prophet Isaiah makes betweene the mortalitie and frailety of flesh and the immortality or everlasting duration of the word of God the Psalmist makes betweene his owne misery and fading estate and the everlasting happinesse of his Lord God And from the contemplation of this opposition takes the same comfort to himselfe which the Prophet Isaiah was commanded to minister unto Gods people and unto Ierusalem My dayes saith he Psal 102. 11 are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grasse but thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations And againe Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed thou art the same and thy yeares shall have no end That this passage of the Psalmist is literally meant of the eternall God the Iews themselves cannot deny And that it is meant of God incarnate of the sonne of God manifested in the flesh S. Paul in the first Chapter to the Hebrews doth assure us Christians For he alleageth this very place ver 10. to prove that Christ God and man was farre above all Angells and principalities and that after his enthronization as King he was to change this world which was made by him The very literall meaning of the Psalmist will enforce thus much that this place was to be meant of God not simply or absolutely but of God incarnate For the eternall duration of the Godhead is not measurable by dayes or yeares but the incarnation of the sonne of God or his duration in the flesh may be accounted by number of yeares for the time past yet are his yeares as man to continue without end without any decay or diminution of that nature which he assumed The Psalmist foresaw his owne interest in the numberlesse yeares of his Lord whose happinesse and immortality was the only comfort of his miserable mortalitie The same comfort the Author of the 103. Psalme whether he were the same with the Author of the 102. Psalme or some other takes to himselfe from the like contemplation of his owne misery and of the happinesse of God incarnate Like as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flowre of the field so he flourisheth For the winde passeth over it and it is gone and the place therof shall know it no more But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that feare him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children To such as keepe his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandemēts to do them Psal 103. 13 14 15 16 17 18. For the true interpretatiō or application of this passage unto this present purpose it is in the first place remarkable that where in the 13. verse wee read Iehovah or the Lord the Chaldee renders it The word of the Lord hath pity on them that feare him In the second that the mercy of the Lord or of the word of God verse 17 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a word or terme whose full importance cannot bee had from any ordinary Lexicon unlesse it be such as is proper unto Divinitie For it cannot be understood of that mercy or loving kindnesse of God which was ordinarily manifested either towards mankinde in generall or towards the people of Israel in particular Every Novice in the Schoole of the Prophets did know that this mercy of the Lord was perpetuall But what could it availe the Author of this Psalme to consider that this mercy of God had beene manifested to his forefathers before his time and should bee to posteritie in their severall generations after him what comfort could it afford unto the childrens children of such as feared him that this mercy of God should be reserved for them only after the same manner or measure which their forefathers had tasted or had experience of it and yet complaine of their miserable and wretched estate for the present and comfort themselves only in the expectation of that abundant mercy which they hoped afterwards should be revealed The best exposition upon this place of the Psalmist or what is in speciall meant by the mercy of the Lord or of the word of God is given by S. Paul Titus the 3. 3 4 5 6 7. For wee our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by workes of righteousnesse which wee have done but according to this mercy he saved i◠by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour That being justified by his grace wee should be made heires according to the hope of eternall life Of this mercy and loving kindnesse the Patriarchs and Prophets as wee said before had the promise but without all hope of enjoying the thing promised for the present It was not then the mercy of God or Iehovah considered in the Godhead only but the mercy of God to be incarnate to be made King and Judge of the earth which did so comfort these and other Psalmists in their greatest distresses and perplexities in al which they had just occasion to say as S. Paul afterwards did If in this life only or in the loving kindnesse of God as it hath been experienced in our dayes we had hope we were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. 4 That this place though literally meant of God alone was yet to be punctually fulfilled in God incarnate or in the Word made flesh besides this exposition of S. Paul the very letter and circumstance of the text doth perswade us For the expected comfort wherupon this Psalmist pitcheth is this The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his Kingdome ruleth over all And here againe whereas we read the Lord the Chaldee reades the Word of the Lord hath prepared his throne And in that it was prepared it was not from eternitie though after it were prepared to continue from everlasting to everlasting that is as we say world without end And this is that throne and that Kingdome which Daniel foretold that God long after his time would erect Daniel 2. 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdome which shall never be destroyed and that Kingdome shall not be left to other people but it shall breake in pieces and consume all these Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever And of this throne you have a most exquisite description by S. Iohn Revel 4. 1 2. After this I looked and
head stone of the Corner doth allude or referre unto some historicall event then fresh in memory They containe no prophecy in respect of the event whatsoever that were yet are they a most true concludent Prophecie of Christs exaltation by his father after his rejection by the Priests and Elders So our Saviour interprets it Matth. 21. 42. All these three testimonies mentioned consisting both of word and matter of fact are first typicall then propheticall But oftentimes the same words though not alwayes according to the same sense are propheticall as well in respect of the type as of the antitype and then the proofe or testimony is prophetically typicall or meerely typicall from their first date and afterwards in processe of time both typicall and propheticall Of this ranke is that prediction made to David 2 Sam. 7. 12 13. c. And when thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleepe with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowells and I will establish his Kingdome He shall build an house for my name and I will establish the throne of his Kingdome for ever I will be his Father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him as I tooke it from Saul whom I put away before thee And thy house thy Kingdom shal be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever Of the same rank and order is that repetition of this promise Psal 89. from ver 20. to the 37. Both places conteine an expresse prophecie of Gods favour unto David and to his posterity and both include the prerogative of Salomon above all Kings that had gone before him And yet in as much as Salomon in the height of his glory was but a shadow or picture though a faire one of the sonne of God who was to be made the sonne of David likewise the same words which were undoubtedly verifyed of Salomon in his time were afterwards exactly fulfilled in Christ who was the living person or substance whom Salomon did forepicture No Christian can no Jew will deny these words of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 22. 20 21 22. c. to be propheticall in the first place of Eliakims advancement to be chiefe master or high Steward over the house of David in Shebna's steed And it shall come to passe in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the sonne of Hilkiah And I will cloth him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a Father to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem to the house of Iudah And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulders so he shall open and none shall shut and hee shall shut and none shall open And I will fasten him as a naile in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Fathers house And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his fathers house c. But in as much as Eliakim both by name and office did but prefigure or delineate Christ in his acts and office the same words which were literally meant of Eliakim are in a more exquisite sense fulfilled in Christ But of the severall senses of Scriptures and how the Scriptures are said according to these severall senses to be fulfilled somewhat in the two next chapters following These proofes or testimonies whereof we now treat whether typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are in number many and of all the rest most concludent to Readers but ordinarily observant For they containe the intire force and strength of the two former proofes or testimonies meerely typicall or meerely propheticall by way of union and it is universally true Vis unita semper fortier 3. Imagine a man of ordinarie insight in Architecture should come into some large and curious palace or City newly built and after a diligent survey of the form and fashion of every particular roome house or street should finde a model of elder date then the worke it selfe which did beare the just proportion and inscription of every roome or building this would resolve him that such exact correspondency could not fall out by chance but that the Citie or Palace had beene built by his directions which made the model or by some others which made use of his skill albeit no handy-workman imployed in the building albeit none but the Architect or generall director did perceive as much Thus all historicall events related in the new testament concerning Christ his birth his death and passion c. have their exact Maps or Models drawne in the history of the old testament besides the expresse propheticall inscriptions which instruct us how to referre or compare every part of the legall or historicall model unto the Evangelicall aedifice answering to it This to every observant Reader is a concludent proofe that one and the same spirit did both forecast the models and in the fulnesse of time accomplish the worke it selfe to wit the building up of Sion and Jerusalem though this he effected as master builders in like cases doe by the hands of inferiour workmen not acquainted nor comprehensive of his project or contrivances 4. Every house saith the Apostle Heb. 3. 