overreach or fall awry of it none of them doe punctually fall upon it For no Christian or Heathen Writer whether ancient or moderne hath hitherto made question whether the fourth Eclogue of Virgil were penned by this Heathen Poet or composed by some which lived after our Saviours death in favour of the Christians Now if wee had the notes of that plaine song on which this Prince of latine Poets runnes such curious descant in the very characters wherein Sibylla Cumaea left it for Virgil as he himselfe professeth was but a Commentator upon this one among many other heathen Prophetesses intitled to this name of Sibyll I do not see nor can I conjecture what passages in the old testament doe more literally and plainely expresse the sacred mysteries concerning Christ and his Kingdome which the Evangelists have unfolded unto us then that one Sibylla did on whose writings Virgil comments in lofty and curious verse 3. The Law and Prophets saith our Saviour continued unto Iohn the Baptist His meaning is not that the matter of those writings did then expire or determine or that the writings themselves should then become obsolete or out of use But rather that John should take the lampes which they had lighted and deliver them to such as were to pursue the same course which hee after the law and Prophets had undertaken Hee was Lucerna ardens lucens a bright and a burning Lampe to enlighten such as lived with him or came after him to follow his steps with zeale and devotion towards him whom he did usher into the world As Johns entrance upon his office was a kinde of period to the Law and Prophets after which there was a new Epocha or distinction of times to follow so there was to be a determination of Sibylls Oracles about that time wherein Virgil wrote that fourth Eglogue Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas Virgil did grossely erre in the person or party of whom this prophecy of Sibyll was literally meant according to the intention of the spirit of divination by which it was first conceived and erre he did though not so grossely in the circumstances of the time wherein it was to be accomplished But these two errors and other circumstances being pardoned the substance of his discourse or descant upon Sibylla Cumaea's verses is Orthodoxall and such as concludently argues the text whereon he Comments to have beene originally more then humane truly divine 4. For however wee have learned long agoe that all the gratious promises made by God unto the ancient Israelites for continuation of the Aaronicall Priesthood and other like prerogatives peculiar to that Nation under the style or tenure of Legnolam for ever were to determine at the revelation of their long expected Messias and although many Christian writers well versed in Hebrew Antiquaries assuredly informe us this was an unquestionable tradition amongst the ancient Hebrew Rabbins though now denied yet no writer either Jewish or Christain give me so full satisfaction in this point as Virgil in the forecited Eglogue doth For after he had said Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas He addeth immediately Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo This implies that as there was then an end of that age or world wherein Sibylla Cumaea lived so there was another age or world to begin at the accomplishment of her prophecy which was to have no period but to be as we say Saecula Saeculorum a world of worlds or a world without end Such wee Christians beleeve the Kingdome of Christ to be which was to take its beginning here on earth at the accomplishments of the prophecies concerning his resurrection and exaltation With his Crosse or humiliation Virgil meddles not having transformed all that Sibylla prophecied of Him into the similitude of the Romane Empire as then it stood goodly and glorious and so to continue as he hoped with perpetuall increase of strength and happinesse If wee had all the single threds as Sibylla left them which this Heathen Poet hath twisted into these and the like strong lines Iam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto 5. Me thinkes they might lead us by a compendious and gaine way unto a clearer view of many divine mysteries recorded by sacred writers concerning our Saviours eternall generation incarnation nativity and propagation of his Kingdome then wee can hope to approach unto by the perplexed Labyrinths of many moderne Interpreters of divers Schoolemen or by any tradition of the ancient Hebrewes as now they are extant But the exact parallel betweene the undoubted Oracles of Gods Prophets and such hints as Virgil descants upon from Sibylla Cumaea I leave to yonger Academick Divines or Moralists It shall suffice my present purpose to adde some one or two more unto the former The first Revelation concerning Christ and his Kingdome which is extant upon sacred record is That Gen. 3. ver 15. I will put enmitie saith God to the Serpent betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele That this womans seed was to be a man all that beleeved the truth of Moses writings did know but that he was to be the sonne of a pure virgin was more as is most probable then our Mother Evah more then the father and mother of Noah at the birth of their first borne did apprehend and perhaps more then some Prophets and many godly men after them did explicitely beleeve Yet of this mysterie that Sibylla whom Virgil followes had certainely a prenotion though transformed by Virgil into Poeticall fictions of Astraea For it is likely by Iam redit virgo c. he meant her returne unto the Earth The accomplishment of that first prophecy Gen. 3. ver 15. by our Saviours victory gotten over Satan upon the Crosse was first declared by himselfe after his resurrection to his Disciples Marke 16. 