that their kinges should alwayes be of the tribe of Iuda And beside this worldly authoritie or pollitick gouernment the Iewes had an other spirituall authoritie or ecclesiasticall gouernment which was of the tribe of Leui. These were priests in the law and prophets and doctors But as some suppose Sanhedrim those 70. Elders in Israell which Moyses doth chuse in the xi of Numbers The Iewes by these 2. Magistrats were gouerned But this office of kings priestes or elders was not of any longer continuance but till Christ the trew king priest and doctor of the Iewes should come Heare the Patriark Iacob prophesying of the firster cōming of Christ Iesu our Lord sayth Iuda or the people of the Iewes shall haue kinges or gouernours of the tribe of Iuda whiche shall gouerne them and they shall haue doctors till Christ himselfe come their trew king and doctor And so the Iewes had Kinges Iudges or Princes and doctors of the tribe of Iuda almost euen vnto the birth of Christ But when he was borne it must needes folow according to this prophesie that this princely dignitye of the tribe of Iuda and office of the priesthood should end ¶ Anna. Was not this princely dignitie taken from the Iewes long before Christes birth when for 60. yeares long they were prisoners at Babilon vnder a king of the Gentiles for Christ as thē was not come And if I be not deceaued the Iewes in disputations with vs Christians make a iest at this prophesie of Iacob obiecting that captiuitie ☞ Vrb. The Iewes in this place as in many other are deceaued For in all the time of the captiuitie the kinges stock neuerthelesse remained in Iechania who being deliuered from captiuitie was with great power honored as a king after the captiuitie of Babilon all these princes of the tribe of Iuda did raigne rule Zerubabel Ioanna the son of Resa Abner Semei Nagid Artaxat Amos Scyrath Arses Resa Iudas Hercanus Eli Mattathias Agai Hesli Mattathias Siloia Ianus the 2. Hercanus Misciola Iosephus the 1. Asar Maath Massoth Naum Iosephus Minor. After these did raigne but not of any continuance the Afmonites or Machabies Iudas and Ionathas his brother Simon Iohn Hircanus Priscus Aristobulus Iohn Alexander and Alexandra his wife and Hercanus whome Herod slew and by violence vsurped the kingdome This Herod was not a Iewe borne but an Aliant an Edomite sonne to Antipater of the Citie Ascalon Hee obtained at Rome of Octauian Anthony that by the authoritie helpe of the senate he might be king of the Iewes but with much adoe he hardely subdued them and brought them to acknowledge him for their king Thei rebelled diuers times conspired his death that so they might shake of the yoke of a gentle king But when he had sore weried them and greuously oppressed thē about thirty yeares still wrastling with him at last after many bickeringes and conflictes he hardly begā quietly to rule haue ful princely gouerment without any rebellion of the Iewes who by extreme force were compelled to acknowledge him their king At the same time when Herod was kyng and had taken the scepter from the Iewes and when all their power was dawnted then came this Siloh or Christ and was borne at Bethleem as Mathew the Euangelist sayth who alledgeth the testimony of Micheas the prophet Wherfore the true Lord and king now being come the Iewes kingdome had an end But here must we diligently marke what kinde of kingdom Christs should be and how great his power should be which thing the Patriark doth herin set forth when he geueth him so royall holy famous a name calling him Siloh For Siloh doth signifye rich happy fortunate and one which in all thinges he taketh in hand hath good successe and to whome all thinges fall out as he wisheth and desireth ¶ Anna. There is one thing that troubleth me much wherin I cannot resolue my selfe I doubt not at all but that the promise in Genesis 49. was fully performed so that there is not a letter or titell of it left vnfulfilled For whatsoeuer God promiseth that must needes be performed For who can let it But seing that prophesie of Iacob sayth that the princely power should continue with the tribe of Iudah euen vntil the tyme that Siloh should come and seeing you a little before sayd that this princely dignity after the death of Ianus Hircanus came to the Machabies afterward to Herod I would know why the scepter did not tary with the posteritie of Nathan vntill Hely Were not the Machabees of the tribe of Leuy and not of the tribe of Iuda How therefore came Schebeth into their hands by what right got they the kingdome and held it ☞ Vrb. Seing we certaynely know and beleeue that this prophesy which the Patriarke vttered by the instinct of the holy Ghost is performed so that no one title therof is left vnfulfilled lyke as both the tyme of Christes natiuitie and also Herods regement doetruly agree and iumpe vpon I trust wee may without daunger reuerently reason of this matter in the fayth and feare of God. It was meete that this prophesy should be so fulfilled that it might agre with this Siloh Christ according to his firster comming into the world that it might not disagre with other prophesies of Christ and of his estate or kingdome But the Prophet Zachary sayth the firster cōming of Christ shal be Eni that is to say poore needy base contemned and despised Now then if Christ had bene borne at such tyme as some of king Dauids stock had yet set on the princes throne and so Ioachim Mary and Ioseph had bene in authoritie come to the kingdome with full sayle of worldly pomp where should that base and beggerly maunger in Bethleem haue bin found where should his flight into Egipt haue bene sene and where should other notes and tokens of Christes humility and of his wretched and miserable state in the time of his ministration wherof the prophets foretold haue appeared Wherfore that short authoritie or gouernment which the Machabees had in the kingdome of the Iewes doth not hinder the performaunce of this prophesie Gods prouidēce perchaūce would haue it so for certayne causes first it was meet cōueniēt that this tribe a few yeares before Christes birth should lese most of his dignitie and that it should become base vile despised as it were faline not esteemed of the world that Christ might be borne as a spirituall king of the tribe of Iuda and stock of Dauid poorely without great sterre and worldly pomp as it is signified in Esay where he sayth There shal come forth a rod of Iesse and a graffe shall grow out of his rotes The Ebrew text vseth the word Gesa which Aquila Symmachus and Theodotio translated into greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a stock a bole a dried tree or a staffe To the intent they might
signifie that long after the captiuitye of Babilon whē there was none of the stock of Dauid to sit on the kings throne that thē Mary Christ out of Mary should spring as out of a dry stock as Ierom saith Now this prophesy must needes haue bene fulfilled therfore must the house of Dauid before the byrth of Christ be depriued of all kingly glory and be contemned and counted as it were an old vnprofitable withered balke which came to passe in those 129. yeares in which after Ianus Hircanus Asmonay that is to say Iudas with his kinsfolke nephews and posteritie executed the office both of the spirituall and secular power In those yeares the house and stock of Dauid came to such pouerty and contēpt that it was thought a thing vnpossible that so great a king should come out of that so dry a roote being now so long withered dead For when the trib of Iesse was most cōtemned then was Siloh Christ borne in the vile and abiect Bethleē the Citie of Dauid And therfore the Iewes whē Antiochus beganne to vex them and when the Machabees tooke vpon them the priestly and kingly dignity might easely haue coniectured and by euident signes haue sene that the tyme was now at hand in which Siloh should come Moreouer there is no cause why that short time of the Machabees raigne should trouble vs neither is it much to the purpose for though they were not at all of the tribe of Iuda yet did they gouerne in the place of the tribe of Iuda and Dauid and prouided for the tribe of Iuda defended and preserued that tribe and Beniamin togither with the priesthode and their religion euen vnto the tyme wherin Siloh came For the tribe of Iuda had neither kinges nor princes neither of them selues nor of their stock and kindred neither yet any of their affinitie that bore rule but it was altogether vnder the subiection of others Iuda and Beniamin returned from Babilon the tribe of Leui was mixed with these tribes as the minister of the lord And after this sort Iuda obteyned and had rule of the politick gouernment ¶ Anna. You haue satisfied and resolued me in that doubt of the Machabees ☞ Vrb. The parentes of Christ being of the stock of Dauid were remoued from the gouernment not long before the byrth of Christ like it was so to be Gods will that before that tyme both those principalities of the Iewes to wit both the spirituall and temporall dignity of the Priests and Princes should come to one tribe or person seing Siloh was at hand who being the annoynted of the Lord should be both a priest and king in Israell and should purchase vs the blessing and him selfe raigne for euer ¶ Anna. Might not the Iewes here say that Siloh nether is nor signifieth that promised Messias and so wrast this promise from vs deride it For they perchaūce wil alledge that there is another kind of prince of passing great prosperitie specified and foretold here in this place so wilfull vnflexible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is stifnecked be they when the are vrged and conuinced with the vnuincible Scriptures ☞ Vrb. They cannot alledge any thing that hath any shew or face of truth so plaine apparaunt and forsable is this prophesy with the falling out or fulfilling of it neither doth it agree with any other nor can be applied to any other but onely to Christ For Christ began his kingdome after the same forme and manner in all thinges as the prophet foretold yea and euen about that time that the scepter was taken from Iuda And now since that time the Iewes for this 1576. yeres and more haue had nether prince nor prophet and as well that secular as ecclesiastical gouernment hath his end Besides these their owne Maister and Doctor Schlomo whome they cannot gaynsay affirmeth that Siloh in this place is and fignifieth Messias And you knowe that Thargum hath Messias in steade of Siloh What soeuer therfore the Iewes heare obiect it is nothing at all but their foolish hasting doltish obstinacy egregious impudency and malicious peruersnes ¶ Anna. But how can you gather the state and condition of Christes kingdome out of this word Siloh ☞ Vrb. Well and easily if you diligently consider these wordes that follow And the people shall bee gathered to him or to him shall the Gentiles flow in for so is it nerer the Hebrew text For by these wordes we learne that Christes kingdome is a spiritual kingdome For to him shall many nations conuert or come and flow into him and obey him and that not by compultion of sword or armour but willingly and gladly Other of the Iewish kinges haue borne the secular sword and with it haue subdued and bridled men and that both in their owne kingdoms and countries and also oftentimes in their borders adioyning and yet is there not one of them now remaining but in order they haue all ended their dayes But this Siloh ruleth and holdeth the scepter not for a short time as the other kinges of the Iewes did but for euer that is to say he raygneth for euer and his kingdome extendeth and spreadeth it selfe not ouer one onely part of the world not into Iuda onely but ouer all the earth And this he doth not by dint of sword nor with puissaunt armies of souldiers but onely by his word for his kingdome is a maruelous and spirituall kingdome where the subiects come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with lusty courage willingly chearfully redily of their own accord with great ioy of hart submit themselues to this king Wherfore in subduing them to him he neadeth neither sword nor weapon For as sone as he speaketh but his word which of all thinges is most sweete and pleasaunt straightway they which be his heare his voyce and willingly gladly follow him For he entreateth all that be his courteously and gently and ruleth not imperiously and tyran lyke but offereth himselfe most gently seruisably and redily to helpe ease and deliuer all men And this his spirituall kingdome doth Moses famously with figuratiue speaches paint out as both what the order of it should be and how it shal be gouerned saying He shall binde his asses fole vnto the vine and his asses colt vnto the best vine in wine shall he wash his garment and his cloke in the bloud of grapes his eyes shal be red with wine and his teeth white with milke All these wordes haue a misticall sense and speake of the administration of the word and gospell because our Messias through the holy spirite ruleth his kingdome by his word in which he speaketh such thinges of Gods great loue toward vs which geueth vs his sonne to deliuer vs from all misery and calamity both of body soule as are most acceptable comfortable and pleasant to the eare which as soone as man doth heare he greatly reioyseth and runneth to Christ
and with a holy violence as it were forsably entreth in vnto him and voluntarily submitteth yeldeth vp and dedicateth him selfe wholy to him as appeareth in Mat. But now geue care and mark what Siloh doth import why he would by this name vnderstād Christ This noble personage is so rich prosperous flowing with aboundance of all good things that none of the kings of the Iewes nay not all the kings cā match him or compare with him alone And Christs kingdome is another and clean contrary kingdome to the kingdomes of other kings and shal be gouerned after another sort then earthly kingdomes be nay all other kingdomes must geue place to this king which out of doubt could not be if this Siloh should haue bin a king whose kingdome and princely dignity enduring but a short time had ended with the kinges as the kingdome of Dauid Salomon and the rest did or if this kingdome of his should haue looked for another king to succeed him as did the kingdome of Iuda wayt for him It must needes therfore be that here should be a marueilous great change of kings and that this king whose comming is here foretold should be clean another kind of king and prince then others were otherwise the Scriptures would neuer haue named him Siloh which signifyeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a most blessed happy fortunat Lord who in al things he goeth about hath passing prosperous succes Here then in this word may Christes death immortality and eternity be gathered if it be well and throughly pondered For first he was to be true and naturall man and consequently mortall for he was to come of the tribe of Iuda being of the seed of Abraham and sonne of Dauid Secondly he was to be immortal and should rise agayne from death and lyue for euer because the scripture describing him sayth he shal be a royal prince farre differing from other kinges and much more honorable mighty and great then all the former princes of Iuda which orderly succeding one another raigned vnto his comming This king committeth not his kingdom to any other to rule neither hath he any successour he yeldeth not to any man but hauing once taken the scepter in hand in Herodes time he ruleth and raigneth a king for euer Which could not otherwyse be but that he should first die and hauing put of this miserable and short lyfe by death rise agayne death beyng ouercome to immortality and liue for euer That the scriptures might be fulfilled and that Christ might be such a king and Siloh as to whom not only the Iewes might cleaue but also whom all the world might acknowledge receiue worship for their God and king And finally that he might after this sort be true man and king of the stocke of Dauid and yet neuertheles immortall inuisible and eternall and raigne after this sort in fayth spiritually for euer ¶ Anna. If Cleophas and his fellow had well vnderstoode this prophesie which was the testament of that their Patriark Iacob they had not been so offended at Christs death ☞ Vrb. Indeed this prophesie might sufficiently haue instructed them and they might haue learned plainly inough out of it how Gods will and purpose was that Messias or Siloh should be put to death and yet not remayne in death but rise agayn to deliuer Israel and raigne for euer But they as yet beleued not the prophesies as these their wordes of incredulitie do sufficiently argue declare where they say a. We hoped it had bene hee that should haue deliuered Israel For their hartes as yet wauered and were vnconstāt and they supposed that Christ had ben vtterly extinct and dead for euer and themselues cleane frustrate of their hope For seing Christ himselfe was now put to death they dreamed that he could neither help nor deliuer other men from death and therefore Christ sayth vnto them O fooles and slow of hart to beleue all things that the Prophets haue spoken Ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory ¶ Anna. Wrote Moses nothing els of Christ in Genesis ☞ Vrb. I haue determined to expound those prophesies onely which most specially plainely and euidently speake of Christ For if I would explicate and run through all the mysteries and types which are in Genesis I could finde many moe of Christ and his church ¶ Anna. Moses in the 14. of Genesis briefly describeth Melchisedech I haue often heard you say that Christ was called Melchisedech I praye you tell me why he was called so ☞ Vrb. There is an excellent and comfortable mystery of Christ in Melchisedech in the 14. of Gen. And Paul in the seuenth chapter to the Hebrewes doth famously and aptly expound the same saying Melchisedech the priest of the most high God is a figure of our Lord Iesu Christ to whome God the father fayth thus in the 110. Psal. Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech ¶ Anna. What was Melchisedechs order in his priesthoode ☞ Vrb. The state and order of his priesthoode is maruelous and altogether differing from the state of the priests of the law In the law of Moses there was a priesthood of the tribe of Leui. That priesthood offered vp sacrifice and prayed for other and for thēselues and they taught the law of God in which euery man might see his sinne and the curse due for his sinne But this priesthood could deliuer none from their sinne or from the curse Moreouer there were many Priestes that succeded one another for they died others came in their places neither was there any one that still enioyed the office of priesthood But Melchisedech was a maruelous priest of whom Moses speaketh but little But the holy ghost expounds the same more at large in the 7. to the Hebrues saying Melchisedech by interpretation is the king of righteousnes after that he is also king of Salem that is king of peace without father without mother without kinred and hath neither beginning of his dayes neither ende of lyfe but is likened vnto the sonne of God and continueth a priest for euer Moreouer he blessed the Patriarke Abraham who notwithstanding had the promises of the blessing of god All these were fulfilled in Christ as Dauid witnesseth saying The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech That is to say Thou art a priest cleane after another sort then Aaron and his successors were For they were mortall men who by the cōmaundement or law of God could condemne and bring al men vnder the curse but could not deliuer or quit any man from the curse And such were both their sacrifices the priesthod itselfe that they could not take away euen the least sinne that is But thou O Christ art the true Melchisedech the euerlasting and true king and priest And this must you after this sort vnderstand
and inuisible things after an vnknown secret sort Danyel prophesyeth that Christ shall be a Prince and haue his peculyar people But he prophesyeth in the same place that the Iewes should deny him kil him Ioel caleth Christ the Rayne or Doctor of righteousnes as one sent for the same purpose to teach vs the true righteousnes of God. Malachy calleth Christ the Angel or Messenger of the testament Or as the seuenty Interpretors translated it the Angel of righteousnes Many such sayings as these are in the Prophets by which nothing els is set forth vnto vs but the redy will of Christ to help saue vs with his lowlynes gentlenes hūblenes mercifulnes in his former cōming And here I could recite all the prophesies which are written of his passion how he humbled himselfe to the death euen to the death of the cros and many other things which the Prophets foretold of the spirituall kingdome of Christ and how he now gouerneth vs But these prophesies will offer themselues more fitly in another place where God willing they shal be expounded ¶ Anna. All the prophesyes of Christes passyon affirme that humble conuersation of Christ in which for our sakes he walked in this earth And therfore let vs proceed and search whē this former cōming of Christ should be ☞ Vrb. First I will speake of that sweet prophesy of Dan. which plainly sheweth the time wherin Christ would come Seuenty weekes are determined vpon thy people and vpon thine holy City to finish the wickednes and to seale vp the sinnes and to reconcile the iniquity and to bring in euerlasting righteousnes and to seale vp the vision and prophesye and to annoint the most holy Know therefore and vnderstand that from the going forth of the cōmandement to bring again the people to build Ierusalē vnto Messiah the Prince shal be 7. weekes and threescore and two weekes and the Streete shal be built agayne and the vale in a troublous time And after threescore and two weekes shall Messiah be slayn and shal haue nothing and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the Citie and the Sanctuary and the end thereof shal be with a floud and vnto the end of the battaile it shall be destroyed by desolations and he shal confirme the couenant with many for one weeke and in the middest of the weeke he shall cause the Sacrifice of the oblation to cease and there shall be in the Temple abhomination and desolation Or on the winges or at the winges shall stand abhomination of desolation and that desolation shall continue vnto the end or consummation of all thinges Or it is decreed that desolation shall contynue vnto the end This Prophesie is something darke and it is vnderstood and expoūded diuersly both of the Iewes and Christians And therfore must we in intreating and expounding of it bestow the more tyme And worthy it is dilygently to be handled For it is one of the chefest and notablest Prophesies that we haue of Christ So great misteryes of our God Christ Iesu doth it open vnto vs I will therefore set downe the same in certayn Articles First of all must be noted that the Prophet Danyell prophesyed this in the captiuitye of Babylon when Nabuchodonizor the king of Babylon had led away the Tribe of Iuda into Chaldaea and the Iewes were captiues seuenty yeares of which Ieremy prophesyed In this captiuity the Iewes were much vexed and troubled For this was their greatest and heauyest crosse that being amongst the wicked Goim the Gentils they were commaunded to lay away the true worship of God which is set down in his word As appeareth in the Psalmes where the Iewes complain and witnes their heauynes saying g. By the Ryuers of Babylon we sate and there we wept when we remembred Syon We hanged our harps vpon the willowes in the middes therof Then they that led vs Captiues required of vs songs and mirth when we had hanged vp our harps saying Sing vs one of the songes of Syon How shal we sing sayd we a song of the Lord in a strange land In these afflictions miseries Daniel began to cōfes his owne sinnes and the sinnes of his people and to pray hartily euery day to God for his captiues that for his mercy sake he would vouchsafe to pardon thē their offences for which they were led away captiues and that he would helpe them that being come into theyr own land they might restore the true worship of god which had bene so lōg neglected Daniel praying thus is heard and the Archangell Gabriel is sent vnto him who shewed the tyme appointed or fulnesse of tyme as Paul calleth it to wit the tyme of Messias in which Christ should come and bring with him all ioy true happines He told also the number of yeares to wit how long it should be to the former comming of Messias in which he should come into the world and happily begin his euerlasting kingdom Secondly here is to be noted that the former comming of Christ was two wayes reuealed vnto Daniel First a farre of and something darkely to wit vnder what Monarchy of the world Christ should come Afterward more nigh and plainely and so perfectly that he might wel know the very yere in which Christ should begin his kingdome For Daniel by the reuelation of the holy ghost expoundeth to the king Nabuchodonizer a wonderfull and maruelous dreame of the foure Monarchies or kingdomes of the world to wit of the golden siluer brasen and iron kingdome But that you may the better vnderstand these things know you that God told Daniel that there should be foure kingdomes or Monarchies in the earth which should continue vnto the ende of the world to wit that all earthly power ouer Kings Princes Dukes Barons and other magistrates should foure tymes be changed and giuen to sundry nations These are those foure Monarchies or kingdoms The first is the Assyrian and Babyloniā Monarch in Assyria and Chaldea The second the Persians and Medes in Persia and Media The third the Grecians or Macedonians in Grecia The fourth and last in which Christ should come the world should haue his end be the Romans These foure Empires or Monarchies are also reueled in the 7. chap. of Daniel by foure beasts of the which the first is a Lion the next a Beare the third a Leopard the fourth a terrible beast without name hauing irō teeth Thus sayth Daniel in his 2. chap. And in the dayes of these kings shal the God of heauē set vp a kingdom which shall neuer be destroyed and this kingdome shall not bee giuen to an other people but it shall breake and destroy all these kingdomes and it shall stand for euer Where as thou sawest that the stone was cut of the mountaine without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brasse the clay the siluer and the golde so the great
