the Welch the Descendants of the Ancient Britains still call Derw at this day But of this enough 9. FROM the place where we proceed to the times when they usually paid their Devotions And seeing Order is necessary in all undertakings and much more in the actions of Religion we cannot think that Mankind was left at a roving uncertainty in a matter of so great importance but that they had their stated and solemn times of Worship especially when we find among all Nations even the most rude and unpolished Heathens times peculiarly set apart for the honour of their gods and the publick solemnities of Religion And so no question it was in the more early Ages of the World they had fix'd and appropriate Seasons when they met together to do homage unto God and to offer up their joynt-acknowledgments to Heaven Thus we read of Cain that he brought his oblation in process of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of days at one of those fixed and periodical returns when they used to meet in the Religious Assemblies the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting not simply an end but a determinate and an appointed end I know many with great zeal and eagerness contend that the Sabbath or Seventh Day from the Creation was set apart and universally observed as the time of Publick Worship and that from the beginning of the World But alas the foundation upon which this opinion is built is very weak and sandy having nothing to rely on but one place where it is said that God resting on the Seventh Day from all his Works blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it Which words are reasonably thought to have been set down by Moses by way of Prolepsis as it was in his time if they relate at all to the Sabbath and are not rather to be understood of God's blessing and sanctifying the Seventh Day as having then completed all his Works in the creating of Man and in whom as in the crown and glory of the Creation he would sanctifie himself For that it should be meant of a Weekly Sabbath hath as little countenance from this Text as it hath from the practice of those times there being no footsteps or shadow of any such Sabbath kept through all the Patriarchal periods of the Church till the times of Moses which besides the evidence of the story is universally owned by the Ancient Jews and very many of the Fathers do expresly assert it 10. THE last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom the Publick Worship was administred Impossible it is that any Society should be regularly managed where there are not some peculiar Persons to superintend direct and govern the affairs of it And God who in all other things is a God of Order is much more so in matters of Religion and therefore no doubt from the beginning appointed those whose care and business it should be to discharge the publick parts of Piety and Devotion in the name of the rest Now the Priesthood in those times was vested in the Heads of Tribes and in the first-born of every Family To the Patriarch or Head of every Tribe it belonged to bless the Family to offer Sacrifice to interceed for them by Prayer and to minister in other solemn acts of Religion And this Office hereditarily descended to the first-born who had power to discharge it during the life of his Father for it was not necessary that he who was Priest by vertue of his primogeniture should be also the eldest of the House Jacob who succeeded in his Brother 's right offered Sacrifices in the life of his Father Isaac and Abraham was a Priest though Sem the Head of the Family and ten degrees removed from him in a direct line was then alive yea survived Abraham as some learned men think near Forty Years Every first-born had three great Prerogatives a double portion of the Paternal inheritance a Lordship and Principality over his Brethren and a right to the Priesthood to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things and to manage the common Offices of Religion So that in those times there was a particular Priesthood in every Family the administration whereof was usually appropriate to the first-born Thus Noah Abraham and Isaac offered Sacrifices and Job who lived about that time or not long after both for his Children and his Friends Thus Esau was a Priest by his primogeniture and that goodly Raiment of her son Esau which Rebeccah put upon Jacob when he went in to his Father is by many not improbably understood of the Sacerdotal Vestments wherein as first-born he was wont to execute his Office Of these Priests we are to understand that Place Let the Priests which come near to the Lord sanctifie themselves This could not be meant of the Levitical Priests the Aaronical Order not being yet instituted and therefore must be understood of the Priesthood of the first-born and so Jarchi's gloss expounds it Thus when Moses had built an Altar at the foot of the Mountain he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt-burnt-offerings and sacrificed peace-peace-offerings unto the Lord. Where for young men the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Hierusalem Targum have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-born of the children of Israel so has that of Jonathan who expresly adds this reason for unto that very Hour the worship remained among the first-born the Tabernacle of the Covenant not being yet made nor the Aaronical Priesthood set up So when Jacob bequeathed his blessing to Reuben Reuben thou art my first-born my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power the same Jewish Paraphrasts tell us that there were three things in this blessing conveyed and confirmed to Reuben the Birth-right the Kingdom and the Priesthood but that for his enormous and unnatural sin they were transferred to others the primogeniture to Joseph the Kingdom to Judah and the Priesthood to Levi. But