to him a Father and he shall be to me a sonne was fulfilled in Salomon in the literall sense but in Christ both according to the literall and mysticall sense So was that forecited passage Isay 22. fulfilled in Eliakim according to the literall sense but afterwards fulfilled in Christ both according to the literally symbolicall and the mysticall sense And thus the names given to Iohn Baptist himselfe and to his Parents had their accomplishment when Christ was exhibited in our flesh and yet these and many other of the same rank were more exactly fulfilled after his resurrection Maldonat his fourth rule as was before intimated will hold in all these severall wayes according to which the Scripture is said to be fulfilled whether according to the meere literall and assertive sense or according to the meere mysticall sense or according to both with their severall branches or according to the charactericall sense or literall representative only not assertive According to every one of these senses may one and the same Scripture be oftner fulfilled than once or twice and in a manner more remarkable at one time than at another though alwayes truly fulfilled and according to the intention of the holy Ghost 5. To beginne with the literall assertive No man I thinke will question whether that of the Prophet Isaiah with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked were literally meant of any besides our Saviour Christ And there is no question but these words were fulfilled within the compasse of that age which brought him forth and so then fulfilled in sundry wicked ones yet doe not these words referre to them or those times alone but are to be fulfilled in a more remarkable manner at the day of Judgement or perhaps before it For from this place of the Prophet Isaiah our Apostle had that revelation 2 Thess 2. 8. Then shall that Wicked he revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his comming Many like prophecies there be concerning the glory of Christs Church and the happy estate of his elect which are even in this life literally fulfilled or verified by way of pledge or earnest but shall not be exactly fulfilled save only in the life to come Ignorance of this rule or non-observance of it hath been the nurse of dangerous and superstitious error as well in the Romane Church as in her extreme opposites in such I meane as beginne their faith and anchor their hopes at the absolute infallibility of their personall election with no lesse zeale or passion then the Romanist relyes upon the absolute infallibility of the visible Church 6. That very instance which Maldonat alleageth for the confirmation of his third rule This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips c. Matth. 15. 8. was literally meant of the Jewes which lived in Isaiahs time yet not properly fulfilled in them or of them for in respect of them it was not a Prophecy but a sharpe reproofe or taxe yet this reproofe or taxe was a most exact prophecy in respect of the Jewes which conversed with our Saviour of whom it was literally meant in a more exquisite sense than of their Ancestors and in this sense often fulfilled The ancient Jewes did not honour God being personally and visibly present with their lips as these later did nor were their hearts so malitiously set at least their malice not so diametrally bent against God at any time as the hearts and malice of these later Jews were against Christ who was the God of their Fathers As these later Jewes did fill up the measure of their Fathers sinnes so whatsoever God did threaten to this stiffenecked people for their rebellion against him was more exactly fulfilled in this last generation then it had beene in any former The severall generations or successions created no difference in the true object of the literall sense that may and did as equally respect many generations as one man infinite transgressions as truly as some few This Scripture may be as truly fulfilled in all as in one though noâ— in all according to the same measure So S. Stephen tells the Jewes Acts 7. 5. 52. Yee stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares yee doe alwayes resist the holy Ghost at your Fathers did so doe yee Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the comming of the just one of whom yee have beene now the betrayers and murderers And our Saviour himselfe chargeth the present generation of the Jews with the blood of Zacharias forme of Barachias whom their forefathers had slaine many hundreds of yeares before Matt. 23. 35. adding withall that his blood should be required of that generation present Which is a proofe sufficient that this Zacharias was not the Father as some have supposed of Iohn the Baptist For if he had beene slaine betweene the Temple and the Altar hee must have beene slaine by that present generation to whom our Saviour directs this speech and so there had beene no matter of observation capable of that Emphaticall Epiphonema Luke 11. 51. Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation Now his blood was to bee required of this last generation because they had fulfilled the measure of their forefathers sinnes who had prodigiously slaine their high Priest Zacharias But how the Prophecy of this their high Priest or rather his dying curse was fulfilled more exactly of this last generation than of that generation which put him to death would require a particular treatise not in this place to be inserted His dying speech though uttered by way of imprecation was propheticall And the event of his imprecation though exhibited shortly after his death was typically propheticall of that which happened to this last generation within forty yeares after the death of our Saviour whom Zacharias did in his death though not in his dying speeches exactly foreshadow 7. As one and the same Scripture may be oftner then once fulfilled or exactly verified in different measure only by way of growth or increment of the same literall sense so likewise may it be of one and the same man in respect of severall times For out of question it is that the Scripture Gen. 15. 6. Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse was literally verified of Abraham at that very point of time when God first called him from his owne kindred and his Fathers house into the promised Land And yet S. Iames saith cap. 2. 23. that this very Scripture was fulfilled when Abraham offered up Isaac his sonne upon the Altar and from this last performance of Abraham he had if not the first yet the truest title to bee called the friend of God Not altogether after the same manner but after a manner not much different was that Scripture Isaiah 53. 4. twice fulfilled of
Jews disprove that blinde mans testimony of whom wee read Iohn 9. 32. Although he◠exposed himselfe to great disadvantage in undertaking an universall negative since the world beganne saith he was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was borne blinde What then was he bound in conscience to think of Jesus who had newly opened his eyes which had beene shut up from the womb The least he could think of him was that which in plaine termes he avoucheth against the Pharisees If this man were not of God he could do nothing But if no man since the world beganne had done the like why should he not beleeve that this Jesus was more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then a man sent from God even God himselfe Why did he not acknowledge that the clay which Iesus made to open his eyes had beene tempered by the finger of that God which had made the earth it selfe of nothing by whom all things were made and without whō nothing was made unto this point of beleefe he came by degrees and our Saviour from this experiment begets beleefe in him unto the maine point of Christianity and workes his soule unto confession that he was the sonne of God Iesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him he said not unto him doest thou beleeve on the Prophet that is to come into the world on the Messias or King of Israel but doest thou beleeve on the sonne of God He answered who is he Lord that I might beleeve on him And Iesus said unto him thou hast both seene him and it is he that talketh with thee And he said Lord I beleeve and he worshipped him Iohn 9. 35 36 37 38. With what worship with which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only Doubtlesse with that worship which was due only unto God Thus you see that Jesus by feeding the hungry with his owne hand by opening the eares of the deafe with the breath of his mouth and the eyes of the blinde with his finger doth prove him to be that very Lord and God in whose praises that excellent hymne the 146 Psalme was written and daily sung by the Iews and Pharisees although their eyes because they winked with them and hated the light were not open to understand the meaning of it 4. But were there no other Prisoners besides the deafe and the blind which the Psalmist foretells the Lord in whose praise that Psal was conceived sung would unloose no other whom Iesus during the time of his propheticall function did unloose Sure all were prisoners that were bound by Satan and so bound were most of these lame and diseased which our Saviour cured more particularly that poore woman mentioned Luke 13. 15 16. was Satans prisoner as wee may gather from our Saviours reply unto the ruler of the Synagogue whose heart was inflamed with distempered zeale and indignation aswell against our Saviour for healing as against the people for bringing their sicke to bee healed upon the Sabbath day The Lord then answered him and said thou Hypocrite doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his Oxe or his Asse from his stall and lead him away to watering And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound loe these eighteene yeares be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day And when he had said these things all his adversaries were ashamed and all the people rejoyced for all the glorious things that were done by him Luke 13. 15 16 17. Not only the cure it selfe but his manner of working it manifestly witnesseth that he which wrought it was that Lord in whose praise the Psalmist conceived that song For he did not cure her as a messenger sent from God or as a minister of delegated power or authority but by word of majestie as Lord and Author of the health which hee bestowed upon her Woman saith he thou art loosed from thine infirmitie And he laid his hands upon her and immediatly shee was made straight and glorified God Besides the exact correspondence between the Psalmists words The Lord raiseth up them that are bowed downe and the Evangelists description of the party cured and the cure as that shee was bowed together and could in no way lift her selfe up there is another point very remarkable in the character or phrase of the Evangelist For in the beginning of this relation he saith when Iesus saw her he said unto her this was before shee was healed but when hee relates our Saviours reply unto the Ruler of the Synagogue after she was healed he doth not say Iesus then answered him and said but the Lord then answered him and said as if he himselfe had conceived and would lead us into the same truth that this very fact had sufficiently manifested that Iesus whom the people tooke for a Prophet to be that very Lord of whom that Psalme was literally meant and in whom this clause of raising up those that were bowed downe was at this time and not before punctually fulfilled For conclusion I would request the Reader to observe that our Saviours answer unto Iohn Matt. 11. 5. hath as speciall and peculiar reference unto this 146. Psalme as it hath unto those places in the 35 and 61 of Isaiah which have been expounded elsewhere All three places but the 35 of Isaiah and this 146 Psalme especially evidently prove Jesus to be not only the Messias or him that was to come but to be the Lord God of Iacob whose praises this Psalmist and other Prophets sought to set forth 5. The difference betweene the Evangelists relation and the Psalmists prediction of Christs miracles Matt. 11. 5. is very little or to speake properly is no difference or a difference implying such exact correspondency as is betwixt the character and the letter or impression which it makes The verball difference and reall correspondencie is this The Evangelist from our Saviours mouth in the first place relates the miracles tbe blinde receive their sight and the lame walke the Lepers are cleansed and the deafe heare c. and from these particulars makes up this generall principles Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me The Psalmist contrariwise first sets downe the same principle and afterwards foretells the miracles which were to be as so many proofes or experiments whereby this people might know the God of Iacob when hee should come in person to make them happy Happy is he saith the Psalmist that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Why are they happy which trust in him or would not be offended in him when he came unto them Because he made heaven and earth the Sea and all that therein is which keepeth truth for ever which executeth judgement for the oppressed which giveth food to the hungry the Lord looseth the Prisoners c. Psal 146. 5
Ieremy with death The same practise you have reiterated against S. Stephen Acts 6. ver 12 13. And they stirred up the people and the Elders and the Scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the Councill and set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speake blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law For wee have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shal destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Whether S. Stephen said thus or no I will not dispute but most probable it is that he did never say this in expresse termes because the Text saith They set up false witnesses against him However these false witnesses against S. Stephen did truly prophecy as Cataphas did For Jesus being made Christ did destroy the Temple by the Romanes and abrogated the ceremonies given by Moses because they had made up the measure of their forefathers sinnes who persecuted Ieremy for saying no more in effect then they laid to S. Stephens charge And that which Ieremy threatned was in part fulfilled not long after his persecution and imprisonment For Sion became like Shiloh a desolate place and forsaken of God for a long time yet reedified againe within the age or generation then living so was not Shiloh untill this day Nor hath Jerusalem or Sion been restored since they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers when he came to visit his Temple as Ieremy had done and to be annointed King over Sion 4. All that I have to adde unto the former testimony Ier. 7. is this that our Saviour at this time of his consecration or whilest he was a King or Priest in fieri only did give some documents of his royall power or just chalenge to his right over Judah and Jerusalem in a more special manner then at any time before hee had done For wee doe not reade that he did take upon him to judge betweene party and party in matters temporall nor to dispose of the goods or possessions whether of Jews or of Gentiles save once when he gave the Legion of Devills leave to enter into the heard of Swine and to cary them headlong into the Sea And this hee did immediatly after he had manifested himselfe to be God by commanding the winde and the water as was before declared Before this time he might have said more truly then Samuel did whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Yet now when he came to visit his Temple he gave his Disciples Commission more then royall to take an Asse and her colt for his service to ride on them in triumph as the Prophet Zachary had foretold unto Jerusalem and to Sion And this he did jure dominii by right of Dominion The tenour of the Commission and the execution of it you have distinctly set downe Matt. 21. 1 2 3. And when they drew nigh unto Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives thou sent Iesus two Disciples saying unto them Goe into the village over against you and straight way yee shall finde an Asse tyed and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway he will send them And S. Mark tells us Chap. 11. ver 5. And certain of them that stood there said unto them What doe yee loosing the colt And they said unto them even as Iesus had commanded and they let them goe 5. This manner of his comming to Jerusalem his powerfull visitation of the Temple immediatly upon it and the Inscription which Pilate made on his Crosse some foure dayes after with other remarkable circumstances of the story or journall of that sacred weeke be a pregnant testimony that this Iesus of Nazareth whom wee adore was that King of the Iews and of Sion whose comming Zacharias had so long before foretold But it is not so apparent out of his forecited prophecy either that this King of â—â—on was the God of Sion or that the God of Sion and of Israel was to be made King of both For in that he was God he was the King not of Israel or Iudea only but of all the earth God over all from everlasting to everlasting by right of Creation The next point then in question betwixt the Iew and us is this Whether it may be concludently proved from the literall sense of those Oracles which they adore that he who was the God of Sion and of Israel from everlasting to everlasting were to be made King of Sion in later times or after the gift of Prophecy did cease in Iudea and Ierusalem CHAP. 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not over Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages he had done WEre there no other part or volume of the Old Testament left besides the booke of Psalmes the testimonies conteyned in it which according to the literall sense will abundantly induce this conclusion are for number more and more punctuall then all the testimonies which the Jew can bring out of all other Scriptures that they were to have a Messias or sonne of David whose throne was to be exalted above the throne of David or of Salomon Or if this booke of Psalmes were the only booke whereby both Jews and Christians were to be regulated in points of faith this booke alone would condemne both of such folly and sluggishnesse of heart as Christ our God and Saviour upbraydeth those two Disciples with Luke 24. 26 c. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe He did then enter into his glory when he was made a King of glory and such a King he was not made untill he had endured an harder servitude or condition of life more miserable to flesh and blood then Israel had done in Aegypt or then any of the Prophets whether Psalmists or others had undergone Of this servitude or hard condition of life which was prefigured by matters of fact in most of his Prophets and in all those Psalmists and foretold in all those Psalmes which contayne matter of complaint or imploration of release from oppression in its proper place Wee are now briefely to peruse some of those Psalmes which according to the literall sense imply the exaltation of the God of Israel or of Sion to be the King of Israel or of Sion for this view it would much availe if we knew who were the Authors of such Psalmes and upon what occasion they were penned 2 The Author of the seaventh Psalme was David himselfe and no other as the inscription and occasion of his complaints therein mentioned do manifest The complaints he tenders immediately unto God and yet this God who was to