4. is builded by some man but he that built all things is God This power of God by which he made all things even the materialls of all things whereon men doe work doth not farther exceed the power of other builders then the wisedome of the same God which is manifested in the aedifice of the heavenly temple doth surpasse all skill or contrivance of the most skilfull Architects or Projectors For whatsoever is by them forecast or projected doth never prosper never come to any perfection unlesse the workemen imployed by them follow their rules or directions But this greatest worke of God the erection or edification of his Church did then goe best forward when the workmen or builders imployed about it did forsake his counsell and followed the directions of his malitious adversary who sought the confusion both of it and them He built up the Kingdome of Sion and Jerusalem in peace without let or interruption even whilest the master builders designed by him did lay the foundation or chiefe corner stone of it in blood And after it was so laid did accomplish whatsoever he would have done in this great worke by the hands of such workemen as did nothing lesse then what he would have had them to do Though Judas one of the twelve by Satans suggestion did betray his Lord though the high Priest and Elders became the Devills agents to condemne him and though Pilate lastly turned Satans deputie to sentence him to death yet all these did that which the most wise most righteous and most mercifull God
a speaking picture of the comming of the Sunne of righteousnesse into the world after the light of prophecies or revelations whether by Vrim and Thummim or by voice from heaven had beene farre removed from the Hemisphere of Judaea untill they began to returne againe in Iohn Baptist and his Father Zacharias who were as the day starre or dawning to usher in the Sunne of righteousnesse who was to continue his course from the one end of the Earth to the other with more indefatigable courage and with more comfortable warmth then this visible Sunne doth visite the earth He was that strong man that Gebor unto whom the Psalmist compares the Sunne in its strength for Gebor is its proper title And I make no question but the glory of his kingdome begunne here on earth though descending from heaven where it shall bee accomplished was by the Holy Ghost intended according to the Mysticall sense of that Psalme which is not a History onely but a true prophecy And our Apostles allegation of the fourth verse of this Psalme Rom. 10. 18. Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the World was not allusive onely but argumentative and fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospell by the Apostles and their Successors in the mysticall sense as it had been before those times dayly verified in the literall 9 But meere ignorance in these and the like parables of our Saviour whose knowledge neerely concerned the generation in which and for whose good hee uttered them however the knowledge of them much concerne us of this age and nation cannot bee so prejudiciall to all good Christians as the ignorance of other parables and proverbiall speeches of his which alike neerely concerne mankinde Yet an ignorance there is of many rites and customes unto which both the words of the Prophets and his explications of them which concerne mans redemption by him punctually referre according to the literall sense Most of us know not him as our Redeemer because were know not our selves nor that miserable bond of servitude which hee did dissolve for us all And this wee know not because wee consider not the state and condition of legall servants unto cruell tyrannicall Lords We were servants to a most cruell Tyrant And the Sonne of God for our Redemption became truely and properly a servant to his Father before he became our Lord in speciall and so must wee be servants to him in speciall before wee become the sonnes of God For we must be sonnes before we be heires and sonnes by adoption before wee bee made Kings and Priests unto his Father I never read that passage of our Apostle Rom. 8. 15. Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba Father but I alwaies conceived there was somewhat more contayned in it then was to be found in any lexicon or vulgar Scholiast yet what it should be in particular I learned of late from a learned Professor of another facultie which he hath adorned by his more then ordinary skill in sacred Antiquity and miscellane Philologie Now if wee value the Apostles words per quem clamamas Abba Pater with reference to the legall custome or manner by which some sort of slaves by birth and condition did claime the priviledge of manumission or of Adoption amongst the ancient Jewes the expression is ful of elegancie and most divine the manner of the Adoption to hereditaments temporall was a kinde of typicall prophecy of our Adoptiō to our eternall inheritāce in the heavēs 10. Were we as well acquainted either with boyes playes in ancient times as with our Christmas sports or with the severall kindes of Olympick games as we are with our Countrey May-games or horseraces we might bee more beholden to our selves in many points then to ordinary profest expositors of sacred writ For even unto childish sports the father of the fatherlesse and guardian of the helplesse our Saviour himselfe sometimes referres us for the true meaning of his parables as in Matthew 11 if wee may beleeve Lyra or Theophilact in matter of fact But whereunto shall I liken this generation It is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellowes and saying wee have piped unto you and yee have not danced we have mourned unto you and yee have not lamented For Iohn came neither eating nor drinking and yet they say he hath a Devill The sonne of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicanes and sinners But wisedome is justified of her children But whether there were any such positive custome amongst children as Lyra and Theophilact relate I will not dispute pro or con However Maldonats observation upon the place is of very good use for any that either intend to make a comment or to reade Commentators upon our Saviours parables with liberty of judgement or discretion The best is Iansenius hath better expounded this place with reference unto Childrens sports in generall then Lyra or Theophilact have done although wee grant them such a peculiar kinde of sporting as they supposed was then in use Verum ut ludi genus hoc incertum est ita nec convenit literae Non enim in litera dicuntur hi quidem dicere Cantavimus vobis non saltastis alijs vero lamentavimus non plorastis sed utrūque eisdem tribuitur Et vana est Nicolai interpretatio qui ideo dictum put at coaequalibus suis dicūt quia pueri divisi erant in duas aequales partes Coaequales enim proprie dicuntur Coaetanei Graecè in Matthaeo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idest sodalibus Proinde simplicius fuerit sine specialis alicujus ludi imaginatione exemplum hoc intelligere secundùm consuetudinem communem puerorum qui in foro laetioribus locis civitatum congregati inter se student ludendo effingere quicquid ab aliis vident seriò agi Itaque aliquando nupiias effingunt nuptiales laetitias tibiarum aut aliorum instrumentorum cantu imitantur aliquando vero funeralia obsequia expriment in quibus apud Iudaos planctibus lamentatione quorundam ac lugubrium decantatione solent homines ad tristitiam fletum provocari Haec dum imitantur pueri fit frequenter ut quod joco agunt nonsit efficax vel ad tripudia nuptialia vel ad fletus funer ales provocandos 11. But as for the Olympick games or the like whether elsewhere instituted in imitation of them or before them it is evident that the Apostles and other sacred writers S. Paul especially had both seene them and made good use of them for the more lively expressions of many Christian duties And unlesse wee know the particular Customes unto which their words referre wee shall but play at Blinde man-buffe in our expositions of them or in our exhortations to such
