five thousand four hundred for it particulareth only those that were of a greater size but summeth up both the great and little for 2 Chron. 36. 18. it is said that the King of Babel brought all the Vessels of the House of God both great and small to Babel vid. Joseph Antiq. 11. 1. EZRA II. THIS Chapter reckoneth the number of the Jews that returned out of Captivity it first nameth the chief Conductors and Princes among the people and then the several Families and number of Persons the seventh Chapter of Nehemiah hath this Catalogue over again but with abundance of difference some reason whereof shall be given there The Commanders and Rulers in chief were twelve 1. Zerubabel the Prince of Judah 2. Jesus the son of Jozedek the High Priest 3. Nehemiah the builder and repairer of Jerusalem afterward 4. Seraiah or Azariah as he is called Neh. 7. 7. probably Ezra who is called Seraiah after the name of his father 5. Realiah called Raamiah Neh. 7. the difference of the name agreeing in the sence for Realiah signifieth The Lords terrour and Raamiah the Lords thunder 6. Mordecay the Uncle of Esther and over-thrower of Haman 7. Nachamani he is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah but omitted here For he came not up now but at some other time before Nehemiah taketh his Catalogue 8. Bilshan 9. Mispar or Mispeseth 10. Bigudi 11. Rehum or Nehum 12. Baanah The number of the people was 42360 their servants and maids proselyted 7337. EZRA III. IN the seventh month the returned Jews meet at Jerusalem build up the Altar keep the Feast of Tabernacles offer Sacrifices but yet have no Temple World 3472 Cyrus 2 In the second year of Cyrus and of the peoples return in the second month of the year or Ijar the foundation of the Temple is laid Divers are present at it that had seen the former Temple for it was but fifty three years since it was destroyed and they mourn as fast to see how short that building was like to come of that Temple they had seen as the others rejoyce to see a Temple toward that had seen none before EZRA IV. World 3473 Cyrus 3 ARTAXERXES reigneth in the third year of Cyrus and here let us take up the consideration of the Persian Kings and these times a little since there is not a little obscurity and difficulty about the reckoning and computing of them 1. At the conquest of Babylon Cyrus and Darius were Partners as was observed before Darius only named in the Scripture at that expedition because the elder and Cyrus only named in Heathen Authors because the founder of the Persian Monarchy These two reigned together two years saith Metasthenes if we may believe that Author but whether they did so or no it is past all doubt that their years were they two or more or less were reckoned together for the first year of Darius when the Decree of the building Jerusalem came out Dan. 9. 1. 23. was the first of Cyrus also Ezra 1. 1. 2. Cyrus is generally held by Heathen Writers to have reigned about thirty years Herodot Triginta annis Just. c. Now the question as to the matter we have now in hand is not how long Cyrus reigned in all but how long he reigned after the Persian Monarchy began in him or after that year that the Scripture calls his first year namely when the Lord had given him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and when he restored the Jews to their own home again Here prophane Writers the most of them say nothing towards a resolution and those that go about it speak some one thing some another The Scripture hath given us this satisfaction in this matter that either Cyrus reigned but three years after or if he lived longer yet that his ingagement in his wars abroad caused him to leave his son Artaxerxes Viceroy at home to rule what he had got whilest he was busie to conquer more Either of these two supposed doth serve our purpose to lead on the times that we have in hand Now for the concluding of the one of these the Scripture giveth us this argument It is said in Ezra 4. vers 5. that the enemies of the Jews hired counsellors against them all the days of Cyrus even until the reign of Darius King of Persia to frustrate their purpose of building the Temple and at last compassed their desire and design by information to Artaxerxes Cyrus all his days did not plainly or openly revoke nor cross his own Decree and if he connived at the crossing of it by his Son his fatal end by Tomyris was but of just reward but in the beginning of the reign of his son Artaxerxes the enemy had his desire and the building ceased Now this was in the third year of Cyrus Cyrus being either now dead as Daniels vision in Persia is said to be in the third year of Belshazzar Dan. 8. Belshazzar being dead a while before as was observed there as Artaxerxes governing as Vice-Roy and the time now reckoned by him as it is in other places of Scripture the like For in the third year of Cyrus Daniel mourned three weeks together nor did he eat any pleasant bread nor flesh or wine came into his mouth nor did he annoint himself at all Dan. 10. 2 3. And what was the reason Because of the hindrance of the building of the Temple for according to Daniels fasting and mourning one and twenty days the Angel saith That the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia had withstood him one and twenty not that an earthly King hath any power over an Angel but that this new King of Persia by hindring the Temple had hindred those good tidings which otherwise he should have brought and that the misery of Daniels people was the cause of his affliction is apparent by vers 15. because that when the Angel had told him that the vision concerning his people was for many days he is dumb for sorrow and his spirit faints within him so that the stoppage of the Temples building by Artaxerxes was in Cyrus his third year in some part of that year and continued so till the second year of Darius 3. Now how long this space was is more obscure then the matter before and that upon these two difficulties 1. Because we cannot readily determine what number of Kings came between And 2. When we have done that then are we utterly to seek how long a time those Kings reigned But for answer to these two doubts to adhere to Scripture and not to intricate our selves with the various and perplexed relations of the Heathen Writers about the Persian Kings we shall observe two or three particulars as we go along and as we have occasion to take them up and for the present this That as he that set the building of the Temple afoot again after its long stop is called both Darius and Artaxerxes vers 14 15. so that he that caused that stop
is called both Ahashuerus and Artaxerxes Ezra 4. vers 6 7. for Artaxerxes was a common name of the Kings of Persia as Pharaoh was of the Kings of Egypt DANIEL X XI XII DANIEL mourning for the hindrance of the Temple seeth Christ as John did in Patmos And hath a Revelation of the condition of his own people under their powerful Enemies till the madness of Antiochus Epiphanes was over He should violate the Sanctuary and cause Religion and Moses Law to lie in the dirt for a time two Times and half a time or three years and an half or one thousand two hundred and ninety days But he that waiteth and liveth to see five and forty days more or till those one thousand two hundred and ninety days be made up one thousand three hundred and thirty five days he should see an end of Antiochus Artaxerxes Ahashuerus World 3474 Artax Ahashuerus 1 The building of the Temple lieth forgot and forlorn by the command of Artaxerxes Ahashuerosh the present King of Persia Hereupon divers of the Jews that had gone up to Jerusalem in the first of Cyrus return back again in this Kings reign to their old residence in Babylonia or in Persia again Artax Ahashuerus 2 The building of the Temple lieth still quite forlorn ESTHER I. World 3476 Artax Ahashuerus 3 ARTAXERXES who was also called Ahashuerosh after his great Grandfather of the Median blood Dan. 9. 1. is a greater Potentate and Prince by seven Provinces then Cyrus and Darius were compare vers 1. with Dan. 6. 1. To shew and to see his own glory and pomp he maketh a Feast half a year together to his Nobles and seven days more to all Susan and when all this glory of his great command hath been shewed he cannot command his own wife c. ESTHER II. Artax Ahashuerus 4 THREE whole years and above is Ahashuerus without a Queen Artax Ahashuerus 5 his servants and officers in several Countries are making inquiry after Artax Ahashuerus 6 who may be fit for a Queen for him World 3480 Artax Ahashuerus 7 Esther taken into the Kings Palace in the seventh year of his reign in the tenth month vers 16. a Daughter of Benjamin born for the good of her people Mordecai had been captived with Jechoniah above seventy years ago and had been at Jerusalem when the Captivity was sent back to their own Country again and there had helped forward their settlement and prosperity as long as the work of the Temple would go forward but when not he returns to Persia and there doth his people good in that Court when he could no longer do it in their own City Artax Ahashuerus 8 Bigthan and Teresh two of the Kings Porters hanged for Treason The matter discovered by Mordecai and revealed to the King ESTHER III. Artax Ahashuerus 9 HAMAN promoted by the King to the highest honour in the Artax Ahashuerus 10 Kingdom obtaineth not one bowing or cringe from Artax Ahashuerus 11 Mordecai Mordecai disdaineth to homage or to shew reverence to an Amalekite for so Haman was of the Seed of Agag whom Samuel hewed to pieces in Gilgal World 3485 Artax Ahashuerus 12 Haman would buy all the Jews in the Persian Monarchy for ten thousand Talents of silver but they are given him for nothing He goes not about the destruction of them but first useth direction by Magical Lots what day fittest to speed of his request and the Devil allots him the thirteenth of the first month and what month fittest for the execution and the Devils Lot telleth him the month Adar On the thirteenth day of the first month Letters are dispatched through all the Provinces of the Monarchy for the destruction of the Jews at such a time ESTHER IV V. ALL the Provinces perplexed at the tidings the Jews in Shushan keep a Fast of three days and three nights long this time is measured exactly as the three days and three nights of our Saviours death for on the third day Esther puts on the Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and obtains the Kings favour ESTHER VI VII HAMAN prepares a Gallows for himself and bespeaks Honours for Mordecai his Wife and friends knew the curse upon Amaleck because of the Jews and read his fall ESTHER VIII IX ON the twenty third day of the month Sivan Mordecai and Esther obtain Letters to revoke Hamans bloody purpose and that the Jews should stand in their own defence against their enemies which they do at the time appointed for their destruction and slay 75810 men The feast of Purim instituted ESTHER X. Artax Ahashuerus 13 AFTER this great and wonderful deliverance and prosperity of the Artax Ahashuerus 14 Jews Artaxerxes or Ahashuerosh layeth a Tax upon the whole Empire but in what year of his reign is uncertain and how long he reigned after this is not easily determinable For the Scripture is utterly silent to express the number of the years of his reign or any of the Kings of of Persia that come after him in clear expressions Of this King it saith no more at all of the next it mentioneth his second year Ezra 4. 24. his fourth year Zech. 7. 1. his sixth year Ezra 6. 15. his seventh Ezra 27. 8. his twentieth Neh. 1. 1. his thirty second Neh. 13. 6. but how long he reigned further there is no account at all neither By collection from other places and passages it may be concluded and upon very good ground that this King Artaxerxes Ahashuerosh reigned but fourteen years in all the ground is this Because Zechariah in the second year of Darius doth then but reckon the time of some captivity seventy years The Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these seventy years Zech. 1. 12. And in Chap. 4. there are some people sent from Babel to Jerusalem and they have this quaere among the rest of the business they came about to speak to the Priests which were in the house of the Lord of Hosts and to ask Should I weep in the fifth month as I have done these seventy years Compare ver 3. 5. Now from the beginning of the seventy years or the fourth of Jehoiakim to the second of Darius were many years above seventy namely the three years of Cyrus all the years of Ahashuerosh which were twelve mentioned in Scripture before his taxing the Empire and two of Darius himself eighty seven in all by this account from the time that the seventy years captivity beginneth to be counted therefore these seventy years mentioned in Zechary must be counted from some other date or else there will be exceeding much hardness and impropriety in the speech Now this date is from the destruction of Jerusalem and firing of the Temple in the nineteenth year of Nebuchad-nezzar to Darius his second namely fifty one years of the seventy of Babell three of Cyrus
to West ends and as far South as to the middle of the Altar was used to slay the Beasts in and all that was accounted as the North So on the South-side of the Altar there were Marble Tables and low Pillars for the very same use that there were on the other side of the Altar namely for the fleaing and cutting up and washing the Intrals of the Sacrifices but when greater store came than that very space just between the Altar and the South-wall would contain then all the South-side of the Court was permitted for that use even as far as the middle of the Altar betwixt North and South The five and twenty cubits space therefore that we are to give account of between the South-wall of the Court and the foot of the rise of the Altar were thus parcelled 1. There were eight cubits from the Court-wall to the Pillars as there were on the North-side and this was the breadth of the Cloister and the standing of Israel on that side the Court. 2. The disposal of the Tables as on the other side before the Pillars took up four cubits 3. And then the thirteen cubits between these and the foot of the Altar rise was partly as is probable taken up with some rings as on the North-side though not so many for they needed not and partly with some plain pavement next to the rise that the Priests might have access to it the better CHAP. XXXVI The space between the Altar and the Porch THE Altar stood before the Gate or entrance of the Porch that gave access into the Temple and the space between the foundation of the Altar and the foundation of the Porch a a a Mid per. 3. was two and twenty cubits But there was not so much clear ground or plain pavement and passage between them for the stairs of the Porch being in number twelve and every step a cubit broad besides the half pace or inlarging at every third step caused that these steps lay down a great way in the Court towards the Altar and took up a good space of these two and twenty cubits Every one of these steps was half a cubit high and thereupon the whole rise ariseth to be six cubits from the ground to the landing in the Porch so that he that stood in the Porch-gate his Feet stood even and level with his Feet that stood upon the Circuit of the Altar b b b Tamed per. 7. Upon these steps of the Porch the Priests stood when they came out from burning Incense and blessed the People As concerning the space betwixt the Porch and Altar these things are remarkable about it 1. c c c Kelim per. 1. That no man might come upon this space that had any blemish upon him nor any man might come here bare headed the reason of the former restraint is easie to be apprehended because of the holiness of the place being so near both to the Alar and the Temple and the reason of the later is because in their greatest devotions they used to cover their Head and therefore none might come bare-headed into so devout a place 2. That no man might stand upon this space or stay within it while the Priest was burning Incense in the Holy place d d d Maym. in Tamid in per. 3. For whilest they burned Incense in the Temple every day all the People departed from the Temple so that between the Temple and the Altar there was not a man till he that burned Incense came forth And so at the time that the High Priest went in with the Blood of the Sin-offering which was to be sprinkled within all the People withdrew from between the Altar and the Temple till he came forth again And because they might know the time when to withdraw from this space at the daily Incense the Sagan or President of the Service called to the Priest that was within the Holy place with a loud voice and gave him notice when he should begin with the Incense saying to him Offer the Incense and as he spake thus the People withdrew The reason of this custom I shall not be curious to look after but whether the Ceremony did not fitly resemble how far distant all men are from having any share with Christ in his Intercession which the offering of the Incense resembled be it left to the Reader to consider 3. In this space between the Temple and the Altar was the murder committed upon Zacharias the son of Barachias as our Saviour mentioneth Matth. XXIII 35. Now there are various conjectures who this Zachary should be some think of Zachary the Prophet whose Book of Prophesie we have in the Old Testament Some suppose it might be John Baptists Father and some conceive that Christ speaketh there predictively foretelling that they should slay Zachary the son of Baruch in the Temple the story of which Josephus giveth in lib. 4. de bell cap. 19. But the Talmudists do help us to understand it of Zachary the son of Jehoiada who was stoned by the people in this place in the days of King Joash 2 Chron. XXIV Why he is called the son of Barachias and not the son of Jehoiada is not a place here to dispute the Jerusalem Talmud hath this story concerning his slaughter which may give us cause to think that our Saviour spake according to the common received Opinion and was understood to mean Zachary the son of Jehoiada though for special reason he calleth him the son of Barachias e e e Talm. Ierus in Taanith f. 6â— Rab. Jochanan saith Eighty thousand young Priests were slain for Zacharias blood R. Jordan asked R. Aha where slew they Zacharias In the Court of the Women or in the Court of Israel He saith to him Not in the Court of Israel nor in the Court of the Women but in the Court of the Priests c. And seven Transgressions did Israel transgress that day They slew a Priest a Prophet a Judge shed innocent Blood and defiled the Court and the Sabbath which was also the day of expiation And when Nebuzaradan came thither he saw the Blood bubling He saith to them What meaneth this They said to him It is the Blood of Bullocks and Rams and Lambs which we have offered upon the Altar Presently he brought Bullocks and Rams and Lambs and killed them and as yet the Blood bubled or reeked above theirs And when they confessed not he hanged them up They said The Lord is pleased to require his Blood at our hands They say to him It is the Blood of a Priest and Prophet and Judge who Prophesied to us concerning all that thou hast done to us and we stood up against him and slew him Presently he brought Eighty thousand young Priests and slew them And still the Blood bubled Then he was angry at it and said to it What wouldest thou have That all the People should perish for thee Presently the holy blessed God was
