the true God and delivered the same to us disintricated from the confusion of so many false Deities to whom our Ancestors were devoted It gave them to know after what manner the World was at first formed and ha's preserved fresh amongst them the memory of the most remarkable matters that arrived in that primitive Age of Men of which other nations have had onely some kind of obscure and faint glimpses in fabulous stories which afford onely enough evidence to convince the books of the Pagans of vanity and to confirm the truth of what is found in the Jewish histories And that which advantages them yet more is that their Law contains such an excellent model of all piety and virtue that more wisdom ha's been revealed to them in ten words onely then can be collected out of the Books of all the Philosophers were the quintessence extracted out of them In a Word the Books of their Law and the Revelations of their Prophets are proceeded from Heaven and as it shall more amply appear they bear with them most undeniable testimonies of it But the polity of their Religion how divine soever was to be changed and its time being expired we must otherwhere seek the rules of that which we ought to follow Wherefore to shew that their Law was to be changed and that it was establisht but for a time it must be consider'd in each of its principal parts As in the Political Laws upon which their Republick was founded In their Ceremonial Ordinances in observation whereof consisted all their external divine service And in the Ten Commandments of the Two Tables which contain the General Precepts of piety towards God and virtue which ought to be practis'd amongst men As for their Political Laws they were excellent indeed for the government of that Nation and establish'd with singular Wisdom But I conceive there is no Jew so opinative as to account them proper for the government of all sorts of Nations in all Ages For every country every people and time must have its respective laws and there is necessity of altering the same according to the variety of circumstances And as Divorce was permitted in the Commonwealth of Israel in its political government for some necessity particular to that Nation so there may be some other Nations in which likewise for some political necessity it must be absolutely forbidden It would seem unreasonable in a country where the houses are built with plain ridges for the publick authority to demolish all sort of edifices of that fashion enjoin to build only with battlements and ballisters Now it is as little comprehensible how in such a Country as France is the Laws given by Moses concerning the determination of Law-suits could be practis'd It would be requisite not only to change the order of Magistrates and practise of Courts but to new mold the manners of the intire Nation And how could the divers forms of Governments of Kingdoms and Empires be conformed to the political Law of Israel as Monarchy in France Aristocracy in Venice and Democracy in Athens Must they that should become Jews in these parts of Europe renounce all soverain powers that are so well establish'd therein according to the genius of every Nation to reform them all according to the model of the Jewish policy And if the great Cham of the Tartars with all his subjects should cause themselves to be circumcised to what purpose would the Laws of Tenths for the Levites the like be in his Country Indeed all the policy of Israel was regulated either according to the nature of that people different from most others or according to the division of their Tribes wherewith other Nations had no resemblance or else according to the quality of the Country which was unlike to others in many respects But on the other side their great Legislator the most pious amongst their Kings and the divinest amongst their Prophets have expresly promis'd the Calling of the Nations to the communion of one and the same Law with the Jews so that they shall make up but one people Rejoyce O ye Nations his people saith Moses Deut. 32.43 And David in the 117. Psalm O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye people Why but for being called to his knowledge And in Psal 69.1 O sing unto the Lord a new song All the Earth sing unto the Lord vers 3. Declare his glory among the heathen and his Wonders among all people But Isaiah more expresly when he promises in the 55. chap. of his Revelations that the Messias shall be equally a Legislator of the Jews and others vers 4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the Nations to be a leader and commander of the people Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knewest not and the Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God And 't is for the same reason that he speaks thus to the Church of God in the foregoing Chapter Sing O barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that knowest not what it is to travel with child c. Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtaines of thy Pavillions spare not lengthen thy cord and strengthen thy stakes For thou shalt spread forth on the right hand and on the left and thy posterity shall inherit the Nations and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited And the Jews themselves await the accomplishment of these promises Wherefore it follows necessarily that their Law as to the policy of the Commonwealth was to alter and that whereas before it oblig'd all those who had any interest and title in the Alliance which God had contracted with them the use thereof in this respect is now become free and not necessarily obligatory The truth is though political Laws of Republicks be nothing but the natural laws of justice and honesty which being general are applyed to particular matters according to the diversity of circumstances which are infinite and infinitely variable provided that in the government of every Nation the image of that natural justice be always resplendent in their Laws it is not important whether there be difference in things of lesser concernment And it would be too rigorous a yoak to subject all Nations to the same form of Laws without regard whether the humors of men and conditions of times permit it Now whereas the Law of Moses is composed of three parts equally the change of one necessarily infers with it the alteration of the rest And it must needs fall out here as it do's in the building of Palaces For he that should go about to change one part of a great uniform edifice it would be needful for him to change it all and ruine it all from top to bottom otherwise the disparity of its parts would render it unproportional and deformed But this is more manifest in the Ceremonial Law in
cripled members after long impotence For what are the works of Magicians usually but illusions and feats of jugling rather then actions surpassing the power of Nature Others of the Jews ascribe his admirable Works to the Cabala pretending that he stole the name of God out of the Temple and that to that ineffable Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was annexed the power of doing miracles But besides that this is a shameless fable and unworthy to be taken notice of what colour is there that four Hebrew Letters should have the power of resuscitating the dead And if the Name of God ennabled him to work Wonders was it with the permission of God himself or against his consent If against his allowance surely it would be a pitiful case should a man by subtlety steal the name of God and do miracles by it in spight of him to whom it belongs That God I say should have devested himself of his infinite power to transfer it to four small Hebrew Characters by a irrevocable donation If with his permission and consent then hereby he confirm'd the calling of Jesus and ratified the open and clear declaration he made of being the Messias Which he would never have done in patronage of an imposture God also foreshew'd that the Messias should suffer and David apparently specifi'd the manner of his Death otherwise to what end did he say They pierced my hands and my Feet since in those times of his there was not among the Jews any custome of a punishment in which they pierc'd the hands and feet from whence David might borrow this phrase For as for what they cavil upon the word they pierced me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it ought to be translated as a Lion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sence of the sentence which would by that means become imperfect and in suspence refutes it For what can this signifie As a Lyon my hands and my feet there being no connexion to that which precedes Now our Lord Jesus hath suffer'd death even the death of the Cross by which on the one side the words of David have been accomplisht and on the other that ha's been really brought to pass which was figuratively represented by the Lifting up of the Serpent besides that the Curse denounced against those which hang'd upon the tree is become expiated thereby David had said in the 16. Psalm Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption To what purpose spoke he thus if he meant it of himself seeing he is dead and in his dust with his fathers And yet he spoke it not extravagantly for the Holy Spirit which guided him did not suffer these words to escape him at randome To whom then ought they rather to be referr'd then to him of whom David was so express a type that he is styled by his Name Therefore since he was to dye and yet ought not undergo putrefaction in the grave it follows that he ought to rise again from the dead and this our Scriptures teach us of Christ and is of most evident verity though the Jews pretend dissatisfaction of it For why shall we not give credit to his Disciples who were eye-witesses of it since they gain'd nothing but persecutions and capital hatreds by maintaining it Who can imagine that men who naturally love Life should spontaneously abandon themselves to death to defend the delusion of a Death from which they could expect nothing Moreover David in the 68 Psalm saith Thou hast ascended on high thou hast lead captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men I beseech you who do's he speak of Is it of God as a person distinct from the Messias It cannot be Throughout all the whole space of Ages which pass'd before Penning of this Psalm never any deliverance was wrought for the people of Israel nor extraordinary favour shewn them whose greatness or manner may correspond to this passage and the strain of the whole Hymne testifies the contrary To whom can it sute but to him in whose time was to be seen the effect of the words which follow in the same place Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God By reason of which the Kingdomes of the Earth shall sing praises unto God and Psalms unto the Lord that is to the Messias Now our Lord is ascended into Heaven after his glorious resurrection whence he hath sent those admirable gifts of the spirit which have imbued the people of the Earth with the knowledge of the Lord whereof there need no other proofs then that the Nations heretofore the most ignorant and barbarous have now so much knowledge of the Nature of God and the truths of Religion that they exceed the Jews therein as far at least as they were exceeded by the Jews before the preaching of the Gospel Daniel had foretold that after that Christ should be cut off that is after he should have suffer'd death but not