it is fallen already and what hindreth but that daylie and hourly we may expect the final desolation thereof Daylie and hourly I say for with such celerity and violence when it shall please God to put in their hearts whom it may concern to fulfil his Will Rev. 17.17 shall this sentence be executed In one day shal her plagues come upon her death and sorrow and famine and she shall be burnt with fire c. In one hour she shall be made desolate Rejoyce over her thou heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath given your judgement on her And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Milstone and cast it into the Sea saying with such violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down And here I might cast up together in like manner making but one total sum of all the Prophesies of all those holy Apostles and Disciples of our Lord and Saviour both as touching divers particulars whereof they prophesied in those times fulfilled most exactly as also touching the general state of the Church successively in all ages even to the end of the world and of the end of the world it self First for the particulars I will but point at them as before One of those holy Prophets prophesied of a general dearth to fall out in those times which hapned accordingly under Claudius Caesar Act. 11.27 Also of Pauls Imprisonment Acts 21.10 Paul in his sayling towards Rome foretelleth the Centurion and the rest of the tempestuous weather to ensue Acts 27.10 Of their shipwrack but yet with safety of their lives vers. 22. and precisely the place where they should be cast ashore to wit upon a certain Island vers. 26. In one of his Epistles he prophesieth of his own death 2 Tim. 4.6 So doth also Peter 2 Pet. 1.14 Secondly for the future state of the Church in these last days with the coming of Antichrist into the world and all his damned crew those hellish Furies See how precisely these holy Apostles and Prophets foretel of these times these perillous times and how lively they set him out in his colours with all his additions as well becometh such an infernal King the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon in Greek Apollyon That Antichrist that man of sin the son perdition that wicked one c. with all other adjuncts and circumstances so lively described as if he had been then already come for even in these days as the Apostle speaketh did this mysterie of iniquity begin to work See then I say 2 Thes. 2. 1 Tim. 3. 2 Tim. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 1 Joh. 2.18 chap. 4.1 2 Joh. v. 7. yea the whole Revelation is nothing else but a continued prophesie of all such things as should happen to the Church militant even from the Apostles times to the end of the world All which prophesies we see accomplished except before excepted the final destruction of Babylon and the calling of the Jews whereof both our Saviour himself as also Paul hath prophesied Rom. 11. both which we daylie expect and then as it is in the Revelation Come Lord Jesus Of which second coming or general doom with the manner of it and all other circumstances we have also sundry prophesies both of Christ and his Apostles which here I will joyn in one as proceeding all from one and the same Spirit for here all prophesies must come to a full period nil ultra I will only quote them as formerly Matth. 16.27 chap. 19.28 chap. 20.1 chap. 24. chap. 25. chap. 26.64 John 5.25 c. 1 Cor. 85. 1 Thes. 4.14 chap. 5.1 Jam. 5.8 1 Pet. 4.7 2 Pet. 3. Jude v. 6. 14 Rev. 21. where you shall see a new heaven and a new earth c. New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven prepared as a Bride trimmed for her Husband Thus have I brought you at length as after a long and tedious passage by Sea to see land and as it were the Sea-mark whereunto after so many variable winds and so often tacking to and again we have directed our course even from the first Prophesie made to Adam in Paradise Gen. 3.15 to the very last period of all Prophesies in the Revelation shut up in the second Adam Jesus Christ who is the first and the last Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending in whom all Prophesies kiss each other and have their consummation These are the words saith he which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all must be fulfilled which are written of me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms c. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem I say from this Jerusalem which now lyeth desolate I have brought you to the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband from an earthly to a heavenly Paradise and there I leave you A Collection DEMONSTRATIVE OR Sum of the former Proofs THe Messiah must be a spiritual King to conquer the Divel â—eath and Sin bâ—th by Scripture as also by the Interpretation of the ancient Jews themselves upon that place of Genesis He shall break thine head Therefore not a Temporal King as the latter Jews imagine The Messiah must be King over the Gentiles as well as the Jews both by Scripture as also by their own Writers Therefore not a Temporal King to reign â—ver theâ— only much less to subdue the Gentiles to the servitude of Jewry as some of them imagine The Messiah must be both God and Man the Son of God the Word of God incarnate The second person in Trinâ—ty both by the Scriptures as also by their own Writers Therefore no such earthly Monarch as they expect The Messiah at his coming being to be both King of Jew and Gentile must change the Law of Moses to wit the Ceremonial and Provincial proper to the Jews only and instead thereof give a general Law to both absolute and pâ—rfect to serve for all persons times and places to endure even to the end of the world thâ—refore no such Temporal Monarchâ— to be expeâ—â—ed as they look after For one and the same conclusion followeth upon all the premises beating upon â—heir main groâ—nd to wit a temporal or Earthly Kingdom which beiâ—g once shaken the rest falleth to the ground All Prophesies whatsoever with every particular circumstance foretold by the Prophets of the Messiah were both substantially and circumstantially fulfilled in the person of our blessed Saviour both as touching his Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection Ascension and other effects afterwards of his Divine Power in sending of the holy Ghost and the miraculous encrease of his Church c. Therefore was he indeed the Messiah no other
one onely place of that Country namely Jerusalem whither every man was bound to repair three times every year to wit at the Pasqua Pentecost and the Feast of Taberbernacles there and no where else to offer sacrifice I say this Law of Moses being altogether Ceremonial and peculiar to that Nation it was necessary at the coming of the Messiah the same should be abolished and a more general and perfect Law given and established a Law that should be common to all men serve for all countries times places and persons otherwise how could the Gentiles be made partakers of the Covenant as well as the Jews how could all these nations so far distant from Jerusalem repair thrice every year thither how should every woman dwelling in the East or west India's repair thither for her purification after every Childbirth as by the Law of Moses she was commanded Levit. 12. Therefore it is manifest that this Law of Moses was given to continue but for a time even till the comming of the Messiah and then another to come in place to continue till the worlds end This signified Moses to the people after he had delivered the former Law to them saying The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me from among you even of thy brethren unto him shalt thou hearken As if he had said ye shall hear me till he come who must be a Lawgiver as my selfe but of a far more absolute and perfect Law and therefore more to be reverenced and obeyed And then he addeth in the person of God himself this thundering sentence against all mis-believers Whosoever will not hearken unto my Word which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Which words cannot be verefied in any other Prophet after Moses until Christ for that of those Prophets ' there arose none in Israel like unto Moses Deut. 34.10 They had no authority to be Lawgivers as Moses had but were all bound to the observation of his Law till Christ should come whom Moses here calleth a Prophet like unto himself that is a Lawmaker exhorting all men to hear and obey him Hereunto the Prophets subscribe none of them all presuming to take upon them that priviledge to be like unto him A Prophet like unto Moses they must let that alone to the Messiah whose office it is to change the Law of Moses given upon mount Sinai and