Moses in those men which were excluded by oath from the land of Canaan Num. 14.20 21 22 23. And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word But as truely as I live all the earth shall bee filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seene my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have tempted mee now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it All these which were all the Males of Israel above twenty yeares of age save Caleb Ioshua and Moses who was in part involved in this sentence did beare a true type or shadow of those who offending in like manner against Christ and his Gospel we call Reprobates yet not so true types of such a sinne against the holy Ghost as those which went to search the land of Canaan And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmure against him by bringing up a slander upon she land Even those men that did bring up the evill report upon the land after they had seene the goodlinesse and tasted the pleasant fruits of it died of the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the sonne of Nun and Caleb the sonne of Jephunneh which were of the men that went to search the land lived still and many happy dayes after that time Numb 14.36 37 38. 6. Very probable it is though I will not determine pro or con that the irremissible sinne whereof our Saviour and S. Paul speake for which there remaineth no satisfaction was if dot peculiar yet Epidemicall unto those primitive times wherein the kingdom of heaven was first planted here on earth by our Saviour and the holy Catholike Church was in erection by the ministery of the Apostles or in times wherein the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit were most plentifull and most conspicuous Even in those times into this wofull estate none could fall which had not tasted of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come and had not beene partakers of the holy Ghost Nor did such men fall away by ordinary sinnes but by relaps into Iewish blasphemy or heathenish Idolatry and malicious slander of the kingdom of heaven of whose power they had tasted God was good to all his creatures in their creation and better to men in their redemption by Christ of this later goodnesse all men werein some degree partakers The contempt or neglect of this goodnesse was not irremissible the parties thus farre offending and no further were not excluded from the benefit of Christs satisfaction or from renewing by repentance but of the gifts of the Spirit which was plentifully poured out after our Saviours ascension all were not partakers This was a speciall favour or peculiar goodnesse whose continued contempt or solemne abrenuntiation by relapse either into heathenisme or Jewish blasphemy was unpardonable not in that it was a sinne peculiarly committed against the person of the holy Ghost but because it did include an extraordinary opposition unto the indispensable law of justice or goodnesse which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are 7. Some sinnes then there be or some measure of them which being made up no satisfaction will be accepted for them It is impossible according to the sacred phrase that the parties thus delinquent should bee renewed by repentance But whether according to this dialect of the holy Ghost that grand sinne whereof our Saviour and the Apostle speakes be absolutely irremissible untill death hath determined their impenitency which committed it or onely exceeding dangerous in comparison of other sinnes I will not here dispute much lesse dare I take upon me to determine either branch of the maine question proposed As whether satisfaction were absolutely necessary for remitting the sinnes of our first Parents or their seed Or whether the Son of God could have brought us sinners unto glory by any other way or meanes than that which is revealed unto us in his Gospel It shall suffice me and so I request the Reader it may doe him to shew that this revealed way is the most admirable for the sweet concurrence of Wisdome Justice Mercy and whatsoever other branches of goodnesse else bee which the heart of man can conceive more admirable by much than wisdome finite could have contrived or our miserable condition desired unlesse it had been revealed unto us by God himselfe 8. For demonstration of this conclusion and for deterring all which pretend unto the priviledge or dignity of being the Sonnes of God from continuance in sinne no principle of faith or passage in the sacred Canon can bee of better use then that 1. Ioh. 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devill for the Devill sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the works of the Devill However the words which severall translations doe render one and the same word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee of different signification in point of Grammar yet is there no contradiction betwixt them upon the matter Our later English which I alledged readeth that he might destroy the former that hee might dissolve the works of the Devill Neither of them much amisse and both of them put together or mutually helping one another exceeding well Some works of the Devill the Sonne of God is said more properly to dissolve others more properly to destroy Sinne it selfe as the Apostle tells us is the proper worke of the Devill his perpetuall worke for he sinneth from the beginning And for this cause the man that committeth sinne is of the Devill the