it into their own Country is an inquiry as endless Whether Barnabas ever preached there we may question also but when we have done all we can never resolve It is more then probable that Paul was there himself from that expression I left thee in Creete but his stay there when he left Titus could not be long as is easily cleared from the time of his journeys lately mentioned Whether he had been there some time before or whether he had sent the Gospel thither by some of his Ministers or however it came there there wanted something to the constituting of the Church which he leaveth Titus to accomplish And his work is just the same that he left Timothy at Ephesus for as is easily seen by laying together the two Epistles viz. to stop the mouth of the Heterodox and to direct and advise the Orthodox in Doctrine and Discipline and to ordain Elders and Ministers in the Churches This matter of ordaining Elders hath made the postscripts of the Epistles to these two men to intitle them Bishops the one of Ephesus and the other of Creet who how little they stayed or setled in either of these places he readeth but dimly that seeth not The Apostle in this Epistle urgeth him to dispatch the business that lay before him that upon notice from him he might be ready to come up to him to Nicopolis a City that bare the name and badge of the Victory that Augustus obtained against Anthony Dion Cass. pag. 426. 443. Titus according to his appointment came to him and when winter began to draw over and Paul began now to think of journying ere it were very long he sends him upon an imployment to another place which because it was when winter was going off we must place it in another year CHRIST LVI NERO. II A New year being now entred and Paul intending for Syria as soon as the spring was a little up he sendeth Titus before hand to Corinth to hasten their collections for the Saints in Judea that they might be ready against Paul should come thither And with Titus he sendeth two other brethren and by them all he sendeth THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS The proof that it was written and sent at this time and in this manner is plain by these places and passages in it Chap. 9. 2 3 4. I know the forwardness of your mind for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia Yet have I sent the brethren lest our boasting of you should be in vain lest haply they of Macedonia come with me c. Chap. 12. 14. Behold the third time I am coming to you Chap. 13. 1. This is the third time I am coming to you And Chap. 8. 16. But thanks be unto God who put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you 17. Being more forward of his own accord he went unto you 18. And with him we have sent the brother whose praise is in the Gospel 22. And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often times proved diligent in many things c. Who these two nameless persons should be will require some inquiry The later I suppose was Erastus both because his diligence had been approved before Acts 19. 22 c. and also because it is said Erastus abode at Corinth 2 Tim. 4. yet he not named among Pauls retinue when he set out for Asia Act. 20. 4. because he was gone to Corinth before As for the other brother whose praise is said to be in the Gospel that very phrase and expression hath caused many to conceive that it was Luke and that the words mean Who is famous in all the Churches for the Gospel he hath written whereas besides that groundless strictness that is put upon the words limiting them to the writing of a Gospel which according to that most usual manner of speech are rather to be understood of his renowning in preaching the Gospel it is apparent by the words of Luke himself that he went not either before Paul to Corinth as this brother spoken of did nor did he go before Paul to Troas as the rest that are named by him did but he went in Pauls company for observe his speech These tarried for us at Troas And we sailed away from Philippi c. The words Us and We do plainly associate the penman himself with Paul at his setting out and shew that he was none of those that were sent before Others therefore do guess that this brother that went along with Titus was Silas because it is said Who also was chosen by the Churches to travel with us c. Which very thing which they use for an argument to prove it Silas proves against it for Silas was not chosen by the Churches to go with Paul any more than Timothy or Titus were but he was chosen by Paul alone as they also were See Act. 15. 40. That clause then Who was also chosen of the Churches to travel with us doth deal the matter betwixt Barnabas and Mark for none other can be named to whom the words can be so properly applied as to one of them and of the two most properly to Mark and he I doubt not is the man that is here intended For 1. the words with us joyn Paul and Barnabas together in their travel and the third man who was chosen to travel with them was none but Mark. For 2. he was chosen by the Church at Jerusalem for that purpose Acts 12. 25. and by the Church at Antioch Acts 13. 5. as these words he was chosen by the Churches do well explain those verses 3. It is true indeed that Paul had taken distast at Mark and so bitter that Barnabas and he had parted upon it Act. 15. 39. yet in his second Epistle to Timothy he desires Timothy to bring Mark to him for that he is profitable to him for the Ministry 2 Tim. 4. by which it appears that he was not only reconciled to him but also that he had made use of him and found him useful When it was that they knit into amity and imployment again is not discoverable but that they had done so the passage newly alledged doth make past denial and if his imployment of Mark were not now or before he can no more imploy him before he himself become a prisoner When we come to the time and order of the second Epistle to Timothy we shall have occasion to speak to this matter again and shall find something there to help the confirmation of this assertion nay to raise it higher then yet it hath spoken namely that Mark was not only sent by Paul to Corinth at this time but also that he was at Corinth when Paul sent for him to come to him to Rome And thus if these words Whose praise is in the Gospel were to be understood of one that had written a Gospel here is a subject to apply them to in that sense for this Mark wrote a
these learned and great men of the Nation who had gone into the service of Herod the Great and now of his son mentioned before SECTION XXVII LUKE Chap. VI. from Ver. 12. to Ver. 20. MARK Chap. III. from Ver. 13. to the middle of Ver. 19. MATTH Chap. V. Ver. 1. The twelve Apostles chosen LUKE and Mark do methodize and fix the time of the Sermon in the Mount which Matthew hath laid very early in his Gospel because he would first treat of Christs Doctrine and then of his Miracles In a mount neer Capernaum he ordaineth a Ministry for the Church of the Gospel and delivereth the doctrine of the Gospel as Moses at Sinai had done the like for the Law The number of the present Ministers appointed whom he calleth Apostles was twelve agreeable to the twelve Tribes of Israel that as they were the beginning of the Church of the Jews so are these of the Gentiles and to both these numbers of twelve joyned together the number of the four and twenty Elders the representative of the whole Church Rev. 4. 5 c hath relation Rev. 21. 12 14. The Text allotteth these ends of their appointment 1. That they might be with Christ to see his glory Joh. 1. 14. and to be witnesses of all things that he did Acts 10. 39 41. Luk. 24. 48. 2. That he might send them forth to preach 3. To heal diseases and cast out Devils Before they were completed in all their divine endowments they grew on by degrees They were auditors a good while and learning the doctrine of the Gospel that they were to preach before they set upon that work for though Christ chose them now yet it is well towards a twelve month before he sends them abroad a preaching as will appear in the process of the story So that besides the time that they had spent before this their choosing they also spent that in hearing and learning from the mouth of their Master what they were to teach when he should employ them So that even the Apostles themselves at the first setting forth into the Ministry did not preach by the Spirit but what they had learned and gotten by hearing study conference and meditation As the Lord under the Law and from the first founding of that Church did set apart a peculiar order and function of men for the service of the Sanctuary so did he under the Gospel a peculiar order and function for the Ministry of the Gospel and this no more to be usurped upon then that Now as under the Law there were several sorts of men within that function as High-Priests Chief-Priests ordinary Priests and Levites but all paled in with that peculiarity that no other might meddle with their function so likewise at the first rising of the Gospel there were Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors Teachers according to the necessity of those present times but all hedged in with a distinctive ministerial calling that none other might nor may break in upon All the Titles and names that Ministers are called by throughout the new Testament are such as denote peculiarity and distinctiveness of order as Wise men and Scribes Mat. 23. 34. Now the Jews knew not nor ever had heard of Wise men and Scribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the learned of their Nation distinguisht for others by peculiarity of order and ordination And if they understood not Christ in such a sense namely men of a distinct order they understood these Titles Wise men and Scribes in a sense that they had never known nor heard of before Ministers in the new Testament are called Elders Bishops Angels of the Churches Pastors Teachers now all these were Synagogue terms and every one of them denoted peculiarity of order as might be shewed abundantly from their Synagogue antiquities The Jews knew no Elders but men by their order and function distinguisht from other men A Bishop translates the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chazan An Angel of the Congregation translates the title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shâ—liach isibbor A Pastor translates the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parnas And a Teacher translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divinity Reader Now these terms had never been known by any to signifie otherwaies then men of a peculiar function and distinct order SECTION XXVIII MATTH Chap. V. and VI and VII LUKE Chap. VI. from Ver. 20. to the end of the Chapter The Sermon in the Mount THe proof of the order doth not need to be insisted upon Luke doth manifestly assert it It had been foretold by the Prophet All thy children shall be taught of God Isa. 54. 13. which if applied to the Gentiles they had been taught by the Devil his Oracles and Idols If applied to the Jews they indeed had been taught by the Lord in his Prophets but these were but men like themselves but this Prophecy foretells the preaching of Christ who was God himself he teaching and conversing amongst them he then the great teacher of the world Isa. 2. 2. and 51.4 doth from the mount neer Capernaum deliver his Evangelical Law not for the abolishing of the Law and Prophets but for their cleering and fulfilling He first beginneth with pronouncing blessings as the most proper and comfortable tenour of the Gospel and hereby he calls us to remember Gerizim and Ebal Deut. 27. For though Israel be enjoyned there to pronounce both blessings and curses upon those mountains yet are the curses only specified by name and number for the curse came by the Law but he that was to bless was to come which thing taketh place very comfortably and harmoniously here Luke addeth that he also denounced woes as Blessed be the poor Blessed are ye that hunger now c. But wo unto you that are rich Woe unto you that are full c. according to which form the Jews conceive the blessings and curses were pronounced by Israel from those two mountains mentioned Talm. in Sotah per 7. Tosapht ibi per. 8. How did Israel pronounce the blessings and the curses Six tribes went up to the top of mount Gerizim and six to the top of mount Ebal the Priests and the Levites and the Ark stood below in the middest between They turned their faces towards mount Gerizim and began with blessing Blessed is the man that maketh not any graven or molten Image an abomination to the Lord c. And both parties answered and said Amen Then turned they their faces towards mount Ebal and began with cursing Cursed be them an that maketh any graven or molten Image an abomination to the Lord c. and both parties answered Amen And so of the rest 2. He proceedeth laying out of the latitude of the Law according to its full extent and intention and sheweth the wretchedness of their traditional glosses that had made the Law of no effect They understood the Law Thou shalt not kill only of actual murder and that committed by a mans own hand for if
