adjures him to tell whether he were the Christ or no he confesseth it and withall tels them that the time should come that they should finde the truth of this by experience when he should shew his power and vengeance in his judgement against them and their City coming in clouds c. This confession and words they account blasphemy and that they might have the surer impression of so construing them Caiaphas rents his garments and by that action would as it were force them to agree with him that it was so when his garments had paid so dear for the confirming of it Their custom and reason of renting their cloathes upon the hearing of blasphemy is handled in Ierus in Sanhedr fol. 25. col 1. 2. and in Maym. in Avodah Zarah per. 2. where those two Canons being observed Every one that hears Gods name blasphemed is bound to rent his garments And The Iudges hearing blasphemy must stand up upon their feet and must rent their cloathes and may not sew them up again It will cause us to observe something in it that the Highpriest only rent his clothes and not the rest of the Bench with him Which though they did not yet they vote with him that it was blasphemy and therefore he was guilty of death which had it been executed must have been by stoning Sanhedr per. 7. halac 4. And now they begin to spit on him to buffet him and abuse him Peters deniall Here Peter first denies him for being challenged as he sate by the fire by the damsell porter for one of his company he denies it and shrinks away into the porch and then the first Cock crew Luke saith that the maid came to him as he sate by the fire Matthew and Mark that he was now beneath in the Palace and without in the Palace meaning beneath or without from that place or room where the Bench sate Betwixt this first deniall and the second there was but a little while Luke 22.55 In the space between the Highpriest is questioning Iesus of his Disciples and Doctrine and because he answers Ask them that have heard me c. an officious Officer smites him as if he had not answered with reverence enough Peter this while was in the porch where he was when the Cock crew after his first deniall and there another maid sees him and brings him to the company that stood by the fire and challenges him for one of his Disciples and now he denies with an oath And about an hour after Luke 22.59 which space of time the Bench took up in examining Christ about his Disciples and Doctrine a kinsman of Malchus challengeth him and tels the company he saw him with Iesus in the Garden and he pleading the contrary is discovered to all the company to be a Galilean by his Dialect but he denies with execrations and presently the second Cock crew And Jesus looking back upon him he remembers what he had done and goes out and weeps bitterly And so presently after the second Cock the Bench riseth and leaveth Iesus in the hands of their Officers by whom he is taunted stricken and shamefully used His being delivered up to the Roman power In the morning the Sanhedrin met formally in their own Council chamber and again question Iesus brought there before them and they resolved to put him to death Whether he were the Messias or no he giveth the same answer as before that though they would not beleeve him if he told them he was which was the truth yet the time was coming when they should finde it true They question him again Art thou the Son of God which he not denying they judge him a blasphemer again and deserving to die and so deliver him up to the secular power It is observable in both these questionings of him upon this point both in the night and now in the morning how convertible terms the Son of God and the Son of man are made In the night they question him Art thou the Son of God He answers Ye shall see the Son of man c. Mat. 26.63 64. And now in the morning again he saith Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and they reply Art thou then the Son of God Luke 22.69 70. Iudas his Recantation and Ruine Iudas unquiet in minde for what he had done in betraying attends the trials and waits the issue and when he now saw that he was condemned by the Bench to be delivered up to the Heathen power he steps in and offers his money again and confesseth he had betrayed innocent blood and this probably as Christ stood by Having received a surly answer again from them he flings down his money in the Temple where they sat Gazith or Hhavoth it is not seasonable to question here and departing is snatched by the devil who was bodily in him into the air and there strangled and flung down headlong to the earth and all his bowels burst out With the thirty pieces of silver his wages of iniquity the Priests consult to buy the Potters field And here a quotation of Matthew hath troubled Expositors so farre that divers have denied the purity of the Text. His words are these Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Ieremy the Prophet And they took the thirty pieces of silver c. Matth. 27.9 Whereas those words are not to be found in Ieremy at all but in Zechary they are found Zech. 11.13 Now Matthew speaks according to an ordinary manner of speaking used among the Jews and by them would easily and without cavil be understood though he cited a text o◠Zechary under the name of Ieremy For the illustration of which matter we must first produce a record of their own The Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 14. facie 2. is discoursing concerning the order in which the Books of the old Testament were ordered and ranked of old And first they shew that there was this generall division of it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa By the last meaning The Psalmes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Canticles Iob Ruth Esther c. Then do they tell that the Books were particularly thus ranked The five Books of Moses Ioshua Iudges Samuel Kings and then the Prophets among whom Ieremy was set first and then Ezekiel and after him Esay and then the twelve But they object was not Esay long before Ieremy and Ezekiel in time Why should he then be set after them in order And they give this answer The last Book of Kings ends with destruction and Ieremy is all destruction Ezekiel begins with destruction and ends with comfort and Esay is all comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore they joyned destruction and destruction together and comfort and comfort together And thus in their Bibles of old Ieremy came next after the Book of Kings and stood first in the volume of the Prophets So that Matthews alleadging of a Text