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
too though of great use are there plainly to be found Yet I am not ignorant what they have ever ready to object against Protestants And for his explication of Authentick viz. A faithful Copy which Hist. Crit. lib. 2. cap. 14. one cannot suspect to have been altered It is not only equally as himself honestly acknowledgeth but much more applicable to all the Modern Latine and Vernacular Translations than to the Vulgar Latine a great part of which no body can tell what it is or whence it comes For the present Hebrew Copy it self though it may have its defects yet without doubt coming infinitely nearer the true first Original as himself confesseth than the Vulgar Latine must be a more faithful Copy and consequently more Authentick And then all the Modern both Latine and Vernacular Translations though they have their faults not every where truly rendring the Hebrew yet more agreeing with the present Hebrew than the Vulgar Latine as every one knows they must be more faithful Copies and consequently more Authentick too And in effect the reasons of the ingenious Parisian Divine who is so well pleased with this Notion for the Authentickness of the Vulgar Latine Defence of the Crit. Hist. p. 57. are only because the Council of Trent hath said so and those of Father Simon an unreasonable suspicion of all other Translations from the Hebrew Hist. Crit. lib. 2. cap. 14. and the long use of it for some Centuries in a corrupted ignorant Church It is pretended for the reputation of that Council by this Critique Bellarmine and others who were too Learned not to see the advantage of Protestants against the Romanists by this Decree that the Council did not intend either to exclude the present Hebrew or to prefer the Vulgar Latine before it But either the contrary is true or else they were strangely negligent in a most important affair which they should have first setled viz. the best Version of the Holy Scriptures Otherwise why did they not appoint some of their own to review and correct the Latine Translation of San. Pagn from the Hebrew encouraged by Leo the tenth or else to make a new one and a better Besides the words of the Decree in publicis lectionibus disputationibus praedicationibus expositionibus pro Authentica habeatur ut nemo eam quovis praetextu rejicere audeat vel praesumat Can infer nothing less than that every one should be bound either quite to neglect the Hebrew and consequently to exclude the use of it or else wheresoever they found the Vulgar Latine differing from or contrary to the Hebrew yet to stick to the Vulgar Latine and what is this but to prefer it before the other This methinks is a considerable instance of the indefensibleness and wilfulness of some of the opinions of the Roman Church Wherefore this Learned and industrious Critick follows the present mode of France to make the most plausible and tenable explications of their received Dogms which for my part supposing they be not only plausible but true shall have not only my permission but commendation But that they have been always the general sense of their Church or though true ought to be imposed upon all Christians as conditions of Communion the one I do not always believe the other I do not by any means allow I am glad to see such effects of the increase of solid knowledge amongst a people more ingenious free and generous that they are ashamed somewhat of follies and falshoods though too ancient and too much Authorized This Writer indeed is Learned and hath much considered the task he undertakes but all is not extraordinary and all that is so is not perhaps true For very many things are now commonly known and many observations concern the Pontifician or the more early reformed Criticks and Commentators altogether ignorant or indifferently skilled in Oriental Learning nor gotten out of the prejudices of an infallible Church or more modern Systems not then to be questioned without the suspicion of Atheism or Heresie Many also are his remarques which though they have the hap now first to appear in publick yet they have been taken notice of by many among the Protestants who have not been so forward to publish them but chose rather to reserve them to longer consideration And in general I think it may be observed that that Learned Genius that free judicious and serious Spirit in Philosophy Morality and Religion which hath of late shewed it self amongst the French hath been much earlier and more propagated among us here in England if it be not again oppressed or discouraged by confidence superstition and interest For I look upon Roman Catholicks till lately in France under too much restraint and the reformed generally under too much employment and both under too much prejudice to make any considerable discovery or improvement in Science Religion and Learning In fine as there is in this ingenious and new Critick many unusual and useful remarks so he will give occasion for and hath need of many Animadversions But to return to our Author What he hath written in Latine is as much and perhaps more considerable than what is here collected in English The various pieces are now with us Translated into our own Tongue and Printed altogether also in one Volume Amongst these are his Horae Hebraicae Talmudicae upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians which I had not seen when this Preface was first written and gone off from the Press but since I have seen and perused it And the managers of this whole Edition for some reasons of their own having deferred the perfecting and publishing of it till this present time have put me upon a necessity of altering some things in this sheet and given me opportunity of adding others I have before in this Preface mentioned the most natural and easie interpretation in my Judgment of that so much criticized and seemingly difficult place 1 Cor. 11. 10. For this cause ought the Woman to have power on her head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels It seems a received opinion among the ancient Jews that some of the good Angels when they pleased used to be present with some curiosity and concernment in their Religious affairs and assemblies as perhaps the evil ones were in the filthy and Idolatrous ones of the Heathens which were by their own contrivance suggestion and encouragement This opinion in it self not improbable to reason the Apostle might approve and make use of It was there somewhat unexpected to me that our Author so well versed in these writings should not take notice of it but that contrariwise in Page 303. of the ensuing Volume he should interpret that place of evil Angels making a bate of the beauty of Women to entangle the Hearts and Eyes of the Men. Yet I suspected that he might have changed his opinion in his Notes upon this Epistle to the Corinthians But now upon perusal I
on Dumah also as it had done on Babylon That Arabias tents should be so spoiled that they should be forced to lodge in the open forrest c. ESAY XXII THIS Chapter containeth a sad Prophesie against Judea which he calleth The valley of vision because of Gods revealing himself there to his Prophets He foretelleth in it the heavy times that were coming upon that people of Judea by the Assyrian Army before it was miraculously destroyed That the slain thereof should not only be slain with the sword nor dead only by battel but dead with famine vers 2. for the invasion of that Army should cause husbandry to be neglected so that Briars and Thorns should come upon the land through this neglect and there should be this trouble for many days and years together and lamenting for the pleasant Fields and the fruitful Vine as Chap. 32. 10. 12 13. Elam and Kir Persia and Assyria should be combined in this invasion and should fill the Country with Charets and Horsmen that by this misery the Lord should discover the covering or uncloak the hypocrisie and pretences of Judah for now they would shew their carnal confidence ver 9. 10 11. and their carnal security vers 12. 13. He prophesieth of the displacing of Shebna from being over the houshold and placing of Eliakim in his room which was accomplished and was come to pass when Rabshakeh lay before Jerusalem Esay 36. 22. ESAY XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXIX AS in the two and twentieth Chapter the Prophet had foretold the misery and perplexity of Judea by Sennacheribs army before the Angel destroyed it so in the first and last of these Chapters he declareth the final desolation of it by Nebuchadnezzar as he doth the desolation of Tyrus by him Chap. 23. and the final desolalation of Ephraim by Salmaneser Chap. 28. He mingleth many sweet and gracious promises and comforts among his threatnings c. He calleth the Altar Ariel and Jerusalem Ariel or the Lion of God the one for devouring sacrifices the other for devouring men by slaughter And he threatneth that God would distress Ariel the City and it should be as Ariel the Altar with abundance of slain about it Chap. 29. 2. ESAY XXX XXXI THE oppression and terrour of the Assyrian Army made perplexed Judea look after an arm of flesh the reed of Egypt as Chap. 36. 9. This carnal confidence the Prophet taxeth smartly in these two Chapters yet for his promise sake assureth of deliverance and foretelleth the Divine vengeance upon the Assyrian The misery and oppression by this Army what under Shalmaneser and what under Sennacherib had been long and had been grievous so that they had eaten the bread of adversity and drunken the water of affliction and their teachers had been removed into corners c. Chap. 30. 20. But as the stream of the Assyrian power had overflowed and rought up even to the neck as Chap. 8. 8. so should the Lords anger do now to him Chap. 30. 28. And they of Jerusalem should have joy in the night ver 29. Compare Chap. 37. 36. for the Assyrian should be beaten down with the voice of the Lord ver 31. In the valley of Hinnom or Tophet ver 33. And should fall not by the sword either of great or mean man but of the mighty God Chap. 31. 8. These and other particulars do plainly clear the method of these Chapters and shew they lye here in their proper time ESAY XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV UNTO the same times are we to refer these Chapters also speaking amongst other things of the sad times that Judah suffered while the Assyrian Army was ranging and destroying up and down before the Lord destroyed him That he should spoil the Vintage and Husbandry Chap. 32. 10. 12. and that he made the High-ways waste and cared not to keep any Covenant that he made Chap. 33 8. but he should be destroyed and so should the other enemies of the Church particularly Edom who was a constant adversary Chap. 34. and good and comfortable things should accrew to Sion Chap. 35. MICAH III IV V VI VII THE last verse of the third of Micah is owned by the men of Jeremiahs time to have been uttered in the time of Hezekiah Jer. 26. 18. and here may both that whole Chapter and all the Chapters that follow it be very well placed as Prophesied in some time of Hezekiahs first thirteen years before Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem for in Chap. 5. 1. he seemeth to speak of that siege and of Sennacheribs blasphemy both against God and Hezekiah smiting the Judge of Israel as with a rod upon the cheek and he fore-telleth that Christ should be the peoples peace in the Assyrians invasion and that though the proud enemy thought to triumph and tread down the chief City of all the Nation Jerusalem yet should that be so far from being insulted over by him that Bethlehem a poor Town should yield and produce one that should tread both the Assyrian and all other the Churches enemies under foot And so as the birth of Christ of a Virgin was a sign to Ahaz so is his birth in Bethlehem a sign in the days of Hezekiah The Prophesie of NAHUM all IN these days of Hezekiah also lived Nahum the Prophet and was one of the comforters of Jerusalem Esay 40. 1. against the burden and terrours of Assyria He is generally held to have prophesied in the days of Manasseh with Habakkuk which he might very well do beginning in the reign of Hezekiah and continuing in Manasseh He mentioneth the evil counsel of Sennacherib against the Lord and fore-telleth his death in his Idol Temple Chap. 1. 11. 14. and denounceth destruction to Niniveh the chief City of Assyria c. 2 KINGS XVIII from ver 13. to the end and XIX all 2 CHRON. XXXII from beginning to vers 24. ESAY XXXVI XXXVII World 3295 Divvision 266 Hezekiah 14 SENNACHERIB the King of Assyria having invaded Judah Hezekiah sends a submission to him at Lachish who cheatingly gets three hundred and thirty Talents from him and then departs not away from him for all that year The Assyrian first sends some of his servants with a Message to Jerusalem to have perswaded the people out of their own defence but when that would not prevail he sendeth a great force against the City where Rabshakah in the head of them revileth Hezekiah and the Lord c. But Hezekiah praying and sending to Isaiah hath a comfortable answer and a comfortable sign A comfortable answer that the King of Assyria should be bridled and muzled and this very thing should be a comfortable sign for the future that God would prevent the famine which they had great cause to fear and that God would establish them for the time to come The Assyrian Army had spoiled all their tillage thorow the Country for a long time as Chap. 32. 9 10 12 13. c. and what shall they do now for meat and sustenance
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
