openly for Bond-slaves into all the parts of the world And in this universal calamity of the Jewish Nation being the most notorious and grievous that ever hapned to any people or Nation either before or after them for the Romans never practised the like upon others it is singularly to be observed that in the same time and place in which they put Jesus to death before that is in the time of Pâ—scha when their whole Nation was assembles at Jerusalem from all Parts Provinces and Countries they received thâ—â— their most pitiful subversion and overthrow and that by the bands of the Roman Casar to whom by publike cry they had appealed from Jesus not long before We have no King but Caesar c. Yea further it is observed that as they apprehended Jesus and made the entrance to his passion upon Mount Olivet where he used much to pray and meditate So Titus as Josephus writeth upon the same Mount planted his first siege for their final destruction And as they led Jesus from Caiphas to Pilate afflicting him in their presence so now were they themselves led up and down from John to Simon two seditious Captains within the City and were scourged and tormented before the Tribunal seats Again as they had caused Jesus to be scoffed beaten and vilanously entreated by the Souldiers in Pilates palace so were now their own principal Rulers as Josephus writeth most scornfully abused beaten and crucified and that by the Souldiers Which latter point of crucifying or vilanous putting to death upon the Cross was begun to be practised by the Romans upon the Jewish Gentry immediately after Christ his death and not before And now at this time of the war Josephus affirmeth that in some one day five hundred of his Nation were taken and put to this opprobrious kind of punishment insomuch that for the great multitude he saith Nec locus sufficeret Crucibus nec Cruces corporibus This dreadful and unspeakable misery fell upon the Jews about forty yeers after Christs ascension when they had shewed themselves most obstinate and obdurate against his Doctrine delivered unto them not only by himself but also by his Disciples of which they had now slain S. Steven and S. James and driven into banishment both Peter and Paul and others that had preached unto them This then was the providence of God for the punishment of the Jews at that time And ever after their estate declined from worse to worse and their miseries daylie multiplied throughout the world Whereof he that will see a very lamentable Narration let him but read the last book of Josephus De Bello Judaico wherein it is reported besides other things That after the War was ended and all the publike slaughter ceased Titus sent threescore thousand Jews as a present to his Father to Rome there to be put to death in divers and sundry manners Others he applyed to be spectacles for pastime to the Romans that were present with him Whereof Josephus saith that he saw with his own eyes two thousand and five hundred murdered and consumed in one day by fight and combate among themselves and with wild Beasts at the Emperours appointment Others were assigned in Antioch and other great Cities to serve for Faggots in their famous Bonfires at times of Tryumph Others were sold to be Bondslaves Others condemned to dig and hew stones for ever And this was the end of that war and desolation Quis talia fando Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssi Temperet a Lachrymis After this again under Trajan the Emperour there was so infinite numbers of Jews slain and made away by Marcus Turbo in Affrica and Lucius Quintus in the East as was wonderful And in the eighteenth year of Adrian the Emperour one Julius Severus being sent to extinguish all the remnant of the Jewish generation destroyed in a very short time ninety and eight Towns and Vilages within that Country and slew five hundred and fourscore thousand of them in one day At which time also he beat down the City of Jerusalem in such sort as he left not one stone standing upon another of their ancient Buildings but caused some part thereof to be re-edified and inhabited only by Gentiles He changed the name of the City and called it Aelia after the Emperors name He drove out all the Progeny and Off-spring of the Jews forth of all those Countries with a perpetual Law confirmed by the Emperour That they should never return no nor so much as look back from any high or eminent place to that Country again And this was done to the Jewish Nation by the Roman Emperors for accomplishing that demand which their principal Elders had made not long before to Pilate the Roman Magistrate after he had washed his hands before the multitude to clear himself at least wise in outward shew from the blood of Jesus saying I am innocent of the blood of this just man look you to it Then answered all the people and said His blood be upon us and upon our children and so it came to pass accordingly even in that very age Then the which what greater argument of the Deity and Omnipotency of our Lord and Saviour who from heaven was able in so short a time and that in so full measure to revenge himself upon his enemies here on earth Yea a whole Nation together brought to final desolation And so much for the punishment of enemies The fulfilling of Prophesies THe last consideration followeth and so an end which is The fulfilling of Prophesies all those Prophesies uttered by our Lord and Saviour while he was here upon earth Especially this one of the destruction and desolation of the Jewish Nation already declared might suffice for all which over and over while he was conversant among them he denounced against them and foretold