manifestation of the sonnes of God Rom. 8. 19. That of the Psalmist Psal 97. 1. fals under the same line of observation The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles rejoyce This literally implies that the earth whether generally taken or restrained to the Land of Jewry should have better cause to rejoyce and the multitude of the Iles new occasions of greater gladnesse then in former times they had knowne When then was this new matter of joy and gladnesse there promised to all the earth and her inhabitants to begin to beare date or bee in esse From that point of time wherein the Lord began to raigne after another manner then before he had done The raigne of the Lord over all the earth and over all the Ilands of the earth if wee consider him only as God was from the beginning of the world and so shall continue without change or alteration World without end The raigne of the Lord then in this place foretold must be the raigne of God incarnate or of Gods being made King And those holy men of God which thus speake did by the spirit of prophecie foresee those dayes which Abraham saw and rejoyced to see Now the beginning of these joyfull dayes was from the time wherein the Lord did loose the Prisoners did deale his bread unto the hungry did open the eyes of the blinde and raysed them that were bowed downe with his owne hands or with his owne voice For so the Author of the 146. Psalme a little before paraphrased doth conclude that admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song of the God of Israel The Lord shall raigne for ever even thy God O Sion unto all generations All the former workes of mercy and piety towards miserable men were but praeludia or portending documents of his future raigne or oecumenicall Kingdome shortly after to be established CHAP. 25. That the former Testimonies do concludently inferre a pluralitie of persons in the unitie of the Godhead and that God in the person of the sonne was to be incarnate and to be made Lord and King BUt if the Lord God of Israel were to serve under the sins of this people or to bee made a servant for their sinnes if he were to be annointed King not over them only but over all the earth besides it will bee demanded unto whom he was to be a servant and who after this his service was to make or Crowne him King Surely being God he was not to be a servant unto man or Angell if he that was God must be a servant he must be a servant to him who is and truly was God If he that was truly God were to be annointed King and to be enthronized hee must be annointed by him alone who was as truly God These considerations enforce us and when God shall give them hearts to take these and the like into serious consideration will perswade the Jews that however the God of Israel be one yet in this unity of the Godhead or divine Majestie they and wee must acknowledge more then an unity or identity of persons What it is to be a person and what manner of distinction is betweene the persons in the blessed Trinity are points which I never had minde to dispute More Scholarum since I first knew the Schooles or bent my studies to know Christ but was alwayes ready to admire what I knew not to expresse Nor could I ever well understand the language of such as thought themselves able to instampe these high mysteries with Scholastick formes of words but have taken more delight and comfort for these thirtie yeares and more in rehearsing daily as I am bound by oath evening and morning the Collect appointed by our Church for Trinity sunday with the Hymne annexed unto it in the ancient liturgies then in all the varietie whether of Schoolemen or of such polite writers as seeke to adorne and beautifie their ruder expressions of this great mystery And I have ingaged my selfe not to meddle with this point untill by Gods assistance I have finished the rest of these Comments and then by way of meditation or devotions only Thus much notwithstanding the former considerations and the very fundamental grounds of true Christianity inforce us to grant that in the divine nature though most indivisibly one there is an eminent ideall paterne of such a distinction as we call betweene party and party a capacity to give a capacity to receive a capacity to demand and a capacity to satisfie Capacities sufficiently different for the exercise of justice and love not ad extra only but within the divine nature it selfe If there were but one party or person in the divine nature the remission of mens sinnes without satisfaction had beene more proper and pertinent then remitting of them upon satisfaction For one and the selfe same party to demand satisfaction of himselfe and to make it to himselfe especially by way of punishment or disgracefull affliction is so unconceivable to reason it selfe that it is altogether uncapable of admiration to reason sanctified or enlightned by grace 2. But this is that which some moderne heretiques labour to prove to wit That God did not exact satisfaction for our sinnes of our Saviour Christ Iesus that it had beene exact cruelty in God to have laid the burthen of all our sinnes upon him who knew no sinne But how then is Christ said to have taken away our sinnes God say these man did freely remit them without satisfaction and Christ did take them away by setting us a paterne of holinesse and of patience in affliction That is in such sort as a Physitian might be said to have taken away an epidemicall disease by prescribing a recipe which every one after might make for himselfe and be his owne Apothecary Briefly they thinke that God cannot be excused from cruelty but by denying all true and proper satisfaction made to him by Christ But it is an oversight usually incident to men enclouded in grosser errours to object that unto their Adversaries as an inconvenience or absurd consequence which is such only according to the objecters owne tenets but most true and consonant to their principles whom they oppugne if these might be taken into due consideration Thus some greate Clearks in the Romish Church but none of their wisest men object against us that we make God a Tyâ—anâ— by teaching that he hath given us a Law which is impossible for us to fulfill The objection is unanswerable according to their principles who teach that a man cannot be justified or absolved from the sentence of death denounced by the Law without perfect inherent righteousnesse or fulfilling of the Law But the same objection no way toucheth us who teach that albeit we must still be doing that which is good yet after we have done all we can suppose much better then either they or we doe we must still deny our selves and renounce not the works
revelation or instruction either mediately or immediatly made unto us by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word himselfe 2 Nor is it probable that either Plato or Trismegist did first discover so much of this grand mystery as was knowne among the Heathens before S. Iohn wrote his Gospell And it is no lesse impious then improbable to suspect that S. Iohn should borrow those divine expressions of the Words divinity from any Heathen Philosopher as that blasphemous Platonick exclaimed when he read the beginning of his Gospell that he had stolne his expressions out of his master Plato Nor was S. Iohn himselfe the first of all sacred writers which did display the titles of the sonne of God by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the word light or life which was without beginning or ending most probable it is that Plato and Trismegist did borrow that light which they had in that mystery from the ancient Hebrews or from rules received by them by constant tradition for interpreting not one but many passages in Moses and the Prophets as S. Iohn there doth from the same rule or tradition No doubt the Chaldee Paraphrasts did expresse the divine nature of the sonne of God by the word the one before S. Iohn did write his Gospell the other neere upon the same time For Ionathan as Fagius tells us did live about the time wherein Herod reëdified the second Temple Onkelos a little after the destruction of it and of Jerusalem by Titus 3. The word of the Lord saith an exquisite Hebrician and judicious peruser of the Chaldee paraphrase is often used instead of Iehovah or Elohim both being proper names of God and denotes Messiah or Christ by whom God made all things and preserves them He instanceth in that of Isaiah 1. ver 14. Where the Hebrew text is literally thus My soule abhorreth your new moones c. The Chaldee or Targum renders it thus My word abhorreth your new moones And againe Ier. 1. 8. Where God speaking in his owne person saith I am with thee the Chaldee renders it My word is with thee And according to the Hebrew where we read Isaiah 45. 17. Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation in the Lord or by the Lord the Chaldee hath it Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation by the word of the Lord. But two places of Onkelus there be more remarkably pertinent to our present purpose then any others which I have observed The first is Gen. 3. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden that is as Onkelus renders that place they heard the voice of the word of the Lord or the voice of the Lord God the word So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which in the beginning was with God and was God did convent our first parents as having peculiar reason to examine and convict them of their transgression because he in person not the Father or holy Ghost was to undertake for their restauration was to combat with the Serpent for their redemption whom immediately after hee convents in the womans presence and denounceth this sentence upon both The Lord God said unto the Serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life and I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and hers c. Gen. 3. 15. 16. It is no harsh construction to read this place and they heard the voice of the word the Lord per appositionem not the voice of the word of the Lord which the Latine renders in the genitive case the voice or the word of the Lord. Yet if we read it so we shall not dissent from the forecited meaning of the Chaldee and the same interpreters referre the word walking unto God himselfe as if he had said they heard the voice of God which walked in the garden not unto the voice whether of God or of the word of God though Fagius with some other think the word walking may be read in the accusative case audiverunt vocem Domini Dei ambulantem they heard the voice of the Lord walking that is increasing or intending it selfe by degrees But this otherwise most judicious writer sometime censures the seaventie Interpreters of ignorance in the Hebrew tongue sometime sleights their interpretation without just cause For seeing it hath pleased the holy Ghost in the greatest mysteries concerning Christ to follow their interpretation though not so authentique in it selfe as the Hebrew Canon is this commands my assent though not to the opinion of some among the ancients that these seaventy were as truly inspired by the holy Ghost as the penmen of the Hebrew Canon were yet thus farre that they were directed either immediatly by the Spirit or by the rules and traditions in their times received for the right unfolding of many places which in the Hebrew were either ambiguous or involved and better directed by such rules then moderne Hebricians are by Masorets or the later Rabbins albeit both of them be of good use Thus to think of the LXX their consonancy with the Chaldee Paraphrase in many places of great moment doth besides the former speciall motives somewhat incline mee yet did not the Chaldee as I am perswaded borrow ought from them or they from the Chaldee but both were beholden to the prenotions or received rules of the ancient Hebrews 4. The second remarkable place wherein Onkelus doth not dissent from the Hebrews but rather unfoldeth the mystery implicitly contained in it is that of Genesis 22. 15 16. By my selfe have I sworne saith the Lord that in blessing I will blesse thee c. and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice So the Hebrew The Chaldee thus By my word have I sworne saith the Lord that blessing I will blesse thee c. Because thou hast obeyed my Word This translation of the Chaldee affords more light for the right and punctuall explication of S. Paul Heb. 6. 17. then most Commentators of that place have done albeit some greeke Scholiasts which I have consulted but whose words I now remember not have made acute and accurate search for the true meaning of it God saith the Apostle willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutabilitie of his counsell confirmed it by an oath So our English reads it yet with this correction or animadversion in the margine interposed himselfe by an oath but the originall verbatim sounds thus Deus intermediavit juramento God did intermediate by oath Now the object of this oath as our Apostle tells us ver 13. was God himselfe When God made promise to Abraham because he could sweare by no greater he sware by himselfe yet this by my selfe have I sworne is more expresse in the Septuagint
prophet Isaiah makes betweene the mortalitie and frailety of flesh and the immortality or everlasting duration of the word of God the Psalmist makes betweene his owne misery and fading estate and the everlasting happinesse of his Lord God And from the contemplation of this opposition takes the same comfort to himselfe which the Prophet Isaiah was commanded to minister unto Gods people and unto Ierusalem My dayes saith he Psal 102. 11 are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grasse but thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations And againe Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed thou art the same and thy yeares shall have no end That this passage of the Psalmist is literally meant of the eternall God the Iews themselves cannot deny And that it is meant of God incarnate of the sonne of God manifested in the flesh S. Paul in the first Chapter to the Hebrews doth assure us Christians For he alleageth this very place ver 10. to prove that Christ God and man was farre above all Angells and principalities and that after his enthronization as King he was to change this world which was made by him The very literall meaning of the Psalmist will enforce thus much that this place was to be meant of God not simply or absolutely but of God incarnate For the eternall duration of the Godhead is not measurable by dayes or yeares but the incarnation of the sonne of God or his duration in the flesh may be accounted by number of yeares for the time past yet are his yeares as man to continue without end without any decay or diminution of that nature which he assumed The Psalmist foresaw his owne interest in the numberlesse yeares of his Lord whose happinesse and immortality was the only comfort of his miserable mortalitie The same comfort the Author of the 103. Psalme whether he were the same with the Author of the 102. Psalme or some other takes to himselfe from the like contemplation of his owne misery and of the happinesse of God incarnate Like as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flowre of the field so he flourisheth For the winde passeth over it and it is gone and the place therof shall know it no more But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that feare him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children To such as keepe his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandemēts to do them Psal 103. 13 14 15 16 17 18. For the true interpretatiō or application of this passage unto this present purpose it is in the first place remarkable that where in the 13. verse wee read Iehovah or the Lord the Chaldee renders it The word of the Lord hath pity on them that feare him In the second that the mercy of the Lord or of the word of God verse 17 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a word or terme whose full importance cannot bee had from any ordinary Lexicon unlesse it be such as is proper unto Divinitie For it cannot be understood of that mercy or loving kindnesse of God which was ordinarily manifested either towards mankinde in generall or towards the people of Israel in particular Every Novice in the Schoole of the Prophets did know that this mercy of the Lord was perpetuall But what could it availe the Author of this Psalme to consider that this mercy of God had beene manifested to his forefathers before his time and should bee to posteritie in their severall generations after him what comfort could it afford unto the childrens children of such as feared him that this mercy of God should be reserved for them only after the same manner or measure which their forefathers had tasted or had experience of it and yet complaine of their miserable and wretched estate for the present and comfort themselves only in the expectation of that abundant mercy which they hoped afterwards should be revealed The best exposition upon this place of the Psalmist or what is in speciall meant by the mercy of the Lord or of the word of God is given by S. Paul Titus the 3. 