CHRIST'S ANSWER UNTO JOHN'S QUESTION: OR, An Introduction to the knowledge of jesus Christ, and him crucified.  
Delivered in certain Sermons in the famous Town of Newcastle upon Tine.  
By THOMAS JACKSON, Dr. of Divinity, Vicar of Saint Nicolas Church there, and Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford.  JOHN 5. 39 Search the Scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. 
LONDON: Printed by G. P. for john Clarke, and are to be sold at his Shop under Saint Peter's Church in Cornhill, 1625.   

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in God, Richard, by Divine providence, Lord Bishop of Durham, my very honourable good LORD, and Diocesan.  
Right Reverend and Honourable,  
BEing here detained, upon occasions made known in part unto your Lordship, I thought myself bound in duty and conscience to render an account, as well of my time spent in this my absence, as whilst I was present at my charge. Though this I cannot for this time perform, save only in part. These papers which I now consecrate to your Honour's protection contain only the first-fruits of my Labours in that worthy and famous Congregation, which it pleased your Lordship about a year ago, (for which I ever rest yours bounden) to commit unto my trust. Yet these being all that I took with me to peruse in my absence, which I well hoped should have been much shorter, these are all that I could at this time present your Lordship withal, humbly beseeching they may be accepted as an undoubted pledge of my duty and observance to your Lordship, and of my unfeigned desire and resolution to set forward that worthy and religious Congregation (from which I have received much true comfort and many kindnesses) in the ways of truth, as well by my pen in my absence, as by my voice whilst I am present. So, commending this Introduction to your Lorshippes' patronage, and your Lordship to the gracious patronage and protection of the Lord jesus, I humbly take my leave.  
From my Study in Corpus Christi College in Oxon. Decemb. 20. 1624. Your Lordships, in all duty and service, THOM. JACKSON.   

A brief view of the principal parts of the Discourse following.  
I. The meaning or purport of john's Question, [Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? Math. 11. ver. 3.] Pag. 2, 3, & 4.  
II. What did move john to make this Question. Pa. 5, 6, 7, & 8.  


III. What satisfaction the answer here made by our Saviour, might give 

1. To ordinary or indifferent Auditors: Wherein are discussed, Pag. 10. to the 19 

1. Wherein true blessedness (which our Saviour here promiseth to all) doth consist. Pag. 20. Parag. 14. to Pag. 30. Parag. 19  
2. How the miracles heard and seen by Iohn●. Disciples, do prove that JESUS, who wrought them, was the Author and Donor of all these good things or degrees of goodness, wherein true blessedness, in the opinion and judgement aswell of Heathen Philosophers as of Christians, doth consist. pag. 30. parag. 19 to pag. 40. parag. 22.    
2. Unto john: Wherein are discussed. 

1. The manner how the faith of the patriarchs, & of the Prophets themselves, was grounded upon divine predictions, & ratified by the events answering unto them: That even the Patriarches and Prophets themselves, might err in their apprehensions or applications of God's Word revealed unto them, until their apprehensions were rectified by new Revelations, or their applications corrected by the exhibition of the event or effect foretell. pag. 43. parag. 24. to pag. 66. parag. 34.  
2. The particular places of Scriptures, from whence the pharisees had their prenotions concerning Baptism; and on which John's faith or belief concerning our Saviour's person or office, or his own ministry, was grounded: with the signs of the time that did expound them. pag. 75. para. 37. to pag. 145. parag. 66.  
3. What correspondency the two places of Scripture, to which our Saviour in this answer referreth john, have with the former places wherein John's faith was grounded, and with the signs of the time, or miraculous events here related pag. 145. parag. 65. to pag. 178. parag. 81.        
III. How the general Conclusion, Blessed is he who soever shall not be offended in me, is inferred from the premises. What it is to be offended in Christ. Which be the special roots of this offence: and how they may he avoided. Pag. 178. parag. 81 to the end.   

CHRIST'S ANSWER unto JOHN'S QUESTION: OR, An Introduction to the knowledge of jesus Christ, and him crucified.  MATHEW. 11. VER. 4, 5, 6. Go, and show john again those things, which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 
THis is life eternal (saith our Saviour, joh. 17. v. 3.) that they may know thee the only true God, and jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The knowledge of the only true God, and of jesus Christ whom he hath sent, are so enwrapped and linked together, that he which hath the later, hath the former, according to the saying of our Saviour; He that hath seen me, hath seen my Father. joh. 14. 9 This knowledge of Christ, and of him crucified, was all that our blessed Apostle Saint Paul esteemed or determined to know amongst the Corinthians, and all that I shall desire to know amongst you, and is, as I hope, if not the only, yet the special point which any of you desire to be made known unto you by my Ministry, whether public or private. What it is to know Christ, and the virtue of his Cross, which be the special or most useful branches of this knowledge, and in what rank or order the several branches grow, shall by God's assistance and your desired patience, be discussed at large hereafter, in unfolding of that forecited saying of our Apostle to the Corinthians in his first Epistle, cap. 2. vers. 2. Which if God permit, shall be the main subject or theme of my meditations in this place.  
You will give me leave to make my entry or passage into a subject so large, so ample, and so useful, by degrees and leisure. Now, ere we can attain unto the true knowledge of jesus Christ, whom God hath sent, and of him crucified, we are to inquire upon what grounds we believe or know, that the man jesus, whom the jews did crucify, whom we preach, and on whom we believe, was he, whom God hath sent, or he, whom God before all Worlds had ordained to send into the world. For albeit God in sundry ages sent many messengers unto his Church, though such as he sent, did come in person, and discharge their function: yet when we read of Him that was to be sent, or of him that was to come, 
* [He which was to be Sent,] or [He which was to come,] were from the beginning known and proper attributes of the Messias.  without further addition, circumlocution, or paraphrase; we must take these as titles, which may not be communicated unto many, as being truly meant but of one, which is Christ the Lord. And under these general or royal titles, the promised Seed or Messias was apprehended and known by the best of God's servants, as well before the Law was given, as whilst the Law was ready to expire and determine.  
2. Thus we read, Exod. 4. verse 13. that Moses, after many pretences and excuses to avoid the Embassage unto Pharaoh for the deliverance of God's people, lastly concludes with this request, " O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send; which is so much in the interpretation of the Ancients, as if he had said; Lord, I know, thou hast ordained from the beginning, to send an authentic messenger unto the world, for the deliverance of thy people; one that shall speak as never man spoke, and do those works which no man beside can do. And I beseech thee to send him at this time unto Pharaoh, to let thy people go, for this is a work worthy his pains. I know, some later Writers reject this interpretation, but their exceptions against the ancient Interpreters are not concludent, and therefore not to be admitted, especially when the better sort of later Writers, with whom I accord, do embrace the interpretation of the Ancients. Again, although God had sent john Baptist on as great an Embassage as this of Moses, He was sent as a Messenger to prepare the ways of the Lord; yet he doth not affect, but doth utterly disclaim this title of being him, whom GOD hath sent, as knowing it to be peculiar unto the Saviour of the World: for so he speaks of him, in opposition unto himself, joh. 3. vers. 34. For he whom GOD hath sent, speaketh the words of God: for God giveth the Spirit not by measure unto him. For this reason, john, who was sent from God as a messenger to prepare his ways, who never doubted of his miraculous birth and conception, john, who had heard and seen him declared by voice and vision from heaven unto Israel, even after he himself had proclaimed him to be the Lamb of God, which was to take away the sins of the World; yet for a period or upshot of all that he desired to know concerning jesus his person; his office, his actions in this life, compriseth all in this short Interrogative; Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?  
3. Unto this question or demand, being the entire tenor of john's solemn Embassage, and the sum of all which he desires to know concerning Christ, our Saviour vouchsafes no other answer than what hath been read unto you; jesus answered, etc.  
Now if we consider that ample testimony which our Saviour in the words following my Text, did give of john in the audience of the multitude; to wit, that he was a Prophet, yea, and more than a Prophet, that of all that were borne of women, there was none greater than john: Charity and Christian modesty will constrain us to presume, that this question, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? being thus solemnly by john proposed, was no idle but a serious and useful question; fit not only for him, but for posterity to be resolved in. Again, if we consider that this answer which I have read unto you, was made by our blessed Saviour, we stand bound upon our allegiance to believe, that as the question was serious and useful, so the answer was pertinent, full, and satisfactory. All this is most plain, in the general, but if we descend unto particulars the difficulties are two.  
[1.] First, from what affection or disposition of 
Two general Queries. the one concerning john's Question, and the other concerning Christ's answer. Which may be taken for the two general parts of this ensuing Discourse.  mind this question should proceed, or what it was that should occasion john to make it.  
[2.] Secondly, in what manner and how far our Saviour's answer, or the words which I have read unto you, do fit the occasions which moved john to make the question, or fully satisfy the question itself.  
4. Concerning the first point, to wit, From what affection or disposition of mind this question should proceed, or what should mo●e john to make it, there is greater variety or diversity then opposition or contrariety of opinions amongst the Learned. 
a Vid. Maldonat in hunc locum.  justin Martyr and Tertullian were not afraid to say and deliver in writing to posterity, that john himself did at this time truly doubt and distrust, whether he, that wrought these miracles here mentioned in my Text, were the promised Seed or no; and that out of this doubt or distrust in himself, he sent this message unto our Saviour, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Tertullian in his fourth book against Martion, goeth further, and saith, That after our Saviour did enter upon his Prophetical function, and took upon him to instruct the people publicly by word and miracle, the Spirit of God which was given to him not by measure, beginning now to dilate and show itself unto the world, did withdraw or call in that portion of the spirit of Prophecy, wherewith john Baptist had formerly been endued, (to prepare the ways of this his Lord) as great flames draw flying sparkles to them, or suck out the lesser lights or candles that are near them. As if john Baptist himself, when he said, Oportet illum crescere, me autem decrescere, had unwittingly or otherwise prophesied, that the Spirit of Prophefie should decrease in him, as it did increase or more amply manifest itself in our Saviour. Yet this interpretation, I must tell you, though avouched by two of the most ancient Fathers, whose writings are now extant, is slenderly seconded by later Writers, whether of Romish, or reformed Religion. Maldonat, a learned jesuit, doth thus censure them, or rather the times wherein they lived; In illa nimirum aetate, nondum satis culta theologia hujusmodi spinas aliquando proferebat: that is, that goodly garden of God, which we call Divinity, was not in that age so well dressed, but that it did sometimes bring forth such thorns and brambles as these were. Should the best of our Writers or Preachers speak on this fashion of the Ancient Fathers, the Romish Church would take it as a sufficient testimony to condemn us for Heretics. Howbeit we will not condemn it, as an heresy in her Children for speaking or writing thus, but rather wish they would be constant to themselves, and unpartial towards us; to permit us that liberty, which they take in refusing the authority of the most Ancient Fathers, especially in the interpretation of Scriptures. Others there were, and these very ancient too, which disliking justin Martyr's and Tertullians' interpretation of this place, would qualify it thus; john the Baptist did not question nor doubt, whether jesus whom he had baptised, were the Son of God, the promised and long expected Messias or no, but utrum esset ad inferos descensurus, whether he were to taste of death himself, or whether he would come to rescue the dead from the power of Hell and the grave. Et in hanc sententiam (saith the same Maldonat) maxima pars veterum concesserunt: the greatest part of the Ancient Fathers were (by his confession) of this opinion, concerning the interpretation of this place. But will he therefore subscribe unto them, or rest upon their interpretation? No; he hath no reason so to do, seeing the Fathers themselves did follow this interpretation, because as then, no better was found out. We have gained thus much from this learned jesuit for some after disputes, that latter ages may find out some better exposition of prinpall passages of Scripture, than most of the best & ancientest Fathers knew.  
5. What then is that better exposition of this place, whereunto he and most of his fellows subscribe? It is this: john did not move this question out of any doubt or distrust of his own, but only for the better instruction of his Disciples, in whom he could hardly beget any true conceit o● estimate of our Saviour's worth. So factious they were for their Master, that they disdained or envied, that our Saviour should have more followers than he had. So it is storied, joh. 3. vers. 25, 26. There arose a question between some of john's Disciples and the jews about purifying: and they came unto john and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond jordane, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come unto him. Now seeing john, as the Authors of this interpretation think, could not assuage this humour in his Disciples, (which he earnestly labours in the forecited place) but the more he debased himself in comparison of Christ, the more worthy they thought him of greater honour: he therefore now sends them unto Christ himself, whose instructions being graced with miracles, he presumed would be more effectual in them, than all the exhortations he could bestow upon them. The main stream of later Interpreters, as well Protestants as Papists, run this way. And if the question did arise from distrust or diffidence, these imperfections were in all likelihood more incident to the affectionate Scholars, than to the sanctified and prudent Master.  
6. Others there be, but not so many to my remembrance, as to make a few, which would derive the former question, Art thou he that should come, & c? not from any doubt, much less from any diffidence or distrust either in john, or in his disciples; but rather from joy of heart in john, as if it were rather, vox exultantis vel iubilantis, quam dubitantis. And it cannot be denied, but that men ofttimes make pathetical expressions as well of present joy as of dislike or discontent by way of Interrogation. Thus honest housekeepers or hearty Hosts will sometimes welcome their grateful and long expected guests with this or the like salutation, Are you come? when they cannot truly doubt whether they are come or no, if they will believe their own senses. We see the wisest men not apt to give swift credence unto extraordinary good news, lest their sorrow should prove greater, if the report should prove false. And naturally, when excessive joy either springeth too fast, or groweth too rank, we seek to allay or snip it by a fictitious or imaginary distrust of those truths whence it groweth, of which we cannot make any real or constant doubt. So he saith in the Poet,  
H●rret adhuc animus, manifestaque gaudia differt,  
Mens stupet & tanto cunctatur credere vot●.  
7. I dare not take upon me to determine which of these four several Interpretations is the best, but surely the second, though most followed by the Ancients, is farthest wide from the Evangelists meaning. And me thinks it were easy to find out a fifth, which might challenge as great a share or portion of probability as any of the former can do. For my own part, as I dare not impeach john himself of any doubt or distrust, as justin Martyr and Tertullian do; so I cannot account it any sin in john, or any impeachment to his dignity, if at this time he sought the confirmation of his former belief in Christ by new documents, or some fresh supplies of inward comfort to allay the tediousness of a hard lingering durance, from his mouth, that was the fountain of comfort, and had the words of eternal life.   

PART II. Christ's Answer. How it is satisfactory to the Question.  
8. But from what disposition soever the former question, Art thou he that should come, etc. did arise, whether from joy or exultation in john, or from distrust or diffidence in his Disciples, or partly from the one, and partly from the other; (nor are the diverse opinions concerning this point, incompatibly opposite:) there yet remaineth a question of greater difficulty and of far more useful enquiry, for right unfolding the contents and pith of my Text. The question is this, How this answer of our Saviour could possibly either confirm or ratify john's former belief of Christ's person, office, or actions, or add any increase to his knowledge or comfort, or lastly give any part of satisfaction to the distrust or diffidence of his Disciples; seeing there is nothing more contained in this answer, than john and his Disciples undoubtedly knew before. For so it is said in the second verse of this Chapter; When john being in prison had heard the works of Christ, he sent two of his Disciples, and said unto him; Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Now what works done by Christ could john hear of in Prison, which were not truly miraculous, which were not the very same with those, which our Saviour in my Text informeth john to have been wrought by him, as restoring of the blind to their sight, the lame to their limbs, the sick to health, the dumb to speech, the dead to life, & c? And that which most increaseth the difficulty, amongst other works of Christ, which, johns Disciples being present (as it seems by Saint Luke, Chap. 7. verse 27.) relate unto him, his raising up of the widow's son of Naim from death to life to the great astonishment of the spectators, was one. Now who did ever know a man truly dead, as this widow's son was, who was not withal more than deaf, more than dumb, more than blind of both his eyes, more than lame of arms and legs, of feet and hands? Wherefore, in as much as john knew before, that Christ had raised him up that was dead, and made him sit up, and speak, and delivered him to his Mother; he could not be ignorant, that he had made one that was more than dumb to speak, one that was more than halt to go, one that was more than blind to see. What satisfaction then could this answer give either to john or to his Disciples, both of whom knowing thus much before; especially seeing the one of them at least, as most Interpreters think did distrust or doubt, whether Christ (notwithstanding all this) were He that should come; and both of them could not but expect some ratification or confirmation of their former belief from his answer?  
For clearing this difficulty or exception, we are to examine these two points. 
The general division of the second Quere, proposed Parag. 3.   
[1.] First, what the particulars here avouched by Christ, and solemnly testified by john's Disciples might naturally and literally import to any indifferent understanding Auditor.  
[2.] Secondly, what they might intimate or suggest unto john, as no question but this answer did give more full satisfaction unto john, than it could do to any other for that time, without his Paraphrase or Comment upon it.  
9 Touching the former point, we say, The very 
The first member o● the general division, what satisfaction our Saviour's answer might give to any indifferent Auditor.  particulars thus solemnly avouched and authentically testified, include in them even unto ordinary sense and reason, as much as could be expected in the promised Messias, or long-expected Redeemer of Israel. Thus much they manifestly include, if we rightly make the deductions, according to the true Logical extent of their natural sense. For although it be a rule most infallible, that the truth of an indefinite proposition may be salved or supported by the truth of one particular; as if a man should bargain with a day-laborer, promising him in these indefinite terms, to give him so much for his work, as other neighbours did, though some of them gave twelve pence, some ten pence, and others but eight pence: the Law would upon these terms or agreements award him no more than eight pence, because it can constrain the hyrer only to make good his covenant to the hired, and his covenant is performed, if he make his promise true. Now, if but one or two Neighbours give but eight pence, and he giveth as much, it is evident he giveth as much as his Neighbours do, & this is enough to salve the truth of his promise, according to Law and Logic: although to use the benefit of either to a poor man's prejudice, would ill beseem a man of better note and fashion. In like manner, although our Saviour had only raised the Widow's Son of Naim 
Mem. 1.  from death, or at least, if he had given sight to one or two blind men only, or if he had cleansed but one or two Lepers, and made only one or two lame men to go, this indefinite answer to john's question, The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, Mat. 11. v. 5. had been so true, as no Grammarian or Logician had been able to impeach it of falsehood. But though it be certain that an indefinite proposition is ofttimes true, if one or two particulars be true, yet ofttimes such indefinite speeches include a multitude of particulars, and sometimes an universality or the whole number of all the particulars, which the words can literally comprehend or signify. As for example, if a man should bid his friend take heed how he deals; for the world is naught, and men are cunning: no man would conceive his meaning to be, that there were but one or two naughty or cunning men in the world: but rather that the world were in a manner full of them; and that no Society or Corporation were free from such men. Again, if a man should advise his friend not to rely upon men's words in matters of great consequences, without some real assurance, because men are mortal; no man would conceive his meaning to be, that this or that man were mortal, but that all were mortal.  
10. That this indefinite speech of our Saviour, The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, etc. did (as we say) de facto, include not only some few, but a multitude of all or most particulars specified, is apparent from the 7. of Luke, vers. 21. At the same hour (when johns Disciples came unto him) he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits, and unto many men that were blind, he gave sight. As this indefinite speech did the facto include a multitude, so it did de potentiâ include an universality; that is, as there were many blind men received their sight, many sick that were cured, so all of every sort here specified, might have been partakers of the like benefit, if the default had not been in themselves or in their friends. There was not a man throughout all the Tribes of Israel so blind, but might have had his perfect sight restored unto him, so he had demeaned himself towards Christ, as these other blind men did. Not one man throughout all the Land so deaf, so dumb, or lame, but that if their friends would have brought them unto him, and have supplicated for them, being not able to supplicate for themselves, they might have had their perfect hearing, their speech or limbs restored unto them. All the Lepers might have been cleansed; all possessed with Devils, might have been dispossessed, and freed from their tyranny, so they would have but humbled themselves under God's hands, and sincerely acknowledged their imperfections and infirmities to have been the fruits of their sin or offences against God their Creator and Redeemer: for thus to be humbled, was to become poor in spirit.  
11. What is it then which john, or his Disciples, or the whole Nation of the jews could expect of Him that was to come, their promised and long-wished-for Messias, whereof these good beginnings related, were not sure pledges and full assurances? Most of this people, and with them john's Disciples, were 
Mem. 1.  sick of their forefather's disease: they desired in their hearts a King to fight their battles, a man of as goodly presence as Saul was, for personage as lovely as jonathan, a man as valiant in battle as judas Maccabaeus, as victorious as David, as Samson, or Gideon. But what King of judah or Israel did ever jevy an Army, without ingrateful exactions from his people? Which of them did ever enrich himself or the State by foreign spoils, without impoverishing many of his native subjects? Whilst some of them might sing these or like public songs, Saul hath slain his 1000 and David his 10000 many a poor widow in private laments the loss of her dearest husband with sighs and tears; many Rachel's mourn for their children, and cannot be comforted, because the Conqueror cannot restore them to life again. Finally, the whole glory and pomp of war, when they are at the height, and at the best, are but like a bright and furious flame, which must be continually nourished with man's blood, as a Lamp is with Oil, or the Fire with Wood The best war that ever was undertaken, was but malum necessarium. It was well observed by the wiser sort of Heathen, that no war was ever just, but when it was necessary. And, as another saith, Bellum gerimus ut pace fruamur, The only right use and end of war is to procure an honourable and secure peace. If such peace may be had without war, they are but fools and unhappy men, unfit members of the world, that will undertake war and kindle dissensions betwixt Nation and Nation. Ye have heard perhaps of the Philosopher's Dialogue with Pyrrhus that great warrior, to this purpose: When this great Nimrod had swallowed as many several Kingdoms or Nations in hope, as the jews could expect their Messias should in one age conquer; the Philosopher asked him, What he meant to do after he had conquered the Romans? Then, said he, I will conquer the Gauls and Spaniards; and when he had done with them, he would bend his forces against Africa. But when you have conquered them, and as many more as you intent to conquer, what do you last resolve upon? His answer was, to live merrily and at ease, in plenty and pleasure. Why, quoth the Philosopher, this you may do already, without either hazard of your own, or your followers lives: for none of these Nations which you intent to vanquish, are likely to endanger you, so you will not begin with them. The present Nation of the jews were of Pyrrhus his temper, and sought after that, as it were by a round or circle, which was in a manner put into their hands, so they would but have looked near about them, and not have set their proud imaginations upon such roving projects as Pyrrhus did. Such amongst them as were thus affected, would no● acknowledge our Saviour to be the Messias, or him that was to come, because he was a man of peace, a man of a meek and humble spirit. If another should have come (as shortly after many false Christ's did arise,) which would have animated them unto war against the Romans, the most of them, such as loved peace especially, would quickly have been weary of him. What then? was there nothing, which both sorts, the proudest and humblest, the peaceable and contentious did alike affect, and hope to see accomplished by their promised and long expected Messias? 
Mem. 1.  Saint Augustine tells us of a Mimic or jester (a kind of artificial fool) which undertook to tell every man in the Town or City where he dwelled, what he thought or desired, when they were assembled to try his skill in the public Markets: all he had to say was this, [vultis vos omnes vili emere, et caro vendere:] All of you desire to sell dear, and buy good cheap. But as this reverend Father observeth, there was more Mimic wit, than solid truth in this conceit. For many come to Markets, which neither have mind to buy nor to sell, but to look on. Amongst such multitudes as mind buying and selling, some good men there be, which would desire to use a conscience in both: but, saith the same Father, if he had said, All of you, as well the buyer as the seller, as they that come only to hear or see, desire to be happy; his speech had been uncontrollably true. For happiness only is that which all men naturally desire.  
12. There is no petty good, but is desired by some or other; That is the chief or prime good (as the ancient Philosophers have defined it) which is desired by all. Did they collect this only as men, or doth not the Scripture either say or suppose the same as a ground of truth? Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth, and the Sea, and the dry Land. And I will shake all Nations, and the desire of all Nations shall come, & I will fill this House with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. Haggai. 2. 6, 7. In what sense our Saviour Christ (for of our Saviour Christ this place is undoubredly meant) should be instiled the desite of all Nations, is a question which hath perplexed some good Preachers, and may exercise the wit of a good Interpreter. First, how could the Gentiles which were far more than a mayor part of all Nations (here intimated) be said at that time to desire him, in whom they did not in any sort believe, whom they did not at all expect? For how should they expect him, how should they believe in him, of whom they had not heard? The jewish Nation indeed or seed of Abraham had heard of him, and did expect him, and yet as the Prophet had foretell, so it came to pass, that when they saw him, they saw no beauty in him, that they should desire him. Esay 53. vers. 2. And was it possible, that he should be the desire of all Nations, whom no Nation did desire? Yes. In as much as God had consecrated him to be the only Fountain of that happiness, which all men, which all Nations naturally do desire, and which is all that any man of what Nation soever, jew, Gentile, Greek or Barbarian can desire; he is truly instiled by the Prophet, The desire of all Nations. To say, that as many as desired happiness, did desire our Saviour Christ, can seem no paradox, if we consider (what no Philosopher will deny) that even such as follow poisoned pleasures, seek after happiness and life in these by-paths, which lead to death and misery. Though most men take the highway to death and misery, yet no man desires to dye or to be miserable, but their contraries.  
13. So that our Saviour's answer, though it seemed doubtful in the premises, is in conclusion as perfect, as if he had directly and expressly said: Go, tell john that I am he that was to come, and that you are not to expect another, seeing whatsoever you can expect or desire in any one or more, whom you may 
Mem. 1.  imagine yet to come, That you may have in me alone: for true blessedness is all that you or any man can desire, and Blessed is He whosoever shall not be offended in me. Matth. 11. 6. Esay 53. vers. 2. But though john and his Disciples could desire no more of him that was to come, than to be truly blessed in him: yet might they desire some further proof than his bare assertion or authority, that they might be truly blessed in him. For this blessedness whereof he speaketh, was none of those things which they did hear or see, seeing it cannot be known by corporal sight or hearing. It is like that new name spoken of in the Revelation, which no man can read, but he which hath it. All this is true, yet not withstanding all this, the things which they did hear & see, were undoubted pledges & visible assurances of this invisible blessedness which here he promiseth, and of which every man might have undoubted experience in himself, so he would not be offended in him. For though our Saviour with far better reason might, yet did he never exact such absolute belief unto his words, as the Pope or visible Church of Rome do to theirs, to whatsoever they shall decree, without either express warrant or testimony of God's Word written before, or experimental knowledge in themselves. This will better appear in the second point proposed, which was, what these words did intimate or suggest to john.  
The points now to be inquired after, are two:  
[1.] First, what is it to be blessed and happy in Christ, or wherein this happiness or blessedness which here he promiseth, doth consist.  
[2.] Secondly, how these particulars here mentioned, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, etc. do induce or infer this universal conclusion, Blessed is he whosoever is not offended in me.  
14. The former will draw the later after it: and in 
Wherein the blessedness here promised doth consist.  discussion of the former, I must crave pardon to acquaint you with the opinions of such of the Heathen as sought to be wiser than the rest (that is, of their Philosophers) concerning happiness or felicity. Not that I rely upon their saying or authorities; but seeing the problem proposed is general, to wit, [what satisfaction this answer could give to any unpartial Auditor, whether jew or Gentile:] I must give such satisfaction as is fittest to such perhaps as are toomuch addicted unto the Philosophy of the Heathen. Besides, it will be a good means for us to find out the right and safe way, if we shall observe where others have gone wrong, or plunged themselves.  
To the former. The very name or common notion of blessedness, happiness, or felicity, doth import as much as [Summum bonum] the chief or supreme good, or Crown of goodness; That, (as we said before) which all men naturally do desire, and which is all, that any man can desire, That which is only able to satiate all the desires or appetites of the humane soul. It is agreed upon as well by the wisest of the Heathens, as of Christians, that [bonum] & [appetibile] are terms convertible; that is, They mutually fit the one the other, as the measure and the thing measured; whatsoever is good, is desirable; and whatsoever is desirable; is good to the party which desires it, at least as for the present he stands affected: and that only is truly good which ought to be desired. For the rectifying 
Mem. 1.  of our desires, the Heathens went thus far aright, [That the desires of sense, or the inferior part of the soul, were to be guided and directed by reason:] We Christians know, that even reason itself must be regulated by the Word of God, or rule of faith; otherwise it will outray farther in its desires, than sense, without the check or control of reason, could do. The things which we may desire, are of three sorts:  

1 
Profitable,  2 
Pleasant, or  3 
Honest.    
All these three branches of Goodness, or rather these several sorts of good things are required unto true happiness; yet so, as true happiness or the chief good consists properly in the fruit of the third branch or stem, to wit, of Bonum Honestum, in its full growth or maturity. This chief or prime good is not only desired for itself and for no other end, but it is the end for which all things else, whether they be inferior branches of Bonum Honestum, Virtue or honesty, or whether they are pleasant or profitable, are desired. Every branch of Bonum Honestum, of Virtue or honesty, though it be to be desired for the chief and prime good, yet is it to be desired in itself, and for itself; so to be desired for itself, that we must be content to lop off all the other branches of pleasure and profit, rather than hinder the growth of this. Godliness, saith the Apostle, is great gain, and it hath been an old Proverb amongst you, It is a good sport to be honest. The issue of that sport, delight, or gain, whereby our growth in godliness or honesty may be prejudiced, is loss and grief. Things pleasant are to be desired in themselves, and for themselves; yet so far only, and at such seasons, as their desire may not hinder the pursuit of things good and honest. Our desire of these latter, must give bounds or limits to the desire of the former. Things pleasant may be desired in greater measure, than for themselves they can be desired, in case they bring advantage to the course of honesty, of piety or virtue. Things merely profitable, are not desirable at all for themselves or in themselves, but only so far as they are conducent to the purchase of delights lawful and honest, or of honesty itself. For which reason, profit, as the more judicious Schoolmen determine, is no true and proper branch of goodness, nor are things merely profitable, truly and inherently good, but good only by extrinsecall denomination or by accident. Of this rank is Physic, which no man desires for itself, or in such manner or measure as he desires wholesome food; it is in its nature distasteful to sense, yet to be desired as a means for procuring health, which all men desire for itself, because it is truly good and pleasant, and yet withal to be desired, as a means profitable for the exercise of piety, and performance of virtuous actions: of this rank likewise is that which most men, upon a common error, most of all desire, to wit, gold or coin, or other externals, before we have occasion to use them. These are not good in themselves, save only with reference to the procuring of things pleasant or honest. In Countries wherein gold is not by custom referred to this use, men esteem it no more than Aesop's Cock did the Pearl. Thus we have read of a 
Mem. 1.  dumb dialogue between a poor Indian and a wand'ring Spaniard, that in his hunger offered gold for a Pullet, which the Indian attempting to chaw with his teeth, restored it again, with this intimation; That he could eat his Pullet, but he could not eat the gold: Otheruse of this metal he knew none, and being not useful, it was not good to him, though of more worth to one of us, than all the quick goods which the poor Indian had.  
15. But more pertinent to our present purpose is that division of goodness or good things which the Philosophers have made unto our hands in this very argument whereof we treat. For unto felicity or true happiness, they require a threefold rank or order of good things. The first was (as they call them) [Bona fortunae,] the goods of fortune, which we call means and maintenance, as moneys, lands, goods, possessions, revenues, or whatsoever other externals. The second, [bona corporis] as health, strength, agility, beauty or comeliness of body. The third was [bona animi,] the endowments of the soul or mind, which they comprehended under the names of virtue moral and intellectual: of whose several parts some did answer in proportion unto health or welfare of the body, as justice, Sobriety, Temperance, in which the health of the soul did even in their judgement more specially consist, as the strength or agility of the soul did consist in valour, wit, or resolution. As for Arts and sciences, these they accounted as the attire, or external comeliness of the soul. Their chiefest errors in these disquisitions were, that they thought (at least some of the wisest of them) that this felicity or happiness might be complete in this life. Howbeit some of them did think, that no man was to be accounted or adjudged happy before his death. Not that these men, for aught we can gather, did hope for any extraordinary happiness after death; but that such happiness or prosperity as man is capable of in this life, and such as they observed some men to enjoy, was so brickle and uncertain, as no man could safely pass his sentence of them whether they were happy or no, until they had finished their course of life. But the greatest error in this argument (wherewith the greatest Philosopher himself was overtaken) was, that this happiness might be attained unto by good education, or by the wit and industry of man: for he denyeth it to be the free gift of God. But we Christians believe & know, that if all good things be the gift of God, than the chief or supreme good must be the extraordinary and special gift of God. And yet withal we must consider, that God who giveth all good things freely, never casteth such precious pearls as this unto swine Although it cannot be purchased by man's industry, yet God giveth it only to the industrious, only to such as seek after it with the best faculties and endeavours of their souls, content to forgo all things else, for the purchase of it. But of this hereafter.  
