manifest my self thus openly to the view of all Some there be that have hardly censured of me for idleness and sloth as they make it because it seems I intrude not every moment into the supply of other mens Ministries since it hath not yet pleased God to prefer and promote me to a Charge of mine own I know well the saying of the Apostle Rom. 1. 14. belongs to all Ministers To Greeks and Barbarians The Syrian to that verse adds a word which may well serve for a Comment mehhaâ—obh leakrez I am a debtor or I ought to Preach to the wise and foolish they are all debtors and as the Syrian adds leakrez they are debtors to Preach And whoso is necessarily called and refuseth is as bad as the false Prophets were that would run before they were sent nay he may seem rather worse that when he is sent will not go From this censure how far I am free my Conscience tells me though I must confess that I am not so hasty as many be to intrude my self where is no necessity This hath among some purchased me the skar of slothfulness to vindicate which I have here ventured as Children do to shoot another arrow to find one that is lost so have I hazarded my Credit one way to save it another I know mine own weakness and that this my pains to Scholars may seem but idle yet had I rather undergo any censure than the blot of the other Idleness the begetter of all Evil and of Unthankfulness the hinderer of all Good This is the cause that brings me to a Book and my Book to you That by the one I may testifie to the World that I love not to be Idle and by the other witness to you that I love not to be Unthankful Accept I beseech you of so small a Present and so troublesom a Thankfulness and what I want in Tongue and Effect I will answer in Desire and Affection suing always to the Throne of Grace for the present prosperity of your Self and your Noble Lady and the future Felicity of you both hereafter From my Study at Hornsey near LONDON March 5. 1629. Yours devoted in all Service JOHN LIGHTFOOT TO THE READER Courteous Reader for such a one I wish or none I May well say of writing Books as the wise Greek did of marriage For a young man it is too soon and with an old man his time is out Yet have I ventured in youth to become publick as if I were afraid that men would not take notice of my weakness and unlearnedness soon enough If I fall far short of a Scholar as I know I do my youth might have some plea but that mine attempt can have no excuse but thy Charity To that I rather submit my self than to thy Censure I have here brought home with me some gleanings of my more serious studies which I offer to thee not so much for thy Instruction as for thy harmless Recreation I bear in mind with me the saying of Rabbi Josihar Jehudah in Pirke Abhoth He that learns of young Men is like a man that eats unripe Grapes or that drinks Wine out of the Wine-press but he that learneth of the Ancient is like a Man that eateth ripe Grapes and drinketh Wine that is old For fear thy Teeth should be set on edge I have brought some Variety I have not kept any Method for then I should not answer my Title of Miscellanies I have upon some things been more Copious than other and as Rab. Salomon observes of Ruth I have sometime but stood to Glean and sometime sitten down I hope thou wilt not censure me for Judaizing though I cite them for it is but as the Musician in Plutarch did setting a Discord first that you may better judge of the Consort and seeing Error you may the more embrace the Truth If this my Youthful attempt shall provoke any one that is Young to Emulation in the Holy Tongues I shall think I have gained Adjourn thy severe Censure till either future Silence or some second Attempt either lose all or make some Satisfaction For the present Quisquis haec legit ubi pariter certus est pergat mecum ubi pariter haesitat quaerat mecum ubi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me ubi meum revocet me Aug. de Trinit Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Thine ready and willing but unable I. Lightfoot OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. CHAP. I. OMNE tempus te puta perdidisse c. saith one All time is lost that is not spent in thinking of God To be full of thoughts of him is a lawful and holy prodigality And to spend time in such meditations a gainful lavishing For this end were the Scriptures given to lead us to meditate of God by meditating in them day and night Psal. 1. 2. Herein those fail that never think of God at all and those also that think not of him aright The Prophet makes this the mark of wicked men that God is not in all their thoughts That like the Jews they murder Zechariah the remembrance of God even between the Temple and the Altar Commendable in some sort was the devotion of the Philosopher that in so many years spoke more with the Gods than with Men. Had his Religion been towards the true God what could have been asked of him more I would Christians hearts were so retired towards their Creator that so he that made the heart might have it The Heathens thought there was a God but knew not what to think of him They prayed and sacrificed and kept a stir to something but they might well have marked their Churches Altars and Prayer with the Athenian Altar Motto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God Act. 17. Plato attained to the thought of one only God the Persians thought he could not be comprehended in a Temple and Numas thought he could not be represented by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. p. 131. image and for this saith Clem. Alex. he was helped by Moses yet came all these far short of the knowledge of God Nature when she had brought them thus far was come to a non ultra and could go no further Happy then are we if we could but right prize our happiness to whom the day spring from an high hath risen and the Son of Righteousness with healing in his wings upon whom the noon-tide of the Gospel shineth and the knowledge of God in its strength Even so O Lord let it be still told in Gath and published in the streets of Ascalon to the rancour and sorrow of the uncircumcised that God is known in Britain and his Name is great in England CHAP. II. Of the Names of GOD used by Jews and Gentiles NO Nation so barbarous saith Tully that hath not some tincture of knowledge that there is a Deity And yet many nay most People of the World fall short of the right apprehension of God through