God hath shewed the king what shall come to passe hereafter In this prophesie is the tyme prefigured in which Messias would come and begin his kingdome by his Gospell and holy spirit First in an humble base habite but afterward at his latter comming in glory and power S. Hierome vpon this text sayth that in the end of these kingdomes a stone that is our lord and sauiour Christ was cut frō the mountaine without hands that is he was borne of the virgin Mary without the seed of man Wherefore it is manifest that Messias in his former comming in great humilitie would not come in the flesh and begin his kingdome before the last Monarchy which is the Romains Empery For Daniel sayth in the dayes of those kingdoms that is whē the three first Monarchies be ended and the fourth last that is the Romaine Monarchy doth florish and rule the roste and when it is tossed and troubled with tumults then shall the kingdome of Christ be erected and begunne and it shall destroy the Romish empire But it is to wit Christes kingdom shal abide for euer All other kingdomes of the world haue their borders limited and their dayes numbred which beyng expired the kingdoms decay and come to naught But that great and mighty kingdome of Christ shall haue no end it shall neuer be dissolued but shall abide for euer and euer neither shall it be in a part or corner of the world as in Europe Affrike or Asia but in the whole world As Daniel witnesseth where he speaketh of the image that Nabuchadonizer saw saying Thou beheldest it till a stone was cutte of the mountayne without handes which smote the Image vpon his feete that were of iron and clay and brake them to pieces Then was the iron the clay the brasse the siluer and the gold broken altogether and became like the chaffe of the sommer flowers and the wynde caried them away that no place was found for them and the stone that smote the Image became a great mountayne and filled the whole earth This stone is Christ to whom is giuen all power as wel in heauen as in earth that he may rule with power in euery place And Daniel saith agayne in the 7. chapiter where the foure Monarchies are vnderstood by foure beasts that Christ should come and beare rule in the tyme of the fourth Monarchy that is when the Romaynes should rule Let vs now gather by the seuenty wekes in the 9. chapter whē the tyme should come and how long they had to looke for Messias and whē he should begin to rule By this reuelation of Daniel the Iewes are plainly and mightely conuinced that Christ according to the Prophets foretelling is alredy come on thousand and fiue hundred yeres ago For first the angel sayth in the 9. chapter out of which I recited the wordes of the prophesie before that there were seuenty wekes determined and appointed for the people of the Iewes and the holy city Ierusalem after which 70. wekes the people and priesthood of the Iewes should cease And the whole state of the kingdō should be destroyed For after that time appointed God determined that al Ierusalem shold be ouerthrown that the Iewes shold be partly blinded and partly destroyed We must also vnderstād that the angel speaketh not here of such wekes as consisteth on seuen dayes For so seuenty wekes woulde scarce make two yere But he speaketh of such wekes as seuen yeare do make but one weke and so seuentie wekes do make foure hundreth and ninety yeres For so the scripture speaketh in other places And the same phrase and maner of speaking is vsed in Leuiticus And so also al men indued with the spirit of prophesiyng haue hitherto continually vnderstood it Note diligently by the wordes of the prophet how great things should happen in the dayes of Messias how wonderful the power of his kingdom should be These are the wordes of the prophet To finish the wickednes and to seale vp the sinnes and to reconcile the iniquity and to bring in euerlasting righteousnes and to seale vp the visiō and prophesie There had bene Moses and many other doctors of the law who had taught commaunded them to do thinges honest godly and forbiddē things that were euill and wicked but none of them all did any thing preuaile For sinne once reueiled by the law became greater and more sinfull For nature without grace though she be neuer so much admonished or instructed vnto honesty and godlines though she be neuer so much moued pricked forward vnto pietie and obedience towards God will yet for all that play her wonted prankes and run her old race followyng her fansie goyng on as she was wont Nay thenceforth after such admonition she becommeth worse and worse more vnhappy wicked more inflamed by heat of lust to offend So then sinne remayned and could not be taken away but as Paule witnesseth to the Galathians our offences afterward became greater heauier and more more without ceasing And therfore was it nedefull that Messias him selfe should come and mend this matter bring helpe with him otherwise our case had bene worse worse and we had fallen into greater and greater euils As Paul preached in the Actes saying Be it knowen vnto you therfore men and brethren that through this man is preached vnto you the forgeuenes of sinnes And from all things from which ye could not be iustified by the law of Moyses by him euery one that beleueth is iustified For Christ was therfore sent from the father made man that he might satisfy for the sinnes of all men obtain for vs the holy ghost and eternall lyfe and so indue vs with perfect righteousnes which before God is auaylable to wit with the christian fayth of which the law and the prophetes foretold many thinges And so it was meete that the visions and prophesies should be fulfilled that is it was conuenient that those things should come to passe which the Sears or Prophetes which were inspyred and illuminated by the holy Ghost had seen and foretold of Messias For all the Prophets and euen the law it self prophesied vntil Iohn And the holyest of holy or most holy shal be annoynted at that tyme This is Christ the Lord and king of all holynes who was sanctyfied by the holy Spirit far aboue his fellowes and was called by God his heauēly father in his baptisme his wel beloued sonne He onely is to be heard as the true Preacher Lord Master of all the Prophets His word is to be imbrased To him only with tooth and nayl must we cleaue And vpon him only must we beleeue Seing then Christ was to be looked for within seuenty weekes that is within 490. yeares at which time he should begin his kingdome We must here search where and when these seuenty weekes should begin and then we may
certainly know the meaning of this prophesy ¶ Anna. When then doe these 70. weekes begin ☞ Vrb. Marke diligently the words of the Angell Gabryel he sayth thus from the going forth of the commaundemēt that Ierusalē should be builded again That is from that time that they were commaunded to repayr and restore Ierusalem The Angel himself doth plainly expound it and he beginneth at that yeare wherein it was decreed that Ierusalem should be restored Now must we search the raignes and the successions of kings and kingdomes out of Historiographers and out of them the number of yeres wil plainly appeare We will therfore take these 70. yeares to begin at the second yeare of king Darius which was called Long-hand For that yere the Lord spake by the Prophets Haggeus and Zacharyas and commaunded that Zerobabel should builde the Temple as we read in the first chapter of both the prophets The same commaundement also did this king Daryus geue that we spake of and then went forth also his Edict for the reedifying of the Temple And the account doth well and iustly agree if we begin our computation there For from that time in which that prophesy was vttered by Haggeus vnto the baptisme of Christ when he tooke vpon him his ministery and began the regyment of his kingdome or new Testament for this Angel here describeth him to be a king whose youth and childhood being past and now alredy come to mannes state might as a king take into his own hands the rule of his kingdome from that tyme I say vnto Christs baptisme were almost 483. yeares Out of which yeares we may make 69. of these yearly weekes and euery one of them shall contayne 7. yeares of which Gabryel here speaketh saying Vntil our Lord Christ come there are seuen weekes and 62. weekes that is 69. weekes Thus therfore must we recken From the 2. yere of king Darius vnto Alexander the great are 145. yeres by that account of Metastenes From Alexander the great vnto the natiuity of Christ are 311. yeares From the birth of Christ vnto his baptism wer 30. yeres These yeres by additiō gathered vp make these 486. yere which are cōtained in 69. wekes ¶ Anna. As far now as I vnderstand this reckning and account there are three yeares remayning which I pray you tel me how they must be accounted Doe not these yeares make your account vnperfect ☞ Vrb. In such kind of reckning euery day and houre cannot be so exactly numbred It cannot be but that in such computations there wil be some od dayes more or les For it happeneth oftentimes in histories that halfe a yeare is taken for a wholl yeare The time therfore which remayneth is to be included in the other yeres yet no inconuenience shal happen in our prophesie of Messias seing that we haue so sure testimonies good ground of scripture for the principal matter Some men count these 70. weekes from the 20 and last yeare of Cambises father vnto Daryus who suffered Nehemias to come to Ierusalem to reedefy the Citie And there was two yeares between the 20. of Cambyses and the 2. of Darius For when any great or worthy thing is done in three yeares or is a good long time in doing we vse often to containe and set it forth as done in one of the three yeares or at one time saying such a thing was done this or that time And so must we say here God commaūded the second yere of Daryus that Ierusalem should be reedefyed that is at or about those times when Nehemias was sent back by Cambises and began to reedefy Ierusalem For it was a worthy work nay a wonderfull worthy work and many there were which began it yea the Angels them selues vrged and furthered the work But they did not all begin it at one time and houre The Angel Gabryell deuided these 70. weekes into three parts in euery one of which three was some notable thing done In the first seuen weekes saith Gabryel that is in 49 yeares the walles and streetes of Ierusalem shal be builded but in a troublesome time For the Samaritans Saneballat Tobias and others there abouts stayd and hindered the building all they could Wherupon the Iewes were put to great trouble and care and brought in great danger and distres You know how the Iewes said vnto Christ in Iohn Forty sixe yeares was this temple a building and wilt thou reare it vp in three dayes Then Danyel saith after 62. weekes shall Messias or Christ suffer death Plainly geuing vs to vnderstand what should happen when these 69. weekes were ended and when Christ had begun his raign to wit a great and wonderful thing shal then chaunce Christ shall then be crucifyed as it came to pas in deed in the 4. yeare after the 69. weekes and after he began to preach Wherfore Ierusalē shal at last come to naught and be wasted and vtterly destroyed and the people of the Iewes shal be cut of These things were all fulfilled 40. yeares after the ascention of Christ when Titus the Romane Emperor Sonne to Vespasyan after long beseeging Ierusalem at the last ouercame it and miserably destroyed it As Christ had told them before with bitter teares weeping for the miserable and horrible calamity and ouerthrow which he saw hang ouer the Citie because she knew not the time of her visitation For Christ sayth in Luke the dayes shal come vpon thee that thine enemies shal cast a trench about thee and compas thee round and keep thee in on euery side and shall make thee euen with the ground and thy children which are in thee and they shall not leaue in thee a stone vpon a stone because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation And Titus did this same which Christ foretold as we read in Iosephus which saw all the doyngs with his eyes For Titus beseeged the Citie so that no Iew could escape The circuit of the wall was thirty and nine furlongs and when he had entrenched them he handeled them so miserably that with hunger they were constrayned to eat beasts dung dryed girdles shoes and skincouerings of shields yea they sought their foode in Iakeses And one woman rosted and eate her own child for extreem hunger Many also in that Citie flew and butchered one another Besides this the plague also was so whot amongst them that lodgings houses and all the streetes were filled with dead bodyes To be short this vnthankfull City tasted so much of Gods wrath for their forsaking of Christ our Sauyour that we haue no example like it Those that dyed and those that were murthered in the Citie in that war were ten hundreth thousand beside seuenty thousand more which were sent bondslaues into Egipt there to moyle all their liues in intollerable toyle like beastes They which were vnder sixteen yeares old were sold more cheape then dogs and as Egesippus witnesseth thirtye Iewes were sold for
dye and be buried but not corrupt and rotte as our sinfull flesh doth and that his blessed deuine soule should not be cast in hell or graue but be vnited againe to the body that he should rise agayne from death sit at the right hand of God giue vs euerlasting lyfe It was meet that he should be the first fruites of thē which were dead that by his glorious resurrection he might open vs the true gate vnto lyfe and make the way for vs by which we also must go to him But Peter and Iohn the other Apostles before Christs rising againe vnderstood not this although they had heard it oftentymes vntill they saw the lord aliue agayne Wherfore it is no wonder though Cleophas and his companion vnderstood it not Dauid saith O lord my God I cryed vnto thee and thou hast restored me O lord thou hast broght vp my soul out of the graue Thou hast reuiued me from them that go downe into the pitte Arnobius and Augustine vnderstande this prophesie of the death and resurrection of Christ And againe he sayth God shall deliuer my soule from the power of the graue for he will receiue me Selah The church vnderstādeth these wordes also to be ment of the death descending into hell and risyng agayne of Iesus Christ And in another place he sayeth Thou hast shewed me great troubles and aduersities but thou wilt returne reuiue me And wil come again take me vp frō the depth of the earth These wordes also doth Arnobius expound of the death of Christ of his descendyng into hel and of his resurrection And againe in the 86. Psal. Christ saith to God the father Thou hast deliuered my soule from the lowest graue S. Augustine and with him the whole church of Affrica vnderstand this to bee vndoubtedly ment of the descending of Christ into hell of his rising againe The 22. psalm doth more fully and plainly then any other describe the passion resurrectiō and euerlasting kingdom of Christ And there are the very same wordes in which Christ in his great agony his extreme necessitie called vnto his father vpon the crosse And that psalm describeth Christ his passion also setteth forth the fruite of his death resurrection saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All they which see me haue me in derision they make a mo nod their hed saying He trusted in the lord let him deliuer him let him saue him seyng he loueth him They perced my handes and my feet I may tel al my bones yet they behold and looke vpon me They part my garments amōg them and cast lottes vpon my vesture Behold how exactly how liuely how truly and how excellently the holy ghost foretold Christes passion vsing the very same wordes which the Iewes vsed when they mocked Christ hanging on the crosse And the Euangelists are witnesses that al these things happened in his passion which were fore told of it And they recite the very same words to the end they may proue that it was the good will both of God the father and the son that Christ suffered seing the holy ghost prophesied many yeres before that all these things should happen vnto Christ Yea the spirite foreshewed also that Christ by this his passion should enter into his glory be lord ouer al things As before ye haue heard in the 8. psalm But in this 22. psal he saith I will declare thy name vnto my brethren and in the middest of the congregation will I praise thee Do you see he shal first suffer his passiō but he shall not bide in his passion and death For euen thē shal he magnify his fathers name and make it famous and wel known through the whole world by this glorious and famous preaching of Gods mercies in that he spared not his owne onely sonne but gaue him for our sakes to the death of the crosse that we might therby obtaine the benefite of euerlasting lyfe For so it followeth in the psalm The poore shal eate and be satisfied they that seeke after the lord shal prayse him their harts shall liue for euer This eating and satisfieng of the poore is a spiritual satisfieng when the poore sinners eate the true bread of heauen that is when they heare the gospel of Christes humanity passion and resurrection and kepe it in their hartes by fayth For then are they fed by it vnto euerlasting life according to that of Iohn I am the liuing bread which came down from heauen if any man eate of this bread hee shall liue for euer Neither can mans cōscience be otherwise satisfied and set at quiet that it be not vexed and troubled by any other thing but onely by Christ apprehended by fayth It followeth All the endes of the world shall remember themselues and turne to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee For the kingdome is the lordes and he ruleth among the nations This is when men by the preaching and doctrine of the Gospell are put in mynd of gods great benefites and are constrayned to acknowledge worship confesse glorify and call vpon Christ their lord who is appointed of God the father to be the head of all things and king ouer all nations of the whole world Here haue ye the kingdome of Christ which is the holy catholike church spread ouer the face of the whole earth And now in all things and places where that euill spirit the deuill before ruled by lying hauing seduced all people and led them into all kindes of errors and idolatry that they might be as Paul sayth without Christ without the worde without hope and without God in the world there I say in those partes shall Christ now be heard It followeth their seede shall serue him and the lord shal be preached from age to age But if Christ shal haue seede that is to say spirituall children borne by the gospell as well of the Iewes as Gentiles as you see by this text he must then can he not be ouercome by deth nor abide in the graue For how could he then regenerate and congregate the Gentiles together into the catholike fayth and rule such an empire which should fill the whole world whose dominion should not extende through one piece of the earth onely but thorough the whole circuit of the wide world and so cōtinue for euer world without end For whosoeuer beleueth in Christ shal be partaker of euerlasting lyfe Wheresoeuer therfore the prophets set down the kingdom of Christ saying that it shall haue continual peace health and felicitye there is set downe and in dede declared the deth and resurrection of Christ and all christian men For if Christ shal be a king and set vp and haue an heauenly and euerlasting kingdome it must needes follow that he should leaue this temporall mortall lyfe by death
vs what Christ is and what he doth for vs and howe much he profiteth vs He geueth vs also vnderstāding that we may be able to iudge what a holy lyfe is and what is vngodly and wicked and what is consonant and agreing to true religion and what is repugnant therunto He also helpeth vs by hys good redy and holsome counsayle that the godly may know how they ought to behaue themselues vnder the cros and suffer al things patiently valiantly yea he ministreth consolation to the sorrowful and afflicted he geueth vs also strength in tribulation and affliction that we may haue stedfast hartes and that we may valiantly ouercome all euils and aduersities hee geueth vnto euery one knowledge wisdome that the godly man in the kingdome of God may know how to vse hym self towards euery man whether he be strong or weak in fayth He geueth vs also the feare of God which is the beginning of true wisedom And by that we see that our god raigneth and gouerneth his people far otherwise then earthly kinges do For earthly emperours cannot see the inward parts of the hart and in the innerchamber of the brest those things whiche lye hid within whereby it commeth oftentimes to pas that they iudge some man good and honest by the eye and eare whiche is a very wicked man in hart But Christ our king beyng one which searcheth all mēs harts iudgeth truly as the history of the gospell witnesseth in Mathew where he hath to do with the pharisies and in that and diuers other places seeth their secret thoughts regardeth not that their false visor and shew of godlines But reproueth that fals shew of holines fained integrity And according to their deserts calleth them hypocrites But what kind of subiects I pray you hath this king and who be his people Verely their title cognisance which Christ himself did also beare in the 9. of Zacharye is here vpon earth pouerty affliction and misery Here you see a spirituall kingdom if it had ben a worldly kingdom thē should not the king haue ben a poore miserable wretched king but a rich honorable pompous magnificent and cherefull king his subiects also should haue ben mighty honorable and flowing in delights and commodities in this world but in thys kingdome all things are spirituall yet shall they not always be poore miserable and afflicted it is but for a tyme that they shal be here thus crossed followe their maister Christ in suffering affliction For as a kyng after hys trouble and persecution becommeth great and ascendeth to the highest step of honour so shall all the godly after theyr crosses here at the last day become glorious as the children of God. But in the meane tyme as Saint Paul saith we must dye vnto the world we must be afflicted persecuted and contemned in the worlde for our true lyfe is hid with Christ in god When Iesus Christ which is our lyfe shall appeare euen then we also shall appeare wyth him in glory In the meane tyme our ould and crooked Adam must here be chastned and kept vnder by the crosse of affliction For the flesh and ould Adam shall not inherite the kingdome of Christ Contrarily there must be erected in vs true holynes that is fayth in Christ seeing that God euen for Christes sake pardoneth our sinns and by grace in Christ iustifieth vs and taketh vs for righteous Neither is the rod or scepter of this our king earthly but heauenly namely his holy and saluing worde and holy ghost and with this rod before the last iudgement he smiteth the earth that is our ould Adam which is from the earth earthly He rebuketh smiteth and punisheth our wickednes that we being accused by the word of Christ may hate and flye sin and turne to better lyfe and afterward lyue godly and vertuously all the dayes of their lyfe He doth by his word also hurle downe all earthly and erronious opinions by which men are seduced He smiteth consumeth and killeth as Paule sayth Antechrist With the spirite of his mouth For as Gods kingdome here is not of this world euenso also his armor is not worldly but spirituall to wit righteousnes fayth and truth For we fight agaynst the power of hell and sathanicall army by fayth in Christ which is our righteousnes by prayer proceeding of fayth which God heareth as he hath promised But where the prophet speaketh of wolues lambs that is a figuratiue and darke speach For the prophet regardeth not these brute beastes but he geueth vs to vnderstand that the church should be congregated of sundry sortes of men and that those which before had bene at deadly fead and enmity amongst themselues should by the gospell become so great frendes meeke and secure that they should not one meane harme to an other This is the fruit of the preaching of the gospell to wit the wyld rude and sauage Gentiles with the cruell and swelling Pharises and the mighty potentates of this world are by the gospell mollified tamed humbled conuerted and brought into the church of Christ It followeth in the same chapter of Esay And in that day the roote of Ishai which shal stand vp for a signe vnto the people the nations shal seke vnto it and his rest shal be glorious And in the same day shal the lord stretch out his hand agayne the second time to possesse the remnaunt of his people which shal be left of Ashur and of Egypt and of Pathros and of Ethiopia of Elam and of Chimer of Hamath of the Iles of the sea And he shall set vp a signe to the nations assemble the dispersed of Israel gather the scattred of Iuda from the 4. corners of the world c. Here the prophet foretelleth how ample and large the kingdom of Christ shal be he sheweth vs what shall be the state of the tyme of the new Testament to wit that although the roote of Eshay which is Iesus Christ the sonne of Dauid be despised and refused of his own people yet should he be so glorious so mighty and so famous a king that all the people throughout the whole world should worship honor him For he shold be set vp for a signe or banner vpon which all men in battail fasten set their eyes This is a most comfortable ensigne which maketh the hart ioyful constant and bold and it is a signe of victory This signe is our king Iesus Christ lifted vp exalted vpon the crosse by which crosse Sathan is ouercome and our soules deliuered And as the Iewes in the desert did run vnto the brasen serpent which Moses set vp when they were deadly wounded of the serpēts euen so Christ is set vp before vs and vnto vs that all men may flie to him and with faith loke vpon him and stedfastly behold him and so be healed of that
