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
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
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
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
to the prey chap. 11. ver 8. Their horses also are swifter then the Leopards and are more fierce then the Evening Wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from farre they shall flye as the Eagle that hasteth to eate And so Moses long before had threatned this people Deut. 28. 49. The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee from farre from the end of the earth as swift as the Eagle fleeth c. And this prophecy was most exactly fulfilled in the Conquest oppression and destruction of this Nation by the Romanes and their Allyes especially the Italians Spanish Germane and British with other of these Westerne Nations And our Saviour in the forecited place foretels the fulfilling of this prophecy of Moses upō the Jews of that present age For all that our Saviour had said in that 24. of Matthew was to be accomplished according to the literall sense in that age current for so he saith ver 34. Verely I say unto you this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled Now it is evident that this gathering together of the Eagles was to be fulfilled before those signes of his comming to judge Jerusalem were to bee exhibited ver 29. Our Saviours prophesie then cannot according to the literall sense refer unto his comming to finall judgement but unto his comming to visite Jerusalem and the Nation of the Jewes of whom as he intimates some few should bee strangely reserved others remarkably plagued and so to be plagued by the Romanes whose ensigne was the Eagle Those whom God had forsaken or appointed to the slaughter within that age current were as we say dead in Law whithersoever they fled the Romane Eagles which God had authorized to be his executioners of the heavy Judgements there denounced would be more swift then they more sagacious then they were subtill And albeit these wandring Corps did take the Temple for their Sanctuary and make Jerusalem and it the last seat of that deadly warre yet even there should these Eagles or Vultures be gathered against them and teach their young ones to suck their blood And indeed if a man would accurately observe the processe and successe of the warre against them by the Romans it would appeare to have beene begun and ended rather by such secret instinct or presage as the Eagles have of great slaughters then by rationall project or humane consultation 13. To this expression of the literall meaning of the forecited place S. Luke directs me who of all the three Evangelists mentioneth the immediate cause or occasion of our Saviours proverbiall speech Luke 17. 37. And they answered or replyed and said unto him where Lord The meaning of the interrogatory is where shall the place or seate of these strange Calamities be and to this he answers Wheresoever the body is there will the Eagles be gathered together The importance of his answer is whithersoever these sons of death shall repaire thither will the executioners of Gods wrath be gathered together to wit the Romans who should not spare such as did resist or seeke to save their lives by hostility or strength and yet be ready to spare such as would submit themselves unto their mercy Thus much in my apprehension was intimated ver 33. Whosoever shall seeke to save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it I tell you in that night there shall be two men in one bed the one shall be taken the other shall be left Two women shall be grinding together the one shall be taken and the other left And they answered and said where Lord c. This I take to be the literall meaning of this prophecy As for the mysticall parallel to this literall if this afford any such that cannot elsewhere bee so fitly handled as in the Article of Christs comming to judge the world both quick and dead Now according to the mysticall sense we are I take it to understand by the body the bodies of the Saints deceased and then to make the Allegorie or proportion such as the Scripture alwaies maketh hansome and comely the Eagles must not be such as Iob describeth either Vultures or of Vultures kinde but Iovis Aquilae which as Philologers tell us do not use to feed on dead Corps or slaine flesh These are fit emblemes of the swift ministery of Celestiall Angels in gathering or summoning the bodies of deceased Saints from the one end of the Earth to the other SECT 3. That the incarnation of God and of God in the person of the Son instiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was foretold praefigured c. in the Writings of Moses Of the hypostaticall union between the Sonne of God and seed of Abraham 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 seed of Abraham especially here on earth after such a peculiar manner as wee Christians beleeve Christ God and man did THat which in the first place we are to know concerning Christ and him crucified is that he was to be both God and man And this we are to learne from the sacred Oracles whether in the literall or mysticall sense in this order First from such Oracles as teach us that God was to be incarnate and to converse with men more humano after an humane manner here on earth Secondly from such divine Oracles as instruct us that God was to be incarnate and thus to converse with men in the person of the Sonne Thirdly from such as foretell the manner of the incarnation and of the permanent union betweene the sonne of God and the humane nature 2. To dispute with the Jew or other Infidell who acknowledgeth the truth of the old testament without some manifest ground of the literall sense were but to beate the aire For there can bee no concludent allegoricall or mysticall sense unlesse it be grounded on the literall And of all the branches of the literall sense none is so evidently concludent against the Jew the Arian or Photinian whether ancient or later to wit the Socinian as that which for the most part is least observed or most slenderly prosecuted by such as seeke to confute the Jew or other Infidells or heretiques which subscribe unto the literall sense of the old Testament The best Topick or seate of arguments for this purpose must bee borrowed from those passages in the Old Testament which according to the plaine literall or grammaticall sense cannot without blasphemy or literall solaecisme bee applyed to any person but God to any besides the God of Israel and yet cannot be meant of God himselfe according to the punctuall literall sense save only as he was to be incarnate or to have his conversation amongst men after a more peculiar manner then in the ancient times of the world he had And these places be for number many perhaps more
as entire an interest in his death as if what soever he did or suffered in the daies of his humiliation he had done and suffered all for us alone But this last consideration perhaps is more pertinent to the knowledge of Christ and of him Crucified then unto the historicall beliefe of his death or Crosse CHAP. 3. Whether such knowledge of God and of Christ as the Scriptures teach be a science properly so called ADmitting the objects of our beleife might bee as certainely and as evidently knowne at least by some as the subjects of sciences properly so called are Whether this knowledge and our beleife of the same objects may be coincident that is whether it be all one so to know them and to beleeve them I will not dispute for this would occasiō a controversie about the use of words unfitting for a professed Divine to entertaine much more to invite But that there is a knowledge of Christ even in this life which if not for perspicuity or evidence of truth yet for the excellencie of the truths knowne exceeds all other knowledge we have our Apostles peremptory sentence for us For writing to his Converts of Corinth which then abounded with all kinde of knowledge secular he saith I esteemed or determined to know nothing amongst you save Iesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. He therefore determined to know nothing besides because he had no other knowledge in any esteeme in comparison to this And what good Christian would desire any other but as it is subservient to this knowledge This comprehends all that wee can desire either to know or to enjoy all that wee can esteeme or love even eternall happinesse it selfe as the author and fountaine of all happinesse instructs us John 17. ver 3. This is life eternall to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent But whether our Saviour in this speech or his Apostle in the former do use the word knowledge in a strict or in a vulgar sense may be questioned And this question resolves it selfe into another more generall as whether Theologie that is knowledge of God be a science properly so called or whether many conclusions of faith may bee clearely demonstrated 2. Two sorts of men there be who for the support or securing of their unreasonable conclusions have some reason to deny this Queene of sciences this Mistresse of Arts and supreame Governesse of all good faculties to be a science properly so called The Agents for the Romish Church and their extreame opposites whether mere Enthusiasts such as deny al use of scriptures or mixt Enthusiasts men that acknowledge the use of Scriptures but abuse them more then such as reject them by using them too much or to no good purpose or mingle them with the secret inspirations of their private spirits or wrest them to their owne fancies First if the conclusions controverted betwixt us and the Romane Church may be one way or other demonstrated as either to be altogether true or altogether false or so sublime that in this life they cannot be punctually or absolutely determined then are wee not absolutely bound to beleeve every proposition which that Church shall commend unto us as a doctrine of faith with the same confidence as if it were expresly delivered in Scripture or in the Articles of our Creed Nor should every applauded booke or Sermon albeit their bulke or substance consists for the