I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hande in the floudes He shall cry vnto me thou art my father my God and the rocke of my saluation Also I will make him my first borne higher then the kinges of the earth My mercy will I keepe for him for euermore and my couenaunt shall stande fast with him His seed also will I make to endure for euer and hys throne as the dayes of heauen But if his children forsake my law and walke not in my iudgementes If they breake my statutes and keepe not my commaundements then will I visite their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with strokes yet my louing kyndnes wil I not take from hym neither will I falsify my truth My couenant wil I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips I haue sworne once by myne holinesse that I wil not fayle Dauid saying his seed shall endure for euer his throne shall be as the sunne before me he shal be established for euermore as the Moone and as a faythfull witnesse in the heauen Behold how certayne and sure gods grace is to vs in Christ and for Christ Iesus our king Although we sin very often and much yet shal not sin condemne vs if we bide in Christ For what soeuer the Lord hath spoken it is the very truth it selfe and cannot but come to passe and be as he hath sayd For though we be most vnworthy wretches of our selues and haue no merits but sin wickednes to the attayning of so great grace and goodnes of God yet this is our stay and comfort that God hath promised vs these worthy benefites not for our deserts or worthines but onely for hys mercy sake in Christ Wherfore those thinges whiche be here promised are most sure certaine as also the state of our saluation is certayne because it standeth and dependeth on the euerlasting mercy truth of Gods promises of which he can neuer repent him nor vnsay or recant the same In the 111. Psalme he sayeth Hee hath sent redemption to his people he hath commaunded his couenant for euer Here is Christ promised that he shal be our deliuerer or redemer neither is there any other sauiour but Iesus Christ alone This Psalme was song in Iuda for a thanksgiuing on Easterday when they eate the Paschall lambe because God had deliuered them out of the captiuity of Egypt But that temporall or corporall deliuerance and the lambe was nothing els but a figure of the true and euerlasting deliuerance and of our true lambe Iesus Christ by whose bloud we are deliuered and brought out of hell and euerlasting captiuity into our heauenly countrey In the 113. Psalme he prophesieth of the glory honour of Christes kingdome telling what a one how great it shall bee thoroughout all the worlde For he sayth From the rising of the sunne to the goyng down of the same the name of God is glorified Which thing can not otherwise be but by the catholike faith that is that the Gentils should heare the gospell of Christ thereby acknowledge and set forth his grace and goodnes which is the sacrifice of prayses which the Christians offer The wordes of the Psalmes are these Prayse the Lord O ye his seruants prayse the name of the Lord blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth for euer The name of the Lord is euer praised frō the rising of the sunne to the goyng downe of the same The Lord is high aboue all nations and his glory aboue the heauens Who is lyke vnto the Lord our God that hath his dwellyng on high who abaseth himselfe to behold things in heauen in earth Likewise the 117. Psalme sayth that the whole world both Iewes Gentils shal magnify Christ Iesus honor and acknowledge him for their true God in his kingdom in which is is all felicity mere grace mercy forgiuenes of all sinnes true righteousnes true peace true comfort true ioy euerlasting life The wordes be these All nations praise ye the lord all ye people praise him for his louing kindnes is great towardes vs and the truth of the Lord endureth for euer And the 130. psalme also setteth forth to vs the grace of God in Christ which God hath promised vs in him our true propitiatory reconciler Dauid sayth in that Psal. Let Israel wayte on the Lord for with the lord is mercy and with him is great redemption and he shal redeeme Israel from all his iniquities All this must bee vnderstood of Christ for the new testament is the kirnell the perfect and ful interpretation of the old And the new testament witnesseth in euery place that there is no other deliuerer sauiour or recōciler but Iesus Christ and it teacheth vs that our reconciliation redemption commeth only by Christ who is the alone sacrifice satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Wherfore take this for a sure rule in scripture which neuer fayleth that wheresoeuer deliuerance reconciliation redemption remission of sins or the grace of God is promised in the prophets there always though the name of Messias or Christ bee not expressed must we needes vnderstand Christ and hys