amount to no more then this It is not possible that the greatest part of men in our times should understand many divine truths about which they dispute or be wise unto salvation because it is said by a good Author Wisdome cannot enter into a froward heart This speech is Canonically true of all such men sensu composito that is whilest they continue perverse and froward but not true iu sensu diviso for though it were absolutely true that it is impossible for wisedome to enter into a froward heart yet it is possible for a froward heart to put off frowardnesse and for such as are now a stifnecked and stubborne people in good time to brooke the yoake of Christian obedience 7 But doth this period of S. Iohn after so many miracles done before them they did not beleeve that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled import no more than if a man should say the factious spirits of our times cannot beleeve aright because it is written that wisdome cannot enter into a froward heart In Maldonats exposition on this place of S. Iohn and of that other Mat. 13. 34. c this is the utmost value of both allegations that the Prophets words do so well fit the evēts related by these two Evangelists as that they could not fit them better although 't were granted that it were meant of them alone or had beene spoken to no other end than to notifie these two events Yet if we may have the libertie to expresse the Prophets meaning or to speake consequently unto the truth it selfe acknowledged by all good Christians or to some speciall truths formerly delivered the prophecy of Isaiah alleaged by S. Iohn was in a more peculiar manner fulfilled in the strange infidelity of the Jewes which saw our Saviours miracles then any Proverbs of Salomon or other generall Maximes can be fulfilled or verified of any misbeleevers in these our times either of such as deny Christ in expresse words or confessing him in words deny him in deeds For the words of Salomon or other moral sayings of Canonicall writers how well soever they may fit the errors or infidelity of our times had no punctuall aspect to them but were uttered as absolute truths without respect of age time or persons and fit all men and every sort of men of what condition age or nation soever they be Whereas the former forecited prophecy of Isaiah was punctually or literally meant of the Jewish Nation which lived after his time unto the destruction of the City and Temple and to the returne of the Babilonish captivitie For so it followes in the 6. chap. ver 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavie and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Then said I Lord how long And he said untill the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed men farre away and there be a great forsaking in the middest of the Land But yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall bee eaten as a Teyle tree and as an Oake whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof This very prophecy was more exactly fulfilled in the excecation and obduration of the Jewes which did not beleeve our Saviours miracles and in that desolation of Judea which ensued upon his death But whether the last part of this prophecy concerning their returne againe to God shall bee as exactly fulfilled in these out-casts of Israel future times would better resolve us or such as shall live after us then any living interpreter of Scriptures can With this question S. Iohn meddles not but besides that the former part of that prophecy doth according to the literall sense as truly point at this later generation of the Jewes as at the former The reall event it selfe or matter of fact foretold was more conspicuously remarkable in this later generation then it had beene in the former For it was a prediction prophetically typicall The first desolation was such a reall type of the later as Israels casting off God from being their ruler in the time of Samuel was of that solemne abrenunciation of Christ which these later Jewes made before Pilate when they cryed Wee have no King but Caesar Or the like desolation was such a Crisis of that deadly disease whereof the excecation and obduration mentioned by S. Iohn was the symptome as that calamity which befell Iudah the next yeare after Zacharias death was of the calamity which befell the whole Nation within forty yeares after our Saviours death 8. So then the particle Vt neither in this place of S. Iohn nor in any other doth ever import any true causality of excecation or obduration on Gods part or his Prophets but in this place of S. Iohn and in every other where it is said that this or that was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled the same particle doth alwayes import that whatsoever was so done whether positively or directly by God himselfe or with permission of his just providence by the positive intentions of Sathan or incorrigible stubbornnesse of men was alwayes ordered by God to this end and purpose that posterity might beleeve and know no such event did follow by chance or that the Prophet did foretell such events only in generall without speciall reference unto the particular events related by the Evangelist Seing every finall cause is purposed or projected by some intelligent nature one and the same particle That or the like with reference to severall projectures may sometimes denote a true finall cause sometimes the event or consequent only in one and the same proposition as in that of our Saviour Matth. 23. 34. Some of them you shall kill and crucifie c. that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth The finall cause projected by Sathan was to bring righteous blood upon these Jewes but this was the event or consequent only no finall cause of their projects against Gods messengers But these messengers were sent by God onely to this end that they might recall his people to their allegiance yet this end or purpose did include this condition that if they continued or made up the measure of their Fathers stubbornnesse they were to suffer more grievous punishment then if they had not beene forewarned by the Prophets In like manner the excecation and obduration of these later Jewes was the marke at which Satan aimed no true cause though a necessary consequent of their continued abuse of that talent which God had given them but no finall cause no cause at all why our Saviour did so many miracles amongst them their excecation and perdition was from themselves 9. That Prophecy of Isaiah and that other of our Saviours Matt. 23. 35. that
our Saviour before his resurrection Surely he hath borne our griefes and caryed our sorrowes c. This was most exactly fulfilled in his sufferings whatsoever these were upon the Crosse unto which S. Peter referres it 1 Pet. 2. 24. He his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sinne should live to righteousnesse by whose stripes you were healed Yet was the same testimony truly fulfilled before as S. Matthew more fully instructs us cap. 8. ver 16 17. When the even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devills and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet saying Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses The testimonie alleaged by these two Apostles unto severall purposes is one and the same and yet concludent of what they both purposed or intended Nor is it necessary to search out two severall senses of one and the same testimony alleaged and twice fulfilled For of one and the same literall sense or signification there may bee two objects or more The literall sense of the words as forecited by S. Peter hath for its object our Saviours sufferings or his bearing our infirmities and the diseases of our soules upon the Crosse The object whereto S. Matthew referres was the infirmites or sicknesses of mens bodies for these he bare though not as we say in kinde yet by exact sympathy or fellowfeeling before he bare our spirituall infirmities upon the Crosse and whether hee bare these after such an exact sympathy as he did the bodily infirmities of those whom he cured may be discussed in the Article of his passion 8. But as for testimonies either typicall propheticall or prophetically typicall besides that they may be oftner fulfilled then once according to the same sense in generall as either according to the literall or mysticall sense or both they admit in greater variety of particular senses no way opposite unto the generall but subordinate and coordinate one to another Sometimes the same words fit the type in such a proportion as the names of shires or Provinces doe those parts of the Maps wherein they are represented but fit the Antitype in such a measure as the same name in the Mappe doth the province which it represents sometimes in one and the same Prophecy or continued historicall narration one clause or passage doth fit the type only another the antitype only according to the proper literall sense and some others so fit both As in Psalme 72. 