other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
conquer Hell then If he did what was it with What did his Soul there to conquer Hell How he conquered Hell and Death by dying and rising we can tell but how his Soul conquered with bare going thither who can tell you Or did he augment the torments of the Devils and damned That needed not nor indeed could it be done as I shall shew afterwards What then did Christs Soul there in its Triumph unless as He Veni vidi vici I came I saw I overcame it conquered Hell by looking into it Natura nihil facit frustra Nature does nothing in vain much less the God of nature And Christ in his life time never did spoke thought any thing in vain And it is unhansom to think that his Soul after death should go out of the bosom of his Father into Hell to do no body can imagine what For who can tell what it did in Triumphing there II. Was not Christ under his Humiliation till his Resurrection Was he not under it whilst he lay in the grave He himself accounts it so Psal. XVI 10. Thou wilt not suffer my Soul being in the state of separation my Body to see corruption to be trampled on by death to be triumphed over by Satan that yet had it there If you imagine his Soul triumphing or vapouring in Hell for I cannot imagine what it should do there unless to vapour how might Satan vapour again Thou Soul of Jesus dost thou come to triumph here Of what I pray thee Have I not cause to triumph over thee Have I not procured his death Banished thee out of his body and got it into the grave And dost thou come to triumph here Let us first see whether he can get out from among the dead before we talk of his triumph over him that had the power of death So that if we should yield to so needless a point as Christs going to triumph in Hell yet certainly it would be but very unseasonable to have gone thither when he had not yet conquered but his body was still under death and as yet under the conquest of Satan This had been to triumph before Victory as Benhadads vapour was to Ahab when he received that answer Let not him that girdeth on his sword boast himself as he that putteth it off The beginning of Christs Kingdom was his Resurrection for then had he conquered death and him that had the power of death the Devil And so the Scripture generally states it I need cite no proof but two of his own speeches Matth. XXVI 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom that is after my Resurrection when I have conquered the Enemies of God and set up his Kingdom And Matth. XXVIII 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth And this was after his Resurrection But is it not improper to dream of a Triumph before a Conquest That Christ should Triumph as King before he had put on his Kingdom As Esth. V. 3. On the third day she put on the Kingdom For so it is in the Hebrew The days before she had been under fasting mourning humiliation and that was not a time of Royalty and Triumph So on the third day Christ rose and put on his Kingdom the days before he had been under death had abased himself a very unfit and unseasonable time for his Soul to go and triumph III. As concerning Christs triumphing over Devils His Victory over Satan was of another kind of nature than to go amongst them to shew terribly or speak terribly for what else can we imagine his Soul did in that Triumph in Hell It is said Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil Destroy him How We may say of him as he of the Traitor Vivit etiam in Senatum venit He lives yea he comes into the Council-house So Is the Devil destroyed He is alive walketh rageth ruleth He walked about the Earth before Christs death Job I. So hath he done ever since 1 Pet. V. 8. Your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour He was a murtherer from the beginning to Christs death Joh. VIII 44. So hath he been ever since he goes about seeking to devour and he doth devour He wrought in the children of disobedience before and he now worketh Eph. II. 2. And how hath Christ conquered destroyed him You must look for the Conquest and Triumph of Christ over him not so much in destroying his Person as destroying his Works 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil I might here speak of many things I shall only mention two or three particulars wherein the Victory of Christ over the Devil by his death doth consist 1. By his death he hath conquered the very clamors of Satan paying a ransom for all his people Rom. VIII 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Satan is ready to say I lay a charge and claim to them for they have been disobedient But Christ hath paid a satisfaction for all their disobedience Satan thou art cast in thy suit the debt is paid How is the Devil confounded at the loss of such a prize as he expected And how does the Death and Merits of Christ here Triumph Now Goliah David defies thee touch one in the Camp of Israel if you can or dare they are all redeemed and ransomed thou hast nothing to do with them And the ransomed of the Lord shall go to Sion with everlasting joy Rejoyce O Heathens for the false accuser is cast out Here is a glorious Triumph by the righteousness and holiness of Christ delivering all his people 2. By his death he brake the partition wall and brings in the Heathen Oh! how did Satan hold them in slavery Pharaoh let my people go No. I know not the Lord nor will I let them go But thou shalt be brought to it and by the death of a Paschal Lamb they shall go whether thou wilt or no. Two thousand years had they been in his slavery sure thought he this shall be for ever But by the death of poor despised Jesus at Jerusalem the prison doors are open and all these captives are gone free Rejoyce ye prisoners of hope as they are called Zech. IX 11 12. I cannot but think of the case of Paul and Silas Act. XVI in an inner prison their feet in the stocks the doors fast and a strong guard and there comes one shake and all fly open and all the prisoners are loosed Jaylor what sayest thou now Thou mayst even draw thy sword and end thy self all thy prisoners are gone 3. Nay yet further Jaylor thou must to prison thy self Ponder on those words Rev. XX. 1
for fine Flower are Micmash and Zanoah and next to them Ephraim in the Vale. JOHN Chap. XII from begin to Ver. 12. A Supper at Bethany Jesus his feet anointed THe connexion of this story to the preceding Chapter is plainly made by the Evangelist himself Compare ver 55. of Chap. 11. and ver 1. of this Though there were a Proclamation out against Jesus for his life Chap. 11. 57. yet cometh he for Jerusalem and Lazarus at Bethany is not afraid to entertain him He may well venture his life for him who had received it from him It was their Sabbath day at night when he had this Supper a time that they used to have extraordinary cheer Mary who had anointed his feet before Luke 7. 38. doth the like again There is a groundless and a strange opinion of some that the Supper in Matth. 26. 6 7. and Mark 14. 3. was the same with the Supper in John 12. An imagination that I cannot enough admire at seeing there are so many things plainly to gainsay it but the discussion of it shall be deferred till we come to those Chapters Only one particular here may not be omitted without observation and which will make something at present toward the confutation of that opinion and that is our Saviours answer in the vindication of Maries act Let her alone against the day of my burial hath she kept this or rather She hath kept it Not that he meaneth that this anointing of his feet was her anointing him against his burial but that she had kept some of this oyntment yet for that purpose hereafter Judas repined at the expence of the oyntment that she used for the anointing of his feet and pleaded that it had been better bestowed upon charitable uses for the poor Why saith Christ she hath kept it yet and not spent all that she may bestow it upon a charitable use the anointing of my body to its burial For 1. neither the text doth any whit assert that she spent the whole pound that she brought nor indeed in reason was so great a quantity needful 2. It was not so proper to apply it to his burial now when as he was to ride in triumph to Jerusalem to morrow as it was two daies before the Passover when the other Supper and anointing was which was the very night when Judas compacted for his betraying 3. Then Christ saith she poured it upon his body Matt 26. 12. which cannot be of the same sense with pouring it upon his feet only She therefore six days before the Passover anointed his feet which was an ordinary use among the Jews to have their feet anointed and the Talmudists give some rules about it in Talm. Jerus Sanhedr fol. 21. col 1. and this she doth in dear love and affection to him But two daies before the Passover she doth not so much anoint his head as pour the Ointment upon his head that it might run all over his body and this she did towards his burial not only in his construction but in her own intention she being the first we read of that believed his death as she was the first that saw him after his resurrection Her faith and fact he foresaw and therefore saith now at the anointing of his feet that she yet kept it for the anointing of his body which when she did he extols the fact with this encomion that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached that action of her the example of the first faith in his death should be published in memorial of her Thus did this Mary who as hath been shewed was Mary Magdalen anoint Christ three several times his feet at her first conversion and his feet again at this time six daies before the Passover and his head and body two daies before the Passover even that night that Judas first went about to make his bargain for betraying him SECTION LXXII MATTH XXI from the beginning to Ver. 17. MARK XI from the begin to the middle of Ver. 11. LUKE XIX from Ver. 29. to the end JOHN XII from Ver. 12. to Ver. 20. CHRIST rideth upon an Ass into Jerusalem JOHN maketh the connexion plain when he saith On the next day c. And sheweth that as Christ went up at this time in the evidence and accomplishment of that Prophesie Zech. 9. 9. so he also went up in the equity and answering of that Type of taking up the Paschal Lamb on the tenth day Exod. 12. 3. for this was on that very day and the Lamb of God doth now go in as giving up himself for the great Paschal John telleth us that he lay at Bethany the night before this and yet the other Evangelists have related it that when he came to Bethpage and Bethany he sent two of his Disciples for the Ass c. The Jews Chorography will here help us out They tell us 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two thousand cubits was the Suburbs of a City Maym. in Schabh per. 27. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two thousand cubits were the bounds of a Sabbath or a Sabbath days journey Talm. in Sotah per. 5. 3. Bethpage was of this nature it was not a Town upon mount Olivet as it hath been very generally supposed and accordingly placed in the most Maps but it was some buildings and that space of ground that lay from Jerusalem wall forward towards mount Olivet and up mount Olivet to the extent of two thousand cubits from the wall or thereabout and hereupon it was reputed by the Jews of the same qualification with Jerusalem as a part of it in divers respects Talm. Bab. Pesachin fol. 63. fac 2. He that slays a Thanksgiving Sacrifice within while the bread belonging to it is without the wall the bread is not holy What means without the wall R. Jochanan saith Without the wall of Bethpage The Gloss there â—aith Bethpage was an outer place of Jerusalem And the same Gloss useth the very same words again upon the same Tract fol. 91. fac 1. And again in the same Treatise fol. 95. fac 2. the Mishna saith thus The two loaves and the shewbread are allowable in the Temple Court and they are allowable in Bethpage Nay the Gloss in Sanhedr fol. 14. fac 1. saith Bethpage was a place which was accounted as Jerusalem for all things So that the place so called began from Jerusalem and went onwards to and upon mount Olivet for the space of a Sabbath daies journey or thereabout and then began the coast that was called Bethany And hence it is that Luke saith that Christ when he ascended into Heaven led forth his Disciples as far as Bethany Luke 24. 50. which elsewhere he sheweth was the space of a Sabbath days journey Acts. 1. 12. which cannot be understood of the Town Bethany for that was fifteen furlongs or very neer two Sabbath daies journey from Jerusalem but that he led them over that space of ground which was called Bethpage to that part of Olivet
2. 14. 2 Thess. 1. 4. gave the Apostle just occasion whilest he was present with them to discourse with them and to inform them concerning the condition and carriage and end of that Nation that they might be setled and resolved to bear all whatsoever they should suffer from that accursed people and generation and here he taketh up the same discourse again for their further establishment Besides outward molestation and affliction of their bodies there were false teachers that troubled their minds and especially with these two puzzles 1. To make them to doubt what became of them that died in the faith and profession of Jesus for whereas the Apostle handles the matter of the resurrection in the former Epistle Chap. 4. 14. I cannot suppose that he doth it to them as to men of the Sadducee opinion denying the resurrection or as to men that had never heard of the resurrection before for all the Jews set the Sadduces aside did assuredly believe it but because that the opposers of the Gospel had buzzed to them their lost condition after death for their revolting from the Jewish Religion and becoming Apostates as they reputed it to the Gospel The tenth Chapter of the Treatise Sanhedrin that names certain sorts of people that must not inherit the world to come gives us good cause to suppose that this was no small terror that those envious opposers would perplex the minds of those withal who had forsaken the Jewish Religion and betaken themselves to the profession of Christ. The Talmudick place cited speaketh thus All Israel hath a share in the world to come as it is said Thy people shall all of them be righteous But these have no share in the world to come He that saith The resurrection is not taught in the Law and that the Law is not from God and Epicurus Now by Epicurus they mean not luxurious ones as the word Epicure is commonly used by us but as the Gemara explains it there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that despiseth their Doctors and elsewhere they yoke it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostates and Epicures Rosh hashanah per. 1. and so they brought all that started from the vain doctrine of their traditionaries under this title and under that terror of having no share in the world to come 2. They went about to perplex the mind of these converts with urging how near the day of the Lord was The Scripture and the Apostle had spoken of the day of the Lords coming when he should come to take vengeance of the Jewish Nation for their wickedness and unbelief and these would terrific this Church with inculcating the nearness of it pretending for this partly revelation and partly the words or writing of the Apostle The aim in this terror was to amaze the new believers and to puzzle them about what to hold and what to do in that sad time which they pretended was ready to fall upon their heads The Apostle resolves that there was some good space of time to be before for there was to be a falling away and the man of sin to be revealed The phrase The man of sin and child of perdition is plainly taken from that place Isa. 11. 4. With the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one and the Apostle makes it clear that he referreth to that place by using the very words of the Prophet at ver 8. Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth The Jews put an Emphasis upon that word in the Prophet The wicked one as it appeareth by the Chaldee Paraphrast who hath uttered it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall destroy the wicked Roman And so the Apostle puts an Emphasis upon it and translates it the Man of sin And in that Christ is introduced in the Prophet as having a special quarrel and vengeance against him he is called the son of perdition or he that is so certainly and remarkably to be destroyed It is true this meaneth the Roman as the Chaldee and our Protestant Divines by the warrant of John in the Revelation do interpret it but in the first place and sense it meaneth the Jewish Nation which proved Antichrist as well as Rome ever did and as far as Rome ever did and before Rome ever did and as long and longer then Rome hath yet done As Jews and Rome joyned in the murder of Christ so are they joyned in this character of Antichrist but the Jews to be understood first See ver 7. the mystery of iniquity was already working when the Apostle wrote this Epistle which cannot possibly be understood but of the Jewish Nation and so it is explained again and again 1 John 2. 18. 4. 3. 2 Joh. v. 7 c. The several characters that the Apostle gives of the Man of sin agree most throughly to that generation and Nation and so the Scripture plainly applies them to it 1. There was a falling away in that Nation of multitudes that had imbraced the Gospel See Matth. 24. 12. Christ foretelling it and Paul from thence 1 Tim. 4. 1. by the later times that he there speaks of meaning the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish state as the phrase is used in that sense abundantly Such apostacy may be observed hinted in the Epistle to the Galatians to the Hebrews Colossians Rev. 2. 4. 2 Tim. 1. 15 and to spare more observe the conclusion of that Parable Matth. 12. 43 44 45. So shall it be with this wicked generation The Devil once cast out of it by the Gospel but returned by their Apostacy 2. How this Nation was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great opposer of the Gospel needeth no instance to any that hath read the New Testament And he that reads the Jewish Records shall find evidence enough of it of which we have given some brief account at Acts Chap. 13. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which exalts himself against every thing that is called God or worshipped were it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against God it were most true to the very letter their Scribes in the Temple of God it self sitting and setting up their traditions above the commands of God Matth. 15. 6. But how they exalted themselves against every thing called God or the Magistracy and those that were set over them we may observe in such passages as these 2 Pet. 2. 10. They despise government c. Jude v. 8. They despise dominion and speak evil of dignities c. and in their own stories to endless examples 4. As for the fourth mark mentioned vers 9. namely his coming after the working of Satan with all Magical power and delusion our Saviour had foretold it of that generation Matth. 24. 24. compared with vers 34. of that Chapter and it is abundantly asserted by Scripture by Josephus and other of their own Writers as we have given some examples before Now what the Apostle meaneth when he
the first Chap. 1. 17. That in the Gospel is revealed the Righteousness of God justifying as in the Law was revealed his righteousness or justice condemning and that from faith of immediate innixion upon God as was Adams before his fall and as was that which the Jews owned in God to faith in the righteousness of another namely Christ. This way of justification he proveth first by shewing how far all men both by nature and action are from possibility of being justified of or by themselves which he cleareth by the horrid sinfulness of the Heathen Chap. 1. a large proof of which might be read at Rome at that very instant and little less sinfulness of the Jews though they had the Law Chap. 2. 3. and therefore concludeth Chap. 3. 30. that God justifieth the circumcision by faith and not by works as they stood upon it and the uncircumcision through faith for all their works that had been so abominable and that seemed so contrary to justification In Chap. 4. he taketh up the example of Abraham whom the Jews reputed most highly justified by his works for they had this saying of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham performed all the Law every whit but he proveth that he found nothing by his own works but by believing he found all In Chap. 5. he proves the imputation of Christs righteousness for Justification by the parallel of the imputation of Adams sin for condemnation Not at all intending to assert that as many as were condemned by Adam were freed from that condemnation by the death of Christ but purposely and only to prove the one imputation by the other It was a strange doctrine in the ears of a Jew to hear of being justified by the righteousness of another therefore he proves it by the like mens being condemned for and by the unrighteousness of another Two close couched passages clear what he aimeth at The first is in ver 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the World c. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As properly requireth a So to follow it as you may observe it doth in ver 15. 18 19. but here there is no such thing expressed therefore it is so to be understood and the Apostles words to be construed to this sense Wherefore it is or the case is here as it was in Adam as by one man sin entred into the World c. there imputation so here The second is ver 18. in the Original verbatim thus As by the transgression of one upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one upon all men to justification of life What upon all men Our Translation hath added some words to clear the sense but the shortness of the Apostles style doth better clear his intent namely to intimate imputation as speaking to this purpose As by the transgression of one there was that that redounded to all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one there is that that redoundeth to all to justification of life And to clear that he meaneth not that all that were condemned by Adams Fall were redeemed by Christ he at once sheweth the descent of Original sin and the descent of it for all the death and righteousness of Christ Quae tamen profuerunt antequam fuerunt Ver. 13. For till the Law sin was in the World but sin is not imputed where there is no Law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses By what Law was sin sin and did death reign when the Law was not yet given Namely by that Law that was given to Adam and he brake the guilt of which violation descends to all Having to the end of the fifth Chapter stated and proved Justification by faith in Chap 6 7 8. he speaks of the state of persons justified which though they be not without sin yet their state compared with Adams even whilst he was sinless it is far better then his He invested in a created finite changeable humane righteousness they in the righteousness of God uncreate infinite unchangeable He having the principles of his holiness and righteousness in his own nature they theirs conveyed from Christ He having neither Christ nor the Spirit but left to himself and his natural purity they having both See Chap. 8. 1 2 9 10 c. At the nineteenth verse of Chap. 8. he begins upon the second mystery that he hath to treat upon the calling of the Gentiles whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Creation or Every Creature by which title they also are called Mark 16. 15. Colos. 1. 23. and he shews how they were subject to vanity of Idolatry and the delusions of the devil but must in time be delivered from this bondage for which deliverance they now groaned and not they only but they of the Jews also which had received the first-fruits of the Spirit longed for their coming in waiting for the adoption that is the redemption of their whole body for the Church of the Jews was but the child-like body and accordingly their Ordinances were according to child-like age of the Church but the stature of the fulness of Christs mystical Body was in the bringing in of the Gentiles Being to handle this great point of the Calling of the Gentiles and Rejection of the jews he begins at the bottom at the great doctrine of Predestination which he handles from ver 29. of Chap. 8. to Chap. 9. 24. and then he falls upon the other That Israel stumbled at Messias and fell seeking indeed after righteousness but not his but their own and that they are cast away but not all A remnant to be saved that belonged to the Election of Grace As it was in the time when the World was Heathen some of them that belonged to the Election came in and were proselyted to the worship of the true God so some of these while all the rest of their Nation lie in unbelief And in this unbelief must they lie till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and then all Gods Israel is compleated The most that he salutes in the last Chapter appear to have been of the Jewish Nation and the most of them though now at Rome yet some time to have been of Pauls company and acquaintance in some other place The expulsion of the Jews out of Rome by Claudius Decree might very well bring many of them into his converse as well as it did Priscilla and Aquila whom he names first among them Epenetus was one of his own converts of Achaia Mary had bestowed much labour on him yet he hitherto had never been near Rome He that would dispute the point of the first planter of the Gospel at Rome might do well to make the first muster of his thoughts here And whereas the Apostle speaks of the faith of the Roman Church as spoken of throughout the World Chap. 1. ver 8. it is very questionable whether he
