted figurative or Allegoricall That sense againe according to my division may be reduced unto the literall mysticall or morall which some great Divines make a distinct sense from all these to wit Anagogicall Or admitting all these and more senses of Scriptures I may perhaps sometimes touch upon another sense which is not to my apprehension reducible to any of these 2. The severall senses of Scriptures especially such as more immediatly point at Christ cannot be better notified or more commodiously reduced to their severall heads then by a review of the severall wayes by which God from the beginning did intimate or manifest his will his good will towards mankinde in him and through him which was to come And the wayes by which God did manifest Christ to come were in the generall two either by words assertive and expresse prediction or by way of picture and representation or by a concurrence of both which third way is no way opposite to the two former but rather a friendly combination of them The second branch of this division to wit praenotions of Christ representative may as heretofore it hath beene be subdivided into representations reall as by type historicall event or other matter of fact or into representations meerely literall verball or nominall The first generall branch of this division that is prenotions of Christ delivered in words expresly assertive exhibit to us that which wee commonly call the literall or grammaticall sense For that as best Divines agree is the literall sense or meaning of the holy Spirit which is immediatly signified by words assertive whether legall propheticall or historicall without any intercourse or intervention of any type or matter of fact Whether the words be logicall proper allegoricall or otherwayes figurative skills not much The variety of expressions by words assertive if so the words immediatly expresse the matter foretold without intervention of type or matter of fact doth not divide or diversifie the literall sense As when God foretold that the wildernesse should be planted with pleasant trees Isa 41. 19 c. That the Wolfe should
was eclipsed at the time when Nicias was General for the Athenians against the Syracusians Or when Columbus made first discoverie of America are questions which may be scientifically resolved by astronomicall calculations But whether Nicias through ignorance of naturall causes and grosse superstition committed that intolerable oversight which as Plutarch relates occasioned the overthrow of the Athenian forces by Sea Land or whether Columbus made that witty advantage of the like eclipse which Benzo in his history of America mentions cannot be known by any computation Astronomicall or Chronologicall This wholly depends upon the authority of the Historians Yet if by calculations astronomicall compared with the Annales of those times it should appeare that there were no such Eclipses in the yeares pretended for these practices this would convince these historians and those whom they follow of errour if not of forgerie On the other side if Astronomers should make it cleare that in the points of time assigned by these Historians there did fall out such Eclipses of the Moone this would free them from suspition of fiction so much the more by how much they were lesse skilfull or lesse observant of the coelestiall motions or revolutions of times wherein Eclipses happen 2. But sometimes the sensible events or experiments may square so well with historicall relations as to leave no place for curiosity it selfe to suspect either fiction or falsehood in the Historian As who could suspect the truth of the Roman Histories which mention the subjection of this Iland to their Empire for divers successions if he had seene their coynes lately digged out of the earth bearing the inscriptions of twenty severall Emperours Or who could suspect the historicall truth of their progresse into the Northerne parts of this Kingdome that have observed the ruines of that wall which they built and other monuments as sutable to their Narrations as the seale is to the signet The best is that the experiments which suite unto the histories of the old and new Testaments are more plentifull and and more pregnant then any externall ratifications of any other historicall narrations can be For of sacred historicall truth besides the legible testimonies of the great book of the creatures every little world may have a world of witnesses in himselfe Now if our beliefe of the histories concerning Christ and him crucified be but equall to our beliefe of other histories yet their authority or esteeme will be much greater because we cannot believe this truth but we must withall believe it to be divine and every man by nature hath a more sacred esteeme of matters which hee conceives to be divine then hee can have of things meerely mundane or humane 3. But where the truth of historicall beleefe is to our apprehension the very same and the degrees of our assent unto it equall yet the estimate of the same truth or its impression upon our affections is not the same These vary according to the severall waight of matters related though by the same Author and beleeved by equall degrees of the same kinde of beleefe Of Edward the seconds strange defeate by Robert de Bruce King of Scotland and of Edward the third and the black Prince his sonne or Henry the fifth their successe against the French wee have but one and the same historicall beleefe whether for degree or quality yet are wee not the same way or in the same degree affected with the one story as with the other The reading of Edward the third of Henry the fifts successe delighteth us English with the ancient honour of our Nation The remembrance of Edward the seconds defeate doth so disaffect us that wee could wish this story were not so true as the other But how unpleasant soever