16. Yet herein Aristotle and other Heathen Philosophers were more orthodoxal, than some rigid Stoical Christians, in that they thought no man could be truly happy without health of body, or whilst he continued in want & penury, much less whilst he continued in such pains and torments as: Regulus or other like virtues or good patriots did endure rather 
Mem. 1.  than they would wrong their conscience or undo their Country. He that shall accuse these Heathens as carnally minded in this, considereth not, that in thus accusing them, he condemneth the generation of the just. Our Apostle Saint Paul had greater peace of conscience, than Regulus or any other Roman could have. That part of happiness which consisteth in the health and welfare or other endowments of the soul, was as complete and perfect in him during this life, as any man, whilst clothed with mortality, can expect: yet saith he of himself, and others, even of all that were alike minded as he was; If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable; 1. Cor. 15. vers. 19 What occasions soever other good Christians of these times had to join with him in this complaint; his own occasions, to speak, to think and write, as here he doth, are elsewhere by him specified at large, and are most just. Are they Ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more: in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft: of the jews five times received 1 forty stripes save one; Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day have I been in the deep, In journeying often, In perils of waters, In perils of robbers, in perils by my own Countrymen, in perils by heathen, in perils in the City, in perils in the Wilderness, in perils in the Sea, in perils among false brethren: In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches; who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 2. Cor. Cap. 11. vers. 23. to the 30.  
17. These grievances of body and perplexities of mind were of themselves rather branches or degrees of misery than of felicity; things in their own nature not to be desired but avoided, as being in that rank of evils which we call [malum poenae,] such as all punishments or chastisements, whether justly or injustly inflicted, are. For whatsoever is contrary to that which is truly good, must needs be so far truly evil, as it is contrary unto that, which is in its nature good. Now all [malum poenae] that is, all punishments, chastisements, or bodily grievances, are directly contrary to the second branch of goodness forementioned, which the Schools call [Bonum jucundum,] the goodness of lawful pleasure, of harmless delight, of blameless ease or contentment, all which are degrees or branches of felicity. But though these grievances before mentioned by our Apostle, were in themselves truly evil, yet was it good for him, as it is for all men else, to suffer them for the Gospel's sake, or for the confirmation of others faith. Both parts of this true doctrine or assertion are avouched by the same Apostle, Heb. 12. vers. 11. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So that no chastening or bodily grievance, which befalleth us for Christ's or the Gospel's sake, is so true or great an evil in one sense, as it is good in another, to wit, in the first rank of goodness before mentioned, that is profitable or useful. All persecutions, whether in body, 
Mem. 1.  goods, or name, have the same reference or proportion unto the soul, or to its welfare, health and happiness, that bitter and unpleasant Physic hath unto the body. Now there is no man, but will be willing to lay down his bodily life as a wearisome burden, rather than to live continually under the Physician's or Chirurgian's hands without any ease or intermission: And yet even the bitterest and most unpleasant Physic, such as in itself is to be loathed, is good, and by all wise men to be desired, so long as there is certain hope, that it may be a means to ease their bodies-of lingering pain or torture, or procure the restauration or long continuance of former and wont health. In like manner, our Apostle Saint Paul would have wished never to have professed the Christian Religion, rather than to have lived eternally in such persecutions, as he sometimes suffered, because they were in themselves evil, and distasteful unto the humane nature: notwithstanding he rejoiceth and glorieth in them, as they have reference to that exceeding weight of glory and crown of righteousness, for the attaining whereof they were, though not causes, yet as means ordained by God, useful, and for those times necessary. And therefore our Saviour saith, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. And again, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for my sake. Matth. 5. 10. 11. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the Prophets, which were before you. verse. 12. So then such as suffer persecution for righteousness sake, are blessed, [spe, non re,] whilst they suffered persecution; That is, they are not in the actual possession of that blessedness, which they hope for, nor can they expect, (as our Apostle in the forecited 15. Chapter to the Corinthians, 19 vers. teacheth us) that their hopes of blessedness in Christ, shall be accomplished in this life, because neither the endowments of the mind, nor of the body, whose perfection and accomplishment are necessary to true and perfect happiness, can be perfected and accomplished, until this corruptible have put on incorruption, and these our mortal bodies become impassable and immortal. As for those external comforts or supplies, which are necessary to that small portion of happiness, which we have in this life, as meat, drink, apparel, and the like, we shall have no need nor use of them in the life to come. In that life we shall be so fully happy within ourselves, and in the fruition of God, as we shall need nothing without us, nothing besides God's presence, and the fruition of ourselves. The want or penury of any thing useful in this life, is a degree or part of misery: but not to need them, not to want them, is a portion of true felicity. And for this reason happily it is, that amongst all the good works and miracles which our Saviour did, we never read, that he made any needy beggars exceeding rich in worldly riches, because riches are neither useful nor necessary to that happiness, whereunto all his miracles do lead and draw us: but as he did neither make, nor promise to make his followers rich, so he would not suffer any of them, whilst he lived here on earth, to continue in want or penury. These evils or degrees of misery in this life, he often prevented by miracles, 
Mem. 1.  when they were ready to befall them.  
18. Here we are by the way to consider, that whilst our Saviour was bodily present with his Disciples and followers, none of them were in want or need, but he instantly relieved them. If any fell sick, he presently cured them: if they were in danger by Sea, they could no sooner cry out, Master, we perish, but he as soon checked the wind with the breath of his mouth, and turned the storm into a calm: he did not suffer them so much as to weep or mourn, but rather ministered continual matter of joy and comfort unto them: Nay, as we read Mark. 2. vers. 18. It was a solecism for them to fast, whilst he was with them. When john's Disciples, or the pharisees came unto him, and demanded of him, Why do the Disciples of john and of the pharisees fast, but thy Disciples fast not? jesus said unto them, Can the Children of the Bridegroom fast, whilst the Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the Bridegroom with them, they cannot fast: but the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. Thus you see a great difference betwixt the estate of his Disciples, whilst he was with them, and whilst he was taken from them: the one was an estate of joy and contentment, without bodily grievance or molestation; the other had his joy and internal comfort mixed with sorrow of bodily discontentments. What was then the reason of this difference? Surely it was our Saviour's will and pleasure in affording these contentments, which did accompany his bodily presence here on earth, to exhibit a perfect Map or Model of that fullness of all joy and contentment, which we shall be made partakers of by his bodily presence with us in heaven. So then, for conclusion of the first point, and for more commodious passage unto the second, our Saviour by the miracles here mentioned, and the like, did openly and evidently declare himself to be the Author, Lord, and free donor of all these three ranks or sorts of good things, which the Heathen by light of nature saw to be requisite or necessary for the attainment of true felicity, or in the fruition whereof in full and perfect measure, true and perfect happiness did consist.  
19 First, for these externals, which the Heathens 
How the particular miracles here mentioned, infer this universal conclusion, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.  call [Bona fortunae] (as meat, drink, apparel, or means necessary for maintenance of life) without which we can rather receive no contentment, than be throughly contented with them; albeit our Saviour gave them in less measure than worldly minds desire them, yet his bounty in bestowing of them, did herein far exceed the magnificence of greatest Princes, in that he herewith pleasured his Disciples without any grievance unto others. This was a foundation of public happiness, which no Monarch or State-founder could ever lay, in that, no man did ever far a whit the worse because his followers or favourers, (how many soever they were) did far the better. For thus our Saviour plentifully fed multitudes of people in the Wilderness, without occasioning any dearth or scarcity of bread or victuals unto such as remained in the towns or villages. The relics or offals of the Feasts that he made, were always greater than the provision itself. Once we read of his feeding five thousand men with seven Barly-loaves, and two Fishes, and the 
Mem. 1.  fragments or broken meat was seven Baskets full, Mark 8. vers. 20. Another time of his feeding five thousand men with five loaves, when there remained twelve baskets full of fragments. Nor did this his bounty extend only in cases of necessity or for preventing want or penury, but unto matter of delight or decency. For as he fed thousands of people in the Wilderness, where no food was to be had for them without miracle; so, to grace the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee, he turned water into wine, not of the worst sort, but of the pleasantest and cheerefullest taste. Thus when tribute or pole-money was unjustly exacted of him, he did not demand a benevolence from those men on whom he had wrought those mighty cures, or whom he had otherwise benefited extraordinarily; He supplieth himself and Peter with this necessary from a Fish, which had no more use or need of money whereof the Roman Caesar had want, than the poor Indian had of the Spaniards gold. So that albeit he sent his pole-money to Rome with others, yet was there not one penny less in jury than there was before.  
20. But to come to the second sort or rank of good things, which the Heathens by light of nature saw necessary unto felicity, as [bona corporis;] what greater bodily happiness could befall the blind or lame, than for the one to be restored unto his perfect fight, the other to the right use of limbs? What could the deaf more desire than to be able to hear, or the Lepers than to be cleansed from their leprosy? What so great a bodily blessing, if any at all beside could be bestowed upon the dead, as to be restored to life again? Yet those and many like blessings our Saviour bestowed upon all that were not offended in him, by his mere word, thereby showing himself to be the Lord and disposer of all the blessings or parts of happiness which concern the body. And john's Disciples might hear and see the parties here mentioned, made thus far truly happy by him. Happy they were in respect of all other men, happier by much than those men which still continued blind or lame, or leprous, or deaf, or in that estate of death, from which our Saviour raised these dead here mentioned. Again, happier they were than such men as never had been blind, or lame, or leprous, or deaf, or never had tasted of bodily death. For albeit the blessings of life, of health, of strength, of soundness of limbs, were in themselves (if we measure them by themselves) the selfsame in both: yet these mentioned in my Text, knew much better how to value or prise these bodily blessings aright, or how to use them to their right end by their former long want or absence, than others could do by their continual presence or fruition of them. Again, happy they were in respect of themselves, or their former estate, much happier in that they were now able to walk, whereas before they had been lame; much happier, in that whereas now they see, they had sometimes been blind; that whereas now they are cleansed, they had sometimes been Lepers; in that such of them as now live, had been sometimes dead. For, although the habit be in itself much better than the privation, as sight is much better than blindness, health much better than sickness, soundness of limbs much 
Mem. 1.  better than lameness, life much better than death; vet sometimes the sufferance of want or privation of things in their nature good and pleasant, may be more profitable or useful for attaining some greater good, than the present possession or fruition of good things. Now it was not the habit or present fruition of life and health, not the right use of limbs and bodily senses, but the former want or privation of them, which was as the root or stock wherein the third part of that happiness which consists in the health or welfare of the soul was engrafted. If some of these men had always enjoyed their perfect sight, it is more than twenty to one but that their own right eyes had offended them; and better it were they should have been plucked out, than have offended them: but best of all, that they had none to offend them, or draw them from Christ the Fountain of happiness, unto other vanities. If others of them had been always sound of body and limbs, their own right hands or feet would have been as a stumbling-blocke to them in the way of life, and have hindered them from coming to Christ. If others of them had not been smitten with leprosy or other like grievous diseases, they had not sought to Christ as to their Physician: and not finding him so happy a Physician as they found him for the body, they would not so earnestly have sought unto him, as the only Physician of their souls; although he be usually found of none but such as seek him. Finally, unless the Lord had humbled all of them with some one or other bodily grievance, or with want and poverty, they had not become so humble in mind, or poor in spirit, as now they are; and not being such, they had not been capable of the greatest miracle or best blessing here bestowed, that is, they had not been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for so it is remarkably said in the Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the dead are raised, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & the poor (as our later English translation readeth it) have the Gospel preached unto them: much better I must confess than some of the ancient Fathers, which expound the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (being, as the Latins say, a Verb common, or, as the Grecians say [verbum medium,] that is, sometimes active, sometimes passive) according to its active signification in this place; and render it thus, the poor preach the Gospel. But as Maldonate well observeth, for the poor to preach the Gospel, was never any matter of wonder, and therefore no part of our Saviour's message unto john, as being no point worthy so great a Master as our Saviour was, solemnly to teach; or so great a Scholar as john was, solemnly to learn. And howsoever the word in the Original be rendered by Interpreters, the thing signified by it, is the greatest miracle in this Catalogue. That the Gospel should be preached unto the poor, as Maldonate would have it, was [valdè mirum] a great and real wonder. And why so great or real a wonder? Because, saith he, to have the Gospel preached unto them, was as much as to have a promise to be made Kings, as he rightly proves from diverse places of this Gospel by Saint Matthew. [Quid autem admirabilius quam pauperem Regem fieri?] What more admirable or wonderful, than for poor men and beggars to be made Kings? He further addeth, that although the Gospel were equally and indifferently preached to all, yet it 
Mem. 1.  pleased our Saviour only to mention the poor, both because that was most strange and unusual according to the custom of the world, that the poor should have the promise to be made Kings; and withal, that he might show himself to be the Messias or the Anointed of the Lord, who, as the Prophet Esay had foretell, should preach the Gospel to the poor. Thus far Maldonate. But under correction, the original phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports a great deal more than either Maldonate expresseth in Latin, when he saith, [Euangelium praedicatur pauperibus,] or then is expressed in our latter English, the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. Our former English cometh somewhat nearer the Original, when it saith, the poor receive the Gospel. But the vulgar Latin, though it miss it many, yet in this particular best expresseth the meaning of the Evangelist, if the Romish Priests and Jesuits, which hold it to be Authentic, did understand the meaning of it, or improve it to the best sense; for so it renders the Original verbatim [Pauperes Euangelizantur.] For right unfolding the contents of this speech, or taking the full value of the Original, we are to observe that Verbs passive, whether in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or English, may include or import a twofold passion; the one merely Grammatical or intentional; the other real, either natural or supernatural. One and the same Verb may sometimes include the former only, sometimes the latter, according to the diversity of the matter or subject whereunto it is applied. To give instance in that speech of Melchizedeck, Genes. 14. 19 Blessed be Abraham of the most high GOD, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most High God which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. Now, though the word in the Original be the same, though it be for signification as truly passive, when it is said, Blessed be the most High God, and when it is said, Blessed be Abraham of the most High God: yet we must always note this difference in the thing itself, that whensoever God is blessed by man, as here he was by Melchizedeck, man's blessing can produce no real passion or alteration in God: it can add no degree of bliss or happiness to him. But whensoever man is blessed by GOD, his blessing always addeth some increase of blessedness either in his goods, in his body, or in his soul. Again, if one man give another poison, the other may be said to have poison given him, or to be Grammatically passive. But it is one thing to have poison given him, & another to be poisoned. This latter includes a real passion or bodily mutation, though from better to worse, from life to death. He that hath a medicine given him, is in common speech termed a Patient, and is Grammatically passive. But every one that is thus far passive as to have a medicine given him, is not instantly medicined, cured, or healed; for this includes a real operation or amendment of that which was amiss in the body. In like manner, in as much as our Saviour preached the Gospel equally and indifferently to all, all that heard him, might be alike truly and literally said to have had the Gospel preached unto them, if we respect only the Grammatical sense and signification of the word. But it is one thing to say that all had the Gospel preached unto them; and another thing to say, all 
Mem. 1.  were Euangelizati. For this latter was peculiar only to the poor in spirit: They only took this stamp or impression of the Gospel, which was preached to all. Briefly, the original phrase doth literally and naturally import as true or real an alteration or transmutation in the souls of such as were poor in spirit, as the former miracles here mentioned, did in the bodies of the blind, the lame, the deaf, the Leprous, or dead. Now it is not said that the blind had their sight proffered or promised unto them, or that the lame were only made to walk, or the Lepers cleansed only in hope, or by way of promise. But all of them were truly and actually cured of their infirmities of body; and so no question were the poor in spirit as truly cured, as truly healed of their infirmities of their souls. They had been as truly dead unto the life of the spirit, as those whom Christ is here said to have raised up, were unto the life of the body. But now they are raised up to newness of life, enlightened to see the truth, and enabled to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And whereas before they had been the bond slaves of sin, wherewith their souls were more foully stained or tainted than these Lepers bodies were with leprosy, they are now freed and cleansed from the guilt and reign of sin, and made the servants of righteousness. Thus much is included in these last words, [Pauperes evangelizantur;] and this transmutation of their souls was, or might have been, as conspicuous or observable to john's Disciples, as the changing of Saul's mind or spirit was unto the Israelites, after Samuel had anointed him King. 1. Sam. cap. 10. ver. 9 This Interpretation of this place is made unto our hands by our Saviour himself, the best Interpreter of his own words: for so he saith, Luke 6. ver. 20. Blessed be ye poor, (setting his eyes on his Disciples) for yours is the Kingdom of God. This blessing of Interest in the Kingdom of God here bequeathed by our Saviour unto the poor, is in effect the same with these words in my Text, [Pauperes evangelizantur;] of which, their Interest in the Kingdom of God is the true real and formal effect. For the Gospel is called the Kingdom of God, because it instateth such as receive the impression of it, that is, the Euangelizati, in the Kingdom of God or of heaven. The Kingdom of God in Scriptures is twofold, and hath two importances. Sometimes it importeth the Kingdom of Grace, which the poor in spirit attain unto it in this world: Sometimes it importeth the Kingdom of Glory, which no man shall attain unto but in the world to come. The Kingdom of Grace there bequeathed had two parts; the one ordinary, to continue throughout all ages, which did consist in the reign or sovereignty of the spirit over the flesh: the other extraordinary, yet usual in that time, and did consist in the reign or sovereignty of such poor men, as Christ's Disciples were, over Satan and his angels. And this part of the Kingdom of grace, or this effect of it, was more conspicuous and visible unto others, and was one of those works or miracles which john's Disciples might hear and see, and make faith or true relation unto their Master. Now the blessedness here promised by our Saviour, or so much of it as men are capable of in this life, consisteth in the former part of the Kingdom of Grace, that is, in the sovereignty 
Mem. 1.  of the spirit over the flesh. Both parts of this observation are set forth unto us by our Saviour, Luk. 10. vers. 17, 18, 19 The Seventie returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the Devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the Spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. All the poor which are here said to be Euangelizati, were thereby instated in the Kingdom of Grace, and made the sons of God, as it is written, joh. 1. ver. 12. As many as received him, to them gave he power [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a privilege or faculty] to be the sons of God, and heirs apparent unto the Kingdom of Glory. This is all one, as to have their names written in the Book of life.  
21. But here the jesuit, at least the Monk or begging Friar (who takes the poverty which he voweth, to be an evangelical perfection, containing in it a title of merit to the blessedness here mentioned;) would reply, that by the poor mentioned, Lu. 6. v. 20. the poor in spirit only are to be understood, though not expressed, because the poor in spirit are expressed by Saint Matthew, who relates the selfsame story, Chap. 5. which Saint Luke doth in that 6. Chap: but in as much as the story or relation here in my Text, is not the same with either of the former two, it will not so clearly follow, that the poor in spirit are here only to be understood. Yet it is a rule in Logic, and it is a rule of reason, [Quaecunque conveniunt in al● quo tertio, conveniunt etiam inter se.] From which rule it will clearly follow, that if as well these words of my Text, as those of Saint Luke, chap. 6. vers. 20. be but evangelical expressions of one and the same Prophetical prediction, in which the poor in spirit are to be understood, this my Text must be meant of the poor in spirit, as well as those other words of Saint Luke or Saint Matthew. But of the consonancy of the Evangelist and the Prophet, by God's assistance hereafter.  
22. You have heard, and I make no question but you do believe, That whatsoever your hearts can desire, even the fullness of that true happiness, which is all that you or any man can desire, is only to be sought in Christ, in whom it may be found by all. For confirming your particular Interest in him, and in the blessedness which here he promiseth: the right receiving of this blessed Sacrament is of all other means most effectual. For your better preparation to the due receiving of it, it will be available to consider the doctrine which my Text affords; that although Christ be a fountain of happiness infinite, and inexhaustible; although his death (whose memory we celebrate, whose virtue in this Sacrament we seek) be, as it were the opening of this fountain; yet are the streams of bliss and happiness which issue from him by his death, derivable only unto such as are not offended in him. Though the Gospel, as our Apostle speaketh, Rom. 1. ver. 16. be the power of God unto salvation, yet, as my Text saith, the poor in spirit only take the impression of it. Even power itself, and goodness infinite, sufficient in itself to save all, 
Mem. 2.  though in number infinite; is effectual only in such as are of an humble and contrite heart. Of their humiliation or contrition, or their poorness in spirit, which is here mentioned in my Text, that might be truly said, which our Saviour doth of Thomas the Apostle his faith: Thomas, thou believest because thou hast seen, happy are they which have not seen and yet believe. The most of these men were therefore poor and humble in spirit, because the Lord had humbled, broken, or chastised them, some with bodily blindness, others with lament, some with deafness, others with leprosy, or like grievous sickness, some with death. However, becoming once truly humble and poor in spirit, though by these and like means, all of them were truly happy in Christ: but much happier and more blessed shall they be, whom the Lord having not so grievously chastised in body, yet do become as humble and poor in spirit, as they were. The best consideration I can commend unto you, for working this humiliation and contrition of spirit, is this, that as the Ceremonies of the Law were but shadows of these things which are now fulfilled in Christ; so all the bodily calamities, which Christ here cured in so many several bodies, were but as so many sensible types or shadows of more grievous maladies in every man's soul; although by nature we do not feel them. Some of them were dead in body, and all of us, as our Apostle saith, are by nature dead in trespasses. Now if we do as truly and heartily bewail this deadness of our souls, as the poor Widow of Naim did the bodily death of her only son; then, as our Apostle saith in the same place, We are quickened in Christ, and he will deliver our souls unto us safe and sound, as he did him unto his mother. Some of those were blind in body; all of us were dark in mind, even from the womb: and if we supplicate unto him with like earnestness to enlighten our minds, as these poor men did to receive their bodily sight, we shall be as happy in this cure, as they were in the other. Some of them were halt and lame, and not able to go; and we, after we have seen and known the ways of God, are more unable to walk in them, than they were to run a race. Some of them were Lepers in body; so are we all by nature Lepers in souls. But whatsoever lament, infirmity or disease hath befallen our souls by Adam's transgression or by our own corruption, he is both able and willing to work more miraculous cures upon our souls, than he did upon these poormen's bodies, so we entreat him as earnestly and heartily as they did.  
23. None of you, I hope, conceiveth Christ's bodily presence to be either necessary or expedient for curing or healing your souls. No man's faith in Scripture is more commended than the Centurions, which did not desire our Saviour's bodily presence, when he offered it, for the healing of his servant. His answer was, Lord, I am not worthy, that thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Matth. 8. 8. If this acknowledgement were a document of lively faith, and Christian modesty in this Centurion; what can it be but arrogancy and unbelief in the Romanist, to think himself worthy, not only of Christ's bodily presence under the roof of his house, but under the roof of his mouth, 
Mem. 2.  yea in his stomach? But far be all such unclean and carnal thoughts from any here present. Let us steadfastly believe, that Christ's Word is now as powerful in heaven, as it was on earth; yet have we not only his Word, but the visible pledges of his body and blood for the healing of our souls. Whatever other defect there may be in our preparation for receiving these pledges of his passion, let us be sure, that our intention to humble ourselves, and amend our lives, be sincere and without hypocrisy.  

The second Member of the general division, proposed in the former Discourse, Parag. 8. What satisfaction this Answer of our Saviour did give to john.  
§ 24. VErbum sapienti sat est. A man of understanding and experience, in part acquainted with any business on foot, perceiveth more by a word or Hint, than another of less understanding or experience, altogether unacquainted with the same business, would do by instructions given in Folio. Now john, we know, was a man of extraordinary understanding and experience in matters spiritual, specially such as concerned Christ, to whom he was the immediate forerunner, unto which office he was qualified or set apart from the womb, yea, sanctified unto it even in the womb, as you may read, Luke 1. verse 41. As this qualification made him more docile or capable of good instructions than other children were, so his father Zacharias was better able to instruct him in the knowledge of Christ, of whose Kingdom and Office he had prophesied, than any other Priest or son of Aaron could. For Zacharias was, for aught that we can gather, the only Prophet then in Israel, at least the spirit of Prophecy, which for a long time had been as a fountain dried up, did first break forth in him. After that john himself came to maturity of age and understanding, he was directed by special commission from his God, to usher Christ into the world, to induct him into his Prophetical function, to declare him to be the Redeemer of Israel, to proclaim him to be the high Priest of our souls, that was to make the full atonement for the sins of the whole world. Now unto john, thus well qualified and instructed in matters concerning Christ, and in particular acquainted with the carriage of all businesses concerning Christ's baptism or other actions until his imprisonment; this Answer of our Saviour Christ, (especially being framed out of that Prophet's words which had penned john's Commission, for being Christ's messenger or preparing his ways, more than 600. years before either of them was borne) would suggest or imply a great deal more, than it could do unto any other man not so well qualified or instructed as john was, and not so well acquainted with the particular passages of Scripture whereon john's faith was grounded, nor with the signs of the time, by which his faith in the Messias was confirmed.  
Now for your better edification in this point, give 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  me leave to break this portion of the Bread of life which I have in hand, into three parts:  
The first, The general means by which every 
Three branches of this second member.  man's faith or belief in Christ is wrought or grounded, or by which it is or may be confirmed.  
The second shall be the unfolding of those particular places of Scripture on which john's belief was grounded, as also the signs of the time by which his faith before his imprisonment, (or before the framing of this question) was ratified and confirmed.  
The third, What correspondency, concord or consonancy the particulars here mentioned, and those places of Scripture whereunto our Saviour in this answer refers john, or the signs of this very time wherein this answer was made, have unto the other parts of Scripture, or signs of the time by which john's former faith had been established and confirmed. Of these three in their order by God's assistance.  
25. Concerning the first point, we all beleeveand know that God's Word is the only rule on which our faith must be grounded, by which we must be builded up as the house by line or level. 
The first Branch. Concerning the manner how our belief in God's Word, or in Christ is grounded to the 36. parag.   
In this general we and the Church of Rome agree: The first breach or point of difference betwixt us and them is, Whether this Word of God by which the Temple of God must be raised, be partly written and partly unwritten? We say, that the whole rule or Canon of Faith is written or contained fully in the Books of the Old and New Testament. They grant these Books to contain part of the rule, but the other part, which in effect they make the principal, is (as they say) contained in unwritten traditions, of whose truth or true meaning the visible Church for the time being, is the sole judge. This indeed is the roof or covering of their Edifice, which (as elsewhere we have showed, and by God's assistance shall more fully show hereafter) doth utterly raze or overthrow the foundation itself, whereon they would seem to put it, to wit, the written Word of God, and the truths concerning Christ contained in it. But our purpose is not at this time to show you, in what manner they overthrow the foundation of Faith or Word of God, but rather the manner how our faith is grounded on it.  
26. Now though it be true which we lately said, that faith must be grounded only on the written Word; this saying notwithstanding must be restrained unto the time since. GOD'S Word unto his Church or people by his appointment was committed unto writing. Wherefore you must remember or take notice, that there was a time wherein no part of God's Word was written: for Moses was the first that committed Gods Words to writing, the first that made a Register or Record of what God had spoken unto the patriarchs. Now, the belief of the patriarchs was grounded on God's Word though then unwritten, after the same manner as ours is on the written Word. For (as you will easily conceive) it is not the writing of God's Word which makes it to be the ground or rule of faith. Yet here happily you will demand, To what other end than was it written? To this we answer, That the writing of it by such special Registers as God had apppointed for that purpose, 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  and the strange preservation of the Records written by them, is to us an infallible argument that what they have written, is the Words of God, not the words of men. And this, to know that the words which we believe or give credence unto in matters concerning our happiness or salvation, are the words not of any mortal man, but of the immortal God, is the first ground of faith.  
27. Unto the right grounding of our faith in this 
The prediction not of any but of some special events, argues the Authors of the Prediction to have been inspired by God.  first po●nt, two things were ever required: The first, prediction or foretelling things to come: The second was, the event or experiment answering to the prediction. Yet is it not the prediction of any event that shall fall out, though for a long time after, that can argue the prediction itself to have been Gods words, or the fore-teller of such events to be a Prophet. For the Astronomers can foretell you the Eclipses of the Sun or Moon for many years before they fall out or happen; yet no man takes their skill as an argument that they are true Prophets, or that they are enlightened by the Spirit of God, by which the Scriptures were written, or the mysteries contained in them were foretell. But if an Astronomer could as distinctly foretell what kind of weather every month or every day for two or three years following should bring with it, as he can foretell what day or hour the Sun or Moon shall be eclipsed, or in what degree or measure either of their bodies should be obscured or hid from our sight; you would conceive of him as a man more than ordinary, and that he could not know this by ordinary skill or art, no not by the black art itself, or by dealing with the Devil. He that could certainly foretell all the particular changes of weather, or the alteration of States and Kingdoms, or the several Eclipses or illuminations of Gods true visible Church here on earth for the next Generations that are to come; might justly challenge the reputation of a Prophet or Messenger sent from God, at the hands of all such as had heard or read his predictions before the truth of them was sealed by their manifest undoubted events. What then is the reason why the certain and known prediction of some events, whose truth afterwards becometh visible and manifest unto the world (as the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon, or the conjunction of Planets, which shall fall out some forty years hence or more) should not as infallibly argue the assistance of the divine Spirit, or revelations immediately made from God, as the foretelling of all change of weather, or matters of greater consequences do, as matters of States or Kingdoms, or Gods visible Church? The reason is, because God by his everlasting Decree hath apppointed the Sun and Moon their constant and certain course, and privileged them from all impossibility of impediment or disturbance in their several courses, which either man or infernal spirits can attempt against them: whereas by the same everlasting Decree, He hath ordained such variety or inconstancy in the air or other inferior Elements, as no wit of Man or Devil can comprehend all the possible changes of weather, which may happen within some few years following. For though Satan and his angels be enstyled Prince of the Air by God's Saints, yet doth not this title any way 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  import that they have absolute independent power or Monarchical Sovereignty over the air, but only that He who is supreme Lord of Heaven & Earth, of all the World, and of all in it, oft times permitteth those infernal spirits, for the iniquity or sins of men, to exercise such power in the air, as he never permitteth them to use or exercise in the higher Region, whence they are utterly banished or excluded. So that albeit they oft times know much, and more than man by means natural can do, concerning the alteration or change of weather; yet can they know no more concerning these or like effects, than God permitteth them to know, or suffereth them in his just judgements to effect or work. Again, for the managing of civil affairs, of government of States or Kingdoms, GOD, by his everlasting Decree, hath left unto men such variety of choice, such a contingency in their consultations, such a freedom of will in contriving or projecting their several ends, as it is impossible for any man living in this Age, though he should consult with Witches or familiar spirits, to prognosticate or foretell what the success or final issue of what he himself at this present projects or plots, 
* Vide Acts 1. 6, 7.  shall be an hundred or two hundred years hence. From this faculty or rather facility in foretelling things of this nature, which for diverse Generations after shall certainly come to pass, the Lord himself doth plead, and prove his Title of infinite wisdom, that He is the only wise immortal God, that besides him there is none that can do or say as He doth. Produce your cause, saith the LORD, (unto the Heathen gods and their worshippers:) Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: Let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them, or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed: and behold it together. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. Isay 41. vers. 21, 22, 23, 24. And again, chap. 47. vers. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Sat thou in silence, and get thee into darkness, O Daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms: I was wroth with my people, I have polluted my Inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid the yoke. And thou saidst, I shall be a Lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thine heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart: I am, and none else besides me, I shall not sit as a Widow, neither shall know the loss of Children, and widowhood; they shall come upon thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. This speech (you must consider) is directed in particular to the Chaldeans, who were the most curious Inquisitors after things to come; the cunningest Soothsayers, (as they took and professed themselves) in the world. And for this reason it is, that the LORD sendeth that peremptory challenge unto them, v. 12, 13, 14, 15. Stand now with 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  thine Enchantments, and with the multitude of thy Sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy Counsels: Let now the Astrologers, the Starre-gazers, the monthly Prognosticators stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble: the fire shall burn them, they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy Merchants from thy youth, they shall wander every one to his quarter: None shall save thee.  
28. Let me give you two instances or examples of things foretell by God, (by his Prophet Isay) concerning the strange alteration of States or Kingdoms, both which predictions were exactly and remarkably fulfilled and accomplished; the one about an hundred, the other about one hundred and seventy years after, the Prophet from the mouth of the LORD had foretell them. The former is related in the second Book of Kings, chap. 20. and in the 39 of Isay, vers. 6, 7, 8. The sum of both those Stories is this: After Hezekiah had showed his House and all his Treasure unto the King of Babylon's Ambassador, which came to congratulate his late recovery from that dangerous sickness, of which the Prophet Isayas had by God's appointment cured him, having first secured him not only of his instant recovery, but of the continuance of his former health, and prolonging of his days by a sign from Heaven: the same Prophet came unto him, and telleth him that this his kindness or courtesy to the Ambassadors in showing them his Treasury, was [factum malè ominatum,] and did abode a future misery to his posterity. Hear the Word of the LORD, saith Isaiah to Hezekiah, Behold the days to come, that all that is in thine House, and that which thy Fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon.  