should be so various and roving conjectures about the time and place of the writing of this Epistle where there is so plain a demonstration thereof in the Epistle it self if studiously compared with these times and voyages of Paul that are before us The Arabick dateth it from Athens supposing it belike at the time of his perambulation of Greece of which there is mention in ver 3. of this Chapter the Syriack from Laodicea some Greek copies add from Laodicea Pacatiana which mistake belike grew because there is mention of an Epistle from Laodicea Colos. 4. 16. of which we shall speak and shew the mistake when we come to the time of that Epistle The Rhemists suppose this Epistle to Timothy was written at Pauls first imprisonment in Rome when he was dismissed and set at liberty but how erroniously will appear when we come to observe the time of the second Epistle Paul had bestowed much pains and a long time with the Church of Ephesus being present with it and he takes much care of it now he is gone thence partly because of the eminency of the place and partly because of the sickleness of some who were ready to warp from the sound truth and doctrine received to heresie and foolish opinions For the keeping down of these therefore that they should not overgrow the Church he leaveth Timothy there when himself departeth choosing him for that imployment above all other his followers because as was said before some prophetick predictions had sealed him for a singular and extraordinary instrument in the Gospel 1 Tim. 2. 14. He had two works to do in that City first to prevent rising Errors and Heterodoxies and secondly to direct and order the Orthodox aright in Worship and discipline not as any Diocesan Bishop for he staied but a while there and what he did he did but by the Apostles direction but as one that Paul had found sound bold blameless painfull and faithful Among the Jewish Churches that received the Gospel there grew in time a very epidemical and dangerous Apostacy either totally from the Doctrine of the Gospel or partially from the purity of it as we have frequent occasion to observe upon several passages that we meet withal as we go along and this backsliding from the Doctrine and Profession of Christ once received was the topping up of the iniquity of that Nation and was a forerunner and a hastner of their destruction and casting off The first principles whereby their false teachers did prison them towards this recidivation were puzzling them with idle fables intricate genealogies and especially nice curiosities and needless obligations of the Law Their fables that were likeliest to serve their turn for this purpose as near as one may guess upon view of the whole heap in their Talmudic◠Records may be supposed to have been those strange legends that they related of the wondrous sanctity devotion and facts of some of their Pharisaical and legal righteous ones and the wondrous gallantry and golden daies that they conceited in a carnal construction of the times of Messias Their endless genealogies which the Apostle speaketh of Tit. 3. 9. and mentioneth together with these fables 1 Tim. 1. 4. were not any of the genealogies of Scripture holy and divine but their long and intricate pedigrees that they stood upon to prove themselves Jews Levites Priests and the like thereby to interest themselves in claim to all those brave things that they perswaded themselves belonged to a Jew as a Jew upon that very account And to these we may add the long genealogy and pedigree of their traditions which they derived by a long line of succession through the hands of I know not how many Doctors of which the Talmudick Treatise Avoth is as a Herald And if we will construe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juchasin Genealogies in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aserah Juchasin Ten linages that they speak of that came out of Babel at the return of the captivity I am sure we may find endless questions wherewithal they puzzeled mens minds about them as Vid. Talm. in Kiddushin per. 4. Alphes ibid c. And as for their making their baits of the Law for the catching and withdrawing of simple souls either totally from the acknowledging or at least from the simplicety of the Gospel it is very obvious in the Epistles of Paul and the other Epistles how they wrought and how they prevailed the witchery of old customs and long use and the gawdiness of a Ceremonious Religion helping them to speed in their designs and forwarding their deceivings Such canker began to break out in the Church of Ephesus whose creeping and infecting it is the first and great work of Timothy to prevent and to fill the ears of his hearers with sound doctrine and admonitions which might keep such deceit and infection out And answerably it must be his care to settle the Church in such a salubrious constitution of Worship Ministry and Government as that it should not be ready to sway and incline to such dangerous seductions Hereupon doth the Apostle lay a divine Directory before him concerning their manner of praying choosing and ordaining of Ministers approving Deacons admitting widows and regulating the people that nothing could be wanting to the healthfull temper of that Church if they receive and imbrace these applications In the most of which prescriptions he useth exceeding much of their Synagogue language that he may be the better understood and reflecteth upon divers of their own Laws and customs that what he prescribeth may imprint upon them with the more conviction He calleth the Minister Episcopus from the common and known title The Chazan or Overseer in the Synagogue Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He prescribeth rules and qualifications for his choice in most things suitable to their own cautions in choosing of an Elder Maym. in Sanhedr per. 4. He speaketh of Elders ruling only and Elders ruling and labouring in the Word and Doctrine meaning in this distinction that same that he had spoken of in Chap. 3. Bishops and Deacons Both these in the common language then best known were called Elders and both owned as Rulers Yea the very title that they usually termed Deacons by Parnasin was the common word that was used to signifie a Ruler The Jerusalem Talmud in Peah fol. 21. 1. speaking of the three Parnasin or Deacons that were inevery Synagogue hath these two passages which may be some illustration to two passagesin this Epistle They appoint not less then three Pernasin in the Congregation for if matters of money were judged by three matters of life much more require three to manage them Observe that the Deacons Office was accounted as an Office that concerned life namely in taking care for the subsistance of the poor According to this may that in Chap. 3. 12. be understood For they that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree A good
Trophimus I left at Miletum sick By Tychicus who was the bearer of this Epistle to Timothy Chap. 4. 12. Paul also sendeth THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS for it is apparent that he was in bonds when he sent that Epistle Chap. 3. 1. and that he sent it by Tychicus Chap. 6. 21. That ye may know mine affairs and how I do Tychicus a beloved brother and faithful Minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose In this Epistle he addresseth himself more especially to the convert Gentiles of the Ephesian Church to establish and settle them in the truth against that warping and wavering that was now too common and he setteth himself to unfold the mystery of the Gospel in its full luster and discovery in a more special manner and that especially in the two first Chapters as he himself professeth in the third By revelation God made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ ver 3 4. He speaketh much of the mystery of the Gentiles calling and calleth the Jews and Gentiles knit in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sone of God A perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Chap. 4. 13. In Chap. 5. 26 27. speaking of Christs washing the Church that he might present it to himself without spot or wrinckle c. he seemeth to allude to the Jews exceeding great curiousness in their washings for purification Maym. in Mikvaoth per. 1. There must be nothing to interpose between the person that is washed and the water for if there be any thing interposing betwixt him and the water as if any clay or dough stick to his flesh he is unclean as he was and his washing profits him nothing And a little after If there be upon the flesh of a man or upon a vessel any of those things that may interpose as dough pitch or the like though it be no more then a grain of musterdseed and he take it to thought his washing profits him nothing What he saith in ver 29. So ought Men to love their Wives even as their own bodies is agreed to even by the Jews doctrine Our Doctors teach He that loves his Wife as his own body and he that honours her more than his own body and he that maketh his Sons to walk in a right way c. of such a one the Scripture saith Thou shalt know that peace shall be in thy Tabernacle c. Alphes in Gittin per. ult CHRIST LX NERO. VI WE are now come to the second year of Pauls imprisonment in which he had the changeable and different occurrences of loving visits and salutes from some Churches abroad and cross dealing from some ill-willed at home some sadness of heart by the sickness of Epaphroditus near unto death but comfort and reviving again by his recovery The Church of Philippi had sent him to visit Paul in their name and to bring him some tokens of their love for his support and maintenance in his imprisonment and the good man fell sick in Rome very like to die upon his recovery and return home again Paul sendeth by him THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS written in his name and in the name of Timothy who according to his appointment was now come to him He sheweth in this Epistle that as there were some which preached the Gospel of sincerity so were there other that preached of envy and contention and so added affliction to his bonds He was yet in bonds but in some good hopes of deliverance as he sheweth in Chap. 2. 24. for he saith he hoped ere long to send Timothy to them and himself to come with him but we shall observe ere long that when Paul hath got his liberty Timothy is got into prison and so his journey for the present stopt He saluteth no Church in the platform of Bishops and Deacons but only this not but that there were Bishops and Deacons in other Churches as well as here but it may be he doth it here the rather because of the Contribution that the Bishops and Deacon had gathered for him and sent to him or because he would shew the platform of Office and Order in this Church of Philippi which was purely Gentile agreeable to that of the believing Jews Churches He giveth warning to beware of the heretical and unbelieving Jews whom he cals dogs and the concision and now the name they used to give to the Gentiles Dogs is light upon themselves The very Talmudists speak as evil of that generation in which Messias should come as the Scripture doth 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. and among other things they say thus When the Son of David cometh the Synagogues shall become stews Galilee shall be destroyed Gablah shall be desolate the Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch doth constantly render Seir Gabla and the men of the border of Israel shall go from City to City and the wisdom of the Scribes shall be abominated and Religious persons shall be scorned And the faces of that generation shall be as dogs Talm. bab in Sanhedr fol. 97. He calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The concision The word signifies such superstitious and vain and impious cuttings in the flesh as Heathens used as 2 King 18. 28 c. No more doth he make of their Circumcision the Greek word is used by the LXX Levit. 21. 5. He speaketh of one in Philippi whom he calleth his true yokefellow alluding it may be either to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Jews did ordinarily express great professors of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most ordinary phrase in the Jerusalem Talmud Or the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yokes or couples whereby they expressed the President and Vicepresident of the Sanhedrin those famous couples Shemaiah and Abtalion Hillel and Shammai c. Of whom it is that he speaketh is undeterminable Barnabas or Silas might best bare the title Whosoever it was it seemeth it was some worthy person who was at this time in that Church whom he intreats to compose some differences that were then afoot and to be helpful in some occasions and cases that he knew needful It is not to be doubted but Epaphroditus had acquainted him particularly with the state of the Church and he applies his exhortations accordingly As the Church of Philippi had sent Epaphroditus to visit him so did the Church of Colossi send Epaphras one of their Ministers to do the like Colos. 1. 7 8. whereupon by Tychicus who had been the last year at Ephesus to fetch Timothy and returned with him to Rome Col. 4. 7. and by Onesimus a Colossian Col. 4. 9. Paul and Timothy send THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS The naming of Mark now with him Chap. 4. 10. doth state the time of writing this Epistle
then to be done vers 15. I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also So in Act. XXI 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is it therefore the multitude must needs come together for they will hear that thou art come The Brethren at Jerusalem are here deliberating concerning the case of St. Pauls preaching to the Jews strangers that they should forsake the Institutions of Moses the report of which had given great distaste unto the believing Jews in Jerusalem This was the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is to be done therefore Then follows the resolution Do this therefore that we say unto thee vers 23. This then is the Question what is to be done in a certain case Now the Case is this which is the second particular contained in the Text. II. The case propounded Every one hath a Psalm c. Here are two questions First Whether every one in the Congregation had these gifts And Secondly If not whether every one â—hat had gifts â—ad all these gifts To thâ— former question I answer It is undoubted but that spiritual gifts wâ—â—â— in this Church 1 Cor. I. 5. That iâ— every thing ye are inriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge And in the 6. vers Even as the Testimony of Christ was confirmed in you The testimony of Christ i. e. the Spirit of prophesie For that not only testified of Christ by preaching him but also the very gift it self spake Christ the Lord of glory And in 2 Cor. XII 12. Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds Such were healing doing miracles and among the rest giving of the Holy Ghost so vers 13. asserts Nor iâ— this gaâ—nsâ—id by theiâ— beiâ—g not abâ—â— to give up to Satan in â— Cor. V. where you find that câ—nsuâ—e was inflicted upon the incestuous person by S. Paul himself for that was purely an Apostolick work As to give the Holy Ghost was a peculiar prerogative of the Apostles so the giving up to Satan was peculiar to them So that the Corinthians had these gifts that were given by virtue of the Apostles conferring the Holy Ghost viz. to prophesie and to speak with Tongues Secondly These gifts were not bestowed on all but Ministers only Here the Enthusiasts mistake and they make much of this example and their argumentation runs thus Every one had a Psalm had a Doctrine had a Tongue c. And therefore it concludes that any one may have the Spirit and be a teacher in the publick Which supposes that the members of the Church had these gifts of the Spirit whereas these gifts were only imparted to Ministers For the clearing of this consider these things 1. It is not to be doubted but that there were Ministers in this Church ordained by the Apostle as in all other Churches Act. XIV 23. where you see what their practise was ordaining Elders in every Church I need not insist on this 2. Those whom the Apostle ordained he bestowed the Holy Ghost upon otherwise they had been unable to have performed the work they were called to that is to preach the Gospel to unbelievers and to confirm their doctrine by doing miracles In order to which he conferred the Holy Ghost on those whom he ordained Act. XIX 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied Such an one was Timothy 2 Tim. I. 6. where S. Paul reminds him to stir up the gift of God which was in him by the putting on of his hands 3. Such were these persons in the Text that were endued with spiritual gifts they were Ministers not any private persons For proof of this first See vers 6. Now I brethren if I come unto you speaking with Tongues what shall I profit you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge c. and vers 15. What is it then I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also I will sing with the Spirit c. and vers 18. I thank my God I speak with Tongues more than you all In all which verses he ranks them with himself as of the Ministerial function with himself And for further proof Consult Secondly vers 16. Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen c. of the unlearned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies a private person How shall this private person in the Congregation say Amen at thy giving of thanks as the Congregation in the Synagogue said Amen after the publick Minister So that you see he sets a distinction here between the Minister and the private person it was the Minister that had the gift he blessed with the Spirit and not the private man Thirdly There were many Ministers then ordained in all Churches In the Church at Antioch there were several Prophets and Teachers namely Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen and Saul as you read in the XIII Act. 1. In the Church at Jerusalem there were Apostles and Elders XV. Act. 2. In the Church at Ephesus you meet with twelve XIX Act. And so it appears it was in this place and there was the greater need of many Ministers there because Corinth was great And hence did Diotrephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affect to be chief among the many Ministers in the Congregation where he was and it may be it was in this very Church if Gaius to whom John writes was the same with Gaius of Corinth This numerousness of Ministers was practised in the Christian Church 1. From the platform of the Synagogue where though there was but one Chazan Angelus yet there were ten learned Men who took care of the Congregation able to teach and do other things pertaining to their office as there was occasion 2. This number of Ministers in the Churches was needful because Christian Congregations were daily and numerously increasing And 3. Because some were to be sent out to other places And so the former Question is resolved Now as to the other viz. Whether every one that had gifts had all these gifts That will be answered by and by But first Note we the miscarriage of these Ministers in the Church about these gifts is two fold 1. That they spake with Tongues not to Edification for they were not understood 2. That they prophesied when they might be understood yet confusedly and crowdingly so it seems in the Text and by the Counsil of the Apostle in 29. vers Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the others judge and 31. vers for ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn This miscarriage in both these seems to proceed from a double original 1. Either from some vain glory and affectation of popular applause or at
Family and of a good Name and Estate Her Mother was an Aston of the family of the Lord Aston of Tixal but before they were Papists This their Daughter was the youngest if I mistake not of nine Sisters all the rest that lived having been married into worshipful Families there In the Church of Stone in that County where the Doctor sometime was Minister there remains the Pourtraiture of them all with three Sons and their Father and Mother in Brass She was first wedded to Mr. Copwood a Gentleman of a good Estate in that County by whom she had two Sons and one Daughter The Sons since died but the Daughter is now living and married there and inherits the Estate The Relict of this Gentleman the Doctor became acquainted withal when he lived in Sir R. Cottons family and not long after married her himself being yet young By whom he had issue four Sons and two Daughters To one of which the Lady Cotton was Godmother His eldest son was John who was Chaplain to the late Right Reverend Father in God Brian Lord Bishop of Chester the famous Undertaker of the Polyglot By whom this Mr. Lightfoot was much esteemed but died soon after his Lord and Patron and lies buried in the Cathedral Church aforesaid He had six Daughters all now deceased but two who live at Chester Anastasius was his second Son who had also these additions to that name viz. Cottonus Jacksonus in memory of Sir Rouland Cotton and Sir John Jackson two dear friends of the Doctors This was also a Clergy-man Incumbent of Thundridg in Hertfordshire and died there leaving one Son still living The third Son was Athanasius brought up a Trades Man in London deceased also And his fourth Son Thomas died young His Daughters were Joyce now the worthy consort of Mr. John Duckfeild Rector of Aspeden in Hartfordshire whom I must not name but with an addition of respect for communicating to me most of the Papers and original MSS. and Letters of Dr. Lightfoot and others that I have made use of both in these relations and in the published Sermons And Sarah now a Widdow formerly married to one Mr. Colclough a Gentleman of Staffordshire deceased This pious Matron and discreet Wife the Doctor buried in the year 1656. in his Church of Munden after he had lived well near thirty years with her Afterwards he took to Wife Anne the Relict of Mr. Austin Brograve Uncle to Sir Thomas before spoken of By her he had no issue Whom he likewise survived She died also at Munden and was buried there His pious Father Thomas Lightfoot hath a great but a true character given of him in the Account of the Doctors Life I shall only add the Inscription upon his Monument as it now is in the Church of Uttoxeter a Copy whereof Mr. Michael Edge the present or late Minister there communicated to us composed as it seems by his Learned Son Peter Lightfoot Physician lately deceased M. S. Huc oculos Lacrymas O Viator Qui veteri studes Veritati Pietati Charitati Huc ubi teipsum es olim celaturus THOMAS LIGHTFOOTE Verbi divini per annos 56 fidelissimus Minister Ecclesiae hujus per annos 36 Vigilantissimus Pastor Vir antiquorum morum primaevae sanctitatis Coruscantis zeli doctrinae Virtutis exempli Vir verum exscribens virum Pastor pastorem Sudore semper squallidus at formosus pastorali Salutem suam anhelans semper aliorum Gloriam magni Pastoris ambiendo indefessus Annis satur tandem bonis operibus Confectus studendo docendo faciendo patiendo Onustus spoliis de Satana triumphatis Idemque improborum odiis beate oneratus Hic suaviter in Christo obdormit Abstersis lacrymis sudoribus Et Vivacissimus Resurrecturus Unaque ELIZABETH tori-consors pietatis Digno Conjuge Conjux digna Obiit ille Iulii 21. 1653. Aetat 81. Obiit illa Ianuarii 24. 1636. Aetat 71. And let me add as a Coronis an Epitaph which the same Mr. Thomas Lightfoot had prepared for himself and which was found in his Study after his decease Which I adjoyn to let the World see somewhat as well of the pious and heavenly breathing mind as the Scholarship of that Man from whom our Doctor was derived THOMAS LIGHTFOOT Olim superstes nunc defunctus alloquitur amicos suos qui in Vivis sunt En mea tam multis puppis quassata procellis Nunc tandem portum fracta quietis habet Nil scopulos ultra bibulas nil curat arenas Istius aut mundi quae mare monstra parit Namque mare est mundus puppis vaga corpus obumbrat Atque animam signat navita quisque suam Portam quam petimus coelum est sed aura salutis Quae navim impellit Spiritus ille Dei est Solvite felices igitur portumque tenete Post aerumnosae turbida damna maris Sed non ante datur portum contingere quam sit Fract a per undosum vestra carina mare XIV His last Sickness and Death AND now we are arrived at the last scene of this great and good Mans life In the later end of the year 1675. that year when Colds were so rife and so mortal our Doctor going to his residence at Ely fell into one of these Colds which he complaining of was persuaded to eat a Red Herring and to drink two or three glasses of Claret The former he easily did but the later he was more difficultly drawn to having always used to drink nothing but small Beer or Water This little Wine according to the judgment of his Physician cast him into a Fever or at least heightned it The disease much affected his head so that he lay dozing and slumbering saying but little only when any asked him how he did he would devoutly say In the Hands of a good God which he repeated often His behaviour all the time of his sickness was with exceeding much meekness patience and silence speaking much with God and himself but little as I said to others When Dr. Callamy then a Fellow of Katharine Hall went to Ely to Visit him he found him in this condition using very few words when he asked him if he had made his Will and settled his Secular affairs he answered He had and told him where his Will was His Physicians were Dr. Gosnald of Cambridge and Dr. Hicks of Ely Dr. Mapletoft the Reverend Dean and Dr. Womock a Prebend there now Lord Bishop of S. Davids were his chief Visitants who performed the Offices of the Church with him Thus he lay near a fortnight and then rendred up his Pious and Virtuous Soul into the Hands of his good God in a good old age being seventy four years old within some few months and yet might have lived much longer if one may gather conjectures of the length of Mens lives by their healthfulness and vivacity But besides his years his Works and the excellent service he did in his generation would have
speaketh of one that letted vers 6. And now ye know what withholdeth and ver 7. He who now letteth will let is of some obscurity we may without offence give this conjecture As the term The day of the Lord is taken in Scripture especially in this double sense for his day of judging the Jewish Nation and for his day of judging all the world so are we to understand a falling away and a Man of sin of the Jewish Nation before the former and a falling away and Antichrist betwixt the former and the later This last is readily concluded upon to be the Papacy and he that letted to mean the Imperial power but what was he that letted in the former that the Antichrist among the Jews was not revealed sooner I should divide this stake betwixt Claudius the Emperor who by his decree against the Jews in Rome Act. 18. 2. give a check by the appearance of his displeasure to all the Jews elsewhere that they durst not tyrannize against the Gospel whilest he lived as they had done And Paul himself who by his uncessant travelling in the Gospel and combatting by the truth every where against the Jews did keep down very much their delusions and Apostacy whilest he was at liberty and abroad but when he was once laid up then all went to ruine as see Act. 20. 29. 2 Tim. 1. 15 c. Paul when he departs from Corinth leaves a Church fairly planted there but how soon and how miserably it grew degenerate we shall meet with cause to observe before it be long He cometh to Ephesus and striving to get up to one of the Feasts at Jerusalem he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there Thither ere long cometh Apollos an excellent Scripture-man but one that knew only the baptism of John but they instruct him better Not that these Tent-makers turned Preachers but that having had so much converse with Paul they were able in private conference to inform him better then yet he knew from what they had learned from Paul ACTS CHAP. XIX from Vers. 1. to Vers. 19. OThers at Ephesus there were that were no further gone in Christianity neither then the knowledge of the Baptism of John Paul asks them Have ye received the Holy Ghost They answer We have not yet so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost be In which words they refer to a common and a true tenet of the Nation which was that after the death of Ezra Haggai Zachary and Malachy the Holy Ghost departed from Israel and went up Juchas fol. 15. and they profess they had never yet heard of his restoring And it is very probable that they had never heard of Jesus whom when Paul had preached to them they imbrace and the Text saith they were then baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Not that they were rebaptized but that now coming to the knowledge of the proper end of Johns baptism namely to believe in Jesus as ver 4. they own their baptism to such an end and construction For 1. What need had they to be rebaptized when in that first baptism they had taken they had come in to the profession of the Gospel and of Christ as far as the doctrine that had brought them in could teach them It was the change of their profession from Judaism to Evangelism that required their being baptized and not the degrees of their growth in the knowledge of the Gospel into the profession of which they had been baptized already How many baptisms must the Apostles have undergone if every signal degree of their coming on to the perfect knowledge of the mystery of Christ might have required nay might have admitted a new baptizing 2. If these men were rebaptized then must the same be concluded of all that had received the baptism of John when they came to the knowledge of Jesus which as it is incredible because there is not the least tittle of mention of such a thing so is it unimaginable in the case of those of the Apostles that were baptized by John for who should baptize them again in the name of Jesus since Jesus himself baptized none Joh. 4. 3. 