1. Give the King thy Iudgements O God and thy righteousnesse unto the Kings sonne by the King it is evident David meant himselfe and by the Kings sonne both Salomon and him of whom Salomon was the shadow or type the one according to the literall sense only the other both according to literall and mysticall These words againe in the 2. verse He shall judge the people with righteousnesse and the poore with equity referre both to Salomon and to Christ to the one as to the modell to the other as to the edifice So doth that other passage ver 8. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the River unto the ends of the earth This prophecy was fulfilled or exactly verified according to the letter in Salomon For hee did command from the Phaenician sea unto the sea of Edom and from the river Euphrates unto the lands end according to that ancient terrar which the Lord himselfe had given of Iudahs dominion Yet this dominion whilest it was most entirely possest by Salomon was but a Map of Christs Kingdome he was to rule from Sea to Sea over all the Seas in the world and from river to river from every point of sea and land unto the same point againe For all was to be given him as well in earth as in heaven Salomons earthly Kingdom doth fit Christs Kingdome here on earth as a Mappe of paper doth a Countrey or Province and Christs Kingdome here on earth is but the scale of his Kingdome and dominion in heaven 9. Sometimes the same passage of Scripture may according to the intent and meaning of the holy Spirit be fulfilled or verified of the type or pledge in an ordinary literall or proverbiall sense which is somewhat more then the ordinary literall and yet be fulfilled of Christ in the most exactly punctuall literall sense that can be imagined They that dwell in the wildernesse saith David Psal 72. 9. shall how before him and his enemies shall lick the dust This was truly meant and verified of Salomon in the literall and proverbiall sense but most exactly fulfilled in Christ unto whom all knees shall how of things in heaven of things in earth and of things under the earth and all his enemies death it selfe and him that had the power of death shall inherite the Serpents first curse that is to be fed with dust Gen. 3. 14. No doubt but Salomon and his share in that prediction v. 12. He shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poore also and him that hath no helper Him that is not able to cry or speake for himselfe But Salomon could never give sight unto the blinde or limbes unto the Lame or speech or hearing to such as were borne deafe or dumbe These were prerogatives peculiar unto that sonne of David whom Salomon did foreshadow But even the deafe and dumbe had some friends to solicite Christs aide for them the lame the blinde and the sick could cry themselves unto him or make signes of their desire of his helpe yet others he helped which did not either by themselves or by their friends desire his helpe as that impotent man which had layd so long at the poole of Bethesda Salomon might deliver the poore from civill oppression or bodily violence and might raise them in their temporall fortunes but it was the promised sonne of David alone that could deliver them from the oppressions of the Devill or from the imprisonment of their owne bodily senses Thus he delivered Lazarus from the very bonds of death and from the prison of the grave when hee himselfe could not and his sisters would not or did not cry unto him for this deliverance but rather disswaded him from attempting it Now the very name Lazarus is by interpretation as much as David in that verse expresseth Him that hath no helper According to this difference or allowance most passages in that 72 Psalme besides the 5 ver the conclusion from the 17 are literally meant both of Salomon and of Christ But these prayers of David were propheticall both in respect of the type and the antitype so are not many other like passages in the Psalmes which containe patheticall expressions of the parties desires griefes or sorows which did pen them and yet are no lesse exquisitely fulfilled in Christ than the former which were literally meant both of
alwayes a distinct foresight or apprehensiō Such as they sometimes had was by extraordinary priviledge or dispensation it was no necessary appendix of the ordinary gift of prophecy lesse appendant thereon than the prenotion or foresight of the second or third event was upon the foresight or apprehension of the first For in that case the same prophecy though often fulfilled was yet alwayes fulfilled onely according to a fuller importance or growth of the same literall sense without the intervention or mixture of any matter of fact which could properly be called a real type or map of that which afterwards hapned As if the Prophet Isaiah did not by vertue of the ordinary gift of the Spirit foresee the second or third remarkable fulfilling of that prophecy This people draw neere me with their lips but are farre from me in their hearts it is lesse probable that the Prophet Ieremy should foresee the secōd or more exact accomplishment of that Prophecy Behold the day is come saith the Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liveth which brought the children of Israel out of the Land of Aegypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the house of Israel out of the North Country c. Ierem. 23. 7 8. For in the second fulfilling of this prophecy besides the improvemēt or sublimation of the literall sense there was an intervention of matter of fact or type 6 Againe if it be doubtfull whether the Prophets had alwaies or for the most part such a distinct foresight of the antitype as they had of the type or if it be more probable that they had no such apprehensiō of the antitype whē the literall sense of their words did though in a different degree truely fit both then is there no probability that they should foresee the second accomplishment of such prophecies as no way reach the antitype in the plaine literall or grammaticall sense but by symbolicall or Emblematicall importance Isaiah no doubt had a cleare foresight of Eliakims admission into Shebnah's office whose deposition he likewise foresaw But that he foreknew the harmony betweene the deposition of Shebnah which he knew would shortly be fulfilled and the rejection of the Jewish Rulers or betweene Eliakims advancement and our Saviours exaltation after his resurrection wee have no probable inducement to beleeve but inducements many to perswade us that the foreknowledge of things thus foreprophecied and foreshadowed was for the most part reserved unto the holy Spirit not imparted to the Prophets who in foretelling or foreshadowing the antitype were for the most part his Organs onely though his Agents in the prediction of the type and did ingage their credits only for the first fulfilling of the Prophecies or for their fulfilling in generall Of the difference betwixt the knowledge of the Spirit of God and the Prophets whom he did imploy in representation of mysteries to come wee may have a proportionable scale in the difference betwixt the extraordinary Herauld or other inventor of such devices as they give and the ordinary Painter An ordinary Scholar that should see a painted Eclipse of the sun with this inscriptiō totiō adimit quo ingrata refulget would easily apprehend that this word ingrata refers to the Moone but what ingratitude or ingratefull person the Moone in this devise should represent that hee could not learne from skill in painting but from the history of the times or from the Author of this devise which to my remembrance was an Italian Prince who had beene brought under a cloud much prejudiced in his honour fortunes by an unthankfull plant of his stocke whom his favour and countenance had advanced to the dignity of a Cardinall Or if one should intreat a skilfull Painter to represent three small vessels in the same river distant one from another neere upon the same line one of thē using the furtherance of oares and winde to goe speedily against the streame another the benefit of oares to outrunne the streame and a third in the middle moving neither swiftlier nor slowlier then the streame it selfe doth with this motto or inscription videor occursari utrisque the ingrosser of this devise from his owne experience would easily conceave the truth of the inscription in the grammaticall or naturall construction of the words and might conjecture in generall that they imported somewhat more than a bare representation of what we see by dayly experience verified of things floating in the water For whilest we row swiftly by them we thinke they come against us when they goe the same way which wee doe but more gently And this is the condition of such men in our times as will not combine with factions spirits either with such as by helpe of Arts and other potency directly oppose the truth or such as follow it with furious zeale or indiscretion He that seekes to hold the middle course betwixt these opposites regulating as well his affections as his opinions by the placide current of the water of