King of the Iewes so called and acknowledged liuing after death the same humane body though being also glorified had the same faculties preheminence and prerogatiues of life and rights thereunto belonging as before in his body was subsisting For death hauing no power to retaine him in the graue his humane body after his resurrection was againe verily a humane man among men vpon earth the space of forty daies In which at sundry times hee was seene both saith the Apostle of the Apostles and at one time of aboue fiue hundred brethren at once All of them being faithfull witnesses of his presence in the flesh for of the vnfaithfull after his resurrection hee was neuer seene in his flesh And now Dauids Kingdome come to the full period and the wall of seperation betweene Iew and Gentile puld downe when the vaile of the Temple was rent assunder Christ Iesus then that was heire of of all before all beginnings is thenceforth King ouer all vnto all eternities For being the Seede the Shiloh and the Sonne promised to sit on Dauids throne for euer Acccordingly came of Abraham of Iudah Dauid of Mary in the town Bethlehem as the Prophets had tould and by the title of King of the Iewes was sought for acknowledged and so stiled as the onely next heire to Salomons Crowne as we haue shewed But that earthly Canaan vsurped by Herod and the Caesars hee came not by strength to recouer the terme of that tennor so neerely expired but rather taught that Caesar should haue Caesars paid tribute as a subiect though himselfe the Sonne was free and would not giue iudgment of death for Adultery when it was not lawfull for the Iewes his nation to put any man to death For his comming as the Angell tould Daniel was to a farre more heauenly intent namely to expiat sinne to abolish iniquitie to establish righteonsnesse to seale vp vision and prophecie and to annoint the most holy But of the earthly he shewed that both City and Sanctuary should bee destroyed And so much Sain Stephen whose face shone Angel-like affirmed vnto the cheife Priest of the Iewes when he said that Iesus of Nazareth should destroy that place and change the ordinances that Moses had giuen them Which most manifestly hee did when his body the true Serpent was lifted vp betwixt Heauen and Earth to make an Attonment betwixt heauen and earth his bloud as the Lambes sprinkled vpon the Altar of his Crosse making cleane the conscience of the offender and lastly his voyce vttering this last Period of people and state it is finished when ended the Ceremonies and holinesse of the place And hauing conquered Sathan Sinne and the Graue is entred into his Kingdom of glory is set in Maiesty and power at the right hand of God his Father and his enemies made his foot-stoole for euer O thou that hast the Key of Dauid that openeth and no man shutteth open our hearts to beleeue in thee the King of glory and the Gates of thy Kingdome that wee may enter in the day of thy Mariage and behold thee our King crowned with Salamons Crowne CHAP. XI A touch of some Iewish and vaine Genealogies which hinder truth Against which Saint Paul warneth with answere to Master Liuelies Iewish obiections HAuing thus shewed some principall vses of the sacred Genealogies for Story for Christ and for his Kingdom therein haueing vrged no more then the Scriptures inforce it followeth by order and desired satisfaction that some-what bee spoken of their forced abuses falling vnder the check of the holy Ghosts pen. That there are Gâ—…nealogis endles which with fables breed questions rather then godly edifying the Apostle sheâ—…eth and among foolish Questioâ—…s Contentions and Wranglings about the Law ranketh Genealogies that are vnprofitable and vaine And vpon these texts some presume so farre as they thinke themselues freed from the search of all Genealogies and others demand whether saluation consisteth vpon their pregnant knowledge or damnation vpon the ignorance therein That wee are not freed from the search the commandement of Christ doth inforce who enioyneth the search of the Scriptures and the reading of Moses in whose writ and whose pen wee finde all the Patriarks recorded from Adam in Paradise to Ioshua the Captaine that placed the Tribes in the Land Whence the writers of the Chronicles of Ezra Nehemiah and Ruth continue their memorials vnto Zorobabel and thence likewise by the same Spirit they are recorded to Ioseph and Mary and euen vnto Christ Iesus himselfe That Paul therefore should contradict Moses being brought vp in his lawes at the feete of Gamaliel and should condeme those for foolish which he maketh the pillars of his stories may not bee consented vnto neither that in his Apostleship hee should account the search and knowledge how Christ was come in the flesh for vaine seeing among the many graces of the Iewes for Adoption Glory Couenants the Law seruice of God and the promises himselfe she weth that Christ from those Fathers came and tooke flesh vrging the doctrine of his humanity in most of his Epistles and putting his Disciple Timothy in minde To remember that Iesus Christ was made of the Seede of Dauid And that the Scriptures are of an equall esteeme the Rabbins in that thing onely commendable affirme who hold these words in Genesis The sonnes of Cham were Cush and Mizraim with the like wisedome from