should shortly be accomplished upon them in most fearful manner as namely at one time after a long and vehement commination made to the Scribes and Pharisees in which he repeateth eight several times that dreadful threat Wo he concludeth That all the Righteous blood injuriously shed from the first Martyr Abel and so successively should very shortly be revenged upon that generation Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation and in the next words threatneth that populous City Jerusalem that it should be made utterly desolate Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your Habitation shall be left unto you desolate And at another time even that solemn time of his Entry and Riding into Jerusalem before his Passion it is said in the Gospel That when he was come neer he beheld the City and wept over it saying O if thou hadst even known at the least in this thy
the Apostle in a most fervent manner both prayeth and prophesieth to this effect Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved Then prophesieth at large in the chapter following and that most divinely as of their fall so of their general call in due time with many arguments and reasons to that purpose Which Prayer and Prophesie of hâ—â— proceeding from a Divine Instinct and Revelation no doubt shall one day take effect For it cannot be but that the word of God should take effect For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Grecian To the Jew first there is the promise there is the priviledge Lift up your heads now therefore O ye Jews sons of Abraham children of the promise to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises of whom are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came I say lift up your heads and listen to the heavenly calls of Christ and his Apostle Paul For your Redemption draweth neer This is the generation of them that seek him of them that seek thy face Jacob Selah Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in And let us Christians also upon whom the ends of the world are come lift up our heads and know remembring that parable of the Fig-tree when we see these things begin to come to pass that the Kingdom of God is near even at the doors Verily I say unto you This generation shal not pass till all these things be done Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away They are the words of our Saviour And now Brethren to return to Paul I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Be favourable unto Zion for thy good pleasure build the walls of Jerusalem Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of righteousness even the burnt Offering and Oblation then shall they offer Calves upon thine Altar O give salvation unto Israel out of Zion when God turneth the captivity of his people then shall Jacob rejoyce and Israel shal be glad When the Lord brought again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with joy Then said they among the Heathen The Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we rejoyce O Lord bring again our Captivity as the Rivers in the South Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen that we may praise thine holy Name and glory in thy praise Comfort us according to the days that thou hast afflicted us and according to the yeers that we have seen evil Thou wilt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to have mercy thereon for the appointed time is come For thy servants delight in the stones thereof and have pity on the dust thereof Then the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory When the Lord shall build up Zion and shall appear in his glory and shall turn unto the Prayer of the desolate and not despise their prayer This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord for he hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary out of the heaven did the Lord behold the earth That he might hear the mourning of the Prisoner and deliver the children appointed unto death that they may declare the Name of the Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem For God will save Zion and build the Cities of Judah that men may dwel there and have it in possession The seed also of his servants shall inherit it and they that love his Name shall dwell therein Surely the Lord will not fail his people neither will he forsake his Inheritance He hath alway remembred his Covenant and promise that he made to a thousand generations Thou wilt think upon thy Congregation which thou hast possessed of old and on the rod of thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed and on mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt Yea when the Lord turneth again the captivity of his people which will be when they turn unto him by hearty repentance not before when they cryed unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them out of their distress then will he make even their very enemies to become their friends and give them grace and favour in the sight of all those Kings and Princes under whom they now live and groan in most miserable slavery and bondage as in their former captivities may be observed He saw when they were in affliction and heard their cry He remembred his Covenant towards them and repented according to the multitude of his mercies and gave them favour in the sight of all them that led them captive for the hearts of Kings are in the hands of the Lord as the Rivers of waters he turneth them which way soever it pleaseth him So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia after that their seventy yeers captivity in Babylon as also Darius and others to write in their behalf sundry