Ieremy with death The same practise you have reiterated against S. Stephen Acts 6. ver 12 13. And they stirred up the people and the Elders and the Scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the Councill and set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speake blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law For wee have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shal destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Whether S. Stephen said thus or no I will not dispute but most probable it is that he did never say this in expresse termes because the Text saith They set up false witnesses against him However these false witnesses against S. Stephen did truly prophecy as Cataphas did For Jesus being made Christ did destroy the Temple by the Romanes and abrogated the ceremonies given by Moses because they had made up the measure of their forefathers sinnes who persecuted Ieremy for saying no more in effect then they laid to S. Stephens charge And that which Ieremy threatned was in part fulfilled not long after his persecution and imprisonment For Sion became like Shiloh a desolate place and forsaken of God for a long time yet reedified againe within the age or generation then living so was not Shiloh untill this day Nor hath Jerusalem or Sion been restored since they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers when he came to visit his Temple as Ieremy had done and to be annointed King over Sion 4. All that I have to adde unto the former testimony Ier. 7. is this that our Saviour at this time of his consecration or whilest he was a King or Priest in fieri only did give some documents of his royall power or just chalenge to his right over Judah and Jerusalem in a more special manner then at any time before hee had done For wee doe not reade that he did take upon him to judge betweene party and party in matters temporall nor to dispose of the goods or possessions whether of Jews or of Gentiles save once when he gave the Legion of Devills leave to enter into the heard of Swine and to cary them headlong into the Sea And this hee did immediatly after he had manifested himselfe to be God by commanding the winde and the water as was before declared Before this time he might have said more truly then Samuel did whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Yet now when he came to visit his Temple he gave his Disciples Commission more then royall to take an Asse and her colt for his service to ride on them in triumph as the Prophet Zachary had foretold unto Jerusalem and to Sion And this he did jure dominii by right of Dominion The tenour of the Commission and the execution of it you have distinctly set downe Matt. 21. 1 2 3. And when they drew nigh unto Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives thou sent Iesus two Disciples saying unto them Goe into the village over against you and straight way yee shall finde an Asse tyed and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway he will send them And S. Mark tells us Chap. 11. ver 5. And certain of them that stood there said unto them What doe yee loosing the colt And they said unto them even as Iesus had commanded and they let them goe 5. This manner of his comming to Jerusalem his powerfull visitation of the Temple immediatly upon it and the Inscription which Pilate made on his Crosse some foure dayes after with other remarkable circumstances of the story or journall of that sacred weeke be a pregnant testimony that this Iesus of Nazareth whom wee adore was that King of the Iews and of Sion whose comming Zacharias had so long before foretold But it is not so apparent out of his forecited prophecy either that this King of â—â—on was the God of Sion or that the God of Sion and of Israel was to be made King of both For in that he was God he was the King not of Israel or Iudea only but of all the earth God over all from everlasting to everlasting by right of Creation The next point then in question betwixt the Iew and us is this Whether it may be concludently proved from the literall sense of those Oracles which they adore that he who was the God of Sion and of Israel from everlasting to everlasting were to be made King of Sion in later times or after the gift of Prophecy did cease in Iudea and Ierusalem CHAP. 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not over Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages he had done WEre there no other part or volume of the Old Testament left besides the booke of Psalmes the testimonies conteyned in it which according to the literall sense will abundantly induce this conclusion are for number more and more punctuall then all the testimonies which the Jew can bring out of all other Scriptures that they were to have a Messias or sonne of David whose throne was to be exalted above the throne of David or of Salomon Or if this booke of Psalmes were the only booke whereby both Jews and Christians were to be regulated in points of faith this booke alone would condemne both of such folly and sluggishnesse of heart as Christ our God and Saviour upbraydeth those two Disciples with Luke 24. 26 c. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe He did then enter into his glory when he was made a King of glory and such a King he was not made untill he had endured an harder servitude or condition of life more miserable to flesh and blood then Israel had done in Aegypt or then any of the Prophets whether Psalmists or others had undergone Of this servitude or hard condition of life which was prefigured by matters of fact in most of his Prophets and in all those Psalmists and foretold in all those Psalmes which contayne matter of complaint or imploration of release from oppression in its proper place Wee are now briefely to peruse some of those Psalmes which according to the literall sense imply the exaltation of the God of Israel or of Sion to be the King of Israel or of Sion for this view it would much availe if we knew who were the Authors of such Psalmes and upon what occasion they were penned 2 The Author of the seaventh Psalme was David himselfe and no other as the inscription and occasion of his complaints therein mentioned do manifest The complaints he tenders immediately unto God and yet this God who was to
be awaked was to returne to his throne on high Arise O Lord saith he ver 6. in thine anger lift up thy selfe because of the rage of mine enemies and awake for me to the judgement that thou hast commaunded so shall the Congregation of the people compasse thee about for their sakes therefore returne thou on high The Lord shall judge the people Iudge me O Lord according to my righteousnesse and according to mine integrity that is in me He that is to arise was certainely layd downe and he that is to awake was for the time asleep and he that was to returne on high was questionlesse descended from the highnesse of his throne Nor are these speeches to be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then that judgement of the people which he implores of God I dare not affirme that the 47. Psalme was penned or conceived by David himselfe yet authenticke and Canonicall among the Iewes Now the whole current of that Psalme containes a generall acclamation or gratulatory hymne of God the Lord who was to be made King O clap your hands all yee people shout unto God with the voice of triumph For the Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the earth He shall subdue the people under us and the Nations under our feet He shall chuse 〈◊〉 inheritance for us the excellency of Iacob whom he loued Some passages in this Psalme had their literall verification in the practise of this people at such solemne feasts as this Psalme was appointed to be sung For they did then exhibit such joyfull acclamations as are here charactered and exalt the name of the Lord by hymnes of praise and thanksgiving But both songs and ditties the gestures of both Priests and people which sung them did foresignifie matter of more universall triumphant joy to be communicated to all Nations when God should become such a gratious King over them as he had beene over the seed of Abraham ver 7 and 8. For God is the King of all the earth sing yee praises with understanding God raigneth over the Heathen God sitteth upon the throne of his holinesse Was it the chiefe matter of this publique joy that God should subdue the Nations under the feete of Iacobs posteritie This had been rather cause of sorrow to the heathen Nations then any just cause of cōfort to the Iew if these words according to the literall did import a temporall or civill subjection of the Nations by conquest of sword Nor doth the originall word import any such thing but a voluntary subjection or submission wrought by faire and gentle perswasion And by the unquestionable meaning of the very letter the Nations were to rejoyce in that they were to be thus subdued not to the whole Nation of the Iews but to the inheritance which God had chosen for them or to the excellency of Iacob whom he loved And these as Theodores rightly observes were the Apostles and Disciples whom God had chosen out of the Iewish Nation These indeed have brought not our bodies but our soules and consciences under subjection to the yoake of Christ who was the God whom the Psalmist therefore prophecied should be very highly exalted not by ascending of the Ark into Mount Sion nor by propagation of his Kingdome or gayning a greater multitude of subjects here on earth then he had whilst the Jews only were his chosen people but by erecting a new throne and Kingdome in the highest Heavens where now he dwelleth and executeth the royall judicature which he before did in the Tabernacle or in the Temple there he had a visible throne and a visible mercy seate but there his presence was not alwaies visible nor visible at any time but in type or figure And if wee may beleeve the later Iewish Doctors when they speake unwittingly for us against themselves that solemne festivall wherein this triumphant song was publiquely sung was first instituted and afterwards continued as an anniversary memoriall of the dedication of the Temple or for bringing the Ark into it and that was as much as the inthronization of the God of Israel as peculiar King and Lord of Sion But they themselves do grant that this very Psalme was not only a triumphall memoriall of what was past but withall propheticall and to bee fulfilled in the dayes of their expected Messias And so we Christians see it now exactly fulfilled according both to the mysticall and to the punctuall literall sense in Christ Iesus their Messias though they acknowledge him not now sitting at the right hand of God and designed to be the supreme Iudge not of the Iews only but of all the world of quick and dead 3 That the God of Israel was to become King of all the world to be crowned with Majestie and glory was to judge the world after another manner then from the beginning of it or at that time when these late cited hymnes were consecrated to his praise had been experienced many other Psalmes do so punctually import that without this supposition or this interpretation of them they can have neither any true literall meaning nor conteyne any remarkable truth worthy the note of Selah which is often inserted in Psalmes of this kind The Lord saith the Author of the 93. Psalme reigneth he is cloathed with maiesty The Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himselfe He was to be thus cloathed thus girded with strength not as God but as King The world also is stablished that it cannot be moved Thy throne is established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old â tunc from then that is from the time wherein he was thus to raigne and thus to be cloathed with Majesty And by this establishing of his throne the world was to be established after another manner then it had beene He himselfe indeed as it followeth in the same verse was from eternitie So was not the throne or Kingdome which the Psalmist there doth not only describe but prophecy of his throne is an everlasting throne yet everlasting as we say à parte pòst from the time it was established not from eternitie and so is the kingdome here meant And Psalme 96. 10. c. Say among the Heathen that the Lord raigneth the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved he shall judge the people righteously Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad let the sea roare and the fulnesse thereof Let the Feilds be joyfull and all that is therein then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce before the Lord for he commeth for he commeth to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with his truth All these are characters of times future and that joyfulnesse of the fields and all that is in them c. which the Prophet mentions is I take it no other then the fulfilling or satisfying of the earnest expectation of the Creature wayting for the
our Saviour before his resurrection Surely he hath borne our griefes and caryed our sorrowes c. This was most exactly fulfilled in his sufferings whatsoever these were upon the Crosse unto which S. Peter referres it 1 Pet. 2. 24. He his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sinne should live to righteousnesse by whose stripes you were healed Yet was the same testimony truly fulfilled before as S. Matthew more fully instructs us cap. 8. ver 16 17. When the even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devills and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet saying Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses The testimonie alleaged by these two Apostles unto severall purposes is one and the same and yet concludent of what they both purposed or intended Nor is it necessary to search out two severall senses of one and the same testimony alleaged and twice fulfilled For of one and the same literall sense or signification there may bee two objects or more The literall sense of the words as forecited by S. Peter hath for its object our Saviours sufferings or his bearing our infirmities and the diseases of our soules upon the Crosse The object whereto S. Matthew referres was the infirmites or sicknesses of mens bodies for these he bare though not as we say in kinde yet by exact sympathy or fellowfeeling before he bare our spirituall infirmities upon the Crosse and whether hee bare these after such an exact sympathy as he did the bodily infirmities of those whom he cured may be discussed in the Article of his passion 8. But as for testimonies either typicall propheticall or prophetically typicall besides that they may be oftner fulfilled then once according to the same sense in generall as either according to the literall or mysticall sense or both they admit in greater variety of particular senses no way opposite unto the generall but subordinate and coordinate one to another Sometimes the same words fit the type in such a proportion as the names of shires or Provinces doe those parts of the Maps wherein they are represented but fit the Antitype in such a measure as the same name in the Mappe doth the province which it represents sometimes in one and the same Prophecy or continued historicall narration one clause or passage doth fit the type only another the antitype only according to the proper literall sense and some others so fit both As in Psalme 72. 1. Give the King thy Iudgements O God and thy righteousnesse unto the Kings sonne by the King it is evident David meant himselfe and by the Kings sonne both Salomon and him of whom Salomon was the shadow or type the one according to the literall sense only the other both according to literall and mysticall These words againe in the 2. verse He shall judge the people with righteousnesse and the poore with equity referre both to Salomon and to Christ to the one as to the modell to the other as to the edifice So doth that other passage ver 8. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the River unto the ends of the earth This prophecy was fulfilled or exactly verified according to the letter in Salomon For hee did command from the Phaenician sea unto the sea of Edom and from the river Euphrates unto the lands end according to that ancient terrar which the Lord himselfe had given of Iudahs dominion Yet this dominion whilest it was most entirely possest by Salomon was but a Map of Christs Kingdome he was to rule from Sea to Sea over all the Seas in the world and from river to river from every point of sea and land unto the same point againe For all was to be given him as well in earth as in heaven Salomons earthly Kingdom doth fit Christs Kingdome here on earth as a Mappe of paper doth a Countrey or Province and Christs Kingdome here on earth is but the scale of his Kingdome and dominion in heaven 9. Sometimes the same passage of Scripture may according to the intent and meaning of the holy Spirit be fulfilled or verified of the type or pledge in an ordinary literall or proverbiall sense which is somewhat more then the ordinary literall and yet be fulfilled of Christ in the most exactly punctuall literall sense that can be imagined They that dwell in the wildernesse saith David Psal 72. 9. shall how before him and his enemies shall lick the dust This was truly meant and verified of Salomon in the literall and proverbiall sense but most exactly fulfilled in Christ unto whom all knees shall how of things in heaven of things in earth and of things under the earth and all his enemies death it selfe and him that had the power of death shall inherite the Serpents first curse that is to be fed with dust Gen. 3. 14. No doubt but Salomon and his share in that prediction v. 12. He shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poore also and him that hath no helper Him that is not able to cry or speake for himselfe But Salomon could never give sight unto the blinde or limbes unto the Lame or speech or hearing to such as were borne deafe or dumbe These were prerogatives peculiar unto that sonne of David whom Salomon did foreshadow But even the deafe and dumbe had some friends to solicite Christs aide for them the lame the blinde and the sick could cry themselves unto him or make signes of their desire of his helpe yet others he helped which did not either by themselves or by their friends desire his helpe as that impotent man which had layd so long at the poole of Bethesda Salomon might deliver the poore from civill oppression or bodily violence and might raise them in their temporall fortunes but it was the promised sonne of David alone that could deliver them from the oppressions of the Devill or from the imprisonment of their owne bodily senses Thus he delivered Lazarus from the very bonds of death and from the prison of the grave when hee himselfe could not and his sisters would not or did not cry unto him for this deliverance but rather disswaded him from attempting it Now the very name Lazarus is by interpretation as much as David in that verse expresseth Him that hath no helper According to this difference or allowance most passages in that 72 Psalme besides the 5 ver the conclusion from the 17 are literally meant both of Salomon and of Christ But these prayers of David were propheticall both in respect of the type and the antitype so are not many other like passages in the Psalmes which containe patheticall expressions of the parties desires griefes or sorows which did pen them and yet are no lesse exquisitely fulfilled in Christ than the former which were literally meant both of
amongst the best Divines of this age Theodoret amongst the Ancients Melancthen and Moller amongst moderne writers have better attempted this profitable worke than they have beene seconded The historicall occasions and other circumstances of the times wherein these Psalmes were written were they knowne according to the literall sense would lead us by a faire and safe way as it were by the rule of three unto the just product or capacitie of the true allegoricall and mysticall sense in which they were fulfilled But as our case now stands the luxuriant and perplexed branches of such forced Allegories as men fancie to themselves or frame by guesse without any perfect scale or proportion from the true historicall sense have occasioned many judicious Divines to doubt or question whether those things which by the Evangelists are said to bee done that the Scriptures might bee fulfilled doe alwayes imply some concludent proofe or demonstration of the Spirit Calvin for being sometimes too bold sometimes too sparing in the exposition of such places as the Evangelists say are fulfilled in Christ is deeply taxed by the Lutherans generally and by many of the Romish Church But Christian charity will perswade men of sober passions that it was rather feare lest he should give offence unto the Jewes then any desire or inclination to comply with them which made him sometimes give the same interpretations of Scriptures which they doe without expression of or search after farther mysteries than the letter it selfe doth minister How ever it be if Calvin be lyable to a judgement Iansenius Sasbout and Maldonat three of the most judicious Commentators of the Romish Church for these many yeares are lyable to a Councell for their unadvised presumption in this kinde One of them denyeth that often forecited place I will be to him a Father and be shall be to me a sonne to bee literally meant of Salomon wherein he gives just offence unto the Jewes and by superstitious feare of committing that errour whereof Calvin is often accused doth fall into the contrary The two others question whether that of the Prophet Hosea Out of Egypt have I called my sonne were properly fulfilled in our Saviour or only said to be fulfilled per accommodationem by way of allusion that is in such a manner as we might say that of the Poet Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura Parentis were fulfilled in any father or mother whom we saw to dote upon or much to deligt in their lovely sonne And this was the explicite meaning of Maldonats third rule before cited in what sense the Scripture is said to be fulfilled 2. That this was his meaning in that place may be gathered from his comment on that other saying of S. Matthew Chap. 13. ver 34 35. All these things spake Iesus unto the multitude in parables and without a parable spake he not unto them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things which have beene kept secret since the foundation of the world His observations upon this place are in his owne words englished thus The particle That doth not denote the cause why our Saviour spake in parables for he did not thus speake to the end that Davids sayings might bee fulfilled but because his Auditors were unworthy of such perspicuous declarations as he used to his Disciples in private This he takes as granted from our Saviours speech ver 13 14. Therefore spake I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they heare not neither doe they understand And in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaiah which saith By hearing c. The abstract of his observations upon ver 34 35. is this that it was no part of our Evangelists meaning to teach us that Davids prophecy was properly fulfilled by our Saviours parables seeing Davids discourse as he conceives was indeed no prophecy but an historicall narration of matters past besides that the word which the Psalmist there useth doth not signifie such parables as our Saviour in this 13. chapter meant but rather such pithy sentences as the Greekes call Apophthegmes Maldonats conclusion therefore is that the Evangelist according to his usuall manner did only accommodate that which David had spoken to our Saviours speeches in this place to which they have some affinity or similitude though no concludent congruity and for our better satisfaction hee referres us to his Comments upon Matth. 2. 15. that is indeed to his third rule in what sense the Scriptures are said to be fulfilled But in this and other like passages to the same purpose this Author onely gives us to understand how easie a matter it is for good Divines sometimes to spend a great deale of learning and wit to no good purpose especially when they strive to be hypercriticall or to be censorious of others pious endeavours though perhaps not so accurate 3. To revise these his animadversions ordine retrogrado that is beginning with the last and ending with the first No man did say that the narrations in that Psalme were propheticall in respect of the matters literally and immediately signified by the words themselves Yet in as much as these matters though past as Gods wonders in Egypt and in the wildernesse the conducting of his people to the land of Canaan and their rebellious behaviour in it were true types or shadowes of the like events in future times there is not any thing in that Psalme related which in the mysticall sense doth not fore-represent some parallel event when the God of their Fathers should come in person to expostulate with his people in such a manner as David did with the people of his time which he did not in his owne name or authority but in the name and authority of his Lord and God For so he beginnes that Psalme Give eare O my people to my Law incline your eares to the words of my mouth I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter darke sayings of old This preamble cannot literally bee applyed to David or any Prophet save only as he was a type or shadow of him that was to come The Psalmists words immediately following though Apophthegmaticall and pithy were plaine in respect of the literall sense if you consider them only as matters of fact forepast were knowne and had been taught at the least by some of their Fathers though perhaps forgotten by posterity However in respect of their mysticall importāce or as they containe a proportionable parallel of the Kingdome of Heaven with the Kingdome of Israel according to the flesh they are sentences both hard and darke and such as did require a better paraphrast upon David or the Author of this Psalme then he was of Moses or of the sacred Historians before his time For by the parables meant in ver 2. of this Psalme if we may beleeve S. Matthewes paraphrase upon these words were meant things which had beene
THE KNOWLEDG OF CHRIST JESUS OR THE SEVENTH BOOK OF COMMENTARIES VPON THE APOSTLES CREED CONTAINING The first and generall PRINCIPLES of CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIE With the more immediate Principles concerning the true Knowledge of CHRIST Divided into foure Sections CONTINVED BY THOMAS JACKSON DR. in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinarie and President of Corpus Christi Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARKE under S. Peters Church in Cornhill MDCXXXIV REcensui hunc tractum cui titulus est The knowledge of Christ Jesus or the seaventh booke of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed in quo nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quò minús cum utilitate Publica imprimatur modò intra tres menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur Ex Aedibus Lambethanis Octob. 10. 1633. Guil. Bray A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL Arguments of the severall Sections and Chapters contained in this BOOKE SECTION I. OF the beleefe or knowledge of Christ in generall and whether Theologie be a true Science or no. Page 2 CHAP. 1. Of the principall points that Christians are bound to beleeve 3 2. Of Historicall beleefe in generall and how it doth variously affect Beleevers according to the variety of matters related the severall esteeme of the Historians 5 3. Whether such knowledge of God and of Christ as the Scriptures teach be a science properly so called 11 4. Of the agreements and differences between Theologie and other sciences in respect of their subjects that the true historicall beleefe of sacred Historians is equivalent to the certaintie or evidence of other sciences 18 SECTION II. OF the severall wayes by which the mysteries contained in the knowledge of Christ were foretold prefigured or otherwise fore-signified Of the divers senses of holy Scriptures how they are said to be fulfilled with some generall rules for the right interpretation of them Page 25 CHAP 5. Containing the generall division of testimonies or fore-significations of Christ ib. 6. Of the first rank of testimonies concerning Christ that is of testimonies merely propheticall Page 27 7. What manner of predictions they be or of what matters the predictions must be which necessarily inferre the participation of a divine Spirit 30 8. Of the Sibylline Oracles whether they came originally from God or no that the perspicuity of their predictions doth not argue them to be counterfait or forged since the incarnation of the Sonne of God 38 9. Answering the Objections against the former resolutions that God did deale better with Israel then with other nations although it were granted that other nations had as perspicuous predictions of Christ and of his Kingdome as the Israelites had 46 10. Of Testimonies in the old Testament concerning Christ merely typicall and how they do conclude the truths delivered in the New Testament Page 53 CHAP. 11. Of testimonies concerning Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall and of their concludent proofe 58 12. Of the severall senses of Scripture especially of the literall and mysticall 67 13. Of the literall sense of Scripture not assertive but merely charactericall 77 14. That the Scripture is said to be fulfilled according to all the former senses that one the same Scripture may be oftner than once fulfilled according to each severall sense 87 15. Whether all Testimonies alledged by the Euangelists out of the old Testament in which it is said or implyed this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled be concludent proofs of the Euangelicall truths for which they are alledged 106 16. Whether the Prophets did alwayes foresee or explicitely beleeve whatsoever they did foretell or fore-signifie concerning Christ 126 17. Whether divine prophecies or predictions concerning Christ may admit amphibologies or ambiguous senses 139 18. Containing the generall heads or topicks for finding out the severall senses of Scripture especially for the just valuation of the literall sense whether in the old Testament or in the new 160 19. Of the use of sacred or miscellane Philology for finding out as well the literall as the mysticall or other senses of Scripture 179 SECTION III. That the incarnation of God and of God in the person of the Son instiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was foretold prefigured c. in the writings of Moses Of the hypostaticall union betweene the Son of God and seed of Abraham Pag. 201 CHAP. 20. That God according to the literall sense of Scriptures was in later ages to be incarnate and to converse with men with the seede of Abraham especially here on earth after such a peculiar manner as we Christians beleeve Christ God and man did 201 21. That this peculiar manner of Gods presence with his people by signes and miracles was punctually foreprophecyed by the Psalmists 211 22. That the God of Israel was to become a servant and a subject to humane infirmities was foretold by the Prophets according to the strictest literall sense 228 23. That God was to visite his Temple after such a visible and personall manner as the Prophet Jeremie in his name had done 232 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not ever Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages hee had done 241 25. That the former Testimonies doe concludently inferre a pluralitie of persons in the unitie of the Godhead and that God in the person of the Son was to be incarnate and to be made Lord and King 249 26. That by the Sonne of God and the Word we are to understand one and the same partie or person that the Word by whom S. John saith the World was made is coeternall to God the Father who made all things by him 262 27. Why S. John doth rather say the word was made flesh then the sonne of God was made flesh albeit the sonne of God and the word denote one and the same person 281 28. That the incarnation of the Word or of the sonne of God under this title was foreprophecyed by sundry Prophets with the exposition of some peculiar Places to this purpose not usually observed by Interpreters 299 29. Of the true meaning of this speech the word was made flesh Whether it be all one for the Word to be made flesh to be made man or whether he were made flesh and made man at the same instant 320 30. Of the hypostaticall and personall union betwixt the Word and the flesh or betwixt the Sonne of God and the seed of Abraham 330 SECTION IIII. Of the conception and birth of our Lord and Saviour the sonne of God of the circumcision of the sonne of God and the name JESUS given him at his circumcision and of the fulfilling of the types and prophecyes concerning these mysteries Pag. 347 CHAP. 31. The aenigmaticall predictions concerning Christs conception unfolded by degrees ibid. 32. S. Lukes narration of our Saviours conception and birth and its exact concordance with the Prophets 354 33. S
