behold a doore was opened in Heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said Come up hit her and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter And immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sate on the throne And round about the throne were foure and twenty seats and upon the seats I saw foure and twenty Elders sitting cloathed in white rayment And they had on their heads Crownes of gold c. The foure and twenty Elders fell downe before him that sate on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and cast their Crownes before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created This praising of him that sate upon the throne was that wherunto the Author of the 103. Psalme did solemnly invite the heavenly powers long before S. Iohn had this vision For after he had said the Lord had prepared his throne in the heavens and his Kingdome ruleth over all it followes immediately Blesse the Lord yee his Angels that excell in strength that do his Commandements hearkning unto the voice of his word Blesse yee the Lord all yee his hosts yee Ministers of his that do his pleasure Blesse the Lord all his workes in all places of his Dominion Blesse the Lord O my soule That which our Saviour saith of Abraham was in its measure true of this Psalmist he also saw the day of Christ the day of his glorious resurrection that day wherof it is said thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee and did rejoyce in soule to see it and his owne interest in it an assured hope of his inheritance in the heavenly Kingdome 5. But the vision of David to this purpose in that Psalme which amongst some few others beares the inscription of Michtam Davids Ieweler golden song as some would have it is most punctually cleare Keep me O God for in thee do I put my trust that is as the Chaldee explaines it In thy word have I put my trust or hope for salvation Psal 16. 1. and ver 2. I have said unto the Lord Adonai And againe ver 8. c. I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope But here the Eunuches question unto Philip will interpose it selfe Of whom speaketh the Prophet this of himselfe or of some other I can no way brooke their opinion who thinke the Psalmist speakes all this in the person of Christ as his figure but rather in this as in many other Psalmes and in the two last forecited especially some passages there be which cannot be literally applyed but to the Psalmist himselfe others which cannot be applyed to any one but Christ that is to God or the word incarnate and the 9. verse My heart is glad c. containes a feeling expression of that joy or exultation of spirit which did possesse all the faculties both of Davids body and soule But what was the object of this his exultatiō or the ground of his joy He expresseth it ver 10. Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption But the same question here interposeth againe Doth he speak all this of himselfe or of some other Whatsoever may bee thought of the former clause of that verse thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell which as some think might be meant both of Christ and David though in a different measure most certaine it is that the later clause Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption was not literally meant of David much lesse fulfilled in him but literally meant of him alone and literally fulfilled in him alone whom David in spirit called Lord though he then foresaw he should truly be his sonne This undoubted truth we learne from S. Peter Acts 2. 29. Men and brethren let me freely speake unto you of the Patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loines according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soule was not left in Hell neither his flesh did see corruption And S. Paul Acts 13. 36 37. more fully and more punctually to our animadversions upon this later clause expounds it thus David after he had served his owne generation by the will of God fell on sleepe and was laid unto his Fathers and saw corruption But he whom God raised againe saw no corruption In this as in many other Psalmes the comfort which did arise from the sweet contemplations was Davids owne or the Psalmists who foresaw that great mystery whereof we now treat that the fountaine of their comfort was Christ or God incarnate who was to be raised from the dead David in this Psalme did rejoyce in heart that albeit he knew his nature to be like the grasse that withereth albeit he knew his soule should be divorced from his body yet this divorce he knew by faith should not be perpetuall that albeit he could not but expect his body his flesh and bones should rott in his sepulcher as the body and flesh of his forefathers to whom he was to be gathered had done yet he foresaw in spirit that even his body should at length be redeemed from corruption by the resurrection of that holy One whose body though separated for a time from his immortall soule was not to see or feele any corruption Finally though David and other Psalmists forecited if others they were did perfectly and explicitly foreknow that they were to die yet had they as true implicit beleife of that which our Apostle explicitly delivers Golos 3. 3 4. That their life was hid with Christ in God that when Christ who was their life should appeare they should also appeare with him in glory 6. To the former generall Quaere in what sense we are said by S. Iohn to be borne of God we answer that to be borne of God is all one with that of S. Peter to be borne of immortall seed but what is that immortall seed whereof S. Peter saith we are borne againe That in one word is the flesh and blood of the sonne of man who is also the sonne of God So hee himselfe instructs us Iohn 6. 53 54 55. Verily verily I say unto you except yee eate the flesh of the sonne of man and drinke his bloud yee have no life in you Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day For