most favourable Edicts for their return into their own Country again with large liberality for the re-edifying of the Temple of God in Jerusalem For the Lord had made them glad and turned the heart of the King of Asshur unto them to encourage them in the work of the house of God even the God of Israel Therefore Ezra blesseth the Lord for all these extraordinary favours saying blessed be the Lord God of our Fathers which so hath put in the Kings heart to beautifie the House of the Lord that is in Jerusalem c. Yea rather then fail of his promised deliverance to his people when they cry unto him in their distress He will rebuke even Kings for their sakes As he did Pharaoh King of Aegypt in the days of old with this peremptory command by the hand of Moses over and over Let my people go that they may serve me or if thou wilt not c. inflicting upon them one plague after another till at length they were forced to drive them away as it is in that place Rise up get you out from among my people and go serve the Lord as ye have said And the Egyptians did force the people because they would send them out of the Land in hast for they said we die all giving them favour in the mean time in the sight of
Prince of Peace born Therefore to him agreeth this circumstance of time very fitly most vainly therefore do the Jews after this time expect another Secondly Jacob who lived many yeares before prophesied of this time very precisely as already hath been alledged that the Messiah whom he there called Shiloh should come at that time when the Scepter or Government Regal was departed from the house of Judah which was in the days of Herod and never till then who first usurped that government his Father-in-Law King Hircanus with all his off-spring of the blood Royal of Judah together with the Sanhedrim put to death The Genealogies of the Kings and Princes burned A new pedegree for himselfe devised In a word all authority regal whatsoever belonging to that Tribe at that time quite extinguished And just according to this time was our Saviour born namely in the days of Herod Mat. 2.1 Therefore to him agreeth this circumstance of time very fitly most vainly therefore do the Jews after this time expect any longer Thirdly God himselfe saith by his Prophet Haggai that the Messiah whom he there calleth The desired of all Nations shall come in the time of the second Temple which was then but new built far inferiour in stateliness and glory to the former built by Solomon which the old men in the book of Ezra testifie by their weeping when they saw this second Temple and remembred the glory of the first The words of the Lord by his Prophet Haggai are these Speak unto Zerubbabel who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now it is not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing yet now be of good cheer O Zerubbabel for thus saith the Lord of Hosts yet a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land And I will move all Nations and the desire of all Nations shal come and I wil fil this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts The glory of this last house shal be greater then the first c. which must needs be understood of the comming of the Messiah to wit his personal presence in this second Temple in whom is the fulness of glory and therefore could he and none other fil it with glory being himself indeed the King of glory Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shal come in So doth Malachy prophesie in these words The Lord whom ye seek shal speedily come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye desire behold he shal come saith the Lord of Hosts c. And so indeed he did for Christ Jesus came into the world during this second Temple and did himself likewise foretel the destruction thereof which came to pass even in that age Therefore to him agreeth this Circumstance of time very fitly most vainly therefore do the Jews after this time to wit the destruction of the second Temple expect any further Fourthly the Messiah by the true computation of Daniels Prophesie accounting his Hebdomades or Weeks for so many years to be multiplyed by seven that is to say Weeks of Years as they must needs be understood was to come just according to the time before mentioned his words are these Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thine holy City know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the Commandement to bring again the people and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shal be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks And after threescore and two weeks shal the Messiah be slain and not for himself And the people of the Prince that shal come shal destroy the City and Sanctuary and he shal confirm the Covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shal cause the sacrifice and oblations to cease Which Hebdomades or weeks of years whether we account from the first year of Cyrus who first determined the Jews reduction or from the second of Darius who confirmed and put the same in execution or from the twentieth year of Darius for that he then made a new Edict in the favour of Nehemias and sent him into Jury every way they will end in the reign of Herod and Augustus under whom Christ was born or in the reign of Tiberius under whom he suffered And by no interpretation can it be avoided but that this time is now our above one thousand five hundred years Besides this being a clear prophesie of the Messiah howsoever somewhat more intricate and obscure in respect of the years wherein the Prophet alludeth to the Captivity of Babylon as some think must needs be interpreted