flesh they should liue at lyberty peace pleasure plenty and security But it is to be vnderstood that their delyueraunce should be spirituall so that many of them should neuertheles by the gospel in Christ be iustifyed and saued though a great part of them were to fall away from Christ and to repugne set thē sclues against Christ and his church as at this day wee see they doe ☞ Vrb. It is in deede as you say For they did not vnderstand the prophets nay when Christ cam vnto the Sinagoge it was so stufft and ouerwhelmed with mans traditions that their very doctors them selues vnderstoode not the scriptures as they were with vs in the tyme of popery Now if the doctors were so ignoraunt alas what could the rude people know The prophets out of doubt are plaine and manifest inough they euidently declare that at the comming of Messias Goim that is to say the Gentiles shall in deede be leue receaue and acknowledge Messias to be their Lord and that the most part of the Iewes should rebelliously reuoult from him and but onely a remnaunt of them be conuerted to him to whome the Gentiles should be gathered and ioyned and of thē both should be made one spirituall Israell And to this end were those comfortable promises of the kingdome of Christ made both to the Gentiles and the remnaunt of the Iewes As Esaias sayth in the wordes that follow Therefore thus sayth the lord Behold my seruants shall eate and ye shall be hungrye Behold my seruauntes shall reioyce and ye shall be ashamed Behold my seruants shall sing for ioye of hart and ye shall crye for sorrow of hart and shall houle for vexation of minde and ye shall leaue your name as a cursse vnto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay you and call his seruaunts by an other name He that shal blesse in the earth shall blesse himselfe in the true God and he that sweareth in the earth shall sweare by the true god For the former troubles are forgottē and shall surely hide them selues from mine eyes ¶ Anna. Doth the prophet here speake of corporall meate and drinke as that miserable blinded rable of the circumsised Iewes do Iudge ☞ Vrb. Paule sayth in the first of Timo. that those that beleue in Christ haue the promise made them both of this lyfe and of the lyfe to come And therfore is it most true that those christians which beleue in Christ shal enioy euen such thinges as are necessary for this life But without all doubt the prophet saw here a greater and more excellent thing and hee meaneth rather a spirituall sustinaunce then a corporall As for the meat and drinke which nourisheth the bodye the prophets greatly regard it not about such thinges they greatly trouble not thē selues it is the health of the soule that they chiefly regard that is their chiefe care that especially did they thinke themselues bound to teach that so they might search out and promise euerlasting health with ioyfull lyfe and immortality to the beleeuers in Christ For their promises contayne the very true Gospell of Christ Iesu And the Gospell is the promise of true righteousnes lyfe it selfe eternall saluatiō and the spirituall and euerlasting kingdome of Christ And this is the cause that the prophets vse by temporal blessings as their wordes import to prophecye of true heuēly happines And to this end doth al the doctrine of the gospel tend to this it draweth vs as witnesseth Christ in the sixt of Ioh. saying labor not for the meat that perisheth but for meat that ēdureth vnto euerlasting life I am the liuing the bread which came down from heauen if anye man eate of this bread he shall liue for euer And in Luke he sayth Therefore I appoint vnto you a kingdome as my Father hath appointed vnto me that you may eate and drinke at my table in my kingdom Such promises made hee to his disciples which continued with him in his afflictions at what time he had neither kingdome countenace glory nor estimation in this world And Paul to the Romaines sayth The kingdome of God is not meate nor drinke but righteousnes and peace and ioy in the holy ghost This true ioy and continuall gladnes shall the faythfull in Christ enioy but the heritage of the vngodly shall be wrath indignation punishment vexation and anguish of soule The Ioy of the Christian beleuers in the midst of their afflictions beginneth here in earth in fayth and hope when God the holy Ghost doth witnes within vs that we are the children and heires of God and already saued but as yet onely in hope But in the great day of the Lord we shall then at the last beginn to enioy for euer that greate gladnes pleasures delights of lyfe euerlasting ¶ Anna. What name is it by which Gods children fweare Vrb. Esay sayth it shall come to passe that the name of a Iew by reasō of their apostacye and for that they denyed Christ shall be odious and contemptible in all landes So that when men will wish ill to one or curse one they shall wish the same to fall vpon him whiche fell vpon the Iewes But gods seruauntes that is to say the true Iewes spirituall Israelites which beleue in Christ shall be called by an other name to wit Christians of Christ the Lord their God. And we see it is so come now to pas in deede and all those blessinges in which the Iewes before did excell be now at this day translated to vs gentiles the faithfull christians For we onely now haue the true and sound vnderstanding of the scriptures the true Messias and true fayth which geueth lyfe we haue the true righteousnes true workes true sacrifice and true oblation and the right high priest the right alter and the right propitiatory temple and seruice of God. And this name Christian shall be so honorable and famous that the valiant godlyest Martirs of Christ shall not be ashamed for the professing of Christe to suffer most greuous punishment Who as Eusebius witnesseth constantly and corragiously professing their Lord haue sayd euen to the most bloudy tyrants teeth I am a Christian yea though they certainelye knew they should presētly both be terribly tormented and hazard their lyues for it We also blesse our selues in the name of Iesus christ the true God neither is there any other God but Christ Iesus There is but one God onely and he being true god in the persō of the sonne was made true man of the seede of Dauid This is fulfilled For seing christiā beleuers know that all Gods graces helpe helth cōfort lyfe and liberty are onely in Christ and through Christ they flye in all perill and trouble to this name Iesu for helpe and as soone as they doe it and once name it straightway it ministreth strength comfort and cōsolation to the heauy hart ¶ Anna. Why doth
been before him and raigned in the seat of Dauid For Ieremy saith that he shall execute iustice and iudgement in the earth through the whol world cōdemne destroy the wicked make them which were vniust and sinful very pure righteous For his kingdome is a kingdome of true iustice and innocency And Iuda Israel that is both those people shall haue help of him not that the x. tribes shold returne out of Assiria into Samaria and there haue a king of their own and set vp a corporall kingdome as Iudah had before time in Ierusalem when they liued vnder Dauid and Salomon with peace and quyetnes but that they shold haue a spiritual help through Christ who should deliuer them from sinne and death that so they might dwel boldly and safely that is that they might haue their consciences quyeted appeased and mery as men which now by faith in Christ haue their sinnes forgeuen are at peace with God through Christ So that they need not dread nor feare death or any other euill because that this wise king the most pure and florishing blossome of righteousnes is made the righteousnes of all Christians that all faithfull beleeuers the spirituall Israell consisting both of the Iewes and Gentils may through faith receiue the holy Ghost which testifyeth in their harts that they are the children of God heyres of God and coheires with Iesus Christ and so with bouldnes of siprite say with Paul We are perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Is not this a famous help and a strong and firme fortresse for the godly that they can say we know that we are translated from death vnto life That is the holy spirite hath taught vs by the word and heauenly vnction that Christ hath freed vs both from sinne and death and that we by him after death shall rise from death and liue for euer This is that hope of Israell which neither Gentil nor Infidel hath Now marke what noble and miraculous works of diuinity which none could doe but very God him selfe the prophet ascrybeth to this sonne of Dauid He sayth He shall execute and set vp iustice and iudgement in the earth And he shall iustify others Ergo he must not only outwardly but also inwardly purge the hart and forgeue sinne And this is only the worke of god For it is he onely that can change a wicked and malicious hart and it is he which can illuminate and regenerate vs and none but he And agayn if he can forgeue sinnes he can also abolish death which is the reward or stipend of sinne and the sting of death If then he could ouercom death and make vs righteous and geue vs euerlasting life he is true God which can only in deed deliuer vs from our sinnes and eternall death and geue and preserue true tranquility and peace If then Iudah and Israell that is the hole church of the godly shall be delyuered from their sinne and death then must it needes follow that they shall liue with Christ for euer Here then in this prophecy if we marke it wel we may see that Christ should dye as the naturall sonne of Dauid but not abide in death but that he should iustify and saue Iudah and Israel that is to say his people the godly and faithful And for this cause should he first rise again from death that he might rayse his Israelites that is his faithful from death and that he might purchase for them and geue them eternal life securitie for euer For if he should haue geuē them peace but for a time he should not truely and in deede haue delyuered them neither were it a true tranquility and peace Wherfore it was necessary that that peace and saluation which he should geue his elect should continue for euer and euer Thus then in this short prophecy haue we this eternall king together with his death resurrection and euerlasting kingdome expresly and soundly descrybed And so doth Ieremy again teach vs in the 33. chapter calling the gospel the voyce of ioy which God speaketh to Israel and Iuda For the law only sheweth Gods wrath and punishment but the gospel that new couenant promyseth meere grace and redemption And then he prophesieth how the helpe and redēption which this king bringeth shal extend it selfe to all people farre and nere The people of God in tyme past soong and spake of the great benefits of god how he brought them forth out of the land of Egipt and deliuered them by many marueilous miracles but when Christ that sonne of Dauid shall come then shall they gloriously triumph and tell of farre greater good gifts of God to wit how Christ hath brought and deliuered vs out of the hellish black Egipt and kingdome of sin death and euerlasting damnation and gathered not onely the Israelites after the flesh but all his elected children in all the world out of all nations into this Church of the godly which thing hath ben done euer since the Apostles time euen to this daye For wee which beleue in Christ haue a more excellent and notable captaine then Moses and Iosua Wee haue Iesus Christ for our captayn who hath deliuered vs out of the bondage and howse of the spirituall Pharao to wit from the captiuitie of Sathan This eternall redemption doth euery day renew in vs the remembraunce of our god so that we say the Lord liueth who hath deliuered vs from sin death and Sathan hath brought vs from all errors to the true knowledge of the Gospell This is a spirituall deliueraunce and bringing out of Egipt and a spirituall kingdome where in wee see Iudaisme should once cease Christianisme by Christ our king be set vp through all the world and therefore it was conuenient that he should rise agayne that he might erect this kingdome vpon earth and conserue it for euer To which sence the prophet speaketh saying Therfore behold the day is come sayth the Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liueth which brought vp the children of Israell out of the land of Egipt but the Lord liueth which brought vp and led the seed of the house of Israell out of the north country and from all countryes where I had scattered them and they shall dwell in their owne land Here we must note that all temporall deliuerances which the Iewes had here vpon earth from the hands of earthly tyrants and the gentiles were but figurs of the true and euerlasting deliuerance which we haue by our Messias Christ of which in this place to speake is not to our purpose The prophets for most part set downe such circumstances in their writings that we may well gather they had a farther respect then
set my sanctuary among them for euer more Thy tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people Thus the heathen shall know that I the lord doo sanctify Israell when my sanctuary shall be among them for euermore This prophecy was corporally fulfilled after they had ben captiues 70. years when the Iews returned into their countrye and assēbled themselues together and multiplied vntill the comming of Christ which was to come .490 yeares after that captiuitye then in deede had they one king But this prophesye was truely fulfilled in the last weeke spoken of by Daniell at the former comming of Christ when both he and his disciples conuerted thē in the land of Chanaan and els where where they were dispersed and gathered them by the gospell into that onely spirituall shepfold the Church of Christ before times Iudah Beniamin had a king of their owne and the ten tribes which fell from the house of Dauid vnder Roboham had another king of their owne but when Christ the true Dauid came all the Iewes were made one people vnder one true king Christ In this kingdome shall not the question be curiously asked whether you are of the tribe of Ruben Leuy Isachar Zebulon Dan Gad or Ashur c but it shall be asked art thou a Christian doest thou acknowledge and confesse Iesus of Nazareth to be the true Messias whom the patriarkes prophets and all the tribes of Israel did loke for They euen vnto this time carefully looked for Christ But when Christ himselfe came the true sheppard and king of Israell then was that euerlasting couenaunt of grace betwixt God and man ratified and then that true throne of grace wherein all fulnes of the Godhed corporally dwelleth that is Iesus Christ true God and true man was conuersant here himselfe in earth amongst men That ould Caporeth and their materiall temple and Leuiticall priesthood was then no more to be regarded for all tipes and figures then ceased the truth it selfe appered Christly fidelians who layd hould of Christ in their hartes by true fayth were then made the liuely temple and sanctuary of God. As Paule well and learnedly expoundeth such figures saying Know ye not sayth he that you are the temple of God and that the spirite of God dwelleth in you for the temple of God is holy which ye are And to the Corrinthians he teacheth what is true holynes and the fulfilling of al figures to wit Christ himselfe Who sayth he was geuen vs of the Father to be our wisedome holynes righteousnes sanctificatiō and redēption And as the Lord himselfe sayth a little after in Ezech. My righteousnes that is my sanctuarye or habitation shall be for euer among them This is the circumstaunce and prophets drift in the prophesye afore sayd to perswade and proue this congregation of the Israelites to be an euerlasting and spiritual kingdome vnder their owne king christ For the land of Canaan Ierusalem and the temple were brittle and but for a tyme euen as this visible world is Therefore that habitation could not continew for euer wherefore the prophet speaketh here of spiritual and eternal things which cannot by continuaunce of time decay dy but must stand for euer These things which are earthly and of this world vanish decay but the king Messias his habitation the house of Iacob and his kingdome abideth for euer Wherefore they are not earthly nor carnall but euerlasting and spirituall ¶ Anna. Yf according to this prophesye the house of Iacob or the kingdome of Messias should be the sanctuary of God for euer and this spirituall Dauid be the king of the faythfull Christians or Israelites for euer then must it needes follow that he should rise agayne and gather the disparsed Israelites or children of god together that he might erect an euerlasting kingdome and rayse his people from death and geue them lyfe and saluation in euerlasting peace This is that true holynes and full deliueraunce of Israell from all all euilles temporall and eternall If Cleophas and his companion had vnderstode and beleued this prophesy they would neuer haue said We thought that it had beene he that should haue redeemed Israell but they would haue sayd we hope and beleue that it is he that hath and shall redeeme Israell although he hath now suffred death For the promise of the Lord is sure and certaine and can neuer deceaue vs Farthermore in as much as Messias is called Dauid because he was born of Dauids stock and in as much as he is true man what maruaile is it if he be subiect to death and dyed But in that he should keepe and gouerne Israell for euer he could not abide in death but must needes rise agayne thereby to fulfill this and other prophesies concerning his euerlasting kingdome But there is one thing in this prophesye which moueth a doubt you sayd yesterday that Ezechiell in this chap. did prophesye of that generall and vniuersall resurrectiō which should be at the last day Wherefore then doth the prophet say that these dry bones were the house of Israell which was in captiuitie at Babilon how can you here by proue the vniuersall resurrection of the dead Vrba I confesse in deede that Ezechiel in this chap. doth speake of the deliueraunce and restitution of Israell and that he prophesieth also of their returne and as it were by law recouer their land lost in their absence But iudge you seing God by this similitude would comfort his people that they should not doubt of their deliuerance whether our resurrection maye not heare be gathered of this place as a certayne and vndoubted truth or no. For if our resurrection were vncertayne and doubtfull he could not by it haue proued or ministred vnto them any sownd and sure cōfort For then they would haue sayd loke how slender and small hope there is that these bones should liue agayne euen so small hope is there that we should be redeemed out of the captiuitie of Babilon But here the prophet bringeth in and alleageth the resurrection of their bones as a thing most sure of which no good nor godly man may doubt euen as if he had sayde looke how certayne and sure it is that these bodies shall rise and liue againe by the power of God euen so sure also it is that you shall be deliuered out of the captiuitie of Babilon and restored to your owne countrye agayne Moreouer wee know that the catholicke Church both in the east and west hath hetherto without all cōtrouersie by the instinct light of thy holy ghost expounded this prophesy of the resurrection of the fleshe Of which thing the holy Byshops and Doctors are plentifull witnesses as Ireneus Turtulian Ciprian Hillary Ambrose Gregory Nazianzenus and Gregory the great in his booke agaynst Valent. Turtulian in hys treatise of the resurrection of the flesh Cyprian in his third book to
Esau was by the fiery heate of charitye so consumed in them that as concerning the inward man they were no more Esaits but came vnto the house of Iacob and Ioseph and were made of one fayth and minde with them to wit spirituall Israelites And thus the gospell went forth into the fower quarters of the world that Iuda beleuing might bring many countries people vnto the true faith of Christ which must be vnderstood by the people a fore named whome he ioyneth together therby to declare that the saluation and kingdome of Messias should not onely be in Sion and earthly Ierusalem but in all partes of the whole world from East to the west and from the north to the south For the people before spoken of dwelt in all the 4. quarters of the earth as Christ prophecieth in Luke of the calling of the Gentiles saying They shall come from the East and from the West and frō the North and from the South and shall sit at table in the kingdome of God. ¶ Anna. We may here also gather by this prophecye that Christ the king of Sion could not abide death seeing he was to bring such plēteous so great a reēdption as should be spread through the whole world and that he which should thus be redeemed by him should liue with him for euer in his kingdome ☞ Vrba You say well ¶ Anna. But who are those Moschim which should come out of Sion truly there is but one only Moschia or Sauiour Iesus Christ ☞ Vrba The Apostles are so called for the Gospels sake which they preached which in deed is the word of life and health by which they conuerted many in Sion and won them to Iesus Christ For Paule sayth that he prouoked the Iewes to emulation that he might saue or deliuer some of thē that he might bring them vnto Iesus Christ their only Sauiour These Moschim or redeemers iudge the mount Esau because the holy ghost by their preaching and doctrine doth before the last day reprehend all sin and these 2. shall in the last day sit vpon 12. thrones and iudge the 12. tribes of Israell ¶ Anna. What shall follow when the gospell hath bin preached in all the whole world ☞ Vrba All the kingdomes of the earth together with the earth it selfe shall then fall and all principalities shall haue an end But the Lord of Siō hath raised vp such a helpe and saluation in Sion as should stand fast for euer wheras the world withall hir pompe and royaltie with all hir kingdomes and Monarches shal fall and all earthly pompe shall haue an end But the kingdome of our king Christ Iesus shall stand for euer and he shall be king alone and his kingdome shall haue no end Other kingdomes haue their termes and yeares of contine vance appointed which being expired they fall The kingdome of Assyria and Babilon continued certaine yeares then the Monarchy came to the Medes and Persians whome king Alexander cōquered and subdued the Romaines subdued him and now hold the last Monarchye which shall be holdē in this world And yet this also shall haue an end For it beginneth all ready mightely to decrease and decaye and yet was there not of all these mighty Monarches any one so great that ruled all the world but the kingdome of our king which is the king of glory shall stād for euer and royally rule ouer all which thing Thargum witnesseth in this place For this is the Caldeans text And the kingdome of the Lord shall be declared or exalted ouer the inhabitance of the whole earth So splendēt and glorious shall the house of Iacob be But what needs many wordes The Angel Gabriell sheweth the naturall sence of this prophesye where he brieflly describeth this our king and his kingdome to the blessed virgin Mary saying He shall be great shall be called the son of the most hie and the Lord shall geue vnto him the throne of his Father Dauid and he shall raigne ouer the house of Iacob for euer of his kingdome shall be none end Here you see what Abdias ment in the end of his prophecy to wit that many kinges shall rule in this earth and their kingdome shall passe from man to man and that one shall destroy and kill another But when the true Saluation and redemption shall begin in Sion after the captiuitie of Babilon then shall a perpetual constant kingdome be builded with which no man shal euen meddle That kingdome is the house of Iacob the congregation the true Israelites consisting of Iewes and Gentiles and that house or kingdome shall be and remaine to Messias alone for euer ¶ Anna. What sayth the prophet Ionas of Christ ☞ Vrba First he declareth in his prophecy that the gretnes of Christes kingdome shall be glorious and the both Iewes and gentills shall haue saluation in Christ and that Christ shall be the king and Sauiour of the whole world For the Lord sēdeth Ionas to Niniue a Citie of the Gentills the chiefe Citty of Assiria where he preached vnto them repentance and not circumsition or other Iewish ceremonies Here you may gather that he which confesseth his sinnes and is penitent and flyeth vnto Gods grace promised in Iesus Christ is iustified saued without the workes of the law you se also that god is the God both of the Iewes and Gentiles and that he will make the gentiles Israelits who shall be partakers of all his promises with his people in Christ Iesus Secondly Ionas is a signe of the death and resurrection of Christ For the in first of Ionas you may see how God ordayned a great fishe to swallow vp Ionas and he was 3. dayes and 3. nights in the belly of the fishe in the Sea. This was a signe or signification that Christ should dye and be 3. dayes in the sepulcher and that the 3. day he should rise agayne as this figure is truly expounded by Christ the truth it selfe in Mathew where he sayth This euill and adulterous generation seeketh a signe but no signe shall be geuen vnto it sauing the singe of Ionas the prophet For as Ionas was 3. dayes and 3. nightes in the whales belly so shall the son of man be 3. dayes and 3. nightes in the hart of the earth ¶ Anna. Doth Micheas prophecy any more thē that which you haue already expounded out of that 5. chapter ☞ Vrba He prophecieth much more but it would be lōg to expound all After that Micheas had vttered that excellent prophecy of the Lord God of Israell Christ Iesus where he sayth that he should go out of Bethelem he straight way prophesieth thus saying Therfore will he geue them vp vntill the time that shee which shall beare shall trauell then the remnant of their bretheren shall returne vnto the children of Israell And he shall stand and feede in the strength of the Lord and in the maiestye