in stead thereof to promulgate a new Law to begin at Sion as saith the Prophet Isaiah The Law shall go forth of Sion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Which cannot be understood of Moses Law published eight hundred years before this Prophesie and that from Sinai not from Sion but of the preaching of the Gospel which began at Jerusalem and from thence was spread over al the world Which the same Isaiah foresaw when talking of the Messiah he saith In that day shall five Cities in the Land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan c. In that day shall the Altar of the Lord be in the midst of the Land of Egypt and a pillar by the border thereof unto the Lord And the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day and do sacrifice and oblation and shall vow vows c. which could not be verified of the Law of Moses for by that Law the Egyptians could have neither Altar nor Sacrifice but it was fulfilled upon the coming of Christ when the Egyptians were made Christians Also in another place And the Isles shall wait for his Law The same was likewise foretold by God in Malachy where he saith to the Jews and of the Jewish Sacrifices I have no pleasure in you neither will I receive an offering at your hands for from the rising of the Sun until the going down of the same my name is great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name is great among the Gentiles saith the Lord of Hosts Wherein we see first a reprobation of the Jewish Sacrifices and consequently of the Law of Moses which dependeth principally thereupon Secondly that among the Gentiles there should be a pure manner of Sacrifice more grateful unto God then the other not limitted either in respect of time or place as the Mosaical Law and Sacrifice was For so saith God in Ezekiel I gave them statutes which were not good and judgements wherein they shal not live that is not good to continue perpetually nor shal they live in them any longer but til the time by me appointed Of which time he determineth more particularly by Jeremiah in these word Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and Judah not according to that Covenant which I made with their Fathers c. Where you see a new Covenant or Testament promised different from the old Whereupon I conclude the old Law of Moses by the Messiah must be changed into a New The time of his manifestation with all other circumstances NOw for the time of his manifestation with all other circumstances of his birth life death resurrection ascension and those things also that fel out afterwards if we shal consider how particularly and precisely they were all foretold by the Prophets and how long before some hundreds some thousands of years before they fel out as also how exactly they were all fulfilled in the person of our blessed Saviour all directed like so many lines to one Center we shal as it were in a mirrour see and behold both the truth of Christan Religion setled upon a most firm and unmoveable center as also the vanity of all other Religions whatsoever especially this most vain expectation of the Jews to this day of their Messiah yet for to come as vain and fond altogether as was that opinion of one of the Philosophers which the word Center hath put me in mind of that the Earth forsooth did move and the Heavens stand still and how far they are degenerate not only from all true light and understanding in heavenly matters but also even from common sense and reason it self in things of that nature tending thereunto And first for the time Daniel who lived in the first Monarchy foretold that there should be three Monarchies more the last the greatest of all to wit the Roman Empire and then the Eternal King or Messiah should come his words are these In the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven ser up a Kingdom which shall I never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 And just according to this time was the Messiah born namely in the days of Augustus Cesar Luk. 2. as both we Christians account and the Jews acknowledge even in those Halcyon days of peace when the Temple gates of Janus were commanded to be shut and upon that very day when Augustus commanded that no man should cal him Lord was this
right hand of God David saith Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men c. And in another place The Lord said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand c. which is the place alledged by our Saviour wherewith he put the Jews to silence both as touching the Deity and the Humanity of the Messiah for saith he If David call him Lord how is he then his Son Where we may see David acknowledgeth him his Lord and consequently his God even the Son of God sitting at the right hand of God for the present as touching his Divinity afterwards to be accomplished also in his Humanity which David believed as verily should come to pass and foresaw by the eye of Faith as did Thomas when it was come to pass putting his hand into his side and crying My Lord and my God so saith David here my Lord The Lord said unto my Lord c. I say this article of our Faith as touching his Ascension it followeth necessarily to be concluded upon his Resurrection it needeth no other proof For that whosoever seeth and acknowledgeth that Jesus being dead could raise himself to life again will easily believe also that he was able to ascend up to heaven at his pleasure And hereof we have also all his Apostles and Disciples for witnesses eye witnesses in whose presence and sight he ascended as it is in that place They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went and in witness thereof gave up their lives and sealed the same with their blood Therefore I conclude upon all these premisses so necessarily following and depending one upon another to wit his birth life doctrine actions death resurrection ascension seeing nothing hath hapned in the same which was not foretold by the Prophets of God nor any thing foretold by the same Prophets concerning the Messiah which was not fulfilled most exactly in the person of our Saviour We may most certainly assure our selves that as God is truth and therefore can neither foretel an untruth nor yeild testimony to the same so it cannot be but that these things which have been shewed to be so manifestly fore prophesied and so evidently accomplished in the person of this our blessed Lord and Saviour must needs I say assure us Christians that he was indeed the true Messiah and quite confound the Jews in their vain imagination and expectation of another The sending of the holy Ghost with the first Plantation and wonderful increase of the Church NOw for those things that followed after his Ascension as arguments and effects of his Divine power they were also foretold by the Prophets to wit the sending of the holy Ghost that Comforter from on high with the sudden strange and miraculous increase of his Church throughout the world even against all worldly power and policy by the only power and ministry of his word confirmed with signs and wonders that followed wrought by his Apostles Disciples and other his faithful servants and witnesses in the Primitive Church then the which there can be no greater argument in the world of the truth of Christian Religion if we consider how all other Religions in the world have grown and been maintained by force of Arms Fire and Sword this only by the preaching of Christ crucified in all Nations hath encreased and multiplyed and shal do more and more to the end of the world this must increase all others decrease howsoever the Turks have possessed the greatest part of the world at this day yet our Saviours prophesie in the end shall be found true this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a witness unto all Nations Now for the first increase of it How small a number were there gathered together after the ascension at Jerusalem from whence they were to march even the twelve Apostles no great army God wot to conquer the world as it is in that place The Law shall go forth from Zion and the Word of God from Jerusalem There was the Rendevous there they stayed there they rested there they continued in prayer and fasting till such time as Christ after his ascension according to his promise sent them the Comforter even the holy Ghost enduing them with power from on high and arming them at all points for so great a work When and where being gathered together all with one accord in one place suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind and filled all the house where they sate And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as there is mentioned And with these fiery cloven tongues these twelve silly souls without any means