naturally beare In the mountain the Lord or Iehovah will be seene And this Proverbe taken up upon these occasions in whether sence or construction you list to take it was more then a Proverbe a true mystery or mysticall prophecy exactly fulfilled in the crucifying of our Saviour The Lord in the Mount did see and was seene by his speciall providence when hee provided the Ramme for a sacrifice instead of Isaac The mountaine whereon Abraham purposed to have offered Isaac as he was commanded by God for a burnt offering was one of the mountaines in the land of Moriah and that as all interpreters agree was about the place wherein Ierusalem was afterwards built most are of opinion that it was that part of mount Sion wherein the Temple was afterwards built wherein the threshing-floore of Arauna stood which David consecrated for the Altar of God But whether it were this mountaine or mount Calvary I will not dispute Mount Calvary likewise was in the land of Moriah and in this mountaine Iehovah did see and was seene he did in this mountain provide himselfe of a Lambe for a burnt offering he himselfe became a Lambe or visible sacrifice for our sinnes by whose blood he himselfe and wee in him were consecrated Priests to God the Father The other circumstances whether concerning Isaac or the Lambe were visibly and remarkably accomplished in the sacrifice of the Sonne of God Isaac did beare wood for the sacrifice up into the mountaine where Abraham intended to sacrifice him The Sonne of God did bear the wood of the Crosse whereon he was sacrificed at least part of it up to mount Calvary The Ramme which God provided instead of Isaac was caught by the hornes in the thicket of brambles or thornes and the Lambe of God the Sonne of God marched to his Crosse with a Crowne of thornes and brambles upon his head as most of the Fathers and best moderne interpreters collect from the Evangelists story For where it is said that they tooke off the purple robe and other royall ensignes wherewith they had in mockery invested him it is not mentioned that they tooke off this Crown of thornes this was the thicket wherein the murtherers caught him For as yee know he was condemned upon pretence that he affected the Crowne of David and suffered himselfe to be entitled and saluted the King of the Iewes and in derision of this great mystery which they understood not they put a Crowne of thornes upon his head and crucify him in it 4 But whilst the Princes of the earth and the Rulers take counsell against him while the heathen-Souldiers and Iewish pepole doe rage and make a mock of him hec that sate in the heavens laught them to scorne what they did act in jest or scorne here on earth he turnes into earnest and ratifies by an everlasting decree in heaven They cloath the Sonne of God with a purple or royall robe and bowing their knees thus they salute him Haile King of the Iewes unwittingly fore-prophecying as Caiphas did as well by matter of fact as by word that God would now annoint the Sonne of David to be that King over Sion to whom all knees should bow of things in heaven of things on the earth of things under the earth They in despite and bitter scoffes wreath a Crown of thornes or brambles about his head and fastened it on with a reede or mock-scepter which they had put into his hand litle considering that hee which sate in the heavens did consecrate him here by this part of his afflictions to the wearing of that everlasting Crowne of glory which David Psal 132. had fore-told should flourish upon him whilst his enemies were cloathed with shame ver 18. And of this Crowne of Glory as well the royall Diadem or Crowne of David wherein his Successors were enthronized as the Crowne of holinesse wherein Aaron and his Successors the high Priests were consecrated were but the shadowes or models and so no question was the Crowne upon the Arke or Mercy-seat And it is a point which I will commend unto the serious reader's observation specially in the reading of the apocalyps or the Revelation that in all or most part of the visions made to S. Iohn the Disciple whom hee loved of Christ in his glory he still appeares and his appearance is still emblazoned by this Disciple in some one or other of the robes which Aaron used at his Consecration Sometimes he appeares with a garment downe to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle Such were the robes and girdle of Aaron the high Priest and to shew that his Saints were consecrated likewise in his Consecration his Saints or Angels appeared thus cloathed unto Iohn Rev. 15. ver 5. 6. And after that I looked and behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and the seven Angels came out of the Temple having the seven plagues cloathed in pure and white linnen and having their brests girded with golden girdleâ— Sometimes he appears with a Crown upon his head 5 His Pallace or Kingdome likewise his walke or verge is emblazoned or set forth by the materiall Temple the ministerie likewise of his glorified Saints and Angels But of this hereafter 6 Those temporary flashes of Royall salutations and greetings which the multitude tendred unto him when hee came into Ierusalem to be consecrated were ratified by an everlasting decree in heaven So 't is said Revel 7. 