Richard Allestree · 6 of 14

Section III. The Subject Matter Treated of in the Holy Scripture, Is Excellent, as Is Also Its End and Design. · Part 1

SECT. III.

Subject matter treated of in the Holy Scripture, is excellent, as is also its end and deign.

WE have hitherto consider’d the holy Scripture only under one notion, as it is the Word of God; we come now to view it in the subject matter of it, the several parts whereof it consists; which are so various and comprehensive, that they shew the whole is deriv’d from him who is all in all. 1 Cor. 15. 28. But that we may not speak only loosely, and at rovers we will take this excellent frame in pieces, and consider its most eminent parts distinctly. Now the parts of Holy Writ seem to branch themselves into these severals: First, the Historical; secondly, the Prophetick; thirdly, the Doctrinal; fourthly, the Preceptive; fifthly, the Minatory; sixthly, the Promissory. These are the several veins in this rich Mine, in which he who industriously labours, will find the Psalmist was not out in his estimate, when he pronounces them more to be desir’d than gold, yea, than much fine gold, Psal. 19. 10.

2. To speak first of the Historical part; the things which chiefly recommend a History, are the dignity of the subject, the truth of the relation, and those pleasant or profitable observations which are interwoven with it. And first, for the dignity of the subject, the History of the Bible must be acknowledged to excell all others: those shew the rise and progress of some one people or Empire; this shews us the original of the whole Universe; and particularly of man, for whose use and benefit the whole Creation was design’d. By this mankind is brought into acquaintance with it self; made to know the elements of its constitution, and taught to put a differing value upon that Spirit which was breath’d into it by God, Gen. 2. 7. and the flesh whose foundation is in the dust, Job 4. 19. And when this Historical part of Scripture contracts and draws into a narrow channel, when it records the concerns but of one Nation, yet it was that which God had dignified above all the rest of the world, mark’d out for his own peculiar; made it the repository of his truth, and the visible stock from whence the Messias should come, in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed, Gen. 18. 18. so that in this one people of the Jews, was virtually infolded the highest and most important interests of the whole world; and it must be acknowledg’d, no Story could have a nobler subject to treat of.

3. SECONDLY, as to the truth of the relation, tho’ to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof; yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it. The most undoubted symptom of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality. Now this is very eminent in Scripture writers: they do not record others faults, and baulk their own; but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others. Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message, Ex. 4. 14. his provocation of God at the waters of Meribah, Numb. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behaviour towards God, with as great aggravations as any of his enemies could have done. Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel, neither omits nor extenuates his sin; all he seems to speak short in, is his repentance, Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners.

4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults, so neither did any nearness of relation, any respect of quality bribe them to a concealment: Moses relates the offence of his Sister Miriam in mutining. Numb. 12. 1. of his Brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf, Exod. 32. 4, with as little disguise as that of Korah and his Company. David, tho’ a King, hath his adultery and murder display’d in the blackest Characters: and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his treasures do’s not escape a remark. Nay, even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the Sacred Writers; but they freely tax their crimes: the Israelites murmurings in the wilderness, their Idolatries in Canaan, are set down without any palliation or excuse. And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude, as the Canaanites are for their abominations. So that certainly no History in the world do’s better attest it’s truth by this evidence of impartiality.

5. IN the last place it commends it self both by the pleasure and profit it yields. The rarity of those events it records, surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration; and that mixture of sage Discourses, and well-couch’d Parables wherewith it abounds, do’s at once please and instruct. How ingeniously apt was Nathans Apologue to David, whereby with Holy artifice he ensnar’d him into repentance? And it remains still matter of instruction to us, to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves. So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin, is set out with such particularity, that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst. His own lust with Bathsheba was answer’d with Amnons towards Thamar; his murder of Uriah with that of Amnon; his treacherous contrivance of that murder, with Absoloms traitorous conspiracy against him. So that every circumstance of his punishment was the very Echo and reverberation of his guilt. A multitude of the like instances might be produc’d out of Holy Writ; all concurring to admonish us, that God exactly marks, and will repay our crimes; and that commonly with such propriety, that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings, than the very sufferings themselves. Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the Historical part of Scripture, that flow so easily and unconstrain’d, that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them: therefore ’twould be impertinent here multiply instances.

