bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
is their Knowledge the same there is nothing in their common Nature to determine them that they should be born or die together or that there should be any mutual communication of the Thoughts and Operations of their Minds much less that their Life and Death and Operations should be all the very same So that this Principle of Individuation whatever be assigned to be it cannot belong to the Divine Nature which is Omnipresent Eternal and Omniscient the Existence Knowledge and Local presence of Men are Personal not Essential but Omnipresence Eternity and Omniscience are Essential Attributes of God and not Personal or do not belong to each Person as they are distinguished from one another but as they are united in the same Essence for they are predicated of the Father as God of the Son as God and of the Holy Ghost as God and not of each severally as Father as Son and as Holy Ghost Every of these Essential Attributes therefore cannot be numbred with the Persons in the Deity but can be but One as the Essence itself of the Deity is and tho' the Father be Eternal the Son Eternal and the Holy Ghost Eternal yet they are not Three Eternals or Three Individual Beings of Eternal Existence as Three Humane Persons are Three Men of a Finite Existence It is a Contradiction that there should be Three separate Infinite Persons for their being separate must suppose them to be Finite or to have a limited and confined Subsistence and therefore Three Infinite Persons can be but One God or One Being which has all the perfections of Personal Distinction without the imperfection of the Division of Persons 3. From hence appears the Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons The Persons of Men are distinct Men as well as distinct Persons but this is no ground for us to affirm that the Persons in the Divine Nature are distinct Gods because the Divine Nature is acknowledged to be Infinite and Incomprehensible and when we speak of Three Persons in it we do not mean such Three Persons as Three several Men are But we read of the Person of the Father Hebr. i. 3. and of Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. v. 7. and when we speak of Three Intelligent Beings we can have no Conception of them but under the Notion of Persons We learn from the Scriptures that there are Three Persons in the Deity which bear that Relation to each other which is best express'd by the Terms of Father Son and Holy Spirit but the Terms of Father Son and Spirit are not therefore so to be understood as they are in Humane Relations and the word Person is not to be understood as it is of Humane Persons and therefore whereas we use the word Person the Greeks call them Subsistencies but acknowledge that they mean the same thing under that difference of words And yet this is all the foundation of any pretence of contradiction in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity that Men will needs understand the Terms of Person and of Father Son and Spirit when they are applied to God as they do when we speak of Men and from thence they conclude that Three Persons in the Divine Nature must be Three Gods as Three Persons amongst Men are Three Men and that the Father must be Superiour and Elder than the Son as it is in Humane Generations But this is all Mistake Adam is stiled the Son of God in a sense of the word peculiar to himself Luke iii. 38. God is in one sense the Father of all Mankind and in another sense he is the Father of the Regenerate only and when in either sense we call him our Father we take not the Word Father in the same sense that we take it in when we apply it to Men and when we say he is the Father of his only begotten Son this is another sense of the word Father very different from all the former The Relation between the Father and Son is not the same in the Nature of God that it is amongst Men nor are the Divine Persons such as the Persons of Men are but these are the fittest and the most proper and significant Terms to express the Nature of God to us that Humane Language and Humane Understandings are capable of We must acknowledge that there is a vast disproportion and impropriety in these expressions and that they give us but a very imperfect conception of the Divine Nature but it is the most perfect that we are able to have of it or that it is necessary for us to have of it in this Mortal state and if we will but allow for the incompetency of our own Faculties to have Words and Notions adequate to the Divine Nature and will remember that God is God and that we are but Men there will appear to be no contradiction in the Notion of the Trinity The Divine Nature is such that it has Three distinct Principles of Operation and Subsistency which are so described and represented in the Scriptures by Personal Acts and Properties that we know them to be as really distinct as Humane Persons are which yet being but One God cannot in this respect be like Humane Persons And whoever will oppose this Doctrine of the Holy Trinity must prove that the Three Persons of the Trinity cannot be as really distinct as the Persons of Three Men are tho' they are not such Persons as the Persons of Men. And to prove this he must understand the Nature of God as well as he understands the Nature of Man for otherwise he can never be able to prove that Three Divine Persons may not be One God tho' Three Humane Persons cannot be One