28 45. 12. 19. 42. and divers other places be well weighed and it will be utterly unimaginable that there should be less believers in Jerusalem now than many hundreds much more unimaginable that these one hundred and twenty were all who were all Galileans and no inhabitants of Jerusalem at all This number therefore mentioned by the Evangelist of one hundred and twenty is not to be thought all the Church in that City but only the society and company that were of Christs own train and retinue whilst he was upon earth that companied with him all the time that he went in and out among his Disciples Acts 1. 21. And this company though it be mingled and dispersed among the Congregations in the City for preaching the Word and administring the Sacraments and joyning in acts of worship yet did they keep together as a more intire and peculiar society and standing Presbytery Act. 4. 21. and of the rest durst none joyn himself unto them Acts 5. 13. and thus they continued till the persecution at Stephens death dispersed them all but the Apostles Acts 3. 1. Vers. 16. This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled I apprehend not what the word have doth in this clause for it had been both more proper for the sense and more facil for the reader to have it read This Scripture must needs be fulfilled Now the application of these places so pertinently and home to Judas sheweth the illumination and knowledge that the breathing and giving of the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 22. had wrought in the Disciples Vers. 18. This man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity Not that he himself bought this field for Matthew resolves the contrary Matth. 27. 7. and tells that it was bought by the Chief Priest for his damned bribe Nor was any such thing in his intention when he bargained for his money but Peter by a bitter irrision sheweth the fruit and profit of his wretched covetise and how he that thought to inlarge his Revenues and to settle his habitation by such horrid means came home by it with the contrary his revenues to purchase land for others his habitation to be desolate and himself to come to so sad an end §. And falling headlong c. Universality antiquity and consent have so determinately concluded that Judas hanged himself that there is no gainsaying yet hath the Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã left it so indifferent whether he hanged himself or were strangled by the Devil that if I were not tied up by the consent of all to the contrary I should the rather take it the latter way And if I durst so interpret it I should render ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to this purpose that Satan took him away bodily strangled him in the air and then flung him headlong and burst out his bowels For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Qui vel a seipso vel ab alio praecipitatur saith Stephanus And to this purpose may that verse of Matth. 27. 5. be very well interpreted And he cast down the silver pieces in the Temple and departed and going away he was strangled the Devil catching him away and stifling him and then casting him headlong and bursting out of him with the eruption of his intrals and this terrible occurrence would soon be noted of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem Acts 1. 19. Vers. 19. Accldama ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a field of blood by a double relation First Because it was bought with a price of blood Math. 27. 7. And secondly Because it was sprinkled with his blood that took that price for so this verse intimateth Vers. 21. Wherefore of these men that have companied with us §. Observations upon the election of Matthias First That there was a necessity the Apostles be twelve ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. and this that the Founders of the Christian Church might be parallel to the twelve Tribes the founders of the Jewish for now Jews and Christians were to join together and this is hinted in the twenty four Elders the representative body of the Church so often mentioned in the Revelation and spoken out Rev. 21. 12. 14. Secondly That Matthias and Joses being chosen to the presented to the Apostles the election was not the choice of the whole Church as if every member of the Church and believer in Jerusalem either did or might give his vote to the choosing of them but it was only the choice of the whole Presbytery or the hundred and eight among themselves for so is it most plain vers 15. 21. being compared together Observe the phrase Of these men that have companied with us Thirdly That the Apostles could not ordain an Apostle by imposition of hands as they could ordain Elders but they are forced to use a divine lot which was as the immediate hand of Christ imposed on him that was to be ordained that opinion took little notice of this circumstance that hath placed Bishops in the place of the Apostles by a common and successive ordination Vers. 25. Ioseph called Barsabas who was sirnamed Iustus This seemeth to be he that is called Joses Mark 6. 3. 15. 40. the brother of James the less and the rather to be so supposed because he is surnamed Justus as James was And so saith Beza one old Copy readeth Joses here and the Syriack for Joses readeth Joseph in Chap. 4. 36. so indifferently are the names used one for another And from this indifferency have some concluded that Joseph here and Joses in that Chapter are but one and the same person the nearness of the sound of Barsabas and Barnabas helping forward that supposal But first that Joses or Joseph in Chap. 4. 36. was born in Cyprus this Joseph or Joses here was born in Galilee Secondly Although the Apostles belike had named these two Josephs to distinguish them the one Barsabas and the other Barnabas two names that are not far asunder in sound and utterance yet are they in sense and in the Apostles intention if they named the one as they did the other Barnabas is interpreted by the Evangelist himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rendred generally the Son of consolation but the Greek may as well bear the Son of exhortation for so it is known well enough the word familiarly signifieth The Syriack useth indeed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for consolation Luke 6. 24. Phil. 2. 1. Rom. 12. 8. 2 Cor. 1. 4 5. and in the place in hand and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the place last cited before it but whether Barnabas may not equally be deduced from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to prophesie or instruct I refer to the Reader Be it whether it will certain it is the Etymology and notation doth very far recede from that of Barsabas Some conceive that this signifieth the son of an Oath others the son of fulness but the notation to me seemeth to be the son of wisdom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And if we would be
his translater hath rendred fames ingens Dion lib. 60. Now although it might seem that that famine only referred to the City of Rome and was caused there through the unnavigableness of the River Tiber which should have brought in Provisions because he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that Claudius provided not only for the present famine but also for future times by mending the Haven and clearing the River yet Suetonius writing the very same story ascribeth the cause of the famine not to the fault of the River or Haven but to a constant sterility or barrenness and so inlargeth the extent of it further than Rome Arctiore autem annona ob assiduas sterilitates c. In Claud. cap. 18. Josephus Antiq. lib. 20. ca. 2. speaketh of this great famine in Judea and relateth how Helena the Queen dowager of the Adiabeni and Izates her son then reigning she being at Jerusalem in her own person and he in his own kingdom did bring in provisions in an exceeding plenty to the Jews at Jerusalem for their sustenance in the famine for they were both converted to the Jews Religion and Izates circumcised Eusebius hereupon hath set this famine in Claudius his fourth year and after the death of Herod Agrippa because that he found that Josephus had placed it after Agrippa's death which was in Claudius his third But we find not in Josephus any thing that may fix it to that year more than the subsequence of one story to another which is an argument of no validity only this he relateth as concerning the time of Izates that when he first came to the Crown and found his elder Brethren imprisoned that he might come to the Throne the more quietly he was grieved at the matter and on the one hand accounting it impiety to kill them or to keep them prisoners and on the other hand knowing it unsafe to keep them with him and not imprisoned he chose a mean between both and sent them for hostages to Rome to Claudius Caesar And after this he relateth how he hasted upon his coming to the Crown to be circumcised and after his Circumcision how his Mother Helena went to Jerusalem and relieved it being much affamished Now in what year of Claudius any of these things were done he hath not mentioned but hath left it at large and therefore we may as well suppose that Izates was made King in the first year of Claudius and Helena his Mother went to Jerusalem in his second as Eusebius may that she went thither in his fourth II. That Paul going at that time of the famine to Jerusalem to bring the almes and collection to the poor Brethren of Judea had his trance in the Temple Acts 22. 17. and in that trance he was rapt into the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. 2. It may be thought indeed by the juncture of Story that Luke hath made that this his trance was at his first journey which he took to Jerusalem after his conversion which journey is mentioned Acts. 9. 28. and Gal. 1. 18. for having from the sixth verse of Acts 22. and forward related the Story of his conversion and of Ananias coming to him and baptizing him he presently subjoyneth this when I was come again to Jerusalem and was praying in the Temple I was in a trance as if that had been the very first time that ever he came there after he was converted But besides that it is very common with Scripture to make such juncture for times and Stories as if they were close together when often times there is very much space of time betwixt them as Mat. 19. 1. Luke 4. 13 14. Acts 9. 20 21 26 27. the proper intent of the Apostle in that Oration of his Acts 22. is to vindicate himself from the accusation laid against him for polluting the Temple and chiefly to plead his authority and commission and why he had to deal among the Gentiles and therefore he insists upon two particular Commissions one to preach and the other to preach to the Gentiles and this is the reason why he joyns his conversion and his rapture in the Temple so close together and not because they were so in time Now this scruple being thus removed and that considered which was said before that in this trance in the Temple God said he was to send him to the Gentiles and that accordingly he was dispatched to that work as soon as he came to Antioch it cannot but be concluded that his trance in the Temple was in the second of Claudius and that this was his rapture into the third Heaven since we read not of any rapture or trance that he had but this III. That this trance or rapture was somewhat above fourteen years before he wrote his second Epistle to Corinth 2 Cor. 12. 2. Now in that he saith it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before or above fourteen years ago he speaketh not of an indefinite time for then for ought any reason can be given to the contrary he might as well have let the mention of the time alone but that it was but a little above that space though it were somewhat above exact fourteen years IV. When he wrote that second Epistle to Corinth he was in Macedonia as is apparent by very many passages in that Epistle chap. 1. 14. and 2. 13. 7. 5. 9. 2 4. And thither he went upon the hubbub at Ephesus raised against him Acts 20. 1. where he had even the sentence of death in himself 2 Cor. 1. 9. V. Now to count fourteen years compleat from the second of Claudius in which was Pauls rapture it will bring us to the second year of Nero. And let us but cast and compute those shreds of time that we can find hinted in the Acts of the Apostles and we shall find them agreeing with this account and giving some light unto it As first it is said by Paul that after he had been at Jerusalem he must also see Rom Acts 19. 21. Now this doth argue the death of Claudius for if he had expelled all the Jews out of Rome as it is averred both by the Scripture Acts 18. 2. and by Suetonius in Claud. chap. 25. and never revoked his Edict for ought we can read in any Story it is very unlikely and unreasonable to think that Paul should think of going thither if Claudius were alive for thither could he neither go without evident and inevitable danger of his own life nor could he find so much as one person of his own Nation in the City when he came there By this therefore may be concluded that Claudius was now dead and Nero was going on his first year when Paul publisheth his resolution to go for Rome And the times from hence to his apprehension at Jerusalem may be cast by these Counters After this his declaring his intention for Rome he stayeth in Asia for a season Acts 19. 22. Now that this season was not long
any Resurrection It follows Neither Angel nor Spirit Now why he should deny this is a great deal harder to find out than to find out why he denyed the Resurrection For that he denyed because he could not find mention of it in plain terms in all Moses But he finds mention of Angels and Spirits in terms plain enough there There is indeed no mention in Moses of the creation of Angels in the History of the Creation And that might haply give the Sadducee occasion to think there were no such creatures made But then what will he say when he meets with the mention of Angels so frequently after Gen. XXXII 1. Jacob went on his way and the Angels of God met him And Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim that is two Armies viz. The army of the Angels that met him and the other army or great train of his own Family An Army of Angels then and not one now Thousands of Angels at Sinai Deut. XXXIII 2. and not one extant now What could a Sadducee think was become of those Angels of which there is so frequent mention in Moses Were they dead and not in being or were they confined to Heaven and no more to converse with men It is not easie to unriddle an Hereticks fancy a Sadducees mistery And it is very excusable ignorance to be ignorant of the depths of Satan of the depths of a Sadducean Heretick There is not indeed mention of Spirits in Moses in such plain terms but only of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Men. But though there were no more yet one would have thought that enough to have stopped his mouth that he should not say There was no Spirit when it is said in the very second verse in all Moses The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters And Numb XXVII 16. Let the Lord the God of the Spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation The First that offers it self to our consideration in this case is The distinction that is I. here made twixt Angels and Spirits Neither Angel nor Spirit And in the next verse The Pharisees cry out We find no evil in this man but if a Spirit or Angel have spoken to him let us not fight against God Where the question is What is meant by a Spirit thus distinguisht from Angels when the Angels themselves are called Spirits A further distinction of the Jews may help to clear this They in their writings thus distinguish Angels and Spirits and Devils And among other sayings that hold out this distinction they have this All things are subservient to the will and command of the Holy Blessed God Angels and Spirits and Devils Where what is meant by Angels and Devils is easie to understand but what is meant by Spirit when so distinguisht from both viz. walking Ghosts of the dead as they supposed or Spectra appearing in the shape of this or that Person that was dead So the appearing of a representation of Samuel raised by the Witch of Endor they would account a Spirit And that remarkable passage Luke XXIV 36 37. As they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them Peace be unto you But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit That is They did not think that it was Jesus in his own person that stood in the midst of them but some apparition only in his shape Now the Pharisees thought there were such Ghosts and Apparitions And so did the Heathen also conceive And Tully a Heathen from that very thing doth plead the Immortality of the Soul For saith he since men that are dead appear to the living it is a sign that they also live though they be dead and that they are not quite extinguished That there have been and may be such Apparitions there is no question and Histories give us some instances in this kind As one among many that famous story of the Ghost of Julius Cesar after his being murthered in the Senate appearing to Brutus who had had a chief hand in the murther and telling him Videâis me apud Philippos Thou shalt see me again at Philippi And so he did And the very forbidding of Necromancy in Scripture doth argue that there may be such Apparitions Deut. XVIII 10 11. There shall not be found among you an Inchanter or a Witch or a Charmer or a consulter with familiar Spirits or a Wizzard or a Necromancer Now what is a Necromancer The very Greek word speaks it that it is one that consults or asks Council of the Dead as the Witch of Endor would do of Samuel And there is a hint of such a thing Esai VIII 19. should not a people seek unto their God should they seek for the living to the dead Now though the Pharisees with the Law condemned this wickedness and witchcraft of consulting the dead yet if any such Apparition offered it self voluntary without such calling forth by Sorcery they accounted it to be harkened to Therefore they say If a Spirit or an Angel have spoken to him let us not fight against God But the Sadducees denied there was any such thing as Spirit or Angel Where a Second question ariseth Whether they thought there were no such Incorporeal II. substances as Angels or Spirits Or whether their meaning was that the appearing of Angels and Spirits was now ceased and to be no more There is an expression something like this later Joh. VII 39. The Holy Ghost was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified The Holy Ghost was not yet for so the original Greek hath it exactly And was there ever a time when the Holy Ghost was not in being Our English hath well resolved it in adding one word The Holy Ghost was not yet given He was in being from all Eternity but he was not given and bestowed upon men as he was to be when Jesus should be glorified And so in that answer of certain Ephesians to Paul Act. 19. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Yes they had heard that a thousand times over that there was an Holy Ghost But their meaning is we have not heard whether he be restored again to Israel since his departing away after the death of Zechary and Malachi and those last Prophets So if the Sadducees did acknowledg such things in being as Angels and Spirits yet they might deny that such things were in acting then No appearing of Angels and Spirits then for that was clean vanished It was most true that after the death of those last Prophets the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation departed from Israel till the coming in of the Gospel For a matter of four hundred years no Vision no Prophesie no appearing of Angels no Oracle by Urim and Thummim no extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost Samsons locks and strength shaved off and gone And those great privileges that that people had
Ismael 22 Isaac 8 league c. God had foretold Abraham of the Egyptian Abram 109 Ismael 23 Isaac 9 affliction and his affliction beginneth first by an Egyptian Abram 110 Ismael 24 Isaac 10 namely by Hagar and her son There is mention of Abram 111 Ismael 25 Isaac 11 a double space of his seeds sojourning in a land not Abram 112 Ismael 26 Isaac 12 theirs viz. 400 years Chap. 15. 13. which was from Abram 113 Ismael 27 Isaac 13 Ismaels mocking to their delivery out of Egypt and Abram 114 Ismael 28 Isaac 14 430 years Exod. 12. 40. which was from the promise Abram 115 Ismael 29 Isaac 15 given to Abram Gen. 17. 1. to their delivery Gal. 3. 17. Abram 116 Ismael 30 Isaac 16 Abraham consecrateth a grove at Beersheba that he Abram 117 Ismael 31 Isaac 17 might have hallowed wood for his sacrifices as well as holy fire see Chap. 21. 7. he had had fire from heaven at some time upon his sacrifice and he preserved it World 2126 Sem 568 Salah 433 Eber 403 Abram 118 Ismael 32 Isaac 18 SALAH or Shelah dieth being 433 years old read Gen. 11. 14 15. Abram 119 Ismael 33 Isaac 19 There is a good space of time passed over in silence Abram 120 Ismael 34 Isaac 20 concerning Isaac for from the time of Ismaels mocking Abram 121 Ismael 35 Isaac 21 which was at his fifth year till the time of his offering Abram 122 Ismael 36 Isaac 22 up in a figure which was at his thirty third as Abram 123 Ismael 37 Isaac 23 may be conceived there is no mention of him for as Abram 124 Ismael 38 Isaac 24 yet the story most especially followeth the Acts of Abraham Abram 125 Ismael 39 Isaac 25 Now it is very likely that as the offering up of Abram 126 Ismael 40 Isaac 26 Isaac was so plain and perfect a figure of the offering up Abram 127 Ismael 41 Isaac 27 of Christ in other things so also that these two things the Type and Antitype did agree in the time and that Isaac was offered when he was two and thirty years and an half old or three and thirty current which was the age Abraham 128 Ismael 42 Isaac 28 of our Saviour when he was crucified And the like concurrence Abraham 129 Ismael 43 Isaac 29 and circumstance of the time may be also well Abraham 130 Ismael 44 Isaac 30 conceived of Abel at his death who murdred by his brother Abraham 131 Ismael 45 Isaac 31 typified the same thing that Isaac did sacrificed by Abraham 132 Ismael 46 Isaac 32 his father CHAP. XXII Abraham 133 Ismael 47 Isaac 33 ISAAC probably offered up this year The mount Moriah Abraham 134 Ismael 48 Isaac 34 Ver. 2. the third day Ver. 4. His first bearing the Abraham 135 Ismael 49 Isaac 35 wood and then the wood bearing him Vers. 6 9. His Abraham 136 Ismael 50 Isaac 36 being bound hand and foot Vers. 9. do call us to remember such circumstances in the death of Christ. CHAP. XXIII World 2145 Sem 587 Eber 422 Abraham 137 Ismael 51 Isaac 37 SARAH dieth being 127 years old the only woman Abraham 138 Ismael 52 Isaac 38 whose age is recorded in Scripture A burial place is Abraham 139 Ismael 53 Isaac 39 the first land that Abraham hath in Canaan CHAP. XXIV XXV to Verse 7. and 1 CHRON. 1. Vers. 32 33. World 2148 Sem 590 Eber 425 Abraham 140 Ismael 54 Isaac 40 ISAAC is married to Rebeccah Abraham after Sarahs Abraham 141 Ismael 55 Isaac 41 death marrieth Keturah and hath divers children by Abraham 142 Ismael 56 Isaac 42 her those children when they come to age he sendeth Abraham 143 Ismael 57 Isaac 43 away into those countries beyond Jordan and in Arabia Abraham 144 Ismael 58 Isaac 44 which Kedarlaomer and the Kings with him had conquered Abraham 145 Ismael 59 Isaac 45 and by the conquest of them they descended to Abraham Abraham 146 Ismael 60 Isaac 46 There these sons of his grow into Nations and become continual Abraham 147 Ismael 61 Isaac 47 enemies to the seed of Israel Though Abraham were Abraham 148 Ismael 62 Isaac 48 very old at Sarahs death being 137 years old then yet is Abraham 149 Ismael 63 Isaac 49 he not past the strength of generation through the strength of that promise I will multiply thee c. The greatest wonder of Isaacs birth was that he was born of an old barren woman World 2158 Sem 600 Eber 435 Abraham 150 Ismael 64 Isaac 50 SEM dieth being 600 years old read Gen. 11. 11. the Abraham 151 Ismael 65 Isaac 51 same was Melchisedech the only man in the world greater Abraham 152 Ismael 66 Isaac 52 then Abraham For though Eber and Arphaxad and the Abraham 153 Ismael 67 Isaac 53 other Patriarchs had this dignity above Abraham that they Abraham 154 Ismael 68 Isaac 54 were his fathers yet he was dignified above them all in Abraham 155 Ismael 69 Isaac 55 this that he had the singular and glorious Promise made to Abraham 156 Ismael 70 Isaac 56 him which was not made to any of them but only Sem Abraham 157 Ismael 71 Isaac 57 Sem saw the two great miseries of the world the Flood Abraham 158 Ismael 72 Isaac 58 and the confusion of Tongues but he saw comfort in Abraham Abraham 159 Ismael 73 Isaac 59 and Isaac He lived as many years after Abraham came into the land of Canaan as Abraham was old when he came thither namely 75 years CHAP. XXV Ver. 11. and from Ver. 19. to the end World 2168 Eber 445 Abraham 160 Ismael 74 Isaac 60 JACOB and Esau born first he that was natural Abraham 161 Ismael 75 Isaac 61 Iacob 1 and then he that was spiritual These children Abraham 162 Ismael 75 Isaac 61 Iacob 2 strove in the womb and Rebeccah inquired after the Abraham 163 Ismael 77 Isaac 63 Iacob 3 cause and the Lord by an oracle it is like by Abrahams Abraham 164 Ismael 78 Isaac 64 Iacob 4 oracle at Beersheba resolves her of the difference of the Abraham 165 Ismael 79 Isaac 65 Iacob 5 children and of the Nations that should descend of Abraham 166 Ismael 80 Isaac 66 Iacob 6 them Esau is born all hairy over like a kid a strange Abraham 167 Ismael 81 Isaac 67 Iacob 7 birth and he is therefore named Esau that is Made Abraham 168 Ismael 82 Isaac 68 Iacob 8 for he had his beard and his pubes now even from the Abraham 169 Ismael 83 Isaac 69 Iacob 9 birth as if he had been a mature man The story is Abraham 170 Ismael 84 Isaac 70 Iacob 10 now to fall upon the acts of Isaac and Jacob and therefore in this Chapter it concludes the story of Abraham and Ismael reckoneth up the tearm of their lives and mentioneth their deaths by anticipation the Reader Abrah 171 Ismael 85 Isaac 71 Iacob 11 will readily reduce the Texts that mention these to Abrah
destroyeth Senacheribs Army yet should Judah at last be also cast off and become Lo-ammi and then the Gentiles should be called in in Israels and Judahs stead And thus having laid the generals of his Prophesie down in the first Chapter he goeth on in the second to particularize upon those heads and to shew the reason and manner of the Jews rejection and the manner and happiness of the Gentiles calling And thus the time of these two first Chapters is reasonably apparent 3. His third and fourth Chapters may be supposed to have been delivered by him at the same time because in Chap. 4. 3. he speaketh of the Plagues of Locusts and that Amos and Joel had spoken of fore-telling them also as they had done In the third Chapter under the parable of another marriage with an adulterous wife he fore-telleth the iniquity of the people after their return out of Babel into their own Land and also their state in their present rejection when they neither follow Idols nor God when neither as a wife they adhere to God nor yet to any other god as to another husband The fourth Chapter taketh the people up as they were in their present posture in the Prophets time and sheweth their wickedness and what Judgments the Lord had in store for them and according to this tenor he goeth on through the rest of his Book 5. The rest of the Book may be supposed coincident some of it with the times of Ahaz and some of it with the former times of Ezekiel even to the captiving of the ten Tribes as shall be observed when we come there The Prophesie of JOEL all IN these latter days of Jeroboam the second and much about the times of Amos his first prophecying among Israel did Joel also appear and begin to prophecy among Judah Some of the Hebrew Doctors have conceived him to have lived in the time of Elisha and that these threatnings of his of famine were accomplished in the seven years famine in that time 2 King 8. 1. others have supposed him to have lived and prophesied in the times of Manasseth King of Judah casting his time as much too forward as the other was too backward but his Subject matter will declare his time for seeing he speaketh of the same Plague of Locusts and of drought and fire that Amos doth it is an argument sufficient to conclude that Amos and he appeared about the same time He sadly bemoaneth and describeth in his two first Chapters the miserable famine and grievous condition that the people were brought into through the Plagues of Locusts and Drought and painteth out the Catterpillars and Cankerworms and Locusts which he calleth the Northern Army as if they were an Army of men indeed They came in at the North part of the Land from towards Syria and Hamath and kept as it were in a body and devoured all before them as they went along to the South part and there as they were facing about to go off below the point of the dead Sea the barrenness of that part affamished them who had affamished the whole Country The Prophet yet concludes afterwards with comfortable promises of Rain after the Drought and flourishing Trees and times after these Locusts And upon that discourse of the restitution of temporal blessings he riseth to speak of spiritual blessings in the days of Christ in the gift of Tongues and in the wonders that should attend Christs death and that should go before the destruction of Jerusalem and concludes in the third Chapter with threatnings against the enemies of Jerusalem and particularly foretelleth the destruction of the Army of Senacharib against which the Lord caused his mighty ones to come down vers 11. namely his Angels and destroyed them in the valley of Jehoshaphat before Jerusalem This Hosea also had particularly pointed at Hos. 1. 7. The Book of AMOS all THIS Prophesie is so clearly dated that there needeth not to use many words to shew in what time to lay it It was uttered in the days of Jeroboam and in the days of Uzziah that they lived together and of this Prophets prophesying in any Kings reign further there is no mention Almost at the end of his Book he telleth us that Jeroboam was then alive and Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would have stirred him up against Amos as against a Traytor Chap. 7. 10. c. so that this Book is to be taken in in the latter times of Jeroboam and the proper order of it falleth between the seven and twenty and eight and twenty verses of 2 King 14. And in the same place also come in the Books of Hosea and Joel And so we may observe the dealing of the Lord with Israel the plainer For whereas they had been brought very low by their enemies and their miseries were become exceeding great the Lord yet would not destroy them but would try them with one kindness more and so he gives them great ease and deliverance by Jeroboam But when both Jeroboam and they continued still in the Idolatry of the old Jeroboam and in the wickedness of their own ways the Lord sendeth these Prophets amongst them to foretel their final destruction and overthrow Amos neither a Prophet nor a Prophets son by education Chap. 7. 14. that is neither Tutor nor Scholler in the Schools of the Prophets but a Shepherd of Tekoa and of a rude breeding yet like the Galilean fishers becomes a glorious Scholler in the School of the Lord and a glorious Teacher in the Congregation of Israel He began to prophesie two years before the Earthquake and told of it before it came that the Lord would smite the Winter house with the Summer house Chap. 3. 15. and the Lintel of the door of the Idolatrous Temple should be smitten and the posts shake Chap. 9. 1. and so there should be a rent and breach in the Idoll Temple at Bethel when the Lord now came to visit them as there was at the Temple in Jerusalem at the death of Christ. It is very generally held by the Jews that this Earthquake was at that very time when Uzziah was struck Leprous but that that cannot be we shall observe when we come forward to the year of his death Amos prophesieth against six Nations besides Israel and Judah and concludeth them all under an irreversible decree of destruction for so should that clause be rendred which in every one of the threatnings breedeth so much difficulty of translating ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will not revoke it For the sense lieth thus The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem And thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke it That is I will not revoke that voyce but Damascus shall be destroyed and so of the rest For the masculine affixe in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cannot possibly be referred to any thing that went before but only to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã His
Darius and their Astyages were all one and that Darius because of his Grand-fathership did bear the name of the Royalty though Cyrus in this conquest had equal share with him and was for other victories a Conqueror beyond him Not to insist upon those mixtures of fabulousness that the Heathens have invented for the inhancing of the credit of Cyrus as they were used to do about men that were the first raisers of a Kingdom as that his Grand-father Astyages delivered him to Harpagus a Noble Man as soon as he was born to be made away that Harpagus afraid of such a Fact delivered him to the Kings chief Shepherd for such a purpose that he laid and left the infant in a wood that it was there nourisht by a Bitch that the Shepherds wife took it home and nurst it and exposed an infant of her own instead of it c. To omit these things which were invented only for the honour of the beginning of the Persian Empire we may safely take up that relation which is unanimously given by all their Historians and in which there can be no flattery at all suspected and that is of the Pedigree and descent of Cyrus and the names and qualities of his Parents and so they give him for the son of Cambyses the King of Persia and of Mandane the Daughter and only child of Astyages King of Media and so was he heir to both the Kingdoms Now upon the conquest of Babylon Darius or Astyages plat-forms the Government of that Monarchy under one hundred and twenty Governours in the one hundred and twenty Provinces that belonged to it And above these he set a Triumvirate or three Princes to be supervisors to them and to take their accounts both of Tribute and Affairs Daniels knownness in Babylon which was newly taken for his divine and wonderful wisdom and spirit bringeth him to be one of these three and that promotion and his singular carriage in it bringeth him into envy and that into the Lions Den c. This occurrence may be conceived to have been presently after the conquest of Babel even in the compass of that year upon these grounds 1. Because Darius it is like would form the Government of his Monarchy as soon as he had it and Daniel would not be long unenvied when promoted 2. It is very probable that Darius reigned but a little beyond this year 3. The writing of this Chapter in the Chaldee Tongue may be some argument that this occurrence befel Daniel while he was in Chaldea DANIEL VIII THE first and second Verses of this Chapter plainly shew that Belshazzar reigned but three years for it telleth that in the third year of Belshazzar Daniel was in Shushan the royal City of Persia. It cannot be imagined that he was there in Belshazzars life time for his preferment and residence was in Babylon till Babylon fell but his coming thither was by the transporting of him thither by the Persian Monarch after he had conquered Babylon who as it appeareth by vers 27. had preferred him there and interessed him in the Kings imployment This is called the third year of Belshazzar purposely that we might learn to give the first year of Cyrus its proper date Belshazzar was dead and gone and Darius had fashioned the Babylonian Monarchy into another Government Daniel had been cast into the Lions Den in Babylon and was now removed to the Court of Persia Cyrus and Darius had ruled all for a certain space and yet is this Chapter and the occurrences in it dated by this that it was the third year of Belshazzar partly that we might learn to reckon the first of Cyrus and Darius not the very year that Babylon fell but the year after and partly that we might observe how in the very year that the Medes and Persians destroy Babel the Lord revealeth to Daniel the destruction of the Medes and Persians and the two Monarchies after them All the Chapters in Daniel from Chap. 2. vers 4. to the beginning of this Chapter are written in the Chaldee Tongue and from the beginning of this Chapter to the end of the Book he writeth in Hebrew for the affairs that fell under the Chaldean Monarchy he hath registred in the Chaldean Tongue but now that Kingdom is destroyed he will have no more to do with that Language but thence forward he applies himself to write his own native Tongue the Hebrew seeing that God would not have the Persicke under which Language he now was to be the original of any part of Scripture DANIEL IX DANIEL knowing from Jeremies Prophesie that the seventy years of Captivity were now fully expired addresseth himself to God by prayer for their return He receiveth not only a gracious answer to his desire but a Prediction of what times should pass over his people till the death of Christ namely seventy weeks or seventy times seven years or four hundred and ninety This space of time the Angel divideth into three unequal parts 1. Seven sevens or forty nine years to the finishing of Jerusalems Walls 2. Sixty two sevens or four hundred thirty four years from that time till the last seven 3. The last seven in the latter half of which Christ Preacheth viz. three years and an half and then dieth c. The twenty seventh Verse therefore is to be read thus He shall confirm the Covenant with many in the one week and in half that week he shall cause Sacrifice and Oblation to cease c. So that from this year to the death of Christ are four hundred ninety years and there is no cause because of doubtful Records among the Heathen to make a doubt of the fixedness of this time which an Angel of the Lord hath pointed out with so much exactness EZRA CHAP. I. And 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 22. 23. CYRUS published a Decree for the Jews returning to their own Land again This Decree was signed at the very instant of Daniels prayer Dan. 9. 23. Darius was yet alive and reigning as appears by comparing Dan. 9. 1. but the Decree and Proclamation is the Act of Cyrus not only in regard of a Prophesie that went before concerning him Esay 44. 28. but also because he was the greater Conqueror and the greater Prince For 1. He was not only sharer with Darius in the Conquest of Babylon but was also sharer with him in the Kingdom of Media as being sole heir to it but Darius had no claim with him in the Kingdom of Persia. 2. Berosus not that of Annius but cited by Josephus Lib. 1. cont Apion saith that Cyrus had conquered even all Asia before he came to besiege Babel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cyrus delivered out to Zerubabel who by the Chaldeans was called Shesbazzar all the Vessels of the Temple that Nebuchad-nezzar had captived In the summing of them there is some obscurity for there is a particular given only of two thousand four hundred ninety nine and yet the Text summeth up
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Deaf and Dumb and doth fore-signifie the silencing of the Levitical Priesthood e're long to be In the Jews Canons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
from the time of Onias who built there a great Temple and an Altar and all the men of Egypt went thither c. And there was a great Congregation there double to the number of those that came out of Egypt Fol. 14. Of this Temple built by Onias in Egypt Josephus maketh mention Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 6. And the Talmud in Menachoth cap. 13. So that Christ being sent into Egypt was sent among his own Nation who had filled that Country The time that he was in Egypt was not above three or four months so soon the Lord smote Herod for his butchery of the Innocent Children and murtherous intent against the Lord of Life Joseph and Mary being called out of Egypt after Herods death intend for Judaea again thinking to go to Bethlehem but the fear of Archelaus and the warning of an Angel directs them into Galilee They knew not but that Christ was to be educated in Bethlehem as he was to be born there therefore they kept him there till he was two years old and durst not take him thence till fear and the warrant of an Angel dismisseth them into Egypt And when they come again from thence they can think of no other place but Bethlehem again till the like fear and warrant send them into Galilee There is none of the Evangelists that recordeth any thing concerning Christ CHRIST III from the time of his return out of Egypt till he come to be twelve years CHRIST IV old which was for the space of these years For the better understanding CHRIST V of which times let us take up some few passages in Josephus CHRIST VI Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. Herod saith he reigned 34 years from the time that CHRIST VII Antigonus was taken away and 37 years from the time that he was first declared CHRIST VIII King by the Romans CHRIST IX And again in the same Book cap. 15. In the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus CHRIST X the People not enduring his cruelty and tyranny they accused Archelaus to CHRIST XI Caesar and he banished him to Vienna And a little after Cyrenius was sent by Caesar to tax Syria and to confiscate Archelaus his Goods And lib. 18. cap. 1. Coponius was also sent with Cyrenius to be Governour of Judea And ibid. cap. 5. Coponius returning to Rome Marcus Ambibuchus becometh his Successor in that Government And after him succeeded Annius Rufus in whose time died Caesar Augustus the second Emperor of the Romans Now when Augustus died Christ was fourteen years old as appeareth from this that he was 29 years old compleat and beginning to be thirty in the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Emperor next succeeding Luke 3. 1 2. Reckon then these times that Josephus hath mentioned between the death of Herod and the death of Augustus namely the ten years of Archelaus and after them the Government of Coponius and after him Ambibuchus and after him Rufus and it will necessarily follow that when Herod slew Bethlehem Children Christ being then two years old it was the very last year of his Reign SECTION VIII LUKE Chap. II. from Ver. 40. to the end of the Chapter World 3939 Rome 765 Augustus 42 CHRIST XII Archelaus 10 CHRIST at twelve years old sheweth his Wisdom among the Doctors At the same Age had Solomon shewed his Wisdom in deciding the Controversie between the two Harlots Ignat. Martyr in Epist. ad Magnos IT is very easie to see the subsequence of this Section to that preceeding since there is nothing recorded by any of the Evangelists concerning Christ from his infancy till he began to be thirty years old but only this Story of his shewing his Wisdom at twelve years old among the Doctors of some of the three Sanhedrins that sate at the Temple for there sate one of 23 Judges in the East Gate of the Mountain of the House called the Gate Shushan Another of 23 in the Gate of Nicanor or the East Gate of the Court of Israel And the great Sanhedrin of 71 Judges that sate in the Room Gazith not far from the Altar Though Herod had slain the Sanhedrin as is related by Josephus and divers others yet was not that Court nor the judiciary thereof utterly extinguisht but revived again and continued till many years after the destruction of the City His Story about this matter is briefly thus given by the Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 3. facie 2. Herod was a servant of the Asmonean Family he set his Eyes upon a Girl of it One day the man heard a voice from Heaven Bath Kol which said Any servant that rebelleth this year shall prosper He riseth up and slayeth all his Masters but left that Girl c. And whereas it is said Thou shalt set a King over thee from among thy brethren which as the gloss there tells us their Rabbies understood of the chiefest of thy brethren he rose up and slew all the great ones only he left Baba ben Bota to take counsel of him The gloss upon this again tells us That he slew not utterly all the great ones for he left Hillel and the Sons of Betirah remaining and Josephus relateth also that he spared Shammai to which Abraham Zaccuth addeth that Menahem and 80 gallant Men of the chief of the Nation were gone over to his service and to attend upon him So that these of themselves and by ordination of others did soon repair that breach that his Sword had made in the Sanhedrin he not resisting its erection again when he had now taken away the Men of his displeasure Hillel was President and sat so forty years and died by the Jews computation applied to the Christian account much about this twelfth year of Christ. For they say that he lived an hundred and twenty years the last forty of which he spent in the Presidency of the Sanhedrin entring upon that dignity an hundred years before the destruction of the City Menahem was at first Vicepresident with him but upon his going away to Herods service Shammai came in his room and now two as eminent and learned men sat in those two Chairs as ever had done since the first birth of traditions Hillel himself was so deserving a man that whereas in the vacancy of the Presidentship by the death of Shemaiah and Abtalion R. Judah and R. Jeshua the Sons of Betirah might have taken the Chairs they preferred Hillel as the worthier person Talm. Jerus in Pessachin fol. 33. col 1. He bred many eminent Scholars to the number of fourscore the most renowned of which by name were Jonathan ben Uzziel the Chaldee Paraphrast and Rabban Jocanan ben Zaccai both probably alive at this year of Christ and a good while after The latter was undoubtedly so for he lived to see the destruction of the City and Temple and sat President in the Sanhedrin at Jabneh afterwards And till that time also lived the Sons of Betirah mentioned before Shammai was little inferior to Hillel
