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133

CHAP. VII.

The Truth of God manifefted in Chrift. The Promife
of the Meffiah. The Meffiah is already come. Je
fus is the true Meffiah. All the other Promifes are
built upon him. The truth of the Moral Law evi-
denced in him. The Mandatory part proved by his
active Obedience; The Minatory by his Sufferings.
He is the fubftance of the Types and Sacrifices.
Somewhat in him answers to them; and fomewhat
in him infinitely tranfcends them. The truth of
Worship fet forth in him: He unclogged it from Ri-
tuals, opened the Spiritual mode of it, communicates
Grace for it, reveals the great Reward of Eternal!
Life.

HAV

Aving fpoken of other Attributes, I proceed in the laft place to confider the TRUTH of God. It was a notable speech of a Philofopher, That Truth is so great a Perfection, that if God would render himSelf visible unto men, he would chufe Light for his Body, and Truth for his Soul. Indeed God is. Ipfiffima Ve ritas, very Truth it felf; and can no more ceafe to be fuch, than he can cease to be Himself. He is true in his Effence: Others are only gods by fancy or fiction, but he is God by nature and effence. He is true in his Promises; he means what he promises, and he doth what he means. Promiffa tua funt, quis falli confef.1.126.1. timeat, cum promittit veritas? faith St. Auftin. He is true in his Commands; these are the counterpanes of his Will he approves what he commands, and re

wards

Chap. 7.

wards what he approves. He is true in all his Works: the Creatures have first an Ideal being in him, before they have a real one in themselves; they are therefore true, because congruous to the first Truth. He is fo true, that it is impoffible that he fhould lye. A lye, which arifes from weakness or wickedness, can no more be found in him, than Weakness can be found in Power, or Wickedness in 5 Sanctity it self.

The Truth of God doth in an excellent manner appear in Jefus Chrift; He is the Complement of the Law, the Pearl of the Gospel. The Truths of the Old Teftament run unto him as to an Ocean, to be swallowed up in his Perfection. The Truths of the New meet in him as in the Center, to receive all their strength and stability from him. The Divine Truth is manifefted in Jefus Chrift feveral ways.

First, It is manifested in him, in that all the Promifes and Predictions of a Meffiah to come, are accomplished and compleated in him. Two things will clearly evidence this:

The one is this: It is plain that the promisedMeffiah is already come: The Scepter fhall not depart from Judah, nor a Law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be, faith Jacob, Gen. 49. 10. Shiloh is the Name of the Messiah, the ancient Rabbins confefs it: Meffiah, faith one of them, fhall not come till there be a clean riddance of Judges and Magiftrates in If rael. The Jews had Kings in their own Land, Heads or Princes of the Captivity in Babylon; and after their return from thence, they had Governours and Judges: but now Government and Judiciary Power

hath

hath been for 1600 years departed from them. The Chap. 7. Meffiah therefore is already come. Again, within the compass of the Seventy weeks mentioned in Dan. 9, many things were to come to pass; The re-edifying the City and Temple of Jerufalem, the coming and cutting off the Meffiah, the confirmation of the Covenant, the ceffation of the Sacrifices; and after all these, the universal destruction was to enfue. However these weeks be computed, yet it evidently ap pears, that first the Meffiah was to come and be cut off, ver.26; and afterwards the Oblation and Sacrifice was to cease, v. 27: this being the true order of things in the Text, the Meffiah muft needs come whilft the Sacrifices were standing. If the Sacrifices under this second Temple have for thefe 1600 years ceased, as they have, then the Meffiah muft needs be come many Centuries fince. Franzius used this ar- scho. Sacr. difgument to a learned Jew, who only returned this put. 10. 72, anfwer, Perhaps one week in Daniel might be one thousand years. Franzius replied, If that were admitted, Yet, if he thought that Daniel's weeks were not expired, he would entreat him to fhew where the Jews do now facrifice: seeing, according to Daniel, the Meffiah was to come before the abrogation of the Sacrifices, it must needs be that the Sacrifices muft ftill ftand in being, if the Meffiah were not yet come. To this no answer at all was made, the knot being indeed too hard to be untied. Further, the Meffiah was to come while the second Temple was ftanding; hence that of the Prophet, The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former, Hag. 2. 9. The firft Temple had more of outward glory and magnificence than the fecond. Under the

73,74

first..

Chap. 7.

1

first there were (as the Rabbins obferve) five things, the Ark, the Fire from Heaven, the Majefty, or Shecinah, the Spirit of Prophecy, the Urim and the Thummim, which were wanting under the second: From whence then came that greater glory in the fecond? The Prophet tells us, God would shake the heavens and the earth, that is, do a very great work; the Meffiah, the Defire of all Nations should come, v. 6,7; His prefence should put a greater glory upon the fecond Temple, than was upon the firft. În the first there was the types and fymbols of Gods presence, but into the fecond the Lord himself came in our affumed nature, Mal. 3.1, and fo filled it with glory. This is the only tolerable account can be given of that greater glory: This fecond Temple being long fince destroyed, it must needs be that the Meffiah did come before the fall of it..

The other is this: Our Jefus the Son of Mary, is the true Meffiah; he is that feed of the woman who broke the Serpents head, Gen. 3. 15; no other feed, no meer man could do it; but the Son of God, being made of a woman, did deftroy the works of the devil, 1 Joh. 3. 8. Partaking of flesh and blood, he did through death deftroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, Heb. 2.14. That first Promife made almoft Four thousand years before, was accomplished in him. He is that feed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth were to be bleffed, Gen. 22. 18. Never was it faid of any man but himself, That all Nations fhould be bleffed in him: Never was any man but he, who was God as well as man, able to turn that Curfe which lay upon the human nature, into a bleffing. He is Jacob's Shiloh,

Gen.

Gen. 49. 10; at his coming the Scepter departed: Chap. 7. Herod an Edomite ruled over the Jews; and, to make himself the more abfolute, he flew the Sanhedrin; in a little time all government was taken away from the Jews: Hence that outcry in the Talmud, Væ nobis, Wo to us, because the Scepter is departed from Judah. The temporal Scepter vanished, but our Saviour had a fpiritual one; to him, as to the true Shiloh, was the gathering of the people, multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were converted to Christianity. He is Mofes's Prophet, Deut. 18.15. never man fpake as he fpake; none but himself ever brought down facred mysteries from the bosome of God unto the world. He is the Star out of Jacob, Numb. 24. 17. The Jews Barchochebas was but Barchozba, the fon of a Lye, a falfe light, and foon extinct: But our JESUS is the bright and morningftar, Rev. 22. 16, who chafes away darkness, and communicates a divine light to men. He is the Lords anointed, against whom the Heathen did rage, and the Kings fet themselves, Pfal. 2, but all in vain; God laughed at them, and fet up his King upon Zion. The Jews cannot but confefs that this Pfalm fpeaks of the Meffiah; but that the Minai, the Christians, with them efteemed Hereticks, may be answered, they think it expedient to interpret it of David. He is the Child in Ifaiah, who was born of a Virgin,Ifa.7.14, which never man was; who hath thefe high titles, Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Ifa. 9. 6, which are too great for a meer man. He is the righteous Branch, whofe name is, The Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23. 5, 6. No other man fince the fall had righteousness T

enough

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