temple of the Lorde builded by the gospell through the whole world and consecrated by the holy spirite This tēple shall stand for euer against the gates of hell The priest of this temple is an euerlasting priest and therefore the temple must needes be euerlasting This priest hath those true ornamentes prayses and honor which were signified by Arons ornamēts And this priest raigneth stil in his throne and hath both the functions to wit the euerlasting priesthood and the eternal kingdome But note that he sayth vpon his seate by which wordes he signifieth that this priest is the true priest king that all other tipicall priests and kinges were but seruauntes or ministers to this priest and that they in ther ministerie did but onely seruice vnto this true king and priest But Christ the true blossome of Dauid is the true king and priest and the true and naturall Lord of the throne and eternall kingdome He only shall beare rule in this throne This eternall throne is onely his seate and shall so cōtinue for euer Neither shall there euer hereafter be any contention or dissentiō betwene these two kingdomes to wit the spirituall priesthood and kingdome as before times there hath ben betwene the externall priesthoode and terrestriall kingdome For these two functions are both now turned to one person which both can make intercession for vs in heauen before the father as our priest and defend and gouerne vs here in earth as an omnipotent king Ionathan the Caldean confirmeth this exposition who hath translated this text of Zach. thus in the caldean tongue Behold for here is the man whose name is Moschiah which shall come to be made manifest famous and glorious And he himselfe shall build the temple of the lord But you may not heare vnderstand an earthly temple For like as the priest is spiriturall so doth he build vnto the Lord a spirituall temple wherein he himselfe alone doth execute the function both of the priest and king Zach in his 8. chap. prophecieth that the kingdome of Christ shall be very ample and glorious in all the world And that not the Iewes alone should reape profite by Messias but that the Gentiles also shall be ioyned vnto the Iewes and acknowledge and call vppon Christ their Lord his wordes be these Thus sayth the Lord of hostes that there shall yet come people and inhabitantes of great cities and they that dwell in one citie shall go vnto an other saying vp let vs go and pray before the Lord and seeke the Lord of hostes I will goe also yea great people and mighty nations shall come to seeke the Lord of hostes in Ierusalem and to pray before the lord Thus sayth the Lord of hostes in those dayes shall ten men take hould out of all languages of the nations euen take hould of the skirt of him that is a Iew and say we will goe with you for we haue heard that God is with you Although this prophecy was also fulfilled in earthly Ierusalem after the captiuity of Babylō in so much that the city became famous and the name of the temple which was more gloriously and princely builded then the other hefore became so notable in all places that many famous men came thether to worship and many of the Iewes which had been disparsed drew by this occasion many nations to their religiō brought them with them to worship God at Ierusalem Yet this was more gloriously fulfilled in the Apostles dayes at what time many gentils followed one Apostle that they might know the Lord Christ and beleeue in him and so come vnto the spirituall Ierusalem the church of God the true and liuely temple to honour the lyuing God. And in his 11. chap. Zache prophesyeth how Christ should be sold for 30. pence saying And I sayd vnto thē if you think it good geue me my wages and if no leaue of so they wayed for my wages 30. peeces of siluer And the Lord sayd vnto me cast it vnto the potter a goodly price that I was valued at of them And I toke the 30. peeces of siluer and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. This prophecy was fulfilled when the traytor Iudas sold Christ for 30. pence with which the Iewes bought the potters field This was the potter to whom 30. pence were geuen for Iudas Iscarioth cast them down in the temple and then they caryed them to the potter For the high priest said it is not lawful to put them into the treasury because it is the price of bloud And so when they had cast their heads together they bought with them the potters field to be a burying place for strangers The prophet prophesyeth in his 12. chap. how true Israell the kingdome of Christ should be vnder the cros here in this earth for the profession of the gospell saying The burden of the word of the Lord vpon Israell saith the Lord which spread the heauens and layd the foūdation of the earth and formed the spirite of man within him Behold I will make Ierusalem a cup of poyson vnto all the people round about and also with Iuda I will be in the seege against Ierusalem And in that day will I make Ierusalem an heauy stone for all people all that lift it vp shall be torne though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it In that day saith the Lord I will smite euery horse with stonishment and his ryder with madnes and I wil open my eyes vpon the house of Iuda and will smite euery horse of the people with blindnes And the princes of Iuda shall say in their hartes the inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hostes their god In that day will I make the princes of Iuda like coales of fire among the wood and like a firebrād in the sheaf and they shall deuour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left and Ierusalē shall be inhabited again in her own place euen in Ierusalem The Lord also shall preserue the tents of Iuda as aforetime Therfore the glory of the house of Dauid shall not boast nor the glory of the inhabitants of Ierusalem against Iuda In that day shal the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them in that day shal be as Dauid and the house of Dauid shall be as Gods house and as the angel of the Lord before them And in that day will I seek to destroy all the nations that come against Ierusalem And I wil poure vpon the house of Dauid and vpon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirite of grace and of cōpassion And they shall looke vpon me whom they haue pearced and they shall lament for him as one that mourneth for his only sonne and be sory for him as one is sory for his first borne This prophecy is a consolation for the apostles and christians that they
he was crucified But at the last day shall his true humain nature wherin he was crucified and woūded in deed be seen He kept the print of his wounds in his body after his resurrection Moreouer Christes frēds and Christifidelians mourned and lamēted for Christ But especially and properly the godly mourn when by faith they apprehend and deeply ponder the passiō and death of Christ when they imitate Christ in suffering and when euery one beareth his own cros and suffreth with Christ to the mortification of the old man. And Zachery in chap. 13. prophesyeth of the fruites of Christes passion of the forgeuenes of sinnes of the holy ghost of baptisme in the house of Dauid and of the church which should be saying in that day there shall be a fountayn opened to the house of Dauid and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem for sinne and for vncleannes Messias shall make this fountaine to flow in his kingdome of which Iohn speaketh If any man thirst let him come to me and drinke He that beleeueth in me as the scripture saith out of his belly shall flow riuers of water of life He spake this of the spirite which true beleeuers in him should receaue This holy ghost is plentifully poured vpon vs in baptisme by the washing of the new birth And this holy fountain standeth alway open in the house of Dauid that all men may come drinke For the church receaueth both Iewes and gentils into the kingdome of Christ by baptisme which purgeth away the vncleannes and filth of originall sin by which the holy nature of man in his first natiuity is stayned and spotted euen as with poyson It taketh away also that sinne which we our selues commit that is to say al sinnes are by baptisme pardoned in the house of Dauid the new Ierusalem the kingdome of Christ There were in the old testament many washings and cleansings but none could be deliuered by them from sinne but this spring of the new testament hallowed by the precious bloud of Iesus Christ floweth alwayes full of meer grace and this welspring cleanseth and drowneth all the filthynes and vncleanlynes of all sinnes And all these things rise and come to vs vpon this that Christ was crucified and pearced blod and water flowed out of his side and out of doubt it was for the washing away of all our sinnes And Zachary prophesyeth again a litle after of the passion of Iesus Christ our true shepheard saying Arise O sword vpon my shepheard and the man that is my felsaith the Lord of hostes smite the shepheard and the sheep shal be scattered and I will turne my hand vpon the litle ones And in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut of and dye but the third part shall be left therin And I will bring that third part through the fire and wil fine them as the siluer is fined and wil try them as gold is tryed They shall call on my name and I wil heare them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God. This sword at that time was the power of darcknes For Pilate and the hard harted Iewes bare the sword and authority at that time in the earth but notwithstanding they could not haue hurt Christ vnlesse God had suffered them and ordayned the same before as Christ saith Pilat had his power from aboue This shepheard is Christ the sheep are the Apostles which fled when Christ was taken and suffered Christ himselfe alleadgeth this prophecy in Mat. 26. Furthermore the Lord calleth Christ the man that is his fellow For Christ is the true and onely shepheard in the church and is also with the father for euer as Iohn saith The sonne is in the bosome of his father Marke also how the kingdome of this world hath no beauty but appeareth oftentimes miserable and therefore can it in no wise be earthly and of this world The shepheard him selfe was smitten by the earthly magistrates and his sheep were terrified and disparsed and the disciples them selues were offended in Christ as you haue heard in Cleophas and his companiō They supposed that he would haue smitten others and that he would haue deliuered the Iewes from all tiranny of the gentils neither did they yet see how that they should in Messias haue a spirituall deliuerance from their sinnes and death But those litle ones vnto whō Christ turned him selfe are the afflicted and poore christians which are dispysed in this world but deerely beloued children before God. ¶ Anna. What are these three parts of which the third part only remayneth ☞ Vrb. Two parts is that great multitude of the vngodly in the earth which are offended in Christ of which one part cannot abide the cros and tribulation but turneth back vnto the world and stifly cleaueth vnto it Another part suffereth them selues to be seduced frō the way of truth by false teachers to perish in their errors But the third part are the true godly which stedfastly stand to the gospel and become like vnto gold finely tryed and purifyed in the fire of temptation and persecution These are those true Christians who only doe obtain saluation because they abyde in the true fayth euen vnto the end and suffer not them selues by any meanes to be called or drawne from Christ Their fayth is tryed in tribulation by which they cal vpon the name of god in spirit and truth without hipocrisy and alwaies glorifie God and are hard of god God acknowledgeth them for his dearly beloued sōnes and they also confes god to be their most louing father Seeing then that the Prophets haue so often in time past prophesied that Christ and hys people should be persecuted and afflicted but yet that all crosses and tribulation should not either let or hinder Christ nor his church to attain vnto the ioy promised those two disciples ought not to haue been so offended at the death of Christ And he prophesyeth again of Christes kingdome saying The Lord shall be king ouer all the earth And here agayn Christ is called true god In that day shall there be one God and his name shall be one This is spoken of the vnity of the Christian fayth Before that time there were many fayned Gods but in the day of Messias shall the only true God alone be called vpon in Christ And who so will not come vp of all the families of the earth vnto Ierusalem to worship the king the Lord of hostes euen vpon them shal come no raine That is those which come not into the church of Christ and doe not with one consent together with all the faithfull adore Christ and acknowledge him to be the king of glory they shall be a cursed people vpon whom no rayne of the spirituall benediction shall fall For they which are not in the church of Christ haue neither the word of god nor faith nor mercy
nor the holy ghost nor forgeuenes of sinnes but shall die in their sinnes Because without this spiritual Ierusalē there is no forgeuenes of sins And least any man should thinke that the kingdome of Christ should be an earthly kingdome throughout all the world Zach. sayth that in the heauenly Ierusalem of the Church of Christ the feast of tabernacle shall alwayes be celebrated This is the pilgrimage of the godly that in this world they shall be as pilgrims and strangers which loke for their true eternal and heauēly countrey for the Iewes dwelt not alwayes in their tabernacles but onely taryed there 8. dayes and then returned home Seeing that I haue now troubled you long enough and you haue taken very great paynes in explicating the prophets I pray you tell me but euen briefely what Malachy prophecieth of Christ and his kingdome ☞ Vrba He prophecieth in his first chap. of the holy and sacred kingdome of Christ through the world saying that it should come to passe that christ should be acknowledged to be the true Lord and God of the whole earth and that he should be honored openly as God that all men should confesse him to be God by which he signifieth that at the last the kingdome of grace should not onlye be amongest the Iewes but euen through the whol world among the gentiles also Whereby it is vnderstood that the earthly king of the Iewes and their figuratiue priesthood should cease in the time of Messias and that another kingdome and priesthood which is spirtuall should begin And therefore Cleophas and his companion loked in vaine for an earthly deliueraunce at the handes of Messias For Mala. prophecieth of the spirituall kingdome and pristhood saying I will not accept an offering at your hand for from the rising of the sunne vnto the going downe of the same my name is great among the Gentiles in euery place incense shall be offered vnto my name and a pure offring for my name is great among the heathen sayth the Lord of hosts This last prophet Mala. whome Ionathas the Caldean and Rabiaben suppose to be Esra prophecieth that the name of God shall be great to wit that the name of God should be glorified preached praysed through the whole world This was fulfilled when the gospell was published and waxed famous and brought forth fruite through the whole world For by the gospell Messias was made knowen vnto the world and the grace of God which he promised and gaue vs in Christ was openly published vnto all creatures The Lord in times past was knowen in Iuda by his word and his name was great in Israel but when the apostles and their successors had spread abroad the Gospell of Gods grace through the whole world then was song a new song as it is in the Psal. The Lordes name is praysed frō the rising of the sonne vnto the going downe of the same For wher so euer the gospell is apostolically and sincerely taught that is where so euer repentance and forgeuenes of sins is preached in the name of Iesus Christ there men become humble and contrite of hart and confesse their sins and acknowledge and praise the rich mercy of god in Christ And straight way after they seeke to mortify their old man and by fayth geue their bodies vp vnto God a liuely sacrifice holy and acceptable vnto god which is their reasonable seruing of god And they beare tribulatiō patiently for Gods sake and geue thankes to God for all his blessinges in Christ they praye and call vpon the Lord in all necessitie and they liue a pure and innocent life All these to wit a true fayth in Christ a denying of our selues a consecrating of vs totally to the will of God the preaching of the gospell the incomprehensible riches of Christ which he geueth vs a professing and praysing of Iesus Christ a prayer proceeding of fayth and a thankes geuing for the great treasure of the gospell and for the precious death and victorious resurrection of Christ Iesus and for all the other benefits of the Lord which we haue through Christ Iesus these I say are the true sacrifices by which the name of Christ is made glorious and famous amongest the gentiles and thus doth Thargū also vnderstand this prophecye saying My name is sanctified through you and your prayer is as a pure sacrifice before me Yf therfore it was conuenient and must needes be that Christ should be made glorious among the gentiles through the whole world and that he shall be the true Lord of all nations whome they should worship and acknowledge to be the true and onely Lord who should deliuer them from all trouble and so his kingdome be in euery place it was needfull that he should rise againe from the dead and that he should prouide for all nations and that he should illuminate them by his gospell that he should receaue them into his kingdome and that he should defend cherish and preserue them for euer Mala. in his 3. chap. ioyneth the Maister and his seruaunt together to wit christiā Iohn Baptist and christ saying that Iohn should come before Christ and make ready the way that Christ should straightway follow after Iohn his forerunner these be his wordes Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whome ye seeke shall speedely come to his temple euen the messenger of the couenaunt whome ye desire Behold he shall come sayth the Lord of hostes but who may abide the daye of his cōming who shall indure when he appeareth For he is lyke a purging fire and lyke fullers sope he shal sit downe to trie fine the siluer he shall euen fine the sonnes of Leui and purifie them as gould and siluer that they may bring offerings vnto the Lord in righteousnes then shall the offering of Iuda and Ierusalem be acceptable vnto the Lord as in ould time and in the yeares a fore This prophecy doth Christ himselfe expound in Mathew where he calleth Iohn Baptist the Messenger and he wonderfully setteth him out and maketh him more worthy then all the prophets For he shewed not Christ a farre of but pointed at him with his finger saying Behold the lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Iohn baptised with the baptisme of repentance in the desert preached vnto the people him which should come after to wit Christ Iesus that they might beleue in him Iohns wordes be these Repent for the kingdome of God or heauē is at hand I baptise you with water to amendemēt of lyfe but he that commeth after me is greater thē I whose showes I am not worthy to beare He will baptise you with the holy ghost and with fire which hath his fan in his hand and will make cleane his flowre and gather his wheate into his garner but will burne vp the chaffe with vnquenchable
was fixed on Christ which was to come for whome they wayted and whom they beleeued should be their onely sauiour and redeemer who should come to deliuer them out of all calamities and daunger both of lyfe death And therefore were they as good Christians as we sauing onely that we do not now looke for that promised seede but perfectly knowe that he is come and hath already broken the serpents heade And this victorye which Christ hath of the serpent to wit the promise of life by the Gospell is now openly preached in the world to the iustification and saluation of all that beleue his Gospell This promise of the seede of the woman after many yeares was renued to Abraham where is playnely declared what commodity this seede should bring vnto the world You may reade this promise in Genesis and it was made also to Isaack and Iacob The wordes of the promise he these By my selfe haue I sworne sayth the Lord in thy seede shall all the families of the earth be blessed Here agayne is Christ promised And this is that famous worthy and excellent promise which both the Prophets and Apostles haue continually geuen out honorably commended and largely amplifyed as the cleere Sonne and very voyce it self of the Gospel and true testimony of Christ and which they haue declared and esteemed to be as a most precious pearle whatsoeuer the Prophets doe prophesie of Christ it floweth out of this promise as out of a Fountain For the especiall duty and trauel of all Prophets is both by figuratiue speech and plain promises to foreshew that Christ should come and to extol and diligently beat into mans eares his eternall kingdome of grace righteousnes innocency life and euerlasting saluation and to inflame and stir vp al men to wait watchfully for his comming And this must be wel and diligently obserued Paul to the Romanes saith that the Gospell of God concerning Christ was long before promised by the Prophets in the holy Scriptures And Peter saith in the Actes Al the Prophets from Samuel and thenceforth as many as haue spoken haue likewise foretold of these dayes That is to say they told of that most desired and holesome time of the new and euerlasting Testament and of the eternal and vnfallible mercy of God promised to Dauid Esay also doth prophesy that Christ should come to deliuer vs from all our miseries and calamities And he telleth by what meanes and way he should delyuer vs out of those trobles The Prophets also accuse the people and vrge the law and threaten the punishment and wrath of God against the hard harted and vnpenitent They haue also prophesied many things which properly belong to the comming of Christ with all they mixe earthly kingdomes and gouernments But yet the end of all their prophesies reprouings and thretnings haue only respect and relatiō vnto Christ For they did but study and indeuour by those meanes to keep the people in obedience and to make them feare God and keep order and sought to prepare them and make them redy for the comming of Christ and to bring them to akknowledge their sinnes and to terrifie their consciences that by the confession of their sinnes and feeling of Gods wrath their harts might be prepared to receiue and embrace Christ as the true and only Sauiour of the world And the wholl old Testament is nothing els but a certain forerunner as I may tearm it and such a preparatiue or readynes for the new Testamēt that the way to Christ might be made straight and plain against his comming and that the entring to him might be readyer For as a Scholemaster with sharp admonitions great threatnings hard beating and rough correction doth reform and frame his masters Sonne with whom he is put in trust and whom he hath to teach that in the end he may become an honest housholder and a profitable member of the common weal so doth the old Testament make vs ready to receaue Christ and bring vs to Christ And after this sort doth Paul speake of the law to the Galathians saying The law was our Scholemaster to bring vs to Christ And to the Hebrues he saith The law hath a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things And in the seuenth chapter he saith The commaundement that went before is disanulled because of the weaknes therof and vnprofitablenes for the law made nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope made perfect wherby we draw neare vnto God Christ therfore our chief treasure and that our most precious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Iewel must be sought for of vs in the Prophets as we read in the Acts that he was sought for at Thessalonica For without all doubt there is nothing in the Prophets which doth not represent Christ and his Church and agreeth with him As Christ himself doth witnes in Luke saying These be the words which I spake vnto you while I was yet with you that all must be fulfilled which are written of me in the law of Moyses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes And in Peter it is plainly declared that the Prophets did not looke for the temporall kingdome of Israel and for the mortall ruinous and empty pauilion of this life and state of this world but that they chiefly respected the euerlasting kingdom of Christ and the heauenly life Peters words be these Of the saluation of soules the Prophets haue inquired and searched which prophesied of the grace that should come vnto you searching when or at what time the Spirite that testified before of Christ which was in them should declare the sufferings that should come vnto Christ and the glory which should follow Vnto whom it was reuealed that not vnto themselues but vnto vs they should minister the things which are now shewed vnto you by them which haue preached vnto you the Gospel by the holy Ghost sent down from heauen the which things the Angels desire to behold c. Thus far speaketh Peter And to this end also Ignatius not only in title but in deed a true and famous Bishop wrote a thousand and four hundreth yeares agoe to the Magnesians The Prophets saith he were Christes seruants who foreseing him in Spirite both wayted for him as their master and in hope looked for him as their Lord and Sauyour saying he shal come and saue vs And Tertullian a thousand three hundreth yeares agoe interpreting that sentence sayth Christ is the seal of all the prophesies fulfilling all things which the Prophets in old time did foretell of him ¶ Anna. I pray you tell me the meaning of the promise which God made to Abraham ☞ Vrb. In that promise if it be inwardly and thorowly searched and pondered the summe of the holy Gospel with the pith effect and all the misteries of Christ are comprehended For first you shall
