9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
Author likewise concerned For I have seen many Letters of Mr. Pools to him full of thanks and acknowledgment and one bearing date Jan. 7. 1673. in which he does acknowledge to have received his second Papers and expresses his great desire of receiving the Remaining How far our Author was concerned in that very useful design of that Diligent and Worthy Man hath not come to my knowledge and therefore I cannot give a particular account of it This only is not to be omitted that a Friend of mine hath seen many short Annotations in Latine written by his own hand upon many Chapters of Exodus Numbers Josua which he communicated to Mr. Pool whether for the use of his Synopsis or somewhat else it is uncertain This Reverend Man was divers years before his Death preferred by the favour of Sir Orlando Bridgeman then Lord Keeper to a Prebend in the Church of Ely But in what year this was hath not come to my knowledge And I must confess there are many other things in which I wanted information I did never think it would be my lot to give any account to the World of this excellent Person had I foreseen that I could some years since have been more plentifully furnished with materials to this purpose having had the honour to be acquainted with him my self and the opportunity which is now passed of informing my self better of His Life than now I have And I do acknowledge that this account that I now give I receive for the most part from the Hands of the Reverend and my worthy Friend Mr. John Strype Minister of Low-Leyton in Essex who hath furnished me with such an account as though it be short of what might have been had yet may be relied upon And I thought it better to give some though imperfect account of this Learned and Pious Man than that he should go without any at all As to his great Learning his Works are a proof beyond all exception I make no doubt but that the Reader will receive great benefit by them Our Author was a very perspicacious Man and very happy in clearing the difficulties of the Holy Scriptures and greatly furnished with that Learning which enabled him that way His great abilities were acknowledged by the Learned of our own Country and those beyond the Seas I shall not need to insist upon the Testimonies to this purpose which I could easily produce However I shall not forbear to mention some Our Author had sent Doctor Castell one of his Books at that time when he was engaged in his Lexicon In a Letter of his bearing date Aug. 16. 1664. he makes this following acknowledgment Sir you have laid an unutterable obligation upon me by the gift of this Learned and much longed for Work you have enriched my poor Library with an addition so excellent and delightful that truly when I first received it I could not contain my self from reading it quite through notwithstanding the importunacy of my publick engagement and the clamor of all the Work-men Corrector Compositors Press-men c. to all whom I turned a deaf Ear till I had satisfied my Eye with the entire perusal of it And afterwards he adds Sir I will never he ashamed to confess by whom I have profited All that would understand that clear light together with the mysterious hidden use and benefit which the most ancient Records of the Jews bring unto Holy Writ must confess themselves above all others deeply indebted to your Elaborate and incomparable Writings who have fetched out more of these profound and rich Mines than any of the best Seers in this or the precedent Ages have been able to discover I might have added much more from that very excellent Persons own hand Take the suffrage of another Learned Man Mr. Herbert Thorndike who in a Letter to our Author bearing date May 18. 1669. expresses his esteem of his Learning in the Jews Writings and desiring his Judgment of the Exercitations of Morinus in words too long to be transcribed And for Foreigners I shall content my self with two only The first is that of Mounsieur Le Moin a most Learned Minister of the Protestant Church of Roan who in a Letter to Dr. Worthington speaking of his Notes and Exercitations upon Josephus he saith In iis utor saepissime Lightfootii Talmudice Doctissimi quem si inter Philebraeorum familiam ducem dixero nihil certe dixero quod assurgat ultra meritum cruditissimi illius viri Quae de Templo dechorographia sacra in Matthaeum in Actus erudite feliciter Conscripsit diu est quod illa possideo iisque praeclaris operibus Bibliotheca mea superbit The other Testimony is that of the most Learned Professor of Basil the late Doctor John Buxtorf This great Man speaking of our Author in a Letter of his to Doctor Castell hath these words Ex horis ejus Talmudicis incepi illius doctrinam diligentiam valde amare Illae salivam mihi moverunt ut propediem ab ipso similia videre desiderem gustare Precor ipsi omnia laeta ac meritis ejus digna Again in a Letter of the same Professor to our Author dated at Basil Dec. 12. 