THE HARMONY CHRONICLE AND ORDER OF THE New-Testament The Text of the Four EVANGELISTS Methodized Story of the ACTS of the APOSTLES Analyzed Order of the EPISTLES Manifested Times of the REVELATION Observed All Illustrated With variety of Observations upon the Chiefest Difficulties TEXTUALL TALMUDICALL For clearing of their Sense and Language With an Additionall DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Fall of JERUSALEM AND THE Condition of the Jews in that Land afterward By IOHN LIGHTFOOT D.D. LONDON Printed by A.M. for Simon Miller at the Starre in St Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LV. Dr Lightfoots Harmony on the N. Testament THE HARMONY CHRONICLE AND ORDER OF THE New-Testament The Text of the Four EVANGELISTS Methodized Story of the ACTS of the APOSTLES Analyzed Order of the EPISTLES Manifested Times of the REVELATION Observed All Illustrated With variety of Observations upon the Chiefest Difficulties TEXTUALL TALMUDICALL For clearing of their Sense and Language With an Additionall DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Fall of JERUSALEM AND THE Condition of the Jews in that Land afterward By IOHN LIGHTFOOT D.D. LONDON Printed by A.M. for Simon Miller at the Starre in St Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LV. SERENISSIMO OLIVERO Reipub. Angl. Scot. Hybern c. Domino PROTECTORI J. L. Devotissimus Cliens Munusculum hoc Literarium In se quidem Nihilum At Summi Officii omnimodaeque Observantiae Sincerum Pignus ac Indicium Humillimè meritóque Dicat Dedicatque TO HIS HIGHNESS Honourable COUNCIL IT is not presumption that hath induced me to this address but sense of duty and of that obligation that lies upon me For besides that homage which I owe in common with the whole Nation to his Highness whom the Lord hath placed over us and raised up a Healer and Deliverer in the needfull time a peculiar and redoubled bond of fealty obligeth me as living in a Rectory that belongeth to his Patronage and Donation Which tenancy and dependance as I cannot but own in all submissiveness thankfulnesse and duty so in acknowledgement thereof and of my hearty Loyalty to his Highnesse I have assumed the humble boldness to present this poor Tribute and Oblation to Him having no better thing to offer His Clemency and Goodness will not despise the Offering of a willing minde though it be but mean especially one of this nature I dare not call the Subject that I have handled Mean because it is the summe of the New Testament but the failings and meannesse of the handling of it as it is the more excusable because aiming at so worthy a Subject and who is sufficient for these things so may I hope that it will finde the more easie pardon and some acceptance for the Subjects sake With this most humble addresse to his Highnesse I was desirous to leave an humble memoriall also with your Honours who stand so near Him not only of profession of that service and observance that with all the Nation I owe to your Lordships but also of special thankefulnesse and acknowledgement of goodnesse and favour received from your Honourable Table in a matter of mine own particular concernment I can adde no more but my prayers to the Father of mercies for his gracious Protection of his Highnesse and your H.H. and that he will guide you in all your Councels and in all your waies Devoted to Your H. H. in all Service I. L. TO THE READER I Shall not trouble the Reader with any long discourse to shew how the Scripture abounds with transposition of stories how the holy Ghost doth eminently hereby shew the Majesty of his style and Divine wisdome how this is equally used in both Testaments what need the student of Scripture hath carefully to observe those dislocations and what profit he may reape by reducing them to their proper time and order I shall only in brief give account of what I have done in the ensuing Treatise which refers to that way of study of the New Testament Some years ago I published The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the Old Testament observing what transpositions may be observed there the reason of their dislocating and where in Chronicall account is their proper time and place and accordingly manifesting the genuine Order of the Books Chapters Stories and Prophesies through the whole Book The New Testament being Written and Composed after the very same manner of texture requireth the like observation and having made the Assay upon the one I could not but do the like by the other I have therefore first observed the proper Time and Order of the Texts of the Evangelists and how all the four may be reduced into the current of one Story and thereby evidences taken out of them themselves I could willingly have published the Text it self in that Order for so I have transcribed it from end to end and so I offered it to the Press but found its passage difficult So that I have been forced to give directions for the so reading of it only by naming Chapters and verses It would have been both more easie and more pleasant to the Reader had the Text of the four been laid before him in severall Columes but his examining and ordering it in his own Bible by the intimations given will cost more labour indeed but will better confirm memory and understanding The Acts of the Apostles do not much scruple the Reader with dislocations but the taking up of the times of the Stories is not of little difficulty and yet in some particulars of some necessity These are observed where most materiall according to what light and evidence may be had for them either in the Text it self there or elswhere Especially I have indeavoured to observe the times of the writing of The Epistles both those that fall in in those times that the Story of The Acts of the Apostles handleth and those that were written afterward For the fixing of some there is so plain ground from the Text that the time is determined certainly for others we are put to probability and conjecture yet such ground to build conjecture on that I hope there hath not been much roving from the mark I must stand at the Readers censure I was unwilling to have medled with The Revelation partly because I have no minde to be bold in things of that nature I see too much daring with that Book already and partly because I could not go along with the common stating of the times and matters there yet being necessitated by the nature of the task that I had undertaken I could not but deal with the Times and Order of things spoken of in that Book and that could not be done neither without some speaking to the things themselves which I have conjectured at referring all to better Judgements by the best propriety of the Language and Dialect used I could observe where literally and where allusively to be understood Now because it would have been but a tedious task for the Reader only to study upon the meer dislocations and the ordering