Matthews relation of the manner of our Saviours conception and birth and of the harmony betwixt it and the prophecyes 370 34. The manner of our Saviours conception and birth as it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah exactly fulfilled The Iews exceptions against S. Matthewes allegation of the prophet Isaiahs testimony with the full answer unto them 383 35. Of the circumcision of our Saviour 418 36. Of the name Jesus 〈◊〉 the title Lord. 428 FINIS THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IESVS OR The Seventh Booke of Commentaries upon the APOSTLES CREED HOW Evill should mingle it selfe with the workes of God seeing every thing made by him and he made all was good How that evill which wee call sinne should finde entrance into and hold possession of the heart of man who was the accomplishment of all Gods visible workes and upon whose creation it is said that God saw every thing that hee had made and it was very good What kinde of being this evill hath whether meerely privatiue or onely positive or partly both Wherein that servitude which Sinne did bring upon us doth consist What freedome of will is compatible with our naturall servitude unto Sathan for without some freedome of will wee might bee Sathans instruments his slaves or servants unto sinne we could not be These and the like Quares with their severall branches in the first project of this long work had their place allotted betweene the Article of Creation and the Articles concerning Christ or in the intended Seaventh booke of Commentaries upon the Creed But the method then intended I have now altered not out of forgetfulnesse but out of 〈◊〉 and upon these considerations especially First in that the doctrine concerning sinne originall or actuall is not expresly mentioned in the Creede Secondly because the most pleasant and most fruitful branches of divine providence whose generall stemmes have beene in the Article of Creation handled are no where so conspicuous or so admirable as in the evangelicall historie of the conception birth life death resurrection and ascension of Iesus Christ our Lord and Saviour And pitty it were to sever them in place which accord so well in nature Lastly I considered it could no way be harmefull to have the plaister ready before I adventured to lance the sore specially in that I am likely to search somewhat deeper than I have found it searched by others The onely sore of the humane soule whose scarres cannot in this life be perfectly healed is sinne originall and the wounds thereof are sinnes actuall and habituall the onely medicine or salve for both is the knowledge of Christ and him crucified for hee is the onely tree of life whose leaves are appointed to heale the Nations SECT 1. Of the beleefe or knowledge of Christ in generall and whether Theologie be a true science or no. CHAP. 1. Of the principall points that Christians are bound to beleeve THat all wee which beare the name of Christians did take the name originally from Christ the heathen historian did acknowledge He did beleeve that Christ the author and finisher of our faith did suffer under Pontius Pilate yet this beleefe was farre from making him a Christian That which wee Christians are in the first place to beleeve is that the man Christ Iesus whom the Iewes by the helpe of Pontius Pilate did crucify was truely the Sonne of God his onely Sonne so truly and indissolubly the Sonne of God as well as of man that whilest this man was conceived by the holy Ghost the Sonne of God was likewise conceived by the holy Ghost whilest this man was borne of a pure Virgin the true and onely Sonne of God was borne of the same Virgin whilest this man was put to death crucified dead and buried the Sonne of God was likewise crucified dead buried whilst this man Christ was raised againe from the dead the true and onely Sonne of God was so raysed whilest this man ascended into Heaven the Sonne of God ascended into Heaven whilest this man sitteth at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us the Sonne of God there sits and makes the same intercession that when wee expect the same Iesus whom the Iews did crucifie shall come in visible manner to judge the quick and the dead wee beleeve and expect that the Sonne of God shall come to judge the quick and the dead Of the first points wee ought to have at the least a true historicall beleefe Our beleefe of that article concerning Christs comming to judgement and of our resurrection from the dead is more propheticall than historicall 2. Is then an historicall beleefe of Christs conception birth death and resurrection sufficient for us Sure it is not unlesse withall it be salvificall No faith can save unlesse it be a saving faith but no faith can be salvificall vnlesse it be historicall For hee that doth not beleeve the history of Christs death and passion can have no Christian faith at all Now the utmost effect whereunto the endeavours of Gods Seedsmen are immediately terminated is to plant in the hearts of their hearers a firme perswasion of the divine truth of the sacred Histories or Prophecies concerning Christ In respect of this perswasion they are said to plant and water and to be Coworkers with Gods Spirit But to make this perswasion to bee salvificall this is the worke of God alone For unlesse hee give this increase to what wee plant and water all our labours are lost our best endeavours are to no purpose Yet as we are to beleeve that without God wee can doe nothing so are wee bound to hope that in him and by him wee may doe all things or have all things done in us and for us which can be needfull or conducent to our Salvation No if such as are bound to teach and such as are bound to learne would daily season their endeavours their prayers especially with serious consideration of this twofold truth wee could have no just occasion either of doubt or feare but that if our beleefe of the rehearsed Articles of Christ were once truly historical it would certainely become rightly salvifical For to be historicall to be salvifical are not mēbra opposita no such opposite members as divide beleefe into two parts or kindes they are as subordinate one to the other as naturall wit and artificiall improvement of it CHAP. 2. Of Historians beleefe in generall and how it doth variously affect Beleevers according to the varietie of matters related the severall esteeme of the Historians THat wee call historicall beleefe which hath no other ground besides the authority of the Historian or relater or at the most experiments sutable to things related And such experiments may be knowne sometimes by sense sometimes by reasons demonstrative And yet all the credit which they can give to the historian or all the additions they can make unto historicall beleefe formerly planted will be but probabilities or presumptions Whether the Moone
Enunciative partly representative All enunciative or assertive testimonies of Him that was to come may be reduced to the first branch of the former division that is to testimonies meerely propheticall But so cannot all representations of Evangelicall mysteries be reduced to prenotions meerely typicall or prefigurations reall For there may be a true representation or deciphering of mysteries future as well in characters of speech in single words or proper names as by matters of fact by mens persons or offices legall ceremonies or historicall events Wee are then in the first place to treate in generall of prenotions or testimonies meerely propheticall or expresly assertive In the second of prefigurations meerely typicall yet in their kinde Reall as of legall ceremonies of mens persons of historicall events or matter of fact In the third place of prenotions or Testimonies typically propheticall that is in which there is a concurrence of expresse prophecie or prediction and of some matter of fact or reall prefiguration of Christ or mysteries concerning him In the fourth and last place wee are to give some Hints or generall heads of observations concerning prenotions or representations of Evangelicall mysteries meerly literall or verball More particulars of every kinde of prenotions here mentioned shall by Gods assistance be discussed in the particular Articles concerning our Saviours Incarnation Conception birth death and Passion CHAP. 6. Of the first ranke of testimonies concerning Christ that is of testimonies meerely propheticall THese are in number exceeding many yet sundry of them either not well observed or not rightly explained by ordinary Interpreters who as though they thought to supererogate in not observing so many as might be observed or in not fully displaying such as ordinarily are observed oftentimes diminish the number of prenotions typically propheticall to make up the number of Testimonies meerely propheticall Testimonies meerely propheticall we account all such and only such predictions as according to the literall assertive sense of the words and in the purpose of the holy Spirit by whom they were registred are applyable only to Christ himselfe not to any legall type or shadow of him For all such predictions or bare assertions as are literally applyable to any other besides Christ or to others with him belong unto the third member of the former division that is to testimonies or prenotions typically propheticall or at least prophetically typicall For some difference there is though not much betwixt these two expressions as will appeare hereafter 2. All the predictions which wee have in that fifty third chapter of Isaiah are meerely propheticall they cannot be literally avouched of any man of any creature but onely of the Sonne of God himselfe made a man of sorrowes and infirmities for us men and for our salvation Of the same ranke is that particular prophecy of Ieremy Jer. 31. 22. The Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth the woman shall encompasse the man But whether that other prophecie Isai 7. 14. Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel bee meerely propheticall or prophetically typicall will require further discussion in a more convenient place But for that prophecy Zach. 9. 9. Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Sion shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King commeth unto thee a King just and lowly riding upon an Asse and upon a Colt the Fâ—ale of an Asse it is without all question meerely propheticall and can be literally meant of none but of Sions and Jerusalems Saviour alone And however the accomplishment of this prediction might with more facilitie have beene counterfeited by the fraudulent Jew then the accomplishment of any other propheticall testimony before our Saviours comming in this manner to Jerusalem or immediately after it yet for this fifteene hundred yeares and more they have had no possible colour for disguising the truth of the propheticall predictioÌ„ or Evangelicall story how it was fulfilled Though out of their madnesse they might set up a King and cry and shout before him yet have they had no Sion nor Jerusalem wherunto they could have brought him for these fifteene hundred yeares and more nor have they beene permitted to come neere the place where it stood with any other than counterfeit joy being enforced for many generations to purchase the priviledge or liberty of howling over the ruines of that Sion and Ierusalem unto which their expected Messias by the purport of the former prophecie was to come at a farre higher rate then they had bought the delivery of Him into their power 4. That the comming of their King unto that Sion and Ierusalem which then were was foretold by their Prophet Zachary above two thousand yeeres agoe the Iewist Rabbines of this age confesse That this Prophecie was literally meant of their expected King or Messias they do not denie That this Prophecie hath beene already literally fulfilled according to every circumstance wee Christians verily beleeve The particular manner how it was fulfilled in and by our Saviour Christ will have its place in the Article of his Passion and in the manner of his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Now for the better confirmation of our faith unto this generall that all the predictions of the Old Testament which concerne our Saviour Christs Incarnation Death and Passion c. were dictates of the holy Spirit of God who neither deceiveth any man nor can be deceived by man or wicked spirit wee are in the next place briefely to shew how sacred testimonies meerely propheticall concerning Christ exhibit that demonstration of the Spirit whereof the Apostle speakes 1. Cor. 2. 4. unto all reasonable men that will seriously waigh them together with the nature or subject of matters foretold and with the various circumstances of time and place c. wherein they were uttered or fulfilled CHAP. 7. What manner of predictions they be or of what matters the predictions must be which necessarily inferre the participation of a divine Spirit EVery Prophecie is a true prediction but every true prediction is not a Prophecie Any ordinary man that is Arbitrator of his owne actions and master of his word may truly foretell some events projected or seriously purposed by himselfe unlesse death or some extraordinary casualty prevent his accomplishment of them And no wise man will foretell the performance of what he promiseth or the accomplishment of his purposes otherwise then with subordination either expresse or implied unto his good will or pleasure who seeth all things even the very secret purposes of our hearts much better then wee our selves do and worketh all things according to the Counsell not of our will but of his owne However though by his permission and assistance wee make performance of whatsoever was for many yeares before promised or purposed by us yet this is no demonstration of a divine or propheticall spirit in us To arrogate or challenge the name of a Prophet from the truth of such predictions were more
as impossible for any Painter or Limmer to attaine as it is for an Astrologicall Physitian to describe the nature complexion or disposition of men that shall have no actuall being or existence till hee be dead Now Christs acts and offices his humiliation and exaltation were not more exactly fore-described or displayed by the Prophets then they were fore-pictured or fore-shadowed by Historicall events or legall types Every such type or event was a reall or substantiall though a silent Prophecie and the most expresse prophecie concerning Christ was but a speaking type or vocall shadow The spirit of God did speake by the one and signifie his purpose by the other his wisdome in both is alike admirable The most exquisite Artist living cannot take so true a proportion of a mans face as it selfe without any art or invention will draw in a true glasse yet this wee admire not because it is ordinary But to make as perfect a resemblance of a mans visage by a chaos of Chymaera's or painted devises which represent no visible creature if you looke upon them single or transmit their shapes into a plaine glasse might well seeme an invention surpassing all skill of Art if a late Artist had not given us an ocular demonstration of this skill in thus representing the perfect visage of that great and famous Prince Henry the fourth of France however there be no resemblance of any humane face or of any part thereto belonging in the painted Base yet the reflection of such incondite figures or confused fancies as are thereon painted falling upon a Columne of brasse or Bell mettle glazed with latten placed in the centre or point assigned in the plaine table by the Author of this invention doth effigiate this great Princes visage and countenance as perfectly as any picture which hath beene taken of him in his life time The skill in this devise is so admirable as it would require but a very little skill in Rhetorick to perswade an illiterate man which hath seene him living that his Ghost were present though invisible to by standers looking upon it selfe in this artificiall visible glasse yet all this skill exhibited in this masterpiece of modern inventions how admirable soever it may seeme to men not exercised in the like is comprehensible to accurate Artists in this kinde and can afford no true illustration of the incomprehensible wisedome of God in forepicturing Christ with his Acts and offices Of this incomprehensible wisedome wee have a better model by adding this supposition or fiction to the former invention that an hundred picture-makers or more having had free libertie one after another to draw their lines and postures upon the same table none of them acquainting another with his intention or worke should have framed such a true representation as this now extant is of Henry the fourth French King in the age before he was borne But after a more admirable manner then this fiction supposeth were Christ and his Crosse c. forepictured by matters of fact by historicall events by types and ceremonies and by the concurrence with these of mens free actions intentions which knew not one another much lesse had notice of their purposes the last of thē living more then 400. years before Christ was cōceived For the right apprehension or imblazoning these meerely typicall representations of Christ no artificiall skill is more usefull then the true Art of Heraldy or skill in Hieroglyphicks And no kinde of learning more usefull for the right apprehension of the third kinde of testimonies or prenotions concerning Christ then the insight in Emblemes devises or impreses CHAP. 11. Of testimonies concerning Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall and of their concludent proofe MEere types are true Hieroglyphicks and Hieroglyphicks are as bodies without soules that is Pictures without inscriptions Emblemes or Impreses must have both body and soule a devise with its inscription or motto And so doe testimonies of the third ranke proposed concerning Christ consist of a Type as the body or devise and have words propheticall annext as the soule or breath And this kinde of testimonie or prenotion of Christ is of two sorts either typicall and propheticall or Propheticall and typicall That some difference there was betwixt these two expressions not only in the order or placing of the words but in the matter also thus transplaced was intimated before Chapter 5. Wheresoever the type hath precedence or is concomitant to the inscription annext unto it yet so as both point at Christ to come there the testimony or proofe is typicall propheticall Where the words or prophecie have precedence of the type and both referre unto Christ the proofe or prenotion is prophetically typicall That the ceremony of the paschall Lambe was instituted by God himselfe to prefigure or forepicture our Saviour Christ no Christian denies And one Law concerning the Paschall Lambe was that not a bone thereof should be broken Exod. 12. 46. The words of this Law were no prediction in respect of the first institution of the passeover but an appendix or concomitant and yet a most remarkable prophecie in respect of our Saviour Christ in the manner of whole death both the type and the Law of the type were by Gods admirable providence exactly fulfilled Then came the soldiers saith St. John and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him But when they came to Iesus and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legges but one of the soldiers with a speare pierced his side That our Apostle Saint John did take both these events as a concludent proofe that Christ was the true Lambe of God foreshadowed by the Paschall is apparent from his emphaticall expression of his observation upon it He that saw it bare record and his record is true and he kneweth that he saith true that hee might beleeve For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken And againe Zach. 12. 10. They shall looke on him whom they have peirced John 19. 32. 37. 2. Those words of the Prophet Hosea cap. 11. 1. according to their literall sense referre to an historicall event forepast When Israel was a child then I loved him and I called my sonne out of Egypt They beare no semblance of prophecy in respect of the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt by Moses but both this deliverance the prophets observation upon it have a peculiar aspect unto Christ who was by divine appointment to sojourne a while in Egypt but to be called thence So as the same words which are an historicall narration in respect of the type to wit Israel or the sonnes of Jacob brought out of Egypt by Moses are an expresse prophecy of Christs comming thence with Joseph and his mother into the Land of promise That speech of the Psalmist likewise Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the Corner doth allude or referre unto some historicall event then fresh in memory They containe no prophecy in respect of the event whatsoever that were yet are they a most true concludent Prophecie of Christs exaltation by his father after his rejection by the Priests and Elders So our Saviour interprets it Matth. 21. 42. All these three testimonies mentioned consisting both of word and matter of fact are first typicall then propheticall But oftentimes the same words though not alwayes according to the same sense are propheticall as well in respect of the type as of the antitype and then the proofe or testimony is prophetically typicall or meerely typicall from their first date and afterwards in processe of time both typicall and propheticall Of this ranke is that prediction made to David 2 Sam. 7. 12 13. c. And when thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleepe with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowells and I will establish his Kingdome He shall build an house for my name and I will establish the throne of his Kingdome for ever I will be his Father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him as I tooke it from Saul whom I put away before thee And thy house thy Kingdom shal be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever Of the same rank and order is that repetition of this promise Psal 89. from ver 20. to the 37. Both places conteine an expresse prophecie of Gods favour unto David and to his posterity and both include the prerogative of Salomon above all Kings that had gone before him And yet in as much as Salomon in the height of his glory was but a shadow or picture though a faire one of the sonne of God who was to be made the sonne of David likewise the same words which were undoubtedly verifyed of Salomon in his time were afterwards exactly fulfilled in Christ who was the living person or substance whom Salomon did forepicture No Christian can no Jew will deny these words of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 22. 20 21 22. c. to be propheticall in the first place of Eliakims advancement to be chiefe master or high Steward over the house of David in Shebna's steed And it shall come to passe in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the sonne of Hilkiah And I will cloth him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a Father to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem to the house of Iudah And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulders so he shall open and none shall shut and hee shall shut and none shall open And I will fasten him as a naile in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Fathers house And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his fathers house c. But in as much as Eliakim both by name and office did but prefigure or delineate Christ in his acts and office the same words which were literally meant of Eliakim are in a more exquisite sense fulfilled in Christ But of the severall senses of Scriptures and how the Scriptures are said according to these severall senses to be fulfilled somewhat in the two next chapters following These proofes or testimonies whereof we now treat whether typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are in number many and of all the rest most concludent to Readers but ordinarily observant For they containe the intire force and strength of the two former proofes or testimonies meerely typicall or meerely propheticall by way of union and it is universally true Vis unita semper fortier 3. Imagine a man of ordinarie insight in Architecture should come into some large and curious palace or City newly built and after a diligent survey of the form and fashion of every particular roome house or street should finde a model of elder date then the worke it selfe which did beare the just proportion and inscription of every roome or building this would resolve him that such exact correspondency could not fall out by chance but that the Citie or Palace had beene built by his directions which made the model or by some others which made use of his skill albeit no handy-workman imployed in the building albeit none but the Architect or generall director did perceive as much Thus all historicall events related in the new testament concerning Christ his birth his death and passion c. have their exact Maps or Models drawne in the history of the old testament besides the expresse propheticall inscriptions which instruct us how to referre or compare every part of the legall or historicall model unto the Evangelicall aedifice answering to it This to every observant Reader is a concludent proofe that one and the same spirit did both forecast the models and in the fulnesse of time accomplish the worke it selfe to wit the building up of Sion and Jerusalem though this he effected as master builders in like cases doe by the hands of inferiour workmen not acquainted nor comprehensive of his project or contrivances 4. Every house saith the Apostle Heb. 3. 4. is builded by some man but he that built all things is God This power of God by which he made all things even the materialls of all things whereon men doe work doth not farther exceed the power of other builders then the wisedome of the same God which is manifested in the aedifice of the heavenly temple doth surpasse all skill or contrivance of the most skilfull Architects or Projectors For whatsoever is by them forecast or projected doth never prosper never come to any perfection unlesse the workemen imployed by them follow their rules or directions But this greatest worke of God the erection or edification of his Church did then goe best forward when the workmen or builders imployed about it did forsake his counsell and followed the directions of his malitious adversary who sought the confusion both of it and them He built up the Kingdome of Sion and Jerusalem in peace without let or interruption even whilest the master builders designed by him did lay the foundation or chiefe corner stone of it in blood And after it was so laid did accomplish whatsoever he would have done in this great worke by the hands of such workemen as did nothing lesse then what he would have had them to do Though Judas one of the twelve by Satans suggestion did betray his Lord though the high Priest and Elders became the Devills agents to condemne him and though Pilate lastly turned Satans deputie to sentence him to death yet all these did that which the most wise most righteous and most mercifull God
had fore-determined to be done Those things saith Peter Acts 3. 18. which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer hee hath so fulfilled Yet saith S. Paul Acts 13. 27. They that dwell at Ierusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabboth day they have fulfilled them in condemning him So then God is said to fulfill all things which were written of Christ because he did order and direct all the counterplots and malicious intentions of his enemies according to the models and inscriptions which had been exhibited in the old testament Iudas his treachery against his Lord and Master with its accursed successe was exactly forepictured by Achitophels treason against David The malice of the high Priest and elders was foretold and forepictured by the like proceeding of their predecessors against Jeremie and other of Gods Prophets which were Christs forerunners and types and shadowes of his persequutions They then fulfilled the Scriptures in doing the same things that their predecessors had done but in a worse manner and degree albeit they had no intention or ayme to worke according to those models which their predecessors had framed nor to doe that unto Christ which the Prophets had foretold should be done unto him For so S. Peter Acts 3. 17. Now Brethren I wote that through ignorance yee did it as did also your Rulers 5. But here I must request all such as reade these and the like passages of Scriptures not to make any other inferences or constructions of the holy Ghosts language or manner of speech then such as they naturally import and such as are congruous to the rule of faith If wee say no more then this God did order or direct the avarice of Iudas the malice of the high Priest the popularity of Herod and ambition of Pilat for accomplishing of that which he had fore-determined concerning Christ wee shall retaine the forme of wholsome doctrine In thus speaking and thinking wee think and speake as the Spirit teacheth vs. But if any shall say or think that God did ordaine either Iudas to be covetous or the high Priests to be malicious or Herod and Pilat to be popular and ambitious to this end and purpose that they might respectively be the betrayers and murtherers of the sonne of God this is dangerous The orthodoxall truth and wholsome forme of expressing it in this and the like point is acutely set downe in that distinction which for ought I find was unanimously embraced by the Anciēts and by all at this day that be moderate acknowledged to be true Deus ordinavit lapsū Adami non ordinavit ut Adamus laberetur God did dispose or order Adams fall for by his all-seeing providence and all ruling power he turn'd his fall into his owne and our greater good but he did not decree ordaine or order that Adam should fall or commit that transgression by which hee fell For so hee should have beene the Author both of Adams first sinne and of all the sinnes which are necessarily derived to us from him For no man I think will denie that God is the sole Author of all his owne ordinances and decrees or of whatsoever hee hath fore-decreed or fore-determined us for to doe CHAP. 12. Of the severall senses of Scripture especially of the literall and mysticall WIthout knowledge of Scriptures there can be no true knowledge of Christ and to know the Scriptures is all one as to know the true sense and meaning of them intended by the holy Spirit I will not here dispute whether every portion of Scripture in the old Testament admit more senses intended by the holy Spirit than one or whether in some sense or other every passage in Moses writings in the Prophets in the booke of Psalmes or sacred Histories doe point either immediatly or mediatly at Christ or at Him that was to come But that divers places alledged by the Evangelist out of the old Testament to prove that Jesus whom the Jewes did crucifie was their expected Messias admit more senses I take as granted The question is how many senses either the places alledged by the Evangelists or Apostles or other passages in the old Testament may respectively admit And in this Quaere I will not be contentious but onely crave that liberty which I willingly grant to others in all like cases that is to make mine owne division and to follow mine owne expressions of every severall sense or branch of this division that so I may referre the particular explication of every type of every Prophecie or other praenotion of Christ which hath beene fulfilled without perplexity or confusion to its proper or generall head That sense of Scripture in my expression may happily be referred unto the literall which in some other mens language would be accounted figurative or Allegoricall That sense againe according to my division may be reduced unto the literall mysticall or morall which some great Divines make a distinct sense from all these to wit Anagogicall Or admitting all these and more senses of Scriptures I may perhaps sometimes touch upon another sense which is not to my apprehension reducible to any of these 2. The severall senses of Scriptures especially such as more immediatly point at Christ cannot be better notified or more commodiously reduced to their severall heads then by a review of the severall wayes by which God from the beginning did intimate or manifest his will his good will towards mankinde in him and through him which was to come And the wayes by which God did manifest Christ to come were in the generall two either by words assertive and expresse prediction or by way of picture and representation or by a concurrence of both which third way is no way opposite to the two former but rather a friendly combination of them The second branch of this division to wit praenotions of Christ representative may as heretofore it hath beene be subdivided into representations reall as by type historicall event or other matter of fact or into representations meerely literall verball or nominall The first generall branch of this division that is prenotions of Christ delivered in words expresly assertive exhibit to us that which wee commonly call the literall or grammaticall sense For that as best Divines agree is the literall sense or meaning of the holy Spirit which is immediatly signified by words assertive whether legall propheticall or historicall without any intercourse or intervention of any type or matter of fact Whether the words be logicall proper allegoricall or otherwayes figurative skills not much The variety of expressions by words assertive if so the words immediatly expresse the matter foretold without intervention of type or matter of fact doth not divide or diversifie the literall sense As when God foretold that the wildernesse should be planted with pleasant trees Isa 41. 19 c. That the Wolfe should
dwell with the Lamb that the Leopard should lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the Fatling together The forme of speech is figurative and in the language of saecular Rhetoritians Allegoricall And so that other of the Vineyard Isay 5 is parabolically figurative And yet the sense of all these places is in the Schoole of Divinity as truly literall as when it is said The womans seed shall bruise the serpents head or that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed For by the trees wherewith the wildernesse was to be planted by the Wolfe and by the Lamb by the Leopard and the Kid c. divers sorts of men were immediatly meant and to the fulfilling of all or any of the prophecies it was not required that there should be a transformation either of men into trees Leopards Wolfes or Lions c. or of these or like creatures into men For how ever the sense of Scripture in all these places be literall yet it is literally Allegoricall And of the literall or verball Allegory that Maxime is most true Sensus allegoricus non est argumentativus No firme argument can be drawne from the allegoricall parabolicall or other figurative signification of words As wee may not inferre that the wildernesse was to be planted with trees or that the Wolfe and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid were to consort as well together on dry land as sometimes they did in Noahs Arke whilest the deluge lasted before these prophecies could be fulfilled according to the literall sense as this sense in the language of the holy Ghost is opposed unto the Allegoricall For that in the Apostles language is said to be spoken allegorically which is not immediatly foretold or signified by words whether proper or figurative but fore-shadowed by some reall event by mens persons or their offices or by matter of type or fact It is written saith our Apostle Gal. 4. 22 23. that Abraham had two sonnes the one by a bondmaid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bondwoman was borne after the flesh but hee of the free woman was by promise Which things are an Allegory for these are the two covenants The Evangelicall mysteries implied in this Allegory and vnfolded by our Apostle were not immediatly notified by any words or proposition in the history of Sarah and Hagar and their sonnes but onely fore-pictured by matter of fact or by the things themselves which the words according to the literall sense did immediatly fore-signifie For the word Hagar did in that story literally signifie Sarahs handmayd or bondwoman But this bond-woman and her sonne and their estate or condition of life did excellently represent the estate and condition of such as did adhere unto the Law after the Gospell was proclaimed And the Gospell with the happy estate of such as imbrace it was not fore-signified by the name Sarah or by the name Isaac but by their estate and condition who were so named Most of our Apostles Arguments throughout the Epistle to the Hebrewes are drawne not from the literall but from the allegoricall sense Yet God forbid that wee should say or think that his arguments did not conclude I should rather say if it be lawfull to compare sacred testimonies or authorities one with another that Arguments drawne from the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures are most admirably if not most firmely concludent For they are Arguments of proportion and presuppose foure termes at the least either expressed or implied And the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures alwayes includes the mysticall though the mysticall doth not alwaies include the allegoricall For wheresoever any Evangelicall mystery was fore-shadowed by any type by any historicall event or matter of fact there is a latent mysticall sense though not expressed by words or letters 3. But it oftentimes so falls out and as I take it alwayes in testimonies either typically propheticall or prophetically typicall that there is an inseparable concurrence or combination of the literall and mysticall sense though not alwayes after the same manner Sometimes the literall sense according to the same propriety or signification of words doth fit the Antitype or body as well as the type or shadow As whether wee apply that speech Exod. 12. 46. Yee shall not breake a bone thereof unto the paschall Lamb or to Christ who was mystically fore-shadowed by it the literall sense is the very same there is no variety in the signification of the words Christ had as true bones as the Paschall Lamb and the preservation of his bones was literally fore-prophecied in the Law concerning the Paschall Lamb but withall mystically fore-pictured by the observance or practise of that law Sometimes againe the literall sense doth better befit the Antitype then the type As those words fore-mentioned 2. Sam. 7. 14. I will be his Father and hee shall be my sonne are more proper in respect of Christ who was the Antitype then of Salomon who was the type or shadow of his Sonne-ship So that our Saviours incarnation or nativity is collaterally foreprophecyed with the nativity of Salomon and his royall office and favour with God mystically foresignified by Salomons person and office 4. But many times the expressions of the holy Ghost as well in testimonies typically propheticall as prophetically typicall are like inscriptions or mottoes in Impreses or Emblemes Now these Inscriptions besides the plaine literall native sense of the words have a further Symbolicall importance or morall signification No man that sees that devise of bulrushes couched in a swelling streame with this inscription flectimur non frangimur undis but will acknowledge the plaine literal sense to point immediately at them Yet besides this literall sense they have this Symbolicall importance partly implyed in the words themselves and partly represented by the body of the devise that he which gave this devise had learned that lesson of the Poet Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori that he was resolved to stoope awhile unto the iniquity of the times not without hope to beare up his head againe and to overtop his Adversaries after the present tyranny were overpast as bulrushes doe the waters wherein they grow when the flood unto whose violence for a while they yeelded hath spent its strength That forecited saying of the Psalmist Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone in the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes according to the literall sense is terminated to an historicall event then present or fresh in memory And if we may relie upon the authority of the Author of the Scholastick History the historicall event or matter of fact to which these words literally and immediately referre was a remarkable stone for which the builders of the Temple could finde no convenient place in the intermediate structure which yet unexpectedly proved the fittest corner stone