most part of Scripture sentences be acknowledged to be that word of God to which all owe obedience if once it were acknowledged that there is a facultie or science of Divinitie which hath the same authority to approve or disprove doctrinall conclusions or their uses which other Arts or sciences have to examine the workes of all pretenders to them If Divinity be a science then he which is a Divine or a master of his profession might censure the Professors of other Arts faculties or sciences which take upon them to resolve Theologicall controversies or to teach doctrines which the Church wherein they live never avouched with the selfe same libertie which the Professors of other Arts usually doe Divines if they take upon them to teach or practise within the precincts of their profession Besides these two sects of men and some other men which cannot be comprehended under any sect or faction but have the same temptation to desire that there might be no true knowledge of God or of Christ or no demonstration of the Spirit that the Atheist or desperate sinner hath to wish there were no God or no Judge of quick and dead I cannot conceive what reason any man or any sort of men have to deny Theologie to be a true and proper science Yet to give the ingenuous Reader if not full satisfaction yet some Hints at least whereby hee may satisfie himselfe it will be no digression from our present argument at least no long digression briefely to shew wherein that knowledge of God and of Christ which may in this life be obtained doth differ from sciences properly so called and wherein they doe agree Now all the differences or concordance that can be betwixt any sciences Arts or faculties do either concerne the Maxims and Principles or the conclusions and the subjects of such faculties 3. The Maximes or Principles of all other sciences may be clearely apprehended and firmely assented unto by the industrious search and light of common reason without illuminations supernaturall so cannot the principles or Maxims of Divinity there must be a light or illumination more then naturall before wee can have either a cleare and undoubted apprehension of their truth or a just valuation of their worth Yet this difference is not much materiall neither part of it positive or negative is any way formall or essentiall to the constitution of a science properly so called For by what meanes soever the Principles of any science become manifest and certaine unto us whether by our owne industry or by the teaching of others or whether wee bee taught them immediately from God either by the admirable disposition of his extraordinary Providence or by speciall infused grace is meerely accidentall to the constitution or nature of a science properly so called Hee that sees the deduction of Mathematicall conclusions from the uncontrovers'd Maximes of the same Art as clearely as another doth is never a whit the lesse skilfull Mathematitian although perhaps he learned the Principles by the helpe of an Extraordinary teacher which the other attained unto by the industrious exercise of his owne wit Now if it be meerely accidentall to the nature of a science whether a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his owne Master or anothers Scholar whether in learning the principles or conclusions it can be no prejudice either to his knowledge or proficiency in such knowledge that he hath beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediatly taught by God at least for the Maximes And I make no
prejudice us Christians of this age halfe so much as the losse of some Iewish traditions or rules for interpreting Scriptures which had beene constantly received amongst the ancient Hebrew Rabbins but rejected by the later Iewish Masters And it would be a worke in it selfe worthy any one mans labours or works of this life to retrieve the footsteps or progresse of the ancient Rabbins whereof some scattered prints here and there may be observed in ancient Writers That such rules there were constantly received in the time of our Saviours conversation here on earth though now either wilfully concealed or through ignorance not acknowledged by later Iewish Rabbins is hence apparent in that the mouthes of moderne Jewes are widest open to bark against our interpretation of those passages of Mosaicall and Propheticall writings whose bare allegation whether made by our Saviour himselfe or by his disciples after his resurrection did stop the mouthes of those cruell dogges which sought their lives What these rules or traditions were in particular is not of facile conjecture nay almost impossible to determine This generall notwithstanding is most certaine that God did shew the incarnation death and passion of his onely sonne even all whatsoever Israel was to beleeve concerning the person or Offices of the expected Messias or wee Christians concerning Jesus Christ and him crucified not by meere Prophecie only or by words literally and expresly assertive but withall by signes of the time by historicall events by matters of fact by rites and ceremonies by types and shadowes By all these wayes God did speake or declare his purpose For as the Psalmist saith That the Heavens declare the glory of God that dayes and nights have their words so loud and shrill that their sound goes throughout all the world Psal 19. so likewise signes and wonders are said to have their voyces And it shall be saith God to Moses Exod. 4. 8. that if they will not beleeve thee nor hearken to the voyce of the first signe which was the reciprocall conversion of Moses rod into a serpent yet they will beleeve the voice of the latter signe and that was the smiting of Moses his hand with leprosie as white as snow and restoring it to perfect sound flesh againe If signes and wonders have their voices then God doth speake unto us by them as well as by his audible and written word but even where his writtē word is for the sense most plaine the matters cōtained in it have their voice or speech This manner of Gods speaking unto men is excellently expressed by Gregory the first in the 20. of his Morals and 1. cap To say nothing of the waightinesse of the matter or subject the Scripture excells all other sciences in its peculiar manner of expression For in plainest and punctuall or textuall narrations it points at mysteries and it so speakes of matters past as in them it foretels things to come and in the very same words records things done and past and discovers things to be afterwards done This passage of S. Gregory referres especially unto historicall narrations in Scripture which besides the plaine literall have a further mysticall and hidden sense of both which we are to speake hereafter The next point in order to be prosecuted is of testimonies or prenotions of Christ meerely typicall CHAP. 10. Of Testimonies in the old Testament concerning Christ meerely typicall and how they doe conclude the truths delivered in the new Testament VNder this title wee comprehend all prefigurations of Christ exemplified in the old Testament by the persons and offices of men by legall rites and ceremonies either annuall and solemne or commanded to be used upon privat speciall occasions or by any matter of fact or event whereto no expresse prophecie no assertive notation of him or application unto him who was to come is annexed And herein the wisdome of God appeares most admirable that the contents of every Article in the Apostles Creed were respectively foreshadowed by some one or other of these wayes mentioned and some of them by all The manner of his conception was clearely prefigured for substantially represented it could not be by the conception of Isaac of Sampson and of Samuel And that Generation wherein hee was conceived and borne was sufficiently warned to obserue these three prefigurations as then to be accomplished by the strange conception of Iohn the Baptist His circumcision with the mysteries implied in it or subsequent unto it were fore-shadowed in the covenant established betweene God and Abraham in the Circumcision of Isaac Of his Baptisme though that be not expressed in our Creed the washing of the high Priests body in the day of atonement was a type Of his leading into the wildernesse upon the same day to be tempted by Satan the ceremony of the scape Goate was a true prognostique Of his appearing in the forme of a Servant and of his performance of all the duties which can be required from a servant in the most exquisite manner that can be imagined holy Iob was more then a type a living shadow Of all his trobles and deliverance from them his Father David was a live example Of his depression by his envious and malicious brethren and of his exaltation by the immediat hand of God the history of Ioseph and of his brethren exhibits an illustrious image Of his death upon the Crosse and the glorious victory obtained thereby over Satan the brazen Serpent erected by Moses in the Wildernesse was a conspicuous Hieroglyphick His inclosure three dayes and three nights in the womb of the Earth and his resurrection from the grave were portended by the imprisonment of Ionas in the Whales belly and by his deliverance thence And of his resurrection in particular the offring of the first fruites in the feast of unleavened bread from the first institution of that solemnity was an annuall signe or token Of this coelestiall Kingdome of peace Salomons glory and peaceable raigne here on Earth was an exquisite map Of his ascension into Heaven the translations of Enoch and Elias were undoubted pledges The Eternity of his person and everlasting duration of his Priesthood were exquisitely fore-shadowed the one by the person the other by the Priesthood of Melchisedech The full view and contemplation of these and the like types and the examination of their congruity with the live body to wit Christ whom in some part or other every one of them did fore-picture wee must referre unto the explication of the severall Articles in this Creed whereunto they do respectively appertaine 2. The rule or Topick for demonstrating the truth of every Article by these the like types is the same with that fore-mentioned in the former Chapters concerning testimonies meerely propheticall or predictions of future events as yet not extant in any causes visible or comprehensible by art To draw an exact picture of a childe as yet unborne or whose parents at this time are not conceived is a skill
