Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Some understand this not only of the Babylonish Captivity, but refer it to the time of Christ, and the false Doctrine of mens own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God; understanding this Verse to be partly a threatening of Wrath, which shall end in an advantage to the Jews, who shall in the latter time consider the falseness of their Notions about a legal Righteousness, and so make it a promise; they shall then know the intent of the Scripture, and in the latter days, the latter end of the World, when time shall be near the rolling up, they shall reflect ⟨p. 242⟩upon themselves; they shall look upon him whom they have pierced; and till these latter days, they shall be hardened, and believe nothing of Evangelical truths.

Some understand this not only of the Babylonish Captivity, but refer it to the time of Christ, and the false Doctrine of mens own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God; understanding this Verse to be partly a threatning of Wrath, which shall end in an advantage to the Jews, who shall in the latter time consider the falsness of their Notions about a legal Righteousness, and so make it a promise; they shall then know the intent of the Scripture, and in the latter days, the latter end of the World, when time shall be near the rouling up, they shall reflect ⟨p. 242⟩upon themselves; they shall look upon him whom they have pierced; and till these latter days, they shall be hardned, and believe nothing of Evangelical truths.

Now God denieth that he sent those Prophets, v. 21. I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. They have intruded themselves without a Commission from me, whatsoever their Brags are. The reason to prove it, is v. 22. If they had stood in my Counsel, if they had been instructed, and inspired by me, they would have caused my people to hear my words; they would have regulated themselves according to my word, and have turned them from their evil way; i. e. endeavoured to shake down their false confidences of peace, and make them sensible of their false Notions of me, and my ways. Now because those false Prophets could not be so impudent as to boast, that they prophesied in the Name of God, when they had not Commission from him, unless they had some secret Sentiment, that they and their intentions were hid from the Knowledge and Eye of God; He adds, v. 23. Am I a God at hand, and not a God a far off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? Have I not the power of seeing and knowing what they do, what they design, what they think? Why should I not have such a power, since I fill Heaven and Earth by my essence? Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? He excludes here the Doctrine of those that excluded the Providence of God from extending its self to the inferior things of the earth; which error was ancient, as ancient as the time of Job, as appears by their opinion, That Gods eyes were hood-winked and muffled by the thickness of the Clouds, and could not pierce through their dark and dense body: