HA

And in Fefus Chrift.

AVING thus explained the proper Name of our Saviour, Jefus, we come unto that Title of his Office ufually joined with his Name, which is therefore the more diligently to be examined, because the (k) Jews, who always acknowledged him to be John ix.22. Jefus, ever denied him to be Chrift, and agreed together, that if any man did confefs that he was Chrift, he should be put out of the Synagogue.

John i. 41.

For the full explication of this Title, it will be neceffary, first, to deliver the fignification of the word; fecondly, to fhew upon what grounds the Jews always expected a Chrift or Meffias; thirdly, to prove that the Meffias promised to the Jews is already come; fourthly, to demonftrate that our Jefus is that Meffias; and fifthly, to declare in what that unction, by which Jefus is Chrift, doth consist, and what are the proper effects thereof. Which five particulars being clearly difcuffed, I cannot fee what should be wanting for a perfect understanding that Jefus is Chrift.

For the firft, we find in the Scriptures two several names, Messias and Chrift, but both of the fame fignification; as appeareth by the speech of the woman Johniv. 25. of Samaria, I know that Meffias cometh, which is called Chrift; and more plainly by what Andrew spake unto his brother Simon, We have found the Meffias, which is, being interpreted, the Chrift. Meffias in the Hebrew tongue, Chrift in the (1) Greek. (m) Meffias, the language of Andrew and the woman of Samaria, who fpake in Syriac; Chrift, the interpretation of St. John, who wrote his Gospel in the Greek, as the moft general language in those days; and the fignification of them both is, the Anointed. St. Paul and the reft of the Apoftles, writing in that language, used the Greek name, which the Latins did retain, calling

calling him conftantly, Chriftus; and we in English have retained the fame, as univerfally naming him, Chrift.

Nor is this yet the full interpretation of the word, which is to be understood not fimply according to the action only, but as it involveth the design in the cuftom of anointing. For in the Law whatsoever was anointed was thereby fet apart, as ordained to fome fpecial use or office and therefore under the notion of unction we must understand that promotion and ordination. Jacob poured out oil on the top of a pillar, Gen. xxviii, and that anointing was the confecration of it. Mofes 18. anointed the Tabernacle and all the veffels, and this anointing was their dedication. Hence the Priest that is anointed fignifieth, in the phrase of Mofes, the High Prieft, because he was invested in that office at and by his unction. When therefore Jefus is called the Meffias or Chrift, and that long after the anointing oil had ceased, it fignified no less than a perfon fet apart by God, anointed with most facred oil, advanced to the highest office, of which all thofe employments under the Law, in the obtaining of which oil =was used, were but types and fhadows. And this may fuffice for the fignification of the word.

That there was among the Jews an expectation of fuch a Chrift to come, is most evident. The woman of Samaria could speak with confidence, I know that John iv. 25.. Meffias cometh. And the unbelieving Jews, who will

not acknowledge that he is already come, expect him ftill. Thus we find all men musing in their hearts of Luke iii.15 John, whether he were the Chrift or not. When Jefus taught in the Temple, those which doubted faid, When Chrift cometh no man knoweth whence he is; thofe John vii. which believed faid, When Chrift cometh, will be do more 27,31. miracles than thefe which this man hath done? Whether therefore they doubted, or whether they believed in Jefus, they all expected a Chrift to come; and the greater their opinion was of him, the more they believed he was that Meffias. Many of the People faid, V. 40, 41. Of a truth this is the Prophet; others faid, This is the

VOL. I.

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Chrift.

V. 20.

V. 21.

John i. 19. Chrift. As foon as John began to baptize, The Feas fent Priefs and Levites from Jerufalem, to ask him, Whe art thou? that is, whether he were the Christ or no, as appeareth out of his anfwer, And he confeffed and de nied not, but confessed, I am not the Chrift. For as they afked him after, What then, art thou Elias? and he faid, I am not: Art thou that Prophet? and be answered, No: So without queftion their firft demand was, (n) Art thou the Chrift? and he anfwered, I am not: From whence it clearly appeareth that there was a general expectation among the Jews of a Meffias to come; nor only fo, but it was always counted among Auctor Se- them an Article of their Faith, which all were pher Ikka- obliged to believe who profeffed the Law of Mofes, and whofoever denied that, was thereby interpreted mon. Tract, to deny the Law and the Prophets. Wherefore it will be worth our enquiry to look into the grounds upon which they built that expectation.

rim, l. iv. c.