men money or munition in a very short time conquered a great part of the world insomuch that at one Sermon of S. Peter at the same time there were added to the Church three thousand souls and so multiplyed successively from time to time and from place to place spreading it self from one Country to another and from one Nation to another and so at length into all Nations There is neither Speech nor Language where their voice is not heard Their line is gone forth through all the earth and their words into the ends of the world as we see it is come to pass this day Of which coming of the holy Ghost in the time of the Messiah Joel prophesied saying And it shall be in the last days that I will pour out my spirit c. and on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out my spirit c. It filled all the house where they sate and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Here is a deluge of Gods grace poured upon the world immediately upon the ascension of our Lord and Saviour First upon his Apostles and Disciples of those times in greater measure as the first fruits of his spirit by the which they wrought miracles spake all manner of languages healed all manner of diseases cast out Divels raised the dead and lastly sealed the same with their blood Poor Fishermen and such like of no reputation in the world without learning without credit without means as before yet by this means conquered the world to the subjection of their master Christ that stone cast aside of the Builders but now become the head-stone of the corner this the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The sincerity of the Evangelists NOw for the Evangelists or writers of the Gospel that is to say the registers of his Birth Life Doctrine and Death It is to be noted that our Saviour being God took a different way from the custome of man in delivering unto us his Laws and Precepts For that men who have been law-makers unto the world
heard declare we unto you And S. Peter For we followed no deceivable Fables when we opened unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but with our eyes we saw his Majesty This Doctrine I say of the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour whereof they were so fully perswaded they did not only profess it with their mouths yea even before Kings and were not ashamed as God saith to Paul as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem so must thou bear witness also at Rome thou must be brought before Caesar but in witness thereof they gave up their lives and by their deaths sealed and delivered to the world the truth of that which in their lives they professed they have sealed that God is true These are witnesses worthy to be believed these are Martyrs Next to these are all those holy Disciples of theirs all those holy Confessors of the Primitive Church put to death with most exquisite torments under those cruel Roman Tyrants during those ten famous persecutions upon record called the ten persecutions Catexochen in respect of the rage fury and cruelty thereof and all against poor harmless and innocent Christians daylie torn in pieces and butchered by those Wolves as Sheep appointed for the slaughter whereof our Saviour long before had forewarned his Disciples Behold I send you as Lambs among Wolves c. persecuted even to the death for the Word of God and for the testimony which they maintained In which extream and most incredible sufferings of Christians three points are worthy of great consideration The first what infinite multitudes of all estates conditions sexes qualities and age did suffer daylie for testimony of this truth The second what intolerable and unaccustomed torments not heard of in the world before were devised by Tyrants for afflicting this kind of people Thirdly and lastly What invincible courage and unspeakable alacrity these Christians shewed in bearing out these afflictions and torments which the enemies themselves could not attribute but to some Divine power and supernatural assistance The subjection of Spirits ANother consideration followeth of his Divine power and omnipotency declared and exercised upon the spirits infernal which in those days spake in the Oracles and till that time had possessed and deluded all Nations Hear the complaint of one of them Hei mihi cogemiscite hei mihi hei mihi Oraculorum defecit me clariâ—as Wo unto mes lament ye with me wo wo to me for that the honour of Oracles hath now forsaken me Which woful complaint is nothing else but a plain confession that Jesus was he of whom a Prophet said divers ages before He shall consume all the Gods of the earth and every man shall worship him from his place even all the Isles of the Heathen This confessed also the wicked spirits themselves when at Christs appearing in Jewry they came and did their homage to him and besought him not to afflict or torment them before the time nor command them presently to return to hell but rather to permit them some little time of entertainment in the Sea or Mountains or among herds of Swine or the like which confession they made openly before all men and declared the same afterwards by their deeds For presently upon Christ his death and upon the preaching of his Name and Gospel throughout the World the Oracles in all places ceased whereof the Poets themselves bear witness Cessant Oracula Dâ—lphis Whereupon Plutarch that lived within an hundred yeers after Christ made a special Treatise to sift out the causes why the Oracles of the Gods as they deemed them were ceased in his time And after much turning and winding many ways at length resolved upon two principal points or causes thereof The first for that in his time there was more store of wise men then before whose answers might stand insteed of Oracles and the other for that perhaps the Spirits accustomed to yeild Oracles were by length of time grown old and dead Both which reasons in the common sense of all men must needs be false and by Plutarch himself cannot stand with probability For first in his Books which he wrote of the Lives of Famous Men he confesseth that in such kind of wisdom as he most esteemed they had not their equals among their posterity Secondly in his Treatise of Phylosophy he passeth it for a ground that Spirits cannot die or wax old And therefore of necessity there must be some other cause yeilded of the ceasing of these Oracles which cannot be but the presence and commandment of some higher Power according to that saying of S. John for to this end and purpose appeared the Son of God to wit that he might destroy the works of the Divel Neither did Jesus this alone in his own person but gave also power and authority to his Disciples and Followers to do the like according to that their Commission in the Gospel Then called he the twelve Disciples together and gave them power over all Divels c. And not only to these twelve did he give this absolute power and authority over unclean Spirits but to the rest likewise as may appear in the next chapter following upon the return of their Commission And the seventy returned with joy saying Lord even the Divels are subdued to us through thy Name And he said unto them I saw Sathan like lightning fall down from heaven and so reneweth their Commission saying Behold I give you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the power of the enemy that is to say the Divel Nevertheless saith he in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subdued unto you but rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven And this authority over the Spirits Infernal given by Jesus to his Disciples in the primitive Church extended it self so far that not only their words and commandments but even their very presence did shut the mouths and drive into fear the miserable Spirits as both Lactantius and others do witness whence it proceeded that in all Sacrifices Conjurations and other Mysteries of the Gentiles there was brought in that phrase recorded by scoffing Lucian exeant Christiani Let Christians depart for that while they were present nothing could be well accomplished And that professed enemy of Christianity Porphyry who of all other most earnestly endeavoured to impugne us Christians and to hold up the honour of his enfeebled Idols yet discoursing of the great plague that reigned most furiously in the City of Messiâ—a in Sicily where he dwelt yeildeth this reason why Aesculapius the god of Physick much adored in that place was not able to help them in that extremity It is no marvel saith he if this City so many yeers be vexed with the plague seeing that both Aesculapius and all other gods be now departed from it by the coming of Christians for since that men have begun to worship
