about the Temple was more sacred than the Court of the Gentiles for hither no Heathen nor any unclean by that which died of it self nor who lay with a menftrous woman might come e e e e e e Middoth in the place above From hence they ascended into the Court of the Women by twelve steps On the East it had only one Gate called in the Holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beautiful Act. III. 2. In Josephus The Corinthian gate f f f f f f De bello lib. 5 cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith he Of the Gates nine of them were every where overlaied with Gold and Silver likewise the Posts and the Lintels But one without the Temple made of Corinthian brass did much exceed in glory those that were overlaid with Silver and Gold And two Gates of every Court were each thirty cubits high and fifteen broad On the South was only one Gate also and one on the North and Galleries or Court-walks within joyning to the Wall in the same manner as in the outer Court but not g g g g g g Id. ibidem double Before which were the Treasuries placed or h h h h h h Shekalim cap. 6. hal 1. thirteen chests called by the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schopharoth in which was put the mony offered for the various services of the Temple and according to that variety the chests had various titles written on them whence the Offerer might know into which to put his Offering according to his quality i i i i i i Ibid. hal 5. Upon one was inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The new Shekles into which were cast the Shekels of that year Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The old Shekles into which were gathered the shekels owing the last year Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pigeons and Turtles Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The burnt sacrifice Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wood. Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Frankincense Upon another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gold for the propitiation And six chests had written on them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntary sacrifice l l l l l l Middoth in the place above hal 5. Bâ—â—h Joma fol. 16. 1. The length of the womens Court was an hundred thirty five cubits and the bredth an hundred thirty five cubits And there were four chambers in the four corners of it each forty cubits but not roofed See Ezek. XLVI 21 22. At the South East was the Court of the Nazarites because there the Nazarites boyled their Thank-offerings and cut their hair and put it under the pot At the North East was the chamber of Wood where the Priests defiled with any spot searched the Wood whether it was unclean by Worms And all Wood in which a Worm was found was not fit for the Altar At the North West was the Chamber of the Leprous At the South West was the Chamber of Wine and Oyl On the highest sides we follow the version of the famous Constantine l'Empereur was the smooth and plain Court of the Women but they bounded it round about with an inward Gallery that the women might see from above and the men from below that they might not be mingled m m m m m m Succah cap. 5 hal 2. c. In this Court of the Women was celebrated the sacred and festival dance in the feast of Tabernacles called the pouring out of water the Ritual of which you have in the place cited in the margin n n n n n n Maimon in Beth habbish in the place above The Court of the Women was more sacred than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chel because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any who had contracted such an uncleanness that was to be cleansed the same day might not enter into it CHAP. XXX The gate of Nicanor or the East gate of the Court of Israel FROM hence they went up from the Court of the Women fifteen steps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a a a a a a Joseph de Bello lib. 5. cap. 14. There were fifteen steps saith Josephus ascending from the partition wall of the women to the greater gate Concerning these steps the Talmudists relating the custom of the Dance just now mentioned speak thus b b b b b b Succah cap. 5 hal 4. The religious men and the men of good works holding torches in their hands danced and sung The Levites with Harps Lyres Cymbals Trumpets and infinite other musical Instruments stood upon the fifteen steps going down out of the Court of Israel into the Womens Court singing according to the number of the fifteen Psalms of Degrees c. The East Gate of the Court of Israel was called the Gate of Nicanor c c c c c c Middoth cap. 2. hal 3. All the Gates were changed to be of Gold except the Gate of Nicanor because concerning that a miracle was shewn others say because the brass of it did exceedingly shine d d d d d d Sotab cap. 1. hal 5. In the Gate of Nicanor they made the suspected wife drink the bitter waters they purified the woman after child birth and the Leper Of the miracle done about the folding doors of this Gate see Constantine l'Empereur Middoth page 57. and Juchasin fol. 65. 2. c. Who also produceth another reason of the name in these words In the book of Josephus ben Gorion it is said that the Gate of Nicanor was so called because a miracle was there shewn namely that there they slew Nicanor a Captain of the Grecians in the days of the Asmoneans which may also be seen in the end of the second Chapter of the Tract Taanith The History alledged is thus e e e e e e Bab. Taanith fol. 18. 2. Vid. Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 17. Nicanor was one of the Captains of the Greeks and every day he wagged his hand toward Judea and Jerusalem and said Oh! when will it be in my power to lay them wast But when the Asmonean family prevailed they subdued them and slew him and hung up his Thumbs and great Toes upon the Gates of Jerusalem Hence Nicanors day is in the Jewish Calendar f f f f f f Joseph in the place above This Gate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. fifty cubits in height the doors contained forty cubits and very richly adorned with Silver and Gold laid on to a great thickness g g g g g g Sanhedr â—â— 11. hal â— In that Gate sat a Councel of three and twenty as there was another in the Gate of Susan h h h h h h Bab. Joma fol. 11. 1. None of the Gates had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A small scrole of paper fixed to the Posts but the Gate of Nicanor CHAP.
at an Episcopal Visitation held there by the Right Reverend Father in God Benjamin late Lord Bishop of Ely Nec periculosius aut terribilius sonâ—it olim Shibboleth Gileaditarum c. That the Shibboleth of the Gileadites antiently sounded not more dangerously than the Title of Saints of late Whereas as he shews in that Sermon and used to urge in the late times That by Saints is meant nothing but Christians in opposition to Heathens or Unbelievers And that the Apostle in that phrase speaks with the common notion of the Jewish Nation to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Holiness signifies no more than Within the Profession of the Jewish Religion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not in Holiness signifies as much as In Heathenism But it is time to make an end though I am sensible all that hath been said is far short of what might have been concerning a Man of his Figure in the Learned World and what should if further accounts of him had come to hand from such his Learned friends and acquaintance as could or would have imparted them But what hath been written is sufficient to give a Draught of him Which however defective it may be it hath this advantage that it is a true one these notices being taken partly from such Persons who well knew him or were related to him and partly collected out of his Printed Epistles but chiefly out of abundance of other Letters loose Papers Note-books and other M S S. in my hands Which course is now become the most fashionable as it is indeed the best way of writing Historical matters Epistolaris Historia est optima Historia as Cardinal Baronius used to say I have had no temptation to write any thing favore aut odio having no other aim in this undertaking but to represent our Author fairly and truly to such as shall be disposed to read him or know him And I chose to digest it in this method as most proper for it being a hasty Rapsody of remainders of things worthy to be remembred concerning this excellent Man and which were omitted in the Account of his Life The method I know is not so correct and exact as it might have been and as it should if more time and leisure had been allowed If any would know our Author better let him have recourse unto his Books there he shall have Doctor Lightfoot speaking for himself and giving his own Character in every Page there he may read and see Learning Diligence Accuracy Candor Humility a love of Peace and an earnest scrutiny after Truth and a great Zeal for God and Religion shining every where And now upon the whole shall we retire from reading this long Relation without reaping any benefit thereby further than to have heard some news Then we have in effect but lost our time Great Examples are great arguments to provoke to imitation If we desire the Esteem he had left behind him among good Men let us take the course he did and try to arrive at his Virtue and Learning and if we would attain to that let use his tools I mean Industry Study Constancy and especially Modesty and a sense of our own Ignorance Without which last if any one hath attained to any considerable degree of knowledge thousands have failed thereof for the want of it This was Seneca's judgment Puto multos potuisse ad Sapientiam pervenire nisi putassent se pervenisse That many might have arrived to Wisdom had they not vainly thought that they had already done it Finally if we are any thing our selves or have any advantages communicated to us from the gifts and endowments of others as all is ultimately to be resolved into the grace and goodness of God so let us not forget to give him all the Praise and Glory I. STRYPE Ad Autorem ETsi jam tristem glacies incarcerat annum Excidit rigida penna caduca manu Ipse licet stupeat concretus pyxidis humor Durus in nigras perneget ire notas Immo etiam resoluta focis prodire tremiscit Pallens conspecta lacryma nigra nive Quamvis Musarum stagnent in marmora fontes Fluminis obliti vena nec ulla fluat Attamen huic dextrae veteri ne desit amico Quod negat undarum vena dabit silicis Gratulor ergo tibi Lightfoote volumine justo Quod libros donet postuma cura tuos Nam quasi praesentem nunâ— te compellat amice Musa memor palpi suspicione procul Tu Rabbinorum percurris singula sordes Edoctus planta transiliisse levi Dumque tuas longis redimis de noctibus Horas Concinnas nobis ex Oriente diem Abstulerat quondam Legis gens invida clavem ac In Talmude suo postea condiderat Hanc tu ruspando reperisti hac plurima pandis Et reseras nobis quae latuere diu Sic clavam Alcidae extorques ensemque Goliae Cum spoliis Phariis das modo sacra Deo Sic olim Paulus quam scripsit Epistola cunctas Exhibuit nobis Gamalielis opes W. D. IOHANNES LIGHT FOOT S. T. P. Agro Staffordiensi oriundus Ecclesiae Magnae Mundoniae in agro Hertfordiensi Rector Aulae S. Catharinae apud Cantabrigienses Praefectus Et Eliensis Canonicus Eruditione omnifaria praesertim Orientali Instructissimus Qui Thalmudicam doctrinam miro judicii acumine tractavit Et Rabbinicae literaturae venam exhibuit Quod rarum sine scoriis S. Scripturis obscurioribus lucem dedit confusis harmoniam In Chronologiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eruendis Conjector felicissimus Et Hebraicae veritatis Vindex strenuus Intimus Templi Hierosolymitani Mystes Qui secretiora adyta penetravit sacra ordinavit Atria mensus est Calamo vere Angelico Terram Canaaniticam Injuria temporis magna parte deperditam Face requirens Thalmudica Sibi ipsi Orbi restituit Qui bonas literas optimis ornavit moribus Suavitate singulari candore summo humilitate eximia Amicis maximum reliquit sui desiderium Omnibus exemplum Senectute vegeta Studendo scribendo concionando lubenter impensa Deposuit tandem quicquid erat mortale Horis vero Hebraice Talmudice impensis Nomen suum reliquit Aeternitati Sacrum Whereas at the beginning of the Indexes of this Volume there are inserted several Errors escaped in the same Here follow some others since observed upon review thereof what more the Judicious Reader shall meet with he is desired courteously to correct with his Pen. ERRATA'S In the Life and Appendix PAge IX line 10. read Lodice p. XIX l. 1. r. all p. XXII l. 37. r. Knorr p. XXVI l. 1. r. Turretinus Ibid. l. 36. r. And as one p. XXIX l. 12. r. Master and Patron p. XXX l. 2. r. We now commemorate Ibid. l. 12. r. My self I should p. XXXVII l. 19. r. Let us In the first Volume PAge 21. for § 14. read 24. p. 46. for 400 Men r. 600. p. 37. for Syris r. Syria p. 369. for Mugdala r. Magdala p. 453. l.
a man use irreverence before this Gate of Nicanor or the East Gate And so in the first Chapter of Sotah In the Gate of Nicanor they make the suspected wife drink the bitter water and they purifie women after Childbirth and Lepers And in the end of the Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the seventh Chapter of the Treatise Pesachin It is said that the Gate of Nicanor was not holy as the Court because Lepers stood there and put in their thumbs and great toes into the Court And so in the third Chapter of Joma and the second Chapter of Tosaphta there it is said there were wonders wrought with the doors of Nicanor and they mention it renownedly And if so then had it been fit to have recorded him The story is thus This Nicanor was one of the Chasiddim and he went to Alexandria in Egypt and made there two brazen doors with much curiosity intending to set them up in the Court of the Temple and he brought them away by sea Now a great storm happening the mariners cast one of the doors over board to lighten the ship and intended also to throw over the other also Which when Nicanor perceived he bound himself to the door with cords and told them that if they threw that in they should throw him in too And so the Sea ceased from her rage And when he was landed at Ptolemais and bemoaned the loss of his other door and prayed to God about it the Sea cast up the door in that place where the holy man had landed But some say a great fish cast it up And this was the miracle that was done about his doors and they set them up on the East side of the Court before the Temple But in the books of Joseph ben Gorion he saith That the Gate of Nicanor was so called because a wonder was done there for there they slew Nicanor a Prince of the Grecians in the time of the Asmoneans and so it seemeth in the later end of the second Chapter of the Treatise Taanith Thus Jucasin I shall not insist upon it to dispute it out whether of these things alledged were the cause of the name of this Gate or whether something else Some other conjectures might be added as whether Nicanor that sent the doors from Alexandria were not he that was the Kings Chief Master of the Ceremonies there of whom Josephus maketh mention q q q Ios. Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. and relateth how he provided Chambers and Diet for the Septuagint Translaters or whether this Gate were not so called in honour of Seleucus Nicanor the first King of Syria who was a great favourer of the Jewish Nation r r r Ibid. cap. 3. as the same Josephus also relateth But I shall leave the searching after the Etymology and original of the name to those that have mind and leasure thereunto it sufficeth to know the Gate by its name which was so renowned and famous in all Jewish Writers only as to the story about Nicanor a Grecian Prince being slain here compare 1 Maccab. VII 33 34. c. Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 17. Before we part from this Gate we must remember to say something about the Gate Sur and the Gate of the Foundation of which there is mention 2 King XI 6. 2 Chron. XXIII 5. because that these are held by some as was shewed before to have been but names of this East-Gate of the Court that we are about The Texts where these names are mentioned do speak to this purpose in our English Translation 2 King XI 2 Chron. XXIII Vers. 5. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the Kings house Vers. 4. A third part of you entring in on the Sabbath of the Priests and of the Levites shall be porters of the doors 6. And a third part shall be at the Gate Sur and a third part at the Gate behind the guard c. 5. And a third part shall be at the Kings house and a third part at the Gate of the foundation c. 7. And two parts of you that go forth on the Sabbath even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the King c.  The two Courses of the Priests and Levites now present namely that course that came in on the Sabbath and the other that had served their week and were now going out Johoiada divides either of them into three parts into six in all They that came in on the Sabbath were to be 1. A third part of them for the Altar and service the Priests for the Sacrifices and the Levites for Singers and Porters as in the constant duty and attendance For it was now the Sabbath day and had it been any other day it is not to be imagined that Jehoiada would neglect the affairs of God though he went about the affairs of the King But he provides for both so that the Temple Service may have its due attendance as well as the Kings coronation And therefore vers 5. of 2 King XI is necessarily to be rendred thus A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath that is a third part of you shall be as those that come in on the Sabbath to attend the Service as at other times And is so 2 Chron. XXIII 4. to be translated A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath for Priests and Levites and Porters that is to attend the Altar Song and Gates as in the constant service 2. Another third part for Keepers of the Watch at the Kings House 3. And another third part at the Gate Sur which is also called the Gate of the Foundation Thus the Text in the two Books laid together do plainly distribute the course that was to come in on the Sabbath as he will see that will carefully compare them together in the original The course that was going out on the Sabbath was disposed 1. One third part of them to the Gate behind the Guard 2. Two third parts to keep the watch of the House of the Lord for the safety of the King Now the very disposal of these Guards will help us to judge concerning the Gates that we have in mention and will resolve us that they were not any Gates of the Temple at all but that they stood in some place else For the Gates of the Temple were guarded by the Porters of the course that came in as in the ordinary manner and there was an extraordinary Guard added besides throughout all the Mountain of the House and in the Court of that course that was going out 2 King XI 7 8. 11. Therefore the Gate Sur or the Gate of the Foundation which was guarded by a third part of those that come in on the Sabbath cannot be supposed for any Gate of the Temple since the Temple was guarded by two
to better purpose made use of it than this our laborious and learned Author I will only here as I have done in the particulars before add an instance or two out of many of our own observation and put an end to this short essay of the utility of oriental Learning In Matth. XII 36. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idle word for every one of which our Saviour saith men shall give an account he doth not say shall be condemned or punished may perhaps be of the same importance with that which the Talmudists and Rabbins call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the talk of those who are idle at leisure have little to do such as is used among people in ordinary conversation when they meet together As what news How doth such a person Or the like Even this may be well or ill done prudently or foolishly and therefore even of this an account will be required See Maiem Comment in Pirk Av. cap. 1. That of our Saviours promise Matth. XVIII 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them is well parallel'd and illustrated by the saying of R. Chaninah Pirk. Avo. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If but two together employ themselves in the Law the Shechinah or divine presence will be among them the like also T. B. Ber. 6. 1. That of St. Mark XIV 56. concerning the false witnesses against our Saviour that their witnesses agreed not together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be somewhat explained by the custom we read of in T. B. Sanh Misn. cap. 5. they used to put seven questions to every one of the witnesses apart namely in what Jubilee or space of forty nine years any thing was done in what year of that Jubilee What month What day of the month What day What hour What place If the words of the witnesses agreed not the Testimony was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an idle Testimony which was to no purpose if they did agree it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a firm and effectual Testimony And a somewhat more obscure saying of our Saviour to the Samaritan woman John IV. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life This may receive light from a like saying in in pir Avo. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Law gives him that studies in it a Kingdom Dominion Sagacity in judgment revelation of its secrets and becomes to him like a never ceasing fountain and mighty flowing river The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the refreshment of Spirit in the World to come of which R. Jacob in pir Av. cap. 4. pronounceth that one hours enjoyment is more worth than a whole life in this World is very like St. Peters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the times of refreshment which shall come from the presence of the Lord Acts III. 19. The Apostles advice Cor. I. 8. to abstain from things offer'd to Idols was in compliance with those Brethren who thought it unlawful from a Jewish Canon T. B. Avod zar Mis. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is lawful to eat of the flesh which is carrying into an Idols Temple but not of that which comes out because it is of the sacrifices of the dead i. e. to inanimate Idols or to dead persons That place of 1 Cor. XI 10. where St. Paul commands the women to cover their heads in praying because of the Angels would have given Criticks and Expositors no trouble if they had observed that the Apostle alluded to and allowed of the received opinion of the Jews concerning Angels being present and that with curiosity in some humane affairs of importance but especially in Religious matters We may learn thus much and smile into the bargain from what we read concerning R. Joshua and R. Jose the Priest in T. B. Chag 14. 2. 'T is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense As R. Joshua and R. Jose the Priest were walking together they said one to another let us discourse of the Mereavah or Chariot that is the Metaphysical part of their Cabbala or traditional mysterious Philosophy so called from the vision of Ezekiel where they think it was mystically taught R. Joshua began and it was upon the day of the Summer Solstice presently the Heavens were covered with clouds and there appeared a kind of a Bow in a cloud and the ministring Angels were crowding to hear as men use to do at the solemnities of the Bridegroom and Bride This story will not fail to bring to our minds that of St. Peter 1. I. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into which things the matters of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into Which makes me a little wonder at the opinion of our Author pag. 303. so well versed in those Books that by the Angels are meant the Devils making a bait of the beauty of the women to entangle the Eyes and Hearts of the men Perhaps he hath changed his opinion in his notes upon the Epistle to the Corinthians which I could never yet see He that reads in the Chaldee Paraph. commonly called Jonathan's on the Pentateuch Gen. XXXV 25 26. That the Angels used to meet together at certain times to praise God vocally and in the same Targ. as also in the Jerusalem how the Angel which wrestled with Jacob desired him that he would let him go because that very morning was his first course from the Creation with others to laud and praise God He that reads the long story of R. Chaninah and R. Kasma in the Medraschim Printed with Zohar fol. 46. pag. 2. col 2. concerning the Angels Aza and Azael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who murmuring and rebelling against God and by him tumbled down from his holy place and then clothed with aiery vehicles playing pranks with women were bound with long Iron chains to the mountains of darkness I say he that reads these cannot but refer them to 1 Cor. XIII 1. The Tongues of Angels and 2 Pet. II. 4. The Angels that sinned and were cast down to Hell and delivered into chains of darkness and Jude vers 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness I have put as many things together here as I could conveniently and could add much more But it is time to put an end to this part of our little dissertation and to draw to a conclusion of the whole In the beginning of our Preface I promised something concerning this very worthy and learned Author It is but a little I have to say of him but it is all that either my own knowledge or others no very forward information would amount to He was born in Staffordshire and educated in Christs College in Cambridge but in that Age
when the strain of Opinions in Divinity ran generally another way after the first Forreign Reformers before things were so calmly impartially and perhaps judiciously examined He lived and publickly appeared principally when Factions grew high and were in great ferment when the Populacy the worst of Masters all being done the most ignorant selfish and ungenerous were courted when publick accusation was the fashion and all things found fault with right or wrong when affairs were carried with clamour confidence and violence with pretences and appearances of Religion and Reformation backed with a present success And it was no wonder if some good and innocent men especially such as he who was generally more concerned about what was done in Judea many Centuries since than what was transacted in his own Native Country by the intrigues and designs of Enthusiastical or Hypocritical Polititians I say it is no wonder if some such were born away to some compliances in some opinions and practises in Religious and Civil matters which they themselves afterwards upon more sedate and serious reflection did not allow And yet it seems his innocency from any self-interest or design together with his Learning secured him from the extravagancies and follies of the Demagogues the peoples Oracles every one of which affected to distinguish and signalize himself by some peculiar Doctrine or Custom but in truth were no more fit for Teachers and Governors in Religion than Mountebanks to compose Dispensatories or to be Presidents of Colleges of Physicians For one little proof of which when in the University it self the use of the Lords Prayer was generally laid aside He did in the University Church as I remember both produce and discourse his own opinion concerning the obligations to use the form of it in Publick and accordingly to testifie his more than ordinary assurance and zeal recited it both before and after his Sermon His preaching in the University in his course which he seldom omitted was to the most judicious and best disposed and there were many who began carefully to examine things when heats were over very acceptable For he always brought with him some new and considerable notion either in the explication of some place of Scripture or confirmation of it which was usually followed with some application delivered with a very sensible and grave Piety He was for his temper as far as I know or have heard from those who knew him better and may be gathered from many of his Prefaces of as great modesty as learning humble and mean in his own opinion perhaps to an excess Where the greatness of that amiable virtue a thing rare seems to have betrayed him to an errour in judgment concerning himself and his own value and too long Commendations and Elogiums of others As he was most obliging and kind himself to others so by what I have heard he was the most sensible of their obligations to him which might be the cause why he was in some cases so liberal in his acknowledgments and praises Having more regard to the favour he received than to the right or other qualities and circumstances of the person who bestowed it He was most assiduous and laborious in his Study where he spent almost the whole time and peradventure somewhat too much when he was in a station of some action and government His Learning is best known from his Works It lay principally in History Chronology Systematical Divinity the Oriental Tongues but above all in Rabbinical and Talmudical Authors In these last doubtless he had spent a great deal of time and taken a vast deal of pains and I do believe I have reason to say as far as appears by writings that he had been the most conversant and was the most skilled in the two Talmuds the principal part of Jewish Learning being their Canon and Civil Law of any man in Europe And his Ability in this sort of Knowledge and Learning was so well known and esteemed in the time of the edition of that Herculean and incomparable Work of the English Polyglot-Bible though now too low prized that he was often consulted and did as freely communicate his Observations and Collections In the Apparatus to it are Printed his animadversions upon the Chorographical Tables or Maps of the Holy-land made by Adrichomius Trinius c. in which he discovers and corrects a great number of gross errours and his opinion is more than once cited in the Prolegomena All which is but very little in compare with what he hath since done in his Chorographical disquisitions before his Horae Hebraicae on Matthew Mark Luke and John but of this others perhaps ere long will give an account It is not so forraign to the Argument and design of this Preface to take notice here by the way and upon this occasion of the French Critick now so much in vogue with us Father Simon who as he hath indeed in that Book of his given very just commendations to so great a performance so he hath been pleased to find some faults therein and to make many other observations and reflections concerning other matters with reason little enough As for example perhaps because he saw the compilers of those many great Volumes so good husbands as to give us the Alexandrine Copy of the Septuagint as it were in the Margin by noting only the differences from the Vatican Copy He thought they would have done well to have given us in like manner the Samaritan Text and Version of the Pentateuch whereas there are not the same reasons Perhaps there are more and more considerable differences between the Hebrew and Samaritan than between the two Copies of the Seventy and then the reading of the Hebrew in Samaritan letter and that without any points as also the being acquainted with the dialect of the Samaritan Version so very remote from the Hebrew and somewhat different from all other of the Chaldee Paraphrasts were sufficient reasons besides others for the Printing them as they are done entirely And indeed they would have been much to blame if they had omitted them and followed some such advice as that of this Author But his reflection upon the Protestants in another place wants either judgment or sincerity where when he hath shewed as he thinks the very great difficulty in translating the Holy Scriptures he infers the great ignorance of the Protestants or the little pains they have taken in finding out their difficulty when they affirm that the Word of God contained in the Scriptures is plain and not at all intricate But what Protestant saith so They say indeed that the matters necessary to salvation are plainly contained in the Scriptures which in my opinion is so certain and easie a truth that neither he nor any other will be able to confute it and for my part I am so far from believing that all necessaries to salvation are not plainly contained in the Scriptures that I think both they and a multitude of not necessaries
to be known introductory to such a Work Where he purposed to treat largely and freely upon these five things Oh! that it had pleased God so to have disposed his future occasions and opportunities that he might have accomplished these his useful and brave Designs I. To fix the certain year of our Saviours birth II. To dispose in their proper places all the dislocations of Texts and Stories in the Old Testament which are exceeding many That such dislocations in the New Testament might be thought the less strange III. To make a Chorographical Description of the Land of Canaan and the places adjoyning Which would help to the clearer understanding of much of the Story of the Gospel And IV. A Topographical Description of Jerusalem and of the Fabrick of the Temple to facilitate divers passages in the Gospel of no small obscurity And V. To give some History of the State and Customs of the Jews in those times when the Gospel began and was first preached out of their own Authors What an excellent Book would this have been And this he set himself roundly and in good earnest about and had chosen him a Patron viz. A Noble Man of his own Country to whom to dedicate the whole For this Work he had laid in many materials and made a good progress in it in so much that he foresaw it was like to swell to a great Volume This began to discourage him not his own pains that he saw by what he had already done would be very great but the injurious Press that in those times refused any thing but what was very brief This put him upon a new labour namely to contrive how to Epitomize and Abbreviate what he had written and to send out his Studies piece-meal into the World as he did afterwards Whereby his Method was broken many of his useful Notions suppressed by studying brevity and all that after saw the Light but a kind of confused Harmony Whereas what a Noble and excellent Treatise would it have appeared if it had been digested according to the Authors first project into one just Volume Indeed had it pleased God to lengthen out his life sometime longer we might possibly have seen all his pieces compiled and digested into a Method by his own Hand and reduced probably in such an Order as he had originally designed them For upon the resort of some Booksellers to him and their desire that he would revise and prepare all his formerly published Works he gave them his promise that he would consider their proposal But his death prevented the bringing this to any effect But it may be some satisfaction to all those that value Doctor Lightfoot and his Learning that though the World enjoys not this Labour in the Method and Perfection it was at first intended yet he lived so long as to impart to us at several times the sum and substance of it For to look back upon the design of that Harmony and Preface before mentioned Of the four parts whereof the Harmony was to consist the two last namely the explaining of the difficulties of the Language and illustrating the sense are effected in part in his last and best Labours The Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations and we lament only that his leisure or his Life permitted him not to have gone through all the Books of the New Testament in that Method as well as the Four Gospels the first Epistle to the Corinthians and some part of the Acts of the Apostles and a scrap of the Romans And the two former parts of the said Harmony namely the Order of the Texts and his Reasons for so ordering them we have in his Three Harmonies afterwards published and especially in his last published in the year 1655. The chief thing we want here is the full Text of the Four Evangelists laid down before us in its true Order of time And this he had transcribed curiously and exactly from end to end by his own Hand in that Order and Series as things occurred Whereby those four Divine Historians were reduced into one compleat Story and might have been read with far more ease and pleasure and understanding But he offered it to the Press and found its passage difficult because it would swell the Book too much as he tells us in his Epistle before that Book This M S. lyes in a private Hand and may hereafter if occasion serve see the Light As for the five Parts of the Preface designed the two first were compleated and published long since by him Annis 1644 1647. And for the two next the Land of Canaan is Chorographically described and the situation of Jerusalem and the Temple in some measure shewn in his Disquisitions prefixed before his several Horae Hebraicae and in his distinct Treatise of the Temple And this last Edition of his Works exhibits all this in three Maps one of Jerusalem another of the Holy Land drawn according to the Doctors own judgment and a third of the Temple it self accurately drawn by the Doctors own Hand upon Vellam and now Printed from that Original This Map he mentions in his Epistle before the Prospect of the Temple Which it seems he himself had a good conceit of athing he seldom had of his own performances so as he would fain for the excellent use of it have had it published with the Book but it would not then pass Hear his own commendation of it He calls it A full plain punctual and exact Prospect and Description of the Temple its Situation Dimension Platform Fabrick and Furniture both within and without the Walls Gates Courts Cloisters Chambers and Buildings that were about it the Altar Lavers Stations for Men Slaughter places for Beasts and all the Offices belonging to it A Delineation so copious and plain in all the particulars of that holy ground that had it had the hap to have come to the publick view I should not have feared to have made the Reader the Judge and Censor upon the nature and use of the thing He seldom speaks so confidently but the Hap of becoming publick is not happened unto it Though now at last by good hap it is But however the World has at length gained this Map so long suppressed yet his Chorographical Description of Canaan and the places adjoyning is irrecoverably lost You will be the more sensible of the loss of it if you will hear what the Design of it was and what pains he had taken about it Take it from his own pen in one of his Epistles He intended to describe the Land of Israel in a way somewhat new indeed and untrodden and as he believed unattempted he means out of the Writings of the Jews For he had observed three sorts of things that might be picked up out of the Talmuds and other Jewish Authors if dextrously managed in reference to the Land of Canaan I. In exceeding many passages when they come to speak of places of the Land that are mentioned in Scripture