betwixt that time and this journey over Jordan therefore he thus joyneth their stories together The time and actions that he hath omitted we have seen how Luke and John have supplied Were there any Coasts of Judea beyond Jordan Either the conjunction And is to be understood He came into the coasts of Judea and beyond Jordan as it is understood Psal. 133. 3 Acts 7. 16 c. or by Fines Judaeae trans Jordanem is meant Fines Judaeorum because the Syrians also dwelt in the coasts beyond Jordan Moses at the very same instant of time gave a Law to put an adulterous Wife to death Deut. 22. 22. and a Law to divorce her Deut. 24. 1. in the former shewing the desert of the fact in the latter permitting to mitigate of the rigour of that Law and as our Saviour here interprets it to prevent those cruel effects that their hardness of heart might have produced had there been no mitigation They brag of that Law of divorce as if it favoured them as a peculiar priviledge Jerus kiddushin fol. 58. 3. R. Chaijah Rabbah said Divorces are not granted to the nations of the world meaning not to the Gentiles as they were to the Jews whereas truth here informs us that it was permitted only because of the hardness of their hearts and to avoid greater mischief When permission of divorce was given after a Law to punish adultery with death for a mitigation of it it requires most serious weighing whether a Law to punish adultery with death should be undispensable now after the Law of Divorce given and continued by our Saviour in case of Fornication SECTION LXIV MATTH Chap. XIX from Ver. 13. to the end of the Chapter MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 13 to Ver. 32. LUKE Chap. XVIII from Ver 15. to Ver. 31. Infants brought to Christ. A rich man departs sorrowful MATTHEW and Mark do evidence the order and as Luke hath helped out their briefness before so do they also again help us out about his order Whose Children were these that were brought to Christ Not unbelievers doubtless but the Children of some that professed Christ Why did they bring them Not to be healed of any disease doubtless for then the Disciples would not have been angry at their coming for why at theirs more then at all others that had come for that end Their bringing therefore must needs be concluded to be in the name of Disciples and that Christ would so receive them and bless them And so he doth and asserteth them for Disciples and to whom the Kingdom of Heaven belonged taking the Kingdom of Heaven in the common acceptation of the Gospel Observe Mark 10. 19 c. that mention being made by Christ of the Commandments as if he spake of the whole Law yet he instanceth only in the second table And see the like again Rom. 13. 8 c. James 2. 8 9 10 c. The demeanour of men toward the second table is a sure trial how they stand to the first It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle An expression common in the Nation Talm Bavamenia fol. 38. facie 2. It may be thou art of Pumbeditha where they can bring an Elephant through the eye of a needle SECTION LXV MATTH Chap. XX. from the beginning to Ver. 17. Labourers in the Vineyard c. THe first word For makes plain the order and connexion joyning this speech to that before The Jerus Talm. in Beracoth hath a Parable somewhat like to this but wildly applied to a far different purpose A King hired many workmen and there was one of them hired for his work for more then what was enough What did the King He took him and walked with him up and down At the time of the evening the workmen came to receive their wages and he also gave him his full wages with them The workmen repined and said We have laboured all the day and this man laboured but two hours and thou hast given him full wages with us The King said to them This man hath laboured more in two hours then you have done all day So R. Bon laboured more in the Law in twenty nine years then another in a hundred c. fol. 5. SECTION LXVI JOHN Chap. XI from the beginning to Ver. 17. Tidings come to Christ of Lazarus sickness AT Sect. 63. Christ goeth beyond Jordan the occasion of his coming back was the message of Mary and Martha to him to desire his help to their sick brother The story of this therefore is necessary to be related before the story of his coming thence which is the next thing that the other three Evangelists fall upon after they have done with what is set down in the preceding Sections The words of the second verse It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with oyntment and wiped his feet with her hair are most generally construed as pointing to that story in the next Chapter Joh. 12. 3. Then took Mary a pound of Oyntment of Spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair Which seemeth very improper and unconsonant upon these reasons 1. To what purpose should John use such an anticipation It was neither material to the story that he was entring on Chap. 11. to tell that Mary anoynted Christs feet a good while after he had raised her brother nor was it any other then needless to bring in the mention of it here since he was to give the full story of it in the next Chapter 2. The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is of such a tense as doth properly denote an action past and is so to be rendred if it be rendred in its just propriety It was Mary which had anointed 3. Whereas no reason can be given why John should anticipate it here if he meant it of an anointing that was yet to come a plain and satisfactory reason may be given why he speaks of it here as referring to an anointing past namely because he would shew what acquaintance and interest Mary had with Christ which did imbolden her to send to him about her sick brother for she had washed and anointed his feet heretofore The words of John therefore point at an action past and indeed they point at that story of the woman-sinner washing the feet of Christ with teares and anointing them with Ointment and wiping them with her hairs Luke 7. It is true indeed that John who useth these words that we are upon had not spoken of any such anointing before whereunto to refer you in his own Gospel but the passage was so well and renownedly known and recorded by Luke before that he relateth to it as to a thing of most famous notice and memorial SECTION LXVII LUKE Chap. XVIII Ver. 31 32 33 34. MARK Chap. X. Ver. 32 33 34. MATTH Chap. XX. Ver. 17 18 19. CHRIST foretelleth his suffering THe message from Mary and Martha about their sick brother inviteth
into the Christian Church and the seven are chosen to this work out of the number of the hundred and twenty that are mentioned Chap. 1. 15. and that company only was the choosers of them and not all the Believers in Jerusalem The reason why the Hebrews neglected the widows of the Hellenists may be supposed either because they would stick to their old rule mentioned once before That a widow was to be maintained by her husbands children Talm. in chetub per. 11. Maym. in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã per. 18. compare 1 Tim. 5. 4. or because the Hebrews of Judea had brought in more into the common stock for the poor by sale of their Goods and Lands then those that had come from forrain Countries had done they not having Goods and Lands so ready to sell. All that had been brought in hitherto had been put into the Apostles hands and they had been burdened with the care and trouble of the disposal of it but now they transfer that work and office to the seven solemnly ordaining them by Imposition of hands into it and here only the Imposition of the Apostles hands confers not the Holy Ghost for these men were full of the Holy Ghost before Stephen an eminent man among them is quarrelled by certain of the Libertines and the Hellenists Synagogue Libertini ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are exceeding frequently spoken of in the Jews Writings And the Alexandrian Synagogue one of the Hellenists is mentioned in Jerus in Megillah fol. 73. col 4. and Juchas fol. 26. who tell that R. Eliezer bar Zadoc took the Synagogue of the Alexandrians that was at Jerusalem and imployed it to his own use When they are not able to overpower him by argument and disputation they take a ready way to do it by false accusation and conventing him before the Sanhedrin where being accused of vilifying Moses and speaking of the destruction of that place he is vindicated even miraculously before he pleadeth his own cause by his face shining like the face of Moses and bearing an Angelical aspect and Majesty for indeed he spake but what was spoken by the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9. 26 27. In his Apology he speaketh to the heads of his accusation but somewhat abstrusely yet so as to them to whom he spake to be well understood his discourse being according to their own Rhetorick and Logick To what was laid to his charge for vilifying Moses and saying his customs should be changed he rehearseth in brief the whole history of Moses and shews he was Orthodox to him but yet he driveth all to this that as the times before Moses were still moving and growing on to settlement in Moses so when Moses himself had setled all he had to do yet he pointed them to a Prophet yet to come to whom they should hearken as the ultimate Oracle which was this Jesus that he preached to them And whereas he was accused for speaking of the destruction of the Temple he first shews that fixedness to this or that place is not so much to be stood upon as appears by the flitting condition of the Patriarchs whose flittings he giveth the story of at large and by the moving condition of the Tabernacle before the Temple was built And when the Temple was built it was not because God would confine himself to one place for the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands ver 48. c. He inserteth two or three sharp and true accusations of them whereas theirs of him had been but false and causeless As that their fathers had persecuted those thaâ foretold of Christ as they did him for now preaching him and they followed their fathers steps nay went further for they had murdered Christ whereas their fathers had but murdered his Prophets And whereas they were so punctual about the Ceremonious rites given by Moses they neglected the moral Law which was given by the disposition of Angels This cuts them to the heart that they pass a rancourous and furious sentence of death upon him but he hath a sight of the high bench of Heaven God and Christ at his right hand their judge and his A most fit prospect for the first Martyr They cast him out of the City and stone him for blasphemy For these were to be stoned He that went in to his mother or to his fathers wife or to his daughter in Law or to a male or to a beast and he that blasphemed or that committed Idolatry c. And the place of stoning was out from the place of Judgment nay out of the City as the Gemarists resolve it because it is said Bring him that cursed out of the Camp And A crier went before him that was to die proclaiming his fault Sanhedr per. 6. 7. When he was come within four cubits of the place of stoning they stript him naked only covered his nakedness before Ibid. And being come to the very place first the witnesses laid their hands upon him Maym. in Avodah Zarah per. 2. and then stripping off their coats that they might be more expedite for their present work first one of them dasheth his loins violently against a stone that lay for that purpose if that killed him not then the other dasheth a great stone upon his heart as he lay on his back and if that dispatched him not then all the people fell upon him with stones Talm. ubi sup Steven in the midst of all this their fury and his own anguish gets on his knees and prays for them and having so done he fell asleep The Jews do ordinarily use the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to signifie Dying which properly signifies sleeping especially when they speak of a fair and comfortable death which word Luke translates here ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã All that were stoned were also hanged up upon a tree Talm. ubi sup Whether Steven were so used is uncertain but it is evident that he had a fair burial and not the burial of a malefactour CHRIST XXXIV ACTS CHAP. VIII A Great persecution followeth the death of Steven in which Saul was a chief agent Scholar of Gamaliel President of the Sanhedrin and it may be the busier for that In Talm. Bab. Sanhedr fol. 43. col 1. they say Jesu had five Disciples Mathai Nakai Netser Boni and Thodah and they are urging reasons there why they should all be put to death c. All the hundred and twenty Ministers mentioned Chap. 1. 15. are scattered abroad only the twelve stay at Jerusalem as in the furnace to comfort and cherish the Church there in so sad a time and they preach all along as they go and so Satan breaks his own head by his own design for by persecution by which he had contrived to smother the Gospel it spreads the more The first plantation of it mentioned is in Samaria and that according to Christs own direction and foretelling Act. 1. 8. Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and in Samaria c. He had forbidden them before Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans do not enter Matth. 10. 5. but now that partition wall that had been between is to be broken down Of all Nations and people under Heaven the Samaritans were the most odious to the Jews and a main reason was because they were Jews Apostates For though the first peopling of that place after the Captivity of the ten Tribes was by Heathens 2 King 17. yet upon the building of the Temple on mount Gerizim such multitudes of Jews continually flocked thither that generally Samaritanism was but a mongrel Judaism They called Jacob their father expected Messias had their Temple Priesthood Service Pentatuch c. And to spare more take but this one passage in Talm. Jerus Pesachin fol. 27. 2. The Cuthaeans all the time that they celebrate their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven If they do not keep their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are not to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven Rabban Gamaliel saith All the Ordinances that the Cuthaeans use they are more punctual in them then Israel is It is an unhappy obscurity that the Hebrew Writers have put upon the word Cuthaeans for though it most properly signifie Samaritans yet have they so commonly given this name to Christians as the most odious name they could invent to give them that in the most places that you meet with it you cannot tell whether they mean the one or the other In the place cited it seemeth indeed most likely that it means the Samaritans because it speaks of their keeping the feast of unleavened bread and using the Ordinances of Israel unless it speak of those Jews that had received the Gospel and become Christians and were fallen to their Judaism again and joyned that with their Christianity which very many did as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter Simon Magus taketh upon him to believe and is baptized The naming of him calls to mind the mention of one Simon a Magician that Josephus speaks of Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 5. who was a means to intice Drusilla from her former husband to go and marry Felix the Governour of Judea this might very well be that man And it minds of a passage in Tal. Jerus in Jebamoth fol. 13. col 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I cannot but render it The Simonians came to Rabbi and said to him We pray thee give us a man to be our Expositor Judge Minister Scribe Traditionary and to do for us all we need I know what ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is in Tal. Bab. in Cholin fol. 15. But certainly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã means some people but whence so named there is no disputing here Philip baptized Samaria and did great wonders among them but could not bestow the Holy Ghost upon them that power belonged only to the Apostles therefore Peter and John are sent thither for that purpose They laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost Not upon all for what needeth that Or what reason was there for it The gifts of the Holy Ghost that were received were these miraculous ones of Tongues Prophesie c. Acts 10. 46. 19. 6. Now of these there were but these two ends 1. For the confirmation of the doctrine of the Gospel such miraculous gifts attending it And 2. for instruction of others for Tongues were given indeed for a sign 1 Cor. 14. 22. but not only for a sign but for edification and instruction as the Apostle also sheweth at large in the same Chapter Now both these ends were attained though they that received the Holy Ghost were not all but only a few and set number nay the later not conceivable of all for if all were inabled miraculously to be Teachers who were to be taught The Imposition therefore of the Apostles hands mentioned here and elsewhere and those passages These signs shall follow those that believe they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with Tongues c. Mark 16. 17. Repent and be baptized every one of you and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Act. 2. 38 c. were not upon all that believed the Gospel and were baptized but upon some certain number whom they were directed by the Holy Ghost to lay their hands upon as those men that God had appointed and determined for Preachers and Ministers to the people and who by the Imposition of the Apostles hands receiving the Holy Ghost were by those gifts inabled to understand the language and sense of Scripture and to be instructers of the people and to build them up Candaces Eunuch having been at Jerusalem to worship and returning back is converted by Philip. Of Candace Queen of Meroe in Aethiopia see Strabo lib. 17. He met with him in the way that lead from Jerusalem to Gaza the desert Of this place Strabo again lib. 16. speaketh thus Then is the haven of the Gazaeans above which some seven furlongs is the City once glorious but ruined by Alexander ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and it remaineth desert Diodorus Siculus calls it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The old Gaza lib. 19. for another was built at the haven by the Sea side called sometimes Maiuma Sozom. Eccles. hist. lib. 5. cap. 3. and afterward Constantia named so by Constantine after the name of his sister as saith Euseb. de Vit. Constant lib. 4. cap. 28. or as Sozomen of his son Constantius Whether this Eunuch were a Jew or a Proselyte is scarce worth inquiring his devotion is far more worth spending thoughts upon which brought him so long a journey and imployed him so well in his travail as in reading the Scripture He is baptized in the name of Jesus ver 37. and as it may well be conceived takes ship at Gaza and is the first that we find that carried the profession of Jesus into Africk The mention of which may justly call our thoughts to consider of the Temple built in Egypt by Onias and the vast numbers of Jews that were in that and the Countries thereabouts and yet how little intimation there is in the New Testament Story by whom or how the Gospel was conveyed into those parts Philip is rapt by the Spirit from Gaza to Azotus which were 270 furlongs or 34 miles asunder as Diodor. Sicul. ubi supra measures ACTS CHAP. IX from the beginning to Vers. 23. THE conversion of Paul A monument of mercy 1 Tim. 1. 14 16. A Pharisee a persecutor a murderer yet become a Christian a Preacher an Apostle He consented to Stevens death and after that he gets a Commission from the chief Priests and makes desperate havock in Jerusalem Act. 8. 2. 22. 4. 26. 10. We find all along this Book that the chief Priests are not only the busiest men in persecuting of the Gospel but in
their emissaries every where abroad that to the utmost in them cried down the Gospel preached against it went about to confute it and blasphemed it and Christ that gave it Of this there is testimony abundant in the New Testament and in the Jews own Writings And 3. they were exceeding many of them skilled in Magick and by that did many strange things by such false miracles seeking to outface and vilifie the Divine miracles done by Christ and his Apostles and striving to confirm their own doctrines which opposed the Gospel by backing them with such strange and wondrous actings Juchasin speaks of Abba Chelchia and Chamin and Chamina Ben Dusa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã men skilled in miracles fol. 20. And the Jerus Talmud speaks of their inchantings and magical tricks in Shabb. fol. 8. col 2. 3. Sanhedr fol. 25. col 4. nay even of their charming in the name of Josâ Shabb. fol. 14. col 4. Paul miraculously strikes Elymas blind and inlightens Sergius Paulus with the light of the Gospel This was at Paphos where old superstition dreamed of the blind God Cupid Doting Elymas grope for thy fellow The first miracle wrought among the Gentiles is striking a perverse Jew blind which thing may very well become an Allegory From Paphos they go to Perga in Pamphilia and there John departs from them and returns to Jerusalem but what was the occasion is hard to conjecture Whether it were that he heard of Peters trouble and danger that he had been in at Jerusalem and desired to see him for that he had some special interest and familiarity with Peter may be collected from 1 Pet. 5. 14. and in that Peter was so well acquainted at his mothers house Act. 12. 12 c. Or whether in regard of this his relation to Peter the Minister of the Circumcision he made it nice to go among the Gentiles into the thickest of which he saw they were coming every day more then other For at Paphos where they had last been was a Temple of Venus and at Perga where they now are was a Temple of Diana Strab. lib. 14. Pomp. Mela. lib. 1. cap. 14. Or whatsoever the matter was his departure was so unwarrantable that it made a breach betwixt him and Paul for the present nay it occasioned a breach betwixt Paul and Barnabas afterward And so we leave him in his journy to Jerusalem whither when he came he staied there till Paul and Barnabas came thither again CHRIST XLIV CLAUDIUS IV ACTS CHAP. XII from Ver. 20. to Ver. 24. HERODS death was in the beginning of this year the fourth of Claudius or near unto it according as Josephus helpeth us to compute who testifieth that the third year of his reign was compleated a little before his death Vid. Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 7. He left behind him a son of seventeen years old in regard of whose minority and thereby unfitness to reign Claudius sent Cuspius Fadus to Govern his Kingdom His daughters were Berenice sixteen years old married to Herod King of Chalcis her fathers brother And Mariam ten years old and Drusilla six who afterward married Felix CHRIST XLV CHRIST XLVI CHRIST XLVII CHRIST XLVIII CHRIST XLIX CLAUDIUS V CLAUDIUS VI CLAUDIUS VII CLAUDIUS VIII CLAUDIUS IX ACTS CHAP. XIII from Ver. 14. to the end of the Chapter And CHAP. XIV AT the fifteenth Chapter we have some fasmess of the time viz. in what year the Council at Jerusalem as it is commonly called did occur which certainty we have not of the times of the occurrences henceforward thitherto so that since we cannot determinately point any passage to its proper year we must cast them in gross under this gross sum of years and distribute them to their proper seasons by the best conjecture we can From Perga in Pamphilia Paul and Barnabas come to Antioch in Pisidia and on the Sabbath day going into the Synagogue are invited by the Rulers of the Synagogue after the reading of the Law and Prophets to speak a word of exhortation to the people But how could the Rulers know that they were men fit to teach It may be answered By former converse with them in the City and it is very like that the Rulers themselves had drunk in some affection to the Gospel by converse with them which made them so ready to urge them to preach For it is not imaginable that this was the first time that they had seen them not that they came to Town that very day but that they had had some converse before Paul preacheth and the Synagogue broke up and the Jews gone out the Gentiles desired that the same words might be preached to them in the week between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã namely on the second and fifth days of the week following which were Synagogue days on which they met in the Synagogues as on the Sabbath day And which days their Traditions said were appointed for that purpose by Ezra Talm. in Bava Kamah per 7. R. Sol. and Nissim in Chetubboth per. 1. in Alphes Their preaching on those days had so wrought that on the next Sabbath almost all the City was gathered together to hear the word and many of the Gentiles receive it but the Jews stirred up some female unbelieving proselytes against them and some of the chief of the City so that they drave them out of those coasts and they shaking off the dust of their feet against them go to Iconium This Ceremony injoyned them by their Master Matth. 10. 14. was not so much for any great business put in the thing it self as that even from a tenet of their own they might shew how they were to be reputed of It was their own Maxime That the dust of a Heathen Country or City did defile or make a person unclean Tosaphta ad Kelim per. 1. hath this saying In three things Syria was like unto any Heathen Land The dust of it made a person unclean as the dust of any other Heathen Country did c. So that their shaking off the dust of their feet against them was to shew that they reputed them and their City as Heathenish ACTS CHAP. XIV AT Iconium they continue long and with good effect but at last they are in danger of stoning and thereupon they slip away to Lystra and Derbe Cities of Lycaonia and to the region that lieth round about That region Strabo describeth lib. 12. where among other particulars he tels that Derbe lay coasting upon Isauria and in his time was under the dominion of Amyntas At Lystra or Derbe Paul converteth Lois and Eunice and Timothy and as some will tell you here or at Iconium he converteth Tecla For healing a Creeple they are first accounted Gods but presently by perswasion of some Jews Paul is stoned but being reputed dead recovereth miraculously From thence they go to Derbe and return to Lystra Iconium and Antioch and ordain Elders in those Churches ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 24. is unproperly
were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the less offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used Maymon in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use yea even his dung bones horns hoofs skin yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart and that alone offered Divers other things used in Idolatry are mentioned and prohibited The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text namely ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for these properly were not one and the same thing for every ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã buâ⦠contra every ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering which themselves were not offered as knives dishes and the like which cannot be called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean and prohibited to be used About not eating of blood they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point unto this purpose He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive if presumptuously he is to be cut off and if ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6. By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self or that was not killed as it ought to be And he that eat to the quantity of an olive of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self or of any beast or any fowl that died of it self was to be whipt as it is said Ye shall eat no carcase and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting is reputed as if dying of it self Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat of which the Talmudick Treatise Cholin discusseth at large Now as concerning fornication it is controverted first whether it mean bodily or spiritual and secondly how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent as the other named were it self being of no such indifferency whethersoever is meant the one or the other The former certainly is not meant for the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã reacheth that to the full and more needed not to be spoken to that point The later therefore is meant but why named here with things indifferent Not because it was indifferent as well as they Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other for they made but little of fornication themselves according to the common taking of the word fornication but fornication here seemeth to translate their word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited which the Gentiles made no matter about and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law Levit. 18. Before we part from this Council as it is commonly called we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe that it was not a convention premediated and solemnly summoned but only occasional and emergent and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in nor indeed needed any such thing for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voices as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem The matter being determined Letters are dispatched with the Decrees unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas they come to Antioch and there abide a while and at last go their several ways Judas to Jerusalem and Paul Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party and Peter Jameâ and John on the other that those two should go among the Gentiles and these three among the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of that Country Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East and John at Patmos in the West and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth they disagree about Marks going with them Barnabas being his uncle would have had his company but Paul denied it because of his departure from them before Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also Gal. 2. 11. and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas and go their several ways and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society as we shall observe afterward CHRIST LI CLAUDIUS XI ACTS CHAP. XVI PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia come to Derbe and Lystra there he Circumciseth Timothy whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death Timothy was a young man of very choice
enough of him when he speaks but this Antonius Felix per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit Histor. lib. 5. cap. 2. Upon which Josephus will give you a large comment of his intolerable covetousness polling cruelty sacriledge murdering and all manner of wickedness His injuriousness to Paul in the story before us and the very naming of his wife Drusilla may be brand enough upon him for her by inticements and magical tricks he allured to himself from her Husband and married her And him he kept prisoner two years wrongfully because he would not bribe him In his pleading before him he makes him tremble but it is but a qualm and away CHRIST LVII NERO. III PAUL is a prisoner this year at Caesarea under Felix A great City of Jews and Greeks mixtly the place where the first spark of Jews Wars kindled afterward A famous University of Jews in time if so be it was not so at this time CHRIST LVIII NERO. IV ACTS Chap. XXIV Ver. 27. PAUL still a prisoner at Cesarea under Felix for the first part of this year Then cometh Festus into the Government and Felix packeth to Rome to answer for his misdemeanours ACTS Chap. XXV XXVI PAUL answereth for himself first before Festus alone then before Agrippa and his Sister Bernice this Agrippa was his Son whose death is related Acts 12. he by the favour of Claudius the Emperour succeeded his brother in Law-Uncle Herod for such relations did that Incestuous family find out in the Kingdom of Chalcis For Bernice his Sister had married Herod King of Chalcis her Uncle and his who was now dead and this Agrippa succeeded him in his Kingdom being also King of Judea Of this Agrippa as it is most probable there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Writers as particularly this that King Agrippa reading the Law in the latter end of the year of release as it was injoyned and coming to those words Deut. 17. 15. Thou shalt not set astranger King over thee which is not of thy brethren the tears ran down his cheeks for he was not of the seed of Israel which the Congregation observing cried out Be of good comfort O King Agrippa thou art our brother He was of their Religion though not of their blood and well versed in all the Laws and Customs as Paul speaks Chap. 26. 3. Berenice his Sister now a Widdow lived with him and that in more familiarity then was for their credit afterwards she fell into the like familiarity with Titus the Son of Vespasian when he came up to the Jews Wars There is mention in Jerus in Taanith fol. 66. col 1. and again in Megillah fol. 70. col 3. of the Scribes or learned Jews of Chalcis against whom the people rose and tumultuated In the one place it is written ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It may be they were of this Agrippa's planting there As Paul pleads for himself Festus takes him to be beside himself but Agrippa better acquainted with those kind of things that he spake of was much moved and concludes that had he not appealed to Caesar he might have been quit What he did in this appeal was not a small thing and it is very questionable whether ever Jew had appealed from their own Sanhedrin to the Heathen Tribunal before But for this he had a Divine Warrant ACTS Chap. XXVII PAUL shipped for Rome and Luke with him and Aristarchus a Thessalonian Paul calls him his fellow-prisoner Coloss. 4. 10. whether now or not till he came to Rome is a question Trophimus an Ephesian is also now with him Acts 21. 29. whom he leaves sick at Miletum as he passeth by those coasts of Asia Acts 27. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 20. and there likewise he leaves Timothy Who else of those that went with him to Jerusalem Acts 20. 4. were now with him is uncertain It was now far in the year and Winter entring for the feast of expiation was over so that they met with a tempestuous journey and at last suffer shipwrack and swim for their lives and do all escape The Reader by the time of the writing of the second Epistle to the Corinthians which he hath passed will easily see that what he speaks there A day and a night have I been in the deep 2 Cor. 11. 25. cannot be understood of his shipwrack now but refers to some time a good while ago CHRIST LIX NERO. V ACTS CHAP. XXVIII from the beginning to Ver. 30. PAUL and his company are the three winter months in Malta where he doth some miracles And when winter was now drawing over they put to sea again in an Alexandrian bottom whose badge was Castor and Pollux or the Picture of two young men on white horses with either of them a javelin in his hand and by him half an egge and a star whom Heathenish folly and superstition conceited to have been twins begotten by Jupiter and Deities favourable to those that sailed on the sea And this seemeth to have been the reason why Luke doth mention this circumstance because he would intimate the mens superstition as expecting better sailing under this badge then they had had From Melita they sail to Syracuse in Sicilie and there abide three daies Form thence to Rhegium in Italy and from thence to Puteoli there they find Christians and stay with them seven daies and then set away for Rome At Appii Forum about Fifty miles from the City some of the Roman Christians hearing of their coming come to meet them and at the Tres Tabernae Thirty three from the City they met with more and so they injoy the society of one another some space together as they travel along which was no small refreshing to Paul who had desired so much and so long to see them SECTION XXVIII Ver. 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his hired house and received all that came to him 31. Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Iesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him JULIUS the Centurion that had brought him and the rest of the Prisoners from Judea had been his friend and favourer from their first setting out Chap. 27. 3. and so continued even to the time of his setling in Rome obtaining him this liberty that he might take lodgings of his own and there he was kept under a restraintless restraint After three daies he sends for the Chief of the Jews and laies open his case before them and upon a day appointed he asserteth and expoundeth the truth and doctrine of the Gospel whereupon some believe but others do the rather become his enemies His accusers that were come from Judea to lay in his charge against him for we can hardly suppose otherwise but that some such were come would be urgent to get their business dispatched that they might be returning to their own homes again and so would bring him
The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts There are two main things here intended First To shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan and secondly The nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs Kingdom and his conquering Satan and his Saints reigning with him that common place is briefly handled here That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles they called in unto the Gospel Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomless pit that he should deceive no more as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones saith John and they sate upon them c. ver 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning But how do they reign with him Here John faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp and shews that the matter is of a far different tenour that they that suffer with him shall reign with him they that stick to him witness for him dye for him these shall sit inthroned with him And he nameth beheading only of all kinds of deaths as being the most common used both by Jews and Romans alike as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr per. 7. halac 3. And the first witness for Christ John the Baptist died this death He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years and so reign all together with him those years out as is the conceit of some as absolute Judaism as any is for matter of Opinion but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along suffering and standing out against sin and the mark of the Beast and the like whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousness But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living when Satan was bound and truth and life came into the world The Gentiles before the Gospel came among them were dead in Scripture phrase very copiously Ephes. 2. 1 2. 4. 18. c. but that revived them Joh. 5. 25. This is the first resurrection in and to Christs Kingdom the second is spoken of at the twelfth verse of this Chapter that we are upon Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing namely a raising from darkness and sin by the power of the Gospel Rom. 11. 15. Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles Satan going down and Christs Kingdom advanced and the Gospel bringing in life and light as Joh. 1. 4. those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witness to him but closed with the mark of the Beast sin and sinful men these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished that is while they lasted though that were a time of receiving life Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection for on them the second death hath no power ver 6. The second death is a phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33. 6. thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Jonathan Isa. 65. 6. thus Behold it is written before me I will not grant them long life but I will pay them vengeance for their sins and deliver their carcases to the second death And ver 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. vers 29 30 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people and would make them his Priests and Levites And then see how fitly this verse answers those In stead of these cursed people these are blessed and holy and might not see the second death and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father In this passage of John scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretâââân of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally think some dead were really raised out of their graves came into the Land of Israel begat children and died a second time Nay they stick not to tell who these men were and who were their children Talm. Babyl in Sanhedr ubi supra After the thousand years are expired Satan is let loose again and falls to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again ver 8. Zohar fol. 72. col 286. hath this saying It is a tradition that in the day when judgment is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgment then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low he is found destroying the world and taking away souls When the Papacy began then Heathenism came over the world again and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever then Idolatry blindness deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still the Gospel prevailed and laid all flat But when the Papacy came then he was loose again and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of John or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery especially begin them from the fall of Jerusalem where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand when if the Devil were not let loose when was he He calls the enemies of the Church especially Antichrist Gog and Magog the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy the great persecutor Ezek. 38. 39. Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog lib. 5. cap. 23. So that John from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new using known terms from Scripture and from the Jews language and notions that he might the better be understood So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world under these two sums first the beating