forty or the eighteen years of Eglons afflicting were the last eighteen Ehud 27 years of Ehuds eighty for by this means Othniel and Ehud are made Ehud 28 to start up in the very end of these sums of years and get a victory and no Ehud 29 Ehud 30 more news of them whereas it is apparent not only by the years of the Ehud 31 men lately cited and by Chap. 2. 19. but also by other passages that the Ehud 32 Ehud 33 Judge was not only their deliverer in one fought battle or the like but Ehud 34 that he was their instructer and helped and strove to keep them to the fear Ehud 35 Ehud 36 of the Lord Chap. 2. 17. and when any of the Judges did not so they are Ehud 37 noted for it as Gideon about his Ephod Abimeleck about his brethren Ehud 38 Ehud 39 and Samson about his women so that in what time of these fourscore years Ehud 40 of Ehud to place the eighteen of Eglons afflicting it is not certain nor is it Ehud 41 very much material seeing it is certain that they fell out sometime within Ehud 42 Ehud 43 those fourscore years A good space of time may we allot for Israels falling Ehud 44 to Idolatry after Othniels death and for Gods giving them up to their enemies Ehud 45 Ehud 46 power upon their Idolatry but whensoever that affliction comes it Ehud 47 comes so home that a King of Moab is King of Israel and hath his very Ehud 48 Ehud 49 Court and Palace in the Land of Canaan in the City of Jericho That City Ehud 50 was inhabited by Israelites before Eglon and his Moabites Ammonites and Ehud 51 Ehud 52 Amalekites drove them out and yet had not Joshua's curse seized on them Ehud 53 for that had reference only to Rahabs kindred and family to prohibite Ehud 54 Ehud 55 them for ever going about to fortifie and build it for a Canaanitish Town Ehud 56 again and Hiel that went about that work in Ahabs time was of that Ehud 57 Ehud 58 stock and that light upon him accordingly as will be touched there The Ehud 59 oppressours of Israel at this time were the very same Nation that came Ehud 60 against Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. Namely Moabites Ammonites and Meunims Ehud 61 Ehud 62 or Amalekites and Edomites that dwelt promiscuously among Ammon as see Ehud 63 the Notes when we came there and those that are here spoken of are generally Ehud 64 Ehud 65 fat men ver 29. as was Eglon himself extraordinarily Ehud was a Ehud 66 man of Benjamin and probably of Gibeah for he was of the same family in Ehud 67 Benjamin that King Saul was of afterwards and thus the honour of Benjamin Ehud 68 Ehud 69 was somewhat restored in him and as Judah in Othniel hath the first Ehud 70 honour of Judge-ship so Benjamin in Ehud had the second Eglon is destroyed Ehud 71 Ehud 72 with a two edged sword compare Rev. 1. 16. About the latter end Ehud 73 of Ehuds life we may indeed suppose some of the passages of the Book of Ehud 74 Ruth to have come to pass for that Book containeth the story of a very Ehud 75 Ehud 76 long time but the exact place in the Book of Judges where and the exact Ehud 77 time in Chronicle when to lay any particular of those occurrences is not Ehud 78 Ehud 79 to be found nor determined World 2690 Ehud 80 EHUD dieth The Book of RUTH TOwards the aiming and concluding upon the time of the story of the Book of Ruth these things may not unprofitably be taken into consideration 1. That Salmon who came with Joshua into the land married Rahab and of her begat Boaz who married Ruth Matth. 1. 5. 2. That from Salmons coming into the land to the birth of David were 366 years namely 17 of Joshua 299 of Judges 40 of Eli and 10 of Samuel and yet was this long space of time taken up by four men viz. Salmon before he begat Boaz of Rahab and Boaz before he begat Obed of Ruth and Obed before he begat Jesse and Jesse before he begat David so that you must allow to every one of them near upon a hundred years before he begat his son 3. That from their coming into Canaan to Ehuds death were 137 years 4. Now grant that Rahab lived sixty years in Israel before she had Boaz by Salmon and that Boaz lived an hundred years before he was married to Ruth both which are fair allowances yet will this his marriage with Ruth fall but three years after Ehuds death So that this Book of Ruth may be taken in between the third and fourth Chapters of the Book of Judges The Book of Ruth setteth out the great providence of God in bringing light out of darkness Ruth a mother of Christ out of the incest of Lot a special mark over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Lots eldest daughter lying with her father Gen. 19. 34. and a special mark in a great letter in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Ruth going to Boaz his bed Ruth 4. 13. seem to relate one to the other and both together to point at this providence Boaz born of a Heathen woman and married to a Heathen woman but both these become Israelites and holy After the reading of the Book of Ruth the Reader and story return to the fourth of Judges JUDGES CHAP. IV. V. World 2691 Deborah 1 Deborah 2 DEBORAH and BARAKS forty years begin Israel after the death Deborah 3 of Ehud fall to their old Idolatry again and for that ere long fall under Deborah 4 Deborah 5 oppression Shamgar got one wonderful victory for them but wrought Deborah 6 not a perfect deliverance Deborab a woman of Ephraim ariseth after him and Deborah 7 Deborah 8 judgeth the people she being a Prophetess and by the spirit of Prophecy stirreth Deborah 9 up Barak of Nephtali to fight with Sisera whom he overcometh by an army Deborah 10 of Galileans but Sisera himself falleth by the hand of a Proselytess woman Deborah 11 Deborah 12 Then Deborah and Barak sang Here the man of Nephtali giveth goodly Deborah 13 words They tell the sad case of Israel in Shamgars and Jaels times before the Deborah 14 Deborah 15 victory was gotten over Sisera that men durst not go in the common ways nor Deborah 16 dwell in villages and unwalled Towns for fear of the enemy The rich and Deborah 17 Deborah 18 gallant men that used to ride on white Asses durst not ride in those times and Deborah 19 the rulers durst not sit in Judgment for fear of being surprised and people Deborah 20 Deborah 21 durst not go to the Town wells to draw water for fear of the enemies archers Deborah 22 but now all these may speak of the actings of God towards the forsaken villages Deborah 23 Deborah 24 and towards the forlorn places of Judicature in the gates for they
