raigned thirty yeares as M. Lively accounts pag. 47 c. But M. Lydyat and with him others of better account puts the taking of Babylon by Cyrus to the 24. yeare of his raigne in Persia and but seven yeeres before his death De emend temp ad Annum Mund. 3469. as others 3472. from all which uncertainties and oppositions I have onely to conclude thus much Let God be true and every man a liar For why should these Gibeonites the profane stories trouble the congregation of Israel Let them draw water for the service of the Tabernacle but let them not appoint the services And if God did chuse the Fathers the high Saints till Abraham and of Abraham Isaack for in him should the seed be called and of him Iacob and made his seed to be a peculiar people to himselfe onely for his sake who was to come of Iuda and for the manifestation of the truth of his promise to Adam recorded most precisely the times from Adam to the promise made to Abraham by the ages of the Fathers 2078. yeres when Abraham by faith forsook his country Heb. 11.8 Vr of the Chaldees Act. 7. v. 2.3.4 aged 70. yeeres yet some men begin this account five yeeres after at the death of Terah not well interpreting the word Gen. 12.1 said for had said though it be not unlikely that God called him a second time out of Charran into Chanaan See Iohn Speed Cloud of witnesses Chap. 4. and. 5. and from the promise unto the Law foure hundred thirty yeeres Exod. 12.40 Gal 3.17 then from the Law to the Temple built by Solomon foure hundred eighty yeeres 1 King 6.1 and from this fourth yeere of Salomon wherein the Temple began to be built by the exact record of the raigne of the kings of Iuda and Israel foure hundred eight yeeres till Nebuchadnezzar who in the first yeere of his reigne and in the end of the third of Iehoiakim besieged Ierusalem and tooke it in the fourth of the said Iehoiakim when the seventy yeeres of the captivity began Iere. 25.1.18 Dan. 1.1 compared with Dan. 2.1 If the times I say were exactly accounted so farre shall be so wicked as to thinke that the Spirit of God began there in the end of the time to forget or neglect that which had beene so long expected that for which onely the record of the times had beene hitherto so exactly kept that which was the sure stay and anchor-hold of all the faithfull For if this Christ bee not Hee in whom all the Scriptures are fulfilled aswell for the time as for all other circumstances we are yet with the Iewes to looke for one that is to come But shall we to uphold the authority of heathenish records disagreeing betweene themselves from 130. yeeres to 329. in the Persian monarchie onely disanull or question the authority of the holy Scripture Therefore that the linkes of that golden chaine which all the gods can neither breake nor weaken the hands of him that holds it Illi Θ. be rightly fastned one in another to that period of the seventy yeares beginning with the first of Nebuchadnezer and ending with the Chaldean Monarchy put those seventy weekes or seven of yeares and so these foure hundred and ninety yeares having a certaine beginning in the first yeere of Cyrus in Babylon according to that which Esay prophesied of him not Histaspis not Longimanus much lesse of Nothus or Mnemon above an hundred yeeres before hee was borne chap. 44.28 and Ier. 29.10 they shall likewise receive a certaine ending according to the message of the Angell at the death of our Lord. The exactnesse of which account may appeare first by the Subdivision of the whole time vers 25. first into seven weekes a troublous time of fortie nine yeeres to build the citie the Temple and the wall as you may reade at large in Ezra and Nehemiah then into sixtie two weekes a more troublous time not onely in respect of the perpetuall warres betweene Syria and Egypt Palestina being the thorow-fare to both and in particular of the crueltie of Epiphanes that compelled them to idolatrie but also of the often and great changes of their state First their Princes of the familie of David failing then they of the Maccabees after that they were conquered of the Romanes and lastly enforced to acknowledge subjection to Herode and his posterity Of which most heavie and troublous times you may reade Dan. 11. the bookes also of the Maccabees Philo Iosephus and of late writers the briefest and therefore I thinke the best Eberus The last part of this division of the sevens of Daniel is in the twenty seven verse one weeke in the end of which last weeke he should cause the Ceremoniall Law to cease confirme the covenant to the Many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabim ך Romains ב Babylonians ר Iavâ—ns or Grecians × Medes and Persians for in every one of these chiefe Empires the expectation of the eternall kingdome was proposed Dan. 2.44 and 6.26 and whosoever had faith in the promise of God was accepted of him A second argument for the precisenesse of Daniels account is from the forme of the words Seventie weekes is cut out a word plurall is joyned with a singular shewing an agreement of the whole in every part thereof A third argument may bee from the observation of the time of the evening sacrifice for here is no word emptie or in vaine which as it was answerable to the time of Adams fall to the institution of the Passeover so should Christ by that offering of himselfe once make satisfaction for the one and finish the other that the lifting up of his hands on the Crosse might bee as the perpetuall evening sacrifice Matth. 27.46 From whence I gather that from the last day of the seventie yeeres captivity the first of the going forth of the commandement from Cyrus from the evening of that same day these weekes were to receive their uttermost date in the suffering of Christ that the truth of the promise of God might bee according to all his workes in number weight and measure as it is said Exod. 12.41 and 51. At the end of the foure hundred and thirtie yeeres in the selfe same day God brought out the children of Israel out of Egypt Fourthly and if this time of our Lord had not beene thus defined and certaine by this prophecie for the time of his suffering upon what ground did our Lord preach Marke 1 15. The time is fulfilled and the kingdome of heaven is at hand Upon what ground could Saint Paul say Gal. 4.4 But when the fulnesse of the time was come God sent forth his Sonne If there were no time in all the Scripture limited which was to bee fulfilled and if there be any other fixed for the death of Christ let it appeare how also was his reprehension of the blindnesse of the Scribes and Sadduces just that they could not discerne the times of the