9. 10. And after this I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying Salvation unto our God which sitteh upon the throne and unto the Lambe This was the accomplishment of the multitude's crying Hosanna to the sonne of David with palme branches in their hands and those which thus cryed in heaven are they as the Angell instructs S. Iohn which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lambe therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and hee that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them Revel 7. 14. 15. c. This washing of their garments in the blood of the Lambe was likewise prefigured in the Consecration of Aaron Exod. 29. 21. Thou shalt also take of the blood that is on the Altar and of the anointing oile and sprinkle it upon Aaron and upon his garments and upon his sonnes and upon the garments of his sonnes with him and hee shall be hallowed and his garments and his sonnes and his sonnes garments with him This blood wherewith their garments were sprinkled was the blood of the Ramme of the Consecration whose blood likewise Moses as it is in the 20 th verse was commanded to take and put it
them It was by so much the welcomer by how much the accomplishment of it was lesse thought on 7 But were these two great Apostles altogether without blame in that before this time they knew not the Scripture that Christ was to rise from the dead They might be more capable or worthy of blame then we to lay any blame upon them wherefore not to pronounce what I think of them much lesse to determine any thing concerning them I must make bold to be the Reader 's remembrancer of that which our Saviour himselfe immediately after his Resurrection said unto two of his Disciples which did doubt of the truth of it albeit they had heard it in a sort testified the story is Luk. 24. 22. 23. Gertaine women of our company say those two Disciples which went with our Saviour to Emmaus made us astonished which were early at the Sepulcher And when they found not his body they came saying that they had also seene a vision of Angels which said that he was alive And certaine of them which were with us went to the Sepulcher and found it even so as the women had said but him they saw not Then hee said unto them O fooles and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory How farre S. Peter and S. Iohn were lyable to this censure of the supreame Iudge that I leave for him to determine S. Iohn from this time did expressely believe Christ's Resurrection So did not S. Peter till afterwards if we may believe the collections of cardinall Tollet upon this place 8 The point which from our Saviour's words unto these Discipels Luk. 24. and from our Evangelist's confession of himselfe in the 9. ver of the 20. Chap. I would commend unto the Reader 's consideration is this that our Saviour's Resurrection from the dead was fore-signified and might haue beene fore-knowne not from one or two places of Scripture only but from many from the current of that which Moses and the Prophets had written So it followes Luk. 24. 27. Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe And when S. Iohn saith that the Disciples as yet knew not the Scriptures this is more then if hee had said that they knew not the Scriptures that hee must rise againe from the dead The phrase imports as much as if the whole drift and scope of Scripture was to fore shadow setforth or exemplifie the power and vertue of Christ's Death and Resurrection from the Dead CHAP. 30. That the Death and Resurrection of the Sonne of God was aenigmatically fore-told in the first promise made to our Father Adam and our Mother Eve That his Resurrection was exquisitely prefigured by Isaac's escape from death and the Propagation of his Kingdome after his Resurrection by the strange increase or multiplication of Isaac's seede A parallel betwixt our Saviour and Ioseph in their affliction and exaltation THe truth of our Saviour's Resurrection is necessarily though but aenigmatically included in the first promise made to mankind Gen. 3. ver 15. And I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and betweene her seede and thy seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel This sacred oracle as hath been to diverse purposes before observed includes a literall and an emblematicall ormysticall sense To the present purpose by the heele of this womans seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of the ancients understand the Humanity of our Saviour and not amisse so it doe not point out the similitude too precisely The warrantable punctuall meaning of the place is thus As a bruise in the heele to an ordinary man is not deadly so neither was death it selfe unto our Saviour because he was God as well as man and by the vertue of his divine power could as easily recover life againe after he had been put to death as a strong body whose vitall or internall parts are whole and sound can recover health after some bruise in the heele or other infirmity in his outward or extream parts but so could not Saran recover the blow which our Saviour by his Sufferings gave him in the head hee hath been ever since diminuti capit is deprived of his wonted power and dispossessed of such as were before his captives So saith our Saviour Ioh. 12. ver 31. Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lift up from the earth will draw all men unto me And his drawing of men unto him was a drawing of them out of Satan's bondage and dominion So that Lucifer as wee may hence gather had a two-fold fall The one from heaven or his sear of Angelicall glory when hee sought to be like God his Creator The other from his power or dominion over this inferior world or morrall men And this befell him by seeking to make the Sonne of God more miserable than other men by attempting to have him lifted up upon the Crosse as the brasen Serpent was in the wildernesse The same nailes that nailed our Saviour's feete to the Crosse did pierce the old Serpent's head In briefe Christ was to crush the old Serpent's head by conquering death and death could not be fully conquered but by dying So that when it offered it selfe unto our Saviour he was to meete with it and to fight with it not a farre off but hand to hand yea to close with it and to receive the utmost force and power of it in every part Not thus throughly to have tasted it had beene to eschew it or to have fled from it not to have conquered it But thus to abide the extremity of it to receive the full dint of all the blowes that death and hell or all the powers of darknesse could reach mortality and yet to put all off or rather to redouble their forces upon themselves was truly to subdue death and him that had the power of death This is our Apostle's inference Heb. 2. ver 14. For asmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell 2 Our Saviour as some of the ancients have wittily said did as it were bait his divinity with his humanity that hee might catch Satan in his owne net or with his owne hook Satan being by nature an immortall spirit did take upon him the bodily shape of a Serpent to beguile the first woman and our Saviour being the eternall Spirit and Sonne of God did take our flesh that is the womans seed upō him thereby to deceive or intrappe the great Tempter For unlesse the Godhead had been invested with the weaknesse of mortall flesh the old Serpent would not have so desperately adventured his
him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Philip. 2. verses 9. 10. 11. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. CHAP. 31. Shewing the concludency of the allegations used by the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul to prove the truth of Christ's Resurrection and in particular of the Testimony Psal 2. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee NOt to repeat other Types or propheticall testimonies of Christ's entrance into immortall glory by the sufferings of death of which the Reader may find plenty as well in Postillers as Commentators nor to dilate upon such generall testimonies whether meerly typical or propheticall or typically propheticall as have been heretofore handled in the seventh and eighth Booke of these Comments upon the Creed as that of Psal 82. c. I make no question but those testimonies out of the Psalmes or Prophets which are avouch'd to this purpose by the Apostles themselves specially by S. Peter and S. Paul were expounded by our Saviour himselfe unto the two fore-mentioned Disciples which did accompany him unto Emmaus 2 Now the testimonies most insisted upon by the Apostles as well for convincing the Gentiles as the Iewes are specially three that of Psal the 2. Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee and Psal the 6. Thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption the third The Lord hath sworne and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech or which is much what the same The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole The extraordinary successe of all these allegations abundantly testifies that they were most concludent for many thousand soules at two severall times besides others were converted by them The testimony out of Psal 2. is prest home by S. Peter Act. 2. v. 6. to the 37. to the Iewes specially and by S. Paul both upon Iews and Gentiles Act. 13. Though with better successe upon the Gentiles The force and strength of this testimonie and likewise how farre it was meant of David and fulfilled in Christ hath been at large discust before The point at which these present endeavours aime is to declare how these two testimonies 1. Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee and 2. Thou art a Priest after the order of Melchisedech doe concludently and irrefragably inferre the Resurrection of Christ that Iesus whom the Iewes had crucified being both the Sonne of God and sonne of David and his Consecration to his everlasting Priesthood for unto this later point both testimonies are drawne by our Apostle Heb. 5. v. 5. and 6. But how close they reach this point whether jointly or severally is not so cleerly set forth by most interpreters as that the Reader unlesse his understanding farre surpasse mine will easily collect The generall meaning of our Apostle hath been declared in the first Section and in the close of the fourth of this Booke it is punctually thus Seeing Aaron's calling to the dignity of Priesthood was publiquely manifested to be from God no man after might take upon him to erect a new Priesthood no not to the temporall prejudice of Aaron and his successors much lesse to abolish this Priesthood which God had erected unlesse he could manifest to man and Angels that his Commission for thus doing was immediately from God and authentique being sealed by oath and solemnely executed And seeing no man might therefore Christ though God and man did not glorifie himselfe as the Apostle addes to be made an high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee did put this dignity upon him Many Interpreters have stretcht their wits to make the literall sense of this Psalmist's words reach home to our Apostle's purpose Others so slight it as if they would give us to understand or cause to suspect our Apostle himselfe did not much stand upon it but only passe by it unto the second testimony Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Albeit in my opinion the later testimony proves his fiat or Commission the former his ordination or execution of his Commission I will not wrong the judicious Reader 's patience with profering variety of such expositors unto his choise as his wisdome cannot approve Cajetan hath Ribera's approbation and of all the expositors which went before him drawes the Psalmist's Oracle Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee neerest to the point in question So farre I am from carping at any thing which those two expositors have said to the point now in question that I will endeavour to explicate and extend their meaning in the best sort I can The Priesthood saith Cajetan as Ribera expounds him before the Law given was annexed as a prerogative to the first borne and descended from Abraham to Isaac and by speciall dispensation to Iacob Now the whole dignity of the first borne being lost by Ruben was divided amongst three of his Brethren The Soveraignty or Principallity fell to Iudah the Priesthood to Levi and the double Portion to Ephraim And in Aaron the sonne of Levi was the Priesthood established long before the Kingdome was established in David the sonne of Iudah and to the Priesthood so established David's sons had as litle right as Aaron's sonnes had to the Crowne or Diadem God's peremptory decree for thus dividing these two prerogatives Azariah is not afraid to plead unto King Vzziah's face Chron. 2. 26. And his speech did take impression for hee had no sooner made an end of speaking but the leprosie begunne to appeare in King Vzziah's face and for his usurpation of the Priest's office and intrusion into the house of God he is utterly excluded from his pallace and enforced to resigne the government unto his Sonne But inasmuch as he of whom the Psalmist speakes is solemnely registred and by him declared to be the first borne and Sonne of God it is not lawfull only but expedient but very necessary that all the branches of the first borne's prerogative which Ruben had scattered should be reunited in his Person Againe in that he is the promised seed hee is the compleat heire of all the blessings bequeathed to Abraham and out of whatsoever tribe this promised seed was to spring the honour of Priesthood was as due unto him as the Kingdome Levi and Aaron were but as foefes in trust for conveying the Priesthood as Iudah and David were for making over the Kingdome unto him 3 All those suppositions and others perhaps more then Cajetan or Ribera though
things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above not on things on earth For yee are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall yee also appeare with him in glory Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanenesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience But if these workes of the flesh be mortified by the spirit the spirit of God having gotten possession of our hearts doth organize them and frame a true model of the heavenly Sanctuary within our breasts albeit we cannot expresse our affectionate conceits or experimentall representations unto others Christ is present with us or in us by this renovation of our mind or by imprinting these heavenly affections in our soules by following love gentlenesse meeknesse temperance patience c. Christ is really fashioned in us not by converting any substance into his substance or by reall converting his substance into ours but by conversion of our earthly affections into the similitude of his heavenly affections Our affections being thus converted Christ hath his Throne and Habitation in our hearts so answering to his heavenly Throne as the light of the sun gathered in some round body apt to reflect his beames or to be penetrated by them doth resemble the sun which really penetrates and enlightens them For effecting this reall conversion of our affections into the similitude of his affections no