God as these words in Deuteronomie Heare Israel Iehouah our God Iehouah is one being both of them breathed from the same Spirit And Rambam witnesseth that Manasses was of old time condemned because he held that the Families of Ishmael Esau and such like had not the like vse for histories as the others had and therefore hee forbade the reading of Moses as bookes not penned by the wisdome of God But how true so euer this accusation is of Manasses most certen it is that the Rabbins and others their like haue fained many and so false Genealogies as might very wel moue the Apostle to forbid their abuse For vnto our first Parents the faire foure children to be begotten and borne of Adam and Eue in the first day of their Creation And in the first world they say that Giants were begotten by the falne Angels vpon the faire daughters of men Noah the righteous they make vnrighteous in faining him to take to wife Naamah the daughter of the double wiued Lamech and sister to Tubalcain so should that holy Patriarke not onely sinne with the Sonnes of God in choosing a wife of the daughters of men but the latter world also should bee replenished from a branch of that cursed roote Cain Dinah the daughter of Iacob hauing no husband in the Scriptures record they marry to Iob the great man in the East
yeer of King Cyrus the holy Scriptures plainely declare and that all that is writ was writ to and for Christ the Apostle doth affirme But how shall that fulnesse of time be knowen for the ending of the Ceremonies by the death of the Messiah which was then taught to the beloued Daniel and now much behooueth all men to know if from Cyrus downward the chaine of Chronologie in Daniels seuens be broken off for the space of 144. yeeres as Liuely doth them in his Olympicks table Where from the fiftie fiue to the eighty nine Olympiad in which and not before he beginneth to account Daniels weekes a Vacuety is left for so long a time Whereas contrariwise we see that Daniel beganne his prayer for their deliuerance immediately at the expiration of the seuenty yeeres captiuity and at the beginning of Daniels prayer the Angell Gabriel was sent from God to shew him that the Commandement for the deliuerance of the people was come forth and from that comming forth of the Commandement to the death of the Messiah seuenty seuens were determined for a full deliuery from the captiuity of sinne by the sacrifice of the Messiah Christ the Lamb figured in the Law And that this Commandement came forth in the first yeere of Cyrus the writers of the Chronicles and the booke of Ezra doe plainly declare both of them affirming and saying that in the first yeere of Cyrus when the Word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Ieremiah was finished the Lord stirred vp the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia and hee made a proclamation through all his kingdome and also by writing saying Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heauen giuen mee and hee hath commanded mee to build him a house in Ierusalem that is in Iudah Who is among you of all his people with wbom the Lord his God is let him goe vp And of this commandement made by Cyrus for the returne of the Iewes to build their Citie and Temple the Prophet Isaiah foretould aboue an hundred yeeres before Cyrus was borne for saith he He saith to Cyrus thou art my Shepheard he shal performe all my desire saying to Ierusalem thou shalt be built and to the Temple thy foundation shal be surely laid By which words of the Prophets wee conclude That not a linke of the sacred chaine of Chronologie is either broken or opened betwixt the commandement giuen by Cyrus the Lords Shepheard and the death of Christ the great Shepheard when hee gaue his life for his Flock For as time is chained linke vnto linke from Adam to Cyrus so is it chained linke vnto linke from Cyrus to the death of Christ by the speech of an Angel without al helps of the disagreeing Olympicks who in this diuine Chronologie do but trouble the waters of Shiloh and can be no let for time but that the Messiah in Daniels text is Christ Iesus our Lord and Sauiour And therefore let vs measure vnto him the true Temple and Altar with the Reed of Gabriel as Iohn did the Temple and Altar with the Reed of the Angel and in this case cast out the accoūts of the heathenish Olympiads as Iohn did cast out and not measure the Court for that was giuen to the Gentiles And so come we to his other Assertion which is that the text of holy Scrip ture in Daniel will not permit the name Messiah to be referred vnto Christ Iesus our Sauiour That Christ Iesus saith hee could be the Messiah mentioned in Daniel the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not proue it being an attribute giuen to King Priest and Prophet must there be so taken and not appropriated to any one particular person which the text will not beare So that the word Messiah in Daniels text he will haue not to be meāt of Christ as it is in Iohns Gospel and in the second Psalme but rather a succession of gouernors both Iewes and Romans that ruled in Ierusalem from the rebuilding thereof by Nehemiah vntill the finall destruction both of Citie and Temple by Titus the Emprour And those that referre the word Messiah in that place vnto Christ Iesus saith hee cannot so doe without