stories and the reckoning by the olympiads that they cannot finde as not where to begin so not where to end the account whether at Pompeies taking of Ierusalem or at the birth of our Lord or at his death or with the destruction of Ierusalem or in the daies of Adrian when the Iewes were banished out of Palestina And whether these sevens of yeares for on that the Christians agree be moone-yeeres or Sun-yeeres for such fine subtilties they are driven unto who apply their wits and studies to make good their profane authorities How much more necessary were it to hold constantly the limits appointed by the sacred Scripture thereby to examine and reject the falsehoods of profane histories according to the counsell of S. Peter 2.1.19 And although M. Lively Pers mon. pag. 188. c. to 193. have sufficiently refuted this fancy of moone-yeres yet while hee sticks so close to the mudwall of these heathen stories he is compelled to make this Messiah the Prince to be another thing than that Holy of holies annointed v. 24. Pers mon. p. 175. 200. and so for a full end of the controversie turnes this prophesie quite from Christ because hee cannot see how it can stand with the just Chronology of the times as indeed by his account it cannot For whereas it is manifest by Ezr. 3. v. 8. c. that the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the 2. yeere after their return from Babylon in the second of Cyrus which he makes to be in the 2. yeere of the 55. olympiad and was finished in the sixt of Darius Ez. 6.15 with him Darius Nothus in the second of the 90. olympiad and yet were not the gates of the palace set up til the 20. of Artaxerxes of him surnamed Memor in the fourth yeere of the 98. olympiad the Iewes must bee very ignorant of their owne story who said Iob. 2.20 Six and forty yeares was this Temple a building who by his account should have said 140. or rather 174. yeares by which reckoning also Zorobabel must be 150. or rather 199. yeares old when the building of the Temple went forward by the helpe of the prophets Haggai and Zach. though he were but 15 yeers old when he brought the people out of Babylon see Zach. 4.9 So with him Christ is made to suffer in the fift yeere of the 65. weekes directly contrary to the grammar sence of the 24 verse and the 70 weeks of Daniel are ended by his reckoning not in any remarkable event but in the 37 yeere after Christs passion three yeeres before Ierusâ—lem and the Temple were destroyed Let them limp that list with their Olympiâ—ns let them stumble and fall that so blend their profane learning with the holy Scripture as that they make it voide of that which is the chiefe end thereof that is the manifestation of Christ in the fulnesse of time according to the promises But see this goodly reckoning by the Olympiads and how sure it is Erasm Schmidâ— proleg in Pind. puts the first author of them Hercules the Idaean one of the five Corybantes that going from Crete to Elis did there set up these games in the honour of Iupiter his nursling which was not likely to be lesse than a thousand yeares before Iphitus seeing his father Saturne was the Sonne of him who first brought inhabitants thither after the floud after which Hercules being intermitted they were againe set up by Jupiter himselfe for his conquest over the Titans But what meant these Cretians to appoint their triumphs in Pâ—lâ—ponnesuâ— After Iupiter six renewers of these gamebales are accounted before Hercules the Sonne of Amphitruo and after him and Oxylus and 400 yeeres intermission they were againe set up by Iphitus the King of Elis and a solemne Mart or Fare for all strangers appointed and the Olympiads changed from the fifth to every fourth yeere And after this forsooth all accounts were exactly kept Came such perfection so on the suddaine But if it were so exact for ever after as that wee must examine the times of the Scripture thereby how is it that the most eminent city of the world knowes not her originall better which some put in the first yeere of the sixth Olympiad other in the last Mr. Livelie in the first of the seventh but Mr. Lydiat from Fabius Pict Varro and others proves the first foundation of Rome by Romulus to have been in the first of the eighth Olympiad Now if a man should aske whether the Graecian account by the Olympiads or the Romane ab urbe condita were the surer I thinke no man that hath heard O 〈◊〉 Gâ—aeâ—i sempâ—r pueâ—i estis but would take the latter for as the reckoning by the Olympiads was vncertaine so was it in no use till a little before the beginning of the Greeke Empire Lâ—dy A. M. 3229 and therefore must the Roman account be more sure because it was not in common use before Iulius Caesar when learning began to spread and men could not so easily range from the truth uncontrouled Aâ—m 3258. Nay such base or rather no account was there of this leaden ruler of the Olympiads that the author that described almost all the reckonings used among the Greekes from Caecropâ— about 700 yeares before Iphitus and his Olympicks though he remember Cyrus and Croesus and Marathon and the yron myne found in Crete and the coinage of money in Aegina and forgets not any wake or horse-race or poet or fidler of note and contiâ—ues his account to Seleucus Callinicus within 180 yeeres of the uttermost end of the Grecian Monarchie above 530 yeeres after these Olympiads though hee were a neighbour thereto and takes the Isthmians in his way yet is there in him not one word of this goodly reckoning that now is growne so bold and dares to lye so loud as to silence the voice of the holy Scripture See Maâ—m Acundel pag. 6. c. Beside this these Olympiads are discredited in themselves Mr. Livelie gives their beginning 775 yeeres before the birth of Christ that is in the yeere of the world 3154. Suidas in the raigne of Salomon about the yeere 3010. Calvisius in the yeere 3174. others in 3187. Mr. Lydiat put them to the yeere 3229. Moreover Iphitus they say was not the onely restorer of them but with him Lycurgus the Law-maker of Lacedemon yet authorities there be that make Lycurgus 108. yeeres elder than the first olympiad of Iphitus Lydiat but 97. A. M. 177â— other that make him more than 80. yeares after Moreover in this time of Daniel here made uncertaine by these olympiads that deadly Peloponnesian warre continued twenty seven yeares betweene the Lacedemonians and Athenians now aske any merchant what Mart he would hold in that place which was the thorow fare betweene them both yet to make all times agreeable to these olympiads the overthrow of Babylon must be in the fifty five olympiad in the first yeere of Cyrus after which he
