9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
had joyned to them and came out with them On the second day of the month and of their arrival there Moses goeth up into the mountain being called up by the Lord vers 3. and when he cometh down telleth the people the words of the Lord vers 5. If ye will hear my voyce indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be my peculiar people To which the people even before they know what the Commandments of the Lord would be do promise to obey and hearken not by rash undertaking to perform they knew not what as some have been bold to tax them nor yet presuming upon their own ability to keep the Law as others have concluded upon them but having been trained up from their infancy and instructed in the doctrine of Faith they piously conclude when God cometh to give them a Law and to make a covenant with them that God would not cross himself in the Doctrine of salvation but that the Law that he would now give them should be a Law conducing and leading to Faith still a Schoolmaster to Christ and not an extinguisher of the doctrine of Salvation by him On the third day of the month Moses goeth up into the mountain again vers 9. and is charged to sanctifie the people which accordingly is done on that day and on the fourth and fifth and on the sixth day in the morning the ten Commandements are given SECTION XXVI The Iews Tenet concerning the Law Talm. in Maccoth Rab. Abhuhahh Ner. 1. THE whole Law say they was given to Moses in six hundred and thirteen precepts David in the fifteenth Psalm bringeth them all within the compass of eleven 1. To walk uprightly 2. To work righteousness 3. To speak truth in the heart 4. Not to slander 5. Not to wrong a Neighbour 6. Not to entertain or raise an ill report 7. To vilisie a reprobate 8. To honour them that fear the Lord. 9. That altereth not his oath 10. Not to lend to usury 11. Not to take bribes against the Innocent The Prophet Isaiah brings these to six in Chap. 33. 15. 1. To walk justly 2. To speak righteously 3. To refuse gain of oppression 4. To shake hands from taking bribes 5. To stop the ears from hearing of blood 6. To shut the eyes from seeing of evil Micha reduceth all to three Chap. 6. 8. 1. To do justly 2. To love mercy 3. To walk humbly with God Isaiah again to two Chap. 56. 1. 1. Keep judgment 2. Do justice Amos to one Chap. 5. 4. Seek me Habakkuk also brings all to one Chap. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live Thus the Jews witness against themselves while they conclude that Faith is the sum of the Law and yet they stand altogether upon works A Testimony from Jews exceedingly remarkable SECTION XXVII Articles of a believing Iews Creed collected out of Moses Law 1. I believe that salvation is by Faith not by Works WHEN the Talmudick Jews make such a confession as is mentioned instantly before wherein they reduce all the tenor and marrow of the Law under this one doctrine of living by Faith Hab. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live it is no woader if the more ancient and more holy Jews under the Law looked for salvation not by their own merits and works but only by Faith This fundamental point of Religion they might readily learn by these two things 1. From the impossibility of their keeping the Law which their consciences could not but convince them of by their disability to hear it and by their daily carriage 2. In that they saw the holiest of their men and the holiest of their services to receive sanctitie not from themselves but from another So they saw that the Priest who was or should be at least the holiest man among them was sanctified by his garments and that the sacrifices were sanctified by the Altar From these premises they could not but conclude that no man nor his best service could be accepted as holy in it self but must be sanctified by another 2. I beleive that there is no salvation without reconciliation with God and no reconciliation without satisfaction The first part of this Article is so plain that nature might teach it and so might it the latter also and laying hereto Moses his lex talionis eye for eye tooth for tooth it made it doubtless 3. I believe that satisfaction shall once be made This they might see by their daily sacrifice aiming at a time when there should full satisfaction be made which these poor things could not do No less did their Jubilec year intimate when men in debt and bondage were quitted The very time of the year when the Jubilee year began calling all Israel to think of a Jubilee from sin and Satans bondage into which mankind fell at the same time of the year 4. I believe that satisfaction for sin shall be made by a man This is answerable to reason that as a man sinned so a man should satifie but Moses's Law about redemption of Land by a kinsman taught Israel to expect that one that should be akin in the flesh to mankind should redeem for him morgaged heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew is both a kinsman and a Redeemer 5. I believe that he shall be more than a man This they learned from the common service about the Tabernacle wherein the high Priest a man as fully hallowed and sanctified as man could be for his outward function yet did he offer and offer again for the people and himself and yet they were unclean still This read a Lecture to every ones apprehension that a meer man could not do the deed of satisfaction but he must be more 6. I believe the redeemer must also be God as well as man The disability of beasts to make satisfaction they saw by their dying in sacrifice one after another and yet mans conscience cleansed never the better The unability of man we saw before The next then that is likely to do this work are Angels But them Israel saw in the Tabernacle curtains spectators only and not actors in the time and work of reconciliation From hence they might gather that it must be God dwelling with man in one person as the cloud the glory of God never parted from the Ark. 7. I believe that mans Redeemer shall die to make satisfaction This they saw from their continued bloody sacrifices and from the covenants made and all things purged by blood This the heedless man-slayer might take heed of and see that as by the death of the high Priest he was restored to liberty so should mankind be by the death of the highest Priest to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Their delivery from Egypt by the death of a Lamb taught them no less 8. I believe that he shall not die for his own sins but for mans Every Sacrifice read this Lecture when the most harmless of beasts and birds were offered
had seen the figure and pattern of a glorious Tabernacle so now in this second forty days fast he desireth to have a sight of the glory of God On the thirtieth day of the month A◠he goeth up again with the two Tables and beginneth another forty days fast and seeth the Lord and heareth him proclaim himself by most glorious attributes and receiveth some commands from him On the tenth day of the month Tisri he cometh down with the glad tydings that all is well betwixt God and Israel with the renewed Tables in his hand and with commission to set about making the Tabernacle CHAP. XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL. World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 AND so do Israel fall about that work which by the first day of the month Abib the first month of the next year is finished and it begun to be erected when it is set up the cloud of glory filleth it and God taketh up his seat upon the Ark in figure of his dwelling amongst men in Christ. The Book of LEVITICUS OUT of the Tabernacle newly erected God giveth ordinances for it and first concerning Sacrifice to represent Christs death as the Tabernacle it self did represent his body The whole time of the story of Leviticus is but one moneth namely the first month of the second year of their deliverance and not altogether so much neither for the very first beginning of the month was taken up in the erecting of the Tabernacle of which the story is in Exod. 40. CHAP. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII RUles given for all manner of sacrifices This is the first Oracle given from off the Mercy-seat There is the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first word of the Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 written less then all his fellows and it seemeth by such a writing to hint and intimate that though this were a glorious Oracle yet was it small in comparison of what was to come when God would speak to his people by his own Son whom the Ark Mercy-seat and Oracle did represent CHAP. VIII IX THE seven days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons follow after the time of the setting up of the Tabernacle and were not coincident or concurrent with that time as the Jews very generally but very groundlesly do apprehend as Seder Olam Tanchum ex R. Joseph Baal Turim Ab Ezra R. Sol and others For 1. this command for their consecration is given out of the Tabernacle now erected as well as the rules for sacrifice were And 2. they abide the seven days in the Tabernacle Chap. 8. 33. and the very first day of the seven the congregation were gathered to the door vers 3 4. which undeniably shew that it was finished and set up when these seven days of consecration began CHAP. X. THE death of Nadab and Abihu was on the very first day that the service of the Altar began namely on that eighth day after the seven of the consecration when Aaron and his sons offered sacrifices for themselves and the people This appeareth plainly by comparing the third and fifteenth Verses of the ninth Chapter with the sixteenth Verse of this tenth Chapter and thus the service of the Sanctuary by an accident began with Death and Judgment NUMBERS IX to Ver. 15. AFter the end of the tenth Chapter of Leviticus in the proper order of story are the first fourteen Verses of the ninth Chapter of Numbers to be taken in which treat concerning the Passover For the Tabernacle being reared on the very first day of the second year of their coming out of Egypt namely on the first day of Nisan these orders and rules concerning Sacrifices and the Priests consecration were given and the eight days of Priests consecration and Sacrifices were accomplished before the fourteenth day of that month came when the Passover was to be kept by an old command given the last year in Egypt and by a second command now given in the wilderness so that this order and method is clear Now the reason why this story of this second Passover is not only not laid in its proper place in this Book of Leviticus but also out of its proper place in the Book of Numbers for the Book beginneth its story with the beginning of the second month but this story of the Passover belongeth to the first month The reason I say of this dislocation is because Moses his chief aim in that place is to shew and relate the new dispensation or command for a Passover in the second month which was a matter of very great moment For the translation of that feast a month beyond its proper time did the rather inforce the significancy of things future then of things past as rather recording the death of Christ to come then their delivery from Egypt when it hit not on that very night This story therefore of the Passover transferred to the second month upon some occasions being the matter that Moses chiefly aimed at and respected in that relation and history he hath set it in his proper place for so is that where it lies in the Book of Numbers and intending and aiming at the mention of that he hath also brought in the mention of the right Passover or that of the first month as it was necessary he should to shew the occasion of the other LEVITICUS XI XII XIII XIV XV. AFter the rules for things clean and fit for sacrifice the Lord cometh to give rules for things clean and fit to eat and clean and fit to touch for this was the tripartite distinction of clean or unclean in the Law Every thing that was unclean to touch was unclean to eat but every thing that was unclean to eat was not unclean to touch every thing that was unclean to eat was unclean to sacrifice but every thing that was unclean to sacrifice was not unclean to eat for many things might be eaten which might not be sacrificed and many things might be touched which might not be eaten And under the Law about clean and unclean there is exceeding much of the doctrine of sin and renovation touched considerable in very many particulars 1. By the Law of Moses nothing was unclean to be touched while it was alive but only man A man in Leprosie unclean to be touched Lev. 13. and a woman in her separation Lev. 12. but Dogs Swine Worms c. not unclean to be touched till they be dead Lev. 11. 31. 2. By the Law of Moses uncleanness had several degrees and Leprosie was the greatest There was uncleanness for a day as by touching a dead beast for a week as by touching a dead man for a month as a woman after Child-birth and for a year or more as Leprosie 3. Every Priest had equal priviledge and calling to judge of the Leprosie as well as the the high Priest 4. The Priests that were judges of Leprosie could not be tainted
them to be humbled some for their fathers guilt some for their own and some for both and to acknowledge that their being alive till now and their liberty to enter into the Land was a free and a great mercy for their own and their fathers faults might justly have caused it to have been otherwise with them 2. They had imitated their fathers rebellion to the utmost in their murmuring at Kadesh at their last coming up thither and in the matter of Baal Peor and therefore he might very well personate them by their fathers when their fathers faults were so legible and easie to be seen in them 4. He reckoneth not their second journy to Kadesh by name but slips by it Chap. 2. 1 4. Nor mentions their long wanderings for seven and thirty years together between Kadesh and Kadesh but only under this expression We compassed mount Seir many days Chap. 2. 1. because in that rehearsal he mainly insisteth but upon these two heads Gods decree against them that had first murmured at Kadesh and how that was made good upon them and Gods promise of bringing their children into the land and how that was made good upon them therefore when he hath largely related both the decree and the promise he hastens to shew the accomplishment of both 5. In rehearsing the Ten Commandments he proposeth a reason of the Sabbaths ordaining differing from that in Exodus there it was because God rested on the seventh day here it is because of their delivery out of Egypt and so here it respecteth the Jewish Sabbath more properly there the Sabbath in its pure morality and perpetuity And here is a figure of what is now come to pass in our Sabbath celebrated in memorial of Redemption as well as of Creation In the fifth Commandment in this his rehearsal there is an addition or two more then there is in it in Exod. 20. and the letter Teth is brought in twice which in the twentieth of Exodus was only wanting of all the letters 6. In Chap. 10. ver 6. 7 8. there is a strange and remarkable transposition and a matter that affordeth a double scruple 1. In that after the mention of the golden Calf in Chap. 9. and of the renewing of the Tables Chap. 10. which occurred in the first year after their coming out of Egypt he bringeth in their departing from Beeroth to Mosera where Aaron died which was in the fortieth year after now the reason of this is because he would shew Gods reconciliation to Aaron and his reconciliation to the people to Aaron in that though he had deserved death suddenly with the rest of the people that died for the sin of the golden Calf yet the Lord had mercy on him and spared him and he died not till forty years after and to the people because that for all that transgression yet the Lord brought them through that wilderness to a land of rivers of waters But 2. there is yet a greater doubt lies in these words then this for in Numb 33. the peoples march is set down to be from Moseroth to Bene Jahaan ver 31. and here it is said to be from Beeroth of Bene Jaahan to Moseroth there it is said Aaron died at mount Hor but here it is said He died at Moseroth now there were World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 seven several incampings between Moseroth and mount Hor Numb 33. 31 32 c. Now the answer to this must arise from this consideration that in those stations mentioned Numb 33. From Moseroth to Bene Jaahan to Horhagidgad c. they were marching towards Kadesh before their fortieth year and so they went from Moseroth to Bene Jaahan But in these stations Deut. 10. 6. they are marching from Kadish in their fortieth year by some of that way that they came thither and so they must now go from Bene Jaahan to Moseroth And 2. how Moseroth and mount Hor Gudgodah and Horhagidgad were but the * * * As Horeb and Sinai were though they be counted two several incampings of Israel Exod. 17. 1 6. and 19. 1. compared same place and Country and how though Israel were now going back from Kadish yet hit in the very same journies that they went in when they were coming thither as to Gudgodah or Horhagidgad to Jotbathah or Jotbath requires a discourse Geographical by it self which is the next thing that was promised in the Preface to the first part of the Harmony of the Evangelists and with some part of that work by Gods permission and his good hand upon the Work-man shall come forth 7. It cannot pass the Eye of him that readeth the Text in the Original but he must observe it how in Chap. 29. ver 29. the Holy Ghost hath pointed one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To us and to our Children belong the revealed things after an extraordinary and unparalleld manner to give warning against curiosity in prying into Gods secrets and that we should content our selves with his revealed will 8. Moses in blessing of the Tribes Chap. 33. nameth them not according to their seniority but in another order Reuben is set first though he had lost the birth-right to shew his repentance and that he died not * * * So the Chaldee renders ver 6. Let Reuben live and not die the second death the second death Simeon is omitted because of his cruelty to Sichem and Joseph and therefore he the fittest to be left out when there were twelve Tribes beside Judah is placed before Levi for the Kingdoms dignity above the Priest-hood Christ being promised a King of that Tribe Benjamin is set before Joseph for the dignity of Jerusalem above Samaria c. 9. The last Chapter of the Book was written by some other then Moses for it relateth his death and how he was buried by the Lord that is by Michael Jude 9. or Christ who was to bury Moses Ceremonies The Book of JOSHUA THIS Book containeth a history of the seventeen years of the rule of Joshua which though they be not expresly named by this sum in clear words yet are they to be collected to be so many from that gross sum of four hundred and eighty years from the delivery out of Egypt to the laying of the foundation of solomons Temple mentioned 1 Kings 6. 1. for the Scripture hath parcelled out that sum into these particulars forty years of the people in the wilderness two hundred ninety and nine years of the Judges forty years of Eli forty of Samuel and Saul forty of David and four of Solomon to the Temples founding in all four hundred sixty three and therefore the seventeen years that must make up the sum four hundred and eighty must needs be concluded to have been the time of the rule of Joshua CHAP. I. World 2554 Ioshua 1 JOSHUA of Joseph succeedeth Moses the seventh from Ephraim 1 Chron. 7. 25. and in him first appeared Josephs birth-right 1 Chron. 5. 1. and
Sanctuary Eli 18 with a Sacrifice and a Song The year of his birth is not determinable Eli 19 Eli 20 no not so much as whether it were in the Judgeship of Eli though it be undoubted Eli 21 that it was in his Priest-hood Eli's sons commit theft and adultery in Eli 22 the very Sanctuary they ravin from the men that came to sacrifice and they Eli 23 ravish the women that * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 2. 22. Women that had some office and attendance at the Tabernacle As Num. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to do the Sanctuary service Anna was such a woman Luke 2. 37. waited on the Sanctuary and so they cause the Ordinances Eli 24 of the Lord to be abhorred Under such example is Samuel educated Eli 25 Eli 26 yet falleth not under that taint A Prophet sharply reproveth Eli for not reproving Eli 27 his sons This Prophet the Jews held to be Elkanah himself and say Eli 28 that he was one of the eight and forty Prophets that prophesied to Israel In Chap. Eli 29 2. Vers. 11. it is said that Elkanah returned to Ramoth to his own house and yet Eli 30 verse 20. it is said that Eli blessed Elkanah which is to be understood that Eli 31 he had done so from Samuels first dedication and so did as oft as he came to Eli 32 Shiloh Samuel himself becomes a Prophet first against Elies house and then Eli 33 afterward to all Israel Chap. 3. 1. Impiety had exceedingly banished Prophesie Eli 34 Eli 35 in these times amongst them but now the Lord begins to restore it for prediction Eli 36 of ruine and then for direction of reformation Urim and Thummim Eli 37 were ere long to be lost from the Priests with the loss of the Ark Eli 38 and God pours the Spirit of Prophesie upon a Levite to supply that Eli 39 want CHAP. IV. World 2909 Eli 40 THE Ark first touched and taken with the hands of uncircumcised ones The two sons of Eli come to fatal ends at this last service of the Ark as the two sons of Aaron Nadab and Abihu did at the first Eli himself dieth the very death of an unredeemed Ass Exod. 13. 13. Shiloh laid waste Jer. 7. 14. and the birthright lost from Joseph and Ephraim Psal. 78. 60. c. The Tabernacle had been at Shiloh 340 years and somewhat more The Idol of Dan hath now out-lived it Judg. 18. 31. Ah poor Israel World 2910 Eli 1 Here begin the forty years of Samuel and Saul mentioned Act. 13. 20 21. He gave them Judges after a manner four hundred and fifty years that is the years of the oppressors also reckoned in the Judges 299. the oppressors 111. and Eli 40. until Samuel the Prophet And afterward they desired a King and God gave them Saul by the space of forty years that is to the expiration of forty years from Elies death the last of the Judges CHAP. V. VI. THE Ark is all the spring and summer of this year in the land of the Philistims For its sake the Lord smiteth Dagon the god of their Corn and destroyeth the harvest of their Corn as it grew on the ground with an army of Mice He striketh the people with Emerods in their hinder parts Psal. 78. 66. and bringeth a shameful soreness on them in a contrary part and in a contrary nature to the honourable soreness of Circumcision They restore the Ark again with strange presents with abundance of golden Mice Et cum quinque anis vel podicibus aureis quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Kine knew their owner as Esa. 1. 3. Hophni and Phineas knew him not The Bethshemites though Priests yet slain by the Lord for too much boldness with the Ark. CHAP. VII Vers. 1. And the first half of the second Samuel 2 THE Ark setled in Kirjath-jearim the City of the woods to this the Samuel 3 Psalmist speaketh Psal. 132. 6. We heard of it at Ephratah or at Shiloh Samuel 4 in Ephraim we found it in the fields of the wood or at Kirjath-jearim there an Samuel 5 Eleazar looketh to it when both the line of Eleazar and Ithamar are out of Samuel 6 that service And it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kirjath-jearim the time Samuel 7 Samuel 8 was long for it was twenty years This is not to be understood for the whole Samuel 9 time that it was there for it was above six and forty years there before David Samuel 10 fetched it up 2 Sam. 6. namely thirty nine years of Samuel and Saul and Samuel 11 seven David born in the tenth year of Samuel years of Davids reign in Hebron but it is to be thus understood and construed Samuel 12 that the Ark was twenty years in Kirjath-jearim before the people of Israel Samuel 13 minded it or looked after it but they followed and adhered to their former Samuel 14 Idolatries and corruptions and therefore it is said by Samuel afterward vers 3. Samuel 15 Samuel 16 If you do return unto the Lord put away the strange gods Ashteroth from among Samuel 17 you c. Their Idolatry and prophaneness was so deep rooted having been so Samuel 18 long and so customary with them that neither the loss of the Ark nor the Samuel 19 slaughter of Israel had wrought upon them but that twenty years together Samuel 20 they are lost to the Ark though the Ark were not then lost to them CHAP. VII Vers. 2. The latter half of it * * * The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be translated not And but Then they lamented Then all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord and so to the end of the 7 Chapter and Chapter 8. all World 2930 Samuel 21 A Spirit of repentance and conversion cometh generally upon all the people a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture one only parallel to it and that is in Acts 2. and 3. at the great conversion there There were to that time these sums of years four hundred ninety years from hence to the beginning of the Captivity seventy years of the Captivity and four hundred ninety years from the end of the Captivity thither The seventy of the Captivity are the midst of years Hab. 3. 2. And Samuel according to this chain is the first of the Prophets Acts 4. 24. Samuel 22 Israel is baptized from their Idols Samuel though no Priest yet by special They drew water and poured it before the Lord Chap. 7. 6 To be understood of their washing themselves from their idols as Gen. 35. 2. Exod. 19. 14. Samuel 23 warrant sacrificeth by Prayer destroyeth the Philistims with thunder Chap. 2. Samuel 24 20. Psal. 99. 6. they were subdued in that very place where they had subdued Samuel 25 Israel and taken the Ark one and twenty years before Samuel rideth in circuit Samuel 26 and judgeth Israel Judah recovereth
