solemne calling to be the Sons of God And this part of redemption is common to all who are baptized according to Christs commission given to his Apostles and their Successors to this purpose Another part of our Redemption whether that be altogether distinct from the former or but a consequent to it is our actuall exemption from the rage or tyranny of sinne within our selves whilst we live here in the flesh And this degree of redemption is proper only to those who though they live in the flesh doe not live according to the flesh or the fashions of the world as having their hearts purified by a lively faith in Christs death The last part or finall accomplishment of our Redemption is the exemption of both body and soule from the powers of hell and death by Resurrection unto endlesse glory which is the everlasting salvation here meant And this is proper only unto such as finally shall be sayed by continuance in faith and obedience But let us not deceive our selves for God will not be mocked and wee shall but mock him if we presume to goe to heaven by curious Distinctions or nice Doctrines without a constant progresse in syncere unpartiall obedience Nor will externall conformitie to orthodox all rites or Religion or eye-service suffice to obtaine the salvation here promised to such as obey him or if we be addicted to eye-service or obedience let us performe our obedience not in our own eyes or as in the eyes of sinfull men but as in the eyes and view of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by our Apostle Chap. 4. of this Epistle ver the 9. In whose sight every Creature is manifest all things are open and naked This is that eternall word who is now made our high Priest and shall hereafter come to be our Iudge Let us then account it a principall part of our present and future obedience to powre out our soules in prayers and supplications to this our high Priest for the remission of all our sinnes past and seeing hee was consecrated once for all through afflictions or sufferings for so the current of our Apostles discourse implyes to be a compassionate and mercifull high Priest to his Father for us let us all publiquely and privately dayly and houâ—ely beseech him by his agony and bloody sweat by his Orâ—sse and bitter passion not only to make intercession for us but to powre out the spirit of prayer upon us â—o strengthen us with supplies of grace for â—ubduing the body of sinne which is within us unto the spirit and to quicken our spiâ—ies unto newnesse of life that so we may be able to stand before him in that great day of Iudgment SECT 2. Of the calling or designement of the Sonne of God to be an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech Of the differences and agreements in some particulars betweene the Preisthood of Aaron and the Priesthood of Melchisedech CHAP. 6. Of the Signification or Importance of the word calling used by our Apostle Heb. 5. with the generall Heads or Points to be handled and discust in this 2. 3. 4. Sections THat the making of the Sonne of God perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 9. implyes a solemne Calling or Consecration to his high Priesthood is yet more apparant from the words following v. 10. Calledan high Priest after the order of Melchisedech This word Called imports somewhat more then a name imposed upon him though at his Circumcision or at his Baptisme more then a mere title of dignitie But what more then so A solemne Calling or Designement unto this high Office or Prelacy Such a calling but more solemne then Aaron had unto the legall high Priesthood Vnto this Priesthood Aaron is said Chap. 5. v. 4. that hee was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by speciall Designement or destination advanced to the office of the high Driest during the Law But when the same Apostle speakes of the calling of the Sonne of God unto the high Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech v. 10. The word in the original is more significant and more solemne then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it referres to Aaron for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solemnly declared or pronounced by God to be an high Priest after the order of Mechisedech 2 The method of our present inquiry or search into this grand mysterie must be this First who this Melchisedech was according to whose order the Sonne of God was called to be a Priest or how Melchisedech whosoever he were did represent or shadow out the person of the Sonne of God Secondly wherein the Priesthood of Melchisedech did consist or wherein it differred from the Priesthood of Aaron and what calling hee had to such a Priesthood Thirdly what divine Designement or calling the Sonne of God had to his everlasting Priesthood Fourthly a parallel betweene the Consecration of Aaron or other of his Successors to this legall Priesthood and the Consecration of the Sonne of God to his everlasting Priesthood prefigured or foreshadowed not by Aaron or his Successors but by Melchisedech before the Law was given Fiftly the peculiar acts or exercises of the Sonne of God's everlasting Priesthood This fift or last Point must be referred as an appendix unto the Articles of the Sonne of God's Ascension and his sitting at the right hand of God the Father All these are Points of good use and worthy of deeper and better consideration then they usually are taken into by most Interpreters of sacred Writ or Controversywriters The first Question only may seeme to be too curious And so perhaps it is indeed if wee should take upon us to determine the individualitie of Melchisedech's person after whose order the Sonne of God was consecrated or made a Priest But on the other side it would be presumptuous absolutly to deny this Melchisedech to have been the same individuall person whom the later Iewes generally and many late learned Christian writers take him for The greatest difficulty in this Point ariseth from the Apostles description of Melchisedech Chap. 7. v. 3. Without father without mother without descent having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but made like unto the Sonne of God abideth a Priest continually 3 From this place some would peremptorily conclude that Melchisedech could be no mortal man no sonne of Adam but either the holy Ghost or the sonne of God then appearing to Abraham in the similitude or likenesse of man For of this Melchisedech save only in the history of Abraham Gen. 14. and 110. Psalme there is no mention at all in the old Testament To wave or rather dismisse their opinion who think Melchisedech was the holy Ghost the third person in Trinitie seeing it is but a conjecture of some few who rather wave then prosecute it Let us see what probabilitie there is that this Melchisedech should be the eternal Word or Son of God appearing to Abraham in the likenesse of man and exercising
which word for word is neither more nor lesse then to be made perfect 2 But many words there are in all the learned tongues whose prime signification every ordinary Grammar Scholar may know whil'st hee reades them onely in Historians or Rhetoricians And yet the best Grammarian living so he be no more then a GraÌ„marian may be altogether ignorant of their true meaning oâ— importance whilest they are used in legall or solemne Instruments or as termes of some speciall art or faculty Every schooleboy knowes the ordinary signification of Possum whilest he reads it in his Grammar rules or in such Authors as he is acquainted with and yet his master how good a Grammarian soever unlesse hee bee a Philosopher withall shall hardly be able to render the true notion or expression of Potentia in naturall Philosophy And a naturall Philosopher may bee sometimes as sarre to seeke in the use of the same word Potentia or Potestas in the faculty of the Civill Law Lastly he that hath his senses exercised in all these Faculties or Sciences mentioned would be a meer stranger to the notion of the same word in the Mathematicks as unable to expresse what Posse or Aequiposse imports in the Science of Geometry as a meer rustick is to understand the terms of Law Such a word or terme is this first word in my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is more then a word of art verbum Jolenne used by the LXX Interpreters to expresse the legall and formall consecration of Aaron his sonnes and their successors to their Priestly function And in this sense it is to be taken in this place and is so rendred in our former English And being consecrated he was made the Author of salvation And so is the very same word rendred by our later English Heb. 7. and the last The word of the oath which was since the law maketh the Son Priest who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrated for evermore The Authours of both Translations if so it had pleased them might have given better content and satisfaction to their readers if they had constantly so expressed the same word with it's allies in most places of this Epistle That in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports as much as we have said that is the formall and solemne consecration of the Son of God unto his everlasting Priesthood needes no farther proofe or declaration then the matter or subject of his discourse from the 14 th v. of the 4 th Chap. unto the 11. v. of this 5. Now the onely subject of his discourse aswell in these places now cited as through the whole 7. Chap. is the Consecration of the Sonne of God to his everlasting Priesthood and the super-excellency of the Priesthood aswell as of the CoÌ„secration to it in respect of legall Priesthoods or consecrations 3. This is the profoundest mystery in Divinity or rather the main foundation of all Evangelicall mysteries treated off by our Apostle unto the end of this Epistle But this profound mystery it selfe hath the same hap which other deepe foundations have that is to be least seen or sought into by such as are otherwise exact surveyors of superstructures or buildings raised above ground The summe of my present search or