ceremonies and chang'd into the Lords day And the Lords day besides the representation of God's rest from his workes of creation upon the Seventh day containes a weekly commemoration of our Redemption from the bondage of finne and powers of darknesse represented by the thraldome of Israel in Egypt through the Resurrection of our Lord and Redeemer Againe no solemnity in all the sacred Calender of legall foasts was more peremptorily enjoyned or strictly observed then the feast of Expiation or Attonement yet was not this anniveriary feast so properly abolished as accomplished or advanced by that one everlasting attonement made once for all by the Sonne of God upon the Crosse For albeit that attonement in respect of the sacrifice or offring was but once made yet the vertue or efficacy of it is not circumscriptible by time nor interruptible by any moment or instant of time Though hee dyed but once to make satisfaction for us yet he liveth for ever to make intercession for us and is a perpetuall propitiation for the sinnes which we dayly and hourely commit and for his sake and through his propitiation all our sinnes who truly beleeve in him and supplicate unto him for his intercession shall be not in generall only but in particular freely pardoned Not doth the absolute everlasting perfection of this attonement any way prohibite us Christians to keepe a solemne commemoration of the day whereon it was made once for all But whether this commemoration were ordained or observed by the Apostles themselves or taken up by voluntary tacite consent of the Church after the Apostles had finished their pilgrimage here on earth I dare not take upon mee to determine But whether from this or that authority or example most Christians are ready to humble themselves on the Friday before Easter acknowledge it to be a good day because it is the Commemoration of our Saviour's Passion and attonement made by it And albeit this humiliation were much more ritually and severely observed by all of us then it is by some few we should not transgresse any Law of God nor swerve from the analogie of Christian faith but rather accomplish the true intent and purport of the Law given by Moses for the strict observation of the day of legall Attonement The humbling of our selves upon that day by fasting and Prayer is a like common and lawfull both to the Iew and Christian and the representation or Commemoration of Christ's bloody Death upon that day by Communication of his Body and Blood under the sacramentall signes and pledges is rather an accomplishment then an abolishment of the legall sacrifices or other ceremonies of the Priest's entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum upon the tenth day of the month Tisri A commemoration of which day the moderne Iewes to this day celebrate with foolish and phantasticke ceremonies as by tormenting of a cock especially a white one Yet these phantasticke practices serve as an imprese or embleme of that sacred truth which wee Christians beleeve and acknowledge as hath beene observed at large in the fift Book of Commentaries upon the Creed Chap. 4◠Parag. 2. 3. 4 May wee Christians then call the Friday be fore Easter our day of Attonement or the Dominicall next after it the great Sabbath For assoiling this or the like Querie about the use of words especially such as are legall I know no fitter distinction then that plaine maxime of the Schooles Omne maius continet in se suum minus non formaliter tamen sed eminenter Every greater containeth the lesse of the same kind not formally but by way of eminencie It were no branch of untruth to say that a quadrangle is two and that a five-angled figure is three triangles yet would it be a solecisme to say the one were three triangles and the other two triangles If wee should be directly demanded what manner of figure this or that were the only true and punctuall answer must be that the one is formally a quadrangle the other a quinqangle To deny any King of England for the time being to be Duke of Lancaster would be censured for more then an errour or Logicall untruth for since the annexion of that great Dukedome to the Crowne every King of England hath had as just and full a Title to it as to the Kingdome it selse or ancient Crown-lands And yet if a Lawyer or other skilfull in drawing legall instruments should in those very Charters or donations which the royall power grants not as King of England but as he is Duke of Lancaster enstile him only thus H. by the grace of God Duke of Lancaster c. doe give and grant to N. omitting his royall Titles it would be a dangerous solecisme in Law Now the legall titles or names of feasts or of the services are so contained in the Evangelicall services and solemnities as two triangles are in a quadrangle or as Duke of Lancaster is in the royall Title of King of England It is no sinne to say that the Friday before Easter is the day of our Attonement or that the first day of the weeke on which Christ rose from the dead is the Christian Sabbath but the more Evangelicall or royall Style is to nominate the one the Lords day rather then the Sabbath and the other rather Good-Friday or feria quinta in hebdomade sancta that is the fift day besides the precedent dominicall in the holy weeke then the day of our Attonement The like may be said of all other Christian festivals instituted as solemne commemorations in testimony of the accomplishment of the legall rites or services by the suffrings Resurrection and other glorious actions of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ To conclude this short digression with Erasmus his resolution of a question lesse needfull then the former yet agitated by some as it seemes in his dayes or before him Non hic agitab◠quaestionem An in Christum competat servi vocabulum qui favent ejus dignitati malunt filium dici quam servum quirespiciunt ejus humilitatem ad mortem usque obedientiam non horrent servi vocabulum Filii nomine magis gaudent sacrae literae ipse dominus patrem saepius appellat quam Dominum aut Deum suum tamen Paulus scribit illi susceptam formam servi hoc est hominis ut interpretantur quidam nec servi modo verùm etiam servi mali verberibus digni quemadmodum dictus est eidem venisse in similitudine carnis peccati Sed absit hac de re inter conservos contentio qui servum appellare gaudent imitentur illius obedientiam quibus magis arridet filii nomen imitentur illius charitatem qui utrolibet nomine agnoscunt Dominum Iesum utrumque pro viribus exprimant In rebus enim spiritualibus nihil vetat eundem nunc servum nunc filium appellari Erasmus in Psal 85. ver 2. 5 But seeing wee Christians affirme that our high Priest did
the first day of that weeke wherein our Redemption was wrought our Saviour came in triumphant manner into Ierusalem not only to fulfill the prophecy of Zachary before expounded at large for that might have been fulfilled at any other time or day for its substance but to testifie withall that hee was the true paschall Lambe appointed pointed for the sacrifice of that great Feast that Lambe of God which â—ame too take away the sinnes of the world For upon that very day of the month Abib were it the tenth or ninth in which our Saviour came to Ierusalem saluted with ecchoing cries of Hosanna the Son of David was the legall paschall Lambe according to first institution of the Passeover brought out of the fields unto the place appointed for the publique assembly with greater pompe perhaps and solemnity prescribed by custome than was expressely required in the Law Vpon the fifth day day of this â—acred weeke being as I take it the fourteenth of the month Abib our Saviour being to be offered in sacrifice at the time wherein the paschall Lambe was eaten by seterall families did eate the Passeover with his Disciples and preoccupated the usuall day for eating the paschall Lambe upon necessity In the night following which was the evening of the sixth day hee was apprehended and arraigned in the morning of the same day condemned by the Iewes â— and upon their solicitation adjudged by Pilate to be crucified and executed by the Roman Souldiers In the sixth day or which is all one the sixth evening and morning of the first weeke of times succession God is said to have finished the workes of Creation by making the first man In the sixth day or in the sixth evening and morning of the weeke of our Saviour's Consecration Hee by whom the world was made did solemnely declare the worke of our Redemption to be accomplished in respect of any labour worke or paines to be further undertaken by him For so farie his solemne proclamation upon the Crosse extends consummatum est And so he went into his rest upon the same day about the same houre wherein God was said to rest from all his workes of Creation that is in the close of that day a litle before the evening of the seventh day or Sabbath CHAP. 41. A Parallel betweene the day wherein Adam is thought to have been cast out of Paradise with the day wherein our Saviour was Crucified And betweene the first day of the world's Creation and our Saviour's Resurrection THere is a a tradition or rather a received opinion avouched by many good Authors in their severall writings that Adam the first man should fall and forfeit his estate in Paradise upon the same day wherein he was created The opinion it selfe we cannot disprove nor justly suspect to be a meere conjecture because we know not what warrant the first or immediate Authors of this Doctrine had to commend it to posterity But their language I take it is much mistaken by some later school-men the first Authors meaning or expression of it must be limited or rather extended to the same sense or construction as hath been before observed in the like words of Daniel Chap. 7. That Belshazer was slaine in the same night wherein after his carousing in the boules of the Sanctuary the hand-writing was seen upon the wall or that other 2. of Kings that Senacherib's mighty army was discomfitted upon the night immediately following that day wherein he sent that blasphemous message unto Hezekiah or the day wherein Isaiah returned his message to the good King In both places the same night cannot be understood of the selfe same naturall day and night but of the same night or day after the revolution of one yeare or more In like manner the first man according to the tenor of the former received opinion did fall upon the same day wherein he was created yet not upon the same day numerically individually or identically taken but upon the same day after the revolution of a weeke at least or more that is upon the sixth day and thrust out of Paradise before the Sabbath ensuing for his stealth or presumptuous usurpation of the forbidden fruit Vpon the same day after revolution of many yeares the Son of God or second Adam now consecrated to be a quickning spirit did restore the sons of the first Adam to their inheritance which their Father had lost by giving a true naturall son of the first Adam a thiefe by practise liverie de sezin or actuall possession of the coelestiall Paradise The bequest or legacy was punctuall and solemne Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Vpon the sixth day of the first week or week of Creation or vicissitude of times Adam's body was taken out of the substance of the earth Vpon the same sixth day was the body of the second Adam the Son of God shut up into the bowels of the earth after he had commended his spirit into his Father's hands which had given it him That temporall curse denounced against the first Adam In the day wherein thou eatest thou shalt die the death was exactly now fulfilled in the second Adam For in the sixth day of the weeke of his Consecration he died the death of the Crosse and was delivered to the earth whence the first man was taken only he was not to be resolved to dust but rested there without corruption For as God had rested the Seventh day from his works of Creation though not of Preservation so the Son of God was to rest from all his labour or toile upon the seventh day of the week of his Consecration not only to blesse and sanctify that day and make it his own but withall to hallow the grave or the wombe of the earth whence all flesh was taken and by the course of nature must returne by his sweet rest and presence in it So saith S. Iohn I heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which hereafter die in the Lord even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14 ver 13. Their sleepe or quiet rest in the grave thus hollowed by our Saviour's Death and rest in it becomes the evenings or vespers of their everlasting Sabbath 2 The night immediately following the legall Sabbath wherein our Saviour did rest from all his Labours was part of the first evening and morning or of the first naturall day of the weeke His Resurrection upon that day and at that time of the day and at that season implieth a two-fold mystery or the accomplishment of two remarkable divine Oracles First that of Gen. Chap. 1. ver 1. 2. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without forme and void and darknesse was upon the deepe The darknesse made the evening and the separation of the light from
Father saith the Apostle hath made us meete to be partakers of the Saints in light and hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and translated us into the Kingdome of his dearly beloved Son 2 So that this part of Ieremie's prophecie 23. 6. In his dayes Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in safety must be fulfilled in every one of us more exquisitely then it was in the whole remnant of Iudab and Israel which returned in safety from Babylon the land of their captivity unto Ierusalem the place of their peace and rest Every one of us must be saved from the land of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of light before wee can be sure of our salvation before our election and salvation can be made certaine unto us For every one of us is by nature the child of wrath every one of as as he is the sonne of Adam carries a Babel or masse of confusion about with him or rather lives in it as in a walking prison Every one of us is subject to morethen Baby lonish to more then Egyptian slavery Our very soules which are the light unto our bodies our very minds which have the same place in our soules which Goshen had in Egypt are darkened or as the Apostle speakes are darknesse it selfe Now to extract or draw us out of our selves or out of that servitude unto finne in which wee were borne or to bring us out of that darknesse which is within us is a greater miracle a more remarkable document of God's infinite power wisdome then the bringing of Israel out of Egypt then the rescuing of Iudah from the captivity of Babylon were God did make the winde and waters his instruments to overthrow Pharaoh and his hoast in the red sea he made his Angels ministring spirits to conduct Israel in their departure thence but to draw us out of our selves to extract our mindes and spirits from the dreggs of the flesh to translate them from the powers of darknesse to the Kingdome of light the ministry or service of Angels or other creatures did not suffice For accomplishing this great worke the Sonne of God himselfe became a Servant Hee that was essentially Iehovah God himselfe did cloath himselfe with salvation as with a garment and became a Saviour not in the appearance of an Angell not in our meere shape and likenesse nor in the meere forme or shape of any other creature but in our flesh and substance CHAP. 24. That our high Priest the Son of God did not only accomplish that which was fore shadowed by the name and title office of Iesus the Son of Iosedech but withall the legall rites or solemnities nowe of which hoe did destroy or dissolve as he did the works of the Divell but change or advance them into better solemnities to be observed by us Christians That his solemne accomplishment of the feast of attonement at the feast of the Passeover was prefigured in the Law and fore-fignified by God's speciall command THe Son of God saith S. Iohn was manifested to the end that he might destroy or dissolve the workes of the Divell Not only the workes which hee had wrought in the nature of Adam and all his sonnes the manner of whose destruction or dissolution the Reader may find discussed at large in the eighth Booke of these CoÌ„mentaries but besides these all the solemne rites or ceremonies whether sacrifices or other services by which the subtile enemy of mankind had enticed men unto or retained them in obedience to his service All these the Son of God came into the world not to change or accomplish but utterly to abolish or destroy them As for the Aaronicall Priesthood or legall riâ—es dependant on it these hee came not utterly to abolish or destroy but to change or sublimate them into a better kind of service This orthodoxall forme of words the Apostle hath taught us Heb. 7. v. 12. The Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law that is no destruction either of the Law or Priesthood The false witnesses themselves which were set up to accuse S. Stephan of blasphemous words against the holy place and the Law though willing no question to charge him with more then he said yet charge him with nothing but this We have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Acts 6. v. 14. But these malicious men with their complices and abettors did destroy the materiall Temple by turning it into a denne of theeves or murtherers by practising these and other like workes of the Divell in it Notwithstanding the utter destruction of this denne of theeves by these means the house of God which was the Temple whilst it continued a house of praier was not utterly destroyed but rather changed or translated unto Ierusalem which is above as the Arke of the Covenant had beene before from Shiloh unto Sion As for any intention utterly to destroy any custome which Moses had given them they had no pretence to accuse either S. Stephan or our Saviour who had solemnely protested that hee came not to destroy or dissolve the Law but to fulfill it And none unlesse perhaps some base Mechanicke or meaner metall man who thinkes the matter whereon hee workes to be of all others the best would accuse an Alchimist or ingenious Artist for wasting or destroying copper lead or brasse if hee could change or sublimate them into pure gold 2 The change or accomplishment of the best egall rites even such as were appointed by an everlasting covenant was more admirable then this supposed transmutation of baser metals into refined gold can truly represent for as hath been observed before Albeit our Saviour was no Priest after the order of Aaron either before or after his Consecration yet hee did most exquisitely accomplish the whole Aaronicall Priesthood and other legall rites dependent on it by his Consecration to a more excellent truly everlasting Priesthood Circumcision was enjoyned under this title of an everlasting covenant and so enjoyned under a terrible penalty before the Law was given by Moses to all the seed of Abraham throughout their generations Was this rite or ceremony then destroyed or annihilated by the Circumcision of the Son of God Neither destroyed then nor changed before his death but at his Circumcision designed to be changed into an everlasting Covenant and after his Resrrection and Ascention not so properly changed as advanced into a better Sacrament or Seale of God's love unto mankind under a stricter penalty to the contemners of it or the undertakers for both sexes then Circumcision had been to the Hebrew males The Iewish Sabbath or Seventh day likewise was not so truly nullified for the substance of the precept which was to be a commemoration of God's rest from all his workes upon the Seventh day as clarified or purged from the droffe or dreggs of legall