3 4 5 6 7. For wee our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by workes of righteousnesse which wee have done but according to this mercy he saved i◠by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour That being justified by his grace wee should be made heires according to the hope of eternall life Of this mercy and loving kindnesse the Patriarchs and Prophets as wee said before had the promise but without all hope of enjoying the thing promised for the present It was not then the mercy of God or Iehovah considered in the Godhead only but the mercy of God to be incarnate to be made King and Judge of the earth which did so comfort these and other Psalmists in their greatest distresses and perplexities in al which they had just occasion to say as S. Paul afterwards did If in this life only or in the loving kindnesse of God as it hath been experienced in our dayes we had hope we were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. 4 That this place though literally meant of God alone was yet to be punctually fulfilled in God incarnate or in the Word made flesh besides this exposition of S. Paul the very letter and circumstance of the text doth perswade us For the expected comfort wherupon this Psalmist pitcheth is this The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his Kingdome ruleth over all And here againe whereas we read the Lord the Chaldee reades the Word of the Lord hath prepared his throne And in that it was prepared it was not from eternitie though after it were prepared to continue from everlasting to everlasting that is as we say world without end And this is that throne and that Kingdome which Daniel foretold that God long after his time would erect Daniel 2. 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdome which shall never be destroyed and that Kingdome shall not be left to other people but it shall breake in pieces and consume all these Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever And of this throne you have a most exquisite description by S. Iohn Revel 4. 1 2. After this I looked and
scoffe the God of Israel made good in earnest by making this Jesus whom Pilate and the Jews had crucified both Lord and Christ that is a far greater King then Caesar himselfe whom they acknowledge their only King 6 Ioseph his supposed Father in all probabilitie was dead before this time of our Saviours passion so that the lineall right of the Crowne of David was now in Christ as the only sonne of the virgin Mary who had no child by Ioseph her husband nor hee any sonne by any former wife so that the whole right unto the Crowne of David which either or both of them had was by legall descent devolved upon this dying man who after his great humiliation was to be more highly exalted and in him alone that which was said by the prophet Ezekiel was accomplished exalt him that is low and abase him that is high And yet the same Prophecy had beene at severall times verified or fulfilled in part before And first perhaps in Ieconiah who after the debasing of Zedekiah his uncle by Nebuchadnezzar was exalted above other Captives by Nebuchadnezzars sonne Evil-Merodach And againe more punctually according to the prophets meaning in Zorobabel and others of Davids line after Solomons line was either extinguished or deposed but more fully afterwards in the blessed Virgin as shee expresses her thankfulnesse for it in her sweet song Luke 1. 52. Hee hath put downe the mightie from their seate and hath exalted the humble and the meeke Whether the blessed Virgin in her owne right or Ioseph her husbands while he lived were the next heire unto the Crowne of David is disputed by others unto whose determinations I have nothing to say in this place Whatsoever right either or both of them had was I take it derived from David by Nathan not by Solomon or his successors Ioseph and Mary were heires to the kingdome which Solomon did enjoy though not of his seede and so were Salathiel and Zorobabel from whom they directly descended 7 But whether her sonne should be the lawfull heire of David was no part of the blessed virgins doubt or question to the Angel But how shee should conceive a sonne according to the purport of the Angels promise that she questions Luke 1. 24. Then said Mary how shall this be seeing I know not a man To omit the idle fancies of some who would hence collect that the blessed virgin had vowed chastitie in single life as if I know not a man had beene as much as I am resolved never to know man The truth is that however shee was at this time espoused unto Ioseph yet the marriage was not to be consummated til some competent space after the espousals within which time shee did rightly apprehend the conception foretold her by the Angell was to bee accomplished or rather from the very time of this present dialogue and hence shee demands how it was possible that she should instantly conceive seeing she knew not a man yet are not these words of distrust they have no tincture of such incredulitie or slow beliefe as wee finde taxed in Sarah and Zachariah father to Iohn Baptist yet were both Sarah and Elizabeth the wife of Zachariah types or shadowes of the blessed virgins miraculous conceiving So were Hannah and Sampsons mother The conception of all their sonnes and they were respectively their only sonnes was wonderfull and without the ordinary course of nature peculiar blessings of him that maketh the barren to be a joyfull mother of Children Sarah and Hannah and Iohn Baptists parents had beene petitioners to the Lord of life for children and had their petitions ratifyed one by the Preist and others by the Angel of the Lord. But Sampson was promised to Manoahs wife by the Angel of the Lord without any petition on her part made to this purpose and promised withall to be a deliverer of his people from the Philistins And in this particular or in the maner of the Angelicall Annunciation the birth of Sampson was a most lively type of the birth of our Saviour albeit this conception of Sampson was not so strange as that of Isaac That Sarah in her decrepit age should conceive a sonne was a matter incredible and unparalleld in any age of the world before or since yet not properly miraculous Through faith saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 11. Sarah received strength to conceive seede and was delivered of a child when she was past age either for conceiving seede or for bringing it forth conceived yet both shee did because she judged him faithfull who had promised The faith by which shee conceived strength was the gift of God and the strength which shee conceived by this faith was such a wondrous effect as these gifts which are attributed to the faith of miracles But Sarah having received this strength by faith the conception was according to the course of nature it was with her after the manner of women not so with the virgin Mary who became blessed by beleeving the Angel She did not receive strength to conceive seede the performance of those things which were foretold by the Angel were from the Lord himselfe Vnlesse shee had beleeved shee had not beene established yet her beleefe did not cooperate with the effect promised That was the immediate worke of the holy Ghost by marying part of her substance to the person of the Sonne of God after a manner unknowne to her There was not first a marriage and then a conception nor a conception first and then a marriage both were accomplished at once CHAP. 33. S. Mathewes relation of the maner of our Saviours conception and birth and of the harmony betwixt it and the prophecies IT is well observed by divers good writers that S. Mathew begins the Genealogie of our Saviour Christ not from Adam where S. Luke ordine retrogrado ends it but ordine recto from Abraham because the Covenant of the promised seede was first by oath established in Abrahams line and afterwards more particularly in Davids whose sonne and heire our Saviour was though sonne by adoption or next heire in reversion unto Ieconiah who was the last as these Authors think of Solomons line the last at least that could pretend unto the kingdome of David And though it be said in our Saviours Genealogie according to S. Mathew that Ieconiah begat Salathiel yet this cannot be meant of a naturall begetting but of a civil He was the son of Salathiel in such a sense as the holy Ghost useth in the second Psalme ver 7. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee to wit unto the Kingdome of Israel if this place be literally to be understood of David as the most probable opinion is though afterwards to be mystically fulfilled only in Christ who is not only Gods only begotten sonne from eternity but his first begotten from the dead and so made King of Kings and Lord of Lords But of these points in their due place 2
alwayes a distinct foresight or apprehensiō Such as they sometimes had was by extraordinary priviledge or dispensation it was no necessary appendix of the ordinary gift of prophecy lesse appendant thereon than the prenotion or foresight of the second or third event was upon the foresight or apprehension of the first For in that case the same prophecy though often fulfilled was yet alwayes fulfilled onely according to a fuller importance or growth of the same literall sense without the intervention or mixture of any matter of fact which could properly be called a real type or map of that which afterwards hapned As if the Prophet Isaiah did not by vertue of the ordinary gift of the Spirit foresee the second or third remarkable fulfilling of that prophecy This people draw neere me with their lips but are farre from me in their hearts it is lesse probable that the Prophet Ieremy should foresee the secōd or more exact accomplishment of that Prophecy Behold the day is come saith the Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought the children of Israel out of the Land of Aegypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the house of Israel out of the North Country c. Ierem. 23. 7 8. For in the second fulfilling of this prophecy besides the improvemēt or sublimation of the literall sense there was an intervention of matter of fact or type 6 Againe if it be doubtfull whether the Prophets had alwaies or for the most part such a distinct foresight of the antitype as they had of the type or if it be more probable that they had no such apprehensiō of the antitype whē the literall sense of their words did though in a different degree truely fit both then is there no probability that they should foresee the second accomplishment of such prophecies as no way reach the antitype in the plaine literall or grammaticall sense but by symbolicall or Emblematicall importance Isaiah no doubt had a cleare foresight of Eliakims admission into Shebnah's office whose deposition he likewise foresaw But that he foreknew the harmony betweene the deposition of Shebnah which he knew would shortly be fulfilled and the rejection of the Jewish Rulers or betweene Eliakims advancement and our Saviours exaltation after his resurrection wee have no probable inducement to beleeve but inducements many to perswade us that the foreknowledge of things thus foreprophecied and foreshadowed was for the most part reserved unto the holy Spirit not imparted to the Prophets who in foretelling or foreshadowing the antitype were for the most part his Organs onely though his Agents in the prediction of the type and did ingage their credits only for the first fulfilling of the Prophecies or for their fulfilling in generall Of the difference betwixt the knowledge of the Spirit of God and the Prophets whom he did imploy in representation of mysteries to come wee may have a proportionable scale in the difference betwixt the extraordinary Herauld or other inventor of such devices as they give and the ordinary Painter An ordinary Scholar that should see a painted Eclipse of the sun with this inscriptiō totiō adimit quo ingrata refulget would easily apprehend that this word ingrata refers to the Moone but what ingratitude or ingratefull person the Moone in this devise should represent that hee could not learne from skill in painting but from the history of the times or from the Author of this devise which to my remembrance was an Italian Prince who had beene brought under a cloud much prejudiced in his honour fortunes by an unthankfull plant of his stocke whom his favour and countenance had advanced to the dignity of a Cardinall Or if one should intreat a skilfull Painter to represent three small vessels in the same river distant one from another neere upon the same line one of thē using the furtherance of oares and winde to goe speedily against the streame another the benefit of oares to outrunne the streame and a third in the middle moving neither swiftlier nor slowlier then the streame it selfe doth with this motto or inscription videor occursari utrisque the ingrosser of this devise from his owne experience would easily conceave the truth of the inscription in the grammaticall or naturall construction of the words and might conjecture in generall that they imported somewhat more than a bare representation of what we see by dayly experience verified of things floating in the water For whilest we row swiftly by them we thinke they come against us when they goe the same way which wee doe but more gently And this is the condition of such men in our times as will not combine with factions spirits either with such as by helpe of Arts and other potency directly oppose the truth or such as follow it with furious zeale or indiscretion He that seekes to hold the middle course betwixt these opposites regulating as well his affections as his opinions by the placide current of the water of life neither striving against it nor seeking to outrunne it shall be thought to oppose both parties and come in danger of being crusht betweene them But this morall is more then the ingrosser of such a devise could apprehend without further instruction then the review of his owne work or the grammaticall sense of the inscription suppose he understood Latine would afford him Now the Prophets in many cases were but the ingrossers of such visions or representations of mysteries to come as the holy Ghost did dictate unto them whether by word or matter of fact or both wayes The full importance of many such representations neither was nor could be revealed save onely by him which had the spirit of prophecy not by measure 7. If Enoch Moses Elias and the whole fellowship of Prophets which foretold our Saviours comming whether first or second had beene spectators of all his miracles or eare-witnesses of all his words every one of them would have learned more from him then all of them knew before Each of them would have beene able to make better construction of one anothers words then any of thē without his interpretatiōs could have made of his own It is a lamētable negligēce in many interpreters not to observe or seeke after the manifest proofes which our Saviour gave of his immense prophetick spirit from which for the most part they gather only morall doctrines and uses For that saying though delivered by Authors not Canonicall is yet canonicall and universally true Never spake man like this man And thus hee spake as well in interpretation of propheticall predictions or legall Ceremonies as in his expositions of the morall Law 8. Briefely then if wee had no better interpreter of the Prophets then the Prophets themselves or no clearer apprehension of the mysteries now exhibited then they had when they foretold them this would bee sufficient to confirme our faith that they spake by the Spirit of God more then sufficient to leave us without excuse