life neither striving against it nor seeking to outrunne it shall be thought to oppose both parties and come in danger of being crusht betweene them But this morall is more then the ingrosser of such a devise could apprehend without further instruction then the review of his owne work or the grammaticall sense of the inscription suppose he understood Latine would afford him Now the Prophets in many cases were but the ingrossers of such visions or representations of mysteries to come as the holy Ghost did dictate unto them whether by word or matter of fact or both wayes The full importance of many such representations neither was nor could be revealed save onely by him which had the spirit of prophecy not by measure 7. If Enoch Moses Elias and the whole fellowship of Prophets which foretold our Saviours comming whether first or second had beene spectators of all his miracles or eare-witnesses of all his words every one of them would have learned more from him then all of them knew before Each of them would have beene able to make better construction of one anothers words then any of thē without his interpretatiōs could have made of his own It is a lamētable negligēce in many interpreters not to observe or seeke after the manifest proofes which our Saviour gave of his immense prophetick spirit from which for the most part they gather only morall doctrines and uses For that saying though delivered by Authors not Canonicall is yet canonicall and universally true Never spake man like this man And thus hee spake as well in interpretation of propheticall predictions or legall Ceremonies as in his expositions of the morall Law 8. Briefely then if wee had no better interpreter of the Prophets then the Prophets themselves or no clearer apprehension of the mysteries now exhibited then they had when they foretold them this would bee sufficient to confirme our faith that they spake by the Spirit of God more then sufficient to leave us without excuse
the great mystery of the womans seed or incarnation of the sonne of God to bee included in this prophecy extend the native signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the earth too farre Howbeit in this errour or oversight there is no falshood for that the woman or female should enclose or compasse the male or that mighty one the second Adam was a new thing indeed and a wonder to all the earth But this generall truth doth not hit the punctuall meaning of the holy Ghost in that place for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth is to be restrained unto the Land of Ephraim or of Israel as it was opposed unto the Land of Judah Thus much the literall circūstance of this prophecy alone wil enforce and that prophecy of Isaiah parallel unto this will perswade us Isa 11. 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the Adversaries of Iudah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Iudah and Iudah shall not vexe or upbraid Ephraim The implication is that the one Kingdome was to share with the other in the fulfilling of this grand mystery foretold by these two Prophets in the forecited Chapters The Kingdome of Ephraim of which Nazareth was a Limbe though a smalone was to be graced with the Messias conception and incarnation and with the Angell Gabriels presence for the avoucher The Kingdome of Judah whereof Bethlem was a remarkable portion was to be dignified with his birth and that was proclaimed by an host of Angells 9. Of this mystery I have treated in other meditations published some fifteene yeares agoe and should scarcely so much as have touched it in this place had not some exquisite Hebricians with whose meditations I have since that time beene acquainted without any reference to what I had then said or conceived altogether waived or slighted the great mystery acknowledged by antiquity as well Jewish as Christian in this place of the Prophet Ieremy In their opinion the new thing which the Lord promised to create in the earth is no more then that the Law Deut. 24. 1 2 3 4. though indispensable in respect of man and wife should be dispensed with or repealed as it did concerne Ephraim or Israel who had beene sometimes Gods spouse but now divorced for her manifold adulteries and yet by Gods speciall grace had libertie to returne unto him againe To this purpose I am not ignorant that some later Rabbines interpret this place as they doe many other to elevate the mystery of the incarnation but so doe not those exquisite Christian Hebricians from whom I must crave pardon to dissent All that they say concerning Gods dispensation with that Law Deut. 24. is most true but not the whole truth nor any part of the Prophet Ieremies true meaning in that 31. Chapter That meaning which they would fasten upon this place was expressely delivered by our Prophet Chap. 3. not to Ephraim but to Judah before shee followed Ephraim into Captivitie and therefore this could be no new thing to bee created afterwards in the Land of Ephraim They say if a man put away his wife and shee goe from him and become another mans shall he turn unto her again shall not the Land be greatly polluted But thou hast played the harlot with many Lovers yet returne again to me saith the Lord. 10. And howerver the originall Bara doe not alwayes include as much as some Schoolemen would appropriate to the Latine creare that is to make something of meere nothing yet it usually imports some great worke of the Almighty maker which one way or other is aequivalent or more then aequivalent to the first creation of Heaven and Earth our of nothing if we may beleeve Capito and Fagius upon whō any Novice in the Hebrew tongue or ordinary professor of it may as safely pitch an implicite beleef or trust as upon any which have lived since their times Againe however the Prophet Ieremy Chap. 3. 1. avouch a relaxation of that peremptory Law Deut. 24. 4. yet doth hee not intimate that this relaxation was such an extraordinary worke as that the Lord might be said to have created it as a new thing whether in the Land of Judah or of Ephraim or in the earth or wide world it selfe Nor is there any other word in that 31 of Ieremie ver 22. besides the word Lord which is the same with any other word used either by Ieremie chap. 3. ver 1. or Deut. 24. 3 4. In both which places man and wife are described by their proper characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor is the wives returning to her husband decypherd by a circular motion or compasse but by a plaine returne unto him Whereas in the 31. of Ieremie ver 21. the charactericall notion of the persons there meant is first not Ish an husband or vir but Geber that mighty man or womans seed promised Gen. 3. 15. and this Geber not Ishah the wife or woman simply but Nekebah the female was to incompasse or inclose the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes referres to motion and is as much as the Latine circumire or circumvenire to encompasse or goe about which may be either by a circular or by a sphaericall motion Sometimes the same word referres to station or rest and is as much as our English to begirt or inviron as an Army doth a besieged City or as guests placed at a round table and according to the difference of the subject to inclose or goe round about or to environ on every side And so much it imports in that name which Ieremie gave to Pashur the sonne of Immer the Priest Ier. 20. 3 4. The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur but Magor Missabib For thus saith the Lord behold I will make thee a terrour unto thy selfe and to all thy Friends and they shall fall by the sword of their Enemies and thine eyes shall behold it c. And thou Pashur and all that dwell in thine house shall goe into Captivity and thou shalt come to Babylon and there thou shalt dye and shalt be buried there thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophecied lyes verse 6. As this Pashur was every way beset with terrour so was the Geber every way to bee inclosed or incompassed by Nekebah the Female And the new thing which the Lord promised to Create in the earth hath speciall reference to the first Creation of male and female in mankinde Gen. 1. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and female created he thē The originall which there notifies the female is the very same which our English in the 31. of Ieremy renders woman that is the weaker sexe But the originall Zakar rendred Gen. 1. 27. by the male is not so much as Geber For though every Geber be Zakar yet every Zakar is not Geber nor was the first Adam enstyled by this name The Prophet Ieremies meaning