world Iohn 1. I see no cause why reason that especiall and principall gift of God to mankinde should not be serviceable to the principall and especiall end for which man himselfe is created that is his drawing neere unto God by faith in him for the excellencie of every thing is in the excellencie of the End for which it is And that common sence and reason have their especiall use in things pertaining unto God it is most manifest For all our knowledge proceeds from meere ignorance first knowing words by their meaning then things by sence and experiments from whence the reason ascending by enquirie into the causes comes at last into the knowledge thereof and so unto the chiefest and first cause wherein alone it findes rest And seeing man alone of all the visible creatures is framed and formed of God unto this search by the outward sence and reason to finde the wisdome and power of God in the creature that so honouring him therefore as he ought he might be made happie thereby if it bee no way possible by reason and discourse to come to this end then should God want of his honour by some of those meanes by which it might be given unto him then should the creature bee failing to man in the speciall use which he should make thereof to God then should reason the chiefe facultie of our soule and principall meanes of our knowledge have beene given unto man in vaine that is as sence is to the beasts onely for this life if it were either no helpe at all or an unfit or an insufficient meane to know that which is most necessary and worthy to bee knowne and yet obscure to stirre up our industrie that as faithfull servants we may improve those gifts wherewith God hath intrusted us See Luke 19.1 And so the purpose of God should be frustrate both in the inferiour creature and in man and that in their chiefest and uttermost end See Prov. 16.4 But these things are impossible and therefore wee are commanded Deut. 6.5 to love and serve the Lord our God with all our heart the seat of reason 1 King 3.12 with all our soule the seat of the will and understanding in heavenly things and all our affections there stiled by a word of vehemencie or excesse And thus doe we fulfill the counsell of the wise Pro. 3.9 to honour the Lord with all our substance that is whatsoever is ours without or within as sence reason understanding affections and will But still you say that reason is an unsufficient meane and unable to bring us to the knowledge of those things which we are bound to beleeve for else the Heathen which know not the Scriptures might have known the truth of Religion as well as we Ans There be divers kinds of questions about every subject as I shewed Log Chap 3. Now the conclusion or Article of our faith by the Atheist or Infidell or weake Beleever being made a question the reasons brought are to prove onely that the conclusion is true not alwayes why it is true for there be many conclusions in our faith which cannot be knowne and proved prioristicè as they speake that is by their immediate and necessarie causes seene and understood in the effects necessarily following thereon for then that humilitie which ought to be joyned with our faith should bee without reward but yet the foundation of our faith is sure because the Spirit of God which understands the things which are of God hath revealed in the Scriptures whatsoever is necessary for us to know or beleeve concerning God thus posterioristicè or by way of induction are all the Articles of our faith approved by reason so that our faith and hope are not of things impossible but such as are true and necessarie to be Moreover if there bee but one God one Lord of all one faith the onelie way to come unto God Ephes 4.6 as it is plaine there is but one Mediatour 1. Tim. 2.5 without whom none can come to the Father Iohn 14.6 It cannot be denied but that the same glorious faith which we are taught in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament excepting onely the historicall circumstances thereof as names and times as that the Mediatour Iesus was to bee borne of a Virgine Mary and to suffer death under Pontius Pilate c. must be that very same faith by which all the Saints of God were saved for above two hundred and fifty yeers before there were any Scriptures written And therefore that although this faith was delivered and reverently embraced by the faithfull before the Law of Moses who also so delivered it as that they could not looke unto the â—nd of the law 2 Cor. 3.13 Yet they who either received it not by tradition as most of the Gentiles or understood it not in the Law as few among the Iewes did beside the Prophets must of necessity through the light of reason alone hold with us some maine and fundamentall points according to which if they lived in obedience they might finde mercy for that whereof they were ignorant as it is said Act. 17.30 that God oversaw or neglected the ignorance of the time before Christ For if the representative Priest by forein bloud found forgivenesse for himselfe and the ignorances of the people concerning all punishment in this life how much more might the everlasting high-priest by his owne offering of himselfe finde eternall redempâ—ion for their ignorances who sought mercy of God although they knew him not by whom they did obtaine it yet might they therefore assure themselves to obtaine it because they could not seek forgivenesse but by his Spirit who framed their hearts to seeke it and therby gave them an earnest or pledge that they should finde it Compare herewith Rom. 10.18.20 Ioh 14 6. Now those maine points of which I spake which by the light of reason they might know are these First that ther is a God infinite in goodnesse in glory in wisdome in power as it is manifest Psal 19. Rom. 1.19.20 and elsewhere Secondly that this God the maker of all things according to that goodnes made every thing to an end infinitly good â—s farre as the creature could bee capable thereof And that therefore the happinesse of man could not bee in this life short and miserable but that his hope must bee for hereafter And therefore thirdly that hee must needs perswade himselfe that hee was immortall and that there was an immortall life at least as appertaining to his soule Fourthly because a mans wretchednesse is for the most part from him selfe in the unlawfulnesse of his owne ill deeds which proceed from the bitter fountaine of his affections and ill desires tormenting himselfe therefore hee must needes confesse his sinne against himselfe and know that hee that finds himselfe so displeasing to himselfe can no way hope that for his owne worthinesse hee can any way bee acceptable unto God and that therefore he
