as he wished himselfe separated from Christ and we the wilde Oliue graffed in and now made partaker of the same roote ought to feede their dead branches with our liuing sap by opening vnto them that Iesus whose side they pierced was the Lambe slaine for the sinnes of the world and the substance of the Sacrifices commanded in the Law Among many other things in the old Testament shewed in the Angel in Aaron the Scepter and brasen Serpent and in the new seene in his humanity Doctrine miracles and death both of them in euery line either speaking of or pointing vnto the Messiah the annointed of God and agreeing in his person parantage and place of birth meete each other as the wings of the Cherubins did vpon the Mercy seate in Salomons Temple the one affirming and the other confirming that he was the Sonne of a Virgin his birth in Beth-lehem his kindred of Dauid and Tribe Iudah Hls infancy answering the types of the old Testament was seene a Starre vnto the Gentile Prophet Balaam and was found by a Star of the Gentiles that sought him In Rama was weeping as Ieremy had heard out of Egypt he was called as Hosheah had said was brought vpin Nazaret to fulfill the Prophets and for wisedome at twelue yeeres of age as much admired among the Doctors as Salomon was in deciding the strife of the harlots His life was vnreproueable fulfilling all righteousnesse in whom the Prince of this world could finde nothing amisse His doctrine was as the dewe of Hermon preaching comfort to all that mourne in Zion and was a light of saluation giuen vnto the Gentiles vnto the end of the world His Miracles were so many and manifest as testified his Godhead by curing the blinde healing the diseased clensing of Lepers casting out Diuels and raising the dead In transfiguration he was more glorious then Moses in feeding the hungry with fewer loaues hee exceeded Elisha and had more power to command Angels then Elias had to shut heauen for raine or to open it for fier And the parts of his passion were as effectually acted as in the old Testament they had been predicted and all accomplished as had beene prescribed For Zachariah saw the Shepheard the Lords fellow smitten and the sheepe scattered sold for thirty peeces of siluer and them the purchase of the potters field Dauid told that his hands and feete should be pierced his garments diuided and lots cast for his vesture And Daniel saw him slaine to confirme the Couenant and to seale vp vision and Prophet His bones were not broken to answere the Law of the Lambe his side pierced to assure his death And his death done amongst Malefactors with such signes from Heauen in the earth in the renting of the vayle as his be holders smiting their breasts confessed he was the Sonne of God But to gather al in one and from thatone against whom the Iewes dare not speake euen Esay the Prophet and of their Bloud royall let vs lay downe his text as it lieth in his words whose preface vnto his speech beginneth thus Who will beleeue our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord reuealed 2. But he shall grow vp before him as a Branch and as a roote out of a drie ground he hath neither forme nor beautie when we shall see him there shall bee no forme that we should desire him 3. He is despised and reiected of men hee is a man full of sorrowes and hath experience of infirmities we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not 4. Surely hee hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrowes yet wee did iudge him as plagued and smitten of God and humbled 5. But hee was wounded for our transgressions he was broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was vpon him and with his stripes we are healed 6. All we like sheepe haue gone astray wee haue turned euery one to his owne way and the Lord hath laid vpon him the iniquity of vs all 7. He was oppressed and hee was afflicted yet did he not open his mouth he is brought as a sheepe to the slaughter and as a sheepe before her shearer is dum so hee opeâ—…ed not his mouth 8. He was taken out from prison and from iudgement and who shall declare his age for he was cut out of the Land of the liuing for the transgression of my people was he plagued 9. And hee made his graue with the wicked and with the rich in his death though hee had done no wickednesse neither was any deceit in his mouth 10. Yet the Lord would breake him and make him subiect to infirmities when hee shall make his soule an offering for sinne he shall see his seed and shall prolong his daies and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand 11. He shall see of the trauell of his soule and shall bee satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous seruant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities Herein I appeale to your selues O yee children of the Prophets what haue our Euangelists written that this your Prophet did not write before for substance so much and for words so agreeing as they seeme to fall from his pen who saw the passion himselfe and beares record that his sayings are true or to what other person can his text be applied then vnto Iesus so borne so liuing so despised and so crucified that to fulfill all his death was done without the gate as the Bullock was burnt without the Campe. And that the times