Now, if we consider the strength of judah and of Egypt in those times, and the small power which the Babylonian had in respect of his Neighbour the mighty King of Assyria, who then laid claim to judah; the accomplishment of this Prediction or Prophecy was in all politic esteem or humane conjecture more improbable and more incredible, than if a man in this Age should take upon him to foretell that the Duke of Saxony, or some other Prince of Germany, should conquer the Low-Countries, France and Spain, and lead all the Royal Race of both those Kingdom's Captives unto Dresden, or to some other Princely Court of Germany within these hundred years next following. He that should foretell thus much at this present, would be recounted a true Prophet or Messenger from God in the ages following, by such as lived to see the event or prediction fulfilled or verified. Now there was not one part or circumstance of the former Prophecy, but was notoriously and remarkably accomplished 
Mem. 2 Branch 1.  in jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and their Children, both of them being sons to good King josiah, both of them being confederates with the King of Egypt, whose joined strength could not resist the greatness whereto the Kingdom of Babylon within three or four descents was grown: For Nabuchadnezzar had made himself Lord of jewry, of Egypt, and the Empire of Assyria, The same Prophet (which is more remarkable and more admirable) about the same time foretells the sudden desolation of the Babylonian Empire, before it was grown to half its height or greatness, and names the Party which was to accomplish the work of the Lord, more than an hundred years before he was borne. Isai. 45. vers. 6, 7.  
29. The accomplishment of this Prophecy by Cyrus, the Lord would have aswell the Gentile as the jew to take special notice of, as an impregnable argument, or irrefragable testimony of his power, in raising up Cyrus to take vengeance on the Babylonians in the height of their pride, for the wrongs which they had done to judah his Sanctuary: an impregnable argument likewise of his exceeding mercy and loving kindness towards his people, whom Cyrus, after he had conquered Babylon, did set at liberty, and gave them Licence to re-edify the City and the Temple. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue Nations before him: and I will lose the loins of Kings to open before him the twoleaved Gates, and the Gates shall not be shut. etc. to verse.  
17. The manner of Cyrus his sudden surprising Babylon in that night, wherein they celebrated the Feast of their Idol Bell, is recorded at large by two heathen Writers, Herodotus and Xenophon, as long after this Prophecy was fulfilled, as the prediction was before it. Their Relations of it are so plain and constant unto the predictions of Isay and jeremy, and specially to the Relation which the Prophet Daniel hath made (who was in Babylon when Cyrus took it) that the incrediblest Gentiles of that age were inexcusable. Now the reason why the Lord seeks to win credit to his Prophet in these his strange predictions of alterations in States and Kingdoms, was that neither jew nor Gentile should have any pretence to distrust the same Prophets more admirable predictions concerning the Messias which was to come; in which predictions this Pophet above others, is so plain and so plentiful, that he was enstiled by the Ancient Fathers, the evangelical Prophet.  
30. 
Of the literal and mystical sense of Prophecies.  here I must request you to observe, what I must often inculcate or repeat unto you hereafter, That the Spirit of God did from the beginning, use a peculiar kind of foreshowing all events which properly concerned the promised Messias, either in his birth, conception, baptism, or principal actions in his death and passion, or in his resurrection and ascension. The alterations of States or Kingdoms were for the most part fore-signified, or declared beforehand, only by mere words, by mere Prophecy or prediction. But such things or events as concerned our Saviour Christ, were fore-signified as well by deed and fact, as by word; as well by real representations, as by mere Prophecy or predictions. From this twofold fore-signification of things to come, which concern the Messias, the Ancients have rightly observed 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  two senses of Scripture, the literal and the mystical. The literal sense is that, which the words upon their first uttering or writing (whether in terms proper or borrowed) directly and immediately import, without interposition of real event, or representation of the mystery foretold, by matter of fact. So that the branches of the literal sense, taken according to its full latitude, (as it is oposed to the mystical or merely typical sense) may be as many as there be tropes or figures of speech, whether Rhetorical or Poetical, besides the proper plain Grammatical or Historical expression of things to come. The mystical sense or meaning is that, which is portended by some deed or fact, as by some Legal type instituted by Moses, or by some real event which the sacred Historians or other faithful Writers according to their predictions relate. For Heathen Historians ofttimes make historical Relations of the events which the Prophet's foretell. And the events so related & foretold, become real Prophecies of other like events to come, as Isayes' predictions concerning Cyrus, and Zacharias predictions concerning Alexander's victories (being both accomplished diverse hundred years before Christ was incarnate) did mystically fore-shaddow such events as the Evangelists have historically related concerning Christ and the success of his Gospel. Whether the allegorical sense be a branch of the literal, or of the mystical; or whether sometimes of the one, and sometimes of the other, and sometimes of both, (according as the nature of the Allegory is) or whether sure Arguments for confirming our faith may be drawn aswell from the allegorical, as from the plain literal and mystical sense, are points elsewhere discussed. It shall suffice here to admonish you, that our belief (especially as it concerns the mystical sense of Scriptures) must be always grounded on the intention and meaning of the holy Ghost, or of God speaking in Scriptures, not on the Prophet's present apprehensions of what he speaks, unto whom perhaps part of the holy Ghosts intention was revealed: the rest being wrapped up and hidden, until the event or signs of time which it concerned, did more fully unfold it. The mystical and literal sense ofttimes concur; sometimes so, as the same words may be univocally verified of the type, and of the mystery portended by it. As for example, in the 12. of Exodus, vers. 26. not a bone of it shall be broken: This was literally meant of the Paschall Lamb, which these words immediately and directly point at; for this was the Law of the Paschall Lamb, that not a bone of it shall be broken. And all Laws are to be conceived and interpreted according to the plain literal and Grammatical sense of the words. But inasmuch as the Paschall Lamb itself was a real type or shadow of the Lamb of God, which was to take away the sins of the world by his bloody death upon the Cross, the selfsame words which were literally and historically verified of the Paschall Lamb, were as truly and more exactly fulfilled of Christ, according to their mystical (and yet univocal) sense. And the fulfilling of this mystery was the cause (as I doubt not but you all know) why our Saviour's bones were not broken upon the Cross, when the bones of the other two which were crucified with him, were broken. 
Mem. 2. Branch. 1.  GOD in his wisdom had prevented all occasion of breaking his bones by hastening his death, before the other died which were crucified with him. Sometimes the same words may be verified of the type and of the body, not according to their univocal sense or importance, but aequivocally, or analogically; properly verified of the body, & catachrestically of the type. As for instance, these words; I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son, are truly meant both of Solomon and of Christ, but not secundùm univocam rationem. The title of the Son of God, as it is communicated unto Solomon with Christ, differs as much as [homo, and homo pictus,] as a man, and a painted man. Some events there are concerning our Saviour or his actions, which were not at all foretold by express word of Prophecy, but only foreshaddowed by deed or fact, or by some real type or representation; at the least they are not literally foretold in the same places in which they are really foreshaddowed. Thus was his death upon the Cross really represented by lifting up the brazen Serpent in the wilderness, yet not literally foretold by Moses; so was his imprisonment or abode in the grave really foreshaddowed by jonas imprisoned in the Whale's belly, but jonas did not express thus much by word or Prophecy. But of these & the like types we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Of all the testimonies or fore-significations of Christ, or him crucified, those testimonies wherein is a concurrence of fore-significations aswell by fact as by word, are the most pregnant, and most concludent against the jews; and therefore the furest grounds of our belief in Christ. Of the particular manner how Arguments for confirming our faith are to be drawn from this kind of testimony especially, God willing, hereafter. Whether, of these or other Testimonies concerning Christ (but of these especially) the belief or knowledge of the faithful hath been or may be either confused and indefinite, or explicit and distinct.  
31. The first prediction which God revealed unto man, was concerning the forbidden fruit; In that day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt dye. This prediction our first Parents did not believe, until woeful experience had sealed the truth of it unto their and our irrecoverable loss, for any thing that they knew or could do. But the truth of the Divine prediction in threatening evil, being fully experienced & ratified by their loss, was by God's Providence, wisdom, and mercy, an especial inducement unto them for establishing their faith unto his prediction concerning the woman's seed, which was to bruise the Serpent's head. I will put 
* The word enmity here used, is not a term aequivocal: & yet the thing signified by it, is not univocally the same, as it respects the natural serpent & the natural man, and the woman's seed and the old Serpent; but the same by Analogy only or proportion.  enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen. 3. ver. 15. In this prediction, there is a concurrence of the literal and mystical sense. A true enmity between the seed of the natural Serpent, and the natural seed of the woman: Howbeit this enmity is but a type o● Emblem of that supernatural enmity which the spiritual Serpent beareth unto the seed of the woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
This was the original and fountain of all ensuing Prophecies or predictions concerning Christ, and yet even this prediction itself, as most other Prophecies, was in respect of the particular manner or circumstances, which were to accompany the fulfilling of it, 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  a kind of riddle, until the event or other declarations of Prophecies upon it, and facts answerable unto them did unfold it. Our mother Eva (no doubt) did in the general believe, that as by man death came into the world, so the deliverance from death should come by man, which was to be borne of a woman; but whether she did in particular believe, that this man or seed of the woman, which was to deliver her and her Husband from the curse of death, should be borne of a Virgin, or of a woman without the consort of man, is more than the Analogy of faith or Christian Charity binds us to believe of her. Their opinion is very probable, who think, she mistook Cain her first borne, to be the promised seed, and that out of this too joyful apprehension, she uttered these words, I have gotten or possessed a man of the Lord. So the most 
Gen. 4. v. ●  translations read it: but as the authors of this opinion which I now recite, translate, I have possessed a man, even the Lord; to wit, the Lord, which she expected should redeem them. I know this Interpretation is rejected by Caluiu and Mercer, two most judicious Interpreters of the true literal meaning of Scripture, the latter especially, a most exquisite Hebrician. But to countervail their authority, the same Interpretation is well approved by 
a Diversae buic lectioni occasionem dedit vocula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae aequivoca est ad omnia praememorata signifi cata. Et quia quisque suo abundat sensu, abundado ego quoque et meo, simplicissimè accipiendo dictiunculam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ut si● nota articuli simulatque demonstrationis, ip●●ssimam rei substantiam, cui iungitur, denotans, boc sensu; Possedi siu● acquisivi virum, nymph ipsum Adonai, q. d. acquisivi illum ipsum virum, qui est Adonai, ●d est, Deus sive Dominus, quem sc●licet pollicitus est mihi Dominus, cum dixit, Semen tuu con●eret caput Serpentis. Quia enim Eua credidit promissioni de semine mulieris, sine dubio existimavit hunc illud esse semen, per quod caput Serpentis conculcandum. Paul. Fag. in 4. cap. Genes.  Paulus Fagius, who, for aught I can perceive, was amongst Christian Writers, the first Author of it; for whose authority and excellent skill in the Hebrew tongue and jewish antiquities, as I will not peremptorily avouch it, so I dare not reject it. The Authors of this opinion concerning our Mother Euahs' mistaking her first borne son for the promised seed, have attributed the like error, though not altogether so gross, unto Lamech the Father of Noah. Lamech had as true a prenotion or steadfast belief in this general as Euah had, that mankind should be comforted concerning their labours, that they should be freed from the curse which the first man had brought upon the earth, upon himself, and his posterity, and that this freedom or comfort should be brought unto them by man, by one that was borne of a woman. And yet out of his over-reioycing at the birth of the first son which God had sent him, he did (as these Authors think) misapply his general prenotion or belief concerning the promised seed, to his new and first borne son. Lamech (saith Moses, Gen. 5. v. 28.) lived 182. years: and begat a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which the Lord had cursed. But to wave this question: [Whether Lamech did imagine this his son to be him that was to come, or whether besides him he looked for another,] it is questionless, that he uttered this speech by the spirit of Prophecy, and as the speech itself was verified or fulfilled of Noah, according to its plain Grammatical literal sense, so it was exactly fulfilled or accomplished in Christ, according to the full importance of its mystical sense, that is, Christ and his office was as truly and really foreshadowed by Noah himself, or by his office, qualification, 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  or actions, as Noah's office or qualifications were literally foretell or prophesied of in this speech of Lamech: Noah after the Flood offered a Sacrifice unto the Lord, and the Lord smelled a sweet savour, or a savour of rest, and upon this Sacrifice engaged himself by promise, not to curse the ground again for man's sake. Genes. 8. vers. 21. Here you see Lamechs' Prophecy literally verified in Noah: howbeit the Sacrifice of Noah was but a smoky shadow of that real and substantial Sacrifice which was offered by the Son of GOD unto his Father 
* Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to GOD for a sweet smelling savour, Ephes. 5. ver 2. . The comfort which Noah afforded unto the World concerning the work and toil of their hands, or the ground which the Lord had cursed, was but a slight surface or liveless picture of that glorious blessing of life, which Christ, having freed us from Adam's curse, hath by his death bequeathed unto us. I heard a voice from hence, saying unto me, Blessed are the dead which die in the LORD, from henceforth yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Revel. 14. 13. Again, Noah was a Preacher of righteousness, Christ was more, etc. Noah built an Ark, into which whosoever entered not, did perish, into which likewise, whosoever did enter, were saved from the Deluge; so did Christ build one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, without which none can be saved; in which whosoever is found, shall be undoubtedly saved from those everlasting flames wherewith the World shall be destroyed.  
32. So then our belief that Christ the Son of Mary was the promised Seed which was to come, and that he was in part prefigured by Noah, may be rightly grounded on the divine prediction or Prophecy uttered by Lamech; it cannot be safely grounded on Lamechs' apprehension or application of this prediction. Herein perhaps he might err, and so might the best of God's Prophets err in the particular determination of time, wherein their Prophecies were to be fulfilled, or in their applications of them to the persons in whom they might conjecture they should be fulfilled. Nor is error in particulars of this nature (so long as men steadfastly believe the general) altogether so dangerous as some men think it, unless it be accompanied with wilfulness or obstinacy: for that is it which turns errors into Heresies. Abraham himself, after his belief in God's promises concerning the promised Seed, was imputed unto him for righteousness; did commit a greater error in misapplication of that very promise, whose belief was imputed unto him for righteousness, than Euah or Lamech did in misapplying Gods promise concerning the Woman's Seed unto their Firstborn; if happily they did so misapply it. For Abraham by Sarahs' persuasion, thought God's promise or prediction concerning his Seed, should be fulfilled in the seed or offspring of Hagar, Sarahs' handmaid; and continued in this persuasion, until the Lord rectified it, and set his belief aright by express promise of Isaac's strange and miraculous birth. And the event answering to this promise or prediction, was a real fore-signification or prefiguration of the more strange and more miraculous birth of our Saviour. So likewise was the strange birth and conception of Samson, of Samuel, and of john Baptist: for God in his wisdom did dispense 
Mem. 2. Branch 1  these miraculous blessings of fruitfulness upon Woman, by natural disposition of body or of age altogether barren, that they might serve as inducements for establishing the belief of posterity, concerning the most miraculous conception of the woman's Seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which had been promised from the beginning. And albeit an Angel from Heaven might in reason, (at least with better reason than any mortal man can pretend) exact belief unto his solemn message or predictions, without further proof or experiment; yet the Angel Gabriel himself, the great Ambassador of the blessed Annunciation, would have the blessed Virgin to ground her belief, not only upon his sole prediction, but withal upon the fresh and real experiment of her Cousin Elizabeth's strange conception of a son in her old age. For after the delivery of his message, and his rejoinder to her modest reply, How shall this be, seeing I know not man? He finally concludes the Dialogue on his part, Behold, thy Cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren; for with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1. 36, 37. Nor did the blessed Virgin refuse to make trial of the sign which he had given her: for immediately after the Angel's departure from her, she repaired unto her Cousin Elizabeth, (as the Text saith) in haste, where she found the Angel's prediction fully ratified by the event or fact. For, upon the first salutation of Elizabeth, the Child (whose conception the Angel told her of) did spring for joy in Elizabeth's womb; and for a pledge or token that she had conceived by power and virtue of the Holy Ghost, her Cousin Elizabeth, upon her salutation, was filled with the Holy Ghost in her heart, and out of the abundance of her heart thus filled, her mouth did speak and utter that prophetical salutation which the Angel had used unto her, with a loud voice; Blessed art thou amongst Women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, verse. 42. And by this spirit of prophecy, Elizabeth did then know that that blessed Virgin had conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that then the Child conceived by her, should be her Lord and Redeemer: the blessed Virgin again, upon fresh experiments of these facts fully answerable to the Angel's prediction, was filled with the Holy Ghost, and the spirit of prophecy, by which she uttered that excellent saying, My soul doth magnify the Lord, etc.  
Now the very Embassage of the Angel Gabricl was really foreshaddowed or prefigured by the sending of Esaiah the Prophet unto Ahas the King of judah, whereof we read Esay the 7. vers. 3. The tenor of the Angel's message unto the blessed Virgin was literally and expressly foretell by the Prophet unto Ahas, vers. 14. Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emanuel. Howbeit even in this Prophecy or testimony of our Saviour's birth and conception, there was an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, a full concurrence of Prophecy and Type, an express prediction or foretelling of what should afterwards come to pass, and a real ouershaddowing or representation of what afterwards did come to pass by matter of present fact or deed; that is, this Prophecy was truly verified in the Prophet's time, according 
Mem. 2. Branch. 1.  to its literal or historical sense; and yet again exactly and exquisitely fulfilled, according to the literal and mystical sense, in our Saviour's birth and conception. The signs of both times, concerning the estate of judah, were in proportion the same. But the particular and full explication of this Prophecy will come more fitly to be discussed hereafter.  
33. For conclusion of the first general point proposed, I would request you to note, that of such fore-significations concerning our Saviour Christ's conception, his birth, his baptism, his death, his passion, as consist in matter of fact or type, some are direct, others are indirect, and signify by contraries. As for example; The first Woman was made of Adam by God's immediate hand, not begotten by man, and being thus made, she was an inverted type or shadow, that the second Adam, who was to bruise the Serpent's head, was to be made of a Woman by the immediate hand of GOD, not begotten by man. Thus much was expressly foretell by the Prophet jeremy, chap. 31. v. 22. Behold, I create a new thing in the Land, the female shall compass or enclose a man, or the female shall enclose Gever. But of this point you may be satisfied, if it please you, elsewhere more at large. I only instance in this particular for this time, to give you notice that some things may be really foreshaddowed, as well by contraries or inversion of the circumstances, as by direct types or suitable representations. Whether it be this way or that way foreshaddowed, the case is all one, as it was with that picture-maker, who being requested to paint a man and an horse overthrown in battle, painted an horse in a full career with a man on his back; and being challenged for not making such a picture, as he was requested to do, he willed the party to turn the upside of the Table downwards, and he had as fair and exact a picture of an horse & a man overthrown, as he could make him. Of this kind of types was the brazen Serpent; it could not be any direct type of CHRIST, albeit the lifting up of a brazen Serpent, was a real type or representation of our Saviour's future exaltation upon the Crosse. And so was Hezekiahs' demolishing of the brazen Serpent, a real prophecy or representation of our Saviour's bruising the old Serpent's head, or rather of his utter destruction of his Kingdom, which shall be accomplished at the last day. But the full explication of this type, we must defer until we come to unfold the mysteries of jesus Christ, and him crucified. Let this suffice at this time for the first general point, to wit, how our faith in jesus Christ is to be grounded or confirmed: wherein hath been showed, first, That all belief must be grounded on the Word of GOD. Secondly, That we believe these Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of GOD, because they contain as well such predictions or Prophecies, as real prefigurations or types of Christ and 
The Scripture is the only infallible Rule, by which the ●●ue Church can be c●sce●ned.  his Kingdom, as none but the only wise immortal God could fore-shaddow.  
34. The use of this Doctrine hitherto delivered, is the same which shall be the end of all my meditations upon this portion of Scripture. The points which I specially aimed at in the choice of it, were 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  these: first, to breed or beget a full persuasion in you, that these Books of the Old and New Testament are sufficient in themselves to make you wise unto salvation; that the truth of mysteries contained in them, may be sufficiently manifested by their own light, without the infallible proposal or authority of any visible Church on earth to give them lustre, or make them visible. Their light is of itself sufficient to enable you to discern all truth's expedient for your salvation; and amongst other truths, to discern which of all the visible Churches upon earth is the true Church of God. And this they sufficiently teach, without any such notes or properties as the Romish Church would obtrude upon you. If in the Writings of our own friends, I mean, the Pastors or Teachers of reformed Churches, you light upon some notes of the true Church, as preaching of the Word, and administration the of Sacraments, you must conceive their meaning to be no more but this, That 
Verbi praedicatio & Sacramentorum administratio non tam sunt notae quibus distingui potest Orthodox a Ecclesia ab baeretica, quam formalis ratio se● differ entia constitutiva Ecclesiae visibil●s.  these two conspicuous and visible notes are essentially and necessarily required to the constitution of a visible Church. They are not, they cannot be any infallible notes for discerning which visible Church is true, which false, which heretical, which orthodoxal: no more than to have public meetings, or a form of government established by Law or Charter, can be a true note for discerning which is the best or ancientest Corporation in this Kingdom. Now, to have public meetings, or a form of government established by Law or Charter, can be no note or difference for distinguishing one. Corporation from another, because without these, no assembly of men, how great soever, can be truly termed a Corporation. And that wherein all agree, can be no note whereby to difference or distinguish one from another, or to determine which is the best, which is the worst. Wherefore if the question were, Which is the best or ancientest Corporation in this Kingdom? This question could not otherwise be resolved, than by inspection of their several Laws or Charters. Or, in case their Charters were the same, that Corporation would be the best, which did rightliest use, practice, or enjoy the benefits or privileges of the same, or like Charter, or which did live as well in public as in private, in best conformity to their Laws. Now, every visible Church is a Society or Corporation Ecclesiastic: And no assembly or multitude of men, how great soever, albeit they privately profess the same faith, can truly be said to make one visible Society or Corporation Ecclesiastic, unless they have their public meetings to hear the Word of GOD preached or read unto them, unless at such meetings they join together in public prayer and administration of the Sacraments. Whence if the question be, Of all such Assemblies, Corporations, or Societies Ecclesiastic, as join together in hearing the Word preached, in common Prayers, in administration of the Sacraments, that is, Of all visible Churches which is the true Church of God: There can be no other possible satisfactory answer than this, That is the true Church of God or orthodoxal visible Church, whose Doctrine, Prayers, and manner of administering Sacraments, is most conformable and agreeable to the fundamental Charter, which Charter is contained in 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  the Books of the Old and new Testament. So that all other points, all marks and notes, how many soever our Adversaries make, must be examined and tried by this Rule. Amongst other marks of the Church, they make the gift of miracles to be one.  
35. Concerning miracles I have not much to say, being loath to put my sickle into another man's harvest, from whom I hope you shall reap full satisfaction. Only this caveat I would commend unto you, which heretofore I have published, That although it be granted, that the Devil by his own power can work no true miracle, that is, nothing that shall be above the force or power of nature, or contrary to it; or it being granted likewise, that God doth never lend the use of his omnipotent power unto Satan his angels or ministers, to work any true miracle thereby to try the faith of Christians: yet all this being granted in general, if we descend unto particular wonders, we must have as great skill in the force and power of nature, how far it may extend, as Satan hath; We must be as cunning in discovering his slights, jugglings, or delusions, as he is in juggling or deluding, before we can be secure, that he cannot put one of the two juggling tricks upon us. As first, that he cannot make us believe those wonders which we see effected to exceed the force or power of natural causes, when as in truth & in deed they do not: or that he cannot make us believe, that such wonders or miracles, as indeed exceed the force of nature, to be wrought by him or his Instruments; when as they are wrought by God himself, for some other special end or purpose, or for some other use than he or his Instruments could refer them unto. The hailstones mentioned joshuah 10. vers. 11. were, aswell for their magnitude, as for the manner of their falling upon the five Kings of the Amorites, truly miraculous, and sure ratifications of Ioshuah's and his followers belief: Yet whether Satan, permitted by God [applicare activa passivis,] to make choice of his own Agents or Instruments, be not able so far to improve the strength of natural causes, or so combine them, that they should produce as great hailstones as those were, is more than any sober Philosopher will take upon him to define. However, the production of the like or greater tempest than this was, is not enough to persuade this or that point of controversed doctrine. For suppose some poor Amoritish Widow, pitifully oppressed by one or more of these five Tyrants, had out of the bitterness of her soul, about this time, presented her complaints to Nemesis at Rhamnus, a place wherein the power of this revengeful Lady was, in the conceit of the heathen, usually manifested, in as remarkable and peculiar sort, as the virtue of our Lady (in the opinion of the Romish Catholics) is at Hall or L●retto, in respect of other places. Imagine again, those hailstones had fall'n upon the five Kings upon the poor Widow's return into Canaan from Rhamnus, how easily might the suppliant have been persuaded by Satan, that this great miracle had been effected for her sake, and by the power of the imaginary Goddess Nemesis, whom she served? It was not then this miraculous storm, but the consonancy of its miraculous effect, unto God's promise or prediction made to joshuah; (to wit, the manifest execution of that GOD'S 
Mem. 2. Branch. 1  sentence whom joshuah worshipped, (maugre all the Gods, whose aid these Kings of the Amorites had supplicated against Israel) which was to confirm the faith of the Israelites unto God's promises. For the Lord had said unto joshuah, (when the Gibeonites supplicated his assistance against the Kings of the Amorites that dwelled in the mountains) Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. joshuah, upon this request of the Gibeonites, warranted by God, came unto them suddenly, and went up to Gilgal all night. And as the Lord had promised, so it came to pass: for the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way, that goeth up to Bethoron, and smote them unto Azekah, and unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more, which died with hailstones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. josh. 10. v. 8, 9, 10, & 11.  
36. For conclusion, the greatest wonderment or miracle, that in this age can be wrought, must be tried by this only touchstone of faith, Gods written Word, whether it proceed from God and his messengers, or from Satan and his Instruments. Now seeing the Scriptures or Rule of faith, hath manifested unto us, wherein the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of Satan or Antichrist do consist, the point, whereon every miracle or wonderment must be examined is this, Whether it tend to the establishment of the Kingdom of God or of Christ in our souls, or to the erection or propogation of the Kingdom of Antichrist through this world.  
Suppose some man or woman amongst us were really possessed of a whole legion of Devils, & that some Turkish, jewish, Muscovitish, Greek, or Romish Priest should take upon him by exorcism to make all the Devils go out of the Parties body possessed, one after another, in as visible and conspicuous manner, as he could drive bees out of their hive through a quill or pen, and cause every one of them to tell you his name, or what place he holds in Hell; yet the true use of such miracle or wonderment could be no other, than to resolve you, that there may be a real possession of some bodies in this age, and a real dispossession of these Devils, which had taken possession of it. But if the party which had thus really dispossessed them, should upon this wonderment exhort or require you to believe, that that visible Church whereof he is a Priest or member, is the only true Church of God, whose proposals or doctrines you are absolutely bound to believe, without further examination or trial of them by the written Word of God, the rule of faith; this were a true & infallible argument, that the wonder was wrought by the power and slight of Satan, not by the virtue and power of God, or of Christ's true messengers. For if we duly consider, what advantage or possession Satan might by this means gain over our souls; if any Devil in hell would be so proud, so obstinate, or wilful, as to refuse to obey any Priest, jew, or Turk, that would adjure him to depart upon these conditions out of any man's body 
Mem. 2. Branch 1.  which he did possess: reason & common sense might instruct us, that Beelzebub the Prince of Devils, & his assistants would use all the power they could, to vex or torment such a wilful Devil, as an Apostata, a Rebel or Traitor, that would not advance their kingdom when he might. Wherefore, if any Priest or other, shall at any time tempt you to admit of the infallibility of the Romish Church, or to believe in all points as that Church believeth, only upon fame or sight of such a wonder wrought by one of her children; ye stand bound in conscience, and upon the allegiance which you owe to Christ, to crave respite until you can inform your consciences, whether the acknowledgement of such absolute infallibility, as the modern Priests and Jesuits ascribe unto the modern Romish Church, or the submission of your belief unto all her doctrines, (especially to this) be not a flat Apostasy from Christ unto Satan, and a true acknowledgement of his Sovereignty made unto the Church of Rome, as to his proxy or deputy for this purpose. Again, if any Priest should work such a wonder as hath been mentioned, by such exorcism as they use, as by applying the consecrated Host, (as they call it,) their crucifixes or holy-water unto the party affected, or by examining the Devils by oath upon the Sacrament; you are bound in conscience likewise to crave respite to be resolved, whether these or the like solemnities or ceremonies as they have used of late in this Land, be not magical sacrifices, true and proper feats of witchery and sorcery. These are points wherein no exorcist, no Romish Priest or jesuit this day living in this Land, can give any ingenious understanding man any tolerable satisfaction. The former point, concerning the infallibility of the Romish Church, is elsewhere handled at large, and I shall be willing to acknowledge myself a thankful debtor unto any Priest or jesuit, or other well-willer of the present Romish Church, that shall give me occasion or ground of reason to think better of their Religion in this point, than hitherto I have thought, or can persuade myself to think. And better then flat Apostafie from Christ I never thought it, since I was able to read the Trent Council, Bellarmine, Valentian, or other defendants of the Pope's absolute and plenary power. My soul shall bless him, whether Protestant or Papist, that shall convince my understanding, there can be any more pestiferous foundation laid for the erection of Antichrists Kingdom, than the Jesuits and Canonists have laid, by making the present Pope the virtual Church; or the visible Church of Rome, the sole Catholic Church, unto which God in his Word hath promised the infallible assistance of his Spirit. As for the latter point, that their exorcisms are but enchantments or feats of sorcery, it hath been laid unto their charge by some of good place, and greater worth in the Church of England, who are able enough to prove their Allegations, so their Adversaries would be willing to make their defence, or submit themselves to any lawful trial.   

The second Branch of the second Member, proposed 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  in the former Treatise, Parag. 24. Containing an explication of the particular Prophecies, on which john Baptists faith was grounded, as also of the signs of the time, by which it was confirmed, before he sent his message unto our Saviour.  
§37. AMongst other things before delivered, this was one which I must request you to call to mind, That there may be a true prenotion or steadfast belief of some promise or prediction concerning Christ, and yet the parties which do no ways distrust the indefinite truth or 
Of the prenotions which john or the pharisees had concerning the time or manner of Christ's coming or manifestation: and of the Interrogatories propounded to john by the Priests and Jesuits.  fulfilling of such predictions or prefigurations, might ofttimes err in the application of them to some party, or in some other circumstance, until the event itself did teach them rightly how to apply. Every error presupposeth some branch of Ignorance; but Ignorance doth not always include error. Whence it will follow, that if the best of God's Saints might err in partculars concerning themselves as Abraham did, there is no question but they and others might be ignorant of many particulars which became manifest to posterity. Thus the pharisees or the Priests & Levites, which were sent from jerusalem to question john Baptist, had a true prenotion or belief in general, that God in latter ages would raise up an extraordinary Prophet like unto Moses. But whether this extraordinary Prophet should be the Christ or Messias himself, or rather his forerunner, his attendant or companion, they were ignorant. They had again a true prenotion or belief in general, that God would send a solemn Messenger to prepare the ways of the Lord or the Messias whom they did seek: but whether this Messenger should be Elias the Prophet, the same individual person which was taken up in a fiery Chariot into heaven, or some other in power and efficacy of spirit, in zeal to God's true worship and Religion like unto him, they were ignorant. And to have been merely ignorant had been no fault, or at least no dangerous fault: but this their ignorance declined to error and stiff presumption, that this Messenger foretold Malachy 3. vers. 1. should be Eliah the Tishbite himself. They had a true prenotion or belief in general, that the Messias his coming into the world, or manifestation to it, should be solemnised with some extraordinary Rite or Ceremony to be performed by water; as by washing or baptising: but whether this solemnity of baptising or washing should be performed by the Messias himself, or by Elias, whom they looked should be his messenger, or by the Prophet like to Moses, (who as they expected, should be a person distinct from Christ;) In all these points they were ignorant, at least doubtful. Howbeit their prenotion of this indefinite or general truth did most incline unto the first point, to wit, that this solemnity of baptising should be performed by the Christ or Messias himself. Thus much may probably be gathered from john's emphatical denial that he was the Christ 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  or Messias. This is the record of john, when the jews sent Priests and Levites from jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not: but confessed, I am not the Christ. joh. 1. v. 19, 20. Thus much he confessed voluntarily, as may be gathered from Saint Luke: And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of john, whether he were the Christ or not: john answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptise you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose Shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptise you with the holy Ghost, and with fire. Luke 3. vers. 15, 16. This voluntary acknowledgement of his, was in effect to deny that he was the Christ: but what he here intimates by way of denial, or prevention of the people that doubted whether he were the Christ or no, he plainly expresseth, being solemnly and formally asked the same Question by the Priests and Levites, which the people tacitly made; I am not the Christ. 