darknesse made the morning of the first natural day God faith Moses divided the light from the darknesse and called the light day and the darknesse he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day As was the condition of this visible world or form lesse earth before the Creation of light or the division betwixt it and darknesse such altogether was the condition or state of the intellectuall world before it was new made or redeemed by the Son of God The corrupted masse of mankind was overspread with darknesse and covered with the mantle of Death but this long darknesse became more palpable then that of Egypt during the time of the Son of God's surprizall and his inclosure in the region of Death These were the houres wherein it was permitted the powers of darknesse to domineere but these powers were conquered and the darknesse dispelled by his Resurrection from Death which was on the same day and at the same houre wherein God the Father by him did first divide darknesse from light From this houre of his Resurrection the night is gone and the day is come as many as believe in him raised from death and adore the Son of righteousnesse who as the Apostle saith having abolished death brought life and immortalitie to light they are the Sons of God Heires of Glory but such as love darknesse more then the light of his gospel they must remaine the sons of darknesse and of death All this and more is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day and houre of his Resurection had in that holy weeke being the first houre of the first day The other mystery is implied in the circumstance of the time and place which the day of his Resurrection held in that solemne feast of unleavened bread 3 So it fell out by the sweet disposition of God's speciall providence that the day of our Saviour's Resurrection should for that yeare fall upon the second day of the Feast of unleavened bread or the morrow after the Sabbath of that great solemnity Now on that precise day the Israelites were peremptorily bound by a strict Law to offer up the first fruits as eares and blades of corne unto the Lord Lev. 23. 10. 11. When yee become into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest and he shall wave the sheafe before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it From this peculiar reference or parallel of the circumstance of time between the day of our Saviour's Resurrection and the day appointed for this legall feast of offering the eares of corne The analogy or parallel between the Type and the substance is thus As the use of the corne was not allowable to the people untill some eares or blades of the same kind were offered up in sacrifice by the Priest unto the Lord So neither could the seed of Adam or of Abraham or of any man else seeing all had been sowen in corruption be either holy or acceptable to the Lord or partakers of his Table or prefence or put on incorruption untill the high Priest of our soules the Son of God had offered a sacrifice of the same kind to wit a body subject to like mortality as ours are untill it was consecrated to glory and immortality by the sufferings of Death 4 All were sanctified all were reconciled to God by this one oblation of himselfe as the first fruits of them that sleepe Yet even such as were upon the day of his Resurrection really sanctified and actually reconciled unto God the very Apostles themselves were not made up or wrought into one body or loafetill fifty daies after not until that very day wherein the new reaped corne made into bread was solemnly offered and presented to the Lord. Lev. 23. 15. 16. 17. And yee shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that yee brought the sheafe of the wave offering seven daies shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall yee number fifty daies and yee shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord yee shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth deales they shall be of fine flowre they shall be baken with leaven they are the first fruits unto the Lord. The one holy Catholique Church and Communion of Saints which we professe in our Creed did not begin to be in esse as by God's helpe it shall appeare hereafter or heare true life untill the effusion of the holy Ghost which is the soule of the one holy Catholique Church or of the mystioall Body of Christ And that was upon the fiftieth day inclusively from the day whereon the eares of corne or sheafe of blades was offered unto the Lord. On that fiftieth day the holy Curch received the first fruits of the spirit it being likewise another solemne day appointed for the legall offering up of the first fruits 4 Thus much of the accomplishment of the Type of Ionas his imprisonment in the belly of the Whale and of the mysteries contained in those three speciall daies and nights or evenings and mornings wherein our Saviour was in the wombe of the earth and the time of his rising againe But the two former queries First what our Saviour's abode forty daies on the earth from his Resurrection to his Ascension or which is all one what the signe of Ionas did portend to this evill and adulterous generation of the Iewes Secondly how the space of his forty daies abode upon the earth after his Resurrection was prefigured are points worth the discussion and for ought I know will make the fittest Period of this long work concerning the knowledge of Christ and him crucified CHAP. 42. That the sentence proclaimed against Nineveh by the Prophet Ionas was in a full measure executed upon the adulterous Generation of the Iewes not believing or repenting at our Saviour's preaching THat a state so strong and mighty as Niniveh was then when Ionas was sent unto it should upon these or the like briefe Summons of a forrainer Yet fory daies and Niniveh shall be destroied be so deeply stricken on a suddaine with extreme feare of death and ruine Or that a Court so dissolute luxurious and proud as that Court was should so readily change their soft rayment into sackcloth and laying aside their perfumes and sweet odours as the Text saith the King himselfe did may well seeme a greater wonder to a Reader qui ad pauca respicit then God almost at any time had wrought in Israel But the strangenesse of the suddaine change perswades or rather assures me or any diligent Reader that the constant fame of Ionas his miraculous deliverance or escape out of the Whales belly had come before him into Niniveh and made way for the efficacy of
or knowledge how to use their generall liberty 12 But to conclude the point last proposed and with it this present Treatise When the Evangelist saith that the blessed Virgin with consent of her betrothed husband brought her son into the Temple according to the Law of Moses It is cleare that she did not come to present her selfe or him in the Temple before the fortieth day from his birth For so the tenor of the Law concerning the first-borne males is that his Mother should be seven daies uncleane to wit unto the day of her sons circumcision and thirty three daies after it accounting the day of his Circumcision for one of these daies 13 The parallel before propos'd lies directly between these foure points or termes of proportion The first the day of our Saviour's birth from his Mothers wombe The second the day of the blessed Virgins Purification or the solemnity of his Presentation in the Temple The third the day of his birth from the Grave or of becomming the first fruits of theÌ„ that sleep The fourth the day of his Presentation to his Father in the heavenly sanctuary or of his enthronization both as King and Priest Vpon the fortieth day after his birth from the wombe of the blessed Virgin Simeon blessed Mary and Ioseph and Hunna the daughter of Phanuel a Prophetesse comming at that instant into the Temple gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption Luk. 2. 34. 38. upon the fortieth day after his birth from his maiden-grave the prophecy of Symeon Hanna and their thanksgiving to the Lord were more exquisitely accomplished then can by any mortall voice or pen be exprest As the legal Sabbath was to the Lord's day so was the fourth day of the first weeke on which the sun moon and starres were created but the vespers unto the new creation wherein the Lord of Glory and Son of righteousnesse was placed in his supercelestiall sphere On the first day of that week in which he ascended that joy of the fourth day of the first Creation decyphered by * Iob the morning stars did sing together and all the Sons of God the holy Angels and Archangels Cherubims Seraphims Principalities Powers did shout for joy was accomplished The ditty or manner of their song or joyfull shout is unexpressible uninvestigable God grant we may in this mortall pilgrimage so demean our selves as that we may be able to stand before the son of man at his second comming unto judgment be capable and docile to learn our parts in that heavenly ditty or song wherewith the Church triumphant did entertaine him at his Ascension FINIS * Tunc Gattus iratus inquit nolâ—te mihi prefinire modum theologie quem teneo Nemo enim est tam temerarius qui in Theologicis semecum conferre auderet Nam nibil in hac Divinâ scientiâ mihi est ut puto incognitum Omnes enim Bibliothecas percurri nun quâ—m huius dubitationis occurrit declaratio Tunc Rex Matthias alt ad Gattâ—m Non multos in Theologia libros legi nec etiam in aliis facultatibus A puero enim â—d Regiam dignitatem evectus pauca è multis didici militarem quodammodò literaturam arriput Sed tamen huius rei declaratio ut opinor sacile inveniâ—tur Gattus impatiens sermonem Regium interrumpens inquit Deponite hanc mentem quoniam ut dixi nusquam est c. Si virgo Iohannes in side firmus Pontifex fuisset cum ligandi solvendiâ— potestate nusquam libidinis blanditias vneque expertus qui nullo tumultu a Christo potuit dimoveri ad sum similatadinem humanum genus confirmare per cubuisset Christi fideique desertores libidineque corruptos summâ austeritate depulisset Non enim ex fragilitate peccantes sed ex anuni ne â—uitia homines putasset qui fletibus dolorem fingerent summa igitur ratione factum est ut Petras Iohanni in Pontificatu preferretur quod tu Iohannes Gatte inter illa dei iudicia inscrutabiliâ— connumerabas Galeotus Martius de dictis factis Matthiae inter alios scriptor rerum Hungaricarum elegans Cap. 30. pag. 386. c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hee gaves a good reason for this sentence in the 〈◊〉 following Et si enim Petro dictum est veruntamen in personâ— Coryphaei caeteris apostolis talis potestas data Quandoquidem sequentibus illos sacerdotibus eandem daâ—an esse solvendi ligandique petestatem credimus Photius ex 2. lib bibliotheca Columno 1599. Of this point see more at large in the 3 book of these commentaries upon the creed Sect. 2. cap. 6. In the 8 book of these Comments Cap. 12. par 3. a If they had said Christ was the meritorious cause of salvation to all men or had merited salvation for all not the efficient working cause of salvation to all but only to such as obey him faithfully they had come nearer the truth P. C. lib. 3. c. de repub Iudaeorum Paragr 7. * In a diquisitioÌ„ by way of Homily or sermon upon the Epiphany at what time from what place the Magi or Wise men of the East came to Ierusalem to adore our Saviour Christ whom they rightly beleeved to be the King of the Iewes by birth Parâ— In his Commentar upon the 110 Psalme * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lib. 1. glaphyr in titul de Abraham Melchisedech Lib 2. sacrae legis allegoriarum pag. 106. I wonder that in this chapter amoÌ„gst so many similitudes wherein Christ is shadowed and represented by Melchisedech there is no mention at all of the sacrifice of bread and wine which Melchisedech offered as before was in timated Gen. 14. 18. being as a symbole or token of our sacrifice and Eucharist concerning which point that I had rather heare other men speak then declare mine owne opinion c. * Sect. 1 cap. 4. * Tortius est status Ecclesiasticus in quo fuerunt Episcopi septem ad quem caeteri etiam Canonici refe runtur Hi ha bent decimas in regno quae tamen in provinciis diversis diverso modo dividuntur dimidiam partem decâ—marum percipiunt Episcopi dimidiam Rex aliquam Canonici pastores pars etiam ad aedificandas Ecclesias contribuitur Et quantum ad pontificium ius attinet semper in hoc regno quem admodum etiam in Gallia nominationes ordinationes praelaturarum Episcopatuumque regibus ad hoc usque tempus collatae fuerunt ut etiam ex responso Waldemariquarâ—i regis Daniae ut arbitror quod bic annectere libuit constat Cum Pontifex Romanus a Rege haec similia postularet fertur rescripsisse Rex Regnum habeâ—â—us a subditis vitam a parentibus religionem a Romana Ecclesia quam si repetis remitto per praesentes Mercator pag. 82. in descriptione Daniae Vide Cyriâ—lum lib 1. glaphyrorum intitulo de Abraham
esse or accomplishment of it It was not terminated till the day of his Resurrection from the dead But of this argument more at large Sect. 5. in the Article of the Resurrection of the Son of God That this eternall Son of God was not actually consecrated or made an high Priest untill his Resurrection from the dead our Apostle in the fift verse of this Chapter before cited to another purpose fully instructs us Christ tooke not to himselfe this honour to be made the high Priest but hee that said unto him Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee put it upon him And this day or this Ego hodiè genuite as this our Apostle elswhere instructs us referres unto the day of his Resurrection or begetting from the dead After which day death hath no more dominion over him but Hee such an absolute power over death and the powers of darknesse that neither can annoy or assault him And from this day and not before doth his endlesse everlasting Priesthood commence And being thus actually consecrated by his Resurrection from the dead that is made both Lord and Christ hee is become the Author of everlasting salvation which was the second Point CHAP. 5. That the Sonne of God by his Consecration being once accomplished became the Author and Fountaine of everlasting salvation to all such and only such as obey him In what sence he is said to have dyed for all men or to be the redeemer of all mankind Hee became Author of Salvation to all that obey him THe signification of the single termes in this proposition is so plaine that it needs no paraphrase or explication and the connexion of them so firme as requires no distinction All the difficultie is about the limitation of the entire proposition it selfe as whether he be the Author or cause of everlasting salvation only to them which obey him or unto all to the end that they may obey him or whether this proposition be equivalent and but equivalent unto this proposition whosoever beleeveth in him shall be saved or a restraint of it Surely if in all these places of the old and new Testament wherein salvation is ascribed to faith or unto faith alone the Apostles or Prophets had substituted obedience instead of faith there could have beene no dangerous misnomure for as the faith is such is the obedience and è contra Both terms equally imply two the same things necessary to salvation First a submission of our wills to Gods will or a readinesse to doe his will revealed Secondly when wee have done as well as wee can to deny our selves and renounce all confidence in our best workes whether of faith or obedience But however the termes be fully equivalent yet the word obedience better befits this place then if he had said He became the Author of everlasting salvation to all that beleeve in him because obedience is the very formall effect of true faith or beliefe as they are set upō this particular truth or mystery here taught by our Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or impression or the ingrossment of the patterne here commended to our imitation For if we syncerely and stedfastly believe that the Son of God became obedient to his Father even unto the death of the Crosse that for our sakes he was consecrated through grievous afflictions through unknowne paines and terrors to the end he might be our faithful and compassionate high Priest This Doctrine it selfe being laid to our hearts will