then was that in this new Creation in the land of Ephraim not the male or man onely but the mighty male that Geber of whom Gedeon and Sampson were but types and shadowes was to be inclosed in the female or weaker sexe as the first woman or female was in the first male As she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones so was this Geber to be of that females flesh and bones which was to inclose him And this was a worke of Gods Creation a new Creation far surpassing the first Creation wherein the woman was made of man For in this new Creation the Geber the sonne of God himselfe was to be made man of a woman And it is not unworthy the observant Readers consideration that when the Lord doth as it were wooe Ephraim or Israel to returne againe unto their owne Land or to him he doth not intreat them as a husband doth his wife but as a loving Father doth his prodigall son or roaming daughter as ver 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Set thee up way markes make thee high heaps set thine heart towards he high way even the may which thou wentest Turne againe O Virgin Israel turne againe to the sethy Citties how long wilt thou goe about ô thou backsliding Daughter for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth or in thy Land the woman shall incompasse the man 11 Divers places there be in the new TestameÌ„t which touch not upon any article in this Creede which have tortured many good Interpreters no lesse then some vulgar Interpreters have tortured them I shall at this time instance onely in two First in that of S. Matthew 23. 34 35 36. Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men c. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias sonne of Barachias whom yee slew betweene the Temple and the Altar verely I say unto you all those things shall come upon this generation The reason why most Interpreters of S. Matthew have wandered as men overtaken with a thicke mist upon a wilde heath or forrest was because they did not consult the Index Mercurialis which S. Luke from the words expressely uttered by our Saviour had set up for their better direction For whereas S. Matthew expresseth the Epiphonema or conclusion of our Saviours speech thus All these things shall come upon this generation S. Luke cap. 11. expresseth it Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation What was to be required of this generation The blood of all the Prophets froÌ„ Abel to Zacharias Zacharias his blood in particular For though this present generation by not repenting for their forefathers sinnes had made themselves guilty of the blood of all the Prophets which stood upon sacred Record from Abels time unto the destruction of the Temple yet Abel and Zacharias the high Priest whose death was in many respects most prodigious were the especiall avengers of blood For the blood of the one after he was dead and the dying voice of the other did cry to God for vengeance For so it is recorded in the second of Cron. 24. 22. of Zacharias When he dyed he said The Lord looke upon it and require it Now our Saviour in the words recorded by S. Luke forewarnes this impenitently stubborne generation that Zacharias his dying curse which had been through his mediatioÌ„ often deferred and often mitigated should be executed upon them as an ungodly race of ungodly Ancestors in a fuller measure then perhaps Zacharias intended The exact parallel betweene the sinnes of this people in the dayes of Ioash King of Judah who caused Zacharias to be stoned to death in the Temple and the sinnes of this present generation who put the High Priest of their soules the Lord of Glory himselfe to an ignominious death in what sense the blood of Zacharias was more required of this generation then the blood of our Saviour or of his Apostles in what manner the death of Zacharias and of our Saviour were the causes of this present generations destruction I have elsewhere discussed at large and if God permit meane shortly to publish amongst other meditations upoÌ„ our Saviours propheticall function or of such prophecies wherin he spake as never man spake which were not to be fulfilled in himselfe as in his death resurrection and ascension or comming to judgement For all prophecies of this ranke which shall come unto my memory or observation will have their fit place in these Commentaries 12 So will not that speech of his Mat. 24. 28. Wheresoever the Carkerse is there will the Eagles be gathered together Yet seeing the exposition of this place hath beene omitted in the explication of some prophecies with which it hath most affinity as with the signes of his comming to Judgement Math. 24. and Marke the 13. I have thought good to say somewhat of it in this place Most Interpreters grant the speech to be proverbiall and yet as uttered by our Saviour to be a Prophecie The mysterie foretold most of the Ancients would have to be the gathering together of Saints unto Christs body at the finall judgement or at least the gathering together of those bodies which being alive shall be raught up into the ayre to meete him at his comming But however the Eagles at least some kinde of Eagles may be fit Emblemes of Gods Saints yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body or Carkeise whereto the Eagles resort hath no handsome or comely resemblance of Christs appearing in glory although it were granted that his wounds or skarres should then be conspicuous I make no question but our Saviour in the forecited place did meane that kinde of Eagles whose properties we have described by God himselfe even by this our Lord God and Redeemer Ioh. 39. 27. Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high she dwelleth and abideth on the Rocke upon the Crag of the Rocke and the strong place from thence she sâ—â—keth the prey and her eyes behold a farre off her yâ—â—â—g ones also suck up blood and where the slaine is chere is shee The Eagle here displayed is either the Vulture or of the Vultures kind and their sagacitie whether in smelling slaine bodies a farre off or in presaging where great slaughters are like to happen as also their swift resort unto the prey is well knowne to secular Philologers But the flocking together of this kinde of Eagles doth rather menace destruction then minister any matter of comfort according to the literall sense either of proverbiall speech or of prophecy So the Prophet Habakuk doth character the fierce and swift incursion of the Caldaeans by this kinde of Eagles hastening
then all the other prophecies or predictions concerning Christ whether literall or mysticall My purpose is not in this place to rehearse all of this kinde which I have observed but rather to explicate some few of these many The first shall be that Exod. 29. 45 46. And I will dwell amongst the children of Israel and will bee their God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell amongst them I am the Lord their God That this place cannot be literally meant of any person man or Angell but of God himselfe which brought Israel out of the Land of Egypt no moderne Jew doth or can deny The same promise is renewed or repeated Lev. 26. 11 12 13. And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soule shall not abhorre you and I will walke among you and will be your God and yee shall be my people I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt that yee should not be their bondmen and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you goe upright 3. God before this time had appeared unto them had conducted them by a cloud by day and by a pillar of fire by night had divers wayes manifested his speciall presence and spoken to Moses their leader in a more familiar manner then he had done to any Prophet before or since his time Yet all those evidences of his glorious presence amongst them were but pledges of a more speciall manner of his future presence with them or of walking or talking not with some one principall man amongst them only such as Moses was but with all that are willing to walk and talk with him as Moses had done with that generation Neither of those prophecies could be exactly fulfilled according to the punctuall literall sense of those ancient times wherein the first Tabernacle did wander with them in the wildernesse though verified according to the vulgar literall sense in those times For God their Lord was said to remove or to arise when the Ark removed or set forward Psal 68. 1. Nor were the same prophecies fulfilled in those times wherein the Lord had a permanent Tabernacle or constant place of residence amongst them in Jerusalem Albeit hee was then said to dwell betweene the Cherubims and to have chosen Sion for his place of rest yet Ezekiel after the desolation of the Temple projected by David and built by Salomon doth promise this people more then a redintegration of the Temple or any other materiall Temple more then a meere revivall of the former promises Exod. 29. 45. and Levit. 26. 