6. LET us next consider the Prophetick part of Scripture, and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind. The Prophetick Books are for the most part made up (as the Prophetick Office was) of two parts: prediction and instruction. When God rais’d up Prophets, ’twas not only to acquaint men with future events, but to reform their present manners: and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect, so they are Watch-men and Sheepherds in another. Nay, indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end; their gift of fore-telling was to gain them authority, to be as it were the seal of their commission, to convince men that they were sent from God: and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions. And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end: the denouncing of judgements being the most frequent Theme, and that design’d to bring men to repentance; as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh. And in this latter part of their office, the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence.

7. WITH what liberty and zeal do’s Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboth’s murder, and foretell the fatal event of it, without any fear of his power, or reverence of his greatness? And Samuel, when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection, do’s passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin, 1 Sam. 15. 17. Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the prophetick Writings, the same truth of prediction, and the same zeal against vice.

8. FIRST for the predictions, what signal completions do we find? How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfill’d, where repentance has not interven’d? He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities, both under the Assyrians and Babylonians, and especially under the Romans, would think their oppressors had consulted it, and transcrib’d their severities thence. And even these Nations, who were the instruments of accomplishing those dismal presages, had their own ruins foretold, and as punctually executed. And as in Kingdoms and Nations, so to private persons none of the prophetick threatnings ever return’d empty. The sentence pronounc’d against Ahab, Jezebel, and their posterity, was fulfill’d even to the most minute circumstances of place and manner; as is evident by comparing the denunciation of Elijah, 1 Kings 21. 19. 23. with their tragical ends recorded in the following chapters. And as for Jehu, whose service God was pleased to use in that execution, tho’ he rewarded it with entailing the Crown of Israel on him for four descents, yet he fore-told those should be the limits: and accordingly we find Zachariah, the fourth descendent of his line, was the last of it that fate on that throne, 2 Kings 15. 10. So also the destruction of Achitophel and Judas, the one immediate, the other many hundred years remote, are foretold by David, Psal. 109. and we find exactly answer’d in the event.

9. NOR was this exactness confin’d only to the severe predictions, but as eminent in the more gracious. All the blessings which God by himself, or the Ministry of his Prophets promis’d, were still infallibly made good. At the time of life God return’d and visited Sarah with conception, notwithstanding those natural improbabilities which made her not only distrust, but even deride and laugh at the promise, Gen. 18. The posterity of that Son of Promise, the whole race of Abraham was deliver’d from the Egyptian bondage, and possess’d of Canaan, at the precise time which God had long before signified to Abrabam, Gen. 15. So likewise the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity was fore-told many years before their deportation, and Cyrus named for their restorer, before he had either name or being save only in Gods prescience, Is. 44. 28. But I need not multiply instances of national or personal promises. The earliest and most comprehensive promise of all was that of the Messiah, in whom all persons and Nations of the world were to be blest, Gen. 22. 11. that seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head, Gen. 3. 15. To him give all the Prophets witness, as Saint Peter observes, Acts 10. And he who was the subject, made himself also the expounder of those prophecies in his walk to Emmaus with the two Disciples, Luk. 24. 13. beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself.

10. THIS as it was infinitely the greatest blessing afforded mankind, so was it the most frequently and eminently predicted; and that with the most exact particularity as to all the circumstances. His immaculate conception, the union of his two natures implied in his name Immanuel; Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel; is most plainly fore-told by Isaiah chap. 7. 14. Nay, the very place of his birth so punctually fore-told, that the Priests and Scribes could readily resolve Herods Question upon the strength of the Prophecy, and assure him Christ must be born in Bethlehem, Mat. 2. 5. As for the whole business and design of his life, we find it so describ’d by Isaiah, chap. 61. as Christ himself owns it, Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

11. IF we look farther to his death, the greatest part of the Old Testament has a direct aspect on it. All the Levitical œconomy of Sacrifices and Ablutions were but prophetick Rites, and ocular Predictions of that one expiatory Oblation. Nay most of Gods providential dispensations to the Jews, carried in them types and prefigurations of this. Their rescue from Egypt, the sprinkling of blood to secure them from the destroying Angel; the Manna with which they were fed, the Rock which supplied them water: these and many more referr’d to Christ, as their final and highest signification.