according to the former prophesies also of the Messiah And so doth the Prophet expound himself in the former words namely That the Messiah should be slain before the destruction of the City and Sanctuary Yet is there one week more to make up the number of seventy in the midst of which week the Messiah should be slain which came to pass accordingly for in the midst of that week that is about three years and an half after his baptisme Christ Jesus the true Messiah was slain and not for himself for Pilate could find no fault in him I finde no fault in the man I find no cause of death in him I am innocent of the blood of this just man look ye to it Not for himself but for us was he wounded as saith the Prophet Isaiah He was wounded for our transgressions Therefore to him doth this circumstance of time bear witness and consequently the Jews after these times by God himself appointed for the Messiah expecting yet for another besides the vanity of this their expectation they make God himself a lyar yea and all their forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the holy Prophets whose Children they hold themselves to be who all of them saw these days and prophesied of them Abraham rejoyced to see my day saith our Saviour and he saw it and was glad All these make they Lyars with themselves whereby they shew themselves rather to be the Children of the Devil who is the Father of lyes then of Abraham who is the Father of the Faithful only For so did that vile Serpent at the first even dare to give God himself the lye as it is in Genesis God saith there to Adam In the day that thou eatest of such a tree thou shalt dye the death No saith the Devil it is not so ye shall not dye at all So do these Imps of Satan Generation of Vipers as John the Baptist in his time called them even just after the same manner For saith God by his Prophets at such a time will I send the Messiah into the world and by such and such marks ye shall know him no saith this froward Generation it is not
after me commeth a man that is preferred before me for he was before me and I knew him not but because he should be declared to Israel therefore am I come baptizing with water So John bare record saying I saw the spirit come down from Heaven like a Dove and abiding upon him And I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water he said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit come down and stay stil upon him that is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God According as it is in the other three Evangelists more at large expressed how that Jesus when he was baptized came strait out of the water and lo the Heavens were opened unto him And John saw the spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And loe a voice came from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased The next day John stood again and two of his Disciples and he beheld Jesus walking by and said Behold the Lamb of God and the two Disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus All this was done at Bethabara beyond Jordan in the sight and hearing of a number of people there present as three of our Evangelists do report which they would never have presumed to have done had not the matter been most evident and without all compass of denial or contradiction And truely no one thing in all this story of Jesus life doth more establish certainty of his being the true Messiah then that John the Baptist whose wisdom learning vertue and rare sanctity is confessed and recorded by the writings of all our adversaries should refuse the honour of the Messiah offered unto himself and lay it upon Jesus and also should direct those Disciples that depended upon him to the onely following and imbracing of Jesus doctrine which is most evidently proved that he did for that so many followers and Disciples as himself had not one appeared ever after that was not a Christian These circumstances I say of the birth and comming of the Messiah into this world so long before foretold by the Prophets and fulfilled so exactly in the person of our blessed Lord and Saviour wel considered I may at length conclude Heaven and Earth concurring Men and Angels with all other Creatures applauding thereunto yea and God himself from Heaven pronouncing it This is my beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased That therefore as sure as God is God and cannot lye nor give Testimony to any untruth so sure is Jesus Christ the Son of God the true Messiah and Saviour of the world no other to be expected His preaching or doctrine THus having evicted by the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ together with the circumstances both before and after that he was by birthright the only legitimate as I may say and true born Messiah all others that were before him or since have sprung up or shal do hereafter to the worlds end but bastards and usurpers yea theeves and robbers and that in the highest degree of thee very that may be even robbing God of his honour which he wil not impart to any other it remaineth yet further to demonstrate the same by his life death resurrection and ascension with all other accidents and circumstances accordingly to be observed which may make this mystery more and more manifest or rather palpable as the Apostle witnesseth saying that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with these our eyes which we have looked upon and these hands of ours have handled c. that I say which we have seen and heard declare we unto you what can be more palpable After his baptisme he began to preach having before gotten his living as most conjecture with his own