Devills workman or day labourer so long as hee continues in knowne sinnes Sinne the best of men dayly doe But it is one thing to sinne and doe a sinfull Act another to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phrase used by our Apostle a worker or doer of evill operarius iniquitatis Such workmen the sonnes of God or servants of Christ cannot be at lest so long as they continue sonnes or servants The points most questionable in those forecited words of S. Iohn now to bee discussed in this preamble to the manner how the Son of God did dissolve or destroy the works of the Devill are two The first from what beginning the Devill is said to sinne or to continue in sinne The second what speciall workes of the Devill they were which the Sonne of God did or doth undoe or for whose dissolution or destruction hee was manifested in our flesh CHAP. IV. From what beginning the Divell is said by S. John to sinne Whether sinne consist in meere privation or have a positive entity or a cause truely efficient not deficient onely 1 THe word Beginning is some times taken universally and absolutely
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknowne sufferings Such I take it as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come in which the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible for this being granted the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste a draught of the second death unto which no man is subject before he die the first death nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living or after death This error it seemes hath surprized some otherwaies good Divines through incogitancie or want of skill in Philosophie For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy the nature quality or measure of paines must bee taken not so much from the force or violence of the Agent as from the condition or temper of the Patient Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead nor the same upon greene wood which it hath on dry Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body and of strong bones and another sickly crasie or wounded the paines though issuing from the equality of the blowes would be most unequall That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all might drive the other into the very pangs of death Goliath did looke as big did speake as roughly and every way behave himselfe as sternly against little David as hee had against Saul and the whole hoast of Israel Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible did make no such impression of terrour upon David as it had done upon Saul and the stoutest Champions in his hoast And the reason why it did not was because David was armed with the shield of faith and confidence in the Lord his God a secret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides But a farre greater then Goliath associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast both for number and strength than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make more maliciously bent against the whole race of Adam than the Philistines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham was now in field And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre greater than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us For if all mankinde from the East unto the West which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time or shall continue unto all future generations had been then mustred together all of us would have fled more swiftly and more confusedly from the sight or presence of this great Champion for the powers of darknesse than the hoast of Israel did from the Champion of the Philistines when hee bid a defiance unto them All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter been committed alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath No If wee stretch the similitude thus farre wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse whether in the garden or upon the Crosse was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath or Israel over the Philistines David was Master of the field sine sanguine sudore multo without blood or much sweat The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods people had suffered As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But all this and much more being granted will not inferre that he suffered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines poenas infernales aut poenas inferorum such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could against the promised womans seed that is the manhood of the Sonne of God yet seeing as the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne not imputed but inherent it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule in whom there was neither seed nor relique neither root or branch of sinne Or againe admit hell fire whether materiall or immateriall be of a more violent and malignant quality than any materiall fire which we know in what subject soever it bee seated is and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture which they are enabled or permitted to use yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body whereon this fire could feed no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish or such as the damned suffer For these are supernaturall or more than so not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them but in respect of the Subject which endures them Satan findes alwayes some thing in them which he armes against them some inherent internall corruption which hee exasperates to greater malignity than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him 4. In respect of Divine justice or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan and vanquish him by suffering evills even all the evills incident to our mortall nature There was no necessity no congruity that the Sonne of God should vanquish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments These properly taken or when they are suffered in