Sonne of man Matth. 16.3 Luke 12.56 But by this account from the deliverance out of Babylon they might precisely know the time of his suffering as Rabbi Nehumiah the Sonne of Hacana said that hee wanted but fiftie yeeres to the dayes of Messiah as Galatinus writes out of the Talmud lib. 1. Cap. 3. So Symeon sirnamed the Iust understanding the text of Daniel aright for his hopes sake found that favour from God that he should not see death till he had seene the Lord Luke 2.26 I but Nehemiah had commission to build the wall of Ierusalem in the twentieth yeere of Artaxerxes otherwise called Darius Longhand Nehem. 2. And it is plaine by the words of the Angell Dan. 9.25 that the account of the seventy weekes must begin from the commission to build the wall and so forraine histories will accord with the Angell a shrewd blocke whereat many have stumbled but the building of the wall is no limit of the time but a thing to bee done in those troublous times ver 25. Beside this forreine histories will not so accord to the death of Christ from thence neither by Moone-yeeres nor Sun-yeeres nor with exclusive or inclusive Pers Mâ—n pag. 183 c. But suppose that by some beggerly shift some likely agreement were made yet from the end of the seventy yeeres captivity to this twentie of Artaxâ—â—xes are fourtie nine yeeres at the shortest reckoning now would I aske with what faithfulnesse the Angell discharged his message if being sent to give Daniel skill and understanding of the time for that onely was the thing whereof the Prophet was ignorant hee should by foure hundred ninety give him to understand five hundred thirty nine or as some will have it five hundred ninetie two or any other number and neither in the whole nor in the parts give him the least incâ—liâ—g of any such reckoning Gordon Chronol Cap. 19. thinkes that here is obscuritie sought out of purpose and that Daniel was still ignorant of the time I say that this answer is cleane contrarie to the profession of the Angell in the 22. 23. v. Was his comming to give him skill and understanding and would hee blinde him in obscuritie binde his understanding unto falshood by giving him one number for another he durst not doe it it was against his nature neither dare I beleeve the Iesuite Beside where Daniel is ignorant he professes it as chap. 12.8 but here is not a word to that purpose But I answer that the strength of this objection depends onely upon the ill interpretation of the text for the words in 25. verse From the going forth of the Commandement to restore and build againe Ierusalem as the old Latin hath it Vt iterum aedificetur Ierusalem that Ierusalem may be built againe were in our former bibles much better to being againe as Montanus ad faciendum reverti to cause the people to returne for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to returne in the neuter signification in the conjugation here used is active to make to returne Now who were to bee made to returne but they that had gone from thence But take it at the hardest to restore and to build or to build againe should not they build that should enioy it and dwell there so that of force these words must have reference to that word from Cyrus who gave the libertie to the people to returne and to build their Temple and the citie And all the commissions in the favour of the Iewes which were after Cyrus were onely to strengthen and make good that first grant of Cyrus as it is manifest Ezech. 6. and 7. and Nehem. 2.8 For the freedome of the people was the maine and first thing and for their convenience the building of the citie first their owne houses for necessitie Ezech. 3.7 Hag. 1.4 then the house of God for his service Ezech. 4.3 and lastly the wall of the citie for their securitie Neh. 1.3 the freedome liberty of all this was granted by Cyrus as it appeares Ezech. 44.28 and 45.13 1 Chron. 26.22 Ezech. 1.2 and accordingly about five thousand of the people returned and the foundation of the Temple was laid in the second yeere after their returne and by the malice of their enemies hindred till by the encoragement of the Prophets Haggai and Zacharie the building of the Temple went forward in the second yeere of Darius most likely Hystaspis as Iosephus Mr. Calvin Lydyat Pererius Gordon and others affirme But especially Ezra observeth precisely the difference betweene Darius under whom the Temple was finished and Artaxerxes in whose seventh yeere he came to Ierusalem with a certaine Caravan of the Iewes about 1600 Ezech. 7. And in the twentieth yeere of the same Artaxerxes Nehemiah had a further comission to build the wals and brought none of the captivity with him but was compelled to desire a Convoy of the King neither did hee build any thing besides the walls for as for timber for any houses hee had not a sticke onely by speciall grace hee had out of the kings Parke timber for the gates of the citie for his owne house and for the gates of the palace or court of the Temple Nehem 2.7 8. And from the foundation to this time were fortie sixe yeeres Iohn 2.20 fully complete though the body of the house had beene finished foureteene yeeres before Ezech. 6.15 Therefore I say first that seeing the Temple was already finished and the citie wanted not houses but inhabitants Nehe. 11.1.2 it may appeare easilie how far this one act of building the wall was from that which was spoken of Cyrus both by Esay and the Angell Secondly and because the Iewes were already returned from Babylon and that none returned with Nehemiah And thirdly because the wall was the last thing performed in the end of these troublous times of the first seven Sevennits or 49 yeeres of which the Angell spake it is impossible and contrary to the very record of the holy Scripture that these foure hundred ninety yeeres should take their beginning in the twentieth of Artaxerxes or at any time either after or before but onely at that time when Zorobabel fanned Babel and brought out the people thence Hee that will see more to this question may reade Dr. Willet whom I cited before and Ioh. Speed Cloud of witnesses Chap. 5. d Haggai 2.9 The glory of this latter house shall bee greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace What the statelinesse and magnificence of Solomons Temple was himselfe exceeding all the Kings of his dayes both in riches and honour the Temple among the most sumptuous buildings being the most excellent and about which he tooke most care his father David a Prophet as himselfe having described the paterne to represent that Temple not made with hands wherein the king of Glorie would dwell may easilie be thought to bee such as the wisest richest and most glorious king