entertain what he was relating to her Shall give unto him the Throne Psal. 2. 7 8 9. Ezek. 21. 27. Dan. 7. 14. c. Vers. 33. He shall reign over the house of Jacob. This term the house of Jacob includeth First All the twelve tribes which the word Israel could not have done Secondly The Heathens and Gentiles also for of such the house and family of Jacob was full Vers. 34. Seeing I know not a man These words say the Rhemists declare that she had now vowed Virginity to God For if she might have known a man and so have had a child she would never have asked how shall this be done And Jansenius goeth yet further From these words saith he it doth not only follow that she hath vowed but this seemeth also to follow from them that her vow was approved of God See also Aquin. part 3. quaest 28. art 4. Baron in apparatu ad Annal. c. Answ. First Among the Jews marriage was not held a thing indifferent or at their own liberty to choose or refuse but a binding command and the first of the 613. as it is found ranked in the Pentateuch with the threefold Targum at Gen. 1. 28. and Paul seemeth to allude to that opinion of theirs when speaking of this subject he saith Praeceptum non habeo 1 Cor. 7. 6. Secondly Among the vows that they made to God Virginity never came in the number Jephtha's was heedless and might have been revoked as the Chaldee Paraphrast and Rabbi Solomon well conceive and David Kimchi is of a mind that he was punished for not redeeming it according to Lev. 27. Thirdly To die childless was a reproach among men Luke 1. 25. and to live unmarried was a shame to women Psal. 78. 63. Their Virgins were not praised that is were not married Now what a gulf is there between vowing perpetual Virginity and accounting it a shame dishonour and reproach Fourthly If Mary had vowed Virginity why should she marry Or when she was married why should she vow Virginity For some hold that her vow was made before her espousals and some after Fifthly It was utterly unnecessary that she should be any such a votal it was enough that she was a Virgin Sixthly It is a most improper phrase to say I know not a man and to mean I never must know him and in every place where it is used concerning Virgins why may it not be so understood as well as here Seventhly While the Romanist goeth about with this gloss to extol her Virginity he abaseth her judgment and belief For if she meant thus she inferreth that either this child must be begotten by the mixture of man which sheweth her ignorance or that he could not be begotten without which sheweth her unbelief Eighthly She uttereth not these words in diffidence as Zachary had done when he said how shall I know this but in desire to be satisfied in the mystery or the manner as she was in the matter She understood that the Angel spake of the birth of the Messias she knew that he should be born of a Virgin she perceived that she was pointed out for that Virgin and believing all this she desired to be resolved how so great a thing should come to pass Vers. 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee c. The Angel satisfieth the Virgins question with a threefold answer First Instructing her in the manner of the performance Secondly Furnishing her with an example of much like nature in her Cosin Elizabeth Thirdly Confirming her from the power of God to which nothing is impossible Now whereas this unrestrained power of God was the only cause of such examples as the childing of Elizabeth and other barren women in this birth of the Virgin something more and of more extraordinariness is to be looked after In it therefore two actions are expressed to concur First The Holy Ghost his coming upon the Virgin Secondly The power of the most High overshaddowing her and two fruits or consequents of these two actions answerable to them First The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee therefore that that is born of thee shall be holy Secondly The power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore that that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God The coming of the Holy Ghost upon her was First In the gift of Prophesie whereby she was both informed of the very instant when the conception was wrought and also more fully of the mystery of the Incarnation then before Secondly He did prepare and sanctifie so much of her flesh and blood or seed as to constitute the body of our Saviour The work was the work of the whole Trinity but ascribed more singularly to the Holy Ghost first because of the sanctifying of that seed and clearing it of original taint for sanctification is the work of the Holy Ghost Secondly For the avoiding of that dangerous consequence which might have followed among men of corrupt minds who might have opinionated if the conception of the Messias in the womb had been ascribed to the Father that the Son had had no other manner of generation of him The power of the most High His operating power supplying the want of the vigour and imbraces of the masculine Parent For to that the word overshaddow seemeth to have allusion being a modest phrase whereby the Hebrews expressed the imbraces of the man in the act of generation as Ruth 3. 9. Spread the skirt of thy garment over thine handmaid Therefore that holy thing This title and Epithet first not only sheweth the purity and immaculateness of the humane nature of Christ but also secondly it being applied to the preceding part by way of consequence as was touched before it sheweth that none ever was born thus immaculate but Christ alone because none had ever such a way and means of conception but only he Ver. 36. Thy Cosin Elizabeth hath conceived a Son As he had informed the Virgin of the birth of the Messias of her self so doth he also of the birth of his fore-runner of her Cousin Elizabeth For that he intended not barely to inform her onely that her Cousin had conceived a Child but that he heightens her thoughts to think of him as Christs forerunner may be supposed upon these observations First That he saith A Son and not a Child Secondly That such strangely born Sons were ever of some remarkable and renowned eminency Thirdly That if he had purposed only to shew her the possibility of her conceiving by the example of the power of God in other women he might have mentioned Sarah Hannah and others of those ancient ones and it had been enough Vers. 39. And Mary arose c. And went with haste into the hill Country into a City of Juda. This City was Hebron For unto the sons of Aaron Joshua gave the City of Arba which is Hebron in the hill country of Judah Josh. 21. 11. And Zacharias being a son of
saw such demonstrations §. He stood by the Lake of Gennesareth Whereas Luke saith He stood by this Lake the other Evangelists say he walked which difference needeth to breed no scruple for besides that men in their walking sometimes do move and sometime stand still the story of Luke taketh him as he was before he went into Peters ship and the other Evangelists as he was come out The Lake of Gennesareth which sometimes in the Gospel is called the Sea of Galilee and sometimes the Sea of Tiberias is constantly called in the Old Testament The Sea of Cinnereth Numb 34. 11. Josh. 12. 3. 1 King 15. 20. Now after times had changed the name Cinereth into Genesar as divers other names and places had received the like alteration And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts who do commonly call places of such changed names by the names they carried in their times do use the word Genesar or Ginosar in the Texts alleadged and so do the Jews also in their writings call this Sea by the same name Josephus hath described it in these words The Lake Genesar is so called from the Country adjoyning and it is forty furlongs broad and an hundred long the water sweet and most fit to drink Pliny thus Jordanes ubi prima convallium fuit occasio in lacum se fundit quem plures Genesaram vocant c. As soon as Jordan meets with a valley fit for that purpose it dilates its self into a lake which they commonly call Genesara being 16 miles long and 6 miles broad invironed with fair Towns as on the East with Julias and Hippo on the South with Tarichea by which name some also call the lake on the West with Tiberias famous for hot baths Lib. 5. c. 15. Strabo saith it had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweet canes growing by it Lib. Geogr. 16. About the reason of the name Genesar Baal Aruch hath these passages In the Gemara of the first Chapter of the Treatise of the Passover it is said Why are none of the fruits of Genesar at Jerusalem And in the fourth Chapter of Maaseroth it is said The coast of Genesar is quit though there be mills and Cocks there Some interpret it of a place near Tiberias where are Gardens and Orchards The Targum renders The Sea of Cinnereth The Sea of Ginosar And in Jelammedenis our Rabbins say why is it called Ginosar Because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gardens of the Princes These were the Kings that had Gardens there Rabbi Judah from Rabbi Simeon saith why is it called Genosar Because the portion of Nephthali was there and it is said of Nephthali A thousand Princes And in Jelammedenu it is said again The border of Nephthali was Ginosar So that by the Jews Etymology the name was taken from some royal Gardens that lay upon it which may very well be since Herods palace was at Tiberias and as from the royalty of that City the Sea was called the Sea of Tiberias so possibly from the Orchards and Gardens upon it it might be called Genesar or the place of the Princely Gardens We cannot but observe the propriety of the Greek utterance in adding the syllable eth in the latter end of this word as also in the word Nazareth whereas in the Hebrew it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Netzer both after the letter r but we shall not be inquisitive about it Vers. 3. And he entred into one of the Ships which was Simons Whether these two vessels that stood by the shore whereof Simons was one were ship indeed in the proper Bulk and bigness that we allot to ships now let them dispute that have a mind to it The Greek word may well be applied to a boat or barge or some such a lesser vessel more convenient for Fishermen than a ship of unwieldy bulk and burden The Talmud in the Treatise Zavim per. 3. doth distinguish betwixt a great and little Ship thus What is a great ship Rabbi Judah saith It is such a one as cannot be moved by one man But not to trouble our selves about the quantity of this Ship of Peters which belike was but a fisher Boat let us rather look a little after the Master of it Peter himself and consider how he is now become a fisher since he was a Disciple of Christ before for ye have him coming to him and Christ naming him Cephas or Peter Joh. 1. 42. Did not he follow him from that time In the several places and occurrences where the Disciples of Jesus are mentioned as Joh. 2. 2. 17. 22. 3. 22. 4. 8. c. was not he one of the number And then how come he and Andrew who were then with him now parted from him and following fishing Answ. 1. We cannot hold otherwise than that Peter and Andrew followed Christ from their first meeting with him and that they are to be reckoned in the number of his Disciples in the places cited as well as any other For though it be said of Andrew and of his fellow that first fell in with him that they abode with him that day Joh. 1. 39. as if they left him again on the morrow it is to be understood in reference to the place rather than to the limitation of the time namely that they stayed with him all night at his own house 2. We cannot conceive that Peter and Andrew being now upon their Fishersmans imployment had left Christ without his permission and consent but that he had dispensed with them to retire to their own homes and business for a season But when and whereupon that dispensation was is still a question I see not how we can conjecture the time and occasion more properly than thus One cause of Johns imprisonment was the multitude of his Disciples for that gave Herod suspition of innovation Now when John was imprisoned Christ heard of it and of the cause and withal he heard that the Pharisees who were in all the power did take notice that he had more Disciples than John had This makes him to slip aside for his safety out of Judea into Galilee And when he comes into Herods own jurisdiction it was for his safety also to disperse his Disciples for a time to their own homes for as yet he was not to begin to publish the Kingdom of Heaven and himself the Messias in the full and clearest demonstration but a space was yet to pass and then he begins to preach The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand c. We may therefore conjecture that upon his coming up into Galilee his Disciples and he by his own permission did part for a while lest Herod observing another man arising in Galilee followed with many Disciples as John had been should sodainly have laid hold upon him and made him drink of Johns cup. But Jesus himself alone goeth about to divers Synagogues of Galilee and is received cometh home to his own City Nazareth and is there
to end himself with his own hand having left most bitter and invective taunts and taxations in his last Will and Testament against Tiberius and his darling Macro The Executors durst not publish nor prove the Will for fear of the executioner but the Emperor when he heard of the contents of it caused it to be openly read and divulged and prided himself in those just reproaches Nor wanted he more of those reproaches from others also but he repaid the Authors in cruel discontent though he seemed to hear his own disgrace with delight For Sextius Paconianus was strangled in prison for making Verses against him It may be they were those in Suetonius Asper Immitis breviter his omnia dicam Dispeream si te mater amare potest c. Granius Martianus Trebellienus Refus and Poppaeus Sabinus were accused for some other offences and died by their own hands and Tatius Gratianus that had once been Praetor was condemned by a Praetorian Law and escaped his own hands indeed but he did not escape the executioners THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman For the Year of CHRIST XXXVII And of TIBERIUS XXII Being the Year of the WORLD 3964. And of the City of ROME 789. Consuls Q. Platius Sextus Papinius or Papirius ACTS IX Vers. 23. And after that many days were fulfilled c. §. Account of the Chronology THE conversion of Paul we observed ere while and proved to be in the year next after our Saviours ascension or Anno Christi 34. Now Paul himself testifieth that three years after his conversion he went up to Jerusalem Gal. 1. 18. That space of time he spent in Damascus in Arabia and in Damascus again For so himself testifieth in the verse before But how long time he took up in these several abodes in these places it is not determinable nor indeed is it material to inquire since we have the whole time of all his abodes summed up in that account of three years Now whereas there is no mention in Lukes relation of his journey into Arabia but he maketh him as one would think to come up to Jerusalem at his first departure from Damascus we have shewed elsewhere that it is no uncouth thing with this and the other Evangelists to make such brief transitions sometimes in stories of a large distance and Paul himself plainly sheweth us in the place alledged how to make the brief story of Luke full and compleat and to speak it out Namely that Paul upon his coming after his conversion into Damascus began there to preach and increased more and more in strength and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus proving that Jesus was the very Christ And having preached a while in Damascus he goeth into Arabia which Country was now under the same Government with Damascus namely under King Aretas and after a while he returned into Damascus again And then do the Jews there seek to kill him and they incense the Governour of the City under Aretas against him so that he setteth a watch to take him but he escapeth over the wall by night in a Basket Acts 9. 25. 2 Cor. 11. 33. We shall see by and by that there were preparations for war this year betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia and Herod the Tetrarch and it is not improbable that the Jews in those times of commotion did accuse Paul to the Governor of Damascus under Aretas for a spie or for a man that was an enemy to the Kings cause and so they interest the Governor in a quarrel against him And this very thing being considered may help somewhat to confirm this for the year of Pauls coming from Damascus for fear of his life to Jerusalem if his own accounting the years did not make it plain enough Vers. 26. And when Saul was come to Ierusalem c. His errand to Jerusalem as himself testifieth was to see Peter Gal. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for any homage to his primacy as is strongly pleaded by the Popish crew for he maketh no distinction betwixt him and James and John in point of dignity Gal. 2. 9. nay is so far from homaging him that he rebuketh and reproveth him Gal. 2. 11. But his journey to Peter at this time was that he might have acquaintance with him and some knowledge of him for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more properly signifieth and that he desired the rather because then Peter was the minister of the Circumcision as he himself was to be of the uncircumcision Gal. 2. 8. and because there had been some kind of remarkable parallel betwixt them in their recovery the one from denying and forswearing Christ himself and the other from persecuting of Christ in his members §. But they were all affraid of him and believed not that he was a Disciple This very thing hath caused some to conceive that Paul had a journey to Jerusalem a little after his conversion and before ever he went into Arabia because they cannot conceive how it should be possible that he should have been a convert and a Preacher of the Gospel three years together and yet his conversion and his present qualities should be unknown to the Church at Jerusalem and the rather because he himself saith that the wonder of his conversion was not done in a corner Acts 26. 26. Answ. But these two or three considerations may help to resolve the scruple 1. The distance betwixt Damascus and Jerusalem which was exceeding great 2. The quarrels betwixt Herod and Aretas which were a means to hinder intercourse betwixt those two places 3. The persecution that continued still upon the Church of Judea which would keep Disciples of Damascus from going thither And 4. the just fear that might possess the Disciples at Jerusalem in the very time of persecution For though it was said before the Church at Jerusalem and of Judaea injoyed a great deal of rest and tranquility after the conversion of Paul their great persecutor in comparison of what they had done before yet was not the persecution of the Church utterly extinct to the very time of Pauls coming up to Jerusalem but continued still and therefore it is the less wonder if the Disciples there be the more fearful and cautelous Vers. 27. But Barnabas took him c. How Barnabas came acquainted with the certainty of Pauls conversion better than the other Disciples is not easie to resolve It is like that he being abroad for fear of the persecution as the other of the Preachers were all but the Apostles went in his travails towards Damascus or Arabia and so had heard and learned the certainty of the matter However it is pregnant to our observation that he that was afterwards to be fellow traveller and labourer with Paul in the Gospel to the Gentiles is now made the instrument and means of his first admission to the society of the Apostles It is possible that there had been some acquaintance betwixt