12. BUT besides these darker adumbrations, we have (as the Apostle speaks) a more sure word of prophecy. Saint Peter in his calculation begins with Moses, takes in Samuel, and the whole succession of Prophets after him, as bearing witness to this great event of Christs passion, Acts 4. 22. 24. And indeed he that reads the Prophets consideringly, shall find it so punctually describ’d, that the Evangelists do not much more fully instruct him in the circumstances of it. Daniel tells us his death, as to the kind of it, was to be violent: The Messiah shall be cut off; and as to the design of it ’twas not for himself; Dan. 9. 26. But the Prophet Isaiah gives us more than a bare negative account of it; and expressly saies, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on him, and by his stripes we were healed, chap. 53. 5. And again, ver. 10. Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin; and ver. 11. my righteous Servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Nor is Job, an Idumean, much short of even this Evangelical Prophet; in that short Creed of his, wherein he owns him as his Redeemer, I know that my Redeemer liveth, &c. Job. 19. 25.

13. AND as the end, so the circumstances of his sufferings are most of them under prediction: His extention upon the Cross is mention’d by the Psalmist: They pierced my hands, and my feet; I may tell all my bones, Psal. 22. 16, 17. As for his inward dolours, they are in that Psalm so pathetically describ’d that Christ chose that very form to breath them out in: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ver. 1. So his revilers did also transcribe part of their reproaches from ver. 8. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him, Matt. 27. 43. That Vinegar which was offered him on the Cross, was a completion of a Prophecy; In my thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink, Psal. 69. 21. the piercing of his side was expressly fore-told by Zachary: they shall look on him whom they have pierced, Zach. 10. 12. The company in which he suffer’d, and the interment be had, are also intimated by lsaiah, He made his Grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, Isai. 53. 9. Nay even the disposal of his Garments was not without a Prophecy: they parted my Garments among them, and upon my Vesture did they cast Lots Psalm 22. 18. Here are a cloud of witsnesses which as they serve eminently to attest the truth of the Christian Religion; so do they to evince the excellency of the Sacred Scripture, as to the verity of the Prophetick part.

14. AS to the admonitory part of the Prophetick Writings, they are in their kind no way inferiour to the other. The reproofs are authoritative and convincing. What piercing exprobations do we find of Israels ingratitude? How often are they upbraided with the better examples of the brute Creatures? with the Ox and the Ass by Isaiah Chap. 1. 3. with the Stork, and the Crane and the Swallow, by Jeremiah, Chap. 8. 7. Nay the constancy of the Heathen to their false Gods is instanc’d to reproach their revolt from the true. Hath a Nation chang’d their Gods which yet are no Gods? but my People have chang’d their Glory for that which doth not profit, Jer. 2. 11. What awful, what Majestick representations do we find of Gods power, to awake their dread! Fear ye not me saith the Lord? will ye not tremble at my presence who have plac’d the Sands for the bounds of the Sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass over? and tho’ the Waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; tho’ they roar, yet can they not pass over it, Jer. 22. And again; Thus saith the High and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the High and Holy Place, Is. 57. 15. So we find him describ’d as a God Glorious in Holiness, fearful in Praises, doing Wonders, Exod. 15. 11. These and many other the like heights of Divine eloquence we meet with in the Prophetick Writings: which cannot but strike us with an awful reverence of the Divine Power.

15. NOR are they less Pathetick in the gentler strains. What instance is there of the greatest tenderness and love, which God has not adopted to express his by? He personates all the nearest and most endearing relations: that of a Husband; I will Marry thee to my self, Hos. 2. 19. of a Father; I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first Born: nay, he vies Bowels with the tender Sex, and makes it more possible for a Mother to renounce her compassions towards the Son of her Womb, than for him to with-draw his, Isa. 49. 15. By all these endearments, these cords of a man, these bands of love, as himself stiles them, Hos. 11. 4. endeavouring to draw his people to their duty, and their happiness. And when their perversness frustrates all this his Holy Artifice; how passionately do’s he expostulate with them? how solemnly protest his aversness to their ruin? Why will ye die O House of Israel? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, Ezek. 18. 31, 32. with what regrets and relenting do’s he think of abandoning them? How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? my Heart is turn’d within me, my repentings are kindled together; Hos. 11. 8. In short, ’twere endless to cite the places in these Prophetick Books, wherein God do’s thus condescend to solicit even the sensitive part of man; and that with such moving Rhetorick, that I cannot but wonder at the exception some of our late Criticks make against the Bible, for its defect in that particular; for Oratory is nothing but a dextrous application to the affections and passions of men. And certainty we find not that done with greater advantage any where than in Sacred Writ.