virgin Mary For Christ in deed is that stone which without handes that is without the seed or helpe of man was taken out of the pure body of Mary For so the holy and godly doctors of the primatiue church as Didimus Ambrosius Hierom Augustine and Irenaeus tooke it And so doth the holy church now take it consenting and agreeing with these godly doctors Now where as the sonne of this virgin is called Emanuel or Immanuel it ministreth great and infinite comfort to the godly For Immanu doth signifie with vs and El signifieth God because God is now with vs and amongst vs not onely thorow his grace as he is alwayes in euery place as he was in tymes past with our fathers but he is with vs otherwise after a new and singuler maner to wit in a bodily presence or in his present body For God is become man And as Paul sayth In Christ dwelleth all fulnesse of the Godhead bodily That is God is not only in Christ in power and grace as he is in all other holy and godly men But very God himselfe dwelleth in the holy manhood of Christ euen as in his temple so that both God and mā is in Christ one person And as Athanasius saith in his Creede As the reasonable soule and flesh is one man so God man is one Christ ▪ That is as Augustine sayeth Of things which God made this is the most gracious that man is ioyned with God in vnitie of person in heauēly things the highest truth is rightly attributed to the word of God. What greater honor and more excellent dignity could our humaine nature haue then to haue God himselfe descend from heauen out of his high maiesty and glory and come into the earth and take into vnity of person not angels nature but mans nature euen the seed of Abraham and so become true man that by that meanes he might bring our nature to the glory of the blessed euerlasting life and as it were hauing now laid apart his power wisdome and dietie shewe himselfe altogether as myld meeke lowly louing tractable duetifull to vs as if he were our seruant and bondeman bought with our mony For as Paul to the Phil. saith When he was in forme of God he thought it no robbery to be equall with God but he made himselfe of no reputation and tooke on him the forme of a Seruant and was made like vnto men and was found in shape as a man He humbled himselfe and became obedient to the death euē the death of the crosse And to Titus he sayth that the goodnes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is loue towardes men of God our Sauiour appeared Truly that was an infinite great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For how could he by any means set forth the flagrant affection of his loue towardes vs more then both sweetely and louingly to imbrace our miserable and humaine nature and also earnestly seeking our saluation vouchsafe to be made man. Be not these I pray you especiall arguments and sure signes of his great mercifulnes good will loue infinite affection towards mankind Surely he would not haue become man for any other cause but only that he might plentifully poure vpon vs vnworthy wretches his vnmesurable incomprehensible vnsearcheable treasures with the infinite riches of his abundant goodnes and grace Verily we may now truely say Immanuell God is with vs seeyng he is not onely graciously with vs and amongst vs as a creator and gouernor with his creatures mouing renuing nourishing and preseruing all things by his power But also in that he is man and for our cause only to the ende he may make vs partakers of his kingdome and lyfe euerlasting and so is with vs after a new and peculiar maner Afore tyme he dwelt with his creatures only as God But now he is with vs men as man yea he is a heauenly man and a humaine god What sounder greater truer or fruitfuller comfort can there be in all affliction and calamitie then that God in this sort is with vs who now as Paul boldly sayth can be against vs If God after this admirable vnspeakable incomprehensible and maruelous maner of his manhood had not bene with vs we needed not haue looked for lyfe For there had bene neither hope nor helpe counsayle nor comfort left for man to looke for who by reason of sinne is in so great and horrible danger of eternall death But we may now in the Lord alway reioyce we ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always to giue thanks to Christ our God for this great mistery of his holy and sauing incarnation For now our mortall nature hath a certayne and sure hope nay it hath so sufficient and precious a pledge of lyfe that it cannot wauer or doubt But that together with Christ it shall liue for euer For as Athanasius that godly and auncient Doctor saith touching this matter in his booke of the passion of Christ the mortall body was ioyned to the immortall and corruptible man was coupled with the incorruptible worde Wherefore death by the worde which discended from heauen in Christ is abolished euen as stubble is of the fire consumed ¶ Anna. Blessed be that Haalmah for euer amongst all women and blessed bee the fruite of her wombe our true Emanuel world without ende ☞ Vrb. Amen ¶ Anna. You promised to expound me the name of Christ and to open the prophesies in the scriptures which spake of it long before Of Christes Name Vrbane CHrist in the holy scriptures hath many names and all of them most sweete and comfortable as is this Emanuel of which you heard euen now out of the seuenth of Esay But there be two especial chief names which the scripture giueth him which we wil first hādle The former of them is Iesus a name most proper and agreeing with him and most comfortable to vs This name is an Hebrue word for the Hebrues say that Ieschuah or Iehoschuah is as much to say as health a sauiour or keeper and it cōmeth of the worde Iascha which is saued or deliuered or els it may come of Hoschia that is he hath saued kept or deliuered This roiall or glorious name agreeth not with any so truely fitly as with Christ He iustly in deed and by good desert is honoured and called by this name for he onely it is that deliuereth and saueth vs from all calamities both temporall and eternall And thus doth the Angell interprete this name in Mathew where he sayeth to Ioseph Ioseph thou sonne of Dauid feare not to take Mary for thy wyfe for that which is conceiued in her is of the holy ghost she shall bring forth a sonne and thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shal saue his people from their sinnes And whē Hanna the high priest and Caiphas and Ioanne and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred
a peny Titus burned the Temple and sacked the City and layd it euen with the ground Thus were the Iewes driuen out of their country and scattered abroad in the world in which as vagabounds they haue wandred vp and down these 1576. yeares hardened in hart and stroken with blindnes a most miserable people hauing neither kingdome nor priesthood And all because they neglected and vtterly despised the time of grace wherin Christ visited thē Wherfore now they looke in vain for the former comming of Christ since the which comming there is alredy past a thousand and fiue hundred yeares and mo as it was promysed to our fathers from the beginning of the world their Temple also and sacrifice were vtterly abolyshed and taken away because Messias himself is come in his own person and al the figures are fulfilled Chrisostome saith in his second oratiō against the Iewes that they went about to reedefy the Temple and to doe sacrifice as before First vnder Hadryan then vnder Constantine who cut of their eares and last of all vnder Iulian the Apostata which reprobate in despite of the Christian Religion nourished and helped the Iewes gaue them great store of mony that they might after the fatal destruction of the Temple build it again and procured for them workmen and mony But when the workmen digged to lay the foundation great flames of fire burst forth amongst the laborers as they were a digging which destroyed them and made them leaue of their work For the word of God must nedes continue inuiolable and true God foretold that both Ierusalem and the temple should be destroyed and that the sacrifice should cease and that euer after all things there should be a desart and wildernes Al which euery man may see is come to passe And yet for al this the blind Iewes cannot abide to see and acknowledge their error ¶ Anna. But whether wil you refer the last week of the yeares ☞ Vrb. That last week or those last seuen yeares is that time which followeth after those 69. weekes in which as I sayd before Christ should be slain And it came so to passe The Angel saith he shal confirme the couenant with many for one week The gospel of Christ was preached boldly and freely with great succes all those 7 yeares And Christ him self preached the gospel with great power and wrought miracles vnto the 4. yeare And so also after him did the Apostles by the power of the holy Ghost preach the same Gospel and taught that euerlasting couenant of Gods grace the new couenant and promise which God made to wit that for Christs sake he would be merciful and fatherly vnto vs loue vs and acknowledge vs for his deere children and quite blot out al our sinnes out of his remembrance and in the midst of the last weeke which was the fourth yeare after Christes baptisme he was cut of or slain For the Iewes had denyed and clean forsaken him saying vnto Pylate we haue no king but Cesar When therefore that true sacrifice that true oblation Christ of whom Moyses and the Prophets had spoken before whom also the figures of the Law did point out was now come him self and had once by one Sacrifice wyped away the sinnes of the wholl world and puryfied vs from al our sinnes by his own precious bloud as Paul saith to the Hebrues then was it meet that that figuratiue and shadowlike oblation of the Iewes together with the corporal worship of God in Iuda should haue an end seeing that he him self was come of whom all those had been but figures ¶ Anna. What meaneth Danyel where he sayth the abhominations of desolation shal stand at the wings ☞ Vrb. Al Interpretors doe not yet expound these words alike and yet so that the prophesy is not hurt strayned or dammaged Some by the wings vnderstand the Cherubin in the Church where the Images should stand othersome take it to be the cheefe or honorablest place and top of the church and they say that Pylat set the Eagle which is the Ensigne or Banner of the Emperors of Rome vpon the pinnacle of the Church But the Iewes abhorred that Ensigne of the Romaines who they called prophane Gentils and they very opprobriously called it an abhomination Now abhomination is such a thing as we detest and abhorre as a dead putrified and foul stinking carrion ¶ Anna. Is it that which they call Gilul Schikutz Scheketz ☞ Vrb. It is it in deed For as often as the Iewes see an Image they spit at it saying Scheketz ¶ Anna. The pore wretches might spit at themselues for they are abhominably deceiued They are called Iewes that is Confessors and yet they will not confes the truth For they might fall to consydering with them selues and think what should be the cause that they haue wandred in banishment now more then a thousand fiue hundred yeares and that God hath clean depryued them of his word For though they read neuer so much yet vnderstand they nothing because the vaile is ouer their harts as Paul saith ☞ Vrb. This prophesy in deed proueth that the Iewes are marueilously blinded and indurated For they might by this prophesy haue learned the tyme of Christ his first cōming The Angel here plainly sheweth that Messias should come between the captiuity of Babylon and the last destruction of Ierusalem For he reckneth plainly how long Ierusalem and the temple should from that time forth contynue and stand And he sayth that 490. yeares were determyned and he telleth vs in expres words that then almost in the end of those yeares after 62. weekes to wit in the middest of that yearly weeke Messias should come in his own person and be cut of and killed and that the Sacrifice should then cease and desolation come and abide for euer vpon them Now the Iewes plainly know that the captiuity of Babylon was to be ended before two thousand yeares were past and they also know that both the Temple and the Citie of Ierusalem was wasted and destroyed by Titus the Romane Emperor and that they could neuer since yet be restored and repayred They must therfore confes wil they nil they seeing that these 70. weekes are fully past and seeing they may with their eyes vew and behold the desolation and destruction of their City which now hath contynued aboue fifteen hundred yeares sacked and desolate that Messias is already come Neither can they alledge any thing that hath any face of truth of any other man that was killed or slayn in that last yearely weeke but only of Iesus of Nazareth the true Messias our only Lord and god And therfore they haue nothing at all but their obstinate peruerse blindnes malice and hardnes of hart to alleadge whereupon they may say they ought yet to looke for the former comming of Christ ¶ Anna. I pray you what answere made Isaac Leuy vnto you at Rentzburgh concerning this prophesy of Danyel with whom
I am sure you spent sixe houres or there about in disputation ☞ Vrb. He brought out of his Nezacon a doltish and folish cōputation of yeares without any good groūd it was a very trifling toy and far more fenceles and foolish then an old wiues tale For the Iewes vnderstand no histories nay they be further to seeke and more ignorant in them then childrē He could therfore alleadge nothing that had any face of any thing but shewed him self a very Asse Verely to speake a truth though he be counted a great doctor with the Iewes I found nothing at all in him In deed I saw there in him what a horryble plague it is when God striketh his enemies with blindnes And who so euer are so blinded are in a most darck night and thick and horrible cloud And then easely without help of an interpreter I vnderstode the words of Paul to the Romanes where he wryteth thus of the incredulity and blindnes of the Iewes What then Israell hath not obtayned that he sought but the election hath obtained it and the rest haue been hardened according as it is written God hath geuen them the Spirite of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare vnto this day ¶ Anna. God graunt that their eyes may be opened that with vs they may acknowledge and confes our Lord Christ ☞ Vrb. Amen For I trust that before the last day many Iewes shall be conuerted For this saying of Paul to the Romanes is of some importance Partly obstinacy is come to Israel vntill the fulnes of the Gentils be come in and so all Israell shall be saued as it is written The delyuerer shall come out of Syon and shall turne away the vngodlynes from Iacob And this is my couenāt to them when I shal take away their sinnes ¶ Anna. This prophesy of Danyell sticketh still in my mind And I cannot forget that last yerely weeke For it is in deede that most gladsome and happy time wherin God sent vs his only begotten Sonne into this world But I pray you doth Paul cal this week the fulnes of time ☞ Vrb. Paul doth call it so in deed For this last weeke may rightly and truely be called the fulnes or fulfilling of time which God hath appointed for the gracious visitation of the world into which he sent his onely begotten Sonne made of a woman and made vnder the law or subiect to the law that he might redeem them which were vnder the law that we might receue the adoption of the sonnes or that by adoption we might become children Those seuenty weekes may also be numbred and gathered by the time of the high Priests regiment in Ierusalem vnto the preaching of Christ and the Apostles And we must begin if we account thus at the first yeare of the high Priest Iehoscua when he was disinist of Assuerus and came out of captiuity into the land of Iuda For Gabryell saith in the prophesye of Danyel that after Danyell began to pray the word went out when he prayed for the people in the first yeare of Daryus long hand And from the first yeare of Darius long hand vnder whom Iehoscua the high Priest bare office 20. yeares to the time of the Apostles after the resurrection of Christ when sinne should haue an end and when iniquity should be blotted out are found by computation 70. yearely weekes that is 490. yeares And thus I gather mine account Iehoscua the high Priest after his returne out of captiuity was high Priest 20. yeares His sonne Ioachim was Priest 48. yeares Eliasib 21. Ioiadad 24. Ioathan 24. Iaddua 10. Onias Priscus 27. Symon Priscus 13. Eliazarus 20. Manasses 27. Symō Iustus 28. Onias 39. yeres And after him came Iudas Machabeus and ruled 5. yeares Thē Ionathas his brother 19. Symon 8. Iohn Hircan 26. Aristobulus 1. Iohn Alexander 27. Alexandra his wife 9. Hircane the last 34. yeares And after him raigned Herod by the commaundement auctority of the Senate of Rome This man thruste him selfe into the Iewishe kingdome quite against the Iewes will and he ruled 37. yeares And in the 30. yeare of the raign of this Herod was Christ our Sauyour borne who lyued in this earth 33. yeares and a half Now gather these yeares together and add to them 3. or 4. yeares moe in which the Apostles preached the gospel of Iesus Christ after they had receaued the holy Ghost on whitsonday and then shall you finde these 70. yearely weekes to wit those 490. yeares Of which Daniel speaketh in his 9. chapter But now if you finde seuen or eight yeres ouerplus yet is there no cause why you should doubt For it happeneth oftentimes that in registring the yeres of kings some tyme one yere is taken for two or two for one For we see often that the last yere of one kyng is the first of the next king following And so it cōmeth to passe that in gathering vp of yeres they cal make one yere two ¶ Anna. Now I vnderstand the wordes of S. Peter where he sayth Of which saluation the Prophetes haue inquired and searched which prophesied of the grace that should come vnto you searching when or what tyme the spirite which testified before of Christ which was in them should declare the sufferings that should come vnto Christ and the glory that should follow ☞ Vrb. Peter in deed speaketh especially of Daniel who not onely prophesied of Christ as other prophets did but hath aboue all other perticularly poynted him out because he numbreth the daies and yeres sheweth and setteth downe the very time of his commyng prophesiyng how far he was of or how long it should be before he came He also manifestly and clearely describeth what should be the state of the world at that day and who should be head ruler in the world or where the monarchy should remayne to wit that the Grekes and Persians kingdome should then be ended and the kingdome which was the last should begin to florish so that Christ should come in the tyme of the Romains rule euen when they most florished This deuine and plaine prophesie of Christ doth wonderfully confirme our true and catholike faith and maruelously and soundly comforteth our consciēces because we see presently in the world before our eyes those thinges finished which in this prophesie were so plainly clearely and orderly many yeres ago declared ¶ Anna. Are there any more textes in the other prophets which foreshew the humility lowly conuersation and former comming of Christ into the world I pray you if there be recite thē for I long to heare thē ☞ Vrb. There are many testimonies therof both in the Psalmes and Prophetes But seeyng we haue to speake of it in other places as in the article of the death and passion of Christ and els where I will deferre it vntill such tyme as we shall handle those matters ¶ Anna. Go
briefe they are true Israelites in whō there is no deceit or fraude because Christ their king blesseth and gouerneth them by his holy spirite and renueth regenerateth them maketh them which were bloud-thirsty and enuious very myld men and patient sufferers of all harmes that happen so that beyng hurt they hurt not agayne nay they wish well vnto their enemies they blesse them that curse them and doe good to them that hurt them Forasmuch then as appertayneth vnto themselues they neede no swords but only for the infidels and wicked which must be ruled restrayned by the sword and by force least that the godly and good liuers be oppressed hurt by them As Esay sayth of the kingdom of Christ They shall do no hurt neither do any iniury in my holy hill because the earth shal be filled with the knowledge of God euen as the sea with flowing waters And Micheas prophecieth of the peace which shall be in the kingdom of Christ saying But they shall sit euery man vnder his vine and vnder his fig tree and none shall make them afrayde And Hose sayth I will make a couenaunt for them in that day that is when Messias shall rule with the wild beastes and with the foules of the heauen and with that that creepeth vpon the earth and I will breake the bow and the sword and the battail out of the earth and will make thē to sleep safely And Zachary saith I will cut of the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Ierusalem the bowe of the battail shall be broken and he shall speake peace vnto the heathen These things are not to be vnderstood corporally and grosly as the blinded Iewes and Chiliastes did dreame but spiritually of the heauenly peace in the spirituall kingdom of Christ If therfore the Gentiles through all the world according to this prophesie ought to run vnto the Lord into the church or christian religion and receiue the doctrine therof and be partakers of that true peace it was needefull that Christ should rise agayne that he might erect restore and establish that great kingdom which consisteth of the Iewes and Gentils For as yet the Gentils when he dyed knew not who he was Nay the very Iewes themselues could not abide this their king wherupon the prophet warneth euen the Iewes in the ende of his prophesie saying O house of Iacob come ye and let vs walke in the light of the lord that is in his gospell in the fayth of Christ And Esay comforteth the people of the Iewes prophesieng vnto them that although the Iewes should suffer a great destruction and haue a miserable fall yet many of the Israelites should escape all those euils obtaine that euerlasting ioy and incomparable comfort which God promised saying In that day shall the bud of the Lord be beautifull and glorious and the fruite of the earth shall be excellent and pleasaunt for them that are escaped of Israel Then he that shal be lost in Sion and he that shall remayne in Ierusalem shal be called holy and euery one shall be written among the liuyng in Ierusalem when the Lord shall wash the filthines of the daughter of Sion and purge the bloud of Ierusalem out of the midst therof by the spirit of burning In these wordes the prophet foretelleth how glorious and honorable this kingdome of Messias should be And he speaketh properly of the tymes of the new Testament wherein Christ adourned hys kyngdome his Church with beauty aboue measure and with all the giftes of the holy ghost For he washeth cleanseth and sanctifieth his daughter Sion that is the church with holy baptisme by his bloude Hee mortifieth the olde Adam by the spirite of iudgement and of fire And seeing that the churche her selfe must fight here in the fleshe against most wicked and vile enemies and seing that she is here on earth in great daunger Christ her almighty king doth promise her comfort defence ayde and helpe in all aduersities and calamities that she may bee safe vnder the protection of the most high For hee shall be a cloude for his church in the day tyme and a fire lightnyng it in the night as hee visibly deliuered his people out of the house of bondage as we read in Exodus where it is sayd And the Lord went before them by day in a piller of a cloude to leade them the way and by night in a piller of fire to geue them light that they might goe both by day and by night hee tooke not away the piller of the cloud by day nor the piller of fire by night frō before the people Note here that the prophet calleth our Lord Christ the budde or blossom of God and the fruit of the earth because Christ is the sonne of God naturally and also the true sonne of man to wit of the perpetuall and pure Virgin Mary of the tribe of Dauid He is called the fruite of the earth because he tooke his holy humanitie of the daughter of Adam which Adam was made of earth This prophesie the Iewes vnderstood both in Babilon and afterward also of Christ For Thargum Ionathan sayth At this tyme the Messias of the lord shal be our ioy and glory ¶ Anna. Cleophas and his companion by this prophesie might easily haue vnderstood that Israel should not quite perish because Christ died For if it was meet that he should bee the fruite of the earth that is to say naturall man what meruaile is it then if he died But in that he was the budde of the Lord it was not possible that he should abide in death For then should God himselfe haue remayned in death which thing is vnpossible Wherfore he was able both to raise vp and deliuer hymself and other from death Moreouer seyng that not all which were in Ierusalem and in Sion but the remnant only should be holy and numbred amongest the elect it must needes be that there were some wicked men in Ierusalem and so consequently enemies to Christ For holines and wickednes cannot agree What maruayle was it then that these prophayne and wicked bishops and princes deliuered Christ to death But yet for all that he was able to deliuer Israell yea death it selfe was the way and meane whereby God had determined to saue Israel as the Prophetes haue sayde and yet not by force armour and the sworde as the Iewes dreamed but euen by his holinesse as it seemed good vnto the Lorde But it appeareth in Luke that those good disciples as then neither knew nor vnderstood the person and ministery of Messias to wit that he both could and should by death destroy death ☞ Vrbanus You say well and therfore doth Christ call them fooles and slow of hart to beleue and vnderstand all thinges which the prophet spake of Messias But marke what Esay sayth of Christ First he giueth Christ this worthy warriours name calling him Maher
precious bloude of Christ Although many hurtfull beastes inuirone it and goe about by craft to burst into it and vtterly to destroy it yet shall it growe and be fruitfull because the lord him selfe keepeth it and is a watchman and keper thereof which keepeth it with all care and diligence And the new testament in Mathew speaketh of the church after the same sort Although this vineyard abide great tempests violent assaults and grieuous stormes yet is it not torne in pieces broken downe lesned or cutte shorter and made straighter but euery day becommeth more flourishing greater and greener For the church encreaseth and is dilated and spred into the foure quarters of the whole world The Apostles which were to spring of the seede of Iacob and Israel according to the flesh propagated and spread the Gospell abroade through all the world And the Lord by their planting and wateryng gaue such encrease that throughout the whole world there sprong vp of the Gentils spirituall Iacobites and Israelites which haue the fayth of their heauenly father Iacob and by their lyfe professe and witnes that they are endued with the fayth of the Patriarkes and are their children by fayth And thus the true Iacob or Israel that is the true church spreadeth it selfe through the whole world which before was onely in Iudea For many shall come from the East and West and shall sitte downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen And it was conuenient that the trumpe of the gospel should at the same tyme of grace be blown through the whole worlde that the grace of Christ myght appeare and be opened and offered to all men And that both the Iewes and Gentiles might be gathered out of the whole earth into one church and worship the lord Iesus Christ in hys holy hyll Ierusalem to wit the catholike church which is the hill of the Lord and the heauenly Ierusalem For the earthly Ierusalem hath now hys ende and lyeth wasted and destroyed and was but onely a type of the heauenly Ierusalem And now that the truth it selfe and the thyng figured is come and is present there needeth not any more figures In vayne therfore and frustrate is the expectation and hope of the Iewes which vnderstande these prophesies of the earthly Ierusalem which shal neuer be restored to his former state and dignity as Daniel prophesieth in his 9. chapter ¶ Anna. If this vineyard or catholike church that is christian religion should flourish thorough the whole world If also the Gentils should worship Christ and if they should become true Israelites and by the helpe and ayde of Christ flourish and waxe greene then surely was it conuenient that Christ should rise from the dead to plant and kepe the great and ample vineyarde and so saue and deliuer not only Israel according to the flesh but euen vs Gentiles which be the spirituall Israelites But these two disciples considered not this ☞ Vrb. If these prophesies be well and diligently waied and considered we may plainely see and gather out of euery one of them the resurrection of Christ true christians This is the true deliueraunce of Israel not only from the king of Assiria or Babilon but from that great and horrible tirant of hel Satan and euerlasting death Esay prophesieth in other places also of that gracious tyme of the new testament wherin Christ came and the holy ghost was sent into the Apostles by whō the chiefe and true quietnes and peace of consciēce was giuen in the kingdom of Christ And thus he prophesieth in the 32. The pallace shal be forsaken c. vntill the spirit be powred vpon vs from aboue and the wildernesse become a fruitfull field and the plenteous field bee counted as a forest And iudgement shall dwel in the desert iustice shal remaine in the fruitful fields And the worke of iustice shall be peace euen the worke of iustice and quietnes and assuraunce for euer And my people shall dwell in the tabernacle of peace and in sure dwellings and in safe resting places Esay had tolde the Iewes that both their city and kingdome should bee destroyed as it came to passe afterwarde by the Chaldes And so it ought to bee before the commyng of Messias who should ende all calamities and before the holy spirit of Christ should be poured vpon thē from heauen which was fulfilled in Ierusalem on Whitsonday whē Christ sent his spirit visibly vnto his Apostles Then at the last was the true Ierusalem builded by the Apostles on Christ the head corner stone Then the desert that is the remnant of the Iewes and Gentiles shall be as a field well tilled and they shall bring forth aboundance of fruite in the fayth of Christ And the fielde which before flourished to wit the Sinagoge shall be made a forrest and wildernes Then shall true righteousnes dwell in this kingdome of Christ to wit fayth in Christ which bringeth forth most pleasaunt and delectable fruites namely peace euen true peace in the lord peace of conscience with true and euerlasting security He calleth the church of Christ also the habitation of peace the tabernacle of trust or most sure habitation because we can fynde peace and safety from the tiranny of the wicked spirite from sinne and from death in no other place but onely in the churche of Christ For he which kepeth and defendeth the church is the Lord of hostes himselfe which hath ouercome Sathan and established Sion that is the churche on a strong and sure foundation and in all places strongly defendeth it from all euils that hang ouer it He onely deserued and made our reconciliation The church is his heauenly body the church is his temple the church is his kyngdome wherein he dwelleth And therefore there can bee no true peace at all any where but onely in the church in which we haue true peace with GOD thorough our mediator and reconciler Iesus Christ Without this dwelling place of God is very whote indignation wrath and wretchednesse For in hym which beleeueth not in Christ dwelleth the wrath of God therefore he must needes perish But the true peace and securitie which we haue here but in fayth by the holy ghost the earnest peny of our inheritaunce shall then in deede at the last in the lyfe to come haue his beginnyng when our last enemy death shal be vtterly abolished There is also in the 35. of Esay a comfortable prophesie of Christ and of the kingdome of hys church of the doctrine of his Gospell of the miracles and signes of Christ and of our true deliuerance through Christ and of the eternall ioy of faythfull Christians The wordes are these The deserte and the wildernesse shall reioyce and the waste grounde shall bee glad and flourish as the rose it shall flourish aboundantly and shall greatly reioyce also and ioy The glory of Libanus shall be geuen vnto it the beauty of