Man That they are distinct Persons is revealed and that these Three distinct Persons are but one God is revealed but wherein the Distinction and the Unity of these Three Persons consists is not revealed nor is it possible for us to understand it at least without a Revelation The Distinction of the Persons of Men is founded in a separate and divided Subsistence but this cannot be the foundation of the Distinction of the Divine Persons because Separation and Division cannot belong to an Infinite Nature There is then not Repugnancy in saying that there are Three Subsistencies or Three distinct Principles of Personal Acts and Properties in one undivided Infinite Nature or that the Persons in the Trinity act as distinctly and personally as Persons do amongst Men but are united in one Infinite Nature which is uncapable of existing in separate Subsistencies tho' not of acting and subsisting in Three distinct Persons or as distinctly from each other as the Persons among Men do act and subsist The Summ is that in the most perfect Unity of the Divine Nature do subsist the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost between whom is a real Distinction which tho' not the same yet is
that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all Flesh come Ps lxv 2. And all Flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob Isa xlix 26. All Flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord Isa lxvi 23. And all Flesh shall see the Salvation of God Luke iii. 6. I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh Acts ii 17. Joel ii 28. By the works of the Law shall no Flesh be justified Galat. ii 16. And we say in our own Language any Body thinks or any Body understands tho' we all know it is the Soul and not the Body which thinks and understands It is very usual in other Books and very agreeable to the stile of Scripture and to the common speech and sense of Men for those Actions of a Person to be attributed to one of the united Natures which could be perform'd only in the other And the Union between the Godhead and the Manhood being like that which is between the Soul and the Body the Son of God is said to have Suffered and the Son of Man to have come down from Heaven not that the Godhead Suffered or that the Humane Nature of Christ was in Heaven before his Incarnation but according to the usual stile of Scripture the Union between the Divine and Humane Natures entitles the Person consisting of them both under the denomination of either Nature to that which was done in the other tho' as the Humane Nature did not partake of the perfections of the Divine so neither did the Divine Nature partake of the sufferings of the Humane But both Natures being personally united the person is sometimes denoted by one and sometimes by the other Nature All the Objections against the Incarnation of the Son of God proceed upon the like mistake with theirs who are apt to imagine that it is unworthy of God to be every where and in all places to behold and be present at the worst of Actions as if the Sun's brightness would not be the more resplendent and glorious if it could penetrate into the obscurest corners and recesses of the Earth or as if his Rays could be sullied and defiled by the foulness of any Object which they shine upon And if it be no diminution to God's Infinite Glory and Majesty to be Omnipresent it can be none to be more nearly and even Personally united to some part of the Creation and therefore it cannot be unworthy of God to be so united to the Humane Nature to manifest his love and favour and extend his goodness to Mankind As God is every where present so he is in a more especial manner present in some places than in others by the acts of his Power or of his Grace and Favour and he has vouchsafed a more especial presence to some Persons than to others and thus he was present with his Prophets who were sent to prepare for and foretell Christ's coming But he was personally united to the Humane Nature of Christ And this is the highest Honour and Advancement to our Nature for God thus to assume it but it can be no diminution to the Divine Majesty because God continues as he was from all Eternity without any alteration only by his personal Presence and Union with our Humane Nature he causes all the performances and sufferings of it to be meritorious for the Salvation of Mankind The Son of God did not so come down from Heaven as to be no longer there but to forsake his Father's Kingdom He still continued in Heaven in the same Bliss and Glory that he enjoy'd with his Father from all Eternity tho' he so manifested himself to the World as to come and abide in it by assuming our Humane Nature Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Joh. iii. 13. No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven He who fills Heaven and Earth with his presence was still in Heaven as much as ever with respect to his Godhead tho' he made a more peculiar residence than he had before done on Earth by dwelling in our Nature here The Son of God who is at all times every where present is yet in a peculiar manner present where ever he is pleas'd to manifest himself by peculiar acts of his goodness and power as he was pleas'd to do in a most stupendous manner in that Flesh which he took upon him of the Blessed Virgin And it cannot be thought inconsistent with the Majesty of God to actuate the Humane Nature and to be joyned in the most strict