death and bloudsheding absolute sacrifice For these great things to wit forgiuenes of sinnes reconciliatiō c. are prepared gottē obtained by no other means but only by the sacrifice and death of Iesus Christ And these are almost the chief prophesies which Dauid hath concernyng Christ Anna. Whac hath Esay prophesied of Christ and of his passion resurrection and euerlasting kingdom Vrb. After Dauid is the notable and worthy prophet Esay who hath prophesied both plainly truly of all the mysteries of Christ In his 2. chap. he describeth the spiritual kingdom of Christ that is the catholike church saying that it shal be ample glorious through all the world among the Gentiles by the preaching of the gospell by which men do acknowledge the grace of God in Christ and be conuerted and do willingly and ioyfully serue and worship the lord His words be these It shall be in the last dayes that the mountain of the house of the Lord shal be prepared in the top of the mountaines and shal be exalted aboue the hils and all nations shal flow vnto it and many people shall go and say come let vs go vp to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach vs his wayes and we wil walke in his pathes For the law shall goe forth of Sion and the word of the lord from Ierusalem he shal iudge amongst the nations and reserue many people they shal break their swordes also into mattockes and their speares into sithes nation shal not lift vp a sword against nation neither shall they learne to fight any more O house of Iacob come ye and let vs walke in
wrought by corporall and earthly armour as bowes swords and such like but euen by the Lord their god What other thing is this but that God would after another way and meane bles and help Iuda that is Dauids kingdome and all other Israelites and confessors of God then worldly princes vse to helpe their subiects The Lord will haue mercy on them That is wil pardon them iustify them and saue them and so bring and delyuer them out of Sathans kingdome of which the Psalmist speaketh thus The Lord wil redeem Israell from all his iniquities This is the sole hope and redemption of Israel from his iniquity and consequently from all his euils which cursed sin had brought vpon man and all mankind that is from that horryble death and captiuity wherein the faithles reuolting murdering and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frauduler spirit did holde vs as Paul briefly expoūdeth this prophecye to the Eph. saying we haue in Iesus Christ the sonne of God redēption through his bloud euen the forgeuenes of sinnes according to his rich grace And although we vnderstand that temporall help by which God delyuered Iuda from Senachari◠and brought the Iewes from Babylon to Ierusalem yet was that temporal deliuerance angore of the true and euerlasting saluation by which Christ hath delyuered all true Iewes that is his elect from sinne death and the tyranny of hel by his crosse without all externall force But now see how the lord wil at the last forsake and abolish Iudaisme all their earthly and figuratiue priesthood The priests wife brought out a sonne whō the Lord called Loam that is not my people and he addeth the cause Because sayd he you are not my children neither will I be your God Hereby might the Iewes haue seen that there was a notable change to come And they ought thus seriously to haue reasoned the matter with them selues How shall we I pray you vnderstand the word of God He promiseth vnto Israel and Iuda great and infinite treasures in all the prophets he sayth he will be their king and they shall be his people and that he wil haue mercy on them and geue them on euerlasting kingdome and he made an eternall couenant of grace with them How then agree these thinges with this prophecye wherin it is prophesyed that Israel shall be captiue God wil forget them and neuer after haue compassion vpon them Are we the true Israelites or no truely it is like and must nedes be ment of vs And in the 6. chapter the Lord sayth For I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge in God more then burnt offerings By these words of Hose they might easely haue vnderstood that the foundation of true religion consisted not of ceremonies but that God requyred faith that worketh by loue and is ready to doe good for which Abraham Isaac and Iacob were cōmended and called the seruants of God rather then for their corporall circumsition Here might the Iewes haue seene what was the matter and cause that the Lord denyed them to be his people Anna. I would heare the cause and see this question answered For I doubt not but as all thinges are come vpon the vnbeleeuing Iewes which God thretned so all things shall be performed which he promysed I pray you confer these places and reconcile them ☞ Vrb. God sayth in deed in the psalmes that he wil not reiect or cast of his people and forsake his inherytance And Paul saith That