16. YET it was not the design of the Prophets (no more than of the Apostle) to take men with guile; 2 Cor. 12. 16. to inveigle their affections unawares to their understandings; but they address as well to their reasons, make solemn appeals to their judicative faculties. And now judge I pray between me and my Vineyard, says Isa. 5. 3. Nay, God by the Prophet Ezekiel solemnly pleads his own cause before them, vindicates the equity of his proceedings from the aspersions they had cast on them; and by most irrefragable Arguments refutes that injurious Proverb which went current among them; and in the close appeals to themselves, O House of Israel are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Ezek. 18. the evidences were so clear that he remits the matter to their own determination. And generally we shall find that among all the Topicks of disswasion from sin, there is none more closely prest, than that of the folly of it. Idolatry was a sin to which Israel had a great propension, and against which most of the Prophets admonitions were directed. And certainly it can never be more expos’d, and the sottish unreasonableness of it better display’d, than we find it in the 44. Chap. of Isaiah. In like manner we may read the Prophet Jeremy disswading from the same sin by Arguments of the most irrefragable conviction, Jer. 10.

17. AND as the Prophets omitted nothing as to the manner of their address, to render their exhortations effectual, the matter of them was likewise so considerable as to command attention. It was commonly either the recalling them from their revolts and Apostacies from God by Idolatry, or else to convince them of the insignificancy of all those legal Ceremonial performances they so much confided in, when taken up as a supersedens to moral duties. Upon this account it is, that they often depreciate, and in a manner prohibit the solemnest of their Worships. To what purpose are the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me? bring no more vain Oblations: incense is an abomination to me; the new Moons and sabbaths, the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with: if Iniquity even your solemn meetings, &c. Is. 1. 11. 13. Not that these things were in themselves reprovable; for they were all commanded by God; but because the Jews depended so much on these external observances that they thought by them to commute for the weightier matters of the Law (as our Saviour after stiles them) Judgement, Mercy and Faith, Mat. 23. 23. look’d on these rites which discriminated them from other Nations, as dispensations from the universal obligations of nature and common justice.

18. THIS deceit of theirs is sharply upbraided to them by the Prophet Jeremy; where he calls their boasts of the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, lying words; and on the contrary, lays the whole stress of their obedience, and expectation of their happiness on the justice and innocence of their conversation, Ch. 7. 4. And after do’s smartly reproach their insolence in boldly resorting to that house, which by bringing their sins along with them, they made but an Asylum, and Sanctuary for those crimes. Will ye steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other Gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house? Is this house which is called by my name become a Den of robbers in your eyes? Chap. 7. 9, 10, 11. Indeed all the Prophets seem to conspire in this one design, of making them look thro’ shadows and ceremonies, to that inward purity, Justice and Honesty, which they were design’d to inculcate, not to supplant. And this design as it is in it self most excellent, most worthy the command of God, and the nature of man; so we have seen that it has been pursued by all the most apt, and most powerful mediums, that the thing or persons addrest to were capable of; and so that the Prophets are no less eminent for the discharge of this exhortatory part of their office, than they were in the former, of the predicting.

19. THE next part of Scripture we are to consider, is the Doctrinal; by which I shall not in this place understand the whole complex of Faith and Manners together; but restrain it only to those Revelations which are the object of our Belief; and these are so sublime, as shews flesh and blood never reveal’d them. Those great mysteries of our Faith, The Trinity, the Incarnation, the Hypostatical union, the Redemption of the world by making the offended party the Sacrifice for the offence, are things of so high and abstruse speculation, as no finite understanding can fully fathom. I know their being so is by some made an Argument for disbelief; but doubtless very injustly for (not to insist upon the different natures of Faith and Science, by which that becomes a proper object of the one which is not of the other) our noncomprehension is rather an indication that they have a higher rise, and renders it infinitely improbable that they could spring from mans invention. For ’twere to suppose too great a disproportion between human faculties to think men could invent what themselves could not understand. Indeed these things lye so much out of the road of human imagination, that I dare appeal to the breasts of the most perverse gain-sayers, whether ever they could have fallen into their thoughts without suggestion from without. And therefore ’tis a malicious contradiction to reject these truths because of their dissonancy from human reason, and yet at the same time to ascribe their original to man. But certainly there can be nothing more inconsistent with mere natural reason, than to think God can be, or do no more than man can comprehend. Never any Nation or person that own’d a Deity, did ever attempt so to circumscribe him: and it is proportionable only to the licentious profaneness of these latter days, thus to measure immensity and omnipotence by our narrow scantling.