then was that in this new Creation in the land of Ephraim not the male or man onely but the mighty male that Geber of whom Gedeon and Sampson were but types and shadowes was to be inclosed in the female or weaker sexe as the first woman or female was in the first male As she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones so was this Geber to be of that females flesh and bones which was to inclose him And this was a worke of Gods Creation a new Creation far surpassing the first Creation wherein the woman was made of man For in this new Creation the Geber the sonne of God himselfe was to be made man of a woman And it is not unworthy the observant Readers consideration that when the Lord doth as it were wooe Ephraim or Israel to returne againe unto their owne Land or to him he doth not intreat them as a husband doth his wife but as a loving Father doth his prodigall son or roaming daughter as ver 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Set thee up way markes make thee high heaps set thine heart towards he high way even the may which thou wentest Turne againe O Virgin Israel turne againe to the sethy Citties how long wilt thou goe about ô thou backsliding Daughter for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth or in thy Land the woman shall incompasse the man 11 Divers places there be in the new TestameÌ„t which touch not upon any article in this Creede which have tortured many good Interpreters no lesse then some vulgar Interpreters have tortured them I shall at this time instance onely in two First in that of S. Matthew 23. 34 35 36. Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men c. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias sonne of Barachias whom yee slew betweene the Temple and the Altar verely I say unto you all those things shall come upon this generation The reason why most Interpreters of S. Matthew have wandered as men overtaken with a thicke mist upon a wilde heath or forrest was because they did not consult the Index Mercurialis which S. Luke from the words expressely uttered by our Saviour had set up for their better direction For whereas S. Matthew expresseth the Epiphonema or conclusion of our Saviours speech thus All these things shall come upon this generation S. Luke cap. 11. expresseth it Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation What was to be required of this generation The blood of all the Prophets froÌ„ Abel to Zacharias Zacharias his blood in particular For though this present generation by not repenting for their forefathers sinnes had made themselves guilty of the blood of all the Prophets which stood upon sacred Record from Abels time unto the destruction of the Temple yet Abel and Zacharias the high Priest whose death was in many respects most prodigious were the especiall avengers of blood For the blood of the one after he was dead and the dying voice of the other did cry to God for vengeance For so it is recorded in the second of Cron. 24. 22. of Zacharias When he dyed he said The Lord looke upon it and require it Now our Saviour in the words recorded by S. Luke forewarnes this impenitently stubborne generation that Zacharias his dying curse which had been through his mediatioÌ„ often deferred and often mitigated should be executed upon them as an ungodly race of ungodly Ancestors in a fuller measure then perhaps Zacharias intended The exact parallel betweene the sinnes of this people in the dayes of Ioash King of Judah who caused Zacharias to be stoned to death in the Temple and the sinnes of this present generation who put the High Priest of their soules the Lord of Glory himselfe to an ignominious death in what sense the blood of Zacharias was more required of this generation then the blood of our Saviour or of his Apostles in what manner the death of Zacharias and of our Saviour were the causes of this present generations destruction I have elsewhere discussed at large and if God permit meane shortly to publish amongst other meditations upoÌ„ our Saviours propheticall function or of such prophecies wherin he spake as never man spake which were not to be fulfilled in himselfe as in his death resurrection and ascension or comming to judgement For all prophecies of this ranke which shall come unto my memory or observation will have their fit place in these Commentaries 12 So will not that speech of his Mat. 24. 28. Wheresoever the Carkerse is there will the Eagles be gathered together Yet seeing the exposition of this place hath beene omitted in the explication of some prophecies with which it hath most affinity as with the signes of his comming to Judgement Math. 24. and Marke the 13. I have thought good to say somewhat of it in this place Most Interpreters grant the speech to be proverbiall and yet as uttered by our Saviour to be a Prophecie The mysterie foretold most of the Ancients would have to be the gathering together of Saints unto Christs body at the finall judgement or at least the gathering together of those bodies which being alive shall be raught up into the ayre to meete him at his comming But however the Eagles at least some kinde of Eagles may be fit Emblemes of Gods Saints yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body or Carkeise whereto the Eagles resort hath no handsome or comely resemblance of Christs appearing in glory although it were granted that his wounds or skarres should then be conspicuous I make no question but our Saviour in the forecited place did meane that kinde of Eagles whose properties we have described by God himselfe even by this our Lord God and Redeemer Ioh. 39. 27. Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high she dwelleth and abideth on the Rocke upon the Crag of the Rocke and the strong place from thence she sâ—â—keth the prey and her eyes behold a farre off her yâ—â—â—g ones also suck up blood and where the slaine is chere is shee The Eagle here displayed is either the Vulture or of the Vultures kind and their sagacitie whether in smelling slaine bodies a farre off or in presaging where great slaughters are like to happen as also their swift resort unto the prey is well knowne to secular Philologers But the flocking together of this kinde of Eagles doth rather menace destruction then minister any matter of comfort according to the literall sense either of proverbiall speech or of prophecy So the Prophet Habakuk doth character the fierce and swift incursion of the Caldaeans by this kinde of Eagles hastening
then all the other prophecies or predictions concerning Christ whether literall or mysticall My purpose is not in this place to rehearse all of this kinde which I have observed but rather to explicate some few of these many The first shall be that Exod. 29. 45 46. And I will dwell amongst the children of Israel and will bee their God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell amongst them I am the Lord their God That this place cannot be literally meant of any person man or Angell but of God himselfe which brought Israel out of the Land of Egypt no moderne Jew doth or can deny The same promise is renewed or repeated Lev. 26. 11 12 13. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soule shall not abhorre you and I will walke among you and will be your God and yee shall be my people I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt that yee should not be their bondmen and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you goe upright 3. God before this time had appeared unto them had conducted them by a cloud by day and by a pillar of fire by night had divers wayes manifested his speciall presence and spoken to Moses their leader in a more familiar manner then he had done to any Prophet before or since his time Yet all those evidences of his glorious presence amongst them were but pledges of a more speciall manner of his future presence with them or of walking or talking not with some one principall man amongst them only such as Moses was but with all that are willing to walk and talk with him as Moses had done with that generation Neither of those prophecies could be exactly fulfilled according to the punctuall literall sense of those ancient times wherein the first Tabernacle did wander with them in the wildernesse though verified according to the vulgar literall sense in those times For God their Lord was said to remove or to arise when the Ark removed or set forward Psal 68. 1. Nor were the same prophecies fulfilled in those times wherein the Lord had a permanent Tabernacle or constant place of residence amongst them in Jerusalem Albeit hee was then said to dwell betweene the Cherubims and to have chosen Sion for his place of rest yet Ezekiel after the desolation of the Temple projected by David and built by Salomon doth promise this people more then a redintegration of the Temple or any other materiall Temple more then a meere revivall of the former promises Exod. 29. 45. and Levit. 26. 