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
since his resurrection and ascention he hath I shall crave pardon for making these or the like any points of my beleife If any man be otherwise minded I grudge him not the libertie of his opinion but will confesse my ignorance when he shall shew me any expresse Scripture or any deduction out of Scripture which shall not inferre aut nihil aut nimium 5 It sufficeth me to beleeve and know that my Lord was so qualified with all grace even whilst he lived in the forme of a servant that he was alwaies more ready to understand and comprehend whatsoever it pleased his heavenly Father to impart or signifie unto him then chrystall is to receive the light of the Sun or any glasse the shape of bodies which present themselves unto it and more ready withall to doe whatsoever he knew to be his Fathers will he should do then we are to eate when we are hungry or to drinke in the extremity of â—hrist There was in him even in his cradle a docilitie or capacitie both for learning and doing his fathers will truely infinite in comparison of other children yet this capacitie was actuated by degrees This I take it is as much as wee are bound to beleeve concerning his growth in wisedome and this wee cannot deny to be contained in the hypostaticall union of which we are without curiositie to say somewhat in the next place CHAP. 30. Of the hypostaticall and personall union betwixt the Word and the flesh or betwixt the sonne of God and the seed of Abraham THe manner of the union between the sonne of God and the seed of Abraham is a mystery that one of the blessed Trinity only excepted most to bee admired by all and least possible to be exactly expressed by any living man of all the mysteries whose beleefe we professe in this Apostles Creed And for this reason my former resolution to avoid all Schoole disputes about the relations in the Trinitie and each severall persons peculiar properties ties me to the like observance in this present point And in my yonger dayes I had a greater desire to learne more exquisite rules of Logick or other good arts out of School-disputes in these two kindes then can be found in the professors of such arts themselves then I have in these declining yeares to learne divinity from them 2. The particulars which the most subtile amongst the Schoole-Divines exhibite concerning the manner of the hypostaticall union are well summed up by the learned and judicious D. Field in whose computation they amount to more then I shall have occasion in this place to make use of and are withall of so high a pitch and straine as surmounts my aime or levell for this time which is only to shew how truly how justly how consonantly to the knowne rules of reason in other cases we Christians beleeve and acknowledge such a peculiar union between the sonne of God and the sonne of David that whilest the sonne of man was conceived borne crucified and raised from the dead the son of God likewise was conceived borne crucified c. Now for justifying these and the like expressions the sonne of God was conceived was borne was crucified c. whether we finde them in the Creed or in the Apostolick or Evangelical writings whence they issued into this Creed wee can have no better ground or fundamentall resemblance then that of Athanasius As the reasonable soule and flesh make one man so God and man make one Christ yet this illustration or expression of the manner of this mysticall union is excepted against by some great Divines and by Cardinall Bellarmine by name yet excepted against not as false or impertinent but as defective But if every resemblance of this or other sacred mystery which is any way defective were lyable to exception the Church should doe well to give a generall prohibition that no man should attempt to make any For all will come short of the mystery which we seeke to expresse by them or of so much of it as we shall know in that eternall Schoole It was the Cardinals fault to stretch Athanasius his expression further then he intended it or not to allot it a certaine extent within which it is most divinely true 3. The like comparisons sometimes hold firme and true only quoad veritatem non quoad mensuram according to the truth not according to the measure of the same truth As when we beseech our heavenly father to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us or when our Saviour enjoynes us to be mercifull as our heavenly father is mercifull the meaning is not that the measure of his mercies towards us should be but equall to our mercy or kindnesse towards men our fellow servants and yet the meaning of our Saviours injunction is that we must bee as truly mercifull and charitable towards others in some degree as God is infinitely mercifull towards all Sometimes the like comparisons are firme and true quoad veritatem quoad mensuram both according to the truth and the same measure of truth but not quoad modum at least not quoad modum specificum proximum sed quoad modum genericum aut remotum true they may be sometimes according to the same manner and yet not in all respects or according to the selfe-same particular manner And such is this comparison of Athanasius First it holds quoad veritatem unionis As it is not the meere inhabitation of the reasonable soule in the body but the peculiar union of these two parts which makes a man so is it not the internall presence or peculiar inhabitation of the Deity in the manhood but the true and reall union of these two natures which makes one Christ Infernall spirits may by Gods permission take up their lodgings in the bodies of men may be confined within them and use them as their instruments yet by such residence in them men neither become Divels nor divels men nor doe they make any one realitie or third thing in part or whole distinct from both 4. The former comparison doth not hold secundum omnem modum that is though the Godhead and humanity of Christ be as truly as properly and really united as the reasonable soule and the humane body are yet the manner of the union is herein different The reasonable soule and the body being two distinct natures each having their proper existence though imperfect and incompleat doe by their union make one perfect compleat nature Their union is made by physicall or naturall composition Now in all such unions or compositions each part ingredient must abate or lose somewhat there must be a mutuall fashioning or fitting of the one to the other But the Deitie or Godhead as it is all things else so it is fitnesse it selfe and cannot be fashioned or fitted to any creature as being not subject to any shadow of change or alteration The creatures may be fashioned or fitted to