though the Sacerdotal function ordinarily belonged to the first-born yet was it not so wholly invested in them but that it might in some cases be exercised by younger Brothers especially when passing into other Families and themselves becoming Heads of Tribes and Families Abraham we know was not a first-born and it 's highly probable that Sem himself was not Noah's eldest Son Moses was a Priest yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews call him the Priest of Priests and yet was but Amram's second Son and Aaron's younger Brother So that the case in short seemed to lie thus The Patriarch or surviving Head of every Tribe was a kind of High-Priest over all the Families that were descended from him the first-born in every Family was the ordinary Priest who might officiate in his Father's stead and who after his decease succeeded in his room the younger Brethren when leaving their Father's house and themselves becoming heads of Families and their seats removed
Will commanded them to worship God adjuring them by the bloud of Abel their usual and solemn oath that they should not descend from the holy Mount to hold any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction And then breathed his last A command say my Authors which they observed for seven generations and then came in the promiscuous mixtures 13. TO Seth succeeded his Son Enos who kept up the glory and purity of Religion and the honour of the holy Line Of his time it is particularly recorded then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying sometimes to prophane sometimes to begin hath begotten various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place and led them not only into different but quite contrary sences The words are by some rendred thus Then men prophaned in calling upon the name of the Lord which they thus explain that at that time when Enos was born the true worship and service of God began to sink and fail corruption and idolatry mightily prevailing by reason of Cains wicked and apostate Family and that as a sad memorial of this corrupt and degenerate Age holy Seth called his son's name Enosh which not only simply signifies a man but a poor calamitous miserable man And this way go many of the Jews and some Christian writers of great name and note Nay Maimonides one of the wisest and soberest of all the Jewish writers begins his Tract about Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the times of Enosh referring to this very passage he tells us that men did then grievously erre and that the minds of the wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid yea that Enos himself was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among those that erred and that their Idolatry consisted in this That they worshipped the Stars and the Host of Heaven Others there are who expresly assert that Enosh was the first that invented Images to excite the Spirit of the Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by their mediation men might invocate and call upon God But how infirm a foundation this Text is to build all this upon is evident For besides what some have observed that the Hebrew phrase is not tolerably reconcileable with such a sence if it were yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one of the Rabbins has well noted that there wants a foundation for any such exposition no mention being made in Moses his story of any such false Gods as were then worshipped no footsteps of Idolatry appearing in the World till after the Floud Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose that the Creation of the World being yet fresh in memory and Divine Traditions so lately received from Adam and God frequently communicating himself to men that the case being thus men could in so short a time be fallen under so great an apostasie as wholly to forget and renounce the true God and give Divine honours to senseless and inanimate creatures I can hardly think that the Cainites themselves should be guilty of this much less Enosh and his Children The meaning of the words then is plainly this That in Enosh his time the holy Line being greatly multiplied they applied themselves to the worship of God in a more publick and remarkable manner either by framing themselves into more distinct societies for the exercise of publick worship or by meeting at more fixed and stated times or by invocating God under more solemn and peculiar rites than they had done before And this probably they did the rather to obviate that torrent of prophaneness and impiety which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the World This will be further confirmed if we take the words as by some they are rendred then men began to be called by the name of the Lord that is the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance the posterity of Seth began to take to themselves a distinctive title that the World might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God and those who threw off Religion and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times when we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of God who doubtless were the pious and devout posterity of Seth calling themselves after the name of the Lord whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped notwithstanding the fancy of Josephus and the Fathers that they were Angels or that of the Jewish Paraphrasts that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of great men and Princes in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of men the impure and debauched posterity of Cain who made light of Religion and were wholly governed by earthly and sensual inclinations And the matching of these sons of God with the daughters of men that is those of the Family of Cain and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages was that which provoked