1663. I find he expresses the highest esteem for him whose diligence and accuracy and dexterity in illustrating the Holy Scriptures he tells him he admires Rarae hae dotes hoc nostro saeculo in viris Theologis rari hujusmodi Scriptores c. as he goes on in that Letter too long to transcribe As no man can question the great Learning of our Author so he will appear to be very exemplary for his indefatigable diligence if we duly consider under what disadvantages he arrived to this great degree of knowledge He was young when he left Cambridge and a stranger to those Studies which he was afterward so deservedly famous for He went as an Usher into a Country School remote from the Books and helps which might assist him His hours were taken up with the care of Boys and his Head filled with their noise and importunities After this he entred into Orders but that did not advance him in Learning Besides he entred upon constant Preaching when he was very young After this he married a Wife and soon had the charge and burden of Children and the cares of the World to divert him from his Studies His worldly circumstances were not large and his family encreased and his work in Preaching was constant He was far from the help and the leisure which a life in the University would have given him But this brave Man surmounts all these difficulties and disadvantages He in his great Judgment saw that the Oriental Learning was worth his while that Chronology and other difficult pieces of knowledge would be of use to him and make him serviceable to others he was sensible of his defects and generously does this young Divine resolve to shake off all sloth and to make no excuses He knew very well
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
hath 600 men with him a Guard to himself and an help to Achish against Saul David dwelleth at Ziklag and invades the Countries thereabouts c. I CHRON. XII from beginning to Verse 8. World 2959 Sam. Saul 40 THither divers of Sauls own Tribe and kinred resort unto him and these are named in this Chapter before the men of Gad that had fallen to him before because these mens coming to him was most remarkable as being of Sauls own kinred CHAP. XXVIII SAULS end is now approaching He consulteth a witch He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after he had despised and persecuted both He seeth a Devil in Samuels likeness and heareth of his own ruine CHAP. XXIX THE Philistims dare not trust David in battel And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish nor fight against his own people I CHRON. XII Vers. 19 20 21 22. AS he went forth with the Philistims towards the battel and as he came back again from them divers fell to him of Manasseh CHAP. XXX XXXI I CHRON. X. DAVID returning home findeth no home at all Ziklag fired A Band of Amalekites slain and as it were sacrificed to Sauls Funeral Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation The second Book of SAMUEL CHAP. I. DAVID heareth of the death of Saul and lamenteth him And chargeth the young men of Judah to learn the use of the Bow that they might match the Philistims in Archery and so be avenged on them for Sauls death for by Archery they had slain him The Story of the Amalekite to David was not a lye to curry favour or to obtain a reward but it was a very and a real truth Saul had fallen upon his own sword indeed as was related in the preceding Chapter but his Coat of mail had hindred that he had not given himself a wound so speedily deadly but that the Philistims might come and catch him alive and abuse him and so he stands bleeding at that and at his other wounds leaning on his Spear till this Amalekite came by His Armour Bearer was dead already and these words When his Armour Bearer saw that Saul was dead he fell on his sword and died also are to be understood in this sense That when he saw Saul had given himself so deadly a wound he did the like and died indeed But Sauls wound was not so quick of dispatch therefore he desireth the Amalekite to kill him out For says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Coat of Mail hath withheld me so that my life is all this while in me And thus Saul that had been so cruel to David is now cruel to himself and he that had spared the Amalekites is now slain by one of that Nation CHAP. II. World 2950 David 1 DAVID anointed King of Judah in Hebron being 30 years old Compair David 2 Gen. 41. 