MENTIONED IN THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS, CHAPTER 11. Preached At London By A Faithful Minister Of God, John Fox, At The Christening Of A Certain Jew. Translated Out Of Latin Into English. FIRST, as duty requireth, I do yield most humble thanks to our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, whom it hath pleased of his unsearchable mercy and bountiful love towards us, to minister so notable an occasion of our assembly, this present day and place; and so fruitful an argument for me to impart unto you all. Secondly, I do no less heartily thank, than worthily commend in the Lord, all you that are present, who, according to your accustomed manner, are so willingly and joyfully gathered together, induced hereunto, not through any vain delight of fond novelty, but of a serious and studious zeal of godliness; not as gazers of frivolous fantastical fables, but as willing witnesses of this great and inestimable benefit of almighty God. Lastly, I do from the bottom of my heart rejoice in the behalf of this person, for whose cause we are now met here together; who being transported from out of the uttermost parts of Barbary into England, and conversant amongst us by the space of six whole years, renouncing now at the last the natural contumacy of his native country, doth with so earnestly bent affection of voluntary will, cheerfully desire to become a member of Jesus Christ, and to be made partaker of his holy congregation through faith and baptism. And withal I most humbly beseech almighty God, that he will not only vouchsafe his gracious increase to this glorious work begun with this Israelite stranger, but also to allure the whole remnant of the circumcised race, by this his example, to be desirous of the same communion. So that at the length, all nations, as well Jews as Gentiles, embracing the faith and sacraments of Christ Jesus, acknowledging one Shepherd, uniting together in one sheepfold, may, with one voice, one soul, and one general agreement, glorify the only begotten Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and be glorified again of him. And that it may please him of his singular clemency to grant the same, as also to bless these our days with quiet, calm, and joyful tranquillity, which we do now enjoy under the government of our most gracious sovereign, and her most honorable magistrates, I beseech you of your charity to join with me in heart and mind unto the eternal God, Father of us all, with the same prayer which his only begotten Son taught us in the gospel. THE PRAYER, OUR FATHER, ETC.

Forasmuch as in the administration of the sacraments of the church, I do well perceive that both by the word of God, and by an ancient and solemn custom amongst many, it hath been a use to have somewhat, for the better instruction of their auditories, read and expounded out of the books of holy scripture; and deliberating likewise with myself, what course I might best keep at this present, as well to serve the offered opportunity, as also chiefly to satisfy the public commodity of you all; I could not determine upon any one text of the whole scripture to be opened unto you, more profitable for your learning, more effectual for exhortation, more applicable to our age, and more agreeable for this present occasion, than the sentence of St. Paul the apostle, not very long, but of wonderful force, taken out of the eleventh chapter of his epistle written to the Romans. And to the end you may receive the same to your greater comfort, it behooveth you to yield earnest and heedful attention, not with your bodily ears only, but with the ears of your mind also, to these things which I shall utter unto you.

Hearken ye therefore to the words of the apostle, even as himself hath spoken them.

TO THE ROMANS THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER.

I speak unto you, Gentiles, in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will magnify mine office, if by any means I may provoke them which are my flesh, and may save some of them; for if the casting away of them be the receiving of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the first fruits be holy, the whole mass is holy also; and if the root be holy, the branches will be holy also. And if some of the branches are broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast grafted in amongst them, and made partaker of the root and fatness of the true and natural olive tree, boast not thyself against the branches; for if thou do boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root beareth thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches are broken off that I may be engrafted in. Thou sayest well; for unbelief sake they were broken off, and thou stoodest steadfast in faith. Be not high minded, therefore, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest it come to pass that he spare not thee.

Behold the kindness and rigor of God; upon them which fell, rigor; but kindness towards thee, if thou persevere in kindness; or else thou shalt be hewn off, and they, if they continue not still in unbelief, shall he engrafted in again. For God is of power to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of a natural wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were engrafted into the true olive tree, how much more shall the branches be grafted in again unto their own olive tree! For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, lest you should wax proud in your own conceits, that blindness is partly happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be accomplished. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Sion one that shall deliver, and shall take away ungodliness from Jacob, etc.

Dearly beloved, you have heard what the apostle of the Gentiles doth speak unto us Gentiles; you have heard his discourse of the Jews, of their unbelief, and of their rejection. You have heard the doctrine and comparison of St. Paul touching the true olive tree and the wild olive tree; touching the natural branches and the grafts; touching faith and infidelity; touching the mercy of God, and the severity of his justice; touching the modesty and constancy of the faithful; touching the fullness of the Gentiles; finally, touching the last calling home and reclaiming of the Jews. This is a very large theme, as ye see, and full of plentiful matter, which for the difficulty, as it seems to surmount my weakness to reach unto, so it requires your more careful attention that ye may duly conceive the same. In the debating whereof it behooves me neither to say too little, neither is there any utterance of man else able, for the largeness of the matter exceeding all possibility, to speak sufficiently. Notwithstanding, since I have presumed to enter upon this enterprise, being of itself of wonderful importance, albeit I may seem to falter and faint, as oppressed with the heavy burden thereof, yet will I not retire, but will proceed with affiance, as well as I may, resting myself wholly upon the grace of Christ; and will, by your patience, speak, though not so much as the cause requires, yet as much as the goodness of God will permit at present.

The whole action of the sermon of Paul is divided into two special parts, whereof the one concerns the Jews; the other appertains properly to us Gentiles. In the behalf of the Jews, he laments their fall, reproves their unbelief, gives them unto us for an example to behold the severe rigor of God’s justice, discovers the cause of God’s wrath; and being careful for their safety, excites them to a holy emulation. Finally, prophesying as it were of their last reconcilement, he encourages the poor outcasts with hope of recovery of God’s mercy again. As concerning the Gentiles, he commends their faith, advances the inestimable goodness of God towards them; calls them back to remembrance of their former misery and despaired estate; rejoices with them for their present felicity; entirely requests and earnestly exhorts them that they swell not with pride; dissuades from disdainful triumphing upon forlorn abjects, persuading to modesty of mind; mitigates the haughty arrogancy of their hearts with a most wholesome medicine. Finally, setting down a perfect pattern of the Jews’ calamity in manner of a precedent holding them back in a suitable fear; he discloses the wonderful power that Almighty God useth in disposing and translating his benefits, that by these means he may qualify the insolency of the Gentiles; and so retain them meanwhiles within the limits of modest sobriety until the fullness of time, being of all parts accomplished; each nation, as well Jews as Gentiles, through the most blessed operation of grace, may be united and gathered together at the length into one society, and partake of one congregation. And this much concerning’ the two parts of Paul’s sermon.

The manner and kind of his instruction here, wherein he resembleth the church of God toAN OLIVE TREE, is metaphorical and prophetical. Which olive tree consists of three parts; of the root, of the stock, and of the branches. Under the title of the root he denotes Abraham and other holy patriarchs unto us, because in them appeared the first buds and blossoms of God’s promise. By the stock, or body of the tree, he represents unto us the church scattered upon the face of the earth; a congregation gathered together out of the whole number of the faithful; which at the first, budding in small issues from out that holy root, and so, by little and little, increasing in strength and obtaining a proportionable stature, at the length, through the plentiful fatness of the bountiful root, with outstretched compass spreads abroad itself into most beautiful branches and boughs. By which plain demonstration we have an apparent view painted out as it were, both of the old synagogue of the Jews, and the new church of the Gentiles. And because no man shall think that this olive tree is sprung up at all adventures, or planted by man’s industry, he calleth it by the name of a holy issue, out of a holy root.

There is no man made husbandman or woodward of this olive tree, but Almighty God himself alone is so; who, with all possible diligence, attendeth to the dressing and nourishing thereof, and will continually preserve the same. Howsoever this olive tree alter the beauty of his blossoms, or change the hue of his leaves yet it still endures unremovable, nor is at any time cut clean away. In like manner fares it with the church of God; which being wholly established upon the eternal foundation of God’s most sacred promise, standeth, as it were, in a certain eternity, unvanquishable, and so shall continue permanent beyond all ages, though the members and branches thereof remain not always in one estate; and although it happen many times that the first issues become the last, and, contrariwise, the last made first: the natural buds yield place to the savage slips, the proper and old grown branches are cut off, and new taken in; and so by wonderful interchange, some grow, some stand at a stay, some increase, and some starve quite away, as we see now and then come to pass in husbandry and gardening; where plants and trees are many times pruned of unfruitful sprouts, sometimes despoiled altogether of boughs and the stocks newly engrafted, to the end the trees may become more fruitful.

After the same manner, that heavenly gardener, woodward, or plant setter, doth many times prune this little olive tree of his church, but never plucketh it up by the roots, as Augustine doth witness, cutting off betimes windshaken boughs and starved branches, that new plants may prosper the better. So that, according to the saying of the same Augustine, many ravening wolves possess the church within, whiles many sheep in the mean space stand without the doors. Which thing can be verified by no one example more aptly than by this comparison of the Jews and Gentiles. Of whom let us hear what the apostle speaketh.

I speak, saith he, unto you, Gentiles, in as much as I am an apostle of the Gentiles, I will magnify mine office, etc. Forasmuch as in debating of any matter in question whatsoever, two things are chiefly to be noted; namely, the person that speaketh, and the matter that is spoken of; we will by God’s assistance prosecute them both at this present. Let us first, therefore, consider the person of him that speaketh; then, as order of teaching requires, the cause whereof he disputes. 1. As touching the cause here debated, as no reasonable man can make any just quarrel to doubt upon, so ought not the famous and well-known authority of the person to be defrauded of any his due estimation. For what authority can be of more force to purchase credit or to procure advancement to the function, than the name of an apostle? And amongst the apostles themselves also, what one ought to be more entire and of more credit amongst the Gentiles, than the apostle Paul? Who, if being sent by man’s ordinance, had come unto us, ought yet to be friendly entertained for his courtesy, so long as he teacheth the sincere truth. But whereas now he is by an especial calling peculiarly assigned, not from men, nor by men, but by Christ Jesus himself, an apostle to instruct us Gentiles; how much more it behoves ns Gentiles, his scholars, to attend our own proper schoolmaster and peculiar apostle, inasmuch as he was especially called and chosen for this only purpose, as he witnesses of himself, that we should with all faithful cheerfulness of mind embrace his doctrine. Wherefore, proceed on, my dearly beloved brethren, be not ashamed of your old schoolmaster, since he himself is so little ashamed to acknowledge us his scholars, as that accounting the same his greatest glory, he therein advances his office so much the more, because he hath obtained this title to be called an apostle of the Gentiles; and therefore saith that he magnifieth his ministry. Which title, notwithstanding, he boasts not of upon any vainglorious ostentation, but compelled hereunto through necessity of circumstances only to magnify his function. Neither is this any strange or new kind of doctrine; for the necessary order of teaching so requires oftentimes for the more credit of the doctrine, that is taught to extol and advance, as well the office of the teacher, as also the authority of the office. Even as in another epistle, written to the Galatians, we read, how he was enforced to maintain his countenance against his adversaries with this only target and cognizance of his apostle-ship. Behold, saith he, I Paul speak unto you; if you be circumcised, Christ doth profit you nothing at all. Neither does the apostle differ much in this place from that figurative phrase of speech, to the end that having weighty matters to debate with us Gentiles, he might with so much the more estimation, thereby to beautify the authority of his function.

I speak, saith he, to you, Gentiles; I will magnify mine office. 2. You have heard now of the person of the teacher, and of his lawful authority; it follows to make manifest unto you the substantial and material part of all whatsoever is here debated in this whole eleventh chapter. And the same may be divided into three common places or parts, chiefly.

The first whereof doth concern the treaty of the casting away of the Jews, and receiving of the Gentiles. In the first member whereof, which toucheth the Jews, the severe justice of God is noted unto us: in that other, that hath relation to the Gentiles, the unspeakable mercy and goodness of God is disclosed unto us.

In the second part, the cause why they were rejected, and those others admitted, is set down unto us.

In the third place, the apostle foreshows, and by way of mystery, as it were, prophesies of the reconcilement of the Jews that should ensue, and the full accomplishment of the Gentiles.

As concerning the reconcilement of the Jews, we will discourse upon in fit place for the same hereafter. In the mean space, touching that part that appertaineth to the casting away of the Jewish nation, as many things are contained therein worthy not to be negligently overpassed, so this one caution ought diligently to be marked; that no such thought enter into any of our minds, as though the Jews are so altogether forsaken of God, and despoiled of spiritual consolation, as that no sparkle of mercy is reserved in store for them to hope upon. Neither that the whole stock of that nation is so altogether supplanted, that no remnant of all the root thereof hath any drop of moisture laid up for them in the fountain of God’s free election.

For both those opinions are utterly refuted by the apostle; the one in the beginning of the chapter, the other in the end thereof, as appears by the very entry of the same chapter.

I say then, hath God east away his people? God forbid: for I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not forsaken his people whom he hath foreknown, etc., as though he would say, Albeit God hath estranged the greater part of his people from himself, yet hath he not so utterly extinguished the whole nation, as though he had reserved to himself no suitable number of all the remnant of that seed; like as we read what happened to Elias, who, lamenting that he alone was left of all the true worshippers of God, was answered that there remained yet seven thousand men that had not bowed the knee to the idol Baal.

And, therefore, concerning the multitude of them that fell away, as many things are worthy to be noted, as I said before, in the rejection of them; so this one thing chiefly amongst the rest ought heedfully to be marked, according as the apostle himself here noteth; namely, that this their blindness happened not unto them by haphazard, by chance and unawares, as though God by his divine providence did not foresee the same beforehand, and ordain the whole course of this action before, by the unchangeable decree of his incomprehensible wisdom. For otherwise, how could the Lord himself in far distance of time prophesy before by the mouths of the prophet Isaiah and his servant David, that their eyes should be blinded, lest they should see; their backs should be made crooked lest they should yield, their ears should be stopped lest they should hear, if he had not foreseen the same at the first; or how could he foresee it, unless he had likewise decreed it. But now, forasmuch as God and nature do bring nothing to pass unadvisedly, by how much the more grievously the Jews were overcharged with the severe rigor of God’s justice, for what could be more heavy, than to be razed out of the book of life, so much the more heinous must the canker be that provoked this so sharp and bitter corrosive; which cankered contagion that wrought their perdition, is most expressly declared by these words of St. Paul, For their unbelief, saith he.

Whereby all men may easily conjecture how horrible an infection this fretting sore, unbelief, is adjudged in the sight of God.

But first we must open unto you the nature and substance of this unbelief.

Unbelief is a thing wholly opposite and adversary to belief’; by which contraposition you may easily perceive the right nature or definition of unbelief. For it faith or belief be a certain infallible knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ensealed in our hearts, whereby we do embrace him, as given unto us from God the Father, for us to repose our whole affiance in the same; it is evident then, by the same reason, in what sort we ought to judge of unbelief. For whosoever hath ascribed the confidence of his salvation, and free remission of his sins, to any other person than unto Jesus Christ; or to any other creature than unto the faith which ought to be in Christ Jesus; the same may well be called an unbelieving person.

Moreover, as there are many degrees amongst the faithful, and like as the faith of some persons is more abundant and plentiful, in some others scarce ripe, and less fruitful, in many scarcely any blossom or issue at all appearing; so is the manifold variety of unbelief likewise expressed in the scriptures, after many and sundry sorts. For there is a certain unbelief, under the which, as under certain embers, some sparkle of faith is raked up, be it ever so small; which is signified in that sentence of scripture, where it is said, I do believe, Lord; Lord, help thou my unbelief. There is another kind of unbeliet; which although it is as yet overspread with a certain darkened mist of foggy ignorance, and is tossed to and fro with many wandering clouds and doubtful vapors; yet because it peepeth now and then abroad, because it glittereth and shineth somewhat, and endeavoreth by all means possible to express his orient and bright beams, it seemeth not to rest in despaired estate. There is yet also another kind of unbelief, which the Lord doth reprove, but forsaketh not, as was that whereof mention is made in the gospel, And he rebuked their unbelief. Thomas Didymus believed not the disciples, when they told him that the Lord was risen again. A great unbelief, but not shaken off yet. There is also, small faith, and no faith. And it happeneth oftentimes that the one is so named, yea, and reproached of the other. The disciples themselves also were sometimes worthily rebuked for their unbelief, to whom was said, O ye unfaithful and perverse generation, Matthew 17. Peter was once yielded over to the very brink of drowning for none other cause, but for his unbelief sake; yet our Lord, stretching out his hand, afterwards saved him. This was a dangerous unbelief. But that other example, not of his distrust only, but of his faithless revolting, was for more perilous; when the same Peter, not once or twice only, but three times in one night, not only did not acknowledge, but also forsware his Lord and Master! yet was he not therefore deprived from his apostleship. And it is not to be doubted but that many persons do intrude upon the possession of christian title, who can gloriously vaunt of Christ with their tongues, but deny him utterly in their deeds, believing nothing less in their hearts steadfastly than that whereof they carry an outward resemblance in their talk courageously. And because this serpigo F116 resteth within those persons, and crawleth to no further infection of the congregation, they are not therefore barred from partaking the sacraments of this church, which we call the visible church.

And what shall be said of them who many times accuse themselves of their own unbelief, being valiant soldiers nevertheless in the camp of christian faith; when as on the contrary part, many others do firmly believe themselves to be mere strangers to infidelity, whose faith, if it should be placed in the face of the enemy, will of very cowardice forthwith flee the field?

And albeit all these examples of unbelief, whereof I have made mention, may justly be reproved as blameworthy, and void of all color of defense, yet may they be borne withal, after a sort. But this kind of infidelity of all others is most horrible and execrable, when men do rush headlong into such obstinate resistance, that they will not only not acquaint themselves with the truth, being laid open before their eyes, but will, wittingly, shut up their senses from the beholding thereof, because they will not see it; and will spurn thereat, not in words and profession only, but will cruelly persecute the same also, with all manner of outrage, slaughter, and blood, blasphemies, and most despiteful execrations. And this is that unbelief; which being more noisome than any pestilent botch, may rightly and properly be called the Jewish infidelity, and it seemeth after a certain manner their inheritable disease, who are, after a certain sort, from their birth, naturally carried through perverse frowardness into all malicious hatred and contempt of Christ, and his christians.

And for this cause especially, I suppose it came to pass, that whereas God, so many hundred years before, had continually pardoned their wonderful and manifold wickedness and impiety; and, after his wonted manner, had from time to time endured and winked at their horrible rebellion and idolatry, he could now no longer forbear their abominable cruelty, committed against his well beloved Son, whom they traitorously murdered and hanged on a tree, but must needs avenge him upon the whole nation, and root out the remnant of the whole race altogether.

And not without great cause, for how could it else be, after that he was once revealed unto them, for whose cause only all that commonwealth of the Jews was instituted and erected? What cause remained then that the Jewish synagogue should be of any longer continuance? or to what purpose might it serve afterwards? What! that they might persevere still in sacrificing the blood of goats and lambs to the Lord? And where should this be done? in one family only? But God is not delighted with such sacrifices, nor dwelleth he in temples made by men, but even in the very hearts of men. He taketh no pleasure in external pomp, and outward observances, nor gorgeous garnishings of the body: he vouchsafeth those worshippers, which do worship him in spirit and in truth, John 4. These old moth-eaten shadows had their time, and not their time only, but their lawful use also; that so under shadows, types, and figures, they might prefigure the certainty and truth of things to come. But after thatHE was once manifested, who was the true Holy of holy ones, who was the true and lively Temple of God, who should display unto the world the true righteousness, who should be of power to give everlasting salvation, and should be Lord and King of all nations: what needeth then any further shadows? Or how could the Lord endure their blindness any longer, when after the coming of their Lord, they not only ceased not to abuse the shadows of the law to other purposes than they were ordained for, but also, of a vain and false persuasion, to the pernicious example of other nations, yea, not without the manifest peril of the utter overthrow of the whole world, did likewise teach that true righteousness ought to be ascribed to the outward observances of those shadows and ceremonies?

The which the mercy of God seemeth not only to have foreseen, but adjudged also by no means tolerable; for otherwise it might have come to pass, that the safety of the Jews might have been an estoppell F117 to the receiving of the Gentiles, and so have procured their unrecoverable destruction, through false opinion of the doctrine of righteousness.

But since there was none other mean or way for the Gentiles to have due access to true righteousness, but by cutting down the carnal thicket of ceremonial brambles and bloody briers, hereupon it pleased Almighty God to dispose the interchanges and alterations of times according to his unsearchable counsel: that so the decay of the Jews might be the riches of the Gentiles; and the casting away of that froward generation, might be the reconcilement of the whole world. And thus much, by the way, of the cutting away of the Israelites; which, although it redounded to our inestimable benefit, may not therefore provoke us to swell and be puffed up with pride; whereof St. Paul doth wisely forewarn us to be well advised.