New answers Holy is the Lord that hath performed The Old says Holy is the Father that gave the Law the New saith Holy is the Son that preached the Gospel and both say Holy is the Holy Ghost that penned both Law and Gospel to make men holy The two Cherubins in Salomons 2 Chron. 3. Temple stood so that with their outmost wings they touched the sides of the house and their other wings touched each other So the two Testaments one way touch the two sides of the house and the other way touch each other In their extent they read from the beginning of the World to the end from in the beginning to come Lord Jesus In their consent they touch each other with He shall turn the Heart of the Fathers to the children Mal. 4. 6 and He shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the children Luke 1. 17. Here the two wings joyn in the middle Tertullian calls the Prophet Malachi the bound or skirt of Judaism and Christianity a stake that tells that there promising ends and performing begins that Prophecying concludes and Fulfilling takes place there is not a span between these two plots of holy ground the Old and New Testament for they touch each other What do the Papists then when they put and chop in the Apocripha for Canonical Scripture between Malachi and Matthew Law and Gospel What do they but make a wall between the Seraphins that they cannot hear each others cry What do they but make a stop between the Cherubins that they cannot touch each others wing What do they but make a ditch betwixt these grounds that they cannot reach each others coasts What do they but remove the Land mark of the Scriptures and so are guilty of Cursed be he that removes his neighbours mark Deut. 27. 17. And what do they but divorce the mariage of the Testaments and so are guilty of the breach of that which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder These two Testaments are the two paps of the Church from which we suck the sincere milk of the Word One pap is not more like to another than are these two for substance but for Language they vary in colour The Old as all can tell is written in Hebrew but some forraign Languages are also admitted into Scripture besides the Hebrew as forraign Nations were to be admitted also to the Church besides the Hebrews A great piece of Ezra is Chaldee because taken from Chaldee Chronicles Those parts of Daniels visions that concern all the World are written in the Chaldee the Tongue then best known in the World because the Chaldeans were then Lords of the World The eleventh verse of the tenth of Jeremy is in the same Tongue that the Jews might learn so much of their Language as to refuse their Idolatry in their own Language Other words of this Idiom are frequent in the Scripture as I take two names given to Christ as Bar the son in Psal. 2. 10. and Hhoter the rod of Jesses stem Isa. 11. to be natively Chaldee Hhutra used by all the Targums for a rod in divers places words and for that they do shew the greater mystery viz. that this Son and this Rod should belong to Chaldeans and Gentiles as well as to Jew or Hebrews Infinite it is to trace all of this nature and Language The Arabian is also admitted into Scripture especially in the Book of Job a man of that Country whether Philistin Phrases and other adjacent Nations Dialects be not to be found there also I refer to the Reader to search and I think he may easily find of the eloquence of some pieces above others and the difficulty of some books above others those that can even read the English Bible can tell I would there were more that could read it in its own Language and as it were talk with God there in his own Tongue that as by Gods mercy Japhet dwells now in the tents of Sem or the Gentiles have gained the preheminence of the Jews for Religion so they would water this graffing of theirs into this stock with the juyce of that Tongue thereby to provoke them the more to Jealousie CHAP. XXXIII Of the New Testament Language or the Greek THE Greek Tongue is the key which God used to unlock the Tents of Sem to the sons of Japhet This glorious Tongue as Tully calls it is made most glorious by the writing of the New Testament in this Language God hath honoured all the Thucyd. lib. 1 letters by naming himself after the first and the last as Homer shews the receit of all the Grecian ships by shewing how many the greatest and how few the least contained Javan is held both by Jews and Christians to have planted the Country The Tongue is likely to be maternal from Babel The Jews upon Genesis the forty ninth think that Jacob curseth his sons Simeon and Levies fact in one word of Greek Macerothehem that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their swords but all the Chaldees and other Translations render it better their habitations Gen. 49. 5. The ancientest Heathen Greek alive is Homer though the Tongue was long before and Homers subject of Ilias treated of in Greek verse by Evanders Wife of Arcadia as some have related Homer watered the Tongue and in succeeding ages it flourished till it grew ripe in the New Testament The Dialects of it familiarly known to be five The Attick the Jonick c. The Macedonian was something strange as appears in Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 5. Especially their devout Macedonian or about their oraisons How God scattered and divulged this Tongue of the Greeks over the World against the coming of Christ and writing of the New Testament is remarkable Alexander the great with his Macedonians made the Eastern parts Grecian The Old Testament at Ptolomaeus his request translated into Greek was as an Usher to bring in the New Testament when Japhet should come to dwell in the Tents of Sem. The Jews used to keep a mournful fast for that Translation but as Jews mourn so have Gentiles cause to rejoyce In like sort for the preparation for the Gospel of late which as far as Antichrist his power could reach lay depressed but not overwhelmed the Greek Tongue at the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks was sent into these Western climates that we might hear Christ speak in his own Language without an Egyptian to interpret to us as Joseph had to his brethren What need we now to rely upon a Latine foundation when we have the Greek purity Never did the Turk any good to Christianity but this and this against his will but God worketh all things for his own glory And we may say of the poor inhabitants of Grecia as of the Jews by their impoverishing we are inriched As Athens in old time was called the Grecia of Grecia so the New Testament for Language may be stiled the Greek of Greek In it as upon the
XLVI The Country of Iericho and the situation of the City HERE we will borrow Josephus his Pensil a a a a a a Joseph de Bello lib. ◠cap. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jericho is seated in a Plain yet a certain barren Mountain hangs over it narrow indeed but long for it runs out Northward to the Country of Scythopolis and Southward to the Country of Sodome and the utmost coast of the Asphaltites Of this Mountain mention is made Jos. II. 22. where the two Spies sent by Josua and received by Rahab are said to conceal themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Opposite against this lyes a Mountain on the other side Jordan beginning from Julias on the North and stretched Southward as far as Somorrha which bounds the Rock of Arabia In this is a Mountain which is called the Iron Mountain reaching out as far as the land of Moab But the Country which lies between these two Mount anous places is called The Great Plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extended from the Village Ginnaber to the lake Asphaltites in length a thousand two hundred furlongs an hundred and fifty miles in bredth an hundred and twenty furlongs fifteen miles and Jordan cuts it in the middle Hence you may understand more plainly those things that are related of the Plains of Jericho 2 Kings XXV 5. and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Region about Jordan means Matth. III. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jericho is distant from Jerusalem an hundred and fifty furlongs eighteen miles and three quarters and from Jordan sixty furlongs seven miles and an half The space from thence to Jerusalem is desert and rocky but to Jordan and the Asphaltites more plain indeed but alike desert and barren This our Author asserts the same distance between Jericho and Jordan elsewhere in these words b b b b b b Antiq. lib. 5. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Israelites travailing forward fifty furlongs from Jordan encamped the distance of ten furlongs from Jericho that is in Gilgal in the East coast of Jericho Jos. IV. 19. But concerning the distance between Jericho and Jerusalem he does not seem to agree with his Country-men For however they according to their Hyperbolical style feign very many things to be heard from Jerusalem as far as Jericho to wit c c c c c c Tamid cap. 3 hal 8. the sound of the gate of the Temple when it was opened the sound of Migrepha or the little bell c. yet there are some of them who make it to be the distance of Ten Parsae d d d d d d Bab. Joma fol. 20. 2. 39. 2. Rabbath bar Bar Channah saith Rabbi Jochanan saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From Jerusalem to Jericho were ten Parsae and yet from thence thither the voice of the high Priest in the day of expiation pronouncing the name Jehovah was heard c. The hinges of the gates of the Temple are heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as far as the eighth bound of the Sabbath that is as far as a Sabbaths days journey eight times numbred The Gloss hath these words The hinges indeed not further but the gates themselves are heard to Jericho There is an Hyperbole in their measuring of the space as well as in the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And that Plain burns in the Summer and by too much heat renders the air unhealthful for it is all without water except Jordan the Palms that grow in whose banks are more flourishing and more fruitful than those that grow more remote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Near Jericho is a very plentiful spring and very rich for watering and moistening the ground it riseth near the old City and Jesus the Son of Nave took it Of which Spring there is a report that in former times it did not only make the fruits of the Earth and of the Trees to decay but also the offspring of women and was universally unwholsom and harmful to all but it was changed into a better condition by Elizeus c. See 2 King II. 21. So that those waters which before were the cause of barrenness and famine did thenceforth produce fruitfulness and abundance and they have so great a vertue in their watering that whatsoever place they touch they bring on to a very speedy ripeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they overflow the Plain seventy furlongs in length and twenty in bredth and there they nourish very fair and thick gardens of Palm-trees of divers kinds c. That place also feeds Bees and produceth Opobalsamum and Cyprinum and Myrobalanum so that one might not call it amiss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A divine Country c. Strabo speaks like things e e e e e e Strabo Geogr. lib. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jericho is a plain cirrounded with Mountains which in some places bends to it after the manner of a Theatre A grove of Palmtrees is there with which are mixed also other garden plants a fruitful place abounding with Palmtrees for the space of an hundred furlongs all well watered and full of habitations The Royal Court and Paradice of Balsom is there c. And Pliny f f f f f f Plin. lib. 5. cap. 14. Jericho planted with Groves of Palms and well watered with springs c. Hence the City is called the City of Palmtrees Deut. XXXIV 3. and Judg. I. 16. where for that which in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the City of Palmtrees the Targum hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the City Jericho which nevertheless Kimchi approves not of reckoning the City of Palmtrees to be near Hebron whom see See also the Targum upon Judg. III. 13. and Kimchi there and the Targum upon Judg. IV. 5. When you take a view of that famous fountain as it is described by Josephus thence you understand what waters of Jericho the Holy Ghost points out in Jos. XVI 1. And when you think of that most pleasant Country watered from thence let that Rabbinical story come into your mind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gift of Jericho of five hundred cubits square granted to the sons of Hobab Moses father in Law of which see Baal Turim upon Numb X. 29. and the Rabbins upon Judg. I. CHAP. XLVII Iericho it self WE read that this City was not only wasted by Josua with fire and sword but cursed also Cursed be he before the Lord who shall rise up and build that City Jericho Jos. VI. 26. a a a a a a Hieros Sanhedr fol 29. 4. Nor was another City to be built say the Talmudists which was to be called by the name of Jericho nor was Jericho it self to be built although to be called by another name And yet I know not by what chance this City crept out of dust and rubbish lived again and
