of it was nineteen or twenty years ago to shew and to record the truth of those things which that wretched King Jehoiakim would not believe but burnt the Book in the fire And these are the subject of the other Copy that Baruch wrote when the first was burnt EZEKIEL XXXIII THIS twentieth year of Nebuchad-nezzar and of the first Captivity was the twelfth year of Ezekiels Captivity with Jeconiah And on the tenth month of this year and on the fifth day of that month Ezekiel hath intelligence that Jerusalem was fired vers 21. Temple and all It is almost a year and an half since the thing was done and yet intelligence comes but now The evening before these tidings came to him his mouth is opened again to Prophesie to his own people which he had not done since the day that Nebuchad-nezzar first laid siege to Jerusalem three years ago whereof one year and a half was taken up in that siege and one year and somewhat above an half since the City was taken Compare Chap. 24. vers 1. 26 27. In this space of time though Ezekiel were dumb to Israel yet was he not to other Nations for he Prophesieth many sad things against other Countries as is apparent by the Chapters taken up before EZEKIEL XXXII IN the same year viz. the twelfth of Ezekiels and Jechonias Captivity he hath a Prophesie against Egypt in the last month of the year on the first day of the month and another on the fifteenth day of the same month vers 27. Now the dislocation of this Chapter is easily seen for the three and thirtieth Chapter that followeth it is dated in the tenth month of this twelfth year and this in the twelfth month But the reason of this transposition is almost as easily seen namely because there are divers Prophesies against Egypt and other Countries before and this is also brought thither to them that it may lye with them EZEKIEL XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX Captivity 21 ALL these Chapters of Ezekiel fall not under any expressed or determinate Captivity 22 date the fortieth Chapter does under the date of the five and twentieth year of Jechoniahs captivity therefore we are to conceive at large of the time of these Chapters that they were delivered between the twelfth year of that Captivity by which the three and thirtieth Chapter is dated and the five and twentieth by which the fortieth JEREMY LII vers 30. World 3424 Captivity 23 IN the three and twentieth year of Nebuchad-nezzar or the three and twentieth of the first Captivity for these run parallel Nebuzaradan Captain of the Guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty five persons it may be this was in revenge of the base usage of Gedaliah and the Chaldeans that were with him And here is the last blow of the Jews given by the Babylonian and now is Judea and Jerusalem in full and compleat Captivity PSAL. CXXXVII AND here it may not be impertinent to take in the 137 Psalm which describeth the posture and sorrow and soorn of these captived ones as they sate in Babel 1 CHRON. II III IV V VI VII VIII IX Captivity 24 NOR may it be unproper in this place to read and view again these Captivity 25 Chapters of the first of Chronicles It is true indeed that they and Captivity 26 their Texts broken in pieces might be laid to be read in other places as was Captivity 27 said before as those Genealogies and Stories that are recited else-where in Captivity 28 Scripture to be laid with those places where they are mentioned and those Captivity 29 that are not mentioned again in Scripture to be laid with the Stories of such Captivity 30 times as the best evidence or probability will tell when they came to pass or Captivity 31 were in being Those Texts that tell of Plantations of Cities or Countries Captivity 32 to be laid in that place in the Book of Joshua that relateth the dividing of the Land as was done there Those that draw long Pedegrees to conclude in some famous man as the Pedegree of Korah to Samuel Chap. 6. these to be brought in at the Story of that famous man Thus might these Genealogies and Chapters be taken up But since Chap. 9. 1. telleth that these Genealogies were written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah that were captived and since divers places in these Chapters speak of the Captivity and of these latter times and since the reading of these Chapters after the Story of Jerusalems Captivity is as it were a short review of the planting and setling and growing of that Nation in that Country out of which the Story of the Captivity hath told the Reader they were now removed it may be very methodical and proper upon these considerations and very profitable to take in these Chapters and to read them here again EZEK XL XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII World 3434 Captivity 33 THIS thirty third year of the first Captivity and of Nebuchad-nezzar Captivity 34 was the five and twentieth of the Captivity of Jechoniah and Ezekiel And now the Lord sheweth the Prophet a new Temple bigger then all the old Jerusalem and a new Jerusalem bigger then all the Land of Canaan by these very dimensions shewing that these things cannot literally but must spiritually be understood EZEKIEL XXIX from vers 17. to the end And XXX to vers 20. World 3436 Captivity 35 THIS seven and twentieth year of his Captivity Ezekiel hath another Prophesie against Egypt and this is the last we have of this Prophet and it is laid here though it should have been last in the Book that all the Prophesies against Egypt might come together Nebuchad-nezzar had lately taken Tyrus and it had cost him very dear and this year he taketh Egypt as the pay of his Souldiers for that service And now is Babylon intire Monarch of all the World and Nebuchad-nezzar become the golden head Egypt the only Kingdom that opposed him being subdued DANIEL II III IV. World 3437 Captivity 36 NEBUCHAD-NEZZAR now come to his height hath a dream of the four Monarchies of the tree cut down c. grows proud and will be worshipped for a God The three Princes of Judah live in the fire they were now at the least 40 years old and therefore improperly but commonly called the three children This year is called the second year of the Kingdom of Nebuchad-nezzar Dan. 2. 1. not of his first being King but of his intire Monarchy when Egypt the only potent Prince and Nation that stood against him was now subdued So the first year of Cyrus is to be understood Ezr. 1. 1. not the first year of his being King but the first year of his universal Monarchy as the very next verse explaineth it The Lord God hath given me all the Kingdoms of the Earth Some part of this year is Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 37 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 38
Office he discharged with great care and diligence though he had at that time a multiplicity of affairs to divert him especially that of perusing the sheets of the Polyglott as they were wrought off from the Press He was extreamly solicitous during his being Vice-Chancellor that he might not do any wrong to any Man or any unkindness to his friend He did once fear during that year that he had by a Sentence determined injuriously against a Friend of his This was so great a torment to his mind that he told a Friend that is yet alive that he thought it would accompany him with sorrow to his grave But the good Man was soon satisfied that what he had determined was not only just but necessary also Nor were our Authors Labours confined to the University and to his Rectory For besides the many excellent Books which he wrote of which I forbear to give any account here because I find it done to my Hand he was concerned in the useful undertakings which were begun and finished in his time Among which the Edition of the Polyglott Bible which was finished in the year 1657. deserves to be mentioned in the first place This excellent and useful Work was in great measure accomplished by the indefatigable pains of the Learned and Reverend Brian Walton D. D. and afterwards Lord Bishop of Chester and remains a monument of the exemplary diligence and eminent Learning of that excellent Prelate I shall only at present consider how far our Author was concerned in that Work I find him consulted about that whole Work by Doctor Walton at his first entrance upon it in a Letter of the Doctors to him bearing date Jan. 2. 1653. In which he begs our Authors assistance as to the Samaritan Pentateuch which he bestowed much pains about Vid. Dec. Chorograph in S. Marc. Cap. X. § 5. Nor was this the first application which had been made to him for by that Letter it appears that our Author had modestly declined the employment upon the score of his inability to which the Doctor in that Letter replies that our Author had given sufficient and publick Testimony to the World of his ability I find also that Doctor Walton as appears by his Letters bearing date Feb. 23. 1653. and April 24 1654. and June 14. 1654. and several others sent our Author the several Alphabets of sheets as they came off from the Press and desired him to peruse them as he had done and note the mistakes he should meet withal In one of which he tells him that as to the Samaritan his Diligence and Judgment had been so exact that there would be little cause to alter much less to censure and correct I find also that our Author assisted in that Work several other ways not only by procuring Subscriptions toward its encouragement but by furnishing him with several M S S. out of the University Library viz. a Syriac M S. of the Prophets which the Doctor acknowledges in a Letter bearing date Nov. 7. 1655. and a Syriac Lexicon a MS. He assisted him likewise in rectifying the Map of Judaea as appears by another Letter dated July 23. 1656. and with certain Notes out of the Jerusalem Talmud as appears by another Letter Nov. 4. 1657. Besides this our Author sent him his Chorographical Observations which we find prefixed to the Polyglott Bible under his Name Next to the Polyglott Bible and in order to render that the more useful also the greatest Work of this last age and indeed of any other of that kind is that incomparable Book the Lexicon Heptaglotton by Edmund Castell D. D. published in the year 1669. I find that Dr. Castell a Man for his great Piety incomparable Learning and incredible Diligence not to be mentioned without a Preface of honour before he entred upon that Work consulted our Author about it and submitted it to him either to stifle or give it life as he expresseth himself in a Letter to him bearing date Dec. 2. 1657. To which when the Doctor had received our Authors Answer in which he approves his excellent design in a second Letter the Doctor returns him his thanks and after his acknowledgments he adds And truly says he had we not such an Oracle to consult with bootless and in vain it would be to attempt such an undertaking And a little afterwards he adds O nos felices ter amplius quibus contigit Te vivo opus hoc tam grande quam arduum auspicato suscepisse Et benedictus ob hoc semper sit summus ille rerum Arbiter This Letter is not dated but must be written upon the beginning of that great undertaking I forbear to relate in how many particulars his Advice and Assistance toward that excellent Work was requested The Doctor tells our Author in a Letter dated Feb. 22. 1663. what his sense of him was in these word your Worth and Works so transcendent to the Vulgar way of writing all the learned World doth and ought highly to esteem I have and shall as does become me in this Work now upon me sundry times with honour mention c. Our Author did not only advise and commend and speak well These are cheap things He assisted by supplying with Money and supporting the excellent undertaker This I find acknowledged by the Doctor in a Letter bearing date March 14. 1663. How far our Author gave his assistance this way I know not but this I find that in that Letter the Doctor is transported that in these three Kingdoms says he to our Author there should be one found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a second has never yet appeared to me who has manifested such a sentiment of my ruined and undone condition He does indeed except in that Letter the Bishop of Exon whose kindness to him was incomparably great Doctor Lightfoot indeed was very much concerned for that most Worthy undertaker and did I find do his utmost to support the Good Man in that excellent Work He wrote often to him and failed not by all manner of ways to encourage him in his Labours The Doctor tells him in a Letter bearing date Nov. 15. 1664. next to the Divine I meet with no lines like yours that so sweetly refresh and delight my Soul when quite wearied with labour c. When the first Volume of that excellent Book came out I find the Doctor giving our Author the notice of it and promising him to transmit it with a request to give a Censure of it none being either more able to judge or that will do it with greater Candor especially he desires his more severe scanning of the Arabick This he does in a Letter dated Jan. 14. 1667. He acquaints him also with the finishing of the Second Volume in a Letter dated to him June 9. 1669. By this it appears how far our Author was concerned in the encouraging of this excellent Work For the Synopsis Critiâ—orum undertaken by Mr. Matthew Pool I find our
as they would make him Chap. 31. Then Elihu the Pen-man undertakes to moderate but inclining to the same misprision with the others the Lord himself convinceth them all of the uprightness of Job which no arguments of Job could do and this not only by an oracle from Heaven but also by Jobs revived prosperity wherein every thing that he had lost was restored double to him but only his children which though they died yet were not lost His years were doubled for he lived an hundred and forty years after his trouble and so was seventy years old when his trouble came and died two hundred and ten years old the longest liver born since Terah CHAP. II. to Ver. 11. Years of the Promise 341 ISRAELS afflictions increase upon them the cruel King of Egypt commanding Years of the Promise 342 all the Male children to be slain Miriam was born not far from Years of the Promise 343 this time she was able to stand and watch Moses when he was cast into the Years of the Promise 344 river her name signifieth Bitterness and Rebellion both and it is not to be Years of the Promise 345 doubted but holy Amram when he gave her name had regard to that sad Years of the Promise 346 cause and effect of which they had so great cause to be sensible Miriam Years of the Promise 347 was a Prophetess Exod. 15. 20. Micah 6. 4. World 2431 Years of the Promise 348 AARON born a Saint of the Lord Psal. 106. 16. His name soundeth Years of the Promise 349 both of sorrow and joy as the tenor of Psal. 88. 89. made in these afflictions Years of the Promise 350 doth World 2433 Years of the Promise 351 Moses 1 MOSES born supernaturally his mother being exceeding old at his Years of the Promise 352 Moses 2 birth she was his fathers own Aunt the daughter of Levi so is Moses Years of the Promise 353 Moses 3 a Levite both by father and mother He is preserved in an ark like a Years of the Promise 354 Moses 4 second Noah his mother is paid for nursing her own child he is adopted Years of the Promise 355 Moses 5 by Pharaohs daughter for her own son and so the King is his nursing Father Years of the Promise 356 Moses 6 and the Queen his nursing Mother And in this doth Moses typifie Years of the Promise 357 Moses 7 Christ that his true Father is unknown to the Egyptians and he Years of the Promise 358 Moses 8 reputed the son of Pharaoh as the true Father of Christ unknown to Years of the Promise 359 Moses 9 the Jews and he reputed the son of Joseph Years of the Promise 360 Moses 10 Moses was educated and learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians Years of the Promise 361 Moses 11 Years of the Promise 362 Moses 12 Acts 7. 22. Stephen speaketh this from necessary consequence not having Years of the Promise 363 Moses 13 express Text for it for it could no otherwise be conceived of the adopted Years of the Promise 364 Moses 14 Years of the Promise 365 Moses 15 son of a King and of a King of Egypt which Nation was exceedingly Years of the Promise 366 Moses 16 given to learning and study JOB is yet alive and probably out-liveth Years of the Promise 367 Moses 17 Moses In the reading of his Book it may be advantagious to the Years of the Promise 368 Moses 18 Years of the Promise 369 Moses 19 Reader to observe how in very many places it toucheth upon the history Years of the Promise 370 Moses 20 Years of the Promise 371 Moses 21 that is contained in the Book of Genesis though that Book was not then Years of the Promise 372 Moses 22 written The creation is handled Chap. 38. The first Adam mentioned Years of the Promise 373 Moses 23 Chap. 15. 7. The fall of Angels and Man Chap. 4. 20. 5. 2. The miserable Years of the Promise 374 Moses 24 Years of the Promise 375 Moses 25 case of Cain that was hedged in that he could not die Chap. 3. 21. Years of the Promise 376 Moses 26 The old world and the flood Chap. 22. 6. The builders of Babel Chap. 3. Years of the Promise 377 Moses 27 Years of the Promise 378 Moses 28 15. 5. 13. The fire of Sedom Chap. 20. 23 26. and divers such references Years of the Promise 379 Moses 29 may be observed which are closely touched in the Book which Years of the Promise 380 Moses 30 Years of the Promise 381 Moses 31 they came to know partly by tradition partly by living so near the Hebrews Years of the Promise 382 Moses 32 and the places where these things were done and partly by revelation Years of the Promise 383 Moses 33 as Chap. 4. 12. 38. 1 Years of the Promise 384 Moses 34 Years of the Promise 385 Moses 35 The Pen-man of the Book before and after the speeches of Job and his Years of the Promise 386 Moses 36 friends often useth the name Jehovah but in all the speeches never but Years of the Promise 387 Moses 37 once and that is in Chap. 12. 10. speaking there of Gods giving the Creature Years of the Promise 388 Moses 38 Years of the Promise 389 Moses 39 his being CHAP. II. from Ver. 11. to the end World 2473 Years of the Promise 390 Moses 40 MOses by faith at forty years old Acts 7. 23. refuseth the Courts Years of the Promise 391 Moses 41 visiteth his brethren slayeth an Egyptian fleeth into Midian Years of the Promise 392 Moses 42 Years of the Promise 393 Moses 43 Heb. 11. 24 25 26. By faith Moses refuseth to be called the son of Pharaohs Years of the Promise 394 Moses 44 daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then Years of the Promise 395 Moses 45 Years of the Promise 396 Moses 46 to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Esteeming the reproach of Christ Years of the Promise 397 Moses 47 greater riches then the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence Years of the Promise 398 Moses 48 Years of the Promise 399 Moses 49 of the reward In Midian he marrieth Zipporah and hath a son by Years of the Promise 400 Moses 50 her whom he calleth Gershom which signifieth a desolate stranger because Years of the Promise 401 Moses 51 of his remote residence from his own people in a forain land Years of the Promise 402 Moses 52 Years of the Promise 403 Moses 53 Israel is not yet throughly humbled under their affliction and therefore Years of the Promise 404 Moses 54 it is but just they should continue under it they refused the deliverer Years of the Promise 405 Moses 55 Years of the Promise 406 Moses 56 when he offered himself unto them with Who made thee a Prince Years of the Promise 407 Moses 57 and a Ruler over us And therefore they are but answered according to Years of the
them to be humbled some for their fathers guilt some for their own and some for both and to acknowledge that their being alive till now and their liberty to enter into the Land was a free and a great mercy for their own and their fathers faults might justly have caused it to have been otherwise with them 2. They had imitated their fathers rebellion to the utmost in their murmuring at Kadesh at their last coming up thither and in the matter of Baal Peor and therefore he might very well personate them by their fathers when their fathers faults were so legible and easie to be seen in them 4. He reckoneth not their second journy to Kadesh by name but slips by it Chap. 2. 1 4. Nor mentions their long wanderings for seven and thirty years together between Kadesh and Kadesh but only under this expression We compassed mount Seir many days Chap. 2. 1. because in that rehearsal he mainly insisteth but upon these two heads Gods decree against them that had first murmured at Kadesh and how that was made good upon them and Gods promise of bringing their children into the land and how that was made good upon them therefore when he hath largely related both the decree and the promise he hastens to shew the accomplishment of both 5. In rehearsing the Ten Commandments he proposeth a reason of the Sabbaths ordaining differing from that in Exodus there it was because God rested on the seventh day here it is because of their delivery out of Egypt and so here it respecteth the Jewish Sabbath more properly there the Sabbath in its pure morality and perpetuity And here is a figure of what is now come to pass in our Sabbath celebrated in memorial of Redemption as well as of Creation In the fifth Commandment in this his rehearsal there is an addition or two more then there is in it in Exod. 20. and the letter Teth is brought in twice which in the twentieth of Exodus was only wanting of all the letters 6. In Chap. 10. ver 6. 7 8. there is a strange and remarkable transposition and a matter that affordeth a double scruple 1. In that after the mention of the golden Calf in Chap. 9. and of the renewing of the Tables Chap. 10. which occurred in the first year after their coming out of Egypt he bringeth in their departing from Beeroth to Mosera where Aaron died which was in the fortieth year after now the reason of this is because he would shew Gods reconciliation to Aaron and his reconciliation to the people to Aaron in that though he had deserved death suddenly with the rest of the people that died for the sin of the golden Calf yet the Lord had mercy on him and spared him and he died not till forty years after and to the people because that for all that transgression yet the Lord brought them through that wilderness to a land of rivers of waters But 2. there is yet a greater doubt lies in these words then this for in Numb 33. the peoples march is set down to be from Moseroth to Bene Jahaan ver 31. and here it is said to be from Beeroth of Bene Jaahan to Moseroth there it is said Aaron died at mount Hor but here it is said He died at Moseroth now there were World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 seven several incampings between Moseroth and mount Hor Numb 33. 31 32 c. Now the answer to this must arise from this consideration that in those stations mentioned Numb 33. From Moseroth to Bene Jaahan to Horhagidgad c. they were marching towards Kadesh before their fortieth year and so they went from Moseroth to Bene Jaahan But in these stations Deut. 10. 6. they are marching from Kadish in their fortieth year by some of that way that they came thither and so they must now go from Bene Jaahan to Moseroth And 2. how Moseroth and mount Hor Gudgodah and Horhagidgad were but the * * * As Horeb and Sinai were though they be counted two several incampings of Israel Exod. 17. 1 6. and 19. 1. compared same place and Country and how though Israel were now going back from Kadish yet hit in the very same journies that they went in when they were coming thither as to Gudgodah or Horhagidgad to Jotbathah or Jotbath requires a discourse Geographical by it self which is the next thing that was promised in the Preface to the first part of the Harmony of the Evangelists and with some part of that work by Gods permission and his good hand upon the Work-man shall come forth 7. It cannot pass the Eye of him that readeth the Text in the Original but he must observe it how in Chap. 29. ver 29. the Holy Ghost hath pointed one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To us and to our Children belong the revealed things after an extraordinary and unparalleld manner to give warning against curiosity in prying into Gods secrets and that we should content our selves with his revealed will 8. Moses in blessing of the Tribes Chap. 33. nameth them not according to their seniority but in another order Reuben is set first though he had lost the birth-right to shew his repentance and that he died not * * * So the Chaldee renders ver 6. Let Reuben live and not die the second death the second death Simeon is omitted because of his cruelty to Sichem and Joseph and therefore he the fittest to be left out when there were twelve Tribes beside Judah is placed before Levi for the Kingdoms dignity above the Priest-hood Christ being promised a King of that Tribe Benjamin is set before Joseph for the dignity of Jerusalem above Samaria c. 9. The last Chapter of the Book was written by some other then Moses for it relateth his death and how he was buried by the Lord that is by Michael Jude 9. or Christ who was to bury Moses Ceremonies The Book of JOSHUA THIS Book containeth a history of the seventeen years of the rule of Joshua which though they be not expresly named by this sum in clear words yet are they to be collected to be so many from that gross sum of four hundred and eighty years from the delivery out of Egypt to the laying of the foundation of solomons Temple mentioned 1 Kings 6. 1. for the Scripture hath parcelled out that sum into these particulars forty years of the people in the wilderness two hundred ninety and nine years of the Judges forty years of Eli forty of Samuel and Saul forty of David and four of Solomon to the Temples founding in all four hundred sixty three and therefore the seventeen years that must make up the sum four hundred and eighty must needs be concluded to have been the time of the rule of Joshua CHAP. I. World 2554 Ioshua 1 JOSHUA of Joseph succeedeth Moses the seventh from Ephraim 1 Chron. 7. 25. and in him first appeared Josephs birth-right 1 Chron. 5. 1. and
captive saith in his seventh year they were three thousand and twenty three Jews and in his eighteenth three thousand and thirty two from Jerusalem in which if the Reader ruminate well upon the matter he will find a great deal of difficulty For 1. He never mentioneth in this reckoning either the Captivity in the fourth of Jehoiakim which was the first Captivity not the Captivity of Jechoniah in which the most people were carried away And. 2. There is no mention else-where of Nebuchad-nezzars carrying away into captivity from Jerusalem either in his seventh year or in his eighteenth but of his doing so in his eighth there is mention 2 King 24. 12. and in his nineteenth Jer. 25. 12. Now for answer 1. To the First The Prophet doth not here speak simply of the persons that were captived but of persons that were captived and put to death for that was the very tenour of his speech in the verse immediately before And for the confirming of this it is observable that in these two verses he mentioneth only the Captives that were caused by an open Rebellion Jehoiakims and Zedekiahs and upon those followed slaughter upon cold blood but in the fourth of Jehoiakim when Daniel and his fellows were captived and when Jechoniah was captived with 18000 more there was no such slaughter because there was no such rebellion And by this very consideration we may learn what was the end of Jehoiakim against whom Jeremy threatned the burial of an Ass although the Scripture hath not clearly expressed it else-where To the second we have given some piece of an answer before more fully now Nebuchad-nezzars first year was properly in Jehoiakims third for then is the first news you hear of him Dan. 1. 1. but withal his first year is counted with Jehoiakims fourth in which the seventy years Captivity began for then he had captived Jerusalem and according to these two reckonings the Scripture reckons sometime by the first as Nebuchad-nezzars first year properly some-time by the second as being his first year over Israel and of the seventy of Captivity after which matter the Scripture looketh with special notice Now Jehoiakims Captivity was in Nebuchad-nezzars eighth according to the first date but it is said to be in his seventh according to the second and the rather because Jechoniah was captived the same year and so the one is distinguished from the other And so Zedeliahs captivity was in Nebuchadnezzars nineteenth according to the first date and propriety but said here to be in the eighteenth according to the second and the rather to include in the number of the captived and slain those whom Nebuchad-nezzar caught of the Jews when he marched away from the siege of Jerusalem the year before when the King of Egypt raised it for then it is not imaginable but he caught some and how he would deal with them they being in open rebellion we may well suppose JEREMY XL. from vers 7. to the end And XLI all 2 KING XXV vers 22 23 24 25. THE dispersed Captains and Companies that had fled for their safety up and down for fear of the Chaldean Army do ralley and come together to Gedaliah the Governour for protection Jeremy amongst these reckoneth Jonathan and the Sons of Ephai the Netophathite which the Book of Kings omitteth either for that these were slain with Gedaliah by Ismael as Jer. 41. 3. and never came to Egypt whither the Book of Kings and Jeremy bringeth those rallied Captives and People after Gedaliahs death Or that Jonathan came as an inferiour to Johanan his brother and that these sons of Ephai the Netophathite came under the colours of Seraiah the Netophathite and so the Book of Kings reckons only the Colonels or chief Commanders In the seventh Month Ismael some younger brother of the Royal blood and ten Nobles of the Court envying Gedaliahs promotion do traiterously murder him This was a very solemn month in it self for the Feast of Trumpets expiation and Tabernacles that should have been in it and in this month of old had Salomon kept the dedication of the Temple and sent the people home with joyful hearts afterwards but how is the matter altered now Ismael also killeth seventy Samaritan Proselites such as were coming to the Feast of Tabernacles and casteth them into a trench that Asa had made to be a stop betwixt the Samaritans and himself then made to keep off Samaritans enemies to their Religion now filled with Samaritans friends to it The little dealing that the Jews had with the Samaritans and the flying about of the Chaldean Troopers had made such interception of intelligence that these poor men knew not of the firing of the Temple though it were in the fifth month till they be upon the way towards it and then understanding of it they rent their clothes c. JEREMY XLII XLIII And 2 KING XXV vers 26. THE Captains and people upon the death of Gedaliah go into Egypt though they had promised to be ruled by the voice of the Lord and though the Lord had flatly forbidden them to go thither and so had done of old that they should never return to Egypt Poor Jeremy is carried along with them and when he comes there he prophesieth both against Egypt and them World 3421 Captivity 20 The Jews are now setled in Egypt and in time they fall to a common and open Idolatry for which Jeremy reproveth them and threatneth them very sore In vers 9. he seemeth to give a close touch upon the Idolatry of Salomons wives the first original of Idolatry to the Kings of Judah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wickednesses of the Kings of Judah and the wickednesses of his wives which indeed may be well construed of every one of their wives But the quaintness of the phrase seemeth to hint some such a particular thing and it may the rather be so understood because he is here taxing the present Idolatry of the Jews wives in Egypt and ripping up the sore to the very head which indeed was first those wives of Solomon Observe in vers 25. how the Hebrew Syntax seemeth to twit these mens base uxoriousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the Verb in the feminine Gender though he speak to the men Now in the 45 Chap. of this Book of Jeremy vers 1. It is said that Baruch had written these words in a Book at the mouth of Jeremy in the fourth year of Jehoiakim what these very last words mentioned before But this is very unlikely for these last speeches appear to be uttered upon emergency the meaning of it therefore is that Jeremy in the fourth of Jehoiakim had uttered Prophesies to this purpose that Jerusalem should be destroyed and the Land left desolate and the people captived and mischief and misery following them which is cleered to be accomplished in the story of these Chapters and therefore this 45 Chapter is laid here though the story
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 vers 9. by fire from Heaven in allusion to Sodom or 2 King 1. 10 12. and it is set close to the end of the World the Devil and the Beast Rome imperial and the false Prophet Rome Papal are cast into fire and brimstone vers 10. where John speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The Devil 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. vers 20. And now the story of the Devil 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 Jerusalem 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem 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 Revel 21. 27 22. 15. Midras Till in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Jochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Jerusalem that is above until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Jerusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that John taketh at here and that is the Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem 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 theâ—â— 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 vers 4. which if taken litterally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven of which the glory of this Jerusalem 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 sin c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife vers 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54. 1 5. Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain Compare Ezek. 40. 2. That great City holy Jerusalem c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiels Jerusalem as also to the squareness 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 twelve thousand furlongs square or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter East West North and South three thousand miles about and fifteen hundred miles high Wall of salvation Isa 26. 1. 60. 14. The foundations of the walls 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 Jaspar the stone of Benjamin for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles The Jerus Talmud in Peah fol. 15. col 3. saith expresly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone for it saith Benjamins Jaspar was once lost out of the Ephod and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it Some said Damah the son of Nethina hath one c. And I saw no Temple therein c. vers 22. here this Jerusalem 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 compass 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 Jerusalem which is described here REVEL CHAP. XXII FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides John doth still magnifie the glory happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem 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 vers 3. See Zech. 14. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema non erit amplius c. He concludeth These sayings are faithful 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 Jerusalem Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Prophesies that had been of these things and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness 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 Wars of Otho Vitellius and Vespasian and the next year after Jerusalem falls 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
from the Phaenicians And Euphorus thinks that Cadmus was he that conveyed them Chaerilus in Eusebius makes Phaenicians and Jews all one For he nameth Jews in Xerxes army and names their Tongue the Phaenician his words be these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus A wondrous people marcht behind along Their Dialect was the Phaenician Tongue On hill of Solymae they dwelt thereby A spacious lake not far remote doth lie These Phaenicians if you will call them so or Jews were the first that had Letters But the Jews were not Phaenicians indeed nor their Tongue the same yet for bordering of their Countries the Poet makes them all one The Phaenician is not now to be had unless the * * * The Syrian translating of the word Phaenicia in the New Testament seems to confirm this for true Punick or Carthaginian and Phaenick or Phaenician were all one which most like they were And then some few lines of the Tongue are to be found in Plautus his Paenulus which as Paraeus saith can little or nothing be made of Eusebius speaks of Sancuniathou that wrote the Phaenician History in the same Tongue but more of the Language he saith not But to the matter That Letters were so long in use before the giving of the Law I am induced to believe upon these reasons First Josephus is of this mind that Letters were before the Flood And the Scripture cites Enochs Prophesie which whether it were written by him or not is uncertain yet if there were any such thing those many places which we find of it in Tertullian Clemens and others do argue that so much could not punctually be kept by word of mouth A second reason to move me to think of Letters before the giving of the Law is to think of Josephs accounts in Egypt which seem almost impossible without writing Thirdly But omitting that I cannot see how all Arts and Sciences in the World should then flourish as considering their infancy they did without the groundwork of all Learning Letters Fourthly Again for the Jews upon the writing of the Law to be put to spelling as they that had never seen letters before and not to be able to read it had been a Law upon the Law adding to the hardness of it Fifthly Nor can I think that when Moses saith blot me out of thy book that he taketh the Metaphor from his own books which it is probable he had not yet written but from other books which were then abounding in the world Sixthly The Egyptian Chronicles of so many thousand years in Diodorus and Laertius I know are ridiculous yet their carefulness of keeping Records I have ever believed The Greeks were boys to them as it is in Plato and Moses was Scholar to them or their learning Act. 7. Now I cannot think that this their exceeding Humane Learning was kept only in their brains and none in writing Nor do I think that if it were written that it was decyphered only in their obscure Hieroglyphicks but that some of it came to ordinary writing of familiar letters CHAP. XXX Of the Hebrew Tongue WHO so will go about to commend the Hebrew Tongue may justly receive the censure that he of Rome did who had made a long book in the praise of Hercules This labour is in vain for never any one dispraised Hercules Other commendations this Tongue needeth none than what it hath of it self namely for Sanctity it was the Tongue of God and for Antiquity it was the Tongue of Adam God the first founder and Adam the first speaker of it In this Tongue were laid up the Mysteries of the Old Testament It begun with the World and the Church and continued and increased in glory till the Captivity in Babel which was a Babel to this Tongue and brought to confusion this Language which at the first confusion had escaped without ruine At their return it was in some kind repaired but far from former perfection The Holy Scriptures viewed by Ezra a Scribe fit for the Kingdom of Heaven in whose treasure were things New and Old In the Maccabean times all went to ruine Language and Laws and all lost and since that time to this day the pure Hebrew hath lost her familiarity being only known by Scholars or at least not without teaching Our Saviours times spake the Syrian Kepha Golgotha Talitha and other words do witness In aftertimes the unwearied Masorites arose helpers to preserve the Bible Hebrew intire and Grammarians helpers to preserve the Idiome alive but for restoring it to the old familiarity neither of them could prevail For the Jews have at this day no abiding City no Common-wealth no proper Tongue but speak as the Countries wherein they live This whereof they were once most nice is gone and this groat they have lost As the man in Seneca that through sickness lost his memory and forgot his own Name so they for their sins have lost their Language and forgot their own Tongue Their Cain like wandring after the murther of their brother according to the flesh Christ Jesus hath lost them this precious mark of Gods favour and branded them with a worse mark Cauterio conspirationis antiquae as saith Saint Bernard in another case Before the confusion of Tongues all the world spake their Tongue and no other but since the confusion of the Jews they speak the Language of all the World and not their own And that it is not with them so only of late but hath been long Theodoret beareth witness in these words Other Nations saith he have their children speaking quickly in their own mother Tongue Howbeit there are no children of the Hebrews who naturally spake the Hebrew Tongue but the Language of the Country where they are born Afterward when they grow up they are taught the letters and learn to read the Holy Scripture in the Hebrew Tongue Thus Theod. in quaest on Gen. 59. 60. About this their training up of their Children and growth of Men in their own Tongue and Learning a Rabbin hath this saying in Pirke Auoth Perek 1. Ben He he saith At five years old for the Scripture at ten for Mishneh at thirteen * * * Or Philacterits c. for the Commandment at fifteen for the Talmud At eighteen for Mariage at twenty for Service at thirty for Strength at forty for Understanding at fifty for Counsel at sixty for Old age at seventy for Gray Hairs at eighty ‖ ‖ ‖ Or fortitude of mind or God for Profoundness at ninety for Meditation at one hundred he is as Dead and past and gone out of the World The Jews look for a pompous Kingdom when Messias the Son of David shall come whom they watch for every moment till he come as it is in the twelfth Article of their Creed in their Common Prayer Book He shall restore them as they hope a temporal Kingdom and of that mind till they were better taught were the Apostles Acts 1.