the annales of Edward the second be to some English yet wee never observed any of this age to weepe at the reading of them whereas in some provinces of this Kingdome the battaile of Pannierehugh the rebellion in the North and that lesse disaster in the yeare following that rebellion upon the English borders could not have beene mentioned or seriously related within our memory without many teares of such Auditors as had no other knowledge of the events save onely from histories or from traditions which can produce no better beleefe than historicall 4. Some cases then there be in which although the authority of the Historian be the same and albeit the matters related by them be for weight or substance the same yet shall they not make the same impression upon our hearts or affections Yea matters in themselves considered of small moment will sometimes sway double as much as others of more then double waight unto them although the historicâ—ll beleife of both be equall The circumstances from which historicall truths of lesser waight simply considered receive these extraordinary degrees of gravitation are specially three Vicinity of place Recencie of time and Peculiar references to our Selves to our Country to our Friends or Allies The true reason why the historie of Christs death in some degree I suppose beleeved by all doth worke so little or so successelesly upon most mens affections is because they consider his death though in it selfe a matter of greatest consequence yet as a matter past a thousand and some hundred yeares agone or as a matter done by the Jewes more then two thousand miles from our coast And thus they consider it without any peculiar reference to themselves as the cause of it or no more concerning themselves then as they are Pars quota humani generis some little parcells or graines of mankinde or of the humane nature which he redeemed these being more innumerable than the sand on the Sea shore 5. But how firmely soever we apprehend the truth of Christs death and passion for the substance yet this apprehension cannot produce a true compleate historicall beleife of his death unlesse our apprehension of the substance be seconded with the like apprehension of such circumstances as are peculiar to this history above others What circumstances are these Although he suffered but once and that farre off and long agoe yet whatsoever he then suffered or did doth as neerely as immediately concerne every man this day living in what place soever as it did those that were living when he dyed either such as were sorrowfull spectators of his death or Actors in it For albeit he were offred but once and that but in one place without the gates of Jerusalem yet this one offering was of value truely infinite and for efficacy everlasting And being such it must be equally applyable to all persons times and places In his death in his infinite and everlasting sacrifice every one hath a peculiar interest not Pro ratâ but in solidum by vertue of that atonement which he made by that redemption which he purchased once for all he hath an entire absolute right of dominion over every one of us and every one of us hath
Ieremy with death The same practise you have reiterated against S. Stephen Acts 6. ver 12 13. And they stirred up the people and the Elders and the Scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the Councill and set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speake blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law For wee have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shal destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Whether S. Stephen said thus or no I will not dispute but most probable it is that he did never say this in expresse termes because the Text saith They set up false witnesses against him However these false witnesses against S. Stephen did truly prophecy as Cataphas did For Jesus being made Christ did destroy the Temple by the Romanes and abrogated the ceremonies given by Moses because they had made up the measure of their forefathers sinnes who persecuted Ieremy for saying no more in effect then they laid to S. Stephens charge And that which Ieremy threatned was in part fulfilled not long after his persecution and imprisonment For Sion became like Shiloh a desolate place and forsaken of God for a long time yet reedified againe within the age or generation then living so was not Shiloh untill this day Nor hath Jerusalem or Sion been restored since they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers when he came to visit his Temple as Ieremy had done and to be annointed King over Sion 4. All that I have to adde unto the former testimony Ier. 7. is this that our Saviour at this time of his consecration or whilest he was a King or Priest in fieri only did give some documents of his royall power or just chalenge to his right over Judah and Jerusalem in a more special manner then at any time before hee had done For wee doe not reade that he did take upon him to judge betweene party and party in matters temporall nor to dispose of the goods or possessions whether of Jews or of Gentiles save once when he gave the Legion of Devills leave to enter into the heard of Swine and to cary them headlong into the Sea And this hee did immediatly after he had manifested himselfe to be God by commanding the winde and the water as was before declared Before this time he might have said more truly then Samuel did whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Yet now when he came to visit his Temple he gave his Disciples Commission more then royall to take an Asse and her colt for his service to ride on them in triumph as the Prophet Zachary had foretold unto Jerusalem and to Sion And this he did jure dominii by right of Dominion The tenour of the Commission and the execution of it you have distinctly set downe Matt. 21. 