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
discover the project is that kinde of prediction which only deserves the title of Prophecie or Divination properly so called and is not communicable to any creature save onely by participation of the divine spirit All such predictions must be derived from some revelation immediatly made by God himselfe unto some one or other of his creatures from whom the rest receive it either by writing or by tradition This Topicke of Divinitie the Lord himselfe immediatly taught the Prophet Isaiah Cap. 41. ver 21. Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong reasons saith the King of Iacob Let them bring forth and shew us what shall happen Let them shew the former things what they be that wee may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that wee may know that yee are Gods This case comes home against all pretended divinations given by Oracles by the supposed heathen Gods and their Priests and Prophets So doth that other Isa the 47. 5 6 7. fully reach all pretended Astrologicall divinations of contingents future 5. Yet all the predictions concerning Christ in the writing of Moses or the Prophets are of this rank and nature which God himselfe denies could be foreseene or foretold either by supposed Heathen Gods or by Astrologers Now this principle being once granted That all the Prophecies concerning Christ alleaged by the Evangelists were uttered many yeares before the relation of their accomplishment by them no rationall man can denie that the first revealer of them was God himselfe who calleth things that are not as if they were and foretelleth things to come as if they were already past Many things foretold by the Prophets concerning the incarnation of the sonne of God his birth his death and passion resurrection c. demonstratively inferre a creative or Omnipotent power from whom they received this spirit of divination Many againe besides the supposall of his Omnipotent power manifestly argue a wisedome truly infinite Of the deduction of both these attributes from propheticall divinations of legall or other typicall praefigurations of Christ and his Kingdome hereafter by Gods assistance as the exposition of types or Prophecies or of both either severally or joyntly considered shall minister matter or occasion That predictions of this rank and nature wherof wee now treat did suppose a power divine for their Author was a common prenotion amongst the Heathen amongst the Latines especially in whose language the faculty of foretelling things thus contingent was called Divinatio A fuller expression as Tully somewhere observes then the Grecians had of the like skill For it imports a great deale more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or other like titles assumed by such Mountebank as were the true disciples of the grand Impostor and Father of lies Nor could this grand Impostor himselfe have gotten the esteeme of a Deity or power divine amongst rude people by any other meanes then by counterfetting predictions truly divine The major proposition that all prediction of Contingents to come or of events not as yet seminally extant in their naturall causes was from divine inspiration the Heathens rightly beleeved and acknowledged But that such spirits as demanded sacrifice or other like observances of them could foretell future Events of this rank was never sufficiently proved unto them These infernall Impostors and the Mountebanks their Scholars whether Astrologers Southsayers c. playd the Juglers in this assumption or minor and by this meanes wrought their Followers to subscribe unto most desperate practicall conclusions CHAP. 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 BVT if the infallible predictions of future events which have no causes discernable either by the generall eye of nature or peculiar skill of Art coexistent with them doe necessarily inferre the spirit of Prophecie or divination properly so called it will be further demanded what is to be said or thought of the Sibylline Oracles whether they were from Heauen or from Earth or from the region under the Earth Whether God or any good Angell did inspire these Prophetesses with their predictions concerning Christ That many things concerning his life and Kingdome were expresly foretold by these Heathen Prophetesses the best amongst the ancient Christians did beleeve nor did the Heathens that lived with them or before them question the Authority of the Records which they alleaged The onely question then was whether their predictions of strange alterations to insue throughout the world did punctually referre to Christ whom the Iewes did crucifie or to some other Heroick person That these Prophecies were extant for many generations before the blessed Virgin the mother of Christ from whom alone he tooke his bodily substance was borne or conceived no literate Christian or Heathen did ever question Yet upon her Nativity to have foretold that shee should conceive and bring forth such a sonne as should likewise be the sonne of God the great Redeemer of the world did farre surpasse all Astrologians skill or any other Prognosticks which cannot finally be resolved into the spirit of the onely wise immortall God as into their first Author or Fountaine 2. But many great Divines many good Antiquaries and Critiques of best note in these latter times which would be accounted the most learned move question whether all or most or any competent part of those verses which now goe under the name of Sibylline Oracles be the very same either for matter or forme with the ancient Records which it is granted by all were extant long before our Saviours comming into the world Or whether most passages in these now extant have not beene composed by Christians desirous to make a supplement unto some fragments of the true Originalls which had beene lost To induce this suspition or opinion that the volume of Oracles now extant is but a supposititious brood of later times it is plausibly alleaged by good Writers that thus much must be granted or else wee must grant which may seeme worse that those mysteries of Christ and his Kingdome which we Christians beleeve were more expresly revealed unto the Heathen by these supposed prophetesses then they were to the Iewes Gods chosen people either by Moses or the Prophets For such is the nature and quality of these Sibylline predictions as now wee have them that they may rather seeme to be exegeticall explications of Moses and the Prophets then originall Prophecies which are for the most part aenigmaticall or parabolicall 2. All the arguments notwithstanding which can be drawne from this or the like Topique are more plausible then pregnant and well examined conclude aut nihil aut nimium Which way soever they be drawne or made to looke either they doe not reach home to the point in question or else they