survey after this great mistery is this How the everlasting Priesthood of the Sonne of God and his consecration to it were prefigured foreshadowed or foretold either in the law or before the law Of the eternity of this our high Priests person that is the person of the Sonne of God Melchizedech long before the law was the most illustrious type or picture So was his order or Sacerdotall function the most exact shadow of the Sonne of Gods everlasting Priesthood Of the qualification of the Sonne of God for this everlasting Priesthood and of the manner of his Consecration to it Aaron and other legall Priests his lawfull Successors and the legall rites or manner of their Consecration were the most lively pictures First of the parallel betweene Aaron and his Successors lawfully ordained and the high Priest of our soules for their qualifications required by the Law of God and by the Law of nature Secondly of the parallel betweene Melchisedech and the Sonne of God aswell for their persons as for sacerdotall functions or exercises of them The parallel betweene Aaron and other Priests of the Law and the Sonne of God for their qualification to their different Priesthoods is as was but now intimated the subject of our Apostles discourse from the beginning of the fifth Chapter unto the tenth verse Wee are then in the first place to search out the true sense and meaning of our Apostle by tracing his steps from the first verse unto the ninth verse Secondly to shew in what sense the Son of God by his Consecration became the Author of everlasting salvation to all that obey him and to them only For so our Apostle saith being consecrated he became the Author or cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of everlasting salvation to all that obey him CHAP. 2. Of the Separation of the high Priest from men and of the compassionate temper which was the speciall Qualification of every high Priest Heb 5. v. 2. EVery high Priest is taken from among men so that every high Priest must be a man so separate or set apart from ordinary men for offering gifts or sacrifices unto God as that which wee call consecrated or hallowed ground is from common soile or places of secular use or commerce But albeit the Priests of the Law were by Consecration separated from ordinary men yet could they not be separated from their owne sinnes so long as they carried this body of death about them But such an high Priest saith our Apostle Chap. 7. v. 27. it behoved us to have as is harmelesse holy and separated from sinners Hee was so separated from sinners that hee could take no infection from them or their sinnes whilst hee lived and conversed amongst them Another special Qualification required in such as were appointed to the legall Priesthood we have verse the second of this fiâ—ft Chapter And that was to be able sufficiently to have compassion on them that were ignorant and out of the way and for this reason though God be not the Author of sinne in any yet he made an especiall use of the sinnes whereunto legall Priests were subject to teach them thereby to be compassionate towards others more compassionate then they would or could have beene if they had not beene conscious of their owne infirmites and grievous offences against God for which they were to offer sacrifices aswell as for the sinnes of the people And the more deepely they were touched with the consciousnesse of their owne sinnes or with Gods displeasure which they had incurred by them the more devoutly they prayed for the people the more diligent and carefull they were in their office of Attonement for them Every godly or considerate high Priest
Philip's race then the Kingdome of Israel in the house of Saul Every man saith Pausanias will easily grant that this Philip for his atchievements was the greatest King which Macedon had either before or after him Of Princely vertues he had so many and so well mixed as few Princes in any ages have enjoyed the like What then did hee want why he might not be reputed in wise-mens censure a good Governour or Commander Only this that hee had his owne oath at too great command His perjury did spoile his politick projects whilst they seemed most to prosper and ruinated the foundations of his intended Monarchy as fast as he laid them and which is worst of all his soule being infected with this foule sinne did propagate the rot unto the fruit of his bodie As he had often deluded his Gods so the Oracle to revenge this quarrell deluded him The sentence of death which hee expected the Oracle should at his instance award upon the King of Persia did seize upon himselfe in his best yeares and amidst his triumphant jollities Immediately upon his death his infant Sonne by Cleopatra was with his mother scorched to death in a vessell of brasse by the appointment of Olympias unto whose crueltie another of his sonnes by a former wife within few yeares after was sacrificed And as if their complaints and outcries against this unjust execution of a womanish wrath had been appointed or authorized to bring downe God's more immediate judgments upon the remnant of Philip's seed or his grand-children which had more potent guardians in humane possibilitie to shield them from humane violence these were cut downe by fates or as my Author's words will beare it by the destroying power 5 And as for Alexander's untimely death it is remarkable amongst children It is an excellent Epiphonema wherewith Pausanias concludes his discourse concerning Philip's perjury If Philip saith he when he laid his plots for erecting the Macedonian Empire had said the Delphick Oracle given to Glaucus the Spartan to his heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the posteritie of men which make conscience of oath shall fare the better wee should have no reason to suspect that any of the Gods would have extinguished Alexander and the Macedonian glory as it had beene with one and the same breath of their displeasure Now the Oracle pronounced the sentence of untimely death upon the posteritie of Glaucus the Spartan because hee consulted it whether he might with safety for swear the pawne or deposition which the Milesians had committed to his fidelitie And when knowing his doome he sought the revocation of the sencence upon promise of full restitution he only obtained this answer for his owne and others instruction to sollicite or tempt God to abett or countenance perjury and to be actually perjured come both to one reckoning If the Reader suspect the authoritie of the Oracle upon presumption that all oraculous answers were inspired by Divels or discredit the story it selfe because related by Herodotus as I may not joyne with him in raising needlesse suspicions or too large imputations against one or other so I will not request him to admit the relation upon any other termes then as an Embleme of divine truth 6 That which this Embleme represents as vero simile was remarkablely fulfilled in Iehoiakim and Zedechias Both of them had deserved death and deposition for their other sinnes but that which moved the Lord to write these two principall stemmes of David childlesse among the families of Iudah was falsification of their oaths to Nehuchadnezar Zedekiah had God's speciall promise that he and his house should live upon condition he would submit himselfe as by oath he was bound unto the King of Babel but sleighting his oath till time was past and not submitting himselfe to Nebuchadnezar till he was caught his sonnes were slaine before his eyes And no sooner had this tragicall spectacle found entrance into his troubled soule but the windowes by which it entred were shut up that so having no possibilitie of vent for griefe it might reflect more vehemently upon his pensive heart and be such a perpetuall torment to his restlesse fancie as an eare-wig is to the braine into which shee hath crept I will conclude these instances concerning oaths promissory with his verdict who was able to make the induction good Si quis omnem antiquitatem bellorum memoriam ab ultimo principio repetat profecto reperiet eorum qui pactas violarunt inducias miserrimos exitus civitatibus ac populis calamitosissimos extitisse Bodinus lib. 5. pag. 964. He that would take paines to search records of Antiquitie or memorialls of warre from the first beginning of histories extant shall clearely find that the violation of leagues or solemn truces hath brought a miserable end upon truce-breakers whether private persons or publeque States 7. One part of his instance or induction hee tooke from the league betwixt Henry the second French King the Lantgrave of Hassia Maurice of Saxony and Albert of Brandeburg violated first by Maurice and afterward more shamefully by Albert of Brandeburg The noble historian and great Antiquary of France who had the Articles of the league betwixt Philip of Spaine and I take it this Henry the second King of France derives all the miseries and calamities which befel France in their intestine broiles and civill warres from the violation of this league on the French King's part whereunto hee was tempted by the pretented infallible Roman Oracle upon a dispensation with his oath proffered unto him not sought by him So much worse was the spirit of this Roman Oracle then the spirit which guided the Delphick Oracle in the answer to Glaucus the Spartane before mentioned The like dispensation of the Pope with an oath of Contract did set the rebellion in the North on foot and was the cause of the calamity or misery which befell him and his family who sought for it and others of his Associates 8 And no marveile if God in this case be severe to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children aswel as in the case of idolatry For of these two sinnes periury or wilfull breach of solemne oath is the more abominable though I know not whether I should account them two sinnes or several branches of one sinne or whether were worse utterly to deny the truth of God's being or his omnipotency or to produce him as a witnesse or Countenancer of that which is untrue The truth of God's Being and his Iustice being presupposed or beleeved it stands with reason what Bodin hath observed That periury should bring forth destruction and calamitie whether to publique states or private families in greater plenty then any sinne whatsoever Other enormities alwayes deserve God's wrath and in the issue bring it upon offenders but perjury only is conceived and brought forth by solliciting or imploring God's wrath or vengeance upon such as commit it But some will here demand What
