to be truly and only agreeable to this Prophecy That this Prophecy sounds of a true Messiah who was to be a true Mediator of the World and of no temporal Saviour is clear Because 1. The six intents here mentioned in the 24 are impossible to any meer man 2. The title of Honour Prince is added for a distinction from other Saviours as also for a distinction from other inferior Angels in vers 20 21 and also added for a distinction from other Lords in Chap. 8.25 Because therefore it sounds of the true Messiah and the time of his coming is past as likewise all those things which were predicted are brought to an effect I safely conclude the true Messiah is come Moreover one of their Rabbies Rabbi Eliah saith The World should stand 6000 years according to the number of days of the Creation 2000 should be of Vanity 2000 of the Law and 2000 of the Messiah Now those 4000 first years are long since past and we are very near the end of the 2000 of the Messiah These exceptions they make That namely God hath not as yet sent the King Messiah for their sins sake are of no value because they have never been in such a long exile as now and they think themselves more just than their Fathers in the Egyptian and Babylonian captivity by reason of keeping the Sabbath neither can their sins change the decrees of God so often manifested in Scriptures These were the Arguments which sufficiently did perswade me the true Messiah was come But because the Jews dream only things corporal about the Messiah and about the end of his coming as likewise about his person I resolved to enquire further into these points A. 1. Touching his person I found out that he should not only be a man but likewise the true God not only because the nature of the offenders and the party offended did require but likewise because the reason of his coming into the world was to make reconciliation for iniquity and because many Scripture-places did affirm the same That he should be a true man was plain because he was to satisfie for that nature which did trespass in and by Adam He is call'd the seed of the Woman Gen. 3 which being material doth infer that Messiah should be a man like unto us yet without sin He is call'd the seed of Abraham and was promised to him Gen. 17. It is observable That God having an intention to confirm his Covenant of Grace and to shew the certainty of it doth promise the blessed seed not only to a woman Gen. 3 but likewise to a man which was Abraham Gen. 17 for to make them both sure of those spiritual benefits which were to be acquired by him and to make both the Sexes partakers of that glory viz. that the Messiah should come out of their Limbs Hence it proceeds That when God had promised the blessed seed unto the woman Adam call'd her Eve because she was the Mother of all living Gen. 3.20 Before the fall Adam call'd her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Woman but after the transgression and the promise of a Messiah unto her he called her Eve because out of her should proceed him that should give life unto all them that require him and so in and by Christ she was the Mother of all living who otherwise could bring nothing into the World but sinners and so dead in their trespasses And as Eve was call'd the Mother of all living so Abram was call'd Abraham after the promise of the blessed seed that is the Father of many Nations because in him by reason of the seed all Nations should be blessed Gen. 17. And there God was pleased to confirm his Covenant and the promise of the Messiah belonging to it by adding to his name the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was taken out of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and making out of Abram Abraham and to shew that promised seed belonged as well to the woman as the man the Lord added the same Letter to the name of Sarai and maketh it Sarah When God sent Moses to the Children of Israel into Egypt for to bring them out of the House of bondage and to bring them to the Land of Canaan according to the promise he uses this expression And I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty but my name JEHOVAH was not known to them Exod. 6.3 Surely they knew that God was call'd Jehovah because they call'd him so themselves therefore this is not to be understood of the name as it is in its sound but as it is in its power they knew him by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that he was able or sufficient to perform what he had promised but not by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehovah That is they had not seen the being of those promises because the name Jehovah signifieth as much as an Essentiator who giveth a being to those things which he hath formerly promised to do So God in that case reflects upon himself and upon the Covenant made with Abraham which at present he was to execute And this is the reason why God changed the name of Abram in adding to it one Letter out of his name Jehovah that he might assure him and his Wife that he would for certain give an esse to his promise and so make himself known by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehovah and this was the surety and underpand of his promise So then because the Messiah proceeds from both the seeds of a man and of a woman according to the promise it must needs follow that he is a true man himself Besides he is call'd a Son a Child born of a Virgin and so-forth That he should be a true God doth shew not only the infinite Object that was offended and the infinite guilt of Adams sins which a meer man could not take away from us and reconcile us to the offended party but also those expressions in Scripture sounding of the Messiah which cannot be attributed to any meer man He is then call'd Emmanuel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel that is God with us which is to shew that God should take on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 and so be God and man Then Isa 9.6 it is said of the Messiah Vnto us a child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and he shall be call'd Wonderful Counseller the Mighty God The Everlasting Father and The Prince of Peace Where one may plainly see that the Messiah should be a God because he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mighty God and everlasting Father whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting Micah 5.2 which attributes can belong to none else but to him who is the true and