God hath not cast away his people And the Psalmist sayth The Lord hath remembred his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israell Like as also Mary the blessed mother of Christ sayth in her psalme of thankesgeuing And Zacharye sayth that God will not forget his mercy which he promysed to his people Israell Know you therfore that God is true and constant in all his promyses and that he perfourmed vnto the Iewes all thinges which he promysed them But the maner of Gods promyses must be marked for they are of two sorts Some of them are temporal or corporall and are made vpon condition As when God promysed that the land of Canaan and the materiall temple should contynue and such like These promises pertain to Iudaisme and haue this condition annexed If the Iewes would keep the law of God as it was to be kept then that promise should be fulfilled but they kept not the law and yet notwithstanding being blindly bewitched they looked for the fulfilling of those promises The Lord in deed performed those promises rightly as they were to be performed But figures ought of right to geue place when the truth commeth God sent also his sonne the Messias vnto thē that he might be born a Iew of the Iewish family of Abraham Dauid And for this his sōnes sake he brought them out of the land of Egipt and gaue them the land of Cannan for their inheritance and he separated them from all the people of the world by an earthly kingdome by an outward priesthood by an holy worship and by a propper forme in religion to be a people vnto himself and he preserued and defended thē afterward by great wonderfull miracles yea he brought them out of the captiuity of Babilon To be breef he preserued their law religion temple citie and politicall gouernment by a singular care and marueilous zeale euen vntil the promised Messias the true and eternal king of Israel was come of them Wherby in deed they receiued a great glory and prerogatiue aboue all the world and many of them by Messias were deliuered from sinne death and damnation and so at the last were brought into that true Ierusalem and Syon And these are called in the prophet the remnant of his people the remnant of Iacob and Israell whom God amongst others had chosen to himselfe and predestinated to saluation in Christ of which sort there be many But if they be cōpared to the great number of the vnbeleeuers they are but a few There are other free promises of the meere grace and mercy of God without all mans desart and worthynes These doe appertayn to the new testament and consist in the merits and worthynes of Messias These haue a firme sound and vnshaken foundation to wit the great and wonderfull mercy of God and his fatherly goodnes and truth and they depend not of our worthynes at all Wherfore they are firme and certayn and cannot be called back agayn And they are promises of the spirituall and euerlasting treasures to wit of the victory by which sinne death and Sathan were extinguished of the forgeuenes of sinnes of the true and euerlasting righteousnes and of life and saluation in Christ These kind of promyses doe not only appertayn to Israelites Iudaisme and the Iewes according to the flesh but all respect set aside without difference not regarding whether they be Iewes or Gentils to the true Iewes Israelites according to the spirit
Christ in earth hath no father and in heauen no mother he is euerlasting God and also immortall man And in this order neither went any before him nor shall come after him He was not made priest according to the law of the carnall cōmandement but after the power of euerlasting life who truly blesseth vs and deliuereth vs from our sinnes from eternall death and giueth vs euerlasting life He is Malchizedek Malchischolam that is a king of righteousnes who is our righteousnes and doth iustify vs before god He is also a king of peace because by him only we haue peace with god As Paule sayth to the Rom. and the Eph. ¶ Anna. Vndoubtedly in this mysterie as in the other before is to be vnderstoode that Christ should first die seing Paul to the Hebr. sayth that this true Melchisedech Christ of the tribe of Iuda should be borne a very true man and yet neuertheles immortal who should liue eternally that he might helpe vs euerlastingly But Cleophas and his companiō did not vnderstand nor beleue this For if they had they would neuer haue bene so pensife nor offended at Christes death ☞ Vrb. In deed they had prophesies figures and testimonies enow of the scriptures out of which they might haue gathered that Christ should first dye And they had but euen three dayes before eaten the Paschal lambe which by Gods commaundement they ought to kill eate without leuen They tooke also the bloud of the lamb and therwith they oynted and sprinckled the two side postes the vpper post of the dores of their houses which was a tokē of grace For whē God killed all the first borne thorow