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
at Jerusalem as is apparent ver 23. yet would he not do one miracle for the satisfaction of this the Jews curiosity and quaere partly because he would first give them some word of doctrine and partly because for his shewing of miracles he would take his own time and moving and not theirs In all the Gospel Christ doth no miracle where some necessity went not along with it 2. In these words destroy this Temple he commandeth them not to do the thing but he foretelleth that they should do it as Esay 8. 9 10. John 13. 27. c. yeeld examples of the like nature Associate your selves and ye shall be broken in peeces take counsell together and it shall come to nought And what thou dost do quickly c. 3. His answer is very suitable to the present occasion For as he had purged the Temple which they had defiled for which they question his authority so saith he go yet further and even destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it 4. But he spake of the Temple of his body vers 21. Now he used not any such gesture or action as it seemeth as that the Jews could perceive that he spake in that sense but they make a double misconstruction of his words namely ignorant and wilfull Ignorant conceiving that he spake of the very material Temple wilfull in that whereas he only saith do you destroy it they accuse him for saying that he would destroy it himself Mat. 26. 61. 5. Now he speaketh so closely to them and to the matter or occasion before them partly because of the neareness of relation that is between the thing signifying and the thing signified as Mat. 26. 26. and partly because he would speak to them in parables and dark things as Matth. 13. 34 35. § This Temple Meaning the Temple of his body as the Evangelist himself explaineth it which may be understood either because his body was the Temple of the Godhead as Col. 2. 9. or because it was represented by the material Temple in which God dwelt presentially as the Godhead did in Christ bodily The Temple was a glorious figure of Christ in Gods dwelling there amongst men In giving his Oracles there in the services tendred and accepted there c. And therefore it was that wheresoever the Jews were in any part of the world they were in all their prayers to turn their faces towards the Temple 1 King 8. 38 42 44 48. Dan. 6. 10. And thereupon it was that when the Jews destroyed Christs â—ody the Temple rent from the top to the bottom in one of the choicest parts of it Vers. 20. Forty and six years was this Temple in building Although all that space of time and state of the Jews that passed betwixt the return out of Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem be generally and indeed properly said to be under the second Temple yet in exact strictness and reality there were two Temples in that space namely that that was built by Zorobable and that that was built by Herod Of the former we have the relation in Ezr. 3. 6. Of the latter we have the story in Joseph Antiq. lib. 15. cap 14. Expositots upon this place take no notice of this duplicity because they account that Herod did not build but only repair the Temple and they generally understand this 46 years building of the time and space that the Temple was getting up in the days of Zorobable or instantly after the return from the Babylonian captivity The parcels of which sum every several Expositor almost doth cast and reckon up by several counters It were endless to alledge much more endless to examine them I shall spare that labour since I have given my thoughts concerning the reigns of the Persian Kings of those times in another place and I cannot but hold still unto that account as conceiving it to be the very account of Scripture namely that Cyrus reigned 3 years Artaxerxes Ahashuerosh after him 14 years and Artaxerxes Darius 32 years when Nehemiah went back to him having finished Jerusalem street and wall 49 years in all or 7 weeks as Dan. 9. 25. Out of these 49 years if you seclude the two first of Cyrus for in his second the Temple was begun and the thirty second of Darius as years only current you have exactly 46 compleat years from the beginning of the founding of Zorobables Temple to the finishing of the city and compleating of the buildings and servicedisposal of the Temple with it And reckoning also after such a maner of reckoning namely by casting out years that were only current it was exactly 46 compleat years since Herod began the building of the Temple to this very time that Christ and the Jews have this discourse For Herod fell upon that work in the eighteenth year of his reign as Josephus relateth in the place fore-cited and he reigned 37 years even till Christ was two years old as we have proved in the first part of the Harmony at Sect. 7. or Matth. 2. And Christ at this time of his discourse was in the thirtieth year of his age or just twenty nine years old and an half All which sums if the Reader cast up and count as we did in the account before he will find how fitly if one will so take it these words may be applyed to the Temple of Herod forty and six years hath this Temple been built Vers. 22. They believed the Scripture c. The Scriptures whatsoever had spoken of Christs death and resurrection the Disciples are said here to have believed after his resurrection But did they not believe them before It is undoubted they did with a general historical belief but after the resurection they made use of those texts and words with a more special and peculiar application and experience Vers. 23. Now when he was in Ierusalem at the Passover c. It was the custom of the Nation to come to Jerusalem some space of time before the Festival that they might purifie themselves against the Festival came Now Christ in this space was purifying the Temple by casting out buyers and sellers and driving out the cattle and when he was then asked for a miracle he would do none but when the Feast was come he beginneth to work miracles abundantly and many believed on him Now beginneth he most plainly and publickly to shew himself being now in the chief City in the general concourse of all the Nation and in the greatest solemnity of all the year Vers. 24. But Iesus did not commit himself unto them Some understand this of his not-committing and imparting the whole and full doctrine of the Gospel to them but the very carriage of the Text sheweth that it is to be understood of not-trusting his person with them because he knew their heart and saw that there was mischief and rottenness in some of them against him The End of the Second Part. THE HARMONY OF THE Four
some apprehend it but that we find not the Evangelist speaking of the Sabbath but in the proper sense By Sabbath therefore in these words is to be understood the Sabbatism of the day as well as the very day it self and on the same day was the Sabbath 10. The Iews therefore said unto him that was cured It is the Sabbath day it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed 11. He answered them He that made me whole the same said unto me Take up thy bed and walk 12. Then asked they him What man is that which said unto thee Take up thy bed and walk 13. And he that was healed wist not who it was for Iesus f f f f f f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word by some Expositors is made of a questionable derivation whether from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter is the more undoubted both as better suiting with the sense of the place and having also its parallel in the Old Testament as 2 King 23. 16. And as Josiah turned himself he saw the graves c. The Septuaginâ— have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So Jesus when he had done his cure upon the man turned himself away and was gone Having picked out this long diseased man to do his work upon and not minding in his wisdom to heal any more nor to be observed by the multitude more than he must needs What brought the concourse together in this place is somewhat hard to find Jerusalem was now full of people it being the Passover and whether these cloisters were full of the poorer sort that had come up to the feast and could not find better accomodation of lodging for themselves who can tell whether they were not built for such a purpose or whether the multitude had followed Jesus thither or gathered thither upon the report of the maâ—s recovering be it left to those to think upon that desire to be resolved of it had conveyed himself away a multitude being in that place 14. Afterward Iesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee 15. The man departed and told the g g g g g g The Jews that is the Sanhedrin or the Rulers for so it is very common with the Evangelists especially with this to mean by that expression as Chap. 1. 19. The Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem Chap. 7. 1. The Jews sought to kill him Chap. 9. 22. The Jews had agreed to put out of the Synagogue c. Chap. 18. 12. The Officers of the Jews took Jesus vers 14. Now Caiaphas was he that gave Counsel to the Jews c. So that Christ is here convented before the Sanhedrin although the Evangelist hath not expressed so much totidem verbis and is put to answer for his life about the violation of the Sabbath which they laid to his charge upon what he had done and commanded to the man that he had recovered Iews that it was Iesus which had made him whole 16. And therefore did the Iews persecute Iesus and sought to slay him because he had done those things on the Sabbath day 17. But Iesus answered them My Father worketh hitherto and I work 18. Therefore the Iews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God 19. Then answered Iesus and said unto them Verily verily I say unto you The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doth those also doth the Son likewise 20. For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth and he will shew him greater works than these that ye may marvail 21. For as the Father raised up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will 22. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son 23. That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life 25. Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also h h h h h h Some divide this seven and twentieth verse and joyn the latter part of it because he is the Son of man to the verse following and read it in this sense and juncture Because he is the Son of man Marvail not at this that is Marvail not at this that I speak although ye see me to be a man c. And thus readeth the Syriack and Chrysostome and some that follow him And Chrysostome the rather upon this ground because Paulus Samosatenus abused the verse pointed as we have it to the denial of the Godhead of Christ making this argument upon it If authority to execute judgment was given to Christ because he was the son of man then had he not this power of himself as God To which Chrysostome gave this answer If the Father gave authority of judging unto the Son upon this ground and reason because he was man then by the same reason all men should have the same authority for they are men likewise And so it appeareth that he was strained to point the verse as he did joyning that clause Because he is the Son of man to the verse following that he might avoid the dint of the Hereticks argument which had been more fairely fenced against and without straining the Text had the term The Son of man been cautelously interpreted and the dispensations of the Father to the Son as he was the Messias observed As for the pointing that we follow joyning the clause Because he is the Son of man to the words preceding and not to those that follow it is plainly cleared and asserted by the very sense and construction of the place it self And with all it hath this consent and concurrence of antiquity Augustinus eam distinctionem sequitur quam ille Chrysost. Samosateno tribuit they are the words of Beza ut plane appareat Latinam Ecclesiam semper ita legisse Consentiunt veteres omnes Graeci codices quos vidimus Cyrillus quoque non aliter distinguit To which I may add Nec aliter distinguit Arabs for the Arabick pointeth also as we do because he is the son of man 28. Marvail not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are
doth hereby more clearly open that mystery of God in Christ than if he had spoken only of believing himself or only of believing the Father 2. There are some that conceive that he speaketh of believing him that sent him rather than of believing him himself that by this humble reference of all to God he might make his speech more accceptable to the hearers 3. Compare this passage with Exod. 20. 19. and Deut. 18. 16 17 18. His expression of passing from death to life seemeth to refer either to the doom upon Adams not hearkening to the voice of God thou shalt die the death or to the codition under which every man is left by the Law namely under a curse from which hearkning to the voice of the Gospel is deliverance Or it may be it is spoken in some parallel to the case of the man healed for he by hearkening to the Word of Christ received health of body so whosoever heareth his Word obtains life of the Soul And thus doth Christ still make good the word that he had spoken to the man for a dispensation with the Sabbath and argueth that he might do such a thing because he was to give the Law and Word of the New Testament as the Father had done of the Old and sheweth that though violation of the Sabbath deserved and had been punished with death yet obedience to his Word and Command was discharge and a passing from death to life Vers. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God c. 1. These words are most generally understood as aiming at those dead that Christ raised by his voyce or word to life again as saying to Jairus daughter Talitha Kumi to the widdows son of Naim Young man arise and to Lazarus Lazarus come forth And being taken in such a relation the connexion of them to the words going immediately before lyeth thus Christ had spoken there of his spiritual reviving whosoever should believe his Word and here he either produceth a proof and evidence of what he had there spoken or else alledgeth it as another wonder and virtue of his power that by his voyce he would raise those that were bodily deceased And he ascribeth this reviving to the hearing of his voyce partly because he had ascribed the spiritual reviving to the hearing of his Word and partly to distinguish his rasing of those dead from the raising of those that were revived under the Old Testament for they were not raised by a word but by other applications 1 King 17. 21. 2 King 4. 34. 13. 21. 2. It was the opinion of the Jews that there should be a resurrection in the days of Messias The Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth Hos. 6. 2. thus He will revive us in the days of consolation Luke 2. 25. which are to come in the day of the Resurrection of the dead And Hos. 14. 8. thus They shall be gathered out of their captivity they shall sit under the shadow of their Messias and the dead shall revive and good shall be multiplyed on the Earth And Esay 49. 9. I give thee for a Covenant to the people to raise the righteous that lye in the dust And Kimchi on Esay 26. 19. The Holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of deliverance And in Jer. 23. 20. In that he saith Ye shall consider it and not They shall consider it it intimateth the Resurrection of the dead in the days of the Messias And on Ezek. 37. It may be God shewed Ezekiel the vision of the dead bones reviving to signifie to him that he would raise the dead of Israel at the time of deliverance that they also might see the deliverance Ab. Ezr. in Dan. 12. 2. The righteous that dyed in the captivity shall revive when the Redeemer cometh c. And this was so far the opinion of the Nation that they understood the term The World to come of the state of glory and yet of the days of Messias as shall be shewed when we meet with that phrase Now there was a Resurrection in the days of the Messias accordingly not only of those three that have been named but also of divers Saints whose graves were opened and bodies arose Mat. 27. 52. And if the words that we have in hand be applyed to the raising of dead in a bodily sense they may most properly be pointed to that Resurrection which was so parellel to the expectation of the Jews and Christ asscribing such a matter to himself doth prove himself to be the Messias even they and their own opinion being Judges 3. But the raising of the dead is taken in Scripture also in a borrowed sense namely for the reviving and quickning of those that were dead in trespasses and sins c. as Ephes. 2. 1. And that sense doth seem more agreeable to this place because our Saviour in the verse before doth apparently speak of such spiritual reviving The calling in of the Gentiles to the Gospel is called a Resurrection in divers places of the Scripture as Esa. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my Body they shall rise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out her dead What dead these are that were to rise with Christs body from the dead is not so much intimated in that passage of the Evangelist The bodies of divers Saints arose Matth. 27. 52. as in that saying of our Saviour There shall no sign be given them but the sign of Jonah the Prophet By which he doth not only signifie his own death and Resurrection but he doth also gall the Jews with an intimation of the calling of the Gentiles upon his Resurrection as the Ninivites were called upon Jonahs Resurrection out of the grave of the Whales belly And that dew of his that should inliven men as the dew doth herbs is the dew of the Doctrine of the Gospel as Deut. 32. 2. And so likewise Hos. 6. 2. speaketh to the very same tenor of Christs raising the dead in a spiritual sense upon his own Resurrection which was on the third day And so is the Resurrection in Ezek. 37. plainly expounded in that very chapter to be in a spiritual sense and so the Apostle construes it Rom. 11. 15. Amd the calling of the Gentiles is styled the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 5. c. That Christ meaneth the dead and the raising of the dead in this sense in this place might be argued upon these observations 1. Because throughout his speech hitherto and some steps further the scope of his discourse is namely to prove his all powerful rule and disposal of the affairs under the Gospel equal to what the Father had under the Law of which the calling of the Gentiles was one of the most eminent and remarkable 2. Because as was said before his very last words preceding were of passing
had joyned to them and came out with them On the second day of the month and of their arrival there Moses goeth up into the mountain being called up by the Lord vers 3. and when he cometh down telleth the people the words of the Lord vers 5. If ye will hear my voyce indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be my peculiar people To which the people even before they know what the Commandments of the Lord would be do promise to obey and hearken not by rash undertaking to perform they knew not what as some have been bold to tax them nor yet presuming upon their own ability to keep the Law as others have concluded upon them but having been trained up from their infancy and instructed in the doctrine of Faith they piously conclude when God cometh to give them a Law and to make a covenant with them that God would not cross himself in the Doctrine of salvation but that the Law that he would now give them should be a Law conducing and leading to Faith still a Schoolmaster to Christ and not an extinguisher of the doctrine of Salvation by him On the third day of the month Moses goeth up into the mountain again vers 9. and is charged to sanctifie the people which accordingly is done on that day and on the fourth and fifth and on the sixth day in the morning the ten Commandements are given SECTION XXVI The Iews Tenet concerning the Law Talm. in Maccoth Rab. Abhuhahh Ner. 1. THE whole Law say they was given to Moses in six hundred and thirteen precepts David in the fifteenth Psalm bringeth them all within the compass of eleven 1. To walk uprightly 2. To work righteousness 3. To speak truth in the heart 4. Not to slander 5. Not to wrong a Neighbour 6. Not to entertain or raise an ill report 7. To vilisie a reprobate 8. To honour them that fear the Lord. 9. That altereth not his oath 10. Not to lend to usury 11. Not to take bribes against the Innocent The Prophet Isaiah brings these to six in Chap. 33. 15. 1. To walk justly 2. To speak righteously 3. To refuse gain of oppression 4. To shake hands from taking bribes 5. To stop the ears from hearing of blood 6. To shut the eyes from seeing of evil Micha reduceth all to three Chap. 6. 8. 1. To do justly 2. To love mercy 3. To walk humbly with God Isaiah again to two Chap. 56. 1. 1. Keep judgment 2. Do justice Amos to one Chap. 5. 4. Seek me Habakkuk also brings all to one Chap. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live Thus the Jews witness against themselves while they conclude that Faith is the sum of the Law and yet they stand altogether upon works A Testimony from Jews exceedingly remarkable SECTION XXVII Articles of a believing Iews Creed collected out of Moses Law 1. I believe that salvation is by Faith not by Works WHEN the Talmudick Jews make such a confession as is mentioned instantly before wherein they reduce all the tenor and marrow of the Law under this one doctrine of living by Faith Hab. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live it is no woader if the more ancient and more holy Jews under the Law looked for salvation not by their own merits and works but only by Faith This fundamental point of Religion they might readily learn by these two things 1. From the impossibility of their keeping the Law which their consciences could not but convince them of by their disability to hear it and by their daily carriage 2. In that they saw the holiest of their men and the holiest of their services to receive sanctitie not from themselves but from another So they saw that the Priest who was or should be at least the holiest man among them was sanctified by his garments and that the sacrifices were sanctified by the Altar From these premises they could not but conclude that no man nor his best service could be accepted as holy in it self but must be sanctified by another 2. I beleive that there is no salvation without reconciliation with God and no reconciliation without satisfaction The first part of this Article is so plain that nature might teach it and so might it the latter also and laying hereto Moses his lex talionis eye for eye tooth for tooth it made it doubtless 3. I believe that satisfaction shall once be made This they might see by their daily sacrifice aiming at a time when there should full satisfaction be made which these poor things could not do No less did their Jubilec year intimate when men in debt and bondage were quitted The very time of the year when the Jubilee year began calling all Israel to think of a Jubilee from sin and Satans bondage into which mankind fell at the same time of the year 4. I believe that satisfaction for sin shall be made by a man This is answerable to reason that as a man sinned so a man should satifie but Moses's Law about redemption of Land by a kinsman taught Israel to expect that one that should be akin in the flesh to mankind should redeem for him morgaged heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew is both a kinsman and a Redeemer 5. I believe that he shall be more than a man This they learned from the common service about the Tabernacle wherein the high Priest a man as fully hallowed and sanctified as man could be for his outward function yet did he offer and offer again for the people and himself and yet they were unclean still This read a Lecture to every ones apprehension that a meer man could not do the deed of satisfaction but he must be more 6. I believe the redeemer must also be God as well as man The disability of beasts to make satisfaction they saw by their dying in sacrifice one after another and yet mans conscience cleansed never the better The unability of man we saw before The next then that is likely to do this work are Angels But them Israel saw in the Tabernacle curtains spectators only and not actors in the time and work of reconciliation From hence they might gather that it must be God dwelling with man in one person as the cloud the glory of God never parted from the Ark. 7. I believe that mans Redeemer shall die to make satisfaction This they saw from their continued bloody sacrifices and from the covenants made and all things purged by blood This the heedless man-slayer might take heed of and see that as by the death of the high Priest he was restored to liberty so should mankind be by the death of the highest Priest to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Their delivery from Egypt by the death of a Lamb taught them no less 8. I believe that he shall not die for his own sins but for mans Every Sacrifice read this Lecture when the most harmless of beasts and birds were offered
9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
denomination from the last Letter of Arphaxad's Name 13 Chaldean and curious Arts what 820 Chambers The Chambers in Solomon's Temple their height breadth and evenness of them without notwithstanding they were not of the same dimensions within p. 1065. * overlaid with Gold 2 Chron. 3. 9. over the Holy Place what or whether any such thing p. 1085 1086. * The Treasury Chambers what 1097. * Changers of Mony or Mony Changers what 213 550 Chapiters belonging to the Pillars what 1074. * Chargers what and of what use in the Temple 2048. * Charming was much used among the Jews 371 Chazan that is Episcopus or Overseer 375 Chel what and how put for the Temple 1089 Cherubiâ—s what number of what resemblance and where placed 1086 * Chests in the Treasury where placed and for what use p. 1095 1096. * The Chest set in the Gate of the House of the Lord what 2022 * Chief Priests put for the Sanhedrim many of them being Priests p. 282. They were the Heads of the Families of the Priests or the chief of the 24 Courses c. p. 438 439 Children How an Holy Seed p. 203. The Infants of Believers were brought to Christ to be received as Disciples which he did declaring them to be such and blessed them 248 Children came under the Title of Believers when all things were in common or else they must have farnished p. 277. When a Master of a Family was baptised his Children though never so young were baptised with him as had been the Custom among the Jews and was in the times of the Apostles unaltered p. 277. What Children are to be taught by their Fathers p. 295. They were sometimes named by the Mother as soon as born sometimes by the Standers-by but the Fathers at the Circumcision had the casting voice Whether the Name should be so or no. 421 Children for Scholars or Disciples 759 Children begot by or on Angels or Devils a nonsensical story 995 Chochebas and Barchochebas the same with Ben Coziba coyned Mony with his own Stump tortured the Christians to make them deny Christ was at the head of a most desperate Rebellion p. 366 367. He reigned two years and an half 366 367 Christ how Abraham saw his day p. 13. How Isaac typified him p. 13 14. He gave the Ten Commandments p. 28. He appeared weaponed and was Lord General in the Wars of Canaan p. 40. When he ceased to be Israels Captain and Conductor p. 45. Glorious things are spoken of him p. 102. His Divinity shewed and his fitness to be Incarnate p. 201 202. He was born in Tizri about the Feast of the Tabernacles that is about the close of September at which time 30 years after he was baptised p. 204 210 c. We have no History of him for nine or ten years p. 206. When he was twelve years of Age and all the time of his Ministry he disputed with and proved his Doctrine against the most learned Sanhedrim p. 207. He came in a double seasonableness When Learning was at the highest And Traditions had made the Word of God of none effect p. 207 440. His Life from Twelve to Twenty nine is passed over by all the Evangelists in silence they having a special eye at his Ministry only so has the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9 24 25 c. p. 208. Those years in which we hear nothing of him he spent at Nazareth in his Fathers Trade of Carpentry which made the Jews stumble at him looking for a pompous Messiah p. 208. He appeared not till fully looked for what were the things did intimate his coming p. 209. The time when he was born and when he died were both eminent p. 210 211. He was circumcised into the Jewish Church and baptised into the Church of the Gospel p. 211. He was unknown to John the Baptist and those whom John had baptised into faith in Christ until Christ himself came to be baptised of John p. 212. He was admitted at Nazareth as a Member of the Synagogue to be a Maphteir or Publick Reader of the second Lesson in the Prophets for that day p. 215. His reading and interpreting the Original Hebrew shewed him to have a Prophetical Spirit he not being educated in that Language 215. At his second Passover he declares his Authority and Power before the Sanhedrim that being a time of Wonders p. 221. He was a great Priest and a great Prophet when and how p. 239. He did not so fully and openly reveal himself to be the Messias till he sent forth the Seventy Disciples p. 242. He could not be apprehended without his own leave p. 263. The Jews transgressed two of their own Canons in arraigning and judging Christ on an Holiday and by Night p. 263. He was had before the Sanhedrim in Caiphas his house p. 263. The Wine offered him at his Crucifixion was to intoxicate him p. 268. How bewailed when he went to Execution p. 268. The manner even of his friends burying him shewed the small expectation they had of his Resurrection p. 269. His Disciples and Mary Magdalen notwithstanding their saving faith in him neither of them believed his Death nor his Resurrection p. 270. His coming in Clouds in his Kingdom and in power and great glory all signify his Plaguing the Nation that crucified him p. 342 343. His birth was called The fulness of time p. 383. He was born in the year of the World 3928. about the close of September p. 390. He was not born at the later end of December but September a Month famous indeed p. 427. Why he would be baptized that needed no cleansing being purity it self eight Reasons p. 472. Why John refused to admit him to baptism p. 472. His Ministry was just Three years and an half p. 476. Why he was tempted p. 499. What were his Temptations and where and how tempted p. 503 to 511. In his Temptations his being hurryed about by the Devil does afford some material and profitable Considerations p. 506. He is shewed to be the Son of God p. 504. That he was the Messias he easily convinced the Mind by telling of secret things p. 535. He was the seed of the Woman illustrated from Lukes Genealogy and Christs calling himself the Son of Man p. 471 491 537. His Union of two Natures in one Person is plainly shewn with what refers thereunto p. 577 578. How he could be said to be in Heaven whilst speaking with Nichodemus on earth p. 578. The several Properties of the two Natures in Christ are sometimes indifferently applied to the whole Person p. 578. Believing in Christ for salvation excellently illustrated by being healed by looking on the Brazen Serpent p. 579. He is said to do what his Servants do p. 581. His anointing was his setting apart for Mediator and Minister of the Gospel c. also his apparent Installments into that Office by the Spirit p. 616 617. His Ministry had six parts in it p. 617 to 619. Why it was
Hebron very many things are said by very many men The City was called Hebron that is A Consociation perhaps from the Pairs there buried Abraham Isaac and Jacob and their wives Not a few believe Adam was buried there in like manner some that he was buried once and buried again e e e e e e Idem fol. 5. 1. Adam said say they after my death they will come perhaps and taking my bones will worship them but I will hide my Coffin very deep in the Earth in a Cave within a Cave It is therefore called The Cave Macpelah or the doubled Cave CHAP. L. Of the Cities of Refuge HEBRON the most eminent among them excites us to remember the rest a a a a a a Bab. Maccoth fol. 9. 2. The Rabbines deliver this Moses separated three Cities of refuge beyond Jordan and against them Josua separated three Cities in the land of Canaan And these were placed by one another just as two ranks of Vines are in a Vinyard Hebron in Judea against Bezer in the Wilderness Shechem in Mount Ephraim against Ramoth in Gilead Cadesh in Mount Nephthali against Golan in Basan And these three were so equally disposed that there was so much space from the South coast of the land of Israel to Hebron as there was from Hebron to Schechem and as much from Hebron to Shechem as from Shechem to Cadesh and as much from Shechem to Cadesh as from Cadesh to the North coast of the land b b b b b b Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 8. It was the Sanhedrins business to make the ways to those Cities convenient by enlarging them and by removing every stop against which one might either stumble or dash his foot No hillock or river was allowed to be in the way over which there was not a bridge and the way leading thither was at least two and thirty cubits broad And every double way or in the parting of the ways was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refuge Refuge lest he that fled thither might mistake the way c c c c c c Maccoth fol. 11. 1. The Mothers of the high Priest used to feed and cloth those that for murder were shut up in the Cities of Refuge that they might not pray for the death of their sons since the Fugitive was to be restored to his Country and Friends at the death of the high Priest but if he died before in the City of Refuge his bones were to be restored after the death of the high Priest d d d d d d Maimon in the place above The Jews dream that in the days of the Messias three other Cities are to be added to those six which are mentioned in the Holy Scripture and they to be among the Kenites the Kenezites and the Kadmonites Let them dream on e e e e e e Bab. Sanhedr fol. 18. 