they either describe them or shew their situation or distance from such or such places II. They give us abundance of names of Cities Mountains and other places in that Land Which names are neither to be found in the Scripture nor Josephus nor in the Heathen or Christian Records that speak of the places of that Country but in these Judaick Writers only But yet carry a fair probability and rational Evidence that there were such names and places III. They relate many choice eminent and remarkable stories occurring in such and such places which are not to be found in any Records but their own and of singular illustration both of the situation and of the story of the Land and Nation Now the taking notice of passages of this nature had been his course for many years together as he had occasion to read the Talmudical Writers So that he had gathered a great stock of these Rarities as he styles them for the use of his Chorographical Work even to the bulk of a great Volume In so much that what he saith of his Book of the Temple That it cost him as much pains to give that description of it as to travail thither is as much or more true of this The unhappy chance that hindred the publishing this elaborate piece of his which he had brought to pretty good perfection was the Edition of Doctor Fullers Pisgah Sight Great pity it was that so good a Book should have done so much harm For that Book handling the same matters and preventing his stopped his Resolution of letting his labours in that subject see the light Though he went a way altogether different from Doctor Fuller and so both might have shewn their faces together in the World and the younger Sister if we may make comparisons might have proved the fairer of the two But that Book is lost utterly save that many of his Notions are preserved in his Chorographical pieces put before his Horae And for the last thing whereof that Preface was to consist namely to give some Historical account of the affairs of the Jews that is done in part in his Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles published Anno 1645. and in his Parergon Concerning the Fall of Jerusalem at the End of the Harmony Anno 1655. But alas these are but light touches of their story rather than any compleat and full account thereof But such as they are we must be glad of and contented in the want of the rest Indeed the Jews History from the beginning of the Gospel downwards for some Centuries would have been as excellent and useful as the subject would have been rare and unusual And a thing of that difficulty also that the modest Doctor propounds it to others rather than dares to undertake it himself For we find in one of his Epistles Dedicatory * To the Earl of Essex Anno 1645. He recommends it to some able pen to continue the story of the Jews where Josephus and Egesippus end theirs and where Jerusalem ended her days until these latter times out of the Jews own Talmud and Writings for the illustration of the Truth of those predictions of Scripture that foretel their doom and for the evidencing that justice that hath ever since haunted them for the murder of the Righteous One whom they crucified II. Concerning his Learning and Studies NAture had endued him with a strong and sound constitution of Body so that in his old age he was able closely to follow his Studies without finding any inconvenience by it and though he had not spared his Eyes in his younger years yet they still remained good for which he blesseth God in a Letter to the Learned Buxtroph Anno 1664. And divers years after that he acknowledgeth the same blessing of health in his Epistle to his last Book that he put forth which was not above a year or two before his death calling it Vivacitatem corporis animi atque oculorum The Vivacity of his Body Mind and Eyes This excellent temperament qualified him for Study Which he pursued hard all his days He had read much Which may be gathered from his Note Books wherein are short Notes from Book to Book and from Chapter to Chapter of the chief Contents of many Authors collected by his own Hand and both Fathers and Historians and especially the latter and such of them chiefly as might afford him light into the affairs of the Church in the earliest times of it And hereby he laid himself in a good stock of materials to make use of in his future Rabbinical Studies That abstruse and more recondite Learning he from his younger years greatly affected To those Studies * Ep. Ded. before the Hor. upon S. John he tells us himself he was most servently carried out ex innato mihi nescio quo genio by he could not tell what innate Genius and that there was nothing so sweet and delicate to him * ubi ante istis deliciis nihil mihi dulcius delicatiusque Indeed this Learned Man seemed to have a Genius that naturally affected the Study of such things as were beyond the sphere of ordinary and common Learning and delighted to tread in * Ep. before his Harm publish 1647. untrodden paths to use his own phrase and loved to lead rather than follow He was willing to spare no labour and to take up all things at the first Hand as he speaks somewhere And this appeared by the very Title that he gave some of his Books His Observations upon Genesis are called by him New and rarely heard of In his Handful of Gleanings he promiseth solution of difficulties scarcely given by any heretofore And in the second part of his Harmony published Anno 1647. he professeth to give Observations upon Text and Story not commonly obvious and more rare and unnoted And that Proposition before mentioned of a just History of the Jews bespake the high and more than ordinary flights of his Learned mind But especially his Harmony shewed this Wherein he reckons himself the first that ever essayed a Work of that nature in the English Language which he himself calls an untrodden path and a bold adventure But let us follow him to his beloved Rabbies or rather to the beloved Writings of the ill-beloved Authors Of whom he gave this character That the Doctrine of the Gospel had no more bitter enemies than they and yet the Text no more plain Interpreters The reason he bent himself to the Study of them was because he was fully convinced an insight into their Language and Customs was the best way to a safe and sure understanding of the New Testament which he thirstily gasped and breathed after the knowledge of And though the barbarous and difficult style and the great store of trifling wherewith they abound might and doth justly discourage many from reading them yet Dr. Lightfoot undervalued all hardships and discouragements for the compassing that great and noble end he aimed
where he made an entrance into his Hebrew studies he resolves to come up to London to take the opportunity of the Divinity Library there thereby to furnish himself with a good stock of Reading and Learning proper to the holy Employment he had undertaken before he engaged himself further in it Here he lay for some years close and private and read over the Fathers and many other Books tending to the furthering his Divinity studies He preached then indeed but seldom or not at all his business now being something else But when some who had a mind to have themselves eased by his labour charged this upon him as a crime of idleness to clear himself of that imputation he published his first Book to let the World see he was not idle though he preached not He never cared to be accused of idleness and his own conscience cleared him of that as he tells us before that Book though he confessed that he was not so hasty as many be to intrude himself where there is no necessity But when he had taken the charge of Souls upon him in all the parts of the Ministerial Function he was very diligent A constant Preacher resorting to his Parish Church which stood a mile distant every Sunday Winter and Summer wet and dry unless abroad or hindred by sickness He failed not to visit the sick whensoever sent for compassionating their condition and administring wholsom counsils and comforts to them He was a great enemy to Schism and Faction and uncharitable separation from the Church and did use to press Communion both in his Sermons and ordinary discourses And it may not be amiss to mention the notable argument he used to manage in the behalf of holding Communion with the National Church which was our Lords Example This he often and convincingly urged in this case and particularly but some few months before his death in one of his ordinary Sermons he had these words Let me ask them meaning the neglecters of the Publick Worship do they think that our Saviour ever let Sabbath day pass in all his time while here but he was present at the Publick Service either in the Temple or in the Synagogue Look the Gospel through and see by the current of the story there whether ever he absented himself from the Publick Congregation on the Sabbath day Read that Luke IV. 16. To spare more He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read It was his custom to go to the Synagogue to the Publick Service and Congregation on the Sabbath day and he never failed of it And he stood up for to read in his own Town-Synagogue as owning himself a member of that Congregation For it is not recorded that he read in any Synagogue beside It was his Custom to go to the Publick Congregation on the Sabbath day it is these Mens custom not to come there He never absented himself from the Publick Meeting these Men account it Religion to absent themselves ever Is our Publick Service more corrupt than theirs was then If it be let them shew it If it be not let them give a reason why they go so directly contrary to our Saviours own practice Generally his Sermons were very plain as preached to a Country Auditory and practical recommending above all things piety and a good life and if he chanced to fall upon controversial points in the course of his Sermons he would strive in few words to pass over the controversie and while he was upon it to render it as useful and serviceable to pious ends as he could His Sermons always carried a sweet and easie strain with them a Rhetorick peculiar to himself notably raising attention and making a quick impression upon the Affections Insomuch as he seldom failed of a great Auditory having scarce one in his Parish that absented from his Ministery And another qualification he had of a good Clergy-man and that was his Charity which was free and large His House was a continual Hospital none went away thence unrelieved which was so well known that he had a more than common charge at his Door For such was his compassionate Spirit that all sorts of comers pretending need partook of his liberality and he would frequently bring poor people within Doors to his fire to warm them as well as feed and cloth them Besides he used in the Winter seasons to find work for the poor of his Parish as spinning c. Whereby at once industry and labour might be encouraged and poverty succored And his secret charities are supposed considerable For he had 300 l. per annum and no charge nor visible expence and yet spent all Take him in his more private Capacity he was a truly pious and devout Christian towards God This was his friend Dr. Castels character of him I know no Man under Heaven whose Voicinity would make my life more patiently tolerated than to be near one who hath in him so much of Heaven as you have On the Lords days abroad as well as at home he always forbore eating or drinking till the Evening Service were over that he might be the more intent upon his Devotions and Meditations in private and the freer from dulness and drowsiness in publick a thing so unbecoming the Worship of God Whensoever he returned home from a journy it was his manner to pass through his House to his retirements without saluting or speaking to any body unless they came in his way till he had performed his private Devotions For his food whatsoever it was he was always very thankful to God never complaining of any thing at his Table but ever expressing a thankfulness for what ever was set before him besides his usual blessing before and after meals He was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Good Man which reconciled him a reverence wheresoever he came but for some particular Virtues he deserved Monstrari dicier Hic est To be taken notice of and admired I will instance only in his profound meekness and humility a Man so learned of such great abilities beyond most Men and yet so void of all conceit of himself so mean so little so nothing at all in his own Eyes that one would wonder to hear the expressions that he useth of himself In his Epistle to Christs College you have him in this strain Cum repeto quantum sine numero c. When I recollect what a number almost without number of learned eminent Men Christs College hath fostered and brought up I call my self Dunce and Blockhead to come from so learned a bosom and from among so learned a Society so unlearned so mean and obscure and still so to remain Oh! dull creature that I have been and am in and after so many and so great advantages and examples of Learning I rejoyce and triumph Dearest Nurse in the multitude of thy
14. for Trachonitus r. Trachonitis l. 57. for 23. r. c. 33. p. 452. l. ult for fonte Abila r. fonte Abila p. 446 447. in the top should be Luke Chap. 2. p. 454. Luke 3. for Matth. p. 742. for Cainite read Canaanite A Map of CANAAN According to D r. Lightfoot A Chronicle of the Times AND THE ORDER OF THE TEXTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WHEREIN The Books Chapters Psalms Stories Prophecies c. are reduced into their proper order and taken up in the proper places in which the natural Method and genuine Series of the Chronology requireth them to be taken in WITH Reason given of dislocations where they come And many remarkable Notes and Observations given all along for the better understanding of the Text the difficulties of the Chronicle declared the differences occurring in the relating of Stories reconciled and exceeding many Scruples and Obscurities in the Old Testament explained The Book of GENESIS CHAP. I. Days of the Creation I THE ALMIGHTY TRINITY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having dwelt from all eternity in and with it self when it saw good to communicate it self did in the beginning of the being of things create Heaven and Earth the two parts of the World of nothing in a moment Verse 1. The earth newly created lay covered all over with water and there was darkness through the world in that vast vacuity that was between the face of that great deep which covered the earth and the clouds or cataracts of Heaven which were the inferior part of Heaven and were created in the same instant with the Heavens full of water and the Heavens in the instant of their creation were set a * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moving by the Spirit that garnished them in a constant and continued motion and with their motion the course of nature began and the clock of time was set a going Verse 2. Twelve hours was there universal darkness through all the world and then was light created in this upper Horizon and there it inlightned twelve hours more and then flitted away as the light of the Sun now doth to the other Hemisphere and thus was the measure and work of the first day Verse 3 4 5. Days of the Creation II The air spread out through that great space that was betwixt the waters that covered the Earth and the waters that were in the cataracts of Heaven and as the light did remove the universal darkness so doth this spreading out of the air remove the emptiness and vacuity and this was the work of the second day but of this days work it is not said That God saw it good as it is said of the others because the partition and separation of all waters is not fully perfected till the next day Vers. 6 7 8. Days of the Creation III The waters that covered the Earth are brought into their channels and the dry land appearing is stored with trees and plants on this days work it is twice said That God saw it good once for the full and intire separation of the waters and again for the fructification of the ground Vers. 9 10 11 12 13. Days of the Creation IV When the light at the close of the third day was departed from this Horizon the Moon and Stars began to appear in the Sky and in the morning the Sun rose in the East and began his course and so this visible host of Heaven was the work of the fourth day The invisible host of Angels was in most probability created in the very same instant with the Heavens themselves Vers. 14 15 16 17 18 19. Days of the Creation V Fowle and fish and * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crocodiles Hippopotames c. Amphibia created and the first blessing of generation pronounced upon them Vers. 20 21 22 23. Days of the Creation VI With Chap. I. from Vers. 24. to the end read Chap. II. from Vers. 4. to the end Beasts created and all manner of creeping things of the clean sorts of beasts there were seven created of every kind three couple for breed and the odd one for Adams sacrifice upon his fall which God foresaw Adam created in holiness and righteousness and high honor and happiness Dominion is given to him over all the creatures which is more clearly evidenced to him in that they are brought to him to receive their names from him which by the great wisdom that was in him he giveth them even at the first sight agreeable to their natures among them all he seeth no mate meet for himself but he observeth them all fitly mated one to another and so becometh the more sensible of his own being mateless therefore the Lord provideth a fellow meet for him even out of his own body having cast Adam the mean while into a trance God marrieth them together puts them in the garden and gives them a command Now fell the Angels for they seeing the honor and happiness in which man was created and set and the Lord giving the Angels themselves a charge concerning him to keep him in his ways and to be ministring spirits to him for his good some of them spited this his honor and happiness and despised this their charge and ingagement and so through pride against the command of God and for envy at the felicity of man they fell CHAP. III. THese Angels that were now become Devils through spite at man had no comfort at all left them in their fall but this miserable and mischievous one to bring man into the same condemnation with them For the effecting of this they lose no time but attempt it by tempting him in his wife the weaker vessel she not yet knowing that there were any Devils at all but well knowing that God had allotted her and her husband the custody of Angels mistook the Devil that spake in a Serpent for a good Angel and so was deceived by him and sinned and drew her husband into the same transgression with her this was about high noon the time of eating And in this lost condition into which Adam and Eve had now brought themselves did they lie comfortless till towards the cool of the day or three a clock afternoon Then cometh God to censure them but first promiseth Christ to be a Redeemer to them and a destroyer of Satan Curseth the earth that they might not fix their minds on things below doometh them to labour misery and mortality that they might look for rest in Heaven Adam layeth hold on the promise and in faith therein nameth his wife Eve or Life God teacheth him the rite of sacrifice and with the skins of the sacrificed beasts cloatheth them and expelleth them out of Eden and so fell Adam on the day that he was created and brought in death and so the first thing that dyeth in the world is a sacrifice or Christ in a figure CHAP. II. Ver. 1 2 3. At the end of the third Chapter in order of
in its proper place and order cometh in the story of Jethro contained in the eighteenth of Exodus as may be evidenced by these observations First That that story lieth not in its proper place in the Book of Exodus may be concluded upon these two or three reasons first because there it is said Jethro took burnt-offerings and sacrifices for God ver 12. Now as the story lieth there the Law for burnt-offerings and sacrifices was not yet given 2. It is said that Moses sate to judge the people and made them know the Statutes of God and his Laws vers 13 16. Now as the story lieth there the Statutes and Laws are not as yet given to Moses and he himself knoweth them not 3. The chusing of Judges and Elders which was upon Jethro's counsel was not till their departing from Sinai Deut. 1. 7 8. And now as the story of Jethro lieth in the book of Exodus they are not as yet come to Sinai therefore that that story is misplaced as it lieth there there is evidence sufficient There remaineth only to see why it is laid there out of its proper place and where is the proper place to lay it the former may be resolved upon by looking back upon the curse that God denounceth upon Amalek in the 17 Chapter I will put out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven And the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation ver 14 16. Now that the Holy Ghost might shew that Jethro who dwelt among the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15. 16. did not fall under this curse he bringeth in the story of his coming into Israel in the very next place after that curse is related not thereby to conclude strictly that his coming was at that very time assoon as the curse was denounced but to shew that he once came and so avoideth and escapeth that curse Now that the proper place of that story is this that we have mentioned may be evidenced by these particulars First that Moses himself telleth Deut. 1. 7. that their choice of Judges which was by Jethro's counsel instantly upon his coming was so near their departure from Sinai which is metioned Num. 10. ver 11. that the warning of their departure was given him before 2. That the murmuring of Aaron and Miriam against Zipporah Moses wife which in all probability was upon her first coming among them and their converse with her or instantly after is set after their departure from Sinai 3. That the departure of Hobab or Jethro from them at Sinai is joyned so near to the place where we suppose this story of his coming is to be laid as that but a few Verses come between and compair that story with the latter end of Exodus 18. and it will help to confirm this place to be the proper place of its order CHAP. X. from Vers. 11. to the end World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 THE Cloud is taken up on the twentieth day of the second month and the Camp removeth from Sinai to the wilderness of Paran three days journy In the 35 Verse of this Chapter the letter Nun is written the wrong way in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Ark set forward and so is it also in the first Verse of the next Chapter in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became as murtherers In the former is hinted as the Jews observe Gods gracious turning back towards the people in the latter the peoples ungracious turning away from God CHAP. XI AT their first incamping after Jethro's departure Moses findeth an occasion to chuse Judges and Elders to help to bear the burden with him and therefore the 24 25 26. Verses of Exodus 18. are to be reputed coincident with this time The Sanhedrin chosen by Moses and indued with the Spirit by God six of a Tribe made up the number and two over and these two were Eldad and Mâ—dad who were written for Elders but the lot cast them out that there might be but seventy yet did the Lord honour them with the Spirit of Prophecy CHAP. XII ZIpporah Moses wife called a Cushite for Arabia was the land of Cush for her sake Aaron and Miriam begin to rebel against Moses authority for which Miriam is struck with Leprosie but Aaron is not because he was the Judge of Leprosie and could not be tainted with it Their sin causeth the Cloud of glory to depart as the sin of the golden Calf had done before there Aaron had a hand in the sin also Moses vindicated by God himself It is said They removed from Hazeroth and pitched in the wilderness of Paran ver 16. that is they marched and pitched in that wilderness see Chap. 10. 12. CHAP. XIII THEY are now come not very far from the South-point of the land of Canaan compare Ver. 26. and Deut. 1. 2 19. and Moses at the desire of the people Deut. 1. 22. sendeth twelve men to spy the land Sethur the man for the Tribe of Asher ver 13. his name is in number 666. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 666. and in signification hidden or mystical it is toward the end of the year Stilo veteri when they search the land for grapes and figs are then ripe vers 20. CHAP. XIV THE decree and oath in Gods anger that they should not enter into his rest cometh forth and beginneth to seize upon some of them for the ten men that caused the people to murmur died by the plague as they were forty days in searching the land so the people must wander forty years ere they came to enjoy it that is eight and thirty years and an half to make up the year and half that had passed since their coming out of Egypt to be forty and in that time must all the men that were numbred at Sinai the Levites excepted be consumed in the wilderness and here is mans age cut short again as it had been at the Flood and building of Babel PSAL. XC UPON this sad decree of God against the people and upon his cutting short mans age Moses maketh the nintieth Psalm whose proper order is coincident with this story and there sadly sheweth how they were consumed by Gods anger for their impieties that now mans age is come to seventy or eighty years from those hundreds that men lived before c. CHAP. XV. XVI XVII XVIII XIX World 2516 Moses 83 Redemption from Egypt 3 THE place where the people murmured upon the return of the spies was Kadesh Barnea Numb 13. 26. 32. 8. Deut. 1. 19. This place was called Rithmah before Numb 33. 18. compared with Numb 12. 16. 13. 26. and it may be it was so called from the Juniper-trees that grew there as 1 Kings 19. 4. but now named Kadesh because the Lord was there sanctified upon the people as Chap. 20. 13. and Barnea or the wandering son because here was the decree made of their long
Horhagidgad the first day of the fifth month and is lamented all that month CHAP. XXI SOme Canaanites are overcome here appeareth some glimpse of the performance of Gods promise but the people turning clean back again they begin to murmur Here the strange word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 5. and the scornful word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for Manna sheweth their scornfulness and fuming Seraphim Nehashim fiery Serpents or Serpents of a flame colour sting the murmurers and the brazen Serpent lifted up and looked at cureth them a figure of better things to come Joh. 3. 14. This brazen Serpent seemeth to have named the place Zalmonah Num. 33. 42. that is the place of the image and the coming up of the Serpents upon the people seemeth also to have named the place there about Maaleh Akrabbim The coming up of the Scorpions See Josh. 15. 3. From Zalmonah they remove to Pimon to Oboth to Ije Aharim by the border of Moab they are forbidden to invade Moab Deut. 2. 9. They pass the valley Zared and here all the generation numbred at Sinai is clean gone Deut. 2. 14. They coast along Moab and Ammon and so to the other side Arnon Deut. 2. 13 18 24. In Numb 21. ver 14. there is this Geographical quotation taken out of the book of the wars of the Lord which describeth that part of the Country thus Vaheh in Suphah and the brooks of Arnon and the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar and lieth upon the border of Moab This Book of the war of the Lord seemeth to have been some Book of remembrances and directions written by Moses for Joshua's private instructions in the managing of the wars after him see Exod. 17. 14 16. It may be this Book was also called Sepher Jasher liber rectus or a directory for Joshua from Moses what to do and what to expect in his wars and in it Moses directs the setting up of Archery 2 Sam. 1. 18. and warrants him to command the Sun and to expect its obedience Josh. 10. 13. From thence they come to Beer where the seventy Elders of the Sanhedrin by Moses appointment do bring forth waters by the stroke of their staves as he had done with the stroke of his Rod this great work and wonder and this great priviledge bestowed upon so many of them maketh all the people to sing for joy Sihon and Og conquered It is now six and twenty generations from the Creation or from Adam to Moses and accordingly doth Psal. 136. rehearse the durableness of Gods mercy six and twenty times over beginning World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 the story with the Creation and ending it in the conquest of Sihon and Og The numerals of the name Jehovah amount to the sum of six and twenty CHAP. XXII XXIII XXIV XXV BAlaam cannot curse Israel but curseth Amalek their first and Rome their last enemy He foretelleth that Israel shall be so prosperous and happy that he wisheth that his end might be like theirs He returns to his own place Chap. 24. 25. that is saith Baal Turim He went to hell as Acts 1. 25. He went not home to Syris his own Country but he went homeward and by the way falls in with Midian and giveth them the cursed counsel to intangle Israel with their Daughters and Idolatry Israel is yoked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Baal Peor not only to the Idol but to the women the old generation of wicked Israel is utterly gone and this new generation that must enter Canaan begins after their fathers with such courses as these there died for this sin 24000 men viz. 23000 by the plague 1 Cor. 10. 8. and 1000 by the hand of Justice CHAP. XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX THE people are numbred that must go into Canaan as those had been that came out of Egypt One family of Simeon that had gone into Egypt is extinct namely that of Ohad a Prince of Simeon had been chief actor in the matter of Peor Chap. 25. 14. It may be that utterly rooted out his stock Divers Laws given CHAP. XXXI XXXII MIdian destroyed though Abrahams children Reuben Gad and half Manasseh have thereby the quieter setling beyond Jordan when they say We will build us Sheepfolds and Cities Chap. 32. 6. and when the Text saith they did so ver 34. it is to be understood that they took course for such buildings for they themselves went over Jordan and were in Canaan wars seven years CHAP. XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI ISraels two and forty stations from Egypt to Jordan the borders of the Land the Cities of the Levites the disposal of Zelophohads daughters The Book of DEUTERONOMY THE sum of the Book of Deuteronomy is a rehearsal and explanation made to the children of the Law given to their fathers the time of the Book is but two months namely the two last months of their fortieth year divided into the time of Moses his repeating the Law and dying and Israels mourning thirty days for him There can be little dislocation of stories expected where there are so few stories at all and therefore it will be the less needful to insist much upon the Book when that which we chiefly aim at in this undertaking is already done namely the laying of the story in its proper method and order only some few things it may not be impertinent nor unprofitable to observe 1. Whereas Moses is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he explains this Law Chap. 1. 1. it is to be understood that he was over against Suph in Moab and not near the Red-sea see Numb 21. 14. Vaheb in Suphah World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 2. Speaking of the exclusion of the people out of Canaan for their murmuring at Kadesh Barnea upon the return of the Spies Numb 14. he brings in the story of his own exclusion as if it had been at the same time Chap. 1. 35 36 37. whereas it was not till eight and thirty years after but thus close and concisely doth the Scripture sometime use to speak in rehearsing known stories see Acts 7. 7. 3. He speaketh to the generation then present as if they had been the generation that was already perished and consumed in the wilderness see Chap. 1. ver 26. 27 34 35 c. for he puts the murmuring at Kadesh and the decree against entering into the Land upon these men present as if they had been the men whereas those men that were properly concerned in that business were already dead and gone But he useth this manner of stile 1. Because they were abundance of them capable of murmuring then as well as their fathers they being many thousands of them indeed under twenty years and yet not so much under but that they could be and could shew themselves as untowardly and unlucky as they that were above twenty years of age And by this manner of expression Moses would bring
Ephraims dignity Gen. 48. 10 He is called Jesus by the LXX and by the New Testament Acts 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. a type of him that bringeth his people into eternal rest He is installed into the authority of Moses both to command the people and to work miracles and the Book of the Law put into his hand by Eleazer as the manner was at Coronations 2 Chron. 23. 11. He foreseeth the dividing of Jordan and gives charge to provide to march through it CHAP. II. RAhab an hostess of Jericho hath more faith then 600000 men of Israel that had seen the wonders in Egypt and the wilderness Two Spies that were sent out the sixth day of Nisan come out of Jericho again that night the seventh day they lie in the mountains and the eighth day they return to the Camp here are the three days just so counted as the three days of our Saviours burial CHAP. III. IV. ON the ninth day the people march along upon Jordans banks till they come over against Jericho The Ark leads the van for the Cloud of Glory which had been their conductor hitherto was taken away at Moses his death On the tenth day the Ark divided Jordan there are 4000 cubits dry land in the midst of Jordan between the two bodies of the armies that marched on either side of the Ark as it stood in the middest of the river the Ark pitcheth besides Adam Chap. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 78. 60. CHAP. V. THERE is a general circumcision now of the people as there had been at their coming out of Egypt and as God then closed the Egyptians in three days darkness that they could not stir so now he striketh the Canaanites with terrour that they dare not stir to hurt the people while they were fore Circumcision sealed the lease of the land of Canaan and therefore as soon as they set foot on it they must be circumcised the eleventh twelfth thirteenth days of Abib or Nisan are spent about this business and on the fourteenth day they kept the Passover and so are sensible of both their Sacraments at once It is now forty years to a day since they came out of Egypt Christ appeareth weaponed and is Lord General in the wars of Canaan CHAP. VI. JEricho strangely besieged incompassed seven days according to the seven generations since the land was promised counting from Abraham by Levi and Moses Israel marcheth on the Sabbath day by a special dispensation The walls of Jericho brought down by trumpets and a shout in figure of the subduing of the strong holds of Satan among the heathens by the power of the Gospel the spoil of the Town dedicated to the Lord as the first fruits of Canaan Rahab received as the first fruits of the Heathen she afterward marrieth Salmon a Prince of Judah Matth. 1. 5. Joshua adjureth Rahabs kindred for ever building Jericho again CHAP. VII World 2554 Ioshua 1 AChan by one fact maketh all Israel abominable the like thing not to be paralleld again The valley of Achor is now the dore of discomfiture and discontent in time to come it must be the dore of hope Hos. 2. 15. fulfilled to the very letter Joh. 4. CHAP. VIII AI taken and the spoil given to the souldiers and here they have the first seisure and possession of the Land for in the spoil of Jericho they had no part And then Joshua builded an Altar vers 30. and writeth the Law upon it and the blessings and the curses are pronounced and now it was full time for now had the Lord by the sweet of the spoil of Ai given the people a taste of his performance of his promise to give them that land and now it was seasonable on their part to engage themselves to him and to the keeping of the Law CHAP. IX X. XI XII XIII XIV Ioshua 2 A Great delusion of the Church by the colour of Antiquity the Gibeonites Ioshua 3 made Nechenims for the inferiour offices about the Sanctuary the Ioshua 4 Sun and Moon do obeisance to a son of Joseph as Gen. 37. 9. thereupon there Ioshua 5 is a miraculous day of three days long In seven years is the land conquered Ioshua 6 as Jericho had been seven days besieged that this was the date of Joshua's Ioshua 7 battles appeareth from the words of Caleb Chap. 14. 7 10. he was sent one of the Spies of the land in the second year of their coming out of Egypt and had lived five and forty years since viz. eight and thirty years in the wilderness and seven in Canaan CHAP. XV. XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX. XXI XXII XXIII XXIV Ioshua 8 JUdah the royal Tribe first seated the taking of Hebron and Kiriath Sepher Ioshua 9 are mentioned here by anticipation for these occurrences came Ioshua 10 not to pass till after Joshua's death because the Holy Ghost in describing of Ioshua 11 the inheritance of Judah would take special notice of the portion of Caleb Ioshua 12 who had adhered to the Lord. Then Ephraim and Manasseh seated the Ioshua 13 birth-right of Joseph is served next after the royalty of Judah The Tabernacle Ioshua 14 set up in a Town of the lot of Ephraim and the Town named Shiloh Ioshua 15 because of the peaceableness of the land at this time The Temple Ioshua 16 was afterward built at Salem which signifieth Peaceable also that in the lot of Benjamin this in the lot of Joseph both the sons of beloved Rachel The rest of the land divided Simeon though he were of the same standard with Reuben and Gad yet consenteth not with them to reside beyond Jordan but is mixed in his inheritance with the Tribe of Judah as Gen. 49. 7. The rest of the Tribes seated agreeable to the prediction of Jacob and Moses The taking of Laish or Leshem by the Danites is related here by anticipation for it was not done till after Joshua's death Judg. 18. 29. because the Text would give account of their whole inheritance together now it is speaking of it From this mention of an occurrence that befel after Joshua's death and the like about Hebron and Kiriath Sepher it may be concluded that Joshua wrote not this Book but Phineas rather Joshua himself is inheritanced last Three Cities of refuge appointed within Jordan one in Judea another in Samaria and the third in Galilee and three without Jordan in the three Tribes there Eight and forty Cities appointed for the Priests and Levites as so many Universities wherein they studied the Law It is not worth the labour to examine because it is past the ability to determine whether the two Tribes and an half returned to their own homes assoon as ever the land had rest from the wars which was in the seventh year or whether they stayed till the land was divided and the people settled which took up a long time more howsoever it was the two and twentieth Chapter that containeth that story is laid