accomplish the legall priesthood and sacrifices by his bloody sacrifice upon the Crosse the Iew may object that however his satisfaction might be full for substance yet it failed in congruity of circumstances and in particular for the circumstance of time O pus diei decenter fit in die suo Every worke is then well done then better done then otherwise it could be when it is done in its owne time or proper day If then Christ made full attonement for all our sinnes by his owne sacrifice upon the Crosse this sacrifice had been offered in better season upon the day of attonement which was the tenth day of the seventh month or September then on that day wherein hee offered it which was the fourteenth day of the first month a day as farr different in time from the day of attonement as one festivall day or solemnitie can be from another The answer first in generall is that seeing our high priest was to offer but one bloody sacrifice and that one not oftner then once for as his death so his sacrifice was never to be reiterated it was impossible hee should offer this one sacrifice by which all legall sacrifices and services were to be accomplished upon the same day wherein all the sacrifices which did fore shadow it were offered or performed As impossible it was that this his only sacrifice should be offered at severall times as in severall places Although most in the Romish Church seeme to avouch both parts of this impossibility yet they avouch it with this distinction or limitation that his bloody sacrifice was but once offered and that but in one place at one and the same time But of this if God permit hereafter His bloody sacrifice that Church doth grant was to be offered but once and therefore but upon a speciall day or solemne feast which did fore-shadow it by the proper sacrifice of that day Now not only the annuall but all the dayly sacrifices did fore-shadow this his bloody `` sacrifice once offered for all and all of them were `` accomplished by it Reason from these premisses `` may instruct us how requisite it was that he should offer this sacrifice at that time or upon that day on which the principall sacrifices of the Law which most exquisitely or most lively fore-shadowed it were offered The services or sacrifices of other feasts were to attend or conjoyne themselves to this Now as Ierusalem was the Metropolis of the Iewish Nation the place wherein all the seede of Iacob wheresoever they dwelt were to present themselves and to performe the solemnities and services of their principall feasts so the Passeover was the Metropolis of their solemne feasts all other feasts had speciall reference unto it It did point out the time as Ierusalem did the place wherein all other legal solemnities were to be accomplished Seeing then our high Priest was to accomplish as well the sacrifices of the paâ—chall Lambe as the services of the attonement it was more requisite that the services usuall upon that day of attonement should yeeld unto the feast of the Passeover for circumstance of time then the feast of the Passeover should yeeld unto it specially seeing our high Priest had already punctually accomplished the principall solemnitie used in the feast of attonement in die suo upon the very feast day of attonnement which as is before said was the day of our Saviour's Baptisme the day of his consecration to his prophetical function Albeit divers bloody sacrifices were offered upon the feast of attonement yet the principall and most publike solemnitie was the leading of the scape-goat into the wildernesse Levit. 16. v. 20. 21. And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the Alâ—ar hee shall bring the live goat and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and consesse over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sinnes putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send them away by the hand of a fit man into the wildernesse To accomplish the mystery of this service our Saviour was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse immediately after his Baptisme bearing the iniquity of this people even all the sinnes which had been confessed by Ierusalem and Iudah at Iohn's baptisme And though he himselfe needed not to be washed and baptized as being all cleane yet as heesaith himselfe it became him to be consecrated by baptisme to this service to fulfill all righteousnesse and by fulfilling this part of righteousnesse in bearing the sinnes which this people had confessed into the wildernesse hee made a fuller attonement for Ierusalem Iudah then any high Priest before had made That curse wherewith Malachy had threatned the Lord would smite the earth or land of Iewry was for this time averted by this his bloody service 6 But as our Saviour at the time of his baptisme which was upon the day of attonement had fulfilled the mystery of the scape-goat so hee was to accomplish the mystery fore-shadowed by the bloody sacrifice of the paschall Lambe To this purpose Iohn the Baptist upon his returne from the wildernesse had prophecied behold the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Iohn 1. 29. Hee had borne the iniquity of Ierusalem and Iudah by his journey unto by his fasting and watching in the wildernesse and from this Iohn fore-saw he was to take away or beare for so the originall may import the iniquites or sinnes of the world He is called by Iohn and others the Lambe of God for his innocent and spotlesse life yet not so much if at all with reference to the Lambes offered in the dayly sacrifices which were altogether without spot or blemish as with reference to the paschal Lambe which was to be the choisest and fayrest of the flock and for this reason God in his wisdome would have him sacrificed at that feast or very time wherein the paschall Lamb was stain id est upon the fourteenth of the first month inter duas vesperas betwixt the two evenings Some think betwixt three of the clock and the day-going or starre-rising Out Saviour died a litle after three and was brought in peace into his grave about the sun-setting and by rest or reposall in it hath hallowed the houses of death as the paschall Lambe did the houses of the Israelites wherein it was slain and purchased our safety from the destroying Angell even whilst our bodies lodge within the land of darknesse or region of death The congruity of time and other circumstances between the sacrifice of the paschall Lambe and the sacrifice of our high Priest are so manifest and so well known as they need no further comment 7 The mystery fore-shadowed by Israel's deliverance out of Egypt which first occasioned the institution of the Passeover was so great that the Lord in memory of it did
he had not commanded them upon his Altar And seeing that although they had put off all the respect of the obedience of his sonnes yet could he not put off the affection of a loving Father towards them or suddenly cease to mourne for their untimely death whereas to have eaten the Sacrifices in the holy place with a sad countenance or heavy heare had been to pollute it So that this sad and ivofull accident made the eating of the sinne-offring in the holy place unlawfull or unexpedient to him and his sonnes which ordinarily or in case no such accident had befallen them had not only been lawfull but necessary But seeing the blood of the Bullock offered for Aaron's sinne-offering at his CoÌ„secration had not been brought into the Sanctuary and seeing no such wofull accident or legall impediment had at this time befallen Aaron and his sonnes it may justly be questioned what was the reason they did not eate the flesh of this their sinne-offring or Attonement It was a sufficient warrant unto them not to eat it because the Lord had forbidden it Exod. 29. 14. But if it be demanded what was the reason or intent of this Law or rather of this particular exception from the generall Law by which they were commanded to eate it Some make answer that Aaron and his sonnes were not as yet compleat Priests or Priests already consecrated but in their Consecration only and therefore were not comprehended under the generall Law which commanded the Priest forbidding all others to eate the flesh of the sinne-offering whose blood was not brought into the Sanctuary But this reason concludes only in probability against Aaron and his sonnes who did now attend their Consecration it no waies concludes against Moses who did consecrate them who was not only permitted but commanded by God to eate of all the Sacrifices or offrings which Aaron's sonnes or Successors might lawfully eate yet did not Moses eate any part of the Bullock offered at Aaron's Consecration for a sinne-offring or Attonement for God had expressely commanded it to be burnt without the Campe. Their answer therefore to that former demand is more pertinent who say that no high Priest whether ordinarily called or extraordinarily as Moses was for the Consecration of Aaron and his sonnes might eate of any sacrifice which was offered for a sinne-offring or Attonement for the Priests themselves although the Blood of it were not brought into the Sanctuary Of the Sinne-offrings for the people whose Blood was not brought into the Sanctuary the Priests might eate they were to eate 2. This commandement for them to eate of the peoples sinne-offring argues the sinnes of the people were to be borne or taken away by the Priest The prohibition for the Priests to eat the Sinne-offrings made for themselves argues the sinnes of the Priest could not be borne or taken away by the Priests of the Law or their sacrifices but