3. These men had taken on them the baptism of repentance and the profession of Christ in the baptism of John that they had received therefore unless we will suppose a baptism of faith different from the baptism of repentance and a baptism in the name of Jesus different from the baptism in the name of Christ it will be hard to find a reason why these men should undergo a new baptizing And if it should be granted which is against reason to grant that these men were really rebaptized yet were not this a warrantable ground for rebaptization now in regard of these main differences betwixt the case then and now 1. That great controversie then on foot about Whether Jesus were the true Messias or no which caused their rebaptization if they were rebaptized 2. The visible conferring of the Holy Ghost upon them upon their baptism if they were rebaptized as being a main induction of such a thing if such a thing were that the name of Jesus might be so apparently glorified upon their being baptized in the name of Jesus which indeed was equally glorified when they received those gifts upon their acknowledging of Jesus and owning their baptism that they had of old been baptized with as a badge of that acknowledgment though not baptized again CHRIST LIII CHRIST LIV CLAUDIUS XIII CLAUDIUS XIV ACTS CHAP. XIX from Ver. 9. to Ver. 21. THE Apostle hath a long time to stay at Ephesus in which he first begins for the space of a quarter of a year to dispute in the Synagogue and then when divers were hardened and believed not he separated the Disciples and disputed daily in the School of Tyrannus Hitherto what converts there were to the Gospel they resorted still to the publick service in the Synagogue where Paul reasoned daily for the truth of the Gospel but finding dangerous opposition he gets away the Disciples from thence and in the School of one Tyrannus they are a particular Congregation In these great Towns where there were many Jews both in Judea and elsewhere they had a Synagogue and a Divinity-School This Divinity-School they called Beth Midrash and thither they used to go every Sabbath day after they had been at the Synagogue whereupon they had this for a common proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Synagogue to the Divinity-School In the Synagogue they had prayers and reading of the Law and plain Sermons of Doctrine exhortation and comfort In the Divinity-School were discussed and taught dogmatical and controversial points concerning the difficulties of the Law and other high matters And hence it may be those different titles and administrations of Pastor and Teacher Ephes. 4. 11. and He that teacheth and he that exhorteth Rom. 12. 7 8. took their pattern if Pastor mean one of the Ministerial function In the time of
the using of them to the edification of the Church but put them forth sometimes for their own vain glory and such was their miscarriage which he taxeth Chap. 14. They that from that Chapter would ground a preaching by the Spirit now sure do little observe what they do to build upon an example which the Apostle reproveth and they infer from a place much mistaken There were indeed the extraordinary gifts of tongues and prophecying in the Church of Corinth but who had them and what had they in having them and how used they them 1. It was not every or indeed any private member of the Congregation that had them but the Ministers only and by these very gifts and imposition of the Apostles hands by which these gifts were conferred they were inducted into the Ministry and inabled to it The learned Reader will observe the difference that in ver 16. is made betwixt him that spake with the tongues and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A private man that sat by 2. It was not to gabble with any tongue that is called speaking with a tongue for to what edification possible could it be for any Minister in Corinth to speak Persick Coptick Gallick or any other strange language in that Congregation where all of them understood one and the same language but it was to understand and speak the Originals of Scriptures as was touched before and to be able to unfold them and so to prophesie or preach to the people Observe these passages in the Chapter He that speaketh with a strange tongue edifieth himself ver 4. And I would you all spake with tongues Now how could a man edifie himself by speaking in some strange remote language when he might speak or understand the very same thing in his own mother tongue And what were they better if they all so spake unless it were that thereby they were the fitter to look into all humane learning But he or all of them that were able to understand and speak the original language of Scripture might thereby edifie themselves and therein speak and understand what they could not in their mother tongue 3. It appears by the Apostles discourse that these men used these gifts irregularly confusedly and for their own vain glory which he rebukes and rectifies 6. There were also in or crept into this Church those that were either down right Sadduces in denying the Resurrection or that though with the Pharisees they acknowledged it yet denied it of those that had forsaken their Judaism and so would exclude all Christians from it Upon this the fifteenth Chapter discourseth so fully and divinely that nothing can be more Those that this Church sent to visit Paul at Ephesus brought with them a Letter from the Church in the which they desired to be resolved about some doubts as 1. About marriage and a single life what they should do in that case since their Judaick Laws had alwaies laid marriage upon them as a binding command This they reckon the first command of the 613. Vid. marg ad tripl Targ. ad Gen. 1. And this their Canons did so strictly bind on as a duty that they say that he that lives to such an age and marries not transgresseth a preceptive Law Maym. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 1. In this case the Apostle saith Praeceptum non habeo that he accounted it no such command but every one was left to his liberty according as he could contain or not contain And in his stating this case how he speaks the language of his Nation and how far he comes towards their opinions or goes from them the learned may observe by comparing the beginning of this Chapter with Maymony in his Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially fol. apud me 251. 248. 249. 2. About cohabitation of man and wife when the one party was a Believer or a Christian and the other party an unbeliever or an Heathen And here he concludes that the children if either parent were a Christian were holy ver 14. that is Christians and not to be reputed as Heathen Children It is the very phrase that his Nation used about the Children of Proselytes that were born after they were proselyted they were said to be born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in holiness that is within the Religion not in Heathenism 3. About eating things sacrificed to Idols and communicating in such things a dangerous stumbling block of old and particularly forbidden by the Council at Jerusalem Of this he speaketh at large and from the nature of Idol-sacrifices and from the Nature of the Sacraments he sheweth how far they should be separate from such communion with Idolatry He speaketh of all Israels being baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and Sea and so separate from all Egyptian and other Idolatry and Prophaneness and our baptism speaks the like separation The Jews say Moses was sanctified by the Cloud Jerus in Joma fol. 28. col 2. and Paul speaks here the same of all Israel Chap. 10. 2. 4. About Ministers maintenance under the Gospel Chap. 9. which he confirmeth and sheweth that Peter and the rest of the Apostles and their Wives and Families were so maintained Chap. 9. 5 c. He concludes the Epistle with a sad execration upon Whosoever loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ let such a one be Anathema Maran Atha Chap. 16. 22. that is let him be accursed or destroyed Our Lord cometh In which that he in the first aim and intention meaneth the unbelieving Jews may be observed upon these four considerations 1. Because the Jews of all men under Heaven were and are the greatest haters of Christ. Pagans indeed do not love the Lord Jesus because they know him not but again because they know him not they hate him not The Turks love not Christ as Christians love him but again they hate not Christ as the Jews hate him The word Jesus here carries the Emphasis to level this execration at them they pretended to love Messias or a Christ but openly profess hatred of Jesus 2. Because the Apostle here useth such Dialect as that he speaketh in the very Jews language in the words Maran Atha He had spoken in Greek all along the Epistle and Greek all along his Epistles and that here alone he should use a Syriack phrase and not translate it it doth evidently shew that his speech referreth more especially to the Jewish Nation So Jeremy in Chap. 10. v. 11. threatning and cursing the Chaldean Idolatry doth in the Chaldean language one clause of which he useth not throughout his Prophesie beside 3. The Jews of all men did chiefly or only call Jesus anathema as Chap. 12. 3. and as they are not ashamed openly to confess in their Talmud therefore against them of all men first and chiefly is this Anathema aimed 4. This is agreeable to what the Scripture speaks copiously in other places as Isa. 65. 15. You shall leave your name for a curse to my
to trial as soon as they could and that his trial was reasonable early this year it appeareth by his own words in the second Epistle to Timothy where he speaketh of his Answer that he had been at and requireth Timothy to come to him before winter 2 Tim. 4. 16. 21. As he appealed to Nero himself so Nero himself heard his cause Phil. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 16. and here it was possible Paul and Seneca might see each other at which time all that had owned him before withdrew themselves for fear and durst not stand by him or appear with him in this danger Tacitus mentioneth a case much like his which had been tried two years before namely of Pomponia Graecina a noble Lady of Rome concerning a strange Religion Superstitionis externae rea mariti judicio permissa Isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque conjugis cognovit insontem nuntiavit This that he calleth externa superstitio cannot well be understood of any Religion but either Judaism or Christianity for any Heathen superstition did relish so well with them that it could hardly have brought her into danger If her peril of life then were because of Christianity as very well it might it was a terrible example that lay before the Christians there and if it were not then this trial of Paul being of a doubtful issue and consequent and full of danger it made poor Pauls friends to shrink aside in this his extremity and to be to seek when he had most need of them At my first answer saith he none stood with me but all forsook me In which words he doth not so much refer to what or how many more answers he was called to as the postscript of that Epistle seemeth to construe it as he doth intimate that even at the very first pinch and appearance of danger all that should have been his assistants started from him It may be Demas his imbracing of the present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. signifieth in this sense that he forsook Paul and shifted for himself and sculked to avoid the danger or if it be taken that he returned to his worldly impolyment again or that he returned to his Judaism again mean it what it will we shall see in the story of the next year that he returned to Paul and to his station again So that his failing was but as Peters denial of his Master repented of and recovered It was a hard case and a great trial with the Apostle when in so signal an incounter and so imminent danger of his life none of the Church that was at Rome not any of those that were of his own retinue durst own him or stand by him in his exigent but the Lord was with him and brought him off safe from the Lions mouth He being assured by this providence of God to him and for him in his great danger that he was reserved for the further benefit of the Church and propagating of the Gospel applieth himself to that work the best way he can considering his condition of imprisonment and whereas he cannot travel up and down to the Churches to preach to them as he had done he visiteth divers of them with his Epistles And first he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS and sendeth it by Crescens as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4. 10. For though Demas and Crescens and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse yet the reason of their departure cannot be judged to have been alike for however Demas started upon some caâ—nal respect yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek Syriack Arabick and divers other Translations doth generally date it from Rome Beza from Antioch Erasmus from Ephesus but all upon conjecture for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver 2. And all the brethren which are with me saith thus Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari inde scriptam hanc Epistolam c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch and that this Epistle was written from thence at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their return into Asia from their first journey forth and the coming of those troubles to Antioch Acts 14. 28. But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others was not then begun and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted And the former answer may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epidemically infest the Churches was but then beginning And this is one reason why I suppose it written from Rome at this time that we are upon because that gangrene in the Eastern Churches was now come to ripeness as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy which was written this same year See 2 Tim. 1. 15. False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel to their old Ceremonious performances again and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Justification which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and James and John the Ministers of the Circumcision and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars and he shews how those approved of him and it And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law at which was the great stumbling and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon their living in it The Lord had laid a stone in Sion which the Jews could not step over but stumble at even to this day and that is that which is said in Levit. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11. and in otherplaces which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle Chap. 3. 12. from whence they concluded that no living no justification but by the works of the Law The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case and resolves all into faith The first is in ver 17. namely that the Law was not given to cross the Covenant of Grace but to be subservient to it The second in ver 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it but it left a man under the curse Observe that he saith not As many as fail of the works of the Law but As many as are of the works of the Law shewing that the Lawdid not only denounce a curse upon all
