6 7. 6 The summe of all that the Iew or heathen can object against us for thus interpreting this place or for adoring Christ Iesus whom they crucified as the very God here meant by the Psalmist must amount from that generall prohibition as they will interpret it ver 3. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe or no salvation But yee Christians will they say put your trust in the sonne of man in the sonne of Mary a woman and therefore transgresse the Psalmists precept But admitting these words Put not your trust in Princes c. had beene exprest in this universall forme Put not your trust in any Princes nor in any sonne of man whomsoever for there is no help in any of them Yet such universall rules do usually admit some exception or an exception of some principall particular As when it is said he hath put all things under his feet it is manifest saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 27. that he is excepted who put all things under him though He be more then all things that are put under him And when our Apostle tells us that wee must utterly renounce all workes and only rely on the mercy of God in Christ Yet the renouncing of all workes which is the greatest of all workes must be excepted from this generall rule For he that renounceth this worke cannot come to Christ cannot be partaker of Gods mercy in him And so in this generall prohibition of the Psalmist put not your trust in Princes nor in any son of man that sonne of man must be excepted who is also more then the sonne of man more then any Prince the sonne of God the Lord God of Israell In all other Princes besides this one Prince who was to raigne for ever there is no help no salvation and because they are voyd of help and salvation they are uncapable of our confidence wee may not safely repose our trust in them or upon them But I would demand of the Iew what opinion his Forefathers in the time of Moses Samuel David and the Prophets had of their expected Messias What opinion the seed of Abraham this day living have of the sonne of David whom they expect shal raigne over them Was he in the opinion of their forefathers to be no more then the sonne of man though the son of David If he were to be no more then so there was no confidence by the Psalmists rule to be placed in him they were not to expect help or salvation from him he could be but another David another Sampson another Ioshuah or Moses If he were to be but a King on Earth as many others have beene before him though all others though put together of much lesse power then they expect he shall be yet their expectation of him is fuller fraught with revenge and malice towards others then with hope of any great good unto themselves if so he were to be but a mighty Prince or Monarch not truely God or if his Kingdome were but of this world or to be bounded within the sphere of the Moone for so he might bruise and crush the Nations as Ioshua the Canaanites or David his enemies he could not make all his own followers Kings and Monarchs Nor could Monarchies or Kingdomes make them happy on whom he did bestow them there could be no help or salvation generall either in Prince or Subject The more bountifull he were in bestowing temporall blessings wealth power or honour upon the seed of Abraham after the flesh the greater calamity he should bring upon other Nations How then could he be that promised seed of Abraham in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed Finally if the ancient Iews as I think these moderne Iews will not deny expected help and salvation from their Messias if they taught their posterity to put trust in this promised seed of Abraham whensoever he should be revealed then it is concluded that their expected Messias was to bee that God of Israel whom the Psalmist in the 146. Psalme describeth And this is the fundamentall article of Christian faith unto the acknowledgement whereof this Lord God of Israel in his good time bring the seed of Abraham after the flesh and all others which either deny it or are ignorant of it CHAP 22. That the God of Israel was to become a servant and a subject to humane infirmities was foretold by the Prophets according to the strictest literall sense THough all these Prophecies were punctually fulfilled according to the strict proprietie of the literall sense of God incarnate or whilest he converst with men here on earth in the forme of a Servant which is somewhat more then the forme and essence of a man yet other prophecies there be which more punctually referre unto this estate in particular and unto those grievances which it was impossible for him that was truely God to suffer unjust for any man to suffer who was not by estate and condition a true servant in the strictest sense of this word Now wee read that when Iesus had said to one sick of the Palsey Bee of good Cheere thy sins are forgiven thee the Scribes and Pharisees who were then present begun to reason saying Who is this that speaketh blasphemy who can forgiue sinnes but God alone Luke 5. 21. And for thus censuring his speech they presume they had the warrant of God himselfe Esay 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will remember thy sinnes no more It was most true what from this place they collect to wit that God alone could forgive sins But from the present miracle and the manner of our Saviours conversation with them here on earth and their most wicked dealing with him had they compared these with the words immediately precedent in the Prophet it had beene easy for them to have gathered that he was that only God which did forgive sinnes For so the Prophet had said to this people in the person of his only God Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities This in particular is one of those many places which even by the Jews confession could be literally meant of none but God himselfe and yet could never be literally and punctually fulfilled or verified but of God incarnate For this people did never make God to serve under their sinnes he was never wearied with their iniquities save only whilest he took the forme of a servant upon him and did beare their sinnes in the substance of their flesh 2 Of the same observation is that other place Esay 63. 9 10. In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angell of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and caryed them all the dayes of old But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Therefore he was turned
dwell with the Lamb that the Leopard should lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the Fatling together The forme of speech is figurative and in the language of saecular Rhetoritians Allegoricall And so that other of the Vineyard Isay 5 is parabolically figurative And yet the sense of all these places is in the Schoole of Divinity as truly literall as when it is said The womans seed shall bruise the serpents head or that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed For by the trees wherewith the wildernesse was to be planted by the Wolfe and by the Lamb by the Leopard and the Kid c. divers sorts of men were immediatly meant and to the fulfilling of all or any of the prophecies it was not required that there should be a transformation either of men into trees Leopards Wolfes or Lions c. or of these or like creatures into men For how ever the sense of Scripture in all these places be literall yet it is literally Allegoricall And of the literall or verball Allegory that Maxime is most true Sensus allegoricus non est argumentativus No firme argument can be drawne from the allegoricall parabolicall or other figurative signification of words As wee may not inferre that the wildernesse was to be planted with trees or that the Wolfe and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid were to consort as well together on dry land as sometimes they did in Noahs Arke whilest the deluge lasted before these prophecies could be fulfilled according to the literall sense as this sense in the language of the holy Ghost is opposed unto the Allegoricall For that in the Apostles language is said to be spoken allegorically which is not immediatly foretold or signified by words whether proper or figurative but fore-shadowed by some reall event by mens persons or their offices or by matter of type or fact It is written saith our Apostle Gal. 4. 22 23. that Abraham had two sonnes the one by a bondmaid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bondwoman was borne after the flesh but hee of the free woman was by promise Which things are an Allegory for these are the two covenants The Evangelicall mysteries implied in this Allegory and vnfolded by our Apostle were not immediatly notified by any words or proposition in the history of Sarah and Hagar and their sonnes but onely fore-pictured by matter of fact or by the things themselves which the words according to the literall sense did immediatly fore-signifie For the word Hagar did in that story literally signifie Sarahs handmayd or bondwoman But this bond-woman and her sonne and their estate or condition of life did excellently represent the estate and condition of such as did adhere unto the Law after the Gospell was proclaimed And the Gospell with the happy estate of such as imbrace it was not fore-signified by the name Sarah or by the name Isaac but by their estate and condition who were so named Most of our Apostles Arguments throughout the Epistle to the Hebrewes are drawne not from the literall but from the allegoricall sense Yet God forbid that wee should say or think that his arguments did not conclude I should rather say if it be lawfull to compare sacred testimonies or authorities one with another that Arguments drawne from the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures are most admirably if not most firmely concludent For they are Arguments of proportion and presuppose foure termes at the least either expressed or implied And the Allegoricall sense of Scriptures alwayes includes the mysticall though the mysticall doth not alwaies include the allegoricall For wheresoever any Evangelicall mystery was fore-shadowed by any type by any historicall event or matter of fact there is a latent mysticall sense though not expressed by words or letters 3. But it oftentimes so falls out and as I take it alwayes in testimonies either typically propheticall or prophetically typicall that there is an inseparable concurrence or combination of the literall and mysticall sense though not alwayes after the same manner Sometimes the literall sense according to the same propriety or signification of words doth fit the Antitype or body as well as the type or shadow As whether wee apply that speech Exod. 12. 46. Yee shall not breake a bone thereof unto the paschall Lamb or to Christ who was mystically fore-shadowed by it the literall sense is the very same there is no variety in the signification of the words Christ had as true bones as the Paschall Lamb and the preservation of his bones was literally fore-prophecied in the Law concerning the Paschall Lamb but withall mystically fore-pictured by the observance or practise of that law Sometimes againe the literall sense doth better befit the Antitype then the type As those words fore-mentioned 2. Sam. 7. 14. I will be his Father and hee shall be my sonne are more proper in respect of Christ who was the Antitype then of Salomon who was the type or shadow of his Sonne-ship So that our Saviours incarnation or nativity is collaterally foreprophecyed with the nativity of Salomon and his royall office and favour with God mystically foresignified by Salomons person and office 4. But many times the expressions of the holy Ghost as well in testimonies typically propheticall as prophetically typicall are like inscriptions or mottoes in Impreses or Emblemes Now these Inscriptions besides the plaine literall native sense of the words have a further Symbolicall importance or morall signification No man that sees that devise of bulrushes couched in a swelling streame with this inscription flectimur non frangimur undis but will acknowledge the plaine literal sense to point immediately at them Yet besides this literall sense they have this Symbolicall importance partly implyed in the words themselves and partly represented by the body of the devise that he which gave this devise had learned that lesson of the Poet Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori that he was resolved to stoope awhile unto the iniquity of the times not without hope to beare up his head againe and to overtop his Adversaries after the present tyranny were overpast as bulrushes doe the waters wherein they grow when the flood unto whose violence for a while they yeelded hath spent its strength That forecited saying of the Psalmist Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone in the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes according to the literall sense is terminated to an historicall event then present or fresh in memory And if we may relie upon the authority of the Author of the Scholastick History the historicall event or matter of fact to which these words literally and immediately referre was a remarkable stone for which the builders of the Temple could finde no convenient place in the intermediate structure which yet unexpectedly proved the fittest corner stone
or finisher that they could have desired This saith he was even then acknowledged not to fall out by meer chance or without some further portending meaning or signification The exceptions taken against this tradition avouched by this Author Petrus Comestor are to men acquainted with the manner of sacred expressions of things to come so weake that they adde strength unto it But whatsoever the historicall event were at which these words in the literall sense immediately point wee Christians know that in the Symbolicall or spirituall sense they referre to Christ His exaltation unto Majestie and glory after the chiefe Rulers of the Temple had cast him aside and rejected him as not fit to be entertained amongst Gods people was mystically foreshadowed by that matter of fact or historicall event whereof the Psalmist speakes whatsoever that were yet not expresly foretold according to the direct literall sense of his words but onely signified according to the Symbolicall importance After the same manner the forecited words of the Prophet Isa 22. 23. The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and hee shall shut and none shall open doe in their literall and native sense immediately point at Eliakim of whose office in the house of David a materiall and visible key was the ensigne or pledge as the like is of some great offices in moderne Princes Courts But according to the emblematicall or symbolicall importance both key and office both inscription and matter of fact referre unto the spirituall invisible power of the sonne of David Who hath the keyes of Hell and of death Rev. 1. The keyes likewise of the Kingdome of Heaven and where he openeth no power in heaven or earth can shut nor open where he is pleased to shut That which some call the morall sense of scriptures is alwayes reducible to this generall branch last mentioned to wit to the emblematicall or symbolicall importance of the words expressed as they concurre with matter of fact or reall representation Only there may be a morall sense where there is no prophecy no representation truly mysticall As when it is written Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Corne this law was to be observed according to the plaine literall sense And yet both the law it selfe and its observance from the first date of the letter had that morall which the Apostle makes That such as serve at the Altar should live by the Altar 5. To this branch likewise belong all the significations of legall ceremonies which doe not immediately point at Christ in whom they were exactly fulfilled but at morall duties to bee performed as well by us Christians as by the ancient Jews Christ our Passeover saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. it sacrificed for us Therefore let us keepe the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth This was the true morall of that legall observance of the feast of unleavened bread which was to be kept according to the strict letter of the law whilest the law of ceremonies was in force Concerning this symbolicall or morall sense especially when it is not propheticall Maldonats advise is very good He that will search after such senses must hold close to the letter Propiùs mihi Rupertus videtur in quaerendo morali sensu ad literalem accessisse quod semper faciendum esse ei qui ridiculus esse nolit saepe monumus And of allegoricall mysticall or symbolicall senses which are propheticall or prefigurative none are current or concludent but such as hold exact proportion with the sense historicall 6. Some good Divines there be which would have an anagogicall sense distinct from all these mentioned The Allegoricall Spirituall or Mysticall sense is by them limited to matters already accomplished in the Gospell whereas the Anagogicall reacheth to matters of the world to come But this difference in the subject or time unto which whether words or matters sacred referre makes no formall difference in the sense or manner of the prediction or prefiguration Whatsoever is in Scripture foresignified or intimated concerning the state and condition of the life to come is either literally foretold by expresse words or mystically foreshadowed by matter of fact or notified by some concurrence of prediction and representation and so may be reduced to one or other of the senses mentioned either to the meere literall or to the meerely mysticall or to the literally or symbolically mysticall or spirituall sense CHAP. 13. Of the literall sense of Scripture not assertive but meerely charactericall BUt divine mysteries as was intimated before are sometimes neither notified by expresse prediction or words assertive nor by matter of fact historicall event or type nor by the persons actions or offices of men but represented onely by words or names by notes or letters or other secret characters of speech Now this manner of representing mysteries divine produceth a sense of Scripture distinct from all the former which can hardly be comprehended under one certaine denomination unlesse it be under this negative the literall sense not assertive Or if the Reader desire a positive expression of it he may terme it the charactericall sense To beginne with the first words of Scripture In the beginning saith Moses Bara Elohim The Lord created c. Although these words be assertive yet the mystery of the Trinity is not avouched in Logicall assertion or proposition but only represented or insinuated in the peculiar forme or character of the grammaticall construction if happily it be here either represented or intimated at all For some both judicious Divines and great Hebricians there be as well in the Romish as in the reformed Churches who will acknowledge no intimation of any mystery in this conjunction of a noune plurall with a verbe singular but tell us this forme of speech is usuall in the Hebrew dialect as the like is in some cases in the Greeke For the Graecians as every grammar Scholar knowes joyne nounes of the neuter gender plurall with verbes of the singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These mens authority would sway much with me if I did not finde it counterpoised by observation of Wolphgangus Capito an exquisite Hebrician and discreet searcher of the mysticall sense of Scriptures Now if his observation doe not faile him the construction of verbes singular with nounes plurall is never used amongst Hebrew writers unlesse the noune doe want the singular number In this case alone they doe not extend the signification of the verb into such plurality as is in the noune Contrary to the use of the Latines who to make the adjective and substantive agree in number stretch Vnum one or unity it selfe into a plurall forme as unae literae una maenia which would be a harsh kind of speech in our English or other modern tongues But
