and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Hos 2. 21 22. Where we have a Summary Description of the great Order of Nature as things are cast into a State of Relation and Correspondence set forth as if they cried to each other and heard each other to denote their mutual Subserviency and Dependance Thus the Stars by their attractive Beams prepare and enrich the Clouds the Clouds drop down fatness that fatness moistens the Surface and supplies the Bowels of the Earth that Moisture increaseth and invigorates those active Particles within which are the Principles of Vegetation those Principles carry the spiritous vital Juice to every Tree and Plant that Juice passing through many Nervous Ducts and Conveyances produce Germination those Germations cover Mountain and Valley with a fresh Verdure and by these various means the Earth receives yearly a kind of new Life every Species upon it is propagated every living Individual is sed and cherish'd and Man and Beast are abundantly provided for a-new after all the vast Consumptions and Expences of Nature the year before There is a Series and Connexion of Causes which act upon each other the superior Cause still having a respect to the Powers of that which is the next in Subordination and all shew the wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of the Supreme Cause in thus suiting and adapting the Operations of his Creatures according to the necessities of the several Branches of his Creation And as there is this extrinsecal Reference born by one Creature to another so is there in every one of them an intrinsick Faculty and Disposition which bears respect to the Operations and Productions of those external Causes In all Animals there are eager Appetites as Hunger and Thirst which stimulate and excite them every day to Eat and Drink of Natures Bounty In all Vegetables there are spreading Roots fibrous Receptacles with open greedy capacious Orifices to entertain digest and send up that animating Sap which is ministred by the restless Principles of Vegetation In the Bowels of the Earth are hid the multifarious Seeds of Life prepared for a new assistance of Salts Nitre and the like Supplies to quicken actuate and render them Prolisick Those quickning Recruits wait for Distillations from above to convey them down into their Apartments and those Distillations are various according to the Quality and Temper of the Seasons and as the Sun and Stars act by their Influences in the Air where the great Treasures are annually made ready by various Motions and Secretions and then shed plenteously abroad in variety of Forms and Modifications as Hail Snow Rains or Dews Thus each Cause bears a Correspondence and Relation to the Faculties and Dispositions of that which is Subordinate and those Faculties bear a Reciprocal Correspondence to the Power and Agency of the next Superior One. There is such an orderly Connection such a close harmonious Confederacy between the several Parts of the World as they are placed and situate that as they all severally depend upon each other for their respective Operations so all jointly conspire to the Preservation and Maintenance of the whole which evidently shews That it could not be blind Fate or Fortune that linked together the Parts of the Universe into such an admirable League such an amicable State of Subserviency and Assistance but a most Wise and Beneficent Agent that from the beginning consulted and provided for the Good of all his Creatures and accordingly sitted their Powers to that great end For those Irrational Beings the glittering Lamps of Heaven the Air and Earth Vegetables and Creatures that are meerly sensitive cannot be suppos'd to understand the Ends and Scope the Reasons and Purposes of their Operations They are not the effects of any Deliberaration or choice of their own but the consequents of Necessity and therefore must be brought about by the directing Hand and Will of a God of Incomprehensive Power of Wisdom that they might bear witness of his Being and Providence and excite all Mankind to praise and glorigy the adorable Perfections of his Nature 3. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the Permanency of them in that State and Condition in which they have been placed This Permanency consisteth in two things 1. First In the entire continuance of their Natures The constituent principal Substances of the Universe are still the same they ever were since their first Formation in Number Measure and Weight Nothing of their Beauty is saded by Age nothing of Matter worn away by Motion no Parts lost quite by Accident nor any one Species annihilated by outward Violence or inward Insirmity and Decay Though Individuals upon the Terraqueous Globe dye daily or are cut off lest the Earth we inhabit and live upon and have our Food by should be over-stock'd yet all sorts and kinds of Beings remain from the glorious Furniture of the Firmament to the meanest Species of Flies and Worms All Vegetables propagate as in the beginning the diversity of Sexes Male and Female in all Animals continues on Men and Beasts increase and multiply and perform all their Natural Offices ever since the primordial Benediction But lest these things should be