36. 1. R. Chinna bar Papa R. Samuel bar Nachman went by a man that was plowing on the seventh year the year of release R. Samuel saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God speed R. Chinna saith Our master did not teach us thus for it is forbidden to say God speed to one that is plowing on the seventh year John stileth himself an Elder and so doth Peter 1 Pet. 5. 1. not as laying aside their Apostolical power but as dealing with those to whom they write in a Ministerial way and by this very title that they assume to themselves they closely intimate that thenceforward the extraordinary Function and gifts Apostolick must not be expected but the Ministerial in the ordinary way of Elders or Ministers as the title had been long and vulgarly known And yet when he speaks of Diotrephes and his abusiveness he then threatens to shew his Apostolick power and himself A Son of thunder against him THE REVELATION OF JOHN AS it will be easily admitted to place this Book last of all the New Testament because it stands so in all Bibles so on the other hand it will be cavilled at that I have brought in the writing of it so soon as before the fall of Jerusalem since it hath been of old and commonly held that it was penned in the reign of Domitian far after these times that we are upon But the reasons by which I have been induced thereunto will appear out of some passages in the Book it self as we go through it As God revealed to Daniel the man greatly beloved the state of his people and the Monarchies that afflicted them from his own time till the coming of Christ so doth Christ to John the beloved Disciple the state of the Church and story in brief of her chief afflicters from thence to the end of the world So that where Daniel ends the Revelation begins and John hath nothing to do with any of the four Monarchies that he speaketh of but deals with a fifth the Roman that rose as it were out of the ashes of those four and swallowed them all up The composure of the Book is much like Daniels in this that it repeats one story over and over again in varied and inlarged expressions and exceeding like Ezekiel's in method and things spoken The style is very Prophetical as to the things spoken and very Hebraizing as to the speaking of them Exceeding much of the old Prophets language and matter adduced to intimate new stories and exceeding much of the Jews language and allusion to their customs and opinions thereby to speak the things more familiarly to be understood And as Ezekiel wrote concerning the ruine of Jerusalem when the ruining of it was now begun so I suppose doth John of the final destruction of it when the Wars and miseries were now begun which bred its destructions REVEL Chap. I II III. THE three first Chapters refer to that present time when John wrote and they contain the story of his obtaining this Revelation and of the condition of the seven Churches of Asia at that time declared in the Epistles directed to them John travelling in the Ministry of the Gospel up and down from Asia Westward cometh into the Isle Patmos in the Icarian Sea Vid. Strab. lib. 10. an Island about thirty miles compass Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12. and there on the Lords day he hath these visions and an Angel interprets to him all he saw He seeth Christ clothed like a Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 13. See the LXX in Exod. 28. 4. and girded over the paps as the Priests used to be with the curious girdle His appearance full of Majesty and gloriousness described in the terms of Daniel Chap. 7. 9. 10. 5 6. Amongst other his Divine titles he is called Alpha and Omega terms ordinarily used by the Jews only uttered in their Hebrew Tongue to signifie the beginning and the end or the first and the last Midr. Tillin fol. 47. 2. Abraham and Sarah performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau Marg. tripl targ in Deut. 18. 13. He that walks in integrity is as if he performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau He directs Epistles to be sent to the seven Churches of Asia who are golden Candlesticks though very full of corruptions it is not a small thing that unchurches a Church and inscribed to the Angels of the Churches This phrase translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sheliahh Tsibbur the title of the Minister in every Synagogue who took care for the publick reading and expounding of the Law and Prophets And these Epistles are sent accordingly to the Ministers of the several Churches that they might be read openly in their Congregations There are seven several Epistles to the several Churches dictated immediately and sent by Christ and another general one from John to them all in which he shews the warrant and way of writing those seven He terms the Holy Ghost the seven Spirits according to the Jews common speech who from Isa. 11. 2. speak much of the seven Spirits of Messias and speaking of Christs coming with clouds Chap. 1. 7. from Dan. 7. 13. and from the words of Christ himself Matth. 24. 30. He at once teacheth that he takes at Daniel and speaks of Christs coming and reigning when the four Monarchies were destroyed and especially referreth to the first most visible evidence of his power and dominion in coming to destroy his enemies the Jewish Nation and their City And here is one reason that induceth me to suppose this Book written before that City was destroyed Coming to read the present condition of these Asian Churches in the Epistles written to them we may pertinently think of that saying of Paul 2 Tim. 1. 15. This thou knowest that all they that are in Asia are turned from me A great Apostacy of which there is too much evidence in these Churches as also mention of some sad fruits of it and means and instruments inducing to it As 1. unbelieving Jews which the Holy Ghost all along calls A Synagogue of Satan with these the Church of Smyrna was pestered and more especially Pergamus where their mischievousness is stiled the very throne or seat of Satan and where they had murdered Antipas a faithful Martyr already 2. False Apostles and seducers some that pretended Apostolick power and commission and it may be coloured their pretences with Magical wonders that they might act more Apostle like These the Church of Ephesus was troubled with but had discovered their delusions and found them liars 3. Other seducers that it may be came not in the demonstration of such devilish power but answered that by their horrid devilish doctrines the doctrines of the Nicolaitans which taught to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication In Thyatire a woman seducer cried up this doctrine a whore and witch a Jezabel wherefore she and her children that is her Disciples are threatned to be destroyed
lay their hands upon them and they receive the Holy Ghost Here Episcopacy thinketh it hath an undeniable Argument for proof of its Hierarchy and of the strange rite of confirmation For thus pleadeth Baronius for the former From hence saith he it may be seen that the Hierarchical order was instituted in the Church of God even in this time for Philip doth so baptize those that believe that yet he usurpeth not the Apostolical priviledge namely the imposition of hands granted to the Apostles And thus the Rhemists both for it and for the latter in their notes on Act. 8. 17. If this Philip had been an Apostle saith S. Bede he might have imposed his hands that they might have received the Holy Ghost but this none can do saving Bishops For though Priests may baptize and anoint the baptized also with Chrisme consecrated by a Bishop yet can he not sign his forehead with the same holy oyl because that belongeth only to Bishops when they give the Holy Ghost to be baptized And after this testimony of Bede they subjoyn their inference This imposition therefore of hands together with the prayers here specified which no doubt was the very same that the Church useth to that purpose was the ministration of the Sacrament of Confirmation Now let the Reader with indifferency and seriousness but ruminate upon these two Queries and then judge of those two inferences First whether Apostleship were not an Order for ever unimitable in the Church for besides the Reason given to prove that it was upon the choosing of Matthias others may be added to make it the more clear As 1. the end of their Election was peculiar the like to which was not to be in the Church again for they were chosen to be with Christ Mark 3. 14. to be eye-witnesses of his resurrection Acts 1. 22. 2. 32. 10. 41. as they had been of his actions and passion Luke 1. 2. And therefore Paul pleading for his Apostleship That he had seen the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 1. and in the relation or story of his calling this particular is singulary added That he saw that just one and heard the voice of his mouth Acts 22. 14. Secondly the name of Apostles keepeth it self unmixed or confounded with any other Order It is true indeed that the significancy of the word would agree to other Ministers that are to preach but there is a peculiar propriety in the sense that hath confined the title to the twelve and Paul as any indifferent eye will judge and censure upon the weighing of it in the New Testament Thirdly when Paul reckoneth the several kinds of Ministry that Christ Jesus left in the Church at his ascension Ephes. 4. 11. and 1 Cor. 12. 28. there is none that can think them all to be perpetuated or that they should continue successively in the like order from time to time For within an hundred years after our Saviours birth where were either Prophets or Evangelists miracles or healings And if these extraordinary kinds of Ministration were ordained but for a time and for special occasion and were not to be imitated in the Church unto succeeding times much more or at the least as much were the Apostles and Order much more at least as much extraordinary as they Fourthly the constant and undeniable Parallel which is made betwixt the twelve Patriarchs the Fathers of the twelve Tribes and the twelve Apostles not only by the number it self but also by the New Testament in the four and twenty Elders Rev. 4. 4. and in the gates and foundations of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21. 12 14. doth argue and prove the latter order as unimitable as the first These things well considered if there were no more it will shew how improbable and unconsonant the first inference is that is alledged that because there was a subordination betwixt the Apostles and Philip that therefore the like is to be reputed betwixt Bishops and other Ministers and that Bishops in the Church are in the place of the Apostles A second Quaere and very material to the matter in agitation is whether imposition of hands were ever used by the Apostles but for ordination to some Office in the Church For whereas their giving of the Holy Ghost to Samaritans in this story and to others elsewhere is adduced as an example and argument for that which is now called confirmation and which hath been indifferently given to all for it is good cheap that this act of the Apostles aimed not nor intended to any such thing may be reasonably conjectured and guessed at by these considerations First that the Holy Ghost thus given meaneth not his ordinary work of Sanctification and confirming in Grace but his extraordinary gifts of Tongues Prophecying and the like And this is evident by the meaning of that Phrase the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures when it denoteth not exactly the Person of the Holy Ghost or the third person in the Trinity For as it is a Rabbinick expression very common in the writings of the Jews and in the use of the Nation and evermore in their use and sense meaneth only the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit mentioned so doth it constantly signifie in the Scripture and it is very hard if not utterly impossible to find it signifying any other sense Secondly it is yet more evident by the very historical relation of Luke concerning the matter in hand for in Acts 19. 6. telling how Paul laid his hands upon certain men at Ephesus and they received the Holy Ghost he instantly explaineth what were the gifts of the Holy Ghost that they received for they spake with tongues saith he and prophecyed And it is not possible to think but that Simon Magus when he offered money for this fruit of the imposition of his hands that he might give the Holy Ghost saw some visible apparent sign of the gift by the hands of the Apostles which if it were only sanctifying or confirming grace how could he have seen it So did they of the Circumcision perceive when the gifts of Holy Ghost fell upon the Gentiles Acts 10. 45. For they saw it by their speaking with tongues and magnifying God vers 46. Fourthly it being then thus undeniable that the gifts conferred by the imposition of hands were the extraordinary ones of the Holy Ghost it can as little also be denyed that they were imparted only to some singular and particular persons and not to all whatsoever without distinction For otherwise 1. It must be granted that Simon Magus received them as well as others which I know not who will grant for by his familiarity with Philip and the Apostles he having also been baptized with the rest and his wickedness and his villany not yet broken forth he might have gotten a precedency in this gift before others if it had been general 2. It would bring women under imposition of hands which can hardly be dreamed of or ever was any one It is true