all the land of Egypt the Iewes were safe in their houses For vpon what dore so euer the Angel saw the bloud of the lamb sprinckled he past it ouer This lambe with his bloud was a figure of the immaculat lamb Christ which was slayne and offered for vs by whose bloud we be deliuered from death S. Paule fitly and aptly expounded this figure saying Christ our passouer is sacrificed for vs Therfore let vs keepe the feast not with old leuen nether in the leuen of malitiousnes and wickednes but with the vnleuened bread of sincerity and truth ¶ Anna. It might manifestly and easely by this figure appeare that our passouer or pascal lambe Christ should be slayne and that his bloud should be shed ☞ Vrb. They might haue learned out of the 23. of Esay who was the trew lambe but their eies were holden neither could they vnderstand the scriptures till Christ him selfe opened their hartes ¶ Anna. Hath Moyses any more tipes or figures of Christ in his bookes ☞ Vrb. He hath and that a great many but I will onely expound those that be most principall as they stand in order In the 25. of Exo. there is a notable delectable and beutifull tipe of Christ in Caporeth God commaunded Moses that he should cause the arke to be made and be couered within without with gold and that vppon the vpper part aboue he should put the mercy seat made of pure gold You know that this word Caporeth is deriued of Ciper and signifieth a peace offering a reconciliation or the place of mercy This is a worthy mistery For God promised to the children of Israell that he himselfe would dwell in that mercy seat and that he would make answere and say his minde to the people out of it This same mercy seate both is and signifieth Christ Iesus our Sauiour ¶ Anna. How may we know that Christ is ment by that Caporeth or mercy seate ☞ Vrb. The holy Ghost by Paule doth so expound this figure to the Roma where he sayth All haue sinned and are depriued of the glory of God but are iustified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesu whom God hath set forth to be a reconciliation or a peace offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the mercy seat thorow fayth in his bloud And to the Ebrews where he speaketh of the hye priest Christ which is moued with the feeling of our infirmities he sayth Let vs go boldly to the throne of grace that we may receaue mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of neede And so did Moses in his mercy seate liuely and plainly paint forth Christ in his humanity in whome alone all wee finde both mercy and God him selfe as Paul sayth to the Colos In Christ dwelleth all fulnes of the Godhead bodily Of this Caporeth Christ God himselfe talketh with vs as Christ in Iohn sayth My doctrine is not myne but his that sent me Christ is the euerlasting word of the father and his onely begotten sonne true god If we see and heare Christ we heare also the father as Christ witnesseth in Iohn saying f. Phillip he that hath sene me hath sene my father also doest thou not beleue that I am in the father and the father in mee We haue here large scope and matter ministred to speake of this Caporeth but I may not tary in figures because I would come to the manifest and playne prophesies of Christ and especially to those which speake of his death and resurrection Let this therfore suffice concerning Caporeth For by Christ we be reconciled and at one with God and by him we receiue forgiuenes of our sinnes to be short in Christ we finde and obtayne God himselfe as we reade in the new testament for there is no other God but Iesus Christ ¶ Anna. What is writt of Christ in the third booke of Moses ☞ Vrb. Whatsoeuer is spoken in Leuiticus of the outward priesthood of Aaron and of all kynd of sacrifices of the sheding of blood and of forgeuing of sinnes all these were nothing els but figures of Christ our true priest which by his true sacrifice offred vpō the crosse hath redemed vs and purged vs from oursinnes ¶ Anna. How may we know that ☞ Vrb. The new Testament doth well interprete and expound these figures to vs and it applieth them all to Christ but aboue the rest the epistle to the Hebrues in which Paule plainly declareth and teacheth that Aaron the priest and the whole priesthood in the law with all the rites sacrifices offrings clensings orisons doctrines reconciliatiōs propitiatiōs sprinklings of bloud and other fit figures for that purpose do plainly set forth and prefigure vnto vs Christ For what things soeuer were then done they were onely shadowes and types of the new testamēt of Christ because that then there was no true reconciliatiō forgiuenes of sinnes or righteousnes in that outward priesthood and sacrifices Dumbe and brute beastes were then offred whose bloud as Paul sayth cannot take away sinne There were many sacrifices effutiōs of bloud washings in the law which were but tipes shadowes and could make no man perfect within in conscience They were onely figures and memorials of sinnes