God to destroy the World I have no more to add concerning Enosh than that we are told that dying he gave the same commands to his Children which he had received of his Father that they should make Religion their great care and business and keep themselves pure from society and converse with the Line of Cain 14. AFTER Enosh was his son Kenan who as the Arabian Historian informs us ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him Next Kenan comes Mahaleleel who carries devotion and piety in his very name signifying one that praises God of whom they say that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety blessed his Children at his death and having charged them to separate from the Cainites appointed his son Jared to be his successor whose name denotes a descent probably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time or because in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy Mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain For so the Oriental writers inform us that a great noise and shout coming up from the Valley an hundred of the holy Mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and perswasion But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course down they went and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainité-women promiscuously committed folly and lewdness with them from whence sprang a race of Giants men of vast and robust bodies but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers who made their Will their Law and Might the standard and rule of Equity Attempting to return back to the holy Mount Heaven had shut up their way the stones of the
bottom rent in sunder to shew that his death had revealed the mysteries and destroyed the foundations of the legal Oeconomy and put a period to the whole Temple-ministration Nay the Jews themselves confess that forty years before the destruction of the Temple a date that corresponds exactly with the death of Christ the Lot did no more go up into the right hand of the Priest this is meant of his dismission of the Scape-goat nor the scarlet Ribbon usually laid upon the forehead of the Goat any more grow white this was a sign that the Goat was accepted for the remission of their sins nor the Evening Lamp burn any longer and that the gates of the Temple opened of their own accord By which as at once they confirm what the Gospel reports of the opening of the Sanctum Sanctorum by the scissure of the veil so they plainly confess that at that very time their Sacrifices and Temple-services began to cease and fail As indeed the reason of them then ceasing the things themselves must needs vanish into nothing 10. THE third sort of Laws given to the Jews were Judicial and Political these were the Municipal Laws of the Nation enacted for the good of the State and were a kind of appendage to the second Table of the Decalogue as the Ceremonial Laws were of the first They might be reduced to four general heads such as respected men in their private and domestical capacities concerning Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants such as concerned the Publick and the Common-wealth relating to Magistrates and Courts of Justice to Contracts and matters of right and wrong to Estates and Inheritances to Executions and Punishments c. such as belong'd to strangers and matters of a foreign nature as Laws concerning Peace and War Commerce and Dealing with persons of another Nation or lastly such as secured the honour and the interests of Religion Laws against Apostates and Idolaters Wizards Conjurers and false Prophets against Blasphemy Sacriledge and such like all which not being so proper to my purpose I omit a more particular enumeration of them These Laws were peculiarly calculated for the Jewish State and that while kept up in that Country wherein God had placed them and therefore must needs determine and expire with it Nor can they be made a pattern and standard for the Laws of other Nations for though proceeding from the wisest Law-giver they cannot reasonably be imposed upon any State or Kingdom unless where there is an equal concurrence of circumstances as there were in that people for whom God enacted them They went off the Stage with the Jewish Polity and if any parts of them do still remain obligatory they bind not as Judicial Laws but as branches of the Law of Nature the reason of them being Immutable and Eternal I know not whether it may here be useful to remark what the Jews so frequently tell us of that the intire body of the Mosaick Law consists of DCXIII Precepts intimated say they in that place where 't is said Moses commanded us a Law where the Numeral Letters of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law make up the number of DCXI. and the two that are wanting to make up the complete number are the two first Precepts of the Decalogue which were not given by Moses to the people but immediately by God himself Others say that there are just DCXIII letters in the Decalogue and that every letter answers to a Law But some that have had the patience to tell them assure us that there are two whole words consisting of seven letters supernumerary which in my mind quite spoils the computation These DCXIII Precepts they divide into CCXLVIII Affirmative according to the number of the parts of man's body which they make account are just so many to put him in mind to serve God with all his bodily powers as if every member of his body should say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make use of me to fulfil the command and into CCCLXV Negative according to the number of the days of the year that so every day may call upon a man and say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oh do not in me transgress the Command Or as others will have it they answer to the Veins or Nerves in the body of man that as the