taken from the third Epistle Gaius to whom that Epistle is directed by that encomiastick character that Iohn giveth of him seemeth to be Gaius the Corinthian the host of the whole Church Rom. 16.23 for since he is commended for entertainment and charity both to the Church and strangers particularly to those who had preached among the Gentiles taking nothing of them we know not where to finde any other Gaius to whom to affix this character but only this and we have no reason to look after any other And upon this probability we may observe these other I. That that third Epistle was written when those that preached to the Gentiles and took nothing of them were still abroad upon that imployment for he urgeth him to bring them forward on their journey ver 6. Now under that expression of taking nothing of the Gentiles we can understand none but Paul and Barnabas and those that were of their severall companies for the Scripture hath named none other And if it referre to Paul and his company for we finde not that Barnabas had any thing to do with Gaius then we must conclude that it was written a good while before this time that we are upon unlesse we will suppose Paul after his freedom from imprisonment at Rome was got travelling and preaching in those parts again But I should rather suppose that Iohn sent this third Epistle to Gaius to Corinth by Timothy from Ephesus who was setting away thence for Rome upon Pauls sending for him to come to him thither 2 Tim. 4.9 11 21. In which journey as we have shewed before he was to call at Corinth and to take Mark along with him who was there And of them may Iohns advice to Gaius be well understood Whom if thou bring forward on their journey thou shalt do well For for his sake they went out taking nothing of the Gentiles Mark with Barnabas and Timothy with Paul II. Before Iohn wrote this Epistle to Gaius he had written another Epistle to some Church it may be that of Corinth of which Gaius was I wrote saith he unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preminence receiveth us not This must needs be understood of The first Epistle of Iohn unlesse we will conceive unwarrantably that I may say no worse that any of Iohns Writings are lost III. Upon and with the forementioned supposall that Iohn sent his Epistle to Gaius by Timothy from Ephesus we cannot but also suppose that Iohn spent some time in the Asian Churches to which afterward from Patmos he writes his Epistles And if any one be not satisfied with that interpretation that was given before about the Epistle written from Laodicea Coloss. 4.16 let him rather understand it of The first Epistle of Iohn as written by him from Laodicea then think it was an Epistle written by Paul from Laodicea and that that Epistle is lost In both his later Epistles he intimateth his hopes and purpose shortly to come to them from which we may construe that his intention was to travell from Asia the lesse where he now was and from whence he wrote all his three Epistles westward into Greece and in this journey you have him got into Patmos Rev. 1. from whence he writes back to Asia again In all his Epistles he exhorteth to love and constancy in the truth a lesson most needfull in those divided and Apostatizing times He giveth notice of many Antichrists now abroad and these he sheweth to have been such as had once professed the truth but were Apostatized from it They went out from us but they were not of us c. And this Apostacy he calleth The sinne unto death To such he adviseth they should not so much as say God speed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their vulgar language Jerus Taamith fol. 64. col 2. The Rabbins saw a holy man of Caphar Immi and went to him and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God speed But he answered them nothing Id. in Sheviith fol. 35. â— 36.1 R. Chinna bar Papa R. Samuel bar Nachman went by a man that was plowing on the seventh year the year of release R. Samuel saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God speed R. Chinna saith Our master did not teach us thus for it is forbidden to say God speed to one that is plowing on the sâ—venth year Iohn stileth himself an Elder and so doth Peter 1 Pet. 5.1 not as laying aside their Apostolicall power but as dealing with those to whom they write in a Ministeriall way and by this very title that they assume to themselves they closely intimate that thenceforward the extraordinary Function and gifts Apostolick must not be expected but the Ministeriall in the ordinary way of Elders or Ministers as the title had been long and vulgarly known And yet when he speaks of Diotrephes and his abusivenesse he then threatens to shew his Apostolick power and himself A son of thunder against him THE REVELATION OF JOHN AS it will be easily admitted to place this Book last of all the New Testament because it stands so in all Bibles so on the other hand it will be cavilled at that I have brought in the writing of it so soon as before the fall of Ierusalem since it hath been of old and commonly held that it was penned in the reign of Domitian farre after these times that we are upon But the reasons by which I have been induced thereunto will appear out of some passages in the Book it self as we go through it As God revealed to Daniel the man greatly beloved the state of his people and the Monarchies that afflicted them from his own time till the coming of Christ so doth Christ to Iohn the beloved Disciple the state of the Church and story in brief of her chief afflicters from thence to the end of the world So that