in all Judea and in Samaria c. He had forbidden them before Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans do not enter Matth. 10. 5. but now that partition wall that had been between is to be broken down Of all Nations and people under Heaven the Samaritans were the most odious to the Jews and a main reason was because they were Jews Apostates For though the first peopling of that place after the Captivity of the ten Tribes was by Heathens 2 King 17. yet upon the building of the Temple on mount Gerizim such multitudes of Jews continually flocked thither that generally Samaritanism was but a mongrel Judaism They called Jacob their father expected Messias had their Temple Priesthood Service Pentatuch c. And to spare more take but this one passage in Talm. Jerus Pesachin fol. 27. 2. The Cuthaeans all the time that they celebrate their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven If they do not keep their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are not to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven Rabban Gamaliel saith All the Ordinances that the Cuthaeans use they are more punctual in them then Israel is It is an unhappy obscurity that the Hebrew Writers have put upon the word Cuthaeans for though it most properly signifie Samaritans yet have they so commonly given this name to Christians as the most odious name they could invent to give them that in the most places that you meet with it you cannot tell whether they mean the one or the other In the place cited it seemeth indeed most likely that it means the Samaritans because it speaks of their keeping the feast of unleavened bread and using the Ordinances of Israel unless it speak of those Jews that had received the Gospel and become Christians and were fallen to their Judaism again and joyned that with their Christianity which very many did as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter Simon Magus taketh upon him to believe and is baptized The naming of him calls to mind the mention of one Simon a Magician that Josephus speaks of Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 5. who was a means to intice Drusilla from her former husband to go and marry Felix the Governour of Judea this might very well be that man And it minds of a passage in Tal. Jerus in Jebamoth fol. 13. col 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot but render it The Simonians came to Rabbi and said to him We pray thee give us a man to be our Expositor Judge Minister Scribe Traditionary and to do for us all we need I know what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Tal. Bab. in Cholin fol. 15. But certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means some people but whence so named there is no disputing here Philip baptized Samaria and did great wonders among them but could not bestow the Holy Ghost upon them that power belonged only to the Apostles therefore Peter and John are sent thither for that purpose They laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost Not upon all for what needeth that Or what reason was there for it The gifts of the Holy Ghost that were received were these miraculous ones of Tongues Prophesie c. Acts 10. 46. 19. 6. Now of these there were but these two ends 1. For the confirmation of the doctrine of the Gospel such miraculous gifts attending it And 2. for instruction of others for Tongues were given indeed for a sign 1 Cor. 14. 22. but not only for a sign but for edification and instruction as the Apostle also sheweth at large in the same Chapter Now both these ends were attained though they that received the Holy Ghost were not all but only a few and set number nay the later not conceivable of all for if all were inabled miraculously to be Teachers who were to be taught The Imposition therefore of the Apostles hands mentioned here and elsewhere and those passages These signs shall follow those that believe they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with Tongues c. Mark 16. 17. Repent and be baptized every one of you and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Act. 2. 38 c. were not upon all that believed the Gospel and were baptized but upon some certain number whom they were directed by the Holy Ghost to lay their hands upon as those men that God had appointed and determined for Preachers and Ministers to the people and who by the Imposition of the Apostles hands receiving the Holy Ghost were by those gifts inabled to understand the language and sense of Scripture and to be instructers of the people and to build them up Candaces Eunuch having been at Jerusalem to worship and returning back is converted by Philip. Of Candace Queen of Meroe in Aethiopia see Strabo lib. 17. He met with him in the way that lead from Jerusalem to Gaza the desert Of this place Strabo again lib. 16. speaketh thus Then is the haven of the Gazaeans above which some seven furlongs is the City once glorious but ruined by Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it remaineth desert Diodorus Siculus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The old Gaza lib. 19. for another was built at the haven by the Sea side called sometimes Maiuma Sozom. Eccles. hist. lib. 5. cap. 3. and afterward Constantia named so by Constantine after the name of his sister as saith Euseb. de Vit. Constant lib. 4. cap. 28. or as Sozomen of his son Constantius Whether this Eunuch were a Jew or a Proselyte is scarce worth inquiring his devotion is far more worth spending thoughts upon which brought him so long a journey and imployed him so well in his travail as in reading the Scripture He is baptized in the name of Jesus ver 37. and as it may well be conceived takes ship at Gaza and is the first that we find that carried the profession of Jesus into Africk The mention of which may justly call our thoughts to consider of the Temple built in Egypt by Onias and the vast numbers of Jews that were in that and the Countries thereabouts and yet how little intimation there is in the New Testament Story by whom or how the Gospel was conveyed into those parts Philip is rapt by the Spirit from Gaza to Azotus which were 270 furlongs or 34 miles asunder as Diodor. Sicul. ubi supra measures ACTS CHAP. IX from the beginning to Vers. 23. THE conversion of Paul A monument of mercy 1 Tim. 1. 14 16. A Pharisee a persecutor a murderer yet become a Christian a Preacher an Apostle He consented to Stevens death and after that he gets a Commission from the chief Priests and makes desperate havock in Jerusalem Act. 8. 2. 22. 4. 26. 10. We find all along this Book that the chief Priests are not only the busiest men in persecuting of the Gospel but in