straining or wresting of the text which they who so vnderstād it are driuen vnto For as the Chronologie here fitteth not for Messiah to be vnderstood of Christ our Lord so the very text it selfe is against it And therefore he pitieth that the Message of an holy Angell containing a most excellent prophecy from Gods owne mouth should be so peruerted and depraued as it hath beene by those that picke out that sense But is it not a greater pitie that learning should thus turne edge vpon Diuinity to depraue vs of one of the most pregnant prophecy for Christ his passion reuealed in the whole Scriptures of God or that this most holy message of the Angell should be appropriated onely vnto prophane Gouernours people and place whose period had beene prophecied and whose tennor was shortly to be determined rather then vnto him who by that his foreshewed death was to bring an estate of euerlasting life and whose Kingdom should neuer haue end Therefore to free the text from any such interpretation let vs take the consent of all almost those malicious Iewes excepted that either speake against their owne knowledge and conscience or haue the vaile of Moses as yet vndrawne from before their hearts But the best approued Docters among them as Rabbi Saadias Rabbi Nahman and Rabbi Hadarson expounding that text of Daniel agree rhat the Messiah there spoken of is Christ the very annointed of God so farre are they from attributing that name to any other besids him though God hath giuen them the spi rit of slumber not to insee what themselues say And of Christian expositers wee take the testimony euen of the aduersarie himselfe who saith that the most part and best learned of those who haue laboured for the vnderstanding of this Prophecy haue vnderstood the Messiah here spoken of to bee Iesus Christ. And how generally true that opinion is and hath beene the worthy instrument of Gods truth the learned Du. Plessie in his truenesse of Christian Religion doth testify where he saith That this text is meant of the Messiah Christ is so euident and absolute that it is a starke shame to deny it And Lyra our Countryman against the resisting Iewes from the adiunct giuen vnto the Messiah frameth this argument The Messiah in Daniel saith he is called Messiah Prince for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie but none is called Messiah the prince but only Christ therefore is Christ the very Messiah spoken of in Dvniel Neither doth that Prophet speake of many but of one and the same Messiah and he to bee slaine to
would destroy the Iews his owne kindred the vnbeleeuing Vnto which opinion Tremelius likewise consenteth And these Expositers that by the word Haba Nagid the Prince to come will haue the Romans meant yet meane not as master Liuelie doth for ioynt Gouernours with the Iewes in Ierusalems estate but rather for destroyers of that Commonwealth to fulfill Gods wrath vpon the place as vnder Titus the sonne of Uespasian they did to an vtter desolation both of Citie and Sanctuarie as with a floud To make then this most plaine text of holy Scripture concerning Christ his sealing of mans redemption to be but a Gouernment established betwixt the Gentile Roman and the faithlesse Iew is to adde darknes to night and to make the ignorant more ignorant still But as the day cannot be separated from the Sunne nor mount Sions situation from before Ierusalem so the text in Daniel to finish wickednes to abolish sinnes to make reconciliation for 〈◊〉 to bring righteousnesse euerlasting to seale vp â—…ion and Prophet and to shew Christ the holy of holies cannot bee separated from that which immediatly in the next verses doe follow namely that the Messiah should be killed to make a sure couenant for many and to end sacrifice and oblation The one being so linked into the other with such glory and strength as the go dâ—…n Chaines that bound the Brest-plate vnto the Ephod vpon Aarons breast was nothing so glorious or strong But as Master Liuelies conceit hath been touching Daniels Messiah in making that holy name to import none other then a ioynt gouernment of Iewes and Romans ruling together in the new erected estate vnder the second Temple so is his conceit likewise touching the ceasing of Daniels Sacrifices who will in no wise admit them to end in Christ Iesus when he offered himselfe the most acceptable sacrifice vpon the Altar the Crosse at his death but will haue them to con tinue fortie yeeres after euen to the siege and sacking of Ierusalem for saith he when Uespasian was come into Iudea and wasted the Countrey then the vnruly Rebels abolished the lawfull custome of sacrificing and the Priests being slaine by them for want of men there was no oblation any more And therefore not without cause saith hee in my iudgement may those words of Daniel touching the sacrifice ceasing in the middest of the last weeke bee referred vnto these times of this warre wherein by meanes thereof the sacrifices of the Lords house were hindred so many waies some were quite abolished and others done either not by those to whom they pertained or not so safely and freely as thy ought In which his sayings who seeth not onely Iudaisme maintained but also the very soule of Christianitie offended in shaking these maine principles of eternall saluation For if the paschall