to bee followed in practise then the other although there be no absolute resolution whether is speculatively more true As suppose it to be equally probable on both sides whether tithes be due Iure divino or no yet it would be the safer way for every man to pay his tithes as duly as if hee were fully resolved that they were due by Gods peremptory Law For so long as any doubt remaines whether they be due by Gods Law or no the detaining of them cannot by any humane law be made ex fide it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is so is in our Apostles sense a most grievous sin But to proceed in our assertion 4. Two grave and learned writers in their times and their times were ancient in respect of ours have observed an Amphibologie in the directions which Samuel gave to Saul from Gods owne mouth questionlesse 1 Sam. 10. 8. Thou shalt goe downe before me to Gilgal and behold I will come downe unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings seaven dayes shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and shew thee what I will doe It was Sauls misfortune shall I say or misdemeanour to make choise of the worse part of that double construction which these words may admit for this Amphibologie was not in scripto but in words uttered though afterwards committed to writing Reason might have taught Saul that if the warre were undertaken it was to be administred likewise by the counsell of the Lord and therefore he did foolishly in adventuring to offer sacrifice or doe any other solemne act before the Prophet who was the Lords Embassadour in this businesse came unto him Although it be said Chap. 13. ver 8. That he tarryed seaven dayes according to the time set by Samuel yet in this doing surely he did not as Samuel appointed him to doe otherwise Samuel had done more foolishly of the two He stayed then the just measure of that time which Samuel had appointed but he did not observe the season the end or purpose which Samuel had appointed The seaven dayes were appointed him to offer solemne sacrifice and if he had not digressed from Samuels direction herein the seaven dayes of sacrifice had beene his solemne inauguration to the Kingdome as may with probability be gathered from the 13. verse of the 13. Chapter Samuel said to Saul thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the Commandement of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee for now would the Lord have established thy Kingdome upon Israel for ever 5. To admit either an Amphibologie in sentences by mutuall transposition of words or clauses or ambiguous signification of words by changing of points can be no greater disparagement to the sacred authority of the originall Text then the equivocall or ambiguous signification of the same word without any alteration of points or letter would occasion if either sort of ambiguities did justly minister any such occasion at all Now that the selfesame word or words may in one and the same sentence admit ambiguous and much different significations no man that reades the Scriptures with as much diligence or observance as reverence can make question There is no difference at all betwixt Christians and Jewes much lesse amongst the Christians themselves about letters or poynts in the 8. Psalme in that verse especially Thou hast made him little lower then the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour This word little admits two senses grammatically much different and yet must respectively bee interpreted according to the full purport of both This Psalme by the title and inscription is a Psalme of David and beares the character of Davids pen The subject or matter of it is thanksgiving to God for his extraordinary favour unto man above all other visible creatures That which raysed his thoughts to such an high pitch and his expressions of them in such a loftie Propheticall straine as he here useth was his serious contemplation of the beauty of these Heavenly bodies the Sunne Moone and Starres c all which he knew to be the workes of Gods owne hand and yet he saw them nothing so much regarded by him as man even the meanest of men Enosh or Ben Adam The heavens indeed were farre above men in situation or place but man was further above them in dignity than he was below the Angels or Coelestiall Creatures Elohim Now if we respect onely the plaine literall sense of the Psalmists speech or consider it as it reflects onely upon the history of the first creation the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an adverbe of quantity and is rightly rendred by the Latine paulò or aliquantulum as it is most true that man by the gift of creation was little lower than the Angels being true Lord and King of this inferiour world But most Psalmists David especially whilest they contemplate the sacred Histories of times past not as Polititians doe histories soecular but as vates praeteritorum as men rapt with Gods goodnesse towards their Forefathers become withall vates futurorum true Prophets of better things to come In this admiration of mans first estate which was now lost David had a view or glimpse of his restauration to it or a better Whatsoever his thoughts or apprehensions for the present were his expressions by disposition of divine providence reached the manner of mans restitution to it as they doe the first estate it selfe from which we fell And in respect of this mysticall sense the same Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any alteration at all is an adverbe of time and is most divinely rendred by our Apostle Heb. 2. 5 6. c. Vnto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speake but one in a certaine place testified saying What is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower for a little while than the Angels thou crownedst him with glory and honour and didst set him over the workes of thy hands Thou hast put all things under his feete c. His inference is admirable For albeit the former words thou hast made him but a little lower than the Angels were literally true of the first man Adam yet were they not verified in any sonne of Adam Nor were the words following thou hast given him dominion over the workes of thy hands c ever fulfilled either in the first man or in any other creature nor can they in their exquisite sense be applied to any beside the second Adam or sonne of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is now Lord of all all things are subject to him even as he is the sonne of man And that he might be thus crowned with glory and honour and bring his brethren miserable men and the sonnes of miserable men unto glory he was for a while to bee made lower than the Angels through
then was that in this new Creation in the land of Ephraim not the male or man onely but the mighty male that Geber of whom Gedeon and Sampson were but types and shadowes was to be inclosed in the female or weaker sexe as the first woman or female was in the first male As she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones so was this Geber to be of that females flesh and bones which was to inclose him And this was a worke of Gods Creation a new Creation far surpassing the first Creation wherein the woman was made of man For in this new Creation the Geber the sonne of God himselfe was to be made man of a woman And it is not unworthy the observant Readers consideration that when the Lord doth as it were wooe Ephraim or Israel to returne againe unto their owne Land or to him he doth not intreat them as a husband doth his wife but as a loving Father doth his prodigall son or roaming daughter as ver 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Set thee up way markes make thee high heaps set thine heart towards he high way even the may which thou wentest Turne againe O Virgin Israel turne againe to the sethy Citties how long wilt thou goe about ô thou backsliding Daughter for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth or in thy Land the woman shall incompasse the man 11 Divers places there be in the new TestameÌ„t which touch not upon any article in this Creede which have tortured many good Interpreters no lesse then some vulgar Interpreters have tortured them I shall at this time instance onely in two First in that of S. Matthew 23. 34 35 36. Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men c. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias sonne of Barachias whom yee slew betweene the Temple and the Altar verely I say unto you all those things shall come upon this generation The reason why most Interpreters of S. Matthew have wandered as men overtaken with a thicke mist upon a wilde heath or forrest was because they did not consult the Index Mercurialis which S. Luke from the words expressely uttered by our Saviour had set up for their better direction For whereas S. Matthew expresseth the Epiphonema or conclusion of our Saviours speech thus All these things shall come upon this generation S. Luke cap. 11. expresseth it Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation What was to be required of this generation The blood of all the Prophets froÌ„ Abel to Zacharias Zacharias his blood in particular For though this present generation by not repenting for their forefathers sinnes had made themselves guilty of the blood of all the Prophets which stood upon sacred Record from Abels time unto the destruction of the Temple yet Abel and Zacharias the high Priest whose death was in many respects most prodigious were the especiall avengers of blood For the blood of the one after he was dead and the dying voice of the other did cry to God for vengeance For so it is recorded in the second of Cron. 24. 22. of Zacharias When he dyed he said The Lord looke upon it and require it Now our Saviour in the words recorded by S. Luke forewarnes this impenitently stubborne generation that Zacharias his dying curse which had been through his mediatioÌ„ often deferred and often mitigated should be executed upon them as an ungodly race of ungodly Ancestors in a fuller measure then perhaps Zacharias intended The exact parallel betweene the sinnes of this people in the dayes of Ioash King of Judah who caused Zacharias to be stoned to death in the Temple and the sinnes of this present generation who put the High Priest of their soules the Lord of Glory himselfe to an ignominious death in what sense the blood of Zacharias was more required of this generation then the blood of our Saviour or of his Apostles in what manner the death of Zacharias and of our Saviour were the causes of this present generations destruction I have elsewhere discussed at large and if God permit meane shortly to publish amongst other meditations upoÌ„ our Saviours propheticall function or of such prophecies wherin he spake as never man spake which were not to be fulfilled in himselfe as in his death resurrection and ascension or comming to judgement For all prophecies of this ranke which shall come unto my memory or observation will have their fit place in these Commentaries 12 So will not that speech of his Mat. 24. 28. Wheresoever the Carkerse is there will the Eagles be gathered together Yet seeing the exposition of this place hath beene omitted in the explication of some prophecies with which it hath most affinity as with the signes of his comming to Judgement Math. 24. and Marke the 13. I have thought good to say somewhat of it in this place Most Interpreters grant the speech to be proverbiall and yet as uttered by our Saviour to be a Prophecie The mysterie foretold most of the Ancients would have to be the gathering together of Saints unto Christs body at the finall judgement or at least the gathering together of those bodies which being alive shall be raught up into the ayre to meete him at his comming But however the Eagles at least some kinde of Eagles may be fit Emblemes of Gods Saints yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body or Carkeise whereto the Eagles resort hath no handsome or comely resemblance of Christs appearing in glory although it were granted that his wounds or skarres should then be conspicuous I make no question but our Saviour in the forecited place did meane that kinde of Eagles whose properties we have described by God himselfe even by this our Lord God and Redeemer Ioh. 39. 27. Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high she dwelleth and abideth on the Rocke upon the Crag of the Rocke and the strong place from thence she sâ—â—keth the prey and her eyes behold a farre off her yâ—â—â—g ones also suck up blood and where the slaine is chere is shee The Eagle here displayed is either the Vulture or of the Vultures kind and their sagacitie whether in smelling slaine bodies a farre off or in presaging where great slaughters are like to happen as also their swift resort unto the prey is well knowne to secular Philologers But the flocking together of this kinde of Eagles doth rather menace destruction then minister any matter of comfort according to the literall sense either of proverbiall speech or of prophecy So the Prophet Habakuk doth character the fierce and swift incursion of the Caldaeans by this kinde of Eagles hastening
had walked conferred and conversed with all the children of Israel that would come unto him in a more familiar manner then he had done with Moses himselfe in Egypt and in the wildernesse And though his body bee removed out of their sight and ours yet he dwelleth in his Church and walketh in it by his spirit These things saith hee that holdeth the seven starres in his right hand who walketh in the middest of the seaven golden Candlesticks Revel 2. 1. and 21. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be with them and be their God God was said to walk with the children of Israel whilest the Tabernacle did remove or wander with them but not to dwel with them untill the building of the Temple Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even to this day but have walked in a Tent and in a Tabernacle 2 Sam. 7. 6. But the same God doth now walk in the Church and dwell in his Church by his spirit and the Church shall dwell with him in his heavenly Temple 6. This prophecy of Ezekiel is one of that sort and rank before rehearsed Chapter 14. par 6 7. to wit a prophecy which was oftner to be fulfilled then once and after different measures in severall times It was to be fulfilled according to the ordinary scale of the literall sense and in the intention of the holy Ghost at this peoples returne from the Babylonish captivitie From that time Judah and Israel or Ephraim were not to strive or contend and thus we see it fulfilled unto the destruction of the Temple For though many of the severall Tribes of Israel did returne to their owne land successively or now and then yet al were instyled or indigitated by the name of Iudaei or Jews a good name untill they forfeited their interest in this promise And God did upon their returne◠〈…〉 amongst them that is his Temple wherein he did dwell as hee formerly had done in 〈◊〉 Temple Now this covenant which God did promise to make with Israel and Judah upon the delivery from the North Countrey and from all the Countryes wherein he had scattered them was to exceed the former covenant which he had made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt as appeareth Ier. 23. 5 6 7 8. And to exceed it not only in respect of benefits spirituall or the matter promised but in respect of the very forme and tenure of the Covenant it selfe Not that this deliverance was either in it selfe or in the Nations eyes greater then the former but that this covenant after it once beganne to be in esse was to continue for ever without interruption whereas the former Covenant was broken did expire or determine For during the time of the Babylonish Captivitie neither Judah nor Israel had either a wandring Tabernacle or standing Temple God did not dwell amongst them according to the native and literall meaning of that promise Levit. 26. 1◠But according to this Prophecy of Ezekiel God even their God was to dwell amongst them to have his Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore But did this Sanctuary or Tabernacle there promised continue in the midst of them since that time yes it hath so continued and shall continue for evermore though not in the same kinde or quoad materiam yet by an aequivalency or more then aequivalency or by a spirituall and supereminent manner For when the second Temple begun to decay or become as a Carkasse or body without a soule the body of our Lord and Saviour Christ which he tooke from Abraham and David became the Temple of God and continueth to this day our Sanctuary or Sanctification it selfe And wee Heathens or Gentiles doe now know that the Lord hath sanctified Israel and that his Sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore 7. All those places wherein God promised to be their God all those sacred hymnes and prophecies which enstile him God even our God in the exquisite or sublime literall sense referre or drive to that point which we Christians make the foundation and roofe of our faith to wit that he was to be God with us or God in our nature or flesh God made man of the seed or stock of Abraham like us in all things sin excepted This new glorious Tēple was according to strict proprietie erected in medio Israel or in interiore Israel that is in one that was truely an Israelite the very Center or Foundation of Abrahams seed or of Iacobs posterity But being erected in the midst of Israel or in the seed of Abraham after this sense it was not erected only for the sonnes of Abraham or of Israel by bodily descent but all were to become true Israelites that should be united to this seed and worship God in this Sanctuary For in that Christ Jesus was the sonne of God he was more truely the Israel of God then Iacob had beene and all that are ingraffed into this Temple of God all that receive life from him are more truely the children of Israel than any of Iacobs sonnes were which refuse to be united to him CHAP. 21. That this peculiar manner of Gods presence with his people by signes and miracles was punctually foreprophecyed by the Psalmists BUt for God to dwell with this people or in the midst of them is a phrase not unbeseeming God even in their judgement who hold the Divine Majestie to be altogether incorporeall immaterially immense as many of the wiser and more sober Heathens did But in most of the Prophets in the booke of Psalmes especially many characters there be of the divine Majesties peculiar presence in his Church with this people or in the world which to any heathen either accurate Philosopher or elegant Poet would seeme more unseemely then a poore country mans petition of his owne drawing and penning to his Soveraigne Lord would be or then his speech would be if he were sent Embassador to a forraigne Prince Both speech and behaviour would in this case be rustick and his salutations such as would onely befit his honest or worshipfull Neighbours And thus most Prophets in the descriptions or displayes of Gods attributes speak of him if wee looke onely in the vulgar literall sense at the best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scarce observing that decorum which an ordinary Courtyer would use to any greater Prince Yet may we not think that God did send such Embassadours to his people or appoint such Orators from him to them and from them to him as he had not enabled to speake in such manner as did become both himselfe and them And surely it is the fault or imperfection not of the Psalmists or other Prophets but of their Interpreters to make them speake of God