hands and eaten his bread with the sweat of his brows to shew himself true man and that he was made a curse for us as it is written In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread and what was his doctrine of this world or worldly delights of pleasure or profit no no quite contrary to the humors of this wicked world and to the corruptions of flesh and blood which procured him the more hatred as in all the four Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke and John who recorded both his sayings and doings may appear wholly tending to the sincere service of God in spirit and truth to the exaltation of Gods glory the beating down of mans pride by discovering his misery to the contempt of this wicked world and vain pomp thereof to the mortification of all sins in us patience peace of conscience c. in a word all directed to the manifestation of his Fathers will and amendment of mans life tending wholly to this one ground or principle Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul which is the first and great commandment and thy Neighbour as thy self on which two hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets The manner of his Doctrine was simple plain and easie altogether according to the evidence of the Spirit not in the enticing words of mans wisdom like the Heathen Orators and Phylosophers nor like the Scribes and Pharisees but with power and authority without either fear or flattery of any mans person rebuking all mens sins even to their faces which I say procured him such a general hatred It took away no one spiritual point of Moses Law but the Ceremonial only and Provincial which by the coming of the Messiah was to be taken away yea rather revived interpreted and made perfect the same corrupted much by the Jews false interpretations and glosses That as they taught commanding external observance only this adding internal obedience also For whereas that enjoyned according to the letter and as they interpreted to love our neighbours and friends and no further this adjoyneth love also your enemies bless them that curse you Matth. 5.43 Where that prohibited actually to commit Adultry and no more as they imagined this forbiddeth the adultry of the eye and of the very heart And so of all the rest of the decalogue our Saviours doctrine is nothing else but a most exact and sincere exposition according to the true intent of the Law-giver God the Father Therefore I conclude this doctrine so quite contrary to the gross humors of this wicked world and so repugnant to flesh and blood so wholly devoted to Gods glory and the sincere observation of his Law is the doctrine proper to the Messiah which the Prophets of God foretold should be delivered by him at his coming into the world His life and conversation FOr his life and conversation the express Image of his Doctrine it was stainless and without reproof even by the testimony of his very enemies acknowledged also by the Divels themselves A man of such gravity as never in his life he was noted to
Scepter was not departed they had their Sheckes that is to say chief men of their Tribes in all parts where they inhabit Moreover that some of the Moores forsooth had brought them word of a People or Nation of the Jewes inhabiting in a far Country he could not tell me the place where but first there is a River to be passed two Trees growing on either side directly one against another which two trees every saturday and no day else do of their own accord bow one towards another making as it were a bridg for men to go over Now the Jews by reason that day is their Sabbath may not attempt to pass over it But the Messiah at his comming shal bring them altogether into the Land of promise they know not how rebuild the City and Sanctuary in a trice much more glorious then ever it was before To which purpose he alledged that place out of the Psalms The Lord doth build up Jerusalem and gather together the dispersed of Israel So likewise interpreting that of Haggai the glory of this last house shal be greater then the first of this third imaginary Temple So literally applying that of Isaiah that in those days the Wolfe should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard lie with the Kid the Calf and the Lyon and the fat beasts together and a little child to lead them c. That these things should thus come to pass litterally according to the very Hebrew Characters This is all the knowledge they have in the Scriptures the bare Hebrew letters and no more Yet can they not speak one word of the true spiritual language of Canaan but in stead of Shiboleth like those Ephraimites they pronounce Siboleth no interpretation spiritual of the Celestial Canaan the Heavenly Jerusalem of the spiritual Temple of the mystical body of the Messiah that is to say his Church no relish at all of the spirit of God or any spiritual worship amongst them And yet forsooth they will be the people of God alone and who but they the Children of Abraham and of the promise and none but they yea they are so vainly puft up with the foolish pride of this their high pedigree that they think verily and will speak it confidently I have heard it from them that none of them unless for very heinous offences as Perjury or such like shall be judged after this life or be in danger of hell fire they only to have their punishment in this world and not else As though hell fire were only prepared for us Gentiles and Heaven only for the Jews which unless they repent they shall finde quite contrary if the words of our Saviour be found true which hitherto they have found but too true to their wo as I noted before I say unto you