Sacrifice did not end in Christ then did not Christ at his death change the ordinances which Moses had giuen as Stephen said hee should nor sealed vp sinnes vision and prophecie as the Angell had foreshewed and then as Saint Paul in another case said We are yet in our sinnes and the Iewes haue exceptions that our Iesus of Marie is not the sauing Messiah It is by Moses forbidden not to lay a stumbling block before the blind nor to suffer a beast to lie vnder his burden But what blocks are heere laid before the blind Iews and what burdens vpon the weake Christians by these interpretations who can reade without griefe wherein the straight waies to the Lords holy Temple are made crooked and the Crosse of Christ not the altar wheron the Lambe that tooke away the sinnes of the world was sacrificed if sacrificing after his death was a reconciliation for sinnes But that the Curtaines are still vndrawne before the Arke and Mercie-seate of Gods couenants vnto the vnbeleeuing Iewes and the vaile of Moses in reading the Law and the Prophets vntaken from before their fleshie hearts with griefe of hart we see when after the most manifest breaking downe the stop of the partition wall and the liuing way laid open into the holiest of holies by the renting his flesh as the earth and vaile did at Christs death they still continue separates and doe straine all their strengths to diuert these texts from Iesus our Immanuell and to attribute the name Messiah to any other rather then vnto him Some making the Messiah there mentioned to be King Cyrus the deliuerer of Gods people as Rabbi Solomoh from Isaiah doth and some will haue him to be Zorobbabel the builder of the Lords Temple as the Hebrew Scholiasts generally doe Some thinke him to bee Ioshuah the High Priest that accompanied the Returned to build againe Ierusalem of which opinion is Rabbi Leui ben Gershon and some hold him to be Nehemiah that finished the walles of Ierusalem of which mind is the enuious Iew Aben Ezra Some will haue the Messiah to be none other then a Succession of Priests and Macchabees gouerning the Common wealth of Iudea as the conuerted Iew Paulus Burgensis thinketh and some will haue him to bee Agrippa the last Gouernour of that state in the time of their miserable calamities vnto which conceite some later haue inclined And all of them almost in their infidelitie attribute the title Messiah Nagid vnto any rather then vnto Iesus our Sauiour the true Annointed indeed Had not then the Apostle iust cause to account these Rabinicall Genealogies both vaine and foolish and to forewarne his Disciples Timothie and Titus not to giue heed to such vnprofitable questions fables and contentions as breede strife and not godly edifying For albeit that most of these Gouernours were nursing Fathers to the Iewes then Gods only people in the time of their liues yet by their deaths for death was the set marke or Seale of Redemption no benefit accrued to the meanest Iew read of And Cyrus the first of them dying long before the last seuen and Agrip pa the last of them liuing after the destruction of the Citie meet not their accomplishments in the last seuen and yeere of Iubilee as the death of Iesus the true Messias did where ended the ceremonies and policie of the place For when the gold of the Temple was become greater then the Temple it selfe righteousnesse vrged in circumcision and the Law Moses expounded no further then the literall sense led the Iewes boasting of Abraham and a continued succession then looke what was done vnto Shiloh as Ieremy had threatned must be done to Ierusalem and with such desolation that a stone must not be left standing vpon a stone but as in the destruction of Sodome all cast downe For the chosen Citie the Royall Seate of the King and place of f holy worship now being become the valley of slaughter and Den of the eues grew towards her period when Christ the great Prophet weeping pronounced this iudgement
neither can neither be followed nor found For their beginning is but roueâ—… at from Hercules that aimelessâ—… marke their neglect remained tâ—… the daies of Licurgus the tenth from the founder their restoration was by Iphitus of Elis but set thâ—… centers in the circles of these timeâ—… where yee can find them and their celebration superstitiously begun in honour of the Idoll of Iupiter Olympius and againe restored to cease 〈◊〉 contagious pestilence if not to â—…fect the world with their pestifeâ—…ous accounts Their counsellour was Appollo â—…e instrument of Sathan there prise â—…as a Garland of a Spiders Webbe â—…ouen in the boughes of a wilde â—…liue and fruitlesse tree and their â—…ownes the crowne of vaine-glory â—…nd not that of immortality for â—…hich the Apostle councelleth the Corinthians to striue may well bee â—…mpared to the houses of Spiders in wherein was no confidence and to â—…e Webbes in Isaiah that made no â—…arments to couer from cold Are these gaimes then the inâ—…ntion of Sathan fit linkes to liâ—…it an Angels speech and account â—…r the saddest action that the â—…orld euer saw and shall more creâ—…t bee giuen them for the time of â—…e Suns course in the heauens then â—…nto the heauenly Oracle of an Angell from God for the time of his Sons death on earth Or shall those men whose charge is to teach all Nations that the Kingdome