VI. working miracles. Thus it was in that remarkable pro- CHAP. phecy concerning Josias by the man of God at Bethel, 260 years before his birth; which though it were to come, Kings to pass so long after, God confirmed it by a sign, which xiii. 3. was the renting of the altar, and the pouring out of the ashes upon it, and the withering of Jeroboam's hand. We cannot therefore in reason think that God would set so clear a seal to any deed which he did intend himself to cancel afterwards. 2. Predictions express God's inward purpose, when the things foretold do exceed all probabilities of second causes; in which case, though those words of Tertullian seem very harsh, credo quia impossibile, yet, taking that impossibility as relating to second causes, and the ground of faith to be some Divine prediction, we see what reason there may be for them; for the more unlikely the thing is to be effected by second causes, the greater evidence is it that the prophets in foretelling it did not respect the mere order of things in the world, but the unalterable counsels of the will of God; which therefore would certainly have their timely accomplishments. When therefore any prophets did foretel things above the reach of natural causes, and those things did not come to pass, it was a certain evidence of a false prophet, as the contrary was of a true one; for none could know so long beforehand such things as were above all human power, but such to whom God himself, who alone was able to effect them, did reveal and communicate the knowledge of them. And hence we see in Scripture those predictions, which have seemed to carry the greatest improbabilities with them, have had the most punctual accomplishments; as the Israelites returning out of Egypt at the end of 430 years their deliverance by Cyrus after the captivity in Gal. iii. 17. Babylon, which seemed so improbable a thing, that when Isa. xliv. God speaks of it, he ushers it in with this preface, That 25, 26, 28. he frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh the diviners mad; but confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers, that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited, &c. The more unlikely then the thing was to come to pass, the greater evidence there was in so clear a prophecy of it so long before, (above 100 years,) and so exact a fulfilling of it afterwards precisely at the expiring of the seventy years from the first Captivity. 3. Predictions concerning future events, which are confirmed by an oath from God himself, do express the immut VI. BOOK able determinations of God's will. For which we have II. the greatest assurance we can desire from that remarkable expression of the Apostle to the Hebrews, Heb. vi. 17, 18. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, &c. Wherein the Apostle obviates and removes all doubts and misprisions, lest God after the declaring of his will should alter the event foretold in it; and that he doth, both by shewing that God had made an absolute promise, and withal, to prevent all doubts, lest some tacit condition might hinder performance, he tells us that God had annexed his oath to it; which two things were the most undoubted evidences of the immutability of God's counsel. The word yeúderda ψεύδεσθαι here used, doth in Scripture often note the frustrating of men's hopes and expectations; so it is used Hab. iii. 17. ψεύσεται ἔργον ἐλαίας, we render it the labour of the olive shall fail. So Hos. ix. 2. xal ó olvos éveúcato autous, and the new wine shall fail in her. Thus the meaning here is, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible God should frustrate the expectations of men, or alter the events of things after he had declared them. For God's oath is an evident demonstration of the immutability of his will in all predictions to which this is annexed, and doth fully exclude that which the Scripture calls repenting in God, that is, doing otherwise than the words did seem to express, because of some tacit conditions understood in them. So we find Psal. lxxxix. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail; my covenant will I not break; nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Wherein we see what way God takes to assure us of the immutability of his covenant with his people, by the oath which he adjoins to his promises; whereby God doth most fully express the unalterable determinations of his own will, in that he swears by his own holiness, that he would not lie unto David, i. e. that he would faithfully perform what he had promised to him. And therefore Tertullian well saith, Beati sumus quorum causa Deus me. C. 2. jurat, sed miseri et detestabiles si ne juranti quidem credi- CHAP. mus. It is happy for us unbelieving creatures, that God VI. stoops so low as to confirm his covenant with an oath; but it will be sad and miserable for such as dare not venture their faith upon it, when God hath annexed his oath unto it. It is thought by Expositors, that there is a peculiar emphasis in those words, 'nyawa nnx Once have I sworn, thereby noting the irrevocable nature of God's oath, that there is no need of repetition of it, as among men; because when once God swears by himself, it is the highest demonstration that no conditions whatever shall alter his declared purpose. And therefore the Concil. ToCouncil of Toledo well explains the different nature of let. viii. God's oath, and his repentance in Scriptures; Jurare namque Dei est à se ordinata nullatenus convellere; pœnitere vero eadem ordinata cum voluerit immutare; God is said to swear when he binds himself absolutely to performance; and to repent, when things fall out contrary to the declaration of God's will concerning them; for so it must be understood to be only mutatio sententiæ, and not consilii, that the alteration may be only in the things, and not in the eternal purpose of God. But since it is evident in Scripture that many predictions do imply some tacit conditions, and many declarations of God's will do not express his internal purposes, it seemed necessary in those things which God did declare to be the irrevocable purposes of his will, there should be some peculiar mark and character set upon them for the