where Daniel ends the Revelation begins and Iohn hath nothing to do with any of the four Monarchies that he speaketh of but deals with a fifth the Roman that rose as it were out of the ashes of those four and swallowed them all up The composure of the Book is much like Daniels in this that it repeats one story over and over again in varied and inlarged expressions and exceeding like Ezekiel's in method and things spoken The style is very Propheticall as to the things spoken and very Hebraizing as to the speaking of them Exceeding much of the old Prophets language and matter adduced to intimate new stories and exceeding much of the Jews language and allusion to their customs and opinions thereby to speak the things more familiarly to be understood And as Ezekiel wrote concerning the ruine of Ierusalem when the ruining of it was now begun so I suppose doth Iohn of the finall destruction of it when the Warres and miseries were now begun which bred its destruction REVEL CHAP. I II III. THe three first Chapters referre to that present time when Iohn wrote
we touched before The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter Helek doth shew their full opinion about the daies of Messias and amongst other things they say thus as Aruch speaks their words in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead they shall no more return to their dust but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world he will give them wings as Eagles and they shall flee upon the waters The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin fol. 92. where the text indeed hath not the word thousand but the marginall glosse hath it and shews how to understand the thousand years And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and intertainment And so speaks R. Eliezâ—r in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col 2. The daies of the Messias are a thousand years As Iohn all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembring old ones and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to expresse them by but much allusion to customs language and opinions of the Jews that he might speak as it were closer to them and nearer their apprehensions so doth he here and forward This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog Ezek. 38. 39. and a new Ierusalem Ezek. 40. and forward So here a resurrection ver 5. Gog and Magog ver 8. and a new Ierusalem Chap. 21. 22. There a resurrection not of bodies out of the grave but of Israel out of a low captived condition in Babel There a Gog and Magog the Syrogrecian persecutors Antiochus and his house and then the description of the new Ierusalem which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land and to have Ierusalem built again as it was indeed in the daies of Ezra and Nehemiah but by the glory and â—â—rgenesse of it as it is described more in compasse then all the Land of Canaan they were taught to look further namely at the heavenly or spiritual Ierusalem the Church through all the world Now the Jews according to their allegoricall vein applied these things to the daies of Christ thus that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones then he to conquer Gog and Magog and then there must come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brave world to come that they dreamed of Beside what they speak to this tenour in the Talmudick Treatise last cited there is this passage in Ierus Megillah fol. 73. col 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times what the great Hallel was we shewed a little before And that part say they I love the Lord because he hath heard me refers to the daies of Messias that part Tye the sacrifice with cords to the daies of Gog and Magog And that Thou art my God and I will praise thee refers to the world to come Our Divine Apocalyptick follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs not as approving them but as speaking the plainer to them by them Here is a resurrection too but not of bodies neither for not a word of mention of them but of souls The souls of those that were beheaded for the witnesse of Iesus lived and reigned ver 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection ver 5. The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts There are two main things here intended First to shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan and secondly the nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs Kingdom and his conquering Satan and his Saints reigning with him that common place is briefly handled here That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles they called in unto the Gospel Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomlesse pit that he should deceive no more as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones saith Iohn and they sate upon them c. ver 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning But how do they reign with him Here Iohn faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp and shews that the matter is of a farre different tenour that they that suffer with him shall reign with him they that stick to him witnesse for him dye for him these shall sit inthroned with him And he nameth beheading only of all kindes of deaths as being the most common used both by Jews and Romans alike as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr per. 7. halac 3. And the first witnesse for Christ Iohn the Baptist died this death He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years and so reign all together with him those years out as is the conceit of some as absolute Judaism as any is for matter of opinion but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along suffering and standing out against sinne and the mark of the Beast and the like whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousnesse But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living when Satan was bound and truth and life came into the world The Gentiles before the Gospel came among them were dead in Scripture phrase very copiously Ephes. 2.1 2. 4.18 c. but that revived them Ioh 5.25 This is the first resurrection in and to Christs Kingdom the second is spoken of at the 12th verse of this Chapter that we are upon Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing namely a raising from darknesse and sin by the power of the Gospel Rom. 11.15 Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles Satan going down and Christs Kingdom advanced and the Gospel bringing in life and light as Ioh. 1.4 those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witnesse to him but closed with the mark of the Beast sin and sinfull men these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished that is while they lasted though that were a time of receiving life Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection for on them the second death hath no power ver 6. The second death is a