One once staid long and they were about to go in after him Some say it was Simeon the Just. They said to him Why didst thou stay so long He answered I was praying for the Sanctuary of your God that it should not be destroyed They say to him Though thou didest so yet shouldest not thou have stayed so long If this Relation carry any truth with it it might be looked upon as the expiring of Vision as Prophesie had also ceased not long before that time for Simeon the Just is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the remnant of the men of Ezra ' s great Synagogue Aboth R. Nathan cap. 4. and upon the death of Zachary and Malachy who were of that Synagogue the spirit of Prophesie departed And here Vision and Prophesie is dawning again Zacharias for not believing the words of the Angel is struck 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deaf and Dumb and doth fore-signifie the silencing of the Levitical Priesthood e're long to be In the Jews Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one of the five sorts of Persons that they commonly exclude from all imployments and matters of honour trust or import and it means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that can neither hear nor speak Jerus in chagigah fol. 75. col 4. His Wife Elizabeth conceiving with child retires as a recluse for five months space that she might keep her self from all desilement she carrying as choice a Nazarite in her Womb as she did ver 1. 5. Five months were not the whole time of her retiring for that that urged her to keep close so long had the same tie upon her all the time she went with child but five months are only named by way of introduction to the story and occurrence in the sixth month mentioned instantly after In the sixth month the same Angel appeareth to the Virgin Mary and telleth her of the Birth of the Messios to be of her which she believing though by the course of Nature so impossible she presently goeth to her Cousin Elizabeth into the Hill-countrey of Judea to Hebron see Josh. 21. 11. not only to visit her and to rejoyce with her nor only to see the proof of those things that the Angel had told of her but very probably acted by the Holy Ghost that she might conceive the Messias in Hebron where so many choice and eminent Types of him and references to him had been in ancient time These Tidings come to the Virgin at the very latter end of the year that we are upon or the beginning of the next and her Journey to Hebron is in the middle of Winter SECTION IV. MATTHEW Chap. I. All the Chapter CHRIST'S Genealogy by the Line of Solomon and by his supposed Father Joseph His Mother in danger to be divorced upon false suspition of Adultery WHether it were that Mary conceived with child at the instant of the Angels telling her of her Conception as hath been held most generally or at the instant that she came to her Cousin Elizabeth in Hebron by the time that she had stayed with her three months she might easily be discovered to be with child as Tamar was after the same space of time Gen. 38. 24. Whose case and danger of death in that story compare with the Virgins case and danger of divorce in this The Talmudick Decretals do allot three months for such a discovery Every woman say they that is divorced or become a widow behold she may not be married nor espoused till she have stayed 90 days that it may be known whether she be with child or no and that there may be distinguishing betwixt the Seed of the first Husband and the Seed of the second Likewise a stranger and his Wife which are Proselytes they keep them asunder 90 days that there may be a discerning between the Seed sown in holiness that is when they are come into the true Religion out of Heathenism Compare 1 Cor. 7. 14. and the Seed not sown in holiness Talm. in Jebamoth cap. 4. in Chetuboth cap. 5. Maym. in Gerushin cap. 11. This space of time considered in the present story it sheweth how fitly the last Verse of the preceding Section viz. Luke 1. 56. and the 18th Verse of this do joyn together The Genealogy interposed doth not interrupt but illustrate the story intended And it is not only properly but even necessarily set in the Front of the Evangelical History that satisfaction might be given by it in that main Point concerning Christ which the Scriptures do so often inculcate and which the Jews would first of all look after namely to prove Jesus of Nazareth how ever so meanly born yet to be The Son of David There were two remarkable Maxims among the Jewish Nation 1. That there was to be no King of Israel but of the House of David and Line of Solomon Talm. in Sanhedr cap. 10. And consequently they looked for King Messias from that Line 2. That the Family of the Mother is not called a Family Juchasin fol 55. Hereupon hath Matthew most pertinently brought this Pedigree through the House of Solomon and ended it in Joseph a Male whom the Jews looked upon as the Father of Jesus The last Verse of this Chapter as it referreth to the demeanour of Joseph and Mary in their mutual society till the Birth of Christ lyeth properly in the Harmonizing of the Evangelists in the place where it doth But as it referreth to the Birth of Christ it is coincident with Luke 2. 7. The Reader in his thoughts will place it as he seeth cause in these several Relations SECTION V. LUKE Chap. I. from Ver. 57. to the end John Baptist born WHen Maries three months stay with her Cousin Elizabeth was expired it is easily guessed that if Elizabeth by that time were not delivered of her child yet she was very near it and that consideration doth clear the subsequence of this Section to the preceding John Baptist born in Hebron the place of the residence of Abraham and of the first Royalty of David Here Circumcision was first ordained and here is he born that was to bring in Baptism instead of Circumcision The Priests at the Temple as they looked for break of day used oft to say The face of all the Skie is bright even unto Hebron Talm. in Joma cap. 3. in Tamid cap. 3. Compare the dawning of the Gospel now rising there in the Birth of the Baptist and compare the words of Zacharias a Priest ver 78. The time of the Baptists Birth will be found by setting that Clock from our Saviours to have been in the Spring much about the time of the Passeover about which time of the year Isaac was born SECTION VI. LUKE Chap. II. from Ver. 1. to Ver. 40. World 3928 Rome 754 Augustus 31 Herod 35 CHRIST Born LUKE maketh the coherence clear when he interposeth nothing betwixt the Birth of the Baptist and the Birth of Christ and indeed there is nothing
doth confirm the order JOHN from Machaerus Castle where he lay Prisoner sendeth two of his Disciples to Christ to enquire of him Whether he were he that should come Not that John was ignorant who he was having had so many demonstrations of him as he had had and having given so ample testimony of him as he had done Joh. 1. 34 36. 3. 29 30. Nor that Johns Disciples were so wilfully ignorant of him as not to be perswaded by their Master that he was he but his message to him seems to this purpose John and his Disciples had heard of the great and many miracles that Christ had done healing the sick and raising the dead c. and it may be they thought it strange that Christ amongst all his miraculous workings would not work Johns liberty out of thraldom who lay a prisoner for him and for the Gospel he preached before him And this may be was the bottom of their question Art thou he that shall come or look we for another As expecting somewhat more from the Messias then they had yet obtained They received a full answer to their question by the miracles they saw wrought which abundantly proved that he was he that was to come But as to their expectation of his miraculous enlargement of John his answer was that his work was to preach the Gospel and that it was a blessed thing not to take any offence at him but to yield and submit to his wise dispensations And accordingly when the messengers of John were returned he giveth a glorious testimony concerning him to the people but yet sheweth how far one truly and fully acquainted and stated in the Kingdom of Heaven went beyond him in judging of it who looked for temporal redemption by it The Method of Matthew is somewhat difficult here but he seemeth purposely to have joyned the mission of Christs Disciples and Johns Disciples together I suppose Christ was at Jerusalem when Johns messengers came to him and if it were at the feast of Pentecost John had then been seven or eight months in prison SECTION XXXII MATTH Chap. XI from Ver. 20. to the end of the Chapter Chorazin and Bethsaida upbraided BEsides Matthews continuing this portion to that that went before the upbraiding of these Cities is so answerable to the matter contained in the end of the former Section that it easily shews it to be spoken at the same time See Ver. 17 18 19. of this Chapter When Christ saith that if the things done in these Cities had been done in Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrha they would have repented and would have remained till now he understandeth not saving grace and saving repentance in them but such an external humiliation as would have preserved them from ruine As the case was with Nineveh they repented and were delivered from the threatned destruction their repentance was not to salvation of the persons but to the preservation of their City as Ahabs humbling prevented the present judgment and not his final condemnation SECTION XXXIII LUKE Chap. VII from Ver. 36. to the end of the Chapter Mary Magdalen weepeth at Christs feet and washeth them with tears c. THE continuation of this portion in Luke to that in Sect. 31. will plead for its order and the reader will easily observe that the interposition of the preceding Section in Matthew is so far from interrupting the story that it is necessarily to be taken in there and is an illustration of it The actings of the two several parties in this Section the Pharisee that invited Christ to eat with him and the woman sinner that comes and weeps at his feet for mercy may seem to have had some rise from or some occasional reference to the speech of Christ in the two Sections next preceding In the former he had said The son of man came eating and drinking and this possibly might induce the Pharisee to his invitation and in the latter he had said Come unto me â—e that are weary and heavy laden and that might invite the woman to her address This woman was Mary the sister of Lazarus who was also called Mary Magdalen of whom there is mention in the very beginning of the next Chapter That she was Mary the sister of Lazarus John giveth us ground to assert John 11. 2. as we shall shew when we come there where we shall evidence that these words It was that Mary which annointed the Lord with oyntment and wiped his feet with her hair can properly be referred to no story but this before us And that Mary the sister of Lazarus was called Mary Magdalen we shall prove in the next Section Christ in the story in Sect. 31. when Johns disciples came to him we supposed to be at Jerusalem and answerably it may be conceived that this passage occurred at Bethany where Simon the Pharisee may not improbably be held to be the same with Simon the Leper Matth. 26. 6. where this very woman again annointed him SECTION XXXIV LUKE Chap. VIII Ver. 1 2 3. Certain women that followed Christ. LUKE again is the warrant for the order In the former story he had spoken of one woman that had found healing and mercy with Christ and he speaks here of divers and among them Mary Magdalen Now that she was Mary the sister of Lazarus let but these two arguments be weighed not to insist upon more The first is this If Mary Magdalen were not Mary the sister of Lararus then Mary the sister of Lazarus gave no attendance at Christs death nor had any thing to do about his buriall or at least is not mentioned as an agent at either which is a thing so incredible to conceive that it needs not much discourse to set forth the incredibility of it There is mention of Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salom Mark 15. 40. and Joanna Luk. 24. 10. but not a word of Mary the sister of Lazarus She had twice annointed Christ in the compass of that very week she had ever been as neer and as zealous a woman disciple as any that followed him and her residence was at Bethany hard by Jerusalem and what is now become of her in these two great occasions of attending upon Christs death and imbalming Had she left Christ and neglected her attendance on him at this time above all others or have the Evangelists whilst they mention the other that attended left her out It is so unreasonable to believe either of these that even necessity inforceth us to conclude that when they name Mary Magdalen they mean Mary the sister of Lazarus And Secondly take this Argument of Baronius which hath more weight in it then at first sight it doth seem to have who in his Annals ad Annum Christi 32 goes about to prove this thing that we assert and he shews how it also was the opinion of the Fathers and those in former times His words are these We say upon the
to shew that they had the man sure whom he so much desired to be secured and to take his grave advice what further to do with him He was brought bound to him and so bound he sends him to Caiaphas His Arraignment before the Sanhedrin At Caiaphas his house was the Sanhedrin now assembled Whether we take this for his lodgings in the Temple or his house in the City it is not much material Peter follows thither and by another Disciple that was acquainted there he is helped into the Hall and sits with the Servants by the fire The Chief-Priest and Elders were busie to find out Witnesses that might accuse him and though many false Witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Talmudick language come in yet all will not do for it was not possible to touch him of any offence He all this while standing silent Isa. 37. 7. Caiaphas adjures him to tell whether he were the Christ or no he confesseth it and withal tells them that the time should come that they should find the truth of this by experience when he should shew his power and vengeance in his judgment against them and their City coming in clouds c. This confession and words they account blasphemy and that they might have the surer impression of so construing them Caiaphas rent his garments and by that action would as it were force them to agree with him that it was so when his garments had paid so dear for the confirming of it Their custom and reason of renting their clothes upon the hearing of blasphemy is handled in Jerus in Sanhedr fol. 25. col 1. 2. and in Maym. in Avrdah Zarah per. 2. where those two Canons being observed Every one that hears Gods Name blasphemed is bound to rent his garments And the Judges hearing blasphemy must stand upon their feet and must rent their clothes and may not sew them up again It will cause us to observe something in it that the Highpriest only rent his clothes and not the rest of the Bench with him Which though they did not yet they vote with him that it was blasphemy and therefore he was guilty of death which had it been executed must have been by stoning Sanhedr per. 7. halac 4. And now they begin to spit on him to buâ—â—et him and abuse him Peters denial Here Peter first denies him for being challenged as he sate by the fire by the damsel porter for one of his company he denies it and shrinks away into the porch and then the first Cock crew Luke saith that the maid came to him as he sate by the fire Matthew and Mark that he was now beneath in the Palace and without in the Palace meaning beneath or without from that place or room where the Bench sate Betwixt this first denial and the second there was but a little while Luke 22. 55. In the space between the Highpriest is questioning Jesus of his Disciples and Doctrine and because he answers Ask them that have heard me c. an officious Officer smites him as if he had not answered with reverence enough Peter this while was in the porch where he was when the Cock crew after his first denial and there another maid sees him and brings him to the company that stood by the fire and challenges him for one of his Disciples and now he denies with an oath And about an hour after Luke 22. 59. which space of time the Bench took up in examining Christ about his Disciples and Doctrine a kinsman of Malchus challengeth him and tells the company he saw him with Jesus in the Garden and he pleading the contrary is discovered to all the company to be a Galilean by his Dialect but he denies with execrations and presently the second Cock crew And Jesus looking back upon him he remembers what he had done and goes out and weeps bitterly And so presently after the second Cock the Bench riseth and leaveth Jesus in the hands of their Officers by whom he is taunted stricken and shamefully used His being delivered up to the Roman power In the morning the Sanhedrin met formally in their own Council chamber and again question Jesus brought there before them and they resolved to put him to death Whether he were the Messias or no he giveth the same answer as before that though they would not believe him if he told them he was which was the truth yet the time was coming when they should find it true They question him again Art thou the Son of God which he not denying they judge him a blasphemer again and deserving to die and so deliver him up to the secular power It is observable in both these questionings of him upon this point both in the night and now in the morning how convertible terms the Son of God and the Son of man are made In the night they question him Art thou the Son of God He answers Ye shall see the Son of man c. Mat. 26. 63 64. And now in the morning again he saith Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and they reply Art thou then the Son of God Luke 22. 69 70. Iudas his Recantation and Ruine Judas unquiet in mind for what he had done in betraying attends the trials and waits the issue and when he now saw that he was condemned by the Bench to be delivered up to the Heathen power he steps in and offers his money again and confesseth he had betrayed innocent blood and this probably as Christ stood by Having received a surly answer again from them he flings down his money in the Temple where they sat Gazith or Hhanoth it is not seasonable to question here and departing is snatched by the devil who was bodily in him into the air and there strangled and flung down headlong to the earth and all his bowels burst out With the thirty pieces of silver his wages of iniquity the Priests consult to buy the Potters field And here a quotation of Matthew hath troubled Expositors so far that divers have denied the purity of the Text. His words are these Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet And they took the thirty pieces of silver c. Matth. 27. 9. Whereas those words are not to be found in Jeremy at all but in Zechary they are found Zech. 11. 13. Now Matthew speaks according to an ordinary manner of speaking used among the Jews and by them would easily and without cavil be understood though he cited a text of Zechary under the name of Jeremy For the illustration of which matter we must first produce a record of their own The Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 14. facie 2. is discoursing concerning the order in which the Books of the Old Testament were ordered and ranked of old And first they shew that there was this general division of it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa By
look to the times before the Decree of Claudius or those since Claudius death when all the scattered were returned again and many of those that had come out unbelieving Jews had returned Christians thither as I believe the case was of Aquila and Priscilla and some converted in other places had now taken up their residence there as Epenetus Andronicus and Junia c. Those whose salutations he sendeth thither may be the better judged of who they were by observing who were of his retinue at this time which are named Act. 20. 4. as 1. Timothy 2. Lucius who seemeth to be Luke called now by a Latine name in an Epistle to the Latines He was with Paul at Corinth at the sending away of the Epistle for having mentioned the others that were gone to Troas these saith he staied for us joyning himself in Pauls company now going to Corinth 3. Jason seemeth to be he that is called Secundus Acts 20. 4. the one his Hebrew name and the other the same in Latine for Secundus is said to be a Thessalonian and so was Jason Acts 17. 7. 4. Sosipater here in all probability he that is called Sopater of Berea there 5. Tertius that wrote out the Epistle it may be was Silas an Hebrician will see a fair likelihood of the one name in the other it being written in Hebrew letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew names to the Romans are rendred in the Roman Idiome 6. Gaius the same in Greek with the ordinary Latine name Caius it appears that he was a Corinthian 1 Cor. 1. 13. and in that Paul here calls him Mine host and the Host of the whole Church to the understanding of which the observing of a custom of the Jews may give some illustration Maymony in his Treatise concerning the Sabbath speaking about that rite that they used of hallowing the Sabbath with a set form of words at his coming in per. 30. hath this saying This hallowing of the Sabbath may not be used but only in the place where they eat as for example he may not use the hallowing words in one house and eat in another Why then do they use the hallowing word in the Synagogue Because of travellers that do eat and drink there Where the Gloss upon the place comments thus It is evident that they did not eat in their Synagogues at all as it is apparent in the eleventh Chapter of Maymonies Treatise of Prayer but in a house near the Synagogue â—nd there they sat at the hearing of the hallowing of the Sabbath c. It may be observed from hence that strangers and travellers were intertained in a place near the Synagogue compare Acts 18. 7. which was a publick Xenodochion or receptacle of strangers at the charge of the Congregation which laudable custom is almost apparent was transplanted into the Christian Churches in those times as compare such passages as those Heb. 13. 2. Acts 15. 4. And possibly those Agapae or feasts of Charity spoken of in the Epistles of the Apostles are to be understood of these loving and charitable entertainment of strangers Jude ver 12. These are spots in your feasts of Charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear False teachers travelling abroad undiscovered and being intertained in these publick receptacles for strangers and at the publick charge would find there a fit opportunity for themselves to vent their errors and deceptions In this sense may Gaius very properly be understood the Host of the whole Church as being the officer or chief overseer imployed by the Corinthian Church for these intertainments In which also it was almost inevitable but some Women should have their imployment according to which custom we may best understand such places as these Phaebe a servant of the Church at Cenchrea she hath been a succourer of many Ver. 6. Mary bestowed much labour on us And see 1 Tim. 5. 9 10 c. He speaketh also of other Women of whom he giveth this testimony that they laboured much in the Lord as Tryphena and Tryphosa and Persis ver 12. which may either be understood in the like sense or if not so of their great pains some other way for the honour and promotion of the Gospel and benefit of the Saints and themselves as by visiting and relieving the poor and sick taking pains in following the Ministers of the Gospel and venturing themselves with them hiding and cherishing them in times of danger and so venturing themselves for them and so he saith Priscilla and Aquila for his life laid down their own necks c. He salutes three of his own kinsmen Andronicus and Junia and Herodion the two first were converted before him and were of note among the Apostles either being of the number of the 70 Disciples or eminent converts and close followers of Christ or of the Apostles in those firsttimes He calls them his fellow prisoners but if he had called them his prisoners it had been easier to have told when and how For they were in Christ whilst he was a persecutor but when they were imprisoned with him after his conversion is hard to find out Among all that he salutes so kindly where is Peter If he were now at Rome how was he forgotten ACTS Chap. XX. Ver. 6. And we came to them to Troas in five daies Where we abode seven daies And so to Ver. 17. of Chap. XXI FRom Philippi after Easter he setteth away for Corinth where he staied so little that he came to Troas within five daies after the company was come thither which had gone before for so are the five daies to be understood not that Paul in five daies went from Philippi to Corinth and Troas but that his company which was set out with him but set directly for Troas had staied but five daies at Troas before he came up to them There he celebrates the Lords day and the Lords Supper and preacheth and discourseth all night a thing not altogether strange in the Jewish customs Jerus Sota fol. 16. 4. R. Mair was teaching profoundly all the night of the Sabbath in the Synagogue of Chamath So that Eutychus sleeps and falls and is taken up dead but recovered by miracle The change and beginning and end of the Christian Sabbath may be observed here When he goes now from thence it is most likely it was the time when he left his Cloak Books and Parchments with Carpus 2 Tim. 4. 13. His Cloak for he was now going among his own Nation in Judea and there he was to wear his Jewish habit and he left his Roman garb here till he should come into those Roman quarters again It may be the Parchments were the Originals of those Epistles that he had already written for that he sent transcripts and reserved the Original copies may be collected from these passages I Tertius who wrote out this Epistle Rom. 16. 22. The salutation of me Paul with my own hand 1 Cor. 16. 21. Col.