complete frame and compages of man's body is made up of CCXLVIII Members and CCCLXV Nerves and the Law of so many affirmative and so many negative Precepts it denotes to us that the whole perfection and accomplishment of man lies in an accurate and diligent observance of the Divine Law Each of these divisions they reduce under twelve houses answerable to the twelve Tribes of Israel In the Affirmative Precepts the first House is that of Divine Worship consisting of twenty Precepts the second the House of the Sanctuary containing XIX the third the House of Sacrifices wherein are LVII the fourth that of Cleanness and Pollution containing XVIII the fifth of Tithes and Alms under which are XXXII the sixth of Meats and Drinks containing VII the seventh of the Passeover concerning Feasts containing XX the eighth of Judgment XIII the ninth of Doctrine XXV the tenth of Marriage and concerning Women XII the eleventh of Judgments criminal VIII the twelfth of Civil Judgments XVII In the Negative Precepts the first House is concerning the worship of the Planets containing XLVII Commands the second of separation from the Heathens XIII the third concerning the reverence due to holy things XXIX the fourth of Sacrifice and Priesthood LXXXII the fifth of Meats XXXVIII the sixth of Fields and Harvest XVIII the seventh of Doctrine XLV the eighth of Justice XLVII the ninth of Feasts X the tenth of Purity and Chastity XXIV the eleventh of Wedlock VIII the twelfth concerning the Kingdom IV. A method not contemptible as which might minister to a distinct and useful explication of the whole Law of Moses 11. THE next thing considerable under the Mosaical Oeconomy was the methods of the Divine revelation by what ways God communicated his mind to them either concerning present emergencies or future events and this was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle tells us at sundry times or by sundry degrees and parcels and in diverse manners by various methods of revelation whereof three most considerable the Urim and Thummim the audible voice and the spirit of Prophecy imparted in dreams visions c. We shall make some brief remarks upon them referring the Reader who desires fuller satisfaction herein to those who purposely treat about these matters The Urim and Thummim was a way of revelation peculiar to the High Priest Thou shalt put on the breast-plate of Judgment the Urim and the Thummim and they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually Thus Eleazar
were their frequent washings of their Pots and Cups their brazen Vessels and Tables the purifying themselves after they came from Market as if the touching of others had defiled them the washing their hands before every Meal and many other things which they had received to hold In all which they were infinitely nice and scrupulous making the neglect of them of equal guilt with the greatest immorality not sticking to affirm that he who eats Bread with unwashen hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as if he lay with an Harlot This it 's plain they thought a sufficient charge against our Lord's Disciples that they were not zealous observers of these things When they saw some of his Disciples eat Bread with defiled that is to say with unwashen hands they found fault and asked him Why walk not thy Disciples according to the Tradition of the Elders but eat Bread with unwashen hands To whom our Saviour smartly answered that they were the Persons of whom the Prophet had spoken who honoured God with their lips but their hearts were far from him that in vain did they worship him while for Doctrines they taught the commandments of men laying aside and rejecting the commandments of God that they might hold the Tradition of men For they were not content to make them of equal value and authority with the Word of God but made them a means wholly to evacuate and supersede it Whereof our Lord gives a notorious instance in the case of Parents They could not say but that the Law obliged Children to honour and revere their Parents and to administer to their necessities in all straits and exigencies but then had found out a fine way to evade the force of the command and that under a pious and plausible pretence Moses said Honour thy Father and thy Mother and who so curseth Father or Mother let him die the death But ye say If a man shall say to his Father or Mother It is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me he shall be free And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father or Mother By which is commonly understood that when their Parents required relief and assistance from their Children they put them off with this excuse that they had consecrated their Estate to God and might not divert it to any other use Though this seems a specious and plausible pretence yet it is not reasonable to suppose that either they had or would pretend that they had intirely devoted whatever they had to God and must therefore refer to some other custom Now among the many kinds of oaths and vows that were among the Jews they had one which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vow of interdict whereby a man might restrain himself as to this or that particular person and this or that particular thing as he might vow not to accept of such a courtesie from this friend or that neighbour or that he would not part with this or that thing of his own to such a man to lend him his Horse or give him any thing towards his maintenance c. and then the thing became utterly unlawful and might not be done upon any consideration whatsoever lest the Man became guilty of the violation of his Vow The form of this Vow frequently occurs in the Jewish Writings and even in the very same words wherein our Lord expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it Corban or a gift that is a thing sacred whereby