drawne the actions onely to that age heare how the Scriptures are loude Iacob told Iudah that the d Scepter should not depart from his Tribe vntill Shiloh came and how Iudahs gouernment ended by the cruelty of Herod in slaughtering their Sanhedrin Phylo a man of their owne doth declare And their Rabbins likewife in their Talmud Seder olam thus cry out Woe vnto vs for the Scepter is now taken away from Iudah and the Law-giuer from betweene his feete Which things happened immediately before the birth of Christ when that Idumean tyrant by the fauour of Antonius had first set and after by Agustus surer setled Iudahs crowne vpon his owne head whose faire lustre made him so to persecute the lawfull heire thereof as lest hee should escape hee slaughtered all the male Infants in those coasts of Iewry and among them his owne sonne as Macrobius reporteth The Iubile likewise for freedome the onely Feast in the yeere and that yeere appointed to bee euerie fiftieth must haue an end in the substance as all other Ceremonies had Which great yeere that the people did expect it our Luke declareth for in his time they thought that the
knowne to the contrary he might liue long after the worke was finished Another witnesse wee haue as aged if not more as Zerubbabel and a principall man also who with him returned from Babylon in the first yeere of Cyrus euen Ezra the Scribe the sonne of Seraiah the high Priest whose ancestors both in the seuenth chapter of his booke and in the first booke of the Chronicles are reckoned vp vnto Aaron Now the same Seraiah father to Ezra was carried to Riblah in the land of Hamah and there slaine by Nebuehadnezzar King of Babel in the nineteenth yeere of his raigne So that had Ezra been begot but the day of his fathers death which is not likely yet must he haue been fiftie yeeres aged at the returne from captiuitie in the first yeere of Cyrus since when had there been one hundred and sixe yeeres as some account to there building of the Temple then must Ezra haue been at that time one hundred fifty sixe yeeres old an age by much too long to retaine actiuenesse or to stand as hee did from morning till mid-day to reade and expound the Law to the people But to liue a long time after as it is said he did euen to the end of the Persians raigne which was eightie yeeres more his life must haue seene more yeeres then that shortned age of mans life could attaine vnto And therefore the vncertaine accounts of the Heathen must be measured by those men whom the scriptures haue made their measuring â—…eedes And seeing God hath ordained â—…hat by the mouth and testimonie of two â—…r three witnesses the truth shall bee established Let Mordecai an eminent man of Beniamin stand for another This Mordecai was carried away captiue into Babylon with Ieconiah King of Iudah in the eighth yeere of Nebuchadnezzar and nourished Ester in the dayes of Ahashuerosh King of Persia vnto the twelfth yeere of his raigne And that this Ahashuerosh was Darius Histaspis besides Lyra and others ancient the moderne Writers Beroaldus Broughten Willet More the Geneuian Annotation and many more affirme and Herodotus in his third booke nameth Atossa to bee the wife of Hystaspis sounding so neere to Adassa the other name of Ester as without preiudice we may call Ester his Queene And the rather for that the said Author reporteth she could preuaile in any thing with the King her husband which the Scripture confirmeth euen to the halfe of his Kingdome And likewise Hellanicus another Heathen Author reporteth that Atossa Queene of Persia was the first inuenter of Epistles which vndoubtedly was ministred vpon the Letters by her procured and sent vnto one hundred and twenty seuen Prouinces for the sauing of her people whom Ahashuerosh had condemned at the sute of wicked Haman But that this Ahashuerosh could be Xerxes and he eighty foure yeeres after Cyrus as he hath been set the age of Mordecai may not admit for had Mordecai been but eight yeeres of age when hee was carried away captiue with Ieconiah in the eight yeere of Nebuchadnezzar yet must he haue been seuenty at the returne from Babylon but to adde almost a hundred yeeres more neither humanitie could require his so aged knees to bow nor nature afford his body to bee of such agilitie as it was for State affaires mans terme of life as Solon told Croesus men of the same time to be onely threescore and tenne yeeres I am not ignorant that some will haue the relatiue which to be referred to the antecedent Kish which say they the text doth import in these words Mordecai the sonne of Iair the sonne of Shimei the sonne of Kish and this Kish they will haue the man that had been carried captiue vnto Babilon with Ieconiah But if the words of Esters Apocrypha may be herd it was not Kish but Mordecai for there Mordecai a Noble man that dwelt in Susis and bare office in the Kings Court was he that had the dreame and was the man which Nebuchadnezzar brought captiue from Ierusalem as Chap. 2. 