Carmel and of Sharon They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our god Strengthen the weake handes and comfort the feeble knees Say vnto them that are fearefull bee you strong feare not Beholde your GOD commeth with vengeaunce euen God with a recompence hee will come and saue you Then shall the eyes of the blynde bee lightened and the eares of the deafe be opened Then shall the lame man leape as an harte and the dumbe mans tonge shall sing For in the wildernesse shall waters breake out and riuers in the desert And the dry ground shall be as a poole and the thirsty as springes of water in the habitation of dragons where they lye shall bee a place for reedes and rushes And there shall be a path and a way and the way shall be called holy The polluted shall not passe by it for he shall be with them and walke in the way the foules shall not erre There shal be no Lion nor doysome beastes shall ascende by it neyther shall they bee founde there that the redeemed may walke Therefore the redeemed of the Lorde shall returne and come to Sion with praise and euerlasting ioye shall be vpon their heades They shall obtayne ioye and gladnesse and sorow and mourning shall flie away Both the Iewes and christians vnderstande this chapter of the tyme of Messias when the new Testament through the whole world is preached The prophet vseth figuratiue speaches vnder which are hidden many mysteries Libanus Carmell and Sharon are places in the lande of Canaan and by them the inhabitance of the land are to be vnderstood And this flourishing reioicing is a spiritual reioicing is wroght in mens hartes when they heare the gospell of Iesus Christ And this is the meaning of the prophet Though the rebellious and disobedient Sinagog with the princes of Iuda and the greatest part of the Iewes together with their kingdome be abolished and destroyed yet shall some remayne and continue still the people of the lord shall florish and be encreased This was fulfilled in the land of Iuda euen in the Iewes in Christes tyme when he liued here on this earth For Christ and his disciples went and coasted thorough ouer all that country Christ was in the desert and the Gospell was preached in the cities streetes villages fieldes waters and mountains with great and strange wonders And although these things were done in the skorsaunt and fruitful in as much as welsprings of Gods grace streamed and flowed therin with great aboundance and in as much as the holy ghost by the gospell caused notable and pleasaunt fruit to grow where before had bene through the slender knowledge of God great drought thirst and barennes But be not these I pray you to wit faith in Christ knowledge of our sinnes and graces of God remission of sinnes with a pacified and quiet conscience in the lord and good workes comming of true charity and vnfayned fayth excellent faire fruites and beautifull and fragrant flowers But this grace did not remaine and abide the remnaunt of the Sinagoge alone but was by the Iewes to wit the apostles conueied also vnto the dry great and wild wildernes of the Gentiles which also became very fresh and fruiteful by the welspring of the Gospel And thus those notable and inestimable giftes of God to wit that we haue the wordes of God the law and the prophets and the Euangelistes with the true exposition and vnderstanding of them which before tyme was onely in the Iewish Synagoge be nowe giuen to the churche which consisteth of the remnant of the Iewes and Gentiles And the vnbeleuyng Iewes haue not nowe one of them Is it not I pray you a great and singular grace glory and gyfte to see the lord to wit to know Iesus Christ the knowlege and vnderstanding of whom doth in dede iustify deliuer vs from our sinnes from death and frō all those things of which Sathan did accuse vs. ¶ Anna. What preaching and ioyful gospel is that by which such great things are wrought ☞ Vrb. The preachers teachers of Christ shal with sound and plentifull comfort direct and strengthen all humble and broken hartes which do acknowledge confesse their sinnes and desire the grace of Christ For God hath ordeyned and promised them helpe aid and comfort in Christ that they may be safe and out of all the dangers of death and Sathan ¶ Anna. What comfort and helpe is that ☞ Vrb. Verily a most sure and strong comfort and helpe euen God himselfe present in his owne person to deliuer vs For he sayth hu iabo he himselfe will come Where then shal there be any place left for sinne death and Satan seyng that the Lord himselfe will come to to deliuer vs from them They must of force flye and vanish away at the presence and sight of our God euē as smoke This prophesie was fulfilled in Nazareth and Bethelem when the true and naturall sonne of God the euerlasting word of the father in his owne person toke on him mans nature in the vnity of his eternall person in the wombe of the virgin Mary for our sakes and became man that in that his eternall innocent inculpable and most righteous person he myght deliuer mankind from misery and restore him that was fallen and gone astray to his old honor Which thing he performed in deede both by his passion and resurrection Cleophas and his companion waighed not this prophesie of Messias diligently inough neyther did they thoroughly vnderstand it For if they had they would haue lept for ioy and said Let our Scribes and Pharises disdaine fret sinne and rage And what thē Our Messias will well inough ouercome their cruelty and tiranny though it be neuer so bloudy Neither can they for all their cruell rage vtterly take hym from vs And where as he died once it was his pleasure for he willingly suffered death for vs For if he had not offered himselfe freely vnto the handes and crueltie of the Iewes they could neuer haue touched hym or hurt him a haire But he tarieth not in death because he is God who promised also vnto vs miserable sinners power helpe comfort consolation and euerlastyng ioye And whatsoeuer he hath promised he both can and will performe And in that he is God he rose by his owne power from the dead and tooke all power from death First in his own person then also in ours which beleue in hym And we verily haue seene such and so many wonderfull miracles of his that they doe plainly inough testifie vnto vs that he is the true Messias For he gaue sight to the blynd he made the deafe heare he healed the weake and lame and made the dumbe speake Wherupon the prophet sayth Then shall the eyes of the blynde be lightened By this worde then you must vnderstand that most acceptable and ioyfull tyme of grace of the newe Testament that tyme of
Christ when the welsprings of liuyng water shall flowe from place to place in the desert where God before was not knowen nor heard of because that out of one church or congregation of the godly the gospell shall flowe and spread abroade into other places that there they may learne to know Christ And where the serpentes before spewed out theyr poyson of false doctrine superstition and idolatry thither shall the sounde doctrine of the truth now bee brought and there shall it bring forth most plentifull fruites ¶ Anna. What way and holy pathe is that which is here spoken of in this prophesie by which he sayth no sinner goeth ☞ Vrbanus Hee speaketh in this prophesie of the Gospell of Christ and of hys Church The holy way therefore whereof he speaketh here is fayth in Iesus Christ true God and perfect man borne here of the seede of Abraham and Dauid In this way walked Abraham Isaac Iacob Dauid Mary and the Apostles neyther is there any other way but this vnto the liuyng God as Christ sayth I am the way and the truth and the lyfe no man commeth vnto the father but by me There is no other true faith but the christian and catholike fayth All other sectes though they seeme neuer so holy are nothing els but errours and Satanicall superstitions No man was euer saued vnlesse he beleued in Christ And therfore this Christian fayth is called the true right onely and holy way vnto euerlasting saluation He that walketh this way whosoeuer he be though he be a very foole in worldly matters yea a most simple ideot or vilest sinner hee can not but must needes be pertaker of euerlasting lyfe But whosoeuer goeth any other way although he seeme to the worlde learned holy wyse and of great experience yet he wandereth all wyde and goeth astray nay he hasteth hedlong vnto hell Furthermore this way onely is most sure and safe In this way Lions and wylde beastes can not hurt vs For neither tirantes nor false teachers can hurt them whosoeuer they be that abide in this way and goe not out thereof For though they take from them both their goodes and lyues yet shall they haue no losse but gayne thereby For all thinges happen vnto their health so long as they are kept of Christ who hath such care ouer them and so preserueth them that he suffereth not the least haire of theyr heade to perishe ¶ Anna. But who are these redemed of the Lord ☞ Vrban Euen both Iewes and Gentils which beleue in Iesus Christ namely all true Christians These were once seduced by Sathan and brought into the horrible captiuity of sinne and death and therin had remayned for euer if the lord had not himself come and by his precious bloud deliuered thē But the Lord himselfe came and vanquished and spoiled Satan And so these redemed turned to Sion that is into the holy catholike church by faith and the sacraments and they come with prayse ioy and exultation For the more vile and horrible the captiuity was so much greater is the ioy of the prisoners which are redeemed But this was a most vile and horrible continuall captiuity wherin we should haue bene for euer most miserably tormēted both in body and soule with al kind of calamities tortors I say which are such that they passe all our sences and capacity And therfore this our ioy in the Lord in Sion is and that by right infinit incomprehensble and more then hart can conceiue The world also hath his ioy but the ioy therof is momentany and very short for it hath his ende and continueth not But the ioy of the faythfull christians is eternall It beginneth here in fayth but afterward whē our last enemy death shal be swalowed vp and Satan with the wicked and deceitfull world cast downe into the pit of hell there to bee tormented for euer then at the last it shall burst forth and shew it selfe And all they that beleued in Christ to wit his whole kingdom shal frō that tyme forth be no more afflicted with enemies Then shall the true and euerlasting ioy of the faithfull christians begin heauines sorow and griefe shal then haue an ende For that kingdom when the glory therof shall be made manifest shall then at the last haue no more sinne nor feele death sickenes persecution calamity troubles or aduersitie for all causes of sorrows and sadnes are then through Christ taken away As Christ witnesseth in Iohn I wil see you againe and your hartes shall reioyce and your ioy shall no man take from you And in the Apocalips the voyce saith That GOD shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shal be no more death neither sorow neither crying neither shal there be any more payne ¶ Anna. Seyng that we through our Messias should haue such full and perfect redemption from all our sinnes death and damnation and enioy euerlasting lyfe felicity out of doubt he neither could nor should remayne in death And would to God we could beleue this and alwayes reioyce in the Lord. Vrban Truely so we should in deede alwayes beleue and reioyce But that euill spirit through his wicked temptations oftentymes doth so with thick clouds darcken this cleare sonne of ioy and fayth in vs that sometymes we cannot see it Yea he maketh vs sometymes so heauy that we either altogether forget this great and iuestimable promise of euerlasting life or els waigh it not so diligently nor print it so deeply in our harts as we ought But let vs alwayes keep in our hands the sword of the spirite that is the gospell and therewithall defend our selues from the fiery dartes of our enemies We must stir vp and exercise our faith by diligent vsing reading hearing and handling the scripture least we sleep in carnal security Yea we must say euery foot with the holy prophet Dauid Behold heare me O Lord my God lighten mine eyes that I sleepe not in death lest mine enemy say I haue preuayled against him and they that afflict me reioyce when I slide Esay prophesyeth again of Christ O Syon that bringest good tidings get thee vp into the high mountaynes O Ierusalem that bringest good tidings lift vp thy voice with strength lift it vp be not afrayd say to the Cities of Iuda Behold your God behold the Lord God will come with power and his arme shall rule for him Behold his wages is with him and his worke before him Here Syon and Ierusalem are warned that they preach the comming grace power of God in Christ As if he should say to other cities in Iuda ye haue looked long for Messias which was promysed in the law and prophets now looke vp now lift vp your eares and harts behold here is your God Messias the most mighty Lord who hath shewed his power in that he hath redeemed you from those mighty and cruell
were more cruel and deadly enemies to god then the Iewes were and therfore vnworthy to trouble and vex the children of God at their pleasure But now for the second The Lord by his prophet saith you are yet miserably afflicted and trobled For they which rule ouer my people to wit the pharisies and saduces and such like make them by tormenting and excruciating their consciences so to houle lament and mourn that the corporall captiuity was much more easy then this spirituall bondage of their soules And therfore I wil make an end of this butcherly tirannye which they exercised in their conscience and I will call and congregate my people to my self that they may know my name because that I only am their iustifier and redeemer But when shal this be he answereth in that day that is at the former comming of Christ He goeth on therfore saying Loe I my self wil speak Here God promyseth again his humanity For whē the sonne of god was made man and liued here on this earth it was in a strange maner and such as before was not heard of to wit he was here as true man and did speak himself and he who before had spoken and talked with man by his angels and prophets is now euen in his own person present a true teacher who alone is to be heard of vs euen as the father hath commaunded in Mathew saying heare him And what this teacher speaketh he perfourmeth in deede ¶ Anna. What be hys words What speaketh he He is a notable personage or messēger therfore out of doubt hys wordes must needes be notable excellent ¶ Vrb. He came to preach as Paul faith to the Ephesians peace vnto vs and to tell vs that God for hys sake doth forgeue vs our sins and will neuer herafter be angry with vs but still continue our mercifull father this eternall peace which he speaketh of is surely that ioyful gladsome desired message and most true gospel it selfe And therefore he sayth O how beautifull amiable are the feet of those that preach the gospel or that bring that good and ioyfull message of eternall peace from heauen Christ hym self as the minister of circumcision preached to the Iewes his fathers mercy which is freely geuen vs And he commaunded hys Apostles to preach this ioyfull message or Gospell of eternall peace and saluation yea he preacheth it yet by his ministers which he endueth with the holy ghost that so they may vnderstād the scriptures and instruct others in thē Here you see that the spirituall kingdome is not erected and stablished by corporal armour but by the Gospell for the preachers do nothing els in the pulpet but declare the grace of God and eternal saluation in Christ Iesus saying in times past Sathan came mightely raigning in this world but now O Sion commeth a stronger euē thy God which is a king Christ Iesus who hath ouercome both Sathā and the world He is the mightiest of al he ruleth ouer all and therfore no creatures can hurt thee to wit vs the church so long as we abide vnder the protectiō and defence of this omnipotent prince for this king is God him selfe The Apostles were Watchmen or seers which so exalted their voyce that the whole world was filled with their wordes They also receaued great comfort and reioysed that Christ our sauiour himselfe was come to saue vs and deliuer vs and it was also visibly seene and known that this king did conuert Sion and yet he vsed no violence or tyranny in his gouernment in Syon For sometime he went vp to Ierusalem and sometime he came down from Ierusalem and all as a pilgrime or straunger But he so conuerted Sion to wit his people by the Gospel so that they cast away all their errors and left their sinnes and led righteous and godly lyues yea the spirit and word of Christ wrought all miracles and that so mightely that he atchieued and did that with a word that the whole world could not do with all their strength and riches Hys kingdom is amiable and wonderful he biddeth Ierusalem that is his people reioyce and with one consent gloriously set forth and boast of that so great and wonderful mercies of their god And he calleth Ierusalem a desart or desolate place because the people of God was then small and of no countenance But now the chiefest cause of their ioy is this that their comfort is now presēt with them for that Lord himself cōforteth hys people redemeth them out of extreme horrible and euerlasting calamities He hath sent his onely begottē sonne whome he calleth the arme of God that is his power strength fortitude And it was his pleasure to make him perfectly knowne to all nations by the Gospell that all nations of the earth might see the saluation of our God that is Iesus Christ who was nothing knowne before amongst the Gentiles For the Iewes onely were the people that looked for him none els ¶ Anna. What sayth Esay of Christ in the 53. Chapter which you alway call the golden chapiter and commend so greatly that you would haue all men to haue it at their fingers ends and in their memories ☞ Vrba Hetherto you haue heard of the spirituall kingdome of Christ vnder the crosse and therwithall the notable and worthy comfort which the Church receiueth to wit that all beleuers in Christ shall in him haue full deliueraunce and after the end of these troubles receaue euerlasting ioye But Esay in this Chapiter telleth vs by what meanes our king Christ hath obtayned for vs and geuen vs such wonderfull thinges to wit full deliueraunce from all euill an euerlasting kingdome continuall peace heauenly ioye and eternall saluation and he prophesieth very playnly of the passion resurrection and glory of Christ wherunto he should enter through his passion the wordes of the prophesie are these Behold my seruaūt shall prosper he shal be exalted and extolled and be very high As many were astonied at thee his visage was so deformed of men and his forme of the sonnes of men so shall he sprinckle many nations The kinges shall shut their mouthes at him for that which had not bene told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they vnderstand Who will beleue our report and to whome is the arme of the Lord reuealed but he shall growe vp before him as a braunche and as a roote out of a dry ground he hath neither forme nor beautye whē we shall see him there shal be no forme that we should desire him he is despised and reiected of men he is a man full of sorrowes and hath experience of infirmities we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we estemed him not Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrowes yet we did iudge him as plaged and smitten of God and humbled But
the blinded Iewes and foolish Cheliasts the prophet saith in the words following that this corporall and visible sun shal not make the gates and walles of this Citie visibly to be seen with bodely eyes in the brightnes and light of the sonne There must be a much cleerer light for the beholding of this Citie God himselfe shal shine in this citie as the visible sun and shall lighten our harts with the gospel And by this light may we see all those great things and excellent benefits which God hath promysed to his church Hereby also know we that the catholick church and the kingdome of Christ is not a visible kingdome For these worldly kingdomes dominions or politik powers may be beholden in all their regal pomp with corporall eyes But the church and the beuty thereof cannot be seene but with spirituall eyes for an other kind of sun must shine in it then doth in this world But now mark what excellent and comfortable promyses we haue in Christ The sun of Christes kingdome shal not goe down This visible sun on the day time hauing runne his course doth euery day goe down and bydes himself til the next morning But our sun and our moone tary with vs for euer For Christ the sun of righteousnes ryseth and shineth to vs by his gospel and shall neuer goe down from his elected For though neuer so great a cloud of temtation darken this sun yet shall it not vtterly goe from vs but at the last day of redemption it shal apeare and shine vnto vs most cleere where neither cloud of affliction ignorance or incredulity can couer hinder or blemish his brightnes Then at the last shall be seen the fulfulling of the great promises of the peace helth and ioy of the church Whē Christ our euerlasting light shal be made many fest then shall we see him face to face then shall our afflictions end and then shall the day of eternall glory appeare to the children of God. Note also here that in the church or kingdome of Christ there shall be none but iust men Here in the world godly vngodly dwel and are mixt together but in the true church the congregation of Christians in the spirit is such that there is not one vngodly person For in the last day the vngodly faithles shall be euen corporally seperated for euer from the godly The fantasticall and mad rable of Anabaptists suppose that they can gather together all the godly into some one erthly city and that they should so corporally fulfil this promise But their conate shall be frustrate they shall labour in vaine it cannot be so in this earth while this life lasteth At the last day the Tares shall be seperated from the Wheate But here in this church the vngodly as theeues and robbers in a kingdome which abuse all Creatures and with violence and iniurye possesse and cease all things into their hands are mixed with the godly vntil the last day But the godly shall raign with Christ in heauen and earth God shall excellently and brauely burnish the earth and visible creature and shall geue it a new shape and marueilously beutefy it that the childrē of God may inioy it And thus shall the godly inherite and posses a new heauen and a new earth in which righteousnes shal dwell as Peter saith But how shall they come to so great a glory And why shal they haue it Euen therfore shal they haue it as Esay sayth because they are the bud or bowes or young plant which the lord himself hath planted with his own hand because he hath renued in vs the Image of God by his word and his spirite and hath made vs new men and a new creature in Christ In the end of this chap. Esay promyseth it shall come to passe that though the church be small and rare yet shall it so increase that an innumerable and infinite number of people shall receaue the faith of Christ And least when we see the true godly persecuted and slayn on heapes and the world swarme with a great multitude of vngodly and worldlings and the church in comparyson of the world but litle and straight wee should something doubt how this should come to pas In his conclusion he saith that it is not mannes deed thus gloryously to exalt the kingdome of Christ but God himself shal doe it in his due time For to see the gospel taught men beleue such hidden misteries beleeuers of Gods promyses to relinquish and contemne this world and valyantly by death to confes Christ passeth al mannes reson wisdome and worldly power These must nedes be the works of the mighty God which by his power and spirit doth work them preserue them and increase them in vs. Agayn you may gather out of this prophecy that the kingdome of Christ is spirituall and eternall and that it behoued him to rise again from death if he shold be the sonne and euerlasting light of the godly that we also shal rise again that we may in the life to come receue and for euer enioy al these great promises made in the prophets Whosoeuer beleeueth this sorroweth not as did Cleophas his cōpanion For he knoweth that Christ shal come to delyuer Israel and aduaunce it to glory But this glory is not seen in this frail life it is here but in hope but after this life we shall see and haue it in eternall and perfect possession Now shall you heare what Esay prophesyeth of the church of vs christians and of Christ the Sauyour of the church how that he shall come in Syon and iustify the gentils How euen the very gentils shall receiue Messias how he shal geue this church faithful bishops and pastors and how he shall gloriously beutefy it and diligently cōserue it as his only beloued spouse Wherby all men may plainly see that though the church be here crossed to the end it may be made like her Lord king yet is she not forsaken of God. And thus he sayth in the 62. chapiter For Sions sake I will not hold my tongue and for Hierusalems sake I will not rest vntill the righteousnes thereof breake forth as the light and the saluation therof as a burning lampe And the gentiles shall see thy righteousnes and all kinges thy glory and thou shalt be cald by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name Thou shalt also be a croun of glory in the hand of the Lord and a roiall diadē in the hand of thy god It shall no more be sayd vnto thee forsaken neither shall it be sayd any more to thy land desolat But thou shalt be called Hephzibah That is to say my delight in her and thy land Beulah That is to say inhabited For the Lord delighteth in thee and thy land shall haue a husband For as a young man marieth a virgine so shall thy sons mary thee and as a bridgrome is