as impossible for any Painter or Limmer to attaine as it is for an Astrologicall Physitian to describe the nature complexion or disposition of men that shall have no actuall being or existence till hee be dead Now Christs acts and offices his humiliation and exaltation were not more exactly fore-described or displayed by the Prophets then they were fore-pictured or fore-shadowed by Historicall events or legall types Every such type or event was a reall or substantiall though a silent Prophecie and the most expresse prophecie concerning Christ was but a speaking type or vocall shadow The spirit of God did speake by the one and signifie his purpose by the other his wisdome in both is alike admirable The most exquisite Artist living cannot take so true a proportion of a mans face as it selfe without any art or invention will draw in a true glasse yet this wee admire not because it is ordinary But to make as perfect a resemblance of a mans visage by a chaos of Chymaera's or painted devises which represent no visible creature if you looke upon them single or transmit their shapes into a plaine glasse might well seeme an invention surpassing all skill of Art if a late Artist had not given us an ocular demonstration of this skill in thus representing the perfect visage of that great and famous Prince Henry the fourth of France however there be no resemblance of any humane face or of any part thereto belonging in the painted Base yet the reflection of such incondite figures or confused fancies as are thereon painted falling upon a Columne of brasse or Bell mettle glazed with latten placed in the centre or point assigned in the plaine table by the Author of this invention doth effigiate this great Princes visage and countenance as perfectly as any picture which hath beene taken of him in his life time The skill in this devise is so admirable as it would require but a very little skill in Rhetorick to perswade an illiterate man which hath seene him living that his Ghost were present though invisible to by standers looking upon it selfe in this artificiall visible glasse yet all this skill exhibited in this masterpiece of modern inventions how admirable soever it may seeme to men not exercised in the like is comprehensible to accurate Artists in this kinde and can afford no true illustration of the incomprehensible wisedome of God in forepicturing Christ with his Acts and offices Of this incomprehensible wisedome wee have a better model by adding this supposition or fiction to the former invention that an hundred picture-makers or more having had free libertie one after another to draw their lines and postures upon the same table none of them acquainting another with his intention or worke should have framed such a true representation as this now extant is of Henry the fourth French King in the age before he was borne But after a more admirable manner then this fiction supposeth were Christ and his Crosse c. forepictured by matters of fact by historicall events by types and ceremonies and by the concurrence with these of mens free actions intentions which knew not one another much lesse had notice of their purposes the last of thē living more then 400. years before Christ was cōceived For the right apprehension or imblazoning these meerely typicall representations of Christ no artificiall skill is more usefull then the true Art of Heraldy or skill in Hieroglyphicks And no kinde of learning more usefull for the right apprehension of the third kinde of testimonies or prenotions concerning Christ then the insight in Emblemes devises or impreses CHAP. 11. Of testimonies concerning Christ typically propheticall or prophetically typicall and of their concludent proofe MEere types are true Hieroglyphicks and Hieroglyphicks are as bodies without soules that is Pictures without inscriptions Emblemes or Impreses must have both body and soule a devise with its inscription or motto And so doe testimonies of the third ranke proposed concerning Christ consist of a Type as the body or devise and have words propheticall annext as the soule or breath And this kinde of testimonie or prenotion of Christ is of two sorts either typicall and propheticall or Propheticall and typicall That some difference there was betwixt these two expressions not only in the order or placing of the words but in the matter also thus transplaced was intimated before Chapter 5. Wheresoever the type hath precedence or is concomitant to the inscription annext unto it yet so as both point at Christ to come there the testimony or proofe is typicall propheticall Where the words or prophecie have precedence of the type and both referre unto Christ the proofe or prenotion is prophetically typicall That the ceremony of the paschall Lambe was instituted by God himselfe to prefigure or forepicture our Saviour Christ no Christian denies And one Law concerning the Paschall Lambe was that not a bone thereof should be broken Exod. 12. 46. The words of this Law were no prediction in respect of the first institution of the passeover but an appendix or concomitant and yet a most remarkable prophecie in respect of our Saviour Christ in the manner of whole death both the type and the Law of the type were by Gods admirable providence exactly fulfilled Then came the soldiers saith St. John and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him But when they came to Iesus and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legges but one of the soldiers with a speare pierced his side That our Apostle Saint John did take both these events as a concludent proofe that Christ was the true Lambe of God foreshadowed by the Paschall is apparent from his emphaticall expression of his observation upon it He that saw it bare record and his record is true and he kneweth that he saith true that hee might beleeve For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken And againe Zach. 12. 10. They shall looke on him whom they have peirced John 19. 32. 37. 2. Those words of the Prophet Hosea cap. 11. 1. according to their literall sense referre to an historicall event forepast When Israel was a child then I loved him and I called my sonne out of Egypt They beare no semblance of prophecy in respect of the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt by Moses but both this deliverance the prophets observation upon it have a peculiar aspect unto Christ who was by divine appointment to sojourne a while in Egypt but to be called thence So as the same words which are an historicall narration in respect of the type to wit Israel or the sonnes of Jacob brought out of Egypt by Moses are an expresse prophecy of Christs comming thence with Joseph and his mother into the Land of promise That speech of the Psalmist likewise Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the Corner doth allude or referre unto some historicall event then fresh in memory They containe no prophecy in respect of the event whatsoever that were yet are they a most true concludent Prophecie of Christs exaltation by his father after his rejection by the Priests and Elders So our Saviour interprets it Matth. 21. 42. All these three testimonies mentioned consisting both of word and matter of fact are first typicall then propheticall But oftentimes the same words though not alwayes according to the same sense are propheticall as well in respect of the type as of the antitype and then the proofe or testimony is prophetically typicall or meerely typicall from their first date and afterwards in processe of time both typicall and propheticall Of this ranke is that prediction made to David 2 Sam. 7. 12 13. c. And when thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleepe with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowells and I will establish his Kingdome He shall build an house for my name and I will establish the throne of his Kingdome for ever I will be his Father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him as I tooke it from Saul whom I put away before thee And thy house thy Kingdom shal be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever Of the same rank and order is that repetition of this promise Psal 89. from ver 20. to the 37. Both places conteine an expresse prophecie of Gods favour unto David and to his posterity and both include the prerogative of Salomon above all Kings that had gone before him And yet in as much as Salomon in the height of his glory was but a shadow or picture though a faire one of the sonne of God who was to be made the sonne of David likewise the same words which were undoubtedly verifyed of Salomon in his time were afterwards exactly fulfilled in Christ who was the living person or substance whom Salomon did forepicture No Christian can no Jew will deny these words of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 22. 