a time sheweth his doubting to be the more and the appearing of an Angel when such apparitions were as rare as Miracles should have made it to have been the less For after the death of Zachary and Malachi and those later Prophets the Holy Ghost departed from Israel and went up and ceased to exhibite his familiarity among them in Vision Prophesie and the work of Miracles So that this apparition of the Angel and this sign given to Zachary and wonders done in the birth of the Baptist were as the very entrance and beginning of the restoring of those gifts and the very dawning to that glorious day of such things as was now to follow For I am old The very same was the doubt of Sarah Gen. 18. 12. And here first the distrust of Zachary doth shew the more in that he that was a Priest and should have instructed others was himself to seek in one of the first elements and Catechistical principles of Religion concerning the Almighty power and All-sufficiency of God Secondly The very place where the message came to him being the place of Gods immediate Oracles and the time being the time of his praying and who could have wished for a better return of his prayers Do aggravate his unbelief Ver. 19. I am Gabriel It signifieth A man of God being taken in the same form of construction with Malchizedek He breaketh out to utter his name which Angels at other times and it may be himself had refused to do because he would recal Zacharies thoughts to the book of Daniel and convince his hesitation by that very Scripture Dan. 9. That stand before God That is that minister to him as Dan. 7. 10. 1 Sam. 16. 22. 2 King 5. 25. c. Therefore those that from this phrase would collect that Gabriel is an Arch-angel or one of the prime order of Angels do build but upon a very sandy foundation Ver. 20. Behold thou shalt be dumb The sign given is in Zachary himself and not in any thing without him partly because his doubting arose from the consideration of himself and partly that he might carry about him a punishment for his diffidence as well as a sign for his confirmation Now his punishment was twofold deafness and dumbness both for because he had not hearkned to the Angels speech he was struck deaf and because he had gain-said it he was made dumb For first the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 22. and the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by which the Syrian rendreth it do signifie both deaf and dumb And secondly in ver 62. it is said They made signs to him which had not needed if he could have heard ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This latter clause of the verse might not unfitly be rendered thus Thou shalt be dumb c. until the day that these things for which thou hast not believed my words shall be performed And thus is his dumbness limited or extended the clearer till the accomplishing of the things of which he doubted Ver. 22. He could not speak to them The Priest at the dismission of the people when the service of the Temple was finished was to pronounce the blessing in Numb 6. 24 25 26. Which when Zachary is now to do he is speechless and cannot perform it for the Levitical Priesthood is now growing dumb and he that was to bless indeed namely Christ is near at hand Ver. 23. Assoon as the days of his Ministration were accomplished The dumb and deaf Priest officiateth in that service which the lot had cast upon him a certain time either more or less after he was faln under this double imperfection For first neither of these are named among those defects and blemishes that secluded from the service in the Sanctuary Secondly The Priesthood of the Law consisted mainly and chiefly of manual actions or offices for the hands as offering sprinkling waving and such others to which sense the Targums expound The works of Levies hands Deut. 33. 11. and so it might the better âe speechless But the Ministry of the Gospel cannot admit of dumbness because it consisteth of Preaching and for that purpose was furnished and indowed at the beginning and entrance of it with the gift of Tongues Ver. 24. Elizabeth hid her self saying c. This her retiredness and hiding of her self proceeded partly from devotion and partly from respect of the child that she had conceived For the words or thoughts that proceed from her at this her retiring must needs shew the reason why she did it Now she said Because the Lord hath done thus to me when he looked upon me to take away my reproach where two distinct things are plainly remarkable First Gods taking away her reproach by giving her a child after so long barrenness this is not the thing that she hideth for but Secondly His dealing thus with her when he would take that reproach away as to Thus Emphatical and giveth a clear resolution of this place which hath scrupled many into strange and harsh expositions for not observing it as that she should hide her self for fear that she should not prove with child Others that she did it for shame lest she should be reputed lascivious for being with child c. Judicet lector give her such a child that was to be of so eminent a calling and so great a Prophet And for this it was that she betook her self to this retiring and reclusiveness partly that she might ply her devotion so much the closer upon so great a benefit and chiefly that she might sequester from all occasions of uncleanness or defiling since she carried one in her womb that was to be so strict a Nazarite As see the like Judg. 13. 14. Vers. 26. And in the sixth month This sixth month from the conception of the Baptist was the tenth month of the months of the year or the month Tabeth which answereth to part of our December the time at which a long error hath laid the nativity At the very same time of the year Esther another Virgin had been promoted to honour and royalty by Ahashuerus Esth. 16. 17. Unto a City of Galilee Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet the Jews said once in the scorn of our Saviour slanderously and very falsly Joh. 7. 52. For out of Galilee arose the renowned Prophet Jonah of Gath Hepher 2 King 14. 25. in the Tribe of Zebulon Josh. 19. 13. And in Galilee was much of the converse of Elias but especially of Elisha at Shunem 2 King 4. 8. in the Tribe of Issachar Josh. 19. 18. And all these three famous Prophets of the Gentiles And no place could be fitter for the bringing forth of Christ and his Apostles that were to be the Converters of the Gentiles then Galilee of the Gentiles Nazaret See 2 King 17. 9. the tower of Nozarim which if Chorography would suffer might be understood of this City which was built like a watch-tower on the top of a steep
year at which he was born as we have done into the year it self or the time of the world heretofore The year of the world as we observed then was 3928. The year of Augustus is neither so necessary to seek nor so easie to find partly because there is some difference among Historians about the number of the years of his Reign and partly because there may be some about the year of Tiberius in which Christ was Baptized from which we should count backward For though it be said that John came Baptizing in his fifteenth year Luk. 3. 1. yet may it be questionable whether he Baptized Christ in that year or no But not to swarve from the most common consent of Roman Historians that say that Augustus Reigned six and fifty years and of Christians that hold that Christ was baptized in the fifteenth of Tiberius then may it be readily concluded that he was born in the forty second of Augustus The time of the year at which he was born hath been much mistaken being concluded upon at the latter end of December This mistake did first arise by another for it being misunderstood that Zacharias was the High Priest and that he was in Sancto Sanctorum on the expiation day when the Angel Gabriel appeared unto him they could do no less then conclude that John was born in the middle of Summer and Christ in the middle of Winter A time very unfit for people to travail to their several Cities to be taxed but far more unfit for Shepherds to lye abroad in the fields all night For finding out therefore the true and right time of his Nativity these things are to be taken into consideration First That the time that Christ lived here upon the earth was two and thirty years and a half exactly And so long did David reign in Jerusalem 2 Sam. 5. 4 5. This time was divided into two unequal parts twenty nine years compleat he spent as a private man before he was baptized for it is said he began to be thirty or was entring upon this thirtieth at his Baptism Luke 3. 23. And three years and an half from his Baptism to his death This sum was precisely told of by the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9. 27. In half that week shall he cause sacrifice and oblation to cease And is plainly parcelled out by Passovers and other circumstances of time Matth. 4. 2. Joh. 1. 29. 35. 44. 2. 1. 13. 5. 1. 6. 4. 13. 1. Secondly That the time of Christs death was at Easter or their Passover as is most plain by all the Evangelists Thirdly That he living just two and thirty years and a half and dying at Easter it must needs follow that he was born about the middle of the month Tisri which answereth to part of our September And it is not only probable but also necessary if he lived thirty two years and a half exactly that then as he died upon the fifteenth day of the month Abib or at the Passover so that he was born about the fifteenth day of Tisri at the Feast of Tabernacles a month and a Feast that had been exceedingly renowned in ancient times In this month the World had begun and sin had entred into it In this month were all the Fathers born before the Flood as the Jews aver and reason confirms it From this month began the circle of the year from the Creation to the redemption out of Egypt From this month began the typical year of Jubile in the ages after And in this month were the three famous Feasts of Trumpets of Expiation and of Tabernacles And like glorious things may be observed upon the Feast of Tabernacles it self At that very time did Israel fall upon the making of the Tabernacle in the wilderness Exod. 35. At this very time was the consecration of the Temple 1 King 1. 8 2. And at this very time was our Saviour born and began to carry the Tabernacle of his flesh and at this very time was he Baptized and began the Ministery of the Gospel So that here appeareth one addition more to the present misery and subjection of the Jews at the time of this tax that not only they must leave all their occasions to wait upon their own taxing and promote their own bondage but that they must neglect a main part of the service of God the Feast of Expiation and the Feast of Tabernacles as Zech. 14. 16 17. to attend the Conqueror and their own thraldom And now it being considered that John the Baptist was but half a year older then our Saviour it will be observable how the four points of the year as it may be so said were renowned with their conception and nativity John conceived at the Summer Solstice and our Saviour at the Winter John born at the vernal Equinox and our Saviour at the Autumnal §. And wrapped him in swadling cloaths This passage is one ground-work whereupon Expositors conclude that Christ was born without pain to his mother for that she performed the Midwives part her self and none to help her A second is this That he was born without his Mothers pain because he was conceived without her pleasure A third Argument may be fetched from the blessing of propagation given to our first Parents in the Garden And a fourth from the example of the delivery of the Hebrew women in Egypt For first When God gave this blessing to Adam and Eve in their innocency increase and multiply Gen. 1. 28. it inabled them to beget children agreeable to their own perfection that is holy righteous and without any symptoms or consequents of sin either in themselves or in the mothers But they never begat any child thus because of their sudden fall What did this first blessing then utterly fail and never take effect in its proper sense and full extent Could such emphatical words of God to man in innocency fall to the ground without performance No they took place in the second Adam who was born according to the full extent and intent of that blessing to our innocent parents in perfect holiness and righteousness and without pain to his mother Secondly If the Hebrew women in Egypt had so quick and easie a delivery as that they were not like to other women much more may we think the travail and delivery of the Virgin to have been quick lively miraculous and painless as Esa. 66. 7. Before her pain came she was delivered of a man child §. Because there was no room for them in the Inn. At the return out of Babylon the children of Bethlehem were a hundred twenty three persons Ezra 2. 21. Now that being four hundred and fifty years past and somewhat above to what a multitude might the stock or breed of that City be grown by this time of Christs birth This multitude pressing together to their own City according to the Emperors edict the weakest go to the walls and Joseph and Mary are excluded
Hillel Out of which as they relate there came thousands of Scholars but fourscore especially of most renown Hillel the old they are the words of the Talmud had fourscore Scholars Thirty of them were fit in whom the divine Majesty should rest as it did on Moses Thirty of them were worthy for whom the Sun should stand still as it did for Joshua and twenty were of a middle rank between The greatest of them all was Jonathan ben Uzziel that Paraphrased the Prophets in the Chaldee Tongue and the lowest of them was Johannan the son of Zaccai Such a Father had this our Simeon and so renowned but himself infinitely more renowned in the thing that is now in hand and in his having the Saviour of the world in his arms and heart Now this is the Genealogy of this man as it is Recorded by the Jews themselves Hillel begat Simeon who was first titled Rabban Rabban Simeon begat Rabban Gamaliel the Tutor of Paul Rabban Gamaliel begat Rabban Simeon the second Rabban Simeon the second begat Rabban Gamaliel the second Rabban Gamaliel begat Rabban Simeon the third Rabban Simeon the third begat Rabbi Juda the holy Rabbi Juda begat Rabban Gamaliel the third These six Rabbans were of the line of Hillel besides whom there was a seventh that bare the same title of another stock Rabban Johanan ben Zaccai But it may be justly questioned if Simeon were the man we suppose namely the Son of Hillel and the Father of Gamaliel and if he were so holy and devout a man and confessed Christ as this Evangelist relateth of him how came it to pass that his Son Gamaliel was so far contrary as appeareth by the education of Paul in Pharisaical righteousness and persecution of the Truth Answ. First It is no strange thing for holy Fathers to have wicked Children witness Eli David Josaphat and common experience Secondly It was thirty years from Simeons acknowledging of Christ to Gamaliels education of Paul or little less and so much time might wear out the notice of his Fathers action if he had taken any notice of it especially his Father dying shortly after he had made so glorious a confession §. Waiting for the consolation of Israel It is an Article of the Jewish Creed To believe the coming of the Messias and to wait and wait for his coming although he defer it which foolishly they do even to this day after sixteen hundred years expired since he came But Simeons expectation is neither so vain nor so uncertain For besides the general expectation of the whole Nation that the Messias should appear about that time Luke 19. 11. he had it by a special and assured revelation ver 26. The coming of Christ is called The consolation of Israel from Isa. 49. 13. 52. 9. 66. 13. Jer. 31. 13. Zech. 1. 17. and such like places which the Jews do not only apply to the coming of the Messias but also in their Talmud questioning what his name should be when as he came some conclude it to be Menahem The Comforter from Lam. 1. 16. In Sanhedr Ver. 26. That he should not see * * * * * * As Psal. 89. 48 and to see corruption Psal. 16. 10. death before he had seen the Lords Christ. This was the time when the Nation expected that Messias should appear Luke 19. 11. and began to look for redemption near at hand Luke 2. 38. The Angel Gabriel to Daniel and he to the people had so determinately pointed out the time Dan. 9. 26 27. that not only Jews of all Nations are gathered to Jerusalem against the expiring of that Prophesie Act. 2. but also all the East was possessed with an opinion of a Prince to rise about these times of supereminent honour glory and dominion Baron in Appar c. Sueton. Virgil c. Simeon having learned the time with the rest of the studious of the Nation out of the Scripture hath the certainty of it sealed up to him by the spirit of Prophesie which assured him that the time of so great expectation was so near at hand that he though he were old yet should not die till he had seen what he desired And thus Prophesie that was departed from Israel so long ago is returning and dawning to it again to be as the morning Star to tell that the Sun of righteousness would rise ere long Ver. 35. Yea a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also These words seem to be of the same tenor and intent with those of our Saviour to Peter Joh. 21. 18. and to tell Mary of her suffering martyrdom for Christ and the Gospel as those do of his For Simeon having in the preceding verse related how Christ both in his person and in the Gospel should be as a sign to be spoken against persecuted and opposed yea saith he and thou his Mother also for his and the Gospels sake shalt drink of the same cup and partake of the same lot for the sword of persecution shall go through thy life also for so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth often signifie §. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed This clause is linked to the latter end of the verse preceding and reacheth beyond the Parenthesis that lieth before it and in conjuncture with the clause before that it maketh this sense that Christs being set up for a sign to be spoken against or persecution for the Gospels sake should detect many mens tempers and affections which were not descried nor revealed before and discover what malignity or sincerity to him and to his cause is in their hearts as Matth. 13. 21. and as it is at this day Vers. 36. The daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Aser Hannah a Widdow indeed as 1 Tim. 5. 3 5. that is not by divorce but by the death of her husband and now of above an hundred years of age is chosen also and actuated by the Holy Ghost to give testimony of Christ as Simeon had done that out of the mouth of two such witnesses of either sex one the thing might be established and the party witnessed unto might be the more taken notice of Her Father Phanuel is named as either being a noted and well known man in those times or for the significancy of his name made good in her in that she now beholdeth the Lord face to face as Gen. 32. 30 31. And thus the New Testament doth by this Prophetess as the Old Testament doth by divers of the Prophets in naming her and her Father with her as Isa. 1. 1. Jer. 1. 1. Joel 1. 1. c. Phanuel her Father was a Galilean for in Galilee lay the Tribe of Aser and from thence cometh a Prophetess now to declare and publish the great Prophet that must once appear thence to the wonder of the Nation Ver. 37. Which departed not from the Temple Her constant continuance there might be either because she was a poor Widow and so
some machination against himself he had now shut up in prison and intended him presently for the execution but that his sickness whereof he died seizing on him gave some more space to the imprisoned and some hopes and possibilities of escaping His disease was all these mixed together an inward burning and exulceration an insatiable greediness and devouring the Chollick the Gout and Dropsie his loins and secrets crawling with lice and a stink about him not to be indured These wringings and tortures of his body meeting with the peevishness of old age for he was now seventy and with the natural cruelty which always had been in him made him murderously minded above all measure insomuch that he put to death divers that had taken down a golden Eagle which he had set up about the Temple And when he grew near to his end and saw himself ready to die he slew his Son Antipater and caused great multitudes of the Nobility and People to be closed up in a sure place giving command to slay them as soon as he was dead for by that means he said he should have the Jews truly and really to sorrow at his death Vid. Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 8 9 10. and de Bel. lib. 1. cap. 21. Vers. 20. For they are dead that sought the young childs life The like saying is to Moses Exod. 4. 19. where the word they may be understood of Pharaoh and his servants which jointly sought his life for the Egyptians sake whom he had slain and were now all dead and worn out in the fourty years of his being in Midian But here it is true indeed that the seeking of the childs life may well be applied to Herods Servants as well as himself but that all they died with him or about the time of his death who in flattery or favour or obedience to him had promoted the slaughter at Bethlehem and had sought the childs life I know not upon what ground it should be conceived I should therefore by the they in this place understand Herod and his Son Antipater jointly together For if it be well considered how mischievous this Antipater was against his own Brethren and how he wrought their ruine and misery for fear they should get betwixt him and the throne yea how he sought the destruction of his own Father because he thought he kept him out of the Throne too long it may very well be believed that he would bloodily stir against this new King of the Jews that the wisemen spake of for fear of interception of the Crown as well as his Father He died but five days before his fathers death as it was touched before out of Josephus and thus God brought this bloodliness of the Father and the Son and the rest of their cruelties to an end and upon their own heads at once and in a manner together and thus may the words of the Angel be very fairly understood Take the child and return to the Land of Israel for Herod and Antipater are dead that sought his life Ver. 22. Archelaus did reign in Iudea in the room of his Father Herod Herod had first named Antipater for his Successor in the Throne of Judea but upon detection of his conspiracy against him he altered his mind and his will and nominated Antipas and changing his mind yet again he named Archelaus and he succeeded him a man not likely to prosper in a Throne that was so bebloodied His conclusion was that in the tenth year of his reign he was accused by the Nobles of Judea and Samaria to Augustus banished to Vienna and his estate confiscate Jos. Ant. lib. 17. cap. 15. Ver. 23. He shall be called a Nazarene From Isa. 11. 1. where the Messias is called by the title Nezer which indifferently signifieth A branch and the City Nazaret one and the same word denoting Christ and the place where he should be born SECTION VIII S. LUKE CHAP. II. Christ sheweth his wisdom at twelve years old Ver. 40. AND a a a a a a Compare Exod. 2. 10. 1 Sam. 2. 26. Jud. 16. 24. the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him 41. Now his Parents went to Ierusalem b b b b b b Exod. 23. 15. 17. every year at the Feast of the Passover 42. And when he was twelve years old they went up to Ierusalem after the custom of the Feast 43. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned the Child Iesus tarried behind in Ierusalem and Ioseph and his mother knew not of it 44. But they supposing him to have been in the company went a days journey and they sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance 45. And when they found him not they turned back again to Ierusalem seeking him 46. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the Temple sitting in the middest of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them questions 47. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers 48. And when they saw him they were amazed and his mother said unto him Son why hast thou thus dealt with us Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing 49. And he said unto them How is it that ye sought me Wist ye not that I must * * * * * * Or In my Fathers house be about my Fathers business 50. And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them 51. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart 52. And Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men Reason of the Order THE Order of this Section dependeth so clearly upon the proper Order of that preceding that that being made good to lie where it doth as in the proper place the subsequence of this to it can nothing at all be doubted of For whereas all the Evangelists have unanimously passed over in silence all those years of Christs minority which intervened or passed between his return out of Egypt and this passage of his at twelve years old there is nothing possible to be found in the Gospels that can come between to interpose this order and connexion The carriage and demeanour of our Saviour in the time between is only briefly comprised in the first verse of this portion And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Harmony and Explanation Ver. 40. And the child grew c. TWO years Old he was when he went into Egypt and there he aboad in his Exile a very small time it may be some two or three months about such a space as Moses had been hid in Egypt in his Fathers house from the fury of Pharaoh When he returned to Nazareth his Mothers City being now about two years and a quarter old he
brought to the Mony-changers and they gave less coin for it namely pence and half pence and the like Ver. 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords c. This action of our Saviour at his first appearing in his own Temple did fulfill that prophecy of Malachi Chap. 3. 1 2 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi c. There was an Officer that used to walk up and down this Court and the others to see that every one stood to his charge and did his duty He was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The man of the mountain of the House He went about from ward to ward and âanales âighted before him and wheresoever any man stood not upon his charge the man of the mountain of the House said Peace be upon thee and if it proved that he was asleep he struck him with his rod and he had authority to set fire on his coat and they said What noise is that in the Court Why it is the noise of a son Levi that is beaten and his cloaths burnt because he was asleep upon his guard Massecheth middoth per. 1. A greater than this man nay a greater than the Temple it self is now come and Christ by this passage doth not only shew his zeal most divine and fervent but he acteth in the authority of a Prophet and as one come from God and so the Jews understand that he took upon him to do when they propose to him as for the tryal of a Prophet that he would shew a sign and work a miracle The cords of which he maketh his whip it is like he found lying up and down the floor which had tyed some sacrifices or some other things and after that use of them were cast there Now he useth a whip rather than a staff because there were no staves brought into the Temple A man may not come into the mountain of the House with his staff nor with his shooes with his purse nor with the dust upon his feet Massecheth Beracoth per. 9. Our Saviour seemeth to allude to this when he bids his Disciples as they go to preach To take neither staves nor shooes nor gold nor silver nor brass in their purses and to shake off the dust of their feet Mat. 10. 9. 10. No mony in their girdles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gloss. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A hollow girdle in which travellers put their mony Compare this zealous action of our Saviour with Nehem. 13. 25. Vers. 16. My Fathers House He useth the same phrase in the same place viz. in the Temple when he was found there among the Doctors at twelve years old Why sought you me know you not where to find me know you not that I must be in my Fathers House Luke 2. 49. And he cometh off thus openly and plainly with the Jews as to call God his Father 1. To assert himself for the Messiah and to distinguish him from other Prophets who at the utmost could but call God my God There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esay 57. 21. but he can and doth call him Father and doth so from his first appearing here in publick that he might reveal himself to the full and leave the obstinate without excuse 2. He seemeth to have special respect to that passage 2 Sam. 7. 12 13. where when God is promising to David Christ to sit upon his Throne for ever and Solomon to sit upon his Throne for a while he saith He shall build an House for my Name and I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever I will be his Father Vers. 18. What sign shewest thou The power of miracles had never been seen in the Land since their return out of captivity nay nor the Spirit of Prophecy since the death of Zachary and Malachi by their own Authors confession and therefore the restoring of miracles and prophecy was as the opening of heaven and Angels ascending and descending When they were ready to depart into Babylon Habakkuk prayeth that God would keep alive his work of the power of miracles in that midst of years while they were in Babylon and that they might not lose it now they went into a strange Land And there he continued it among them in the hands of the three Children as they are called but more especially in the hands of Daniel Daniels tying up the mouths of the Lions was the last miracle that had been done by man till water was turned into wine at Cana in Galilee They had Prophets indeed came with them out of their captivity and these saw visions and had strange things done to them by God but none ever since they came up till now had done any miracles or strange things from God And after that first generation after their return their Prophets were ceased and gone and they had no more ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In Haggai Zachary and Malachi Prophecy ceased D. Kimch on Zech. 5. And therefore besides the constant unbelief of the Jew that would be still requiring a sign it is no wonder if they demand one of one that now appeared and acted under the notion of a Prophet when signs and Prophets had been so long strangers amongst them Nor was this all that strained this question from them but it is like that his calling God in such singularity his Father did move them to demand some thing from him as from a singular man which thing might be suitable to such a relation as he owned In John 5. 17. they are ready to fly in his face because he calleth God his Father for there was scandalum acceptum an offence taken at him though none was given they were moved at him for that he had broken the Sabbath as they interpret it and then they are ready to catch at every word that fell from him for they had entertained prejudice against him but as yet he hath done here nothing that should cause them to be offended the driving of the market out of the Temple was a thing so reasonable and so Religious that they could not open their mouth against it and his calling of God his Father is yet without offence if he can answer both his action and his word by doing something agreeable to them Vers. 19. Destroy this Temple 1. Christ giveth them not a sign otherwise then by telling them of that great sign that he should once shew which would mightily declare him to be the Son of God and that is the raising of his body from the dead which very thing he also meaneth though somewhat more be included in it when he giveth them afterward the sign of Jonas Matth. 12. 39. He did many miracles instantly
deliverers of the Cabbalah or for those that kept Divinity Schools for properly all the members of the Sanhedrin were Elders and all of them were Scribes and yet this distinction is used to difference these Scribes in the sense mentioned from the rest of the company and the Elders of the people from the Elders of the Priesthood 2. In that passage The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair Mat. 23. 2. the word Scribes meaneth the whole Sanhedrin who sate in the chair of Judicature And in this sense is the word taken in that common and ordinary phrase which the Hebrew Authors infinitely use ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The words of the Scribes 3. In such passages as these The Scribes say Elias must first come and He taught as one having authority and not as the Scribes and A Scribe taught to the Kingdom of Heaven bringeth out of his Treasure things new and old c. the word is more properly to be understood for their publick teachers And so it is to be construed in this passage that we have in hand Mark 2. 6. There were certain of the Scribes sitting there which Luke expoundeth Doctors of the Law out of every Town of Galilee c. For Scribes and Doctors were terms convertible as Luke 5. 17. with vers 21. and so were Scribes and Lawyers Matth. 22. 35. with Mark 12. 28. Sect. V. Of the Sects warping from this State Religion We shall not trouble the Reader with canvassing the question about all the Sects of the Jews which are or might be mentioned we shall only look upon those that are of so frequent mention in Scripture the Pharisees and Sadduces especially the Pharisees which are named in the Text that we have in hand Now that these and the Esseans who commonly by humane Authors are named with them were but Schismes or Sectaries from the state and national Religion may appear to omit more by these two particulars 1. Because by Josephus they are commonly so called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 9. cap. 18. De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 12. Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 2. where he also calls them Philosophiae which very title used by him and other Authors doth evidently argue that none of these was the general and set Religion of the Nation but an excrescency out of it and a singularity from it as Luke 18. 9. And reason it self might tell so much because there was a long time when neither Pharisaism nor Sadducism nor Esseanism were in being and yet the Nation had National Religion in that time and when these came up they all differed from it and one from another 2. A passage of Josephus in the story of his own life is remarkable to this purpose I grew saith he to a great measure of learning being reputed to excel in memory and knowledge And being a youth but of fourteen years of age I was commended by all for a scholar and the chief Priests and the chief men of the City would come unto me to be informed of the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Being of sixteen years of age I thought to make trial of the Sects that were among us Now they are three the first of the Pharisees the second of the Sadduces and the third of the Esseans For I thought I should choose the best if I were versed in them all And so induring much hardship and with great pains I went through all three And not thinking this enough but understanding that there was one Banus a Hermit who used no cloaths but what were made of Trees and that ate nothing but what grew of it self and that for chastiy sake washed himself often day and night in cold water I was very zealous to become an innâator of him and I spent three years with him By which words it is apparent that there was a Religion in which Josephus was brought up the most of his youth distinct and different from any of these Sects Religion and that he was a Student and learned in studies different from their learning and studies till such a time as Curiosity put him to dive into their doctrines and practices which took upon them to be the very Apex and perfection of Religion and Learning Sect. VI. Of the Sadduces Sadock and Baithus two Scholars of Antigonus of Socho were the first Schismaticks and Hereticks against this state Religion of which we have spoken They denyed the resurrection which to deny was heresie indeed and they or their Scholars denied the whole Traditional Law which the Jews did take for a worse Heresie than the other Antigonus their Master had used an obscure expression in his doctrine exhorting his Scholars to embrace the Law not looking for a reward meaning that they should embrace it for the love of it self But these unlucky Scholars misconstrued his doctrine even to the denying that there was any reward in the World to come at all and thereupon they denied the Resurrection and so did the Sadduces after them who took their denomination from this Sadock the first Author of their Sect. Avoth R. Nath. per. 5. Juchasin fol. 15. Elias Lev. in Tishbi See Matth. 22. 22. Acts 23. 8. Hereupon that and the succeeding generations were put to it to take up words and arguments whereby to face and confute this Heresie And so came the Phrases The world to come Gehennah Paradise Abrahams bosom The second death c. into use and request that the very expressions might assert the Resurrection and cry down the wicked opinion of Sadock Baithus and their followers who denied it And among other fortifications that were made against this Heresie that argument of Gebikah ben Pasisa or ben Kosem is deservedly renowned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That which was not came into being and shall not that much more that hath been already Juchas fol. 13. meaning that God who had made the body of man when it had never been in being can much more raise up that body that hath been in being before This was the only Heresie of Sadock and his followers at the first and they disturbed the setled religion with no other only he and his fellow Baithus went away to the Temple at Gerizim and became Samaritans but he afterward and the Sadduces which came after him and took their name from him held another opinion which by the Jews was taken for as bad or a worse Heresie than this though in it self indeed it deserved no such brand and that was They denyed the Traditional Law and would owne no Law but the written Law of Moses and hereupon they were also called Karaites or Scripturists because they were all for the written Text and would not indure any Traditions and so they struck at the very root of the then religion which was built upon Traditions in a manner only Hear how Rambam complains against them From that arose saith he the cursed Sect of Hereticks which were called Karaites but
all appearing exceeding rare ever since the death of the last Prophets or thereabout And upon this reason I cannot but hold that this miraculous virtue was but of a later date because miracles and Angels had not been so conspicuous among them till near Christs coming Vers. 5. A certain man which had an infirmity 38. years Our Saviour is pleased to choose out for his cure a man and malady of the longest languishing and of the greatest unlikelihood of recovery If we run back these eight and thirty years to the first beginning of his infirmity we shall find that he was entred into this his disease seven years and an half before Christ was born for Christ was now compleat thirty years old and an half and it may be his disease was as old as was this virtue of Bethesda waters It began upon him immediately after the Temple was finished and completed by Herod as it will appear to him that will calculate and compute the times Now I should assoon date this healing virtue of Bethesda from about those times as any times I can think upon For as the providence of God did bring on and usher in the coming of the Messias when it drew near by several dispensations and degrees so the bringing of the Temple to the highest glory that ever it must have but only that the King of glory came into it and the restoring of Angelical and miraculous administrations were not the least of those dispensations But be it how it will whether the mans disease were as old as the pools virtue or no it was so old as doubtless the oldest in all the pack and as to glorifie the power of Christ most singularly in the healing of it Vers. 6. He saith unto him Wilt thou be made whole Christ doth not question this as doubting of his desire but to stir up his faith and expectation His lying and waiting there so long did resolve the question That he would be made whole but the greater question was Whether he had faith to be healed as Acts 14. 7. and that our Saviour puts to trial by this interrogation Vers. 8. Iesus saith unto him Rise take up thy bed and walk Here is a question also not unjustly moved Why would Christ injoyn him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day It was contrary to the letter of the Law Jer. 17. 21 22. Bear no burden on the Sabbath day c. It was extreamly contrary to their Traditions For bringing a thing out and in from one place to another was a work and one of the special works forbidden to be done on the Sabbath day Mayim in Shab per. 12. And he that carryeth any thing on the Sabbath in his right hand or left or in his bosom or upon his shoulder he is guilty Talm. in Sab. per. 10. And it was dangerous to bring him either to whipping or to suffer death The most general answer that is given is that Christ would have him hereby to shew that he was perfectly and entirely healed when he that could not stir before is able now to carry his bed and so by this action at once he gives a publick testimony of the benefit received and an evident demonstration of the perfectness of the cure But both these might have been done abundantly only by his walking sound and well seeing that he could not walk nor stir of so long before A man that had been so diseased so long a space and had lain at these waters so great a time for him now to walk strongly and well would shew the benefit received and the cure done as well as walking with his bed on his back There was therefore more in this command of Christ than what did barely refer to the publication of the miracle and that may be apprehended to have been partly in respect of the man and partly in respect of the day In respect of the man it was to trie his faith and obedience whether upon the command of Christ he durst and would venture upon so hazardous an action as to carry his bed on the Sabbath day which might prove death or sore beating to him and he relies upon the word of him that commanded and casts off fear and does it And to this sense his own words do construe the command when the Jews question him upon the fact He that made me whole gave me warrant to do it for he bad me and said Take up thy bed and walk He whose power was able for such a cure his word was warrant for such an action And as our Saviour stirs up his faith in his question before Wilt thou be made whole so he tries what it is in this command Take up thy bed and carry it home for so we must construe that Christ ment by walking from the like expression Mark 2. 9. with vers 11. In respect of the day it was to shew Christs power over the Sabbath And as in healing of the palsick man Mark 2. 9. he would not only shew his power over the disease but also over sin and so forgave it So it pleased him in this passage to shew his power over the Sabbath to dispence with it and to dispose of it as he thought good as he shewed his command over the malady that he cured And here is the first apparent sign toward the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath in regard of the day that we meet withall and indeed a greater we hardly meet with till the the alteration of the day came To heal diseases and to pluck off ears of corn for necessary repast on the Sabbath day had their warrant even in the Law it self and in all reason but to enjoin this man to carry his bed on that day and to bear it home whereas the bed might very well have lain there till the Sabbath was over and his home was no one knows how far off certainly it sheweth that he intended to shew his authority over the Sabbath and to try the mans faith and obedience in a singular manner It was easie to foresee how offensive and unpleasing this would be to the Jews for it stuck with them a long time after Joh. 7. 23. and how dangerous it might prove to the man himself and yet he purposely puts him upon it that he might hereby assert his own divine power and God-head as it appeareth by his arguing for it when they cavil at him all along the Chapter Even the same power that could warrant Abraham to sacrifice his own son and Joshua to march about Jericho on the Sabbath day Vers. 14. Afterward Iesus findeth him in the Temple c. The Faith and Obedience of the man upon Christs command though it were of so nice consequence do argue to us that his appearance at the Temple was to render his thanks for the great benefit he had received The poor wretch had hardly been at this Temple for eight and thirty years together the date of Israels wandring