the other Evangelists as unto S. Luke they make their expressions in the plurall It is a generall rule worthy of every Commentators actuall consideration that albeit every Evangelist relate nothing but the truth yet no one of them relates the whole truth concerning our Saviours life and actions his death and passion nor doe they alwayes observe the order and method of all circumstances or occurrences as will appeare hereafter The maner of our Saviours comming to Jerusalem might bee and no doubt was more distinctly represented to the Disciples senses than it had been to the Prophet Zachariahs spirit For lumen propheticum erat aliqualiter aenigmaticum the light of prophecy was not alwayes distinctly evident but indefinitely And this might bee the reason why the Prophet foretells that our Saviour should come riding both upon the Asse and the Colt when as three Evangelists mention onely the Colt And albeit S. Matthew mention both yet it may bee replied that hee historically in that passage avoucheth nothing of his owne observation but onely relateth the Prophets words which hee saw now fulfilled although our Saviour had rid onely upon the Asse or upon the Colt 3. But however the Prophets words in themselves considered or compared onely with the historicall narrations of their fulfilling as they are extant by S. Mark S. Luke and S. Iohn may admit the presumed Synecdoche or plurall expression in steed of the singular ye◠to my understanding or observation none of these three Evangelists affirmative for Christs riding upon the Colt or foale of the Asse is so exclusive as S. Matthews relation of the same story is inclusive Nor is S. Ieroms Maldonat's or others inference from the expression of these three Evangelists so concludent that hee rode upon the Colt alone as the inference which may bee drawen from S. Matthews relation that he rode upon both Yee shall finde an Asse tied and a Colt with her loose them and bring them unto me And if any man shall say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway hee will send them Hee further addes All this was done that is might bee fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Tell yee the daughter c. All the other three Evangelists affirmatives wil not inferre this negative that our Saviour did not ride upon the Asse at all The historicall literall or legall tenour of our Saviours Commission directed or given to his two Disciples whom hee authorized to take them imply that hee had instant use of both though more speciall or permanent use of the Colt or foale And the execution of this Commission necessarily inferres as much And the Disciples went and did as Iesus had commanded them And brought the Asse and the Colt and put on them their clothes and they set him thereon or as the Originall hath it upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 21.6 7. His dismission of the Damme upon some short triall and longer use of the young one as sundry of the Ancient with good Moderne Interpreters observe did admirably prefigure the instant rejection of the Jews and the speedy admission of the Gentiles here promised The Gentile though never accustomed to the yoke of Mosaicall Lawes by whose rites the anointing and consecration the comming of this great King was foreshadowed did beyond expectation willingly submit himselfe unto the Gospel or Kingdome of heaven here on earth as the yong Colt which never had been backt before this time did gently beare our Saviour notwithstanding all the noise and cry which had been made by the promiscuous multitude When as the Jew resembled or typified by the old Asse which had been used to the yoke and saddle became as it is probable shee did resty and skittish ready to kick and spurn and endeavouring to throw her Rider And in type or prognostick of this mysticall truth it is not improbable that our Saviour relinquisht the Asse after hee had assayed her and tooke her Colt and rode on him into Jerusalem though no man had sat upon him before 4. However the fulfilling of the later part of this Prophecy whether it was fulfilled by Synecdoche or in the plaine literall and legall construction of the Prophets words was most cleare and evident unto the Apostles and Disciples senses But whether the former part of this Prophecie concerning the titles of this King was so clearely fulfilled admitteth some question which cannot be determined without further discussion of the grammaticall sense or Propheticall importance of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The best and choisest Translations vary much partly about the signification partly about the pointing of these words And no Interpreter which I have read though I have consulted many doth give mee any tolerable satisfaction for their Emphaticall or Propheticall importance save one or two I shall for this reason crave pardon with humble submission of my opinion unto the judgement of the learned to proffer more variety of