commission to go preach among the Gentiles Acts 22. 18 21. And so he returneth from Jerusalem to Antioch where we shall have him the next year §. 2. Peter not this year at Rome This year the Romanists have brought Peter to Rome and made this the first year or beginning of his Episcopacy there For thus Baronius That Peter came to Rome this second year of Claudius the Emperor it is the common Opinion of all men And to this purpose he alledgeth Eusebius his Chronicle and Jerome de scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis and concludeth that others have written the same things concerning the time that there can be no doubt left of it It may be tolerated to insist a little the more largely upon the examination of this opinion not for that it is of any such great import in its own nature as for that it is made of so great by them for their own advantage For were it granted that Peter was Bishop of Rome and that he went thither in this year yet what great matter were there in this in common sense and reason But because unreasonable men have from hence or upon this foundation built the supremacy of the Pope the great delusion of the world let the same common sense and reason equally and impartially judge of the probability or improbability of this thing in these two parts into which this tenet doth fall of it self 1. Whether it be probable that Peter was Bishop of Rome at all 2. Whether it be possible that he could come thither this year according as they themselves have laid his progress and that he should set up an Episcopacy there Weigh the first by these First Peter was Minister of the Circumcision why then should he go settle himself to live and die among the uncircumcised He might indeed have preached to the uncircumcised as he travailed up and down as Paul did to the circumcised being the Minister of the uncircumcision but to take up his abode and residence and there to settle to live and die among them was a thing neither probable in the eyes of other men nor justifiable in him himself Secondly If Peter were at Rome in the sense and extent that the Romanists will have it then hath the Scripture omitted one of the greatest points of salvation that belongeth to Christianity For how many main points of Faith hath Popery drawn out of this one conclusion that Peter was Bishop of Rome as the Primacy of the Pope the infallibility of his Chair his absolute power of binding and loosing no salvation out of the Church of Rome and divers other things which all hang upon the Pin forenamed And it is utterly incredible 1. That the Holy Ghost that wrote the Scriptures for mans salvation should not express or mention a thing that containeth so many points of salvation 2. That Luke that undertook to write the Acts of the Apostles should omit this one act of Peter which is made of more consequence than all the actions of all the Apostles beside It is above all belief that he that would tell of Phillips being at Azotus and going to Caesarea Chap. 8. 40. Sauls going to Tarsus Chap. 9. 30. And Barnabas his going thither to him and divers other things of small import in comparison should omit the greatest and most material and of the infinitest import that ever mortal mans journy was for to that height is the journy of Peter to Rome now come if there had ever been such a thing at all Thirdly It is as incredible that Paul sending salutations to so many in Rome and again from so many there should omit to have named Peter at one time or other if he had been there What was become of Peter in these reciprocal kindnesses and salutations of the Saints one to another was he a sleep or was he sullen or what shall we make of him or was he not indeed at Rome at all But not to insist upon this question whether Peter were at Rome at all which hath been proved negatively by many Authors and by many undeniable Arguments let us look a little upon this foundation of his being there which hath been laid namely his coming thither this year which is the second thing to be taken into consideration And about this point there have been divers simple Ignoramus's in former time who so they held this first Article of the Roman Creed That Peter was Bishop of Rome five and twenty years and died in the last year of Nero and so believed as the Church believed they never cared to bring the head and heels together or to observe how the times agreed but have easily swallowed this camel of sensless computation that Peter went from the Councel of Jerusalem Acts 15. to Rome and there sate Bishop five and twenty years which expired in the last of Nero whereas betwixt the Councel at Jerusalem and the last of Nero there were but twenty years in all if there were so many But nimbler wits that cannot be caught in so plain and apparent a trap as this have found out a quainter and more curious date from which to begin the Chair of Peter at Rome than this and that is from the Story in the twelfth of the Acts of the Apostles Where Peter being apprehended by Herod after his murder of James the great and being delivered by an Angel and having acquainted the Disciples with his delivery they being together in John Marks house he is said to depart to another place which they say and you must believe it or they will take it very ill was to Rome and this was say they the second year of Claudius A long journey believe it to run to Rome to avoid danger at Jerusalem and Rome but a mad place to set up an Episcopacy in at this time as hath been plain in the preceding and will be also in the subsequent story of it But that we may see if not the impossibility yet the utter improbability of that his journy in this second of Claudius if that were the journy in the twelfth of the Acts it will not be impertinent to insert a story out of Josephus concerning Agrippa's return from Rome to Jerusalem where he slew James and imprisoned Peter PART II. The JEWISH Story §. Herod Agrippa his coming to Jerusalem CLAUDIUS the Emperor having attained the Empire as we have seen the more easily and readily by the mediation and agitating of Agrippa he would requite him like an Emperor for that his service and therefore he confirmed to him by Charter that Kingdom in which he had been inthroned by Caius adding also Judea and Samaria which had belonged to his Grandfather Herod from hence it may seem that he took that name and Abilene and the Region near it and appertaining to it in Lebanon which had belonged to Lysanias He caused also the Articles of a League betwixt himself and the King to be cut in brass and to be set up in the midst of
to the study of the Law The reason of the number of ten though lean and empty enough is given in the Talmud and it is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Sanhedr cap. 4. hal 6. A Congregation consists of Ten which they prove hence because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How long shall I bear with this evil Congregation c. Numb XIV 27. Take away Josua and Caleb and there remain only ten namely of the spies of the land II. Of these Ten Men 1. Three bare the Magistracy and were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bench of three Whose office it was to decide the differences arising between the members of the Synagogue and to take care about other matters of the Synagogue These judged concerning mony matters thefts losses restitutions of ravishing a Virgin of a man inticing a Virgin of the admission of Proselytes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying on of hands and divers other things of which see the Tract g g g g g g Cap. 4. hal â— 2. Sanhedrin These were properly and with good reason called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers of the Synagogue because on them laid the chief care of things and the chief Power 2. Besides these there was the publick Minister of the Synagogue who prayed publickly and took care about the reading of the Law and sometimes preached if there were not some other to discharge this office This person was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of the Church and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chazan or Bishop of the Congregation The Aruch gives the reason of the name The * * * * * * Chazan Chazan saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of the Church or the publick Minister and the Targum renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that oversees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is incumbent on him to oversee how the Reader reads and whom he may call out to read in the Law The publick Minister of the Synagogue himself read not the Law publickly but every Sabbath he called out seven of the Synagogue on other days fewer whom he judged fit to read He stood by him that read with great care observing that he read nothing either falsely or improperly and calling him back and correcting him if he had failed in any thing And hence he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Overseer Certainly the signification of the word Bishop and Angel of the Church had been determined with less noyse if recourse had been made to the proper fountains and men had not vainly disputed about the signification of words taken I know not whence The service and worship of the Temple being abolished as being ceremonial God transplanted the worship and publick adoration of God used in the Synagogues which was moral into the Christian Church to wit the publick Ministry publick Prayers reading Gods Word and Preaching c. Hence the names of the Ministers of the Gospel were the very same The Angel of the Church and The Bishop which belonged to the Ministers in the Synagogues 3. There were also three Deacons or Almoners on whom was the care of the poor and these were called Parnasim or Pastors And these seven perhaps were reputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seven good men of the City of whom there is frequent remembrance in the Talmudists Of these Parnasim we shall only produce these things There were two who demanded alms of the Towns men and they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h Maimon in Sanhedr cap. 1. The two collectors of Alms. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To whom was added a third to distribute it i i i i i i Hieros Peah fol. 21. 1. R. Chelbo in the name of R. Ba Bar Zabda saith They do not make fewer than three Parnasin For I see the judgments about many matters to be managed by three therefore much more these which concern life R. Josi in the name of R. Jochanan saith They do not make two brethren Parnasim R. Josi went to Chephar intending there to set Parnasim over them but they received him not He went away after he had said these words before them Ben Bebai was only set over the threeded linnen of the Lamps and yet he was reckoned worthy to be numbred with the eminent men of that age See Shekalim Chap. 5. Ye who are set over the lives of men how much more are ye so R. Chaggai when he appointed the Parnasin argued to them out of the Law all dominion that is given is given from the Law By me Kings reign R. Chaiia bar Ba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers over them that is he appointed Parnasin R. Lazar was a Parnas This perhaps holds out a light to those words of the Aposte 1 Tim. III. 13. They that have performed the office of a Deacon well have obtained to themselves a good degree that is being faithful in their care and provision for the poor as to their corporal life they may well be Probationers for the care of Souls For when those Parnasin as also all the Ten were learned and studious they might with good reason be preferred from the care of Bodies to that of Souls The Apostles Deacons are to be reckoned also of the same Learned and Studious rank And now let us turn our Eyes a little from the Synagogues to Christian Churches in the history of the New Testament When the Romans permitted the Jewish Synagogues to use their own laws and proper government why I pray should there not be the same toleration allowed to the Apostolical Churches The Roman censure had as yet made no difference between the Judaizing Synagogues of the Jews and the Christian Synagogues or Churches of Jews nor did it permit them to live afâ—er their own Laws and forbid these I am not therefore afâ—raid to assert that the Churches of that first age were wanting to themselves if they took not up the same liberty of government as the Romans allowed the Jewish Synagogues to use And I do not think that was said by the Apostle 1 Cor. VI. 2 3 c. without this foundation Therefore this power of their own government being allowed them if so be they were minded to enjoy what they might how easily may those words of the Apostle be understood which have so wracked Learned Men shall I say or which have been so wracked by them 1 Tim. V. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the Elders that rule well c. 4. We may reckon the eighth man of these Ten to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Interpreter in the Synagogue who being skilled in the Tongues and standing by him that read in the Law rendred in the Mother Tongue verse by verse those things that were read