above every Name that every tongue should confesse that Christ is Iehova 3. And seeing He suffered under the power of the Romanes it was necessary that He should die by that manner of death which was most usuall with the Romanes which for their seruants and provincialls was the Crosse And although it seemed unto Pilate himselfe an unworthy death for Him Shall I crucifie your King Yet nothing could content His enemies but Crucifie Him Crucifie Him And because our Lord had no such priuiledge to plead for Himselfe that He was a free man of Rome as Saint Paul did Act. 16.37 22.25 29. 25.11 and so lost his head by the sword Therefore He must needs endure that bitter and accursed death of the Crosse 4. The tree through the craft of the devill was unto man-kind a cause of sinne Therefore lest the tree which was created good might become a curse to him for whom it was created and thereby the end of the creation might be perverted it seemed fit to the Wisedome of God that as the tree had beene an instrument in the worke of mans condemnation it should also bee an instrument in the worke of his redemption that man by his wound might also bee healed And therefore that our ransome should bee payed on the Crosse 5. Man by his sinne had made himselfe subject to the curse of the Law Therefore that the promise to Abraham That in his seed all the Nations of the earth should bee blessed Gen. 12.3 might come vpon them it was necessary that the curse should fall vpon that promised seed in whom they were to bee blessed as Saint Paul doth argue Gal. 3.13 and 14. 6. This crucifying of our Lord was prefigured diverslie in the Law as by the Serpent in the Wildernesse if you compare Numb 21.8 with Iohn 3.14 Moses also spreading out his hands in the forme of the Crosse overcame Amalec by his prayer Exod. 17.11 But aboue all other figures that glorious Type of Christ Samson who should begin to save Israel Iud 14.5 most liuely figured our Saviour on the Crosse when he laid his hands upon the Pillars and slew more at his death than he had done in all his life Iud. 16.30 So our Lord the Authour and Finisher of our Salvation though by His Preaching and His miracles He had shaken the Kingdome of the Devill yet by His death upon the Crosse He did triumph over all the power of hell Col. 2.15 David Psal 22.16 prophesies plainely of the wounds wherewith He was pierced in His hands and His feet when He was nailed to the Crosse as the Prophet Zechary Chap. 12.10 of that wound which through His side they made in His heart I the Lord will powre vpon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the Spirit of Grace and supplicatior and they shall looke upon mee whom they have pierced And thus according to the Prophesies that were before was our Saviour crucified as you reade in the Gospel 3. Dead VVEe see IESVS made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death that He by the Grace of God should taste of death for every man Heb. 2.9 All the reasons for His crucifying confirme thus much And for this cause was Hee conceived and borne that He might redeeme His people from their sinnes The arguments also of the 19. Chapter of the 21.22 and 23. come all to this centre that Christ our Lord and onely Redeemer must die for our sinne 1. For seeing man by his sinne had made himselfe subject unto death according to the just sentence Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die it was necessary that He that had made Himselfe our surety Heb. 7.22 and taken our sinne upon him Esay 52. should die for our sinne 2. It was necessary that the highest degree of obedience should bee in him in whom was also the perfection of Sonne-ship But all the perfection of Son-ship was in Christ both that which is Eternall and that which is in time as hath appeared Therefore also the perfection of obedience But there can be no degree of obedience beyond this that a sonne should die at the will of his father Therefore it was necessary that our Lord should die For God so loved the world that He gave his onely begotten Sonne to die that the world by him might bee saved But because it was impossible that He in his Eternall being should be subject to death therfore was it necessary that He should bee incarnate that Hâ—e should bee conceived of the Holy-Ghost and be borne of a Virgin as it hath beene prooved 3. If Isaac the shadow were content to die at the will of His Father how much more ought Christ the substance to fulfill the will of His Father 4. The manifestation of the infinite dignities of God the Father is the proper and peculiar office of the Son See Iohn 17.6 and 26. And how could either the infinite Iustice or Mercy or Love of God the Father toward His creature or His honour in the creature bee better manifested than in the death of that Son For although it were farre from Injustice to punish the innocent for the wicked when He had set Himselfe to answere for the sinnes of the world yet was it the uttermost the most severe and eminent Iustice that possibly could bee to lay upon Him in whom there was no sinne neither was there any guile found in His mouth the burden of vs all to breake him for our sinnes to multiplie His sorrowes and at once to deprive Him of all the comforts of God and life it selfe for our offences Neither could the Mercy or love of God toward His creature be greater than this that when wee were enemies yet spared He not His owne Sonne to worke our reconciliation Neither can the honour of God be more magnified by the creature than for that mercy and love which he hath shewed toward the creature in the Eternall Glory and happinesse which He hath reserved for it through the satisfaction of his Son And because these things could not possibly be brought to passe otherwayes than by the death of the Sonne of God therefore was it necessary that He should die 5. Of contrary effects the immediate causes must needs bee contrary The greatest delight and joy which the naturall man hath is to follow his sinfull lusts Therefore the recovery or restoring of man from his sinfull state cannot bee but by the suffering of the greatest sorrow that is of death 6. The obedience and sufferings of Him who was to make satisfaction for the disobedience and rebellion of all man-kind could not possibly be either exceeded or equalled But if our Lord had not died a most bitter and cruell death in those torments which He endured both in his soule and body then had His sufferings beene equalled if not exceeded by many of the holy Martyrs who for their love and faith in God endured most bitter and exquisite torments Heb.
