upon them the waters of the rivers strong and many even the King of Assyria and all his glory and he shall come up over all his channels and goe over all his banks Againe that the name Emmanuel did literally import Gods peculiar presence at that time with his people not only to deliver them from Rezin and Pekah but from the potencie of the Assyrian in future times is evidently included in the 9 and 10 verses Associate your selves O yee people and yee shall be broken in pieces and give eare all yee of farre Countries gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and yee shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall be brought to naught speake the word and it shall stand for God is with us The strange defeat of the confederacie here foretold was not to be expected in the dayes of Ahaz in whose times the Assyrian did attempt no great matters against them but in the dayes of Hezekiah Thus much the Prophets words in the verses following import ver 16. 17. Binde up the testimony seale my law among my Disciples And I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him This binding up of the Testimony and sealing of this Law doth argue both the Law and testimony to have beene of speciall moment yet not to be put in execution or fully accomplished for the present Of the accomplishment of both whether wholly or in part the Prophets sonnes in the interim were signes and pledges as is imported ver 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given mee are for signes and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hoasts which dwelleth in Mount Sion This last passage is alledged by the Apostle amongst others to prove that the Lord of Hoasts himselfe who in the 14. verse of the 8. of Isaiah had promised to be a Sanctuary to his people was to participate with them of flesh and bloud Hee that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee And againe I will put my trust in him And againe Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yet that the 18. verse of Isaiah the 8 to which our Apostle in this place referres us was literally meant of the Prophet and his Children is too apparent to be denied nor will it be safe to stand upon termes of contradiction thus farre with the moderne Jew One of the Prophets sonnes was called Shear-iashub which by interpretation is The remnâ—nt shall returne and of this returne or restauration hee was the signe or pledge The other was called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us a name portending or foretokening Gods speciall presence with his people at more times than one The imposition of both names and their importance were literally fulfilled in the age immediatly following but mistically fulfilled only in Christ whose comming to visit his people was prefigured by both of them The full importance or abode of the name Emmanuel was fulfilled in our Saviours conception and birth the true importance of Shear-iashub shall be mystically fulfilled when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come or when the Jew shall be called to be againe the seede of Abraham according to promise 9. Two points only remaine The first how the prophecie concerning Emmanuel was fulfilled according to the literall sense in the Prophets time and our resolution in this point wee must take from the sacred records of this theame in the old Testament The second how this prophecie was fulfilled according to the mysticall sense and this wee must learne from the Evangelists which alledge the fulfilling of it and other unpartiall Writers which relate either circumstances or signes of those times in which they wrote Out of these two points the parallel betweene the Prophet and Evangelists will of its owne accord without any anxious inquirie or further discussion result 10 The Histories of the old Testament by which Isaiahs literall meaning may be best interpreted are in the 2 of Kings 17 18. 2 Chron. 28. 16 17 c. We have a constat from the prophet Isaiah himselfe Chap. 7. 1 2. That this prophecy concerning Emmanuel was uttered by him in the dayes of Ahaz King of Judah and of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah but in what certaine yeare of either of these two Kings raignes this revelation was made to Isaiah and the matter of it instantly imparted unto King Ahaz is not so certaine Most certaine it is that Isaiah delivered this message from the Lord to Ahaz before the twelfth yeare of his raigne for in that yeare Hoshea the sonne of Elah begun to raigne in Samaria over Israel 2 Kings 17. 1. and this was after Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was dead And though it be not so certaine yet most probable it is that the former prophecy was uttered about the 8 or 9 yeare of Ahaz or about 3 yeares or somewhat more before Pekah the sonne of Remaliah was slaine One yeare or somewhat under we must allow for the conception and birth of the Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz and some two yeares after untill he were upon the point or period of time wherein ordinary Children in those dayes were enabled to know how to refuse the evill and choose the good that is to distinguish between other meats besides milke butter and honey and betweene his parents and other persons Before this Emmanuel or Maher-Shalal-hash-baz were thus enabled to distinguish betweene meate and meat or his parents and other persons but how long before this time it is uncertaine both Pekah sonne of Remaliah and Rezin King of Syria according to the tenour of Isaiahs prophecy and the astipulation made by him upon the signe profered to Ahaz were to be deprived of their Kingdomes or rather their Land and Kingdomes to be quitted of them Isaiah 7. 16. Chap. 8. ver 4. But before their ruine and before this revelation concerning their ruine was made unto the Prophet Isaiah they had brought Judah and the house of David exceeding low 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 7 8. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria and they smote him carryed away a great multitude of them Captives and brought them to Damascus And hee was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter For Pekah the sonne of Remaliah slue in Iudah an hundred and twentie thousand in one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers And Zichri a mightie man of Ephraim slue Maaserah the Kings sonne and Azrikam the governour of the house and Elkanah that was next to the King And the Children of Israel caryed away captive
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