In some copies it is written Christo but so generally interpreted by Christians in the sense mentioned that we shall not at all dispute it The same quarrel was got to Rome with the Gospel that did attend it in all parts of the world where it came among the Jews they still opposing it and contesting against it and so breeding tumultuousness The Apostle here in a strange place and out of monies betaketh himself to work with his hands for his subsistence as also he did in other places upon the same exigent His work was to make Tents of skins such as the Souldiery used to lodge in when they were in the field Hence the phrase Esse sub pellibus This Trade he learned before he set to his studies It was the custom of the Jewish Nation to set their children to some trade yea though they were to be students What is commanded a father towards his son To circumcise him to redeem him to teach him the Law to teach him a Trade and to take him a wife R. Judah saith He that teacheth not his son a trade does as if he taught him to be a thief Rabban Gamaliel saith He that hath a trade in his hand to what is he like He is like to a Vineyard that is fenced Tosapht in Kiddushin per. 1. So some of the great wise men of Israel had been cutters of wood Maym. in Talm. Torah per. 1. And not to instance in any others as might be done in divers Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai that was at this instant Vice-president of the Sanhedrin was a Merchant 4 years and then he fell to study the Law Juchasin fol. 21. Paul had power and warrant to challenge maintenance for preaching as he intimateth many times over in his Epistles but there was not yet any Church at Corinth to maintain him and when there was he would take nothing of the Gentiles for the greater honour and promotion of the Gospel See 1 Cor. 9. 6 11 12. He frequenteth the Synagogue every Sabbath and there reasoneth and perswadeth divers both Jews and Greeks But when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia he was pressed in spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ they having brought him tidings of the great proficiency and piety of Macodonian Churches namely the Philippian and Thessalonian See Act. 17. 14. 1 Thess. 1. 8. 3. 6. upon whose example he was the more earnest to bring the Jews of Corinth on but they oppose and blaspheme whereupon he and Silas and Timothy set to work to build up the Gentiles there The converts in this place were Crispus and Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas 1 Cor. 1. 14 c. and Epenetus Rom. 16. 5. He is called the first fruits of Achaia and so is the houshold of Stephanas 1 Cor. 16. 15. converted at his first coming thither He now sets upon a new task having the Lords incouragement by a vision by night and so he stayeth at Corinth a year and an half In the time of this his abode there he writeth THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS which was the first Epistle that he wrote The poscript affixed to that Epistle doth date it from Athens as it seemeth because of that passage in Chap. 3. 1. We thought it good to be left at Athens alone whereas 1. There was a Church in Achaia when Paul wrote this Epistle Chap. 1. 7. now there was none there while Paul was at Athens for from thence he went to Achaia and began to plant the Church at Corinth 2. Timothy and Silas were joynt Writers with the Apostle of this Epistle Chap. 1. 1. now if they were with him at Athens whilst he abode there which it may be they were at the least one of them 1 Thess. 3. 1. yet was not the Epistle then written for it is questionable whether Silas was there and Timothy went a messenger thither and returned again before this was written Chap. 3. 6. The time of its writing therefore was when Timothy and Silas with him returned from Macedonia and came to Paul at Corinth Act. 18. 5. and Timothy who had been sent thither purposely gives a comfortable account of their faith and constancy So that this Epistle was written from Corinth somewhat within the beginning of the first year of Pauls abode there In it among other things he characterizeth the condition of the unbelieving Jews Chap. 2. 15 16. for the Thessalonian Church from its first planting had been exceedingly molested with them He saith The wrath is come upon them to the utmost which whether it mean passively that the wrath of God lay so heavy upon them or actively that in their vexation and anger against the Gentiles that was come upon them that was foretold for a plague to them Deut. 32. 21. it sheweth that that Nation was now become unrecoverable and so he looks upon it as the Antichrist in the next Epistle as we shall observe there Paul abiding still at Corinth a tumult is raised against him and he is brought before the tribunal of Gallio the Proconsul who refusing to judge in matters of that nature because the Jews themselves had power to judge such matters in their own Synagogue the people become their own carvers and beat Sosthenes even before the Tribunal This Gallio was brother of Seneca the famous Court Philosopher Nero's Tutor and of him Seneca giveth this high Encomion in the Preface to his fourth Book of natural Questions I used to tell thee saith he to his friend Lucius that my brother Gallio whom no man loves not a little if he can love no more is not acquainted with other vices but this of flattery he hates Thou hast tried him on all hands Thou hast begun to praise his disposition He would go away Thou hast begun to praise his frugality He would presently cut thee off at the first words Thou hast begun to admire his affability and unaffected sweetness For there is no mortal man so dear to any as he to all And here also he withstood thy flatteries insomuch that thou criedst out that thou hadst found a man impregnable against those snares that every one takes into his bosom And again in Epist. 104. Gallio saith he when he was in Achaia and began to have a fever he presently took ship crying out that it was not the disease of his body but of the place To him he Dedicates his Treatise de Beata Vita See more of this Gallio Tacit. Annal. 15. Sect. 11. From Corinth in the time of his present abode there but whether before this tumult before Gallio or after is not much material Paul writeth THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS whilest he and Sylvanus and Timotheus were there together Chap. 1. 1. as they had been at the writing of the first The exceeding much trouble and persecution that this Church had suffered from the unbelieving Jews from its first planting Act. 17. 5 c. 1 Thess. 1. 6.