12 13. for so the Prophet astipulateth in the name of his God chap. 37. ver 26 27 and 28. Moreover I will make a Covenant of peace with them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore my Tabernacle shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and the heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore 4. But now we see and seeing cannot but bewaile that the seed of Abraham according to the flesh whom this promise did in the first place concerne hath had no place of dwelling in the land of Canaan almost for these sixteene hundred yeares past Nor hath the God of Israel dwelt amongst them after such a manner as he did during the time of the first Tabernacle or whilest the first or second Temple were standing And yet this covenant was according to the literall sense of the Prophet to be an everlasting Covenant yea perpetually everlasting after it once beganne to be in esse God was to dwell with Israel or with the sons of Abraham there meant without interruption in this life and everlastingly in the life to come Besides this everlasting covenant was a covenant likewise of everlasting peace to such as were partakers of it For the peculiar manner of Gods dwelling with Israel the Jew cannot imagine a more punctuall fulfilling of this prophecy then the Evangelist S. Iohn hath left upon record chap. 1. ver 14. And he dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father fall of grace and truth Thus he dwelt and conversed with the children of Israel according to bodily descent and with none else how then is it said by the Prophet that hee was to dwell with them for evermore or that this covenant of peace should be an everlasting covenant Seeing Israel or the sonnes of Iacob by bodily descent did for the most part reject this covenant when God for his part was ready to seale it unto them the Gentiles were ingraffed in the beleeving stock when the naturall branches were broken off and yet God still dwels in medio Israel he hath his everlasting Tabernacle in Israel that is in the seed of Abraham and of Iacob which he assumed and did choose not as he had done Sion or Ierusalem but for a perpetually everlasting rest And though this place of his rest be removed not only from the sonnes of Israel but from all the sonnes of men that live here on earth yet he still dwelleth with us who are ingraffed in the stock of Abraham and of Israel unto the end of the world and so shall dwell with true Israelites world without end He hath his residence in every Church throughout the world in as peculiar a maner as he sometimes did reside in the Temple of Jerusalem for wheresoever God is truly worshipped there doth he dwell 5. This covenant of everlasting peace which the Prophet foretold was to be established as the first covenant was by blood but by farre better blood then the blood of Bulls and Goates by the blood of the Testator himselfe that is of God himselfe Bellum gessit ut nos pace fruamur Hee was once for all to warre with flesh and blood with powers and principalities that all such as embraced this covenant avouched by Ezekiel might enjoy everlasting peace not the peace of this world yet peace in this world to be accomplished in the world to come And our Saviour the sonne of God for more full declaration that he was the Author of this covenant a little before his death bequeathed the legacy of peace unto his Apostles and Disciples as feoffees in trust for all that should follow the faith of Abraham Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Iohn 14. 27. And after he had sealed this covenant with his blood his salutation unto his Disciples was Peace be unto you and Behold I am with you unto the end of the world After his death he did walk and talk only with his Disciples but before his death hee
manifestation of the sonnes of God Rom. 8. 19. That of the Psalmist Psal 97. 1. fals under the same line of observation The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles rejoyce This literally implies that the earth whether generally taken or restrained to the Land of Jewry should have better cause to rejoyce and the multitude of the Iles new occasions of greater gladnesse then in former times they had knowne When then was this new matter of joy and gladnesse there promised to all the earth and her inhabitants to begin to beare date or bee in esse From that point of time wherein the Lord began to raigne after another manner then before he had done The raigne of the Lord over all the earth and over all the Ilands of the earth if wee consider him only as God was from the beginning of the world and so shall continue without change or alteration World without end The raigne of the Lord then in this place foretold must be the raigne of God incarnate or of Gods being made King And those holy men of God which thus speake did by the spirit of prophecie foresee those dayes which Abraham saw and rejoyced to see Now the beginning of these joyfull dayes was from the time wherein the Lord did loose the Prisoners did deale his bread unto the hungry did open the eyes of the blinde and raysed them that were bowed downe with his owne hands or with his owne voice For so the Author of the 146. Psalme a little before paraphrased doth conclude that admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song of the God of Israel The Lord shall raigne for ever even thy God O Sion unto all generations All the former workes of mercy and piety towards miserable men were but praeludia or portending documents of his future raigne or oecumenicall Kingdome shortly after to be established CHAP. 25. That the former Testimonies do concludently inferre a pluralitie of persons in the unitie of the Godhead and that God in the person of the sonne was to be incarnate and to be made Lord and King BUt if the Lord God of Israel were to serve under the sins of this people or to bee made a servant for their sinnes if he were to be annointed King not over them only but over all the earth besides it will bee demanded unto whom he was to be a servant and who after this his service was to make or Crowne him King Surely being God he was not to be a servant unto man or Angell if he that was God must be a servant he must be a servant to him who is and truly was God If he that was truly God were to be annointed King and to be enthronized hee must be annointed by him alone who was as truly God These considerations enforce us and when God shall give them hearts to take these and the like into serious consideration will perswade the Jews that however the God of Israel be one yet in this unity of the Godhead or divine Majestie they and wee must acknowledge more then an unity or identity of persons What it is to be a person and what manner of distinction is betweene the persons in the blessed Trinity are points which I never had minde to dispute More Scholarum since I first knew the Schooles or bent my studies to know Christ but was alwayes ready to admire what I knew not to expresse Nor could I ever well understand the language of such as thought themselves able to instampe these high mysteries with Scholastick formes of words but have taken more delight and comfort for these thirtie yeares and more in rehearsing daily as I am bound by oath evening and morning the Collect appointed by our Church for Trinity sunday with the Hymne annexed unto it in the ancient liturgies then in all the varietie whether of Schoolemen or of such polite writers as seeke to adorne and beautifie their ruder expressions of this great mystery And I have ingaged my selfe not to meddle with this point untill by Gods assistance I have finished the rest of these Comments and then by way of meditation or devotions only Thus much notwithstanding the former considerations and the very fundamental grounds of true Christianity inforce us to grant that in the divine nature though most indivisibly one there is an eminent ideall paterne of such a distinction as we call betweene party and party a capacity to give a capacity to receive a capacity to demand and a capacity to satisfie Capacities sufficiently different for the exercise of justice and love not ad extra only but within the divine nature it selfe If there were but one party or person in the divine nature the remission of mens sinnes without satisfaction had beene more proper and pertinent then remitting of them upon satisfaction For one and the selfe same party to demand satisfaction of himselfe and to make it to himselfe especially by way of punishment or disgracefull affliction is so unconceivable to reason it selfe that it is altogether uncapable of admiration to reason sanctified or enlightned by grace 2. But this is that which some moderne heretiques labour to prove to wit That God did not exact satisfaction for our sinnes of our Saviour Christ Iesus that it had beene exact cruelty in God to have laid the burthen of all our sinnes upon him who knew no sinne But how then is Christ said to have taken away our sinnes God say these man did freely remit them without satisfaction and Christ did take them away by setting us a paterne of holinesse and of patience in affliction That is in such sort as a Physitian might be said to have taken away an epidemicall disease by prescribing a recipe which every one after might make for himselfe and be his owne Apothecary Briefly they thinke that God cannot be excused from cruelty but by denying all true and proper satisfaction made to him by Christ But it is an oversight usually incident to men enclouded in grosser errours to object that unto their Adversaries as an inconvenience or absurd consequence which is such only according to the objecters owne tenets but most true and consonant to their principles whom they oppugne if these might be taken into due consideration Thus some greate Clearks in the Romish Church but none of their wisest men object against us that we make God a Tyâ—anâ— by teaching that he hath given us a Law which is impossible for us to fulfill The objection is unanswerable according to their principles who teach that a man cannot be justified or absolved from the sentence of death denounced by the Law without perfect inherent righteousnesse or fulfilling of the Law But the same objection no way toucheth us who teach that albeit we must still be doing that which is good yet after we have done all we can suppose much better then either they or we doe we must still deny our selves and renounce not the works