I may be any ways profitable to thee that is be that thing unlawful or prohibited to me wherein I may be helpful and assistant to thee And nothing more common than this way of vowing in the particular case of Parents whereof there are abundant instances in the writings of the Jewish Masters who thus explain the forementioned Vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever I shall gain hereafter shall be sacred as to the maintenance of my Father or as Maimonides expresses it That what I provide my Father shall eat nothing of it that is says he he shall receive no profit by it and then as they tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that had thus vowed might not transgress or make void his Vow So that when indigent Parents craved relief and assistance from their Children and probably wearied them with importunity it was but vowing in a passionate resentment that they should not be better for what they had and then they were safe and might no more dispose any part of their Estate to that use than they might touch the Corban that which was most solemnly consecrated to God By which means they were taught to be unnatural under a pretence of Religion and to suffer their Parents to starve lest themselves should violate a senceless and unlawful Vow So that though they were under the precedent obligations of a natural duty a duty as clearly commanded by God as words could express it yet a blind Tradition a rash and impious Vow made for the most part out of passion or covetousness should cancel and supersede all these obligations it being unlawful henceforth to give them one penny to relieve them Ye suffer him no more says our Lord to do ought for his Father or his Mother making the word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered 22. THE last instance that I shall note of the corruption and degeneracy of this Church is the many Sects and divisions that were in it a thing which the Jews themselves in their writings confess would happen in the days of the Messiah whose Kingdom should be over-run with heretical opinions That Church which heretofore like Jerusalem had been at unity within it self was now miserably broken into Sects and Factions whereof three most considerable Pharisees Sadducees and the Essenes The Pharisees derive their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may admit of a double signification and either not unsuitable to them It may refer to them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explainers or Interpreters of the Law which was a peculiar part of their work and for which they were famous and venerable among the Jews or more probably to their separation the most proper and natural importance of the word so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius observed of old because separated from all others in their extraordinary pretences of piety the very Jews themselves thus describing a Pharisee he is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that separates himself from all uncleanness and from all unclean meats and from the people of the Earth the common rout who accurately observe not the difference of Meats It is not certain when this Sect first thrust up its head into the World probably not long after the times of the Macchabees 't is certain they were of considerable standing and great account in the time of our Saviour To be sure strangely wide of the mark
initiating proselytes by Baptism Baptism in use in the Jewish Church It s Original whence His resolution and impartiality His Martyrdom The character given him by Josephus and the Jews The Evangelical Dispensation wherein it exceeds that of Moses It s perspicuity and perfection It s agreeableness to humane nature The Evangelical promises better than those of the Law and in what respects The aids of the Spirit plentifully afforded under the Gospel The admirable confirmation of this Oeconomy The great extent and latitude of it Judaism not capable of being communicated to all mankind The comprehensiveness of the Gospel The Duration of the Evangelical Covenant The Mosaical Statutes in what sence said to be for ever The Typical and transient nature of that State The great happiness of Christians under the Oeconomy of the Gospel 1. GOD having from the very infancy of the World promised the Messiah as the great Redeemer of Mankind was accordingly pleased in all Ages to make gradual discoveries and manifestations of him the revelations concerning him in every Dispensation of the Church still shining with a bigger and more particular light the nearer this Sun of Righteousness was to his rising The first Gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the fall of Adam God out of infinite tenderness and commiseration promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindicate and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their Enemies and that he should do this by taking the humane nature upon him and being born of the seed of the Woman No further account is given of him till the times of Abraham to whom it was revealed that he should proceed out of his loins and arise out of the Jewish Nation though both Jew and Gentile should be made happy by him To his Grandchild Jacob God made known out of what Tribe of that Nation he should rise the Tribe of Judah and what would be the time of his appearing viz. the departure of the Scepter from Judah the abrogation of the Civil and Legislative power of that Tribe and People accomplished in Herod the Idumaean set over them by the Roman power And this is all we find concerning him under that Oeconomy Under the Legal Dispensation we find Moses foretelling one main errand of his coming which was to be the great Prophet of the Church to whom all were to hearken as an extraordinary person sent from God to acquaint the World with the Counsels and the Laws of Heaven