the Chronicles saith All Israel were eleven hundred thousand men and the Book of Samuel saith they were only eight hundred thousand men here are three hundred thousand difference and the Book of Samuel saith that the men of Judah were five hundred thousand but the Book of Chronicles saith they were only four hundred and seventy thousand Here is thirty thousand difference Now for the reconciling of this great and double diversity it is to be observed That there were four and twenty thousand Souldiers and Officers that attended David monthly so many every month these make in all two hundred eighty eight thousand 1 Chron. 27. These were as it were a standing Guard about the King every Month and ready for any sudden expedition There were besides these the Rulers of the Tribes and Officers under them and the Overseers and Rulers of the Kings imployments and Officers under them but the number of these was not put into the account of the Chronicles of David vers 24. so that here is the resolution of the scruple the whole number of men able to bear Arms in Israel were eleven hundred thousand and five hundred thousand in Judah but of these there were three hundred thousand of Israel and thirty thousand of Judah that were already listed and in the constant service and imployment of the King and these Joab gave not in the account because their number and list had been known long and because the King would not lay Taxes on his own servants Amongst all this number Levi and Benjamin were not reckoned For before Joab came home to sum them for he began furthest off first a plague began among the people and now the Lord began to cut off them that David had begun to make his pride and intended to make his profit The Lord proposeth to David three things among the rest whether three years famine should come upon the Land 2 Chron. 21. 12. which the Book of Samuel expresseth Shall seven years famine come vers 13. that is Shall three years famine come to make up those that have been already to be seven There had been already three years famine for the Gibeonites and this year of numbering the people was almost out and shall three years famine more come to make up seven And so we have a very good direction and guide about the order and times of the Stories that went last before concerning the three years famine and this joyned to it and this helpeth still to confirm that Series in which we have laid them or indeed rather in which they lye of themselves Where Abraham had his knife unsheathed to slay his Son but was stayed by command from Heaven In the very same place had the destroying Angel his sword drawn to slay Jerusalem but was restrained by the Lord the place was a threshing floor on Mount Moriah that belonged to Ornan or Araunah or Auranah for it is twice so written in the Text And by these several names one near another was he called A man that was descended of the Royal blood of the Jebusites and that now lived with and was the chief among other Jebusites that injoyed estates in and about Jerusalem under a Tribute This place David purchaseth in two several parcels and for two several sums The very floor and the Oxen and materials for sacrifice he bought for 50 shekels of silver 2 Sam. 24. 24. But the whole place of the Mount of the house which was a very large compass cost him six hundred shekels of gold 1 Chron. 21. 25. There David builds an Altar and sacrificeth and the Lord answereth him by fire from Heaven and from Heaven doth by this token point out the place where the Temple should be built I CHRON. XXII Vers. 1. 2 3 4 5. World 2989 David 40 DAVID prepareth for the building of the Temple He setteth Proselites or converted Gentiles a work to get stones for it This was a Type of the spiritual Temple to be built up by Gentiles under the Gospel The first Book of KINGS CHAP. I. all DAVID in his old age is struck with a cold dead palsie that no clothes can keep him warm whereupon his Phisicians perswade him to marry a young fresh Damzel which proveth to be Abishag of Shunem in the County of Issachar Adonijah upon the Kings age and decrepitness stands up for the Kingdom the Kings darling and like Elies Sons spoiled by his father for want of reproof his next child to Absalom by another woman and like Absalom in beauty and rebellion His aspiring to the Kingdom causeth David to anoint Solomon to put the matter out of question But here is a matter of some question about the time of Solomons anointing and about the order of this Chapter We find three times mention of Solomons being made King namely twice in the Book of Chronicles and once here see 1 Chron. 23. 1. 29. 22. Now the doubt lieth in this whether he were three times made King indeed and so all the three Texts that speak of it to be taken severally or whether only twice as 1 Chron. 29. 22. seemeth to settle and then this Story to be concurrent with one of those relations in the Chronicles That that must give light in this obscurity is this That this anointing of Solomon mentioned in this 1 King 1. upon this aspiring of Adonijah was the first time that ever David shewed who should raign after him see ver 20 27. and therefore it must needs be held concurrent or the same with that making Solomon King in 1 Chron. 23. 1. and the current of the Story will make it plain Only that scruple that lies yet in the way that being supposed is this That David at this first unction of Solomon should be in his chamber and upon his bed and exceedingly decrepit And yet at his second anointing should be in the midst of his Princes and Commanders and standing upon his feet 1 Chron. 28. 2. But this also will be removed if it be but considered that Davids present infirmity was not sickness but coldness and benummedness and old age he was heart whole and head whole but he was old and palsick and therefore though his most common and most commodious posture and composure was to be in his chamber and upon his couch yet upon such an occasion as to Crown Solomon again before all Israel he can come forth and stand upon his feet and make Orations and give advice for things to come I CHRON. XXII from vers 6. to the end And XXIII vers 1. THE juncture of the Story here lieth plain and easie David having caused Solomon to be anointed because of the ambition of Adonijah and that conspiracy being broken he first giveth him in charge the building of the House of the Lord as the first thing to be looked after And thus when David was old and full of days he made solomon King as is related in 1 King 1. and so the first verse
Iehu 5 Division 93 self reigned six years she had Athaliah 6 Iehu 6 Division 94 sons of her own by some other man whom she desireth to promote 2 Chron. 24. 7. 2 KINGS IX to vers 30. World 3118 Athaliah 1 Iehu 1 Division 89 JEHU the son of Jehoshaphat Athaliah 2 Iehu 2 Division 90 anointed for the destruction Athaliah 3 Iehu 3 Division 91 of Ahabs house reigneth twenty Athaliah 4 Iehu 4 Division 92 eight years He is anointed Athaliah 5 Iehu 5 Division 93 by Elisha's servant at Elisha's appointment Athaliah 6 Iehu 6 Division 94 read Chap. 9. ver 4. that So the young man even the servant of the Prophet went c. He is anointed at Ramoth Gilead where Ahab had received his death and Jehoram his son lately some wounds He slayeth Jehoram with his own hand and causeth the death of Ahaziah King of Judah also This man is sometime called Jeho-achaz with part of the name Jehovah set before his name as 2 Chron. 21. 17. 25. 17. sometime Achaz-jahu with part of that name Jehovah set after as 2 Chron. 22. 2. and sometime Azariah 2 Chron. 22. 6. The relation of the manner of his death in the Books of Kings and Chronicles is exceeding different and accordingly the understanding of it exceeding difficult 2 King 9. 27. it is said that when Ahaziah saw the death of Jehoram King of Israel he fled by the way of the garden and Jehu followed after him and said Smite him also in the Chariot in the going up to Gur which is beside Ibleam and he fled to Megiddo and died there But in 2 Chron. 22. 8 9. it is said That when Jehu was executing Judgment upon the house of Ahab and found the Princes of Judah even the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah that ministred to Ahaziah he slew them And he sought Ahaziah and they caught him for he was hid in Samaria and brought him to Jehu and slew him Now the current of the Story at large is thus Jehu slayeth Joram in the field of Jezreel as Ahaziah and Joram were together Ahaziah seeing this flees and gets into Samariah and hides himself there Jehu marcheth to Jezreel and maketh Jezabel Dogs meat From thence he sendeth to Samaria for the heads of Ahabs children and posterity which are brought him by night and shewed by him to the people in the morning Then he marcheth to Samaria and by the way slayeth Ahaziahs kinsmen forty two men findeth Jehonadab the father of the Rechabites Coming into Samaria he maketh search for Ahaziah they find him hid bring him to Jehu he commands to carry him up towards Gur by Ibleam and there to slay him it may be his father Joram had slain his brethren there as Ahab had done Naboth in Jezreel they do so smite him there in his Chariot and his Charioter driveth away to Megiddo before he dies The Story in the Book of Kings is taken up short and laid with the Story of the death of Jehoram that the end of both the Kings may be taken up together but the Book of Chronicles shews the order 2 KING XI from vers 4. to end and 12. 1 2 3. 2 CHRON. XXIII XXIV to ver 4. World 3124 Ioash 1 Iehu 7 Division 95 JOASH anointed by his Ioash 2 Iehu 8 Division 96 Uncle Jehojada and reigneth Ioash 3 Iehu 9 Division 97 forty years Good Jehojada Ioash 4 Iehu 10 Division 98 bringeth him to the Crown Ioash 5 Iehu 11 Division 99 and the people into Covenant Ioash 6 Iehu 12 Division 100 c. The Priests and Levites Ioash 7 Iehu 13 Division 101 had the chief hand in the Coronation Ioash 8 Iehu 14 Division 102 They are thus distinguished Ioash 9 Iehu 15 Division 103 2 King 11. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioash 10 Iehu 16 Division 104 for so it is written Meajoth Ioash 11 Iehu 17 Division 105 Captains of hundreds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioash 12 Iehu 18 Division 106 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priests and Levites Ioash 13 Iehu 19 Division 107 The Priests called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrews give it because they were the chief or of the higher rank and the Levites called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or men of the Ioash 14 Iehu 20 Division 108 guard because they were the Ioash 15 Iehu 21 Division 109 Warders in the Temple Joash Ioash 16 Iehu 22 Division 110 hath two wives of Jehojada's Ioash 17 Iehu 23 Division 111 providing for him Jezabel the Ioash 18 Iehu 24 Division 112 wife of Ahab and Athaliah the Ioash 19 Iehu 25 Division 113 wife of Joram had caused all Ioash 20 Iehu 26 Division 114 this mischief in Israel and Judah Ioash 21 Iehu 27 Division 115 and therefore the good High Priest provideth that this King World 3145 Ioash 22 Iehu 28 Division 116 miscarry not by such a match 2 KING X. from vers 30. to end World 3124 Ioash 1 Iehu 7 Division 95 JEHU followed the Ioash 2 Iehu 8 Division 96 Idolatry of Jeroboam the golden Ioash 3 Iehu 9 Division 97 Calves though he had destroyed Ioash 4 Iehu 10 Division 98 Baal the Idol of Ahab Hazael Ioash 5 Iehu 11 Division 99 cuts Israel short beyond Ioash 6 Iehu 12 Division 100 Jordan and destroyeth the Reubenites Ioash 7 Iehu 13 Division 101 Gadites and Manassites Ioash 8 Iehu 14 Division 102 there Elisha with tears had Ioash 9 Iehu 15 Division 103 told what mischief and misery Ioash 10 Iehu 16 Division 104 he should work to Israel which Ioash 11 Iehu 17 Division 105 he now beginneth to act and Ioash 12 Iehu 18 Division 106 goeth on to perfect in the days Ioash 13 Iehu 19 Division 107 of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu Jehu hath a promise of his sons sitting on his throne even to the fourth generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioash 14 Iehu 20 Division 108 Omries house had stood four Ioash 15 Iehu 21 Division 109 successions Omri Ahab Ahaziah Ioash 16 Iehu 22 Division 110 and Joram The four Ioash 17 Iehu 23 Division 111 successions of Jehues sons were Ioash 18 Iehu 24 Division 112 Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam and Ioash 19 Iehu 25 Division 113 Zachariah But between the Ioash 20 Iehu 26 Division 114 reign of Jeroboam and Zachariah Ioash 21 Iehu 27 Division 115 there was a long interregnum or space between as we shall observe when we come there World 3145 Ioash 22 Iehu 28 Division 116 Jehu dieth 2 KING XII from vers 4. to end And 2 CHRON. XXIV from vers 4. to end And 2 KING XIV 1 2. World 3146 Ioash 23 Jehoahaz 1 Division 117 JOASH taketh course for the Ioash 24 Jehoahaz 2 Division 118 repairing of the Temple Ioash 25 Jehoahaz 3 Division 119 and he keepeth close to Religion Ioash 26 Jehoahaz 4 Division 120 all the time that Jehojada Ioash 27 Jehoahaz 5 Division 121 lived but when he was dead Ioash 28
clearly and therefore it was neither when Uzziah was made leprous nor in the year when he died as the Jews conjecture but it was before After this came a Plague of more misery but of lesser terrour and that was of fearful and horrid Locusts Caterpillars and Cankerworms whose like the oldest men alive had never seen Joel 1 2 3 c. These came towards harvest time in the beginning of the growth after mowing Amos 7. 1. And then were the fields and trees laden with corn and fruit but these laid the vines waste and barked the fig-trees Joel 1. 7. And causeth the harvest of the field to perish and the trees to wither so that there was not corn and wine sufficient for a meet Offering and drink Offering in the House of the Lord ver 10 11 12. then did the Cattel groan ver 18. and the beast of the field did languish Hos. 4. 3. This heavy Plague of Locusts was at last removed by prayer but the sins of the people called for another Therefore the Lord called to contend by fire Amos 7. 4. namely by an extreme drought with which were mingled fearful flashes of fire which fell from Heaven as in Egypt Eccl. 9. 23. and devoured all the pastures of the wilderness and the flame burnt up all the trees of the field Joel 1. 19. and some Cities were consumed by fire from Heaven as was Sodome Amos 4. 11. Esay 1. 9. And the rivers of water were dryed up Joel 1. 2. yea even the great deep was devoured by the heat and part of it eaten up Amos 7. 4. and the fishes destroyed Hos. 4. 3. After all these judgments when they prevailed not but the people were still the same God set a line upon his people and decreed that the high places of Isaac should be desolate and the Sanctuaries of Israel should be laid waste Amos 7. 9. yet did not the Lord leave himself without witness but against and in these times of Judgment and successively and continually did the Lord raise up a race of Prophets among them both in Israel and Judah that gave them warning threatning instruction and exhortation from time to time and did not this only by word of mouth but also committed the same to writing and to posterity that all generations to come might see the abomination and ingratitude of that people written as it were with a pen of Iron and a point of a Diamond and might read and fear and not do the like The Prophesie of HOSEA CHAP. I II III IV. THE first Prophet of this race was Hosea and so he testifieth of himself chap. 1. vers 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord spake first by Hosea And thus as under an Hosea Israel did enter into the Land of Canaan Numb 13. 16. and under an Hosea were captived out 2 King 17. So did the Lord raise up an Hosea the first of these Prophets to tax their unthankfulness for the one and to foretel the fearfulness of the other His Prophesie is common both to Israel and Judah even as was his adulterous wife a mate as unfit for so holy a Prophet as her actions were fit to resemble such a wicked people The date of his Prophesie tells us that he began in the days of Uzziah and continued till the days of Ezekiah and so was a Preacher at the least seventy years and so saw the truth of his Prophesie fulfilled upon captived Israel Of all the Sermons that he made and threatnings and admonitions that he gave in so long a time only this small parcel is reserved which is contained in his little Book the Lord reserving only what his divine Wisdom saw to be most pertinent for those present times and most profitable for the time to come That being to be accounted canonical Scripture not what every Prophet delivered in his whole time but what the Lord saw good to commit to writing for posterity To fit every Prophesie of this Book whether Chapter or part of Chapter to its proper year when it was delivered is so far impossible as that it is not possible to fit them certainly to the Kings reign and therefore the Reader can but conceive of their time in gross as they were delivered by him in the time of his Preaching which was exceeding long only these two or three considerations and conjectures may not be unprofitable towards the casting up of some of the times and towards the better understanding of his Prophesie in some particular 1. He began to Prophesie in the days of Uzziah and began first of any that were Prophets in his reign as were Joel Amos and Esaiah Jonah was a Prophet in these times but there is no Prophesie of his left against Israel or Judah the second Verse of the first Chapter cited even now cannot be understood so properly in any sence as this that God now raising up in the days of Uzziah a generation of Prophets that should continue in a succession till the captivity and that should leave their Prophesies behind them in writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord spake first of all these by Hosea Therefore whereas it is apparent that Amos by the date of his Prophesie ver 1. lived in those days of Uzziah which were contemporary with the days of Jeroboam so also is it apparent by this passage of Hosea that he himself began in some time of those concurrent years of Uzziah and Jeroboam which were fifteen and somewhat before the beginning of Amos. 2. His two first Chapters seem to be uttered by him in the very beginning of his Preaching of the first there can be no doubt nor controversie and the other two may be well conceived to be of the same date as appeareth by the matter In the first Chapter under the parable of his marrying an adulterous wife which he names Gomer the daughter of Diblaim either for that there was some notorious whorish wife in those times of that name or for the significansie of the words for they import corruption of figs as Jer. 24. 3. as our Saviour in a parable nameth a begger Lazarus either because there was some noted poor needy wretch of that name in those times or for the significansie of the word Lazarus signifying God help me as proper a name for a begger as could be given under this Parable I say of his marrying an adulterous wife and begetting children of her he foretels first the ruine of the house of Jehu this typified by a Son she bears called Jezrael then the ruine of the ten Tribes this typified by a daughter she bears which he calls Lo-ruchamah or unpitied for in these times of Jeroboam when Hosea began to Prophesie the Lord had pittied Israel exceedingly and eased them much of their trouble and oppressions 2 King 24 26 27. but now he would do so no more but Judah he would yet pitty and save them not by bow and sword but by an Angel in the days of Ezekiah
17 Division 239 AHAZ reigneth very Ahaz 2 Pekah 18 Division 240 wickedly serveth Baalim Ahaz 3 Pekah 19 Division 241 and burneth his Sons 2 Chron. 28. 3. that is one of his Sons 2 King 16. 3. in the fire to Molech Hezekiah is preserved by a special providence for a better purpose World 3268 Iotham 16 Ahaz 1 Pekah 17 Division 239 PEKAH is a desperate Ahaz 2 Pekah 18 Division 240 enemy to Judah and Ahaz 3 Pekah 19 Division 241 joyneth with Syria against Jerusalem to make Rezin a son of Tabeel or one of the the posterity of Tabrimmon King there Esay 7. 6. 2 KING XVI Vers. 5. ESAY VII AHAZ his wickedness bringeth Rezin and Pekah against Jerusalem but they cannot prevail against * * * Observe this phrase in ver 2. 13. the House of David for the promise sake Esay assureth Ahaz of deliverance from those two fire brands both Kings and Kingdoms which were now grown to be but tails and were ready to smoak their last He offereth Ahaz a sign which he scornfully refuseth and despiseth to try Jehovah his son Hezekiah is of another mind 2 King 20. 8. therefore the Lord himself giveth this sign That the Lord will not quite cast off the House of David till a Virgin have born a Son and that Son be God in our nature both which are great wonders indeed yet he threatens sad days to come upon Jerusalem before ESAY VIII ESay writes a Book full of no other words but this * * * Hasting to the spoil he hasteth to the prey Maher-shalal-hash-baz and takes two men that were of esteem with Ahaz Zechariah his father in law and Uriah the Priest to see and witness what he had done that so it might come to Ahaz his knowledge He also names a child that his wife bare him by this very name and all to confirm that Damascus and Samaria the two enemies of Judah now in Arms against it should speedily be destroyed He useth two several phrases of the same signification as applying them to the two places Samaria and Damascus yet doth he withal threaten those of Judah that despised the house and Kingdom of David because it was but like the waters of Shiloam of a very small stream in comparison of those great Kingdoms that were so potent and therefore that desired to be under one of those great Kingdoms and to make confederacy with it such men he threatens that he will bring upon them a Kingdom great enough which should come as a mighty River since they despised the small stream and should over-flow Emmanuels land all over He prophesieth glorious things of Emmanuel himself as that he should be a Sanctuary that he should have children or Disciples that he should give them a law and testimony which should be Oracles to inquire at and that whosoever should * * * Vers. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And â—e transgresseth against it i. e. against the Testimony ver 2. or the Gospel transgress that law and testimony should be hard bestead famished perplexed and at last driven to utter darkness ESAY IX THAT this darkness shall be a worse darkness and affliction then that was in Galilee in their captivity either by Hazael or the Assyrian for those places saw light afterward for the Gospel began there but the contempt of the Gospel should bring misery irreparable He speaketh again glorious things concerning Christ the Child promised before Davids house fail the Prince of Peace and * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 6. Father of Eternity A letter of note and remarkableness is in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lemarbeh in ver 7. Mem clausum to shew the hiddenness and mysteriousness of Christs Kingdom different from visible pomp and to hint the forty years before Jerusalems destruction when this Dominion increased through the world The juncture of the first verse of this Chapter with the last of the preceding and this subject of vers 9. 11. shew plainly that this Chapter is of the same time with those two before ESAY XVII HERE also is the Reader to take in this seventeenth Chapter of Esay made upon the very same subject that these three last mentioned the seventh the eighth and the ninth were namely concerning the final ruine of Damascus and Ephraim And whereas Damascus was destroyed and captived in the beginning of the time of Ahaz and as it is easily argued thereupon that this Prophesie that foretelleth the destruction of it should be set before the Story that relateth its destruction so it may be concluded that this Prophesie may be very properly taken in here upon these considerations 1. Till the time of the raign of Ahaz the Prophet meddles not with Damascus and Ephraim joyned together namely not till they joyned together to invade Judah 2. Step but one step further in the Chronicle then this very place where we would have this Chapter taken in and Damascus is ruined And therefore this Chapter had to deal with Damascus and Ephraim joyned together it is an argument that it is to be laid no sooner then here and since it is a Prophesie of the destruction of Damascus before it come it can be laid no further forward Now the reason why it lieth in that place of the Book where it doth is because there are many Prophesies against many several places laid there together and when the Lord is dealing threatnings among all the Countries and places thereabout Damascus and Ephraim could not go without And therefore as these three last named Chapters are laid where they be as single and singular denuntiations against these two places so is this Chapter laid where it is because it should there go in company with other threatnings ESAY XXVIII IN the same manner is the eight and twentieth Chapter of this Book which foretelleth also the destruction of Ephraim laid beyond its proper time among Chapters on either side it that are of a date after Ephraim was destroyed but it is laid there that threatnings against that place might also come in among the threatnings against other places And since there is no certain notice of what date that Chapter is it may not unfitly be taken in here and so all Esays Prophesies against Ephraim come together 2 CHRON. XXVIII vers 4 to vers 16. REZIN and Pekah returning to their several homes from Jerusalem which they could not overcome spoil Judah miserably as they go Pekah slayeth 120000 men and taketh 200000 women and children Captives but they are mercifully used and inlarged at the admonition of a Prophet the only good deed that we read of done in Samaria of a long time Rezin also carrieth a great Captivity away to Damascus 2 KING XVI ver 6. AND not content with that he taketh his opportunity after he comes home now Judah is so low to take in Eloth the Sea-town in Edom which Uzziah had recovered in the beginning of his reign
Darius and their Astyages were all one and that Darius because of his Grand-fathership did bear the name of the Royalty though Cyrus in this conquest had equal share with him and was for other victories a Conqueror beyond him Not to insist upon those mixtures of fabulousness that the Heathens have invented for the inhancing of the credit of Cyrus as they were used to do about men that were the first raisers of a Kingdom as that his Grand-father Astyages delivered him to Harpagus a Noble Man as soon as he was born to be made away that Harpagus afraid of such a Fact delivered him to the Kings chief Shepherd for such a purpose that he laid and left the infant in a wood that it was there nourisht by a Bitch that the Shepherds wife took it home and nurst it and exposed an infant of her own instead of it c. To omit these things which were invented only for the honour of the beginning of the Persian Empire we may safely take up that relation which is unanimously given by all their Historians and in which there can be no flattery at all suspected and that is of the Pedigree and descent of Cyrus and the names and qualities of his Parents and so they give him for the son of Cambyses the King of Persia and of Mandane the Daughter and only child of Astyages King of Media and so was he heir to both the Kingdoms Now upon the conquest of Babylon Darius or Astyages plat-forms the Government of that Monarchy under one hundred and twenty Governours in the one hundred and twenty Provinces that belonged to it And above these he set a Triumvirate or three Princes to be supervisors to them and to take their accounts both of Tribute and Affairs Daniels knownness in Babylon which was newly taken for his divine and wonderful wisdom and spirit bringeth him to be one of these three and that promotion and his singular carriage in it bringeth him into envy and that into the Lions Den c. This occurrence may be conceived to have been presently after the conquest of Babel even in the compass of that year upon these grounds 1. Because Darius it is like would form the Government of his Monarchy as soon as he had it and Daniel would not be long unenvied when promoted 2. It is very probable that Darius reigned but a little beyond this year 3. The writing of this Chapter in the Chaldee Tongue may be some argument that this occurrence befel Daniel while he was in Chaldea DANIEL VIII THE first and second Verses of this Chapter plainly shew that Belshazzar reigned but three years for it telleth that in the third year of Belshazzar Daniel was in Shushan the royal City of Persia. It cannot be imagined that he was there in Belshazzars life time for his preferment and residence was in Babylon till Babylon fell but his coming thither was by the transporting of him thither by the Persian Monarch after he had conquered Babylon who as it appeareth by vers 27. had preferred him there and interessed him in the Kings imployment This is called the third year of Belshazzar purposely that we might learn to give the first year of Cyrus its proper date Belshazzar was dead and gone and Darius had fashioned the Babylonian Monarchy into another Government Daniel had been cast into the Lions Den in Babylon and was now removed to the Court of Persia Cyrus and Darius had ruled all for a certain space and yet is this Chapter and the occurrences in it dated by this that it was the third year of Belshazzar partly that we might learn to reckon the first of Cyrus and Darius not the very year that Babylon fell but the year after and partly that we might observe how in the very year that the Medes and Persians destroy Babel the Lord revealeth to Daniel the destruction of the Medes and Persians and the two Monarchies after them All the Chapters in Daniel from Chap. 2. vers 4. to the beginning of this Chapter are written in the Chaldee Tongue and from the beginning of this Chapter to the end of the Book he writeth in Hebrew for the affairs that fell under the Chaldean Monarchy he hath registred in the Chaldean Tongue but now that Kingdom is destroyed he will have no more to do with that Language but thence forward he applies himself to write his own native Tongue the Hebrew seeing that God would not have the Persicke under which Language he now was to be the original of any part of Scripture DANIEL IX DANIEL knowing from Jeremies Prophesie that the seventy years of Captivity were now fully expired addresseth himself to God by prayer for their return He receiveth not only a gracious answer to his desire but a Prediction of what times should pass over his people till the death of Christ namely seventy weeks or seventy times seven years or four hundred and ninety This space of time the Angel divideth into three unequal parts 1. Seven sevens or forty nine years to the finishing of Jerusalems Walls 2. Sixty two sevens or four hundred thirty four years from that time till the last seven 3. The last seven in the latter half of which Christ Preacheth viz. three years and an half and then dieth c. The twenty seventh Verse therefore is to be read thus He shall confirm the Covenant with many in the one week and in half that week he shall cause Sacrifice and Oblation to cease c. So that from this year to the death of Christ are four hundred ninety years and there is no cause because of doubtful Records among the Heathen to make a doubt of the fixedness of this time which an Angel of the Lord hath pointed out with so much exactness EZRA CHAP. I. And 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 22. 23. CYRUS published a Decree for the Jews returning to their own Land again This Decree was signed at the very instant of Daniels prayer Dan. 9. 23. Darius was yet alive and reigning as appears by comparing Dan. 9. 1. but the Decree and Proclamation is the Act of Cyrus not only in regard of a Prophesie that went before concerning him Esay 44. 28. but also because he was the greater Conqueror and the greater Prince For 1. He was not only sharer with Darius in the Conquest of Babylon but was also sharer with him in the Kingdom of Media as being sole heir to it but Darius had no claim with him in the Kingdom of Persia. 2. Berosus not that of Annius but cited by Josephus Lib. 1. cont Apion saith that Cyrus had conquered even all Asia before he came to besiege Babel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus delivered out to Zerubabel who by the Chaldeans was called Shesbazzar all the Vessels of the Temple that Nebuchad-nezzar had captived In the summing of them there is some obscurity for there is a particular given only of two thousand four hundred ninety nine and yet the Text summeth up
look to the times before the Decree of Claudius or those since Claudius death when all the scattered were returned again and many of those that had come out unbelieving Jews had returned Christians thither as I believe the case was of Aquila and Priscilla and some converted in other places had now taken up their residence there as Epenetus Andronicus and Junia c. Those whose salutations he sendeth thither may be the better judged of who they were by observing who were of his retinue at this time which are named Act. 20. 4. as 1. Timothy 2. Lucius who seemeth to be Luke called now by a Latine name in an Epistle to the Latines He was with Paul at Corinth at the sending away of the Epistle for having mentioned the others that were gone to Troas these saith he staied for us joyning himself in Pauls company now going to Corinth 3. Jason seemeth to be he that is called Secundus Acts 20. 4. the one his Hebrew name and the other the same in Latine for Secundus is said to be a Thessalonian and so was Jason Acts 17. 7. 4. Sosipater here in all probability he that is called Sopater of Berea there 5. Tertius that wrote out the Epistle it may be was Silas an Hebrician will see a fair likelihood of the one name in the other it being written in Hebrew letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew names to the Romans are rendred in the Roman Idiome 6. Gaius the same in Greek with the ordinary Latine name Caius it appears that he was a Corinthian 1 Cor. 1. 13. and in that Paul here calls him Mine host and the Host of the whole Church to the understanding of which the observing of a custom of the Jews may give some illustration Maymony in his Treatise concerning the Sabbath speaking about that rite that they used of hallowing the Sabbath with a set form of words at his coming in per. 30. hath this saying This hallowing of the Sabbath may not be used but only in the place where they eat as for example he may not use the hallowing words in one house and eat in another Why then do they use the hallowing word in the Synagogue Because of travellers that do eat and drink there Where the Gloss upon the place comments thus It is evident that they did not eat in their Synagogues at all as it is apparent in the eleventh Chapter of Maymonies Treatise of Prayer but in a house near the Synagogue â—nd there they sat at the hearing of the hallowing of the Sabbath c. It may be observed from hence that strangers and travellers were intertained in a place near the Synagogue compare Acts 18. 7. which was a publick Xenodochion or receptacle of strangers at the charge of the Congregation which laudable custom is almost apparent was transplanted into the Christian Churches in those times as compare such passages as those Heb. 13. 2. Acts 15. 4. And possibly those Agapae or feasts of Charity spoken of in the Epistles of the Apostles are to be understood of these loving and charitable entertainment of strangers Jude ver 12. These are spots in your feasts of Charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear False teachers travelling abroad undiscovered and being intertained in these publick receptacles for strangers and at the publick charge would find there a fit opportunity for themselves to vent their errors and deceptions In this sense may Gaius very properly be understood the Host of the whole Church as being the officer or chief overseer imployed by the Corinthian Church for these intertainments In which also it was almost inevitable but some Women should have their imployment according to which custom we may best understand such places as these Phaebe a servant of the Church at Cenchrea she hath been a succourer of many Ver. 6. Mary bestowed much labour on us And see 1 Tim. 5. 9 10 c. He speaketh also of other Women of whom he giveth this testimony that they laboured much in the Lord as Tryphena and Tryphosa and Persis ver 12. which may either be understood in the like sense or if not so of their great pains some other way for the honour and promotion of the Gospel and benefit of the Saints and themselves as by visiting and relieving the poor and sick taking pains in following the Ministers of the Gospel and venturing themselves with them hiding and cherishing them in times of danger and so venturing themselves for them and so he saith Priscilla and Aquila for his life laid down their own necks c. He salutes three of his own kinsmen Andronicus and Junia and Herodion the two first were converted before him and were of note among the Apostles either being of the number of the 70 Disciples or eminent converts and close followers of Christ or of the Apostles in those firsttimes He calls them his fellow prisoners but if he had called them his prisoners it had been easier to have told when and how For they were in Christ whilst he was a persecutor but when they were imprisoned with him after his conversion is hard to find out Among all that he salutes so kindly where is Peter If he were now at Rome how was he forgotten ACTS Chap. XX. Ver. 6. And we came to them to Troas in five daies Where we abode seven daies And so to Ver. 17. of Chap. XXI FRom Philippi after Easter he setteth away for Corinth where he staied so little that he came to Troas within five daies after the company was come thither which had gone before for so are the five daies to be understood not that Paul in five daies went from Philippi to Corinth and Troas but that his company which was set out with him but set directly for Troas had staied but five daies at Troas before he came up to them There he celebrates the Lords day and the Lords Supper and preacheth and discourseth all night a thing not altogether strange in the Jewish customs Jerus Sota fol. 16. 4. R. Mair was teaching profoundly all the night of the Sabbath in the Synagogue of Chamath So that Eutychus sleeps and falls and is taken up dead but recovered by miracle The change and beginning and end of the Christian Sabbath may be observed here When he goes now from thence it is most likely it was the time when he left his Cloak Books and Parchments with Carpus 2 Tim. 4. 13. His Cloak for he was now going among his own Nation in Judea and there he was to wear his Jewish habit and he left his Roman garb here till he should come into those Roman quarters again It may be the Parchments were the Originals of those Epistles that he had already written for that he sent transcripts and reserved the Original copies may be collected from these passages I Tertius who wrote out this Epistle Rom. 16. 22. The salutation of me Paul with my own hand 1 Cor. 16. 21. Col.