Translations and Interpretations then I have been accustomed unto the Readers choise The vulgar Latin renders it thus Ecce Rex tuus veniet tibi justus salvator ipse pauper c. Behold thy King commeth a just King and a Saviour hee is poore c. referring the Hebrew pronoune to pauper Iunius accords in part with the vulgar Iustus salute praeditus with whom our later English accords save onely that it referres the pronoune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto justus salvator hee is just and having salvation whereas Iunius altogether omits the expression of it and the vulgar referres it to that which followeth hee is poore he is lowly or meek The Translator of the Kings Bible referres it unto justus Iustus ille salvator that Iust and Saviour Arius Montanus in his Interlineary referres the same pronoune unto the first clause Iustus c. But whereas others reade Salvator ille hee hath it Salvatus ipse So doth our former English hee is just and saved himselfe But Cramerus the Lutheran ut Hunnii discipulum agnoscas chargeth that Translation which our former English followes as his Master Hunnius had Calvin in many others with Judaizing at least for giving advantage to the captious Jew For what argument can it be either of glory to a great King or of joy unto Subjects to foretell that he himselfe should bee servatus or salvatus This expression implies danger unto himselfe more directly then saving health unto others it supposeth perill or hazard antecedent but doth not necessarily argue victory for the consequent And yet the words in the Originall are formally passive But Cramerus with some others would out of the grammaticall rudiments which they had learned instruct us that Verbs of this forme or conjugation sometimes admit a signification meerely active otherwhiles neither meerely active or passive but reciprocall as the Septuagint renders this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saving himselfe So doth our later English in the
that grand mystery which this strange temporall healing did prefigure and that was the future cure of our Soules our deliverance from the tyranny of the old Serpent by the Sonne of God becomming the Sonne of man and vouchsafing to bee lift up from the earth upon the Crosse For it was requisit that upon them exercising tyranny should come penury which they could not avoid but to these it should onely be shewed how their Enemies were tormented For when the horrible fiercenesse of beasts came upon these and they perished with the stings of crooked Serpents thy wrath endured not for ever But they were troubled for a small season that they might bee admonished having a signe of salvation to put them in remembrance of the commandment of thy Law For hee that turned himself toward it was not healed by the thing which hee saw but by thee which art the Saviour of all Wisd 16.4 5 6 7. 3. Shall wee say then that the brazen Serpent was a true picture or type of Christ So many have from the forecited place of S. Iohn concluded and of these many not a few have sought out divers properties of brasse and of Serpents more then accurate naturalists before had knowne to salve up the apparant incongruity betwixt the picture and the body which they would have it to represent But when they have said all they can or others more then they could for them the congruity will bee no better then si gryphes jungantur equis For what correspondencie or conveniency can there bee betweene the Serpent and the womans seed Shall we attempt to foreshadow light by darknesse or make a league betwixt Christ and Beliall All that which our Saviours exposition upon Moses his fact will concludently inferre is briefly this that the mystery of his suffering upon the Crosse was prefigured by the erection of the brazen Serpent and by the comfort which the wounded Israelites found by looking upon it 4. Ahitophels treachery against his Master David did truely foreshadow the betraying of Davids Lord by Iudas yet no man will hence conclude that Ahitophel was a type of Christ or of his death but rather of Iudas and his fearefull end Nor was the brazen Serpent any other wayes a type of Christs person then Ahitophel was that is no type at all yet a more excellent type of that old Serpent whom the womans seed was to vanquish then Ahitophel was of Iudas And the erection of this Serpent upon a pole or tree was a prophecie or speaking picture that the victory of the womans seed or Sonne of God over Satan should be accomplisht upon the Crosse This Interpretation I learne from our Saviour himself Iohn 12.31 Now is the judgement of this world now shall the prince of this world bee cast out Now that is when the Sonne of man shall bee lift up The Crosse then was the scene or stage wherein the long duell was to bee determined and the destruction of the old fiery Serpent upon the stage was excellently foreshadowed by the lifting up of the brazen Serpent in the wildernesse which questionlesse did better represent a dead wounded or bruised Serpent then a live or active one This interpretation or display of that sacred Embleme is most consonant to the historicall circumstances and occasions which Moses had to make and set up the brazen Serpent upon a pole to the view of all the people God from the fall of our first Parents did by way of punishment as well upon the woman and her seed as upon the Serpent and his seed which had seduced her denounce a perpetuall enmity betweene them Now albeit this enmity did