Christ must from hence forth increase and grow greater and greater vntill the worldes end whereas all earthly empires shall decrease fall and be destroyed And Hose prophesieth againe in the end of the 2. chapiter of the euerlasting couenaunt of grace betwen God and vs in a pleasaunt sweete and comfortable similitude saying And in that day will I make couenants for them with the wilde beastes and with the fowle of heauen and with that that creepeth vppon the earth And I will breake the bow and the sword and the battell out of the earth and will make them to sleepe safely And I will mary thee vnto me for euer yea I will marry thee vnto me in righteousnes and in iudgement and in mercy And in compassiō I will euen marry thee vnto me in faythfullnes and thou shalt know the Lord. He speaketh not here of earthly thinges but of the heauenly peace of conscience with God through fayth in Christ which neither tyrants in the earth nor wicked spirits in the ayre can ouerthrow or take away How can any thing hurt the faythfull christians seing they be by fayth dedicated and as it were maried vnto Christ the Lord of zeboth and are by this spirituall mariages made one flesh by which vnion and coniunction we receaue al these excellent promises which by the commaundement of god the prophets and Euangelists make vnto the Church ¶ Anna. How I pray you commeth this to passe ☞ Vrba Those thinges which are the husbandes are the wiues and so one the other side those that are the wiues are the husbandes Those that be maried together haue all thinges common betwen them We vpon our part haue sinn death and damnation but Iesus Christ our husband is full of grace life and health If therfore we trust in Christ and acknowledge him for our onely husband redeemer and Sauiour then doth that fayth vnite knit vs so to Christ that he becommeth our husband and head and we his mēbers Thus Christ taketh vpon him our euills and calamities geueth vs his graces and felicitie thus are we made righteous and thus are we quickened and saued where before we were sinners dead and damned These are the vnsearchable riches of Gods grace geuē vs in Iesus Christ of which Paule to the Ephesians doth so gloriously bost saying that they exceed all humaine senses passe the capacity of al creatures Consider then what he is able to do and what kinde of parson Christ is to wit an infinite parson God man which can not sinn dy or be dampned because his righteousnes life saluation are inuincible euerlasting and almighty Seing therefore that his innocency lyfe and saluation wrastled and fought vppon the crosse with our sinnes death and dampnation which were not able to ouercome him it must needes follow that in him our sinns death and damnation are swallowed vp and taken away Seeing then that we are ingrafted in christ by faith in him we are also by his mere grace and loue both deliuered from all our sinnes and freed from Sathans tyranny and haue the euerlasting righteousnes lyfe and health of our husband Christ geuen vs Thus doth Christ adorne and decke his welbeloued spouse the Church that she may be glorious without spot or wrinkell and yet purified by the lauer of water in the word of life that is by the fayth of the word of lyfe righteousnes and saluatiō Now ye see how the Lord ioyneth true Israell in mariage to him selfe as his wife in fayth in righteousnes and iudgement Here also must be marked that this mariage shall continue for euer as the prophet sayth Wherby it followeth that Christ must needes rise againe from death and raise his bride to lyfe that she might liue with him for euer This is that euerlasting kingdome of Christ the kingdome of grace out of which all sin death and wickednes is cast and banished and in which meere grace righteousnes innocency lyfe and saluation doe fully dwell for euer as the prophet sayth Thou shalt know the Lord. But to know him is eternall life And in that day I will heare sayth the Lord I will euen heare the heauens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare thee come and the wine and the oyle and they shall heare Israell and I will sow her vnto me in the earth and I will haue mercy vppon her that was not pitied and I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God. He speaketh here of that most wished and ioyfull time of the new testamēt For whē the gospel is taught and Christ by fayth receued then will not God suffer his Church to want but will prouide for her and cherish her and though in the meane time she gloriously wrastle and grone vnder the crosse yet shall she be so prouided for that she shall not want thinges needfull for her For the true Israell shall by Messias be increased and multiplied The Church shall become true Israell that is the seede of the Lord that it may increase and continue for euer so mercifull is the Lord vnto the rest of the Iewes