face whilest he talked with the people who were not able to behold the glory But this vaile as our Apostle tels us 2 Cor. 3. 14. is put away in Christ It is true Yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word was not the Christ to doe away this vaile till he put on the vaile of flesh The flesh then was a vaile to him but as a glasse or mirrour to us Wee may in Christ with open face behold that glory of God whose reflexe on Moses face the Israelites could not behold but through a vaile Christ then is that glasse or mirrour wherin the brightnesse of Gods glory which the Israelites could not then behold may now be seene But did the Iews or Israelites in the time of the old Testament or in that time wherein the Author of the booke of Wisdome wrote conceive any such matter as our Apostle here inferres that the glory of God should be more fully revealed or that men should be more capable of the participation of his presence in later ages then they had beene in former Some of them did others did not all of them ought even by their owne prenotions or interpretations of Scriptures so to have conceived and beleeved For thus some moderne Iews conceive of Moses his request What was that saith a great Rabbin amongst them which Moses our Master sought to attaine unto when he said I pray thee shew me thy glory 9 He requeged to know the truth of the being or essence of the holy blessed God untill that he were knowne in his heart like as a man is knowne whose face is seen and whose forme is ingravē in ones heart so that man is distinguished or separated in his knowledge from other men So Moses requested that the Essence of God might be distinctly knowne in his heart from the essence of other things so that he might know the truth of his Essence as it is But God answered him that the knowledge of living man who is compounded of body and soule hath no ability to apprehend the truth of this thing concerning his Creator That knowledge of God or sight of his glory whereof Moses was uncapable was truely ingraven in the heart of the man Christ Iesus and in his light wee see light He that saw him with the eyes of faith did see the father he did see the glory of the Godhead The brightnesse of the divine glory is alike inaccessible alike incommunicable in the Sonne as in the Father if we consider them in their divine nature alone but in the man Christ Iesus and in him alone wee may behold the brightnesse of the Divine glory which neither eye nor heart of man could behold in it selfe or in any divine person alone but only in the divine person which was incarnate 10 And it is not here to be omitted that the forecited 29. of Exodus ver 45 I will dwell among the Children of Israel is thus translated by Onkelus in his paraphrase ponam praesentiam divinitatis meae in medio filiorum Israel So Fagius with some others render it and why he so renders it gives the reason And the later Rabbines as one well conversant in their writings saith generally observe that whensoever it is said in the person of God that I will dwell amongst them this may not be understood but of the Majestie of the holy and blessed God To this purpose they alleage the 9. verse of the 8 Psalme His salvation is neere them that feare him that glory may dwell in our Land And Simeon in his dying song doth testifie that Jesus the sonne of Mary whom he imbraced when he was presented in the Temple was the salvation of God Lord now lattest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word For mine eyes have seene thy Salvation And although our Saviour whilest hee lived here on earth had no constant dwelling no place of inheritance yet at this time the Godhead or that glory of the Godhead of which the Psalmist speaketh was incorporated in him These and the like Scriptures S. Iohn did see fulfilled in Christ when he said the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and wee saw his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father that is such glory as could not bee communicated to any but to him who was by nature the sonne of God such glory as no flesh could behold otherwise then as it was in Christ or in the word made flesh such a declaration of the divine Majestie as none besides the sonne of God could declare So the Apostle saith ver 18. No man hath seene God at any time but the only begotten sonne who is in the bosome of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath declared or expounded him But wherein doth this declaration consist or how was it made by the sonne Not by word only or by declaration of his will but by matter of fact or reall representation But of this point more fully in the exposition of the name Iesus Seeing Moses had said that no flesh could see God and live it may seeme strange to men which have not their senses exercised in the search of Scriptures that the Prophet Isaiah should avouch the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together Isay 40. 5. Moses speech and that conceipt which the ancient had that man could not see God and live was universally true untill the word or brightnesse of Gods glory was made flesh But this was the very mysterie which Isaiah in that chapter foretold as elsewhere hath beene declared in part and shall be as it comes in order to be handled more fully a little after this Chapter 11 That the moderne Iews can expect the God of their Fathers should dwell with them should walk with them should manifest his glory unto them after such a manner as their owne Doctors interpret his promise made to Moses to al these purposes after any other way or manner then the Evangelist witnessed he did walk with and manifest his glory unto his Disciples This to us Christians is an evident demonstration that the vale which their Forefathers put before their faces when they could not behold the brightnesse of Gods glory which shone on Moses face after he had seene God and talked with him is to this day put before their hearts when they read Moses and the Prophets For this glorious Majestie of God the very expresse or graven Image of his substāce which they say Moses desired to see but could not did so personally dwell in the man Christ Jesus that whilest he walked with his people God did walke with thē whilest he remayned within the territories of Iudah or Galilee salvation glory did dwell in their Land And to this day in whomsoever he dwelleth by faith in him God dwelleth by faith As he is the expresse image of the person of his Father so every one in whom he thus
borne of the Virgin Mary The name Iesus was given him at his circumcision and comes there to be handled So was not the name Christ but as often as the Evangelists so instyle him before his resurrection from the dead it is by way of anticipation for he was made Lord and Christ at his ascension into heaven though annointed to his propheticall office at his baptisme from which time he did declare himselfe by word and deed to be the Prince of Prophets yet not then consecrated much lesse admitted to the function or exercise of his everlasting Priesthood not then enthronized King of Kings and Lord of Lords these royall titles were accomplished in his resurrection and ascension The point for the present to be handled is how the conception and birth of the sonne of God the Lord God of Israel was foretold or foreshadowed and how accomplished for the substance how manifested by the signes of the time or circumstances concomitant 2 The conception and birth of the sonne of God with other mysteries which concerne his person and offices were purposely foretold and forepictured from the fall of our first parents untill the sacred Canon of the old Testament was finished yet not foretold or forepictured in the â—ame measure or after the same manner in every age of this long succession The first predictions or representations of these great mysteries were aenigmaticall and implicit but for the most part unwrapped and branched in succeeding ages The later representations beare the same proportions to the most ancient that maps of particular countries beare unto more generall or Chorographie unto Geographie In a map of the whole world though accurately drawne wee shall