or finisher that they could have desired This saith he was even then acknowledged not to fall out by meer chance or without some further portending meaning or signification The exceptions taken against this tradition avouched by this Author Petrus Comestor are to men acquainted with the manner of sacred expressions of things to come so weake that they adde strength unto it But whatsoever the historicall event were at which these words in the literall sense immediately point wee Christians know that in the Symbolicall or spirituall sense they referre to Christ His exaltation unto Majestie and glory after the chiefe Rulers of the Temple had cast him aside and rejected him as not fit to be entertained amongst Gods people was mystically foreshadowed by that matter of fact or historicall event whereof the Psalmist speakes whatsoever that were yet not expresly foretold according to the direct literall sense of his words but onely signified according to the Symbolicall importance After the same manner the forecited words of the Prophet Isa 22. 23. The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and hee shall shut and none shall open doe in their literall and native sense immediately point at Eliakim of whose office in the house of David a materiall and visible key was the ensigne or pledge as the like is of some great offices in moderne Princes Courts But according to the emblematicall or symbolicall importance both key and office both inscription and matter of fact referre unto the spirituall invisible power of the sonne of David Who hath the keyes of Hell and of death Rev. 1. The keyes likewise of the Kingdome of Heaven and where he openeth no power in heaven or earth can shut nor open where he is pleased to shut That which some call the morall sense of scriptures is alwayes reducible to this generall branch last mentioned to wit to the emblematicall or symbolicall importance of the words expressed as they concurre with matter of fact or reall representation Only there may be a morall sense where there is no prophecy no representation truly mysticall As when it is written Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Corne this law was to be observed according to the plaine literall sense And yet both the law it selfe and its observance from the first date of the letter had that morall which the Apostle makes That such as serve at the Altar should live by the Altar 5. To this branch likewise belong all the significations of legall ceremonies which doe not immediately point at Christ in whom they were exactly fulfilled but at morall duties to bee performed as well by us Christians as by the ancient Jews Christ our Passeover saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. it sacrificed for us Therefore let us keepe the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth This was the true morall of that legall observance of the feast of unleavened bread which was to be kept according to the strict letter of the law whilest the law of ceremonies was in force Concerning this symbolicall or morall sense especially when it is not propheticall Maldonats advise is very good He that will search after such senses must hold close to the letter Propiùs mihi Rupertus videtur in quaerendo morali sensu ad literalem accessisse quod semper faciendum esse ei qui ridiculus esse nolit saepe monumus And of allegoricall mysticall or symbolicall senses which are propheticall or prefigurative none are current or concludent but such as hold exact proportion with the sense historicall 6. Some good Divines there be which would have an anagogicall sense distinct from all these mentioned The Allegoricall Spirituall or Mysticall sense is by them limited to matters already accomplished in the Gospell whereas the Anagogicall reacheth to matters of the world to come But this difference in the subject or time unto which whether words or matters sacred referre makes no formall difference in the sense or manner of the prediction or prefiguration Whatsoever is in Scripture foresignified or intimated concerning the state and condition of the life to come is either literally foretold by expresse words or mystically foreshadowed by matter of fact or notified by some concurrence of prediction and representation and so may be reduced to one or other of the senses mentioned either to the meere literall or to the meerely mysticall or to the literally or symbolically mysticall or spirituall sense CHAP. 13. Of the literall sense of Scripture not assertive but meerely charactericall BUt divine mysteries as was intimated before are sometimes neither notified by expresse prediction or words assertive nor by matter of fact historicall event or type nor by the persons actions or offices of men but represented onely by words or names by notes or letters or other secret characters of speech Now this manner of representing mysteries divine produceth a sense of Scripture distinct from all the former which can hardly be comprehended under one certaine denomination unlesse it be under this negative the literall sense not assertive Or if the Reader desire a positive expression of it he may terme it the charactericall sense To beginne with the first words of Scripture In the beginning saith Moses Bara Elohim The Lord created c. Although these words be assertive yet the mystery of the Trinity is not avouched in Logicall assertion or proposition but only represented or insinuated in the peculiar forme or character of the grammaticall construction if happily it be here either represented or intimated at all For some both judicious Divines and great Hebricians there be as well in the Romish as in the reformed Churches who will acknowledge no intimation of any mystery in this conjunction of a noune plurall with a verbe singular but tell us this forme of speech is usuall in the Hebrew dialect as the like is in some cases in the Greeke For the Graecians as every grammar Scholar knowes joyne nounes of the neuter gender plurall with verbes of the singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These mens authority would sway much with me if I did not finde it counterpoised by observation of Wolphgangus Capito an exquisite Hebrician and discreet searcher of the mysticall sense of Scriptures Now if his observation doe not faile him the construction of verbes singular with nounes plurall is never used amongst Hebrew writers unlesse the noune doe want the singular number In this case alone they doe not extend the signification of the verb into such plurality as is in the noune Contrary to the use of the Latines who to make the adjective and substantive agree in number stretch Vnum one or unity it selfe into a plurall forme as unae literae una maenia which would be a harsh kind of speech in our English or other modern tongues But
the plurall Elohim as Capito well observes doth not want its proper singular Eloah Therefore unlesse the holy Ghost had intended the notification of some mystery in the forme or character of his speech Moses would rather have said Barah Eloah then Barah Elohim 2. I am the more inclined to this opinion because many of the ancient and most orthodoxall writers observe a more distinct expression of the blessed Trinity throughout divers places of the first chapter of Genesis from the repetition of the name of God or Elohim in the more perfect workes of severall dayes as in the workes of the fourth day ver 14. And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heavens This is the voice of God the Father giving out his fiat and it is repeated againe ver 16. And God made two great lights This referres to God the Sonne by whom all things were made and by whom these lights were set in the firmament ver 17. It is lastly added ver 18. And God saw that it was good The note or character of the holy Ghost approving what was made by the Sonne from the authoritie of the Father So Moses againe describes the workes of the first day And God said let the waters bring forth abundantly ver 20. And in the 21. he repeates againe And God created great Whales c. And againe God saw that it was good When it is said ver 22. of the same dayes worke And God blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiply this may referre unto the three persons joyntly So in the workes of the sixt day ver 24. God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kinde c. And it is repeated againe ver 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kinde c. And God saw that it was good But when Moses comes to the accomplishment of the sixt dayes worke ver 16. hee alters the forme or character of speech and makes the Verbe as well as the noune plurall And God said Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse This order observed by the ancients in the first creation of all things is admirably exemplified in the manner of mans redemption wrought by the Father Sonne and holy Ghost joyntly yet not without distinction of order in their joynt working in their undivided worke But of this by the assistance of this blessed Trinity hereafter 3. But however the Ancients or such as follow them may faile in this or the like particular search of mysteries from no better hint then the repetition of the same words or matter Yet their endeavour in the generall to finde out deepe hidden mysteries from these or the like superficiall or charactericall prenotions is warranted by the word of God according to its literall or assertive sense For so we are taught by Moses that such repetition of the same things as in secular sciences would incurre suspition of tautology or superfluity of words may be the undoubted character of some matter more then ordinary and more observable then if it had beene represented but once or after one manner onely A secular Southsayer or professed Interpreter of nocturnall representations would have sought after more interpretations than one of Pharaohs two dreames especially seeing the matter represented to him in the first vision was so unlike to the matter represented in the second Yet Ioseph by the guidance of Gods Spirit discovers these two dreames though distinct in time and manner of representation to be for substance but one And Ioseph said unto Pharaoh The dreame of Pharaoh is one God hath shewed Pharaoh what hee is about to doe The seaven good Kine are seaven yeares and the seaven good eares are seaven yeares the dreame is one And the seaven thin and ill favoured Kine that came up after them are seaven yeares and seaven empty eares blasted with the East winde shall be seaven yeares of famine Gen. 41. 25 26 c. And for that the dreame was doubled unto Pharaoh twice it is because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to passe 4. When we say an honest mans word should be as good as his oath wee suppose that this morall integrity or perfection in man hath a farre more exquisite patterne in God Hee is no lesse immutable in his promises than in his oath It is impossible for him to change his minde or to deceive men in the one as in the other To what end then doth hee so often interpose his oath sometimes when hee denounceth judgement otherwhiles for the consolation of men and confirmation of their beliefe in his gracious promises Sure it is one thing to say Gods purpose will or promise is immutable another that the thing purposed will'd or promised by him is immutable The absolute immutability of his purpose or promise can yeeld us no full assurance that the things promised or purposed by him are unchangeable or that sentence denounced though in terms peremptory is irreversible But unto whatsoever promise or sentence wee finde his oath annexed it is an undoubted character a not most infallible that the thing promised is unalterable that the sentence so denounced is irreversible This is one of the most Catholique rules for the right interpreting of many and for the reconciliation of divers Scriptures which otherwise seeme most opposite But the proofe and use of this rule will come under a more full examination in the treatise of our Saviours consecration to his everlasting Priesthood and in some other discussions in what sense God is said to repent in what cases not to repent For both assertions are frequent in Scriptures 5. Sometimes divine mysteries are represented not in some one word or name but in the very character or frame of some one letter or in the addition of a letter or point There is no question amongst us Christians but that he who called unto Moses Levit. 1. 1. from the mercy seat as we gather from Numb 7. was the sonne of God the eternall word who since hath taken our nature upon him and calleth unto us with a voice and mouth truly humane though the voice and mouth of God But at that time he called to Moses not in a loud and thundring voice like that in Mount Sinai but with a soft and gentle voice And this gentlenesse of the voice as the Hebrew Doctors observe and some good Christian Hebricians approve their observation with the mystery foreshadowed by it is charactered unto us by the extraordinary smallnesse of one letter in the originall word 6. The like mystery is represented unto us after the same manner Isa 9. 7. c. The Prophet displaying the titles of the Messias and his kingdome contrary to the rules of ordinary Orthography mutat quadrata rotundis beginnes the Hebrew word rendred by our English of the increase with Mem rotundum with a round letter instead of a square And this unusuall character the Jewes
themselves acknowledge to be a note of some mystery as one of them being converted to Christianity observes against his brethren which love darknesse more then light The mystery notified in this particular as this Author tells us is by their owne rules in cases wherein they are no parties ingaged the same with that which is immediately after expressed in words assertive and plaine That of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever the zeale of the Lord of hoasts will performe this I referre the observation of the like charactericall representations unto the diligent Readers of the old Testament in the original tongue or of ancient Hebrew Commentators whose testimonies in many cases where they are no parties are no way to bee contemned And amongst other branches of that rule for interpreting Scriptures which was constantly received amongst the ancient Jewes as Peter Martyr and Bucer with others somewhere observe this representation of divine mysteries by letters or characters unusuall might for ought I know be one 7. As for the representation of like mysteries by proper names of men especially who by their place or office were types or forerūners of Christ that I presume no sober Christian will except against or call in question And this representaon or prenotification of future mysteries was exhibited either in the first imposition of names or in the change of names or in the severall use of divers names when the same party retained more names than one There was scarce a sonne of Iacob whose name did not imply a kinde of prophecy Rachell did truly prophecy of the state and condition of the Benjamites when she called the Father of that Tribe at his birth Benoni the sonne of her sorrow And Iacob did as truly prophecy when he changed his name into Benjamin the sonne of his right hand Nun the Ephramite did call his sonne Hoseah by divine instinct or direction And Moses did truly prophecie when he changed his name into Iehoshua With what intention Isaac or Rebecca did call their younger sonne Iacob I know not or whether they had any other motive knowne to themselves to give him this name besides that which the manner of his birth did minister for he caught hold of his brothers heele in the birth But this name Iadgnakab hand in heele made afterwards by close composition as it seemes Iagnakab did as the attempt signified by it in the birth portend that he should supplant his elder brother and get the birthright from him 8. After this name given him by his Parents he was in his full age named Israel by God Himselfe by way of addition only without any change or determination of his former name or the Omen of it But it is not without observation why he is sometimes called Iacob sometimes Israel in the same continued historicall Narration the name Iacob characterizing his present infirmity the name Israel notifying his recovering or gathering of strength But one of the most admirable prerepresentations literall not assertive of mysteries plainely afterward avouched and fulfilled which I have either observed or found observed by others is in the Benedictus Luke 1. 68 c. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for hee hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up an horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David c. To performe the mercy promised to our forefathers and to remember his holy Covenant the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life The summe of that which God had spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets which had beene since the world began was now reavouched by Zacharias being filled with the holy Ghost in a literall assertive sense plaine and easie even to the capacity of the naturall man And yet the summe of all which Zacharias by the Spirit of Prophecie did now utter was clearely represented to men of spirituall understanding in the Scriptures or experienced in their spirituall sense in the very names of Iohn Baptist and of his Parents For Zacharias the Baptists Father is by interpretation the remembrance of God Elizabeth his mother as much as the oath of God And the name Iohn imports the free grace of God And all these put together sound as much as that God did now remember his people with that grace which he had sworne to bestow upon them in his Covenant with Abraham that is with grace of deliverance from their enemies their owne sinnes were their greatest enemies with grace enabling them to serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of their life Of more particulars in this kinde as they shall fall within the compasse of Prophecies or prefigurations concerning Christ hereafter CHAP. 14. That the Scripture is said to be fulfilled according to all the former senses that one and the same Scripture may be oftner than once fulfilled according to each severall sense THe fulfilling of any thing written supposeth a foretelling or presignification of the same And because matters related by the Evangelists and other sacred writers of the new Testament were of course and of purpose either foretold or prefigured in the old testament hence it is that this phrase of fulfilling that which was written is in a manner peculiar to these sacred writers not in use amongst secular historians Yet the phrase is not therefore barbarous because not used by politer writers in the same subject that is in historicall narrations For it is used by Tully and other most elegant writers in the same sense which sacred writers use it As because every man as was intimated before may foretell those things which were by himselfe projected or promised they are likewise said implere promissa to fulfill their owne promises or to fulfill the Omen or signification of their owne names so an elegant Poet saith Maxime qui tanti mensuram nominis imples Now seing this phrase This was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled is so frequent in the new Testament Maldonat did very well and like himselfe in unfolding the severall wayes as he conceived them according to which the Scripture is said to be fulfilled almost in the very beginning of his learned Commentaries upon the foure Evangelists Yet some question there may be whether he did all this which was so well and wisely attempted by him so well and so judiciously as might in reason have beene expected from him 2. The Scripture saith he so farre as I could hitherto observe is said to be fulfilled foure manner of wayes First when that very thing is done or comes to passe which was meant by the Prophet or other sacred
writers in the literall and proper sense As when Saint Matthew to use his instance saith Chap. 1. 22. That which was spoken by the Prophet behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel was fulfilled in the blessed virgin The rule is true and without exception but the illustration of it is not so fit as Maldonat supposed For that saying of the Prophet Isaiah was fulfilled more wayes than one perhaps according to all the foure severall wayes which he conceived in the conception birth and name of our Saviour Jesus Christ Secondly the scripture is said to be fulfilled when that comes to passe which was foreshadowed by the proper and immediate subject of the Prophets speech As that saying Exod. 12. 46. Yee shall not breake a bone of it was properly and immediately meant of the paschall Lambe yet fulfilled in our Saviour Christ of whom the paschall Lambe was the type or shadow Unto this second rule or branch hee likewise referres that prophecy 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a sonne This was fulfilled in Christ as the Apostle teacheth Heb. 1. 5. though properly meant of Salomon as Maldonat takes it for granted although some judicious Commentators of the Romane Church in his time doe question or rather peremptorily yet too boldly deny it However this second rule of Maldonat is good and acknowledged by all only his expression of the two instances needs some correction for the first place alleaged by him was as literally and as properly meant of Christ as of the Paschall Lambe and the second more properly meant of Christ than of Salomon though literally and properly meant of Salomon and fulfilled in him The truth is that both places were two wayes fulfilled both in the literall and mysticall sense and the second twice fulfilled once in the literall and againe both in the literall and mysticall sense 3. Thirdly saith the same Author the Scripture is said to be fulfilled when neither that which was literally and properly pointed at by the Prophet nor that which was fore-shadowed by it comes to passe but some other thing which is so like unto it that the same speech may as aptly and as handsomely be applyed unto it as unto that which was properly and literally meant For illustration of this third rule he alleageth that of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 29. 13 14. For as much as this people draw neere unto me with their mouth and with their lippes doe honour me but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare toward me is taught by the precept of men Therefore behold I will proceed to doe a marvellous worke amongst this people even a marvellous worke and a wonder For the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid This saith Maldonat was properly meant of the Jewes which lived in Isaiahs time and yet our Saviour Matt. 15. 7 8. gives us to understand that this was fulfilled of the Jewes which conversed and disputed with him Yet Hypocrites well did Isaiah prophecy of you saying This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth mee with their lips but their heart is farre me Unto this third rule or observation Maldonat would draw that other saying of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their heart and convert and be healed Yet this prophecy as our Saviour expresly tells us Mat. 13 14. was fulfilled in the Jewes to whom he spake Ore tenùs in parables And so doth S. Paul Acts 28. 26. where he expounds the Orthodoxall meaning both of our Saviours the Prophets words The truth of this third rule will come in some question in the next chapter but admitting it for the present to be orthodoxall and true yet the instances or illustrations are impertinent For all the passages alleaged by him were more literally and more properly meant of the incredulous Jewes which conversed with our Saviour than of those Jewes which were the Prophet Isaiahs coëvalls as the understanding Reader will easily collect from the 12. of Iohn 41. being compared with the forecited 6 of Isaiah The fourth way by which in Maldonats observation the scripture is said to be fulfilled is when that which was foretold or prefigured though already done in part or begunne to be done is afterwards more constantly and more fully done The observation or rule is unquestionably true but it is not a rule or branch distinct from the two first but rather a transcendent to all the wayes according to which the scriptures may be rightly said to be fulfilled 4. And these wayes can be neither more nor fewer then are the ways by which God did either foretell or prefigure things to come and to be accōplished in Christ Some predictions were meerly prophetical some prefigurations were meerely typical other meerly literal or charactericall And unto these their commixtures all the Testimonies or prenotions cōcerning Evangelical mysteries have bin reduced Now according to all these wayes the scripture is said to be fulfilled Where the testimony is meerly propheticall that is such as is literally applyable to Christ alone the scripture is said to be fulfilled only in the literall sense When the testimony or prenotiō is only typicall as when the representation is made by matter of fact or historicall evēt in this case the Scripture is fulfilled only according to the mysticall sense and after this maner most of the legall ceremonies are said to be fulfilled in Chr. The history of the brasen Serpēt was mystically fulfilled in his death upon the crosse the story of Ionas his imprisōmēt in the whales belly was thus fulfilled in his buriall 3 dayes abode in his grave the Ceremony or rite of offering the first fruits was thus fulfilled in his resurrectiō Where the testimony prenotion is both typical prophetical as is that of the Paschal Lamb of the stone which the builders refused there the Scripture is fulfilled both according to the literall the mysticall sense whether the words as they are referred to Chr. be logicall proper or whether they be allegori or symbolicall yet can we not say that these Scripture were fulfilled as well in the type as in Christ but in Christ alone For neither of these passages Yee shall not breake a bone of it the stone which the builders refused were propheticall in respect of the type but only in respect of the mysteries typified And no Scripture is said to be fulfilled otherwise then as it is either a prediction or prefiguration of somewhat to come But where the testimony is prophetically typicall there one and the same Scripture is twice fulfilled both in the type and in the antitype as that 2 Sam. 7. I will be
to him a Father and he shall be to me a sonne was fulfilled in Salomon in the literall sense but in Christ both according to the literall and mysticall sense So was that forecited passage Isay 22. fulfilled in Eliakim according to the literall sense but afterwards fulfilled in Christ both according to the literally symbolicall and the mysticall sense And thus the names given to Iohn Baptist himselfe and to his Parents had their accomplishment when Christ was exhibited in our flesh and yet these and many other of the same rank were more exactly fulfilled after his resurrection Maldonat his fourth rule as was before intimated will hold in all these severall wayes according to which the Scripture is said to be fulfilled whether according to the meere literall and assertive sense or according to the meere mysticall sense or according to both with their severall branches or according to the charactericall sense or literall representative only not assertive According to every one of these senses may one and the same Scripture be oftner fulfilled than once or twice and in a manner more remarkable at one time than at another though alwayes truly fulfilled and according to the intention of the holy Ghost 5. To beginne with the literall assertive No man I thinke will question whether that of the Prophet Isaiah with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked were literally meant of any besides our Saviour Christ And there is no question but these words were fulfilled within the compasse of that age which brought him forth and so then fulfilled in sundry wicked ones yet doe not these words referre to them or those times alone but are to be fulfilled in a more remarkable manner at the day of Judgement or perhaps before it For from this place of the Prophet Isaiah our Apostle had that revelation 2 Thess 2. 8. Then shall that Wicked he revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his comming Many like prophecies there be concerning the glory of Christs Church and the happy estate of his elect which are even in this life literally fulfilled or verified by way of pledge or earnest but shall not be exactly fulfilled save only in the life to come Ignorance of this rule or non-observance of it hath been the nurse of dangerous and superstitious error as well in the Romane Church as in her extreme opposites in such I meane as beginne their faith and anchor their hopes at the absolute infallibility of their personall election with no lesse zeale or passion then the Romanist relyes upon the absolute infallibility of the visible Church 6. That very instance which Maldonat alleageth for the confirmation of his third rule This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips c. Matth. 15. 8. was literally meant of the Jewes which lived in Isaiahs time yet not properly fulfilled in them or of them for in respect of them it was not a Prophecy but a sharpe reproofe or taxe yet this reproofe or taxe was a most exact prophecy in respect of the Jewes which conversed with our Saviour of whom it was literally meant in a more exquisite sense than of their Ancestors and in this sense often fulfilled The ancient Jewes did not honour God being personally and visibly present with their lips as these later did nor were their hearts so malitiously set at least their malice not so diametrally bent against God at any time as the hearts and malice of these later Jews were against Christ who was the God of their Fathers As these later Jewes did fill up the measure of their Fathers sinnes so whatsoever God did threaten to this stiffenecked people for their rebellion against him was more exactly fulfilled in this last generation then it had beene in any former The severall generations or successions created no difference in the true object of the literall sense that may and did as equally respect many generations as one man infinite transgressions as truly as some few This Scripture may be as truly fulfilled in all as in one though noâ— in all according to the same measure So S. Stephen tells the Jewes Acts 7. 5. 52. Yee stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares yee doe alwayes resist the holy Ghost at your Fathers did so doe yee Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the comming of the just one of whom yee have beene now the betrayers and murderers And our Saviour himselfe chargeth the present generation of the Jews with the blood of Zacharias forme of Barachias whom their forefathers had slaine many hundreds of yeares before Matt. 23. 35. adding withall that his blood should be required of that generation present Which is a proofe sufficient that this Zacharias was not the Father as some have supposed of Iohn the Baptist For if he had beene slaine betweene the Temple and the Altar hee must have beene slaine by that present generation to whom our Saviour directs this speech and so there had beene no matter of observation capable of that Emphaticall Epiphonema Luke 11. 51. Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation Now his blood was to bee required of this last generation because they had fulfilled the measure of their forefathers sinnes who had prodigiously slaine their high Priest Zacharias But how the Prophecy of this their high Priest or rather his dying curse was fulfilled more exactly of this last generation than of that generation which put him to death would require a particular treatise not in this place to be inserted His dying speech though uttered by way of imprecation was propheticall And the event of his imprecation though exhibited shortly after his death was typically propheticall of that which happened to this last generation within forty yeares after the death of our Saviour whom Zacharias did in his death though not in his dying speeches exactly foreshadow 7. As one and the same Scripture may be oftner then once fulfilled or exactly verified in different measure only by way of growth or increment of the same literall sense so likewise may it be of one and the same man in respect of severall times For out of question it is that the Scripture Gen. 15. 6. Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse was literally verified of Abraham at that very point of time when God first called him from his owne kindred and his Fathers house into the promised Land And yet S. Iames saith cap. 2. 23. that this very Scripture was fulfilled when Abraham offered up Isaac his sonne upon the Altar and from this last performance of Abraham he had if not the first yet the truest title to bee called the friend of God Not altogether after the same manner but after a manner not much different was that Scripture Isaiah 53. 4. twice fulfilled of
Christ and of the Psalmist though propheticall only in respect of Christ Every religious man which had a religious woman to his mother might frame his prayers in the same literall forme that the Psalmist useth Psal 116. 16. O Lord surely I am thy servant I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid Yet in as much as this Psalmist who ever he were was a type of Christ that which he spake and meant of himselfe in an ordinary and common sense was fulfilled of Christ in the most exquisite sense whereof these words or letters are capable For he was the sonne of an handmaid of Gods handmaid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a peculiar manner as no sonne of man before him was nor after shall be And hee was the servant of God in such a sense and after such a manner as no man could be no man would desire to bee save only that man who was the eternall and only son of God But of this Title of the sonne of God his being the servant of God in his proper place 10. The Psalmist againe did questionlesse both act and pen his owne part when he thus exclaimed Yea mine owne familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eate of my bread hath lift up his heele against me Psal 41. 9. This was but an expression of some intolerable ingratitude and wrong either past or then in working the speech was neither altogether figurative nor hyperbolicall but a typicall prophecy of Iudas his Traitorous dealing with his Lord and Master and in Iudas alone it was properly fulfilled according to the most exquisite and most punctuall literall sense that could have beene devised For Iudas being in an office of trust did then lay waite for his masters life and did then fully resolve upon his intended treason when he was in the messe and dipt his finger in the same dish with him The Father of lyes of treason and ingratitude did enter into his heart at the same instant wherin he devoured the bread his master had reached unto him By the speedy and more disastrous issue of this prodigious Treason preventing the Traitor for triumphing in his masters death as his bloody confederates did this people might have knowne that Christ was the man whom God did favour whom the Psalmist did foreshadow in his complaint and of whose resurrection he prophecied in his prayer Ver. 10 11 12. But thou O Lord be mercifull unto me and raise mee up that I may requite them by this I know that thou favourest me because my Enemy doth not triumph over me And as for me thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face for ever All that the Psalmist here pens was more exquisitly acted by our Saviour if we subduct the imprecations upon his enemies which the Psalmist mingles with his prayers for himselfe 11. The Author of the 69 Psalme were hee David the sonne of Iesse or some other so enstiled for the same reason for which Iohn Baptist is by our Saviour himselfe called Elias did not utter that complaint without some urgent cause or pressing occasions Ver. 20 21. Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heavinesse and I looked for some to take pity but there was none and I looked for comforters but I found none They gave me also gall for my meate and in my thrist they gave me vinegert◠drinke These passionate expressions could hardly proceed from such sympathy as a pure propheticall vision of what the malignant Jewes would do for many generations after unto Christ was likely to raise They seeme live characters of experienced griefe and sorow and it may be the Psalmist was then a prisoner fed with the bread of affliction and compelled to drink water as bitter as his bread was nasty But whatsoever the Psalmist here speakes of himselfe and of his miserable perplexities though in an high and tragicall straine or in a sense somewhat hyperbolicall was we know fulfilled in Christ according to the literall and punctuall sense Briefely all the Psalmists and other Prophets in all their causelesse and undeserved sufferings at the hands of worthlesse and malitious men were true types and yet no more than types or shadows of Christ in his agony and bloody passion But in their importunate and bitter imprecations uttered in their guiltlesse sufferings they were not so much types as foyles of his unspeakable patience meeknesse and long suffering for he never prayed against his enemies as the Prophets did but alwayes for them Their demeanour in their calamities disgrace or torments was such as did shew themselves to be but men His alwayes such as did declare Him to be what he often said of himselfe truly God And yet the bitter imprecations which the Psalmist and other Prophets used in their indigne sufferings or against the malitious enemies of his Church and people did by divine inspiration prove most exact typicall prophecies of all the Calamities which befell the Jewish nation after they had declared themselves to be the enemies of the God of their Fathers and put the Lord of life their promised Messias to death As in particular and for instance that imprecation of this Psalmist ver 23. unto the 28. with that other Prophecy Isa 29. S. Paul did see in part fulfilled in the Jewes of his time Rom. 11. 8 9 10. According as it is written God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare unto this day And David saith Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a slumbling block and a recompence unto them Let their eyes be darkned that they may not see and bow downe their back alway This imprecation made by the Psalmist but never resumed by our Saviour did fall upon them by the law of retaliation Therefore their Table became a snare unto them because they gave the sonne of God gall for meat◠and vineger in his thirst to drink But in what sense his death or the indignities which they put upō him was the cause of Jerusalems destruction extirpation of the Jewish Nation is more fully set downe in other meditations somewhat of which may if need so require be inserted in proofe of the undoubted truth of the Articles of his resurrection and ascension against the Jewes CHAP. 15. Whether all Testimonies alleaged by the Evangelists out of the old Testament in which it is said or implyed this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled be concludent proofes of the Evangelicall truths for which they are alleadged IT would require a great deale of diligence in later Divines to redeeme the negligence of former either in not observing or in not transmitting their observations to posterity at what time on what occasions and by whom the severall Psalmes were written For that all of them were written at the same time or by the same hand is no way probable in it selfe nor so accounted
amount to no more then this It is not possible that the greatest part of men in our times should understand many divine truths about which they dispute or be wise unto salvation because it is said by a good Author Wisdome cannot enter into a froward heart This speech is Canonically true of all such men sensu composito that is whilest they continue perverse and froward but not true iu sensu diviso for though it were absolutely true that it is impossible for wisedome to enter into a froward heart yet it is possible for a froward heart to put off frowardnesse and for such as are now a stifnecked and stubborne people in good time to brooke the yoake of Christian obedience 7 But doth this period of S. Iohn after so many miracles done before them they did not beleeve that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled import no more than if a man should say the factious spirits of our times cannot beleeve aright because it is written that wisdome cannot enter into a froward heart In Maldonats exposition on this place of S. Iohn and of that other Mat. 13. 34. c this is the utmost value of both allegations that the Prophets words do so well fit the evēts related by these two Evangelists as that they could not fit them better although 't were granted that it were meant of them alone or had beene spoken to no other end than to notifie these two events Yet if we may have the libertie to expresse the Prophets meaning or to speake consequently unto the truth it selfe acknowledged by all good Christians or to some speciall truths formerly delivered the prophecy of Isaiah alleaged by S. Iohn was in a more peculiar manner fulfilled in the strange infidelity of the Jewes which saw our Saviours miracles then any Proverbs of Salomon or other generall Maximes can be fulfilled or verified of any misbeleevers in these our times either of such as deny Christ in expresse words or confessing him in words deny him in deeds For the words of Salomon or other moral sayings of Canonicall writers how well soever they may fit the errors or infidelity of our times had no punctuall aspect to them but were uttered as absolute truths without respect of age time or persons and fit all men and every sort of men of what condition age or nation soever they be Whereas the former forecited prophecy of Isaiah was punctually or literally meant of the Jewish Nation which lived after his time unto the destruction of the City and Temple and to the returne of the Babilonish captivitie For so it followes in the 6. chap. ver 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavie and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Then said I Lord how long And he said untill the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed men farre away and there be a great forsaking in the middest of the Land But yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall bee eaten as a Teyle tree and as an Oake whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof This very prophecy was more exactly fulfilled in the excecation and obduration of the Jewes which did not beleeve our Saviours miracles and in that desolation of Judea which ensued upon his death But whether the last part of this prophecy concerning their returne againe to God shall bee as exactly fulfilled in these out-casts of Israel future times would better resolve us or such as shall live after us then any living interpreter of Scriptures can With this question S. Iohn meddles not but besides that the former part of that prophecy doth according to the literall sense as truly point at this later generation of the Jewes as at the former The reall event it selfe or matter of fact foretold was more conspicuously remarkable in this later generation then it had beene in the former For it was a prediction prophetically typicall The first desolation was such a reall type of the later as Israels casting off God from being their ruler in the time of Samuel was of that solemne abrenunciation of Christ which these later Jewes made before Pilate when they cryed Wee have no King but Caesar Or the like desolation was such a Crisis of that deadly disease whereof the excecation and obduration mentioned by S. Iohn was the symptome as that calamity which befell Iudah the next yeare after Zacharias death was of the calamity which befell the whole Nation within forty yeares after our Saviours death 8. So then the particle Vt neither in this place of S. Iohn nor in any other doth ever import any true causality of excecation or obduration on Gods part or his Prophets but in this place of S. Iohn and in every other where it is said that this or that was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled the same particle doth alwayes import that whatsoever was so done whether positively or directly by God himselfe or with permission of his just providence by the positive intentions of Sathan or incorrigible stubbornnesse of men was alwayes ordered by God to this end and purpose that posterity might beleeve and know no such event did follow by chance or that the Prophet did foretell such events only in generall without speciall reference unto the particular events related by the Evangelist Seing every finall cause is purposed or projected by some intelligent nature one and the same particle That or the like with reference to severall projectures may sometimes denote a true finall cause sometimes the event or consequent only in one and the same proposition as in that of our Saviour Matth. 23. 34. Some of them you shall kill and crucifie c. that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth The finall cause projected by Sathan was to bring righteous blood upon these Jewes but this was the event or consequent only no finall cause of their projects against Gods messengers But these messengers were sent by God onely to this end that they might recall his people to their allegiance yet this end or purpose did include this condition that if they continued or made up the measure of their Fathers stubbornnesse they were to suffer more grievous punishment then if they had not beene forewarned by the Prophets In like manner the excecation and obduration of these later Jewes was the marke at which Satan aimed no true cause though a necessary consequent of their continued abuse of that talent which God had given them but no finall cause no cause at all why our Saviour did so many miracles amongst them their excecation and perdition was from themselves 9. That Prophecy of Isaiah and that other of our Saviours Matt. 23. 35. that
a review of the different wayes or manner how things future were foretold by the Prophets Now of divine testimonies or predictions some were meerely propheticall others prophetically typicall and both these stemmes againe did divide themselves into more branches Some predictions meerely propheticall were delivered in a plaine grammaticall or historicall sense of words others in termes allegoricall or enigmaticall Of such predictions meerely propheticall as are expressed in the plaine grammaticall or historicall sense of words some did referre to one matter or fact or to some determinate point of time and in the intention of the holy Ghost were to be but once fulfilled Others according to the same literall sense were to be fulfilled sometimes in the same sometimes in a different measure oftner than once at divers times and in severall ages Of such predictions as were to be but once fulfilled and that according to the plaine literall sense this affirmative is universally true The Prophets had alwayes a distinct knowledge or apprehension of the summe or substance of the events which are said to come to passe that their saying might be fulfilled Search all the predictions of our Saviours Incarnation Nativity Circumcision of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension Whatsoever places in the Prophets doe literally referre to these points were to be but once fulfilled For our Saviour was to be but once incarnate but once to be borne to die but once to be raised from death once for all Now if the Prophets which did literally foretell these things had not distinctly foreseene the substance at least of these Evangelicall mysteries they must either have raved in their predictions as it is presumed the heathen prophets or Apollo's priests used to doe or else have foretold them onely after such a manner as Caiaphas did foretell his death And the fulfilling of their prophecies though according to their plaine literall assertive sense could not prove them to have been Prophets properly so called that is men indowed with the true spirit of divination For no man I thinke will say that Caiaphas was thus qualified although hee prophesied in some sort of our Saviours death Ieremy surely did foresee that the promised seed should be conceived of a pure Virgin when he uttered that prophecy chap. 31. 22. So did Esaias foresee that the Messias whom they continually expected should be despised of many should be a man of sorows should dye and rise againe when he uttered that Prophecy chap. 35. v. 3. But we have not the like inducement to beleeve that hee did so distinctly apprehend that the expected Messias should be brought up in Nazareth although this was foretold by him chap. 11. 1. not in the plaine literall sense but enigmatically 4 Where the prediction according to the plaine literall sense was in the intentiō of the holy Ghost to bee oftner fulfilled than once the Prophet which foretold it did alwaies distinctly foresee the evēt in the first place foretold or the first fulfilling of his own predictiō There is not the like necessity for us to beleeve or think that he had the like distinct foresight or apprehensiō of those events in which one the selfesame prophecy was the secōd third or fourth time to be fulfilled Esaias distinctly foresaw the future inclination of these Jewes by their present disposition to draw neere to God with their lips and bee farre from him in their hearts and that their hypocrisie if continued would worke their destruction otherwise he had but raved or but spoken by guesse but that the matter of this his reproofe or Propheticall admonition should be more exactly fulfilled of the Jewes sixe hundred yeares after his time as it was wee cannot determine whether he did foresee this or no. In that vision made unto him chapter the 6. he distinctly foresaw this peoples pronesse to winke withtheir eyes to harden their hearts unto their own destruction and desolatiō of their Country out of his distinct foresight hereof hee did deliver his message in an imperative sense excaeca obdur a make blinde their eyes and harden their hearts which in the propheticall use of these words is usually as much but no more as if he had said I am commanded to forewarne you of such a spirit of slumber and hardnesse of heart now creeping upon you that unlesse you repent your Cities shall be desolate c. But albeit we resume what we formerly granted and cannot now deny that Esaias had a distinct apprehension of our Saviours death and resurrection yet whether he had the like distinct apprehension or foresight of that excecation and obduration of his people which did presage the second desolation of Jerusalem and destruction of the second Temple as he had of the former made by Nebuchadnezzar is questionable And the more probable part of the question is that he had not Of the returne of Iudah from the Babylonish Captivity Esaias as appeares from the 6. chapter had a true prenotion yet neither so full nor distinct as the Prophet Ieremy had when he saw the Captivity come upon them For from the booke of Ieremy not of Isaiah Daniel a Prophet no way inferiour to either of them learned the distinct time of his captived peoples returne to their owne Land As for the time of the second Temples destruction or for the destruction of it at all that Daniel did neither learne from the prophecy of Isaiah or of Ieremy or of any bookes before extant for it was revealed unto him immediately from the Author of truth himselfe and after such a manner as that we cannot reasonably imagine either the substance or circumstance of what was then revealed to have beene knowne to any Prophet before him And yet it is true that divers prophecies both of Isaiah and of Ieremy were more exactly fulfilled in the desolation of Judah by Titus than they had beene fulfilled in the former desolation by Nebuchadnezzar 5 But predictions prophetically typicall as well as testimonies meerely propheticall were of two sorts In some such predictions the plaine literall sense did fit the antitype as well as it did the type as in the prediction before mentioned I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a son in the like Psal 72. In others the literall inscriptiō did fit the type only according to the plaine literall or logicall sense and the antitype only in the morall or symbolicall sense Of both sorts it is true that the Prophets alwaies had a view or apprehension of that which was immediately foretold according to the literall sense or of the first fulfilling of it the case is the same as it was in testimonies meerely propheticall But of that which was immediately signified not by words but by some matter of fact or historicall event whereto the words in the literall sense immediately referre of such second events or of the fulfilling of the Prophecy both according to the literall and mysticall sense the Prophets had not
alwayes a distinct foresight or apprehensiō Such as they sometimes had was by extraordinary priviledge or dispensation it was no necessary appendix of the ordinary gift of prophecy lesse appendant thereon than the prenotion or foresight of the second or third event was upon the foresight or apprehension of the first For in that case the same prophecy though often fulfilled was yet alwayes fulfilled onely according to a fuller importance or growth of the same literall sense without the intervention or mixture of any matter of fact which could properly be called a real type or map of that which afterwards hapned As if the Prophet Isaiah did not by vertue of the ordinary gift of the Spirit foresee the second or third remarkable fulfilling of that prophecy This people draw neere me with their lips but are farre from me in their hearts it is lesse probable that the Prophet Ieremy should foresee the secōd or more exact accomplishment of that Prophecy Behold the day is come saith the Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought the children of Israel out of the Land of Aegypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the house of Israel out of the North Country c. Ierem. 23. 7 8. For in the second fulfilling of this prophecy besides the improvemēt or sublimation of the literall sense there was an intervention of matter of fact or type 6 Againe if it be doubtfull whether the Prophets had alwaies or for the most part such a distinct foresight of the antitype as they had of the type or if it be more probable that they had no such apprehensiō of the antitype whē the literall sense of their words did though in a different degree truely fit both then is there no probability that they should foresee the second accomplishment of such prophecies as no way reach the antitype in the plaine literall or grammaticall sense but by symbolicall or Emblematicall importance Isaiah no doubt had a cleare foresight of Eliakims admission into Shebnah's office whose deposition he likewise foresaw But that he foreknew the harmony betweene the deposition of Shebnah which he knew would shortly be fulfilled and the rejection of the Jewish Rulers or betweene Eliakims advancement and our Saviours exaltation after his resurrection wee have no probable inducement to beleeve but inducements many to perswade us that the foreknowledge of things thus foreprophecied and foreshadowed was for the most part reserved unto the holy Spirit not imparted to the Prophets who in foretelling or foreshadowing the antitype were for the most part his Organs onely though his Agents in the prediction of the type and did ingage their credits only for the first fulfilling of the Prophecies or for their fulfilling in generall Of the difference betwixt the knowledge of the Spirit of God and the Prophets whom he did imploy in representation of mysteries to come wee may have a proportionable scale in the difference betwixt the extraordinary Herauld or other inventor of such devices as they give and the ordinary Painter An ordinary Scholar that should see a painted Eclipse of the sun with this inscriptiō totiō adimit quo ingrata refulget would easily apprehend that this word ingrata refers to the Moone but what ingratitude or ingratefull person the Moone in this devise should represent that hee could not learne from skill in painting but from the history of the times or from the Author of this devise which to my remembrance was an Italian Prince who had beene brought under a cloud much prejudiced in his honour fortunes by an unthankfull plant of his stocke whom his favour and countenance had advanced to the dignity of a Cardinall Or if one should intreat a skilfull Painter to represent three small vessels in the same river distant one from another neere upon the same line one of thē using the furtherance of oares and winde to goe speedily against the streame another the benefit of oares to outrunne the streame and a third in the middle moving neither swiftlier nor slowlier then the streame it selfe doth with this motto or inscription videor occursari utrisque the ingrosser of this devise from his owne experience would easily conceave the truth of the inscription in the grammaticall or naturall construction of the words and might conjecture in generall that they imported somewhat more than a bare representation of what we see by dayly experience verified of things floating in the water For whilest we row swiftly by them we thinke they come against us when they goe the same way which wee doe but more gently And this is the condition of such men in our times as will not combine with factions spirits either with such as by helpe of Arts and other potency directly oppose the truth or such as follow it with furious zeale or indiscretion He that seekes to hold the middle course betwixt these opposites regulating as well his affections as his opinions by the placide current of the water of life neither striving against it nor seeking to outrunne it shall be thought to oppose both parties and come in danger of being crusht betweene them But this morall is more then the ingrosser of such a devise could apprehend without further instruction then the review of his owne work or the grammaticall sense of the inscription suppose he understood Latine would afford him Now the Prophets in many cases were but the ingrossers of such visions or representations of mysteries to come as the holy Ghost did dictate unto them whether by word or matter of fact or both wayes The full importance of many such representations neither was nor could be revealed save onely by him which had the spirit of prophecy not by measure 7. If Enoch Moses Elias and the whole fellowship of Prophets which foretold our Saviours comming whether first or second had beene spectators of all his miracles or eare-witnesses of all his words every one of them would have learned more from him then all of them knew before Each of them would have beene able to make better construction of one anothers words then any of thē without his interpretatiōs could have made of his own It is a lamētable negligēce in many interpreters not to observe or seeke after the manifest proofes which our Saviour gave of his immense prophetick spirit from which for the most part they gather only morall doctrines and uses For that saying though delivered by Authors not Canonicall is yet canonicall and universally true Never spake man like this man And thus hee spake as well in interpretation of propheticall predictions or legall Ceremonies as in his expositions of the morall Law 8. Briefely then if wee had no better interpreter of the Prophets then the Prophets themselves or no clearer apprehension of the mysteries now exhibited then they had when they foretold them this would bee sufficient to confirme our faith that they spake by the Spirit of God more then sufficient to leave us without excuse
if we should not glorifie Christ as God but when it is said that we are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles the meaning is nor that wee are bound to ground our faith only upon the actuall apprehensions or intentions of the Prophets and Apostles but especially upon the intent and meaning of the sacred Spirit by whom they spake and were inspired For as I said before they were sometimes or in some respects his agents in others his Organs only Nor are we bound to beleeve that his inspirations or instructions such as concerne the particular point whereto they spake were alwayes comprehended by those that were plentifully inspired by him For his inspirations were oft times more plentifull then their capacity was and yet the overflow not spilt but plentifully diffused to after-ages in matter of fact or historicall event if wee doe not so much contēplate these in themselves as the sweet disposition of them by the divine All-seeing Providence Lastly in those places of propheticall predictions which admit either amphibology of construction or equivocall sense of words or both it was not necessary that the Prophets themselves should distinctly apprehend both constructions or senses but only that which they intended and yet their sayings might be and have beene fulfilled in both Yet this last branch of the resolution of the former question will bring forth another whether the prophecies of the Scriptures without prejudice to their sacred truth admit amphibologies or equivocall literall senses CHAP 17. Whether divine prophecies or predictions concerning Christ may admit amphibologies or ambiguous senses WEre I in this place to meddle with the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament a point which in due time and place will come to be discussed in these Commentaries I should surely balke that saying of S. Peter Acts 3. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is in our reading Whom the Heavens must receive or containe untill the time of restitution This one place in some mens judgements will sufficiently conclude for us in that great controversie concerning Christs transubstantiall or consubstantiall presence in the Sacrament For if the heavens must containe his body or humane nature untill the time of restitution he neither is nor can be present according to this nature in the Sacrament whilest it is celebrated here on earth But to this allegation the Lutherane long since hath shrewdly replyed by making a quite contrary construction of the words alleaged without alteration of any letter or point though not without some amphibologie in the whole sentence besides an equivocall or double signification of one word First then it cannot be denied that the words forecited may without violencence to any rule of grammar be construed as if they were thus transposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it He must receive the Heavens rather then the Heavens him And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without fraud or covin may import as much as to take the possession or government of heaven which our Saviour after his resurrection did and is to retaine both possession and dominion of heaven and all things else untill the time of restitution whereof S. Peter there speakes For so Camillus is said by a good Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have received the citie that is to have taken the government of it upon him And the Hebraisme whereof the Greeke in the new testament hath for the most part some tincture or rellish is not averse from this interpretation For so saith the Psalmist speaking I take it by way of propheticall type of our Saviours exaltation When I shall receive the Congregation I will judge uprightly Psal 75. 2. Now our Saviours receiving of Heaven and of the world it selfe in this sense is without interruption without dispensation for he is perpetuall Governour of it But that Heaven doth so indispensably receive or containe our Saviours body or humane nature that he may not at any time goe or be out of it untill the time of restitution or the last day is more then any man safely may affirme Surely he was present with S. Paul and was seene by him after another manner then he is present with or seene by the Lutheranes or Papists in their Sacraments And how erroneous soever their doctrines concerning the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament be this text can be of no great use to refute them 2. Yet some have replyed upon the Lutheran that by the forecited interpretation of this Text they make S. Peter a most sacred Writer doubtlesse to speake in the language of Ashdod as ambiguously as Apollo whilest he did best deserve or brooke the stile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever did in his heathenish oracles But this reply with what eloquence soever it might be pressed upon the Lutherans may by them be as easily and yet as forcibly retorted upon such as make it For if it be a fault to grant that these sacred oracles may admit amphibologies or a scandall to give such interpretations as may occasion others thus to conceive of them the fault and scandall for ought I conceive must be equally divided betweene the Lutheran interpreters and their opposites For if either would yeeld to other in their interpretations of this text either for the right placing or construction of the words or for the various signification of one and the same word there could be no scandall given or taken Hee in this case gives the greatest scandall if a scandall it be to grant Amphibologies in propheticall or Apostolicall writings who is most peremptory in his owne opinion or faster wedded to the interpretations of his owne sect or faction For my selfe I thanke God I can with patience and christian charity permit either party to imbrace their own interpretation of this place being fully resolved that to grant either amphibologicall or equivocall senses or both in one and the same sentence whether of morall or propheticall writings can be no prejudice to that sacred esteeme which all men ought to have and may have of them And he that will take upon him to distinguish the dictates of the holy Ghost from the answeres of Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this division or difference that the one did admit ambiguous constructions whether for amphibologies or equivocall senses which the other doth not admit shall in this doing neither much prejudice the heathen Apollo nor much magnifie the Oracles of God 3. To the objection we are to answere anon Our position for the present is that many passages as well in the Prophets as other sacred oracles may and doe admit both Amphibologies and ambiguous senses and that the same prophecies are oft times fulfilled according to both senses that in the interpretation of morall precepts which are ambiguous we doe not offend unlesse we chuse the sinister or lesse safe part in our practise It is so in this case as in doubtfull opinions the one part is usually more safe