* joh. 1. 20.  Now, his answer to this first interrogatory, being so full and plain; they frame a second, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. And not satisfied with this answer, they press him with a third, Art thou the Prophet? And he answered, No. And he had good reason to answer negatively to this third Interrogatory, because he had answered negatively to the first: for that Prophet which Moses foretell the Lord would raise up like unto himself, was to be the Christ, the promised Messias, and no other.  
38. Of the exact proportion and similitude betwixt Moses and Christ, you may read 
* In the 3. Book upon the Creed. §. 3. cap. 11. parag. 7.  elsewhere, or hear more at large hereafter, as occasion shall require. His answer to the second Interrogatory being negative, might well administer matter of new quarrel or dispute unto the captious of those times, and some occasion of scruple unto the curious amongst us: for he seems to deny that, which our Saviour in this very 
* Matt. 11. 9, 10.  Chapter avoucheth of him; But what went ye out for to see? A Prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a Prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my Messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. And again, vers. 13, 14. For all the Prophets, and the Law prophesied until john. And if ye will receive it, this is 
* Mal. 4. 5.  Elias which was for to come. And again, Mark 9 vers. 11, 12, 13. When the Apostles asked him, saying, Why say the Scribes that Elias must first come; (to wit, before the consummation of the hopes of Israel, or their redemption by the Messias) He answered, and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things, and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. But, I say unto you, that Elias indeed is come, and they have done unto him what soever they listed, as it is written of him. This he spoke of john Baptist, after he was beheaded. And what reason had john to deny he was Elias, when he was asked this Question, seeing our Saviour, after his denial, hath twice affirmed it? [Non male respondit, malè enim prior ille rogavit.] The foreman or speaker of the Priests and Levites, did propound this Question amiss, and in such a sense, as john could not answer affirmatively to it. For the meaning of the Interrogatory was, Whether he were that very Elias the Thisbite, which was taken up into 
Mem. 2 Branch 2.  Heaven in the fiery Chariot; and john knew himself not to be this Elias, nor did our Saviour ever affirm that he was this Elias.  
39 But some men happily will reply, That albeit they were mistaken in this particular, to which john did well to give a negative answer; yet john, having so fair an occasion to rectify the error of the Priests and Levites, might have done better, if he had more fully expressed himself, and answered with a distinction, that he was not Elias the Thisbite, but yet that Elias which the Prophet Malachy had foretell the Lord would send, chap. 4. For john could not, in all probability, be ignorant of the Prophet Malachy his meaning, seeing the Angel Gabriel had expressly expounded it to his Father Zachrias, Luke 1. vers. 17. He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the Fathers unto the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the LORD. But this perhaps was more than john had occasion to call to mind. He might be ignorant, without offence, whether Elias himself was not to come after him. For even the best of God's Saints and Prophets (as was observed before,) knew no more of Gods will concerning things to come, than it was his will and pleasure to impart unto them. Each of them knew his Cue, the the signs of the time when he was to begin, and when to end; each had the part, which God had apppointed him to utter or act, perfectly by heart; Each knew the tenor of his own Commission: but none, or few of them, did so well understand another's Commission, until they had seen it sped, or the meaning of it unfolded by the event. Now, although the words of Malachy were literally meant of john Baptist, yet were they a kind of Riddle, until our Saviour did unfold them. And it seemeth by the phrase which our Saviour useth, Matthew 11. vers. 14. that their true meaning was a mystery, which he himself or john only knew, and was to be revealed only to such as were already true Disciples. For the word receive is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a term of art amongst the Hebrews, and imports some such mystery as the jews imagine to be contained in their Cabalistical art. The like force hath the same word in that of the Apostle, 1. Timoth. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
1 Tim. 1. 15.  of all reception or Cabalism. Not that he approves that Art, at least, as since that time it hath been used, but rather, that this was a mystery of greater worth and consequence, than all the mysteries which the Cabalists can imagine to be in their Art contained. The manner of importance or the Apostles speech, is much-what like to that answer of his in the 
a Homer. Iliad. μ.  Poet, who when they sought to terrify him from fight, by the ill-aboding or sinister flying of Birds, made answer;  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  It was the best Augurium or soothsaying, for a man to fight for his Country. 
40. Finally, although Malachy did prophesy of john Baptists coming before Christ in the power and spirit of Elias; yet john Baptist did not receive his instructions from this Prophet, nor had he his Commission for being Christ's forerunner, or his warrant for baptising from Malachy, but from the Prophet 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  Isay. And therefore when the Priests and Levites pressed him further, saying, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the Wilderness, Make strait the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Esaias. This was the peremptory answer which he meant to stand unto. This, and other passages of the same Prophet being joined with the internal testimony of the Spirit, which did interpret their true meaning unto him, was his warrant for doing what he did; for baptising, or for preparing the way of the Lord which was to come. But whether the Lord would send Elias or some other greater messenger than himself, was more than he durst take upon him to resolve the Priests and Levites in, (specially seeing they were of the sect of the pharisees:) and more perhaps than he in his religious modesty or sobriety did question or inquire after. But when the same Priests and Levites did by way of demand or Interrogation seem to upbraid him with arrogancy, in taking more upon him than was befitting him, unless he were either the Christ, or Elias, or the Prophet like to Moses; to some of which so great a work as the administration of baptism did solely belong: he modestly answers [distinguende;] I baptise with water, but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not: He it is, who coming after me, is preferred before me, whose Shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. joh. 1. 26, 27. In which words the Evangelist Saint john doth intimate as much as is expressed by the Evangelist Saint Matthew, to wit, That Christ should baptise them after another manner than john did, that is, with the holy Ghost, and with fire. chap. 3. 11. I will not trouble you, but rather request you not to trouble yourselves with that needless Question (and for the most part as ill stated by such as have most meddled with it, as it is needless) how john's baptism did differ from Christ's baptism, or Whether they were two baptisms altogether distinct.  
41. Thus much you may evidently conceive out of what hath been now delivered. First, that the Priests and Levites (at least the Sect of the pharisees, of which Sect, the Priests and Levites which questioned john concerning his Baptism, were) did not err in their prenotion or belief in general, that the Messias his coming or manifestation to the world, should be solemnised by Baptism, nor did they fail in their conjecture, that the Christ or Messias himself was to baptise: but with what baptism he was to baptise, they were ignorant. Secondly, you may perceive that john Baptist had not only a prenotion, but a distinct belief or knowledge in particular; that as he himself did baptise with water, so the Christ or Messias, whose forerunner he was, should baptise with the holy Ghost and with fire. The only useful or pertinent questions which remain to be resolved or discussed, are but two. The first,  
[1.] Whether the Priests and Levites, or the pharisees had their prenotions or belief in general, [that the Messias his first manifestation to the world, should be solemnised by baptizme] from unwritten traditions of the Ancients only, or whether it were grounded upon the express testimony of Scripture, or the written Word of God. The second, 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.   
[2.] Whether john Baptists firm belief of Christ's baptising with the holy Ghost, and his own baptising with water, were grounded only upon the internal revelations made to him in private, by him that sent him to baptise with water; or whether they were grounded likewise upon express testimonies of the written Word, interpreted and made known unto him by the same spirit by which the Word was written.  
To both these Questions the answer must be affirmative; as well the one's prenotion, as the others distinct belief, were both grounded upon the express testimonies of the written Word. The only search or inquiry then to be made, is upon what express testimony the one or other was grounded, and how our belief may be grounded upon the same testimonies.  
42. I must request you to remember, that God in the Old Testament did fore-shew things to come two ways: either by express testimony or prediction, or by matter of fact or real representation. One and the same future event is oft times declared or fore-signified both ways. Now predictions merely prophetical are of two sorts. Sometimes the Prophets foretell 
Two sorts or branches of the literal sense.  things to come in proper and literal terms, so as every man at the first hearing may understand their meaning. As the Prophet spoke to Ahab, 1. King's chap. 20. vers. 42. Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man, whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. Sometimes they foretell future events of greater consequence, as truly & as certainly, but by way of parable, emblem, or allegory. Now, this kind of prediction, and the types or figures of the Law, or real events, have the same proportion as Poetry and painting. It was wittily said, [Poema est pictura loquens, & pictura est Poema silens,] Every Poem is a kind of speaking picture, and every artificial picture a kind of mute and silent Poem. And so likewise every type or ceremony of the Law, 
* Hence saith our Saviour, Mat. ●. v. 13. That the Law as well as the Prophets prophesied until john.  every historical event portending mysteries evangelical, is a tacit and silent prophecy; and every prophetical parable was a kind of speaking type or picture of the like events. The events foretell or represented by God's Prophets, are always real and substantial, more than moral, more than natural; mysteries truly celestial and supernatural. Howbeit, the representation of such events or mysteries, is oft times merely literal or verbal, but conceived in such terms as suppose a feigned metamorphosis in the works of nature, to make the picture more fresh and lively. And this kind of prophetical expression of things to come, we call the emblematical sense or literal Allegory: so that although every Poet be not a Prophet, yet every Prophet of the Lord was a true Poet; not in feigning events which never were, nor never should be, but in framing pictures of future events in themselves contingent, as exact and fresh, as any Painter can make of the man whom he seeth with his eyes, or whose picture hath been drawn to his hand. Now, if a Painter could make exact pictures of Children which shall not be brought forth till the next year following; we would say he wrought by inspiration of his spirit, in whose books all their members are written, or that 
Mem. 2 Branch 2.  his pencil was guided by his hand, who found out the birth of man.  
43. The Prophecies in special concerning the manifestation 
Most of Jsaiabs' Prophecies concerning john's baptism or our Saviour's manifestation were emblematical.  of the Messias, and john's office or attendance, are for the most part conceived in terms not proper, but parabolical or Emblematical, that is, consisting of literal or verbal Allegories. Howbeit some of these Prophecies, perhaps some passages in all of them, point out future events in literal proper and historical terms. And of events thus literally and punctually fore-shewed, some came not to pass until the Messias was revealed: Others were historically verified long before; yet so, as the events which then happened, were by God's institution true types or shadows of mysteries revealed in the Gospel, or to be revealed during the time of grace. So that one and the same Prophecy, is sometimes or in respect of some part of its total object, fulfilled according to the plain literal sense: sometimes, or in respect of other parts of its object, it is fulfilled according to the literal Allegory: sometimes, or in some respect, it is fulfilled according to the mystical sense or real Allegory. Amongst other sacred passages, which, by the confession of the Ancient and modern malignant jew, have special reference to the days of their Messias his revelation, these following are more remarkable, Isay, cap. 35. & cap. 40. of which hereafter. And again; I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar, the Shittah tree, and the Myrtle, and the Oil tree: I will set in the desert the Fir tree, and the Pine and Box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy one of Israel hath created it. Isaiah 41. vers. 18, 19, 20. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the Field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the Desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people (the seed of Abraham according to promise) have I form for myself, they shall show forth my praise. But thou hast not called upon me, O jacob: but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. That is, the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, or such as gloried in their carnal prerogatives of their birth or progeny. Isaiah 43, vers. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Go ye forth of Babylon: flee ye from the Chaldeans with a voice of singing: declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say ye; The Lord hath redeemed his servant jacob. 
* The Prophet emphatically implies that the miracle which God had wrought for his people in the wilderness after their deliverance out of Egypt, should be reiterated or eminently accomplished upon their return from Chaldea. He foresaw, as jeremy did, that this second deliverance should be more glorious than the former. Vide jer. 23. vers. 27.  And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the Rock also, and the waters gushed out. Isaiah 48. vers. 20, 21. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the Field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the Fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the Myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 55. ver. 12, 13.  
44. From these & the like particulars in this Prophet, we may observe this general; That in all or most places, wherein the manifestation of the Messias, or propagation of his Kingdom is mentioned, there is still foretold some strange miracle or wonder to be wrought in the desert, and in particular the bursting out of waters. The question is, in what sense these and like places have been fulfilled, or whether the predictions were plainly literal, or rather by way of Parable or Allegory. Whatsoever may be said or thought of some of these predictions, certain it is, that others of them were never verified or fulfilled according to the literal, plain or natural sense of the words, either before or about our Saviour's manifestation in the wilderness. That is as much as to say, The mysteries here truly foretold upon john's baptism, were not foreshaddowed or prefigured by matter of deed or fact, or by any such real representation as these words properly imply; or by any natural or visible alteration of the soil or trees in the wilderness. Only the manner of the Prophecy or prediction is Emblematical or Allegorical, that is, the mysteries here foretell, were such in respect of men's souls, bodies, or affections, as these alterations in the soil or trees of the wilderness (if they had literally fall'n out) might have been true shadows or pictures of them. To begin with that place whence john's Commission took his beginning. Isaiah 40. vers. 3, 4. The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make strait in the desert a high way for our God. Every Valley shall be exalted, and every Mountain and Hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. We are not hence to believe, as some later jews foolishly dream, that all the Hills in the wilderness or place where the Messias was to be manifested, were to be leveled with the Valleys or lower ground; or that all the highways for men to come unto him, should be made as plain & smooth as a bowling-Alley or Garden walk. The intent or purport of the Prophet was, that this Crier in the wilderness was so to prepare the hearts, the affections, and dispositions of men's minds, that they should not be offended in Christ or the Messias, when he should be revealed; that they should remove all stumbling blocks of pride, arrogancy, covetousness, perverseness, hypocrisy, or the like, which did hinder them from coming unto him with all their souls and all their hearts. So when it is said, The Lord would turn the thorn into the Fir tree, or the briar into the Myrtle tree in the wilderness; we must not imagine such a real or corporeal transmutation upon our Saviour's approach. For if this Metamorphosis had been made, john should not have been a Crier in the wilderness, but in the garden. What then do the words according to the Prophet's natural meaning and intention import? As true, as real, and strange an alteration in men's souls and affections, which thus hearkened to the Criers voice, as the supposed change of the thorn into the Fir tree, or the briar into the Myrtle tree, or the change of the wilderness itself 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  into a garden (if that had been really and miraculously wrought) could have fore-pictured or foreshaddowed. The Metap●●● or A●●gory is no other than that of the same Prophet, Isaiah, 5. vers. 7. The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of judah his pleasant Plant: and he looked for 
The Prophet in the fist verse had allegorically pictured oppression by the wild grape, and righteousness by the useful fruit of the true vine.  judgement but behold oppression, for righteousness but beheld a cry. Tha● this is the intent and meaning of Isaiahs' poetical manner of prediction or figurative kind of speech on the forecited places, may be gathered from john Baptist himself, whose Interpretation of them in this place is li●erall, though his speech be metaphorical and suitable to the former Allegory. For the tenor of his proclamation or crying in the wilderness was, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Now Repentance, according to the strict and proper sense of the original, imports a mutation of the mind. And john, in the very next words expresseth, wherein this change of mind whereto he exhorts them doth consist; Bring forth fruits worthy repentance. Math. 3. vers. 8. This he spoke unto the pharisees and Sadduces, when they came unto his baptism, whom he termeth a generation of vipers, more barren unto all good works or fruits of the Spirit, than the thorns in the wilderness, or the Brambles in the desert; and yet as proud that they were Abraham's sons, as the bramble in the parable of jotham (judges 9 vers. 15.) which sought to be anointed King over the trees of the Forest. All of them expected to be heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, which they rightly believed should be established in the days of the Messias or Christ. Howbeit they thought the chief glory of this Kingdom should consist in their tyrannising or domineering over the Gentiles, like Lords and Kings. For quelling this humour, and working that change of mind wherein true repentance consists, john admonisheth them, Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our Father: (This proud conceit was as a Mountain which was to be removed, ere they could come to Christ:) For I say unto you, that God is able out of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Matth. 3. This last clause in its literal and proper sense, imports a more miraculous change, than the turning of the bramble into the Myrtle, or the thorn into the Fir tree, than the exalting of valleys into mountains. And yet rather than God's promise should not have been accomplished, this speech of john must have been fulfilled in its strict and proper sense. However; literally fulfilled it was, in the adoption of Publicans and sinners, (of whom it was meant by john) to be Abraham's seed and heirs of promise. But the Baptist continueth his former Allegory or parabolical speech, according to the Prophet Esaiah's intent and meaning; Now also the Axe is laid to the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewed down, and cast into the fire. verse. 10. None are excepted, no not the Offspring of Abraham; for unless upon the baptism of water which john administered, they become fruitful like the Vine or Olive, they must be accounted amongst the thorns and brambles, and be sentenced unto the fire.  
45. But what shall we say of the waters bursting forth in the Wilderness, so often mentioned by the 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  Prophet Isaias? Were these predictions as merely figurative as the former, and not at all fulfilled according to the literal, plain, historical sense? It is probable that they were thus fulfilled, and that God had shown some wonders in the wilderness, in causing springs of water to burst forth in dry and barren places, 
The literal Allegory or Emblematical importance of waters bursting out in the wilderness, so often mentioned by the Prophets.  between Isaias and john Baptists days: perhaps before the 107. Psalm was penned, which for the plain literal sense accords with the Prophet Isaias words; He turneth the wilderness into a standing water: and dry ground into water springs. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell; that he may prepare a City for habitation. Psalm. 107. vers. 35, 36. Yet because this is but probable or conjectural, we will make it no ground of our intended inference. Supposing then that these predictions were as merely figurative or metaphorical as the former, they might not withstanding truly and prophetically prefigure, or by way of Emblem fore-shaddow, aswell the internal comfort of the Spirit wherewith Christ baptizeth us, as the external baptism of water which john administered. The water, you know, hath two natural properties, from which many metaphors (usual in sacred Writers) are borrowed; by which the true intent and meaning of the Prophet Isaias figurative or emblematical expressions of the waters in the wilderness is to be valued. The first natural property of water, (specially in hotter countries, where thirst is more vehement, and waters more pleasant) is, to refresh or comfort the weary soul: The second, to be the Nurse or Mother of fruitfulness, aswell in the trees or grass of the Field, as in plants, herbs, or flowers of the garden. According to this latter property, the Prophet's prediction of springs bursting out in the wilderness, was a true Poetical Emblem or shadow of john's baptising with water, who was to be by his office, as the Gardener, to water and cherish those fruitful trees and plants of righteousness, with which God had promised to adorn the wilderness. For even the Publicans and sinners, Aliens by nature from the Commonwealth of Israel, being made partakers of the baptism of john, were engrafted into Abraham's stock, made fruitful branches of that Vine which GOD had planted in jewrie, and heirs of that heavenly Kingdom which john did preach: whilst Abraham's seed according to the flesh were disinherited. All the people that heard him, and the Publicans justified God, being baptised with the baptism of john. But the pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptised of him. Luk. 7. ver. 29, 30. vide Matth. 8. ver. 11, 12. According to the first natural property of water, which is, to refresh the weary, or such as are ready to faint for thirst, the same predictions of springs or waters bursting forth in the wilderness, did prefigure the internal comfort of the spirit, wherewith Christ alone baptizeth us. For though john did plant and water those plants of righteousness, yet was it Christ alone that gave the increase. And this internal baptism was really foreshaddowed, not only by figurative or Prophetical manner of speech, but by historical and real matter of fact. And so likewise was the external baptism by water literally foretold by the Prophet Isaias, that it should be a type or sign 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  of Christ's baptism with the Spirit. This internal baptism, (to omit other instances) was really foreshaddowed by the waters which issued out of the rock in the Wilderness, when the people murmured against Moses & Aaron, as if they had brought them forth out of Egypt to have killed them with thirst in the desert. Now this we take as granted, that every miracle which God wrought in the Old Testament, was a true shadow or picture of some great mystery to be fulfilled in the New Testament, or after the manifestation of Christ. In this the jews agree with us; only they expect, that the miracles which their Messias should work, should be more glorious to the eye of sense, than those which Moses wrought. But we say they are not only greater, but of another kind: otherwise they should not be true miraculous mysteries but mere miracles. Now that the waters issuing out of the rock, were a type or shadow of this mystical baptism of the Spirit, we have the testimonies of the Prophet Esay, Chap. 48. verse 28. before cited. and of the Apostle. 1. Cor. 10. vers. 1, 2, 3, 4. Brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our Fathers were under the cloud, and all passed thorough the Sea, and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the Sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. How was it Christ? not literally, not identically. Christ, according to the Godhead, was not so present in, or so united to the rock, as he is now to our flesh; yet was it Christ, the second person in Trinity, the Son of God, which made the water (wherewith the Israelites, his people, were comforted and refreshed in the extremity of their bodily thirst) to issue out of the rock when Moses smote it. The mystery portended or foreshaddowed by this miracle herein consists; That the same Son of God (who was truly God) which gave them plenty of water out of the rock, should afterwards become the Rock of our salvation; the Fountain of life unto the thirsty and weary soul. This internal baptism, which was thus really foreshaddowed by the waters in the rock, was literally foretell. Psalm. 36. vers. 8, 9 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house: and thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures. For with thee is the Fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.  
46. Amongst other senses, in which the Scriptures of the Old Testament are said to be fulfilled in 
A peculiar sense in which Prophecies, the Psalms especially, are more frequently fulfilled, than observed to be fulfilled by most Interpreters.  the New, one, and that an especial one (as is elsewhere observed) is, when such speeches as are by the Prophets (most of all by the Psalmist) indefinitely uttered of God, but cannot be attributed to the Divine nature otherwise then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (that is, by manner of speech borrowed from the customs or fashions of men) do imprint their strict and proper character upon God made man, and fit his actions as the Seal doth the print in Wax. The Divine nature is life itself, an Ocean of living waters, which we cannot approach; but the Divine nature in Christ, is as a Fountain or Well of life, from which every thirsty soul may draw the water of life without stint, without any danger of drowning himself, or drawing it 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  dry. For it is more calm and placid than any Fountain or Spring, though more inexhaustible than the Sea. According to this sense is that other place of the Psalmist fulfilled in Christ, that is, in God made man; The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all Generations. Psal. 146. v. 10. That the God of Zion, as God, should reign for ever, was no new thing, no matter of wonder, or worth notice-taking to any Inhabitant of jerusalem or man of judah. All of them, (from the least unto the greatest) knew well that He which had made the World, had no beginning, no end of days or sovereignty. But that this God of Zion, who was Lord likewise of Heaven and Earth, should be as visibly enthronised in Zion as David had been; and that he should begin to erect a Kingdom which was never to have an end; this was a wonder worthy to be taken notice of by all the world. Now, that this God of Zion, by whose protection Moses had led Israel out of Egypt, under whose conduct josuah brought them into the Land of Promise, that he who had anointed David King, should himself be anointed King over Zion, was the true and literal meaning of the Psalmist in this and the like places; of which hereafter. Of this rank is that Prophecy of Isaias, chap. 40. vers. 5. with which john Baptist was well acquainted; for he had his Commission from it: The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Such an open, distinct, and full sight, as these words literally import, supposeth an object truly visible and within ken of ordinary and common sight. God in his glory is altogether invisible to flesh and blood, and though he had taken visible shape upon him in the Heavens, yet so he had still remained invisible to men that have their habitation here on earth. That unto them he might become visible, and that they might see his glory together; so see it, as they were seen of it; that he might see them, and they see Him with the eyes of flesh: He took up our flesh for his Tabernacle, and walked and talked amongst us in more visible and audible manner than He did in the Camp of Israel, than He did with Moses in the Tabernacle of the Congregation. This which Isaias here speaketh from the mouth of the Lord, the Lord himself did after utter with his own mouth, and yet with the mouth of man, to wit, that he which had seen him, had seen his Father, because the glory of God was manifested in Him. And when the Prophet saith, That the glory of the Lord should be revealed, and that all flesh shall see it together, it is in this speech included, that this glory of God should be revealed or manifested in the flesh. The best interpretation of the Prophet's words that I can commend unto you, must be from Saint john. chap. 1. v. 1, 14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelled amongst us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth. This blessed Apostle might perhaps say of himself and some few others in a peculiar sort, We saw his glory, and the glory which we saw, was as the only begotten Son of God: for he with Peter and james had seen him transfigured on the Mount. But all that saw the man Christ jesus at his 
Mem. 2. Branch 2  Baptism with their bodily eyes, did so see the glory of God revealed from Heaven. And he was so seen of all flesh. Some of all sorts, though not all of every sort, did see him baptised, and heard him declared from Heaven to be the Son of God. Some then present were pharisees, others Sadduces, some jews, others Gentiles, some Publicans, some Priests and Levites, some Samaritans, others Galileans. Not at that time only (though the Prophet's words be especially meant of that time) but ever after, all flesh might have seen the lively characters of those glorious attributes of Salvation, which the Prophets and Psalmist had appropriated to the God of Zion, to make distinct and real impression in the man Christ jesus. These two attributes of glory and salvation, are of so near alliance, of such equivalent use, that whereas the Prophet had said, All flesh should see the glory of God; Saint Luke expressing his meaning, saith, All flesh shall see the salvation of God. chap. 3. vers. 6. He supposeth, as the Prophet meant, that the glory of GOD should be manifested in the salvation of men. This glory or salvation of God was then revealed, and became visible to flesh and blood, when God became man, and took his general attribute of salvation, as his proper name, being called jesus. Finally, that salvation of God which Simeon saw with such delight at our Saviour's Circumcision, all flesh did or might have seen at his Baptism.  
47. But to return unto the Testimony of the Psalmist, With thee is the Fountain of life, which containeth the mystical signification of the waters, which miraculously issued out of the rock. The best Interpretation of both places is delivered by Saint john, by way of Comment upon our Saviour's words, john 7. 38, 39 He that believeth on me (as the Scripture hath said) out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living water. This intersertion or parenthesis [as the Scripture hath said] stands like the tongue in a balance, doubtful to whether part of the Sentence wherein it is contained, it inclineth. Some Interpreters would draw it to the first part; He that believeth in me, as saith the Scripture, that is, in such wise, such sort and measure as the Scripture requireth, out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living water. Others would draw it to the later part, and render it thus; He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living water, as the Scriptures hath foretell. Though both interpretations may be true, though both may stand with the general Analogy of faith; yet the later (in my opinion) is more pertinent, and more consonant to the true intention of this place. But than it will be questioned, What Scripture hath said that, which our Saviour here doth, to wit, that rivers of living water should flow from such as believed in him? The very express words are no where else to be found in Scripture: for they are, (as most of our Saviour's are, when he speaks of greatest mysteries) parabolical. Their importance, or real sense, is expressed by Saint john in the same place; This he spoke of the Spirit, etc. Now, if by the rivers of living water, our Saviour meant (as Saint john telleth us he did) this plentiful effusion of his Spirit; the same Scriptures which foretell the plentiful effusion of the Spirit, whether in terms plainly literal or emblematical, foretell likewise 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  the rivers of Living water which were to flow from true believers. The manner of our Saviour's expression of the Spirits effusion by rivers flowing out, implieth, it should be poured out in such a plentiful measure, as would be not only sufficient to satiate the souls of them that thirsted after it, but in a measure overflowing to the Salvation of others. And such were these admirable gifts of the Holy Ghost, which after our Saviour's Ascension were bestowed upon his Apostles and Disciples. The Scriptures, which particularly foretell this plentiful effusion of the Spirit, are many: these following are, if not the principal, yet the most apposite to our present Argument, joel 2. vers. 28, 29, and 32. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon your servants, and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion, and in jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant, whom the Lord shall call. And again, Isaias 44. vers. 3, 4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and Floods upon the 
* The dry ground in this place, [supponit pro homine] (as some Logicians speak) and is to be understood of men so affected, as David was, when he uttered that Song in the Wilderness of juda, My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty Land, where no water is. Psa. 63. v. 1. Compare this Testimony with the former Testimony, Psalm. 36. parag. 45.  dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as Willows by the Watercourses. The first words of this later Prophecy were literally and historically fulfilled in the baptism of john; the later part of it, is, as it were an evangelical explication of the mystical sense of the former words. And john Baptist might from this place alone easily collect, that although he might pour water upon men's bodies, though he did plunge or wash such as are compared to dry Land, in the waters, and by this external Sacrament, engraft them in the stock of Abraham: yet he could not pour out the Spirit of God, or bestow the blessing of increase upon them. This he knew must be the work of him that sent him, who had bestowed some portion or measure of the Spirit or blessing here mentioned upon him, as a sure pledge or experiment of the like blessing to be bestowed on others; specially on such as had been partakers of his Baptism. From the same place likewise john might easily gather, that the baptism of water wherewith he himself baptised, was in order of time to go before the baptism of the Spirit, which was mystically prefigured by it, and foretell by our Saviour in the forecited place, john 7. vers. 38. though (as we said before) in a figurative or allegorical sense, which Saint john in the next words after, vers. 39 hath expounded unto us: This spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him, should receive: For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that jesus was not yet glorified. john's meaning is, the Spirit was not poured out in such plentiful measure, as this place of Isay and that other of the Prophet joel did import. For, after our Saviour's glorification, all such as were baptised with water, were likewise baptised with the Holy Ghost: most of them filled with the Spirit of Prophecy, or gift of tongues, enabled to convey the words and waters of life unto the souls of others. All this was fore-signified by the holy Ghosts descending upon 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  our Saviour at his coming out of the water. For his baptism was a prefiguration of his death and resurrection: and by his resurrection he was really declared to be the Son of God, and fulfilled the Psalmists prediction; Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Psal. 2. Which prediction was further ratified, and the meaning of it determined by the voice from heaven; This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The same truth thus often declared aswell by predictions as by matters of fact or real event, was finally testified by the descending of the holy Ghost upon his Apostles and Disciples. So that another Branch of Saint john's meaning, or if you will, another shoot of the former branch, is, That the holy Ghost, at the time when our Saviour uttered those words, He that believeth in me, etc. did not appear as an authentic witness to ratify his Doctrine. His testimony concerning our Saviour was reserved till our Saviour's glorification, after which it was public, frequent and visible. jesus, (saith Saint Peter) whom ye slew and hanged on a tree: Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Act. 5. v. 30, 31, 32. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. This giving of the holy Ghost in visible manner, was that baptism of Christ which was opposed to the baptism of john, and that the world might know and believe it came immediately from Christ, and not from john, nor from the Apostles, or from the Sacrament which they administered; it was given to some, and these by condition Gentiles, before they had been partakers of john's baptism, or any Mosaical rite or Sacrament. Act. 10. 44, 47. While Peter yet spoke these words, the holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. Whence he concludeth; Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the holy Ghost, aswell as we? Saint Peter took more special notice of our Saviour's words from this experiment in Cornelius and his family, than he did from the holy Ghost descending in cloven tongues upon himself and his fellow Apostles, which had been baptised: And as I began to speak, the holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered 1 the Word of the Lord, how that he said, john deed baptised with water, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost. Acts 11. 15, 16. Saint Peter's belief in this point, was grounded upon our Saviour's words, and confirmed by this experiment: john Baptists belief of the same conclusion, was grounded upon the Prophet Isaias predictions. john did foretell the same 
Matth. 3. vers. 11.  truth which our Saviour did, before he was acquainted with him or knew him by face: and yet john's knowledge or belief of this mystery was confirmed by a visible sign, by the descending of the holy Ghost. Concerning which, and the manner how john came to know our Saviour before he baptised him, with the signs of the time that did accompany or ensue upon his baptism, we are in the next place to make enquiry.  
48. From the: former Dialogue between the Priests and Levites and john Baptist, concerning his office and ministry of Baptism, you may observe, that john was careful to prevent two inconveniences: 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  First, the false opinion which the people had conceived of him, as if he had been the Messias himself; and secondly, to prevent all suspicion of compact or collusion between jesus of Nazareth (whom he afterward proclaims to be the Messias) and himself. And unto this suspicion both parties had been more liable, if they had been aswell acquainted before our Saviour's baptism, as afterward they were. Not to speak of our Saviour's knowledge, who knew all things; for john the Baptist, he had a true prenotion or distinct belief of these generals or indefinites. 1. That the time wherein the Messias was to be manifested unto Israel, was now approaching. 2. That the Messias was to repair unto the place where he baptised, there to be declared or manifested unto Israel. 3. That the Messias after his manifestation, was to baptise others with the holy Ghost. These generals he believed and knew from the predictions of the Prophet Isay, expounded to him by the internal revelation of the Spirit, and the signs of the time immediately preceding. But of these particulars following, he was ignorant until the event, and the signs immediately following did unfold them. 1. The day and hour wherein the Messias was first to be manifested; when he first begun to baptise, he distinctly knew not. 2. The day and hour of the Messias coming unto him being known, yet he knew not how to distinguish the Messias from other men by face or sight. 3. After he had known & seen him face to face, yet he knew not whether he should baptise him with others or no: but rather presupposed it as a matter unfitting, that the messenger, whose Commission only was to baptise with water, should baptise his Lord and Master, whom he knew to be sent of purpose to baptise others with the holy Ghost. This last point is evident from Saint Matthew, chap. 3. vers. 13, 14, 15. When jesus came from Galilee to jordane unto john, to be baptised of him; john forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.  