this was the very point of time wherein that other prophecy of the Psalmist Psal 77. 19. was to be remarkably fulfilled Thy way is in the Sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not knowne and that he could conduct him as safely over the sea of Tiberias as he led his people by the hands of Moses and Aaron through the Red sea If wee knew the times or occasions of the writing of those Psalmes or what dayes they were appointed in the ancient Church of the Jews it would much conduce to this or the like search how and when they were fulfilled it may be they were appointed to be read upon those very dayes wherein these miracles were done That there was to be a second fulfilling even of those miracles which the Psalmists celebrate as being done before we gather from the Prophet Isa 43. 15 16. I am the Lord your holy one the Creator of Israel your King Thus saith the Lord which maketh a way in the Sea and a path in the mighty waters c. Remember yee not the mighty things neither consider yee the things of old Behold I will doe a new thing Now it shall spring forth shall yee not know it I will make a way in the wildernesse and rivers in the desert Now this Prophecy of Isaiah was to bee remarkably fulfilled when the Lord their Redeemer came to visit them 2. Amongst other Attributes of the God of Iacob mentioned by the Psalmist Psal 146. these are inserted ver 7. He giveth food to the hungry the Lord looseth the Prisoners The Lord openeth the eyes of the blinde the Lord raiseth them that are bowed downe No child of Iacob which had beene releeved in his hunger and thirst by the hand of men but was ready in the first place to thank the Lord God of his Fathers for his bounty They knew it was the Lord which gave men power to gather wealth that putteth it into the hearts of the rich to releeve the poore If the liberality of the Princes and Nobles at any time did abound they knew they were Almoners to the God of Iacob If any of them being formerly by law or authority kept in durance were set at liberty they were taught to thank the Lord more then man for their deliverance Him they knew to be Lord of Lords to have the hearts of Kings in his hands yet all this was not the only or the principall use which the godly and learned amongst the Israelites made of the Psalmists doctrine They were taught by their fathers to expect that the Lord himselfe would come to feed them with his owne hand and would set Prisoners free vivâ voce with the words of his owne mouth That this Lord was to live amongst them and to converse with them from the greatest to the least in more visible manner then he did with Moses on the Mount or in the wildernesse at the time appointed for the exact fulfilling of this and other prophecies Thou openest thine hand saith the Psalmist and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 16. Now that Jesus was that Lord of whom the Psalmist in these two places last cited speaketh was fully testified by the miracles which he wrought in feeding many thousands with some few loaves and two small fishes and in filling so many baskets with the fragments or reliques of that small provision wherewith he had filled thousands From these miracles the people which had seene him doe them and tasted of his bounty did rightly inferre that hee was that Prophet which was to come into the world as you may read Iohn 6. 14. and being supposed to be that Prophet they consequently presumed that he was likewise to be the King of Israel and out of this conceit or presumption they would have enforced him to be their King ver 15. But all these good prenotions of him as their promised Messias were drowned in their bellies which were indeed to them their gods and these being satisfied their religion was at an end their zeale was come unto a period For as our Saviour saith ver 26. they sought him not because they saw the miracles which did truly prove him to be that God which filleth al things living but because they ate of the loaves and were filled And that upon condition he would so feed them with material food continually they would have made him King and have enforced him to undertake this charge as it is ver 15. Who the Psalmist did meane by the hungry in the forecited Psalme is certaine and how the Lord himselfe did feede them is plaine but who are literally meant by the Prisoners or what Prisoners Jesus during the time of his propheticall function did unloose or set at libertie is not so evident from the Evangelicall story It is not indeed at the first sight or according to the rate of the English phrase But the learned Commentators upon the 61 of Isaiah have well observed that by Prisoners or men shut up the Hebrews usually understand the deafe the dumb the blinde and the phrase is very proper and elegant For hearing as the Philosophers observe being the sense of discipline by which man learnes to conceive and speake deafenesse where it is naturall and implanted hath alwayes dumbnesse for its consort and is no other then a close imprisonment of the humane soule For the greatest misery of close imprisonment is that men so imprisoned can neither open their minds to their dearest friends nor their dearest friends open their mindes to them â—heir soules notwithstanding are free to expresse their griefe unto their keepers But the soules of men whose eares have beene shut up from the wombe can neither receive any intelligence from others nor give any significations of their owne thoughts unto their friends with whom they converse Yet many soules thus shut up from the womb did Jesus during the time of his propheticall function set free by the breath of his mouth If he said but Ephphata the prison dores were opened and the fetters broken Such as had beene deafe and dumb from the womb had their eares unstopped and the strings wherewith their tongues were holden presently untyed 3. But the Psalmist added The Lord opened the eyes of the blinde and blindenesse is a part likewise of the soules imprisonment such as before the Psalmists time had received their sight by helpe of Physick or other secondary meanes were said in the language of those good times to have their eyes opened by the Lord because unlesse the Lord doe blesse the medicine the Physitians labour is in vaine Yet of many blinde men restored to sight by miracle or by the immediate hand of God we read not in the old Testament Miracles of this kinde were altogether or for the most part reserved till the manifestation of God incarnate as we gather out of the 35. of Isaiah Nor could the Pharisees though they were the greatest Antiquaries amongst the
then in the Hebrew But the Chaldee further instructs us that the object of this oath was the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which did not note only God himselfe but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mediator between God and man and the tenor or contents of the oath was that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was God himselfe and the object of this oath should become the seed of Abraham and make mediation by such a sacrifice as God the Father for tryall only did require of Abraham The comming of the sonne of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the world which had long before beene promised was not newly ratified only by oath but from this time the son of God was truly predestinated to be the seed of Abraham or the seed of Abraham to be the sonne of God as afterwards the seed or sonne of David was to wit from that time wherein the Lord had sworne to David that his seed should endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of Heaven Psal 89. 29. It is not to be omitted that where the Hebrew Psal 110. hath it The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand c. the Chaldee hath it The Lord said unto his Word sit thou at my right hand untill I make thy enemies thy footstoole And this Word or this Lord for so the Hebrewes expresse it by Adonai was then destinated and declared by oath to become not only the sonne of David but to be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech ver 4. All these three places will require some further consideration in the treatise of Gods Covenant with Abraham and with David or of our Saviours consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Thus much for the present may suffice that S. Iohn was nto the first which conceived the sonne of God God himselfe to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much lesse did he need to borrow his expressions from any Writers not truely Canonical For all this was conteyned in the places before alleaged as Ionathan and Onkelus interpret them and was likewise expressely conteyned in the Hebrew in sundry places of the Prophets of some of which God willing in the next Chapter 5 As little probabilitie there is either that S. Paul Heb 1. 1. should borrow his characters of the Sonne of God from the Author of the booke of Wisdome or that Author his though much what the same from S. Paul as that S. Iohn should take his expressions from the former Chaldee paraphrast or the later from S. Iohn Both S. Paul and the Author of the booke of Wisdome had their hints at least from such prenotions as the ancient Hebrews had of the wisdome or sonne of God or of their expected Messias when he should be revealed It is no way improbable much lesse incredible that such Interpreters or paraphrasers upon sacred writ as for ought we know did not expressely beleeve in the sonne of God either before his incarnation or since should have the forementioned prenotions concerning the promised Messias seeing the very Samaritans had the like which they could not gather from the ordinary reading of originall Scripture if at all they read them Such a prenotion that woman Iohn 4. had of the Messias before she did beleeve that Jesus was the promised Messias or Christ I know saith she that Messias commeth which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things ver 25. She had a prenotion and conceit that the Messias should tell them all things in a better manner then the prophets could do For shee had acknowledged our Saviour to be a Prophet ver 19 yet rested not satisfied with his answer to her question there made untill he had told her in expresse termes that hee was the promised Messias 6 But to compare S. Pauls characters of the son of God with the Authors of the booke of Wisdomes characters of the Wisdome of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the prophets Hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed heire of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Who being the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person and upholding all things by the word of the power when hee had by himselfe purged our sinnes sate downe on the right hand of the Majestie on high Being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by inheritance obteyned a farre more excellent name then they For she is the breath of the power of God and a pure influence flowing frō the glory of the Almighty therefore can no undefiled thing sal in to her For she is the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the image of his goodnesse And being but one she can do all things and remaining in her selfe shee maketh all things new in all ages entring into holy soules she maketh thē friends of God and Prophets For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdome For she is more beautifull then the sun above al the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it For after this commeth night but vice shall not prevaile against Wisdome 7 There is not one proposition or character in all this passage which for ought I yet know is not Canonicall No attribute of wisdome which can fitly be applied to any person or substance save onely to the son of God or at least to the holy Ghost But whether this Author did so intend them or apply them or whether the holy Ghost did by his peculiar inspiration or God by his speciall providence direct him thus to speake or write after the same manner he did Moses and other Authors of Canonicall Scriptures is not to me so evident Nor is it probable that this booke was written by Solomon albeit the Author of it doth put upon him the person of Solomon and personate himselfe under the habit or Garb of the King of Israel The opinion is not improbable who think this book was written by Philo the Iew to solace himselfe and his Country men upon the ill successe of his Embassage unto Caius the Emperour which was not many yeares after our Saviours death nor many before S. Paul did write his Epistle or S. Iohn his Gospell The book it selfe whosoever was the Author of it is an excellent and a most elegant paraphrase upon many Canonicall Scriptures and conteynes many exquisite expressions of Gods special providence and infinite wisdome in governing the world and in over-ruling both the policie and the power of greatest Princes The same booke notwithstanding is for many reasons justly denyed by S. Ierome by our Church and by many grave
writers in other Churches reformed to be any genuine part of the old Testamēt to be any portion of the rule or Canon of the Hebrews faith received by them before our Saviours incarnation And being no portiō of their Catholique rule or Canon it is no way probable that our Apostle S. Paul when he wrote the divine Epistle directed in speciall to the Hebrews his countrymen would borrow his titles or Attributes of our Saviours glory from this Authors encomiasme of wisdome Nor can any convincing proofe be brought to perswade us that the Author of this booke whosoever he was did make application of these characters of wisdome in the abstract unto Christ or truely beleeve either that Iesus the son of Mary though living haply on earth before his time or that the promised Messias whose coming he did expect should be the wisdome of God which he so magnifies or God incarnate in whom all former Scriptures and his owne encomiasme of Divine wisdome should in particular and punctually be fulfilled That the commendations which he gives to wisdome at least the most of them can really and truely be applied to none but Christ who is the wisdome and sonne of God All this and more being granted will not conclude that he did intend or thinke of Christs birth or incarnation or apprehend the personall union betweene the sonne of God and the sonne of David For Tully and other Heathen writers have made such panegyricall descriptions of vertues morall and intellectuall of wisdome especially or of Philosophy in their abstract notion as can have no reall paterne save only in the divine incomprehensible essence and yet they themselves lived and for ought wee know dyed without any distinct knowledge or apprehension of the true God yea many times committed grosse Idolatry with those vertues whether morall or intellectuall which they so magnified in the abstract 8. Whilest we peruse Authors either Heterodoxall or not Canonicall this rule I take it is of generall good use that for matter of practise or application wee are specially to consider quà m benè not quam bona on the contrary in point of speculation not quà m benè sed quà m bona not how well or to what good end they speake but how good things they speake or write The writings of the moderne Jew are for the most part malicious and morally evill yet unto such as know to make right use of them in their speculations upon the old Testament even in such of them as are professed enemies to our Lord and Saviour and to the Evangelical story there be so many scattered characters or misplaced syllables as being rightly put together and well ordered by some judicious Aristarchus or accurate composer would make up a more exact commentary upon most of those places in Moses and the Prophets which we Christians usually alleage for proving the truth of sundry articles in this Creed then can be gathered out of the Christian Interpreters of the old or new Testament which have not the care or skill to beat those enemies at their owne weapons or to retort those blowes which they offer at us upon themselves Those strange dreames or fancies which they have concerning mysteries to be revealed in the dayes of the Messias are evident signes that the Lord hath cast them into this long slumber for the instruction of us Christians And the right interpretation of their dreames or their application is one of the highest degrees of prophecy which in this later age can ordinarily bee expected And I would to God some sonnes of the Prophets would addresse their paines and studies to this purpose unto which according to our poore talent we shall have occasion to speake in some speciall articles following But to returne unto the point proposed in the beginning of this Chapter one speciall reason why S. Iohn instyles our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word not the sonne was to make up a more exquisite resemblāce of his incōprehensible Essence of the eternity of his person and his eternall generation of his consubstantiality with God the Father then without this particular expression we could have had or perhaps would have sought for Every one of his severall titles whether given to him by S. Iohn or by S. Paul addes something to the better expression of his unexpressible excellence unto the raising of our apprehensions to a higher pitch of admiration of these incomprehensible mysteries then one or two or fewer then are made could have done To informe our understandings or rectifie our faith that the son of God is more exquisitely or more consubstantially like unto his Father then any sonne of man is unto the father of his body he is by the holy Ghost instyled the expresse Image or character of his Fathers person Heb. 1. 3. No man can be altogether so like another as the impression is to the print To instruct us againe that this absolute and perfect expression of the father in the sonne farre exceed any such expression as the Statue can make of man or such as the seale leaves in the waxe he is by S. Iohn instyled by the name of life being the living substantiall image of his Father Againe to rectifie our apprehensions that the sonne of God did not grow into this absolute live image of his Father by degrees after such a manner as the sonnes of men doe for no child is altogether like his father from his birth it hath pleased the holy Ghost further to emblazon his incomprehensible generation or begetting under the character of brightnesse or light He is the brightnesse of Gods glory saith S. Paul and by S. Iohn the light And this is the most exquisite of any resemblāce that can be taken frō things sensible The sunne and fountaine of visible light doth naturally without interposition of time without any labour or operation produce or beget brightnesse or splendour And this it doth so uncessantly so perpetually that if we could imagine there had beene a sunne or fountaine of light without beginning to continue without end of time or dayes we could not but imagine that there should be a brightnesse or splendour perpetually produced without beginning or without ending of such production or of the brightnesse so produced by this fountaine of light Yet this supposition being granted or admitted the resemblance would herein faile That this continual production of light without beginning without ending did yet admit a succession or continuitie of time which the eternall generation of the sonne of God doth not admit for that onely is truely eternall which is not onely without beginning or end of dayes but without all succession in duration without mensuration of dayes or yeares all which are conteyned in eternitie as this visible world and all the power in it are conteyned in his power who is invisible and incorporeall All these resemblances are taken from things sensible Lastly the eternall generation of the sonne of God as most Divines will