who hold that Hee did locally goe downe to hell so that according to the essence or being of His soule He was truely present there And as the former of these denie not but that Christ by His death did utterly spoile the powers of darknesse and so may be said virtually and by the effects of His suffering to have gone downe into hell because that by the eternall offering of Himselfe a ransome for the sinnes of the world and the performance thereof in the time appointed He did utterly free all His beleevers from Hell which was their due and setled them in the inheritance of eternall life so these latter for the most part denie not but that all this which is said is agreeable to the trueth of the Scripture and the analogie of Faith onely they cannot yeeld that it is the true and native meaning of this Article And betweene these two parties all those texts of Scripture which are brought for the locall descent of Christ are hammered so thinne that may seeme plyable every way But let the strength of the Holy Text for ever stand sure and let us see the reasons a little on all sides with their answeres and exceptions And first of them that interpret this Article by the sufferings of Christs soule Sect. 3 Object 1. As the sufferings of Christ even from the first minute of His Incarnation were meritorious for us yet our ransome from the torments of hell was wrought especially by the suffering of His humane soule which torments of His soule Hee endured not onely by the torture or fellow-feeling of His naturall body not by compassion onely on the sins and sorrowes of His body mysticall but also He might be said even to feele the sorrowes of eternall death when He saw Himselfe to be now set to suffer the wrath of God due to the sinnes of the whole world And if this bee not the proper and native sence of this Article how are wee taught by our Creed to beleeve more concerning Christ than wee confesse to be true of the theeves of whom wee may say they suffered under Pontius Pilate that they were crucified dead and buryed Al. Hume Rejoynd to Doctor Hil. I answere First the holy Scripture is profitable for doctrine for instruction for reproofe c. But the object of our faith is onely the Holy Trinity in Vnity and the satisfaction of Christ for our Redemption and the benefits which wee receive thereby And therefore although I beleeve and know by the Scriptures that Samson was the Sonne of Manoa yet I neither beleeve in Samson nor Manoa And though I know by the Scriptures that the penitent thiefe suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucifyed and dyed yet I beleeve not in him But concerning Christ as I beleeve that all His merits redound to us so I beleeve that all His sufferings were according to the Scripture a satisfaction to the justice of God for the sinnes of the world which they could not be but by the suffering both of His soule and body as it is said Esay 53. Hee shall see the travaile of His soule and bee satisfied If then wee know that whatsoever befell unto our Lord was that the Scripture might be fulfilled Matth. 26.54.56 and if wee beleeve and confesse in our Creed that He suffered according to the Scriptures and dyed and rose againe according to the Scriptures and that the Scriptures doe plainely testifie that by His sufferings and death the wrath of God against mans sinne is fully satisfied which as I said could not be but by His sufferings in His soule as well as in His body After these sufferings under Pontius Pilate what needes a second remembrance of His suffrings in soule under a title of a descent into hell Therefore when as I am bound to beleeve and confesse that the sufferings of Christ under Pontius Pilate were according to the Scriptures that is in soule and body I am bound to deny that the suffering of Christ in His soule is the native meaning of this Article He descended into hell 2. Beside the doctrine of Faith being a catechisme doctrine Heb. 6.1 and the sum thereof being for the use of children and novices it is not likely that the Church would have so generally received a creed wherin the thing to be beleeved should be laid down inwords that were tropicall and obscure when plaine and proper termes were necessary and at hand But hell cannot signifie the torments of hell but by a metonymia of the place for the adjunct of the place neither yet could it properly be said That our Saviour went down into hell when He was lifted up upon the Crosse where the especiall endurance and expression of His hellish torments were both in soule and body 2. Neither can it truely be said He descended into hell that is He suffered in soule the torments of hell but by a Synecdoche of the whole man for one part Neither were these torments of His soule more properly or truely called torments of hel then those torments of His body which we confesse He suffered under Pontius Pilate 3. Moreover after He was dead and buried it comes in unduly againe to make mention of His sufferings in soule a great part of which were endured in the garden before He came to the hands either of Pilate or of the Priests 4. And yet beyond all these reasons there is another argument that the Church did not interpret this Article by the sufferings of Christs Soule because as Gerrardus Vossius puts it De statu animae separatae Qu 1. It was the received opinion of the ancient Fathers even to this our time That the soules of the faithfull before Christ entred not into Paradise till Christ by His death had set it open and entred thereinto according to His promise to the thiefe on the Crosse And if all the soules of the faithfull were in hell taken in the second sence before mentioned though in a place of rest as Theophilus speakes and that by the comming of Christ thither they were brought to Paradise or a place of further joy then certainely this Article must in their iudgement be interpreted by the descent of Christ into hell after his death rather then by the sorrowes of His soule before it And to this purpose the learned Vossius brings some 20. Fathers from Tacianus the schollar of Iustin Martyr about the yeere of Christ 180. before whom He might have put His master Iustin as it is plaine in his Triphon Among those Fathers are Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Eusebius Athanasius Ambrose Ierom Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustin Cyril and beside them whom he reckons up he ads innumerable others and with them the sentence of the Councill of Toledo in the yeere 633. He descended into Hell that He might free them which were there detained Aug. Ep 99. writes thus If the reason be asked why our Saviour would come into hell where those sorrowes are of which He could not be held