the prophet say that their former troubles are forgott put out of sight and hide from them seing that in the kingdome of Christ that as in the Church there is neuertheles outwardly nothing but affliction vexation and tribulatiō in this lyfe insomuch that euen the most holy men many tymes fall into such trouble of mind that they need the comfort of other men ☞ Vrb. You must acquaint your selfe with the prophets phrase of speach The prophets speake of the kingdome of Christ as if we were now already deliuered out of these troubles and as if the glory of his kingdome which is yet to come had now already apeared nay as if the euerlasting lyfe which is yet to come were already begun where as yet it is but only in fayth And so it behoued thē to speake of it For if they should paint forth the kingdome of Christ in his proper colors and set it forth aright as it ought to be they must not looke vpon that base and homely outward appearaunce in which here vpon earth it lyeth couertly hid vnder the crosse but they must behold the glory also in which it shall florish in the day of our perfect regeneration when all kindes of euills incommodities stombling blockes shal be remoued out of the kingdome of Christe and when we shall be free from all kind of crosses and calamities In as much as we being iustified be fayth in Christ are freed and deliuered from our sinnes and in as much as we beare Christ by fayth in our hartes and are now made the sons of God and haue our lyfe hid and preserued with Christ in God and haue the holy spirite the earnest penye of our inheritance and so spiritually are risen agayne frō the death of sin and haue nothing els to looke for but that this mortall bodye should dye and rise agayne the prophets I say because of these so excellent thinges because we are saued in hope vsed sometimes in that they knew what fayth in Christ could doe and should doe to speake of the kingdome of Christ as if now already we were translated out of this fraile and corruptible lyfe and out of these troubles cares calamities and afflictious into that lyfe that continueth for euer And this certainely is our sure plentifull comfort consolatiō nay it is our spirituall blessing wherwith we now are already blessed And these first fruites of the spirite are such heauenly treasures that no tongue can vtter the excellency and dignitie therof And this is the cause that when we be indued with these heauēly treasures we beare the heuy crosse of persecution trouble more patiētly Before this we were in the kingdome of the deuill the kingdome of the euerlasting curse but now we are in the kingdome of eternall blessing in which onely and els not at all we finde and enioy the grace of God righteousnes helth and euerlasting lyfe It followeth in the prophet For loe I will create new heauens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But the Lord sayth bee you glad and reioyce for euer in the thing that I shall create For behold I will create Ierusalem as a reioycing and her people as a ioy And I will reioyce in Ierusalem and ioy in my people and the voyce of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voyce of crying Behold here how exceeding glorious the kingdome of Christ shall be after this lyfe God for his childrens sake his faythful which be heyres of all things in Christ will wake a new heauen and a new earth And then all thinges shall reioyce with the Children of God all affliction and trouble which we suffered here in this earth shall then be forgot For heauines hath then his end and eternall Ioy beginneth Now it is called the earth and so it is in deed euen a vale of misery and a sea of sorrow For which way soeuer a man turneth his eye there is nothing here to be seene but daunger and affliction The water drowneth vs the fire burneth vs and the ayre with tempest stormes thunder lightning haile molesteth vs In the earth we see our graues and the burying places of the dead dens of theeues and here the tortor and there the racke to torment vs To be short there is no place but that of misery and mischiefe it is a place For as yet Sathan with this his world swelleth rageth turneth tosseth euery thing vpside downe and bringeth in all kinde of calamity and mischiefe vpon vs but when he with his incredulous and wicked world shall be hurled hedlong downe to hell when our God shall renew the earth when the true Christians shall only appeare in all places and nothing but true iustice inhabite the land then shall the memory of that former earth the vale of misery in which was nothing but present perill sicknes sorrow affliction and death be vtterly extinguished and forgot then at the last shall the true heauenly Ierusalem be builded where shall be nothing but sure pure and vnspekable ioy and there we shal reioyce in the Lord for euer and euer and God shall be to vs all in all And wheras the Iewes and Chelieasts draw and wrast this text to the lande of Iuda they are foolishly and doultishly deceaued For all Iudaisme with their tempell Ierusalem priesthoode and principalitye had their limites and time appointed and ought to continue but onely till Iesus Christ should come and fulfill the scriptures who together with his Church was by the law priest sacrifice temple and Ierusalem prefigured and signified For Esay a little after in the 66. chapiter prophesyeth of the Iewes ceremonies that they shall haue an end that after for euer in the Church of the faythfull in Christ there shall be month after month and Saboth after Saboth that is to say in this church shall be a perpetuall and continuall Saboth Saboth after Saboth still one vpon one wheras the Saboths of the Iewes were numbred and knowne In this last of Esay also we haue a notable worthy prophesy of the kingdom of Christ or of the church of the faythfull The wordes of it be these Reioyce ye with Ierusalem and be glad with her all ye that loue her reioyce for ioy with her all ye that morne for her that you may suck and be satisfied with the brestes of her consolation and that ye may milke out and be delighted with the brightnes of her glory For thus sayth the Lord Behold I will extend peace ouer her lyke a floud and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing streame then shall ye suck ye shall be born vpon her sides and be ioyful vpon her knees As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and ye shall be comforted in Ierusalem And when ye see this your hartes shall reioyce and your bones shall florishe like an
only to the deliueraunce out of the captiuitye of Babilon such lyke as appeareth in the 30. of Iere. Where God sayth write thee all the wordes that I haue spoken to thee in a booke For loe the day is come sayth the lord That I will bring agayne the captiuity of my people Israell and Iuda sayth the lord For I will restore them into the land that I gaue to their Fathers they shal possesse it This prophesy can not be vnderstood of the land of Canaan or of any earthly deliueraunce For Osias sayth that his wife bore him a daughter whose name was Loruhamah that is with out pity Whereby is meant that God would not any more haue mercy vpon the x. tribes as he had mercy vpon Iuda Bēiamin which two tribs he brought home out of the captiuitie of Babilon but he left the x. tribes in Assiria amongste the gentiles Wherefore without doubt Ieremy prophesieth of the spirituall bondage of the remnāt of the 12. tribes of Iuda God will turn away this spiritual bōdage wherein they were holden captiues all abroad in error vnbeleefe vnder Sathā bring thē forth into the land of truth righteousnes as it may be gathered by Ieremies wordes which here follow For in that day sayth the Lord of hostes I will breake his yoke from of thy neck and breake thy bondes and strangers shal no more serue them selues of him but they shall serue the Lord their God and Dauid their king whome I will raise vp vnto them Therfore feare not O my seruant Iacob sayth the lord Neither be affrayd O Israell for loe I will deliuer thee from a farre countrey and thy seed from the land of their captiuitie and Iacob shall turne agayne and shall be in rest and prosperitie and none shall make him affraid For I am with thee sayth the Lord to saue thee In deede the Iewes were vnder a figure corporally deliuered from the bondage in the which Nabucadonezer held them captiues but this deliuerance was but a trifell in respect of the spirituall deliueraunce wherewith Christ deliuered vs from Sathan Here the prophet speaketh manifestly of Christ as the Iews them selues confesse with vs And he calleth Christe Dauid the king of the Iewes For Dauid which was Salomōs father had in the Lord departed this world lōg before this prophesy But Christ many times in the scriptures is called Dauid because he was to come of the house and stock of Dauid after the flesh to this doth the Chaldes translatiō agree For Ionathan hath this text thus Veijschthameum limschicha bar Dauid malcehom that is they shall obay their king Messias the sonne of Dauid And so did the Iewes vnderstād this prophesy of Messias in the tyme of the captiuitie of Babilon whē they had the prophets and vnderstood the Scriptures Zachary singeth a notable song of this deliuerance vnder Christ the true Dauid where he doth plainely and notably expound this prophesy of Ieremy and other such lyke as be ment of the kingdome of Christe For when he vnderstood by the gift of the holy ghost that his sonn Iohn was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fore runner of Christ after whome Christe immediatly should follow and when he saw that plentifull time of grace and saluation in which all the promises of God concerning the redemption of Israell should be fulfilled he soung this most sweete and pleasant song Blessed be the Lord God of Israell for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raysed the horne of saluation vnto vs to wit a most certaine and sure kingdome in which there is true health and happines in the house of his seruaunt Dauid For many whiche bore this true Dauid Iesus Christ as God before had promise to Dauid was of the house of Dauid It followeth as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which were since the world began saying that he would send vs deliuerance from our enemies and from the handes of all that hate vs that he would shew mercy towardes our Fathers and rememeber his holy couenaunt and the oth which he sware to our Father Abraham Which was that he would graunt vnto vs that we being deliuered out of the handes of our enemies should serue him with out feare all the dayes of our lyfe in holynes righteousnes before him And thou babe shalt be called the prophet of the most hiest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes and to geue knowledge of saluation vnto his people for the remission of their sinns through the tender mercy of our God wherby the day spring from on hye hath visited vs to geue light to them that sit in darknes and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Here we see Christ Iesus is our king vnder whom the faythfull in Christ do sit sure safe without feare in fulnes of heauenly giftes in the spirituall kingdome when Christ hath made them at one with his father whē he shall be their king and god Who thē should they fear and tremble seing the horne of saluatiō is in the house of Dauid that is the kingdome of Christe the kingdome of blessednes in which neither sin death nor Sathā can hurt the faythfull beleuers with whom Christ is alwayes present and whome he doth euer support And this is the true redemption and that true helpe which all the true godly and elect haue gredely loked for from the beginning Ieremy prophesieth of Messias at large in the 31. saying at the same tyme sayth the Lord will I be the God of al the famelies of Israel they shal be my people The fulfilling of this prophecy begun in the appostles time when many of the kingdomes and generations of Israel beleued in Christ and became the people of god and it shall be fulfilled or finished when the fulnes of the gentiles shall be come in wheras those x. tribes were before this vtterly rooted out of the earth from the face of the Lord for your Idolatrye Ieremye prophesyeth of the hope of the Gentiles saying that it should so fall forth that Israell that is to say the remnant which the Lord had chosen should be deliuered from their captiuitie and that they shoulde come into Sion that is into the Catholicke Churche with spirituall songes that the gentills should heare it and speake of it and reioyce at the conuersation of the Iewes If this must thus come to passe then out of doubt must they needes come to Sion that is the church of Christ which is the spirituall kingdome of Christe wherin shall be great aboundance and plentiousnes of all good and precious thinges We must vnderstand by the corne wine and oyle and such lyke heauenly giftes which Christ by his spirite bestoweth on the Churche that it may be glad and reioyce in spirite For the kingdome of God is not earthly meate
the length the Lord will take compassion vpon them and call and conuert so many amongst them by the gospel as appartayn to the kingdome of Christ which knoweth who be his sheep and his sheep shall know their shepheard This prophecy is so playn that it needeth no long exposition The Iewes haue now these 1560. yeares since the comming of Iesus of Nazareth which time is those many dayes which the prophet speketh of bin dispersed abroad throughout the whol world and haue neither king nor prince of their own neither yet vntil this day know they Christ the true Messias or king And they are constrayned as afflicted and abiects and miserable men to liue here and there vnder straunge kings throughout the whol world Their temple and altar with their place of sacrifice are destroyed and so continue And they haue neither priest nor true diuine seruice God graunt that they may shortly be plentifully conuerted Amen The word of God can not lye or deceiue vs They shall seek the true God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob the father of our Lord Iesus Christ by Iesus of Nazareth the true Messias And after their long error at the last they shall be conuerted and brought into the way and shall seek after Iesus Christ the true king promised in Moyses and the prophets who was sent at the fulnes of time born of the house of Dauid and is placed at the right hand of the father and equall with him in power They shal also preach and set forth with vs his bounteous grace and liberality which he offereth and geueth vs in the gospel Anna. Hoseas saith that they shall come vnto Dauid in the last day Shall Dauid then rise again before the last day to be king ☞ Vrb. No forsoth You haue heard before in Ezechiel and in the psalme that Christ is called Dauid because he was born of Dauids stocke according to the flesh And he is in deed true Dauid as in this place S. Hierome noteth that is strong of hand For he onely by his own power vertue and strength delyuered his people frō the captiuity of the deuil and so the Iewes themselues vnderstood this prophecy to be meant of Christ the seed of Dauid of which thing their Thargum is witnes in which this text is read thus After this shall the children of Israell be conuerted and seeke the glory of their God and be obedient to Messias the sonne of Dauid that is to Christ their king ¶ Anna. If the matter stand so then truely are not the Iewes quite to be condemned and reiected seeing God hath promysed that he will be so gracious vnto them and conuert so great a number of them ☞ Vrb. I often speake and geue warning of this that christians doe not with such despight vpbrayd despice or spite so proudlye and contemptuouslye at the Iewes but let them call to minde and wey well the warning which S. Paul geueth to the Rom. Hose doth prophecy more of our resurrectiō by messias saying In their affliction they will seek me diligently saying Come and let vs returne to the Lord for he hath spoyled and he will heale vs He hath wounded vs and he will binde vs vp After two dayes will he reuiue vs and in the third day he will rayse vs vp and we shall liue in his sight Then shall we haue knowledge and indeuour our selues to know the lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come vnto vs as the rayn and as the latter rayn vnto the earth which maketh it fruitfull S. Ambrose and other holy doctor of the church doe vnderstand this prophecy to be meant of the resurrection of Christ and of our rising agayne For Messyas rose agayn frō death the third day And whē we haue borne our cros in this frayl and mortall life and are fully mortefyed vnto the world then will he rayse vs vp againe in the day of redemption and we shall euer be and liue with him as Paul saith to the Thessalonians For he is rysen again and hath appeared with the bright morning star as the true sonne of righteousnes which doth illuminate vs and make vs fruitfull with the ferrill rayn of his grace that we may bring forth the fruit of true repentance And Hoseas in his 13. chap prophesyeth very plainly of Christ his victory how that for our sakes profit he hath ouercome sinne death and hel saying I will redeeme thē frō the power of the graue I will delyuer thē from death O death I will be thy death O graue or hell I will be thy destruction This thing Christ fulfilled when for our sakes he died vpon the crosse and gloriously rose againe the 3. day by which he satisfied for our sinnes and ouercame death which had ouerthrowne vs redeemed vs frō the damnation of hel The sin with which mans nature was infected euen vnto euerlasting death was deadly or present poysō but now Christ by his death destroyeth sin and killeth death in which of right we should haue taried for euer Hose also in his 14. chapiter doth very cōfortably prophesy of Christ and his kingdome and telleth vs that in him is grace and forgeuenes of sinns in him is mere loue and fayth in him are true good workes and securitye and in him is great good will toward vs and the bud of God in vs For Iesus Christ is God in deede and our defender saying O Israell returne vnto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquitie Take vnto you wordes and turne to the Lord and say vnto him take away all iniquitie and receaue vs gratiously so will we render the calues of our lips Asshur shall not saue vs neither will we ride vpon horses neither will we say any more to the worke of our hands ye are our Gods for in thee the fatherles findeth mercy I will heare their rebellion I will loue them freely for my anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew vnto Israell he shall grow as the lily and fasten the rootes as the trees of Libanon His braunches shall spread and his beuty shall be as the olyue tree and his smell as Libanon They that dwell vnder his shadow shall returne they shall reuiue as the corne and florish as the vine the sent therof shall be as the wine of Libanon Ephraim shall say what haue I to do any more with Idolls I haue heard him and looked vpon him I am lyke a greene fir tree vpon me is thy fruite found In the beginning of the 14. chapiter Hoseas moneth the Israelites to repētaunce But seing that true repentaunce is the worke of the holy ghost in vs and not of the naturall man the holy ghost at the end addeth these notable promises that Israell by them might be stirred vp to beleue the grace which god promised so receaue the power of the holy ghost that he might obay the
worthy sentence of the gospell of Christ as a forceable and waighty testimony of the righteousnes of fayth saying that it is not any otherwise to be gotten retained but by fayth And therfore Christ reproueth Cleophas and his cōpanyon for that they beleued not the prophets speaking of Messias and so became pensiue and doutfull In lyke manner doth Abacuk also He bouldly and vehemētly threatneth the Iewes captiuitie yet neuerthelesse he sayth that the comming of the promised Messias should not thereby be hindered at all but he should in deede deliuer them according vnto the prophets And he sayth that they which will be partakers of this deliuerance must lay sure hould by fayth vpon the holy promises of Christ of his passion of his resurrection of his ascention But they which wil not beleue shal not be partakers of Christes merites but remaine captiues in their sinnes and dye for euer ☞ Anna. What and when did Zephane prophecy of Christ and his kingdome ¶ Vrba He prophecied in the 19. yeare of that vertuous prince Iosias king of Iuda and he sayth thus in his 3. chapiter Therefore waight ye vpon me sayth the Lord vntill the day that I rise vp to the pray For I am determined to gather the natiōs and I wil assemble the kingdomes to poure vpon them my indignation euen all my fearce wrath for all the earth shall be deuoured with the fire of my ielosy Suerly then will I turne to the people pure language that they may all call vpon the name of the Lord to serue him with one consent from beyond the riuers of Ethiopia the daughter of my disparsed praying vnto me shal bring me an offring In that day shalt not thou be ashamed for all thy workes wherein thou hast transgressed against me For then I will take away out of the middest of thee them that reioyce of thy pride and thou shalt no more be proud of mine holy mountaine Then I will leaue in the middest of thee an humble and poore people and they shall trust in the name of the lord The remnant of Israell shall do no iniquitie nor speake lyes neither shall a deceitfull tongue be found in their mouth For they shall be fed and ly downe and none shall make them affrayd Reioyce O daughter Sion be ye ioyfull O Israell be glad and reioyce withall thine hart O daughter Ierusalem The Lord hath taken away thy iudgementes he hath cast out their enimies the king of Israell euen the Lord is in the middest of thee thou shalt see no more euill In that day shall be sayd to Ierusalem feare thou not O Sion let not thine handes be faint The Lord thy God in the middest of thee is mighty he will saue he will reioyce ouer thee with ioye he wil quiet him selfe in his loue he wil reioyce ouer thee with ioy After a certayne time will I gather the afflicted that were of thee and them that bare the reproch for it Behold at that time I will bruse all that afflict thee and I will saue her that halteth and gather her that was cast out and I will get them prayse and fame in all the landes of their shame At that time will I bring you agayne and then will I gather you for I will geue you a name and a prayse among all people of the earth whē I turn back your captiuitie before your eyes sayth the Lord. Zephany prophecieth vnto the people what punishment should come vpō them for their sin as Ierusalē and Iuda should be destroyed and the people be lead captiues out of their countrye But seeing the prophets were the ministers of Iesus Christ sent for the true Israels sake their manner is alway after threatning and denuntiations to the people of their deserued punishment to comfort the elect by sweet and plentifull promises of their true deliuerer Christ and of his kingdom to the end the godly should not dispayre in their captiuity as though the Lord would for euer be angry and reuoke hys worde of the promised helpe in Messias Seing I say the chief end of the prophets be the promises of Christ which are the true very Gospell it self they alwayes preach Christ And so doth Zachary here in the end cōfort the Iewes least in the captiuitie of Babilon they should faint and doubt of Gods worde And he prophecieth that the Lord will gather them together againe in a mightie hand and that he will send Christ and spread his kingdome through the whole world and exalt his people vnto the highest stage of honor This is the meaning of this prophesye Ye must needes be captiues whether ye will or no but ye must not therefore dispaire waight onely for the Lordes leasure For when time shall be I will not faile you but helpe you I will rise vp and declare my power to the whole world sayth the Lord. First of all he stirred vp the king of Babilon to seaze vpon the countrey and miserably to destroy all thinges that were in it But the Babilonian king was well fauordly and deuly punished plunged and destroyed againe himselfe of the Meades and Persians Thus the Iewes the people of god were spread all abroad throughout the whole world by those wordes the great prayse honor glory of gods name was better knowē to all men so that euery one might euen with his handes feele and much rather know the God of the Hebrewes to be the true and onely God euen vntill the time of grace it selfe came when the father by his son Iesus Christ was euery where truely knowen and glorified in his Gospell This pure language or those pleasant and sweete lips be the preachers of the Gospell which preach vnto vs mere grace in Christ and offer vs and geue vs true deliueraunce in Messias For by these the fayth of Christ entereth into mens hartes that they maye receaue the holy ghost so together with one hart publickly and openly praye vnto Christ and confesse him to be their onely Sauiour and deliuerer For they all haue one doctrine one spirite one fayth and one hope and they beleue in their hartes that God hath raised Christ from death and they cōfesse with their mouthes that God hath made this Iesus Lord of all thinges and annoynted him to be his Christ and by this fayth are they saued and Iustified He prophecieth also of the greatnes and widenes of Christ his kingdome and he speaketh of that mighty kingdome of Ethiopia lying beyond that great and famous floud Nilus to wit that it also shal be brought to the fayth of Christ and shall haue true worshippers who shall call vpō God through Christ their only mediator and shall by the Gospell be brought as a presēt to our God into Sion his holy temple as we read in the Actes of the Ethiopian chamberlin of the Queene of Cande who came to Ierusalē to worship the true god