for himself The People of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and Christ confirmed this Prophecy by foretelling that of Jerusalem and the Temple there should not be left one stone upon another Now who can doubt but that the event hath ratifi'd the Prophecy Lastly it was predicted that he should destroy the Kingdom of Satan and the worship of false Gods and since his times they have been no longer in repute even the most famous oracles have lost their very being Of which there needs no other testimonies then those of Pagan Authors who inquire after the cause of their cessation and of experience after so many Ages that their memory is quite abolisht Very good will some say but of all this we have no authors besides the Evanglists and the Apostles who are therefore justly suspected and lyable to exception as speaking in their own cause And moreover who will warrant to us say they that there were Apostles heretofore or if there were that those Writings were of their composing How frequent are cheats committed in such matters Here 't is difficult to dispute for what argument and how clear soever be brought the thing it self is of greater evidence And the Jews are very unjust and unreasonable if having no other warranty to give us of their Religion but the books of their Prophets whereunto notwithstanding they require we should yield an absolute belief and plye under those magnificent names of Moses David Jeremy Isaiah and the like they demand of us other evidence of ours then the writings of our Apostles For what reason is there to ascribe more to the former then the latter Yet let us comply in this with the obstinacy of men It is demanded whether there were Apostles heretofore But he that should demand whether there was a Caesar at Rome and an Alexander in Greece might with good reason be judg'd troublesome and impertinent for indubitating a thing of so constant credit
most frequently miserable He might have ascribed to him at least as much care of Mankind in this particular as every Magistrate hath of his Commonwealth and every inferior Judge of his Precinct or Village But under pretext that there happen divers things whose causes and ends they are not able to comprehend and that many crimes are committed whose punishment is not inflicted before their eyes and that sundry upright men are in miseries whose deliverance they behold not when they esteem it timely to appear they infer that therefore God sees nothing of all this or that he regards it not As if a King had abandon'd the government of his State because such a one is not taken out of prison so soon as in their opinion he ought or that another escapes the Whip in the place where he deserved it who perhaps two days after is broken on the Wheel for another crime in the neighboring Province So likewise it may be reasonably said that in these cases they imitate the rash and precipitous judgement of an ignorant and impatient spectator that do's not expect till the last act of the Tragedy It may be further inquired whether the Epicureans do not yet in a greater measure blemish and obscure the Wisdom of God then they do his other Perfections For when they deny that there is a Providence in God seeing Providence is nothing but a foresighted and rational conduct of things to their end and of every particular thing to the purpose consentaneous to it it seems they consequently deny that there is a Wisdom in God For it is the part of Wisdom to propose to it self such a convenient end in the administration of things as it is of Providence to conduct them to that which they are designed whence as Providence cannot be without wisdom so is it likewise scarcely imaginable that Wisdom can consist without Providence Unless perhaps they here turn about to their abstracted speculations and attribute to God that Intellectual Virtue of which Aristotle speaks and composes of Knowledge and Understanding joyned together and makes to consist in the perfect cognition of all things and their principles But yet I know not how according to the doctrine of Epicurus this sort of Wisdom can find place in God For considering that there is an infinite number of things which depend on the Will of Man and that the inclinations of his will depend on the reasons and objects which perswade and move him how shall God see those things if himself hath nought to do to look into the Understanding of man to aâ—fect him with those reasons if he ha's no regard to the objects presented to us to move us if he do's not manage them to such effect as to perswade and attract if he neither incite nor restrain neither bend nor correct the motions of the Will If they say that he beholds events and by the events may divine of the causes from which they proceeded we reply that that is no more then the atchievment of conjecture and humane divination not of the Wisdom of a God who ought to behold effects in the womb of their causes and not the causes in the aspect of the effects In brief according to them God may perhaps know the things which exist but he cannot know the things which are to come any more then We and the next morning is to him in as much darkness as it is to us who are naturally very ignorant Creatures Lastly to speak openly he is a very wretched God if he be not as wise as the Sage of the Philosophers whose wisdom consists in governing himself reasonably and the things which are in his disposure according to the same rule I am not ignorant that Epicurius prohibits his Sage to intermeddle in the government of the World and the administration of the Commonwealth An Opinion so strange and pernicious to Humane Society that verily in this appears a signal effect of the Providence of God that he hath not