at Jerusalem as is apparent ver 23. yet would he not do one miracle for the satisfaction of this the Jews curiosity and quaere partly because he would first give them some word of doctrine and partly because for his shewing of miracles he would take his own time and moving and not theirs In all the Gospel Christ doth no miracle where some necessity went not along with it 2. In these words destroy this Temple he commandeth them not to do the thing but he foretelleth that they should do it as Esay 8. 9 10. John 13. 27. c. yeeld examples of the like nature Associate your selves and ye shall be broken in peeces take counsell together and it shall come to nought And what thou dost do quickly c. 3. His answer is very suitable to the present occasion For as he had purged the Temple which they had defiled for which they question his authority so saith he go yet further and even destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it 4. But he spake of the Temple of his body vers 21. Now he used not any such gesture or action as it seemeth as that the Jews could perceive that he spake in that sense but they make a double misconstruction of his words namely ignorant and wilfull Ignorant conceiving that he spake of the very material Temple wilfull in that whereas he only saith do you destroy it they accuse him for saying that he would destroy it himself Mat. 26. 61. 5. Now he speaketh so closely to them and to the matter or occasion before them partly because of the neareness of relation that is between the thing signifying and the thing signified as Mat. 26. 26. and partly because he would speak to them in parables and dark things as Matth. 13. 34 35. § This Temple Meaning the Temple of his body as the Evangelist himself explaineth it which may be understood either because his body was the Temple of the Godhead as Col. 2. 9. or because it was represented by the material Temple in which God dwelt presentially as the Godhead did in Christ bodily The Temple was a glorious figure of Christ in Gods dwelling there amongst men In giving his Oracles there in the services tendred and accepted there c. And therefore it was that wheresoever the Jews were in any part of the world they were in all their prayers to turn their faces towards the Temple 1 King 8. 38 42 44 48. Dan. 6. 10. And thereupon it was that when the Jews destroyed Christs â—ody the Temple rent from the top to the bottom in one of the choicest parts of it Vers. 20. Forty and six years was this Temple in building Although all that space of time and state of the Jews that passed betwixt the return out of Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem be generally and indeed properly said to be under the second Temple yet in exact strictness and reality there were two Temples in that space namely that that was built by Zorobable and that that was built by Herod Of the former we have the relation in Ezr. 3. 6. Of the latter we have the story in Joseph Antiq. lib. 15. cap 14. Expositots upon this place take no notice of this duplicity because they account that Herod did not build but only repair the Temple and they generally understand this 46 years building of the time and space that the Temple was getting up in the days of Zorobable or instantly after the return from the Babylonian captivity The parcels of which sum every several Expositor almost doth cast and reckon up by several counters It were endless to alledge much more endless to examine them I shall spare that labour since I have given my thoughts concerning the reigns of the Persian Kings of those times in another place and I cannot but hold still unto that account as conceiving it to be the very account of Scripture namely that Cyrus reigned 3 years Artaxerxes Ahashuerosh after him 14 years and Artaxerxes Darius 32 years when Nehemiah went back to him having finished Jerusalem street and wall 49 years in all or 7 weeks as Dan. 9. 25. Out of these 49 years if you seclude the two first of Cyrus for in his second the Temple was begun and the thirty second of Darius as years only current you have exactly 46 compleat years from the beginning of the founding of Zorobables Temple to the finishing of the city and compleating of the buildings and servicedisposal of the Temple with it And reckoning also after such a maner of reckoning namely by casting out years that were only current it was exactly 46 compleat years since Herod began the building of the Temple to this very time that Christ and the Jews have this discourse For Herod fell upon that work in the eighteenth year of his reign as Josephus relateth in the place fore-cited and he reigned 37 years even till Christ was two years old as we have proved in the first part of the Harmony at Sect. 7. or Matth. 2. And Christ at this time of his discourse was in the thirtieth year of his age or just twenty nine years old and an half All which sums if the Reader cast up and count as we did in the account before he will find how fitly if one will so take it these words may be applyed to the Temple of Herod forty and six years hath this Temple been built Vers. 22. They believed the Scripture c. The Scriptures whatsoever had spoken of Christs death and resurrection the Disciples are said here to have believed after his resurrection But did they not believe them before It is undoubted they did with a general historical belief but after the resurection they made use of those texts and words with a more special and peculiar application and experience Vers. 23. Now when he was in Ierusalem at the Passover c. It was the custom of the Nation to come to Jerusalem some space of time before the Festival that they might purifie themselves against the Festival came Now Christ in this space was purifying the Temple by casting out buyers and sellers and driving out the cattle and when he was then asked for a miracle he would do none but when the Feast was come he beginneth to work miracles abundantly and many believed on him Now beginneth he most plainly and publickly to shew himself being now in the chief City in the general concourse of all the Nation and in the greatest solemnity of all the year Vers. 24. But Iesus did not commit himself unto them Some understand this of his not-committing and imparting the whole and full doctrine of the Gospel to them but the very carriage of the Text sheweth that it is to be understood of not-trusting his person with them because he knew their heart and saw that there was mischief and rottenness in some of them against him The End of the Second Part. THE HARMONY OF THE Four
not otherwise enter into familiar converse and communication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they might not use any commerce nor any converse with a person excommunicate as the Samaritans were to the Jews but only so much as for the providing of meat Maym. in Talm. torah per. 7. And therefore though the article in the Greek be not expressed yet it seemeth that in the sense that it is to be understood and that the Disciples marvailed that he would fall into discourse with a woman that was a Samaritan which was strange to the woman her self vers 9. the woman yet no man said What seekest thou Or why talkest thou with her 28. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the City and saith to the men 29. Come see a man which hath told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ. 30. Then they went out of the City and came unto him 31. In the mean while his Disciples prayed him saying Master eat 32. But he said unto them I have to eat that ye know not of 33. Therefore said the Disciples one to another hath any man brought him ought to eat 34. Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work 35. Say ye not there are yet four months and then cometh harvest Behold I say unto you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest 36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoyce together 37. And herein is that saying true One soweth and another reapeth 38. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour other men laboured and ye are entred into their labours 39. And many of the Samaritans of that City believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified He told me all that ever I did 40. So when the Samaritans were come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days 41. And many more believed because of his own words 42. And said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world 43. Now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee 44. For Iesus himself testified that a Prophet hath no honour in his own country 45. Then when he was come into Galilee the Galileans received him having seen all things that he did at Hierusalem at the feast for they also went unto the feast 46. So Iesus came again into Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine And there was a certain Nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum 47. When he heard that Iesus was come out of Iudea into Galilee he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death 48. Then said Iesus unto him Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe 49. The Nobleman saith unto him Sir come down ere my child die 50. Iesus saith unto him Go thy way thy son liveth And the man believed the word that Iesus had spoken unto him and he went his way 51. And as he was now going down his servants met him and told him saying Thy son liveth 52. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend and they said unto him Yesterday at the seventh hour the Fever left him 53. So the Father knew that it was at the same hour in which Iesus said unto him Thy son liveth and himself believed and his whole house 54. This is again the second miracle that Iesus did when he was come out of Iudea into Galilee Reason of the Order ABOUT the proper time place and order of this story of Christ and the Samaritan woman there is some difficulty and diversity of opinion None questioning whether it do naturally follow the story of the third Chapter but some doubting whether this journey of our Saviour into Galilee was after Johns imprisonment yea or no but conceiving it rather to have been before and supposing that this voyage is not the same with that in Matth. 4. 12. Mark 1. 14. where it is said that when Jesus heard that John was cast into prison he departed into Galilee but it was before that and before John was committed unto prison Ammonius among the Ancients appeareth to be of this opinion and Grotius among the modern to mention no more But Augustine Jansenius Alapide Chemnitius and divers others do rank this story and voiage after Johns shutting up and that immediately after old Tatianus only hath placed it a good while after and so have undoubtingly made this journey into Galilee and that in Mat. 4. 12. but one and the same And indeed if the story and time of it be precisely weighed it will not only be clear that this journey into Galilee is the very same mentioned by Matthew and Mark in the places cited but it will also give some illustration to that story in them and shew the occasion and proceeding of that his journey For 1. Whereas those two Evangelists have laid Christs journey into Galilee upon Johns imprisonment the very next thing to the story of his Temptation John hath told us of a journey thither betwixt the temptation and Johns commitment and that Christ continued there in Galilee some space Now to imagine another journey thither again and that a twelvemonth after the former and this also before John be imprisoned will make that place in Matthew and Mark exceeding hard if not impossible to be understood 2. If this voiage in John and that in them be not the same and both after Johns imprisonment in what time and place will it be possible to bring that story in those two Evangelists into being Let it be supposed as some will have it that John was yet abroad and not yet imprisoned when Jesus undertaketh this journey into Galilee well this Chapter bringeth him to Galilee and the next to Jerusalem again and then when and where and how shall we take in Johns imprisonment after It is true that there are that have found a place to thrust it in but we will not spend time in that dispute let but the present section and the subsequent till the next Passover be seriously observed and I suppose there will be evidence sufficient by their very contexture to clear this order 2. The words of John that relate the occasion of Christs journey into Galilee compared with the words of Matthew and Mark speak but the very same thing though the terms and expressions do somewhat differ Those two Evangelists say the one of them That when John was put in prison the other That when Jesus heard he was put in prison he departed into Galilee And what can the words of John when the Lord
within their thoughts but despising them conversing ordinarily with the common people but washing after coming near them as having received defiling from them This great pretence and shew of holiness they politickly used to bring them into the esteem and repute of men and in favour with the people which end they accordingly attained unto so far that they got all the applause and indeed all the power into their own hands The Pharisees have so great power with the multitude saith Josephus that if they speak any thing against the King or against the High-Priest they are presently believed Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 18. And a little after The Sadduces did only win upon the rich but had not the common people on their side But the Pharisees had the multitude for them They had small reason considering how they scorned them and domineered over them And there he relates how they stirred up the peoples hate against Hyrcanus the King and in chap. 23. how they did the like against King Alexander And therefore when he was upon his death bed he adviseth Alexandra the Queen to keep in with the Pharisees For that they were very powerful with the people and could hurt those they hated and help their friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that they are mightily believed by the people especially if they speak evil of any man whom they hate And I my self saith the King came into disfavour by their means because I gave them offence And to trouble the Reader but with one Character more of them the same Josephus Ant. lib. 17. c. 3. gives them this badge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pharisees are exceeding strong to oppose Kings they are subtil and very forward to make open war and to do mischief Now although the word Scribes and Pharisees are made terms convertible in this portion of Scripture that we are upon for whereas Luke calls them Pharisees and Doctors of the Law vers 17. and Scribes and Pharisees vers 21. the other two Evangelists have only called them Scribes and the like convertibleness is used in other places yet was there a distinction to be made betwixt a Scribe and a Pharisee To this purpose is that passage observable in Acts 23. 6 7 9. where the Sanhedrin is described to consist of Pharisees Sadduces and Scribes which were on the Pharisees part that is Scribes that were of the Pharisees mind and part in matter of opinion but were not Pharisees in demeanour in matter of so precise conversation unless the word Scribes there do mean the President and Vice-president of the Councel For it was very possible nay easie for a man to be a Scribe that is either a member of the Sanhedrin or a publick Teacher and yet neither a Sadduce in opinion nor a Pharisee in practice The Sadduces of the Sanhedrin may be called Scribes because they were of the Law-makers to the Nation as well as the Pharisees but the Pharisees more properly might be called so because they were so zealous of Traditions and of the decrees of the Scribes that had still gone before them but every Scribe that held with the Pharisees in that point went not with them in the strictness of their Ceremonious demeanour so that every Scribe was not a Pharisee and every Pherisee not a Scribe For the title Scribe did denote a function but the title Pharisee did denote devotion Now these that the Evangelists speak of in the place that we have in hand were both Pharisees and Scribes that is not only the publick Teachers in their Schools and Synagogues of those Traditions upon which the State-Religion was setled and according to which the body of the Nation walked but such as took upon them a preciseness and devotion above the common rate and practise of those that walked in the State-Religion The concourse of these Doctors was occasioned partly by Christs peregrination throughout their Synagogues of Galilee where they were eye and ear witnesses of his works and words and partly by that fame that was now spread of him through all the Countries thereabout as Mat. 4. 25. And Christ in this great concourse of such learned prying and captious men doth mightily and abundantly shew forth his power of healing which Luke hath uttered The power of God was present to heal them that by such demonstrations he might convince them that he was the Messias Mark 2. Vers. 4. They uncovered the Roof and when they had broken it up they let down the bed It seemeth by some passages of Scripture that as their houses were flat roofed so that they had grates on the top of the roof through which they received light and air when they pleased and when they would they covered those grates with a covering to keep out cold and foul weather So it is said of Noah that he removed the covering of the Ark and looked Gen. 8. 13. though it had a window in the side of it to have looked out Vers. 8. And of Ahaziah that he fell through a lattice 2 King 1. 2. which may be understood of this grate as he was walking over it Now whether the Evangelists mean that these men took up this cover grate and all and let down the bed or rather as their expression seem to carry it that they broke the solid and whole roof we shall not insist to make inquiry after it only we cannot but observe how like this bed and man in it comes down from the top of the house to the coming down of Peters sheet from Heaven Acts 10. let down by the four corners Mat. 9. Vers. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee What Matthew and Mark utter Son Luke expresseth Man Luke 5. 20. and the terms may be understood convertibly according to the idiom of the Language used both among the Hebrews and the Chaldees or if the word son be construed in its closer strictness it may be taken as an expression used by Elders to younger persons or by superiours to inferiours as Joh. 7. 19. 1 Sam. 4. 16. Luke 16. 25. But I should expound it in a closer strictness still as spoken by Christ in much tenderness and cherishing to that singular faith of this man that he observed in him It is said indeed by all the Evangelists that Jesus saw their Faith as applying it to the four men that brought the palsick man thither but it cannot be so much as surmised but that the diseased man had faith as well and as vigorous as they And indeed a greater faith had not been shewed by any that had dealt with Christ in all the story hitherto than was shewed in this action of bringing this man before him in such a manner and thereupon it is the less to be wondred at if Christ do in most melting and tender expression call him son and pronounce healing of the Soul to him that came for healing of his body It is not to be doubted but that upon these
in the Wilderness after Gods decree upon them Numb 14. and now seeing he is miraculously inabled to go thither it is time to go to give praises to him who had done so great things for him It was at the Passover that he was recovered a time when all the people upon the ingagement of the command were to present themselves before the Lord but his long absence and his present miraculous inabling to appear did double and treble the ingagement upon him There Christ findeth him where it was fittest he should be found owns him again and giveth him the wholsome admonition Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Not only implying that all our maladies come for sin but as it seemeth concluding that this long and sore diseasedness had seised upon him for some particular and notorious offence Vers. 15. The man departed and told the Iews that it was Iesus c. Not with an evil will or intention to have Christ indangered or persecuted for his work on the Sabbath day but in zeal to profess and publish him to the Jews for the wonder wrought so powerfully by him we need no other argument to prove the negative namely that he sought not to endanger Christ than even common sense and reason For for a man so gratiously recovered from so sad and so long a malady to go about in requital of this to forward and seek the destruction of him that did recover him is a thing so horrid and incredible to conceive that it would speak a Devil rather than a man that did it It is true indeed that the Jews to whom he went to tell this were the Sanhedrin or the men of authority but that he did it for the honour of Jesus who had cured him his obedience to Christs command his pleading the warrant of that command his resorting upon his healing to the Temple his lesson given him by Christ there and his mentioning only the miracle of healing and not the command to carry his bed are arguments sufficient to evince So that this healed mans errand to the Jews is not to accuse Christ but to preach him and to incite them to take such notice and respect of him as was fit for one that had done so great a miracle Vers. 17. My Father worketh hitherto and I work The speech of Christ from hence to the end of the Chapter was made by him as hath been said before the Sanhedrin before which he was called to answer for what he had done on the Sabbath day for whereas it is said the Jews did persecute him and sought to kill him it is most proper to understand it that they went about it in a Judicial way as they would pretend even as they did when they put him to death indeed Now through all the speech he pleads himself to be the Messias in as plain terms and with as strong arguments as could be uttered and yet that Court that was to judge of true and false Prophets doth neither believe him for the true Messias because of the wickedness of their own hearts nor yet punish him for a false because of the fear they had of the people and because his time was not yet come It is something strange that the Evangelist hath not given us intelligence of the issue of this so plain and so full a plea which Christ pleadeth even for his life but by his silence in such a thing we may well conclude the irresistible power and truth and clearness wherwith he spake which though the Jews would not comply with nor entertain yet were they not able to deny or contradict it For the asserting of the act that he had done on the Sabbath he averreth his power as he was the Messias and alledgeth the Testimony of John of his own miracles of the voice from Heaven and of the Scriptures to prove he was so And though he do acknowledge that he had received his copy and power of working from the Father yet doth he account it no robbery to equal himself with him in his mighty working and authority and particularly in those three great affairs the managing of which are only proper for the hands of God and those are raising of the dead judging of the world and disposing of the Sabbath He proves this last which was the matter that he had in pleading by his authority and power that he had in the two former That as God raised the dead so he raised whom he would and as God judged men so he also judged nay the father had committed all judgement to him and therefore as the Father had authority over the Sabbath so had he also authority over it That is his argument in these words that we have in hand My Father worketh hitherto and I work in which he referreth to what is spoken concerning God in relation to the Sabbath That God rested on the seventh day and blessed that day and sanctified it and yet God by his providential actings worketh hitherto even every Sabbath and so saith he do I also work doing good on the Sabbath and dispensing providences for the benefit of man and for the accomplishing of his ministration But how does the parallel between Gods works of providence on the Sabbath and this acting of Christ on the Sabbath hold throughout or in all the parts of it As God doth good on the Sabbath dispensing his Ordinances sending rains and Sun-shine providing food for all flesh c. so Christ did good on this Sabbath healing a disease and recovering a man from so long an infirmity Herein the parallel holdeth clearly but Christ went a step further for he commanded the man to carry his bed which tended to the visible violation of the Sabbath which Gods providential actings do not do It is true indeed that God also commanded the Priests of the Temple to work on the Sabbath in killing slaying and sacrificing beasts but this was for the greater promotion of his service and he commanded Joshuah to march about Jericho on the Sabbath day but that was for the more forwarding of the publick good but this command to the man to carry his bed tended neither to the one end nor to the other but meerly and mainly to shew the power and authority that Christ had over the Sabbath Skan but considerately that command and action and you will find the tendency of it so directly and properly to nothing as to this very thing Say it was to shew the compleatness of the cure that might have been sufficiently and indeed as much shewed either by the man 's found walking without his bed or by carrying his bed the next day Was it more for the glorifying of God Regarding the bare action one would suppose that to have kept the Sabbath and not giving offence to others might have tended to that end more fairly There was therefore this chief thing in it besides the tryal of the mans faith and obedience That Christ would