1 2 3. And when they drew nigh unto Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives thou sent Iesus two Disciples saying unto them Goe into the village over against you and straight way yee shall finde an Asse tyed and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway he will send them And S. Mark tells us Chap. 11. ver 5. And certain of them that stood there said unto them What doe yee loosing the colt And they said unto them even as Iesus had commanded and they let them goe 5. This manner of his comming to Jerusalem his powerfull visitation of the Temple immediatly upon it and the Inscription which Pilate made on his Crosse some foure dayes after with other remarkable circumstances of the story or journall of that sacred weeke be a pregnant testimony that this Iesus of Nazareth whom wee adore was that King of the Iews and of Sion whose comming Zacharias had so long before foretold But it is not so apparent out of his forecited prophecy either that this King of â—â—on was the God of Sion or that the God of Sion and of Israel was to be made King of both For in that he was God he was the King not of Israel or Iudea only but of all the earth God over all from everlasting to everlasting by right of Creation The next point then in question betwixt the Iew and us is this Whether it may be concludently proved from the literall sense of those Oracles which they adore that he who was the God of Sion and of Israel from everlasting to everlasting were to be made King of Sion in later times or after the gift of Prophecy did cease in Iudea and Ierusalem CHAP. 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not over Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages he had done WEre there no other part or volume of the Old Testament left besides the booke of Psalmes the testimonies conteyned in it which according to the literall sense will abundantly induce this conclusion are for number more and more punctuall then all the testimonies which the Jew can bring out of all other Scriptures that they were to have a Messias or sonne of David whose throne was to be exalted above the throne of David or of Salomon Or if this booke of Psalmes were the only booke whereby both Jews and Christians were to be regulated in points of faith this booke alone would condemne both of such folly and sluggishnesse of heart as Christ our God and Saviour upbraydeth those two Disciples with Luke 24. 26 c. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe He did then enter into his glory when he was made a King of glory and such a King he was not made untill he had endured an harder servitude or condition of life more miserable to flesh and blood then Israel had done in Aegypt or then any of the Prophets whether Psalmists or others had undergone Of this servitude or hard condition of life which was prefigured by matters of fact in most of his Prophets and in all those Psalmists and foretold in all those Psalmes which contayne matter of complaint or imploration of release from oppression in its proper place Wee are now briefely to peruse some of those Psalmes which according to the literall sense imply the exaltation of the God of Israel or of Sion to be the King of Israel or of Sion for this view it would much availe if we knew who were the Authors of such Psalmes and upon what occasion they were penned 2 The Author of the seaventh Psalme was David himselfe and no other as the inscription and occasion of his complaints therein mentioned do manifest The complaints he tenders immediately unto God and yet this God who was to
face whilest he talked with the people who were not able to behold the glory But this vaile as our Apostle tels us 2 Cor. 3. 14. is put away in Christ It is true Yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word was not the Christ to doe away this vaile till he put on the vaile of flesh The flesh then was a vaile to him but as a glasse or mirrour to us Wee may in Christ with open face behold that glory of God whose reflexe on Moses face the Israelites could not behold but through a vaile Christ then is that glasse or mirrour wherin the brightnesse of Gods glory which the Israelites could not then behold may now be seene But did the Iews or Israelites in the time of the old Testament or in that time wherein the Author of the booke of Wisdome wrote conceive any such matter as our Apostle here inferres that the glory of God should be more fully revealed or that men should be more capable of the participation of his presence in later ages then they had beene in former Some of them did others did not all of them ought even by their owne prenotions or interpretations of Scriptures so to have conceived and beleeved For thus some moderne Iews conceive of Moses his request What was that saith a great Rabbin amongst them which Moses our Master sought to attaine unto when he said I pray thee shew me thy glory 9 He requeged to know the truth of the being or essence of the holy blessed God untill that he were knowne in his heart like as a man is knowne whose face is seen and whose forme is ingravē in ones heart so that man is distinguished or separated in his knowledge from other men So Moses requested that the Essence of God might be distinctly knowne in his heart from the essence of other things so that he might know the truth of his Essence as it is But God answered him that the knowledge of living man who is compounded of body and soule hath no ability to apprehend the truth of this thing concerning his Creator That knowledge of God or sight of his glory whereof Moses was uncapable was truely ingraven in the heart of the man Christ Iesus and in his light wee see light He that saw him with the eyes of faith did see the father he did see the glory of the Godhead The brightnesse of the divine glory is alike inaccessible