sense as the oracles of Apollo were It was not amphibologie or equivocation simply considered but the artificiall or meditated contrivance of ambiguous or â—â—â—ivocall senses after they had beene consulted concerning businesses already set on foot and in agitation which did convince the heathen oracles of delusion Had that ambiguous answere Ato te Aeacida Romanos vincere posse been given by the Oracle unconsulted two or three hundred yeares before Pyrrhus his birth or the Romane Empires growth unto that mediocritie which in Pyrrhus dayes it had the very prediction of such equipoize betweene the house of Aeacuâ— and of Româ—lus or of such doubtfull conflicts as happened betweene the Epiroteans and the Romans would have beene a good proofe of a divine inspiration no presumption of delusion on which side soever successe had taken Or if the like ambiguous oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had beene delivered unsought after as long before the birth of Craesus as that Prophecy of Isaiah cap. 45. 1. c. was before Cyrus was conceived before he could thinke of God or be thought of by men Whatsoever in the issue had become of Craesus the foretelling of his name and manner of expedition against Cyrus would have argued a spirit truly prophetical though not so distinctly propheticall or sublime as that spirit was by which Isaiah conceived the forementioned prophecy concerning Cyrus But seeing the Oracle was dumbe untill Cyrus was in armes against the Babilonians and their confederates untill victory did hover betwixt two mighty adversaries without expressing of her inclination to either both of them being so deeply ingaged that the one even in politique conjecture was to have a mighty fall the contrivance of this answer in such doubtfull and ambiguous termes argues it to have beene conceived by the spirit which hath profered his service and assistance to later Popes when they were consulted upon like occasions Now seeing our sacred Oracles were given many hundred of yeares before the events foreâ—old by them and since exhibited had any seminall cause or observable Originall out of which they were to grow the greater the varietie of their senses or constructions is the more admirable proofe doth their accomplishment exhibite of that infinite wisedome which did dictate them unto the Prophets especially of one and the same Oracle in processe of time be verified or fulfilled according to two or more possible constructions or in senses which may seeme contrary or much different After this manner was that forementioned Prophecy Ierem. 23. 6. 8. fulfilled first in the ordinary and usuall sense in the peoples returne from Caldaea and those Northerne Countries through which they had beene dispersed and about five hundred yeares after or from the time of our Saviours death the same prophecy was accomplished againe in the most exquisite literall sense and according to the primevall signification of one and the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these two senses in which this Scripture was fulfilled though different were not contrary but subordinate 9. That place of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 19. ver 18. is subject to the like varietie of reading or doubtfull sense not by substitution of one or two points for others but by the mistaking of one consonant for another being very like unto it as of Mem for Samech The Prophet no doubt did write and intend Cherez not Cherem for it had beene Verbum male oâ—inatum an ill abodance if the first of these five Egyptian Cities which were to speake the language of Canaan should be called the City of destruction It was to all of them matter of glory to become subjects to Christs Kingdome and it was the glory of this one above the rest that it should be the first participant of this glory For this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any alteration of letter or point doth signifie sometimes the first as well as one because one is the first in numbers Now the first of these Cities did never so well brooke its ancient name of Heliopolis that is the City of the Sunne by which it was knowne amongst the Heathens as when it was enlightned by the Sunne of righteousnesse and yet this splendour through its inhabitants default was not perpetuall for as I take it before S. Hieroms time it was become the city of destruction or desolation having turned Gods blessing as many others did into a curse And this alteration or change might be truly characterized in the substitution of one letter for another whether that happened by the negligence of transcribers or otherwise For as it is elsewhere observed those things which be aequivoca à casu in respect of men are aequivoca à consilio with reference to the divine providence which though it never cause the errors of men yet doth it order and moderate them 10. It is doubtfull as some good writers observe whether the Prophet Zachary cap. 11. 13. did write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Potter or the treasury That hebrew Rabbi whom Vatablus amongst other good Christian writers approves is of opinion that he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the letter Iod was added by negligence of transcribers Admitting his conjecture to be true yet it no way disparageth the sincerity of the Hebrew text but rather occasioneth a greater admiration of the all-seeing Providence of the Author of Scriptures in representing that devolution of the price of blood which Iudas reteÌ„dred unto the high Priest from the sacred treasury unto which such brogues or escheats as this were by ordinary course due unto the buying of the Potters field It is but one and the same branch of divine providence thus to turne the negligence of transcribers to the setting forth of his wisedome and to divert the wicked intentions of men unto the manifestation of his justice and goodnesse 11. Sometimes againe one and the same originall word may have contrary significations and have another to parallel it in its contrarietie So the Hebrew Kalal in its abstract or first signification answers to the Latine elevare to be light or of no waight and hence according to the variety of the matter or subject whereto it is applyable it sometimes imports vility or contempt and sometime exaltation or advancement If we value the first signification of it as it is applyable to the ballance or just scale to be elevated or discovered to be light implies no good but evill Yet to be lifted up or exalted above others not in just ballance but whiles things compared stand upon their owne bottome or Center includes matter of glory or praeeminence The Hebrew Cabad which in its prime signification is contrary to Kalal and punctually answers to the Latine Grave esse or in our English to be waighty heavy or sway downewards so long as the comparison stands betwixt things weighed in just ballance argues matter of better value or preeminence And hence it is that one
the same word which in its prime signification imports waight or heavinesse in the next metaphoricall or translated sense imports praise honour or glory yet if we take it out of the ballance and set it in some other speciall reference it implies depression disgrace or ignominy Now according to the two contrary significations of each of these words whose prime significations are directly contrary that prophecy of Isaiah cap. 9. ver 1. was exactly fulfilled 〈…〉 Primo tempore alleviata est terra Zabulon terra Nepthali novissimo aggravata est via maris trans Iordanem Galilaea gentium Populus qui ambulabat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam So the old vulgar reads it but according to Forerius thus Primo tempore vilis fuit terra Zabulon terra Nepthalin novissimo honorata fuit via maris trans Iordanem Galilaea gentium Populus qui ambulabat in obscuro vidit lucem magnam Zabulon and Nepthali in our Prophets time had beene waighed as Balshazzar afterwards was in the ballance and were found too light They were the first which were swept away by the rod of Ashur and led Captives into a strang Land Yet wore they the first into whom the Gospel of the Kingdome was preached by our Saviour himselfe and so the former prophecy which had beene in our Prophets time fulfilled of them according to the prime signification of the Hebrew Kalal which is to be vile or light was in our Saviours time fulfilled of them according to the second importance of the same word which is to be exalted or advanced and according to the first translated sense or metaphoricall signification of Cabad which is to be honourable or glorious The former fulfilling of this prophecy yee have in the sacred history 2 Kings 15. 29. In the dayes of Pekah King of Israel came Tiglath Pileser King of Assyria and took Ijon and Abelbethmaachash and Ianoah and Kedesh and Hazâ—r and Gilead and Galilee all the Land of Nepthali and carryed them captive to Assyria 12. The second fulfilling of it is exactly related by S. Matthew chap. 4. ver 12 13. c. Now when Iesus had heard that Iohn was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and leaving Nazareth hee came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the Sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthali that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the Prophet saying The Land of Zabulon and the Land of Nepthali by the way of the Sea beyong Iordan Galilee of the Gentiles The people which sate in darknesse saw great light and tathem which sate in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up But as Zabulon and Nepthali changed their mindes or opinion of Christ whom at first they honoured so the words of this prophecy did change their signification and were fulfilled of them againe in a contrary sense It was their glory that they were elevated or lift up to heaven at our Saviours first comming to them is was their ignominy and misery that they afterwards became graves or gravati pressed downe with their sinnes to hell For unto this place of the Prophet Isaiah that speech of our Saviour refertes Matt. 11. 20. c. Then beganne he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty workes were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Cherazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had beene done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long agoe in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement then for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto heaven shalt be brought downe to hell for it the mighty workes which have beene done in thee had beene done in Sodome it would have remained unto this day But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodome in the day of Iudgement then for thee In this our Saviour did speake as never man spake and manifest himselfe to be the Prince of Prophets in that all his solemne speeches as well as deeds if wee would be observant of them direct us to some Propheticall Oracle or other or reveale some mysteries before latent or which is all one some mysticall sense of Scriptures And however no prophecy can be truly said to be fulfilled only by way of accommodation or allusion though there be no allusive sense of Scriptures distinct from the severall senses before mentioned yet shall we not be able to perceive either the manner how many prophecies are fulfilled or the literall sense of many places in the new Testament unlesse besides the grammaticall signification or construction of the words wee know withall the matter be it rite or custome c whereto they allude or referre CHAP. 18. Containing the generall heads or Topicks for finding out the severall senses of Scripture especially for the just valuation of the literall sense whether in the old Testament or in the new SUch qualificatios whether for learning or life as Tully and Quintilian require in a compleat orator Galen in a Physitian or other Encomiasts of any liberall science profession or facultie may require in a perfect professor of it is but a part of these endowments which ought to be in a true divine or professor of Divinitie The Professors of every other facultie may without much skill in any profession besides their owne truly understand the genuine rules or precepts of it All the learning which he hath besides serves but for ornament is no constitutive part of the facultie which he professeth But the very literall sense of many precepts or of many fundamentall rules and Maximes in Divinitie can neither be rightly understood nor justly valued without variety of reading and observations in most other faculties and sciences that be besides the Collation of scripture with scripture in which search alone more industrious sagacitie is required then in any other science there can be use of The references without whose knowledge the positive sense of many scriptures cannot be knowne are respectively almost infinite at least incomprehensible to any one mans reading or observation It shall suffice in this place to comprehend the generalitie of all under this briefe division The matters whereto the Scriptures whether of the old or new Testament referre are either rites and customes civill or naturall experiments not recorded by any Canonicall writers or rites and customes practises and experiments recorded in the Canon of faith It would be no difficult worke to write a large volume of instances in either kinde Of both I present only these few first of customes practises or experiments not expressed in any Canonicall writer 2. Set thou an ungodly man to be Ruler over him and let Sathan stand at his right hand saith the Psalmist Psalme 109. 5. The imprecations in this Psalme of whomsoever else they were literally meant were fulfilled in Iudas
a speaking picture of the comming of the Sunne of righteousnesse into the world after the light of prophecies or revelations whether by Vrim and Thummim or by voice from heaven had beene farre removed from the Hemisphere of Judaea untill they began to returne againe in Iohn Baptist and his Father Zacharias who were as the day starre or dawning to usher in the Sunne of righteousnesse who was to continue his course from the one end of the Earth to the other with more indefatigable courage and with more comfortable warmth then this visible Sunne doth visite the earth He was that strong man that Gebor unto whom the Psalmist compares the Sunne in its strength for Gebor is its proper title And I make no question but the glory of his kingdome begunne here on earth though descending from heaven where it shall bee accomplished was by the Holy Ghost intended according to the Mysticall sense of that Psalme which is not a History onely but a true prophecy And our Apostles allegation of the fourth verse of this Psalme Rom. 10. 18. Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the World was not allusive onely but argumentative and fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospell by the Apostles and their Successors in the mysticall sense as it had been before those times dayly verified in the literall 9 But meere ignorance in these and the like parables of our Saviour whose knowledge neerely concerned the generation in which and for whose good hee uttered them however the knowledge of them much concerne us of this age and nation cannot bee so prejudiciall to all good Christians as the ignorance of other parables and proverbiall speeches of his which alike neerely concerne mankinde Yet an ignorance there is of many rites and customes unto which both the words of the Prophets and his explications of them which concerne mans redemption by him punctually referre according to the literall sense Most of us know not him as our Redeemer because were know not our selves nor that miserable bond of servitude which hee did dissolve for us all And this wee know not because wee consider not the state and condition of legall servants unto cruell tyrannicall Lords We were servants to a most cruell Tyrant And the Sonne of God for our Redemption became truely and properly a servant to his Father before he became our Lord in speciall and so must wee be servants to him in speciall before wee become the sonnes of God For we must be sonnes before we be heires and sonnes by adoption before wee bee made Kings and Priests unto his Father I never read that passage of our Apostle Rom. 8. 15. Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba Father but I alwaies conceived there was somewhat more contayned in it then was to be found in any lexicon or vulgar Scholiast yet what it should be in particular I learned of late from a learned Professor of another facultie which he hath adorned by his more then ordinary skill in sacred Antiquity and miscellane Philologie Now if wee value the Apostles words per quem clamamas Abba Pater with reference to the legall custome or manner by which some sort of slaves by birth and condition did claime the priviledge of manumission or of Adoption amongst the ancient Jewes the expression is ful of elegancie and most divine the manner of the Adoption to hereditaments temporall was a kinde of typicall prophecy of our Adoptiō to our eternall inheritāce in the heavēs 10. Were we as well acquainted either with boyes playes in ancient times as with our Christmas sports or with the severall kindes of Olympick games as we are with our Countrey May-games or horseraces we might bee more beholden to our selves in many points then to ordinary profest expositors of sacred writ For even unto childish sports the father of the fatherlesse and guardian of the helplesse our Saviour himselfe sometimes referres us for the true meaning of his parables as in Matthew 11 if wee may beleeve Lyra or Theophilact in matter of fact But whereunto shall I liken this generation It is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellowes and saying wee have piped unto you and yee have not danced we have mourned unto you and yee have not lamented For Iohn came neither eating nor drinking and yet they say he hath a Devill The sonne of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicanes and sinners But wisedome is justified of her children But whether there were any such positive custome amongst children as Lyra and Theophilact relate I will not dispute pro or con However Maldonats observation upon the place is of very good use for any that either intend to make a comment or to reade Commentators upon our Saviours parables with liberty of judgement or discretion The best is Iansenius hath better expounded this place with reference unto Childrens sports in generall then Lyra or Theophilact have done although wee grant them such a peculiar kinde of sporting as they supposed was then in use Verum ut ludi genus hoc incertum est ita nec convenit literae Non enim in litera dicuntur hi quidem dicere Cantavimus vobis non saltastis alijs vero lamentavimus non plorastis sed utrūque eisdem tribuitur Et vana est Nicolai interpretatio qui ideo dictum put at coaequalibus suis dicūt quia pueri divisi erant in duas aequales partes Coaequales enim proprie dicuntur Coaetanei Graecè in Matthaeo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idest sodalibus Proinde simplicius fuerit sine specialis alicujus ludi imaginatione exemplum hoc intelligere secundùm consuetudinem communem puerorum qui in foro laetioribus locis civitatum congregati inter se student ludendo effingere quicquid ab aliis vident seriò agi Itaque aliquando nupiias effingunt nuptiales laetitias tibiarum aut aliorum instrumentorum cantu imitantur aliquando vero funeralia obsequia expriment in quibus apud Iudaos planctibus lamentatione quorundam ac lugubrium decantatione solent homines ad tristitiam fletum provocari Haec dum imitantur pueri fit frequenter ut quod joco agunt nonsit efficax vel ad tripudia nuptialia vel ad fletus funer ales provocandos 11. But as for the Olympick games or the like whether elsewhere instituted in imitation of them or before them it is evident that the Apostles and other sacred writers S. Paul especially had both seene them and made good use of them for the more lively expressions of many Christian duties And unlesse wee know the particular Customes unto which their words referre wee shall but play at Blinde man-buffe in our expositions of them or in our exhortations to such
Antagonists from all advantage of hold either gotten or aimed at But our Apostle did imitate their practise upon his owne body not on any others for his owne body was his chiefe Antagonist The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in that place no immediate reference unto the preaching of the Gospell but did generally import such as were tryers of Olympick games whether wrestlings whirlebats or the like The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends all which lost the prize for which they contended whether by sluggishnesse or foule play The same word commeth to signifie a Reprobate or a man finally rejected by God or irreverfibly deprived of his good spirit but at the second third or fourth hand And those interpreters of sacred writ who take this title usuall in Scripture to be a metaphor or speech borrowed from false coines or counterfeit metals faile more in Logique then in Grammar though faile they doe in both It sometimes indeed referres or alludes unto false or counterfeit it coines and according to this reference it comes the nearest to the denotation of a Reprobate or a man finally rejected by God For that coine which is for substance but brasse or copper will hardly if at all after it be cast aside upon tryall go amongst wise men for currant money The transmutation of baser metals into more pretious however some men professe this skill is seldome effected perhaps not facible whereas he that was this yeare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Olympick games or other like prizes might the next yeare be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or crowned as victor But the originall word for its formall or abstract signification is a great deale more generall then to be restrained either to coyned metalls or to men which strive for mastery in any kinde of activity It properly imports a rejection upon just triall and is applyable to matters and persons almost infinite 14. Or if we interpret this word by its reference unto money or coynes yet even these may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more wayes then one either for the basenesse of the metall or for the counterfeit stamp or for want of weight For if it bee but some few graines too light any man may refuse it although it beare Caesars image and superscription Or if it be full waight and pure gold withall yet if it be elsewhere estamped then where Caesar shall appoint or by any stamp or person not authorized no man is bound to receive it and he that tenders it is to be punished And yet both these kindes of Reprobate coines may bee legitimated or made currant by new coining or addition of quantitie without any alteration of the qualitie But coines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the metall as if that be brasse copper or silver gilt and estamped for gold albeit they be full waight are by no Lawes currant And yet some there be as we said which professe the art of turning such metalls into gold but whether this be facible or no is no point of Divinity But surely the Almighty Creator of all things hath more skill in transforming men of what condition soever then any Alchymist hath in changing metalls from worse to better Even such as are said to bee given over by him into a Reprobate sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may for ought we know bee afterwards refined by him and become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justifiable men Many of the Gentiles were delivered by him into a reprobate sense not particular persons only but even whole Nations and so hath the Natiō of the Jews for the most part bin for these many yeares But that God did finally reprobate any person whether Jew or Gentile which lived in opposition to the Christian faith or whether there shall not be a reversion of that curse which hath befalne the Jewish or other nation God alone must judge and determine So that it will be hard for any man to prove that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth any where in the new Testament punctually answere unto that use or notion which custom hath now in a manner prescribed for in many theologicall disputes that is for men irreversibly fitted or designed to everlasting destruction If in any place it were to be taken in this strict sense I should suspect that of S. Paul 2 Cor. 13. 5. above others but that not from the Grammaticall signification of the word or from any reference it hath in that place more then any other to false coynes but from the peculiar reference which the matter and circumstances of that place have to matters of fact or historicall types in the old Testament without whose knowledge or observation the true meaning or importance of many words usuall in the New can never be truly valued The Apostles words in the forecited place are thus Examine your selves whether yee be in the faith prove your owne selues know yee not your owne selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except yee bee Reprobates CHAP. 19. Of the use of sacred or miscellane Theology for finding out as well the literall as the mysticall or other senses of Scripture WHat shall we say then that every one that is not certaine of his owne salvation or every one not assured by faith that his name is written in the booke of life is irreversibly appointed to everlasting death or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our Apostles meaning in this place God forbid No Christian man I hope will forbid us or deny us leave to restraine the Apostles words in what sense soever we take them unto such men only as those Corinthians were that is to men which have beene instructed in all points necessary for a Christian to believe to men that have been baptised in this faith to men partakers in a plentifull manner of the word preached and of the Sacraments But may wee or ought wee to apply this peremptory sentence unto every man that is a visible member of the true Church or of those Churches in which the pure word is constantly preached and the Sacraments duely administred Are all these bound upon paine of Reprobation to beleeve either that they are already compleatly regenerated or that they have so mortified the deeds of the body that they cannot die the death of the soule If thus wee should preach or teach how should wee be able to comfort afflicted consciences in their perplexed feares And would not the best fruites of our labours be presumption in many and despaire in most of our hearers Yet if thus wee may not say must wee therefore deny that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the forecited place to be taken in that strict sense in which it is usually taken by some moderne Divines not in that place only but in many others of the new Testament that is for men either irreversibly ordained to death or finally forsaken of God That the word is used by our Apostle in this strict sense I
hath irresistibly ordayned them to destruction But what occasion S. Paul here had to mention Gods chiding or expostulation with Reprobates in generall is without my capacitie to conceive Or were it granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he chide doth referre to all this sort of men yet would it still remaine questionable unto what time or part of time the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did referre for it is an adverbe of time not to be universally taken for all successions of time but alwayes points at some limited portion of time God doth not alwayes finde fault or expostulate either with all Reprobates or with any one Reprobate 5. The limitation then of this speech in respect of the person must be taken from reference to that which the Apostle had said ver 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this very cause have I raised thee or stirred thee up that I might shew my power in thee Now these words referre to Pharaoh alone to that Pharaoh whose heart was remarkably hardened Nor did God at all times from his birth chide or expostulate with this very Pharaoh The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies and our Apostle supposeth that the Lord had expostulated with him before that time unto which our Apostles words in speciall referre Otherwise the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have no place in that passage according to any grammar sense for that is as if he had said why doth hee chide or finde fault with him any longer or why doth he expostulate with him at all after that time wherein he had said For this very purpose have I raised thee up or kept thee alive being already fitted for destruction that I might shew my power in thee 6. This question is very pertinently made by our Apostle seeing Pharaoh at this time was so hardened that he could not repent without some speciall mercy or extraordinary dispensation For wise men only chide those of whose amendment there is some though small hope left Unto this Quaere our Apostle frames that answere Nay but O man who art thou that replyes against God ver 20. unto 24. Concerning the punctuall meaning of which I have none for the present if any other man have any desire to dispute my advise unto him is that he would weight our Apostles forecited words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that speech of God to Pharaoh unto which our Apostle referres us Exod. 9. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe And this God spake unto Pharaoh immediately after hee had told him for this very purpose have I raised thee up or as the Septuagint and Iunius for this very purpose have I reserved thee alive with whose translation and interpretation of this place in Exodus I would request every ingenuous sober reader to acquaint himselfe as well as with the ordinary expositors of the 9. to the Romanes and not adventure to saile in a narrow uncouch and unsounded sea only with the help of a generall carde as some have done and for want of an experienced Pilot have either fallen upon dangerous Rocks or stricken upon such shelves as there is small hope of their safe arivall without some such extraordinary mercy as S. Paul and his fellow passengers found yet with losse of the ship wherein they sailed 7. Divers other places of Scripture there be which in my opinion are usually extended beyond their native compasse though sometimes without any great danger of bad consequences yet alwayes with some losse of contentment to him that desires the true knowledge of the holy Ghosts meaning in them And thus they are over-extended through want of observation unto what matters of fact or speciall circumstances of some peculiar times they punctually referre Seeing the Psalmist in the eighth Psal doth so magnifie the goodnesse of God and his speciall providence over mankinde in generall it must needs put an observant Reader of those sacred Hymnes to a demurre why the Author of the 90 Psalme should so pathetically complain of the shortnesse and misery of mens dayes or yeares And to this demurre I know not how to make any just reply if wee take the matter of his complaints to concerne all men which lived either in that time or since But if we consider that Moses the man of God was the Author of that Psalme as the inscription of it directs us to think and that hee penned it some few yeares after the deliverance of Gods people by him out of Aegypt the cause or occasion of the complaint is very justifiable and serious yet peculiar to those present times and the people whereof he was governour For I think it was never experienced in any age or Nation besides that of sixe hundred thousand living soules and likely to live in respect of the constitution of their bodies or any Epidemicall disease that then did raigne so few males at laest should outlive threescore and tenne yeares and fewer fourescore And yet of all the males which had beene delivered out of Aegypt not one that was but twenty yeares old did live above threescore yeares not one that was but thirty could live above threescore and tenne not one that was but forty two or three only excepted could live above fourescore yeares or if some attained to that age or above it yet their pilgrimage was to be full of sorrow all of them besides two or three excluded by oath from entring into the Land of their promised rest all above twenty besides Caleb and Ioshuah were to dye within forty yeares in the wildernesse Even Moses the man of God himselfe who penned this Psal was prohibited to enter into the Land of Canaan and therefore had just reason to complaine as there he doth yet without murmuring not of Gods disrespect unto mankinde in generall but of that heavy doome which he had pronounced against all the sonnes of Iacob above twenty years old of which number we cannot imagine fewer then two hundred thousand That the 33. verse of Psalme the 78. therefore their dayes did he consume in vanity and their yeares in trouble doth punctually referre unto that sentence denounced Numb 14. against those rebellious Israelites whose carkeises fell in the wildernesse is unquestionable Now albeit the words of this verse bee not the same with those of Moses Psal 90. 10. Yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away yet their signification is Synonimal 8. But this errour in stretching the native sense of Scriptures beyond its proper lists or bounds is sometimes committed by oversight not in matters of history or morality only but in the greatest mysteries of faith as in that place Ierem. 31. 22. How long wilt thou goe about O thou backsliding daughter For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth A woman shall compasse a man as we usually reade it Such as acknowledge
then was that in this new Creation in the land of Ephraim not the male or man onely but the mighty male that Geber of whom Gedeon and Sampson were but types and shadowes was to be inclosed in the female or weaker sexe as the first woman or female was in the first male As she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones so was this Geber to be of that females flesh and bones which was to inclose him And this was a worke of Gods Creation a new Creation far surpassing the first Creation wherein the woman was made of man For in this new Creation the Geber the sonne of God himselfe was to be made man of a woman And it is not unworthy the observant Readers consideration that when the Lord doth as it were wooe Ephraim or Israel to returne againe unto their owne Land or to him he doth not intreat them as a husband doth his wife but as a loving Father doth his prodigall son or roaming daughter as ver 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Set thee up way markes make thee high heaps set thine heart towards he high way even the may which thou wentest Turne againe O Virgin Israel turne againe to the sethy Citties how long wilt thou goe about ô thou backsliding Daughter for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth or in thy Land the woman shall incompasse the man 11 Divers places there be in the new TestameÌ„t which touch not upon any article in this Creede which have tortured many good Interpreters no lesse then some vulgar Interpreters have tortured them I shall at this time instance onely in two First in that of S. Matthew 23. 34 35 36. Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men c. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias sonne of Barachias whom yee slew betweene the Temple and the Altar verely I say unto you all those things shall come upon this generation The reason why most Interpreters of S. Matthew have wandered as men overtaken with a thicke mist upon a wilde heath or forrest was because they did not consult the Index Mercurialis which S. Luke from the words expressely uttered by our Saviour had set up for their better direction For whereas S. Matthew expresseth the Epiphonema or conclusion of our Saviours speech thus All these things shall come upon this generation S. Luke cap. 11. expresseth it Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation What was to be required of this generation The blood of all the Prophets froÌ„ Abel to Zacharias Zacharias his blood in particular For though this present generation by not repenting for their forefathers sinnes had made themselves guilty of the blood of all the Prophets which stood upon sacred Record from Abels time unto the destruction of the Temple yet Abel and Zacharias the high Priest whose death was in many respects most prodigious were the especiall avengers of blood For the blood of the one after he was dead and the dying voice of the other did cry to God for vengeance For so it is recorded in the second of Cron. 24. 22. of Zacharias When he dyed he said The Lord looke upon it and require it Now our Saviour in the words recorded by S. Luke forewarnes this impenitently stubborne generation that Zacharias his dying curse which had been through his mediatioÌ„ often deferred and often mitigated should be executed upon them as an ungodly race of ungodly Ancestors in a fuller measure then perhaps Zacharias intended The exact parallel betweene the sinnes of this people in the dayes of Ioash King of Judah who caused Zacharias to be stoned to death in the Temple and the sinnes of this present generation who put the High Priest of their soules the Lord of Glory himselfe to an ignominious death in what sense the blood of Zacharias was more required of this generation then the blood of our Saviour or of his Apostles in what manner the death of Zacharias and of our Saviour were the causes of this present generations destruction I have elsewhere discussed at large and if God permit meane shortly to publish amongst other meditations upoÌ„ our Saviours propheticall function or of such prophecies wherin he spake as never man spake which were not to be fulfilled in himselfe as in his death resurrection and ascension or comming to judgement For all prophecies of this ranke which shall come unto my memory or observation will have their fit place in these Commentaries 12 So will not that speech of his Mat. 24. 28. Wheresoever the Carkerse is there will the Eagles be gathered together Yet seeing the exposition of this place hath beene omitted in the explication of some prophecies with which it hath most affinity as with the signes of his comming to Judgement Math. 24. and Marke the 13. I have thought good to say somewhat of it in this place Most Interpreters grant the speech to be proverbiall and yet as uttered by our Saviour to be a Prophecie The mysterie foretold most of the Ancients would have to be the gathering together of Saints unto Christs body at the finall judgement or at least the gathering together of those bodies which being alive shall be raught up into the ayre to meete him at his comming But however the Eagles at least some kinde of Eagles may be fit Emblemes of Gods Saints yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body or Carkeise whereto the Eagles resort hath no handsome or comely resemblance of Christs appearing in glory although it were granted that his wounds or skarres should then be conspicuous I make no question but our Saviour in the forecited place did meane that kinde of Eagles whose properties we have described by God himselfe even by this our Lord God and Redeemer Ioh. 39. 27. Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high she dwelleth and abideth on the Rocke upon the Crag of the Rocke and the strong place from thence she sâ—â—keth the prey and her eyes behold a farre off her yâ—â—â—g ones also suck up blood and where the slaine is chere is shee The Eagle here displayed is either the Vulture or of the Vultures kind and their sagacitie whether in smelling slaine bodies a farre off or in presaging where great slaughters are like to happen as also their swift resort unto the prey is well knowne to secular Philologers But the flocking together of this kinde of Eagles doth rather menace destruction then minister any matter of comfort according to the literall sense either of proverbiall speech or of prophecy So the Prophet Habakuk doth character the fierce and swift incursion of the Caldaeans by this kinde of Eagles hastening