hardly finde any exact proportion of these British Islands no such distinct evidences of the severall provinces of this Island as are usually represented in a map of Europe of the same quantitie And it were in vaine to seek so distinct a survey of every English shire or County in a map of Europe as wee have in our ordinary maps of England But if wee descend to Chorographical platformes of every severall shire every one that knows how to use them may find the distinct place of his birth breeding or dwelling The first and most generall map of mysteries concerning Christ or of the Word to come is that often mentioned Genesis 3. ver 15. I will put enmity betweene thy seede and her seede c. Yet without some further dilatations or representations of this promise made by the Prophets it were impossible for the wit of man to discover any true proportion of those great mysteries which the Evangelists relate although all of them were conteyned in this as in their first head or fountain or as most Chorographicall descriptions are in the Cosmographie of the Universe Very probable it is that our mother Hevah did from this promise conceive that the seede promised should be Vir Iehovah a man which should be likewise the Lord God But questionlesse she did not imagine much lesse beleeve that this man the Lord should be conceived and brought forth of a pure Virgin for such she her selfe was not when shee uttered that speech possedi virum ipsum Iehovah as Fagius upon severall revises reades it Nor could the parents of Noah imagine that their son should be so conceived or borne although as many good Authors thinke they mistooke him as Hevah did Cain for the promised womans seede presume they might without presumption that the promised Messias was to proceed from him according to the flesh but seeing Noah had more sonnes than one it was not to him or to others then living distinctly represented from what branch of his stock he should proceed untill Noah by divine instinct or inspiration did bequeath the birthright unto Sem but Sem had many sons and his posterity was great and it is not probable that Sem himselfe did know from which of them the promised seede should issue untill the blessing which Noah bestowed on Sem was by God himselfe and perhaps by Sem as Gods Embassador bestowed on Abraham unto whom the former mystery concerning the incarnation of the sonne of God was more distinctly represented both by word and fact then it had beene to any of his Ancestors Hee doubtlesse did conceive that the seed in whom all the Nations of the world were to be blessed should be God the sonne of God be borne after a more miraculous manner then his sonne Isaac had beene but Abrahams seed by Isaac became more numerous then any mans before his time had beene and was divided into twelue Tribes In which of these twelue Tribes the promised seed was to be sought for was as uncertaine and as undistinct as if wee should seeke for the topographie of some particular Town of England in an ordinary Map of Europe Iacob on his death-bed points at his parentage in this generality Genesis 49. ver 10. that hee was to spring out of Iudah But God by his spirit directs the Church to seeke him in the Genealogie of Iesse and David in the Land of Iudea David himselfe had a distinct representation that hee should not be his sonne only but that hee who then was his Lord should become his sonne and be made Priest after the order of Melchisedech and no doubt but David conceived withall that this his Lord and sonne should be borne of a virgin not begotten by any man for thus much the holy Spirit which spake to him hath literally charactred unto us in that speech Psa 132. ver 11. Of the fruite of thy wombe will I set upon thy throne c. The same mysterie or the performance of this promise made to David is more distinctly unfolded by Isaiah Cap. 7. ver 14. The Lord himselfe will give you a signe Behold the virgin shall conceive c. But whether this long expected sonne of David should proceede from Salomon or any of his race or from the race or linage of some other sonne of David this was not represented for ought wee read either unto David or Isaiah and sure the Author of the 89. Psalme whether David or rather some later Prophet was nescient of this particular and the interruption or extinction of Solomons line was I take it first revealed unto Ieremiah and Ezekiel and the accomplishment of their Prophesies of Ezekiels especially first acknowledged or observed by the blessed virgine in her Magnificat In Davids time the place of his conception and birth were not discovered Isaiah first points at the place of his conception in particular but aenigmatically Ieremiah describes the place of his conception more plainely yet in a farre greater generality That hee was to be conceived in the Land of Ephraim as it was divided from Iudah Yet haply if Herod had asked his Scribes and others where the King of the Jewes was to be conceived it is questionable whether they could so clearely have resolved him of the place of his conception
Jehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence And I will give thee into the hand of them that seeke thy life and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and into the hand of the Caldeans And I will cast thee out and thy mother that bare thee into another Country where yee were not borne and there shall ye dye But to the Land whereunto they desire to returne thither shall they not returne Is this man Coniah a despised broken Idoll Is hee a vessell wherein is no pleasure Wherefore are they cast out hee and his seed and are cast into a Land which they know not O earth earth heare the word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord Write ye this man childless a man that shall not prosper in his dayes for no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Iudah Ierem. 22. 24 25 26 c. This last clause is to mee a concludent proofe that the man Christ Jesus was not of Ieconiahs seed because he was to sit upon the throne of David and to prosper yea to be the fountaine of all prosperitie to Prince and people And hee that will avouch our Lord and Saviour to have been of the seed of Ieconiah will hardly be able to fend off that coÌ„tradiction which his assertion directly includes not onely to the Angels promise Luk. 1. 33. but unto the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 23. ver 5 6. Behold the day is come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shall raigne and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth In his dayes Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely c. The man Christ Jesus is in this place and elsewhere instyled the branch of David or a stem of the roote of Iesse but no where a branch of Solomon or of his feed which is most probable did determine in Ieconiah whom his Uncle Zedekiah did succeed for a while in the kingdome of Judah but with worse successe For Ezekiels denouncement against him and the Crowne of Solomon was no lesse terrible then this of Ieremiah against Coniah And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquitie shall have an end Thus saith the Lord God Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown this shall not be the same exalt him that is low and abase him that is high I will overturne overturne overturne it and it shall be no more untill he come whose right it is and I will give it him Ezech. 21. 25 26 27. The contents of this denunciation as I take it are these especially Both the Crowne and the Mitre the ensignes of the royall and sacerdotall dignitie were so to be crushed that neither should remaine the same they were The Mitre was to be cast a new but in a farre lesse mould the Crowne to be broken and the reliques of it to be united to the Mitre both put together to remaine but as models of that dignitie which before they generally had untill the royall and princely dignity were united in him that had full right to both that is in the promised seede or Sonne of David The readings upon the 27 verse are various The vulgar Latine following the Septuagint thus iniquitatem ponam eam The Zuricke or Tigurine thus curvam curvam ponam eam And if this reading be just and straight it may serve as a character of that â—â—â—ked descent and tortuous revolution of the civill and Ecclesiasticke power from one Family unto another not settling in any one line untill the coming of the sonne of David unto whom both by right did belong Yet some authoritie in all this Tumble did still remaine in the Tribe of Iudah though not in the race of Solomon or of David untill Shiloh came And I know not whether that cited passage of Ezekiel ver 27. It shal be no more to wit the same that it was untill he come whose right it is have not speciall reference to that Prophecy of Iacob Gen. 49. 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah untill Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be The Septuagint seeme to interpret the name Shiloh according to the same importance that the originall as our English hath it Ezek. 21. 