And if some of the branches were broken off, saith he, and thou being a wild olive tree wast engrafted in amongst them, and made partaker of the root and fatness of the true olive tree, boast not thyself against the branches, etc. First, whereas he alludes and resembles the cutting away of certain of the Jews, to certain branches of the true natural olive tree, it appears hereby sufficiently, that this casting away appertained not to the whole nation of the Jews, but to some portion of them only: for there remain then, many of the same kindred, amongst whom was St. Paul himself, and the other apostles, besides a very great portion of the remnant of the same people, which followed Christ, and acknowledged him with all their faith. Again, the very first issues of our christian faith sprang out of that stock, from whence we Gentiles must needs confess to have received the very entry and foundation thereof. It appears therefore that this was not a general rejection, neither that the whole race was drawn altogether into the same gulf of perdition, but a portion only, and the same Paul terms them to have been cut off.

And wherefore chose he to say that they were cut off, rather than that they fell away, namely since it is out of all question that the Jews’ decay proceeded from their own default, and through unbelief? What moved the apostle then to use this figurative phrase of speech, of cutting, saying’ that they were cut off, and fell not away of their own accord; that they were plucked away, not that they brake off? Forsooth, because it is not all one to be cut off, and to fall from. The things that are cut off, cannot choose but fall away; but the things that fall away, are not always properly to be said to be cut off. What is meant therefore by this word, cutting off? Forsooth, nothing else but to make us conceive that the heavenly and unsearchable hand of Almighty God did overthrow this building: even the self-same hand, which with wonderful workmanship doth plant, prune, bind up, underprop, adorn, order, and beautify this olive tree of his church, not after the proportion of man’s imagination, but after the direction of his own determination and impenetrable wisdom. For, as a natural olive tree and other like trees, the buds, issues, twigs, and branches, being either cut off, or newly engrafted, work not that of their own power, but receive the same by the aid and industry of man, even so, in administering the functions of the church, if we seek for the original cause of the workman, by whose conduct all inferior causes are induced to observe their due order and course; the same must be adjudged to proceed from the force and efficacy of the unmeasurable election of the heavenly Workman only, who, by wonderful dispensation maketh choice where him liketh, and refuseth whom he listeth, according to the testimony of scripture; I will take compassion on whom I will take compassion, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, Exodus 33. Whereunto accordeth St. Paul, speaking after the same manner, It is neither the willer, nor the runner, but God that taketh compassion, Romans 9. Where fortune and chance may go play, there truly no endeavors of man can avail, much less can men’s merits or deservings be of any force, neither can ought else bear the palm here, but the only election of Almighty God. The nature and property of which election, we may learn elsewhere out of the same Paul. The remnant, saith he, are saved through the election of grace; which grace cannot be said to be grace at all if man’s merits have pre-eminence before it. For that which is given according to the proportion of deservings, and not according to grace, seemeth in Augustine’s judgment, a reward rather of duty than a free gift of promise. But a question may be moved here, perhaps, whether the Gentiles were not engrafted for their faith’s sake; and whether the Jews were not supplanted from the true olive for their unbelief? Which interchanged dispensation, what else does it explain unto us, than a manifest demonstration as well of the meritorious desert, as well of faith as of unbelief?

I answer hereunto, first as concerning the faith of the Gentiles, and the infidelity of the Jews. I confess, indeed, that these may seem to carry some show, in the eyes and judgment of some, to be deemed the very original causes of the free acceptance of the Gentiles, and likewise of the repulse of the Jews. But for all this, we hear not yet what were the causes of the faith of the one, and of the unbelief of the other. And, therefore, if we will enter into a deep and more especial inquiry after the principal causes of this action, truly we shall never find them elsewhere, than in the hidden and secret closet of God’s election. For be it so admitted that the Gentiles were for this cause engrafted into the true olive tree, because they did believe; yet, if question be moved, from whence their faith proceeded first? it may well be answered, not from any of their merits truly, neither in respect of any of their own worthiness, more than as the shoots which do issue out of the natural wild olive tree, can boast of any their excellency, wherefore they ought to be transplanted into the fatness of the true olive tree. The like answer in sensible wise may suffice touching the Jews, when if the cause of their dismembering from their true natural olive tree be inquired, I answer, for their unbelief, undoubtedly. And yet this answer does not satisfy the purport of Paul’s disputation. For since faith is an especial gift of God, issuing from out of the only mercy and grace of God, and not from man’s free choice, the question rebounds back again from whence it began.

What was the cause then why the natural branches were so bereft of this singular gift after the revealing of their Messias? Whether because the barren, unfruitful, wild olive tree did surmount the true olive in excellency of fatness; that is, in integrity of life and merits? Surely I think not so.

Wherefore then were the Jews forsaken, and the Gentiles received? St.

Paul maketh this answer. First, that this repulse reached not to all the Israelites in general. Then, as concerning the remnant, whatsoever work was wrought in them, was not administered without the singular counsel and foreknowledge of God; which foreknowledge doth evidently appear by the continual discourse of the prophets and psalms; where the Holy Ghost foretelleth many hundred years before, of the wilful blindness of the Jews.

This counsel of God is made notably discernible unto us by the sequel, and final cause; the apostle not only testifying most evidently, that God was the worker of their blindness, but also rendering the reason that induced God thereunto. Where disputing at large of the rueful ruin of the Jews, and searching for the cause thereof; What then, saith he, did they therefore offend, because they should be cast away? Which were as much to say, as though God should be delighted in their destruction. God forbid! Nay, rather that by their fall salvation should happen to the Gentiles, and that by their unbelief the Gentiles might obtain mercy.

But a question will be moved here again; whether it were not as easy for Almighty God to have given mercy to them both, if it had pleased him?

Mark what the apostle saith hereunto; Nay, rather for this cause only God did shut up all under unbelief that he might have mercy on all. For as it pleased Almighty God to exercise his long and severe rigor in old time against the heathenish castaways, and wretched abjects, the Gentiles, until at length, with his merciful kindness unlooked for, he had shaken off from their eyes the foggy scales of darkened error, and, after their long infidelity, allured them at the last to the blessed knowledge of his sacred gospel even the very same may we perceive to have happened to the nation of the Israelites, by contrary interchange of persons and times; that so, those which sometimes were the first, should now become the last, and those which by so long continuance of inheritably descending race, did lawfully enjoy the interest of the true olive tree, as the true natural offsprings thereof, being now cut clean away from their holy root, must be constrained to forsake their standing, and yield place to others, and may learn now at the length to endure the grievous storms and cruel tempests of God’s just vengeance, which the Gentiles before them had long time experimented to their great dolor and sorrow, until at length having subdued their disdainful pride, and tamed the natural stiffneckedness of their hearts, they may obtain the self-same mercy together with the Gentiles, not for any of their deserts, but through the free mercy and bounty of Almighty God only, and so be restored at length to the ancient inheritance of their first possessed root. And this is it that St. Paul seemeth here to prophesy, in this mystical oracle and most comfortable message, concerning the reclaiming of the Jews to come.

Whereby it may easily appear, how that there is no one thing in all the actions of man’s life so worthy of praise, whereby man may be puffed up to stand in his own conceit, or disdainfully tread down the infirmity of his weak brethren, whether he have regard to the lenity of God’s free mercy, or attentively behold the severity of his justice. For so the apostle hath here set them both out unto us, to be diligently considered, Behold, saith he, the mercy and wrath of God; wrath towards them that fell, but towards thee that dost persist in faith, mercy, etc. And thus doth the apostle right well advertise us; but that we for our part may be able to comprehend them both, the especial assistance of God had need to enlighten our understanding. For there are no small number of people, whose senses, either through ignorance, or else through negligence, are dazzled and darkened in the right comprehending thereof. Amongst which ignorant sort of people, first may the Jews be rightly placed, who, being deluded with a preposterous opinion of sinister judgment, do interpret this bounty of God to be there, from whence they ought to have feared his terrible indignation.

Secondly, amongst the negligent number may be reckoned the Gentiles, of whom many are over slow and sluggish to enter into due consideration of God’s goodness, but quick-sighted enough to pierce into his wrathful severity. Of those two sorts of people, I do purpose, by God’s assistance, to discourse somewhat, so far as the time will permit, to the end I may profit them both, if it be possible, or at least offer inconvenience to neither of them, as I trust.

And first, I can never wonder sufficiently enough at the Jews, for that many years and ages enduring the sharp and severe scourge of God’s dreadful displeasure, they could notwithstanding never have any feeling of their own calamity, nor perceive the heavy clog of God’s grievous vengeance, nor yet any affection to be disburdened of their infidelity, sweetly beguiling themselves with a glavering F118 show of a false shadow, flattering themselves, likewise, with a fantastical hope of an earthly kingdom, whereof they had never any one word promised by God; and awaiting for the coming of such a Messias, whom never any of the prophets knew.

Finally, so far forth prevailed the deceit of this error, to confound the sensible part of their understanding mind, that, being otherwise a people most abhorred of God and men, they would nevertheless most arrogantly vaunt themselves to be more esteemed and more precious in the sight of God than all other nations, people, and tongues; and that they were his only darlings, and therefore could not by any means be defrauded of the power of his promise, nor be sequestered from the true olive tree, whereof they were the natural branches, wallowing continually in a most filthy puddle of pestilent error, not much unlike to the Romish synagogue in this our age, whose senses seem to be intoxicated with the same sweet cup; which kind of people, being of all other nations most in need of the mercy of God, it is a wonder notwithstanding, to see how trimly they deceive themselves in the dispensation of pardons, whereof they falsely challenge to themselves chief stewardship, under the title of the church and inheritable succession of Peter’s chair, which they have established at Rome for ever and ever! Persuading themselves that they have obtained the sole and singular prerogative of all ecclesiastical superiority, such as can never be abolished by any continuance of consuming time, but must remain inviolable, world without end, nor can ever be dissolved by breach of succession, nor at any time be destitute and void of the favor of God. But if you demand of them the cause of this so inestimable a blessing, what will they answer? Forsooth, hath not God, say they, promised that he will never forsake his church? What then? Have not the keys lineally descended unto us from blessed St. Peter, ever hitherto being the chief head of the apostles, which the Lord hath promised shall never be taken away? Is there any more yet? What! is it possible for God’s truth itself to defraud the credit of his covenant, whereunto he hath bound himself with a most sacred oath?

Very well now. And whereupon doth the blind arrogancy of the Jewish nation magnify their race? Do we not derive our pedigree, say they, lineally from our most holy father Abraham? Are we not born and named Israelites, by the name of our great grandsire, Israel, the patriarch? Did not the Lord credit us only with the safe custody of the ark of his covenant? Have not we a promise from God by the mouth of his prophets, of a Messias and Savior to come? Hath not God prepared an everlasting throne for the kingdom of our Messias? Is not he of power to make his covenant inviolable, that with so many oaths hath ratified the same? Or will he not perform the oaths which he hath made?

Surely I will not much gainsay that it is indeed no small matter whereof each party debateth so largely of the promises of Almighty God. But due consideration ought to be had of the mind and intent of him that maketh the promise in the scriptures; and the same well weighed and compared with the due circumstances and other places of the scripture, if we will be accounted true and sincere interpreters of God’s holy scriptures: that is to say, it behooves us duly and orderly to define and dispose all and every tiling apart by itself, not those things only which are promised, but withal the persons, the place, the cause, and consideration, and all other circumstances of the promises. And, therefore, albeit we do grant unto them that all those promises are true, whereupon they brag so much, touching the succession of the patriarchs and apostles, yet shall they never be able to win this at our hands, namely, that this ordinary descent according to the law of the flesh, is a sufficient foundation to build the church of God upon. In the which, if we behold nothing else besides the outward form of succession only, who can be so purblind as not to be able to discern the manifold alterations of orders and observances which the Lord from time to time hath changed and disposed contrary to the first constitutions? As for example, when God, instead of Cain, Esau, Ishmael, Saul, to whom appertained the ordinary succession and descent of the priesthood, of the birthright and inheritance of the kingdom, made especial choice of Abel, Isaac, Jacob, and David, who had no interest at all in the right of succession. In like manner forsaking the Jews he accepted the Gentiles. Neither is it so much material to know where, or by what means, the church of christians sprang up at the first; so that it hold fast the sincerity of the pure word, of undefiled faith, and the due administration of the sacraments, by which three things the church is preserved and sanctified.

As concerning the promises of God, therefore, this is undoubtedly to be holden, that the promises are in their own nature simply true; yet in such wise true notwithstanding, as God hath not always chained them to time, place, or persons of men; which albeit were tied fast to place and persons, yet are the proud and highminded shaken off, the promises remaining still in their force. Even so the Jews, although they prescribe upon a promised place in Sion, <19D201> Psalm 132. “Here will I build my tabernacle, because I have chosen it.” Again, in the prophecy of Isaiah, “This is my furnace; this is my fire,” etc., Isaiah 31. And although they have also a promise of the persons, when the blessing is promised to Abraham, and to his seed for ever, yet this withstands not, but that rebels are punished by God, the temple consumed by fire, the altar thrown down, and the city sacked and destroyed. And yet the meanwhile Almighty God continueth steadfast in his promise nevertheless, but by a far other mean than man’s capacity is able to conceive. Whereupon that holy and melodious psalmist, not without great reason, doth cry out in a certain place of his mystical sonnets in this wise, And it is marvellous in our eyes, <19B801> Psalm 118.

Even so do I judge it convenient to esteem of the counterfeit succession of the apostolic and Romish see, which if our prelates enforce so narrowly to be straitened to the limits of place and persons, they must needs bewray their double error therein, being not only absurdly injurious to holy scriptures, but fondly careless in breaking the rules of logic. For in their arguing they do commonly thrust more into their conclusion, than in their former propositions. As if a man would frame an argument after this manner; The perpetuity of the promised succession is granted to Peter and his successors. The Romish prelates do succeed in Peter’s chair or place.

Therefore the Romish prelates are the only successors of Peter; the only universal bishops, the only princes of the church, whose faith can never faint.

But we have sufficiently enough discovered the maskings and jugglings of this Romish counterfeit elsewhere. And, therefore, lest we rove too much abroad from the mark, and wander from the olives, as the proverb saith, we will return again to Paul’s olive tree, and the branches of the same, whereupon we promised before to discourse. Of the which branches, how some were broken off, and some others engrafted again into the true olive tree, we have already opened somewhat unto you out of the apostle. And not only out of the apostle this is opened, but the same was also set down at large, long time before the apostle, by the prophet Isaiah; out of which place of Isaiah it seemeth that the apostle took occasion of all this discourse. Let us Gentiles, therefore, mark well what Isaiah doth prophesy of the Jews. Let the Jews also attend to the preaching of their own prophet, who agreeth herein altogether with our apostle touching the Jews.

Behold, saith he, the Lord of hosts shall break down the bow with power, and shall hew down the proud, and the high-minded shall he fell down. And there shall arise an issue out of the root of Jesse, etc., Isaiah 10. And lest the Jews may cavil, that these speeches do nothing concern them, let them hearken again to the same prophet, not only prophesying of them, but also pointing unto the Jews with the finger, as it were, in the seventeenth chapter. And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made very thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. And immediately after; Some gathering indeed shall be left in it. Even as in the shaking of an olive tree, whereupon remaineth two or three berries in the top of the uppermost row, and four or five in the broad fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel, etc. And again in another place, For it shall come to pass in the midst of the land, even in the midst of the people, as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the grapes are when the wine harvest is finished, chapter 24. And yet again, much more plainly, chapter 65. Thus saith the Lord, Like as when sweet juice is found in the cluster, and one saith, Lose it not, for there is blessing in it; even so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all, etc.

Now, forasmuch as these things are so plain and so manifest, that they may be easily felt and handled as it were with the fingers, what answer dost thou make, thou froward nation of the Jews? What canst thou bring? What canst thou allege, if not to defend, yet to color at the least, thy obstinate stubbornness? Hast thou any scriptures? No, surely. For nothing maketh more against thee, not only with open mouth exclaiming- even to thy teeth against thy blindness, wherewith thou hast been so long’ overwhelmed; but also long since, by manifest tokens, foretelling how the same should come to pass. Wilt thou vouch the promises and covenants which God made unto thee of old? And what other thing did he promise thee at any time, than the same which thou dost so disdainfully pursue? Neither yet cease you to run onward, still gaping after, I know not what Messias to come.

What! hath he not yet been sufficiently enough looked for by your progenitors, who waited for his coming by the space of two thousand years before he came? How long then will ye yet continue gazing, seeing these things are past already? How long will ye yield yourselves a mockery, not to God only, but a jesting stock also to all other nations of the world; since all people and tongues do so plainly conceive, that all things are long since accomplished in the person of Christ Jesus, whatsoever all the prophets did prophesy of the Messias; and since the whole discourse of the holy scriptures doth so manifestly teach also that there is none other Christ, but the same that the whole world doth confess and worship?

But this one tiling perhaps doth raise up your crests, and puff you up with pride; because you convey unto yourselves so long a descent of your genealogies and kindred from so famous ancestors, because ye fetch your pedigree and families from Abraham and the holy patriarchs, and in that respect you reproachfully disdain all other nations, as though God had created them to no purpose at all. But let us see by what reason, with what conscience, you are induced hereunto. If you judge this a matter of so great importance, that ye can rehearse, in a long beadroll of names, your generations descended out of the loins of Abraham; what! and cannot Ishmael, Esau, Saul; cannot Dathan and Abiram, and all that other evil rabble of Hebrews who made insurrection against Moses; finally, cannot many wicked kings amongst you, false prophets, horrible church robbers and idolaters, even amongst you, vaunt the selfsame race and parentage whereupon you brave yourselves so gloriously? Whereupon it appears plainly that this outward descent of blood and fleshly progeny, avails not so much for your challenge, but that there is some other thing that makes a kindly generation, and the true offspring of Abraham, in the sight of God.

Moreover, if it may be lawful to glory in the ancient stock, what may be thought of Christ himself whom we do worship? In whom, if ye do inquire who was his father, he came not indeed from man, but descended from God. But if you demand of his mother, he is on the mother’s side a Jew born, according to the flesh the son of Abraham, of the same seed that you are, whose children you challenge yourself to be according to the flesh.

And wherefore then do ye so cruelly detest him? Why do your brethren so hatefully envy and malign your natural brother? And being Jews born yourselves, why do you so villainously persecute your natural kinsman, being likewise a Jew born, and why have you slain him so cruelly?

And what hath he committed at any time, worthy of this so monstrous rancor and cankered despite? Was it because he did profess himself to be the Son of God? Albeit he never spoke anything in his own commendation without singular modesty, neither boasted in his speech further of himself than that he was the Son of man; yet if he were not the very true undoubted Son of God, do ye nominate some one man upon earth, whom you may justify was his father, and condemn the whole history of the new testament to be lies, if you can. What think you? would his apostles, and other his disciples, being daily and hourly conversant with himself, his mother, and his mother’s husband, so thoroughly accompanied and acquainted with all the actions of his life, have been so willfully and foolishly blinded, as to give such credit unto him, and to believe in him?

Would they have settled the whole affiance of their salvation in him?

Would they so courageously have undertaken so many perilous hazards of life? Would they so constantly have yielded their carcases to all manner of horrible tortures, not in words only, but with loss of life also, ratifying and testifying the things which they knew to be in him most assured, and that with effusion of their blood, if they had seen naught else in him beyond the natural substance of man, and had not rather conceived thoroughly to be in him a secret divinity, that was hidden under the veil of the flesh bodily? But if these things shall be but of small credit with you, what will you answer to those so great and manifold tokens of wonderful virtue, to such supernatural and prodigious wonders of his? What say ye to so great force of his divine operation, to so great power of his miracles, not wrought by him alone, but by his apostles also, through the virtue of his name only; yea, and long since now and then openly wrought in his church, through the effectual operation of his glorious name? What will you say to his so great majesty in word, innocency of life, certainty in prophesying? And, besides all these, his marvelous signs and tokens expressed in his own person? What will you say to that his incomprehensible glorious resurrection, his unspeakable ascension into the heavens; lastly, to those his most gracious g-iris of the Holy Ghost, poured upon us from the heavens?

What can you answer, I say, that all these so manifold, so wonderful, yea, so heavenly graces, might import else, than that there was in him a certain superexcellent divinity, beyond all measure, stir-mounting all reach and capacity of man’s understanding?