to express that but not any fixed time The Jews themselves have learned to make the same construction of it when they say Adrianus besieged Bitter three years and an half Jerus Taanith fol. 68. col 4. And this also that comfort might stand up against misery was the time of our Saviours Ministry when he restored decaied and ruined Religion in so happy a manner Dan. 9. 27. And this the Jews also have observed in that saying we have mentioned before The divine glory shall stand upon mount Olivet three years and an half and shall preach c. So that according to this interpretation of the numbers the things they are applied unto are facil The Gentiles shall tread the Lords Courts fourty two months and the two Witnesses shall Prophesie a thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth Meaning that the Gentiles shall worship God and attend upon him in a Gospel Ministry and for that allusion is made to the space of time that Christ administred the Gospel but this ministring and attending shall not be without persecution and trouble and for intimation of that allusion is made to the bitter times of Antiochus Two witnesses is a phrase taken from the Law In the mouth of two or of three witnesses every word shall stand and it means all that should bear witness to the truth in the times spoken of But more especially the Ministry which is charactered by the picture of Moses and Elias the two great Reformers in their several times the former the first Minister of the Jews the later of the Gentiles These are two Olive trees See Zech. 4. 3. Rom. 11. 17 24. and two Candlesticks See Chap. 1. 20. gracious in themselves and having light and holding it out to others They must finish and accomplish their work that they had to do and then be overcome by Antichrist and slain Their case is clearly paralleled with Christ their Masters by comparing it with which it is best understood He preached three years and six months in trouble and sorrow so they in sackcloth He having finished his Ministry was slain so they He revived and ascended so they likewise Now this that especially states the case and the counting of the progress of proceedings intended here is this That as Christ laid the foundation of the Gospel and when he having finished his Ministry was slain risen and ascended the Gospel was not extinct with him but increased more and more by the Ministry that followed after So seems this that alludes thereunto to be understood As that the two Witnesses should mean the first Ministry and bearing witness to the truth at the first breaking of it out of Popery which was followed with horrid persecutions and multitudes of Martyrdoms but these first Witnesses having so done their Testimony and vast numbers of them having sealed it with their blood and being gone to Heaven yet the Gospel increased and shook down a part of Rome even at these first beginnings Their dead bodies must be cast in the streets of the great City where our Lord was crucified The term The great City resolves that Rome is meant if there were no other evidence which see explained Chap. 17. 18. And by her power and sentence our Lord was crucisied and for a quarrel of hers being accused and condemned by Pilate as a Traytor to the Roman power for saying he was a King This is the rather mentioned now there is speech of Romes last bloodiness against Christs Witnesses that it might be shewed that it persevered the same to his that it had been to him and that to the last and that these Witnesses drunk but of the same cup that their Master had drunk before them She is called spiritually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews speak Sodom and Egypt Sodom for filthiness and Egypt for Idolatry and mercilesness Never did place under Heaven wallow in fleshly filthiness and particularly in the Sodomitick bestiality as Rome did about those times that John wrote and how little it hath been mended under the Papacy there are Records plain enough that speak to her shame He that reads Marâ—ial and Juvenal to name no more may stand and wonder that men should become such beasts and it had been better that those Books had been for ever smothered in obscurity then that they should have come to light were it not only for this that they and others of the like stamp do give that place her due character and help us the better to understand her description It is observable what Paul saith Rom. â—1 21 22 23 24. that because the Heathen had brutish conceptions concerning God abasing him he gave them over to brutish abasing their own bodies by bestiality or indeed by what was above bestial And so he shews plainly that Gods giving up men to such filthiness especially Sodomy was a direct plague for their Idolatrous conceptions of God and their Idolatry And to this purpose it may be observed that when the Holy Ghost hath given the story of the worlds becoming Heathenish at Babel for and by Idolatry Gen. 11. he is not long before he brings in mention of this sin among the Heathen and fearful vengeance upon it Gen. 19. Apply this matter to the case of Rome and it may be of good information The casting their dead bodies in the streets speaks the higher spite and detestation against them and in this particular they are described different from their Master And as they had prophesied three years and an half so they lay unburied three days and an half till there was no apparent possibility of their recovery But they revive and go to Heaven and a tenth part of the City falls by an Earthquake and seven thousand perish but the rest of that part of the City that fell who perished not gave glory to God Nine parts of the City left standing still whose ruine is working still from henceforward by the Gospel that these Witnesses had set on foot which brings in the Kingdoms to become the Kingdoms of Christ c. REVEL CHAP. XII AS Daniel Chap. 2. giveth a general view of the times from his own days to the coming of Christ in the mention of the four Monarchies in the four parts of Nebuchadnezzers Visionary Image which should run their date and decay and come to nothing before his coming and then in Chap. 7. handles the very same thing again in another kind of scheme and something plainer And then in Chap. 8. 10. 11. 12. doth explain at large and more particularly some of the most material things that he had touched in those generals So doth our Apocalyptick here and forward He hath hitherto given a general survey of the times from his own days to the end and now he goes over some of the chief heads again with explanation And first he begins with the birth of Christ and the Christian Church and the machination of the Devil to destroy both The Church
and those Northern Climates there was so great a peace that in some places there Money and Jewels were hung up by the high way and there was neither Theif nor Enemy to take them away Such times became the coming of Shiloh the Peaceable one Isa. 6. 9. And such a beginning was befitting the Gospel of Peace Augustus having brought the Empire under this quiet obedience like a politick Prince will have it all taxed and brought into the Subsidy Book that he might know the extent of his command of his strength and of his revenues And thus we see and may observe Rome come to its intire and absolute Monarchy but at this time and the state and power that should persecute Christ in his Members to the end of the world beginning and born as it were at the very same time when Christ himself Augustus as c c c c c c Annal. lib. 1 Tacitus recordeth of him did cause an account to be taken of all the Empire and himself had a Book and Record of it written out with his own hand Opes publice continebantur quantum civium sociorumque in armis quot classes regna Provinciae tributa aut vectigalia necessitates ac largitiones quae cuncta sua manu perscripserat Augustus which contained the publick revenue the number of Citizens or confederates in the Armies what Shipping Kingdoms Provinces Tributes or Subsidies and relief money and beneficences Dion also in the life of Augustus and much also about this time mentioneth a tax laid by him upon those that dwelt in Italy whose estates were not less then five thousand Sesterces