Representatives of the whole Church built from twelve Tribes and twelve Apostles In the hand of him that sate on the Throne was a Book sealed which no creature could open This justly cals us back to Dan. 12. v. 4. where words are shut up and a Book sealed unto the time of the end and now that that is near drawing on the Book is here opened REVEL CHAP. VI. THe opening of the six Seals in this Chapter speaks the ruine and rejection of the Jewish Nation and the desolation of their City which is now very near at hand The first Seal opened ver 2. shews Christ setting forth in Battell array and avengement against them as Psal. 45.4 5. And this the New Testament speaketh very much and very highly of one while calling it his coming in clouds another while his coming in his Kingdome and sometime his coming in Power and great Glory and the like Because his plagueing and destroying of the Nation that crucified him and that so much opposed and wrought mischief against the Gospel was the first evidence that he gave in sight of all the world of his being Christ for till then he and his Gospel had been in humility as I may say as to the eyes of men he persecuted whilest he was on earth and they persecuted after him and no course taken with them that so used both but now he awakes shews himself and makes himself known by the Judgement that he executeth The three next Seals opening shew the means by which he did destroy namely those three sad plagues that had been threatned so oft and so sore by the Prophets Sword Famine and Pestilence For The second Seal opened sends out one upon a red Horse to take Peace from the earth and that men should destroy one another he carried a great Sword ver 4. The third Seals opening speaks of Famine when Corn for scarcity should be weighed like spicery in a pair of ballances ver 5 6. The fourth Seal sends out one on a pale Horse whose name was Death the Chaldee very often expresseth the Plague or Pestilence by that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it ' is to be taken Revel 2.22 and Hell or Hades comes after him ver 8. The opening of the fifth Seal reveals a main cause of the vengeance namely the blood of the Saints which had been shed crying and which was to be required of that generation Matth. 23.35 36. These souls are said to cry from under the Altar either in allusion to the blood of creatures sacrificed poured at the foot of the Altar or according to the Jews tenet that all just soules departed are under the Throne of Glory Answer to their cry is given that the number of their Brethren that were to be slain was not yet fulfilled and they must rest till that should be and then avengement in their behalf should come This speakes sutable to that which we observed lately that now times were begun of bitter persecution an hour of temptation Rev. 2.10 3.10 the Jews and devil raging till the Lord should something cool that fury by the ruine of that people The opening of the sixth Seal ver 12 13. shews the destruction it self in those borrowed termes that the Scripture useth to expresse it by namely as if it were the destruction of the whole world as Matth. 24.29 30. The sunne darkened the starres falling the heaven departing and the earth dissolved and that conclusion ver 16. They shall say to the rocks fall on us c. doth not only warrant but even inforce us to understand and construe these things in the sense that we do for Christ applies these very words to the very same thing Luke 23.30 And here is another and to me a very satisfactory reason why to place the shewing of these visions to Iohn and his wring of this Book before the desolation of Ierusalem REVEL CHAP. VII IN the end of the former Chapter was contained the intimation of the desolation of Ierusalem and in the beginning of this the ceasing of Prophesie under the similitude of the four windes restrained from blowing upon the earth Compare Cant. 4.16 Ezek. 37.9 only a remnant of Israel are sealed unto salvation and not to perish by that restraint and with them innumerable Gentiles Ezekiel helpeth here to confirm the explication that we have given of the Chapter before for he hath the very like passage upon the first destruction of the City Ezek. 9. 10. 11. Compare the marking in the foreheads here with Exod. 28.38 Dan not mentioned among the Tribes in this place Idolatry first began in that Tribe Iudg. 18. 1 King 12. REVEL CHAP. VIII THe opening of the seventh Seal lands us upon a new scene as a new world began when Ierusalem was destroyed and the Jews cast off The six Seals in the two former Chapters have shewed their ruine and the appearing of the Church of the Gentiles and now the seven Trumpets under the seventh Seal give us a prospect in generall of the times thence forward to the end of all things I say in generall for from the beginning of the twelfth Chapter and forward to the end of the nineteenth they are handled more particularly Silence in heaven for a while and seven Angels with seven Trumpets may call our thoughts to Ioshua 6.4 10. and intimate that the Prophetick story is now entred upon a new Canaan or a new stage of the Church as that businesse at Iericho was at Israels first entring on the old Or it may very properly be looked upon as referring and alluding to the carriage of things at the Temple since this Book doth represent things so much according to the scheme and scene of the Temple all along And in this very place there is mention of the Altar and Incense and Trumpets which were all Temple appurtenances It was therefore the custom at the Temple that when the Priest went in to the Holy place the people drew downward from the Porch of the Temple and there was a silence whilest he was there yea though the people were then praying incomparably beyond what there was at other times of the service for the Priests were blowing with Trumpets or the Levites singing The allusion then here is plain When the sacrifice was laid on the Altar a Priest took coals from the Altar went in to the Holy place and offered incense upon the Golden Altar that stood before vail that was before the Ark and this being done the Trumpets sounded over the sacrifice Here then is first intimation of Christs being offered upon the Altar then his going into the Holy place as Mediatour for his people and then the Trumpets sounding and declaring his disposals in the world His taking fire off the Altar and casting it upon the earth ver 5. is a thing not used at the Temple but spoken from Ezek. 10.2 which betokeneth the sending of judgement which the Trumpets speak out These seven Trumpets and
phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33.6 thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Ionathan Isa. 65.6 thus Behold it is written before me I will not grant them long life but I will pay them vengeance for their sins and deliver their carcases to the second death And ver 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. ver 29 30 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people and would make them his Priests and Levites And then see how fitly this verse answers those In stead of these cursed people these are blessed and holy and might not see the second death and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father In this passage of Iohn scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretation of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally think some dead were really raised out of their graves came into the Land of Israel begat children and died a second time Nay they stick not to tell who these men were and who were their children Talm. Babyl in Sanhedr ubi supra After the thousand years are expired Satan is let loose again and fals to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again ver 8. Zohar fol. 72. col 286. hath this saying It is a tradition that in the day when judgement is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgement then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low he is found destroying the world and taking away souls When the Papacy began then Heathenism came over the world again and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever then Idolatry blindnesse deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still â—he Gospel prevailed and laid all flat But when the Papacy came then he was loose again and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of Iohn or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery especially begin them from the fall of Ierusalem where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand when if the devil were not let loose when was he He cals the enemies of the Church especially Antichrist Gog and Magog the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy the great persecutor Ezek. 38. 39. Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog lib. 5. cap. 23. So that Iohn from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new using known terms from Scripture and from the Jews language and notions that he might the better be understood So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world under these two summes first the beating down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the earth till the world was become Christian and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again The destruction of which is set down ver 9. by fire from heaven in allusion to Sodom or to 2 King 1.10 12. and it is set close to the end of the world the Devil and the Beast Rome imperiall and the false Prophet Rome Papall are cast into fire and brimstone ver 10. where Iohn speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The devill was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet the devils agents and what became of them Chap. 19. v. 20. And now the story of the devill himself for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart and now he brings the confusion of all the three together and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark and whose names were not written in the Book of life REVEL CHAP. XXI THe Ierusalem from above described The phrase is used by Paul Gal. 4.26 and it is used often by the Jews Zohar fol. 120. col 478. Rabbi Aba saith Luz is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierusalem which is above which the holy blessed God gives for a possession where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all Compare Rev. 21.27 22.15 Midras Till in Psal. 122. Ierusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Iochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Ierusalem that is above untill I have gone into Ierusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Ierusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spirituall Ierusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that Iohn taketh at here and that is the Ierusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65.17 18. joyneth the creating new heavens and a new earth and so stateth the time of building this new Ierusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5.17 A new people new Ordinances new Oeconomy and the old world of Israel dissolved Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst them as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 26.11 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow death nor pain ver 4. which if taken litterally could referre to nothing but the happy estate in heaven of which the glory of this Ierusalem may indeed be a figure but here as the other things are it is to be taken mystically or spiritually to mean the taking away the curse of the Law and the sting of death and sinne c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Iesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife ver 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54.1 5. Ver. 10. He carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain Compare Ezek. 40.2 That great City holy Ierusalem c. This referres to great dimensions of Ezekiels Ierusalem as also to the squarenesse the three gates of a side c. The glory of it described from thence and from Isa. 58.8 60.2 3. 