and vital union with it supposing God only to act upon it and not to be acted upon by it nor to suffer the miseries and feel the pains which the Humane Nature endures which would be Blasphemy to assert of the Divine Nature of Christ but to be in Heaven still in his sull Power and Majesty But some Man will say how is this Union between the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ made or wherein doth it consist To whom we may reply as our Saviour sometimes did to the Scribes and Pharisees by asking another Question and enquiring how the Body and Soul in Man are united or how God is present in all places and how in him we live and move and have our Being And if no Man can tell how these things are tho' no Man can deny the truth and reality of them then it is not to be expected that we should be able to tell how the union between the Divine and the Humane Nature in Christ is made or in what it consists We must acknowledge it a Mystery which it is above any Man's capacity to explain but that there is such an union we learn from the Scriptures and thither we appeal for the truth of it And the putting such Questions argues either a great mind to cavil or great inconsideration and shortness of thought For what Man is there pretending to Reason and Argument of so little observation as not to take notice that of all the things which we daily see and perceive to be in the World the nature and manner of existence of very few or rather of none of them is fully understood by us It is sufficient for us to know that great Reasons may be given for this dispensation of the Son of God Incarnate and that no Material Objection can be framed against it Secondly No other way as far as we can apprehend could have been so proper and expedient as the Incarnation of the Son of God to procure the Salvation of Mankind and therefore none could so well become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness The proof of this must depend upon the Reasons for Christ's coming into the World and they are all comprehended in this one thing the abolishing or taking away of Sin And ye know that he was manifested to take away our Sins and in him is no Sin 1 Joh. iii. 5. We are
several Prophecies we have recorded in the Books of Moses and ascribed to others and the last comaining so many remarkable things is from the mouth of an Enemy Moses himself foretold That the Children of Israel should after Forty Years come into the Land of Promise That they should prove Victorious over the Canaanites and That their Country should by the Divine Care and Protection be preserved in safety whilst they went up to worship at Jerusalem thrice every Year Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God the God of Israel For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders netther shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Exod. xxxiv 23 24. Here is the Promise of a constant Miracle to be fulfilled to the Israelites thrice every Year as long as their Government stood all their Males were to go up to Jerusalem at three set and known times every year and yet their Enemies round about them whom they had so many ways provoked were by the Almighty Power of God restrained from taking any advantage of this opportunity which was frequently and notoriously given them of Invading their Countrey The very Nature and Constitution of the Jewish worship made it impossible for their Government to subsist in the observation of their Religion without a Miracle wrought three times in a Year for their preservation And the fulfilling of this Promise which God had made to them by Moses and the preserving of them in the performance of that Worship which he had appointed them was a continual Confirmation of his Law and a repeated Assurance that it was from God By the Law of Moses likewise every Seventh Year they were Permitted neither to sow their Land nor to prune their Vineyards nor to gather any Corn or Fruits that grew of their own accord which was a Law that must have brought them under great extremities and the observation of it had been impracticable if the extraordinary and miraculous Blessing of God had not supplied this constant want of the seventh year's Product with as constant an Overplus in the preceeding years For as God by Moses foretold That on the Sixth Day there should fall Manna enough to supply them on the Sabbath-day so they had a Promise of Three Years Fruits precisely every Sixth Year to supply that want which the Sabbatical Year must otherwise have reduced them to And if ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store Lev. xxv 20 21 22. Which is another clear Instance that the People of Israel could never have subsisted in the observation of their Law but by the constant and miraculous accomplishment of the Prophecies which contained the Promises made to them for their Preservation In blessing the Twelve Tribes of Israel he foretold the peculiar state and condition of every distinct Tribe Deut. xxxiii He foretold to them all in general That they should have miraculous success against the Canaanites That they should possess themselves of their Land That they should set Kings over them That they should have a peculiar Place of Worship whither they should all resort and that they should have the Divine Oracles and a succession of Prophets for their direction in all Matters of great importance and difficulty And Joshua appeals to the