alike incommunicable in the Sonne as in the Father if we consider them in their divine nature alone but in the man Christ Iesus and in him alone wee may behold the brightnesse of the Divine glory which neither eye nor heart of man could behold in it selfe or in any divine person alone but only in the divine person which was incarnate 10 And it is not here to be omitted that the forecited 29. of Exodus ver 45 I will dwell among the Children of Israel is thus translated by Onkelus in his paraphrase ponam praesentiam divinitatis meae in medio filiorum Israel So Fagius with some others render it and why he so renders it gives the reason And the later Rabbines as one well conversant in their writings saith generally observe that whensoever it is said in the person of God that I will dwell amongst them this may not be understood but of the Majestie of the holy and blessed God To this purpose they alleage the 9. verse of the 8 Psalme His salvation is neere them that feare him that glory may dwell in our Land And Simeon in his dying song doth testifie that Jesus the sonne of Mary whom he imbraced when he was presented in the Temple was the salvation of God Lord now lattest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word For mine eyes have seene thy Salvation And although our Saviour whilest hee lived here on earth had no constant dwelling no place of inheritance yet at this time the Godhead or that glory of the Godhead of which the Psalmist speaketh was incorporated in him These and the like Scriptures S. Iohn did see fulfilled in Christ when he said the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and wee saw his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father that is such glory as could not bee communicated to any but to him who was by nature the sonne of God such glory as no flesh could behold otherwise then as it was in Christ or in the word made flesh such a declaration of the divine Majestie as none besides the sonne of God could declare So the Apostle saith ver 18. No man hath seene God at any time but the only begotten sonne who is in the bosome of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath declared or expounded him But wherein doth this declaration consist or how was it made by the sonne Not by word only or by declaration of his will but by matter of fact or reall representation But of this point more fully in the exposition of the name Iesus Seeing Moses had said that no flesh could see God and live it may seeme strange to men which have not their senses exercised in the search of Scriptures that the Prophet Isaiah should avouch the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together Isay 40. 5. Moses speech and that conceipt which the ancient had that man could not see God and live was universally true untill the word or brightnesse of Gods glory was made flesh But this was the very mysterie which Isaiah in that chapter foretold as elsewhere hath beene declared in part and shall be as it comes in order to be handled more fully a little after this Chapter 11 That the moderne Iews can expect the God of their Fathers should dwell with them should walk with them should manifest his glory unto them after such a manner as their owne Doctors interpret his promise made to Moses to al these purposes after any other way or manner then the Evangelist witnessed he did walk with and manifest his glory unto his Disciples This to us Christians is an evident demonstration that the vale which their Forefathers put before their faces when they could not behold the brightnesse of Gods glory which shone on Moses face after he had seene God and talked with him is to this day put before their hearts when they read Moses and the Prophets For this glorious Majestie of God the very expresse or graven Image of his substāce which they say Moses desired to see but could not did so personally dwell in the man Christ Jesus that whilest he walked with his people God did walke with thē whilest he remayned within the territories of Iudah or Galilee salvation glory did dwell in their Land And to this day in whomsoever he dwelleth by faith in him God dwelleth by faith As he is the expresse image of the person of his Father so every one in whom he thus
then in the Hebrew But the Chaldee further instructs us that the object of this oath was the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which did not note only God himselfe but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mediator between God and man and the tenor or contents of the oath was that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was God himselfe and the object of this oath should become the seed of Abraham and make mediation by such a sacrifice as God the Father for tryall only did require of Abraham The comming of the sonne of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the world which had long before beene promised was not newly ratified only by oath but from this time the son of God was truly predestinated to be the seed of Abraham or the seed of Abraham to be the sonne of God as afterwards the seed or sonne of David was to wit from that time wherein the Lord had sworne to David that his seed should endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of Heaven Psal 89. 