All which, being approved with the testimony of so many witnesses, viewed and beholden with so many eyes, practiced by the daily experience of so many Jeers, ensealed with so many hands and writings, published to us Gentiles by manifold reports of so many of your rabbins and great doctors of your own nation; if all these things shall yet seem to you but colorable, reigned, and unworthy of credit; why do ye not, with as good reason, condemn for false liars all and every your own prophets, patriarchs, your own law, yea, and the psalms also, and raze them out of remembrance, because they did many hundred years before, most expressly foreshow and prognosticate evidently, that all those things should come to pass, even in the same manner and order as they have been already accomplished. Amongst whom let Isaiah the prophet be adjudged a liar, because in the name of this Christ, he promiseth health to the blind, to the lame, to the halt, and to the maimed; because he prophesieth hope of freedom to them that were in chains; to prisoners, liberty; plenty and fullness to the needy and hungry; light to them that sit in the shadow of death; bountiful fruitfulness to fields that were otherwise by nature barren, and, through want of tillage, overspread with briers and brambles, uncomely, yea, and filthy by reason of their desolation to overflowing rivers, dryness and emptiness; to the Jews themselves extreme blindness.

Let the prophet Hosea be accounted a liar also, who prophesieth likewise that a people which was not a people, should be called, and obtain mercy, through the inestimable blessing of our heavenly jewel. Let Jonas the prophet be adjudged a liar also; yea, and that Elias likewise, who was advanced into heaven in the fiery chariot. The first of which two did prefigure Christ’s glorious rising again the third day alter his death; the other of his ineffable ascension into heaven, the fortieth day after his passion; also of the comfortable consolation and sending of the Holy Ghost, the fiftieth day, called Pentecost, by the letting down of the cloak from out his triumphant chariot. Besides all these, moreover, let John Baptist the prophet, yea more than a prophet, be condemned for a liar, who did not in word only acknowledge him, but, pointing towards him with his finger, pronounced boldly, that he was the very Lamb of God, that should take away the sins of the world. Finally, let all the whole authority of the prophetical scriptures be cancelled for untruth, because the greater part thereof doth nothing but foreshow and report, that all those things should come to pass, which the evangelical history expressly pronounces to be already accomplished.

Briefly, if as yet your eyes be withholden with so gross amazed obscurity, that the things which are more resplendent than the sun in mid-day, and so thoroughly known in all the parts of the world, do so far exceed the common capacity of your senses, and seem so incredible unto you, that ye can by no means comprehend them, nor will suffer so many notable testimonies of Christ’s resurrection to prevail to work so much credit in your hearts, as that ye may believe in our Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead as well as we — why do ye not produce then his buried carcase if you can? Or at the least bring forth some fragment of his precious body, be it ever so small. Or, if you think I demand an impossible request of you, how happeneth that none of all your progenitors could show the same? But if neither you, nor any of all your ancestors were able to do this, why do ye not then join together with us, and worship Him that is risen again? Why do ye not honor and magnify his name, who reigneth in eternity, sitting in the heavens at the right hand of God the Father? Whereunto, if love of religion cannot induce you, let natural reason yet obtain so far forth with you, to grant that which no reason can deny? Whereat make ye stay? Is not my request reasonable? Do I not give you wholesome counsel? Lest that I have spoken take no root in your hearts, I will for your better remembrance repeat again the words I have spoken.

If He, whom you have slain, be not the very Son of God; if ye believe verily, that he whom you deride and scorn at with that your reproachful and despiteful name Talui, F119 were but a very natural man, why do ye not therefore restore his dead body unto us? or, why did not your soldiers and hired watchmen yield his corpse again, for the guarding whereof they received so special a charge? If they cannot, what else importeth the grave being found empty? what else signified the horror and amazedness of your armed watchmen, who, being terrified with strangeness of fearful sights, fled away so timorously, but that ye may be enforced to confess this Christ Jesus to be the true Messias, who having entered upon the possession of the kingdom of David, as in the right of his own peculiar inheritance, reigneth now in all eternity; and having vanquished all power of death, sitteth down triumphantly upon the throne of his father David, to order and establish his Father’s kingdom, with judgment and justice from henceforth even for ever and ever? I would fain learn now, what your obstinate rebellion is able once to mutter against this? First, where no mistrust of peril is feared, there is no guard usually charged. And what suspicion of danger might your forefathers conceive of him after they had murdered him? Debate the matter with yourselves somewhat more substantially, why any such fear might grow concerning the dead body of this one simple person more than any other. But I will not urge you any more herein, only in this point I would fain be resolved; how happened it that the sepulchre, being so strongly covered with a stone of so huge weight, so firmly ensealed with the seal of the high priest, so straitly fenced with the force of armed knights, was so shortly found empty? You will say, that his disciples crept thither privily, and stole away the body of Jesus while your soldiers were in a deep and sound slumber. Well then. And who, I pray you, saw the disciples the mean time while your watchmen slept so soundly? If their eyelids were overladen with such a dead slumber that they could not perceive this, with what face shame you to affirm, that your watchmen saw them not? If they did see them, how chanced that being harnessed, they withstood not such simple unarmed wretches? And why did not your forefathers lay this theft to the disciples’ charge, since they saw them daily preaching in the temple afterwards? Oh monstrous cankered liars! As though the stone wherewith it was covered, were not of greater quantity than could be removed by a few, or by any means might be rolled away without being perceived of your soldiers? Well yet, how happened that these seely captive petty thieves fled not away immediately after they had committed this robbery? How durst they be daily conversant amongst men, and preach openly in your temple? Nay, rather, to tell you the truth simply; with what better, or more probable argument could the world have been induced to believe that Christ was risen again, to the sure establishment of their faith, than this your wicked curious diligence, which your forefathers so carefully employed in watching the sepulcher?

Forasmuch therefore as all these things are so most assured, so manifest, so unreprovable, approved with so many witnesses and prophets; ratified with so many reasons and evident proofs; discovered by the evident testimony, not only of angels, but established also with the heavenly oracle of the Holy Ghost himself; embraced and believed by the faith of all nations of the world; what one probability can all your generation of Hebrews allege for color to the contrary? If ye perceive, therefore, that this is the very true Messias, why do ye not relent at the last, and forsake and abandon your stiffnecked rebellion, and join with us in profession? If as yet ye do not acknowledge him, declare the cause that breedeth this misliking in you, and troubleth your consciences. Is it because he lived in poor and beggarly estate amongst the impoverished, and them that were worth nothing? But your prophet Zechariah, long before he was revealed, reported that he should be even such a one; Behold, saith he, thy king cometh unto thee righteous and just, a Savior, he is poor, and riding upon an ass, etc., Zechariah? And it behooved truly that he which should come to overthrow the highminded and rich of this world, and to enrich the poor, should be himself embased and poor.

What else then? Is it because he was seen to walk in base and simple apparel, and was despised amongst you? Even such a one doth the prophet Isaiah paint out unto us in his fifty-third chapter. We beheld him, saith he, and he had neither form nor beauty; we held him despised, and esteemed him for an outcast of men. You have seen him now of no reputation, an abject, the poorest of men, whom your haughtiness did disdain. Mark now, under this vile and contemptible baseness, more than a kingly royalty, whereunto you ought all to prostrate yourselves, and do honor unto.

Surely he hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows: he was taken out of prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his age? By the knowledge of himself, my servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. The kings shall shut their mouths at him.

You have now therefore heard how that he should be poor and deformed, according to the outward show of the flesh, even such a one as our gospel hath described him. And briefly, to be plain, if he had not thus been poor and rejected from amongst you, he could not have been the right Messias indeed. Verily such a one he seemed to you once, when according to the outward countenance of the flesh, before he had obtained the power of the kingdom upon the cross. But having then forthwith received the throne of his kingdom, in what triumphant majesty he sitteth and reigneth now in heaven, let the mystical psalmist David make report, who in spirit foresaw him sitting at the right hand of God. Let their witness be heard also, who beheld his ascension, and with their bodily eyes saw the same whom David beheld in spirit; even with their carnal eyes, I say, gazing upon him, whilst yet he was lifted up in their sight into heaven, and did perfectly discern him also sitting at the right hand of the Majesty. Let them also record the same, whose inward feeling and spiritual minds he doth enlighten with heavenly effectual operation, and vouchsafeth daily to impart himself unto. And I would to God it might please the same to open your eyes also, that once, at length, you might thoroughly enjoy the inestimable glory and unspeakable majesty of his everlasting kingdom. In the mean space ye may easily conceive a taste and feeling, as it were, of the truth, by groping the shadows and prefigured tokens of the scriptures, except ye had rather willfully and wittingly shut fast your eyes from so manifest demonstration of infallible certainty.

First, what was of more royalty than the kingdom of David? But who was more entangled and straitened, while like a simple lad he kept his father’s sheep? while he was tossed in turmoil with most cruel persecution? At what time Joseph, being circumvented by the injury of his brethren, was east into a loathsome dungeon; when Abraham was commanded to abandon his native country, and to become a banished outcast from his kindred and his father’s house; while Jacob was constrained to redouble his service under his uncle Laban; what time Moses was by God’s calling translated from an exiled outlaw to be a guide and leader of the Israelites: from how great baseness and misery were all these advanced to wonderful estimation and dignity? And what was the meaning of the Holy Ghost else, than under the shadows and figures of those persons, to represent unto us the very pattern and image of the Son of God? And yet, if you duly consider the estate of Christ’s outward baseness, what wanted he at any time to the necessary furniture of his livelihood, notwithstanding’ this show of extreme penury? Nay, what want at all could molest him, who with a very few crusts could feed so many thousands in a desert wilderness? Or how could he be termed poor, at whose beck and word of mouth heaven and earth did obey, the seas and winds, life and death; finally, all the degrees of creation were subject unto?

But that writing and title called by the name of a Nazarite doth encumber you perhaps; because it behooved that Messias should be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. If he were not born in Bethlehem, I report me to the chronicles and records of the time of his birth, and the circumstances thereof. Let the testimonies of the angels, shepherds, wise men, his own mother, Joseph, and all the evangelists be examined.

Moreover, what imported that horrible slaughter of all the babes of Bethlehem, only by the cruel proclamation of Herod, without any molestation of the infants of Nazareth; unless Herod the king had been thoroughly persuaded, that about that instant of time wherein Christ was born, the true king of the Jews was then born in the city of Bethlehem?

What else troubleth you? Because he died the death? What do I hear?

What! have you always awaited for a Messias that could not be bereft of life? How then should this Messias deliver Jacob his people from their iniquities. when no remission of sins could be without slaughter and blood, according to the infallible testimonies, and continual sacrifices of your own law? Briefly, if it were not requisite that Messias should die the death, then did all the prophets speak falsely; Zechariah, Daniel, David, Isaiah, did lie; which have not only made mention of his death, but have most learnedly also set down the cause of his death. For thus we read in Daniel; That wickedness, saith he, may finish, and sins be sealed up, iniquity be reconciled, and ever lasting righteousness may be brought in, Daniel 9. And, proceeding a little further in the same chapter, he doth expressly declare that Christ ought to be slain. In like manner the prophet Isaiah, <235301> chapter 53. If he shall make his soul an offering for sin, saith he. The very same thing doth Moses also prefigure unto us under certain ceremonies of sacrifices, types, and figures not altogether obscure. What say you to Isaiah the prophet, who doth not only discover the cause, but the manner also of his death, his scourgings, wounds, plagues, buffetings, and reproaches? What say you to Zechariah, who mentioneth the piercing of his side with a spear? What say you to David, who describeth the nailing of his hands and feet, the sponge full of vinegar, the rending his flesh from the bones, the casting lots for his garment? What say you to Moses also, who, under the title of the brazen serpent doth prognosticate his lifting up on the cross?

But here again some froward person among you will murmur again — How can Christ be said in the scriptures to be everlasting, if he must of necessity be slain? This scruple no man can more effectually unloose than the prophet David in his mystical psalm; Thou shalt not leave my soul, saith he, in the grave, nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption, Psalm 16.

Where you hear his soul laid in the grave, you must understand that to be spoken of his death and burial. Again, when you hear that he is risen again from his sepulcher, you must interpret the same of his infinite eternity, and imperishable freedom, exempt from all manner of corruption. Whereby appeareth notably discernible unto you, each condition in one self-same person; that is to say, that he is both a mortal man, and an eternal God. In the one whereof the infirmity of his manhood is palpable; in the other the glory of his resurrection is most evidently provable. What! and do ye expect yet another everlasting Messias besides this? What fantasy is this!

As though when the true Messias is come, he may obtain any courteous entertainment amongst you ! Truly none at all; for even so say the prophets of your own nation. Or else what meaneth that saying of David that ye read in the psalm, The stone which the builders refused, the same is made the head of the corner. And who are they that are called the builders, but even yourselves the Jews? What is this stone, but Messias? whom if ye will gape after until you find yourselves pliable to embrace and honor him, it will collie to pass that your long lingering will be prolonged beyond all compass of time; because, according’ to the saying of your own prophets, you will never dutifully allow of the coming of the true Messias, but ye will continually remain in an uncertain expectation of some other. For if he be accepted by the general consent of you all without exception, surely he cannot possibly be the true Messias. Again, if he be refused from amongst you, how long will you hang in suspense of his coming?

Even in like manner your forefathers did look for a Messias to come, long before the birth of Christ, almost two thousand years; but alter that he was come indeed, and that the Lord of lords whom they sought, was entered into his temple, and the Angel of the promised testament, whom they wished for, was amidst them, yet did not his own receive him. And why so? because they judged that he would come after another sort than the prophets had foretold. For the prophets described his coming to be poor, simple, and beggarly; but these lusty gallants gazed for a certain trim earthly emperor, awaited upon with some famous troop of princely guard.

The prophets did promise a meek lamb, whose voice should not be heard to bleat in the streets. These courageous champions look for some lion and victorious monarch. They did foreshow that he should be slain, tormented, and hanged on tree, who should not avenge him of the injuries of his people with displayed banner of bloody battle, but with shedding of his own precious blood, should redeem the sins and wicked transgressions of his people; should not with violence rush upon the crown of the empire, nor with force of arms deliver his people from the thraldom of Caesar; but should restore freedom to his nation from the bondage of sin, and the tyranny of death and the devil, with all the potentates and principalities thereof; and so establish to himself a kingdom, not transitory and earthly in this world, but heavenly, and endless for ever and ever. On the contrary part, these fellows, flattering themselves with a fantastical opinion of worldly pomp, and measuring all things according to the glorious glittering show of some terrestrial dominion, do yet fondly believe that some other puissant and victorious conqueror shall come in some notably advanced manner. Whereupon, being worthily deluded of their own frivolous fond expectation, they can neither truly acknowledge their own heavenly Messias, nor did accept of him when he was come. Neither was it any marvel if they could not find in their hearts to entertain him, being in this beggarly plight; when their own prophets did long before pronounce, that the Messias should be persecuted with no enemies so savage and unmerciful, as the people of his own lineage; and did also, under most manifest oracles, and apparent vails of shadowish signs, prognosticate that he should be slain through the treacherous treason of his own people.

After the same sort was the blood of Abel spilt by the embrued hand of his bloody brother Cain, Genesis 4. Joseph entrapped and sold by the sinister practice and procurement of his brother Judah, Genesis 37. The lamb of the passover slain and devoured piecemeal in the houses of them which were delivered by the blood of the same, Exodus 12. So was Moses oftentimes contemptuously entreated and disdainfully railed upon amongst his own kinsfolks, Exodus 32. King David cruelly assaulted, not of Saul only, but, which is more horrible, of the folk of his own family, of his neighbors, citizens, and subjects. What else doth the several calamities of all these purport, than that the Messias should be slain by the butchery of his own people? What doth the stone of offense, mentioned in Isaiah, and that rock to fall upon to both houses of Israel, and as a snare and a net to the inhabitants of Jerusalem signify, other than that the Lord himself should suffer death by the murderous practice of his own nation?

Otherwise, wily is he called a rock to fall upon, and stone of offense, if there were nothing in him whereon the adversaries might stumble?

And to pass over other sharp and horrible prophecies uttered directly against this viperous Generation by the mouth of their own prophets, Deuteronomy 31 so likewise Isaiah 65,66, and many others besides of their own prophets, peruse who listeth the books of Malachi and Zechariah with diligence and heedfulness. What doth Zechariah else in all that his preaching almost, than explain the order and manner of Christ’s passion, yea, and that so lively, that scarce any portion seemeth overskipped, that may not seem to appertain to the sum and argument of all that whole tragedy? Not their King himself riding upon an ass, not the breaking of the bow of battle, and preaching peace unto the Gentiles; not the loosing of prisoners out of the pit wherein was no water — whose outstretched power extendeth from sea to sea, from the floods to the uttermost parts of the earth, raising up the children of Israel above the children of Greece. Not the thirty silverlings of the traitor Judas, for the which he sold Christ; not the wounds of his pierced body; not the print of the nails in his hands and feet; not the scattering of the disciples, the shepherd being stricken; not the city severed into three factions, whereof the third part only remained sound and served the Lord, yet so that the same was brought to trial by fire; not the destruction of Jerusalem by the assault of the Gentiles; not the overthrow and subversion of their houses; not the breaking in sunder the veil of the temple under the figure of the mount Olivet; not the darkened eclipse of the sun the same day in the which Christ suffered his passion. And there shall be a day, saith he, it is well known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but about the evening time it shall be light. And it shall come to pass in the same day, that the waters of life shall go out from Jerusalem, and the half of them toward the east sea, and hall’ of them towards the uttermost sea, and shall be both in winter and summer, Zechariah 14. And immediately in the same chapter, prophesying of our Savior Jesus Christ hanging upon the cross; And that which shall be there above the bridles of the horses, shall be called holy unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar, etc.

What answer will you make now to these so notable and manifest testimonies? And whereupon dependeth the hope of that you look for? or in what points doth it chiefly consist? Will you flee back again to your rotten worm-eaten posies? “We are the seed of Abraham, and were never subject to any other; well we may wander, but we can never perish. The holy patriarchs are our progenitors; we are the issue of a holy root; we have a God in whom we do believe; we have the law wherein we are instructed; the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and ceremonies are committed to our safe keeping. We have also prophets, and promises of the prophets, wherein we put our confidence.” Nay, rather, you were once invested in all these, but now, through your traitorous treachery, you are bereft and despoiled of them all. You had some time Abraham unto your father, upon whom you so gloriously vaunt yourselves. Even so had Esau, Ishmael, and Saul, also as well as ye. And even this selfsame so noble a personage whom you account for your father, if he were present now in these our days, or had lived then also when Christ was conversant upon earth, and had seen all those your frantic outrages, and traitorous devices, conceived of such despiteful rancor and cankered malice; if he had beheld your reproachful taunts, contumelious mockeries, and furious madness, your execrable injuries and horrible tyrannies, provoked by no desert of his; your unquenchable malicious cruelty, in deriding, scorning, and murdering that most mild Son of God, Christ Jesus, the most puissant and mighty Lord of glory, having in all respects so bountifully deserved of you; and had been present at that unspeakable mad outrage and exclamation, when ye cried out, “Crucify him, crucify, him: his blood be upon us and our children: we have none other king but Caesar.” Moreover, if he had seen your unappeasable disorder, without any remorse of mercy in persecuting his disciples; your intolerable scorpion-like savageness so furiously boiling against the innocent infants of the christian Gentiles; and the rest of your heinous abominations, insatiable butcheries, treasons, frenzies, and madness. If, I say, this most godly and mild patriarch, Abraham, were alive, to hear and behold the same, with the same eyes wherewith long since he beheld the day of Christ Jesus, and rejoiced, would he ever have accounted you for his sons? or ever have acknowledged such children to have proceeded out of his loins? Nay, rather, who can doubt that he would have agreed with John Baptist rather, and cried with open mouth against you, O ye generation of vipers and children of the devil, I do utterly detest you, and your poisoned deeds and imaginations.

But ye do believe in God, whom only you do worship and honor; so do the Turks, Saracens, Moors, and Scythians, as well as ye. And where is there any one nation under the cope of heaven, that doth not profess, confess, and worship one God only? F120 And what is this to the purpose? Albeit ye esteem ever so much of that your worshipping the great God, if yet in mean whiles ye persecute his messengers and ambassadors whom he sendeth, if you kill his prophets, if ye murder his apostles, martyrs, and preachers; finally, if you put to the most slanderous death of the cross the dear entirely beloved and only begotten Son of God himself, being tormented with all kinds of horrible tortures, to the unspeakable reproach of the same your own God; with what shameless visage can you brag that God to be your Father, whose Son you have so shamefully crucified? Yea, what were this to the purpose, or what might it avail you to persuade yourselves that the same God is your Father, if he do not acknowledge you for his children? Take this for an undoubted truth, that no kind of people can be adjudged to be the people of the living God, but in respect of his dear Son Christ Jesus. Which if you cannot comprehend as yet, what mean those words of Hosea, I beseech you, and of whom were they spoken? For ye are not my people, therefore will I not be your God. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people, it shall be said unto them, You are the sons of the living God. You do persist still obstinately in your opinion of God’s law; and quite contrary to the law of God, without all law, equity, and conscience, hanged and racked upon tree the very same person of whom the whole law did prophesy before, notwithstanding so many strange and wonderful miracles wrought by him, so many brotherly benefits employed upon you; yea, finding’ also no manner of cause worthy of death in him. You do vaunt yourselves of the circumcision, and your uncircumcised hearts overflow with spiderlike poison. You brag of keeping the sabbath day whiles you take your bodily repast only: but the right use of the sabbath of the Lord is to have a quiet mind, free from all jar of envy and malice. This sabbath you do profane continually, but then chiefly most wickedly, when ye murdered the Lord himself, neither seem as yet satisfied therewith, nor will ye relent any jot at all from your cankered contumacy. You profess in words the letter of the law, but utterly disclaim the spiritual meaning of the law in your deeds.

