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
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
overreach or fall awry of it none of them doe punctually fall upon it For no Christian or Heathen Writer whether ancient or moderne hath hitherto made question whether the fourth Eclogue of Virgil were penned by this Heathen Poet or composed by some which lived after our Saviours death in favour of the Christians Now if wee had the notes of that plaine song on which this Prince of latine Poets runnes such curious descant in the very characters wherein Sibylla Cumaea left it for Virgil as he himselfe professeth was but a Commentator upon this one among many other heathen Prophetesses intitled to this name of Sibyll I do not see nor can I conjecture what passages in the old testament doe more literally and plainely expresse the sacred mysteries concerning Christ and his Kingdome which the Evangelists have unfolded unto us then that one Sibylla did on whose writings Virgil comments in lofty and curious verse 3. The Law and Prophets saith our Saviour continued unto Iohn the Baptist His meaning is not that the matter of those writings did then expire or determine or that the writings themselves should then become obsolete or out of use But rather that John should take the lampes which they had lighted and deliver them to such as were to pursue the same course which hee after the law and Prophets had undertaken Hee was Lucerna ardens lucens a bright and a burning Lampe to enlighten such as lived with him or came after him to follow his steps with zeale and devotion towards him whom he did usher into the world As Johns entrance upon his office was a kinde of period to the Law and Prophets after which there was a new Epocha or distinction of times to follow so there was to be a determination of Sibylls Oracles about that time wherein Virgil wrote that fourth Eglogue Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas Virgil did grossely erre in the person or party of whom this prophecy of Sibyll was literally meant according to the intention of the spirit of divination by which it was first conceived and erre he did though not so grossely in the circumstances of the time wherein it was to be accomplished But these two errors and other circumstances being pardoned the substance of his discourse or descant upon Sibylla Cumaea's verses is Orthodoxall and such as concludently argues the text whereon he Comments to have beene originally more then humane truly divine 4. For however wee have learned long agoe that all the gratious promises made by God unto the ancient Israelites for continuation of the Aaronicall Priesthood and other like prerogatives peculiar to that Nation under the style or tenure of Legnolam for ever were to determine at the revelation of their long expected Messias and although many Christian writers well versed in Hebrew Antiquaries assuredly informe us this was an unquestionable tradition amongst the ancient Hebrew Rabbins though now denied yet no writer either Jewish or Christain give me so full satisfaction in this point as Virgil in the forecited Eglogue doth For after he had said Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas He addeth immediately Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo This implies that as there was then an end of that age or world wherein Sibylla Cumaea lived so there was another age or world to begin at the accomplishment of her prophecy which was to have no period but to be as we say Saecula Saeculorum a world of worlds or a world without end Such wee Christians beleeve the Kingdome of Christ to be which was to take its beginning here on earth at the accomplishments of the prophecies concerning his resurrection and exaltation With his Crosse or humiliation Virgil meddles not having transformed all that Sibylla prophecied of Him into the similitude of the Romane Empire as then it stood goodly and glorious and so to continue as he hoped with perpetuall increase of strength and happinesse If wee had all the single threds as Sibylla left them which this Heathen Poet hath twisted into these and the like strong lines Iam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto 5. Me thinkes they might lead us by a compendious and gaine way unto a clearer view of many divine mysteries recorded by sacred writers concerning our Saviours eternall generation incarnation nativity and propagation of his Kingdome then wee can hope to approach unto by the perplexed Labyrinths of many moderne Interpreters of divers Schoolemen or by any tradition of the ancient Hebrewes as now they are extant But the exact parallel betweene the undoubted Oracles of Gods Prophets and such hints as Virgil descants upon from Sibylla Cumaea I leave to yonger Academick Divines or Moralists It shall suffice my present purpose to adde some one or two more unto the former The first Revelation concerning Christ and his Kingdome which is extant upon sacred record is That Gen. 3. ver 15. I will put enmitie saith God to the Serpent betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele That this womans seed was to be a man all that beleeved the truth of Moses writings did know but that he was to be the sonne of a pure virgin was more as is most probable then our Mother Evah more then the father and mother of Noah at the birth of their first borne did apprehend and perhaps more then some Prophets and many godly men after them did explicitely beleeve Yet of this mysterie that Sibylla whom Virgil followes had certainely a prenotion though transformed by Virgil into Poeticall fictions of Astraea For it is likely by Iam redit virgo c. he meant her returne unto the Earth The accomplishment of that first prophecy Gen. 3. ver 15. by our Saviours victory gotten over Satan upon the Crosse was first declared by himselfe after his resurrection to his Disciples Marke 16. 17 18. And these signes shall follow them that beleeve In my name shall they cast out Devills they shall speake with new tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drinke any deadly thing it shall not hurt them c. Of all this the Heathen Sibylla had a prenotion expressed by Virgil in few yet pithy words Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni Occidet 6. The wildernesse saith the Prophet Isaiah cap. 35. 1 2. shall be glad for them and the desart shall rejoyce and blossome It shall blossome abundantly And againe cap. 41. 19. I will plant in the wildernesse the Cedar the Shittah tree and the myrtle and the oyle tree I will set in the desart the firre tree and the pine and the boxe tree together All these and the like expressions of matter of joy in these two chapters and elsewhere in this Prophet have their parallel in that fore-cited Eglogue And as if he had foreseene that which the Apostle tells
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
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