busie himselfe about small matters It must be a thing either visible or invisible and if it bee comprehended under either part of this division why are wee taught to beleeve that God the Father Almighty is the Maker not onely of heaven and earth but of all things visible and invisible in them If all things were made by him what could be left for Satan to work or make The apparance of this difficulty moved that acute and learned Father S. Austin sometime to say that sinne was nothing and oftentimes to allot it a cause deficient onely denying it any true positive efficient And many good Writers since his time in our dayes especially overswaid with this Fathers bare authority will have sinnes of what kinde soever to be privations onely no positive entities But they consider not that the selfe same difficulties besides other greater more inevitable inconveniences will presse them no lesse who make sinne to bee a meere privation or to have a cause deficient onely than they doe others who acknowledge it to have a positive efficient cause and a being more then meerly privation 6. What then bee the speciall inconveniencies wherewith their opinions are charged which make sinne either nothing or but a meere privation First wee account it a folly in man a folly incident to no man but an Heautontimorymenon to bee angry or chasing hot for nothing Hence seeing the Almighty Judge doth never punish either man or Devill but for sinne we shall cast a foule aspersion on his wisdome and Justice by maintaining sinne to bee nothing But fewer in our times there be though some I have heard out of the Pulpit which under pretence of St. Augustins authority make sinne to bee meere nothing But many there bee who hold it to be a meere privation which is a meane betweene meere nothing and a positive entitie Yet admitting not granting the nature of sinne to consist formally in privation meere privations for the most part have causes truely efficient fewer causes merely deficient if there can bee any causality in deficiencie Blindnesse deafenesse dumbnesse are privations and yet more men lose the sense of hearing sight or feeling in some particular members by violent blowes or by oppression of raging humours than by meere defect or decaying of spirits And where one man drops into his grave for meere age as ripe apples doe from the trees they grow on to the ground without blasts of winde or shaking a thousand die a violent or untimely death by true and positive efficient causes either externall or internall 7. That which either hath deceived or emboldned many Divines to allot sinne a being onely privative is a Philosophicall or metaphysicall Maxime most true in it selfe or in its proper sphere but most impertinently applied to the point now in question The Maxime is Omne ens quà ens est bonum Every entity in that it hath a being is good Most true if wee speake of transcendentall goodnesse or bonum entis for every thing which hath a true being is accompanied with a goodnesse entitative But the question amongst Divines is or should be about moral goodnesse or that goodnesse which is opposed to malum culpae that evill which wee call sinne Now if every positive entitie or nature were necessarily good according to this notion of goodnesse every intelligent rationall creature should be as impeccable as his Creator and wee should truely sinne if to speake untruly bee a sinne when wee say the Devill is a knave or any man dishonest For if every nature or entity as such were morally good it were impossible any nature or positive entity should bee evill qualified should be laden with sinne that is with that evill which is opposed to goodnesse moral or to holinesse whether this evill be a meere privation or positive entitie For in as much as the sight or visive facultie is the property of the eye or in as much as this proposition is true Oculus quà oculus videt this conclusion is most necessary when the eye hath lost the sight or visive facultie it is no more an eye unlesse in such an equivocall sense as wee say a picture hath eyes though not so properly If a man cannot see as we say stime but with one eye we account it no solecisme to say hee hath lost the other The case in the former instances is more cleare If Satan or man were morally good because they have a positive entity or nature neither of them could possibly be morally evill neither of them sinfull creatures albeit wee should grant sinne to bee as meere a privation as blindnesse is 8. It is a maxime in true Logick that is in the faculty or science of reasoning absolutely true and therefore true in Divinity also for truth is but one and it is her property not to contradict her selfe though examined in severall subjects Quicquid convenit subjecto quà tale non potest abesse sine subjecti interitu No naturall property can cease to bee or perish but together with the subject which supports it Whence if that Angel which is now the Devill had been truely good quà Angelus or if goodnesse moral had belonged unto him as he was a positive entitie or rationall creature hee had ceased to be either a rationall creature or any thing else when hee lost his goodnesse 9. Of sinnes of omission it is most true that they finde place in our nature rather by deficiency than efficiency and yet even this deficiencie for