having bought them of God and payd their ransome brought out of all power of their strong enemie out of the shadow of death into the everlasting light of Paradise in all the libertie and ioy of the understanding to view the Wisedome of God in His most glorious workes as you may read further a little below Sect. 8. Numb 3. Sect. 7 Sect. 7. Now having shewed the different interpretations of this Article and as I thinke fully proved that the soule of Christ went not to heaven properly so called before His resurrection but that it was glorious and blessed among His Saints in happinesse and so in heaven formaliter as they speake It is fit that wee draw toward a conclusion which before wee can come unto it must first appeare what Abrahams bosome what Paradise is and where it was Then why the word of descending into hell is heere used with the solution of such doubts as fall in the way The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bosome sometime signifies a baye of the sea wherein harbour and safety is from waves and tempests and thus the word is used Act. 27.39 Thus Lazarus Luke 16. might be said to be in Abrahams bosome that is to have arived and cast anker in that safe and quiet haven of happinesse where Abraham the father of all the faithfull because he against hope beleeved in hope Rom. 4.18 was now in blisse or else it may signifie a bosome properly as it is used in Luke 6.38 and thus also Lazarus might bee said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cheare and joy in Abrahams bosome as Saint Iohn Ioh. 13.23 lay leaning in the bosome of Iesus his uncle at supper as the manner of that countrey was sometime to eate their meate lying on the ground The word Paradise whether it be native greeke of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is supposed to be plentifully watered or a Persian word as good Authors affirme and that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardes used in Eccles 2.5 and Cant. 4.13 signifies a place of pleasure inclosed or a parke and so it is used in Xenophon Cyrop lib. 1. or a garden as the Greekes translated the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gan in Genes Chap. 2. and 3. or an orchard as in the texts of Solomon before And hither was our Lord first said to have come after His death because as Adam by his sin had lost his happy estate in the earthly paradise So Christ by His death did recover the hope of our returne into the heavenly For the gift is not as the offence Rom. 5.15 By these two words the blessed estate of the faithfull is signified though with some difference not of place but degree of happinesse as I shewed For although the children of the kingdome were all and at all times heires of the same hopes yet they that were in Abrahams bosome before Christ had not that fulnesse of joy which they had after their redemption was fully wrought and He not now in Abrahams bosome with them but Abraham and all his faithfull children with him in Paradise To the same sence concerning the state of happinesse is the Kingdome of Heaven used Luke 13.28 29. though that word expresse also the joyes after the resurrection And because it was ever thought even among naturall men as the Heathen Philosophers that the soule was immortall and that after death it was better to them that had lived well then to the wicked therefore were they perswaded that their soules went to a place of rest and happinesse which they called as they pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the house of Pluto by the common name and that of pleasure the Elysian fields of torment a place inclosed by Acheron a river without joy And sith the body went downe to the earth from whence it was and that they perswaded themselves that every creature might be abundantly happy in that region whereof it was an inhabitant as being the onely region that was fit for it therefore they thought that the place of the soules rest was not farre from the body and so went downe into the earth And because the ancient Church could not teach the heathen conuerted to God but by such words and language as they understood and differed not much in meaning from that which they themselues beleeued therefore were they content to use this manner of speech of descending to Hades the house of Pluto or hell which the vulgar had been taught by their guides the Philosophers and Poets In stead of all the rest see Plato in Phaedone and Virgil. Aeneidos lib. 6. yet they meant by this descent of Christ into hell no other thing but that His soule being separate from His body went into that place where the faithfull soules were then at rest and in assured hope of further joy But because our Church uses not the terme descending but teaches her owne children in their owne tongue to confesse that Christ went downe to hell Artic. 2. Let us not forsake the law of our mother Prouerb 6.20 but rather endeavour to know what this going downe to hell may meane And certainely it must needes bee thought a thing either of great obscurity or of little necessity wherein our Church as most other hath not held it fit to make any further declaration Therefore though I take liberty to enquire what the possible or most likely meaning of the words may be yet I presume not to affirme any thing but with submission to the Churches judgement when God shall vouchsafe further light thereto to determine according to the Scripture what is the certaine trueth in this or any other question of the like doubtfulnesse 1. To descend to goe or come downe is used diversly But that I may descend to every understanding I will make it of two kinds one of place and that is of three kinds The other of state or condition 1. Of place higher and lower as it is said Luke 9.37 They came downe from the hill and Act. 11.27 There came Prophets downe from Ierusalem to Antioch or from a place of more fame to a meaner as Act. 13.4 From Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they came downe to Seleucia Now if the earth and water made one flat surface which stretched from one side of heaven to the other as the old fancy was then could this descent of Christ meane no other going downe but under that surface And although some of the Fathers were no better Cosmographers then to thinke thus yet for the most part they were better thewed But because our faith suffers not to put any untrueth in nature therefore this going down must be refused 2. But if this globe of the earth bee hollow then this going downe may be meant as most of the Fathers tooke it into that hollownesse of the earth 1. And that the earth is hollow both reason and authority shew it Authority you have 4. Esdr 4.7 where