46. Numb 4. 3. Luke 3. 23. In Hebran Abraham had had his David 3 first Land and much residence Here lay the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob David 4 and their wives buried and here was John Baptist born and our Saviour David 5 conceived There is long busling between the House of David and the house of David 6 Saul Abner still striving to make a party strong enough to settle one of Sauls David 7 Sons in the Kingdom Thereupon is Ishbosheth anointed in Sauls stead He is called Ishbaal 1 Chron. 8. 33. for Baal was commonly called Bosheth or Shame as Jerubbaal is called Jerubbosheth 2 Sam. 11. 21. and Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9. 12. called Meribaal 1 Chron. 8. 34. see also Jer. 11. 13. Abners vapouring causeth a desperate duell of twelve and twelve men and so layeth the foundation of a continual War in an equal bloodshed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 27. If thou hadst not said saith Joab what thou didst say in the morning let the young men rise and play before us surely the people had gone away every man from his brother even in the morning and there had been never a blow struck but thou didst provoke it CHAP. III. DAVIDS six Sons born to him in Hebron in his seven years and six Months reign there are here reckoned together that that Story and matter may be dispatcht at once Abner upon discontent at Ishbosheth turneth to David and confesseth that Kingdom which hitherto he had willingly and wittingly opposed But God will not suffer such a man and upon such grounds to be a promoter of Davids throne he is slain by Joab even in a place of Judicature and with a wound parallel to that that he had given Asahel CHAP. IV. ISHBOSHETH slain by two Benjamites brethren in evil They came into the midst of the house as if they would setch wheat vers 6. that is with a sack in their hands to put his head in c. Instantly before the Text falls upon the Story of Ishbosheth it relateth the Story of Mephibosheth because he was now all the stock left of Sauls house but only Rizpahs children a Concubine and Morahs a daughter CHAP. V. from beginning to Ver. 11. And I CHRON. XI all World 2957 David 8 DAVID anointed King over all Israel at Hebron and from thence brought by all Israel to Jerusalem to settle him there and to make that the Royal City He reigned in all 40 years in Hebron seven years and an half and at Jerusalem 32 years and an half And this latter was exactly the time of our Saviours life upon earth Joab after Davids curse upon him for Abners murder is yet made Commander in chief for his taking of Jerusalem The prosperity of David at Jerusalem and his building of it is presently set down after the Story of the taking of the City as beginning from that time and continuing and going along with the times of the following Stories and so to be carried in mind Then doth the Book of Chronicles give account of Davids Worthies Which Catalogue is also mentioned by this Book of Samuel but with this difference of place that in the Chronicles it is set in the beginning of Davids Reign and in Samuel in the latter end And both very properly and much like to the placing of our Saviours Genealogy in Matthew and Luke the one giving it at his Birth and the other at his Baptism and both upon singular reason And so here the Book of Chronicles reckons up these men as those that helped David to his settlement in the Kingdom and therefore it mentions them in the beginning of his reign and the Book of Samuel reckons them up at the latter end of his reign as those that had stuck to him all the time of his reign and helped to keep him in that settlement In both the Books there is first reckoned a Triumvirate or three gallant men that were of a rank by themselves and none were equal with them or like
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
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
Passover day 954 Sect. 3. The time of killing the Passover 955 Sect. 4. The Paschal societies 956 Sect. 6. The killing of the Passover 957 CHAP. XIII The manner of eating the Passover 959 CHAP. XIV Sect. 1. Of the Solemnity and Rites of the first day in the Passover week of the Hagigah and peace offerings of rejoycing 968 Sect. 2. The second day in the Passover week The gathering and offering of the first fruits Omer 969 Sect. 3. The feast of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 970 CHAP. XV. Of the Service on the day of expiation 971 CHAP. XVI The manner of their celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles 972 Sect. 1. The several Sacrifices at the Feast of Tabernacles ibid. Sect. 2. Their Palm and Willow branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 975 Sect. 3. Their Pomecitron apples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 976 Sect. 4. Their pouring out of water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Rubrick of every days service 977 Sect. 5. Of the Feast of Trumpets and feast of Dedication 979 CHAP. XVII Certain peculiar parcels of Service Sect. 1. The King reading the Law 980 Sect. 2. The Priests burning of the Red Cow 981 Sect. 3. The trial of the suspected wife 982 Sect. 4. The atoneing for a cleansed Leper 983 Sect. 5. The manner of bringing and presenting their first fruits 984 Sect. 6. Their bringing up wood for the Altar ibid. TO THE READER IT was my desire and so it was my hope that this poor Treatise should not have gone abroad into the world so thinly and so alonely as it doth but that it would have had a mate to have gone forth with it which was bred and born and grew up with it even till the time that it should go forth but then it stumbled at the threshold got a lameness and so was forced to stay at home My design in reference to the affairs of the Temple when first I undertook a work of that nature was first to describe the place and to give the character and platform of the Temple it self and then to have something to say about the service And accordingly with no small pains and study out of the Scripture and the highest Antiquities of the Jews I drew up in a large Tractate and Discourse as also in a very large Map and Figure a full plain punctual and exact prospect and description if I may have liberty to say so much of mine own Work of the Temple at Jerusalem especially as it stood in those times when our Saviour himself in humane flesh did resort thither It s Situation Dimensions Platform Fabrick and Furniture both within and without the Walls Gates Courts Cloisters Chambers and Buildings that were about it The Altar Lavers Stations for Men Slaughter places for Beasts and all the Offices belonging to it with observation of all or most of those places in either Testament that speak concerning it or any of the parts of it Adelineation so copious and plain of all the particulars in that holy ground that had it had the hap to have come to the publick view I should not have feared to have made the Reader the Iudge and Censor upon the nature and use of the thing and whether it might have proved of any benefit and advantage yea or no. But that hap of becoming publick is not happened to it for the Schemetical delineation of the Temple and of the buildings about it in the Map and the Verbal description of them in the Written Tract do so mutually face and interchangeably refer one to the other the Map helping to understand the Description in the Book and the Book helping to understand the Delineation in the Map that they may not be sent forth into publick apart or one without the other but must needs appear if ever they appear both together For this purpose have I waited very many months since Book and Map were both finished nay many months before I would suffer this present Tract to go to the Press for the Ingraving or Cutting of the Map in Brass that it might be Printed and so it and that Treatise and this might have come forth at once as it was my desire and mine intention But I have so far failed of my desire and expectation and find so little fruit of all my long waiting that to this very hour I have not obtained so much as the least hope of the Maps Ingraving at all or the least probability when it will be begun I have therefore laid both those aside in suppression the one to wait for the speeding of the other if that will ever be and both to see how this speeds which is sent abroad which it may be had been as good to have staid at home as they do and not to have been so forward That rests in the Readers manner of entertainment Curtesie or Censure I shall not use many words to Court the one or Deprecate the other Learned ingenuity will be Courteous though not Flattered and proud or unlearned censoriousness will be crabbed unless I would be a Spaniel and it may be I should be then kickt too I shall only say thus much of what I have done I have desired to benefit and I have spared no pains I have walked in paths very rugged and very untroden if I have stumbled or erred it is no wonder the way full of difficulty and I of humane frailty And as for many things which I have left not explained as it may be the Reader would have desired it was because I supposed all along as I drew up this tract that the other would have come forth with it in which divers things which will be thought wanting here are more fully handled and supplied London May 30. 