of the Jews bringeth forth her chief child and the Devil seeketh to destroy him He is pictured 1. A great red Dragon Old Pharaoh who sought to devour new born Israel is much of the like character Isa. 27. 7. Psal 74. 13 c. 2. With seven heads So many had the persecuting Monarchies Dan. 7. the Lion one the Bear one the Leopard four and the fourth beast one 3. And ten horns Parallel to the Syrogrecian persecutors Dan. 7. 7 c. 4. With his tail he drew and cast down the third part of the Stars As the Tyrant Antiochus had done Dan. 8. 10. So that by these allusive descriptions phrases of old stories fetched to express new is shewed the acting of the Devil now by his mischievous and tyrannical instruments with as much bitterness and bloody-mindedness as he had done in those The womans fleeing into the Wilderness alludes to Israels getting away into the Wilderness from the Dragon Pharaoh Exod. 14. c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty days speaks Christs preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and days like the days of Antiochus This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it to the ruine of Jerusalem and their preservation in all that extremity The battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon is of the same aim and time with the former but it speaks thus much further that the Church is not only preserved but the Dragon conquered and cast to the Earth Heaven all along in this Book is the Church the Earth therefore may be properly understood of the World and here more especially of that part of worldly ones the unbelieving Jews and that the rather because the Gentiles here are called the Wilderness as they be also in several other places in Scripture The Devil therefore is cast out of the Church by the power of Michael the Lord Christ that he cannot nestle there and he goes into the rest of the Nation that did not believe much like the tenor of that parable Matth. 12. 43 44 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings alluding to Exod. 19. 4. and gets into the Wilderness the persecuted Church and Gospel gets among the Gentiles The Devil casts venom as a flood after the Woman-Church and the Earth swallows it up the unbelieving Jews do as it were drink up all the poyson of the Devil and together with raging against the Church they grow inraged one against another and against the Romans till they become their own destroyers And indeed though it were a most bitter time with the Church while she was among the combustions that that Nation had within it self yet their raging one against another the more it increased in their particular quarrels the more it avenged her quarrel and turned their edge from off her upon themselves The Devil seeing this betakes himself to fight against the Womans seed the Church of the Gentiles and the Treatise of that begins in the next Chapter REVEL CHAP. XIII WHEN Rome hath slain Christ and destroyed Jerusalem Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it and that deservedly as to one most like to be his chief and most able agent to act his fury She is described here a Beast bearing the shape of all the four bloody Monarchies Dan. 7. in power and cruelty matching nay incomparably exceeding them all There is but little reason to take Rome for the fourth Monarchy in Daniel and the so taking it bringeth much disjointing and confusion into the interpreting of that Book and this and into the stating of affairs and times spoken of in them The Jews like such a gloss well as whereby they do conclude that the Messias is not yet come because the fourth Monarchy the Romane say they is not yet utterly destroyed And truly I see not how they can conclude less upon such a concession For it is plain in Daniel that the four Kingdoms there spoken of must come to nothing before the first appearing of Messias and that the Romane is not is most plain since this Book makes Rome Heathen and Papal but as one The Holy Ghost by Daniel shews the four Monarchies the afflicters of the Church of the Jews till Messias his first coming The Babylonian The Mede-Persian The Grecian and The Syrogrecian and John now takes at him and shews a fifth Monarchy the afflicter of the Church of Jews and Gentiles till his second coming Daniel indeed gives a hint of the Romane but he clearly distinguisheth him from the other four when he calls him the Prince that was to come Dan. 9. 26. beyond and after those four that he had spoken of before Him John describes here as carrying the character of all those four A Beast with ten horns such a one had been the Syrogrecian Dan. 7. 7 like a Leopard as the Grecian was vers 6. his feet as a Bears such the Persian vers 5. his mouth like a Lion such the Babylonian vers 4. This therefore could not be any of those when it was all and by this description of it by characters of them all it shews the vast power and incomparable cruelty and oppression of it equalling them all nay it infinitely went beyond them put all together in extent of Dominions Power Continuance and Cruelty both to the Church and to the World Balaam long before Rome was in being doth set it out for the great afflicter Numb 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim and shall afflict Assur and shall afflict Eber That Chittim means Italy or Rome is granted even by some Romanists themselves it is asserted by the Jews and confirmed by other places of Scripture and even proved by the very sense and truth of that place It afflicts both the afflicted and the afflicter Eber and Assur and that hath been the garb of it since its first being How may this be read in her own stories In her bloody Conquests over all the world in the titles of honour but which speak oppression Britannicus Germanicus Africanus and the like And to take up all in Epitome and that you may conjecture ex ungue Leonem what whole Rome hath done in all her time for slaughter oppression and destroying take but the brief of one of her Commanders Pompey the Great of whom Pliny speaks to this purpose Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26. He recovered Sicily subdued Africk subjected eight hundred and seventy six Towns about the Alpes and coasts of Spain routed and slew 2183000 men Sunk and took eight hundred and forty six Ships took in one thousand five hundred and thirty eight fortified places and triumphed from his Conquest of Asia Pontus Armenia Paphlagonia Cappadocia Cilicia Syria Judea Albania Iberia Creet and Basterna What hath Rome done by all her agents in all her time And she is this year 1654 two thousand four hundred and eight years old She is described here with seven heads and ten
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
better than to use an expression from the morning and evening Lamb that was offered at Jerusalem For besides that 1. John had had newly to deal with Priests and Levites whose chief employment was about that Lamb. And 2. besides that it was about sacrifice time on the second day when John useth these words between three and four a clock in the afternoon ver 39. And besides that 3. the Lamb represented the innocency and purity of Christ in his being without spot and the death of Christ in being offered up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Mart. Epist. ad Tarsenses It was 4. most proper and pertinent to the doctrine and preaching of John which he had used before to use now such an Epithet for Christ when he came in sight For he had still spoken of remission of sins and remission of sins still to all that had come to be baptized Mar. 1. 4. a doctrine not usual among them that stood upon their own righteousness and performance of the Law and therefore when Christ first appeareth he from an allusion to the daily Lamb upon whose head the sins of the people were confessed and laid sheweth how remission of sins cometh indeed namely by the sacrifice of this Lamb of God Christ who should bear and take away the sins of the world as that Lamb did in figure the sins of the Jews Vers. 31. And I knew him not The clause is spoken to and explained in the Notes on Matth. 3. 14. §. But that he might be made manifest to Israel therefore am I come baptizing The baptism of John did tend to the manifesting of Christ especially two ways 1. Because by the strangeness of his Ministery and the wonder of such a baptism as his was the eyes of all the people were drawn to look after what he meant by it For though his baptism for the manner of it was suitable to the baptism so well known among the Jews as was observed before yet was the doctrine and end of it so strange to them that it put the whole Nation to an enquiry what was in it And 2. then did John preach Christ as ready to come to every one that came to be baptized Vers. 39. They came and saw where he dwelt It is questionable whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here doth intimate his Inn or his habitation but I rather understand the latter and that the place was Capernaum where Christ had an habitation and was a member or Citizen of that City For though he was a Nazarite in regard of his mothers house and residence yet it is very probable he was a Carpernaite by his father Josephs For 1. Observe that Capernaum is called his own City Matth. 9. 1. compared with Mar. 2. 1. 2. There he pays tribute as the proper place where he should pay it Matth. 17. 24. 3. When he is refused at Nazaret his mothers Town he goeth down to Capernaum his fathers Luke 4. 31. 4. His resort to Capernaum was very frequent and his abode there very much John 2. 11. Luke 4. 31. John 6. 17. Luke 10. 15. 5. That his father and mother are very well known there John 6. 42. 6. That in regard of this frequency of Christs being in this Town and its interest in him as an inhabitant and member of it Capernaum is said to be lifted up to Heaven Now Capernaum standing upon the banks of Jordan and on the very point of the lake of Genazaret as Jordan began to spread it self into that lake he and these disciples that go with him pass over the water before they come thither for now they were on the other side Jordan where John baptized Vers. 40. One of the two was Andrew Simon Peters brother Who the other was it is uncertain and undeterminable possibly it might be the Evangelist John himself but there is no fixing on him or any other particular man but this may be observed that Peter was not the first that came in for a Disciple to Christ but his brother Andrew and another And it was well he was not the first that so much of the Romanists boastings may be stopped §. We have found the Messias Andrew speaketh 1. In reference to the expectation of the Nation that looked so much and so earnestly for the coming of Christ and for his coming at this time 2. In reference to the opinion of the Nation that held that when Christ came none should know whence he was Joh. 7. 27. And 3. in reference to the common and constant testimony of John that spake so much of Christ to come after him The word Messias doth solely and singularly betoken Christ as it is interpreted most pertinently by the Evangelist here and Chap. 4. 25. For though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew in the Scripture signifieth any anointed one whatsoever yet in this Greek form Messias it never signifieth but only Christ. Nor is the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Hebrew Authors but in the same sense and so it is used infinitely among them sometimes set single without any other addition and very often with this addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King Messias as he that is never so little versed in Jewish Authors will find in great variety In this propriety the word is used Dan. 9. 25 26. and so was it confessed by the Ancient Jews though the Modern would elude it The Jews of the Talmud age say that the end of the Messias was spoken of in the Book of Cetubhim aiming at this place but how the latter generations turn off such a sensee see in R. Saadias and Rab. Sol. in loc c. Vers. 42. Thou art Simon Christ nameth him at the first sight and hereby sheweth that he was the Messias in that he could thus name Simon and his father with whom he had had no converse before Simon or Simeon as the Syriack renders it for they are all one as Acts 15. 14. was a name that was exceeding much in use among the Jews at this time as Matth. 27. 32. Mark 3. 18. Luke 2. 15. Acts 8. 9. 13. 1. c. And it was very frequent in use in their Schools in putting of cases as Reuben borrowed such a thing of Simeon c. The Jews themselves seem to have brought the Hebrew word Simeon into this Greek manner of pronouncing Simon for their own Authors speak of one Rabbi Simon §. The son of Jona Bar Jona in the Syriack Matth. 16. 17. and Simon Jona in the Greek Joh. 21. 15 16 17. There are that conceive a corruption to be in the writing of this word for say they it should be Joanna And of that mind is Jerome the Vulgar Latine Erasmus at Joh. 21. 15. and of that writing is Erasmus his Greek copy there and some others here But upon what ground this facil and most general reading of Jona for so the Syrian Arabick most and best Greek Copies and most translations utter
into an hotch-potch of Religion in some things like the Jewish in many things exceeding Heathenish And the people sometime shewed friendship to the Jews sometimes enmity sometimes claiming kinred of them when they saw them in prosperity pretending to have been descended from Joseph but sometimes again scorning and despising them when they saw them brought to any ebb or in calamity Jos. Ant. l. 9. c. 14. lib. 12. cap. 7. 3. When the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin were brought to the lowest ebb and captived out of their own land into Babel then did these Samaritans get elbow-room and insolency against them against their coming to their own land again These were the main opposers and hinderers of the building of the Temple Ezra 4. called the Adversaries of Judah and Benjamin vers 1. and the people of the land vers 4. yet pretending to seek God and to sacrifice as well as the Jews vers 2. c. Here the fewd and hatred began to be more apparent and as the Samaritans were thus bitter to the Jews so the Jews to their power were not behind hand with the Samaritans For if we may believe their own Authors Ezra Zorobabel and Joshua gathered all the Congregation into the Temple and brought in three hundred Priests and three hundred books of the Law and three hundred Infants and they blew Trumpets and the Levites sung and chanted and cursed excommunicated and separated the Samaritans by the secret Name of God and by the glorious writing of the Tables and by the curse of the upper and lower house of Judgment that no Israelite eat of any thing that is a Samaritans for he that doth doth as if he eat swines flesh Nor that any Samaritan be proselyted to Israel nor have any part in the Resurrection as it is said what have you to do with us to build the house of the Lord our God Nor have you any part or right or memorial in Jerusalem And they wrote out and sent this curse to all Israel in Babel and they added thereto curse upon curse and the King fixed a curse everlasting to them as it is said And God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all Kings and people that shall put to their hands to alter it Haec R. Tanchuma fol. 17. 4. Hitherto the Samaritans after the captivity of the ten Tribes were Heathenish and no Jews among them save one or a few Priests to teach them the Law according to the ten Tribes usage of it and as it seemeth by Aben Ezra on Esth. 1. they had the book of Moses law among them but in so wild a translation that the first verse of it was read thus In the beginning Ashima created heaven and earth What Ashima meaneth see 2 King 17. 30. but from the times of Ezra and Nehemiah exceeding many Jews began to be mingled among them and became Samaritans The main occasion was this One of the sons of Jojada the son of Eliashib the High Priest married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite a chief man among the Samaritans for which cause he was driven from the Priesthood by Nehemiah Neh. 13. 28. Josephus nameth both the man and the woman and relateth the full story to this purpose Manasses saith he the brother of Jaddua the High Priest had maried Nicasso the daughter of Sanballat Which thing the Elders of the Jews taking exceeding ill as a violation of their Laws and as an introduction to strange marriages they urged that either he should put away his wife or that he should be put away from the Priesthood Yea and Jaddua his brother drave him away from the Altar that he should not Sacrifice Whereupon Manasses addressing himself to his Father in Law Sanballat tells him that it was true indeed that he loved his daughter Nicasso most dearly but yet would not lose his function for her sake it being hereditary to him by descent and honourable among his Nation To this Sanballat replied that he could devise such a course as that he should not only injoy his Priesthood still but also obtain an High Priesthood and be made a primate and metropolitane of a whole Country on condition that he would keep his daughter still and not put her away For he would build a Temple on mount Gerizim over Sichem like the Temple at Jerusalem and this by the consent of Darius who was now Monarch of the Persian Empire Manasses imbraced such hopes and promises and abode with his Father in Law thinking to obtain an High Priesthood from the King And whereas many of the Priests and people at Jerusalem were intricated in the like marriages they fell away to Manasses and Sanballat provided them lands houses and subsistence But Darius the King being overthrown by Alexander the Great Sanballat revolted to Alexander and did him homage and submitted both himself and his Dominion unto him and having now gotten an opportunity he made his Petition to him and obtained it of building this his Temple And that that helped him in this his request was that Jaddua the High Priest at Jerusalem had incurred Alexanders displeasure for denying him help and assistance at the siege of Tyrus Sanballat pleaded that he had a son in Law named Manasses brother to Jaddua to whom many of the Jews were very well affected and followed after him and might he but have liberty to build a Temple on mount Gerizim it would be a great weakning of Jaddua for by that means the people would have a fair invitation to revolt from him Alexander easily condescended to his request and so he fell on to build his Temple with might and main When it was finished it caused a great Apostasie at Jerusalem for very many that were accused and indited for eating of forbidden meats for violating the Sabbath or for other crimes fled away from Jerusalem to Sichem and to mount Gerizim and that became as a common Sanctuary for offenders To this purpose Josephus To which it may not be impertinent to add the relation of R. Abrah Zaccuth about this matter When Alexander the Great saith he went from Jerusalem Sanballat the Horonite went forth to him with some Israelites and some of the sons of Joshua the High Priest who had made marriages with the Samaritans and whom Ezra and Nehemiah had driven from the house of the Lord and he desired of Alexander that the Priests his sons in law might build a Temple in mount Gerizim and the King commanded that it should be done and so they built a Temple Thus was Israel divided half the people after Simeon the Just and Antigonus his scholar and their society following what they had received from the mouth of Ezra and the Prophets And the other half after Sanballat and his sons in Law and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed out from the house of the Lord and made ordinances of their own invention And Manasseh the son in Law of Sanballat the son of Joshua the son
9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
upon one of the mountains Gen. 22. May we not safely say here that God lead Abraham into temptation But as it follows liberavit a malo God delivered him from the evil of the temptation which is being overcome And Saint James saith sweetly though at first he may seem to cross this Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brethren account it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations Jac. 1. 2. to be in temptation is joy for God chastiseth every son that he receiveth and yet pray lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil let the latter comment upon the first lead us not into the evil of temptation which in the Apostles Phrase is suffer us not to be tempted above our strength CHAP. XXII Septuaginta Interpreters I Will not with Clemens Josephus Austen Epiphanius and others spend time in locking them up severally in their closets to make their Translation the more admirable I will only mind that They did the work of this Translation against their will and therefore we must expect but slippery doing And that appears by them Their additions variations and without doubt oversights may well argue with what a will they went about this business It were easie to instance in thousands of places How they add men and years Gen. 5. 10. 11. 46. How they add matter of their own heads as how they help Jobs wife to skold Job 2. adding there a whole verse of female passion I must now saith she go wander up and down and have no place to rest in and so forth And so Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away even as pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass blessed be the Name of the Lord which clause even as pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass is not in the Hebrew but it is added by them and so is it taken from them into our Common Prayer Book in that part of the manner of burial To trace them in their mistakes is pretty to see how their unpricked Bible deceived them As to instance in one or two for a taste Hebrew Septuag Gen. 15. 11. It is said that the birds light upon the carcasses and Abraham drove them away in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashhebh They read in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajashhebh he drove them away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajeshhebh he sat by them and of this Saint Austen makes goodly Allegories Judges 5. 8. The Hebrew saith they choose new gods then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lahhem shegnarim was war in the gates They say they chose new gods as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lehhem segnorim * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barly bread Judges 7. 11. The Hebrew saith and he and Phurah his servant went down to the quarter or side of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamushim the armed men They say he and his servant Pharah went down to the quarter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamishim fifty men Thus do they vary in a world of places which the expert may easily see and smile at I omit how they vary names of men and places I will trouble you with no more but one which they comment as it were to help a difficulty 1 King 12. 2. It is said of Jeroboam that he dwelt in Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijeshhebh bemitzraijm 2 Chron. 10. 2. It is said that he returned from Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashobh mimmitzraijm The Septuagint heals this thus Translating 2 Chron. 10. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he had dwelt in Egypt and he returned out of Egypt Such is the manner of that work of the Greek Now to examine the Authority of this we shall find it wonderful That some of the Jewish Synagogues read the Old Testament in Greek and not in Hebrew Tertullian seemeth to witness But those were Jews out of Canaan for they were not so skilful in the Greek Tongue in Canaan for ought I can find as to understand it so familiarly if they had been I should have thought the Septuagint to be the Book that was given to Christ in the Synagogue Luke 2. 17. Because his Text that he reads does nearer touch the Greek than the Hebrew But I know their Tongue was the Mesladoed Chaldee The greatest authority of this Translation appeareth in that the holy Greek of the New Testament doth so much follow it For as God used this Translation for a Harbinger to the fetching in of the Gentiles so when it was grown into Authority by the time of Christs coming it seemed good to his infinite Wisdom to add to its Authority himself the better to forward the building of the Church And admirable it is to see with what Sweetness and Harmony the New Testament doth follow this Translation sometime even besides the letter of the Old to shew that he that gave the Old may and can best expound it in the New CHAP. XXIII The Septuagint over-authorized by some SOME there were in the Primitive Church like the Romanists now that preferred this Translation of the Greek as they do the Vulgar Latine before the Hebrew fountain Of these Saint Austen speaks of their opinion herein and withal gives his own in his fifteenth book de Civitate Dei Cap. 11. 13 14. where treating of Methushelahs living fourteen years after the Flood according to the Greek Translation Hence came saith he that famous question where to lodge Methuselah all the time of the Flood Some hold saith he that he was with his father Enoch who was translated and that he lived with him there till the stood was past They hold thus as being loath to derogate from the authority of those books quos in autoritatem celebriorem suscepit Ecclesia which the Church hath entertained into more renowned Authority And thinking that the books of the Jews rather than these do mistake and err For they say that it is not credible that the seventy Interpreters which translated at one time and in one sense could err or would lie or err where it concerned them not But that the Jews for envy they bear to us seeing the Law and Prophets are come to us by their interpretation have changed some things in their books that the Authority of ours might be lessened This is their opinion Now his own he gives Chap. 13. in these words Let that Tongue be rather believed out of which a translation is made into another by Interpreters And in Chap. 14. The truth of things must be fetched out of that Tongue out of which that that we have is interpreted It is apparent by most of the Fathers both Greek and Latine how they followed the Greek though I think not so much for affectation as for meer necessity few of them being able to read the Bible in Hebrew I will conclude with Clemens Alex. his reason why God
common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their Schools they commonly use these words Amern rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in four letters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus say our Doctors of blessed memory But when they speak of holy men in the Old Testament they usually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in brief thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus when they mention Moses Solomon David or others this is the memorial they give them The Arabians have the like use in their Abbreviation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verb and so may be construed two ways On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his judgement herein shall be my Law To take it the latter way seems to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Jews did not directly do yet in manner they appear to do no less in one part of their Common Prayer Book called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Souls which being not very long I thought not amiss to Translate out of their Tongue into our own that the Reader may see their Jewish Popery or Popish Judaism and may bless the Creator who hath not shut us up in the same darkness CHAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of souls in the Iews Liturgy Printed at Venice THE Lord remember the soul or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the son of N. who is gone into his world wherefore I vow to give Alms for him that for this his soul may be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which be in the garden of Eden Amen The Lord remember the soul of Mrs. N. the Daughter of N. who is gone to her World Therefore I vow c. as in the other before Amen The Lord remember the soul of my father and my mother of my grandfathers and grandmothers of my uncles and aunts brethren and sisters of my cosens and consenesses whether of my fathers side or mothers side who are gone into their world Wherefore I vow c. Amen The Lord remember the soul of N. the son of N. and the souls of all my cosens and cosenesses whether on my fathers or mothers side who were put to death or slain or stabd or burnt or drowned or hanged for the sanctifying of the Name of God Therefore I will give Alms for the memory of their souls and for this let their souls be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which are in the garden of Eden Amen Then the Priest pronounceth a blessing upon the man that is thus charitable as it followeth there in these words He that blessed our father Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses and Aaron David and Salomon he bless Rabbi N. the son of N. because he hath vowed Alms for the souls whom he hath mentioned for the honour of God and for the honour of the Law and for the honour of the day for this the Lord keep him and deliver him from all affliction and trouble and from every plague and sickness and write him and seal him for a happy life in the day of Judgment and send a blessing and prosper him in every work of his hands and all Israel his brethren and let us say Amen Thus courteous Reader hast thou seen a Popish Jew interceding for the dead have but the like patience a while and thou shalt see how they are Popish almost entirely in claiming the merits of the dead to intercede for them for thus tendeth a prayer which they use in the book called Sepher Min hagim shel col Hammedinoth c. which I have also here turned into English Do for thy praises sake Do for their sakes that loved thee that now dwell in dust For Abraham Isaac and Jacobs sake Do for Moses and Aarons sake Do for David and Salomons sake Do for Jerusalem thy holy Cities sake Do for Sion the habitation of thy glories sake Do for the desolation of thy Temples sake Do for the treading down of thine Altars sake Do for their sakes who were slain for thy holy Name Do for their sakes who have been massacred for thy sake Do for their sakes who have gone to fire or water for the hallowing of thy Name Do for sucking childrens sakes who have not sinned Do for weaned childrens sakes who have not offended Do for infants sakes who are of the house of our Doctors Do for thine own sake if not for ours Do for thine own sake and save us Tell me gentle reader 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. whether doth the Jew Romanize or the Roman Judaize in his devotions This interceding by others is a shrewd sign they have both rejected the right Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus The prophane Heathen might have read both Jew and Papist a lecture in his Contemno minutos istos Deos modo Jovem propitium habeam which I think a Christian may well English let go all Diminutive Divinities so that I may have the great Jesus Christ to propitiate for me CHAP. XLI Of the Latine Translation of Matth. 6. 1. ALms in Rabbin Hebrew are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedhakah righteousness which word the Syrian Translator useth Matth. 6. 1. Act. 10. 2. and in other places From this custom of speech the Roman vulgar Translateth Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis One English old manuscript Testament is in Lichfield Library which hath it thus after the Latine Takith hede that you do not your rightwisnes before men to be seyne of hem ellis ye shullen have no mede at your fadir that is in hevenes Other English Translation I never saw any to this sense nor any Greek copy It seems the Papist will rather Judaize for his own advantage than follow the true Greek The Septuagint in some places of the Old Testament have turned Tsedhakah Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds or little or to no sense As the Papists have in this place of the New Testament turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness to as little purpose In the Hebrew indeed one word is used for both Tsedhakah for Almsdeeds which properly signifies Righteousness upon what ground I know not unless it be to shew that S◠Chrysostom hath such ◠touch Alms must be given of rightly gotten good or else they are no righteousness or they are called Zadkatha in Syrian Hu ger zadek le mehwo they are called righteousness because it is right they should be given and given rightly The Fathers of the Councel of Trent speak much of the merit of Alms whom one may
I have of mine own proper good of Gold and Silver which I have given to the House of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy House Even three thousand talents of Gold of the Gold of Ophir and seventy thousand talents of refined Silver to overlay the Walls of the Houses withal where these two things are remarkable First That he saith this preparation was above what he had prepared for the holy House and yet he saith he had prepared it for the House of God And secondly That here is mention of Silver to overlay the Walls withal whereas it is plain that within the Temple it self all the overlaying was of Gold Therefore it is thus to be understood that beside the store of Gold that David had provided for the gildings of the House within in the Holy and most Holy place he had also laid by a stock of Gold and Silver both to gild and overlay the Chambers over the Porch for there were upper Chambers diverse in it the height of it being one hundred and twenty cubits and to beautifie the side Chambers and the other Chambers that were about the Courts Now in the Temple after the Captivity we do not find that they were so curious to reduce the compass of the most Holy place to a cubick form but that the height of it did exceed the breadth it being twenty cubits long and twenty cubits broad like that of Solomons but the height far more for ought I find determined to the contrary SECT IV. The Cherubims and Ark. AS there were two Cherubims upon the Ark it self so also did Solomon cause two Cherubims besides to be made to stand over the Ark it standing between them they are so plainly and facilely described in 1 Kings VI. 23. that I shall refer the Reader thither for the story of them and say no more concerning them but only this that as the two Cherubims upon the Mercy seat may very well be resembled to Christs two natures so these two that stood by to the two Testaments which in their beginning and end reach the two sides of the World The Creation and the last Judgment and in the middle do sweetly join one to another The Ark the strength and presence of the Lord Psal. CV 4. and the glory of Israel 1 Sam. IV. 22. the most pregnant and proper resemblance of our Saviour in whom God dwelleth among men described Exod. XXV 10 c. and XXXVII 1. c. a a a Maym. in beth babbech per. 4. was set upon a stone up toward the West-end of the most Holy place even under the middle wings of the two tall Cherubims that stood besides it For the Cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the Ark and the Cherubims covered the Ark and the staves thereof above And they drew out the staves that the ends of the staves were seen out in the Holy place before the Oracle and they were not seen without 1 King VIII 7 8. 2 Chron. V. 8 9. For before the Temple was built while the Ark was in a moving posture the staves whereby the Ark was born were of an equal length on either side it ready for the Priests shoulders when there was occasion for the Ark to flit but now when they had brought it into Solomons Temple where it was to fix and remove no more they drew out the staves towards that side that looked down the most Holy place b b b R. Lev. Ger. in 1 King VIII Levi Gershom is of opinion that these staves were not the same that were made by Moses but of a longer size and that they raught down to the very Door and that though there were Doors betwixt the Holy and most Holy place yet those Doors could not shut because of these staves c c c Kimch ib. K. â—ol ibid. And Kimchi and Jarchi come up very near to the same supposal conceiving that the Ark stood not up near the Western Wall of the House but more downward towards the Door and that the staves raught down to the Door and on the day of Expiation when the High Priest went into the Holy place he went up to the Ark between these staves and could not go off to one hand or other But that that hath strained from them this conception is 1. Because they have strictly taken the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text in the Book of Kings for the Holy place without the Veil whereas the Book of Chronicles doth expresly render it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ark for whereas the one place saith that the heads of the staves were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth not the whole room either of the Holy or most Holy place but that singularly Holy place that was under the wings of the Cherubims for of that place had the Text spoken immediately before when it said The Priests brought the Ark into the most Holy place under the wings of the Cherubims For the Cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark c. and then he comes on and saith And they drew out the staves so that the ends of the staves appeared out of that holy place meaning under the wings of the Cherubims And 2. The Authors alledged have strictly taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mean so as one standing at the Door betwixt the Holy and most Holy place had the most Holy place before him whereas it signifieth in the same sense that it doth in that clause in Gen. I. 20. Let the Fowl flie upon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English hath well rendred in the open Firmament of Heaven And so is it to be taken here and the verse in hand may be properly understood thus And they drew out the staves at length so that the ends of the staves were seen from that Holy place in the open face of the Oracle but they were not seen without The staves were the same that were made by Moses and their length not great but only so much as to fit a Mans shoulder on either side of the Ark and now when they had set the Ark between the two standing Cherubims on the Floor the Cherubims inner wings covered the Ark and the staves that were above at the ends of the Ark but the rest of the staves drawn out downward toward the Oracle Door shot out from under the Cherubims wings and appeared in the open Face of the most Holy place and the High Priest when he came to offer Incense at the Ark on the day of Expiation he stood before the Ark between the staves d d d Maym. ubi sap It is fancied by the Jews that Solomon when he built the Temple foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed he caused very obscure and intricate Vaults under ground