You cry out, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord; and yet you abhor the church of Christ, being the true temple of the Lord. You challenge to yourselves a wonderful haughty prerogative of the blood offerings, of the priesthood, of the sacrifice and ceremonies of the law, which indeed carry a certain outward resemblance of true religion.

But these outward shadows and ceremonies had their time and place long ago, and were not instituted to the end they should continue irrevocable, but for a season, to represent as it were a superficial view unto us of more excellent things. Even as the kingly throne of David, and all that politic government of the Israelites did prefigure nothing else unto us, but the everlasting kingdom of Christ, and were as certain principles, wherewith the minds of the beholders might be raised up to a more deep consideration of far higher mysteries; insomuch that the very same which was but figured in King David, we plainly perceive to have been expressly discovered in the King of the new Jerusalem, which is the church of Christ. The same which was prefigured in Abel, in Noah, in Abraham, Melchisedec, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Samson, David, Elias, Jonas, Joshua the high priest, in the paschal lamb, in the brazen serpent, in the rock, in manna, in the feast of Pentecost. Briefly, whatsoever exercises were practiced in shadows, types, and figures, we do unfeignedly acknowledge to have met, concurred, and been accomplished in one body. And this body truly is Christ Jesus, who is also the end and consummation of all the whole law. In like manner the sacrifices and ceremonies, trimmings and deckings of the old law, contained in themselves no sound or permanent matter, but were shadows and forerunners of more excellent graces. For what is he so purblind in this our age, that knoweth not that God doth not dwell in temples made by men’s hands? that consciences are not cleansed from sins with the blood of goats or of bulls? But these bloody offerings obtained a certain resemblance only of the true cleansing of sins. What doth the commandment of the prophet imply, when in your passover he charged a lamb of a year old, clean and undefiled, to be slain, by families and tribes?

Can you think, that so great and effectual operation lurketh in the blood of beasts, as may avail to deliver you from cruel thraldom, and translate you to the land of promise, flowing with milk and honey, if there were no kernel of deeper mystery inclosed in the outward shell of the letter?

It remaineth now that we treat of the promises of the prophets, whereupon you boast so much, and raise all your building, which only thing of all others doth unjoint and shiver in pieces all the strong bulwarks of your unbelief, even to the very bottom of the foundation. And to the end I may make this appear more evidently, I will combat with you in your own castle, whereunto I will use none other but your own weapons, I mean the very words and known sentences of your own prophets. And I will so deal with you in this conflict by the aid and assistance of God, as not heaping together out of all the prophets in general, for that were unmeasurable; but I will choose rather to surcharge certain especial testimonies, the which will so batter the bulwarks of your unbelief, that you shall not be able by any means possible, to delude the matter with cavilling, nor to escape by denial, nor with any subtle legerdemain of literal exposition to cast a mist before mine eyes, nor untwine yourselves out of the mesh by any crooked conveyance, as you are wont to do, but either you shall willingly come to reason, or else against your wills be confounded altogether with the manifest light of the truth.

And to begin first with the prophet Isaiah. What answer can all the offspring of the Hebrews make to these written in the ninth chapter of his prophecy? For the yoke of their burden, and the staff of their shoulder, and the rod of their oppressor hast thou broken, as in the day of Midian.

You have heard a very honorable promise of the prophet, wherein he pronounceth a wonderful triumphant victory to all them that walk in the night of darkness, and in the shadow of death; prophesying likewise, that it will come to pass, that the chains of cruel captivity being burst asunder, and the yoke of servile bondage being crushed in pieces, they shall at length enjoy most happy calm of gladsome freedom. Well then; to whom was this promise made? To the Jews alone? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Then by what means shall this victory be obtained? By any foreign power or warlike combat? No: the prophet doth utterly deny that, pronouncing these words forthwith; Because every spoil, saith he, of the warrior that is with noise, and with tumbling of garments in blood, shall be abolished with burning and consuming fire, even as in the victory that Gideon obtained against the Midianites, the conquest was achieved by the only hand of God. and the presence of Gideon, man’s force and power little availing thereunto. The prophet, by like comparison, persuadeth us to believe that this victory and freedom must be purchased by the only blessing of God, and not by any force or policy of man; and that this blessing of God is sufficiently effectual of itself, without force of bloody battle, to establish assured and undoubted peace and everlasting freedom to all creatures.

Go ye to now, let me demand this of you, when, and from whence this so great blessedness shall happen? The prophet himself maketh answer, By the birth of a child, saith he, and by giving a Son unto us; For unto us a child is born, saith he, and unto us a Son is given, and the judgment is upon his shoulders, etc. Such is the excellent dignity of the Son, so great is the majesty of his nature proceeding from so notable a Father, that he needeth none other aid in the world, to the attainment of absolute perfection of most blessed felicity. For what can be a more excellent effectual operation to the thorough cleansing away of all filthy contagion of corrupt nature, or more presently available to remove all brabble and contention, than to receive the very Son of God himself into the fellowship of this our mortal nature, being a prince of so great and superexcellent majesty, as that he may not seem to be born an inheritor of a kingdom to rule as a king, but that the kingdom may seem rather to spring up and be erected together with his birth? For so he saith, The government is laid upon his shoulders: not purchased by any his industry or travail, but laid upon his back, even from his first entry into this world, and growing up together with him. And the same being so great an authority or principality raised up above the compass of all earthly empires, by how much he obtained to be advanced and called by a more excellent title and name above all the princes of the world. And now if you be desirous to know the name of this famous prince, the prophet himself will forthwith declare unto you; His name, saith he, shall be called Wonderful, a Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The increase of his government and peace shall have none end, etc. Where you see mention made of the kingdom of peace and patience, you may easily discern, not a kingdom only, but a distinct manner of kingly preeminence, far unlike to an earthly or worldly government. Now hearken where the place and nation is, over which this king must exercise his dominion: He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order and establish it with judgment and with justice. Behold here, under these titles, with judgment and justice, is excluded all bloody tyranny. And now listen to the perpetuity of this kingdom. From henceforth, saith he, even for ever and ever.

Was ever man so froward of judgment, as to wrest and rack this place of the prophet, of releasing the yoke of the burdens, of breaking the rod of the oppressor, to any other purpose appliable, (though he endeavor to the contrary ever so much,) than to the very coming of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, in whom we do believe, who was sent of God the Father, and given unto us for an everlasting King? For where is it possible to find a king issuing’ from out so notable a parentage, and of so undefiled life, who, by dying the death could crush in pieces the tyranny of death, and after he had tasted the death, could of his own power revive, and raise himself up to the glorious majesty of the everlasting kingdom, this one Messias only except, before whom all nations of the earth do and shall bow the knee? Well now: and what buzzing will those talmud-glossers keep in the gloss, or what exposition will they fetch out of their targuma? F121 Will they refer this intolerable yoke of thraldom unto their servitude endured in the time of Sennacherib? He would indeed have charged the shoulders of the Jews with this yoke of burden, and rod of oppressor, but he never pinched them so much therewith. Will they interpret the same of the captivity of Babylon? Neither will this hang together by any means. For albeit it pleased that mighty king of Babylon, Cyrus, of his bountiful mercy, to grant free passage to the Israelites to return into their own country; yet was not he able to unloose this prophetical yoke, and establish a peace that could never be dissolved, for he was not only a mere stranger, but also void of all color to claim the throne of his father David, by any manner of descent from him.

Moreover, whereas the prophet Isaiah doth note here especially, the utter taking away of all occasions of warlike fury from amongst worldly men, and of restoring a kingdom of peace, and the same also to be endurable beyond all ages; who doth not see that by no shift of forged circumstance, these sayings may be translated to your fleshly bondage, since yourselves also, which do believe and expect for an end of this brittle life, and rising again at the last day, as well as we, neither will nor can deny, but that all manner of things in this world, either private or public, must have an end.

Then if this be true, how dare ye mortal men flatter yourselves with a possession of an immortal kingdom in this world? For that which is immortal is not limited within any compass of time. Again, by what argument can ye persuade, that the thing which is everlasting may have a last day and determined end of time? Forasmuch, therefore, as this kingdom of Messias and David is pronounced by the mouth of the prophets to be an everlasting throne, and the peace thereof without all end; you must of necessity yield unto us, that this peace appertaineth not to the external tranquillity of this earthly and terrestrial policy, but to the quiet, calm, and peaceable rest of inward conscience and soul, in the sight of almighty God, which peace began then to appear when this Child was born, of whom the angels of heaven did certify the shepherds in their melodious song; Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, and unto men a good will.

Otherwise, how will this reason of yours agree in itself, or accord with the prophets? For if you await as yet for the coming of some warlike courageous champion, who, having subdued the empire of the Gentiles, may with fire and sword force a recovery of your country, what shall become of this burning and devouring with fire, all warlike force and tumbling of garments in blood? Where is that Messias of whom Isaiah maketh mention, which shall proclaim peace, not war, to the Gentiles?

Where is that Prince whose voice shall not be heard to make a noise in the streets? Where is he that shall not bruise the broken rod, and shall convert the weapons of steel into ashes? On the other side, if ye await for a peaceable king, such a one as the prophets do describe, what conquest then shall there be of Gentiles and nations? Ponder these things in your minds well and advisedly, and see how these matters, being contrary and repugnant each to other, may be framed to agree together.

There are an infinite number of the like prophecies in Isaiah concerning the Messias that should be slain for the sins of the people, and rejected of you; of his long lasting-seed and unspeakable generation, (53) of the casting away of your whole race and engrafting the Gentiles in your place, (65) of blinding the eyes of them that did see, (6) of the book delivered to the ignorant and unlettered, (35) of healing the blind and the lame, (43) of ostriches and dragons glorifying God, (43) of floods to be translated into the wilderness, (35) of the salvation of God to be proclaimed from Sion to the uttermost parts of the world; of the small portion of the Jews that shall be saved. Finally, of the rooting out of your nation, together with the exchange of your name also. And you shall leave your name, saith he, as a curse unto my chosen; for the Lord shall slay you, and call his servants by another name. And again, My servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be ashamed. I am not very inquisitive here to learn, with what juggling, after your wonted guise and determined malice, ye will corrupt and deprave those places, as ye do all others for the most part. Nay, rather I will give you full scope to wreath and wrest them with whatsoever crabbed cavillations ye can suggest, and after whatsoever sensual interpretation ye can devise; yet shall ye never prevail so far forth against the manifest truth, but that it shall be able to stop your mouth, and convince you, considering that the very orderly course of natural causes, will not permit these sayings to be tossed and tumbled elsewhere, than into the person of Christ Jesus whom you have crucified.

I will pass over Isaiah, after I have cited one only place; Comfort ye, comfort yourselves, my people, will your Lord God say. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received at the Lord’s hands double for her sins, etc. (40) What is this to us? will ye say. I will tell you, if you will vouchsafe to yield your diligent consideration thereunto, and compare the same with the rest that doth ensue in the prophet. A voice, saith he, crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a path for your God, etc. What can be more clear than the brightness of this prophecy? what sentence more manifest? what consolation more fruitful? Wherein, as many things seem worthy to be remembered, so three things chiefly are to be noted therein.

Namely, the sins and wickedness of the people, in the first place. The wrath and vengeance of Almighty God, in the second place. In the third and last place, a most sweet and comfortable consolation, after many bitter and grievous punishments. In the part that treateth of sins, the obstinate and unvanquishable rebellion of the Jews against God and his laws. In the second part, where the wrath of God is spoken of, the justice of God may be discerned, which will not suffer the wickedness of his people to escape long unpunished. The comfortable consolation proceedeth wholly from his loving kindness and gracious mercy, whereupon the trump of those sweet and amiable promises is hearkened unto; wherewith the sovereign bounty of God qualifying the fretting corrosive of his former displeasure, with mild and medicinable salve, makes an infallible covenant with them, that after they have once passed over many vexations, adversities, and straits, wherewith they were long time turmoiled and vexed, they should from henceforth never feel so sharp a scourge in revenging their sins. And hereof cometh this most de licate voice full of all spiritual comfort, which the Lord himself pronounceth here by the mouth of his prophet, speaking comfortably to Jerusalem. Thy warfare is accomplished, and thine iniquities are pardoned, for thou hast received at the Lord’s hands double for thy sins, (40.) As if this were the natural sense and meaningof the words; Whereas I have hitherto showed myself a severe judge against you, in scourging your ungodliness with cruel plagues, this did I, even according to the desert of your own deeds. In your miserable and continual calamity, in your manifold bondage and captivity that you have endured, first under the Egyptians, then under the Syrians, and lastly under king Herod the stranger, you have felt the smart of God’s justice. But now, it hath pleased the Lord to alter his determination against you, not to whet the edge of his rigorous vengeance any more to your destruction; not to deliver you as vassals and bond-slaves to your enemies, but, interchanging mercy for wrath, to embrace you with all lenity, and make an end of your sorrows and warfare; so that from henceforth you shall not need to fear any more invasion of cruel enemies, any leading away into direful captivity, any dreadful punishment of your heinous impiety. For the time shall come when the Lord will no more reward your iniquities with horrible scourges and plagues, but of his inestimable clemency shall couch you within the blessings of his bottomless mercy. And if you should be desirous to know the time wherein these glad tidings shall be performed amongst you, take this for a sign and token whereby you may discern the time, whereof I do foretell you. A voice shall be heard crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a path for your God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, etc.

And the voice proceeding-yet forward, and demanding what he should cry, Say unto the cities of Judah, saith he, Behold your God, behold the Lord God will come with power, and his arm shall rule for him, and his reward is with him, etc. When the sound of this trump out of the huge desert wilderness shall pierce into your ears, and be seen with your eyes, this shall be a sign for you to know, that lie is not far from the gates that shall redeem you from your captivity.

I have disclosed unto you the meaning and sense of the prophet, if I be not deceived; wherein two especial notes are to be considered; namely, the punishment of sin, and the voice of a crier in the wilderness. Both which notes who doth not easily perceive to have been accomplished in the persons of Christ Jesus and of John Baptist? Yea, and so accomplished in them, as no gap nor starting hole may possibly be found for you to escape, but that this place must be of necessity applied to Christ our anointed King and Savior. For what else imported the voice of John Baptist crying in the wilderness, but to prepare a way ready for the coming of the Lord? And what hath the whole doctrine of the new testament taught, and daily doth teach, but everlasting forgiveness of sins, in the manner of a continual vacation from the term of the law? For as long as the law and God’s justice did combat against sins, the warfare could never be broken up; but the enemy being once subdued, and the dominion of the law brought into captivity, our warfare must needs be at an end. For as soon as the sinner begins to be no longer under the law but under grace, nor findeth any adversary to withstand him, but hath caught the victory into his own hands once, what remaineth but he may joyously triumph and keep holiday, being now delivered from all fear of further controlment.

Next unto Isaiah let us annex the testimony of Jeremiah, who, after he had prophesied much of the return of. the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, doth encourage them again at the last with ]this kind of consolation; that from thenceforth they should never be carried from their own country into bondage again, speaking thus; And I will gather the remnant of my sheep out of all countries whither I shall drive them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall grow and increase. And I will raise up shepherds over them which shall feed them; and they shall dread no more to be afraid, nor shall any of them be lacking, saith the Lord, (23.) And immediately after, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety; and this is the name whereby they shall call him, The Lord our Righteousness, etc. And again, Like as these good figs, so will I know them that are carried away captive out of Judah to be good, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again into this land, and I will build them and not destroy them, and I will plant them, and not root them out, etc. And again, (31) Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the world, with the blind and the lame amongst them, with the woman with child, and her that is delivered also; a great company shall return hither. And they shall come and rejoice in the height of Sion, and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall hunger no more; for I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more. And the seed of Israel shall not cease from being a nation before me for ever. And the places shall be built, and shall be all holy unto the Lord, neither shall they be plucked up nor destroyed any more for ever. And again, (32) Thus hath the Lord God of Israel spoken concerning the city, whereof you say, I t shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babel, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, wherein I have scattered them in mine anger, and will bring them again into this place, and will cause them to dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever. And proceeding forward in the chapter ensuing; Because the people of Jerusalem did not submit themselves unto the Chaldees, but resisted them with force; therefore were their bulwarks filled with dead bodies. But, behold, I will give it health and amendment, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them alton-dance of peace and truth. And there shall be heard in this place of which you say that it shall be desolate, even in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate and without any inhabitant, there shall be the voice of joy and gladness. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah. In those days I will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those clays shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety; and this shall they call her, The Lord is our righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Neither shall the priests and Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. And afterwards, again, in the fiftieth chapter, Thus saith the God of Israel, Behold I will visit the king of Babel, and his land, as I have visited the king of Asshur. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, he shall be fed, and his soul shall be satisfied in his due time, saith the Lord. In those days shall the iniquity of Israel be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will be merciful unto them whom I do reserve, etc.

What can be of more efficacy than the testimonies of the aforesaid scriptures? In which, forasmuch as two things are set down chiefly to be noted, ye must yield to the one of them of very necessity; either that this kingdom of Israel shall never decay again after their return from the Babylonian captivity; which being construed after the literal sense is most false, as you may plainly perceive; or else that the kingdom of Israel is overthrown and to have an end, and so then the prophets to lie, which is most absurd. Whereby appeareth most evidently that all those sayings wherein the prophets have foretold of the royalty of David’s throne, and of the everlasting glory thereof must have a certain mystical and spiritual interpretation. For you are not ignorant yourselves of that which happened to that fleshly and worldly state of this kingdom, and in how narrow straits and extremities it was forced, when your city was besieged and razed by the Romans, your temple consumed with fire, and all things in the city devoured and ransacked, even to the rooting out of almost all your nation.

So that the circumstances of the times being duly weighed, will plainly convince you that these promises, made touching the perpetual establishment of the kingdom of David, must be far otherwise understood, and that yourselves either declare that which is false in the order of your exposition, or else that your own prophets did prophesy contrary to the truth. Since, therefore, one of these two must of necessity be granted, choose which you will, or else discover some way how you may escape out of this labyrinth.

First, I suppose no man will condemn the prophets for liars, for they delivered nothing but that which by wonderful inspiration they received of the Holy Ghost; yea, the same also is infallibly true, as is approved from time to time by the circumstances, and sequel of the time. For they foresaw, as truth was, being informed by the Holy Ghost, first the delivery of the remnant of that nation in the transmigration of Babylon, and it came to pass; they foresaw also that this captivity should endure no less than seventy years, this also came to pass. Finally, they foresaw that, after the full expiration of this exile and banishment, a Prince should come, and a Son should be given in the fullness of time, which should possess the throne of his father David, and take upon him the government of the kingdom, and should establish the same in a permanent and imperishable course of continuance, peace, and tranquillity for ever. And this also was performed, even then, accordingly, when the Son of God was born in the city of David; that wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of peace; who albeit he died once according to the flesh, and seemed to be vanquished, yet was he not holden of death above three days, but survived of his own power, and liveth for ever and ever; and in dying hath obtained an endless conquest of death, and triumphed now (not much unlike unto Samson) victoriously over death, hath rent in sunder the iron gates of sin, hath crushed the tyranny of the devil in pieces, and purchased everlasting life for his elect, not perishable by any assault of haughty adversary, nor vanquishable by any power of worldly policy. For in that the city was sacked by the army of the Romans, the temple burnt and razed to the ground, all this nothing at all diminishes the credit of the prophet, touching the establishment of the glory of that throne, but rather confirms and argues it to be of much more estimation. The rebel Jews and traitorous murderers of Christ were overcome in battle: but Christ, himself Prince of that kingdom, with his church, could not be brought under subjection, neither shall at any time, but hath conquered, liveth and triumpheth daily.

And although you cannot yet conceive this invincible majesty of that everlasting king, yet your prophets saw it, yea, your father Abraham saw it and rejoiced. Isaiah saw it, witnessing the same with an oath, The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the strength of his arm, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies, and surely the sons of the strangers shall not drink the wine for the which thou hast labored; but they that have gathered it shall eat thereof, and shall praise the Lord. And the gatherers shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary, etc., Isaiah 62.