dare not either peremptorily affirme or deny The point more questionable and more usefull for our edification will bee to inquire what the Apostle meanes by these words Know yee not that Iesus Christ is in you The branches of the enquiry are two the first what manner of Christs being in them is here to be understood The second what kinde of knowledge they were to have of his being in them or whether for Christ to be in them be all one as for them to be in Christ by the spirit of regeneration and adoption or all one as to be elected that is irreversibly ordained unto glory and whether they were bound to beleeve all this certitudine fidei by the certainty of faith 2. To this wee answer that neither all nor any of those points were necessarily to be beleeved by these Corinthians much lesse by ordinary Christians at this day albeit we grant the word Reprobates to be taken in the strictest sense that is for men irreversibly fitted for destruction For so it may be taken and in my opinion ought to be taken in that place if in any But so taking it wee must rate our Apostles meaning in the words precedent Know yee not that Christ is in you by that peculiar reference which the present estate of those Corinthians had unto the estate of the rebellious Israelites who after so many wonders and manifest documents of Gods peculiar providence over them did tempt him and require further signes whether God were among them or no. Exod. 17. 7. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the Children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord among us or not Unto the same height of iniquitie those Pharisees were come who after they had seene so many miracles done by our Saviour as did fully testifie that he was that very God whom their Fathers had thus tempted in the wildernesse yet came forth unto him and beganne to question with him seeking of him a signe from heaven tempting him Marke 8. 11. And hence it was that this Heavenly Physitian of their soules upon this desperate Crisis sighed deeply in his spirit and said Why doth this generation seeke after a signe Verily I say unto you there shall be no signe given to this generation and he left them ver 12 13. Now these Corinthians after unquestionable experiments of many miraculous effects of Christs power wrought amongst them by the ministry of Paul did seeke after a further proofe or signe of Christs speaking in him 2 Cor. 13. 3. and for their satisfaction he exhorts them to examine themselves whether Christ were not in them not in him alone and this they might know unlesse they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such Reprobates as the forementioned rebellious Israelites were For it could be no other then a Symptome or Crisis of a Reprobate minde or of men rejected by God and left of Christ to murmur doubt or question whether the gift of tongues of healing and other wonderfull effects of Christs power manifested by Pauls ministerie did not truly testifie that his Commission was from heaven or that Christ was amongst them to wit in that Church For so the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in his place to be taken as it is elsewhere in the New Testament as when cur Saviour saith to the Pharisees Luke 17. 21. The Kingdome of Heaven is within you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the power of it is manifested amongst you but he meant not that the Kingdome of heaven was in the hearts of all them to whom he spake And so the Septuagint whom the Evangelists and Apostles follow renders the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the forcited place Ex. 17. 7 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is the Lord in us or no So that neither our Saviours expression nor that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 9. doth inferre any more then we have said 3 It is not all one for any amongst us to doubt or question whether the doctrine conteyned in the Apostles Creede or in the new Testament be the doctrine of life and salvation as to doubt or be uncertaine whether he himselfe be personally in the estate of life or a chosen vessell To doubt of the former generall is infidelity a sinne not incident to a true Christian But many amongst us may doubt of the later point and yet be as good Christians as those who think they have assurance of faith that they are predestinated and condemne all others as Reprobates in the worst sense who doe not as certainely beleeve that they live in Christ as that Christ died for sinners But this was no part of our Apostles meaning in that passage to the Corinthians The question betweene him and them was not about speciall beleife of personall election but about this generall whether he were a true Apostle or no Or whether the miracles which had beene manifested amongst them by his ministery were wrought by the power of Christ or no. If they cōtinued in this doubt or tempting of God they would as he forewarnes them hereby prove themselves to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such as the murmuring Israelites had beene or such as the present generation of the Jews for the most part were that is cast off from being Gods Church or people So that if we take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the strictest and severest sense it rather imports a nationall or provinciall rejection of that people from being his people or from his residency amongst them by his publique Spirit than a personall Reprobation of every particular or individuall For to pronounce thus much of every Jew that hath not adjoyned himselfe to Christs body the Church since the generall rejection of that Nation is beyond my Commission altogether without the praecincts of this present inquisition which was onely to shew the true use of sacred Philologie for finding out the just extent and value of many passages aswell in the old Testament as in the New whose grammaticall sense is for the substance usually plaine but indeterminable for quantity without observance of their peculiar references either to some speciall matter of fact recorded in Scripture or to some sacred passages more ancient 4. What place of Scripture is there lesse controversible for grammaticall signification of the words then that of S. Paul Rom. 9. 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou wilt say unto me Why doth he yet finde fault or chide for who hath resisted his will To this effect an ordinary Scholar in any extraordinary Grammar Schoole in this Kingdome would at first sight render the originall But concerning the extent of the same words takē in this unquestionable sense there is and hath beene much controversie amongst great professors of Divinity Many extend them to Reprobates in generall as if our Apostle had said Why doth he finde fault with Reprobates seeing he
should bee much better in later times then in his age or any age before it was At what time then was this comfort actually exhibited to all flesh which before was but grasse and as the flower of grasse that fadeth Then assuredly when the word of the Lord which endureth for ever did become flesh or was incorporated in our flesh For the life and efficacy of this word as the text literally imports was to be manifested by its admirable effects or operations upon the mortality or weaknesse of flesh Our mortality or miserable condition as the Prophet presumes could not weaken the immortall efficacy of the Word whereas the Word might give life and immortality to all flesh which should see the glory the tast the goodnesse of it By the Word of the Lord then which endureth for ever we are to understand not Verbum Domini not onely the word of the Lord as it is daily preached but the Lord himselfe who if he speake the word great shall be the number of the Preachers of the word both of Prophets and of Prophetesses 2. The best interpretation of the prophet Isa is already made unto our hands partly by S. Peter partly by S. Iohn in the beginning of his Gospell Wee are brone againe saith S. Peter not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1. Pet. 1. 23. By corruptible seed he meanes our corruptible nature as we are the sonnes of Adam For so he expounds his owne meaning in the words of the Prophet before mentioned For that all flesh is as grasse all the glory of man as the flower of grasse the grasse withereth and the flower thereof falleth away Now that which it selfe withereth and falleth away can yeeld no seed of life can minister no comfort unto misery or mortality The antithesis then or opposition requires that by the incorruptible seed of which wee are borne againe we must understand the word of God which endureth for ever or somewhat into which that word doth in speciall manner infuse life or verbum caro factum the eternall word as it is invailed in flesh but in flesh exempted or priviledged from all corruption For it is called the word of God which liveth for ever not so much in respect of its owne life but in regard of its communication of life to such as are destitute of life That this is the true scale of S. Peters meaning we may gather from S. Iohns parallel paraphrase upon the same words of the Prophet Isaiah In the beginning was the word and the word was God c. And hee came unto his owne and his owne received him not but as many as received him to them he grave power or right to become the sonnes of God even to them which beleeve on his name But who are they that rightly beleeve on his name Such as are borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man this is that which S. Peter saith not of corruptible seed but are borne of God And whosoever is borne of God is questionlesse borne of that immortall seed wherof S. Peter speakes The further explication of this point will much depend upon the solution of these two questions The first in what sense we are said to be borne of God The second when miserable and corruptible men were first so borne To assoile the later question in the first place Flesh and blood were not capable of this new birth whereof S. Iohn and S. Peter speake untill that word of God which endureth for ever that word which was with God and was God by whom the world also was made came into the world and being made man was borne of a woman The holy Patriarks Prophets were true heires of this glorious promise but could not be reall possessors of the blessing promised before this time But was the incarnation of the eternall word to this purpose concludently foreprophecyed by Isaiah in that 40. chapter Yes this was the principall part of those glad tidings which the voice of him that cried in the wildernesse was to proclaime as it is expressed ver 5. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together The sight of it was to bee a sight of life and comfort to all flesh and this was the height of that comfort which the sight of this glory exhibited that as they had beene the miserable sonnes of mortall men so they should become the sons of God blessed for ever Now it is evident out of other Scriptures that no flesh could see the glory of God and live save only as the brightnesse of it was to bee alloyed by a vaile a flesh through which the Apostles themselves not all but Peter Iames and Iohn did behold it as weakesighted men do the splendour of the sunne through a cloud Hence saith S. Iohn by way of comment or paraphrase upō the forecited 40. of Isaiah ver 5. The word was made flesh and wee beheld his glory to wit the glory of the word of God which endureth for ever the glory as of the only begotten son of God full of grace and truth And of his fulnesse all that beleeve receive grace for grace When it is said that the sonne of God was made man of a Woman this implies that he was as truely flesh of the womans flesh and bone of her bones as the first woman was flesh of the first mans flesh and bone of his bones But in this the mysteries of the first womans creation is not finally accomplished How was it then so accomplished In this that no sonnes of men none that are borne of women can truely and really become the sonnes of God untill they become flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones who was not made the son of God but was the sonne of God by nature his only begotten sonne before all worlds the light and life of men As thē the word which in the beginning was with God and the sonne of God are but titles of one and the same person so the word of life and the word of God which endureth for ever are but Synonymall expressions of one and the same mystery to wit of the word being made flesh or become visible and sensible unto flesh That saith S. Iohn which was from the beginning which we have heard which wee have seene with our eyes which wee have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life that wee declare unto you For the life was manifested and we have seen it and beare witnesse and shew unto you even that eternall life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1 Iohn 1. 1 2. This life was alwaies with God but came not into the world was not manifested to flesh and bloud untill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word and son of God was incarnate 3. The same Antithesis or opposition which the
THE KNOWLEDG OF CHRIST JESUS OR THE SEVENTH BOOK OF COMMENTARIES VPON THE APOSTLES CREED CONTAINING The first and generall PRINCIPLES of CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIE With the more immediate Principles concerning the true Knowledge of CHRIST Divided into foure Sections CONTINVED BY THOMAS JACKSON DR. in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinarie and President of Corpus Christi Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARKE under S. Peters Church in Cornhill MDCXXXIV REcensui hunc tractum cui titulus est The knowledge of Christ Jesus or the seaventh booke of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed in quo nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quò minús cum utilitate Publica imprimatur modò intra tres menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur Ex Aedibus Lambethanis Octob. 10. 1633. Guil. Bray A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL Arguments of the severall Sections and Chapters contained in this BOOKE SECTION I. OF the beleefe or knowledge of Christ in generall and whether Theologie be a true Science or no. Page 2 CHAP. 1. Of the principall points that Christians are bound to beleeve 3 2. Of Historicall beleefe in generall and how it doth variously affect Beleevers according to the variety of matters related the severall esteeme of the Historians 5 3. Whether such knowledge of God and of Christ as the Scriptures teach be a science properly so called 11 4. Of the agreements and differences between Theologie and other sciences in respect of their subjects that the true historicall beleefe of sacred Historians is equivalent to the certaintie or evidence of other sciences 18 SECTION II. OF the severall wayes by which the mysteries contained in the knowledge of Christ were foretold prefigured or otherwise fore-signified Of the divers senses of holy Scriptures how they are said to be fulfilled with some generall rules for the right interpretation of them Page 25 CHAP 5. Containing the generall division of testimonies or fore-significations of Christ ib. 6. Of the first rank of testimonies concerning Christ that is of testimonies merely propheticall Page 27 7. What manner of predictions they be or of what matters the predictions must be which necessarily inferre the participation of a divine Spirit 30 8. Of the Sibylline Oracles whether they came originally from God or no that the perspicuity of their predictions doth not argue them to be counterfait or forged since the incarnation of the Sonne of God 38 9. Answering the Objections against the former resolutions that God did deale better with Israel then with other nations although it were granted that other nations had as perspicuous predictions of Christ and of his Kingdome as the Israelites had 46 10. Of Testimonies in the old Testament concerning Christ merely typicall and how they do conclude the truths delivered in the New Testament Page 53 CHAP. 11. Of testimonies concerning Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall and of their concludent proofe 58 12. Of the severall senses of Scripture especially of the literall and mysticall 67 13. Of the literall sense of Scripture not assertive but merely charactericall 77 14. That the Scripture is said to be fulfilled according to all the former senses that one the same Scripture may be oftner than once fulfilled according to each severall sense 87 15. Whether all Testimonies alledged by the Euangelists out of the old Testament in which it is said or implyed this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled be concludent proofs of the Euangelicall truths for which they are alledged 106 16. Whether the Prophets did alwayes foresee or explicitely beleeve whatsoever they did foretell or fore-signifie concerning Christ 126 17. Whether divine prophecies or predictions concerning Christ may admit amphibologies or ambiguous senses 139 18. Containing the generall heads or topicks for finding out the severall senses of Scripture especially for the just valuation of the literall sense whether in the old Testament or in the new 160 19. Of the use of sacred or miscellane Philology for finding out as well the literall as the mysticall or other senses of Scripture 179 SECTION III. That the incarnation of God and of God in the person of the Son instiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was foretold prefigured c. in the writings of Moses Of the hypostaticall union betweene the Son of God and seed of Abraham Pag. 201 CHAP. 20. That God according to the literall sense of Scriptures was in later ages to be incarnate and to converse with men with the seede of Abraham especially here on earth after such a peculiar manner as we Christians beleeve Christ God and man did 201 21. That this peculiar manner of Gods presence with his people by signes and miracles was punctually foreprophecyed by the Psalmists 211 22. That the God of Israel was to become a servant and a subject to humane infirmities was foretold by the Prophets according to the strictest literall sense 228 23. That God was to visite his Temple after such a visible and personall manner as the Prophet Jeremie in his name had done 232 24. That the God of Israel was to be made King and to raigne not ever Israel only but over the Nations in a more peculiar manner than in former ages hee had done 241 25. That the former Testimonies doe concludently inferre a pluralitie of persons in the unitie of the Godhead and that God in the person of the Son was to be incarnate and to be made Lord and King 249 26. That by the Sonne of God and the Word we are to understand one and the same partie or person that the Word by whom S. John saith the World was made is coeternall to God the Father who made all things by him 262 27. Why S. John doth rather say the word was made flesh then the sonne of God was made flesh albeit the sonne of God and the word denote one and the same person 281 28. That the incarnation of the Word or of the sonne of God under this title was foreprophecyed by sundry Prophets with the exposition of some peculiar Places to this purpose not usually observed by Interpreters 299 29. Of the true meaning of this speech the word was made flesh Whether it be all one for the Word to be made flesh to be made man or whether he were made flesh and made man at the same instant 320 30. Of the hypostaticall and personall union betwixt the Word and the flesh or betwixt the Sonne of God and the seed of Abraham 330 SECTION IIII. Of the conception and birth of our Lord and Saviour the sonne of God of the circumcision of the sonne of God and the name JESUS given him at his circumcision and of the fulfilling of the types and prophecyes concerning these mysteries Pag. 347 CHAP. 31. The aenigmaticall predictions concerning Christs conception unfolded by degrees ibid. 32. S. Lukes narration of our Saviours conception and birth and its exact concordance with the Prophets 354 33. S
Enunciative partly representative All enunciative or assertive testimonies of Him that was to come may be reduced to the first branch of the former division that is to testimonies meerely propheticall But so cannot all representations of Evangelicall mysteries be reduced to prenotions meerely typicall or prefigurations reall For there may be a true representation or deciphering of mysteries future as well in characters of speech in single words or proper names as by matters of fact by mens persons or offices legall ceremonies or historicall events Wee are then in the first place to treate in generall of prenotions or testimonies meerely propheticall or expresly assertive In the second of prefigurations meerely typicall yet in their kinde Reall as of legall ceremonies of mens persons of historicall events or matter of fact In the third place of prenotions or Testimonies typically propheticall that is in which there is a concurrence of expresse prophecie or prediction and of some matter of fact or reall prefiguration of Christ or mysteries concerning him In the fourth and last place wee are to give some Hints or generall heads of observations concerning prenotions or representations of Evangelicall mysteries meerly literall or verball More particulars of every kinde of prenotions here mentioned shall by Gods assistance be discussed in the particular Articles concerning our Saviours Incarnation Conception birth death and Passion CHAP. 6. Of the first ranke of testimonies concerning Christ that is of testimonies meerely propheticall THese are in number exceeding many yet sundry of them either not well observed or not rightly explained by ordinary Interpreters who as though they thought to supererogate in not observing so many as might be observed or in not fully displaying such as ordinarily are observed oftentimes diminish the number of prenotions typically propheticall to make up the number of Testimonies meerely propheticall Testimonies meerely propheticall we account all such and only such predictions as according to the literall assertive sense of the words and in the purpose of the holy Spirit by whom they were registred are applyable only to Christ himselfe not to any legall type or shadow of him For all such predictions or bare assertions as are literally applyable to any other besides Christ or to others with him belong unto the third member of the former division that is to testimonies or prenotions typically propheticall or at least prophetically typicall For some difference there is though not much betwixt these two expressions as will appeare hereafter 2. All the predictions which wee have in that fifty third chapter of Isaiah are meerely propheticall they cannot be literally avouched of any man of any creature but onely of the Sonne of God himselfe made a man of sorrowes and infirmities for us men and for our salvation Of the same ranke is that particular prophecy of Ieremy Jer. 31. 22. The Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth the woman shall encompasse the man But whether that other prophecie Isai 7. 14. Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel bee meerely propheticall or prophetically typicall will require further discussion in a more convenient place But for that prophecy Zach. 9. 9. Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Sion shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King commeth unto thee a King just and lowly riding upon an Asse and upon a Colt the Fâ—ale of an Asse it is without all question meerely propheticall and can be literally meant of none but of Sions and Jerusalems Saviour alone And however the accomplishment of this prediction might with more facilitie have beene counterfeited by the fraudulent Jew then the accomplishment of any other propheticall testimony before our Saviours comming in this manner to Jerusalem or immediately after it yet for this fifteene hundred yeares and more they have had no possible colour for disguising the truth of the propheticall predictioÌ„ or Evangelicall story how it was fulfilled Though out of their madnesse they might set up a King and cry and shout before him yet have they had no Sion nor Jerusalem wherunto they could have brought him for these fifteene hundred yeares and more nor have they beene permitted to come neere the place where it stood with any other than counterfeit joy being enforced for many generations to purchase the priviledge or liberty of howling over the ruines of that Sion and Ierusalem unto which their expected Messias by the purport of the former prophecie was to come at a farre higher rate then they had bought the delivery of Him into their power 4. That the comming of their King unto that Sion and Ierusalem which then were was foretold by their Prophet Zachary above two thousand yeeres agoe the Iewist Rabbines of this age confesse That this Prophecie was literally meant of their expected King or Messias they do not denie That this Prophecie hath beene already literally fulfilled according to every circumstance wee Christians verily beleeve The particular manner how it was fulfilled in and by our Saviour Christ will have its place in the Article of his Passion and in the manner of his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Now for the better confirmation of our faith unto this generall that all the predictions of the Old Testament which concerne our Saviour Christs Incarnation Death and Passion c. were dictates of the holy Spirit of God who neither deceiveth any man nor can be deceived by man or wicked spirit wee are in the next place briefely to shew how sacred testimonies meerely propheticall concerning Christ exhibit that demonstration of the Spirit whereof the Apostle speakes 1. Cor. 2. 4. unto all reasonable men that will seriously waigh them together with the nature or subject of matters foretold and with the various circumstances of time and place c. wherein they were uttered or fulfilled CHAP. 7. What manner of predictions they be or of what matters the predictions must be which necessarily inferre the participation of a divine Spirit EVery Prophecie is a true prediction but every true prediction is not a Prophecie Any ordinary man that is Arbitrator of his owne actions and master of his word may truly foretell some events projected or seriously purposed by himselfe unlesse death or some extraordinary casualty prevent his accomplishment of them And no wise man will foretell the performance of what he promiseth or the accomplishment of his purposes otherwise then with subordination either expresse or implied unto his good will or pleasure who seeth all things even the very secret purposes of our hearts much better then wee our selves do and worketh all things according to the Counsell not of our will but of his owne However though by his permission and assistance wee make performance of whatsoever was for many yeares before promised or purposed by us yet this is no demonstration of a divine or propheticall spirit in us To arrogate or challenge the name of a Prophet from the truth of such predictions were more