old Testament are come to us in that purity in which the Church received them which care how great it ought to bee you may see by that which their Doctors have recorded Henry Ainsworth Aduertisement n. 3. cites out of Rambam Sopher Torah Chap. 7. and 10. thus much If the booke of the Law doe want but one letter or have one letter too much if one letter touch another if the forme of any letter be corrupted if the word which is full be written defective or that full which is defective if the word of the margent be written in the line or that of the line in the margent the Booke is not allowable to bee read in the Synagogue neither hath it the holinesse of the Booke of the Law at all but is a booke on which Children may learne To this purpose you may take that which you read in Shickard Prodrom in Bechinah happerushim Disp 1. cited out of the booke Sopherim Chap. 1. Halach 1.4 5. by which you may see with what a superstitious care if any care could be too much they regarded the writing of the Booke of the Law wherein nothing might bee blotted nothing scrap't out neither might they write it in any Parchment or Velam but such as was of the skinnes of cleane beasts in Parchment on the fleshie side in Velam on that side which had the haire And if this ordinance were changed they read not in it And this was the manner Because the lines being written in length according to the bredth of the skinne as in an Indenture might bee troublous to finde they divide the skinne into certaine pages which in Iere. 30.23 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dlathoth which wee interpret leaves because they were like the leaves of a doore and may fitly bee termed pages neither was it lawfull to write it with a coale or with Inke wherein was either Gum or Coperas and all this say they by the Tradition of Moses on mount Sinai Then with what respect they used the Booke being written you may see in Oseh Torah Chap. 3. Halach 10. and in Anthony Margaritha a converted Iew in his booke of the Iewish faith and others They touch it not but with washed hands neither doe they take the rolle by the midst but by the margent and that onely with the right hand for which they bring Deut. 33.2 At His right hand was a fiery Law No man may lay it on His knees nor leane upon it when he reads nor read it as other writings c. lest the holy Bookes grow into contempt no man may sit upon the fourme or bed on which it lyes nor lay it towards the beds feet nor lay other bookes upon it and their reason for that the whole Law is holy and that every letter therein containes infinite wisdome and that God hath more care of the Letters and Syllables of the Law then of the starres of heaven And that this care was not onely of the bookes of the Law but likewise of all the holy Scripture of the old Testament indifferently you may know by that infinite diligence of the Masôrites who to the intent that the purity of all the holy Text might be preserued intier numbred in the whole Bible the Verses the Words the Letters and of them the common and the finall and what verse what word and letter was the midst of every booke and among the Letters they noted how many times every one was found in every booke if any one were bigger or lesse then the due proportion or higher then the rest or pointed extraordinarily what holem was with vau and what without it what hirick was written with jod and what not what space was more what lesse betweene the paragraphs when two words were to be read as one when one as two when the letters in the midst of a word should be transposed and that which was in the end of one word to be put to the beginning of another with many such obseruations which you may read in Shickard cited before De Masôreth pag. 45. c. So that no corruption or alteration could come into the text of the old Testament but by these rules of the Masôreth it might be easily detected Neither is this Masôreth wonderfull onely for the infinite diligence and paines that was used in the compiling thereof but also venerable for the Authors which by the authorities of the Hebrewes were Ezra and the Prophets of his time which were called the men of the great Synagogue or more truely the great men of the Synagogue Haggai Zachary Malachy Daniel Hananiah Misheel Azariah Nehemiah Mardoche Zorobabel and of the most wise and learned among the rest to the number of 120. For this could not be the worke of one man or of one age And although the succession of the Synagogue still continued in some sort yet by reason of the many warres and troubles after their returne from Babylon even untill the last ruine of their nation by Adrian about the yeere after the death of Christ one hundred this worke was often at a stand and not fully finished till about the yeere five hundred and tenne after the Incarnation Whereupon those Masôrites are by some unduely thought to bee the first Authors of that worke 6. Also the whole Art of the Kabalists in high esteeme among the Hebrewes above all others without this purity of the holy Text were either nothing worth or rather in it selfe nothing at all But the argument from hence to proove the purity of the Scripture among the common sort for whom I write would not be easie to be understood Therefore I referre them that are desirous to know further hereof to the author forenamed pag. 60. c. to Iohn Reuchlin and others that have written of that Art For by this which I have already said I thinke it is cleare to him that is not wilfully blind how farre it was from the Church of the Iewes to offer any sacriledge to the Booke of God who with such infinite paines and care have wall'd in that holy ground lest beasts should breake into it 7. 1. And for further proofe that the Hebrewes were the faithfull Library-keepers of that booke as Saint Augustine calls them you may take the testimony of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 3.15 where hee calls the Church the pillar and stay of Faith not that in an implicite and ignorant faith we should hold it sufficient to beleeve as the Church beleeves but because the Church had evermore truely and faithfully preserued and followed the trueth of God revealed in His Word as it had received it from Him at the first And if this be true of the Church in generall it must needs be most true of that most ancient and publike Church first chosen from all nations by whom the Name of the Lord should be called upon from whom the word of the Lord was to proceed to other nations Esay 2.3 whereas the Church of the Gentiles was then