were to expect a better sacrifice of a better high Priest The legall sacrifices in the meane time were to be offered in a place prefiguring the place wherein this better Sacrifice was to be offered a place without the gates of Ierusalem Whiles the people wandred in the wildernesse without any setled habitation or City to dwell in the Sacrifice or substance of the Sinne-offring was to be consumed with fire without the trenches or bounds wheresoever they did encampe as Souldiers doe in the open field neere unto the Arke of the Testament But after the Arke had found a setled habitation or resting place in the Temple which Salomon built the City of Ierusalem in which the Temple stood became the Campe of Israel And this and other like sodeiâ—â—ties and services which were commanded to be performed without the Campe whiles the people wandred in the wildernesse were to be performed without the gates of Ierusalem albeit the Sacrifice was to be offered in the Temple whence seeing our Saviour's Body was the offring for sinne or the Sacrifice of Attonement by which the mysteries imported by all other Sacrifices were fulfilled it was to be consumed or brought into the dust of death in Mount Calvary or Golgotha or some place without the City So that the Apostle's argument Heb. 13. drawne from the annuall Sacrifices of Attonement concludes as punctually for this Sacrifice of Aâ—â—onement or Sinne-offring at Aaron's Consecration We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve at the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sinne as also of those beasts which were offered for the Priests Sin-offring at the Consecration albeit their Blood were not brought into the Sanctuary are burnt without the Campe. Wherefore Iesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his owne Blood suffered without the gate Now this sanctification of God's people by Christ's Blood was their Consecration with him to be Kings and Priests as he was now made King and Priest that is a Priest after the order of Melchisedech and as he himselfe saith Iohn 17. 29. For their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that is I undergoe the rites of Consecration prefigured by the Law that they also may be sanctified through the truth or truly sanctified that is after a better manner then they could be sanctified or consecrated by the legall Sacrifices ceremonies or services of the Law 3 The second sort of bloody Sacrifices offered by Moses at the Consecration of Aaron and his sons were two Rammes the one for a burnt offring to the Lord for a sweet Savour and offring made by fire unto the Lord. Exod. 29. 18. The mystery hereby fore-signified at our Saviour's Confecration is expressed by the Apostle Ephes 5. 1. 2. Be yee therefore followers of God as deare Children and walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us an offring and a Sacrifice to God for a sweete smelling savour The other Ramme was to be offered as a peace offring and is called by Moses Exod. 29. the Ramme of Aaron's Consecration ver 26. because Aaron and his sonnes were to be annointed with the Blood of it CHAP. 27. In what respects the Ramme of the Consecration and the Ramme which God did provide for a burnt offring instead of Isanck did prefigure the sacrifice of the Son of God Of other speciall rites wherein Aaron at his Consecration and in the function of his Priesthood did prefigure the Consecration and Priest hood of the Son of God NOw if we consider the speciall references of the Aaronicall Priesthood there could no fitter Sacrifice be offered for Aaron and his sonnes at their Consecration then the Sacrifice of Rammes no other Sacrifices used in the Law could be so fit an embleme or representation of our high Priest's Sacrifice at his Consecration The points whereto the Aaronicall Priesthood whether during the time of their Consecration or after Aaron and his sonnes were consecrated Priests had peculiar reference
Chapter no literall circumstance or meaning doth lead or direct us this way but the contrary to wit to his generation or off-spring to such a generation but farre more ample as the Israeliteâ— were of Abraham for so it followeth in the Prophet Hee was out off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was hee striken And hee made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done â—â—â—â—â—lence neither was any deceit in his mouth and ver 10. When thou shalt make his soule an offering for sinne he shall see his seed hee shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travell of his soâ—le and be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall be are their iniquities v. 10. 11. They whose iniquities he did beare and whom hee justified are his seed or that Generation whereof the Prophet doth speake Vnto this purpose our Saviour himselfe doth speak Ioh. 12. ver 23. 24. When Andrew and Philip came unto him a litle before his Passion and told him certaine Greekes desired to see him he answered them saying The houre is come that the Sonne of man should be glorified Verily verily I say unto you except a corne of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit 12 In respect of this his Resurrection out of the grave he is called the first begotten from the dead for the Father of whom hee was begotten before all worlds from all eternities did now beget him as man unto glory and immortality According to his first birth as man by the blessed Virgin he was truly called the seed of Abraham the sonne of David According to the second birth or begetting him from the grave he is called the Father of the world to come and as man the Father of Abraham the Father of David yea and of Melchisedech himselfe who blessed Abraham For the life of glory and immortality doth descend to all that ever shall be partakers of it from the man Christ Iesus now possest of glory and immortality as truly and really as his mortality or life in the flesh did descend from Abraham from David or from his Mother the blessed Virgin 13 Isaac as all have knowne it was the true picture and shadow of our Saviour's death and deliverance from it The mighty increase likewise of Isaac and Iacob's seed was the embleme or pledge of our Saviour's seed or generation which cannot be numbred or declared 14 But the circumstances of our Saviour's selling of his betraying of his cruell persecutions by Priests and people the ungracious offspring of Israel or Iacob the whole legend of his humiliation unto death and exaltation after his Resurrection are more exactly fore-shadowed by the cruell persecutions of Ioseph procured by his brethren by his calamitie and advancement in Egyyt Their persecutions by the sonnes of Iacob doe in a manner parallel themselves Both of them were sold by a Iudas more for hope of gaine then desire of blood on their parts that sold them 15 The pit whereinto Ioseph's brethren cast him as also the pit or dungeon wherein hee lay in fetters after his comming into Egypt were true pictures of our Saviour's grave or of the pit whereinto his soule descended So was Ioseph's deliverance out of them a true shadow or resemblance of Christ's Resurrection Ioseph's high advancement by Pharaoh an exquisite Type or mappe of our Saviour's glorious Kingdome after his Resurrection or birth from the dead so Ioseph complains unto Pharaoh's butler Gen. 40. v. 15. I was stollen away out of the land of the Hebrewes and here also have I done nothing that they should put mee into the dungeon 16 The whole story of Ioseph's depression and advancement is set downe Psal 105. v. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. He sent a man before theÌ„ even Ioseph who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt with fetters He was laid in iron until the time that his WORD came the WORD of the Lord tried him The King sent and loosed him even the Ruler of the people and let him goe free Hee made him Lord of his house and Ruler of all his substance To bind his Princes at his pleasure and teach his Senators wisedome 17 A more expresse draught or mappe as well of our Saviour's humiliation as of his exaltation is Gen. 39. ver 20. 21. and Gen. 41. ver 39. Instead of the prison or dungeon wherein Ioseph lay he is raised to the highest place in the Kingdome under Pharaoh Thou shalt be over my house saith Pharaoh to Ioseph and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled only in the throne will I be greater then thou See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt So was our Saviour after his Resurrection made chiefe Ruler over the house of God Every house is builded by some man But he that built all things is God And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as a Sonne over his owne house whose house are wee The amplitude of Christ's Kingdome as man foreshadowed by Ioseph's advancement under Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt is described Psal 2. ver 10. specially Psal 8. ver 5. 6. Thou hast made him a litle while lower then the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou mad'st him to have dominion over the workes of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feete Yet saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 27. It is manifest that hee is excepted which put all things under him And when it is said that he sits at the right hand of God untill his enemies be made his footstoole it is included that hee at whose right hand hee sits is in throne or seate of dignity above him Againe Ioseph instead of the iron wherein he was bound hath the Kings ring put on his hand Instead of his ragged or squallid weeds hee is arayed in a vesture of fine linnen or silke Instead of his fetters and bonds hee hath a golden chaine put about his neck All these ornaments bestowed on Ioseph as the ancient and learned well observe were but resemblances of those glorious endowments wherewith our Saviour's Body or Humanitie hath since his Resurrection been invested 18 Ioseph was placed by Pharaoh in the second charriot and he made them cry before him Abrech that is as much as to say Lord or King to whom bowing of the knee was due All this and whatsoever more was done to Ioseph is but a model of that honour which as our Apostle tels us God hath commanded to be given to Christ Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given