principally consist between the womans seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is our Saviour and the old Serpent that is the Devill and their followers Yet this spirituall enmitie was visibly represented to the world by that antipathy which in course of nature is usually experienced betweene men and bodily Serpents And this enmity specially on the Serpents part was never more remarkable then in the wildernesse when the murmuring Israelites did tempt the Lord their God after the same manner as the first woman had done that is by lusting after meats for that time and place forbidden by loathing Manna and heavenly food which God had plentifully provided for them And they departed from the mount Hor by the way of the red Sea to compasse the land of Edom and the people were sore greeved because of the way And the people spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have yee brought us out of Aegypt to die in the wildernesse for here is neither bread nor water and our soule loatheth this light bread Wherefore the Lord sent fiery Serpents among the people which stang the people so that many of the children of Israel died Therefore the people came to Moses and said Wee have sinned for wee have spoken against the Lord and against thee pray unto the Lord that hee take away the Serpents from us And Moses prayed for the people And the Lord said unto Moses Make thee a fiery Serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to passe that every one that is bitten when hee looketh upon it shall live And Moses made a Serpent of brasse and put it upon a pole and it came to passe if a Serpent had bitten any man when hee beheld the Serpent of brasse hee lived Num. 21.4 5 6 7 8 c. 5. The importance or implication of the historie is that as God had now brought that curse upon them which had been denounced against the womans seed from her first sinne so in case they would not tempt the Lord their God by renewing their first Parents sinne they should in good time see the curse denounced against the old Serpent that is the crushing of his head as exactly fulfilled as the punishment upon the womans seed had beene by the fiery Serpents in biting their heeles That the same Lord who had now saved them from the poison of these lesser bodily Serpents would in his good time deprive the old Serpent of his deadly sting and destroy death it self by dying upon the Crosse The experience of woes or calamities threatned against disobedience is usually given by Gods Prophets as a pledge or earnest for the accomplishment of the good things which he hath promised to the penitent 6. That which specially did first perswade me thus to display the Embleme of the brazen Serpent was the demolition of it by good Hezekiah who questionlesse would never have done to it as he did had hee knowen or taken it to have been the type or figure of his expected Redeemer rather then of his Enemy The good King by this zealous fact did foreshadow the future accomplishment of that grand mystery which the erection of the brazen Serpent was appointed to represent to wit the dissolution of the old Serpents Kingdome over this world The adoration of this Serpent whilst
it stood uncrusht was not onely an abuse of things indifferent but the most preposterous idolatry which this rebellious stiffenecked people did at any time practice For in worshipping it they did worship him whose quality and person it did represent And for this reason Hezekiah was moved with greater indignation against it then against any other idoll statue or reliques of idolatry which came in his way Hee took away the high places and brake the images and cut downe the groves and brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made for unto those dayes the children of Israel did burne incense unto it and he called it Nehushtan 2. Kings 18.4 5. A name questionlesse implying much more then the meere grammaticall expression which most Interpreters use imports Nor had this good Kings words or fact beene worth the registring if hee had onely called a brazen Serpent broken to pieces a piece of brasse But the full importance of this word as of many others in the originall whether in the Greek or Hebrew will not be easily found in ordinary Lexicons or Nomenclators Every good Interpreter should have a Lexicon either of his owne or others gathering peculiar unto Divinity specially for words used in a technicall Emblematicall or proverbiall sense However Nechosheth signifies no more ordinarily then brasse Yet Nehushtan in this Emblematicall speech or fact of Hezekiah as I should ghesse imports no lesse then our English foule feend the old Dragon or Satanas As these Idolaters in Hezekiahs time did adore the picture or type of the old Serpent so this last generation having forsaken the God of their Fathers did chuse Barabbas the sonne of the Serpent and renounced the Sonne of God for being their Lord and so make up the full measure of their forefathers iniquity and brought a greater plague upon their posterity then any which did befall their Ancestors in the wildernesse whether by the biting of Serpents or other of Gods judgements or punishments 7. To this effect I took occasion to expound this fact of Hezekiah obiter and upon another text in a learned audience many years now agoe without the tax of any as farre as I could heare and with better approbation of some then present then I expected because the exposition was new and uncouth And yet as I have found since