expressions of this Psalm the Image of a Death which was equally shameful and cruel The other part of the Psalm gives us an Account of the deliverance of that person who is mentioned in this holy Hymn I. He obliges himself to praise the Name of the Lord in the most numerous Assembly II. He observes it as an effect of this deliverance that all the ends of the World should remember and turn unto the Lord and that all the Kindreds of the Nations should worship before him III. At last he takes notice that the Kingdom of God should spread it self over all the Nations of the World. One may judge by the History of David whe-this Psalm is applicable to him therein we may see all the Crosses which he underwent particularly represented during all the former years of his Reign But there we have no Account that David ever suffered any thing like that which is so exactly described in this Psalm And this may be said further that when David took any Occasion to paint out his Sufferings to us he has put in several stroaks which only relate to the Messiah and which shew us in a very lively manner that he was to pass through much greater Tryals than any of those from which David had been delivered The later Jews who endeavour to verifie this Prophecy in Esther or Mordecai agree with us at the bottom that David carried his views further than barely his own Sufferings And those also who apply it to the poople of Israel must acknowledge the same Truth even against their wills But the more ancient Jews were more equitable in their applications of the XXII Psalm to the Messiah They applyed it to him in earnest even after the time of Jesus Christ when the comparison of these Characters of the Messiah which may be found so exactly in the Death of Jesus Christ led them to an opposition of this Truth And certainly there needs very little equity to acknowledge that this Oracle or rather this heap of Oracles belong'd to the Messiah by the confession and agreement of the Jews in our Saviour's time I. They had not then resolved to make their advantages of the Writer's fault who writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Lion instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have pierced my feet as they have done since In short Aquila who lived 100 years after Jesus Christ and the other Jewish Interpreters Symmachus and Theodotion translated that passage as we now read it II. The Notion which the Synagogue always had of the Sufferings of the Messiah obliged them to suppose two Messiahs one suffering and the other glorious rather than to contradict that Truth openly which is expressed by these Oracles in soparticular a manner III. Nothing can be imagined to be more ridiculous than to suppose that Jesus Christ should quote the first words of this Psalm upon the Cross thereby to engage all Mankind to take notice of the accomplishment of this ancient Oracle in all his Sufferings if we suppose that this Psalm even by the confession of the Jews had no relation to the Messiah The same Reflexion may be made concerning the Apostles who have quoted so many passages of this Psalm to prove that Jesus Christ was the Messiah because one may find in his Death and in the Circumstances of it such a litteral and exact accomplishment of this ancient Prophecy But if it should be objected That after all this agreement of the Synagogue can make no more than a strong prejudice this may be easily answered by considering that when the Psalmist speaks of the extent of his Kingdom over the whole Earth it was that Circumstance which determined the Synagogue in their application of this whole Psalm to the Messiah because as the Jews themselves acknowledge this extent of Empire is one of those Characters which according to the ancient Oracles is applicable to none but the Messiah In short because it is of great importance I shall repeat it here again common sense led those who considered these ancient Oracles to compare them as naturally they ought with those that went before and to determine the scope and intent of the later ones by the relation which they had to the precedent ones and there was only need of one considerable Clause to make a certain determination after they had made such a comparison This the Jews were certainly convinced of when they acknowledged that the last words of David II Sam. XXIII 1-8 were to be applyed to the Messiah by comparing them with Balaam's Oracle of the Messiah Numb XXIV We may therefore take it for granted That David did not absolutely speak of himself in the XXII Psalm and that he carried his views as far as the Messiah that he gave a great number of Characters to his Posterity whereby they might distinguish notwithstanding the greatness of his Sufferings and even the better by his very Sufferings than which no clearer marks can possibly be given because there is nothing more involuntary than enduring of Miseries nor nothing which depends less upon the choice of the person who is to undergo them than the particular kind of punishment or than the Circumstances which must