we have produced is plain and without any difficulty as if he should say It is an old Tradition which hath obtained for many ages VERS XXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I say unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I say the words of one that refutes or determines a question very frequently to be met with in the Hebrew Writers To this you may lay that of Esaiah Chap. II. vers 3 And he will teach us of his ways c. When Kimchi writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Teacher is King Messias And that of Zacharias Chap. XI vers 8. Where this great shepherd destroys three evil shepherds namely the Pharisee and the Saduâ—ee and the Essene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause c. First let us treat of the Words and then of the Sentences With his Brother The Jewish Schools do thus distinguish between a Brother and a Neighbour that a Brother signifies an Israelite by nation and blood a Neighbour an Israelite in religion and worship that is a Proselyte The Author of Aruch in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Son of the Covenant writes thus The Sons of the Covenant these are Israel And when the Scripture saith If any ones Ox gore the Ox of his Neighbour it excludes all the Heathen in that it saith of his Neighbour Maimonides writes thus t t t t t t in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ch. 2. It is all one to kill an Israelite and a Canaanite Servant for both the punishment is death But an Israelite who shall kill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A stranger inhabitant shall not be punished with death because it is said Whosoever shall proudly rise up against his Neighbour to kill him Ex. XXI 14. And it is needless to say he shall not be punished with death for killing a Heathen Where this is to be noted that Heathens and stranger Inhabitants who were not admitted to perfect and compleat Proselytism were not qualified with the title of Neighbour nor with any privileges But under the Gospel where there is no distinction of Nations or Tribes Brother is taken in the same latitude as among the Jewes both Brother and Neighbour was that is for all professing the Gospel and is contradistinguished to the Heathen 1 Cor. V. 11. If any one who is called a Brother And Mat. XVIII 15. If thy Brother sin against thee c. ver 17. If he hear not the Church let him be a Heathen But Neighbour is extended to all even such as are strangers to our religion Luk. X. 29 30 c. He shall be guilty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words signifying guilt or debt to be met with a thousand times in the Talmudists Es. XXIV v. 23. They shall be gathered together as Captives are gathered into prison Where R. Solomon speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty of Hell unto Hell which agrees with the last clause of this verse Of the Councel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sanhedrin that is of the Judgment or Tribunal of the Magistrate For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment in the clause before is to be referred to the Judgment of God will appear by what follows Raka 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn very usual in the Hebrew Writers and very common in the mouth of the Nation u u u u u u Tanchum fol. 5. col 2. One returned to repentance his wife said to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka if it be appoynted you to repent the very girdle wherewith you gird your self shall not be your own x x x x x x Id. fol. 18. col 4. A Heathen said to an Israelite Very sutable food is made ready for you at my house What is it saith the other To whom he replied swines-flesh Raka saith the Jew I must not eat of clean beasts with you y y y y y y Midras Tillin upon Psal. CXXXVII A Kings daughter was married to a certain durty fellow He commands her to stand by him as a mean Servant and to be his Butler To whom she said Raka I am a Kings daughter z z z z z z Id. fol. 38 col 4. One of the Scholars of R. Jochanan made sport with the teaching of his Master but returning at last to a sober mind Teach thou saith he O Master for thou art worthy to teach for I have found and seen that which thou hast taught To whom he replied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka thou hadst not believed unless thou hadst seen a a a a a a Bab. Berac fol. 32. 2. A certain Captain saluted a religious man praying in the way but he saluted him not again He waited till he had done his prayer and saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka It is written in your Law c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into Hell fire The Jews do very usually express Hell or the place of the damned by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gehinnom which might be shewn in infinite examples The manner of speech being taken from the vally of Hinnom a place infamous for foul Idolatry committed there for the howlings of Infants roasted to Molech filth carried out thither and for a fire that always was burning and so most fit to represent the horror of Hell b b b b b b Bab. Erubhin fol. 19. 1. There are three doors of Gehenna one in the Wilderness as it is written They went down and all that belonged to them alive into Hell Num. XVI 33. Another in the Sea as it is written Out of the belly of Hell have I called thou hast heard my voice Jon. II. 2. The Third in Jerusalem as it is written Thus saith the Lord whose fire is in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem Esai XXXI 9. The Tradition of the School of R. Ismael Whose fire is in Sion this is the Gate of Gehenna The Chaldee Paraphrast upon Esai ch XXXIII ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gehenna eternal fire c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gehenna of eternal fire We come now to the sentences and sense of the Verse A threefoid punishment is adjudged to a threefold wickedness Judgment to him that is angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without cause Judgment also and that by the Sanhedrin that calls Raka Judgment of Hell to him that calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool. That which is here produced of the threefold Sanhedrin among the Jewes pleases me not because passing over other reasons mention of the Sanhedrin is made only in the middle clause How the Judgment in the first clause is to be distinguished from the Judgment of the Sanhedrin in the second will very easily appear from this Gloss and Commentary of the Talmudists Of not killing c c c c c
this be a Rabbi let there not be many such in Israel VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye devour widows houses THE Scribes and Pharisees were ingenious enough for their own advantage Hear one argument among many forged upon the anvil of their covetousness a little rudely drawn but gainful enough g g g g g g Bab. Joma fol. 72. 2. saith the Lord Make me an Ark of Shittim-wood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence it is decided say they in behalf of a Disciple of the wise men that his fellow citizens are bound to perform his servile work for him O Money thou mistress of Art and mother of Wit So he that was preferred to be President of the Council was to be maintained and enriched by the Council See the Gloss on Bab. Taanith i i i i i i Fol. 21. 1. They angled among the people for respect and by respect for gain with a double hook I. As Doctors of the Law where they first and above all things instilled into their Disciples and the common people That a wise man or a Master was to be respected above all mortal men whatsoever Behold the rank and order of benches according to these Judges k k k k k k Jerus Horaioth fol. 84. 2. A wise man is to take place of a King A King of a High Priest A High Priest of a Prophet A Prophet of one anointed for war One anointed for war of a President of the Courses A President of the Courses of the head of a family The head of a family of a Counsellor A Counsellor of a Treasurer A Treasurer of a private Priest A private Priest of a Levite A Levite of an Israelite An Israelite of a Bastard A Bastard of a Nethinim A Nethinim of a Proselyte A Proselyte of a freed slave But when is this to be namely when they are alike as to other things But indeed if a Bastard be a Disciple or a wise man and the High Priest be unlearned the Bastard is to take place of him A wise man is to be preferred before a King for if a wise man die he hath not left his equal but if a King die any Israelite is fit for a Kingdom This last brings to my mind those words of Ignatius the Martyr if indeed they are his in his tenth Epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My Son saith he Honour God and the King But I say Honour God as the cause and Lord of all the Bishop as the chief Priest bearing the image of God in respect of his rule bearing Gods image in respect of his Priestly office Christs and after him we ought to honour the King also II. Under a pretence of mighty devotion but especially under the goodly shew of long prayers they so drew over the minds of devout persons to them especially of women and among them of the richer widows that by subtle attractives they either drew out or wrested away their goods and estates Nor did they want nets of counterfeit authority when from the Chair they pronounced according to their pleasures of the dowry and estate befalling a widow and assumed to themselves the power of determining concerning those things Of which matter as it is perplexed with infinite difficulties and quirks you may read if you have leisure the Treatises Jevamoth Chetubboth and Gittin Concerning the length of their prayers it may suffice to produce the words of the Babylon Gemara in Beracoth l l l l l l Fol. 32. 2. The religious anciently used to tarry an hour meditating before they began their prayers whence was this R. Joshua ben Levi saith it was because the Scripture saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are they who sit in thy house R. Joshuah ben Levi saith also He that prays ought to tarry an hour after prayers As it is said The just shall praise thy name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The upright shall sit before thy face It is necessary therefore that he should stay meditating an hour before prayers and an hour after and the religious anciently used to stay an hour before prayers an hour they prayed and an hour they stayed after prayers Since therefore they spent nine hours every day about their prayers how did they perform the rest of the Law and how did they take care of their worldly affairs why herein In being religious both the Law was performed and their own business well provided for And in the same place m m m m m m Fol. 54. 2. Long prayers make a long life VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To make one Proselyte THE Talmudists truly speak very ill of Proselytes n n n n n n Bab. Middah fol. 13. 2. Our Rabbins teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Proselytes and Sodomites hinder the coming of the Messias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes are as a scab to Israel The Gloss For this reason that they were not skilled in the commandments that they brought in revenge and moreover that the Israelites perchance might imitate their works c. Yet in making of these they us'd their utmost endeavours for the sake of their own gain that they might some way or other drain their purses after they had drawn them in under the shew of Religion or make some use or benefit to themselves by them The same covetousness therefore under a vail of hypocrisie in devouring widows which our Saviour had condemned in the former clause he here also condemns in hunting after Proselytes which the Scribes and Pharisees were at all kind of pains to bring over to them Not that they cared for Proselytes whom they accounted as a scab and plague but that the more they could draw over to their Religion the greater draught they should have for gain and the more purses to fish in These therefore being so Proselyted they made doubly more the children of Hell than themselves For when they had drawn them into their net having got their prey they were no further concern'd what became of them so they got some benefit by them They might perish in ignorance superstition atheism and all kind of wickedness this was no matter of concern to the Scribes and Pharisees only let them remain in Judaism that they might Lord it over their Consciences and Purses VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever shall swear by the gold of the Temple he is a debtor THESE words agree in the same sense with those of the Corban Chap. XV. 5. We must not understand the gold of the Temple here of that gold which shined all about in the walls and cielings but the gold here meant is that which was offered up in the Corban It was a common thing with them and esteemed as nothing to swear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Temple and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Altar which we have observed at the 31 vers of the 5th
yet is the subjection of the woman and the superiority of the man all that by and because of which the Apostle concludes that a woman must not pray but vailed and a man the contrary For if it were so argued by him Let not a woman pray but with her head covered because she is subject to her husband it might be argued in like manner Let not a man pray but with his head covered because he is subject to Christ. I fear lest that interpretation which supposeth the vailing of women in this place as a sign of the womans subjection to her husband should more obscure the sense of this place obscure enough indeed of it self So one writes t t t t t t Primasius A woman ought to have a covering that she may shew her self humble and to be subject to her husband And another u u u u u u Carthusâ—an Now the reason of the vailing of women is because they are subject to men c. x x x x x x Beza Take a covering by which is signified that the wise is in the power of the husband And lastly y y y y y y Camerarius A vail whereby is signified that she is subject to the power of another And very many to the same sense But let me ask I. Where I beseech you is a vail propounded as a sign of such subjection It is put indeed as a sign of true modesty Gen. XXIV 65. and of dissembled modesty Gen. XXXVIII 14. but where is it used as a sign of subjection II. Hair was given to our grandmother Eve for a Covering as the Apostle clearly asserts in this place from the first moment of her creation before she was subjected to a husband and heard that He shall rule over thee yea before she was married to Adam III. The Apostle treats not of wives alone but of women in general whether they were Wives Virgins or Widdows IV. The obligation of subjection towards the husband follows the woman ever and every where ought she ever and every where to carry a vail with her as a sign of that subjection Must she necessarily be vailed while she is about the affairs of her family Must she be vailed in the garden in the fields walking alone or with her family It is clear enough the Apostle speaks of vailing only when they were employed in Religious Worship and that regard is had to something that belongs to the woman in respect of God rather than in respect of her husband And although we should not deny the vailing of the woman was some sign of her subjection towards her husband yet we do deny that the vailing concerning which the Apostle here speaks hath any regard to it V. The Jews assign shame as the reason of the womans vailing z z z z z z â—ereshith R â—◠§. 17. Why does a man go abroad with his head not covered but women with their heads covered R. Josua saith It is as when one transgresseth and is made ashamed she therefore goes with her head vailed Behold a vail a sign indeed of shame but not of subjection And they fetch the shame of the woman thence that she first brought sin into the world Therefore the Apostle requires the vailing of the woman in Religious Worship by the same notion and reason as men vailed themselves namely for reverence towards God But certainly it may be enquired whether he so much urgeth the vailing of women as reproves the vailing of men However by this most fit argument he well chastiseth that contrary custom and foolishness of men as though he had said Do ye not consider that the man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Glory of God but the woman is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Glory of the Man that woman was made for man that man is the head of the woman and then how ridiculous is it that men should use a vail when they pray out of reverence and shame before God and women not use it whose glory is less 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The woman is the glory of the man So R. Solomon a a a a a a In Esay XLIV 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like the glory of the man that is saith he Like the woman who is the glory of the husband See also the Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dishonoureth her head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lightness of the head among the Talmudists is Levity or irreverence and if you should render the Greek expression in the same sense as though it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He viliâ—ies his head or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She viliâ—ies her head one should not much stray either from Grammar or from truth But the sense ariseth higher a man praying covered as ashamed of his face before God disgraceth his head Christ who himself carried the like face of a man especially he disgraceth the office of Christ by whom we have access to God with confidence And a woman praying not vailed as if she were not ashamed of her face disgraceth man her head while she would seem so beautiful beyond him when she is only the glory of the man but the man is the glory of God VERS VI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let her also be shorn IF she be not vailed let her be shorn Yea rather you will say let her go with her hair loose for it was given her for a Covering by nature Will the Apostle suffer this or any civilized Nation By no means He saith the hair of women was given them for a Covering and yet requires another Covering calling to mind the primitive reason why the Covering of hair is given by nature to a woman viz. to be a sign of her reverence humiliation and shame before God The Apostle permits women to gather and bind up their hair into knots by hairlaces a thing done in all Nations that were not fierce and wild yea he would scarce suffer the contrary But if any woman was so unmindful or forgetful why the vail of her hair was granted her by nature and so much assured of her beauty and her face as when she prays to take off her vail the sign of her reverence towards God let her take off also saith he that natural sign of reverence the vail of her hair VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this cause ought the woman to have power c. THAT which commonly here obtains is that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power is understood A vail a sign of power above her or of her subjection But it is to be enquired whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have power does not properly yea always denote to have power in ones own hand not a power above one as Matth. VII 29. Joh. XIX 10. 1 Cor. VII 37. and IX 4. and elsewhere a thousand times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because of the Angels Because of the