was eclipsed at the time when Nicias was General for the Athenians against the Syracusians Or when Columbus made first discoverie of America are questions which may be scientifically resolved by astronomicall calculations But whether Nicias through ignorance of naturall causes and grosse superstition committed that intolerable oversight which as Plutarch relates occasioned the overthrow of the Athenian forces by Sea Land or whether Columbus made that witty advantage of the like eclipse which Benzo in his history of America mentions cannot be known by any computation Astronomicall or Chronologicall This wholly depends upon the authority of the Historians Yet if by calculations astronomicall compared with the Annales of those times it should appeare that there were no such Eclipses in the yeares pretended for these practices this would convince these historians and those whom they follow of errour if not of forgerie On the other side if Astronomers should make it cleare that in the points of time assigned by these Historians there did fall out such Eclipses of the Moone this would free them from suspition of fiction so much the more by how much they were lesse skilfull or lesse observant of the coelestiall motions or revolutions of times wherein Eclipses happen 2. But sometimes the sensible events or experiments may square so well with historicall relations as to leave no place for curiosity it selfe to suspect either fiction or falsehood in the Historian As who could suspect the truth of the Roman Histories which mention the subjection of this Iland to their Empire for divers successions if he had seene their coynes lately digged out of the earth bearing the inscriptions of twenty severall Emperours Or who could suspect the historicall truth of their progresse into the Northerne parts of this Kingdome that have observed the ruines of that wall which they built and other monuments as sutable to their Narrations as the seale is to the signet The best is that the experiments which suite unto the histories of the old and new Testaments are more plentifull and and more pregnant then any externall ratifications of any other historicall narrations can be For of sacred historicall truth besides the legible testimonies of the great book of the creatures every little world may have a world of witnesses in himselfe Now if our beliefe of the histories concerning Christ and him crucified be but equall to our beliefe of other histories yet their authority or esteeme will be much greater because we cannot believe this truth but we must withall believe it to be divine and every man by nature hath a more sacred esteeme of matters which hee conceives to be divine then hee can have of things meerely mundane or humane 3. But where the truth of historicall beleefe is to our apprehension the very same and the degrees of our assent unto it equall yet the estimate of the same truth or its impression upon our affections is not the same These vary according to the severall waight of matters related though by the same Author and beleeved by equall degrees of the same kinde of beleefe Of Edward the seconds strange defeate by Robert de Bruce King of Scotland and of Edward the third and the black Prince his sonne or Henry the fifth their successe against the French wee have but one and the same historicall beleefe whether for degree or quality yet are wee not the same way or in the same degree affected with the one story as with the other The reading of Edward the third of Henry the fifts successe delighteth us English with the ancient honour of our Nation The remembrance of Edward the seconds defeate doth so disaffect us that wee could wish this story were not so true as the other But how unpleasant soever the annales of Edward the second be to some English yet wee never observed any of this age to weepe at the reading of them whereas in some provinces of this Kingdome the battaile of Pannierehugh the rebellion in the North and that lesse disaster in the yeare following that rebellion upon the English borders could not have beene mentioned or seriously related within our memory without many teares of such Auditors as had no other knowledge of the events save onely from histories or from traditions which can produce no better beleefe than historicall 4. Some cases then there be in which although the authority of the Historian be the same and albeit the matters related by them be for weight or substance the same yet shall they not make the same impression upon our hearts or affections Yea matters in themselves considered of small moment will sometimes sway double as much as others of more then double waight unto them although the historicâ—ll beleife of both be equall The circumstances from which historicall truths of lesser waight simply considered receive these extraordinary degrees of gravitation are specially three Vicinity of place Recencie of time and Peculiar references to our Selves to our Country to our Friends or Allies The true reason why the historie of Christs death in some degree I suppose beleeved by all doth worke so little or so successelesly upon