my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him That is meat and drink indeed which nourisheth us not to a bodily but to a spirituall and immortall life which presupposeth an immortall seed Unto all these ends and purposes to our new birth to our nourishment and growth in spirituall life the flesh and blood of the Word or son of God were consecrated by his sufferings upon the crosse and by his resurrection from the dead He was according to his humane nature both the Priest appointed to obtaine these blessings and to award them ex officio and withall the sacrifice by whose participation they are really and actually conveyed unto all that doe or shall inherit the immortality of soule and body 7. But if his flesh and blood be the seed of immortalitie how are we said to be borne againe by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Is this word by which we are borne the same with that immortall feed of which wee are borne It is the same not in nature but in person May we not in that speech of S. Peter by the word understand the word preached in to us by the ministers who are Gods feeds men In a secondary sense we may for we are begotten and borne againe by preaching as by the instrument or meanes yet borne againe by the eternall word that is by Christ himselfe as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth Thus much S. Peters word is that place will inforce us to grant according to the letter For having before declared that the word of God by which we are born againe doth live and endure for ever he thus concludes and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you 1. Pet. 1. 25. 8. The Gospell it selfe taken in the largest sense is but the declaration of the Evangelists and Apostles upon the propheticall predictions concerning the incarnation the birth the death the resurrection and ascension of Christ And Christ himselfe who was put to death for our sinnes and raised againe for our justification is the word which we all doe or ought to preach The Gospell written or preached by us cannot be that word which by the Gospell is preached unto us This Word in the literall assertive sense can bee no other then the eternall word or sonne of God made flesh and consecrated in the flesh to be the seed of immortalitie And if wee take the Gospell not according to the outward letter or bark but for the heart or substance of the Gospell or for the glad tidings of life which is the primitive signification of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gospell that is no other then the Word made flesh or manifested in the flesh To this purpose saith our Evangelist or rather the Angell of the Lord Luke 2. 10. Feare not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people this is no more then the Prophet saith all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord for unto you is borne this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Lord he was long before and this Lord was made flesh before that day wherein he was borne but first manifested in the flesh upon that day and manifested to be the Saviour of all people or all flesh some eight dayes after yet not then compleatly made Christ untill his resurrection Againe the Gospell in its prime or principall sense is no other or no more then the great mystery of godlinesse which was inwrapt in the volume of Moses and the Prophets but not revealed or unfolded untill the word was made flesh was circumcised in the flesh and made King and Christ Without controversie saith S. Paul 1. Tim. 3. 16. great is the mysterie of godlinesse God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory All these testimonies put together amount to this point that the sonne of God manifested in the flesh was that Word which in S. Peters language is preached by the Gospell And if we doe not preach this word unto our hearers if all our sermons doe not tend to one of these two ends either to instruct our Auditors in the articles of their Creed concerning Christ or to prepare their eares and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions we doe not preach the Gospell unto them wee take upon us the name of Gods Ambassadors or of the ministers of the Gospell more then in vaine 9. Besides all these testimonies and others that might bee alleaged all most undoubtedly true in the literall assertive sense that the mystery of godlinesse or the joyfull tidings which Abrahams seed did expect should consist in the union betweene the eternall Word or sonne of God and our flesh we have a most lively character or prefiguration though not assertive in the originall word designed by the wisedome of God to expresse the preaching of the Gospel or joyfull embassage of our everlasting peace For one and the same word in the originall doth signifie flesh and the preaching of glad tidings unto all people or flesh without variation of any radicall letter but only of grammaticall moode or declension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use of the originall language doth properly signifie flesh that is men or creatures indued with life or sense and being the root or primitive is not a verb but a noune The first verbe that is formed of it doth signifie as much as the Latine nunciavit or nunciare to bring or deliver a message and is alwayes used for some good or joyfull message and in peculiar for the preaching of the Gospell which is the joyfull message 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to omit other places it is thus used Ierem. 20. 15. Cur sed be the man that brought tidings to my Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying a man child is borne unto thee making him very glad And in the forecited 40. of Isaiah ver 9. O Sion that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain◠O Ierusalem that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up be not afraid say unto the cities of Iudah behold your God And in the 61 of Isaiah ver 1. which is the very place wherein the preaching of the Gospell by our Saviour himselfe is foreprophecyed that which S. Luke expresses chap. 4. ver 18. by preaching the Gospell to the poore is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelizatum pauperes Now that flesh and preaching of glad tidings to all flesh should be signified by one and the same originall word no grammarian can easily give any reason It falls not within the compasse of their Etymologies or derivations there is not here a primitive and derivative
Jehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence And I will give thee into the hand of them that seeke thy life and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and into the hand of the Caldeans And I will cast thee out and thy mother that bare thee into another Country where yee were not borne and there shall ye dye But to the Land whereunto they desire to returne thither shall they not returne Is this man Coniah a despised broken Idoll Is hee a vessell wherein is no pleasure Wherefore are they cast out hee and his seed and are cast into a Land which they know not O earth earth heare the word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord Write ye this man childless a man that shall not prosper in his dayes for no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Iudah Ierem. 22. 24 25 26 c. This last clause is to mee a concludent proofe that the man Christ Jesus was not of Ieconiahs seed because he was to sit upon the throne of David and to prosper yea to be the fountaine of all prosperitie to Prince and people And hee that will avouch our Lord and Saviour to have been of the seed of Ieconiah will hardly be able to fend off that coÌ„tradiction which his assertion directly includes not onely to the Angels promise Luk. 1. 33. but unto the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 23. ver 5 6. Behold the day is come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shall raigne and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth In his dayes Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely c. The man Christ Jesus is in this place and elsewhere instyled the branch of David or a stem of the roote of Iesse but no where a branch of Solomon or of his feed which is most probable did determine in Ieconiah whom his Uncle Zedekiah did succeed for a while in the kingdome of Judah but with worse successe For Ezekiels denouncement against him and the Crowne of Solomon was no lesse terrible then this of Ieremiah against Coniah And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquitie shall have an end Thus saith the Lord God Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown this shall not be the same exalt him that is low and abase him that is high I will overturne overturne overturne it and it shall be no more untill he come whose right it is and I will give it him Ezech. 21. 25 26 27. The contents of this denunciation as I take it are these especially Both the Crowne and the Mitre the ensignes of the royall and sacerdotall dignitie were so to be crushed that neither should remaine the same they were The Mitre was to be cast a new but in a farre lesse mould the Crowne to be broken and the reliques of it to be united to the Mitre both put together to remaine but as models of that dignitie which before they generally had untill the royall and princely dignity were united in him that had full right to both that is in the promised seede or Sonne of David The readings upon the 27 verse are various The vulgar Latine following the Septuagint thus iniquitatem ponam eam The Zuricke or Tigurine thus curvam curvam ponam eam And if this reading be just and straight it may serve as a character of that â—â—â—ked descent and tortuous revolution of the civill and Ecclesiasticke power from one Family unto another not settling in any one line untill the coming of the sonne of David unto whom both by right did belong Yet some authoritie in all this Tumble did still remaine in the Tribe of Iudah though not in the race of Solomon or of David untill Shiloh came And I know not whether that cited passage of Ezekiel ver 27. It shal be no more to wit the same that it was untill he come whose right it is have not speciall reference to that Prophecy of Iacob Gen. 49. 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah untill Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be The Septuagint seeme to interpret the name Shiloh according to the same importance that the originall as our English hath it Ezek. 21. 27. whose right it is as if Shiloh had been as much as Asherle cui repositum est But whether according to the ordinary rules of Grammar Shilo may stand for as much as Shello or whether the mysterie conteined in this prophecy might require or dispense with some irregularitie in the grammaticall forme of speech I leave it to accurate Criticks or sacred Philologers and so I do another question which is emergent as well out of the forecited words of Iacob as of Ezekiell whether both prophecies were to be understood of Christs first comming to judge Jerusalem unto which later the words of Ezekiel seeme most to incline for so the originall untill he come to whom judgement belongeth I rest contented with this part of the prophet Ezekiels undoubted meaning that neither the civil nor the Ecclesiastick dignitie of Judah were to be the same they were until the comming of the expected Messiah and yet some reliques of both do remaine untill his comming 5 Some of the Priestly line after this peoples returne from Babylon did take upon them to exercise princely authority as the Maccabees but with more honour for a while then with good successe for posterity Others afterwards did attempt the like but were put by it yet permitted or authorized by the Romanes to exercise the Priestly function some of them executed for their mutinous aspiring to the Crowne Lastly when they became Competitors for the royall dignity it was collated upon Antipater and from him derived or suffered by Augustus to descend on Herod the great in whose daies the promised seede of David the true heire unto the Crowne of Judah was borne But though Herod did exercise royall jurisdiction over Judea aswel as over other neighbouring provinces yet was hee not created King over Judea this was no part of his royall Title bestowed upon him by Antonius The first solemne authorized Title of King of Judah from the captivitie of King Ieconiah and Zedekiah was that inscription written upon our Saviours Crosse written by Pilates command so peremptorily that the Jews could not get a change or reversion of it in any of the three languages wherein it was written Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Pilate I take it did not in this inscription intend the scoffe or scorn of our Saviour or of the Jewish Nation but only the style or Title of the crime for which our Saviour was endited Hee neither affirmed nor denyed him to be the King of the Jews but that which the world might conceive was written in jest or in
Iudaea For thus it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah For out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel It is not strange if the chiefe Priests and Scribes were so ready with their answers unto Herod seeing this prenotion concerning the place of the Messiahs birth was knowne unto the vulgar people Many of the people saith S. John when they heard this saying said Of a truth this is the Prophet Others said This is the Christ But some said Shall Christ come out of Galilee Hath not the Scripture said that Christ commeth of the seede of David and out of the towne of Bethleem where David was 8. But how cleare soever the meaning of the Prophet Micah in those daies were both to Priest and people some variation there is in the words of S. Matthew from the words of the Prophet as they stand in the originall at which both later Jewes and some Christians take more offence then the ancient Jews could have done And if this variation were of any moment or could minister just offence either to the Jew to the Grecian or to the Church of God all the blame were to be layed upon these Scribes and Priests whom Herod in his perplexity did consult For S. Matthew in this particular was but the Register of their answer which hee did record in the same words that they solemnely made it The words of the Prophet in the originall as they are now pointed runne thus And thou Bethleem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Iudah yet out of thee shall hee come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have beene from old from everlasting Micah 5. 