permitted all other men to become as absolute fools as his pretended Sage For what would the World be in case wise men should forbear to meddle in it but a most horrid and tumultuous confusion without Laws order and Society and no better then a crue of cut-throats and robbers Plato without question had more Reason when he wished that either those who seriously imploy themselves in the study of Philosophy were Governors of States or they which govern States would seriously imploy themselves in the Study of Philosophy and affirmed that in such times Empires would be happy But to proceed I will admit the Sage to leave the Commonwealth to go at random yet certainly he will take care of his Wife and Children unless Epicurus represents us a Sage worse and more unnatural then Beasts Shall not God therefore take care but onely to provide himself new pleasures perpetually and imploy all his wisdom to effect that they never fail and be spent unmindful of those in the mean time that ought in some sort to be to him in the quality of children if not for being made by him at least for the affection they have to imitate his Virtues and become conformable unto him To conclude what kinde of admiration can any one have of such Divine Wisdom What other characters can be given of God then that he is a person wonderfully dextrous and industrious to invent means to produce his own contentment and render his felicity abundant and permanent that imploys all the powers of his understanding and directs all the sufficiencies of his Wisdom to that end but for any thing else he knows none of the transactions here below or if he do onely slights and derides them Are not these very fitting reasons to inducement to venerate the Deity in regard of his Wisdom Is it not very sutable to Epicurus to have been the inventor of such noble Philosophy to insult arrogantly over them that ascribe glory to God for having framed the World in the fair order wherein we behold it and poised the Earth in the middle extended the Sea about it and given air for respiration to animals for having modell'd all the Sphears of Heaven and infused into the Stars the Virtues of their influences for presiding every day over the mixture of the Elements in the composition of bodies and uniting Nations one to another by commerce for maintaining States amidst the contrariety of so many different humors and conducting the Universe like an Artificial Machine according to the genius of each of the parts that compose the same Certainly it is very easie to judge which of these two Opinions best deserves that exclamation of Lucretius Lib. 1. Deus ille fuit Deus inclute Memmi Qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae Nunc appellatur Sapientia quique per artem Fluctibus e tantis vitam tantisque tenebtis In tam tranquillo tam clara luce locavit CHAP. V. The Continuation of the
of it immediately after vers 6. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry land Vers 7. And I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts Vers 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace Now of whom can this be understood but of the Messias who was to enter into it and effectively fill this house with glory What else could advance it so as not onely to equal but transcend the magnificence of the other And indeed Malachy who liv'd and prophesied at the same time speaks it plainly in the 3. chap. vers 1. Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Behold he cometh saith the Lord of Hosts They will say perhaps that Haggai foresaw that Herod would enlarge and enrich it so magnificently that it should equal or surpass even that of Solomon And 't is true as Histories inform us that he advanc'd the same to a far greater splendor then rhat which the poor returned exiles had given it But seeing all the pompous state that he bestowed on it was but the effect of his vast and boundless ambition which he express'd almost every where by proud structures as amongst others in the City and Haven of Caesarea to the end his power and greatness might be admir'd and not the divine glory promoted how could it be agreeable to God to attribute to him the vanity of a man and even of such a man who was a stranger if not absolutely in profession at least in heart and affection from his Covenants and a cruel bloody usurper of the government of his people And if it was not well-pleasing to God that David should build him a Temple because his hands had been bloodied in so many wars which he had manag'd though very just and undertaken out of necessity for the deliverance of Israel and for the Glory of God himself how could he take pleasure in the vanity of this Monster who was formed and elemented of wind and blood and dirt Besides though it had been built all of Saphires and Diamonds could that glory have rendred it comparable to the least of the five mentioned particulars or would it have been worth the pains that God should promise to shake the Sea and the dry land the Heavens and the Earth for it to cause I say by his infinite power a universal change in the face of the World and to what purpose were it to mention the shaking of all Nations to bring the choice of them into that Temple if there were no more signifi'd by it then the proud magnificence of the Pile and vast greatness of the Stones And what Nation ever changed their seat to go to see it or to send offerings thither by their Ambassadors We see therefore the Temple demolish'd and all the attempts made to re-edifie it defeated by a special demonstration of the anger of God against them that endevour'd it so that there remains onely the dust of its ruines after neer sixteen hundred years without ever having been filled with the glory promised