Experience of the children of Israel whether all had not been fulfilled which was promised as far as his time And be hold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof Josh xxiii 14. The extent of the Dominions of the children of Israel after they came to be setled in the Land of Canaan is foretold Exod. xxiii 31. and fulfilled 2 Sam. viii 3. Ezra iv 20. And Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple declared in the audience of all the People That there had not failed one word of all God's good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 King viii 56. Moses also foretold that besides a constant succession of Prophets for many Ages there should arise a Prophet of extraordinary Power and Authority and whosoever would not hear that Prophet should be destroyed Deut. xviii 18. This Prophet was the great expectation of the Jews at the time of out Saviour's coming Joh. 1.21 vi 14. vii 40. and the Apostles prove our Saviour to be him Act. iii. 22. vii 37. Lastly Moses foretold the Disobedience and the Revolt of the children of Israel the Judgments that should befall them for their Iniquities and their Deliverance upon their Repentance he foretold so many Years before they had any King That they and their King whom they would set over them should be carried into Captivity and that at the same time when they were taken Captive by the Assyrians who are described in the very same words that the other Prophets use concerning them the remainder should be carried into Aegypt Deut. xxviii 36 49 50 68. and we see it came accordingly to pass Jer. xliii And the Siege of Samaria by the Assyrians and of Jerusalem both by them and the Romans is particularly described to the very circumstance of their eating the flesh of their sons and of their daughters Deut. xxviii 53. which is a thing that has scarce ever happen'd in any other Siege but those of Samaria and of Jerusalem Lam. ii 20. iv 10.2 King vi 29. This monstrous and dreadful thing was twice known in Jerusalem first when it was besieged by Nehuchadnezzar and again when it was destroyed by the Romans under Titus And such a circumstance could not be foretold so long before but by a Divine Prescience and that so strange and unnatural a thing should befall the Children of Israel three several times according to the express words of a Prophecy could have nothing of Chance in it Thus we see that besides the Prophecies concerning the other Nations of the Earth every State and Condition of the People of Israel from their first Original to the Destruction of Jerusalem was the Perpetual Fulfilling of express Prophecies contained in the Books of Moses CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses IF it be once proved That Moses did what is related of him in the Pentateuch it will unavoidably follow That he did it by a Divine Power and that he was God's Servant and Minister and that
vites sitire agros laetus esse segetes luxuriosa frumenta Nihil horum earum audacter c. Cic. Orator Forms of Speech even among the Roman Country men were so Metaphorical that they will scarce bear a literal version into our Language And the Philosophers themselves had customs which may seem very odd to us it * Joac Kuhnii observat ad Diog. Laert. was a custom among them when they propounded a question to offer with it a dryed Fig and he that accepted of the Fig thereby undertook to answer the question The Figurative expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were suitable to the customs of the places and times wherein they lived and very fit to give a lively and affecting representation of the Message they had to deliver Thus for instance it was a customary thing in those Countreys to rend their Carments to pluck off their Hair to go barefoot and cover their faces in time of grief and trouble which would be looked upon as a certain sign of distraction amongst us but was commonly done by the gravest and wisest men in these parts of the world And the expressions of their Joy and other Passions were proportionble to those of their sorrow Now it was reasonable that the Prophets in delivering their Prophecies should accommodate themselves both in their words and actions to the people to whom they were to be delivered For else they would never have been regarded or would have made little or no impression upon their minds which caused the false Prophets to take the same method 1 Kings 22.2 It is * Origen contr Celf. lib. 1. Origen's observation that the Prophets sometimes had matters of small importance revealed to them as when Samuel acquainted Saul that the Asses were found 1 Sam. 9.20 that they might keep the people from going to false Prophets to be satisfy'd in such things besides that by this means they gained authority to be rely'd upon when they had affairs of the greatest consequence to foretel And there was reason that in every case they should make all necessary allowances for the infirmities of the people with whom they had to do and should use all fitting compliances with them that they might the more prevail with them for their good It is the custom of the Prophets as * Hier. in Abdiam St Jerom observes when they speak against Babylon the Ammonites the Moabites the Philistines and other Nations to use many expressions and idioms of the language of the people concerning whom they speak †Lightf Hebr. Talmud exercit on Matt. 13.3 Familiare est syris maxime Palaestinis ad omnem sermonem