2. The answer of the Priests and Scribes as it stands upon record by S. Matthew is verbatim thus And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea in clearer distinction from Bethleem in the Tribe of Zebulon in which Tribe or upon whose borders our Saviour was conceived then the Prophets words import for That it may be might as truely brooke the name of Ephrata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam miniâ—a es inter principatâ—â— and Chiliadas Iudeae Art nothing lesse then the least of all the Segniories or divisions of Iudah For so it seemes they did divide their Tribes or Provinces as wee doe Shires or Counties into severall Hundreds or Liberties Some good Writers whom our English followeth seeke to salve this seeming contradiction betweene the Prophet and Evangelist or that answer which hee relates made by the chiefe Priests and Scribes to Herod thus But thou or as for thee O Bethleem Ephrata though thou be little to be reckoned among the Seigniories or thousands of Iudea yet out of thee shall he come forth unto mee that is to be Ruler in Israel c. But this squaring of the Prophets words to our Evangelists relation is somewhat harsh and rugged to the moderne Jew who seekes to frame his steps according to the plaine troden literall sense And therefore seeing both Christians and Jews as well ancient as moderne agree that the promised Messias was to be borne in Bethleem the variation of the reading in the Prophet and in the Evangelist should not in reason be too much stood upon by either yet seeing wee are bound to give no offence to the Jew nor to presse any reading at which they may stumble being enclined to trip at every scruple we may I take it with the liking and approbation of Drusius an exquisite Hebrician for point of Grammar and without the dislike of any learned Jew reade the first words of the Prophet Micah by way of interrogation thus And art thou Bethleem Ephrata little or too little to be reputed among the principalities of Iudah Now this interrogation according to both their rules and ours is equivalent to the negative used by our Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam minima thou art in no wise little or too little to have place among the Seigniories or principalities of Iudaea This interrogation being presupposed the words following naturally admit this paraphrasticall supply little thou art and for a long time hast beene in re but great in spe For out of thee shall hee come forth to me which shall be the Ruler over Israel whose going forth hath beene of old from everlasting foretold and expected before Iudah was a Kingdome or David a King from the beginning of the world of mankinde and ever since the fall of the first man Adam CHAP 34. The manner of our Saviours conception and birth as it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah exactly fulfilled The Iews exceptions against S. Matthewes allegation of the Prophet Isaiahs testimony with the full answer unto them MICAH foretells the particular place of the sonne of Davids birth in termes plaine and literall Ieremiah the place of his conception in generall as Isaiah had done before in particular but both somwhat aenigmatically The manner of his conception and birth abstracted from these circumstances of place and time is most emphatically foretold by Isaiah and as I take it some few yeares before Micah did so punctually describe the place of his birth Micah as it is upon sacred record Ierem. 26. 18 19. prophecied in the dayes of Hezekiah and so did Isaias But whether any prophecie of Micah beare date before the raigne of Hezekiah is to me uncertaine And that prophecie of Micah before mentioned Chap. 5. ver 2. And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea c in all probability was delivered in the dayes of Hezekiah and after that other prophecy Micah 3. 12. Sion shall be plowed like a field c. Whereas the prophecy of Isaias concerning the manner of Christs conception and birth was uttered by him viva voce in the dayes of King Ahaz who was Father to Hezekiah as appeares Isaiah 7. 1. unto the 17. The prophecy was Heare yee now O House of David is it a small thing for you to weary men but will you wearie my God also Therefore the Lord himselfe shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin or the Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel This is the first prophecy alleaged by S. Matthew Chap. 1. where having registred the Angels speech to Ioseph in a vision by night ver 19. Then Ioseph her Husband being a just â—an and not willing to make her a publique example was minded to put her away privily But while he thought on these things behold the Aâ—gel of the Lord appeared to him in a dreame saying Joseph thou sonne of David feare not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost he thus concludeth Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet 2. Iunius in his parallel upon this 22 verse and the forecited testimony of
and before her did conceive and bring forth a sonne This in no wiâ—e may be granted nor any interpretation of any place admitted from which such impious conclusions as this may be inferred To conceive a sonne whilest shee was a virgin was the incommunicable prerogative of the mother of our Lord. Yet will it not hence follow that the Prophet by the emphaticall character of a virgin Hagnalma might not designe some virgin then present not the Prophets wife but rather some virgin of Ahaz kinred or of the house of Iudah for whom hee astipulates that within the compasse of the yeare following shee should conceive and bring forth a sonne not whilst shee was a virgin but by becomming a lawfull wife beyond or before her expectation 7. But here such as are otherwise minded or take this passage to be literally meant of the blessed virgin alone will reply What wonder was it or what matter worthy the ushering in with an Ecce or other like injunction of attention for her who was now a virgin to conceive and bring forth a sonne after the manner that other women within a yeare after they are maried usually do But they who thus object facilè pronunciant quia ad pauca respiciunt they give sentence upon the view of one circumstance only when as they should take a great many more into their consideration The virgin thus particularized according to the literall sense of the Prophet whether then present as is most probable or otherwise so famously knowne that his words in all mens apprehension then present had reference to her might be either for want of yeares or for some other defects as unlikely to bring forth a sonne within the time limited as Sarah after 90 yeares age was more unlikely than the wife of Manoah or Zacharias However it farre surpassed the skill of Astrologers Physitians of men expert in naturall Magick or other kinde of divination whatsoever besides the divination which proceedes from the Father of lights to give such full assurance as the Prophet there doth that any woman should conceive within such a compasse of time or that shee should conceive a sonne not a daughter least of all that shee should conceive and bring forth a Sonne who should deservedly brooke the name and title of Emmanuel that is to be a pledge of Gods speciall presence to the house of David or land of Iudah or to protect them against their potent enemies or to be a demonstrative signe or hostage that before hee could know how to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land which Ahaz abhorred should be forsaken of both their Kings who were now ready and able without Gods speciall ayde to devoure the Land of Iudah Yet for all these and other like consequences of Emmanuels birth the Prophet confidently astipulates in the name of his God which without a speciall warrant from him had beene an intolerable presumption But as for Ahaz himselfe his house and people because they would not beleeve this prediction according to the literall tenour they were to be plagued by that Nation in whose potencie they put their trust by the same enemie which the Prophet had foretold should by Gods appointment defeat the present mischievous designe of Syria and Samaria against Iudah And all this they should have done without any future harme or danger to the house of David by them so Ahaz and his people would have relyed entirely upon Gods promise or faithfully accepted of the signe promised by his Prophet But not beleeving this they were not established ver 9. For so the Prophet immediatly after Ahaz refusall of this signe did threaten Ahaz and his people ver 17. The Lord shall bring upon thee and thy people and upon thy Fathers house dayes that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah even the Kings of Assyria And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall hisse for the Flye that is in the uttermost part of the Rivers of Aegypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleyes and in the holes of the rockes and upon all thornes and upon all bushes The demerits of Ahaz and of his people which did deserve the denuntiation and execution of the plagues here threatned were their too much confidence in the King of Assyria and their distrust hence occasioned of what the Lord had promised by his Prophet Isaiah and would have performed by other meanes than by the ayde of the Assyrian so they would have relyed upon them Wee do not reade that either Ahaz or his people did distrust much lesse that they were punished for their distrust unto Gods promises concerning the comming of the Messias in the appointed time but for not accepting the signe or pledge as well of his comming as of their instant deliverance from the danger wherein then they stood 8. But what probabilities or just presumptions be there that any woman who was a virgin at the time when Ahaz and Isaiah met in the high way of the Fullers field should upon the occasion mentioned become a married woman and conceive a sonne according to the time intimated by the Prophet All this I take it is more then probable from the true and literall meaning of the 1 2 3 and 4 verses of the 8 Chapter which are no other then an exegeticall exposition of the former prophecie Chap. 7. vers 14 15 16. or a more legall ratification or new assumption of making good the assurance which in the former Chapter he had given Moreover the Lord said unto me take thee a great roule and write in it with a mans penne concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz And I took unto me faithfull witnesses to record Vriah the Priest and Zechariah the sonne of Jeberechiah And I went unto the Prophetesse and shee conceived and bare a sonne then said the Lord to mee Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry my father and my mother the riches of Damascus and the spoile of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria The Child promised Chap. 7. ver 14 and in this place according to the true connexion of the literall sense is in my apprehension one and the same though described by two names the one importing comfort to the house of David and the land of Iudah and this was given him before his conception the later importing the sudden execution of the woes denounced against Syria and Samaria and was given him after his conception And lest wee should doubt whether this Maher-shalal-hash-baz were the same with the Emmanuel promised in the former Chapter hee is instyled again by the very same name Chap. 8. unto ver 8. The Lord spake unto me againe saying Forsomuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that goe softly and rejoyce in Rezin Remaliahs sonne now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up
upon them the waters of the rivers strong and many even the King of Assyria and all his glory and he shall come up over all his channels and goe over all his banks Againe that the name Emmanuel did literally import Gods peculiar presence at that time with his people not only to deliver them from Rezin and Pekah but from the potencie of the Assyrian in future times is evidently included in the 9 and 10 verses Associate your selves O yee people and yee shall be broken in pieces and give eare all yee of farre Countries gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall be brought to naught speake the word and it shall stand for God is with us The strange defeat of the confederacie here foretold was not to be expected in the dayes of Ahaz in whose times the Assyrian did attempt no great matters against them but in the dayes of Hezekiah Thus much the Prophets words in the verses following import ver 16. 17. Binde up the testimony seale my law among my Disciples And I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him This binding up of the Testimony and sealing of this Law doth argue both the Law and testimony to have beene of speciall moment yet not to be put in execution or fully accomplished for the present Of the accomplishment of both whether wholly or in part the Prophets sonnes in the interim were signes and pledges as is imported ver 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given mee are for signes and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hoasts which dwelleth in Mount Sion This last passage is alledged by the Apostle amongst others to prove that the Lord of Hoasts himselfe who in the 14. verse of the 8. of Isaiah had promised to be a Sanctuary to his people was to participate with them of flesh and bloud Hee that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee And againe I will put my trust in him And againe Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yet that the 18. verse of Isaiah the 8 to which our Apostle in this place referres us was literally meant of the Prophet and his Children is too apparent to be denied nor will it be safe to stand upon termes of contradiction thus farre with the moderne Jew One of the Prophets sonnes was called Shear-iashub which by interpretation is The remnâ—nt shall returne and of this returne or restauration hee was the signe or pledge The other was called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us a name portending or foretokening Gods speciall presence with his people at more times than one The imposition of both names and their importance were literally fulfilled in the age immediatly following but mistically fulfilled only in Christ whose comming to visit his people was prefigured by both of them The full importance or abode of the name Emmanuel was fulfilled in our Saviours conception and birth the true importance of Shear-iashub shall be mystically fulfilled when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come or when the Jew shall be called to be againe the seede of Abraham according to promise 9. Two points only remaine The first how the prophecie concerning Emmanuel was fulfilled according to the literall sense in the Prophets time and our resolution in this point wee must take from the sacred records of this theame in the old Testament The second how this prophecie was fulfilled according to the mysticall sense and this wee must learne from the Evangelists which alledge the fulfilling of it and other unpartiall Writers which relate either circumstances or signes of those times in which they wrote Out of these two points the parallel betweene the Prophet and Evangelists will of its owne accord without any anxious inquirie or further discussion result 10 The Histories of the old Testament by which Isaiahs literall meaning may be best interpreted are in the 2 of Kings 17 18. 2 Chron. 28. 16 17 c. We have a constat from the prophet Isaiah himselfe Chap. 7. 1 2. That this prophecy concerning Emmanuel was uttered by him in the dayes of Ahaz King of Judah and of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah but in what certaine yeare of either of these two Kings raignes this revelation was made to Isaiah and the matter of it instantly imparted unto King Ahaz is not so certaine Most certaine it is that Isaiah delivered this message from the Lord to Ahaz before the twelfth yeare of his raigne for in that yeare Hoshea the sonne of Elah begun to raigne in Samaria over Israel 2 Kings 17. 1. and this was after Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was dead And though it be not so certaine yet most probable it is that the former prophecy was uttered about the 8 or 9 yeare of Ahaz or about 3 yeares or somewhat more before Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was slaine One yeare or somewhat under we must allow for the conception and birth of the Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz and some two yeares after untill he were upon the point or period of time wherein ordinary Children in those dayes were enabled to know how to refuse the evill and choose the good that is to distinguish between other meats besides milke butter and honey and betweene his parents and other persons Before this Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz were thus enabled to distinguish betweene meate and meat or his parents and other persons but how long before this time it is uncertaine both Pekah sonne of Remaliah and Rezin King of Syria according to the tenour of Isaiahs prophecy and the astipulation made by him upon the signe profered to Ahaz were to be deprived of their Kingdomes or rather their Land and Kingdomes to be quitted of them Isaiah 7. 16. Chap. 8. ver 4. But before their ruine and before this revelation concerning their ruine was made unto the Prophet Isaiah they had brought Judah and the house of David exceeding low 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 7 8. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria and they smote him carryed away a great multitude of them Captives and brought them to Damascus And hee was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter For Pekah the sonne of Remaliah slue in Iudah an hundred and twentie thousand in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers And Zichri a mightie man of Ephraim slue Maaserah the Kings sonne and Azrikam the governour of the house and Elkanah that was next to the King And the Children of Israel caryed away captive