most mens affections is because they consider his death though in it selfe a matter of greatest consequence yet as a matter past a thousand and some hundred yeares agone or as a matter done by the Jewes more then two thousand miles from our coast And thus they consider it without any peculiar reference to themselves as the cause of it or no more concerning themselves then as they are Pars quota humani generis some little parcells or graines of mankinde or of the humane nature which he redeemed these being more innumerable than the sand on the Sea shore 5. But how firmely soever we apprehend the truth of Christs death and passion for the substance yet this apprehension cannot produce a true compleate historicall beleife of his death unlesse our apprehension of the substance be seconded with the like apprehension of such circumstances as are peculiar to this history above others What circumstances are these Although he suffered but once and that farre off and long agoe yet whatsoever he then suffered or did doth as neerely as immediately concerne every man this day living in what place soever as it did those that were living when he dyed either such as were sorrowfull spectators of his death or Actors in it For albeit he were offred but once and that but in one place without the gates of Jerusalem yet this one offering was of value truely infinite and for efficacy everlasting And being such it must be equally applyable to all persons times and places In his death in his infinite and everlasting sacrifice every one hath a peculiar interest not Pro ratâ but in solidum by vertue of that atonement which he made by that redemption which he purchased once for all he hath an entire absolute right of dominion over every one of us and every one of us hath
question but that the principles of some other sciences besids Divinity at least some principles of such sciences have beene immediately taught by God Or if any man list to move question or Controversie about this truth I could entertaine many Heathen Advocates for my opinion without any great costs or paines 4. But as it is true that the principles of Divinity cannot be knowne without illuminations more then naturall so it is certaine that since the ceasing of extraordinary illuminations or gifts of the Spirit the most of such principles or so many of them as are required to the science or facultie of Divinity cannot be distinctly knowne without the knowledge of other Arts or Sciences Most of the Attributes of God cannot be well unfolded without competent skill in Metaphysicall learning Many of his workes can never be knowne nor admired aright without the science of Philosophy nor can the offices or Attributes of Christ be taught aright without more skill in the learned tongues then common Grammarians or generall Lexicons will afford He that hopeth to attaine to the true knowledge of these principles must either use the helpe of some Lexicon peculiar to divinity or make one of his owne Easier it were to learne the termes of Law or Physick out of Thomasius or Riders Dictionary then to know the true Theologicall use or meaning of many principall termes in the Old or New Testament out of 〈◊〉 or Pagninus his Thesauras though both of them most excellent writers in their kinde And yet after a man hath attained by all the meanes aforementioned and other like helpes of Arts unto a competent knowledge of the principles there is no lesse use of good Logick in divinitie then in any other science whatsoever for the right deduction of necessary conclusions from such principles or for refuting Heterodoxall doctrines or quelling impertinent or frivolous questions But the Principles of Divinitie being once known the dilatation or deduction of them into forme of Art or science and the establishment of Orthodoxall conclusions may be made as certaine and perspicuous by Logick as the like can be in any other science For the use not of usuall or vulgar but of exquisite Logick is in no Art so necessary as in Divinitie The method for constituting any Art or science from principles knowne is two-fold the one direct and positive by affirmative syllogismes or by demonstration à Priore the other by reducing conclusions contradictory ad impossible that is by discovering their manifest contradiction or irreconcileable opposition unto some fundamentall principles of the same science Now what conclusions or opinions they be in particular which contradict either those theologicall principles that concerne the nature and attributes of God or the personall union of two natures in Christ his Propheticall Sacerdotall or Royall function shall by the assistance of his grace be discussed in the second 〈◊〉 of the Catholique Church Of this in the meane time I rest perswaded that it is neither too much learning that hath made this present age more mad then the former nor any greater measure of Gods Spirit than may be found in others which makes many among us more bold then their brethren then their Fathers in Christ in determining greatest mysteries of Divinitie CHAP. 4. Of the agreements and differences betweene Theologie and other sciences in respect of their Subjects that the true historicall beliefe of sacred Historians is aequivalent to the certaintie or evidence of other sciences BUt in every science oportet discentem credere Every yong Scholar is bound to beleeve his teacher and must take some principles upon trust untill hee be able to try them himselfe Yet as he is no perfect Artist or no master of Science who cannot see the evidence of principles or Maximes and the connexion betweene them and the conclusions issuing from them with his owne eyes so neither doth he deserve the name of a Divine or Teacher of this facultie whosoever he be that cannot in the first place discerne the truth of the Maximes or principles or cannot in the second place make demonstration of the coherence or non-coherence