his seed to Molech or useth Sorcery or profaneth the Sabbath or eateth holy things in his uncleanness or that cometh into the Sanctuary he being unclean or that eateth fat or blood or what is left of the sacrifice or any sacrificed thing not offered in season or that killeth or offereth up a sacrifice out of the Court or that eateth leaven at the Passover or that eateth ought on the day of Expiation or doth any work on it or that makes oil or incense like the holy or that anoints with holy oil that delayeth the Passover or Circumcision for which there are affirmative precepts All these if done wilfully are liable to cutting off and if done ignorantly then to the fixed sin-offering and if it be unknown whether he did it or no then to a suspensive trespass-offering but only he that defiles the Sanctuary and its holy things for he is bound to an ascending or descending offering Now that we may the better understand what Death by the hand of Heaven and Cutting off mean we are first to take notice that neither of them was any penalty inflicted by the hand or sentence of man but both of them do import a liableness to the wrath and vengeance of the Lord in their several kinds And the Jews do ever account Cutting off to be the higher and more eminent degree of Divine vengeance As to spare more evidences of this which might be given copiously this passage of Maymonides is sufficient and it is remarkable when he saith f f f Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 4. Is it possible for a Priest that serveth in his uncleanness to stay so little in the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As that he should be guilty of death by the hand of Heaven only and not guilty of cutting off He had had those words but a little before which were cited even now An unclean person that serveth in the Sanctuary profaneth his Service and is guilty of death by the hand of Heaven although he stay not there and then he comes on and is it possible saith he that he should stay so little as to be guilty only of death by the hand of Heaven and not to be guilty of cutting off Apparently shewing that cutting off was the deeper degree and die of guilt and vengeance by the hand of God and Divine indignation By Death by the hand of Heaven in their sense therefore is to be apprehended some such a sodain avengeful stroke as the Lord shewed upon Nadab and Abihu or Ananias and Saphira to take them away And this may the better be collected by two passages usual in the Rabbins about this matter First In that they give up the offence of the Priests drinking wine before they went to serve which is held to have been the offence of Nadab and Abihu g g g â—â—â— per. 1. to death by the hand of Heaven which argues that they mean such a kind of stroke as they two had And secondly In that wheresoever the Law enjoyneth Aaron and his sons and the people about the affairs of the Sanctuary they shall or they shall not do thus or thus lest they die they interpret this of death by the hand of Heaven But what to understand by Cutting off is not so readily agreed among them h h h Kimchi in Esay â—8 Kimchi alledgeth it as the opinion of their Doctors That Dying before fifty years old is death by cutting off Compare Joh. 8. 57. i i i R. Sol. in Gâ—â— 17. Rabbi Solomon saith It is to die childless and to die before his time Baal Aruch giveth this distinction between Cutting off and Death by the hand of Heaven that k k k Arâ—â—h in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off is of himself and of his children but Death by the hand of Heaven is of himself but not of his children But mean it which of these you will or all these together or which may have good probability to conceive a liableness to cutting off from the life of the world to come both this and Death by the Hand of Heaven were held by that Nation with whom the phrases were so much in use to mean not any censure or punishment inflicted by man but an impending vengeance of God and a continual danger and possibility when indignation should seize upon him that was faln under these gilts Anathema Maran Atha one under a curse whensoever the Lord shall come to inflict it as Joh. 3. 18 36. SECT III. Penalties inflicted upon unclean persons found in the Temple Whipping and the Rebels beating IT was not a small awe that this might work in the hearts of the people towards their restraining from going into the Sanctuary in their uncleanness to have this impressed and inculcated upon them as it was continually that such a venture did hazard them both body and soul and brought them ipso facto into Gods dreadful displeasure and into undoubted danger of accrewing judgment But did they let the offender thus alone that had offended as if he was fallen under the guilt of death by the Hand of Heaven or under the guilt of cutting off that they had no more to do with him but leave him to the justice of God and to judgment when it should fall upon him Many a wretch would make sleight of this matter and because sentence upon his evil work was not executed speedily his heart would be fully set in him to do so again as Eccles. 8. 11. Therefore they let not the Delinquent so escape but as he had fallen under the wrath of God so they also brought him under a penalty by the hand of man And this penalty was twofold either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whipping by the appointment of the Judges or mawling and beating by the people 1. There was the penalty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whipping or scourging upon the censure of the Judges according to the Law Deut. 25. 2. Where he was to receive forty stripes but their Tradition brought it to forty save one 2 Cor. 11. 24. And the reason of this was because they would make a hedge to the Law and whereas that commands that they should not give to a Delinquent that was whipt above forty stripes lest their brother should seem vile unto them they abated one of forty to make sure to keep within compass The measure and manner of their whipping is largely described in the Treatise Maccoth thus in their own words a a a Maccoth per. 3. How many stripes do they give him saith the Mishueh there Why forty lacking one As it is said by a certain number forty stripes that is a number near to forty Rabbi Judah saith he is beaten with full forty and where hath he the odd one above thirty nine Between his shoulders They allot him not stripes but so as they might be triplicated They allot him to receive forty he hath had some of them
3936 762 39 9 Q. Sulpit. Camarin and C. Poppaeus Sabinus 3937 763 40 10 Pub. Corn. Dolabella and C. Iunius Silanus 3938 764 41 11 M. Aemil. Lepid. and T. Statilius Taurus 3939 765 42 12 Germanicus Caes. and C. Fonteius Capito 3940 766 43 13 L. Munatius Plancus and C. Silius Caecina 3941 767 44 14 Sext. Pomp. Sexti F. and Sext. Apuleius Sexti F. Augustus Cesar died the XIXth day of August on which day he had formerly entred upon the first Consulship b b b b b b Dion Cass. lib. 56. He lived LXXV years X months and XXVI days He bore the Empire alone from the Victory at Actium XLIV years wanting only XIII days c c c c c c Eutrop. lib. 7. Tiberius held the Empire in great slothfulness with grievous cruelty wicked covetousness and filthy lust Year of the World Of the City built Of Tiberius Of Christ Consuls 3942 768 1 15 Drusus Caes. and C. Norbanus Flaccus 3943 769 2 16 C. Statil Sisenna Taurus and Scribonius Libo 3944 770 3 17 C. Caecil Rufus and L. Pomponianus Flaccus 3945 771 4 18 Tiber. Caes. Aug. III. and Germanicus Caes. II. 3946 772 5 19 M. Iulius Silanus and L. Norban Flac. vel Balbus 3947 773 6 20 M. Valerius Messala and M. Aurel. Cotta 3948 774 7 21 Tiber. Caes. Aug. IV. and Drusus Caes. II. 3949 775 8 22 D. Haterius Agrippa and C. Sulpitius Galba 3950 776 9 23 C. Asinius Pollio and C. Antistius Veter 3951 777 10 24 Sext. Cornel. Cethegus and Visellius Varro 3952 778 11 25 M. Asinius Agrippa and Cossus Cornel. Lentulus 3953 779 12 26 Cn. Lentulus Getulicus and C. Calvisius Sabinus 3954 780 13 27 M. Licinius Crassus and P. L. Calphurnius Piso. 3955 781 14 28 Appius Iul. Silanus and P. Silvius Nerva 3956 782 15 29 C. Rubellius Geminus and C. Fusius Geminus In the early spring of this year came John baptizing In the month Tisri Christ is baptized when he had now accomplished the nine and twentieth year of his age and had now newly entred upon his thirtieth The thirtieth of Christ is to be reckoned with the sixteenth of Tiberius Of Augustus now entring upon his one and thirtieth year wherein Christ was born Dion Cassius hath moreover these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having now compleated thrice ten years being compelled indeed to it he continued his Government and entred upon a fourth ten of years being now more easie and slothful by reason of age In this very year was the Taxation under Cyrenius of which Luke speaks Chap. II. So that if it be asked when the fifth Monarchy of the Romans arose after the dissolution of those four mentioned by Daniel An easie answer may be fetched from S. Luke who relates that in that very year wherein Christ was born Augustus laid a Tax upon the whole World III. Christ was born in the thirty fift year of the reign of Herod which we gather from the observation of these things 1. d d d d d d Ioseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. Herod reigned from that time he was first declared King by the Romans seven and thirty years 2. Between the death of Herod and the death of Augustus there was this space of time 1. e e e e e e Ios. Antiq. lib. 1â— cap 15. The ten years current of the reign of Archelaus 2. f f f f f f Id. ibid. lib. Coponius succeeds him banished into Vienna in the Presidentship of Judea 3. Marcus Ambibuchus succeeds Coponius 4. g g g g g g Id. iold cap. 3 Annius Rufus succeeds Ambibuchus during whose Presidentship Augustus dies 18. cap. 1. Since therefore only fourteen years passed from the nativity of Christ to the death of Augustus out of which sum when you shall have reckoned the ten years current of Archelaus and the times of the three Presidents we must reckon that Christ was not born but in the last years of Herod Thus we conjecture In his thirty fift Christ was born In his thirty seventh now newly begun the Wise men came presently after this was the slaying of the infants and after a few months the death of Herod IV. Christ was born about the twenty seventh year of the Presidentship of Hillel in the Sanhedrin The rise of the family of Hillel took its beginning at the decease of the Asmonean family Herod indeed succeeded in the Kingly government a family sprung from Babylon and as was believed of the stock of David For h h h h h h Hieros Taanith fol. 68. 1. a book of genealogy was found at Jerusalem which we mentioned before in which it was written that Hillel was sprung from the stock of David by his wife Abital Now Hillel went up out of Babylon to Jerusalem to enquire of the Wise men concerning some things when now after the death of Shemaia and Abtalion the two sons of Betira held the chief seats And when he who had resorted thither to learn something had taught them some things of the Passover rites which they had forgot they put him into the chair You have the full story of it in the i i i i i i Pisachâ—n fol. 33. 1. Jerusalem Talmud We mention it Chap. XXVI 1. Now Hillel went up to Jerusalem and took the Chair an hundred years before the destruction of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k k k k Bab. Schabb. fol 15. 1. Hillel and his son Simeon and his son Gamaliel and his son Simeon bare the Government for an hundred years before the laying waste of the Temple Of those hundred years if you take away two and thirty and an half of the life of Christ and forty years as it is commonly computed coming between the death of Christ and the destruction of the City there remain the twenty seven years of Hillel before the birth of our Saviour Hillel held the government forty years So that his death happened about the twelfth or thirteenth year of Christ His son also held it after him and his grandsons in a long succession even to R. Judah the Holy The splendor and pomp of this family of Hillel had so obscured the rest of the families of Davids stock that perhaps they believed or expected the less that the Messias should spring from any of them Yea one in the Babylonian Gemara was almost perswaded that Rabbi Judah the Holy of the Hillelian family was the Messias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Sanhedr fol. 98. 2. Rabh said If Messiah be among the living our Holy Rabbi is such if among the dead Daniel was he V. Christ was born in the month Tisri somewhat answering to our September This we conclude omitting other things by computing backwards from his death For if he died in his two and thirtieth year and an half at the feast of the Passover in the month Nisan you must necessarily lay the time of
that she was a witch I have therefore cited these passages not only that it may be shewn that there were women Pharisees and so that the name is not taken from interpreting or expounding but that it may be observed also what kind of women for the most part embrace Phariseism namely Widows and Maids under the vail of Sanctity and Devotion hiding and practising all manner of wickedness And so much we gain of the history of the Pharisees while we are tracing the etymology of the word II. That the Pharisees therefore were so called from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying Separation is more commonly asserted and more truly and the thing it self as well as the word speaks it so that by a word more known to us you might rightly call the Pharisees Separatists but in what sense has need of more narrow enquiry The differences of the Jewish people are to be disposed here into divers ranks and first we will begin with the Women 1. It were an infinite task to search particularly how their Canons indulged shall I say or prescribed the Woman a freedom from very many rites in which a great part of the Jewish religion was placed How numberless are the times that that occurs in the Talmudic Pandect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Berac cap. 3 hal 3. Women servants and children are not bound to these things e e e e e e Hieros Kiddush fol. 61. 3. Women servants and children are not bound to recite their Phylacteries nor to wear them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Passovers of Women are at their own Will And not to dwell upon things that are obvious let this one serve instead of many f f f f f f Bab. Sotah fol. 21. 2. A certain Matron asked R. Eleazar Why when Aaron sinned in making the Golden Calf the people are punished with a threefold death He answered Let not a Woman be learned beyond her distaff Hirâ—anus his son said unto him Because no answer is given her in one word out of the Law She will withdraw from us three hundred tenth Cori yearly To whom he replied Let them rather go and be burnt than the words of the Law be delivered to Women From hence it appears that the Women that embraced Pharisaism did it of their own free will and vow not by command which the Men Pharisees also did 2. Pass we from the Women to the Men and first to the lowest degrees of Men in the distinction relating to Religion namely to them whom they ordinarily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illiterate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The people of the Earth or the Plebeians Of them thus the Gemara in Sotah newly cited g g g g g g Fol. 22. 1. One reads the Scriptures and recites the Mishna and yet he waits not upon the Scholars of the Wise-men what of him R. Eleazar saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is one of the people of the earth R. Samuel bar Nachmani saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold this is an illiterate man R. Jannai saith behold this is a Cuthean R. Achabar Jacob saith behold This is a Magician And a little after Who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people of the Earth R. Meir saith He that recites not his Phylacteries morning and evening with his prayers But the Wise men say He whosoever he be that lays not up his Phylacteries Ben Azzai saith He who hath not a fringe on his garment R. Jochanan ben Joseph saith He that instructs not his sons in the doctrine of the Law Others say He who although he read the Scriptures and repeats the Traditions yet attends not on the Scholars of the Wise men this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people of the Earth or the Plebeian Does he read the Scriptures and not repeat the Tradition Behold this man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illiterate The Gloss upon the place speaks thus The people of the Earth are they of whom there is suspicion of Tenths and cleanness that is lest they tithe not rightly nor take care aright concerning cleansings And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the illiterate person is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more vile or inferior than the people of the Earth Compare that John VII 49. The people that knoweth not the Law is cursed The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Collegians or Associates and Scholars of the Wise men were opposed to these Vulgar persons Under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scholars of the Wise men are comprehended all that were learned and studious under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religious as well learned as unlearned There were some of the learned whom they commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Collegians of the Rabbins who as yet were Candidates and not preferred to the publick office of teaching or judging The thing may be illustrated by one Example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h Hieros Sanhedr fol. 18. 3. Do the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Collegians enter in to appoint the New Moon R. Hoshaia said When I was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Collegian R. Samuel ben R. Isaac led me in to the appointment of the New Moon but I knew not whether I were of the number or no. And a little after Do the Collegians or Fellows go in to intercalate the year Let us learn this from the example of Rabban Gamaliel who said Let the seven Seniors meet me in the Chamber But eight entred Who came in hither saith he without leave I answered Samuel the little In this sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Collegue differs nothing from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Scholar of a Wise man in that both signifie a Student and a Learned man But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Collegue hath a wider sense denoting all such who have more professedly devoted themselves to Religion and have professed a more devout Life and Rule than the common people whether they were learned or unlearned whether of the Sect of the Pharisees or of the Sadduces or some other Hence you have mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Bab. Berac fol. 44. 2. a religious Samaritan and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k k k k Ioma fol. 8. 2. a religious Baker And the phrase seems to be drawn from Psal. CXIX 63. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am a companion of all those that fear thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They take upon them the habit of Religion See the Babylonian Talmud in l l l l l l Fol. 7. 1. Avodah Zarah in the Gloss. That distinction also is worthy of consideration of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m m m m m m Hieros Bava Bâ—thra fol. 17. 1 The greater and the less Religious Yet the word seems sometimes to be appropriated to the Pharisees as being
〈◊〉 Zephaniah the second Priest Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zephaniah the Sagan of the Priests Caiaphas therefore was the High-Priest and Annas the Sagan or Ruler of the Temple who for his independent dignity is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or High-Priest as well as Caiaphas and seems therefore to be named first because he was the others Father-in-law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h Chetub fol. 88. 2. fol. 105. 1. There was a dissention between Hanan and the Sons of the chief Priests c. It was in a judicial cause about a Wife requiring her dower c. Where the scruple is who should these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Chief Priests be Whether the Fathers and heads of the Courses or the High-Priest only and the Sagan It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Cap. 1. of the same Treatise hal 5. a Counsel of Priests which we have already spoken to at Matth. XXVI 3. Now the question is whether by the Sons of the chief Priests be meant the Sons of the Fathers of Courses or the Fathers of Courses themselves or the Sons of the High-Priest and the Sagan where the High-Priest in that Court was like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince in the Sanhedrin and the Sagan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of the Sanhedrin k k k k k k Pesikta fol. 11. 4. Moses was made a Sagan to Aaron He put on his Garments and took them off viz. on the day of his Consecration And as he was his Sagan in life so he was in death too VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Every valley shall be filled THE Jews have a Tradition that some such thing was done by the cloud that led Israel in the Wilderness Instead of many instances take the Targumist upon Cant. II. 6. There was a cloud went before them three days journey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take down the hills and raise the valleyes It slew all fiery Serpents in the Wilderness and all Scorpions and found out for them a fit place to lodge in What the meaning of the Prophet in this passage was Christians well enough understand the Jews apply it to levelling and making the ways plain for Israel's return out of Captivity for this was the main thing they expected from the Messiah viz. to bring back the Captivity of Israel l l l l l l Beresh rabb fol. 110. 3. R. Chanan saith Israel shall have no need of the Doctrine of Messiah the King in time to come for it is said to him shall the Gentiles seek Isai. XI 10. but not Israel If so why then is Messiah to come and what is he to doe when he doth come He shall gather together the Captivity of Israel c. VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham WE do not say the Baptist played with the sound of those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Banaia and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abanaia He does certainly with great scorn deride the vain confidence and glorying of that Nation amongst whom nothing was more ready and usual in their mouths than to boast that they were the Children of Abraham when he tells them that they were such Children of Abraham that God could raise as good as they from those very stones VERS XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none IT would be no sense to say he that hath two Coats let him give to him that hath not two but to him that hath none For it was esteemed for Religion by some to weare but one single Coat or Garment Of which more elsewhere VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exact no more than that which is appointed you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m m m m m m Sanhedr fol. 25. 2. When the Rabbins saw that the Publicans exacted too much they rejected them as not being fit to give their testimony in any case Where the Gloss hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too much that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More than that which is appointed them And the Father of R. Zeirah is commended in the same place that he gently and honestly executed that trust He discharged the Office of a Publican for thirteen years when the Prince of the City came and this Publican saw the Rabbins he was wont to say to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go my people enter thou into thy Chambers Isai. XXVI The Gloss is Lest the Prince of the City should see you and taking notice what numbers you are should encrease his tax yearly VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither accuse any falsly LEVIT XIX 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither lye one to another Job XXXV 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The oppressed See Psal. LXXII 4. CXIX 122. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. n n n n n n Dion Cass. lib. 58. a little from the beginning The manner of sycophants is first to load a person with reproaches and whisper some secret that the other hearing it may by telling something like it become obnoxious himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With your wages A word used also by the Rabbins o o o o o o Midr. Schir fol. 5. 3. The King distributeh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wages to his Legions p p p p p p Sanhedr fol. 18. 2. The King is not admitted to the intercalation of the year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Opsonia That is lest he should favour himself in laying out the years with respect to the Souldiers pay VERS XXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like a Dove IF you will believe the Jews there sate a golden Dove upon the top of Solomon's Scepter q q q q q q Bemidb. rabh fol. 250. 1. As Solomon sate in his throne his Scepter was hung up behind him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the top of which there was a Dove and a golden crown in the mouth of it VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being as was supposed the Son of Ioseph A Parable r r r r r r Schemoth rabba fol. 160. 4. There was a certain Orphaness brought by a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epitropus or Foster-father an honest good man At length he would place her in Marriage A scribe is called to write a bill of her dower Saith he to the girl what is thy name N. saith she What the name of thy Father She held her peace To whom her Foster-father why dost thou not speak Because saith she I know no other Father but thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that educateh the child is called a Father not he that begets it Note that Joseph having been taught by the Angel and well satisfied in