bring forth the like affection or obedience towards him specially if our faith be seconded by hope of being consecrated through obedience to be Kings and Priests with him unto our God which is the full paraphrase of our everlasting salvation here meant the true expression of that perfection mentioned by our Apostle Heb. 11. v. the last But if the Apostles punctuall meaning be that the Sonne of God is the Author of everlasting salvation only to such as obey him shall we not hence be concluded to grant that hee died only for such as finally shall be saved or that he redeemed none but the Elect because the Author of salvation to none but these Thus many in our dayes and which is more to be lamented some of this Church of England have from the former premisses collected and peremptorily taught that Christ dyed for none but the Elect without vouchsafing any mannerly answer to the Church their Mother who expressely maintaines the contradictony as that he dyed for all men that he redeemed not only every one of us in particular but all mankind Others have been so courteous as to vouchsafe their Mother and Bretheren some distinctions or limitations of that universall assertion as thus That he died for all sufficientèr not efficientèr sufficiently not efficiently for all that he redeemed all mankind with this limitation that is singula generum some o◠all mankind some rich some poore some Iewes some Gentiles The later distinction is very dangerous the former impertinently unnecessary for if by all mankind we once come to understand some of all sorts of men we shall commit no new error but only extend the same if by the whole world which God the Father is said to have created wee understand only some portion of every principall part of this universe as some portion of the heavens some of the starres some part of the earth some of the water some part of theayre some of every sort of vegetable or living things but not absolutely all The other distiction of sufficientèr and efficientèr falls under the common error of most moderne Catechists or Divines which is to take upon them to divide things which in their nature are indivisible as the Will of God the Death of Christ or the Value of his sufferings to leave other termes which import matter divisible undistinguished Such is the terme or word Redemption passively taken not as it is an act of God or as it in his prescience For however the will of God or the value of Christs sufferings be altogether indivisible because absolutely infinite yet of Redemption purchased for us by Christs bloody death and passion there are as you please to call them severall parts or degrees Now that may be absolutely true of some one or more parts of degrees which is not true of all The first degree of our Redemption purchased by Christ was the payment of the ransome for our sinnes unto his Father and our freedome from slavery by his conquest over Satan This part or these degrees of Redemption are alike common to all mankind Christ whether in his death upon the Crosse or in his conflict with the powers of darknesse in the Garden did suffer asmuch for any one as for all God was in him reconciling all men unto himselfe All were set free de iure from Satans servitude The second part or degree of Redemption is our actuall admission into the Catholique Church or which is all one our
that obey him And is called of God from the time of his Resurrestion or exaltation an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech CHAP. 10. Wherein the Priesthood of Melchisedech did differ from the Priesthood of Aaron That Melchisedech did not offer any sacrifice of bread and wine unto God when he blessed Abraham THe office of Aaron and of his Sonnes wee have described Deuteron 10. 8. At that time the Lord separated the Tribe of Levi to beare the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister unto him and to blesse in his name unto this day And againe Deut. 18. 3. This shall be the Priests duty c. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy Tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord him and his Sonnes for ever ver 5. Could Melchisedech's office be greater or his patent ampler especially for duration For sacrifice prayer and blessing are the trinall dimensions of the Priesthood howsoever taken This difficultie perhaps did occasion a foule error in the Romish Church or encourage her followers to maintaine this error brought forth it may be upon other occasions to wit that the office of Melchisedech should properly consist herein especially differ from the Priesthood of AaroÌ„ For that when he met Abraham he offered up bread wine by way of proper sacrifice unto God as a type or pledge of the unbloody sacrifice of the masse unto which the Romanists for the most part restraine the exercise of Christ's Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech 2 To omit their chymicall conceits who labour in vaine to extract some act of sacrificing out of the originall word hotsi Maldonate the most zealous and laborious pleader in this argument because Calvin had held the monkish allegorizars to the literall and gramaticall sense of Scriptures holds it no sin to put a trick of Grammar so they would admit it upon Calvin's followers upon the very text it self For whereas the Romish Interpreters who went before him admit the vulgar edition Et erat Sacerdos Dei altissimi This Critick to despite Calvin will correct Magnificat and renders it thus Et erat sacrificans Deo altissimo His reason for this innovation is because the hebrew Cohen is for it's form a participle of the present tense but surely he was better read in his Gramar then in his Lexicon although better read in that then in the Hebrew Text for although the Hebbrew Cohen be usually taken for a Priest yet to sacrifice is no part of the proper formal signification of the radicall verb Cahan That directly imports no more then ministravit or Sacerdotem egit Whence though it be most true that every Sacrificer is a CoheÌ„ is a Priest or Minister of God yet is not this truth simply convertible that is Every Cohen Priest or Minister of God is a Sacrificer specially if we speak of times before the Law was given or since it expired much lesse will it follow that every act or function which the Minister of God performs should be a sacrifice So that albeit we should give the Criticall Iesuit leave to degrade the Hebrew Cohen and turne it out of a noun in which form and habit it was taken by all his Predecessors into the nature and value of a Participle the Grammaticall sense will amount to no more then this Et erat Ministrans or Sacerdotio fungens Deo altissimo and all this Melchisedech might doe and this he verily did in blessing Abraham not in bringing forth or offering bread and wine The letter of the Text runnes thus And Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine and hee was a Priest of the most high God Suppose a man should here interrupt the Reader or relater of this History thus What if hee were a Priest of the most high God To what purpose is this clause inserted The holy Ghost in the next words clears the doubt or rather prevents the Question And he blessed Abraham In what forme or sort Blessed be Abraham of the most high God! So then Melchisedech is instiled a Priest of the most high God to shew his warrant to blesse in the name of the most high God And for this interpretation I have the warrant or confirmation from Cyril of Alexandria 3 As for his bread and wine hee offered these to Abraham and not to God as Philo Iudaeus a competent witnesse in this Controversie hath informed us For this good Author opposeth Melchisedech's hospitalitie towards Abraham unto Amalech's niggardly and uncharitable disposition towards Israel comming out of the house of affliction Amalech saith hee was excluded from the congregation of the Lord because hee met not Israel with bread and water whereas Melchisedech had met our father Abraham laden with the spoâ—â—es of his enemies with bread and wine He hath not in my opinion erred much in taking the symboles or elements of bread and wine for emblemes of that true pabulum animae which consists in contemplation of heavenly things And yet I am perswaded hee had no expresse knowledge of the true object of such contemplation to wit the body and blood of Christ or of the benefit conveyed to us from them since they were offered in sacrifice unto God by the elements of bread and wine not as mere signes but as undoubted pledges of his body and blood to be communicated to us 4 And although Suidas in his second Paragraph on the word Melchisedech will have our Saviours Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech to take beginning from the night before his passion wherein he tooke bread and wine and blessed them yet in his third Paragraph upon the same word he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Melchisedech brought forth bread and wine unto Abraham But let us suppose what the Text will not support that Melchisedech did offer up a sacrifice of bread and wine to the most high God thus much being granted wee may draw that net which the Romanist sets for others upon himselfe for our next interrogatory should be this Of what sacrifice may we by any analogie of faith imagine this supposed sacrifice of Melchisedech to be the type of the dayly reiterated sacrifice of the masse or of the one only sacrifice of the Sonne of God Surely if Melchisedech be a true type of the everlasting Priest his sacrifice must be a type of this Priest's everlasting sacrifice Now as we read not though Maldonate's reading of the former pâ—â—â—e were true that Melchisedech did offer any sacrifice besides this supposed sacrifice of bread and wine so wee must undoubtedly beleeve that the Sonne of God did offer no more sacrifices then one and that one never to be reiterated because the value of it being truly infinite the efficacy of it must needs be absolutely everlasting If otherwise wee should with the Romanists admit of a sacrifice by succession or multiplication as everlasting as this transitory
on the West unto the diuision of Euphrates on the East into diverse channels 5 But this promise with the blessing promised whereof David and Salomon were fully possest was mystically as hath beene observed before to be fulfilled in the seede of David promised by oath whose Dominiō over this inferiour world reacheth from sea to sea over all the rivers and corners of the earth The 26. 27. 28. verses fall under the same rule or line But although it were a part and a principall part of the blessing promised to David that the Messiah should be his Seede or Sonne yet were neither David or Salomon nor any other of David's sonnes any part of that promise v. 29. His seede also will I make to endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of heaven Thus the holy Ghost speaketh as the Apostle interpreteth the like promise or rather the same promise made before to Abraham not of David's Seed as of many but as of one Seed which is Christ The Apostles Interpretation of God's promise to Abraham I am not ignorant hath much perplexed some learned Interpreters but as was observed before men better versed in rules of Grammar then in mysteries of Divinitie And many impertinent discourses for salving the truth or supporting the strength of the Apostles inferences we may oftimes read and sometimes heare But the old maxime Ex nihilo nihil fit holds more true in this case then in the point whereto the Philosopher applies it A groundlesse doubt can never produce a pertinent answer or be capable of a firme and solid resolution Now the men which have question'd the force of the Apostles inference did only or specially consider the grammaticall use of the word Seede which although it be of the singular number yet denotes a multiplicity of persons But the ground of our Apostles inference was from the matter or blessing promised not from the grammaticall forme of words wherein it was expressed He could not be ignorant nor was hee incogitant that most promises made to Abraham and his seede did literally referre to all his posteritie especially to Isaac yet hee very well knew and considered that the promise of that seede wherein all the Nations of the earth should be blessed could be extended to no more then one seede who was the promised seede of the woman And unto this seede alone promised by oath unto David the 29. ver before rehearsed must be confined as is cleare from the 30. ver where after he had said That his seede should endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of heaven hee there addes If his children for sake my Law and walke not in my judgments If they breake my Statutes and keep not my Commandements then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquities with stripes v. 30. 31. 32. This the holy Ghost speaketh not of David's seed as of one but of his seeds as of many Nor is it any where said that any or all of their thrones should endure as the dayes of heaven For all David's children besides that one seede were by the Psalmist's owne acknowledgment lyable to such visitations or censures as the Lord of Lords doth passe on other Kings and Potentates according to their demerits at his pleasure Nor are the visitations here mentioned to be universally taken for Fatherly corrections only a slumber wherewith some otherwise good Interpreters have been overtaken but for true and real punishments 6 What then had David and his sonnes no prerogative above other Kings or Princes Did God make promise of no more favour and grace to David and to his ordinary seed then he had done to Saul If wee should thus conclude the tenour as well of prophecies as of God's promises to David would convince us of error and the historicall events would determine against us For neither Salomon's Idolatrie nor Rehoboam's Oppression which was equivalent to Idolatrie a foolish sonne of a wise Father did utterly extinguish the promises made to David and his Successors though Rehoboam foolishly intending the oppression of his Subjects did impaire the blessing promised For after both these had beene gathered to their Fathers the Lord in mercy and in memory of his Covenant with David did often repaire the ruines which such unwise Kings as Rehoboam and some of his Successors were had made in Iudah and Ierusalem by raising up such lights unto David as Asa Iehosaphat Hezekiah and Iosias were This preeminence or prec̄edency in God's promises all David's lawfull Successors had over all the Nations under heaven that they were as God's first borne amongst the Kings of the earth but with this limitation or condition quamdiu bene aut saltem mediocriter se gesserint Now in later generations the Kings and Princes of Iudah who had beene the first in God's favour by multiplying their owne and making up the number of their forefathers transgressions become the very last as remarkable objects of God's fearefull visitations threatned Psal 89. verses 30. and 31. as their godly Forefathers had beene of his blessings And yet the forfeiture of their present estate or of their interest in the Covenant made to David and his seede did reach no further then to their owne persons or to their seede according to carnall generations as is most elegantly and punctually exprest in the verse immediately following Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not take from him that is from David nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile My Covenant will I not breake nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips v. 34. The true expression of the mystery in these words amounts to thus much at least and to what more I leave it to such as have leisure and judgment to examine However David's posteritie in future times may make a desperate for feiture of their possession in the land of Ganaan be excluded from all claime or title to the Kingdomes of Iudah or Israel though the whole race which shall issue from David or Salomon by ordinary right or Succession may be utterly extinguished or put out yet one thread shall be reserved inviolable from the force of the enemies sword famine fire or death it selfe This to my apprehension is the true meaning of that passasge I will not breake my Covenant 7 The impossibilitie here implied for disinheriting the seed of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as we English speake of cutting of the entaile in remainder to this singular seede of David after all the residue of his posteritie either were or might have beene deprived of their crownes and dignities or of all title to the scepter of Iudah doth depend upon the often mentioned confirmation of David's throne and Kingdome by oath unto the seede of David by promise So the holy spirit by whose inspiration this Psalme was penned whatsoever the Psalmist intended most punctually expresseth v. 35. Once have I sworne by mine holinesse that I will not lie unto David His Seede shall