Again, the same Isaiah, speaking unto Jerusalem as though she were prisoner in Babylon, Whereas thou hast been forsaken, so that no man went by thee, I will make thee an eternal glory and a joy from generation to generation, etc., Isaiah 60. Moreover, For a moment in mine anger I hid my thee from thee for a little season, but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion upon thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is unto me as in the waters of Noah, to whom as I have sworn, that I would no more go over the earth with waters, so have I sworn that I would no more be angry with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall remove, and the hills shall fall down, but my mercy shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away, saith the Lord that hath compassion on thee, (54) And again in another place, Go ye out of Babel, flee from the Chaldeans, with the voice of joy, tell and declare this, show it forth to the ends of the earth; say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob, Isaiah 48. And within a little after, It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the desolation of Israel; I will give thee also for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the world. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palm of my hand; thy walls are ever in my sight. Thy builders make haste, thy destroyers and they that made thee waste, are departed from thee, etc., Isaiah 49.

Neither did Isaiah see these things alone; the other prophets, patriarchs, and holy ones also did wait for the royal excellency of this kingdom, before it was come. The angels signified out of heaven that he was presently come, his miraculous works do ratify the same, his rising again at the feast of Easter confirmeth it, yea, the devils themselves felt it, and did tremble for fear. The holy company of apostles and martyrs do confess it; all tongues and. nations do speak of his glory, bow the knees and worship him. Finally, the Holy Ghost, through wonderful secret operation, doth daily and hourly enlarge and enseal the infallible assurance thereof in the hearts of the faithful. Lastly, you also, even you that are Jews, albeit as yet it be not revealed unto you, shall know and acknowledge it once at the length. I trust, the inestimable treasure and incomparable riches of this kingdom, the invincible everlasting power of this King, who shall break and overthrow all other kingdoms of the world, and shall not possibly be destroyed itself, neither shall have any end, Daniel 2.

But as this greatness of power is not carnal nor can be discerned with carnal eyes, so doth it not wrestle with flesh and blood, with carnal weapons. The conquest of this Prince doth extend itself with a far more outstretched unmeasurableness, it creepeth not along the ground like a worm, but pierceth the height of the heavens; it doth not provoke men to bloody battle, but assaulteth the prince of this world, even the devil himself; and being advanced into heaven, hath thrown headlong out of heaven the ancient arch enemy and accuser of mankind, yea, and hath slain him with the sword of his majesty; hath removed away wrath, hath blotted out the curse of the law, hath cured the canker of sin, hath trodden death under his feet, hath taken into his own government the power of all judgment, insomuch that the prophet Isaiah seemeth astonied, amazedly wondering at the marvelous course of his incomprehensible power; who having vanquished incomparable enemies, doth likewise impart unto his faithful servants very rich spoils, not transitory and soon vanishing away, but enduring beyond all ages. Will ye yet hear more concerning the power of this mighty Monarch? Listen then awhile to the testimony of the Verity itself in the gospel, This is the will of my Father that sent me, that every man which seeth the Son and believeth on him, shall have everlasting life, John 6. What can be more princely than this? And I will raise him up at the last day. What can be of more power? For as the Father hath life in himself, so likewise hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and to give life unto him unto whom he will, and hath given him power also to execute judgment. What can be more heavenly? Neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all the judgment unto the Son, John 5.

What can be more admirable? Unto whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, Matthew 28. What can be required more? Moreover, that ye may be assured that the Son of man is of power to forgive sins upon earth, behold a sign wrought upon the sick of the palsy, Take up thy bed and walk, Matthew 9. Again; As the living Father hath sent me, even so do I send you, John 6. whosoever sins ye forgive, shall be forgiven them, John 20. Besides all this, let us hear what Peter speaketh of him, Acts 10. To him, saith he, all the prophets do give witness, that through his name all that believe in him shall receive remission of sins. What can be more marvelous? When the Son of man shall be exalted, I will draw all things unto myself, John 12. What can be more glorious?

Let us adjoin herewith the testimony of St. Paul; Who hath reconciled all things in heaven and in earth; who undertook in his own person all the hatred and enmity between God and man; who with a look of his countenance relieveth the afflicted consciences, humbled even to hell gates.

Who doth refresh and comfort them with his Spirit, healeth with a word of his mouth, looseth them that are fettered with the chains of sin, dischargeth from all fear of judgment and death, acquitteth from the tyranny of the devil. What may be comparable to the majesty of this empire? and withal what can be more amiable than the same majesty, at the naming of whom all knees in heaven, earth, and hell do fall prostrate, and worship? Yea, the devils themselves do tremble and quake for fear, the dead arise again, maladies are healed, prisoners are loosed, the hungry are filled, the oppressed with labor are refreshed and disburdened, mourners, and such as pine away with sorrow and anguish are recomforted, death is subdued, tears are wiped away, sorrow and sadness are turned into mirth and gladness, interchange is made from the lowest to the highest; mountains are thrown down, hidden things are discovered, rough and crabbed things are made plain and straight, the first become the last, and the last are made the first.

All which heavenly graces, albeit you miserable Hebrews will not acknowledge, and most disdainfully do blaspheme in your synagogues the Angel of the everlasting testament, having regard to that part of him only wherein he seemeth weak, according to the outer appearance and dispensation of the flesh by reason of his death and burial; yet we, for our part, beholding his heavenly divinity, inseparably united together with the baseness of his humanity; and comparing his miraculous life, death, and resurrection, yea, the whole course and actions of his life, with the reports of the prophets, and being established in faith with infallible testimonies of the sacred scriptures, instructed hereunto by the guiding of the Holy Ghost, persuaded by the assured promises of the prophets, and casting anchorhold in the assured haven of his wonderful miracles; do firmly believe, and with unshaken faith confess, that this is the very same Messias whom you do yet expect and look for. Finally, reposing all our trust and affiance upon his mighty power, guarded with the invincible protection of so great majesty, we do with valiant forwardness of mind, raise up the undaunted courage of our hearts, against all assaults and battery of the world, against all storms of fretting adversity, that now neither the raging railing of your blasphemous mouth, nor fearful delusions of wily Satan; not the dreadful sight of hell gates, nor the tyrannous threatenings thereof; not the grizly countenance of ghastful death, be it ever so terrible, nor the cruel curse and continual accusation of the law, (which is more horrible than all the rest,) — can in any respect appal or terrify our settled consciences. For why should that person tremble or be amazed with the threatenings of the law, whose Lord and Master, Christ Jesus, is Judge, and ruler over the law?

Why should he dread death, or the devil himself, the procurer of death, or all the furious champions of the devil, for the safety of whose life, and assured raising from death to life, the very Son of God, Christ Jesus, is become surety and pledge? Who, sitting at the right hand of the Father, doth keep the keys of death and hell, and therewith alone shutteth, and no man openeth, setteth wide open, and no man shutteth, restraining and disposing all things in heaven and earth with only a look of his countenance.

And hereof ariseth that wonderful constancy of our martyrs and apostles, in yielding their bodies to tortures and death; hereof springeth that invincible force of christian faith; hereupon is grounded that impenetrable rock of Christ’s church, which being so oft undermined by your subtle pioneers, circumvented with so many traitorous sleights and devices, vexed with so many furious outrages of Gentiles and Jews, attempted with so many cruel cramps of the prince of darkness, assaulted with all kinds of torments and persecutions, could, notwithstanding, never hitherto be discomfited with any kind of battery, or shaken with engine, neither shall be overthrown at any time, while the world doth endure. The unvanquishable continuance whereof if you would but indifferently, without all partiality, ponder in your hearts, what else doth it argue than an heavenly and unspeakable power of her Captain, Christ Jesus? But as the power of this captain is spiritual, so it is not discernible but by spiritual insight, raised up, as I said before, not to strive against mankind, but to subdue the tyranny of Satan, the mighty prince of this world, and to despoil and three him out of his kingdom. And this may every sensible man easily conceive, if he will enter into somewhat of a more deep consideration of his miraculous works; so that this marvelous victory of this triumphant Conqueror, can by no argument and proof appear more manifestly, than even in this one overthrow of that ancient arch enemy. For, if that conquest be so much the more praiseworthy, by how much the force of the vanquished is more notorious, what ought we then to judge of Him, who only and alone, undertaking the challenge, not against man’s power, but in the behalf and defense of mankind rather against all those mighty and invisible adversaries of mankind, unvanquishable otherwise by any policy of men, against all those spiritual furies and incessant accusers of mankind before the throne of God, against all those princes and potentates, and rulers of darkness, against the poisoned darts of death, against the intolerable burden of sin, against the dreadful curse of the law, and wrath of God’s vengeance, against the force and gates of hell, was able by his only prowess to tread down and triumph over them all, without all aid and help of man. Yea, and which is most to be marveled at, without all strength, without all sleight and policy of resistance, far unlike the warlike attempts and martial affairs; where it cometh always to pass, that the most notable and famous enterprises are never achieved without large troops of courageous soldiers, or subtle practices of politic governors. For here, beyond all reach of man’s understanding, miraculously, this marvelous victory was obtained without force of arms, industry and policy, through the only plain and. open conduct of simple truth. For what simplicity can be greater than to yield to the will of the adversary in humility and patience?

And what could be more void of hope to recovery? And yet, by this means it came to pass, that pompous pride, through humility, was brought into subjection; glory of riches confounded by baseness of poverty; haughty arrogancy of the world suppressed with humble infirmity; the curse of the law razed out by undefiled innocency; sins forgiven; the mouth of the enemy stopped up through meek taciturnity; victory obtained by yielding; finally, death vanquished by dying, and life everlasting purchased.

And yet, to confess the truth frankly and simply, this glorious conquest wanted not singular ability and skillful policy, being nevertheless both heavenly, holy, and achieved by upright justice; not to the end to betray in snares, or seduce any good man from the right path of truth, but to entrap that crafty enemy the devil only; and that not without great cause. For what could be more agreeable with reason, than that the same old wily serpent, which had beguiled mankind first with subtlety and lies, should be encountered again with a certain heavenly policy, yet void of all color of lying; and so being entrapped and entangled with sleights and deceits of his own forge, should be caught in his own pitfall, and bereft of his place?

What could be more fitting than to strangle the most horrible deceiver with his own halter, and by most just law to disfranchise the most unjust intruder from his unjust possession?

Wherefore go to, what sayest thou now, Satan, thou cursed imaginer and practiser of all mischief? allege somewhat at length if thou canst, what sayest thou? Dost not thou see that all thy practices are discovered through that heavenly light? Dost thou not feel infirmity of the flesh, treading now upon thine own head, whiles thou wast devising mischief against infirmity of weak flesh? Thou hadst swallowed down a bait, but art enforced to east the same out again. Thou didst await for the destruction of mankind, but withal didst accelerate his safety. Thou didst enforce the innocent to the death of the cross, such was thy malice, or such rather was thy folly. Thou didst undermine the Son of God, wherein albeit thou didst scarce pinch him, yet hast thou slain thyself thereby, and blessed us for ever. For thou hast not fastened him upon the cross alone, but nailed all our sins also together with him, which being now thoroughly cleansed with that only sacrifice, he hath delivered us from everlasting torments, and reoiled them back upon thine own head, unrecoverable for evermore. The brazen serpent might have been a good precedent unto thee, to have made thee more wary and advised, which if it had not been hanged on a tree, could not have healed the wounds of them that were plagued. The valiant Samson, being a type and figure of our Lord Jesus, might have forewarned thee; and that mystical immaculate Lamb, above all the rest, the slaying of the which was no less dreadful to the enemy, than comfortable to the godly. Neither happeneth it otherwise to thee and thine at this present.

Thou didst endeavor to establish thine empire, and art despoiled of thine empire. What! wast thou ignorant that He whom thou didst assail was the Son of God? Why then didst thou confess him so to be? And if thou knowest it, with what shameless impudence couldst thou attempt such execrable impiety?

But peradventure he seemed weak in thine eye, being clad with poor beggarly baseness of the flesh; and thy meaning perhaps was to try whether he could be slain, and therefore thou didst rush upon him so sternly, and murder him so horribly. Well, and why didst thou not hold him fast, when thou hadst slain him? How was it that he slipped out of thy power? And, being escaped, whither went he from thee? And where doth he now remain? O cruel cursed manqueller, dost thou not perceive into what straits thy blood-thirstiness hath driven thee at the last? Dost thou not acknowledge this? that the very same tree and that cross of contumely, which by the ministry of thy champions, thou gavest to him for food, is turned into thy poison, and for us into the bread of life? Dost thou not remember how that famous and solemn feast day, wherein he did triumph over death, when he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his own person, wherein thou thyself, with thy mates, didst rejoice by the space of two days, was erected to us for a perpetual monument of eternal joy and freedom? At the very naming whereof, the whole rabble of thy adherents do tremble and quake for fear. Dost not thou acknowledge, now at the length, the glorious name that was given him above all names, the power whereof thou dost feel to thy great grief; and whereunto all the furies of hell, confederates of thy malice, are compelled to yield in despite of their teeth? Doth not this victorious Conqueror, by contrary interchange of times, tread down thy cowardice deservedly, as saying thus, Death, where is thy sting? Death, where is thy victory? And what availeth thee, being altogether vanquished and brought into thraldom, to kick against the Conqueror, inciting and provoking the pharisees and kings of the Gentiles so furiously to rage against the godly martyrs? Go to; and what hast thou won by their imprisonments, chains, stoning to death, scourgings, tormentings by fiery inflamed plates, tortures and rackings, burning, broilings and scorchings, by all kinds of horror and cruelty, and by so many their slaughters? I will tell thee. Thou hast confirmed the faith of Christ! thou hast established and enlarged the kingdom of Christ, and hast heaped upon thyself and upon thy brood double torments of unquenchable flames! And herein we are somewhat beholden to thee, for that through this deadly madness, it cometh to pass, that, throughout the whole world, the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is magnified and renowned, and also because thou ceasest not to lie in wait against his heel daily as yet. But He that is in heaven doth scorn at thy malicious devices, he derideth thy subtle sleights who hath skill to convert thy despite and outrage to the benefit of his elect, and to the glorious increase of their eternal felicity.

But I return to the prophets again, out of every one of whom I do not propose to set down all that they write touching my purpose; but I will give a few special sentences to fit our present matter: that ye shall neither be able with shift or cavillation whatsoever to delude the manifest proofs concerning Christ Jesus our Lord, unless you disclaim wholly from your own prophets; nor yet shall you allow of your prophets, unless you do admit withal our Savior Jesus Christ. Amongst whom, because I will not be long, to omit the notable prophecies of Ezekiel, very much available to this our discourse, wherein he foretelleth of the return of the dispersed Jews, from Babylon to their own city, and the second building up of their temple, which from thenceforth should stand unshaken, and never perish any more, nor be molested by any invasion of the enemy. For even to that effect doth the prophet treat very largely, chapter <262801> 28, saying, And they shall dwell in their land with all security, and they shall build houses, and shall plant vineyards, and shall inhabit the land confidently, when I shall execute judgment against all them that shall stand against them round about them, etc. And again in chapter <263401> 34, thus he saith; And they shall be safe in their land, and they shall no more be spoiled of the heathen, neither shall the beasts of the land devour them, but they shall dwell confidently, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown. And they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the reproach of the heathen any more, etc. And in his thirtysixth chapter, speaking to the mountains of Israel. And I will bring my people again, saith he, unto them: and you shall be their inheritance, and they shall possess you. Thou shalt not waste thy people from henceforth.

And I will cause no more to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any way, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, etc. And, in the next chapter, And they shall be no more two people, neither be divided any more from henceforth into kingdoms; neither shall they be polluted any more with their idols, nor with any of their transgressions. But they shall dwell upon their land themselves, even their sons, and their sons’ sons for ever. And my servant David shall be their prince for ever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will multiply them, and will place my sanctuary among them for evermore. And a little before; And I will call for corn, and I will increase it, and lay no famine upon you, etc. Now considering and conferring with this, the great famine that not long after ensued, the city being besieged by the Romans, when mothers through famine slew their suckling babes, yea, and the city besides were almost starved and pined up with hunger, I cannot see how that saying can be verified, unless you understand it as having relation to the spiritual kingdom of Israel, and not to the carnal.

But to pass over these, we will proceed to others. And first let us consider the place taken out of the ninth chapter of Daniel’s prophecy, because it fitteth this purpose more notably than any other; where the heavenly prophet doth in few words comprehend the whole estate of your commonweal, from your return out of the Babylonian captivity, even to the uttermost point of your desolation, describing withal in the same chapter the death of the Messias, the end and consummation of sin, together with the utter abolishment of the observances and sacrifices of the ceremonial law, by such special marks and tokens so evidently, that it can by no means possible be gainsaid.

Wherefore let us ponder the words of the prophet, with no less diligence than the matter requireth. For in this wise the angel Gabriel calleth upon Daniel, whiles he was praying, and speaketh the words ensuing. At the beginning of thy supplications, saith he, the commandment came forth; and I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are shortened, or determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the wickedness, and to seal up the sins, and to reconcile the iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the world to come, (or everlasting,) and to seal up the vision, and the prophet, (or prophecy,) and to anoint the most holy, (or the holiness of the sanctified.) And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to bring again the people, and to build Jerusalem, unto Messias the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks. And the streets, and the wall, (or trenches,) shall be built again in the straits of times. And alter threescore and two weeks shall Messias be slain, (anointed,) and shall have nothing (shall be bereft of life.) And the people of the prince that shall come (be coming) shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be in (with) a flood; and to the end of the battle the desolation shall be determined (the end of desolations.) And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week shall cause to rest (cease) the sacrifice and oblation (Minha.) And upon the wing (or as some say, for the overspreading) of the abominations, there shall be desolation, (he shall make it desolate,) even until the consummation determined (determined desolation) shall be poured upon the desolate.

THE SAME AFTER THE COMMON (VULGATE) TRANSLATION.

Seventy weeks shall be shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that wickedness may be finished, and sin may take an end, and iniquity wiped out, and everlasting righteousness may be brought in, and the vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Holy of holy ones may he anointed.

Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment, that Jerusalem shall be builded again, even to Christ the Prince, seven weeks and threescore and two weeks shall be. And the streets shall be builded again, and the walls in straitness of times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Christ be slain, and that shall not be his people which will deny him. And the people with the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end shall be destruction, and after the end of the war determined desolation. But he shall confirm his covenant to many in one week, and in the midst of the week the offering and sacrifice shall cease, and there shall be in the temple abomination of desolation, and even to the consummation and end shall the desolation continue.

MUNSTER’S TRANSLATION.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy hill, to finish wickedness and seal up sins, and to cleanse iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the worlds, to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Holy of holy ones. And thou shalt know and consider from the going out of the commandment for the repairing and building again of Jerusalem unto Messias the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; but the street shall be restored and builded again, and the trench, but in straits of times. And after threescore and two weeks shall the anointed be cut off, and nothing shall be of him. And the people of the prince coming, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be in overflowing, and to the end of the battle determined desolation.

And he shall make strong a covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week, he shall make to cease the sacrifice and the offering Minha. And for the overspreading of abominations shall be desolation, and to the consummation and determined banishment shall be poured upon (the people) which is subject to desolation.

THE TRANSLATION OF PAGNINUS AND VATABLUS.

Seventy weeks are cut off upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish wickedness, to consume sin, and to purge iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the world, and to finish the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Holy of the holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment, for the bringing back of the people, and the building of Jerusalem, unto Christ the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, and he shall come again, and the street and the wall shall be builded again in the straits of times. But after threescore and two weeks, Christ shall be cut off, and there shall be none (to help him,) and the people of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and sanctuary, and the end thereof with a flood, and to the end of the battle it shall be cut off with desolations. And he shall strengthen a covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause to cease the sacrifice and oblation, and for the overspreading of abomination, he shall make desolate until the consummation, and (truly) being cut off; shall be poured upon the wonderer.

CALVIN’S TRANSLATION.

Seventy weeks are finished upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to shut up wickedness, and to seal up sin, and to purge iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of holy ones. Thou shalt therefore know and understand, from the going out of the commandment of the return and building again of Jerusalem, unto Christ the Prince, to be threescore and two weeks, and (the people) shall be brought again. And the street and the wall shall be builded again, and that in the straits of times. And after threescore and two weeks, Christ shall be cut off, and shall be nothing.

And the people of the Prince coming, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. And to the end of the battle determination of desolations. And he shall strengthen a covenant with many for a week and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to rest, and over the destruction or overspreading shall be amazed (or cause to be amazed,) and at the end and determination shall pour out upon the amazed.