54.11 12 c. The wall of it 12000 furlongs square or 1500 miles upon every quarter East West North and South 3000 miles about and 1500 miles high Wall of salvation Isa. 26.1 60.14 The foundations of the wals garnished with twelve precious stones see Isa. 54.11 as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate three upon every side as these were three and three in a row The first foundation stone here is the Iaspar the stone of Benjamin for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles The Ierus Talmud in Peah fol. 15. col 3. saith expresly that the Iaspar was Benjamins stone for it saith Benjamins Iaspar was once lost out of the Ephod and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it Some said Damah the sonne of Nethina hath one c. And I saw no Temple therein c. ver 22. here this Ierusalem differs from Ezekiels that had a Temple this none and it is observable there that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of but the City of a compasse larger then all the Land which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things they promised them an earthly Temple which was built by Zerobabel but foretold a heavenly Ierusalem which is described here REVEL CHAP. XXII FRom Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from severall passages of Scripture besides Iohn doth still magnifie the glory happinesse and holinesse of the new Ierusalem Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually Ezek. 7.1 9. Cant. 4.15 The Tree of Life lost to Adam and Paradise shut up against him to keep him from it here restored Then a curse here There shall be curse no more ver 3. See Zech. 14.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema non erit amplius c. He concludeth These sayings are faithfull and true so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19.9 and again at his beginning of the story of the new Ierusalem Chap. 21.5 referring to the severall Prophecies that had been of these things and now all those sayings and Prophecies were come home in truth and faithfulnesse He is commanded not to seal his Book as Daniel was Dan. 12.4 because the time of these things was instantly beginning and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door within three and an half or thereabout to come if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year There are two years more of Nero and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Warres of Otho Vitellius and Vespasian and the next year after Ierusalem fals And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the new Testament as by the consent of all it was then may we say Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing and from henceforth must Vision and Prophesie and Inspiration cease for ever These had been used and imparted all along for the drawing up of the minde of God into writing as also the appearing of Angels had been used for the further and further still revealing of his will and when the full revelation of that was compleated their appearing and revelations to men must be no more So that this Revelation to Iohn was the topping up and finishing of all revelations The Lord had promised that in the last daies of Ierusalem he would pour down of his Spirit upon all flesh Act. 2.17 And Christ promised to his Apostles that he would lead them into all truth Ioh. 16.12.13 To look for therefore the giving of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit beyond the fall of Ierusalem there is no warrant and there is no need since when the inspired penmen had written all that the holy Ghost directed to write All truth was written It is not to be denied indeed that those that had these extraordinary gifts before the fall of Ierusalem if they lived after had them after for the promoting of these ends for which they were given but there is neither ground nor reason whereupon to beleeve that they were restored to the next generation or were or are to be imparted to any generation for ever For as it was in Israel at the first setling of their Church so was it in this case in the first setling of the Gospel The first fathers of the Sanhedrin in the wildernesse were indued with Divine gifts such as we are speaking of Numb 11.25 but when that generation was expired those that were to succeed in that Function and imployment were such as were qualified for it by education study and parts acquired So was it with this first age of the Gospel and the ages succeeding At the first dispersing of the Gospel it was absolutely needfull that the first planters should be furnished with such extraordinary gifts or else it was not possible it should be planted As this may appear by a plain instance Paul comes to a place where the Gospel had never come he staies a moneth or two and begets a Church and then he is to go his way and to leave them Who now in this Church is fit to be their Minister they being all alike but very children in the Gospel but Paul is directed by the holy Ghost to lay his hands upon such and such of them and that bestows upon them the gift of tongues and Prophesying and now they are able to be Ministers and to teach the Congregation But after that generation when the Gospel was setled in all the world and committed to writing and written to be read and studied then was study of the Scriptures the way to inable men to unfold the Scriptures and fit them to be Ministers to instruct others and Revelations and Inspirations neither needfull nor safe to be looked after nor hopefull to be attained unto And this was the reason why Paul coming but newly out of Ephesus and Crete when he could have ordained and qualified Ministers with abilities by the imposition of his hands would not do it but left Timothy and Titus to Ordain though they could not bestow those gifts because he knew the way that the Lord had appointed Ministers thence forward to be inabled for the Ministry not by extraordinary infusions of the Spirit but by serious study of the Scriptures not by a miraculous but by an ordinary Ordination And accordingly he gives Timothy himself counsell to study 1 Tim. 4.13 though he were