2. Let him that kills the high Priest by a sudden chance fly to a City of Refuge but let him never return thence Compare these words with the State of the Jews killing Christ. CHAP. LI. Beth-lehem THE Jews are very silent of this City nor do I remember that I have read any thing in them concerning it besides those things which are produced out of the Old Testament this only excepted that the a a a a a a Beracoth fol. 5. 1. Jerusalem Gemarists do confess that the Messias was born there before their times b b b b b b Just. Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 75 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bethlehem is a certain Town in the land of the Jews thirty five furlongs distant from Jerusalem and that toward the South The Father of the Ecclesiastical Annals citing these words of Eusebius c c c c c c Euseb. Eccles. hist. lib. 4. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. thus renders them in Latine d d d d d d Baron Annal. ad annum Christ. 137. Jam vero cum decimo octavo anno imperii Hadriani bellum juxta urbem Beth-lehem nuncupatam quae erat rerum omnium praesidiis munitissima neque adeo longe a Civitate Hierosolymarum sita vehementius accenderetur c. But now when in the eighteenth year of the Empire of Adrian the war was more vehemently kindled near the Town called Beth-lehem which was very well fortified with all manner of defence nor was seated far from the City of Jerusalem c. The Interpreter of Eusebius renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth-thera not illy however it be not rendered according to the letter Perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crept into the word instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the carelesness of the Coppiers But by what liberty the other should render it Beth-lehem let himself see Eusebius doth certainly treat of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Betar it is vulgarly written Bitter of the destruction of which the Jews relate very many things with lamentation which certainly is scarcely to be reckoned the same with Bethlehem The same Father of the Annals adds that Beth-lehem from the times of Adrian to the times of Constantine was profaned by the Temple of Adonis for the asserting of which he cites these words of Paulinus Hadrianus supposing that he should destroy the Christian Faith by offering injury to the place in the place of the Passion dedicated the Image of Jupiter and profaned Beth-lehem with the Temple of Adonis As also like words of Hierome yet he confesses the contrary seems to be in Origen against Celsus and that more true For Hadrian had no quarrel with the Christians and Christianity but with the Jews that cursedly rebelled against him CHAP. LII Betar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OF this City there is a deep silence in the Holy Scriptures but a most clamorous noise in the Talmudic Writings It is vulgarly written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Betar and rendred by Christians Bitter or Bither but I find it written in the Jerusalem Talmud pretty often in the same page a a a a a a Hieros Taanith fol. 68. 4. 69. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be read as it seems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth-Tar and casting away the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thau which is very usual in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be-Tar The House of the Inquirer Wherefore say they was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth-Tar laid waste Because it lighted candles after the destruction of the Temple And why did it light candles Because the Councellors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Jerusalem dwelt in the midst of the City And when they saw any going up to Jerusalem they said to him We hear of you that you are ambitious to be made a Captain or a Councellor but he answered There is no such thing in my mind We hear of you that you are about to sell your wealth But he answered Nor did this come into my mind Then would one of
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 â—ol 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the King the Messiah R. Saadias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Candle r r r r r r Beresh rabba fol. 95. 4. Shuah the Father-in-law of Judah Gen. XXXVIII was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Candle of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lamp of light VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search the Scriptures THIS seems not to be of the imperative but indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enquiry into the literal and Cabbalistical sense of the words as R. Bechai in every leaf shews by several
and fury of the Romans I beg your pardon for that saith Caiphas you know nothing neither consider for be he the Messiah or be he not it is expedient nay it is necessary he should dye rather than the whole Nation should perish c. VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Prophesied IS Caiphas among the Prophets There had not been a Prophet among the Chief Priests the Priests the People for these four hundred years and more and does Caiphas now begin to Prophesie It is a very foreign fetch that some would make when they would ascribe this gift to the office he then bore as if by being made High-Priest he became a Prophet The opinion is not worth confuting The Evangelist himself renders the reason when he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being the High-Priest that same year Which words direct the Reader 's eye rather to the year than to the High-Priest I. That was the year of pouring out the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelations beyond whatever the world had yet seen or would see again And why may not some drops of this great effusion light upon a wicked man as sometimes the Childrens crums fall from the table to the Dog under it that a witness might be given to the great work of Redemption from the mouth of our Redeemer's greatest enemy There lies the emphasis of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same year for Caiphas had been High-Priest some years before and did continue so for some years after II. To say the truth by all just calculation the office of the High-Priest ceased this very year and the High-Priest Prophesies while his office expires What difference was there as to the execution of the Priestly Office between the High-Priest and the rest of the Priesthood none certainly only in these two things 1. Asking counsel by Urim and Thummim 2. In performing the service upon the day of Expiation As to the former that had been useless many ages before because the Spirit of Prophesie had so perfectly departed from them So that there remained now no other distinction only that on the day of expiation the High-Priest was to perform the Service which an ordinary Priest was not warranted to do The principal ceremony of that day was that he should enter into the Holy of Holies with blood When therefore our great High-Priest should enter with his own blood into the Holiest of all what could there be left for this High-Priest to do When at the death of our great High-Priest the Veil that hung between the Holy and the Holy of Holies was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Math. XXVII 51. there was clear demonstration that all those Rites and Services were abolished and that the Office of the High-Priest which was distinguished from the other Priests only by those usages was now determined and brought to its full period The Pontificate therefore drawing its last breath prophesies concerning the Redemption of mankind by the great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls that he should dye for the people c. That of the Apostle Acts XXIII 5. I wist not that it was the High-Priest may perhaps have some such meaning as this in it I knew not that there was any High-Priest at all because the Office had become needless for some time For grant indeed that St. Paul did not know the face of Ananias nor that Ananias was the High-Priest yet he must needs know him to have been a Magistrate because he had his seat amongst the Fathers of the Sanhedrin now those words which he quoted out of the Law Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People forbad all indecent speeches toward any Magistrate as well as the High-Priest The Apostle therefore knowing Ananias well enough both who he was and that he sate there under a falsely assumed title of the High-Priest does on purpose call him whited wall because he only bore the colour of the High-Priesthood whenas the thing and office it self was now abolished Caiaphas in this passage before us speaketh partly as Caiaphas and partly as a Prophet As Caiaphas he does by an impious and precipitate boldness contrive and promote the death of Christ and what he uttered as a Prophet the Evangelist tells us he did it not of himself he spoke what himself understood not the depth of The greatest work of the Messiah according to the expectation of the Jews was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reduction or gathering together the Captivities The High-Priest despairs that ever Jesus should he live could do this For all that he either did or taught seem'd to have a contrary tendency viz. to seduce the people from their Religion rather than recover them from their servile state of bondage So that he apprehended this one only remedy left that care might be taken so as by the death of this man the hazard of that Nations ruin might blow over If he be the Messiah which I almost think even Caiaphas himself did not much question since he can have no hope of redeeming the Nation let him die for it himself that it perish not upon his account Thus miserably are the great Masters of Wisdom deceiv'd in almost all their surmizes they expect the gathering together of the Children of God in one by the life of the Messiah which was to be accomplisht by his death They believe their Traditional Religion was the establishment of that Nation whereas it became its overthrow They think to secure themselves by the death of Christ when by that very death of his their expected security was chiefly shaken O blind and stupid madness VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To purifie themselves R. f f f f f f Rosh hashanah fol. 16. 2. Isaac saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is bound to purifie himself for the Feast Now there were several measures of time for purifying He that was unclean by the touch of a dead body he requir'd a whole weeks time that he might be sprinkled with the water of Purification mixt with the ashes of the red heifer burnt the third and the seventh day which ceremony we may see and laugh at in Parah cap. 3. Other purifyings were speedilier perform'd amongst others shaving themselves and washing their garments were accounted necessary and within the Laws of purifying g g g g g g Moed-katon fol. 13. 1. These shave themselves within the Feast he who cometh from an heathen Country or from captivity or from prison Also he who hath been excommunicated but now absolv'd by the wise men These same also wash their garments within the Feast It is suppos'd that these were detain'd by some necessity of affairs that they could not wash and be shav'd before the Feast for these things were of right to be perform'd before lest any should by any means approach polluted unto the celebration of this Feast but if by some necessity they were hinder'd from doing it before