the Sonne of Iehozadeck's head was the modell of the Crowne of David which was to flourish upon Iesus the Sonne of David's head as it is Psalme 132. v. 18. But upon himselfe shall his Crowne flourish 6 Briefly the protestation which the Angell in the verses following makes to Iesus the Son of Iosedech is but a renewing or repetition of the promise which God had made unto Abraham and David concerning their seede The tenour of God's promise here renewed or repeated unto Iesus the high Priest is the same And the Angell of the Lord protested unto Ieshua saying thus saith the Lord of boasts if thou wilt walke in my wayes and if thou wilt keepe my charge then thou shalt also judge my house and shalt also keepe my Courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by These words containe as ample a patent for the temporall or legall Priesthood unto Iesus the Sonne of Iosedech and his posteritie as David had for continuation of the temporall Kingdome in his race or progeny both the promises and patents were conditionall But that there should arise an everlasting Priest as well as an everlasting King one in whom God's promises should not be conditionall but yea and amen that is absolute and irrefragable the Prophet Zachary addes Heare now O Ieshua the high Priest thou and thy fellowes that sit before thee for they are what are they monstrous persons saith our former English or men wondred at saith the later Viri portendentes saith the vulgar The Prophets meaning is that they are men set for types or signes of great matters to come The word in the originall is the same Ezech. 12. 11. Say I am your signe like as I have done so shall it be done unto them that is to the Princes of Ierusalem and house of Israel they shall remove and goe into captivity As Ezechiel his digging through the wall in the peoples sight and carrying forth his stuffe upon his shoulders in twilight with his face covered that hee should not see the ground was a signe or prognostication of Zedechiah's stealth or flight from the Chaldeans army which besieged him So Ieshua the high Priest and all his fellowes in all this action or solemnity specially in laying the foundation of the Altar and Temple were prognosticke signes or prefigurations of Iesus the everlasting high Priest and of the spirituall Temple the holy Catholique Church which he was to build by the ministry of the Apostles So it followeth for behold I will bring forth my servant the branch For behold the stone that I have laid before Ieshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold I will engrave the graving thereof saith the Lord of hoasts and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day CHAP. 22. Of the harmony betweene the Prophet Ieremy and the Prophet Zachary concerning the man whose name is the branch How his growth or springing up was prefigured by Zerubbabel the sonne of David His name and title as our high Priest fore-pictured by the name and title of Iesus the Sonne of Iosedech That he was as truly the Son of God before all time as the sonne of David in time THat this man whose name was the Branch was to build the Temple of the Lord that he was to take his investiture unto his priestly dignity by Iesus the Sonne of Iehosadech as by his proxie is apparent from the sixt Chapter of the Prophet Zachary 11. Take silver and gold and make Crownes and set them upon the head of Ieshua the Sonne of Iosedech the high Priest and speake unto him saying thus speaketh the Lord of hasts saying Behold the man whose name is the Branch and hee shall grow up out of his place hee shall build the Temple of the Lord even hee shall build the Temple of the Lord and he shall beare the glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne and he shall be a Priest upon his Throne and the counsell of peace shall be betweene them both 2 This place and the former are pregnant that the Servant of the Lord whose name was Zemah the Branch whose office was to build up the Temple of God should be a Priest and should sit upon his Throne as Priest But it cannot from either place be gathered it is not so much as intimated that hee should either be a Priest after the order of Aaron or of Melchisedech or of the seede of Aaron as Iesus or Ioshua the Sonne of Iehosedech was But as the Prophet affirmeth not that hee was to be Priest after the order of Aaron or Melchisedech so neither in plaine termes doth hee deny it true but as every Prophet of God speakes nothing but the truth so neither doth one of them speake all the truth or all that is requisite for us to believe concerning Iesus our Saviour That the man whose name was the Branch the same party of whom Zachary here speakes should not be of the seed of Aaron or a Priest after the order of Aaron is evident from the prophecy of Ieremiah Ier. 23. 5. uttered more then seventy yeares before Zachary began to prophecy Behold the dayes 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 upon the earth In his dayes Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousnesse It is plaine then out of the fore cited prophecy of Zachary that God's servant the righteous Branch was to be a Priest It is evident againe out of Ieremiah that he was to spring out of the seede of David and to raigne as King over Iudah and Israel as David had done And these two put together will directly conclude that this Branch of David was to be that sonne of David concerning whom the Lord had sworne and would not repent that hee should be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech who was both King and Priest and by interpretation the King of righteousnesse and King of peace both which titles are expressely given to this Servant of God and Branch of David the one by the Prophet Zachary the other by the Prophet Ieremiah 3 But is it intimated or fore-told by either of them that he should be as truly David's Lord as David's Sonne Yes Ieremy implies this in fuller termes then David himselfe doth Psalm 110. for David saith the Lord said unto my Lord Adonai not Iehovah whereas the Prophet Ieremy tells us that the supreame style or title of this Branch of David should be not Adonai Tzadkenu but Iehova Tzadkenu Iehovah our righteousnesse So that hee whom David in spirit calleth his Lord was to be as essentially Lord and God as he that said unto him sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stoole But was he according unto this name or title
prefigured or fore-shadowed either by Zerubbabel the Prince of Iudah or by his associate Iesus the high Priest in conducting Gods people from the land of their captivity into the land of promise Yes there is not one title or attribute mentioned in either prophecy but it is fore-shadowed either joyntly both by Zerubbabel Iesus the high Priest or severally by one of them 4 As he is the Branch of David fore-prophecied by Esaiah Chap. 11. 1. where to both these prophecies of Ieremiah and Zachary have reference hee is more exquisitely prefigured by Zerubbabel then by David himselfe or any other Prince of David's Line The Branch which God had promised to raise up unto David almost an 110 yeares before Ieremiah had uttered his prophecies was to grow up out of the stemme or roote of Iesse as it is Esay 11. 1. that is he was to be a man of meaner parentage then Iesse the Father of David was a man more unlikely to become a Prince or Ruler of God's people then David was when hee kept his Father's sheepe Of David's linage many after the captivity were poore and of as meane ability as Iesse David's Father was Zerubbabel was borne unto Salathiel in captivity and Salathiel himselfe the sonne of Ieconiah a poore captive Prince but whâ—-Salathiel was the sonne of Ieconiah's body or rather his sonne by adoption I have no more to say then was said before Whether this way or that way hee were his sonne if wee consider the potency of the Chaldean Empire when he was borne or the Chaldeans generall aversnesse from the Iewes or their jealousie of the royall race it was more unlikely that any of David's line should be released from captivity or be suffered to returne from Babylon unto their native land then that Israel should be delivered from the Egyptian thraldome by Moses But the same God which had shewed his mighty power in the overthrow of Pharaoh and his powerfull host did as miraculously shew both his power and wisdome in the suddaine surprisall of Babylon and overthrowing the Babylonian Empire by Cyrus Of these two wonderfull deliverances of his people the later in the Prophet Ieremy his esteeme is the greater therefore he saith Ierem. 16. 14. 15. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt but the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither hee had driven them and I will bring them againe into their land that I gave unto their Fathers The like you may read Ierem. 23. 7. 8. Cyrus after his strange conquest of Babylon sets Gods people free and authorizeth Zerubbabel the next heire then left unto the Crown of Iudah to conduct them unto Ierusalem there to serve their God as he in his Lawes had prescribed But after their safe arrivall there they are molested by their malicious enemies the building of the City and Temple is after Cyrus his death for divers yeares hindred untill Zerubbabel by his favour and potency with Cyrus his successors procures the revivall of the charter which Cyrus granted and frees himselfe and God's people from further molestation by their enemies as you may read it at large in the Booke of Ezra So that part of Ieremiah's prophecy is verified of him for in his dayes and by his meanes under God Iudah was saved and Israel did dwell securely Though hee were not in name or title a Saviour yet is hee indeed the Saviour of his people from present distresse and danger And thus farre this poore revived Branch of David is a true and lively Type of that Branch of David in whom all the promises of God made unto Abraham and David were fulfilled who was to be a Saviour not in realty only but in name or title and called especially Iesus because hee was to save his people not from bodily distresse or captivity but from their sinnes And as he is in this sensea Saviour Iesus the Sonne of Iehosadech is the lively Type or shadow of him as well in office or function as in expresse name or title for hee being their high Priest and Aaron's successor did make legall attonement for their sinnes did sanctify the Temple Altar and their offerings and performed all legall righteousnesse for theâ— insigne of greater righteousnesse and salvation by that high Priest which was to come whose supreame title was the Lord our righteousnesse 5 But did either Zerubbabel or this Iesus the high Priest and his associates prefigure or fore shadow our high Priest in this royall name or title of being the Lord our righteousnesse Certaine it is that Zerubbabel did not for neither his owne name nor his Fathers nor any of his Progenitors names since Iehosaphat's dayes had any reference to this title nor import the thing signified by it in their grammaticall significations But the Father of this Iâ—shua or Iesus the high Priest was named Iehosadech which signifies as much as the righteousnesse of the Lord or the righteous Lord. 6 But here wee must consider that names are of two sorts Some names agree to the things named substantially and directly Others accidentally or in obliquâ— The former fort expresse the condition and nature of the thing named As the name of Adam which God imposed upon the first man did expresse his nature or substance to wit the red earth out of the which he was framed So the name which Adam gave unto the first woman did truly expresse the nature and condition of the Sex to wit that she was made of man that shee was of his flesh and of his bones so likewise is the name of Eveh a true expression of her nature for she was the Mother and Fonntaine of life unto all posteritie 7 Names otherwhiles though solemnely given expresse or import some circumstance or relation unto the nature or thing it selfe which they primarily and properly signifie So Gideon was called Ierub-baal not that ever he did plead for Baal but in remembrance of his fathers answer unto them which had expostulated with him for cutting downe Baal's grove 8 So Moses called the Altar which he erected Exod. 17. 14. Iehovah-Nissi the Lord my banner Not thereby intending to occasion us to think that the Altar so named was either Iehovah or his defence but only to import or signifie that in that place wherein hee built the Altar and at the time of this inscription Iehovah his God had been the defender and protectour of Israel in miraculous manner against the Amalekites So likewise when our Saviour called Simon Cephas or Petros the name imports not that he was either the rocke it selfe or Corner-stone whereon Christ's Church is founded But only that he had some speciall reference or relation unto the rock or foundation Stone which God had laid in Sion or which is all one that hee was the first which
did solemnely confesse and acknowledg Christ Iesus to be as truly God as man The matter or object directly signified by these words is the only true and reall Foundation of faith as Christian of the Catholique Church it selfe Of this ranke or sort of names is the name Iehosadech as it was given unto the Father of Iesus the high Priest but this doth no way import that he was either Iehovah or a man more righteous thē other high Priests had beene and yet so called not by chance or out of vain ostentation of his parents but by divine instinct or appointment of God Or whatsoever intent his parēts might have in giving him this name God did so direct their intentiōs as he did Caiphas his speech to be a kind of prophecy of what was to come We may say of Iehosadech as the Angell said of Iesus and his fellow-Priests that hee was vir portendens his very name and office did portend or bode that Iehovah himselfe the righseous Lord should become our high Priest And in as much as the Sonne of Iehosadech was the first high Priest the first of all the sonnes of Aaron that was called Iesus that is a Saviour this likewise did portend or fore-shadow that the Saviour of God's people the high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech should be the son not of David only but of Iebovah the righteous Lord or Lord of righteousnesse And if he were to be as truly the Sonne of Iehovah the righteous Lord as he was to be the sonne of David then questionlesse hee was to be as truely Iehovah that is as truly and essentially God as hee is truly and essentially man For the relation betwixt the Father and the Sonne is much more strict in the Divine nature then it can be amongst men 9 Amongst men it will follow that if the Father be a man the Sonne must be a man if the Father be mortall the Sonne must be mortall but it will not follow that if the Father be a righteous or potent man the Sonne likewise must be a righteous or potent man The reason is because they are divided in substance But in as much as the Sonne of God is of the same substance or essence with his Father it will directly follow not only that if the Father be God the Sonne is God but also that if the Father be Lord of righteousnesse the Sonne also must be Lord of righteousnesse Yet in as much as not Iehosadech the Father but Iesus the Sonne became legall righteousnesse or a temporall Saviour to God's people in captivity this truly fore-shadoweth this truth unto us that although God the Father be as truly the Lord of righteousnesse as God the Sonne both being of one substance yet is Iehovah become our righteousnesse and our salvation not in the person of the Father but in the person of the Son CHAP. 23. The obiection of the Iewes against the interpretation of the former Prophecy Ierem. 23. answered In what sense Iudah is truly said to be saved and Israel to dwell in safety by Iesus the Sonne of God and Sonne of David YEt here the Iew will object that this prophecy is not yet fulfilled because Iudah is not fully saved nor Israel planted in their owne land But the Apostle hath fully answered this objection if wee could as rightly apply his solution All saith he are not Israel that are called Israel Rom. 9. 6. Yet many are true Israelites indeed which are not so in name Nor is he a Iew that is one outwardly but that is one inwardly The Apostle in the same place gives us to understand that many are Iewes or of Iudah inwardly which are not of Iudah outwardly or so called by name Whosoever is inwardly or in heart that which the name of Iudah importeth he is truly of Iudah though not the seede of Iudah or of Abraham concerning the flesh Now the name of Iudah or Iew importeth as much as a confessor or true professor of Abraham's faith and every one is a true Israelite that is so qualified as Nathaniel was one in whose spirit there is no guile unto all such and only unto such the Lord imputeth no sinne and all they unto whom the Lord imputeth no sinne all such as truly confesse Christ to be the Sonne of God and promised Branch of David are saved by him whether they be the somes of Iacob or of Abraham or Gentiles according to the flesh So that in conclusion all ludah and all Israel according to the full extent of this prophecy are saved by this Iesus for all of them dwell in safety they are not become afraid of themselves but possesse their soules with patience To become Iewes or Israelites in this sense is the first degree of salvation and this degree they likewise have from Iesus through whom and in whom they are to expect the accomplishment of their salvation Christ then first saves us from our sins that are inherent in us or as the Apostle speaks hee first sets us free from the Law of sinne by the spirit of life which is in him and finally exempts us from the wages of sinne which is everlasting death And thus much is contained in that fore-cited promise Ierem. 16. and in the close and conclusion of that prophecie Ierem. 23. concerning the saving of Iudah and Israel by the branch of David whose name or title is The Lord our righteousnesse Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seede of the house of Israel out of the North country The Hebrew phrase Meeretz zaponah according to the usuall and ordinary rate of that language signifies indeed from the North-land yet the originall of this signification or importance of these words was from a conceit which the Iews or such as had their habitation neere unto the Aequinoctiall line had That those parts of the world which were more remote from the Aequinoctiall or Southerne climes were hidden from the sun and were at least in respect of their Country lands of obscurity and darknesse The very prime and native signification of the originall words in the Prophet rendred by our English from the North land or Country is verbatim from the land of obscurity or darknesse And whatsoever the land of Chaldea whereof Babylon was the chiefe City or Metropolis was unto others it was unto the captive Iewes a country of darknesse a land of obscurity the very shadow of death And their deliverance from it was a true type or shadow of our deliverance from the region or land of darknesse it selfe The full importance of the Evangellicall mystery included in the fore-cited passage of the Prophet Ieremy according to the most proper and most exquisite literall sense is expounded unto us by our Apostle S. Paul Coloss 1. 12. 13. God the