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
Ieremy with death The same practise you have reiterated against S. Stephen Acts 6. ver 12 13. And they stirred up the people and the Elders and the Scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the Councill and set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speake blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law For wee have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shal destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Whether S. Stephen said thus or no I will not dispute but most probable it is that he did never say this in expresse termes because the Text saith They set up false witnesses against him However these false witnesses against S. Stephen did truly prophecy as Cataphas did For Jesus being made Christ did destroy the Temple by the Romanes and abrogated the ceremonies given by Moses because they had made up the measure of their forefathers sinnes who persecuted Ieremy for saying no more in effect then they laid to S. Stephens charge And that which Ieremy threatned was in part fulfilled not long after his persecution and imprisonment For Sion became like Shiloh a desolate place and forsaken of God for a long time yet reedified againe within the age or generation then living so was not Shiloh untill this day Nor hath Jerusalem or Sion been restored since they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers when he came to visit his Temple as Ieremy had done and to be annointed King over Sion 4. All that I have to adde unto the former testimony Ier. 7. is this that our Saviour at this time of his consecration or whilest he was a King or Priest in fieri only did give some documents of his royall power or just chalenge to his right over Judah and Jerusalem in a more special manner then at any time before hee had done For wee doe not reade that he did take upon him to judge betweene party and party in matters temporall nor to dispose of the goods or possessions whether of Jews or of Gentiles save once when he gave the Legion of Devills leave to enter into the heard of Swine and to cary them headlong into the Sea And this hee did immediatly after he had manifested himselfe to be God by commanding the winde and the water as was before declared Before this time he might have said more truly then Samuel did whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Yet now when he came to visit his Temple he gave his Disciples Commission more then royall to take an Asse and her colt for his service to ride on them in triumph as the Prophet Zachary had foretold unto Jerusalem and to Sion And this he did jure dominii by right of Dominion The tenour of the Commission and the execution of it you have distinctly set downe Matt. 21. 1 2 3. And when they drew nigh unto Ierusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives thou sent Iesus two Disciples saying unto them Goe into the village over against you and straight way yee shall finde an Asse tyed and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man say ought unto you yee shall say The Lord hath need of them and straightway he will send them And S. Mark tells us Chap. 11. ver 5. And certain of them that stood there said unto them What doe yee loosing the colt And they said unto them even as Iesus had commanded and they let them goe 5. This manner of his comming to Jerusalem his powerfull visitation of the Temple immediatly upon it and the Inscription which Pilate made on his Crosse some foure dayes after with other remarkable circumstances of the story or journall of that sacred weeke be a pregnant testimony that this Iesus of Nazareth whom wee adore was that King of the Iews and of Sion whose comming Zacharias had so long before foretold But it is not so apparent out of his forecited prophecy either that this King of â—â—on was the God of Sion or that the God of Sion and of Israel was to be made King of both For in that he was God he was the King not of Israel or Iudea only but of all the earth God over all from everlasting to everlasting by right of Creation The next point then in question betwixt the Iew and us is this Whether it may be concludently proved from the literall sense of those Oracles which they adore that he who was the God of Sion and of Israel from everlasting to everlasting were to be made King of Sion in later times or after the gift of Prophecy did cease in Iudea and Ierusalem CHAP. 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not over Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages he had done WEre there no other part or volume of the Old Testament left besides the booke of Psalmes the testimonies conteyned in it which according to the literall sense will abundantly induce this conclusion are for number more and more punctuall then all the testimonies which the Jew can bring out of all other Scriptures that they were to have a Messias or sonne of David whose throne was to be exalted above the throne of David or of Salomon Or if this booke of Psalmes were the only booke whereby both Jews and Christians were to be regulated in points of faith this booke alone would condemne both of such folly and sluggishnesse of heart as Christ our God and Saviour upbraydeth those two Disciples with Luke 24. 26 c. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe He did then enter into his glory when he was made a King of glory and such a King he was not made untill he had endured an harder servitude or condition of life more miserable to flesh and blood then Israel had done in Aegypt or then any of the Prophets whether Psalmists or others had undergone Of this servitude or hard condition of life which was prefigured by matters of fact in most of his Prophets and in all those Psalmists and foretold in all those Psalmes which contayne matter of complaint or imploration of release from oppression in its proper place Wee are now briefely to peruse some of those Psalmes which according to the literall sense imply the exaltation of the God of Israel or of Sion to be the King of Israel or of Sion for this view it would much availe if we knew who were the Authors of such Psalmes and upon what occasion they were penned 2 The Author of the seaventh Psalme was David himselfe and no other as the inscription and occasion of his complaints therein mentioned do manifest The complaints he tenders immediately unto God and yet this God who was to