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Iacob begat Ioseph the husband of Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Iuchas fol. 55. 2. The mothers family is not to be called a family Hence the reason may very easily be given why Matthew brings down the generation to Joseph Maries husband but Luke to Eli Maries Father These two frame the Genealogy two ways according to the double notion of the promise of Christ. For he is promised as the Seed of the Woman and as the Son of David that as a man this as a King It was therefore needful in setting down his Genealogy that satisfaction should be given concerning both Therefore Luke declareth him the promised seed of the Woman deducing his Mothers stock from whence man was born from Adam Matthew exhibits his Royal Original deriving his pedegree along through the Royal family of David to Joseph his reputed Father VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fourteen Generations ALthough all things do not square exactly in this three fold number of fourteen generations yet there is no reason why this should be charged as a fault upon Matthew when in the Jewish Schools themselves it obtained for a custom yea almost for an Axiome to reduce things and numbers to the very same when they were near alike The thing will be plain by an Example or two when an hundred almost might be produced Five Calamitous things are ascribed to the same day that is to the ninth day of the month Ab. g g g g g g Taanith cap. 4. artic 6. For that day say they it was decreed that the people should not go into the promised land the same day the first Temple was laid waste and the second also the City Bitter was destroyed and the City Jerusalem plowed up Not that they believed all these things fell out precisely the same day of the month but as the Babylonian Gemara notes upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they might reduce a fortunate thing to a holy day and an unfortunate to an unlucky day The Jerusalem Gemara in the same tract examines the reason why the daily prayers consist of the number of eighteen and among other things hath these words h h h h h h Taanith fol. 65. 3. The dayly prayers are eighteen according to the number of the eighteen Psalms from the beginning of the book of Psalms to that Psalm whose beginning is The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble which Psalm indeed is the Twentieth Psalm But if any object that nineteen Psalms reach thither you may answer The Psalm which begins Why did the Heathen rage is not of them A distinct Psalm Behold with what liberty they fit numbers to their own case Inquiry is made whence the number of the thirty nine more principal servile works to be avoided on the Sabbath day may be proved Among other we meet with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Hieros Schabb. fol. 9. 2. R. Chaninah of Zippâ—r saith in the name of R. Abhu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph denotes one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lamed thirty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dabar one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debarim two Hence are the forty works save one concerning which it is written in the Law The Rabbins of Cesarea say Not any thing is wanting out of his place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lamed thirty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheth eight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our profound Doctors do not distinguish between He and Cheth that they may fit numbers to their case for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These they write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheth at their pleasure l l l l l l Id. Ibid. fol. 15. 3. R. Josua ben Levi saith In all my whole life I have not looked into the mystical book of Agada but once and then I looked into it and found it thus written An hundred seventy five Sections of the Law where it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He spake he said he commanded they are for the number of the years of our Father Abraham And a little after An hundred and forty and seven Psalms which are written in the book of the Psalms note this number are for the number of the years of our father Jacob. Whence this is hinted that all the praises wherewith the Israelites praise God are according to the years of Jacob. Those hundred and twenty and three times wherein the Israelites answer Hallelujah are according to the number of the years of Aaron c. They do so very much delight in such kind of concents that they oftentimes screw up the strings beyond the due measure and stretch them till they crack So that if a Jew carps at thee O Divine Matthew for the unevenness of thy fourteens out of their own Schools and Writings thou hast that not only whereby thou mayest defend thy self but retort upon them VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When as his Mother was espoused NO woman of Israel was married unless she had been first espoused m m m m m m In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. Before the giving of the Law saith Maimonides if the man and the woman had agreed about marriage he brought her into his house and privately married her But after the giving of the Law the Israelites were commanded that if any were minded to take a woman for his wife he should receive her first before witnesses and thenceforth let her be to him a wife as it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one take a wife This taking is one of the Affirmative precepts of the Law and is called Espousing Of the manner and form of Espousing you may read till you are weary in that Tractate and in the Talmudic Tract Kiddushin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before they came together In many places the man espouseth the woman but doth not bring her home to him but after some space of time So the n n n n n n Ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3. Gloss upon Maimonides Distinction is made by the Jewish Canons and that justly and openly between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Private society or Discourse between the Espouser and the Espoused and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bringing of the Espoused into the husbands house Of either of the two many those words be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before they came together or rather of them both He had not only not brought her home to him but he had no manner of society with her alone beyond the Canonical limits of discourse that were allowed to unmarried persons and yet she was found with child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was found with child Namely after the space of three months from her conception when
in Bava Rama fol. 10. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the masters of the Agada or Expositions because they are Dorshanin or profound searchers of the Scriptures are honour'd of all men for they draw away the hearts of their auditors Nor does that sound very differently as to the thing it self b b b b b b Gloss. in Schaâ—b fol. 115 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Sabbath-day they discuss'd discussions i. e. in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * * * * * Ioh. 5. 39. searching the Scriptures to the masters of families who had been employ'd in their occasions all the week and whiles they were expounding they taught them the articles about things forbidden and things permitted them c. To these kind of mystick and allegorical expositions of Scripture if at least it be proper to call them expositions they were so strangely bewitcht that they valu'd nothing more than a skill tickling or rubbing the itching ears of their auditors with such trifles Hence that passage c c c c c c Hierosol Chagigah fol. â—5 4. R. Joshua said to R. Johanan ben Bruchah and to R. Eliezar the blind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What new thing have you met with to day in Beth Midras They answered and said we are all thy disciples and drink wholly at thy waters To whom he It is impossible but you should meet with something novel every day in Beth Midras II. As to the Oral Law there was also a twofold way of explaining it as they had for the written Law I. The former way we have intimated to us in these words d d d d d d Megillah fol. 26. 2. The book of the Law when it grows old they lay up with one of the disciples of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even although he teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the traditions The passage seems very obscure but it is thus explain'd by the Gloss Albeit it doth not any way help the disciples of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Talmud Gemara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in Misnaioth Bariathoth that is he that would only read the body of the Traditional Law and render the literal sense of it and not he that would dispute scholastically and comment upon it For II. There were Doctors that would enquire more deeply into the Traditions would give some accounts such as they were of them would discuss difficulties solve doubts c. a Specimen of which is the Talmudick Gemara throughout Lastly Amongst the Learned and Doctors of that Nation there were the Agadici who would expound the written Law in a more profound way than ordinary even to what was cabbalistical These were more rare and as it should seem not so acceptable amongst the people Whether these are concern'd in what follows let the Reader judg e e e e e e Hierosol Schâ—â—b fol. 1â— 3. â— Midras Tillen fol. 20. 4. R. Joshua ben Levi saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so and so let it happen to me if in all my life I ever saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the book Agada above once and then I found an hundred seventy and sive Sections of the Law where it is written The Lord hath said hath spoken hath commanded They are according to the number of the years of our father Abraham as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to receive gifts for men c. An hundred forty and seven Psalms which are in the book of Psalms mark the number they are according to the number of the years of our father Jacob. As it is written thou art holy and inhabitest the praises of Israel an hundred twenty and three turns wherein Israel answereth Hallelujah to him that repeats the Hallel are according to the number of the years of Aaron c. And as a Coronis let me add that passage in Sanhedr * * * * * * Fol. 101. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they be masters of the Textual reading they shall be conversant in the Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be masters of the Mishneh they shall be conversant in Mishneh Halacoth and Haggadoth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if they be masters of the Talmud they shall be conversant in the Traditions of the Passover in the Passover in the traditions of Pentecost in Pentecost in the traditions of the feast of Tabernacles in the feast of Tabernacles These all whom we have mention'd were Scribes and Doctors and expounders of the Law but which of these may properly and peculiarly challenge to themselves the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawyers whether all or any particular classis of them The latter is most probable but then what classis will you choose or will you distinguish betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lawyer and the teacher of the Law I had rather the Reader would frame his own judgment here And yet that I might not dismiss this question wholly untoucht and at the same time not weary the Reader with too long a digression I have refer'd what is to be alledged in this matter to my notes upon Chapt. XI 45. VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How readest thou AN expression very common in the Schools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what readest thou when any person brought a Text of Scripture for the proof of any thing f f f f f f Schabb. fol. 33 2. The Rabbins have a Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the disease of the Squinancy came into the world upon the account of tithes the Gloss hath it for eating of fruits that had not been tithed R Eliezar ben R. Jose saith it was for an evil tongue Rabba saith and it is the saying also of R. Joshua ben Levi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what readest thou The King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by himself shall glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped b b b b b b Psal. LXIII 11. And a little after upon another subject R. Simeon ben Gezirah saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what or how readest thou If thou know not O thou fairest among Women go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock Cant. I. 8. We will not be very curious in enquiring whether our Saviour used the very same form of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or any other In this only he departs from their common use of speech in that he calls to another to alledge some Text of Scripture whereas it was usual in the Schools that he that spoke that would alledge some place himself VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And with thy whole mind IN this answer of the man there are
Though it be confessed too that the exact agreement of the story in both places according to the Samaritan is on the other hand considerable for the readding of the Samaritan Text. The Repetitions of the Samaritan in Exod. XVII after vers 14 19 22. from Deut. XXIV V. with some alterations as in many other places and the interposition of a whole sentence Exod. XXII 10. and elsewhere these I say being all absent from all the Translations are arguments of the integrity of the Hebrew copy in general and particularly in those places Nor can I believe but in that vexatious question of the two Cainans Gen. X. 24. and Luke III. 36. the Septuagint is corrupted and the Hebrew Copy in the right since the Samaritan Text and Version and all other Translations agree with the Hebrew And even the Vatican Copy of the Septuagint in 1 Chron. I. hath quite left out the second Cainan and the Alexandrine Copy as it once hath it so it hath once omitted it also But then 2 on the other hand it is to be acknowledged that sometimes the consent of other Versions are an argument of defect or error in our present Hebrew Copies For through the Hebrew Copies we have be beyond all comparison the best and nearest the Originals yet it is too much partiality or superstition to believe that there are not therein some faults considerable to be corrected by the translations of which examples are frequent in the restoring of other Authors and particularly Ignatius's his Epistles by Primate Usher In that known place Psal. XXII 16. the English translation hath truly read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they pierced my hands and my feet But in our present Hebrew Copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a Lyon my hands and my feet That there is a defect in all these Hebrew Copies and that it was formerly written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have pierced or digged my hands and my feet all the Versions except the Chaldee Paraphrase confirm Besides that the present reading is non-sense except it be supplied with some Verb as it is by the Chaldee Paraphrast which upon this Book of the Psalms and upon the Hagiographa is of no great antiquity where we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. like a Lion biting my hands and my feet But this is very Precarious and such an Ellipsis though the Hebrew abounds with that figure as seems contrary to the Genius of the Biblical Hebrew and perhaps without example Not now to mention that according to the Masora it self it must be here read in another sense than as a Lion for it here notes that in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is twice found in the Bible with the Vowel â— but in two different significations and that the other place is Isa. XXXVIII 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our English translation I reckoned till morning that as a Lyon so will he break all my bones In this last place no doubt but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie as a Lyon therefore in the first place of Psal. XXII it must not signifie so but some other sense These are things known sufficiently to the Learned but not to beginners in this sort of Literature nor in our Language and therefore it may not be superfluous to mention them Nor that of Psal. CXLV 14. where all the Translations except the Chaldee Paraphrase again interposing a whole verse to this sense The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works makes it highly probable besides the argument from the Alphabetical beginning of every verse one of which will be wanting without that interposition that so much is left out in all our modern Hebrew Copies which was in the more ancient whatever the industrious and laborious Hottinger may briskly and warmly after his Thâ—s Philolog manner say in defence of them though the repetition of that verse with the alteration of two words in the seventeenth verse may be some argument on the other side That famous place of difficulty Exod. XII 40. The sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years would be justly suspected of defect from the Samaritan Text and Alexandrine Copy of the Seventy though there was no evidence from Chronology Both of which have it The sojourning of the children of Israel and of their Fathers in Egypt and Canaan and even the Roman edition of the Seventy adds the land of Canaan to Egypt In old Jacobs Prophesie concerning his youngest son Joseph Gen. XLIX 22. The Samaritan Text confirmed by the Seventy seems much the better reading than the Hebrew In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which our English translation renders whose branches run over the wall But indeed according to the present punctation it can hardly be construed But in the Samaritan Text it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Joseph my youngest son which also well answers that in the prediction concerning Reuben vers 3. Reuben my first born In Gen. IV. 8. The agreement of the Samaritan Text and Version the Syriack Septuagint Vulgar Latine for the interposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Samaritan Text i. e. let us go into the field in the speech of Cain to Abel besides the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he said necessarily requiring it and a void space left in the Hebrew Copies makes it extreamly probable that those words are really wanting in our present Books As for the great difference of the intervals or sum of years from the Creation to the Flood and from the Flood to Abraham's birth which is between the present Hebrew the Samaritan and the Septuagint I leave it to Chronologers This is not a place to dispute it That there are also many Errata's and faults in many places of the present Hebrew of single letters both consonants and vowels I mean the sounds not the characters of vowels which without doubt are very late cannot reasonably be denyed by one unprejudiced as principally from other arguments so from one or more of the Versions I do not allow of all the Examples produced by Learned Men and some of them as much partial on the other hand and almost spiteful against the Hebrew But I think some instances are just and reasonable As to single out one or two Psal. II. 9. we read now in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Thou shalt break them with a rod or rather a scepter of Iron But in the Septuagint and in the New Testament as Rev. I. 27. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt feed or rule them to which agree all the other translations except the Chaldee Paraphrase Whence we have very likely reason to believe that they did read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew which signifies thou shalt feed
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
forty years old but by all this it appears he had read much and maturely digested his reading especially Jewish Learning Nay long before this he was an Author For he published his Erubhin or Miscellanies at seven and twenty years of age By the frequent quotations in which Book it appears that he had then read and studied even to a prodigy For he doth not only make use of divers Rabbinical and Cabbalistical Authors and of Latine Fathers but he seemed well versed in the Greek Fathers also as Clemens Alexandrinus Epiphanius Chrysostome c. well read in antient Greek prophane Historians and Philosophers and Poets Plutarch Plato Homer c. well seen in Books of History Ecclesiastical and prophane of our own Nation and in a word skilled in the modern Tongues as well as the Learned as is evident from his quotation of the Spanish Translation of the Bible and a Spanish Book And of what worth and value the Book it self was you may guess by the Censure that a Man of great Learning and Wisdom gave of it I mean that Worshipful person to whom he dedicated it his Patron Sir Rowland Cotton Who in a Letter to him upon the receit of the Book tells this young Author That he had read it over and that there were many rarities nothing so Vulgar that he needed to fear his Books entertainment unless it lapsed into the hands of an envious or stupid Dunce And that he joyed much in his proficiency IV. Some Remarks upon his Horae Hebraicae Talmudicae I Design not to give a particular account of his Works as they came forth something hath already been spoken of them his several Epistles before them will shew that only of his last pains that crowned all the rest I mean his Horae Hebraicae I would remark something and that is the universal approbation and applause they met with in the Learned World both at home and in forain parts When our Author had sent his Horae upon S. Mark to the great and profound Linguist Dr. Castel he calls it an unutterable obligation laid upon him that it was a learned and much longed for work and that it enriched his poor Library with an addition so excellent and delightful c. And upon the Doctors sending him his Horae upon St. John he writes thus I received last week by your appointment a gift auro quovis gemmisque contra non charum that all the riches of the Levant congested together cannot equal such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as will justly deserve to be enrolled among the very next Records to those of Infallibility And truly Sir all your rare discoveries of Celestial Verities seem to me to be at such above the reach either of doubt or hesitation And again Your Criticism of Bethabara and Bethany saith he is so native proper genuine and ingenious I no sooner read it but straitway said to my self Securus jurarem in Verba Magistri T is like all the other births of your blest Minerva And upon the edition of another of those pieces Mr. Bernard of S. Johns Oxon a Man of known learning worth and piety writes thus to him I most humbly thank you for the happy hours on the more copious Evangelist by which that most excellent part of Holy Scripture is finisht and compleatly expounded in the most proper and yet untrodden way God reward you both here and in the better World for this and the rest of your labours in this sort which posterity will admire and bless when they see them altogether Dr. Worthington another person of great judgment learning and goodness treats our Doctor with these words in a Letter wrote to him Feb. 166◠concerning the same subject I wish you length of life health vacancy and freedom for what remains I hope that you are still proceeding and are not weary in well doing though Books sell but little those that are able to buy less mind Books and those that would buy are less able having little to spare from what is necessary for their families But your labour will not be in vain in the Lord nor here neither The learned Men beyond the Seas had also an high value for these pieces let some of them speak for themselves Frederick Mieg son to a great Councellor of the Elector Palatine once brought up under Buxtorph in Hebrew and Rabbinical Studies and of whom he gives a high character thus writes to our Doctor from Paris 1664. concerning those precious Hours as he styles them and publick Labours Publicos enim labores non vereor appellare quos in publicum literarii Orbis commodum redundare nemo est qui ignoret And tells him besides that there were no learned Men as he knew on that side the Seas but did summis anhelitibus earnestly pant after his Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians which he had then ready for the Press And begs him in his own Name and in the Name of that love those Studies ut lucem non invideas scripto luce dignissimo neque illud intra privatos parietes consenescere sinas unde tantum imminet publico emolumentum That he would not envy it the light since it was so worthy of it nor suffer that to lie longer concealed within private walls whence so great profit would accrue to the publick In a Letter from Nicholas Hoboken Secretary to the Dutch Ambassador here in England written to Dr. Lightfoot in the year 1659. he acquaints him with the sense Gisbertus Voetius Professor of Divinity and a Man of great Name in Holland had of his Chorographical Century before his Horae upon S. Matthew namely That he had expressed to him the said Secretary the complacency that he took from those Geographical illustrations of his fetched out of the Talmudists ita tamen ut spe largiori frui desideret plura Lucubrationum ejusmodi tuarum videndi And if we should travail into France there we shall find a Man of as great fame as the other was in Holland and it may be of greater Learning I mean Monseir Le Moyn who in a Letter to Dr. Worthington Anno 1666. expressing the value he had of Dr. Lightfoots Books and among the rest of his sacred Chorography before S. Matthew he saith that his Library is proud of them But the judgment of the Venerable Buxtorph is instar omnium who in a Letter to Dr. Castel in the year 1664. earnestly desires to know what Dr. Lightfoot did and saith That by his Talmudick Hours he began greatly to love his Learning and Diligence and wished heartily to see more of them And in the year before that in a Letter to our Doctor himself he thus accosts him Ex quo Horas tuas Hebraicas Talmudicas in Matthaeum vidi legi coepi te amare pro merito aestimare Tantam enim in eis Talmudicae lectionis peritiam ad illustrationem SS literarum dexteritatem tantam etiam
Learning and in the fame of his Coat and of his Country The next Book to the Polyglot Bible for Labour and Worth and which is always to be named with it is the Heptaglot Lexicon to the laborious Author of which our Doctor also contributed his aid A Work it was of seventeen years a seventeen years drudgery as he styles it in one of his Letters in which besides his own pains he maintained in constant salary seven English and as many strangers for his assistants all which died some years before the Work was finished and the whole burthen of it fell upon himself Though by Gods grace he at last finished it before it finished him And here I cannot but turn a little out of my way to condole with this Author that wore out himself and his Estate too in a Work so generally beneficial and had little thanks after for his labour See and pity his condition as he sets it out in one of his Letters to Dr. Lightfoot where he says He had spent twenty years in time to the publick service above 12000 l. of his own estate and for a reward left in the close of the Work above 1800 l. in debt Thus he kept his resolution though it was as fatal to him as useful to the World For in the beginning of the undertaking he resolved to prosecute it though it cost him all his Estate as he told Mr. Clark This forced him to make his condition known unto his Majesty wherein he petitioned That a Jaylmight not be his reward for so much service and expense T is pity such true Learning and hard Labour should meet with no better encouragement But to go back whence for mere charity and commiseration we diverted In this great undertaking Dr. Castel more than once acknowledgeth the help of our Author Sure I am my Work could never have been so intire as it is without you All pretenders to the Oriental Tongues must confess their great obligation to you And in another Letter with which he sent him his Lexicons he tells him That his Name ought to have shined in the Front who had given the most orient splendor if there be any such in them unto all that is Printed and may therefore most justly saith he be called Yours And again He calls him His greatliest and most highliest honoured Master Father and Patron Indeed our Doctor did frequently encourage and comfort him with his Letters got him Subscribers and Friends afforded him his Lodgings at Katherine Hall whensoever he came to Cambridge to read his Arabick Lectures for some years and such like kindnesses For which he always professed a most dear affection and honour for him Another great Man in this kind of Learning I mean Mr. Samuel Clark one employed in both the aforesaid great Labours applied to him for his Counsel and help in a learned Work that he designed for the publick Which was the publishing of the Targum upon the Chronicles with his own Translation which was a part of the Hebrew Bible belonging to the Library of the University of Cambridge A MS. it seems that the University set so highly by that he made three journies to Cambridge before he obtained it But he borrowed it at last by Dr. Lightfoots means about the year 1659. And by the Doctors interest had it continued to him for some years This he designed as soon as he had finished it to joyn with some other Additionals to the Polyglot Bible Which design he communicates to our Doctor before he came to a resolution about it telling him that if he and such as he approved the design it would be an encouragement to him to proceed in it That the Doctor approved of his purpose it appears from that constant assistance that he gave him afterwards about it Mr. Clark sending it as he transcribed and translated sheet by sheet for the Doctors review and correction For which in a Letter dated from Holywel Sep. 3. 1667. He professeth himself exceedingly engaged to him for the great pains he had taken and that he had so freely declared his judgment in some places he had noted being so far from unwillingness saith he to have my errors shewed me that I am very thankful to you for it and entreat you to go on as freely with the rest This Targum it seems by a place in the Talmud mentioning Onkelos the Doctor was moved to think Onkelos might be the Author of For which discovery Mr. Clark heartily thanks him telling him that he would do him a great favour if he would please to let him know his sense of it whether he conceived that passage of weight enough to entitle him to this his Targum as he calls it upon the Chronicles This same worthy Person had Printed that Tract of the Talmud called Beracoth which he sent to our Doctor desiring his impartial judgment upon his performance therein and begging him to signifie to him wherein he might be guilty of mistake Nor ought we to forget the assistance he gave to the Author of the Synopsis of the Criticks upon his desire For he cheerfully devoted himself to the publick good First He encouraged him with an ample Testimonial of the usefulness of the design in general and of the careful and impartial management of it by the undertaker Then as to his pains in the Work it self he seems to have reviewed it piece by piece as it passed from the hand of Mr. Pool before it went to the Press For in one Letter he tells the Doctor that he therewith sent him one part upon Numbers begging still his thoughts upon any thing as he should meet with it He likewise promised him in such places as he observed to be most defectively done to give him some explications tending to the clearing of the Hebrew words or phrases or matter which Mr. Pool designed to bring â—nto a distinct Volume as Paralipomena to go under the Doctors name by themselves with some other things as Appendices to his Work as De Nummis ponderibus mensuris De Templo Quaestiones Chronologicae Chorograpicae Historicae c. Some sheets of these Explications of Scripture I have seen which he had sent to Mr. Pool according to his promise There is all the Book of Josua and some Chapters of Exodus and Numbers Where the Doctor proceeds Chapter by Chapter briefly to give the sense or illustration of difficult passages according to the Talmudists and Rabbins But this last designed additional Volume I think Mr. Pool never published And this was not all for in another Letter he takes notice of a promise made him by the Doctor of his assistance in reference to the Historical Books of the Old Testament from Josua to Job out of the Rabbins and Talmud unless perhaps this was the same with the former VI. The addresses of Learned Men to him IT would be endless to mention the Applications of Learned Men to him The deeply Learned Mr. Herbert Thorndike in the
Promise 240 Canaan and was to be victorious against the Hagarens see Ioseph 65 Years of the Promise 241 Jos. 4. 12. and 1 Chron. 5. 10. He was unstable as water in affecting the Ioseph 66 Years of the Promise 242 Priest-hood and refusing the land Numb 16. 1 2. and 32. 1. but his father adviseth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al tother let not unstability remain Ioseph 68 Years of the Promise 244 in him Ioseph 69 Years of the Promise 245 That the scattering of Simeon and Levi among the rest of the Ioseph 70 Years of the Promise 246 tribes should be for the benefit of themselves and of others Ioseph 71 Years of the Promise 247 That Judah should be Prince and should be victorious that Shiloh Ioseph 72 Years of the Promise 248 should descend of him and that either the Scepter or Law-giver Ioseph 73 Years of the Promise 249 should continue in that tribe till his coming That Judahs habitation Ioseph 74 Years of the Promise 250 should be a country of vines so as to tie asses or colts to them and Ioseph 75 Years of the Promise 251 not to be nice of spoiling them they should be so abundant that Ioseph 76 Years of the Promise 252 he should sowse his garments in wine with treading the wine-presses Ioseph 77 Years of the Promise 253 c. Ioseph 78 Years of the Promise 254 That Zebulon should trade at Sea on both hands in the Ocean and Ioseph 79 Years of the Promise 255 the Sea of Galilee Ioseph 80 Years of the Promise 256 That Issachar should be burdned with two Kingdoms of Phenicia Ioseph 81 Years of the Promise 257 and Samaria on either hand him yet love of ease should make Ioseph 82 Years of the Promise 258 him bear and become tributary Ioseph 83 Years of the Promise 259 Ioseph 84 Years of the Promise 260 That Dan in Samson shall bite the heels of the Philistims house Ioseph 85 Years of the Promise 261 and overthrow so many thousand riders and that makes Jacob to Ioseph 86 Years of the Promise 262 look at the delivery by Christ in the like manner who should destroy Ioseph 87 Years of the Promise 263 Ioseph 88 Years of the Promise 264 Samson-like by dying Ioseph 89 Years of the Promise 265 That Gad should be hard set with the Hagarites but he and his Ioseph 90 Years of the Promise 266 friends should overcom them at last Ioseph 91 Years of the Promise 267 Ioseph 92 Years of the Promise 268 That Ashur should abound in corn and provision and Naphtali in Ioseph 93 Years of the Promise 269 venison and in him should begin the Gospel Ioseph 94 Years of the Promise 270 Ioseph 95 Years of the Promise 271 That Josephs sons should grow by Jacobs well unto a Kingdom Ioseph 96 Years of the Promise 272 and that his daughters should go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to the enemy to repair Ioseph 97 Years of the Promise 273 Ioseph 98 Years of the Promise 274 the hostile tribe of Benjamin which otherwise had decayed for Ioseph 99 Years of the Promise 275 want of wives as Judg. 21. Ioseph 100 Years of the Promise 276 Ioseph 101 Years of the Promise 277 That Benjamin should be ravenous and devour the prey to themselves Ioseph 102 Years of the Promise 278 in the morning of their estate in the great slaughter of Gibeah and in stealing them wives but should divide the spoil for the good of the other tribes in the evening of their first estate by Mordecai and in the evening of their second estate by Paul Ioseph 103 Years of the Promise 279 The Apostle in Heb. 11. 21. mentioneth only Jacobs blessing the two Ioseph 104 Years of the Promise 280 Ioseph 105 Years of the Promise 281 sons of Joseph because born out of his family in a forain land yet Ioseph 106 Years of the Promise 282 Ioseph 107 Years of the Promise 283 by faith adopted by Jacob for his own children the Apostle there Ioseph 108 Years of the Promise 284 follows the LXX that in their unprickt Bibles read Matteh a rod for Ioseph 109 Years of the Promise 285 Mittah a bed World 2369 Ioseph 110 Years of the Promise 286 JOSEPH dieth 110 years old having lived to see Ephrams children Years of the Promise 287 to the third generation that is to the third generation from Ephraim or fourth from Joseph and to this the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 50. ver 23. seemeth to point to teach us to construe this to the greatest extent namely to the third from Ephraim as the like is expressed of Manasseh 1 CHRON. VII ver 21 22 23. Years of the Promise 288 EPHRAIM at Josephs death could not be less then threescore and Years of the Promise 289 fiteen years old and therefore that passage concerning his sons being Years of the Promise 290 slain by the men of Gath seemeth to have been not very long after Years of the Promise 291 Josephs death if not before unless we will conceive Ephraim to Years of the Promise 292 have begotten children after that at a very great age Zabad his son Years of the Promise 293 and Shutelah and Ezer and Elead his grandchildren probably enough Years of the Promise 294 that third generation of Ephraim meant Gen. 50. 25. were the men so Years of the Promise 295 unhappily slain by the men of Gath that were born in the land that is Years of the Promise 296 men born in Egypt but now resident in Gath and who came down to Years of the Promise 297 take away these Ephraimites cattel and slew them as they stood in defence Years of the Promise 298 and retention of them for so should I rather translate the verse Years of the Promise 299 Years of the Promise 300 and men of Gath who were born in the land slew them for they came down Years of the Promise 301 to take away their cattel so as to make the men of Gath the plunderers Years of the Promise 302 Years of the Promise 303 rather then the sons of Ephraim Ephraim their father upon the sad occurrence Years of the Promise 304 Years of the Promise 305 mourneth many days but afterward goeth in to his wife and Years of the Promise 306 giveth him that name because it went ill at that time with his house Years of the Promise 307 Israel by this time is grown to a vast multitude in Egypt The Book of EXODUS CHAP. I. World 2391 Years of the Promise 308 ABout this time Levi dieth having lived 137 years Exod. 6. 16. Years of the Promise 309 Years of the Promise 310 It is like that he lived longest of all the tribes and that because Years of the Promise 311 only his age and the age of Joseph are mentioned of all Years of the Promise 312 the rest it seemeth that the one died the soonest and the Years of the Promise 313 Years of the Promise