had fore-determined to be done Those things saith Peter Acts 3. 18. which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer hee hath so fulfilled Yet saith S. Paul Acts 13. 27. They that dwell at Ierusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabboth day they have fulfilled them in condemning him So then God is said to fulfill all things which were written of Christ because he did order and direct all the counterplots and malicious intentions of his enemies according to the models and inscriptions which had been exhibited in the old testament Iudas his treachery against his Lord and Master with its accursed successe was exactly forepictured by Achitophels treason against David The malice of the high Priest and elders was foretold and forepictured by the like proceeding of their predecessors against Jeremie and other of Gods Prophets which were Christs forerunners and types and shadowes of his persequutions They then fulfilled the Scriptures in doing the same things that their predecessors had done but in a worse manner and degree albeit they had no intention or ayme to worke according to those models which their predecessors had framed nor to doe that unto Christ which the Prophets had foretold should be done unto him For so S. Peter Acts 3. 17. Now Brethren I wote that through ignorance yee did it as did also your Rulers 5. But here I must request all such as reade these and the like passages of Scriptures not to make any other inferences or constructions of the holy Ghosts language or manner of speech then such as they naturally import and such as are congruous to the rule of faith If wee say no more then this God did order or direct the avarice of Iudas the malice of the high Priest the popularity of Herod and ambition of Pilat for accomplishing of that which he had fore-determined concerning Christ wee shall retaine the forme of wholsome doctrine In thus speaking and thinking wee think and speake as the Spirit teacheth vs. But if any shall say or think that God did ordaine either Iudas to be covetous or the high Priests to be malicious or Herod and Pilat to be popular and ambitious to this end and purpose that they might respectively be the betrayers and murtherers of the sonne of God this is dangerous The orthodoxall truth and wholsome forme of expressing it in this and the like point is acutely set downe in that distinction which for ought I find was unanimously embraced by the Anciēts and by all at this day that be moderate acknowledged to be true Deus ordinavit lapsū Adami non ordinavit ut Adamus laberetur God did dispose or order Adams fall for by his all-seeing providence and all ruling power he turn'd his fall into his owne and our greater good but he did not decree ordaine or order that Adam should fall or commit that transgression by which hee fell For so hee should have beene the Author both of Adams first sinne and of all the sinnes which are necessarily derived to us from him For no man I think will denie that God is the sole Author of all his owne ordinances and decrees or of whatsoever hee hath fore-decreed or fore-determined us for to doe CHAP. 12. Of the severall senses of Scripture especially of the literall and mysticall WIthout knowledge of Scriptures there can be no true knowledge of Christ and to know the Scriptures is all one as to know the true sense and meaning of them intended by the holy Spirit I will not here dispute whether every portion of Scripture in the old Testament admit more senses intended by the holy Spirit than one or whether in some sense or other every passage in Moses writings in the Prophets in the booke of Psalmes or sacred Histories doe point either immediatly or mediatly at Christ or at Him that was to come But that divers places alledged by the Evangelist out of the old Testament to prove that Jesus whom the Jewes did crucifie was their expected Messias admit more senses I take as granted The question is how many senses either the places alledged by the Evangelists or Apostles or other passages in the old Testament may respectively admit And in this Quaere I will not be contentious but onely crave that liberty which I willingly grant to others in all like cases that is to make mine owne division and to follow mine owne expressions of every severall sense or branch of this division that so I may referre the particular explication of every type of every Prophecie or other praenotion of Christ which hath beene fulfilled without perplexity or confusion to its proper or generall head That sense of Scripture in my expression may happily be referred unto the literall which in some other mens language would be accounted figurative or Allegoricall That sense againe according to my division may be reduced unto the literall mysticall or morall which some great Divines make a distinct sense from all these to wit Anagogicall Or admitting all these and more senses of Scriptures I may perhaps sometimes touch upon another sense which is not to my apprehension reducible to any of these 2. The severall senses of Scriptures especially such as more immediatly point at Christ cannot be better notified or more commodiously reduced to their severall heads then by a review of the severall wayes by which God from the beginning did intimate or manifest his will his good will towards mankinde in him and through him which was to come And the wayes by which God did manifest Christ to come were in the generall two either by words assertive and expresse prediction or by way of picture and representation or by a concurrence of both which third way is no way opposite to the two former but rather a friendly combination of them The second branch of this division to wit praenotions of Christ representative may as heretofore it hath beene be subdivided into representations reall as by type historicall event or other matter of fact or into representations meerely literall verball or nominall The first generall branch of this division that is prenotions of Christ delivered in words expresly assertive exhibit to us that which wee commonly call the literall or grammaticall sense For that as best Divines agree is the literall sense or meaning of the holy Spirit which is immediatly signified by words assertive whether legall propheticall or historicall without any intercourse or intervention of any type or matter of fact Whether the words be logicall proper allegoricall or otherwayes figurative skills not much The variety of expressions by words assertive if so the words immediatly expresse the matter foretold without intervention of type or matter of fact doth not divide or diversifie the literall sense As when God foretold that the wildernesse should be planted with pleasant trees Isa 41. 19 c. That the Wolfe should
the plurall Elohim as Capito well observes doth not want its proper singular Eloah Therefore unlesse the holy Ghost had intended the notification of some mystery in the forme or character of his speech Moses would rather have said Barah Eloah then Barah Elohim 2. I am the more inclined to this opinion because many of the ancient and most orthodoxall writers observe a more distinct expression of the blessed Trinity throughout divers places of the first chapter of Genesis from the repetition of the name of God or Elohim in the more perfect workes of severall dayes as in the workes of the fourth day ver 14. And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heavens This is the voice of God the Father giving out his fiat and it is repeated againe ver 16. And God made two great lights This referres to God the Sonne by whom all things were made and by whom these lights were set in the firmament ver 17. It is lastly added ver 18. And God saw that it was good The note or character of the holy Ghost approving what was made by the Sonne from the authoritie of the Father So Moses againe describes the workes of the first day And God said let the waters bring forth abundantly ver 20. And in the 21. he repeates againe And God created great Whales c. And againe God saw that it was good When it is said ver 22. of the same dayes worke And God blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiply this may referre unto the three persons joyntly So in the workes of the sixt day ver 24. God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kinde c. And it is repeated againe ver 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kinde c. And God saw that it was good But when Moses comes to the accomplishment of the sixt dayes worke ver 16. hee alters the forme or character of speech and makes the Verbe as well as the noune plurall And God said Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse This order observed by the ancients in the first creation of all things is admirably exemplified in the manner of mans redemption wrought by the Father Sonne and holy Ghost joyntly yet not without distinction of order in their joynt working in their undivided worke But of this by the assistance of this blessed Trinity hereafter 3. But however the Ancients or such as follow them may faile in this or the like particular search of mysteries from no better hint then the repetition of the same words or matter Yet their endeavour in the generall to finde out deepe hidden mysteries from these or the like superficiall or charactericall prenotions is warranted by the word of God according to its literall or assertive sense For so we are taught by Moses that such repetition of the same things as in secular sciences would incurre suspition of tautology or superfluity of words may be the undoubted character of some matter more then ordinary and more observable then if it had beene represented but once or after one manner onely A secular Southsayer or professed Interpreter of nocturnall representations would have sought after more interpretations than one of Pharaohs two dreames especially seeing the matter represented to him in the first vision was so unlike to the matter represented in the second Yet Ioseph by the guidance of Gods Spirit discovers these two dreames though distinct in time and manner of representation to be for substance but one And Ioseph said unto Pharaoh The dreame of Pharaoh is one God hath shewed Pharaoh what hee is about to doe The seaven good Kine are seaven yeares and the seaven good eares are seaven yeares the dreame is one And the seaven thin and ill favoured Kine that came up after them are seaven yeares and seaven empty eares blasted with the East winde shall be seaven yeares of famine Gen. 41. 25 26 c. And for that the dreame was doubled unto Pharaoh twice it is because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to passe 4. When we say an honest mans word should be as good as his oath wee suppose that this morall integrity or perfection in man hath a farre more exquisite patterne in God Hee is no lesse immutable in his promises than in his oath It is impossible for him to change his minde or to deceive men in the one as in the other To what end then doth hee so often interpose his oath sometimes when hee denounceth judgement otherwhiles for the consolation of men and confirmation of their beliefe in his gracious promises Sure it is one thing to say Gods purpose will or promise is immutable another that the thing purposed will'd or promised by him is immutable The absolute immutability of his purpose or promise can yeeld us no full assurance that the things promised or purposed by him are unchangeable or that sentence denounced though in terms peremptory is irreversible But unto whatsoever promise or sentence wee finde his oath annexed it is an undoubted character a not most infallible that the thing promised is unalterable that the sentence so denounced is irreversible This is one of the most Catholique rules for the right interpreting of many and for the reconciliation of divers Scriptures which otherwise seeme most opposite But the proofe and use of this rule will come under a more full examination in the treatise of our Saviours consecration to his everlasting Priesthood and in some other discussions in what sense God is said to repent in what cases not to repent For both assertions are frequent in Scriptures 5. Sometimes divine mysteries are represented not in some one word or name but in the very character or frame of some one letter or in the addition of a letter or point There is no question amongst us Christians but that he who called unto Moses Levit. 1. 1. from the mercy seat as we gather from Numb 7. was the sonne of God the eternall word who since hath taken our nature upon him and calleth unto us with a voice and mouth truly humane though the voice and mouth of God But at that time he called to Moses not in a loud and thundring voice like that in Mount Sinai but with a soft and gentle voice And this gentlenesse of the voice as the Hebrew Doctors observe and some good Christian Hebricians approve their observation with the mystery foreshadowed by it is charactered unto us by the extraordinary smallnesse of one letter in the originall word 6. The like mystery is represented unto us after the same manner Isa 9. 7. c. The Prophet displaying the titles of the Messias and his kingdome contrary to the rules of ordinary Orthography mutat quadrata rotundis beginnes the Hebrew word rendred by our English of the increase with Mem rotundum with a round letter instead of a square And this unusuall character the Jewes
writers in the literall and proper sense As when Saint Matthew to use his instance saith Chap. 1. 22. That which was spoken by the Prophet behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel was fulfilled in the blessed virgin The rule is true and without exception but the illustration of it is not so fit as Maldonat supposed For that saying of the Prophet Isaiah was fulfilled more wayes than one perhaps according to all the foure severall wayes which he conceived in the conception birth and name of our Saviour Jesus Christ Secondly the scripture is said to be fulfilled when that comes to passe which was foreshadowed by the proper and immediate subject of the Prophets speech As that saying Exod. 12. 46. Yee shall not breake a bone of it was properly and immediately meant of the paschall Lambe yet fulfilled in our Saviour Christ of whom the paschall Lambe was the type or shadow Unto this second rule or branch hee likewise referres that prophecy 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a sonne This was fulfilled in Christ as the Apostle teacheth Heb. 1. 5. though properly meant of Salomon as Maldonat takes it for granted although some judicious Commentators of the Romane Church in his time doe question or rather peremptorily yet too boldly deny it However this second rule of Maldonat is good and acknowledged by all only his expression of the two instances needs some correction for the first place alleaged by him was as literally and as properly meant of Christ as of the Paschall Lambe and the second more properly meant of Christ than of Salomon though literally and properly meant of Salomon and fulfilled in him The truth is that both places were two wayes fulfilled both in the literall and mysticall sense and the second twice fulfilled once in the literall and againe both in the literall and mysticall sense 3. Thirdly saith the same Author the Scripture is said to be fulfilled when neither that which was literally and properly pointed at by the Prophet nor that which was fore-shadowed by it comes to passe but some other thing which is so like unto it that the same speech may as aptly and as handsomely be applyed unto it as unto that which was properly and literally meant For illustration of this third rule he alleageth that of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 29. 13 14. For as much as this people draw neere unto me with their mouth and with their lippes doe honour me but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare toward me is taught by the precept of men Therefore behold I will proceed to doe a marvellous worke amongst this people even a marvellous worke and a wonder For the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid This saith Maldonat was properly meant of the Jewes which lived in Isaiahs time and yet our Saviour Matt. 15. 7 8. gives us to understand that this was fulfilled of the Jewes which conversed and disputed with him Yet Hypocrites well did Isaiah prophecy of you saying This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth mee with their lips but their heart is farre me Unto this third rule or observation Maldonat would draw that other saying of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their heart and convert and be healed Yet this prophecy as our Saviour expresly tells us Mat. 13 14. was fulfilled in the Jewes to whom he spake Ore tenùs in parables And so doth S. Paul Acts 28. 26. where he expounds the Orthodoxall meaning both of our Saviours the Prophets words The truth of this third rule will come in some question in the next chapter but admitting it for the present to be orthodoxall and true yet the instances or illustrations are impertinent For all the passages alleaged by him were more literally and more properly meant of the incredulous Jewes which conversed with our Saviour than of those Jewes which were the Prophet Isaiahs coëvalls as the understanding Reader will easily collect from the 12. of Iohn 41. being compared with the forecited 6 of Isaiah The fourth way by which in Maldonats observation the scripture is said to be fulfilled is when that which was foretold or prefigured though already done in part or begunne to be done is afterwards more constantly and more fully done The observation or rule is unquestionably true but it is not a rule or branch distinct from the two first but rather a transcendent to all the wayes according to which the scriptures may be rightly said to be fulfilled 4. And these wayes can be neither more nor fewer then are the ways by which God did either foretell or prefigure things to come and to be accōplished in Christ Some predictions were meerly prophetical some prefigurations were meerely typical other meerly literal or charactericall And unto these their commixtures all the Testimonies or prenotions cōcerning Evangelical mysteries have bin reduced Now according to all these wayes the scripture is said to be fulfilled Where the testimony is meerly propheticall that is such as is literally applyable to Christ alone the scripture is said to be fulfilled only in the literall sense When the testimony or prenotiō is only typicall as when the representation is made by matter of fact or historicall evēt in this case the Scripture is fulfilled only according to the mysticall sense and after this maner most of the legall ceremonies are said to be fulfilled in Chr. The history of the brasen Serpēt was mystically fulfilled in his death upon the crosse the story of Ionas his imprisōmēt in the whales belly was thus fulfilled in his buriall 3 dayes abode in his grave the Ceremony or rite of offering the first fruits was thus fulfilled in his resurrectiō Where the testimony prenotion is both typical prophetical as is that of the Paschal Lamb of the stone which the builders refused there the Scripture is fulfilled both according to the literall the mysticall sense whether the words as they are referred to Chr. be logicall proper or whether they be allegori or symbolicall yet can we not say that these Scripture were fulfilled as well in the type as in Christ but in Christ alone For neither of these passages Yee shall not breake a bone of it the stone which the builders refused were propheticall in respect of the type but only in respect of the mysteries typified And no Scripture is said to be fulfilled otherwise then as it is either a prediction or prefiguration of somewhat to come But where the testimony is prophetically typicall there one and the same Scripture is twice fulfilled both in the type and in the antitype as that 2 Sam. 7. I will be
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