suum Parabolas jungere c. Hier. in Matt. 18.23 One who was as conversant in the Jewish Learning as most men have been tells us that their Books abound every where with Parables that Nation inclining by a kind of natural Genius to this sort of Rhetorick And it is to be considered that several things which are set down as Matter of Fact might not be actually done but only represented as done to make the more lively impression upon the Hearers and Readers who well enough understood that it was not necessary that these things should be actually performed but they might be only parabolical descriptions or representations of Matter of Fact the better to illustrate and convey those commands and instructions to their minds which were to be delivered Thus * Hier. in Hose Proaem comment in c. 1. Maimon More Nevoch Part. 2. c. 46. St Jerom and Maimonides understood Ezekiel's lying on his side for three hundred and ninety days and Hosea's marrying an Adulteress only as Similitudes or Parables and Figures of Speech and thus from the Ancient Rabbins they interpret both what is related of these two Prophets and that which is said of Jeremiah's hiding his Girdle in Euphrates This was the most intelligible and effectual way that could be made use of to a people among whom such figurative expressions were usual and known to mean no more than what they were intended for So Jeremiah is said to be * Sic dicuntur Historici eos occidere quorum caedém narrant Calaub comment ad Theophrast charact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jer. 1.10 because he was appointed to prophesie of all these things Ezekiel speaks of himself as coming to destroy the City because he prophesied that it should be destroyed Ezek. 40.3 and the same Prophet in his description of the City and the Temple has delineated the Temple larger than all the earthly Jerusalem and Jerusalem larger than the whole land of Canaan to shew the Jews the necessity of understanding him in a mystical and spiritual sense †Lightf prospect of the Temple ch 11. as one has observed who very well understood the dimensions of both And thus Ezekiel was also carried from place to place in Vision only as the Text seems to express Ezek. 11.1.40.1 2. as the Jews * Hier. Praef. in Dan. in St. Jerom's time understood it and as the Chaldee Paraphrase interprets it But Hosea might be commanded either in vision or in reality to marry a woman who had been an Adultress but †Nec culpanâ—â— Prophâ—â— interim ut sequamur historiam si meretricem converterit ad pâ—â— citiam sed potius laudandus quod ex mala bonam fecerit id Câ—â—â—ment in Hos c. 1. afterwards became chaste and vertuous thereby to set an example to the Israelites who had gone a whoring after other Gods that if they would forsake their false Gods and return to the true God the God of their Fathers he would still accept and receive them in like manner as the Prophet had took an Adultress to wife upon assurance that she would prove faithful to him However this be understood these actions and others of like nature are to be look'd upon no otherwise than as the style of Scripture or as certain ways of expressing the Divine Will to men For the mind may be exprest by * Estenim Actio quasi corporis quaedam eloquentia Cic. Orator Actions as well as by Words and whatever Actions were perform'd with this intention properly come under the notion of style or different ways and modes of expression and all objections made against them under any other notion proceed upon a mistake and can be of no force The Prophetick schemes of Speech which seem most strange to us were usual with the Eastern Nations †Comment in Apocal. Part. 1. as Mr Mede shews of the Indians Persians and Egyptians The Revelation of St John chiefly consists of allusions to the Customs and History and Notions and Language of the Jews as he and Dr Lightfoot have shewn in many places which are most contrary to our manner of speaking And some passages allude
main they are aâ—â—eed and whoever will be at the pains to consulâ—â—â—em may be greatly confirmed in the Truth of the Prophecies upon this very consideration that there is less difference in the explication of the Principal Prophecies than there is in the Comments upon most Histories and that those who differ in other matters must have the greater evidence for that in which they do agree Tho there be some difficulty and variety of opinion in the calculation of the precise time when some Prophecies were fulfilled because it is disputed where the computation is to begin or how some other circumstance is to be understood yet all Expositors are agreed concerning these very Prophesies that they are fulfilled For instance it is certain that the Scepter is departed from Judah whether that Prophecy be to be understood of the Tribe of Judah or the Jewish Nation denominated from that Tribe it is certain that the City and Sanctuary are destroyed and the Sacrifice and Oblation taken away tho Interpreters do not agree about the precise time and manner of the accomplishment of every particular Plain matter of Fact shews that the Prophecy is fulfilled and there is no difficulty but about a Circumstance and to doubt of the fulfilling of Prophesies because we do not certainly know the exact time when every particular was fulfilled tho we certainly know that they must have been all long since fulfilled is as unreasonable as if a man should question the Truth of