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A23831
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Reflexions upon the books of the Holy Scriptures to establish the truth of the Christian religion. Volume I in two volumes.
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Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A1227; ESTC R29574
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310,757
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644
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expressions of this Psalm the Image of a Death which was equally shameful and cruel The other part of the Psalm gives us an Account of the deliverance of that person who is mentioned in this holy Hymn I. He obliges himself to praise the Name of the Lord in the most numerous Assembly II. He observes it as an effect of this deliverance that all the ends of the World should remember and turn unto the Lord and that all the Kindreds of the Nations should worship before him III. At last he takes notice that the Kingdom of God should spread it self over all the Nations of the World. One may judge by the History of David whe-this Psalm is applicable to him therein we may see all the Crosses which he underwent particularly represented during all the former years of his Reign But there we have no Account that David ever suffered any thing like that which is so exactly described in this Psalm And this may be said further that when David took any Occasion to paint out his Sufferings to us he has put in several stroaks which only relate to the Messiah and which shew us in a very lively manner that he was to pass through much greater Tryals than any of those from which David had been delivered The later Jews who endeavour to verifie this Prophecy in Esther or Mordecai agree with us at the bottom that David carried his views further than barely his own Sufferings And those also who apply it to the poople of Israel must acknowledge the same Truth even against their wills But the more ancient Jews were more equitable in their applications of the XXII Psalm to the Messiah They applyed it to him in earnest even after the time of Jesus Christ when the comparison of these Characters of the Messiah which may be found so exactly in the Death of Jesus Christ led them to an opposition of this Truth And certainly there needs very little equity to acknowledge that this Oracle or rather this heap of Oracles belong'd to the Messiah by the confession and agreement of the Jews in our Saviour's time I. They had not then resolved to make their advantages of the Writer's fault who writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Lion instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have pierced my feet as they have done since In short Aquila who lived 100 years after Jesus Christ and the other Jewish Interpreters Symmachus and Theodotion translated that passage as we now read it II. The Notion which the Synagogue always had of the Sufferings of the Messiah obliged them to suppose two Messiahs one suffering and the other glorious rather than to contradict that Truth openly which is expressed by these Oracles in soparticular a manner III. Nothing can be imagined to be more ridiculous than to suppose that Jesus Christ should quote the first words of this Psalm upon the Cross thereby to engage all Mankind to take notice of the accomplishment of this ancient Oracle in all his Sufferings if we suppose that this Psalm even by the confession of the Jews had no relation to the Messiah The same Reflexion may be made concerning the Apostles who have quoted so many passages of this Psalm to prove that Jesus Christ was the Messiah because one may find in his Death and in the Circumstances of it such a litteral and exact accomplishment of this ancient Prophecy But if it should be objected That after all this agreement of the Synagogue can make no more than a strong prejudice this may be easily answered by considering that when the Psalmist speaks of the extent of his Kingdom over the whole Earth it was that Circumstance which determined the Synagogue in their application of this whole Psalm to the Messiah because as the Jews themselves acknowledge this extent of Empire is one of those Characters which according to the ancient Oracles is applicable to none but the Messiah In short because it is of great importance I shall repeat it here again common sense led those who considered these ancient Oracles to compare them as naturally they ought with those that went before and to determine the scope and intent of the later ones by the relation which they had to the precedent ones and there was only need of one considerable Clause to make a certain determination after they had made such a comparison This the Jews were certainly convinced of when they acknowledged that the last words of David II Sam. XXIII 1-8 were to be applyed to the Messiah by comparing them with Balaam's Oracle of the Messiah Numb XXIV We may therefore take it for granted That David did not absolutely speak of himself in the XXII Psalm and that he carried his views as far as the Messiah that he gave a great number of Characters to his Posterity whereby they might distinguish notwithstanding the greatness of his Sufferings and even the better by his very Sufferings than which no clearer marks can possibly be given because there is nothing more involuntary than enduring of Miseries nor nothing which depends less upon the choice of the person who is to undergo them than the particular kind of punishment or than the Circumstances which must accompany his Death when it is once left to the unjust power of violent Enemies We come now to the CX Psalm which in a very few words contains several very important Characters of the Messiah which are very distinctly expressed If one considers it exactly it seems to have been composed after that Nathan had acquainted David with the Glory of his Son which God had promised him such a Son who should build a House wherein God should dwell for ever and who should sit upon a Throne which should never be overturned whereas David had only form'd a Design of Building a Temple to the Lord. In short one see 's that the Spirit of Prophecy had given him a view of the Glory of this august King who should be born of his Seed and of the Glory of his Kingdom which should never be destroy'd David advances this King not only above all MEN by calling him his Lord who was himself a King but also above the Angels by making him sit at the right hand of God in the Kingdom of Heaven This is personal He also describes the Glory of his Office by considering him as a Priest of a higher order than that of Aaron from whom Melchisedech received Tithes in the person of Abraham And in a word he acquaints us with the progress of his Kingdom and the greatness of his Victories Let us examine all these Characters by themselves I. He brings in God speaking to the Messiah whom he calls his Lord Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy Enemies thy footstool This points out to us 1. That the Messiah ought to be advanced to Glory 2. That God intended to subdue his Enemies by little and little whilst the Messiah should be in his Glory as it was