look'd upon as Productions of Course springing meerly from the Principles and Energy of Plastick Nature what think we of the Permanent Concinnity and State of the Air whose Salubrious Blasts Transparency proper Motions and all other uses it was intended for do still hold on notwithstanding all Nusances and Infections all Vicislitudes and Alterations and all those Disturbances Conflicts and Wars from contrary jarring Qualities which have been in it since its first Expansion What can we think of the Caelestial Host that for these Six thousand Years have been every minute casting and dispersing their enlivening Beams over the whole World What can we think of the Sun in particular that during such a long Tract and Succession of Ages has been every moment at so vast an Expence of Light and Heat its Body still continuing unimpaired and its Powers neither wasted nor disabled How could all this Conservation be without the help of an Almighty provident Hand that does by a sort of new Creation sustain and supply daily the several Branches of the Universe and did at first from them all so perfect in their Kinds and in order to their particular Ends and for the general Good of the whole that there is no mending the Creation no altering the Figure Posture Number or Frame of the Integral Parts of it no adding any new Species or destroying any old ones without disorder and detriment to the great Compages Secondly The permanent state of things is discernable as by the continuance of their Natures so by the constant tenor of their Operations and Motions witness for all those bright radiant Bodies over our heads whose circular Travels are so exactly periodical and their Influences so constant that they plainly shew there is a God above
may with infinite Satifaction find how exactly these Predictions were fulfilled 1. By Cyrus's getting the Power out of the hands of the Babylonians then by Alexander's getting it out of the hands of the Persians and then by the Romans wresting it out of the hands of Alexander's Successors and yet between the delivering and the fulfilling of Daniel's Prophecy there passed a Flux of about Five hundred years which doth manifestly argue the Existence of God who alone could at such a distance of time so infallibly and particularly foresee and predict Events that were in themselves so contingent and uncertan That it looks like an History rather than a Prediction To which purpose St. Jerome tells us of that great Blasphemer of Christ and his Religion Porphyry that reading the Proem in Dan. Book of Daniel and finding how exactly consonant the Events were to the Prophecy he could not but acknowledge the truth of the account but to evade the force of those Arguments which the Christians drew thence he betook himself to this senseless and absurd Pretence that the Book was not a Prediction written by Daniel but rather a Narrative of things that were done long after Daniel's time and written by some body else in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes 2. There is another sort of Predictions which relate peculiarly to Jesus Christ whom Daniel called before-hand Messiah the Prince Dan. 9. 25. Whereupon a very Mr. Mead B. 3. p. 861. Learned Writer observes That there is no other place of Scripture whence the Church of Israel did or could ascribe the Name of Christ and Messiah unto him they looked for but only this of Daniel For there is no other Prophecy in all the Old Testament besides this where that Name is directly given him but only by way of Type which makes it unquestionable that the Jews understood this Prophecy of that Great and Eminent Person whose coming into the World together with all the remarkable Circumstances which attended his Life and Death were long before so particularly foretold by several Prophets that those Predictions are not capable of being fairly applied to any other Person what arts soever some Jews and other misguided Men have used to wrest them another way That he was to be of the Seed of a Woman or that he was to appear in the Nature not of Angels but Men. That of all Mankind he was to spring from the Loins of Abraham That of Abraham's Posterity he was to descend only from Isaac That of all Isaac's Generation he was to be of the Tribe of Judah That of all that Tribe he was to be of the House and Lineage of David That a Virgin of David's Lineage was to conceive and bear him That Bethlehem was to be the place of his Nativity That he was to be a Prophet like unto Moses yet much above him That he was to do Miracles That he was to Preach good Tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted That he was to be a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief That he was to be despised and rejected of Men. That one of his own Familiars who should eat of his Bread would lift up his Heel against him That he should be sold for thirty pieces of Silver That he should be led to the Slaughter like a Lamb. That he should be numbred with the Transgressors That his Garments should be divided and Lots cast upon his Vesture That Vinegar should be given him to drink That in the midst of his Sufferings he should be scoffed at and reviled That he should make Intercession for Trangressors That for