12 13. for so the Prophet astipulateth in the name of his God chap. 37. ver 26 27 and 28. Moreover I will make a Covenant of peace with them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore my Tabernacle shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and the heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore 4. But now we see and seeing cannot but bewaile that the seed of Abraham according to the flesh whom this promise did in the first place concerne hath had no place of dwelling in the land of Canaan almost for these sixteene hundred yeares past Nor hath the God of Israel dwelt amongst them after such a manner as he did during the time of the first Tabernacle or whilest the first or second Temple were standing And yet this covenant was according to the literall sense of the Prophet to be an everlasting Covenant yea perpetually everlasting after it once beganne to be in esse God was to dwell with Israel or with the sons of Abraham there meant without interruption in this life and everlastingly in the life to come Besides this everlasting covenant was a covenant likewise of everlasting peace to such as were partakers of it For the peculiar manner of Gods dwelling with Israel the Jew cannot imagine a more punctuall fulfilling of this prophecy then the Evangelist S. Iohn hath left upon record chap. 1. ver 14. And he dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father fall of grace and truth Thus he dwelt and conversed with the children of Israel according to bodily descent and with none else how then is it said by the Prophet that hee was to dwell with them for evermore or that this covenant of peace should be an everlasting covenant Seeing Israel or the sonnes of Iacob by bodily descent did for the most part reject this covenant when God for his part was ready to seale it unto them the Gentiles were ingraffed in the beleeving stock when the naturall branches were broken off and yet God still dwels in medio Israel he hath his everlasting Tabernacle in Israel that is in the seed of Abraham and of Iacob which he assumed and did choose not as he had done Sion or Ierusalem but for a perpetually everlasting rest And though this place of his rest be removed not only from the sonnes of Israel but from all the sonnes of men that live here on earth yet he still dwelleth with us who are ingraffed in the stock of Abraham and of Israel unto the end of the world and so shall dwell with true Israelites world without end He hath his residence in every Church throughout the world in as peculiar a maner as he sometimes did reside in the Temple of Jerusalem for wheresoever God is truly worshipped there doth he dwell 5. This covenant of everlasting peace which the Prophet foretold was to be established as the first covenant was by blood but by farre better blood then the blood of Bulls and Goates by the blood of the Testator himselfe that is of God himselfe Bellum gessit ut nos pace fruamur Hee was once for all to warre with flesh and blood with powers and principalities that all such as embraced this covenant avouched by Ezekiel might enjoy everlasting peace not the peace of this world yet peace in this world to be accomplished in the world to come And our Saviour the sonne of God for more full declaration that he was the Author of this covenant a little before his death bequeathed the legacy of peace unto his Apostles and Disciples as feoffees in trust for all that should follow the faith of Abraham Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Iohn 14. 27. And after he had sealed this covenant with his blood his salutation unto his Disciples was Peace be unto you and Behold I am with you unto the end of the world After his death he did walk and talk only with his Disciples but before his death hee
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
my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him That is meat and drink indeed which nourisheth us not to a bodily but to a spirituall and immortall life which presupposeth an immortall seed Unto all these ends and purposes to our new birth to our nourishment and growth in spirituall life the flesh and blood of the Word or son of God were consecrated by his sufferings upon the crosse and by his resurrection from the dead He was according to his humane nature both the Priest appointed to obtaine these blessings and to award them ex officio and withall the sacrifice by whose participation they are really and actually conveyed unto all that doe or shall inherit the immortality of soule and body 7. But if his flesh and blood be the seed of immortalitie how are we said to be borne againe by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Is this word by which we are borne the same with that immortall feed of which wee are borne It is the same not in nature but in person May we not in that speech of S. Peter by the word understand the word preached in to us by the ministers who are Gods feeds men In a secondary sense we may for we are begotten and borne againe by preaching as by the instrument or meanes yet borne againe by the eternall word that is by Christ himselfe as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth Thus much S. Peters word is that place will inforce us to grant according to the letter For having before declared that the word of God by which we are born againe doth live and endure for ever he thus concludes and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you 1. Pet. 1. 25. 8. The Gospell it selfe taken in the largest sense is but the declaration of the Evangelists and Apostles upon the propheticall predictions concerning the incarnation the birth the death the resurrection and ascension of Christ And Christ himselfe who was put to death for our sinnes and raised againe for our justification is the word which we all doe or ought to preach The Gospell written or preached by us cannot be that word which by the Gospell is preached unto us This Word in the literall assertive sense can bee no other then the eternall word or sonne of God made flesh and consecrated in the flesh to be the seed of immortalitie And if wee take the Gospell not according to the outward letter or bark but for the heart or substance of the Gospell or for the glad tidings of life which is the primitive signification of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gospell that is no other then the Word made flesh or manifested in the flesh To this purpose saith our Evangelist or rather the Angell of the Lord Luke 2. 10. Feare not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people this is no more then the Prophet saith all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord for unto you is borne this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Lord he was long before and this Lord was made flesh before that day wherein he was borne but first manifested in the flesh upon that day and manifested to be the Saviour of all people or all flesh some eight dayes after yet not then compleatly made Christ untill his resurrection Againe the Gospell in its prime or principall sense is no other or no more then the great mystery of godlinesse which was inwrapt in the volume of Moses and the Prophets but not revealed or unfolded untill the word was made flesh was circumcised in the flesh and made King and Christ Without controversie saith S. Paul 1. Tim. 3. 16. great is the mysterie of godlinesse God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory All these testimonies put together amount to this point that the sonne of God manifested in the flesh was that Word which in S. Peters language is preached by the Gospell And if we doe not preach this word unto our hearers if all our sermons doe not tend to one of these two ends either to instruct our Auditors in the articles of their Creed concerning Christ or to prepare their eares and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions we doe not preach the Gospell unto them wee take upon us the name of Gods Ambassadors or of the ministers of the Gospell more then in vaine 9. Besides all these testimonies and others that might bee alleaged all most undoubtedly true in the literall assertive sense that the mystery of godlinesse or the joyfull tidings which Abrahams seed did expect should consist in the union betweene the eternall Word or sonne of God and our flesh we have a most lively character or prefiguration though not assertive in the originall word designed by the wisedome of God to expresse the preaching of the Gospel or joyfull embassage of our everlasting peace For one and the same word in the originall doth signifie flesh and the preaching of glad tidings unto all people or flesh without variation of any radicall letter but only of grammaticall moode or declension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use of the originall language doth properly signifie flesh that is men or creatures indued with life or sense and being the root or primitive is not a verb but a noune The first verbe that is formed of it doth signifie as much as the Latine nunciavit or nunciare to bring or deliver a message and is alwayes used for some good or joyfull message and in peculiar for the preaching of the Gospell which is the joyfull message 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to omit other places it is thus used Ierem. 20. 15. Cur sed be the man that brought tidings to my Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying a man child is borne unto thee making him very glad And in the forecited 40. of Isaiah ver 9. O Sion that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain◠O Ierusalem that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up be not afraid say unto the cities of Iudah behold your God And in the 61 of Isaiah ver 1. which is the very place wherein the preaching of the Gospell by our Saviour himselfe is foreprophecyed that which S. Luke expresses chap. 4. ver 18. by preaching the Gospell to the poore is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelizatum pauperes Now that flesh and preaching of glad tidings to all flesh should be signified by one and the same originall word no grammarian can easily give any reason It falls not within the compasse of their Etymologies or derivations there is not here a primitive and derivative