History upon the account of Uncertainties in Chronology What man doubts whether there were such a man as Homer because it is uncertain when he lived or whether there ever were a Trojan War because the time of the taking of Troy has been variously determined And yet is there not as much reason to reject this or any other History which has occasioned disputes in point of time as there can be to doubt of the truth of Daniel's Predictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem because there may be matter of controversy in explaining his seventy Weeks The Prophecy it self is plain and the Accomplishments certain however men may differ in assigning the Epocha of time History relates what has come to pass and Prophecy foretells what shall come and our uncertainty in point of Time no more affects the Credibility of the one than of the other We may be uncertain of the time foretold by the Prophet and as uncertain of the time mentioned by the Historian but when all other Circumstances agree there is no reason why our uncertainty as to the single Circumstance of Time should be alledged against the Credibility of either of them But the Obscurity arising from the difficulties in Chronology is spoken of in the former Chapter 2. Some Prophecies were purposely obscure because they did not so nearly concern the Age in which they were delivered but were designed not so much for the information of preceeding Ages as for the confirmation of Posterity in the Truth of Religion when they see them fulfilled God doth not send Revelations to gratify the curiosity of men in acquainting them with what shall befal their Posterity but rather conceals the knowledge of future events from men because the knowledge of them might have an ill effect in making them proud or careless and negligent or else too sollicitous and concerned about what was to befall their Posterity The Judgments and Afflictions of Parents would be so much abated if they had a clear prospect of the happiness of their Posterity that they would lose that effect which God designs by sending his Judgments And a perfect view of the miseries which were to befal the Posterity of the most happy Parents would render the Blessings of God the less Blessings to them So that both the Rewards and Punishments of this life would very much lose their force and effect if Prophecies were less obscure than they are It is a sufficient Reason for the obscure and mysterious delivering of some Prophecies that they thereby serve to prove the Faith and Patience and excite the Care and Watchfulness of men for which reason the day of Judgment and the day of every man's Death is concealed from us because the particular and distinct Revelation of these things would cause security in some and despair in others and the case is the same as to the destruction of Churches and Nations We are commanded to watch and pray watch ye therefore lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping and what I say unto you I say unto all watch Mark xiii 35. Which in the direct sense of the words concerns Jerusalem but the reason of them will extend to the destruction of any other City or to any other judgment which God has foretold but has concealed the time or other circumstances either by silence or by uncertain and mysterious forms of Speech A full prospect of Prosperity to come oftentimes has proved fatal to men Jeroboam Hazael and Jehu were the worse probably for the Declarations made to them as Achithophel if it had been foretold plainly what would befal him would in all likelihoed sooner have hastened his own death Whether therefore the event be good or bad and whether it concern our selves or our Posterity it is fit most times that it should not be clearly revealed to us because this would in great measure exclude the exercise of the Graces of Faith and Hope and Patience in men under their present condition And at the time of fulfilling the Prophesies which are now most obscure such a continued Train and Series of Aftairs with all their Circumstances and Particularities may appear in so full and undeniable evidence as may convince Infidels and confirm Believers in the truth of the Predictions and of the Religion taught by the Prophets by whom the events were foretold 3. Obscurity was necessary in some Prophesies at the * Euseb Demonst Evan. â—ib vi 〈…〉 Châ—â—â—â—n c. 〈◊〉 Isai 〈◊〉 Theodoret in Ezech Praef. Fathers observe because without a constant Miracle to preserve them they would otherwise have been lost and would never have been delivered down to Posterity Of this Nature are some of those Prophesies which relates to our Saviour's state of Humiliation his Poverty and Crucifixion and Death to the destruction of Jerusalem and the rejection of the Jews which by the Circumstances are manifest to us in the Accomplishment but were written with some obscurity to conceal them from the obstinate and malicious Jews that seeing they might see and not perceive for if they had fully understood the scope and importance of them they would have endeavoured rather to have suppressed and destroyed them than they would have suffered them to remain to be urged against themselves A People who were so wholly possessed with the Notion and Expectation of a Temporal Messias would have rejected those Prophesies which set forth his Humiliation and Crucifixion if they had been expressed in plainer terms They would have spared Christ no more in the