dreadful accomplishment of that denuntiation The other Texts I mentioned they shew the natural and genuine product of the Gospel They shall beat their swords into plow shares c. But when will that be Never according to universal obtaining Ever have been Wars and ever will be because ever will be Lusts. And yet these are fulfilled in the sence proposed by the Prophets viz. that God hath fully afforded means for this The Gospel hath enough in it to move men to peace but the fault is in themselves God hath not failed but men fail As it is in Rom. III. 3. What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect So what if some be unpeaceable shall their divisions make the Gospel of peace of none effect So in other prophesies to make like construction Jer. XXXI 34. They shall no more teach every man his neighbour for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest It never was never will be Esa. LXV 20. There shall be no more thence an Infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days It never was nor will be Yet God hath accomplished what he promised He hath afforded means that it might be so Let me therefore leave this great copy of peaceableness and communion with you A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE Staffordshire-Natives At St. Mary Wolchurch LONDON Novemb. 22. 1660. S. JUDE Vers. 12. These are spots in your Feasts of Charity I Must take up that Stile and Strain of excuse to begin withal that St. Paul doth to his Countrymen about his Appeal unto Coesar I have nothing saith he to accuse my Nation of though I have been put upon it to make such an Appeal So I I have nothing Dear Country-men to accuse this your Feast of Charity of nor nothing to accuse any of that are to come to it though I have chosen these words that speak so point blank of spots that occurred in such kind of Feasts But I have fixed upon the words partly that I might speak in some kind of parity to that discourse that I made to you at our last meeting upon this occasion and chiefly that I might give you caution against such that to Feasts are spots to Charity destructive and to all meetings dangerous Who they were that our Apostle meaneth I shall clear to you by these two Observations I. That as it was foretold by the Holy Spirit in the Prophets that the best and most comfortable things that ever should accrue to the Church of the Jews should accrue to them in the last days that is of Jerusalem For so is that expression the last days in most places of Scripture to be understood So was it also foretold by the same Spirit that the worst things that ever should accrue to it should be in those last days also It was foretold that in those last days Esa. II. 2. That the mountain of the Lords house should be established in the top of the mountains and should be exalted above the hills and that all Nations should flow unto it That in those last days Joel II. 29 30 c. God would pour out his Spirit upon the servants and upon the handmaids and that he would shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth c. That in those last days Hos. III. 5. the Children of Israel should return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and should fear the Lord and his goodness And all other things of the greatest comfort So it was also foretold That in those last days perilous times and persons should come II Tim. III. 1. In those last days there should come scoffers walking after their own lusts II Pet. III. 3. In those last days there should be many Antichrists I Joh. II. 18. And by this we know that it is the last time Among all other the sad things that befel in those last days of Jerusalem and the Commonwealth of the Jews one of the greatest was that there was a most horrid and very general Apostacy or falling away from Faith in the most Churches of the Jews that had embraced the Gospel they turning back to their old Judaism and vain Traditions again Of this the Spirit had spoken expresly I Tim. IV. 1. Of this our Saviour had foretold in that sad application of the Parable Matth. XII 45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he saith I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation The Devil had been cast out of a very great part of the Nation of the Jews He thought to find rest there but found none such notable success had the Gospel of Christ found in that Nation Upon which the Devil marshalleth up all his malice strength and subtility taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and so he at last prevails to cause a grievous defection in the People from Christianity they enter in and dwell there and their last state was worse than their first So was it with that generation Of this he had foretold Matth. XXIV 12. And because iniquity shall abound the Love of many shall wax cold Of this the Apostle speaketh II Thess. II. That before the terrible day of the Lord and his vengeance against Jerusalem for â—â— that phrase doth signifie almost continually there should be a falling away Of this you find sad footings in the Church of Galatia Gal. III. 3. IV. 9 10. of Colosse Col. II. 20. of Ephesus Revel II. 4. And indeed you may track the footing of it in all the Epistles of the Apostles II. The chief cursed promoters and procurers of this backsliding was that multitude of false Teachers of the Jewish Nation that went about pretending to have the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and many of them working Miracles by the power of Magick so shaâ—â—ing the minds of men and drawing them away from the Faith of the Gospel of Christ. Of these our Saviour had foretold when he foretold of the miseries that should occur in those last days of Jerusalem Matth. XXIV 24. Of these the Apostle foretold when he spake of the Jewish Antichrist for of the Jew he speaks II Thes. II. and saith he would come after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders vers 9. And of these the same Apostle speaks in that obscure place I Cor. XII 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed For divers went about pretending to the Spirit and yet cursed our Lord Jesus Mention and footing of these you may
there were no age but there would be some persons Oracular as Moses If any limit then where is it fixed I say at the fall of Jerusalem And I will prove it by what they bring to prove Prophesie for these days Act. II. 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and their sons and their daughters shall Prophesie c. By the last days they would understand it of the World I of Jerusalem So in divers places besides That it is so to be understood in the place S. Peters application makes out Who applies this place of the Old Testament unto himself and the Christians at that time upon occasion of their speaking strange Languages What absurdity would there also be in his applying this place The old Oeconomy is as the old World the Evangelical is the new Heaven and the new Earth So that the last days of the old World are the last days of the old Oeconomy Hence the destruction of Jerusalem is spoke of as the destruction of the old World and Christs coming is said to be in the last days So that if we take not the pouring out of the Spirit in the last days in that sence we swerve from the sence of the phrase in Scripture And hence it appears that Spirit to be in those last days and that it was affixed to them from propriety of phrase To this we might add the manner of imparting the Spirit in those times It was either by effusion upon many together Act. II. X. or by imposition of hands upon some single ones Now who dares think that ever was since the fall of Jerusalem such manner of giving or ever will be And these are the only ways of imparting the Spirit that are spoke of since Christ ascended To all we might add that at the fall of Jerusalem all Scripture was written and Gods full will revealed so that there was no further need of Prophesie and Revelation Therefore those places they cite are misapplied both as to the time and also as to the proper sence of them So that here is a discovery of the third delusion that Prophesie still continues whereas it was to cease at the fall of Jerusalem and there is no promise whereupon any hath reason to expect it in these times IV. The standing Ministry is the ordinary Method that God hath used for the instruction of his Church It has ever been Gods way since he first wrote words to teach his Church by a studious learned Ministry who were to explain the Scripture by study not by the Spirit Mistake not this Ministry consisted not of Prophets they were occasional and of necessity but of Priests and Levites We are sent to them Hag. II. 11. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts ask now the Priests concerning the Law Mal. II. 7. For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts We have mention made of the sons of the Prophets in the Old Testament these were not inspired but understanding was instilled into them by Elias and they sat at his feet such were those of Issachar So the Disciples sat at the feet of Christ. The true Apostles indeed were inspired because there was a necessity of it But when the New Testament was written there was no further need of inspiration And then the Church was sufficiently instructed by ordinary Ministers therefore was Timothy left at Ephesus Titus in Creet Thefore was the Imposition of Hands Hebrews VI. 2. I conclude all with that suitable advise of St. John I Chap. IV. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE Staffordshire-Natives At St. Michaels Cornhil LONDON Novemb. 26. 1663. ROM V. Vers. 1. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God THIS Text may seem very unsuitable to this occasion but certainly to no occasion no company no season can it be unsuitable can it be unseasonable to speak hear meditate of the infinite mercy of God in justifying men and of the unexpressible happiness of man in having peace with God But I have chosen this Subject to treat upon in a methodical succession to what I have discoursed upon heretofore being called to this Employment At my first being upon this task before you from those words in X. Joh. 22 23. which speaks of Christs being at Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication I shewed you at large how our Saviour held Communion with the Church of the Jews and thereupon I spake of such unity against Schism At my second from those words Jud. vers 12. These are spots in your Feasts of Charity I shewed that the spots spoken of were false Teachers that went abroad pretending to the Spirit and so deceiving and thereupon I spake of taking heed of such delusions against Heresie and Error And now what can I more orderly and methodically speak upon after speaking of keeping Peace with the Church and keeping Peace with the Truth than of having Peace with God Yes you will say To have taken in first having peace one with another True that might not have been immethodical But you speak that in my stead this Loving Friendly Brotherly meeting discourses that for me and makes a visible Sermon of your peace one with another And I have made that as it were a Text whereupon to raise an occasional meditation to the tenor of that which the Text that I have read speaks And let me raise it thus If it be so good and pleasant and happy a thing to see brethren thus live together in unity thus to meet together to walk together to Feast together in Love Unity and Peace Sursum corda lift up your hearts and from this lustre you see of the Sun shining in this water below look up to the light that is in the body of the Sun it self and meditate how excellent how pleasant how happy a thing it is to have peace with God to walk in peace with God in his own ways to converse in peace with God in his own House to Feast in peace with God at his own Table and at night to lie down and sleep in peace with with God in his own Bosom This is the last Epistle the Apostle wrote before his apprehension and imprisonment He wrote it from Corinth where he touched in his journy to Jerusalem his last journy thither He wrote it in the second year of Nero immediately after Easter when Claudius who had hindred the Mystery of iniquity from its working in its full scope by his discountenancing the Jewish Nation had now been taken away above a year and an half ago And now that mystery did find it self loose and acted in its full activity those of that Nation that had not embraced the Gospel persecuting it with all
tyranny in the one and the Jews malice and mischievousness in the other and upon the full view the Roman and the Jew conspiring together and becoming guilty of this horridest fact that ever was committed under the Sun the murthering of the Lord of life and glory Let us begin first with Pilate who stands first in mention in the Text as he stands representative of Rome whose authority he carried and whose Tyranny in this case he exercised Methinks there is hardly a more remarkable passage in the whole book of the Revelations then that Chap. XIII 2. The Dragon gave his power and seat and great authority unto the Beast Which in plain English is this The Devil gave his power and seat and great authority to Rome For that by the Dragon is meant the Devil there is none but grant and that by the Beast is meant Rome even Romanists themselves do not deny When you read that passage in S. Luke IV. 5 6. that the Devil shewed our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them do you not presently conceive that he shewed him Rome her Empire and Glory For then where was the pomp and glory of the World but within that City and Empire And when you read that he said unto him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them do you not presently conceive that he offered to make him Caesar or Lord of that vast Empire if he would fall down and worship him And how pat do these words of his for that is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give them agree with these in the Revelations The Dragon gave his power and seat and great authority unto the beast It neither is nor indeed could be said so of the other Monarchies or Empires that had gone before It is not said the Dragon gave his power to the Babylonian Empire nor to the Persian nor Grecian nor Syrogrecian nor indeed could it be so truly and pertinently said so concerning them as concerning Rome For the Dragon had a business for Rome to do which the other neither did nor could do for him which was to put the Lord of life to death The old Serpent knew from of old that he was to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman that he was to compass the death of Messias and it was reserved to Rome and her power and tyranny to be the instrument of such an action and the Dragon gave his power seat and authority to that City for that purpose that it might do his business in murthering Christ and his members after him Pilate who carried with him the authority and commission of that City confessed him innocent and yet condemned him pleaded for him that he was not guilty and yet crucified him and that mainly upon the account of Rome and for her sake because forsooth there must be no King but Caesar or who was set up or kinged by Caesar. In Revel XI 8. where mention is made of slaying the two witnesses it is said their dead carcasses shall lie in the streets of that great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified The last clause where also our Lord was crucified may seem to direct your eyes to