authority they avouched been a greater King than his father David, had not his power and authority, not over their goods only, but over their minds and consciences, been more than monarchical, he could not so plainly and so peremptorily have foreprophesied de futuris contingentibus, or given his disciples full assurance that the owner of these juments should do 848 as he foretold they would do. This was an oracle of the same God, of the same power and authority which informed David that the men of Keilah would betray him into Saul's hands if he did commit himself to their trust. The men of Keilah were prevented from doing that which the Searcher of all hearts saw they were intended or bent to do. But these men did as the Lord foretold they should do, when they intended no such matter.

2. If we compare the evangelical relations concerning the manner of our Saviour's coming to Jerusalem with the prophet's predictions, they agree so well, that Zechariah in this particular may share well with Isaiah in that title of the evangelical prophet. Yet in the manner of the evangelical stories concerning this point there is some variation in words, but no contradiction or contrariety in sense. Go unto the village (saith St. Matthew) over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. chap. xxi. 2. St. Mark relateth the same story thus: Ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. ch. xi. 2. See Luke xix. 30. This variation of words hath raised a doubt amongst interpreters, as well of the prophet as of the evangelists, whether our Saviour did ride part of the way upon the ass and part upon the colt, or all the way upon the colt alone. Such as think our Saviour did ride only upon the colt, labour to salve

the truth of the prophetical prediction, and St. Matthew's relation how it was fulfilled, by a synecdoche, usual, as they allege, in the Hebrew dialect. To say the King of Zion should come riding upon an ass, and upon the foal of an ass, is a speech as justifiable in grammatical sense as that Jonas should be sleeping in the sides of the ship, (so are the words of the prophecy,) whereas he could not sleep but in one side of the ship at one time. But as for synecdoches, metonymies, or other like words of art, grammar, or rhetoric, unless they be reduced to some logical or rational maxim, they edify no better in divinity than an allegory or mystical interpretation which is not grounded upon some historical relation of matter of fact, according to the plain literal or grammatical sense. The σros, or the only foundation of this synecdoche here pretended, must be that logical rational maxim, Ad veritatem indefinitæ propositionis sufficit veritas unius particularis: "Unto the truth of an indefinite proposition, the truth of one particular is sufficient." that can prove Socrates to be a learned man, may without impeachment affirm, that man is learned, or men are learned; for the expression of any particulars indistinctly apprehended (or confusedly known) by the plural is usual, not in the sacred only, but in modern languages. We Englishmen do not commit any solecism when we say, 'The noble Sidney was slain in the Low Countries;' albeit, in strict propriety of speech, he was slain but in one of those countries or provinces. A man that had been present, or had a distinct geographical apprehension of the place where he was wounded, would have named it in the singular, as at Zutphen. So it was said, Judges xii. 7, that Jephthah died, and was buried in the cities of Gilead; that is, as our English very well renders it, in one of the cities of

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Gilead; but in which one of them, that, it seems, the author of that sacred history did not think worthy to be taken into particular consideration, being a point wherein posterity without loss might be altogether ignorant. And certainly it was ignorance of their own dialect, or the spirit of slumber, which occasioned some 849 Jewish writers to gather from this plural expression, that Jephthah's bones were scattered throughout all the cities of Gilead, or respectively entombed in many several places. The evangelists use the like speech when they say, The malefactors which were crucified with our Saviour did revile him; whereas in such distinct apprehension as St. Luke had of this circumstance one of the two only did revile him, or at least continue in this wicked mind; but the party reviling being not so distinctly known by name or by other circumstances (as Barabbas was) to the other evangelists as unto St. Luke, they make their expressions in the plural. It is a general rule, worthy of every commentator's actual consideration, that albeit every evangelist relate nothing but the truth, yet no one of them relates the whole truth concerning our Saviour's life and actions, his death and passion; nor do they always observe the order and method of all circumstances or

f Nunquam cohabites impiis, eo quod fieri non possit, ut non ex illorum conversatione et tu impius evadas. Quod si miraris: considera quid acciderit Jiphtah Gileaditæ, qui licet justus esset, tamen quia habitavit in tribu Ephraim, et ipse ab eis ad impietatem pertractus fuit. Cum enim videret quod filios et filias suas idolo Baal comburerent: inde quoque et ipse abiit, similique modo filiam suam occidit. İtem cum videret eos operam

dare homicidiis, factus est et ipse homicidia, abiens et interficiens 40 duo millia, ob quod facinus tanquam impius punitus, non meruit sepulturam, juxta id quod dicitur, Et sepultus est in civitatibus Gilead, Judic. xii. Qui locus scripturæ docet, dispersa fuisse ossa ejus in omnibus civitatibus Gilead. In quocunque enim loco videbant ejus ossa, sepeliebant ea.-Ben. Syræ Sentent. Mor. 6.

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occurrences, as will appear hereafter. The manner of thyt our Saviour's coming to Jerusalem might be, and no pair doubt was, more distinctly represented to the disciples' senses, than it had been to the prophet Zechariah's spirit. For lumen propheticum erat aliqualiter ænig "the light of prophecy was not always si distinctly evident, but indefinitely." And this might be the reason why the prophet foretells that our Saviour should come riding both upon the ass and the colt, whenas three evangelists mention only the colt. And albeit St. Matthew mention both, yet it may be replied that he historically in that passage avoucheth nothing of his own observation, but only relateth the prophet's words which he saw now fulfilled, although our Saviour had rid only upon the ass or upon the colt.

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3. But however the prophet's words in themselves considered, or compared only with the historical narrations of their fulfilling as they are extant by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, may admit the presumed synecdoche, or plural expression, instead of the singular; yet, to my understanding or observation, none of these three evangelists' affirmative for Christ's riding upon the colt or foal of the ass is so exclusive, as St. Matthew's relation of the same story is inclusive. Nor is St. Jerome's, Maldonate's, or others' inference from the expression of these three evangelists so concludent that he rode upon the colt alone, as the inference which may be drawn from St. Matthew's relation that he rode upon both: Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man shall say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send

g Mark and Luke in the forecited places, and St. John in chap. xii. 14.

them. He further adds, All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter &c. All the other three evangelists' affirmatives will not infer this negative, that our Saviour did not ride upon the ass at all. The historical, literal, or legal tenor of our Saviour's commission, directed or given to his two disciples whom he authorized to take them, imply that he had instant use of both, though more special or permanent use of the colt or foal. And the execution of this commission necessarily infers as much; And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the 850 ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and

they set him thereon: or, as the original hath it, upon them, éπávo avrov, Matt. xxi. 6, 7. His dismission of the dam upon some short trial, and longer use of the young one, (as sundry of the ancient with good modern interpreters observe,) did admirably prefigure the instant rejection of the Jews, and the speedy admission of the Gentiles here promised. The Gentile, though never accustomed to the yoke of Mosaical laws, by whose rites the anointing and consecration, the coming of this great King was foreshadowed, did beyond expectation willingly submit himself unto the gospel or kingdom of heaven here on earth, as the young colt which never had been backed before this time did gently bear our Saviour, notwithstanding all the noise and cry which had been made by the promiscuous multitude whenas the Jew, resembled or typified by the old ass, which had been used to the yoke and saddle, became (as it is probable she did) resty and skittish, ready to kick and spurn, and endeavouring to throw her rider. And in type or prognostic of this mystical truth, it is not improbable that our Saviour