upon you may come all the righteous blood or as S. Luke hath the same prediction more emphatically Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation both these and the like were conformable to that generall rule delivered by Ieremie Chap. 18. ver 7 8. At what instant I shall speake concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull downe and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them And our Saviours prediction Luke 11. 31. though the words may seeme most peremptory did implicitely conteine or admit the same condition which he in another prediction of his to the same effect doth expresse Luke 13. 3. I tell you nay but except you repent yee shall all likewise perish that is perish after the same disastrous manner that the Galileans there mentioned or the inhabitants of Jerusalem had perished Now however the prediction of Isaiah or Zacharias his imprecation when he dyed were no true causes of this peoples infidelity or destruction yet in as much as what they threatned though with this condition and Proviso Vnlesse they doe repent did so exactly come to passe the event is of most concludent proofe to us that they spake by the Spirit of God a true cause of our knowledge that they were Prophets indeed and that these events were not causuall in respect of their predictions though in themselves contingent or holding the true meane betweene necessity of being and necessity of not being 10. But the best way to convince them of errour who teach that prophecies are sometimes said to be fulfilled only by allusion will be to declare the particular manner how these places at which they stumble most doe conclude what the Evangelists rather intimate then fully expresse For so it was the will of God that even the Evangelists themselves should oft times only give us hints for searching out those demonstrations of the spirit which they perfectly knew but would not set downe at large lest this should occasion sloathfull negligence in succeeding ages or prevent our admiration at the exact consonancy betweene Propheticall predictions and evangelicall narrations To conclude this present treatise it is alwayes more safe for the most learned expositor of Scriptures to say I doe not conceive how this or that allegation doth conclude or how this or that prophecy was exactly fulfilled then peremptorily to avouch of any particular alleaged by the Evangelist that it was no concludent proofe but allusive only because he or such as he hath read cannot conceive how it is fulfilled It is hard for any one man to see or heare all that hath beene said or written by others upon any parts of Scripture but it may be easie for others that come after to say somewhat in arguments of this nature which no one before had said or observed yea somewhat more then the Prophet himselfe did distinctly foresee when he spake or wrote these very words which the Evangelists say were fulfilled CHAP. 16. Whether the Prophets did alwayes foresee or explicitely beleeve whatsoever they did foretell or fore-signifie concerning Christ SOme have resolved upon the affirmative part of this probleme not only as true in it selfe but as one speciall ground of difference betweene the Prophets of the Lord and the Heathen Soothsayers or Diviners which sometimes foretold that which afterwards proved true but without any apprehension of the truth of it That Heathen Diviners did sometimes rave or speake they knew not what in their divinations I will not deny that they did alwayes thus is more then I can affirme However betweene raving predictions and a distinct apprehension or foresight of matters foretold there is a greater difference then between staring and being stark mad That the Prophets of the Lord did never rave in their predictions that they had alwayes a true apprehension of the truth delivered by them and a foresight of the events future which they foretold I rest assured But that this foresight should extend to all the branches of truth which are said to come to passe that their sayings might be fulfilled I see no convincent argument to perswade me The contradictory to his assertion if any be pleased to undertake it we thus inferre The Evangelists and Apostles or others enabled to preach the Gospell with power from above men visibly annointed with the holy Ghost to this function were bound to teach no other things than what had beene foretold by Moses and the Prophets And yet the Evangelists both knew and taught others to beleeve many things which the Prophets even the Kingly Prophets much desired but could not be admitted to see or heare And this is a concludent