Christ and of the Psalmist though propheticall only in respect of Christ Every religious man which had a religious woman to his mother might frame his prayers in the same literall forme that the Psalmist useth Psal 116. 16. O Lord surely I am thy servant I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid Yet in as much as this Psalmist who ever he were was a type of Christ that which he spake and meant of himselfe in an ordinary and common sense was fulfilled of Christ in the most exquisite sense whereof these words or letters are capable For he was the sonne of an handmaid of Gods handmaid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a peculiar manner as no sonne of man before him was nor after shall be And hee was the servant of God in such a sense and after such a manner as no man could be no man would desire to bee save only that man who was the eternall and only son of God But of this Title of the sonne of God his being the servant of God in his proper place 10. The Psalmist againe did questionlesse both act and pen his owne part when he thus exclaimed Yea mine owne familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eate of my bread hath lift up his heele against me Psal 41. 9. This was but an expression of some intolerable ingratitude and wrong either past or then in working the speech was neither altogether figurative nor hyperbolicall but a typicall prophecy of Iudas his Traitorous dealing with his Lord and Master and in Iudas alone it was properly fulfilled according to the most exquisite and most punctuall literall sense that could have beene devised For Iudas being in an office of trust did then lay waite for his masters life and did then fully resolve upon his intended treason when he was in the messe and dipt his finger in the same dish with him The Father of lyes of treason and ingratitude did enter into his heart at the same instant wherin he devoured the bread his master had reached unto him By the speedy and more disastrous issue of this prodigious Treason preventing the Traitor for triumphing in his masters death as his bloody confederates did this people might have knowne that Christ was the man whom God did favour whom the Psalmist did foreshadow in his complaint and of whose resurrection he prophecied in his prayer Ver. 10 11 12. But thou O Lord be mercifull unto me and raise mee up that I may requite them by this I know that thou favourest me because my Enemy doth not triumph over me And as for me thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face for ever All that the Psalmist here pens was more exquisitly acted by our Saviour if we subduct the imprecations upon his enemies which the Psalmist mingles with his prayers for himselfe 11. The Author of the 69 Psalme were hee David the sonne of Iesse or some other so enstiled for the same reason for which Iohn Baptist is by our Saviour himselfe called Elias did not utter that complaint without some urgent cause or pressing occasions Ver. 20 21. Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heavinesse and I looked for some to take pity but there was none and I looked for comforters but I found none They gave me also gall for my meate and in my thrist they gave me vinegert◠drinke These passionate expressions could hardly proceed from such sympathy as a pure propheticall vision of what the malignant Jewes would do for many generations after unto Christ was likely to raise They seeme live characters of experienced griefe and sorow and it may be the Psalmist was then a prisoner fed with the bread of affliction and compelled to drink water as bitter as his bread was nasty But whatsoever the Psalmist here speakes of himselfe and of his miserable perplexities though in an high and tragicall straine or in a sense somewhat hyperbolicall was we know fulfilled in Christ according to the literall and punctuall sense Briefely all the Psalmists and other Prophets in all their causelesse and undeserved sufferings at the hands of worthlesse and malitious men were true types and yet no more than types or shadows of Christ in his agony and bloody passion But in their importunate and bitter imprecations uttered in their guiltlesse sufferings they were not so much types as foyles of his unspeakable patience meeknesse and long suffering for he never prayed against his enemies as the Prophets did but alwayes for them Their demeanour in their calamities disgrace or torments was such as did shew themselves to be but men His alwayes such as did declare Him to be what he often said of himselfe truly God And yet the bitter imprecations which the Psalmist and other Prophets used in their indigne sufferings or against the malitious enemies of his Church and people did by divine inspiration prove most exact typicall prophecies of all the Calamities which befell the Jewish nation after they had declared themselves to be the enemies of the God of their Fathers and put the Lord of life their promised Messias to death As in particular and for instance that imprecation of this Psalmist ver 23. unto the 28. with that other Prophecy Isa 29. S. Paul did see in part fulfilled in the Jewes of his time Rom. 11. 8 9 10. According as it is written God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare unto this day And David saith Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a slumbling block and a recompence unto them Let their eyes be darkned that they may not see and bow downe their back alway This imprecation made by the Psalmist but never resumed by our Saviour did fall upon them by the law of retaliation Therefore their Table became a snare unto them because they gave the sonne of God gall for meat◠and vineger in his thirst to drink But in what sense his death or the indignities which they put upō him was the cause of Jerusalems destruction extirpation of the Jewish Nation is more fully set downe in other meditations somewhat of which may if need so require be inserted in proofe of the undoubted truth of the Articles of his resurrection and ascension against the Jewes CHAP. 15. Whether all Testimonies alleaged by the Evangelists out of the old Testament in which it is said or implyed this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled be concludent proofes of the Evangelicall truths for which they are alleadged IT would require a great deale of diligence in later Divines to redeeme the negligence of former either in not observing or in not transmitting their observations to posterity at what time on what occasions and by whom the severall Psalmes were written For that all of them were written at the same time or by the same hand is no way probable in it selfe nor so accounted
kept secret from the foundation of the world Matt. 13. 35. This was the mysticall sense of the Psalmists words and according to S. Matthewes literall expression of them they necessarily import the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven and so all the parables which our Saviour used in that Chapter as he there useth many respect the Kingdome of Heaven and were hard and darke to such as were not of Christs disciples or such as the Psalmist there describes A stubborne and faithlesse generation It is true therefore which Maldonat in his second animadversion saith that the cause why our Saviour spake to his common Auditors in parables was because they were unworthy of cleerer revelatioÌ„s uncapable for the time of greater talents having used their former ordinary talents so ill Thus our Saviour resolves his Disciples ver 11 12. Vnto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven but to them it is not given For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that hee hath And to the same effect the Psalmist had prophecied or forewarned this generation even all generations following It was then an allegation unconcludent and impertinent and no way beseeming Maldonat to say our Saviour did not speake in parables to the end that Davids sayings might be fulfilled but because this present generation did deserve no other language For these two are no way opposite but subordinate And if it be ill for men to separate those things which God hath conjoyned it is much worse to set things at oddes or in opposition which the Spirit of God hath made coordinate or set in concord Now both these assertions as well that which Maldonat refuses as that which he approves have a divine truth in them First it is most true that our Saviour did speake unto the multitude and to the Pharisees on whom they relyed in parables because they were for the time unworthy of such declarations as he made to his disciples for the increase of their talent which they had used not so much amisse as the others had done And no lesse true it is that the Psalmist did foreprophecy that the posterity of Israel from his owne time untill the comming of the Messias should be more unworthy hearers of divine mysteries then their forefathers had beene unlesse they seriously repented both their owne sinnes and the sinnes of their forefathers So that our Saviour did speakâ—â—nto them in parables for these two reasons First because they were unworthy hearers Secondly to the end his disciples might know and beleeve that this manner of speaking was foreprophecied by the Author of the 78. Psalme 4. Maldonats first animadversion was that this Latine particle ut or the greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie the cause of what is said or spoken but sometimes the event only How true soever this be it no way prejudiceth the truth now delivered by us For it will not follow that this particle ut either in this place of S. Matthew or in any other place where it imports the fulfilling of Scriptures doth not signifie the cause because it sometimes or oftentimes signifieth the event only But seeing the right use of this particle or the knowledge of its severall references is much conducent to the just valuation of many testimonies which have beene and must be hereafter alleaged out of Scriptures it will be very usefull in this place to unfold its severall significations or importances once for all Sometimes this particle as well in the Greek as in the Latine and in our English is transitive only and imports neither any true cause nor the event as in that of our Saviour Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternall that they may know thee the only true God The resolution of which words without any wrong either to their full importance in logicall construction or to their grammaticall elegancy is but this Cognoscere te esse verum Deum est vita aeterna To know thee to be the onely true God is eternall life From this use or importance of this particle ut that other which Maldonat makes is not different or no otherwayes different then the end of a transition or passage is from the passage or transition it selfe as when our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 34. I send unto you Prophets and wisemen c that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel c. God forbid any good Christian should referre this particle That unto the first words Behold I send unto you Prophets c and by this meanes conceive the end and cause why God did send wisemen and Prophets unto them should be this that all the righteous blood shed by their Fathers should be required of this generation it refers only to those words Some of them shall yee kill and crucifie c. The true importance is as if he had said yee shall or you will goe on in your Fathers sinnes so farre and so long untill at length the blood of all the righteous whom your Fathers have slaine shall come upon you Or as S. Luke hath it shall be required of you So that the importance of this particle ut in this place denotes the event of their practises or resolutions not the finall cause of the Prophets comming unto them And it is the same with that which S. Paul expresses in the infinitive moode Rom. 1. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end why God did manifest himselfe unto men in the booke of his Creatures was that they might know him to be God and glorifie him as God And it was the ample measure of manifestations made to this end which left even the Heathens themselves without Apologie or just excuse and according to this importance of the particle ut as it noteth onely the event or some transition to the event many good writers would value that of S. Iohn chap. 12. 37 38. Though he had done so many miracles before them yet they beleeved not on him That the saying of Esaias the Prophet might bee fulfilled which he spake ut impleretur ille sermo Lord who hath beleeved our report and to whom hath the arme of the Lord beene revealed And I could wish that Maldonats animadversions upon the forecited 35. verse of Mathew the 13. had beene as Orthodoxall or discreet as they are upon this place of Iohn For of such Commentators as I have read none speakes more pertinently or more discreetly to the difficultie wherewith that place is charged unlesse it be his brother Tolet who hammers out Athanasius his exposition as learnedly and more fully as Maldonat doth upon the expositions of other Greeke
a review of the different wayes or manner how things future were foretold by the Prophets Now of divine testimonies or predictions some were meerely propheticall others prophetically typicall and both these stemmes againe did divide themselves into more branches Some predictions meerely propheticall were delivered in a plaine grammaticall or historicall sense of words others in termes allegoricall or enigmaticall Of such predictions meerely propheticall as are expressed in the plaine grammaticall or historicall sense of words some did referre to one matter or fact or to some determinate point of time and in the intention of the holy Ghost were to be but once fulfilled Others according to the same literall sense were to be fulfilled sometimes in the same sometimes in a different measure oftner than once at divers times and in severall ages Of such predictions as were to be but once fulfilled and that according to the plaine literall sense this affirmative is universally true The Prophets had alwayes a distinct knowledge or apprehension of the summe or substance of the events which are said to come to passe that their saying might be fulfilled Search all the predictions of our Saviours Incarnation Nativity Circumcision of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension Whatsoever places in the Prophets doe literally referre to these points were to be but once fulfilled For our Saviour was to be but once incarnate but once to be borne to die but once to be raised from death once for all Now if the Prophets which did literally foretell these things had not distinctly foreseene the substance at least of these Evangelicall mysteries they must either have raved in their predictions as it is presumed the heathen prophets or Apollo's priests used to doe or else have foretold them onely after such a manner as Caiaphas did foretell his death And the fulfilling of their prophecies though according to their plaine literall assertive sense could not prove them to have been Prophets properly so called that is men indowed with the true spirit of divination For no man I thinke will say that Caiaphas was thus qualified although hee prophesied in some sort of our Saviours death Ieremy surely did foresee that the promised seed should be conceived of a pure Virgin when he uttered that prophecy chap. 31. 22. So did Esaias foresee that the Messias whom they continually expected should be despised of many should be a man of sorows should dye and rise againe when he uttered that Prophecy chap. 35. v. 3. But we have not the like inducement to beleeve that hee did so distinctly apprehend that the expected Messias should be brought up in Nazareth although this was foretold by him chap. 11. 1. not in the plaine literall sense but enigmatically 4 Where the prediction according to the plaine literall sense was in the intentiō of the holy Ghost to bee oftner fulfilled than once the Prophet which foretold it did alwaies distinctly foresee the evēt in the first place foretold or the first fulfilling of his own predictiō There is not the like necessity for us to beleeve or think that he had the like distinct foresight or apprehensiō of those events in which one the selfesame prophecy was the secōd third or fourth time to be fulfilled Esaias distinctly foresaw the future inclination of these Jewes by their present disposition to draw neere to God with their lips and bee farre from him in their hearts and that their hypocrisie if continued would worke their destruction otherwise he had but raved or but spoken by guesse but that the matter of this his reproofe or Propheticall admonition should be more exactly fulfilled of the Jewes sixe hundred yeares after his time as it was wee cannot determine whether he did foresee this or no. In that vision made unto him chapter the 6. he distinctly foresaw this peoples pronesse to winke withtheir eyes to harden their hearts unto their own destruction and desolatiō of their Country out of his distinct foresight hereof hee did deliver his message in an imperative sense excaeca obdur a make blinde their eyes and harden their hearts which in the propheticall use of these words is usually as much but no more as if he had said I am commanded to forewarne you of such a spirit of slumber and hardnesse of heart now creeping upon you that unlesse you repent your Cities shall be desolate c. But albeit we resume what we formerly granted and cannot now deny that Esaias had a distinct apprehension of our Saviours death and resurrection yet whether he had the like distinct apprehension or foresight of that excecation and obduration of his people which did presage the second desolation of Jerusalem and destruction of the second Temple as he had of the former made by Nebuchadnezzar is questionable And the more probable part of the question is that he had not Of the returne of Iudah from the Babylonish Captivity Esaias as appeares from the 6. chapter had a true prenotion yet neither so full nor distinct as the Prophet Ieremy had when he saw the Captivity come upon them For from the booke of Ieremy not of Isaiah Daniel a Prophet no way inferiour to either of them learned the distinct time of his captived peoples returne to their owne Land As for the time of the second Temples destruction or for the destruction of it at all that Daniel did neither learne from the prophecy of Isaiah or of Ieremy or of any bookes before extant for it was revealed unto him immediately from the Author of truth himselfe and after such a manner as that we cannot reasonably imagine either the substance or circumstance of what was then revealed to have beene knowne to any Prophet before him And yet it is true that divers prophecies both of Isaiah and of Ieremy were more exactly fulfilled in the desolation of Judah by Titus than they had beene fulfilled in the former desolation by Nebuchadnezzar 5 But predictions prophetically typicall as well as testimonies meerely propheticall were of two sorts In some such predictions the plaine literall sense did fit the antitype as well as it did the type as in the prediction before mentioned I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a son in the like Psal 72. In others the literall inscriptiō did fit the type only according to the plaine literall or logicall sense and the antitype only in the morall or symbolicall sense Of both sorts it is true that the Prophets alwaies had a view or apprehension of that which was immediately foretold according to the literall sense or of the first fulfilling of it the case is the same as it was in testimonies meerely propheticall But of that which was immediately signified not by words but by some matter of fact or historicall event whereto the words in the literall sense immediately referre of such second events or of the fulfilling of the Prophecy both according to the literall and mysticall sense the Prophets had not
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
if we should not glorifie Christ as God but when it is said that we are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles the meaning is nor that wee are bound to ground our faith only upon the actuall apprehensions or intentions of the Prophets and Apostles but especially upon the intent and meaning of the sacred Spirit by whom they spake and were inspired For as I said before they were sometimes or in some respects his agents in others his Organs only Nor are we bound to beleeve that his inspirations or instructions such as concerne the particular point whereto they spake were alwayes comprehended by those that were plentifully inspired by him For his inspirations were oft times more plentifull then their capacity was and yet the overflow not spilt but plentifully diffused to after-ages in matter of fact or historicall event if wee doe not so much contēplate these in themselves as the sweet disposition of them by the divine All-seeing Providence Lastly in those places of propheticall predictions which admit either amphibology of construction or equivocall sense of words or both it was not necessary that the Prophets themselves should distinctly apprehend both constructions or senses but only that which they intended and yet their sayings might be and have beene fulfilled in both Yet this last branch of the resolution of the former question will bring forth another whether the prophecies of the Scriptures without prejudice to their sacred truth admit amphibologies or equivocall literall senses CHAP 17. Whether divine prophecies or predictions concerning Christ may admit amphibologies or ambiguous senses WEre I in this place to meddle with the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament a point which in due time and place will come to be discussed in these Commentaries I should surely balke that saying of S. Peter Acts 3. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is in our reading Whom the Heavens must receive or containe untill the time of restitution This one place in some mens judgements will sufficiently conclude for us in that great controversie concerning Christs transubstantiall or consubstantiall presence in the Sacrament For if the heavens must containe his body or humane nature untill the time of restitution he neither is nor can be present according to this nature in the Sacrament whilest it is celebrated here on earth But to this allegation the Lutherane long since hath shrewdly replyed by making a quite contrary construction of the words alleaged without alteration of any letter or point though not without some amphibologie in the whole sentence besides an equivocall or double signification of one word First then it cannot be denied that the words forecited may without violencence to any rule of grammar be construed as if they were thus transposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it He must receive the Heavens rather then the Heavens him And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without fraud or covin may import as much as to take the possession or government of heaven which our Saviour after his resurrection did and is to retaine both possession and dominion of heaven and all things else untill the time of restitution whereof S. Peter there speakes For so Camillus is said by a good Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have received the citie that is to have taken the government of it upon him And the Hebraisme whereof the Greeke in the new testament hath for the most part some tincture or rellish is not averse from this interpretation For so saith the Psalmist speaking I take it by way of propheticall type of our Saviours exaltation When I shall receive the Congregation I will judge uprightly Psal 75. 2. Now our Saviours receiving of Heaven and of the world it selfe in this sense is without interruption without dispensation for he is perpetuall Governour of it But that Heaven doth so indispensably receive or containe our Saviours body or humane nature that he may not at any time goe or be out of it untill the time of restitution or the last day is more then any man safely may affirme Surely he was present with S. Paul and was seene by him after another manner then he is present with or seene by the Lutheranes or Papists in their Sacraments And how erroneous soever their doctrines concerning the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament be this text can be of no great use to refute them 2. Yet some have replyed upon the Lutheran that by the forecited interpretation of this Text they make S. Peter a most sacred Writer doubtlesse to speake in the language of Ashdod as ambiguously as Apollo whilest he did best deserve or brooke the stile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever did in his heathenish oracles But this reply with what eloquence soever it might be pressed upon the Lutherans may by them be as easily and yet as forcibly retorted upon such as make it For if it be a fault to grant that these sacred oracles may admit amphibologies or a scandall to give such interpretations as may occasion others thus to conceive of them the fault and scandall for ought I conceive must be equally divided betweene the Lutheran interpreters and their opposites For if either would yeeld to other in their interpretations of this text either for the right placing or construction of the words or for the various signification of one and the same word there could be no scandall given or taken Hee in this case gives the greatest scandall if a scandall it be to grant Amphibologies in propheticall or Apostolicall writings who is most peremptory in his owne opinion or faster wedded to the interpretations of his owne sect or faction For my selfe I thanke God I can with patience and christian charity permit either party to imbrace their own interpretation of this place being fully resolved that to grant either amphibologicall or equivocall senses or both in one and the same sentence whether of morall or propheticall writings can be no prejudice to that sacred esteeme which all men ought to have and may have of them And he that will take upon him to distinguish the dictates of the holy Ghost from the answeres of Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this division or difference that the one did admit ambiguous constructions whether for amphibologies or equivocall senses which the other doth not admit shall in this doing neither much prejudice the heathen Apollo nor much magnifie the Oracles of God 3. To the objection we are to answere anon Our position for the present is that many passages as well in the Prophets as other sacred oracles may and doe admit both Amphibologies and ambiguous senses and that the same prophecies are oft times fulfilled according to both senses that in the interpretation of morall precepts which are ambiguous we doe not offend unlesse we chuse the sinister or lesse safe part in our practise It is so in this case as in doubtfull opinions the one part is usually more safe