the Reformation have been undermining its welfare and exercising the skill and patience of its earliest Bishops In so much that it was long since the judgment of one of your Lordships * Grindal Predecessors in the See of London and one that had been charged with too much favour and gentleness towards them that severity was necessarily to be used For thus he writes in a Letter which I have seen to a great Minister of State Anno 1569. Mine opinion is that all the Heads of this unhappy faction should be with all expedition severely punished to the example of others as people fanatical and incurable And the same New Reformers as they were then termed created so much affliction to the Church that it made * Sands another very Reverend Prelate of this See quite weary of his Bishoprick and drew this complaint from him in a Letter dated 1573. I may not in conscience I cannot flee from the afflicted Church otherwise I would labour out of hand to deliver my self of this intolerable and most grievous burthen I make no doubt but your Lordship being in the same place and having to do with Men of the same temper feel the same burthen God Almighty strengthen and encourage succeed and bless You in all the wise methods You use in the Government of Your Church and Clergy But I forbear any further to interrupt Your precious hours only recommending my pains to Your Lordships acceptance and my self to Your Blessing being My Lord One of the meanest of Your Clergy and Your Lordships most humble and dutiful Son and Servant IOHN STRYPE Low-Leighton May 14. 1684. THE PREFACE I AM not unsensible this Second Volume may lye under some prejudice as Translations and Posthumous pieces usually do which have not the last polishing of the Authors own Hand nor his consent to make them Publick Therefore to prevent any too hasty censures and to give this Book the advantage of a fair light and thereby to justifie what hath been done in sending it abroad to bear its fellow company is the chief design of this Preface And here I am to account for two things according to the two Parts that this Volume consists of The former is the Translation of the Horae Hebraicae and the second the Publishing of the Sermons I. For the former it cannot be denied that a Translation labours under the same disadvantage that the Copy of a good Picture doth which seldom reacheth to the Truth and Perfection of the Original And it needs not be said that among those fatal things such as Epitomies wilful Interpolations ignorant and careless Transcriptions and the like whereby the Books of the Antients especially Ecclesiastical Writers have suffered no small damages unskilful Translations have contributed their share damages rather to be deplored than ever to be redressed But as to the present Translation I have this to apologize for if not to justifie it That seeing these Latine pieces were the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last result and perfection of our Authors long and elaborate Oriental Studies the very marrow and compendium of all his Rabbinical Learning and since that great knowledge he had attained in that way is in these Latine Exercitations maturely and after many years pensive thoughts digested and reduced to be admirably subservient to the Evangelical Doctrine and by a peculiarly divine skill he hath made the Rabbies more bitter enemies than whom the Gospel never had to be the best Interpreters of it it was thought pity that his Countrymen should be deprived of these his last and best labours and seemed somewhat unjust that Strangers and the Learned only should reap the benefit of them Besides it is to be considered how much a right understanding of the four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles which contain the History of the great Founder of our Religion and his holy Institution would contribute to the burying of unhappy differences which have arisen in a great measure from mistaken Interpretations of matters in those Books and to the furthering peace and unity among us and how highly all that call themselves Christians are concerned to attain to the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures on which our Faith and Hope is built and lastly that these our Authors labours administer such considerable help to us herein it was resolved so small an impediment as the Latine Tongue should not obstruct so great a Good I hope there will be no occasion to accuse the Translation for any defect of care or faithfulness or skill but rather that it may merit some approbation upon all those accounts The work of a Translator chiefly consists in carrying along with him the sense of the Author and as much as another Language will allow the very air of his expression that he may be known and discovered though he wear the dress and habit of another Nation I trust those who undertook this employment will be found to have duly attended to both I will not be so confident as to vouch it so absolutely free of all mistake as if the Translators had been inspired by the Author himself it being morally impossible in a Work of that critical nature and considerable length not to make a stumble or a slip It will satisfie reasonable Men I hope if the errors are but few and the Work be generally accompanied with a commendable diligence The judicious Reader will not like our pains the less that we have not much regarded curious and smooth Language For none will look for a fine and florid style in a Translator who is bound up to follow close his Author and considering that he that presumes to vary too freely from his words t is a great venture but he varies often from his sense too And indeed affectation of soft words and handsom periods would have been a Vice here for it would have made the Author look unlike himself whose style was generally rough and neglected his mind being more taken up about sense and inquiry after truth than those things And therefore I hope none will place this among the blemishes of the Translation If the words be easie and intelligible and naturally expressive of the sense the more plain and unaffected the better I will advance a step further in behalf of this English Translation there are some things in it that may give it the advantage even of the Latine Exercitations themselves Namely that they are all with a diligent and careful Eye revised and corrected in abundance of places besides what the Errata directed to The Addenda Printed at the end of the Horae upon S. Luke and S. John are here reduced to their proper places in the body of the Book excepting one passage only which was neglected I know not how but now Printed at the end of this Preface The Annotations upon the eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ignorantly and carelesly thrust in among the Exercitations upon the Acts of
the light with the other Works of the Doctor that were then reprinting thinking it pity that the World should lose many excellent Notions as they seemed to me and Expositions of hard places of Scripture that were dispersed up and down in those Notes and that at least some of his pains in the Pulpit as well as in his Study might be preserved to posterity I have transcribed them as I found them neither contracting but where the same matters that were in other Sermons were repeated or in the closes of them where the practical Improvements were somewhat large and long nor adding unless in these cases either where references were made to Texts of Scripture which I have writ out at large a thing necessary for the clearer understanding of the tenour and contexture of the discourse or where any Hebrew Greek or Latine occurred which I have translated for the benefit of Vulgar Readers Indeed in some few places I have left the Hebrew words without any interpretation as I found them not well knowing what to make of them either through mine own ignorance or the Authors mistake in his hasty writing I was sometime in a hesitation whether to leave them wholly out or to insert them as I found them writ in the MSS. The later of which I resolved to do that they might lie open to the conjecture of the more Learned and that nothing might be presented maimed but as intire as might be To give one instance in the Sermon upon Luke XI 2. not far from the end we meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether or no it be a mistake of the Authors pen for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The curses against Hereticks which the Jews used to add to their Prayers Lastly in some discourses written in very short notes and with some cs I have been forced to insert words now and then to supply and make the sense compleat This I was sensible was a very nice and tender point and therefore I used not only all faithfulness and the best skill I had but diligently consulted other Notes where the same notions were more fully set down and have sometimes supplied my self from thence But otherwise I have chosen rather to leave some places imperfect than to fill up by mine own bare conjecture The Sermons of this sort are those generally that bear the antienter date but towards the later end of his life the Notes were more fully and fairly written The Doctor probably not daring then to trust to his memory so much as he had done in his younger days The Discourse upon Luke XI 2. and that upon Matth. XXVIII 19. are of this kind Which however I have used my best care and caution to copy so at least as to render the main lines of the discourses clear yet I am afraid the Reader will want many things to make them speak out the full sense and meaning of the Author Which indeed is great pity because they are of those Sermons that have some great strokes in them and the fame of them is still fresh in the memory of many now alive that heard them Preached at S. Maries in Cambridge The later of which viz. that which treats of Baptism confirmed a late Reverend and very Learned Divine of the Church of England in the Doctrine of Infant-baptism who as himself confessed was not well reconciled to it But upon the hearing those Sermons for they were two though they stand now digested into one continued Discourse sent a letter expressive of great thanks to our Author for them and acknowledged that he had settled him more in the Orthodox Doctrine than all his reading upon that subject ever before had and earnestly desired the favour of a Copy of them which was accordingly sent him from the Doctor And here is a proper place to beg the Readers excuse if he meet sometimes with gaps and breaks and passages that are not so perfect and full as it were to be wished and to beseech him to pardon many things in these Discourses as that some break off abruptly and that the style of others are so plain and homely being transcribed out of his own rough papers not polished and smoothed reviewed and embellished for the sight of the publick but intended only as his own private remembrancers when he Preached them As to the ranking and disposing them I have not been very curious only placing the Occasional Sermons first and to each I have added the place where they were delivered and the time when But to the other I have neither mentioned place nor date neither of which seeming much material But if any be desirous to know they were preached either at Ely where his dignity was or at Munden where his Parsonage most of them between the year 1660 many between 1670 and the time of his death And so his maturest and ripest thoughts and judgment At the end of the Sermon upon Matth. XXVIII 19. I have adjoyned some few notes of another Preached at Aspeden seemingly out of its due place The reason I did so was because it treated of the same subject and might as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serve to make the former discourse compleat and that what was omitted in the one might be supplied from the other The MS. Sermon upon 2 Sam. XIX 29. hath neither mention of place where nor date when preached The reason I suppose was becausehe either distrusted his own thoughts or was loath to disclose them when they ran counter to the general current of Expositors And so it is exposed to the Readers view In the Sermon upon the Prophet slain by a Lion at the beginning the Author propounds several difficulties in and about this story which he might be expected to have resolved but he doth not in any of those notes that have come to my hands though probably they were assoyled by him in others but they cannot be retrieved And so we must be thankful for what we have and be contented in the want of the rest And that nothing might be wanting to render both Parts of this Book the more compleat and useful there are four distinct Tables subjoyned compiled with commendable pains and accuracy And if the preparing these and the Maps and some other things hath somewhat retarded the Publication hereof the Reader will I trust the more readily pardon it seeing it hath been only to render the whole Work the more compleat and serviceable And thus I have given some account of this Volume It needs none to commend it both the Author and the Design do sufficiently commend themselves the Author being a Person of known Worth and Learning and whose name is celebrated not only within the narrow limits of our own Country but also among Forainers who have his Works in so great value that they are now Printing them all as I hear in the Latine and in the French Tongues and the Design great and noble viz. To explain the Holy Scriptures the
XXXI Concerning the Gates and Chambers lying on the South side of the Court. HERE concerning the Chambers they differ The Tract Middoth assigns these to the South side a a a a a a Midd. cap. â— hal â— The Chamber of Wood the Chamber of the spring of water the chamber Gazith The b b b b b b Iâ—… â— Babylonian Gemara and c c c c c c 〈…〉 Maimonides assign them to the North side In Middoth the Chamber of Salt the Chamber of Happarva the Chamber of them that wash were on the North side in those they are said to be on the South The matter is hardly of so great moment that we should weary our selves in deciding this controversie We enter not into disputes but follow those things that are more probable the Middoth being our guide I. Therefore we suppose first that the Chamber Gazith was on the South side of the Court near the East corner and that upon this reason that since according to all the Jews howsoever differing on what side it was placed this Chamber was not in the middle of the three Chambers before named but on the outside either on the one hand or on the other the Councel could not sit in the lot of Judah if Gazith were not seated about that place which we assign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Joma fol. 25. 1. The Chamber Gazith was in the form of a great Court-walk And half of it was in the holy place and the other half in that which was common and it had two doors whereof one opened towards the holy place the other towards that which was common That is one into the Court the other to the Chel The great Sanhedrin sat in that part which was in Chel for none might sit in the Court unless Kings only of the stock of David e e e e e e Ibid. fol. 19. 1 In the Chamber Gazith sat the Councel of Israel and judged concerning the Priests Whosoever was found touched with any spot was clothed in black and was vailed in black and went away Whoever was without spot being clothed and vailed in white went into the Court and ministred with his brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Ibid. fol. 25. 1. The President sat in the West part of the Chamber g g g g g g Maimon in Sanhedr cap. 1. and Ab beth Din on his right hand and the Elders on both sides in a half Circle How the Sanhedrin was driven from this Chamber and when and why we observe elsewhere II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h Midd. cap. â— hal 3. Joma fol. 19. 1. The Chamber of the spring was next to this Westwardly Where was a Well and a Pully whence water was supplied to the whole Court III. Contiguous to this was the Gate of Waters so called either because the water to be poured out upon the Altar on the feast of Tabernacles was brought in through this Gate or because the Water-course conveyed into the Temple from the fountain Etam went along through this Gate into the Chamber of the Spring i i i i i i Bab. Joma fol. 31. Abai saith That fountain was deeper than the pavement of the Court three and twenty cubits And I think saith the Author of the Gloss that the fountain Etam was the same with the waters of Nephtoa of which mention is made in the book of Joshua Chap. XV. 9. for thence it descends and slopes into the East and West and that place was the highest in the land of Israel IV. l l l l l l See Midd. in the place above After this Gate was the Chamber of Wood and above that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Magistrates or as it was commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chamber of the Councellors where there was a Sessions of the Priests consulting about the affairs of the Temple and Service The Wood-chamber seems to be called so upon this account because the Wood was conveyed hither after the search about it was made in the Chamber of Wood which was in the corner of the Womens Court whether there were any Worms in it That which was found fit for the Altar was laid up here that it might be more in readiness V. Beyond that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gate of offering and after that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gate of kindling CHAP. XXXII The Gates and Doors on the North side I. FIRST we meet with a a a a a a Midd. cap. 1. hal 5. the Gate and Chamber Nitsots where the Priests and Levites watched This was also called The Gate of a song II. The Chamber of them that wash was next to that and the Chamber of Happarva joyning to that In that they washed the inwards of the sacrifices in this they salted the skins of the sacrifices b b b b b b Bab. Joma fol. 35. 1. Some believe one Parva a Magitian built this Chamber others that that Magitian Parva made a secret hole in the wall of this Chamber that through that he might see what was here done by the High Priest c c c c c c Midd. cap. 5. hal 2. For in a covered place of this Chamber there was a bath for the great Priest in the day of Expiation III. Thence was the Gate of offering or of Corban This was also called The Gate of the Women The reason rendred of the former name is that by this Gate they brought in the most holy sacrifices which were slain on the North. But the reason of the latter is more obscure perhaps before that Gate the Women delivered their sacrifices into the hands of the Priests IV. After that Gate Westward was the Chamber of Salt d d d d d d Ibid. where Salt was laid up for the offerings V. Following that was the Gate Beth-mokad or the Gate of Burning so called from a Chamber adjoyning where a fire continually burnt for the use of the Priests This also was called the Gate Corban for between this and the Gate last named was the Chamber where the publick treasure of the Temple was laid up In Beth-mokad were four Chambers 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chamber of Lambs where they were kept for the use of the Altar 2. The Chamber of the Shewbread 3. The Chamber where the stones of the Altar were laid up by the Asmoneans when the Kings of Greece had prophaned the Altar 4. The Chamber whence they went down into the Bath CHAP. XXXIII The Court it self THE a a a a a a Maim Bethhabbech cap. 6. floor of the whole sacred Earth was not level but rising When any went on from the East Gate of the Court of the Gentiles to the furthest part of the Chel he went all in a level From
flourished and became the second City to Hierusalem The same persons which were just now cited suppose that the Restorer of it was Hiel the son of Jehosaphat to wit the same with Jechiel 2 Chron. XXI 2. b b b b b b Id. Ibidem Hiel say they was of Jehoshaphat and Jericho of Benjamin And that is a just scruple which R. David objects c c c c c c Kimchi upon 1 King 16. How it came about that the pious King Jehoshaphat should suffer such a horrid thing to be done within his Kingdom Much more how this should have been done by his son Let them dispute the business we hasten some where else That which ought not to be done being once done stands good Hiel did a cursed thing in building Jericho yet Jericho was not to be cursed being now built A little after its restauration it was made noble by the Schools of the Prophets 2 Kings II. 5. and it flourished with the rest of the Cities of Judea unto the destruction of the Nation by the Babylonians It flourished more under the second Temple so that it gave place to no City in Judea yea all gave place to it besides Jerusalem d d d d d d Strabo lib. 16 A royal Palace was in it e e e e e e Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. where Herod ended his days f f f f f f Ibid. cap. 8. an Hippodromus where the Jewish Nobility being imprisoned by him were to be slain when he expired g g g g g g Id. de Bello lib. 1. cap. ult an Amphitheatre where his Will was publickly opened and read over and sometime a Sessions of the Sanhedrin and a noble troup of those that waited in their Courses at the Temple h h h h h h Hieros Avod Zarah fol. 42. 3 The Elders sometime assembled together in the Chamber Beth-gadia in Jericho The Bath Kol went forth and said to them There are two among you who are fit to receive the Holy Ghost and Hillel is one of them They cast their eyes upon Samuel the Little as the Second Another time the Elders assembled together in a Chamber in Jafne the Bath Kol went forth and said There are two among you who are sit to receive the Holy Ghost and Samuel the Little is one of them They cast their eyes upon R. Lazar. And they rejoyced that their judgment agreed with the sentence of the Holy Ghost i i i i i i Id. Taanith fol. 67. 4. There is a Tradition that there were at Jerusalem twenty four thousand men of the Station and half a Station that is twelve thousand men at Jericho Jericho also could have produced an whole Station but because she would give place to Jerusalem she produced only the half of a Station Behold five hundred men of every Course residing at Jericho But what were they They were ready at hand to supply any courses that wanted if there were any such at Jerusalem and they took care of supplying them with necessaries who officiated at Jerusalem Hence it is the less to be wondred at if you hear of a Priest and a Levite passing along in the Parable of him that travailed between Jerusalem and Jericho Luke X. 31 32. In so famous and populous a Town there could not but be some Councel of three and twenty one at least of more remark if not more when so many of the Stations dwelling there were at hand who were fit to be employed in Government and so many to be governed k k k k k k Pesach cap. 4 hal 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The men of Jericho are famed for six things done by them in three of which the chief Councel consented to them but in the other three they consented not Those things concerning which they opposed them not were these I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They engrafted or folded together Palmtrees every day Here is need of a long Commentary and they produce one but very obscure The business of the men of Jericho was about Palmtrees which they either joyned together and mingled males with females or they ingrafted or as they commonly say inoculated the more tender sprouts of the branches into those that were older So much indulgence was granted them by the Wise-men concerning the time wherein these things are done which elsewhere would scarcely have been suffered unless as it seems the nature of the place and of the Groves of Palms required it II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They folded up the recitations of their Phylacteries that is either not speaking them out distinctly or omitting some doxologies or Prayers or pronouncing them with too shrill a voice See the Gemara and the Gloss. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They reaped and gathered in their Sheaves before the Sheaf of first fruits was offered and this partly because of the too early ripeness of their Corn in that place and partly because their Corn grew in a very low Valley and therefore it was not accounted fit to be offered unto the Mincha or daily sacrifice See the Gloss. The three things concerning which the Wise-men consented not to them were these I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such fruits and branches also certain fruits of the Sycomine-trees which their fathers had devoted to sacred uses they alienated into common II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They eat on the Sabbath day ander the tree such fruits as fell from the tree although they were uncertain whether they had fallen on the Sabbath day or the Eve of the Sabbath for such as fell on the Sabbath were forbidden III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They granted a corner of the Garden for herbs in the same manner as a corner of the Field was granted for corn Let the description of this City and place be concluded with those words of the Talmud in the place noted in the margin l l l l l l Bab. Berach fol. 43. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do they use a certain form of prayer upon Balsome Blessed be he who hath created the oyntment of our land The Gloss is The oyntment of our land for it grows at Jericho and for its smell it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jericho and it is that Pannag of which mention is made in the book of Ezekiel Judah and the land of Israel were thy Merchants in wheat of Minnith and Pannag This I have seen in the book of Josephus ben Gorion Judge Reader CHAP. XLVIII Some Miscellaneous matters belonging to the Country about Iericho LET us begin from the last encampings of Israel beyond Jordan Numb XXXIII 29. They encamped near Jordan from Beth-Jeshimoth unto Abel Shittim a a a a a a Hieros Sheviith fol. 36. 3. Gittin fol. 43. 3. From Beth-Jeshimoth to Abel-Shittim were twelve miles It is a most received opinion among the Jews that the Tents of the Israelites in
〈◊〉 unto the Lake of Gennesaret to comprise all the Lake of Gennesaret within it Look into Adrichomius to say nothing of others and compare these words of Josephus with him Hither perhaps is that to be reduced which hath not a little vexed Interpreters in Jos. cap. XIX where Jordan is twice mentioned in desining the limits of the Tribe of Nephthali vers 33. The outgoings of the border hence was to Jordan and vers 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The going out from thence that is from the South border was to Jordan in Judah towards the Sun rising What hath the land of Nephthali to do with Jordan in Judah I answer Juda that is Judea is here opposed to Galilee Judah is not here spoken of as opposed to the other Tribes Before ever the name of Samaria was risen the name of Galilee was very well known Jos. XX. 7. and so was the name of Judea and at that time one might not improperly divide the whole land within Jordan into Galilee and Judea when as yet there was no such thing as the name of Samaria The words alledged therefore come to this sense as if it had been said The North bounds of Naphthali went out Eastwardly to Jordan in Galilee in like manner the South bounds went out Eastwardly to Jordan now running into Judea that is the Country without Galilee which as yet was not called Samaria but rather Judea The bounds certainly of the land of Nephthali seem to touch Jordan on both sides both on the North and the South and so to contain the Sea of Genesaret within its bosom according to that which is said by the Talmudists before alledged and those also men of Tiberias While I am discoursing of Jordan and this Lake let me add this moreover concerning the boat of Jordan d d d d d d Hieros Shabb. fol. 7. 1. R. Jacob bar Aidai saith in the name of R. Jochanan Let no man absent himself from Beth Midrash for this question was many a time propounded in Jabneh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The boat or barge of Jordan why is it unclean Nor was there any who could answer any thing to it until R. Chaninah the son of Antigonus came and expounded it in his City The boat of Jordan is unclean because they fill it with fruit and sail with it down from the Sea unto the dry land and from the dry land into the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jews themselves being interpreters is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A small vessel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little Ship Josephus hath these words e e e e e e Jos. de bell lib. 2. cap. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Having gathered together all the boats in the Lake they were found to be two hundred and thirty and there were no more than four mariners in each CHAP. LXXII Tiberias ALL the Jews declare almost with one consent that this was a fortified City from antient times even from the days of Josua and was the same with Rakkath of which mention is made Jos. XIX 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Hieros Megill fol. 70. 1. Rakkath is Tiberias say the Jerusalem Gemarists And those of Babylon say the same and that more largely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b b b b Bab. Megill fol. 5. 2. 6. 1. It is clear to us that Rakkath is Tiberias And when after a few lines this of Rabbi Jochanan was objected When I was a boy I said a certain thing concerning which I asked the Elders and it was found as I said namely that Chammath is Tiberias and Rakkath Zippor it is thus at last concluded Rabba said Who is it to whom it was said that Rakkath is not Tiberias For behold when any dyes here in Babylon they lament him there at Tiberias after this manner The Hearse of a famous man deceased in Sheshach Babylon whose name also is of note in Rakkath is brough hither thus lament ye him O ye lovers of Israel O Citizens of Rakkath come forth and bewail the dead of Babylon When the Soul of R. Zeira was at rest thus one lamented him The land of Babylon conceived and brought forth delights the land of Israel nourished them Rakkath said Wo to it self because she lost the Vessels of her delights Therefore saith Rabba Chammath is the same with the warm baths of Gadar and Rakkath is Tiberias This City touched on the Sea so that the Sea served on one side for a wall to it Hence is that in the place but now cited Rabh Hezekiah read the book of Esther in Tiberias on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also on the fifteenth day see Esth. IX 21. doubting whether it were compassed with walls from the days of Josua or not But who would doubt this of Tiberias When it is written And the senced Cities were Ziddim Zer Chammath Rakkath and Chinnereth But it is clear to us that Rakkath is Tiberias The reason therefore why he doubted was this because on one side it was enclosed by the Sea instead of a wall But if it were so why did he doubt Because truly it was no wall When the Tradition is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A City which hath a wall but not fortified walls the contiguous houses are for such walls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Tiberias is excepted which hath the Sea for a wall So also R. Simeon Ben Jochai in the Jerusalem Gemara just now alledged Among the Cities fortified with walls Tiberias is excepted as having the Sea for a wall What fortune this City underwent under the name Rakkath remains unknown Herod the Tetrarch put the name of Tiberias upon it and built the City for the sake and memory of Tiberius Cesar. The Etymology of which place while the Gemarists deduce elsewhere namely either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tob reja because it was fair to behold or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was Betiborah in the Navel or middle c. they seem rather to sport out of a luxuriant wit than to be ignorant of the thing it self CHAP. LXXIII Of the situation of Tiberias WHEN I read Pliny of the situation of this City and compare some things which are said by Josephus and the Talmudists with him I cannot but be at a stand what to resolve upon here Pliny thus of the situation of it a a a a a a Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 5. cap. 15. The lake of Genesar is compassed round with pleasant Towns on the East Julias and Hippo on the South Tarichea by which name some call the lake also on the West Tiberias healthful for its warm waters Consult the Maps and you see Tiberias in them seated as it were in the middle shore of the Sea of Genesaret equally distant almost from the utmost South and North coasts of that Sea Which seems well indeed to agree with Pliny but illy with Josephus and
Law were here taught and so the studies of the Law and Gospel together rendred the Minister of the Divine Word compleat CHAP. XCVIII Some Miscellaneous matters respecting the face of the land 1. LET us begin with that Canon concerning reading the book of Esther in the feast of Purim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Megill cap. â— hal 1. Towns that were begirt with walls from the days of Joshua read it the fifteenth day of the month Adar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Villages and great Cities read it the fourteenth day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unless that the Villages anticipate it to the day of the Congregation You see a threefold distinction of Cities and Towns 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fortifications or Towns girt with walls from the days of Joshua But whence shall we know them They are those which are mentioned in the book of Joshua b b b b b b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 artic 2 which however in after times they were not begirt with walls are nevertheless reckoned under the Catalogue of them as to the reading of that book 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great Cities That was called a great City in which was a Synagogue So it is defined by the Piske Tosaphoth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c c c c Piske Tosaph artic 2. That is a great City in which are ten men at leisure to pray and read the Law See what we say concerning these things on Matth. Chap. IV. vers 23. when we speak of Synagogues 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Villages That is such where there was not a Synagogue Yea saith the Piske Harosh a fortified Town wherein are not ten men of leisure or such as ceased from the things of the World and these made up a Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is reputed as a Village c. That which is added in the Text of the Mishna Unless the Villages do anticipate it to the day of the Congregation is thus explained by the Glossers When Towns girt with walls read the book of Esther on the fifteenth day and those that were not walled on the fourteenth see Esth. IX 21. and yet it is said before in the same Text of the Mishna that that book is read the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth day the wise Men granted liberty to the Villages to preoccupate the reading namely on that day wherein they resorted to the Synagogue that is either the second day of the week that went before the fourteenth day of the month or the fift day of the week which were days of Assembly in which the Villages resorted into the Cities to judgment For the second and fift days of the week the Judiciary Consistories sat in the Cities by the appointment of Ezra Now the Villagers were not skilful in reading therefore it was needful that they should have some reader in the City c. II. Let the Canons and cautions of the spaces and places next joyning to the City or Town be observed 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Bava bathra cap. 2. hal 5. A Dovecoat was not built within fifty Cubits from the City and that least the Pigeons might do injury to the Gardens that were sown 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They permitted not a tree within five and twenty Cubits from the City And this as the Gloss speaks for the grace of the City 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They allowed not a barn-floor within fifty cubits from the City that when they fanned their corn the chaff might not offend the Citizens 4. They permitted not dead carkasses or burying places nor a Tanners shop to be within fifty Cubits from the City because of the stink Nor did they allow a Tanners Workshop at all but on the Eastside of the City R. Akiba saith On any side except the West but at the distance of fifty cubits III. From the Cities let us walk forth into their plowed grounds and fields Here you might see in some places e e e e e e Hieros Sheviith fol. 35. 4 certain tokens hung upon some figtrees to shew of what year the fruit that grew there was See what we say on Matth. XXI 19. In other places you might see barren trees stigmatized with some mark of infamy f f f f f f Ibid. Col. 3 A tree which shook off its fruits before they were ripe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mark with red and load it with stones You might see the plowing and mowing of their fields the dressing of their Vines and their Vintage to be done by the rules of the Scribes as well as by the art of the Husbandman or the Vinedresser For such was the care and diligence of the Fathers of the Traditions concerning tithing Corn and Fruits concerning leaving a corner for the poor concerning the avoiding of sowing different seeds and of not transgressing the Law concerning the seventh year that they might not plow nor sow nor reap but according to the Traditional rule Hence are those infinite Disputes in the books Peah Demai Kilaim Sheviith g g g g g g Peah cap. 1. of the corner of the field to be left what and how much the portion of it was and of what things such corners ought to consist h h h h h h Id. cap. 2. Of those that divide the field so that a double corner of it is due to the poor i i i i i i Id. cap. 3. Whether a corner is due from beds of corn that grow among Olive-trees Whether from a field whose sowing and reaping is various k k k k k k Demai cap. 1 What are the trees whose fruits are Demai l l l l l l â—â— cap. 2. Of what things is the tithing of the Demai m m m m m m â—ilaâ—m c 3. How long the same plot of ground may be sown with different seeds so as not to offend against the Law Of sowing different seeds n n n n n n Ibid. c. 4. 5 How many Vines make a Vineyard Of their rows of the beds of the Vineyard of sowing within the Press c. and innumerable decisions of that nature which did so keep the Countryman within bounds that he could not plow nor mow his land according to his own will but according to the rule of Tradition o o o o o o Hieros Peah fol. 18. 2. The Inhabitants of Beth-Namer measured out a corner for the poor with a line and they gave a corner out of every row Abba Saul saith They make mention of them to their praise and to their dispraise because they gave one part out of an hundred to their praise because measuring with a line they collected and gave a corner out of every row that is meeting with a measuring line they yielded the hundredth part of the field to the