and Gentills The Iewes or Israelites were before without mercy But in the time of Christ the Lord tooke compassion vpon them The Gentills were not the people of God but in the tyme of Messias being called through the gospel they are made his people which acknowledge calle vpon and honor God in true fayth by our onely sauiour and mediator Christ ¶ Anna. Haue not the Iewes or the Israelites according vnto the flesh son hope in the scriptures that they shall be deliuered from that obstinacy and hardnes of hart wherein they now are Shall no Iewes but onely the Gentills hereafter be partakers of the spirituall kingdome ☞ Vrba Yes they haue some hope that they shall be deliuered And I would to God they could vnderstād the scriptures would learn thereby what grace yet the Lord hath left in store for them For Hose saith The children of Israell shall remayn many dayes without a king and without a prince and without an offring and without an Image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim Afterward shall the children of Israell conuert and seeke the Lord their God and Dauid their king and shal fear the Lord and his goodnes in the latter dayes You haue heard before that Paul would not haue the Iewes despised For they haue a promise of their conuersion before the last day when they shall become christians that is when the Israelites according to the spirit to wit the elect number of the children of God among the gentils shal be accomplished Thē shall the Iewes haue their eyes opened be gathered vnto the true Messias Iesus Christ and embrace the gospel Paul vnderstood this wel out of Hose who maketh here a comfortable promise vnto the Iewes that at
our harts ioyful and glad as when we vnderstand what inestimable and great riches of his grace God in his Prophets hath promised to vs sinners and when we see those promyses of him fulfilled now in the Gospel and dayly also to be in fulfilling and seeing we haue Christ himselfe the very Sonne of God a most sure pledge of the performance of those promyses may we not well I say reioyce and be glad ¶ Anna. I am very desirous to heare of you if time serue you the order of Christes Sermon out of Moyses and the other Prophets What and how in euery place they prophesyed of Christ that thereby I may when my faith is strengthned haue ioy in the lord And though you spend some time in explicating these prophesies yet happely it may be a work worth our labour and you shal neuer a whit misspend the time nay I think the time that is so spent godly profitably very necessarely spent seeing S. Paul warneth vs that the word of Christ should dwel plentifully in vs. ☞ Vrb. We read in the acts that Paul made a long Sermon of Christ out of the Law and prophets euen from the morning til night Why then should not we speak often much and willingly of our Lord Iesus Christ our only and incomparable Treasure with whom we shal liue and dwel for euer But first note what Luke wryteth in his last chapter where he sayeth when Christ had blessed broken and geuen the bread to his Discyples their eyes were opened and they knew him And a litle after he saith that Christ opened their vnderstanding that they might know the Scriptures Wherfore we also must pray to Christ that he would feed and refresh vs with his bread of the knowledge of him that he would driue away the thick cloudes of our vnbeleef that he would mend and take away our ignorance and dulnes that he would send down into our minds the light of his holy spirit wherby we may learn to know him out of the holy scriptures Paul saith we haue not receued the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the thing which is geuen vs of God. Let vs therfore pray with humble feruent harts Almighty God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ our Father and the Father of all mercy and God of all comfort and consolation haue mercy vpon vs heare vs we beseech thee O God for thy deerely beloued sonne Iesus Christs sake for all his workes and benefits which he hath done for vs and for his precious passion and death which he suffered for the redemption of vs Send thy holy Spirit of truth into our harts that it may geue and ingraft in vs true and constant faith so that the light and brightnes of thy Gospel and the glory of Christ may appeare vnto vs and lighten our harts that we may learn and vnderstand the vnspeakable and aboundant riches of thy mercyes O Father of glory geue vs thy Spirite of wisdome and bring vs to the knowledge of thee and thy deerely beloued Sonne Iesu Christ Open and lighten we beseech thee the eyes of our minds vnderstanding That we may perceue what is the hope of our vocation and what is the rich glory of our heauenly and euerlasting Herytage which in Christ and through Christ thou hast geuen vs That by true faith vnderstanding and knowledge of thy eternal wisdom which is Iesus Christ we may in deed be made as we are