MELANCTHON’S TRANSLATION.

Seventy weeks are cut off upon thy people and upon thy holy city. And iniquity shall be purged, and everlasting righteousness shall come. And the prophecy and the vision shall be sealed, and the Holy of holy ones shall be anointed. And thou shalt know and understand from the going forth of the commandment, and the restoring and building again of Jerusalem unto Christ the Prince in seven weeks, and in seventy-two weeks. And the street and wall shall be builded again in the straits of times. And after threescore and two weeks Christ shall be cut off, and there shall be no people for him.

And the people of the Prince coming, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be a flood. And to the end of the battle may be finished, as though an appointed desolation or banishment. And he shall confirm a covenant, even as a testament to many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.

And upon the wing, the abomination of desolation, and unto the determined consummation shall pour out upon the desolation. Arid upon the wing shall be abomination of desolation.

URBAN RHEGIUS, DIFFERING VERY LITTLE FROM THE COMMON (VULGATE) TRANSLATION, HATH WRITTEN AS ENSUETH.

Seventy weeks are shortened (or finished, determined) upon thy people and upon thy holy city, that wickedness may be finished, (or, transgression shall be restrained or driven away,) and sin may come to an end, (or sin then shall be put up or covered,) and iniquity wiped away, (or purged,) and everlasting righteousness brought in, and the vision or prophecy may be fulfilled, (or ensealed,) and the Holy of holy ones may be anointed. Know, therefore, and understand, from the going forth of the commandment, (that is to say, from the time wherein the commandment was published,) that Jerusalem shall be builded again, even to Christ the Prince are seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, and the streets and the wall shall be builded again in the straits of times. And after threescore and two weeks Christ shall be slain, and that shall not be his people which will deny him, (or that will not know him, or will forsake him.) And the people of the Prince shall come and shall scatter abroad the city and the sanctuary, (destroy,) and the end thereof destruction, (or the end thereof with a tempest, or with a flood,) and after the end of the battle appointed desolation, (or after the battle all shall remain desolate,) he shall confirm a covenant with many in one week, and in the half of the week the offering and the sacrifice shall decay, and in the temple shall be abomination of desolation, (or upon the wing or wings shall stand the abomination of desolation.) And even unto the end and consummation shall desolation continue, (or it is decreed that the desolation shall continue even unto the end.)

Ye men and Hebrews, you hear in this prophecy many strange and wonderful things, which do convince your errors very singularly. First, where he saith that your Messias shall come while your commonwealth flourisheth in most prosperous estate. If this be true, what hope induces you to believe that your Messias shall come now, your commonwealth being utterly defaced and scattered? Then, mention is made of the benefits of your Messias, wherein is foreshowed that he shall be slain, yea, the time also wherein he shall be slain, is expressly set down. And after threescore and two weeks, Messias shall be cut off. F122 And first herein the Jews do agree together with us, that these weeks are not to be numbered by limitation of days, but of years. Wherefore these threescore and two weeks spoken of by the prophet are by computation accounted to amount to 436 years. After the end of which threescore and two weeks, Messiah shall establish his covenant by his doctrine, death, and resurrection in the other week next ensuing. In the half whereof he shall, by his own only sacrifice and oblation, wherein he shall offer himself to God the Father in his cross and passion, dissolve and utterly abolish all your sacrifices and offerings.

But here arise in the mean space many scruples to be resolved; first, to know at what time those weeks took their beginning, and so also when they ended. For herein the learned expositors seem to be variable in judgment. Some are of opinion that the beginning of the weeks entered first, when the seventy years of their captivity were finished. That is to say, from the second year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes. And of this mind are Clement of Alexandria, Theodoret, Eusebius, Jerome, and Augustine, grounding as it seemeth upon the words of Zechariah, in the first chapter of his prophecy.

Again, many do deny this utterly, supposing that the weeks began first at the going forth of the commandment. That is to say, when proclamation was made by Cyrus in the first year of his reign, that the Jews should be released and sent home into their country. In like manner they do vary also, about the end and finishing of the said weeks. For some that reckon the beginning of the weeks from the first of Cyrus’s reign, describe the end of the same to be the time of Christ’s birth in the reign of Augustus, emperor of Rome. Some others draw them longer, to the baptism and passion of Christ. Others also, accounting from Darius, begin at the second year of his reign, many at the sixth, some others at the twentieth year thereof. Some writers make their reckoning otherwise. Besides this scruple, many seem to be encumbered much about the intricate and confused computation of the years and reigns of the kings which succeeded Cyrus, and continued until the coming of Alexander, which chiefly above all the rest, entangles the account by reason of the uncertain limitation of those times. There is also no less disagreement in the order and observation of the years betwixt them, which number from the reign of Cyrus; amongst whom, those which apply to the birth of Christ, recount the number of years to be 540; some reckon 501; some otherwise, either more or less. Finally, albeit the most approved writers do verify that fourteen Persian kings, or at the least thirteen, succeeded each other in the kingdom of Persia until the conquest of Alexander, yet the Jews make account of four only. But they, being unacquainted altogether with foreign governments, are to be rejected utterly as unmeet arbiters of this controversy.

Some are of opinion that Cyrus, after the conquest of Babylon, reigned twenty years, others seven years only. Some report that betwixt Cyrus and Darius the Assyrian, only Cambyses reigned, and that by the space of twenty years. There are others that, making no mention of Cambyses at all, place betwixt Cyrus and Darius one named Assuerus, and unto him they allow twenty years of holding the kingdom likewise. So great is the variety of opinion also concerning the continuance of the Persian empire, yea, even amongst the learned; while some do attribute to that government under the Persian kings 130 years; others 198; some make their calculations otherwise. F123 But as concerning the succession of the Persian kings, many of our writers suppose that the temple began to be builded at Jerusalem in the reign of Longimanus, who, as they say, was the fourth after Cyrus in succession, which fourth place Jerome ascribeth to Darius, and drives this Longimanus to be the seventh in number after Cyrus. Briefly, there is no one thing among the historiographers that moveth more doubtful matter of controversy, as well among the Grecians as the Latinists. Wherein as it would seem troublesome to recite the names of all the authors that write of this matter, so would it be over tedious to recount all their several opinions and reasons alleged thereunto. Neither will I take upon me to determine any certainty in this confused variety, nor do I think it necessary, since this our later age hath raised up many learned men, who, by comparing of the ancient chronicles, have left to posterity commendable testimonies of their studious industry; who albeit express no small disagreement in some certain points, yet receiving much light from the ancient chronicles, seem to approach somewhat near the mark.

Philip Melancthon, as in all liberal sciences singularly studied, so through wonderful travail in the careful conference of histories, achieving a more ripe and sound judgment, sets down a double order of reckoning; in the one whereof he numbers the weeks to begin in the reign of Cyrus, and so until the birth of Christ; in the other he takes the original of the weeks in the time of Longimanus, and so proceeds unto the time of Christ’s death and resurrection, yielding herein to the judgment of the learned, to make their choice, which of them they approve. But John Calvin seems to allow neither of them, induced as it seems with this reason, that the beginning of the computation ought not to enter in the reign of Longimanus, nor the end thereof to be determined at the birth of Christ, as he supposes; which truly is well noted by John Calvin, according to the singular dexterity of his learning and capacity.

For, as it behooved these weeks to comprehend the fullness of time, from the free manumission of the captives to the last cleansing of sins, which should come to pass by the only oblation of Messias our Savior; it is out of all question that neither the reign of Cyrus is exempted from this abatement of weeks, namely, since the prophet ( Isaiah 45) notes Cyrus by especial name to be the only deliverer of the people from their captivity; neither those weeks could be finished before the whole exploit of our redemption were of all parts accomplished. And therefore John Calvin doth not without some probability dissent from those who derive the entry of the said weeks from the second year of Darius’s reign only. So would I likewise contentedly yield to his judgment therein, if he had made a full and distinct computation of all the mean process of time, which passed over betwixt the going forth of the commandment from Cyrus to the passion of Christ, according to the true and just proportion of the weeks. But forasmuch as those years which were betwixt the going forth of the commandment and the passion of Christ, being duly accounted, do amount above 530 years, as appears by collation of chronicles; therefore some doubt also may be made here, how Calvin’s reckoning may be applicable to this account. For resolution whereof, Matthew Beroald, in his chronological demonstration, will help us somewhat; who beginning his number at the reign of Cyrus also, proceeding onward until the ascension of Christ, reduces those years which were accountable, to the seventy weeks mentioned in Daniel, namely, to 490 years, or to ten jubilees, agreeing with Calvin’s reckoning. The same also doth Gerardus Mercator, a very late writer, testify, if credit may be given to their report.

But what answer will those men make on the other side to the other historiographers? To Constantine Phrygio, who numbers the years from the reign of Cyrus unto the passion of Christ 544? To John Lucidas and John Functius, whereof the one far otherwise measuring the weeks after the death of Cyrus from the twentieth year of Darius, the other from the seventh year of his reign, recount the same to be 490. And to pass over others, Theodorus Bibliander also seems to be of like opinion to them that make account of more years betwixt the reign of Cyrus and the blessed passion of Christ, than are recorded by Beroald and others. But whether this computation be right yea or nay, I am not to determine at this present.

Well then, may some man say, what certainty can be agreed upon in this so great contrariety and disagreement of opinions? For the discharge of this subtle question, I do answer in few words. First, the infallible testimony of God’s truth doth not depend upon man’s determination; howsoever men be carried bither and thither in conceit, and their opinions, like clocks whirled about upon wheels, that never sound in one and the same minute of time, yet doth not the day alter his appointed course; no more will the certainty of God’s promise be any time unsteadfast or deceivable. And albeit ancient chroniclers sometimes wander in precise and exact observation of minutes, and small moments of days, or years, or utter their several judgments therein, according to their several capacities, yet this contrariety withstands not so much but there may be a general consent in the substance of the matter debated; nor is this to be marveled at considering the great antiquity of foreworn years, and the unmeasurable blindness and ignorance in the same. So also, how variable soever the opinions of many seem discrepant each from other, yet this contrariety, as it is not altogether void of truth, so it does not much prejudice the cause which is here in controversy. For whether the account of seventy weeks are derived from the reign of Cyrus, as some will have it; or from Darius, as others think; to continue until the nativity of Christ, or to his death and passion: or, whether the same were the Assyrian Darius, or Longimanus, in the sixth year of whose government the building of the temple was resumed and finished; yet in this one point, all and every the historiographers, as well ancient as late writers, with one general consent do conclude and agree together that these seventy weeks cannot by any application be ascribed to any other person than to Christ Jesus, the true Messias, even the same Messias which was born of the virgin, in the time of Augustus the emperor, and was afterwards crucified under Pontius Pilate, and which was restored again to life the third day after his death. F124 And thus much touching the diversity of judgment in the computation of the learned; who notwithstanding differ not so much in the state and ground of the question; only the controversy ariseth upon the application of the time, as whether the account of the weeks ought to be referred to the birth of Christ, or to his passion. But what is this to the purpose? This groundwork remains yet unshaken, and ratified by most approved testimony of general consent, which appertaineth chiefly to the sentence of the prophet, and the material part of his prophecy; namely, that no one sentence throughout the whole scriptures, more manifestly convinces your error touching your Messias, and more substantially establishes our faith, than this one testimony of the prophet Daniel, wherein the mystery of the seventy weeks most manifestly is here determined upon that nation and people of yours. The which same weeks the angel, gathering again together, divides into three several distinct orders. The first order comprehendeth seven weeks; the second threescore and two weeks; the third one week only, which was the last, and the seventieth in number. In which last week he signifies that it should come to pass, that the Holy of holy ones should be anointed, slain, and make an end of sin and sin offerings appointed in the law of Moses; which things being accomplished and the full number of years completed and finished, the city afterwards should come to utter ruin and destruction. And because the prophet should the better conceive the true disposition and distinct proportion of times in which those things should be brought to pass, the angel doth, as it were leading by the hand, instruct him by this divided partition of weeks; as if this were the purport of the prophecy; “Forsomuch, O Daniel, greatly beloved of God, as thou art so careful and zealous for the estate and safety of thy people, it pleased Almighty God to hear thee, even in the beginning of thy prayers, and withal to impart his heavenly will unto thee, by me his messenger, sent to this effect, to make thee understand the things that appertain to thy nation, and the whole estate of that kingdom. For the Lord hath so decreed by his secret determination, that this people, being now in captivity, shall return again into their native country, and the city and sanctuary shall be restored, and advanced to its ancient dignity and estimation. And if, after the restitution and establishment thereof, thou wilt further inquire of the continuance and durance of the same, and withal what great enterprises and manifold successes shall happen herein, understand thou; that seventy weeks are concluded and determined upon this people, which being recounted by the sabbaths of years, or reduced into ten jubilees, will make the number of seven times seventy, to wit, years. For so many years fully shall that commonwealth prosper, until wickedness be finished, all curse of sin be removed, all sin offerings abolished, and everlasting righteousness be brought in, and all things be accomplished whatsoever were foretold by the prophets and visions; finally, until the Holy of holy ones be anointed.

For, as the administration of that commonwealth was erected at the first for Messias his sake, it could not be that kingdom should utterly be abolished before the same Messias was manifested in the flesh.

I have somewhat declared unto you concerning the seventy weeks. For the better perceiving of the orderly proceedings and interchanged successes whereof, a threefold distinction of times ought severally to be considered.

Namely, seven weeks, then threescore and two weeks, and one week. In the first seven weeks, all that intercourse of time is comprehended, that must grow betwixt the laying the foundation of the second temple and building thereof, until the full finishing of the same. For so many years are accounted from the first year of Cyrus’s reign unto the seventh or eighth year of Darius, before the building of the temple was thoroughly performed; which will amount to forty-nine years. Again, the threescore and two weeks do note unto us the remnant of the time, wherein Messias the Lord should be born in the city of David, after that the city and temple were repaired and built again; which building was completed in the thirtysecond year of the reign of Darius the Assyrian, or Artaxerxes. Now that other one week which remained, signifies unto us the anointing, preaching, revealing, and suffering of the same Messias; and of those other things which were to ensue after his death. In the middle part of which week shall Messias be slain; three years and a half after his baptism and anointing; by which death he shall accomplish the mystery of man’s redemption, whereof the prophets did so often prophesy and prognosticate long time before.

The residue of the week appertains to the preaching of the apostles, to the calling of the Gentiles, to the establishing of the covenant with many, to the abolishing of the old circumcision, and external sacrifices, and the ceremonial law; to the confirmation of free remission of sins, and to the performance of the promise of rising again, and life everlasting. All which were of all parts completed, and ended in the last week; that is to say, in those seven latter years wherein the Messias shall be anointed, slain, rise from death to life, ascend up into heaven, endue his church with the inestimable benefits of the Holy Ghost, and allure the Gentiles to the free mercy pronounced by his gospel; which week being added to the former, will make the just number of seventy weeks, that is 490 years. For so many years did the merciful God of Israel, of his unspeakable bounty, preserve that nation in peaceable tranquillity, not for any their descryings, but for his dear Son’s sake only, who was to issue out of that seed and generation.

It remains now that we make a proportionable comparison of the number of those years with the records of the continual proceedings and successes thereof. First, this is a matter confessed, that the delivery of the Jews from their captivity was by the proclamation of Cyrus, the first year of his reign, at what time the foundation of the temple was laid, which, being hindered with sundry interruptions, was yet at the last brought to full perfection in the sixth or seventh year of Darius’s reign. The temple being thus perfected in all its furniture, commission was given at length to Nehemiah, in the twentieth year of the reign of the same Darius, with absolute authority to repair their city again. The same year, in the 25th day of the month Elul, the wall was erected and finished; the whole doing whereof lasted fifty-two days only, as Nehemiah reports in his sixth chapter. But houses were not builded as yet, as appears in the seventh chapter, for accomplishment whereof were allowed twelve years more, as appeareth plainly in the fifth chapter of Nehemiah, where he himself says, From the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of king Artaxerxes, that is twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor, etc. So that it is evident that while the city was building, so many years passed over. For so we read that Nehemiah gave his promise to return to the king and queen as soon as the work was finished.

Thus much touching the ninth chapter of Daniel; neither is this all that Daniel reporteth of the Messias, for besides this, many other of his prophecies do foreshow, and as it were directly lead us by the hand to the kingdom of Messias, yea, to the very distinct time thereof. As is that of the stone, which being hewn out of a great hill without man’s hands, smote the image that represented the four monarchies of the world and brake his head, his breast, his legs, and his feet, in pieces, so that no place was found for them, but the stone itself became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

But what is the purport of all these things? And first, what is meant by the stone hewn down without hands, and falling from a great hill? What by that striking and breaking the image in pieces? By that huge mountain? by that exceeding increase of the stone into an unmeasurable quantity; the incredible greatness whereof, overthrowing all other kingdoms of the earth, should possess the whole world besides? Whereunto tend all these? what do they import? what do they represent unto us else, than the same which we perceive most plainly was accomplished in the Son of God? Who descending from the highest heavens, and born of a virgin; who alone coming into the world after a miracle, did vanquish all power and pomp of the world and the devil, by holding his peace only; who brake the gates of hell in sunder with suffering only; overcame death with dying only, and purchased thereby an everlasting kingdom of perpetual felicity for his chosen and elect, which kingdom shall endure in unmovable eternity, above and beyond all other kingdoms and empires of the world. For all other empires, standing in most fickle estate, by interchange of elder years wax transitory and vanish away, and with mutual enmity pursue each other to utter destruction. This only kingdom, raised up without hands by the eternal God, cannot be shivered with any violence, nor wax old with any process of time, nor be subdued by any force or policy of man, but with its unperishable perpetuity shall crush in pieces, and wear out all other kingdoms, and itself persist nevertheless unvanquishable, for ever and ever.

And this so incomprehensible majesty of this kingdom, the prophet does not in one place alone prophesy should come, nor does he promise it only, but discovers also the very minute and instant of time wherein this kingdom should flourish; so that the commendation wherewith your Josephus so highly advances this prophet, is not unaptly applied, namely, that he doth not only foreshow the events and successes of times, as other prophets do, but with a most plain view, as it were, points with the finger to the time itself, in which all these things should come that should ensue.

I could vouch out of the same Daniel sundry sentences, many also out of other prophets to the like effect; for what else doth the whole prophetical history of the bible, even from the beginning to the end thereof, describe unto us, than Christ Jesus and his kingdom, very base and simple in the eye and judgment of carnal capacity, but to the spiritual beholders most beautiful and glorious? What doth the delivery of Jonas out of the whale’s belly on the third day prefigure unto us other than the resurrection of Christ? What doth the translating of Elias into heaven, in a fiery chariot, signify, other than the ascension of Christ? What doth that brazen serpent foreshow other than Christ crucified upon the cross? What do the manifold afflictions of king David represent, but the continual persecution of Christ in this world? What doth Moses signify, but a deliverer? Joshua, but the victorious conquest of Christ over all his enemies? What doth the rule and government of Joseph, with a certain royal majesty over the Egyptians, imply, but the kingdom of Messias, at whose beck all things in earth and heaven should be obedient and subject? It would require a long discourse to overrun all the mystical sayings of the prophets. I will add hereunto one or two places out of the prophet Malachi.

Malachi being of one mind and judgment that Daniel and our Paul were of, not only foretells the casting away of your nation, but also renders the reason that procured God’s wrath against your people. For Malachi and Daniel both agree in this point, that the utter destruction of that nation was decreed by the secret counsel of God, to the end they should become a precedent, whereby the wicked might be forewarned of the severe justice of God; as also for this cause chiefly, by reason that else the vain persuasion, that hath taken root so long in the hearts of the people, touching the righteousness of the law, touching circumcision, peace offerings, and sacrifices, could not be razed out of their minds, it’ the ceremonial law should continue in her former authority. And therefore it pleased Almighty God to make manifest to all men that those external rites, shadows, and ceremonies, were not available to procure true righteousness; and that the righteousness of the law was not that pure righteousness whereunto the promises did direct them. But let us hear the words of Malachi; I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts, neither will I accept offering at your hands; for from the rising of the sun, until the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles.

And in every place shall a pure offering be offered in my name; for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts, Malachi 1.

Amongst many things worthy to be noted in this saying of the prophet, there are three special observations to be considered; namely, the one concerning you that are Jews; secondly, concerning your sacrifices; lastly, the plate itself where the offering shall be made. For the Lord had promised that he would alter and renew every of these, to the end he might thereby despoil you of all matter to glory upon; as upon your parentage, your worshippings, yea, your temple itself, your offerings, and sacrifices. And why? Because he had determined to make an innovation of them, as ye do hear, and to translate them from you to others. Which the same Holy Ghost doth manifestly set down in another place in like words, by his prophet Isaiah, Behold, saith he, I will create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, Isaiah 65. And again in another place, And the Lord shall kill thee, and shall call his servants by another name, etc. The words are somewhat unlike, but the sense is all one, nothing differing from the saying of Malachi, I have no pleasure in you, etc. Dost thou not perceive in these words, how thou shalt be cast away, thou proud generation? And because you shall know that God will nevertheless not be destitute of a people that shall glorify his name, though you are clean hewn off from the olive tree; My name, saith he, is great among the Gentiles.