must be fetcht thence not from any Greek or Roman Lexicon That which we are to enquire after is how it was understood by the auditory then present and I may lay any wager that the Jews when they heard Abrahams bosom mentioned did think of nothing less than that kind of limbo we have here described What Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses c. in a lake without water in prison on the very brim of Hell Is this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Paradise is this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the throne of glory And was Lazarus carried thither by Angels when he was carried into Abrahams bosom We meet with a phrase amongst the Talmudists a. Let us borrow a little patience of d Kiddushin fol. 72. It is quoted also from Juchasin fol. 75. 2. the Reader to transcribe the whole passage Rabbi Judah saith to Levi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 represent the Persians to me by some similitude He saith they are like to the host of the house of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Represent to me the Iberians They are like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Angels of destruction Represent to me the Ismaelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are like the Devils of the stinking pit Represent to me the disciples of the wise that are in Babylon They are like to ministring Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When R. Judah dyed he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hemnia is in Babylon and consists of Ammonites wholly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mesgaria is in Babylon and wholly consists of spurious people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birkah is in Babylon where two men interchange their wives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birtha Sataia is in Babylon and at this day they depart from God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acra of Agma is in Babylon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ada bar Ahava is there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This day he sits in Abraham's bosom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This day is Rabh Judah born in Babylon Expositors are not well agreed neither by whom nor indeed concerning whom those words are spoken this day he sits in the bosom of Abraham And for that reason have I trascribed the whole period that the Reader may spend his judgment amongst them The Author of Juchasin thinks they may be the words of Adah bar Ahavah spoken concerning Rabbi Judah Another Gloss saith they are spoken of Adah bar Ahavah himself Let us hear them both e e e e e e Iuchasin The day that Rabbi dyed Rabh Adah bar Ahavah said by way of Prophesie this day doth he sit in Abraham's bosom f f f f f f Gloss. There are those indeed that expound this day doth he sit in Abraham's bosom thus that is this day he dyed Which if it be to be understood of Adah bar Ahavah the times don't suit It seems to be understood therefore this day he sits in Abraham's bosom that is this day is Adah bar Ahavah circumcised and entred into the Covenant of Abraham But the Reader may plainly see having read out the whole period that these words were spoken neither by Adah nor of him but by Levi of whom we have some mention in the beginning of this passage and spoken concerning Rabbi Judah that was now dead It is Levi also that saith that in his room on that very self-same day was Rabh Judah born in Babylon according to the common Adage of their Schools which immediately follows A just man never dyes till there be born in his room one like him So saith R. Meir when R. Akibah dyed Rabbi Judah was born When Rabbi Judah dyed Rabh Judah was born When Rabh Judah dyed Rabba was born When Rabba dyed Rabh Isai was born We have here therefore if we will make up the story out of both Talmuds another not very unlike this of ours In the Jerusalem Talmud Rabbi Judah is conveighed by Angels In the Babylonian he is placed in Abraham's bosom neither would the Glosser have doubted in the least either of the thing or of the way of expressing it so as to have fled to any new exposition had he not mistook the person concerning whom these words were uttered He supposeth them spoken of Adah bar Ahavah wherein he is deceived and because the times do not fall in right if they were to be understood of his death he therefore frames a new interpretation of his own whiles in the mean time he acknowledgeth that others expound it otherwise We may find out therefore the meaning of the phrase according to the common interpretation by observing first that it was universally believed amongst the Jews that pure and holy souls when they left this body went into happiness to Abraham Our Saviour speaks according to the received opinion of that Nation in this affair when he saith Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Give me leave to transcribe a Story a little more largely than usual g g g g g g Midras Echah fol. 68. 1. There was a Woman the Mother of seven Martyrs So we find it also 2 Maccab. VII When six of her Sons were slain and the youngest brought out in order to it though but a child of two years and an half old The Mother saith to Caesar by the life of thy head I beseech thee O Caesar let me embrace and kiss my child This being permitted her she plukt out her Breasts and gave it suck Then she by the life of thy head I entreat thee O Caesar that thou wouldst first kill me and then the child Caesar answered I will not yield to thee in this matter for it is written in your own Law the Heifer or Sheep with its young one thou shalt not kill on the same day To whom she 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou foolishest of all mortals hast thou performed all the commands that this only is wanting He forthwith commands that the Child should be killed The Mother running into the embraces of her little Son kissed him and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go thou O my Son to Abraham thy Father and tell him thus saith my Mother do not thou boast saying I built an Altar and offer'd my Son Isaac For my Mother hath built seven Altars and offered seven Sons in one day c. This Woman questionless did not doubt of the innocence and purity of the Soul of this Child nor of its future happiness for we will suppose the truth of the Story which happiness she expresseth sufficiently by this that her Son was going to his Father Abraham There are several other things to the same purpose and of the same mould that might be produced but let this suffice in this place However see Notes upon Vers. 24. Now what this being in Abraham's bosom may signifie amongst the Jews we may gather from what is spoken of the manners and the death of this R. Judah concerning whom it is
of the place is that Christ shining forth in the light of the Gospel is a light that lightens all the world the light of the Law shone only upon the Jews but this light spreads wider even over the face of the whole earth VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gave them power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He empower'd them So Eccl. V. 19. VI. 2. He gave them the priviledg the liberty the dignity of being call'd and becoming the Sons of God Israel was once the Son and the first-born Exod. IV. 22. but now the adoption of Sons to God was open and free to all Nations whatever VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which were born not of blood IT may be a question here whether the Evangelist in this place opposeth regeneration to natural generation or only to those ways by which the Jews fancy'd men were made the Sons of God Expositors treat largely of the former let us a little consider the latter I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of bloods Observe the Plural number k k k k k k Shemoth rabba Sect. 19. Our Rabbins say that all Israel had thrown off Circumcision in Egypt but at length they were circumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the blood of the Passover was mingled with the blood of the circumcised and God accepted every one of them and kissed them l l l l l l Gloss. in Vajicra rab fol. 191. I said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while thou wert in thy bloods live i. e. In the twofold blood that of the Passover and that of the Circumcision The Israelites were brought into Covenant by three things by Circumcision by Washing and by offering of Sacrifices In the same manner an heathen if he would be admitted into Covenant he must of necessity be circumcised baptised and offer sacrifice m m m m m m Maimon Issure◠biah cap. 13. We see how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of bloods of the Passover and Circumcision they say the Israelites were recover'd from their degeneracy and how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the bloods of Circumcision and Sacrifices with the addition only of washing they suppos'd the Gentiles might become the Sons of God being by their Proselytism made Israelites and the children of the Covenant for they knew of no other adoption or Sonship II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the will of the flesh In the same sense wherein the Patriarchs and other Jews were ambitious by many wives to multiply children to themselves as being of the seed of Israel and children of the Covenant III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the will of man in that sense wherein they coveted so many proselytes to admit them into the Religion of the Jews and so into Covenant and Sonship with God These were the ways by which the Jews thought any became the Sons of God that is by being made Israelites But it is far otherwise in the adoption and Sonship that accrues to us by the Gospel VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The glory as of the only begotten THIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place imports the same thing as worthy We saw his glory as what was worthy or became the only begotten Son of God He did not glister in any worldly pomp or grandeur according to what the Jewish Nation fondly dream'd their Messiah would do but he was deckt with the glory of holiness grace truth and the power of miracles VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And grace for grace HE appear'd amongst us full of grace and truth and all we who convers'd with him and saw his glory of his fulness did receive grace and truth Nay further we receiv'd grace toward the propagation of grace i. e. the grace of Apostleship that we might dispense and propagate the grace of the Gospel toward others that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the end or design of a thing very frequently there are hardly any but must needs know VERS XXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou that Prophet THAT is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. IX 8 19. One of the old Prophets that was risen again I. The Masters of Traditions were wont to say that the spirit of Prophesie departed from Israel after the death of Zachary and Malachy So that we do not find they expected any Prophet till the days of the Messiah nor indeed that any in that interim of time did pretend to that character II. They believ'd that at the coming of the Messiah the Prophets were to rise again a a a a a a Sanhedr fol. 91. 2. They watchmen shall lift up the voice with the voice together shall they sing Isa. LII 8. R. Chaia bar Abba and R. Johanan say All the Prophets shall put forth a song with one voice b b b b b b Ibid. fol. 92. 2. All the just whom God shall raise from the dead shall not return again into the dust Gloss. Those whom he shall raise in the days of the Messiah To this Resurrection of the Saints they apply that of Micah V. 5. c c c c c c Succah fol. 51. 2. We shall raise against him seven shepherds David in the middle Adam Seth Methusalem on his right hand Abraham Jacob and Moses on his left And eight principal men but who are these Jess Saul Samuel Amos Zephany Zedechiah or rather Hezekiah as Kimch in loc Messiah and Elijah But indeed saith R. Solomon I do not well know whence they had these things Nor indeed do I. The Greek Interpreters instead of eight principal men have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eight bitings of men a very forreign sense They mistook in reading the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which they read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence by how much nearer still the Kingdom of Heaven or the expected time of Messiah's coming drew on by so much the more did they dream of the Resurrection of the Prophets And when any person of more remarkable gravity piety and holiness appear'd amongst them they were ready to conceive of him as a Prophet raised from the dead Mat. XVI 14. That therefore is the meaning of this question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou one of the Prophets rais'd from the dead VERS XXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why then baptisest thou THE Jews likewise expected that the world should be renew'd at the coming of the Messiah d d d d d d Sanhedr fol. 52. 2. In those years wherein God will renew his world Aruch quoting these words adds In those thousand years So also the Gloss upon the place Amongst other things they expected the purifying of the unclean R. Solom upon Ezek. XXXVI 26. I will expiate you and remove your uncleanness by the sprinkling of the water of purification Kimchi upon Zach. IX 6. The Rabbins of Blessed memory have a Tradition that Elias will purifie the bastards and restore them to the Congregation You have the
and fury of the Romans I beg your pardon for that saith Caiphas you know nothing neither consider for be he the Messiah or be he not it is expedient nay it is necessary he should dye rather than the whole Nation should perish c. VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Prophesied IS Caiphas among the Prophets There had not been a Prophet among the Chief Priests the Priests the People for these four hundred years and more and does Caiphas now begin to Prophesie It is a very foreign fetch that some would make when they would ascribe this gift to the office he then bore as if by being made High-Priest he became a Prophet The opinion is not worth confuting The Evangelist himself renders the reason when he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being the High-Priest that same year Which words direct the Reader 's eye rather to the year than to the High-Priest I. That was the year of pouring out the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelations beyond whatever the world had yet seen or would see again And why may not some drops of this great effusion light upon a wicked man as sometimes the Childrens crums fall from the table to the Dog under it that a witness might be given to the great work of Redemption from the mouth of our Redeemer's greatest enemy There lies the emphasis of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same year for Caiphas had been High-Priest some years before and did continue so for some years after II. To say the truth by all just calculation the office of the High-Priest ceased this very year and the High-Priest Prophesies while his office expires What difference was there as to the execution of the Priestly Office between the High-Priest and the rest of the Priesthood none certainly only in these two things 1. Asking counsel by Urim and Thummim 2. In performing the service upon the day of Expiation As to the former that had been useless many ages before because the Spirit of Prophesie had so perfectly departed from them So that there remained now no other distinction only that on the day of expiation the High-Priest was to perform the Service which an ordinary Priest was not warranted to do The principal ceremony of that day was that he should enter into the Holy of Holies with blood When therefore our great High-Priest should enter with his own blood into the Holiest of all what could there be left for this High-Priest to do When at the death of our great High-Priest the Veil that hung between the Holy and the Holy of Holies was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Math. XXVII 51. there was clear demonstration that all those Rites and Services were abolished and that the Office of the High-Priest which was distinguished from the other Priests only by those usages was now determined and brought to its full period The Pontificate therefore drawing its last breath prophesies concerning the Redemption of mankind by the great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls that he should dye for the people c. That of the Apostle Acts XXIII 5. I wist not that it was the High-Priest may perhaps have some such meaning as this in it I knew not that there was any High-Priest at all because the Office had become needless for some time For grant indeed that St. Paul did not know the face of Ananias nor that Ananias was the High-Priest yet he must needs know him to have been a Magistrate because he had his seat amongst the Fathers of the Sanhedrin now those words which he quoted out of the Law Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People forbad all indecent speeches toward any Magistrate as well as the High-Priest The Apostle therefore knowing Ananias well enough both who he was and that he sate there under a falsely assumed title of the High-Priest does on purpose call him whited wall because he only bore the colour of the High-Priesthood whenas the thing and office it self was now abolished Caiaphas in this passage before us speaketh partly as Caiaphas and partly as a Prophet As Caiaphas he does by an impious and precipitate boldness contrive and promote the death of Christ and what he uttered as a Prophet the Evangelist tells us he did it not of himself he spoke what himself understood not the depth of The greatest work of the Messiah according to the expectation of the Jews was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reduction or gathering together the Captivities The High-Priest despairs that ever Jesus should he live could do this For all that he either did or taught seem'd to have a contrary tendency viz. to seduce the people from their Religion rather than recover them from their servile state of bondage So that he apprehended this one only remedy left that care might be taken so as by the death of this man the hazard of that Nations ruin might blow over If he be the Messiah which I almost think even Caiaphas himself did not much question since he can have no hope of redeeming the Nation let him die for it himself that it perish not upon his account Thus miserably are the great Masters of Wisdom deceiv'd in almost all their surmizes they expect the gathering together of the Children of God in one by the life of the Messiah which was to be accomplisht by his death They believe their Traditional Religion was the establishment of that Nation whereas it became its overthrow They think to secure themselves by the death of Christ when by that very death of his their expected security was chiefly shaken O blind and stupid madness VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To purifie themselves R. f f f f f f Rosh hashanah fol. 16. 2. Isaac saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is bound to purifie himself for the Feast Now there were several measures of time for purifying He that was unclean by the touch of a dead body he requir'd a whole weeks time that he might be sprinkled with the water of Purification mixt with the ashes of the red heifer burnt the third and the seventh day which ceremony we may see and laugh at in Parah cap. 3. Other purifyings were speedilier perform'd amongst others shaving themselves and washing their garments were accounted necessary and within the Laws of purifying g g g g g g Moed-katon fol. 13. 1. These shave themselves within the Feast he who cometh from an heathen Country or from captivity or from prison Also he who hath been excommunicated but now absolv'd by the wise men These same also wash their garments within the Feast It is suppos'd that these were detain'd by some necessity of affairs that they could not wash and be shav'd before the Feast for these things were of right to be perform'd before lest any should by any means approach polluted unto the celebration of this Feast but if by some necessity they were hinder'd from doing it before
office there At the due time the Sacrifices appointed for the Chagigah were slain those parts of them that pertain'd to the Altar or to the Priest were given to them the rest of the beast was shar'd amongst the owners that had offer'd it and from thence proceeded their Feastings together and their great mirth and rejoycings according to the manner of that Festival This was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 14. The preparation of the Passover and that was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passover to which the Elders of the Council reserving themselves would by no means enter into the Judgment-hall Chap. XVIII 28. II. That day drawing toward night those that were deputed by the Sanhedrin to reap the sheaf of the first-fruits went out f f f f f f Menacoth fol. 65. 1. Those that were deputed by the Sanhedrin to reap went forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Feast-day the first day of the Feast and bound their corn in sheafs pretty near the ground that the reaping might be the easier All the neighbouring Towns about gather'd together that it might be done with the greater pomp When it grew duskish he that was about to reap said The Sun is set and they answer'd Well The Sun is set and they answer'd Well With this Sickle Well With this Sickle Well In this Basket Well In this Basket Well And if it happen'd to be on the Sabbath-day he said On this Sabbath and they answer'd Well On this Sabbath Well I will reap and they said reap I will reap reap And so as he said these things thrice over they answer'd thrice to every one of them Well well well And all this upon the account of the Baithusians who said the sheaf of the first-fruits ought not to be reaped on the close of the Feast-day About that hour of the day wherein our Saviour was buried they went forth to this reaping and when the Sabbath was now come they began the work for the Sabbath it self did not hinder this work g g g g g g Ibid. fol. 63. 2. R. Ananias the Sagan of the Priests saith on the Sabbath-day they reap'd the sheaf only to the measure of one Seah with one Sickle in one Basket but upon a common day they reapt three Seahs with three Sickles in three Baskets But the wise men say The Sabbath-days and other days as to this matter are alike III. This night they were to lodg in Jerusalem or in Booths about so near the City that they might not exceed the bounds of a Sabbath-days journey In the morning again they met very early in the Court as the day before the Sacrifices are brought for the peoples appearing before the Lord the sheaf of first-fruits is offer'd in its turn the rites and usages of which offering are described in the place above quoted So that upon this high day there happen'd to be three great Solemnities in one viz. the Sabbath the sheaf-offering and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearing of the people in the Court before the Lord according to the command Exod. XXIII 17. VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a Spear pierced his side THE Arab. Vers. of the Erpenian Edition adds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pierced his right side afraid as it should seem lest the miracle should not be great enough if the blood and water should have been suppos'd to have issued from his left-side because of the water that is said to be contain'd in the Pericardium which being pierced it is conceived blood and water could not but upon natural reasons flow out of it But this issue of blood and water had something of mystery in it beyond nature if nothing preternatural had been in it I hardly imagin the Evangelist would have used that threefold asseveration concerning the truth of the thing as we see he doth And he that saw it bare record c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There came out blood and water It is commonly said that the two Sacraments of the New Testament Water and Blood flow'd out of this wound but I would rather say that the Antitype of the Old Testament might be here seen I. The Apostle teacheth us that the ratification of the old Covenant was by Blood and Water Heb. IX 19. Moses took the blood of calves and of goats with water c. I confess indeed that Moses makes no mention of water Exod. XXIV but the Apostle writing to the Hebrews does not write without such authority as they could not tell how to gainsay And if my memory do not fail me I think I have read some where among some of the Jewish Authors but the place its self is unhappily slipt from me that when there was some pause to be made betwixt the slaying of the Sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood upon the Altar such a kind of pause as Moses made when he read to the people the articles of their Covenant they mingled water with the blood lest it should congeal and coagulate However the authority is sufficient that the Apostle tells us that the first Testament was dedicated by Blood and Water The Antitype of which is clearly exhibited in this ratification of the New Testament and hence is it that the Evangelist by so vehement asseverations confirms the truth of this passage because it so plainly answers the Type and gives such assurance of the fulfilling of it II. I must not by any means let pass that in Shemoth rabba h h h h h h Fol. 122. 1 He smote the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the waters gushed out Psal. LXXVIII 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies nothing else but blood as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the woman that hath an issue of blood upon her Levit. XV. 20. Moses therefore smote the rock twice and first it gusht out blood then water The rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 4. Compare these two together Moses smote the rock and blood and water saith the Jew flow'd out thence The Souldier pierced our Saviour's side with a Spear and water and blood saith the Evangelist flow'd thence St. John concludes this asseveration of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye might believe It is not without moment what is commonly said viz. that by this flowing out of water and blood it is evident his Pericardium was pierced and so there was an undoubted assurance given of his death but I hardly believe the Evangelist in this clause had any direct eye toward it would he be so vehement in asserting he that saw bare record and he knoweth that he saith true that ye may believe that Jesus was indeed dead surely there was no need of such mighty asseverations for that questionless therefore he would intimate something else viz. that you may believe that this is the true blood of the New Covenant which so