the most part is occasioned by some formall positive act or habit For this cause it is questioned among Schoolemen Whether there is or can bee any sinne of meere omission that is not occasioned by the commission of some other sinfull acts precedent or linked with some such act present To deny all sinnes of meere emission in nature already corrupted would bee more probable than in the first sinne whether of man or Angel Neither of them could possibly have committed sinne or done that which they ought not to have done without some precedent omission of that which they ought to have done But of this elswhere more at large and somewhat of it briefly in the next Chapter 10. Sure I am that the work which Satan wrought in our first Parents and in our nature had a cause truely efficient hath a being more than meerely privative For it was a work so really great and so cunningly contrived that the strength and wisdome of the Sonne of God was required as being onely all-sufficient to dissolve or destroy it and is it possible that any so great a work could be wrought by deficiencie or a defective worker Not Satan onely but his instruments are as positive as industrious efficients as effectuall workers of iniquity as the best man which ever lived the man CHRIST JESUS onely excepted was or is of righteousnesse But it is true againe that neither Satan nor his instruments can produce or make any substances or subjects these
saxa quod in manibus fo rs dederat ingerentes subeuntibus did anoy the Assailants from the tops of their houses with stones or whatsoever came first to hand So this their last and desperate fury did blow the fire of Gods wrath which was kindled against them from the Prophet Zacharies time For as this Heathenish Writer addes Alexander exceptis qui in templa confugerant omnes interfici ignemque tectis injici jubet commands that all should be slaine besides such as fled into the Temples that their dwelling houses should be burnt This great Conqueror in all this warre though he expresly knew not his Commission was but Gods Sheriffe and though intending no such thing did see the execution should be according to the Prophets sentence How much Tyrian blood was shed in this siege as Curtius saith may in part be hence gathered besides all that died in that miserable Sea-fight or those fierce skirmages about the walls after the Macedonians had made entry both by Sea and Land sixe thousand of such as bare Armes were forthwith slaine two thousand hanged on gibbets along the shoare that Askalon as it followeth in the Prophet ver 5. might see it and feare and the hopes of Ekronbe confounded And as Arrianus Iosephus and some other tells us Tyre being thus miserably ransackt the other Cities of Syria or Palestina yeelded without resistance Onely the strength of Scituation store of provision the resolution and fidelity of the Governour to Darius the Persian Emperour emboldned Gaza to hold out for a time as stoutly as Tyre had done For that part which God had appointed her and her King or Governour to act was not feare but sorrow Askelon shall see it and feare Gaza also shall see it and be very sorowfull and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed and the King shall perish from Gaza and Askelon shall not be inhabited ver 5. 3. The greater danger the Conqueror himselfe did in the assault of Gaza incurre the more grievous was her ransack and the greater was the cruelty practised upon the conquered Alexanders wounded body did exasperate his heroicall minde to imitate Achilles his pretended Progenitor as much at this time in despightfull revenge as at other times hee had done in valour For by Alexanders appointment Batis as Curtius instiles him the Governour of Gaza or Deputy King for Darius being yet as full of life and spirit as of bleeding wounds was dragged by the heeles after a Chariot through the streets as Hector had been by Achilles about the walls of Troy Thus doth confidence in causes accursed by God inevitably bring their undertakers to those disastrous ends whereto the just will of the Almighty Judge had for their sinnes appointed them All this and much more which Curtius and Arrianus relate concerning the desolation of Gaza wee need not be afraid to speake it came to passe that the word of the Lord spoken by Zachariah might be fulfilled The King shall perish from Gaza c. ver 5. Yet would I not have these words concerning Gaza and her Governor being for quantity indefinite restrained to this particular time or accident For that were to make this disaster the compleat object of the literall sense of which it is at the most but a principall part This wofull accident might and I take it did portend the like in successe of time and I have ever held those Interpreters short sighted rather than overseene who thinke the severall passages in this Prophecie must literally referre onely to the warres of Alexander or of the Maccabees For multitude of like events though different onely in time not in proportion to Propheticall predictions can neither argue any diversity in their former object nor any plurality of literall senses All in their order may be alike literally meant by the same Prophet all alike properly signified by the same words No man questioneth whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek or homo in Latin have more significations then one although in strict propriety of speech they denote or signifie as well men now living as those that died a thousand yeares agoe 4. Hitherto we have seene how God by Alexander begun to pull downe the pride of Tyre and of the Philistines not with purpose utterly to destroy them as he did the old world but rather by this castigation or contusion to prepare and fit them for that mixture with the Jews their ancient Enemies which was foretold by the Prophet Zachariah ver 6 7. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines And I will take away his blood out of his mouth and his abominations betweene his teeth but he that remaineth even he shall be for our God and he shall bee as a Governour in Iudah and Ekron as a Iebusit The literall truth of this last cited passage we may see experienced after the warres of Alexander and of his Successors with the Maceabees partly in that great place which Herod of Askelon held amongst the Jewish Nation partly in the Philistines Proselytes who were admitted as Communicants with the sonnes of Abraham in their Sacraments and Sacrifices partly in the admission of the Jews as free Denizens into the Cities of Palestina and in such quiet cohabitation of the Philistines and these moderne Jews as had been betweene the Jebusits and their Ancestors Every part of this observation might be concludently proved out of unpartiall Historians Heathenish or Jewish which wrote before our Lord and Saviour was borne Divers parts of it are abundantly proved out of the Author of the first Book of Maccabees Chap. 10. ver 88 89. Now when King Alexander heard these things to wit the victory over Azotus and the submission of Askelon upon the ransack of it he honoured Ionathan yet more and sent him a buckle of gold as the use is to bee given to such as are of the Kings blood hee gave him also Accaron with the borders thereof in possession Chap. 11. ver 60 61. Then Ionathan went forth and passed through the Cities beyond the water and all the forces of Syria gathered themselves unto him for to helpe him and when he came to Askalon they of the City met him honourably From whence he went to Gaza but they of Gaza shut him out wherefore he laid siege unto it and burned the suburbs thereof with fire and spoiled them Chap. 13. ver 33 c. Then Simon built up the strong holds in Iudea and fenced them about with high Towres and great walls and gates and barres and laid up victuals therein Moreover Simon chose men and sent to King Demetrius to the end hee should give the land an immunity because all that Tryphon did was to spoile Vnto whom King Demetrius answered and wrote after this maner King Demetrius unto Simon the high Priest and friend of Kings as also unto the Elders and Nation of the Iews sendeth greeting The golden Crowne and the
which had thus disesteemed him and delivered thē over to be destroyed by the Romans But saith this Author lest wee should grant that the Prophet Zachariah did by the same fact or resolutiō represent both the person of Christ and of Iudas it is more probable that the prophecy of Zachariah is different from that of Ieremiah which S. Matthew alledgeth For Hierom upon the 27. of S. Matthew tels us he had lately read a book of Ieremiah in the Hebrew tongue which one of the sect of the Nazarens had imparted unto him in which he found S. Matthews allegatiō word for word Thus farre Castrius Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè He begins his verdict in the spirit of wisedome and discretion continueth it perplexedly and concludeth it according to the foolishnesse or forgetfulnesse of the flesh For that inconvenience which he so much feared will be never a whit the lesse albeit we grant him that S. Matthews words do not referre to the forecited place of Zachariah but to those books of Ieremiah which S. Hierom had seene or to any other Prophet whatsoever whether his works be extant or lost And thus being blencht in his right course by the shadow hee falls foule upon that very stumbling block or rather a farre worse then that which he sought to avoid For by his conclusion the often forementioned allegation of S. Matthew cannot be literally or concludently referr'd to any Prophet at all CHAP. XXVIII The cleare resolution of the third difficulty proposed of the fearfull end of Judas and how it was both forepictured and foretold 1 SHall we say then that either Zachariah or any other sacred Author of the Prophecy alledged by S. Matthew did represent both the person of Iudas the Traitor and of JESUS CHRIST whom hee betrayed There is no necessity to avouch thus much nor would it be any absurdity to grant all this and somewhat more The parallel betweene the Evangelist and the prophecy of Zachariah as now it is extant whether in the Hebrew or Septuagint whether he onely foretold the event or foreacted it also by like matter of fact which latter is more then probable is most exact For Zachary as he himself affirmeth did require his stipend for his propheticall function and they weighed him thirty pieces of silver Zacharie 11.12 But this stipend after he had received it was so contemptible in the sight of the Lord that he said unto him Cast it unto the potter a goodly price that I was prized at of them And so he took the thirtie