out of the Hebrew Text. The Duty of this Interpreter and the Rules of his duty you may read at large in the k k k k k k Megill cap. 4. Maimon in Tephillah cap. 12. c. Massecheth Sopherim cap. 10. c. and elsewhere Talmud The use of such an Interpreter they think was drawn down to them from the times of Ezra and not without good reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Hieros Megill fol. 74. 4. And they read in the book of the Law That was the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explaining That was the Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And added the meaning They are the accents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they understood the Text. That was the Masoreth See Nehem. VIII 8. see also Buxtorph's Tiberias Chap. VIII 5. We do not readily know who to name for the ninth and tenth of this last Three Let us suppose them to be the Master of the Divinity School and his Interpreter of whom we shall have a fuller occasion of enquiry And thus much concerning the heads of the Synagogue that learned Decemvirate which was also the representative body of the Synagogue III. The days wherein they met together in the Synagogue were the Sabbath and the second day and the fift of every week Of the Sabbath there is no question They refer the appointment of the second and fift days to Ezra m m m m m m Hieros Megill fol. 75. 1. Bab. Bava kama fol. 82. 1. Ezra say they decreed ten decrees He appointed the publick reading of the Law in the second and fift days of the week Also on the Sabbath at the time of the sacrifice He appointed washing to those that had the Gonorrhea He appointed the Session of the Judges in Cities on the second and fift days of the week c. Hence perhaps it will appear in what sense that is to be understood Act. XIII 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath or the Sabbath between that is on the days of that intervening week wherein they met together in the Synagogue IV. Synagogues were antiently builded in fields n n n n n n Bab. Beracoth fol. 2. 1. To the evening recital of the Phylacteries are to be added two Prayers going before and two following after Where the Gloss thus The Rabbins instituted that prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might retain their collegues in the Synagogue And this certainly respected their Synagogues at that time because they were situated in the fields where they might be in danger And so o o o o o o Fol. 69. 3. Rabbenu Asher upon the same Tract Antiently their Synagogues were in fields therefore they were affraid to tarry there until the Evening prayers were ended It was therefore appointed that they should recite some verses in which a short sum of all the eighteen prayers had been compacted after which that prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to be recited But the following times brought back their Synagogues for the most part into the Cities and provision was made by sharp Canons that a Synagogue should be built in the highest place of the City and that no house should be built higher than it V. The like Provision was made that every one at the stated times of prayer should frequent the Synagogue p p p p p p Maim in Tephill cap. 8. God does not refuse the prayers although sinners are mingled there Therefore it is necessary that a man associate himself with the Congregation and that he pray not alone when an opportunity is given of praying with the Congregation Let every one therefore come Morning and Evening to the Synagogue And q q q q q q Chap. 6. It is forbidden to pass by the Synagogue in the time of prayer unless a man carry some burden upon his back or unless there be more Synagogues in the same City for then it may be judged that he goes to another or unless there be two doors in the Synagogue for it may be judged that he passed by one to go in at another But if he carry his Phylacteries upon his head then it is allowed him to pass by because they bear him witness that he is not unmindful of the Law These things are taken out of the u Babylonian Talmud Where these are also added The Holy Blessed r Beracoth fol. 8. 1. One saith whosoever employeth himself in the study of the Law and in the returning of mercy and whosoever prays with the Synagogue I account concerning him as if he redeemed me and my sons from the Nations of the World And whosoever prays not with the Synagogue is called an ill Neighbour as it is said Thus saith the Lord of all my evil neighbours c. Jer. XII 14. VI. When they were met together in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day for this being observed there is no need to speak any thing of the other days the service being begun the Minister of the Church calls out seven whomsoever he pleases to call out to read the Law in their order First A Priest then a Levite if they were present and after these five Israelites Hence it is O young student in Hebrew learning that in some editions of the Hebrew Bible you see marked in the margin of the Pentateuch 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Levite 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fourth 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fifth 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sixth 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh Denoting by these words the order of the Readers and measuring out hereby the portion read by each one Thus I suppose Christ was called out by the Angel of the Church of Nazareth IV. Luke 16. and reading according to the custom as a member of that Synagogue There is no need to mention that prayers were made publickly by the Angel of the Church for the whole Congregation and that the Congregation answered Amen â—o every prayer and it would be too much particularly to enumerate what those prayers were and to recite them It is known enough to all that Prayers and reading of the Law and the Prophets was the chief business in the Synagogue and that both were under the care of the Angel of the Synagogue But did not he or some body else make Sermons in the Synagogue I. There seemed to have been Catechizing of boys in the Synagogue Consider what that means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s s s s s s Bab. Bâ—rac fol. 17. 1. What is the privilege of Women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This that their sons read in the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their husbands recite in the School of the Doctors Where the Gloss thus The boys that were Scholars were
Pentecost And here I cannot but transcribe the words of the Glosser in that place of the Talmud which we are now upon as not a little illustrating the place in the Evangelists They published saith he and made known that they should bring the oblation of the Lord the half Shekel they that were near to Jerusalem at the Passover and they that were further off at Pentecost and they that were most remote at the Feast of Tabernacles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These words serve for a light to the story in S. Matthew Chap. XVII of the Collectors of the Didraâ—hm or half Shekel requiring it of Christ at Capernaum when the Feast of the Passover was now past a great while ago But we go on He who went into the Chamber to empty the chests went not in with a folded garment nor with shoes nor with Sandals nor with Phylacteries nor with charms c. And the reason was that there might be no opportunity and all suspicion might be removed of stealing and hiding any of the mony under them The money taken thence served to buy the daily Sacrifice and the drink-offerings salt wood frankincense the shew-bread the garments of the Priests and in a word whatsoever was needful for the Worship and service of the Temple Yea l l l l l l Chetubh fol. 105. 1. Rabh Asa saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Judges of things stolen who were at Jerusalem received as their stipend ninety nine Mana's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the rent of the Chamber SECT IV. Where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Treasury was WE have searched out the things now let us enquire after the places I. Those thirteen Chests which were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Trumpets we have fixed without all doubt in the Court of the Women and that upon the credit of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i De Bell. lib. 5. cap. 14. The Walks saith he speaking of that Court running along between the Gates extended inwardly from the Wall before the Treasuries were born up with fair and great Columns To this let us add the words of the Evangelist Joh. VIII 20. These words spake Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Treasury if it had been said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over against the Treasury which Mark saith it might be understood of one of the Chambers of which we have spoken which sense the Arabick Interpreter seems to follow who renders it that Jesus sâ—t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Gate of the Treasury But when it is said that he spake those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Treasury those Chambers are wholly excluded into which it would be ridiculous to think that they permitted Christ to enter But note the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Treasuries in Josephus is the Plural Number and that he speaks of the Court of the Women and you will be past doubting that he respected these Chests under the word Treasuries and you will doubt as little that Mark looked the same way when you shall have observed that his speech is of the woman how both she and others cast money 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Treasury which as appears from those things we have produced out of the Talmudists was neither customary nor allowed to do into other Corbans This Court indeed is commonly called in the Jewish Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Court of the Women not that women only entred in there but because women might not go further in the same sense as the outward Court is called the Court of the Gentiles not that Heathens only might enter there but because they might not go further That Court was also most ordinarily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mountain of the Temple so this also whereof we are treating was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Treasury When therefore it is said by St. Mark that Jesus sat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Over against the Treasury it comes to this that he sat under the Walk before which those Chests were placed And when John saith Jesus spake these words in the Treasury it is all one as if he had said He spake these words in the Court of the Women yea in that place where those Chests were that that place might be distinguished from others which were in that Court for in every corner of that Court there was a little Court each one called by its own name as appears in the places written in the Margin m m m m m m Middoth cap. 7. hal 5. Joma fol. 16. 1. II. To trace the situation of the rest of the Corbans concerning which we have made mention is not now the business before us for that which was propounded as our task we have dispatched But this we cannot but advise for the Readers sake that on the North-side of the Court of Israel was a Gate which was called the Corban-gate n n n n n n Middoth in the place above Hal. 6. yea by comparing the words of the Masters there seem to be two Gates of the same name one of which if you make to belong to that Corban Chamber into which the money out of the thirteen Chests was emptied and the other to belong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that Corban that was appoynted for the repair and amending of the building it self perhaps you will not mistake Certainly you will not find any place more probable in those Writers SECT V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad Javan in the Temple IN the Talmudic Book Zavim these words occur obscure enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saw one woman multiplied or continued like three which are as from Gad Javan to Siloah The thing discoursed of is of the discovery of some profluvious issue For example one discovers such a profluvious issue in himself now one by and by another presently after a third it is disputed how great or how little distance of time is to be assigned to make it one or two profluviums and consequently to how great or how small an oblation the party is bound for his purification The Tradition which we have produced comes to this namely if one sees such an issue at one time which is so continued that it contains the space of three discoveries that is so much time as one might walk from Gad Javan to Siloam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold such a man is compleatly Profluvious The Glossers and the Aruch teach us what was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad Javan Hear themselves Gad Javan is a phrase drawn from those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That prepare a Table for that Troop Esai LXV 11. Where the LXX read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preparing a Table for the Devil The Vulgar reads Qui ponitis fortunae mensam Who set a Table for fortune The Interlinear Jovi mensam a Table for Jupiter And it is a place where the Kings of Grecia
other should preach c. For the Interpreter did sometimes Comment and Preach upon what they read And probably Christ did at this time both read and properly interpreted h h h h h h Beresh rabb Sect. 80. Jose the Maonite expounded in the Synagogue of Maon Hear O ye Priests harken O House of Israel and give ye ear O House of the King Hos. V. 1. He said The Holy blessed God is about to snatch away the Priests and set them in judgment saying unto them Why have ye not laboured in the Law Have you not had the use and enjoyment of four and twenty portions belonging to the Priests They say unto him They have not given us any thing Harken O ye House of Israel Why have you not given those four and twenty portions to the Priests which I have commanded you in the Law They answer him Because of those who are of the house of the Prince who devour all themselves Give ear O house of the King for judgment is toward you For to you I have said that this should be the rule concerning the Priests To you therefore and over you is it turned a rule of judgment Rabbi the Prince heard this and was displeased with it i i i i i i Massech Sopherim cap. 13. After these things did King Ahashuerus promote Hamon the Son of Hammadetha Rabh Joseph expounded it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After these things the King promoted Hamon of Hammadetha the Agagite the son of Cuza the son of Aphlet the son of Dio the son of Diasot the son Paros the son of Nidan the son of Baalkan c. See loc and compare it with the Targumist upon Esther Chap. III. 1. k k k k k k Megil fol. 2◠1. A reader in the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlargeth upon Shemaa the manner and form of the thing we have l l l l l l In Massech Soph. cap. 14. he passeth before the Ark and lifteth up his hands that is in order to give him blessing but if he be a child his Father or his Master doth these things in his stead c. But the Gloss tells us That these things are to be understood of an ordinary reader of the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now Christ was an extraordinary Reader However he read here which he hid not do in any other Synagogue for this was the Synagogue to which he belonged and he read as a member of that Synagogue VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there was delivered unto him the Book of Esaias I. THE Minister of the Church kept the sacred Books in his custody and brought them out to be read when they met together in the Synagogue m m m m m m Joma fol. 68. 2. The High-Priest came to read on the day of expiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Minister of the Synagogue takes the Book of the Law and giveth it to the Ruler of the Synagogue c. Where the Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chazan of the Synagogue that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister From him did our Saviour receive the Book and to him he returned it again II. If it be askt whether he received the Book of the Prophet Isaiah by it self or joyned with the other Prophets it is not easie to determine it We may gather something from what vulgarly obtained amongst them n n n n n n Bava bathr◠fol. 13. 2. The Rabbins deliver Let a man frame the Law and the Prophets and the Holy Writings into one volume They are the words of R. Meir But R. Judah saith Let the Law be apart by it self the Book of the Prophets by it self and the Book of the Holy Writings by it self o o o o o o See the Tract Sopherim cap. 3. And the Wise-men say Every Book by it self But we may ask if every Prophet was by himself Isaiah by himself Jeremiah by himself c. It is probable they were For so they sometimes divided the Law into single Quintanes or fifth parts All know what title the Books of the Law do bear in the front of the Hebrew Bibles viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The five Quintanes of the Law Genesis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Quintane Exodus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second Quintane and so of the rest Concerning the dividing of every of these quintanes into particular Volumes consult the Tract Sopherim in the place already quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p p p p p p Megill fol. 27. 1. They fold up the Book of the Law in the cloth of the Quintanes and the Quintanes in the cloth of the Prophets and Hagiographa but they do not fold up the Prophets and Hagiographa in the cloth of the Quintanes nor the Quintanes in the cloth of the Law And a little after They lay the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Quintanes and the Quintanes upon the Prophets and Hagiographa but not the Prophets and Hagiographa upon the Quintanes nor the Quintanes upon the Law That is not any one single Quintane upon all the Quintanes made up into one Volume So the Gloss hath it A Quintane that is A Book of the Law in which there is only one Quintane Seeing therefore that the Book of the Law was sometimes divided in this manner into distinct Books we may judge as well that the greater Prophets might be thus divided also and the twelve lesser made up into one Volume Hence perhaps that passage q q q q q q Megill fol. 24. 1. The Reader of the Prophet might skip from one Text to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he might not skip from Prophet to Prophet but in the twelve Prophets it was lawful For they were all made up in one Volume ready to his hand and so were not the greater Prophets Give me leave therefore to conjecture that on that Sabbath wherein these things were transacted in the Synagogue at Nazareth that Section which was to be read in the Prophets was according to the Rubrick in the Prophet Isaiah and upon that account the Minister of the Synagogue delivered that Book to our Saviour when he stood up to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And when he had opened the Book he found the place c. In the Talmudick Language I would render it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew unroling the Book But then how should we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 20 Even in the very same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 roling up the Book r r r r r r Joma cap. 7. hal 1. The High-Priest after the reading of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 roling or folding up the Book puts it into his bosom And yet s s s s s s Fol. 70. 1. It is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which
amongst them yet were they not exactly Eleven then for Thomas was absent Joh. XX. 24. 2. When the Eleven are mentioned we must not suppose it exactly meant of the number of Apostles then present but the present number of the Apostles VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They supposed they had seen a Spirit WHereas the Jews distinguished between Angels and Spirits and Daemons Spirits are defined by R. Hoshaiah l l l l l l Beresh rabb◠fol. 34. 2. to be such to whom souls are created but they have not a body made for those souls But it is a question whether they included all spirits or souls under this notion when it is more than probable that apparitions of Ghosts or deceased persons who once had a body were reckoned by them under the same title Nor do I apprehend the Disciples had any other imagination at this time than that this was not Christ indeed in his own person as newly raised from the dead but a Spectrum only in his shape himself being still dead And when the Pharisees speak concerning Paul Acts XXIII 9. That if an Angel or a Spirit hath spoken to him I would easily believe they might mean it of the Apparition of some Prophet or some other departed just person than of any soul that had never yet any body created to it I the rather incline thus to think because it is so evident that it were needless to prove how deeply impressed that Nation was with an opinion of the Apparitions of departed Ghosts VERS XLIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms IT is a known division of the Old Testament into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law the Prophets and the Holy Writings by abbrevation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I. The Books of the Law and their order need not be insisted upon called commonly by us the Pentateuch but by some of the Rabbins the Heptateuch and by some Christians the Octateuch m m m m m m Schabb. fol. 116. 1. R. Samuel bar Nachman saith R. Jonathan saith Wisdom hath hewn out her seven Pillars Prov. IX 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the seven Books of the Law The Book of Numbers compleats the seven Books of the Law But are there not but five Books only Ben Kaphra saith the Book of Numbers is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Books From the beginning of the Book to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it came to pass when the Ark set forward Chap. X. 35. is a Book by it self That verse and the following is a Book by it self And from thence to the end of the Book is a Book by it self The reason why they accounted this period Chap. X. 35. 36. to be one Book by it self was partly because it does not seem put there in its proper place partly because in the beginning of it it hath the letter Nun inverted thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so after the end of it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in both places is set for a boundary and limit to distinguish that period from the rest of the Book Whatever therefore goes before from the beginning of the Book to that period is reckoned by them for one Book and whatever follows it for another Book and the period it self for a third Eulogius speaking concerning Dosthes or Dositheus a famous seducer of the Samaritans hath this passage n n n n n n Apud Phot. Cod. ccxxx 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He adulterated the Octateuch of Moses with spurious writings and all kind of corrupt falsifyings There is mention also of a Book with this title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Cod. xxxvi The Christians Book An Exposition upon the Octateuch Whether this was the Octateuch of Moses it is neither certain nor much worth our enquiry for Photius judgeth him a corrupt Author besides that it may be shewn by and by that there was a twofold Octateuch besides that of Moses Now if any man should ask how it come to pass that Eulogius and that probably from the common notion of the thing should divide the Books of Moses into an Octateuch I had rather any one else rather than my self should resolve him in it But if any consent that he owned the Heptateuch we have already mentioned we should be ready to reckon the last Chapter of Deuteronomy for the eighth part Aben Ezra will smile here who in that his obscure and disguised denial of the Books of the Pentateuch as if they were not writ by the pen of Moses he instances in that Chapter in the first place as far as I can guess as a testimony against it You have his words in his Commentary upon the Book of Deuteronomy a little from the beginning p p p p p p Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if you understand the mystery of the twelve c. i. e. of the twelve Verses of the last Chapter of the Book for so his own Country-men expound him thou wilt know the truth i. e. that Moses did not write the whole Pentateuch an argument neither worth answering nor becoming so great a Philosopher For as it is a ridiculous thing to suppose that Chapter that treats of the death and burial of Moses should be written by himself so would it not be much less ridiculous to affix that Chapter to any other volume than the Pentateuch But these things are not the proper subject for our present handling II. There also was an Octatuech of the Prophets too q q q q q q Bava bathra fol. 14. 2. All the Books of the Prophets are eight Josuah Judges Samuel Kings Jeremy Ezekiel Isaiah and the twelve For the Historical Books also were read in their Synagogues under the notion of the Prophets as well as the Prophets themselves whose names are set down You will see the title prefixt to them in the Hebrew Bibles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former Prophets as well as to the others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter Prophets The Doctors give us the reason why they dispose the Prophets in that order that Jeremiah is named first Ezekiel next and Isaiah last which I have quoted in Notes upon Matth. XXVII 9. and let not the Reader think it irksome to repeat it here r r r r r r Bava bathra ubi supr Whereas the Book of Kings ends in destruction and the whole Book of Jeremy treats about destruction whereas Ezekiel begins with destruction and ends in consolation and whereas Isaiah is all in consolation they joyned destruction with destruction and consolation with consolation III. The third division of the Bible is intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Writings And here also is found an Octateuch by some body as it seems though I know not where to
find it Herbanus the Jew s s s s s s Oregent Dial. at the beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a man excellently well instructed in the Law and holy Books of the Prophets and the Octateuch and all the other Writings What this Octateuch should be distinct from the Law and the Prophets and indeed what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other writings besides should be is not easily guessed This Octateuch perhaps may seem to have some reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hagiographa or Holy Writings for it is probable enough that speaking of a Jew well skilled in the Holy Scriptures he might design the partition of the Bible according to the manner of the Jews dividing it but who then can pick out books that should make it up Let the Reader pick out the eight and then I would say that the other four are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other Writings But we will not much disquiet our selves about this matter It may be asked why these Books should be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scriptures when the whole Bible goes under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Scriptures Nor can any thingbe more readily answered to this than that by this title they would keep up their dignity and just esteem for them They did not indeed read them in their Synagogues but that they might acknowledge them of most Holy and Divine Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of them they confirm their Traditions and they expound them mystically t t t t t t Schabb. fol. 116. 2. Yea and give them the same title with the rest of the Holy Scriptures u u u u u u Bathra ubi supr This is the order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Hagiographa Ruth the Book of Psalms Job the Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Canticles the Lamentations Daniel the Book of Esther Ezra and the Chronicles It is here disputed that if Job was in the days of Moses why then is not his Book put in the first place the answer is they do not begin with vengeance or affliction and such is that Book of Job They reply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruth also begins with affliction viz. with the story of a Famine and the death of Elimelech's Sons But that was say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an affliction that had a joyful ending So they might have said of the Book and affliction of Job too We see it is disputed there why the Book of Ruth should be placed the first in that rank and not the Book of Job But we might enquire whether the Book of Psalms ought not have been placed the first rather than the Book of Ruth IV. In this passage at present before us who would think otherwise but that our Saviour alludes to the common and most known partition of the Bible and although he name the Psalms only yet that under the title he includes that whole volume For we must of necessity say that either he excluded all the Books of that third division excepting the Book of Psalms which is not probable or that he included them under the title of the Prophets which was not customary or else that under the title of the Psalms he comprehended all the rest That he did not exclude them reason will tell us for in several Books of that division is he himself spoken of as well as in the Psalms and that he did not include them in the title of the Prophets reason also will dictate because we would not suppose him speaking differently from the common and received opinion of that Nation There is very little question therefore but the Apostles might understand him speaking with the vulgar and by the Psalms to have meant all the Books of that Volume those especially wherein any thing was written concerning himself For let it be granted that Ruth as to the time of the History and the time of its writing might challenge to its self the first place in order and it is that kind of priority the Gemarists are arguing yet certainly amongst all those Books that mention any thing of Christ the Book of Psalms deservedly obtains the first place so far that in the naming of this the rest may be understood So St. Matthew Chap. XXVII 9. under the name of Jeremiah comprehends that whole Volume of the Prophets because he was placed the first in that rank which observation we have made in Notes upon that place VERS XLV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then opened he their understanding WHere it is said that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles the gift of Tongues and of Prophesie was conferred they spake with tongues and they prophesied Acts XIX 6. by Prophesie nothing may be better understood than this very thing that the minds of such were opened that they might understand the Scriptures and perhaps their speaking with tongues might look this way in the first notion of it viz. that they could understand the original wherein the Scriptures were writ VERS L. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As far as Bethany HOW many difficulties arise here I. This very Evangelist Acts I. 12. tells us that when the Disciples came back from the place where our Lord ascended they returned from Mount Olivet distant from Jerusalem a Sabbath days journey But now the Town of Bethany was about fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem Joh. XI 18. and that is double a Sabbath days journey II. Josephus tells us that the Mount of Olives was but five furlongs from the City and a Sabbath days journey was seven furlongs and an half q q q q q q Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. About that time there came to Jerusalem a certain Egyptian pretending himself a Prophet and perswading the people that they would go out with him to the Mount of Olives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being situated on the front of the City is distant five furlongs These things are all true 1. That the Mount of Olives lay but five furlongs distance from Jerusalem 2. That the Town of Bethany was fifteen furlongs 3. That the Disciples were brought by Christ as far as Bethany 4. That when they returned from the Mount of Olives that they travelled more than five furlongs And 5. Returning from Bethany they travelled but a Sabbath days journey All which may be easily reconciled if we would observe That the first space from the City toward this Mount was called Bethphage which I have cleared elsewhere from Talmudick Authors the Evangelists themselves also confirming it That part of that Mount was known by that name to the length of about a Sabbath days journey till it come to that part which was called Bethany For there was Bethany a tract of the Mount and the Town of Bethany The Town was distant from the City about fifteen furlongs i. e. two miles or a double Sabbath days journey but the first border of this
became our Redeemer as in the beginning of time he had been our Maker Compare this with ver 14. Ver. 1. Ver. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the beginning was the word The word was made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was with God Dwelt among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The word was God Was made flesh and we beheld c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the word There is no great necessity for us to make any very curious enquiry whence our Evangelist should borrow this title when in the History of the Creation we find it so often repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God said It is observ'd almost by all that have of late undertaken a Commentary upon this Evangelist that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word of the Lord doth very frequently occur amongst the Targumists which may something enlighten the matter now before us a a a a a a Exod. XIX 17. And Moses brought the people out of the Camp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meet the word of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word of the Lord accepted the face of Job b b b b b b Job XLII 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word of the Lord shall laugh them to scorn c c c c c c Psal. II. 4. They believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the name of his word d d d d d d Psal. CVI. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And my word spared them e e e e e e Ezek. XX. 57. To add no more Gen. XXVI 3. Instead of I will be with thee the Targum hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and my word shall be thine help So Gen. XXXIX 2. And the Lord was with Joseph Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word of the Lord was Joseph's helper And so all along that kind of phrase is most familiar amongst them Though this must be also confest that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sometimes signifie nothing else but I Thou He and is frequently apply'd to men too So Job VII 8. Thine eyes are upon me Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again Job XXVII 3. My breath is in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targ. II Chron. XVI 3. There is a league between me and thee Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. XXIII 16. He made a Covenant between him and between all the people and between the King Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I observe that in Zach. VII 12. the Targumist renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his word if at least that may in strictness be so render'd for by what hath been newly alledg'd it seems that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated the Lord by himself or the Lord himself I observe further that the Greek Interpreters having mistaken the vowels of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Habbak III. 2. have render'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before his face shall go a word when it should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the meaning of the Prophet there is before his face went the Pestilence VERS IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In him was life THE Evangelist proceeds from the Creation by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word to the redemption of the world by the same word He had declar'd how this word had given to all creatures their first being v. 3. All things were made by him And he now sheweth how he restor'd life to man when he lay dead in trespasses and sins Adam call'd his wives name Hevah Life Gen. III. 20. The Greek reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam called his wifes name life He call'd her life who had brought in death because he had now tasted a better life in the promise of the womans seed To which it is very probable our Evangelist had some reference in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the life was the light of men Life through Christ was light arising in the darkness of mans fall and sin a light by which all believers were to walk St. John seems in this clause to oppose the life and light exhibited in the Gospel to that life and light which the Jews boasted of in their Law They expected life from the works of the Law and they knew no greater light than that of the Law which therefore they extoll with infinite boasts and praises which they give it Take one instance for all a a a a a a Bereshith rabba Sect. 3. God said let there be light R. Simeon saith light is written there five times according to the five parts of the Law i. e. the Pentateuch and God said let there be light according to the Book of Genesis wherein God busying himself made the world And there was light according to the Book of Exodus wherein the Israelites came out of darkness into light And God saw the light that it was good according to the Book of Leviticus which is filled with rites and ceremonies And God divided betwixt the light and the darkness according to the Book of Numbers which divided betwixt those that went out of Egypt and those that enter'd into the land And God called the light day according to the Book of Deuteronomy which is replenished with manifold traditions A Gloss this is upon light full of darkness indeed VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the light shineth in darkness THIS light of promise and life by Christ shined in the darkness of all the cloudy types and shadows under the Law and obscurity of the Prophets And those dark things comprehended it not i. e. did not so cloud and suppress it but it would break out nor yet so comprehended it but that there was an absolute necessity there should a greater light appear I do so much the rather incline to such a Paraphrase upon this place because I observe the Evangelist here treateth of the ways and means by which Christ made himself known to the world before his great manifestation in the flesh First in the promise of life ver 4. Next by Types and Prophecies and lastly by John Baptist. VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. All the men that are in the world g g g g g g Hieros Sanhedr fol. 26. 3. Doth not the Sun rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon all that come into the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that come into the world are not able to make one fly h h h h h h Ibid. fol. 25. 4. In the beginning of the year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that come into the world present themselves before the Lord i i i i i i Rosh Hashanah cap. 1. hal 1. There are numberless examples of this kind The sense