there is sin unto death than that there should be any sin that is not unto death as our Apostle saith there is in the words immediately going before these that I have chosen In these that I have chosen you see there are two clauses and out of either of them arise two Questions Out of the former I. What sin it is the Apostle means And II. Why he titles it by such a name A sin unto death Out of the latter I. Why he forbideth to pray for it And II. Why he forbideth not to pray for it I mean why he speaketh not out in down right terms I say that he should not pray for it but says only I say not that he should The Rhemists Popish Expositors upon the place will answer you even all these questions with a breath if you will but take their words and little more than their bare word must you expect for the proof and confirmation of what they tell you 1. They will tell you that the sin our Apostle means is any sin whatsoever that any one lives in unrepentant all his time 2. They will tell you that it is titled A sin unto death because he lives in it till his death and so dies in it 3. They will tell you that the Apostle by not praying for him means not praying for him when he is dead but he that sins not a sin unto death that is that lives not in his sin till he die but repents of it before for him you must pray after his death For that the place is most properly or only meant of praying for the departed say they this convinced that neither the Church nor any man is debarred here from praying for any sinner while living nor for remission of any sin in this life And so they go on When I read these mens Annotations on this Scripture they often mind me of Benhadads servants with ropes about their necks catching at any word that fell from the King of Israels mouth that might be for any advantage to their forlorn and lost cause and condition These mens Popish cause hath had the rope about its neck now a long time and been in a lost and forlorn case and I cannot tell whether I should laugh or frown to see what pitiful shift and shameful scrambling they make for it by catching at any word or syllable in the Scripture or Fathers and wresting and twisting and twining it to any seeming or colourable advantage to their condemned cause to save it from execution Certainly they are at a very hard pinch for proof of praying for the dead when they make such a scraping in this portion of Scripture to rake it out thence whereas the words are as far from meaning the living praying for the dead as the dead praying for the living And at the very same game they be in their notes upon our Saviours words concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost that it shall never be forgiven in this World nor in the World to come Matth. XII 32. Their note is that some sins may be remitted in the next life and consequently this proves Purgatory As the poor frantick distracted wretch at Athens that fed and pleased himself with this fancy that every ship that came into the Port was his ship that all the goods that came into the Town were his goods whilst he himself in the mean time was miserably poor naked and ready to famish so these men think every verse in Scripture brings in something to their stock every saying of the Fathers something to their bank whilst in the mean while their pitiful cause walks starven and poor and blind and naked and stands in need of all things The sin against the Holy Ghost indeed is distinct and something different from this sin unto death that our Apostle speaketh of yet since there is such a particular sin against the Holy Ghost that is so deadly why should not these men think that sin in the Text that carries so deadly a name is a particular sin likewise It is true indeed that a sin in which a man continues unrepenting until his death and in which he dies may very justly be called A sin to death that is a sin until his death and it will prove A sin to death eternal but that the Apostle means here a particular sin and that he estimates it not by its length but by its weight not by how long the party continues in it but by how grievous the sin is in it self will appear as we go along partly by discovery of the reason of the title he puts upon it and partly by discovery of the very sin it self that is here intended But before we begin with the discovery of the reason of the title let us a little look first into the meaning of those words of our Saviour Joh. XX. 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Do not the Apostles here receive a new power or priviledge or guift which Christ had not imparted to them before Else why such an action as he had never used toward them before so breathing on them The common acceptation of these words whose soever sins ye remit or retain are remitted or retained is to make them to mean the same thing with what ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. But besides that the expressions are of a vast difference why if Christ had given them the very same power in those words that he doth in these why should he repeat it especially why should he use such a solemn and unusual rite toward them to breath upon them He had given them power of miracles and healing and casting out Devils before without breathing upon them He had given them power of binding and loosing that is of establishing or abolishing the rites and Laws of Moses for so the Phrase in the common acceptation of the Nation did only signifie and this he did without breathing upon them Therefore certainly in this his new action and these his new words as I may call them he gives them some new power and that in two kinds 1. In his breathing upon them and bidding them receive the Holy Ghost he gives the Holy Ghost to give again or he gives them power by the imposition of their hands to bestow the Holy Ghost as the sacred Story tells you the Apostle did and none but the Apostles could do And 2. In his words whose soever sins ye remit or retain he gives them a punitive or executive double power viz. To strike desperate or incorrigible and horrid transgressors with some corporal punishment or stroke or else to give them up to Satan to be tortured and scourged in body and vexed and disquieted in mind Where had Peter his warrant to strike Ananias and Sapphira with death but from these words And Paul
him from death and was heard in that he feared It lies upon glorified Saints in one part of it viz. Thanksgiving It is so a Duty for the unholiest that though they sin in their prayers yet they sin worse if they pray not Your prayers are not sin as to the Act but because of other things External adoration is absolutely required to be given to God by all his creatures and if that be not yielded they doubtless sin This the wicked man when he prays gives to God They mistake foul that say Pray not till the Spirit move you Truth saith Pray because Duty requires you and in doing your duty wait for the Spirit 3. It is a Duty that makes out and sanctifies all our duties As 1 Tim. IV. 5. Every creature of God is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer So is every religious duty that we perform What is our hearing reading meditation if we pray not that God would sanctifie it and make it beneficial to holy ends and purposes to us 4. We had need to pray in reference to our Duty lest God turn us out of all and own us not for Tenants because we pay not our Rent You read in XXX Exod. 12. c. That every Israelite was to give half a shekel for the Redemption of his Soul the rich was not to give more nor the poor less This Christ himself paid Matth. XVII 24. c. Prayer is that half shekel to us The rich can give no more and the poor hath this to give viz. To make our humble acknowledgments to God for our lives and our comforts This is the greatest owning of our homage and none is so poor as to be without it The words that signifie Prayer speak this viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judging our selves and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depending upon grace We hold all upon grace The acknowledgment of this is the payment of our Homage to our Creator Would you comfortably enjoy your Houses Lands Studies Comforts pay your Rent Pray Pray Pray See what becomes of them that pay not this Homage Jerem. X. 25. Pour out thy sury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name Secondly We had need pray because of our wants This is the only way for our supply II. This is the bucket to draw our Water Ask and you shall have Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee Yea though God know our wants we must pray for the supply of them That is a strange motive to prayer in Matth. VI. 8. Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask them What need then is there to tell them If he will give he will give whether we ask or ask not Yes pray for what ye stand in need of though ye are sure of the grant of those things Daniel prayed for the restoration of the Captivity which he knew certain David for the pardon of his sin which he knew God would pardon And that for these reasons First God will have his Homage T is reason Elias should have his cake first that provides meal for the maintenance of the whole family 1 Kings XVII 13. Secondly We pray not to shew God our wants as if he were ignorant of them but to shew that we are sensible of them and to signifie that we know he only is able to supply them Saints are called poor because they know their wants and know they live on Gods Alms. See Rev. III. 17 18. Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsil thee to buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich c. God would that this Church of Laodicca should know her wants and buy by prayer the supply of them Thirdly I may add We had need to pray because of our advantage and benefit yea though we receive not particularly what we pray for Though as Psal. XXII 2. We cry in the day time and God heareth not and in the night season we take no rest Though God seem as in Psal. LXXXVIII 14. to cast off our Soul and hide his face from us yet we had need to pray still because we still want and if we never receive particularly what we pray for yet these benefits we shall reap by our prayers 1. We keep up and refresh our communion with God Constant prayer hath this advantage that it suffereth not God to forget us Lord why hast thou forgotten me saith David Prayer permits not God to forget no more than a Mother can forget a crying child He that prays is Gods Remembrancer and gives him no rest 2. The more we pray the better God will know our faces at the day of judgment I know you not shall Christ say to some why They never looked towards him Psal. XIV 2 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside c. And I. Esay 4. There t is said of wicked men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they are estranged backward or turned backward To these methinks the great Judge will say another day Ye were always strangers to me such as turned their backs upon me I could never see your face and therefore verily I know you not But on the contrary he that now confesses Christ and makes himself known to him by prayers and humble addresses he will know and confess him at the day of Judgment 3. The more we pray the more the heart is in Heaven and with God So that Prayer it self is a blessed benefit Phil. III. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven This of all other Conversations is the heavenly Conversation As Christ when he prayed was transfigured Luke IX 29. So in prayer the Christians heart is changed the soul is winged and mounts up till it gets hold of God as Jacob had him in his arms when he prayed 4. Time will come that all our prayers and tears shall meet us God puts our tears in his Bottle God reserves our prayers not one of them is left and we shall in time receive the fruit of them In 1 Kings VIII 59. There Solomon prays Let these my words wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night that he maintain the cause of his Servant c. Prayers are nigh unto God And thus I have finished the first Observation viz. That we had need to pray I come to the second II. That we had need to be taught to pray There is no doing spiritual work but according to the Patern in the Mount God prescribed Forms As at the offering of the first-fruits of the Land of Canaan XXVI Deut. 3 4. c. Thou shalt go unto the Priest that shall be in those days and
that Nation for some time that so all that belonged to the Remnant might come in and that none of them should perish It might be questioned whether any Jews persevered in the Gospel till the destruction of the City but those that were the Elect. True many had embraced it but God and trial had sifted them and there were many heresies and a great Apostacy So that Matth. XXIV 24. argues that the Elect only held out And thus we come to understand the Reason I. Why the Apostle speaks so much of their Election viz. Because the Nation before were rejected and there was only a Remnant to be saved II. Why he conceals the word Ecclesia Church viz. Partly because the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elected together speaks it enough and partly because his mind was to pitch upon that that made and preserved a right Church indeed in those times that it was elected chosen and taken out from among the rest of people rejected and cast off And now we come to take up some Theological Observations I. A Church at Babylon 1. How doth Grace appear here to abound where sin abounded At Babel was the Confusion of Tongues at Babel was the beginning of Heathenism there was Idolatry practised in its height and from Babel proceeded a continual persecution of Gods Church of the Jews and yet now there is a Church How was that fulfilled in Psal. LXXXVII 4. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me To which also that is consonant in Esa. XIX 23. In that day there shall be a High way out of Egypt into Assyria and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians God has delighted to set up monuments of his grace for encouragement of sinners to come in to him and that both in places and persons In places for Example Besides this of Babylon I will instance in Antioch and Egypt Antioch was built by Antiochus the greatest persecutor of Gods people yet Christians did afterwards so flourish at Antioch that believers were first styled Christians there And so Egypt was the great enemy of Israel and yet in Psal. LXXXVII 4. I will make mention of Rahab that is Egypt And out of Egypt God called his Son In Persons Adam after the Devil caused his fall was restored to a better condition that he was in before it Paul who once was the great persecutor and waster of the Church was afterwards sent to the Gentiles and became the great planter and builder of it among them And he gives that very reason that God called him by his grace to reveal his Son in him that he might preach him among the Heathen Gal. I. 15 16. So much did the goodness of Gods grace out face sin and the power of grace exceed the power of the Devil 2. Places or persons on this side contempt of the Gospel may be capable of Gods turning to but after that that capacity is lost To that sense is that in Heb. X. 26. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin This Place and all the East Country are Witnesses of this 3. Peter at Babylon and a Church with him Ubi Imperator ibi Roma Where the Emperor was there was Rome Where the Apostles come presently there grows a Church Trace St. Paul and you find it so trace S. Peter and the rest of the Apostles and still you find it so T is observable how God when the fulness of time came inclined the hearts of the Jewish people to come in to the Gospel You read of three thousand souls converted in II. Act. 41. and five thousand in IV. Chap. 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many myriads XXI Chap. 20. And among the Gentiles they flocked into Christ as the Doves to the windows insomuch that God in the Prophet says Who begot me these c. they were so numerous Certainly this was more than the effect of mans own Vires naturae strength of nature but rather it must be referred to the mighty grace of God Hence our Saviour in IV. John 35. useth those words Say ye not there are four months and then cometh Harvest behold I say unto you lift up your Eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest This Harvest respects the Harvest of the Gospel among other Nations besides the Jews for he spake these words when he was among the Samaritans And that of the Apostle illustrates this further viz. of the Gentiles coming into Christ in VIII Rom. 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God Where creature is to be understood as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Mark XVI 15. Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature i. e. to the Gentile World They had an earnest expectation of these times of the Messias and groaned and travailed in pain together for this Gospel But I shall not insist on that II. The Elect of God elect together or alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First observe hence That Election doth not admit of magis minus 1. All are within the same act of Election in eternity Ephes. I. 4 6. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World c. 2. All are elect a like in Christ as the Head 3. All partake of the same love the same infinite love is to all alike in Joh. XVII Christ makes that prayer for them all without any distinction 4. All are appointed to the same determinate end the sprinkling of blood obedience perseverance and Glory Perseverance I say and that is a second thing observable Secondly then observe how much this Apostle stands upon Election because of the Apostatizing times wherein he lived So great an Apostacy was there in those days that it might be a question whether any Jews were then so much as in the true profession of the Gospel but those that were Elect. See Matth. XXIV 24. and compare this with it It was a time of trial and sifted them out Whence we might build this Doctrine That Election is the great cause of Perseverance 1 Pet. I. 3. The Elect in the second verse are said to be begotten to a lively hope and vers 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are said to be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation A SERMON PREACHED AT S. MARIES Cambridge Novemb. 27. 1659. ROM VIII 23. And not only they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves grone within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our Body MANY verses in the Scripture are facil taken single by themselves but difficult when they are to be construed in connexion with the preceding Of such nature is this verse Take the words singly and they are easie to construe We which