at that time Christ came nor had they lost their priviledg of Superiority until he came and had performed his message in the world for which he was sent from above 2. It is observable That Josephus a Jewish Historian writes That until the desolation of the City in the place of the meeting of the great Sanhedrim there was a material Scepter made of Gold hanging in the midst of their Congregation So that if they will take a Scepter considered either materially or formally it was not departed from Juda until Shiloh came which is Christ our blessed Saviour a King of all kings and a Lord of lords who doth rule his spiritual Israel with a spirit of meekness until he shall give over his Kingdom to his Father 2. The second Argument is in the Prophecy of Haggai Chap. 2.6 7 9 Thus saith the Lord yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former saith the Lord of hosts We know very well the magnificence of the Temple of Solomon was greater not only in respect of its pompous buildings but also in respect of the things contained in it and yet the Lord saith The glory of this latter House shall be greater than the former there was wanting the Ark of the Covenant the Vrim and Thummim the extraordinary revelations were ceased the fire from Heaven was gone and the Tables of the Law were lost and the structure it self by a great deal was not to be compared with the Temple of Solomon which was at last utterly destroyed and abolished Where is then the fulfilling of that Prophecy Surely we can find it in nothing else besides in that that the true Messiah himself appeared in the flesh and entred into the Temple according to the promise Mal. 3.1 And the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his Temple he who is the desire of all Nations And so the glory of the second Temple was greater than the glory of the first in as much as created things are far below the Creator himself whose extraordinary appearance added more to the price and estimation of the second Temple than all Gold and Silver could do to the Temple of Solomon The Jews themselves do not deny these words to have been said of the Messiah and that his coming should be the cause of that extraordinary glory of the Temple if so why do not they believe that the Messiah is come already being the Temple is destroyed utterly Their exception is that namely those words are to be understood of a third Temple which is to be builded but it is of no value being the words are so plain and evident that they cannot be perverted into any other sense or meaning but that which I have proposed The glory of this latter house as pointing with a finger at it shall be greater and in the 3d Verse of the said Chapter saith the Lord Who is left among you who saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing There he compareth this last House with the first and of this last House which the Elders saw with their eyes the Lord saith The glory of this latter c. Those dreams which they have about building a third Temple taken out of Jacobs sleeping sweetly and dreaming at Bethel are not to be considered and so I will pass them by with silence The third Argument is out of the Prophecy of Micah Chap. 5.2 But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting Which words do not only shew the nature and condition of the Messiah but also the place where he should be born Touching his nature I will write of it afterwards but as for the place where he should be born it is Bethlehem Ephratah Now this City is gone and turned into Ashes therefore it must needs follow that either the Messiah is come into the World many hundred years ago or else this Prediction or Prophecy is false But to ascribe falseness to the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Truth is only of that stubborn people that sin against him which are Jews therefore my conclusion must be true that the Messiah is come 4. The fourth Argument is in Daniel Chap. 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 the vision and the prophecy and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesom 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 sacrifice and oblations to cease Here in these words is determined the time of the Messiah his coming and of his suffering and after that should follow his death In short By those Seventy weeks vers 24 are understood 490 years because a prophetical day is taken for a year according to the phrase of the Spirit Lev. 25.8 The former sum of 490 years is distributed into 7 weeks and 25 or 49 years and into 62 weeks or 434 years into a week or 7 years The events of the 49 years are handled in 25. The events of the 434 are mentioned in 26 the 7 weeks restore and re-edifie Jerusalem the 62 weeks bring in the Messiah and stretch towards the end of his private life and the last week finisheth the sacrifice of the Lord and begins both the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews The 49 years are the term from the first of Cyrus to the sixth of Darius Longhand second Son to Darius Hystaspis by Hester in whose sixth year the Temple was built the which being begun in the third year of Cyrus was 46 years a-building according to the Jews account The which time some do reckon thus Cyrus and Cambyses 9 Darius Hystaspis 14 Xerxes 20 and Darius or as others Artaxerxes Longimanus 6 the which computation I take
everlasting God Moreover in the Prophecy of Jeremiah in Chap. 23.5 6 God saith so Behold the day is come that I will raise unto David a righteous branch c. And this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the name Jehovah is so proper to God that it cannot be communicated by any means to any creature it is Gods own memorial as David speaks of it yea God himself saith with a kind of jealousie Jehova is my name and my glory will I not give to any else Besides that Reason it self shews us the incommunicability of this name because no living creature can give a Being to another yea neither to himself and therefore cannot be call'd Jehovah But because Messiah is call'd here in the quoted place Jehovah it must needs follow that he is the true and everlasting God who hath a Being from himself and sustains all things besides himself But the Jews use here a kind of exception saying the name Jehovah is communicated to others as to the Ark when it is said Arise Jehovah before Jehovah and thy enemies shall be dispersed But I answer this to be a vain exception 1. Because the Jews themselves when they are not in any disputation they not only confess this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a wonderous powerful name so that one may do great miracles if he knoweth the right pronunciation of it as they say Christ did all his miracles by that name because he had stolen the right pronunciation of it in the entry of Solomon and therefore they say the pronunciation of it is hidden so that they either call it Ihu or Shemhammephorash the name of four and twenty