administred in the Name of the Father and the Holy Ghost also but that he would specially work them up to the acknowledgment of Christ. For the Father and the Holy Ghost they acknowledged without any scrupling but to own Christ for God whom they had crucified and to be initiated into Jesus of Nazaret was the great work that the Apostles went about to work upon them and therefore especially endeavour to enter them into Jesus and to have them baptized in his Name Be baptized and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Not that every one that was baptized was presently indued with these extraordinary gifts of Tongues and Prophesie for they were bestowed hence-forward by imposition of the Apostles hands save only when they first fell from Heaven upon the company of Cornelius to compleat that Prophesie which now had its beginning I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh but Peter inviteth them into Baptism and then should they be capable of those gifts and no doubt they were bestowed upon some of them by the Apostles hands Vers. 42. And in breaking of Bread The Syriack expresly understandeth this of partaking of the Lords Supper for he useth the very Greek word Eucharistia here And so divers take that to be the meaning of this phrase both here and in some places else in the New Testamenââ Yea even they that suppose that it meaneth partaking of their common meals and food yet do they think that they had the Sacrament added to it as our Saviour added it to the Passover And indeed the manner of speech doth signifie both the one and the other both ordinary meals and the receiving of the Sacrament as in Luke 24. 35. He was known of them * * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Importeth the time here and so the Syriack reads it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As he was breaking bread in breaking of bread here it meaneth a common Supper in the Inn at Emmaus 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ Here it betokeneth the receiving of the Sacrament But it may be conceived to intend the Sacrament the rather and chiefly if not only First Because the phrase of breaking of bread for common eating is very rare both in the Old Testament and Jewish Authors but eating of bread is the expression that speaketh that And secondly because breaking of the bread in the Sacrament is a concomitant that cannot be parted from it for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he blessed and brake and said this is my body which is broken 1 Cor. 11. 24. Vers. 44. And all that believed were together This Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is of frequent and of various use in the Septuagint It sometimes betokeneth the meeting of persons in the same company as Josh. 11. 5. Judg. 6. 33. 19. 6 c. so of Beasts Deut. 22. 10. Sometimes their concurring in the same action though not in the same company or place as Psal. 2. 2. 34. 3. 49. 2. 74. 6. 83. 3. c. Sometimes their concurring in the same condition as Psal. 46. 10. 62. 9. Esa. 66. 17. Jer. 6. 12. And sometimes their knitting together though in several companies as Joabs and Abners men though they sat at distance and the pool of Gibeon between them yet are they said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2 Sam. 2. 13. And in this sense is the word to be understood in this story For it is past all imagination or conceiving that all those thousands of believers that were now in Jerusalem should keep all of one company and knot and not part asunder for what house would hold them But they kept in several Companies or Congregations according as their Languages Nations or other references did knit them together And this joyning together because it was apart from those that believed not and because it was in the same profession and practise of the duties of Religion therefore it is said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã though it were in several companies and Congregations And to such a sense doth Rabbi Solomon understand the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Deut. 25. 5. as indeed it must of necessity be understood not of brethren dwelling in the very same place but of brethren ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that are united in inheritance as these believers were now in the Gospel And so is the building of the Jews to be understood Ezra 4. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in separation from the Samaritans and in joyning in the action though they were of several companies in the building and those companies far distant one from another Neh. 3. per totum 4. 19. Vers. 46. Continuing daily with one accord in the Temple This is not to express that the Temple was their meeting place either for hearing of their Sermons or administring the Sacraments for neither of these would have been indured there as appeareth Chap. 4. 1. but this is to shew that they had not yet shaken off all the Worship of the Temple nor the observance of Moses but resorted thither to the duties of Religion at the hours of prayer as they had done before For many years after this the believing Jews were still tenacious of the Law and reverential of the Temple Acts 21. 20. which they might lawfully be while the Temple stood if their observance of Moses did not destroy in them the doctrine and application of their justification by faith in Christ. And hence was it that the Apostles did so far comply with them both in that place in Acts 21. and also in Acts 15. because Moses was to stand till the Temple fell those Rites not nullifying the death of Christ if rightly used ACTS CHAP. III. Vers. 1. Peter and Iohn went up together into the Temple IT may be this was likewise on Pentecost day and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth signifie identity of time as it doth 2 Sam. 21. 9. and in the Chaldee of Jonathan on Deut. 25. 5. And the ninth hour mentioned here in reference to the third hour in preceding story Chap. 2. 15. at nine a clock in the morning was that conversion of 3000 and at three a clock in the afternoon this of 5000. Howsoever whether it were on that day or no certainly it was on some solemn day either a Sabbath or Festival as appeareth by the number that were then preseââ in the Temple when so many of them were converted For ordinarily on the common days of the week the company that was in the Temple was very few besides the Priests and the Stationary men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as they are called by the Rabbins which were a number of men chosen to be constantly there to represent the whole Congregation in laying their hands on the heads of the Sacrifices in their behalf This concourse of people on such a solemn day was a fit subject and opportunity for these Apostles to
were ever Bishop of Jerusalem at all or no is very well worth taking into some consideration but that will be most proper to handle when we come to those places in the Acts of the Apostles where a singular mention of James hath given occasion of this opinion But as for his prototype of Miters the peoples woodden devotion to his chair and the rest of that legendary invention he is little acquainted with the officiousness of superstition that knoweth not out of what mint that cometh and he hath little to do that should go about to examine the truth of it but he hath the least of all to do that should believe it THE CHRISTIAN JEWISH AND ROMAN HISTORY OF The Year of CHRIST XXXIV And of the Emperor TIBERIUS XIX Being the Year of the WORLD 3961. Consuls Sergius Sulpitius Galba L. Cornelius Sulla By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII Sect. An account of the Chronologie ALthough the proper reckoning of every year of our Saviour be from September to September for at that time of the year he was born and so his three and thirtieth year should have been ended by us within 4 months or little more after the giving of the Holy Ghost yet because it will not be possible to date the times of things in any of the three stories that we have in hand from such a beginning and because both the Roman Historians do reckon the years of their City as also the Christian Histories the years of Christ from January to January I have chosen to follow that computation and manner of accounting or rather to speak properly indeed I have been inforced to follow it there being not only various and pregnant helps both from Romans and Christians to forward us in that manner of reckoning but there being also an utter impossibility to reckon or compute from any other beginning or calculation now as for those stories that we are to follow in the Acts of the Apostles the holy Ghost hath not been so punctual and exact to give us the times of the things as to give us things themselves The Chronicle chain of the times indeed is drawn up by the Scripture from the Creation to the death of our Saviour which was the fulness of time with all care and accurateness but from thence forward not so strictly or observantly exhibited and held forth nor indeed was it requisite that it should so be To annalize therefore the story of this book of the Acts as it cannot but prove a matter of great difficulty so will it prove but a matter of conjecture when we have done what we can and both these proceed from this ground and reason because the holy Ghost hath been very sparing if not utterly silent in giving account of the times in the new Testament from the death of Christ forward that great business in his death being accomplished and fufilled for which alone the succession of times was reckoned and recorded we shall therefore in the casting of passages and occurences into several years as we go along present them under their proper notion of conjecture yet shewing some ground work and reason of what we do and though it may be we may not always hit aright in fixing every thing to its proper year yet hope we to find here and there some such main pins as whereon to hang a sum of divers years joyned together and to settle them fast although we cannot so perfectly find a general nail whereby to fasten the occurrences of every several year by it self We may take an instance in the story at which we now are the choosing of the seven Deacons It is not possible positively to determine at what time this was done it may be it was before the three and thirtieth year of our Saviour was expired namely before September next after his Ascension it may be again it was not before September but betwixt it and January next following or it may be it was not before January but after it in this year that we are entring upon there is alike uncertainty in all these things if we should come to try the times of this particular thing by it self but when we shall come to examine and take up the time of Pauls conversion then will some steadiness of the time of this appear and the nail that fastneth that will so clench up all the stories betwixt that and the descension of the Holy Ghost or all the stories from the end of the second Chapter to the beginning of the ninth that they will not hang altogether loose but have some fixedness to their proper time Acts VI. Vers. 1. There was a murmuring of the Grecians IN the Greek it is Of the Helenists which word is also used Chap. 9. 29. and 11. 20. and is of no small controversie for the sense whether it mean Greeks that lived among the Jews or Jews that lived among the Greeks Whether Greeks that were converted to the Jewish Religion or Jews that used the Greek tongue but the latter seemeth to be the proper meaning of it upon these grounds 1. Because proselyted Greeks which some think Hellenistae means are expresly called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã John 12. 20. and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Joseph Ant. lib. 18. cap. 4. And not Hellenistae 2. Because the very form of the word Hellinista doth more properly import a Jew ingrafted into the Greeks than a Greek ingrafted into the Jews 3. Because whereas Judaeus and Hellen distinguish the two nations Jew and Greek all along in the Scripture Hebraeus and Hellenista must needs signifie something else here 4. Because if by Hellenistae had been meant the converted Greeks it had been most proper in contradiction to them to have said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 5. Because the story from the beginning of this book hither maketh the Church to consist most especially of Jews as Chap. 2. 5 22. and 3. 12. and though it mention proselytes among them yet seemeth it most improbable that their number shall be so great as to have seven Deacons chosen for them 6. Because Nicolas one of the seven is expresly called a Proselyte of Antioch which had been somewhat improper if all the business had only concerned Proselytes By these and some other reasons that might be produced it is most proper to apprehend and conceive that these Hellenists were Jews of the Grecian dispersion and plantations that lived among the Greeks and used their language and which may be called the western dispersion not only in regard of the situation of their dwellings but chiefly in difference from the Eastern captivities carried away by the Assyrians and Persians and also because they used Western tongues And to this sense it soundeth when it is said the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews namely that both they that murmured and they that were murmured against were Jews
indeed that women might and did receive some of these extraordinary gifts but it was by immediate influence from Heaven and not by any imposition of hands So that now if we look upon this Story and upon others of the like nature through these spectacles it will appear that this Imposition of the Apostles hands was not upon all the Samaritans but upon some selected number nor upon those selected ones for their confirmation in grace but for their ordination to the Ministery and with the imposition of hands they received the Holy Ghost to inable them for that work Vers. 26. Which is desart This is to be applyed to the way to Gaza and not to Gaza it self and so the Syriack and Arabick apply it expresly and warrantably seeing the way was through the wilderness of Judah and there was but one Gaza Vers. 27. A man of Aethiopia There is mention of a double Cush or Aethiopia in Scripture for so is it rendred the one in Arabia and the other in Africk and Homer even in his time speaketh of a twofold Aethiopia Odys 1. but it is questionable whether he mean the same with the Scripture or no since he calleth them Eastern and Western whereas these were East and South Now this man is held and that upon good ground to be of Aethiopia in Africk where the name of Candace is renowned even in Heathen Authors Vers. 33. Who shall declare his generation This Prophecy of Esay which the Eunuch was reading is exceedingly much mistaken by the Jews and this clause of the Prophecy is exceedingly controverted among Christians The Jews understand it some of them concerning Josiah others concerning the whole people of Israel but the Holy Ghost hath in this place put us out of all doubt of whom it speaketh But as for the sense of this clause some Christians understand it concerning the ineffablity of Christs Eternal generation others concerning the ineffability of his incarnation or the generation of his humane Nature united to the Godhead others concerning the wondrous generation of the Church and faithful for it followeth For he was cut off from the Land of the Living and yet the generation of his faithful ones increased But it seemeth to me that the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is to be understood of the age and generation in which Christ lived rather than of his own generation or descent and so is it used by the Holy Ghost in other places as Gen. 6. 9. Acts 13. 36. c. and so is it intepreted here by the Chaldee and other Jewish glossaries Now the meaning of the verse and of this clause is to this purpose He was taken away and hurryed from Prison and from Judgment to Execution and as the LXX hath enlarged the sense by change of Phrase In his poor and dejected estate his Judgment was utterly taken away and no right done him and who can sufficiently speak of the looseness and wickedness of that generation called in the Gospel the viperous adulterous wicked untoward generation which dealt so unjustly and wretchedly with him as to take and cut him off from the Land of the Living Vers. 39. And the Eunuch went on his way rejoycing Dorotheus in Synopsi if he might be believed will tell you what became of this Eunuch afterward as that he preached the Gospel in Arabia in the Isle of Taprobane and all about the red Sea and that he is reported to have suffered matyrdom gloriously and to have been buried there Biblioth patr tom 7. But believe it that list for this I observe to be the constant and common officiousness of Superstition to make any man that is mentioned in the New Testament with a good report to become a Preacher and commonly a Bishop and constantly a Matyr Acts IX § 1. Paul converted IN this year must be placed the conversion of Paul and the reasons to prove time shall be given anon A man a wonder for so will * * * Hiââon some have his name to signifie in whom was shewed as much as can be seen in man both for want of grace and for abundance Inferior to none in wickedness but only in this that it was not final and inferiour to none in holiness no not to the greatest Apostles A scene on which at one time corrupt Nature shewed her cursed vigor and at another time sanctifying Grace her sacred power and both to such an extent as not many parallels He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia a free City of the Romans and himself a Freeman of that City His Parents were both Jews and therefore he calleth himself an Hebrew of 2 Cor. 11. 21. Phil. 3. 5. Rom. 11. 1. the Hebrews or an Hebrew both by Father and Mother His discent was of Benjamin which from the general division under Jeroboam the first had adhered constant to the Tribe of Juda and so kept Registers of their Genealogies as that Tribe did According to his double Nation he also bare a double name Saul as he was an Hebrew by birth and Paul as he was a Roman by freedom His education was in the Schools of Tarsus where as Strabo recordeth were Scholars no whit inferiour to the Students in Athens Here he attained the Greek Language and Learning and grew expert in Tit. 1. 12. Acts 17. 28. 1 Cor. 1â 33. Act. 22. 3. Gal. 1. 14. Acts 18. 3. their Philosophy and Poems his skill wherein he sheweth in alledging Epimenides Aratus and Menander From thence he was sent to the University at Jerusalem for the study of Divinity and of the Jewish Law His Tutor was Gamaliel a Pharisee a man of special note and reverence among the people His proficiency was above many of his equals of his own Nation he being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the Fathers From his youth he also learned a handy trade of making Tents and joyned the working in that by some vicissitudes with his studies which thing was common with the Scholars of the Jews partly for the earning of their maintenance and partly for the avoiding of idleness and sin So Rabbi Juda the great Cabalist bare the name and trade of Hhajat a Shoomaker or Taylor Yet was the learning of this great Scholar but gorgeous ignorance and his forward zeal but the more excellent impiety When he thought he followed holiness he persecuted it and when his studies should have overtaken the truth then had he lost both them and it and himself and all As for Saul saith Luke he made havock of the Church entring into every house and Acts 8. 3. and 22. 4. Acts 26. 11. haling men and women committed them to prison He began now to write his positions in blood and it must be no less than death or abjuration not to be of his opinion Neither was this his fury confined within the walls of Jerusalem or the compass of Judea but overflowed also unto forreign Cities where the Jewish Synagogues acknowledging subjection to the
is exceedingly delighted with and given to the cruelty of the Sword-plays in which he swept away a world of Servants and Freemen that had been accusers of their Masters in the time of Caius And which was most ridiculous he caused the statue of Augustus to be removed out of the place because it should not behold such bloody work being inhumanely himself delighted in that butchery which he thought too barbarous for a brazen statue to look upon These bloody spectacles brought him to an habit of cruelty which was augmented and hardened in him by the damnable counsels of his Empress Messalina a woman wicked above parallel or expression and by the spurrings on of other sycophants C. Appius Silanus is put to death because he refused to incestuate Messalina when she desired him for he had married her mother but because Claudius must not hear of this beastly cause of her displeasure Narcissus a freeman of the Emperor accused him for this that in a dream he had seen Appius slay the Emperor Upon his death the people began to expect no more goodness from Claudius at all but gave him up for a Tyrant like the two that had gone before him whereupon Annius Vincianus and Futius Camillus Scribonianus and others conspired against him but being deserted of their souldiers in the enterprize they are glad to end their lives by their own hands that they might escape the executioners Messalina and Narcissus and others of their faction using the stupid folly of the Emperor to the compassing of their own wills involve in false accusations and in miserable deaths an infinite multitude of men and women honorable and inferior of all qualities and conditions according as the spleen of any of them moved or was provoked Among them that thus perished Arria the wife of Caecinna is upon record for her Roman valour for when her husband trembled and was afraid to slay himself she took the sword out of his hand and fell upon it and gave it him again reeking with her blood with these words Behold boy how I feel no pain And now saith my Author were matters come to such a pass that nothing was reputed a greater vertue than to die valiantly and like a Roman To such a cruelty had custom and evil counsel brought him that of himself was of a reasonable gentle nature but wanted constancy and discretion to manage it THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman Of the Year of CHRIST XLIV And of the Emperor CLAUDIUS III. Being the Year of the WORLD 3971. And of the City of ROME 796. Consuls Claudius Caesar III. L. Uitellius ACTS CHAP. XII Vers. 2. And he killed Iames. §. 1. The Martyrdom of James the great WE are now come to the time of Great James his death For Agrippa coming the last year into Judea as we saw from Josephus and it not being probable that he should do this exploit before Easter as the circumstances told us we may justly take this year for its proper time and place Now about that time saith St. Luke Herod the King the Syriack addeth who is called Agrippa stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Jews and he killed James the brother of John with the sword The first words About that time relate to what went before in the preceding Chapter vers 28. and meaneth in the days of Claudius Caesar. Now what should be the incentive of the spleen of Agrippa against the Church is not specified it may well be supposed it proceeded from that his Ceremoniousness and strict observance of Mosaick Rites which is mentioned by Josephus Concerning the Martyrdom of James under this his spleen we will content our selves with the words of the Text He killed James the brother of John with the sword accounting all other additional circumstances which may be found in officious Authors to be nothing else but gilded legends and fond inventions As that mentioned by Eusebius out of Cleniens his Hypotyposeon concerning his accuser that seeing his constancy to the death confessed the faith and was martyred with him That by Epiphanius that he lived and died a Virgin and that by * * * Tom. 2. Iulii 25. Surius who is the bell-weather for old winter tales that telleth That his body after his martyrdom was shipped by Ctesiphon and his fellow-Bishops for Spain that the Ship in six days was directed thither without Pilot or Compass but only by the influence of the Corps that it carried That at the landing the body was taken up into the air and carried near the place of its burial twelve miles off That Ctesiphon and his fellows werâ led to it by an Angel And more such trash that it is but labour lost either to read or mention §. 2. The Apostles Creed The Creed was made upon this occasion saith a a a De Institut Cleric l. 2. c. 56. extat in Auctario ad Biblioth Patrum âol 620 Rabanus Maââ¦s as our Ancestors have delivered unto us The Disciples after the Ascension of our Saviour being inflamed with the Holy Ghost c. And being charged by the Lord to go to all Nations for the preaching of the Gospel when they are to part one from another they first make a common platform among themselves for their future preaching Lest being severed in place divers and different things should be preached to those that were invited to the faith of Christ. Being therefore together in one place and filled with the Holy Ghost they compose a short platform for their preaching conferring together what they thought And this they appoint to be given to them that believe and to be called Symbolum c. Thus he and very many others with him conceiving that the Apostles supplied not only the matter of the Doctrine contained in the Creed but the very form and words also For Peter said say they I believe in God the Father Almighty John The maker of Heaven and Earth James And I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Andrew Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Philip Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried Thomas He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead Bartholomew He ascended into Heaven sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty Matthew From thence shall he come to judge both the quick and the dead James the son of Alpheus I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church Simon Zelotes The communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins Judas the brother of James The resurrection of the flesh Matthias The life everlasting Amen Thus the hundred and fifteenth Sermon de Tempore that goeth under the name of b b b Tom. 10. col 849. Austen but apparent that it is not his by this that here is reckoned the descent into Hell which in his book c c c Tom. 3. p. 143. de Fide Symbolo is quite omitted Now were this
Agrippa having laid hold upon him deferred his execution till after the Passover e e e Sanctius in Act. 12. either because he would not defile that holy feast with effusion of humane blood or because he would afflict Peter the more and give the Jews the greater content by his long restraint and strait imprisonment or rather because he feared a tumult if he should have slain him in that concourse of people as was there at Passover time Thus lay he guarded with four quaternions or as the Syriack hath it with sixteen Souldiers which as it seemeth watched him by course for the four watches of the night two close by him and two at the gate Besides these two and two successive jaylors he was bound with two chains and if f f f Sanct. ubi supra ex Chrysost some say true his two keepers were tied for the more sureness in the same chains with him Happy men were they sure that had so great interest in these happy chains which if you dare believe g g g Augusti 8. c. 18 19 20. Surius had the virtue to work Miracles to diffuse Grace to procure Holiness to heal Diseases to affright the Devil and to defend Christians They were preserved saith he by some of Herods servants that believed and in process of time laid up for a sacred relique at Constantinople and there either he or they lie That very night that preceded Peters intended execution he being fast asleep between his keepers is waked loosed and delivered by an Angel h h h Anna ad ann Baronius maketh a great matter of it that the whole Church prayed for Peter whilst he was in prison and since the like is not related to have been done by them for any other he will needs from hence infer his primacy the whole flock praying for her universal Pastor whereas the reasons of this expression are apparent to be only these two First To shew that the Church was praying for him whilst he was sleeping for after he had taken a part of his first sleep this night he cometh to the house of John Mark and they are there still out of their beds and at prayer Secondly Because the fruit of their prayers were shewed in his delivery There is no doubt but constant prayers were made for James by the whole Church whilst he was in prison as well as for Peter but so much is not expressed because the story could not answer that relation with relation of his delivery And Atheism and profaneness would have been ready to have scoffed that the whole Church should have prayed in vain The Angel and Peter thus loosed pass two watches and then come to the iron gate there are some that hold these watches to be two prisons and the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be taken as it were passively for places where men are kept and that Peter was in a Gaol within these two as in the worst basest and surest place and that all were closed with a gate of Iron But i i i Vid. Baron others hold these watches to be guards of men and that the prison was without the City between or within the two outmost walls but in these things it is not material to insist for determination The latter is far the more probable both in regard of the signification of the Greek word and that Josephus mentioneth three walls about Jerusalem and divers towers in every wall as also in regard of the greater heightning of the miracle in that Peter escapeth not only his own sixteen mens watch at the prison door but also two watches more at the two walls gates and the second which was the Iron gate gave them free passage of its own accord Peter being cleared of the danger and left of the Angel betaketh himself to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark where when Rhoda upon his knocking and speech averred constantly it was Peter the whole company there assembled conclude that it was his Angel Here is some ambiguity about their thus concluding k k k Chrysost. in loc hom 27. Some understand it of his tutelar Angel and from hence would strongly plead the opinion that every man hath his proper and allotted Angel to attend him But first we sometimes read of one Angel attending many men Secondly Sometimes of many Angels attending one man But thirdly If the matter may be agitated by reason if a singular Angel be destined to the attendance of every singular man what doth that Angel do till his man be born especially what did all the Angels but Adams and Eves and a few more for many hundreds of years till the world was full l l l Vid. Salmâron en locum Others therefore understand it of a messenger which the Disciples supposed Peter had sent to them upon some errand But this opinion is easily confuted by Rhoda's owning of Peters voice m m m Arâtius in loc There is yet a third opinion as much unwarrantable as either of these That the Disciples concluded that an Angel by this knocking and voice came to give them notice of Peters death to be near at hand and that therefore they call him his Angel and that it was sometimes so used that one Saint should know of anothers death by such revelations The Jews indeed in their writings make frequent mention of Samael the Angel of death but they call him so for inflicting it and not for foretelling it And we have some examples indeed in the Ecclesiastical history of one man knowing of anothers death by such revelations and apparitions as these but because those stories are very dubitable in themselves and that the Scripture is utterly without any such precedent this interpretation is but utterly groundless and unwarrantable The most proper and most easie meaning therefore of those words of the Disciples It is his Angel seemeth to be that they took it for some Angel that had assumed Peters shape or stood at the gate in his resemblance Vers. 17. He departed and went to another place The place whither he went is not to be known because not revealed by Scripture As for his going to Rome which is the gloss that Papists set upon this place it is a thing senseless and ridiculous as was touched before and might be shewed at large were it worth the labour I should as soon nominate Antioch for the place whither he went at this time as any other place at a far distance For I cannot imagine any time when he and Paul should meet at Antioch and Paul reprove him Gal. 2. 11. so likely as this time for it is most probable that Peter being put to flee for his life would get out of the territories of Herod for his safety now there was no place more likely for his safety than in Antioch where not only the distance of place might preserve him but the new born Church would seek to secure
came himself and lay upon him with his mouth to the Childs mouth his eyes to his eyes and his hands to his hands then the Child recovered So when man was dead in trespasses and sin as it is Eph. 2. God lays his * * * Psal. 23. staff or rod of the Law upon him but what good did this toward his recovery Even make him to long the more for Elisha or Christ who when he came and laid his mouth to mans mouth and kissed humanity in his Incarnation and laid his eyes to his eyes and his hands to his hands and suffered for mans actions at his passion then is man recured God in the book of Isay when he is to send a Prophet to Israel says thus Mi eshlah whom shall I send or who will go for us Isa. 6. 8. Upon which words the Jew Kimchi paraphrases thus Shalahti eth Micah wehem maccim otho Shalahti eth Amos wehem korin otho * * * Amos in Heb. signifies one that is heavy tongued which Kimchi calls Peseleusa from the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Blaesus Pesilusa I have sent Micah and him they smote I have sent Amos and him they called a stammerer Whom shall I send or who will go for us Then says Esay Behold I am here send me Imagine that upon the fall of man you saw God about to send the great Prophet not to Israel alone but to all the World nor only to teach but also to redeem Suppose you heard him thus questioning whom shall I send to restore fallen man And who will go for us Should I send Angels They are creatures and consequently finite and so cannot answer mine infinite Justice Should I send man himself Alas though he once had power not to have fallen yet now hath he no power to raise himself again Should I send beasts to sacrifice themselves for him Alas can the burning of dead beasts satisfie for the sins of all men alive Whom shall I send or who will go for us Our Saviour is ready to answer with Isay Behold I am here send me Here am I that am able to do it send me for I am willing I am able for I am God I am willing for I will become a man I am God and so can fulfil the Law which man hath broke I will become man that so I may suffer death which man hath deserved Behold I am here send me Then as one of our Country Martyrs at his death so may we sing all our lives None but Christ none but Christ None but Christ to cure the wounded travailor None but Christ to raise the dead Shunamite None but Christ to restore decaid mankind None but Christ that would None but Christ that could No Angel no Man no Creature no Sacrifice no Ceremony that would and could do this for us which we could not do for our selves and say for us I have trod the Winepress alone When the Ceremonial and Judicial Law have thus brought us to Christ we may shake hands with them and farewel but for the Moral as it helps to bring us thither so must it help to keep us there For Christ came not to disannul this Law but to fulfil it He does not acquit us from this but furthers us to the keeping of it What else is the Gospel but this in milder terms of Faith and Repentance which is since we cannot keep this Law yet to strive to keep it as we can and to repent us for that we have not kept it and to relie upon his merits that hath kept it for us Thus as love to God and to our neighbours was the sum of the Old so true faith and unfained repentance is the total of the New This was the tenour of Christs first words after his Baptism Mark 1. 15. and of his last words before his Ascension Mark 16. 16. CHAP. LXI Of the Ten Commandments THE Ten Commandments may be called the Word of the Word of God for though all Scripture be his Word yet these in more special be his Scripture to which he made himself his own Scribe or Pen-man upon these Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets and these Commandments upon two duties to love God and to love our neighbour A shorter and yet a fuller Comment needs not to be given of them than what our Saviour hath given Luke 10. 27. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self The four Commandments of the first Table he expounds in four words The Lord thy God there is the Preface I am the Lord c. Thou shalt love the Lord c. with all thy Heart for the First Commandment Soul for the Second Commandment Strength for the Third Commandment Mind for the Fourth Commandment If we need any further Exposition upon this Exposition of our Saviours it is easie to find as thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart for it he hath Created Soul for it he hath Redeemed Strength for it he hath Preserved Mind for it he hath Inlightned And therefore thou shalt love him with all thine Heart without Only talking and no more Soul without Dissembling Strength without Revolting Mind without Erring This is the first and the great Commandment and the other is like unto this thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self This adds great light to the second Table for half of the Commandments of that Table want an object whereupon to fasten the duty The first hath one Honour thy Father c. the last but one hath one thou shalt not witness falsely against thy neighbour And so the last hath Thou shalt not covet ought of thy Neighbours But Thou shalt not kill steal and commit adultery these have no object viz. none named whom from whom and with whom we must not kill steal nor adulterate because we must make our selves also the object here and reflect the Commandments upon our selves as thus Thou shalt not kill first not thy self and secondly not thy neighbour and so of the rest The Jews have been too bold in adding too strict an object as you may see in their explaining these three precepts And some Hereticks have been too nice in giving some of them too * * * For Marcion held it unlawful to kill a beast because the command non occides hath no set object Aug. de Clv. Dei l. 1. cap. 20. large a one The fifth Commandment in the Ten is with a Promise and the fifth Petition in the Lords Prayer is with a Condition I omit the exquisiteness of the pricking of this piece of Scripture of the Commandments extraordinarily Some special thing is in it The Jews do gather six hundred and thirteen Precepts Negative and Affirmative to be in the whole Law according to the six hundred and thirteen letters in the two Tables and so many
in that month was born into the World and what if on that very day that the Temple was Consecrated namely the fifteenth day of the month of whose Incarnation and Birth how lively a Type the Temple and its Dedication were I need not to illustrate Thus was the Temple dedicate and the Service of it began Anno Mundi three thousand and one At the Dedication of it both the Books of Kings and Chronicles inform us that the Tabernacle of the Congregation and all the Holy Vessels that had been in the Tabernacle were brought up thither 1 Kings VIII 4. 2 Chron. V. 5. But the question is What became of them there were they used or were they laid up There are that assert either way and the later seemeth the more probable namely that these things of Moses upon the rising of a greater and more eminent Glory did decay and were laid aside as all his Ceremonies were to do upon the rising of the Gospel The Temple though it were of a Heavenly resemblance use and concernment as figuring Christs Body John II. 19. enjoying Gods presence 2 Chron. VII 16. and Israels worship Psal. CXXII 4 c. yet being but an earthly building it was subject to the universal condition of earthly things casualty and changing Nay there is hardly any State or Place in any Story of which may be found more vicissitudes and alterations of condition than of this and there is hardly any Kings time of all those that reigned in the time of the Temple in which it received not some remarkable alteration of estate or other In the time of Solomon that built it it received that vile affront of an Idol Temple built by him in the face of it and what became of the Service of the Temple in these times may be shrewdly suspected In his son Rehoboams time it was first forsaken by the Ten Tribes and afterward by Judah it self who fell to Idolatry and then it was plundred by Shishak How oft the Treasuries of it were plundred sometimes by Forainers sometimes by their own Kings how oft it self prophaned as by Athaliah Ahaz Manasseh how the Service of it either totally slighted or slightly performed how Idols set up in it and Altars to strange gods how the Blood of the High Priest shed and the manners of the Priests corrupt and the House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves as also how sometimes again it was repaired the Service restored the Priests reformed and matters amended with it is so plainly and copiously described in the Books of Scripture that it were but transcription of the Text to recite them in particular At last it had run out its date and it self fired and all its precious Vessels were Captived by the Babylonian what became of the Ark the Scripture doth not mention the Jews conceive that it was hid in some Vault that they say Solomon had purposely made against such a time where it escaped the Conquerors fury but this we leave to their own credit The time of the standing of this first Temple from its finishing in the eleventh year of Solomon to its firing by Nebuzaradan was four hundred and twenty years SECT 1. The state of the second Temple under the Persian Monarchy ALthough between the return out of the Babylonian Captivity and the final desolation of Jerusalem there might seem to be strictly and literally two Temples that of Zorababel and that of Herod for Herod began his Temple from the very Foundation yet do the Scriptures and all Jewish Writers so unanimously and generally own them but for one Temple calling it the Second Temple all the time there was a Temple after its first building under Cyrus that it would be but needless labour and unwarrantable curiosity to take up any other notion or distinction of it For though the Temple built by Zorobabel were pulled down to the very ground by Herod when he built that Fabrick that stood to the last fate of Jerusalem yet since that demolition was not by destruction and ruine but for reparation and for its bettering there is no reason to reckon these as two several Temples but as one Temple first built and then repaired to a more excellent and glorious condition From the first year of Cyrus in which he Proclaimed Redemption to the Captives and gave Commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to the death of Christ were four hundred and ninety years as they be summed by an Angel Dan. IX and from the death of Christ to the fatal and final destruction of Jerusalem were forty years more five hundred and thirty years in all In all which time it were endless to shew every particular occurrence and change of condition that befel the Temple and it would require a large Story and Volume I shall therefore only touch upon the chiefest distributing the times into those several and remarkable periods that they fell into and applying the Stories to the times accordingly The first parcel of this time was taken up by the Persian Monarchy which how long it continued and for how many Kings Succession is a thing of as disputable and controverted a nature as any one thing in Chronology I will keep to the number and names of the Kings of that Throne that we find in Scripture In Dan. XI 2. there are these words Behold there shall stand up yet three Kings in Persia and the fourth shall be far richer than they all and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the Realm of Grecia And a mighty King shall stand up c. And when he shall stand up his Kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four Winds of Heaven and not to his posterity c. It is observable concerning this Prophesie and account about the Persian Monarchy 1. That this was told Daniel in the third year of Cyrus Chap. X. 1. and so when he saith There shall stand up yet three Kings and the fourth c. he meaneth four besides Cyrus the first beginner of the Kingdom and therefore some of the Jews do make but a cross reckoning upon this place who will have Cyrus which was the first to be meant by this that is called the fourth 2. The Prophesie speaketh of the length of the Persian Monarchy till it brings it up to Alexander the Great the destroyer of that Monarchy of whom it speaketh plainly vers 3 4. and of his Successors afterwards vers 5 c. 3. There were therefore by the account of the Angel here but five Kings of Persia namely Cyrus and four more 4. These four are thus named in the Scripture 1. Ahashuerosh Ezra IV. 6. 2. Darius Ezra IV. 24. VI. 1. c. 3. Artaxerxes Ezra VI. 14. 4. Darius Neh. XII 22. To which may be added for the confirmation of this account 5. That Nehemiah lived quite through the whole length of the Persian Monarchy being at Mans estate the first year of it Ezra II. 2.