4. Which booke though not Canonicall yet is it ancient and may well be a witnesse in a well knowne historie Besides we see that the intent of that story is not to relate of Kish his captiuitie if any such had been the miseries of those times now ouerblowne but rather the meanes that God then wrought to saue his Church by this his instrument Mordecai that had seene the deliuerance both of himself and others from that Captiuitie of Babylon and now was an acter to blunt the edge of wicked Hamans sword And that the time could extend to those yeeres thus inlarged betwixt Cyrus his Edict and the building of the Citie Nehemiah doth bring a whole Iury of witnesses against it who in his catalogue of twenty two men that returned with him and Zerubbabel from Chaldea vnto Iewrie â—…ameth twelue of them to be liuing â—…n the daies of his gouernment after that the walles of Ierusalem were finished which were Seraiah Amaziah Malluch Hattush Sebaniah Haâ—…im Merimoth Ginnethon Abbiiah Miiamin Bilgai and Shemaiah as in the tenth and twelfth Chapters of Nehemiah apparantly is seene But from these particulars let vs come to the generals That many of the same persons which had been caried captiue vnto Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar were returned and aliue at the building of the second Temple in the second yeere of Darius is manifest by this speech of Haggai who is left saith â—…e among you that saw this house in her first glory and how doe you see it now is it not in your eies in comparison of it as nothing Whereby it is apparant that many of the returned had seene the great beauty of Salomons Temple and were seated againe in Ierusalem according to the Vision of the gooâ—… figges seene by Ieremy concerninâ—… the captiuitie of Ieconiah whom thâ—… Lord had promised to bring again to Iudah to build them and not destroâ—… them to plant them and not to root theâ—… out And albeit that Zecariah told theâ—… that old men and old women shoulâ—… walke the streetes of Ierusalem vpon theâ—… staues through decrepit age yeâ—… such exceeding old age could not bâ—… retained in that age of the world foâ—… had an hundred and sixe yeeres beeâ—… expired from the first yeere of Cyrus to the rebuilding of Ierusalem anâ—… the Temple then should the returneâ—… each of them haue been at that timâ—… an hundred sixty seuen yeeres aged had they been but ten when Salomons Temple was destroyed anâ—… ten yeeres is the least age that caâ—… bee allowed to retaine memory oâ—… obseruation of the Temples curiouâ—… building and passing great beauty Wherefore those tentured timeâ—… of Daniels Seuens must bee again shrunke vnto the staple of the sacred accounts and the Persians raigne shortned vnto halfe the number almost that some ouer-lauishly haue giuen them For the chaine of Chronologie
this pedegree was the immediat son of the second Caleb or the immediat father vnto the third may seeme doubtfull As also Kenaz hauing no such pregnant testimony either of predecessor or successor as may inforce it may be obiected there is no certaine descents betwixt the Lands searcher and the equalising of the skilfull workman Bezaleel To which may be answered that although Ezer bee not so precisely named a sonne as some others are yet is he said to bee of the sonnes of Hur in the first of the Chronicles the fourth Chapter and the fourth verse and neerer to him by any of his sonnes he cannot bee then of Caleb who was his eldest sonne as verse fiftie so that the many descents in so short a time will warrant him to be Calebs sonne And for the other obiection of doubt thus I answere If the Kene zite Numb 32. vers 12. be not the immediate sonne of Caleb and the immediate father vnto Iephuneh then more of his families must come betwixt and so the last Caleb should be further remooued from Bezaleel and a more impossibilitie imagined But to vnloose this seeming hard knot and to approue the truth of a continued succession let it be allowed to suppose the ages of these men when they were fathers and especially of him vpon whom resteth the greatestdoubt so shall wee force neither breach of successiō nor find such impossibilities as haue bin alleaged Admit then Hur to bee twentie yeeres old when he begot Caleb and Caleb twenty when he begot Ezer Ezer twenty when he begot Caleb Caleb twenty when he begot Kenaz Kenaz twenty when he begot Iephuneh Iephuneh twenty when he begot Caleb and Caleb we know was forty when hee searched the land all which yeeres being added together make one hundred and sixty Returne to Hur in his other issue and admit Hur to be seuentie when he begot Vri Vri to be sixtie when when he begot Bezaleel and Bezaleel thirty when hee wrought vpon the Tabernacle which yeeres likewise being summed together come also to one hundred and sixty Thus then you see this rough way made smooth and nature no whit forced in neither line for that sons were begotten both at younger and elder yeeres through many descents in those times as we haue alreadie seene And that Bezaleel should bee thirtie is most agreeable to the Law of the Leuites who at thirtie were chosen for seruices in the Tabernacle and therefore most likely that at those yeeres hee was chosen to worke in the Tabernacle Now seeing wee haue the true Tabernacle which is not made with hands and are heires of that Canaan whose rest is perpetuall let vs study to enter therein and with thanks offer our sacrifices vnto him who is the first and the last in euery leafe and line of the Law For of him and through him and for him are all things that are written to whom be all glory for euer