1649. J. L. A PROSPECT OF THE Temple Service OR The TEMPLE SERVICE as it stood in the days of Our SAVIOUR Described out of the SCRIPTURES and the eminentest Antiquities of the JEWS CHAP. I. Of the different Holiness of the several parts of the Temple THE degrees of the Holiness of places among the Jews by their own reckoning were a a a Kelim per. 1 Maym. in Beth habbâ—chiraâ— per. 1. these eleven 1. The land of Israel was more holy than other lands Not to mention the many appropriations fixed to that land by them which they will have no other land under Heaven to partake of as b b b R. Sol in Ionah 1. that the spirit of Prophesie c c c Maymon in Sanhed per. 4. Ordination d d d Idem in Kiddush bhodesh per. 1. per. 5. appointing the New Moons c. should be no where else these two or three peculiarities they observe by name as proper only to that very soil and no other That the Omer or first reaped Sheaf and other first Fruits that were to be offered and the two Loaves of Shew-bread which were to stand continually before the Lord might not be taken and made of the Corn of any Country
manifest my self thus openly to the view of all Some there be that have hardly censured of me for idleness and sloth as they make it because it seems I intrude not every moment into the supply of other mens Ministries since it hath not yet pleased God to prefer and promote me to a Charge of mine own I know well the saying of the Apostle Rom. 1. 14. belongs to all Ministers To Greeks and Barbarians The Syrian to that verse adds a word which may well serve for a Comment mehhaâ—obh leakrez I am a debtor or I ought to Preach to the wise and foolish they are all debtors and as the Syrian adds leakrez they are debtors to Preach And whoso is necessarily called and refuseth is as bad as the false Prophets were that would run before they were sent nay he may seem rather worse that when he is sent will not go From this censure how far I am free my Conscience tells me though I must confess that I am not so hasty as many be to intrude my self where is no necessity This hath among some purchased me the skar of slothfulness to vindicate which I have here ventured as Children do to shoot another arrow to find one that is lost so have I hazarded my Credit one way to save it another I know mine own weakness and that this my pains to Scholars may seem but idle yet had I rather undergo any censure than the blot of the other Idleness the begetter of all Evil and of Unthankfulness the hinderer of all Good This is the cause that brings me to a Book and my Book to you That by the one I may testifie to the World that I love not to be Idle and by the other witness to you that I love not to be Unthankful Accept I beseech you of so small a Present and so troublesom a Thankfulness and what I want in Tongue and Effect I will answer in Desire and Affection suing always to the Throne of Grace for the present prosperity of your Self and your Noble Lady and the future Felicity of you both hereafter From my Study at Hornsey near LONDON March 5. 1629. Yours devoted in all Service JOHN LIGHTFOOT TO THE READER Courteous Reader for such a one I wish or none I May well say of writing Books as the wise Greek did of marriage For a young man it is too soon and with an old man his time is out Yet have I ventured in youth to become publick as if I were afraid that men would not take notice of my weakness and unlearnedness soon enough If I fall far short of a Scholar as I know I do my youth might have some plea but that mine attempt can have no excuse but thy Charity To that I rather submit my self than to thy Censure I have here brought home with me some gleanings of my more serious studies which I offer to thee not so much for thy Instruction as for thy harmless Recreation I bear in mind with me the saying of Rabbi Josihar Jehudah in Pirke Abhoth He that learns of young Men is like a man that eats unripe Grapes or that drinks Wine out of the Wine-press but he that learneth of the Ancient is like a Man that eateth ripe Grapes and drinketh Wine that is old For fear thy Teeth should be set on edge I have brought some Variety I have not kept any Method for then I should not answer my Title of Miscellanies I have upon some things been more Copious than other and as Rab. Salomon observes of Ruth I have sometime but stood to Glean and sometime sitten down I hope thou wilt not censure me for Judaizing though I cite them for it is but as the Musician in Plutarch did setting a Discord first that you may better judge of the Consort and seeing Error you may the more embrace the Truth If this my Youthful attempt shall provoke any one that is Young to Emulation in the Holy Tongues I shall think I have