Apostle Hebr. 7. 26. 27. For such an high Priest became us who is holy harmelesse undefiled seperate from sinners and made higher then the heavens who needeth not dayly as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his owne sinnes and then for the peoples For this hee did once when hee offered up himselfe 2 So farre was our high Priest from standing in need of any sinne-offring or sacrifice for himselfe that hee himselfe became the full and perfect attonement for the sinnes of the whole world even the sinne-offring for the high Priests themselves which yearly made attonement for the people Againe 't was a defect or imperfection in the sacrifices by which Aaron was consecrated in that they were more then one or of diverse kinds for of bloody sacrifices there were three a bullock for a sinne-offring and two Rammes the one for a fire-offring or sacrifice of rest the other the Ramme of Consecration or of filling the hand It argues againe a greater defect in all these sacrifices whether you take them coniunctim or divisim in that they were to be often offered And this defect or imperfection in the substance of these sacrifices or in the sacrificer or his service the Lord sought to recompence or supply by the perfection of the number of severall times or solemnities in which they were offered For these sacrifices were to be offered seven times Aaron and his sonnes were to fill their hands seven dayes together before their Consecration was accomplished Our high Priest as he had no sacrifice but one to wit the sacrifice of himselfe so was he to offer this sacrifice or this sacrifice was to be offered but once either for his owne or for our Consecration And by this once offring of this one sacrifice hee did fully and absolutely accomplish whatsoever was fore-shadowed by the full number of the legall sacrifices or solemnities which were used at the Consecration of Aaron For the number of seven is a full number yea a number full of mysteries and wherein the Spirit of God seemes to delight Herein then as hath been intimated before the high Priest of the New Testament and the high Priest of the Old exactly agree that as the Consecration of the one so the Consecration of the other was to last seven dayes Aaron and his sonnes as you may read Exod. 29. were commanded to attend at the doore of the tabernacle seven dayes together Our Saviour after his entrance into Ierusalem did attend the Temple five dayes together teaching and instructing the people and in curing the blind and lame which were brought unto him Hee was more frequent and diligent in performing those and the like acts of mercy then Aaron and his sonnes were in offering sacrifices or performing other legall services And having purged the materiall Temple from brothery and merchandizing restoring it to the use of prayer which the high Priests of the Law had turned or suffered to be turned into a denne of theeves having thus purged the Temple on the first or second day of his Consecration and afterwards hallowed it by his Doctrine by his presence and exercise of holinesse in it hee went the sixth day into his heavenly Sanctuary into Paradise it selfe to purifie and sanctifie it with his owne blood to consecrate it for us as Moses at Aaron's Consecration did purifie and consecrate the materiall Sanctuary and the Altar with the blood of Bullocks and of Rammes Yet was not this Consecration as yet fully accomplished the period or accomplishing of it is from the moment of his Resurrection or Reunition of his soule and body As Aaron first so every high Priest of the Law after him was to continue seven dayes in his Consecration that the seventh day or Sabbath might passe over him because no man as they conceive can be a compleat Priest untill a Sabbath have gone over his head But the Sabbath of the Lord did never so exactly passe over any high Priest in his Consecratton as it did over the high Priest of the New Testament However it were of Aaron's it was the last day of his Consecration it was to him indeed a Day of rest after six dayes of labour of watching praying fasting and after hee had accomplished the workes which his Father had sent him to doe◠by the torments of his bloody sactifice and whatsoever paines he suffered upon the Crosse But after he had said consūmatum est which was in the end of the sixth day in that day whereon God first had made man and the Son of God had now redeemed man his Consecration was not yet consummate his body was to rest the Seventh day in the grave And his soule in blisse all the Sabbath or Seventh day and after the heavenly Sanctuary had been thus hallowed by the rest and presence of his blessed soule in it on the Seventh day his soule and body were reunited upon the first day in the morning at that time when the light begū to be distinguished from darknesse And this was the time of the accomplishment of his Consecration or of his admission to the Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech 3 So then to be seven dayes in Consecration was no imperfection in Aaron and his Priesthood but rather a mystery to be accomplished in the Consecration of the Sonne of God That Aaron should have his hands filled seven dayes together by Moses with the sacrifices which were offered for him was an argument as well of his owne personall imperfections as of the imperfections of his sacrifices Howbe it the mystery or morall implyed by the filling of the hand was no point of imperfection and for this reason was as exactly fulfilled in the Consecration of ou◠high Priest as in the Consecration of Aaron The morall implied by the filling of the hand was to signifie that Aaron did not usurp the dignity of Priesthood or take it up as we say at his owne hand but was hereunto lawfully and solemnly called by God from whom hee had received whatsoever he had The inference hence made by our Apostle is this Heb. 5. 4. 5. No man taketh this honour to himselfe but he that is called of God as was Aaron So also Christ glorified not himselfe to be made an high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee Hee that had thus said unto him did likewise prepare or fit a body to him for his sacrifice hee did not fill his hand with sacrifices or burnt offrings 4. It was an imperfection likewise in Aaron's person or his sacrifices or in both his Consecration it selfe was imperfect in that his Consecration did not serve for the Consecration of his sonnes or his Successors all of them were to have their severall sacrifices or other solemne rites of Consecration The perfection which this foil sets forth in our high Priest and his Consecration is this that we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus
knowledge of it was improv'd or enlarg'd is most punctually and cleerely related by S. Iohn Chap. 20. This blessed Apostle and S. Peter did at the first believe Mary Magdalen's report more distinctly and expressely then they did the propheticall predictions The first day of the weeke commeth Mary Magdalen early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulchre and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre Then shee runneth and commeth to Simon Peter and to the other Disciple whom Iesus loved and saith unto them they have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him Peter therefore went forth and that other Disciple and came to the Sepulcher So they runne both together and the other Disciple did out-runne Peter and came first to the Sepulcher And he stooping downe and looking in saw the linnen cloathes lying yet went he not in Then commeth Simon Peter following him and went into the Sepulcher and seeth the linnen cloathes lie And the Napkin that was about his head not lying with the linnen cloathes but wrapped together in a place by it selfe Then went in also that other Disciple which came first to the Sepulcher and he saw and believed for as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise againe from the dead Such knowledge or beliefe of the Scripture as for this time S. Iohn had was farther improved by Christ's apparition unto them upon the same day in the evening Then the same day at evening being the first day of the weeke when the doores were shut where the Disciples were assembled for feare of the Iewes came Iesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you And when he had said so hee shewed unto them his hands and his side Then were the Disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Iesus unto them againe Peace be unto you As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when hee had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the holy Ghost Whosoever sinnes yee remit they are remitted and whosoever sinnes ye retaine they are retained But Thomas one of the twelve which was called Didymus was not with them when Iesus came The other Disciples therefore said unto him we have seene the Lord But he said unto them except I shall see in his hands the print of the nailes and put my finger into the print of the nailes and thrust my hand into his side I will not beleeve and after eight daies his Disciples were within and Thomas with them Then came Iesus the doores being shut and stood in the midst and said Peace be unto you Then saith he to Thomas Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithlesse but believing And Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God Iesus saith unto him Thomas because thou hast seene me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seene and yet have believed Vnto some it may seeme questionable in what sense or how farre that of S. Paul is true faith commeth by hearing seeing S. Thomas professeth that he would not and S. Iohn in this place of himselfe confesseth that hee did not believe one of the fundamentall Articles of Christian faith to wit Christ's Resurrection from the dead untill they had seene what they had to believe Yet if we could accurately sist the internall sense or kernell from the huske or shell of words wherein it is contained it will inferre no more then this that the sight of the eye or miracles seene may be an inducement or introduction unto true beliefe they cannot be the true ground or anchor-hold of Christian faith Such faith must be grounded and hope truly Christian must be pitched upon the testimony of Moses or the Prophets or other sacred and Canonicall writings The reason why S. Iohn did not believe our Saviour's Resurrection before he saw his empty tombe and the linnen cloathes wherein he had been wrapped was because before this sight he knew not the Scripture which hee had often heard read or avouched The sight then of this or of other miracles did but open an entrie or passage unto the true knowledge of that which hee had formerly heard But more strange it may seeme to all of us that two so great Apostles as S. Peter and S. Iohn which had been for three yeares and a halfe together perpetuall auditors of such a Master as spake as never man spake and often eye-witnesses of such workes done by him as no man besides him could doe should now be ignorant of that fundamentall Article of faith whereof at this day to doubt were heresie which now to deny were infidelity For if Christ be not risen from the dead then the dead shall not arise and if the dead doe not arise then were both preaching and hearing vaine our faith were vaine both Priest and people were in a worse case then infidels and we Christians should be of all men most miserable 6 Yet farre be it from us to say or think that either of these two Apostles were at this time in the state of Heretiques or that either of their cases were no better then the cases of Infidels rather it would be a branch of infidelity in us to think that at this time they had no faith The roote of their beliefe in Christ as in their Messias and Redeemer was intire and incorrupt the stemme of it was â—ound although untill this time it had not shut out into this particular branch of faith This was the time wherein the actuall and expresse beliefe of Christ's Resurrection from the dead was to blossome and beare fruit even in these two Apostles That it did now breake forth in them and bear fruit was the work of God that before this time it should keepe in and be in some sort snipt was the ordinance and dispensation of the same God for if the knowledge of our Saviour's Resurrection had beene as expresse as explicite and distinct before his death as it was after his rising from the dead neither had their love either been so hearty in it selfe or so manifest to themselves nor their faith so lively and cheerfull as in the issue both did prove The heartinesse of their love unto him whilst hee lived was manifested even unto themselves by their sorrow for his death which doubtlesse had beene much lesse if in the interim they had actually and expressely believed to have seene him againe within three dayes The strength the livelyhood or cheerfulnesse of their faith was truly manifested and experienced in their joyfull entertainment of the glad tidings which were brought unto them by Mary Magdalen and whereof their outward senses were in part witnesses Their joy could not have been so great nor their embracement of his Resurrection so cheerfull and hearty if it had been expressely and confidently expected by
Chapter no literall circumstance or meaning doth lead or direct us this way but the contrary to wit to his generation or off-spring to such a generation but farre more ample as the Israeliteâ— were of Abraham for so it followeth in the Prophet Hee was out off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was hee striken And hee made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done â—â—â—â—â—lence neither was any deceit in his mouth and ver 10. When thou shalt make his soule an offering for sinne he shall see his seed hee shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travell of his soâ—le and be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall be are their iniquities v. 10. 11. They whose iniquities he did beare and whom hee justified are his seed or that Generation whereof the Prophet doth speake Vnto this purpose our Saviour himselfe doth speak Ioh. 12. ver 23. 24. When Andrew and Philip came unto him a litle before his Passion and told him certaine Greekes desired to see him he answered them saying The houre is come that the Sonne of man should be glorified Verily verily I say unto you except a corne of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit 12 In respect of this his Resurrection out of the grave he is called the first begotten from the dead for the Father of whom hee was begotten before all worlds from all eternities did now beget him as man unto glory and immortality According to his first birth as man by the blessed Virgin he was truly called the seed of Abraham the sonne of David According to the second birth or begetting him from the grave he is called the Father of the world to come and as man the Father of Abraham the Father of David yea and of Melchisedech himselfe who blessed Abraham For the life of glory and immortality doth descend to all that ever shall be partakers of it from the man Christ Iesus now possest of glory and immortality as truly and really as his mortality or life in the flesh did descend from Abraham from David or from his Mother the blessed Virgin 13 Isaac as all have knowne it was the true picture and shadow of our Saviour's death and deliverance from it The mighty increase likewise of Isaac and Iacob's seed was the embleme or pledge of our Saviour's seed or generation which cannot be numbred or declared 14 But the circumstances of our Saviour's selling of his betraying of his cruell persecutions by Priests and people the ungracious offspring of Israel or Iacob the whole legend of his humiliation unto death and exaltation after his Resurrection are more exactly fore-shadowed by the cruell persecutions of Ioseph procured by his brethren by his calamitie and advancement in Egyyt Their persecutions by the sonnes of Iacob doe in a manner parallel themselves Both of them were sold by a Iudas more for hope of gaine then desire of blood on their parts that sold them 15 The pit whereinto Ioseph's brethren cast him as also the pit or dungeon wherein hee lay in fetters after his comming into Egypt were true pictures of our Saviour's grave or of the pit whereinto his soule descended So was Ioseph's deliverance out of them a true shadow or resemblance of Christ's Resurrection Ioseph's high advancement by Pharaoh an exquisite Type or mappe of our Saviour's glorious Kingdome after his Resurrection or birth from the dead so Ioseph complains unto Pharaoh's butler Gen. 40. v. 15. I was stollen away out of the land of the Hebrewes and here also have I done nothing that they should put mee into the dungeon 16 The whole story of Ioseph's depression and advancement is set downe Psal 105. v. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. He sent a man before theÌ„ even Ioseph who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt with fetters He was laid in iron until the time that his WORD came the WORD of the Lord tried him The King sent and loosed him even the Ruler of the people and let him goe free Hee made him Lord of his house and Ruler of all his substance To bind his Princes at his pleasure and teach his Senators wisedome 17 A more expresse draught or mappe as well of our Saviour's humiliation as of his exaltation is Gen. 39. ver 20. 21. and Gen. 41. ver 39. Instead of the prison or dungeon wherein Ioseph lay he is raised to the highest place in the Kingdome under Pharaoh Thou shalt be over my house saith Pharaoh to Ioseph and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled only in the throne will I be greater then thou See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt So was our Saviour after his Resurrection made chiefe Ruler over the house of God Every house is builded by some man But he that built all things is God And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as a Sonne over his owne house whose house are wee The amplitude of Christ's Kingdome as man foreshadowed by Ioseph's advancement under Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt is described Psal 2. ver 10. specially Psal 8. ver 5. 6. Thou hast made him a litle while lower then the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou mad'st him to have dominion over the workes of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feete Yet saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 27. It is manifest that hee is excepted which put all things under him And when it is said that he sits at the right hand of God untill his enemies be made his footstoole it is included that hee at whose right hand hee sits is in throne or seate of dignity above him Againe Ioseph instead of the iron wherein he was bound hath the Kings ring put on his hand Instead of his ragged or squallid weeds hee is arayed in a vesture of fine linnen or silke Instead of his fetters and bonds hee hath a golden chaine put about his neck All these ornaments bestowed on Ioseph as the ancient and learned well observe were but resemblances of those glorious endowments wherewith our Saviour's Body or Humanitie hath since his Resurrection been invested 18 Ioseph was placed by Pharaoh in the second charriot and he made them cry before him Abrech that is as much as to say Lord or King to whom bowing of the knee was due All this and whatsoever more was done to Ioseph is but a model of that honour which as our Apostle tels us God hath commanded to be given to Christ Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given