conceived before by a learned man though no profest Divine But as the proverb is by-standers sometimes see more then they who play the game And I must freely confesse that for the explication of many places in Scripture I have learned more or been better confirmed in mine opinions by the Lawyers then by the profest Divines of the French Nation one or two excepted The man to whom I am in this particular beholden is Hotman And that which in his history deserves to be had in speciall memory he demolished cast down the brazen Serpent which Moses by Gods command had set up in the Desert that such as were slung by the biting of Serpents might be healed by looking thereon when hee perceived the superstitiously-bent people thereunto idolatrously to attribute Divine honor For there was not in that Image any Divine efficacy but this being the time of Infancy of Gods worship Moses the Schoolmaster of the Hebrews by this Image did prefigure Christs triumph over the conquered Serpent when by the name of Serpent as is said at the beginning he intimated the subtill enemy of Mankind Quodque in ipsius historia singulari memoriâ dignum est serpentem aeneum quem Dei monitu Moses in solitudine statuerat ut qui serpentum morsu ulcerati essent eo conspecto sanarentur excîdit atque disjecit cùm animadvertisset populum superstitione imbutum divinos statuae honores tribuere Non enim ei simulachro vis ulla divinitus inerat sed cum haec divinae religionis esset pueritia Moses hebraeae gentis paedagogus eo simulachro futurum Christi de Serpente devicto trophaeū designabat cum serpentis nomine callidū ut à principio dictum est humani generis hostem significaret Hotman in consolatione è sacris literis petitâ de factis Ezechiae pag. 128. CHAP. XXXII That the Sonne of God should suffer without the gates of Ierusalem prefigured by the sacrifice of the Atonement 1 BUt before Gods people could be capable of this cure of their soules by looking upon him who did vanquish the old Serpent or before he came to be the Author of so great salvation he was to make full satisfaction for their sins whose waight had otherwayes pressed all Mankinde down to hell This full reconciliation or atonement betwixt the just unpartial Judge and sinfull men was made upon the crosse But some will demand in what part of Moses writings this was foretold or prefigured It was most exquisitely foretold and prefigured partly in the alienation of the primacy from the moneth Tisri unto the moneth Abib Untill the law was given Tisri had absolute precedency being the moneth wherein according to all probability the world was created But upon the deliverance of Abrahams seed from the tyranny of Egypt the moneth Abib by Gods speciall command had both precedency and preeminency Yet not absolute precedency but precedency in respect of that which was more preeminent to wit for the Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall account as for their accounts temporall September or Tisri did still retaine precedency And for this reason I take it our Saviour was first proclaimed the Messias by Iohn Baptist in the moneth Tisri but afterwards declared to be the Sonne of God by his resurrection from the dead in the moneth Abib At his Baptisme he had fulfilled one part of the mystery prefigured in the legall feast of atonement which was celebrated upon the tenth day of the moneth Tisri In his sufferings upon Mount Calvary he did fully accomplish that which was prefigured by the legall sacrifices in the day of Atonement and that which was inchoated by himselfe at the day of his Baptisme At his Baptisme he fulfilled the mystery of the scape goate bearing these peoples sinnes into the wildernesse and there vanquished the great Tempter who had first vanquished them and their forefathers At the feast of the Passeover in the moneth Abib he accomplished the mystery prefigured by the other goat whose blood was brought by the high Priest into the Sanctuary Thus much we learne from our Apostle Hebr. 13.10 c. Wee have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve the Tabernacle For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sinne are burnt without the camp Wherefore Iesus 2also that he might sanctifie the people with his owne blood suffered without the gate Let us goe forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach The true meaning or purport of this passage and the connexion of it with the former the Reader shall finde more at large in a
importance of the word Ecce in this place as in many others is the present exhibition of that which was promised or portended The mystery foreshadowed or portended by the anniversary sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb by the daily morning and evening sacrifices by those sacrifices of the Atonement whose blood was brought by the high Priest unto the Sanctuary was in brief this that all these rites or solemnities should expire upon the death or sacrifice of the true Lamb of God and thus much and more is sealed unto us by that speech of our Saviour a little before his death Consummatum est All is finished Iohn 19.30 Now the rending of the vaile immediately after our Saviour had commended his Spirit into his Fathers hands did betoken that now and not before the entrance or passage into that most holy place which was prefigured by the materiall Sanctum Sanctorum was set open not to Priests onely but to all true beleevers That the coelestiall Sanctuary whether that be coelum empyr aeum