the Sins of People he should be smitten That he should make his Grave with the Rich. That not one of his Bones should be broken And that his Soul should not be left in Hell nor his Body suffer'd to see Corruption These things were foretold of Jesus Christ and taking them altogether in a sum it is impossible for an Insidel with any colour of Reason to apply them to any other but Jesus Christ only But one of the most remarkable things is That the time of Christ's appearing in the World was so plainly foretold by some of the Prophets that the Learned Jews found by their Calculations that about the time when Jesus Christ was born the promised Messiah was to come And hence it was that at that Juncture they were all full of Expectations of him Nor is it at all questionable but the time so agreeing with the Predictions they would joyfully and unanimously have received Jesus Christ as the Messiah had not his coming been in that mean and obscure Condition which was so great a surprize to those People who expected the Messiah would have been like a David or Solomon to have gone in and out before them with all possible Pomp Splendor and Magnificence The Prophet Haggai mentioned the time of his Appearance more largely Hag. 2. 7 9. The Substance of which Prediction was That the desire of all Nations that is the Messiah or Shiloh should come while the Temple which was then a building continued and was standing and that the Glory of that latter House should be greater than the Glory of the former which had been at so vast an Expence erected and finished by King Solomon Now this was fulfilled meerly by Christ's constant presence at that Temple some years before the Destruction of it by the Romans For in respect of the Structure and external Glory of it it fell so very short of the first that when the ancient Men who had seen the first House saw the Foundations of the second They wept with a loud voice as Ezra tells us Ezra 3. 12. And besides the Jewish Rabbins confess that five things were wanting to this Temple which the former was honoured with as so many Signs of the peculiar Presence of God's Majesty at it 1. The Urim and Thummim or those Stones upon the Breast-plate of the High Priest whereby God was wont to reveal his mind 2. The Ark of the Covenant from which the King and the High Priest did sometimes receive answers from God by a clear and audible Voice 3. The Fire that was wont to fall from Heaven to devour the Sacrifice upon the Altar 4. The Shekinah or Divine Power that was signified sometimes by the Pillar of a Cloud and by the Holy Oyl wherewith the King and High Priest were wont to be anointed And 5. the Spirit of Prophecy These glorious things being wanting at the second Temple whence could that great Glory predicted by Haggai proceed but from the Presence of Jesus Christ One that was the Brightness of his Father's Glory and the Glory of his People Israel One that was the true Urim and Thummim that revealed his Father's Will plainly to the World One that was the typified Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatory by his own Blood One that Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire the true Fire from Heaven where of the other was
a distinct People there being no Instance like this in any Story as if they were intended for a standing Memorial and Example to the world of the Divine Power and Vengeance To me it seemeth among Rational Arguments one of the plainest not only for the Proof of a Deity and a Just Providence in pursuing that Nation with such Exemplary Vengeance but likewise for the Authority of Scripture and the Truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. VI. HItherto I have shewed the Existence of a Supreme Being that is Eternal Independent Self-existing the Author of our common Nature Omnipotent Omniscient all which Characters are included in the general Notion of a Deity or a Being that is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect I proceed next to some other Considerations which argue a Being that is infinite in Wisdom Goodness Benignity as well as Power In order thereunto let us now begin to take a view of that which was proposed as the Fourth great Head of this Discourse I mean the Admirable Frame and State of the Universe For whoever will seriously reflect upon those various appearances which are in this visible world must be the most sensless and stupid thing in it if after all the bright manifestations of a Deity that are every where discoverable he can at last permit himself to say in his heart There is no God God hath not left himself without witness saith St. Paul Acts 14. 17. No that which may be known of God is manifest to us for God hath shewed it unto us For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1. 19. 