that many shall come from the East and from the West and shal sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Where are now the Jews with their lofty pedigree Even as Esau sold to Jacob his birth-right for a mess of pottage so have the Jews to us Gentiles their birthright to the Kingdom of Heaven for a mess of idle dreams and fantasies they imagin to themselves Towers and Castles in the air Crowns and Kingdoms in expectance even in this world another Paradice here on earth But in the end they shall find themselves to have been all this while in a fools Paradice and as it were in a dream which when one awaketh vanisheth and so I leave them to their dreams and profound sleep till it shal please God of his mercy to awake them Thus then it is manifest both by Scripture Tradition and Observation of the Jews themselves that about the time before mentioned to wit in the days of Augustus Cesar the new Roman Emperor and of Herod the usurper King of Jury who was the first that took away the Scepter from Judah even in the time of the second Temple the true Messiah was to be born And hence it was that the whole nation of the Jews remained so accent at this time more then ever before or since in expecting the Messiah Whereupon so soon as ever they heard of John Baptist in the Desart The Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask if he were the Messiah And in another place it is said ' As the people waited and all men mused in their hearts of John if he were the Messiah John answered and said unto them c. So that you see in those days the whole people of the Jews waited for his comming all men mused upon their Messiah So did also John himselfe being in prison sent two of his Disciples to Jesus demanding Art thou he that shall come or shall we look for another and again at the feast of the Dedication they came flocking to him from all parts they came round about him as it is in that place saying How long dost thou hold us in suspense if thou be that Christ tell us plainly All which importeth the great expectation wherein the people remained in those days of which fame expectation and greedy desire of the people divers deceivers took occasion to call themselves the Messiah Judas Galilaeus Judas the Son of Hezechias Atonges a Shepherd Theudas and Egyptus all notable deceivers But above all one Barcozham who as the Talmud affirmeth for thirty years together was received for the Messiah by the Rabbins themselves till at last they slew him because he was not able to deliver them from the Romans Which facility in the people when Herod saw he caused one Nicholaus Damascenus to devise a pedigree for him from the ancient Kings of Juda and so he as well as the rest took upon him the title of the Messiah whom divers carnal Jews that expected the Messiah to be a magnificent King as Herod was would seem to beleeve and publish abroad whereupon they are thought to be called Herodians in the Gospel who came to tempt Christ But all these deceivers are vanished and gone their memorial is perished with them whereunto our Saviour seemeth to allude where he saith All that ever came before me are theeves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them I say all these false Messiahs with their followers they are vanished and gone onely Jesus Christ and his Religion contrary to all other Religions in the world without either sword spear or shield against all world strength and policy hath increased and multiplied and shall do to the end of the world as Gamaliel long ago prophesied to the Jews wilfully bent put all in vain even in the very first infancy thereof to have destroyed it His words are these ' And now I say unto you refrain your selves from these men and let them alone for if this councel or this
this Jesus we could never obtain any profit by our gods Thus much confessed this Patron of Paganism concerning the maim that his gods had received by the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which albeit he spake with a malicious mind to bring Christians in hatred yet is the confession notable and confirmeth that story which Plutarch in his forenamed Book doth report That in the latter yeers of the reigne of the Emperour Tiberius a strange voice and exceeding horrible clamour with hideous cries screetches and howlings were heard by many in the Grecian Sea complaining That the great God Pan was now departed And this affirmeth Plutarch that was a Gentile to have been alledged and approved before the Emperour Tiberius who marvelled greatly thereat and could not by all his Diviners and Soothsayers whom he called to that consultation gather out any reasonable meaning of this wonderful accident But we Christians comparing the time wherein it hapned unto the time of Christ his death and passion and finding the same fully to agree we may more then probably perswade our selves that by the death of their great god Pan which signifieth all was imported the utter overthrow of all wicked Spirits and Idols upon earth according to that Vision of our Lord and Saviour before mentioned I saw Sathan like lightning fall down from heaven c. and again in another place Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out even this great god Pan who in another place is called the god of this world the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr and therefore may well be said by our Saviour to fall down from heaven being before time worshipped in those Idols Oracles and heathenish Prophanations as a God in all the world and exalted as it were into the highest heavens But behold as Dagon that Idol of the Philistims fell flat on his face and that twice his