called true christiās That we may worship thee alway in Spirit and truth And that we may now and for euer shew forth thy glory whereby thou hast blessed vs in Christ our Sauiour Graunt this O Father through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen ¶ Anna. Amen ☞ Vrb. Now Christ being our gouernor and our good guid let vs begin the treatise and opening of the matter which we haue taken in hand But first of all wife see you harken with as great reuerence diligence desire as if Christ were present seeing Christ sayth He that heareth you heareth me And looke also that you beleeue al things which shal here be spoken and declared vnto you to be as true and certayn as if Christ himself visibly and in his bodely shape had spoken them vnto you out of the Prophets And as if he should in his own person declare vnto you by his own mouth how and for what cause it was conuenient he should be born suffer dye and rise again and so ascend into his glory ¶ Anna. Begin then Husband at Moyses and tel me I pray you what he wrote of Christ ☞ Vrb. Moyses hath written much of Christ as Christ himself witnesseth in Iohn where speaking to the Iewes he saith If you had beleeued Moyses you had also beleeued me for he wrote of me And Moyses euen in the beginning as soone as heauen earth and man were made saith that the Serpent to wit Sathan deceiued Eue and entyced her to make a lye and seduced her and she afterward perswaded and deceued Adam and so God being despised and set aside brought him and threw him headlong into the same calamitie and thus they beleeued a lye wherin they cōmitted an horrible offence because they broke Gods commandement and did not obey the Lord their God as their duety was but were obedyent vnto the Deuil which from the beginning is a lyar and a mankiller into whose power and tiranny they fel both in body and soule by their transgression and disobeydience and so death by the sinne of Adam came in both vpon Adā al Adams posterity in so much that by the iust iudgement and iustice of God all men should haue entered by the death of this body into euerlasting death And thus did death through sinne mightely raign in all the world Alas what is more horrible then this power of sinne and this extreame calamity which casteth vs into euerlasting damnation What burthen is there heuyer or harder then this and what more cruell mischiefe could there haue hapned then this But God here in the middest of this danger being mindful of his mercy as the Prophet saith of him found a most present and soueren salue for this sore to wit he offred vs his grace and promysed that he would pardon our sin and destroy death by a certain marueilous meane to wit by his only begotten Sonne who when the fulnes of time that is to say when the determined time was come was sent into the earth from heauen and salued this sore that is to say redeemed and deliuered the poore prysoner mankind out of the tyranny and power of darknes and Sathā and that after a strange and secret sort For he tooke vpon him the shape of a seruant and being made man subiect to all misery calamity and troble of this life yea and death it self but yet free from all faulte and pure without sinne vouchsafed to dye for vs that
Quirinus Hilary vpon the 52. Psalme Ambros in hys book of fayth and resurrection and in hys third book of the holy ghost Gregory Nazianzene in his funeral sermō of Basill Gregory the great in hys xx homely vpon Ezechell And the Prophet Ezechel chapiter 40. discribeth a wonderful merueilous city and temple of Ierusalē But all these things are to be vnderstood spiritually of the heauenly Ierusalem the eternall Citie of God. But let vs see nowe what Daniell sayth of Christ And as for those things which I opened a little while a goe out of the 2. and 9. thap it shall not bee needfull now to repeat them agayne But in his 7 chapter he prophesieth most sweetly of the kingdome of Christ of his saynts to wit how his kingdome should be euerlasting propagated and spread abroad throughout all the world he sayth As I beheld in visions by night behold one lyke the sonn of man cam in the cloudes of heauen and approched vnto the aūciēt of dayes and they brought him before him And he gaue him dominiō honor and a kingdome that all people nations and language should serue him His dominion is an euerlasting dominion which shall neuer be taken away and hys kingdome shall neuer be destroyed And a little after he addeth and they shal take the kingdome of the Saints of the most high and possesse the kingdome for euer euen for euer and euer You know this to be a generall rule and necessary for the vnderstāding of the prophets wheras any thing is spoken in the Prophets of the eternall kingdome of Christ of Christifidelians and of euerlasting lyfe that there we both may and ought to groūd the resurrectiō of Christ faythfull Christians For if they shall lyue and raigne for euer then