other presence of Christ is either necessary or expedient besides the presence of his spirit by which ten dayes after his Ascension he enabled his Disciples to conceive aright of these heavenly mysteries and to convert others unto the truth of his Gospel 4 That Christ's body should descend from heaven unto us or be bodily present by trasubstantiation or some other manner as some conceive we have no reason to hope nor warrant to believe to lift up our bodies unto heaven we have no possibility but to lift up our hearts and spirits unto our Lord now placed in his heavenly Throne we have have peremptory precepts many But how shall wee lift them up or what power have we to lift them up Not so much I confesse as we have to cast our selves downe before his Throne but casting our selves downe before him which we cannot performe without his preventing and assisting grace we have a sure promise that he will lift us up Wee are no where to my remembrance commanded to pray to God that he would cast us downe and yet bound to pray that he would give us grace to cast our selves downe As often then as wee meditate upon this Article of Christ's Ascension or sitting at the right hand of God let us beseech God and him that the Priests may truly exhort their charge his people to lift up their hearts and that the people may as truly answer we lift them up unto the Lord And that we may all joyntly sing that hymne in reverence and true devotion With Angels and Arch-Angels and with all the company of heaven we laud thy glorious name O Christ evermore praising thee and saying holy holy holy Lord God of hosts heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most high AMEN CHAP. 40. How the time of our Saviour's Ascension into heaven upon the fortieth day after his Resurrection from the grave was prefigured by the signe of the Prophet Ionas with the exposition of that signe given by our Saviour Mat. 12. 39. 40. ONe thing more I should have said in the former treatise but now must commend it to the Reader 's observation And 't is this that many of those propheticall passages specially in the Psalmes of bringing great things to passe by the right hand of the Lord have been are and sahll be most punctually fulfill'd of and in the Son of God incarnate since he was placed at the right hand of God the Father That his placing there includes an extraordinary eminency of power more then hath been formerly manifested the Lutheran I am sure doth not and I hope others cannot deny Two speciall manifestations of the power of the right hand of God were exhibited not long after his Ascension The first spirituall as the descending of the holy Ghost from which time the holy Catholique Church bare date or began to be in esse The other was the destruction of Ierusalem and the dispersion of the rejected reliques of Abraham's seed throughout the Nations 2 The circumstance of the time wherein he ascended which is the only point left to be discust is plainely set downe by the Evangelist S. Luke Act. 13. The Queries upon it are two The first how it was prefigured The second what it did portend 3 For the resolution of both these Queries there can be no firmer ground then the explication of a sacred text uttered by our Saviour himselfe Math. 12. v. 38. 39. c. Then certaine of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered saying Master wee would see a signe from thee But he answered and said to them an evill and adulterous generation seeketh after a signe and there shall no signe be given to it but the signe of the Prophet Ionas For as Ionas was three daies and three nights in the whales belly so shall the son of man be three daies and three nights in the heart of the earth 4 But yet for any helpe we have from most Interpreters the explication of this Text is in it selfe more difficult then most of the former alleaged for our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension Who so will read as many ancient or moderne expositors as Maldonat had done will haply subscribe to his censure of such as he hath read So farre was any of them from cleering this passage that not one besides Hilarius did in his judgment touch the principall difficulty contained in it And he that shall read this learned Writer's Comments upon this place will perhaps not condemnemy opinion of him delivered in former meditations But my desire is rather to explicate his and other Interpreters meaning whom he dislikes then contradict them and to rectifie the parallels intended by them betweene Types or Figures of the Old Testament and their accomplishment in the New 5 The principall dissiculties in our Saviour's parallel are first what manner of signe it was which the adulterous generation sought for The second to what purpose he gave them such a signe as they did not seeke after Our Saviour before and his Disciples after this time had given the Iewes one and other many miraculous signes How then doth hee say that no signe shall be given them besides the signe of the Prophet Ionas Some are of opinion that these Scribes and Pharisees desired some such glorious signe from heaven as Elias and Samuell had shewed