gained Adjourn thy severe Censure till either future Silence or some second Attempt either lose all or make some Satisfaction For the present Quisquis haec legit ubi pariter certus est pergat mecum ubi pariter haesitat quaerat mecum ubi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me ubi meum revocet me Aug. de Trinit Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Thine ready and willing but unable I. Lightfoot OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. CHAP. I. OMNE tempus te puta perdidisse c. saith one All time is lost that is not spent in thinking of God To be full of thoughts of him is a lawful and holy prodigality And to spend time in such meditations a gainful lavishing For this end were the Scriptures given to lead us to meditate of God by meditating in them day and night Psal. 1. 2. Herein those fail that never think of God at all and those also that think not of him aright The Prophet makes this the mark of wicked men that God is not in all their thoughts That like the Jews they murder Zechariah the remembrance of God even between the Temple and the Altar Commendable in some sort was the devotion of the Philosopher that in so many years spoke more with the Gods than with Men. Had his Religion been towards the true God what could have been asked of him more I would Christians hearts were so retired towards their Creator that so he that made the heart might have it The Heathens thought there was a God but knew not what to think of him They prayed and sacrificed and kept a stir to something but they might well have marked their Churches Altars and Prayer with the Athenian Altar Motto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God Act. 17. Plato attained to the thought of one only God the Persians thought he could not be comprehended in a Temple and Numas thought he could not be represented by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. p. 131. image and for this saith Clem. Alex. he was helped by Moses yet came all these far short of the knowledge of God Nature when she had brought them thus far was come to a non ultra and could go no further Happy then are we if we could but right prize our happiness to whom the day spring from an high hath risen and the Son of Righteousness with healing in his wings upon whom the noon-tide of the Gospel shineth and the knowledge of God in its strength Even so O Lord let it be still told in Gath and published in the streets of Ascalon to the rancour and sorrow of the uncircumcised that God is known in Britain and his Name is great in England CHAP. II. Of the Names of GOD used by Jews and Gentiles NO Nation so barbarous saith Tully that hath not some tincture of knowledge that there is a Deity And yet many nay most People of the World fall short of the right apprehension of God through
him go back and burn it before the Temple Where the Gloss thus Zophim is a place whence the Temple may be seen But another Gloss doth not understand the thing here of that proper place but of the whole compass about the City wheresoever the City could first be seen So R. Eliezar of Abraham going from the South to Jerusalem d d d d d d Pirke R. Eliezar cap. 31. The third day they came to Zophim but when he came to Zophim he saw the glory of the divine Majesty sitting upon the Mount Moriah CHAP. XLIII Ramah Ramathaim Zophim Gibeah THERE was a certain Ramah in the Tribe of Benjamin Jos. XVIII 25. and that within sight of Jerusalem as it seems Judg. XIX 13. where it is named with Gibeah and elsewhere Hos. V. 8. which Towns were not much distant See 1 Sam. XXII 6. Saul sat in Gibeah under a grove in Ramah Here the Gemarists trifle a a a a a a Bab. Taanith fol. 5. 2. Whence is it say they that Ramah is placed near Gibeah To hint to you that the speech of Samuel of Ramah was the cause why Saul remained two years and an half in Gibeah They blindly look over Ramah in the Tribe of Benjamin and look only at Ramah in Ephraim where Samuel was born His native Town is very often called Ramah once Ramathaim Zophim 1 Sam. I. 1. There was a certain man of Ramathaim that is one of the two Ramaths which were surnamed also Zophim A like form of speech is that 1 Sam. XVIII 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In one of the two thou shalt be my son in Law That Town of Samuel was Ramath Zophim and this of Benjamin was Ramath Zophim also But by a different Etymology as it seems that it may be from Zuph Sauls great great Grandfather whence that Country was so called 1 Sam. IX 5. this from Zophim of which place we have spoke in the foregoing Chapter Gibeah was Sauls Town b b b b b b Joseph d◠Bell. lib. 5. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Town called Gabath-Saul This stynifieth Saulshill which is distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs Hence you may guess at the distance of Rama from Jerusalem Josephus calls the neighbouring place of Gibeah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the long Valley of Thorns perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Valley under the rock Seneh of which mention is made 1 Sam. XIV 4 CHAP. XLIV Nob. Bahurim THAT Nob was placed in the land of Benjamin not far from Jerusalem whence Jerusalem also might be seen the words of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon Esa. X. 32. do argue For so he speaks Senacherib came and stood in Nob a City of the Priests before the walls of Jerusalem and said to his army Is not this the City of Jerusalem against which I have raised my whole army and have subdued all the Provinces of it Is it not small and weak in comparison of all the fortifications of the Gentiles which I have subdued by the valour of my hand He stood nodding with his head against it and wagging his hand up and down c. Where Kimchi thus Jerusalem might be seen from Nob. Which when he saw from thence he wagged his hand as a man is wont to do when he despiseth any thing c. And Jarchi thus When he stood at Nob he saw Jerusalem c. The a a a a a a Bab. Sanbedr fol. 94. 2. 95 1. Talmudists do concur also in the same sense with the Chaldee Paraphrast and in his very words adding this moreover that all those places which are numbred up by Esaiah in the place alledged were travailed through by the Enemy with his army in one day The Tabernacle sometime resided at Nob when that was destroyed it was translated to Gibeon b b b b b b Maim in Beth-Habbechirah cap. 1. And the days of Nob and Gibeon they are the words of Maimonides were seven and fifty years We meet with mention of Bahurim 2 Sam. XVI 5. It was a Levitical City the same with Almon Jos. XXI 18. which is also called Alemeth 1 Chron. VI. 60. Those words And David came to Bahurim in the place alledged in the book of Samuel the Chaldee renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And David the King came to Almath Where Kimchi thus Bahurim was a City of the Benjamites and is called in the books of the Chronicles Alemeth for Bahurim and Alemeth are the same Both sound as much as Young men CHAP. XLV Emmaus Kiriath-Iearim FROM a a a a a a Hieros Sheviith fol. 38. 4 Beth-horon to Emmaus it was hilly b b b b b b Luk. 24. 13. It was sixty furlongs distant from Hierusalem c c c c c c Joseph de Billo lib. 7. cap. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To eight hundred only dismissed the Army Vespasian gave a place called Ammaus for them to inhabit it is sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem I enquire whether this word hath the same Etymology with Emmaus near Tyberias which from the Warm baths was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chammath The Jews certainly do write this otherwise namely either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jerusalem Talmudists in the place above cited or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Mishnah d d d d d d Eruchin cap. 2. hal 4. The family say they of Beth-Pegarim and Beth Zipperia was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Emmaus The Gloss is this Emmaus was the name of a place whose inhabitants were Israelite Gentlemen and the Priests married their daughters Josephus mentioning some Noble-men slain by Simeon the Tyrant numbers one Aristeus who was e e e e e e De Bello lib. 5. cap. 33. a Scribe of the Councel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by extraction from Ammaus By the same Author is mentioned also f f f f f f Ibid. lib. 6. cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ananus of Ammaus one of the seditious of Jerusalem who nevertheless at last fled over to Cesar. Kiriath-Jearim was before time called Baale 2 Sam. VI. 2. or Baalath 1 Chron. XIII 6. Concerning it the Jerusalem Writers speak thus g g g g g g Hieros Sanhedr fol. 18. 3. We find that they intercalated the year in Baalath But Baalath was sometimes assigned to Judah and sometimes to Dan. Eltekah and Gibbethon and Baaleth behold these are of Judah Here is a mistake of the Transcribers for it should be written Of Dan Jos. XIX 44. Baalah and Jiim and Azem behold these are of Dan. It should be written Of Judah Jos. XV. 29. namely the houses were of Judah the fields of Dan. In Psal. CXXII 6. We heard of it the Ark in Ephrata that is Shilo a City of Ephraim we found it in the fields of the wood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in Kiriath-Jearim 1 Sam. VII 1. c. CHAP.