had seen the figure and pattern of a glorious Tabernacle so now in this second forty days fast he desireth to have a sight of the glory of God On the thirtieth day of the month A◠he goeth up again with the two Tables and beginneth another forty days fast and seeth the Lord and heareth him proclaim himself by most glorious attributes and receiveth some commands from him On the tenth day of the month Tisri he cometh down with the glad tydings that all is well betwixt God and Israel with the renewed Tables in his hand and with commission to set about making the Tabernacle CHAP. XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL. World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 AND so do Israel fall about that work which by the first day of the month Abib the first month of the next year is finished and it begun to be erected when it is set up the cloud of glory filleth it and God taketh up his seat upon the Ark in figure of his dwelling amongst men in Christ. The Book of LEVITICUS OUT of the Tabernacle newly erected God giveth ordinances for it and first concerning Sacrifice to represent Christs death as the Tabernacle it self did represent his body The whole time of the story of Leviticus is but one moneth namely the first month of the second year of their deliverance and not altogether so much neither for the very first beginning of the month was taken up in the erecting of the Tabernacle of which the story is in Exod. 40. CHAP. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII RUles given for all manner of sacrifices This is the first Oracle given from off the Mercy-seat There is the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first word of the Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 written less then all his fellows and it seemeth by such a writing to hint and intimate that though this were a glorious Oracle yet was it small in comparison of what was to come when God would speak to his people by his own Son whom the Ark Mercy-seat and Oracle did represent CHAP. VIII IX THE seven days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons follow after the time of the setting up of the Tabernacle and were not coincident or concurrent with that time as the Jews very generally but very groundlesly do apprehend as Seder Olam Tanchum ex R. Joseph Baal Turim Ab Ezra R. Sol and others For 1. this command for their consecration is given out of the Tabernacle now erected as well as the rules for sacrifice were And 2. they abide the seven days in the Tabernacle Chap. 8. 33. and the very first day of the seven the congregation were gathered to the door vers 3 4. which undeniably shew that it was finished and set up when these seven days of consecration began CHAP. X. THE death of Nadab and Abihu was on the very first day that the service of the Altar began namely on that eighth day after the seven of the consecration when Aaron and his sons offered sacrifices for themselves and the people This appeareth plainly by comparing the third and fifteenth Verses of the ninth Chapter with the sixteenth Verse of this tenth Chapter and thus the service of the Sanctuary by an accident began with Death and Judgment NUMBERS IX to Ver. 15. AFter the end of the tenth Chapter of Leviticus in the proper order of story are the first fourteen Verses of the ninth Chapter of Numbers to be taken in which treat concerning the Passover For the Tabernacle being reared on the very first day of the second year of their coming out of Egypt namely on the first day of Nisan these orders and rules concerning Sacrifices and the Priests consecration were given and the eight days of Priests consecration and Sacrifices were accomplished before the fourteenth day of that month came when the Passover was to be kept by an old command given the last year in Egypt and by a second command now given in the wilderness so that this order and method is clear Now the reason why this story of this second Passover is not only not laid in its proper place in this Book of Leviticus but also out of its proper place in the Book of Numbers for the Book beginneth its story with the beginning of the second month but this story of the Passover belongeth to the first month The reason I say of this dislocation is because Moses his chief aim in that place is to shew and relate the new dispensation or command for a Passover in the second month which was a matter of very great moment For the translation of that feast a month beyond its proper time did the rather inforce the significancy of things future then of things past as rather recording the death of Christ to come then their delivery from Egypt when it hit not on that very night This story therefore of the Passover transferred to the second month upon some occasions being the matter that Moses chiefly aimed at and respected in that relation and history he hath set it in his proper place for so is that where it lies in the Book of Numbers and intending and aiming at the mention of that he hath also brought in the mention of the right Passover or that of the first month as it was necessary he should to shew the occasion of the other LEVITICUS XI XII XIII XIV XV. AFter the rules for things clean and fit for sacrifice the Lord cometh to give rules for things clean and fit to eat and clean and fit to touch for this was the tripartite distinction of clean or unclean in the Law Every thing that was unclean to touch was unclean to eat but every thing that was unclean to eat was not unclean to touch every thing that was unclean to eat was unclean to sacrifice but every thing that was unclean to sacrifice was not unclean to eat for many things might be eaten which might not be sacrificed and many things might be touched which might not be eaten And under the Law about clean and unclean there is exceeding much of the doctrine of sin and renovation touched considerable in very many particulars 1. By the Law of Moses nothing was unclean to be touched while it was alive but only man A man in Leprosie unclean to be touched Lev. 13. and a woman in her separation Lev. 12. but Dogs Swine Worms c. not unclean to be touched till they be dead Lev. 11. 31. 2. By the Law of Moses uncleanness had several degrees and Leprosie was the greatest There was uncleanness for a day as by touching a dead beast for a week as by touching a dead man for a month as a woman after Child-birth and for a year or more as Leprosie 3. Every Priest had equal priviledge and calling to judge of the Leprosie as well as the the high Priest 4. The Priests that were judges of Leprosie could not be tainted
with it see the notes at Numb 12. 5. The Priests could not make any man clean but only pronounce him clean 6. He that was Leprous all over and no place free was to be pronounced clean for it appeared that all the poyson was come forth and the danger of infecting others was past but he that had any part that was not scabby over he was unclean he that appears before God in any of his own righteousness like the proud Pharisee he hath his answer in that Parable but that humble confession of a poor sinner that shews him Leprous all over like that of the Publican obtains the best answer 7. The Leper that was cleansed had not his disease healed but the danger of the infection being over he was restored to the society of men again so that he was not so much clean unto himself as unto the Congregation CHAP. XVI THE solemn and mysterious Feast of Reconciliation instituted to be on the tenth day of the month Tisri the day that Moses had come down from the Mount with tydings of reconciliation betwixt God and the People as was said be-before And as the solemnity and carriage of the work of this day was a figure of good things to come in Christ so the very time it self had some respect that way for if Christ were not born and came into the World a Reconciler on that very day yet was he born and baptized nine and twenty years after in that very month CHAP. XVII XVIII XIX XX. XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV DIvers Laws are given concerning Offerings Marriages Festivals the Priests and other things and the main end of them all Piety Sanctity Charity and in them a distinction of Israel from other people CHAP. XXVI XXVII SAD denunciation of judgment upon disobedience and the valuation of persons in reference to redemption of vows Hosea speaketh in allusion to the rates and values mentioned here when he saith I bought her to me for fifteen shekels of silver and for an homer of barly and half an homer of barly Hos. 3. 2. The fifteen shekels was the value of a man above sixty years old Lev. 27. 7. The homer of barly which valued fifty shekels ver 16. was the value of a man from twenty years old to sixty ver 3. And half an homer which valued five and twenty shekels was for one from five years old to twenty twenty shekels ver 5. And from a month old to five years five shekels ver 6. World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 The Book of NUMBERS CHAP. I. ON the first day of the second month the Lord provided for the pitching of their camp as on the first day of the first month they had begun to erect the Tabernacle First the people are numbred from twenty years old and upwards and their sum amounteth to 603550. men of all which number only two men enter the land The Levites are not reckoned in this sum nor with this reckoning and accordingly they fall not under the same curse with the others of not entring into his rest Not a man impotent through old age in Israel CHAP. II. THeir Camp is pitched and the Sanctuary set just in the middle of it for Religion is the heart of a State The Levites pitch next unto it in a quadrangular body round about it at a certain distance The whole body of the army pitcheth at an other distance about them in the same form and 2000 cubits distance from the Tabernacle every side of the square carried its several colours Judah a Lion Ephraim a Bullock Reuben a Man Dan an Eagle Compare the description of Christ dwelling in the middest of the Christian Church Rev. 4. 4. The Ark the strength of the Lord Pitcheth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh Psal. 80. 2. CHAP. III. IV. THE Levites taken for the first-born of Israel and so interessed in every family among them The first-born had been Priests till the consecration of the Levites now that function must be confined to that Tribe The Levites ingaged to their service from nine and twenty years old compleat or thirty currant till fifty Our Saviours age at his entrance into his Ministry Luke 3. 23. answereth to this type CHAP. V. VI. A Law concerning uncleanness and offences that the Camp might continue in purity and unity chastity and unchastity tried miraculously The Law concerning Nazarites the only votaries of the people The Congregation to be blessed by the Priests in the name of the Trinity CHAP. VII VIII THE Princes offer to the Sanctuary and more ordinances are given about it That they offered not till they were ordered into their standards is plain by the order and method of their offering The Levites to be five years probationers at the Sanctuary before they take their office Chap. 8. 24. compared with Chap. 4. 23. CHAP. IX from Ver. 15. to the end And CHAP. X. to Ver. 11. BEfore the reading of the fifteenth Verse the Reader is to suppose a Passover to be kept the fourteenth day of this second month although the keeping of it be not expresly mentioned but only hinted for on the fourteenth day of the first month which was the proper day for the Passover some men because they were unclean could not observe it and upon their acquainting Moses with their case he presently gives them a warrant to keep it the fourteenth day of the next month which they did no doubt accordingly although it be not in plain terms related For the occurrences mentioned in the Book hitherto came to pass in the first thirteen days of the month save only the offering of the Princes which indeed began before the fourteenth day but continued World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 beyond it notwithstanding the Holy Ghost would conclude the story of their offering all together and on the fourteenth day those that had been unclean at the proper time of the Passover kept the Passover by a new ordinance so that the order of the story of this new Passover is most genuine and proper here but Moses could not relate the thing but he must relate the occasion namely because some could not keep it at the right time therefore he giveth the story of the right time here which as we shewed before lieth properly between the tenth and eleventh Chapters of Leviticus From the fifteenth Verse of this Chapter to the eleventh Verse of the tenth Chapter there is mention of two special things namely the dwelling of the cloud upon the Tabernacle and the making of the silver Trumpets which however they were indeed somewhat afore this time for the Cloud descended and the Trumpets were made before the fourteenth day of this month yet are they brought in here as relating to the removal of the Army which is mentioned in Chap. 10. vers 11. for then the Cloud was taken up and the Trumpets were sounded EXODUS XVIII BEtween the tenth and eleventh Verses of the tenth of Numbers as
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
very properly where it lieth because it was fit that the whole story which concerned the conquest and the possession of the land should be handled all together before any other particulars and emergencles should interpose and interrupt it World 2570 Ioshua 17 JOSHUA dieth one hundred and ten years old the age of his old father Joseph Gen. 50. 26. He had divided Jordan shouted down Jericho walls stopt the Sun conquered Canaan set up the Tabernacle settled the people buried the bones of the Patriarchs at Sichem the head City of the land ingaged the people to Religion and done gloriously in his generation A type of Christ in the most of these things With those Chapters of Joshua that do treat concerning the division of the land and setling of the Tribes in their several possessions it may not be unproper nor unprofitable to read those Chapters in the first Book of Chronicles that do mention the Fathers and chief men in every Tribe and who were planters and raisers of families in these several possessions as with Josh. 13. that relateth the inheritance of the two Tribes and half to read 1 Chron. 5. With Josh. 15. that describeth the possession of Judah to read 1 Chron. 2 3 4. to verse 24. With Josh. 16 17. that handleth the lot of Ehphraim and Manasseh to read 1 Chronicles 7. from verse 14. to verse 30. With Joshua 18. from verse 11. to the end about the possession of Benjamin to read 1 Chron. 7. from verse 6. to verse 13. and 8. all With Josh. 19. to verse 10. read 1 Chron. 4. from verse 24. to the end With Josh. 19. from verse 19. to verse 24. read 1 Chron. 7. to verse 6. With Josh. 19. from verse 24. to verse 31. read 1 Chron. 7. from verse 30. to the end With Josh. 19. verse 32. c. 1 Chron. 7. verse 13. With Josh. 21. read 1 Chron. 6. And with these Chapters of Joshua as an exposition of some of them read 1 Chronicles 9. But as for the casting the several Texts and parcels of these Chapters in the Book of Chronicles into their proper times and to take in every man named there and his story into the Chronicle in the age where he lived would not only be difficult if possible but would be confused in this Work we have in hand A close Commentary upon the first Book of Chronicles would be a matter of singular value and might be conducible for this and for other very material purposes The Book of JUDGES THE Book of Judges containeth an history of two hundred ninety and nine years from the death of Joshua to the death of Samson taken up in these sums and parcels Othniel of Judah 40 years Judg. 3. 11. Ehud of Benjamin 80 years Judg. 3. 15 20. Shamgar Barak of Naphtali 40 years Judg. 4. 6. 5. 31. Gideon of Manasseh 40 years Judg. 6. 15. 8. 28. Abimelech Gideons son 3 years Judg. 9. 22. Tola of Issachar 23 years Judg. 10. 1 2. Jair of Manasseh 22 years Judg. 10. 3. Jephtah of Manasseh 6 years Judg. 11. 1. 12. 7. Ibsan of Judah 7 years Judg. 12. 8 9. Elon of Zebulon 10 years Judg. 12. 11 12. Abdon of Ephraim 8 years Judg. 12. 13 14. Samson of Dan 20 years Judg. 13. 2. 15. 20. 16. 31. The total Sum 299. Now besides these years under these Rulers there is also mention of one hundred and eleven under oppressours as under Cushan Rishathaim 8 years Judg. 3. 8. Eglon of Moab 18 years Judg. 3. 14. Jabin of Canaan 20 years Judg. 4. 3. Midian 7 years Judg. 6. 1. Ammon 18 years Judg. 10. 8. Philiftims 40 years Judg. 13. 1. The total Sum 111. But these years of the oppressors are to be included in the years of the Judges and not to be reckoned as so many years apart by themselves as whereas it is said Chap. 3. Cushan Rishathaim oppressed eight years vers 8. And the land had rest forty years and Othniel died ver 11. those eight years of Cushans oppression are to be included in Othniels forty and we are not to reckon them forty eight And the eighteen of Eglon are to be included in Ehuds eighty and so of the rest Paul indeed reckoneth the years of the Judges so as that he counteth the years of the oppressions in a distinct sum from them Acts 13. 20. where he speaketh of Judges for the space of 450 years until Samuel but he uttereth it with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a manner or in some kind of reckoning but not in exact propriety Again whereas it is said The land had rest forty years in the times of Othniel Chap. 3. 11. And the land had rest eighty years in the times of Ehud Chap. 3. 30. It is not to be so understood as if there were forty years or eighty years peace in the land uninterrupted for in Othniels time Israel was busling with the Canaanites as Chap. 1. and among themselves as Chap. 20. and in Ehuds time they were disquieted by Moab Chap. 3. 14. but it is thus to be understood that upon the delivery by Othniel the land had rest till forty years were up from the death of Joshua And upon the delivery by Ehud the land had rest till eighty years were up from the death of Othniel and so of the rest that carry that phrase And in the same sense and tenour is that phrase taken in Numb 14. 33. Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and ver 34. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even forty years Not that they were to wander in the wilderness full forty years from the time that this is spoken but to make up full forty years from the time of their coming out of Egypt and divers others of the same tenour may be observed in the Scripture The first forty years that followed after the year of Joshua's death are ascribed to the rule of Othniel Judg. 3. 11. not that Othniel was sole Ruler or Monarch in the land for the Sanhedrin or great councel bare the rule in their places and inferiour Magistrates in theirs but that Othniel was a valiant and fortunate commander in the wars and wrought special deliverance for the people The many occurrences that befel in his time are not pointed out to their exact and fixed years and therefore cannot Chronically be set down every thing in its very time more then by conjecture and probability but it will be enough for the right carrying of the Chronicle on if we reduce what was done in his forty years to those forty years in general though we cannot particularly give every occurrence to its very year CHAP. 1. World 2571 Othniel 1 ISrael being assured by Joshua before his death that the Canaanites that were Othniel 2 yet left in the land should and must be subdued Josh. 23. 5. they inquire
forty or the eighteen years of Eglons afflicting were the last eighteen Ehud 27 years of Ehuds eighty for by this means Othniel and Ehud are made Ehud 28 to start up in the very end of these sums of years and get a victory and no Ehud 29 Ehud 30 more news of them whereas it is apparent not only by the years of the Ehud 31 men lately cited and by Chap. 2. 19. but also by other passages that the Ehud 32 Ehud 33 Judge was not only their deliverer in one fought battle or the like but Ehud 34 that he was their instructer and helped and strove to keep them to the fear Ehud 35 Ehud 36 of the Lord Chap. 2. 17. and when any of the Judges did not so they are Ehud 37 noted for it as Gideon about his Ephod Abimeleck about his brethren Ehud 38 Ehud 39 and Samson about his women so that in what time of these fourscore years Ehud 40 of Ehud to place the eighteen of Eglons afflicting it is not certain nor is it Ehud 41 very much material seeing it is certain that they fell out sometime within Ehud 42 Ehud 43 those fourscore years A good space of time may we allot for Israels falling Ehud 44 to Idolatry after Othniels death and for Gods giving them up to their enemies Ehud 45 Ehud 46 power upon their Idolatry but whensoever that affliction comes it Ehud 47 comes so home that a King of Moab is King of Israel and hath his very Ehud 48 Ehud 49 Court and Palace in the Land of Canaan in the City of Jericho That City Ehud 50 was inhabited by Israelites before Eglon and his Moabites Ammonites and Ehud 51 Ehud 52 Amalekites drove them out and yet had not Joshua's curse seized on them Ehud 53 for that had reference only to Rahabs kindred and family to prohibite Ehud 54 Ehud 55 them for ever going about to fortifie and build it for a Canaanitish Town Ehud 56 again and Hiel that went about that work in Ahabs time was of that Ehud 57 Ehud 58 stock and that light upon him accordingly as will be touched there The Ehud 59 oppressours of Israel at this time were the very same Nation that came Ehud 60 against Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. Namely Moabites Ammonites and Meunims Ehud 61 Ehud 62 or Amalekites and Edomites that dwelt promiscuously among Ammon as see Ehud 63 the Notes when we came there and those that are here spoken of are generally Ehud 64 Ehud 65 fat men ver 29. as was Eglon himself extraordinarily Ehud was a Ehud 66 man of Benjamin and probably of Gibeah for he was of the same family in Ehud 67 Benjamin that King Saul was of afterwards and thus the honour of Benjamin Ehud 68 Ehud 69 was somewhat restored in him and as Judah in Othniel hath the first Ehud 70 honour of Judge-ship so Benjamin in Ehud had the second Eglon is destroyed Ehud 71 Ehud 72 with a two edged sword compare Rev. 1. 16. About the latter end Ehud 73 of Ehuds life we may indeed suppose some of the passages of the Book of Ehud 74 Ruth to have come to pass for that Book containeth the story of a very Ehud 75 Ehud 76 long time but the exact place in the Book of Judges where and the exact Ehud 77 time in Chronicle when to lay any particular of those occurrences is not Ehud 78 Ehud 79 to be found nor determined World 2690 Ehud 80 EHUD dieth The Book of RUTH TOwards the aiming and concluding upon the time of the story of the Book of Ruth these things may not unprofitably be taken into consideration 1. That Salmon who came with Joshua into the land married Rahab and of her begat Boaz who married Ruth Matth. 1. 5. 2. That from Salmons coming into the land to the birth of David were 366 years namely 17 of Joshua 299 of Judges 40 of Eli and 10 of Samuel and yet was this long space of time taken up by four men viz. Salmon before he begat Boaz of Rahab and Boaz before he begat Obed of Ruth and Obed before he begat Jesse and Jesse before he begat David so that you must allow to every one of them near upon a hundred years before he begat his son 3. That from their coming into Canaan to Ehuds death were 137 years 4. Now grant that Rahab lived sixty years in Israel before she had Boaz by Salmon and that Boaz lived an hundred years before he was married to Ruth both which are fair allowances yet will this his marriage with Ruth fall but three years after Ehuds death So that this Book of Ruth may be taken in between the third and fourth Chapters of the Book of Judges The Book of Ruth setteth out the great providence of God in bringing light out of darkness Ruth a mother of Christ out of the incest of Lot a special mark over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Lots eldest daughter lying with her father Gen. 19. 34. and a special mark in a great letter in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Ruth going to Boaz his bed Ruth 4. 13. seem to relate one to the other and both together to point at this providence Boaz born of a Heathen woman and married to a Heathen woman but both these become Israelites and holy After the reading of the Book of Ruth the Reader and story return to the fourth of Judges JUDGES CHAP. IV. V. World 2691 Deborah 1 Deborah 2 DEBORAH and BARAKS forty years begin Israel after the death Deborah 3 of Ehud fall to their old Idolatry again and for that ere long fall under Deborah 4 Deborah 5 oppression Shamgar got one wonderful victory for them but wrought Deborah 6 not a perfect deliverance Deborab a woman of Ephraim ariseth after him and Deborah 7 Deborah 8 judgeth the people she being a Prophetess and by the spirit of Prophecy stirreth Deborah 9 up Barak of Nephtali to fight with Sisera whom he overcometh by an army Deborah 10 of Galileans but Sisera himself falleth by the hand of a Proselytess woman Deborah 11 Deborah 12 Then Deborah and Barak sang Here the man of Nephtali giveth goodly Deborah 13 words They tell the sad case of Israel in Shamgars and Jaels times before the Deborah 14 Deborah 15 victory was gotten over Sisera that men durst not go in the common ways nor Deborah 16 dwell in villages and unwalled Towns for fear of the enemy The rich and Deborah 17 Deborah 18 gallant men that used to ride on white Asses durst not ride in those times and Deborah 19 the rulers durst not sit in Judgment for fear of being surprised and people Deborah 20 Deborah 21 durst not go to the Town wells to draw water for fear of the enemies archers Deborah 22 but now all these may speak of the actings of God towards the forsaken villages Deborah 23 Deborah 24 and towards the forlorn places of Judicature in the gates for they
and only salve it with making a statute for her yearly lamentation In some time of the Judges the High-priesthood is translated from the line of Eleazer to the line of Ithamar as appeareth in Eli in the beginning of the Book of Samuel Now in all the story of the Judges we find not any one thing so likely to be the cause of rooting out of that house from the Priest-hood as about this matter of Jephtah they not instructing him better but suffering such a butchery for a sacrifice Jephtah hath a new quarrel with the Ephraimites and slayeth 42000 of them discovering them by the mis-pronouncing of a letter he might have offered many words that had Sh double in them as Shemesh the Sun Shelosha three Shalsheleh a chain but the word proposed is Shiboleh because of the present occasion It signifieth a stream and the Ephraimites are put to call the stream that they desired to pass over by the right name and they could not name it CHAP. XII Vers. 8 9 10. World 2825 Iephtach 1 Iephtach 2 IBSAN judgeth seven years He was a man of Bethlehem and thereupon Iephtach 3 imagined by the Jews to be Boaz without any ground or reason for since Iephtach 4 Iephtach 5 Rahab the mother of Boaz was taken into the Congregation of Israel were 270 Iephtach 6 years and then guess whether Boaz be likely to be active now Ibsan is renowned Iephtach 7 for the number and equality of the number of his sons and daughters CHAP. XIII And CHAP. XII Vers. 11 12. World 2832 Elon 1 ELON judgeth ten years He was a Galilean of Zebulon In the tenth Elon 2 year of Ibsan the Philistims forty years of oppressing begin mentioned Elon 3 Chap. 13. verse 1. Samson is born about this year if not in it for when the Elon 4 Angel telleth of his conception the Philistims were lords over Israel see Elon 5 verse 5. The story of his birth is joyned to the story of his life that there Elon 6 might be no interruption in the story of the Judges before him and that the Elon 7 whole history of his life and birth might lie together but in Chronical Series Elon 8 it lieth about the beginning of the rule of Elon Elon 9 Elon 10 JESSE the father of DAVID born by this time if not before CHAP. XII Vers. 13 14 15. World 2842 Elon 1 ABDON judgeth eight years He is exceedingly renowned for his Elon 2 children having as many young Nobles and Gallants to his sons and Elon 3 granchildren as would make a whole Sanhedrin namely seventy and himself Elon 4 the Head He was an Ephraimite of Pirathon and so Josephs glory Elon 5 shineth again in Ephraim as it had done in Joshua before the time of the Elon 6 Judges and had done in Manasseh in the Judges times in Gedeon Jair Elon 7 and Jephtah Ephraims low estate in the matter of Abimelech and Shechem is Elon 8 now somewhat recovered in Abdon CHAP. XIV XV. XVI World 2850 Elon 1 SAMSON judgeth twenty years A man of Dan and so as Ephraim Elon 2 and Dan had bred the first Idolatry they yield the last Judges he Elon 3 was born supernaturally of a barren woman and becomes the first Nazarite Elon 4 we have upon record He killeth a lion without any weapons findeth honey Elon 5 in the carkass proposeth a parable to thirty Philistim gallants which Elon 6 in three days they cannot unriddle and on the seventh day saith the Text Elon 7 they said unto his wife Perswade thy husband Chap. 14. vers 15. That is Elon 8 on the Sabbath day their irreligiousness not minding that day and now Elon 9 finding the fittest opportunity of talking with his wife alone Samson being Elon 10 imployed about the Sabbath duties He pays them with their own Countrymens Elon 11 spoil Fires the Philistims corn with three hundred Foxes is destroying Elon 12 them all his life but destroys more at his death A type of Christ. Elon 13 It is observable that the Philistims are said to bear rule and oppress Israel Elon 14 all Samsons days Chap. 13. 1. The Lord delivered Israel into the hands of the Elon 15 Philistims forty year and Chap. 15. 20. And Samson judged Israel in the days Elon 16 of the Philistims twenty years This helpeth clearly to understand that the Elon 17 years of the oppressours are included in the years of the Judge and so Elon 18 endeth the Chronicle of the Book of Judges in the death of Samson though Elon 19 the posture of the Book it self do end in another story No Judge of all Elon 20 the twelve had fallen into the enemies hand and under their abuse but only Samson but he slayeth more at his death then while he was living The first Book of SAMUEL THIS Book containeth an History of 80 years viz. from the death of Samson who died by his own hand gloriously to the death of Saul who died by his own hand wretchedly This time was divided into two equal portions namely 40 years to Eli 1 Sam. 4. 18. and 40 years to Samuel and Saul Acts 13. 21. CHAP. I. II. III. World 2870 Eli 1 ELI judgeth 40 years He was of Ithamar For Eleazers line had lost the Eli 2 High Priest-hood in the times of the Judges It had been in that family Eli 3 seven generations viz. Eleazar Phineas Abishua Bukki Uzzi Zerahiah Meraioth Eli 4 Eli 5 1 Chron. 6. 4 5 6. and there it failed till the seventh generation after Eli 6 namely through the times of Amaziah Ahitub Zadok Ahimaaz Azaria Johanan Eli 7 and then comes Azariah and he executes this Office in the Temple Eli 8 that Solomon built 1 Chron. 6. 7 8 9 10. observe these six that failed of the Eli 9 high Priest-hood left out of the Genealogy Ezra 7. 3 4. Eli was the first of Eli 10 the other line that obtained it and it run through these descents Eli Phineas Eli 11 Ahitub Ahimelech Abiathar 1 Sam. 14. 3. 22. 20. 1 King 2. 26. SAMUEL Eli 12 Eli 13 the son of his mothers prayers tears and vows was born in * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 1. 1. that is of one of the two Ramahs to wit that of the Zophites of the hill country of Ephraim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be construed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Sam. 18. 2. one of two and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be construed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 21. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 1. 39 5. Not the hill of Ephraim but the hill country Aramathea the Eli 14 twentieth from Levi of the off-spring of Korah who was swallowed up of Eli 15 the ground 1 Chron. 6. and Numb 26. 11. He had murmured at the Priesthood Eli 16 and Magistracy and now one of his line is raised up to repair both when Eli 17 they are decaied Samuel was a vowed Nazarite and dedicated at the
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
a man not to be certainly pointed out either who he was or when he lived and therefore that Chapter must necessarily be taken up where it lies because it is not possible to find out where else to lay it 5. The last Chapter is some part of it Batshebaes words to Solomon and some part of it Solomons words in her commendation and in commendation of all women like her And the former part which are her words might very well be laid in her Story and in Solomons minority namely after vers 25. of 2 Sam. 12. but yet it is very properly laid here where it is because the words of Solomon in commendation of such women as she were delivered when he delivered his other Doctrines and Proverbs and so the occasion that drew out those words is fitly joyned to the time of the words themselves Solomon is called Lemuel by his Mother as alluding or tuning to Shemuel or Samuel a Son of his mothers vows as Solomon is here averred by his mother to be of hers She giveth him many excellent Lessons in his tender years toward the making him a good man and a good King for which when he comes to mature years he highly commends and extols a good woman such a one as his mother was in an Acrostick or Alphabetical Oration The Song of SOLOMON or The CANTICLES AFTER the building of the Summer House in the Forrest of Lebanon Solomon pens the Book of the Canticles as appeareth by these passages in it Chap. 4. 8. Come with me from Lebanon my Spouse with me from Lebanon And Chap. 7. 4. Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon c. Upon his bringing up Pharaohs Daughter to the house that he had prepared for her 1 King 9. 24. he seemeth to have made this Song For though the best and the most proper aim of it was at higher matters then an earthly marriage yet doth he make his marriage with Pharaohs Daughter a type of that sublime and spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and his Church Pharaohs Daughter was a Heathen and a stranger natively to the Church of Israel and withal she was a Black-moor as being an African as Cant. 1. 4 5. alludeth to it and so she was the kindlier type of what Solomon intended in all particulars CHAP. X. 2 CHRON. IX From beginning to vers 29. Solomon 31 THE Queen of Sheba cometh to hear the wisdom of Solomon and so Solomon 32 condemneth the Generation of the Jews that despised the wisdom of the Solomon 33 Father Matth. 12. 42. Solomon as is probable is yet flourishing in State Power Solomon 34 and Religion And is a Prince of admirable Peace at Salem a figure of the Solomon 35 King of Righteousness and the King of Peace CHAP. XI From beginning to vers 41. Solomon 36 IN his old age Solomon is drawn away by his Idolatrous Wives to forget Solomon 37 God The wisest and the happiest man like Adam undone by women Solomon 38 Hereupon his prosperity and his happiness began to change The Book of ECCLESIASTES AFTER his great fall Solomon recovereth again by repentance and writeth this Book of Ecclesiastes as his penitential dirge for that his folly He calleth himself in it Koheleth or the Gathering-Soul either recollecting it self or by admonition gathering others that go astray after vanity He sheweth in it that all things on this side Heaven are but vanity and he had found it so by sad experience and so the Kingdom promised to David which was to be everlasting must not be expected to be of this world as Joh. 18. 36. 1 KING XI Vers. 41 42 43. And 2 CHRON. IX Vers. 29 30 31. THE Book of Chronicles omitteth to mention the fall of Solomon as he had omitted the fall of David World 3029 Solomon 39 Solomon dieth having reigned forty years as his father David had done and Solomon 40 having had a great fall in his time as his father David had had yet like him is recovered pardoned and saved Kingdom of JUDAH 1 KINGS XII from beginning Division 1 to Vers. 25. World 3030 Rehoboam 1 Ieroboam 1 REHOBOAM through his folly and tyranny looseth the people by threatning them with a heavy yoke Christ seeketh to regain them by promissing a light one Matth. 11. 29 30. Shechem once the stage of blood Gen. 34. is now the scene of this unhappy division Rehoboam was now one and forty years old 2 Chron. 12. 13. yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 childish and simple 2 Chron. 13. 7. but of an haughty and oppressive spirit and so proveth himself a very fool Eccles. 2. 19. though he were the son of so wise a Father Kingdom of ISRAEL 2 CHRON. X. all And XI Division 1 to Verse 5. World 3030 Rehoboam 1 Ieroboam 1 JEROBOAM of Ephraim draweth ten Tribes from the house of David from the Temple that stood near it and from the promise of Christ that was affixed to it And this suddain rent of Solomons Kingdom did plainly teach that the King and Kingdom promised to David was not of this world but of another which King and Kingdom the revolting Tribes have now forsaken and by forsaking have lost Christ have lost Religion and have lost themselves And here is a kind of an Antichristian faction now risen in the world before Christs appearing The very foundation of this revolt of the Tribes was laid in the blood of Adoram Rehoboam seeketh to reduce the people with a strong hand whom with a gentle he would not retain PSAL. II. WITH the Story of the Apostacy of the ten Tribes read the second Psalm which was prophetically made by David Act. 4. 25. upon this revolt and rebellion and this is the first aim and intent of it though in a second and more full it hits upon the greater rebellion which this but typified and that is Judahs despising and crucifying the Lord of life being indeed exhibited as Israel despiseth him here being promised And as the Psalmist had touched in the first Psalm upon the fall of Adam who miscarried by walking in the counsel of the ungodly the Serpent and the seduced woman and had shewed a way how to withstand and escape such counsellings namely by meditation and delight in the Law of the Lord. So doth he in this Psalm touch upon the fall of the ten Tribes and how they miscarried by casting away the cords of obligation which God had tied them in to the throne of David and he giveth admonition to them to be wiser and adviseth both them and the generation that put the Lord to death and all ages to come To kiss the Son by a loving and submissive obedience as 1 Sam. 10. 1. and so to escape the wrath to come Matth. 3. when the Lords anger should be kindled and destroy the people that had been his destroyers 2 CHRON. XI From ver 5. to the end of the Chapter REhoboam fortifieth divers Cities Rehoboam 2 Ieroboam 2 Division 2 in Judah and Benjamin Rehoboam 3