45.6 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. Wherefore God even thy God hath annoynted thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Which cannot be applyed to Solomon but as a type of the Messiah Howsoever the name JEHOVAH which is of such reverence among the Jewes that they dare not pronounce it but in place thereof read Adonai that I am sure they will never grant to belong to any creature Then what say they to that of Jer. 23.6 where the Messiah is called in plain terms Jehovah And this is the name whereby they shal cal him Jehovah our righteousnesse So likewise Chap. 33.16 over again is he called by the same name Jehovah our rightousness And so do the ancient Jews themselves expound this place namely Rabbi Abba who asketh the question what the Messiah shal be called and answereth out of this place he shall be called the Eternal Jehovah The like doth Misdrasch upon the first verse of the 20. Psalm And Rabbi Moyses Hadersan upon Gen. 41 expounding that of Zephany 3 9. concludeth thus In this place Jehovah signifieth nothing else but the Messiah And so did one of the Jews at unawares acknowledge to me alledging that place out of the Psalmes The Lord doth build up Jerusalem c. that their Messiah at his comming should build a new City and Sanctuary much more glorious then the former So did he also interpret that place of Hag. 2.10 of a third Temple Whereupon I inferred seeing in those words he alledged The Lord doth build up Jerusalem the Hebrew word is Jehovah therefore by his own intepretation the Messiah must be Jehovah which he could not well shift off but said that Adonai for Jehovah they dare not name must there be understood which point of the Godhead of the Messiah the most ancient Jews did ever acknowledge proving by sundry places of Scripture not onely that he should be the Son of God but also the word of God incarnate First that he should be the Son of God they prove out of Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shal not depart c. til Shiloh come Which Rabbi Kimhi proveth to signifie his Son that is the Son of God Oat of Isaiah where he is called ' The bud of the Lord Out of the Psalms where it is said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And a little after ' Kiss the Son least he be angry and ye perish blessed are all they that trust in him Which last words cannot be understood of the Son of any man for it is written Cursed be the man that trusteth in man Jer. 17.5 Secondly that he shall be the Word of God they prove out of Isaiah as also out of Hosea where it is said I will save them by the Lord their God Ionathan translateth it thus I will save them by the Word of their God So where it is sayd The Lord sayd to my Lord sit at my right hand c. The Lord said to his Word sit at my right hand Also where it is sayd He sent his Word and healed them Rabbi Isaack Arama upon Gen. 47. expoundeth it to be meant of the Messiah that shall be Gods Word So likewise that of Iob I shall see God in my flesh c. Rabbi Simeon upon Gen. 10. gathereth thereupon that the Word of God shall take flesh womans womb Another out of these words Jehovah our God is one Jehovah proveth the blessed Trinity saying by the first Iehovah is signified God the Father by the next which is Elohim God the Son and by the other Johovah God the Holy Ghost proceeeding of them both to all which is added the word one to signifie that these three are indivisible but this secret saith he shall not be revealed until the coming of the Messiah These are the words of Rabbi Ibda reported by Rabbi Simeon in a Treatise called Zoar of great authority among the Jews where also they said Rabbi Simeon interpreteth those words of Isaiah Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts in this manner Isaiah by repeating three times Holy saith he doth signifie as much as if he had said Holy Father Holy Son and Holy Spirit which three Holies do make but one Lord God of Hosts which mystery of the blessed Trinity Rabbi Hacadosch gathereth out of the very letters of JEHOVAH upon those words of Jeremy before recited the two natures of the Messiah both Divine and Humane his two filiations the one whereby he must be the Son of God the other whereby he must be the Son of Man concluding thereupon that in him there shall be two Distinct Natures and yet shall they make but one Christ which is the same that we Christians hold Philo that learned Jew shall end this first consideration touching the Nature and Person of the Messiah as himself writeth in his Book De Exulibus By tradition we have it saith he that we must expect the death of an high Priest which Priest shall be the very Word of God void of all sin whose Father shall be God and this Word shal be the Fathers wisdom by which all things in this world were created c. Therefore the Messiah must be both God and Man both by the Scriptures as also by their own Writers they cannot deny it That the Messiah must change the Law of Moses AS the Messiah must be both God and Man even the natural and onely begotten Son of God and the very Word of God incarnate void of all sin able to satisfie the wrath of his Father and to fulfil the Law of Moses for us which Moses himself could not do nor any other after him It was a burthensome law to the Children of Israel A yoak which neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear so having once in his own person most exactly accomplished the same here on earth together with all Rites Ceremonies Prophesies Types Figures and Circumstances of his comming clearly fulfilled in him and by him It was necessary I say the substance being once come those shadows and ceremonies should cease and be abolished I mean the ceremonial Law totally for as touching the moral Law or the Commendments he saith I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil them only thus far hath he abolished that too he hath taken away the curse of it hanging it on his Crosse even the hand writing that was against us together with himselfe crucified This ceremonial Law of Moses I say consisting of such a multitude of Ceremonies Figures Types Sacrifices c. all of them for the most part pointing at the Messiah to come for by those outward signs and services appointed by God to his people they were still put in mind of his Covenant and assured of his promise that the Messiah should come Moreover it being proper and peculiar to one only Nation in all the world namely Jury the exercise thereof permitted but in
after me commeth a man that is preferred before me for he was before me and I knew him not but because he should be declared to Israel therefore am I come baptizing with water So John bare record saying I saw the spirit come down from Heaven like a Dove and abiding upon him And I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water he said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit come down and stay stil upon him that is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God According as it is in the other three Evangelists more at large expressed how that Jesus when he was baptized came strait out of the water and lo the Heavens were opened unto him And John saw the spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And loe a voice came from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased The next day John stood again and two of his Disciples and he beheld Jesus walking by and said Behold the Lamb of God and the two Disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus All this was done at Bethabara beyond Jordan in the sight and hearing of a number of people there present as three of our Evangelists do report which they would never have presumed to have done had not the matter been most evident and without all compass of denial or contradiction And truely no one thing in all this story of Jesus life doth more establish certainty of his being the true Messiah then that John the Baptist whose wisdom learning vertue and rare sanctity is confessed and recorded by the writings of all our adversaries should refuse the honour of the Messiah offered unto himself and lay it upon Jesus and also should direct those Disciples that depended upon him to the onely following and imbracing of Jesus doctrine which is most evidently proved that he did for that so many followers and Disciples as himself had not one appeared ever after that was not a Christian These circumstances I say of the birth and comming of the Messiah into this world so long before foretold by the Prophets and fulfilled so exactly in the person of our blessed Lord and Saviour wel considered I may at length conclude Heaven and Earth concurring Men and Angels with all other Creatures applauding thereunto yea