head and hands dismembred before the Ark of God in Ashdod so did Sathan this great god Pan the god of this world the Prince of the Ayr c. let me give the Divel his due yea rather more then his due as doth the holy Scripture so did Sathan I say immediately upon the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world and preaching of his Gospel the Ark of his everlasting Covenant fall flat on his face to the ground his head and hands dismembred according to that first promise and covenant to our first parents which was this that he to wit the Messiah should break the Serpents head c. which he had done not only in his own person by subduing Sathan with all his whole legions of Divels and Powers infernal trampling them under his feet but also in his members to whom he gave like authority as before he gave them power and authority over all Divels yea over all the power of the enemy which argueth again the power and omnipotency of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who not only in his own person here on earth but also in his servants disciples and followers was able to conquer and subdue even the Divels themselves as they themselves acknowledge Jesus I acknowledge and Paul I know c. And thus much of the subjection of Spirits The punishment of Enemies NOw resteth this his Divine Power and Omnipotency yet further to be manifested by another consideration of his Justice and severity shewed from heaven upon divers his greatest enemies here on earth after his departure out of this world as we may read in Josephus of Herod the first who persecuted Christ even in his cradle and slew all those Infants in and about Bethlehem and that other Herod Tetrarch of Galilee who put John Baptist to death and scorned Jesus before his passion himself scorned afterwards by the Emperour and disgracefully sent into exile first to Lions in France and after that to the most desert and inhabitable places in Spain where he with Heredias wandred up and down in extream calamity all their life time and finally ended their days as forlorn and abandoned of all men In which misery also it is recorded that the dancing daughter of Herodias who demanded John Baptists head being on a time to pass over a frozen River suddenly the Ice brake and she in her fall had her head cut off by the same Ice without hurting the rest of her body So likewise it is recorded in the Acts of Herod Agrippa Who stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church killed James the brother of John with the sword and imprisoned Peter how immediately thereupon as it is in that chapter going down to Cesarea he was there in a solemn assembly striken from heaven with a most horrible disease whereby his body putrified and was eaten of worms as also Josephus maketh mention Pilate that gave sentence of death against our Lord and Saviour we read that after great disgrace received in Jurie he was sent home into Italy and there slew himself with his own hands And of the very Emperors themselves who lived from Tiberius under whom Jesus suffered unto Constantine the great under whom Christian Religion took Dominion over the world which contained the space of some three hundred years or thereabouts very few or none escaped the manifest scourges of Gods dreadful justice shewed upon them at the knitting up of their days Whereas since the time of Constantine whiles Emperors have been Christians as one hath observed few or no such examples can be shewed except upon Julian the Apostata Valens the Arrian heretick or some other of like detestable and notorious wickedness And thus much of particular men chastised by Jesus But if we desire to have a full example of his justice upon a whole Nation together let us consider what befel Jerusalem and the people of that place for their barbarous cruelty practised upon him in his death and Passion And if we believe Josephus and Phylo the Jewish Historiograpers who lived in those times it can hardly be expressed by the tongue or pen of man what insufferable calamities and miseries were inflicted upon that people presently after his ascension first of all by Pilate their Governour under Tibarius and then again by Petronius under Caligula after that by Cumanus under Claudius and lastly by Festus and Albious under Nero through whose cruelties that Nation was enforced at last to rebel and take arms against the Roman Empire which was the cause of their utter ruine and extirpation by Titus and Vespasian At what time besides the overthrow of their City burning of their Temple and other infinite distresses which Josephus an eye witness protesteth that no speech or discourse humane can declare the same Author likewise recordeth eleven hundred thousand persons to have been slain and fourscore and seventeen thousand taken alive who were either put to death afterward in publike Tryumphs or sold
