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them, Thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael, Drink ye and be drunken, and fpue and fall, and rife no more, because of the Sword which I fend among you, v. 26, 27. Which two Verfes (with the following) do, I think, plainly express that this War or Judgment of the Sword fhall be Univerfal, even upon all the Kingdoms of the World, that are upon the Face of the Earth.

THIS Interpretation may be abundantly confirm'd, by comparing this with many other Places of Holy Scriptures, of which I fhall take notice only of two or three that are moft remarkable. The firft fhall be the 24th Chap. of Ifaiah, where the Holy Prophet does in lofty Expreffions, foretel the utter Defolation of the whole Earth. Behold (faith he) v. 1. The Lord maketh the Earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upfide down, and scattereth abroad all the Inhabitants thereof, &c. Now, that some of the Ancients understood this Chapter in the Senfe here intended, will appear by comparing the 13th Verfe of this Chapter, and v. 6. of the 17th, with the 16th of the Second Book of Efdras, for that Scarcity of Men which Isaiah speaks of as the confequence of this great Defolation; fo that they shall appear like the two or three Olives that are left after the fhaking of an Olive-tree, or the gleaning Grapes when the Vintage is done; the fame is mention'd by Efdras, as not confin'd or limited to any one People or Nation, but in the most general and univerfal Senfe, as denounced against the whole World, which does most plainly appear by many Passages

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of that Chapter, notwithstanding it begins with a woe to Babylon, and Afia, Egypt and Syria. And if it be but allow'd that this Book is Ancient, tho' written by a Chriftian, it fhews however, that the Chriftians of that Age underftood it in this Sence.

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A SECOND Argument fhall be drawn from the 30th Verfe of this 25th Chapter of Jeremiah, compar'd with the 3d Chapter of the Prophet Joel, and the 14th Chapter of the Revelations. Jeremiah fays, The Lord fhall roar from on high, and utter his Voice from his Holy Habitation; he shall give a fhout as them that tread the Grapes, against all the Inhabitants of the Earth. So the English Bible reads it: But the Original feems more expreffive, *faying it fhall be heard, or answered by, or it fhall found to all the Ends of the Earth. The Prophet Joel fpeaks of the roaring, v. 16. and v. 13. he bids them put in the Sickle, for the Harveft is ripe, the Prefs is full, the Fats overflow, their Wickedness is - great; or as the LXX † understood it, their Iniquities are full. This overflowing and au of the Fats, and fulness of the Prefs, anfwers to the treading of the Grapes aforemention'd. In the Apocalypfe, Chap. 14. V. 18. The Angel that had the harp Sickle, was commanded to thrust it in, and gather the Clufters of the Vine of the Earth, and caft it into the Wine-prefs of the Wrath of God; and, v.20. the Wine-prefs was trodden, &c. Now that these three Prophecies are of the fame Defign and Extent, will, I prefume, be difputed by none that are acquainted with

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the Idea and Genius of Prophetical Scripture. The Vine then that is mention'd to be trodden, is the wicked and antichriftian Church, which is the earthly Vine, whofe Clufters and Grapes are bitter, like the Vine of Sodom and Gomorrah, Deut. 32. 32, 33. as the true Church, and Holy Members of it, are called the Vine of the Lord and of Chrift, Ifa. 5. Pfal.80. John 15. And as the reaping of the Harveft fignifies the gathering of the Saints at the first Refurrection, as our Lord tells us, Matth. 13. 24. fo the gathering of the Vintage, the gathering together of the Wicked to Deftruction.

S4. AGAINST the Univerfality of this 4. An ob Judgment, as proved from the former place jection anof Jeremy, there are two main Objections. Swer'd. I. THE Firft is, That in the beginning of the Chapter, the Holy Ghoft has, as it were, given us a Key for the understanding of the whole, in a more narrow and limited Senfe; telling us, v. 1. That the Word (or Prophecy following) was concerning the Land of Judah. In anfwer to which, I think it is plain that this Chapter confifts of two Parts, from the Beginning to v. 15. and thence to the End, of a quite diftinct Argument and Defign. The former Part refpecting the Jews, the Inhabitants of Judab, and threatning them with the long Seventy Years Captivity to be brought upon them by the King of Babylon, whom he fays, v. 12. that he will punish with the Chaldeans with utter Defolation, after the Accomplishment of the Captivity. From C honçe

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hence the Prophet takes a very natural Hint, and raises his Thoughts to the Contemplation of the great Afflictions or Judgthe whole ments that were to come upon World in the latter Days, of which that of the Jews was a little Sketch or Reprefentation; that Nation in the prophetical Books often standing for the whole World. Thus in like manner the Holy Prophet David, whofe Pfalms are almoft nothing elfe but a continu'd Defcription of the Glories and Beauties of the Meffiah's Kingdom, begins very often with the Thoughts of his SucSee bis ceffor Solomon, intending (*fays the Learned Univerfal Bishop of Meaux) to celebrate the Glory of his Hiftory, Son, when on a fudden he is transported beyond

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himself, and carried far away, contemplating him who was greater than Solomon both in Glory and Wifdom. "Twas this infpir'd him with that inimitable Eloquence, to fing the triumphant Praises of our dear Redeemer, and the Glory of that Virgin Church which he fhould conftitute upon the Earth at his Second Coming; to which (as I have before fhewed) it chiefly had respect, and which was most beautifully fhadowed out, and reprefented to us, by the Theocratical Oeconomy of the Jewish Church under that Illuftrious Monarch.

II. THE Second Objection is, That this jection an- is an hyperbolical lofty way of Speaking, Swer'd. much in ufe amongst the Oriental Writers, who did often exprefs particular Things in very copious extenfive Terms, and with an Air of Univerfality. In anfwer to this, I must own I am very cautious of admitting Hyperboles

Hyperboles in Scripture, where the literal Senfe is not impoffible in Nature. I confider, that as God's Thoughts are not as our Thoughts, fo neither are his ways of Expreffion like our ways. And though it must be acknowledged, that as God made ufe of weak Inftruments to declare his Will to Mankind, fo He left a great deal to them as to the manner of expreffing or delivery of it; from whence proceeds that great Variety of Stile that appears amongst the Holy Writers. Yet I make no queftion, but that the Holy Spirit, under whose Government and Direction they were, did take care fo to direct them, that the Prophecy, Reproof, Exhortation, or whatever elfe was the Subject of their Difcourfe, might not be more obfcured than the Nature and Design of the Thing did require; which it must neceffarily be, if this latitude of Expreffion be allow'd. It must also be acknowledg'd, that there are many Expreffions purely Hyperbolical, of which many Inftances might be produced; yet they may easily be diftinguished, by being uncapable of a literal Meaning, which can never be faid of the Cafe before us; forafmuch as the Holy Spirit has, in the aforecited 25th Chapter of Jeremiah, been very exact in a particular Enumeration of Nations and People, even of all the Nations that are upon the Face of the Earth. So shen, in answer to those who fancy that the fublime Expreffions of the Prophetical Writers, was entirely owing to the warmth of their Fancy and Imagination, or to fome C 2 peculiar

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