I have declared unto you what shall become of your nation and people.

Now will I proceed to explain unto you of your temple and place of prayer, whereupon you vaunt yourselves so much. The prophet therefore goeth forward; In all places shall pure offerings be offered unto my name, from the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same. As if God would say, You Jews are so addicted to that only sanctuary and temple of the Lord, which he did erect amongst you long ago, as though he ought not be worshipped in any place else, and as though no nation in the whole earth might offer sacrifice unto the Lord except you alone. And under color of this prerogative, being puffed up with pride, you swell with unmeasurable vainglorious persuasion of fleshly courage, and set all other nations at naught, as though you alone were the only inheritance of the Lord, and as though you held him fast tied to your generation, with an inseparable chain of privileged bounty and favor, and so fast locked within the walls of your temple, that he could not be of power to depart from you, nor would for any cause sequester himself from your temple. F125 But to the end your senses may no longer be in darkness, flattering yourselves with vain and counterfeit confidence of falsely conceived opinion, I will, by way of friendly advertisement, pronounce, and even now do denounce and forewarn you, that the calling upon the name of the Lord is not inseparably bound to place, time, or persons; but that the largesse F126 of his mercy is extended also upon all people, nations, and tongues; whether Jews or Gentiles, Scythians or Indians; and that this his loving kindness wherewith he embraceth all mankind, will reject no person from his fatherly protection. Wheresoever his name is feared, and his majesty worshipped, there he doth indifferently distribute the gifts of his grace towards all persons without partiality. Yea, and because you shall understand my saying more plainly, behold, I do protest unto you, in the word of the Lord, that it shall come to pass that you yourselves being Jews, and your whole race for the most part being cast away, and this your sanctuary, whereupon you boast so much, being utterly rejected, the Lord will transpose his loving countenance not into one angle of the world among the Jews only, but will be magnified, and have the glory of his name called upon, in every place throughout all nations and tongues, wheresoever scattered over the face of the earth, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.

For my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.

Hitherto you have heard the words of Malachi used towards your people.

It remains, lastly, that we speak of the sacrifices. For the prophet evidently declares that innovation shall ensue of the sacrifices also, speaking in this wise. Among the Gentiles, and in every place, incense and a pure offering shall be offered unto my name. Well now, what manner of offerings are these of the Gentiles, which the prophet commends so highly? Are they sacrifices of goats or calves? They are sacrifices of calves truly, but such as the prophet Hosea mentions in his prophecy. And we will render, saith he, the calves of our lips, Hosea 14. Verily, these are the calves wherewith the Lord is now well delighted. These calves do we offer, when, acknowledging our unrighteousness, we yield humble thanks to the gracious goodness of God, who, cleansing our wickedness with the fountain of the blood and death of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesus, doth endue us with the inheritance of everlasting life. These are the spiritual offerings of the Gentiles, differing very much from the sacrifices of the Jews; for these are the pure offerings of the Spirit, that consist not in bloody broilings of brute beasts, nor in smelling of flesh, nor are offered with the hands of priests imbrued with gore. And for that cause the prophet doth call them clean. Well then, and why are these offerings called clean, rather than the Jewish sacrifices? What! shall we say that their blood offerings are unclean, and their sacrifices defiled then? Verily albeit the prophet doth not in express words verify the same; yet whoso shall duly ponder the substance and pith of his talk, shall easily discern, that the prophet, by secret implication, condemns the Jewish sacrifices, as polluted and profane in the respect of offerings of the Gentiles.

But here will one of your sect urge again, and demand whether these sacrifices were not instituted by God at the first, and the ordinances of the same prescribed unto us by Moses. Whether in them also were not contained the calves of lips, thanksgiving, and purging of sins. Whether God could be the author of any observances or ceremonies that were not in all parts sincere, pure, and without blemish. For answer whereof, we do not deny, that those sacrifices were instituted for your behoof, by special command and sufferance of the high and most excellent lawmaker, Almighty God. But consideration must be had of the meaning, purpose, end, and time, wherein they were to be frequented. Not that they were of value of their own nature, to purchase true righteousness, but to direct and lead us to the righteousness that was to come; not that you should account them infallible pledges of perfect piety, but that Almighty God might train and instruct you with these, as with certain principles, meanwhile, until you might be made apt to receive higher mysteries. Not because that great Lord and Father of spirits was delighted with the slaughter of brute beasts, of bloody gore of his creatures; but his good pleasure was, under these shadows, types, and figures, to prefigure the death of his only Son, who, by his bloodshedding, should be of power to wash men’s consciences clean from all filth and corruption of sin; not because you should always be nestling in these, and proceed no further, but to nurture your childhood for a time were they delivered, lest by pursuing the error of the Gentiles, ye should either rush headlong into the idolatrous abominations of the heathen; or at the least to restrain you instead of a schoolmaster, in some orderly comeliness for a time, until the clear day should appear, wherein better things should be revealed, and the truth itself should shut up and abolish those shadows and sacrifices.

Briefly, to satisfy this matter in two words; two notes are chiefly to be observed in these kinds of sacrifices; namely, the use and the time. As concerning the use, truly the due observation of those sacrifices was not of force, by their own nature, to make a chosen and beloved people of God; but to be rules and principles, for that people whom Moses had gathered to minister in his synagogue. Not because they were able of themselves to give eternal salvation, but that they should foreshow the coming of Him in whom rested true safety; and withal should represent an outward shadow of inward holiness and cleanness of mind. And, for that cause, provision was made for such beasts only that were clean, unspotted, and undefiled; hereby inducing the people of the old synagogue to learn how they ought to behave themselves in their daily conversation unblamable. As to that which appertains to the consideration of the time, this ought to be holden for certain, that those blood offerings of the ceremonial law, were not delivered because they should never cease, even as neither the temple was builded to the end it should never be razed and destroyed; or as though the overthrow thereof should forthwith extinguish all worshipping of God, but were given for a time only; not to continue for ever, but transitory rather and removable, remaining in use as certain exercises and introductions of outward discipline, until the blessed Seed should come, in whom the promise took effect. And, therefore, Almighty God did with great care long time as it were allow the sacrifices, to nurture the weak capacity of the people of that rude age; by means whereof the said sacrifices had then their certain use and estimation; nor were adjudged unclean, during that season.

But as now, the estate of the time being altered, since the truth itself doth overspread the world with wonderful lightsomeness, and the Sun of righteousness displayeth his clear and palpable brightness, these carnal sacrifices and blood offerings do utterly cease, and are altogether discharged from further use.

For what availeth to gaze after shadows where the body is present to be beholden plainly? What man will burn candle, or light a torch, in sunshine at mid-day? Who will grope for darkness in open light? or seek for night in clearest day? The cause why that butchery of simple beasts was permitted you, for a time, was to inform your grossness, and tame the hardness of your hearts; that so, by view of visible signs and representations of spectable shadows, the Lord might train you along, to the true and pure cleansing of sins, which was then to come. But now, since we are come to the truth itself, whereof the others were but shadows, it is a necessary consequent that those things which were sometime esteemed for clean, the very same again, through alteration of time, may be accounted not only unclean and defiled, but filthy also and abominable.

Which things being undoubtedly true, ye men of Israel, as may most manifestly appear unto you by the testimony and discourse of Malachi and other prophets, what extreme madness is this in you to persevere still in so deep a slumber, dreaming yet about your old rotten tabernacles, your forlorn temple, your carnal worshippings, and moth-eaten sacrifices! But let us imagine and grant by way of a case put, that you may recover your Jerusalem again; which notwithstanding will never come to pass, (unless God himself and all his prophets do speak falsely,) I would fain learn of you then what you would do there? First, you will procure your temple to be built up again. And why so? Because ye may offer incense and sacrifice to God after your accustomed manner! As though that general Lord of all nations cannot be worshipped elsewhere than in an angie of the world at Jerusalem! And how then will the saying of the prophet Malachi be verified, who saith, that the time should come, when the Lord of hosts should be worshipped in all places, and incense be offered unto him throughout all the world, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof? If you will so straiten and restrain all worship due unto God within the walls of your temple only, as it were locked fast in some closet, then I demand of you further, with what kind of sacrifice you will pacify your God within that temple? Forsooth, with blood and butchery of beasts. But where is then that pure and undefiled offering mentioned by Malachi, which is not imbrued with slaughter, I suppose, but performed by spiritual sacrifices.

Finally, with what argument can you persuade that the living God ought to be worshipped more properly and peculiarly of you Jews, than of all other nations, namely, since you are so plainly convinced with the express testimony of Malachi? who, making no mention of the Jews, doth prophesy that the name of God shall be had in great admiration amongst the Gentiles? What answer will you make also to that promise of the same Malachi in the chapter following; where, foretelling the signs and tokens that should go before the coming of the Messias; namely, that his forerunner should come first, and prepare the way before the face of the Lord; and immediately he saith; And the Lord whom you seek shall speedily come to his holy temple, even the Angel of the covenant whom you desire, etc. What! came not that same forerunner that was, promised?

Was not his voice heard also in the desert according to the prophecy of Isaiah, crying out aloud, to the end you should prepare the way of the Lord, and should make straight in the desert a path for your God? Why did you not make preparation then? Why did you not receive the Angel of the covenant, whom ye desired, coming into his holy temple? Nay rather, why did you banish him from out your synagogue? Why did you daily exclude him from thence, railing continually upon the Lord with outrageous reproaches and taunting blasphemies? What punishment or torture may be imagined horrible enough to countervail such execrable outrages?

Also, by the way, here is not to be passed over in silence, the saying of the same prophet, annexed in the end of the same chapter, concerning the dreadful and terrible day of the Lord, wherewith he will overwhelm the proud and wicked doers, whom that hot scorching day, even as a hot burning oven should devour, as flame consumeth the stubble, leaving neither branch nor root of them.

But you will say that this threatening concerns others, and appertains not at all to you. Yes truly, the very order, proceeding, and event of the matter, most manifestly convince, that this direful threatening was denounced against you chiefly; whose words that ensue hereupon immediately, are these, Behold, saith he, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and fearful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest haply I come and smite the earth with cursing. And to whom must this Elias be sent, but unto you? And, therefore, what land shall be accursed, but you? Finally, what signifies the word, Anathema, but a certain final destruction of all mankind, except those persons only whom Elias should reduce to amendment of conversation? For God hath not so utterly rejected his people, that no remnant thereof shall be saved, as I declared before unto you out of St. Paul.

But I will cease to surcharge you with more testimonies, adding only one or two places, first out of the book of Genesis, and then out of the prophet Hosea; wherein it shall not be needful to use long discourse. For who is so ignorant in the holy scriptures that understandeth not what is meant by that scepter which the patriarch Jacob, inspired by divine oracle, did boldly pronounce should never be removed from the tribe of Judah? Genesis 49.

And who is he at the length, lint even the same whom the prophet Isaiah describes, saying, I have given him for a Governor and Teacher of the Gentiles? Which sentence the holy patriarch, inspired with the same Holy Ghost, did long before, in the same sense, profess, though in other words; And the Gentiles shall be gathered unto him. But as then the scepter was not yet of power in Israel. But the godly grey-headed father, foreseeing long before the events of things to come, did prophesy of Judah in this wise: The scepter or mace of the empire shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and the gathering of the Gentiles shall be unto him. Howsoever, some Talmudists do pratrise to pervert this place, with most frivolous cavillations; yea, though all the start up rabbins would burst in sunder, yet can this sentence by no violent wrest be framed appliable otherwise, but that two special matters must necessarily be grounded thereupon. First, that Judah and his tribe should be invested in the title and the interest of the kingdom. Next, that this prerogative should endure immovable, until Messias did come, unto whom the Gentiles should gather themselves. And to the same effect tendeth the interpretation of Jonathas F127 and others, who lived long before the age of Christ, whose words, who listeth to hear, are these; “The king’s seat shall not be taken, or depart from the house of Judah; neither shall lawgivers want their children’s children, until the time that Messias shall come, to whom the kingdom doth belong. And all the kings of the earth shall become his vassals. How beautiful is this Messias, that shall come to continue in the house of Judah! He shall gird up his loins and go forth to battle against his enemies, and the kings and their princes shall be slain. He shall die the rivers red with the blood of the slain; his teeth shall be ordered with knowledge, lest he partake the fruits of their spoils, and wrong doings. The hills shall look red with their vines, and their wine-presses with the wine; the fields shall be adorned with beautiful blossom, by reason of the abundance of fruits of beasts and sheep, etc.” Thus much thought I good to rehearse out of Jonathas; yet have we no need, praised he God, to vouch any commentaries of the Jews, to manifest the mysteries of the Holy Scripture, namely, since there can be no better interpreter of the prophetical scriptures than time, and approved experiences of the successes thereof.

The testimony that I thought good to borrow out of Hosea, most worthy to be noted of you that are Jews, is that which he setteth down in the first chapter of his prophecy, where the prophet, inveighing against Israel, uses this speech; Call his name, not my people, because you are not my people, therefore will I not be yours, etc. Whereby you may plainly perceive the saying of St. Paul, confirmed from the prophet, namely; The same which he teaches concerning the natural branches, which he said were hewn off from the olive tree. And now, ye men of Israel, where is that your arrogant vainglorious vaunt of the offspring of your kindred? If to be issued of the race of Abraham be prized so highly in the sight of God, what meaneth then this casting away of the Israelites, mentioned by the prophet? what signifieth that special choice and calling of the Gentiles, and the wild olive tree to be planted in their place? for so we read the promise set down by the prophet, Hosea 1. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured and told. And in the place where it was said, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, You are the sons of the living God. It was a singular prerogative for them, not being Israelites born, to be named and numbered amongst the true children of Israel. But the other did far surmount, that being before the brood of the devil, they should now be called the sons of the living God. And to whom, I beseech you, is this unspeakable benefit promised? Forsooth, neither to the Israelites nor to the Jews, nor to them which seemed to appertain unto God, but unto them which were altogether severed, and estranged from God; the very abject Gentiles, barbarous and uncircumcised heathen!

Whom the incomprehensible mercy of God will join near unto himself, and will engraft them into the root of his own natural olive tree, having first sawed off the natural branches, in whose stead he shall gather the Gentiles together, from out a wild olive tree, in such plentiful abundance and infinite heaps, as will not be comprehended within the territory of Palestine only, but, like unto the sands of the sea, will replenish the whole world, far and wide, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.

Ye have heard the mind and purport of the prophet, which if ye suppose to be as yet not accomplished for your behoof through the gospel of Messias, our Lord and Savior, open your eyelids, if you are not blind, and behold the innumerable multitude of people and tongues, which every where, throughout all the world, do profess the true worshipping of God; number them, if you are able; but if the quantity be as infinite as the sand of the sea, exceeding all reach and compass of number, you may easily conjecture thereby, ye men of Israel, into what straits your wilful ignorance forces you, and how perilous that froward blindness of yours is, and withal bethink yourselves in time, what were best for you to embrace from henceforth Nay, rather, how foolishly you have behaved yourselves heretofore. God did send his only begotten Son into the world, the Seed of the woman, and born of a virgin, whose parentage and kindred, from whence he issued, because you did not know, and nevertheless were amazed to behold his heavenly power in doing miracles, his wonderful clemency employed to the cure of all manner of diseases, and casting out of devils, yet being swallowed up of extreme madness, and overwhelmed with blind rancor and cankered malice, you did most cruelly despoil him of life, and spilt his guiltless blood, without all cause of offense. For why may I not justly accuse you, as partakers of the same crime, since ye do, with whole best affection of hateful despite, pursue the imbrued steps of your bloody sires, and gladly allow of that execrable murder?

And therefore, thou accursed Jew, thou art duly charged with the guilt of innocent blood; englut therefore thyself with gore. Thou didst receive Caesar to be thy king, refusing Christ; continue his bondslave still. Yet this worketh no grace in thee, nor allureth thee to abandon thy doting error, for thou dost as yet breathe out villany against the King of the Jews, whose name we have in greatest estimation. But what thinkest thou to gain by kicking’ against the pricks? Dost thou not perceive how God hath made frustrate all thy devices, contrary to thine expectation? Dost thou not see how thy mischievous practices recoil back upon thine own head? Dost thou not feel thy downfall into the pit which thyself hast digged? Thou seest the temple so razed and overthrown to the ground, that no stone thereof can be found; thou dost see thy religion utterly abolished, the priesthood, the law, the kingdom, your cities, your nation, your race and kindred wholly extinguished: briefly, thou canst recount no one thing remaining, but a few wretched and contemptible runagates, true monuments of the outrageous insolency, and miserable calamity of their forlorn forefathers; yea, that small portion also, enduring through none other privilege than by this commendation of Paul, and the sufferance of the christians. And being thus continually turmoiled with sundry miseries, notwithstanding God’s just judgment doth daily execute new increases of his severe wrath against you; yet are your minds so intoxicate with the poisoned sweet potion of bewitched ignorance, that these wonderful scourges can ply your hearts to no better grace, persisting still in perverse frowardness, as that these pinching plagues, the horror whereof might have prevailed to procure amendment, seem rather to stir and provoke you to further cruelty. For albeit you do plainly perceive, and cannot deny, but that all whatsoever your own prophets have foretold of the Messias, is absolutely accomplished in the person of Christ Jesus; albeit you may easily learn out of the holy scriptures, and by continual experience and successes of times, that there is none other Christ, but even the same whom the whole world doth worship at this present; albeit you sensibly feel that you are become a mockery, not to almighty God only, but accounted also no better than rascals and runagates, of all nations of the world; yet do ye curse Christ in your synagogues daily, and expect yet another Messias, (I know not whom,) which you shall never see but in that dreadful and terrible day of wrath, at what time, notwithstanding all you can do, you shall behold Him whom you have cruelly crucified. What monstrous hardness of heart is this, ye men and Hebrews, that so many heavenly oracles of so many your own prophets, so many manifest testimonies of sacred scriptures, so many horrible punishments, so many unmerciful plagues wherewith your nation is and hath been continually tormented, cannot induce you to conceive some sparkle of true repentance? The Romans did ransack you with such outrage in their conquest, that they spared neither young nor old, men, women, and infants; neither left one stone standing upon another upon your whole city.

Finally, your habitations are become waste and desolate, ye have now neither city nor temple, kingdom nor priesthood, people nor prophet; and, what of all other is most lamentable, you have eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, hearts that cannot understand, whereby you may repent, and be converted to your liege Lord and Sovereign King.

But go ye to; let all that which is passed be imputed either to your ignorance, or to the wrathful vengeance of God for your unbelief sake, because ye knew not the time of your visitation. And being allured and stirred up to better remembrance by so manifold examples, learn now at the length by the preaching of the gospel, to acknowledge our Christ Jesus, the Lord of peace, of meekness, and of humility, to be the only Messias, sent from God the Father; in whose name all nations of the earth shall be saved, and to whom all knees in heaven and earth ought to bow down and prostrate themselves. There was sometimes an unsavory season of darkened ignorance when our temples also were polluted with filthy idolatry; but now, since all clouds of foggy superstition are for the more part scattered and vanished out of sight, and the clear dawning of the lightsome truth of Christ’s gospel displayeth his orient beams, tread no longer the dirty track of superstitious mismases, but return with us, and be made partakers of the lively well spring of sincere and pure doctrine. F128 The same Christ whom you persecute, must be worshipped; whose doctrine you practice to root out, even he offers you salvation, freely and frankly. The same whom you contemptuously entreated as a man, is worshipped in all the world, both God and man; howsoever ye despised him, (as Joseph was sometime rejected of his brethren,) yet reigneth he in the glory of his Father; whom you mortal men believed to die the natural death, the same revived again immortal, and shall live in immortality for ever. Whom your forefathers embased under the rabble of the people, and accounted for an abject and outcast of all men, even to his Majesty do all the lofty estates and stately powers of heaven and earth prostrate and humble themselves; that the saying of Isaiah may aptly be verified in this place, The kings of the earth shall stop their mouths before him, Isaiah 52. Whom you reproached with the most shameful death of the cross, the very same cross is turned into his glory, to our salvation, to the judgment of the world, to the destruction of his enemies, and everlasting consolation of them that are redeemed. So that here again, the prophecy of Isaiah may seem to take effect; And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Finally, whose name your forefathers hoped to have been erased out of all men’s memory, the very same name hath God magnified above all the glory of angels and men: at the calling upon whose name the dead arise again, maladies are cured, devils do tremble and quake for fear, unclean spirits are tormented and flee away; yea, the whole hierarchy of angels bow down and worship. Now, forasmuch as these things are so manifest that no man can be ignorant of them, I wonder much what reason you can allege to color your obstinate contumacy, who, being taught by so many examples, can content yourselves nevertheless to lie still slumbering in vanishing shadows; and, neglecting the very natural Son of God, can grope, like buzzards, after a senseless imaginative shape, of I know not what Messias; when your true Messias is already come, or besides him else shall never any one come; unless all your own prophets were liars, who have described unto you no other Messias, but this one only person.