proofe that the Prophets did not alwayes distinctly foresee or apprehend all things which were foretold by thē not those events which the Spirit of God saith came to passe that their sayings might be fulfilled Otherwise they must have seene all that the Evangelists saw have knowne all the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven which the Apostles after our Saviours resurrection knew or taught but this is directly contradictory to our Saviours assertion and whatsoever is contradictory to truth it selfe must of necessity be untrue Wherein then did the Prophets of the Lord differ from heathen Soothsayers or raving Diviners 2. He that can make a good construction of what he speakes or writes cannot be said to rave albeit he know not the issue or full importance of things uttered by him Caiaphas did not rave when he said it was expedient that one man should die for the people rather then all should perish Yet was he no Prophet although as S. Iohn tells us he did in this speech prophecy For hee did not intend or take upon him to foretell any unusuall matter or divine mystery but only give his politicall advise or placet concerning the businesse then in hand Any worldly wiseman might have spoken as wisely as he did That his speeches then did prove so happily ominous as they did this was meerely from the extraordinary disposition of divine providence He neither spake as heathen Diviners did when they raved nor as the Prophets of the Lord used to speake whensoever they foretold things to come in the name of the Lord. For they alwayes had a true intention to foretell such things and to give assurance unto the people that whatsoever they foretold in the name of the Lord should come to passe whether their predictions were for forme expresly disjunctive or whether they were absolute and peremptory that is not charged with conditions exceptions or Provisoes either implicite or explicite Somewhat then they alwayes expressely foresaw as often as they tooke upon them to foretell or foreshew things to come but seldome did they know all which came to passe that their saying might be fulfilled 3. The Probleme proposed cannot be distinctly resolved without
question but that the principles of some other sciences besids Divinity at least some principles of such sciences have beene immediately taught by God Or if any man list to move question or Controversie about this truth I could entertaine many Heathen Advocates for my opinion without any great costs or paines 4. But as it is true that the principles of Divinity cannot be knowne without illuminations more then naturall so it is certaine that since the ceasing of extraordinary illuminations or gifts of the Spirit the most of such principles or so many of them as are required to the science or facultie of Divinity cannot be distinctly knowne without the knowledge of other Arts or Sciences Most of the Attributes of God cannot be well unfolded without competent skill in Metaphysicall learning Many of his workes can never be knowne nor admired aright without the science of Philosophy nor can the offices or Attributes of Christ be taught aright without more skill in the learned tongues then common Grammarians or generall Lexicons will afford He that hopeth to attaine to the true knowledge of these principles must either use the helpe of some Lexicon peculiar to divinity or make one of his owne Easier it were to learne the termes of Law or Physick out of Thomasius or Riders Dictionary then to know the true Theologicall use or meaning of many principall termes in the Old or New Testament out of 〈◊〉 or Pagninus his Thesauras though both of them most excellent writers in their kinde And yet after a man hath attained by all the meanes aforementioned and other like helpes of Arts unto a competent knowledge of the principles there is no lesse use of good Logick in divinitie then in any other science whatsoever for the right deduction of necessary conclusions from such principles or for refuting Heterodoxall doctrines or quelling impertinent or frivolous questions But the Principles of Divinitie being once known the dilatation or deduction of them into forme of Art or science and the establishment of Orthodoxall conclusions may be made as certaine and perspicuous by Logick as the like can be in any other science For the use not of usuall or vulgar but of exquisite Logick is in no Art so necessary as in Divinitie The method for constituting any Art or science from principles knowne is two-fold the one direct and positive by affirmative syllogismes or by demonstration à Priore the other by reducing conclusions contradictory ad impossible that is by discovering their manifest contradiction or irreconcileable opposition unto some fundamentall principles of the same science Now what conclusions or opinions they be in particular which contradict either those theologicall principles that concerne the nature and attributes of God or the personall union of two natures in Christ his Propheticall Sacerdotall or Royall function shall by the assistance of his grace be discussed in the second 〈◊〉 of the Catholique Church Of this in the meane time I rest perswaded that it is neither too much learning that hath made this present age more mad then the former nor any