accompany his Death when it is once left to the unjust power of violent Enemies We come now to the CX Psalm which in a very few words contains several very important Characters of the Messiah which are very distinctly expressed If one considers it exactly it seems to have been composed after that Nathan had acquainted David with the Glory of his Son which God had promised him such a Son who should build a House wherein God should dwell for ever and who should sit upon a Throne which should never be overturned whereas David had only form'd a Design of Building a Temple to the Lord. In short one see 's that the Spirit of Prophecy had given him a view of the Glory of this august King who should be born of his Seed and of the Glory of his Kingdom which should never be destroy'd David advances this King not only above all MEN by calling him his Lord who was himself a King but also above the Angels by making him sit at the right hand of God in the Kingdom of Heaven This is personal He also describes the Glory of his Office by considering him as a Priest of a higher order than that of Aaron from whom Melchisedech received Tithes in the person of Abraham And in a word he acquaints us with the progress of his Kingdom and the greatness of his Victories Let us examine all these Characters by themselves I. He brings in God speaking to the Messiah whom he calls his Lord Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy Enemies thy footstool This points out to us 1. That the Messiah ought to be advanced to Glory 2. That God intended to subdue his Enemies by little and little whilst the Messiah should be in his Glory as it was
probable that a Prince especially of his Temper would have submitted to such a Confinement and meekly resign'd his Crown to his Son if that punishment inflicted upon him had not fully convinced him of the Divinity of that Law which he had transgressed and violated by his Temerity and Presumption The Third Reflexion is that the greatest part of those Laws being intended by God to inspire his people with an Irreconcileable Aversion against all those Nations amongst whom they were going to settle they were so framed as not only to be opposite to the Laws and Customs of Egypt from whence they came but also to those received amongst the Hivites Amorites and other Nations of whose Countries they were going to possess themselves Thus we find in the XVIII of Leviticus Laws against all Incestuous Marriages which without doubt were ordinary amongst the Canaanites and Egyptians who therein follow'd the Examples of the Ancient Patriarchs who Married within those forbidden Degrees there we find also the Sacrifices to Moloch forbidden the practice whereof those Nations in all likelihood defended by the Example of Abraham's Sacrifice Now it cannot reasonably be thought that a whole Nation would of a suddain receive such Laws as deprived them of a Liberty and Freedom they had always hitherto enjoyed and condemn of their own accord those Sacrifices that had the fairest pretence of Religion imaginable and to use many Ceremonies contrary to those received amongst them if they had not had a strong and extraordinary Motive for so doing There is another thing besides that challenges our Consideration viz. the exact Description which God gave to Moses of the Tabernacle of the several parts of the Ceremonial Worship which was to be performed in that Sacred place and of the manner how this Tabernacle with all its Appurtenances Utensils and Ornaments was finished For as this Tabernacle was then the Centre of the whole Jewish Religion as the Temple was afterwards by succeeding to it so it was a solemn proof of the Divinity of Moses's Laws and of the Worship that was performed there Is it conceivable that a whole Nation should contribute to the building of it should see it Consecrated and taken to pieces and set together again every day and should read all the particulars relating to its Construction and not discern whether there was any truth and reality in all that was told them concerning the Religion which their Governour fixed in that place wherein he pretended many Revelations were made CHAP. VI. Some other Proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and Promulgated BUt if it is so easie to establish the Divinity of the Law of Moses by shewing the truth of the Matter of Fact according to the manner of God's Promulgation as Moses relates it we may further collect the truth of it by joyning these following Reflexions to those already made in the foregoing Chapters Certainly if Moses had been the first Founder of a Kingdom and had been succeeded in it by his own Children and Posterity for many Generations one after another we might perhaps have had some ground to suspect that his Successors consulting their own Interest and Honour would have been very glad to perswade their Subjects that the first Founder of their Kingdom had some Communication with God and that it was from him he received the Laws and Constitutions which he gave them concerning Civil and Religious Matters