20. THE more genuine and proper effect of these supernatural truths is, to raise our admiration of that Divine Wisdom, whose ways are so past finding out; and to give us a just sense of that infinite distance which is between it, and the highest of that reason wherein we so pride our selves. And the great propriety these Doctrines have to that end may well be reckon’d as one part of their excellency.

21. INDEED there is no part of our holy Faith, but is naturally productive of some peculiar virtue; as the whole Scheme together engages us to be universally Holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Pet. 1. 15. And it is the supereminent advantage true Religion hath over all false ones, that it tends to so laudable an end.

22. THE Theology of the Heathens was in many instances an extract and quintessence of vice. Their most solemn Rites, and Sacred’st Mysteries were of such a nature, that instead of refining and elevating, they corrupted and debased their Votaries; immers’d them in all those abominable pollutions which sober nature abhorr’d. Whereas the principles of our Faith serve to spiritualize and rectifie us, to raise us as much above mere manhood as theirs cast them below it.

23. AND as they are of this vast advantage to us, so also are they just to God, in giving us right notions of him. What vile unworthy apprehensions had the Heathen of their Deities, intitling them not only to the passions but even to the crimes of men, making Jupiter an adulterer, Mercury a thief, Bacchus a drunkard, &c, proportionably of the rest? Whereas our God is represented to us as an essence, so spiritual, and incorporeal, that we must be unbodied our selves before we can perfectly conceive what he is: so far from the impotent affections and inclinations of men, that he has neither parts, nor passions; and is fain to veil himself under that disguise, to speak sometimes as if he had, merely in condescention to our grosser faculties. And again, so far from being an example, a patron of vice, that his eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, Hab. 1. 13. Holiness is an essential part of his nature, and he must deny himself to put it off.

24. THE greatest descent that ever he made to humanity was in the incarnation of the second person: yet even in that, tho’ he was linked with a sinful nature, yet he preserv’d the person immaculate; and while he had all the sins of the world upon him by imputation, suffer’d not any one to be inherent in him.

To conclude, the Scripture describes our God to us by all those glorious Attributes of infinity, Power and Justice, which may render him the proper object of our Adorations and Reverence and it describes him also in those gentler Attributes of Goodness, Mercy and Truth, which may excite our love of, and dependence on him. These are representations something worthy of God, and such as impress upon our mind great thoughts of him.

26. BUT never did the Divine Attributes so concur to exert themselves, as in the mystery of our Redemption: where his Justice was satisfied without diminution to his Mercy; and his Mercy without entrenching on his Justice: his Holiness most eminent in his indignation against sin, and yet his Love no less so in sparing sinners: these contradictions being reconcil’d, this discord compos’d into harmony by his infinite Wisdom. This is that stupendous Mystery into which the Angels desir’d to look, 1 Pet. 1. 12. And this is it which by the Gospel is preach’d unto us; as it follows, vers. 25.

27. AND as the Scripture gives us this knowledge of God, so it do’s also of our selves; in which two, all profitable knowledge is comprised. It teaches us how vile we were in our original dust; and how much viler yet in our fall, which would have sunk us below our first principles, sent us not only to earth, but hell. It shews the impotence of our lapsed estate; that we are not able of our selves so much as to think a good thought: and it shews us also the dignity of our renovated estate, that we are heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, Rom. 8. 17. yet lest this might puff us up with mistaken hopes, it plainly acquaints us with the condition on which this depends; that it must be our obedience both alive and passive, which is to intitle us to it: that we must be faithful to death, if we mean to inherit a crown of Life, Rev. 2. 10. and that we must suffer with Christ, if we will be glorified with him, Rom. 8. 17. And upon supposition that we perform our parts of the condition, it gives us the most certain assurance, engages Gods veracity that he will not fail on his. By this it gives us support against all the adversities of life assuring us the sufferings of it are not worthy to be compared with the glory we expect, Rom. 8. 18. yea, and against the terrors of death too; by assuring us that what we look on as a dissolution, is but a temporary parting and we only put off our bodies, that they may put off corruption, and be cloathed with immortality.