20. Here then we meet with Eight Observable which are very fit in their turns to fall under our contemplation 1. The excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested 2. The great Beauty that appears throughout the world 3. The wonderful Usefulness that is in all the branches of the Creation 4. The curious and exquisite Structure of them for the Uses and Ends to which they serve 5. The constant Regularity of them in their respective Operations 6. The ample Provision that is made for the good of Creatures especially Mankind 7. The Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in the Operations of things Irrational 8. The Divine Frame of our own Rational Nature O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth and heavens are full of thy riches the various testimonies of thy greatness and inexhaustible benignity 1. First We may observe the excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested This Order is seen 1. In the commodious Situation and Position to which they are determined 2. In the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other 3. In the Permanency of them in that State and condition wherein they have been placed 1. As there are several Ranks and Classes of Creatures so is every Rank determined to its due and proper place That part of the world we stand in immediate need of is the Earth and that is placed in the middle of the world that it may receive influence from all the ambient parts of the Universe to help its Fertility and the distance of it from the Coelestial Bodies is so commodious that its Productions are not apt to be destroyed by excesses of Heat or Cold which otherwise would unavoidably follow were the distance nearer or more remote It is the proper place for man in this life For 't is the Theatre we are to Act on and the Magazine that yields us the Stores we live by and therefore 't is near at hand hard by all our Necessities and richly furnish'd with Plants Fruits Meats Entertainments of all sorts so that 't is but going out of doors and industrious People may gather their Provision and whatever they can modestly desire either to supply their Wants or to afford them Pleasures And lest we should drop down suddenly for want of Breath with our Meats between our Teeth the Air which serves for Digestion and Respiration is I cannot so well say in our Neighbourhood as in our Nostrils An Atmosphere so appositely plac'd and so adapted to the gross contexture of our outward Senses that it is infinitely more proper for sensitive Creatures than the Fine Unmixt Aether that is at such a distance from us Those fluid Bodies the Waters are in their proper place too treasured up in concave Receptacles and Chanels and there ready at hand to quench the Thirst of every Animal and if Men will be wanton to serve their Sensualities also without endangering their safety by inordinate sweeping Inundations The Heavens are to give light and warmth to all Sublunary Creatures and therefore the provident Hand which formed them hath set them very remote that those great and glorious Luminaries may cast their Influences over all the World and withal secure all things living from those Scorchings and Deaths to which their Vicinity would otherwise have unavoidably exposed them In short all things are situate where they should be nor could the wisest Counsel have placed them better supposing the wisest Being to have had the disposal and ordering of them 2. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other Where I shall speak only of that general and common Reference which the several kinds of Creatures thus situated and disposed do bear to one another As for the usefulness of particular Branches of the Creation it will fall under our eye in its due place At present I am to take notice of that Relation and Connection that Respect and Cognation which is between the Species and Sorts of things which make up this great Frame and System of Nature For in the great Volume of the Creation there is a noble Design carried on this Creature having a respect to that and that hanging upon the other like Premises and Consequents in a well-compos'd Book so that if one part be taken away not only the Beauty but the Purpose of the whole is lost Were all Sensitive Creatures destroyed what would the Light of the Sun be to a blind World Were the Earth annihilated what would the sweet Influences of the Pleiades signify Or were but the Fowls the Cattel the Fruits of the Earth removed what would become of Man that pretends to be the little Lord of all and yet is fain to be a Dependant upon these poor Creatures to afford him Provision daily and to furnish out his Table Some conceive that the only great Design of Nature is to support Man which though I think is too great a Vanity to imagine yet supposing it were so how many Creatures are there to be served before it can come to his turn I will hear the heavens saith the Divine Being and the heavens shall hear the earth