we may observe how they continued bodied together as a Corporation of iniquity in Iudaea till the times of Constantine the great the succession of their Schools plainly to be read there as we have shewed in little And when they waned there then did they flourish in their three Universities in Babylonia and the succession of the Schools and names of their Learned men known there not only till the signing of the Babylon Talmud which was about the year of Christ 500 but even till the other part of the mystery of iniquity the Papal Antichrist arose at Babylon in the West And as these two parts make one intire body of Antichrist and as the later took at the first to do the work that they had done to deface the truth and oppose it and that under the colour of Religion so did it in great measure take his Pandect of Errors from these his predecessors Traditions false Miracles Legends Ceremonies Merit Purgatory implicit faith and divers other things so derived from this source as if left by legacy from the one to the other A second taint we mentioned that these Primitive Jews set not only upon their own posterity but too much also upon the Church of Christ was the turning of the Scriptures all into Allegory which as it is well known how it was used by divers of the Fathers to their great losse of time and little profiting of the Church so is it easily to be known from whence it comes by any that reades Philo Iudaeus and the Jewish Derushim The Talmuds indeed are for the most part upon disputes but sometimes they bring in how such or such a Doctor did Darash mystically expound such or such a place of Scripture and then you have directly such stuff as this Philo in his discourse concerning the Therapeutae or Esseans relateth that they had used this mysticall kinde of exposition of old And how near the Christians of Iudaea that fled from the ruine of Ierusalem might be supposed thenceforward to be planted to the Esseni we might observe from Pliny and Mela that place the Esseni along the vale that coasted upon the dead sea the old habitation of the Kenites and from considering that the mountains to which Christ warns those that were in Iudaea to flee was the mountanous of Iudah as was touâ—hed before §. XI That the Iews for all their spite to Christianity could not impose upon us a corrupted Text. HEre we cannot but clear them as for matter of fact of what some lay to their charge but they do it for their own ends that they foisted a corrupt Text of the old Testament upon Christians and so befooled them in the very foundation of their Religion So did their ancestors by Ptolomy King of Egypt and so what these men would have done if they could it is easie to conjecture but they did not they could not so impose 1. It was their great care and solicitousnesse as to themselves and their own use to preserve the Text in all purity and uncorruptnesse and what our Saviour says of not one Iota or one tittle of the Law perishing they were of the same minde and indeavoured to maintain and assert that for true with all industry It were too long here to speak of the work of the Masorites for this purpose who altered not added not invented not a tittle but carefully took account of every thing as they found it and so recorded it to posterity that nothing could be changed We shall only bring in their own expositions which will attest to this truth to both those words that our Saviour hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is little to be doubted that Christ speaking in their language meaneth the letter Iod which is far the least of all their letters And about this letter the Ierusalem Talmud hath this passage Sanhedr fol. 20. col 3. The book of Mishneh Torah Deuteronomy came and prostrated it self before God and said unto him O Lord everlasting Thou hast written thy Law in me A Testament that fails in part fails in the whole Behold Solomon seeks to root Iod out of me viz. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall not multiply wives The holy blessed God saith to it Solomon and a thousand such as he shall fail but a word of thee shall not fail R. Honna in the name of R. Acha said The Iod that the blessed God took from the name of our mother Sarah was given half of it to Sarah and half to Abraham There is a tradition of R. Hoshaiah Iod came and prostrated it self before God and said Lord everlasting Thou hast rooted me out from the name of a righteous woman The holy blessed God saith to it Heretofore thou wast in the name of a woman and in the end of it Henceforward thou shalt be in the name of a man and in the beginning This is that which is written Moses called the name of Hoshea Iehoshua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Tittle It most properly means those little Apiculi that distinguish betwixt letters that are very like one to another You may have the explanation of this in this pretty descant of Tanchuna fol. 1. It is written saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You shall not profane my holy Name He that makes the Cheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroyes the world for he makes this sense You shall not praise my holy Name It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord He that makes the He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroys the world for he brings it to this sense Let every thing that hath breath profane the Lord. It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lied to the Lord He that maketh Beth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroys the world for he maketh this sense They lied like the Lord. It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is none holy like the Lord. He that makes Caph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroyes the world for he maketh this sense There is no holinesse in the Lord. It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord our God is one Lord. He that makes Daleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroyes the world for he bringeth the sense to this The Lord our God is a strange God c. In Chagig fol. 77. col 3. they speak more of the letter Iod and so doth Midras Tillin in Psal. 114. In Deut. 32.18 this little letter is written lesse then it self in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet preserved in that quantity and not altered and observed so by the Masorites 2. Yet could they not for all their care but have some false Copies go up and down amongst them through heedlesnesse or error of transcribers In Shabb. fol. 15. col 2. they are disputing how many