revelation or instruction either mediately or immediatly made unto us by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word himselfe 2 Nor is it probable that either Plato or Trismegist did first discover so much of this grand mystery as was knowne among the Heathens before S. Iohn wrote his Gospell And it is no lesse impious then improbable to suspect that S. Iohn should borrow those divine expressions of the Words divinity from any Heathen Philosopher as that blasphemous Platonick exclaimed when he read the beginning of his Gospell that he had stolne his expressions out of his master Plato Nor was S. Iohn himselfe the first of all sacred writers which did display the titles of the sonne of God by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the word light or life which was without beginning or ending most probable it is that Plato and Trismegist did borrow that light which they had in that mystery from the ancient Hebrews or from rules received by them by constant tradition for interpreting not one but many passages in Moses and the Prophets as S. Iohn there doth from the same rule or tradition No doubt the Chaldee Paraphrasts did expresse the divine nature of the sonne of God by the word the one before S. Iohn did write his Gospell the other neere upon the same time For Ionathan as Fagius tells us did live about the time wherein Herod reëdified the second Temple Onkelos a little after the destruction of it and of Jerusalem by Titus 3. The word of the Lord saith an exquisite Hebrician and judicious peruser of the Chaldee paraphrase is often used instead of Iehovah or Elohim both being proper names of God and denotes Messiah or Christ by whom God made all things and preserves them He instanceth in that of Isaiah 1. ver 14. Where the Hebrew text is literally thus My soule abhorreth your new moones c. The Chaldee or Targum renders it thus My word abhorreth your new moones And againe Ier. 1. 8. Where God speaking in his owne person saith I am with thee the Chaldee renders it My word is with thee And according to the Hebrew where we read Isaiah 45. 17. Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation in the Lord or by the Lord the Chaldee hath it Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation by the word of the Lord. But two places of Onkelus there be more remarkably pertinent to our present purpose then any others which I have observed The first is Gen. 3. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden that is as Onkelus renders that place they heard the voice of the word of the Lord or the voice of the Lord God the word So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which in the beginning was with God and was God did convent our first parents as having peculiar reason to examine and convict them of their transgression because he in person not the Father or holy Ghost was to undertake for their restauration was to combat with the Serpent for their redemption whom immediately after hee convents in the womans presence and denounceth this sentence upon both The Lord God said unto the Serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life and I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and hers c. Gen. 3. 15. 16. It is no harsh construction to read this place and they heard the voice of the word the Lord per appositionem not the voice of the word of the Lord which the Latine renders in the genitive case the voice or the word of the Lord. Yet if we read it so we shall not dissent from the forecited meaning of the Chaldee and the same interpreters referre the word walking unto God himselfe as if he had said they heard the voice of God which walked in the garden not unto the voice whether of God or of the word of God though Fagius with some other think the word walking may be read in the accusative case audiverunt vocem Domini Dei ambulantem they heard the voice of the Lord walking that is increasing or intending it selfe by degrees But this otherwise most judicious writer sometime censures the seaventie Interpreters of ignorance in the Hebrew tongue sometime sleights their interpretation without just cause For seeing it hath pleased the holy Ghost in the greatest mysteries concerning Christ to follow their interpretation though not so authentique in it selfe as the Hebrew Canon is this commands my assent though not to the opinion of some among the ancients that these seaventy were as truly inspired by the holy Ghost as the penmen of the Hebrew Canon were yet thus farre that they were directed either immediatly by the Spirit or by the rules and traditions in their times received for the right unfolding of many places which in the Hebrew were either ambiguous or involved and better directed by such rules then moderne Hebricians are by Masorets or the later Rabbins albeit both of them be of good use Thus to think of the LXX their consonancy with the Chaldee Paraphrase in many places of great moment doth besides the former speciall motives somewhat incline mee yet did not the Chaldee as I am perswaded borrow ought from them or they from the Chaldee but both were beholden to the prenotions or received rules of the ancient Hebrews 4. The second remarkable place wherein Onkelus doth not dissent from the Hebrews but rather unfoldeth the mystery implicitly contained in it is that of Genesis 22. 15 16. By my selfe have I sworne saith the Lord that in blessing I will blesse thee c. and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice So the Hebrew The Chaldee thus By my word have I sworne saith the Lord that blessing I will blesse thee c. Because thou hast obeyed my Word This translation of the Chaldee affords more light for the right and punctuall explication of S. Paul Heb. 6. 17. then most Commentators of that place have done albeit some greeke Scholiasts which I have consulted but whose words I now remember not have made acute and accurate search for the true meaning of it God saith the Apostle willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutabilitie of his counsell confirmed it by an oath So our English reads it yet with this correction or animadversion in the margine interposed himselfe by an oath but the originall verbatim sounds thus Deus intermediavit juramento God did intermediate by oath Now the object of this oath as our Apostle tells us ver 13. was God himselfe When God made promise to Abraham because he could sweare by no greater he sware by himselfe yet this by my selfe have I sworne is more expresse in the Septuagint
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