The next news we hear of him is from David who was told that he should spring out of his house and family and who frequently speaks of his sufferings and the particular manner of his death by piercing his hands and his feet of his powerful Resurrection that God would not leave his Soul in Hell nor suffer his holy one to see corruption of his triumphant Ascension into Heaven and glorious session at God's right hand From the Prophet Isaiah we have an account of the extraordinary and miraculous manner of his Birth that he should be born of a Virgin and his name be Immanuel of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces for the execution of his office of the entertainment he was to meet with in the World and of the nature and design of those sufferings which he was to undergo The place of his Birth was foretold by Micah which was to be Bethlehem-Ephratah the least of the Cities of Judah but honoured above all the rest with the nativity of a Prince who was to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth had been from everlasting Lastly the Prophet Daniel fixes the particular period of his coming expresly affirming That the Messiah should appear in the World and be cut off as a Victim and Expiation for the sins of the people at the expiration of LXX prophetical weeks or CCCCXC years which accordingly punctually came to pass 2. FOR the date of the prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of the Messiah's coming being now run out In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law This being the truth of which God spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets which have been since the World began But because it was not fit that so great a Person should come into the World without an eminent Harbinger to introduce and usher in his Arrival God had promised that he would send his Messenger who should prepare his way before him even Elijah the Prophet whom he would send before the coming of that great day of the Lord who should turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist who came in the power and spirit of Elias He was the Morning star to the Son of Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Cyril says of him the great and eminent Fore-runner a Person remarkable upon several accounts First for the extraordinary circumstances of his Nativity his Birth foretold by an Angel sent on purpose to deliver this joyful Message a sign God intended him for great undertakings this being never done but where God designed the Person for some uncommon services his Parents aged and though both righteous before God yet hitherto Childless Heaven does not dispence all its bounty to the same Person Children though great and desirable blessings are yet often denied to those for whom God has otherwise very dear regards Elizabeth was barren and they were both well stricken in years But is any thing too hard for the Lord said God to Abraham in the same case God has the Key of the Womb in his own keeping it is one of the Divine Prerogatives that he makes the barren Woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children A Son is promised and mighty things said of him a promise which old Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest and therefore had the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness imposed upon him till it was made good the same Miracle at once confirming his faith and punishing his infidelity Accordingly his Mother conceived with Child and as if he would do part of his errand before he was born he leaped in her Womb at her salutation of the Virgin Mary then newly conceived with Child of our Blessed Saviour a piece of homage paid by one to one yet unborn 3. THESE presages were not vain and fallible but produced a Person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and austerity of his life For having escaped Herod's butcherly and merciless Executioners the Divine providence being a shelter and a cover to him and been educated among the rudenesses and solitudes of the Wilderness his manners and way of life were very agreeable to his Education His Garments borrowed from no other Wardrobe than the backs of his Neighbour-creatures the skins of Beasts Camels hair and a Leathern girdle and
But our Lord entering in with the commanding efficacy of two words restor'd her at once both to life and perfect health 5. OUR Lord after this preached many Sermons and wrought many Miracles amongst which none more remarkable than his feeding a multitude of five thousand men besides women and children but with five Loaves and two Fishes of which nevertheless twelve Baskets of fragments were taken up Which being done and the multitude dismissed he commanded the Apostles to take Ship it being now near night and to cross over to Capernaum whilest he himself as his manner was retired to a neighbouring mountain to dispose himself to Prayer and Contemplation The Apostles were scarce got into the middle of the Sea when on a sudden a violent Storm and Tempest began to arise whereby they were brought into present danger of their lives Our Saviour who knew how the case stood with them and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears having himself caused this Tempest for the greater trial of their Faith a little before morning for so long they remained in this imminent danger immediately conveyed himself upon the Sea where the Waves received him being proud to carry their Master He who refused to gratifie the Devil when tempting him to throw himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple did here commit himself to a boisterous and instable Element and that in a violent Storm walking upon the water as if it had been dry ground But that infinite power that made and supports the World as it gave rules to all particular beings so can when it pleaseth countermand the Laws