or of the discord between them and such conclusions as are rightly inferred or meerely pretended from them But the best is that as a Carpenter may have skill enough to measure the timber which he buyes or a woodward the wood which he sells or every good husbandman the quantitie of the ground which he tills and yet all their skill put together will not halfe suffice to make a Mathematician so may all of us be in our callings good Christians or true beleevers and yet no true Divines but more unapt to be Teachers in this facultie than an ordinarie Carpenter to write a Comment upon Euclide or a Husbandman to set forth a treatise of Cosmography Thus farre the faculty or science of Divinitie holds exact correspondencie with other sciences properly so called and the practise of Christian men in their severall callings beares the same proportion unto true Divinitie which manuall Arts or trades doe unto those sciences unto which they are subordinate 2. A difference notwithstanding there is betweene Divinitie and other Sciences but I cannot say whether the faculty of Divinitie come short of other Sciences properly so called or rather exceed them in that wherein they differ The difference is this The totall subject of other Sciences of some at least may be exactly known in this life though not by any one man yet by all that may seeke after it But this subject of Divinitie can never be exactly knowne by any one man nor by any succession of men though all of them should study no other Art besides the knowledge of God of Christ untill the worlds end From this incomprehensible amplitude of its subject it is that many principall points in Divinitie points necessarie unto salvation must be beleeved only even by Divines themselves wee may not endeavour or hope to know them untill wee be admitted into that everlasting Schoole And it is a great part of our profession or of our proficiency in it to know what questions belong to this present inferiour Schoole and what they be which must be reserved unto the high Schoole Everlasting 3. But other true Sciences there be and in their kinde truly Noble whose just challenge unto both these titles no man gainesayes no man questioneth which have their peculiar problemes as well as unquestionable principles or conclusions It is not yet resolved by Geometricians whether the Quadrature of Circles be possible or whether the continued protraction of lines not parallel make their coincidence necessary Astronomers are not yet agreed whether there be so many severall Orbes as there be Planets or how many spheares above the Planets or whether these Orbes or Spheares be they few or more be concentrique It is controversed whether not the Planets only but those which we call fixed starres doe move in the firmament as fishes doe in
the water or as Eagles soare in the aire or whether the whole firmament from the Region wherein the fixed starres doe move unto this lower region of the aire wherein we breath be at all times so uniforme for the transmission of light or for the true representation of the exact distance whether of the altitude or latitude of the starres from us as at sometimes it is or as glasse or the cleare aire is with us This last Quaere were it agitated and discussed as it might be would I am perswaded shake many Astronomicall suppositions or presumed Notions concerning motum trepidationis that is of the supposed reciprocall motion of those which they call fixed starres from South to North from North to South Great expences without hope either of gaine or of recovering the principall spent in trying Chymicall conclusions by many in the former age will not to this day give satisfaction to some moderne Naturalists whether the conversion of other metalls or materialls into Gold be atchievable Many like problemes there be in other secular sciences which will never be fully resolved untill wee shall not need their resolution Yet were the number of insoluble problemes in every one of these sciences mentioned or in all that can be mentioned much greater then it is this could be no prejudice to them so long as the deduction of many usefull conclusions from cleare undoubted principles may be made evident to men which have their wit and senses exercised in such subjects That the number then of insoluble Problemes is in Divinitie much greater then in any other facultie this only argues the subject of it to be more admirable then the subjects of other faculties In other faculties or sciences wee are bound to give our absolute assent to no more principles or conclusions then are cleare and evident But in Divinitie we must absolutely beleeve many conclusions which we cannot hope in this life absolutely to know or that they should be made evident unto us For we must beleeve the finall judgement with the joyes of the life to come which no man can know till he enjoy them and we must beleeve the everlasting paines ordained for the Devill and his Angels which no man hopes ever to know Many matters of fact likewise there be related by the Prophets Evangelists other sacred writers of which there can be no ungainesayable proofe or demonstration no other ground or reason of our assent unto them besides the authoritie of the Relator Howbeit no man can rightly acknowledge such authoritie as may command his assent without further proofe unlesse there be better grounds or motives then the bare proposall or assertion of the Author That we are thus bound to beleeve many sacred truthes which cannot in this life possibly be knowne doth no way argue our beleefe of them to be lesse rationall then our assent unto other truthes which may be proved by reason but rather supposeth that the true historicall beleefe of Relations sacred doth parallel the truth or evidences of sciences properly so called No evidence of any science doth so farre exceed true historicall beleefe of matters sacred as it doth all historicall