Synagogues on the Sabbath-day or whether they read them not that is the Hagiographa It is likely that the Sadducees and Samaritans I mean those Samaritans that liv'd about our Saviours time and before might disown the Prophets and the Holy writings much after the same manner and no more For is it at all probable that they were either ignorant of the Histories of Joshua Judges Samuel the Kings and the writings of the Prophets or that they accounted them tales and of no value There were some amongst the Samaritans as Eulogius in Photius q q q q q q Cod. CCXXX tells us who had an opinion that Joshuah the Son of Nun was that Prophet of whom Moses spake that God would raise up to them out of their brethren like to him Do we think then that the History and Book of Joshua were unknown or disown'd by them However I cannot omit without some remarks some few passages we meet with in Sanhedr r r r r r r Fol. 90. 2. The Sadducees asked Rabban Gamaliel whence he could prove it that God would raise the dead from the Law saith he and from the Prophets and from the Holy Writings And accordingly he alledgeth his proofs out of each Book which I hope may not be very tedious to the Reader to take notice of in this place I prove it out of the Law where it is written And the Lord said to Moses Deut. XXXI 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and rise again They say probably it is meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This people will rise up and go a whoring I prove it out of the Prophets according as it is written thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Isa. XXVI 19. But perhaps say they this may be meant of those dead which Ezekiel raised I prove it out of the Hagiographa according as it is writien The roof of thy mouth is like the best wine for my beloved that goeth down sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak Cant. VII 9. But perhaps say they it is meant they move their lips in the world I add say they though it is not I confess in the Gemarists Text because reason and sense makes it evident that this ought to be added and the Gloss confirms it Now it would have been a most absurd thing for Gamaliel to have offer'd any proofs of the Resurrection either out of the Prophets or the Hagiographae against the Sadducees if those Books had been either not known or of no authority amongst them And we see that the Books themselves out of which these proofs were brought were not excepted against but the places quoted had another sense put upon them and pleaded for by them s s s s s s Hieros Jevamoth fol. 3. 1. It is a Tradition of R. Simeon ben Eliezer I said unto the Scribes of the Samaritans ye therefore err because you do not interpret according to R. Nehemiah for it is a Tradition of R. Nehemiah's where ever we meet with a word which ought to have the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of it if it have it not you must then put an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of it e. g. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they answer R. Nehemiah but behold it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now those that return this answer to R. Nehemiah if they be the Samaritan Scribes then do they themselves quote the ninth Psalm But further the Book of Ezekiel is quoted by a Samaritan in this story t t t t t t Ellâ—h haddthherim Rabba fol. 292. 2. 3. Rabban Jonathan went to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neapolis i. e. Sychar of the Samaritans A certain Samaritan was in his company When they came to Mount Gerizzim the Samaritan saith unto him How comes it to pass that we are gotten to this holy mountain R. Jonathan saith how comes this mountain to be holy the Samaritan answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was never plagu'd with the waters of the deluge saith R. Jonathan how prove you this the Samaritan answer'd is it not written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of man say unto her thou art the land not cleansed nor rain'd upon in the day of indignation Ezek. XXII 24. If it were so saith R. Jonathan then should the Lord have commanded Noah to have gone up into this mountain and not have built himself an Ark. We also meet with a Sadducee quoting the Prophet Amos Cholin fol. 87. 1. A certain Sadducee said to a certain Rabbi He that created the Hills did not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spirit or the wind And he that created the wind did not make the hills for it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind Amos V. 13. The Rabbi answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou fool go on but to the end of the verse and thou wilt find the Lord of Hosts is his name That passage also is remarkable x x x x x x Schabb. fol. 116 1. They do not snatch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Books and Volums of the Hereticks from the flames they may be burnt where they are The Gloss is The Books of Hereticks i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolaters or those that use any strange worship who wrote out the Law the Prophets and the Holy writings for their own use in the Assyrian character and holy language But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the place renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They snatch not away the Volums and Books of the Sadducees If by Hereticks the Sadducees are to be understood as the latter Gloss would have it then comparing it with the former they had the Law Prophets and the Holy writings writ in the Assyrian Character in the Holy language If by Hereticks the Christians are understood as in the former Gloss for as to the Gentiles there is no room to understand it of them in this place then we see what Copies of the Old Testament the Hebrew-Christians anciently had in use It may be objected that if the Sadducees admitted the Books of the Prophets and the Holy writings with this exception only that they had them not read in their Synagogues how came they to deny the Resurrection from the dead when it is so plainly asserted in those Books To this may be answer'd that this argument might have something in it if it had not been one fundamental of the Sadducees Faith that no article in Religion ought to be admitted that cannot be made out plainly from the five Books of Moses Compare this with that of the Pharisees y y y y y y Gloss in Sanhedr fol. 90. 1. However any person may acknowledg the Resurrection from the dead yet if he does
not own that there is some indication of it in the Law he denies a fundamental So that whereas Moses seemed not clearly and in terminis to express himself as to the Resurrection the Sadducees would not admit it as an article of their Faith though something like it may have occur'd in the Prophets so long as those expressions in the Prophets may be turn'd to some other sense either Historical or Allegorical But if they had apprehended any thing plain and express in the Books of Moses the Prophets also asserting and illustrating the same thing I cannot see why we should not believe they were receiv'd by them It is something of this kind the passage now in hand where we find the Samaritan woman using the word Messias which though it is not to be met with in the Books of Moses yet Moses having clearly spoken of his coming whom the Prophets afterward signaliz'd by the name of the Messias this foundation being laid the Sadducees and the Samaritans do not stick to speak of him in the same manner and under the same title wherein the Prophets had mention'd him But then what kind of conceptions they had of the person Kingdom and days of the Messiah whether they expected the fore-runner Elias or the Resurrection of the dead at his coming as the Scribes and Pharisees did is scarcely credible VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They marvel'd that he talked with the woman THEY marvel he should talk with a woman much more with a Samaritan woman z z z z z z Erubhim fol. 53. 2. R. Jose the Galilaean being upon a journey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am much mistaken if it should not be writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found Berurea in the way to whom he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what way must we go to Lydda She answered O thou foolish Galilean have not the wise men taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not multiply discourse with a woman Thou oughtest only to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way to Lydda Upon what occasion this woman should be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berurea is not our business at present to enquire but that the Reader may know something of her she was the wife of R. Meir a learned woman and a teacher her self a a a a a a Juchasin fol. 40. 2. His wife Berurea was a wise woman of whom many things are related in Avodah Zarah Another story we have of her b b b b b b Erubhin ubi supr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berurea found a certain Scholar reading mutteringly and spurn'd at him c. c c c c c c Kiddushin fol. 7â— 1 Samuel saith they do not salute a woman at all d d d d d d Bâ—mid ir rabba fol. 135. 4. A certain Matron askt R. Eleazar why when the sin of the Golden Calf was but one only should it be punisht with a threefold kind of death he answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a woman ought not to be wise above her Distaff Saith Hyrcanus to him because you did not answer her a word out of the Law she will keep back from us three hundred measures of Tythes yearly but he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the words of the Law be burn'd rather than committed to women e e e e e e Vid. Joma fol â—6 2 Ibid. fol. 240. 2. Let no one talk with a woman in the street no not with his own wife VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Left her water-pot T WAS kindly done to leave her water-pot behind her that Jesus and his Disciples whom she now saw come up to him might have wherewithal to drink VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who hath told me all things that ever I did c. THIS passage doth something agree with the Jewish notion about their Messiah's smelling f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 93. 2. It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shall make him of quick scent or smell in the fear of the Lord Isa. XI 3. Rabba saith he shall be of quick scent and shall judg as it is written he shall not judg by the sight of his eyes c. Ben Cozibah reign'd two years and an half and said to the Rabbins I am the Messiah They say unto him it is said of the Messiah that he shall be of quick scent and shall judg let us see if you can smell and judg which when he could not do they killed him The Samaritan woman perceiv'd that Jesus had smelt out all her clandestine wickednesses which she had perpetrated out of the view of men for which very reason she argu'd it with her self that this must be the Messiah And by her report her fellow Citizens are encourag'd to come and see him They see him hear him invite him receive and entertain him and believe in him Is it not probable therefore that they as well as the Jews might have expected the coming of the Messiah about this time if so whence should they learn it from the Jews or from the Book of Daniel VERS XXXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are yet four months and then cometh the harvest THE beginning of the harvest that is the barley-harvest was about the middle of the month Nisan Consult Levit. XXIII 10 c. Deut. XVI 9. Bava Mezia fol. 106. 2. Half Tisri all Marheshvan and half Cisleu is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seeds time Half Cisleu whole Tebeth and half Shebat is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the winter Half Shebat whole Adar and half Nisan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the winter solstice Half Nisan all Ijar and half Sevan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the harvest Half Sivan all Tammuz and half Ab is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Summer Half Ab all Elul and half Tisri is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great heat They sow'd the wheat and spelt in the month Tisri and Marheshvan and so onward Targ. upon Eccles. XI 2. Give a good portion of thy seed to thy field in the month Tisri and withhold thou not from sowing also in Cisleu They sow'd barley in the months Shebat and Adar i i i i i i Gloss. in Râ—sh hashanab fol. 16. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lateward seed or that which is hid and lieth long in the earth the wheat and the spelt which do not soon ripen are sown in Marheshvan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the early seed the barley which soon ripens is sown in Shebat and Adar k k k k k k Menacoth fol. 85. 1. They sow seventy days before the Passover The Barley therefore the hope of an harvest to come after four months was not yet committed to the ground and yet our Saviour saith Behold the fields are already white unto the harvest Which thing being a little observ'd will help to illustrate the words and design of
of the Scribes So we often meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is out of the Law or Scripture to which is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is out of the Rabbins That Christ abideth for ever How then came the Rabbins to determine his time and years some to the space of Forty years some to Seventy and others to three Generations q q q q q q Sanbedr fol. 99. 1. After the days of Messiah they expected that Eternity should follow VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore they could not believe c. THEY were not constrained in their infidelity because Isaiah had said Their heart is waxen gross c. But because those things were true which that Prophet had foretold concerning them Which Prophesie if I understand them aright they throw off from themselves and pervert the sense of it altogether r r r r r r Rosh hashanah fol. 17. 2. R. Johanan saith repentance is a great thing for it rescinds the decree of judgment determined against man as it is written The heart of this people is made fat their ears heavy and their eyes are closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they shall be converted and healed For to that sense do they render these last words diametrically contrary to the mind of the Prophet They have a conceipt that Isaiah was cut in two either by the Saw or the Ax by Manasses the King principally for this very Vision and Prophesie s s s s s s Jevamoth fol. 49. ◠It is a Tradition Simeon Ben Azzai saith I found a Book at Jerusalem in which was written how Manasses slew Isaiah Rabba saith He condemned and put him to death upon this occasion He saith to him Thy Master Moses saith no man can see God and live But thou sayest I have seen the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up Thy Master Moses saith Who is like our God in all things that we call upon him for Deut. IV. 7. But thou saiest seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isai. LV. 6. Moses thy Master saith the number of thy days I will fulfil Exod. XIII 26. But thou saiest I will add unto thy days fifteen years Isai. XXXVIII 5. Isaiah answered and said I know he will not hearken to me in any thing I can say to him If I should say any thing to the reconciling of the Scriptures I know he will deal contemptuously in it He said therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will shut my self up in this Cedar They brought the Cedar and sawed it asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And when the Saw touched his mouth he gave up the Ghost This happened to him because he said I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Manasses slew Isaiah and as it should seem the Gemarists do not dislike the fact because he had accused Israel of the uncleanness of their lips No touching upon Israel by any means VERS XLI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When he saw his Glory ISAI VI 1. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne Where the Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I saw the Lords Glory c. So Exod. XXIV 10. They saw the God of Israel Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They saw the glory of the God of Israel and vers 11. and they saw God Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they saw the glory of God So the Targumists elsewhere very often commended therefore by their followers for so rendring it because no man cold see God It might be therefore thought that our Evangelist speaks with the Targumist and the Nation when he saith that Isaiah saw his glory whereas the Prophet himself saith he saw the Lord. But there is a deeper meaning in it nor do I doubt but this glory of our Saviour which Isaiah saw was that kind of Glory by which he is described when he was to come to avenge himself and punish the Jewish Nation As when he is said to come in his Kingdom and in his Glory and in the Clouds c. viz. in his Vindictive Glory For observe 1. The Prophet saw the posts of the door shaken and removed as hastening to ruine 2. The Temple it self filled with smoke not with the cloud as formerly the token of the Divine Presence but with smoke The forerunner and prognostick of that fire that should burn and consume it 3. He saw the Seraphims Angels of fire because of the predetermined Burning 4. He heard the decree about blinding and hardening the people till the Cities be wasted and the Land desolate CHAP. XIII VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now before the Feast of the Passover THE Vulgar Beza and the Interlinear read Now before the Feast-day of the Passover But by what authority they add day it concerns them to make out For I. In the common language of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do never signifie less than the whole Festivity and time of Passover Pentecost and of Tabernacles no part of that time being excepted nor does the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feast occur any where throughout the whole Bible in another signification II. It is something harsh to exclude the Paschal Supper out of the title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Feast of the Passover because the name of the whole Feast takes its original from it This they do who imagine this Supper mentioned in this place to have been the Paschal Supper and yet it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Feast of the Passover We have therefore shewn by many Arguments in our Notes upon Matth. XXVI 2 6. That the Supper here mentioned was with that at Bethany in the House of Simon the Leper two days before the Passover VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Supper being ended I Acknowledge the Aorist and yet do not believe the Supper was now ended We have the very same word in the story of the same Supper Matth. XXVI 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Jesus being in Bethany Which in St. Mark is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And being in Bethany Chap. XIV 3. So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being Supper Let us joyn the full story together whiles Jesus was at Supper in the House of Simon the Leper two days before the Passover a Woman comes and pours very precious Oyntment upon his head when some murmured at the profuseness of the expense he defends the Woman and the action by an Apology and having finished his Apology he rises immediately from the Table as it were in the very midst of Supper and girds himself to wash his Disciples feet so that while they are grumbling at the anointing of his head he does not disdain to wash their
honour l l l l l l Hieros Jevamâ—th fol. 3. 1. Bab. Jevamâ—th fol. 16. 1. in a far different signification the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking its derivation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to decline from VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deputy THIS is a word much in use amongst the Talmudists with a little variation only in the reading m m m m m m Hieros Beraceth fol. 9. 1. R. Chaninah and R. Joshua ben Levi passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deputy of Caesarea He seeing them rose up to them His own people say unto him Doest thou rise up to these Jews He answered them and said I saw their faces as the faces of Angels See the Aruch upon the word VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Perga in Pamphylia FROM Paphos in Cyprus whether old or new both being Maritim places situated on the Western shore of the Island they seemed to Sail into the mouth of the river Cestrus concerning which Strabo hath this passage n n n n n n Geograph lib. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then there is the river Cestrus which when one hath sailed sixty furlongs he comes to the City Perga near which is the Temple of Diana of Perga in an high place where every year there is a solemn convention Ptolomey also speaks of the river Cestrus and of the Cataract concerning which Strabo hath some mention But Mela o o o o o o Mela lib. 1. cap. 14. hath this passage Thence there are two strong rivers Oestros and Cataractes Oestros is easily navigable but Cataractes hath its name from the violence of its running amongst these is the City Perga c. One may justly suspect an error in the Writer here writing Oestros for Cestros and it is something strange that Olivarius hath taken no notice of it We may conjecture there was no Synagogue of Jews in Perga because there is no mention of it nor any memorable thing recorded as done by the Apostles here only that John whose Sirname was Mark did in this place depart from them for what reason is not known VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Antioch in Pisidia STrabo reckons up thirteen Cities in Pisidia p p p p p p Strabo lib. 12 from Artemidorus amongst which he makes no mention of Antioch But Pliny q q q q q q Plin. lib. 5. cap. 27. tell us Insident vertici Pisidiae quondam Solymi appellati c. There are that inhabit the top of Pisidia who were once called Solymites their Colony is Casarea the same is Antioch And Ptolomey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The inland Cities in Pamphilia are Sileucia of Phrygia and Antioch of Pisidia Where the Interpreter most confusedly Civitates sunt in Provincia Mediterranea Phrygia quidem Pisidiae Seleucia Pisidiae Antiochia that is there are Cities in the midland Country Phrygia of Pisidia Seleucia of Pisidia Antioch and in the margin he sets Caesarea VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets BUT in what Language were the Law and the Prophets read in this Synagogue It is generally supposed that in the Synagogues of the Hellenists the Greek Bible was read But was that Tongue understood amongst the Pisidians Strabo at the end of his thirteenth Book tells us The Cibratian prefecture was reckoned amongst the greatest of Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cibyrates used four Languages the Pisidian the Solyman the Greek and Lydian Where we see the Pisidian Tongue is expresly distinguisht from the Greek If Moses and the Prophets therefore were read here in the Greek Tongue were they understood by those in Pisidia Yes you will say for the very name of the City Antioch speaks it to have been a Greek Colony Grant this but then suppose a Jewish Synagogue in some City of Pisidia that was purely Pisidian such as Selge Sagalessus Pernelissus c. or in some City of the Solymites or of the Lydians in what Language was the Law read there Doubtless in the same Tongue and the same manner that it was read in the Synagogue of the Hebrews i. e. in the Original Hebrew some Interpreter assisting and rendring it to them in their mother Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sat down So it is exprest commonly of any one that teaches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sat down And if the Rulers of the Synagogue had no other knowledge of Barnabas and Saul they might gather they were Preachers from this that when they entred the Synagogue they sat down according to the custom of those that Taught or Preached VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And ye that fear God THAT is Proselytes r r r r r r Bemedv rab fol. 227. 2. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his ways Psal. CXXVIII 1. He doth not say Blessed is Israel or blessed are the Priests or blessed the Levites but blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the Proselytes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that fear the Lord. According as it is said of Israel Blessed art thou O Israel so is it said of these blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. Now of what proselyte is it said that he is blessed It is said of the proselyte of justice Not as those Cuthites of whom it is said that they feared the Lord and yet worshiped their own Gods VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to exclude the reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word we meet with in the Seventy Deut. I. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God did indeed bear with them full forty years and so you will say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not wide from the truth But the Apostle adding the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the time of forty years seems chiefly to respect that time which went between the fatal decree that they should not enter the land and the going in VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven Nations THE Rabbins very frequently when they mention the Canaanitish people give them this very term of the Seven Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS XX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the space of four hundred and fity years AMongst the many things that are offerd upon this difficulty I would chuse this that in this number are reckoned the years of the Judges and the years of those Tyrants that opprest Israel computing them disjunctly and singly which at first sight any one would think ought to be so reckoned but that 1 Kings VI. 1. gives a check to a too large computation 1. The years of the Judges and Tyrants thus distinguisht answer the Sum exactly The Iudges Othniel XL. Eliud LXXX Deborah XL. Gideon
evinc'd that Conscience may be at miserable trouble within it self and yet that person at most intire peace with God that his peace with God may be most undoubtedly sure when his Conscience doth most doubt of it But these would require the hour to begin again to have time to speak to them And indeed it may seem as mourning at a banquet of Wine to speak of an afflicted Conscience at a Feast of rejoycing II. And therefore having thus spoke to the negative I shall come to the positive and shew what it is to have Peace having shewed what it is not But when shall I begin and when end First a discourse of this subject must begin at the suburbs of Hell enmity with God and end in the highest Heaven the full enjoyment of him in glory Secondly it must proceed to shew the original of this enmity from the disjunction of sinful nature from the holy nature of God and from disobedience of life and will to the divine Will and Law And now thirdly it comes to Jerusalem the vision of Peace The thing it self what it is we may take up in two considerations briefly 1. It is a laying away and extinguishing of Gods hatred and enmity against a sinner 2. It is not only privately the laying aside the wrath of God but positively the flowing in of the love of God Moses prays to God Lord shew me thy Glory Oh! what a sight is it when the cloud of unbelief is over how lovely and sweetly does the Son of righteousness arise upon us But I give not the whole definition of Peace with God unless to God reconciled to man I add Man reconcil'd to God We may observe how the Holy Ghost expresses the great Reconciliation the main stress lies in the reconciliation of man to God Col. I. 20. God through the blood of the cross hath reconcil'd all things to himself He saith not hath reconcil'd himself to all things but all things to himself And in II Cor. V. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself He saith not reconciling himself unto the World and vers 20. We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God The great business is for man to be reconciled unto God Absalom unto David Here then is the main trial to know whether God be at peace with you see if you be at peace with him This is the Note in the Index and if we find it there we may be sure to find the other in the Book As he that looked Westward for the rising of the Sun saw it sooner guilding the tops of the Mountains than they that looked for it in the East So this is the best way to see whether God be at peace with us let us look back upon our selves and see how our Condition is towards God Some hold that the answer by Urim and Thummim was by the rising of the stones in the High Priests brestplate Though I am not of their mind yet I may allude unto it in the case in hand Look into thine own breast make thine observation thence see how thy heart stands affected towards God and by that thou mayest undestand what Gods Answer to thy Question is viz. Whether he be at Peace with thee A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 1660. REVEL XX. 4. And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and Judgment was given unto them THIS portion of Scripture out of which I have taken this Text is as much misconstrued and as dangerously misconstrued as any one portion of Scripture in all the Bible How much I shall shew you in the unfolding of it and how dangerously you may read in the late example of a handful of unhappy men who thought to have brought our great City but indeed brought themselves to a fatal end and untimely grave meerly upon the misconstruction of this Scripture I must therefore humbly crave your patience a little whilst I speak something for the discovery of the meaning of the context that so I may facilitate and plain the way to the understanding of the meaning of the words that I have chosen What work the Millinary and Fifth-monarchists make upon this place I need not tell you I would that matter were not so well known as it is To whom and to whose opinion I must do as he did in the story who when a great company of men were met together and wanted a head over them and had agreed that he should be their chief that could first espy the Sun rising the next morning whilst all the rest stood gazing into the East for that purpose one among them turned the clear contrary way and looked Westward and he espied the shining of the Sun on the hill tops before him sooner than they could espy the body of the Sun arising in the East before them So I to these men and their opinion They look forward and make account that the things that are here spoken of their accomplishment and fulfilling are yet to come I look backward and fear not to aver that the things here spoken of have received their accomplishment not long ago They look forward and expect that the 1000 years that are here mentioned are yet to begin I look backward and make no doubt that those 1000 years ended and expired above half a thousand years since And the reason of this difference between us is because there is propotionable difference between us about subjectum quaestionis the subject and matter that the Apocaiyptick here aimeth at He speaks up that great and noble Theme that all the Prophets so divinely and comfortably harp upon namely the calling of the Gentiles that they should come in out of their dark and deluded estate to the light and embracing of the Gospel and to become the Church and People of the living God This is the Theme of our Apocalyptick here and he speaks to it in seven particulars I. As to the way and manner that God used to bring them in that Christ the great Angel of the Covenant should by the power of the Gospel chain up the Devil that he should deceive them no more as he had done The mistakers I mentioned do either ignorantly or wilfully err about the subject handled here and construe it to this sense that the Devil should be bound by Christ that he should not persecute disturb and disquiet the Church as he had done but that all along these thousand years their should be only some time of peace and tranquillity and not one cloud of disquieture or disturbance by the Devil or his instruments eclipse it A sense as far from the Holy Ghosts meaning as the East is from the West There is not a word here of the Devils binding that He should not disturb the Church but of the Devils binding that He should not deceive the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let a Grecian Read the words and he will render them that He should not deceive the
again before thine enemies So that it was the Justice of God that encouraged them to this war and it had two parts to act First To punish Israel for that Idolatry against which they stirred not and now stirred so in the cause of a Strumpet And then secondly To punish Gibeah and Benjamin for the abominable fact about that Strumpet the one for acting and the other for abetting it and not delivering the offenders to deserved punishment So that had they inquired why they fell so many in the war when God himself had set them to it this answer might easily have been given without asking at an Oracle and no question but Phinehas or what other holy men were in the army did sadly observe it But before we pass further the observation how God encourages them to this war and yet foils them in it minds me of two cases that are something parallel but only in this excepted that they had not a precedent and dormant cause why God should so check when he had commanded and encouraged but only a present and emergent The one is Jacob commanded and encouraged by God to go from Haran to his own Country and God promised to be with him and yet Christ the Angel of the Covenant meets him by the way wrestles with him seeks to kill him and he escapes so narrowly that he lamed him all his life The emergent reason was because Jacob upon news of Esau's coming with four hundred armed men was sorely shaken in his faith foiled with distrust and sends him a great multitude of cattel before he had tithed them as his Vow was to do Hence God that had commanded him doth so check him but he wept and made supplication recovers his faith and scapes with life though not with all his limbs The other is Moses commanded and encouraged by God to go for Egypt to deliver the people and the power of miracles put into his hand And yet Exod. IV. 24. It came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him The emergent cause was Moses distrust likewise He had long declined the Employment as doubting and pleading his own insufficiency for it and though God had given him this token that he should bring the people to worship God at that mountain yet durst not Moses venture to leave his wife behind him lest he should not come to see her any more but takes her with him though now in childbed and her child not yet eight days old to be circumcised And for this distrust God that had commanded him yet doth check him with so great a danger But he recovers his faith scapes with life sends back his wife and goes on his journey But these failings with these good men were suddain and emergent This fault of Israel had been sometime dormant and they dormant under it but now God awakens them with the alarm of a grievous slaughter that if ever they will inquire about their condition and business it is time for them to inquire now But how do they do it II. And that is a second thing to be inquired after The Ark and Phinehas are here mentioned because their inquiry was by Phinehas and his inquiry at the Ark. And was it possible that Phinehas should be then alive He was one of the persons that came out of Egypt Exod. VI. 23. And it was three hundred and fifty years at least since they came out of Egypt to the death of Sampson which you see is set before this story in the XVI Chap. let Phinehas be supposed to have been in the swaddles when they came out yet must he be at the least three hundred and fifty years old if he were alive at the death of Sampson which is far above the date that the ages of men went at at that time Before the Flood indeed the Patriarchs lived almost to a thousand years But at the Flood mans age was halved so that none that was born after lived up full to five hundred At the Confusion of Babel it was halved again so that none born after that lived up no not to two hundred and fifty as is easie to observe by computing the Ages in Gen. XI Nay the Ages of men stood not at that measure neither but at the murmuring in the Wilderness Numb XIV they were shortned again and the common stint of mans life brought to seventy or eighty years or thereabouts as Moses tells us in the XC Psalm Which Psalm was penned by him upon that very occasion So that it is not so much as to be imagined that Phinehas attained to three hundred and fifty years of age which he did and more if the time of this story were according to the order of placing it in this book But as it is very usual in Scripture to dislocate stories out of their proper time and place and that upon most divine reason so it is done here and indeed more signally than in any other place whatsoever This story of the war at Gibeah and that before of the Idolatry set up in Dan and that before that of the Idolatry set up by Micah in Mount Ephraim being set in the latter end of the Book which indeed for their proper time should have place near the beginning And that First Because in Chap. II. 7. it is said that Idolatry broke out among them assoon as the first generation that had seen the wonders in the Wilderness was dead and gone Now that Idolatry of the Danites with the Idol of Micah was the first publick breaking out And thereupon Dan is omitted to be named among the sealed of the twelve Tribes Revel VII Secondly It is said that this occurrence at Gibeah was when no King i. e. no Judge in Israel was yet risen It is repeated three times over Chap. XVIII 1. Chap. XIX 1. and Chap. XXI 27. to point out that these stories occurred before any Judge was Thirdly The wickedness at Gibeah is reckoned for the first notorious piece of villany in the Land Hos. X. 9. O Israel thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah Fourthly and lastly That passage in Judg. V. 8. speaks clearly of this matter They chose new Gods then was war in the gates was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel They chose new Gods refers to the Idolatry in Dan. Then was war in the gates to this Civil war in Gibeah in their own gates Was shield or spear seen among forty thousand To the forty thousand that fell in this war as if neither shield nor spear had been among them I shall not trouble you with large discourses to shew why these stories are displaced and laid in this place whereas they occurred so soon in the story of this book I shall only commend this to your Conception Sampson their last Judge after whose death their seat declined was of Dan and their first publick Idolatry was in Dan. Sampsons life was sold for
again but he writes and he writes again And herein he imitates the acting of the trying Priest again For he as the Jews expound his acting first denounced the curses then made the Woman drink the bitter waters and then he denounces the same curses again So Christ stoops down and writes some such thing it is like of the same nature and then potions these whom he tries with that draught that went down so bitter with them He that is without sin c. and then stoops down and writes again which while he is doing They being convinced by their own consciences went out one by one c. I have been the longer upon the whole story partly to unfold these things that are most material in it which it may be every eye doth not observe in reading of it and partly to vindicate it to its native and genuine authority of Evangelical and Divine And now to speak of the words and passage in the Text. The first gloss we may make upon them may be in silence and wonder For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you hear of strange things in it 1. That the Consciences of such men as these should be brought to any conviction at all men sworn to mischief and to be unconscionable 2. That so many such Consciences should be convinced all alike and altogether and all at one stroke For the very words intimate that they were some number and that conviction seized upon the whole number 3. That they should be convinced with these few words He that is without sin c when they had taken no thoughts of any such thing before 4. That they should be so overpowred by conviction as to their own shame before the multitude to proclaim their guilt by departing away and not standing to it But by way of Doctrine hence So little is any man able to stand before or to stand against the Conviction of his own Conscience when Christ is resolved to set it on And this is that I shall insist upon out of the words which ariseth very pregnantly out of them and lieth very plain in them to be observed That little is any man able to stand before or to stand against the Conviction of his own Conscience when Christ sets it on Think you that if the poor guilty Delinquent that stood now at the bar had spoken the very same words to them that our Saviour doth that they would have had the same effect upon them Had she said He that is withoâ— sin among you let him â—ast the first stone at me do you think they would have parted with Conviction of Conscience as they did Their answer to another poor person that was innocent that went about a little to instruct them Thou wast altogether born in sin and dost thou go about to teach us in the next Chapter may give you a guess what their answer would have been if she had gone about thus to try them Thou a whore just now taken in the act of adultery and dost thou go about to reprove us But it is Christ that speaks the words and Christ resolved to set conviction home upon them to shame them before the company and to confound them in their own Conscience and therefore he sends Thunder with his Lightning adds his Power to his Word and with these two edges of the Sword of his mouth he cuts so keen that they are neither able to avoid the stroke nor to abide it So little is any man able to stand before or to stand against the Conviction of his own Conscience when Christ is resolved to set it on For the proof and attestation of this truth I might call for all the mourning men and mourning women that ever were in the World either under the torture of horror of Conscience or under the pangs of Remorse I might call even Heaven and Hell to bear witness to it either the Saints in glory that have been here so convinced of their duty that they were not able nay not so much as to be willing to stand against it or the damned in Hell eternally so convinced of their guilt and condition that they are utterly unable to stand before it But as he once that had received an unjust sentence of death against himself from a wicked Judicature cited all his sentencers within such a time to answer God and him so let me make such a challenge what Conscience soever is here or in all the World that is most unconscionable that can swear and forswear lie and oppress whore and drink or commit any sin without remorse or feeling Whosoever is come or shall come to this present meeting and occasion with intent to take a false Oath to bear false Witness to lay in a false Plea or to maintain a wrong Cause I chalenge every such a Person every such a Conscience at one time or other either in this life or within a moment after he is departed out of it to bear witness and to subscribe to this truth That little is any one able to stand before or against the conviction of his own Conscience c. To speak of Conviction of Conscience at such a time and meeting as this is to speak of an Assise in the Soul at the Assise of the County of Conviction of Conscience at a time when Conscience and Conviction had need to be stirring in a special manner A subject for discourse very agreeable to the occasion could I but frame a discourse adaequate to the subject But I must crave your help and assistance for such a work that as I am to speak of Conscience and Conviction so your Consciences would go along and speak also to it and make out in the discourse of your own Conscience what I speak too short concerning Conscience or Conviction That whereas all that I can speak will be but as a very short note in the Index you would turn into the book of your hearts and see how largely you can read it there You see thereby three things plainly before us to speak unto Conviction of Conscience and Christs setting it on and man unable to withstand such setting on No one of which but might take up more time in discourse than is allotted and therefore I shall twist all together in these considerations I. First Being to speak of Conviction of Conscience I may begin much after that oenigmatical stile that the Apocalyptick useth in speaking of the eighth beast in Revel XVII 8. where he saith That he was and is not and yet he is So there is Conviction of Conscience that is not Conviction and yet it is As there are too many in the World that have no Conscience at all and yet have a Conscience As Absoloms long hair signified he was a Nazarite and under a vow but Nazarism in an Absolom signified as good as nothing and yet as to his condemning it signified something There is Conviction of Conscience if we may call it Conviction of Conscience that