of their Creation and make them act contrary to their natural inclinations If God say the word the Sun will stand still in the middle of the Heavens if Go back 't will retrocede as upon the Dial of Ahaz if he command it the Heavens will become as Brass and the Earth as Iron and that for three years and an half together as in the case of Elijah's prayer if he say to the Sea Divide 't will run upon heaps and become on both sides as firm as a wall of Marble Nothing can be more natural than for the fire to burn and yet at God's command it will forget its nature and become a screen and a fence to the three Children in the Babylonian Furnace What heavier than Iron or more natural than for gravity to tend downwards and yet when God will have it Iron shall float like Cork on the top of the water The proud and raging Sea that naturally refuses to bear the bodies of men while alive became here as firm as Brass when commanded to wait upon and do homage to the God of Nature Our Lord walking towards the Ship as if he had an intention to pass by it he was espied by them who presently thought it to be the Apparition of a Spirit Hereupon they were seiz'd with great terror and consternation and their fears in all likelihood heightned by the vulgar opinion that they are evil Spirits that chuse rather to appear in the night than by day While they were in this agony our Lord taking compassion on them calls to them and bids them not be afraid for that it was no other than he himself Peter the eagerness of whose temper carried him forward to all bold and resolute undertakings entreated our Lord that if it was he he might have leave to come upon the water to him Having received his orders he went out of the Ship and walked upon the Sea to meet his Master But when he found the wind to bear hard against him and the waves to rise round about him whereby probably the sight of Christ was intercepted he began to be afraid and the higher his fears arose the lower his Faith began to sink and together with that his body to sink under water whereupon in a passionate fright he cried out to our Lord to help him who reaching out his arm took him by the hand and set him again upon the top of the water with this gentle reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt It being the weakness of our Faith that makes the influences of the Divine power and goodness to have no better effect upon us Being come to the Ship they took them in where our Lord no sooner arrived but the winds and waves observing their duty to their Sovereign Lord and having done the errand which they came upon mannerly departed and vanished away and the Ship in an instant was at the shore All that were in the Ship being strangely astonished at this Miracle and fully convinced of the Divinity of his person came and did homage to him with this confession Of a truth thou art the Son of God After which they went ashore and landed in the Country of Genezareth and there more fully acknowledged him before all the people 6. THE next day great multitudes flocking after him he entred into a Synagogue at Capernaum and taking occasion from the late Miracle of the loaves which he had wrought amongst them he began to discourse concerning himself as the true Manna and the Bread that came down from Heaven largely opening to them many of the more sublime and Spiritual mysteries and the necessary and important duties of the Gospel Hereupon a great part of his Auditory who had hitherto followed him finding their understandings gravelled with these difficult and uncommon Notions and that the duties he required were likely to grate hard upon them and perceiving now that he was not the Messiah they took him for whose Kingdom should consist in an external Grandeur and plenty but was to be managed and transacted in a more inward and Spiritual way hereupon fairly left him in open field and henceforth quite turned their backs upon him Whereupon our Lord turning about to his Apostles asked them whether they also would go away from him Peter spokes-man generally for all the rest answered whither should they go to mend and better their condition should they return back to Moses Alas he laid a yoke upon them which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Should they go to the Scribes and Pharisees they would feed them with Stones instead of Bread obtrude humane Traditions upon them for Divine dictates and Commands Should they betake themselves to the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles they were miserably blind and short-sighted in their Notions of things and their sentiments and opinions not only different from but contrary to one another No 't was he only had the words of Eternal life whose doctrine could instruct them in the plain way to Heaven that they had fully assented to what both John and he had said concerning himself that they were fully perswaded both from the efficacy of his Sermons which they heard and the powerful conviction of his Miracles which they had seen that he was the Son of the living God the true Messiah and Saviour of the World