29. It is not to be omitted that where the Hebrew Psal 110. hath it The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand c. the Chaldee hath it The Lord said unto his Word sit thou at my right hand untill I make thy enemies thy footstoole And this Word or this Lord for so the Hebrewes expresse it by Adonai was then destinated and declared by oath to become not only the sonne of David but to be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech ver 4. All these three places will require some further consideration in the treatise of Gods Covenant with Abraham and with David or of our Saviours consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Thus much for the present may suffice that S. Iohn was nto the first which conceived the sonne of God God himselfe to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much lesse did he need to borrow his expressions from any Writers not truely Canonical For all this was conteyned in the places before alleaged as Ionathan and Onkelus interpret them and was likewise expressely conteyned in the Hebrew in sundry places of the Prophets of some of which God willing in the next Chapter 5 As little probabilitie there is either that S. Paul Heb 1. 1. should borrow his characters of the Sonne of God from the Author of the booke of Wisdome or that Author his though much what the same from S. Paul as that S. Iohn should take his expressions from the former Chaldee paraphrast or the later from S. Iohn Both S. Paul and the Author of the booke of Wisdome had their hints at least from such prenotions as the ancient Hebrews had of the wisdome or sonne of God or of their expected Messias when he should be revealed It is no way improbable much lesse incredible that such Interpreters or paraphrasers upon sacred writ as for ought we know did not expressely beleeve in the sonne of God either before his incarnation or since should have the forementioned prenotions concerning the promised Messias seeing the very Samaritans had the like which they could not gather from the ordinary reading of originall Scripture if at all they read them Such a prenotion that woman Iohn 4. had of the Messias before she did beleeve that Jesus was the promised Messias or Christ I know saith she that Messias commeth which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things ver 25. She had a prenotion and conceit that the Messias should tell them all things in a better manner then the prophets could do For shee had acknowledged our Saviour to be a Prophet ver 19 yet rested not satisfied with his answer to her question there made untill he had told her in expresse termes that hee was the promised Messias 6 But to compare S. Pauls characters of the son of God with the Authors of the booke of Wisdomes characters of the Wisdome of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the prophets Hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed heire of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Who being the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person and upholding all things by the word of the power when hee had by himselfe purged our sinnes sate downe on the right hand of the Majestie on high Being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by inheritance obteyned a farre more excellent name then they For she is the breath of the power of God and a pure influence flowing frō the glory of the Almighty therefore can no undefiled thing sal in to her For she is the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the image of his goodnesse And being but one she can do all things and remaining in her selfe shee maketh all things new in all ages entring into holy soules she maketh thē friends of God and Prophets For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdome For she is more beautifull then the sun above al the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it For after this commeth night but vice shall not prevaile against Wisdome 7 There is not one proposition or character in all this passage which for ought I yet know is not Canonicall No attribute of wisdome which can fitly be applied to any person or substance save onely to the son of God or at least to the holy Ghost But whether this Author did so intend them or apply them or whether the holy Ghost did by his peculiar inspiration or God by his speciall providence direct him thus to speake or write after the same manner he did Moses and other Authors of Canonicall Scriptures is not to me so evident Nor is it probable that this booke was written by Solomon albeit the Author of it doth put upon him the person of Solomon and personate himselfe under the habit or Garb of the King of Israel The opinion is not improbable who think this book was written by Philo the Iew to solace himselfe and his Country men upon the ill successe of his Embassage unto Caius the Emperour which was not many yeares after our Saviours death nor many before S. Paul did write his Epistle or S. Iohn his Gospell The book it selfe whosoever was the Author of it is an excellent and a most elegant paraphrase upon many Canonicall Scriptures and conteynes many exquisite expressions of Gods special providence and infinite wisdome in governing the world and in over-ruling both the policie and the power of greatest Princes The same booke notwithstanding is for many reasons justly denyed by S. Ierome by our Church and by many grave
writers in other Churches reformed to be any genuine part of the old Testamēt to be any portion of the rule or Canon of the Hebrews faith received by them before our Saviours incarnation And being no portiō of their Catholique rule or Canon it is no way probable that our Apostle S. Paul when he wrote the divine Epistle directed in speciall to the Hebrews his countrymen would borrow his titles or Attributes of our Saviours glory from this Authors encomiasme of wisdome Nor can any convincing proofe be brought to perswade us that the Author of this booke whosoever he was did make application of these characters of wisdome in the abstract unto Christ or truely beleeve either that Iesus the son of Mary though living haply on earth before his time or that the promised Messias whose coming he did expect should be the wisdome of God which he so magnifies or God incarnate in whom all former Scriptures and his owne encomiasme of Divine wisdome should in particular and punctually be fulfilled That the