But this matter haply may offend you, to repeat again somewhat of that I have spoken, because his coming was contemptible, base, and of no reputation, because he was condemned to death, because he was crucified on the cross, because he died and was buried. But if every of these had not met, and been concurrent together in this one person, he could never have been the true Messias, neither would have been acknowledged. But you tarry, gaping still after some gay glorious king. Well; and what wanted in this person, I beseech you, to the absolute measure of highest royalty? whom the Lord did so advance to the right hand of his omnipotent power; at the brightness of whose majesty, you saw the sun lose his light, the earth quake; you saw graves opened, you saw stones burst in sunder, you saw also the vail of the temple rent in pieces. Or, if you did not see it with your own eyes, your forefathers beheld them all, whereof they could never deny any one tittle. So did they see him poor and base, you will say. I confess no less; what then? Yet they conceived not the power and force of that his baseness, nor how honorable that reproach was. In like manner they saw him dead, yet they conceived not the mystery of his death: they conceived not, I say, how it pleased the Lord, by the death of this one man, to open a way for salvation to all people. They conceived not that the tyranny of the devil was vanquished by the ignominy of the cross, and that all sacrifices and shadows were finished by this only sacrifice. But so it pleased God the Father to give his Son unto us, for a pattern of perfect humility, and by this means to glorify his only begotten: the brightness of whose glory if you do acknowledge, there remaineth matter enough to save you; but if you will not acknowledge him, this is also matter enough to condemn you. And, will ye or nill ye, you shall be forced to confess that no counsel, policy, or device of man, is able to countervail the counsel of God; neither any force and power of men, is able to withstand the power of Christ.

But I hope well of your amendment; for why should I not hope, when I find St. Paul to conceive so well of your return again? Wherefore, ye men and Jews, seeing ye bear the name of Jews, (which by interpretation is called confessors,) pluck up your hearts, raise up your minds, persevere no longer in your wonted obstinacy against your own prophets, withstand not from henceforth the manifest light of the gospel. Let the profession of your faith be sound, sincere, and pure at the length, learn to understand the law of God after the spiritual meaning and sense of the Holy Ghost; so shall ye begin to be accounted, according to the nature of your names, pure professors of the truth. Be not dismayed with despair to attain everlasting life because you crucified the Son of God; your error only procured this mischief. God willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he may be converted, live, and be saved. The most horrible crime that can be imagined, can be no estoppel F129 to salvation, against him that will believe.

Only acknowledge your wickedness, and repose your trust in the free promises of the gospel, and ye shall freely receive the reward of eternal felicity freely offered unto you. It is an heinous reproach against the glory of God, to be disobedient to the prophets; it is much more heinous to persecute and murder them. But to rack the Savior of the world upon the cross, is of all other most execrable. Yet hath the Lord promised to forget all these injuries, if you will but repent of them; neither requireth he the blood of beasts at your hands to purge those offenses. Christ is the perfect sacrifice offered for the sins of all people. Only acknowledge your sins, brag no more of your own righteousness from henceforth, believe only in the Son of the living God. If he were not the Son of God, declare unto us who was his father in earth, if you can? If he were not a prophet, how could he not only conceive in mind, but in words also foretell and express the destruction of your nation, the dismembering of your commonwealth, the abomination standing in the holy place; yea, every of them orderly as they ensued? How could he prophesy of his own rising again the third day, and of the sending of the Holy Ghost? How could he know the certainty of the calling of the Gentiles, the denying of Peter, and of many other things, partly come to pass already, partly to be accomplished hereafter? And if he uttered any one untruth in any of all these, condemn him for a liar; but if experience and approved evidence of the orderly successes and events thereof have openly denounced his words to be true, what should stay and hinder you from the truth? For, to speak nothing of his miraculous works, tell us yet if you did ever hear of the like, or if any skill, policy, or industry of man might possibly reach unto the like. But if this so great and incredible power, did so far surmount all ability of man’s strength and capacity; hereof may you sufficiently gather, how you ought to judge of the inestimable power of his divine nature.

But, forasmuch as the excellency of heavenly things are of their own nature unsearchable, nor can be attained unto by man’s policy, or worldly wisdom, but must be discovered by the only operation of almighty God; I do most humbly pray and beseech the same God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for his dear Son’s sake, that, as he hath long since, according to his just judgment, executed his wrath against your unbelief, by cutting you off from your natural root, so it may please him, of his infinite mercy, whereby he is of power to plant you into your former dignity again, that your hearts being delivered from the thick clouds of obstinate infidelity, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, the only and undoubted Messias, may enlighten your souls, and gather you home again to your natural root. That is to say, that he will vouchsafe to lead you back again into his own family with his elect saints, and make you partakers of his gladsome gospel, and everlasting felicity; that as the root is holy, so the branches also, recovering the natural verdure of their honorable stock, may be engrafted again by faith, from whence they revolted through unbelief.

For performance whereof, to remove away all mistrust of well conceiving hope, as also to be of assured confidence that the time of your recovery is even at hand, St. Paul doth minister special matter of comfort, who in the selfsame sermon which he preached concerning the falling away of the Jews, not only sets down his own judgment thereof, but also very plainly discloses that high mystery, touching that blessed and joyful return of the Jews, revealed as it were unto him by the secret counsel and determination of almighty God.

Of the which I will speak more hereafter by the help of Christ, after that I have debated somewhat with the Gentiles, whom the Lord hath called, and have in few words exhorted my dearly beloved brethren in Christ to be mindful of those things, according to my simple understanding. And yet I see no cause why I should spend any long time herein; for I do firmly trust that all those sayings are already noted by you that hear me, yea, and deeply imprinted in your minds, which the apostle doth teach here, touching the due observation of our calling, so that mine exhortation shall not be much needful in this place. First, I suppose that you are not ignorant of the great rigor that God executed upon his people; wherewith if he would have punished you, what might have hindered him I pray you?

Yea, rather what was the cause, why he did not punish you? Do you think that any of you were endued with any such excellency, as you might thereby challenge any preeminence above the Jewish nation? Were not we sometimes even in the same plight that many Jews remain in at this day; namely, unfaithful unbelievers in the sight of God? Then, if God excluded the Jews for their unbelief, as he did, what argument might have induced him to have more compassion upon the Gentiles, who were sometimes as void of faith as they are now? Whereby you may perceive, my dear brethren, how the inestimable mercy of God doth miraculously work in man’s election, beyond all hope and capacity of man, who hath compassion on whom it pleaseth him, and hardeneth the hearts of whom he listeth. That it may rightly be said, That it consisteth neither in the power of the willing, nor of the running, to obtain mercy, but in the merciful God. If this be not yet apparent unto you, look upon those Israelites that are yet forsaken of God, who were sometimes in his favor, and you admitted in their stead!

What was the cause thereof, I pray you? Thou wilt say, That the natural branches were broken off, that I might be engrafted in. It is true indeed, they were broken off, as thou sayest. But, this was not done for thy sake, but for their own unbelief sake. And yet it followed hereupon, that we were planted in; neither is this false that thou speakest. But this is not the point I seek for. There is yet another thing; not whether the Jews were broken off; but I would fain know, what virtue was in thee, that might procure thee to be engrafted in their place? And wherefore should they, being natural branches, be hewn off? If you compare with them in antiquity of race, they did far excel you in antiquity of birth, and dignity of parentage. For they were your elders far, by which title they might lawfully challenge the pre-eminence of the birthright. If you stand with them upon descryings, how precisely did they pursue the prescript rule of righteousness, whereof thou didst take no regard at all, although in truth they were never able to attain the perfection they sought for. If thou contend with them in excellency of zeal, they wanted not very fervent and entire zeal, albeit their earnest bent affection wanted true understanding. If thou boast upon thy uprightness of life, surely we Gentiles were in no respect comparable unto them in conversation of life. If thou have regard to the painfulness of the toil, or estate of the calling, they did bear the brunt and heat of the sun, and were then first, when as thou camest into the vineyard scarcely amongst the last, even at the last east. All which, notwithstanding, thou dost plainly perceive, that they are, rent off from the natural stock, whereupon they grew, and thyself being otherwise a starveling bough of a wild olive tree, and of an unfruitful stock, art adopted into the inheritance of the sons of God.

What shall we say then? Is God to be accused of ingratitude because he departeth from his own? Or of inconstancy, for making innovation of his ancient covenant? God forbid. For he did never constrain the performance of his promise to any place or people. He made a promise to Abraham only, that out of his seed a sprout should issue, in whom all nations and kindreds of the earth should be blessed. For he doth not say, In thee all nations shall be blessed; but, In thy Seed: in whom all men truly should be rewarded with life everlasting, as many as would receive him; as on the other side, he that did refuse him should obtain no mercy nor favor at God’s hands. And it is not to be doubted that this Seed is the very Son of God, whom, if the Jews would once at the last lovingly embrace, they should no more be excluded from the benefit of the promise. But, forasmuch as they do vet not only refuse him, but continue also their cankered outrage against him, with execrable cursings, and cruel spoiling this Seed, in his members, so horribly; there is no cause why they should presume to challenge any prerogative of the promise, since the person could not prescribe upon the promise as made unto him, but in respect of the Seed. But why was not this benefit of faith and belief in Christ imparted to the Jews, as well as to the Gentiles, indifferently? Some question indeed might be moved herein, if the same had not already been dismissed by his prophets sufficiently; namely, that the Jews themselves should loath, reject, yea, and procure the death of their own Messias. And if yet any person will seem so captious, to be further inquisitive to learn, why the Jews are not able to comprehend that which is laid open to the Gentiles, the same may be satisfied with this fit and reasonable answer; whereas the Jews were thoroughly persuaded in mind, and confirmed in conscience, by custom of long continuance, that no righteousness was acceptable in the sight of God, but that which consisted in performing the works of the law, and celebrating the sacrifices and ceremonies of the same, and that this false conceived opinion, so deeply rooted in the hearts of men, could by no means else be extirpated and plucked out, but by the undermining and utter overthrow of the name of that nation, the whole commonwealth thereof, together with all the sacrifices and ceremonies pertaining thereunto. Hereof sprang all that blindness and subversion of the Jews, albeit the same blindness infected not all in general, nor was the same destruction allotted unto them to endure for ever.

But by this example it may haply be thought that God did execute too much cruelty and rigor against those poor wretches, the Jews. If this could be admitted, as indeed it cannot, it was therefore a good lesson to forewarn us, according to St. Paul’s advertisement, that we should duly, and with careful consideration, exactly examine the severity of God; and not his severity only, but his bountiful goodness withal; that so, through the often remembrance of the one, we might be restrained in a right fear; and through the daily recording of the other we might be raised to thankfulness and dutiful love towards God. A very lively example truly of God’s severity is here expressed in the Jews; who, being fallen from their ancient dignity, were overwhelmed with such blindness, that notwithstanding Christ, whose coming they looked for many hundred years, was come already, and conversant amongst them, they should yet pursue him with contumelious reproaches, rail upon him, and persecute him. The like precedent of God’s lenity and gentleness appeared in us that are Gentiles, manifestly; whom, of his free mercy, he freely vouchsafed to associate into the fellowship of such inestimable blessedness, which was neither due to our parentage, nor could be purchased by any of our deservings.

Since this is most true, what remaineth, ye men and brethren, beloved in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but that according to the counsel of the apostle, premeditating and continually recording the example of the Jews, we become more circumspect, and learn, by their ruin, what we ought to fear, and what we ought to eschew? First, that being taught by the Jews’ unbelief, we endeavor by all means possible, with earnest and hearty supplications and prayers, to escape that dangerous gulf of incredulous unbelief. But you will demand, what kind of unbelief that was, wherewith they were blinded. Do they not believe in one God, Maker of heaven and earth? Do they not confess, as well as we, that the same God is most mighty, most merciful, yea, a most righteous Judge, and rewarder of deeds? The answer is ready. If we were angels, or such kind of men as could not possibly decline out of the way, or had never fallen into error, then would this faith have been a sufficient cover to shroud us, in that we might need no further mediator. But now, being altogether sinful, born of sinful parents, environed with the whole body of sin, what do we else, when we call upon God, without regard of the Mediator, than raise his wrath, sharpen his vengeance, and provoke him to aggravate the judgment of our damnation, and, to speak the words of Isaiah, procure our dwelling with devouring fire, and make our dwelling with everlasting flames? For what can be more dreadful for man’s weak nature, than to debate with God without Christ? From the which I beseech our Savior Christ to preserve us all.

The other is, lest we should foolishly flatter ourselves at other men’s harms. Faith is the gift of God, and consisteth not in any demonstration of man’s imagination; whereunto, if it were possible to attain by force of nature, by works, by due descryings of the law, by ceremonies, by parentage, or nobility of race, surely the Jews, as they were our ancients in years, so approached nearer the election than we. But, considering this faith dependeth upon the free mercy of God only, and the free distribution of his especial election, and thou, through the only kindness of the Lord, art endued with that blessing which is denied to others, thou mayest worthily rejoice in this thy felicity. But beware that this singular felicity suggest not matter of pride, as may make thee tread down and scorn the calamities of the afflicted; but learn rather by their example what thou mayest fear thyself. Wherein no man can instruct thee more pithily than St.

Paul. Be not proud in mind, saith he, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. For thou, whosoever thou art that standest in faith, dost not stand so assured that thou mayest not fall; neither is their unbelief such as is spread over them all, or such as shall endure for ever, and is unrecoverable. For as there are very many Jews, as I said before, which do confess and profess Christ, (as is this one Jew whom we see here present at this time,) so is the Lord mighty and of power to have compassion upon the remnant, and to raise them up which are yet forsaken, and trodden underfoot.

And that ye may the better understand that God is of power able to do the same, as also his determined purpose herein, and what he willeth us to conceive thereof, I will declare unto you the judgment and hope of St. Paul touching the same, whereof he doth also, under a certain secret mystery, make us partakers. And to this purpose it seemed good to St. Paul to advertise us that are Gentiles, that we should be well advised, lest being puffed up with pride, and swelling with a vain arrogant persuasion of our own strength, we conceive better of ourselves than is requisite, because we seem to stand in better estimation than the Jews; therefore he would not have us ignorant of this great blindness of the Jews, as that which neither happened to all the nation in general, but in part upon Israel, nor that the same was past recovery, but should endure only so long, until the full number of the Gentiles were accomplished. And then, saith he, it shall come to pass, that all the people of Israel shall be saved. Which testimony of the apostle is a sufficient argument to declare that the Jews shall be restored again, if I am not deceived. But when that return of the Jews shall be, the divines are not fully agreed upon. When the fullness of the Gentiles shall come, saith St. Paul. But when that fullness shall come, is known only to Him whose words in the gospel are these; It is not for you to know the signs and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power, Acts 1.

Unless, peradventure, we will interpret this fullness in this wise; that the Jews shall continue so long in blindness, as the Gentiles did in unbelief, while the Jews remained in belief; and that the fullness of the Gentiles shall seem to be accomplished, when the Gentiles may prescribe as long continuance in the possession of God’s church without the Jews, as the Jews did first enjoy their synagogue without the Gentiles. The number of which years will not vary much, if the computation be proportionably made. For if according to this rule ye derive your number from the first institution of the Jew’s commonwealth, unto the utter subversion of the same, ye shall find 1564; the course of which years, if ye compare with the calling of the Gentiles, that is to say, from the time that the Holy Ghost was sent, until this present time, the number of years will not be far unequal. And yet in my judgment it shall not be amiss, if a man make his calculation, having relation to those times whereof the Lord himself made mention in the evangelist Luke. And Jerusalem, saith he, shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

But the knowledge of the certain moments and appointed minutes of that time we commit unto the Lord. This only we learn most assuredly out of St. Paul, that God hath decreed upon an infallible certainty of time, wherein the Gentiles shall mount to their fullness; and the Jews also after that fullness of time shall return unto the faith. For speedy and good success whereof, that one thing doth minister plentiful matter of good hope, that our Lord Jesus Christ hath vouchsafed to cleanse his church every where so happily in these our days, and hath purged them from all offenses and stumbling blocks, which occasioned the Jews to withdraw themselves so long from the participation of our faith.

And here I might use offered opportunity to exclaim against the presumptuous boldness of those persons, whatsoever they were, which presume to thrust into temples and churches of christians, images, and counterfeits of he saints and she saints at the first; and to convey the pure worshipping of the invisible God, to the representations of visible things, contrary to the prescript ordinance of the law of God, contrary to reason and nature, contrary to the approved custom of the elders, and contrary to all example of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. Out of which puddle has issued wonderful stench; so amongst all other, nothing more noisome than those pestilent botches of image worship, bread worship, wine worship, cross worship, signs and portraits of visible creatures; the view whereof caused the true and sincere profession of the christians to be loathsome to the Jews, to their great hindrance and prejudice. For what marvel was it if the Jews, that were taught by the prescript rule of God’s law to abhor worshipping of images, entering into the churches of christians and beholding the walls, pillars, and all the corners thereof bedaubed with painted and carved idols, besides innumerable other baubles of imagery; perceiving also open market to be made, not only of the picture of the cross, but of the sacrament of bread and wine also, displayed and blazed abroad, not after the manner of communicating, but gloriously vaunted with singular magnificence, to be honored and kneeled unto: what marvel was it, I say, if they, being offended with this open idolatry, did so long refrain from us and from the discipline of our faith?

But it is well now, thanked be Christ, that these offensive baggage and image worshippings are for the more part defaced and scraped out of christian churches, and the ancient purity of christian profession is begun to take so good footing, and now amongst us remain no dregs in our temples, in our religion, nor in our doctrine, that may minister just occasion of offense to the Jews, or any other enemies, though they inveigh against our religion ever so much. And I would to God, all other that profess the name of christians would yield their like endeavor to the abolishment of all corruptions of religion, and incivility of living, out of their congregations, which may breed any further loathsomeness to the Jews. Truly this is much to be lamented, that our adversaries can find no blemish of just quarrel in the person of Christ Jesus, whose name we would seem to profess; and on the other side know in us nothing consonant and agreeable to the true touchstone of God’s holy word and Christ’s religion, whereof we bear the name, but all things repugnant and unlike the pure and first pattern thereof.

But I will not adventure further upon this quagmire; the sink is deeper than can be in this place or at this time scoured or drained. But since our present purpose is now to treat only of the conversion of the Jews; of the good success whereof, as there is no hope at all else than by purging and cleansing the filthy puddles of our superstitions, the unsavory stench whereof the Jews can by no means digest; what remaineth for us to do, my dear brethren and honorable fathers in the Lord, but that every of us in our vocation, employ all our endeavor, faculty and power, that nothing may be committed amongst us, in our default from henceforth, whereby the true religion of Christ, which he gave most pure without spot or blemish, may be defiled and brought into hatred and obloquy, and blasphemed amongst the Jews, Turks, Pagans, and unbelieving infidels. My meaning here tendeth not to the determining of controversies in sects, nor of doubtful controversies debated in schools; the censure whereof I commit to the great masters and doctors in divinity.

Only my request at this time is, that those gross monuments of manifest idolatry, those fantastical devices and frivolous forgeries of signs and images, and those stage-like gestures and pelting trumperies, frequented in churches; as are the praying for the dead, worshipping of creatures and signs, forbidding priests’ marriages, and such like peevish absurdities, (wherewith the Jews were never acquainted,) which are manifestly repugnant to the express word of God, yea, and contrary to common reason almost, may be rooted out and banished from christian churches and congregations; that so we may open an entry to the Jews and Turks to conceive an inward desire to be joined to the Son of God; or, if we will not do this for the Jews’ sake, let us yet, at the least, have due regard to our own estate. We have been plagued sufficiently enough by the Turks and Saracens for our idolatry, if we respect the sundry overthrows, famines, slaughters, and alterations of kingdoms, wherewith the christians have been miserably tormented many hundred years; to the great delight of the Jews; neither is any hope scarcely of redress from great calamities like to ensue, unless we cast away this worshipping of idols out of christian congregations and temples, as I said before, and thus enter upon a new course of better conversation and purer worshipping of God.