and poorer then these he taxed not Ver. 2. This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was Governour of Syria The Tax is dated by the time of Cyrenius his Governing of Syria First Because Judea was annexed to Syria as a member of it and in naming the one the other is included Secondly Hereby the loss and want of the Scepter and Law-giver in the Tribe of Judah is the better seen for the subjection of the Jews by this is shewed to be in the third degree They subject to Herod Herod to Cyrenius and Cyrenius to Augustus Thirdly From Syria had Israel had their greatest afflictions that ever they had in their own Land as by Gog and Magog Ezek. 38. or the house of the North Dan. 11. And Luke deriving the taxing of the Jews from Syria calleth those things to mind and layeth as it were the last verse of Dan. 11. and the first of Dan. 12. together The taxing is said first to be made in his time As first Denying that ever there was such an universal taxation in the Empire before for the Empire was never in that case of universal quietness to be taxed before And secondly Importing the taxes of that Country that followed after Augustus at this very time laying the platform subjection and submission of the Empire for succeeding posterities And here let it be said again in exact propriety beginneth the Roman Monarchy and is far from being any of the four mentioned Dan. 2. or 7. Josephus c mentioneth Cyrenius his coming into Syria after Archelaus his death To do d Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 1. justice and to assess and tax every mans goods and he came into Judea which was now annexed to Syria and did so there Now Archelaus reigned after Herod Matth. 2. and reigned till Christ was about ten years old for ten years he reigned as saith the same d d d d d d Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 15. Josephus and therefore either Cyrenius came twice into Syria to lay taxations as Funccius concludeth or else Josephus faileth here as he doth not seldom elsewhere in Chronology Ver. 3. And all went to be taxed This taxing was first by Kingdoms and Countries then by Cities and Towns and then by poll First Kingdoms and Provinces were divided one from another Secondly Cities and Towns in every Kingdom and Province were also particularized and notice given that every one should repair to the place to which by stock and descent they did belong Thirdly The people being thus convened in their several Cities their names were taken and inrolled and so the Greek word here used doth signifie in the nearest propriety Then did they make profession of Subjection to the Roman Empire either by some set form of words or at least by payment of some certain sum of money which was laid upon every poll And now first are the Jews entring under the yoke of that subjection which they never cast off again but it pressed them into a final desolation even to this day Secondly They had voluntarily brought this misery upon themselves in calling in the Romans in their civil wars Thirdly No spark of their former freedom and authority is left among them for their King and Law-giver is clean gone Fourthly They are now to be inrolled and registred for vassals to all succeeding generations Fifthly They must now leave their own occasions and many of them their own houses to attend their own bondage and misery And thus It is in the words of our Rabbins if thou see a generation that hath many afflictions then look for the Redeemer from Isa. 59. 17 18. Jer. 30. 6 7 c. D. Kimch in Isa. 59. Ver. 4. And Ioseph also went up from Galilee c. Whether it were for the fear of Herod that had a murderous spite at the stock of David or for the more commodiousness for his trade or for whatsoever else it was that Joseph a Bethlehemite became a resident in Galilee surely it was the wondrous disposal of the Lord that a decree from Rome should bring him now from Galilee to Bethlehem that the Prophesie of Christs being born in that place might take effect Ver. 7. She brought forth his first born This is to be understood according to the propriety and Phrase of the Law agreeable to which it speaketh Now the Law speaking of the first-born regardeth not whether any were born after or no but only that none was born before As Hur is called the first-born of Ephrata 1 Chron. 2. 5. and yet no mention of any child that she had after So Christ is here called the first-born not as though she had any children besides but to shew that in him was fulfilled what was typified by the first-born under the Law who was as King Priest and Prophet in the Family and holy to the Lord. And so likewise in that speech of Matthew chap. 1. 25. He knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born it implieth not that he knew her after for the word till inforceth no such thing as see the Geneva notes upon the place but the Evangelists intention is to clear the birth and generation of Christ from any carnal mixture of Joseph and Mary before he was born And here it is not unseasonable to look a little narrowly into the time of our Saviours birth namely the time of the
170. His Allegories make him impious and he counteth the story of Paradise to be but foolery if it be taken litteral Pag. 180. He talketh a Rabinical tale about the invention of Musick He constantly followeth the LXX as appeareth pag. 160 179 218 245 255. Pag. 190. He maketh God and his wisdom as it were father and mother of whom the world was generate but not humano more Ibid. He readeth that place Prov. 8. 22. The Lord created me the first of his works For saith he it was necessary that all things that came to generation should be younger than the mother and nurse of all things Pag. 191. He is very uncivil with Jethro Pag. 205. He holdeth Lots wife to have been turned into a stone Pag. 206. He was in the Theater at a play Pag. 213. He holdeth Isaac weaned at seven years old And mentioneth certain Dialogues made by himself personating Isaac and Ismael He calleth cap. 32. of Deuteronomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canticum majus according to the Rabbins phrase so likewise pag. 179. Pag. 214. Jacob praying for Joseph saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very questionable where this speech is to be found Pag. 223. The spirit of God is an immortal knowledge Pag. 232. He treateth de Printogenito secundogenito Dei that is of his Word and the World Pag. 234. He holdeth freewil but it is in comparison of the actions of men with the effects of Plants and Bruits Pag. 241. He is fallen out with Joseph again Pag. 251. He telleth a fable how all Birds and Beasts spake the same Language and understood one another but that their Tongue was confounded because they petitioned that they might never grow old but renew their youth as the Serpent doth who is the basest of them But this is more than enough for a taste we shall conclude this Character with that Apophthegme that came from him when Caius was in a rage against him and his fellow Commissioners How ought we to chear up saith he though Caius be angry at us in words seeing in his deeds he even opposeth God Josephus relateth it Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 10. PART III. The ROMAN Story §. 1. Caius still foolish and cruel THIS year did Caius make an expedition to the Ocean as if he would have passed over into Britain but the greatest exploit that he did was that first he went a little upon the Sea and then returning he gave a signal to his Souldiers that they should fall to battail which was nothing else but that they should gather cockles and shells upon the shoar and so he returned with these goodly spoils and brought them to Rome in a foolish triumph as if he had conquered the Ocean being come into the City he had like to have slain all the Senate because they had not decreed divine honours and worship to him But he became reconciled to them again upon this occasion Protogenes his bloodhound that used to carry his two Books or Black-bills the one whereof he called a Sword and the other a Dagger in which Books he inrolled whom he destined to death or punishment he coming one day into the Court and being saluted and fawned upon by all the Senate was among them all saluted by Scribonius Proculus Upon whom looking with a grim and displeased countenance What saith he dost thou salute me that hatest so deadly the Emperor my Master Whereupon the rest of the Senators arose came upon him and pulled him in pieces With this piece of service so well suiting with the Tyrants humor he was so well pleased that he said they had now regained his favour again Under his cruelty this year perished by name Ptolomy the son of King Juba because he was rich Cassius Becillinus for no crime at all and Capito his father because he could not indure to look upon his sons death Flattery delivered L. Vitellius our late Governor of Syria and it was much to appease such a Lion but that it was a flattery without parallel §. 