second for he loseth his sons and he loseth his Kingdom and therefore is he fitly called The King of Israel for he hath taken more care of that Kingdom then his own and lost his own by it 3. That Joram slew his brethren and the Princes of Judah presently after his father had left him in the Throne and was gone away for Moab This is to be collected from these particulars 1. It is said 2 Chron. 21. 12 13 c. There came a writing from Elijah the Prophet unto Jehoram saying Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat c. but hast slain thy brethren of thy fathers house Behold with a great stroke will the Lord smite thy people c. Now it is ridiculous to hold as the Jews do that Elijah sent this letter out of Heaven after he was rapt up thither But it is without all doubt that he wrote it whilest he was here on earth before he was taken up Now before Jehoshaphat the King of Judah and Joram the King of Israel and the King of Edom come to the Battel against Moab Elijah is taken up and Elisha is with them for so it is plain 2 King 3. 11. And Jehoshaphat said Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord And one of the King of Israels servants answered and said Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat which poured water on the hands of Elijah Therefore the passage of the whole Story is to be cast into this order Moab rebelling against the King of Israel Jehoram the then King desireth Jehoshaphats assistance to help to subdue them Jehoshaphat consents raises his forces sets his son Joram in the throne to rule the Kingdom at home and so sets forth upon that expedition Joram when his father was now out of the Land riseth up against his Brethren and the nobles of Judah and slayeth them and resolveth to keep the Kingdom Elijah being yet alive heareth of this and though he had nothing yet to do with any of the Kings of Judah yet seeing here Jezabels spirit in this act of Joram he writes him a terrible letter leaves it to be conveyed to him and ere long is conveyed himself in a whirlwind to Heaven Elisha after his Masters departure returns through divided Jordan to Jericho to Bethel to Carmel to Samaria and from thence goes down to the Camp in Moab so that the Story of Elijahs rapture lieth in its proper place in 2 King 2. only the beginning of the third Chapter that mentioneth the beginning of Jorams reign which was before Elijahs translation is a repetition of what was said before in its proper place Chap. 1. 17. that the full Story of this Joram may be taken up together Elisha when he would prophecy he requireth some Musick to play and some songs of praises to be sung and then the Spirit of the Lord cometh upon him he foretelleth of a great deliverance and bringeth water miraculously into ditches as Elijah had done fire Moab is now become a wash-pot full of strange water and these waters do seem to Moab to be nothing but blood The King of Moab besieged in Kirharaseth with seven hundred men would break thorow the King of Edoms squadron but cannot Howbeit he taketh the Prince of Edom the Kings eldest son prisoner brings him into Kirharaseth again and there offers him up on the wall for a burnt offering c. So burns the bones of this young King of Edom into lime Amos 2. 1. And there was great indignation against Israel both from Edom and other Nations about it for Edom revolted and rebelled against Israel 2 King 8. 20. And the Philistims and Tyrians caught up Israelites as they could lay hold upon them and delivered them up to Edom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peaceable Captivity Amos 1. 6. 9. not taken by war but by sleight and deceit or a perfect Captivity not to be recovered again 2 KING II. III. ver 6. to end World 3110 Iehoshaphat 22 Iehoram 1 Iehoram 5 Division 81 ELIAS wrapt up into Heaven Joram the King of Israel goeth against Moab c. Elisha multiplieth the widdows Oyl promiseth the Shunamite a Son c. 2 CHRON. XXI Ver. Unto the end 1 KING XXII Ver. 50. Iehoshaphat 23 Iehoram 2 Iehoram 6 Division 82 JEHORAM grew more Iehoram 7 and more abominable for Iehoshaphat 24 Iehoram 3 Iehoram 8 Division 83 Athaliah Ahabsdaughter was Division 84 his wife World 3113 Iehoshaphat 25 Iehoram 4 Iehoram 9 Division 85 Jehoshaphat dieth Edom rebelling is invaded Iehoram 5 Iehoram 10 Division 86 by Jehoram Libnah in Judah Iehoram 6 Iehoram 11 Division 87 revolts World 3116 Iehoram 7 Joram diseased in his bowels 2 KINGS IV. V. VI. VII VIII to ver 25. Iehoshaphat 23 Iehoram 2 Iehoram 6 Division 82 ELISHA the Prophet is Iehoram 7 now famous and doth many wonderful and Iehoshaphat 24 Iehoram 3 Iehoram 8 Division 83 Division 84 miraculous things multiplyeth Oyl World 3113 Iehoshaphat 25 Iehoram 4 Iehoram 9 Division 85 healeth deadly Pottage feedeth Iehoram 5 Iehoram 10 Division 86 a multitude miraculously cureth leprous Naaman raiseth Iehoram 6 Iehoram 11 Division 87 World 3116 Iehoram 7 the Shunamites dead child c. Betwixt the first and last years of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat there are very many occurrences mentioned which are not referred nor fixed to their proper year and therefore they must be calculated in a gross sum namely considered as coming to pass in some time of these years They are the Stories contained in the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of the second Book of Kings and in 2 Chron. 21. from Ver. 6. to Ver. 19. their proper order and time we may conjecture thus In the first year of Joram Elisha returning out of Moab into the Land of Israel multiplieth the Widows Oyl as he had produced the Armies water he is lodged in Shunem and assureth the Mistris of the house of a child The seven years famine was then begun and he giveth the Shunamite warning of the continuance of it The second year she beareth her child in the Land of the Philistims 2 Kings 8. 2. And Elisha resideth among the children of the Prophets at Gilgal and healeth the deadly Pottage and feedeth an hundred men with twenty Cakes and some few ears of Corn this was in Barley Harvest-time in the beginning of the year That Summer he cureth Naaman of his Leprosie the only cure of Leprosie done till the greatest Prophet came and prosyliteth him so that he beggeth two Mules load of Israelitish earth to make him an Altar of when he should come home and craveth pardon for his former Idolatry Chap. 5. ver 18. For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant for that when my master hath gone into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he hath leaned upon mine hand that I also have bowed my self in the house of Rimmon for my worshipping in
the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for this thing for so should the words be rendred as craving pardon for Idolatry past and not begging leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come Gehazies covetousness brings upon him Naamans Leprosie the Text hath divinely omitted a letter in one word that it might the more brand him with a blot for this his villany I will run after Naaman saith he and will take of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blot instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat ver 20. The third year Elisha maketh Iron to swim preventeth the Syrians ambushments and striketh those with blindness that were sent to catch him and bringeth them into the middest of Samaria and there feasteth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 6. 23. So the bands of Syria came no more as yet into the land of Israel for so the very next verse teacheth that it should be translated for it relateth that after this Benhadad gathered all his Host and besieged Samaria So is the like passage to be rendred 2 King 24. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the King of Aegypt came no more as yet or at that time out of his Land for in Jer. 37. 5. The King of Aegypt is a foot with his Army and abroad again The fourth year Jehoshaphat dieth Edom rebelleth and shaketh off Judahs yoke which David had laid upon them Till Jorams time there was no King in Edom of absolute power and rule but a Deputy under the Kings of Judah was King 1 King 22. 47. but now Edom revolteth from under the hand of Judah and made a King over themselves 2 King 8. 20. Then Libnah revolteth also Joram goeth against them and by night smiteth their Squadrons which were pitched about him to give him battel the next morning The fifth year Samaria is besieged by Benhadad and the famine becomes so great in the City that women eat their own Children as Deut. 28. 53. 56. and men women and children eat Doves dung All the fault is laid upon Elisha and he must be beheaded but he foretelleth a suddain and wonderful delivery and a strange and miraculous plenty which accordingly came to pass An unbelieving Prince is trod to death The sixth year Philistims and Arabians oppress Joram King of Judah and captive his wives and children leaving him only one son behind Here he is met with for the murder of his own Brethren The seventh year Joram is fallen into the sad disease of his bowels 2 Chron. 21. 19. And it came to pass after the end of two years his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness for he shewed no bowels to his brethren This year the famine endeth at Harvest and at that Harvest the Shunamites child dieth and is recovered by Elisha his death and reviving is related instantly after the Story of his birth though when he died he was able to follow the reapers because his Story might be related together and not long after his Mother goeth to the King to beg and petition to be setled in her estate again and there she finds leprous Gehazi with him The first verse of Chapter 8. should chronically be translated as of the time past Now Elisha had spoken to the woman c. ver 2. And the woman had risen and done after the saying of the man of God c. This year Elisha is at Damaseus Benhadad sick Hazael stifles him with a wet cloth and reigns in his stead 2 CHRON. XXII to ver 10. 2 KING VIII 25. to the end World 3117 Iehoram 8 Iehoram 12 Division 88 AHAZIAH the son of Joram reigneth and dieth this year by the sword of Jehu 2 King 8. 26. In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab King of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram King of Judah begin to reign Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem and his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri King of Israel And 2 King 9. 29. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to raign over Judah 2 Chron. 22. 2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign c. Here the Reader seeth two plain and visible differences the one about the age of Ahaziah and the other about the time when he began to reign The same Book of Kings saith he began to raign in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab and he began to raign in the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab Now the reconciling of this difference is easie when it is observed that Joram the son of Ahab reigned one whole year in the life time of his father and eleven years afterward And so one Text calleth his last year his twelfth that is of his whole raign and another Text calleth it his eleventh that is of his sole reign after his fathers death But the other difference is both the more visible and the more difficult for the Book of Kings saith Ahaziah was but two and twenty years old when he began to raign and the Book of Chronicles saith he was two and forty and so this latter reckoning maketh him two years older then his father for his father began to raign when he was two and thirty years old and and reigned eight years and so died being forty 2 King 8. 17. Now for the reconciling of this scruple the Original helpeth us which in our translation is not visible The Original meaneth thus Ahaziah was the son of the two and forty years namely of the house of Omri of whose seed he was by the mothers side and he walked in the ways of that house and came to ruine at the same time with it This the Text directed us to look after when it calleth his mother the daughter of Omri which was indeed the daughter of Ahab Now these forty two years are easily reckoned by any that will count back in the Chronicle to the second of Omri Such another reckoning there is about Jechoniah or Jehojachin 2 King 24. 8. Jehojachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign But 2 Chron. 36. 9. Jehojachin was the son of the eight years That is his beginning of reign fell in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar and of Judahs first captivity as shall be shewed there World 3117 Iehoram 8 Iehoram 12 Division 88 JORAM King of Israel fighteth at Ramoth Gilead is wounded comes to be healed of his wounds at Jezreel and is there slain by Jehu Ahaziah had been with Joram at Ramoth and is slain with Joram at Jezreel 2 CHRON. XXII vers 10 11 12. and 2 KING XI ver 1 2 3. World 3118 Athaliah 1 Iehu 1 Division 89 ATHALIAH destroyeth Athaliah 2 Iehu 2 Division 90 the rest of the Seed Royal Athaliah 3 Iehu 3 Division 91 that were left besides the forty Athaliah 4 Iehu 4 Division 92 two slain by Jehu she her Athaliah 5
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
if they scape that Army Why eat this year what groweth of it self and what may be found up and down on the Trees and the ground But what must they do the next year Which was a year of release and rest as every seventh year was and they might not till the ground Why Providebit Deus God will also then provide for them of what grows of it self again and then the third year sow and reap and return to your old peace and prosperity ESAY XXXVIII 2 KING XX. to ver 12. 2 CHRON. XXXII ver 24. HEZEKIAHS sickness of the Plague seemeth to have been in the very time while the Assyrian Army lay about Jerusalem for though the destruction of that Army by the Angel be related before the Story of his sickness yet that his sickness was while that Army was alive may be conjectured upon these two collections First It is past all doubt that his sickness was this very same year that the Assyrian Army was destroyed by the Angel for if he reigned nine and twenty years as 2 King 18. 2. and that stroke of the Angel upon that Army was in his fourteenth year as vers 13. of that Chapter and he lived fifteen years after his sickness as 2 King 20. 6. then it makes that matter past controverting Secondly The Lord in his sickness doth not only promise him recovery from his disease but also that he will deliver him and that City out of the hand of the King of Assyria which shews there was then danger to him and Jerusalem from that King And this may be conceived one cause that made Hezekiah to weep so bitterly when the message of death was denounced unto him because he was to leave Jerusalem and Judea under the pressure and danger of the Assyrian Tyrant and must not see the delivery of it Therefore though the whole story of Sennacherib be laid together as was fit yet can I not but in my thoughts insert this story of Hezekiahs sickness before the destruction of his Army as no doubt it came to pass before Sennacheribs death and yet is that storyed before it for the concluding of his History all at once To Hezekiah alone is it given to know the term of his life and the Sun in the Firmament knoweth not his going down that Hezekiah may know his 2 KING XX. from vers 12. to vers 20. ESAY XXXIX all 2 CHRON. XXXII vers 25 26. MErodach or Berodach-Baladan the King of Babel visiteth Hezekiah by his Embassadors to congratulate his recovery and to inquire after the miracle of the Sun turning back The Lord left Hezekiah to try what was in his heart and it shewed folly The Lord foretels by the Prophet the captivity into Babel which City and Kingdom is now small and under the power of the Assyrian before it rise to be the golden head For observe in 2 Chron. 33. 11. that Babel is in the hand of the King of Assyria The Captains of the host of the King of Assyria carried Manasseth unto Babel It might very well be that Eser-haddon who succeeded Sennacherib in the Assyrian Monarchy took offence at Merodach-Baladan for his intimacy and familiarity with Hezekiah and thereupon set upon Babel and took it out of his hands Babel had been tributary to the Crown of Assyria hitherto the Assyrian having built it for some of his servants that traded upon Euphrates in Ships and made it a fair City but now Eser-haddon subdued it and defaced it Esay 23. 13. 2 CHRON. XXXII from vers 27. to end 2 KINGS XX. vers 20 21. Division 267 Hezekiah 15 HEZEKIAH liveth these fifteen years in safety and prosperity Division 268 Hezekiah 16 having humbled himself before the Lord for his pride to the Embassadors Division 269 Hezekiah 17 of Babel The degrees of the Suns reversing and the fifteen Division 270 Hezekiah 18 years of Hezekiahs life prolonging may call to our minds the fifteen Division 271 Hezekiah 19 Psalms of degrees viz. from Psalm 120 and forward There were Hezekiahs Division 272 Hezekiah 20 songs that were sung to the stringed instruments in the House of Division 273 Hezekiah 21 the Lord Esay 38. 21. whether these were picked out by him for that Division 274 Hezekiah 22 purpose be it left to censure The Jews hold they were called Psalms Division 275 Hezekiah 23 of degrees because they were sung upon the fifteen stairs that rose into Division 276 Hezekiah 24 the Courts of the Temple Who so in reading those Psalms shall have Division 277 Hezekiah 25 his thoughts upon the danger of Jerusalem by Sennacherib and her delivery and the sickness of Hezekiah and his recovery shall find that they fit those occasions in many places very well But I assert nothing but leave it to examination Division 278 Hezekiah 26 1 CHRON. IV. from vers 34. to the end Division 279 Hezekiah 27 IN the time of Hezekiah some of the Simeonites subdue the Meunims Division 280 Hezekiah 28 and the Amalekites It is most likely it was not in the former fourteen years of Hezekiah when the Assyrian Army was all abroad and none durst peep out but in his last fifteen years when that Army was destroyed and gone World 3310 Division 281 Hezekiah 29 Hezekiah dieth ESAY XXIII ESAY XL XLI c. to the end of the Book THE prophesying of Esay is concluded by the Title of his Book in the times of Hezekiah though the Hebrews of old have held that he lived and died in the days of Manasseh and was sawn asunder by him The Epistle to the Hebrews may seem to speak to that Heb. 11. 37. therefore according to the Chronology of the title of the Book in the first verse of it these Chapters that are set after the Story of Hezekiahs fourteenth year or after the Story of the destruction of the Assyrians and Hezekiahs recovery are all to be allotted to the fifteen years of his prolonged life since there is no direction to lay all of them or any of them in any time else c. The three and twentieth Chapter also falleth under the same time even towards the latter end of Hezekiahs reign when the King of Assyria had now taken Babel This is apparent by ver 13. spoken of a little before for there the Lord threatneth Tyrus by the example of Babel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that City had been founded by the Assyrian * * * For Ships and for men of the Desert thereupon Babel is called The desert of the Sea Esay 21. 1. for his Ships and Ship-men to traffick upon Euphrates as Tyrus was built on the Sea for the like purpose but now the Assyrian had brought that to ruine and so should the case of Tyrus be by the Babilonians Nebuchad-nezzar destroyed Tyrus Ezek. 29. 18. Now the reason why this Chapter that fell so late in Hezekiahs time is yet laid in that place where it is is this because the Prophesies against those Countries
perform it Division 352 Iosiah 14 Josiah goeth on in piety and in reforming yet is not the wrath of Division 353 Iosiah 15 the Lord removed partly because of the sins of Manasseh 2 King Division 354 Iosiah 16 23. 26. and partly because the peoples reformation was but fained Division 355 Iosiah 17 Jer. 3. 10. and partly because in most of them there was no reformation at all 2 KING XXII from vers 3. to end and XXIII to vers 29. 2 CHRON. XXXIV from vers 8. to end and XXXV to vers 20. World 3385 Division 356 Iosiah 18 THE copy of the Law written with Moses own hand is found this year in the Temple Josiah consulteth Huldah a Prophetess about it Jeremy was not now at Jerusalem but at Anathoth the Town of his birth he prophesied there till his Towns-men were about to kill him Chap. 11. 22. and then he goeth up to Jerusalem and the Lord before hand tells him that he must expect rougher dealing at Jerusalem then at home For if foot-men had wearied him how could he run with horsemen c. Chap. 12. 5. If he had been thus tired with his own equals at Anathoth what would he do with the great ones at Jerusalem And if in his native Town the place of his peace he had found so much trouble what would he do in Jerusalems tumults For even thy brethren and thy fathers house have dealt treacherously with thee c. vers 6. The Prophet was very young when he began to Prophesie and spent some of his junior years in preaching to his own Country-men but they despised his youth and therefore as Christ being refused by his own Towns-men of Nazareth goeth then about all Galilee preaching the Gospel Luke 4. So Jeremy rejected and indangered by his Towns-men of Anathoth goeth then abroad to prophesie at Jerusalem where it is more then probable he was not when Josiah inquired of Huldah a woman about Moses Copy Zephany had not yet appeared a Prophet at all as shall be observed by and by Josiah humbled and afraid upon the reading of the Law bringeth the people into a Covenant setteth on to destroy Idolatry and keepeth a solemn Passover JEREMY II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII Division 357 Iosiah 19 JEREMY in these latter years of Josiah doth prophesie very sad Division 358 Iosiah 20 and heavy things against Judah and Jerusalem and telleth plainly Division 359 Iosiah 21 that Jerusalem should become like Shiloh c. For the time and Division 360 Iosiah 22 order of these Chapters the Reader may take notice of these few Division 361 Iosiah 23 things Division 362 Iosiah 24 1. That whereas his Chapters from the twentieth forward are of very Division 363 Iosiah 25 much and very visible dislocation these to the twentieth do not own Division 364 Iosiah 26 any such thing in so visible and evident a manner as those do nor indeed Division 365 Iosiah 27 by any closer intimation to conclude any whit certainly upon and Division 366 Iosiah 28 therefore it is not safe nor solid to transpose them at all but to take Division 367 Iosiah 29 them up as they lye Nor do I see any thing to the contrary but that Division 368 Iosiah 30 they lye very direct and methodically all along 2. The thirteenth Chapter and all that follow to the one and twentieth I conceive to have been delivered in the time of Jehoiakim and not in the time of Josiah and that upon this ground because in Chap. 13. vers 18. The Prophet calls to the King and Queen Humble your selves and sit down for your Principality shall come down even the Crown of your glory which was most fully accomplished upon Jehoiakim and his wife Jer. 22. 19. with 2 King 24. 12. and not at all upon Josiah and his Queen at the least not upon his Queen for ought we read of 3. There is one particular very remarkable that runneth along through the most of these Chapters from the beginning of the third to the fourteenth and that is the mention of a great drought or want of rain as Chap. 3. 3. 5. 24 25. 8. 13. 20. 9. 10. 12. 12. 4. 14. 1 2 3 4. Now if this drought were in the time of Josiah as it is mentioned instantly before the dating of a Prophesie in Josiahs time Chap. 3. 3. 6. and in the time of Jehoiakim as there is mention of it presently after a Prophesie against Jehoiakim Chap. 13. 18. 14. 1 2. then it appeareth that this sad restraint of rain fell out in the last years of Josiah and continued some of Jehoiakims time and so these Chapters of Jeremy do most properly fall in with the latter years of Josiahs reign In Chap. 11. 2. he seemeth to speak concerning the Covenant that Josiah had caused the people to enter into upon the finding and reading of Moses copy and he doth earnestly exhort the people to keep it And it may be that phrase in Chap. 2. 31. O generation behold or see the Word of the Lord may have reference to that copy of Moses also I am sure it may be more properly interpreted as if he pointed to that then it is interpreted by some Jews as if he shewed them the Pot of Manna There is only some Chronical doubt ariseth upon the eighteenth verse of the second Chapter and that is whether Judah had any league and reliance with and upon Egypt in Josiahs time which as there is no Scripture to assert so also is there none neither to contradict And it may very well be held affirmatively and more probable then otherways all circumstances well considered And what if Josiahs death by the King of Egypt were a temporal punishment for his reliance upon Egypt The Prophesie of ZEPHANIAH all IN these latter times of Josiah did Zephaniah also arise and appear a Prophet the great Grand-child of King Hezekiah if some guess aright The times of his Prophesying may be setled the better by this that as the first verse of his Book doth date his Prophesie by the reign of Josiah so the eight verse of the same Chapter doth Prophesie against the Kings Children Jehoahaz Jehoiakim and Zedekiah for their new-fashions and new-fangled apparrel Now the eldest of these three was but twelve years old at Josiahs eighteenth and the second but ten It is true indeed that it nameth not these three men by name but why it should not be understood in the litteral and proper sence and mean these three men I yet see no ground to the contrary The Jews indeed appear to be of another mind for they make * * * Maimon in Praef. ad Mish Jeremy to be Zephanies Scholler and so Expositers are of another mind for they understand the Kings Children largely for the Noble-mens Sons or Courtiers but considering the wickedness of these sons of Josiah after their fathers death I have no reason to think them much otherwise in
which was a comfortable word for Baruch in Egypt in the threatnings of Egypt the 46 Chapter which was also delivered in this fourth of Jehoiakim is laid next that all the threatnings against Egypt though at several times delivered yet might come together and that the accomplishment of this Prophesie delivered in Jehoiakims time and fulfilled upon Pharaoh Nechos Army might be a confirmation that Israel in Egypt must expect the like truth of the Prophesies against it delivered to them there of misery to come upon it by Nebuchadnezzar Of the same date with the 46 Chapter we may well suppose the 48 49 Chapters to be also because the second verse of Chapter 46. doth use a comprehensive expression The Word of the Lord against the Gentiles as concluding all these Sermons and Prophesies against these several Nations under one date and head only Chap. 47. and vers 34. of Chap. 49. are of several specified dates of which when we come to them JEREMY XXXVI from vers 9. to end World 3403 Divvision 374 Years of Captivity 2 Iehoiakim 5 IN the fifth year of Jehoiakim in the ninth month Jehoiakim cuts in pieces and burns Jeremies Prophesie a wickedness not to be paralleld Let the Reader weigh whether Baruchs reading the Book in the fourth year of Jehoiakim on the Fast day vers 6. and his reading it now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim at an extraordinary Fast in the ninth month be above the space of two months asunder It is very well worth the pondering I cannot but conclude affirmatively and I believe upon very good ground and this observed and concluded doth help to count the seventy years captivity the more exactly if it do not also teach us to begin the year from the time of the first captivity from its antient date in Tisri till Redemption altered the date and brought it to Abib which I believe Captivity hath now altered again The preceding Chapter and this and divers forward are Historical and therefore they are laid together after those that are more fully Prophetical we shall observe the like in the Book of Daniel ere it be long Divvision 375 Years of Captivity 3 Iehoiakim 6 There is no particular occurrence mentioned this sixth year of Jehoiakim 2 KING XXIV the latter end of vers 1. and vers 2 3 4. JEHOIAKIM rebelleth against the King of Babel for which he is miserably invaded and Judah spoiled and this misery continueth all his time DANIEL I. from vers 18. to end World 3405 Divvision 376 Years of Captivity 4 Iehoiakim 7 DANIEL and his three fellows are presented to the King and higly approved of JEREMY XXXV THE Story and matter of Jeremies setting wine before the Division 377 Years of Capt. 5 Iosiah 8 Rechabites c. is said to be in the days of Jehoiakim but in Division 378 Years of Capt. 6 Iosiah 9 what year is not mentioned only this may be collected out of the Division 379 Years of Capt. 7 Iosiah 10 Text that it was after Jehoiakims rebelling against Nebuchad-nezzar for they say in vers 1. that they fled to Jerusalem for fear of the Army of the Chaldeans and the Army of the Syrians which are the Army mentioned to have come against him upon his rebelling 2 King 24. 2. This Story therefore fell out in these latter years of Jehoiakim Now it is laid so far in the Book as after divers Prophesies dated by the times of Zedekiah partly because it is Historical and so is set after Prophetical things and partly because this Story of the Rechabites doth set off the impiety of the Jews mentioned in the preceding Chapter the more for there he sheweth how false the people were to their Covenant with God in recalling their freed servants and here how faithful the Rechabites were to an ingagement of their father 2 KING XXIV vers 5 6 7. 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 6 7 8. World 3409 Division 380 Years of Capt. 8 Iosiah 11 JEHOIAKIM captived slain and buried with the burial of an Ass. JER LII vers 28. NEBUCHAD-NEZZAR captiveth three thousand and twenty three Jews This is to be understood of the captivity of Jehoiakim it is called the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar because his siege against Jerusalem began in his seventh and he took the City in the beginning of his eight and partly to distinguish this from the captivity of Jehoiakin which was in his eight when he carried away many thousands 2 King 24. 12 14 16. 2 KING XXIV vers 8. 9. 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 9. JEHOIACHIN the son of Jehoiakim reigneth three months He is called also Jeconiah and Coniah the name Jeho or Jahu a contraction of Jehovah being sometime set before his name and sometime after and the first syllable of his name sometime cut off and he called Coniah That his three months are to be taken in in Jehoiakims last year there is evidence sufficient in 2 King 25. 2 8. where the eleventh year of Zedekiah and the nineteenth of Nebuchad-nezzar are coincident or fall in together And in 2 Chron. 36. 10. where it is said that when the year was expired the King of Babel captived him thither There is one main doubt and scruple ariseth in comparing his Story in the Book of Kings and Chronicles together for the Book of Chronicles saith he was eight years old when he began to reign and the Book of Kings saith he was eighteen Now in expressions that are so different propriety is not to be expected in both but the one to be taken properly and that is that he was eighteen years old when he began to reign and the other that he was the Son of the eighth year or fell in the lot of the eighth year after any Captivity of Judah had begun for the beginning of his reign was in the eighth year of Nebuchad-nezzar 2 King 24. 12. and in the eighth year of the seventy of captivity And so the Holy Ghost dealeth here as he doth about Ahaziah 2 King 8. 26. and 2 Chron. 22. 2. compared together as was observed there JEREMY XXII from vers 24. to the end JEHOIACHIN or Jeconiah is no sooner upon the Throne but Jeremy denounceth his captivity and the failing of Solomons house in him And this doth but as it were take at that Prophesiy which he uttered before against Jehoiakim his father Chap. 36. 30. He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David When the ending of Solomons House is to be denounced he calleth the Earth Earth Earth to hear the word of the Lord that the earthly Kingdom was now to decay and therefore a Kingdom of another nature was to be looked after JEREMY XXIII all THIS King and Kingdom is described in this Chapter and when he had denounced the failing of Solomons house and the ruine of the earthly Kingdom of the house of David in the Chapter before he now telleth of the everlasting King and Kingdom of David vers 5. 6. and denounceth woe against those cursed
to go to Jerusalem Ezra 7. ver 9. On the ninth tenth and eleventh days he musters his Company and keeps a Fast at the River Ahava Ezra 8. ver 15 23. On the twelfth day he beginneth to march ver 31. On the fourteenth day the Passover is solemnly kept at Jerusalem Ezra cometh to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month or the month Ab and on the fourth day delivereth out upon weight all the Gold and Silver that he had brought with him for an Offering from the King from his Princes and from Israel in Babel Ezra was Uncle to Joshua that was now High Priest Chap. 7. 1. with 1 Chron. 6. 14. His father Seraiah was slain at the sacking of Jerusalem 2 King 25. 18. seventy five years ago Ezra was then very young if so be he were then born EZRA IX X. REST and prosperity which the returned Jews have a little injoyed hath bred corruption amongst them by making mixt Marriages with the Nations amongst whom they lived This Ezra reformeth and causeth them to put away their Wives which were a great multitude only four men opposed the business two Levites and two others and to such a sence is vers 15. of Chap. 10. to be read Onely Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tiknah stood against this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Meshullan and Shabbethai helped them weigh vers 16. and it inforceth this translation The meeting about this matter was on the twentieth day of the ninth month and then they chose Elders to see the work carried on they begin to sit upon it the first day of the tenth month and have finished the business by the first day of the first month Chap. 10. 14 16 17. This matter was done in the seventh year of Darius or Artaxerxes the same year that Ezra came to Jerusalem as the Text seemeth to carry it on unless by the strange writing of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 16. the Holy Ghost would hint Darius his tenth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the learned judge ZECHARY IX X XI XII XIII XIV Artax Darius 8 FROM this action of Ezra of reforming their mixt Marriages which Artax Darius 9 most likely was in Darius his seventh there is a silence of any thing Artax Darius 10 done till Darius his twentieth and then Nehemiah begins to stir In this Artax Darius 11 time therefore which was the space of twelve years we may very well conceive Artax Darius 12 that Zachary was propheâ—ying among the people and helping forward the Artax Darius 13 Reformation and since there is no date to direct us otherwise we may Artax Darius 14 very well take up his 9 10 11 12 13 14. Chapters in which he Prophesieth Artax Darius 15 very plainly and fully of many things concerning Christ and the Artax Darius 16 time of his coming as of the Conversion of Paul and the Gospel beginning Artax Darius 17 at Hadrach and Damascus and of Antioch in Hamath intertaining the Artax Darius 18 Gospel of Christ riding into Jerusalem upon an Ass Chap. 9. 1 9. of his Artax Darius 19 confounding the three Shepherds the Pharisees Saduces and Esseans his being â—old for thirty pieces of Silver Chap. 11. 8. 12. his Disciples scattered Chap. 13. 7. divers of Jerusalem mourning over him whom they peirced Chap. 12. and the rest and their City and Temple perishing through unbelief Chap. 11. 1. c. NEHEMIAH all the Book Chap. 13. vers 7. World 3507 Artax Darius 20 IN the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Darius in the month Chisleu Nehemiah understandeth the miserable case of Jerusalem and in the month Nisan following he obtaineth leave of the King to go to Jerusalem and a Commission and a Convoy Here observe that Chisleu the ninth month and Nisan following which was the first month are both in the twentieth year of Darius Chap. 1. 1. and Chap. 2. 1. Artax Darius 21 Nehemiah is twelve years governour of Judea before he return again to Artax Darius 22 Persia to the King in that time he builds the wall of Jerusalem fills it Artax Darius 23 and settles it with Inhabitants brings the people into order and into a Artax Darius 24 Covenant and Jerusalem into habitableness in safety And having finished Artax Darius 25 all that was needful for the constituting of the City and the people in Artax Darius 26 peace and piety he returneth at the end of twelve years or in the two Artax Darius 27 and thirtieth year of the King according as he had appointed Chap. 13. Artax Darius 28 6. and from that year if we count backward to the first of Cyrus you Artax Darius 29 have the sum of seven times seven or forty nine years the term that the Artax Darius 30 Angel had pointed out for the building of Jerusalem City and wall Dan. Artax Darius 31 9. 25. viz. of Cyrus three years of Ahashuerosh fourteen years and of this Darius thirty two And thus far goeth the Old Testament in telling the years of the Story as it goeth along and further then this thirty two of Darius it counteth not by named sums And this very consideration doth confirm me in this reckoning of the years of these Persian Kings for I cannot but conclude that the Holy Ghost naming the several years of these Kings hitherto intendeth to continue the Chronicle till this time of Jerusalems compleating and there to end the Annals In the seventh Chapter of this Book which giveth account of the number and the families of the people that planted Judea after the Captivity you will find exceeding much difference from the Catalogue in Ezra 2. though this is said by the Text to be the same for the fifth verse saith thus I found a Book of the Genealogy of them that came up at the first and found written therein c. but the matter is to be conceived and apprehended thus That Nehemiah found that List and Catalogue of those that came up in the first of Cyrus as it was taken then and that he called over the names of the Families as they lay in order there He observed the order of that List in calling and listing them but he took the number of them as they were now when he numbred them Some Families were now more in number then they were when that first List was made and some were less and some that were in that List were not to be found now for some had more of the same Stock come out of Babel since the first numbering and some that had come up at first and were then numbred were now gone back and so he observeth by comparing that List and the present number how the Plantation in Judea had gone forward or backward increased or decayed since the first return World 3519 Artax Darius 32 Nehemiah returneth to the King again Chap. 13. 6. and here the Chronicle of the Old Testament ends NEHEM XIII from vers 7. to the end NEHEMIAH