20 21 22. c. to be propheticall in the first place of Eliakims advancement to be chiefe master or high Steward over the house of David in Shebna's steed And it shall come to passe in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the sonne of Hilkiah And I will cloth him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a Father to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem to the house of Iudah And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulders so he shall open and none shall shut and hee shall shut and none shall open And I will fasten him as a naile in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Fathers house And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his fathers house c. But in as much as Eliakim both by name and office did but prefigure or delineate Christ in his acts and office the same words which were literally meant of Eliakim are in a more exquisite sense fulfilled in Christ But of the severall senses of Scriptures and how the Scriptures are said according to these severall senses to be fulfilled somewhat in the two next chapters following These proofes or testimonies whereof we now treat whether typically propheticall or prophetically typicall are in number many and of all the rest most concludent to Readers but ordinarily observant For they containe the intire force and strength of the two former proofes or testimonies meerely typicall or meerely propheticall by way of union and it is universally true Vis unita semper fortier 3. Imagine a man of ordinarie insight in Architecture should come into some large and curious palace or City newly built and after a diligent survey of the form and fashion of every particular roome house or street should finde a model of elder date then the worke it selfe which did beare the just proportion and inscription of every roome or building this would resolve him that such exact correspondency could not fall out by chance but that the Citie or Palace had beene built by his directions which made the model or by some others which made use of his skill albeit no handy-workman imployed in the building albeit none but the Architect or generall director did perceive as much Thus all historicall events related in the new testament concerning Christ his birth his death and passion c. have their exact Maps or Models drawne in the history of the old testament besides the expresse propheticall inscriptions which instruct us how to referre or compare every part of the legall or historicall model unto the Evangelicall aedifice answering to it This to every observant Reader is a concludent proofe that one and the same spirit did both forecast the models and in the fulnesse of time accomplish the worke it selfe to wit the building up of Sion and Jerusalem though this he effected as master builders in like cases doe by the hands of inferiour workmen not acquainted nor comprehensive of his project or contrivances 4. Every house saith the Apostle Heb. 3. 4. is builded by some man but he that built all things is God This power of God by which he made all things even the materialls of all things whereon men doe work doth not farther exceed the power of other builders then the wisedome of the same God which is manifested in the aedifice of the heavenly temple doth surpasse all skill or contrivance of the most skilfull Architects or Projectors For whatsoever is by them forecast or projected doth never prosper never come to any perfection unlesse the workemen imployed by them follow their rules or directions But this greatest worke of God the erection or edification of his Church did then goe best forward when the workmen or builders imployed about it did forsake his counsell and followed the directions of his malitious adversary who sought the confusion both of it and them He built up the Kingdome of Sion and Jerusalem in peace without let or interruption even whilest the master builders designed by him did lay the foundation or chiefe corner stone of it in blood And after it was so laid did accomplish whatsoever he would have done in this great worke by the hands of such workemen as did nothing lesse then what he would have had them to do Though Judas one of the twelve by Satans suggestion did betray his Lord though the high Priest and Elders became the Devills agents to condemne him and though Pilate lastly turned Satans deputie to sentence him to death yet all these did that which the most wise most righteous and most mercifull God
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
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
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
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
amongst the best Divines of this age Theodoret amongst the Ancients Melancthen and Moller amongst moderne writers have better attempted this profitable worke than they have beene seconded The historicall occasions and other circumstances of the times wherein these Psalmes were written were they knowne according to the literall sense would lead us by a faire and safe way as it were by the rule of three unto the just product or capacitie of the true allegoricall and mysticall sense in which they were fulfilled But as our case now stands the luxuriant and perplexed branches of such forced Allegories as men fancie to themselves or frame by guesse without any perfect scale or proportion from the true historicall sense have occasioned many judicious Divines to doubt or question whether those things which by the Evangelists are said to bee done that the Scriptures might bee fulfilled doe alwayes imply some concludent proofe or demonstration of the Spirit Calvin for being sometimes too bold sometimes too sparing in the exposition of such places as the Evangelists say are fulfilled in Christ is deeply taxed by the Lutherans generally and by many of the Romish Church But Christian charity will perswade men of sober passions that it was rather feare lest he should give offence unto the Jewes then any desire or inclination to comply with them which made him sometimes give the same interpretations of Scriptures which they doe without expression of or search after farther mysteries than the letter it selfe doth minister How ever it be if Calvin be lyable to a judgement Iansenius Sasbout and Maldonat three of the most judicious Commentators of the Romish Church for these many yeares are lyable to a Councell for their unadvised presumption in this kinde One of them denyeth that often forecited place I will be to him a Father and be shall be to me a sonne to bee literally meant of Salomon wherein he gives just offence unto the Jewes and by superstitious feare of committing that errour whereof Calvin is often accused doth fall into the contrary The two others question whether that of the Prophet Hosea Out of Egypt have I called my sonne were properly fulfilled in our Saviour or only said to be fulfilled per accommodationem by way of allusion that is in such a manner as we might say that of the Poet Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura Parentis were fulfilled in any father or mother whom we saw to dote upon or much to deligt in their lovely sonne And this was the explicite meaning of Maldonats third rule before cited in what sense the Scripture is said to be fulfilled 2. That this was his meaning in that place may be gathered from his comment on that other saying of S. Matthew Chap. 13. ver 34 35. All these things spake Iesus unto the multitude in parables and without a parable spake he not unto them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things which have beene kept secret since the foundation of the world His observations upon this place are in his owne words englished thus The particle That doth not denote the cause why our Saviour spake in parables for he did not thus speake to the end that Davids sayings might bee fulfilled but because his Auditors were unworthy of such perspicuous declarations as he used to his Disciples in private This he takes as granted from our Saviours speech ver 13 14. Therefore spake I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they heare not neither doe they understand And in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaiah which saith By hearing c. The abstract of his observations upon ver 34 35. is this that it was no part of our Evangelists meaning to teach us that Davids prophecy was properly fulfilled by our Saviours parables seeing Davids discourse as he conceives was indeed no prophecy but an historicall narration of matters past besides that the word which the Psalmist there useth doth not signifie such parables as our Saviour in this 13. chapter meant but rather such pithy sentences as the Greekes call Apophthegmes Maldonats conclusion therefore is that the Evangelist according to his usuall manner did only accommodate that which David had spoken to our Saviours speeches in this place to which they have some affinity or similitude though no concludent congruity and for our better satisfaction hee referres us to his Comments upon Matth. 2. 15. that is indeed to his third rule in what sense the Scriptures are said to be fulfilled But in this and other like passages to the same purpose this Author onely gives us to understand how easie a matter it is for good Divines sometimes to spend a great deale of learning and wit to no good purpose especially when they strive to be hypercriticall or to be censorious of others pious endeavours though perhaps not so accurate 3. To revise these his animadversions ordine retrogrado that is beginning with the last and ending with the first No man did say that the narrations in that Psalme were propheticall in respect of the matters literally and immediately signified by the words themselves Yet in as much as these matters though past as Gods wonders in Egypt and in the wildernesse the conducting of his people to the land of Canaan and their rebellious behaviour in it were true types or shadowes of the like events in future times there is not any thing in that Psalme related which in the mysticall sense doth not fore-represent some parallel event when the God of their Fathers should come in person to expostulate with his people in such a manner as David did with the people of his time which he did not in his owne name or authority but in the name and authority of his Lord and God For so he beginnes that Psalme Give eare O my people to my Law incline your eares to the words of my mouth I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter darke sayings of old This preamble cannot literally bee applyed to David or any Prophet save only as he was a type or shadow of him that was to come The Psalmists words immediately following though Apophthegmaticall and pithy were plaine in respect of the literall sense if you consider them only as matters of fact forepast were knowne and had been taught at the least by some of their Fathers though perhaps forgotten by posterity However in respect of their mysticall importāce or as they containe a proportionable parallel of the Kingdome of Heaven with the Kingdome of Israel according to the flesh they are sentences both hard and darke and such as did require a better paraphrast upon David or the Author of this Psalme then he was of Moses or of the sacred Historians before his time For by the parables meant in ver 2. of this Psalme if we may beleeve S. Matthewes paraphrase upon these words were meant things which had beene