since his resurrection and ascention he hath I shall crave pardon for making these or the like any points of my beleife If any man be otherwise minded I grudge him not the libertie of his opinion but will confesse my ignorance when he shall shew me any expresse Scripture or any deduction out of Scripture which shall not inferre aut nihil aut nimium 5 It sufficeth me to beleeve and know that my Lord was so qualified with all grace even whilst he lived in the forme of a servant that he was alwaies more ready to understand and comprehend whatsoever it pleased his heavenly Father to impart or signifie unto him then chrystall is to receive the light of the Sun or any glasse the shape of bodies which present themselves unto it and more ready withall to doe whatsoever he knew to be his Fathers will he should do then we are to eate when we are hungry or to drinke in the extremity of â—hrist There was in him even in his cradle a docilitie or capacitie both for learning and doing his fathers will truely infinite in comparison of other children yet this capacitie was actuated by degrees This I take it is as much as wee are bound to beleeve concerning his growth in wisedome and this wee cannot deny to be contained in the hypostaticall union of which we are without curiositie to say somewhat in the next place CHAP. 30. Of the hypostaticall and personall union betwixt the Word and the flesh or betwixt the sonne of God and the seed of Abraham THe manner of the union between the sonne of God and the seed of Abraham is a mystery that one of the blessed Trinity only excepted most to bee admired by all and least possible to be exactly expressed by any living man of all the mysteries whose beleefe we professe in this Apostles Creed And for this reason my former resolution to avoid all Schoole disputes about the relations in the Trinitie and each severall persons peculiar properties ties me to the like observance in this present point And in my yonger dayes I had a greater desire to learne more exquisite rules of Logick or other good arts out of School-disputes in these two kindes then can be found in the professors of such arts themselves then I have in these declining yeares to learne divinity from them 2. The particulars which the most subtile amongst the Schoole-Divines exhibite concerning the manner of the hypostaticall union are well summed up by the learned and judicious D. Field in whose computation they amount to more then I shall have occasion in this place to make use of and are withall of so high a pitch and straine as surmounts my aime or levell for this time which is only to shew how truly how justly how consonantly to the knowne rules of reason in other cases we Christians beleeve and acknowledge such a peculiar union between the sonne of God and the sonne of David that whilest the sonne of man was conceived borne crucified and raised from the dead the son of God likewise was conceived borne crucified c. Now for justifying these and the like expressions the sonne of God was conceived was borne was crucified c. whether we finde them in the Creed or in the Apostolick or Evangelical writings whence they issued into this Creed wee can have no better ground or fundamentall resemblance then that of Athanasius As the reasonable soule and flesh make one man so God and man make one Christ yet this illustration or expression of the manner of this mysticall union is excepted against by some great Divines and by Cardinall Bellarmine by name yet excepted against not as false or impertinent but as defective But if every resemblance of this or other sacred mystery which is any way defective were lyable to exception the Church should doe well to give a generall prohibition that no man should attempt to make any For all will come short of the mystery which we seeke to expresse by them or of so much of it as we shall know in that eternall Schoole It was the Cardinals fault to stretch Athanasius his expression further then he intended it or not to allot it a certaine extent within which it is most divinely true 3. The like comparisons sometimes hold firme and true only quoad veritatem non quoad mensuram according to the truth not according to the measure of the same truth As when we beseech our heavenly father to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us or when our Saviour enjoynes us to be mercifull as our heavenly father is mercifull the meaning is not that the measure of his mercies towards us should be but equall to our mercy or kindnesse towards men our fellow servants and yet the meaning of our Saviours injunction is that we must bee as truly mercifull and charitable towards others in some degree as God is infinitely mercifull towards all Sometimes the like comparisons are firme and true quoad veritatem quoad mensuram both according to the truth and the same measure of truth but not quoad modum at least not quoad modum specificum proximum sed quoad modum genericum aut remotum true they may be sometimes according to the same manner and yet not in all respects or according to the selfe-same particular manner And such is this comparison of Athanasius First it holds quoad veritatem unionis As it is not the meere inhabitation of the reasonable soule in the body but the peculiar union of these two parts which makes a man so is it not the internall presence or peculiar inhabitation of the Deity in the manhood but the true and reall union of these two natures which makes one Christ Infernall spirits may by Gods permission take up their lodgings in the bodies of men may be confined within them and use them as their instruments yet by such residence in them men neither become Divels nor divels men nor doe they make any one realitie or third thing in part or whole distinct from both 4. The former comparison doth not hold secundum omnem modum that is though the Godhead and humanity of Christ be as truly as properly and really united as the reasonable soule and the humane body are yet the manner of the union is herein different The reasonable soule and the body being two distinct natures each having their proper existence though imperfect and incompleat doe by their union make one perfect compleat nature Their union is made by physicall or naturall composition Now in all such unions or compositions each part ingredient must abate or lose somewhat there must be a mutuall fashioning or fitting of the one to the other But the Deitie or Godhead as it is all things else so it is fitnesse it selfe and cannot be fashioned or fitted to any creature as being not subject to any shadow of change or alteration The creatures may be fashioned or fitted to
scoffe the God of Israel made good in earnest by making this Jesus whom Pilate and the Jews had crucified both Lord and Christ that is a far greater King then Caesar himselfe whom they acknowledge their only King 6 Ioseph his supposed Father in all probabilitie was dead before this time of our Saviours passion so that the lineall right of the Crowne of David was now in Christ as the only sonne of the virgin Mary who had no child by Ioseph her husband nor hee any sonne by any former wife so that the whole right unto the Crowne of David which either or both of them had was by legall descent devolved upon this dying man who after his great humiliation was to be more highly exalted and in him alone that which was said by the prophet Ezekiel was accomplished exalt him that is low and abase him that is high And yet the same Prophecy had beene at severall times verified or fulfilled in part before And first perhaps in Ieconiah who after the debasing of Zedekiah his uncle by Nebuchadnezzar was exalted above other Captives by Nebuchadnezzars sonne Evil-Merodach And againe more punctually according to the prophets meaning in Zorobabel and others of Davids line after Solomons line was either extinguished or deposed but more fully afterwards in the blessed Virgin as shee expresses her thankfulnesse for it in her sweet song Luke 1. 52. Hee hath put downe the mightie from their seate and hath exalted the humble and the meeke Whether the blessed Virgin in her owne right or Ioseph her husbands while he lived were the next heire unto the Crowne of David is disputed by others unto whose determinations I have nothing to say in this place Whatsoever right either or both of them had was I take it derived from David by Nathan not by Solomon or his successors Ioseph and Mary were heires to the kingdome which Solomon did enjoy though not of his seede and so were Salathiel and Zorobabel from whom they directly descended 7 But whether her sonne should be the lawfull heire of David was no part of the blessed virgins doubt or question to the Angel But how shee should conceive a sonne according to the purport of the Angels promise that she questions Luke 1. 24. Then said Mary how shall this be seeing I know not a man To omit the idle fancies of some who would hence collect that the blessed virgin had vowed chastitie in single life as if I know not a man had beene as much as I am resolved never to know man The truth is that however shee was at this time espoused unto Ioseph yet the marriage was not to be consummated til some competent space after the espousals within which time shee did rightly apprehend the conception foretold her by the Angell was to bee accomplished or rather from the very time of this present dialogue and hence shee demands how it was possible that she should instantly conceive seeing she knew not a man yet are not these words of distrust they have no tincture of such incredulitie or slow beliefe as wee finde taxed in Sarah and Zachariah father to Iohn Baptist yet were both Sarah and Elizabeth the wife of Zachariah types or shadowes of the blessed virgins miraculous conceiving So were Hannah and Sampsons mother The conception of all their sonnes and they were respectively their only sonnes was wonderfull and without the ordinary course of nature peculiar blessings of him that maketh the barren to be a joyfull mother of Children Sarah and Hannah and Iohn Baptists parents had beene petitioners to the Lord of life for children and had their petitions ratifyed one by the Preist and others by the Angel of the Lord. But Sampson was promised to Manoahs wife by the Angel of the Lord without any petition on her part made to this purpose and promised