for seeing the first-lings of the heards though offered in sacrifice unto the Lord could not sanctify the use of their flocks unto them but the use of every dumbe creature was to be sanctified unto them by a sacrifice of one of the same kind As the use of their Lambes or Sheepe was to be hallowed by the sacrifice of a firstling-male Lambe and so the goates by the firstling-male kid and their oxen and cattell by the sacrifice of the firstling calves or bullocks who could in reason expect that the sacrifice of a Lambe of a Kid of a Bullock or any other dumbe creature should be a sufficient price for the Redemption of their first borne males or able to sanctifie or consecrate both male and female in their severall families unto the Lord Hee that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one saith the Apostle Men were to be redeemed and sanctified by man and if the first borne male in every family had been sacrificed for the rest this would have made no satisfaction no sanctification seeing the first born was by nature as uncleane as the rest and every dumbe creature which was by Law uncleane and could not be sacrificed was to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a firstling-male which was by its kind cleane as the asse because it was by its kind unclean was to be redeemed that is the use of it was to be sanctified or made lawfull unto its owner by the sacrifice of a firstling Lambe 2 But who amongst all the first borne of women was in his kind or by nature cleane Not one besides the Sonne of the blessed Virgin who was likewise the only Son of God It is hee alone that was to redeeme and sanctifie the rest of mankind which were all by nature uncleane And with reference to the former Law our Apostle instiles him primogenitus omnis creatura the first borne of every creature Coloss 1. 15. Now though it be most true that Christ was before all things that all things were created by him whether visible or invisible that all things consist by him as hee is the only Son of God begotten of his Father before all Worlds yet this is not the true and full meaning of that most sacred maxime Est primogenitus omnis creature he is the first borne of every creature One part of the Apostle's meaning in that admirable passage 1. Coloss 13. to the 20. is that unlesse Christ had been the Son of God from eternity all fulnesse could not have dwelled in him nor could he have had preheminence in all things which the Apostle there mentions Another part of the Apostle's meaning there is that in the same Christ as man it pleased God that all fulnesse should dwell and that as man he should in all things have the preheminence and in as much as all fulnesse dwelleth in him as man and that in all respect he hath preheminence he is likewise as man the first-borne of every creature that is all the prerogatives which the first-borne males had before the after-borne or females are contained in his prerogative and fulnesse as man Now as the first-born males amongst the offsprings of dumbe creatures did sanctifie all the rest of the same kind So Christ as man doth sanctifie all things make all things acceptable unto God which are capable of sanctification or acceptance As man likewise hee had all the prerogatives of the first-borne in the families of the Patriarchs which were especially two The Priesthood and the principalitie or civill dominion over their brethren and posteritie For Christ as man is made both King and Priest and albeit Abraham Isaac and the Patriarchs and Melchisedech who blessed Abraham were both Kings and Priests over their families and children yet these prerogatives they had by a solemne right derived from him which was to come who was to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech Againe in respect of the character of the first borne male or of that which gave it the prerogative of the after-borne he hath the preheminence for he opened the wombe or matrix in such a manner as no creature had done or shall doe after him for he was made true man and truly borne of a woman yet not begotten by any man And albeit Melchisedech Abraham and David were dead long before he was conceived by the holy Ghost long before he was born or made man of a woman though he be truly enstiled the seed of Abraham and the Sonne of David which for this reason were of necessity to be before him Yet this precedency was a precedency only of time a precedency in respect of this mortall and miserable life In respect of that better life he hath the precedency even of time for he is the Father of the World to come and as our Apostle hath it 1. Coloss 18. He is the first borne or first begotten from the dead that in all things hee might have the prehemi nence 3 Christ by his divine Power had raised the widowes sonne of Naim and his freind Lazarus the one some two yeares the other but a few dayes before from death to life but neither of them nor any before them which had been so raised could be truly said to be begotten from the dead but rather begotten to die againe for to be borne and begotten from the dead includes an everlasting freedome from the power or approach of death as it is in the hymne for the morning prayer upon Easter day Christrising againe from the dead now dyeth not death from henceforth hath no power upon him According to this notion or importance of primogenitus ex mortuis of being the first borne or first begotten from the dead Christ hath the prehe minence every way hee was the first in order of time and was raised from death to an endlesse life Hee was the only prime in respect of power or causalitie whosoever thus hath been or shall be raised or begotten from death to an immortall life is thus raised and begotten by vertue of Christ's Resurrection Albeit the soules of Abraham of Moses and David c. were before this time seated in blisse Yet were not their bodies so much as capable of dowry oâ— joynture with them in the state of blisse before such time as the Sonne of God was thus begotten from the dead yea might the soules of those and other righteous men have looked upon their bodies oâ— reliques in the dust they would have loathed their company and abhorred cohabiration with them as being things polluted and uncleane 4 How cleane or well winnowed soever the corne were before it was sowne yet the offspring of it after it dyed in the ground was uncleane The use of greene eares was not lawfull unto this people untill the first fruits were offered up unto the Lord. In like manner albeit Abraham Moses and David were justified whil'st they lived in the flesh even sanctified persons through beliefe in Christ which
was to come Yet their bodies were to inherite their Father Adam's curse Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne Subject they were to to corruption altogether incapable of incorruption or immortalitie untill their expected Messias became their first fruits for them Christ saith our Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 20. is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleepe for since by man came death by man came also the Resurrection of the dead So generally true is that of the Apostle that which sanctifieth and that which is sanctified are both of one that is both of one kind Heb. 2. And in this sense that saying of S. Ambrose which some in later ages have much quarrelled is most true When thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death thou didst open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers The body of no Saint was capable of entrance into the Kingdome of heaven before this time None could be consecrated unto this service before the Consecration of the high Priest himselfe which was not accomplished till he was begotten from the dead and made the first fruits of them that sleepe 5 Briefly to mould up the scattered or dispersed notions in this and some other former treatises how the fulnesse of all things which were fore-shadowed in the feast of the Passeover with its rites did as our Apostle saith dwel in Christ or how in all things he the preheminence First he is in the literall and most exquisite sense the Israel of God the Son of God which was to passe out of this world unto his Father Secondly hee was the true Paschall Lambe which was slaine for our deliverance from the destroyer and for our safety in this our passage from this world into a better Thirdly he is the reall Moses that must conduct us for he was conductor unto Moses Fourthly he is the first borne of every creature which by his sacrifice did sanctifie all the rest and make them acceptable unto God Fiftly he is the first-borne or first begotten from the dead the first fruits of them that sleepe that is he by whom such as sleepe in death and inhabite darknesse shall be made meete to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light as well in their bodies as in their soules SECT 6. He Ascended into Heaven CHAP. 35. How the Ascension of the Son of God was presigured by the translation of Enoch and by the taking up of Elias And foretold by the Psalmist Psal 15. and Psal 24. THE Son of God in the day of his sufferings as he was man did ascend in soule into that Paradise into which the soules of Patriarchs of Prophets with the soules of holy and just men that dyed immediately after him or at the same time with him were admitted And on that day at least before the dawning of the next which was the Sabbath he consecrated the celestiall Sanctuary or Paradise with his owne blood But his Ascension into Paradise what part soever of Heaven that were on that day is not the Ascension mentioned in our Creed For when it is said HE ASCENDED into Heaven this must be understood of his Ascention thither in body which was forty dayes after his Resurrection from the dead And into Heaven or that