Then Ierusalem at that time to wit in the time of Christ when the gospell shall be preached through the whole world thou shalt not be confounded or ashamed any more For thy sins through the Gospell shall then be wiped away and thou shalt plentifully receaue the holy spirite of Messias that thou mayest not be defiled againe with so great Idolatrye as thou wast before The proud hauty and swelling pharises with their accōplises and other of such like stampe which are puffed vp with a perswatiō of their owne holines and trust to their owne righteousnes fastings sacrifice circumsitiō almes deeds the workes of the lawe the temple vpon this presumption haue erected a humain holines of their own reiected the deuine grace of god in Christ these pharisaicall fellowes I say can not abide to acknowledge the true righteousnes of God to wit Iesus Christ as sufficient to saluation whome God himselfe hath geuen vs for our righteousnes and who alone and no other is the fulfilling and end of the Law for righteousnes vnto euery one that beleeueth in him But the Lord hath taken away from the true Ierusalem these proud puft vp Iusticiaries which will be saued by their owne workes and looke not for saluation by the meere and free grace of God that the true Christians may know thē to be seducers and take heede of them Now note that the kingdome of Christ is not an earthly but a spirituall kingdome and that the true christifidelians are not proudly prickt vp in the pomp of worldly vanitie neither doth the world greatly regard them and yet are they in great price and highly glorified with God. He calleth faythfull Christians a miserable and pore people They are not in deed in multitude so many as the wicked be and for the most part the world despiseth and reiecteth them in this earth but with God they are in great honor and highly esteemed For by fayth in Christ they are the childrē and heyres of god whose names are written in the heauens The time is not yet come wherein their glory doth appeare now is the time of trouble with them euen vntill the last day that they may by afflictions crosses and persecutions be made lyke their Maister Christ But at the last day Christes kingdome shal be manifested in glory In the meane time they hould them selues contented with Gods word they trust him who hath promised them true and euerlasting lyfe with sure parfite and eternall treasures He calleth faythfull Christians as other prophets do reliques or remnantes for the smalest cōpany of people come vnto Christ euen as the Lord sayth many are called but few are chosen He calleth thē in Luke his little flocke in whome the Lord is so well pleased that he will geue them his kingdome And where he sayth that the chosen remnant will worke no wickednes it is spoken of the Godlines innocencie integritie and simplicitie of the faythfull because they are honest and simple dealers For they haue that true fayth which worketh by loue And although they are not altogether perfect neyther can in all pointes fulfill the law but haue many infirmities so that they must dayly praye our Father which art in heauen forgeue vs our trespasses and so haue their sinnes also by fayth dayly forgeuen them yet by fayth they are in the gratious kingdom of Christ wherein is perpetuall remission of sinnes and a perpetuall exercise vnto repentaunce and Godlines and the remnant of their sinnes which lurke in their flesh are not imputed vnto them to condemnatiō for Christ the king of glory his sake on whome they beleue and continually call It followeth therefore that the remnant of Israell the faythfull Christians shall liue safely and without daunger For the kingdome of Christ is a kingdome of true peace and securitie in which they are so louing as by fayth in their hartes they lay handes on Christ their Lord who hath ouercome the world and Sathā and both can and will dayly helpe all that be his in all their calamities and dangers What then neede they feare haue they not I pray you in him and of him a true shepheard comforter sauiour deliuerer and a full horne of all happines Now he exhorteth Sion to wit the faythfull Christiās to be hartely merry And he prophecieth very cōfortably of the saluation which Christians haue in Christ the Lord of Sion to wit that Christ saueth christians from punishmēt and turneth their enemies frō them but wheras he deliuereth the earthly Ierusalē driueth away their enemies it is a figure but where as he deliuereth the spirituall Ierusalem to wit the faythfull and taketh away the punishment which their sinnes had deserued and satisfieth for their transgretion and ouercommeth the world death and the deuil and turneth away those enemies from vs this is that true deliueraunce and helpe which Sophonias and other Prophets spiritually had respect vnto What can be spoken more comfortably then that God himselfe is the king of Israell and is ready with vs to helpe vs. For God himselfe is made man and dwelleth with vs We are his tabernacle his possession his darling and his people and he him selfe will alwayes continue with vs there is therfore no cause why we should feare any euill or danger Who can hurt them which haue God the Father and which haue God the son with them as their king reconciler deliuerer and the life it selfe and which haue God the holy ghost as their comforter and earnest peny of their euerlasting inheritaunce and saluation For the prophet vseth that great name Iehoua that is God himselfe 3. persons and one god Is not this kingdome of Christ a glorious and princely kingdome are not these treasures which our faythfull God promiseth by his Prophets in Christ great vnspeakeable and infinite treasures He which hath the Lord God the Father the son and the holy Ghost that summum bonum that onely alone and the chief goodnes to be his defender what can he desire more Wherfore Sophoni sayth furthermore at that time that is in the day of saluation when Christ shall come then shall a ioyfull Message be brought vnto Ierusalē the church as the Angell sayd vnto the sheapherds be not affraid let not thy handfast hold goe that is dispaire not beleue still that God will help thee all things shall hap well your case shall be better thē you can either desire or wishe seeing that thy onely God and mighty Sauior is in the middest of thee And that thou mayest the better looke for helpe and all happines of him be assured of this that thou art so derely beloued vnto him that he doth reioyce in thee euen as the tender father doth in his deerely beloued son when he loueth and cherisheth him The prophet cannot sufficiently declare the ioy which god taketh in the congregation of the faythful Christians saying he will saue thee and he
with God true peace securitye euerlasting ioy true life and eternall saluatiō For if the sin of the Gentiles should not be taken away then in deede should neither death nor Sathans tyranny and kingdome be taken away neither could they haue any cōfort or hope But seing that Christ is their hope and comfort and that no vaine comfort for God himselfe speaketh it then surely must all heuines calamities and misery be taken away from the gentiles also which is nothing els but sin euill conscience death and euerlasting damnation And therfore must they also of necessitie rise from death and liue for euer with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen You see by the Epistle of S. Peter that the prophets haue respect vnto the health of the soules and therfore their whole indeuor is to preach true comfort seing the prophecie of Christ who brought vs from sin to righteousnes and innocencye and from death to life euerlasting as we finde he doth in deed Moreouer he hath deserued for vs the comforter the holy Ghost by whome he helpeth and comforteth vs vnder the crosse vntill we be called out of this fraile and miserable life and receaue the promised crowne of glory which in deede we posses in this earth though it be but yet in fayth and hope ¶ Anna. You alwayes haue sayd that Zachary is a prophet full of notable comforts Let vs therfore here what comfort he geueth vs by his promises ☞ Vrba He is in deede a comfortable prophet and the dayes wherein he liued required the same For he prophecied when the Iewes were euen at the point of returning out of the captiuitie of Babilon and when the Citie with the temple should be builded agayne The people at that time were yet faint harted fearefull and doubted that they should not be safe from their enemies and therfore he comforteth them and setteth Christ before their eyes as a louing Sauiour that so they might be of good cheare saying that Christ should spedely come and helpe his seruantes and spread his kingdome through the whole world and therfore was it needefull that Iuda and Ierusalem should be builded againe to the end they might receaue their owne king And the prophet speaketh as followeth Ierusalem shall be inhabited without the walles for the multitude of men and cattell therein For I sayth the Lord will be vnto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midest of her Here he prophesieth of the spirituall Ierusalem to wit the church of Christ for the earthly Ierusalem had hir boundes and walles but the heauenly Ierusalem shal be so wide and large that it can not be compassed with any walles yea it shall be as wide as the world For it is the kingdome of Christ which by little and little without ceasing shall be increased vnto the last day and the true children of Abraham are as the God of Abraham promised euen as the sand of the sea and the starre in the firmament and the promised blessing shall come vpon all nations through the whole world that Christ maye be knowen and worshipped euery where for the true Lord god By the cattell vnderstand weakelinges and such as are ignoraunt in the knowledge of the scriptures and fayth these are led and fed in the pastures of Christ by those which are more strong and firme in fayth But he is a merueilous wall which is all fiery truly the Church of Christ in this place hath so great and comfortable a promise of Gods helpe as you shall scarsely finde in any other place of the scriptures For I wil be saith the Lord a wall of fire round about hir the Church of Christ You see that he speaketh here of the heauenly Citye wherein God himselfe will be the watchman keper wall defēder if their God be thus present with vs we haue iust cause to reioyce in the Lord seeing that wheresoeuer God himselfe watcheth defendeth and fighteth for vs there are we safe out of daunger of this world and Sathan and neede not feare them To be breefe the great humilititie of Christ Iesus in that he vouchsafed to become man being the true son of God and the sending of the holy ghost the true teacher of holsome doctrine in the Church of God whereby the church is still houlden and preserued in truth that it may stedfastly cleaue to God where as otherwise the whole world is blinded with errors caried away with lyes and miserably deceaueth it selfe these I say do sufficiētly declare how gloriously the Lord hath shewted himselfe in this spirituall Ierusalem Sathan the world and heretickes do not cease nor sleepe but bend themselues in all they may yea they striue with hand and foote to destroy Christ his church But although according to the flesh it be weake yet neuerthelesse it standeth and getteth the victory ouer all hir enemies So plentifully doth the Lord declare his glory in his spirituall citye the Church In the wordes following he setteth forth the helpe and comfort which we shall haue in Christ his kingdome saying He which toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye How I pray you could a most louing and tender father speak more louingly or sweetely euen to his darling and derely beloued son if the Lord looke carefully to vs as men vse to looke to the apple of their eyes then surely can no hurt happen vnto vs in the kingdome of Christe neither neede we to feare any daunger A little after Zachary comforteth such Christiās as are vnder the crosse and by reason of the weakenes of the flesh are in feare and trouble euen as the Iewes were at that time saying Reioyce and be glad O daughter Sion for I come and will dwell in the middest of thee sayth the Lord and many nations shall be ioyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the middest of thee and thou shalt know the Lord of hostes hath sent me vnto the. And the Lord shall inherit Iuda his portiō in the holy land and shall chuse Ierusalem agayne Let all flesh be still before the Lord for he is raised vp out of his holy place That is to say O Sion although thou be afflicted here in the earth yet be of good chere because thou shalt cōtinew For I my selfe do come and abide with thee Was not this fulfilled when god became man and at this day wheresoeuer Gods word is receaued there doth God dwell and that is the true Sion as Christ sayth in Iohn He that loueth mee keepeth my commaundementes and my Father will loue him and we will come vnto him and will dwell with him Surely this is the spirituall kingdome wherein god dwelleth with vs by the gospel and by fayth which the holy ghost worketh in vs as S. Paul sayth to the Ephe Christ dwelleth in our hartes by fayth And Esay telleth vs where God
lord Paul when he conuerted the gentiles vnto the fayth of Christ calleth that his labor the oblation of the Gentiles made acceptable and sanctified by the holy ghost Here we plainely see that the kingdome of Christ is a spirituall kingdome and that it is had vnder the cros For all they which are in that kingdome are priestes and offer vp sacrifice and therefore it is a priestly kingdome which is here in the world proued by affliction You haue not here any word or mention of an earthly dominion maiesty or pomp but you heare mention made of a kingdome which consisteth in spirite and fayth Iudah and Ierusalem to wit the Church of Christ offer vp in the tyme of Messias an excellent sacrifice vnto the Lord such as were the sacrifices of Abell Abraham Isaak and Iacob which were offered vp long before that Messias had receaued the law and ceremonies and brought to the Iewes ¶ Anna. What made the sacrifices in times past acceptable vnto the Lord ¶ Vrba Faith in Christ made them acceptable for the patriarks by fayth looked steadfastly for the promised blessings and grace of God in Messias And they offered vp yerely sacrifice honored God and gaue hym thanks with lowly and Christian harts for hys grace promised by this faith as Paul witnesseth to the Hebr. Because it is vnpossible to please God without fayth And Paul in that chapter reckneth vp also those holy Patriarch and fathers and sayth that their works pleased the Lord by faith And he speaketh of the faith in Christ which is a certaine and vndowted perswasion trust of gods grace towards vs in Christ The Lord vouchsafeth not to receaue any to grace but for Christ and in Christ Wherfore there is no other fayth that is true fayth but the fayth that is in Christ And the elect which were before the natiuity of Christ had this fayth as well as we haue it now and they were as good Christians as the Apostles and we are For there is but one gospel and one faith which saueth There is none saued vnles he be a Christifidelian that is vnles be beleue in Christ Mala. prophesieth in his 4. chap. of the ltater comming of christ vnto iudgmēt what should be the state of things in the last day and what shall be the portiō and end both of the godly and vngodly saying For behold the day commeth that shall burne as an ouen and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shal be stouble and the day that commeth shal burn them vp sayth the Lord of hostes and shal leaue thē neyther root nor branch but vnto you that heare my name shall the sonne of righteousnes arise and health shal be vnder his wings and ye shall go forth and grow as fat calues and ye shall tread down the wicked for they shal be dust vnder the soole of your feet in that day that I shall do this sayth the Lord of hosts Remember the law of Moyses my seruaunt which I commaunded vnto hym in Horeb for all Israell with the statute and iudgments Behold I will send you Eliah the prophet before the comming of the great and fearfull day of the Lord and he shall turn the harts of the fathers vnto the children and the hartes of children to their fathers least I come and smite the earth with cursinges The day wherof Mala. speaketh here is that great day of our Lord Iesus Christ as Paul calleth it at which day Christ shall come in his maiestie with all the celestiall army to iudge the quick the dead as Peter sayth He shall come with fier and iudge the world Then the vngodly which haue not beleued the gospel but still continued in their sinnes shall be lyke strawe and the fier after the iudgement of condemnation shall compasse the wicked about and carry then away with it from the face of the earth out of Gods sight into hel into euerlasting fier which is ordayned for Sathā and his angels and the vnbeleuers as the psalme sayth Fier shall go before the Lord and Christ shall burne his enemies round about And this shall as surely come to passe as those thinges haue done which are written of Christ to wit that is borne dead risen agayne and sitteth at right hand of God and hath gathered together the Iewes and Gentiles vnto his sheepfould And then he saith The Lord of hosts the God omnipotent hath sayd it he surely can not deceaue or lye And although the wicked in this earth despise the Lord and his people are so puffed vp with pride and disdaine that they thinke the godly not onely not worthy to be spoken to but also vex and greatly iniury thē and so standing on their pantophles as if all the world were their own liue as they would for euer inioy these worldly pleasures and heare alwayes make mery yet shall they in the day of the Lord be confounded and so they and all theirs vanish away that they shall haue nothing at all left them All their temporall wealth pleasures ioy and euen their lyues also shal be taken from them And they shal neuer see those eternal treasures which they neglected and despised here vpon earth To be short they shal be rooted out from of this earth and cast into euerlasting torment And this doth Mala. signifie vnto vs where he saith the Lord God will leaue thē neither root nor brāch That is he will condemne them both body and soule and cast them for euer into euerlasting darcknes so that they shall neuer enioy nor look for either temporal or eternall life at the Lords hands for they shall be dealt with as Trees when we will vtterly destroy and root them out for then we do not only pull away a few bowes and lop it vnto the bole but we dig him vp by the root that it neuer spring any more But the state of the godly which shal haue feared the name of the Lord and beleued that after this temporall life they shal haue a better life and that Christ will at the last day surely iudge and geue vnto euery one according to that hee hath done shall be much better And therfore doe they in this life feare God as a iust iudge who will take accompt of euery idle word in the last day of iudgmēt and they loue him as a good father of whom they hope and assure them selues to receaue all good things euen as naturall Childrē seeing they haue here by patience in well doing sought that euerlasting life which the Lord hath promised them in Christ And therefore shall they receaue glory honor and immortality Whiche thing Mala. meaneth when he saith vnto them that feare the Lord shal the son of righteousnes arise That son is Iesus Christ he lightneth vs with true knowledge both of God and of our selues he onely by the beames of of fayth iustifieth vs for he
is the most splendent and bright son of all innocency and righteousnes in whom is neither blott cloud nor spot of sin He onely kindleth maketh warm our cold harts with the beames of his spirit he fructifieth our dry and parched ground that we may bring forth vnto him the fruits of righteousnes for without him we can do nothing that is good When this sun shal rise in his perfect brightnes thē shall it bring to vs that bright and wished day of liuely eternity and it shall shine vnto vs for euer and shall neuer go from vs Vnder the winges of this son is lyfe and health the Hebrew word in this place is maruell comming of this worde Ropho which signifieth to heale or medesine Note therfore that we are dāgerously and deadly sick For sinne hath destroyed and infected both our body and soule with deadly poyson The soule is full of sinne the body also is all sinfull and mortall so that of necessitie we had died for euer if the Lord had entered into Iudgement with vs but he gaue vs Christ the Phisition of our wounded and deadly sicke nature to deliuer mans nature from all sicknes and to restore vs both body and soule to perfect health He which calleth vpon this Phisition and beleueth in him shall be lightened and clerely deliuered both in body and soule from all sinne and euill which sin brought with it into the world the soule shal be clensed frō the staines of sin and frō euill thoughtes naughty lustes and vngodly desiers and the body shal be deliuered from mortalitie and corruption For this phisition is the Lord himselfe who for this cause onely tooke vpon him our nature that he might in vs make it altogether cleane innocent immortal and pure and saue it Whereupon the prophet sayth Health is vnder his winges For he which flieth to be vnder the winges of this son and seeketh health and saluatiō at his hāds is saued In deed these wordes are figuratiue but they meane nothing els but that which the Euangelistes and Apostles speake in plaine wordes to wit that he which beleueth in Christ shall be saued and haue euerlasting lyfe But if he which beleeueth in Christ hath euerlasting life surely he hath also true and euerlasting health For he which abideth in his sinns abideth in a most dangerous disease dieth an euerlasting death For the wrath of God abideth on him But he which layeth hold on Christ as one the true phisition by fayth he obtaineth euerlasting health both of body and soule Christ verely cōpareth himselfe to a phisition in Math. saying that he came vnto the sicke men as the phisition to the sick and he mightely shewed and exercised this art in this earth all the time of his pilgrimage when he healed and restored not onely the soules frō sinne and the bodies from all kinde of sicknes and diseases but raised them vp euen from the dead ¶ Anna. What meaneth Malachy in that he saith you shall goe forth and grow vp as fat calues or you shall goe forth and daunce or leape and come in like a fatted calfe ☞ Vrb. This is a figuratiue kind of speech spoken of the godly to whom the word of God is a most pleasant pasture for it shall goe wel with them in the last day For then shall they be free and safe from all euill sinne lust feare heauines and persecution Wherupon Paul calleth the last day the day of redemption And Christ in Luke exhorteth the godly to lift vp their heads when the day of the Lord draweth nye because then their redemption also is at hand Then shall that last enemy of the godly to wit death be destroyed and mortality shal be swallowed vp in the life of Christ Then shall they all haue lyberty and ability to be alwayes with Christ without any impedimēt of the body Now the body is slothful loytering and weake but at the last day it shal be as cleere as the sun immortall elegant strong puissant liuely suttle neate pure spirituall and nimble and haue eternall health For they are saued both in body and soul as our creed doth teach vs I beleeue the rising again of the flesh which with the soule must be glorifyed and haue euerlasting life The vngodly here in this earth doe miserably kick treade vpon afflict iniury and mock the godly and count thē as ofscourings of the earth nay they iudge them to be most wicked men of all and euen sacrifices for sinnes For the elect shall haue tribulation euen vnto the last day but when Christ the sonne of righteousnes shall come down from heauen to seperate chaffe from wheat to wit his seruants from the wicked then shall there be an alteration of all things then shal the pompe brauery and glory of this world with all the foolish confidence therof fail and fall Then shall the wicked be tumbled down from their honor and be for euer vtterly shamed and be made our footstole Then shall they be broaken and troaden down and be contemned for euer and be more filthy and vile then the durt in the streetes For he which here suffereth with Christ shall in the world to come be glorifyed and raign with Christ for euer But he which here beleueth not the gospell in this life and is not like to Christ our head in the crosse he at the last iudgement shall be condemned vnto horrible and euerlasting death lamentations calamities and miseries with all the deuils in hell And this shall the Lord of Zebooth or the Lord of hostes doe He shall bring that day vpon the world when it shall liue most securely and vnto his that is vnto the Christifidelians he shal geue that kingdome of glory which by the prophets and euangelistes he hath promised them In the wordes following he exhorteth the people that they call to mind the law of Moyses as if he had sayd the time of Messias is not far of it is euen now at hand Beware and watch that ye despice not the day of your visitation that when the Lord commeth you be not offended at him Moyses hath foretold you in Deuter. that the Lord wil rayse vp vnto you a prophet of your bretheren like vnto him to Moyses that is one which is true man as Moyses was he shall teach by the commaundementes of God and the Lord will punish him which will not heare him For Moyses saith that God will require it of them that is they which wil not beleue the gospell of Messias shal at the last day geue account vnto the lord and for their vnbeleefe they shall be iudged in the Lords anger If the Iewes had obayed this admonition and more diligently sought Christ in Moyses if they had learned better to know his person and office seeing Moyses speaketh so plainly of Christ then had they not so wickedly and cursedly despysed that day of their visitation but would haue imbraced Christ