2. Caius profane The blasphemous Atheist continued still in his detestable Deity being what God he would when he would and changing his Godship with the change of his cloths sometimes a male Deity sometime a female sometime a God of one fashion sometime of another Sometime he was Jupiter sometime Juno sometimes Mars sometimes Venus sometime Neptune or Appollo or Hercules and sometimes Diana and thus whilst he would be any thing he was nothing and under the garb of so many gods he was indeed nothing but Devil He built a Temple for himself in Rome and made himself a room in the Capitol that he might as he said converse with Jupiter But it seems Jupiter and he fell out for he removed his own mansion and built himself a Temple in the Palace because he thought that if Jupiter and he shared in the same Temple Jupiter would have the upper hand and the more repute Therefore that his own Deity might have room enough he built this new Temple and that he might be sure to get equal worship with Jupiter he intended to set up the statue of Jupiter Olympius there but pictured directly after his own Image so that it must have been Jupiters statue but Caius his picture Jupiturs trunk but Caius his head and face but this fine design came to nothing and was clean spoiled for the Ship that went for this statue was spoiled with lightning and there was a great laughing always heard whensoever any one went about to meddle with the picture to forward the business and truly it was as fit an Omen as likely could have been invented for it When this invention thus failed him he found out a new trick to get part of the Temple of Castor and Pollux for himself and joyned it to the Palace and he so contrived the matter that his entrance was just in the middle between those two gods and therefore he called them his Porters and himself he stiled the Dialis and his dear Caesonia and his uncle Claudius and divers of the richer sort he ordained to be his Priests and got a good sum of money of every one of them for their Office nay he would be a Priest unto himself and which best suited with him in such a function he admitted his Horse to be fellow Priest with him and because he would be a right Jupiter indeed he would have his tricks to imitate thunder and lightning and he would ever be defying Jupiter in Homers speech Either take me away or I will take thee And thus was his Palace parted into a sensless contrariety one part to be a Temple and another part a common Stews in one Caius to be adored as a god in another Caius to play the Beast deflowring Virgins violating Boys adulterating Matrons exacting and extracting Money from all and using to tumble himself in heaps of Money which he had so gotten THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman Of the Year of CHRIST
and vex the Reader and yet there are none who do more intice and delight him In no Writers is greater or equal trifling and yet in none is greater or so great benefit The Doctrine of the Gospel hath no more bitter enemies than they and yet the Text of the Gospel hath no more plain interpreters To say all in a word To the Jews their Countrymen they recommend nothing but toys and destruction and poyson but Christians by their skill and industry may render them most usefully serviceable to their Studies and most eminently tending to the Interpretation of the New Testament We here offer some specimen of this our reading and our choice for the Readers sake if so it may find acceptance with the Reader We know how exposed to suspicion it is to produce new things how exposed to hatred the Talmudic Writings are how exposed to both and to sharp censure also to produce them in holy things Therefore this our more unusual manner of explaining Scripture cannot upon that very account but look for a more unusual censure and become subject to a severer examination But when the lot is cast it is too late at this time to desire to avoid the sequel of it and too much in vain in this place to attempt a defense If the work and book it self does not carry something with it which may plead its cause and obtain the Readers pardon and favour our oration or beging Epistle will little avail to do it The present work therefore is to be exposed and delivered over to its fate and fortune whatsoever it be Some there are we hope who will give it a milder and more gentle reception for this very thing dealing favourably and kindly with us that we have been intent upon our Studies that we have been intent upon the Gospel and that we have endeavoured after Truth they will shew us favour that we followed after it and if we have not attained it they will pity us But as for the wrinkled forehead and the slern brow we are prepared to bear them with all patience being armed and satisfied with this inward Patronage That we have endeavoured to profit But this Work whatever it be and whatever fortune it is like to meet with we would dedicate to You My very dear Katherine-Hall men both as a Debt and as a Desire For by this most close bond and tye wherewith we are united to You is due all that we study all that we can do if so be that All is any thing at all And when we desire to profit all if we could which becomes both a Student and a Christian to do by that bond and your own merits You are the very centre and rest of those Desires and wishes We are sufficiently conscious to our selves how little or nothing we can do either for the publick benefit or for Yours yet we would make a publick Profession before all the World of our Desire and Study and before You of our inward and cordial affection Let this pledge therefore of our love and endearment be laid up by You and while we endeavour to give others an account of our Hours let this give You an assurance of our Affections And may it last in Katherine-Hall even to future Ages as a Testimony of Service a Monument of Love and a Memorial both of Me and You. From my Study The Calends of June 1658. HORAE Hebraicae Talmudicae OR HEBREW AND TALMUDICAL EXERCITATIONS upon the Evangelist St. Matthew CHAP. I. VERS I. Βίβλος ΓενÎσεως Ἰησοῦ ΧÏιστοῦ The Book of the Generation of Iesus Christ. _×¢ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 TEN a Stocks came up out of Babylon 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priests 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levites 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Talm. in Kiddush cap. 4. Art 1. Israelites 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Persons as to the Priesthood such whose Fathers indeed were sprung from Priests but their Mothers unfit to be admitted to the Priests Marriage Bed 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liberti or Servants set Free 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothi for such as were born in Wedlock but that which was unlawful 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nethinims 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bastards such as came of a certain Mother but of an uncertain Father 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such as were gathered up out of the Streets whose Fathers and Mothers were uncertain A defiled Generation indeed and therefore brought up out of Babylon in this common sink according to the Opinion of the Hebrews that the whole Jewish Seed still remaining there might not be polluted by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Ezra