to the prey chap. 11. ver 8. Their horses also are swifter then the Leopards and are more fierce then the Evening Wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from farre they shall flye as the Eagle that hasteth to eate And so Moses long before had threatned this people Deut. 28. 49. The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee from farre from the end of the earth as swift as the Eagle fleeth c. And this prophecy was most exactly fulfilled in the Conquest oppression and destruction of this Nation by the Romanes and their Allyes especially the Italians Spanish Germane and British with other of these Westerne Nations And our Saviour in the forecited place foretels the fulfilling of this prophecy of Moses upō the Jews of that present age For all that our Saviour had said in that 24. of Matthew was to be accomplished according to the literall sense in that age current for so he saith ver 34. Verely I say unto you this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled Now it is evident that this gathering together of the Eagles was to be fulfilled before those signes of his comming to judge Jerusalem were to bee exhibited ver 29. Our Saviours prophesie then cannot according to the literall sense refer unto his comming to finall judgement but unto his comming to visite Jerusalem and the Nation of the Jewes of whom as he intimates some few should bee strangely reserved others remarkably plagued and so to be plagued by the Romanes whose ensigne was the Eagle Those whom God had forsaken or appointed to the slaughter within that age current were as we say dead in Law whithersoever they fled the Romane Eagles which God had authorized to be his executioners of the heavy Judgements there denounced would be more swift then they more sagacious then they were subtill And albeit these wandring Corps did take the Temple for their Sanctuary and make Jerusalem and it the last seat of that deadly warre yet even there should these Eagles or Vultures be gathered against them and teach their young ones to suck their blood And indeed if a man would accurately observe the processe and successe of the warre against them by the Romans it would appeare to have beene begun and ended rather by such secret instinct or presage as the Eagles have of great slaughters then by rationall project or humane consultation 13. To this expression of the literall meaning of the forecited place S. Luke directs me who of all the three Evangelists mentioneth the immediate cause or occasion of our Saviours proverbiall speech Luke 17. 37. And they answered or replyed and said unto him where Lord The meaning of the interrogatory is where shall the place or seate of these strange Calamities be and to this he answers Wheresoever the body is there will the Eagles be gathered together The importance of his answer is whithersoever these sons of death shall repaire thither will the executioners of Gods wrath be gathered together to wit the Romans who should not spare such as did resist or seeke to save their lives by hostility or strength and yet be ready to spare such as would submit themselves unto their mercy Thus much in my apprehension was intimated ver 33. Whosoever shall seeke to save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it I tell you in that night there shall be two men in one bed the one shall be taken the other shall be left Two women shall be grinding together the one shall be taken and the other left And they answered and said where Lord c. This I take to be the literall meaning of this prophecy As for the mysticall parallel to this literall if this afford any such that cannot elsewhere bee so fitly handled as in the Article of Christs comming to judge the world both quick and dead Now according to the mysticall sense we are I take it to understand by the body the bodies of the Saints deceased and then to make the Allegorie or proportion such as the Scripture alwaies maketh hansome and comely the Eagles must not be such as Iob describeth either Vultures or of Vultures kinde but Iovis Aquilae which as Philologers tell us do not use to feed on dead Corps or slaine flesh These are fit emblemes of the swift ministery of Celestiall Angels in gathering or summoning the bodies of deceased Saints from the one end of the Earth to the other SECT 3. That the incarnation of God and of God in the person of the Son instiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was foretold praefigured c. in the Writings of Moses Of the hypostaticall union between the Sonne of God and seed of Abraham CHAP. 20. That God according to the literall sense of Scriptures was in later ages to be incarnate and to converse with men with the seed of Abraham especially here on earth after such a peculiar manner as wee Christians beleeve Christ God and man did THat which in the first place we are to know concerning Christ and him crucified is that he was to be both God and man And this we are to learne from the sacred Oracles whether in the literall or mysticall sense in this order First from such Oracles as teach us that God was to be incarnate and to converse with men more humano after an humane manner here on earth Secondly from such divine Oracles as instruct us that God was to be incarnate and thus to converse with men in the person of the Sonne Thirdly from such as foretell the manner of the incarnation and of the permanent union betweene the sonne of God and the humane nature 2. To dispute with the Jew or other Infidell who acknowledgeth the truth of the old testament without some manifest ground of the literall sense were but to beate the aire For there can bee no concludent allegoricall or mysticall sense unlesse it be grounded on the literall And of all the branches of the literall sense none is so evidently concludent against the Jew the Arian or Photinian whether ancient or later to wit the Socinian as that which for the most part is least observed or most slenderly prosecuted by such as seeke to confute the Jew or other Infidells or heretiques which subscribe unto the literall sense of the old Testament The best Topick or seate of arguments for this purpose must bee borrowed from those passages in the Old Testament which according to the plaine literall or grammaticall sense cannot without blasphemy or literall solaecisme bee applyed to any person but God to any besides the God of Israel and yet cannot be meant of God himselfe according to the punctuall literall sense save only as he was to be incarnate or to have his conversation amongst men after a more peculiar manner then in the ancient times of the world he had And these places be for number many perhaps more
then all the other prophecies or predictions concerning Christ whether literall or mysticall My purpose is not in this place to rehearse all of this kinde which I have observed but rather to explicate some few of these many The first shall be that Exod. 29. 45 46. And I will dwell amongst the children of Israel and will bee their God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell amongst them I am the Lord their God That this place cannot be literally meant of any person man or Angell but of God himselfe which brought Israel out of the Land of Egypt no moderne Jew doth or can deny The same promise is renewed or repeated Lev. 26. 11 12 13. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soule shall not abhorre you and I will walke among you and will be your God and yee shall be my people I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt that yee should not be their bondmen and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you goe upright 3. God before this time had appeared unto them had conducted them by a cloud by day and by a pillar of fire by night had divers wayes manifested his speciall presence and spoken to Moses their leader in a more familiar manner then he had done to any Prophet before or since his time Yet all those evidences of his glorious presence amongst them were but pledges of a more speciall manner of his future presence with them or of walking or talking not with some one principall man amongst them only such as Moses was but with all that are willing to walk and talk with him as Moses had done with that generation Neither of those prophecies could be exactly fulfilled according to the punctuall literall sense of those ancient times wherein the first Tabernacle did wander with them in the wildernesse though verified according to the vulgar literall sense in those times For God their Lord was said to remove or to arise when the Ark removed or set forward Psal 68. 1. Nor were the same prophecies fulfilled in those times wherein the Lord had a permanent Tabernacle or constant place of residence amongst them in Jerusalem Albeit hee was then said to dwell betweene the Cherubims and to have chosen Sion for his place of rest yet Ezekiel after the desolation of the Temple projected by David and built by Salomon doth promise this people more then a redintegration of the Temple or any other materiall Temple more then a meere revivall of the former promises Exod. 29. 45. and Levit. 26. 12 13. for so the Prophet astipulateth in the name of his God chap. 37. ver 26 27 and 28. Moreover I will make a Covenant of peace with them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore my Tabernacle shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and the heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore 4. But now we see and seeing cannot but bewaile that the seed of Abraham according to the flesh whom this promise did in the first place concerne hath had no place of dwelling in the land of Canaan almost for these sixteene hundred yeares past Nor hath the God of Israel dwelt amongst them after such a manner as he did during the time of the first Tabernacle or whilest the first or second Temple were standing And yet this covenant was according to the literall sense of the Prophet to be an everlasting Covenant yea perpetually everlasting after it once beganne to be in esse God was to dwell with Israel or with the sons of Abraham there meant without interruption in this life and everlastingly in the life to come Besides this everlasting covenant was a covenant likewise of everlasting peace to such as were partakers of it For the peculiar manner of Gods dwelling with Israel the Jew cannot imagine a more punctuall fulfilling of this prophecy then the Evangelist S. Iohn hath left upon record chap. 1. ver 14. And he dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father fall of grace and truth Thus he dwelt and conversed with the children of Israel according to bodily descent and with none else how then is it said by the Prophet that hee was to dwell with them for evermore or that this covenant of peace should be an everlasting covenant Seeing Israel or the sonnes of Iacob by bodily descent did for the most part reject this covenant when God for his part was ready to seale it unto them the Gentiles were ingraffed in the beleeving stock when the naturall branches were broken off and yet God still dwels in medio Israel he hath his everlasting Tabernacle in Israel that is in the seed of Abraham and of Iacob which he assumed and did choose not as he had done Sion or Ierusalem but for a perpetually everlasting rest And though this place of his rest be removed not only from the sonnes of Israel but from all the sonnes of men that live here on earth yet he still dwelleth with us who are ingraffed in the stock of Abraham and of Israel unto the end of the world and so shall dwell with true Israelites world without end He hath his residence in every Church throughout the world in as peculiar a maner as he sometimes did reside in the Temple of Jerusalem for wheresoever God is truly worshipped there doth he dwell 5. This covenant of everlasting peace which the Prophet foretold was to be established as the first covenant was by blood but by farre better blood then the blood of Bulls and Goates by the blood of the Testator himselfe that is of God himselfe Bellum gessit ut nos pace fruamur Hee was once for all to warre with flesh and blood with powers and principalities that all such as embraced this covenant avouched by Ezekiel might enjoy everlasting peace not the peace of this world yet peace in this world to be accomplished in the world to come And our Saviour the sonne of God for more full declaration that he was the Author of this covenant a little before his death bequeathed the legacy of peace unto his Apostles and Disciples as feoffees in trust for all that should follow the faith of Abraham Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Iohn 14. 27. And after he had sealed this covenant with his blood his salutation unto his Disciples was Peace be unto you and Behold I am with you unto the end of the world After his death he did walk and talk only with his Disciples but before his death hee
had walked conferred and conversed with all the children of Israel that would come unto him in a more familiar manner then he had done with Moses himselfe in Egypt and in the wildernesse And though his body bee removed out of their sight and ours yet he dwelleth in his Church and walketh in it by his spirit These things saith hee that holdeth the seven starres in his right hand who walketh in the middest of the seaven golden Candlesticks Revel 2. 1. and 21. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be with them and be their God God was said to walk with the children of Israel whilest the Tabernacle did remove or wander with them but not to dwel with them untill the building of the Temple Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even to this day but have walked in a Tent and in a Tabernacle 2 Sam. 7. 6. But the same God doth now walk in the Church and dwell in his Church by his spirit and the Church shall dwell with him in his heavenly Temple 6. This prophecy of Ezekiel is one of that sort and rank before rehearsed Chapter 14. par 6 7. to wit a prophecy which was oftner to be fulfilled then once and after different measures in severall times It was to be fulfilled according to the ordinary scale of the literall sense and in the intention of the holy Ghost at this peoples returne from the Babylonish captivitie From that time Judah and Israel or Ephraim were not to strive or contend and thus we see it fulfilled unto the destruction of the Temple For though many of the severall Tribes of Israel did returne to their owne land successively or now and then yet al were instyled or indigitated by the name of Iudaei or Jews a good name untill they forfeited their interest in this promise And God did upon their returne◠〈…〉 amongst them that is his Temple wherein he did dwell as hee formerly had done in 〈◊〉 Temple Now this covenant which God did promise to make with Israel and Judah upon the delivery from the North Countrey and from all the Countryes wherein he had scattered them was to exceed the former covenant which he had made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt as appeareth Ier. 23. 5 6 7 8. And to exceed it not only in respect of benefits spirituall or the matter promised but in respect of the very forme and tenure of the Covenant it selfe Not that this deliverance was either in it selfe or in the Nations eyes greater then the former but that this covenant after it once beganne to be in esse was to continue for ever without interruption whereas the former Covenant was broken did expire or determine For during the time of the Babylonish Captivitie neither Judah nor Israel had either a wandring Tabernacle or standing Temple God did not dwell amongst them according to the native and literall meaning of that promise Levit. 26. 1◠But according to this Prophecy of Ezekiel God even their God was to dwell amongst them to have his Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore But did this Sanctuary or Tabernacle there promised continue in the midst of them since that time yes it hath so continued and shall continue for evermore though not in the same kinde or quoad materiam yet by an aequivalency or more then aequivalency or by a spirituall and supereminent manner For when the second Temple begun to decay or become as a Carkasse or body without a soule the body of our Lord and Saviour Christ which he tooke from Abraham and David became the Temple of God and continueth to this day our Sanctuary or Sanctification it selfe And wee Heathens or Gentiles doe now know that the Lord hath sanctified Israel and that his Sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore 7. All those places wherein God promised to be their God all those sacred hymnes and prophecies which enstile him God even our God in the exquisite or sublime literall sense referre or drive to that point which we Christians make the foundation and roofe of our faith to wit that he was to be God with us or God in our nature or flesh God made man of the seed or stock of Abraham like us in all things sin excepted This new glorious Tēple was according to strict proprietie erected in medio Israel or in interiore Israel that is in one that was truely an Israelite the very Center or Foundation of Abrahams seed or of Iacobs posterity But being erected in the midst of Israel or in the seed of Abraham after this sense it was not erected only for the sonnes of Abraham or of Israel by bodily descent but all were to become true Israelites that should be united to this seed and worship God in this Sanctuary For in that Christ Jesus was the sonne of God he was more truely the Israel of God then Iacob had beene and all that are ingraffed into this Temple of God all that receive life from him are more truely the children of Israel than any of Iacobs sonnes were which refuse to be united to him CHAP. 21. That this peculiar manner of Gods presence with his people by signes and miracles was punctually foreprophecyed by the Psalmists BUt for God to dwell with this people or in the midst of them is a phrase not unbeseeming God even in their judgement who hold the Divine Majestie to be altogether incorporeall immaterially immense as many of the wiser and more sober Heathens did But in most of the Prophets in the booke of Psalmes especially many characters there be of the divine Majesties peculiar presence in his Church with this people or in the world which to any heathen either accurate Philosopher or elegant Poet would seeme more unseemely then a poore country mans petition of his owne drawing and penning to his Soveraigne Lord would be or then his speech would be if he were sent Embassador to a forraigne Prince Both speech and behaviour would in this case be rustick and his salutations such as would onely befit his honest or worshipfull Neighbours And thus most Prophets in the descriptions or displayes of Gods attributes speak of him if wee looke onely in the vulgar literall sense at the best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scarce observing that decorum which an ordinary Courtyer would use to any greater Prince Yet may we not think that God did send such Embassadours to his people or appoint such Orators from him to them and from them to him as he had not enabled to speake in such manner as did become both himselfe and them And surely it is the fault or imperfection not of the Psalmists or other Prophets but of their Interpreters to make them speake of God
6 7. 6 The summe of all that the Iew or heathen can object against us for thus interpreting this place or for adoring Christ Iesus whom they crucified as the very God here meant by the Psalmist must amount from that generall prohibition as they will interpret it ver 3. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe or no salvation But yee Christians will they say put your trust in the sonne of man in the sonne of Mary a woman and therefore transgresse the Psalmists precept But admitting these words Put not your trust in Princes c. had beene exprest in this universall forme Put not your trust in any Princes nor in any sonne of man whomsoever for there is no help in any of them Yet such universall rules do usually admit some exception or an exception of some principall particular As when it is said he hath put all things under his feet it is manifest saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 27. that he is excepted who put all things under him though He be more then all things that are put under him And when our Apostle tells us that wee must utterly renounce all workes and only rely on the mercy of God in Christ Yet the renouncing of all workes which is the greatest of all workes must be excepted from this generall rule For he that renounceth this worke cannot come to Christ cannot be partaker of Gods mercy in him And so in this generall prohibition of the Psalmist put not your trust in Princes nor in any son of man that sonne of man must be excepted who is also more then the sonne of man more then any Prince the sonne of God the Lord God of Israell In all other Princes besides this one Prince who was to raigne for ever there is no help no salvation and because they are voyd of help and salvation they are uncapable of our confidence wee may not safely repose our trust in them or upon them But I would demand of the Iew what opinion his Forefathers in the time of Moses Samuel David and the Prophets had of their expected Messias What opinion the seed of Abraham this day living have of the sonne of David whom they expect shal raigne over them Was he in the opinion of their forefathers to be no more then the sonne of man though the son of David If he were to be no more then so there was no confidence by the Psalmists rule to be placed in him they were not to expect help or salvation from him he could be but another David another Sampson another Ioshuah or Moses If he were to be but a King on Earth as many others have beene before him though all others though put together of much lesse power then they expect he shall be yet their expectation of him is fuller fraught with revenge and malice towards others then with hope of any great good unto themselves if so he were to be but a mighty Prince or Monarch not truely God or if his Kingdome were but of this world or to be bounded within the sphere of the Moone for so he might bruise and crush the Nations as Ioshua the Canaanites or David his enemies he could not make all his own followers Kings and Monarchs Nor could Monarchies or Kingdomes make them happy on whom he did bestow them there could be no help or salvation generall either in Prince or Subject The more bountifull he were in bestowing temporall blessings wealth power or honour upon the seed of Abraham after the flesh the greater calamity he should bring upon other Nations How then could he be that promised seed of Abraham in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Finally if the ancient Iews as I think these moderne Iews will not deny expected help and salvation from their Messias if they taught their posterity to put trust in this promised seed of Abraham whensoever he should be revealed then it is concluded that their expected Messias was to bee that God of Israel whom the Psalmist in the 146. Psalme describeth And this is the fundamentall article of Christian faith unto the acknowledgement whereof this Lord God of Israel in his good time bring the seed of Abraham after the flesh and all others which either deny it or are ignorant of it CHAP 22. That the God of Israel was to become a servant and a subject to humane infirmities was foretold by the Prophets according to the strictest literall sense THough all these Prophecies were punctually fulfilled according to the strict proprietie of the literall sense of God incarnate or whilest he converst with men here on earth in the forme of a Servant which is somewhat more then the forme and essence of a man yet other prophecies there be which more punctually referre unto this estate in particular and unto those grievances which it was impossible for him that was truely God to suffer unjust for any man to suffer who was not by estate and condition a true servant in the strictest sense of this word Now wee read that when Iesus had said to one sick of the Palsey Bee of good Cheere thy sins are forgiven thee the Scribes and Pharisees who were then present begun to reason saying Who is this that speaketh blasphemy who can forgiue sinnes but God alone Luke 5. 21. And for thus censuring his speech they presume they had the warrant of God himselfe Esay 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will remember thy sinnes no more It was most true what from this place they collect to wit that God alone could forgive sins But from the present miracle and the manner of our Saviours conversation with them here on earth and their most wicked dealing with him had they compared these with the words immediately precedent in the Prophet it had beene easy for them to have gathered that he was that only God which did forgive sinnes For so the Prophet had said to this people in the person of his only God Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities This in particular is one of those many places which even by the Jews confession could be literally meant of none but God himselfe and yet could never be literally and punctually fulfilled or verified but of God incarnate For this people did never make God to serve under their sinnes he was never wearied with their iniquities save only whilest he took the forme of a servant upon him and did beare their sinnes in the substance of their flesh 2 Of the same observation is that other place Esay 63. 9 10. In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angell of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and caryed them all the dayes of old But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Therefore he was turned
nature of man only but the forme of a servant for a while upon him to make the most perfect and abundant satisfaction by the most exquisite obedience of which both the state of a sonne and condition of a servant was capable 7. The stone of offence whereat the Socinians who account themselves good Christians and doe not deny Christ to be the Sonne of God doe so much stumble is in part the very same with the prejudice which the Arians had of the orthodoxall truth whose breach or disruption in the Canon of the ancient Catholique faith the first Nicene Councill sought to repaire not by addition or superstruction of any new Articles of beleife but by a gentle diduction or dilatation of that sense which was included in the Apostles Creed or in the ancient rule of faith I beleeve in one God c and in one Lord Iesus Christ the only begotten sonne of God begotten of his father before all worlds and againe very God of very God begotten not made being of the same substance with the Father c. It is not improbable that the Arians and their followers might take offence or pick a quarell at this Title of being the only begotten son of God before all worlds the rather because some of the most ancient and not a few middle-age writers do seek to groūd this article upō that divine oracle Ps 2. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee as if hodiè in that place did not literally and punctually referre to any peremptory day or time circumscriptible by remarkable circumstances or notable historicall events but were put for bodiè aeternitatis which implyes no time but an indivisible interminable duration And if the allegation were true in this sense there could be no question betweene professors of Christianity about the eternall generation of Christ Jesus as he is the sonne of God But so it often falls out that some one impertinent allegation or weake proofe being too much stood upon doth provoke or embolden such men qui ita veritatem amant ut velint esse vera quaecunque amant to deny the generall truth for whose confirmation weake and impertinent proofes are brought albeit the same truth might be most strongly prooved from many other irrefragable testimonies of Scripture That the Psalmist Psal 2. speakes of our Saviours resurrection from the grave is most cleare from the Apostles testimonie and in what sense it was fulfilled whether in the literall onely or in the mysticall or in both whether according to the plaine literall sense it tooke aswell retrò as antè or have any especiall reference to what is past shall by Gods assistance be discussed in the explitation of that great Article I dare not in this place use the former authority to proove the eternall generation of the sonne of God 8 That hee should bee the onely begotten Sonne of God otherwise then by his begetting from the dead unto glory and immortalitie or that he should be so before the World from all eternity may seeme to imply a contradiction in terminis For the Father must be before the sonne unlesse we take these termes as termes meerely relative not as importing any substance or persons All termes meerely relative quà tales are simul naturâ coaevall for standing Abraham though an ancient man was not Isaacs Father before Isaac was his sonne But if wee respect the persons or substances betwixt whom such relations stand the person of the Father is alwaies before the person of the sonne according to precedence of time or if we consider not the persons or substances but that which they call proximum fundamentum relationis that act or operation from which such relations do immediately result so it is true that generans est prior generato Begetting or to beget hath priority or precedencis though not of time yet of nature of being begotten But if the Sonne of God be coeternall to his Father there can be no place for either of these precedencies or priorities nor for any thing truely proportionable to them seeing in eternitie there is nihil prius nihil posterius no prioritie no succession How then can Christ Jesus be conceived to be the onely sonne of God begotten of his father before all worlds if to be before all worlds be as much as to bee from all eternitie or in eternitie To this wee answer that where the truth of the matter is unquestionable men soberly minded should not wrangle about the strict proprietie of words especially in mysteries whose comprehension far surpasseth mans capacitie and are even to blessed Angels ineffable or unexpressible in any punctuall or proper phrase The truth which the Nicen Fathers sought to establish was this that Christ Jesus was not made the Sonne of God before all worlds but was the sonne of God very God of very God from all eternitie coeternall and coequall to his Father For so they expresse themselves Hee was begotten and not made The manner of his eternall generation or begetting they seeme to resemble to the generation or production of light For so they say light of light very God of very God c. Now that light which the splendid body of the sunne diffuseth through the ayre but especially through caelestiall bodies is coevall with its Fountaine which produceth or begetteth it For it was never held a solecisme to call Lumen filiam lucis to say light is the daughter of the sunne But however it shall please men to expresse the manner of the Sonne of Gods Eternall generation the former inductions that Peter est prior filio naturâ et tempore that the person or substance of the Father hath alwayes precedency both of time and nature in respect of the person and substance of the sonne or that generans is prius naturâ generato to beget hath alwayes precedence of nature though not of time of being begotten are true onely in temporall generations or successions All men and other generable creatures since the world began have beene moratall de facto The first man was but conditionally immortall And albeit he might have lived for ever yet had he a beginning of life in time and so were his sons or successors to have albeit they had been borne immortall or both borne and begotten before he did subject himselfe and them to mortality by sinne If immortall creatures could have sonnes or successors by nature they were to be immortall by nature otherwise they should be a kind of monsters or an equivocall brood If then he who possesseth eternitie have a true and proper sonne which the word only begotten implyes after what manner soever he be his son though by a manner altogether unconceivable to us that son must be coeternall to his Father For the truly eternall God to have beget or produce a sonne which is not eternall but everlasting only à parte pòst is as unconceivable to reason as that an immortall Father should beget a mortall or