and God himself from Heaven pronouncing it This is my beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased That therefore as sure as God is God and cannot lye nor give Testimony to any untruth so sure is Jesus Christ the Son of God the true Messiah and Saviour of the world no other to be expected His preaching or doctrine THus having evicted by the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ together with the circumstances both before and after that he was by birthright the only legitimate as I may say and true born Messiah all others that were before him or since have sprung up or shal do hereafter to the worlds end but bastards and usurpers yea theeves and robbers and that in the highest degree of thee very that may be even robbing God of his honour which he wil not impart to any other it remaineth yet further to demonstrate the same by his life death resurrection and ascension with all other accidents and circumstances accordingly to be observed which may make this mystery more and more manifest or rather palpable as the Apostle witnesseth saying that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with these our eyes which we have looked upon and these hands of ours have handled c. that I say which we have seen and heard declare we unto you what can be more palpable After his baptisme he began to preach having before gotten his living as most conjecture with his own hands and eaten his bread with the sweat of his brows to shew himself true man and that he was made a curse for us as it is written In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread and what was his doctrine of this world or worldly delights of pleasure or profit no no quite contrary to the humors of this wicked world and to the corruptions of flesh and blood which procured him the more hatred as in all the four Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke and John who recorded both his sayings and doings may appear wholly tending to the sincere service of God in spirit and truth to the exaltation of Gods glory the beating down of mans pride by discovering his misery to the contempt of this wicked world and vain pomp thereof to the mortification of all sins in us patience peace of conscience c. in a word all directed to the manifestation of his Fathers will and amendment of mans life tending wholly to this one ground or principle Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul which is the first and great commandment and thy Neighbour as thy self on which two hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets The manner of his Doctrine was simple plain and easie altogether according to the evidence of the Spirit not in the enticing words of mans wisdom like the Heathen Orators and Phylosophers nor like the Scribes and Pharisees but with power and authority without either fear or flattery of any mans person rebuking all mens sins even to their faces which I say procured him such a general hatred It took away no one spiritual point of Moses Law but the Ceremonial only and Provincial which by the coming of the Messiah was to be taken away yea rather revived interpreted and made perfect the same corrupted much by the Jews false interpretations and glosses That as they taught commanding external observance only this adding internal obedience also For whereas that enjoyned according to the letter and as they interpreted to love our neighbours and friends and no further this adjoyneth love also your enemies bless them that curse you Matth. 5.43 Where that prohibited actually to commit Adultry and no more as they imagined this forbiddeth the adultry of the eye and of the very heart And so of all the rest of the decalogue our Saviours doctrine is nothing else but a most exact and sincere exposition according to the true intent of the Law-giver God the Father Therefore I conclude this doctrine so quite contrary to the gross humors of this wicked world and so repugnant to flesh and blood so wholly devoted to Gods glory and the sincere observation of his Law is the doctrine proper to the Messiah which the Prophets of God foretold should be delivered by him at his coming into the world His life and conversation FOr his life and conversation the express Image of his Doctrine it was stainless and without reproof even by the testimony of his very enemies acknowledged also by the Divels themselves A man of such gravity as never in his life he was noted to
knew no surer way of publishing their Laws and procuring authority to the same then to write them with their own hands and in their life time to establish their promulgation So Lycurgus Solon and others among the Grecians Numa to the Romans Mahomet to the Sarasins But Jesus to shew his Divine power in directing the Pen and Stile of the Evangelists would not leave any thing written by himself but passed from this world in simplicity and silence without any other shew or ostenâ—ation of his own doings Meaning notwithstanding afterwards to his glory and the edification of his Church here on earth by four irrefragable witnesses or remembrancers the four Evangelists every word should be established and recorded as may appear by that place where he saith These things have I spoken unto you being present with you but the Comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall bring all things to your remembrance which I have told you Whereupon I infer that the Evangelists and Apostolical writers were all of them guided and directed by one and the same spirit even the spirit of God for the registring of all things either said or done by our Saviour so far forth as seemed best to his Divine will and pleasure to be registred and recorded for the benefit and edification of his Church For there were many other things which Jesus did as John the Evangelist testifieth which are not written that is to say which the holy Spirit of God thought needless to faith and salvation but saith he These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that in believing ye might have life through his name Now for these Evangelists four in number which some have resembled to the four Beasts in Ezekiel the first and last are Apostles that wrote as they had seen the two middle are Disciples who registred things as they had understood by conference with the Apostles The first Gospel was written by an Apostle to give light to the rest and the last also by an Apostle to give authority and confirmation to the former The first was written in the Hebrew Tongue for that all those miracles which Jesus wrought were done in that Country He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to the end that either the whole Nation might believe them or the obstinate impugne them which yet never any of their Rabbins took in hand to do The other three were written in the most famous and populous language of all Nations at that time to wit the Greek Tongue They wrote their stories in divers Countries far distant one from another and yet agreed they all most exactly in one and the same narration as is to be seen though diversly related yet in truth and substance all one one sometimes supplying what another hath not according to the discretion of one and the same spirit wherewith they were all guided and directed like those four Beasts in Ezek. 1.12 Every one went streight forward whither their spirit led them they returned not They wrote in divers times one after another and yet the latter did neither correct nor reprehend any thing in the former as Heathen writers use to do They published their writings when infinite were alive that knew the facts and of them no small number who desired by all means to impugne them They set down in most of their narrations the time the day the hour the place the village the house the persons with all other circumstances which the mo they are in number the more easie to be refuted if they were not true Neither did they write of things done in far Countries or places remote but in the same Country where they were born in Towns and Cities that were publikely known in Jerusalem it self in Bethania and Bethsaida Vilages hard by Jerusalem in the Suburbs and Hills about the City in such a street at such a gate at such a porch of the Temple at such a Fish-pool publike places familiarly known to every one for these things were not done in a corner as saith the Apostle All which circumstances duly considered never yet impugned methinks should perswade any man of reason to become a Christian as Agrippa in that very place acknowledgeth to Paul saying almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian They published their writings in their life time They altered not their writings afterwards as other Authors are