part of Heaven mentioned in our Creede hee did not then ascend only as an high Priest but also as King of Heaven and earth The Day of his Ascension as was mentioned before was the day of his solemne enthronization 2 The manner of his Ascension is punctually related specially by the Evangelist S. Luke in the last Chapter of his Gospell and in the first of the sacred history of the Acts of the Apostles The speciall quaerees concerning his or other Evangelicall or Apostolicall avouchments of his Ascension are but two The first how that which they historically relate or avouch was fore-pictured The second how or by what Prophets fore-told in the sacred Writings of the Old Testament And these two quaeries must be discust not by dichotomy or by way of opposition but either severally or promiscuously as the Texts of the Old Testament shall minister occasion 3 The Ascension of this just and holy one of the great Prophet promised by Moses was first prefigured by the translation of Enoch which was long before the Law was given long before Moses was borne But of Enoch's translation litle can be said upon sure grounds or by just warrant of Scripture Only this we know from authentique testimonies that hee was an holy man and one that pleased God A man both in life and in his translation from this life unto a better who did truly fore-shadow him in whom alone God was and is and ever will be best pleased 4 The manner of Eliah's Ascension or rather of his being taken up from earth into heaven or to a farre better place then earth was more visible and more conspicuous and the time of his taking up more publiquely knowne then the time or manner of Enoch's translation was He was taken or caried up out of Elishah's sight who with many others did expect the time and day of his translation in a fiery Chariot a fit embleme of Eliah's propheticall spirit alwaies burning with zeale towards the service of God even to the destruction of the enemies of it or disturbers of the peace of Israel Our Saviour did rather ascend in a Cloud then was taken up by it albeit taken by it out of their sight which saw him ascend from earth to heaven The cloud it selfe in which he did ascend being an embleme of his sweet and milde spirit of those gracious lips which did alwaies distill words of mercy and love allaying the terrible heat and fervency of Eliah's and other Prophets spirits which had fore-told his first comming into and his going out of this world and his second comming to judge it 5 Two illustrious predictions of his Ascension we have Psal 15. Psal 24. but whether the one or both of these Psalmes which illustrate or confirme the truth of the Evangelicall story be meerly propheticall or typically propheticall or mixt id est thus literally verified in the Psalmists themselves or Pen-men of these hymnes and afterward mystically fulfilled in Christ is more then I dare peremptorily either affirme or deny Most probable it is that the Author of the 15 th Psal which doubtlesse was David himselfe did pen his owne part and exercise his hopes and interest in the future Ascension of his Son and Lord of which he had a present pledge or token by his late restitution into the tabernacle of the Lord from which he had sometimes been excluded not for any crime or demerite nor by any Ecclesiasticall censure of excommunication or suspension but by secular violence of hostile persecution During the time of his exile from the tabernacle hee or the sonnes of Chorah for him uttered those patheticall complaints How amiable are thy tabernacles thou Lord of hosts
the first day of that weeke wherein our Redemption was wrought our Saviour came in triumphant manner into Ierusalem not only to fulfill the prophecy of Zachary before expounded at large for that might have been fulfilled at any other time or day for its substance but to testifie withall that hee was the true paschall Lambe appointed pointed for the sacrifice of that great Feast that Lambe of God which â—ame too take away the sinnes of the world For upon that very day of the month Abib were it the tenth or ninth in which our Saviour came to Ierusalem saluted with ecchoing cries of Hosanna the Son of David was the legall paschall Lambe according to first institution of the Passeover brought out of the fields unto the place appointed for the publique assembly with greater pompe perhaps and solemnity prescribed by custome than was expressely required in the Law Vpon the fifth day day of this â—acred weeke being as I take it the fourteenth of the month Abib our Saviour being to be offered in sacrifice at the time wherein the paschall Lambe was eaten by seterall families did eate the Passeover with his Disciples and preoccupated the usuall day for eating the paschall Lambe upon necessity In the night following which was the evening of the sixth day hee was apprehended and arraigned in the morning of the same day condemned by the Iewes â— and upon their solicitation adjudged by Pilate to be crucified and executed by the Roman Souldiers In the sixth day or which is all one the sixth evening and morning of the first weeke of times succession God is said to have finished the workes of Creation by making the first man In the sixth day or in the sixth evening and morning of the weeke of our Saviour's Consecration Hee by whom the world was made did solemnely declare the worke of our Redemption to be accomplished in respect of any labour worke or paines to be further undertaken by him For so farie his solemne proclamation upon the Crosse extends consummatum est And so he went into his rest upon the same day about the same houre wherein God was said to rest from all his workes of Creation that is in the close of that day a litle before the evening of the seventh day or Sabbath CHAP. 41. A Parallel betweene the day wherein Adam is thought to have been cast out of Paradise with the day wherein our Saviour was Crucified And betweene the first day of the world's Creation and our Saviour's Resurrection THere is a a tradition or rather a received opinion avouched by many good Authors in their severall writings that Adam the first man should fall and forfeit his estate in Paradise upon the same day wherein he was created The opinion it selfe we cannot disprove nor justly suspect to be a meere conjecture because we know not what warrant the first or immediate Authors of this Doctrine had to commend it to posterity But their language I take it is much mistaken by some later school-men the first Authors meaning or expression of it must be limited or rather extended to the same sense or construction as hath been before observed in the like words of Daniel Chap. 7. That Belshazer was slaine in the same night wherein after his carousing in the boules of the Sanctuary the hand-writing was seen upon the wall or that other 2. of Kings that Senacherib's mighty army was discomfitted upon the night immediately following that day wherein he sent that blasphemous message unto Hezekiah or the day wherein Isaiah returned his message to the good King In both places the same night cannot be understood of the selfe same naturall day and night but of the same night or day after the revolution of one yeare or more In like manner the first man according to the tenor of the former received opinion did fall upon the same day wherein he was created yet not upon the same day numerically individually or identically taken but upon the same day after the revolution of a weeke at least or more that is upon the sixth day and thrust out of Paradise before the Sabbath ensuing for his stealth or presumptuous usurpation of the forbidden fruit Vpon the same day after revolution of many yeares the Son of God or second Adam now consecrated to be a quickning spirit did restore the sons of the first Adam to their inheritance which their Father had lost by giving a true naturall son of the first Adam a thiefe by practise liverie de sezin or actuall possession of the coelestiall Paradise The bequest or legacy was punctuall and solemne Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Vpon the sixth day of the first week or week of Creation or vicissitude of times Adam's body was taken out of the substance of the earth Vpon the same sixth day was the body of the second Adam the Son of God shut up into the bowels of the earth after he had commended his spirit into his Father's hands which had given it him That temporall curse denounced against the first Adam In the day wherein thou eatest thou shalt die the death was exactly now fulfilled in the second Adam For in the sixth day of the weeke of his Consecration he died the death of the Crosse and was delivered to the earth whence the first man was taken only he was not to be resolved to dust but rested there without corruption For as God had rested the Seventh day from his works of Creation though not of Preservation so the Son of God was to rest from all his labour or toile upon the seventh day of the week of his Consecration not only to blesse and sanctify that day and make it his own but withall to hallow the grave or the wombe of the earth whence all flesh was taken and by the course of nature must returne by his sweet rest and presence in it So saith S. Iohn I heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which hereafter die in the Lord even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14 ver 13. Their sleepe or quiet rest in the grave thus hollowed by our Saviour's Death and rest in it becomes the evenings or vespers of their everlasting Sabbath 2 The night immediately following the legall Sabbath wherein our Saviour did rest from all his Labours was part of the first evening and morning or of the first naturall day of the weeke His Resurrection upon that day and at that time of the day and at that season implieth a two-fold mystery or the accomplishment of two remarkable divine Oracles First that of Gen. Chap. 1. ver 1. 2. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without forme and void and darknesse was upon the deepe The darknesse made the evening and the separation of the light from