they died this power and privilege died with them It is easie apprehending what this wily wretch had in his thoughts and design viz. an affectation both of lucre and vain-glory Otherwise it might have been abundantly enough for him to have requested give me also the gift of Tongues and Prophesie as ye have given to these VERS XXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pray ye to the Lord for me IF he begged this in earnest and from his heart it is a wonder he should afterward break out into so much blasphemy and wickedness that Church-history reports concerning him if that say true d d d d d d Irenae lib. 1. cap. 20. And when he did still more and more disbelieve God and set himself more greedily in an opposition against the Apostles c. e e e e e e Euseb. lib. 2. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Simon the great adversary of the great and Holy Apostles c. For him to beseech the Apostles earnestly to pray for him and yet from thenceforth to oppose them to the utmost of his power This certainly is the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity We have if we believe the story St. Peter and this Simon meeting with one another again at Rome where the Apostle by his prayers tumbles this Magician headlong to the ground while he was flying in the Air and so Simon Magus breaths his last If it had been taken notice of that if Philostratus may be believed it is probable St. Peter and Apollonius Tyanaeus were at one and the same time together in Babylon doubtless there would have been some such tale as this framed about St. Peters triumphing over him also That in Justin Martyr concerning a statue erected at Rome to Simon Magus with this inscription Simoni Sancto Deo To Simon the Holy God is shewn by learned Men to have been so called by mistake when it was rather a Statue erected Simoni Sango Deo I fear there is some such mistake concerning St. Peters chair erected in Rome as there was concerning the Statue of Simon erected at Rome VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Gaza which is desert WHO is it speaks this clause which is desert the Angel or the Historian Strabo indeed tells us f f f f f f Lib. 16. that Gaza antiently was a noble City destroyed by Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and continues desert But why is this added in this place and by whom is it so I would suppose it is added by the Angel and that for this reason because there was another Gaza not very far from that place where Philip now was viz. in the Tribe of Ephraim 1 Chron. VII 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sichem with the Towns thereof to Gaza with the Towns thereof this was the dwelling of the children of Ephraim Here is Gaza of Ephraim but Philip must go to Gaza of the Philistins VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians IN a French Treatise lately publisht that bears the Title of Histoire de la haut Ethiopie pag. 15. all the Ethiopian Kings are named and reckoned up and Candace not mentioned But at the end there is this animadversion upon it Dans cette Chronologie iâ— n'est point parle ny de la Râ—ine Candace ny de l' Imperatrice Helene c. In this Chronology there is no mention of the Queen Candace nor of the Empress Helen The Abyssins no more than the Jews use not to name the women in their Genealogies a thing very common with all the Eastern Nations However that there was a certain Candace Queen of the Ethiopians nay that there were several Queens of that name is so very plain both from Pliny and Strabo that it would be an impertinent thing to seek for this Candace of ours any where else The head of the Kingdom saith Strabo was Meröe a City of the same name with the Island it self Now the Country Meröe was made an Island by the river Nile Westward and the river Astabora Eastward g g g g g g Ptol. tab 4â— Africa If our Eunuch here came indeed from Meröe then may we call to mind that passage in Zeph. III. 10. From beyond the rivers of Aethiopia my suppliants c. But from what part soever of Candace's Empire he might come and what way soever he went that might be true of him and a very long journy he must needs take before he could arrive at Jerusalem But the Ethiopick Version cuts the journy much shorter when it makes him travailing to the City Gaza So rendring that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who had the charge of all her treasure but who was over all Gaza I am apt to imagine this devotionist might come to Jerusalem upon the same errand that had brought the Jews from all Countries Acts II. viz. led hether by the Prophesie of Daniel which had foretold the appearance of the Messias about this time And one would wonder that whiles he was at Jerusalem he should have heard nothing concerning Jesus Or perhaps what he heard of him was the occasion of his studying at this time that passage in Isaiah's Prophesie Where now were the Apostles and the rest of that holy College and company that so great a person and one of such devotion should be let go untaught and unsatisfied concerning the Lord Jesus Is it possible that he could be ignorant of the talk of his Death and Resurrection abiding in the City although as yet he might not believe it But his instruction and conversion is reserved to a more peculiar miracle that should render it the more famous and better known VERS XXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter THE Text in Isaiah is indeed exprest here according to the Greek Version but whether the Eunuch used that Version or no is no unjust question As also whether he were a Jew or a Proselyte whether a Proselyte made or a meer Gentile whether an Eunuch in the strict or in the larger sense Which things are not to be enquired into because we can no where be resolved about them The perversness of the Jews is more obvious who to elude these express and plain things about the sufferings of the Messiah do divert the whole sense of this Chapter to another thing It goes current amongst them that the afflicted people of Israel are the subject of this Prophesie although there are those that would apply part of it to Jeremy others part of it to R. Judah the holy nay some there are that will allow some part of it to the Messias himself in the mean time providing that they admit not of his death it would be very tedious to set down particularly their triflings and elusions in this matter I rather enquire who it is that the Greek Interpreters apply this passage to Whether they plainly
Syrians Assyrians Babylonians Mesopotanians and an infinite number of Israelites of the twelve Tribes sprinkled among them using also the same Language Now let us see briefly what Bibles were used in their Synagogues CHAP. V. The Hebrew Bible read in the Synagogues of the Hebrews THE Jerusalem Talmudists say a a a a a a Taanith fol. 56. 1. There were five things wanting under the second Temple which were under the first the fire from Heaven the Ark Urim and Thummim the oyl of anoynting and the holy Spirit or the Spirit of Prophesie Let the Hebrew Tongue the Prophetic Language be added also Of the Spirit of Prophesie the Babylonian Talmudists have these words also b b b b b b Sotah f. 24. 2. From the death of the later Prophets Haggai Zechary and Malachi the holy Spirit ceased from Israel In the first generation indeed after the return out of Babylon that the gift of prophesie flourished those Prophets and indeed very many others do witness if we believe the Masters of the Traditions For thus they speak c c c c c c Hieros Megil fol. 70. 4. Among the eighty Elders who opposed the statute of Esther and Mordecai concerning the Feast of Purim as if it were an innovation in the Law more than thirty were Prophets But that generation being extinct the gift of Prophesie vanished also and appeared no more before the morning of the Gospel To this that of St. John hath respect Chap. VII 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost was not yet and Act. XIX 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have not heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Whether the use of the Mother Hebrew Tongue was continued in that first generation as the gift of Prophesie was continued we shall not dispute this certainly we cannot pass by that those Books of the sacred Canon which were writ in that generation viz. Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Haggai Zechariah Malachi only a little in the Book of Ezra excepted all were written in the Hebrew Language Whether the Hebrew Language were at that time the vulgar speech or not without all doubt in the ages following the Syriac or Chaldee was the Mother Tongue both in Babylon and Palestine and yet the Hebrew Bible was read in their Synagogues not understood by the common people but rendered into Chaldee their Vulgar Tongue by an Interpreter The Gemarists assert that it was so done in that first generation while they thus explain those words of Nehemiah Chap. VIII 8. d d d d d d Megil f. 2. 1. Nedarim fol. 37. 2. They read in the Law of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Hebrew Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explaining it that is with the Targum In all the following ages these things obtained e e e e e e Massech Sopher cap. 1. hal 6. â—â— any write the holy books in any Language or in any Character yet he shall not read in them publicly in the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless they be written in Hebrew f f f f f f Hieros Megil fol. 74. 4. R. Samuel bar Rabh Isaac went into the Synagogue and saw a Minister there interpreting and not any standing by him for an Interpreter He saith to him This is forbid you for as the Law was given by a Mediator so it is to be handled with a Mediator Hence were there so many and so accurate Canons concerning an Interpreter in the Synagogues g g g g g g Bab. Megil fol. 23. 2. He that reads in the Law let him not read to the Interpreter more at one time than one verse The Gloss saith Left the Interpreter mistake And h h h h h h Ibid. f. 25. 1. The deed of Ruben is read but it is not intepreted The deed of Thamar is read but it is not interpreted The first History of the golden Calf is read and interpreted the second is read but is not interpreted Where the Gloss is That History which Aaron himself relates of the Calf is called the second History of the Calf In it are thâ—se words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there came out this Calf Therefore that story is not interpeted lest the common people err and say That there was something that came forth from it self But they understood not the Hebrew Text it self Let that be marked The Gemarists go on R. Chaninah ben Gamaliel went to Chabul and hearing there a Minister of the Synagogue reading those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt He said to the Interpreter Be silent and interpret not and the wife men commanded him Very many passages of that nature might be produced whereby it appears plain that the Hebrew Text was read in the Synagogue of the Hebrews that is of those of Babylon and Palestine and whose so ever Mother Tongue was Syriac or Chaldee But whether it were read in the Synagogues of the Hellenists further enquiry must be made CHAP. VI. What the Iews think of the Versions THOSE Canons which we have cited concerning reading and interpretation do they bind the Jews Palestines and Babylonians only or other Jews and the whole Nation wheresoever dispersed Those Canons are in both Talmuds and as all other Traditions comprised in that Book do bind the whole Nation unless where the reason of times and the difference of places dispense so why should not these bind concerning reading the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogues out of the Hebrew Text The whole Jewish Nation were carried out with the highest zeal and veneration towards the Hebrew Text which to neglect in the Synagogues was accounted among them for a high impiety It was read in the Synagogues of the Hebrews and rendred very frequently in the very words of Onk los and Jonathan And why were not the Targumists themselves read rather and the business done by fewer Because the original Text is by no means to be neglected And why the Hellenists should be cooler in this business than the Hebrews who can give a reason Therefore how much the more zeal and honour they had for the Hebrew Text so much the less greatful to them was the Version of it into another Tongue For they thought so much of honour vertue and worth departed from the holy Text as that Language or those very letters were departed from I. In that Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Books pollute the hands whereby as they say the worth of those Books is proved if there be made any change of the Language or Characters so much they believe the nobility of them is diminished a a a a a a Jadaim cap. 4. hal 5. For the Targum if it be written in Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible if it be written in the Language of the Targum and the writing changed they defile not the hands and indeed those Books do not defile the hands
of the Nation it self It is observable concerning that unhappy Nation that before their Captivity into Babylon they were all for Idolatry but after their return out of Captivity they abhorred Idolatry but were all for Traditions they changed naught for naught or rather naught for worse For indeed their Traditions one may justly say were more destructive than their Idolatry Their Traditions wrought them and brought them to murder the Lord of life and glory which their Idolatry would hardly ever have brought them to And the very principles of their Traditions were such that they had not been right Scholars in that School they had not been faithful to their principles if they had not destroied him So directly contrary to the tenor of the Gospel and to the quality and appearance of Christ were those cursed Traditions that if they sought not withal might and main to destroy them and root them out the beast did not work according to the nature of the beast but clean contrary to it It is very generally conceived that God rejected that Nation for the murther of the Lord of life And that was a very just cause and reason why they were rejected But if I should say God rejected the bulk and mass of that Nation long before the death of Christ for those cursed Traditions I believe I should not speak it without good proof and warrant And it is observable that John Baptist calls them a generation of Vipers which in plain English is The seed of the Serpent at his first preaching among them And it is observable that which we are upon that wickedness and villanies were grown so abounding and so predominant that they were past the Magistrates correcting before ever our Saviour comes to be arraigned And it is no wonder they were grown so abounding and predominant when their very Principles led them to make crimes of those that were but trifles and no crimes of those that were crimes indeed to omit the great things of the Law whereby they might have beaten down cruelty dishonesty and debauchery and to make all their business only about toys only for the promoting of formality and hypocrisie and seeming goodness And thus you see wickedness uncorrected till it grow incorrigible an unhappy Magistracy asleep till it wake like Sampson with the locks of his strength cut and overpowred by the Philistins and a miserable Nation bleeding to death and weltering in its own blood because the Physitian would not let blood when he should have done in due time and in the right vein And now do I need to say any thing by way of Application As the Apostle concerning Abel He being dead yet speaketh so I of Judea she is here dying and do you not hear her speak nay as he of old Loquere ut te videam Do you not see her speak The very looking on her may read a Lecture As the Lacedaemonians read a silent Lecture against drunkenness to their children only by shewing them their slaves Swine-drunk So t is a silent Lecture against neglecting of the execution of Justice and Judgment and against partiality in executing of Judgment and Justice only to look upon her and her undone condition It is well known to you all that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow that is done unto me And who wrought it to thee O unhappy Nation Oh! I was wounded in this house of my friends Folly and fondness partiality and foolish tenderness sloth and sleepiness have been my undoing Discite justitiam moniti Take warning by my fate all Nations and Countries and set your selves to execute Judgment and do Justice lest wickedness grow that there be no curbing and so vengeance follow that there be no healing The Grandees of that Nation though so careless as to practise this will tell you that all the six hundred and thirteen precepts contained in the Law of Moses are couched and included within those two in Esay LVI 1. Keep judgment and do justice And indeed how much and how great things are included in those two keeping or observing Judgment in causes Controversal and doing just in causes Criminal The Greek Poet will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in Justice is comprehended all Vertues and the Scripture will tell you that under the name of righteousness is comprehended all piety by the use of the name a righteous man for one after Gods own heart I might speak how much piety is comprehended in doing Justice and how much charity how much service to God how much benefit to the Country But need I to illustrate these things that are so plain It is something strange and not to be passed by without observation that in the New Testament in several places the second Table is cited and taken for the whole Law without mention of the first Table at all In Matth. XIX 16. when a man comes and asks what he should do to have eternal life Christ bids him keep the Commandments When he demands which He refers him only to the second Table Thou shalt do no murder Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Honour thy Father and thy Mother And Thou shall love thy neighbour as thy self You have the like reference to the second Table Rom. XIII 8. Ow nothing to any man but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law And there going to reckon up the Commandments of the Law he mentions only those of the second Table And you may observe the Apostle S. James using the same style Jam 11. 8. If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well What then is the younger sister fairer than the Elder the second Table more lovely than the fiâ—â—â— that Jacob mâ—â—t serve his â—pprenticeship for Rachel the younger rather than for Iâ—â—ah the eldeâ— As Micah VI 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee to do justly and love mercy For these two are the Urim and Thummim of the second Table the very life of true Christian piety and of a true Christians acting And the Lord thus directs men to the duties of the second Table as the touchstone of Piety whereby to try whether we love God by our love to our neighbour whether he will do God right by doing right to his neighbour If time would permit I mâ—ght speak I. How great a duty Justice is of the second Table II. How great a charity to a place or Country III. How great a tye upon all not Judges and Magistrates only but Juries Witnesses all in their places to promote it IV. How great a misery and undoing of a Nation to have the current of it stopped A SERMON PREACHED AT ELY ASSISE Septemb. 12. 1671. JAMES V. 9. Behold the Iudge standeth before the door THE great Court of Judicature
conclusion For thine is the Kingdom c. which is to be used in publick prayers and in another place it is not viz. when it serves for a private And this is the reason why the Doxology is added in St. Matthew and omitted in St. Luke VI. The preface of this prayer is the very Phrase used by the Jews when they prayed to God or spoke of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Father which art in Heaven The Phrase is of as large use as the Duty is of extent Though all have not the Spirit of Adoption yet all have cause to call God our Father by vertue of their creation Deut. XXXII 6. Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee We may call him likewise our Father as he is our Lawgiver and great Teacher And now think how the Apostles that knew these things spoke and thought of this First Could they think it otherwise than a Form of prayer verbatim to be used when none were given by the Doctors but Forms and when it was thus given twice Secondly Could they think it otherwise than to be used publickly and privately when in one place it concludes with a Doxology and in the other without it Thirdly Could they think it otherways than to be subjoyned to our prayers when Christ gives it in such concurrency to these known customs and tenets of the Jews and annexes no exception against the answerable use of it So have we ground to think of it and repute it a Form a sum of all Prayer to be used verbatim in Churches in closets to be used single especially subjoyned and all the more warrantable because Christ saith When ye Pray say Our Father A SERMON PREACHED AT S. MARIES Cambridge April 9. 1658. 1 PET. V. 13. The Church which is at Babylon elected together with you saluteth you THE places to which this Apostle writeth are plain in the beginning of this Epistle and the place from whence plain here in the latter end And yet upon that may a just question be moved and upon this a question is moved though not so justly He writeth to the dispersed Jews in Pontus Galatia Capadocia Asia and Bithynia but you may justly question why to them more than other and why to no other He dates his Epistle from Babylon in the Text but some do too scrupulously question what Babylon is here meant A Romish pulpit would soon resolve both if we would take his resolution That will tell you that S. Peter went to Rome and that Babylon in the Text so meaneth and that he preached to those places in his way and so now writes to them It would be a hard task to prove either that Peter was ever at Rome or if that granted that he made these places in his journey If I would insist upon the reason why he writes to these places that he was never at the same reason might more warrantably be given that may be given of S. Pauls writing to Colosse whose faces he never saw as may be guessed from Chap. II. 1. viz. because Horrid heresies and Apostacy were exceeâ—ingly grown in those Churches And what Babylon is here meant we shall observe in the progress of our discourse In the words of the Text are four things contained I. Peter was at Babylon when he wrote this Epistle II. There was a Church there III. The title that he gives that Church it was elect together with those also to whom he writes IV. This Church salutes the others The Historical discourse of these things is first requisite before we come to the Practical I. Peter was at Babylon when he wrote this Epistle For though he say not directly I from Babylon salute you but the Church which is at Babylon c. yet it is so plain that he was then with that Church that none ever scrupled it Time hath been when the place of Peters residence and death was more an Article of Faith than to determine the place of the residence and death of any other mentioned in Scripture But by craft and deceit it was at last brought to be the greatest Article of Faith in all Religion For though you believe all the Scripture yet if you believe not that Peter was at Rome you know who will tell you you had as good believe nothing Let not your thoughts prejudge me to your impatience as if I were setting in to tyre you with dispute whether Peter were at Rome or no I will confine my self to the Text and that only because this Text is brought as a proof that Peter was there I shall therefore First speak something to the rise and original of that opinion And secondly examine whether Babylon in the Text mean so or no In all the Scripture you cannot find Peter nearer Rome than in the Town Joppa and our Protestant Writers have made it as plain as the Sun at noon day that he was never there Therefore it is a stupendious thing to think how this conceit hath invaded the World and got so high a seat in the hearts of men and among the Articles of Religion To trace backward toward the spring head of it I suppose this is undeniable that many a good man was of this opinion before it became an opinion of advantage especially of that advantage which hath been made of it these many hundred years None almost of the Fathers that lived and wrote before the Papacy arose and that monster of an Universal Bishop appeared but he held so but he wrote so For t is far more probable that these passages in them to this purpose were their own or most of them than that they were foisted into them all and into all places where they are met withal in them I cannot but in my thoughts compare these good men to Absaloms guests in 2 Sam. XV. 11. that went along with him in their simplicity and they knew not any thing so these took up this mistake in their simplicity knowing not any thing of the ill use that would afterwards be made of it But how should these good and learned Men come into that belief viz. of a thing that in it self had no ground For satisfaction to which let us consider two things I. In general to observe the proper causes of the rise of falshoods in Ecclesiastical Story And II. to apply this particular case to them The falsities and fictions in Ecclesiastical Story which are not few nor small have proceeded especially from four Originals one or more or all First From ignorance or misconstruction when men have framed stories from phrases or passages of Scripture which they have misconstrued or not understood We see by experience in common intercourse how many lying relations are raised upon words of men mistaken and not rightly understood so it is too obvious in Ecclesiastical Story when men have not understood what such a phrase passage or relation in Scripture meant they have been ready to