Scholars to become faint hearted and the strength of Wisdom and the Cabala to fail and the Oral Law to be much diminished he gathered and scraped up together all the Decrees Statutes and sayings of the wise Men of which he wrote every one apart which the house of the Sanhedrin had taught c. And he disposed it into six classes which are Zeraim Moed Nezikin Nashim Kedoshim Tahoroth And a little after All the Israelites ratified the Body of the Mishnaioth and obliged themselves to it and in it during the life of Rabbi his two sons Rabban Gamaliel and R. Simeon employed themselves in the School of the land of Israel and R. Chaija R. Oshaia R. Chanina and R. John and their companions And in the School of Babylon Rabh and Samuel exercised themselves in it c. Therefore it is worthy of examination whence those differences should arise between the Jerusalem Mishna and the Babylonian differences in words without number in things in great number which he that compares them will meet with every where You have a remarkable example in the very p p p p p p Beracoth cap. 1. hal 4. entrance of the Jerusalem Mishna where the story of R. Tarphons danger among thieves is wanting which is in that of Babylon Whether R. Judah composed that System in Tyberias or in Zippor we are not solicitous to enquire he sat in both and enriched both with famed Schools and Tiberias was the more eminent For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã q q q q q q Glossa in Bab. Sanhedr fol. 32 The University of Tiberias was greater than that of Zippor CHAP. LXXXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sippor ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a a a a a a Joseph de bell lib. 3. cap 3. Sippor is the greatest City of Galilee and built in a very strong place b b b b b b Bab. Mâgill fol. 6. 1. Kitron Judg. 1. 29 30. is Sippor and why is it called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sippor Because it is seated upon a mountain ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Sippor a bird c c c c c c Hieros Biccurim fol. 64. 2. Bab. Megill in the place above Sixteen miles on all sides from Sippor was a land flowing with Milk and Hony This City is noted in Josephus for its warlike affairs but most noted in the Talmudists for the University fixed there and for the Learning which Rabbi Judah the Holy brought hither as we have said before d d d d d d Hieros Kilaim fol. 32. 2. He sat in this place seventeen years and used most frequently to say this of himself Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years and Judah lived in Zippor seventeen years e e e e e e Juchasin fol. 2. 2. He sat also in Beth-Shaarim as also in Tiberias but he ended his life in Zippor There is this story of his death f f f f f f Hieros in the place before The men of Sippor said Whosoever shall tell us that Rabbi is dead we will kill him Bar Kaphra having his head vailed looked upon them and said Holy Men and Angels both took hold of the Tables of the Covenant and the hand of the Angels prevailed and they snatched away the Tables They said to him Is Rabbi dead He said Ye have said They rent their garments after that manner that the Voice of the renting came as far as Papath that is the space of three miles R. Nachman in the name of R. Mena said Miracles were done on that day When all Cities were gathered together to lament him and that on the Eve of the Sabbath the day did not waste until every one was gone home had filled a bottle with water and had lighted up a Sabbath candle The Bath Kol pronounced blessedness upon those that lamented him excepting only one who knowing himself excepted threw himself headlong from the Roof and died g g g g g g Gloss. in Bab. Sanhedr fol 47 1. R. Judah died in Zippor but his burial was in Beth-shaarim dying he gave in command to his son When ye carry me to my burial do not lament me in the small Cities through which ye shall pass but in the great c. What say you to this R. Benjamin In you it is h h h h h h R. Benjam ân Itinerar His Sepulchre is in Zippor in the mountain as also the Sepulchre of R. Chaija and Jonah the Prophet c. Do you make up the controversie with your kinsmen now cited There were many Synagogues in Zippor In the story but now alledged concerning the death and burial of R. Judah mention is made of eighteen Synagogues that bewailed him but whether all these were Synagogues of Zippor or of other places it is questioned not without cause ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i i i i i i Hieros Berac fol. 6. 1. Nazir fol. 56. 1. The Synagogue of Gophna was certainly in Zippor There was also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã k k k k k k Id. Berac fol. 9. 1. Shab fol. 8. 1. The Synagogue of Babylon in Zippor There are also many names of famous Doctors there l l l l l l Id. Shekalim fol 46 1. R. Honna Rabba m m m m m m Id. Niddah fol. 50. 2. R. Abudina of Zippor n n n n n n Bab. Sanhedr fol. 91. 1. R. Bar Kaphra in Zippor R. Chaninah of Zippor o o o o o o Hieros Maasar Sheni fol. 55. 4 Schab fol. 9. 2. Trumoth fol. 45 3. c. The mention of whom is most frequent above others p p p p p p Bava Mizia cap. 8. hal 8. A controversie risen at Zippor was determined before R. Simeon ben Gamaliel and R. Jose Among many stories acted on this stage which might be produced we shall offer these only q q q q q q Hieros Jevamoth fol. 15. 3. Sotah fol. 23. 3. An Inquisition was sometime made after the men of Zippor they therefore that they might not be known clapped patches upon their noses but at last they were discovered c. r r r r r r Bab. Joma fol. 11. 1. One in the upper street of Zippor taking care about the scripts of paper fixed to the door posts was punished a thousand zuzees These words argue some persecution stirred up in that City against the Jews s s s s s s Hieros Trumoth fol. 45. 3. A certain Butcher of Zippor sould the Jews flesh that was forbidden namely dead carcasses and that which was torn On one Sabbath Eve after he had been drinking Wine going up into the roof he fell down thence and died The Dogs came and licked his blood R. Chaninah being asked Whether they should drive away the Dogs By no means said he for they eat of their own ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã t t t t t t
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk any more in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him 3. It was not unusal to defer the payment of the half Shekels of this year to the year following by reason of some urgent necessity Hence it was when they sat to collect and receive this Tribute the Collectors had before them two chests placed in one of which they put the h See Shekal cap. 2. Maimon ibid. Tax of the present year in the other of the year past u But it may be objected Why did the Collectors of Capernaum require the payment at that time when according to Custom they began not to demand it before the fifteenth day of the month Adar I answer 1. It is certain there were in every City money changers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to collect it and being collected to carry it to Jerusalem Hence is that in the Tract cited The fifteenth day of the month Adar the Collectors sit in the Cities to demand the half Shekel and the five and twentieth they sit in the Temple 2. The uncertain abode of Christ at Capernaum gave these Collectors no unjust cause of demanding this due whensoever they had him there present at this time especially when the feast of Tabernacles was near and they about to go to Jerusalem to render an account perhaps of their Collection But if any list to understand this of the Tax paid the Romans we do not contend And then the words of those that collected the Tribute Does not your Master pay the Didrachm seem to sound to this effect Is your Master of the Sect of Judas of Galilee CHAP. XVIII VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven IT cannot be passed over without observation that the ambitious dispute of the Disciples concerning Primacy for the most part followed the mention of the death of Christ and his Resurrection See this Story in Mark IX 31 32 33. And Luke IX 44 45 46. He said to his Disciples Lay up these discourses in your ears for the time is coming that the Son of man is delivered into the hands of Men. But they knew not that saying c. and there arose a contest between them who among them should be greatest Also Matth. XX. 18 19 20. He said to them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the Chief Priests c. Then came to him the Mother of Zebedees children with her sons saying Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand c. And Luke XXII 22 23 24. The Son of man indeed goeth as it is determined c. and there arose a Contention among them who of them should seem to be the greater The dream of the earthly Kingdom of the Messias did so possess their minds for they had suck'd in this Doctrine with their first milk that the mention of the most vile death of the Messias repeated over and over again did not at all drive it thence The image of earthly pomp was fixed at the bottom of their hearts and there it stuck nor by any words of Christ could it as yet be rooted out no not when they saw the death of Christ when together with that they saw his Resurrection for then they also asked Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel Acts I. 6. However after Christ had oftentimes foretold his death and resurrection it always follows in the Evangelists that they understood not what was spoken yet the opinion formed in their minds by their Doctors That the Resurrection should go before the Kingdom of the Messias supplied them with such an interpretation of this matter that they lost not an ace of the opinion of a future Earthly Kingdom See more at Chap. XXIV 3. VERS VI. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is good for him in Talmudick Language ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seems to be said in distinction from those very small Mills wherewith they were wont to grind the spices that were either to be applied to the wound of Circumcision or to be added to the delights of the Sabbath Hence the Gloss of R. Solomon upon Jer. XXV 10. The sound of Mills and the light of the candle the sound of Mills saith he wherewith spices were ground and bruised for the healing of Circumcision That Christ here speaks of a kind of death perhaps no where certainly never used among the Jews he does it either to aggravate the thing or in allusion to drowning in the dead Sea in which one cannot be drowned without some weight hung to him and in which to drown any thing by a common manner of speech implied to devote to rejection hatred and execration which we have observed elswhere VERS X. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Their Angels in Heaven do always behold c. THIS one may very well expound by laying to it that which is said Heb. I. 14. The Angels are Ministring Spirits sent to minister for them who shall be heirs of the salvation to come As if he should say See that ye do not despise one of these little ones who have been received with their believing parents into the Gospel Church for I say unto you that after that manner as the Angels minister to adult Believers they minister to them also VERS XII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. If he lose one does he not leave the ninety and nine c. A Very common form of speech a a a a a a Peah cap. 4. Hal. â In distributing some grapes and dates to the poor although ninety nine say Scatter them and only one Divide them They hearken to him because he speaks according to the Tradition b b b b b b âieros Schabh fol. â4 â If ninety nine die by an evil eye that is by bewitching and but one by the hand of Heaven that is by the stroke of God c. If ninety nine die by reason of cold but one by the hand of God c. VERS XV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tell him his fault between thee and him alone THE reason of the precept is founded in that charitable Law Levit. XIX 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but thou shalt surely reprove him and shalt not suffer sin in him Here the Talmudists speak not amiss c c c c c c Bab. ââachin fol. 1â â The Rabbins deliver Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart Perhaps he does not beat him he does not pull off his hair he does not curse him the Text saith In thy Heart speaking of hatred in the heart But whence is it proved that he that sees his brother doing some foul action is bound to reprove him Because it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã
truth as to the thing it self for from the Resurrection of Christ the glorious Epoch of the Kingdom of God took its beginning as we said before which he himself also signifieth in those words Mat. XXVI 29. and when he arose not a few others arose with him What they thought of the Resurrection that was to be in the days of Messias besides those things which we have already mentioned you may see and smile at in this one example y y y y y y Jerus Cheâubboth fol. 35 â R. Jeremiah commanded when you bury me put shoes on my feet and give me a staff in my hand and lay me on one side that when the Messias comes I may be ready VERS LIV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Truly this was the Son of God THAT is This was indeed the Messias Howsoever the Jews deny the Son of God in that sense in which we own it that is as the second person in the holy Trinity yet they acknowledged the Messiah for the Son of God not indeed by nature but by adoption and deputation see Mat. XXVI 63. from those places I Chron. XVII 13. Psal. II. 12. LXXXIX 26 27. and such like The Centurion had learnt this from the people by conversing among them and seeing the Miracles which accompanied the death of Christ acknowledged him to be the Messias of whom he had heard so many and great things spoken by the Jews In Luke we have these words spoken by him z z z z z z Chap. XXIII 47. Certainly this was a righteous man Which I suppose were not the same with these words before us but that both they and these were spoken by him Certainly this was a righteous man Truly this was the Messias the Son of God Such are those words of Nathaniel Joh. I. 49. Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Peter when he declared that Christ was the Son of the living God Mat. XVI 16. spoke this in a more sublime sense than the Jews either owned or knew as we have said at that place VERS LVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdalen THAT Magdalen was the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus Baronius proves at large a a a a a a Annal. ad An. Christ. 32. pag. 147 148 c. whom see It is confirmed enough from this very place for if Mary Magdalene was not the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus then either Mary the sister of Lazarus was not present at the Crucifixion of Christ and at his burial or else she is past over in silence by the Evangelists both which are improbable whence she was called Magdalene doth not so plainly appear whether from Magdala a Town on the Lake of Genesareth or from the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies a playting or curling of the hair a thing usual with harlots Let us see what is spoken by the Talmudists concerning ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdala who they say was Mother of Ben Satda b b b b b b Bab. Sanhedr fol. 67. 1. They stoned the Son of Satda in Lydda and they hanged him up on the evening of the Passover Now this Son of Satda was Son of Pandira Indeed Rabh Chasda said the husband of his mother was Satda her husband was Pandira her husband was Papus the Son of Juda but yet I say his mother was Satda ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã namely Mary the plaiter of women's hair as they say in Pombeditha ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã she departed from her husband These words are also repeated in Schabbath c c c c c c Fol. 104. 2. c Chagigah fol. 4. 2. Rabh Bibai at a time when the Angel of death was with him said to his Officer Go ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã bring me Mary the plaiter of womens hairs He went and brought to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary the plaiter of young mens hair c. The Gloss The Angel of death reckoned up to him what he had done before for this story of Mary the Plaiter of women's hair was under the second Temple for she was the mother of N. as it is said in Schabbath See the Gloss there at the place before quoted d d d d d d Gittin fol. 90. 1. There are some who find a fly in their cup and take it out and will not drink such was Papus ben Judas who lockt the door upon his wife and went out Where the Glossers say thus Papus ben Juda was the husband ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Mary the Plaiter of womens hair and when he went out of his house into the street he lockt his door upon his wife that she might not speak with any body which indeed he ought not to have done and hence sprang a difference between them and she broke out into adulteries See Alphesius on Gittim e e e e e e Fol. 605. I pronounce ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ben Satda not that I am ignorant that it is called Ben Stada by very learned men The reason of our thus pronouncing it we fetch from hence that we find he was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ben Sutdah by the Jerusalem Talmudists f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 25. 4. to which the word Satda more agrees than Stada By the like agreement of sounds they call the same Town both ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Magdala and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mugdala as we have observed elswhere As they contumeliously reflect upon the Lord Jesus under the name of Ben Satda so there is a shrewd suspition that under the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdala they also cast reproach upon Mary Magdalen The title which they gave their Mary is so like this of ours that you may with good reason doubt whether she was called Magdalene from the Town Magdala or from that word of the Talmudists ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Plaiter of hair We leave it to the learned to decide VERS LVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ioses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Josi A very usual name in the Talmudists g g g g g g Jerus ââvamâtâ fol. 2. 2. five were called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Be R. Josi Ismael Lazar Menahem Chelpatha Abdimus Also h h h h h h Ibid. fol. 4. 3. R. Jose ben R. Chaninah c. g g g g g g See Jathasiâ fol. 61. 62. One may well enquire why this Mary is called the mother of James and Joses and not also of Judas and Simon as Mark VI. 3. VERS LVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Begged the body of Iesus IT was not lawful to suffer a man to hang all night upon a tree Deut. XXI 23. Nay nor to lye all night unburied ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whosoever suffers a dead body to lye all night unburied violates a negative precept but they that were put to death
q q q Fol. 98. 2. there is a certain beggar called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diglus Patragus or Petargus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã poor infirm naked and famished But there could hardly be invented a more convenient name for a poor beggar than Lazar which signifies the help of God when he stands in so much need of the help of men But perhaps there may be something more aimed at in the name when the discourse is concerning Abraham and Lazarus who would not call to mind Abraham and Eleazar his servant r r r r r r Gen. XV. one born at Damascus a gentile by birth and sometime in posse the heir of Abraham but shut out of the inheritance by the birth of Isaac yet restored here into Abraham's bosom Which I leave to the judgment of the Reader whether it might not hint the calling of the Gentiles into the faith of Abraham The Gemarists make Eleazar to accompany his Master even in the Cave of Macpelah s s s s s s Bava bathra fol. 58. 1. R. Baanah painted the sepulchres when he came to Abraham's cave he found Eleazar standing at the mouth of it He saith unto him what is Abraham doing To whom he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he lieth in the embraces of Sarah Then said Baanah go and tell him that Baanah is at the door c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Full of sores In the Hebrew language ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Stricken with Ulcers Sometimes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã His body full of Ulcers as in that Story t t t t t t Taanith fol. 21. 1. They tell of Nahum Gamzu that he was blind lame of both hands and of both feet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in all his body full of sores He was thrown into a ruinous house the feet of his bed being put into basins full of water that the Ants might not creep upon him His Disciples ask him how hath this mischief befallen thee when as thou art a just man He gives the reason himself viz. Because he deferr'd to give something to a poor man that begged of him We have the same story in Hieros Peah u u u u u u Fol. 21. 2. where it were worth the while to take notice how they vary in the telling it VERS XXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He was carried by Angels THE Rabbins have an invention that there are three bands of Angels attend the death of wicked men proclaiming there is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked x x x x x x âemidb rabb fol. 245. 4. But what conceptions they have of Angels being present at the death of good men let us judge from this following passage y y y y y y Hieros Kilaim fol. 32. 3. The men of Tsippor said whoever tells us that Rabbi Judah is dead we will kill him Bar-kaphra looking upon them with his head veiled with an hood said unto them Holy men and Angels took hold of the tables of the Covenant and the hand of the Angels prevailed so that they took away the tables They said unto him is Rabbi dead then The meaning of this parabolizer was this Holy men would fain have detained R. Judah still in the land of the living but the Angels took him away ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Into Abraham's bosom So vers 23. in the plural number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which doth not alter the sense but strengthens it The Jewish Schools dispose of the Souls of Jews under a threefold phrase I can hardly say under a threefold state I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the garden of Eden or Paradise Amongst those many instances that might be alledged even to nauseousness let us take one wherein this very Abraham is named z z z z z z Midras Tillin fol. 3. 1. He shall be as a tree planted by the Rivers of waters This is Abraham whom God took and planted in the land of Israel or whom God took and planted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Paradise Take one instance more of one of equal fame and piety and that was Moses a a a a a a Tâmurah fol 11â 1. When our Master Moses departed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã into Paradise he said unto Joshua if thou hast any doubt upon thee about any thing enquire now of me concerning it II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Under the throne of glory We have a long story in Avoth R. Nathan b b b b b b Cap. 10. of the Angel of death being sent by God to take away the soul of Moses which when he could not do God taketh hold of him himself and treasureth him up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã under the throne of glory And a little after Nor is Moses his soul only placed under the throne of glory but the souls of other just persons also are reposited under the throne of glory Moses in the words quoted before is in Paradise in these words he is under the throne of glory In another place c c c c c c Pesikta fol 93. 1. he is in Heaven ministring before God So that under different phrases is the same thing exprest and this however made evident that there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the garden of Eden was not to be understood of an earthly but an heavenly Paradise That in Revel VI. 9. of souls crying under the Altar comes pretty near this phrase of being placed under the throne of glory For the Jews conceived of the Altar as the throne of the Divine Majesty and for that reason the Court of the Sanhedrin was placed so near the Altar that they might be filled with the reverence of the Divine Majesty so near them while they were giving judgment Only whereas there is mention of the Souls of the Martyrs that had poured out their blood for God it is in allusion to the blood of the Sacrifices that were wont to be poured out at the foot of the Altar III. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In Abraham's bosom Which if you would know what it is you need seek no further than the Rhemists our County-men with grief be it spoken if you will believe them For they upon this place have this passage The bosom of Abraham is the resting place of all them that died in perfect state of grace before Christ's time heaven before being shut from men It is called Zachary a Lake without water and sometimes a prison but must commonly of the Divines Limbus patrum for that it is thought to have been the higher part or brim of hell c. If our Saviour had been the first author of this phrase than might it have been tolerable to have lookt for the meaning of it amongst Christian Expositors but seeing it is a scheme of speech so familiar amongst the Jews and our Saviour spoke no other than in the known and vulgar dialect of that Nation the meaning
bargain Let us grant I say that this was his contrivance and colour it over with as plausible excuses as we can yet certainly was there never any thing could be more impiously done by mortal man than for him thus to play with the Holy of holies and endeavour to make merchandize of the Son of God However I suspect much worse things hatcht in the breast of this Traytor viz. that Christ did really not please him and with the great cheifs of that Nation though he supposed him the true Messiah Yet not such ân one as answered their carnal expectation The Rabbins dinstinguish between lawful kisses and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã kisses of folly Saying that all kisses are kisses of folly excepting three n n n n n n Shâmoth rabha fol. 122. 4. which they there reckon up But what kind of kiss was this a kiss of folly Alas it is too low and dwarfish a term for this gygantick monster VERS LIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is your hour and the power of darkness THE Serpent himself is now come in Judas and the seed of the Serpent was that Rout that came with him to whom it was so fatal to bruise the heel of the Messiah and now was the hour for that wickedness It was antiently foretold and predetermined both as to the thing it self and the instruments and now all fences lye open and you may do what you please The chains of the Devil himself are now loosed and it is permitted to him without the least check or restraint of Divine Providence to exert all his Furies at pleasure for now is the power of darkness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã darkness is the Devil amongst the Allegorists o o o o o o Aruch in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Jelammedenu on those words Take the rod. It is said on the first day of the Creation the Angel of death i. e. the Devil was created according as it is written there was darkness upon the face of the deep that is the Angel of death who darkneth the eyes of men CHAP. XXIII VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We found this fellow perverting the Nation a a a a a a Sanhedr fol. 103. 1. A Disciple corrupting his food publickly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as did Jesus of Nazareth To corrupt their food publickly is a phrase amongst the Rabbins to denote a mingling of true Doctrine with Heresie and the true worship of God with Idolatry This was the accusation they framed against our Saviour at this time that he taught Heterodox and destructive principles such especially as would tend to turn off and alienate the people from their obedience to the Romans Aruch recites this passage of the Talmud more cautiously for instead of as Jesus of Nazareth did he hath it as Jeroboam did VERS VII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He sent him to Herod DID Pilate do this as yielding to Herod a jurisdiction in capital matters within the City of Jerusalem upon those that were Galileans Probably he did it either in flattery to the Tyrant or else that he might throw off from himself both the trouble and the odium that might arise upon the occasion of condemning Jesus whom he judged to be an innocent man and in some measure pitied him looking upon him as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a sort of a delirant person one not very well in his wits which opinion also Herod seems to have conceived of him by putting upon him that fools coat wherewith he cloathed him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which I should willingly enough render white and shining but that I observe our Evangelist when he hath occasion to mention such a Garment calls it a white and shining robe expressly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. IX 29. his Garment was white and glittering ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Acts I. 10. two men in white apparel VERS XXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Then shall they begin to say to the Mountains c. SO they do say Revel VI. 6. from whence among other Arguments it may be reasonably supposed that that Chapter treats of the plagues and afflictions that should fore-run the destruction of Jerusalem and indeed the destruction and overthrow it self Weigh the place accurately and perhaps thou wilt be of the same mind too Nay I may further add that perhaps this observation might not a little help if my eyes fail me not in discovering the method of the Author of the Book of the Revelations VERS XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. If they do these things in a green tree c. COnsult John Baptist's expression Matth. III. 10. now also the Ax is laid to the root of the Tree viz. then when the Jewish Nation was subdued to the Government of the Romans who were about to destroy it And if they deal thus with me a green and flourishing Tree what will they do with the whole Nation a dry and sapless trunck VERS XXXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They cast lots THEY cast lots for his seamless Coat John XIX 23 24. Moses is supposed to have ministred in such a Garment b b b b b b Taanith fol. 11. 2. In what kind of Garment did Moses attend the seven days of Consecration ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in a white Vestment Rabh Cahnah saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in a white Vestment wherein there was no seam The Gloss is The whole Garment was made of one thread and not as our cloths are which have their sleeves sewed to the body with a seam But he gives a very senseless reason why his Coat was without a seam viz. to avoid the suspition lest Moses should at any time hide any Consecrated Money within the seams of his Coat VERS XXXVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They brought him Vinegar VInegar was the common drink of the Roman Souldiers and hence those to whom the custody of Crucified persons was committed had it always ready by them c c c c c c Aelian Spartian In Pâsâân Nigr. Idem jussit vinum c. He commanded that no Souldier should drink Wine in their expedition but that every one should content himself with Vinegar d d d d d d Capitolin in Gordiano tertio Cujus viri c. The provision this man viz. Misitheus made in the Common-wealth was such that there never was any greater frontire City which had not Vinegar Bread-corn and Bacon and Barley and Chaff laid up for a whole year c. e e e e e e Trebell Poll. in Claudio Thou shalt give us as much Hay Chaff Vinegar Herbs and Grass as may suffice us Hence it may become less difficult to reconcile the Evangelists amongst themselves speaking of Wine given him mixt with Mirrhe and of Vinegar too viz. a twofold Cup one before he was nailed to the Cross i. e. of Wine mingled with Myrrhe the other of Vinegar while he hung
our Lord. Lift up your eyes saith he and look upon the fields c. pointing without doubt toward that numerous crowd of people that at that time flockt toward him out of the City q. d. Behold what an harvest of souls is here where there had been no sowing beforehand Now let us but reckon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the four months backward from the beginning of the barley-harvest or the middle of the month Nisan and we shall go back to the middle of the month Cisleu which will fall in with the beginning of our December or thereabout whence it will be easie to conjecture what Feast that was of which mention is made Chap. V. 1. VERS XLVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A certain Nobleman THIS Nobleman probably might be some Herodian such as we find mention'd Mat. XXII 16. not meerly a servant or attendant upon Herod the Tetrarch who reign'd at this time but one devoted to Herod's family out of principles of conscience and submission For we have elsewhere shewn the controversie in that Nation about the introducing of Herod the Great into the Government and whether there was not a spice of that quarrel in the differences of the Shammeans and the Hillelites might be a matter worth our enquiry but not in this place But suppose this Nobleman at present to have been an attendant upon Herod the Tetrarch setting aside that controversie and then the words of our Blessed Saviour v. 48. Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe may have this tendency and design in them The Jews they requir'd signs 1 Cor. I. 22. but Herod's Court was especially to be charg'd with this curiosity because they had heard John the Baptist yea even the Tetrarch himself with some kind of observance and veneration and yet because John shewed no sign did no miracle Joh. X. 41 he was the easilier thrown into prison and not believ'd for the story of his imprisonment immediately follows Compare that passage with Luk. XXIII 8. CHAP. V. VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After this there was a feast of the Iews THE other Evangelists speak but sparingly of Christs Acts in Judea this of ours something more copiously They mention nothing of the Passovers from his Baptism to his death excepting the very last but St. John points at them all The first he speaks of Chap. II. 13. the third Chap. VI. 4. the fourth Chap. XIII 1. and the second in this place It is true he does not call it by the name of the Passover here but only a feast in general However the words of our Saviour mention'd above Chap. IV. 35. do give some kind of light into this matter VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the Hebrew tongue THAT is in the language beyond Euphrates or the Chaldean Aruch upon the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is the language of those beyond the flood l l l l l l Schabh fol. 115. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã if the holy Books be written in the Egyptian or Medes or Hebrew language Gloss. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the Hebrew that is the language of those beyond Euphrates m m m m m m Gloss. in Sanhedr fol. 21. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Hebrew writing is that of those beyond the river So that by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they mean the Chaldee language which from their return out of Babylon had been their mother tongue and they call it the language of those beyond Euphrates although used also in common with the Syrians on this side Euphrates that with respect to the Jews they might distinguish it from the ancient holy tongue q. d. not the tongue they used before they went into captivity but that which they brought along with them from beyond Euphrates The Jews to whom this was the mother tongue were called Hebrews and from thence are distinguisht from the Hellenists which every ones knows Whence St. Paul should call himself an Hebrew 2 Cor. XI 22. when he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia might deserve our consideration ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Having five Proches It mightily obtains amongst some that in Bethesda the sacrifices were washt before they offer'd them but here I am a little at a stnd For I. It is very difficult proving that the Sacrifices were washt at all either here or in any place else before they were offer'd The Holy Scriptures are wholly silent as to any such thing nor as far as I have yet found do the Traditional writings speak of it It is confest the entrails were washt after the beast had been slain and for this service there was set apart in the very Temple ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the washing room But for their bodies their skins or backs whether they were washt before they were slain is justly questionable II. Amongst all the blemishes and defects whereby the beast was render'd unfit for sacrifice we do not read that this was ever reckon'd that they had not been washed Do we believe that Abraham washt the Ram caught in thickets Gen. XXII before he sacrific'd it It is said indeed n n n n n n Bemidbar rabba fol. 268 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That he took it and wiped it But this was after he had taken off the skin He took it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and taking off the skin he said Behold this O Lord as if the skin of thy servant Isaac was taken off before thee He wiped it Gloss. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he wiped it with a sponge and said Behold this as if Isaac was wip'd He burnt it and said c. I. I would therefore judg rather that men and not beasts were washed in the Pool of Bethesda I mean the unclean that by washing they might be purify'd For whoever considers the numbers of the unclean that did every day stand in need of being washed and whoever would a little turn over the Talmudick Treatises about Purifications and the gatherings of waters for those purposes might easily perswade himself that both Bethesda and all the other Pools in Jerusalem did serve rather for the washing of men and not of beasts I would further judg that the Syriack Interpreter when he renders that passage There was at Jerusalem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a certain place of Baptistery that he intended rather the washing unclean persons than beasts II. o o o o o o Targ. in 1 Chron. XI 22. There was not any like to Benaiah the Son of Jehojadah under the second Temple ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he one day struck his foot against a dead Tortoise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and went down to Siloam where breaking all the little particles of hail he washed himself This was on the shortest day in winter the tenth of the Month Tebeth I do not concern my self for the truth of this story but must take notice what he hints that telleth it viz. that in such a case
Israel The Lord thy God is one Lord. And so being blind as to the mystery of the Trinity are the more hardened to deny that Our Saviour strenuously asserts here the God-head of the Son or Messiah namely that he hath the same power with the Father the same honour due to him as to the Father that he hath all things in common with the Father and hence he makes this reply upon them about healing on the Sabbath my Father worketh on the Sabbath day so do I also VERS XIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Son can do nothing of himself THAT is The Messiah can do nothing of himself For he is a Servant and sent by his Father so that he must work not of his own will and pleasure but his Father's Isai. XLII 1. Behold my servant Targ. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold my Servant the Messiah So Kemch in loc and St. Paul Philip. II. 7. The Jew himself however he may endeavour to elude the sense of that phrase The Son of God yet cannot deny the truth of this Maxim That the Messiah can do nothing but according to the will and prescription of his Father that sent him Which he also will expound not of the weakness and impotency but the perfection and obedience of the Son that he so doth VERS XXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The hour cometh and now is when the dead shall hear c. THE Jews as we have said before looked for the Resurrection of the dead at the coming of Messiah and that truly and with great reason though it was not to be in their sense The Vision of Ezekiel about the dry bones living Chap. XXXVII and those words of Isaiah thy dead men shall live c. Chap. XXVI 20. suggesting to them some such thing although they grope exceedingly in the dark as to the true interpretation of this matter That of R. Eliczer is well enough n n n n n n Chetub âol 3. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The people of the Earth the Gentiles do not live which somewhat agrees with that of the Apostle Ephes. II 2. Ye were dead in trespasses and sins Nor does that of Jeremiah Bar Abba sound much differently o o o o o o Sanhedr fol. 92. 2. The dry bones Ezek. XXXVII are the Sons of men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in whom is not the moisture of the Law It is true many bodies of the Saints arose when Christ himself arose Matth. XXVII 52. But as to those places in Scripture which hint the Resurrection of the dead at his coming I would not understand them so much of these as the raising the Gentiles from their spiritual death of sin when they lay in ignorance and Idolatry to the light and life of the Gospel Nor need we wholly expound Ezekiel's dry bones recovered to life of the return of the Tribes of Israel from their Captivity though that may be included in it but rather or together with that the resuscitation of the Israel of God that is those Gentiles that were to believe in the Messiah from their spiritual death The words in the Revel XX. 5. This is the first Resurrection do seem to confirm this Now what and at what time is this Resurrection When the great Angel of the Covenant Christ had bound the old Dragon with the Chains of the Gospel and shut him up that he should no more seduce the Nations p p p p p p ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by lying Wonders Oracles and Divinations and his False-gods as formerly he had done that is when the Gospel being published amongst the Heathen Nations had laid open all the devices and delusions of Satan and had restored them from the death of sin and ignorance to a true state of life indeed This was the first Resurrection That our Saviour in this place speaks of this Resurrection I so much the less doubt because that Resurrction he here intends he plainly distinguishes it from the last and general Resurrection of the dead vers 28 29. this first Resurrection from that last which he points therefore to as it were with his finger the hour is coming and now is c. VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To execute judgment also because he is the Son of man DAN VII 13. Behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds and came to the Antient of days and there was given him dominion and glory c. To this our blessed Saviour seems to have respect in these words as the thing it self plainly shews R. Solomon upon the place One like the Son of man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is the King the Messiah R. Saadias ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is the Messiah our righteousness When our Saviour declared before the Sanhedrin Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds they all said art thou Christ the Son of the blessed God by which they imply that the Son of God and Christ are convertible terms as also are Christ and the Son of Man And it plainly shews that their eyes were intent up-this place Art thou that Son of Man spoken of in Daniel who is the Son of God the Messiah So did Christ in these words look that way VERS XXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As I hear I judge HE seems to allude to a custom amongst them q q q q q q Sanhedr cap. ult hal â The Judge of an inferior Court if he doubts in any matter goes up to Jerusalem and takes the determination of the Sanhedrin and according to that he judgeth VERS XXXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A burning and shining light HE speaks according to the vulgar dialect of that Nation who were wont to call any person famous for life or knowledge ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Candle r r r r r r Beresh rabba fol. 95. 4. Shuah the Father-in-law of Judah Gen. XXXVIII was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Candle or light of the place where he lived The Gloss is One of the most famous men in the City inlightning their eyes hence the title given to the Rabbins ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Candle of the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lamp of light VERS XXXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Search the Scriptures THIS seems not to be of the imperative but indicative mood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye search the Scriptures and in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come to me that ye might have life What ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã means is not unknown to any that have but dipt into Jewish Authors It denotes a something more narrow search into the Scriptures something between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an enquiry into the literal and Cabbalistical sense of the words as R. Bechai in every leaf shews by several