commendations which he gives to wisdome at least the most of them can really and truely be applied to none but Christ who is the wisdome and sonne of God All this and more being granted will not conclude that he did intend or thinke of Christs birth or incarnation or apprehend the personall union betweene the sonne of God and the sonne of David For Tully and other Heathen writers have made such panegyricall descriptions of vertues morall and intellectuall of wisdome especially or of Philosophy in their abstract notion as can have no reall paterne save only in the divine incomprehensible essence and yet they themselves lived and for ought wee know dyed without any distinct knowledge or apprehension of the true God yea many times committed grosse Idolatry with those vertues whether morall or intellectuall which they so magnified in the abstract 8. Whilest we peruse Authors either Heterodoxall or not Canonicall this rule I take it is of generall good use that for matter of practise or application wee are specially to consider quà m benè not quam bona on the contrary in point of speculation not quà m benè sed quà m bona not how well or to what good end they speake but how good things they speake or write The writings of the moderne Jew are for the most part malicious and morally evill yet unto such as know to make right use of them in their speculations upon the old Testament even in such of them as are professed enemies to our Lord and Saviour and to the Evangelical story there be so many scattered characters or misplaced syllables as being rightly put together and well ordered by some judicious Aristarchus or accurate composer would make up a more exact commentary upon most of those places in Moses and the Prophets which we Christians usually alleage for proving the truth of sundry articles in this Creed then can be gathered out of the Christian Interpreters of the old or new Testament which have not the care or skill to beat those enemies at their owne weapons or to retort those blowes which they offer at us upon themselves Those strange dreames or fancies which they have concerning mysteries to be revealed in the dayes of the Messias are evident signes that the Lord hath cast them into this long slumber for the instruction of us Christians And the right interpretation of their dreames or their application is one of the highest degrees of prophecy which in this later age can ordinarily bee expected And I would to God some sonnes of the Prophets would addresse their paines and studies to this purpose unto which according to our poore talent we shall have occasion to speake in some speciall articles following But to returne unto the point proposed in the beginning of this Chapter one speciall reason why S. Iohn instyles our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word not the sonne was to make up a more exquisite resemblāce of his incōprehensible Essence of the eternity of his person and his eternall generation of his consubstantiality with God the Father then without this particular expression we could have had or perhaps would have sought for Every one of his severall titles whether given to him by S. Iohn or by S. Paul addes something to the better expression of his unexpressible excellence unto the raising of our apprehensions to a higher pitch of admiration of these incomprehensible mysteries then one or two or fewer then are made could have done To informe our understandings or rectifie our faith that the son of God is more exquisitely or more consubstantially like unto his Father then any sonne of man is unto the father of his body he is by the holy Ghost instyled the expresse Image or character of his Fathers person Heb. 1. 3. No man can be altogether so like another as the impression is to the print To instruct us againe that this absolute and perfect expression of the father in the sonne farre exceed any such expression as the Statue can make of man or such as the seale leaves in the waxe he is by S. Iohn instyled by the name of life being the living substantiall image of his Father Againe to rectifie our apprehensions that the sonne of God did not grow into this absolute live image of his Father by degrees after such a manner as the sonnes of men doe for no child is altogether like his father from his birth it hath pleased the holy Ghost further to emblazon his incomprehensible generation or begetting under the character of brightnesse or light He is the brightnesse of Gods glory saith S. Paul and by S. Iohn the light And this is the most exquisite of any resemblāce that can be taken frō things sensible The sunne and fountaine of visible light doth naturally without interposition of time without any labour or operation produce or beget brightnesse or splendour And this it doth so uncessantly so perpetually that if we could imagine there had beene a sunne or fountaine of light without beginning to continue without end of time or dayes we could not but imagine that there should be a brightnesse or splendour perpetually produced without beginning or without ending of such production or of the brightnesse so produced by this fountaine of light Yet this supposition being granted or admitted the resemblance would herein faile That this continual production of light without beginning without ending did yet admit a succession or continuitie of time which the eternall generation of the sonne of God doth not admit for that onely is truely eternall which is not onely without beginning or end of dayes but without all succession in duration without mensuration of dayes or yeares all which are conteyned in eternitie as this visible world and all the power in it are conteyned in his power who is invisible and incorporeall All these resemblances are taken from things sensible Lastly the eternall generation of the sonne of God as most Divines will