after his absence from Jerusalem which how long it was is uncertain when he returneth thither again findeth things exceedingly out of order which he seeketh to reform He lived after this to the times of Darius the last King of Persia for he speaks of him Chap. 12. 22. and of Jaddua the High Priest who met Alexander the Great when he came to Jerusalem and to whom Alexander shewed so great respect as Josephus reporteth Antiq. Lib. 11. Caput ult Ezra liveth also near towards the times of Jaddua for he wrote the Book of Chronicles in the time of Johanan Jaddua's father Nehem. 12. 23. and so he lived well towards the expiration of the Persian Monarchy He was born at the least fifty years before Cyrus first and from thence to Darius his thirty second were forty nine years an hundred in all within one And after that he weareth out the time of one High Priest namely Joiada and writeth in the time of Johanan or Jonathan the next High Priest after him This consideration also helpeth to confirm that account of the times and Kings that we have given from Cyrus hither The Prophesie of MALACHI MALACHI the last of the Prophets of the Old Testament is held by some to have been Ezra but that matter is not much material and it is little certain And something uncertain are his his times if we should go about to be curious in determining of them but only this we may conclude of him that he lived in the times of corruption the beginning of which are mentioned by Nehemiah He prophesieth against the strange marriage mentioned there Nehem. 13. 23 28. Mal. 2. 11. And against the detention of Tithes mentioned there Neh. 13. 10 11. Mal. 3. 8. And against other prophannesses Neh. 13. 15. c. Mal. 1. 13. 2. 8. c. He concludeth with turning them to the study of Moses and the Old Testament and to the expectation of Elias Baptist the beginning of the new Because after his departure out of the world the spirit of Prophesie also departed and was a stranger among the Jews till the dawning of the Gospel The Apochrypha Books that were written in the time between wanted the dictating of that spirit for it was now departed And thus endeth the Old Testament in a prediction of the Baptist to come and in a threatning of a curse upon the unbelieving Jews FINIS THE HARMONY Chronicle and Order OF THE NEW TESTAMENT The Text of the Four EVANGELISTS Methodized The Story of the ACTS of the APOSTLES Analyzed The Order of the EPISTLES Manifested The Times of the REVELATION Observed All Illustrated with variety of OBSERVATIONS Upon the Chiefest Difficulties Textual and Talmudical For clearing of their Sense and Language With an Additional DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Fall of JERUSALEM AND THE Condition of the JEWS in that Land afterward By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel M DC LXXXII 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 Wisdom 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 reap 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 Chronical 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 several 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 material 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 mind 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 Iudgments 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 of them or only to be pondering how to lay all in their right current I have not only gone the way before him but have stewed his way all along with variety of observations as not obvious for such would have but added one tediousness to another so I hope not unprofitable nor without his delight I have not set
from the time of Onias who built there a great Temple and an Altar and all the men of Egypt went thither c. And there was a great Congregation there double to the number of those that came out of Egypt Fol. 14. Of this Temple built by Onias in Egypt Josephus maketh mention Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 6. And the Talmud in Menachoth cap. 13. So that Christ being sent into Egypt was sent among his own Nation who had filled that Country The time that he was in Egypt was not above three or four months so soon the Lord smote Herod for his butchery of the Innocent Children and murtherous intent against the Lord of Life Joseph and Mary being called out of Egypt after Herods death intend for Judaea again thinking to go to Bethlehem but the fear of Archelaus and the warning of an Angel directs them into Galilee They knew not but that Christ was to be educated in Bethlehem as he was to be born there therefore they kept him there till he was two years old and durst not take him thence till fear and the warrant of an Angel dismisseth them into Egypt And when they come again from thence they can think of no other place but Bethlehem again till the like fear and warrant send them into Galilee There is none of the Evangelists that recordeth any thing concerning Christ CHRIST III from the time of his return out of Egypt till he come to be twelve years CHRIST IV old which was for the space of these years For the better understanding CHRIST V of which times let us take up some few passages in Josephus CHRIST VI Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. Herod saith he reigned 34 years from the time that CHRIST VII Antigonus was taken away and 37 years from the time that he was first declared CHRIST VIII King by the Romans CHRIST IX And again in the same Book cap. 15. In the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus CHRIST X the People not enduring his cruelty and tyranny they accused Archelaus to CHRIST XI Caesar and he banished him to Vienna And a little after Cyrenius was sent by Caesar to tax Syria and to confiscate Archelaus his Goods And lib. 18. cap. 1. Coponius was also sent with Cyrenius to be Governour of Judea And ibid. cap. 5. Coponius returning to Rome Marcus Ambibuchus becometh his Successor in that Government And after him succeeded Annius Rufus in whose time died Caesar Augustus the second Emperor of the Romans Now when Augustus died Christ was fourteen years old as appeareth from this that he was 29 years old compleat and beginning to be thirty in the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Emperor next succeeding Luke 3. 1 2. Reckon then these times that Josephus hath mentioned between the death of Herod and the death of Augustus namely the ten years of Archelaus and after them the Government of Coponius and after him Ambibuchus and after him Rufus and it will necessarily follow that when Herod slew Bethlehem Children Christ being then two years old it was the very last year of his Reign SECTION VIII LUKE Chap. II. from Ver. 40. to the end of the Chapter World 3939 Rome 765 Augustus 42 CHRIST XII Archelaus 10 CHRIST at twelve years old sheweth his Wisdom among the Doctors At the same Age had Solomon shewed his Wisdom in deciding the Controversie between the two Harlots Ignat. Martyr in Epist. ad Magnos IT is very easie to see the subsequence of this Section to that preceeding since there is nothing recorded by any of the Evangelists concerning Christ from his infancy till he began to be thirty years old but only this Story of his shewing his Wisdom at twelve years old among the Doctors of some of the three Sanhedrins that sate at the Temple for there sate one of 23 Judges in the East Gate of the Mountain of the House called the Gate Shushan Another of 23 in the Gate of Nicanor or the East Gate of the Court of Israel And the great Sanhedrin of 71 Judges that sate in the Room Gazith not far from the Altar Though Herod had slain the Sanhedrin as is related by Josephus and divers others yet was not that Court nor the judiciary thereof utterly extinguisht but revived again and continued till many years after the destruction of the City His Story about this matter is briefly thus given by the Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 3. facie 2. Herod was a servant of the Asmonean Family he set his Eyes upon a Girl of it One day the man heard a voice from Heaven Bath Kol which said Any servant that rebelleth this year shall prosper He riseth up and slayeth all his Masters but left that Girl c. And whereas it is said Thou shalt set a King over thee from among thy brethren which as the gloss there tells us their Rabbies understood of the chiefest of thy brethren he rose up and slew all the great ones only he left Baba ben Bota to take counsel of him The gloss upon this again tells us That he slew not utterly all the great ones for he left Hillel and the Sons of Betirah remaining and Josephus relateth also that he spared Shammai to which Abraham Zaccuth addeth that Menahem and 80 gallant Men of the chief of the Nation were gone over to his service and to attend upon him So that these of themselves and by ordination of others did soon repair that breach that his Sword had made in the Sanhedrin he not resisting its erection again when he had now taken away the Men of his displeasure Hillel was President and sat so forty years and died by the Jews computation applied to the Christian account much about this twelfth year of Christ. For they say that he lived an hundred and twenty years the last forty of which he spent in the Presidency of the Sanhedrin entring upon that dignity an hundred years before the destruction of the City Menahem was at first Vicepresident with him but upon his going away to Herods service Shammai came in his room and now two as eminent and learned men sat in those two Chairs as ever had done since the first birth of traditions Hillel himself was so deserving a man that whereas in the vacancy of the Presidentship by the death of Shemaiah and Abtalion R. Judah and R. Jeshua the Sons of Betirah might have taken the Chairs they preferred Hillel as the worthier person Talm. Jerus in Pessachin fol. 33. col 1. He bred many eminent Scholars to the number of fourscore the most renowned of which by name were Jonathan ben Uzziel the Chaldee Paraphrast and Rabban Jocanan ben Zaccai both probably alive at this year of Christ and a good while after The latter was undoubtedly so for he lived to see the destruction of the City and Temple and sat President in the Sanhedrin at Jabneh afterwards And till that time also lived the Sons of Betirah mentioned before Shammai was little inferior to Hillel
vengeance that had been so abundantly given but may the better judge wherein that vengeance did chiefly consist CHRIST LXVII NERO. XIII IN this thirteenth Year of Nero therefore Vespasian cometh General into Judea to undertake that War A second Nebuchadnezzar an instrument of the Lord raised up to execute his vengeance upon that Nation now the Nation of his curse and to destroy their City and Temple as the other had done And as several strange occurrences befel that destroyer recorded in the Book of Daniel so did divers strange things also befal this recorded by the Roman Historians with one consent As Nilus flowing a handful higher on that day that he came into Alexandria then ever it did in one day before A Vision that he had in the Temple of Serapis of his servant Basilides who was known to be at that instant fourscore miles off sick And especially his healing of a blind mans eyes by anointing them with his spittle and curing a lame mans hand by treading upon it with his foot To which may be added those that were accounted the presages of his reigning as a cypress tree in his ground clean rooted up by the winds over night grew strait up again and well in the morning An Ox came and laid him down at his feet and laid his neck under his feet at one time as he sat at meat and a dog came and brought him a dead mans hand at another Now not to dispute whether all these things were true or no nor by what power they were wrought certainly they set the man in the eyes of men as a man of rarity and as he was designed by God for a singular work so did these things make him to be a man looked upon as one of some singular omen and fortune His work in the Jewish Wars this year was more especially in Galilee where first coming to Ptolemais the men of Sipphoris the greatest City there come peaceably and yielding to him and they had done so indeed before to Cestius Gallus Josephus who afterward wrote the History of these Wars was now a great party in them having fortified many Cities and places in Galilee and being the chiefest that in those parts stood against the Romans First he finds them work at Jotepata which indures a very sharp siege and puts the Romans to very sharp service before it be taken At last after about fifty days siege Vespasian enters it July 1. There Josephus himself is taken and foretels Vespasian that he should be Emperour Joppa taken presently after and Tiberias yielded and Taricheae taken and 6500 slain there Gamala gained Octob. 23. and divers other places brought in this year either by storm or surrender which Josephus recordeth the story of de Bello lib. 3. through the whole Book and lib. 4. to the end of the ninth Chapter which he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus was all Galilee subdued CHRIST LXVIII NERO. XIV VESPASIAN therefore having subjected and setled Galilee he falls this year to work in Judea and indeed there the Jews fall to bitter work among themselves For all the unquiet spirits whom the War had prosecuted and hunted from other parts or whose turbulency desired to be in action were flocked hither so that Jerusalem and Judea were filled full of men and trouble and quickly full of famine blood and all manner of misery The doleful story Josephus gives at large as also what the Romans did among them this year de Bello lib. 4. whither the reader may have recourse This year Nero died by his own hand to escape publick and more shameful execution In him ended the Blood and Family of the Caesars And now that mystery of State was discovered That an Emperour could be made though not of that Blood and elsewhere then at Rome and the misery of the State accrewed by that discovery when the longest sword did make the Emperour and the trying which was the longest undid the Empire The souldiery in Spain proclaimed Galba to succeed him against whom riseth up Otho and cuts him off when he was now reigning but in his seventh month having only brought the Royalty into his family and himself to misery and ruine by it When he was slain a common souldier cut off his head and putting his finger into his mouth for he was bald and therefore he could not bear it by the hair he carried it to Otho who gave it to the scum and black guard of the Camp and they fixing it upon a pole carried it up and down in derision CHRIST LXIX OTHO OTHO was scarce set in the Throne when Vitellius riseth up against him and the determination of this competition was not so speedy and unsensible as was that betwixt Galba and Otho For Otho slew Galba without any noise and when himself had but three and twenty associates at this first conspiring against him But the present quarrel shook a good part of the Empire with sidings and preparations and came to a pitcht battel before it came to an end Otho's men lost the field and when tidings of his defeat came to him he resolved to strive no longer but to render up his Empire and life together and so slew himself He reigned if it may be called a reign but 95 days VESPASIAN VITELLIUS is now Lord of all who indeed is not Master of himself A man of that untemperance and luxury that few equalled him and divers that did follow him and his course died of surfets Divers men and Cities were undone by his riotous excesses and the souldiers became effeminate by his example In the time of his reign which ended before this year was out there were divers prodigies A Comet Two Suns at the same time one in the East another in the West The Moon twice eclipsed unnaturally In the Capitol the footsteps seen of many and great Daemones coming down from thence And Jupiters Temple opened of its own accord with horrid noise And let this be reckoned for a prodigy too Maricus a man of an ordinary extraction among the Boii raised a considerable number of men and proclaimed himself a God He was soon overthrown and thrown to the wild beasts whom when they rent not in pieces it heightned the peoples opinion in thoughts that he was a God indeed but Vitellius found another way to put him to death and so his Godship was spoiled There were divers petty mutinies of the Armies and destroying of Towns in Italy and other parts before Vespasian stird but when he stood up there were concussions that made all the Empire to shake as it had hardly ever done before He was then in the East about the Wars of the Jews as we have touched instantly before And there the Armies in Egypt Judea and Syria swear fealty to him in the month of July And in a short time all the Provinces even to Achaia did the like The Legions in Maesia Illyricum Pannonia fall to him and letters are sent into
three chests full of tattared Phylacteries containing three bushels every chest Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel saith there were 500 Schools and to the least there belonged 500 Scholars and they said If the enemy should come against us we could prick out their eyes with our pens But when it came to it they folded them all up in their books and burnt them and there was not one of them left but only I. Not that he reckons himself in the number of the children for he was now well in years but that none of all that great University was left but himself And yet besides the eminent men that we have named there were R. Meir a great speaker in the Talmud but most commonly against the common vote R. Simeon ben Jochai and Eleazar his son the first Authors of the book Zohar R. Nathan the Author of Avoth R. Josi Galileus and his son Eliezer R. Jochanan ben Nuri. Ben Nanas R. Joshua ben Korcha R. Eliezer ben Chasma and why should we reckon more when Berishith Rabba makes this Summa Totalis on Gen. 25. That R. Akibah had 24000 disciples Of some decretals made at Usha you may read Jerus in Rosh hashan fol. 58. col 3. Chetub fol. 28. col 3. In these times of Hadrian which we are yet upon Aquila the Proselyte was in being and in repute In Jerus Chagig fol. 77. col 1 he is introduced discoursing with Hadrian about the universe being supported by a Spirit In Megil fol. 71. col 3. It is said that Aquila the Proselyte interpreted the Law before R. Eliezer and R. Joshua and they highly commended him for it and said Thou art fairer then the children of men By which it may be conjectured what a translation this was when these men so extolled it The Jerusalem Gemarists do cite his version Megil fol. 73. col 2. Succah fol. 53. col 4. Joma fol. 41. col 1. and several other places Rabban Simeon now President sate about thirty years namely from about the sixt or eighth of Hadrian to the fifteenth or sixteenth or thereabout of Antoninus Pius the honour and power of that Bench growing low and in the wane every day more then other This Rabban Simeon you have a great spokesman in the Talmud his grandfather of the same name that died with Jerusalem is seldom introduced speaking there Once you have him swearing by the Temple Cherithuth per. 1. halac 7. SECTION VII The Sanhedrin at Bethshaarain Tsipporis and Tiberias R. Iudah President UPON the death of Rabban Simeon his son Rabbi Judah succeeded him a man of note equal with if not above any named before him he bare not the title of Rabban as his Ancestors had done for five generations before him yet had he those appellations that dignified him equal with it he was called sometimes eminently Rabbi and no more sometime R. Judah the holy sometimes our holy Rabbi sometime R. Judah the Prince and oft in the Jerus Talmud R. Judan Vid. Jerus Sanhedr fol. 30. col 1. where it speaks of all his Titles There are innumerable stories of him we shall only pick up those that are most pertinent to our present subject Juchasin fol. 2. tells us that he was with the Seventy of the Sanhedrin in Bethshaaraim Tsipporis and Tiberias and Tilerias was the tenth and last flitting that the Sanhedrin had How long in Bethshaaraim is uncertain and little is mentioned of that place but Tsipporis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is famous It was the greatest City of Galilee Joseph de Bell. lib. 3. cap. 3. a place planted in a fruitful situation for sixteen miles about it saith Talm. Jerus was a Land flowing with milk and honey Biccurim fol. 64. col 2. Rabbi Judah sate here seventeen years and he applied that to himself Jacob lived in the Land of Egypt seventeen years and Judah lived in Tsipporis seventeen years There are these two memorable stories of this place That a Butcher cousened the Jews here with carcases and beasts torn and made them eat them nay he made them eat dogs flesh Jerus Trumoth fol. 45. col 3. And divers of Tsipporis were glad to wear patches on their faces to dissigure them that they might not be known when inquisition was made after them Id. Jevamoth fol. 15. col 3. and Sotah fol. 23. col 3. The numerous passages about the Doctors and disputes and Scholastick actions in this place would be too tedious to mention though with the briefest touch we could From Tsipporis the Sanhedrin removed to Tiberias upon the brink of the lake of Genesaret This was about eight or nine miles from Tsipporis Id. Sanlied fol. 21. col 1. the Jews hold it to be the same with Rakkath in Josh. 19. 35. Megil fol. 70. col 1. And that Chammath there mentioned also was a place that joyned to it Erubhin fol. 23. col 4. so called from the hot bathes there Bab. Megil fol. 6. 1. How long Rabbi sate here is uncertain Their Records do make him exceedingly in favour with Antoninus the Emperour but whether Pius or Philosophus they name not it is generally held to be Pius whethersoever it was there are abundance of discourses 'twixt R. Judah and him dispersed in their Writings and they stick not to tell you that he became a Proselyte and when the Proselytes of righteousness shall come in the world to come Antoninus shall come in the head of them Jerus Megil fol. 74. col 1. Antoninus Philosophus or Marcus Aurelius was the likelier to converse with Scholars R. Judah outlived them both and Commodus also Two famous things as that Nation reputed it did this man in his time First he gathered up and compiled into one Volume all the traditional Law that had run from hand to hand to his time the Mishuah that we have now in our hands which is the Jews great pandect according to which they live He saw their state wane daily more and more and though they had now many Learned Schools yet their Cabbala or great stock of traditions he thought might fail and be lost now the Sanhedrin failed therefore he thought to make sure work and committed it to writing that it might be preserved to the Nation and so he helped to rule them And a second thing that he did was that he took care that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scribes and Teachers of the Traditions in all the Cities in the Land of Israel Jerus Chagigah fol. 76. col 3. In the same Tract fol. 77. col it is reported of him that at six portions of the Scripture when he came to read them he wept He compiled the Mishnah about the year of Christ 190 in the later end of the reign of Commodus or as some compute in the year of Christ 220 an hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem SECTION VIII The Schools and Learned after the death of Rabbi Iudah BESIDES the places where the Sanhedrin had sitten which yet
of the Gospel and if my poorness could some contribution towards the building of Sion The Method that I prescribed to my self in this undertaking some glimpse whereof thou maist see in this present Parcel was 1. To lay the Text of the Evangelists in that order which the nature and progress of the Story doth necessarily require 2. To give a Reason of this Order why the Text is so laid more largely or more briefly according as the plainness or difficulty of the connexion doth call for it 3. To give some account of the difficulties in the language of the Original as any came to hand either being naturally so in the Greek it self or being made difficulties when they were not so by the curiosity misconstruction or self-end-seeking of some Expositors 4. And lastly to clear and open the sense and meaning of the Text all along as it went especially where it was of more abstruseness and obscurity These two last things did I assay and go on withal a great way in the work with much largeness and copiousness both concerning the language and the manner For for the first I did not only poise the Greek in the ballance of its own Country and of the Septuagint but I also examined translations in divers languages produced their sense and shewed cause of adhering to or refusing of their sense as I conceived cause And for the second I alledged the various Expositions and interpretations of Commentators both ancient and modern and others that spake to such and such places occasionally I examined their Expositions and gave the Reader reason to refuse or imbrace them as cause required When seeing the Work in this way likely to rise to vastness of bulk it self and of trouble to the Reader I chose to abridg this first part for a trial and therein having expressed only those things which were most material for the understanding of the Text where it is less plain for where it is plain enough why should I spend time and labour about it And spoken mine own thoughts upon it and omitted unless it be for a taste of what I had done the glosses and thoughts of others I now wait for the direction and advice of my learned and loving Friends and Readers whether to exhibite the other parts that are to follow by Gods good blessing and assistance in that large and voluminous method that at the first I prescribed to my self or in that succiseness that this present parcel holdeth out I have partly chosen and have partly been constrained to tender this work to publick view by pieces whereof only this and this but a small one neither appears at this time I have chosen so to do that I might give the world my thoughts upon the Evangelists as the Lord giveth time for who would defer to do any thing of such a work till he have done all since our lives are so short and uncertain and the work so long and difficult And I have been constrained thus to do partly because of mine other occasions many and urgent which deny me opportunity to follow that business as such a bulk would require and partly because of the straits of the times which have straitned our Presses that they Print but rarely any thing voluminous Every year by Gods permission and good assistance shall yield its piece till all be finished if the Lord spare life health and liberty thereunto Divers things were fitting to have been premised to a work of this nature but because that if they should all be set before this small piece that we now exhibit the Preface or Prolegomena would be larger than the Book it self therefore have I reserved to every piece that shall come forth it s own share and portion And the things that I have thought upon and hewed out unto this purpose are these 1. To fix the certain year of our Saviours birth as a thing very fit to be looked after and to shew the certain grounds whereupon to go that our fixing upon such a year may be warranted and without wavering This have I premised to this first part wherein comes the Story and Treatise of our Saviours birth 2. To give account of all the dislocations of Texts and Stories in the Old Testament which are exceeding many to shew where is their proper place and order and to give the reason of their dislocation And this being so copious and frequent in the Old Testament the like will be thought the less strange and uncouth in the New 3. To make a Chorographical description of the Land of Canaan and those adjoyning places that we have occasion to look upon as we read the Gospel a thing of no small necessity for the clearer understanding of the Story 4. To make a Topographical description of Jerusalem and of the Fabrick of the Temple which will facilitate divers passages in the Gospel which are of no small obscurity 5. To give some account and Story of the State and Customs of the Iews in these times when the Gospel began and was first preached among them out of their own and other Writers which things the Evangelists mention not and yet which conduce not a little to the understanding of the Evangelists These as things very necessary for the matter in hand shall wait severally upon the several parts that shall follow as the Lord shall please to vouchsafe ability time health and safety From my Chamber in Westminster Octob. 1. 1644. PROLEGOM I. The Age of the World at our Saviours birth fixed the account proved the chiefest difficulties in the Scripture Chronicle resolved IN the Stories of times the times of the stories do challenge special notice and observation and of all other that of our Saviours birth being the fulness of time may best as best worthy make such a challenge A time to which all the holy ones that went before it did bend their eyes and expectation and a time from which all the Christians that have lived since have dated their Chronical accounts and computation And yet how unfixed is this time and age of the world in which so great a mystery came to pass and upon which so general accounting doth depend in the various reckonings of learned and industrious men It is not only to be seen in their writings wondered at in regard of the great difference at which they count but the fixed time is the more to be studied for upon this very reason because such men do so greatly differ among themselves The only way to settle in such variety is to take the plain and clear account and reckoning of the Scripture which hath taken a peculiar care to give an exact and most certain Chronicle to this time and not to rely upon the computation of Olympiades Consuls or any other humane calculation which it cannot be doubted must of necessity leave the deepest student of them in doubting and uncertainty Now the Scripture carrying on a most faithful reckoning of the times from
it must it doth make this difficulty which hath cost so much canvasing so easie as a thing needeth not to be more SECTION III. From the promise given to Abram upon his Father Terahs death to the delivery of the people of Israel out of Egypt and to the giving of the Law were 430 years Exod. 12. 40. Gal. 3. 17. THIS sum being joyned to that before of 2083. it maketh the world to be in the two thousand five hundred and thirteenth year of her age when Israel was delivered The delivery out of Egypt Anno mundi 2513. and the Law given This space of time of 430 years betwixt the promise and the Law the Divine Wisdom and Providence cast into two equal portions of 215 years before the peoples going down into Egypt and 215 years of their being there The former moyety was taken up in these parcels Five and twenty years betwixt the giving of the promise and the birth of Isaac compare Gen. 12. 4. with Gen. 21. 5. Sixty years betwixt the birth of Isaac and the birth of Jacob Gen. 25. 26. An hundred and thirty years betwixt the birth of Jacob and Israels going into Egypt Gen. 27. 9. The latter in these Ninety five years from their going into Egypt to the death of Levi. Forty years from the death of Levi to the birth of Moses Eighty years from the birth of Moses to their delivery SECTION IV. From the coming of Israel out of Egypt to the laying of the foundation of Solomons Temple were 480 years 1 King 6. 1. and seven years was it in building ver 38. SO that joyn these 487 that passed from the coming out of Egypt to the finishing of the Temple to the 2513 years of which age the world was when they came out of Solomons Temple finished Anno mundi 3000. Egypt and it will appear that Solomons Temple was finished exactly in the three thousandth year of the World This sum is made up of these many parcels Israel in the Wilderness 40 years Joshua ruled 17 years Othniel judged 40 years Judg. 3. 11. Ehud judged 80 years Judg. 3. 30. Deborah c. 40 years Judg. 5. 31. Gideon 40 years Judg. 8. 28. Abimelech 3 years Judg. 9. 22. Tolah 23 years Judg. 10. 2. Jair 22 years Judg. 10. 3. Jephtah 6 years Judg. 12. 7. Ibsan 7 years Judg. 12. 9. Elon Judged 10 years Judg. 12. 11. Abdon 8 years Judg. 12. 14. Sampson 20 years Judg. 15. 20. 16. 31. Eli 40 years 1 Sam. 4. 18. Samuel and Saul 40 years Acts 13. 21. David 40 years 1 King 2. 11. Solomon 4 years 1 King 6. 1. Total 480. Now among all these parcels there is no number that hath not a Text to warrant it but only the date of the Government of Joshua which yet cannot be doubted of to have been seventeen years seeing that so many years only are not specified by express Text of all the 480 mentioned 1 King 6. 1. And here also may the reader observe that the years that are mentioned in the book of Judges for years of Israels oppression as Judg. 3. 8 14. c. are not to be taken for a space of time distinct from the time of the Judges but included in the sum of their times Now it thus falling out as it is more then apparent that Solomons Temple was finished and perfected in the year of the world 3000. This belike hath helped to strengthen that Opinion that hath been taken up by some That as the World was six days in creating so shall it be six thousand years in continuance and then shall come the everlasting Sabbath And indeed the observation could not but please those that were pleased with this opinion for when they found that the first three thousand years of the World did end in the perfecting of the earthly Temple it would make them to conclude the bolder that the other three thousand should conclude in the consummation of the spiritual SECTION V. From the finishing of Solomons Temple to the falling away of the ten Tribes were 30 years FOR Solomon reigned 40 years 1 King 11. 42. and in the eleventh year of his reign The falling away of the ten Tribes Aâ—no mundi 3030. was the Temple finished 1 King 6. 38. And so count from that year to the expiration of his reign and the beginning of his son Rehoboam and it will appear easily that the falling away of the ten Tribes was 30 years after the Temple was finished and in the year of the World 3030. SECTION VI. From the falling away of the ten Tribes under Jeroboam to the captivity of Judah into Babylon were 390. THESE are thus reckoned in a gross sum by Ezekiel Chap. 4 5. I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity according to the number of days three hundred and ninety days So shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel ver 6. And when thou hast accomplished them lie again on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days I have appointed thee each day for a year Now these are not to be taken for two different and distinct sums as if it were 390 years from the falling away of the ten Tribes to the captiving of the ten Tribes and 40 years from thence to the captiving of Judah for it was but 200 years and a little above an half between the two first periods and above an hundred years between the two last but the forty years are to be reputed and counted within the 390 as the last years of them and marked out so singularly because of Judahs rebellion in and under so clear and powerful preaching of Jeremy who prophesied so long a time among them Now for the casting of these 390 years into parcels as the Books of Kings and Chronicles have done them the surest and clearest way is to make a Chronical table of the collateral Kingdoms of Judah and Israel while they last together from year to year as they will offer themselves to parallel one another In which course some considerable scruples will arise before the Student as he goeth along which unless he see and resolve he will never be able to make the account right and which unless he frame to himself such a Chronical table as is mentioned he will never see nor find out He will by the very Table as he goeth along see that sometimes the years are reckoned compleat as Rehoboams seventeen are counted 1 King 15. 1. Sometimes current as Abijams three 1 King 15. 1 2 9. and Elahs two 1 King 16. 8. But this will breed no difficulty since it is ordinary in Scripture thus variously to compute and since the drawing of his Table will every where shew him readily this variety But these things will he find of more obscurity and challenging more serious study and consideration First It is said that Jeroboam reigned two and twenty years 1 King 14. 20. and Nadab