almost with one consent do note that this story of the woman taken in adultery was not in some ancient Copies and whiles I am considering upon what accident this should be there are two little stories in Eusebius that come to mind The one we have in these words a a a a a a Hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. ult ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He Papias tells us also another History concerning a woman accus'd of many crimes before our Lord which History indeed the Gospel according to the Hebrews makes mention of All that do cite that story do suppose he means this adulteress The other he tells us in his life of Constantine b b b b b b Lib. 4. cap. 36. he brings in Constantine writing thus to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. I think good to signifie to your prudence that you would take care that fifty Volumes of those Scriptures whose preparation and use you know so necessary for the Church and which beside may be easily read and carryed about may by very skilful pen-men be written out in fair parchment So indeed the Latin Interpreter but may we not by the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã understand the Gospels compacted into one body by way of Harmony the reason of this conjecture is twofold partly those Eusebian Canons form'd into such a kind of Harmony partly because cap. 37. he tells us that having finisht his work he sent to the Emperour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã threes and fours which words if they are not to be understood of the Evangelists sometimes three sometimes four the greater number including the less imbody'd together by such an harmony I confess I cannot tell what to make of them But be it so that it must not be understood of such an Harmony and grant we further that the Latin Interpreter hits him right when he supposes Eusebius to have pickt out here and there according to his pleasure and judgment some parts of the Holy Scriptures to be transcribed surely he would never have omitted the Evangelists the noblest and the most profitable part of the New Testament If therefore he ascrib'd this story of the Adulteress to the Trisler Papias or at least to the Gospel according to the Hebrews only without doubt he would never insert it in Copies transcribed by him Hence possibly might arise the omission of it in some Copies after Eusebius his times It is in Copies before his age viz. in Ammonius Tatianus c. VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He went to the mount of Olives BUT whether to the Town of Bethany or to some Booth fixed in that mount is uncertain For because of the infinite multitude that had swarm'd together at those Feasts it is probable many of them had made themselves Tents about the City that they might not be too much streightned within the walls though they kept within the bounds still of a Sabbaths-days journey c c c c c c Gloss. in Pesachin fol. 95. 2. And thou shalt turn in the morning and go into thy Tents Deut. XVI 7. The first night of the Feast they were bound to lodg within the City after that it was lawful for them to abide without the walls but it must be within the bounds of a Sabbath-days journey whereas therefore it is said Thou shalt go into thy Tents this is the meaning of it Thou shalt go into thy Tents that are without the walls of Jerusalem but by no means into thine own house d d d d d d Vid. Aben Ezra in Deut. XVI It is said Chap. VII That every one went to his own house ver 53. upon which words let that be a Comment that we meet with e e e e e e Pische Tosaphoth in Sanhedr Artic. 34. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After the daily evening sacrifice the fathers of the Sanhedrin went home The eighth day therefore being ended the History of which we have in Chap. VII the following night was out of the compass of the Feast so that they had done the dancings of which we have spoken before The Evangelist therefore does not without cause say that every one went to his own house for otherwise they must have gone to those dancings if the next day had not been the Sabbath VERS III. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A woman taken in Adultery OUR Saviour calls that generation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã An Adulterous Generation Mat. XII 39. See also Jam. IV. 4. which indeed might be well enough understood in its literal and proper sense f f f f f f Sotah fol. 47. 1. From the time that murderers have multiplied amongst us the beheading of the Heifer hath ceased and since the encrease of Adultery the bitter waters have been out of use g g g g g g Maimon in Satah cap. 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Since the time that Adultery so openly prevailed under the second Temple the Sanhedrin abrogated that way of tryal by the bitter water grounding it upon what is written I will not visit your Daughters when they shall go a whoring nor your Wives when they shall commit Adultery The Gemarists say that Rabban Jochanan ben Zacchai was the Author of this Counsel he lived at this very time and was of the Sanhedrin perhaps present amongst those that set this Adulterous Woman before Christ. For there is some reason to suppose that the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Scribes and Pharisees here mentioned were no other than the Fathers of the Sanhedein VERS V. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That such should be stoned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Such Who what all Adulteresses or all taken in Adultery ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the very act There is a third qualification still For the condition of the Adulteress is to be considered whether she was a married Woman or betrothed only God punisheth Adultery by death Levit. XX. 10. but the Masters of Traditions say That wherever death is simply mentioned in the Law that is where the kind of death is not expressly prescribed there it is to be supposed no other than strangling Only they except ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Daughter of an Israelite if she commit Adultery after she is married must be strangled if only betrothed she must be stoned A Priest's Daughter if she commit Adultery when married must be stoned if only betrothed she must be burnt * * * * * * Sanhedr fol. 51. 2. Hence we may conjecture what the condition of this Adulteress was either she was an Israelitess not yet married but betrothed only or else she was a Priests Daughter married rather the former because they say Moses in the Law hath commanded us that such should be stoned See Deut. XXII 21. But as to the latter there is no such command given by Moses VERS VIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Iesus stooped down and wrote on the ground
to me Or rather according to the letter deserve something by me i. e. acquire something of merit to your self by the alms you give me ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã O you whoever have a tender heart do your self good by me ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Look back and see what I have been look upon me now and see what I am g g g g g g Vajicra rabb fol. 204. 3. VERS XIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They brought him to the Pharisees THE Pharisees in this Evangelist are generally to be understood the Sanhedrin nor indeed do we find in St. John any mention of the Sadducees at all Consult Joh. I. 24. IV. 1. VIII 3. XI 46 c. h h h h h h Joseph Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The Pharisees have such a sway amongst the people that if they should say any thing against the King or High Priest they would be believ'd And a little after The Pharisees have given out many rules to the people from the Traditions of the fathers which are not written in the Laws of Moses and for that very reason the Sadducees rejected them saying they ought to account nothing as law or obligatory but what is deliver'd by Moses and what hath no other authority but tradition only ought not to be observ'd And hence have arisen questions and mighty controversies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Sadducees drawing after them the richer sort only whiles the multitude follow'd and adhered to the Pharisees Hence we may apprehend the reason why the whole Sanhedrin is sometime comprehended under the name of the Pharisees because the common people and the main body of that Nation were wholly at the management of the Pharisees govern'd by their decrees and laws But there was once a Sanhedrin that consisted chiefly of the Sect of the Sadducees and what was done then i i i i i i Sanhedr fol. 52. 1. R. Eliezer ben Zadok saith there was a time when they burnt a Priests daughter for whoredom compassing her about with bundles of young twiggs but the answer is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there was not a Sanhedrin at that time that was well skill'd Rabh Joseph saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that Sanhedrin was made up of Sadducees It is worth our taking notice of this passage VERS XXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He should be put out of the Synagogue SO Chap. XVI 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã granting that this is spoken of Excommunication the question may be whether it is to be understood of the ordinary Excommunication that is from this or that Synagogue or the extraordinary that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a cutting off from the whole Congregation of Israel k k k k k k Piske haresh in Moed-Katon cap. 3. art 23. Whoever is excommunicated by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the president of the Sanhedrin is cut off from the whole Congregation of Israel and if so then much more if it be by the vote of the whole Sanhedrin And it seems by that speech ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They cast him out v. 34. that word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã out was added for such a signification But suppose we it might be understood of the ordinary Excommunication among all the four and twenty reasons of Excommunication which should it be for which this was decreed viz. that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue The Elders of the Sanhedrin perhaps would answer what upon other occaons is frequently said and done by them It is decreed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the necessity of the time VERS XXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We are Moses Disciples THE man as it should seem had in gentle and perswasive terms askt them Will ye also be his Disciples as if he heartily wisht they would But they as ruggedly Be you so We are Moses his Disciples l l l l l l Joma fol. 4. 1. They deliver'd two Disciples of the wise men into the hands of the chief Priest that they might instruct him about the rites and usages of the day of expiation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they were of the Disciples of Moses And who are these Disciples of Moses it follows ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the very phrase excludes the Sadducees The Reader may observe by the way these Disciples of Moses his Disciples with what reverence they treat him m m m m m m Vajicra rab fol. 179. 1. Moses was angry about three things and the tradition was accordingly hid from him I. About the Sabbath Exod. XVI 20. while he was angry he forgot to recite to them the traditions about the Sabbath II. About the vessels of metal Numb XXXI 14. whiles he was angry he forgot to recite to them the traditions about the vessels of metal III. About the mourner whiles he was wroth the tradition was hid from him which forbad the mourner to eat of the Holy things Did Moses think it unlawful for the mourner to have eaten of the Holy things when he spake to Eleazar and Ithamar while they were in the very act of bewailing the death of their two Brethren Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin-offering in the Holy place Yes but in his passion he forgot both the tradition and himself too Excellent Disciples indeed that can thus chastise your great Master at pleasure as a man very hasty apt to be angry and of a slender memory let him hence forward learn from you to temperate his passions and quicken his memory You have a memory indeed that have recover'd the tradition which he himself had forgot VERS XXXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And they cast him out I Shall note something of this kind of phrase at Chap. XVI 2. Thus doth this man commence the first Confessor in the Christan Church as John the Baptist had been the first Martyr in it He suffer'd Excommunication and that from the whole Congregation of Israel for the name of Christ. It seems something strange that they did not Excommunicate Jesus himself but they were contriving more bloody things against him CHAP. X. AMONGST all the places in the Old Testament which mention this great shepherd there is no one doth so exactly describe him and his Pastoral work as the XIth Chap. of the Prophet Zachary We will fetch a few things from thence that may serve to explain the passage now in hand I. He describes this great Shepherd manifesting himself and applying himself to his great Pastoral office when the Nation was now upon the brink of destruction the Prophet had foretold their ruin and brings in this Shepherd undertaking the care of his sheep lest they should perish too As to the first ver Open thy doors O Lebanon take the Jews own comment upon it who yet do by all the skill they can endeavour to take off the whole Prophesie from those proper
doubt IT is not ill rendred How long dost thou suspend our mind although not an exact Translation according to the letter But what kind of doubt and suspension of mind was this Was it that they hoped this Jesus was the Messiah or that they rather feared he was so It seems they rather feared than hoped it For whereas they looked for a Messias that should prove a mighty Conquerour should deliver the people from the Heathen yoke and should crown himself with all earthly glory and saw Jesus infinite degrees below such pomp yet by his miracles giving such fair specimens of the Messias they could not but hang in great suspence whether such a Messiah were to be wished for or no. VERS XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Then the Iews took up stones again THE Blasphemer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by judicial process of the Sanhedrin was to be stoned which process they would imitate here without judgment l l l l l l Sanhedr cap. 7. hal 1. These are the criminals that must be stoned He that lieth with his own Mother or with the Wife of his Father He that Blasphemes or commits Idolatry Now however the Rabbins differed in the definition of Blasphemy or a Blasphemer yet this all of them agreed in as unquestionable Blasphemy that which ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã denies the foundation This they firmly believed Jesus did and none could perswade them to the contrary when he affirmed I and my Father are one A miserable besotted Nation who above all persons or things wished and looked for the Messiah and yet was perfectly ignorant what kind of a Messiah he should be VERS XXXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. If he called them Gods c. THE Jews interpret those words of the Psalmist I have said ye are Gods to a most ridiculous sense m m m m m m Avodah Zarah fol. 5. 1. unless our Fathers had sinned we had never come into the world as it is written I have said ye are Gods and the Children of the most high But ye have corrupted your doings therefore ye shall dye like men And a little after Israel had not received the Law only that the Angel of death might not rule over them as it is said I have said ye are Gods but ye have corrupted your doings therefore ye shall dye like men The sense is if those who stood before Mount Sinai had not sinned in the matter of the Golden Calf they had not begot Children nor had been subject to death but had been like the Angels So the Gloss. If our Fathers had not sinned by the Golden Calf we had never come into the world for they would have been like the Angels and had never begot Children The Psalmist indeed speaks of the Magistracy to whom the word of God hath arrived by an express dispensation and diploma ordaining and deputing them to the Government as the whole web and contexture of the Psalm doth abundantly shew But if we apply the words as if they were spoken by our Saviour according to the common Interpretation received amongst them they fitly argue thus If he said they were Angels or Gods to whom the Law and word of God came on Mount Sinai as you conceive is it any Blasphemy in me then whom God in a peculiar manner hath sanctified and sent into the world that I might declare his word and will if I say that I am the Son of God VERS XL. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where Iohn at first Baptized THAT is Bethabarah For the Evangelist speaks according to his own History Which to the judicious Reader needs no proof CHAP. XI VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lazarus SO in the Jerusalem Talmud ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã R. Lazar for R. Eleazar For in the Hierusalem dialect it is not unusual in some words that begin with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aleph to cut off that letter As. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã What saith the Master for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Bar Ba for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Bar abba ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Be R. Bon for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Be R. Abon So very frequently ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lazar for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Eleazar a a a a a a Taanith fol. 68. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã R. Lazar Ben R. Jose b b b b b b Chagigah fol. 78 4. 80. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã R. Lazar Ben Jacob. c c c c c c Kiddushin fol. 60. 2. R. Lazar the Disciple of R. Chajia Rubba Who also are sometimes called by their name not abbreviated d d d d d d Sotah f. 23. R. Eleazar ben Jacob. * * * * * * Ibid. f. 20. 2. R. Eleazar ben Jose ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Martha This name of Martha is very frequent in the Talmudick Authors e e e e e e Hieros Schab fol. 3. 4. Isaac bar Samuel bar Martha f f f f f f Bab. Javamoth f. 120. 1. Abba bar Martha the same with Abba bar Minjomi g g g g g g Ibid. cap. 6. hal 4. Joshua ben Gamla married ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Martha the Daughter of Baithus She was a very rich Widow h h h h h h Juchas fol. 57. 2. She is called also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary the Daughter of Baithus with this story of her i i i i i i Eâhah rabbâbathi fol. 67. 2. Mary the Daughter of Baithus whom Joshua ben Gamla married he being preferred by the King to the High Priestood She had a mind upon a certain day of expiation to see how her Husband performed his office So they laid Tapestry all along from the door of her own House to the Temple that her foot might not touch the ground R. Eleazar ben R. Zadok saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So let me see the consolation of Israel as I saw her bound to the tails of Arabian Horses by the hair of her head and forced to run from Jerusalem to Lydda I could not but repeat that Versicle the tender and delicate Woman in thee c. Deuter. XXVIII 56. k k k k k k Succah fol. 52. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Martha the Daughter of Baisuth whether Baisuth and Baithus were convertible or whether it was a mistake of the Transcriber let him that thinks fit make the enquiry whose Son was a mighty strong man among the Priests VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It was Mary which anointed c. THAT is Which had anointed the Lord formerly For I. It is fit the Aorist should have its full force Whoever will not grant this let him give a reason why Bethany which was Lazarus his Town should not be called by his name but said the Town of Mary and her Sister Martha Was it not because those names had been
exercise his power and strength to the utmost of what he either could or would because he knew his Champion Christ was strong enough not only to bear his assaults but to overcome them III. He was to overcome not by his Divine power for how easie a matter were it for an omnipotent God to conquer the most potent created Being but his victory must be obtain'd by his obedience his righteousness and his holiness IV. Here then was the rise of that trouble and agony of Christs soul that he was presently to grapple with the utmost rage of the Devil the Divine power in the mean time suspending its activity and leaving him to manage the conflict with those weapons of obedience and righteousness only It was about this therefore that that petition of our Saviour and the answer from Heaven was concern'd which may be gather'd from what follows ver 31. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out Now is my soul troubled saith he and what shall I say It is not convenient for me to desire to be saved from this hour for for this very purpose did I come that therefore which I would beg of thee O Father is that thou wouldst glorifie thy name thy promise thy decree against the Devil lest he should boast and insult The answer from Heaven to this prayer is I have already glorify'd my name in that victory thou formerly obtainedst over his temptations in the wilderness and I will glorifie my name again in the victory thou shalt have in this combat also Luk. IV. 13. When the Devil had ended all his temptations he departed from him for a season He went away baffled then but now he returns more insolent and much more to be conquer'd And thus now the third time by a witness and voice from Heaven was the Messiah honoured according to his Kingly office As he had been according to his Priestly office when he enter'd upon his Ministry at his Baptism Mat. III. 17. and according to his Prophetick office when he was declar'd to be him that was to be heard Mat. XVII 5. compared with Deut. XVIII 15. VERS XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Prince of this world ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Prince of this world a sort of phrase much us'd by the Jewish Writers and what they mean by it we may gather from such passages as these l l l l l l Sanbedr fol. 94. 1. When God was about to make Hezekiah the Messiah ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Prince of the world to him O eternal Lord perform the desire of this just one Where the Gloss is The Prince of this world is the Angel into whose hands the whole world is delivered Who this should be the Masters tell out m m m m m m Bemidb. rabâ fol. 277. 4. When the Law was deliver'd God brought the Angel of death and said unto him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The whole world is in thy power excepting this Nation only the Israelites which I have chosen for my self R. Eliezer the Son of R. Jose the Galilean saith The Angel of death said before the Holy blessed God I am made in the world in vain The Holy blessed God answered and said I have created thee that thou shouldst overlook ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Nations of the world excepting this Nation over which thou hast no power l l l l l l Beresh rabb fol. 86. 4. If the Nations of the world should conspire against Israel the Holy blessed God saith to them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã your Prince could not stand before Jacob c. Now the name of the Angel of Death amongst them is Samael m m m m m m Targ. Jonath in Gen. III. 6. And the Woman saw ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Samael the Angel of death and she was afraid c. The places are infinite where this name occurs amongst the Rabbins and they account him the Prince of the Devils n n n n n n Ellâh haddâbharin rabba fol. 302. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The wicked Angel Samael is the Prince of all Satans The Angel of death ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He who hath the power of death that is the Devil Heb. II. 14. They call indeed Beelzebul the Prince of the Devils Matth. XII but that is under a very peculiar notion as I have shown in that place They conceive it to be Samael that deceived Eve So the Targumist before And so Pirke R. Eliezer o o o o o o Cap. 13. The Serpent what things soever he did and what words soever he uttered he did and uttered all from the suggestion of Samael Some of them conceive that it is he that wrastled with Jacob. Hence that which we have quoted already The Holy blessed God saith to the Nations of the World your Prince could not stand before him Your Prince that is the Prince of the Nations whom the Rabbins talk of as appearing to Jacob ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the shape of Archilatro or a chief Robber And R. Chaninah bar Chama saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that he was the Prince of Esau i. e. the Prince of Edom. Now the Prince of Edom was Samael p p p p p p Gloss in Maccoth fol. 12. 1. They have a fiction that the seventy Nations of the world were committed to the government of so many Angels they will hardly allow the Gentiles any good ones which opinion the Greek Version favours in Deut. XXXII 8. When the most high divided the Nations into seventy say they when he separated the Sons of Adam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God Over these Princes they conceive one Monarch above them all and that is Samael the Angel of Death the Arch-Devil Our Saviour therefore speaks after their common way when he calls the Devil the Prince of this World and the meaning of the phrase is made the more plain if we set it in opposition to that Prince whose Kingdom is not of this world that is the Prince of the world to come Consult Heb. II. 5. How far that Prince of the Nations of the world had exercised his tyranny amongst the Gentiles leading them captive into Sin and Perdition needs no explaining Our Saviour therefore observing at this time some of the Greek that is the Gentiles pressing hard to see him he joyfully declares that the time is coming on apace wherein this Prince must be unseated from his throne and tyranny And I when I shall be lifted up upon the cross and by my death shall destroy him who hath the power of Death then will I draw all Nations out of his dominion and power after me VERS XXXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have heard out of the Law OUT of the Law that is as the phrase is opposed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the words
lookt toward one another but when they did not then they turn'd their faces toward the walls Thus Onkelos comments upon this place of the Chronicles I hardly think he Targumizeth on the Book for the Targum at least that is in our hands renders it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã both the Cherubins are made of lilly-work VERS XVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended c. THESE words relate to what he had spoken formerly about sending the Comforter and that he would not leave them comfortless c. And this probably Mary Magdalen's mind was intent upon when she fell at his feet and would have embraced them But he I must first ascend to my Father before I can bestow those things upon you which I have promised do not therefore touch me and detain me upon any expectation of that kind but wait for my Ascension rather and go and tell the same things to my Brethren for their encouragement VERS XXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted HE had formerly given them a power of binding and loosing and therefore probably bestows something more upon them now than what he had conferr'd before For I. It would seem a little incongruous for our Saviour to use an action so new and unwonted such as was his breathing upon them to vest them only with that power which he had before given them II. The power of binding and loosing was concern'd only in the articles and decisions of the Law this power which he now gives them reacht to the sins of mankind That power concern'd the Doctrines this the persons of men Now that we may understand the words that are before us let us a little consider what is said Luk. XXIV 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Which words we may suppose he spoke before he utter'd what is in this verse And so might there not upon the occasion of those words arise some such scruple as this in the Apostles breasts Is it so indeed must remission of sins be Preached to those in Jerusalem who have stain'd themselves with the blood of the Messiah himself Yes saith he For whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them To this those words of his upon the Cross have some reference Luk. XXIII 34. Father forgive them c. And indeed upon what foundation with what confidence could the Apostles have preacht remission of sins to such wretched men who had so wickedly so cruelly murder'd their own Lord the Lord of life unless authoriz'd to it by a peculiar commission granted to them from their Lord himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whose soever ye retain they are retained Besides the negative included in these words that is If you do not remit them they shall not be remitted there is something superadded that is positive That is I. There is granted to them a power of smiting the rebellious with present death or some bodily stroke II. A power of delivering them over to Satan Whence had St. Peter that power of striking Ananias and Sapphira with so fatal a bolt whence St. Paul that of striking Elymas blind whence of delivering over Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan if not from this very commission given them by Christ Christ himself never exercis'd this power himself it was not one person whom he stroke either with death or any afflictive disease some indeed he raised when they had been dead and infinite numbers of the sick and diseased whom he cured He snatcht several from the power of the Devils he deliver'd none to them That the Apostles therefore might be capable of performing things of so high a nature it was necessary they should be backt and encourag'd by a peculiar authority which if we find not in this clause Whose soever sins ye retain they are retained where should we look for it And therefore when he endows his Apostles with a power which he never thought fit to exercise in his own person no wonder if he does it by a singular and unusual action and that was breathing upon them ver 22. But we must know that whereas amongst other mighty powers conferr'd we reckon that as one viz. delivering over unto Satan we are far from meaning nothing else by it but Excommunication What the Jews themselves meant by that kind of phrase let us see by one instance d d d d d d Succah fol. 53. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Those two men of Cush that stood before Solomon Elihoreph and Ahijah the Scribes Sons of Shausha On a certain day Solomon saw the Angel of Death weeping he said why weepest thou He answer'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Because these two Cushites entreat me that they may continue here ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Solomon deliver'd them over to the Devil who brought them to the borders of Luz and when they were come to the borders of Luz they dy'd Gloss. He calls them Cushites Ironically because they were very beautiful They entreat me that they might continue here For the time of their death was now come But the Angel of death could not take their souls away because it had been decreed that they should not die but at the Gates of Luz Solomon therefore deliver'd them over ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Devils for he reign'd over the Devils as it is written And Solomon sat upon the Throne of the Lord for he reigned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã over those things that are above and those things that are below Josephus also makes mention of the power that Solomon had over Devils e e e e e e Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God taught him an art against Demons The belief of either of these stories is at the liberty of the Reader Only from the former we may make this observation that a power of delivering over to Satan was even in the Jews opinion divine and miraculous We acknowledg this to have been in the Apostles and in the Apostles only and I know no where if not in the words we are now treating of from whence otherwise the original of this power and authority can be deriv'd III. It seems further that at this very time was granted to the Apostles a commission to confer the Holy Spirit on those whom they found qualify'd and that in these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost i. e. Receive ye it to distribute it to others For although it cannot be deny'd but that they receiv'd the Holy Ghost for other reasons also and to other ends of which we have already discours'd yet is not this great end to be excluded which seem'd the highest and noblest endowment of all viz. that Christ breathing upon them inspir'd them with the Holy
Text agrees with this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He finisht his work on the sixth day c. You will say the Greek Version translated according to the Samaritan Text. I say the Samaritan Text was framed according to this Greek Version Who shall determine this matter between us That which goes current amongst the Jews makes for me viz. that this alteration was made by the Seventy two h h h h h h Megill fol. 9. 1. Massech Sopher cap. 1. But be it all one which followeth the other in this agreement we next produce in the same Chapter Gen. II. 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord God had formed out of the ground The Greek words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord God formed as yet out of the ground The Samaritan Text agrees ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We will not enquire here which follows which but we rather complain of the boldness of both the one to add the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as yet which seems to perswade us that God after he had created Adam and Eve did over and above create something anew which as yet to me is a thing unheard of and to whom is it not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That there is no resurrection In my notes upon Matth. III. 9. I take notice out of the Gloss upon Bab. Beracoth if he be of any credit that there were Hereticks even in the days of Ezra who said that there is no world but this which indeed falls in with Sadducism though the name of Sadducee was not known then nor a long time after But as to their Heresie when they first sprung up they seem principally and in the first place to have denyed the immortality of the Soul and so by consequence the resurrection of the body I know that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Jewish Writers is taken infinite times for the Resurrection from the dead but it is very often taken also for the life of the dead So as the one denotes the resurrection of the body the other the immortality of the Soul In the beginning of the Talmudick Chapter Helec where there is a discourse on purpose concerning the life of the world to come they collect several arguments to prove ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the life of the dead out of the Law for so let me render it here rather than the resurrection of the dead And the reason of it we may judge from that one agrument which they bring instead of many others viz. i i i i i i Sanhedr fol. 90. 2. Some do say that it is proved out of this Scripture He saith unto them But ye did cleave unto the Lord your God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are alive every one of you this day Deut. IV. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is plain that you are now alive when Moses speaks these things but he means this that in the day wherein all the world is dead ye shall live That is ye also though dead shall live which rather speaks out the immortality of the Soul after death than the resurrection of the body So our Saviours answer to the Sadducees Matth. XXII 31 32. from those words I am the God of Abraham c. is fitted directly to confute their opinion against the immortality of the Soul but it little either plainly or directly so proves the resurrection of the body but that the Sadducees might cavil at that way of proof And in that saying of the Sadducees themselves concerning the labourer working all the day and not receiving his wages at night there is a plain intimation that they especially considered of the state of the Soul after death and the non-resurrection of the body by consequence Let the words therefore be taken in this sense The Sadducees say Souls are not immortal and that there are neither Angels nor Spirits and then the twofold branch which our sacred Historian speaks of will the more clearly appear when he saith but the Pharisees confess both It is doubtful from the words of Josephus whether the Essenes acknowledge the resurrection of the body when in the mean time they did most heartily own the immortality of the Soul k k k k k k Iâs de excidâ lib. 2. c. 12. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This opinion prevails amongst them that the body indeed is corruptible and the matter of it doth not endure but Souls endure for ever immortal So that the question chiefly is concerned about the Souls Imortality ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Neither Angel nor Spirit They deny that the soul is immortal and they deny any spirits in the mean time perhaps not denying God to be a Spirit and that there is a Spirit of God mentioned Gen. I. 2. And it is a question whether they took not the occasion of their opinion from that deep silence they observe in Moses concerning the Creation of Angels or Spirits or from something else There is frequent mention in him of the apparitions of Angels and what can the Sadducee say to this Think you the Samaritans were Sadducees If so it is very observable that the Samaritan Interpreter doth once and again render the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Angels So Gen. III. 5. Ye shall be as Elohim Samar ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye shall be as Angels Chap. V. 1. In the similitude of God Samar ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the similitude of Angels So also Chap. IX 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the similitude of Angels And whereever there is mention of Angels in the Hebrew Text the Samaritan Text retains the word Angels too Did not the Sadducees believe there were Angels once but their very being was for ever vanisht that they vanisht with Moses and were no more Did they believe that the soul of Moses was mortal and perisht with his body and that the Angels died with him otherwise I know not by what art or wit they could evade what they meet with in the Books of Moses concerning Angels that especially in Gen. XXXII 1. You will say perhaps that by Angels might be meant good motions and affections of the mind The Pharisees themselves do sometimes call evil affections by the name of Devils ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an evil affection is Satan But they do not call good affections Angels nor can ye your selves apply that passage so The Angels of God met him and he called the name of that place Mahanaim i. e. two Camps or two hosts One of those Camps consisted of the multitude of his own family and will you have the other to consist of good affections If the Sadducees should grant that Angels were ever created Moses not mentioning their Creation in his History I should think they acknowledged the being of Angels in the same sense that we do in the whole story of the Pentateuch but that they conceived that after the History of
that they appoynt them a set time of Appearance Because it is written Be ye present to morrow Whence is it that it is from time to time Because it is written There they called Pharaoh King of Egypt but a noise he passed the time appoynted Jerm XLVI 17. Whence is it that they Shammatize Because it is written Curse ye Meroz Whence is it that they Anathematize Because it is written Curse ye Whence is it that he is cursed that eats and drinks with him and stands within four cubits of him Because it is written ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The inhabitants thereof as one would say Sedentes ejus or those that sit with her Judg. V. 23. Whence is it that they publish his crimes in the Synagogue Because it is written Because they came not to the help of the Lord. Whence is it that they confiscate his goods Because it is written whosoever comes not within three days according to the Councel of the Princes and Elders all his substance shall be forfeited Ezra X. 8. Whence is it that we contend with him and curse him and strike him and pull off his hair and abjure him Because it is written And I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled off their hair Nehem. XIII 25. Whence is it that we tye and bind him The Gloss is His hands and feet and to a pillar to be whipped Because it is written Either to death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment Ezr. VII 26. You see excommunication among the Jews drawn out by their own pensil from head to foot And now whether this themselves being Judges were delivering into the hands of Satan is matter of further enquiry and more obscure inquiry too Any such saying of Excommunication does not at all occur in terms and whether it occur in sense let the Reader judge from those things that are spoken of the condition of the person excommunicate I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã u u u u u u Pisk ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Moed Katon cap. 3. This is the condition of a person excommunicate They eat not nor drink with him nor sit within four cubits of him his Wife and Children and Servants being excepted to whom it was permitted to sit by him When they give thanks at meat they joyn him not in the thanks nor admit him to any thing which wants the Ten men But any may talk with him and he hires workmen and he is hird himself for a workman II. As to those things which respect Religion First Persons excommunicate went to the Temple as well as others x x x x x x Middoth c. 2. hal 2. All that go into the Temple according to the custom go in the right hand way and go about and go out the left hand way except him to whom any thing happens who walked about to the left hand Being asked What is the matter with you that you go about to the left he answered Because I am excommunicate ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To whom the other replyed He that dwells in this house put it into thy heart to hearken to the words of thy companions Secondly y y y y y y Orach Chaijim in the place before It is a Tradition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He thatis excommunicate expounds the Traditions and they expound to him He that is Anathematized expounds not to others nor do thy expound to him but he expounds by himself that he forget not his learning And again z z z z z z Pisk ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the place above Art 51. It is permitted the Excommunicate person to deal in the Law But to the person Anathematized it is forbidden But he expounds by himself Thirdly he that turns over the Talmudical Authors shall very often observe that a person Excommunicate and he that mourns for the dead are subject to the same conditions in very many things yea the Mourner to worse conditions The a a a a a a Piske Harosh in the place above Art 51. Mourner and the Person Excommunicate are forbidden to have their hair cut The Mourner is bound to vail his head the Excommunicate not The Mourner on the first day is deprived of his Philacteries The Excommunicate not The Mourner is forbidden salutation To the Excommunicate it is permitted much more is it lawful to talk with him The Mourner is forbid to imploy himself in the Law To the Excommunicate it is permitted But the Person Anathematized may not converse in the Law but he expounds it to himself and he makes himself a little tent for his food The Mourner is bound to the rending of his garment the Excommunicate not The Mourner is forbid to do any work to the Excommunicate it is allowed The Mourner is forbid to wash himself to the Excommunicate it is allowed The Mourner putteth not on Sandals the Excommunicate puts them on The Mourner lies not with his wife the Excommunicate lies with his c. From what hath been said it seems that it may be concluded on one part that Excommunication among the Jews scarcely sounded the same with Delivering to Satan and there are some reasons also by which it seems it may be concluded in like manner that Delivering to Satan here in the Apostle doth not sound the same with Excommunication Be it granted that he that is Excommunicated and cast out of the Church is rejected also by God and is indeed delivered into the hands of Satan this is not that which is our task at present to consider but whether Paul by his let him be delivered to Satan or the Corinthians by that expression understood Excommunication We embrace the negative for these reasons I. Because no reason can be rendred why the Apostle rejecting the vulgar and most known word Excommunication should fly to another that was very unknown very obscure II. The act of this wicked wretch was above Excommunication And it was a small matter for such an impious man to be excommunicated He deserved death as we have observed two or three times over And it was more agreeable to that extraordinary wickedness that it should have some more extraordinary punishment inflicted on it then that very common one of Excomunication III. Why should the Apostle use such earnest council and exhortation to excite the Church to excommunicate one that so deserved Excommunication Was Excommunition a thing so difficult to be obtained among them What need was there of the presence of St. Pauls Spirit in a thing any Ministers of the Church were empowred to do What need was there of such solemn determination ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I have determined already in a thing concerning which every one would confess that he deserved Excommunication IV. To deliver to Satan was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For destruction of the flesh But what could Excommunication avail to that in a man sworn upon his lusts You will say