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
to bee followed in practise then the other although there be no absolute resolution whether is speculatively more true As suppose it to be equally probable on both sides whether tithes be due Iure divino or no yet it would be the safer way for every man to pay his tithes as duly as if hee were fully resolved that they were due by Gods peremptory Law For so long as any doubt remaines whether they be due by Gods Law or no the detaining of them cannot by any humane law be made ex fide it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is so is in our Apostles sense a most grievous sin But to proceed in our assertion 4. Two grave and learned writers in their times and their times were ancient in respect of ours have observed an Amphibologie in the directions which Samuel gave to Saul from Gods owne mouth questionlesse 1 Sam. 10. 8. Thou shalt goe downe before me to Gilgal and behold I will come downe unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings seaven dayes shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and shew thee what I will doe It was Sauls misfortune shall I say or misdemeanour to make choise of the worse part of that double construction which these words may admit for this Amphibologie was not in scripto but in words uttered though afterwards committed to writing Reason might have taught Saul that if the warre were undertaken it was to be administred likewise by the counsell of the Lord and therefore he did foolishly in adventuring to offer sacrifice or doe any other solemne act before the Prophet who was the Lords Embassadour in this businesse came unto him Although it be said Chap. 13. ver 8. That he tarryed seaven dayes according to the time set by Samuel yet in this doing surely he did not as Samuel appointed him to doe otherwise Samuel had done more foolishly of the two He stayed then the just measure of that time which Samuel had appointed but he did not observe the season the end or purpose which Samuel had appointed The seaven dayes were appointed him to offer solemne sacrifice and if he had not digressed from Samuels direction herein the seaven dayes of sacrifice had beene his solemne inauguration to the Kingdome as may with probability be gathered from the 13. verse of the 13. Chapter Samuel said to Saul thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the Commandement of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee for now would the Lord have established thy Kingdome upon Israel for ever 5. To admit either an Amphibologie in sentences by mutuall transposition of words or clauses or ambiguous signification of words by changing of points can be no greater disparagement to the sacred authority of the originall Text then the equivocall or ambiguous signification of the same word without any alteration of points or letter would occasion if either sort of ambiguities did justly minister any such occasion at all Now that the selfesame word or words may in one and the same sentence admit ambiguous and much different significations no man that reades the Scriptures with as much diligence or observance as reverence can make question There is no difference at all betwixt Christians and Jewes much lesse amongst the Christians themselves about letters or poynts in the 8. Psalme in that verse especially Thou hast made him little lower then the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour This word little admits two senses grammatically much different and yet must respectively bee interpreted according to the full purport of both This Psalme by the title and inscription is a Psalme of David and beares the character of Davids pen The subject or matter of it is thanksgiving to God for his extraordinary favour unto man above all other visible creatures That which raysed his thoughts to such an high pitch and his expressions of them in such a loftie Propheticall straine as he here useth was his serious contemplation of the beauty of these Heavenly bodies the Sunne Moone and Starres c all which he knew to be the workes of Gods owne hand and yet he saw them nothing so much regarded by him as man even the meanest of men Enosh or Ben Adam The heavens indeed were farre above men in situation or place but man was further above them in dignity than he was below the Angels or Coelestiall Creatures Elohim Now if we respect onely the plaine literall sense of the Psalmists speech or consider it as it reflects onely upon the history of the first creation the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an adverbe of quantity and is rightly rendred by the Latine paulò or aliquantulum as it is most true that man by the gift of creation was little lower than the Angels being true Lord and King of this inferiour world But most Psalmists David especially whilest they contemplate the sacred Histories of times past not as Polititians doe histories soecular but as vates praeteritorum as men rapt with Gods goodnesse towards their Forefathers become withall vates futurorum true Prophets of better things to come In this admiration of mans first estate which was now lost David had a view or glimpse of his restauration to it or a better Whatsoever his thoughts or apprehensions for the present were his expressions by disposition of divine providence reached the manner of mans restitution to it as they doe the first estate it selfe from which we fell And in respect of this mysticall sense the same Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any alteration at all is an adverbe of time and is most divinely rendred by our Apostle Heb. 2. 5 6. c. Vnto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speake but one in a certaine place testified saying What is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower for a little while than the Angels thou crownedst him with glory and honour and didst set him over the workes of thy hands Thou hast put all things under his feete c. His inference is admirable For albeit the former words thou hast made him but a little lower than the Angels were literally true of the first man Adam yet were they not verified in any sonne of Adam Nor were the words following thou hast given him dominion over the workes of thy hands c ever fulfilled either in the first man or in any other creature nor can they in their exquisite sense be applied to any beside the second Adam or sonne of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is now Lord of all all things are subject to him even as he is the sonne of man And that he might be thus crowned with glory and honour and bring his brethren miserable men and the sonnes of miserable men unto glory he was for a while to bee made lower than the Angels through
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
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
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
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
hath irresistibly ordayned them to destruction But what occasion S. Paul here had to mention Gods chiding or expostulation with Reprobates in generall is without my capacitie to conceive Or were it granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he chide doth referre to all this sort of men yet would it still remaine questionable unto what time or part of time the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did referre for it is an adverbe of time not to be universally taken for all successions of time but alwayes points at some limited portion of time God doth not alwayes finde fault or expostulate either with all Reprobates or with any one Reprobate 5. The limitation then of this speech in respect of the person must be taken from reference to that which the Apostle had said ver 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this very cause have I raised thee or stirred thee up that I might shew my power in thee Now these words referre to Pharaoh alone to that Pharaoh whose heart was remarkably hardened Nor did God at all times from his birth chide or expostulate with this very Pharaoh The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies and our Apostle supposeth that the Lord had expostulated with him before that time unto which our Apostles words in speciall referre Otherwise the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have no place in that passage according to any grammar sense for that is as if he had said why doth hee chide or finde fault with him any longer or why doth he expostulate with him at all after that time wherein he had said For this very purpose have I raised thee up or kept thee alive being already fitted for destruction that I might shew my power in thee 6. This question is very pertinently made by our Apostle seeing Pharaoh at this time was so hardened that he could not repent without some speciall mercy or extraordinary dispensation For wise men only chide those of whose amendment there is some though small hope left Unto this Quaere our Apostle frames that answere Nay but O man who art thou that replyes against God ver 20. unto 24. Concerning the punctuall meaning of which I have none for the present if any other man have any desire to dispute my advise unto him is that he would weight our Apostles forecited words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that speech of God to Pharaoh unto which our Apostle referres us Exod. 9. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe And this God spake unto Pharaoh immediately after hee had told him for this very purpose have I raised thee up or as the Septuagint and Iunius for this very purpose have I reserved thee alive with whose translation and interpretation of this place in Exodus I would request every ingenuous sober reader to acquaint himselfe as well as with the ordinary expositors of the 9. to the Romanes and not adventure to saile in a narrow uncouch and unsounded sea only with the help of a generall carde as some have done and for want of an experienced Pilot have either fallen upon dangerous Rocks or stricken upon such shelves as there is small hope of their safe arivall without some such extraordinary mercy as S. Paul and his fellow passengers found yet with losse of the ship wherein they sailed 7. Divers other places of Scripture there be which in my opinion are usually extended beyond their native compasse though sometimes without any great danger of bad consequences yet alwayes with some losse of contentment to him that desires the true knowledge of the holy Ghosts meaning in them And thus they are over-extended through want of observation unto what matters of fact or speciall circumstances of some peculiar times they punctually referre Seeing the Psalmist in the eighth Psal doth so magnifie the goodnesse of God and his speciall providence over mankinde in generall it must needs put an observant Reader of those sacred Hymnes to a demurre why the Author of the 90 Psalme should so pathetically complain of the shortnesse and misery of mens dayes or yeares And to this demurre I know not how to make any just reply if wee take the matter of his complaints to concerne all men which lived either in that time or since But if we consider that Moses the man of God was the Author of that Psalme as the inscription of it directs us to think and that hee penned it some few yeares after the deliverance of Gods people by him out of Aegypt the cause or occasion of the complaint is very justifiable and serious yet peculiar to those present times and the people whereof he was governour For I think it was never experienced in any age or Nation besides that of sixe hundred thousand living soules and likely to live in respect of the constitution of their bodies or any Epidemicall disease that then did raigne so few males at laest should outlive threescore and tenne yeares and fewer fourescore And yet of all the males which had beene delivered out of Aegypt not one that was but twenty yeares old did live above threescore yeares not one that was but thirty could live above threescore and tenne not one that was but forty two or three only excepted could live above fourescore yeares or if some attained to that age or above it yet their pilgrimage was to be full of sorrow all of them besides two or three excluded by oath from entring into the Land of their promised rest all above twenty besides Caleb and Ioshuah were to dye within forty yeares in the wildernesse Even Moses the man of God himselfe who penned this Psal was prohibited to enter into the Land of Canaan and therefore had just reason to complaine as there he doth yet without murmuring not of Gods disrespect unto mankinde in generall but of that heavy doome which he had pronounced against all the sonnes of Iacob above twenty years old of which number we cannot imagine fewer then two hundred thousand That the 33. verse of Psalme the 78. therefore their dayes did he consume in vanity and their yeares in trouble doth punctually referre unto that sentence denounced Numb 14. against those rebellious Israelites whose carkeises fell in the wildernesse is unquestionable Now albeit the words of this verse bee not the same with those of Moses Psal 90. 10. Yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away yet their signification is Synonimal 8. But this errour in stretching the native sense of Scriptures beyond its proper lists or bounds is sometimes committed by oversight not in matters of history or morality only but in the greatest mysteries of faith as in that place Ierem. 31. 22. How long wilt thou goe about O thou backsliding daughter For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth A woman shall compasse a man as we usually reade it Such as acknowledge
face whilest he talked with the people who were not able to behold the glory But this vaile as our Apostle tels us 2 Cor. 3. 14. is put away in Christ It is true Yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word was not the Christ to doe away this vaile till he put on the vaile of flesh The flesh then was a vaile to him but as a glasse or mirrour to us Wee may in Christ with open face behold that glory of God whose reflexe on Moses face the Israelites could not behold but through a vaile Christ then is that glasse or mirrour wherin the brightnesse of Gods glory which the Israelites could not then behold may now be seene But did the Iews or Israelites in the time of the old Testament or in that time wherein the Author of the booke of Wisdome wrote conceive any such matter as our Apostle here inferres that the glory of God should be more fully revealed or that men should be more capable of the participation of his presence in later ages then they had beene in former Some of them did others did not all of them ought even by their owne prenotions or interpretations of Scriptures so to have conceived and beleeved For thus some moderne Iews conceive of Moses his request What was that saith a great Rabbin amongst them which Moses our Master sought to attaine unto when he said I pray thee shew me thy glory 9 He requeged to know the truth of the being or essence of the holy blessed God untill that he were knowne in his heart like as a man is knowne whose face is seen and whose forme is ingravē in ones heart so that man is distinguished or separated in his knowledge from other men So Moses requested that the Essence of God might be distinctly knowne in his heart from the essence of other things so that he might know the truth of his Essence as it is But God answered him that the knowledge of living man who is compounded of body and soule hath no ability to apprehend the truth of this thing concerning his Creator That knowledge of God or sight of his glory whereof Moses was uncapable was truely ingraven in the heart of the man Christ Iesus and in his light wee see light He that saw him with the eyes of faith did see the father he did see the glory of the Godhead The brightnesse of the divine glory is alike inaccessible alike incommunicable in the Sonne as in the Father if we consider them in their divine nature alone but in the man Christ Iesus and in him alone wee may behold the brightnesse of the Divine glory which neither eye nor heart of man could behold in it selfe or in any divine person alone but only in the divine person which was incarnate 10 And it is not here to be omitted that the forecited 29. of Exodus ver 45 I will dwell among the Children of Israel is thus translated by Onkelus in his paraphrase ponam praesentiam divinitatis meae in medio filiorum Israel So Fagius with some others render it and why he so renders it gives the reason And the later Rabbines as one well conversant in their writings saith generally observe that whensoever it is said in the person of God that I will dwell amongst them this may not be understood but of the Majestie of the holy and blessed God To this purpose they alleage the 9. verse of the 8 Psalme His salvation is neere them that feare him that glory may dwell in our Land And Simeon in his dying song doth testifie that Jesus the sonne of Mary whom he imbraced when he was presented in the Temple was the salvation of God Lord now lattest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word For mine eyes have seene thy Salvation And although our Saviour whilest hee lived here on earth had no constant dwelling no place of inheritance yet at this time the Godhead or that glory of the Godhead of which the Psalmist speaketh was incorporated in him These and the like Scriptures S. Iohn did see fulfilled in Christ when he said the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and wee saw his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father that is such glory as could not bee communicated to any but to him who was by nature the sonne of God such glory as no flesh could behold otherwise then as it was in Christ or in the word made flesh such a declaration of the divine Majestie as none besides the sonne of God could declare So the Apostle saith ver 18. No man hath seene God at any time but the only begotten sonne who is in the bosome of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath declared or expounded him But wherein doth this declaration consist or how was it made by the sonne Not by word only or by declaration of his will but by matter of fact or reall representation But of this point more fully in the exposition of the name Iesus Seeing Moses had said that no flesh could see God and live it may seeme strange to men which have not their senses exercised in the search of Scriptures that the Prophet Isaiah should avouch the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together Isay 40. 5. Moses speech and that conceipt which the ancient had that man could not see God and live was universally true untill the word or brightnesse of Gods glory was made flesh But this was the very mysterie which Isaiah in that chapter foretold as elsewhere hath beene declared in part and shall be as it comes in order to be handled more fully a little after this Chapter 11 That the moderne Iews can expect the God of their Fathers should dwell with them should walk with them should manifest his glory unto them after such a manner as their owne Doctors interpret his promise made to Moses to al these purposes after any other way or manner then the Evangelist witnessed he did walk with and manifest his glory unto his Disciples This to us Christians is an evident demonstration that the vale which their Forefathers put before their faces when they could not behold the brightnesse of Gods glory which shone on Moses face after he had seene God and talked with him is to this day put before their hearts when they read Moses and the Prophets For this glorious Majestie of God the very expresse or graven Image of his substāce which they say Moses desired to see but could not did so personally dwell in the man Christ Jesus that whilest he walked with his people God did walke with thē whilest he remayned within the territories of Iudah or Galilee salvation glory did dwell in their Land And to this day in whomsoever he dwelleth by faith in him God dwelleth by faith As he is the expresse image of the person of his Father so every one in whom he thus