of God is come in his Christ take their authority for the time of his comming from such hea then recorders as neither knew God nor were regarded of God in the time of their ignorance as the Apostle witnesseth The City and holy Altar wee see were measured by the reede that the Angell gaue vnto Iohn and by the same reede the direction oâ—… God did Daniel from Ieremy measure the yeeres of captiuity and from their expiration was taught by an Angel from God the time oâ—… Christs sufferings without all help of any secular learning or accounâ—… of heathenish Olimpicks but rather by farre more holier bands tied with the accounts of three moâ—… certen euents as of seuen seuens sixtâ—… two seuens and one seuen in the halfe whereof Christ should die And whereof Gabriel confesseth that he was sent from God to teach Daniel the certaine knowledge and Daniel himselfe acknowledged that â—…he vnderstood the thing and had vnderstanding of the vsion which was vnlocked vnto him by no key of â—…humaÌ„e litterature but by the Scriptures of truth as the angell affirmed Neither Saint Paul the greatest humanist among the Apostles brought vp at the feete of Gamaleel and spake more Languages then all â—…is opposers euer relied vpon the Olimpicks or other secular learning touching the knowledge of Christ and his passion But contrariwise confessed that hee had deliuered vnto the Corinthians that which hee had receiued which was That Christ died for our sinnes that he was buried and rose the third day and that hee did according to the Scriptures of God without other helps of Olimipcks or secular learning And as touching humane litterature that any wise were oposit to the Gospell hee admonisheth his Disciple Timothy to auoide prophane oppositions of Sciences falsly called which while some professe they haue erred concerning the Faith And commendeth him for his knowledge in the holy Scriptures which are able to make him wise being giuen by inspiration of God and are sufficiently profitable to teach to improoue to correct and to instruct that the man of God may bee absolute And that Light which Saint Peter willeth vs to guide our steps by is the sure word of the Prophets to the which saith he yee doe well that yee take heede as vnto a light that shineth in a darke place vntill the day dawne and the day-star arise in your hearts But that the Olimpicks could bee the Light to leade to that Starre or to enlighten the sacred stories by their accounts is so farre from effect as they rather much darken the true Chronologie of the one and confound the mutuall agreements of the other nor haue they any assured truth for time in themselues For Phlegon for their beginning in pisus Pelops and Hercules appoints no time Pausanias saith hee must record but will not credit them and Plutarke in the life of Numa condemneth all gatherings of time from the Olimpiads And such are their disagreements in Thaluâ—…s Castor Phlegon Plutarke Dionisius and others in assigning their accounts as the supporters of that tottering foundation must beare as great a weight if nor greater as Atlas is fained to doe in supporting the world To giue an assay then how their accouÌ„ts agree with the holy Scriptures of God wee will but touch two among many that by them the credit of the rest may be iudged Master Liuelie setteth King Cyrus in the fiftie fiue Olimpiad And Titus the Emperour in the ond hundred twelfth betwixt whom he accounteth no lesse then six hundred twenty nine yeeres and odde moneths more by one hundred then the Sun euer measured But that Cyrus his first could meete with the Olimpiad 55 the diuers beginnings of them by diuers men assigned doth make very doubtfull for Bibliander doth begin them in the thirteenth of Iotham King of Iudah and Paulus Phrygio in his twelfth but Africanus Bullinger and Functius set them in the second yeere of Iotham the same King Glareanâ—… will haue the first Oimpiad to be in the fiftieth yeere of Azariah king of Iudah and Eusebius in his forty nine but Pererius begins them in the eight of King Ahaz which is twenty fiue yeeres after So that the first yeere of Cyrus most certenly fixed in the diuine Chronologie as the pole is in the North cannot fit the fifty fiue Olimpiad for their diuers beginnings The other proofe is taken from the destruction of Ierusalems Temple which Clemens Alexandrinus saith happened in the last of the forty seuenth Olimpiad Now wee know by the holy Text that the destruction of the Temple was in the nineteenth yeere of Nebuchadnezzer King of Babell from whence to the end of the captiuity or first of Cyrus fiftie one yeeres more were to ensue to make vp the seuentie of the captiuity But from the last yeere of the forty seuenth Olympiad to the first of the fifty fiue are but twenty nine yeeres whereunto adde nineteene more from Nebuchadnezzers first yeere in the which the captiuity began vnto the Temples destruction in his ninteenth and yet there will waÌ„t of the seueÌ„ty twenty two yeers to the end of the captiuity Wherby we see that the first yeere of Cyrus must bee pulled backe and set in the fiftieth and not the fifty fiue Olympiad so far differing are these prophane Olympiads from the sacred Chronologie of the holy text That a most certen and exact Chronologie was registred from Adam the first man vnto the first