Jerusalem but the title The great City which Chap. XVII ult is defined The great City which ruleth over the Kings of the Earth calls them back again to look at Rome as our Lords crucifier by whom that work must be done or not done at all for to such a tenour do the Jews tell Pilate in the Text when they say It is not lawful for us Before ever I should turn Romanist I must be satisfied in this scruple and question How comes the Jew and Jerusalem so cursed a Place and Nation for the murther of our Lord and the Romanist and Rome so blessed as to be the holy mother Church of all the World when that City and Nation had as deep and bloody a hand in the murther of the Saviour of the World as the other if not deeper I remember the story of one of the Grand Seigniors that when he had received a foul and base foil before a poor and contemptible Town Scodra if I mistake not the name for very rancour and vexation and that he might be whetting on himself continually to revenge he commanded him that waited nearest on him to be minding him continually with these words Remember Scodra May I be so bold as to hint such a memorandum to you against Rome As oft as you read or rehearse or hear rehearsed that article in our Creed He suffered under Pontius Pilate Remember Rome and that under that it was our Saviour suffered and the article minds you of so much and if it were not intended for such a memorandum had it not been enough to have said He suffered without any mention of Pontius Pilate at all Let us reason with the Romanist a little after the manner of his own Logick He argues thus Peter was at Rome and sat Bishop there and suffered martyrdom and died there Ergo Rome is the mother Church and head of all Churches We argue in like manner Pilate was at Jerusalem sat Judge there condemned and crucified the Lord of life there and that by the Power and Authority of Rome Ergo let Rome look to it how she clears her self of that fact and guiltiness And so I have done with the first party in mention in the Text Pilate and he invested with the Roman authority The other party are the Jews more peculiarly the Sanhedrin invested also wiâ—â— the Jewish power and Representatives of the whole Nation How busie and active the Jews were in this bloody business needs no illustration of mine the Sacred pens of the Evangelists have done that abundantly Only I might speak to this circumstance and not impertinent question whether the Jews did not indeed think him to be the Messias and yet murthered him Pilate condemned him though he knew him innocent and did not they murther him though they knew him to be the very Christ Methinks that passage in the Parable of the husbandmen in the Vineyard speaks very fairly for the Affirmative Matth. XXI 38. When the husband men saw the Son they said this is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance They knew him to be the heir and yet they kill him nay they kill him because they know him to be the heir and that by killing him they shall get the inheritance It is said indeed they knew him not Act. XIII 27. which if you interpret that they knew not the dignity of his person and that he was God as well as man the Jews will not be perswaded of the Godhead of Messias to this day that does not deny but that they might take him for the Messias howsoever But I shall not dispute this case If they took him for Messias they thought he was not
be taken for a Jacob yet she must give leave to standers by to take her for Esau when her hands and neck and other parts be as rough as his Set her and this mystery of iniquity we have been speaking of together and can you know them asunder Though I am not perswaded the Apostle speaks of Rome in 2 Thes. II. but of these first Apostate Christians yet comes not Rome an inch behind what is charactered there I. Both of them Apostatized from the truth she as well as those in the Text before us It s very true Rome had once been a famous Church whose Faith was renowned through the whole World as the Apostle intimates once and again in his Epistle thither But as the Historian Quaeres Samnium You may seek for Samnium where Samnium was and not find it so may you seek for such a Church there where once such a Church was and be far enough from finding it Corruptio optimi The corruption of that best Church that then was is become the worst corruption And if you would find either truth or a right Church there you do but look for the living among the dead They brag of their incorruption and that their Doctrine and Worship hath descended pure all along and that that Church hath not been tainted from its first foundation by Peter and Paul So the Jews of old cried The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord when they had made it a den of thieves You can hardly perswade me but some taint was got into that Church in the time of Peter I do not say for I am assured he never was there but even before Paul came there and while he was there and sure he must be of a large faith that can believe she hath kept pure so many hundred years together above a thousand When I read that Rom. XVI 17. I beseech you brethren mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine ye have learned and avoid them For they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly I cannot but strongly suspect that there were some such wretched ones as these we have been speaking of then tampering in the Church of Rome and it was well if she received no taint from them hardly any Church in the World but did And when I read that Philip I. 16. Some preach Christ of envy and contention not purely thinking to add affliction to my bonds I cannot but suspect that that was in Rome it self where the Apostle then lay prisoner And that then the quarrel I am of Paul I am of Cephas or Peter was set afoot in the Church of Rome as it was in the Church of Corinth How ever I believe that that Star that fell from Heaven to whom was given the key of the bottomless Pit and he opened the Pit and let out horrid smoke and so horrid Locust Rev. IX beginning is most truly understood by our Protestant Divines of the Bishop of Rome or the Papacy For a Star in the Revelation-language is a Doctor or Minister of the Church and falling from Heaven is falling from the Truth and the true Church II. As the Apostasie of the men in the Text and in the Apostles description in this Chapter and elsewhere was into the two contraries strictness in outward ceremony and looseness of life and conversation he that knows not the like in the Papacy is little acquainted with their story As great strictness injoyned in the one and as great loosness permitted in the other in that Church as that the Jews themselves were not more strict in the one nor the Heathens themselves more loose in the other Like Solomons Temple windows if it were fit to compare so noble a thing with so base narrow without and broad within strict in outward formality loose in inward conversation III. As these in the Text resist the Truth so that the Papacy doth none that is a child or disciple of the Truth but he knows with grief and can they of the Papacy but know it themselves How many witnesses of this matter have been in every corner of the World especiall in those where the truth or purity of the Gospel hath appeared Were you to name the greatest contrariety to the truth of the Gospel that you could name could you name any thing so directly contrary as Popery The smoke out of the bottomless pit that is as contrary to the purity of the light as what can be most contrary I should but do what is done again and again in large and numerous volumes if I should go about to prove and evidence this to you viz. That the Papacy is the great resister of the Truth and Gospel and the great contrariety to the purity of the Gospel There are two things that speak it out though all Protestants hold their peace And those are 1. Their corruption of the Scriptures and the Fathers As the messengers for Micaiah would have corrupted him to speak as the false Prophets did so do these by the Scriptures and Fathers to make them speak according to their own mind Their Index expurgatorius shews that they are void of all shame in this point as well as void of all conscience And crueller then the Gileadites that slew so many for saying Sibboleth these make those say Sibboleth whether they will or no that they may destroy the Truth that they once spoke out 2. The bitter and bloody persecution that the Church of Rome hath ever used against the true profession of the Gospel is a testimony written in blood how incomparable a resister of the Truth the Papacy is And had Christ been at Rome any time for those many and many years he had tasted of their kindness that way It is compounded of such principles that the Truth and it cannot live together but it cannot but seek to destroy the Truth The very temper of the Devil himself who not only strives to destroy the Gospel but cannot do it with all his endeavour Aut tu illum aut ille vi He must either destroy it or it will destroy him What resistance the Papacy practiseth against the Truth by persecution I suppose it needless to speak of unto any that hath heard of the bloody days of Queen Mary the Massacre in France and the Powder Treason in England that you need go no further for instance And blessed be the Lord for that we have these testimonies only to our ears and have not seen Popish resistance of the Truth by persecution with our eyes The Lord grant that England never see it Thus have we briefly taken some view of the mystery of iniquity hinted in the Text and verse whence it is taken Men of corrupt minds reprobated concerning the faith resisting the truth as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses Now how large a discourse might we take up of the mysterious dispensation of God in permitting his most sacred Truth to be so affronted and resisted His
Christ did abolish the Worship used at the Temple which was Ceremonial but not that at the Synagogue which was moral 1041 Wrath Christ suffered as much as God could put him to suffer short of his own Wrath. p. 1255. Christ did not undergo the Wrath and Anger of God but the Justice of God in his sufferings p. 1348 1349 1350. With the Wrath of the Devil he had indeed to deal 1349 Y. YEAR the beginning of it was in September till Israel's coming out of Egypt then it was changed into March Page 1322 c. 1329 Years three years and an half often made use of to express things afflictive and sorrowful 513 Z. ZACHARIAS son of Barachias that was Zacharias the son of Jehoiada made to appear by several Arguments and Objections answered p. 237 to 239. The Story of his Blood shed between the Temple and the Altar what out of the Talmud Page 1120 Zalmon a Mountain or part of one near Sychem supposed to be Dalinon or Dalmonutba 310 Zarephath and Sarepta whether the same and where situate 368 Zaretan sometimes called Zarthanah a City twelve miles distant from Adam which twelve miles the waters of Jordan dried up when Israel passed through 82 Zeal or Zealous and Jealousie or Jealous are comprehended under the same word in the Hebrew what they are 1314 Zealots such Men when Persecutors did the most mischief 604 Ziddim the same with Caphar Chittai 71 Zin where and whence so called 325 Zippor or Sippor a City encompassed with a Land flowing with Milk and Honey noted for Warlike affairs an University many Synagogues and many Famous Doctors 74 75 Zophim the same with Scopo and Scopus 41 Zuz and Denarius a Peny were of the same value among the Rabbins p. 343 c. 349. It was the fourth part of a Shekel of Silver ibid. Zuzims what 363 FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Richard Chiswell FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in two Volums Dr. Cary's Chronological account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian Dictionary B. Wilkin's real Character or Philosophical Language Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Guillim's Display of Heraldry with large additions Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of England in two Vol. Account of the Confessions and Prayers of the Murtherers of Esquire Thynn Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion Rushworth's Historical Collections the second Part in 2. 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Assize Sermon at Leicester July 31. 1679. Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Law of Nature and the Christian Religion Mr. William's Sermon before the Lord Mayor 1679. History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the proceedings relating thereunto from the Exceptions made against it by the Catholick Apologist and others and a Parallel betwixt that and the present Popish Plot. Speculum Baxterianum or Baxter against Baxter Dr. Burnet's Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants in France Conversion and Persecutions of Eve Cohan a Jewess of Quality lately Baptized Christian. Sermon before the Lord Mayor upon the Fast for the Fire 1680. Fast Sermon before the House of Com. Dec. 22. 1680. Sermon on the 30th of January 1681. Sermon at the Election of the Lord Mayor 1681. Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Houblon 1682. Answer to the Animadversions on his History of the Rights of Princes 1682. Decree made at Rome 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Published by Dr. Burnet with a Preface A Letter giving a Relation of the present state of the difference between the French K. and the Court of Rome Bibliotheca Norfolciana five Catalogus Libr. Manuscript impress in omni Arte Lingua quos Hen. Dux Norfolciae Regiae Societati Londinensi pro scientia naturali promovenda donavit OCTAVO BIshop Wilkin's Natural Religion Dr. Grew's Phiâ—ological History continued on Roots Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice Dr. Brown's Religio Medici with Digbies Observations Several Tracts of Mr. Hales of Eaton Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity in three Parts Ignatius Fuller's Sermons of Peace and Holiness A free Conference touching the present State of England at home and abroad in order to the designs of France Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works by Dr. Tho. 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Mackenzie His Majesties Advocate in Scotland 8. Two letters betwixt Mr. Ric. Smith and Dr. Hammond about the sense of that Article in the Creed He descended into Hell 12.