the manner in which the Twelve Princes or Heads of the Tribes did contribute towards the building of the Temple and to the manner of the building of it If the Children of Zebedee are called Boanerges 't is with reference to the second of Haggai Yet once and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth That the Heathens are described as a people afar off and what is spoken concerning the Wall of Partition hath a visible respect to the Gentiles being prohibited to enter into the holy place of the Temple If I would instance in all the mystical Relations of the one Volume to the other I might say that there appears a singular conformity between them even in those things which seem most opposite Moses the first and great Minister of the Law had a stammering speech Zachary the Father of S. John the Baptist was struck dumb when he was to pronounce the solemn Blessing to the people where as Jesus Christ on the contrary has this character given of him that never man spake like him God said at the beginning Encrease and multiply he repeats the same to Noah in order to the propagation of Mankind and replenishing the Earth Jesus Christ saith Go and teach all Nations and the Word is constantly represented to us as the Seed of the Regeneration and Paptism as the Laver or washing whereby we acquire a new Birth We see Noah receiving the Dove into the Ark with an Olive Branch as a sign of the peace of Heaven and Jesus Christ receives a like Token Fire falls down from Heaven on the Sacrifice of Abel Noah Moses David Solomon and Elijah as a Token that God accepted their Offerings and God sends the same Mark of his Favour on the day of Pentecost to declare that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ was most acceptable to him God had forbid the High Priest to rend his Clothes on any occasion whatsoever that rending of Garments involving a Mystery as appears from the History of Jeroboam and yet we see that the High Priest rent his Cloaths at the Condemnation of our Saviour and thereby violated for ever the Authority of his Priesthood whereas on the contrary we find the Garments of our Lord and Saviour were left whole and entire to signifie to us the Eternity of his Priesthood We see that the Ear of Malchus the High Priest's Servant was cut off by S. Peter and that Jesus Christ restored it again to shew that the Synagogue had lost the true Faith and Jesus Christ alone was able to restore it We see the holy place in the Temple opened at the Death of Christ by the rending of the Vail which signified that the Ceremonial Law was then to lose its force and authority But the Observations already made are sufficient to make out what I intend without having recourse to these Mysteries and I believe no man can make such Reflexions without being perswaded that so great a conformity of Idea's must necessarily imply a perfect unity of design now it is impossible to suppose that this unity of design should be so constantly observed by different Authors who lived at such a distance of times places and interests without being convinced of a perpetual Divine guidance I acknowledge that in the New Testament there may be found some Decisions which seem wholly opposite to those of the Old For instance We find there a total abrogation of the Ceremonial Law but forasmuch as all those Observations had no other use but to distinguish the Jews from all other Nations of the Earth and by this means to make the Messiah known to the Jews amongst whom he was to be born so it is obvious to conceive that all those Ceremonies were of course to be abolished after that the Messiah was come into the World and that if we consider things in this view we shall find no contradiction at all between Moses who established these Ceremonies and the Apostles who abolished them But before we come to confirm these Grounds we must make it appear that the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the minds of the Jews and this shall be the subject of the following Chapter CHAP. II. That the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the Minds of the Jews at the time of the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ IT would be an easie matter for me here to shew that the Idea's of the Messiah were lively in the Minds of the Jews before the coming of Jesus Christ This appears from the Fable which the Rabbies told Origen concerning Zedechiah and Ahiab whom the King of Babylon burnt for perswading the Jewish women that they were the persons that were to conceive the Messiah But I intend to make use of proofs of a different nature Now to prove that the Notion of the Messiah was very fresh in the minds of the Jews we need only take notice that the promise of God concerning him was the first the most important and repeated with the greatest assiduity in the Books of the Prophets and consequently it employed them the most God having for this reason obliged them to read the Books of Moses every Sabbath to sing the Psalms of David and to examine the Writings of the Prophets where the promise of the Messiah was a thousand times repeated We may add a great deal of light to this Observation if we consider that the Circumstances of the Jews at that time engaged them to give more diligent heed to what the Prophets had declared and by weighing several Matters of Fact set down in the Gospel to shew the Universal effect of the lively impression of this Notion of the Messiah on the minds of the Jews Without doubt the Estate of the Jews at that time being equally opprest by the power of the Romans and that of Herod could not but put them upon a careful examining of the promises which God had so often vouchsafed them concerning the Messiah and the rather because God had often represented to them the Kingdom of the Messiah as a Temporal Kingdom which was to deliver them from the power of their Enemies This appears very evident in the Gospel on several occasions We find that the people of Jerusalem and Herod were troubled at the News of the Birth of Jesus as that which would probably cause great Troubles and Desolations before the Kingdom of the Messiah could subdue the Romans as well as Herod One see 's that the Multitudes would have taken Christ and proclaimed him their King and submitted themselves to him as the true Messiah One see 's that Christ's own Disciples both before and after his Death talked agreeably to these popular Idea's What else can we make of that passage of the Mother of James and John when she begs for them the chief places in his Kingdom When the Apostles dispute which of them should be the greatest was it not an effect of the same cause Did not the Apostles when they went to Emaus