Ii R. Iii, Ids IZ. Epi/ le to the H E i R E WS. heads of the Propheticalpart of thePfaim, and they all refpec$ thingsevery where pe- culiarly aifigned unto the Son who was to be incarnate; or the days óf the Méffab, which is all one. For, II The Redemptionand deliverance ofthe Church out oftremble is his proper wotk. Where ever it is mentioned, it is he who is intended. Pfal. 98. r8. fo fignally, Zech. 2. 8, 9, to, 11, 12,13. and other placesinnumerable. 2. The bringing inof the Gentiles is acknowledged by all the Jews to refpe6 the time of the Meffiah, it being he whowas to bea light unto the Gentiles; and the falva- tion of God unto the ends of theearth: 3. Alfo theGeneration to come, and people to be created, theJews themfelves in- terpret of the H1ri 1_7711), world to come, or the new fiate of the Churéh under the Kph: Theft two laft put together, thegathering of thepeople; and the worldto come, createdfor the praifeof god, makes it evident that it is the Son whom the PfalmiJf hath refped unto. Grotius inthis place affirms, that the Apoftle accommodates unto the Meffiab what was Oaken ofGod. And he thinks it a fufficientargument to prove, the words were not fpokenof the Meffiah, becaufe they were fpokenofGod : whereas they are produced by the Apoftle to prove his Excellency from the properties and works of his Di- vine Nature. And he adder, as the fenfe of the words, as accommodated to Chrift, Thou haftlaid the foundation ofthe earth, that is, the world was made or r fake: But this Interpretation, or violent detortion of the words dcftroysit fell. For if they are fpokenofGod abfalutely, and not of the McJah to whom they are accommodated, how can it be Paid that the world war madefor hisfake,,and not by him ? both fenfcs of the words cannot be true. But thisis indeed plainly todeny the Authorityof the Apoftle. It appeareth then, thatmany things in this Pfalm are fpoken direéfly and imme- diately of theSon; though it beprobable alfo that fundry things in it are affirmed di- ftinétlyof the Perfon ofthe Father. And hence it may be are thofe frequent variations of fpeech from the Secondto the ThirdPerfon, that occur in this Pfalmt 2. As to the fecond Enquiry; the Socütiant, who grant the Divine Authority of this Epiftlç, and therefore cannot deny but that theft words tome way or Other belong untothe Lord Chrift, yet plainly perceiving that d they are wholly underftood of him, that there is an end of all their Religion ; ( the creation, not of a new, but of that world which was madeofold, and which shall perijhat the loft day, being here afcribed untohim) fix here upon a new and peculiar Evafion: Some words; they fay, of this tefiimonybelong unto Chrift, (fomuch they will yield to the authority of the Apoftle ) butnot all of them ; whereby they hope to fecure their own errour. Now becaufe ifthis pretencehold not, this teftimony is fatal to their perfwafion, .I hope it will not be unacceptable, if in our pall-age we do confider the diftribution they make of the words according to their fuppofition, and the Arguments they produce for the con- firmation of their Expofition, as they are managed byCrel/int or Schlieeingins in their Comment on thisplace. r.Ide fays, that this teffimony dodo f far belong unto Chrii t, as it pertaineth unto the feopeofthe Writer of the Epiifle. ThisScripture, faith he, asappearsfrom v. 4. isto prove, that after Chrift fate down at the right bandof God, hewas made more excellent than the Angels ; whereto the affirming that be made heavenand earth, doth no may conduce. Anfm. r. Suppofe that to be the feopeof the Apoftle which is intimated; how doth this Author know that it faits not his purpofe to thew that the Lord Chrift is God, by whomHeaven and Earthwere made, feeing it is manifelt that himfeif thought otherwife, or he had not produced this ie¡timeny thereof. 2. The Teflimony is not únfuited unto the pope pretended. For whereas in the Adminifiration of his Office the Son wasapparently for awhilemade lower than theAngels, he may in thefe words dif cover the equity ofhis after Exaltationabove them, in that in his Divine Nature and Works he was fo much more excellent than they. 3. The true and properdeftgn ofthe Apoftle we have before evinced, which is to prove the Excellency of the Perfon by whom the Gofpel was revealed, and his Preheminence above Men and Angels, which nothing doth more unquestionably demonffrate than this, that by him the world was created ; whence the Allignation of a Divine Nature unta him doth undenia- bly enfue. 2. To promote this Obfervation, he add'es a large difcourfe about the ufe and ap plication of teffimonies out of the Old Testament in the New, and fays, That they L112 arc
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