him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Philip. 2. verses 9. 10. 11. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. CHAP. 31. Shewing the concludency of the allegations used by the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul to prove the truth of Christ's Resurrection and in particular of the Testimony Psal 2. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee NOt to repeat other Types or propheticall testimonies of Christ's entrance into immortall glory by the sufferings of death of which the Reader may find plenty as well in Postillers as Commentators nor to dilate upon such generall testimonies whether meerly typical or propheticall or typically propheticall as have been heretofore handled in the seventh and eighth Booke of these Comments upon the Creed as that of Psal 82. c. I make no question but those testimonies out of the Psalmes or Prophets which are avouch'd to this purpose by the Apostles themselves specially by S. Peter and S. Paul were expounded by our Saviour himselfe unto the two fore-mentioned Disciples which did accompany him unto Emmaus 2 Now the testimonies most insisted upon by the Apostles as well for convincing the Gentiles as the Iewes are specially three that of Psal the 2. Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee and Psal the 6. Thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption the third The Lord hath sworne and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech or which is much what the same The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole The extraordinary successe of all these allegations abundantly testifies that they were most concludent for many thousand soules at two severall times besides others were converted by them The testimony out of Psal 2. is prest home by S. Peter Act. 2. v. 6. to the 37. to the Iewes specially and by S. Paul both upon Iews and Gentiles Act. 13. Though with better successe upon the Gentiles The force and strength of this testimonie and likewise how farre it was meant of David and fulfilled in Christ hath been at large discust before The point at which these present endeavours aime is to declare how these two testimonies 1. Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee and 2. Thou art a Priest after the order of Melchisedech doe concludently and irrefragably inferre the Resurrection of Christ that Iesus whom the Iewes had crucified being both the Sonne of God and sonne of David and his Consecration to his everlasting Priesthood for unto this later point both testimonies are drawne by our Apostle Heb. 5. v. 5. and 6. But how close they reach this point whether jointly or severally is not so cleerly set forth by most interpreters as that the Reader unlesse his understanding farre surpasse mine will easily collect The generall meaning of our Apostle hath been declared in the first Section and in the close of the fourth of this Booke it is punctually thus Seeing Aaron's calling to the dignity of Priesthood was publiquely manifested to be from God no man after might take upon him to erect a new Priesthood no not to the temporall prejudice of Aaron and his successors much lesse to abolish this Priesthood which God had erected unlesse he could manifest to man and Angels that his Commission for thus doing was immediately from God and authentique being sealed by oath and solemnely executed And seeing no man might therefore Christ though God and man did not glorifie himselfe as the Apostle addes to be made an high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee did put this dignity upon him Many Interpreters have stretcht their wits to make the literall sense of this Psalmist's words reach home to our Apostle's purpose Others so slight it as if they would give us to understand or cause to suspect our Apostle himselfe did not much stand upon it but only passe by it unto the second testimony Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Albeit in my opinion the later testimony proves his fiat or Commission the former his ordination or execution of his Commission I will not wrong the judicious Reader 's patience with profering variety of such expositors unto his choise as his wisdome cannot approve Cajetan hath Ribera's approbation and of all the expositors which went before him drawes the Psalmist's Oracle Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee neerest to the point in question So farre I am from carping at any thing which those two expositors have said to the point now in question that I will endeavour to explicate and extend their meaning in the best sort I can The Priesthood saith Cajetan as Ribera expounds him before the Law given was annexed as a prerogative to the first borne and descended from Abraham to Isaac and by speciall dispensation to Iacob Now the whole dignity of the first borne being lost by Ruben was divided amongst three of his Brethren The Soveraignty or Principallity fell to Iudah the Priesthood to Levi and the double Portion to Ephraim And in Aaron the sonne of Levi was the Priesthood established long before the Kingdome was established in David the sonne of Iudah and to the Priesthood so established David's sons had as litle right as Aaron's sonnes had to the Crowne or Diadem God's peremptory decree for thus dividing these two prerogatives Azariah is not afraid to plead unto King Vzziah's face Chron. 2. 26. And his speech did take impression for hee had no sooner made an end of speaking but the leprosie begunne to appeare in King Vzziah's face and for his usurpation of the Priest's office and intrusion into the house of God he is utterly excluded from his pallace and enforced to resigne the government unto his Sonne But inasmuch as he of whom the Psalmist speakes is solemnely registred and by him declared to be the first borne and Sonne of God it is not lawfull only but expedient but very necessary that all the branches of the first borne's prerogative which Ruben had scattered should be reunited in his Person Againe in that he is the promised seed hee is the compleat heire of all the blessings bequeathed to Abraham and out of whatsoever tribe this promised seed was to spring the honour of Priesthood was as due unto him as the Kingdome Levi and Aaron were but as foefes in trust for conveying the Priesthood as Iudah and David were for making over the Kingdome unto him 3 All those suppositions and others perhaps more then Cajetan or Ribera though
Creator both of sea and land The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof the World and they that dwell therein for he hath founded it upon the seas that is in such a sense as wee say townes and cities are situated upon the rivers on whose bankes they stand and established it upon the flood ver 1. 2. Yet may we not deny that this Psalme may literally referre to the bringing in of the Arke into the hill of Sion and to the exhortation of the Psalmist to admit and entertaine it as the feat of the King of Glory God blessed for ever But this literall sense doth no way prejudice but rather strengthen the force of their argument who hence conclude the deity of the Son of God then admitted in triumph into the hill of Sion or the Tabernacle pitched in it according to his divine nature only this triumphant admission being a sure pledge or earnest of his future admission into his heavenly Sanctuary the place of his everlasting residency as Lord and Christ in our nature No man who acknowledgeth or rightly esteemeth the authority of the Psalmist unlesse abundance of wit hath besplitted his understanding can imagine that the King of Glory whom the Psalmist here mentioneth should be any other party or person besides the Son of God Christ Iesus whom the Iewes when he came to the materiall Temple or Tabernacle wherein his divine nature did in peculiar manner reside did not entertaine in such manner as David enjoyned their fore-Fathers to entertaine the Arke of his presence They would not acknowledge him to be their Messias because they knew him not nor the Scriptures which did foretell this his comming For as our Apostle with speciall reference to the words of this Psalmist teâ—s us had they knowne him to be that Lord of Glory unto whose honour David consecrated this hymne they would not have crucified him But by crucifying or rather by his humiliation of himselfe unto the death of the Crosse he was consecrated as man unto his everlasting Priesthood and made both Lord and King of Glory CHAP. 36. At what time and upon what occasions th 68 Psalme was composed What reference it hath in the generall unto our Saviour's Ascension ANother Psalme there is appointed by the wisedome of the ancient and continued by the discretion of the English Church even since the first reformation to be read or sung as a proper hymne to the festivall of our Saviour's Asoension A Psalme full of mysteries and divine raptures apt to enkindle our hearts with zeal and admiration could we find out or rightly seeke after either the historicall occasions which ministred the matter or ditty of this divine song or the severall parts of Scripture unto which most passages in it according to the literall or historicall sense doe respectively referre The occasion of composing the Psalme to wit 68. Some Iewish Rabbins conjecture to have been that glorious victory which Ezekiah or rather the Lord of hosts in Ezekiah's daies got over Senacherib and his mighty army But the most of the more judicious Christian Commentators with greater probability or discretion referre the occasion of composing this Psalme to that solemne translation of the Arke of God from Kyriath Iearim into Mount Sion at large described 2. Sam. 6. David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel thirty thousand And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Baal of Iudah to bring up from thence the Arke of God whose name is called by the Lord of hosts that dwelleth betweene the Cherubbims or at which the name even the name of the Lord of hosts was called upon 2 This later opinion is in it selfe perswasible or rather deserves full credanee from the first words of the Psalme Let God arisâ— let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him ver 1. These were verba solemnia the accustomed solemne forme of prayer used so often as the Arke of the Covenant which was to this people the most authentique pledge of God's peculiar presence and protection and for this reason called by his name did remove from one place to another during their pilgrimage in the wildernesse And they departed from the Mount of the Lord three daies journey And the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord went before them in the three daies journey to search out a resting place for them and the Cloud of the Lord was upon them by day when they went out of the Campe. And it came to passe when the Arke set forward that Moses said rise up Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when it rested hee said Returne O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Numb 10. ver 33. 34. 35. 36. Moses prayed conceptis verbis that God would arise and take part with his people David out of the fresh experience of God's mighty protection over him his subjects and allies so long as they worshipped him in truth and syncerity in this symbole of his presence seemes to utter Moses song rather by way of congratulation for victories already gotten then by way of instant prayer for present assistance A great part of this most divine most sublime ditty is a recapitulation of the glorious victories which the God of Israel had purchased for his people and upon their deliverance out of Egypt and their other peculiar protections or succours which private men or women in their distresse had found when they were helplesse in the sight of men or oppressed by their neighbours Sing unto God sing praises to his name extoll him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Iah and reioyce before him A Father of the fatherlesse and a Iudge of the widowes is God in his holy Habitation God setteth the solitary in families he bringeth out those that are bound in chaines but the rebellious dwell in a dry land ver 4. 5. 6. The verses following referre to the publique deliverance out of Egypt and the majesticke apparitions about Mount Sinai O God when thou wentest forth before thy people when thou didst march through the wildernesse the earth shooke the heavens also dropped before the Lord even Sinai it selfe was moved at the presence of God the God of Israel c. 7. 8. Some good Interpreters here observe that the Arke itselfe is called Iehovah or the Lord God of Israel by the same forme of speech that the sacrament all pledges are called the one the Body the other the Blood of Christ 3 Now the sweet singer of Israel was confident that the God of their Fathers would be as gracious to himselfe to his people and their successors after he came to dwell in Mount Sinai as he had been to Moses and Ioshun in the wildernesse â—or unto Samuel while the Taber nacle was in Shiloh or elsewhere either in motion or pitched Hence sprung those encomiasticall expressions throughout the Psalme of the
which the Seed of David the Son of God was to obtaine over the old Serpent and his seed over death it selfe and all the powers of darknesse The triumph of the one or other David I mean or Barach was but a picture or painted shadow of that triumphant conquest described by our Apostle Colass 2. And you being dead in your sinnes and the uncircumcision of your flesh 〈…〉 he 〈…〉 together with him having forgiven you all 〈…〉 blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us and tooke it out of the way and having spoiled principalicies and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it ver 13. 14. 15. 2. The harmony betweene the literall or historicall sense of David's words though we weigh them only according to Calvin's Comments upon them Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men and the mysticall interpretations of them given by S. Paul is as sweet as plaine such as need no descant besides the bare proposall of the Psalmist's Text and Apostle's interpretation of it or conlsiderations of the occasions which David had to speake as in the fore-cited place he doth David and Barach with other Conquerors when they led captivity captive gave gifts unto their friends gifts of diverse sorts to severall persons silver and gold of other guerdons to their well-deserving captaines or souldiers rayments of needle-worke unto women of better ranke wiâ—e and cakes or other like junkets to poore women and children Assoone as David had made an end of burnt offerings and peace-offerings hee blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and hee deaâ—t among all the people even among the whole multitude of Israel as well to the women as 〈…〉 to everâ— one a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine so all the people departed every one to his house 2. Sam. 6. ver 28. 29. And this was the time when hee brought the Aâ—ke of God in solemne procession into the hill of Sion But unto every one of us saith the the Apostle in the fore cited place which containes the Evangelicall mystery parallel to this historicall relation is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Wherefore he saith when be ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Now that he ascended what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth Hee that descended is the same also that ascended up farre above all heavens that he might fill all things And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ Till wee all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4. v. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 3 From this improvement of the Psalmist's literall sense and mysticall interpretation of his practice which no good Christian will deny to be authentique as being made by the Apostle the diligent Reader may easily find out the mysticall or propheticall sense of the verses following in the 68. Psal so farre as they concerne the Article of our Saviour's Ascension or the propagation of the Kingdome of God which followed upon it To take the cleareview of the mysticall sense of the verses mentioned the Reader with me must take his rise from the literall sense which is two-fold the one containing an historicall expression of what was to be acted for the present by David and his attendants when he brought the Arke into Mount Sion the other a relation or retro-aspect unto the solemnities used by Barach and his attendants in their triumph over Sisera So it followeth They have seene thy goings O God even the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary These words are characters or notes of the solemne procession of the Arke for whilst the Arke or Sanctuary did goe or march unto Mount Sion the God and King of Israel did goe with it and in it and in this procession the singers went before the players on instruments followed after amongst them were the Damosels playing with Timbrels v. 25 The solemnity of singing in God's service was more compleat in David's time then it had been in the daies of Moses or of the Iudges yet songs and musick they had then in their solemn processions or gratulations and Damosels playing upon Timbrels as it is evident out of Exodus 15. Iudges 5. and other ancient sacred histories Though such processions at this day such is the alteration of times and seasons would be as unsightly to us moderne Christians whether Protestants or Papists as it would be to an English Protestant to see the consecrated hoast or Body of our Lord whilst caried about in solemn processioÌ„ attended with a maâ—risk-dance or other like gamboles But the burthen of the song used by David was that v. 26. Blesse ye God in the Congregation even the Lord from or ye that are of the fountaine of Israel For not Iudah only but the rest had their portion in the son of Iesse for there is litle Benjamin with their Ruler the Princes of Iudah and their councell the Princes of Zebulun and the Princes of Nepthali ver 27. These Tribes with their governors in all probability did give David best attendance in this great service done to the Arke or rather to the God of Israel that dwelt in it as some of them likewise had been principall assistants unto Barak highly commended for their service by Deborah Out of Ephraim was their a roote of them against Amaleck after thee Beniamin among thy people Iudg. 5. ver 14. After a sharpe taxe of some other Tribes for their great backwardnesse in the service of God she addes Zebulun and Nepthali were a people that ieoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field ver 18. In the first procession of the Arke Numb 10. All the Tribes with their Rulers did attend it so did they not Barak in the battel of the Lord against Iabin and Sisera The excellent services of these Tribes mentioned by David in this pocession with the Arke to Mount Sion did prognosticate or portend that when the true Arke was exhibited that is when the God of their Fathers should come and dwell and walke among them in the midst of them as Moses had promised his chiefe attendants should be these Tribes commended by Deborah and David Christ Iesus himselfe the God of Israel whom David and his Fathers worshipped was of the Tribe of Iudah Paul of the Tribe of Beniamin Peter and Andrew and most of the other Apostles or prime Disciples were of the Tribe of Zebulum and Nepthali and made more then Princes of their families his witnesses
more then commendable arts or naturall skill could afford them either for astonishing or deluding their senses or surprizing their wits However this of the Prophet Ionas being the last signe or forewarning which this evill generation was to expect from our Saviour the consequence of their non-observance or not repenting after the exhibition of it was most contrary to this examplary patterne of the Ninivite's observance of Ionas embassage by turning to the Lord in sackcloth and ashes Iudah was now become more contrary to our God then either her sister Samaria or then Assiria or Niniveh had been and God's waies became more contrary unto her and to her children The Ninivites repenting within the forty daies limited for this purpose God repealed the sentence which he had pronounced against them although Ionas who proclaimed it did murmure or grumble at it For he expected that the Lord whose mouth and messenger he was should at the forty daies end declare him to be a true Prophet by putting his sentence in execution The Son of God expects as long for the repentance of these Iewes which doubtlesse would have pleased him much better then their destruction But seeing they would not repent within the forty daies between his Resurrection and Ascension the sentence proclaimed by Ionas against Niniveh proceeds in fullest measure against this wicked and adulterous generation or degenerate seed of Abraham 5 But shall we be concluded from these premisles to say that Ierusalem and Iudah were destroyed immediately upon our Saviour's Ascension No but this we may safely say that from the day of his Ascension which was the fortieth day after his Resurrection both the City and Nation did ipso facto jure incurre the sentence of woe denounced against Niniveh by Ionas And we may further adde that the destruction both of City and Temple the desolation of Iudea and miserable dispersion of the Iewes throughout the Nations became more necessary and more inevitable then heretofore they had been not for the indefinite substance only of the woe denounced but the very measure of their misery did dayly by the like necessity increase both for intensive decrees and for extension especially in respect of the number of persons which did incurre the sentence or decree pronounced against them and of the time ordurance of the matter of woe denounced in it Yet were none of these necessary but by their continuance in their fore-father's sins and by not repenting of them and by the dayly increase of their owne and their childrens sinnes 6 During the time of these forty yeares after our Saviour's Ascension the City and State had a possibility of being freed à tanto though not a toto though not simply from destruction yet from such fearfull desolation as afterwards befell them But continuing as impenitent all these forty yeares as they had done for the forty daies before his AscensioÌ„ the sentence within forty years after his Resurrection began to be put in execution according to the strict tenour of our Saviour's prediction Luk. 19. 41. 42. 43. 44. During the time of these forty daies God's Iudgments did lay seige against Ierusalem but the son of man Christ Iesus yet conversing as man here upon earth did bear off the punishments due to their iniquity as Ezechiel intitled and in Type the son of man had before prefigured Chap. 4. 6. Thou shalt beare the iniquitie of the house of Iudah forty daies I have appointed thee each day for a year see v. 1. 2. And thus at the end of forty yeares after our Saviour's Resurrection allotting a yeare for every day of his abode on earth the City and Temple were destroied This Calender of a day for a yeare was no new or uncouth account to this people either in the daies of Ezechiel or at the time of our Saviour's Ascension it was a Calender of God's owne making as we may read Numb 14. 33. 34. Your children shall wander in the wildernesse forty yeares and beare your whoredomes untill your Carkeises be wasted in the wildernsse after the number of the daies in which yee searched the land even forty daies each day for a year shall yee beare your iniquities even forty yeares and yee shall know my breach of promise I the Lord have said it I will surely doe it unto all this evill Congregâ—tion that are gathered together against me in this wildernesse they shall be consumed and there they shall die The people were gathered against God when they were gathered against Ioshuah and Caleb and bad stone them with stones ver 10. And the Glory of the Lord which then appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before all the children of Israel had now more personally and visibly appeared in the man Christ Iesus and yet how oft were they ready to stone him to death The former people for their rebellion were to die in the wildernesse without hope of seeing the promised land 7 For the rebellion of this later generation specially after the Glory of God was now revealed by his Resurrection Ierusalem according to Micah's prophecy was to become an heape of stones and Sion the beauty of the whole Nation was to be plowed like a field and the mountaine of the house which was the glory of Sion was to become as the high places of the forrest a more gastly wildernesse then that wherein their Fathers wandred The cause of God's plague denounced Numb 14. was that generations credulity to believe the report of the other spies concerning the land of Canaan contrary to the good report which Caleb and Ioshuah had made of it And the cause why this generation were to die of a more fearfull plague in Ierusalem and why Ierusalem was to become an heape was their distrust unto the promise concerning the Kingdome of heaven whereof the land of Canaan in her highest prosperity was but the mappe avouched by Iohn Baptist the Preacher of Repentance and by Iesus the Son of David which had viewed it and presented the fruits of it unto them And for this their distrust as their Fathers had wandred forty yeares in the wildernesse and never admitted to the land of Canaan so this rebellious generation had forty yeares time before they were cast out of the earthly Ierusalem never to be admitted into new Ierusalem which came down from heaven CHAP. 43. That place of Zachary Chap. 14. v. 3. expounded shewing that God did fight with the Gentiles against the Iews as formerly he had done with the Iewes against the Gentiles How the forty daies of Christ's abode upon earth after his Resurrection was fore-told THis wath of God against Ierusalem was fore-told by the Prophet Zachary Chap. 14. ver 1. 2. 4. Behold the day of the Lord commeth saith the Prophet and the spoile shall be divided in the mid'st of thee that is her enemies should not come against her as rievers ' or boot-halers which dare not stay to divide the spoile where they catch it
Ierusalem For questionlesse he did not call or gather them against Ierusalem to fight for it against them but for them against it This version of the originall is most consonant to that prediction of the Prophet Isaiah 63. 10. Hee became their enemy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fought against them The full and just Paraphrase of the whole verse is in plain English thus The Lord will as remarkably shew himself to be the Lord of hosts or the Lord mighty in battaile by fighting for the Nations against Ierusalem as he formerly had done by fighting for Israel against Pharaoh and his hosts or for Gideon against the Madionites for Barak and Deborah against Iabin and Sisera or in other like famous victories which he procured for his people unto some one or other of which most Interpreters referre these words as in the day of battaile Zachary 14. 3. But the adequate or compleat object of the literall sense is not one or two but all the famous victories which the Lord of hosts had bestowed upon his people And hee that will diligently peruse Iosephus History of the Iewish warres especially the sixth Book may find as many pregnant documents of God's displeasure and powerfull hand against the Iewes and of his peculiar temporall favour towards the Nations under the conduct of Titus as had been shewed in any one age against the Nations on the behalfe of Israel or the Iewes 3 It hath been observed before that the best Commentators upon most prophesies in the Old or New Testament are such historians as did least remember or understand them or had no other aime or intention save only to relate matters of fact unpartially The best Commentary that the ordinary Reader shall easily find upon this fourteenth Chapter of Zach. is the fore-mentioned history of Iosephus lib. 6. and the best Mercury or director that I can commend unto him for finding out the accomplishment of this prophesie according to the literall sense by the events or accurrences recorded in that history is Danaeus who besides the literall explication is in this particular most orthodoxall for the morall sense of the Prophet concerning Gods gracious goodnesse unto these Iewes in fore-telling so long before from what place the City should be assaulted and by whom and in what manner taken The place from which the City was first assaulted and the defendants most prejudiced was clearly fore-told by this Prophet ver 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before or over against Ierusalem on the East and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West c. This part of the prophesie concerning the feet of God which were to stand upon the Mount of Olives was never before so literally verified as in the day of our Saviour's Ascension Many strange miraculous reports are extant concerning the print of our Saviou's feet which continued more then foure hundred years after his Ascension if we may believe traditions anciently recorded and poore travellers are made to believe that the Print continues the same unto this day But to let these traditions passe tanquam via navis in mari certaine it is that whilst our Saviour's feet did as upon the day of his Ascension stand upon the Mount of Olives the feet of that God of whom the Prophet their speakes did stand upon it Now the time allotted for the Iewes repentance being expired and peace not made with him before his Ascension the very dust of his feet much more the print of his feet did remaine as a witnesse against them At the same time was that other passage of the Prophet ver 3. Then shall the Lord goe forth to wit our of Ierusalem literally fulfilled If his feet had not stood upon the Mount of Olives as a witnesse against them the Roman army had never stood there to execute his wrath upon them For to omit allegories or forced interpretations concerning the cleaving of the Mount of Olives mentioned by the Prophet their conjecture is more then probable who thinke the prophesie was literally verified when the Romans besieged the City and cast their trenches upon the Mount of Olives The time was now come that the Nations were to tread Ierusalem under their feet and the Iewes which were Christ's enemies were to become his footstooles These be the issues of his setting his feet upon the Mount of Olives as it concernes Ierusalem and the Iewes Vnlesse the Lord of hosts had set his feet upon Mount Olivet to fight for the Nations against Ierusalem it had never come into Titus his head to give command or directions nor into his souldiers hearts to put his directions conceived by himselfe contrary to the several advisements of his counsell of warre in execution by raising that mighty wall mentioned by Iosephus l. 6. cap. 13. in the space of three daies His relation concerning the raising of that wall would have been to me incredible or a lying wonder unlesse the Prophet Zachary had fore-told it ver 4. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the middest thereof toward the East and toaeard the West and there shall be a very great valley and halfe of the mountaine shall remove toward the North and halfe of it toward the South The wall without question was not of stone for to have attempted that had been a madnesse but at the most de cespite vivo of earth and turfe Now the digging up of so much earth as would suffice to make a wall of that height and so many furlongs in length as Iosephus describes would necessarily cause or occasion such a valley as the Prophet decyphers 4 It is well observed by Danaeus and so I presume by many others that Ierusalem should be distressed and exposed to ruine from that place wherein her rulers had apprehended her native King and supreme Lord as a malefactor with swords and staves and that her Lord and God should make her amore miserable prey to the Roman Souldiers then they had made his son and his followers to the Roman Deputy or such as were under his command But to parallel the miseries which befell Ierusalem and her children by the rules of divine retaliation according to all that shee had done unto her Lord and King or to set the exact proportion between Ionas his fore-warning to Nineveh Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be destroied and our Saviour's fore-warning unto Ierusalem as Ionas was three daies and three nights c. and the issues or executions of both fore-warnings the one upon Ierusalem for her pepetuall non-repentance the other upon Nineveh for returning to her vomit about forty yeares after her repentance within the forty daies prefixt by Ionas would require a large volume Thus much for the present must suffice for answer unto the former of the two queries last propos'd to wit what our Saviour's abode forty daies here on earth after his