dwelleth in him is the expresse image of him as he is man he is the Tabernacle or Temple of the living God The inference is our Apostles 2 Cor. 6. 16. Yee are the Tēples of the living God at God hath said I will dwel in thē and walk in thē and I will be their God and they shall be my people Our Evangelist S. Iohn Revel 21. 3. exegetically dilates the former testimonies of Moses and the Prophets a great deale further thē S. Paul here doth I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes And there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shal there be any more paine for the former things are passed away But this mortalitie must put on immortality and our corruptible flesh become incorruptible before this last clause of S. Iohns prophecy can be literally fulfilled in us or begin to beare date in esse And before this happy change of our mortall bodies none of those other prophecies Exod. 29. Levit. 26. Ezek. 37. shall be finally accomplished albeit all of them have beene already fulfilled in differēt measure manner both according to the literall and mysticall sense For God hath dwelt and doth dwel more properly in the man Christ Iesus then at any time he did in the Tabernacle or Temple These were in their times the seats of Gods peculiar presence of the manifest appearances of his divine Maiestie from which all the blessings upon Israell or Abrahams posteritie by bodily descent were derived after such a manner as the visible light in this inferiour world is derived from the body or sphaere of the sunne Yet such as were partakers of these blessings all the particular Synagogues through the land of Iury did not by this participation of his presence in the Temple or Tabernacle become Temples or Tabernacles of the God of Israel these were never conceived to be or instyled the seat of his rest or of his peculiar presence But since the Word was made flesh since the seed of Abraham was made the Temple of the living God every particular Church truely Christian becomes a more proper seat of Gods peculiar presence then the materiall Temple in its glory and splendour was and farre more communicative of all blessings spirituall to every true particular member of them Every individuall or particular man who is incorporated into this Church and made a living member of it doth by the participation of that Spirit which dwelleth in it become a true Temple or Tabernacle of the living God Whosoever truely beleeves in Christ whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood Christ who is the prototypon and true temple of God doth dwell in him and he in Christ he is in God and God in him after a more peculiar manner then either the patriarks or Prophets were in God or God in them But this peculiar manner of Gods dwelling in us by faith and wee in him hath his peculiar place in other principall Articles of the Creed or in the Treatise of the Sacrament concerning the mysticall union betwixt Christ and his members The next Quaere which in this Section offers it selfe to be discussed and must be the Title of the next Chapter is briefly this CHAP. 27. Why S. John doth rather say the word was made flesh then the sonne of God was made flesh albeit the sonne of God and the word denote one and the same person TO this Quaere some judicious Divines make answer that the second person in Trinitie was at least implicitely knowne unto some heathen Philosophers under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long before his incarnation and longer before S. Iohn wrote his Gospell Now it is not improbable that those heretiques which did call the Divinity of Christ in question against whose heresie the Evangelist did put in that Caveat in the beginning of his Gospell at the least such as were in danger to be seduced by them were to his knowledge better versed in the writings of Plato and Trismegist then in Moses and the Prophets And men naturally both conceive and imbrace the truth with more facility when it is delivered unto them in termes whereunto they have been inured Now such as were well read in Plato or Trismegist or would be willing to read them could not be ignorant of an eternall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they called the sonne of the eternall minde or essence And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word or image of the eternall minde was not in their apprehension meerly notionall or representative only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word or reason or however we expresse it truly operative the invisible cause or maker of all things visible Unto these the like prenotions which the heathen Philosophers had of an eternall Father in his eternall sonne S. Iohn in the judgement of some great Divines did purposely apply himselfe and frame his expressions to their capacity whom he sought to reclaime or to instruct Nor is it either unusuall or unbeseeming the Apostles themselves to alter both the matter and forme of speech according to the diversity of the parties whom they seeke to reforme S. Paul did not dispute with the Athenians after the same manner he did with the Jews nor did he instruct the Hebrew converts in the same language or forme of catechisme which he used amongst the Gentiles S. Iohn then in the conjecture of the former ancient Divines did make the 〈◊〉 advantage of the prenotions which the heathens had of this truth which S. Paul did from the inscription of the Athenian Altar that God saith hee whom yee ignorant by worship him declare I unto you But did these harmelesse speculations of these Philosophers require any such reformation from S. Iohn as the Athenians superstitious worship did from S. Paul Sure their followers were to bee better catechized in this truth then they had been or could be by any Philosophy their best speculations though in themselves true were to their Professors altogether fruitlesse and as I take it without any prenotion or expectance that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that word by which they acknowledge all things were made should be made visible in our flesh should exhibit a more exquisite representation of the divine nature and essence in the microcosme or little modell of mans body then had beene exhibited in the making and governing this great universe They knew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was truly God without beginning but they did not either adore him as God neither did they adore their eternall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God or by him All this they were to learne from S. Iohn for this is a mystery which farre surpasseth the capacitie of man to conceive or comprehend without
my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him That is meat and drink indeed which nourisheth us not to a bodily but to a spirituall and immortall life which presupposeth an immortall seed Unto all these ends and purposes to our new birth to our nourishment and growth in spirituall life the flesh and blood of the Word or son of God were consecrated by his sufferings upon the crosse and by his resurrection from the dead He was according to his humane nature both the Priest appointed to obtaine these blessings and to award them ex officio and withall the sacrifice by whose participation they are really and actually conveyed unto all that doe or shall inherit the immortality of soule and body 7. But if his flesh and blood be the seed of immortalitie how are we said to be borne againe by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Is this word by which we are borne the same with that immortall feed of which wee are borne It is the same not in nature but in person May we not in that speech of S. Peter by the word understand the word preached in to us by the ministers who are Gods feeds men In a secondary sense we may for we are begotten and borne againe by preaching as by the instrument or meanes yet borne againe by the eternall word that is by Christ himselfe as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth Thus much S. Peters word is that place will inforce us to grant according to the letter For having before declared that the word of God by which we are born againe doth live and endure for ever he thus concludes and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you 1. Pet. 1. 25. 8. The Gospell it selfe taken in the largest sense is but the declaration of the Evangelists and Apostles upon the propheticall predictions concerning the incarnation the birth the death the resurrection and ascension of Christ And Christ himselfe who was put to death for our sinnes and raised againe for our justification is the word which we all doe or ought to preach The Gospell written or preached by us cannot be that word which by the Gospell is preached unto us This Word in the literall assertive sense can bee no other then the eternall word or sonne of God made flesh and consecrated in the flesh to be the seed of immortalitie And if wee take the Gospell not according to the outward letter or bark but for the heart or substance of the Gospell or for the glad tidings of life which is the primitive signification of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gospell that is no other then the Word made flesh or manifested in the flesh To this purpose saith our Evangelist or rather the Angell of the Lord Luke 2. 10. Feare not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people this is no more then the Prophet saith all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord for unto you is borne this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Lord he was long before and this Lord was made flesh before that day wherein he was borne but first manifested in the flesh upon that day and manifested to be the Saviour of all people or all flesh some eight dayes after yet not then compleatly made Christ untill his resurrection Againe the Gospell in its prime or principall sense is no other or no more then the great mystery of godlinesse which was inwrapt in the volume of Moses and the Prophets but not revealed or unfolded untill the word was made flesh was circumcised in the flesh and made King and Christ Without controversie saith S. Paul 1. Tim. 3. 16. great is the mysterie of godlinesse God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory All these testimonies put together amount to this point that the sonne of God manifested in the flesh was that Word which in S. Peters language is preached by the Gospell And if we doe not preach this word unto our hearers if all our sermons doe not tend to one of these two ends either to instruct our Auditors in the articles of their Creed concerning Christ or to prepare their eares and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions we doe not preach the Gospell unto them wee take upon us the name of Gods Ambassadors or of the ministers of the Gospell more then in vaine 9. Besides all these testimonies and others that might bee alleaged all most undoubtedly true in the literall assertive sense that the mystery of godlinesse or the joyfull tidings which Abrahams seed did expect should consist in the union betweene the eternall Word or sonne of God and our flesh we have a most lively character or prefiguration though not assertive in the originall word designed by the wisedome of God to expresse the preaching of the Gospel or joyfull embassage of our everlasting peace For one and the same word in the originall doth signifie flesh and the preaching of glad tidings unto all people or flesh without variation of any radicall letter but only of grammaticall moode or declension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use of the originall language doth properly signifie flesh that is men or creatures indued with life or sense and being the root or primitive is not a verb but a noune The first verbe that is formed of it doth signifie as much as the Latine nunciavit or nunciare to bring or deliver a message and is alwayes used for some good or joyfull message and in peculiar for the preaching of the Gospell which is the joyfull message 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to omit other places it is thus used Ierem. 20. 15. Cur sed be the man that brought tidings to my Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying a man child is borne unto thee making him very glad And in the forecited 40. of Isaiah ver 9. O Sion that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain◠O Ierusalem that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up be not afraid say unto the cities of Iudah behold your God And in the 61 of Isaiah ver 1. which is the very place wherein the preaching of the Gospell by our Saviour himselfe is foreprophecyed that which S. Luke expresses chap. 4. ver 18. by preaching the Gospell to the poore is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelizatum pauperes Now that flesh and preaching of glad tidings to all flesh should be signified by one and the same originall word no grammarian can easily give any reason It falls not within the compasse of their Etymologies or derivations there is not here a primitive and derivative
be more or lesse capable of his presence or participation But this participation in what degree in what manner or measure soever it be had includes no physicall composition or confusion of natures Thus much Athanasius to prevent all captious exceptions against this similitude had sufficiently expressed in the place forecited though he be God and man yet he is not two but one Christ One not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the manhood into God One altogether not by confusion of substance but by unitie of person 5. Some Philosophers there are and have been who although they grant a Physicall composition of matter and forme in man yet they deny the reasonable soule the intellectuall part at lest to be the forme of man or any part of the Physicall compound which in their Philosophy is prerequired to the constitution of man not any proper part of his essence or nature That visible live-substance wherein the reasonable soule during her pilgrimage here on earth doth reside as in a walking prison is in these mens Philosophy or Divinity as formally distinguished by its meer organical faculties or bodily senses from all other living sensitive creatures as any of them is from another And they are distinguished each from other only by the peculiar manner of the senses or modification of their organicall faculties The reasonable soule or faculty of reason is in this opinion rather the Crowne or Diadem whereby man excells all other creatures as their King or Governour then the Physicall forme whereby he is formally or specifically distinguished from them According to this opinion there should be in one and the same man two distinct compleat natures one bodily physicall compound indued with sense and subject to mortality another rationall and immortall And these two natures make one man not by physicall composition or union of matter and forme but by a peculiar subordination of the sensitive Creature unto the rationall or of sense unto reason as true as firme and reall as the subordination of life is to sense or bodily mixture is unto life or vegetation but not by the same manner of subordination If Athanasius his philosophy were of this mould his comparison would be true quoad modum however leaving the examination of this opinion to the Schooles let us examime his comparison quoad veritatem mensuram 6 Such Philosophers as grant the reasonable soule to be a forme truely physicall and an incompleat part of mans nature do not for the most part affirme that it is propagated from the parents of our bodyes but created by God as the soule of the first man was And yet even these men who deny the reasonable soule to be ex traduce do not avouch that only the bodily part or flesh of man is conceived but the whole man who consists of a reasonable soule aswell as of a body The full and perfect conception of every living thing includes not only a preparation of the bodily substance for receiving the foule but besides this the unition of the foule whether sensitive only or reasonable with its proper body And seeing the proper nature of man consists especially in reason there can be no perfect conception of man as man untill the reasonable soule be seated in and united unto the bodily substance fitted or organized for it Whether that bodily substance were before this union endued with sense or no is not much pertinent to the point now in hand However Philosophers may dispute that case this position is proper and philosophicall Man doth beget man and woman conceives man although the reasonable soule which is the principall part of man do not take its originall or beginning of being either from the man that begets him or from the woman that conceives and brings him forth but immediately from GOD. 7 This assertion likewise is Christian and Theologicall The blessed Virgin did truely conceive and bring forth Christ Jesus God and man the sonne of God and the sonne of David albebeit the Divine nature which is the excellency of Christ did not take beginning from her but was from all eternitie without beginning yet not united to the manhood till the conception wrought by the holy Ghost in the Virgins womb though both assertioÌ„s be most true yet the grouÌ„d of this theologicall assertion is more perspicuous and firme then the ground of the philosophers assertion wherewith it is paralleld Wee Christians may give a better reason of our faith and forme of doctrine then the Philosophers can give of their opinion or manner of phrase in this point First in the conception of ordinary or meere men the bodily substance or the materiall part hath a distinct existence of its owne before it be united unto the reasonable soule and the reasonable soule likewise hath a proper existence at least in order of nature if not of time precedent to its vnion with its body Nor is the union so perfect as to make simply but one existence of both It is actually one potentially two and in the dissolution of body and soule they are actually severed there is not then so much as coexistence or existence of the one in the other But neither the substance which the sonne of God took from the blessed virgin nor the reasonable soule which was united unto it had any proper existence before their union with the divine nature The bodily substance assumed by his divine person was a part of the blessed virgines individuall nature and had its whole existence in her before its assumption but by the assumption it hath existence wholly in him not as a part but as an Appendix to his divine person That which the Philosophers or Schoole Divines say concerning the creation of the reasonable soule and its union with mans body is more remarkably true of Christs humane soule The reasonable soule say the Philosophers infundendo creatur et creando infunditur is created by infusion and is infused by creation Christs reasonable soule was not in order either of time or nature first created then assumed sed assumendo creabatur et creando assumebatur it was created whilest it was assumed and it was assumed whilst it was created Whether it were united to the body or flesh from the first moment of their assumption is an extravagant to this assertion The substance likewise which our blessed Saviour tooke from his mother was not either in order of time or of nature first conceived or prepared by any praeviall dispositions for the divine natures habitation in it and then assumed sed inter assumendum concipiebatur et inter concipieâ—dum assumebatur it was conceived by assumption and assumed in or by its conception 8. The next branch of this inquiry is what is meant when wee say the fruit of the Virgins womb was assumed by the Sonne of God This forme of speech imports thus much at the least that the son of God or the divine nature in his person
after every manner his owne so as our bloud is ours yet his owne by a more proper more full and soveraigne title then our bloud is any way ours 11. Our flesh and bloud may be said to be our owne in two respects either as it is a part of our nature or an appertinence of our person In this last respect the fruit of the Virgins womb was the sonne of Gods own substance the flesh and bloud which hee tooke from her were his after a more exquisite manner or in a fuller measure of the same manner then our flesh and bloud are our owne Or if wee would speake the language of Philosophy her selfe rather then of Philosophers or of such as professe themselves to be her followers though ofttimes as wee say a farre off Our flesh our bloud our limbes are said to be our owne not so much or not so properly as they are parts of our nature as in that they are either parts or appurtenances of our persons That which is immediately next or linkt unto our person is by a more peculiar and soveraigne right our owne then any things whatsoever besides wee do possesse or are Lords of be it Lands goods or servants For whatsoever we possesse being not thus annexed unto our persons are but externalls their possession is communicable their propertie may be so alienated as others may make as good use of them as wee doe A man may be wronged in every thing that is his owne whereof he is by just title possessed but the wrongs done to a man in externalls doe not touch him so neerely as the wrongs done to his person or to any part or appurtenance of it 12. That there is a true and reall distinction betweene the natures and the persons of men or betweene things which are our owne by union of nature or by union unto our persons may thus be gathered Every part of our nature is eyther a part or an appurtenance of our person but every part or appurtenance of our person is not a part of our nature A man may suffer grosse personall wrong without paine or dammage to any part of his nature without losse of any commoditie that could be made of that wherein he suffered wrong it being in it selfe considered uncapable of wrong As in case some joynt or part of a mans body be dead and withered irrecoverably deprived of sense of paine of vitall motion it thereby ceaseth to be a part of the humane nature but it therefore ceaseth not to be an appendance or an appurtenance of his person He that should disfigure mangle or otherwise handle such a dead number any otherwise then the party whose it is were willing to have it handled doth wrong his person in a higher degree than if hee mangled or maymed his live goods or cattell and yet however he handle it he puts the living party to no paine is being as it is supposed no naturall or sensible part of his body nor could it have yeelded any commodity though it had been cut off before it was disfigured Offēces of this nature are not to be valued according to the excellency of the physicall complexion or constitution of the bodily part wounded or contumeliously handled but according to the excellency or dignity of the partie whose flesh or substance it is that is wounded or abused whether it be an entire live part of his nature or an appendix only to his person as being a joynt or member in part maymed or deprived of sense before Generally whether we speake of mens actions or sufferings undertaken for our behoofe to the losse of bloud or limbes we are not to value the one or other so much according to the physicall propertie or naturall worth of the member lost or damnified as according to the dignity of the person which voluntarily undertaketh such hard services for us And thus wee are to rate aswell the indignities and paines which our Saviour suffered in body by the Jews or Roman soldiers as the anguish of his soule in that great conflict with the powers of darknes neither according to the excellencie of his bodily constitution or exquisite purity of his soule but according to the inestimable dignity of his divine person of which aswell his immaculate soule as his undefiled bodie were no naturall parts but appurtenances only 13 Lastly that proper bloud wherewith God is said to have purchased the Church was the bloud of the sonne of God the second person in Trinity after a more peculiar manner then it was the bloud either of God the Father or of God the holy ghost It was the bloud of God the Father or of God the holy Ghost as all other creatures are by common right of creation and preservation It was the bloud of God the son alone by personall union If this sonne of God and high Priest of our soules had offered any other sacrifice for us then himselfe or the manhood thus personally united unto him his offering could not have beene satisfactory because in al other things created the Father and the holy Ghost had the same right or interest which the sonne had hee could not have offered any thing to them which were not as truely theirs as his Onely the seede of Abraham or fruit of the virgins womb which he assumed into the Godhead was by the assumption made so his owne as it was not theirs his owne by incommunicable propertie of personall union By reason of this incommunicable propertie in the womans seede the sonne of God might truely have said unto his Father Lord thou hast purchased the Church yet with my bloud but so could not the man Christ Jesus say unto the sonne of God Lord thou hast payd the ransome for the sinnes of the world yet with my bloud not with thine owne SECT 4. Of the conception and birth of our Lord and Saviour the sonne of God of the circumcision of the sonne of God and the name IESUS given him at his circumcision and of the fulfilling of the types and prophecyes concerning these mysteries CHAP. 31. The aenigmaticall predictions concerning Christs conception unfolded by degrees THat the predictions of the prophets which the Jew acknowledgeth for sacred are of divine infallible authority that according to many of these propheticall praedictions God in the person of the sonne was to become man the eternall word was to be made flesh that is to have our flesh and nature so united unto him that whilest our flesh and nature was conceived and brought forth the sonne of God was also conceived brought forth whilst the man Christ Jesus did suffer in the flesh the sonne of God did also suffer This is the briefe summe or extract of all that hath in this Treatise beene delivered This is the foundation of faith as Christian the radicall article of Christian Theologie It followes in our Apostles Creede that this only sonne of God Christ Iesus our Lord was conceived by the holy Ghost and
scoffe the God of Israel made good in earnest by making this Jesus whom Pilate and the Jews had crucified both Lord and Christ that is a far greater King then Caesar himselfe whom they acknowledge their only King 6 Ioseph his supposed Father in all probabilitie was dead before this time of our Saviours passion so that the lineall right of the Crowne of David was now in Christ as the only sonne of the virgin Mary who had no child by Ioseph her husband nor hee any sonne by any former wife so that the whole right unto the Crowne of David which either or both of them had was by legall descent devolved upon this dying man who after his great humiliation was to be more highly exalted and in him alone that which was said by the prophet Ezekiel was accomplished exalt him that is low and abase him that is high And yet the same Prophecy had beene at severall times verified or fulfilled in part before And first perhaps in Ieconiah who after the debasing of Zedekiah his uncle by Nebuchadnezzar was exalted above other Captives by Nebuchadnezzars sonne Evil-Merodach And againe more punctually according to the prophets meaning in Zorobabel and others of Davids line after Solomons line was either extinguished or deposed but more fully afterwards in the blessed Virgin as shee expresses her thankfulnesse for it in her sweet song Luke 1. 52. Hee hath put downe the mightie from their seate and hath exalted the humble and the meeke Whether the blessed Virgin in her owne right or Ioseph her husbands while he lived were the next heire unto the Crowne of David is disputed by others unto whose determinations I have nothing to say in this place Whatsoever right either or both of them had was I take it derived from David by Nathan not by Solomon or his successors Ioseph and Mary were heires to the kingdome which Solomon did enjoy though not of his seede and so were Salathiel and Zorobabel from whom they directly descended 7 But whether her sonne should be the lawfull heire of David was no part of the blessed virgins doubt or question to the Angel But how shee should conceive a sonne according to the purport of the Angels promise that she questions Luke 1. 24. Then said Mary how shall this be seeing I know not a man To omit the idle fancies of some who would hence collect that the blessed virgin had vowed chastitie in single life as if I know not a man had beene as much as I am resolved never to know man The truth is that however shee was at this time espoused unto Ioseph yet the marriage was not to be consummated til some competent space after the espousals within which time shee did rightly apprehend the conception foretold her by the Angell was to bee accomplished or rather from the very time of this present dialogue and hence shee demands how it was possible that she should instantly conceive seeing she knew not a man yet are not these words of distrust they have no tincture of such incredulitie or slow beliefe as wee finde taxed in Sarah and Zachariah father to Iohn Baptist yet were both Sarah and Elizabeth the wife of Zachariah types or shadowes of the blessed virgins miraculous conceiving So were Hannah and Sampsons mother The conception of all their sonnes and they were respectively their only sonnes was wonderfull and without the ordinary course of nature peculiar blessings of him that maketh the barren to be a joyfull mother of Children Sarah and Hannah and Iohn Baptists parents had beene petitioners to the Lord of life for children and had their petitions ratifyed one by the Preist and others by the Angel of the Lord. But Sampson was promised to Manoahs wife by the Angel of the Lord without any petition on her part made to this purpose and promised withall to be a deliverer of his people from the Philistins And in this particular or in the maner of the Angelicall Annunciation the birth of Sampson was a most lively type of the birth of our Saviour albeit this conception of Sampson was not so strange as that of Isaac That Sarah in her decrepit age should conceive a sonne was a matter incredible and unparalleld in any age of the world before or since yet not properly miraculous Through faith saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 11. Sarah received strength to conceive seede and was delivered of a child when she was past age either for conceiving seede or for bringing it forth conceived yet both shee did because she judged him faithfull who had promised The faith by which shee conceived strength was the gift of God and the strength which shee conceived by this faith was such a wondrous effect as these gifts which are attributed to the faith of miracles But Sarah having received this strength by faith the conception was according to the course of nature it was with her after the manner of women not so with the virgin Mary who became blessed by beleeving the Angel She did not receive strength to conceive seede the performance of those things which were foretold by the Angel were from the Lord himselfe Vnlesse shee had beleeved shee had not beene established yet her beleefe did not cooperate with the effect promised That was the immediate worke of the holy Ghost by marying part of her substance to the person of the Sonne of God after a manner unknowne to her There was not first a marriage and then a conception nor a conception first and then a marriage both were accomplished at once CHAP. 33. S. Mathewes relation of the maner of our Saviours conception and birth and of the harmony betwixt it and the prophecies IT is well observed by divers good writers that S. Mathew begins the Genealogie of our Saviour Christ not from Adam where S. Luke ordine retrogrado ends it but ordine recto from Abraham because the Covenant of the promised seede was first by oath established in Abrahams line and afterwards more particularly in Davids whose sonne and heire our Saviour was though sonne by adoption or next heire in reversion unto Ieconiah who was the last as these Authors think of Solomons line the last at least that could pretend unto the kingdome of David And though it be said in our Saviours Genealogie according to S. Mathew that Ieconiah begat Salathiel yet this cannot be meant of a naturall begetting but of a civil He was the son of Salathiel in such a sense as the holy Ghost useth in the second Psalme ver 7. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee to wit unto the Kingdome of Israel if this place be literally to be understood of David as the most probable opinion is though afterwards to be mystically fulfilled only in Christ who is not only Gods only begotten sonne from eternity but his first begotten from the dead and so made King of Kings and Lord of Lords But of these points in their due place 2
Iudaea For thus it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah For out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel It is not strange if the chiefe Priests and Scribes were so ready with their answers unto Herod seeing this prenotion concerning the place of the Messiahs birth was knowne unto the vulgar people Many of the people saith S. John when they heard this saying said Of a truth this is the Prophet Others said This is the Christ But some said Shall Christ come out of Galilee Hath not the Scripture said that Christ commeth of the seede of David and out of the towne of Bethleem where David was 8. But how cleare soever the meaning of the Prophet Micah in those daies were both to Priest and people some variation there is in the words of S. Matthew from the words of the Prophet as they stand in the originall at which both later Jewes and some Christians take more offence then the ancient Jews could have done And if this variation were of any moment or could minister just offence either to the Jew to the Grecian or to the Church of God all the blame were to be layed upon these Scribes and Priests whom Herod in his perplexity did consult For S. Matthew in this particular was but the Register of their answer which hee did record in the same words that they solemnely made it The words of the Prophet in the originall as they are now pointed runne thus And thou Bethleem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Iudah yet out of thee shall hee come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have beene from old from everlasting Micah 5. 2. The answer of the Priests and Scribes as it stands upon record by S. Matthew is verbatim thus And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea in clearer distinction from Bethleem in the Tribe of Zebulon in which Tribe or upon whose borders our Saviour was conceived then the Prophets words import for That it may be might as truely brooke the name of Ephrata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam miniâ—a es inter principatâ—â— and Chiliadas Iudeae Art nothing lesse then the least of all the Segniories or divisions of Iudah For so it seemes they did divide their Tribes or Provinces as wee doe Shires or Counties into severall Hundreds or Liberties Some good Writers whom our English followeth seeke to salve this seeming contradiction betweene the Prophet and Evangelist or that answer which hee relates made by the chiefe Priests and Scribes to Herod thus But thou or as for thee O Bethleem Ephrata though thou be little to be reckoned among the Seigniories or thousands of Iudea yet out of thee shall he come forth unto mee that is to be Ruler in Israel c. But this squaring of the Prophets words to our Evangelists relation is somewhat harsh and rugged to the moderne Jew who seekes to frame his steps according to the plaine troden literall sense And therefore seeing both Christians and Jews as well ancient as moderne agree that the promised Messias was to be borne in Bethleem the variation of the reading in the Prophet and in the Evangelist should not in reason be too much stood upon by either yet seeing wee are bound to give no offence to the Jew nor to presse any reading at which they may stumble being enclined to trip at every scruple we may I take it with the liking and approbation of Drusius an exquisite Hebrician for point of Grammar and without the dislike of any learned Jew reade the first words of the Prophet Micah by way of interrogation thus And art thou Bethleem Ephrata little or too little to be reputed among the principalities of Iudah Now this interrogation according to both their rules and ours is equivalent to the negative used by our Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam minima thou art in no wise little or too little to have place among the Seigniories or principalities of Iudaea This interrogation being presupposed the words following naturally admit this paraphrasticall supply little thou art and for a long time hast beene in re but great in spe For out of thee shall hee come forth to me which shall be the Ruler over Israel whose going forth hath beene of old from everlasting foretold and expected before Iudah was a Kingdome or David a King from the beginning of the world of mankinde and ever since the fall of the first man Adam CHAP 34. The manner of our Saviours conception and birth as it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah exactly fulfilled The Iews exceptions against S. Matthewes allegation of the Prophet Isaiahs testimony with the full answer unto them MICAH foretells the particular place of the sonne of Davids birth in termes plaine and literall Ieremiah the place of his conception in generall as Isaiah had done before in particular but both somwhat aenigmatically The manner of his conception and birth abstracted from these circumstances of place and time is most emphatically foretold by Isaiah and as I take it some few yeares before Micah did so punctually describe the place of his birth Micah as it is upon sacred record Ierem. 26. 18 19. prophecied in the dayes of Hezekiah and so did Isaias But whether any prophecie of Micah beare date before the raigne of Hezekiah is to me uncertaine And that prophecie of Micah before mentioned Chap. 5. ver 2. And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea c in all probability was delivered in the dayes of Hezekiah and after that other prophecy Micah 3. 12. Sion shall be plowed like a field c. Whereas the prophecy of Isaias concerning the manner of Christs conception and birth was uttered by him viva voce in the dayes of King Ahaz who was Father to Hezekiah as appeares Isaiah 7. 1. unto the 17. The prophecy was Heare yee now O House of David is it a small thing for you to weary men but will you wearie my God also Therefore the Lord himselfe shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin or the Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel This is the first prophecy alleaged by S. Matthew Chap. 1. where having registred the Angels speech to Ioseph in a vision by night ver 19. Then Ioseph her Husband being a just â—an and not willing to make her a publique example was minded to put her away privily But while he thought on these things behold the Aâ—gel of the Lord appeared to him in a dreame saying Joseph thou sonne of David feare not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost he thus concludeth Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet 2. Iunius in his parallel upon this 22 verse and the forecited testimony of