office there At the due time the Sacrifices appointed for the Chagigah were slain those parts of them that pertain'd to the Altar or to the Priest were given to them the rest of the beast was shar'd amongst the owners that had offer'd it and from thence proceeded their Feastings together and their great mirth and rejoycings according to the manner of that Festival This was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 14. The preparation of the Passover and that was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passover to which the Elders of the Council reserving themselves would by no means enter into the Judgment-hall Chap. XVIII 28. II. That day drawing toward night those that were deputed by the Sanhedrin to reap the sheaf of the first-fruits went out f f f f f f Menacoth fol. 65. 1. Those that were deputed by the Sanhedrin to reap went forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Feast-day the first day of the Feast and bound their corn in sheafs pretty near the ground that the reaping might be the easier All the neighbouring Towns about gather'd together that it might be done with the greater pomp When it grew duskish he that was about to reap said The Sun is set and they answer'd Well The Sun is set and they answer'd Well With this Sickle Well With this Sickle Well In this Basket Well In this Basket Well And if it happen'd to be on the Sabbath-day he said On this Sabbath and they answer'd Well On this Sabbath Well I will reap and they said reap I will reap reap And so as he said these things thrice over they answer'd thrice to every one of them Well well well And all this upon the account of the Baithusians who said the sheaf of the first-fruits ought not to be reaped on the close of the Feast-day About that hour of the day wherein our Saviour was buried they went forth to this reaping and when the Sabbath was now come they began the work for the Sabbath it self did not hinder this work g g g g g g Ibid. fol. 63. 2. R. Ananias the Sagan of the Priests saith on the Sabbath-day they reap'd the sheaf only to the measure of one Seah with one Sickle in one Basket but upon a common day they reapt three Seahs with three Sickles in three Baskets But the wise men say The Sabbath-days and other days as to this matter are alike III. This night they were to lodg in Jerusalem or in Booths about so near the City that they might not exceed the bounds of a Sabbath-days journey In the morning again they met very early in the Court as the day before the Sacrifices are brought for the peoples appearing before the Lord the sheaf of first-fruits is offer'd in its turn the rites and usages of which offering are described in the place above quoted So that upon this high day there happen'd to be three great Solemnities in one viz. the Sabbath the sheaf-offering and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearing of the people in the Court before the Lord according to the command Exod. XXIII 17. VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a Spear pierced his side THE Arab. Vers. of the Erpenian Edition adds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pierced his right side afraid as it should seem lest the miracle should not be great enough if the blood and water should have been suppos'd to have issued from his left-side because of the water that is said to be contain'd in the Pericardium which being pierced it is conceived blood and water could not but upon natural reasons flow out of it But this issue of blood and water had something of mystery in it beyond nature if nothing preternatural had been in it I hardly imagin the Evangelist would have used that threefold asseveration concerning the truth of the thing as we see he doth And he that saw it bare record c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There came out blood and water It is commonly said that the two Sacraments of the New Testament Water and Blood flow'd out of this wound but I would rather say that the Antitype of the Old Testament might be here seen I. The Apostle teacheth us that the ratification of the old Covenant was by Blood and Water Heb. IX 19. Moses took the blood of calves and of goats with water c. I confess indeed that Moses makes no mention of water Exod. XXIV but the Apostle writing to the Hebrews does not write without such authority as they could not tell how to gainsay And if my memory do not fail me I think I have read some where among some of the Jewish Authors but the place its self is unhappily slipt from me that when there was some pause to be made betwixt the slaying of the Sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood upon the Altar such a kind of pause as Moses made when he read to the people the articles of their Covenant they mingled water with the blood lest it should congeal and coagulate However the authority is sufficient that the Apostle tells us that the first Testament was dedicated by Blood and Water The Antitype of which is clearly exhibited in this ratification of the New Testament and hence is it that the Evangelist by so vehement asseverations confirms the truth of this passage because it so plainly answers the Type and gives such assurance of the fulfilling of it II. I must not by any means let pass that in Shemoth rabba h h h h h h Fol. 122. 1 He smote the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the waters gushed out Psal. LXXVIII 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies nothing else but blood as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the woman that hath an issue of blood upon her Levit. XV. 20. Moses therefore smote the rock twice and first it gusht out blood then water The rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 4. Compare these two together Moses smote the rock and blood and water saith the Jew flow'd out thence The Souldier pierced our Saviour's side with a Spear and water and blood saith the Evangelist flow'd thence St. John concludes this asseveration of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye might believe It is not without moment what is commonly said viz. that by this flowing out of water and blood it is evident his Pericardium was pierced and so there was an undoubted assurance given of his death but I hardly believe the Evangelist in this clause had any direct eye toward it would he be so vehement in asserting he that saw bare record and he knoweth that he saith true that ye may believe that Jesus was indeed dead surely there was no need of such mighty asseverations for that questionless therefore he would intimate something else viz. that you may believe that this is the true blood of the New Covenant which so
this was in Sichem you will say what became then of the Sichemites faith which Christ himself had already planted amongst them Joh. IV. It may be answered though in so very obscure a thing I would not be positive that it was some years since the time when Christ had conversed in that City and when as he had done nothing that was miraculous there Simon by his Magicks might obtain the easier reception amongst them But however grant it was Sebaste or any other City of Samaria that was the scene of this story yet who did this Simon give out himself to be when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he himself was some great one And what sort of persons did the Samaritans account him when they said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man is the great power of God I. Did they take him for the Messiah It is commonly presumed that Simon was a Samaritan by birth but should Messiah spring out of the Samaritans It is no impertinent question whether the Samaritans when they looked for the Messiah Joh. IV. 25. yet could expect he should be one of the Samaritan stock when they admitted of no Article of Faith that had not its foundation in the Books of Moses Could they not gather this from thence that the Messiah should come of the Tribe of Judah A Samaritan perhaps will deny this and elude that passage in Gen. XLIX 10. by some such way as this It is true the Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come but then this does not argue that Shiloh must derive his Original from the Tribe of Judah only that some Dominion should continue in Judah till Shiloh should appear Where by the way it is worth our observing that the Samaritan Text and Interpreter in that place instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Jod and instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from between his feet that Text reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from between his banners and the Interpreter hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from between his Ranks or Companies That figment concerning Messiah ben Joseph or Messiah ben Ephraim for he goes by both those names whether it was first invented by the Jews or by the Samaritans is not easily determined The Jewish Writers make very frequent mention of him but the thing it self makes so much for the Samaritans that one might believe it was first hatcht amongst themselves only that the story tells us that Messiah was at length slain which the Samaritans would hardly ever have invented concerning him And the Jews perhaps might be the Authors of it that so they might the better evade those passages that speak of the death of the true Messiah II. However it was impiety enough in Simon if he gave out himself for a Prophet when he knew so well what himself was and if you expound his giving out himself to be some great one no higher than this yet does it argue arrogance enough in the knave I would not depress the sense of those words concerning John Baptist Luke I. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be great in the sight of the Lord but if we take it in the highest degree he shall be a Prophet before the Lord Christ it carries both an excellent truth along with it and also a most plain agreeableness with the office of John And when Stephen expresseth Moses to have been a Prophet in these terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was mighty in words and deeds perhaps it bears the same sense with what the Samaritans said and conceited concerning this Simon that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great power of God VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then Simon himself believed also THAT is He believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah and so was made capable of Baptism as in vers 37. and was indeed baptized in the Name of Jesus vers 16. And now O Simon what thinkest thou of thy self if hitherto thou hadst exhibited thy self as the Messiah Darest thou after this pretend to be the Son of God That which is commonly told of him and which Epiphanius reports without alledging any others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the Samaritans he gave out himself to be the Father to the Jews to be the Son betrays not only the blasphemy but the madness of the man that amongst the Jews he should pretend himself to be the Son of God when they would acknowledge no Son of God at all VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They sent unto them Peter and Iohn c. c c c c c c Hâ—res 21. EPIPHANIUS here very apositely tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Philip being but a Deacon had not the power of imposition of hands so as by that to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost It was the Apostles peculiar Province and Prerogative by laying on of their Hands to communicate the Holy Ghost that is in his extraordinary gifts of Tongues and Prophesie for as to the Spirit of Sanctification they never dispensed that Peter and John besides the eminent station they held amongst the Apostles were also to be the Apostles of the Circumcision in forreign Countries James the brother of John was now alive who with those two made up that noble Triumvirate that had a more intimate familiarity with Christ. And one would believe he ought also to have been sent along with them but that they were sufficient and that this was only as a prologue to their future charge and office of dealing with the Circumcision in forreign Countries They lay their hands upon some whom the Holy Ghost had pointed out to be ordained Ministers And by so doing they did communicate the gifts of Tongues and Prophesie so very visible and conspicuously that it is said that Simon saw how through the laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given Amongst the Jews persons were ordained Elders by three men But here this duumvirate was abundantly more valuable when they could not only promote to the Ministry but further confer upon those that were so promoted a fitness and ability for the performance of their office VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Give me also this power c. HOW infinitely mistaken is this wretch if he think that the gifts of the Holy Ghost could be bought and procured by Silver or Gold and how much more mistaken still if he think that the power of conferring these gifts to others could be thus attained The Apostles had a power of imparting these gifts but even they had not a power of enabling another to impart them Paul by laying hands on Timothy could endow him with the gifts of Tongues and Prophesie but he could not so endow him that he should be capable of conveighing those gifts to another This was purely Apostolical to dispense these gifts and when