the sufferings of death as our Apostle hath it ver 9. But to bee made lower than the Angels after this manner was to be made a great deale lower than they or the meanest of men as the sonne of man was though but for a little time 6 But the utmost extent of that varietie of senses which may arise either from the different signification of one and the same word or from amphibologie of construction from diversitie of points or change of letters is not infinite And if we should examine all the possible changes of points or letters which the Rabbins or others imagine there will not appeare any such difference throughout the whole Bible for the qualitie or moralitie of the severall senses thus occasioned as the alteration of one poynt often doth in secular writings not any such as was in that ambiguous answer which a Bishop of this Land sometimes gave to a wicked proposall Edvardum occidere nolite timere bonum est Had be pointed this saying as it might have beene pointed his counsell had beene good and Ghostly but leaving the pointing of it to their discretion which asked his resolution his dealing was impious and diabolicall But the Founder of an Abbey did leave this inscription upon the frontispice thus rightly pointed Porta patens esto nulli claudatur honesto The turning of one point out of his place thus Porta patens esto nulli claudatur honesto did turne the Abbot as the tradition is out of his place Sicque anum ob punctum perdit Robertus Asylum But the varietie of pointing or changing letters which hath beene by divers imagined in the Hebrew exposeth no man to the like danger can give no countenance to any lewd or wicked practises A various reading may sometimes hinder or incumber the true mysticall or spirituall sense it never depraveth the morall sense and oftimes againe it furthereth the true and mysticall sense As that place of Ieremy chap. 25. ver 38. is very ambiguous and variously rendred by divers good interpreters Some read the Land shall be desolate because of the fiercenesse of the Grecian as if Greece had taken the name of Iönia from the Hebrew Ionah which is the word used in that place Others and those of good note reade because of the fiercenesse of the Dove most of moderne writers read because of the fiercenesse of the oppressor or Tyrant The participle or the verball as some good Hebricians observe is both active passive either an oppressor or an oppressed From the passive signification the Dove hath its name in the Hebrew because it is so simple a creature exposed to oppression without active ability to oppresse others Howsoever we translate it in this place or in the like Ierem. 46. 16. there will be no danger in the morall sense nor no controversie about the fulfilling of this prophecy in Nebuchadnezzar who was no Dove for disposition unlesse it were for his folly after his conquest of Aegypt and the neighbour countryes 7 Yet dare I not condemne the vulgar translation or some ancient Interpreters who follow the vulgar or the same translation which the vulgar makes Neither of them as in charity I presume being ignorant that the words may beare the same translation which the most now follow Both of them might have better reasons of the two knowne senses which the originall might well beare to choose that sense which they imbrace than I have to approve the contrary For however the Dove be a silly impotent creature in it selfe yet was it a nursing mother as some ancient writers say unto Semiramis that great Foundresse of Babylon and was the royal ensigne of the Babylonish Empire sometimes as terrible to the Easterne Nations as the Roman Eagles were to the Westerne And it is not unusuall even for sacred writers to decipher the tyrannicall or revenging power of greatest Soveraignties by their Ensignes whether these were by nature terrible or weake And thus our Saviour himselfe describes the sagacity and potency of the Romane forces by their Ensignes This latter reading à facie columbae doth much better characterize the swiftnesse of Nebuchadnezzars comming upon the Aegyptians and the necessity of the Jewes speedy flight from out that Land than if we read froÌ„ the face or wrath of the oppressor or as the seaveÌ„tie have it from the mightie sword The Prophet in that 46. cap. v. 16. implies that unlesse they take their flight in time they should wish when it was too late that they had wings like a Dove to flye away and be at rest The Author of the vulgar Latine differs in many places from our moderne translations not out of ignorance of the different senses which the originall might beare but out of choise And although he sometimes erre yet for the most part Causâ—â— habet error honestas he had some probable reason so to erre nor doth the error howsoever occasioned induce any dangerous depravation either of the morall or propheticall sense Sometimes he aimes at some further mysterie then the contrary reading which the Hebrew supposing it were alwayes pointed as now we have it will reach unto There is as great a difference in the reading of one or two words without alteration of any consonant in the last verse of the second Chapter of Isaiah betwixt the vulgar translation ours as in any place which I have observed That verse we read Cease yee from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accompted of And thus we read it upon supposition that the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was thus pointed The vulgar Latin according to Forerius his emeÌ„dation of it thus Quiescite ergò ab homine cujus spiritus in naribus ejus est quia excelsus reputatus est ipse and thus both he and the former vulgar read it presuming that the originall word was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I referre the determination of this various reading to accurate and unpartiall Criticks of the Hebrew dialect For mine owne part I must confesse the materiall circumstances of the text may in line unto that reading which the vulgar followes and S. Ierom approves yea is very zealous for it But it may bee questioned whether the originall Bamah doe usually or in any other place besides this denote the height or dignitie of any mans person or place though it be the usuall word for expressing those high places which were dedicated unto Idols But this question I submit to the same reference with the former more generall It sufficeth that there is no harme in either sense 8. However if the oracles of God doe admit such amphibologies or various senses as these places last alleaged by us doe why doe we Christians blame the heathen Oracles for giving doubtfull or ambiguous answeres or wherein doe the Scriptures afford more manifest documents of a divine spirit speaking in them if propheticall oracles be as ambiguous for the
sense as the oracles of Apollo were It was not amphibologie or equivocation simply considered but the artificiall or meditated contrivance of ambiguous or â—â—â—ivocall senses after they had beene consulted concerning businesses already set on foot and in agitation which did convince the heathen oracles of delusion Had that ambiguous answere Ato te Aeacida Romanos vincere posse been given by the Oracle unconsulted two or three hundred yeares before Pyrrhus his birth or the Romane Empires growth unto that mediocritie which in Pyrrhus dayes it had the very prediction of such equipoize betweene the house of Aeacuâ— and of Româ—lus or of such doubtfull conflicts as happened betweene the Epiroteans and the Romans would have beene a good proofe of a divine inspiration no presumption of delusion on which side soever successe had taken Or if the like ambiguous oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had beene delivered unsought after as long before the birth of Craesus as that Prophecy of Isaiah cap. 45. 1. c. was before Cyrus was conceived before he could thinke of God or be thought of by men Whatsoever in the issue had become of Craesus the foretelling of his name and manner of expedition against Cyrus would have argued a spirit truly prophetical though not so distinctly propheticall or sublime as that spirit was by which Isaiah conceived the forementioned prophecy concerning Cyrus But seeing the Oracle was dumbe untill Cyrus was in armes against the Babilonians and their confederates untill victory did hover betwixt two mighty adversaries without expressing of her inclination to either both of them being so deeply ingaged that the one even in politique conjecture was to have a mighty fall the contrivance of this answer in such doubtfull and ambiguous termes argues it to have beene conceived by the spirit which hath profered his service and assistance to later Popes when they were consulted upon like occasions Now seeing our sacred Oracles were given many hundred of yeares before the events foreâ—old by them and since exhibited had any seminall cause or observable Originall out of which they were to grow the greater the varietie of their senses or constructions is the more admirable proofe doth their accomplishment exhibite of that infinite wisedome which did dictate them unto the Prophets especially of one and the same Oracle in processe of time be verified or fulfilled according to two or more possible constructions or in senses which may seeme contrary or much different After this manner was that forementioned Prophecy Ierem. 23. 6. 8. fulfilled first in the ordinary and usuall sense in the peoples returne from Caldaea and those Northerne Countries through which they had beene dispersed and about five hundred yeares after or from the time of our Saviours death the same prophecy was accomplished againe in the most exquisite literall sense and according to the primevall signification of one and the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these two senses in which this Scripture was fulfilled though different were not contrary but subordinate 9. That place of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 19. ver 18. is subject to the like varietie of reading or doubtfull sense not by substitution of one or two points for others but by the mistaking of one consonant for another being very like unto it as of Mem for Samech The Prophet no doubt did write and intend Cherez not Cherem for it had beene Verbum male oâ—inatum an ill abodance if the first of these five Egyptian Cities which were to speake the language of Canaan should be called the City of destruction It was to all of them matter of glory to become subjects to Christs Kingdome and it was the glory of this one above the rest that it should be the first participant of this glory For this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any alteration of letter or point doth signifie sometimes the first as well as one because one is the first in numbers Now the first of these Cities did never so well brooke its ancient name of Heliopolis that is the City of the Sunne by which it was knowne amongst the Heathens as when it was enlightned by the Sunne of righteousnesse and yet this splendour through its inhabitants default was not perpetuall for as I take it before S. Hieroms time it was become the city of destruction or desolation having turned Gods blessing as many others did into a curse And this alteration or change might be truly characterized in the substitution of one letter for another whether that happened by the negligence of transcribers or otherwise For as it is elsewhere observed those things which be aequivoca à casu in respect of men are aequivoca à consilio with reference to the divine providence which though it never cause the errors of men yet doth it order and moderate them 10. It is doubtfull as some good writers observe whether the Prophet Zachary cap. 11. 13. did write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Potter or the treasury That hebrew Rabbi whom Vatablus amongst other good Christian writers approves is of opinion that he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the letter Iod was added by negligence of transcribers Admitting his conjecture to be true yet it no way disparageth the sincerity of the Hebrew text but rather occasioneth a greater admiration of the all-seeing Providence of the Author of Scriptures in representing that devolution of the price of blood which Iudas reteÌ„dred unto the high Priest from the sacred treasury unto which such brogues or escheats as this were by ordinary course due unto the buying of the Potters field It is but one and the same branch of divine providence thus to turne the negligence of transcribers to the setting forth of his wisedome and to divert the wicked intentions of men unto the manifestation of his justice and goodnesse 11. Sometimes againe one and the same originall word may have contrary significations and have another to parallel it in its contrarietie So the Hebrew Kalal in its abstract or first signification answers to the Latine elevare to be light or of no waight and hence according to the variety of the matter or subject whereto it is applyable it sometimes imports vility or contempt and sometime exaltation or advancement If we value the first signification of it as it is applyable to the ballance or just scale to be elevated or discovered to be light implies no good but evill Yet to be lifted up or exalted above others not in just ballance but whiles things compared stand upon their owne bottome or Center includes matter of glory or praeeminence The Hebrew Cabad which in its prime signification is contrary to Kalal and punctually answers to the Latine Grave esse or in our English to be waighty heavy or sway downewards so long as the comparison stands betwixt things weighed in just ballance argues matter of better value or preeminence And hence it is that one
the same word which in its prime signification imports waight or heavinesse in the next metaphoricall or translated sense imports praise honour or glory yet if we take it out of the ballance and set it in some other speciall reference it implies depression disgrace or ignominy Now according to the two contrary significations of each of these words whose prime significations are directly contrary that prophecy of Isaiah cap. 9. ver 1. was exactly fulfilled 〈…〉 Primo tempore alleviata est terra Zabulon terra Nepthali novissimo aggravata est via maris trans Iordanem Galilaea gentium Populus qui ambulabat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam So the old vulgar reads it but according to Forerius thus Primo tempore vilis fuit terra Zabulon terra Nepthalin novissimo honorata fuit via maris trans Iordanem Galilaea gentium Populus qui ambulabat in obscuro vidit lucem magnam Zabulon and Nepthali in our Prophets time had beene waighed as Balshazzar afterwards was in the ballance and were found too light They were the first which were swept away by the rod of Ashur and led Captives into a strang Land Yet wore they the first into whom the Gospel of the Kingdome was preached by our Saviour himselfe and so the former prophecy which had beene in our Prophets time fulfilled of them according to the prime signification of the Hebrew Kalal which is to be vile or light was in our Saviours time fulfilled of them according to the second importance of the same word which is to be exalted or advanced and according to the first translated sense or metaphoricall signification of Cabad which is to be honourable or glorious The former fulfilling of this prophecy yee have in the sacred history 2 Kings 15. 29. In the dayes of Pekah King of Israel came Tiglath Pileser King of Assyria and took Ijon and Abelbethmaachash and Ianoah and Kedesh and Hazâ—r and Gilead and Galilee all the Land of Nepthali and carryed them captive to Assyria 12. The second fulfilling of it is exactly related by S. Matthew chap. 4. ver 12 13. c. Now when Iesus had heard that Iohn was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and leaving Nazareth hee came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the Sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthali that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the Prophet saying The Land of Zabulon and the Land of Nepthali by the way of the Sea beyong Iordan Galilee of the Gentiles The people which sate in darknesse saw great light and tathem which sate in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up But as Zabulon and Nepthali changed their mindes or opinion of Christ whom at first they honoured so the words of this prophecy did change their signification and were fulfilled of them againe in a contrary sense It was their glory that they were elevated or lift up to heaven at our Saviours first comming to them is was their ignominy and misery that they afterwards became graves or gravati pressed downe with their sinnes to hell For unto this place of the Prophet Isaiah that speech of our Saviour refertes Matt. 11. 20. c. Then beganne he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty workes were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Cherazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had beene done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long agoe in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement then for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto heaven shalt be brought downe to hell for it the mighty workes which have beene done in thee had beene done in Sodome it would have remained unto this day But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodome in the day of Iudgement then for thee In this our Saviour did speake as never man spake and manifest himselfe to be the Prince of Prophets in that all his solemne speeches as well as deeds if wee would be observant of them direct us to some Propheticall Oracle or other or reveale some mysteries before latent or which is all one some mysticall sense of Scriptures And however no prophecy can be truly said to be fulfilled only by way of accommodation or allusion though there be no allusive sense of Scriptures distinct from the severall senses before mentioned yet shall we not be able to perceive either the manner how many prophecies are fulfilled or the literall sense of many places in the new Testament unlesse besides the grammaticall signification or construction of the words wee know withall the matter be it rite or custome c whereto they allude or referre CHAP. 18. Containing the generall heads or Topicks for finding out the severall senses of Scripture especially for the just valuation of the literall sense whether in the old Testament or in the new SUch qualificatios whether for learning or life as Tully and Quintilian require in a compleat orator Galen in a Physitian or other Encomiasts of any liberall science profession or facultie may require in a perfect professor of it is but a part of these endowments which ought to be in a true divine or professor of Divinitie The Professors of every other facultie may without much skill in any profession besides their owne truly understand the genuine rules or precepts of it All the learning which he hath besides serves but for ornament is no constitutive part of the facultie which he professeth But the very literall sense of many precepts or of many fundamentall rules and Maximes in Divinitie can neither be rightly understood nor justly valued without variety of reading and observations in most other faculties and sciences that be besides the Collation of scripture with scripture in which search alone more industrious sagacitie is required then in any other science there can be use of The references without whose knowledge the positive sense of many scriptures cannot be knowne are respectively almost infinite at least incomprehensible to any one mans reading or observation It shall suffice in this place to comprehend the generalitie of all under this briefe division The matters whereto the Scriptures whether of the old or new Testament referre are either rites and customes civill or naturall experiments not recorded by any Canonicall writers or rites and customes practises and experiments recorded in the Canon of faith It would be no difficult worke to write a large volume of instances in either kinde Of both I present only these few first of customes practises or experiments not expressed in any Canonicall writer 2. Set thou an ungodly man to be Ruler over him and let Sathan stand at his right hand saith the Psalmist Psalme 109. 5. The imprecations in this Psalme of whomsoever else they were literally meant were fulfilled in Iudas