shouldest value or think of him and the Son of man that thou shouldest make account of him Man is like to vanity his days are like to a shadow that departeth away Psal. CXLIV 3 4. And yet upon such an one God setteth his eye upon such an one he setteth some value He was to offer God half a shekel for his Soul God lays not this Tax to rate men according to their worth for that was nothing nor to lay any heavy burthen upon them for the tax was small but it was to instruct them That God requires some tribute of men for their preservation Men must not think to live on free cost and that God maintains their lives for nothing but rather let them know that he looks for some pay and tribute from them The Apostle tells us that what was written aforetime was written for our learning and so what was written for them is written for us too Only the punctual rate and payment of half a shekel lies not upon us as it did upon them but what is intimated by the payment of this rate is intimated to us as well as it was to them The intimation was that they Men owe God a debt and payment for the preservation of their lives and he expects it from them This payment of half ashekel mony ceased when the Jews ceased to be a Nation but the equity and intimation that it read and carried with it ceased not but takes hold upon us as it did on them The Ceremonial appointments of the Jewish Nation did not only prescribe the external action but also enjoyned the signified Duty too They were enjoyned to offer sacrifice The outward action was killing a beast and offering him upon the Altar for an attonement for their sins The thing siynified was the sacrificing of Christ the great oblation for the sins of men The Duty intimated was that they should look to the death of Christ and by that believe to obtain the forgiveness of their sin and not barely by their sacrifice So that they were bound both to the moral Duty to believe in the death of Christ for the attonement of sin and they were to offer sacrifice too thereby to signifie his death in which they believed And the like might be said of the other ceremonious burthens that were laid upon them But we will only take instance in that before us They were enjoyned to offer this half shekel yearly to God for the preservation of their lives The thing signified was that their lives depended upon God and to him they must look for their preservation The moral Duty intimated and required was That they were bound to pay atribute of obedience to God for his preserving them For it was not mony that God looked after but to obey is better than sacrifice The ceremonial part of their work was laid down long ago but the moral Duty that it signified lays still upon all of us and all men in the World By the way let me tell you this out of the Roman Histories that when Vespasian had conquered and destroyed Jerusalem he commanded that the Jews should pay this half shekel that they used to pay to God for their lives to his Idol Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome A sad thing to pay that that was to be paid to God their Preserver to the Devil the Destroyer For his God Jupiter Capitolinus was no better than a Devil And I wish in the parallel it be not too true with too many that they pay what they owe to God for their lives and preservations to the Devil Well the first thing taught in the payment was That we should learn and observe that God doth not preserve and take care of mens lives for nought but that he expects some tribute and payment for it And truly that he may in all reason in the World if we will but compare his case and mens together Every shepherd every shepherds boy must be paid for keeping another mans flock and must the great shepherd have no pay for keeping and leading Israel like a flock Nay Satan himself sees it all the reason in the World though he speak it with a venomous intent that if God have hedged Job round about as he had done and taken such care of him that he pay him with fear and careful walking before him Doth Job fear God for naught Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side I. Chap. 9 10. Therefore it is no wonder if he fear thee it is all the reason in the World he should There is no care in the world taken of one person by another but it is repayed with some fair repayment or other Even the care of Parents to their Children which you will say nature it self binds them to yet they expect to be paid with their obedience That challenge of God is but most just Mal. I. 6. A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Maste where is my fear It is the very title and profession of God that he is the Preserver Keeper Saviour of men and no pay to him from men for all this Job VII 20. O thou preserver of men The word signifies Observer too As God looks to men so he looks after men to see what they do and how they demean themselves to him that looks to them So Samuel hints to Saul and Nathan to David I have done thus and thus to you kept you dignified promoted prospered you and is this the requital you make to me Need I to tell you that God is called the Watch man of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth but continually takes care of them But the Apostle 1 Tim. IV. 10. goes further and tells you that he is not only the Preserver of Israel but even of all men We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe Some from the word Saviour would conclude universal grace and redemption but the word means as in the Book of Judges a Preserver or Deliverer and so God is to all especially those that believe Though he preserve not unbelievers in the very same manner and degree that he doth believers yet he preserveth them and looks for requital from them for their preservation Now that in all equity some payment is due to God in this case let us a little consider of these things First The preciousnes of life that very thing may argue that it is not a small debt we owe to him that preserves it It hath the proper name of precious Prov. VI. 26. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adultress will hunt for the precious life And do you not think that Solomon speaks very true when he calls life precious and do you not think that even the father of lies speaks
meditate therein when thou sittest down and risest up when thou sittest in the house when thou walkest in the way and various such passages as these require and ingage all sorts and conditions of people to this study and meditation according to their several capabilities and atcheivances In some important points of Divinity some men have sometimes mistaken in stating them by mens benefit rather than by their duty If you did so in this point it would make one very good piece of an argument study the Scriptures for you may benefit by study of them But take the other and it argueth more strongly study the Scripture for it is your duty God calls for it lays his command upon you to do it the best you can II. Therefore upon this we may make such another inference as Samsons mother doth Judg. XIII 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have accepted an offering neither would he have shewed us all these things If the Lord were pleased that the Scriptures should not be understood he would never have written them he would never have charged all to study them God never writ the difficulties of the Scripture only to be gazed upon and never understood never gave them as a book sealed and that could never be unsealed that learned and unlearned alike might never see what is in them but that they might be more seriously read more carefully studied that so being understood and practised they might become the means of Salvation unto all A SERMON Preached upon DANIEL XII 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days 13. But go thou thy way till the end for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of days DOTH he not speak riddles T is hard to tell whether verse is harder And I have chosen to speak to them partly that I may explain them partly in subsequence to my late discourse about Gog Rev. XX 8. I shewed that meant an enemy to true Religion and more particularly the Pope styled by the name of the old Enemy Ezek. XXXVIII XXXIX I shewed that Gog was Antiochus that laid wast the Jews Religion and would force them to turn to the manners of the Heathen that forbad them Circumcision Law Religion forbad the daily Sacrifice and profaned the Altar with Swines flesh and sacrifices abominable and offered to Idols I cited that that speaks concerning him Chap. VII 25. He shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High c. until a time and times and the dividing of time that is a year two years and half a year or three years and an half In the verse before the Text there is mention of the same matter and there are reckoned only a thousand two hundred and ninety days From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days For the Holy Ghost reckons by round sums near about three years and an half which he calls a time times and half a time and does not punctually fix upon the very exact sum And so in the Book of the Revelations where allusion is made to the same space of time viz. three years and an half it is sometimes expressed by a thousand two hundred and sixty days as Rev. XII 6. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days Sometimes by forty two months Chap. XIII 5. And there was given to the beast a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given him to continue forty and two months You have both in Chap. XI 2. They that tread the holy City under-foot forty and two months And vers 3. I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days Now let your thoughts conceive the case and state of the people and Temple in this time a thousand two hundred and ninety days three years and an half or there abouts no Law no Religion no Sacrifice but what is abominable the Temple filled with Idols the Heathen there sacrificing swines-flesh and other abominable things to their abominable gods Ah! Poor Jerusalem what case art thou in How is the gold become dim nay changed to dros What desolation of Religion is come upon thee and what bondage and thraldom under irreligion How it goes against their heart not to circumcise their children But they dare not do it How grievous to see the Books of the Law burnt and they upon pain of death dare not save them nor use them How bitter to see Altar Temple Holy of Holies all defiled with abomination and all Religion laid in the dust and they cannot help it dare not resist it What should these poor people do Wait Gods deliverance for Haec non durabunt in secula These things will not always last Stay but till one thousand three hundred thirty five days but forty five above the thousand two hundred and ninety of the Temples defilement in the verse before and there is deliverance And read two verses together From the time that the dayly sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days Add but forty five days further the sum to come up to a thousand three hundred thirty five days and there is some remarkable thing done as pleading the cause of the people and Religion that had been so abused which in all probability was the death of the Tyrant that had brought this misery upon them or at least some signal thing done by God for the relief of the people who had been so oppressed But I rather believe the former The story of whose actions and death you may read in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. I. beginning The story of which book goes almost step by step with Josephus However his death was the Mercy or some other special providence the words afford plainly these two Truths I. That the time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God II. That it is a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination The former Observation lies in the latter clause the latter in the former The two things the latter an inference upon the former or the former a Doctrine the latter the Use and Application of it I shall handle in the same method and order The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God Therefore it will prove a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination In prosecuting either I shall not so much prove as clear
and the first temptation presented to him Now all the power and army of Hell is let loose all the machinations of the bottomless pit put in practise against the second Adam but all to no purpose he stands like a rock unmoved in his righteousness and obedience and by such a death destroys him that had the power over death the Devil II. As the Dâ—â—â—l must be conquered so God must be satisfied And as Christs obedience did the one work so it did the other Obedience was the debt of Adam and mankind and by disobedience they had forfeited their Bonds Then comes this great Undertaker and will satisfie the debt with full interest yea and measure heaped and running over Does not the Apostle speak thus much Rom. V. from vers 12. forward particularly at vers 19. By the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Nor was this all that mans debt must be paid but Gods honour lay at stake too and that must be vindicated God had created man his noblest creature that he might glorifie and honour his Creator by his obedience Satan brings him to disobey his Creator and to obey him How might Satan here triumph and the honour of God lie in the dust I have mastered the chief Creation of God might Satan boast and made him that carried the badge and livery of his image now to carry mine I have frustrated the end and honour of the Creator and now all is mine own How sad a time were those three hours or thereabouts that passed betwixt the Fall of Adam and the promise of Christ Adam in darkness and not the least glimpse of promise or comfort Satan triumphing and poor manking and Gods honour trampled underfoot But then the Sun of righteousness arose in the promise that the seed of the woman should break the head of the Serpent And shall this uncircumcised Philistin thus deâ—ie the honour and armies of the living God saith Christ shall Satan thus carry the day against man and against God I will pay obedience that shall fully satisfie to the vindication of Gods honour to confound Satan and to the payment of mans debt to his reinstating and recovery And that was it that he paid consummatively in his Obedience to the death and in it and to the shedding of his blood Of which to speak in the full dimensions of the height depth length bredth of it what tongue can suffice what time can serve T is a Theme the glorified Saints deservedly sing of to all Eternity I shall speak in little of that which can never be extolled enough these two things only I. That he died merely out of obedience The Apostle tells us in Phil. II. 8. He became obedient to the death the death of the Cross. And what can ye name that brought him thither but Obedience Christs dead body imagine lies before you Call together a whole College of Phisitians to diffect it and to tell you what it was of which he died And their Verdict will be Of nothing but Love to man and Obedience to God For Principles of death he had none in his nature And the reason of his death lay not in any mortality of his body as it does in ourâ— but in the willingness of his mind Nor was his death his wages of sin as it is ours Rom. VI. ult but it was his choise and delight Luke XII 50. I have a baptism to be baptised withal and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Ask the first Adam why he sinned when he had no principles of sin in him and the true answer must be Because he would sin And so ask the second Adam why he died when he had no principles of death in him his answer must be to the like tenor He would lay down his life because he would be obedient to the death He came purposely into the World that he might dye Behold I tell you a mystery Christ came purposely into the World that he might dye and so never did Man but himself never will man do but himself True that every Man that comes into the World must dye but never Man came purposely that he might dye but only He. And he saith no less than that he did so Joh. XII 27. Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour And John XVIII 37. For this cause came I into this World to bear witness to the Truth Even to bear witness to the Truth to Death and Martyrdom II. Now add to all this the dignity of his Person who performed this Obedience that he was God as well as Man That as he offered himself according to his Manhood so he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit or as he was God as this Apostle saith Chap. IX 14. And now his obedience his holiness that he shewed in his death is infinite And what need we say more So that lay all the disobedience of all men in the World on an heap as the dead frogs in Egypt were laid on heaps that they made the land to stink again yet here is an Obedience that out-vies them all For though they be infinite in number as to mans numbring yet lay them all together they are finite upon this account because committed by creatures finite But here is an Obedience a holiness paid down by him that is infinite And now Satan where is thy Triumph Thou broughtest the first Adam to fail of perfect Obedience that he should have paid his Creator and here the second Adam hath paid him for it infinite Obedience And what hast thou now gained Therefore to take account from whence comes that infinite Virtue of Christs blood and death that the Scripture so much and so deservedly extols and magnifies Because as the Evangelist â—aith Out of his side came water and blood so out of his wounds came obedience and blood holiness and blood righteousness and blood and that obedience holiness righteousness infinite because he that paid it down and performed it was infinite And now judge whether it may not very properly be said That Christ was sanctified by his own blood As Aaron was sanctified for his Priesthood by his Unction and Garments Christ was consecrated fitted capacitated by his infinite obedience and righteousness which he shewed to the death and in it to be an High Priest able to save to the uttermost all those that come to him For first as in reference to himself it is said by this Apostle that he was raised from the dead by the blood of the Covenant Chap. XIII 20. And it was not possible but he should be raised for when he had performed such obedience and righteousness as in it was infinite in its validity subdued Satan in its alsufficiency satisfied the justice of God it was impossible that he should be held of death which is the wages of sin and disobedience And as he was thus raised by
in his two great works viz. His offering himself a sacrifice by his death and his offering the continual incense of his mediation And how methodically did the representation proceed suitable to the reality For first the Priest offered the Sacrifice upon the Altar and then went in within the Tabernacle and offered incense So Christ first offered himself at his death and then went into the highest Heaven to make Intercession The Papists in their Mass take upon them to offer Christ as a Propitiatory sacrifice for quick and dead So they are the Altar and Christ is the offering But we learn better to make Christ the Altar and we our selves and our services the offering offered upon it For the clearing of the thing before us and to reduce these words of the Apostle to a Doctrine of Faith whither he intends them let us premise these four things I. That every Christian hath three spiritual Sacrifices to offer to God Himself his Devotions and Religious services and his good works and Religious walking 1. Himself Rom. XII 1 2. I beseech you Brethren that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God 2. His prayers Devotions and Religious services Mal. I. 11. In every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering And 3. His holy walking 16 ver of this Chapter To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased Christ is to be offered to God no more as Papists take on them to offer him every Mass but man is to offer himself to God the only sacrifice that God now requireth Now II. On what Altar is this spiritual Sacrifice to be offered and presented to God On some spiritual Altar as it is a spiritual offering Those Sacrifices that were earthly and material required an earthly and material Altar but those that were spiritual must be offered on some spiritual Altar else the manner of offering them contradicts their nature Now what the Apostle speaks concerning the Rock in the Wilderness The Rock was Christ so we may say concerning the Altar under the Gospel The Altar is Christ. In the Law the offering was to be put into the hands of a Priest or it could not be accepted so our services are to be put into the hands of Christ to be presented to God else no acceptance And the sacrifice was to be laid upon the Altar or it could not be accepted so must ours be laid on the altar Christ or no acceptance For III. The Altar must sanctifie the Sacrifice to make it acceptable and so our Saviour tells Mat. XXIII 19. It was not enough that the Sacrifice was a clean Beast and not unclean nor that it was without fault or blemish to make it an acceptable Sacrifice But it must be laid upon the Altar for that to sanctifie it and to make it a right Sacrifice IV. And here I cannot but take up the Jewish Doctors most true and pertinent explication of that point about the Altars sanctifying the gift viz. The Altar sanctified that that was fit for it The Altar could not sanctifie an unclean Beast a Dog or an Ass or a Cat to make it a Sacrifice but only a Beast that was clean And if the Beast were a clean Beast in his nature yet if he had faults or blemishes the Altar did not sanctifie him for a sit Sacrifice but it sanctified only that that was fit for it By all which laid together we may learn and observe the great Doctrine of Faith about our acceptance with God only by Christ. Which to view particularly let us begin from this First None can come to God to find acceptance with him but he must first give himself into the hand of Christ to bring him to God for acceptance The Apostle tells us that all acceptance is in the Beloved and to be expected no other way Ephes. I. 6. This is the great mystery of the Gospel For the want of which duly owned Turks and Jews are at loss and are lost from God for ever They both pretend for Religion pretend for Heaven but they both miss the door by which alone they are to enter and so are excluded eternally missing of Christ by whom only we come there Our Saviour indeed speaks of entring and getting into the sheepfold some other way than at the door but he saith they are thieves and robbers His meaning is of false teachers that can find a way to creep into the sheepfold the Church to seduce and destroy the sheep some other way than at the right door But whosoever will get either into Heaven or indeed into the true and sincere Religion that leadeth thither must enter by Christ the Door or he will never come there Joh. XIV 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life none can come to the Father but by me Consider of that I am so the Way that none can come to the Father but by me Then sure the Papists are out of the way as well as Turks and Jews when they think to come to God by the mediation of Saints and Angels None can come to God but by me saith our Saviour but I can come to God saith a Papist by the Virgin Mary by Peter Paul and the mediation of other Saints in Heaven Certainly they must have some nice distinction here or they contradict Christ to his face and take his honour and give it to another Heb. VII 25. Christ having an unfailing Priesthood is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him If you come to God you must come by him and that only is the way to be saved But if you expect to come to God by any other means whatsoever you are out of the way and will be lost 1 Pet. III. 18. Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God If there were any other way to come to God than by Christ the death of Christ was but to little purpose and our believing in him to as little And we may justly say with the Apostle 1 Cor. XV. 14. Our preaching is in vain and your faith is also vain It is said of Christ that he is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Psal. CX Though he died and offered himself the great Sacrifice for sinners yet he is a Priest for ever still offering sacrifice to God but no more himself but his peoples sacrifice And that offering is twofold viz. offering the persons of his people to God as an acceptable living sacrifice and offering their services as an acceptable spiritual sacrifice to God Of the former you have testimony from his own words Isa. VIII 18. Behold I and the children which the Lord hath given me Of the later Revel VIII 3. where you read of his offering the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne What the manner of Christs mediation is is