17 18. And these signes shall follow them that beleeve In my name shall they cast out Devills they shall speake with new tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drinke any deadly thing it shall not hurt them c. Of all this the Heathen Sibylla had a prenotion expressed by Virgil in few yet pithy words Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni Occidet 6. The wildernesse saith the Prophet Isaiah cap. 35. 1 2. shall be glad for them and the desart shall rejoyce and blossome It shall blossome abundantly And againe cap. 41. 19. I will plant in the wildernesse the Cedar the Shittah tree and the myrtle and the oyle tree I will set in the desart the firre tree and the pine and the boxe tree together All these and the like expressions of matter of joy in these two chapters and elsewhere in this Prophet have their parallel in that fore-cited Eglogue And as if he had foreseene that which the Apostle tells
dwell with the Lamb that the Leopard should lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the Fatling together The forme of speech is figurative and in the language of saecular Rhetoritians Allegoricall And so that other of the Vineyard Isay 5 is parabolically figurative And yet the sense of all these places is in the Schoole of Divinity as truly literall as when it is said The womans seed shall bruise the serpents head or that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed For by the trees wherewith the wildernesse was to be planted by the Wolfe and by the Lamb by the Leopard and the Kid c. divers sorts of men were immediatly meant and to the fulfilling of all or any of the prophecies it was not required that there should be a transformation either of men into trees Leopards Wolfes or Lions c. or of these or like creatures into men For how ever the sense of Scripture in all these places be literall yet it is literally Allegoricall And of the literall or verball Allegory that Maxime is most true Sensus allegoricus non est argumentativus No firme argument can be drawne from the allegoricall parabolicall or other figurative signification of words As wee may not inferre that the wildernesse was to be planted with trees or that the Wolfe and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid were to consort as well together on dry land as sometimes they did in Noahs Arke whilest the deluge lasted before these prophecies could be fulfilled according to the literall sense as this sense in the language of the holy Ghost is opposed unto the Allegoricall For that in the Apostles language is said to be spoken allegorically which is not immediatly foretold or signified by words whether proper or figurative but fore-shadowed by some reall event by mens persons or their offices or by matter of type or fact It is written saith our Apostle Gal. 4. 22 23. that Abraham had two sonnes the one by a bondmaid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bondwoman was borne after the flesh but hee of the free woman was by promise Which things are an Allegory for these are the two covenants The Evangelicall mysteries implied in this Allegory and vnfolded by our Apostle were not immediatly notified by any words or proposition in the history of Sarah and Hagar and their sonnes but onely fore-pictured by matter of fact or by the things themselves which the words according to the literall sense did immediatly fore-signifie For the word Hagar did in that story literally signifie Sarahs handmayd or bondwoman But this bond-woman and her sonne and their estate or condition of life did excellently represent the estate and condition of such as did adhere unto the Law after the Gospell was proclaimed And the Gospell with the happy estate of such as imbrace it was not fore-signified by the name Sarah or by the name Isaac but by their estate and condition who were so named Most of our Apostles Arguments throughout the Epistle to the Hebrewes are drawne not from the literall but from the allegoricall sense Yet God forbid that wee should say or think that his arguments did not conclude I should rather say if it be lawfull to compare sacred testimonies or authorities one with another that Arguments drawne from the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures are most admirably if not most firmely concludent For they are Arguments of proportion and presuppose foure termes at the least either expressed or implied And the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures alwayes includes the mysticall though the mysticall doth not alwaies include the allegoricall For wheresoever any Evangelicall mystery was fore-shadowed by any type by any historicall event or matter of fact there is a latent mysticall sense though not expressed by words or letters 3. But it oftentimes so falls out and as I take it alwayes in testimonies either typically propheticall or prophetically typicall that there is an inseparable concurrence or combination of the literall and mysticall sense though not alwayes after the same manner Sometimes the literall sense according to the same propriety or signification of words doth fit the Antitype or body as well as the type or shadow As whether wee apply that speech Exod. 12. 