Yes it is like thou mayest if thou be like him He was a holy a good a righteous man all his time only he was now fallen into one transgression a little before his death and repents of it and is pardoned But thou who thinkest of putting off repentance till thy last time I doubt art in another case He had no sin unrepented of but only this that he had just now committed and that he repented of and is pardoned Thou wilt have all thy sins to repent of at thy latter end and that changeth the case not a little He walked in the ways of repentance and holiness all his life thou thinkest not to do so till thy death A SERMON Preached upon ACTS VII 53. Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it I Concluded last day with mention how God would have none of his Commandments to be dallied and trifled withal from that dreadful example of the poor Prophet that broke Gods Commandment in eating and drinking in Bethel being cheated into that transgression by the lie of another Prophet and yet he escaped not though his ignorance might something excuse him but a Lion met him by the way and slew him I have chosen these words in the prosecution of that subject to consider a little upon Gods giving his Commands or Laws and mans too common violating them and misdemeanor against them The Law given by the disposition of Angels but men not keeping it The words are the words of Steven pleading for his life and answering that charge that his accusers laid against him of Blasphemy against Moses for that he had said That the rites of Moses should be changed and against the Temple for that he said That holy place and City should be destroyed How he answers particularly to this accusation I shall not trouble you with observing in the conclusion of his speech he comes to speak home to the persons both of them that accused him and of them that sat in judgment upon him He first calls them all stif-necked and uncircumcised both in heart and ears Then he chargeth them all with all resistance of the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of the Prophets chargeth their Fathers with persecuting and slaying the Prophets and them with the murther of the great Prophet Christ and concludes his speech with the words before us Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it In the words is sweet and sower life and death light and darkness Ye received the Law by the disposition of Angels this is like Ezekiels book sweet in the mouth but ye have not kept it that is in the belly as bitter as gall In the former clause you may see Israel before mount Sinai in a happy condition receiving the Law in the latter you may see them a little from it undoing themselves by making a golden Calf And to that particular we might very well apply the words There were thousands of Angels in the Mount when ye received the Law but ye so little kept it that within forty days ye broke the two first Commandments of it viz. Thou shalt have none other Gods before me And Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image But it may be questioned whether he saying They received the Law by the Disposition of Angels means the Angels that were attending God when he gave the Law at Sinai True the Scriptures mention frequently the presence of Angels with God when he gave the Law Two only may serve instead of more Deut. XXXIII 2. He came with ten thousands of his holy ones at his right hand was a firy Law for them Psal. LXVIII 17. The charets of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai the holy place But what did the Angels that were there You read not nor hear of a word that they spake but it was the Lord that spake these words and said I am the Lord thy God For the understanding therefore of the Martyrs meaning First We may mention a wild conception of the Jews that say That all they that heard the Law uttered by God from Mount Sinai were by that very hearing made like unto the Angels that they should never have begot children never grown old never died but have been as the Angels had not that unlucky business of the Golden Calf fallen out and that turned them to sinful and mortal men again There is a strange construction in the original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English renders By the disposition of Angels whereas the word in the strictest propriety should be read Unto the disposition of Angels As if Steven did rub their own opinion upon them as is frequently done by the Apostles and that his meaning should be this You say and conceive that the very receiving of the Law did translate and dispose them that heard it into the very predicat and state of Angels and yet this brave Law you have not kept The Law that you conceit made others Angels you have made but dirt and that that you think had so noble an effect upon them that heard it hath had no good effect upon you at all for ye have not kept it But this Interpretation I shall not insist upon though it be very frequent with the Apostles arguing with the Jews to confute them from their own Opinions and Tenets I shall name but two to you 1 Cor. XI 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels Where the Apostle argues from their own concessions practise and custom And Jude vers 9. Yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses Not that ever such a dispute was twixt Michael or Christ and the Devil about Moses body but the Jews have such a conceit and story and we meet with it in their writings and the Apostle useth an argument from their own saying to confute their doing But Secondly If I should say that there were none but Angels on the top of Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law I should speak but the language of Steven that speaks the words that we have in hand at vers 38. This Moses is he that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai It is said God spake all these words and said and yet Steven saith It was the Angel that spake to him in Mount Sinai But he means the Angel of the Covenant the Lord Christ the Arch-angel or the chief or Lord of all the Angels And here let an Arian or Socinian that denies the Godhead of Christ compare Moses and Steven together and learn to acknowledge the truth Moses saith it was God that spake to him in Mount Sinai Steven saith It was the Angel viz. The Angel of the Covenant Christ who as the Apostle saies is God
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
sins of their fathers unto the third and fourth generation This leaves a lesson to Parents That they would pity their children and when they sin think of them and of the misery they entail upon them A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 11. For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it THE greatest obscurity we have to speak about is in the last clause He hallowed it and yet at first sight that seems least obscure of all The two former clauses may rather one would think set us at a stand and yet the great dispute is about the last viz. in regard of that Sabbath we now celebrate When we look upon the world it may set us at a wonder that this vast bulk of all things should be made in six days Heaven and Earth and Seas in six days How many houses in the world have cost the work of six years Solomon was building the Temple seven years and his own house twenty years and this great Universe and all things in it to be built in six days And yet if we look at the power of him that made it we have as much cause to wonder that he should be six days about it He that made all things by his word could have done it in one moment as well as six days and with one word as well as six And he that made all things of nothing could also have made all things in no length of time but in an instant in a moment of time in the twinkling of an eye as he will change all things 1 Cor. XV. 52. And so concerning his resting If he were weary with working that he needed resting why did he work till he was weary And if he were not weary why had he need to rest Such frivolous impious and Atheistical Disputes may flesh and blood and carnal reason move about the actings of God that hath not learned to resolve all his wonderful actings into these two great principles his Power and Will That he created all things with the word of his mouth of nothing is no scruple if we resolve it into his Power And that he took six days to do it who could have done it in a moment is as little if we resolve it into his Will That he was not weary with doing so great a work it is no scruple if we resolve it into his Power And that he rested though he were not weary is as little if we resolve it into his Will And therefore how can we better begin our discourse about the matter we are upon viz. his creating all things by his word and yet taking six days to do it and his not being weary with so great a work and yet resting though he were not weary than by adoration of his Power and Will And therefore as David for all his hast of fleeing from Absalom yet when he came to the top of the Mount Olivet he worshipped God 2 Sam. XV. 32. So let us make so much a stop in the current of our discourse as to give the Lord his due of his power and pleasure before we go further And that let us do in the words and Oh! that we might ever do it in the devotion of the four and twenty Elders Revel IV. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created All Israel hears more Divinity and Philosophy in these few words In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day c. than all the great wisdom and philosophy of the Heathen was able to spell out in a thousand years Some of them were so wide from knowing that the world was made by God that they thought it was never made at all but was Eternal and never had beginning Others that it was a God it self and made it self Others that it grew together at hap hazzard of Atomes or motes flying up and down which at last met and conjoyned in this fabric of the world which we behold So blind is sinful man to the knowledge of his Creator if he have no better eys and light to look after him by than his own Israel hath a Divine light here held out before them whereby they see and learn in these few words That the World was not Eternal but had a beginning and that it was made and that it made not it self but was made by God that it was not jumbled together by hap hazzard of I know not What and I know not How but that God made it in six days That which God speaks so short here Moses afterward when he set pen to paper to write his books enlarges upon and tells you in the beginning of Genesis in what manner God proceeded in this great work and what he created every day With that you see the Bible begins the story of the Creation the proper foundation that every Scholar should say of his learning there namely to know his Creator and to know of whom and through whom are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen as the Apostle devoutly Rom. XI 36. Let us consider the two things severally That God made Heaven and Earth and secondly That he made them in six days When I look up to Heaven the work of thy fingers the Moon and Stars which thou hast I. ordained I say saith David What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him We may also say upon such a prospect Oh! what is God what a divine and infinite power and wisdom and glory that made so great so beautiful so stately a fabrick Our God made the Heavens is the Israelites plea against the Gods of the Heathen pittiful pieces of wood and stone that could neither see nor hear nor smel nor stir but Our God made the Heavens There is a passage very remarkable Jer. X. 11. Thus shall ye say to them the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these Heavens That verse is in the Chaldee Tongue whereas every clause of his book besides is Hebrew and not a Syllable of Chaldee in it And what is the reason The people were ere long to be captived into Chaldea and when they came there the Chaldees would be ready to be perswading them to worship their Gods Poor Israel new come thither could not speake their Language nor dispute the case with them in their own Tongue Therefore the Lord by the Prophet puts so much Chaldee into their mouths as to make a profession of their own God and to deride and curse the others Your Gods made not Heaven and Earth and therefore shall perish from the Earth and be confounded but Our God made the Heavens O! what an excellent
Aaron and dwelling in the hill Country of Juda it were senseless to seek for his house in any other place then Hebron This place had been excellently renowned in ancient time Here was the promise given of Isaac here was the institution of Circumcision here Abraham had his first land and David his first Crown and here lay interred the three couples Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca Jacob and Leah and as antiquity hath held Adam and Eve Now there are many reasons given by Expositors of Maries hasting hither after the Message of the Angel As either to know the truth of what was told her about Elizabeth or to congratulate and rejoyce with her or to minister to her in her great belliedness or that the Baptist in Elizabeths womb might be sanctified by the presence of Christ in hers c. But I cannot but conceive this to be the very reason indeed That she might there conceive the Messias where so many types figures and things relating to him had gone before namely in Hebron For First This suited singularly with the Harmony and Consent which God useth in his works that the promise should begin to take place by the conception of Messias even among those Patriarchs to whom the promise was first given Secondly A kind of necessity seemeth to lie upon it that this Shiloh of the Tribe of Judah and the seed of David should be conceived in a City of Juda and of David as he was to be born in another City that belonged to them both Thirdly The Evangelists so punctually describing this City seemeth rather to refer to Christ then John who being of the Priests might indifferently have been born in any of the Tribes whatsoever Only the Holy Ghost giveth us to observe this which may not be passed That John that should bring in Baptism in stead of Circumcision was born in that very place where Circumcision was first ordained in the City Hebron It is generally held indeed that the Virgin conceived in Nazaret and in the very instant of the Angels talking with her but whether there be not as much probability for this opinion as for that I refer to the equal and judicious Reader Ver. 40. And saluted Elizabeth This seemeth to have been at some distance and a wall or floor between as consider seriously on ver 42. 44. Ver. 41. The babe leaped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is used by the LXX for Jacobs and Esaus stirring in the womb Gen. 25. 22. And the leaping of the mountains at the giving of the Law Elizabeth in ver 44. addeth The babe leaped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not that he knew what he did when he leaped any more then they but that either this was the first time or this time was extraordinary The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth outward gesticulation or exultation as well as inward joy yea though there be no inward joy at all as Psalm 65. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little hills shall be girded with exultation And so is it to be understood here The babe in my womb leaped with extraordinary gesticulation or exultation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the manner of the thing done and not the cause of the doing Ver. 45. And blessed is she that believed Elizabeth in this clause seemeth to have an eye to her own husbands unbelief and the punishment that befel him for the same He a Man a Priest aged learned eminent and the message to him of more appearing possibility and Mary a Woman mean unlearned and of a private condition and the tidings to her most incredible both to nature and reason and yet she believed and he did not Ver. 48. He hath regarded the low estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by the LXX 2 Sam. 9. 8. and Psal. 25. 16. and importeth a look of pity and compassion and not of observation of desert as the Papists would have it here For some of them render this clause thus He hath looked on mine humility with approbation and others give this gloss upon it Because of her humility she deserved to be exalted and by it she was primely disposed to conceive and bear the only begotten Son of God But first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is said before in the LXX who must best help us to interpret it signifieth a look of another nature Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not the vertue of humility or the lowliness of mind but the state of a low and poor condition and so is it rendred here by the Syrian Arabick Spanish French Deodates Italian Dutch and all Latines that are not wedded to the vulgar And so is it used by the LXX Gen. 16. 11. 41. 52. 1 Sam. 1. 11. and so again by the New Testament Act. 8. 33. compared with the Original in Isa. 53. 8. And so prophane and heathen Authors distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the former understanding as we do here and by the latter the vertue of humility Thirdly The same word in a manner or one of the same root in ver 52. is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and inevitably beareth the sense we follow Fourthly If the Virgin spake in the sense the Romanists would have her He hath looked upon my lowliness to give it its desert she would prove to be intolerably proud in the valuing of her humility All generations shall call me blessed As Gen. 30. 13. Not only thou oh Cosin Elizabeth and the Jewish Nation that expect the Messias but even all the world and all successions of ages among the Heathen shall come to the knowledge and confession of Christ and account me blessed in the favour that I have received Ver. 51. He hath scattered the proud c. If the Virgin aim these words and those of the same tenour that follow at any particular persons as some conceive she doth and meaneth the Devils or the Pharisees or the Jews it might as well be conceived that she hath respect to the four tyrannous and persecuting Monarchies in the Book of Daniel which were now destroyed as much as to any thing else But since the very same words in a manner are to be found in the song of Hannah 1 Sam. 2. they warrant us to interpret them not so restrictively as to any one particular example but of the general and ordinary dealing of God in the world with the wicked SECTION III. S. MATTHEW CHAP. I THE a a a a a a Gen. 5. 1. Book b b b b b b It might be understood The Book of the History as generation is taken Gen. 2. 4. and 37. 2. and so it might be the title not of this Chapter only but of the whole book But since the Evangelists intention is to set down Christs alliance to the Royal line by his Father Joseph the phrase must be understood accordingly and so the Chaldee useth the very
Greek word to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Family of Ram. Job 32. 2. See a third sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Jam. 1. 23. 3. 6. of the generation of Iesus Christ the son of David the Son of Abraham 2. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Iacob and Iacob begat c c c c c c Judas for Jeâ—udah in Hebrew For the Greek cannot utter h before a vowel in the middle of a word nor after one in the end therefore in the middle it leaveth out as in Josaphat Joram and this word Juda and in the end it changeth it in s as in this and may other words in this Chapter Iudas and his brethren 3. And Iudas begat Phares and Zara of Tamar and Phares begat Esrom and Esrom begat Aram. 4. And d d d d d d Or Ram. 1 Chron. 2. 8. Ruth 4. 19. Aram begat Aminadab and Aminadab begat Naasson and Naasson begat e e e e e e Called Salma Ruth 4. 20. Salmon 5. And Salmon begat f f f f f f He is held by the Jews to be Ipsan Judg. 12. 8. Boos of Racab and Boos begat Obed of Ruth and Obed begat Iesse 6. And Iesse begat g g g g g g David in the Arabick signifieth a worm to which he may seem to allude Psal. 22. 6. David the King and David the King begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias 7. And Solomon begat Roboam and Roboam begat h h h h h h Rehoboam in naming this his Son Abi-jah which signifieth God is my father seemeth to have had his eye upon the promise to David I will be his Father 2 Sam. 7. 14. which because he imbraced not by a lively Faith but challenged only by a presumptuous usurpation for he walked not in the ways of David therefore doth the text elsewhere conceal the name of God in the name of his Son and calleth him Abijam My father is a Sea For so unconstant in good was Rehoboam as Jam. 1. 6. being a child at forty years old 2 Chron. 13. 17. Abia and Abia begat i i i i i i The Arabick readeth it Asaph Asa. 8. And Asa begat Iosaphat and Iosaphat begat Ioram and Ioram begat Ozias 9. And Ozias begat Ioatham and Ioatham begat Achas and Achas begat Ezechias 10. And Ezechias begat Manasses and Manasses begat Amon and Amon begat Iosias 11. And Iosias begat k k k k k k Called Conias Jer. 22. 24. For God by taking away the first syllable of his name sheweth that he will not establish the throne or race of Solomon any more upon it as his Father Jehojaâ—im bel ke in so naming him had presumed The Jews delighted to joyn the name Jehovah to their own names but somewhat shortned For in the beginning of the name it was but Jeho as Jeho-shaphat Jehoram c. And in the end it was Jahu as Mica-jahu Eli-jahu And sometime in the very same name it was set before or after indifferently as Jebo-achaz 2 Chron. 21. 17. is Ahaz-jahu 2 Chron. 22. 1. So Jehojachin 2 King 24. 8. is Jechou-jahu 1 Chron. 3. 16. Iechonias and his brethren about the time they were carried away into Babylon 12. And after they were brought to Babylon Iechonias begat Salathiel and Salathiel begat Zorobabel 13. And Zorobabel begat Abiud and Abiud begat Eliakim and Eliakim begat Azor. 14. And Azor begat Sadoc and Sadoc begat Achim and Achim begat Eliud 15. And Eliud begat Eleazar and Eleazar begat Matthan and Matthan began Iacob 16. And Iacob begat Ioseph the Husband of Mary of whom was born Iesus who is called Christ. 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David until the l l l l l l The Captivity of the Jews into Babel was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flitting of their Families As Aristeas saith of Ptol. Lagus his captiving them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they returned ere long to their own home again But the ten Tribes captivated by Sbalmanezar are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the LXX 2 Kings 18. 11. in a perpetual departure from their own houses And they and all the rest of the Nation are at this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a dispersion without any home of their own at all John 7. 35. Jam. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 1. carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations 18. Now the birth of Iesus Christ was on this wise when as his Mother Mary was espoused to Ioseph before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost 19. Then Ioseph her Husband being a just man and not willing m m m m m m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath been thought saith Gellius that there ought to be three causes in punishing of offences The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is when punishmenâ— is used for castigation or amendment of him that hath offended The second called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is when punishment is used that the dignity and honour of him that hath been wronged may be maintained The third which is called II 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is when punishment is inflicted for examples sake that others by the fear of the known punishment may be deterred from the like offences Noct. Att. lib. 6. cap. 14. to make her a publike example was minded to put her away privily 20. But while he thought on these things the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Ioseph thou Son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy Wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost 21. And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sinnes 22. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying 23. Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and shall call his Name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us 24. Then Ioseph being raised from sleep did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife 25. And knew her not until she had brought forth her first born Son and he called his name Jesus Reason of the Order AFter Mary hath been three months absent from Joseph as in the last verse of the Section preceding upon her return he perceiveth her to be with child for which he intendeth secretly to put her away as Tamar after three months is descried to be in the same case and Judah resolveth publikely to put her to death Gen. 38. 24. This being considered it is plain to see how properly the eighteenth verse of this chapter followeth in order of time after the last verse
And now let us briefly weigh what things are said on the contrary side CHAP. X. What things are objected for the Affirmative I. FIRST That passage is objected a a a a a a Hieros Sotah cap. 7. R. Levi went to Cesarea and hearing them read the Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schma Deut. VI. in Greek would hinder them R. Jose observing it was angry saying He that cannot read in Hebrew shall he not read at all Yea let a man read in any Tongue which he understands and knows and so satisfie his Duty So the words are rendred by a very learned Man But the Gemara treats not of reading the Law in the Synagogues but concerning the repeating of the passages of the Phylacteries among which the first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O Israel Deut. VI. Therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be rendred reading but repeating In which sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occurs very frequently in the Masters As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b b b b Bab. Megill fol. 17. 1. She recites the book of Ester by her mouth that is without book And c c c c c c Biccurim fol. 86. 1. Heretofore every one that could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recite that passage used in offering the first fruits Deut. XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recited And he that could not recite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they taught him to recite or they recited for him II. That example and story is urged concerning reading the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia Act. XIII 15. To which there is no need to answer any thing else but that it begs the Question III. That also of Tertullian is added d d d d d d Apoleget cap. 18. Sed Judaei palam lectitant Vectigalis libertas vulgo auditur or aditur singulis Sabbatis But the Jews also read openly the liberty of the Tax is heard or gone unto every Sabbath day I answer Be it granted that Tertullian speaks of the Greek Version which is not so very evident that which was done under Severus doth not conclude the same thing done in the times of the Apostles but especially when Severus was according to the sense of his name very severe towards the Jews as Baronius teacheth and Spartianus long before him Under whom Sabbaths could not be kept by the Jews but under a Tax And be it granted that the Greek Version was read then by them at Rome as the Glosser upon Tertullian describes the scene of the affair that was also under a Tax not by the choise of the people but by pure compulsion IV. That of Justin Martyr is produced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e e e e Orâ—â— Pâ—ranâ—â— ad Graecos But if any say that these books belong not to us but the Jews and therefore they are to this day preserved in their Synagogues And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. f f f f f f Apolog. â— The books remained even among the Egyptians hitherto and are every where among all the Jews who reading them understand them not V. But that is instead of all that Philo and Josephus follow the Greek Version and that which is still greater the holy Pen-men do follow it in the New Testament in their allegations taken out of the Old Therefore without doubt say they that Version was frequent and common in the Synagogues and in the hands of men and without doubt of the highest authority among the Jews yea as it seemeth of divine These are the arguments which are of the greatest weight on that side That I may therefore answer together to all let us expatiate a little in this enquiry CHAP. XI By what Authors and Counsils it might probably be that that Greek Version came forth which obtains under the Name of the Seventy I. IT was made and published without doubt not for the sake of the Jews but of the Heathen We have Josephus a witness here in his story of the Seventy granting him to be true in that relation what moved Ptolomey so greedily to desire the Version to purchase so small a Volume at such vast expenses Was it Religion Or a desire of adorning his Library By that paint does Josephus colour the business but reason will dictate a third cause and that far more likely For both the Jewish and Heathen Writers teach that Egypt at that time was filled with an infinite multitude of Jews and what could a prudent King and that took care of himself and his Kingdom do else than look into the manners and institutions of that Nation whether they consisted with the peace and security of his Kingdom since that people was contrary to the manners and Laws of all other Nations When therefore he could neither examine nor understand their Law which comprized their whole Religion Polity and Occonomy being writ in Hebrew it was necessary for him to provide to have it translated into their Vulgar Tongue Hence arose the Version of the five Elders as we may well suppose and lest some fraud or collusion might creep in the assembling of the Seventy two Elders was occasioned hence also And does it not favour of some suspicion that he assembled them being altogether ignorant what they were to do For let reason tell us why we should not rather give credit to the Talmudists writing for their own Country-men than to Josephus writing for the Heathen And if there be any truth in that relation that when he had gathered them together he shut them up by themselves in so many chambers that still increaseth the same suspicion II. Let it be yielded that they turned it into Greek which as we have seen is doubtful yet the speech in the Gemarists is only concerning the Books of Moses and concerning the Law only in Josephus Who therefore Translated the rest of the Books of the Holy Volume It is without an Author perhaps should we say the Jerusalem Sanhedrin but not without reason For III. The Jews wheresoever dispersed through out the World and they in very many Regions infinite in their numbers made it their earnest request that they might live and be governed by their own Laws and indeed they would live by none but their own But what Prince would grant this being altogether ignorant what those Laws were They saw their manners and rites were contrary to all other Nations it was needful also to see whether they were not contrary to the peace of their Kingdoms That very jealousie could not but require the Version of those Laws into the common Language and to force it also from them how unwilling soever they might be The great Sanhedrin therefore could not consult better and more wisely for the safty and security and religion of the whole Nation than by turning their Holy Books into the Greek Language that all might know what it was that they professed They could
not but see but those Books would at last though they were never so unwilling come forth in the Vulgar Language nor could they hinder but they would every where happen into the hands of the Heathen therefore that it would be far better that a Version should come forth by their care and authority which might be according to their pleasures than that some should come forth in one place and some in another which perhaps might turn to the disgrace of the Holy Text or to the danger and reproach of the Nation or might too much lay open the Holy Mysteries among the Heathen By these Authors and by these reasons I confess ingenuously it is my opinion that that Version was made which goes about under the name of the Seventy Nor are there some things wanting in the Version it self which hint some such counsil in the publishing of it For IV. Even a blear Eye may see clearly enough that it was hammered out and dressed with more caution than conscience more craft than sincerity 1. That as much as might be the Holy Books might remain free from any reproach or cavilling of the Heathen 2. That they might soften some things which might be injurious to the Jewish Nation either as to their peace or reputation or which might create offence to the Gentiles 3. That the mysteries and the bare truth of the Holy Books might be revealed as little as possibly could be to the Heathen All which might be demonstrated by such numberless examples as to leave no occasion to doubt of that matter behind it By these and the like cautions and subtilties was that Version made where in the Translators had less care that the Interpretation should come out sincere and true but provision was chiefly made that any thing should be thrust upon the Gentiles so it were without danger and that the Glory and safety of the Jewish Nation might be maintained And may it be allowed me to speak out what I think Among the various Copies and Editions of this Version which go about I do not esteem that Copy for the most genuine which comes nearest to the Hebrew Text but that which comes nearest to the mind of the Translators in such like cautions It is said as we saw before that when the five Elders had turned the Law That day was bitter to Israel as the day wherein the Golden Calf was made And why Because the Law could not be turned according to all things convenient to it Did their grief arise hence because it was not turned nor could not be clearly exactly and evidently enough that the Heathen might see the full and open light of it Who will believe that this ever was the Jews desire or wish But their trouble proceeded rather from hence that those five had not Translated it cunningly warily and craftily enough as the Gentiles were to be dealt withal Of this matter there was care enough taken in this Version the Authors setting all their strength and wits on work that according to their own pleasures it might come forth such as they would have it and might serve their purpose both as to themselves and as to the Gentiles This they established and strengthned by their own authority not as a pure Version and such as was to be recommended to their Countrymen but as fit enough to stop the mouths and satisfie the curiosity of the Heathen and lest any among them might attempt another in which those cautions and provisions might not be sufficiently observed This they laid up in their Sanhedrins and Synagogues that it might be ready and shewn to the Heathen as a Symbol and token of the Jewish Law Faith and Religion if at any time the matter and necessity called for some such thing We grant therefore to Justin Martyr that that Version was in the Synagogues and hands of the Jews but one would not conclude from that that it was read in the Synagogue instead of the Hebrew Text. And we will yield also to Tertullian that that Version was read at Rome in his age in the Synagogues of the Jews but being compelled so to do by that suspicion whereof we spake namely that it might be known to all what the Law and Religion of the Jews was whether it consisted with the Roman Government Our Question is whether the Hellenists chose to themselves the reading of the Greek Version and neglected the Hebrew Text and seeing for the most part they lived by their own Laws and Ordinances you will hardly any where shew me especially in the times of the Apostles concerning which we speak or in the times before them that they were compelled to reject the one and to read the other And as to that which is objected concerning Philo and Josephus t is no wonder if they writing for the Heathen followed that Version which was designedly made for the Heathen But that is of the greatest weight of all which is objected concerning the Evangelists and Apostles who embraced that Version in their quotations out of the Old Testament To which the Answer is very easie Namely Those Holy Writers had to do with two sorts of men Jews and Gentiles the Volume of the New Testament was in the hands of both A Gentile desires to examine the quotations which are brought out of the Old Testament But not understanding the Hebrew whether should he go but to the Greek Version which he understands So that it was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of condescension that those Holy Writers followed the Greek Version but out of pure necessity for otherwise it was impossible that their allegations out of the Law and the Prophets could be examined by the Gentiles And if a Jew having the New Testament in his hand should complain and quarrel that in their quotations they departed from the Hebrew Text they had an answer ready viz. This very Version which is cited is that very same which ye have writ published and propounded to the World as the Symbol and token of your Law and Religion and as your own very Bible If we would designedly attempt a full disquisition concerning that Version we might it may be more at large demonstrate all these things which have been spoken by various instances reasons and methods But let this suffice at present This discourse was raised by occasion of the mention of the unknown Tongue Chap. XIV which we suppose was Hebrew formerly used in the Hellenistical Synagogue of the Corinthians and which they would retain being now converted to the Gospel too much wresting to Judaism the gift of Tongues in the same manner as they did the other privileges and ordinances of the Gospel and using an unknown Language so much the rather because the gift of Tongues was granted from Heaven using it to an end plainly contrary to the gift it self unhappily perverting it and not requiring not admitting now an Interpreter which before was done by them as if they thought God had