beleefe of matters secular and it incomparably exceeds all other historicall beleefe not only in respect of the worth or just estimate of matters related but even for the rationall evidence of the abstract or speculative truth What esteeme soever we make of Xenophons stories this participates no authoritie no credit to Plutarch or other Graecian writers of later times We may give deserved credit to Plutarch to Tacitus and yet iustly suspect Herodotus Livie in many particulars All the credit which secular historians that live in or write of severall ages can expect of us must grow from their owne rootes The consent of many writers in severall ages may serve to underprop a generall or common truth which happily would decline or fall if it were supported by the credit of one alone But naturall propagation of truth from one secular historian to another is not to be expected And without such propagation some addition may be made to our beleefe of one by reading others but there can be no true growth or augmentation of our beleefe of matters secular by comparing divers Historians Farre otherwise it is in the right historicall beleefe of matters sacred 4. The seed of Divine mysteries which are sowne in Mosaicall writings shoot out their branches in the ensuing historians the Prophets and beare flower and fruit in the Evangelicall stories So that he that rightly beleeves the truth of Mosaicall histories cannot distrust the Prophets or suspect the Evangelists in their relations This is a truth supposed by the Author of Truth himselfe Had yee beleeved Moses you would have beleeved me For he wrote of me Joh. 5. 46. that is Christ was if not the sole subject yet the onely scope of Moses his writings Now to beleeve the histories of Moses or matters related by him we have inducements many no lesse binding then the experiments or inductions which winne and tie our assent unto the Principles of Arts or Sciences These inducements are partly from the visible booke of the Creatures partly from the estate of the Jewes sufficiently known to all Nations from time to time Of these inducements somewhat hath beene said in the first booke of these Comments somewhat likewise in the Treatise of Creation Now the contemplation of that most exact harmonie between Mosaicall or Propheticall delineations of Christ and that liue image of him which the Evangelists by his Spirit have exhibited unto our view is no lesse rationall then the contemplation of connexion betweene the Principles of other Sciences and their conclusions The progresse in this contemplation of the Harmony betwixt the severall passages of sacred stories is not the same that is betweene Mathematicall principles or Theorems and their conclusions The point then next to be enquired is how the mysteries concerning Christ and his Kingdome which have been revealed unto us in the new Testament were delivered by Moses by the Prophets or other Canonicall writers of the old Testament SECT 2. 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 and how they are said to be fulfilled with some generall rules for the right interpretation of them CHAP. 5. Containing the generall division of testimonies or fore-significations of Christ ALL the prenotions or fore-significations which the Patriarchs had or their posterity might have had concerning Christ have been elsewhere reduced to these three generall rootes To testimonies meerely Propheticall meerely typicall and Typically Propheticall The division though no way misliked by us now may notwithstanding upon the revise be somewhat amended or further explained All the prenotions or overtures of Him that was to come were either by word or matter of fact either Enunciative and assertive or representative or partly
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
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
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
kept secret from the foundation of the world Matt. 13. 35. This was the mysticall sense of the Psalmists words and according to S. Matthewes literall expression of them they necessarily import the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven and so all the parables which our Saviour used in that Chapter as he there useth many respect the Kingdome of Heaven and were hard and darke to such as were not of Christs disciples or such as the Psalmist there describes A stubborne and faithlesse generation It is true therefore which Maldonat in his second animadversion saith that the cause why our Saviour spake to his common Auditors in parables was because they were unworthy of cleerer revelatioÌ„s uncapable for the time of greater talents having used their former ordinary talents so ill Thus our Saviour resolves his Disciples ver 11 12. Vnto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven but to them it is not given For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that hee hath And to the same effect the Psalmist had prophecied or forewarned this generation even all generations following It was then an allegation unconcludent and impertinent and no way beseeming Maldonat to say our Saviour did not speake in parables to the end that Davids sayings might be fulfilled but because this present generation did deserve no other language For these two are no way opposite but subordinate And if it be ill for men to separate those things which God hath conjoyned it is much worse to set things at oddes or in opposition which the Spirit of God hath made coordinate or set in concord Now both these assertions as well that which Maldonat refuses as that which he approves have a divine truth in them First it is most true that our Saviour did speake unto the multitude and to the Pharisees on whom they relyed in parables because they were for the time unworthy of such declarations as he made to his disciples for the increase of their talent which they had used not so much