27. whose right it is as if Shiloh had been as much as Asherle cui repositum est But whether according to the ordinary rules of Grammar Shilo may stand for as much as Shello or whether the mysterie conteined in this prophecy might require or dispense with some irregularitie in the grammaticall forme of speech I leave it to accurate Criticks or sacred Philologers and so I do another question which is emergent as well out of the forecited words of Iacob as of Ezekiell whether both prophecies were to be understood of Christs first comming to judge Jerusalem unto which later the words of Ezekiel seeme most to incline for so the originall untill he come to whom judgement belongeth I rest contented with this part of the prophet Ezekiels undoubted meaning that neither the civil nor the Ecclesiastick dignitie of Judah were to be the same they were until the comming of the expected Messiah and yet some reliques of both do remaine untill his comming 5 Some of the Priestly line after this peoples returne from Babylon did take upon them to exercise princely authority as the Maccabees but with more honour for a while then with good successe for posterity Others afterwards did attempt the like but were put by it yet permitted or authorized by the Romanes to exercise the Priestly function some of them executed for their mutinous aspiring to the Crowne Lastly when they became Competitors for the royall dignity it was collated upon Antipater and from him derived or suffered by Augustus to descend on Herod the great in whose daies the promised seede of David the true heire unto the Crowne of Judah was borne But though Herod did exercise royall jurisdiction over Judea aswel as over other neighbouring provinces yet was hee not created King over Judea this was no part of his royall Title bestowed upon him by Antonius The first solemne authorized Title of King of Judah from the captivitie of King Ieconiah and Zedekiah was that inscription written upon our Saviours Crosse written by Pilates command so peremptorily that the Jews could not get a change or reversion of it in any of the three languages wherein it was written Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Pilate I take it did not in this inscription intend the scoffe or scorn of our Saviour or of the Jewish Nation but only the style or Title of the crime for which our Saviour was endited Hee neither affirmed nor denyed him to be the King of the Jews but that which the world might conceive was written in jest or in
of their brethren two hundred thousand women sonnes and daughters and tooke also away much spoile from them and brought the spoile to Samaria Upon this great disaster or captivitie of the people of Judah by these two Kings the Prophet Isaiah did name one sonne of his Shear-iashub as a pledge or token that these captives should returne againe unto their own Land as they did beyond all expectation from Samaria The historie is very remarkable both for matter and circumstance and recorded at large by the author of the 2 booke of Chronicles in the words immediately following the forecited But a prophet of the Lord was there whose name was O ded and he went out before the host that came to Samaria and said unto them Behold because the Lord God of your Fathers was wroth with Iudah he hath delivered them into your hand and yee have slain them in a rage that reacheth up into Heaven And now yee purpose to keepe under the children of Iudah and Ierusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you But are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God Now heare mee therefore and deliver the Captives againe which yee have taken captive of your brethren for the fierce wrath of God is upon you Then certaine of the heads of the children of Ephraim Azariah the sonne of Iohanan Berechiah the sonne of Meshillemoth and Iehizkiah the sonne of Shallum and Amala the sonne of Hadlai stood up against them that came from the warre and said unto them Ye shall not bring in the Captives hither for whereas we have offended against the Lord already yee intend to adde more to our sinnes and to our trespasse for our trespasse is great and there is fierce wrath against Israel So the armed men left the Captives and the spoile before the Princes and all the Congregation And the men which were expressed by name rose up and tooke the Captives and with the spoile cloathed all that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eate and to drinke and annointed them and caryed all the feeble of them upon Asses and brought them to Ieriche the Citie of palme trees to their brethren then they returned to Samaria And so no doubt those Captives which Rezin King of Syria had carryed to Damascus were set at libertie after the King of Assyria had slaine Rezin meeting with Ahaz there But the Edomites and the Philistines both ancient Enemies to the house of David became ungues in ulcere and kept the wound open with tooth and nayle which Rezin Pekah and Zichri had made as it is registred 2 Chron. 28. 17. c. For againe the Edomites had come and smitten Iudah and carryed away Captives the Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low Country and of the South of Iudah and had taken Bethshemesh and Ailon and Gederoth and Shocho with the villages thereof and Timnah with the villages thereof Gimzo also and the villages thereof and they dwelt there After these wounds which these severall enemies had made in the state of Judah Rezin and Pekah with joynt forces beseiged Jerusalem 2 Kings 16. 5 6 7 8. Then Rezin King of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah King of Israel came up to Ierusalem to war and they beseiged Ahaz but could not overcome him At that time Rezin King of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Iews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pelezer King of Assyria saying I am thy servant and thy sonne come up and save mee out of the hand of the King of Syria and out of the hand of the King of Israel which rise up against mee And Ahaz tooke the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the Kings house and sent it for a present to the King of Assyria And the King of Assyria hearkned unto him for the King of Assyria went up against Damascus and tooke it and carryed the people of it Captive to Kir and slue Rezin This unhallowed submission of Ahaz unto the King of Assyria was the very thing which the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah did diswade him from foretelling withall that if he persisted in this purpose of casting out one Divell by another or by the Prince of Divels the later would prove worse than the former On the contrary if Ahaz and his people would relye upon the signe which God had given them or accept of his immediate aide both Rezin and Pekah should within short space be ruinated without either present aide or future evill from Assyria But if they would not beleeve or rely upon him although God for his part would performe the former part of this Prophecie as it concerned the death of Rezin and Pekah and the captivitie of Samaria yet he would bring all the plagues upon Judah which the Prophet Isaiah had threatned by the hand of Assyria whose aid they now sought And yet this present Emmanuel was to be a pledge of a strange defeat of the Assyrian after much mischiefe done by him as well to Judah as to Israel For Hezekiah sonne and successor unto Ahaz was inforced to buy his peace of Senacherib successor to Tiglah-Peleser at as deare a rate as Ahaz had purchased the Assyrians aid Now in the fourteenth yeare of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced Cities of Iudah and tooke them And Hezekiah King of Iudah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish saying I have offended returne from mee that which thou puttest on me will I beare And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah King of Iudah three hundred Talents of silver and thirty Talents of Gold And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the Kings house At that time did Hezekiah out off the gold from the doores of the Temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah King of Iudah had over-laid and gave it to the king of Assyria 2 King 18. 13 14 c. Both this distresse whereunto Judah was now brought and Hezekiahs strange deliverance from Sennacherib or whatsoever the sacred Story 2 Kings 19. or else-where relates concerning both were foretold by Isaiah the Prophet Chap. 8 and 9 as consequences oâ— Ahaz his refusall of the signes which God had offered him and of the signe which God did give to the house of David albeit they would not accept it 11 But to descend unto the parallel betweene the historicall narrations in the Booke of Kings of Chronicles and Intersertions to the same purpose in the prophecie of Isaiah our Euangelists relations how they were fulfilled In the dayes of Ahaz the House of David was brought exceeding low by the Syrians by the King of Samaria by the Edomites and by the Philistines From this extraordinary depression