Iscariot and for this reason this Psalme was used at the degradation of Bishops when they were found Traytors either to their calling or to their leige Lords But the passage forecited hath a special referēce to the custome of those ancient times in which the Adversarie or Accuser was to bee placed on the right hand of him that was to bee condemned and on the left hand of him that was to bee acquitted The emblematicall or morall sense of this custome is exprest by the Psalmist in the verse following When sentence is given upon him let him be condemned 3 Of wisdome saith Salomon Prov. 3. 16. Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour A man of ordinary reading and observation would conceive by the character of this speech that length of dayes was much better then riches or honor because those are presented by wisedomes left hand but length of dayes by her right hand But a learned Critique for those times wherein he lived hath observed a more recondite sense of these words charactred unto us in the custome of those ancient times whereunto Salomon alludes It was the manner of the Ancients to expresse all numbers under an hundred upon the fingers of their left hand but hundreds and above hundreds upon the fingers of their right hand as Iuvenal describes the happinesse of Nestor Foelix nimirùm qui per tot secula mortem Distulit atque suos iam dextrâ computat annos His yeares were more then could be numbred upon his left hand for hee lived three hundred yeares a faire age yet not comparable to the length of dayes or number of yeares which the right hand of wisedome dispenseth to her followers these exceed all vulgar scale both for number and happinesse 4. Some places there be even in the new Testament whose force or elegancie cannot be apprehended without some skill either experimentall or speculative in meaner faculties Most of the parables uttered by our Saviour albeit wee take them with his owne expositions of them to his disciples can hardly be understood by best Divines of these times unlesse they be weighed with the matter or subject whereon the parable is grounded or to which his speeches in particular referre No parable is more clearely expounded than the parable of the sower and yet many good interpreters have erred in the exposition of it and from this errour have made the Land of Jewry whilst Gods temporall blessing was upon it to be envied for its fruitfulnesse in respect of others To reape twentie bushells of Corne for one of seed exceeds the rate of fertile soiles amongst us and yet this is the lowest scantling of that increase which the seede sowne in good ground did bring forth But if wee measure the increase mentioned in the parable not from the measure of the seed which is sowne and reapt but from the particular graines which tooke roote and prospered in good ground wee shall shall have no cause to accuse our owne fields of Barrennesse in respect of Judea For one graine in some parts of this Kingdome not the most fertile yeelds more then seaventie though others in the same Land yeeld not twentie and some it may be in other places above an hūdred 5 Hee that knowes not so much in the art of grafting as that the graft doth sweeten the sap and moisture which it receives from the stocke not participating of its sowrenesse shall hardly understand S. Pauls meaning Rom. 11. 24. If thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature in a good olive tree how much more shall these which be the naturall branches be grafted into their owne Olive tree To graft wild plants in sweets stocks at least for the graft so planted to prosper is contrary to the ordinary custome of nature and it is in particular more contrary to the nature of the Olive then to any other tree because it will hardly admit of any graft by reason of its fatnesse nor will the grafts of it easily thrive in any other stocke if we may beleive such as write of plants 6 With sowing and planting the dressing of Vines hath more then affinity and without some knowledge or experience of this part of husbandry some intire parables and other allegoricall speeches uttered by our Saviour himselfe cannot rightly be interpreted and for these three parts of husbandry and others the rule is but one that every one who takes upon him to expound those passages in the Gospell which refer to these branches of husbandry peruse such Authors as write in particular of the customes or manners usuall in that climate wherein our Saviour conversed in ancient times For neither doth the husbandry of these times or of this climate wherin we live in many points well suite with those practises or rules of husbandary whereunto our Saviour alludes 7 But however many of our Saviours Parables referre unto these or like experiments in vulgar trades yet sundry parables and other speeches uttered by him and by his Apostles require either speculative or experimentall Knowledge in more ingenuous and more noble professions or in civill rites or customes which vary in severall ages or Nations A man that had never seene any marriage celebrated out of his owne native soile or neighbour Countreys nor read of the rites or customes in this kinde used by Easterne Nations before or about the time of our Saviours pilgrimage here on earth could not be much edified by the parable of the ten Virgins or the like which allude to nuptiall customes in those times Brissonius and Rea would stead a Preacher more which hath occasion to expound these parables then twenty ordinary Commentators or Professors in divinity unlesse it be such as have beene beholding to these two or other Authors of miscellane Philologie 8 To compare the Tabernacle of the Sunne which God hath placed in the heavens and the rising of this glorious light unto the manner of a Bridegromes comming out of his chamber after the manner and fashion in use with us would be but an homely expression Yet hath it pleased the Spirit of God to describe the outgoings of this great light which governes the day in that most elegant sacred hymne In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sunne which is as a Bridegroome comming out of his Chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race Psal 19. 4 5. But the custome or manner of ushering Bridegroomes in those times out of their Chambers by Lamps or Torches in the night time had a poeticall decorum for representing the manner of the suns recourse unto us after darknesse the morning starre or strayned glimmerings of the dawning being as his torch-bearers And as the Bridegroomes comming out of his Chamber to fetch his Bride was a silent poem of the Sunns approach unto us so the Psalmists description of the Sunne in its rising and course is
a speaking picture of the comming of the Sunne of righteousnesse into the world after the light of prophecies or revelations whether by Vrim and Thummim or by voice from heaven had beene farre removed from the Hemisphere of Judaea untill they began to returne againe in Iohn Baptist and his Father Zacharias who were as the day starre or dawning to usher in the Sunne of righteousnesse who was to continue his course from the one end of the Earth to the other with more indefatigable courage and with more comfortable warmth then this visible Sunne doth visite the earth He was that strong man that Gebor unto whom the Psalmist compares the Sunne in its strength for Gebor is its proper title And I make no question but the glory of his kingdome begunne here on earth though descending from heaven where it shall bee accomplished was by the Holy Ghost intended according to the Mysticall sense of that Psalme which is not a History onely but a true prophecy And our Apostles allegation of the fourth verse of this Psalme Rom. 10. 18. Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the World was not allusive onely but argumentative and fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospell by the Apostles and their Successors in the mysticall sense as it had been before those times dayly verified in the literall 9 But meere ignorance in these and the like parables of our Saviour whose knowledge neerely concerned the generation in which and for whose good hee uttered them however the knowledge of them much concerne us of this age and nation cannot bee so prejudiciall to all good Christians as the ignorance of other parables and proverbiall speeches of his which alike neerely concerne mankinde Yet an ignorance there is of many rites and customes unto which both the words of the Prophets and his explications of them which concerne mans redemption by him punctually referre according to the literall sense Most of us know not him as our Redeemer because were know not our selves nor that miserable bond of servitude which hee did dissolve for us all And this wee know not because wee consider not the state and condition of legall servants unto cruell tyrannicall Lords We were servants to a most cruell Tyrant And the Sonne of God for our Redemption became truely and properly a servant to his Father before he became our Lord in speciall and so must wee be servants to him in speciall before wee become the sonnes of God For we must be sonnes before we be heires and sonnes by adoption before wee bee made Kings and Priests unto his Father I never read that passage of our Apostle Rom. 8. 15. Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba Father but I alwaies conceived there was somewhat more contayned in it then was to be found in any lexicon or vulgar Scholiast yet what it should be in particular I learned of late from a learned Professor of another facultie which he hath adorned by his more then ordinary skill in sacred Antiquity and miscellane Philologie Now if wee value the Apostles words per quem clamamas Abba Pater with reference to the legall custome or manner by which some sort of slaves by birth and condition did claime the priviledge of manumission or of Adoption amongst the ancient Jewes the expression is ful of elegancie and most divine the manner of the Adoption to hereditaments temporall was a kinde of typicall prophecy of our Adoptiō to our eternall inheritāce in the heavēs 10. Were we as well acquainted either with boyes playes in ancient times as with our Christmas sports or with the severall kindes of Olympick games as we are with our Countrey May-games or horseraces we might bee more beholden to our selves in many points then to ordinary profest expositors of sacred writ For even unto childish sports the father of the fatherlesse and guardian of the helplesse our Saviour himselfe sometimes referres us for the true meaning of his parables as in Matthew 11 if wee may beleeve Lyra or Theophilact in matter of fact But whereunto shall I liken this generation It is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellowes and saying wee have piped unto you and yee have not danced we have mourned unto you and yee have not lamented For Iohn came neither eating nor drinking and yet they say he hath a Devill The sonne of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicanes and sinners But wisedome is justified of her children But whether there were any such positive custome amongst children as Lyra and Theophilact relate I will not dispute pro or con However Maldonats observation upon the place is of very good use for any that either intend to make a comment or to reade Commentators upon our Saviours parables with liberty of judgement or discretion The best is Iansenius hath better expounded this place with reference unto Childrens sports in generall then Lyra or Theophilact have done although wee grant them such a peculiar kinde of sporting as they supposed was then in use Verum ut ludi genus hoc incertum est ita nec convenit literae Non enim in litera dicuntur hi quidem dicere Cantavimus vobis non saltastis alijs vero lamentavimus non plorastis sed utrūque eisdem tribuitur Et vana est Nicolai interpretatio qui ideo dictum put at coaequalibus suis dicūt quia pueri divisi erant in duas aequales partes Coaequales enim proprie dicuntur Coaetanei Graecè in Matthaeo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idest sodalibus Proinde simplicius fuerit sine specialis alicujus ludi imaginatione exemplum hoc intelligere secundùm consuetudinem communem puerorum qui in foro laetioribus locis civitatum congregati inter se student ludendo effingere quicquid ab aliis vident seriò agi Itaque aliquando nupiias effingunt nuptiales laetitias tibiarum aut aliorum instrumentorum cantu imitantur aliquando vero funeralia obsequia expriment in quibus apud Iudaos planctibus lamentatione quorundam ac lugubrium decantatione solent homines ad tristitiam fletum provocari Haec dum imitantur pueri fit frequenter ut quod joco agunt nonsit efficax vel ad tripudia nuptialia vel ad fletus funer ales provocandos 11. But as for the Olympick games or the like whether elsewhere instituted in imitation of them or before them it is evident that the Apostles and other sacred writers S. Paul especially had both seene them and made good use of them for the more lively expressions of many Christian duties And unlesse wee know the particular Customes unto which their words referre wee shall but play at Blinde man-buffe in our expositions of them or in our exhortations to such
Antagonists from all advantage of hold either gotten or aimed at But our Apostle did imitate their practise upon his owne body not on any others for his owne body was his chiefe Antagonist The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in that place no immediate reference unto the preaching of the Gospell but did generally import such as were tryers of Olympick games whether wrestlings whirlebats or the like The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends all which lost the prize for which they contended whether by sluggishnesse or foule play The same word commeth to signifie a Reprobate or a man finally rejected by God or irreverfibly deprived of his good spirit but at the second third or fourth hand And those interpreters of sacred writ who take this title usuall in Scripture to be a metaphor or speech borrowed from false coines or counterfeit metals faile more in Logique then in Grammar though faile they doe in both It sometimes indeed referres or alludes unto false or counterfeit it coines and according to this reference it comes the nearest to the denotation of a Reprobate or a man finally rejected by God For that coine which is for substance but brasse or copper will hardly if at all after it be cast aside upon tryall go amongst wise men for currant money The transmutation of baser metals into more pretious however some men professe this skill is seldome effected perhaps not facible whereas he that was this yeare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Olympick games or other like prizes might the next yeare be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or crowned as victor But the originall word for its formall or abstract signification is a great deale more generall then to be restrained either to coyned metalls or to men which strive for mastery in any kinde of activity It properly imports a rejection upon just triall and is applyable to matters and persons almost infinite 14. Or if we interpret this word by its reference unto money or coynes yet even these may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more wayes then one either for the basenesse of the metall or for the counterfeit stamp or for want of weight For if it bee but some few graines too light any man may refuse it although it beare Caesars image and superscription Or if it be full waight and pure gold withall yet if it be elsewhere estamped then where Caesar shall appoint or by any stamp or person not authorized no man is bound to receive it and he that tenders it is to be punished And yet both these kindes of Reprobate coines may bee legitimated or made currant by new coining or addition of quantitie without any alteration of the qualitie But coines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the metall as if that be brasse copper or silver gilt and estamped for gold albeit they be full waight are by no Lawes currant And yet some there be as we said which professe the art of turning such metalls into gold but whether this be facible or no is no point of Divinity But surely the Almighty Creator of all things hath more skill in transforming men of what condition soever then any Alchymist hath in changing metalls from worse to better Even such as are said to bee given over by him into a Reprobate sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may for ought we know bee afterwards refined by him and become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justifiable men Many of the Gentiles were delivered by him into a reprobate sense not particular persons only but even whole Nations and so hath the Natiō of the Jews for the most part bin for these many yeares But that God did finally reprobate any person whether Jew or Gentile which lived in opposition to the Christian faith or whether there shall not be a reversion of that curse which hath befalne the Jewish or other nation God alone must judge and determine So that it will be hard for any man to prove that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth any where in the new Testament punctually answere unto that use or notion which custom hath now in a manner prescribed for in many theologicall disputes that is for men irreversibly fitted or designed to everlasting destruction If in any place it were to be taken in this strict sense I should suspect that of S. Paul 2 Cor. 13. 5. above others but that not from the Grammaticall signification of the word or from any reference it hath in that place more then any other to false coynes but from the peculiar reference which the matter and circumstances of that place have to matters of fact or historicall types in the old Testament without whose knowledge or observation the true meaning or importance of many words usuall in the New can never be truly valued The Apostles words in the forecited place are thus Examine your selves whether yee be in the faith prove your owne selues know yee not your owne selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except yee bee Reprobates CHAP. 19. Of the use of sacred or miscellane Theology for finding out as well the literall as the mysticall or other senses of Scripture WHat shall we say then that every one that is not certaine of his owne salvation or every one not assured by faith that his name is written in the booke of life is irreversibly appointed to everlasting death or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our Apostles meaning in this place God forbid No Christian man I hope will forbid us or deny us leave to restraine the Apostles words in what sense soever we take them unto such men only as those Corinthians were that is to men which have beene instructed in all points necessary for a Christian to believe to men that have been baptised in this faith to men partakers in a plentifull manner of the word preached and of the Sacraments But may wee or ought wee to apply this peremptory sentence unto every man that is a visible member of the true Church or of those Churches in which the pure word is constantly preached and the Sacraments duely administred Are all these bound upon paine of Reprobation to beleeve either that they are already compleatly regenerated or that they have so mortified the deeds of the body that they cannot die the death of the soule If thus wee should preach or teach how should wee be able to comfort afflicted consciences in their perplexed feares And would not the best fruites of our labours be presumption in many and despaire in most of our hearers Yet if thus wee may not say must wee therefore deny that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the forecited place to be taken in that strict sense in which it is usually taken by some moderne Divines not in that place only but in many others of the new Testament that is for men either irreversibly ordained to death or finally forsaken of God That the word is used by our Apostle in this strict sense I
reserved unto the Lord himselfe and was put in execution by him oftner then once as I take it at two severall Passeovers For so we read Iohn 2. 13. c. And the Iews Passeover was at hand and Iesus went up to Ierusalem and found in the Temple those that sold Oxen and sheep and Doves and the changers of money sitting And when he had made a scourge of small cordes he drove them all out of the Temple and the sheep and the Oxen and powred out the changers money and overthrew the Tables and said unto them that sold Doves Take these things hence make not my Fathers house an house of Merchandise This was done I take it at the first Passeover after his baptisme but hee exercised the same power with greater authority at his last comming to Jerusalem in triumph so we read Matt. 21. 12 13. And Iesus went into the Temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold Doves and said unto them it is written My house shall be called the house of prayer but yee have made it a denne of theeves It is to me remarkable that this Evangelist saith he went into the Temple of God and yet when hee relates the very words which he then used he saith not as in the former place of S. Iohn he did It is written my fathers house shall be called an house of prayer but My house shall be called the house of prayer yet yee have made it a denne of theeves And both S. Marke and S. Luke retaine the very same character of speech Iesus saith he went into the Temple c. and would not suffer that any man should cary any vessell through the Temple an abuse for which Ieremie had denounced Gods judgement against their fore-fathers and he taught saying unto them Is it not written my house shall be called of all Nations the house of prayer but yee have made it a denne of theeves c. Mark 11. 15 16 17. The like is Luke 19. 46. Both by his speech and by the extraordinary exercise of his more then royall authoritie he gave them evidently to understand so they would have beene taught by him that hee was that very Lord that very God of Israel unto whom that house had beene dedicated that Lord which had sent his Prophet Ieremy to dehort their forefathers from polluting the Temple as now their posterity doe And if we consider the usuall condition or stubborne temper of Church trading men and the strong back which long continuance of this plausible custome of making provision for sacrifices in the temple had given unto that sharp edge which the opportunity of this great and solemne feast had set upon their wonted desires of gaine it is not imaginable that so many men would so quickly have quit their seats of merchandize for the lash of any one mans hand unlesse it had been withall the very hand of God not credible that all the eyes in the world besides could have blencht them in their wonted course unlesse they had bin eyed looked upon by the very eyes of God himselfe of that God who was chiefe Lord of the Temple For so the eyes of Christ as we Christians beleeve and know were as truly the eyes of God as the Prophet Ieremies eyes were his owne and that whilest he saw and looked upon those abuses of the temple with humane eyes yet he saw them with the eyes of God in as strict and exquisite a sense as Ieremy had seen them with the eyes of man 3. The contents of this text are a prediction or presignification of that rank and nature which hath beene before deciphered in the generall that is a prediction typically propheticall such as that of the Psalmist The stone which the builders refused is become the chiefe stone in the corner Or that which in the literall or historicall sense did respect the Paschall Lamb. Not a bone of it shall be broken For the Prophet Ieremy did by expresse words foretell and by matter of fact foreshadow that which afterwards was most exactly accomplished He was persecuted by that generation wherein he lived for the delivery of that message Chap. 7. ver 12 13 14. But goe yee now into my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel And now because yee have done all these works saith the Lord and I speake unto you rising up early and speaking but yee heard not and I called you but yee answered not therefore will I doe unto this house which is called by my name wherein yee trust and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers as I have done to Shiloh The same message was delivered by him many yeares after this time by the expresse commandement of the Lord chap. 26. ver 4 5 6. And thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord if yee will not hearken to me to walk in my Law which I have set before you to hearken to the words of my servants the Prophets whom I sent unto you both rising up early and sending them but yee have not hearkened then will I make this house like Shiloh and will make this citie a curse to all the nations of the earth His persecution for this delivery of his message from the Lord is upon sacred record ver 8 9. Now it came to passe when Ieremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people that the Priests and the Prophets and all the people tooke him saying Thou shalt surely die why hast thou prophecited in the name of the Lord saying This house shall be like Shiloh c. The last generation of the Jews with whom our Saviour conversed in as visible and familiar manner as Ieremy had done with their forefathers did charge him first and afterwards his Martyr S. Stephen with capitall blasphemy for saying the Temple then standing should be destroyed The accusation of our Saviour for these words conceived to be uttered by him you have Mat. 26. 60 61. Yea though many false witnesses came yet found they none At the last came two false witnesses and said this fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it in three dayes Or as S. Mark hath the same accusation Chap. 14. ver 57 58 59. And there arose certaine and bare false witnesse against him saying We have heard him say I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and within three dayes I will build another made without hands But neither so did their witnesse agree together If they had agreed or come home to the interrogatories proposed he had dyed if they had had the power of death for saying the very same words in effect for which their forefathers threatned