be awaked was to returne to his throne on high Arise O Lord saith he ver 6. in thine anger lift up thy selfe because of the rage of mine enemies and awake for me to the judgement that thou hast commaunded so shall the Congregation of the people compasse thee about for their sakes therefore returne thou on high The Lord shall judge the people Iudge me O Lord according to my righteousnesse and according to mine integrity that is in me He that is to arise was certainely layd downe and he that is to awake was for the time asleep and he that was to returne on high was questionlesse descended from the highnesse of his throne Nor are these speeches to be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then that judgement of the people which he implores of God I dare not affirme that the 47. Psalme was penned or conceived by David himselfe yet authenticke and Canonicall among the Iewes Now the whole current of that Psalme containes a generall acclamation or gratulatory hymne of God the Lord who was to be made King O clap your hands all yee people shout unto God with the voice of triumph For the Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the earth He shall subdue the people under us and the Nations under our feet He shall chuse 〈◊〉 inheritance for us the excellency of Iacob whom he loued Some passages in this Psalme had their literall verification in the practise of this people at such solemne feasts as this Psalme was appointed to be sung For they did then exhibit such joyfull acclamations as are here charactered and exalt the name of the Lord by hymnes of praise and thanksgiving But both songs and ditties the gestures of both Priests and people which sung them did foresignifie matter of more universall triumphant joy to be communicated to all Nations when God should become such a gratious King over them as he had beene over the seed of Abraham ver 7 and 8. For God is the King of all the earth sing yee praises with understanding God raigneth over the Heathen God sitteth upon the throne of his holinesse Was it the chiefe matter of this publique joy that God should subdue the Nations under the feete of Iacobs posteritie This had been rather cause of sorrow to the heathen Nations then any just cause of cōfort to the Iew if these words according to the literall did import a temporall or civill subjection of the Nations by conquest of sword Nor doth the originall word import any such thing but a voluntary subjection or submission wrought by faire and gentle perswasion And by the unquestionable meaning of the very letter the Nations were to rejoyce in that they were to be thus subdued not to the whole Nation of the Iews but to the inheritance which God had chosen for them or to the excellency of Iacob whom he loved And these as Theodores rightly observes were the Apostles and Disciples whom God had chosen out of the Iewish Nation These indeed have brought not our bodies but our soules and consciences under subjection to the yoake of Christ who was the God whom the Psalmist therefore prophecied should be very highly exalted not by ascending of the Ark into Mount Sion nor by propagation of his Kingdome or gayning a greater multitude of subjects here on earth then he had whilst the Jews only were his chosen people but by erecting a new throne and Kingdome in the highest Heavens where now he dwelleth and executeth the royall judicature which he before did in the Tabernacle or in the Temple there he had a visible throne and a visible mercy seate but there his presence was not alwaies visible nor visible at any time but in type or figure And if wee may beleeve the later Iewish Doctors when they speake unwittingly for us against themselves that solemne festivall wherein this triumphant song was publiquely sung was first instituted and afterwards continued as an anniversary memoriall of the dedication of the Temple or for bringing the Ark into it and that was as much as the inthronization of the God of Israel as peculiar King and Lord of Sion But they themselves do grant that this very Psalme was not only a triumphall memoriall of what was past but withall propheticall and to bee fulfilled in the dayes of their expected Messias And so we Christians see it now exactly fulfilled according both to the mysticall and to the punctuall literall sense in Christ Iesus their Messias though they acknowledge him not now sitting at the right hand of God and designed to be the supreme Iudge not of the Iews only but of all the world of quick and dead 3 That the God of Israel was to become King of all the world to be crowned with Majestie and glory was to judge the world after another manner then from the beginning of it or at that time when these late cited hymnes were consecrated to his praise had been experienced many other Psalmes do so punctually import that without this supposition or this interpretation of them they can have neither any true literall meaning nor conteyne any remarkable truth worthy the note of Selah which is often inserted in Psalmes of this kind The Lord saith the Author of the 93. Psalme reigneth he is cloathed with maiesty The Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himselfe He was to be thus cloathed thus girded with strength not as God but as King The world also is stablished that it cannot be moved Thy throne is established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old â tunc from then that is from the time wherein he was thus to raigne and thus to be cloathed with Majesty And by this establishing of his throne the world was to be established after another manner then it had beene He himselfe indeed as it followeth in the same verse was from eternitie So was not the throne or Kingdome which the Psalmist there doth not only describe but prophecy of his throne is an everlasting throne yet everlasting as we say à parte pòst from the time it was established not from eternitie and so is the kingdome here meant And Psalme 96. 10. c. Say among the Heathen that the Lord raigneth the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved he shall judge the people righteously Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad let the sea roare and the fulnesse thereof Let the Feilds be joyfull and all that is therein then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce before the Lord for he commeth for he commeth to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with his truth All these are characters of times future and that joyfulnesse of the fields and all that is in them c. which the Prophet mentions is I take it no other then the fulfilling or satisfying of the earnest expectation of the Creature wayting for the
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