and respect of the People towards him His Death an inlet to the destruction of the Jewish Nation His Epistle when written What the design and purpose of it The Proto-evangelium ascribed to him 1. BEFORE we can enter upon the Life of this Apostle some difficulty must be cleared relating to his Person Doubted it has been by some whether this was the same with that S. James that was Bishop of Jerusalem three of this Name being presented to us S. James the Great this S. James the Less both Apostles and a third sirnamed the Just distinct say they from the former and Bishop of Jerusalem But this however pretending to some little countenance from antiquity is a very great mistake and built upon a sandy bottom For besides that the Scripture mentions no more than two of this Name and both Apostles nothing can be plainer than that that S. James the Apostle whom S. Paul calls our Lord's Brother and reckons with Peter and John one of the Pillars of the Church was the same that presided among the Apostles no doubt by vertue of his place it being his Episcopal Chair and determined in the Synod at Jerusalem Nor do either Clemens Alexandrinus or Eusebius out of him mention any more than two S. James put to death by Herod and S. James the Just Bishop of Jerusalem whom they expresly affirm to be the same with him whom S. Paul calls the Brother of our Lord. Once indeed Eusebius makes our S. James one of the Seventy though elsewhere quoting a place of Clemens of Alexandria he numbers him with the Chief of the Apostles and expresly distinguishes him from the Seventy Disciples Nay S. Hierom though when representing the Opinion of others he stiles him the Thirteenth Apostle yet elsewhere when speaking his own sence sufficiently proves that there were but two James the Son of Zebedee and the other the Son of Alphaeus the one sirnamed the Greater the other the Less Besides that the main support of the other Opinion is built upon the authority of Clemens his Recognitions a Book in doubtful cases of no esteem and value 2. THIS doubt being removed we proceed to the History of his Life He was the Son as we may probably conjecture of Joseph afterwards Husband to the Blessed Virgin and his first Wife whom S. Hierom from Tradition stiles Escha Hippolytus Bishop of Porto calls Salome and further adds that she was the Daughter of Aggi Brother to Zacharias Father to John the Baptist. Hence reputed our Lord's Brother in the same sence that he was reputed the Son of Joseph Indeed we find several spoken of in the History of the Gospel who were Christ's Brethren but in what sence was controverted of old S. Hierom Chrysostom and some others will have them so called because the Sons of Mary Cousin-german or according to the custome of the Hebrew Language Sister to the Virgin Mary But Eusebius Epiphanius and the far greater part of the Ancients from whom especially in matters of fact we are not rashly to depart make them the Children of Joseph by a former Wife And this seems most genuine and natural the Evangelists seeming very express and accurate in the account which they give of them Is not this the Carpenter's Son Is not his Mother called Mary and his Brethren James and Joses and Simon and Jude and his Sisters whose Names says the foresaid Hippolytus were Esther and Thamar are they not all with us whence then hath this man these things By which it is plain that the Jews understood these Persons not to be Christ's Kinsmen only but his Brothers the same Carpenter's Sons having the same relation to him that Christ himself had though indeed they had more Christ being but his reputed they his natural Sons Upon this account the Blessed Virgin is sometimes called the Mother of James and Joses for so amongst the Women that attended at our Lord's Crucifixion we find three eminently taken notice of Mary Magdalen Mary the Mother of James and Joses and the Mother of Zebedees Children Where by Mary the Mother of James and Joses no other can be meant than the Virgin Mary it not being reasonable to suppose that the Evangelists should omit the Blessed Virgin who was certainly there and therefore S. John reckoning up the same Persons expresly stiles her the Mother of Jesus And though it is true she was but S. James his Mother-in-law yet the Evangelists might chuse so to stile her because commonly so called after Joseph's death and probably as Gregory of Nyssa thinks known by that Name all along chusing that Title that the Son of God whom as a Virgin she had brought forth might be better concealed and less exposed to the malice of the envious Jews nor is it any more wonder that she should be esteemed and called the Mother of James than that Joseph should be stiled and accounted the Father of Jesus To which add that Josephus eminently skilful in matters of Genealogy and descent expresly says that our S. James was the Brother of Jesus Christ. One thing there is that may seem to lye against it that he is called the Son of Alphaeus But this may probably mean no more than either that Joseph was so called by another Name it being frequent yea almost constant among the Jews for the same Person to have two Names Quis unquam prohibuerit duobus vel tribus nominibus hominem unum vocari as S. Augustin speaks in a parallel case or as a learned Man conjectures it may relate to his being a Disciple of some particular Sect or Synagogue among the Jews called Alphaeans from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a Family or Society of devout and learned Men of some-what more eminency than the rest there being as he tells us many such at this time among the Jews and in this probably S. James had entred himself the great reputation of his Piety and strictness his Wisdom Parts and Learning rendring the conjecture above the censure of being trifling and contemptible 3. OF the place of his Birth the Sacred story makes no mention The Jewes in their Talmud for doubtless they intend the same Person stile him more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the Town of Sechania though where that was I am not able to conjecture What was his particular way and course of life before his being called to the Discipleship and Apostolate we find no intimations of in the History of the Gospel nor any distinct account concerning him during our Saviour's life After the Resurrection he was honoured with a particular Appearance of our Lord to him which though silently passed over by the Evangelists is recorded by S. Paul next to the manifesting himself to the Five Hundred Brethren at once he was seen of James which is by all understood of our Apostle S. Hierom out of the Hebrew Gospel