have it is most fitly resembled by the Word or representatiō of the mind or spirit which for its nature is more immortall then the light Yet this resemblance or any that can be taken from our intellection or secret conference betweene the spirit and soule of man within it selfe is in this point to omit others lame or defective that albeit the spirit or minde of man be immortall and as uncessant in his proper acts or operations as the Sunne is in sending forth light to this inferiour world yet our choysest thoughts or cogitations most internall and most spirituall vanish The mutuall conference betwixt our spirits and internall senses is not perpetuall and uncessant The reason whereof as the Philosopher teacheth is because the passive understanding whether the cogitative facultie or phantasie without whose continuall service or attēdance there can be no constant record or remembrāce of the Acts or instructions of the understāding is corruptible especially in its act or operation and subject to greater change and alterations then the lower regions of the aire albeit the minde or spirit be as cleare and constant as the Sunne But in the life to come when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and our inferiour faculties become immortall not only the proper acts or operations of the minde or spirit or of the active understanding but the apprehension also of what the minde or spirit suggests or their impressions upon the inferiour faculties of the soule shall be incorruptible uncessant and perpetuall And then no doubt our apprehensions of this great mystery comprehended under this name or title of the Word shall be more cleare and perfect to the most illiterate and meanest capacities this day living then in this life it is or hath beene to the most profound and subtlelest School-Divines which have most studyed the meaning of this mystery And yet under correction the full importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as in this life may be had and ought to be had is either not so well conceived or not so well expressed by most Interpreters whether of the old or new Testament as it might have been if they had but taken notice of those severall places in both Testaments in which the sonne of God is instiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. 28. That the incarnation of the Word or of the sonne of God under this title was foreprophecyed by sundry Prophets with the exposition of some peculiar places to this purpose not usually observed by Interpreters ANother speciall reason besides the former mentioned why S. Iohn doth say The word was made flesh rather then the sonne of God was made flesh was because the incarnation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word was more expressely foretold than the incarnation of the sonne of God though one and the same person or party be so really meant and intended by the holy Ghost that the incarnation of the Word doth concludently inferre the incarnation of the only sonne of God But where then was the incarnation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foretold or foreshadowed It was I take it not only foretold but solemnely proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 40. and the fulfilling of what he promised was declared by Iohn Baptist at our Saviours baptisme Iohn we know was the voice of the Cryer foreprophecyed ver 3. of that chapter and did perform his function as it was foretold he should in the wildernesse The chiefe contents of the cry or proclamation it selfe are two the first prepare yee the way of the Lord and make straight in the desert a high way for our God This was fulfilled by Iohn Baptists preaching of repentance The burden of his preaching was repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand But the voice said againe whether to Isaiah or to Iohn Baptist or to both Cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grasse The grasse withereth the flower fadeth but the Word of our God shall stand for ever This was the effect or summe of that which Iohn Baptist was to proclaime Of the exact congruity betwixt Iohns doctrine and the Prophets prediction I have elsewhere to my remembrance treated Concerning the meaning of the Prophets words All flesh is grasse that is handled by most Interpreters Preachers in funeral sermōs especially Nor can there be a fitter Text for displaying the mortality and frailty of our Nature nor as some think for setting forth the excellency of preaching But to magnifie the word of God in generall as it is preached by us the unworthy ministers of it is in most mens interpretations indirectly to magnifie our selves or our calling which howsoever our persons bee is questionlesse honourable and so to bee esteemed by all good Christians Yet this excellency whether of the word preached or of Preachers was either no part or the least part of the Prophets meaning when he saith the word of the Lord endureth for ever For the true use and end of that prophecy Chap. 40. is exprest in the beginning of it Comfort yee comfort yee my people saith our God Speak yee comfortably to Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned For shee hath received of the Lords hand double for all her sinnes But what comfort could it be to Jerusalem or to Gods people that the word of God which is preached to them endureth for ever when as they were but as the grasse which withereth The more the Prophet did magnifie the immortality of Gods word in this sense the more hee must have increased the sad remembrance of their own misery and mortality And however Isaias and other Prophets had preached the word of the Lord more plentifully and more powerfully in that age wherein he lived then it had been in any age before or in any age since excepting the times wherein Iohn Baptist and our Saviour and his Apostles lived on earth yet mortality and misery did still grow faster upon this people then it had done in any age before so fast for foure or five generations that this people became like grasse withering by degrees and at last to be rooted up The matter then of comfort which the Prophet there promiseth to Jerusalem was not in his time really exhibited but to be continually expected untill the word of the Lord which hee so magnifieth for its glory immortality should become visible to all flesh The comfort there prophecyed of did consist in the manifestation of that glory which he then foretold should bee revealed For whatsoever in that Chapter he uttered was not delivered by way of common place by ordinary catechisme of doctrine and uses but by the extraordinary spirit of prophecy The issue of his prophecy was that the state and condition of all flesh
my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him That is meat and drink indeed which nourisheth us not to a bodily but to a spirituall and immortall life which presupposeth an immortall seed Unto all these ends and purposes to our new birth to our nourishment and growth in spirituall life the flesh and blood of the Word or son of God were consecrated by his sufferings upon the crosse and by his resurrection from the dead He was according to his humane nature both the Priest appointed to obtaine these blessings and to award them ex officio and withall the sacrifice by whose participation they are really and actually conveyed unto all that doe or shall inherit the immortality of soule and body 7. But if his flesh and blood be the seed of immortalitie how are we said to be borne againe by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Is this word by which we are borne the same with that immortall feed of which wee are borne It is the same not in nature but in person May we not in that speech of S. Peter by the word understand the word preached in to us by the ministers who are Gods feeds men In a secondary sense we may for we are begotten and borne againe by preaching as by the instrument or meanes yet borne againe by the eternall word that is by Christ himselfe as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth Thus much S. Peters word is that place will inforce us to grant according to the letter For having before declared that the word of God by which we are born againe doth live and endure for ever he thus concludes and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you 1. Pet. 1. 25. 8. The Gospell it selfe taken in the largest sense is but the declaration of the Evangelists and Apostles upon the propheticall predictions concerning the incarnation the birth the death the resurrection and ascension of Christ And Christ himselfe who was put to death for our sinnes and raised againe for our justification is the word which we all doe or ought to preach The Gospell written or preached by us cannot be that word which by the Gospell is preached unto us This Word in the literall assertive sense can bee no other then the eternall word or sonne of God made flesh and consecrated in the flesh to be the seed of immortalitie And if wee take the Gospell not according to the outward letter or bark but for the heart or substance of the Gospell or for the glad tidings of life which is the primitive signification of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gospell that is no other then the Word made flesh or manifested in the flesh To this purpose saith our Evangelist or rather the Angell of the Lord Luke 2. 10. Feare not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people this is no more then the Prophet saith all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord for unto you is borne this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Lord he was long before and this Lord was made flesh before that day wherein he was borne but first manifested in the flesh upon that day and manifested to be the Saviour of all people or all flesh some eight dayes after yet not then compleatly made Christ untill his resurrection Againe the Gospell in its prime or principall sense is no other or no more then the great mystery of godlinesse which was inwrapt in the volume of Moses and the Prophets but not revealed or unfolded untill the word was made flesh was circumcised in the flesh and made King and Christ Without controversie saith S. Paul 1. Tim. 3. 16. great is the mysterie of godlinesse God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory All these testimonies put together amount to this point that the sonne of God manifested in the flesh was that Word which in S. Peters language is preached by the Gospell And if we doe not preach this word unto our hearers if all our sermons doe not tend to one of these two ends either to instruct our Auditors in the articles of their Creed concerning Christ or to prepare their eares and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions we doe not preach the Gospell unto them wee take upon us the name of Gods Ambassadors or of the ministers of the Gospell more then in vaine 9. Besides all these testimonies and others that might bee alleaged all most undoubtedly true in the literall assertive sense that the mystery of godlinesse or the joyfull tidings which Abrahams seed did expect should consist in the union betweene the eternall Word or sonne of God and our flesh we have a most lively character or prefiguration though not assertive in the originall word designed by the wisedome of God to expresse the preaching of the Gospel or joyfull embassage of our everlasting peace For one and the same word in the originall doth signifie flesh and the preaching of glad tidings unto all people or flesh without variation of any radicall letter but only of grammaticall moode or declension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use of the originall language doth properly signifie flesh that is men or creatures indued with life or sense and being the root or primitive is not a verb but a noune The first verbe that is formed of it doth signifie as much as the Latine nunciavit or nunciare to bring or deliver a message and is alwayes used for some good or joyfull message and in peculiar for the preaching of the Gospell which is the joyfull message 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to omit other places it is thus used Ierem. 20. 15. Cur sed be the man that brought tidings to my Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying a man child is borne unto thee making him very glad And in the forecited 40. of Isaiah ver 9. O Sion that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain◠O Ierusalem that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up be not afraid say unto the cities of Iudah behold your God And in the 61 of Isaiah ver 1. which is the very place wherein the preaching of the Gospell by our Saviour himselfe is foreprophecyed that which S. Luke expresses chap. 4. ver 18. by preaching the Gospell to the poore is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelizatum pauperes Now that flesh and preaching of glad tidings to all flesh should be signified by one and the same originall word no grammarian can easily give any reason It falls not within the compasse of their Etymologies or derivations there is not here a primitive and derivative
not a principall and an Analogicall sense The true reason that may be given for it is that the wisedome of God did thus fore-ordaine it that so this great mystery of the eternall Word 's becomming flesh might bee foreshadowed as well by verball character as foretold by expresse propheticall testimonies delivered by way of propositions or prefigured by reall types in the Law or in matter of facts in sacred history CHAP. 29. Of the true meaning of this speech the word was made flesh Whether it be all one for the Word to be made flesh and to be made man or whether He were made flesh and made man at the same instant BUt it being granted and I hope sufficiently proved that the incarnation of the Word is the very life and kernell of the Gospell that the Patriarchs and Prophets did solace themselves and taught their childrens children to doe the like in all their perplexities by assured hope of this great mystery in the Lords good time to be revealed yet the curious fancies of captious wits have been and will bee ready to question though not the matter or mystery it selfe yet the manner of our Evangelists expression of it the Word was made flesh To be made flesh is to be made a substance and the Word which is said to be made flesh was more then a substance the everliving essence the life and light of men before he was manifested in the flesh Doth he still remaine so So we Christians are bound to beleeve Yet might the Jew or meere heathen artist have liberty to oppose us they would find matter of argument to this or like purpose whensoever one substance is truly made another the former substance ceaseth to be what it was before For the truth of this generall rule instances are plentifull in all sorts of substances which are said to be made what they were not before when one simple Elements is made another when the water becomes a vapour it ceaseth to be water when the Vapour is made a cloud it is no longer a vapour when the cloud resolves into raine it is no more a cloud when of the Elements any third body is made whether perfectly or imperfectly mixt they cease to be what they were they lose both their forme and names Nor skils it whether one substance be made or becomes another which before it was not by course of nature or immediately by the finger of God or by the exercise of his miraculous power For it was a true miracle and a great one that pure water should be immediately made perfect wine and yet the water being made wine did cease to be what it was before it was no longer a simple Element but a true mixt body Now the Word as all Christians grant was an everlasting Essence more then a substance before it was made or became flesh How then can wee Christians mainteyne that it still remaines the same it was without any reall alteration or change whether substantiall or accidentall To this objection wee reply as before wee have done in other cases that multitude of instances how many soever cannot make up a perfect induction if in any one pretended for grounding a rule or proposition absolutely universall there be the least diversitie or dissimilitude of reason Every such diversity or disparity acquits the instance in which it is found for being comprehended under the rule or law otherwise universall Admitting it then to be universally true of all other substances or Essences in the World besides Whensoever one is made or becomes another which before it was not that substance which is made another doth lose it selfe or ceaseth to be what it was Yet this universall rule will not reach the instance now in debate concerning the Word 's being made flesh The reason is plaine not from the manner of this miraculous work but from the nature or supereminency of that everlasting substance or Essence which was miraculously made flesh All other Essences or substances which are capable of being made or becoming what they were not are capable of change or alteration in their substances They do not either lose their owne names or suffer the names of other substances to be put upon them untill they have put off their owne natures or lost possession of themselves The law of nature ties evē livelesse substāces more strictly not to change their names untill they be conquered or overcome by others then the laws of Heraldrie ties Nobles or Gentlemen not to alter their ancient Armes or names which they seldome do unlesse upon conquest or some marriage or alliance beneficiall or advantagious to their house or Family But the Word of God which endureth for ever was and is as unchangeable as God himselfe was and is from eternity more then all things Essence or being it selfe As all things were made by him so he might when he pleased bee made flesh or man without any change or alteration in himselfe either whilst all things were made by him or whilst hee were made this particular It is then the preheminence or superexcellency of his nature or Essence which exempts him from the former generall rule or pretended induction 2 For the more commodious expression as of divers other supernaturall mysteries or matters spirituall so of this great mysterie especially the the fittest resemblance which can be made of thē must be borrowed not from experiments or inductions in matters physicall but from cases of civill use or consequence Mutations accidentall there may be many physically accidentall in one and the same substance without any alteration in the substance in which such change is made Yet such changes of accidents properly inherent for the most part either adde some perfection to the substance or detract somewhat from it But for a person already invested with honourable names or titles and with realities answering to them to invest himselfe with realities or titles of an inferior rank is no disparagement to his former dignities Thus many Princes by birth and of great possessiōs sometimes take the names or titles of Knights are solemnely made Knights created Earles sometimes made Gentlemen of Venice and some Kings of this Land have beene made free of particular Companies or Corporations under their royall jurisdiction and so made without any impeachement or diminution of their royall titles but only to the grace or advancement of that order whereof they were made Knights or of those Societies and Corporations whereof they were made free And thus although the Word who before the beginning of time was with God was truely God was in the fulnesse of time made flesh this can be no impeachment to his Deitie or Divine person but an unspeakable exaltatiō or advancement of the humane nature which he took upon him And herein we poore miserable men so wee would be thankfull for it have a preheminence of the Angelicall nature in that the son of God God blessed for ever did vouchsafe to become one of our