ãâã Of the Destroyer THE Jews call evil Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Destroyers and good Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ministring But I enquire whether the Apostle speaks to this sense in this place For where can we find the people destroyed and slain by an evil Angel They perished indeed by the Pestilence and by the plague for Baal-Peor concerning which the Apostle spake before but here he distinguisheth the destroying of them by the Destroyer from that kind of death Therefore the Apostle seems to me to allude to the notion very usual among the Jews concerning the Angel of death the great destroyer called by them Samael concerning whom among very many things which are related let us produce this only f f f f f f Bava Mezia fol. 36. 1. A Question is propounded of a Cow delivered to a Keeper hired with a price carefully and faithfully to keep her She strayes in a Fen and there dyes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the common manner that is by no violent death it is demanded how far the Keeper is guilty And it is determined that if she had perished being devoured by Wolves or drove away by thieves and slain then the Keeper were guilty by reason of negligence But this they say was the work ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Angel of death For they say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If the Angel of death had suffered her she had lived in a Thiefs house And the Gloss ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Angel of death âight kill her even in the house of him who hired the Keeper You see how they ascribe it to the Angel of death when any violent known and ordinary cause and evident kind of death doth not appear So the Apostle in this place mentioneth the known and evident ways of death serpents pestilence ver 8 9. and now he speaks of the common kind of death and not of some evident plague whereby the whole multitude of those that murmured perished Num. XIV within forty years He saith they perished ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by that great Destroyer the Angel of Death VERS XI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. On whom the ends of the World c. HE saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The ends of the Ages not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The ends of the World ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Age in the Scripture very ordinarily is the Jewish age In which sense Circumcision the Passover and other Mosaic rites are said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For an age So the Disciples Mat. XXIV 3. enquire of Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã concerning the end of the age and he answereth concerning the destruction of Jerusalem In the same sense should I render the words of the Apostle Tit. I. 2. To the hope of eternal life which God hath promised ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before the times of the Jewish ages that is God promised eternal life before the Mosaic Oeconomy that life therfore is not to be expected by the works of the Law of Moses Thus therefore the Apostle speaks in this place These things which were translated in the beginning of the Jewish ages are written for an example to you upon whom the ends of those ages are come And the beginning is like to the end and the end to the beginning Both was forty years both consisted of temptation and unbelief and both ending in the destruction of unbelievers that in the destruction of those that perished in the wilderness this is the destruction of those that believed not in the destruction of the City and Nation VERS XVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Cup of Blessing ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Cup of Blessing So was that Cup in the Passover called over which thanks were given after meat and in which our Saviour instituted the Cup of the Eucharist of which we have spoken largely at Mat. XXVI 27. When therefore the Apostle marks out the Cup of the Lords Supper with the same name as the Jews did their Cup he hath recourse to the first institution of it and implies that giving of thanks was continued over it by Christians although new under another notion Thus his reasoning proceeds as we in the eating of bread and drinking of the Eucharistical Cup communicate of the body and blood of Christ so in eating things offered to Idols men communicate of and with an Idol You communicate of the blood of Christ therefore fly from Idolatry I speak to wise men do you judge of the argument For the very participation of the Eucharist seals you up against Idolatry and things offered to Idols ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For we all partake of one bread The manner of reasoning We all are one body because we partake of one bread recals that to mind which among the Jews was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mixing or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Communion The manner and sense of which learn out of Maimonides g g g g g g In ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cap. 1. By the words of the Scribes saith he it is forbid neighbours to go on the Sabbath day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in a place appropriated to one where there is a division into divers habitations unless all the neighbours one the Sabbath Eve ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã enter into communion Therefore Solomon for they make him the author of this Tradition and Custom appoynted that each place be appropriated to one man there where there is a division into divers Habitations and each of the Inhabitans receive there a place proper to himself and some place also is left there common to all so that all have an equal right in it as a Court belonging to many houses which is reckoned a place by right common to all And every place which each hath proper to himself is reckoned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a proper place And it is forbid that a man carry any thing from a place proper to himself into the place common to all that is on the Sabbath but let every one use the place appropriate to himself alone ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã until all enter into communion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But how is that Communion made ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They associate together in one food which they prepare on the Eve of the Sabbath as though they would say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We all associate together and we have all one food nor does any of us separate a propriety from our neighbour but as we all have an equal right in this place which is left common to us so we have all an equal right in the place which every one takes to himself for his own And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The consorting together which those that dwel among themselves in the same Court make is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Communions of Courts And that consorting together which they make
use of this Sacrament might shew that they renounced their Judaism and professed the Faith and Oeconomy of the Gospel III. Our Communion therefore in this Sacrament is not so much Spiritual as External and declarative of our common and joynt profession of the Christian Faith We are far from denying that the Saints have a Spiritual Communion with God and among themselves in the use of the Eucharist yea we assert there is a most close Communion between true believers and God But what is that Spiritual Communion of Saints among themselves Mutual love one heart prayers for one another c. But they may exercise the same Communion and do exercise it when they meet together to any other part of Divine Worship They may and do act the same thing when they are distant from one another Therefore their Communion in this Sacrament which is distinctly called the Communion of the Eucharist is that they meet together and by this outward sign openly and with joynt minds profess that they are united in one sacred knot and bond of Christian Religion renouncing all other Religions IV. When therefore we approach to the Eucharist in any Church we do not only communicate with that congregation with which we associate at that time but with the whole Catholic Church in the profession of the true Evangelic Religion VERS XXVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye do shew the Lords death IT is known what the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Passover Supper was namely a Declaration of the great works of God in the deliverance of the people out of Egypt The same as it seems would these Judaizing Corinthians retain in the Lords Supper as if the Eucharist were instituted and superadded only for that commemoration The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã does very well answer to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Declaration and while the Apostle admonisheth them that the death of Christ is that which is to be declared it may be gathered that they erred in this very thing and looked some other way VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Unworthily THE Apostle explains himself vers 29. Where we also will speak of this verse VERS XXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let a man examine himself c. HE had said before verse 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That they which are approved may be made manifest And in the same sense he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let a man approve himself in this place not so much Let him try or examine himself as Let him approve himself that is Let him shew himself approved by the Christian Faith and Doctrine So Chap. XVI 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whomsoever ye shall approve We meet with the word in the same sense very often VERS XXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the Lords body THIS is to be meant of the proper act of the understanding viz. Of the true judgment concerning the nature and signification of the Sacrament If it were said indeed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the Lord it might be rendred in the same sense as He knew not the Lord that is he loves him not he fears him not he worships him not But when it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the body it plainly speaks of the act of the understanding He does not rightly distinguish of the body of the Lord. And this was a grievous error of these Judaizing Corinthians who would see nothing of the body of Christ in the Eucharist or of his death their eyes being too intent upon the commemoration of the Passover They retained the old Leaven of Judaism in this new Passover of the Eucharist And this was their partaking of the Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unworthily as assigning it a scope and end much too unworthy much too mean Ther are alas among Christians some who come to this Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unworthily but whether this unworthily of the Corinthians be fitly applied to them I much doubt How mean soever I am let me speak this freely with the leave of good and pious men that I fear that this discourse of the Apostle which especially chastized Judaizers be too severely applyed to Christians that Judaize not at all at least that it be not by very many Interpreters applied to the proper and intended scope of it Of these Corinthians receiving the Eucharist unworthily in the sense of which we spake the Apostle speaks two dreadful things I. That they became ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord vers 27. With this I compare that of the Apostle Heb. X. 29. He hath trampled under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified a common thing And Heb. VI. 6. They crucify again to themselves the Son of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and put him to an open shame Of whom is the discourse Not of all Christians that walked not exactly according to the Gospel rule although they indeed esteem and treat Christ too ignominously but of those that relapse and Apostatize from the Gospel to Judaism whether these Corinthians too much inclined and are admonished seasonably to take care of the same guilt for when any professing the Gospel so declined to Judaism that he put the blood of Christ in subordination to the Passover and acknowledged nothing more in it than was acknowledged in the blood of a Lamb and other Sacrifices namely that they were a mere commemoration and nothing else oh how did he vilify that blood of the eternal Covenant He is guilty of the blood of the Lord who assents to the shedding of his blood and gives his vote to his death as inflicted for a mere shaddow and nothing else which they did II. That they ate and drank ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Judgment to themselves But what that judgment is is declared vers 30. Many are sick c. It is too sharp when some turn ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Damnation when the Apostle saith most evidently vers 32. that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When we are judged we are chastened that we should not be condemned Thus as in the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation God vindicated the honour of the Sabbath by the death of him that gathered sticks and the honour of the worship in the Tabernacle by the death of Nadab and Abihu and the honour of his Name by the stoning of the Blasphemer so he set up like monuments of his vengeance in the beginning of the Gospel Dispensation in the dreadful destruction of Ananias and Sapphira for the wrong and reproach offered to the Holy Ghost in the delivery of some into the hands of Satan for contempt of and enmity against the Gospel in this judgment for the abuse of the Eucharist in the destruction of some by the Plague for Nicolaitism Revel II. 23 c. VERS XXXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
of the Covenant I need not instance hundreds of places do evidence it But what could any one see in the Ark that might speak Gods Covenant There was indeed the Mercy seat upon it and the two Cherubims at the several ends of it and the cloud oft between and this was all that any Israelite could see that looked upon it But this was not that that intitled it to that Title but the two Tables of the Law that were in it And so Moses himself doth make the exposition Exod. XXXIV 28. He wrote upon the Tables the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments Deut. IX 11. At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two Table of stone the Tables of the Covenant And to spare more instances you find the terms Covenant and Commands to be convertible or to mean one and the same thing Psal. CV 8. He hath remembred his Covenant the word which he Commanded And Psal. CXI 9. He Commanded his Covenant for ever He Commanded his Covenant a strange expression and a comfortless expression as one would think his Covenant to be nothing but a company of impossible Commands his Covenant to be nothing but a Law the Ministration of which the Apostle tells us was the Ministration of death II Cor. III. As he I thought he would have stroked his hand over the sore and prayed and he bids only Go wash in Jordan So one would think it should be said He hath promised tendred ingaged his Covenant and it comes off only with this He hath Commanded his Covenant And here we are come to the great question Under what notion the Moral Law stands in the Covenant of grace You know who they were that have held and I doubt too many hold it at this day that to Israel it was a Covenant of Works and thereupon infer that Christians are delivered from the obligation of the Moral Law because they are not under the Covenant of Works but the Covenant of Grace And accordingly they understand that distinction of the old Covenant and new mentioned so much by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the old Covenant means the Moral Law and the new Covenant the Gospel To these men let me first speak in the style of God to Abraham Gen. XV. 5. Look up to Heaven and count the Stars if thou canst number them So look up to Heaven and see the old Moon and the new and observe them Are they really two several Moons No but one and the same Moon under various shapes Or look on the Earth upon a person now Regenerated he was before an old Creature now he is a new II Cor. V. 17. What is he now a really distinct person from what he was before No but of a different condition only the same man but his condition and temper changed So the Covenant of Grace is the same like Christ the chief Tenor of the Covenant yesterday and to day and the same for ever the same from the first day that it was given to Adam to the last day of the World and till Time shall be no more The same under the Law the same under the Gospel but clothed in different garments in administrations of various fashions The Covenant of Grace to the Jew was Believe in Christ and be saved as it is to us as the Apostle clears in all his Epistles more particularly in Heb. XI But to them God added thus Because the Doctrine of Christ is not yet so clear use these Ceremonies which figure out the actings and Office of Christ the Priesthood his Mediating the Sacrifices his Death cleansing with Blood his purging of Sin and the like And because no other people is yet to be admitted to the Church and true Religion but themselves use these Ceremonies to distinguish you from all other people till time come that the Gentiles come to be admitted So that these Ceremonies were not the Covenant of Grace to them nor a Covenant of Works to them but only the manner and mode of the administration of the Covenant of Grace till the Gospel should come which when it came and Christ was come then the Doctrine of Christ was clear and all Nations were come in then were these Ceremonies laid aside and a clean different administration of the Covenant of Grace brought in and under these reasons are these different administrations called the old and new Covenant So that the Ceremonial part of the Law is called the old Covenant but the Moral doth not fall under that title nor vanish as the other did And secondly To these that we are speaking of let me propose this question Did God go backward in his Covenanting first to give a Covenant of Grace to Adam when he had broke his Covenant of Works and after to give a Covenant of Works to Israel and to lay by his Covenant of Grace The Sun in the sky stood still once and went backward once but the glorious Son of Righteousness that rose in the Covenant of Grace the first day of Adam never stood still never went back but is still keeping his course to save by Grace to save in the Covenant of Grace and not by Works If I go to Jonathans house again saith Jeremy I shall surely die and if God send man back to a Covenant of Works when Adam himself failed in his Covenant of Works man is but lost for ever And thirdly Let us read the Draught of the Covenant it self This Indenture made betwixt the great God and poor dust and ashes sinful and miserable witnesseth That God of his infinite Love and Grace and Mercy doth promise and demise and let to this poor creature Grace and Glory interest in himself and Heaven Provided always That man keep his Law and do those Commands that God lays upon him For God could not make a Covenant of Grace but it must include Commandments and a Law unless he would have conditioned thus with him Do what thou wilt live as thou wilt Eat Drink Revel be Epicure be Atheist and yet thou shalt enjoy me for ever thou shalt be blessed for ever We may tremble at such Language The Stool of wickedness could do no more And how cheap and vile a thing were God if to be enjoyed on such terms as these Man as he is a Creature must have a Law from his Creator or else God should resign his authority and let man be his own God Our obedience to God is founded in God himself If God be God serve him an argument so urgent that t is never to be dissolved And therefore that clause is set before the ten Commandments and set after divers Commands afterwards I am the Lord as an argument sufficient to challenge obedience There is nothing can dissolve the bond of mans obedience to his Creator unless God would cease to be God for if God be God serve him And therefore the Covenanting for Grace is so far from abating of a
of Christ is to all believers and all to every one As a million of men are in the Sun and one partakes not one of one part of his light and beams and another of another but every one of all So here as the first inhancement of the desirableness of justification it makes us partakers of Christs righteousness Oh what a treasure is this A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 17. 1664. JOHN VIII 9. And they being convinced by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last EVEN so be it with all that deal in falshood as these persons do that are spoken of by the Text. So be it with every one who at this time and occasion when Conscience should be stirring and doing its just work toward the forwarding the execution of Justice can find in his heart to hinder it or to perswade it to the contrary Any one that can swallow down and choak his Conscience with a false Oath any one that shall intend a false Testimony lay in a false accusation or maintain a wrong cause Awake Conscience awake and do thy duty fly in his face and make him blush and be ashamed admonish chastise correct and hinder him that he being convinced of his own Conscience may either get him out or at least it may get him off from being so injurious to others or to his own soul. There is hardly any Commentator upon the Gospel or this Chapter but he will tell you that this story of the adulterous woman was wanting and left out of some Greek Testaments in ancient time as appears by this that some of the Fathers setting themselves to expound this Gospel make no mention at all of any part of this story So Nonnus turning all this Gospel into Greek verse hath utterly left out this whole story and so hath the Syriac New Testament first printed in Europe and so Jerome tells us did some old Latine translations When I cast with my self whence this omission should proceed I cannot but think of two passages in Eusebius The one is in his third Book of Ecclesiastical History the very last clause in that Book where he relates that one Papias an old Tradition-monger as he characters him did first bring in this Story of the adulterous woman out of a book called the Gospel according to the Hebrews For so is that passage of Eusebius commonly understood The other is in his fourth Book of the Life of Constantine Chap. 36 37. Where he relates That Constantine enjoyned him and committed to his trust to get transcribed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which the last Translation renders fifty Copies of such parts of Scripture as he thought might be most useful for the Churches of Constantinople But his Greek expression seems rather to mean fifty Copies of the Gospel compacted into one body by way of Harmonizing them together which I am the rather induced to believe partly because of those Canones Eusebiani which are so famous and were in tendency to such a purpose partly because he relates that he finished the work according to the Emperors command and sent him the books ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by ternions quaternions which seems to mean three or four Evangelists compacted together according as they joyntly related the story Now if Eusebius believed that this story was introduced by Papias as he seems to do you may well conclude that he would be sure to leave out this story in all his fifty Copies which he thought unfit to be compiled with the Evangelical Story as having no better authority than the introduction of it by such a man Or if the ages before Eusebius were of the same belief with him in this matter you may see why this story might also be wanting in those times But I shall not trouble you about this matter which is now past all dispute For I believe it is hardly possible in all the World to find now a printed New Testament either in the Original Greek or in any other language either Eastern or Western wherein this story is not inserted without any question Nor had the thing been ever disputed if the story it self had bee searched to the botom for then of it self it would have vindicated its own authority to be Evangelical and Divine It tells of a Woman taken in adultery in the very Act I could easily be perswaded to say And in the very Temple too For as our Saviour saith They had made that House of prayer a den of Thieves so I doubt they made it sometimes a nest of Whores And at this time there was offered an extraordinary occasion and opportunity for such a lewdness For as the Chapter preceding tells you at vers 37. That the day next before this occurrence was the great and last of the Feast of Tabernacles so the Jews Records will tell you that that night as also others of the same Feast was spent by the chief men in the Nation in dancing singing sporting and even revelling in the Temple-Court vast companies of men and women looking on Now if such night-work as that did produce such a deed of darkness as this it was no wonder But I leave this as not asserted The Scribes and Pharisees bring this woman to Christ as he sat teaching in the Temple to have his sentence upon her as it is like she was first brought to them to have theirs If I should construe the Scribes and Pharisees here for the Members of the Sanhedrin or bench of Judicature it might plead the warrant of the words of our Saviour Matth. XXIII 2. where he useth the same expression in the same sence The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair i. e. the Sanhedrin sit in Moses Legislative Magistratical seat As also the warrant of his words in this very story where asking the woman Hath no man condemned thee he seems to intimate that those that accused her had also power to judge and condemn her However it is well known that Scribes and Pharisees in Scripture language speak the men of the most eminency and dignity in the Nation They propose the case to Christ as a point of Scruple though they intend something worse in it This woman was taken in adultery in the very act Now Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou And indeed there were two scruples in the case One was as to a point in their Civil Law viz. whether a woman taken in the very act of Adultery might not have the benefit of Divorce as well as a woman deprehended an Adulteress by some other discovery since that permission of divorce was to mitigate the sharpness of the Law of putting her to death The second was as to a point of Civil Policy which you may pick out of their words to Pilate Joh. XVIII 31. The Jews said unto him It is not lawful for us to put any man to death It is very generally understood
true when he said Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life What will any man take for his life to pass it away What jewels what rubies what riches will buy his life from him No he accounts it too precious to part with his life for mony or monies worth And this doth enhance the preciousness of life that it is not only so excellent a being in it self but without it all things are nothing to him that hath lost it Bring a dead man bags of gold and heaps of silver fill his coffin up with pearls and jewels strew his grave with diamonds and rubies there is no hearing no minding no affecting when his jewel that was more worth then all these his life is gone Now who is the Preserver of this dear jewel while we carry it about us Is it we our selves The Psalmist tells us that It is he that made us and not we our selves Psal. C. And reason may tell us that it is he that preserves us and not we our selves For can we any more preserve our lives of our selves than we can give life to our selves When a desperate danger is ready to swallow us up if God withdraw his preserving providence can man bring his life out of danger In Scripture Phrase for a man to put his life in his own hand Judg. XII 3. is to venture it to danger where there is no safety but in the hands of God it is secure while he will take charge of it Feeling is that passage of Daniel to Belshazzar Dan. V. 23. The God in whose hand is thy breath Canst thou take it into thine own hand and there hold it The Jews tell a story of the Angel of death sent to take away the soul of Moses but Moses withstood him and he could not do it but when God saw his time to take it no withstanding The Angel of death in their meaning is the Devil and the Apostle speaks to their opinion Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that âad the power of death that is the Devil Now wherein lies the reason why Satan takes not away our lives when he pleaseth Is it in our selves Would not he think you carry away all men bodily to his den if it were in his power And is it our power that doth restrain him Think of those poor possessed ones in the Gospel whom the Devil hurried so up and down at his pleasure Is it our own power that doth restrain him that he useth not us so When we read or hear such stories have we not cause if we had hearts to look up at a higher power than our own that we are not as they were in his power And was it his courtesie that he spared their lives when God had given him liberty to use their bodies as he did Or was it not that God restrained him you may guess it by Jobs case betwixt whose life and Satans malice against him God had put this bar Only take not away his life But when God himself comes by death resolvedly to take away any mans life whose power is it in to hinder When he is resolved to tear body and soul assunder who shall say what dost thou When he will preserve life no longer who can make it out and preserve it himself The Lord giveth life and the Lord taketh it away in his hand only is the disposal of our life and being Secondly God shews himselves tender of our lives doth not only preserve them but shews that he is tender of them and willing to preserve them God is the fountain of being and giver of life and it is agreeable to his nature to maintain the being of men and their lives but it is not so agreeable to him to destroy them it is said of him that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. III. And he saith of himself that he hath no pleasure in the death of the sinner Ezek. XVIII And no wonder for it is somewhat besides his nature q. d. for it is his nature to give being and not to destroy it Now that God is tender of the lives of men and preservs them willingly and tenderly you have it evidenced in the mouth of three or four witnesses that the truth of it may be established 1. He is tender of the lives of very birds and beasts and therefore forbids all cruelty towards them Balaam for cruelty towards his poor Ass is reproved both by the Angel and the Ass her self And how does God forbid to kill a beast and her young on the same day to take a bird and her young at the same time but if he take the young to let the dam go forbids to seeth a kid in his dams milk and in a word it is a token the Holy Ghost gives of a good man that he is merciful to his very beast 2. Is it not an evidence that God is tender of mens lives when he hath made so severe a Law against murther or taking them away And what strange discoveries hath he made of murthers and murtherers that he that hath taken away a mans life may not go unpunished So tender is God of the life of man that as man hedgeth in a choice tree or plant that he is tender of so hath God mans life with such a siry law as well as he doth also with his providence 3. Doth not God tender the life of man when he would have all men to spin out their lives to life eternal and shewed them a way how to do it if they would but take his way God had rather thy life should reach Heaven and Eternity there than to drop into Hell in the end and be drowned in eternal death And this is one thing amongst others that doth highly enhance the preciousness of mans life that it may be translated to Eternity 4. And Lastly If you yet need any evidence and demonstration of Gods tenderness to mens lives and willingness to preserve them and unwillingness to destroy them look upon your selves as you are alive here this day And whence is it that you are so Can you give any other proper reason than this because God is tender of your lives and is not willing to destroy them Hath he not power enough to have cut them off and destroyed them long ago And have we not given him cause enough to have destroyed them over and over Whence is it then that we are all here this day God hath spared our lives preserved our lives tenderly preserved them or our souls had long ago dwelt in silence And are we not in debt to God for this care and tendering of us Is there nothing to be paid him not one half shekel for all our preservation Doth not all the reason in the world dictate that when we live by him we should live as he would have us that when he spares and preserves our lives we should lead and
Yes it is like thou mayest if thou be like him He was a holy a good a righteous man all his time only he was now fallen into one transgression a little before his death and repents of it and is pardoned But thou who thinkest of putting off repentance till thy last time I doubt art in another case He had no sin unrepented of but only this that he had just now committed and that he repented of and is pardoned Thou wilt have all thy sins to repent of at thy latter end and that changeth the case not a little He walked in the ways of repentance and holiness all his life thou thinkest not to do so till thy death A SERMON Preached upon ACTS VII 53. Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it I Concluded last day with mention how God would have none of his Commandments to be dallied and trifled withal from that dreadful example of the poor Prophet that broke Gods Commandment in eating and drinking in Bethel being cheated into that transgression by the lie of another Prophet and yet he escaped not though his ignorance might something excuse him but a Lion met him by the way and slew him I have chosen these words in the prosecution of that subject to consider a little upon Gods giving his Commands or Laws and mans too common violating them and misdemeanor against them The Law given by the disposition of Angels but men not keeping it The words are the words of Steven pleading for his life and answering that charge that his accusers laid against him of Blasphemy against Moses for that he had said That the rites of Moses should be changed and against the Temple for that he said That holy place and City should be destroyed How he answers particularly to this accusation I shall not trouble you with observing in the conclusion of his speech he comes to speak home to the persons both of them that accused him and of them that sat in judgment upon him He first calls them all stif-necked and uncircumcised both in heart and ears Then he chargeth them all with all resistance of the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of the Prophets chargeth their Fathers with persecuting and slaying the Prophets and them with the murther of the great Prophet Christ and concludes his speech with the words before us Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it In the words is sweet and sower life and death light and darkness Ye received the Law by the disposition of Angels this is like Ezekiels book sweet in the mouth but ye have not kept it that is in the belly as bitter as gall In the former clause you may see Israel before mount Sinai in a happy condition receiving the Law in the latter you may see them a little from it undoing themselves by making a golden Calf And to that particular we might very well apply the words There were thousands of Angels in the Mount when ye received the Law but ye so little kept it that within forty days ye broke the two first Commandments of it viz. Thou shalt have none other Gods before me And Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image But it may be questioned whether he saying They received the Law by the Disposition of Angels means the Angels that were attending God when he gave the Law at Sinai True the Scriptures mention frequently the presence of Angels with God when he gave the Law Two only may serve instead of more Deut. XXXIII 2. He came with ten thousands of his holy ones at his right hand was a firy Law for them Psal. LXVIII 17. The charets of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai the holy place But what did the Angels that were there You read not nor hear of a word that they spake but it was the Lord that spake these words and said I am the Lord thy God For the understanding therefore of the Martyrs meaning First We may mention a wild conception of the Jews that say That all they that heard the Law uttered by God from Mount Sinai were by that very hearing made like unto the Angels that they should never have begot children never grown old never died but have been as the Angels had not that unlucky business of the Golden Calf fallen out and that turned them to sinful and mortal men again There is a strange construction in the original Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which our English renders By the disposition of Angels whereas the word in the strictest propriety should be read Unto the disposition of Angels As if Steven did rub their own opinion upon them as is frequently done by the Apostles and that his meaning should be this You say and conceive that the very receiving of the Law did translate and dispose them that heard it into the very predicat and state of Angels and yet this brave Law you have not kept The Law that you conceit made others Angels you have made but dirt and that that you think had so noble an effect upon them that heard it hath had no good effect upon you at all for ye have not kept it But this Interpretation I shall not insist upon though it be very frequent with the Apostles arguing with the Jews to confute them from their own Opinions and Tenets I shall name but two to you 1 Cor. XI 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels Where the Apostle argues from their own concessions practise and custom And Jude vers 9. Yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses Not that ever such a dispute was twixt Michael or Christ and the Devil about Moses body but the Jews have such a conceit and story and we meet with it in their writings and the Apostle useth an argument from their own saying to confute their doing But Secondly If I should say that there were none but Angels on the top of Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law I should speak but the language of Steven that speaks the words that we have in hand at vers 38. This Moses is he that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai It is said God spake all these words and said and yet Steven saith It was the Angel that spake to him in Mount Sinai But he means the Angel of the Covenant the Lord Christ the Arch-angel or the chief or Lord of all the Angels And here let an Arian or Socinian that denies the Godhead of Christ compare Moses and Steven together and learn to acknowledge the truth Moses saith it was God that spake to him in Mount Sinai Steven saith It was the Angel viz. The Angel of the Covenant Christ who as the Apostle saies is God
deliverance answering and verifying the promise of deliverance they might be built up in belief and expectation of the truth of the promise of the great Deliverer when he should come But when Christ was come and had done that great Work and there being now no such peculiar people to be born up in hope of their subsistence till Christ should descend of them but the Church of God being scattered through the World and Christ having sanctified the bearing of the cross to them by his own bearing it and having allotted the cross to them for their portion and assured them 1 Cor. X. 13. That they should not be tempted above what they were able but that with the temptation he would make way to escape that they might be able to bear it First It cannot be imagined that every particular Church in the World should be acquainted with what persecutions and afflictions should come upon them and how long they should last and when they should be removed as God was pleased to acquaint that peculiar Church Nor Secondly Is it requisite that God should punctually and exactly tell them the end of their persecution and affliction but that they should always be kept to their duty waiting patience and dependance When Peter would be curious to enquire concerning what should become of John Christ answers If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow thou me Look not thou at his end but mind thou thine own duty So if any people now should be inquisitive How long Lord and what and when will be the end of this calamity God might justly answer It is not for you to know the times and the seasons but keep to your duty possess your Souls in patience and wait to see the salvation of God in his own time and way For let me repeat my Doctrine again and now come to clear it further The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with him He knows it nay he hath set it For these two are the main things we shall speak to in this Point That no times no mens times are hidden from God Job makes it a principle as of which there is no questioning Job XXIV 1. Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty do they that know him not see his days The latter half of the verse is of some scruple and translations are various and scrupulous upon it but the former is of no scruple but of undoubted concession that times are in no wise hidden from God Only the botching Greek Translation which some would authorize above the divine Hebrew original reads it clean contrary Why are times hidden from God As if they were hidden from him Point the latter clause right as you should do for I observe in some Bibles it is mispointed and the passage is much cleared Why since times c. do they that know him not see his days Or not more consider of his Eternity Dan. VIII 13. There is a word something strange in the Original ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the English Text reads it That certain Saint Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the Vision c. But the margent reads it The numberer of secrets or the wonderful numberer His name is Wonderful Esa. IX 6. And Judg. XIII 18. Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret Marg. Wonderful When he is now treating concerning times he is called the wonderful numberer of them Mene mene Tekel He numbers and he finishes the Times of Men and Kingdoms he weighs men and their Times and their Conditions He is the Wonderful Numberer in whose hand and knowledge and disposal are the times of all men as David saith of his own Psal. XXXI 15. My times are in thy hand Concerning Gods knowing and dating the Times of men and their affairs I might largely speak to these two things for evidence to it I. His foretelling of times and affairs before they come By this very thing he proves himself to be the true God and by coming short of this the Gods of the Heathen to be but lies and vanity Esa. XLI 22 23. Let them bring forth and shew us what shall happen let them declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods But Chap. XLIII 12. saith God of himself I have declared and saved and shewed when there was no strange God among you And Chap. XXVI 9 10. I am God there is none like me Declaring the end from the beginning and from antient times the things that are not yet done saying My Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure How did he determine the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel before their coming out of Egypt four hundred and thirty years before to the very day Exod. XII 40 41. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that the Hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt How did he foretel of the Death of Christ seventy sevens of years even four hundred and ninety years before it was to the very hour Dan. IX 21. At the hour of the evening sacrifice the Angel Gabriel tells Daniel the time to that very hour Christ should suffer for he suffered at that hour Is not the time of the affliction of his people determined with him who foresees foretels of times and affairs to a day to an hour so many hundred of years before they came II. His harmonizing of times in so sweet an union as he hath done doth not that shew that he is the wonderful Numberer of times and Numberer of times of the affliction of his people The Scripture is most copious and the providence of God most sweet and heavenly in this kind of consort and it may much refresh and ravish the Reader of Scripture to observe such harmony Henock that glorious shining light upon Earth to run his course here just in as many years three hundred sixty five years as the Sun doth his course in Heaven days three hundred sixty five days Gen. V. 23. David to reign exactly so long a time in Jerusalem as Christ the son of David lived here upon earth thirty two years and an half 1 Kings II. 11. No rain in Elias time three years and an half Luk. IV. 25. Antiochus desolating of Religion three years and an half in the verse before the Text and Christs Ministery to be three years and an half Dan. IX 24. Doth not this Harmony tell that God is the wonderful Numberer of time and Weigher of all affairs Multitudes of such Harmonies of times are to be found in Scripture which all âound out this truth we are upon