Resurrection did portend 5 The second was how these forty daies of his abode here on earth after his Resurrection were fore-pictured or fore-told 6 This second querie is in part already answered in the explication of the signe of Ionas for as he expected forty daies what should become of Nineveh so our Saviour did respite the solemne declaration of Ierusalem's doome as many daies Nor can I mislike their opinion who think that the forty daies intervenient betwixt the houre of his Resurrection and Ascension were prefigured by his forty daies fasting in the wildernesse after his Baptisme as that questionlesse was by Moses fasting forty daies and forty nights in the Mount Moses did then beare as himselfe doth witnesse the iniquities of the people to wit as in the Type but our Saviour as well in that long fast after his Baptisme as in the forty daies after his Resurrection did beare their and our sinnes really and according to the mysticall and compleat meaning of Moses words 7 But if wee should descend unto more exact search of the particular cricumstances of time as it includes the day of his Resurrection and Ascension with the other thirty eight daies intervenient these were most punctually and admirably fore-shadowed and represented by the day of his first birth from the wombe and by the day of his blessed Mothers Purification and his Presentation in the Temple in Ierusalem 8 Inasmuch as all the first-borne are called holy unto the Lord and God requires them expressely of his people Exod. 22. 29. The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto mee This did imply that there should be some one first-borne amongst them that were borne of women in whom the light and life of holinesse that holinesse it selfe of which all the legall titles of holinesse were but shadowes or glimmerings should reside or be incorporated as light in the body of the sun Now that Iesus the Son of Mary was this first-borne in whom the true and compleat holinesse did thus reside the holy Ghost did declare or proclaime by the mouth of Simeon at that very time wherein our Saviour according to the Law of the first-borne was to be presented unto the Lord in his Temple to wit the time of his Mothers Purification Simeon saith S. Luke came by the spirit into the Temple and when the Parents brought in the child Iesus to doe for him after the custome of the Law then tooke he him up in his armes and blessed God and said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eies have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel And Ioseph and his Mother marvailed at those things which were spoken of him And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his Mother Behold this child is set for the fall and rising againe of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be spoken against 9 They good soules came not to the Temple with any such intent or expectation but to observe the Law of the first-borne male as S. Luke tels us Chap. 2. 22. 23. 24. And when the daies of her Purification were accomplished according to the Law of Moses they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the Law of the Lord every male that openeth the wombe shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the Law of the Lord a paire of turtle doves or two young pigeons The ordinary offering which the Law in like case did require was a Lambe as you may read Levit. 12. 6. yet with this expresse dispensation that if the party were not able to offer a Lambe two turtle doves or two young pigeons should suffice The Blessed Virgin whether by reason of her husband's poverty or as I rather think by reason shee was delivered of her Son in a strange place without the Country or Province wherein she dwelt was content to use the benefit of this dispensation 10 But though our Saviour had this peculiar prerogative of the first-borne that he was most holy unto the Lord and although as he said at his baptisme it became him to fulfill all legall righteousnesse yet it is questionable whether hee were redeemed at other first-borne were The sacrifice mentioned by S. Luke was ordinary at every womans Purification whether the child brought forth were male or female As for our Saviour of all first borne he only needed no legal Redemption because he was destinated from his birth not to be redeemed but to be offered up in sacrifice for the Redemption of others And in this he did fulfill that legall rite or shadow of redeeming those usefull creatures which were by the Law uncleane by the sacrifice of such as by the Law were accounted cleane 11 But was he exempted by any more peculiar right from the Law of Redemption then the blessed Virgin his Mother was from the Law of Purification To this demand it might be answered that the blessed Virgin was not free from all taint of originall sinne as he was But this reply or answer being admitted it would be a foule heresie or worse then so to say that she was either legally or naturally uncleane during all or any part of the time of her separation from the Sanctuary or holy assembly for she was free from any actuall sinne in the time or manner of her conception and from all legall uncleanenesse either in her travaile or for forty daies after it Otherwise that holy one which was borne of her might have been conceived or brought forth or nourished by her milk in her uncleannesse which to avouch or conceive were foule blasphemy Was her observation then of the Law concerning Purification either a will-worship or affected worke of supererogation Rather an excellent patterne or exemplary rule of obedience unto all the sons and daughters of Adam that desire or intend to be the sons and daughters of Abraham The rule is that even such of either sexe as know themselves not to be conscious of the occasions nor much lyable to the temptations which publique Lawes or sacred Canons seeke to prevent or restraine from bursting out into matter of fact shall doe both wisely and religiously if they submit themselves to the observance of such decrees or injunctions as are usefull or needfull for most other men to observe For it well becomes and behoves the most strong and sound members of any body naturall or civill of Christ's mysticall body especially to sympathize thus farre at least with unsound or decaying parts of the same body as to restraine themselves from using that liberty which they for their owne parts might safely enjoy were the object or matter prohibited void of danger unto other members of the same society which have more forcible temptations to the contrary or want skill
fore-shadowed by David concerning the manner of our Saviour's Ascension or propagation of his Kingdome was more clearly fore-seen by Daniel and as punctually foreshadowed by matter of fact in Mosaicall histories To begin with the testimony of Daniel which was meerly propheticall a pure vision And I beheld invisions by night behold one like the son of man came in the clouds of heaven and approached unto the ancient of daies and they brought him before him And he gave him dominion and honour and a Kingdome that all people Nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall never be taken away and his Kingdome shall never be destroyed In that he saith he was like unto the Son of man this doth not import that hee was not truly man or only like to man but that more glory was due unto him then to any meere sonne of man and that he was the true sonne of that ancient of dayes unto whom hee was brought And as our Apostle saith that being in the forme of God and equall unto God yet he was found in the liknesse and shape of man that is as essentially like to man as like to God The Prophet describes his presentation to his Father by the Angels and coelestiall powers attending him which our Evangelist relateth not because haply this could not be seen by waking and mortall eyes but only by vision or rapture of spirit The same Prophet likewise describes the manner of his Ascension as exactly as if he had been a waking spectator of it with the Apostles and Disciples 2 But to resume the Prophets words Behold saith the Prophet one like the sonne of man came in the clouds of heaven and approached unto the ancient of daies hee doth not say hee was brought up in the clouds of heaven for the motion was his owne Hee was the agent or mover as well as the party moved in this Ascension So the Evangelist saith Act. 1. 9. And when hee had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up for a cloud tooke him out of their sight and whilst they looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went Behold two men stood by them in white apparrell which also said yee men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven Emphasim habent verba hee videntibus illis It was remarkably said that hee was taken up his Disciples looking on for this imports as some of the ancients observe that Christ did ascend by litle and litle as it were by certaine steps that hee might feed the eyes and refresh the soules of his Disciples He was not raught up as Elias was who had but one witnesse nor as S. Paul who had no witnesse besides himselfe scarce himselfe a witnesse of his rapture for whether hee were taken up in the body or out of the body God knowes saith he I cannot tell But our Saviour went by the power of his omnipotency he descended when hee would and when he would ascended appointing what spectators or witnesses it pleased him with the place the time the very day and houre 3 As S. Luke's description of our Saviour's Ascension is a compleat explanation of Daniel's vision so is that vision of the mysticall sense of Mosaicall or other histories concerning the Arke or Tabernacle For the unfolding of this point we are to take the fore-mentioned prenotion for our rule to wit that the Arke of the Covenant wherein God was said to dwell was but a Type or shadow of the humane nature of Christ in which the God-head dwelleth bodily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other branch of this prenotion is as cleare that the Tabernacle which Moses erected in the wildernesse in which he placed the Arke was but a petty modle of that celestiall Tabernacle into which Christ is entred of which the Temple built by Salomon was somewhat a fairer draught yet no more then a litle mappe Now immediately after Moses had finished the worke of the Tabernacle A cloud covered the Tent of the congregation and the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle Exod. 40. ver 34. c. More expressly Numb 9. v. 15. And on the day that the Tabernacle was reared up a cloud covered the Tabernacle namely the tent of the testimony and at even there was upon the Tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire untill the morning The most memorable history to this purpose is 1. King 1. v. When Salomon had assembled all the Elders of Israel and heads of the Tribes to bring up the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord out of the City of David to the Temple ver 1. And it came to passe when the Priests were gone out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the Priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of the Lord. v. 11. The Son of God in whose breast as he is the Son of David the Covenant made with mankind is registred most exactly and kept safer then the Tables of the first Covenant were in the Arke when it was brought into the Temple had his Throne and Sanctuary prepared of old or to use our Apostle's dialect non erat hujus structurae they were not thrones or Sanctuaries made with hands yet to be consecrated by the blood of our high Priest and being thus prepared a cloud did cover this living Arke of God and high Priest upon the day that hee was to enter into the holy place After the cloud tooke him from his Disciples sight hee filled the everlasting Tabernacle with his Glory being more reverently adored by all the host of heaven then he had been either by Salomon or the Elders of Israel when they brought the Arke of his Covenant into the Temple or by his Apostles after his Resurrection 4 At the same time wherein the Arke was brought by the Priest into the most holy place Salomon kneeling before the Altar of the Lord first blessed God and consecrated the Temple by that divine prayer never to be forgotten by good Christians And as soone as he had ended his prayer he rose up and blessed the congregation of Israel with a loud voice saying Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one word of all his good promises which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1. King 8. v. 56. c. His praiers to God and blessing of the people are more then parallel'd by our Saviour's prayers for his owne Consecration and the spirituall blessings thence to be derived upon his Apostles Ioh. 4. 14. c. One part of Salomons praier when he blessed the people was this Let these my words wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night that he maintaine the cause of his servant and the cause of his people
Israel at all times as the matter shall require v. 49. That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is none else ver 60. This part is rather accomplished then parallel'd by our Saviour Ioh. 17. I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine ver 9. And for their sakes I sanctify my selfe that they also might be sanctified through the truth Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on mee through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us That the world may believe that thou hast sent me v. 19. 20. 21. CHAP. 39. Into what place or part of heaven our Saviour did ascend or in what manner he sitteth at the right hand of God are points not so fit to be particularly inquired after nor so apt to be proved or determined by Scripture as the other Articles of our Creed BVt however Hee whose prayers were alwaies heard did thus pray for his followers a litle before his agony and bloody Passion and bestow his solemn blessing upon them immediately after his Resurrection and before his Ascension Yet the extraordinary blessings which hee prayed for and promised in his Fathers name were not really conferred untill he was actually enthronized but shortly after showred downe in abundance upon his Apostles and those that beleeved through their report So he fore-told them when he was ready to ascend Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you But tarry ye in the City of Ierusalem untill yee be endued with power from on high Luk. 24. 49. The exhibition of the blessings here promised was Act. 2. ver 32. 33. 34. This Iesus hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and heare For David is not ascended into the heavens but hee saith himselfe the Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thy foes thy footstoole When he saith David is not ascended into heaven this must be understood of his Ascension thither in body and this negative he had strongproved before But whether David's soule had ascended or was carried into heaven before this time this place doth neither warrant us to affirme or deny David's soule before this was in a place of blisse in heaven it selfe not in limbe But whether in that heaven or that part of heaven into which our Saviour did now in body ascend is more questionable then determinable Some good Writers with great probabilitie and equall modesty affirme that Christ did now ascend in body farre higher then the mansions of blisse appointed for the Saints Prophets Apostles c. or for Angels of the highest ranke And to this purpose is that of our Apostle alleaged by them Ephes 4. 10. Hee that descended is the same also that ascended up farre above all heavens that hee might fill all things other like places wherein he is said to be exalted above all powers and principalities Some grave Postillers or discreet Preachers would perswade us that Christ's Throne of Majesty was pitched in luce inaccessâ in that region of light and blisse which is inaccessable to any meere creature man or Angell as being reserved for the peculiar mansion of the invisible God and Father of lights and for his Son both God and man enthronized as as King and Priest on his right hand But whether the exaltation of the Son of God unto the right hand of his Father farre above all Powers Dominions and Principalities doe include a superiority not of soveraignty or dominion only but withall of place according to locall distance or a supereminent Throne of Majesty if the Lutherane will not be too cholerick or Maldonat's associates too censorious may be in fitter place soberly debated 2 But however the one or other of these may be affected the best is we need not be too curious in these points especially with men apt to quarrell about phrases or expressions Other Articles concerning Christ we are bound to beleeve distinctly and explicitely according to the plaine literall or grammaticall sense of the words wherin the Evangelists and Apostles have expressed them without the vail of any rhetoricall trope or allegory And strange it is not if our beliefe of other Articles or knowledge of them be literally required seeing the matter contained in them is sensible and comprehensible to reason sanctified by grace As his conception although it were wrought immediately by a supernaturall cause albeit the manner of it were miraculous yet for substance it was univocally the same with our conception He was as truly and properly conceived as wee are conceived Hee was as truly made of the substance of his Mother as we are made of the substance of our Parents or as Adam was made of the earth Hee was as truly and as properly borne as we are borne He was really and as properly circumcised as any other child of Abraham was He suffered truly and as properly as any man can suffer Hee was as truly and as properly crucified dead and buried and rose againe as any man ever was crucified dead and buried or can rise againe But for the place whither he ascended or for the manner of his sitting at the right hand of God these cannot be so distinctly conceived by us because they are not in such proper termes exprest by the holy Ghost but are wrapt up in a vaile of legall shadowes or representations Concerning the place whither he ascended wee know in generall that it was a place of joy of blisse and glory but which place the Apostle himselfe could not better represent unto us then by the sanctum sanctorum or the most holy place in the Tabernacle or Temple This hope wee have Heb. 6. 19. as an anchor of the soule both sure and stedfast and which entreth within the vaile whither the forerunner is for us entred made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech So S. Iohn emblazons the glory of Christ by the Pontificall attire and robes of Aaron as likewise he doth the beauty of Christ's Kingdome by the feast of Tabernacles 3 The best and safest meanes for conceiving aright at least for not conceiving amisse of these two heavenly mysteries is not by criticall scanning the literall sense or importance of the Prophet's words in their descriptions of them but by sincere practise of those knowne duties whereto our beliefe of these unknowne mysteries bind us The most generall and necessary duty wherto wee are bound by beliefe of our Saviour's Resurection and Ascension into heaven is that of our Apostle Goll 3. ver 1. 2. 3. 4. If yee then be risen with Christ seeke those