49. That john Baptist before this time did not know our Saviour by face, is evident from Saint john, chap. 1. vers. 29, 30, 31, 32. The next day, (not the next day after our Saviour's baptism, but the next day after the Priests and Levites had questioned john, or the next day after our Saviour's return from the wilderness) john seeing jesus coming unto him, saith, Beh●ld the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man, which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptising with water. And john bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a Dove, and it abode upon him. And further to prevent all suspicion of compact or collusion betwixt them, or rather to stir up the people to admire with him the sweet disposition of the Divine providence in all this business; He repeateth again what he said before; And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he, which baptizeth with the holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record, that this is the 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  Son of God. But whilst I am a twisting these two evangelical narrations together, you have perhaps already espied or may hereafter espy a knot or rivell, where with your belief one time or another may be entangled; specially, if the jew, Atheist, or Libertine should draw it faster, or a weak Interpreter of Scriptures have the handling of it. That you may the better know, whensoever occasion shall be offered, how to lose or untwist the knot, give me leave first to cast it. For as the great Philosopher telleth us; No man knoweth rightly how to assoil or resolve a question, unless he first know how to frame it. The right making of any objection (as the same Philosopher tells us) is more than half the solution of it. The doubt or knot which ariseth out of the two narrations of the 
A seeming contradiction betwixt S. Matthew & S. john fully clcered.  Evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint john, is framed thus: First, it is evident out of them both, as also out of the other two Evangelists, that the Holy Ghost did not descend upon our Saviour until john had baptised him. It is evident again out of Saint john's words forecited, cap. 1. ver. 33. That the descending of the Holy Ghost upon our Saviour, and his resting upon him, was given by God himself unto john Baptist for a sign, whereby to know or distinguish the Messias or him that was to baptise with the holy Ghost, from all other men. Now if john knew him by face from all other men, before the Spirit did descend and rest upon him, what needed this sign? And if he knew him not by face before the descending of the holy Ghost, what construction can we make of Saint Matthews words before recited, chap. 3. ver. 13, 14. where he saith, That when jesus came to be baptised of him, john replied, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? For to whom could the Baptist himself in good earnest say, I have need to be baptised of thee, save only unto him whom he knew could baptise him with the holy Ghost and with fire? And if john Baptist knew jesus of Nazareth at his first coming to him, to be the man, which was to baptise with the holy Ghost, before he had seen the holy Ghost descending upon him (as out of Saint Matthew it plainly appeareth, that he did so know him) How is it true which Saint john saith in the person of john the Baptist, I knew him not? that is, in ordinary construction, as if he had said, I had not known him, but by the descending and resting of the holy Ghost upon him.  
50. The seeming contradiction betwixt these two Evangelists, hath occasioned some of the Ancients to conceit, that the Holy Ghost did twice descend upon our Saviour: once before his baptism; (of which descension, john only or some few more were spectators, and by this sign in private john did know him, before he came in public to be baptised of him,) and again immediately after his baptism. But a man cannot more strengthen or confirm a weak, crazy or unsound objection, than by giving it a lame, unsolid or unsatisfactory answer. The one part of this distinction consisting merely in imagination, would serve as a foil, to give some tincture or colour of truth unto the objected Contradiction, which if it be well examined and better looked into, consists only in appearance. jansenius seeks to salve this objected contradiction in this manner: 
* Quanqu●a se●●ndum proba●tho●●m Chrysostom● s●n●etiā, ut prius dictum est, joannes a●te columbae des●●n●ū inte●iori spi●●tus revelatione Christis vemeni●m ad baptisum s●um cognoverit, id tamen non pugnat cum praesenti loco. Nam non dic●t hic Ioannes sibi ignotum fuisse donec Co●●●bae ind●t●o illum agn●●erit, sed tantum 〈…〉. cap. 16. ●ol. 38.  The Baptist in the words forecited, saith no, that he 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  did not know our Saviour before the Holy Ghost did point him out by descending upon him, but that he had received a revelation from God concerning the holy Ghosts descending upon him. The solution is borrowed in part from Saint Chrysostome, perhaps sufficient enough to blank a forward disputant, that would undertake to prove a plain contradiction between the Baptists Words, as they are related by Saint Matthew, chap. 3. and by Saint john. But many speeches which cannot legally be convinced of falsehood, are often apparently delusory or impertinent, and imply some moral inconvenience, albeit they cannot easily be drawn to a Logical impossibility or irreconcilable repugnancy. If we take the Baptists words as Saint john relateth them, chap. 1. ver. 33. And I knew him not, etc. according to the ordinary standard of Civil Dialect in matters of serious conference or commerce, they import thus much at least, That all the knowledge which john Baptist had of our Saviour before he baptised him, was suggested from consideration of the sign which God had given him, not from any new internal revelation of the Spirit, altogether distinct from that revelation by which the sign was given, vers. 33. But he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God. His record had not been authentic, unless he had seen the Spirit descend upon him. And his conjectural knowledge of him, as of the Son of God, before the Spirit did descend upon him, had been altogether groundless, without some just presumption that this was the man upon whom the Spirit was to descend.  
51. Maldonat having framed the like answer in effect as jansenius doth, seeks to illustrate it thus by example: Albeit john Baptist did no more know our Saviour by face from other men, than Samuel did the sons of jesse, one of which he was appointed to anoint King in Saul's stead over Israel; yet when our Saviour came to be baptised, he might know him to be the Messias, by some such Divine instinct or revelation, as Samuel knew David, whose face he had never seen before, to be the man whom God had appointed him to anoint King over Israel. But of this (otherwise judicious) Commentator in his expositions of Prophecies, or of the manner how Scriptures are said to be fulfilled, that may be truly said, which the French Mathematician did of Cardanus his writings; [
* Monath. in Arist. Mechan.  Ingeniose semper, rarò perfectè,] His Expositions in this kind are always acute and witty, seldom exact or fully satisfactory. And the very instance which he bringeth for illustration of this point is very unfitting, very unlike. For it is evident out of the History mentioned, 1. Sam. cap. 16. ver. 3. That although Samuel knew none of Iesse's sons by face, yet he had distinct revelations from God, some negative and express, Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. verse. 7. Others again, as expressly assertory. For when David was brought before him, The Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. verse. 12. Samuel had no visible sign given from God, whereby to know the man, whom he was to anoint, from his brethren; but was merely to rely upon such revelations or instructions 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  as God had promised to give unto him in the very act or business. Call jesse to the Sacrifice, and I will show thee what then shalt do, and thou shalt anoint unto me him, whom I name unto thee. 1. Sam. 16. 3. But God, as you heard before, had given to john Baptist an express visible sign, whereby to distinguish the Messias, or him that was to baptise with the Holy Ghost, from all other men. God did not promise him any such new revelations or instructions, whereby to know him before his Baptism, or in the act of baptising, as he expressly promised to Samuel. Nor doth the Evangelist either mention or intimate any such revelations, as the History saith were given to Samuel, to have been given or made unto john Baptist, before the Holy Ghost did descend upon our Saviour. So that, such revelations or instructions as Maldonat supposeth, were on samuel's part altogether necessary, because he had no visible sign given him: but in this business of john Baptist altogether superfluous. The exhibition or production of the visible sign which God had promised him, was the only new revelation which he was to rely upon.  
52. I will not trouble you with the variety of opinions or expositions of several Commentators, from none of which I have received any full satisfaction myself. All of them have omitted one point, which in every controversy ought in the first place to be enquired after. And it is this; Whether there be not a Mean between the opposite or controverted opinions? The opposite opinions in this argument are two: The one, That the holy Ghost did descend upon our Saviour in john's presence, before he was baptised by john: The other, That john did know our Saviour before his baptism, by some special immediate revelation of the Spirit. Now, it is not necessary that john should know him by either of these two ways. There is an apparent mean or middle way betwixt them, by which john might come to such knowledge as he had of our Saviour, before the Holy Ghost did in the sight of the people descend upon him. And this mean, we may suppose to be the opening or unfolding of some Prophetical passage, whose meaning (before) john had neither occasion in particular to observe, nor opportunity to discern. Howbeit, this knowledge of Scriptures may be called a revelation, but ordinary and mediate, such as the Ministers of the Gospel may at this day have by the help of Commentaries, by collation of Scripture with Scripture, or of historical events with Prophecies precedent: the signs of the time being in all ages the best Commentators, and as it were substitutes to the spirit of Prophecy or Revelation. Now, although the Evangelist neither mention any special revelation made unto john, after God had given him a sign, whereby to know our Saviour, nor intimate any probable ground for such conjectures: yet they (Saint Mark especially) relate such circumstances of our Saviour's coming to john, as might well occasion him to call to mind, a peculiar passage concerning Christ's Baptism mentioned by the Prophet Isay, which otherwise perhaps had not been thought of, or whose meaning, although he had thought of it, john could not for the present have understood, without such Comments or Expositions as the manner of our Saviour's 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  coming to Baptism did make upon it. Now, the testimonies of the Scripture long before written, especially the Prophetical testimonies or predictions of things to come, are no way superfluous, either where new revelations (though made by God to following Prophets viva voce) or visible signs are given or promised, but rather subordinate and concurrent: that is, (to speak more plainly) as well all new revelations made by the Spirit (whether viva voce, or otherwise,) as all visible signs or wonders, which God doth promise or work, are to be examined and authorised by his Word already written, specially by the predictions of the Prophets. And all new revelations, or visible signs or wonders, which have been, are, or shall be, if they proceed from God or the spirit of Truth, are always true Commentaries or expositions of some part or other of the written Word, and pledges withal of some greater Mystery to come; afterwards to be fulfilled for their good, to whom such revelations or signs are given and made.  
53. The historical relation of Saint Mark, 
Of the means or signs by which john came to know our Saviour in part before the Holy-Ghost did descend upon him.  whose circumstances might lead john, and now may lead us unto the right meaning of the Prophet Isaias Testimony concerning the descending of the Holy Ghost, is in the 1. of Mark, v. 9 And it came to pass in those days (to wit, in those days wherein all the Land of judea, and they of jerusalem went out, and were all baptised of john in jordan, confessing their sins) that jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptised of john in jordane. Now, ye are to conceive, that as no Bishop or inferior Minister amongst us, doth or may at any time administer Baptism, save only to such as he knoweth to be borne of Christian Parents, whose names and place of dwelling he knoweth: so, neither did john, the first Minister of Baptism, admit any to the Baptism of water, save only such as did profess their names, their condition of life, or place of dwelling. And (our Saviour only excepted) all that were baptised of him, did confess their sins. All this is evident from the Evangelists, especially from the Evangelist Saint Luke, chap. 3. For john bestowed a distinct Sermon or exhortation upon every distinct sort or profession of men that came to be baptised of him. Unto the pharisees and Sadduces which came to his Baptism amongst other multitudes of people, he said; O generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of Repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our Father. For, I say unto you, that GOD is able of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham. And now also the Axe is laid to the root of the Trees. Every Tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewed down and cast into the fire. Luke 3. vers. 7, 8, 9 The people hearing their Teachers or Masters thus sharply checked by john, asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth, and saith unto them; He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. And as it followeth in the same Evangelist, Then came also Publicans to be baptised, and being taught, as it seems, by the example of the people of judea, which had been baptised before them, 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  They said unto him, Master, What shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is apppointed you. And after they had been baptised, the Soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages. verse. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Now, after all these were baptised, (yet all these being still present with john, that all flesh, as the Prophet foretell, might see the glory, or, as Saint Luke saith, the Salvation of God;) our Saviour came to be baptised of john. And inasmuch as john before this time did neither know him by face, or by name; there is no question, but he would require both his name, his profession, and place of dwelling, before he would admit him unto Baptism, unless our Saviour happily did in both prevent him. However, after john had once heard his name, and the name of the place, (Town or City) from whence he came; he might easily prognosticate or divine, without any special extraordinary revelation, that amongst all the multitudes of men, which resorted unto his Baptism, this was the man, on whom the holy Ghost was to descend, according to God's promise, and the prediction of the Prophet Isaias. And upon this prenotion or presumption, john might in modesty say unto Him, as you heard before; I had need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to be baptised of me?  
54. But I know, you expect to know the place of the Prophet Isaias, wherein the descending of the holy Ghost upon our Saviour, is foretell; and how the name of jesus, and of the Town or City whence he came, might call this place unto john's mind, or expound the distinct meaning of it, before unknown unto him. The place is, Isay 11. vers. 1, 2. And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of less, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, etc. This prediction or Prophetical testimony is of the same rank or kind, that all or most of this Prophet's predictions which concern the mystery of john's baptising our Saviour, were before observed to be; that is, a prediction not given in literal, plain, Grammatical terms, but in terms allegorical or emblematical: such as was jothams' prediction of Abimelechs' and the men of Sechems' ruin, by the Parable of the Trees of the Forest: or such as Isayes fore-picturing the destruction of judah and jerusalem, by the Parable of the Vineyard, which was to be laid waste by its Lord and Owner; because in stead of Grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. The Prophet Isay, in the later end of the tenth Chapter, and in the words immediately preceding to the late-cited Testimony had said, Behold, The Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror: and the high-ones of stature shall be hewed down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the Forest with Iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one. verse. 33, 34▪ By the fall of Lebanon, a Forest famous amongst the Nations for tall & goodly Cedars, he fore-pictures the extirpation of David's Royal Race by Solomon and his Successors, or the pulling down the mighty from their seats: By cutting down the thickets of the Forest with Iron, 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  he fore-shaddowes the destruction of this people by the enemy's sword, and the low estate whereto the House of judah and of David should be brought, before the coming of Shiloh, or of him whom they so long expected. In the later part of the Prophecy, (which is the beginning of the eleventh Chapter) the Prophet fully expounds himself, That the intent or purpose of the Prophecy, was to instruct the people, that when the Offspring of David, and hope of judah should seem in a manner utterly cut off, (as it was to all men's thinking in the days of Herod the Great,) yet then there should spring a Rod out of the stem of jesse, and a Branch out of his root, which should raise the House of David (now ruined) unto greater height than ever it had. By this Rod or Branch, the Prophet understands a man; for he terms him the Rod or Branch of jesse, (who was David's Father:) But a man, that should be better able to rule and feed the people of Israel than David himself, the chief stem of jesse, or Solomon his son, or any other King of judah had been. The extraordinary gifts or qualifications, which the Prophet foretelleth that the Spirit of the Lord, which was to rest upon him, would bestow upon this Rod of jesse, are such as can appertain to none, save only to the Messias himself, that is, to the Lords Anointed, or him that was to be anointed with the holy Ghost.  
55. The greatest offence which the jews took at our Saviour, was that he came not forth of Bethlem the City of David, but from Nazareth, a Town in Galilee; that his education was so mean, and his parentage so poor. Now, this offence, the Prophet Isaias (so they would have understood him) had fully prevented, foretelling that he should grow up as a Rod out of the stem of jesse, and as a Branch out of his root. This did truly fore-picture, that he should be of meaner parentage than David himself had been, as being to spring out of the decayed stem or root of jesse. Again, the very word in the Original, [Netser] signifying a Rod, did picture out unto us, the very place wherein he was to grow up as a Rod, until he came to be declared unto Israel by the Spirit of God descending upon him. For the Town of Nazareth hath its very name from the word here used by the Prophet Isaias, [Netser] and is as much in English, as the Town of Rods or Grafts. Now, albeit john did not know this Rod or Branch of jesse, before he came unto him to be baptised, yet his very name, being JESUS, which is a Saviour, and the name of the place whence he came, Natzareth [a Town of Rods,] could not but suggest thus much to john; That seeing the holy Ghost, or Spirit of God was to descend upon some one that came unto his Baptism, and to rest upon him; there was none amongst all the multitudes, that came unto him, in whom this prediction or sign which God had given him, could be so fulfilled, as in this jesus of Nazareth: and thus certainly expecting, that the Spirit of God would descend upon him, he refused, as Saint Matthew telleth us, to baptise him, saying; I have need to be baptised of thee, etc. Now, this very sign which God gave to john how to know him, was given before by the Prophet Isay, in the place forecited. For, in that he is termed a Rod or Branch, on which the Spirit of the Lord should rest, it is imported, that the manner 
Mem. 2 Branch. 2.  of his resting should be as a Bird or Fowl doth upon a stem or branch. So that all which God in the sign given to john doth add unto the Prophecy, is a distinct expression of the Bird or Fowl, in whose shape or bodily likeness the Spirit was to descend and rest upon him; and that was in the shape or bodily likeness of a Dove. So then john before our Saviour's baptism, had the Testimony of the Prophet, that the Spirit of the Lord would descend and rest upon the man whom he then first knew only by the name of jesus of Nazareth, that is, of jesus the Rod or Branch of jesse. After our Saviour's baptism, he had this testimony or assurance of the Prophet, and his own Interpretation of it (when our Saviour first came unto him) fully sealed and warranted by the evidence of his bodily senses, by the visible experiment of the holy Ghost, descending in the likeness of a Dove, by the voice which he heard from Heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  
56. That this Prophecy of Isaias hath special reference to the time of our Saviour's baptism, and to the Kingdom of heaven, which john proclaimed, and into which his baptism by water was as the door or entrance; the very ceremony or solemnity of men's admission unto it do testify: and so do the effects and fruits of the Spirits descending and resting upon the Rod or Branch of jesse, which fruits and effects are in the same Chapter at large described, and are of two sorts. The first sort concerns the Rod or Branch of jesse himself, and these are set forth in the 11. Chapter of Isaias, vers. 3, 4, 5. The Spirit of the Lord (saith the Prophet) shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. All these are heroical endowments or qualifications for government of so great a Kingdom, as the Prophet foretold this Rod of jesse or Branch of David was to erect. And of these qualifications here mentioned, the best gifts which the Lord bestowed on David, on Saul, or Solomon, or upon other Kings of judah at their anoyntments or inaugurations, were but shadows or prefigurations. Now, the descending of the Spirit of God here foretell by the Prophet, and resting upon our Saviour, was his anointment and solemn inauguration or designment to his Kingdom. Not that he was instantly to enter into his Kingdom of glory, or take possession of his heavenly Inheritance, but for a time to expect such troubles and persecutions in the attainment of it, as his father David had suffered between the time wherein Samuel had anointed him King in his Father jesses' house at Bethlem, and the time wherein he was publicly anointed King, after Saul's death, in Hebron. That our Saviour's anointment or designment to be King and Lord over Israel, doth bear date from the time that he was baptised by john in jordane, Saint Peter testifies, Acts 10. vers. 37, 38. That word you know, which was published throughout all judea, and began 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  from Galilee, after the baptism which john preached: how God anointed jesus of Nazareth with the holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. The voice which at his anointment was heard from heaven, did plainly and openly declare him to be that son of David, of whom alone it was truly fulfilled, which David by his spirit of Prophefie had foretold, That God should be unto him a Father, and he should be unto him a Son. And upon this declaration made at his baptism, the devil, unto whom some scattered sound of it happily came, might collect that he was [Dei Filius.] The first memorable Act his Father David (after Samuel had anointed him) did undertake, was his conflict with Goliath: and the first Act this Rod of jesse, after his anointment undertaketh, was his encounter with Satan in single combat. The other part of the fruits or concomitances of this our Saviour's anointment by the holy Ghost, is described at large in the 11. Chapter of Isaias, vers. 6, 7, 8, 9 The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard also shall lie down with the Kid: and the Calf and the young Lion, and the fatling together, and a little Child shall lead them. And the Cow and the Bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together: and the Lion shall eat straw like the Ox. And the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp, and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the Sea. The exact fulfilling of this Prophecy in its literal sense, that is, according to the strict propriety of native or unborrowed signification of words, [credat judaeus,] let it be expected by the unbelieving jew, whose too much credulity to the letter hath brought forth an absolute infidelity concerning the mysteries of his salvation. But whilst he expects such a league and amity betwixt the creatures here mentioned, as the words literally import, he plainly declares himself to be more cruel, more rancorous & untamed, than the most ravenous beast, or most venomous creature here mentioned. For, neither the sweet invitation of our Saviour, nor all the good deeds which he wrought amongst this people whilst he lived on earth, nor the punishing hand of God, which hath been always heavy upon them since his death, hath to this day wrought such a placable or reconcileable disposition toward us Gentiles, or toward their own brethren which trust in Christ, as they expect in the days of their Messias, should be wrought in the Wolf towards the Lamb, or in the Asp or Cockatrice towards the Child or sucking Infant. We may take this amongst others, as a sure Argument of our Interest in the Woman's Seed, in that this generation of Vipers or Serpents (as john Baptist terms them) have exercised the venomous enmity of Serpents against all that have professed the name of Christ since his death. But the greater their enmity is unto the profession of Christianity, or the longer it hath continued, the more strange and admirable will that reconciliation or agreement seem, which the Evangelist records to have fall'n out at the time of our Saviour's baptism or anointment; not only between the jew and the Gentile, but between 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  the Pharisee and Publican, between the Sadduce and the Roman Soldier, all of them communicating together in the solemnity or Sacrament of baptism. For many of every sort here mentioned, were baptised 〈◊〉 in jordane, confessing their sins. This sudden and unexpected obedience of all sorts unto the Summons of john's calling to repentance, and the strange alteration which followed upon the sacrament of baptism and the repentance which john preached, aswell in the jew as in the Gentile; is the mystery of the new Testament, which the Prophet fore-pictures in the Parable of the Wolf agreeing with the Lamb, of the Leopard's reconciliation with the Kid, and of the Lions near familaritie with the Ox or Ass.  
The Publicans which before the preaching of baptism and repentance by john, were as ravenous as the evening Wolves, became as innocent as the Lamb. The soldiers likewise which had been formerly as fierce and cruel as the Lion, became as tame and gentle as the Ox or Cow, and submitted their necks unto the yoke of the Gospel. Such of the Pha●ises likewise, as before their baptism had been as venomous as the Asp or Cockatrice, did by the worthy receiving of this baptism, and the grace which God did give them, become as mild and gentle, as the sucking Infant 
The parallel circumstances or signs of the time in the days of Noah, and of john Baptist.  or weaned Child.  
57 This I take to be the true interpretation and native meaning, though not of these words which he useth, yet of the Prophet himself, and that which the holy Ghost did purposely intend to express in the forecited place. But may not the prediction, though merely, or for the most part (as was observed) parabolical, have some special reference to the days of Noah, wherein the like reconciliation of hostile & antipathizing natures, was literally and historically verified and experienced? Yes doubtless, the signs of that old world, and the signs of the time wherein our Saviour was baptised, do as exactly resemble the one the other, as the shape or image of the face in the glass doth the picture that produceth it, or the picture doth the live body which it represents. And besides the power of God, which is able to effect all things without secondary causes or means subordinate, we cannot imagine any other cause or reason that should move the jew and Gentile, the Pharise & Publican to communicate together in john's baptism, beside that which moved the beasts of every kind herementioned by the Prophet, and others beside them, to hold better consort in Noah's Ark, or at their entrance into it, than they had done whilst they enjoyed their natural liberty in the Fields and open air. The true reason of both these strange reconciliations & composals of these inbred fohoods, was that, which the great Philosopher tells us will unite the deadliest enemies, [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉]. i. The sudden approach or joint apprehension of dread or danger alike common, and alike imminent to both. Now the strange and uncouth dread of this universal deluge, could not choose but compel all the Land creatures to keep the peace of nature before they entered Noah's Ark; to forbear the exercise of wont hostility, whilst they were in it; and to entertain a general truce whilst the deluge lasted. But what fear or dread of danger alike imminent to all, could the Pharisee and Publican, the Sadduces and 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  the Heathen Soldiers jointly apprehend, that might move them to like peace or consort during the time of john's baptism, or before he was to baptise our Saviour? The Prophet Malachy, to my apprehension, in the conclusion of his Prophecy, intimateth some great plague or curse ready to fall either upon the whole world, or at least upon the Land of jewry; unless it were prevented by such means as the flood might have been, or as the destruction of Niniveh in the days of jonas was prevented; that is, by humiliation and true repentance. And this humiliation of the people, or turning to the Lord by true repentance, was to be wrought, as Malachy speaketh, by the Prophet Eliah, that is, as you heard before, by john the Baptist. The Prophet's words are these; Behold, I will send you Eliah the Prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the Fathers unto the children, and the heart of the children unto the Fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malac. 4. vers. 5, 6. The best interpretation of this place is made by the Angel Gabriel, Luk. 1. vers. 16, 17. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just, to make ready a people prepared to the Lord. Unless some competent multitude had been thus prepared to entertain the Kingdom of grace, or the Gospel, or Christ jesus the King in their hearts, his first coming had been as dreadful to the whole Land, as the unworthy receiving of his body and blood was to the Corinthians, 1. Cor. 11. God in his wisdom (as some of the Father's very well observe) had so ordained, that the same Element by which the old world (besides Noah's Family) were destroyed, should be consecrated as an especial means for preservation of the new world. The baptism of water which john administered, was as a renovation or ratification of the promise which God had made to Noah: a visible sign, that GOD had freed the earth or Land of jewry from that curse which Malachy speaks of, and was withal a visible pledge or sacrament of a new blessing. Whatsoever the curse or anger was, which hanged at this time over the people's head, the Dove which descended upon our Saviour at his baptism, did bring to this generation a more express release from it, and a more sovereign pardon for all their sins, than Noah's Dove did bring of Noah's and his family's deliverance from the curse of waters, or from the danger of the Flood, when she came with an Olive branch in her mouth. Now, inasmuch as john's baptism by water, was as the [medius terminus,] or as the way and passage between Noah's Ark, and that holy Catholic Church, which our Saviour Christ was now to erect, whereof Noah's Ark, as you heard before, was the expre type; it is no marvel if that which was literally fulfilled or verified in the days of Noah, were fulfilled according to its emblematical importance or mystical sense, in the days of john or at his baptism. The congruity between Noah's Ark, and the holy Catholic Church, or new jerusalem which was now to descend from heaven, doth herein partly consist. First, not only Noah and his Family, but the Beasts as well 
Mem. 2 Branch 2.  clean as unclean which entered into the Ark, were all preserved from bodily destruction: So, not only the Offspring of Abraham, (which was pre-figured by Noah's Family) nor such Proselytes only of the Gentiles, as were made visible members of the jewish Church, which answered in proportion to the clean Beasts in Noah's Ark:) but even the worst sort of the Gentiles, such as had most oppugned the Children of Abraham in their Religion, so they will be admitted into the Holy Catholic Church or mystical body of Christ, shall be as undoubtedly preserved both in body and soul from the curse of Hell-fire, as the unclean Beasts which entered into Noah's Ark were from the curse of waters.  
58. That the admission of the Heathens, which 
What was mystically prefigured by the clean and unclean beasts in Noah's Ark.  had been no Proselytes of the jewish Church before, into the Catholic Church now erected by Christ, was prefigured by the unclean beasts, is more than probable unto us from the Vision which Saint Peter saw, Acts 10. vers. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Peter, after his prayer, became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw Heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and Fowls of the Air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, What GOD hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into Heaven. The opening of Heaven, and the letting down of the vessel, wherein were all manner of beasts, as well unclean as clean, did signify that the Kingdom of Heaven, or gates of the new jerusalem, were now set open to all believers, and the way to true belief manifested to all, of what Nation soever they were: the one as open, and the other as manifest to the Italians or Romans, which never had been Proselytes; as to the seed of Abraham, or the Proselytes which they had made. That matters of fact, or emblematical representations by vision or apparences, are as truly doctrinal, as words uttered and understood according to the literal sense; we need no further proof, than Saint Peter's application of this vision, vers. 28. And he said unto them, (unto Cornelius, and his Italian friends and attendants) Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a jew, to keep company or come unto one of another Nation: but God hath showed me (not in express words, but by vision or representation emblematical) that I should not call any man common or unclean. Nor did Peter in express terms or conceit, deem any man unclean. Only he had said, whether in express words or in thought only, I have never eaten any thing that is unclean. Yet, when answer was made, What God had cleansed, that call not thou common; he knew by the circumstances of the time, and by the tenor of Cornelius his message unto him, that God in this answer did not mean beasts or things edible, but men represented by unclean beasts, whose use the Lord at this time had sanctified unto his people, in token 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  that men or Nations before unclean, were now capable of sanctification. The mystery included in this vision, was fulfilled in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and was prefigured by the admission as well of Publicans & Roman Soldiers, as of pharisees, jews, or Proselytes, unto the Baptism of john. Now, S. Peter's own interpretation of this vision, will warrant our former Interpretation of the Prophet Isay, cap. 11. vers. 6. as also, of most other places in this Prophet, which, as you heard before, were to be understood, not according to the literal, plain, and Grammatical signification of the words, but according 
One and the same portion of Isaias Prophecy, which had been only emblematically or parabolically fulfilled in such as came to john's Baptism, was historically and literally fulfilled in our Saviour Christ, after his Baptism, and in his Apostles after his glorification.  to their poetical or emblematical importance. Howbeit, when we affirm that the aforesaid Prophecy, Isay 11. vers. 6. was specially fulfilled, according to its poetical, parabolical, or emblematical sense, we no way deny, that it might in part be verified or exemplified, according to the plain, literal, or historical signification of the words. Certainly it was so verified in our Saviour, whilst he remained, after his Baptism, in the Wilderness. And immediately (after his Baptism) the Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness. And he was there in the Wilderness forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the Angels ministered unto him. Mark. 1. ver. 12, 13. We do not read, that any wild beast or noisome creature (of which the Wilderness had plenty) did either annoy our Saviour, or attempt any violence against him whilst he was with them: We do not read, that Satan did ever tempt Him to encounter with a Lion or a Bear, as his Father David had done, or to tread on Serpents or Scorpions, to see whether they would sting him or no; because he saw by experience, that this jesus of Nazareth had power over all these, and whatsoever other creature else that was at Satan's command. He had seen that of the Psalmist, Psalm. 91. vers. 13. fulfilled in him: Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder, the young Lion and the Dragon thou shalt trample under feet: yet he hoped, our Saviour's confidence in the authority and power, which he exercised over wild beasts and venomous creatures in the Wilderness, might animate him to try another conclusion, which he thought had as fair and plausible premises in the Scriptures to infer it: Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City, and setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple; and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall be are thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone 
* Matth. 4. verse 5, 6. . Where was it written that the Angel should take charge of him, lest he should dash his foot against a stone? In the very same place (and in the words immediately going before) wherein it was said that he should tread upon the Lion and the Adder, etc. The Lion, the Adder, and other noisome creatures would ever and anon be in his way, whilst his way was in the Wilderness: and to tread on them was no tempting of God. The Angels of God in this case were to protect him: but to cast himself headlong from the Pinnacles of the Temple, was no part of his way. The Prophet had foretell no such miraculous protection of him or his followers. For him to have tried this conclusion, had been a tempting of God. This, and 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  the like, were feats better beseeming Simon Magus, or others of Satan's Scholars. For this reason, our Saviour after his resurrection, bequeatheth no such power or authority unto his Disciples: unto whom notwithstanding he communicated the former power of treading upon Serpents, of conversing with wild beasts or venomous creatures in such manner, as the forecited place, Isay the 11. vers. 6 etc. according to the plain, literal, and native signification of the words, importeth. I beheld Satan (saith our Saviour) as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10. vers. 18, 19 This Commission being first drawn about the time that this answer was returned unto john by our Saviour, was more fully ratified upon our Saviour's resurrection, and (as I take it) before that time not put in execution by his Apostles or Disciples. Thus much the literal meaning of Saint Marks words, chap. 16. v. 16, 17, 18. to my understanding doth import He that believeth, and is baptised, shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe, In my name shall they cast out Devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up Serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. He saith not, that they should leap down from the Pinnacles of the Temple, or from the tops of high Towers, and not hurt themselves.  