Isaiah moveth a question neither so curious nor so dangerous as pertinent whether these words be the collections or interpretations of S. Matthew or whether in this historicall relation he were only the Register of the Angels speech to Ioseph as in the forecited testimony out of Micah he was of the chiefe Priests and Scribes answer unto Herods demand concerning the place where the Messias should be born This good writer is of opinion that the Angel himselfe did unfold the true intent and purpose of the holy Ghost in that prophecy unto Ioseph as a principall argument to perswade him not to put away Mary his espoused wife but entertaine her and her sonne with the same respect and loue as if the child conceived in her had been as well his only begotten sonne as hers But however the Angels presence and manner of speech did afford abundant satisfaction to Iosephs perplexed thoughts for the present yet to prevent all future regrettings after the Angels departure from them when haply the dreame or vision might be partly forgotten or the truth of it suspected it was convenient to acquaint him with the word of the Lord written long before to the same purpose for that was permanent and beyond all exception or suspition And seeing it was so clearely foretold by the Prophet that a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a sonne who should be a signe or pledge of comfort to the house of David it could not seeme strange or improbable to Ioseph that his espoused wife who as he himselfe also was of the lineage of David should be the virgin meant by the holy Ghost in that prophecy S. Matthew then did learne the true meaning of the Prophet by the Angel and this meaning of it being avouched by both there can be no question amongst Christians of the concludent proofe and efficacie of the prophecy it selfe as it is alleaged by S. Matthew Wee may not suspect or thinke that it was fulfilled onely by way of accommodation or allusion as in the judgment of some moderne Divines divers other Scriptures are which yet are said by our Evangelist to be fulfilled or for the fulfilling of which many events historically related by them are said to be done or come to passe 3 Yet even this most pregnant testimony of that grand mysterie of our faith that Christ was conceived by the holy Ghost and borne of the virgin Mary is shrewdly opposed by the moderne Jews and their oppositions to our usuall interpretations of this prophecy are more fiercely mainteyned by them because it is in it selfe so pregnant First they object that the originall word gnalma doth not alwayes import a virgin but sometimes a childbearing woman that in this place it points at the Prophets present wife who before this time had brought him forth Children one at least and was now to bring him forth another which was to be the Emmanuel here meant But this grammaticall exception against the originall word is the weakest they bring and is clearely refuted by Iunius and many others and were it granted that the originall word might sometimes import a childbearing woman which is a conceipt of theirs as foolish as impious yet could i◠not in this place denote the prophets present wife It is questioned whether the Prophet at this time had any wife at all though it be apparant that Isaias had been maried before this time from the third verse of the 7 Chapter Then said the Lord unto Isaias Goe forth now to meet Ahaz thou and Shear-iashub thy sonne a sonne no doubt lawfully begotten But if his mother had beene then living or if she had beene Hagnalma that virgin or woman in whom the prophet did meane to instance in particular there should have beene mention of her comming as well as of her sonnes Shear-iashub with Isaiah to meete Ahaz at the place appointed by the Lord himselfe for all things contained in his prophecie the very circumstances of time and place are particularized most exactly 4. Secondly the Jews object that if our Saviour Christ had beene the seede here promised or if the blessed Uirgin or Ioseph her husband had knowne thus much they would have called him Emmanuel not Jesus at his circumcision at least this should have been his usuall name For so the prophet expressely saith And thou shalt call his name Emmanuel whereas the Angel enjoyneth the virgin to call her sonne Iesus The third and maine exception which they presse most feircely is that the child here promised whosoever were to be his mother was to be a pledge of that strange deliverance of Ahaz and his people within some few yeares after from the confederacy of Syria and Ephraim who had then projected the utter extirpation of the house of David Now every signe is either of some future event to be exhibited after the signe is given or an assurance that those things which are said to be foretold in the name of the Lord were so foretold by God indeed not pretended only by the prophet If this Emmanuel were to be a signe and pledge to Ahaz and his people that the Lord would deliver them beyond their expectation from their present Enemies hee was according to the literall and historicall purport of the Prophets words to be borne before this deliverance was accomplished If he were onely to be a signe or assurance that the words which Isaias spake to Ahaz were spoken by the speciall command of the Lord this might be an undoubted signe to us or to such as lived about the time of his birth it could be no signe or assurance unto Ahaz or the people then living either of their deliverance from their Enemies or that Isaias had spoken to them in the name of the Lord if they did otherwise question his authoritie Or to say the very truth unlesse the Emmanuel there promised were borne at the time limited by the prophet his birth could yeeld no assurance unto us that Ahaz was delivered from the King of Syria and Ephraim or that these two Enemies were cut off within the time limited by the prophet All this wee are to beleeve from the historicall narration and literall sense of the Prophet not from the Evangelicall storie concerning the miraculous birth of our Saviour of which if we have a true historicall beleife wee must beleeve the Evangelist from the praediction of the Prophet or from the parallel betweene the Prophets and the Evangelists words This inference is good and sufficient to ground true beleife The prophet foretold the virgin should conceive and beare a sonne therefore the Evangelists allegation and historie is of divine truth but not è contra the Evangelist reports that a virgin did conceive and bring forth a sonne ergò that which the prophet had said of Ahaz his deliverance from his enemies is of like truth and authority Iunius therefore with some others consequently enough to their owne interpretations of this place deny that the birth of the
Emmanuel here prophecyed by Isaiah was any signe at all of Ahaz present delivery or of the disaster of Rezin and Pekah but of a greater and stranger deliverance of Judah and Israel from their potent enemies in future ages And that seeing the Lord from the beginning of that kingdome had promised to give the house of David so admirable a signe as the conception of a sonne by a pure virgin it was either hypocrisie or strange incredulity in Ahaz to refuse a lesser sign of his present deliverance whē God did so freely offer it as it is ver 10 11 12. Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz saying ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above But Ahaz said I will not ask neither will I tempt the Lord. This in the prophets construction was to weary and vex God who had proffered this signe But what signe Any that Ahaz would demand for his present securitie against the confederacy of Syria and Ephraim And seeing hee would not choose a signe the Lord would give him one better then hee could have chosen for himselfe Behold a virgin shall conceive c. But the question still remaines of what this should be a signe Iunius denyeth it to be any signe of that deliverance or assurance for which Ahaz was commanded to ask a signe hee adds withall that of this temporary deliverance Shear-iashub whom Isaiah was commanded to bring with him when hee went to meet Ahaz was the signe or pledge But herein I cannot assent unto him for Shear-iashub was a pledge of their returne whom Pekah and Rhesin had lately captivated no signe or pledge of keeping Ahaz or Hezekiah in possession of the Kingdome Of all this the Emmanuel here promised was the undoubted signe or pledge if wee would looke upon the sacred story whilest wee debate those controversies with the Jew or with others that differ in opinion from us in this particular 5 Not to trouble the Reader with recitall of other good Christian writers opinions concerning this point or of their expositions upon this place of Isaiah the resultance of their confident contestations pro and con is but this There is more contention than contradiction betweene them about the true intent and meaning of the holy Ghost and of the Prophet The Jew indeed flatly contradicts us in our expositions of this place and so farre as they contradict us in the maine point wee are bound to maintaine our contradiction to them But the extending of this contradiction unto them in all their expositions on this place of some others declare the Jew and us Christians to be two sons of one and the same Father The Jew being the elder brother is carefull to preserve the map or terrar of the inheritance bequeathed unto him after he hath beene disinherited And frantick as he is having the map or terrar he brags that the inheritance represented in it is wholly his Wee Christians one and other being seized and in possession of the inheritance permit him the libertie of raving as losers must have leave to speake But oftentimes while we laugh at him wee our selves are carelesse to take a Copie of the terrar whose safe custody the Jew makes cheife matter of his Religion although he oftentimes beslurre it with foolish animadversions of his owne invention as unskilfull students do good bookes which they understand not with impertinent ridiculous marginall notes or interlineations But however we Christians be in possession of the inheritance promised to Abraham from which Abrahams seed according to the flesh have beene ejected it would be no harme to be beholding unto them for a Copie of the ancient terrars of it I meane of the literall sense of divers Scriptures of prophecyes especially and of this most admirable prophecy in particular The blots and staines which the Jew hath made or suffered to bee made in the literall exposition of this place may easily be taken out without obliteration of that exact proportion which their other expositions on this place hold with the Evangelicall mysteryes as well forepictured as foretold in this prophecy That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particularized by note of demonstration or speciall referance should then be a married or Child-bearing woman is a blot or staine in the literall meaning of this prophecie which unlesse it be taken out will utterly deface the proportion betweene the historicall event here foretold and the Evangelicall mysterie represented by it A greater blot or staine it is which the Jew hath made by avouching that the Emmanuel whose birth was here foretold should be either Shear-iashub the sonne of Isaiah or Hezekiah the sonne of Ahaz both of them being borne before this time as it is evident the one from the literall meaning of the Prophet the other from the sacred stories of the bookes of Kings and Chronicles As for those Jews which respectively avouch both parts of this foolish coniecture they expresse the same humour to raigne in them which Busbequius observes in the moderne Turks who when the fit comes upon them will not stick to say that Iob was Steward of Solomons houshold and Alexander the great Master of his Horse Yet these and some few like staines or blots which the moderne Jew hath made in Isaiah his map or terrar of the Evangelicall mysterie whose exemplification is fully recorded by S. Matthew being taken out their other expositions of the Prophets words rather preserve then deface the map it selfe and may be of good use to discover the proportion betweene it and our royall inheritance represented in it or for confirming our beliefe as well of the Evangelists as of the Prophets relations First when the Jews alledge that the Emmanuel promised by the Prophet was to be borne within some few yeares or rather within the compasse of a yeare from the time of his meeting Ahaz this is most consonant to the literall sense of these words Chap. 7. 16. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings This saith the marginall note upon our former English is not meant of Christ but of any Child For before a Child can come to the yeares of discretion the Kings of Samaria and Syria shall be destroyed The note is two wayes faulty First in denying this to be meant at all of Christ Secondly in avouching it to be meant of any Child And I wish the note were extant in our English or in some other language onely which the Jews for the most part either do not read or do not understand Yet if this place may be meant not of every Child but of any one Child besides our Saviour Christ and if the word Hagnalma in the 14 verse according to its strict propriety do signifie a virgin shall we not hence be concluded to grant that some other virgin besides the virgin Mary
and before her did conceive and bring forth a sonne This in no wiâ—e may be granted nor any interpretation of any place admitted from which such impious conclusions as this may be inferred To conceive a sonne whilest shee was a virgin was the incommunicable prerogative of the mother of our Lord. Yet will it not hence follow that the Prophet by the emphaticall character of a virgin Hagnalma might not designe some virgin then present not the Prophets wife but rather some virgin of Ahaz kinred or of the house of Iudah for whom hee astipulates that within the compasse of the yeare following shee should conceive and bring forth a sonne not whilst shee was a virgin but by becomming a lawfull wife beyond or before her expectation 7. But here such as are otherwise minded or take this passage to be literally meant of the blessed virgin alone will reply What wonder was it or what matter worthy the ushering in with an Ecce or other like injunction of attention for her who was now a virgin to conceive and bring forth a sonne after the manner that other women within a yeare after they are maried usually do But they who thus object facilè pronunciant quia ad pauca respiciunt they give sentence upon the view of one circumstance only when as they should take a great many more into their consideration The virgin thus particularized according to the literall sense of the Prophet whether then present as is most probable or otherwise so famously knowne that his words in all mens apprehension then present had reference to her might be either for want of yeares or for some other defects as unlikely to bring forth a sonne within the time limited as Sarah after 90 yeares age was more unlikely than the wife of Manoah or Zacharias However it farre surpassed the skill of Astrologers Physitians of men expert in naturall Magick or other kinde of divination whatsoever besides the divination which proceedes from the Father of lights to give such full assurance as the Prophet there doth that any woman should conceive within such a compasse of time or that shee should conceive a sonne not a daughter least of all that shee should conceive and bring forth a Sonne who should deservedly brooke the name and title of Emmanuel that is to be a pledge of Gods speciall presence to the house of David or land of Iudah or to protect them against their potent enemies or to be a demonstrative signe or hostage that before hee could know how to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land which Ahaz abhorred should be forsaken of both their Kings who were now ready and able without Gods speciall ayde to devoure the Land of Iudah Yet for all these and other like consequences of Emmanuels birth the Prophet confidently astipulates in the name of his God which without a speciall warrant from him had beene an intolerable presumption But as for Ahaz himselfe his house and people because they would not beleeve this prediction according to the literall tenour they were to be plagued by that Nation in whose potencie they put their trust by the same enemie which the Prophet had foretold should by Gods appointment defeat the present mischievous designe of Syria and Samaria against Iudah And all this they should have done without any future harme or danger to the house of David by them so Ahaz and his people would have relyed entirely upon Gods promise or faithfully accepted of the signe promised by his Prophet But not beleeving this they were not established ver 9. For so the Prophet immediatly after Ahaz refusall of this signe did threaten Ahaz and his people ver 17. The Lord shall bring upon thee and thy people and upon thy Fathers house dayes that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah even the Kings of Assyria And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall hisse for the Flye that is in the uttermost part of the Rivers of Aegypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleyes and in the holes of the rockes and upon all thornes and upon all bushes The demerits of Ahaz and of his people which did deserve the denuntiation and execution of the plagues here threatned were their too much confidence in the King of Assyria and their distrust hence occasioned of what the Lord had promised by his Prophet Isaiah and would have performed by other meanes than by the ayde of the Assyrian so they would have relyed upon them Wee do not reade that either Ahaz or his people did distrust much lesse that they were punished for their distrust unto Gods promises concerning the comming of the Messias in the appointed time but for not accepting the signe or pledge as well of his comming as of their instant deliverance from the danger wherein then they stood 8. But what probabilities or just presumptions be there that any woman who was a virgin at the time when Ahaz and Isaiah met in the high way of the Fullers field should upon the occasion mentioned become a married woman and conceive a sonne according to the time intimated by the Prophet All this I take it is more then probable from the true and literall meaning of the 1 2 3 and 4 verses of the 8 Chapter which are no other then an exegeticall exposition of the former prophecie Chap. 7. vers 14 15 16. or a more legall ratification or new assumption of making good the assurance which in the former Chapter he had given Moreover the Lord said unto me take thee a great roule and write in it with a mans penne concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz And I took unto me faithfull witnesses to record Vriah the Priest and Zechariah the sonne of Jeberechiah And I went unto the Prophetesse and shee conceived and bare a sonne then said the Lord to mee Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry my father and my mother the riches of Damascus and the spoile of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria The Child promised Chap. 7. ver 14 and in this place according to the true connexion of the literall sense is in my apprehension one and the same though described by two names the one importing comfort to the house of David and the land of Iudah and this was given him before his conception the later importing the sudden execution of the woes denounced against Syria and Samaria and was given him after his conception And lest wee should doubt whether this Maher-shalal-hash-baz were the same with the Emmanuel promised in the former Chapter hee is instyled again by the very same name Chap. 8. unto ver 8. The Lord spake unto me againe saying Forsomuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that goe softly and rejoyce in Rezin Remaliahs sonne now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up
the sacred story For Pekah was slaine by Hoshea the sonne of Elah within two or three yeares after the signe was given and so was Rezin by Tiglath Pileser at Damascus Within the like compasse of yeares after the Evangelicall promise was made to the blessed Virgin that her sonne Iesus should sit upon her Father Davids throne Herod the great who had usurped it did die a miserable death so did his confederates against the house of Iudah as wee gather from Matthew 2. 20. Arise saith the Angel to Ioseph in a dreame and take the young Childe and his Mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead which sought the young Childes life Now Ioseph returned from Egypt two yeares after our Saviour was borne Whom the Evangelist meanes beside Herod when hee saith they were dead which sought the Childes life is no where in sacred story expressed nor is it to mee certaine whether Syria at that time had a King of their own but it is probable they had seeing in S. Pauls time Aretas was King of Damascus 2. Cor. 11. 32. Some there be which mention the death of one Obedas whom they make King of Syria who died about the same time with Herod but from what authority they expresse not The Evangelist might meane the Roman Governour of Syria by whose favour and potencie Herod was emboldned to tyrannize over the Jews Nation and to worke his projects against the house of David Some have accused Quintilius Varus of this great sinne unto whom and to the Legions under his Governement the right hand of the Lord of Hoasts had reached a more terrible blow than Iudah had received from him or Herod within some few yeares after the butcherie of the Infants 14. The second blessing whereof the Emmanuel was a pledge whose conception had beene foretold by Isaiah was not exhibited till many yeares after and it was this that Judah and the house of David should be more admirably delivered from the Assyrian when he should besiege Ierusalem more fiercely then Rezin or Pekah had done And this was in the dayes of Hezekiah for so the Prophet assures the people that the rod of Ashur should be broken as in the day of Midian Isaiah 9. 4. Which is in effect as if he had said The Lord will be with us after as wonderfull a manner as he was with Gideon when Israel was oppressed by the Midianites And so it fell out in the dayes of Hezekiah that Senacheribs mighty Army was destroyed by a more fearefull destruction then the Midianites had beene by Gideon And unto this strange defeat of the Assyrian the Prophets words Isaiah 9. 4 5. do referre Thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen and the staffe of his shoulders the rod of his Oppressour as in the day of Midian For every battell of the Warrier is with confused noyse and garments rolled in bloud but this shall be with burning and fewell of fire Now of this disaster which befell Assyria and the strange deliverance of Iudah and the house of David by it the Emmanuel there promised by Isaiah was the pledge or assurance as the Prophet in the next word intimates For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. Isaiah 9. 6. That by this Childe the Prophet meant the Emmanuel mentioned Chapter 7. is acknowledged by all even by such as admit of no more Emmanuels then one to wit our Saviour Christ But seeing the Emmanuel there literally meant was given as a pledge or comfort unto Iudah in this particular distresse certainely hee was borne before him though not borne only as a pledge of this deliverance but of a farre greater Deliverer or Saviour to come for whose sake alone this deliverance and all other of his people from their enemies both bodily and ghostly were sent from God And best Interpreters take those words of Isaiah 2. Kings 9. 34. I will defend this Citie to save it for mine owne sake and for my servant Davids sake to be literally meant not of David but of Davids sonne the true Emmanuel But to returne to the 9. of Isaiah upon that vision of that great overthrow of Senacheribs Armie the Prophet takes his rise to view a greater victory a more potent Enemie in the same place where Senacheribs Armie was overthrowne and that was not neere Ierusalem but in the borders of Zebulun and Napthali neere to Libanus in that Country whose Inhabitants Senacheribs predecessour Tiglath-Pileser had first captivated and in the same place our Saviour gave his Apostles power over Satan and his Angels who had his people in greater subjection then the Assyrians had them in the time of Isaiah For hee had possessed many of their bodies after another manner then any earthly Tyrant could have them in possession Now when the Prophet foretels as well the victory of the Angell of the Lord over the Assyrian as the victory of Christs Apostles over Satan he gives this one signe of both For unto us a Childe is borne and unto us a little one is given c. These words may referre both to the type and to the antitype in the literall sense but immediatly after the light of that great mysterie which all this while had beene under the cloude of the literall sense breakes forth in its proper native lustre For the words following can be meant of none but Christ And his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Of the encrease of his governement and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever the Zeale of the Lord of Hoasts will performe this As for the former passages concerning the Emmanuel and Mahar-shalal-hash-baz they are literally meant of Isaiah his sonne and yet are withall proofes no lesse concludent against the Jew no lesse pregnant testimonies of our beliefe concerning the miraculous birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ than the testimonies last cited out of Isaiah 9. 6 7. or of his Godhead or everlasting Kingdome For however such immediate visions or unvailed revelations of Christ as Isaiah in these two verses and in the 53 Chapter or elsewhere addes were the most sublime kinde of prophecies such as few other Prophets besides David could ever attaine unto these having the like priviledges amongst the Prophets that Peter Iames and Iohn had amongst the fellow Apostles permitted to ascend the Mount with Christ and see the transfiguration or glory of his Kingdom Yet for our instruction predictions of Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are most admirably concludent as was premised before especially when the same words according to the literall sense fit both the pledge and the mysterie pledged or the Evangelicall mysterie according to the improvement in a more exquisite sense then they did the type or