Amen CHAP. 6. That God became Man and from what men descended the Scriptures Genealogies doe euidently shew IT resteth now to shew that through these holy Genealogies GOD became Man and that Christ the word before all things was in mans loynes inclosed till the fulnesse of time came that God sent his Sonne to bee made of a Woman This blessed fruit therefore in whom our election was sealed before the foundation of the world was first promised to our first parents in Paradise after their taste of the forbidden fruit of death when likewise the Serpents malice was quailed by this sentence I wil put enmity between thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed He shall breake thine head and thou shalt bruse his heele And that this her seed then promised was the very Messiah to come both Iewes and Gentiles haue acknowledged the ◅athers looked for and the Patriarkes beleeued in The Scriptures thus beginning with a Messiah the onely Alpha of al our happinesse aimeth at no other marke besides him the onely Omega of all our hopes For leauing the state-affaires of the world as the breeding of Kingdomes Principalities and the like they directly leade vs to the birth and of-spring of Abraham whereof Christ was to bee borne and vnto him eight seuerall times was promise made that in his seed all the nations of the earth should bee blessed And vnto Isaac his sonne the same promise was confirmed in the same words Vnto Iacob he was the star that should haue dominion and vnto Iudah the Lion that should weld the Scepter to Dauid he was the Sonne that was his Lord and to Esay the child vpon whose shoulders the gouernment was laid To faithfull Ahaz he was the sonne of a Virgin and to the backe-sliding Iewes a signe that a woman should compasse a man Brifely vnto his elect he was and is the Rocke of Saluation and vnto his Zion the the corner stone tried and precious These and infinite more promises of the Messiah are most frequent in the Scriptures of God which were all accomplished in Christ the Immanuel with vs whose naturall fathers were as great a cloud and as many witnesses to shew the truth of his humanity as were the Euangelists Disciples that wrote and were sent to preach his Deity being fitted forthat worke as was the golden crownework vpon the edges of the incense Alter and leade our paths into that way of truth as the fiery Pillar did light the Israelites remouings But our ouer-much negligence in these holy Genealogies as also in the double discents legall and naturall of Iesus our Lord and Messiah hath greatly hurt both our owne cause and hindered the Iewes from embracing the Gospell Our hurt in bringing him naturally from Salomon whose line was ended long before their hinderance by our entangling the text of the old Testament in Ioash and Ieconiah and in the new in Iacob Ioseph and Eli whereby they daily obiect that we are not able by Scriptures to reconcile our owne Euangelists Saint Mathew and Saint Luke That he is of Dauid both they and we agree but whether by Salomon or Nathan resteth the question They hold him from Salomon by birth and naturall succession wee naturally from Nathan by a legall right the next heire to Salomons Kingdom his own posterity being vtterly extinct But this not obserued that Saint Mathew recordeth Christs legall descent from Salomon whereby he was the lawfull King of the Iewes and that Saint Luke bringeth his naturall line from Nathan thereby to shew him to be the Seed of the promise hath bred many intricate and some of them dangerous expositions In the mentioning whereof let it bee farre from mee to blot with the least imputation the faire remembrances of any paineful father gone before vs in the Scriptures explanation from whose bright torches we must confesse our dim candles haue beene much enlightened and by whose
Kingdome of God should shortly appeare and that then Iesus from their Isaiah at Nazaret did preach it they bare him witnesse and wondred at the gracious words that came out of his mouth And surely if wee begin to account them as wee must from the seuenth yeere of Ioshuah when the Lands full conquest was accomplished we shall find twenty eight fiftieths vnto that of the Passion where al freedome was purchased when Christ in his last words vpon the Crosse cryed It is finished Besides these agreements of figure and substance the Prophet Daniel declaring the change of states by the metaline Image shewed to Nebuchadnezzar giues limits to the kingdoms therin contained till a Stone cut without hands from the mountaine should fall vpon and breake to powder the Gold the Siluer the Brasse the Iron and the Clay al which should bee blowne away as the chaffe of the Summer flowers but the Stone that so fell should fill the whole earth Now that the euent was according is euidently seene for Cleopatra the proud and lasciuious Queen of Egypt the last successor or Toe of the Image for the death of Antonius stung herfelfe to death with a Serpent what time Egypt the one legge by Octauian was made a Prouince to Rome as Syria the other by Pompey before had beene And that a full dissolution of euery part of the Image vpon her death happened the taxing of the world then laid by Augustus doth testifie when the Roman Monarchi with acknowledged subiection first began and