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
order and ranke in such a manner as he is not of theirs 3 The resolution of the second Quaere depends upon another more questioned point which I have no minde to dispute and lesse to be tyed to other mens conjectures or voluntary determinations of it without warrant of Scripture or any certaine deductions from it warrantable by reason The point questionable is briefely this whether the humane soule of our blessed Lord was infused into his body immediately upon his conception which as the sacred Text to my apprehension imports was in a moment and immediately upon the blessed Virgins assent unto the Angels message If at the same instant or moment of time the humane soule was inspired into his body the Word was not made flesh before he became man If otherwise the holy seed did after the conception grow by degrees into a live sensitive reasonable substance though neither after the same manner nor by the same meanes yet according to the same measure of time as other Infants do The case is unquestionable that the sonne of God or the Word was made flesh before he was made man For he was not made man before the inspiration or creation of the reasonable soule but even from the very first moment of his conception the Womans seed was hypostically united to the Word or sonne of God The flesh and blood which he tooke of the blessed Virgin became the flesh and blood of the sonne of God from the first moment of their assumption Nor can this opinion be justly charged with any suspition of errour or other difficultie as conteyning nothing which is not exactly parallel to that which wee beleeve concerning the union of his body with the Divine nature in his person after his body was separated from his soule His body in that interim of separation or of its rest in the grave was as truely the body of the son of God as it had beene whilst it was living His soule likewise was as truely the soule of the sonne of God during the divorce as it was whilst it retayned union with its body And whether the blood which was shed from his most pretious body on the Crosse were gathered againe into his veines a point not to be pryed into by mortall men or how ever it pleased him or his heavenly Father to dispose of it yet I think I may say that not a drop of it but remaines unto this day the true blood of the sonne of God it lost no union nor degree of union with his divine person it still retaines the power and efficacy of cleansing or sanctifying our nature 4 Some I know there be who think all others to speake and think unworthily of Christ unlesse they grant that his soule was not only infused into his body in the first conception of it but that it was withall endued with all manner of knowledge which Hee afterwards had Yet to binde any man to beleeve or acknowledge either of these the latter especially is to lay more upon us then God hath in his written Word or in the booke of his Creatures tyed us unto if so these men will give us leave to use the spectacles of reason in reading either booke For if our blessed Saviour during all the time he was in his mothers womb had the perfect use of sense and reason his condition of life had beene more wearisome then in any part of his pilgrimage here on earth it was for he was as mortall and as subject to sad impressions in the womb as he was in the strength of his age and death had beene more welcome to him then such close imprisonment if the excercise of reason or Contemplation had beene as free there as it was when he was endued with libertie of sense and locall motion The only reason I can conceive any man should pretend either for the infusion of the reasonable soule into his body at the first conception or that the reasonable soule whether then or at the time wherein other infants become capable of it shouâ—d be endued with such a measure of actuall or explicite knowledge whilst he was in his mothers womb as afterwards it was must be grounded on the hypostaticall union betweene the womans seed and the word of God But if any reason thus grounded could infer either part of the premisses it would aswell inferre that his knowledge as man should have beene infinite from his conception This I think no Christian wil affirme for the personall union of the divine nature with the humane doth not endow it with the reall titles of the divine Otherwise Christs strength as man should have beene infinite from the womb and his body should have beene every where And it would be lesse unreasonable to say that his body is at this day infinite and his humane nature every where then that his wisdome or knowledge as man should have beene infinite or as great whilst he was in the womb as now it is If the divine nature did not communicate his infinity to the humane nor make the sonne of God so compleat a man for strength of ability of body from the womb as at thirtie yeares he was it exceedeth the bounds of my capacitie to imagine what reason those men have for their opinion who think our blessed Lord Saviour did not as truely grow in wisdome and knowledge as he did in strength or stature of body The Scripture is alike literall for both Luk. 2. 52. Iesus increased in Wisdome and stature and in favour with God and man I make no question but that such as deny his growth in wisdome do this out of a religious feare lest they should speake or conceive any thing of Christ which might be thought either to derogate from his greatnesse or from his goodnesse This feare or zealous care is in the generall very good but hath small ground in this particular For were it either well grounded or well guided it would rather teach us not to deny that Jesus did grow in wisdome and goodnesse then to be peremptory in contradicting others which hold the affirmative Simple nescience can be no sinne in any Child nor in any man unlesse it be of those things which he is bound to know But proficiency in wisdome and knowledge is in the sonnes of men a praise worthy perfection which I should be as unwilling to deny unto my Lord and Saviour in his infancy or his youth as to rob him now of any royall attributes since he was made King That he was without all staine of sinne the most holy Sanctuary of the most holy and blessed God from the womb I stedfastly beleeve but that he had the same measure oâ— knowledge at his circumcision at his presentation in the Temple which he had and gave proofe of when his Parents found him in the Temple disputing with the Doctors or no greater measure of this knowledge at his baptisme then he then had or as great as his baptisme as
Iudaea For thus it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah For out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel It is not strange if the chiefe Priests and Scribes were so ready with their answers unto Herod seeing this prenotion concerning the place of the Messiahs birth was knowne unto the vulgar people Many of the people saith S. John when they heard this saying said Of a truth this is the Prophet Others said This is the Christ But some said Shall Christ come out of Galilee Hath not the Scripture said that Christ commeth of the seede of David and out of the towne of Bethleem where David was 8. But how cleare soever the meaning of the Prophet Micah in those daies were both to Priest and people some variation there is in the words of S. Matthew from the words of the Prophet as they stand in the originall at which both later Jewes and some Christians take more offence then the ancient Jews could have done And if this variation were of any moment or could minister just offence either to the Jew to the Grecian or to the Church of God all the blame were to be layed upon these Scribes and Priests whom Herod in his perplexity did consult For S. Matthew in this particular was but the Register of their answer which hee did record in the same words that they solemnely made it The words of the Prophet in the originall as they are now pointed runne thus And thou Bethleem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Iudah yet out of thee shall hee come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have beene from old from everlasting Micah 5. 2. The answer of the Priests and Scribes as it stands upon record by S. Matthew is verbatim thus And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea in clearer distinction from Bethleem in the Tribe of Zebulon in which Tribe or upon whose borders our Saviour was conceived then the Prophets words import for That it may be might as truely brooke the name of Ephrata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam miniâ—a es inter principatâ—â— and Chiliadas Iudeae Art nothing lesse then the least of all the Segniories or divisions of Iudah For so it seemes they did divide their Tribes or Provinces as wee doe Shires or Counties into severall Hundreds or Liberties Some good Writers whom our English followeth seeke to salve this seeming contradiction betweene the Prophet and Evangelist or that answer which hee relates made by the chiefe Priests and Scribes to Herod thus But thou or as for thee O Bethleem Ephrata though thou be little to be reckoned among the Seigniories or thousands of Iudea yet out of thee shall he come forth unto mee that is to be Ruler in Israel c. But this squaring of the Prophets words to our Evangelists relation is somewhat harsh and rugged to the moderne Jew who seekes to frame his steps according to the plaine troden literall sense And therefore seeing both Christians and Jews as well ancient as moderne agree that the promised Messias was to be borne in Bethleem the variation of the reading in the Prophet and in the Evangelist should not in reason be too much stood upon by either yet seeing wee are bound to give no offence to the Jew nor to presse any reading at which they may stumble being enclined to trip at every scruple we may I take it with the liking and approbation of Drusius