But it is observable that Moses was so far from investing his own Children with the Supream Authority after himself that he Translated it into another Tribe and Constituted Joshuah of the Tribe of Ephraim for his Successor in the Government as for his Posterity he took little care of it but reduced it to a Rank inferiour to that of Aaron's Family which he preferr'd to the most honourable Functions of the Priesthood leaving to his own the meanest and most inconsiderable Employments all which shews evidently that none of those who came after Moses were moved by any private Interest of their own to defend the Truth and Authority of his Laws and Writings but only by the certain knowledge they had that they were all Divine Neither ought we to omit to consider here the manner how Moses decides beforehand such Questions and determines such Controversies as could not be raised but after the Conquest of Canaan which was made by his Successor only after his Death And how those Laws were constantly observed in all the succeeding Generations of that people and submitted unto by the very Judges and Kings themselves tho there be nothing more common than for a Conqueror such as Joshua was to admit of no other Fundamental Laws in that State he is the Founder of than those which he is the Author of nothing is more usual than for Statesmen to affect the exposing the Conduct of their Predecessors especially when the form of Government is altered and from Democratical or Aristocratical is changed into Monarchical as it happened amongst the Israelites How then could Moses's Laws still keep up their Authority in all Changes and Revolutions How comes it to pass that in all the Successions of Judges and Kings there was never any of them attempted to suspend or annul Moses's Laws much less to enact and give any others contrary to them Again how came it to pass that in all the Divisions and Factions that Nation fell into there was never any Jew endeavour'd with any success to undeceive the rest of his own people so as to make them shake off the troublesom Yoke of Moses's Laws No doubt only because the generality of that Nation never disputed the Divine Origin and Authority of them It were an easie thing to demonstrate by the whole Series of the Jewish History that all those Laws which in Moses's Writings are inlay'd one within another and represented as occasion'd by several Transactions related there have all been equally received of the Jews and have all been put together in a Body by themselves before Moses's Death as it may be proved out of the XXXI of Deuteronomy It appears that those Laws were publick and in great esteem amongst that People to whom God gave them upon whom he laid an indispensable Obligation to read them every day and to consult them upon every emergent business It appears that they were known equally of all degrees of Men Sexes and Ages which were all obliged to pay Obedience to them upon pain of Death It appears that those Laws were not only publickly kept in the Tabernacle but also privately read in every Family We see that a whole Tribe viz. the Tribe of Levi was appointed by God to explain them and in order to that they were dispersed throughout the whole Land of Canaan and exempted from the Cares and Troubles that necessarily attend Husbandry by the plentiful Provision of Tithes and Offerings that was allotted to them We see that God obliged all Jews to read and meditate
longer preserve the Tradition of 2000 years as they had done till Moses's time God was of necessity obliged to make use of some other means to supply that defect He had already made use of several before amongst which was that which we find prescribed Deut. XXVII where he ordered the building of an Altar with rough stones whereupon the Names of the twelve Tribes and the whole Law were to be ingraved He afterwards follow'd other Methods and thus we see that Samuel following Moses and Joshuah's Example repeats before a Solemn Assembly of the people met at Gilgal for the Consecration of Saul the things that came to pass during the Government of Bedan or Sampson of Jepthah and his own But yet the best way was to fix this people to one Tabernacle wherein we see that besides the Monuments which preserved the Memory of the great Miracles that God had wrought at the Foundation of the Jewish Common-wealth as the Pot of Manna Aaron's Rod that blossom'd the Plates of the Altar that had been made out of the Censers of Corah Dathan and their Confederates One see 's that the Law and the Books of the Covenant were deposited there by God's order and the principal Transactions and Deliverances that were wrought by God in the behalf of that people were continually Celebrated with Hymns and other Tokens of publick Thankfulness It was no doubt upon this account that he caused the Book of the Law to be laid up there with many Ceremonies and Expiations and that he enjoyned it to be read publickly in the presence of the whole Congregation every seven years One see 's that he commanded that every Family should read this