his Son two years Chap. 15. 25. yet that Nadab began to reign in the second year of Asa which was in the one and twentieth year of Jeroboam and so Nadabs two years fall within the sum of his fathers two and twenty Now the reason of this accounting is this It is said in 2 Chron. 13. 20. that the Lord stroke Jeroboam and he died that is with some ill and languishing disease that he could not administer nor rule the Kingdom therefore was he forced to substitute his son Nadab in his life time and in one and the same year both Father and Son died Secondly It is said that Baasha began to reign in the third year of Asa 1 King 13. 28. and reigned four and twenty years ver 33. then it followeth that he died in the six and twentieth year of Asa as the Text reckoneth the years current 1 Kings 16. 8. And yet in the six and thirtieth year of Asa Baasha came up and made war against Judah 2 Chron. 16. 1. So that this war will seem to be made by him nine or ten years after he is dead But the resolution of this from the original is easie For that Text in the Chronicles meaneth not that Baasha made war against Judah in the six and thirtieth year of Asaes reign but in the six and thirtieth year of Asaes kingdom that is six and thirty years from the division of the Tribes under Rehoboam For Rehoboam reigned seventeen years Abijam his son three years and in the sixteenth year of Asa was this war made thirty six years in all from the first division The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore should there be rendred the Kingdom and not the Reign and the thing were clear Now the Text dateth this war not from the time of Asaes reign but from the time of the division of the Tribes because that though they were divided hitherto in regard of their Kings yet not totally in regard of their converse and affection for some of the revolted ones affected still the house of David but Baasha to make the division sure buildeth Ramah that none might go in or out to Asa King of Judah and this was as a second division and therefore the Text reckoneth from the first Thirdly It is said 1 King 16. 23. that in the one and thirtieth year of Asa King of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel twelve years six years reigned he in Tirzah And yet in vers 29. it is said that In the eight and thirtieth year of Asa began Ahab the son of Omri to reign Now how can there possibly be twelve years reign betwixt Asaes thirty first and thirty eight Answer Omri began to reign as soon as ever he had slain Zimri which was in the twenty seventh of Asa but he was not sole and entire King till his thirty first For Tibni his competitor and corrival for the Crown held him in agitation and wars till Asaes thirty first And then was he overcome and Omri acknowledged absolute King by Tibnies souldiers and so from thence forward he reigned sole King in Tirzah But yet the doubt remaineth how Omri beginning his monarchy in the thirty first of Asa and ending it in his thirty eight can be said to have reigned but six years whereas it was eight current Answer The six compleat years only are reckoned for the thirty first of Asa was even ending when Tibni was conquered and the thirty eight but newly begun when Omri died Such another kind of reckoning may be observed in casting up the age of Abraham and Ismael at their Circumcision compared with the age of Abraham at Ismaels death Fourthly The beginning of the reign of Joram the son of Jehoshaphat hath three dates The first in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat his father compare 2 Kings 22. 51. and 2 King 1. 17. and 2 King 3. 1. The second in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab 2 King 8. 16. This was in the two and twentieth year of his father Jehoshaphat And the third at his father Jehoshaphats death 2 Chron. 21. 1. Now the resolution of this Ambiguity is thus The first time he was made Viceroy when his father went out of the Land for the recovery of Ramoth Gilead and because Ahab the King of Israel went with him Ahaziah his son is made Viceroy in that Kingdom also The second time he was Viceroy again in his Father Jehoshaphats absence upon his voyage into Moab with Jehoram 2 King 3. and from this time doth the Text date the fixed beginning of his reign as is plain 2 King 8. 17. 2 Chron. 21. 20. For Jehoshaphat after this time was little at home but abroad either in his own Land perambulating it to reduce the people to true Religion or in Moab to reduce that to subjection 2 Chron. 19. 20. Fifthly But a greater doubt meeteth you by far when you come to cast up the times of his son Ahaziah For whereas Joram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign and reigned eight years in Jerusalem 2 King 6. 17. 2 Chron. 21. 20. and so died when he was forty years old and instantly the inhabitants of Jerusalem set Ahaziah upon his throne who was his youngest son yet was this Ahaziah forty two years old when he began to reign 2 Chron. 22. 1. and so will prove to be two years older then his father Answer The book of Chronicles in this place meaneth not that Ahaziah was so old when he began to reign for the book of Kings telleth plainly that he was but two and twenty 2 King 8. 26. but these two and forty years have relation to another thing namely to the kingdom of the house of Omri and not to the age of Ahaziah For count from the beginning of the reign of Omri and you find Ahaziah to enter his reign in the two and fortieth year from thence as he will readily see that shall make such a Chronical Table as is mentioned The Original words therefore Ben arbaguim ushethajim shanah are not to be translated as they be Ahaziah was two and forty years old but Ahaziah was the son of the two and forty years as Seder Olam hath acutely observed long ago Now the reason why his reign is thus dated differently from all others the Kings of Judah is because he in a kind was an impe of the house of Omri for Athaliah his mother was Ahabs daughter 2 King 8. 18. And she both perverted her husband Joram and brought up this her son Ahaziah in the Idolatry of the house of Ahab therefore is not Ahaziah fit to be reckoned by the line of the Kings of Judah but by the house of Omri and Ahab see the Evangelist Matthew setting a special mark upon the house of Joram at the notes on Matth. 1. 8. Sixthly There is yet one scruple more arising concerning the beginning of the reign of this Ahaziah For the same book of Kings saith that he began to
his birth and education could not but acknowledge what he spake and gave testimony to his words they were so gracious And this makes them wonder comparing his present powerful and divine discourse with his mean and homely education and to be amazed among themselves and to say Is not this the son of Joseph as Mark 6. 2 3. Vers. 23. Ye will surely say to me this Proverb c. He taketh occasion of these words from their present wonderment and questioning among themselves about him As if he had spoken out to them thus at large Ye look upon me as Josephs son as one that was bred and brought up among you and therefore ye will be ready to urge me with the sense of that Proverb Physician heal thy self and expect that I should do some miracles here in mine own Town as I have done in other places nay rather in this Town than in others because of my relation to it § Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum Jansenius from this passage concludeth that this Sermon of Christ in the Synagogue of Nazareth was not of a great while after his coming into Galilee but that he had first passed and preached through Galilee because as yet according to the order in which we have laid the story there is but one miracle mentioned that he had done at Capernaum which was the recovering of the Rulers son Now that miracle was enough to have occasioned these words though he had done no more But Capernaum was Christs very common residence upon all occasions and it is like he had done divers miracles there though they be not mentioned for when he came from Samaria the Text relateth that he avoideth his own Town of Nazereth because he knew that there he should find but cold intertainment and little honour but that he went into some other parts of Galilee and the Galileans whither he went received him having seen all that he did at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover John 4. 44 45. Now Capernaum was as likely a place whether he would betake himself and where he would stay if he stayed in any City as any other Vers. 25. When the Heaven was shut up three years and six months This sum lyeth very obscure in the Text of the Book of Kings for there it is only said that Elias said there shall not be dew nor rain these years 1 Kings 17. 2. And that after many days in the third year Eliah shewed himself to Ahab and there was rain c. 1 Kings 18. 1 And it were not strange that Christ the Lord of time did for all the difficulty of the Text determine it but it seemeth by his speech to these Nazarites that it was a reckoning and sum commonly known and received of them And so when the Apostle James useth the same account James 5. 17. it is likely that he speaketh it to the Jews as a thing acknowledged and confessed But how to pick it up in the Book of Kings is very intricate to him that shall go about it Yet thus far we may go 1. That it was a year after the drought began before the Brook Cerith dried up for it is said that at the end of days the Brook dried now for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Days to be used for to signifie a year examples might be given exceeding copiously 2. Those words in the third year God said to Eliah Go shew thy self to Ahab and I will send rain cannot be understood of the third year of drought for this his coming to Ahab was not in the third year but after it for he had told him there should be no rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these three years at the least as the learned in the Hebrew tongue will easily observe out of the number of the word which is not dual but plural And therefore the third year is to be referred to Elias sojourning with the Sareptane widow He had been one year by Cherith and above two years at Sarepta and after many days in the third year he shews himself to Ahab and there were rains Now how to bring these many days to half a year is still a scruple how to fix it or to go any whit near thereunto unless it be by casting the times of the year when the drought began and when it ended and there might be very probable reasons produced to shew that it began in Autum and ended in the Spring which two times were their most constant times of rains Joel 2. But truth hath spoken it here and it is not to be disputed but only thus much is spoken to it because it seemeth that he speaketh it to the Jews here as men consenting and agreeing in the thing already The Rabbins do quaintly descant upon the last verse of 1 King 16. where there is mention of Hiels building Jericho and losing his two sons in the work according to the word of Joshua and the first verse of Chap. 17. where Eliah foretels the restraint of rain thus Ahab and Eliah say they went to comfort Hiel for the death of his sons Ahab said to Elijah it may be the word of the servant Joshua is performed but the word of the Master Moses will not be performed who saith Ye will turn away and serve other Gods and the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up heaven that there be no rain c. Thereupon Elias swore and said As the Lord liveth before whom I stand there shall be no rain This number and term of time of three years six months just half the time of the famine in Egypt is very famous and renowned in Scripture as hath been observed before But in nothing more renowned then this that it was the term of Christs Ministery from his Baptism to his death he opening Heaven for three years and six months and raining down the Divine dew of the Gospel as Elias had shut Heaven so long and there was no rain at all Vers. 28. And all they in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath c. Here is such another change of affection in these Nazarites one while giving testimony to the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth and presently ready to murder him for his words as there was in the men of Lycaonia Act. 14. who one while would worship Paul and Barnabas for Gods and immediately stone them with stones The matter that gave such offence in these words of Christ to his Countrymen was double 1. Because he so plainly taught and hinted the calling of the Gentiles and refusing of the Jews as was to be seen in the double instance that he alledged that Elias should harbour no where with any Israelite but should be recommended by God to a heathen widow for so were the Sareptanes being of Sidon and that not one Israelite leper should ever be healed but Naaman a Heathen Syrian should be This doctrine about
them of the most difficulty as far as Grammatical construction and truth of history will warrant and justifie Reuben thou art my first born my might and the beginning of my strength There is a remnant of dignity for thee and a remnant of strength For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth many times in the Bible and so was Reuben dignified in leading the Van in the wars of Canaan Josh. 4. 12. And so had he a residue of strength in being frontier against the Hagarens 1 Chron. 5. 10. Vers. 4. Unstable as water in affecting the Priesthood Numb 16. 1 2. and in refusing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ne relinquas of the Land of promise Numb 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leave no remnant of thine instability c. Vers. 5. Simeon and Levi brethren their traffickings are instruments of cruelty for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venditionis Ipsorum pretence of trading with Shechem they made an instrument to execute their bloodiness Vers. 6. For in their anger they slew a man as for their will they would hough an ox For they used Circumcision as a means to master and murder me as if they should have cut the sinews of an Ox to bring him under to their will Vers. 13. Zebulon shall dwell at the haven of the Seas the Sea of Galilee or the lake of Genezaret East and the Sea of Phaenicia or the Mediterranian North-West Vers. 14. Issachar is an Asse of bone couching down between two burdens of the Kingdom of Phaenicia on the one side and the Kingdom of Samaria on the other Vers. 22. Joseph is a son of fruitfulness his fruitfulness in sons shall be by the well In daughters it goeth even to the Enemy This Interpretation of that part of Josephs blessing be referred to the censure of the learned Reader as conjectured at rather than boldly averred and that upon these considerations First That there is a plain Antithesis betwixt Ben and Bavoth and therefore is to be construed accordingly of sons and daughters Secondly That the word Ben is by his place in regimine but by his vowel not so is Porah by his last letter in regimine but not by this place and therefore both of them to be rendered something answerable to this their double condition Ben-Porath Joseph is a son of fruitfulness here they have the due of their place and Porath Ben fruitfulness of sons here they have the due of their vowels and letters Thirdly That Porath also is to be understood in the latter clause Porath Bavoth fruitfulness in daughters Fourthly That Shur signifieth natively in Hebrew an Enemy Psal. 92. 12. and it is but from the Chaldee idioms that it betokeneth a wall Josephs fruitfulness in sons then did chiefly shew it self by the well of Shechem where Joshua of Joseph aslembleth all the Tribes as Prince over them and there also Jeroboam of Joseph raiseth up that house to a Kingdom From these words of Jacob the inhabitants of Sychar had their warrant to maintain that their well was Jocobs well and that his sons and cattel drank of it For it might not have been digged of a thousand years after Jacob was dead and gone for ought any Samaritane alive could tell if he fetched not his authority from these words of Jacob who having given that portion of ground to Joseph Gen. 48. 22. doth here intimate that there was a well in it and besides that well in his house should rise to honour His fruitfulness by daughters you may see in Judg. 21. where the daughters of Jabesh Gilead and of Shiloh both of Joseph make up the breach of an hostile Tribe the Tribe of Benjamin or else it had decayed AN Handful of Gleanings OUT OF THE BOOK OF EXODUS SECTION I. Israel afflicted in Egypt about 120 years FROM the giving of the promise to Abraham Gen. 12. to the deliverance out of Egypt and the giving of the Law were 430 years Exod. 12. 40. Gal. 1. 17. This sum of years divided it self into two equal parts for half of it was spent before their going into Egypt and half of it in there being there Two hundred and fifteen years were taken up before they went into Egypt thus From the promise given to Abraham to the birth of Isaac five and twenty years compare Gen. 12. 4. with Gen. 21. 5. From the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob threescore Gen. 25. 26. from thence to their going down into Egypt a hundred and thirty Gen. 27. 9. The other two hundred and fifteen years they spent in Egypt namely ninety four before the death of Levi the longest liver of all the twelve Tribes and a hundred and twenty one betwixt his death and their deliverance For Levi and Joseph were both born in the seven years of Jacobs second apprentiship Gen. 29. 30. Levi in the fourth and Joseph in the seventh so that there were three years between them Now Joseph when his Father and brethren came down into Egypt was nine and thirty years old Compare Gen. 41. 46. 51. 45. 6. And then was Levi forty three And Levi lived an hundred thirty and seven years Exod. 6. 16. out of which those forty three being deducted which he had spent before their coming down into Egypt it appeareth they were in Egypt ninety four years before his death And those ninety four being deducted out of the two hundred and fifteen which they spent in that land it appeareth also that a hundred twenty one years passed betwixt his death and their delivery and till his death they felt no affliction Exod. 1. 6 7 8. SECTION II. The 88 89 Psalms penned in the time of this affliction THESE two Psalms are the oldest pieces of writing that the World hath to shew for they were penned many years before the birth of Moses by two men that felt and groaned under this bondage and affliction of Egypt Heman and Ethan two Sons of Zerah 1 Chron. 2. 6. In Psalm 88. Heman deploreth the distress and misery of Israel in Egypt in most passionate measures and therefore titles his Elegy Gnal Mahalath Leannoth concerning sickness by affliction and accordingly he and his brethren are called the Sons of Mahol 1 King 4. 31. In Psal. 89. Ethan from the promise Gen. 15. sings joyfully their deliverance that the raging of the Red Sea should be ruled vers 9. and Rahab or Egypt should be broken in pieces vers 10. and that the people should hear the joyful sound of the Law vers 15. Object But David is named frequently in the Psalm who was not born of many hundreds of years after Ethan was dead Answ. 1. This might be done Prophetically as Samuel is thought to be named by Moses Psal. 99. 6. for that Psalm according to a rule of the Hebrews is held to have been made by him 2. It will be found in Scripture that when some holy men indued with the Spirit of God have left pieces
what to ask put on the Ephod and Brest-plate which hung unseparably at it This do Davids wordsmean when he saith to Abiathar the Priest Bring hither the Ephod 1 Sam. 23. 9. And for this it was that Abiathar made sure of the Ephod when he fled from bleeding Nob 1 Sam. 23. 6. Without the stones on his breast the Priest enquired not for the stones represented Israel and when the Priest brought them before the Lord he brought as it were Israel and their matters before him To go without these was to go without his errand If Sauls conscience could have told him off no other cause why God would not answer him as it might many yet he might see this to be one reason undoubted viz. Because though he had the Ark near him yet had he neither High Priest nor Ephod and seeing his cross in this that he could not be answered his conscience might tell him what he did when he slew the Priests of the Lord. When the Priest knew what to enquire about and had put on these habiliments he went and stood before the Ark of the Lord and enquired about the matter and the Lord answered him from off the Propitiatory from between the Cherubims and so the Priest answered the People Now there was some difference in the Priests manner of inquiring according to the situation of the Ark when the Tabernacle was up the Priest went into the holy Place and stood close by the vail which parted the holy from the most holy and there inquired and God from between the Cherubims which were within the vail gave him an answer But when the Tabernacle was down or the Ark distant from the Tabernacle travelling up and down then did the Priest in his Robes stand before the Ark as it stood covered with the curtains and enquired and the answer was given him in behalf of Israel whom God saw on his breast For this reason the stones for whose sakes the perfect light of resolution was given are called the perfect light or Urim and Thummim and the answer given from the Priests mouth is called the answer by Urim and Thummim David once enquired of the Priest having the Ephod but wanting the Ark and God answered him and shewed that God was not bound to means On the contrary Saul once enquired of the Ark wanting the Ephod and God answered him not shewing him how God honoured his Priests whom Saul had dishonoured even to the Sword Thus have we seen the Breast-plates form richness and glory Form four square a span every way the richness it was set with twelve precious stones the glory that for the sake of these stones that is for their sakes whose names these stones bare God revealed secrets to his people See this breast-plate fastened to the Ephod and you see Aaron the High Priest arrayed in his glorious garments At each corner of the breast-plate was a golden ring fastned On the upper side of the piece just upon the edge was laid a little golden chain which ran like an edging lace upon the edge and was brought through the two rings which were at either corner one and the ends of the chains were made fast to bosses or loops of gold which were on the shoulder pieces of the Ephod by the Onyx stones At the lower edg of the breast-plate was an edging chain carried just in the same manner that the other was through two gold rings and the chains tyed to the embroidered girdle of the Ephod as the other were to the shoulder pieces Breast-plate and Ephod might not be parted no more than might the Staves and Ark. SECTION L. The erection of the Tabernacle IN the year of the World two thousand five hundred and fourteen which was the second year current of Israels departure out of Aegypt in the month Abib or the first month Stilo novo in the first day of the month Moses set up the Sanctuary under mount Sinai and this was the manner of his setting it up He laid the silver foundations in their ranks and in them he set up the planks and strengthened them with the five bars linking them also together at the top with a golden hasp He set up the four Pillars in the house whereon to hang the vail and the five pillars at the East end whereon to hang that vail also He set the Ark in the most holy place hanging up the vail before it In the holy place he set the Table and Shew-bread on the North side and the Candlestick on the South and the Altar of perfume just in the middle betwixt them And at the East end he hung up the vail to keep these things from vulgar eyes The Altar and Laver he set up before the entrance and incompassed them and the Tabernacle it self with a pale of hangings round about Thus was the Sanctuary erected and was lovely to them that beheld it being the glory and the strength of Israel Then did the cloud of glory flit from off the Tent of Moses and lighted upon the Sanctuary and dwelt there more gloriously than on the other And thus endeth Exodus in a cloud under which we are to look for a more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands nor of this building in which the God-head should dwell bodily FINIS THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE JEWISH AND THE ROMAN OF The Year of CHRIST XXXIII And of TIBERIUS XVIII Being the Year of the WORLD 3960. And of the City of ROME 785. Consuls Cn. Domitius Aenobarbus Furius Camillus Scribonianus By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII A COMMENTARY UPON THE Acts of the Apostles CHRONICAL CRITICAL The Difficulties of the Text Explained And the times of the Story cast into ANNALS The First Part. From the beginning of the BOOK to the end of the Twelfth CHAPTER With a brief Survey of the Contemporary Story of the JEWS and ROMANS By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII A CHRONICAL TABLE of the chief Stories Contained in this BOOK Occurrences of the year of Christ XXXIII Tiberius XVIII In the Church CHRIST riseth from the dead appearth forty days and ascendeth Pag. 734 c. Act. 1. A Presbytery of 120 Apostles and Elders 742 c. This chooseth Matthias c. 745. The gift of Tongues on the Lords day 747 c. Act. 2. Peter and the eleven preach and convert 753 c. Peter and John heal a Creeple 756. Act. 3. Preach and convert 5000 ibid c. Are imprisoned and convented before the Council 759. Act. 4. Are threatned and dismissed c. 760. Community of Goods 762. Ananias and Saphira struck dead ibid. Act. 5. Peters shadow 764. The rest of the Story of the 5 Chapter ibid. c. In the Empire Tiberius now Emperour and in the eighteenth year of his Reign 768. He
at Ephesus 56 1 Nero. Paul at Ephesus 57 2 Paul writeth the second Epistle to Corinth And now may we in some scantling fix those Stories to their times which hung loosely before namely the choosing of the Deacons the death of Stephen conversion of Samaria and the Eunuch and conclude that they were about the beginning of the next year after Christs ascension PART II. The Roman Story § 1. Velleius Paterculus TIBERIUS keepeth himself still in the Countrey but not stil at Capreae * * * Dion sub his coss for this year he draweth near unto Rome and haunteth in some places about four miles off but cometh not at all unto the City This seemeth to be his first journey towards it that Suetonius speaketh of * * * In Liber cap. 17. when he came by water to the Gardens beside the Nanmachy or the Pool in Tiber where they used their sportting sea-fights and returned again but the cause not known The first thing mentioned of him under these Consuls both by Tacitus and Dion is his marrying forth the Daughter of Drusus which they name not and Julia and Drusilla the Daughters of Germanicus Drusilla to L. Cassius Julia to M. Vinicius This was a Son of that M. Vinicius to whom Paterculus dedicated his short and sweet Roman History And the nearness of the time would very nearly perswade that this was that very Vinicius himself but that Paterculus sheweth that his Vinicius was Consul when he wrote his book to him and that as himself and Dion agreeing with him sheweth An. V. C. 783. or the next year after our Saviours Baptism but this Vinicius Tiberius his Son in Law as Tacitus intimateth was only a Knight but a Consuls Son Howsoever in these times shone forth and flourished the excellent wit and matchless pen of that Historian an Author known to all learned men and admired by all that know him His Original was from the Campanians as himself witnesseth not very far from the beginning of his second book when he cometh to speak of the Italian war in the time of Sylla and Marius No pen is so fit to draw his pedegree and Character as his own and therefore take only his own words Neque ego verecundia domestici sanguinis gloriae dum verum refero subtraham c. Nor will I for modesty derogate any thing from the honour of mine own blood so that I speak no more than truth for much is to be attributed to the memory of Minatius Magius my great-Grandfathers Father a man of Asculum who being * * * Or grandchild Nephew to Decius Magius a renowned Prince of the Campanians and a most faithfull man was so trusty to the Romans in this war that with a Legion which he had banded Pompey took Herculaneum together with T. Didius when L. Sulla besieged and took in Consa Of whose vertues both others but especially and most plainly Q. Hortensius hath made relation in his Annals Whose Loyalty the people of Rome did fully requite by enfranchising both him and his and making two of his Sons Pretors His Grandfather was C. Velleius Master of the Engeneers to Cn. Pompey M. Brutus and Tyro a man saith he second to none in Canâ—pany whom I will not defraud of that Testimony which I would give to a stranger He at the departure of Nero Tiberius his Father out of Naples whose part he had taken for his singular friendship with him being now unweldy with age and bulk of body when he could not accompany him any longer he slew himself Of his Fathers and of his own rank and profession thus speaketh he joyntly At this time namely about the time that Augustus adopted Tiberius after I had been Field-Marshal I became a Souldier of Tiberius and being sent with him General of the Horse into Germany which Office my Father had born before for nine whole years together I was either a spectator or to my poor ability a forwarder of his most celestial designs being either a Commander or an Ambassadour And a little after In this war against the Hungarians and Dalmatians and other Nations revolted my meaness had the place of an eminent Officer For having ended my service with the Horse I was made Questor and being not yet a Senator I was equalled with the Senators And the Tribunes of the people being now designed I led a part of the. Army delivered to me by Augustus from the City to his Son And in my Questorship the lot of my Province being remitted I was sent Ambassadour from him to him again Partner in the like employments and honours he had a brother named Magius Celer Velleianus that likewise attended Tiberius in the Dalmatian war and was honoured by him in his Triumph and afterward were his Brother and he made Pretors When he wrote that abridgement of the Roman History which we now have extant he had a larger work of the same subject in hand of which he maketh mention in divers places which he calleth justum opus and justa volumina but so far hath time and fortune denyed us so promising and so promised a piece that this his abstract is come short home and miserably curtailed to our hands So do Epitomes too commonly devour the Original and pretending to ease the toil of reading larger Volumes they bring them into neglect and loss In the unhappiness of the loss of the other it was somewhat happy that so much of this is preserved as is a fragment of as excellent compacture as any is in the Roman tongue wherein sweetness and gravity eloquence and truth shortness and variety are so compacted and compounded together that it findeth few parallels either Roman or other § 2. Troubles in Rome about Usury This year there was a great disturbance in the City about Usury the too common and the too necessary evil of a Common-wealth This breed-bate had several times heretofore disturbed that State though strict and rigorous courses still were taken about it At the first the interest of mony lent was proportioned and limited only at the dispsal of the lender a measure always inconstant and often unconscionable Whereupon it was fixed at the last by the twelve Tables to an ounce in the pound which is proportionable in our English coin to a penny in the shilling Afterward by a Tribune Statute it was reduced to half an ounce and at last the trade was quite forbidden But such weeds are ever growing again though weeded out as clean as possible and so did this Partly through the covetousnes of the rich making way for their own pofit and partly through the necessities of the poor giving way to it for their own supply Gracchus now Pretor and he to whom the complaint was made at this time being much perplexed with the matter referreth it to the Senate as perplexed as himself He perplexed because of the multitude that were in danger by breach of the Law and they because they were in
under this sweet and lovely denomination given equally to them both The current of the story hitherto hath fairly and plainly led this occurrence to this year as the Reader himself will confess upon the trace of the History and he will be confirmed in it when he seeth the next year following to be the year of the famine which next followeth in relation in St. Luke to this that we have in hand Act. 11. 26 27 28. By what names the Professors of the Gospel were called before this time it is plain in Scripture Among themselves they were called b b b Act. 4. 15. Disciples c c c Cap. 5. 14. 6. 1. 9. 1. Believers d d d Act. 8. 1. The Church e e e Act. 8. 2. Devout men f f f Act. 11. 29. 1 Cor. 15. 6. Brethren But among the unbelieving Jews by this sole common and scornful title of g g g Act. 24. 5. The sect of the Nazarites Epiphanius hath found out a strange name for them not to be found elsewhere nor to be warranted any where and that is the name of Jessaeans Before they were called Christians h h h Lib. 1. advers Nazaraeos pag. 120. saith he they were called Jessaei either from Jesse the father of David from whom the Virgin Mary and Christ by her descended or from Jesu the proper name of our Saviour Which thou shalt find in the books of Philo namely in that which he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which treating of their Policy Praises and monasteries which are about the Marish Marian commonly called Mareotis he speaketh of none others than of Christians Of the same opinion in regard of the men themselves are divers others both the Fathers and later writers though they differ in regard of the name No Romanist but he takes it for granted that Philo in that book that is meant by Epiphanius though he either title it not right or else couch two books under one title speaketh of Christian Monks and from thence who of them doth not plead the antiquity of a Monastick life so confidently that he shall be but laughed to scorn among them that shall deny it They build indeed upon the Ipse Dixit of some of the Fathers to the same purpose besides the likeness of those men in Philo to the Romish Monks that such a thing as this is not altogether to be passed over but something to be examined since it seemeth to carry in it self so great antiquity and weightiness Eusebius therefore in his i i i Lib. 2. c. 15 Ecclesiastical History delivereth such a matter as tradition They say saith he that Mark being first sent in Egypt preached the Gospel there which he also penned and first founded the Churches of Alexandria where so great a multitude of believing men and women grew up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a most Philosophical and strict course that Philo himself vouchsafed to write of their converse meetings feastings and all their demeanor And for this his writing of them He is reckoned by us saith k k k De Scriptorib Eccles. tom 1. pag. 102. Jerome amongst the Ecclesiastical writers because writing concerning the first Church of Mark the Evangelist he breaketh out into the praises of our men relating that they are not only there but also in many other Provinces and calling their dwellings Monasteries Of the same mind with these Fathers are Cedrenus l l l Lib. 2. cap. 16. 17. Nicephorus m m m Bibl. Sanct. l. in voce Philo. Sixtus Senensis n n n Lib. 2. c. 1. de Monach. Bellarmine o o o Apparat. Sacer. in voce Philo. Possevine and others which last cited Jesuite is not contented to be satisfied with this opinion himself but he revileth the Magdeburgenses and all others with them that are not of the same opinion with him For the examining of which before we do believe it we may part their position into these two quaeres First Whether Mark the Evangelist had founded the Church at Alexandria before Philo wrote that book And secondly whether those men about Alexandria reported of by Philo were Christians at all yea or no. First then look upon Philo and upon his age and you shall find that the last year when he was in Embassie at Rome he was ancient and older than any of the other Commissioners that were joyned with him for so he saith of himself Caesar speaking affably to them when they first came before him the standers by thought their matter would go well with them p p p In legat ad Caium But I saith he that seemed to outstrip the others in years and judgement c. and then from him look at the time when Mark is brought by the Ecclesiastical Historians first into Egypt and Alexandria q q q In Chronico Eusebius for we will content our selves with him only hath placed this at the third of Claudius in these words Marcus Evangelista interpres Petri Aegypto Alexandriae Christum annunciat And then is Philo four years older than before To both which add what time would be taken up after Marks preaching before his converts could be disposed into so setled a form of buildings constitutions and exercises and then let indifferency censure whether Philo that was so old so long before should write his two books of the Esseni and the Therapeutae after all this But because we will not build upon this alone let us for the resolution of our second Quaere character out these men that are so highly esteemed for the patterns of all Monasticks and that in Philo's own words and description PART III. The JEVVISH History §. 1. The Therapeutae THEY are called Therapeutae and Therapeutrides saith Philo either because they profess a Physick better than that professed in Cities for that healeth bodies only but this diseased souls Or because they have learned from nature and the holy Laws to serve him that is Those that betake themselves to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this course do it not out of fashion or upon any ones exhortation but ravished with a heavenly love even as the Bacchantes and Corybantes have their raptures until they behold what they desire Then through the desire of an immortal and blessed life reputing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves to die to this mortal life they leave their estates to sons or daughters or to other kindred voluntarily making them their heirs and to their friends and familiars if they have no kindred When they are thus parted from their goods being taken now by no bait they flie irrevocably leaving Brethren Children Wives Parents numerous Kindreds Societies and Countries where they were born and bred they flit not into other Cities but they make their abode without the walls in gardens or solitary Villages affecting the wilderness not for any hatred of men but because of
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