59 Again, I would not deny but that the forementioned Prophecy, Isay 40. 14. which was exactly fulfilled according to the literal Allegory or emblematical sense, might be in part fulfilled according to the plain, literal, and proper sense; Not at the time of john's Baptism, but some years before, yet after john was of age and experience to observe the signs of the time, and their prognostics. Amongst other symptoms of that terrible Earthquake which overthrew twelve famous Cities in Asia, about the sixth or seventh year of Tiberius, 
* Tacit. lib. 2. Annal.  Tacitus relateth this for one, [sedisse immensos montes, visa in ardu● quae plana fuerint.] The Grammatical sense of his words, so far as they reach, is so exactly parallel to the plain literal sense of Isaias Prophecy, that I cannot English them better, than by borrowing the English translation of the Prophet: The Logical extent of whose words, is far more ample than the others historical relation. Some valleys, according to Tacitus, were exalted, and some mighty Hills were brought low. The Prophet saith, Every Valley shall be exalted, and every Mountain and Hill shall be brought low. According to this Logical extent or universality, this Prophecy neither hath been, nor can be fulfilled in its plain, literal, and historical sense. Howbeit, this and the like visible wonders wrought by the hand of God, though answerable but in part to the plain literal meaning of this Prophet, were true and exact emblems of that which the Prophet principally meant, and which the mouth of the Lord since hath spoken, Whosoever exalteth himself, shall be brought low, and every one that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. Luke 14. vers. 11. The exact accomplishment of this sentence, according to the utmost extent 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  of its universality, is not to be expected till the last Day. Howbeit, there was a true Crisis of it exhibited at the Baptism of john, which was (as Saint Luke 
Luke 3. 1.  telleth us) in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. From that time the Publicans and Sinners were advanced, and the Children of Abraham, which gloried in their birthright, debased. Poor Fishermen became Heads of the Tribes of Israel, greater men in the House of God, than Moses and Aaron had been, whilst Moses successors, the chief Priests and Doctors of the Law, were infatuated, and became like salt without taste or savour. Of this miraculous change, the forementioned prodigies were (as we said before) the types or emblems. As Mineralists usually find some homogeneal earth or metal nearer 
* That is, the surface of the earth.  the Day, as they use to speak, which directs them unto the metal or treasure which they seek: so, before the exact accomplishment of diverse Prophecies, God usually gives his people a glimpse or hint by the signs of the time, by some real event or matter of fact, answerable in some measure to the plain literal sense of the Prophet, but true emblems or more immediate prognostics withal, of greater mysteries approaching. That Earthquake which happened in jewry, whilst Augustus Caesar and Anthony tried their fortunes in that great and famous Sea-fight at Actium, was in part an accomplishment of the Prophet Haggai his literal meaning. chap. 2. vers. 6, 7. Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth and the Sea, and the dry Land. And I will shake all Nations, etc. This shaking of the Nations, and of the Earth at that time, was a sure prognosticke of that mystery which the Prophet in the Verses following foretelleth, to wit, that the glory of the latter Temple should be greater than the glory of the former, and that the desire of all Nations, who was the glory of both Temples, the Prince of that peace which God had promised to give in jerusalem, was shortly to come. For about some twelve years after, Herod erects the Temple anew, and made it even for external pomp and ornament, more beautiful and glorious than Salomon's Temple had been; that the King of glory and Prince of peace, for whose entertainment (though unwitting to Herod) it was erected, might come unto it, and fill it with glory. And within eighteen years after Herod began this work, He was presented in it, and acknowledged by Simeon to be the light of the Gentiles (one desired of all the Nations) and the glory of his people Israel.  
60. The best Commentary upon the late-cited passage of the Prophet Haggai, is a passage parallel unto it in the Prophet Malachy: I will shake all Nations, saith Haggai, chap. 2. vers. 7. and the desire of all Nations shall come. Who or what this desire of all Nations should be, is not so expressly avouched by this Prophet, but that some good Christians of later years have questioned, whether this place were literally meant of Christ's coming to the second Temple, or whether the glory with which Haggai foretelleth, the House of God should be filled, were the glory of the Son of God incarnate. To prevent this captious Criticism, or to satisfy the cavil which carnal minds might pretend for it; the Prophet Malachy determines the quality of the Person, and the place 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  unto which he was to come. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his Temple; even the messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. Mal. 3. 1. But though his coming were to be sudden, was it therefore to have no certain prognosticke? or was it sudden only unto such as neglected the presages of peace, or other signs of the time foretold by the Prophet Haggai, v. 7. I will shake all Nations, etc. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts vers. 9? There is no motion in this inferior world, but tends to rest, and the more vehement the motion is, so it be not unnatural and destructive, the more pleasant is the rest which terminates it. This experiment in the course of nature, is the ground of the Prophetical Emblem. That unusual shaking of Sea and Land, that extraordinary commotion of all Nations, mustered to that terrible sea-fight between Augustus Caesar and Anthony, and to the rest of the Roman Civil wars a little before, was but a prognosticke preamble to that happy and unspeakable peace which the Prophet foretell the Lord would give in his Temple at jerusalem. This was that peace of God which passeth human understanding, which was to be diffused throughout the Nations, when the Son of righteousness did arise, whose beams are clothed with Salvation, as the Sunbeams are with light. Some glimpse or flashes of this glorious peace, which was to issue out of jerusalem, (the vision and fountain of peace) Rome had by reflex, as the moon at the full hath its light from the Sun. But as no man within that hemisphere wherein the Moon shines in her full strength, looketh after the Sun that gives the light: so few or none, much delighted with the glory and splendour of Rome, being then at full, did much look after the Sun of Righteousness, whose approach (though in an opposite Hemisphere) the general peace proclaimed at Rome by the shutting of janus his Temple, did as certainly prognosticate, as the daystar doth the Sun's arising. Of this universal peace, that general tax mentioned by Saint Luke, chap. 2. ver. 1. was one special consequent. Now, this tax was first decreed by Augustus in Spain, within three or four years after the battle of Actium. 
* Ob eam Edicti pronuntiationem nonnulli Popule in Gallia & Germ●nia rebellaverunt, 〈◊〉 Ed●c●o ●●ssi sunt ad illos doman●ies à Cae are I 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉; qui 〈…〉, Romanoque in p●rio subegissent, anno quadrag●simo s●cundo sui imperij, quo anno 〈…〉 est, a Praside Syriae C●●ino caeteroque orbe Edictum Tarraconae decretum executioni 〈…〉, cu●●s computationem Hispa●ia omnis, non á generali executione per universum facta, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 facti ret●nuit. Episcopus Geraldensis Paralipon. Hispan. lib. 10.  And for this reason it is, that the Church of Spain did anciently begin their computation of years, not from our Saviour's birth, as we do, but from the date of Augustus his Decree for the universal tax first enacted in Spain, though not put in execution till our Saviour's birth, about some 26. years after. So that of his birth, as well the earthquake in judaea, as the general wars and the universal peace which ensued, were infallible presages unto all such as duly compared the Signs of the time with the Prophet's prediction. Thus much of those particular Prophecies on which john's faith, before he received this answer from our Saviour, was grounded. Unto which a little is to be added, concerning the peculiar signs of the time, which did accompany our Saviour's baptism.  
61. It was a perpetual Law unto the Israelites, that 
Mem. 2 Branch. 2. Of the signs of the time which did accompany our Saviour's baptism.  as every seventh day was a day of rest unto themselves, so every seventh year should be a year of rest unto the ground. It was not in that year to be tilled. Now, at the end of every seventh year of Sabbaths or rest, that is, after 49. years ended, they were to have the year of jubilee. The year wherein john began to baptise and perform his ministry, was the seventh sabbatical year, a year most observable by the Law; but this Law concerning the years of Sabbaths or of rest, as the modern jews themselves confess, was but slenderly or not at all observed by their forefathers after their return from Babylon. And for this sin, amongst others, they have had for a long time no Land of their own wherein to observe it. The time of the year wherein john begun to enter upon his office or ministry, as some 
* Functius Reusnerns.  Chronologers rightly gather, was in the beginning of September. In the beginning of which Month, as you may read, Leuitic. 23. they were to observe the feasts of Trumpets, by which Ceremony the other solemn feasts in the same month, as the feast of the Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles were proclaimed. Whether the jews after their return from Captivity, did observe this solemnity, or neglect it, as they had done the years of Sabbaths, I well know not, and much it skilleth not. It sufficeth us to observe, that the mystery fore-signified by the ceremony or solemnity which the Law commanded, was duly observed and fulfilled by john: for he in the beginning of this month, began to lift up his voice like a Trumpet in the wilderness, as the Herald or Ambassador of that God whom in all their solemn Feasts, especially in these of the seventh month, 
* Vide Isai, 58. 1, 2. Mal. 3. v. 1.  the jews did seek, and whom they now might both have seen and felt; unless they had been worse than blind, unless they had winked with their eyes, and wilfully bereft themselves of their senses. Now, to awake them out of this slumber, the same God whom they sought, being deprived of this his Herald or Crier by Herod's cruelty, proclaimed himself, as you may read in the forecited place, joh. 7. 37. to be that God or Fountain of Life, whereto john by his baptism did direct them: In the last day, that great day of the Feast, (to wit, the Feast of Tabernacles, in which feast john's baptism was most famous) jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Our blessed Saviour in this Proclamation, acteth but that very part, which he had penned for himself: He had dictated it to the Prophet Isaiah as he was the Wisdom and Son of GOD; by whose spirit the whole body of Scriptures was written, to whom all the Prophets and Evangelists were but Scribes or amanuensis. He now uttereth and acteth it with the voice and gesture of man. But what date doth the penning and writing of it bear? God himself had thus invited them, Isay 55. vers. 1, 2. Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat, yea come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently v●to me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. But this Proclamation of our Saviour fell out after john's death, and was the last solemn invitation which he made unto the jews at jerusalem; of which by God's assistance, hereafter. Another special sign of the time, by which john's faith was confirmed, is from the Circumstance of the time and place, wherein our Saviour was baptised by him.  
62. I am not ignorant, that there hath been an ancient tradition, 
At what time of the year, or on what day our Saviour was baptised.  especially in the Western Church, that our Saviour was baptised upon the sixth of january, which we call the Epiphany or the twelfth day. And the Church of England, not willing to descent from the Romish Church, save only in matters of great consequence, or in points wherein that Church hath no show of antiquity, retaineth in part the Liturgy or Service which that Church had appointed for that day. So you may find the second Lesson usually read in our Churches upon that day, to be the third Chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel, wherein the History of our Saviour's baptism is most expressly mentioned; and at the end of the History concerning our Saviour's baptism, the second Lesson appointed by our Church for that day, doth end. But in a part of the Liturgy to this day used in the Romish Church, to wit, in the Anthem appointed for that very day, it is in express terms avouched; [Hodie à joanne in jordane Christus baptizari voluit;] This day our Saviour pleased to be baptised of john in jordane. Notwithstanding all this, jansenius that reverend Bishop of Gant, a most learned and ingenuous Interpreter of the sour Evangelists, albeit he died a member of the then visible Romish Church wherein he lived, did not think himself bound to believe either the practice or tradition of that Church, because in his judgement it was not warantable by Scripture, specially if they took the words before cited in the strict and literal sense. For being so taken, it contradicts the words of Saint Luke, chap. 3. ver. 23. And jesus himself (when he was baptised of john) began to be about thirty years of age: Or (as he reads) was almost thirty years of age, when he began to enter upon his function: which bears date from the day of his baptism. Now if he had been baptised upon the sixth of january, or the Epiphany, he must needs have been either 13. days above 30. years old, or but 13. days above 29. Some Romanists, acknowledging our Saviour to have been baptised before he was 30. years of age complete, account his age from his conception, in respect whereof, he was almost thirty, when he was but some few days above 29. years old, if we account his age from his Nativity. Others would have him baptised in the 31. year of his age, accounting his 
Naclantus in medulla Scripturae.  age from his Nativity. For, suppose he had been baptised upon the sixth of january, after thirty years complete, he might as truly be said to have been then about thirty years, as if he had been baptised some few days or weeks before he was thirty. But the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when it signifies about this or that time, doth usually signify rather short than over. And for this reason jansenius, although he point the Original, as the followers of this last opinion do, yet liketh much better of Epiphanius his opinion, who was an ancient Writer, and a professed Collector of ancient 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  traditions or opinions; and he referreth the day of our Saviour's baptism unto the seventh of November. So doth learned Chemnitius refer it to the feast of the Encenia or purification of the Temple. But some other Chronologers of reformed Churches, with more probability, refer the day of his baptism unto the tenth of September, which was the feast of the Atonement. Upon this day the Angel appeared unto Zacharias, whilst he was burning Incense in the holy place, and foretold the birth and conception of john Baptist.  
63. The consonancy of many types and signs of the time with this opinion, is very great and very pleasant. But if I should relate them all, you would happily say, they are but conjectural, because not grounded upon testimony of Scripture. Many of them I must confess, are neither expressly foretold by any Prophet, nor really foreshaddowed or prefigured, for aught I know, by any real event or matter of fact, or by any solemnity commanded by the Law 
The Cerenony concerning the scape-Goat and other solemnities used in the Feast of the Atonement, mystically fulfilled in our Saviour upon the day of his baptism.  of Moses. Yet one event there is which followed immediately upon our Saviour's baptism, so expressly related by three Evangelists, that it doth necessarily argue some prefiguration or fore-shadowing in the Law or books of Moses: for so every remarkable event or action which concerns our Saviour Christ was foreshaddowed. The event whereof now I speak, was his leading into the Wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the Devil. So saith Saint Mark expressly (what the others intimate.) And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness. Mark 1. 12. Now the end of his going or being led thither (though few Interpreters have observed it) was, to fulfil the mystery fore-signified by the Scape-goate, which upon the day of Atonement, as we read, Levit. 16. 21. was to be led by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness, after Aaron or his Successor the high-Priest had laid his hands upon his head, and confessed over him all the Iniquities of Israel, and all the transgressions, and all their sins, putting them (as the Text saith,) upon the head of the Goat. Now, as it is evident out of Scripture, that our Saviour Christ was crucified at the time, that the Paschall Lamb was killed; to the end the World might take notice, that he was the Lamb of GOD, whose sacrifice the Paschall Lamb did prefigure; so by a certain Analogy of faith, we may rightly gather that our Saviour was led into the Wilderness by the Spirit, upon the same day, that the scape-Goat was by the prescript of Moses Law to be led thither; to the end that john, and such as were present, might believe and acknowledge, that the mystery foreshaddowed by the legal ceremony of the scape-Goate, was fulfilled in this jesus of Nazareth, whom they had seen and known baptised of john. Wherefore, in as much as it is evident out of Scripture, that the scape Goat was to be led into the Wilderness upon the Feast-day of the Atonement, and inasmuch as our Saviour was led into the Wilderness, immediately after he was baptised; the conclusion will directly follow, that our Saviour was baptised upon the Feast of the Atonement, which was the tenth of September. So that john, by this account, was a quarter of a year above thirty, and declining towards the wane, and our Saviour growing up into his full age, being a quarter 
Mem. 2. Branch. 2.  under thirty, when he was baptised of john. The end of our Saviour's going into the Wilderness, was (as you heard before) to be tempted of the Devil; and amongst other means, to be tempted especially by fasting. This temptation doubtless did not befall him for his own sake, but that he might fully expiate the sins committed by the Israelites in the Wilderness, from whose curse their posterity was not acquitted, until he which was prefigured by the Scape-Goate, had really and bodily undergone the burden of it, as the Scape-Goate in shadow or ceremony only had done. One special end of his going upon this day into the Wilderness, was, to carry thither the sins of all that came unto john's baptism. For, as many as were baptised by john, confessed their sins. And if john did not, no question but He, who was to accomplish as well that which was foreshaddowed by Aaron, as by the Scape-Goate, did put all the sins, which had been confessed to john, or to God in john's presence, upon himself, as Aaron did put all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their transgressions (being first confessed) upon the head of the Goat, before he sent him into the Wilderness. Levit. 16. vers. 21. Where we are by the way to note, that this people did always with their own sins solemnly confess the sins of their forefathers. The especial sins which the Israelites had committed in the Wilderness, were their tempting of God, saying, Is the Lord amongst us or no? and their rebellious murmuring against God, and his servant Moses, in their grievance of hunger and thirst, or in their intemperate longings after their Egyptian diet. For this sin they were stung with fiery Serpents; the relics or Offsprings of their first Parents curse, whom the old Serpent had feduced and made subject to annoyance by the venomous Creatures. And this sin was remarkably and fully expiated by our Saviour's fasting forty days and forty nights in the Wilderness, and by his vanquishing the Tempter himself the old Serpent in this temptation (as we say) at his own weapon. For at this time he escaped the malice of the Devil; the powers of darkness had no power over him. And this was prefigured by the Scape-Goate, which being led into the Wilderness, was to be let go by the man that led him.  
64. Probable it is, that john Baptist from his observance, how exactly our Saviour had fulfilled the type of the Scape-Goate, did (upon his return from the Wilderness) pre-collect or prognosticate, that he should as exactly fulfil the type or mystery of the Paschall Lamb, and hence proclaims him to be that Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of the World, more than three years before our Saviour's Apostles or Disciples did know the meaning of this mystery, or the congruity between the shadow and the body. It is remarkably said by our Apostle, That our Saviour is the body whereof legal ceremonies were the shadows. But you must understand a body so heterogeneal and complete, that no one or few legal ceremonies could perfectly fore-shaddow it. But as the Ceremonies were many and almost infinite; so every one did fore-shaddow some part or piece of this complete body; no remarkable part of it, that 
Mem. 2. Branch 2.  is, no special event or action which concerned our Saviour Christ, but was foreshaddowed by some or other legal ceremony. As his leading into the Wilderness upon the day of the Atonement, was foreshaddowed by the Ceremony of the Scape-Goate; so his Baptism upon the same day, was as expressly foreshaddowed or prefigured, as any event concerning him, either was or could be, by the Legal Ceremony, which Aaron, or his Successor the Highpriest, were to observe upon the same day, to wit, upon the Feast of the Atonement: And Aaron shall come into the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and shall put off the Linen garments which he put on, when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt Offering, and the burned Offering of the people, and make an Atonement for himself, and for the people. Levit. 16. ver. 23, 24. Aaron was to wash his body in the holy place, as standing in need of Legal sanctification from it: So unable was he to sanctify himself or it. Our Saviour's body was washed in jordan, and by his bodily presence sanctified both the water and the place, yea Heaven itself, or that heavenly Mansion, whereof the Aaronical holy place was but a shadow, was now purified by our Saviour's Baptism, as it was afterwards to be cleansed and sanctified by his blood. Between the circumstance of the time when, and the circumstance of the place wherein our Saviour was baptised, the comfort is sweet.  
65. Our Saviour was baptised by john at Bethabera beyond jordane, as is evident from Saint john the Evangelist, Chap. 1. vers. 28. This was the place (as the name imports) where the Israelites under the conduct of joshua or jesus the son of Nun, first entered into the Land of Canaan, the Land of their promised rest. And in token that this was the Land which God had promised unto Abraham, and that this was the time and place wherein God did tender performance of his promise unto Abraham and his seed, so far as it concerned the blessing or Inheritance temporal; the River of jordane in that very season wherein it was accustomed to overflow his banks, did divide itself, and retract the stream, to give the seed of Abraham as safe and dry a passage into the Land of Canaan, as the Red sea had given them ou● of Egypt. The reason why jesus the Son of God would be baptised at this place, rather than at any other, and the reason why the heavens did open over him being in this place baptised, was to show, that He was the jesus which was to conduct them into their rest indeed, into that Land, whereof the Land of Canaan was but the Map; that he was the man in whom Gods promise unto Abraham performed in part by jesus the son of Nun, was to be finally accomplished. The opening of the heavens, and the emission of that voice from God's presence, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, was a full and satisfactory answer unto all the prayers which the high-Prists did annually make, when they went into the most holy place. But in what sort jesus the son of Nun, or that other jesus the son of josedech did fore-shaddow the Son of God, will come into more particular consideration in a fitter place. Thus far of the Prophecies on which 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  john Baptists belief or warrant for baptising was grounded, and of the signs of the time expounding the meaning of these Prophecies unto him, or his attentive Auditors before his imprisonment.   

The third Branch of the second Member. The consonancy between those Scriptures whereunto our Saviour in this answer referreth john, and the former Prophecies on which john's faith was grounded, with the congruity of time and other circumstances or occurrences, which unfold their meaning.  
IIsdem alimur ex quibus constituimur: As every thing's first breeding or beginning 
§. 66.  hath been, such commonly is the manner of its nourishment or feeding. Bodies or creatures merely vegetable, as Trees, Plants, Herbs, Corn, Grasse, and the like, seek after no other nutriment than the juice or moisture of the fattened earth, with which kind of nutriment Creatures endued with sense cannot thrive or prosper. The meanest food that can give satisfaction to the meanest of them, is vegetable, as Grass, Corn, Herbs, or other fruits of the Fields or Trees. Some kind of creatures endued with sense there be, which must be nourished with others of the same, but of inferior kind. As the Lion will not feed on straw with the Ox or Ass, but feedeth on these and other like Creatures consisting of flesh and blood, as these do on vegetables. So that there be almost as many several sorts of nutriment or feeding, as there be several or distinct kinds of creatures nourished and fed. And not so only, but even creatures of the same kind have their variety of nutriment. Though all receive their nutriment from the fatness of the earth, yet is not every vegetable alike content with every soil.  
Hîc segetes, illic veniunt foelicius vuae.  
Some soils yield plentiful nutriment to Vines or Plants, but are not so kind Nurses unto Corn or Herbs. Some kind of mould is good for Corn, not altogether so good for Grass. And in the same mould wherein Rye or Oats grow up and prosper, Wheat or Barley thrive not so well. Now, albeit God allowed greater variety of food or nourishment to mankind, than to all other kinds of Creatures beside; (for most creatures vegetable, or such as feed on vegetables, are given by express Charter unto man for food:) yet we see by experience, that some men either by peculiar constitution of body, or by long accustoming themselves unto some special kind of food, are more delighted & like better with that, than with any other. And albeit a man by ill diet, whereunto he hath been long accustomed, shall contract any disease or distemperature; yet a skilful Physician will be as careful to give some contentment unto custom, as to correct the present distemper. The use or end of all nutriment, in what body soever, is to continue life and health, and to augment strength. And our several refections should be as so many several invitations 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  or entertainments of the soul or spirit of life, that it would be pleased to reside where now it doth, until God provide it of a better residence. Now, as every vegetable or sensitive body liveth by its soul, so the reasonable soul of man liveth by faith. The first original or seed of faith, is the Word of God. The only nutriment of faith, or of the soul which seeks to live by faith, is experiment or observation of events, whether in ourselves or without us, answerable to the Word of God, from which faith had its first seeds or beginning. Again, as every man is most bound to observe those rules of Scripture, which most concern himself or his profession: so those experiences or tastes of God's blessings which suit best with his peculiar kind of life, yield best nutriment unto faith once begotten. Every man's growth in faith is then most firm and solid, when it proceedeth from a perfect growth in those Scriptures from which it took first root, and from whose experienced truth it was formerly nourished and increased.  
67. Seeing then john's faith in jesus of Nazareth, as in the Messias then revealed, did spring from God's Word uttered by Isaias the Prophet, as from its first root, and had been nourished by sensible experiments and manifest signs of the time, answerable to the Prophet Isaias predictions concerning john's office: for this reason it is, that our Saviour, who best knew what answer would be most fitting and most satisfactory to john's demand, returneth him no other answer than you often have heard read unto you; The blind receive their sight, the halt go, etc. The sum of the answer is a brief rehearsal of the various miracles which our Saviour had lately wrought and continued to work, when john's Disciples came unto him. Now, all the miracles here recited, are but so many sensible experiments of those predictions, wherein john's faith concerning the discharge of his office was first grounded; experiments of the very selfsame kind, by which his former faith had been nourished and confirmed. Such experiments they are as could not but strengthen his faith, although it had been weakened by doubt or distrust: experiments in themselves able to revive his faith, although it had been more than half stifled by despair.  
68 The special places of the Prophet Isay, by which john was directed in the execution of his office of preaching Repentance or baptising, and whereon his faith or belief of the Messias which was to come was grounded, have been alleged and expounded to you before. They were for the most part such as did foretell strange wonders to be wrought in the desert, as the bursting out of waters in dry places, turning of Valleys into Mountains, planting of the Wilderness with pleasant Trees. All which predictions were only or especially to be fulfilled in their allegorical or parabolical sense, that is, in the strange alterations of men's affections and dispositions, which did follow upon john's Baptism, yet not wrought by john, but by him that came after him, which was to baptise with the Holy Ghost and with fire. john, before his imprisonment, had seen good fruits of his Baptism and preaching of Repentance, he had seen the holy Ghost likewise descend in miraculous manner upon our Saviour, whereby he knew him to be the Anointed 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  of the Lord, and that righteous Branch of David, which was to accomplish whatsoever the Prophet Isay, or john out of him, had foretold. But as for miracles, john himself wrought none before his imprisonment, nor had he seen or heard our Saviour work any. As indeed he did work no miracles, besides the turning of water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee, which (as Saint john the Evangelist kelleth us) was the beginning of miracles, or as a proof or assay of his ability to work miracles when his hour was come; which was not, till john was imprisoned. But immediately after Herod had imprisoned john, our Saviour left judea and went into Galilee; where, by God's appointment, the Kingdom of heaven, whose approach john at his baptism had foretell, was to be proclaimed and established. The matter of fact, to wit, his going into Galilee upon john's imprisonment, is expressly related by Saint john, cap. 4. vers. 1, 2, 3. When therefore the Lord knew how the pharisees had heard, that jesus made and baptised more Disciples than john, (though jesus himself baptised not, but his Disciples) he left judaea, and departed again into Galilee: not so much for fear of the jews, as to accomplish that, for which he was sent into the world. The end of his going into Galilee at this time, after john had performed his office of baptising, and was now to decrease, is more expressly noted by Saint Matthew, chap. 4. vers. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Then the Devil leaveth him, a●d behold, Angels came and ministered unto him. Now when jesus had heard, that john was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelled in Capernaum, which is upon the Sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Napthaly: That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaias the Prophet, saying, The Land of Zabulon, and the Land of Napthaly, by the way of the Sea beyond jordane, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people which sat in darkness, saw great light, and to them which sat in the Region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. In particular to show you the whole manner how this Prophecy was fulfilled by our Saviour's going out of judaea into Galilee, by his leaving Nazareth, and repairing to Capernaum, would require a longer discourse than is fitting for the Pulpit. Some touch of it, perhaps I shall give you in the conclusion of our Saviour's answer to john, as it concerns the first place of Isay, whereto he referreth him. That which I would now have you to observe out of the Evangelist Saint Matthew, is this: First, that this Prophecy was fulfilled in our Saviour's promulgation of the Gospel in those places. Secondly, albeit our Saviour was anointed King of judah, and inaugurated to the Kingdom of heaven at his baptism; yet he did not take actual possession of his Kingdom, or give Laws unto his subjects, he did not fully exercise his Regal authority over Satan and the unclean spirits his angels, nor establish the Kingdom of Grace by signs or wonders, until the time of john's imprisonment. Thus much is evident from the words of Saint Matthew, Chap. 4. vers. 17. From that time (to wit, from john's imprisonment) jesus began to preach, & to say, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. From the same time he did choose his twelve Apostles, and gave Authority to them and to the seventy Disciples 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  to preach the Kingdom, to heal all manner of diseases, and to deliver the people from the tyranny of Satan. From the same time our Saviour began to make that excellent Sermon upon the Mount, whereof you may read, Matth. 5, & 6. which is the fundamental Charter, by which the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth is established. Now, albeit john did work no miracles himself, nor had seen our Saviur work any before his imprisonment; yet he had engaged his credit and reputation with the people, (who took him for no less than a Prophet,) that jesus of Nazareth, whom he baptised in jordane, should work such miracles as Isaias the Prophet had foretold the Rod or Branch of jesse should work; and accomplish all, which the said Prophet had foretold should ensue upon the voice crying in the wilderness. That john had thus far engaged himself for winning reputation to his Lord and Master, is evident from the fruits or effects of this his engagement, manifested in the people. john 10. v. 39, 40, 41, 42. After our Saviour had escaped out of the hands of the jews, he went away again beyond jordane, into the place where john at first baptised, and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said; john did no miracle, but all things that john spoke of this man, were true. And many believed on him there. Now, albeit john, after he had seen the holy Ghost descend upon our Saviour, did never doubt whether he was the promised Messias or no: yet what greater comfort or satisfaction could john receive being now imprisoned, than to have an acquittance from his former Engagement for our Saviour, sealed by such visible and sensible events as are here related, and solemnly acknowledged and delivered by him for whom john stood engaged, who had fully discharged whatsoever john had promised on his behalf? That this answer of our Saviour did really discharge john of his former engagement, and fully acquit him from all suspicion of collusion or compact with jesus of Nazareth, whom he baptised, and proclaimed to be the Messias; might easily have appeared to the most malicious jew then living, that would but have compared the miracles here related, with the predictions of the Prophet Isay, laying both of them to heart, and weighing them with the circumstances of the several times. The testimonies are two. The first prediction of the Prophet Isay, whereto our Saviour in this answer referreth john, and all such as should seek satisfaction from him, is, Isay 35. but especially, vers. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with ve●igeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an Hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the Wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty Land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass, with reeds and rushes.  
69. The Testimonies before cited out of Isay, albeit they were abundantly sufficient to beget faith in john himself, and others that did unpartially consider 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  and compare them with the signs of the time and other circumstances, of which you have heard: yet were they not so apt or effectual to convince the froward and partial hearers, as this last cited Testimony was, and is. Against the former places, and the expositions which john made of them to himself and to his Disciples, pride & malice or fretting jealousy might have made these or the like exceptions, plausible enough to discontented minds, or to men possessed with a prejudicate opinion either of john, or of jesus of Nazareth, whom john proclaimed for the Messias. Thus might such men as I now spoke of, have objected. It is true which john allegeth for his Commission out of Isay, That there shall a voice be heard crying in the wilderness, to prepare the ways of the Messias whom we expect; that the Lord will work strange wonders in the desert, upon the Messias his declaration unto Israel. But, who shall assure us, that this john is to be the Crier or Herald, which Isay foretell should usher the Messias into his Kingdom; or that this jesus whom he proclaimeth, should be the Branch of jesse, the Son of David, and that Christ or Anointed of the LORD, whom we expect? The Prophet doth not so plainly describe the voice of one crying in the wilderness, either by name, by parentage, or by dwelling; but that it is possible for some other man to come after john, which may have better right to that Office, which he takes upon him, than, for aught that yet appears, he hath. It is no miracle for a man of better note than john is, to pretend or counterfeit such revelations or expositions of the Prophets, as he maketh show of: for as yet he hath given us no real proof of his extraordinary calling, by any evident miracle or vndo●bred wonder; & without some apparent miracle, his testimony of himself or of jesus of Nazareth is not concludent. Nor do we in thus saying, any way question the truth of Isaiahs' predictions; but only whether this man which takes upon him to be a Crier in the wilderness, be the very man whom Isay meant in the Prophecy alleged by john, or no. What if many of such as repaired to this john in the wilderness, have, upon his baptism & the doctrine of repentance which he taught, become new men, nothing like to the men they had been? What if some of them, being before more barren than the Bramble, have since his baptism showed themselves more fruitful than the Figtree or the Olive? What if others, of men more ravenous than Wolves, have become as moderate in their desires, and as harmless in their actions as the silly Lamb? What if others, heretofore as fierce and cruel as the Leopard and the Lion, are now become (to most men's seeming) as tame and gentle as the Ox, the Ass, or other like domestic creature? What if th●rs, heretofore noted to be as venomous as the Asp or Cochatrice, have now gotten an opinion in 〈…〉 (since they were disciplined by john) for 〈…〉 and placable, as the sucking Infant or the new wearned child? Yet who knows whether this se●●●ing Sanctity or change of mind may not be counterferted or pretended only? or whether these men may not within short space return again unto their former temper, and appear in their inbred native 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  likeness?  