greater measure of Gods Spirit than may be found in others which makes many among us more bold then their brethren then their Fathers in Christ in determining greatest mysteries of Divinitie CHAP. 4. Of the agreements and differences betweene Theologie and other sciences in respect of their Subjects that the true historicall beliefe of sacred Historians is aequivalent to the certaintie or evidence of other sciences BUt in every science oportet discentem credere Every yong Scholar is bound to beleeve his teacher and must take some principles upon trust untill hee be able to try them himselfe Yet as he is no perfect Artist or no master of Science who cannot see the evidence of principles or Maximes and the connexion betweene them and the conclusions issuing from them with his owne eyes so neither doth he deserve the name of a Divine or Teacher of this facultie whosoever he be that cannot in the first place discerne the truth of the Maximes or principles or cannot in the second place make demonstration of the coherence or non-coherence or of the discord between them and such conclusions as are rightly inferred or meerely pretended from them But the best is that as a Carpenter may have skill enough to measure the timber which he buyes or a woodward the wood which he sells or every good husbandman the quantitie of the ground which he tills and yet all their skill put together will not halfe suffice to make a Mathematician so may all of us be in our callings good Christians or true beleevers and yet no true Divines but more unapt to be Teachers in this facultie than an ordinarie Carpenter to write a Comment upon Euclide or a Husbandman to set forth a treatise of Cosmography Thus farre the faculty or science of Divinitie holds exact correspondencie with other sciences properly so called and the practise of Christian men in their severall callings beares the same proportion unto true Divinitie which manuall Arts or trades doe unto those sciences unto which they are subordinate 2. A difference notwithstanding there is betweene Divinitie and other Sciences but I cannot say whether the faculty of Divinitie come short of other Sciences properly so called or rather exceed them in that wherein they differ The difference is this The totall subject of other Sciences of some at least may be exactly known in this life though not by any one man yet by all that may seeke after it But this subject of Divinitie can never be exactly knowne by any one man nor by any succession of men though all of them should study no other Art besides the knowledge of God of Christ untill the worlds end From this incomprehensible amplitude of its subject it is that many principall points in Divinitie points necessarie unto salvation must be beleeved only even by Divines themselves wee may not endeavour or hope to know them untill wee be admitted into that everlasting Schoole And it is a great part of our profession or of our proficiency in it to know what questions belong to this present inferiour Schoole and what they be which must be reserved unto the high Schoole Everlasting 3. But other true Sciences there be and in their kinde truly Noble whose just challenge unto both these titles no man gainesayes no man questioneth which have their peculiar problemes as well as unquestionable principles or conclusions It is not yet resolved by Geometricians whether the Quadrature of Circles be possible or whether the continued protraction of lines not parallel make their coincidence necessary Astronomers are not yet agreed whether there be so many severall Orbes as there be Planets or how many spheares above the Planets or whether these Orbes or Spheares be they few or more be concentrique It is controversed whether not the Planets only but those which we call fixed starres doe move in the firmament as fishes doe in
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
to be their enemie and he fought against them And so it is said that he was grieved forty yeares with that generation which he had delivered out of Egypt And both places were they to be limited only with reference to times past could not be meant of God otherwise then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in a metaphoricall sense But as well that complaint of the Psalmist as this of the Prophet Esay were not meerely historicall but propheticall both to be fulfilled after a more exquisite sense in later ages For all Gods mercies and loving kindnesse to their Fathers were but as pledges or talents given by way of earnest for greater goodnesse and more tender mercies towards later generations so they would be thankfull for the former God whilest he was onely in the forme of God could not in strict proprietie of speech be troubled could not be grieved with compassion could not be wearied All those are passions or accidentall affections incident only to flesh and bloud or at least to natures subject to servitude and punishment But of God in our nature and forme of a servant all these patheticall complaints were most exactly accomplished Who was weake amongst his people and he not weakned by their weakenesse who amongst them did mourne and he not mourne with them who was afflicted in body or soule and he not partaker of their afflictions Of all those duties of