to it if the Messias be not yet come as the Jews pretend In the third place Daniel in the 9. chap. determinately foretold the time since the expiration of which are past a dozen Ages Seventy weeks saith the Angel are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks That this place ought to be understood of the Messias nothing but obstinate blindness can dissent and 't is very strange that Passion should so feel up the eyes of some of them that in hatred of our Lord they should interpret it of some other For to whom belongs it but to the Messias either to be styled the Anointed by way of excellence or to put an end to Prophecies or to bring in and manifest eternal righteousness or to make propitiation for offenses Now what is meant by those seventy weeks Septenaries of daies or weeks or months or years or ages Of weeks of days and weeks of years there is frequent mention in the Old Testament of the rest there occur no examples And surely they cannot understand it of Ages for so they would refer the coming of the Messias to too remote a distance of time and of fifty thousand years which Daniel should have foretold there would he pass'd little more then two thousand And when would they see the accomplishment of their hopes Therefore they must be septenaries of years or moneths or weeks or dayes and indeed they ought to be understood of years But observe what their subterfuge is and to what they constantly retreat to defend their opiniastry That indeed the time prefixed by the Prophets for the sending of the Messias is expired but 't is their sins which hinder them from seeing the accomplishment of those promises By reason of them God ha's delay'd the time of their visitation and deferr'd the exhibition of the Messias and consequently prolong'd the term appointed for the duration of the Law That when they shall have perform'd a sutable repentance they shall see the effect of that which God hath promis'd at which time they do not gainsay but the Law of Moses shall cease But this Evasion is vain For supposing that God defer'd the sending of his Anointed yet at least the Temple ought to have been kept undestroy'd and the Jewish Religion maintained in its integrity and not so dreadful a dispersion of that Nation to have been suffer'd and so total an abolition of all his service For where are his sacrifices and his Altars Why did not He leave some use of them at least during the expectance of the accomplishment of that promise Mal. 1.11 From the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles in every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering Let them consult their own Books God denounced that he would cause the Deluge to come upon the Earth and he executed it at the set time He promised Posterity to Abraham and gave it him contrary to all probability He foretold the Captivity of his Posterity in Aegypt and it came to pass and continued neither
upon him But of this more at lage hereafter But in the next place there is discover'd in the Gospel an incomparably greater depth of Mercy For it is evident he obliges less by pardoning that conceives himself less offended and he conceives himself less offended that apprehends he may pardon without doing himself any injury or diminishing the reputation of his virtue or his courage On the contrary he obliges more that forgives an offense so sensible and atrocious that to make expiation of it there needs a great preceding satisfaction Since therefore the Christian Religion represents the justice of God inexorable and nevertheless tenders absolute remission to men by his mercy of necessity this mercy must be of a more transcendent benignity that swallows up an implacable fury And lastly his Wisdom is admirably resplendent in the Christian Religion whereas in the Jewish as the Jews understand it there is scarce a glimpse of it in all that mystery For if he punish according to the curse dâ—nounced in the Law 't is an act of pure Justice not of Wisdom If he pardon without other satisfactiâ—◠〈◊〉 then the death of beasts 't is a work of pure Mercy and not at all of Wisdom But to finde an expedâ—ent to punish and pardon both together to display his Mercy without derogation from his Justice this is it which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of man was unable to penetrate into and wherein now it is revealed appears an admirable design of Wisdom And now what more natural conclusion can there be then that the Christian-Religion is incomparably more proper to induce men to Piety and Virtue then the Jewish For as we have intimated elsewhere there are three motives alone that incite us thereunto Fear of Punishment Hope of Reward and the Admiration of the excellence of the Nature of God in it self and of the beauty of piety and virtue in which his image is resplendent Now as for the Fear of punishment it is always so much the greater as â—ustice is vigorous and inflexible And therefore the more implacable Religion represents the Justice of God the more powerful is it to reclaim and keep men from vice by the terror of punishment In like maner the Hope of reward ought to be greater where Mercy is greater too For our Conscience bears us witness that 't is on this score we are to expect it And if Admiration of the Perfections which are in God can be to us an efficacious attractive to goodness as indeed there is no true and sincere Piety which is not principally rooted and fixed on this foundation besides the great and incomprehensible Wisdom that is eminent in him the immense depths of his Mercy ought to ingulf all our thoughts and inflame all the affections of our souls with a holy devotion For ever since the time of the first sin all our piety is nothing but a