withall to be a deliverer of his people from the Philistins And in this particular or in the maner of the Angelicall Annunciation the birth of Sampson was a most lively type of the birth of our Saviour albeit this conception of Sampson was not so strange as that of Isaac That Sarah in her decrepit age should conceive a sonne was a matter incredible and unparalleld in any age of the world before or since yet not properly miraculous Through faith saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 11. Sarah received strength to conceive seede and was delivered of a child when she was past age either for conceiving seede or for bringing it forth conceived yet both shee did because she judged him faithfull who had promised The faith by which shee conceived strength was the gift of God and the strength which shee conceived by this faith was such a wondrous effect as these gifts which are attributed to the faith of miracles But Sarah having received this strength by faith the conception was according to the course of nature it was with her after the manner of women not so with the virgin Mary who became blessed by beleeving the Angel She did not receive strength to conceive seede the performance of those things which were foretold by the Angel were from the Lord himselfe Vnlesse shee had beleeved shee had not beene established yet her beleefe did not cooperate with the effect promised That was the immediate worke of the holy Ghost by marying part of her substance to the person of the Sonne of God after a manner unknowne to her There was not first a marriage and then a conception nor a conception first and then a marriage both were accomplished at once CHAP. 33. S. Mathewes relation of the maner of our Saviours conception and birth and of the harmony betwixt it and the prophecies IT is well observed by divers good writers that S. Mathew begins the Genealogie of our Saviour Christ not from Adam where S. Luke ordine retrogrado ends it but ordine recto from Abraham because the Covenant of the promised seede was first by oath established in Abrahams line and afterwards more particularly in Davids whose sonne and heire our Saviour was though sonne by adoption or next heire in reversion unto Ieconiah who was the last as these Authors think of Solomons line the last at least that could pretend unto the kingdome of David And though it be said in our Saviours Genealogie according to S. Mathew that Ieconiah begat Salathiel yet this cannot be meant of a naturall begetting but of a civil He was the son of Salathiel in such a sense as the holy Ghost useth in the second Psalme ver 7. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee to wit unto the Kingdome of Israel if this place be literally to be understood of David as the most probable opinion is though afterwards to be mystically fulfilled only in Christ who is not only Gods only begotten sonne from eternity but his first begotten from the dead and so made King of Kings and Lord of Lords But of these points in their due place 2
and before her did conceive and bring forth a sonne This in no wiâ—e may be granted nor any interpretation of any place admitted from which such impious conclusions as this may be inferred To conceive a sonne whilest shee was a virgin was the incommunicable prerogative of the mother of our Lord. Yet will it not hence follow that the Prophet by the emphaticall character of a virgin Hagnalma might not designe some virgin then present not the Prophets wife but rather some virgin of Ahaz kinred or of the house of Iudah for whom hee astipulates that within the compasse of the yeare following shee should conceive and bring forth a sonne not whilst shee was a virgin but by becomming a lawfull wife beyond or before her expectation 7. But here such as are otherwise minded or take this passage to be literally meant of the blessed virgin alone will reply What wonder was it or what matter worthy the ushering in with an Ecce or other like injunction of attention for her who was now a virgin to conceive and bring forth a sonne after the manner that other women within a yeare after they are maried usually do But they who thus object facilè pronunciant quia ad pauca respiciunt they give sentence upon the view of one circumstance only when as they should take a great many more into their consideration The virgin thus particularized according to the literall sense of the Prophet whether then present as is most probable or otherwise so famously knowne that his words in all mens apprehension then present had reference to her might be either for want of yeares or for some other defects as unlikely to bring forth a sonne within the time limited as Sarah after 90 yeares age was more unlikely than the wife of Manoah or Zacharias However it farre surpassed the skill of Astrologers Physitians of men expert in naturall Magick or other kinde of divination whatsoever besides the divination which proceedes from the Father of lights to give such full assurance as the Prophet there doth that any woman should conceive within such a compasse of time or that shee should conceive a sonne not a daughter least of all that shee should conceive and bring forth a Sonne who should deservedly brooke the name and title of Emmanuel that is to be a pledge of Gods speciall presence to the house of David or land of Iudah or to protect them against their potent enemies or to be a demonstrative signe or hostage that before hee could know how to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land which Ahaz abhorred should be forsaken of both their Kings who were now ready and able without Gods speciall ayde to devoure the Land of Iudah Yet for all these and other like consequences of Emmanuels birth the Prophet confidently astipulates in the name of his God which without a speciall warrant from him had beene an intolerable presumption But as for Ahaz himselfe his house and people because they would not beleeve this prediction according to the literall tenour they were to be plagued by that Nation in whose potencie they put their trust by the same enemie which the Prophet had foretold should by Gods appointment defeat the present mischievous designe of Syria and Samaria against Iudah And all this they should have done without any future harme or danger to the house of David by them so Ahaz and his people would have relyed entirely upon Gods promise or faithfully accepted of the signe promised by his Prophet But not beleeving this they were not established ver 9. For so the Prophet immediatly after Ahaz refusall of this signe did threaten Ahaz and his people ver 17. The Lord shall bring upon thee and thy people and upon thy Fathers house dayes that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah even the Kings of Assyria And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall hisse for the Flye that is in the uttermost part of the Rivers of Aegypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleyes and in the holes of the rockes and upon all thornes and upon all bushes The demerits of Ahaz and of his people which did deserve the denuntiation and execution of the plagues here threatned were their too much confidence in the King of Assyria and their distrust hence occasioned of what the Lord had promised by his Prophet Isaiah and would have performed by other meanes than by the ayde of the Assyrian so they would have relyed upon them Wee do not reade that either Ahaz or his people did distrust much lesse that they were punished for their distrust unto Gods promises concerning the comming of the Messias in the appointed time but for not accepting the signe or pledge as well of his comming as of their instant deliverance from the danger wherein then they stood 8. But what probabilities or just presumptions be there that any woman who was a virgin at the time when Ahaz and Isaiah met in the high way of the Fullers field should upon the occasion mentioned become a married woman and conceive a sonne according to the time intimated by the Prophet All this I take it is more then probable from the true and literall meaning of the 1 2 3 and 4 verses of the 8 Chapter which are no other then an exegeticall exposition of the former prophecie Chap. 7. vers 14 15 16. or a more legall ratification or new assumption of making good the assurance which in the former Chapter he had given Moreover the Lord said unto me take thee a great roule and write in it with a mans penne concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz And I took unto me faithfull witnesses to record Vriah the Priest and Zechariah the sonne of Jeberechiah And I went unto the Prophetesse and shee conceived and bare a sonne then said the Lord to mee Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry my father and my mother the riches of Damascus and the spoile of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria The Child promised Chap. 7. ver 14 and in this place according to the true connexion of the literall sense is in my apprehension one and the same though described by two names the one importing comfort to the house of David and the land of Iudah and this was given him before his conception the later importing the sudden execution of the woes denounced against Syria and Samaria and was given him after his conception And lest wee should doubt whether this Maher-shalal-hash-baz were the same with the Emmanuel promised in the former Chapter hee is instyled again by the very same name Chap. 8. unto ver 8. The Lord spake unto me againe saying Forsomuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that goe softly and rejoyce in Rezin Remaliahs sonne now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up