wont in their latter editions nor ever corrected they one jot of that which they had first set down And that which never hapned in any other writings in the world besides nor ever Monarch was able to bring to pass for credit of his Edicts they gave their lives for defence and justifying of that which they had written Their manner of writing is sincere and simple as becommeth so divine a History without all art or Rethorical amplifications as Historians use They flatter none no not Jesus himself whom they most adore nor in confessing him to be their God do they conceal his infirmities of flesh in that he was man as his hunger and thirst his being weary how he wept his passions of fear and the like Nay these Evangelists were so sincere and religious in their narrations as they noted especially the imperfections of themselves and of such others as they principally respected Matthew nameth himself Matthew the Publican Mark Peters Disciple recordeth how S. Peter thrise denyed his Lord and Master and so of the rest These mens writings were published for canonical and received for undoubted truth by all that lived in the very same age and were privie to every particular circumstance therein contained They were copied abroad into infinite mens hands and so conserved with all care and reverence as holy and divine Scripture They were read in Churches throughout all Countries and Nations expounded preached and taught by all Pastors and Commentaries made upon them by holy Fathers from time to time So that no doubt can be made at all either of the authority of them as originally and immediately proceeding from the holy Ghost or of the certainty but that we have the very same incorrupt as the Authors left them for that it was impossible for any enemy to corrupt so many Copies over the world without discovery and resistance And thus much for the credit and authority of our Evangelists The confession of Martyrs NOw for the Martyrs or witnesses appointed by God for the sealing and delivery of this Doctrine of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to all the world they were first and principally his own Apostles and Disciples Now ye are witnesses of these things who both heard his Doctrine and saw his Miracles as S. John testifieth That which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes c. That I say which we have seen and
Life and Conversation 75 Of his Miracles 77 Of the Calling of his Apostles 80 Of his Death and Passion 86 Of his Resurrection 92 Of his Ascention 95 Of the sending of the holy Ghost with the first plantation and wonderful Increase of the Church 98 Of the sincerity of the Evangelists 102 Of the Confession of Martyrs 109 Of the subjection of Spirits 111 Of the Punishment of Enemies 118 Of the fulfilling of Prophesies 128 A Collection Demonstrative or the sum of former Proofs 142 Accounting from their first entrance to the day of their departure thence Exo. 12.40 Psal. 34.8 Rom. 11.11 Luk. 13.35 Acts 7.51 Luk. 21.24 Rom. 10.1 Rom. 9.4 Psal. 24.6 Luk. 21.28 Mat. 24.32 Acts 20.32 Psal. 51.18 Psal. 53.6 Psal. 126.1 Psa. 106.47 Psal. 90.15 Psa. 102.13 Psal. 69.35 Psal. 105.8 Psal. 94.24 Psal. 74.2 107.6 106.44 Prov. 21 1 Ezra 1.1 chap. 6.1 chap. 6.22 chap. 7.28 Psa. 105.14 Exod. 7.16 8.1.20 9.1.13 10.3 Exo. 12.31 11.3 7.1 Psa. 136.11 Accounting the time as before Exo. 12.41 13.21 Psa. 236.13 Judg. 2.16 Judg. 3.7 chap. 3 12. Judg. 3.30 4.1 4.4 5.31 6.1 6.6 Judg. 6.12 7.5 7.20 8.28 8.33 10.6 Judg. 10.10 11.1 11.29 12.7 13.1 25.15 vâ—i 20. 1 Sam. 8.5 Gen. 3.15 Rom. 3.2 Rom. 9.4 Luk. 19.42 Dut. 18.13 Ver. 18. Deut. 34.30 Deut. 18.14 Deu. 18.16 Isa. 53.8 Psal. 89.3 2 Sam. 7.13 1 King 12 Psal. 2.7 Psal. 72.5 Vers 7. Isa. 6.5 Luk. 19.27 Isa. 4.2 Isa. 9.6 Isa. 4.2 Isa. 7.14 Michah 5.2 Isa. 9.6 Isa. 4.2 Psal. 2.7 Hos. 1.7 Psal. 110.1 Psal. 107.20 Iob 19.16 Deut. 6.4 Ier. 13.6 Acts. 15.10 Deu. 18.15 Isa. 2.3 Isa. 29.28 Isa. 42.4 Mal. 1.10 Ezek. 20.25 Ier. 31.31 Gen. 49.10 Ezr. 3.12 Psal. 24.7 Mal. 3.1 Luk. 23.14.22 Mat. 27. Isa. 53.5 Ioh. 8.56 Act. 3.21 Chap. 8.44 Gen. 2.17 Gen. 3.4 Mat. 3.7 Luk. 19.27 Eph. 5.14 Psal. 71.4 Rom. 3.4 Isa. 66.7 Psal. 147.2 Hag. 2.10 Isa. 11.6 Judg. 12.6 Mat. 8.11 Ioh. 19. Lu 7.3.15 Mat. 11.3 Ioh. 10.24 Mat. 22.16 Joh. 10.8 Dan. 2.44 Isa. 11.1 Luk. 2.4 Isa. 7.14 Mat. 1.18 Mich. 5.2 Mat. 2.5 Psal. 132.3 Mat. 2.1 Psa. 72.10 〈◊〉 12. Numb. 24.17 Luk. 1.28 Chap. 2.21 2 Esd. 7.26 Luk. 2. Mat. 3.16 Jer. 31.15 Gen. 35.19 Mat. 2.13 Hos. 11.1 Isa. 19. â— Euseb. lib. Mal. 3.1 Chap. 4.5 Luk. 1.13 Ioh. 1.19 Mat. 3.16 Mar. â— 10 Luk. 3.21 Joh. 1.31 Deut. 6.5 Mat. 22.37 Isa. 42.1 Zach. 9.9 Porph lib. De laud Philo. Isa. 35.5 Ioh. 11.17 Mark 5.22 Luke 7.11 Deu. 19.15 Mat. 9.33 Ioh. 10.25.37 Luk. 7.20 Luk. 7.20 Mat. 16.24 Cha. 16.23 Joh. 6.60 Ch. 7.48 Mat. 8.20 Plut. Apo. Prisc. regum Mark 1.15 Mat. 16.24 Eccl. 107. Mat. 10.9 Ioh. 16.33 Mark 13.9 Ch. 13.13 Luk. 21.16 Mat. 36.25 Luk. 14.26 Mat. 10.34 Luk. 18.31 Mat. 21.2 Zach. 9.9 Mat. 21.8 Psal. 55.13 109.4 Mat. 26. â—â— Mat. 26.67 Isa. 50.6 Luk. 23.33 Psal. 22.16 Zach. 12.10 Psal. 69.21 Luk. 23.32 Isa. 53.12 Luk. 23.18 Isa. 53.12 Ioh. 19.36 Exo. 12.46 Gen. 22.1 Num. 21.8 Dau. 9.26 Ioh. 11.49 Isa. 53. Mat. 27. Luk. 23. Acts 2.37 Zach. 12.10 Psal. 16. â— Hos. 6.2 Jonah 1.17 Luk. 18.31 John 2.18 Mat. 12.38 Ch. 27.62 Mat. 28.2 Act. 1.3 Rom. 4.4 Rom. 1.2 Psa. 68.18 Psal. 110.1 Acts 1.10 Mat. 24.14 Luk. 24.47 Isa. 2.3 Ioh. 14.26 ch. 15.26 and 16.7 Acts 2.4 Joel 2.28 Psal. 118 22 Act. 4 11. John 14.25 Joh. 20.30.21.25 Ezek. 1. Luk. 1.2 Mat. 15.24 Acts 26.26 Mat. 21.18 Luk. 19.41 Mat. 14.33 Mat. 10.3 Mar. 14.67 Luk. 24.48 1 Joh. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.16 Luke 1.2 Acts 23.12 Ch. 27.24 Mat. 10.16 Rev. 6.9 Zeph. 2.11 Juv. Sat. 6. Plut. de defectu Oraculor 1 Iohn 3.8 Luke 9.7 Luk. 10.17 Lact. l. 2. Div. Inst. c. 16. Porph l. 7. cont. Christ apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 1. de prep. Evan. Joh. 12.31 2 Cor. 4.4 Eph. 2.2 1 Sam. 5.2 Gen. 3.15 Acts 19.15 Jos. Ant. l. 17. c. 10. Luk. 23.12 lib. 18. c. 9. Niceph. l. 1. cap. 10. Acts 12.1 Jos. Ant. l. 19. c. 7. Eutr Hist lib. 7. Evag. Schol. l. 3. hist. c. 41 Joh. 19.15 Lib. 5. c. 28 Jos. de Bell. l. 7. c. 20 21. Aelius Adrianus Mat. 27.24 Mat. 23.35 Luk. 19.41 Luk. 21.6 Luk. 21.20 Joh. 19.15 vers. 12. Luk. 23.28 Rev. 17.6 Rev. 18.2 chap. 18.8 Rev. 18 1â— Rev. 9.11 Rev. 22.20 Luk. 14.44 Gen. 3.15
this Jesus we could never obtain any profit by our gods Thus much confessed this Patron of Paganism concerning the maim that his gods had received by the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which albeit he spake with a malicious mind to bring Christians in hatred yet is the confession notable and confirmeth that story which Plutarch in his forenamed Book doth report That in the latter yeers of the reigne of the Emperour Tiberius a strange voice and exceeding horrible clamour with hideous cries screetches and howlings were heard by many in the Grecian Sea complaining That the great God Pan was now departed And this affirmeth Plutarch that was a Gentile to have been alledged and approved before the Emperour Tiberius who marvelled greatly thereat and could not by all his Diviners and Soothsayers whom he called to that consultation gather out any reasonable meaning of this wonderful accident But we Christians comparing the time wherein it hapned unto the time of Christ his death and passion and finding the same fully to agree we may more then probably perswade our selves that by the death of their great god Pan which signifieth all was imported the utter overthrow of all wicked Spirits and Idols upon earth according to that Vision of our Lord and Saviour before mentioned I saw Sathan like lightning fall down from heaven c. and again in another place Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out even this great god Pan who in another place is called the god of this world the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and therefore may well be said by our Saviour to fall down from heaven being before time worshipped in those Idols Oracles and heathenish Prophanations as a God in all the world and exalted as it were into the highest heavens But behold as Dagon that Idol of the Philistims fell flat on his face and that twice his head and hands dismembred before the Ark of God in Ashdod so did Sathan this great god Pan the god of this world the Prince of the Ayr c. let me give the Divel his due yea rather more then his due as doth the holy Scripture so did Sathan I say immediately upon the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world and preaching of his Gospel the Ark of his everlasting Covenant fall flat on his face to the ground his head and hands dismembred according to