other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
To gather Spiritual strength for that which it may be hath been scattered in our wordly employment Secondly There is a commemorative end of the Sabbath to remember Gods creating the world Which Adam might very well nay must have been employed about though he had never fallen When he had been all the week upon his employment dressing the Garden and keeping it then on the Sabbath to set himself to meditate upon Gods creating of the world and to study his power and wisdom and goodness shewed in that glorious workmanship and to spend the day in prayers to him Observe the work of that day to us and the same it should have been to him in Psal. XCII which is intituled a Psalm for the Sabbath day It tells you what the work of the day is vers 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most High And upon what reason ver 4. For thou hast made me glad through thy works I will triumph in the works of thy hands This is a Sabbath days work after our sixs days work to make it our employment to think of Gods to meditate of his wondrous works of Creation and Preservation and there will come in the thoughts of our Creator and Preserver and may mind us of our engagement to praise him to whet our thankfulness and faith with these thoughts 1. When we have laboured all the week to think of our Creator that hath sustained us fed cloathed brought us hitherto And here is a right Sabbath employment to let our thoughts stream from our wordly employment to God and to the remembrance of him in whom we live and move and have our being 2. To trust God with our support though we labour not on the Sabbath but spend it wholly to him and not to our selves He that created all things and that hath fed and preserved us hitherto can support us without our working on his day nay and will do it for do his work and undoubtedly thou shalt not want thy wages What a lecture did God read in his raining of Manna that on the Sabbath day he rained none thereby to shew his own owning of his Sabbath and checking and chiding those that for greediness and distrust would go out and think to gather some on that day And when he provided them Manna on the sixth day for the Sabbath also what a lecture did he read that he that observes the Sabbath and does Gods Will ceasing from his own labour and doing his shall never be unprovided for Thirdly There is an Evangelical end of the Sabbath referring to Christ and that in Adams Sabbath as well as ours Let us begin with his I have shewed that on the sixth day Adam sinned and Christ was promised So that the last work of God in the days of Creation was the setting up Christ and restoring fallen man by him And here God rested viz. He had brought in his Son in whom his Soul delighted and made him heir of all things and thus he rested in Christ finished his work in Christ rested refreshed delighted himself in Christ. Now the next day when the Sabbath came in what had Adam to do in it but to remember the Creation to remember his new creating when he was broke all to pieces and spoiled To remember his Creator and Redeemer It is said Gen. III. 21. Unto Adam and his wife did the Lork God make coats of skins and cloathed them The Lord and Lady of all the world clad in Leather Which our silks and sattens now would scorn to think of but from so mean a garb comes all our gallantry though now we scorn it But whence came those Skins Most probably they were the skins of beasts that were sacrificed For That sacrifice was from the beginning may be observed from that that Christ is called The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and that not only in prediction or that it was determined and foretold by God that he should be slain but in figure that sacrifice was offered from the beginning of the world which did presignifie his killing and offering up And this further appears from the sacrifices of Cain and Abel which rite and piece of Religion they had learned of their Father Adam Here then was work for Adam on the Sabbath to sacrifice in memory of Christ to be offered up for redemption and to praise God for creating the world but especially for vouchsafing Christ whereby a better world and Estate is created And would not Adam when he had a family preach to his family of these things upon the Sabbath day My Children learn to know and remember the Creator the blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit who in six days made Heaven and Earth and on the sixth day made me and your Mother both of us in his own image perfectly holy and righteous and endued with power of perfect obedience and to resist all temptations But that day we were deceived by the Devil and fell and undid our selves and our posterity and came into a state of death and damnation But God suffered us to lye so but a few hours but promised his own Son to take our flesh and to dye to deliver us from death and damnation and taught us this duty of sacrifice in comemoration of Christs death and appoynted this day to commemorate these things and to be employed in such service and meditations Oh! my Children learn to know your Creator to believe in Christ your Redeemer and to observe his Sabbath Such employment as this had Adam with his family on the Sabbath day that it was even a Christian Sabbath to him as ours is to us and the very same work is ours and was his on the Sabbath day but only that he also sacrificed Fourthly There is a Typical end of the Sabbath to signify Eternal Rest. Heb. IV. 3. For we which have belived do enter into rest As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world Where the Apostle signifies that the Sabbath hinted another rest to wit Gods Eternal Rest different from that rest when God ceased from the works of Creation The Sabbath typifies the end viz. Eternal Rest and the means viz. to rest in Christ. One end was to Adam in innocency both to us This is a lecture that may be read in the Sabbath in something that is visible to see something invisible as in the water to see the Sun This is a way to rest and resembles that great and last Rest as pleasant walks lead at length to the stately House at the end of them This is a fit thought for the Sabbath-day morning Now I rest from the world how shall I rest from it eternally Now I deal with God invisibly but one day visibly They who love Eternal Rest will certainly love the Sabbath To all these ends God
seeing it is most holy and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make attonement for them before the Lord. Let me ask those that hold this Opinion two or three questions Was Christ so much as punished by God Much less then was he overwhelmed by the wrath of God damned by God Was a Lamb punished that was sacrificed He was afflicted but not punisht for punishment argues a crime or fault preceding Lam. III. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Were the sad sufferings of Christ laid on him as punishments Certainly not for his own sins no nor for ours neither He suffered for our sins bare our sins but his sufferings were not punishments for our sins For observe two things First Christ merited by suffering Is it good sense to say he merited by being punished Strange sense to say he merited Salvation for his by being punisht for their sins but most divine to say by suffering for the redeeming of them He suffered as a Sacrifice to attone not as a sinner to be punished Secondly Did Christ dye upon any debt to the Law Much less upon any debt that he owed to Gods wrath Did the Law lay any thing to Christs charge did the Law condemn him And then can we dream of the wrath of God charging him and damning him It is true that it is said Gal. III. 13. Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree But doth this mean accursed of God Was the good Thief accursed of God when he hung upon the cross The meaning is that he appeared so to the view of men So that as it is impossible that Christ should lye under the wrath of God for any fault of his own so it is not imaginable that he did for ours V. It is impossible that Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned A Priest could not fall under the Plague of Leprosie and yet is the high Priest under a damned condition Certainly if his Body could not see corruption his Soul could not feel damnation If his Body were not under that which the Bodies of the best Saints fall under certainly his Soul could not be under that which damned Souls fall under I might clear this by considering especially three things which are the chief torments of Hell 1. Separation from God without any glimpse of his favour 2. Horror and Hell in the Conscience because of guilt 3. Utter despair Now need I to shew that it was not possible that any of these should seize upon Christ And these things be spoken to shew first what is not the meaning of this Article Now to come to the sense of the Article And for a beginning I may say as Moses does Numb XI 29. Would all the Congregation were Prophets So would all the Congregation were Grecians for then this would be easie The Creed was written in Greek and in the interpretation of this Article we are not tyed to the strictness of the English word but we must fly for refuge to the sense of the Greek word And if any of the opinions mentioned before should urge It is Hell therefore must be so understood as he said once To the Law and to the Testimony so I would answer To the original Greek and to the propriety of the phrase there In Isa. XXIX 10. The Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of Slumber In the Greek and in Rom. XI 8. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunction clean contrary to the Prophets meaning What shall we do here Not stick to the strict propriety of the Greek Translation but have refuge to the word in the original Hebrew and construe the Greek word by that So in our English Translation Hell seems to speak that that is neither warrantable by Scripture nor reason therefore we must not stick to the strict propriety of the word but to the Greek In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went down to Hades Which I shall explain to you by and by I. The Article refers to the passage of Christs Soul after his death I say of his Soul For what was done to his Body is specified in the Articles before Crucified dead and buried But what became of his Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended into Hell Now this Article is left out of divers Confessions of Faith in the Fathers and out of divers Creeds Vice plurium instead of more observe the Nicene Creed Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was buried And the third day he rose again Which shews it was added occasionally and for some illustration Councils and Fathers commonly inserted some Articles into Confessions to face some Heresie then appearing And this Article was inserted to outface some error about Christs person The Heresies and mistakes about Christs person were numerous and among others this was one that he had not a real humane Body but Airy and again that though he had a real Body yet he had not a humane Soul but that the Divine Nature supplied the place of his Soul These Articles that concern his death outface both these He had a real Body for he was really Crucified dead and buried And a real Soul for when dead he went to Hades Or whether it had been enough to have said He died and was buried but of him such addition was not needless because of misconstruction II. The Heathens owned another World and the immortality of the Soul though they had no Bible to tell them it yet they believed that there was another World after this Socrates discoursed of this before his death which Cleombrotus reading cast himself from a Tower that he might become immortal A strange affectedness with this point and a strong perswasion It is a wonder the Sadducees that had the Scriptures should deny this and Christians that hear so much of it be affected so little Tully shews arguments whereby they gathered that men lived in another World one of which was from the apparitions of some dead men In which thing while the Devil went about to cosin them to think them dead men which indeed was his own appearing yet he cosined himself too while he taught them by it to believe a life after death How they came thorowly to be grounded in this point I shall not insist upon to examine but they did believe that there was another World after this when the dead lived again III. This place and state they called Hades that is a place obscure and invisible The Phrase is infinitely frequent Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sent him before to Hades Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the going to Hades Leonidas to his Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To sup in Hades that is in another World Shall I give you
with Oyl was a Medicine to cure the sick Page 342 Antichrist Rome Heathen could not be Antichrist because the Character of Antichrist is Apostasie p. 1168. Antichrist is two fold p. 1200. How to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after-times 1200 Antinomians say that Believers are not punished for sin a false opinion 1226 Antiochus and Epiphanes the bloodiest enemies that the People of the Jews and their Religion ever had 513 Antipatris the Name the Situation almost in all Maps mistaken some History concerning it 55 56 Apamia the Sea of it what upon conjecture 63 Apparitions of the Souls of Men or Spectra after death believed by the Jews 483 1283 Apostasie of the Jews caused chiefly by false Teachers p. 1044. The sad fruits of Apostasie 1181 1182 Apostles had a power of inflicting Death and giving the Holy Ghost 622 623 Arad Ascalon bears great affinity to it 14 15 Arbel a City of Galilee between Zippor and Tiberias 77 Ark of the Covenant why so called 1068 1069 1070 Ascalon a place now of no note but once was venerable how far from Jerusalem It bears a great affinity with Arad and Gerar a famous story of eight Witches there 14 15 Ashdod's Language what 505 Ashes of the red Cow which were most purifying when sprinkled what 37 Astarch was the setter forth of the Games 790 791 Asmodeus what sort of Devil he was the Author of Apostasie 429 430 Asphaltites the extent of it p. 6. The Coast of it 7 296 Assembly of Twenty three was held in the Gate of Susan 512 Assizes are an assurance and a fit representation of the last Judgment 1104 1117 1119 Assyrian Tongue or Language not the Original of the Old Testament 138 139 Attonement how the High Priest prepared himself with the help of others for the day of Attonement p. 554 555. The Attonement or Ransom for Souls how much and for what end p. 1204 1205 1208. And at what time it was paid p. 1205. And why the Poor therein was to give as much as the Rich. p. 1207. And why the Poor in wordly matters gave more than the Rich did in that which referred to God 1207 Attributes God acteth not any of his Attributes according to the utmost extent of their infiniteness proved by many instances 1063 Aven a term blasphemously used of Christ. 533 Avites the Country a part of the new Idumea called sometimes Hazerin sometimes Shur 292 Auranitis and Hauran what the Name where the Place 364 365 B. BAAL changed in the Names of Men into Bosheth which signifies shame in detestation of Idolatry Page 1315 Baalath or Baale what 42 Babilon Hebrews in Babilon and the adjacent Countries were supposed by the Jews to be vastly numerous and of a purer and more noble Blood than those that went up from thence p. 799. They had three Universities in Babilon the Ten Tribes were placed in Assyria and Babilon p. 800 801. Peter Preached the Gospel in Babilon p. 802. Babilon put for Rome p. 1141. Why Saint John in the Revelation calls Rome so rather than by its own proper Name p. 1143. Peter wrote his Epistle from Babilon in Chaldea and not from Rome as some would have p. 1144. Peter dyed there Page 1144 Bahurim a Levitical City Almâ—n and Alemoth the same 42 Balaam what was his way and wages and what the way of his Followers p 1180 1181. Balaam is described by his Parentage and by his Qualities 1180 Balaamites impudently opposed the Decree of the Apostles 697 Baptism whence it came to pass that the Baptism of John was so readily received p. 116 117. Baptism had been constantly used among the Jews from the days of Jacob and that for the same end for which we now use it viz. as an Entrance into the Church and not only of Proselytes but of all Israel p. 117 118. The Jews Baptised also young Children for the most part with their Parents p. 118. So did John and the Apostles p. 118 119 122. The Manner and Form which John used in Baptism p. 119. The use of Witnesses at Baptism was only for them that had no Parents to present them p. 118 119. The Baptism of Procelytes with its circumstances p. 117 to 112. The Baptism of John compared with the Baptism of the Jewish Procelytes and ours with them both p. 120 121 122. Among other things dipping is discoursed p. 120 121 122. Dipping in Baptism endeavoured to be laid aside because it caused the Women of Galilee to be Barren p. 121 122. Why Sprinkling was used in stead of Dipping p. 121. Infant Baptism argued for p. 273 274. At first Baptism was in the Name of Jesus why p. 274 275. Afterward in the Name of the Trinity why p. 275. Baptism without Circumcision gave a right to the Passover p. 353. Baptism in the Name of Jesus only among the Jews and why p. 647. Baptism taken for Martyrdom p. 789. Baptism used in the Jewish Church for Introduction and Admission many Generations before John the Baptist was born p. 1040 1132. Baptism four times established p. 1122. Why there is no particular Precept in Scripture for Infant Baptism p. 1128 1133. The difference between the Primitive and the Gospel Institution of it p. 1125 1127 1128. Baptism to be administred before Teaching p. 273. The same proved from Matth. 28. 19. p. 1124. The several ends of Baptism as a Sacrament p. 273 1125 1126. Three Forms of it used for Introduction p. 1129. How John the Baptist did Baptize in the Name of the Messias coming 1129. Why the Apostles Baptised at first in the Name of Jesus only p. 1129. Baptism was no new thing in our Saviours days p. 1128 1132 1133. Baptism its vow whether obligatory to Infants p. 1221. Baptism belongs to Children they being part of their Parents 1318 Barbarians the Greeks call all Countries Barbarians but their own 704 Barber an odd story of a Barber cutting the throats of many Jews 774 Barjesus and Elymas the same the reason of the two Names and what they both signifie p. 687 1192. His wickedness and method of perverting the ways of the Lord. 1192 1193 Bartimai Bartimeus may be rendred a Son of admiration or of profit c. 348 Batanea for Bashan 81 82 Bath Kol or voice from Heaven which the Jews pretended to upon the ceasing of the Prophesies Urim and Thummim were either Jewish Tables or Devilish witchcraft p. 128 129. A story of Bath Kol p. 181. Bath Kol the Daughter of Thunder p. 337. It was used for a Testimony from Heaven but was indeed performed by Magick Art 345 Bath of Venus in Aeeon Page 60 Baths warm Baths of Tiberias of good use 69 Bathurseans frequently mentioned in the Jewish Writings what they were 702 Be Abidan an House or Temple how used 795 Beelzebub the right readings of it is Beelzebul what And why the chiefest of the Devils 188 189 429 Beggers among the Jews what Form of words they used in begging 579
of the Souls of Men after death believed by the Jews 1283 Spirit of Prophesie and the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel from the death of the later Prophets p. 802. The false pretenders to the Spirit how they may be discovered p. 1046. Spirit of Revelation not necessarily inferred or begotten by any degree of Holiness whatever the truth of this proved at large p. 1046. The Spirit of Holiness and the Spirit of Revelation how they differed p. 1046. The Spirit of Sanctification how to know whether a Man hath it or no. p. 1047. What it is to have the Spirit p. 1150 1151 1152 c. Adam had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Saints in Glory have not the Spirit p. 1150. How the Spirit worketh by the Word The having of it implies not perfection p. 1152. The several conditions of having the Spirit p. 1151 1152 c. The Spirit never leaves them that have it p. 1153. To have the Spirit implies not the Gift of Prophesie p. 1153. The difference between the Spirit of Sanctification and Prophesie p. 1154. The Enthusiasts about every one having the Spirit and the ground of it refuted p. 1156. The Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of Grace and Holyness are greatly differing p. 1290. The Spirit of God can and does overpower the Hearts Tongues and Actions of Men so as to serve the design of God's Glory 1290 1291 1292 Spirits unclean what p. 175. Spirits evil and unclean the Jews supposed the first inflicted Diseases the second haunted Burying places p. 441 442. Spirits Angels and Demons distinguished among the Jews p. 483. The Sadducees denied the being of Spirits p. 1282 1284. Spirits and Angels how distinguished Page 1283 Spittle was accounted wholsom by the Jews for fore Eyes 570 Stationary Men what 278 Stock of Israel to be of the Stock of Israel the Jews supposed was sufficient to fit them for the Kingdom of Heaven 533 Stoned what sort of Persons or Criminals were to be stoned among the Jews 579 746 Stoning and other executions were without the City and why p. 266. How performed p. 349. The whole proceeding of it among the Jews 675 Strangled things what the meaning of the Apostolick Prohibition concerning them 697 Strato's Tower what 54 Streets some were memorable in Jerusalem 34 35 Stripes what number Malefactors were to be beaten with and what kind of Scourge 439 Subterraneous places as Mines and Caves were in the Land of Israel 88 Swearing among the Jewish Doctors little set by unless it amounted to forswearing 148 149 Sychem the Metropolis of Samaria called Neapolis the Jews in scorn called it Sychar 52 53 Synagogue or Synagogues a Synagogue was only formed where there were ten Learned Men of which number Three bore the Magistracy the next was the publick Minister of it called the Angel or Bishop then three Deacons or Almoners the eighth Man was the Interpreter the two last less known p. 132 to 134. Synagogue days were the seventh second and fifth in every week Synagogues were anciently builded in Fields but following times brought them into Cities and built them higher than the rest of the Houses every one was to frequent them at the stated times of prayer p. 134. On the Sabbath the Minister in the Synagogue called out any seven whom he pleased to read the Law there was also Prayer Catchising and Sermons in the afternoon a Divinity Lecture p. 135 136. There was a Synagogue in the Temple p. 395. In the Synagogue they read standing up p. 405. He that read was appointed by the Ruler of the Synagogue and called Maphtir and was to read one and twenty verses p. 406 Christ read and expounded as was usual in that Synagogue of which he was a Member p. 406. The Minister of the Synagogue kept the Sacred Books and brought them out to be read when the company was met together p. 407. A Synagogue might be made of a dwelling House an Heathen might build a Synagogue p. 413 414. The Synagogue Minister or Bishop of the Synagogue and Ruler how differing p. 172. There were in Jerusalem four hundred and sixty Synagogues or four hundred and eighty as say others p. 35 664. Synagogue of the Alexandrians what p. 36. In every Synagogue there were three Magistrates who judged of matters of contest arising within the place p. 179 180. Whether lawful to alienate a Synagogue from a sacred to a common use 664 Syriack or Aramtan Language under the second Temple was that which went under the Name of the Hebrew 659 Syrophenician what 202 T. TABERNACLE of the Levitical Priesthood why those that serve there have no right to eat at the Altar that Christians have Page 1264 Tabernacles the Feast of Tabernacles the preparation for it and the parts of it p. 554 555. How and wherefore the eighth Day was computed great by the Jews 559 560 Tabernae or Shops where things were fold for the Temple where situate 512 Tabitha is of eternal memory in Acts 9. and in the Pages of the Talmudists p. 18. Every Maid Servant of Rabban Gamaliel was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Mother Tabitha p. 18. Tabitha Kumi what it signifies 342 Table Gesture or the manner of the Jews sitting there with the form of the Table 595 596 Table second The Commands of the Second Table chiefly injoyned in the Gospel and why 1064 Tables of Mony Changers in the Temple which our Saviour overthrew what 1204 Tabor was not the Mount where Christ was transfigured p. 346. Mount Tabor what and where situate 495 c. Talent what 468 Talith was a Cloak which the Jews used to wear made of Linnin 355 417 Talmud of Jerusalem and it may be the Talmudick Mishna was written at Tiberias p. 72 73. The Jerusalem Talmud is like them that made it 73 74 Tamar and Engedi are the same 7 Tarichet was a City thirty furlongs from Tiberias 71 Tarnegola the upper called Gebar or Gabara by the Rabbins 77 Tarsus was a famous Greek Academy 644 Tauros a Mountain where situate 516 Teachers of the Law and Lawyers what p. 433 434. Teachers used to sit down when they had done reading while they taught 689 Teaching was even by the Jewish Doctors sometimes performed out of the Synagogues in Streets and ways 410 Temple of Jerusalem ten wonders referring to it p. 21. It s breadth and length p. 33 34. In easing nature within the view of the Temple though at a great distance immodest Parts were to be turned the contrary way p. 41. There was a constant Market in the Temple and Shops for that end p. 224. Some hints of the condition of the Second Temple p. 512 513 514 How long it was in building by Solomon Zorobabel and especially by Herod p. 529 530. How much the Second Temple came behind the first p. 530. There were three Temples one at Jerusalem another on Mount Gerizzim and a third in Egypt p. 540 541. The Second