gratitude towards his mercy And lastly for that Contraries mutually illustrate one another the Beauty of Piety and Virtue will be more resplendant by the opposition of Sin the horror of which appears so much the greater as the punishment that attended it is more terrible Now how much this consideration that God hath discharged the vengeance due to the sins of men on the person of his own Son exalts the lustre of all the precedent doctrine we shall not now insist upon for we have not yet consider'd the qualifications of his Person who hath made this satisfaction for our offenses But truely every one may of himself readily judge Lastly The Christian Religion infinitely excels the Jewish in the understanding of the Promises which concern the Messias For what Messias is that which the Jews expect A Triumphant King who by force of arms may subdue the Nations and bring Emperors under his yoak and break Empires in pieces may extend his conquests from East to West and from North to South and fill the whole Earth with the terror of his Legions and advance the Jewish Nation as high as it is now miserably abased For as for many more impertinences which they are otherwise guilty of in this matter I shall forbear to mention them as less intending their shame then their conviction And I cannot but pity them when I observe the race of Israel the Posterity of Abraham and the people once beloved of the Lord to equal and surpass in this all the extravagances of the Mahometans and the Pagan fopperies In that which I have propos'd which is the most tolerable of all their imaginations they sufficiently manifest that they are of the flesh and the world since they apprehend nothing but carnal and mundane things For if their remain'd in them any spark of spiritual Light they would acknowledge that they are compos'd of two Parts Body and Soul and that the body being earthly and material and endued with organs and faculties like to those of beasts do's not come neer the dignity of the nature of the soul which is spiritual inmaterial intelligent next the Nature of Angels and as it were a beam of the very Deity If therefore they expect glory and advantage from the appearance of their Messias it ought to be chiefly in reference to the soul and not for the body saving so far as it is the servant and dependant of the mind Now as we have shewn above in what can the glory of the soul consist but in Wisdom and Virtue And wherein do's wisdom lye but in the knowledge of him who is the Author and Fountain of all Virtue Prudence and Understanding Should he have turned the rocks into Diamonds and the flints trampled on at each step into Gold and Jewels the Snow of the Alpes into Butter and the rivers into milk the Wine of Judah into Nectar and the bread of Asher into Ambrosia and driven all the Kings of the earth fetter'd before his triumphant Chariot into Jerusalem yet all this terrene pompe and magnificence had not been comparable to his lively illumination of minds by the knowledge of the Most-high and to his victory over hearts their passions and appetites For there is so little proportion between the mind and the body that the greatest and most triumphant Emperor of the Earth if vicious and ignorant of things worthy the excellence of man is to be contemn'd in comparison of the most miserable slave that in the servile condition of his body excells him as to the understanding in Virtue and Prudence And I think there is not any so unworthy the being of man that would not choose rather to loose all the Kingdoms of the Earth if he possess'd them and after that even the limbes of his body then the use of Reason which advances him above the equality of beasts Moreover let them speak in conscience whether it be not the sense of their present calamitie and the miserable estate they are reduc'd into by their dispersion throughout the whole world that makes them breath after a Deliverer powerful
they have two exceptions against this One that it ought to be translated thus And the Name of him that shall call him is the Lord our Righteousness The other that the City of Jerusalem is also termed by this Name and therefore that the Messias cannot take so great advantage by it But these are cavils unworthy of people in whom there is left the least measure of Understanding and Ingenuity For as for the first to what end here serves the mentioning the name of him that must call the Messias without expressing the name of the Messias himself seeing the drift is to set him forth and to encourage the Church with the hope of those benefits which should accompany his coming into the World And in the next place what a defective manner of speaking is this And the name of him that shall call him without adding how or wherefore What example can be produc'd of the like And when the Prophet speaks thus In those days I will raise unto David a righteous branch c. In his dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and then shall she be called The Lord our Righteousness where the name of the City of Jerusalem is remarkably declar'd and not of him that calls her is the phrase and placing of the words wholly alike For the second Indeed it is more then evident that this Name cannot have been attributed to a Person and to a City after the same manner To a Cit◠it cannot be sutable but only as a memorial of Favour done to it by him to whom the Name is properly competent And to a Person it cannot be appropriated but to denote somthing that resides in such person There can be no danger in communicating so glorious a Name to a City none being so brutish or stupid as to take occasion to suspect any Divinity either in the whole people of a City or its stones To a man simply as man it cannot be given