Book continually and that all should entertain their Wives and Children from their tenderest years with the design of the Law Night and Day in the Countrey and in the Town at all times and in all places One see 's that God engaged them to it not only by an express command but also by an indispensible necessity because he made it death for any Man to violate any of those Ceremonial Laws from a principle of obstinacy no pardon could be obtained for the Transgressions committed through ignorance before they were expiated by certain Sacrifices the Forms whereof were scrupulously prescribed in the Law and which could be violated upon no account whatever If one considers those things he may say that the Jews had scarce one moment free in their Lives so pressing was the necessity which lay upon them to consult the Law of God the regulations of which were so very exact and particular that there no actions publick or private could happen but what were regulated and determined by those Constitutions If a Beast was born the Owner was to examine whether it was the first-born or no whither it was clean or unclean and whither it was to be Redeemed with several other things of this nature If a Woman was big with Child there were many questions to be asked When she came to Lie-in several very different Ceremonies were practis'd according as the Child was a first-born or not The Law enjoyned various Purifications according as the Woman brought forth a Son or a Daughter God had prescribed a great number of Laws for all the Accidents of Life for Marriages for Successions for Funerals for Mourning for unforeseen Accidents as the Death of a Man that was kill'd without the design of his Murtherer for the several Crimes that might be committed in their several Pollutions and Sequestrations c. It seems that this whole people from the time that they came to the use of their reason to the time of their Death was still continually obliged to keep up a Correspondence with the Priests and Levites whom God had for this purpose dispersed amongst all the Tribes of Israel and to consult the Law and the Testimony to be instructed in the manner of governing themselves But particularly they were to look upon the Temple and the Tabernacle as the Center of their whole Religion And how could they do this without carrying their Prospect at the same time to those great Promises of the Messiah of which the Israelites were Depositaries I say upon those Promises which raised up so many Jealousies betwixt their Forefathers and the Ancestors of those Neighbouring Nations with whom they had always some Controversie and were to be considered as glorious and honourable to the whole Nation CHAP. XXII That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah BUt if we find in Moses's Law a severe restriction in all that belongs to the execution of the Promise of the Messiah which shews that God intended to have that Nation distingnish'd from all others till the Blessed Seed was come if we find that he restrained that Promise to one Tribe one Town one Family one particular individual person in that Family that they might not be to seek in a confused Crowd of a whole people made up of several Millions of persons or in a whole Tribe or even in a City filled up with several Families If upon this account his Birth was restrained to one People one Tribe one little Town and one single Family which was setled there the Jews could not but observe that it was God's design to break all those Restrictions and to follow quite another Method when the Messiah was once come For in the First place the first Promise of the Messiah was express'd in very general Terms which mentioned a common benefit to all the Sons of Adam This Promise was made before God had rejected Cain's Posterity by preferring that of Seth it was made before the Restriction was made to Noah in Seth's Family and to Shem in Noah's Family Secondly God who by Circumcision had distinguished Abraham and his Posterity from the rest of the Family of Sem did expresly promise to Abraham that in his Seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed This Promise was made also before God had restrained the Promise to the person Isaac in prejudice of Ishmael and then afterwards to the person of Jacob in the prejudice of Esau Thirdly One see 's this same Truth yet more clearly explained out of Jacob's Oracle concerning Judah Gen. XLIX wherein Jacob expresly foretels that the Messiah should be the expectation of the Nations that is to say the Comfort the Glory the Hope and the Joy of all the Nations of the Universe As this was a Capital Truth so God proposed it by Balaam at the Israelites entring into Canaan that they might thus understand that all those distinctions which their separation living in Canaan from the rest of the World might keep up were not always to last But this particularly appears out of Moses's Law which allows of several sorts of Proselytes receiving some without tying them to the observance of all the Ceremonies in the Law which it would never have done