must they needs rise againe which thing Daniell prophecieth in his 12. chapiter as plainely and euidently as if some of the Euangelists had written it This prophecy is to be referred vnto the last day wherein this world shall haue an end And these be the wordes of the prophet And at that time thy people shall be deliuered euery one shall be found written in the booke And many of them that slepe in the dust of the earth shal awake some to euerlasting lyfe and some to shame perpetuall cōtempt they that be wise shal shine as the brightnes of the firmamēt and they that turne many to righteousnes shall shine as the stares for euer and euer Doe you not here see the indowted resurrection of all men as wel good as euil But you maye see also here that there shall be great difference amongest them which shall rise For they which are the people of God to wit christifidelians which are written in the booke of lyfe shal be deliuered from the wrath of God which shall come vpon the vnbeleuing and wicked world that is they shall be deliuered from the euerlasting punishment of hell and be brought into euerlasting lyfe But the wicked which haue not in their lyfe time beleued the gospell shall not be saued but the wrath of God shall abide on thē for euer for they haue denied to receue the tru life Christ Iesus and therfore shal they be confounded and perish for euer Dani. also here describeth the glory which Gods childrē shal haue after the resurrectiō saying that they shal be as bright as the sun stars of the firmament for euer world without end And this out of doubt is the true and last deliueraunce of Israell that is of the children of god which we do with firme fayth and hope looke for For as verely as all other thinges which in the prophets are promised are perfitly finished as the birth of Christ with his passiō resurrectiō ascētion calling of the gentills so also at the last day shall this be fulfilled to wit the resurrection of dead with the true deliueraunce of all faythfull Christians These and such lyke promises are our gospell and the ground worke and foundation of our fayth ¶ Anna. What sayth Hose concerning Christ ☞ Vrb. Hose is one of the small prophets but yet he hath many noble prophesies of the misteries of the gospel as of the calling of the gentils vnto the gospel And though the Iewes should haue a greeuous fall yet he promyseth vnto them the grace of God and that at the length they shall beleue and reeeaue Christ and acknowledge him to be their Lord and king whō before they had reiected He prophesyeth also of the great and glorious kingdome of Christ that is of the catholick church of faithfull christians and of that spirituall maryage betweene Christ and all Christifidelians and of the victory of Christ how he should ouercome and abolish sin and death and of the resurrection of Christ and of our rysing agayn He reproueth also the ten trybes of Israell for their Idolatry threatning them euerlasting captiuity vnder the Assirians but he promyseth grace and help to Iuda that is to those two trybes Iuda and Beniamin which fel not away from the house of Dauid In the first chapter he threatneth Samaria with the captiuity of Asiria saying I wil no more haue pity vpon the house of Israell but I will vtterly take them away Yet I will haue mercy vpon the house of Iuda and wil saue thē by the Lord their god And will not saue thē by the bow nor sword nor by battayle by horses nor by horsemen Cleophas and his companyon might here haue learned that the kingdome of Christ is not an earthly kingdome seeing that Hoseas threatned vnto the gretest part of the Iewes such captiuity that they should neuer return to their wonted state or dignity of kingdom as when they had a king of their own in Samaria or Israell If therfore the 12. tribes of Israel shold vnder Messias haue had such a kingdome wherin they might corporally haue ruled ouer the gentils and haue abounded in all pleasures and worldly felicity which carnall opinion all the Iewes had of Messias then consequently had it been necessary that they should all haue been delyuered and redeemed out of Assiria But here you heare how it should come to pas that the very remembrance of Israel should be blotted out Which thing is signifyed by Lorichamoh the prophets daughter Which name by interpretation signifyeth without mercy But seeing the delyuerance of Israell was neuertheles promysed by all the prophets it must needes of necessity be true For the word of God cannot lye or deceaue vs. Seeing therfore their delyueraunce by which they should be delyuered from the Assirian king and be restored into that land whence they were remoued shold not be corporall nor earthly it must needes follow that it should be spirituall For there is no meane nor other way by which they could be delyuered Which thing the words following proue where he promysed such help vnto the trybe of Iuda as cold not be