the seat of our future blisse or some other place was now instantly to be hallowed or consecrated by the blood of the high Priest himself as the terrene Tabernacle or Sanctuary was by the legal high Priest with the blood of bullocks or goats c. 5. Whithersoever the soule of this our high Priest went that day wherein he offered the sacrifice of himself as whether into the nethermost hell or into the place where the soules of the righteous men did rest there is or should be no question among good Christians but that he was that evening in Paradise For so had he promised unto the penitent Malefactor who was crucified with him with an asseveration equivalent to an oath Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise As for those sophisticall Novelists to say no worse who thus mispoint the words of his promise Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit sometimes hereafter as at the generall resurrection of the just though not this very day they declare themselves to be in this particular as in most others more unfit to interpret sacred Oracles then Apes to be principall Actors in stately dolefull Tragedies For our Lord and Saviour did most graciously grant this poore soule more then he durst petition for and with better expedition then he could hope for to wit a present estate of blessednesse whereas he requested onely to be remembred with some mercy or favour without indenting any point of time after our Saviour had entred into his Kingdome And his entrance into that Kingdome was not upon the same day wherein he suffered nor within forty dayes after The Kingdom of heaven was not set open to any beleevers not to Abraham himself upon our Saviours passion or resurrection whether that Kingdome import the same place wherein Abraham before that time was or some other For it is one thing to say that the soules of righteous men deceased were in heaven before our Saviour ascended thither another to say they were in the Kingdome of heaven or Citizens of that Kingdome which upon the day of our Saviours victory over death was not erected And he who denyeth the souls of the Patriarchs to be partakers of the Kingdome of heaven before our Saviours death cannot be concluded to grant that they were either in Limbo or in any other region under the earth or under the stars 6. But to waive further dispute about this point for the present Our Saviours soule upon the same day wherein he dyed was in paradise and so was the soule of the penitent Malefactor yet not at the same instant perhaps not within the compasse of the same houre wherein our Saviours soule went thither in what region soever whether of heaven or earth this paradise was seated For it is evident out of the Evangelicall histories that our Saviour did surrender his soule into his fathers hand before either of them who were crucified with him did expire For as was before recited out of S. Matthew 27.50 immediatly upon the ninth houre our Saviour yeelded up the Ghost This testimony alone or this at least with the like Mark 15.37 had been sufficient to prove the Article of our Saviours death But for the more full satisfaction of all posterity as well of Jews as of Gentiles God would have the death of his onely Sonne to be remarkably recorded by the solemn testimony of the Roman Centurion taken upon examination before Pilat And now when the even was come that I take it was betwixt five and six of the clock because it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsailer who also waited for the Kingdome of God came and went in boldly to Pilat and craved the body of JESUS And Pilat marvailed if he were already dead and calling unto him the Centurion he asked him whether he had been any while dead And when he knew it of the Centurion he gave the body to Joseph Mark 15.42 43 c. That our Saviour died before the other which were crucified with him is more apparant from the parallel testimony of S. Iohn 19.31 32 c. The Iews therefore because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the crosse on the Sabbath day for that Sabbath day was an high day besought Pilat that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away Then came the Souldiers and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucifyed with him But when they came to JESUS and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs 7. And thus we may observe that aswell the malignant Jews as Christs Disciples of the Jewish Nation and the Roman Souldiers though unwittingly did strangely combine for the accomplishment of divers prophecies or prefigurations concerning the death of the Sonne of God Had hee not died before the other two which were crucified with him his legs had been broken with theirs and his body had not been interr'd before the setting of the Sunne as is probable from Pilats demand to the Centurion whether he had been any while dead before he would give Ioseph leave to bury his body Now if his body had not been interr'd before the Sun-set or at least before the starrs appeared the mystery prefigured by the imprisonment of Ionas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the whale could not by any Synecdoche have been exactly fulfilled by his blessed rest in the grave but of this hereafter Again if the breaking of his legs had not been prevented by his dying before the other two which were crucifyed with him the harmony betwixt the manner of his death and the death of the Paschal Lamb could not have been so exact for no bone of it