went not up out of Babylon until he had rendred it pure as flower They are words of the Babylonian Gemara which the gloss explains thus He left not any there that were illegitimate in any respect but the Priests and Levites only and Israelites of a pure and undefiled stock Therefore he brought up with him these ten kinds of Pedigrees that these might not be mingled with those when there remained now no more a Sanhedrin there which might take care of that matter Therefore he brought them to Jerusalem where care might be taken by the Sanhedrin fixed there that the legitimate might not marry with the illegitimate Let us think of these things a little while we are upon our entrance into the Gospel History I. How great a cloud of obscurity could not but arise to the people concerning the original of Christ even from the very return out of Babylon when they either certainly saw or certainly believed that they saw a purer spring of Jewish blood there than in the Land of Israel it self II. How great a care ought there to be in the Families of pure blood to preserve themselves untouched and clean from this impure sink and to lay up among themselves Genealogical Scrols from generation to generation as faithful witnesses and lasting monuments of their legitimate stock and free blood Hear a complaint and a Story in this case b b b b b b Hiâ—â—â—â— Kiddâ—â— fol. 6â— â— Bab. ibid fol. 71. R. Jochanan said By the Temple it is in our hand to discover who are not of pure blood in the Land of Israel But what shall I do when the â—â—â—â—â— mâ—â— of this generation lie hid that is when they are not of pure blood and yet we must not declare so much openly concerning them He was of the same Opinion with R. Isaac who said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Family of the poluted blood that lies hid let it lie hid Abai also saith We have learned this also by tradition that there was a certain Family called the Family of Beth-Zeripha beyond Jordan and a son of Zion removed it away The gloss is some eminent Man by a publick Proclamation declared it impure But he caused another which was such that is
meditate therein when thou sittest down and risest up when thou sittest in the house when thou walkest in the way and various such passages as these require and ingage all sorts and conditions of people to this study and meditation according to their several capabilities and atcheivances In some important points of Divinity some men have sometimes mistaken in stating them by mens benefit rather than by their duty If you did so in this point it would make one very good piece of an argument study the Scriptures for you may benefit by study of them But take the other and it argueth more strongly study the Scripture for it is your duty God calls for it lays his command upon you to do it the best you can II. Therefore upon this we may make such another inference as Samsons mother doth Judg. XIII 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have accepted an offering neither would he have shewed us all these things If the Lord were pleased that the Scriptures should not be understood he would never have written them he would never have charged all to study them God never writ the difficulties of the Scripture only to be gazed upon and never understood never gave them as a book sealed and that could never be unsealed that learned and unlearned alike might never see what is in them but that they might be more seriously read more carefully studied that so being understood and practised they might become the means of Salvation unto all A SERMON Preached upon DANIEL XII 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days 13. But go thou thy way till the end for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of days DOTH he not speak riddles T is hard to tell whether verse is harder And I have chosen to speak to them partly that I may explain them partly in subsequence to my late discourse about Gog Rev. XX 8. I shewed that meant an enemy to true Religion and more particularly the Pope styled by the name of the old Enemy Ezek. XXXVIII XXXIX I shewed that Gog was Antiochus that laid wast the Jews Religion and would force them to turn to the manners of the Heathen that forbad them Circumcision Law Religion forbad the daily Sacrifice and profaned the Altar with Swines flesh and sacrifices abominable and offered to Idols I cited that that speaks concerning him Chap. VII 25. He shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High c. until a time and times and the dividing of time that is a year two years and half a year or three years and an half In the verse before the Text there is mention of the same matter and there are reckoned only a thousand two hundred and ninety days From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days For the Holy Ghost reckons by round sums near about three years and an half which he calls a time times and half a time and does not punctually fix upon the very exact sum And so in the Book of the Revelations where allusion is made to the same space of time viz. three years and an half it is sometimes expressed by a thousand two hundred and sixty days as Rev. XII 6. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days Sometimes by forty two months Chap. XIII 5. And there was given to the beast a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given him to continue forty and two months You have both in Chap. XI 2. They that tread the holy City under-foot forty and two months And vers 3. I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days Now let your thoughts conceive the case and state of the people and Temple in this time a thousand two hundred and ninety days three years and an half or there abouts no Law no Religion no Sacrifice but what is abominable the Temple filled with Idols the Heathen there sacrificing swines-flesh and other abominable things to their abominable gods Ah! Poor Jerusalem what case art thou in How is the gold become dim nay changed to dros What desolation of Religion is come upon thee and what bondage and thraldom under irreligion How it goes against their heart not to circumcise their children But they dare not do it How grievous to see the Books of the Law burnt and they upon pain of death dare not save them nor use them How bitter to see Altar Temple Holy of Holies all defiled with abomination and all Religion laid in the dust and they cannot help it dare not resist it What should these poor people do Wait Gods deliverance for Haec non durabunt in secula These things will not always last Stay but till one thousand three hundred thirty five days but forty five above the thousand two hundred and ninety of the Temples defilement in the verse before and there is deliverance And read two verses together From the time that the dayly sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days Add but forty five days further the sum to come up to a thousand three hundred thirty five days and there is some remarkable thing done as pleading the cause of the people and Religion that had been so abused which in all probability was the death of the Tyrant that had brought this misery upon them or at least some signal thing done by God for the relief of the people who had been so oppressed But I rather believe the former The story of whose actions and death you may read in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. I. beginning The story of which book goes almost step by step with Josephus However his death was the Mercy or some other special providence the words afford plainly these two Truths I. That the time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God II. That it is a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination The former Observation lies in the latter clause the latter in the former The two things the latter an inference upon the former or the former a Doctrine the latter the Use and Application of it I shall handle in the same method and order The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God Therefore it will prove a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination In prosecuting either I shall not so much prove as clear