upon them the waters of the rivers strong and many even the King of Assyria and all his glory and he shall come up over all his channels and goe over all his banks Againe that the name Emmanuel did literally import Gods peculiar presence at that time with his people not only to deliver them from Rezin and Pekah but from the potencie of the Assyrian in future times is evidently included in the 9 and 10 verses Associate your selves O yee people and yee shall be broken in pieces and give eare all yee of farre Countries gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall be brought to naught speake the word and it shall stand for God is with us The strange defeat of the confederacie here foretold was not to be expected in the dayes of Ahaz in whose times the Assyrian did attempt no great matters against them but in the dayes of Hezekiah Thus much the Prophets words in the verses following import ver 16. 17. Binde up the testimony seale my law among my Disciples And I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him This binding up of the Testimony and sealing of this Law doth argue both the Law and testimony to have beene of speciall moment yet not to be put in execution or fully accomplished for the present Of the accomplishment of both whether wholly or in part the Prophets sonnes in the interim were signes and pledges as is imported ver 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given mee are for signes and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hoasts which dwelleth in Mount Sion This last passage is alledged by the Apostle amongst others to prove that the Lord of Hoasts himselfe who in the 14. verse of the 8. of Isaiah had promised to be a Sanctuary to his people was to participate with them of flesh and bloud Hee that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee And againe I will put my trust in him And againe Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yet that the 18. verse of Isaiah the 8 to which our Apostle in this place referres us was literally meant of the Prophet and his Children is too apparent to be denied nor will it be safe to stand upon termes of contradiction thus farre with the moderne Jew One of the Prophets sonnes was called Shear-iashub which by interpretation is The remnâ—nt shall returne and of this returne or restauration hee was the signe or pledge The other was called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us a name portending or foretokening Gods speciall presence with his people at more times than one The imposition of both names and their importance were literally fulfilled in the age immediatly following but mistically fulfilled only in Christ whose comming to visit his people was prefigured by both of them The full importance or abode of the name Emmanuel was fulfilled in our Saviours conception and birth the true importance of Shear-iashub shall be mystically fulfilled when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come or when the Jew shall be called to be againe the seede of Abraham according to promise 9. Two points only remaine The first how the prophecie concerning Emmanuel was fulfilled according to the literall sense in the Prophets time and our resolution in this point wee must take from the sacred records of this theame in the old Testament The second how this prophecie was fulfilled according to the mysticall sense and this wee must learne from the Evangelists which alledge the fulfilling of it and other unpartiall Writers which relate either circumstances or signes of those times in which they wrote Out of these two points the parallel betweene the Prophet and Evangelists will of its owne accord without any anxious inquirie or further discussion result 10 The Histories of the old Testament by which Isaiahs literall meaning may be best interpreted are in the 2 of Kings 17 18. 2 Chron. 28. 16 17 c. We have a constat from the prophet Isaiah himselfe Chap. 7. 1 2. That this prophecy concerning Emmanuel was uttered by him in the dayes of Ahaz King of Judah and of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah but in what certaine yeare of either of these two Kings raignes this revelation was made to Isaiah and the matter of it instantly imparted unto King Ahaz is not so certaine Most certaine it is that Isaiah delivered this message from the Lord to Ahaz before the twelfth yeare of his raigne for in that yeare Hoshea the sonne of Elah begun to raigne in Samaria over Israel 2 Kings 17. 1. and this was after Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was dead And though it be not so certaine yet most probable it is that the former prophecy was uttered about the 8 or 9 yeare of Ahaz or about 3 yeares or somewhat more before Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was slaine One yeare or somewhat under we must allow for the conception and birth of the Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz and some two yeares after untill he were upon the point or period of time wherein ordinary Children in those dayes were enabled to know how to refuse the evill and choose the good that is to distinguish between other meats besides milke butter and honey and betweene his parents and other persons Before this Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz were thus enabled to distinguish betweene meate and meat or his parents and other persons but how long before this time it is uncertaine both Pekah sonne of Remaliah and Rezin King of Syria according to the tenour of Isaiahs prophecy and the astipulation made by him upon the signe profered to Ahaz were to be deprived of their Kingdomes or rather their Land and Kingdomes to be quitted of them Isaiah 7. 16. Chap. 8. ver 4. But before their ruine and before this revelation concerning their ruine was made unto the Prophet Isaiah they had brought Judah and the house of David exceeding low 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 7 8. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria and they smote him carryed away a great multitude of them Captives and brought them to Damascus And hee was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter For Pekah the sonne of Remaliah slue in Iudah an hundred and twentie thousand in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers And Zichri a mightie man of Ephraim slue Maaserah the Kings sonne and Azrikam the governour of the house and Elkanah that was next to the King And the Children of Israel caryed away captive
of their brethren two hundred thousand women sonnes and daughters and tooke also away much spoile from them and brought the spoile to Samaria Upon this great disaster or captivitie of the people of Judah by these two Kings the Prophet Isaiah did name one sonne of his Shear-iashub as a pledge or token that these captives should returne againe unto their own Land as they did beyond all expectation from Samaria The historie is very remarkable both for matter and circumstance and recorded at large by the author of the 2 booke of Chronicles in the words immediately following the forecited But a prophet of the Lord was there whose name was O ded and he went out before the host that came to Samaria and said unto them Behold because the Lord God of your Fathers was wroth with Iudah he hath delivered them into your hand and yee have slain them in a rage that reacheth up into Heaven And now yee purpose to keepe under the children of Iudah and Ierusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you But are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God Now heare mee therefore and deliver the Captives againe which yee have taken captive of your brethren for the fierce wrath of God is upon you Then certaine of the heads of the children of Ephraim Azariah the sonne of Iohanan Berechiah the sonne of Meshillemoth and Iehizkiah the sonne of Shallum and Amala the sonne of Hadlai stood up against them that came from the warre and said unto them Ye shall not bring in the Captives hither for whereas we have offended against the Lord already yee intend to adde more to our sinnes and to our trespasse for our trespasse is great and there is fierce wrath against Israel So the armed men left the Captives and the spoile before the Princes and all the Congregation And the men which were expressed by name rose up and tooke the Captives and with the spoile cloathed all that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eate and to drinke and annointed them and caryed all the feeble of them upon Asses and brought them to Ieriche the Citie of palme trees to their brethren then they returned to Samaria And so no doubt those Captives which Rezin King of Syria had carryed to Damascus were set at libertie after the King of Assyria had slaine Rezin meeting with Ahaz there But the Edomites and the Philistines both ancient Enemies to the house of David became ungues in ulcere and kept the wound open with tooth and nayle which Rezin Pekah and Zichri had made as it is registred 2 Chron. 28. 17. c. For againe the Edomites had come and smitten Iudah and carryed away Captives the Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low Country and of the South of Iudah and had taken Bethshemesh and Ailon and Gederoth and Shocho with the villages thereof and Timnah with the villages thereof Gimzo also and the villages thereof and they dwelt there After these wounds which these severall enemies had made in the state of Judah Rezin and Pekah with joynt forces beseiged Jerusalem 2 Kings 16. 