without an inevitable scandal of Idolatry especially to such a personage as he that is describ'd there was to be not onely a King but the first-born among Kings and the King of the whole world And truely if the Messias be not God it would be injustice to condemne those that should adore him as culpable of Idolatry seeing him honored with so magnificent Names For what ought we not to render to him to whom both divine names and honors are communicated in the Scripture the names of the highest Majesty as that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most sublime honors as dedication of a Temple and that so holy and sacred a Temple Besides that in describing his admirable atchievements there is excuse more then enough for error if error may be committed herein He ought to break the serpents head with his heel Is it within the power of a meer man to foil so strong an enemy with so much disdain and glory In him all the families of the earth ought to be blessed A benediction so firm and vigorous that it reaches through so many Ages and is diffus'd so abundantly over all Nations whence could it flow but from an infinite fountain He ought to have the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for possession Can so great an Empire be maintain'd and governed yea even eternally without an infinite power and wisdom He ought to sit at the right hand of God But how should he be capable of so great an honor except he be God himself For seeing Kings did not readily admit any to sit at their right hands but onely those which were of their own blood as Solomon did Bathshebah or whom they establish'd Lieutenants and Governors of their Dominions as being the second place of the Kingdom most honorable next the throne Whether it be out of the first consideration that the Messias is seated at the right hand of God he can have no consanguinity with him but by communion of Nature Or the Second he cannot be capable of so eminent a dignity nor provided of wisdom and power enough to maintain the same it being necessary to possess both in an infinite manner if the person himself be not infinite He ought to redeem the Church both by suffering an infinite punishment as we have shewn and by the victory which he was to obtain over death and him that was chief in the Empire of death Who could undertake and accomplish so great a design unless one that is very God Now if this Messias our Surety ought to be God as must be acknowledg'd or else all the Holy Scriptures denyed forasmuch as his Person is of an infinite dignity his Satisfaction was not only sufficient for all mankind which how numerous soever cannot be actually infinite but also correspondent to the immensity of the Nature of God and proportionate to his Justice For as the Professors of the Civil Laws teach that crimes become more henious proportionably to the dignity of the person against whom they are committed and Reason also adds its suffrage hereunto so in like manner they attest that penalties and Satisfactions are rated according to the dignity of those who undergo and perform them And it is not material that the punishment deserved by men was to be eternal in case they suffer'd it in their own persons whereas the Passion of their Substitute ought to have had a certain termination of time otherwise that which is impossible to imagine a person of such excellence should have continued under perpetual condemnation For according to the natural right and order of things sin deserv'd an infinite punishment inasmuch as it was committed against an infinite majesty But because the nature of man is bounded and infinity cannot otherwise be competent to him but onely by perpetual duration had men themselves been to suffer it it could not have been infinite otherwise but onely by being eternal But the satisfaction performed by our Substitute did not need to be immense in respect of perpetual duration because his person was of an infinite dignity For it was made according to the absolute Right of Gods Justice and the Natural order of things and not according to the compensation which should have been made in the persons of men by the eternal duration of their paines by reason of the narrow limitation of their Nature From this discourse it very clearly results that there are distinctly in the Divine Essence which with the Jews we acknowledge to be one and simple at least two Persons or Hypostases or Subsistences for we stand not greatly upon it by which of these names they are termed Namely that which is most usually represented to us in the Old Testament by the Name of God Creator of all things and that which in order to being Mediator between God and Men was to assume humane Nature who is sometimes represented to us under the names of SON and Branch As in the 2 Psalm vers 7. I will declare the
God moved upon the face of the waters For what is that Spirit of the Lord A great Wind say they which agitated that confused Mass of the Elements for great things are said to be God's as the Mountains of God But in the first place what verisimilitude is there that Moses should in the beginning of his History make use of a rare phrase and which is not found but in the Books of the other Prophets and perhaps no where else in his own which is enough to evince that it was not yet extant in his time In the next place whence came this great Wind and to what end serv'd it Was it to hinder that great confus'd mass from putrifying God was well able to hinder that and there being as yet no order establisht in Nature it was not needful for God to create a wind supernaturally to prevent the putrifying of the Matter by its agitation And Then the Matter of the Chaos being to continue so little a space in that