Emmanuel here prophecyed by Isaiah was any signe at all of Ahaz present delivery or of the disaster of Rezin and Pekah but of a greater and stranger deliverance of Judah and Israel from their potent enemies in future ages And that seeing the Lord from the beginning of that kingdome had promised to give the house of David so admirable a signe as the conception of a sonne by a pure virgin it was either hypocrisie or strange incredulity in Ahaz to refuse a lesser sign of his present deliverance whē God did so freely offer it as it is ver 10 11 12. Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz saying ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above But Ahaz said I will not ask neither will I tempt the Lord. This in the prophets construction was to weary and vex God who had proffered this signe But what signe Any that Ahaz would demand for his present securitie against the confederacy of Syria and Ephraim And seeing hee would not choose a signe the Lord would give him one better then hee could have chosen for himselfe Behold a virgin shall conceive c. But the question still remaines of what this should be a signe Iunius denyeth it to be any signe of that deliverance or assurance for which Ahaz was commanded to ask a signe hee adds withall that of this temporary deliverance Shear-iashub whom Isaiah was commanded to bring with him when hee went to meet Ahaz was the signe or pledge But herein I cannot assent unto him for Shear-iashub was a pledge of their returne whom Pekah and Rhesin had lately captivated no signe or pledge of keeping Ahaz or Hezekiah in possession of the Kingdome Of all this the Emmanuel here promised was the undoubted signe or pledge if wee would looke upon the sacred story whilest wee debate those controversies with the Jew or with others that differ in opinion from us in this particular 5 Not to trouble the Reader with recitall of other good Christian writers opinions concerning this point or of their expositions upon this place of Isaiah the resultance of their confident contestations pro and con is but this There is more contention than contradiction betweene them about the true intent and meaning of the holy Ghost and of the Prophet The Jew indeed flatly contradicts us in our expositions of this place and so farre as they contradict us in the maine point wee are bound to maintaine our contradiction to them But the extending of this contradiction unto them in all their expositions on this place of some others declare the Jew and us Christians to be two sons of one and the same Father The Jew being the elder brother is carefull to preserve the map or terrar of the inheritance bequeathed unto him after he hath beene disinherited And frantick as he is having the map or terrar he brags that the inheritance represented in it is wholly his Wee Christians one and other being seized and in possession of the inheritance permit him the libertie of raving as losers must have leave to speake But oftentimes while we laugh at him wee our selves are carelesse to take a Copie of the terrar whose safe custody the Jew makes cheife matter of his Religion although he oftentimes beslurre it with foolish animadversions of his owne invention as unskilfull students do good bookes which they understand not with impertinent ridiculous marginall notes or interlineations But however we Christians be in possession of the inheritance promised to Abraham from which Abrahams seed according to the flesh have beene ejected it would be no harme to be beholding unto them for a Copie of the ancient terrars of it I meane of the literall sense of divers Scriptures of prophecyes especially and of this most admirable prophecy in particular The blots and staines which the Jew hath made or suffered to bee made in the literall exposition of this place may easily be taken out without obliteration of that exact proportion which their other expositions on this place hold with the Evangelicall mysteryes as well forepictured as foretold in this prophecy That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particularized by note of demonstration or speciall referance should then be a married or Child-bearing woman is a blot or staine in the literall meaning of this prophecie which unlesse it be taken out will utterly deface the proportion betweene the historicall event here foretold and the Evangelicall mysterie represented by it A greater blot or staine it is which the Jew hath made by avouching that the Emmanuel whose birth was here foretold should be either Shear-iashub the sonne of Isaiah or Hezekiah the sonne of Ahaz both of them being borne before this time as it is evident the one from the literall meaning of the Prophet the other from the sacred stories of the bookes of Kings and Chronicles As for those Jews which respectively avouch both parts of this foolish coniecture they expresse the same humour to raigne in them which Busbequius observes in the moderne Turks who when the fit comes upon them will not stick to say that Iob was Steward of Solomons houshold and Alexander the great Master of his Horse Yet these and some few like staines or blots which the moderne Jew hath made in Isaiah his map or terrar of the Evangelicall mysterie whose exemplification is fully recorded by S. Matthew being taken out their other expositions of the Prophets words rather preserve then deface the map it selfe and may be of good use to discover the proportion betweene it and our royall inheritance represented in it or for confirming our beliefe as well of the Evangelists as of the Prophets relations First when the Jews alledge that the Emmanuel promised by the Prophet was to be borne within some few yeares or rather within the compasse of a yeare from the time of his meeting Ahaz this is most consonant to the literall sense of these words Chap. 7. 16. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings This saith the marginall note upon our former English is not meant of Christ but of any Child For before a Child can come to the yeares of discretion the Kings of Samaria and Syria shall be destroyed The note is two wayes faulty First in denying this to be meant at all of Christ Secondly in avouching it to be meant of any Child And I wish the note were extant in our English or in some other language onely which the Jews for the most part either do not read or do not understand Yet if this place may be meant not of every Child but of any one Child besides our Saviour Christ and if the word Hagnalma in the 14 verse according to its strict propriety do signifie a virgin shall we not hence be concluded to grant that some other virgin besides the virgin Mary
and before her did conceive and bring forth a sonne This in no wiâ—e may be granted nor any interpretation of any place admitted from which such impious conclusions as this may be inferred To conceive a sonne whilest shee was a virgin was the incommunicable prerogative of the mother of our Lord. Yet will it not hence follow that the Prophet by the emphaticall character of a virgin Hagnalma might not designe some virgin then present not the Prophets wife but rather some virgin of Ahaz kinred or of the house of Iudah for whom hee astipulates that within the compasse of the yeare following shee should conceive and bring forth a sonne not whilst shee was a virgin but by becomming a lawfull wife beyond or before her expectation 7. But here such as are otherwise minded or take this passage to be literally meant of the blessed virgin alone will reply What wonder was it or what matter worthy the ushering in with an Ecce or other like injunction of attention for her who was now a virgin to conceive and bring forth a sonne after the manner that other women within a yeare after they are maried usually do But they who thus object facilè pronunciant quia ad pauca respiciunt they give sentence upon the view of one circumstance only when as they should take a great many more into their consideration The virgin thus particularized according to the literall sense of the Prophet whether then present as is most probable or otherwise so famously knowne that his words in all mens apprehension then present had reference to her might be either for want of yeares or for some other defects as unlikely to bring forth a sonne within the time limited as Sarah after 90 yeares age was more unlikely than the wife of Manoah or Zacharias However it farre surpassed the skill of Astrologers Physitians of men expert in naturall Magick or other kinde of divination whatsoever besides the divination which proceedes from the Father of lights to give such full assurance as the Prophet there doth that any woman should conceive within such a compasse of time or that shee should conceive a sonne not a daughter least of all that shee should conceive and bring forth a Sonne who should deservedly brooke the name and title of Emmanuel that is to be a pledge of Gods speciall presence to the house of David or land of Iudah or to protect them against their potent enemies or to be a demonstrative signe or hostage that before hee could know how to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land which Ahaz abhorred should be forsaken of both their Kings who were now ready and able without Gods speciall ayde to devoure the Land of Iudah Yet for all these and other like consequences of Emmanuels birth the Prophet confidently astipulates in the name of his God which without a speciall warrant from him had beene an intolerable presumption But as for Ahaz himselfe his house and people because they would not beleeve this prediction according to the literall tenour they were to be plagued by that Nation in whose potencie they put their trust by the same enemie which the Prophet had foretold should by Gods appointment defeat the present mischievous designe of Syria and Samaria against Iudah And all this they should have done without any future harme or danger to the house of David by them so Ahaz and his people would have relyed entirely upon Gods promise or faithfully accepted of the signe promised by his Prophet But not beleeving this they were not established ver 9. For so the Prophet immediatly after Ahaz refusall of this signe did threaten Ahaz and his people ver 17. The Lord shall bring upon thee and thy people and upon thy Fathers house dayes that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah even the Kings of Assyria And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall hisse for the Flye that is in the uttermost part of the Rivers of Aegypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleyes and in the holes of the rockes and upon all thornes and upon all bushes The demerits of Ahaz and of his people which did deserve the denuntiation and execution of the plagues here threatned were their too much confidence in the King of Assyria and their distrust hence occasioned of what the Lord had promised by his Prophet Isaiah and would have performed by other meanes than by the ayde of the Assyrian so they would have relyed upon them Wee do not reade that either Ahaz or his people did distrust much lesse that they were punished for their distrust unto Gods promises concerning the comming of the Messias in the appointed time but for not accepting the signe or pledge as well of his comming as of their instant deliverance from the danger wherein then they stood 8. But what probabilities or just presumptions be there that any woman who was a virgin at the time when Ahaz and Isaiah met in the high way of the Fullers field should upon the occasion mentioned become a married woman and conceive a sonne according to the time intimated by the Prophet All this I take it is more then probable from the true and literall meaning of the 1 2 3 and 4 verses of the 8 Chapter which are no other then an exegeticall exposition of the former prophecie Chap. 7. vers 14 15 16. or a more legall ratification or new assumption of making good the assurance which in the former Chapter he had given Moreover the Lord said unto me take thee a great roule and write in it with a mans penne concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz And I took unto me faithfull witnesses to record Vriah the Priest and Zechariah the sonne of Jeberechiah And I went unto the Prophetesse and shee conceived and bare a sonne then said the Lord to mee Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry my father and my mother the riches of Damascus and the spoile of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria The Child promised Chap. 7. ver 14 and in this place according to the true connexion of the literall sense is in my apprehension one and the same though described by two names the one importing comfort to the house of David and the land of Iudah and this was given him before his conception the later importing the sudden execution of the woes denounced against Syria and Samaria and was given him after his conception And lest wee should doubt whether this Maher-shalal-hash-baz were the same with the Emmanuel promised in the former Chapter hee is instyled again by the very same name Chap. 8. unto ver 8. The Lord spake unto me againe saying Forsomuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that goe softly and rejoyce in Rezin Remaliahs sonne now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up
upon them the waters of the rivers strong and many even the King of Assyria and all his glory and he shall come up over all his channels and goe over all his banks Againe that the name Emmanuel did literally import Gods peculiar presence at that time with his people not only to deliver them from Rezin and Pekah but from the potencie of the Assyrian in future times is evidently included in the 9 and 10 verses Associate your selves O yee people and yee shall be broken in pieces and give eare all yee of farre Countries gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall be brought to naught speake the word and it shall stand for God is with us The strange defeat of the confederacie here foretold was not to be expected in the dayes of Ahaz in whose times the Assyrian did attempt no great matters against them but in the dayes of Hezekiah Thus much the Prophets words in the verses following import ver 16. 17. Binde up the testimony seale my law among my Disciples And I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him This binding up of the Testimony and sealing of this Law doth argue both the Law and testimony to have beene of speciall moment yet not to be put in execution or fully accomplished for the present Of the accomplishment of both whether wholly or in part the Prophets sonnes in the interim were signes and pledges as is imported ver 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given mee are for signes and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hoasts which dwelleth in Mount Sion This last passage is alledged by the Apostle amongst others to prove that the Lord of Hoasts himselfe who in the 14. verse of the 8. of Isaiah had promised to be a Sanctuary to his people was to participate with them of flesh and bloud Hee that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee And againe I will put my trust in him And againe Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yet that the 18. verse of Isaiah the 8 to which our Apostle in this place referres us was literally meant of the Prophet and his Children is too apparent to be denied nor will it be safe to stand upon termes of contradiction thus farre with the moderne Jew One of the Prophets sonnes was called Shear-iashub which by interpretation is The remnâ—nt shall returne and of this returne or restauration hee was the signe or pledge The other was called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us a name portending or foretokening Gods speciall presence with his people at more times than one The imposition of both names and their importance were literally fulfilled in the age immediatly following but mistically fulfilled only in Christ whose comming to visit his people was prefigured by both of them The full importance or abode of the name Emmanuel was fulfilled in our Saviours conception and birth the true importance of Shear-iashub shall be mystically fulfilled when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come or when the Jew shall be called to be againe the seede of Abraham according to promise 9. Two points only remaine The first how the prophecie concerning Emmanuel was fulfilled according to the literall sense in the Prophets time and our resolution in this point wee must take from the sacred records of this theame in the old Testament The second how this prophecie was fulfilled according to the mysticall sense and this wee must learne from the Evangelists which alledge the fulfilling of it and other unpartiall Writers which relate either circumstances or signes of those times in which they wrote Out of these two points the parallel betweene the Prophet and Evangelists will of its owne accord without any anxious inquirie or further discussion result 10 The Histories of the old Testament by which Isaiahs literall meaning may be best interpreted are in the 2 of Kings 17 18. 2 Chron. 28. 16 17 c. We have a constat from the prophet Isaiah himselfe Chap. 7. 1 2. That this prophecy concerning Emmanuel was uttered by him in the dayes of Ahaz King of Judah and of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah but in what certaine yeare of either of these two Kings raignes this revelation was made to Isaiah and the matter of it instantly imparted unto King Ahaz is not so certaine Most certaine it is that Isaiah delivered this message from the Lord to Ahaz before the twelfth yeare of his raigne for in that yeare Hoshea the sonne of Elah begun to raigne in Samaria over Israel 2 Kings 17. 1. and this was after Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was dead And though it be not so certaine yet most probable it is that the former prophecy was uttered about the 8 or 9 yeare of Ahaz or about 3 yeares or somewhat more before Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was slaine One yeare or somewhat under we must allow for the conception and birth of the Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz and some two yeares after untill he were upon the point or period of time wherein ordinary Children in those dayes were enabled to know how to refuse the evill and choose the good that is to distinguish between other meats besides milke butter and honey and betweene his parents and other persons Before this Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz were thus enabled to distinguish betweene meate and meat or his parents and other persons but how long before this time it is uncertaine both Pekah sonne of Remaliah and Rezin King of Syria according to the tenour of Isaiahs prophecy and the astipulation made by him upon the signe profered to Ahaz were to be deprived of their Kingdomes or rather their Land and Kingdomes to be quitted of them Isaiah 7. 16. Chap. 8. ver 4. But before their ruine and before this revelation concerning their ruine was made unto the Prophet Isaiah they had brought Judah and the house of David exceeding low 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 7 8. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria and they smote him carryed away a great multitude of them Captives and brought them to Damascus And hee was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter For Pekah the sonne of Remaliah slue in Iudah an hundred and twentie thousand in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers And Zichri a mightie man of Ephraim slue Maaserah the Kings sonne and Azrikam the governour of the house and Elkanah that was next to the King And the Children of Israel caryed away captive
of it the hopes of Rezin and Pekah for the extirpation of it were so advanced that they confidently resolved upon the particular man whom they meant to make King of Iudah that was the sonne of Tabeol Isaiah 7. 6. In the height of this their confidence and the perplexitie of Judah and the House of David the Lord sends his Prophet Isaiah to give them assurance of their Delivery by an extraordinary signe In the dayes of Ioseph and Mary his espoused wife the House of David whereof they both were branches was brought much lower then in the dayes of Ahaz it had beene And however no mischief were intended against them in particular as being obscure and private persons neither in possession nor competitors for the Kingdome yet for breaking off the succession of David or preventing any of his line to be Lord of Judah the plot was laid with more cunning then it had been by Rezin and Pekah Three of those ancient Fochoods which had sought to wreak themselves against Judah in the dayes of Ahaz were now revived and united in one man in Herod the great and the Fochood by this union became both greater and stronger He was by birth a Philistine and by royall title bestowed upon him by the Romanes King of Idumaea and Samaria unto which he sought to annex Judea as his inheritance And although the particulars be not mentioned in the new Testament yet is it indefinitely evident out of S. Matthew that Herod had his confederates against the house of David and which assoone as they knew of his birth did seeke the life of the sonne of David When Herod was dead behold an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dreame to Ioseph in Aegypt saying Arise and take the yong Child and his mother and goe into the Land of Israel for they are dead which sought the yong Childs life Math. 2. 19. 20. This argues there were some other that dyed about the same time with Herod which with him had sought the life of Jesus In this low estate whereunto the house of David was brought before the death of Herod and his confederates the Lord did send not a Prophet but an Angel to assure not the continuance only of Davids succession but the restauration enlargement and everlasting establishment of his Kingdome unto Mary the daughter of David and her husband by a greater signe than Isaiah had proffered unto Ahaz The Angel delivers his embassage mostwhat in the same words that Isaiah did to Ahaz Behold saith the Prophet Isaiah 7. 14. this virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and she shall call his name Emmanuel Unto the blessed virgin then present saith the Angel Luke 1. 30 31. Feare not Mary for thou hast found favour with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a sonne and shalt call his name Iesus The imposition of this name Jesus is committed to the care of the virgin so was the name of Emmanuel to the virgin to whom the Prophet Isay directs his speech when he delivered his message unto Ahaz For in the originall the word which S. Matthew renders impersonally or in the third person plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is according to the Hebrew Dialect Hee shall be called is the second person singular and the foeminine tu vocabis thou Virgin shalt call him Emmanuel This variation of the Evangelist from the Prophets precise word is such as breedes no vitiation at all in the reall sense but such as reason it selfe and rules of Grammar require in like cases The Virgin being as wee suppose present when the Prophet exhibited the signe unto Ahaz hee was to speake unto her in the second person But the Evangelist relating the fulfilling of this prophecie not in the literall sense onely but in the mysticall was to change the person or to relate it in the third person plurall which is indeed an impersonall according to the Hebrew Dialect Behold a virgin shall bring forth a sonne and they shall call his name that is he shall be called Emmanuel which is by interpretation God with us 12 But here the Jew demands first how the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is alwayes emphaticall should denote the blessed Virgin and should be transferred from one virgin to another Secondly why the name given our Saviour at his circumcision was not Emmanuel according to the Prophets speech but Jesus To the first demand wee answer that the originall letter is alwayes emphaticall sometimes a note of demonstration or particularity and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin then present as if the Prophet had said Ecce virgo haec Behold this virgin shall conceive c. Sometime it is a note of Eminencie and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin of Virgins the blessed Mother of our Lord of whom it is meant not only in the mysticall but in the most exquisite literall sense To the second we say the imposition of the name Emmanuel had beene requisite at our Saviours circumcision if this prophecie had bin meant of Him only in the literall sense But in as much as it was to be fulfilled in Him according to the most exquisite both literall and mysticall sense it was requisite there should be an improvement as well in the significancie of the name as in the thing signified by it Now the name Iesus imports a great deale more than the name Emmanuel as will appeare in the explication of it The importance of the name Emmanuel as it referres unto the Childe instantly promised by Isaiah is applied unto the blessed Virgin by the Angel in his preface to the Annuntiation Luk. 1. 28. Haile thou that art in high favour the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women The Lord was with her in a more peculiar manner whilest the Angell thus spoke unto her then he had beene with Gideon to whom the like salutation was tendred by an Angel Iudg. 6. 12. Or with Iudah in the dayes of Isaiah or Hezekiah But after the Lord was conceived by her he was both with her and with us after a more admirable manner than at any time he had beene before with Gods dearest Saints This manner of his being with us could not be fully expressed by any other name then the name Iesus 13 Ahaz his distrust unto Gods promise being set aside or rather if wee use it as a foyle to set forth the blessed Virgins facile assent and fidelity unto the Revelation made unto her by the Angell the propheticall and Evangelicall story hold better correspondencie both for substance and circumstance thâ—â— is betweene the Model and the Edifice The Emmanuel promised by Isaiah was an assured pledge that Pekah King of Samaria and Rezin King of Syria should die or be deposed before this Childe could distinguish betweene meates or cry My Father my Mother The accomplishment of this signe or of the promise confirmed by it is registred in
the sacred story For Pekah was slaine by Hoshea the sonne of Elah within two or three yeares after the signe was given and so was Rezin by Tiglath Pileser at Damascus Within the like compasse of yeares after the Evangelicall promise was made to the blessed Virgin that her sonne Iesus should sit upon her Father Davids throne Herod the great who had usurped it did die a miserable death so did his confederates against the house of Iudah as wee gather from Matthew 2. 20. Arise saith the Angel to Ioseph in a dreame and take the young Childe and his Mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead which sought the young Childes life Now Ioseph returned from Egypt two yeares after our Saviour was borne Whom the Evangelist meanes beside Herod when hee saith they were dead which sought the Childes life is no where in sacred story expressed nor is it to mee certaine whether Syria at that time had a King of their own but it is probable they had seeing in S. Pauls time Aretas was King of Damascus 2. Cor. 11. 32. Some there be which mention the death of one Obedas whom they make King of Syria who died about the same time with Herod but from what authority they expresse not The Evangelist might meane the Roman Governour of Syria by whose favour and potencie Herod was emboldned to tyrannize over the Jews Nation and to worke his projects against the house of David Some have accused Quintilius Varus of this great sinne unto whom and to the Legions under his Governement the right hand of the Lord of Hoasts had reached a more terrible blow than Iudah had received from him or Herod within some few yeares after the butcherie of the Infants 14. The second blessing whereof the Emmanuel was a pledge whose conception had beene foretold by Isaiah was not exhibited till many yeares after and it was this that Judah and the house of David should be more admirably delivered from the Assyrian when he should besiege Ierusalem more fiercely then Rezin or Pekah had done And this was in the dayes of Hezekiah for so the Prophet assures the people that the rod of Ashur should be broken as in the day of Midian Isaiah 9. 4. Which is in effect as if he had said The Lord will be with us after as wonderfull a manner as he was with Gideon when Israel was oppressed by the Midianites And so it fell out in the dayes of Hezekiah that Senacheribs mighty Army was destroyed by a more fearefull destruction then the Midianites had beene by Gideon And unto this strange defeat of the Assyrian the Prophets words Isaiah 9. 4 5. do referre Thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen and the staffe of his shoulders the rod of his Oppressour as in the day of Midian For every battell of the Warrier is with confused noyse and garments rolled in bloud but this shall be with burning and fewell of fire Now of this disaster which befell Assyria and the strange deliverance of Iudah and the house of David by it the Emmanuel there promised by Isaiah was the pledge or assurance as the Prophet in the next word intimates For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. Isaiah 9. 6. That by this Childe the Prophet meant the Emmanuel mentioned Chapter 7. is acknowledged by all even by such as admit of no more Emmanuels then one to wit our Saviour Christ But seeing the Emmanuel there literally meant was given as a pledge or comfort unto Iudah in this particular distresse certainely hee was borne before him though not borne only as a pledge of this deliverance but of a farre greater Deliverer or Saviour to come for whose sake alone this deliverance and all other of his people from their enemies both bodily and ghostly were sent from God And best Interpreters take those words of Isaiah 2. Kings 9. 34. I will defend this Citie to save it for mine owne sake and for my servant Davids sake to be literally meant not of David but of Davids sonne the true Emmanuel But to returne to the 9. of Isaiah upon that vision of that great overthrow of Senacheribs Armie the Prophet takes his rise to view a greater victory a more potent Enemie in the same place where Senacheribs Armie was overthrowne and that was not neere Ierusalem but in the borders of Zebulun and Napthali neere to Libanus in that Country whose Inhabitants Senacheribs predecessour Tiglath-Pileser had first captivated and in the same place our Saviour gave his Apostles power over Satan and his Angels who had his people in greater subjection then the Assyrians had them in the time of Isaiah For hee had possessed many of their bodies after another manner then any earthly Tyrant could have them in possession Now when the Prophet foretels as well the victory of the Angell of the Lord over the Assyrian as the victory of Christs Apostles over Satan he gives this one signe of both For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. These words may referre both to the type and to the antitype in the literall sense but immediatly after the light of that great mysterie which all this while had beene under the cloude of the literall sense breakes forth in its proper native lustre For the words following can be meant of none but Christ And his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Of the encrease of his governement and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever the Zeale of the Lord of Hoasts will performe this As for the former passages concerning the Emmanuel and Mahar-shalal-hash-baz they are literally meant of Isaiah his sonne and yet are withall proofes no lesse concludent against the Jew no lesse pregnant testimonies of our beliefe concerning the miraculous birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ than the testimonies last cited out of Isaiah 9. 6 7. or of his Godhead or everlasting Kingdome For however such immediate visions or unvailed revelations of Christ as Isaiah in these two verses and in the 53 Chapter or elsewhere addes were the most sublime kinde of prophecies such as few other Prophets besides David could ever attaine unto these having the like priviledges amongst the Prophets that Peter Iames and Iohn had amongst the fellow Apostles permitted to ascend the Mount with Christ and see the transfiguration or glory of his Kingdom Yet for our instruction predictions of Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are most admirably concludent as was premised before especially when the same words according to the literall sense fit both the pledge and the mysterie pledged or the Evangelicall mysterie according to the improvement in a more exquisite sense then they did the type or