pieces of silver and cast them to the Potter in the house of the Lord. In thus undervaluing the Prophets person and paines they did undervalue the goodnesse and person of that Lord whose Ambassadour he was Iudas in like sort goeth to the high Priests and asked of them What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver Matthew 26.15 This was the highest price which this last and worst generation of Israel did set upon the chief Shepheard of their souls not the hire or stipend for his paines for these they set at nought And by this act they did exactly fulfill both the Prophet Zachariahs words and the measure of their forefathers sinnes in undervaluing his ministeriall labours and person The same Lord which commanded Zachariah to cast his contemptible stipend unto the Potter did now cause Iudas to throw downe the price for which he sold and delivered his Lord Master unto the chief Priests and Officers in the same house of God or Temple after he had seen that it was the price of his Masters bloud not the stipend onely of his treachery That Iudas did thus farre repent as to acknowledge his sinne in saying I have sinned in betraying innocent bloud this was the Lords doing or as the Evangelist saith that which the Lord appointed him to doe Matthew 27.12 And no Christian need be afraid to say that Iudas was moved or appointed of the Lord as Zacharie was to cast downe the thirty pieces of silver in the Temple to the end that his prophecy and his fact might be exactly fulfilled Their forefathers in offering unto Zachariah thirtie pieces of silver for his hire did forepicture that their ungracious posterity would set as low a price upon the Lord himself And those words of the Lord unto the Prophet verse 13. A goodly price that I was prized at have the same sense importance with the like words before cited unto Samuel They have not cast thee off from being King but mee If we compare the 13. verse of the 11. of Zacharie with the 12 and consider the alteration of the persons speaking they will beare this sense or importance or rather require this construction Be content to forgoe thy stipend for they have not onely undervalued thee and thy ministeriall paines but they have undervalued mee For as this present generation hath done by thee so and much worse will their ungracious posteritie deale with me This is the very brief or abstract of S. Matthew Chap. 27. ver 9 10. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet saying And they took the thirty pieces of silver the price of him that was valued whom they of the children of Israel did value and gave them for the Potters field as the Lord appointed mee These last words cast a scruple or rather a stumbling block in many Interpreters wayes how the Prophet Zachariah should be appointed of the Lord to buy the Potters field But this is presently takē away if we consider that the Evangelist in the 9 and 10. verses doth make a paraphrase or exegeticall exposition upon the Prophets words Now it was ever lawfull yea the office of the Apostles and Evangelists not onely to quote the Prophets but to paraphrase upon or expound aswell the literall as mysticall sense of their words or portendments of their facts And if we consult the Prophet himself in the originall or in the Translation of the Seaventie that exposition which we have made as well of his words as of S. Matthews paraphrase is most naturally emergent out of the Grammaticall signification of the words and the persons speaking When the Prophet speaks unto the people in his owne person hee saith If yee think good give mee my stipend or hire not my price as some render the Originall But when the Lord speaks thus unto him Cast it to the Potter hee saith not a goodly stipend that I was rewarded with but a goodly price that I was prized at of them And this distinction of the words perswades mee that the Prophet did really demand and they did really pay his stipend And in this their undervaluation of his person and paines they did portend their posterities disesteeme of the great Prophet the Lord himself 2. One scruple yet remaines which if I did not every observant Reader of the Prophet would cast
surprisall of David and his traine about the same place or not farre beyond it 2. Sam. 17. 4. When I behold my Saviour in that heavie plight and dejected posture described by the Evangelist prostrating himselfe on his knees and face to the earth yet sending out these ejaculations unto heaven Father if it bee possible let this Cup passe from mee Me thinks I see the exquisite accomplishment of the Psalmists complaint charactering his owne wofull case for the present yet by way of prophecie or prefiguration of more just cause which the promised Messias should have of uttering the like complaint who was as hee saw to partake more deeply of his grievances and afflictions though not of his passion or impatience in them For this Sonne of Righteousnesse was willing to suffer with all submission to his heavenly Fathers will whatsoever any of his forerunning shadows had suffered either immediatly from the hand of God or by the violence of men and to suffer them without any token of grudging or impatience The complaint of the Psalmist who did foreshadow the dejected estate of the Sonne of God in that houre of temptation wee have set downe Psalme 38.14 My sinnes are gone over my head and they are like a sore burden too heavy for mee to beare But the heavy burden not of the Psalmists sinnes alone but of the sinnes of the world were now laid upon the Sonne of man in the garden and did deject him to the ground But how patiently soever he did beare or fall downe under this burden yet he stood in need of comfort from heaven as his forerunners in farre lesse anguish had done And if wee would take St. Lukes relation of the Angels comming to support and comfort him in this his weaknesse into serious consideration we may have a briefe yet a most true and punctuall Commentary upon that Prophecie Psalme 8. Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the Angels to wit as he was the Sonne of man though never ceasing to be the Sonne of God For the most valiant Generall that is which stands in need of Support or helpe from his meanest Souldier is for the time being lower then hee is which lends him his hand or helps him up being throwen downe or prostrate Now this our chiefe Leaders Agony and the time betweene his apprehension and his death was the onely time that little while whereof the Psalmist speakes wherein CHRIST JESUS as man was made lower then the Angels lower then the ordinary sonnes of men For hee was as another Psalmist in his Person complaines a worme and no man But immediately after this bitter Agony the strength and vigour of the Sonne of righteousnesse which for a time was eclipsed or overcast with a bloody sweat did breake forth afresh and though in the night time did no lesse dazell and astonish the armed band which came with Iudas to apprehend him then the light which shone at mid-day did S. Paul when he was armed with authority to attach his Followers For immediatly after that Cup which he prayed against was passed from him Hee knowing all things saith St. Iohn that should come upon him went forth and said unto them that came to apprehend him Whom seeke yee They answered him Iesus of Nazareth Iesus saith unto them I am hee And Iudas also which betrayed him stood with them Assoone then as hee had said unto them I am hee they went backward and fell to the ground Then asked hee them againe Whom seeke yee And they said Iesus of Nazareth Iesus answered I have told you that I am hee If therefore yee seek me let these goe their way That the saying might be fulfilled which hee spake Of them which thou gavest mee I have lost none Joh. 18 4 5 6 c. Here was a true document both of his royall and spirituall power of his royall power in that hee could command them to forbeare any violence towards his Disciples yea not to oppose violence offered unto one of their company For Simon Peter as St. Iohn saith having a sword drew it and cut off one of the servants of the high Priests right eare the servants name was Malchus 10 11. verses c. St. Luke recordeth that hee touched his eare and healed him so farre was he from all desire of revenge upon his enemies This was an act of his power spirituall so was that likewise in protecting his Disciples from danger as well of soule as of body For as S. Iohn to my apprehension intimates if they had been put unto the same fiery triall unto which hee himselfe was exposed they had denied him and their former faith Therefore hee commanded his Apprehenders to let them goe their way that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake some few houres before Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none John 18.10 So he had said Iohn 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keepe through thine owne Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest mee I kept and none of them is lost but the sonne of perdition Either Iudas was never one of them whom his Father had given him or at least at this time had given himselfe to his Father the Devill 5 But as one and the same prophecy may be often filled by events much distant in time so may divers prophecies much distant for time be accomplisht in one and the same event in the same point of time as in this dismission of JESUS his Disciples both his owne praediction as Saint Iohn tells us was fulfilled and another prophecy likewise as we may gather from S. Mark or rather from our Saviours exposition recorded by the Evangelist Mark 14. Iesus saith unto them All yee shall be offended because of me this night For it is written I will smite the Shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered This smiting of the Shepheard was amongst other prophecies both foretold and prefigured as is probable by the death of Iosiah unto which most referr that of Ieremiah Lamen 4.20 The breath of our nose-thrills the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the heathen Some there are which referr this complaint unto the Captivity of Zedekiah but not so pertinently or considerately as most other of their meditations or observations would occasion the Reader to expect For the Prophet Ieremiah did never conceive such hope of Zedekiah or Iehoiakim as the deepe straine of this particular threne or throb doth import No sonne of good Iosiah was either in life or death such a type of the Lords promised Annointed as himself had beene From the houre of his death untill the return of his people from Babylonish Captivity Jerusalem and Judah did not