praying no hearing no receiving Sacraments there nothing but praising lauding and celebrating God and that is the work of Saints and Angels to all Eternity Amen A SERMON PREACHED ON Novemb. v. MDCLXI DAN X. 21. And there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your Prince THE words of an Angel and strange because of the singularity spoken of in them But one Angel and Michael to stand for the people of God Where are all the heavenly host in such a pinch At first sight the words are obscure we must clear them First by the Context Secondly by the thing it self In verse the second Daniel is mourning three weeks And the reason of it was because of the hindring the building of the Temple Ezra IV. 24. Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem So it ceased unto the second year of the raign of Darius King of Persia. It was hindred several years but it was only three weeks before Daniel had comfortable tidings of it That is called one and twenty days vers 13. But the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days By Prince of Persia some understand the tutelar Angel as if Angels fought with Angels but he means the King of Persia Artaxerxes So vers 20. Now will I return to fight with him Here observe Gods dispencing Daniels prayer must first make way for victory God intended good concerning his Temple and his People but gave not commission to the Angel Gabriel till Daniel had prayed and then he goes out Here a wheel on Earth moves the wheel in Heaven Such power hath the prayer of the faithful and such delight hath God in their prayers that he takes as it were the Watchword from them Where is Praying to Angels Had Daniel done so what would it have availed since this Angel had not yet his commission Well now he hath upon Daniels prayers I shall not question whether he had knowledge of his success before If I should say he had not it would be no Soloecism since the will of God is revealed to Angels not all at once but as they are to be employed And observe that in Mark XIII 32. Of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven But I shall not insist on that Now he hath knowledge of the Will of God and his Commission to fight against the King of Persia. And here we may understand a parallel Phrase Judg. V. 20. They fought from Heaven the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Angels are called Stars Job XXXVIII 7. When the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Well he goes to fight with the King of Persia but he goes alone None holdeth with me Where are the thousands of Angels There were many against Sisera and none here Is not the cause the same Jacob to have an army of Angels Gen. XXXII 2. and the whole people of God but one Where are they or where is their mind The meaning is not tending this way not but that the Angels are ready always to help and stand up for Gods people But the meaning is that God would do this work by himself Only Michael must do it by his Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not one either man or Angel must serve for this but Michael your Prince stands with me and that is enough That by Michael is meant Christ this very place evidenceth in that he is called your Prince For who is the Prince of the Church but Christ And Chap. XII 1. He is called the great Prince And in Revel XII mention is made of Michael and the Dragon that is Christ and Satan He is called the Archangel Jud. vers 9. And so 1 Thes. IV. 16. The Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel Which elsewhere is expressed shall hear the voice of the Son of God Joh. V. 25. He is the Archangel in two respects either as the chief Angel or messenger that ever God employed or as Chief or head of the Angels As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a chief Priest or the Chief of Priests So that hence the meaning is clear I will go fight with the Prince of Persia and Michael or Christ is with me and so the work shall be done miraculously without any other strength for no other needeth In the words then may two things be Observed I. That Christ standeth for his people II. That if he stand for them no matter though there be no other As the Apostle speaks if he be with us who can be against us So may we say If he be with us no matter whether there be any other for us I might speak here of the Ministration of Angels But that I shall wave at present and fix upon this Doctrine That Christ sets himself against them that set themselves against Religion The truth of the Doctrine will appear here in the Text and in this days Commemoration The King of Persia thought he might do what he would with the Jews who were now his own people had information against them that their City had been rebellious and hurtful unto Kings and Provinces and thereupon forbad the building it Ezra IV. But yet Michael there Prince takes their part against the Prince of Persia. So they for our deliverance from whom this day is celebrated what sought they Who defeated them if Christ had not been on our side We need not particular proofs Look into the Scripture and into story who ever opposed Religion and prospered Christ is a stone to bruise his enemies to powder Now the reason of this is First Because Religion is Christs own child of his begetting and he will defend it He created it in the beginning and he will maintain it to the end Secondly Because opposing Religion is the highest wickedness Other wickedness may be of weakness or for the satisfaction of the flesh but this is the direct part of the Devil and direct opposition of Christ. Thirdly Because Christ delights in Religion He dwelt upon the Ark he walkt in the Candlesticks The zeal of thine house saith he hath eat me up And there are two things in Religion that makes him take this pleasure in it the one is that it glorifies him and the other that it tends to the saving of Souls Of this discourse we may make this Use. First To tremble to oppose Soul-saving Religion Secondly We may see the certain induring and continuance of it because Christ defends it And thirdly We may learn to what to ascribe our deliverance this day Not to us not to us but to thy Name give the glory In Scripture Gods gracious dealing with his people is ascribed to his mercy and to his Name And to that alone must the glory of this our deliverance be given also A SERMON PREACHED AT ELY Novemb. v. MDCLXIX REVEL XIII 2. And the Dragon gave him his
true when he said Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life What will any man take for his life to pass it away What jewels what rubies what riches will buy his life from him No he accounts it too precious to part with his life for mony or monies worth And this doth enhance the preciousness of life that it is not only so excellent a being in it self but without it all things are nothing to him that hath lost it Bring a dead man bags of gold and heaps of silver fill his coffin up with pearls and jewels strew his grave with diamonds and rubies there is no hearing no minding no affecting when his jewel that was more worth then all these his life is gone Now who is the Preserver of this dear jewel while we carry it about us Is it we our selves The Psalmist tells us that It is he that made us and not we our selves Psal. C. And reason may tell us that it is he that preserves us and not we our selves For can we any more preserve our lives of our selves than we can give life to our selves When a desperate danger is ready to swallow us up if God withdraw his preserving providence can man bring his life out of danger In Scripture Phrase for a man to put his life in his own hand Judg. XII 3. is to venture it to danger where there is no safety but in the hands of God it is secure while he will take charge of it Feeling is that passage of Daniel to Belshazzar Dan. V. 23. The God in whose hand is thy breath Canst thou take it into thine own hand and there hold it The Jews tell a story of the Angel of death sent to take away the soul of Moses but Moses withstood him and he could not do it but when God saw his time to take it no withstanding The Angel of death in their meaning is the Devil and the Apostle speaks to their opinion Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that â—ad the power of death that is the Devil Now wherein lies the reason why Satan takes not away our lives when he pleaseth Is it in our selves Would not he think you carry away all men bodily to his den if it were in his power And is it our power that doth restrain him Think of those poor possessed ones in the Gospel whom the Devil hurried so up and down at his pleasure Is it our own power that doth restrain him that he useth not us so When we read or hear such stories have we not cause if we had hearts to look up at a higher power than our own that we are not as they were in his power And was it his courtesie that he spared their lives when God had given him liberty to use their bodies as he did Or was it not that God restrained him you may guess it by Jobs case betwixt whose life and Satans malice against him God had put this bar Only take not away his life But when God himself comes by death resolvedly to take away any mans life whose power is it in to hinder When he is resolved to tear body and soul assunder who shall say what dost thou When he will preserve life no longer who can make it out and preserve it himself The Lord giveth life and the Lord taketh it away in his hand only is the disposal of our life and being Secondly God shews himselves tender of our lives doth not only preserve them but shews that he is tender of them and willing to preserve them God is the fountain of being and giver of life and it is agreeable to his nature to maintain the being of men and their lives but it is not so agreeable to him to destroy them it is said of him that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. III. And he saith of himself that he hath no pleasure in the death of the sinner Ezek. XVIII And no wonder for it is somewhat besides his nature q. d. for it is his nature to give being and not to destroy it Now that God is tender of the lives of men and preservs them willingly and tenderly you have it evidenced in the mouth of three or four witnesses that the truth of it may be established 1. He is tender of the lives of very birds and beasts and therefore forbids all cruelty towards them Balaam for cruelty towards his poor Ass is reproved both by the Angel and the Ass her self And how does God forbid to kill a beast and her young on the same day to take a bird and her young at the same time but if he take the young to let the dam go forbids to seeth a kid in his dams milk and in a word it is a token the Holy Ghost gives of a good man that he is merciful to his very beast 2. Is it not an evidence that God is tender of mens lives when he hath made so severe a Law against murther or taking them away And what strange discoveries hath he made of murthers and murtherers that he that hath taken away a mans life may not go unpunished So tender is God of the life of man that as man hedgeth in a choice tree or plant that he is tender of so hath God mans life with such a siry law as well as he doth also with his providence 3. Doth not God tender the life of man when he would have all men to spin out their lives to life eternal and shewed them a way how to do it if they would but take his way God had rather thy life should reach Heaven and Eternity there than to drop into Hell in the end and be drowned in eternal death And this is one thing amongst others that doth highly enhance the preciousness of mans life that it may be translated to Eternity 4. And Lastly If you yet need any evidence and demonstration of Gods tenderness to mens lives and willingness to preserve them and unwillingness to destroy them look upon your selves as you are alive here this day And whence is it that you are so Can you give any other proper reason than this because God is tender of your lives and is not willing to destroy them Hath he not power enough to have cut them off and destroyed them long ago And have we not given him cause enough to have destroyed them over and over Whence is it then that we are all here this day God hath spared our lives preserved our lives tenderly preserved them or our souls had long ago dwelt in silence And are we not in debt to God for this care and tendering of us Is there nothing to be paid him not one half shekel for all our preservation Doth not all the reason in the world dictate that when we live by him we should live as he would have us that when he spares and preserves our lives we should lead and