but a typical Representation And one who received not the Spirit by measure but was anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his Fellows But the Prophet Daniel pointed out the time of his coming after a more close and precise manner Dan. 9. 24 25 26 27. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks after that the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the oblation and sacrifice to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate As to the exposition of this Prophecy all Writers are agreed that according to the language and custom of the Jews by a week is understood not seven days but seven years that is seventy times seven years or four hundred and ninety years in all And the plain sense of the Prediction may be comprised within these Observations as far as it concerns my present purpose 1. First That from the second building of the Temple and City of Jerusalem to the last destruction of both there was alotted the space of four hundred and ninety years to be computed from the time of the publication of an Edict by some Persian King for this second Building 2. That within the compass of those four hundred and ninety years Sin should be expiated true substantial Righteousness grounded upon eternal Reasons should be preached the old Prophecies should be fulfilled Messiah the Prince should be cut off and afterwards instated in his everlasting Kingdom The rest of the Prediction relates to the destruction of Jerusalem of which I shall take notice by and by Thus much of it is concerning the Advent Life Death and Unction of the Messiah Now to lay aside the various perplexing Accounts given by inquisitive men touching the exact Impletion of every part of this Prophecy these two things are very evident 1. First That the rebuilding and final devastation of the Holy Temple and City was according to the time alotted the seventy weeks of years For though the Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return into their Land out of their Captivity and to begin the restoration of the Temple yet the great Edict the successful Commandment for the restoring and building Jerusalem was given by that Persian King called Darius Nothus Ezra 6. And from the third year of his Reign when the work of the Temple by the incitement of Haggai and Zachary renewed the year before was now confirmed by a new Edict from the King to be finished unto the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus are exactly four hundred and ninety years that is seventy weeks of years fully complete as a Learned Mede B. 3. pag. 858 859. Writer hath computed the time to my hands 2. Secondly It is most evident that before the expiration of these four hundred and ninety years while the Temple and City of Jerusalem were yet standing Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh that he fulfilled all Righteousness in his own Person and taught all others to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world that he offer'd up himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the Sins of all men that to him all the Prophets did bear witness and in him their Prophecies did terminate and that upon his Resurrection and Ascension he was exalted unto the right hand of God and all Power was given him in Heaven and in Earth according to Daniel's Prediction And now to return to our Argument How was it possible for Daniel or for any other man to have foretold these Events so exactly and so long before without immediate Revelation from a Divine Omniscient Being who foresaw nay fore-appointed the whole series and course of these things from the beginning to the end And consequently How is it possible for any man of common reason or sense to question the Existence of such a Being for these things could not depend upon any natural Causes No the Advent Sufferings and Glorifying of the Messiah were purely the result of a Divine Decree and therefore could not have been predicted or foreseen but by that Divine Being who had decreed all and by whose determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge Jesus Christ was delivered to the Jews as St. Peter told them Acts 2. 23. 3. The like is to be said of those other Predictions which relate to some remarkable and memorable Events after Christ's departure out of the world and they were chiefly these three 1. The Destruction of Jerusalem 2. The Propagation of the Christian Faith And 3dly the dispersed and reproachful Condition of the Jews 1. As Daniel foretold the Desolations that would come upon Jerusalem so did the Messiah himself foretel that there should not be left one stone of the temple upon another which should not be thrown down Matth. 24. 2. And a little further he said When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in or about the holy place let them which be in Judea fly to the mountains ver 15 16. This by the way shews that the computation of Daniel's seventy weeks is to be carried on to the time of Jerusalem's destruction for there the four hundred and ninety years end and not before as we see by our Saviour's referring to that Prediction when he spake of that Desolation These Predictions were accomplish'd about forty years after the Messiah's Crucifixion and in that Juncture the several parts of those Predictions were answer'd to the full Then the Jews saw the abomination of Desolation which Daniel had spoken of meaning the Roman Heathen Armies with the Heathen Figures in their Military Banners expanded about the Holy City Then were the people of the Prince that is their Commander Titus come to destroy the City and the Sanctuary Then did Titus his Forces over-run the Land of Judoea like a Flood and make it desolate Then was the Temple laid waste and the Oblations and Sacrifices which were wont to be in it were made to cease And then was the Consummation which Daniel foretold or the End which was determined upon the Desolate namely the utter