Christian charitie or fellow-feeling of others infirmities practised by his Apostles and commended to us by them he by his practise and conversation set the most exquisite patterne more exquisite then any who was but man could have set For he was a man of sorrowes and infirmities to beare all our grievances He cured no bodily infirmitie though he cured many whose griefe untill the cure was wrought he did not suffer by exact and perfect sympathy And only by the anguish of his soule and spirit not Israel alone but all people throughout the world whoever found or hope to finde any must find rest and comfort to their soules and consciences Yet all this the wicked posterity of that wicked generation whose ingratitude towards the God of their Fathers did minister both matter of complaint and of prophecy to the Prophet Esay and the Psalmist no way regarded but requited all the paines trouble and affliction which he had undertaken for their poore brethrens bodily good and the comfort of all their soules with superaddition of those deadly griefes and sorowes which by the Romans help they brought upon him This God of Israel in former times had fought for them and had conducted them in the form of an Angell Ioshuah himselfe being but his deputy or under Cōmander But now that they have thus ungratefully requited him for all his loving kindnesse towards their Fathers whilst he was onely in the forme of God or did appeare in the garb or figure not in the substance of an Angell and for all the troubles and grievances undertaken by him for their good whilest he was in the substance of man and forme of a servant he at length became their Enemie and fought against them For as Visitors though farre absent do yet visite by their Commissaries so this God of Israell that Jesus whom the Jews had crucified being made King of Kings and Lord of Lords did judge Ierusalem and the Nation of the Iews by Vespasian and Titus as by his deputies It was he not they that in that great warre did overcome them As they had grieved him more then their Forefathers had done with whom he was grieved forty yeares in the wildernesse so they did remaine in the Land of their promised rest but forty yeares after his death and so they remained in farre worse case then their forefathers had done in the wildernesse and their posterity since have wandred throughout the world as unwelcome guests for almost these sixteene hundred yeares CHAP. 23. That God was to visite his Temple after such a visible and personall manner as the Prophet Ieremy in his name had done THe moderne Iew cannot deny that of the Prophet Ieremy chap. 7. ver 3 4. c. to be meant of God alone nor is he able to shew us how it was or could be otherwise fulfilled then of God incarnate or of God in the visible nature and substance of man-comming to visite his Temple Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Amend your waies and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust yee not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these And againe ver 8. Behold yee trust in lying words that cannot profit Will yee steale murther and commit adultery and sweare falsly and burne incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom yee know not and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say We are delivered to doe all these abominations Is this house which is called by my name become a denne of Robbers in your eyes Behold even I have seen it saith the Lord. To have denyed that God at this time did truly heare what this people said did truely see what they did did perfectly understand their secret thoughts had beene an errour much grosser and more dangerous then the errour of the Anthropomorphitae that is of such as imagined God by nature to have eyes eares and heart like man For that was but an heresie or transformation of the Deity the other was Epicurisme the worst and grossest errour wherewith the very heathen or Infidels were possest And so the Psalmist describeth it Psal 94. 7. Yet they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it Vnderstand yee brutish among the people and yee fooles when will yee be wise He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall he not see c. 2. Sight and hearing were in those times as truly attributed to God as now they can be yet in a generall or transcendent not so exquisite so proper and formall a sense as the patheticall expression which the Prophet there used doth literally imply Behold even I have seene it saith the Lord. For certainely that implies a great deale more then by ordinary Catechismes or domestique instructions they could have learned thus much at the least that the Lord God himselfe who sent the Prophet to deliver this message The Lord God of Israel who neither slumbreth nor sleepeth would watch his oportunity unlesse they did amend these misdemenors to visit them and his temple not by a Prophet or deputed Commissary but in person and after as evident and visible a manner to flesh and blood as the Prophet had done but with farre greater power The Prophet had only meere spirituall power to protest against them no coërcive authority to punish the delinquents or to banish these abuses out of the Temple This case was
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