5 6 7 8. Then Rezin King of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah King of Israel came up to Ierusalem to war and they beseiged Ahaz but could not overcome him At that time Rezin King of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Iews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pelezer King of Assyria saying I am thy servant and thy sonne come up and save mee out of the hand of the King of Syria and out of the hand of the King of Israel which rise up against mee And Ahaz tooke the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the Kings house and sent it for a present to the King of Assyria And the King of Assyria hearkned unto him for the King of Assyria went up against Damascus and tooke it and carryed the people of it Captive to Kir and slue Rezin This unhallowed submission of Ahaz unto the King of Assyria was the very thing which the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah did diswade him from foretelling withall that if he persisted in this purpose of casting out one Divell by another or by the Prince of Divels the later would prove worse than the former On the contrary if Ahaz and his people would relye upon the signe which God had given them or accept of his immediate aide both Rezin and Pekah should within short space be ruinated without either present aide or future evill from Assyria But if they would not beleeve or rely upon him although God for his part would performe the former part of this Prophecie as it concerned the death of Rezin and Pekah and the captivitie of Samaria yet he would bring all the plagues upon Judah which the Prophet Isaiah had threatned by the hand of Assyria whose aid they now sought And yet this present Emmanuel was to be a pledge of a strange defeat of the Assyrian after much mischiefe done by him as well to Judah as to Israel For Hezekiah sonne and successor unto Ahaz was inforced to buy his peace of Senacherib successor to Tiglah-Peleser at as deare a rate as Ahaz had purchased the Assyrians aid Now in the fourteenth yeare of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced Cities of Iudah and tooke them And Hezekiah King of Iudah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish saying I have offended returne from mee that which thou puttest on me will I beare And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah King of Iudah three hundred Talents of silver and thirty Talents of Gold And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the Kings house At that time did Hezekiah out off the gold from the doores of the Temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah King of Iudah had over-laid and gave it to the king of Assyria 2 King 18. 13 14 c. Both this distresse whereunto Judah was now brought and Hezekiahs strange deliverance from Sennacherib or whatsoever the sacred Story 2 Kings 19. or else-where relates concerning both were foretold by Isaiah the Prophet Chap. 8 and 9 as consequences oâ— Ahaz his refusall of the signes which God had offered him and of the signe which God did give to the house of David albeit they would not accept it 11 But to descend unto the parallel betweene the historicall narrations in the Booke of Kings of Chronicles and Intersertions to the same purpose in the prophecie of Isaiah our Euangelists relations how they were fulfilled In the dayes of Ahaz the House of David was brought exceeding low by the Syrians by the King of Samaria by the Edomites and by the Philistines From this extraordinary depression
the sacred story For Pekah was slaine by Hoshea the sonne of Elah within two or three yeares after the signe was given and so was Rezin by Tiglath Pileser at Damascus Within the like compasse of yeares after the Evangelicall promise was made to the blessed Virgin that her sonne Iesus should sit upon her Father Davids throne Herod the great who had usurped it did die a miserable death so did his confederates against the house of Iudah as wee gather from Matthew 2. 20. Arise saith the Angel to Ioseph in a dreame and take the young Childe and his Mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead which sought the young Childes life Now Ioseph returned from Egypt two yeares after our Saviour was borne Whom the Evangelist meanes beside Herod when hee saith they were dead which sought the Childes life is no where in sacred story expressed nor is it to mee certaine whether Syria at that time had a King of their own but it is probable they had seeing in S. Pauls time Aretas was King of Damascus 2. Cor. 11. 32. Some there be which mention the death of one Obedas whom they make King of Syria who died about the same time with Herod but from what authority they expresse not The Evangelist might meane the Roman Governour of Syria by whose favour and potencie Herod was emboldned to tyrannize over the Jews Nation and to worke his projects against the house of David Some have accused Quintilius Varus of this great sinne unto whom and to the Legions under his Governement the right hand of the Lord of Hoasts had reached a more terrible blow than Iudah had received from him or Herod within some few yeares after the butcherie of the Infants 14. The second blessing whereof the Emmanuel was a pledge whose conception had beene foretold by Isaiah was not exhibited till many yeares after and it was this that Judah and the house of David should be more admirably delivered from the Assyrian when he should besiege Ierusalem more fiercely then Rezin or Pekah had done And this was in the dayes of Hezekiah for so the Prophet assures the people that the rod of Ashur should be broken as in the day of Midian Isaiah 9. 4. Which is in effect as if he had said The Lord will be with us after as wonderfull a manner as he was with Gideon when Israel was oppressed by the Midianites And so it fell out in the dayes of Hezekiah that Senacheribs mighty Army was destroyed by a more fearefull destruction then the Midianites had beene by Gideon And unto this strange defeat of the Assyrian the Prophets words Isaiah 9. 4 5. do referre Thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen and the staffe of his shoulders the rod of his Oppressour as in the day of Midian For every battell of the Warrier is with confused noyse and garments rolled in bloud but this shall be with burning and fewell of fire Now of this disaster which befell Assyria and the strange deliverance of Iudah and the house of David by it the Emmanuel there promised by Isaiah was the pledge or assurance as the Prophet in the next word intimates For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. Isaiah 9. 6. That by this Childe the Prophet meant the Emmanuel mentioned Chapter 7. is acknowledged by all even by such as admit of no more Emmanuels then one to wit our Saviour Christ But seeing the Emmanuel there literally meant was given as a pledge or comfort unto Iudah in this particular distresse certainely hee was borne before him though not borne only as a pledge of this deliverance but of a farre greater Deliverer or Saviour to come for whose sake alone this deliverance and all other of his people from their enemies both bodily and ghostly were sent from God And best Interpreters take those words of Isaiah 2. Kings 9. 34. I will defend this Citie to save it for mine owne sake and for my servant Davids sake to be literally meant not of David but of Davids sonne the true Emmanuel But to returne to the 9. of Isaiah upon that vision of that great overthrow of Senacheribs Armie the Prophet takes his rise to view a greater victory a more potent Enemie in the same place where Senacheribs Armie was overthrowne and that was not neere Ierusalem but in the borders of Zebulun and Napthali neere to Libanus in that Country whose Inhabitants Senacheribs predecessour Tiglath-Pileser had first captivated and in the same place our Saviour gave his Apostles power over Satan and his Angels who had his people in greater subjection then the Assyrians had them in the time of Isaiah For hee had possessed many of their bodies after another manner then any earthly Tyrant could have them in possession Now when the Prophet foretels as well the victory of the Angell of the Lord over the Assyrian as the victory of Christs Apostles over Satan he gives this one signe of both For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. These words may referre both to the type and to the antitype in the literall sense but immediatly after the light of that great mysterie which all this while had beene under the cloude of the literall sense breakes forth in its proper native lustre For the words following can be meant of none but Christ And his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Of the encrease of his governement and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever the Zeale of the Lord of Hoasts will performe this As for the former passages concerning the Emmanuel and Mahar-shalal-hash-baz they are literally meant of Isaiah his sonne and yet are withall proofes no lesse concludent against the Jew no lesse pregnant testimonies of our beliefe concerning the miraculous birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ than the testimonies last cited out of Isaiah 9. 6 7. or of his Godhead or everlasting Kingdome For however such immediate visions or unvailed revelations of Christ as Isaiah in these two verses and in the 53 Chapter or elsewhere addes were the most sublime kinde of prophecies such as few other Prophets besides David could ever attaine unto these having the like priviledges amongst the Prophets that Peter Iames and Iohn had amongst the fellow Apostles permitted to ascend the Mount with Christ and see the transfiguration or glory of his Kingdom Yet for our instruction predictions of Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are most admirably concludent as was premised before especially when the same words according to the literall sense fit both the pledge and the mysterie pledged or the Evangelicall mysterie according to the improvement in a more exquisite sense then they did the type or