46. Yee shall not breake a bone thereof unto the paschall Lamb or to Christ who was mystically fore-shadowed by it the literall sense is the very same there is no variety in the signification of the words Christ had as true bones as the Paschall Lamb and the preservation of his bones was literally fore-prophecied in the Law concerning the Paschall Lamb but withall mystically fore-pictured by the observance or practise of that law Sometimes againe the literall sense doth better befit the Antitype then the type As those words fore-mentioned 2. Sam. 7. 14. I will be his Father and hee shall be my sonne are more proper in respect of Christ who was the Antitype then of Salomon who was the type or shadow of his Sonne-ship So that our Saviours incarnation or nativity is collaterally foreprophecyed with the nativity of Salomon and his royall office and favour with God mystically foresignified by Salomons person and office 4. But many times the expressions of the holy Ghost as well in testimonies typically propheticall as prophetically typicall are like inscriptions or mottoes in Impreses or Emblemes Now these Inscriptions besides the plaine literall native sense of the words have a further Symbolicall importance or morall signification No man that sees that devise of bulrushes couched in a swelling streame with this inscription flectimur non frangimur undis but will acknowledge the plaine literal sense to point immediately at them Yet besides this literall sense they have this Symbolicall importance partly implyed in the words themselves and partly represented by the body of the devise that he which gave this devise had learned that lesson of the Poet Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori that he was resolved to stoope awhile unto the iniquity of the times not without hope to beare up his head againe and to overtop his Adversaries after the present tyranny were overpast as bulrushes doe the waters wherein they grow when the flood unto whose violence for a while they yeelded hath spent its strength That forecited saying of the Psalmist Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone in the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes according to the literall sense is terminated to an historicall event then present or fresh in memory And if we may relie upon the authority of the Author of the Scholastick History the historicall event or matter of fact to which these words literally and immediately referre was a remarkable stone for which the builders of the Temple could finde no convenient place in the intermediate structure which yet unexpectedly proved the fittest corner stone
revelation or instruction either mediately or immediatly made unto us by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word himselfe 2 Nor is it probable that either Plato or Trismegist did first discover so much of this grand mystery as was knowne among the Heathens before S. Iohn wrote his Gospell And it is no lesse impious then improbable to suspect that S. Iohn should borrow those divine expressions of the Words divinity from any Heathen Philosopher as that blasphemous Platonick exclaimed when he read the beginning of his Gospell that he had stolne his expressions out of his master Plato Nor was S. Iohn himselfe the first of all sacred writers which did display the titles of the sonne of God by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the word light or life which was without beginning or ending most probable it is that Plato and Trismegist did borrow that light which they had in that mystery from the ancient Hebrews or from rules received by them by constant tradition for interpreting not one but many passages in Moses and the Prophets as S. Iohn there doth from the same rule or tradition No doubt the Chaldee Paraphrasts did expresse the divine nature of the sonne of God by the word the one before S. Iohn did write his Gospell the other neere upon the same time For Ionathan as Fagius tells us did live about the time wherein Herod reëdified the second Temple Onkelos a little after the destruction of it and of Jerusalem by Titus 3. The word of the Lord saith an exquisite Hebrician and judicious peruser of the Chaldee paraphrase is often used instead of Iehovah or Elohim both being proper names of God and denotes Messiah or Christ by whom God made all things and preserves them He instanceth in that of Isaiah 1. ver 14. Where the Hebrew text is literally thus My soule abhorreth your new moones c. The Chaldee or Targum renders it thus My word abhorreth your new moones And againe Ier. 1. 8. Where God speaking in his owne person saith I am with thee the Chaldee renders it My word is with thee And according to the Hebrew where we read Isaiah 45. 17. Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation in the Lord or by the Lord the Chaldee hath it Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation by the word of the Lord. But two places of Onkelus there be more remarkably pertinent to our present purpose then any others which I have observed The first is Gen. 3. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden that is as Onkelus renders that place they heard the voice of the word of the Lord or the voice of the Lord God the word So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which in the beginning was with God and was God did convent our first parents as having peculiar reason to examine and convict them of their transgression because he in person not the Father or holy Ghost was to undertake for their restauration was to combat with the Serpent for their redemption whom immediately after hee convents in the womans presence and denounceth this sentence upon both The Lord God said unto the Serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life and I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and hers c. Gen. 3. 15. 16. It is no harsh construction to read this place and they heard the voice of the word the Lord per appositionem not the voice of the word of the Lord which the Latine renders in the genitive case the voice or the word of the Lord. Yet if we read it so we shall not dissent from the forecited meaning of the Chaldee and the same interpreters referre the word walking unto God himselfe as if he had said they heard the voice of God which walked in the garden not unto the voice whether of God or of the word of God though Fagius with some other think the word walking may be read in the accusative case audiverunt vocem Domini Dei ambulantem they heard the voice of the Lord walking that is increasing or intending it selfe by degrees But this otherwise most judicious writer sometime censures the seaventie Interpreters of ignorance in the Hebrew tongue sometime sleights their interpretation without just cause For seeing it hath pleased the holy Ghost in the greatest mysteries concerning Christ to follow their interpretation though not so authentique in it selfe as the Hebrew Canon is this commands my assent though not to the opinion of some among the ancients that these seaventy were as truly inspired by the holy Ghost as the penmen of the Hebrew Canon were yet thus farre that they were directed either immediatly by the Spirit or by the rules and traditions in their times received for the right unfolding of many places which in the Hebrew were either ambiguous or involved and better directed by such rules then moderne Hebricians are by Masorets or the later Rabbins albeit both of them be of good use Thus to think of the LXX their consonancy with the Chaldee Paraphrase in many places of great moment doth besides the former speciall motives somewhat incline mee yet did not the Chaldee as I am perswaded borrow ought from them or they from the Chaldee but both were beholden to the prenotions or received rules of the ancient Hebrews 4. The second remarkable place wherein Onkelus doth not dissent from the Hebrews but rather unfoldeth the mystery implicitly contained in it is that of Genesis 22. 15 16. By my selfe have I sworne saith the Lord that in blessing I will blesse thee c. and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice So the Hebrew The Chaldee thus By my word have I sworne saith the Lord that blessing I will blesse thee c. Because thou hast obeyed my Word This translation of the Chaldee affords more light for the right and punctuall explication of S. Paul Heb. 6. 17. then most Commentators of that place have done albeit some greeke Scholiasts which I have consulted but whose words I now remember not have made acute and accurate search for the true meaning of it God saith the Apostle willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutabilitie of his counsell confirmed it by an oath So our English reads it yet with this correction or animadversion in the margine interposed himselfe by an oath but the originall verbatim sounds thus Deus intermediavit juramento God did intermediate by oath Now the object of this oath as our Apostle tells us ver 13. was God himselfe When God made promise to Abraham because he could sweare by no greater he sware by himselfe yet this by my selfe have I sworne is more expresse in the Septuagint
The birth of Iesus Christ saith S. Mathew chap. 1. ver 18. c. was on this wise When as his mother Mary was espoused to Ioseph before they came together shee was found with child of the holy Ghost Then Ioseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publique example was minded to put her away privily But while he thought on these things behold the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dreame saying Ioseph thou sonne of David feare not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost And shee shall bring forth a sonne and thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sinnes In this narration some speciall passages are expressely the same with the former related out of S. Luke as that our Saviour was conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary or in the Virgin Mary So S. Matthew to denote that the blessed Virgin was no agent in this conception saith that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost Chap. 1. ver 20. This I take it is of the same character with that message of the Angel unto the blessed virgin her selfe in S. Luke 1. chap. ver 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt be with child and bring forth a sonne as the Angel said unto the wife of Manoah Iudges 13. 