that first promise and covenant to our first parents which was this that he to wit the Messiah should break the Serpents head c. which he had done not only in his own person by subduing Sathan with all his whole legions of Divels and Powers infernal trampling them under his feet but also in his members to whom he gave like authority as before he gave them power and authority over all Divels yea over all the power of the enemy which argueth again the power and omnipotency of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who not only in his own person here on earth but also in his servants disciples and followers was able to conquer and subdue even the Divels themselves as they themselves acknowledge Jesus I acknowledge and Paul I know c. And thus much of the subjection of Spirits The punishment of Enemies NOw resteth this his Divine Power and Omnipotency yet further to be manifested by another consideration of his Justice and severity shewed from heaven upon divers his greatest enemies here on earth after his departure out of this world as we may read in Josephus of Herod the first who persecuted Christ even in his cradle and slew all those Infants in and about Bethlehem and that other Herod Tetrarch of Galilee who put John Baptist to death and scorned Jesus before his passion himself scorned afterwards by the Emperour and disgracefully sent into exile first to Lions in France and after that to the most desert and inhabitable places in Spain where he with Heredias wandred up and down in extream calamity all their life time and finally ended their days as forlorn and abandoned of all men In which misery also it is recorded that the dancing daughter of Herodias who demanded John Baptists head being on a time to pass over a frozen River suddenly the Ice brake and she in her fall had her head cut off by the same Ice without hurting the rest of her body So likewise it is recorded in the Acts of Herod Agrippa Who stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church killed James the brother of John with the sword and imprisoned Peter how immediately thereupon as it is in that chapter going down to Cesarea he was there in a solemn assembly striken from heaven with a most horrible disease whereby his body putrified and was eaten of worms as also Josephus maketh mention Pilate that gave sentence of death against our Lord and Saviour we read that after great disgrace received in Jurie he was sent home into Italy and there slew himself with his own hands And of the very Emperors themselves who lived from Tiberius under whom Jesus suffered unto Constantine the great under whom Christian Religion took Dominion over the world which contained the space of some three hundred years or thereabouts very few or none escaped the manifest scourges of Gods dreadful justice shewed upon them at the knitting up of their days Whereas since the time of Constantine whiles Emperors have been Christians as one hath observed few or no such examples can be shewed except upon Julian the Apostata Valens the Arrian heretick or some other of like detestable and notorious wickedness And thus much of particular men chastised by Jesus But if we desire to have a full example of his justice upon a whole Nation together let us consider what befel Jerusalem and the people of that place for their barbarous cruelty practised upon him in his death and Passion And if we believe Josephus and Phylo the Jewish Historiograpers who lived in those times it can hardly be expressed by the tongue or pen of man what insufferable calamities and miseries were inflicted upon that people presently after his ascension first of all by Pilate their Governour under Tibarius and then again by Petronius under Caligula after that by Cumanus under Claudius and lastly by Festus and Albious under Nero through whose cruelties that Nation was enforced at last to rebel and take arms against the Roman Empire which was the cause of their utter ruine and extirpation by Titus and Vespasian At what time besides the overthrow of their City burning of their Temple and other infinite distresses which Josephus an eye witness protesteth that no speech or discourse humane can declare the same Author likewise recordeth eleven hundred thousand persons to have been slain and fourscore and seventeen thousand taken alive who were either put to death afterward in publike Tryumphs or sold
openly for Bond-slaves into all the parts of the world And in this universal calamity of the Jewish Nation being the most notorious and grievous that ever hapned to any people or Nation either before or after them for the Romans never practised the like upon others it is singularly to be observed that in the same time and place in which they put Jesus to death before that is in the time of Pâ—scha when their whole Nation was assembles at Jerusalem from all Parts Provinces and Countries they received thâ—â— their most pitiful subversion and overthrow and that by the bands of the Roman Casar to whom by publike cry they had appealed from Jesus not long before We have no King but Caesar c. Yea further it is observed that as they apprehended Jesus and made the entrance to his passion upon Mount Olivet where he used much to pray and meditate So Titus as Josephus writeth upon the same Mount planted his first siege for their final destruction And as they led Jesus from Caiphas to Pilate afflicting him in their presence so now were they themselves led up and down from John to Simon two seditious Captains within the City and were scourged and tormented before the Tribunal seats Again as they had caused Jesus to be scoffed beaten and vilanously entreated by the Souldiers in Pilates palace so were now their own principal Rulers as Josephus writeth most scornfully abused beaten and crucified and that by the Souldiers Which latter point of crucifying or vilanous putting to death upon the Cross was begun to be practised by the Romans upon the Jewish Gentry immediately after Christ his death and not before And now at this time of the war Josephus affirmeth that in some one day five hundred of his Nation were taken and put to this opprobrious kind of punishment insomuch that for the great multitude he saith Nec locus sufficeret Crucibus nec Cruces corporibus This dreadful and unspeakable misery fell upon the Jews about forty yeers after Christs ascension when they had shewed themselves most obstinate and obdurate against his Doctrine delivered unto them not only by himself but also by his Disciples of which they had now slain S. Steven and S. James and driven into banishment both Peter and Paul and others that had preached unto them This then was the providence of God for the punishment of the Jews at that time And ever after their estate declined from worse to worse and their miseries daylie multiplied throughout the world Whereof he that will see a very lamentable Narration let him but read the last book of Josephus De Bello Judaico wherein it is reported besides other things That after the War was ended and all the publike slaughter ceased Titus sent threescore thousand Jews as a present to his Father to Rome there to be put to death in divers and sundry manners Others he applyed to be spectacles for pastime to the Romans that were present with him Whereof Josephus saith that he saw with his own eyes two thousand and five hundred murdered and consumed in one day by fight and combate among themselves and with wild Beasts at the Emperours appointment Others were assigned in Antioch and other great Cities to serve for Faggots in their famous Bonfires at times of Tryumph Others were sold to be Bondslaves Others condemned to dig and hew stones for ever And this was the end of that war and desolation Quis talia fando Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssi Temperet a Lachrymis After this again under Trajan the Emperour there was so infinite numbers of Jews slain and made away by Marcus Turbo in Affrica and Lucius Quintus in the East as was wonderful And in the eighteenth year of Adrian the Emperour one Julius Severus being sent to extinguish all the remnant of the Jewish generation destroyed in a very short time ninety and eight Towns and Vilages within that Country and slew five hundred and fourscore thousand of them in one day At which time also he beat down the City of Jerusalem in such sort as he left not one stone standing upon another of their ancient Buildings but caused some part thereof to be re-edified and inhabited only by Gentiles He changed the name of the City and called it Aelia after the Emperors name He drove out all the Progeny and Off-spring of the Jews forth of all those Countries with a perpetual Law confirmed by the Emperour That they