amisse as the others had done And no lesse true it is that the Psalmist did foreprophecy that the posterity of Israel from his owne time untill the comming of the Messias should be more unworthy hearers of divine mysteries then their forefathers had beene unlesse they seriously repented both their owne sinnes and the sinnes of their forefathers So that our Saviour did speakâ—â—nto them in parables for these two reasons First because they were unworthy hearers Secondly to the end his disciples might know and beleeve that this manner of speaking was foreprophecied by the Author of the 78. Psalme 4. Maldonats first animadversion was that this Latine particle ut or the greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie the cause of what is said or spoken but sometimes the event only How true soever this be it no way prejudiceth the truth now delivered by us For it will not follow that this particle ut either in this place of S. Matthew or in any other place where it imports the fulfilling of Scriptures doth not signifie the cause because it sometimes or oftentimes signifieth the event only But seeing the right use of this particle or the knowledge of its severall references is much conducent to the just valuation of many testimonies which have beene and must be hereafter alleaged out of Scriptures it will be very usefull in this place to unfold its severall significations or importances once for all Sometimes this particle as well in the Greek as in the Latine and in our English is transitive only and imports neither any true cause nor the event as in that of our Saviour Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternall that they may know thee the only true God The resolution of which words without any wrong either to their full importance in logicall construction or to their grammaticall elegancy is but this Cognoscere te esse verum Deum est vita aeterna To know thee to be the onely true God is eternall life From this use or importance of this particle ut that other which Maldonat makes is not different or no otherwayes different then the end of a transition or passage is from the passage or transition it selfe as when our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 34. I send unto you Prophets and wisemen c that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel c. God forbid any good Christian should referre this particle That unto the first words Behold I send unto you Prophets c and by this meanes conceive the end and cause why God did send wisemen and Prophets unto them should be this that all the righteous blood shed by their Fathers should be required of this generation it refers only to those words Some of them shall yee kill and crucifie c. The true importance is as if he had said yee shall or you will goe on in your Fathers sinnes so farre and so long untill at length the blood of all the righteous whom your Fathers have slaine shall come upon you Or as S. Luke hath it shall be required of you So that the importance of this particle ut in this place denotes the event of their practises or resolutions not the finall cause of the Prophets comming unto them And it is the same with that which S. Paul expresses in the infinitive moode Rom. 1. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end why God did manifest himselfe unto men in the booke of his Creatures was that they might know him to be God and glorifie him as God And it was the ample measure of manifestations made to this end which left even the Heathens themselves without Apologie or just excuse and according to this importance of the particle ut as it noteth onely the event or some transition to the event many good writers would value that of S. Iohn chap. 12. 37 38. Though he had done so many miracles before them yet they beleeved not on him That the saying of Esaias the Prophet might bee fulfilled which he spake ut impleretur ille sermo Lord who hath beleeved our report and to whom hath the arme of the Lord beene revealed And I could wish that Maldonats animadversions upon the forecited 35. verse of Mathew the 13. had beene as Orthodoxall or discreet as they are upon this place of Iohn For of such Commentators as I have read none speakes more pertinently or more discreetly to the difficultie wherewith that place is charged unlesse it be his brother Tolet who hammers out Athanasius his exposition as learnedly and more fully as Maldonat doth upon the expositions of other Greeke
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
the great mystery of the womans seed or incarnation of the sonne of God to bee included in this prophecy extend the native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the earth too farre Howbeit in this errour or oversight there is no falshood for that the woman or female should enclose or compasse the male or that mighty one the second Adam was a new thing indeed and a wonder to all the earth But this generall truth doth not hit the punctuall meaning of the holy Ghost in that place for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth is to be restrained unto the Land of Ephraim or of Israel as it was opposed unto the Land of Judah Thus much the literall circūstance of this prophecy alone wil enforce and that prophecy of Isaiah parallel unto this will perswade us Isa 11. 