3. and to others which beyond expectation or course of nature did conceive and bring forth sonnes of promise Both Evangelists againe expressely tell us that the virgin Mary was espoused to Ioseph the sonne of David before the Angel Gabriel did bring this message unto her hereby giving us to understand that the works which the Divell had wrought in our nature should in this particular as in many others be undone by God after the same way and method that they were done by this his enemie The first woman we know did conceive sinne whilest shee was a virgin at least before shee knew her husband Adam who was the onely man then on Earth for she was a virgin espoused from her first Creation This first woman conceived death by beleeving the Serpent and practising according to his Counsaile before shee had consulted her husband The blessed virgin did conceive the Lord of life by beleeving the Angel Gabriels message without consent or advise of her betroathed Husband who at the first suspected her loyaltie but afterwards admonished by the holy Ghost did admit of her as his lawfull consort did permit her to enjoy all the priviledges of a wife and her sonne the priviledges of his only sonne and heire without any further knowledge of her as his wife 3 S. Luke gives us the Chronologie of our Saviours birth more distinctly then S. Mathew doth It came to passe saith he in those daies that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed or booked Chap. 2. ver 1. The exact year frō the giving of the law or from the return of Judah from Captivitie neither of the Evangelists do meddle with in the story of our Saviours birth and for this reason I omit them The other circumstances concerning the time wherein according to the Romane account hee was borne with the place were more usefull for us because these were or might have beene knowne to all other Nations not to the Jews only out of the Roman Annals It is agreed by all that Jesus was borne in the time of Augustus and in the dayes of Herod the King If any be desirous to know the exact yeare wherein he was borne the best rule for his direction in this search must be to find out the time of that taxe or inrolement mentioned by S. Luke Chap. 2. ver 1 2 c. Now this taxing or inrolling was first made when Cyrenius was Governour of Syria and that as all agree was either in the beginning of the 42 or in the latter end of the 41 of Augustus Yet whether this taxing or inrollement of every person capable of such inrollement were not decreed or intended before by Augustus though first put in execution whilest Cyrenius was Governour of Syria may admit some doubt or question however wee are to calculate the time of our Saviours birth from the time in which this decree was put in execution throughout Judea not from the time of the first designe or intention of Augustus to have such a taxe or inrolement of all that were Subjects to the Romane Empire 4 The Spanish Nation as well for their civil as Ecclesiastick Acts did for a long time after they became Christians use a Computation of yeares different from all other Christian States or Kingdomes For all besides them as farre as I have observed begin their Computation from our Lords incarnation or birth which was at the same time that this decree of Augustus was put in execution through Judea The Spaniards begun their Aera so they call their computation somes 27 yeares more or lesse before this time and as sundry of their ancient writers think from that time wherein Augustus did first resolve upon this taxing and inrolling of all the families under his jurisdiction and that as they alleage was first thought on and ingrossed at Tarracone in Spaine after he had fully subdued the Cantabrians and others which had revolted from him in Spaine 5 But this most probable opinion of many ancient writers as others of like nature usually do suffers some praejudice by impertinent and disprovable allegations sought out for the confirmation of it First the writers take it as granted that the decree set forth by Augustus in Spaine was for raising a generall taxe or tribute throughout all his Dominions that this tribute was to be paid in brasse a currant coine amongst the Romanes aswell for the payment of Soldiers as for the discharge of civil contracts or mulcts wherein they were condemned And from this supposition which will not be granted them these writers conjecture that the word Aera tooke its originall Hence they call this decree of Augustus aerea constitutio as if the word Aera which in their language is the computation of times or yeares were the plurall though not warrantable by Priscian of the Latine Aes afterwards by common use made a noune singular But this supposition it selfe that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof S. Luke speakes should import as much as a generall taxe or tribute is confuted by Sepulveda a professed Spanish Antiquarie and Chronicler unto Charles the fift And if his observations faile not the Romanes did not receive their Tribute or Taxes either in brasse or gold but in silver only And because the imposition of Tribute or Taxe is alwayes ungratefull to conquered Provinces or people it is an opinion in Sepulveda his judgement voyd of probability that the Spaniards should begin their computation of time