of it the hopes of Rezin and Pekah for the extirpation of it were so advanced that they confidently resolved upon the particular man whom they meant to make King of Iudah that was the sonne of Tabeol Isaiah 7. 6. In the height of this their confidence and the perplexitie of Judah and the House of David the Lord sends his Prophet Isaiah to give them assurance of their Delivery by an extraordinary signe In the dayes of Ioseph and Mary his espoused wife the House of David whereof they both were branches was brought much lower then in the dayes of Ahaz it had beene And however no mischief were intended against them in particular as being obscure and private persons neither in possession nor competitors for the Kingdome yet for breaking off the succession of David or preventing any of his line to be Lord of Judah the plot was laid with more cunning then it had been by Rezin and Pekah Three of those ancient Fochoods which had sought to wreak themselves against Judah in the dayes of Ahaz were now revived and united in one man in Herod the great and the Fochood by this union became both greater and stronger He was by birth a Philistine and by royall title bestowed upon him by the Romanes King of Idumaea and Samaria unto which he sought to annex Judea as his inheritance And although the particulars be not mentioned in the new Testament yet is it indefinitely evident out of S. Matthew that Herod had his confederates against the house of David and which assoone as they knew of his birth did seeke the life of the sonne of David When Herod was dead behold an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dreame to Ioseph in Aegypt saying Arise and take the yong Child and his mother and goe into the Land of Israel for they are dead which sought the yong Childs life Math. 2. 19. 20. This argues there were some other that dyed about the same time with Herod which with him had sought the life of Jesus In this low estate whereunto the house of David was brought before the death of Herod and his confederates the Lord did send not a Prophet but an Angel to assure not the continuance only of Davids succession but the restauration enlargement and everlasting establishment of his Kingdome unto Mary the daughter of David and her husband by a greater signe than Isaiah had proffered unto Ahaz The Angel delivers his embassage mostwhat in the same words that Isaiah did to Ahaz Behold saith the Prophet Isaiah 7. 14. this virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and she shall call his name Emmanuel Unto the blessed virgin then present saith the Angel Luke 1. 30 31. Feare not Mary for thou hast found favour with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a sonne and shalt call his name Iesus The imposition of this name Jesus is committed to the care of the virgin so was the name of Emmanuel to the virgin to whom the Prophet Isay directs his speech when he delivered his message unto Ahaz For in the originall the word which S. Matthew renders impersonally or in the third person plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is according to the Hebrew Dialect Hee shall be called is the second person singular and the foeminine tu vocabis thou Virgin shalt call him Emmanuel This variation of the Evangelist from the Prophets precise word is such as breedes no vitiation at all in the reall sense but such as reason it selfe and rules of Grammar require in like cases The Virgin being as wee suppose present when the Prophet exhibited the signe unto Ahaz hee was to speake unto her in the second person But the Evangelist relating the fulfilling of this prophecie not in the literall sense onely but in the mysticall was to change the person or to relate it in the third person plurall which is indeed an impersonall according to the Hebrew Dialect Behold a virgin shall bring forth a sonne and they shall call his name that is he shall be called Emmanuel which is by interpretation God with us 12 But here the Jew demands first how the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is alwayes emphaticall should denote the blessed Virgin and should be transferred from one virgin to another Secondly why the name given our Saviour at his circumcision was not Emmanuel according to the Prophets speech but Jesus To the first demand wee answer that the originall letter is alwayes emphaticall sometimes a note of demonstration or particularity and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin then present as if the Prophet had said Ecce virgo haec Behold this virgin shall conceive c. Sometime it is a note of Eminencie and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin of Virgins the blessed Mother of our Lord of whom it is meant not only in the mysticall but in the most exquisite literall sense To the second we say the imposition of the name Emmanuel had beene requisite at our Saviours circumcision if this prophecie had bin meant of Him only in the literall sense But in as much as it was to be fulfilled in Him according to the most exquisite both literall and mysticall sense it was requisite there should be an improvement as well in the significancie of the name as in the thing signified by it Now the name Iesus imports a great deale more than the name Emmanuel as will appeare in the explication of it The importance of the name Emmanuel as it referres unto the Childe instantly promised by Isaiah is applied unto the blessed Virgin by the Angel in his preface to the Annuntiation Luk. 1. 28. Haile thou that art in high favour the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women The Lord was with her in a more peculiar manner whilest the Angell thus spoke unto her then he had beene with Gideon to whom the like salutation was tendred by an Angel Iudg. 6. 12. Or with Iudah in the dayes of Isaiah or Hezekiah But after the Lord was conceived by her he was both with her and with us after a more admirable manner than at any time he had beene before with Gods dearest Saints This manner of his being with us could not be fully expressed by any other name then the name Iesus 13 Ahaz his distrust unto Gods promise being set aside or rather if wee use it as a foyle to set forth the blessed Virgins facile assent and fidelity unto the Revelation made unto her by the Angell the propheticall and Evangelicall story hold better correspondencie both for substance and circumstance thâ—â— is betweene the Model and the Edifice The Emmanuel promised by Isaiah was an assured pledge that Pekah King of Samaria and Rezin King of Syria should die or be deposed before this Childe could distinguish betweene meates or cry My Father my Mother The accomplishment of this signe or of the promise confirmed by it is registred in
the sacred story For Pekah was slaine by Hoshea the sonne of Elah within two or three yeares after the signe was given and so was Rezin by Tiglath Pileser at Damascus Within the like compasse of yeares after the Evangelicall promise was made to the blessed Virgin that her sonne Iesus should sit upon her Father Davids throne Herod the great who had usurped it did die a miserable death so did his confederates against the house of Iudah as wee gather from Matthew 2. 20. Arise saith the Angel to Ioseph in a dreame and take the young Childe and his Mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead which sought the young Childes life Now Ioseph returned from Egypt two yeares after our Saviour was borne Whom the Evangelist meanes beside Herod when hee saith they were dead which sought the Childes life is no where in sacred story expressed nor is it to mee certaine whether Syria at that time had a King of their own but it is probable they had seeing in S. Pauls time Aretas was King of Damascus 2. Cor. 11. 32. Some there be which mention the death of one Obedas whom they make King of Syria who died about the same time with Herod but from what authority they expresse not The Evangelist might meane the Roman Governour of Syria by whose favour and potencie Herod was emboldned to tyrannize over the Jews Nation and to worke his projects against the house of David Some have accused Quintilius Varus of this great sinne unto whom and to the Legions under his Governement the right hand of the Lord of Hoasts had reached a more terrible blow than Iudah had received from him or Herod within some few yeares after the butcherie of the Infants 14. The second blessing whereof the Emmanuel was a pledge whose conception had beene foretold by Isaiah was not exhibited till many yeares after and it was this that Judah and the house of David should be more admirably delivered from the Assyrian when he should besiege Ierusalem more fiercely then Rezin or Pekah had done And this was in the dayes of Hezekiah for so the Prophet assures the people that the rod of Ashur should be broken as in the day of Midian Isaiah 9. 4. Which is in effect as if he had said The Lord will be with us after as wonderfull a manner as he was with Gideon when Israel was oppressed by the Midianites And so it fell out in the dayes of Hezekiah that Senacheribs mighty Army was destroyed by a more fearefull destruction then the Midianites had beene by Gideon And unto this strange defeat of the Assyrian the Prophets words Isaiah 9. 4 5. do referre Thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen and the staffe of his shoulders the rod of his Oppressour as in the day of Midian For every battell of the Warrier is with confused noyse and garments rolled in bloud but this shall be with burning and fewell of fire Now of this disaster which befell Assyria and the strange deliverance of Iudah and the house of David by it the Emmanuel there promised by Isaiah was the pledge or assurance as the Prophet in the next word intimates For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. Isaiah 9. 6. That by this Childe the Prophet meant the Emmanuel mentioned Chapter 7. is acknowledged by all even by such as admit of no more Emmanuels then one to wit our Saviour Christ But seeing the Emmanuel there literally meant was given as a pledge or comfort unto Iudah in this particular distresse certainely hee was borne before him though not borne only as a pledge of this deliverance but of a farre greater Deliverer or Saviour to come for whose sake alone this deliverance and all other of his people from their enemies both bodily and ghostly were sent from God And best Interpreters take those words of Isaiah 2. Kings 9. 34. I will defend this Citie to save it for mine owne sake and for my servant Davids sake to be literally meant not of David but of Davids sonne the true Emmanuel But to returne to the 9. of Isaiah upon that vision of that great overthrow of Senacheribs Armie the Prophet takes his rise to view a greater victory a more potent Enemie in the same place where Senacheribs Armie was overthrowne and that was not neere Ierusalem but in the borders of Zebulun and Napthali neere to Libanus in that Country whose Inhabitants Senacheribs predecessour Tiglath-Pileser had first captivated and in the same place our Saviour gave his Apostles power over Satan and his Angels who had his people in greater subjection then the Assyrians had them in the time of Isaiah For hee had possessed many of their bodies after another manner then any earthly Tyrant could have them in possession Now when the Prophet foretels as well the victory of the Angell of the Lord over the Assyrian as the victory of Christs Apostles over Satan he gives this one signe of both For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. These words may referre both to the type and to the antitype in the literall sense but immediatly after the light of that great mysterie which all this while had beene under the cloude of the literall sense breakes forth in its proper native lustre For the words following can be meant of none but Christ And his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Of the encrease of his governement and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever the Zeale of the Lord of Hoasts will performe this As for the former passages concerning the Emmanuel and Mahar-shalal-hash-baz they are literally meant of Isaiah his sonne and yet are withall proofes no lesse concludent against the Jew no lesse pregnant testimonies of our beliefe concerning the miraculous birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ than the testimonies last cited out of Isaiah 9. 6 7. or of his Godhead or everlasting Kingdome For however such immediate visions or unvailed revelations of Christ as Isaiah in these two verses and in the 53 Chapter or elsewhere addes were the most sublime kinde of prophecies such as few other Prophets besides David could ever attaine unto these having the like priviledges amongst the Prophets that Peter Iames and Iohn had amongst the fellow Apostles permitted to ascend the Mount with Christ and see the transfiguration or glory of his Kingdom Yet for our instruction predictions of Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are most admirably concludent as was premised before especially when the same words according to the literall sense fit both the pledge and the mysterie pledged or the Evangelicall mysterie according to the improvement in a more exquisite sense then they did the type or
imbellished with one letter But admit the name Iesus as wee take it in our Creed given to our Saviour by the Angel must draw its pedegree from the same Hebrew roote or primitive from which the name Iesus given to others is derived yet the branches of the same roote or primitive from any of which the name Iesus may be aptly alike immediatly deriued differ much First wee may derive the word Iesus from the future tense of the Hebrew Iashang Salvavit And thus the name in the Hebrew should be Iehoshuah whence he whom in our English we call Ioshua the sonne of Nun and Iesus the sonne of God should have one and the selfe same name in the Hebrew as they have in the Greeke and vulgar Latine According to this derivation all the prerogatives which Iesus Christ the sonne of God can challenge before Iesus the sonne of Nun or others which have beene called Iesus must be deduced only from the matter or manner of the salvation which he bestowes not from any peculiar property or soveraignty of name The same name in the Hebrew is sometimes read shorter not Iehoshua but Ieshua and from this later contracted name as well the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Latine Iesus is more immediatly and with lesse alteration derived This later kinde of writing or contraction was more familiar among the Jews in our Saviours time And for this reason the moderne Jews call him Iesu not in despight or mockery as some great Clarks have beene perswaded but out of an ordinary custome of omitting the Hebrew guttur all in this and like words for better facility of pronouncing And as Drusiâ—s notes the omission of this letter in proper names grew in use amongst later Hebricians such as lived since or about our Saviours time upon the same occasions that moved the ancient Latine Fathers to render the Hebrew Hoseang not as we do now Hoseas but Ose Whether we read Iehoshua or Ieshua or Ieshu in the Hebrew the name in the greeke or Latine is all one and the meaning or signification in the Hebrew the very same 2 But albeit the name of this our Jesus may rightly be derived from the same branch of the Hebrew Iashang from which the name of Iesus as it was given to Iesus the sonne of Nun and to Iesus the sonne of Iosedec tooke their originall yet I like best of their opinion which derive the name Iesus as given to the sonne of God not from the participle verbe or adjective but from the abstract or substantive Ieshugnah which is as much as salus ipsa or Salvation it selfe And this originall of the name Iesus Simeon seemes to intimate in his divine song Luke 1. ver 28. 29. Hee tooke the child Iesus saith the Evangelist in his arme and blessed God and said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not salvatorem but salutem not the Saviour but the salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of the people Israel Now all these attributes of being a light to lighten the Gentiles to be the glory of Israel are properly ascribed unto the person of our Saviour unto God made man or unto the man Christ Jesus in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily The Hebrew abstract or substantive which the Greekes expresse by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by salvation it selfe not by Saviour is most frequently used in those places of Scripture wherein Salvation by Christ is promised As Isay 52. 10. The Lord hath made bare his holy arme in the eyes of all the Nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of our God And againe Isai 56. 1. Thus saith the Lord keep ye judgement and do justice for my salvation is neere to come and my righteousnesse to be revealed And Abakuk 3. 18. Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation so our English or in God my salvation or my Iesus And againe Isay 49. 6. It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Iacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my Salvation unto the end of the Earth Instantly after God had saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians and drowned the Egyptians in the Sea Moses and the Children of Israel sang this song unto the Lord. Exod 15. 1 2. Hee hath tryumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he throwne into the Sea The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my salvation c. This deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian thraldome and their safe conduct through the red Sea was but a type or shadow of a greater deliverance to be wrought by the same God for his people for which they were to take up the same song which Moses and the children of Israel here did but with some additions or fuller expressions how the God of their strength should become the God of their Salvation or their Jesus And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Iehovah is my strength and my song hee is also my Salvation Therefore with joy shall yee draw water out of the wels of Salvation Isai 12. 1 2 3. Though these and many other places of the like observation had their true historicall occasions yet were they not exactly fulfilled according to their propheticall importance untill hee fulfilled them who was Jehovah both Lord and God from eternitie not by a generall title but by a distinct and proper name given unto him by Gods appointment at his circumcision How the name and office of Christ Jesus a King and Priest was both foreprophecied and respectively foreshadowed by Iesus the sonne of Nun and by Iesus the sonne of Iehosedec must be referred unto his consecration to be the Priest after the order of Melchisedec 3 If followeth in the Creed That Iesus Christ who is the only sonne of God is our Lord. Now whether this title Lord be interserted into this article by way of anticipation as the other title Christ apparently is may be doubted He did beare the name Iesus from his Circumcision as wee do our Christen names from the Font. This was his proper name the other two were names of office Know yee saith the Apostle Acts 2. 36 that that Iesu whom yee have crucified him hath God made both Christ and Lord to wit after they had crucified him Hee was anointed to his Propheticall office at his Baptisme but thereby rather initiated to be