estate the putrifaction of it was not to be feared Besides the word moved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not signifie such a motion as the blast of a great winde but onely a gentle tremulous concussion in which regard it is attributed to the Eagle's shaking the wings in incubation over its brood as if Moses would have said The Spirit of God gently incubated on the World to cause it to be excluded or brought forth out of that confused matter But many others have handled this Doctrine at large and therefore I shall produce no more testimonies Certainly if regard be had to the Order which Christian Religion observes not so much in reference to these distinct persons considered in themselves for they are abysses which it looks upon as inscrutable as to the effects which are attributed to them in the work of Redemption of Mankind it will be found highly admirable For to the Father as to the first Principal Author of all things it attributes the care and administration of the Justice which takes vengance on the Sins of men So that 't is properly to his Person as Superintendant of the Common right of the Three in what relates to the unity of their Essence that satisfaction ha's been rendred And the first source of that Mercy whereby he was moved to determine to raise man from the misery into which he was fallen And the Invention if I may so speak of that Expedient in order to it by his incomprehensible Wisdom To the Son as to him who assum'd humane Nature and conjoin'd it with the Divine in the unity of his Person and who suffer'd in one of his Natures a Passion of infinite value by reason of the infinite dignity of his other it attributes the work of Redemption both in regard of the satisfaction which he made and the exercise and accomplishing of the other things belonging to his office So all things having been created as the Wise man speaks by that eternal Wisdom it could not be competent but to the same to raise them out of their ruins To the Holy Spirit as to him who being common to the Father and the Son is the Virtue by which both one and the other produces things and bring their purposes into being it attributes the Action which renders both the mercies of the Father and the Performances of the Son beneficial and efficacious to us For what would the Dilection of the Father advantage us if we do not experience it and the satisfaction of the Son if we do not embrace and receive it to the peace and joy of our consciences Which how can we do if the faculties of our Understandings and Wills which are so blind and perverted be not inlightned from above and rectify'd by a supernatural power So the Father who prevented the existence of all things by his goodness hath also prevented them by his mercy in restoring them to a happy being The Son by whom all things were at first created as by the Eternal Wisdom and Word hath re-establish'd and repair'd them And the Holy Spirit by virtue of whom both the Father and the Son accomplish'd the Decree of the Creation of the World hath also been the Virtue of both to perfect actually the restauration of the World Nor ought the Jews here to be exasperated or humane reason demur For as for the Jews since their own Scriptures teach this what can they oppose in contradiction Are they wont to control the words of the Lord or to measure the Doctrine he reveals to them by their own judgements Have they not learnt That his thoughts are not as their thoughts nor his wayes as their wayes but as distant as the Heaven is high above the Earth Have they not learn'd of their Prophet that not onely none hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him but also that there is no possibility of fadoming his understanding Yet their Ancestors who liv'd before the Hatred of Christian Religion had so blinded their Nation perceiv'd some shadows of these truths in the Scripture and have left divers footsteps of them in their Commentaries and Paraphrases speaking so frequently both of the Word and the Wisdom of God and of his spirit as of things distinct that there is but too much to convince the obstinacy of their descendants As for humane Reason it ought not much to be scandalis'd if there be in the nature of God a depth beyond comprehension there being in all other things which seem commensurate to its capacity so many difficulties which check it None ha's yet been found that could give account of that Motion in the Heavens called The Motion of Trepidation yea 't is not yet fully determin'd if we follow the Phaenomena of Astronomers whether the earth circulates about the Sun or the Sun about the Earth The formation of Meteors ha's not hitherto been clearly and certainly explicated nor is there any that pretends confidently to have discover'd their causes throughly The Flux and Reflux of the sea is to Philosophers a secret more deep then any of its abysses and there is no mention of any that ever rightly understood it Then in terrestrial things who is he that can declare to us the nature of the Loadstone what that attractive virtue is which draws Iron to it and that other of it's verticity towards the Poles of the World How numerous mysteries are there in the most easie Sciences which cannot be discover'd to the bottome and how many things seem facil against which the acies of our minds is blunted Who ever understood the reasons of the almost infinite variations which are observ'd in the mixture of the Elements in the production of all things as to colour figure quality quantity medicinal and venemous faculties All the world knows what a Circle is and Children are not ignorant of the shape a Square a Peasant is capable of comprehending that there is according to all appearance some proportion