70. These and the like exceptions might malice, pride, envious icalousie, or prejudicate opinions have made, with some colour of probability, unto men offended with john Baptists person; specially, if they had made them immediately after he began to baptise. And it would have been an hard task for john to have refused the objections, or convinced the Obiectors, out of the testimonies of the Prophet Isay before cited. But now that pride and malice itself might see the blind restored unto their perfect sight, the Lame unto their right use of limbs; now, that men (happily) heretofore offended with john Baptists person or our Saviour's, might perfectly know, such as they had formerly known to be altogether truly dea●e, to be as well able to hear as to be heard: in that they might hear such as wer● perfectly dumb, to speak distinctly; in that they might see lare nasty and loathsome Lepers become as clean and comely of body as themselves: nor pride, nor malice itself (so they would suffer themselves to be throughly informed these matters of fact) could mo●e any question whether these and the like were the very men or ●o, whom Isay the Prophet meant in the Prophe●●● last cited Chap. 35. And being once truly informed in matters of fact, to wit, [that these miracles were truly wrought, and wrought by that jesus of Nazareth, whom john proclaimed to be the Messias,] they could not question whether the same God, which had sent Isaias the Prophet to foretell these strange wonders, had not also seat this jesus of Nazareth to accomplish that in deed and truth, which Isaias had foretell, and which was in part foreshaddowed in the days of Ezechtah and the Prophet Isay. For, albeit the malicious pharisees or other jews, whom God had given over to a reprobate sense, might have calumniated our Saviour, as if he had wrought these miracles here mentioned, by the power of Satan, as they said sometimes that he did cast out Devils by the power of Beelzebub Prince of Devils; yet could not calumny, nor malice itself, entertain a suspicious thought, that the Prophet Isay should foretell the working of these miracles by the spirit of jyes or of Satan. For Isaias plainly affirmeth, that their GOD should bring this salvation which he promiseth. Of which salvation the miracles wrought in my Text, are the undoubted pledges, or rather the first beginnings. So it is said, 
* Isa. 35. 5.  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. This word [Then] presupposeth a time when those miracles should be wrought: and this time was, when God should come to save his people. God did often save his people: But it is one thing for God to save his people, and another, that God should come to save his people. It is one thing that God should come to save his people, another, that God the Avenger, that God the Recompencer or Rewarder, [their God in special,] should come to save them. Yet are all these branches emphatically contained in the literal sense or Grammatical construction of the former words: Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a Recompense, he will come and save you. Isay 35. vers. 4. This argueth a special manner, and an extraordinary measure of Salvation. In brief, the sum or extract of the whole Chapter is this. The miraculous alterations 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  in the Wilderness, as of waters breaking out, etc. mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter, (elsewhere so often inculcated by the Prophet, and fulfilled upon john's Baptism,) were sure prognostics or presages of Gods coming to save his people: and the particular miracles foretell, vers. 4. & now wrought by our Saviour, were infallible signs or demonstrations from the effect, that the Lord, whose ways the Crier in the Wilderness was sent to prepare (that very God of whom Isaias here speaks) was come in person to save his people. And it is probable, that john's Question, Art thou he that should come, & c? had peculiar reference unto this place; at least, our Saviour's referring Him to this place, would give him full satisfaction that he was to expect no other to come.  
71. Besides the evident fulfilling of this Prophecy, beyond the utmost extent of its plain Grammatical sense; the signs and circumstances of the time would much avail john, or others then better acquainted with the Histories or customs of the jewish Nations, than now we are. Concerning the circumstances of the times wherein Isaias uttered this Prophecy, thus much in general is undoubtedly true. The Revelation or Prophecy was first conceived or uttered by Isaias, at that very time, wherein Sennacherib King of Assyria had laid the Land of judah waste, and put jerusalem unto that great distress, whereof you may read 36. Chapter of this Prophecy, as also in the eighteenth and nineteenth of the second Book of Kings: Which desolation and distress, as also the deliverance from it, the same Prophet Isaias had foretell, as you may read Isa. 8, 9, and 10. Chap●ers, and the latter part of the seventh chapter. The History of Sennacheribs' attempt against jerusalem, with his mighty overthrow, and of Ezechias sickness and recovery, ar● inserted at large between the 35. and 40. Chapters of this Prophet, not through negligence of the Collectors or Compilers of these sacred Volumes, but by the special direction of the holy Spirit, to the end, that the Reader might compare the historical events with the Prophetical predictions, and their Euangelical accomplishments with the historical events or portendments. That these Prophecies of Isaias in particular, although literally 
Of the sign given to Hezekias for his deliverance from the Assyrian; and what the signs or circumstances of those times did fore-shaddow.  and historically verified in the days of Hezekiah, did in the opinion of the ancient jews portend or prefigure some greater mysteries to be accomplished in latter ages, we need no further Testimony than that of the Son of Sirach. chap. 48. vers. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. He smote the Host of the Assyrians, and his Angel destroyed them. For Ezechias had done the thing that pleased the LORD, and was strong in the ways of David his Father, as Isay the Prophet, who was great and faithful in his vision, had commanded him. in his time the Sun went backward, and he lengthened the King's life. He saw by an excellent spirit, what should come to pass at last, and he comforted them that mourned in Zion. He showed what should come to pass for ever, and secret things or ever they came.  
71. That blasphemous message, which Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah by Rabshakeh his General, happened in the beginning of the seventh sabbatical year: and Hezekiah and his people's delmerance (by Sennacheribs' 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  overthrow) was accomplished in the year following, which was the year of jubilee. Thus much ●he lirerall sense and meaning of the Sign which the Prophet Isay gave to Hezekiah, doth (to my apprehension) directly import. Isay 37. vers. 30. This shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of it self; (this was the express Law of the sabbatical or seventh year, as you may read, Levit. 25. vers. 3, 4, 5, 6) and the second year that which springeth of the same. This is the express Law of the year of jabile, which did always immediately follow the seventh sabbatical year, as you may read, Levit. 25. vers. 11, 12. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap: that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the Grapes in it of thy Vineyard. For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. How well or ill, this people at other times did practise this precept, whilst they lived under Kings which were of the Race of David, I now inquire not. The Lord at this time had enforced them to make a virtue of necessity, and to rely mecrely upon his extraordinary blessing upon their Fields and Vineyards (specially such as were within their walled Cities) without their own labour or husbandry, either in sowing, planting or reaping; in all which, although they had been disposed to break the Law of the jubilee, yet the enemy had prevented them. Howbeit, at the end of two years, the Lord had promised deliverance from the present siege and fear of their potent enemy, as it followeth in the Prophet, And in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant Vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. This sign 
* Vide leremy 34. vers. 13, 14, 15.  was a sign of a Covenant between God and them: a pledge or earnest, that if they performed the precept of the Law concerning the jubilee and sabbatical year: he would perform the thing signified by the ceremony of the Jubilee, that is, joyful deliverance from the oppressor. This extraordinary blessing of God upon their Plants and Vineyards, during the time of the siege, was a sign or pledge of God's extraordinary blessings upon the besieged, as well Prince as people, after the siege was broken up, and the mighty army of the Assyrians destroyed and scattered. For so it followeth in the Prophet. vers. 31, 32. And the remnant that is escaped of the House of judah, shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this.  
73. What question soever some curious Chronologer may move concerning the computation of time, as whether this deliverance did precisely fall out in the year of jubilee by the Law apppointed, or in some year substituted in lieu of the jubilee before neglected: sure I am, that whatsoever this year of their deliverance did want of the legal form, was abundantly supplied in the reality or substance of the year of jubilee. No servant throughout all the Land of jewry did ever rejoice more at the approach of any year of jubilee, than all the Freemen and Masters in jerusalem, than all the Princes and Nobles of judah, than the King himself did rejoice at their deliverance from the yoke of the Assyrian, whose overthrow the Prophet compareth unto the overthrow of Pharaoh, 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  
* Vide Isay 11. vers. 16, 17.  Isay 10. vers. 26, 27. And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb, and as his rod was upon the Sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed, because of the anointing. Of this strange deliverance from Sennacherib, the strange birth of the Emanuel mentioned, Isay 7. 14. and of the Child likewise mentioned, Isay 8. 1. (whether that were the same or some other) were pledges or signs unto this people. So was the deliverance of Hezekiah and his people, a type or shadow of a greater deliverance from a greater enemy in the days of the Messias, and all the joy which was conceived upon the destruction of Sennacheribs' Army, was but a picture of that joy which this people was to expect upon the anointment of their Messias, as may appear from the ninth of Isay, vers. 3, 4, 5, 6. Thou hast multiplied the Nation, and not increased the joy, (or as the latter English hath it, To him thou hast increased the joy, or perhaps it may be rendered, Hast thou not increased the joy?) they joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the Warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a Child is borne, unto us a Son is given, etc.  
74. Nothing more usual with God's Prophets, than to prefix denunciations of woe and misery to Prophecies of comfort: and to make the experienced accomplishment of woes foretell, the infallible avouchers of ensuing joys. To omit other instances or exemplifications of this observation, elsewhere handled, the connexion of the fortieth Chapter of Isay (whence johns Commission for baptising with water was derived) with that doleful prediction, Isay the thirty ninth, vers. 7. is remarkable. So is the connexion of the ninth Chapter of the same Prophet with the eighth, especially if we set the full point in the Hebrew where Saint jeremy found it, and where Arias Montanus in the great Bible hath placed it. For so the first words of the ninth Chapter, according to our present English, should be the latter end of the eighth Chapter, and should be rendered thus: There shall be no flight, no hope of escape from the straits or anguish that besets him. And according to this reading, the former Prophecy of woe and misery should here end. After which the Prophecy of joy and comfort doth immediately ensue in the beginning of the ninth Chapter, to this or like effect: The Land of Zabulon, and the Land of Nepthaly were the first of all the Tribes of Israel, that were found light (and swept away by the Oppressor) but in latter days the way of the Sea beyond jordane, Galilee of the Nations shall be glorious. The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: they that dwell in the Land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. I am the bolder to commend this sense to the judicious and learned, because it sets the Prophetical prediction, and the evangelical Narration, Matth. 4. vers. 15. in an even and parallel course. Whereas the 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  ordinary reading and pointing of the beginning of that ninth Chapter of Isay, is so perplexed, that many good Interpreters by following it, have made the Evangelist (for aught that I can see) to fall foul upon the Prophet, and the historical event, (if this prediction were historically verified in Hezekias days) to cross the evangelical mystery related by St. Matthew. Unto both these inconveniences, but especially unto this latter, another oversight or non-obseruance, (not so much in point of Grammar, as of History or Geography) have given great occasion. For it is commonly received, though without all ground, yea contrary to the ground of sacred History, that Sennacheribs' army was destroyed by the Angel, near unto jerusalem. But could we as clearly gather where Sennacheribs' army was destroyed, as we can clearly prove that it was not destroyed about jerusalem: the fulfilling of this Prophecy would be as perspicuous for the manner or circumstance, as it is remarkable for substance. But the search of the place where Sennacheribs' army was destroyed, we leave to the Schools. For the Prophecy itself [The Land of Zabulon, and the Land of Nepthaly, etc.] whether it were not at all verified by any real event, until it was accomplished by our Saviour's transmigration from judea into Galilee, or whether it were ratified by some historical event in Hezekias his days, as by the manner of Sennacheribs' overthrow, certainly the Prophet's special intent and purpose was to give posterity notice, that as the Land of Zabulon, of Nepthaly, the way of the Sea, etc. were first captivated by the Assyrian, so they should be the first spectators of that great victory, which the Angel of God, the great Angel of the Covenant, was to have over those powers of darkness, which the Assyrian tyranny did but fore-shaddow. And this was the reason why our Saviour upon john's imprisonment, leaving judea, went into Galilee, because his Sovereignty over Satan was to be manifested, and the Kingdom of Heaven first proclaimed and established there. And thus much of the former testimony, Isay 35. whereto our Saviour in this Answer referreth john, and of the signs and circumstances of the time, wherein the Prophecy was first conceived, or of the times immediately ensuing.  
75. The second testimony whereto this Answer referreth john, and which doth well illustrate & ratify our observations upon the former, is Isay 61. vers. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me, to preach good tidings unto the meek. I must here give you notice, that whereas our English reads, To preach glad tidings unto the meek or poor, the phrase in the Original is the selfsame with this here in my Text. Only the Verb in the Original is the Active, because the Prophet foretells the Office of CHRIST: but in the Evangelist, who showeth the effects or fruits of Christ's Office, it must needs be as you will easily conceive, a passive. Wherefore I must descent as well from our English as from our Latin Translations, in the translation of the Hebrew in the Prophet, as I did before in the translation of the Greek here in the Evangelist. The vulgar Latin having rightly translated the Greek here in my Text, [pauperes evangelizantur,] doth vary from it 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  self and from the truth in the interpretation of the Prophet. For so he renders it, as our English doth, [Misit me evangelizare pauperibus,] He sent me to preach unto the poor: whereas if this translation had been constant to itself, it should have been, [misit me evangelizare, or evangelizatum pauperes,] he hath ●ent me to Euangelize the poor in spirit. And to Euangelize them, is as much as to imprint the Gospel or Kingdom of Grace in their hearts. And this interpretation of the Prophet may be necessarily inferred from the circumstances of the Prophetical Text itself, by the same Arguments which before were used for interpreting the Evangelists. To preach the Gospel unto the poor, is only to make them a promise of the Kingdom of Grace; which cannot be the true or full meaning of the Prophet in this place: for this first clause, [misit me evangelizatum pauperes,] is the general root wherein all the Clauses following are contained, as branches. Now this Anointed of the Lord here spoken of, did not only promise to bind up the brokenhearted, but did bind them up. He did not only promise liberty to the Captives, or the opening of the prisons to such as were shut up; but did set both at liberty. As we say, Christ's bene dicere is bene facere: so Christ's Proclamation of liberty to the Captives in this place, was their actual freedom or manumission. The enemy's yoke was to dissolve and break, upon this anoyntments pouring out, as the wax melteth before the fire. So much the Prophetical phrase in the Original, chap. 10. vers. 27. doth import. In like manner, when it is said, that he did [evangelizare pauperes,] evangelise the poor; it is not only meant, that he did preach the Gospel or glad tidings unto them, but made them actual partakers of that Spirit of joy and gladness, wherewith God, even his God had anointed him above his fellows. This often-mentioned Euangelization of the poor, and meek in spirit, is as much as that which followeth, vers. 3. To give beauty for Ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning. Now, if you call to mind what was before delivered, That our Saviour was anointed to his Prophetical and Kingly Office at his baptism, by the holy Ghost descending upon him in the shape of a Dove; and that john, upon the first hearing of the City's name where he dwelled, did know him to be that Rod or Branch of jesse, on whom the Prophet Isay, chap. 11. ver. 1, 2. had foretell, the Spirit of the Lord should rest: Our Saviour's answer to john is as full and satisfactory, as the heart of john, or any man living could desire; so apposite and fitting, as nothing but the wisdom of God could devose. The sum of his answer is in effect this; Go show john again that the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of might and counsel, which Isay foretell should rest upon the Rod and Branch of jesse, and which john saw descend, and abide upon me in the shape or likeness of a Dove at my baptism, is not departed from me, it is upon me still. The ointment wherewith the Spirit anointed me, was not given me for mine own use; nor is it spent or consumed, although it powerfully diffuseth itself to all about me, that are not offended with me. By it the poor are made rich, even as rich as Kings, instated in the 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  Kingdom of grace and of the Gospel, and anointed heirs unto the Kingdom of Glory. By it every broken and contrite heart is healed: such as were shut up, are set at liberty; such as were bound, are loosed; by it the yoke of the oppressor is dissolved. Now, the end of all this change or alteration is, as the Prophet Isay concludeth, That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Isaiab 61. vers. 3. The Rod, the Branch of jesse, the Righteous Branch of David; were the known glorious titles of the Messiah or Son of David: and it was his glory, whilst he lived on earth, to make others like himself, trees or plants of righteousness. The Prophet's continuation of this Allegory in comparing men to trees, even in those places wherein the glory of Christ's Kingdom is most plainly, though must elegantly foreshaddowed, argueth the sum of all the wonders which he foretell should be wrought in the wilderness, and which he hath represented in such variety of Poetical pictures to be this; That the dry and barren places of judea wherein john baptised & preached repentance, as also the vast and barren places about the borders of Zabulon and Napthaly, which heretofore had scarce yielded any food or nutriment for ●ame beasts or cattle, much less any fit habitation or resort for men, should in the days of the Messiah, become the most fertile and fruitful Nursery of such plants and grafts, as God had prepared for the celestial Paradise. These trees of righteousness whereof the Prophet speaks, were first planted in the wilderness wherein our Saviour preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, and wrought miracles. They were instated in the Kingdom of Heaven, (as Feoffees in trust for the founding of some new Society or Corporation,) and made supporters or pillars of that Church militant, which hereafter shall become Triumphant.  
76. That which sealeth this admirable consonancy between the Prophetical predictions and these evangelical events or experiments, is the circumstance or signs of the time wherein these miracles mentioned in my Text were wrought, and wherein this message was sent unto john. This is intimated, when it is said, 
* Isa. 61. 2.  He was sent to preach liberty to the Captives, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. These are express Characters of the year of jubilee: and the year of jubilee is by interpretation, as much as the year of joy or rejoicing; declared by the sound of Trumpets. Now, john (as you heard before) began to lift up his voice like a Trumpet in the wilderness in the beginning of September, which was every year to the jews the feast of trumpets. Now, this feast of Trumpets, wherein john began to cry in the wilderness, was the later end of the seventh sabbatical year. Our Saviour, as you heard before was baptised upon the Feast of the Atonement, which was the beginning of the year of jubilee, wherein the jubilee was to be proclaimed with Trumpet. He was at the time of his baptism, as you heard before out of S. Luke, about thirty years of age: and an exquisite 
* Reusnerus Naclantus.  Chronologer hath well calculated, that the day wherein he was baptised, was the beginning of the thirtieth year of jubilee, after this people's entrance into the Land of promise. So that every year of our 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  Saviour's private life before he was declared unto Israel, was equivalent to the accomplishment of a jubilee, which is for fifty years; and the people might expect of him now coming to thirty years of age, whatsoever had been foreshaddowed in all the years of jubilee or joy, for fifteen hundred years from this people's entrance into the Land of promise. Now in this thirtieth year of the Legal jubilee, our Saviour began to preach the Gospel, that is, the joyful tidings of the Kingdom, and the liberty of the Sons of God: and in truth and substance to accomplish that, which was prefigured by the Legal jubilee. All the privileges or matters of rejoicing which the Legal jubilee did afford, are set down at large, Leuiti●. 25. vers. 9, 10. On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of Atonement, shall ye make the Trumpet sound throughout all your Land. And ye shall hollow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man to his possession, and ye shall return every man to his Family. And vers. 39, 40, 41. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant, but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee to the year of jubilee. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own Family, and unto the possession of his Fathers shall he return.  
77. If you desire to know the evangelical mysteries prefigured by these Legal privileges of the jubilee or fiftieth year; and the manner how all these prefigurations were fulfilled by our Saviour, at the time when he sent this answer unto john: you must consider, that no servant throughout the Land of jewrie, whether an hired servant of the seed of Abraham, or a bondman of the Nations, was ever in so great a bondage or hard servitude unto his master, as all the sons of Abraham, yea of Adam, were unto Satan. This acceptable year of the Lord, in number the thirtieth Legal jubilee, being first proclaimed by john, afterwards by a voice from heaven at our Saviour's baptism, and lastly by our Saviour himself after john's imprisonment, was the time appointed by God for the manumission or setting free of his people, and all mankind from the bondage and servitude to Satan. Nor did our Saviour only proclaim this acceptable year of the Lord, but did by deed and fact declare himself to be that Lord which had given the Law of jubilee unto the jews, and was now come in person to put the true intent and full meaning of it in execution, which was to set free all such as did hearken unto his voice, and sought to be eased from their slavery and thraldom. Of this present freedom or manumission, even these bodily miraculous Cures here mentioned in my Text, were undoubted effects, and so many ocular or sensible demonstrations. All these defects or imperfections of body, as blindness, lameness, deafness, dumbness, crookedness, and the like, were as the bonds and chains of Satan. Thus much is evidently proved by our Saviour's Argument against the Ruler of the Synagogue, which was displeased because our Saviour had healed a poor woman upon the Sabbath day, whose body was bowed together. 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  Thou hypocrite, (saith our Saviour) doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day lose his Ox or his Ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? Luk. 13. vers. 15. And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? vers. 16. Saint Peter's words are more general; for he saith, He healed all that were oppressed of the devil, Act. 10. v. 38. But the special document and the fullest assurance of this present freedom or manumission by our Saviour, was the often-mentioned Euangelization of the poor in spirit, that is, their participation of that Oil of gladness, wherewith he was anointed above his Fellows or adherents. This includeth as well [terminum ad quem,] as [terminum à quo;] that is, it includeth not only a manumission or deliverance from the servitude of Satan, but withal an accomplishment or fulfilling of that, which was prefigured in the second privilege of the Legal jubilee: and this privilege was, that every man might return unto his possession, or to the inheritance of his Fathers, although he had formerly pawned or mortgaged it. Now, Paradise, you know, was the possession which all of us lost in our first Parents, & from entering into it we were all excluded, so long as we continued the servants of sin and Satan. And unto this possession did the Woman's Seed or second Adam, the Anointed of the Lord, whereof the Prophet Isay speaks, Chap. 61. actually restore the poor in spirit, that lived and conversed with him. This restauration or returning to the possession or inheritance of their first parents, was first proclaimed, and the possession itself in part first given or bequeathed to his Disciples, a little before john sent unto our Saviour this message, whereto my Text contains the answer. The Proclamation was our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount.  
78. It is a point worth your observation, that our Saviour beginneth that Sermon, (which as we said before, was the fundamental Charter of the Kingdom of God, or evangelical Law) from the beginning of the forecited 61. Chapter of Isay. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, saith the Prophet, therefore he hath anointed me to evangelise the poor, or meek in spirit. He opened his mouth, saith the Evangelist, Matth. 5. vers. 3. that is, after long silence and expectation, he began to proclaim the acceptable year, Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus our Saviour expressed the meaning of this Phrase in my Text, [pa●peres evangelizantur:] for the poor in spirit are therefore blessed, because instated in the Kingdom of Heaven, and instated they were in the Kingdom of Heaven, by being evangelized. Another part of his Embassage or effect of his anointment, was to comfort all that mourn, to give to them that mourn in Zion, beauty for Ashes, and the oil of joy for sorrow. Esay 61. The second Branch of his Embassage or Proclamation was, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matth. 5. vers. 4. Saint Luke, Chap. 6. addeth, (which is not expressed in Saint Matthew) that at the same time, he pronounced a woe unto the rich, a woe unto the full, a woe unto such as laughed, (to wit, in an unseasonable time, when God had called to fasting and mourning) and a woe unto the vainglorious or men-pleasers. v. 24, 25, 26. 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  As well the woes as the blessings here solemnly pronounced, were expressly foretell by the Prophet Isay, chap. 61. vers. 2. So it is said, That the Lord had sent him to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God. This powerful denunciation of woe and blessing was that Fan, whereof john Baptist speaketh, Matt. 3. vers. 12. His Fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his Wheat into his Garner: but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Both our Saviour's Sermon, and john Baptists description of his Fan, as also that of Malachy 3. vers. 2, 3, 4. are but exegetical expressions of that fundamental Prophecy, Isay 35. vers. 4. wherein it is employed, that when GOD should come to save his people, he should come as well [Deus ultor] as [Deus remunerator] as well God the Revenger, as God the Rewarder. But did our Saviour give any document of this his power at the uttering of this Sermon? It came to pass, saith the Evangelist, when jesus had ended these sayings (of woe and blessing, of vengeance and recompense) the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes. Matth. 7. vers. ●8, 29. Thus when our Saviour expounded the for 〈◊〉 Prophecy, Isay 61. vers. 1. in the Synagogue at Nazareth, All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words, which proceeded out of his mouth.  
79. The precise time of the year or month wherein our Saviour made this Sermon, or returned this answer here in my Text unto john, or whether it were returned before he preached the acceptable year of the LORD in Nazareth, cannot so easily be gathered from the circumstances of the Evangelist: but as all Interpreters (I think) agree, this Answer was given within the compass of that year wherein our Saviour was baptised. Now, this was the last Legal jubilee which this people were to enjoy, and the first beginning of the evangelical jubilee, which was to continue here on earth until the World's end, to be fully accomplished in the World to come. So that this great mystery of our eternal Rest and joy in heaven, had first a shadow in the Law, to wit, the Legal jubilee. Secondly, a Picture in the Prophet Isay, or in the History of Hezekias, and his miraculous delivery from the Assynians. Thirdly, a live body in the Gospel or days of the Messias, every-way answerable to the picture drawn by the Prophet. The first conception of this live body, or evangelical jubilee, was from the day of our Saviour's Baptism: and the birth of it, from the delivery of our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount. Fourthly, the accomplishment, full growth or perfection of this live body, is to be expected only in the life to come, where our joy, our Rest and Peace, shall be for measure boundless, and for term endless. Now, according to these several degrees of shadow, of picture, of life, and growth, one and the same Scripture, even according to its native and literal sense, may be often verified and fulfilled. All the former Prophecies likewise concerning the planting of the Wilderness with pleasant Trees, though actually fulfilled, according to the importance of the parabolical or Emblematical sense in that year of jubilee, which jesus of Nazareth did proclaim, shall not be finally accomplished, until the beginning of 
Mem. 2. Branch 3.  that jubilee which shall ha●e no end. Thus much is specified, Isay 60. vers. 20, 21, 22. Thy S●●ne shall no more go down, neither shall thy Moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended; Thy people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the Land forever, the Branch of my planting, the works of my hands, 
Netser.  that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong Nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time. This last verse, though partly fulfilled in the conversion of whole Nations by our Saviour's Apostles and Disciples, made Citizens of the new jerusalem descending from Heaven at our Saviour's Baptism, shall not be accomplished, until these Trees of Righteousness be transplanted into the Heaven of Heavens, and set there by the Tree of Life. Then shall the least sprig that hath been truly ingraffed into the stock of jacob, the meanest ●●●ne of Abraham by faith, become more fruitful in himself, than Abraham was in his posterity, and a greater King and Lord of more than David or Solomon in their prime. Thus much is included in that saying of our Saviour, Mark 10. vers. 29, 30. There is no man that hath left house, or Brethren or Sisters, or Father or Mother, or Wife or Children, or Lands for my sake and the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren and sisters, and mothers and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life. If the least of them that forsake all for Christ's sake, grow in this life into an hundred, how great or strong a Nation every small one that is not in this life offended in him, shall, after this life ended, become, is unexpressable. But we believe our Saviour, that the least and smallest of such as forsake all for him and the Gospel, shall have life eternal. And we believe God's Word, that life eternal is more than ten thousand lives temporal, though a thousand lives of a man's own, be much more worth than a million of other men's lives, whereof we might hope to be Lords and Disposers.  
80. That other Prophecy likewise before mentioned, Isay 35. vers. 4. though literally verified at Gods first coming into the World to be made man, and then punctually fulfilled, when JESUS of Nazareth, GOD and MAN, came to john's Baptism, is to be finally accomplished, when the same jesus shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Then shall he manifest himself to be God the Avenger, and God the Recompencer, by pronouncing that Sentence from which there shall be no appeal; Come ye blessed of my Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. The former part of this Sentence shall proceed from him, as he is God the Rewarder of all such as diligently seek him: The latter part of this Sentence, Go ye cursed, etc. proceedeth from him as he is God the Avenger. In that accomplishment of days, (which shall utterly abolish all night) and not before, shall that other part of the same Prophecy, Isay 35. vers. 5, 6. be likewise finally accomplished: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, etc. The eyes of many blind were opened at the time when this Answer was given, yet not the 
Mem. 2. Branch. 3.  eyes of all the blind men then living, which were not offended in Him, but only the eyes of all the blind throughout judea and neighbour-Regions, that came unto him without offence. At his second coming, the eyes of all, that after perpetual darkness have been finally shut up by death, shall be opened to see the glory of God; so opened to see it, without offence, as they shall never be shut again, never be deprived of this beautiful vision. In that day shall all the halt and lame, that have not been offended in him, e●●n such as never enjoyed the use of limbs from their coming out of the womb, unto their going unto their gra●e, become more strong & agile than the Hart, and more swift and nimble than the Roe. Then shall the ears and tongues of all that have been borne deaf and dumb, be so unstopped and unloosed, as upon the first opening they shall be enabled to hold consort with the Choir of Angels, to descant upon those hidden mysteries and Prophetic Songs, about whose literal sense or plain Grammatical meaning, there hath been much discord amongst greatest Critics, and amongst Schoolmen continual jars.  
This is all which I have at this time to say concerning the three particular Branches proposed in the beginning of the second general Observation, which was thus: What satisfaction this answer of our Saviour [The blind receive their sight, etc.] could give to john or his Disciples, or to any that doubted whether jesus of Nazareth was He that was to come. Somewhat more is to be said concerning the Conclusion; Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.    
MATTH. 11. VERS. 6. Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 
THe universality of the blessedness here promised, may partly be gathered by this Induction, as you heard before: The blind are happy, the lame are happy, the Lepers are happy, the deaf and dead are happy: therefore all are, or at least, there is none but might be happy, so they would not be offended in me. But the same conclusion, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me, is more immediately contained in the last clause of the fifth verse, [Pauperes evangelizantur,] and may be inferred by way of Syllogism, thus: Every one that is evangelized, is blessed: but every one that is not offended in me, is evangelized: Ergo, Every one that is not offended in me, is blessed. To be evangelized, that is, to have the power and virtue of the Gospel imprinted upon their souls, is the highest degree of happiness, that in this life can be expected. [Beatum esse inest Euangelizato per se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] All are so far happy in this life, as they are Euangelizati, and no further: so that of the mayor proposition there is no question. The minor, [Every one, that is not offended in Christ, is Euangelizatus] is thus inferred: To be poor in spirit, and not to be offended in Christ, are terms, as Logicians speak, reciprocal: whosoever is poor in spirit, is not apt to 
The Conclusion.  be offended in Christ; and whosoever is not apt to be offended in Christ, is poor in spirit. And again, none that are truly poor in spirit, are apt to take offence at Christ; and, none that are apt to take offence at Christ, are poor in spirit. So that, if the poor in spirit be evangelized, than all that are not offended in Christ, are evangelized, and all are so far evangelized, as they are not offended in him. 
* Rom. 1. vers. 16.  For [Euangelium Christi, est potentia Dei ad salutem,] The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto Salvation, unto all such as being invited, do come to Christ, without putting stumbling-blocks or matter of offence before their own feet. Whether, to be poor in spirit, or not to be offended in Christ, is first in order of time or nature, were not so profitable to dispute. It sufficeth us to know, that Christ was sent to anoint the poor in spirit with the oil of gladness, [ex officio] and that none are poor in spirit, but such as are not offended in him. Whence, the points to be inquired after, are but two. The first, What it is to be offended in Christ. The second, Which be the special offences that are to be avoided.  
82. [Whosoever is not offended.] The word in the 
What it is to be offended in Christ.  original signifieth a stumbling-blocke, or some hard body against which another may so strike or dash, as it may hurt itself, or be hindered in its motion or progress. The Latin [offendo,] whence our English is derived (according to its prime and natural signification) imports as much as the Greek doth. For, it is a compound of the old Verb [fendo,] now almost out of use amongst the Latins, which signifieth as much, as to touch or smite: whence the Latin [defendere] is as much as to ward or bear off. This use of the word [defend,] is common in our English. So we call him a Master of Defence, that can teach others to ward off blows or strokes, or other annoyances, that by darting or hurling may be intended against them. And amongst Mariners, to send off, is as much as to prevent or hinder one ship from grating and falling foul upon another. And if we would follow the Latins as strictly in the proper use of the word [offendere,] as we do in the use of the single Verb [fendo] or of its compound, [defendo,] we should say, one ship offends another, when one ship falleth foul upon another: For so a Latinist would express the English [Navis in navim offendit:] for, offendere, is as much as impingere, to hit or dash against. In this propriety, the Latin [offendere] is used, Psalm. 91. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. [Ne offendas in lapidem, etc.] Now, because to offend or dash against hard bodies, is displeasant and grievous unto sense; Every thing is hence said to offend us, that is displeasant and grievous unto us, or that hindereth us in the prosecution of our will, delights, or pleasures. Hence they are said in this secondary sense to be offended in Christ, that were displeased with his actions, person, or doctrine. The issue or consequence of this mutual offence taken by men at CHRIST, or by GOD at men, which contemn and spurn at his admonitions, is excellently expressed by the Prophet Esay, chap. 8. vers. 13, 14, 15. Sanctify the LORD of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a Sanctuary to those that sanctify his name, and dread his power; but for a stone of stumbling, & for a rock of offences to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of jerusalem. And many among them shall stamble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken; namely, as many of both the houses of Israel, as did not sanctify his name, or dread his power. When he saith, he shall be for a stone of stumbling, this imports the issue and consequence, not the end why this stone was laid in Zion. For if the revolting jews themselves, did not therefore stumble, that they might fall. Rom. 11. 11. The end or reason why this stone was laid in Zion, was not that they might either stumble or fall; but many of them have stumbled and fall'n, many of them have been broken and ensnared; but they are broken and ensnared, because they stumbled and took offence, where none was given: and all this the Prophet did foretell to prevent a scandal or offence, which the weak in faith, or the Heathen, which had not heard of Christ, would have taken, unless the lamentable event of the jews, which spurned and kicked at this stone, had been distinctly foretold, and as it were painted out by the Prophet. The meaning is, as if he had said; I see you will kick or spurn at this precious stone or foundation, which God hath promised to lay in Zion: and seeing you will not be forewarned, take your pastime: yet know withal, that this your sporting with, or spurning of this stone, which your master-builders will reject, as being too base and unsightly in their eyes; will prove but as the spurning of some wanton creature at the spring, or gin, which they easily may remove, but being removed, it will 
The Conclusion.  bring the snare or trap upon them, which they shall not be able to remove or escape. Our Saviour Christ in his humiliation was as the spring or gin, at which the jews spurned: but is since grown into the corner stone, and shall become as the trap, and fall to crush and bruise all such, as spurned at or contemned him in the days of his humility, or at this day make a scorn at such humility as he taught. The Prophet's speeches in this and like places, wherein he foretelleth what shall after happen in such a manner, as he may seem to invite them unto that which afterward they bring upon themselves, is but like that in the Poet;  
Rode caper vitem; sed dum tu stabis adaras, In tua quod spargi cornua possit, erit.  