should never return no nor so much as look back from any high or eminent place to that Country again And this was done to the Jewish Nation by the Roman Emperors for accomplishing that demand which their principal Elders had made not long before to Pilate the Roman Magistrate after he had washed his hands before the multitude to clear himself at least wise in outward shew from the blood of Jesus saying I am innocent of the blood of this just man look you to it Then answered all the people and said His blood be upon us and upon our children and so it came to pass accordingly even in that very age Then the which what greater argument of the Deity and Omnipotency of our Lord and Saviour who from heaven was able in so short a time and that in so full measure to revenge himself upon his enemies here on earth Yea a whole Nation together brought to final desolation And so much for the punishment of enemies The fulfilling of Prophesies THe last consideration followeth and so an end which is The fulfilling of Prophesies all those Prophesies uttered by our Lord and Saviour while he was here upon earth Especially this one of the destruction and desolation of the Jewish Nation already declared might suffice for all which over and over while he was conversant among them he denounced against them and foretold should shortly be accomplished upon them in most fearful manner as namely at one time after a long and vehement commination made to the Scribes and Pharisees in which he repeateth eight several times that dreadful threat Wo he concludeth That all the Righteous blood injuriously shed from the first Martyr Abel and so successively should very shortly be revenged upon that generation Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation and in the next words threatneth that populous City Jerusalem that it should be made utterly desolate Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your Habitation shall be left unto you desolate And at another time even that solemn time of his Entry and Riding into Jerusalem before his Passion it is said in the Gospel That when he was come neer he beheld the City and wept over it saying O if thou hadst even known at the least in this thy
to be expected The Messiah by Daniels Prophesie was to appear immediately upon the establishment of the Roman Empire for saith he In the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall not be destroyed Dan. 2.44 which must needs be understood of the Kingdom of Christ or the Messiah And in these days was our Saviour born even in the days of Augustus Caesar Therefore in him is the circumstance of time verified The Messiah by Jacobs Prophesie was to appear immediately when the Rod or â—cepter was departed from the house of Judah Then appeared that Star of Jacob our Lord and Saviour Ergo The Messiah by the Prophesie of Haggai as also by their own Thalmud was to come during the second Temple Then came our Lord and Saviour Ergo And consequently the Jews after this time to wit the destruction of the second Temple in vain expect another The Messiah by the true account and calculation of Daniel's Hebdomades or weeks of years was to come just according to the times before mentioned So did our Saviour as is aforesaid therefore to him doth this circumstance of time bear witness And consequently the Jews after these times by God himself appointed for the Messiah or rather one and the same time for there is no other difference but only in adjuncts and circumstances expecting yet for another besides their vain expectation make God himself a Lyar The Messiah by the Scriptures was to be born of the Tribe of Judah of the house of David So was our Saviour Therefore he alone the legitimate and true born Messiah by Birth-right as I may say as also by Prescription after so long time of peaceable possession no other to be expected The Messiah by the Scripture as also by their own Rabbins was to be born of a Virgin so was our Saviour Ergo All other particulars foretold of the Messiah see them fulfilled as followeth to wit Prophesies  fulfilled Mich. â— 2 That the place of his Birth should be Bethlehem Luke 2.4 Jer. 31.15 That at his Birth all the Infants thereabouts should be slain Mat. 2.16 Psal. 72.10 That Kings or great Personages should come and adore him and offer gold and other gifts unto him Mat. 2.1 Mal. 3.1 That he should be presented in the Temple of Jerusalem for the greater glory of that second Temple Luk. 2.22 Hos. 11.1 That he should flee into Egypt and be called thence again Mat. 2.13 Num. 24.17 That a Star should appear at his Birth to notifie his coming into the world Mat. 2.9 Mal. 3.1 4.5 Isa. 40.3 That John Baptist who came in the power and spirit of Eliah and therefore was called Eliah Luke 1.17 Matth. 11.10.14 should be the Messenger to go before him and to prepare the way and to cry in the Desert Mat. 3.1 Isa. 42.2 That he should begin his own Preaching with all humility quietness and clemency of Spirit Mat. 5.1 Isa. 53. That he should be poor abject and of no reputation in this world Luk. 2.7 Isa. 35.5 That he should do strange Miracles and heal all Diseases Mat. 4.23 Isa. 53.12 Dan. 9.26 That he should die and be slain for the sins of his people Mat. 27. Psal. 55.13 That he should be betrayed by one of his own Familiars Mat 26.47 Zac. 11.12 That he should be sold for thirty pieces of silver Mat. 26.15 Zac. 11.13 That with those thirty pieces there should be bought afterwards a field of Potsheards Mat. 27. â— Zac. 9.9 That he should ride into Jerusalem upon an Ass Mat. 27. Isa. 50.6 That the Jews should beat and buffet his face and defile the same with spitting Mat. 26.67 Isa. 53.5 That they should whip rend and tear his body before they put him to death Mat. 26.27 Isa. 53.12 That he should be put to death among Thieves and Malefactors Luk. 23.33 Isa. 53.7 That he should be silent before his enemies as a sheep before his shearer Mat. 27.14 Isa. 53.12 That he should pray for his enemies and persecutors Luk. 23.34 Psal. 22.18 69.21 That they should give him vinegar to drink divide his apparel and cast lots for his upper garment Mat. 27.34 Psal. 22.16 Zac. 12.10 That the manner of his death should be crucifying that is nayling of his hands and his feet to the Cross Joh. 19.18 Zac. 12.10 That his side should be pierced and that they should look upon him whom they had so pierced Joh. 19.34.37 Exo. 12.46 That not a Bone of him should be broken figured in the Passover by that spotless Lamb without blemish a type thereof and therefore is he called in the New Testament The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Joh. 19.36 Psal. 16.9 Hos. 6.2 That he should rise again from death the third day Mat. 28.1 Psal 68.18 110.1 That he should ascend into heaven and there sit at the right hand of his Father tryumphantly for ever Luke 24.51 Act. 7.55 56. All these particulars foretold of the Messiah see I say and examine how exactly they were all fulfilled in our Saviour and therewithal consider those things which fell out afterwards as effects of his Divine power to wit the sending of the holy Ghost immediately after his Ascension with the miraculous encrease of his Church even in the midst of persecution The severe punishment of all his enemies especially that of the Jewish Nation The subjection of the Divel with all his Infernal power under his Apostles and Disciples feet together with the ceasing of Oracles And finally the fulfilling of all his Prophesies with those likewise of his Apostles and Disciples most exactly I say all these with the former put together and well considered may settle the heart of any Christian man against all Judaism Paganism yea and Atheism too in the most undoubted Truth of his profession to wit the Christian Religion with this full and final perswasion wherewith I will knit up all That there is no other Name under heaven given to the sons of men whereby to be saved but the name of Jesus Christ And therefore to Him be the honour of our Salvation ascribed and to no other To Him I say with the Father and the Spirit even that blessed Trinity Elohim be all Honour and glory now and evermore Amen Amen FINIS Table of the Contents of the several matters of this Book OF the Promises and Prophesies of old 1 Gods promise to Adam 3 Gods promise to Abraham 3 The Prophesie of Jacob 5 The Prophesie of Moses 6 The Prophesie of David 9 The Prophesie of Jeremy 15 The Prophesie of Ezekiel 15 The Prophesie of Isaiah 16 That the Messiah must be both God and man 18 That the Messiah must change the Law of Moses 26 The time of his Manifestation with all other circumstances 33 Of his Linage or Pedegree 56 Of his Birth with the Circumstances thereof 57 Of his Preaching and Doctrine 71 Of his