Church Mercy to our Estates for their preservation mercy to our Lives for their security mercy to the Nation for its peace mercy to Widows for their incouragement mercy to the Gospel for its maintaining mercy to Souls for their reducing Such a mercy is a Christian Magistracy and so is the end and such the fruit of the execution of their Office the execution of Judgment which is the third thing I have to speak to from the third clause in the Text and Judgment was given unto them III. He saith not Power for that would not have included Judgment but he saith Judgment which includeth also lawful power yea and something else Righteousness and Justice I am assured there is none that hear me this day is so little acquainted with the stile of Scripture but he knoweth that when it speaketh of Judgment as the work of the Magistrate it meaneth the execution of Justice or of right Judgment Shall not the Judge of all the World do right Gen. XVIII 25. The very title of Judge speaketh doing right as it was with the Judge of all the World so with the Judges of any part of it This my Lords and Gentlemen is your work and imployment to judge righteous Judgment to plead the cause of the oppressed to relieve the fatherless and widow and him that hath no helper to reward every one according to the Justice of his cause before you As you carry the stamp of Christs own image in your Power so it is no whit to the life if Justice be not stamped there also And your being a mercy to the people is by doing Justice to the people I shall not here go about to teach you what you have to do in your Imployment and Function I am far from supposing that either you know not your duty or that I know it better than your selves Only give me leave to be your remembrancer a little of what is the charge that lies upon you and that not by setting any rules before you but by setting some Divine copies before you most fairly written upon which to look with a single eye may be enough to stir you up to your duty and that the more because we are commonly more wrought upon men by example than by precept I shall only propose three two copied out by God in his own example and the third a singular copy set out in his Word The first I shall be bold to offer to you of the Magistracy The second to all that have to do with you at the present occasion Counsel Jurors and Witnesses and the third before all that hear me The first is this You know Gods Attributes Power Mercy and Justice Now God acteth not any of his Attributes according to the utmost extent of the infiniteness of it but according to the most wise and most holy counsel and disposal of his own Will God never acted his Power according to the utmost infinity of his Power for else whereas he made one World he might have made a Thousand He never acted his Mercy according to the utmost infinity of his Mercy for then whereas he saveth but a little flock he might have saved all Men and Devils Nor did he ever act his Justice according to the utmost infinity of his Justice for then all flesh would fail before him and the Spirits that he hath Created But his Will as I may speak it acts as Queen Regent in the midst of his Attributes and limits and confines their acting according to the sacred disposal of that So that he sheweth his Power not when and where he can but when and where and how he will shew his Power He sheweth his Justice not when and where he can but when and where he will shew his Justice And he will shew Mercy not on whom he can but on whom he will shew Mercy Rom. IX 18. Look upon this copy and then reflect upon your selves and your Function You have your Attributes let me so call them of Power Mercy Interest in the people and the like now how are these to be acted by you An unjust Magistrate like him Luke XVIII would be ready to miswrite after the copy and say I will act these after mine own will as God acteth his after his own will No he is mistaken let him look better on his Commission The Judgment that is put into his hand is the Will of God put into his hand As the Apostle saith This is the Will of God even your Sanctification so This is the Will of God even the Judgment that is given him his Commission carries it not sic velis sic jubeas do not thou with thy Power what thou wilt but sic volo sic jubeo Do in thine Office as it is my Will and as I Command The Sun in Heaven sends down his shine upon the Earth and we are to set all our dials by that light and not by any candle of our own The Will of God as it is the rule of all his own actions so he sends down the beams of it in his Word to men to be the rule of theirs By the Ministry God puts his Will revealed in his Word into the hands of men to do according to that rule and not by any rule of their own Will So the Commission that he puts into the hands of the Magistracy is the Will of God to act by as he hath revealed in his Word not to act according to their own mind Not to shew Mercy Justice Power and Favour as they please but as Gods Will appears in their Commission It was the custom in Israel that when the King was Crowned the book of the Law was put into his hand the Will of God to be his rule and not his own So when Joshua is made chief Magistrate God instates him in his Power and with all put the Law into his hand Josh. I. 8. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth c. And so at the Crowning of young Joash I King XI 12. They put the Crown upon him and gave him the Testimony Look then upon the Copy that is before you and look upon the Commission he hath given you His Will in Heaven acts all his glorious Attributes and as I may speak it with reverence his Will rules them He hath transcribed his Will in little in your Commission to act all yours Now his Will be done by you upon Earth as it is done by himself in Heaven A second Copy that I would present before you and before all that have any thing to do with you at present about Judicature Counsel Witnesses and Jurors is Gods own righteousness and that especially in one particular example It is needless to tell you from Scripture that the righteous God loves righteousness delights in righteousness practises righteousness commands righteousness That one acting of his does demonstrate all these to admiration and that is his Justice in justifying a sinner Much is