But the best Comment that is or can be made upon the Prophet's words, is made by our Saviour, Matth. 21. vers. 42, 43, 44. Did you never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? This is the Lords doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof. And whosoever shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. These chief Priests and pharisees, to whom our Saviour propoundeth this question, were the master-builders in Jerusalem; but were so far from sanctifying the Lord of Hosts, and so far from making him their fear, their dread, and Sanctuary, as the Prophet advised them; that they kick and spurn at him in the days of his humiliation, as unfit to have any place in 
The Conclusion.  their visible Temple. But shortly after he uttered this Parable, he grew into so high and great a place in the true Temple of God, that he hath grouned the material Temple, and the whole City of Hierufalem itself to dust and powder by falling upon them: although he did no otherwise fall upon them, than by suffering his Father's wrath and displeasure (which he had still kept off) to fall upon them that did spurn or were thus deeply offended at him. The several fates or final issues of every one's ways, that have heard of Christ or been baptised in him, is fore-pictured in the state or issue of these jews, to whom he was first revealed.  
83. Every one is so much more happy, as he is less apt to be offended in him; they most unhappy, that are most offended in him. To be offended in Christ all they are said, and here intended, which being invited to come unto him, or being on their way, are, upon whatsoever occasions or temptations, led another way; or so stumble and fall in the way undertaken by them, that they have no heart to go forward: but either directly retire, or stay at the place where they stumbled or fell. Whatsoever hindereth any man from coming to Christ, or from embracing the Gospel, is an offence, not given, but taken. Though all be offended in him that have been invited 
Three originals of dislike or offence taken against Christ by the Jews.  and come not to him; yet the jews are more properly said to be offended in him, than the heathen, which had not sought after him. The offences which the jews took, were for the most part, either against his Country, or against his parentage, or against his doctrine. This last offence, in respect of these days, is the most dangerous, and that wherein we modern Christians may trespass so much more heinously, than the jews did; as they did more grievously offend than the Heathens, in being so deeply offended at their Messias, of whom they had heard, and after whom they had sought.  
84. The most, and even the best sort of the jews, were apt to take offence at our Saviour's supposed Country. Thus when Philip came and told Nathaniel, 
* john 1. v. 45, 46.  We have found him of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets did write, jesus of Nazareth, the Son of joseph: Nathaniel said unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Nathaniel in speaking this, spoke as for the present he thought. This speech (it seems) was Vox populi, in those days. But our Saviour had a more charitable opinion of Nathaniel, than Nathaniel had of his Country or place of dwelling. For not withstanding this his hard conceit of Nazareth, our Saviour commendeth him for a true Israelite, and one, in whom there was no guile. The common offence was quickly removed out of so harmless & humble a heart. Upon a little conference with our Saviour, he acknowledgeth him for that stone elect and precious, which God had promised to lay in Zion. Rabbi, saith he, thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel. Nathaniel, though in part offended with the place of our Saviour's present habitation, was yet truly happy, in that he was not so far offended with it, as to refuse at Philip's invitation to come and see whether any good thing could come out of it or no. His prejudicate opinion of Nazareth was less than Naaman's was of jordane: his success in harkening to 
The Conclusion.  Philip and repairing to jesus of Nazareth, much happier than Naaman's was in harkening to the Prophet Elisha, and his washing in jordane. So useful is that rule, which since hath been commended unto us by our Apostle Saint Paul; Try all things, and retain that which is best. But what is best we cannot know without trial or comparison of particulars.  
85. The same prejudice which Nathanael had of Nazareth, the people, mentioned joh. 7. vers. 40. had of Galilee, the Country or Province, whereof Nazareth was a poor City or Town: But their prejudice was much more deeply rooted, than nathanael's was; their offence at our Saviour, and the prejudice they had of Galilee, was greater, and they by it more unhappy. After our Saviour had made that Proclamation in the Feast of Tabernacles, whereof you heard before; If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me, (as the Scripture hath said) out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living water. joh. 7. 37. Many of the people 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 cometh of the seed of David, and out of the Town of Bethleem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him, and some of them would have taken him. Thus you see how apt prejudicate opinion is to pick quarrels with the truth, and to pretend insoluble contradictions between Scripture and Scripture, or between it and the Prophet's opinions or Interpretations of it: betwixt which there is an admirable and apparent consonancy, to such as will with patience and unpartially 
The Conclusion.  confer them. It is most true which this people alleged, that the Christ and Messias was to come out of Bethleem, the City of David, but might he not therefore come out of Galilee? out of Nazareth? [Distinguant tempora, & concordant Scripturae:] one Prophet foretells that the Ruler of God's people should go out of Bethleem, a place of plenty, a fruitful soil, and by interpretation, the house of bread. This was meant of his birth and first coming into the world; and that jesus of Nazareth (which now came out of Galilee) did first come into the world out of Bethleem, the City of David, this people had too good proof, so they would have but looked back to the time of their own births or infancy, or have examined the records or history of thirty years forepassed. For what was it that moved Herod to slay all the Infants about Bethleem, but that he hoped among them to have slain the expected Son of David, the hope of Israel? Another Prophet foretelleth as distinctly & plainly, that this same Son of David should grow up, as a tender plant out of a dry ground, and that many should be offended in him (as this people now was) for no other reason, than that he was not so beautiful or glorious, as they expected their Messias should be. Isay 53. v. 3. The same Prophet elsewhere specifieth the Town's name, wherein this Branch of David was to grow, as you heard before out of the eleventh of Isay.  
86. But these Scriptures were enigmatical or obscure; and how should the people know their meaning, without the interpretation of the present visible Church, that is, of the high-Priests, the Scribes, and pharisees? This was the plea of the visible Church in 
The Conclusion.  those days, and this people's reliance upon their visible Church or chief Rulers of jerusalem (after such a manner in part, as the Romanists now do upon the Church of Rome, that is, upon the Pope and his Cardinals) was the beginning or root of the jews Apostasy from Christ. That which the Romanist would persuade us to be the Rock of our salvation, and rule of our faith in Christ, was to those jews the only rock of offence; the line of desolation, as the Prophets call it, to Jerusalem. That very objection which the people in the seventh of john did make, was taught them by the Scribes and pharisees, the then visible or representative Church. The prejudice which these great Rabbis had of Galilee, & the offence which they took at our Saviour, was so deeply rooted in their hearts, that they took it as a proof sufficient to condemn him for a false and counterfeit Prophet, because he avouched himself to be a true Prophet, being, as they imagined, a Galilaean. For when Nicodemus had severely taxed their partiality, and unwarrantable proceeding against him; Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him, & know what he doth? They answered, and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet. joh. 7. v. 51, 52. The truth, and because the truth, the true Church of God, was visible and conspicuous in Nicodemus, or at least in such as the highpriest, the Scribes and pharisees, the then visible Church, did excommunicate and persecute as seducers, or men seduced by our Saviour. The Scribes and pharisees were the visible Church in the selfsame sense, as the Romanists now take it; yet limbs of Antichrist, true types and 
The Conclusion.  shadows of these sons of Belial, with whom we have to deal, who after many warnings and evident convictions of blasphemous intemperancy, are not yet ashamed to bring those arguments for the establishing the Authority of their present Church, which, if they had any truth in them, would justify the Scribes and pharisees, in condemning our Saviour for a false Prophet, a seducer, or blasphemer; yea, would prove judas to be a better Martyr than any their Church can brag of, for betraying him.  
87. Certainly, the men of Nazareth were not offended with our Saviour, either for his Country in general or particular, and yet most unhappy men, in that they were upon other occasions deeply offended with him, when he came in love to visit them, and proffered the glorious light of the Gospel unto them. He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the Book of the Prophet Isaias; and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the aceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4. vers. 16, 17, 18, 19 Never did any Preacher in the World choose a fitter Text, or better suiting with time and place, than this, which by divine providence offered itself unto our Saviour at the first opening of the Book; and the application was as pithy, as the Text was plain and 
The conclusion.  pregnant: And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. Luke 4. 21. Against this Doctrine or exposition, no exception was taken at the first, but on the contrary, (as the Evangelist saith) All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. ver. 22. What was it then that did finally offend them? Nothing besides their own squeamish, nice, and womanish fancy. They were taken with a spice of the selfsame disease, whereof our Romish-Catholique Dames are sick even unto death; to whom any stinking weed or loathsome drug, raked out of the sink or puddle of tradition, so it be brought by a Quacksalver or Mountebank from beyond the Seas, relisheth much better than the sweetest flowers that grow either in the Prophetical or evangelical Herbary; better than the bread and water of Life itself, daily proffered unto them by the native and allowed Physicians of their souls; Men as able to instruct their foreign instructers in any good learning, especially in the glad tidings of the Gospel, as they are to instruct the rude and ignorant, in matters of treason and villainy. Out of this enchanted humour, or bewitched fancy, the Inhabitants of Nazareth, after they had heard our Saviour for a while with admiraration, began to say, Is not this Joseph's Son? Or, as Saint Matthew relateth it, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the Carpenter's son? Is not his Mother called Mary? and his Brethren james, and joses, and Simon, and judas? and his Sisters, are not they all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? and they were offended in him. 
The Conclusion.  Matthew 13. vers. 54, 55, 56, 57 This offence they bewray in words, but Saint Luke intimateth another Original of their offence, deeplier rooted in their hearts, and which upon no provocation, but rather upon our Saviour's intended prevention, did draw them unto most desperate practices. The original of this offence, was our Saviour's refusal to work such miracles amongst them, as they expected, albeit for this refusal he brought them a ruled case, which should have taught them patience and humility; but as they were affected, it filled their hearts with rage and cruelty. 
* Luk. 4. vers. 23, 24, 25, 26. 27.  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this Proverb, Physician, heal thyself: Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy Country. But I tell you of a truth, many Widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the Heaven was shut up three years and six months; when great famine was throughout all the Land: but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a City of Sidon, unto a woman that was a Widow. And many Lepers were in Israel, in the time of Elizeus the Prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. The implication was, that even the honestly-minded or well-disposed Heathen were nearer to the Kingdom of God, than the stubborn and self-willed jew, that boasted in being Abraham's seed, and the expected Messias Countryman. Their apprehension of this his meaning, and application of his words unto themselves, did work a general distaste of his person and doctrine. All they in the Synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the City, and 
The Conclusion.  led him unto the brow of the Hill, (whereon their City was built) that they might cast him down headlong.  
88 They are principally offended with him, because he would not do such miracles as they expected: and he is therefore unwilling to do any miracles amongst them, because they were already offended in him. It is a remarkable censure which Saint Mark giveth of this their untoward disposition: He could do no mighty work there, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. Mark 6. vers. 5, 6. Certainly those sick folks were not offended in him, otherwise he had not healed them. He did not many miracles there, saith Saint Matthew, chap. 13. vers. 58. The reason given by St. Matthew, why he did not, and by Saint Mark, why he could not do many mighty works there, was one and the same, avouched in the same terms by both these Evangelists, and it was his Auditor's unbelief, or that deep offence which they had causelessly taken at him. But happily ye will say, The greater their unbelief was, the more need they had of his mighty works to make them believe: and what work can we imagine so mighty, that Christ, who was truly God, could not really effect, so he were willing? And willing, it seemeth he was, to have made his Countrymen, and Neighbours of Nazareth, true believers: he read his Commission and Charter of foundation, for establishing the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, in their audience. And it is a truth unquestionable, that CHRIST as now, so than was truly GOD, and continued the same, blessed for ever: and unto 
The conclusion.  God nothing is, nothing can be impossible. All this is most true in respect of his power; but ye must again consider, that many things which are very possible, and very easy in respect of his power, are altogether impossible to be done, because they imply a contradiction or contrariety to the eternal Rule or Law of his Goodness, justice, or Majesty. Now, it is an express branch of his eternal law or equity, not to cast Pearls before Swine, not to save such men by miracles or mighty hand, as contemn and spurn at the ordinary means of Salvation, or despise the riches of his bounty. The portion of Scripture before mentioned (so they had suffered him to have gone forward with the exposition of it, or would have attended to him with that respect and reverence which was due unto the Words of GOD,) was more effectual to beget faith in their hearts, than all the miracles that could have been wrought; for faith cometh by hearing, not by sight; and seeing this churlish people had swinish ears, and brutish appetites, our Saviour as man, could not (without manifest violation of his Father's eternal Law, and of his own eternal Law, as he was God) feed their eyes or other senses with such miraculous spectacles, as were ordained to convert men. Every unruly or exorbitant desire is a rock of offence; every affection, how natural or how civil soever, unrectified, unmastered, or unsubdued, is as a crooked, rugged path, which must be made plain and strait ere we come to Christ. This rectifying, this smoothing or levelling of our desires and affections, is that way of the Lord which john was sent to prepare 
* To this purpose the Apostle, Hebr. 12. interprets the Prophet Isay, chap. 40. vers. 3. by himself, chap. 35. ver. 3. . Desire of knowledge in Arts or Sciences of wisdom, 
The Conclusion.  or experience in affairs civil and politic, is a desire in itself commendable: yet, if the desire of the one, or the other be immoderate, it is as a hill or mountain that must be brought low, ere the way of the Lord (whether from him to us, or from us to him) can become passable. The desire of a sign for confirmation of faith, is not unlawful. Abraham desired one, and had it; and so did Hezekiah: and both herein commended. Ahaz had a sign offered, but would not take it, and is by the Prophet sharply reproved. Yet the immoderate or unseasonable desire of a sign, is a dangerous root of offence. Both parts of this observation are from Saint Paul, 1. Corinth. 1. vers. 22, 23. The jews require a sign, and the greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the jews a stumbling-blocke, and unto the greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both jews and greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. verse. 24. Whom doth he mean by such as are called? All that are in any sort, or howsoever called? No, but such as are not merely Grammatical, but real passives; or, as others speak, such as are effectually called. In what terms soever we express ourselves, we mean the same persons, and the same thing that our Saviour here doth, that is, all they, and 
The more special offences, which this age is as ap● to take against Christ as the jews were.  only such, as are not offended in him: for they all, and they only obey their calling.  
89. The more special roots of more dangerous offences, or more grievous stumbling-blockes in the way to Christ, are Covetousness, Vainglory, Ambition, jealousy of reputation, or fear of disgrace. All these things (saith the Evangelist) heard the pharisees which 
The Conclusion.  were covetous, and they mocked him. Luke 16. 14. How can you believe, (saith our Saviour) which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? john 5. 44. vid. vers. 39, 40. Among the chief Rulers (saith the same Evangelist) many believed on him, but because of the pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the Synagogue: for they loved the praise of men, more than the praise of God. john 12. vers. 42, 43. These roots of offence are alike common to the jews, and unto us: We must take heed, that we examine not ourselves, by comparing our affections towards Christ's person or office, with the affections of these jews towards his office or person. This were the readiest way to cast us into a Pharisaical slumber or dream of our own righteousness. The only means for us to know, whether we be more or less offended in Christ, than the forementioned jews or pharisees were, is to compare our lives, conversations, and practice, with our Saviour's doctrinal precepts, especially with those fundamental ones, solemnly uttered by him in the Sermon upon the Mount. Matth. 5. Amongst which, this is a principal and peremptory one; I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. verse. 20. Now, from entering into the Kingdom of heaven, which is the Kingdom of happiness, nothing can bar us, unless we be offended in Christ, who is the way and door unto it. Is there any amongst us, that seeketh as earnestly after the praise of men, or after any honour that cometh not from GOD alone, as the jews 
The Conclusion.  mentioned, joh. 12. & joh. 5? Is there any amongst us as covetous, as the pharisees were, mentioned Luke 16? If any such there be either in this, or any other Christian Congregation, be they many or few, all and every of them are as far from the Kingdom of Heaven, altogether as much offended in Christ, as the forementioned Rulers, jews, and pharisees were. Is there any amongst us of disposition towards his Brother or Neighbour, or towards any professing the name of Christ, as implacable or irreconcilable as the Scribes and pharisees were towards Publicans and sinners? Let such a man, if any such there be, know and remember, that whilst he continueth in this mood, he is as much offended in Christ as they were: and if he so continue, our Saviour Christ will be as much offended at him in the last Day, as at those that crucified him. Is any man as careful for the things of this life as these jews were? He is as far from the Kingdom of Heaven, and the happiness here promised, as the jews; yea, as the Heathen were. It is our Saviour's inference, not mine; Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewith shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Matth. 6. 31, 32. His Precept for our direction followeth; But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. verse. 33, 34. This is the perpetual Law of the Euangelical jubilee, whose observance was prefigured in the legal observation of 
The Conclusion.  the seventh year of rest, or the year of jubilee: In both which years, as you heard before, the jews were forbidden to sow or reap, commanded to rely upon God's extraordinary blessing in the sixth year, and to rest contented with such things, as should grow of their own accord in the seventh year of rest or year of jubilee. Not to sow at all, or not to reap in these two years, was a temporary Law, merely legal or ceremonial. The moral Law hereby prefigured, and perpetually to be observed by us Christians, is, That we buy so, as if we possessed not, that in sowing or reaping, or in whatsoever other business concerning this life, we use the world, as if we used it not: That our prime and chief care be in seeking the Kingdom of God, or matters of the life to come: That every present day, we take more pain and care in imploring Gods blessings upon our present and future labours, than in contriving means, or disposing of labours, in worldly conjecture, most available for procuring our ends, or that good which we seek. This practice and method our Saviour had enjoined us in that prayer which he hath taught us. First, we pray that God's name may be sanctified; and that his Kingdom may come; that his will may be done in earth as in heaven: and in the next place, that he would give us bread this day, for to morrow, and the days following; that is, as the Apostle saith, to cast all our care on him, who careth for us all. But what avails it us to know by how many ways and means we may be offended in Christ, unless we know withal by what means possible these or the like offences may be avoidable? It is true, and therefore 
The Conclusion.  our Saviour teacheth a compendious way or means for avoiding offences. As first in this very Chapter, Matth. 11. vers. 29. Learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. To the same end or purpose are all those places of Scripture addressed, which exhort us to humility, to deny ourselves, to take up our Cross and follow Christ. Of these and other good rules to this purpose, you may read at large, Luke 14.  
90. But others happily will say, What availeth it to propose these good rules unto us, unless it be in our power to practise them? We believe it as a dictate, or maxim of faith, that God gives grace unto the humble, or unto such as for sake all, and deny themselves; but what is this to us, unless we may likewise be assured, that God will either give us grace, or some freewill, or natural power to deny or humble ourselves? Here indeed were the true and fruitful issue of all these intricate controversies, which in later years have much troubled the peace of the Church, as well the Romish, as the Reformed. The controversies I mean of Election and Reprobation, between the Lutherans and the Caluinists, between the Arminians and the Gomarists: as also, the controversy concerning concurrence of Grace and freewill, prosecuted with eager and bitter contention for these many years, between the Jesuits and the Dominican Friars. But of this radical controversy, about freewill, a point necessary to be known, and yet enwrapped with as many unnecessary intricate disputes, and on all parts as ill●stated and handled (for the most part) as any other question whatsoever; I shall have fitter 
The Conclusion.  occasion to speak at large, when I come to handle that argument concerning our servitude to sin, which must be the entrance unto our knowledge concerning jesus Christ and him crucified: unto both which, these discussions upon this Text have been premised.  
91. At this time I will only acquaint you with that, which I have elsewhere delivered, as the true mean between the contrary opinions of the Lutherans and the Caluinists, between the Jesuits & Dominicans, betwixt the Stoics and the Pelagians, in the point of freewill, or power of man to work or not to work his own salvation. The mean is, that albeit man hath no freedom of will or ability to do that, which is good, or to dispose his heart for the better receiving of Grace: yet he hath a true possibility or freedom of will to do, or not to do something required by God; which thing being done by man, God will dispose his heart, and make it fit for his grace. The same thing not being done or neglected, the neglecters heart shall every day than other bee more indisposed, and more incapable of grace than heretofore. For illustration of this point, I have instanced in two particulars, to wit, in Naaman the Syrian, and the Widow of Sarepta, both Heathens and unregenerate. Naaman had no power or freewill to cleanse himself of his Leprosy, either in whole or in part; yet a true freedom of will to wash or not to wash in jordan. Now, if he had sinally departed in such a sullen fit, as he begun to take at the Prophet's advice, and not at all have washed himself in jordan, he might have returned home a fouler Leper than he came. So then the cure was altogether God's work, Naaman 
The Conclusion.  had no finger in it; but to wash in jordane was in part Naamans' own work, and an exercise of that freewill, which God upon Adam's fall, doth take from no man. In like manner, it was in the poor widow's choice, to give or not to give Elias a cake of her small store of oil and meal: but if she had refused to do as the Prophet advised her, God had not multiplied the oil and meal in her cruse extraordinarily. So then in working this miracle God had no partner, it was merely his doing: but in bestowing these alms upon the Prophet, the poor widow in part did work. This was an act or exercise of her freewill and loving kindness, no fruit of sanctifying grace. In like manner, to humble or cast down ourselves before God, that we may be partakers of sanctifying grace, is in part our work, and strictly requited at every man's hand, that hopes to be partaker of this grace: but the lifting of us up, or our conversion to God, is merely, solely and totally Gods work. In this work we are as merely passive, as Naaman was in the cure of his leprosy, or the poor widow's oil and meal in the miracle which God wrought in it: but so merely passive we are not in the former work in humbling or casting ourselves down. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Pet. cap. 5. v. 6. For if it were as impossible for us to cast ourselves down without God's special grace, as it is to lift ourselves up without it; the Apostles Precept, jam. 4. 10. had been to no better purpose, than if a man should say to a lame child, fall'n into a deep ditch, Come hither, my child, and I will help thee up. This were rather to mock a 
The Conclusion.  child in his misery, than to promise him any help or comfort. I hope there be none here present, men or women, but think it very possible for them, so far at least to cast themselves down before God, as to receive the pledges of Christ's body and blood, as our Church commandeth, meekly kneeling upon their knees.  
92. But some, perhaps, though I hope not many, 
That kneeling at the sacred Communion, is a gesture most decent, and most consonant to the analogy of faith.  are of opinion, that in this case they are not bound to do what they can do, but rather tied not to kneel, though the Church command kneeling; because they have no express warrant or rule of Scripture so to do: however, they and all that profess themselves to be Christ's servants, have an express command to receive the pledges of his body and blood: and if any be so scrupulous, as not to receive them in any other manner than is expressly commanded or warranted by the Scripture; the parties thus affected (for aught I see or know) must not receive them at all, and so they shall evidently transgress the express general rule of Scripture, which commands all to receive them. For in all cases of this nature, that is, in all cases wherein the thing itself or action is expressly commanded to be done, and the manner or circumstances of doing it not so expressly commanded; the authority of Superiors must rule our affections or opinions, for the manner or circumstance of doing what is commanded. Whosoever in this case heareth not his lawful Pastor or Governor, heareth not Christ: Whosoever in this case despiseth the Canons and Constitutions of the Church wherein he liveth, despiseth Christ: Whosoever in this case wilfully offendeth against the Canons 
The Conclusion.  of the Church, is offended in Christ, and puts a stumbling-blocke in his own way; yea, he bars himself out of the Kingdom of Grace, expressly promised here in my Text, to all that are not offended in Christ, and in more special sort really exhibited to all that worthily receive this blessed Sacrament of his body and blood. But happily it will be farther replied, that albeit our Saviour did not expressly forbid us to receive the Sacrament kneeling, yet he hath taught us by his example to receive it after another manner and gesture; and it is more convenient to follow his example, than the ordinance of the Church. To this I answer, that our Saviour did not at all receive the Sacrament, because he had no sins to be remitted by it. His Apostles had, and did receive it; but whether standing, sitting, or kneeling, it is not expressed. All that can be gathered out of the Evangelist, is this, that as they were eating, our Saviour took bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to his Disciples: so he did the cup likewise. But whether they received the bread or the cup still sitting, after the same manner as they did at their meat, is not expressed, nor can hence be gathered: for so a man may truly say, that whilst we are at Service and prayers, we receive the Communion; yet it will not follow, that because all or most of us sit in time of Service, we therefore sit at the receiving of the Communion. But be it granted, that the Apostles ate the bread, and drank the wine, after the self same manner that they ate the Passeover, yet it would be very hard to express the particular manner of their eating the Passeover. I am persuaded, that there is never a joiner in this Kingdom, 
The Conclusion.  that could make us seats and Tables of the same fashion, that the Tables and seats were of, at which our Saviour and his Apostles did eat the Passeover: or in case we had such seats or Tables made to our hands, for aught I can imagine, we must have some famous Antiquary or Master of Ceremonies, to instruct us how to sit or lie, or to dispose of our bodies at them.  
93. This only is certain, that our Saviour himself did eat the Passeover after the ordinary and accustomed manner of those times, and according to the Rites & Ceremonies of the then visible Church. For which Rites and Ceremonies, in all particulars, the then visible Church had no express Rule or pattern, which they were perpetually bound to observe, either given by Moses or the Prophets; they had added many circumstances, which are not expressed in Moses. Now, if our Lord and Master, who had power to institute new Rites and Ceremonies, did notwithstanding conform himself to those Rites and Ceremonies of the visible Church of the jews: shall we not herein truly follow the true example of Christ, if we do the like? On the contrary, shall we not show ourselves to be none of his Disciples, if we use or affect that liberty or singularity, which he neither did nor would use, although there were no authority in the earth to command him to conformity? Lastly, it may be objected, that many in the Primitive Church, who knew the Apostles practise better than the visible Church now doth, did not receive the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood, after the same manner as now we do. I am not ignorant of a scruple, 
The Conclusion.  which many of the busie-brained Master's labour to instill into their Auditor's heads; though in other cases they can slight Antiquity at their pleasure, yet in this case they have been curiously Critical, to observe out of the Fathers of the Greek Church, that they received the Sacrament [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,] that is, bowing indeed, but not bowing their knees. All this we grant; for the Greek Church at this day receive the Sacrament standing on their feet, yet bowing their bodies, not their knees. What is the reason? To make a leg, (as we say) or to bow the knee, is a ceremony even in expressions of civil courtesy, ridiculous amongst them. Howbeit they express their several respect to their friends & to their betters of what rank soever, as distinctly and curiously by several manners of bowing their heads and bodies, as we can do by making legs, bowing the knee, or kneeling upon our knees. And herein they are highly to be commended, for reserving a distinct kind of bending their bodies, in expressing their submission towards God or Christ in their Liturgy or receiving the Sacrament. So then, [distingue loca, & concordant consuetudines.] Though the greeks receive the Communion standing, and bowing their bodies, whereas we receive it with bended knees, without bowing of our bodies: yet herein we fully agree, that both we and they receive it in the most decent and submiss manner, for gesture or deportment of our bodies, that we otherwise know or use. They receive it standing, and bowing the upper part of their bodies, because that is the best and most significant sign of subjection or submissive obedience, that is in use amongst them: we receive it 
The Conclusion.  kneeling, because this is the best and most significant sign of submissive obedience, that is in use or practice in these Western parts of Europe. Did not some amongst us poison their natural and civil affections, with presumptuous conceits of extraordinary sanctity, nature itself (to whom our Apostle in like case a●pealeth) would thoroughly inform us all, that we stand bound to receive so great a blessing, as in this Sacrament we expect at the hands of our gracious. God, after the best and most submissive manner of outward gesture and deportment, that we know, or can frame our bodies unto.  
94. But if a man should ask, Whether the rite or custom observed in the Greek Church, or in our Church, be in itself the more decent or significant, or better befitting the use or end of this Sacrament? I dare confidently affirm, that the ceremony or gesture observed and commanded by our Church, doth much better befit the use and end of the Sacrament, than the rite or ceremony observed by the Greek Church doth; better than any other rite or manner can do, though otherwise as decent and sitting, or more decent and fitting, in all other parts of God's service. And my reason which I commend unto your unpartial consideration, is this; that this Sacrament was not instituted in remembrance of the first institution of it, or to represent the Apostles manner of receiving of it, but in remembrance of our Saviour's death and passion. Whence I would request such as urge our Saviour's example for a pattern of their behaviour or deportment at the Sacrament, to look upon our Saviour's bodily gesture or deportment in the heat 
The Conclusion.  and extremity of his passion, wherein he presented himself before his Father, in his agony and bloody sweat in the Garden. Being in this agony, as St. Luke saith, he presented these supplications unto his Father; Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. But after what manner or gesture of body did his perplexed soul utter these earnest supplications, [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,] kneeling, or fixing his knees upon the ground.  
95. If I should have spent the whole time allotted, only in exhorting or preparing you to the fit & worthy receiving of this Sacrament, I could not have said more, or more to the purpose, than the contemplation of our Saviour in this agony doth at first view present unto all of us, that will lay it to heart. And it is in a word this, that you would make his prayer, commutatis commutandis, a pattern for your prayers; his gesture in presenting his prayers to his Father, a pattern of your gesture or deportment, whilst you celebrate the memory of his passion, specially whilst you make application of the benefit of his passion to yourselves, by receiving the visible pledges of his body & blood; which I hope you do not mean to receive, without fervent prayer that God will pass over your sins, and not enter into judgement with you. You need not, you may not interpose that condition in your prayer, which our Saviour did in his, Father, if it be possible, let this cuppasse from me. So great was his goodness towards us, his loving kindness so tender, that he purchased unto us better certainty, and better assurance that our prayers may be heard, than he had that his own prayers should be heard in this particular. 
The Conclusion.  Therefore it was not possible that this cup should pass from him, that it might be possible for it to pass from all, and every one of us. Pray we then, but let us pray with bended knees, every man for himself, and every man for his fellow-Communicant: Heavenly FATHER, seeing thou art willing so to have it, let thy cup of thy wrath and displeasure pass from us, and let thy cup of thy blessing be ever amongst us: O cause not any of us to drink of that bitter cup, which thy only Son, our only Saviour, hath swallowed for us. Expose us not (good FATHER) to those bloody and grievous conflicts with the powers of Hell and darkness, which thy Son sustained for us. Oh lay no more upon us, than thou shalt give us strength and patience, through him, and for him, ●● undergo and vanquish. Make us to triumph as Conquerors in this victory over Hell and Satan, over all the power of the enemy. Thus praying whilst we celebrate the memory of his agony and bloody sweat with knees bended, as his in that agony were on the ground, and with hearts lifted up to heaven, where he now sits at the right hand of God; My life for yours, my soul for your souls, if herein ye offend either God the Father, or Christ his Son, the holy Spirit, or your own consciences. To receive this blessed Sacrament without some mental prayer, were to receive it unworthily. To pray whilst you receive it, & not to pray kneeling on your knees, as your custom is at other prayers, and as the Church your Mother, upon this particular occasion of praying in special inioyneth you, were to be offended in Christ, more offended in him for the Church your 
The Conclusion.  Mother's sake, than the jews were for Galilee or Nazareth his Country sake. Nor are you only offended in him, by refusing to bow your knees when you come unto him; but you give just offence to the common Adversary, to whom Saint Paul adviseth you, to give no offence, much less to give any advantage against the truth: for so you offend the pillar of truth, the Church of God. Now, God of his infinite mercy remove all needless scruples out of the fancies of the weak, and all real obstacles of offence out of the hearts of such as have power to command their knees in this service.  
FINIS.   

Faults escaped in some Copies, thus to be corrected. PAg. 7. Lin. 1●. for prinpall read principal. Pag. 25. lin. 1. virtues read vertuo●●. Pag. 73. l. 8. at any tempt you read at any time tempt you. Pag. 74. li. 3. & 4. Church, elsewhere read Church is elsewhere. Pag. 75. in Marg. Jesuits read Leuit●. Pag. 80. li. ●●. the manner of importance or the Apostles speech read the manner or importance of the Apostles speech. Pag. 107. l. 1. saith no, read saith not.