an exquisite Hebrician for point of Grammar and without the dislike of any learned Jew reade the first words of the Prophet Micah by way of interrogation thus And art thou Bethleem Ephrata little or too little to be reputed among the principalities of Iudah Now this interrogation according to both their rules and ours is equivalent to the negative used by our Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nequaquam minima thou art in no wise little or too little to have place among the Seigniories or principalities of Iudaea This interrogation being presupposed the words following naturally admit this paraphrasticall supply little thou art and for a long time hast beene in re but great in spe For out of thee shall hee come forth to me which shall be the Ruler over Israel whose going forth hath beene of old from everlasting foretold and expected before Iudah was a Kingdome or David a King from the beginning of the world of mankinde and ever since the fall of the first man Adam CHAP 34. The manner of our Saviours conception and birth as it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah exactly fulfilled The Iews exceptions against S. Matthewes allegation of the Prophet Isaiahs testimony with the full answer unto them MICAH foretells the particular place of the sonne of Davids birth in termes plaine and literall Ieremiah the place of his conception in generall as Isaiah had done before in particular but both somwhat aenigmatically The manner of his conception and birth abstracted from these circumstances of place and time is most emphatically foretold by Isaiah and as I take it some few yeares before Micah did so punctually describe the place of his birth Micah as it is upon sacred record Ierem. 26. 18 19. prophecied in the dayes of Hezekiah and so did Isaias But whether any prophecie of Micah beare date before the raigne of Hezekiah is to me uncertaine And that prophecie of Micah before mentioned Chap. 5. ver 2. And thou Bethleem in the land of Iudea c in all probability was delivered in the dayes of Hezekiah and after that other prophecy Micah 3. 12. Sion shall be plowed like a field c. Whereas the prophecy of Isaias concerning the manner of Christs conception and birth was uttered by him viva voce in the dayes of King Ahaz who was Father to Hezekiah as appeares Isaiah 7. 1. unto the 17. The prophecy was Heare yee now O House of David is it a small thing for you to weary men but will you wearie my God also Therefore the Lord himselfe shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin or the Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel This is the first prophecy alleaged by S. Matthew Chap. 1. where having registred the Angels speech to Ioseph in a vision by night ver 19. Then Ioseph her Husband being a just â—an and not willing to make her a publique example was minded to put her away privily But while he thought on these things behold the Aâ—gel of the Lord appeared to him in a dreame saying Joseph thou sonne of David feare not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost he thus concludeth Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet 2. Iunius in his parallel upon this 22 verse and the forecited testimony of
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
of it the hopes of Rezin and Pekah for the extirpation of it were so advanced that they confidently resolved upon the particular man whom they meant to make King of Iudah that was the sonne of Tabeol Isaiah 7. 6. In the height of this their confidence and the perplexitie of Judah and the House of David the Lord sends his Prophet Isaiah to give them assurance of their Delivery by an extraordinary signe In the dayes of Ioseph and Mary his espoused wife the House of David whereof they both were branches was brought much lower then in the dayes of Ahaz it had beene And however no mischief were intended against them in particular as being obscure and private persons neither in possession nor competitors for the Kingdome yet for breaking off the succession of David or preventing any of his line to be Lord of Judah the plot was laid with more cunning then it had been by Rezin and Pekah Three of those ancient Fochoods which had sought to wreak themselves against Judah in the dayes of Ahaz were now revived and united in one man in Herod the great and the Fochood by this union became both greater and stronger He was by birth a Philistine and by royall title bestowed upon him by the Romanes King of Idumaea and Samaria unto which he sought to annex Judea as his inheritance And although the particulars be not mentioned in the new Testament yet is it indefinitely evident out of S. Matthew that Herod had his confederates against the house of David and which assoone as they knew of his birth did seeke the life of the sonne of David When Herod was dead behold an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dreame to Ioseph in Aegypt saying Arise and take the yong Child and his mother and goe into the Land of Israel for they are dead which sought the yong Childs life Math. 2. 19. 20. This argues there were some other that dyed about the same time with Herod which with him had sought the life of Jesus In this low estate whereunto the house of David was brought before the death of Herod and his confederates the Lord did send not a Prophet but an Angel to assure not the continuance only of Davids succession but the restauration enlargement and everlasting establishment of his Kingdome unto Mary the daughter of David and her husband by a greater signe than Isaiah had proffered unto Ahaz The Angel delivers his embassage mostwhat in the same words that Isaiah did to Ahaz Behold saith the Prophet Isaiah 7. 14. this virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and she shall call his name Emmanuel Unto the blessed virgin then present saith the Angel Luke 1. 30 31. Feare not Mary for thou hast found favour with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a sonne and shalt call his name Iesus The imposition of this name Jesus is committed to the care of the virgin so was the name of Emmanuel to the virgin to whom the Prophet Isay directs his speech when he delivered his message unto Ahaz For in the originall the word which S. Matthew renders impersonally or in the third person plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is according to the Hebrew Dialect Hee shall be called is the second person singular and the foeminine tu vocabis thou Virgin shalt call him Emmanuel This variation of the Evangelist from the Prophets precise word is such as breedes no vitiation at all in the reall sense but such as reason it selfe and rules of Grammar require in like cases The Virgin being as wee suppose present when the Prophet exhibited the signe unto Ahaz hee was to speake unto her in the second person But the Evangelist relating the fulfilling of this prophecie not in the literall sense onely but in the mysticall was to change the person or to relate it in the third person plurall which is indeed an impersonall according to the Hebrew Dialect Behold a virgin shall bring forth a sonne and they shall call his name that is he shall be called Emmanuel which is by interpretation God with us 12 But here the Jew demands first how the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is alwayes emphaticall should denote the blessed Virgin and should be transferred from one virgin to another Secondly why the name given our Saviour at his circumcision was not Emmanuel according to the Prophets speech but Jesus To the first demand wee answer that the originall letter is alwayes emphaticall sometimes a note of demonstration or particularity and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin then present as if the Prophet had said Ecce virgo haec Behold this virgin shall conceive c. Sometime it is a note of Eminencie and according to this importance it referres unto the Virgin of Virgins the blessed Mother of our Lord of whom it is meant not only in the mysticall but in the most exquisite literall sense To the second we say the imposition of the name Emmanuel had beene requisite at our Saviours circumcision if this prophecie had bin meant of Him only in the literall sense But in as much as it was to be fulfilled in Him according to the most exquisite both literall and mysticall sense it was requisite there should be an improvement as well in the significancie of the name as in the thing signified by it Now the name Iesus imports a great deale more than the name Emmanuel as will appeare in the explication of it The importance of the name Emmanuel as it referres unto the Childe instantly promised by Isaiah is applied unto the blessed Virgin by the Angel in his preface to the Annuntiation Luk. 1. 28. Haile thou that art in high favour the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women The Lord was with her in a more peculiar manner whilest the Angell thus spoke unto her then he had beene with Gideon to whom the like salutation was tendred by an Angel Iudg. 6. 12. Or with Iudah in the dayes of Isaiah or Hezekiah But after the Lord was conceived by her he was both with her and with us after a more admirable manner than at any time he had beene before with Gods dearest Saints This manner of his being with us could not be fully expressed by any other name then the name Iesus 13 Ahaz his distrust unto Gods promise being set aside or rather if wee use it as a foyle to set forth the blessed Virgins facile assent and fidelity unto the Revelation made unto her by the Angell the propheticall and Evangelicall story hold better correspondencie both for substance and circumstance thâ—â— is betweene the Model and the Edifice The Emmanuel promised by Isaiah was an assured pledge that Pekah King of Samaria and Rezin King of Syria should die or be deposed before this Childe could distinguish betweene meates or cry My Father my Mother The accomplishment of this signe or of the promise confirmed by it is registred in
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
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
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