Bible makes Methushelah live fourteen years after the Flood their reason of this their addition of years many render which I omit But S. Austen saith some fall short of this mans age In three Greek books saith he and one Latine and one Syrian book all agreeing one with another Methusalem is found to die six years before the flood So Austen in Civ Dei lib. 15. cap. 13. Such differences may incite men to apply themselves to the Hebrew Text where is no falsifying nor error CHAP. L. Upon the words The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head THE New Testament affords a rich Commentary upon these words in the Gospel of Saint Luke who in his third Chapter shews how through seventy five generations Christ is this seed of the woman and in the fourth Chapter how through Jerus and Babilon targums do both apply these words to the Messias three temptations this seed began to bruise the head of the Serpent where the Reader may observe how the Devil tempts Christ in the very same manner that he had tempted Eve though not with the same success All the sins of the world are brought by Saint John to these three heads Lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1 John 2. 15. By these three Eve falls in the garden She sees the tree is good for meat and the lust of the flesh inticeth her she sees it fair to look on and the lust of the eye provokes her and she perceives it will make her wife and the pride of life perswades her to take it By these three the Devil tempts Christ when he is hungry he would have him turn stones into bread and so tries him by the lusts of the flesh He shews and promiseth him all the pomp of the World and so tries him by the lust of the eyes and he will have him to flie in the air and so tempts him to pride of life But as by these three the Serpent had broken the head of the woman so against these three the seed of the woman breaks the head of the Serpent David Prophecied of this conquest Psal. 91. 13. The Dragon thou shalt tread under thy feet The very next verse before this the Devil useth to tempt Christ withal but to this he dare not come for it is to his sorrow CHAP. LI. Iewish hypocritical prayers reproved by our Saviour Matth. 6. 5. Because they love to stand praying in the Synagogues and corners of the streets THIS Sermon upon the Mount is much in reproof of the Jews Talmudical traditions by which they made the Word of God of none effect This verse reproveth one of their tenets for their high-way Oraisons for which they have this tradition in their * * * In Sepher Beracoth Talmud Rabbi Josi saith On a time I was walking by the way and I went into one of the deserts of Jerusalem to pray then came Eliah ‖ ‖ ‖ Heb. Zacâ—r lâ—ttobh Remembred for good Heb. Morâ— which in the Chaldee and Syrian signifieth a Lord or Master hence is Maran atha our Lord cometh the great excommunication of blessed memory and watched me at the gate and stayed for me till I had ended my prayer after that I had ended my prayer he saith unto me Peace be unto thee Rabbi I said unto him peace be upon thee Rabbi and Master Then said he to me my son wherefore wentest thou into this desert I said unto him To pray He said to me Thou mightest have prayed in the way Then said I I was afraid lest passengers would interrupt me He said unto me Thou shouldest have prayed a short prayer At that time I learned of him three things I learned that we should not go into the desert and I learned that we should pray by the way and learned that he that prayed by the way must pray a short prayer Thus far their Talmud maketh them these Letters Patents for Hypocrisie fathering this bastard upon blessed Elias who was not a high-way prayer 1 Cor. 16. 12. or one that practised his own devotions in publick for he was John Baptists type for retiredness CHAP. LII Israels affliction in Egypt OF Israels being in Egypt many Heathen Authors do touch though every one a several way and all of them the wrong Josephus against Appion is angry at their fables about it Of the famine that brought them thither if we take the want of Nilus flowing to be the natural cause as most like it was there Nilus the wonder of Affrick the river of Egypt flows every year once over his banks and if it flow not at all or not to his right height it causeth famine for Egypt hath no rain From this river under God comes their plenty or famine and it is remarkable that the fat and lean kine in Pharoah his dream which betokened the plenty or scarsity of the Country came out of the River Of the reason of the flowing of this River Pigaffetra especially is large And I wonder that Jordan was not as much wondred at for it did so also Josh. 1. seems then to be some remembrance of those seven years in Seneca in his natural questions where he saith Per novem annos Nilum non ascendisse superioribus saeculis Callimachus est Author that is Callimachus writes that in old time Nilus flowed not of nine years together where he outstrips but two of the number But of Israels affliction in Egypt I find the Heathens silent God had told Abraham of this their hardship long before and shewed him a token of it by the fowls lighting upon his carcasses Gen. 15. A type of Israels being in Egypt and of Pharoahs being plagued for their sakes was when Pharoah suffered for taking Sarah from her husband and keeping her in his house as it is Gen. 12. How long they were in that land few there be but know but how long their affliction lasted is uncertain Probable it is that it was about an hundred and twenty years the time of the old Worlds repentance and Moses his age This is to be searched by Levi his age which within a little one may find certain All the generation of Josephs time die before they are afflicted as all the generation of Joshuahs time die before they fall to Idolatry Judges 2. 10. The reasons why God should thus suffer them to suffer whether it were to fit them for the receiving of him and his Law or whether it were to whip them for their Idolatry or for some other cause I dare not enter too near to search this I see that when the foundation as it were of the visible Church is laid thus in affliction the Church cannot but look for affliction whilest it lives in the Egypt of this World But as Israel increased under persecution so does the Church for even when sparsum est semen sanguinis Martyrum surrexit seges Ecclesiae Nec frustra oravit Ecclesia pro
and seeing Darius its last King and probably his last times Nehem. XII 12. Nay Ezra who was born either before or in the first year of the Babylonion Monarchy yet liveth near the expiration of the Persian by which it is easie to conclude how far the Heathen Histories are out who reckon fourteen Kings successively in the Persian Throne and two hundred years of their rule before its fall In the first year of Cyrus the returned Captives out of Babel only built an Altar and sacrificed thereon for seven months together having yet no Temple but in this second year the second month of that year they lay the foundation of the House Ezra 3 8 c. the progress of which work is soon opposed and indeavoured to be made frustrate by the Samaritans all the time of Cyrus Ezra IV. 5. but in his time they prevailed not In his third year Artaxerxes cometh to the Kingdom who is also called Ahashuerosh Ezra IV. 6 7. he is perswaded by evil Counsellors to interdict and prohibit the Temple building and so it lay intermitted all his time Dan. X. 1 2 3. Ezra IV. 23 24. Darius succeeded him called also Artaxerxes Ezra VI. 1. VII 1. c. In his second year the building goes on again and is finished in his sixth Hag. I. Ezra VI. 14. And thus had the Temple lien waste and desolate just seventy years from the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar in which year it was fired to the second of Darius when it began to be wrought upon so as that it came to perfection Zech. I. 12. IV. 3 5. In the seventh year of this Darius which was the year after the Temple was finished Ezra cometh up Ezra VII 8. and thirteen years after namely in the twentieth year of this Darius called also Artaxerxes Nehemiah cometh up to Jerusalem Neh. I. 1. and both help to repair settle and rectifie Temple City and People as their Story is at large in their own Books In the two and thirtieth year of this Darius Nehemiah having finished what he had to do about the building beautifying and settling of City Temple and People he returneth again unto the King Neh. XIII 6. and here ends Daniels first parcel of his seventy weeks namely seven weeks in which Street and Wall should be built and that in troublous times Dan. IX 25. By seven weeks he meaneth seven times seven years which amounts to nine and forty and so there were hitherto namely three of Cyrus fourteen of Ahashuerosh and thirty two of Darius After Darius there reigned Artaxerxes commonly known in Heathen Stories by the name of Xerxes the invader of Greece with his huge Army c. He was a favourer of the Jews at the least for a while as it appeareth by that passage in Ezra VI. 14. They builded and finished according to the Commandment of the Lord and according to the Commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes where this Artaxerxes is set in parallel equipage with Cyrus and Darius for favouring the Temple It is true indeed the work was finished in the time of Darius as to the very building of the House yet were the buildings about it still coming on and encreasing and this Xerxes did favour the work as well as those Princes had done before him Yet did there an unhappy occurrence befal in this Kings time in the Temple it self which if it did not alienate and change his affection from well-willing to it yet did it prejudice the Temple in the affection of him that was chief Commander under this King in those parts whose name was Bagoses The occasion was this a a a Ioseph Ant. lib. 11. cap. 7 Jochanan who was then High Priest upon some displeasure against his own Brother Jesus did fall upon him and slay him in the very Temple Bagoses favoured this Jesus and intended to have made him High Priest and it is like that Jochanan smelt the design and out of jealousie of such a thing thought to prevent it by his Brothers dispatch whatsoever was the cause of this his murder the fruit of it was this that Bagoses violently presseth into the Temple which he might not have done and layeth a mulct upon the People namely forty Drachmes upon every Lamb that was to be Sacrificed Ezra and Nehemiah were both now alive and do but imagine how their piety would digest a thing so impious The next in the Throne after this Artaxerxes mentioned in Scripture was Darius Nehem. XII 22. the Man with whom the Empire fell under the victorious Sword of Alexander the Great In his time another occasion from another Brother of an High Priest occurreth which accrewed not a little to the prejudice of the Temple and Nation and that was this b b b Ibid. cap. 8. Neh. XIII 28. Manasseh one of the sons of Joiada the son of Eliashib the High Priest had married Nicasso the Daughter of Sanballat for which being driven from the Altar and Priesthood he betaketh himself to his Father-in-law to Samaria and they betwixt them obtain a Commission from Danius and get it confirmed also by Alexander the Great to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim John IV. 20. which being built in affront to the Temple of Jerusalem it proved no small disadvantage to it and the Service there for it not only caused a faction and defection in the Nation but also it became the common refuge and shelter of all lawless and irregular despisers of discipline and Government In this Darius was the end of the Persian State and Kingdom having continued for the succession of these Kings but whether any more and how many precise years is not easily determinable what times went over the Temple in their Reigns besides what is mentioned here may be observed in the Books of Nehemiah Ezra Haggai Zechary and Malachi SECT II. The occurrences of the Temple under Alexander a a a Ios. Ant. sup ALEXANDER the Great the Conqueror of Darius and overthrower of the Persian Kingdom did in his own Person visit Jerusalem and the Temple coming towards it like a Lion but he came into it like a Lamb. He had taken indignation at Jaddua the High Priest Nehem. XII 22. because he denyed him assistance at the Siege of Tyrus for Jaddua had sworn fealty to Darius Hereupon he cometh up towards Jerusalem breathing fire and fury against it till he came within the sight of the City There he was met by Jaddua in the High Priests garments and by all the Priests in their vestments and the People in white whom when he came near in stead of offering them violence he shewed reverence to the High Priest and courteously saluted all the People When his Commanders wondred at such a change he told them that in a dream in Macedon he saw one in the very same Attire that the High Priest was in who encouraged him to invade the Persian Empire and promised to lead his Army and to make him
began his Reign by the account of the Book of the Maccabees in the one hundred thirty and seventh year of the Reign of the Seleucian family 1 Mac. I. 10. And in the one hundred forty and third year as both that Book and e e e Jos. Ant. l. 12 c. 6. 1 Mac. I. 21. c. Josephus reckon he came up to Jerusalem being invited thither by a wrethed faction of Onias who was also called Menelaus the High Priest and he taketh the City by their means and slew many of the contrary party and took away many of the Holy things and much spoil and so returned to Antioch This was the beginning of those two thousand and three hundred days mentioned in Dan. VIII 13 14. or the days of desolation when the Host and the Sanctuary were both trodden under Foot Two years and some months after namely in the year one hundred and forty five he cometh up again and under colour of peaceableness obtaining entrance he sacketh Jerusalem plundreth the Temple fireth the fairest buildings of the City pulls down the Walls slayeth even some of those that had invited him taketh many thousands prisoners and setteth a Syrian Garrison for a curb to the City and Temple Here was the beginning of those one thousand two hundred and ninety days mentioned Dan. XII 11. The time that the dayly Sacrifice was taken away and the abomination of desolation was set up which space is called a time times and half a time which was three years and an half and some twelve or thirteen days The mischief that this Tyrant and Persecutor wrought to the Temple Nation and Religion is not expressible how he forbad Circumcision abolished Religion burnt the Books of the Law persecuted the Truth murdred those that professed it and defiled the Sanctuary with all manner of abomination insomuch that the Holy Ghost hath set this character upon those sad times that that was a time of trouble such as was not since they were a Nation even to that same time Dan. XII 1. And here began the Story and Glory of Mattatbias the Father of the Maccabean family who withstood this outrage and villany f f f 1 Mac. II. 70. but died in the next year namely one hundred and forty sixth of the Seleucian Kingdom Judas Maccabeus succeeds him in his zeal and command and prevaileth so gallantly against the Commanders appointed by the Tyrant Apollonius Seron Gorgias and Lysâ—as that in the year one hundred forty eight he and his people return and purifie the Temple erect a new Altar restore the Service and keep the Feast of Dedication for eight days and ordain it for an annual solemnity And from thence even till now saith Josephus we keep that Feast and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Candlemas if I may so English it naming the Feast as I think from this because such a restauration shone upon us unexpected There is mention of this Feast and it was honoured with Christs presence Joh. X. 22. and what was the manner of its solemnity especially by lighting abundance of Candles at it I have shewed in another place Both Josephus and the Book of Maccabeus make it but exactly three years between the time of Antiochus his defiling of the Altar with abomination and Maccabeus his restoring and purifying it again g g g 1 Mac. I. 54. Jos. ubi sup Only the one of them saith its defiling began on the 15 day of the month Cisleu in the one hundred forty and fifth year of the Seleucian Kingdom and the other saith it began on the five and twentieth day of the same month in the same year but both agree that it was purified on the five and twentieth day of the same month in the year one hundred forty and eight which teacheth us how to distinguish upon that passage of Daniel forementioned in Chap. XII 11. namely that the time the daily Sacrifice was taken away was one thousand two hundred and ninety days or three years and an half and some few days over but the time that the abomination that maketh desolate was set up that is Idols in the Temple and an Idol Altar upon the Lords Altar was but three years Antiochus died in Persia within forty five days after the restoring of the Temple as Dan. XII 12. seemeth to intimate when it pronounceth him blessed that cometh to one thousand three hundred thirty and five days for then he should see the Tyrants death h h h Id. ibid. cap. 15. His son Antiochus Eupator who succeeded him was invited into Judea by some Apostate Jews to come to curb Judas Maccabeus who was besieging the Syrian Garrison that was in Jerusalem He cometh with a mighty power forceth Judas into the Temple and there besiegeth him But being straitned for provisions and hearing of stirrings in his own Kingdom he offereth the besieged honourable conditions upon which they surrender But he entring and seeing the strength of the place and suspecting it might be troublesom to him again he breaketh his Articles and his Oath and putteth down the Wall that incompassed the holy ground down to the ground And thus poor Judas and the Temple are in a worse condition than before for the Antiochian Garrison in Jerusalem that was ready upon all occasions to annoy it is not only not removed but now is the Temple laid naked to their will and fury i i i ibid. This Antiochus put Menelaus the High Priest to death and he rewarded him but justly for calling the Tyrant this Mans Father in and he made Alcimus High Priest in his stead one that was not of the High Priests line at all which made Onias who was next to the High Priesthood indeed to flee into Egypt and thereby the favour Ptolomy Philometor he built a Temple parallel to that at Jerusalem And thus hath Jerusalem Temple two corrivals a Temple on Mount Gerizim in Samaria on the North and a Temple in Egypt on the South Of this Temple built by Onias in Egypt the Talmudical Writers do make frequent and renowned mention They speak in the Treatise k k k Succah per. 5. Succah of a great Synagogue or Sanhedrin here in the time of Alexander the Great in which they say there were seventy golden Chairs and a Congregation belonging to it of double the number of Israelites that came out of Egypt And that Alexander destroyed them to bring upon them the curse denounced by Jeremy against their going down into Egypt Jer. XLIV and the curse due to them for the violation of the command Ye shall return thither to Egypt no more l l l Ios. Ant. lib 13 cap. 6. Iuchas sol 14. Yet would Onias venture to build a Temple here again and that the rather building upon that Prophesie Esay XIX 19. There shall be an Altar to the Lord in the Land of Egypt c. Upon which passage take the Gloss of R. Solomon m m
〈◊〉 The Emperour commanded them to dig up the whole City and the Temple And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thus those that digged it up laid all level that it should never be inhabited to be a witness to such as should come thither VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the World WHAT the Apostles intended by these words is more clearly conceived by considering the opinion of that people concerning the times of the Messias We will pick out this in a few words from Bab. Sanhedr d d d d d d Fol. 92. The Tradition of the School of Elias The righteous whom the Holy Blessed God will raise up from the dead shall not return again to their dust as it is said Whosoever shall be left in Sion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy every one being written in the book of life As the Holy God liveth for ever so they also shall live for ever But if it be objected what shall the righteous do in those years in which the Holy God will renew his world as it is said The Lord only shall be exalted in that day The answer is That God will give them wings like an Eagle and they shall swim or float upon the face of the waters Where the Gloss saith thus The righteous whom the Lord shall raise from the dead in the days of the Messiah when they are restored to life shall not again return to their dust neither in the daies of the Messiah nor in the following age but their flesh shall remain upon them till they return and live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To eternity And in those years when God shall renew his world or age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This world shall be wasted for a thousand years where then shall those righteous men be in those years when they shall not be buried in the earth To this you may also lay that very common phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The worlds to come whereby is signified the days of the Messiah of which we spoke a little at the thirty second verse of the twelfth Chapter e e e e e e Gloss in Bab. 〈…〉 fol. 9. 2. If he shall obtain the favour to see the world to come that is the exaltation of Israel namely in the days of the Messiah f f f f f f â—anâ—â—um fol. 〈…〉 The Holy blessed God saith to Israel In this world you are afraid of trasgressions but in the world to come when there shall be no evil affection you shall be concerned only for the good which is laid up for you as it is said After this the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their King c. g g g g g g Hos. III 5. which clearly relate to the times of the Messiah Again h h h h h h Tanchum fol. 77. 3. Saith the Holy Blessed God to Israel In this world because my messengers sent to spy out the land were flesh and blood I decreed that they should not enter into the land but in the world to come I suddenly send to you my messenger and he shall prepare the way before my face i i i i i i Mal. III. â— See here the Doctrine of the Jews concerning the coming of the Messiah 1. That at that time there shall be a Resurrection of the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Messias shall raise up those that sleep in the dust k k k k k k Midr. Tillin fol. 42. 1. 2. Then shall follow the desolation of this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This World shall be wasted a thousand years Not that they imagined that a Chaos or confusion of all things should last the thousand years but that this World should end and a new one be introduced in that thousand years 3. After which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternity should succeed From hence we easily understand the meaning of this question of the Disciples 1. They know and own the present Messiah and yet they ask what shall be the signs of his coming 2. But they do not ask the signs of his coming as we believe of it at the last day to judge both the quick and the dead But 3. When he will come in the evidence and demonstration of the Messiah raising up the dead and ending this World and introducing a new as they had been taught in their Schools concerning his coming VERS VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nation shall rise against Nation BEsides the seditions of the Jews made horridly bloody with their mutual slaughter and other storms of War in the Roman Empire from strangers the commotions of Otho and Vitellius are particularly memorable and those of Vitellius and Vespasian whereby not only the whole Empire was shaken and Totius orbis mutatione fortuna Imperii translit they are the words of Tacitus the fortune of the Empire changed with the change of the whole World but in Rome it self being made the scene of battel and the prey of the Soldiers and the Capitol it self being reduced to ashes Such throws the Empire suffered now bringing forth Vespasian to the Throne the scourge and vengeance of God upon the Jews VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted TO this relate those words of Peter l l l l l l 1 Pet. IV. 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God that is the time foretold by our Saviour is now at hand in which we are to be delivered up to persecution c. These words denote that persecution which the Jews now near their ruine stirred up almost every where against the professors of the Gospel They had indeed oppressed them hitherto on all sides as far as they could with slanders rapines whippings stripes c. which these and such like places testifie 1 Thes. II. 14 15. Heb. X. 33 c. But there was something that put a rub in their way that as yet they could not proceed to the utmost cuelty m m m m m m 2 Thes. II. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth which I suppose is to be understood of Claudius enraged at and curbing in the Jews n n n n n n Act. XVIII 2 Who being taken out of the way and Nero after his first five years suffering all things to be turned topside turvy the Jews now breathing their last and Satan therefore breathing his last effects in them because their time was short they broke out into slaughter beyond measure and into a most bloody persecution which I wonder is not set in the front of the ten persecutions by Ecclesiastical writers This is called by Peter who himself also at last suffered in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o 1 Pet.
we must not render they do not fold up but they do not unfold or unrol the Book of the Law in the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t t t t t t Massech Sopherim cap. 11. They unrol a Prophet in the Congregation but they do not unrol the Law in the Congregation That is as the Gloss hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 u u u u u u Megill fol. 32. 1. They unrol from one place or passage to another passage in another place So they were wont to do in the Prophets but not in the Law And upon this account was it permitted for the Reader to skip in the Prophet from one place to another because it was permitted them to unrol the Prophet either a single Prophet or the twelve lesser in the Synagogue but as to the Law it was not allowed them so to do And they put the question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 x x x x x x Megil fol. 24. 1. How far may he skip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that he that Interprets do not break off The Gloss is Let him not skip from the place he reads unless that he may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unrol the Book and be ready to read the place to which he skips when the Interpreter ceaseth And because it was not lawful for him so to unrol the Law in the Synagogue On the Kalends of the month Tebeth if it proved to be the Sabbath day they brought three Books of the Law and read in one of them the place for the Sabbath in another that for the Kalends in the third that for the Feast of dedication y y y y y y Joma fol. 70. 1. The words therefore of our Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to me seem not barely to mean that that he unfolded or opened the Book but that being opened he unrolled it from folio to folio till he had found the place he designed to Read and Expound Which though it was not the Section appointed by the Rubrick for the day yet did not Christ much recede from the custom of the Synagogue which allowed the Reader to skip from one place to another VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physician heal thy self YOU will say unto me this Proverb Physician heal thy self I would express it thus in the Jerusalem language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 z z z z z z Beresh rab sect 23. Tanchum fol. 4. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physician heal thine own lameness VERS XXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the heavens were shut up three years and six months THIS number of three years and six months is much used both in the Holy Scriptures and in Jewish Writings concerning which we have more largely discoursed in another place And although both in the one and the other it is not seldom used allusively only yet in this place I can see nothing hinder why it should not be taken according to the letter in its proper number however indeed there will be no small difficulty to reduce it to its just account That there was no rain for three years together is evident enough from 1 Kings XVII c. But whence comes this addition of six months Elijah said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there shall be these years These words include three years at the least because he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Years in the plural and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Years in the Dual And Chap. XVIII The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying Go shew thy self unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth In the third year where then shall we find the six Months I. Doubtless both our Saviour and his Apostle St. James Chap. V. vers 17. in adding six months do speak according to the known and received opinion of that Nation which is also done elsewhere sometimes in Historical matters in the New Testament St. Stephen tells us Acts VII 16. that the bones of the twelve Patriarchs were carried over from Egypt and buried in Sichem when Holy Writ mentions only the bones and burial of Joseph Wherein he speaks according to the vulgar opinion of the Nation a a a a a a See Hierosâ—… Sotah fol. 18 3. and Bab. Bava kama fol. 92. 1. Again Vers. 30. he tells us That Moses was forty years old when he fled into the Land of Midian and that he tarried there forty years more when Moses himself mentions nothing of this circumstance This he speaks agreeably to the opinion of that people b b b b b b See Beresh rab sect 100. II. Neither our Saviour nor St. James say that Elijah shut up the Heavens three years and six months but Christ tells us That the Heaven was shut up in the days of Elias three years and six months And St. James That Elias prayed that it might not rain and it rained not upon the Earth by the space of three years and six months May I therefore have leave to distinguish in this manner Elijah shut up the Heaven for three years that there might be no rain as in the Book of Kings And there was no rain for three years and a half as our Saviour and St. James relate III. The words of Menander in Josephus may help a little toward the untying this knot c c c c c c Antiqâ— lib. 8. cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menander also makes mention of this drought in the acts of lihobalus King of Tyre saying There was no rain from the month of October to the month of October the year following It is true he shortens the space of this drought by making it continue but one year but however having placed the beginning of it in the Month of October gives us a key that opens us a way into things more inward and secret IV. Consider the distinction of the former and the latter rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. XI 14. Jerem. V. 24. Joel II. 23. d d d d d d Taanith fol. 6. 1. The Rabbins deliver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former is in the Month Marheshvan the latter in the Month Nisan The Targumist in Joel II. 23. Who hath given you the first rain in season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter in the month Nisan See also our Note upon Chap. II. vers 8. R. Solomon upon Deut. XI differs a little but we are not solicitous above the order which should be the first either that in the Month Marheshvan or that in the Month Nisan that which makes to our purpose is that rains were at those stated times and for the rest of the year generally there was no rain V. Those six Months mentioned by our Saviour and St. James must be accounted before
up Candles Who this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tarquinus or Tarquinius was whether they meant the Emperor Trajan or some other we will not make any enquiry nor is it tanti However the story goes on and tells us That the Woman calling her Husband accused the Jews stirring him up to revenge which he executed accordingly by a slaughter amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Feast of Dedication So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the title of the XXX Psalm the Greek Interpreters translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dedication By which the Jewish Masters seem to understand the dedication of the Temple e e e e e e Bemidb. rabba fol. 149. 1. Whereas really it was no other than the lustration and cleansing of David's House after Absolom had polluted it by his wickedness and filthiness which indeed we may not unfitly compare with the purging again of the Temple after that the Gentiles had polluted it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Ierusalem It was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication Not as the Passover Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles was wont to be at Jerusalem because those Feasts might not be celebrated in any other place But the Encenia were kept every where throughout the whole Land f f f f f f Rosh hashanah fol. 18. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They once proclaimed a Fast within the Feast of Dedication at Lydda The Feast of Dedication at Lydda this was not uncustomary for that Feast was celebrated in any place but the Fast in the time of that Feast this was uncustomary g g g g g g Maâ—mont in the place above One upon his journey upon whose account they set up a Candle at his own House hath no need to light it for himself in the place where he sojourneth For in what Country soever he sojourns there the Feast of Dedication and lighting up of Candles is observed and if those of his own houshold would be doing that office for him he is bound to make provision accordingly and take care that they may do it Maimonides goes on The precept about the Lights in the Feast of Dedication is very commendable and it is necessary that every one should rub up his memory in this matter that he may make known the great miracle and contribute toward the praises of God and the acknowledgment of those wonders he doth amongst us If any one hath not wherewithal to eat unless of meer Alms let them beg or sell his Garments to buy Oyl and Lights for this Feast If he have only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one single farthing and should be in suspense whether he should spend it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrating the day or setting up lights let him rather spend it in Oyl for the Candles than in Wine for Consecration of the day For when as they are both the prescription of the Scribes it were better to give the Lights of the Encenia the preference because you therein keep up the remembrance of the miracle Now what was this miracle it was the multiplication of the Oyl The Feast was instituted in commemoration of their Temple and Religion being restored to them the continuance of the Feast for eight days was instituted in commemoration of that miracle both by the direction of the Scribes when there was not so much as one Prophet throughout the whole Land h h h h h h Hierosol Megillah fol. 70. 4. There were eighty five Elders above thirty of which were Prophets too that made their exceptions against the Feast of Purim ordained by Esther and Mordecai as some kind of innovation against the Law And yet that Feast was but to be of two days continuance It is a wonder then how this Feast of Dedication the solemnity of which was to be kept up for eight days together that had no other foundation of authority but that of the Scribes should be so easily swallowed by them Josephus as also the Book of Maccabees tells us that this was done about the hundred and forty eighth year of the Seleucidae and at that time nay a great while before the Doctrine of Traditions and authority of the Traditional Scribes had got a mighty sway in that Nation So that every decree of the Sanhedrin was received as Oracular nor was there any the least grudge or complaint against it So that though the Traditional Masters could not vindicate the institution of such a Feast from any Tradition exhibited to Moses upon Mount Sinai yet might they invent something as Traditional to prove the lawfulness of such an institution Who had the Presidency in the Sanhedrin at this time cannot be certainly determined that which is told of Joshua ben Perachiah how he fled from Janneus the i i i i i i Sanhedr fol. 107. 2. King carries some probability along with it that Joses ben Joezer of Zeredai and Joses ben Jochanan of Jerusalem to whom Joshuah ben Perachiah and Nittai the Arbelite succeeded in their Chairs sate President and Vice-president at that time in the Sanhedrin But this is not of much weight that we should tire our selves in such an enquiry The Masters tell us but upon what Authority it is obscure k k k k k k Bemidb. rab fol. 151. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the work of the Tabernacle was finished on the twenty fifth day of the month Chisleu that is this very day of the month of which we are now speaking but it was folded up till the first day of the month Nisan and then set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it was Winter The eight days begun from the xxvth of the month Chisleu fell in with the Winter solstice Whence meeting with that in the Targumist upon 1 Chron. XI 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I question whether I should render it the shortest day or a short day i. e. one of the short Winter days is the tenth of the month Tebeth if he did not calculate rather according to our than the Jewish Calendar The Rabbins as we have already observed upon Chap. V. 35. distinguish their Winter months into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Winter and mid-winter intimating as it should seem the more remiss and more intense cold Half Chisleu all Tebeth and half Shebat was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Winter Ten days therefore of the Winter had passed when on the XXV of the month Chisleu the Feast of the Dedication came in It was Winter and Jesus walked in the Porch He walked there because it was Winter that he might get and keep himself warm perhaps he chose Solomon's Porch to walk in either that he might have something to do with the Fathers of the Sanhedrin who sate there or else that he might correct and chastise the buyers and sellers who had their shops in that place VERS XXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How long dost thou make us to