vpon which occasion Christ was borne in Beth-lehem two yeeres before the death of Herod And that this Stone was Christ all almost acknowledged neither doth the euent fall in any other the Gospell being the Mountaine that spred his kingdome ouer the face of the whole earth And what that Stone signified Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar as Iosephus writeth which though himselfe thought not fit in that his discourse there to expresse yet afterwards in the com motions of the Iewes against Pilat hee speaketh both of Iohn Baptist slaughtered by Herod and of Iesus condemned to the Crosse in these venerable words At that time saith he was Iesus a wise man if it bee lawfull to call him a man For he was the performer of diuers admirable workes and the instructer of those who willingly entertaine the truth and hee drew vnto him diuers Iewes and Greekes to bee his followers This was Christ who beeing accused by the Princes of our Nation before Pilat and afterwards condemned to the Crosse by him yet did not those who followed him from the beginning forbeare to loue him for the ignominie of his death For he appeared vnto them aliue the third day after according as the diuine Prophets had before testified the same and diuerse other wonderfull things of him and from that time for ward the race of the Christians who haue deriued their Name from him hath neuer ceased What testimony can bee greater then this so agreeing with the Miracles death and resurrection of Christ especially from his pen who wrote the History of the Iewes from Moses the first vnto the destruction of Ierusalem and last times of their estate being as all men know by birth a Iew himselfe and in his yong yeeres might haue seene the same Iesus of whom he giueth such commendable reports But to confirme the fall of the Image which Daniel had affirmed by the fall of the Stone is the testimony of the Angel sent vnto him to shew the times that were to succeede For the Prophet praying for a present releasement from Babels captiuity was answered by Gabriel aboue his request namely that after seuentie seuens of yeeres a perfect deliuerance should bee wrought by the death of the Messiah which shoulâ—… end Sinne and the Ceremonies of the place and should bring an euerlasting freedome to all that beleeue And that these yeeres so predicted fell in number weight and measure euen 490. we haue shewed before and now further affirme that the very houres by a skifull Arithmetician may be exactly calculated from the message of the Angell deliuered at the time of the euening oblation vnto the voice vtteâ—…ed by Christ vpon the Crosse at the ninth houre of the day when hee cried aloud and gaue vp the ghost Another marke set forth for the time of Christs comming is gatheâ—…ed by the graces that should bee â—…euealed vnder the standing or conâ—…inuance of the second Temple which was built by b Zerubbabel after the returne from Babylon which worke though later and lesser then that of Salomons had notwithstanding a promise from GOD to exceed Salomons But how glorious his was the building guilding riches and beautie doth euidently declare and the cloud of Gods glory so filling the house as the Priest could not minister doth manifestly shew Whereas contrariwise this second was so inferiour as the olde men that had seene the former wept exceedingly at the laying of the foundation neither was it filled with any such glorious Clowd nor had the like Patternes of Gods diuine presence as Salomons had For in this second Temple as the Rabbins haue obserued these fiue great blessings were wanting 1 The fier from heauen to consume the Sacrifices the visible signe of Gods fauourable acceptance 2. The Vrim and Thummim most sacred monuments put in the pectorall or Brest-plate of Aaron 3. The Arke of the Couenant wherein the Tables of Stone Arons Rod and pot of Manna were kept 4. The Mercy seate and Cherubins from whom the oracles of God were reuealed 5. And the manifest breathing of the holy Ghost vpon the Prophets all which Salomons Temple had Contrariwise before the daies of Christ this later Temple was polluted and defiled by Antiochus Pompey and Crassus and after the death of Christ vtterly destroyed by Titus Domitian Hadrian and other Roman Emperours And being assaied againe to be built by Iulian the Apostata was with earthquakes and fier from heauen so hindred as the foundations of the first Temple left in the former destructions were so shaken asunder that a stone was not left standing vpon astone and the workemen by fier from heauen forced to leaue off the attempt Since which time in seeking to rebuild that which Christ had so accursed more Christian bloud hath been spilt then was in those wars of destruction which Iosephas writeth of and saw Wherein then was the glory of this second Temple greater then Salomons or what should moue the desire of all nations to come thereunto Surely it was the Lord whom they sought and the Messenger of the Couenant whom they desired to behold that should come to this his Temple euen the Messiah promised to restore the desolations of Israell and that should be giuen for a light of saluation vnto the Gentiles which was accomplished onely in the person of Christ Iesus who with his presence filled this later house with