it is fallen already and what hindreth but that daylie and hourly we may expect the final desolation thereof Daylie and hourly I say for with such celerity and violence when it shall please God to put in their hearts whom it may concern to fulfil his Will Rev. 17.17 shall this sentence be executed In one day shal her plagues come upon her death and sorrow and famine and she shall be burnt with fire c. In one hour she shall be made desolate Rejoyce over her thou heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath given your judgement on her And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Milstone and cast it into the Sea saying with such violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down And here I might cast up together in like manner making but one total sum of all the Prophesies of all those holy Apostles and Disciples of our Lord and Saviour both as touching divers particulars whereof they prophesied in those times fulfilled most exactly as also touching the general state of the Church successively in all ages even to the end of the world and of the end of the world it self First for the particulars I will but point at them as before One of those holy Prophets prophesied of a general dearth to fall out in those times which hapned accordingly under Claudius Caesar Act. 11.27 Also of Pauls Imprisonment Acts 21.10 Paul in his sayling towards Rome foretelleth the Centurion and the rest of the tempestuous weather to ensue Acts 27.10 Of their shipwrack but yet with safety of their lives vers. 22. and precisely the place where they should be cast ashore to wit upon a certain Island vers. 26. In one of his Epistles he prophesieth of his own death 2 Tim. 4.6 So doth also Peter 2 Pet. 1.14 Secondly for the future state of the Church in these last days with the coming of Antichrist into the world and all his damned crew those hellish Furies See how precisely these holy Apostles and Prophets foretel of these times these perillous times and how lively they set him out in his colours with all his additions as well becometh such an infernal King the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon in Greek Apollyon That Antichrist that man of sin the son perdition that wicked one c. with all other adjuncts and circumstances so lively described as if he had been then already come for even in these days as the Apostle speaketh did this mysterie of iniquity begin to work See then I say 2 Thes. 2. 1 Tim. 3. 2 Tim. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 1 Joh. 2.18 chap. 4.1 2 Joh. v. 7. yea the whole Revelation is nothing else but a continued prophesie of all such things as should happen to the Church militant even from the Apostles times to the end of the world All which prophesies we see accomplished except before excepted the final destruction of Babylon and the calling of the Jews whereof both our Saviour himself as also Paul hath prophesied Rom. 11. both which we daylie expect and then as it is in the Revelation Come Lord Jesus Of which second coming or general doom with the manner of it and all other circumstances we have also sundry prophesies both of Christ and his Apostles which here I will joyn in one as proceeding all from one and the same Spirit for here all prophesies must come to a full period nil ultra I will only quote them as formerly Matth. 16.27 chap. 19.28 chap. 20.1 chap. 24. chap. 25. chap. 26.64 John 5.25 c. 1 Cor. 85. 1 Thes. 4.14 chap. 5.1 Jam. 5.8 1 Pet. 4.7 2 Pet. 3. Jude v. 6. 14 Rev. 21. where you shall see a new heaven and a new earth c. New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven prepared as a Bride trimmed for her Husband Thus have I brought you at length as after a long and tedious passage by Sea to see land and as it were the Sea-mark whereunto after so many variable winds and so often tacking to and again we have directed our course even from the first Prophesie made to Adam in Paradise Gen. 3.15 to the very last period of all Prophesies in the Revelation shut up in the second Adam Jesus Christ who is the first and the last Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending in whom all Prophesies kiss each other and have their consummation These are the words saith he which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all must be fulfilled which are written of me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms c. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem I say from this Jerusalem which now lyeth desolate I have brought you to the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband from an earthly to a heavenly Paradise and there I leave you A Collection DEMONSTRATIVE OR Sum of the former Proofs THe Messiah must be a spiritual King to conquer the Divel â—eath and Sin bâ—th by Scripture as also by the Interpretation of the ancient Jews themselves upon that place of Genesis He shall break thine head Therefore not a Temporal King as the latter Jews imagine The Messiah must be King over the Gentiles as well as the Jews both by Scripture as also by their own Writers Therefore not a Temporal King to reign â—ver theâ— only much less to subdue the Gentiles to the servitude of Jewry as some of them imagine The Messiah must be both God and Man the Son of God the Word of God incarnate The second person in Trinâ—ty both by the Scriptures as also by their own Writers Therefore no such earthly Monarch as they expect The Messiah at his coming being to be both King of Jew and Gentile must change the Law of Moses to wit the Ceremonial and Provincial proper to the Jews only and instead thereof give a general Law to both absolute and pâ—rfect to serve for all persons times and places to endure even to the end of the world thâ—refore no such Temporal Monarchâ— to be expeâ—â—ed as they look after For one and the same conclusion followeth upon all the premises beating upon â—heir main groâ—nd to wit a temporal or Earthly Kingdom which beiâ—g once shaken the rest falleth to the ground All Prophesies whatsoever with every particular circumstance foretold by the Prophets of the Messiah were both substantially and circumstantially fulfilled in the person of our blessed Saviour both as touching his Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection Ascension and other effects afterwards of his Divine Power in sending of the holy Ghost and the miraculous encrease of his Church c. Therefore was he indeed the Messiah no other