be Converted the Spirit of Grace reveals these to him in feeling and experience And further Revelation as to the understanding of Scripture there is not the least ground-work in Scripture whereupon to expect it III. When God had committed the New Testament to writing he had revealed all that he would reveal to men on Earth of his will and way of Salvation The words in Joh. XVI 13. are appropriate to the Apostles None ever were or will be whom God led into all Truth save the Apostles He leads indeed every Saint he hath into all Truth needful for him but the Apostles into all Truth needful both for themselves and the whole Church Because God by them was to give the rule of Faith and Manners to all the Church Now when all the Truth that God would reveal was revealed and compact in the New Testament as all Light in the body of the Sun must we still look for further Revelation to explain this Revealing It was foretold that the Light that God would exhibit under the Gospel should be as the Light of the Sun sevenfold and must we look for another Sun of Revelation to give Light to this Sun The New Testament revealed the Old and must we look for Revelations to reveal the New And so we may look in infinitum IV. The main difficulty of the New Testament requires study to unfold it rather than Revelation The Old Testament needed further Revelation to unfold it and further was promised And accordingly the New Testament was a further Revelation that did unfold it For the great difficulty of the Old Testament was in the Sence the Language every Child could understand for it was their Mother-tongue But when they could understand what the words meant they could not understand what the Sence meant nor was it possible to find it out in abundance of places without further Revelation But the main difficulty of the New Testament is in the Languages unlock that clearly and the Sence ariseth easie The Old Testaments difficulty was in the Kernel the New in the Shell For besides that Greek the Original is not the Native Tongue now of any part of the World there is such intermixture of Septuagint Greek Hebrew Idioms Talmudichal Phrases and Allusions to the Jews Opinions and Customs that the greatest difficulty is to explain the Language that done the Sence is plain Now certainly it is more likely to obtain understanding of Languages by Study than to attain it by Revelation unless any one will yet expect that miraculous gift of Tongues which I suppose there is none will make himself so ridiculous as to say they expect But this only by the way In the Text as there are two Verses so are there two distinct things observable In the former a Festival mentioned in the latter Christs presence there intimated and either of them illustrated by three circumstances I. The Festival 1. By its Name It was the Feast of Dedication 2. By the Place It was at Jerusalem 3. By the Time It was Winter II. Christs presence there 1. By the place where he was In the Temple 2. The particular place in the Temple Solomons porch 3. His posture there He was walking He was at the Feast at Jerusalem though it were Winter and he walked in the Temple belike to get him heat because it was Winter The Feast of Dedication as the Authors before mentioned do inform us was instituted upon this occasion Antiochus Epiphanes one of the Kings of Syria one of the Horns of the fourth Monarchy Dan. VII 24. having the Nation of the Jews under his Power and Tyranny raised against them and their Religion a very sad Persecution He forbad them to Circumcise their Children he restrained the exercise of their Religion burnt the Books of the Law set up idolatry defiled the Temple set up an Idolatrous Altar upon the very Altar of the Lord in the Court of the Temple And all this for a Time two Times and half a Time as Daniel styles it Dan. VII 25. or three years and an half The Jews had never felt such misery of that nature before and Daniel in his twelfth Chapter foretelling of that a long time before it came saith That it should be such a time of trouble as had never been since they were a Nation At last Judas Maccabaeus prevails against his Power and Tyranny shakes off that Yoak restores the People and Religion destroies his Idolatry purges the Temple pulls down his Idol-Altar that he had erected there yea also the Altar of the Lord which it had stood upon and defiled reareth up a new Altar and on the 25th day of the month Cisleu which was the ninth month or their November dedicates the Altar and sets the Publick Service of the Temple afoot again And thereupon he and the generation ordained that day and seven days forward for the Feast of Dedication to be kept annually throughout all succeeding Generations as may be read at large in 1 Macc. IV. and in the Authors beside that I named I might Observe from hence How joyful a thing it is and how joyful and perpetual a Memorial it ought to carry when decayed Religion is restored to a Nation Oh! that England might see that day and come to such a Feast of Dedication But I desire to fix upon the latter Verse of the Text and to observe Christs presence at that Feast which is the more remarkable and strange because there were three things that might not only have warranted his absence thence but even perswaded and urged it according to the three circumstances we observed in the former verse the Feast it self the Time and the Place I. The Time It was Winter An ill time to travail and Jerusalem was a very long journey from Capernaum the place of Christs habitation And the Evangelist seems to have added this circumstance the rather that we might look upon his presence there as the more remarkable II. It is said that Christ was at this Feast at Jerusalem whereas he might have kept it in his own Town For although indeed the three Festivals that God had appointed by Moses Passover Pentecost and of Tabernacles required mens personal appearance at Jerusalem yet the two Feastâ— that were ordained afterwards Purim and Dedication as the Jews Records tell us might be kept at their own homes III. And that which was the main thing indeed this Feast was not ordained either by the immediate appointment of God as those three were to Moses nor was there then any Prophet in those times that by Divine Warrant could authorize its institution but it was only of a Civil and Ecclesiastical Sanction appointed by the Higher Powers in that Generation As our fift of November is indeed of Religious observation and yet but only of Humane Institution These reasons might have kept Christ from going up to Jerusalem at this Feast and yet you see that he is there From whence I Observe and on which I shall
manner of speech is no rare thing in Scripture as might be shewed by several instances if I would insist upon it And all the World is inevitably put upon this Dilemma either thou must be of Satans army or must fight against Satans army and expect it to fight against thee That therefore may seem an hard case that God from the beginning put enmity between the Devil and Men Gen. III. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed And was there any need of this Had not the Devil spight and enmity enough against men without Gods putting enmity between them Yes enough and enough again but man had not enmity enough against the Devil He had been too much friends with him in harkening to him obeying him complying with him to the violating Gods Command and the undoing of all mankind and should he still continue in that compliance with him there were no hope of recovery no way but eternal ruine Therefore it was a most comfortable and happy passage when God himself takes on him to dissolve this society and to set them at odds that the seed of the woman should set the Devil at defiance be an Enemy to him and fight against him and at last through Gods strength and good assistance tread him under foot But they must look for as sharp dealing from him as possible If they will be enemies to him and not obedient and compliant he will be an enemy to them to purpose and omit nothing that may tend to their ruine whether subtilty or strength For he hath his deceivings and his Army in the Text and he hath his deceivings and his strength in his temptations and assaults I need not to spread before you the parts of the Text they lye so plain in their several clauses The task before us is rather to explain them which we shall assay to do in the method and order as they lye And first the first clause And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed recals us to the third verse of the Chapter where Satan is bound for a thousand years There bound here loosed there bound for a thousand years here the thousand years are expired there bound and imprisoned that he should not deceive the Nations and here loosed he goes out to deceive the Nations again I doubt a Millenary and I should scarce agree about the explication of this Scripture He looks for the thousand years yet to come I make no doubt but they are long since past and ended He thinks Satan shall be chained up that he shall not persecute or trouble the Church when the Text tells you plainly that his chaining up was that he should not deceive the Nations And there is a great deal of difference between persecuting and deceiving between the Church and the Nations Do but call to thoughts how the Devil deceived the Nations or the Heathen for that English word of ours is the very Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Text to worship Idols or as the Scripture phraseth it to worship Devils to believe lying Oracles false Miracles to account the highest profaneness to be Religion as the Prostitution of their bodies in Fornication to be divine adoration offering their children to Molock to be devotion sacrificing men and women to be zeal and to bury men quick to be a blessed attonement I say do but call to remembrance how the Devil thus deceived the Nations before the Gospel came among them and you may easily perceive what is meant by the great Angels binding the old Serpent the Devil and imprisoning him that he should not deceive the Nations or Gentiles as he had viz. Christ sending his Gospel among them did by the power and prevalency of it curb restrain and chain up the Devils power and activity from cheating so abominably as he had done hitherto For the Gospel cast down their Idolatry silenced their Oracles dissolved their Miracles and curbed those abominations that had reigned before As those that are any whit acquainted with History do very well know and those that but read the Bible cannot be ignorant of And thus he bound the Devil that he should not deceive the Nations Secondly His binding and imprisoning is said to be for a thousand years Which may be taken Allusively or Determinately 1. Allusively or speaking according to the common opinion of the Jewish Nation which conceiveth that the Kingdom and Reign of Messias should be a thousand years as it were easie to shew in their own Authors abundantly And so the Apocalyptick may be conceived to speak according to their common opinion that he may the better speak to their capacity and that speaking by things familiarly received and known he might intimate his mind more feelingly to their apprehensions But withal he explains what is meant by Christs reigning viz. in and by the power of the Gospel conquering Nations to the obedience of the Truth and subduing Satan from his cheating and deluding them as he had done Now the Scripture speaking so much of Christs Kingdom and reigning among the Gentiles by the Gospel that Gospel subduing the power of Satan among them and bringing them to subjection under Christs scepter and the Jews holding that Messias his Kingdom should be a thousand years our Evangelist relates to the former and allude◠to the latter that he may the better be understood when he saith Satan was bound a thousand years and the Saints of Christ reigned with him a thousand years 2. You may take the time determinately and that very properly for just so long a time And begin from the time that the Gospel was first sown by the Apostles among the Heathen and count a thousand years forward and you have them ending in the depth and darkness of Popery when Satan was let loose again and the World and Nations cheated and deceived by him into as gross ignorance palpable darkness horrid Idolatry ridiculous belief of forged Miracles and Oracles and committing all manner of abominations as ever the Heathen had been deceived and cheated by him before The Gospel from the first preaching of it among the Gentiles had now gone through all Nations and by it the World was made Christian and all People and Nations and Languages were come to the acknowledgment of it when up comes Popery in the West as Mahumetism in the East and overspreads the World with an universal darkness that it becomes as blind superstitious deluded heathenish as ever it had been And that Popery is more peculiarly here meant whereby Satan deceived the Nations as much as ever he had deceived the Nations under Heathenism besides that the calculation of the time taken determinately doth help to argue the main scope of this book from Chapter XIII hitherto doth also evince which is to speak of Rome or the Western Babylon and as it were to write her story Thus according to the first clause in the
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
shews they are hard set when they must make Caiaphas a copy after whom to write the Infallibility of their Papal chair But they gazed so much upon the chair when they wrote this Note that they clean looked off the Book and Text they had before them For had they looked well upon that that would have given them a more proper reason of his prophesying and indeed the proper reason of it namely not so much because he was High Priest as because he was High Priest that year This he spake not of himself but being High Priest that year High Priest that year Why He had been High Priest several years before So Luke tells us Chap. III. that he was High Priest when Christ was baptized three years and an half ago and Josephus tells us as much and more and of his being High Priest after this year also And therefore why that circumstance added He was High Priest that year To speak the proper reason of his prophesying First I might say That was the year nay even the hour of the last gasp of the High Priesthood It prophesied and instantly breathed out its last There is much dispute upon those words of Paul Act. XXIII 5. which our English renders I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest If I should render it I knew not that there is an High Priest I am sure it hath warrant enough of the Original Greek and warrant enough of the truth of the thing it self Did not the High Priesthood dye and cease and was no more when the great High Priest of Souls died and by death made expiation for his people If you will allow the other Priesthood and the employment of it to live still after the death of Christ and his sacrifice offered by the eternal Spirit till the fall of Jerusalem and dissolution of the Temple yet can you find nothing that the High Priest had then to do that it should survive any longer after Christ was sacrificed The other Priesthood had something to do besides what was most plainly typical in it and referred to the death of Christ as sacrificing and sprinkling of blood did For they had to offer the first fruits of the people for their Thankfulness to purifie women after child-birth to present the first born to the Lord c. But the distinctive work of the High Priest in diversity from the other Priesthood was on the day of Expiation to go within the Vail into the most holy place with blood and make an Attonement Which when Christ had done through the Vail of his flesh through his own blood as the Apostle tells us Heb. X. 20. what had the High Priesthood to do any more To this peculiarly related that which occurred at the death of the great High Priest Matth. XXVII 15. The vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Which when you come narrowly to examine you will find to be the vail that hung between the holy and most holy place Which the Jews in their writings call by a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the vail that the High Priest turned aside as we do hangings at a door to go into the room And he went into the most holy place only once a year But now it is rent in pieces no such distinction or separation thenceforward to be had and no such work of the High Priest to be done any more So that if we take these words of Paul to the sense I mentioned viz. I knew not Brethren that there is now any High Priest or any High Priesthood at all that Function is long ago laid in the dust it was spoken like a Paul boldly and as one that very well understood and could well distinguish twixt substance and shadow and how long those Ordinances of that Oeconomy were to last and when to decay And if accordingly we take that circumstance in the Text He prophesied as being High Priest that year in the sense I mentioned namely that last year of the being and life of the High Priesthood it gives a story not much unlike that of the son of King Crâ—sus Who when he had been dumb from the birth and never spake word at last seeing in a battel an enemy ready to run his Father through he forced his Tongue so as that he broke the string of silence and cryed out O man do not kill Croesus So the High Priesthood having been dumb from Prophesying for above four hundred years together and never spoken one Prophetick word when now the King is ready to be slain its Tongue is loosed in Caiaphas and prophesieth of the Redemption of all the Israel of God and presently expireth But Secondly That year was the great year of pouring down the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation as in Act. II. the great year of sealing Vision and Prophesie as in Dan. IX And then it is the less wonder if this dog get some crumbs that fell from that plentiful table of the children and some droppings from that abundant dew that fell upon the Fleece of Gedeon Something like the case of Eldad and Medad but they were better men Numb XI 26. that in that great pouring out of the Spirit there had their share though they were not in the company of those that were assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation And thus was the case with Caiaphas as it was with Balaam that wretch inspired till then by the Devil but then by God Who went purposely to curse Israel but God so overpowered and turned the stream that he could not but bless them So this wretch inspired with malice from the Devil to plot and compass the death of Christ is now also inspired by the Spirit of Prophesie to foretel his death and to proclaim it Redemption to his people A very strange passage that while he was sinning against the Holy Ghost he prophesied by the Holy Ghost and that in those very words that he spake against Christ to destroy him he should prophesie of Christs death and Redemption to magnifie it So can the Spirit of God overpower the Hearts and Tongues and actions of Men to serve the design of his own glory And this is that that I shall speak to I might observe obiter how great diversity there is twixt the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of grace and holiness The same Spirit indeed is the Author of both but there is so much diversity in the thing wrought that a Balaam a Caiaphas have the Spirit of Prophesie who are as far from having the Spirit of Sanctification as the East is from the West Hell from Heaven A mistake hath taken the Spirits of too many to account this good Language and Divinity I am a believer converted sanctified therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation and I can preach and expound Scripture by that Spirit little considering the vast diversity of the gift of Prophesie
Christ did abolish the Worship used at the Temple which was Ceremonial but not that at the Synagogue which was moral 1041 Wrath Christ suffered as much as God could put him to suffer short of his own Wrath. p. 1255. Christ did not undergo the Wrath and Anger of God but the Justice of God in his sufferings p. 1348 1349 1350. With the Wrath of the Devil he had indeed to deal 1349 Y. YEAR the beginning of it was in September till Israel's coming out of Egypt then it was changed into March Page 1322 c. 1329 Years three years and an half often made use of to express things afflictive and sorrowful 513 Z. ZACHARIAS son of Barachias that was Zacharias the son of Jehoiada made to appear by several Arguments and Objections answered p. 237 to 239. The Story of his Blood shed between the Temple and the Altar what out of the Talmud Page 1120 Zalmon a Mountain or part of one near Sychem supposed to be Dalinon or Dalmonutba 310 Zarephath and Sarepta whether the same and where situate 368 Zaretan sometimes called Zarthanah a City twelve miles distant from Adam which twelve miles the waters of Jordan dried up when Israel passed through 82 Zeal or Zealous and Jealousie or Jealous are comprehended under the same word in the Hebrew what they are 1314 Zealots such Men when Persecutors did the most mischief 604 Ziddim the same with Caphar Chittai 71 Zin where and whence so called 325 Zippor or Sippor a City encompassed with a Land flowing with Milk and Honey noted for Warlike affairs an University many Synagogues and many Famous Doctors 74 75 Zophim the same with Scopo and Scopus 41 Zuz and Denarius a Peny were of the same value among the Rabbins p. 343 c. 349. It was the fourth part of a Shekel of Silver ibid. 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deliverance to Ebed-melech Now this passage is laid after the Story of the taking of the City though Jeremy prophesied it before because when the Holy Ghost hath shewed the safety of Jeremy in the destruction he would also shew the safety of Ebed-melech according to Jeremies Prophesie 2 KING XXV vers 2. to vers 20. 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 17 18 19 20 21. JEREMY XXXIX vers 2. to vers 15. And LII vers 5. to vers 28. IN the fourth month of this eleventh year of Zedekiah which was the month Tammuz on the ninth day of the moneth much about our Mid-summer day there is no more provision left and the City is broken up Zedekiah and the men of war get away by night but Zedekiah is overtaken near Jericho ere he could reach the foords of Jordan and brought to Nebuchad-nezzar and judgment passed upon him c. And he that would never see the danger now seeth the Judgment and his eyes are put out In the fifth moneth the seventh day of the month Nebuzaradan fireth the Temple and Jerusalem about the 23 of our July captiveth the remnant of the people leaving only some for husbandry over whom he maketh Gedaliah Governor and carrieth away all the Vessels of the House of the Lord and the two brazen pillars that stood before it In reckoning the height of the two Pillars Jachin and Boaz there is some difference and difficulty for in 2 Kings 25. 17. It is said The height of one Pillar was eighteen cubits And so 2 King 7. 15. and Jer. 52. 21. But in 2 Chron. 3. 15. it is said He made two Pillars thirty five cubits high And in that very verse it is said the Chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits And so 2 King 7. 16. and Jer. 52. 22. But in 2 King 25. 17. it is said The height of the Chapiter was three cubits Solution 1. Of the difference in the former reckoning the reason is this because the Book of Kings and Jer. 52. 21. reckon the height of each Pillar distinct and say plainly they were eighteen cubits high a piece But the Book of Chronicles reckoneth the measure of them both joyntly together and saith they were five and thirty cubits long that is both together were so long and severally they were seventeen cubits and an half a piece Now the half cubit that is reckoned above when it is said they were eighteen cubits high a piece was taken up within the Chapiter for the Chapiter being a long massey piece of brass set upon the head of the Pillar the Pillar must needs be let in something into it as a tenon into a morteise to make it fast and so it was half a cubit so that the Pillar was eighteen cubits high but it was only seventeen cubits and an half appearing 2. The difference of the second accounting viz. of the height of the Chapiter one Text saying it was three cubits high and the other five ariseth from this That the Chapiters themselves were five cubits high a piece but there was net work wrought about them at their bottom which stood as a Crown about them on the top of the Pillars that only three cubits of the plain Chapiter could be seen In this captivity was Seraiah the father of Ezra taken and slain 2 King 25. 18. Ezr. 7. 1. he was the High Priest and he and Zephaniah the second Priest or Sagan came to an end as fatal as Hophni and Phinehas had done at the ruine of Shiloh Were Ezra never so young now yea were he now in his mothers womb yet must he needs be very aged when he cometh up to Jerusalem so long after the captivity Ezr. 7. we shall judge of this by then we come there The Book of the LAMENTATIONS UPON this sad misery befallen Jerusalem Jeremy composeth the sad ditty of his Lamentations bewailing its case most dolefully but withal most elegantly For all the Chapters in this Elegiack Book the fifth or last excepted are alphabetical or every verse beginning in order with the Letters of the Alphabet and the third Chapter doing it three times over Only in all the Alphabets but that of the first Chapter there is a dislocation of the two letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ain and Pe For whereas Ain should properly be set before according to the constant method of the Hebrew Alphabet it is not so here but Pe set before and Ain after The Prophet by this alteration of the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ain which in numbers denoteth seventy aiming as it may be well supposed to hint the seventy years that this desolation of Jerusalem to which it was now come should last JEREMY XL. to vers 9. NEBUZARADAN bringeth all his captives to Ramah then was a sad voice heard there of lamentation weeping and mourning as Chap. 31. 15. Matth. 2. 18. and from thence he inlargeth Jeremy from his Manicles not which he had put on him but which the Jews had put on him in the Court of the Prison and dismisseth him to go to Gedaliah or else whither as he pleased Then the Word of the Lord cometh to him and directeth him to go to Gedaliah 2 KING XXV vers 20. 21. And JEREMY LII vers 26 27 28 29. THE continuance and connection of the Story here is to be conceived thus That Nebuzaradan when he fired the Temple and captived the City in his return towards his Master maketh a Rendez-vouz at Ramah as in the Sections preceding and there disposeth of some of his Prisoners particularly of Jeremy for inlargement and then he goeth forward to his Master to Riblah whither when he bringeth his Captives Nebuchad-nezzar slayeth seventy two of them This number is considerable by reflexion upon the seventy two that were first chosen Numb 11. 26 27. And because we may the rather observe this there is a difference of the account of the Book of Kings from Jeremy The Book of Kings saith that Nebuzaradan took away from Jerusalem Seraiah Zephaniah three Porters a chief Officer over the Army and the chief Secretary of the Army five men that were near the King and sixty men of the Land that is five out of the Temple two out of the City five out of the Court and sixty out of the Country and brought them to Riblah and there the King of Babel slew them Now Jeremy agrees exactly in all the account but this that he saith he took away seven men that were near the King which he did indeed but slew but five of them for the other two Jeremy and Ebedmelech were delivered Now of their Story the Penman hath given you account before and therefore when he saith here that all these were taken at Jerusalem and slain at Riblah he himself had been the interpreter there how to understand it suitable to the relation in the Book of Kings Jeremy in vers 28. 29. reckoning the men that Nebuchad-nezzar carried away
reign in the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab 2 King 8. 25. and in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab 2 Kings 9. 29. Answer The resolution of this doubt will be easie to him that hath such a Chronical Table as we have spoken of before his eyes For there will he see that Jehoram reigned one year before his Father Ahabs death For in the twentieth year of Ahab which was the seventeenth of Jehoshaphat did Ahaziah the son of Ahab begin to reign 1 King 22. 51. being made Viceroy when his Father went to Ramoth Gilead He reigning but that year Jehoram his son was Viceroy or began to rule in his stead the next year namely in Ahabs one and twentieth Ahab in his two and twentieth died and so Jehoram became absolute and intire King and reigned so eleven years so that his reign hath a double reckoning he reigned as Viceroy twelve years but as intire King but eleven 7. Amaziah began to reign in the second year of Joash King of Israel 2 King 14. 1. this was the eight and thirtieth year of his father Joash King of Judah three years current before his death And the reason was because his father had cast himself into so much misery and mischief through his Apostasie and murder of Zacharias 2 King 12. 17 18. 2 Chron. 24. 23 24 25. that he was become unfit and unable to manage the Kingdom 8. Uzziah or Azariah the son of this Amaziah being but sixteen years of age in the seven and twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam the second 2 King 15. 1 2. it appeareth that he was but four years old at his fathers death Therefore was the Throne empty for eleven years and the rule managed by some as Protectors in the Kings minority 9. There is also an interregnum or vacancy of twenty two years in the Kingdom of Israel between Jeroboam the second and Zachariah whereof what the reason should be is not easie to determine whether through wars from abroad which Jeroboam might have provoked against his house by the conquest of Hamath and Damascus 2 King 14. 28. or through war at home as appeareth by the end of Zachariah 2 King 15. 10. or through what else it was it is uncertain but most sure it was that the Throne was so long without a King since Jeroboam beginning to reign in the fifteenth year of Amaziah and reigning forty one years 1 King 14. 23. died in the fifteenth of Uzziah and Zechariah began not to Reign till the eight and thirtieth 2 Kings 15. 8. 10. Hoshea is said to slay Pekah in the twentieth year of Jotham the Son of Uzziah 2 King 15. 30. whereas Jotham reigned but sixteen years in all 2 King 15. 33. But the reason of this accounting is because of the wickedness of Ahaz in whose reign this occurrence was and the Holy Ghost chuseth rather to reckon by holy Jotham in the dust then by wicked Ahaz alive For in the slaughter of Pekah the Lord avenged upon Pekah the blood-shed and misery he had caused in Judah for he had slain of the men thereof 120000 in one day 2 Chron. 28. 6. Now Ahaz had caused this wrath upon the people in withdrawing them from the ways of the Lord therefore when the Lord avengeth this injury of his people upon Pekah the time of it is computed from Jotham who was holy and upright and not from Ahaz who had caused the mischief 11. There is a scruple of no small difficulty about the reckoning of this twentieth year of Jotham if it once be spied out And that is this If Pekah began to reign in the two and fiftieth or last year of Uzziah and reigned twenty years as 2 King 15. 27. and if Jotham began to reign in the second year of Pekah 2 King 15. 33. then certainly the twentieth year of Pekah the year when Hoshea slew him was but the nineteenth year of Jotham and not the twentieth Answer In this very difficulty hath the Text fixed the time of Uzziahs becoming Leprous which else-where is not determined and it sheweth that it was in the last year of his reign when he assayed to offer incense in the Temple and was struck with the Leprosie a disease with which the Priests who were to be the Judges of it could not be touched nor infected and his son Jotham was over the house judging the land 2 King 15. 5. till the day of his death Now that last year of Uzziah is counted for the first of Jotham in this reckoning that we have in hand and although he began to reign as absolute and sole King in the second year of the Reign of Pekah yet began he to reign as Viceroy in the diseasedness of his father the year before 12. It is said Hoshea the son of Elab began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz 2 King 17. 1. whereas he had slain Pekah in the fourth of Ahaz or the twentieth of Jotham which sheweth that he obtained not the Crown immediately upon Pekahs death but was seven or eight years before he could settle it quietly upon his head It is like that Ahaz in this time did disquiet Israel when his potent enemy Pekah was dead in revenge of that slaughter that he had made in Judah and that he kept Hoshea out of the Throne and for this is called the King of Israel 2 Chron. 28. 19. as well as for walking in the ways of those Kings 13. It is said that Hezekiah began to reign in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elab 2 King 18. 1. Now Hoshea beginning in the twelfth of Ahaz 2 King 17. 1. it is apparent that Hezekiah began in the fourteenth and so reigned two or three years with his father Ahaz who reigned sixteen years 2 King 16. 2. The reason of this was because of the wickedness of Ahaz and because of the miseries and intanglements that his wickedness had brought him into as a Chron. 28. 16 17 18 and Chap. 29. 7 8 9. And this sheweth the zeal of Hezekiah in the work of Reformation the more in that he assayed and perfected it so much in the very time of his wicked Father 14. But yet there ariseth another doubt in the computation of the times of Hezekiah parallel with the times of Hoshea For whereas he began to reign in the third year of Hoshea as is clear before then the seventh year of Hoshea should be counted his fifth year and yet it is called but his fourth 2 King 18 9. Answer The beginning of Hezekiahs reign is of a double date He began indeed to be Viceroy and to bear the rule in the third of Hoshea which was the 14th year of his father Ahaz but the time of that year was but short that he was in the royalty and he did but little or nothing of note that year but the next year which was the fifteenth of Ahaz and the fourth of Hoshea on the very first day of
Text When the thousand years are expired Satan III. shall be loosed upon which passage and providence we cannot but stand and muse a little to see Barabbas the Vilain and Murtherer let out of prison and at liberty again Can you but wonder at it that such a horrid Vilain as he should not be kept fast when he was caught and laid fast That Satan did break prison and loose himself from his bands I suppose none can imagine that remember that Christ laid him up and Christ was too strong and too watchful to let such a prisoner escape from him whom he had so fast And the very expression in the Text Satan was loosed from his prison hint that he got not loose himself but was loosed by him that had tyed him up And this in some reflection may speak comfort that the Devil whom God hath in a chain is not at his own disposal and liberty but that God restrains or enlarges binds or looses him at his pleasure He reserves him in chains of the darkness of his wrath and displeasure that he shall not finally escape him and he hath him in the chains of his providence and disposal that at his pleasure he curbs and restrains him rage he never so much and be he never so furious But there are two things here that are a just cause of sadness for this one of comfort First That Christ should let him loose when he had him fast seeing with him there is nothing but mischief Had he broke loose it had been another matter but that Christ should loose him it is something the more bitter to think of as it is very well worth the thinking of Let me relate this story for answer to this strangeness When the cruel and bloody Phocas was Emperor of Greece and the Church and Kingdom lay under very much sadness and affliction under so wretched a Ruler a good and holy man in his zeal and devotion made bold to question God why he had set so wicked a Governor over his People And he received this answer That Phocas indeed was as vile and wicked a Ruler as could be set over them but that the sins of the People had deserved that such a Tyrant should be set over them If any one in like zeal and bitterness of Spirit should be so bold as to question Christ Lord Jesus why shouldest thou let Satan loose when thou hadst him fast seeing thou knewest that he being loose would only do mischief and destroy He might very well receive this most true and just answer That it is indeed a very woful thing that Satan should be let loose to go and deceive the Nations and to lead them into blindness and error but the Nations had deserved that they should be so served And let the Apostles be the Lords interpreters 2 Thes. II. 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God sent them strong delusions the great deluder that they might believe a lye God had chained Satan that he should not deceive them in that he had brought in the Gospel among them But Jesurun waxed fat and kicked The World grew wanton with the Gospel and toyed with it They prized it not as they should improved it not as they should slighted the truth embraced error followed their own ways and follies Therefore saith Christ as it is in Esa. LXVI I also will chuse their delusions to give them up to them and because decipi vult hic Populus decipiatur Therefore among them Satan and let them have enough of falshood deceiving and delusion because this people love to have it so Wantoning with the Word of God and dallying with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is but too justly punished with the loss of it and with removing the Candlestick out of its place if men care not to walk by the light of the candle When men will shut their eyes against the light it is no wonder if God make them dwell in darkness This is one sad business that Satan is thus let loose to deceive but behold a second we cometh after it viz. Secondly That he being thus loosed you never find that he is bound again He had been loose before and was bound but loosed here and for ought we find loosed ever Read the Chapter henceforward and you find no end of his deceiving till you find an end of his being In the Text he is deceiving and his army is mustered and marching against the beloved City and what is the next news vers 9. Fire came down from Heaven and devoured them and vers 10. The Devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone Ask you how long shall Satan be thus loose and deceive how long shall his army battel against the Camps of the Saints and besiege the beloved City The Apocalyptick here tells you till his army be destroyed by the fire of Gods vengeance from Heaven and till Satan himself be cast into fire and brimstone A passage which I think is very well worth their considering which look for and speak of such golden and glorious times yet to come before the end of the World Fourthly Satan loosed you see falls to his old trade again of deceiving the Nations IV. A right Jail-bird indeed a Theif that delivered out of prison falls to his old course of theiving again and will not leave till the Gallows ended him Would you not think that a thousand years imprisonment should have wrought some change in him and amendment upon him But bray a fool in a mortar and he will come out a fool still Satan is no changling but will be Satan still Who what he is we shall have occasion to speak to more hereafter Fifthly Among the Deceived by him Gog and Magog is particularly named And V. what is meant by them is variously and by some wildly guessed I might make a long Discourse concerning Gog and Magog and tell you 1. That the Jews from Ezek. XXXVIII XXXIX where there is a dreadful Prophesie concerning Gog do hold that such a dreadful enemy shall appear a little before Messias shall appear and that Elias shall come to fight with him and they tell terrible things about the War of Gog framed out of their own fancy 2. That some Christians by Gog and Magog understand the Turk some the Pope some both Not to trouble you with things more immaterial our Apocalyptick alludes to that Gog in Ezekiel he means not the same person with that Gog there mentioned but one of the same temper and qualities with him So he calls the City where our Lord was crucisied Sodom and Egypt Chap. XI 8. because that City was a place of the like wickedness with them Now that Ezekiel by Gog and the Land of Magog means the Kingdom of the Syro-Grecians or Greek-Syrian more especially Antiochus the great Persecutor of the Jews and their Religion might be copiously