darknesse made the morning of the first natural day God faith Moses divided the light from the darknesse and called the light day and the darknesse he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day As was the condition of this visible world or form lesse earth before the Creation of light or the division betwixt it and darknesse such altogether was the condition or state of the intellectuall world before it was new made or redeemed by the Son of God The corrupted masse of mankind was overspread with darknesse and covered with the mantle of Death but this long darknesse became more palpable then that of Egypt during the time of the Son of God's surprizall and his inclosure in the region of Death These were the houres wherein it was permitted the powers of darknesse to domineere but these powers were conquered and the darknesse dispelled by his Resurrection from Death which was on the same day and at the same houre wherein God the Father by him did first divide darknesse from light From this houre of his Resurrection the night is gone and the day is come as many as believe in him raised from death and adore the Son of righteousnesse who as the Apostle saith having abolished death brought life and immortalitie to light they are the Sons of God Heires of Glory but such as love darknesse more then the light of his gospel they must remaine the sons of darknesse and of death All this and more is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day and houre of his Resurection had in that holy weeke being the first houre of the first day The other mystery is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day of his Resurrection held in that solemne feast of unleavened bread 3 So it fell out by the sweet disposition of God's speciall providence that the day of our Saviour's Resurrection should for that yeare fall upon the second day of the Feast of unleavened bread or the morrow after the Sabbath of that great solemnity Now on that precise day the Israelites were peremptorily bound by a strict Law to offer up the first fruits as eares and blades of corne unto the Lord Lev. 23. 10. 11. When yee become into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest and he shall wave the sheafe before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it From this peculiar reference or parallel of the circumstance of time between the day of our Saviour's Resurrection and the day appointed for this legall feast of offering the eares of corne The analogy or parallel between the Type and the substance is thus As the use of the corne was not allowable to the people untill some eares or blades of the same kind were offered up in sacrifice by the Priest unto the Lord So neither could the seed of Adam or of Abraham or of any man else seeing all had been sowen in corruption be either holy or acceptable to the Lord or partakers of his Table or prefence or put on incorruption untill the high Priest of our soules the Son of God had offered a sacrifice of the same kind to wit a body subject to like mortality as ours are untill it was consecrated to glory and immortality by the sufferings of Death 4 All were sanctified all were reconciled to God by this one oblation of himselfe as the first fruits of them that sleepe Yet even such as were upon the day of his Resurrection really sanctified and actually reconciled unto God the very Apostles themselves were not made up or wrought into one body or loafetill fifty daies after not until that very day wherein the new reaped corne made into bread was solemnly offered and presented to the Lord. Lev. 23. 15. 16. 17. And yee shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that yee brought the sheafe of the wave offering seven daies shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall yee number fifty daies and yee shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord yee shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth deales they shall be of fine flowre they shall be baken with leaven they are the first fruits unto the Lord. The one holy Catholique Church and Communion of Saints which we professe in our Creed did not begin to be in esse as by God's helpe it shall appeare hereafter or heare true life untill the effusion of the holy Ghost which is the soule of the one holy Catholique Church or of the mystioall Body of Christ And that was upon the fiftieth day inclusively from the day whereon the eares of corne or sheafe of blades was offered unto the Lord. On that fiftieth day the holy Curch received the first fruits of the spirit it being likewise another solemne day appointed for the legall offering up of the first fruits 4 Thus much of the accomplishment of the Type of Ionas his imprisonment in the belly of the Whale and of the mysteries contained in those three speciall daies and nights or evenings and mornings wherein our Saviour was in the wombe of the earth and the time of his rising againe But the two former queries First what our Saviour's abode forty daies on the earth from his Resurrection to his Ascension or which is all one what the signe of Ionas did portend to this evill and adulterous generation of the Iewes Secondly how the space of his forty daies abode upon the earth after his Resurrection was prefigured are points worth the discussion and for ought I know will make the fittest Period of this long work concerning the knowledge of Christ and him crucified CHAP. 42. That the sentence proclaimed against Nineveh by the Prophet Ionas was in a full measure executed upon the adulterous Generation of the Iewes not believing or repenting at our Saviour's preaching THat a state so strong and mighty as Niniveh was then when Ionas was sent unto it should upon these or the like briefe Summons of a forrainer Yet fory daies and Niniveh shall be destroied be so deeply stricken on a suddaine with extreme feare of death and ruine Or that a Court so dissolute luxurious and proud as that Court was should so readily change their soft rayment into sackcloth and laying aside their perfumes and sweet odours as the Text saith the King himselfe did may well seeme a greater wonder to a Reader qui ad pauca respicit then God almost at any time had wrought in Israel But the strangenesse of the suddaine change perswades or rather assures me or any diligent Reader that the constant fame of Ionas his miraculous deliverance or escape out of the Whales belly had come before him into Niniveh and made way for the efficacy of
his preaching or due entertainment of his Embassage And as Naaman the Syrian from the experiment of his strange recovery of his health brake forth into that acknowledgment Now I know there is no God in all the world except in Israel So these Ninivites did collect that he who had delivered Ionas from the danger whereinto hee had cast him was able to kill and to give life to whom he pleased And as they dread his anger for transgressions past so they conceive hope of mercy upon their true repentance and amendment But however it was not so strange that Ninivie upon Ionas summons should so quickly repent as wondrous that the Iewish Nations should not repent after this signe of the Prophet Ionas was so peremptorily and punctually given them by him that was farre greater then Ionas by a Prophet of their owne according to their apprehension in their calmer thoughts mighty in word and in deed The speciall points wherein the Ninivites condemne this present generation of Scribes and Pharisees are first their unpartiall diligence in examining the truth of the miracle wrought on Ionas Secondly their readinesse upon testification of it to believe God's Iudgments and his Mercies of which the one did impell or drive the other gently lead or draw them to repentance 2 But that which the Apostle saith of the Iews in general was remarkably true of this evill and adulterous generation in this particular They had most grieviously displeased God by putting his only Son to most cruell Death and after they had thus grieviously displeased God they became contrary to all men to the most grievous sinners of other nations in special to these Ninivites which must rise or stand up in Iudgment against them The Ninivites upon Ionas his preaching or embassage being ushered or countenanced by the fame of his miraculous deliverance repented in sackcloth and ashes To have repented in a more ample more deepe or better manner then the Ninivites did this present generation of the Iewes had motives many all in themselves or absolutely more forcible then these heathens had First to search more unpartially after the truth of that great miracle wrought by and upon our Saviour Christ being fore-shadowed by the deliveverance of the Prophet Ionas He who was much greater and had been in greater danger then Ionas was fore-told them almost in the beginning of his propheticall function when he said unto them desiring of him a signe why he did those things he gave them this signe Ioh. 2. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up But this was a kind of riddle unto them and so it was to his Disciples till after his Resurrection for he meant it of the Temple of his body But this riddle or aenigmaticall prediction he vouchsafed at this time to explicate or unfold not to the vulgar or common sort of people but unto the Scribes and Pharisees who were the most curious Criticks or Cavalists of the Law and Prophets and of the ceremonies Types or Shadowes contained in them provoking or inviting them withall by this preamble There shall no signe be given to it but the signe of the Prophet Ionas diligently to observe the parallel between the Type or shadow exhibited in the Prophet Ionas and the body or antype to be exactly accomplished in himselfe Some at least of the Scribes of the Pharisees and Elders saw him die or linguering in the paines of Death upon the Crosse All or most of them and of this adulterous generation had the manner of his Death both for circumstance and substance testified unto them by authenticall witnesses And to prevent all possible occasions of false rumors or impostures which might be procured or attempted by his followers they provided a band of Souldiers to watch or guard his corps in the Sepulchre during the time presixed by him for his Resurrection All this notwithstanding he who commanded the Whale to restore the Prophet Ionas whom she had swallowed up in the sea did now command the earth or hard rock wherein our Saviour's Sepulchre was made to yeeld up this her prisoner within three daies and three nights after his buriall within the time limited and prefigured by Ionas his imprisonment in the fishes belly and to yeeld him up not unto the earth or sea but unto heaven whence he descended The sea was his and he prepared the dry land both sea and land and all that are in them and upon them were absolutely and equally at his command and disposall and so was the heaven of heavens it selfe The earth now trembled at his rebuke and men of warre were affrighted at the sight or presence of his heavenly messengers If these Roman Souldiers or all their legions had offered the least resistance to his person or to his Resurrection these heavenly Souldiers would have fought for him and for his Kingdome which now began to be propagated through the world though it was told the Roman deputy it was not of this world 3 All the circumstances which besides these mentioned might be alleaged were they put together and pressed home might well occasion on halfe Christian or diligent Reader or unpartiall observer of times and circumstances rather to suspect the truth of the Evangelicall story then fully perswade him that it were possible either for the Iewes to attempt the subornation of the Roman souldiers to testifie so grosse an untruth as they did or for them to yeeld upon any termes to so foule a temptation But whether we resolve this spirit of contradiction in these Iewes unto their own unrelenting spleen and malice or unto divine infatuation or respectively unto both it would be a task more easy then safe to parallel their stupidity and subtle disposition with with the like or worse blindnesse in many which verily believe the truth of our Saviour's Resurrection with the circumstances and would be very ready to confirme their belife of it and most particular points of faith with their blood For the light and evidence of divine truth can hardly suffer a totall ecclipse in any man professing Christianity no not in men of spleen-bitten braines yet many fearful partiall ecclipses it suffers in these men in respect of the particulars at which their spleen doth rise or interpose its dismall shade whilst they are maintained or illustrated by others whose good parts they envy or whose persons they hate but of this argument much hath been spoken before in other meditations and more if God permit may be added in a treatise promised as the Reader may observe in the Preface prefixed to the first two Books of these Commentaries 4 But for the Iewes which upon the fight or uncontroulable fame of our Saviou's miracle had traduced him for a conjurer or sorcerer it was no new wonder in them either not themselves to believe or to perswade the Roman Souldiers being first halfe blinded with bribes to believe or suspect that his Disciples might use some meanes
but as full Conquerors as it followeth ver 2. For I will gather all Nations against Ierusalem to battaile and the City shall be taken and the house rifled and the women ravished c. The contexture of this Chapter as the most learned Commentators upon it doe confesse is very perplext and yet in my opinion made so partly by the somnolency of translators and incogitancy of Interpreters or paraphrasticall Expositors of it Leaving the discussion of most particulars in it unto the learned Criticks of sacred Philologers I shall endeavour to unfold one perplexity or knot which hath been rather drawne closer or cast harder by most moderne Interpreters then Eusebius or the ancient Greek Writers did leave it The knot or rub is in v. 3. Then shall the Lord goe forth and fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst or in the mid'st of the Nations ariseth from the ambiguous or various importance of the Hebrew particle or preposition beth which in composition admits as great a multiplicity of opposite or contrary senses as the Latine preposition in or the Greek particle alpha doth both which are sometimes privative or purely negative sometimes vehemently affirmative as in that or other like speech quod dixi indictum volo the word indictum is a meere negative and equivalent to non dictum and implies a revoking or repealing of what was said otherwhiles the same indictum implies a peremptory declaration or denunciation be it of warre or controversie c. The Greek alpha admits more variety sometimes it is 〈…〉 a privative or pure negative as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts no gifts sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an augmentative as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very thick wood or a wood full of trees sometimes againe more then so an augmentative or intensive implication of the contrary or that which it seemes to deny◠as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not only a Lawlesse man or one that knowes not the Law but one extremely opposite to all good Lawes the epitheton or synonymum to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest enemy of Christ or of his Lawes The Hebrew particle or preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary or against sometimes no more then cum in intra or infra with in or amongst as in that speech of Balaam Numb 23. v. 23. There is no enchantment bejacob most now render it against Israel though some heretofore have rendred it There is no enchantment to be found in Israel The sense in the vulgar Latine is ambiguous because it is uncertaine whether Israel be the accusative or ablative case if the accusative as some expresse it in Israelem it may be as much according to the Author of the vulgar Latines meaning as adversus Israelem against Israel which is the most probable sense of that place However the most usuall signisication of the same particle is no more then the Latine in or intra or other variations of it according to the nature of the subject wherein it is used The like variation of the Hebrew beth especially when it is prefixed to the infinitive mood ariseth from the different parts of time unto which it referres as in the title of the third Psalm intitled unto David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is verbatim in ipso fugere vel fagiendo or dum fugeret in his flying or in his flight or as our English renders it when he fled from his son Absolon But in that petition of Naaman the Syrian for absolution from the Lord unto whose service he tyed himselfe by vow by the mouth of his Prophet the same particle though a prefixe to the infinitive mood hath another aspect neither to the time present or future but to the time past In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant bebea Adoni not when my Master goeth but in that when my Master hath gone into the house of Rimmon he hath leaned on my hand and I have bowed my selfe in the house of Rimmon that is I worshipped in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing That this was a supplication for sinnes past not a dispensation for doing the like is apparent from the Prophets answer unto it goe in peace which was the solemne forme of absolution used by the Ancient Hebrewes and by our Saviour himselfe When the same particle beth denotes a place or person it is equivalent to the Latine Adverbe intus or in as bemidber is no more then in or within the wildernesse And so to trust baihovah or Laihovah is no more nor lesse then to trust in the Lord. The same particle beth in many other places is equivalent to the the particle le and in this sense it must both from the necessity of the matter from circumstances precedent and consequent be taken in this 3. v. I will fight in or amongst not against these Nations 2 As in the place of the Psalmist Psal 74. v. 14. Thou hast broken the head of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wildernesse The same particle le is as much as in or within for by the people in the wildernesse the Psalmist meanes such ravenous land-creatures as wolves foxes and the like or amphibious as use to prey upon the earkeises or bodies forsaken by the sea wherein they were drowned or cast upon the shoare as Pharaoh and his mighty host were whose death besides the strangenesse or suddennesse of it was disgracefull and terrible to all spectators For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is aequipollent to bemidber in its formall signification only the word denotes a more solitary and dry place then the wildernsse doth which perhaps was the reason why the septuagint translate this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Aethiopian people whether by that they understood men or crocodiles or other like monsters of Aethiop or Africk is uncertain Arias Montanus renders it populis solitudinicolis which for ought I know may signifie men somewhat more monstrous then the Cannibals which fed upon mens flesh but whether on men cast upon the shore or no I cannot tell To omit other importances or significations of this Hebrew particle beth it must be taken in a sense equivalent to the particle le or to the Latine cum in or pro in this place of Zachary Chap. 14. v. 3. 3 And I cannot but wonder at the incogitancy or oversight of that most learned and ingenious Writer Ribera who having so faire hints and good directions as Eusebius and other Ancients alleaged by him for leavelling this passage made rugged by Latine Interpreters or Translators forsakes the dexter sense which the Greeks had given and embraceth the sinister sense of the Latines The seventy Interpreters had rendred the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee to wit the Lord will command in chiefe and order the battaile of the Nations which he had gathered against