peculiar Advantage of their Language; I must own, I cannot but think that the Ancient Learning, in the Schools of the Pro phets, was very different from ours; and that the Literati among them had their Notions and Ideas of Things very different from ours. I cannot think that their Learning confifted fo much in barren Theo ries, logical Niceties, and barren Speculations; which are fo far from being Truth it felf that they are very often at the moft remote diffance from it. I cannot think that the Modern Learning of the Schools, was even that celebrated Egyptian Learning, which was fo much fought after, and admired by the better and wifer pare of Mankind; in the fearch of which Py thagoras fpent fo many Years; and at laft travelled into Egypt, and fubmitted to the painful Rite of Circumcifion, rather than be disappointed of his Expectations; and the refult of this Labour and Travel was, that he attained to a very great Degree of Natural and Divine Knowledge. This was that Knowledge in which Mofes was faid Ifq; li- to be learn'd, whilft he was educated in cèt Coli Pharaoh's Court, and which made him regione Mighty both in Word and Deed, Acts 7. 22. Mente I rather think that the Knowledge of the Deos adi- Holy Prophets, or Seers, confifted in a it, etquæ more deep and intimate Knowledge of God negavit and Nature, in fuch Degrees as they were Vifibus capable of receiving them, or God was humanis, pleafed to communicate them They in oculis ea the Sight of God's Spirit faw into the haufit. Depths of the Spiritual World; they faw remotus, Natura pectoris Quid. 4 into into the Great End, Purpofe, and Defign of the Eternal Love, which as a Clew guided them through all thofe infcrutable Labyrinths of Providence, in which fo many weak and ignorant Searchers have been baffled and loft. They faw that wonderful Harmony, that furprising Correfpondence, that is betwixt all the Difpenfations and Revelations of God; and how the leffer, and feemingly contemptible Occurrences in the Church, throughout all Ages, did (like the leffer Wheels in Ezekiel's Chariot, Chap. 1.) move in a perfect Union and Concurrence with the greater, according to the Will and Direction of the Great Mover and Director; which Consideration may be alfo not a little confirm'd by Teftimonies of many eminent Heathen Writers, who had a traditional Knowledge of many great and furprifing Truths and Doctrines of this Nature: See particularly the Learned Mr. Dodwell's Differtation of the Tabule Cali of the Ancients *. Instead Dr. Grabe's then of rejecting the plain and literal Spicileg. Meaning of the Holy Writers, under pre- vol. 1. tence of their being Figurative and Hy- 339. perbolical, we should rather endeavour to fearch into the Depths which they defign'd, and fo not cramp the Spirit of Prophecy, by measuring with our own Line, which is indeed much too fhort: No Man knoweth the Things of a Man, but the Spirit of a Man that is in him, &c. * S5. THERE fhall be then Wars and 5. The End Fightings; and thofe General and Univer-or Defign of fal, over all the Kingdoms and Nations thofe De C 3 that folations. that are upon the Face of the Earth, which fhall begin the Accomplishment of those many Prophecies, which foretel the utter Deftruction of the Wicked, the rooting out of their Seed, and the planting in of the Meek and the Righteous in their ftead. This feems to be the great Meaning of the 37th Pfalm; where the Prophet perfuades the Church of God, in fome eminently perillous time, when the Wicked profper and are mighty, and plot the Deftruction of the Righteous, to be patient and wait on the Lord; and not to fret at their Profperity, nor to be afraid of their Devices, v. 7. adding, that in a little time, The Wicked fhall not be, and the Evil-doers fhall be cut off; but that the Meek, and they that wait upon the Lord, fhall inherit the Earth, and fhall be refreshed in the multitude of Peace, v. 9, 10, II. Which Pfalm, however fome have confin'd it to fome particu lar Affliction of the Prophet David, making it to be rather an Act of Hope and Confidence, than a Prophecy; yet our Bleffed Lord himself feems to have determin'd it against them, having quoted, verfe 11. as *Matth. a Prophecy yet to be accomplished in the laft times of refreshing, when Righteoufnefs and Truth fhall flourish in the Earth, in oppofition to the prefent World, which (St. John 1 Ep. 5. 19. fays) lyeth in Evil. This I own is ultimately to be understood of the great Deftruction of Antichrift; yet not exclufively of these leffer Defolations, which the Princes and Rulers of the Earth fhall bring upon themselves; till finally by the juft Vengeance of God, the Wicked Shall be "Shakers 5.5. * * Cat. 15. pag. 209. Edit. fhaken out of the Earth, as that ancient Writer Job expreffes it, Chap. 38. 12. to make way for a Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace, which muft at laft take place upon the Earth. And as these Defolations are by our Bleffed Lord reckon'd amongst the Signs that shall precede the Coming of Antichrift; fo are they by the Holy Fathers counted as the very Means that fhall introduce him. So fays St. Cyril of Jerufalem *; The fecond Sign of the Coming of Antichrift is, when ye fhall bear of Wars and Rumours of Wars; Oxon. and even now are the Perfians and Romans at war about Macedonia. And a little after; The Contentions between Brethren make way for Antichrift; and the Devil fhall fow Difcord between Nations; that the Enemy (viz. Antichrift) may with more eafe overcome them. All which is largely attefted by Lactantius † ;t P. 647. The whole Earth fhall be in Confufion; Wars Edit. Shall rage in every Place; All Nations fhall be in Arms against each other, &c. Oxon. where this §6. THE Quarter from whence this 6. The Rebloody Defolation fhall firft arife, is ex-gion or prefly afferted to be the North, or the Sides Quarter of the Earth. So faith the Prophet Jer. Judgment Chap. 25. v. 32. Thus faith the Lord of Hofts, shall begin. Behold Evil fhall go forth from Nation to Nation, and a great Whirlwind fhall be raifed up from the Sides or Coafts of the Earth: Which is also largely attefted by many other Places of Holy Scripture 4. Besides which, there is another + See Chap. not contemptible Argument, (efpecially to 6. 22. 50. fome Men) fetch'd from the Contemplation 41. of the Harmonious Providence of God, who in the Oeconomy of the Moral, as well as C 4 Natural Compare 1 Natural World, fo fitly orders and difpofes all Occurrences, that even the leaft and moft contemptible, do to, thofe who are difpofed to receive them, difcover in the Spirit and Mystery of them great and furprizing Truths. An Inftance of which, the whole Story, of the Deftruction of Judea by the King of Babylon, and of Babylon by the Medes and Perfians, has been thought to be by many, both Ancients and Moderns; whofe, both Crimes and Punishments (as I before obferv'd) are tranfcribed and applied to Apoftate Christendom, by the Divine Author of the Apocalypfe. Many of the most minute Circumstances of which are not flightly to be paffed by or neglected; but this more. particularly, that the Judgment is fo often threatned to them both from the North, which was Is. 13, 14. and fer. 6, certainly mention'd for fome good Reason. 50, and 51 The Word † which we tranflate the North, Chapters. fignifies properly a + Place of Darkness, be10% + caufe (fay the latter Rabbins) of its great from 15+ diftance from the Sun, and enjoying fo t very little of its Light. Whether it be upon this or fome other Accounts largely infifted upon by the Cabbalistical Writers, I cannot determine: But the North has been generally ufed to exprefs the Place of Darknefs, of the Curfe or Vengeance; as may be feen at large in the afore-cited Places of the Holy Prophets. And this I conjecture to be the Reafon why the Deftruction of Judea by the Babylonians, and of Babylon by the Perfians, is fo often faid to come out of the North; though Babylon, in refpect of Judea Obnubi lavit. |