proper inference viz. Let us take care not to hinder it So that indeed a notable and renowned miracle of grace and pardon is shewed here is manifest to all the world and all generations what then is the conclusion that such men make upon it Therefore we hope we shall get pardon and salvation with a little ado and if we put off the seeking of it till our death-Bed we hope we may find it then as this man did Whereas the proper conclusion should be to no other tenor viz. Why should I sin against such a God that is so good and merciful Let us consider of two or three things First Monuments of mercy were never set up in Scripture to be encouragements of presumption and examples of pardon never recorded to state the rate and price of pardon David's conclusion is There is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Psal. CXXX But God never shewed mercy that he might be made the more bold withal and the less feared And the inference he makes upon the pardon of his sin is this Psal. XXXII 5 6. I acknowledged my sin and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin What use is here for others to make of that example For this shall every man that is godly make his prayer in a time when thou mayst be found and not put it off to what time he himself shall find he knows not when Whosoever is emboldned by this rare example before us to think he shall so easily obtain his pardon though he put off the earnest business of it to a sick bed Let him but hit on such a nick of time as this man did and he may possibly speed But it was such a nick of time as the world never saw nor ever must see the like the very instant of time when Pardon and Salvation were purchasing And whereas he looks upon the Thief 's sin so easily pardoned and thinks his own may be so too Let him bring the same Faith and Repentance that he did and he may be likely pardoned as readily as he For herein are men deceived about the facility of pardon that because God can easily forgive sin therefore it is easie to get sin forgiven and because he hath so readily forgiven others therefore he will as readily forgive me As if no difficulty else lay in the way Whereas Secondly The great difficulty is to get the party fit and capable of pardon and Salvation For that is an oyntment not to be poured into every Vessel There is no sin but it may be pardoned if it can be repented of but all the business is to get repentance The Scripture tells you of two sins impardonable the sin against the Holy Ghost Mark III. and the sin unto death or final Apostacy 1 Joh. V. Now the reason of the unpardonableness of these sins lay in the men themselves that were guilty of them viz. because they were past repentance and so the sins could not be pardoned because they could not be repented of There are thousands in Hell whose sins in themselves were pardonable and had been pardoned had not they themselves been the cause why they were not pardoned because they did not repent of them If I were to Answer this Question What hope the greatest sinner may have of the pardon of their greatest sinning I might reckon up how great sins and sinners have been pardoned from Adam upward But this doth not reach the question For the question is not whether such sins be pardonable nor whether God be able to forgive them but what hope may the party have of pardon being such a sinner For in this case something more is to be looked at than either Gods power or his mercy and than either the quality of sin or the quantity And this something more is a man coming into the way and capacity of pardon When our Saviour prays for the forgiveness of those that Crucified him he never meant they should be forgiven while they continued in their cruelty wickedness and unbelief but that they might be brought into a composure and capacity fit for forgiveness Thirdly The Providence of God was never the rule for men to go by but his word It were not good sense to say that Gods extraordinary actings should be mens ordinary rule He that would not plow nor sow but expect bread to be rained for him from Heaven because God once rained Manna upon Israel may fit and starve and he that will look for Ravens to bring him bread and flesh morning and evening because they did once so to Elias may walk with a hungry belly but he will never be fed Gods extraordinary actings are peculiarly for the magnifying of his own glory but never were intended for mans rule to go by They shew what God can do but little intend that man should either expect the like or do the like Here was a most singular acting of God to pardon and save such a wretch as this who had put off his repentance to the very last because there was an extraordinary occasion in hand and because God would signally glorifie the death of Christ. He that puts off his repentance and seeking for pardon to the very last in relyance upon this example does but tempt God and turns that to his own poyson which God intended for a better end And he forsakes the bridge that would carry him safe over Jordan and ventures to go through the River to his own drowning expecting a miracle for the drying of it up because it was once dryed up before the Children of Israel God hath appointed the wages and means to come to repentance and those we are to wait upon and if he brought this man to repentance by a way extrarodinary we have to admire the peculiar dispensation of his grace but still to have an eye to our own rule The mercies of God are never recorded in Scripture for mans presumption and the failings of men never for imitation Here is the memoral of a singular mercy of God in saving this sinner and a failing of this man that he never sought salvation till this very instant Now he makes but an evil application that resolves to imitate his failing and yet hopes to speed as he did who had an unparalleled mercy and whom God would set up for a monument to all generations Not for mens presuming upon mercy because of this mercy nor to imitate the delay of repentance in this man but rather from Gods mercy he should be stirred up the more unto it For the stating of the sure grounds whereupon a man may comfortably hope and expect pardon and salvation at the hands of God it were a mad doing to lay for the two corner stones in such a building Presumption upon Mercy and delaying of Repentance This is worse than building upon the sand for this is building upon Impiety Now the word of God which is to be our rule tells us these two things 1. That Repentance is
will become of thee when those thy Treasures those thy Teachers are no more Why naught become of them For presently after the death of those Prophets and the departure of the Spirit of Prophesie the Nation parted into two deadly heresies viz. The Pharisees teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men Mat. XV. And the Sadducees teaching for doctrines the very dictates of Devils That there is no resurrection nor Angel nor Spirit nor world to come The first thing that I observe hence is That two such different Parties should be in the Nation together should sit as they do here in council together So great a difference betwixt the parties and a continual contestation about that difference and yet both parties admitted to be in the Church to bear office in the Church and to sit Judges in the great Council There were Sadducee-Priests as well as Pharisee And the Jews Records have a story of a Sudducee-Priest that was to offer the drink offering upon the Altar at the Feast of Tabernacles and because he missed something of doing exactly as he should have done all the Company present fell a pelting him with Pomecitrons which every one used to carry at the Feast And there were Sadducee Magistrates and Judges as well as Pharisee And the Jews Records do give us notice that there was once a time that the great Council at Jerusalem consisted almost all of Sadducees if not altogether In reading of the Context at your leisure you will see that in that great Council now as Paul stands before it there were not a few Sadduces as well as there were divers of the other Sect. And what toleration there was of a dissenting Party in that Church is worth the considering of those that have to dispute about that Case Another Gloss that I should make upon both these opinions should be this question II. Was it possible that a Sadducee and a Pharisee should be saved Some will maintain that a man may be saved in any Religion in any opinion so that he live honestly toward men and devoutly towards God Whereas a man may take up an opinion and belief which may put such a bar against his salvation as to make it impossible for him to be saved let him live never so honestly For it is not bare civil honesty nor blind devotion will bring to Heaven Let a Sudducee live never so honestly never so devoutly was it not utterly impossible for him to be saved while he held the opinions that he did which were directly against Salvation And a Pharisee while he made it the great Article of his Faith that he could be justified and saved by his own works put a bar against all possibility of his justification and salvation Men think it a small thing to be medling with this or that new strange opinion or should I not say they think it a great thing a brave matter to invent and vent some new opinion or other when that very thing and opinion may be the very lock and key and bar to keep them out of Heaven Instance and example of such opinions might be given in men of several professions and religions in too great plenty But we will look more particularly on this before us The Sadducees say there is no resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit The Sadducees here are marked for their Heretical opinions about some main Articles of Faith and it gives us occasion I. To observe that they denyed such Articles II. To consider the Articles they denyed As to the First we may first remember that saying of the Apostle 1 Cor. XI 19. For I. there must be heresies among you that they that are approved may be made manifest among you That is a sad accent there must be heresies And whence comes that must be or that necessity Hath God any hand in it that it must be because he will have it Or is there any such necessity that it must be because the Church hath need of Heresies There must be weeds in the garden Is it because the garden hath need of weeds It hath need of weeding rather than of weeds But the must be proceedeth from the corruption of men of evil minds that will raise up heresies And it cannot be otherwise while their minds are and will be so evil That we may take some view of this unhappy necessity proceeding from such an unhappy cause let us gradually observe these things I. That God gives forth his word and truth to men authoritatively that men should beleive them at their peril He sends forth his word not to go a begging for belief of it and obedience to it but let men disbelive and disobey it at their peril Ezek. I. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear yet shall they know that there hath been a Prophet among them And let them answer it according as they have recieved him II. Now the causes of mens not believing the World and not obeying the truth are in themselves and not at all in God He that gave his word to be believed and obeyed would not be the cause that it should not be believed nor obeyed It is the wickedness of mens own hearts that causeth it and it is the voluntary doing of their hearts not to obey it It is said Joh. XII They could not believe but the first cause was because they would not believe And so by the continual practise of not willing to believe they came to the fatal distemper that they could not believe The Prophet Esa. Chap. LIII cryeth out Who hath believed our report Why no body And what is the reason Was not the word worth believing Or could they say they could not believe it The truth was they had no mind to it They had a mind against it They in Jeremy Chap. XLII deal plainly and speak out We will not hear the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken to us And what was their reason They had no mind to it because it was not to their mind Now had they been disputed with and questioned Do you not think that God is wiser than you Are not his Councils better than your Councils and the words of his mouth more to be valued than the suggestions of your hearts What answer do they make Be it what it will we will have our own minds This is the cause of the must be because men will have it so and no perswasion to the contrary can prevail with them We have the mind of Christ is the Apostles rejoycing but we will have our own minds is the worlds language and practice And upon this mad wilfulness it is that there must be Heresies III. Now it is too tedious to enquire into all the immediate causes and originals of Heresies they are so many The Father of them was an Amorite and the Mother an Hittite the whole breed a Canaanite a cursed generation a monstrous generation bred very oft of clean contraries bred ever of
2 3. The great Angel is Christ the old Serpent is the Devil there Christ binds and imprisoneth him and that with the great chain of the Gospel Observe the passage He shut him up in the bottomless pit What In Hell for ever That he should never go abroad again Yea you have him loose again vers 7. and he hath been always going about as in 1 Pet. V. but he tyes him up that he should not deceive the Nations vers 3. and when he is loosed again vers 8. it is his being loose to deceive the Nations Observe by the way the phrase He shuts him up that is restrains him from deceiving and seducing people It is Hell and Prison to the Devil not to be doing mischief So the Psalmist speaks of the wicked children of the Devil They sleep not rest not if they do not evil It is a torment to them if they may not be sinning Well how doth Christ bind Satan that he do not deceive By sending the Gospel to undeceive them So that this is the Victory of Christ against the Devil The very telling of his Death and Merits is that that overcomes the Devil the very Word of his Death and Resurrection is that that overthrows the Devil and his power So is 1 Cor. VI. 3. to be taken Know ye not that we shall judge Angels Now needed Christs soul to go to Hell to tell the Devil these tidings and to triumph there He felt the building of his Kingdom fall about his ears every moment He needed no such message to go and tell him he had conquered him This is the Triumph of Christ over the Devil by the virtue and power of his death and not by any Vocal or actual Declaration of it by his Soul now separate from his Body IV. As to Christs Soul triumphing over the damned needed there any such thing Or could his Soul do any such thing Think you Christs Soul doth or could rejoyce in the damnation of the damned There is joy in Heaven when a sinner is saved Is there joy too when he is damned That tender expression of God As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner doth it give us any room to think that he can rejovce in their damnation That tender Soul of Christ that but six or eight days before wept for the destruction of Jerusalem with O! that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace Can we think that that Soul could go to Hell to triumph and insult over poor damned Souls He had cause to triumph and rejoyce over the conquered Devils but had he the like cause or heart to triumph over damned Souls What was the reason of his triumphing over the Devils Because he had subdued themselves only He mastered them while alive in casting them out and commanding them at his pleasure He cast them into Hell by his Divine Power as soon as they had sinned but his triumph over them by his Death and Resurrection was for his peoples sake We cannot say Christ hath any pleasure in the damnation of the very Devils but he had pleasure in the Conquest of Devils because he had delivered his people from them Ah! most Divine Soul of Christ so infinitely full of charity that gave it self a Sacrifice for sin that men might not be damned can that rejoyce and insult over poor Souls damnation Look but upon Christs tenderness and earnestness for Souls here that they come not to damnation and then guess how little delight he taketh in it when they are damned Let us apply these two passages to this Ezek. XVIII 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye And vers 31. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In the Hebrew it is in the strictest propriety In the death of him that is dead I have not pleasure that he dye and no pleasure in his death when he is dead What is there more plain in Scripture and in all Gods actings than this That God would not have men damned if they would embrace Salvation What speak these expressions 1 Tim. II. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Pet. III. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Certainly whatsoever else this is plain enough that God had rather men should be saved than damned How is this written in Scripture as in letters of gold that he that runs may read it How was it written in letters of Christs own blood that was shed that men might not be damned but that whosoever believeth might have eternal life And how is this written in Gods patience beseechings in his affording means of Salvation I need not to instance in particulars Well men will not be saved but choose death before life Doth Christ delight rejoyce to damn them when they must come to it Think ye he pronounceth Go ye cursed with as much delight as Come ye blessed That he insults triumphs over poor damned wretches in their damnation Read his heart in such passages as these Gen. VI. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart What Because he had made them No but because he having made them must now destroy them Lam. III. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men So he doth not damn willingly nor destroy the children of men And once for all Esa. XLII 14. I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will cry and destroy but it is grievous to God as pangs of a travailing woman Thus much as hath been spoken may shew how unlikely and indeed how unchristian a thing it is to conceive that Christs Soul went purposely into Hell to triumph and insult over the miserable and damned And so you see that this Article cannot mean his Souls descending into the place of torment to triumph over the Devils and damned so that we must yet look for another sense of it III. A third interpretation then is this That it means the Torments he suffered in Soul III. upon his Cross. Some word it That he suffered the extream wrath of God some the very torments of Hell some that he was for the time in the state of the damned I reluct to speak these things but this Gloss some make upon this Article and while they go about to magnifie the Love of Christ in suffering such things for men they so much abase and vilifie his Person in making it lyable to such a condition The sense of the Article we must refuse unless we should speak and think of Christ that which doth not befit him The dearly beloved of the Soul of God to lye under the heaviest wrath of God The Lord of Heaven and Earth to
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what and how translated 1159 1160 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the dead 790 Φ. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã frequently denotes sinful corruption 708 709 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lights the Jewish Feast of Dedication so called and why 1039 Ω ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beautiful whence derived and what Gate of the Temple was signified by it Page 649 THE Fourth TABLE or Alphabetical Index is of Things or Principal Matters contained in the Second Volume A. ABEL what Page 367 Abilene what 366 367 Abraham's Bosome a Jewish Phrase for an hap py state p. 455 456. The ridiculous Notion the Rhemists have upon it p. 455. Son of Abraham by Faith and Nature what p. 467. Abraham's Seed the being of it much gloried in by the Jews p. 566. Several things of Abraham's History p. 665. What he bought in the Land of Canaan 669 670 Absolom was a Nazarite and for that reason wore long hair 774 Acceptance with God and coming to him is only through Christ. 1261 1262 Achzib it and Chezib changed into Ecdippa the Name of a place 61 Acon is a City of Galilee where there was a Bath of Venus 60 Actings of God extraordinary are not mens ordinary Rule 1276 Adam the City was in Perea this was the Centural Place where the waters parted when Israel entred Jordan 82 Adam although at first holy yet had not the Spirit of Revelation p. 1046. He had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Before his fall he is compared with a Believer sanctified p. 1152 1153. The fall of Adam and the fall of Angels compared together p. 1285. His Story is all wonder p. 1303. Adam and Eve believed and obtained Life p. 1303. A view of their Story in nine Particulars p. 1303 1304. The means of their believing and their condition under believing p. 1304. Adam fell on the sixth Day of the Creation viz. on the Day he was created p. 1323. The proof of this p. 1323 1324. He was created about nine a Clock in the Morning fell about Noon Christ was promised about three a Clock in the Afternoon p. 1324. A new Creation or Redemption was performed on the day that Adam was created p. 1325. Adam's first Sermon to his family the matter of it supposed p. 1327. Adam not created mortal against the Socinians 1353 Adoption or Sonship as referring to God how understood by the Jews 521 533 Adulteress how punished 563 Adultery the only case in which Christ permitted a Bill of divorce p. 148. The Divine Laws concerning it p. 218. How does the Law of Death for Adultery and that of Divorce consiât together p. 218. Adultery practised probably in the Temple Court of the Jews in our Saviours time p. 1080. The story of the Adulterous Woman recorded John the 8. left out of some of the Ancient Greek Testaments and the first Printed Syriack and also some Latine Translations and the reason of this omission p. 1079 1080. Adultery is so common among the Jews that the custom of trying the Adulterous Woman by bitter water mentioned Numb 5. was omitted the pretended reason for this omission 1080 1111 Affairs and Times of Men how God knows and dates them 1250 c. Affliction of the people of God the duration of it is determined by the Lord. 1248 to 1251 Agapae or Love Feast they were appendages to the Lords Supper also they were when strangers were entertained in each Church at the cost of the Church Page 774 to 776 Age of Man the several abatements of it as to length at what time these abatements were made 1066 Aleph and Ain The mystical Jewish Doctors did not distinguish them 79 Alms why taken for Righteousness p. 153 c. The ordinary Alms of the Jews is divided into three parts what they put into the Alms Dish for the Poor of the World What into the Chest for the Poor of the City only What they lest in the field ungathered Whether a Trumpet was sounded when they did their Alms p. 154. 155. Alms given to the Poor of what nature they were to be 467 Almon and Alemoth the same 42 Altar the Rings and the Laver thereof described p. 33 34. What it was to leave a gift before the Altar p. 143. When or at what time the Ashes were swept off it p. 618. The several Offices belonging to it p. 765. The zeal of the Officers to serve at it p. 765. The custom of fetching water at the Fountain Siloam and pouring it on the Altar what it signified p. 1039. Altar put for the Communion Table but in a wrong sence p. 1259. Altar put for Christ how 1259 1260 Amana or Amanah a Mountain and a River 62 Amen verily why so much used by Christ p. 137. Why used double and single p. 533. All used Amen after Prayer or Thanksgiving p. 786. But not in the Temple for there they used another Clause instead of it p. 1139. Orphan Amen was when he that answered Amen knew not what he answered to 786 Amulets Charms Mutterings Exorcisms what 243 Anabaptists refuted 1125 1127 1128 1133 Ananias the madness of his sin his degree supposed to be higher than the Vulgar p. 655 656. Two of the Name one famous 698 Anathema sounds all one with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cherem it s taken in a threefold sence p. 795. To be Anathema from Christ what 1295 1296 Angels Doemons and Spirits distinguished among the Jews p. 483. Angels for Prophets and Ministers p. 674. Angels sometimes put on the shape of Men. p. 683 684. Angels foolishly denyed by the Sadducees p. 702 1282 c. The Jews called evil Angels Destroyers or Angels of Death and good Angels Ministring Angels p. 767 Angels put for Devils p. 754. Angels put for Devils Ministers and Messengers p. 773. Angels sight for the Church of God p. 1163. The Devil is called the Angel of Death by the Jews p. 1209. Christ is called the Angel by Stephen the Proto-Martyr upon the account of his delivering the Law on Mount Sinai this proves him to be God against the Arian and Socinian p. 1229. Angel and Angels for Christ Prophets and Ministers p. 1229. Why in some cases they are ranked with Christ and God p. 1268. Angels can will nothing but as God willeth 1268. The Fall of Angels and the Fall of Adam compared together p. 1285. Angels in probability were created the first Day with the Heavens p. 1323 1324. They fell not before Man was created 1324 Anger or wrath of God this Christ did not undergo but only the Justice of God in his sufferings 1348 1349 1350 Anointing of Bodies and Heads among the Jews had a threefold reason used for superstition little differing from a magical Design p. 161 162. The Anointing mentioned in the Epistle of James was for health but opposed to the Magical Anointing of the Jews p. 162. Anointing with precious Ointment when and wherefore used p. 352. Anointing
of Snow Antilibanus and Bala 517 Libertines were Servants that had received their Freedom these were Jews how they came to be Servants and how again to be free 663 Life Eve called Chava that is Life upon the account of the promise of Christ. p. 791. Why Life is called precious p. 1209. How tender God is of the Life of Man p. 1209 1210. Why such an equal tribute is to be paid to God for the Life of Man p. 1210 1211. Long Life is a Promise affixed to very many Commands and why p. 1335 1336. How to reconcile the shortness of Mans Life with that Promise p. 1335 1336. Why God shortned Mans Life at the Flood at Babel and at Sinai even where he promised long Life p. 1336. The length of the Lives of the first Inhabitants of the World considered and the reason given p. 1336 1337. Long Life to many proves a curse p. 1338. Long Life in it self is a blessing p. 1337 1338. How it is a blessing when so full of sorrow and upon that account Men are made so weary of it 1339 1340 Light put for evening of the Sabbath 479 Light within what and of what power to lead to Heaven 1286 Likeness and Image of God upon Man distinguished p. 1302. Likeness of God upon Man lost by sin but not the Image 1302 Lineage or Descent of Christ was most of younger Brothers 1089 1090 Linnin Cloth or a Sindon was a Cloak made of Linnin hung with Fringe 354 355 Lives why Satan taketh not away our lives when he pleaseth Page 1209 Locusts many kinds of them 333 Lod where and what 325 c. Long sufferings of God to wicked Men is sometimes not the goodness of God to them 1311 Loosing or Binding a very usual Phrase in the Jewish Schools spoken of Things not of Persons 205 206 207. See Binding and Loosing Lords Day the Jews say it was the first day in the week why Christ changed the Day from the Seventh to the First p. 271 272 1329 1330. The Lords Day was not controverted but every where celebrated in the Primitive Times only some Jews converted to the Gospel also kept the Jewish Sabbath 792 793 Lords Prayer illustrated out of the Jewish Writings p. 159 to 161. The Lords Prayer was given twice by Christ first in the Mount Matth. 6 and then at the Feast of Tabernacles a year and an half after p. 1138. The agreeableness of it to the Jewish Forms p. 1139. The reason why the Doxology is added to it by Saint Matthew and omitted by Saint Luke 1139 Loretto the Legend of the Virgin Mary's House carried thither 494 495 Lots how cast where and when 380 Love it is our duty to love all Men the reason p. 1204. We are to love our Neighbour as our selves 1301 Love Feasts they were Appendages to the Lords Supper also they were when strangers were entertained in each Church at the cost of the Church c. 774 to 776 Loving put for embracing kissing or being well pleased with and pitying 347 348 Lunatick Deaf and Dumb. 210 Luz a little bone in a Mans back which the Jews speak of as the Seed and Principle of a future Resurrection 583 1238 Lydda a Village not inferior to a City the same with Lod notwithstanding the errors of some Maps making them differing Places it had eminent Schools in it much History belongs to it p. 16 17. Lydda is called Lodicea 326 Lye the Jews used and loved to lye at their Feasts in what order they used that Gesture 256 257 M. MACHERUS is derived from Macvar p. 81. Macherus a Castle where situate Page 501 Macpelah supposed to be Adams burying place 47 Magdala was near Tiberias and Chammath 70 308 Magdalen Mary Magdalen whence the Name 415 416 Magistracy instituted as an ordinance of Christ and a Gospel mercy p. 1059 1060 c. The usefulness of it to the Church p. 1060 1061 c. So overawed by a wicked people as not to dare to execute justice 1111 Magistrates are to be obeyed in all lawful things p. 230 231. The false Logick of those who are for no Magistrates over them but King Jesus refuted 1060 Magog and Gog what is meant by them 1173 1174 Mahumetism and Popery coming the Devil was let loose 1172 Maids the day of the week on which they were married and the ceremonies of their marriage 534 Malefactors at their death were used cruelly by the Jews as an act of friendship p. 478. Malefactors say the Jews going to execution and making confession of their sins that and their death did expiate for their sins 1275 Mammon of unrighteousness what 451 452 Man is a wonder p. 1225. How much devilishness the Devil can infuse into Man's nature with the reasons of it 1308 1309 Manacles for the hands used among the Jews 683 Manaâen i. e. the Comforter taken for Christ. Page 108 Maphtir he that read in the Synagogues was called Maphtir and was to read one and twenty Verses 406 Maps of the Gospel Tapography are too officious 310 311 Mar or Mari a Title the Jews sometimes gave their Rabbins 465 Maran-ath this say very many Commentators is the highest and heaviest Form of Excommunication but it rather intimates the curse coming upon the Jews 796 797 Mark why he departed from Paul and Barnabas 741 Maronitâ a Maronite what 515 Marriage not to be till a woman was espoused p. 100. Marriage of Men the time and reason of it p. 757 758. The Marriage Bond both among Jews and Gentiles especially the Jews was looked upon as a loose thing p. 759. When to marry or not to marry 762 Marriages were performed on differing days for Maids and Widows with the reason and Ceremonies thereof 534 Married a hundred and sixty Priests married in Gophna all in one night p. 52. When a Man was new married where he dwelt p. 309. What a reproach it is for a Woman not to be married 1216 1217 Martyrdom dying called Martyrdom for others to save their Country 326 Mary Magdalen the same with Mary the Sister of Lazarus why called Magdalen p. 270 587. Baronius also proves her to be the Sister of Lazarus 588 Mary the Mother of Jesus vilified by the Talmudists 400 Masada a Castle near Asphaltites fortified even to a miracle 296 Matthew writ his Gospel in Greek so did Paul his Epistle to the Hebrews and not in Hebrew as some have affirmed because the Hebrew was altogether unknown to the Common Jews for it was not the Jews Mother Tongue in the time of the Apostles but the Syriack 101 to 104 Measurings of the Jews how or what they were p. 318 c. A Parsa was four miles a Talmudick mile consisted of seven furlongs and an half a Diet was thirty miles 319 Meats forbidden and unclean what 199 200 Mediation of Christ the matter of it what 1261 Melchisedeck all now acknowledge him for Sem. 327 Men their Affairs and Times how God knows and dates them 1250 c.
these Men pointed the Bible it savours of the work of the Holy Spirit 73 34 Rachab supposed to marry Joshua famous among the Jewish Writers 97 Rain former and later what 409 Raka a word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn 141 Rakkath a fortified City from the days of Joshua 67 Rama was the Name of very many Towns in the Land of Israel because they were seated in some high place Page 80 Ramah and Ramathaim Zophin there were two of the Name whence derived 41 Ransom or Attonement for Souls how much and for what end p. 1204 1205 1208. At what time it was paid p. 1205. Why the Poor therein was to give as much as the Rich. p. 1207. And why the Poor in Worldly matters gave more than the Rich did in those that referred to God 1207 Retaliation it's Laws 150 151 Ravens which brought bread and flesh Morning and Evening to Elias are supposed to be the People of Orbo 317 Ravished Saint Austin's determination about chaste Matrons and Virgins Ravished by the Enemy when they broke into the City what 1098 Readers of the Low part of their work 803 Reason the mysteries of Divinity not contrary to it how to be understood 1103 Redemption or new Creation was performed on the day Adam was created 1325 Refuge Cities of Refuge their Number and Names 47 48 Regeneration what kind of Regeneration the Jews thought to be necessary to Proselytism 533 Region round about Jordan what 298 299 Registers or Scribes of the Sanhedrim were two the one sat on the right the other on the left hand one wrote the votes of those that quitted the other of those that condemned 337 Religion the Religion of the Pharisees Sadducees and Esseans was not the National Religion of the Jews but Sects and Excrescences from it p. 1036. Christ sets himself against them that set themselves against Religion p. 1164. The Principles of the Traditional Religion of the Jews made them Crucifie the Lord of Life p. 1175. What Religion the Devil hath most reason to hate p. 1177. And which is the best and what it is p. 1177. Which is the true Religion A difficult Question two marks of it p. 1176 1177. The Jewish Religion was very corrupt under the second Temple p. 1199 1200. The Romish Religion comes very near to Judaism p. 1200. Whether a Man may be saved in that Faith that is in the Religion of Rome doubted p. 1202. Some maintain that a Man may be saved in any Religion or Opinion so he live but honestly towards Men and devoutly towards God 1279 Rempham or Rephan what 673 Renting of Cloaths what 263 Repentance a Doctrine highly fit for the Jews when it was preached to them by John the Baptist The Schools of the Pharisees did ill define Repentance p. 113. The Jews supposed the Redeemer was to come at a time when Repentance was to be p. 114. Repentance not to be put off till death p. 1227. There is nothing more desirable to God Christ and Angels than the Repentance of a Sinner p. 1269. What it is that moves God Christ and Angels to desire this p. 1270. Repentance is the gift of God as well as Pardon p. 1277. The Rule to arrive at Repentance is to take Gods time as well as way 1277 Repetition of the same words in Prayer how practised condemned by Christ. 157 Rephaims what 363 Reproof and Excommunication what they were with the difference between them 747 Resurrection the first Resurrection what 1233 1235 Resurrection of Christ the Epoche of the Messias is stated from the Resurrection of Christ. p. 180. The Resurrection of Christ shews him to be the Messiah p. 691. How it argues and gives assurance of the last Judgment p. 1105. Christ Resurrection and the Creation whether the greater work 1330 Resurrection of the dead was in the days of Ezra denyed by some p. 216. How it is proved out of the Old Testament by Rabban Gamaliel p. 541. How the Sadducees came to deny the Resurrection from the dead p. 542. The Jews looked for the Resurrection from the dead p. 549 552. It is proved out of the Talmud p. 702. Proved out of the Law p. 787. Resurrection and last judgment proved p. 1101 1102 1103 c. The objections of the Sadducees and Atheists answered p. 1101 c. Resurrection of the last day demonstrated against the Sadducees and Atheists p. 1236 1237. Denyed by the Sadducees Page 1282 c. Resurrection of the Saints expected even by the Jews at the beginning of the Kingdom of the Messias 269 Revelation Prophesie Utim and Thummim were gone from the Jews for four hundred years before Christ came 1284 1288 1289 Rhinocorura a River of Egypt what 9 291 Riches worldly Riches and grandure countervail nothing with God 1210 1211 1212 Righteousness why Alms are taken for Righteousness p. 153 c. Righteousness inherent and justifying 504 505 Rings of the Altar what and for what use 33 34 Robbers were very numerous among the Jews and did strange mischiefs how there came to be so many of them 267 268 362 Rock for Christ not Peter 205 Roman Empire when it began p. 388 389. When and how it was measured p. 389. When and how taxed 389 390 Romanists and Jews how they may be said to be yoak-fellows 1110 Romans there were Garisons of them dispersed over the Land of Israel what they were p. 324. The Romans are brought in by the Jewish Writers owning themselves and boasting of their being the Children of Esau or Edom and shew that Esau ought to rule over Jacob. p. 694 695. The Epistle to the Romans when and where it was written by Saint Paul 1051 Rome is put for Edom. p. 292. Rome guilty of our Saviours death as much as Jerusalem p. 1109. It is also guilty of Apostasie p. 1110. Part of the character of Rome at this time as referring to England p. 1165 The proper Name of Rome say Roman Historians is a Secret p. 1165. The Tutelar Deity of it also unknown p. 1166. Rome is the Devils Seat his Deputy and Vicegerent p. 1166. Rome commissioned by the Devil to fight against Christ his Religion and People p. 1166 1167. When first and last spoke of in Scripture p. 1168. Rome Heathen could not be Antichrist because the character of Antichrist is Apostasie p. 1168. Rome Papal hath exceeded Rome Heathen p. 1169. Rome is ever spoken of in Scripture with a black and dismal character p. 1199. Rome and the Religion thereof comes very near to Judaism p. 1200. Whether a Man can be saved in the Faith that is in the Religion of Rome doubted p. 1202 Rome compared with the Old Jerusalem State 1200 Rule God's extraordinary Actings are not Mens ordinary Rule 1276 Rulers the false Logick of those who are for no Rulers over them but King Jesus refuted 1060 S. SABBATH when it ended p. 166 167. The Jews ate nothing on the Sabbath till the Morning Prayers of
the virtue of his blood i. e. of his obedience and righteousness so see what the same Apostle saith of his Exaltation Phil. II. 8 c. And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow c. And think here Christian what a stock of obedience and righteousness here is for thee to answer and satisfie for thy disobedience and unrighteousness if thou become a child of the Covenant as this blood was the blood of the Covenant It is said in Dan. IX 26. That Messiah should be cut off but not for himself This blood of the New Testament was not shed for himself but for many And here is enough for every soul that comes to him be they never so many Like the Widdows oyl in the Book of the Kings there is enough and enough again as long as any Vessel is brought to receive it And this may direct us toward the forming of the reliance of our Faith upon the blood of Christ the great work that a Christian hath to do for his Justification and Salvation Which will be the more cleared to us by considering how his blood is the blood of the Covenant Which is the next thing we should speak to had we time to do it A SERMON PREACHED UPON HEBREWS XIII 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle THERE is one that asks our Saviour Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Mat. XIX 16. And another that asks his great Apostle What must I do to be saved Act. XVI 30. The questions mean one and the same thing but only proposed in different expressions And the answers tend to one and the same purpose though proposed in terms very different Our Saviour answers If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments The Apostle answers If thou wilt be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The one proposeth Faith the other proposeth Good works not in such contrariety as the Apostle James speaks of Faith and Works Chap. III. but in such consonancy as that the one is subservient unto the other keeping of the Commandments towards the bringing on of Faith and Faith to the breeding and forwarding the keeping of the Commandments and both to obtain eternal life I will speak at present of the absolute necessity of Faith for the obtaining eternal life and therefore have I chosen these words which I have read to you which seem at first sight to be meer strangers to such a subject but when explained and rightly understood are very pertinent to such a matter I say rightly understood for there are many the Popish Expositors especially that understand them exceedingly wrong and as far from the Apostles meaning as likely can be By we have a Altar they understand the Altar in their Churches viz. the Table where they administer the Sacrament and thence they call the Sacrament The Sacrament of the Altar A title that hath been too common in England and which hath cost many a good man very dear The Lord grant the title be never known here any more But the title of the Altar is commonly known among us still and ask many why they call it an Altar they will be ready to produce this place of the Apostle We have an Altar As if the Apostle who had been crying down the service and sacrifices of the Altar all along this Epistle and shewed that they were but shadows and to vanish when the substance appeared should set them up again and build up anew what he had so earnestly set himself to destroy As if Gedeon that destroyed the Altar of Baal in the night should fall awork in the morning and build it up again But the Altar in the Apostles meaning here is Christ himself And as he had called him an High Priest and a Sacrifice along in the Epistle before so he calls him also the Altar here shewing that all those things did but represent him and that he was the substance and reality of those shadows He shews how he was the Great High Priest in the later end of the fourth and along the fifth Chapter He shews how he was the great Sacrifice in the ninth and tenth Chapters and how he was the great Altar he shews at this place We have an Altar And that he means Christ by the Altar is apparent by two things that follow to omit more that might be collected by the context The first is in the words immediately following For those beasts whose blood was brought by the High Priest into the holy place for sin their bodies were burnt without the Camp Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate His argumentation is this The great solemn Sacrifice for sin on the day of attonement was not burnt upon the Altar in the Temple but was burnt without the City so Christ was sacrificed without the gate so that whosoever will partake of that true Sacrifice for sin must go to the Altar there and not to the Altar within the Temple And in the next verse but one he shews yet more plainly that he means Christ by our Altar ver 13. Therefore by him let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God As on the Altar in the Temple they offered their Sacrifices and Thank-offerings so by him as on our Altar Let us offer our sacrifice of praise to God So that in the words you have an Affirmative assertion and a Negative The Affirmative That we have Christ for our Altar The Negative That they that serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of this Altar The Affirmative comfortable to every true Christian the later seems comfortless for every true Jew The reason of the Negative assertion we may inquire more particularly into afterwards To the former to speak at present we take up this Observation from it That he that will offer any sacrifice acceptable to God must go to Christ as the true Altar on which to offer it No sacrifice among the Israelites could be accepted if it were not offered on the Temple-altar And it was Gods special command Thou shalt not offer thy sacrifice in any of thy Cities but shalt go to the Altar of the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse Nor can any sacrifice be acceptable to God of any Christian but what is offered to him upon the Altar of his appointment the Lord Christ where alone is attonement for sinners As Priesthood and Sacrifice were typical and signified to this purpose so also was the Altar of the same signification And whereas there were two Altars at the Temple one for Sacrifice the other for Incense they did both but represent Christ and his acting
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