ult. Mai

de Regibus,

C. II.

It is moft certain that the Meffias was promised by God, both before and under the Law. God faid unGen.xxi.12, to Abraham, In Ifaac fhall thy Seed be called: and we know that was a promise of a Meffias to come, beGal, iii. 16. cause St. Paul hath taught us, Now to Abraham and his feed were the promifes made. He faith not, unto feeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy feed, which is Chrift. The Lord faid unto Mofes, I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee. And St. Peter hath fufficiently fatisfied us, that this Prophet As iii. 22, promised to Mofes, is Jefus the Chrift. Many are the prophecies which concern him, many the promifes which are made of him: but yet fome of them very obfcure; others, though plainer, yet have relation only to the perfon, not to the notion, or the word Meffias. Wherefoever he is spoken of as the Anointed, it may well be firft understood of fome other perfon; except one place in Daniel, where Meffiah is foretold Dan, ix. 26. to be cut off: and yet even there the Greek Tranflation hath not the Meffiah, but the Unction. It may therefore seem something ftrange, how fo univerfal

an

an expectation of a Redeemer under the name of the Meffias fhould be spread through the Church of the Jews.

But if we confider that in the space of feventy years of the Babylonish captivity the ordinary Jews had loft the exact understanding of the old Hebrew: language before spoken in Judea, and therefore when the Scriptures were read unto them, they found it neceffary to interpret them to the people in the Chaldee language, which they had lately learned: as when Ezra the Scribe brought the Book of the Law of Mofes before the Congregation, the Levites are faid to have caused the people to understand the Law, because they read in the Book, in the Law of God diftinctly, Nehem. viii and gave the fenfe, and caufed them to understand the read- 8. ing. Which conftant interpretation begat at last a Chaldee Translation of the Old Teftament to be read every fabbath in the Synagogues: and that being not exactly made word for word with the Hebrew, but with a liberty of a brief expofition by the way, took in, together with the Text, the general opinion of the learned Jews. By which means it came to pass that not only the doctrine, but the name also, of the Meffias was very frequent and familiar with them. Infomuch that even in the Chaldee Paraphrafe now extant, there is exprefs mention of the Meffias in above feventy places, befides that of Daniel. The Jews then informed by the plain words of (0) Daniel, inftructed by a conftant interpretation of the Law and the Prophets read in their Synagogues every fabbath-day, relying upon the infallible predictions and promifes of God, did all unanimously expect out of their own Nation, of the Tribe of Judah, of the Family of David, a Meffias, or a Christ, to come.

Now this being granted, as it cannot be denied, our next confideration is of the Time in which this promise was to be fulfilled: which we fhall demonstrate out of the Scriptures to be past, and confequently that the promised Meffias is already come. The prediction of Jacob on his death-bed is clear

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and

10.

Gen. xlix. and pregnant; The fceptre fhall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to him fhall the gathering of the people be: but the Sceptre is departed from Judah, neither is there one Law-giver left between his feet: therefore Shiloh, that is, the Meffias, is already come. That the Jewish government hath totally failed, is not without the greateft folly to be denied: and therefore that Shiloh is already come, except we fhould deny the truth of divine predictions, must be granted. There then remains nothing to be proved, but that by Shiloh is to be understood the Meffias: which is fufficiently manifest both from the consent of the ancient Jews, and from the defcription immediately added to the name. For (p) all the old Paraphrafts call him exprefsly the Meffias, and the words which follow, to him fhall the gathering of the people be, fpeak no lefs; as giving an explication of his Perfon, Office or Condition, who was but darkly defcribed in the name of Shiloh., For this is the fame character by which he was fignified unto Abraham: In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be Ifa. xi. 10. blessed: by which he is decyphered in Ifaiah; in that day there fhall be a root of Fesse, which shall stand for an enfign of the people; to it fhall the Gentiles feek, and bis Micah iv. 1. reft fhall be glorious and in Micah, The mountain of the Houfe of the Lord fhall be established on the top of the mountains, and it fhall be exalted above the hills, and people fhall flow unto it. And thus the bleffing of JuGen. xlix.8. dah is plainly intelligible: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren fhall praife; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children fhall bow down before thee. Thou shalt obtain the primogeniture of thy brother Reuben, and by virtue thereof shalt rule over the rest of the Tribes: the government fhall be upon thy fhoulders, and all thy brethren shall be fubject unto thee. And that you may understand this bleffing is not to expire until it make way for a greater, know that this government shall not fail, until there come a fon out of your loins, who fhall be far greater than yourself: for whereas your dominion reacheth

only