Letters but also they dare not pronounce the same for its holiness sake How then can this name that is of such a great efficacy and holiness be communicated to any creature and especially to such an one as hath no life but is more than irrational 2. The Ark is not call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Israelites call at the Ark or in the presence of it as of a thing where God more especially manifested himself upon because they say 1. Arise Jehovah which they could not say to a dumb Ark which could not hear nor rise up without the help of another 2. The effect of that arising cannot be ascribed to the Ark And thy enemies shall be destroyed which is only the Work of the Almighty So that here is not meant the Ark but God himself Moreover the verity of this assertion is not only proved by Scripture but likewise by the assentment of the Jews themselves amongst whom the most subtil Rabbies and Philosophers do yield that Messiah should be an Angel of the face of God Isa 63. and so not created but in some measure of that same essence with God which doth infer nothing else but that he is a true God and co-essential with the Almighty Father So then the Messiah being constituted of both natures divine and humane is so become a Mediatour and to undergo the office of a King of a Priest and of a Prophet which was adumbrated in the Old Testament by several which either had those Offices distinctly or joyntly together as Melchisedec David Samuel Solomon and this is the reason he is call'd a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec Psal 110.4 Let then the blind Jews dream of another end for which Messiah should come into the World as to deliver them out of the hands of their corporal enemies to re-edifie the Temple to set up the sacrifices to subdue all other Nations under their dominion yet it is plain and evident that the end of his coming should be spiritual to perform the Office of a King of a Prophet and of a Priest He was to be a King to over-power the works of Satan a Prophet for to teach us the Will of God and a Priest for to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring everlasting righteousness All the offerings and sacrifices in the Old Testament could never make the comers thereunto perfect Heb. 10.1 not only because they could not cleanse from sin and were but a shadow of the things to come but also because they could not destroy the works of the Devil who still according to the assentment of the Jews had his part in the offerings We read Levit. 16.7 8 c. And he shall take two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and Aaron shall cast lots upon the goats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one lot for the Lord and the other for Azazel and Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lords lot fell and offer it for a sin-offering but the goat on which the lot fell to be scape-goat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with him and to let him go for Azazel into the wilderness c. Here they say That by Azazel is to be understood the Devil who still had a power over them and unto whom they were forced to offer to mitigate him that they might be free from his assaults and hence proceeds the Jewish Proverb an offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Azazel when they are to give a bribe to a wicked man to stop his mouth who in his nature is as bad as the Devil Therefore it was needful that the Messiah should come as a spiritual King and as a Priest of an high power to tread the enemy under our feet to bruise Satans head and to destroy utterly his works that so he might take away that fear that was in the believers before his appearance in the flesh Now the considerations of those things did plainly shew unto me which is my last point that none else but Christ in whom Christians believe is the true Messiah because in him all the Predictions are fulfilled The Scepter did not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Christ came when as I said above the Jewish Government was abolished and they dispersed through all the World The second Temple was yet in its flower when Christ appeared there and honoured the place with his presence and since that time it was desolated The Messiah was to be born of a Virgin so was Christ born being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary as the Evangelist doth testifie Matt. 1.18 He was to be born in Bethlehem so was Christ the Saviour of the World Luke 2.4 7. The Messiah was to come after the end of Daniels Weeks so did Christ come as we may see by accompting of the time The Messiah was to suffer for our sins Isa 53 to be cut off and dye Daniel 9 he should cause the sacrifice and oblations to cease ibid. All this Christ did he offered his soul for the sins of men Joh. 10 he died for our sins Rom. 4 and after his death not only the sacrifices did cease but also the place of oblations which was the Temple in Jerusalem was abolished without any hopes of restauration The Messiah was to be God and Man so was Christ a Man because born a God because he shewed it by his Works and Miracles which a created power could never have done And to be short in a case so plain as this is All these Scriptures which did sound of the Messiah were fulfilled in Christ either touching his nature or the end of his coming yea not only in the things themselves but also in the circumstances as we may see by reading the New Testament written by the Apostles and Evangelists So then I concluded That the true Messiah was come that he was to be God and Man and that Christ in whom Christians believe was and is the true Messiah whom I have embraced truly and hope to be saved by his infinite merits And now I will exalt thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up by the arm of thy mercy and hast not made my foes to rejoyce over me O Lord Satan Hell and Death had opened their mouths to devour me and so to rejoyce in that prey but thou O Lord hast shewed me the way of thy salvation and made me to cry out O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me thou O Lord hast brought up my soul from the Grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit of eternal damnation Thou by thy favour hast made my mountain to stand strong and madest me take hold of the horn of thy salvation Sing then unto the Lord my Soul and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Bless him and forget not all his benefits he forgiveth all thy iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Do thou O Lord strengthen me with thy grace that I may not fall from thee and from thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be praise and glory for ever Amen FINIS