confirmation of his people's faith; and this we find to be the annexing an oath to his promises. Thus it is in that grand instrument of peace between God and his people, the covenant of grace, wherein God was pleased so far to strengthen the faith of his people in it, that he ratifies the articles of peace therein contained, but especially the act of grace, on his own part with an oath, thereby to assure them it was never his purpose to repeal it, nor to fail of performance in it. For we are not to think that an oath lays any greater obligation upon God for performance, than the mere declaration of his will; it being a part of immutable justice, and consequently necessarily implied in the Divine nature, to perform promises when once made: but God's oath respects us, and not himself, viz. that it might be a testimony unto us that God's will thereby declared is his eternal and unchangeable will, and so the mercies thereby promised are sure mercies; such as are åμstaμéλnta, without any repentance on God's part. Isa. lv. 3. II. VII. BOOK 4. Predictions made by the prophets concerning blessings merely spiritual, do express God's internal purpose, and therefore must have their certain accomplishment in the time prefixed by the prophets. The grand reason of this proposition is, that the bestowing of blessings merely spiritual doth immediately flow from the grace and favour of God, and depend not upon conditions on our part as procuring causes of them; and therefore there can be no account given why God should suspend the performance of such promises, which would not more strongly have held why he should not have made any such promises at all. And therefore when we see that, notwithstanding the highest demerits, God made such free promises, we can have no reason to think that any other demerits interposing between the promises and performance, should hinder the accomplishment of them; unless it be inserted in the promises themselves, which is contrary to the nature of free promises. Upon this ground all the promises relating to the Gospel state, and to the covenant of grace therein contained, must have their due accomplishment in the time and manner prefixed by the prophets: and therefore the Jews are miserably blind, when they suppose the reason why the promise of the Messias is yet deferred after so long expectation of him, is the sins of their people; for this seems to suppose that God's promise of the Messias did depend upon their own righteousness and worthiness above all other people, which if it doth, they are like to be the most miserable and desperate people the world hath and besides, if God's intuition of sin makes him defer the coming of the Messias, his foresight of sin would have hindered him from ever promising a Messias to come; but this was so far from being a hindrance of God's promise, that the main end of the coming of the Dan. ix. 24. Messias was to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to make an end of sin, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. And we see wherever the prophets insist on the covenant of grace, the promise contained in it is the blotting out of transgressions, and remembering sins no more, and that merely on the account of God's free love and for his own name's sake. This can be no reason then why predictions concerning spiritual blessings should not have their exact accomplishment; because there can be no bar against free love, and the bestowing of such mercies which do suppose the greatest unworthiness of them, as Gospel blessings do. VIII. The great difficulty lies in explaining the prophetical phrases concerning the Gospel state, which seem to inti- CHAP. mate a greater advancement, and flourishing of peace and VI. holiness therein, than hath as yet been seen in the Christian world; which gives the Jews the greater occasion to imagine that the state so much spoken of by the prophets, is not yet established in the world. But all the difficulty herein ariseth from the want of consideration of the idiotisms of the prophetical language, especially where it respects the state of things under the Gospel; concerning which we may observe these following rules. 1. The prophets under the Old Testament, when they speak of things to come to pass in the New, do set them forth by the representation of such things as were then in use among themselves. Thus the spiritual worship of the Gospel is prophesied of under the notion of the legal worship among the Jews; the conversion of Egypt to the Gospel, is foretold Isaiah xix. 19, 21. by the setting up an altar, and offering sacrifice to the Lord; and the conversion of the Gentiles in general, by the offering up of incense, Mal. i. II. and the service of God under the Gospel, is set forth by going up to Jerusalem, and keeping the feast of tabernacles there, Zach. xiv. 16. and the plentiful effusion of the Spirit of God in the miraculous gifts, which attended the preaching of the Gospel, is set forth by the prophet, Joel ii. 28. by prophesying, and dreaming dreams, and seeing visions: not that these things should really be under Gospel times, but that the prophet's meaning might be the better understood by those he spake unto, he sets forth the great measure of gifts and Gospel light under those things which were accounted as the highest attainments among themselves. So the great measure and degree of holiness, which was to be under Gospel times, is set forth by the prophet Zachary, Zach. xiv. 20. by the placing of the motto which was among the Jews only upon the high priest's forehead, that this should be so common under the Gospel, that even the bells of the horses should bear it, i. e. those things which seem most remote from a spiritual use should be devoted to it, as the bells were, which were commonly hanged upon their war-horses in those mountainous countries; and in the latter part of that verse the height and progress of Gospel holiness is described under that phrase, That the pots in the Lord's house should be as bowls before the altar, i. e. should be advanced from a lower and more ignoble service, to a higher and more spiritual degree of holiness. Now the Jews, when they observe these and many other prophetical |