Yes it is like thou mayest if thou be like him He was a holy a good a righteous man all his time only he was now fallen into one transgression a little before his death and repents of it and is pardoned But thou who thinkest of putting off repentance till thy last time I doubt art in another case He had no sin unrepented of but only this that he had just now committed and that he repented of and is pardoned Thou wilt have all thy sins to repent of at thy latter end and that changeth the case not a little He walked in the ways of repentance and holiness all his life thou thinkest not to do so till thy death A SERMON Preached upon ACTS VII 53. Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it I Concluded last day with mention how God would have none of his Commandments to be dallied and trifled withal from that dreadful example of the poor Prophet that broke Gods Commandment in eating and drinking in Bethel being cheated into that transgression by the lie of another Prophet and yet he escaped not though his ignorance might something excuse him but a Lion met him by the way and slew him I have chosen these words in the prosecution of that subject to consider a little upon Gods giving his Commands or Laws and mans too common violating them and misdemeanor against them The Law given by the disposition of Angels but men not keeping it The words are the words of Steven pleading for his life and answering that charge that his accusers laid against him of Blasphemy against Moses for that he had said That the rites of Moses should be changed and against the Temple for that he said That holy place and City should be destroyed How he answers particularly to this accusation I shall not trouble you with observing in the conclusion of his speech he comes to speak home to the persons both of them that accused him and of them that sat in judgment upon him He first calls them all stif-necked and uncircumcised both in heart and ears Then he chargeth them all with all resistance of the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of the Prophets chargeth their Fathers with persecuting and slaying the Prophets and them with the murther of the great Prophet Christ and concludes his speech with the words before us Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it In the words is sweet and sower life and death light and darkness Ye received the Law by the disposition of Angels this is like Ezekiels book sweet in the mouth but ye have not kept it that is in the belly as bitter as gall In the former clause you may see Israel before mount Sinai in a happy condition receiving the Law in the latter you may see them a little from it undoing themselves by making a golden Calf And to that particular we might very well apply the words There were thousands of Angels in the Mount when ye received the Law but ye so little kept it that within forty days ye broke the two first Commandments of it viz. Thou shalt have none other Gods before me And Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image But it may be questioned whether he saying They received the Law by the Disposition of Angels means the Angels that were attending God when he gave the Law at Sinai True the Scriptures mention frequently the presence of Angels with God when he gave the Law Two only may serve instead of more Deut. XXXIII 2. He came with ten thousands of his holy ones at his right hand was a firy Law for them Psal. LXVIII 17. The charets of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai the holy place But what did the Angels that were there You read not nor hear of a word that they spake but it was the Lord that spake these words and said I am the Lord thy God For the understanding therefore of the Martyrs meaning First We may mention a wild conception of the Jews that say That all they that heard the Law uttered by God from Mount Sinai were by that very hearing made like unto the Angels that they should never have begot children never grown old never died but have been as the Angels had not that unlucky business of the Golden Calf fallen out and that turned them to sinful and mortal men again There is a strange construction in the original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English renders By the disposition of Angels whereas the word in the strictest propriety should be read Unto the disposition of Angels As if Steven did rub their own opinion upon them as is frequently done by the Apostles and that his meaning should be this You say and conceive that the very receiving of the Law did translate and dispose them that heard it into the very predicat and state of Angels and yet this brave Law you have not kept The Law that you conceit made others Angels you have made but dirt and that that you think had so noble an effect upon them that heard it hath had no good effect upon you at all for ye have not kept it But this Interpretation I shall not insist upon though it be very frequent with the Apostles arguing with the Jews to confute them from their own Opinions and Tenets I shall name but two to you 1 Cor. XI 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels Where the Apostle argues from their own concessions practise and custom And Jude vers 9. Yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses Not that ever such a dispute was twixt Michael or Christ and the Devil about Moses body but the Jews have such a conceit and story and we meet with it in their writings and the Apostle useth an argument from their own saying to confute their doing But Secondly If I should say that there were none but Angels on the top of Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law I should speak but the language of Steven that speaks the words that we have in hand at vers 38. This Moses is he that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai It is said God spake all these words and said and yet Steven saith It was the Angel that spake to him in Mount Sinai But he means the Angel of the Covenant the Lord Christ the Arch-angel or the chief or Lord of all the Angels And here let an Arian or Socinian that denies the Godhead of Christ compare Moses and Steven together and learn to acknowledge the truth Moses saith it was God that spake to him in Mount Sinai Steven saith It was the Angel viz. The Angel of the Covenant Christ who as the Apostle saies is God
2 3. The great Angel is Christ the old Serpent is the Devil there Christ binds and imprisoneth him and that with the great chain of the Gospel Observe the passage He shut him up in the bottomless pit What In Hell for ever That he should never go abroad again Yea you have him loose again vers 7. and he hath been always going about as in 1 Pet. V. but he tyes him up that he should not deceive the Nations vers 3. and when he is loosed again vers 8. it is his being loose to deceive the Nations Observe by the way the phrase He shuts him up that is restrains him from deceiving and seducing people It is Hell and Prison to the Devil not to be doing mischief So the Psalmist speaks of the wicked children of the Devil They sleep not rest not if they do not evil It is a torment to them if they may not be sinning Well how doth Christ bind Satan that he do not deceive By sending the Gospel to undeceive them So that this is the Victory of Christ against the Devil The very telling of his Death and Merits is that that overcomes the Devil the very Word of his Death and Resurrection is that that overthrows the Devil and his power So is 1 Cor. VI. 3. to be taken Know ye not that we shall judge Angels Now needed Christs soul to go to Hell to tell the Devil these tidings and to triumph there He felt the building of his Kingdom fall about his ears every moment He needed no such message to go and tell him he had conquered him This is the Triumph of Christ over the Devil by the virtue and power of his death and not by any Vocal or actual Declaration of it by his Soul now separate from his Body IV. As to Christs Soul triumphing over the damned needed there any such thing Or could his Soul do any such thing Think you Christs Soul doth or could rejoyce in the damnation of the damned There is joy in Heaven when a sinner is saved Is there joy too when he is damned That tender expression of God As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner doth it give us any room to think that he can rejovce in their damnation That tender Soul of Christ that but six or eight days before wept for the destruction of Jerusalem with O! that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace Can we think that that Soul could go to Hell to triumph and insult over poor damned Souls He had cause to triumph and rejoyce over the conquered Devils but had he the like cause or heart to triumph over damned Souls What was the reason of his triumphing over the Devils Because he had subdued themselves only He mastered them while alive in casting them out and commanding them at his pleasure He cast them into Hell by his Divine Power as soon as they had sinned but his triumph over them by his Death and Resurrection was for his peoples sake We cannot say Christ hath any pleasure in the damnation of the very Devils but he had pleasure in the Conquest of Devils because he had delivered his people from them Ah! most Divine Soul of Christ so infinitely full of charity that gave it self a Sacrifice for sin that men might not be damned can that rejoyce and insult over poor Souls damnation Look but upon Christs tenderness and earnestness for Souls here that they come not to damnation and then guess how little delight he taketh in it when they are damned Let us apply these two passages to this Ezek. XVIII 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye And vers 31. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In the Hebrew it is in the strictest propriety In the death of him that is dead I have not pleasure that he dye and no pleasure in his death when he is dead What is there more plain in Scripture and in all Gods actings than this That God would not have men damned if they would embrace Salvation What speak these expressions 1 Tim. II. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Pet. III. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Certainly whatsoever else this is plain enough that God had rather men should be saved than damned How is this written in Scripture as in letters of gold that he that runs may read it How was it written in letters of Christs own blood that was shed that men might not be damned but that whosoever believeth might have eternal life And how is this written in Gods patience beseechings in his affording means of Salvation I need not to instance in particulars Well men will not be saved but choose death before life Doth Christ delight rejoyce to damn them when they must come to it Think ye he pronounceth Go ye cursed with as much delight as Come ye blessed That he insults triumphs over poor damned wretches in their damnation Read his heart in such passages as these Gen. VI. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart What Because he had made them No but because he having made them must now destroy them Lam. III. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men So he doth not damn willingly nor destroy the children of men And once for all Esa. XLII 14. I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will cry and destroy but it is grievous to God as pangs of a travailing woman Thus much as hath been spoken may shew how unlikely and indeed how unchristian a thing it is to conceive that Christs Soul went purposely into Hell to triumph and insult over the miserable and damned And so you see that this Article cannot mean his Souls descending into the place of torment to triumph over the Devils and damned so that we must yet look for another sense of it III. A third interpretation then is this That it means the Torments he suffered in Soul III. upon his Cross. Some word it That he suffered the extream wrath of God some the very torments of Hell some that he was for the time in the state of the damned I reluct to speak these things but this Gloss some make upon this Article and while they go about to magnifie the Love of Christ in suffering such things for men they so much abase and vilifie his Person in making it lyable to such a condition The sense of the Article we must refuse unless we should speak and think of Christ that which doth not befit him The dearly beloved of the Soul of God to lye under the heaviest wrath of God The Lord of Heaven and Earth to
K its situation 497 Canaan what p. 202. It was only a part of Canaan p. 328. The earthly Canaan is not to be sought after 1224 Candle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Candle used for a Person famous for life or knowledge 550 Capernaum its situation a City in a pleasant place p. 72. Where p. 308. There were two Places of that Name 496 497 Caphar Chittim the same with Ziddim 71 Caphar Hananiah was the middle of Galilee 58 Caphar Karnaim was of Heathen Jurisdiction 317 Caphar Tebi what Village and whence the Name 18 Caphar Tsemach something observed about its Name 316 Cappadocia rendred by the Vulgar Palusium was Sin of old but in the Talmudists Cappadocia c. 290 291 Captains of the Temple what 471 Carmel a mountainous Country 59 Casiotis and Casius the Mount where situate c. 291 Castara what place and by whom inhabited 515 Castor and Pollux what how pictured and how fatal their Feast to the Lacedemonians 705 706 Caves and Dens vastly large and very numerous in the Land of Israel many of these were digged out of Mountains and Rocks by the Gygantick Canaanites for the use of war 88 89 Causes capital the Sanhedrim lost the power of Judging in Capital Causes by their own neglect being so remiss to the Israelites with the reason of it 611 to 614 Cesarea how named by Arabians and Jews how far from Jerusalem Herod built it after it was destroyed the Schools and Doctors of the Jews flourished there 54 55 Cesaria Phillippi where situated 63 317 Chabul what 311 Chagigah the Festival this was the second part of the Passover being kept with joy mirth and sacrifices p. 356 c. Paschal Chagigah what part of the Passover When the time of bringing it 610 611 618 Chains for the hands used among the Jews 683 Chalamish what place and by whom inhabited 515 Chaldee Language from their return out of Babilon was the Jews Mother Tongue 545 Chaldee Paraphrast addeth to the Hebrew Text. 707 Chaluch was a woolen shirt next the skin worn by the Jews 457 Chamber of the Counsellors and chief Men what 358 Chambers and Gates lying on the South side of the Court of Israel what 31 32 Chammath this is Ammaus of Josephus so near Tiberias as to be computed almost one City computed by some to be the warm Bathes of Tiberias 68 69 308 Chaphar Acon what 60 Chaphenatha where and what 516 Charity towards our neighbour is the top of Religion and a most undoubted sign of love to God p. 219. Saint Paul had three steps or degrees in his Charity 1300 Charms Mutterings Exorcisms c. were several sorts of Enchantments practised by Jews 243 Chel was the second Inclosure about the Temple 29 30 Chephar what place and by whom inhabited 515 Cheth and He Aleph and Ain the Mystical Jewish Doctors did not distinguish them 79 Chethib and Keri are the differing Readings of the Hebrew Text. 139 140 Chezib it and Achzib changed into Ecdippa the name of a place 61 Chief Men and Counsellors their Chambers what 358 Chijun or Remphan or Rephan what c. 673 Child a Child with two Bodies from the Navel upward which acted as two Children c. born at Emmaus 373 Children were born and brought up in some Courts near the Temple under ground to be made fitter to sprinkle the Purifying water p. 34. Little Children admitted Disciples by Christ. p. 219. Among the Jews when Children were grown to twelve years of age they were put close upon business both Secular and Divine p. 394. Children born crooked maimed or defective according to some sin of the Parents was the Opinion of the Jews p. 568. Children in the womb supposed by the Jews to be in a capacity to commit some sin p. 569 570. Holy Children a term for such as are born of Christian Parents p. 759 760. Why Children were and are to be baptized p. 1125 1127 1128 Why there is no particular Precept in Scripture for their Baptism p. 1128 1133. Children of the Jewish Proselytes were Baptized in the Jewish Baptism and why p. 1128 1132 1133. Why Children suffer for their Parents sin the Justice thereof p. 1316 1317. Good Children being part of their Parents are punished for their Parents sins 1318 1319 Children of the Bride-chamber what their priviledge and business 172 Chipper what place and by whom inhabited 515 Chorazin where seated 83 84 Christ is added to Jesus in numberless places in the New Testament to shew that Christ was the true Saviour and that Jesus was the true Messias p. 96. Jesus Christ is called the Son of David in a Communion term in the New Testament the Talmudick Writings also use the same term for the true Messias p. 96 97. Christ was born in the thirty first year of Augustus Caesar. p. 104 105. In the thirty fifth year of the Reign of Herod p. 106. In the Month of Tisri answering our September at the Feast of Tabernacles p. 107. This Month Tisri was ennobled before Christs time by many excellent things done in it p. 107. He fulfilled the typical Equity of the three great Feasts Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles p. 107. The Jewish Writers seem to intimate the time of Christs birth p. 107 108. There was a general expectation of him when he came p. 108. Manaben i. e. the Comforter is taken for Christ. p. 108. He conversed upon Earth two and thirty years and an half p. 128 Many Miracles were done by him p 174. Ben Satda a blasphemous name given by the Jewish Writers to Jesus Christ whom they make a Magician c. p. 189. Signs of Christs coming what from the Doctrin of the Jews p. 240 241. His coming in Glory and in the Clouds signifie only his taking vengeance on the Jewish Nation p. 244 1074. His death and the manner of it in several things differed from the Jewish custom in putting Persons to death p. 266. Christ had Perfections and Excellencies which flowed from the Hypostatical union of the two Natures and such also as flowed from the Donation and anointing of the Holy Ghost both mentioned p. 351 352. Christ or Messiah and the Son of God are convertible Terms against the Jews p. 548 549. Christ in his Agony and Passion exercised obedience and holiness not the Divine Power to bear up under the utmost that an enraged Devil could do p. 591. Whether God was then angry with him is questioned p. 591. Christs dew is his quickening Power p. 691. His Resurrection shews him to be the Messiah p. 691. His entrance into his publick Ministry and the time of his death and the several Actions which he did about the time of each c. p. 1033. He held communion with the National Church of the Jews in the publick Exercise of their Religion proved by manifold instances p. 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041. He was a Member of the Church of the Jews proved and under the obligation of the Law p. 1037.