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the Adversaries of Iudah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Iudah and Iudah shall not vexe or upbraid Ephraim The implication is that the one Kingdome was to share with the other in the fulfilling of this grand mystery foretold by these two Prophets in the forecited Chapters The Kingdome of Ephraim of which Nazareth was a Limbe though a smalone was to be graced with the Messias conception and incarnation and with the Angell Gabriels presence for the avoucher The Kingdome of Judah whereof Bethlem was a remarkable portion was to be dignified with his birth and that was proclaimed by an host of Angells 9. Of this mystery I have treated in other meditations published some fifteene yeares agoe and should scarcely so much as have touched it in this place had not some exquisite Hebricians with whose meditations I have since that time beene acquainted without any reference to what I had then said or conceived altogether waived or slighted the great mystery acknowledged by antiquity as well Jewish as Christian in this place of the Prophet Ieremy In their opinion the new thing which the Lord promised to create in the earth is no more then that the Law Deut. 24. 1 2 3 4. though indispensable in respect of man and wife should be dispensed with or repealed as it did concerne Ephraim or Israel who had beene sometimes Gods spouse but now divorced for her manifold adulteries and yet by Gods speciall grace had libertie to returne unto him againe To this purpose I am not ignorant that some later Rabbines interpret this place as they doe many other to elevate the mystery of the incarnation but so doe not those exquisite Christian Hebricians from whom I must crave pardon to dissent All that they say concerning Gods dispensation with that Law Deut. 24. is most true but not the whole truth nor any part of the Prophet Ieremies true meaning in that 31. Chapter That meaning which they would fasten upon this place was expressely delivered by our Prophet Chap. 3. not to Ephraim but to Judah before shee followed Ephraim into Captivitie and therefore this could be no new thing to bee created afterwards in the Land of Ephraim They say if a man put away his wife and shee goe from him and become another mans shall he turn unto her again shall not the Land be greatly polluted But thou hast played the harlot with many Lovers yet returne again to me saith the Lord. 10. And howerver the originall Bara doe not alwayes include as much as some Schoolemen would appropriate to the Latine creare that is to make something of meere nothing yet it usually imports some great worke of the Almighty maker which one way or other is aequivalent or more then aequivalent to the first creation of Heaven and Earth our of nothing if we may beleeve Capito and Fagius upon whō any Novice in the Hebrew tongue or ordinary professor of it may as safely pitch an implicite beleef or trust as upon any which have lived since their times Againe however the Prophet Ieremy Chap. 3. 1. avouch a relaxation of that peremptory Law Deut. 24. 4. yet doth hee not intimate that this relaxation was such an extraordinary worke as that the Lord might be said to have created it as a new thing whether in the Land of Judah or of Ephraim or in the earth or wide world it selfe Nor is there any other word in that 31 of Ieremie ver 22. besides the word Lord which is the same with any other word used either by Ieremie chap. 3. ver 1. or Deut. 24. 3 4. In both which places man and wife are described by their proper characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor is the wives returning to her husband decypherd by a circular motion or compasse but by a plaine returne unto him Whereas in the 31. of Ieremie ver 21. the charactericall notion of the persons there meant is first not Ish an husband or vir but Geber that mighty man or womans seed promised Gen. 3. 15. and this Geber not Ishah the wife or woman simply but Nekebah the female was to incompasse or inclose the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes referres to motion and is as much as the Latine circumire or circumvenire to encompasse or goe about which may be either by a circular or by a sphaericall motion Sometimes the same word referres to station or rest and is as much as our English to begirt or inviron as an Army doth a besieged City or as guests placed at a round table and according to the difference of the subject to inclose or goe round about or to environ on every side And so much it imports in that name which Ieremie gave to Pashur the sonne of Immer the Priest Ier. 20. 3 4. The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur but Magor Missabib For thus saith the Lord behold I will make thee a terrour unto thy selfe and to all thy Friends and they shall fall by the sword of their Enemies and thine eyes shall behold it c. And thou Pashur and all that dwell in thine house shall goe into Captivity and thou shalt come to Babylon and there thou shalt dye and shalt be buried there thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophecied lyes verse 6. As this Pashur was every way beset with terrour so was the Geber every way to bee inclosed or incompassed by Nekebah the Female And the new thing which the Lord promised to Create in the earth hath speciall reference to the first Creation of male and female in mankinde Gen. 1. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and female created he thē The originall which there notifies the female is the very same which our English in the 31. of Ieremy renders woman that is the weaker sexe But the originall Zakar rendred Gen. 1. 27. by the male is not so much as Geber For though every Geber be Zakar yet every Zakar is not Geber nor was the first Adam enstyled by this name The Prophet Ieremies meaning
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
historicall event 15. To conclude this parallell betweene the Evangelist and the Prophet with the contrary demeanours of Ahaz and the blessed Virgin upon delivery of the like message from the Lord. The Lord proffers Ahaz a signe wheresoever or in what kinde soever he would aske it but he will not aske it nor will hee tempt the Lord. Isay 7. 11 12. As if not to rely upon the strength of Assyria had beene to tempt the Lord. Nor will hee beleeve the Prophet when hee gives him a signe most sutable to the signes of that present time For Ahaz and his people had a faire introduction to beleeve all that the Prophet had assumed to make good upon the conception and birth of Emmanuel from the experienced successe or happy Omen of Isaiah his former sonne whom he named upon the occasion fore-mentioned Shear-iashab The blessed Virgin after shee had seene the Angell of the Lord and talked with him did think it no tempting of the Lord to accept this signe which the Angel profered Behold thy Cousin Elizabeth shee hath also conceived a sonne in her old age and this is the sixth moneth with her who was called barren Luk. 1. 36. After her acceptance of this signe and solemne passing of her assent unto whatsoever the Angel said Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word ver 38. Shee thought it no tempting of the Lord to be further confirmed in the truth of this signe For shee arose in thâ—se dayes and went into the Hill Country with hast into a Citie of Iuda and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth And it came to passe that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the Babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the holy Ghost And shee spake out with a loud voyce and said Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb And whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me For loe assone as the voyce of thy salutation sounded in mine eares the Babe leaped in my womb for joy And blessed is shee that beleeved c. Luke 1. 39 40 c. Vpon these lively experiments of the truth of the Angels words unto her the blessed Virgin immediately conceives that sweet and sacred Hymne My soule doth magnifie the Lord c. In her beliefe and acceptance of this signe or rather in her conception which did instantly follow upon it that signe which God had profered to Ahaz by Isaiah was most exactly accomplished Ahaz was willed to aske a signe either in the depth or height above Isai 7. 1â— Though Ahaz should have requested God that the Moone and Starres might descend out of the Spheres and become mountaines and rocks on earth or that the stones in the bowels of the earth or rocks in the sea might ascend into heaven and become glorious starres Neither of these nor both of them had beene so great a wonder as that which God now wrought upon the blessed Virgins beliefe unto his promise For now he who was higher than the Heavens who filleth both Heaven and Earth with his presence the true and only sonne of God comes downe from heaven is inclosed in the Virgins womb becomes her sonne and the fruit of her womb whose bodily originall was from the earth becomes the sonne of God the King of Heaven and yet still remaines the true Emmanuel God with us or more then so the Iesus the Saviour CHAP. 35. Of the Circumcision of our Saviour THE Angelicall hymne or testification of the birth of Iesus made unto the Shepherds by the coelestial Host is a subject more fit for Sermons then for these Comments at least the solemnity of that great Festivall would better become the Commemoration of those joyfull Ditties than a plaine historicall narration of them specially seeing it would require a long search and a large discourse to make it cleare where this sacred Hymne sung by Angels upon the birth day of Iesus was either foretold by any Prophet or foreshadowed by matter of fact Besides this Hymne the next Evangelicall narration to his birth was his circumcision imposition of the name Iesus Now albeit his circumcision be not mentioned in the Creed yet it is a point of beliefe not to be omitted in this place When eight dayes were accomplished for the circumcising of the Childe his name was called Jesus which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb Luk. 2. 21. But was it any where either expresly foretold or concludently portended by matter of fact that the Sonne of God God blessed for ever should be circumcised Yes all this was most concludently fore-signified and that in such a peculiar manner as cannot exactly be paralleld with any of the former generall wayes according to which the incarnation of the Word or other articles concerning the Sonne of God were either observed to be fore-shadowed or to be fulfilled Testimony expresse and direct there is none I know that the Sonne of God should be circumcised and yet the circumcision of God in the person of the Sonne was more then fore-pictured literally included in the Covenant betweene God and Abraham Gen. 17. 6 7. I will make thee exceeding fruitfull and I will make Nations of thee and Kings shall come out of thee And I will establish my Covenant betweene mee and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seede after thee c. And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keepe my Covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their Generations This is my Covenant which yee shall keepe betweene me and you and thy seed after thee Every man childe among you shall be circumcised And yee shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the Covenant betwixt me and you And he that is eight dayes olde shall be circumcised among you every man childe in your generations ver 9 10 11 12. Though Abraham himselfe and all his houshold were presently circumcised yet the Covenant whereof Circumcision was the pledg or token was to be established not in Abraham or in Ismael but in Isaac And God said Sarah thy wife shall beare thee a sonne indeede and thou shalt call his name Isaac and I will establish my Covenant with him for an everlasting Covenant and with his seed after him ver 19. Abraham feared lest Gods speciall favour to this sonne of promise might exclude Ismael from blessings ordinarie and hence he preferres this modest petition unto God ver 18. O that Ismael might live before thee To which hee receives this gracious answer ver 20. And as for Ishmael I have heard thee Behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitfull and will multiply him exceedingly twelve Princes shall he beget and I will make him a great Nation Lastly to shew