For so was he indeed distinguished from all mortals and Sons of men And God saith he had then begotten him when he had given a token that he was not a meer man by his divine power whereby he had raised him from the dead And according to the tenor of the whole Psalm God is said to have begotten him then when he was ordained King in Sion and all Nations subdued under him Upon which words that passage of our Saviour uttered immediately after he had arisen from the dead is a good Commentary All power is given unto me c. Matth. XXVIII What do those words mean Matth. XXVI 29. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom They seem to look this way viz. I will drink no more of it before my Resurrection For in truth his Resurrection was the beginning of his Kingdom when he had overcome those enemies of his Satan Hell and Death from that time was he begotten and established King in Zion I am mistaken if that of Psal. CX v. 3. doth not in some measure fall in here also which give me leave to render by way of paraphrase into such a sense as this Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power it shall be a willing people in the beauties of holiness it shall be a willing people from the Womb of the morning thine is the dew of thy youth Now the dew of Christ is that quickning power of his by which he can bring the dead to life again Isai. XXVI 19. And the dew of thy youth O Christ is thine That is it is thine own power and vertue that raiseth thee again I would therefore apply those words from the womb of the morning to his Resurrection because the Resurrection of Jesus was the dawn of the new world the morning of the new Creation VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sure mercies of David IT hath been generally observed that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken from the Greek Version in Isai. LV. 3. But it is not so generally remarked that by David was understood the Messiah which yet the Rabbins themselves Kimchi and Ab. Ezra have well observed the following Verse expressly confirming it The Resurrection of our Saviour therefore by the interpretation of the Apostle is said to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sure mercies of Christ. And God by his Prophet from whence this clause is taken doth promise the raising again of the Messiah and all the benefits of that Resurrection He had fortold and promised his death Chap. LIII But what mercies could have been hoped for by a dead Messiah had he been always to have continued dead They had been weak and instable kindnesses had they terminated in death He promises mercies therefore firm and stable that were never to have end because they should be always flowing and issuing out of his resurrection Whereas these things are quoted out of the Prophet in the words of the LXX varying a little from the Prophets words and those much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold ye despisers and wonder c. vers 41. it might be enquired in what language the Apostle preached as also in what language Moses and the Prophets were read in that Synagogue vers 15. If we say in the Greek it is a question whether the Pisidians could understand it If we say in the Pisidian language it is hardly to be believed the Bible was then rendred into that language It is remarkable what was quoted above out of Strabo where he mentions four tongues amongst them the Greek and the Pisidian distinct from one another But this I have already discusst in the Notes upon Verse 15. of this Chapter VERS XLI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold ye despisers c. DR Pocock a a a a a a Poc. Miscell 3. here as always very learnedly and accurately examines what the Greek Interpreters Hab. I. read saving in the mean time the reading which the Hebrew Bibles exhibit for it is one thing how the Greek read it and another thing how it should be truly read VERS XLII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Gentiles besought c. IT is all one as to the force of the words as far as I see whether you render them they besought the Gentiles or the Gentiles besought them the later Version hath chiefly obtained but what absurdity is it if we should admit the former And doth not the very order of the words seem to favour it If it had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one might have inclined to the later without controversie but being it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is place for doubting And if it were so that the Jews resented the Apostles doctrine so ill that they went out of the Synagogue disturbed and offended as some conjecture and that not improbably we may the easilier imagine that the Apostles besought the Gentiles that tarried behind that they would patiently hear these things again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the next Sabbath I. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lexicons tell us amongst other things denotes hence forward or hereafter Now this must be noted that this discourse was held in the fore noon for it was that time of the day only that they assembled in the Synagogue in the afternoon they met in Beth Midras Let us consider therefore whether this phrase will not bear this sense They besought that afterwards upon that Sabbath viz. in the afternoon they would hear again such a Sermon And then whether the Gentiles besought the Apostles or the Apostles the Gentiles it dot not alter the case II. Let us inquire whether the Apostles and the Christian Church did not now observe and celebrate the Lord's day It can hardly be denyed and if so then judge whether the Apostles might not invite the Gentiles that they would assemble again the next day that is upon the Christian Sabbath and hear these things again If we yield that the Lord's day is to be called the Sabbath then we shall easily yield that it might be rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath after And indeed when the speech was amongst the Jews or Judaizing Proselytes it is no wonder if it were called the Sabbath As if the Apostles had said to morrow we celebrate our Sabbath and will you on that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have these words preached to you III. Or let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the week betwixt the two Sabbaths as that expression must be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fast twice in the week then as the sense is easie that they besought them the same things might be repeated on the following week so the respect might have more particularly been had to the second and fifth day in the week when they usually meet together in the Synagogue
which was inflicted by the Sanhedrin and to cutting off which was by the hand of God But hear the Glosser All those cuttings off saith he are concerning things done presumptuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there was no previous admonition or protestation but if there were previous admonition some of them are adjudged to strangling and some to stoning But if these things are done out of ignorance a sacrifice for sin is required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off was by the immediate hand of God which this impious person had deserved in the highest degree for that this wicked act was done by him out of ignorance it would be ridiculous to imagine VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To deliver to Satan SECT A Few things concerning Excommunication among the Iews Whether to excommunicate and to deliver to Satan among them were the same BEing to speak of Excommunication among the Jews we must first speak a little concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reproof which with the Babylonian Writers was the same with excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Bab. Moed â—at n fol. 16. 1 Reproof or admonition is not less than for seven days as it is said If her Father spit in her face shall she not be ashamed seven days Numb XII 12. Rabbi Chasda saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Excommunication in Babylon iâ— like their Reproof in the Land of Israel These Examples are there produced R. Simeon the son of Rabbi Judah and Bar Kaphra sat reading and when the place which they read was too hard R. Simeon said to Bar Kaphra We have need of Rabbi for an Interpreter here To whom Bar Kaphra And what can Rabbi say in this matter R. Simeon went away and told this to his Father who thereupon was angry Bar Kaphra came to visit him He said to him O Bar Kaphra I knew you not He knew what he meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore he underwent Reproof thirty days And again Rabbi sometime commanded that the Masters teach not their Scholars in the streets applying those words mystically hither The compass of thy thighs are like Jewels Cant. VII 1. As the Thighs are in secret so the words of the Law are in secret R. Chaiia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came forth and taught the two sons of his brother in the street that is Rabb and Bar bar Channah Rabbi heard this and was angry R. Chaiia came to visit him He saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Aija who shall read to thee in the street The Gloss there He called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aija in contempt Who shall read to thee in the street is as much as if he had said Be gon hence He knew why he uttered such words against him Therefore he took 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reproof for thirty days R. Asher sticks in this business why Bar Kaphra and R. Chaiia submitted themselves thirty days to that Reproof when it extended not it self beyond seven days concerning which let the Reader see if he be at leisure what he discourseth The difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reproof and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excommunication was this I. That Reproof or Correption had not need of absolution Excommunication had II. Although he who was struck with such Reproof kept himself within doors and went not abroad as a man ashamed yet others abstained not from his company Before him who had struck him with that Thunder he appeared not nor conversed in public yet any one might resort to him at home So R. Chaiia is said to have taught Rabh at home those thirty days Reproof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Masters is when some eminent man chides another saying How impudent is N. or something of that nature Now the Condition of a man thus chidden or reproved is this He hides himself and keeps himself at home as one ashamed that he may not see his face who shamed him nor does he stand before him with his head uncovered He abates also of his laughter and of his words and of his business and makes himself sad before those that see him But there is no need for him to withdraw himself from men but he may eat and drink with them and salute them Nor needs he to please him that reproved him nor needs be absolution But when he hath taken the Reproof upon him and the time is expired he is free Compare the words of the Apostle 1 Tim. V. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Rebuke not an Elder c. with this passage And now to pass to Excommunication it self I. Excommunication was devised and found out by the Jews if my eyes see any thing to be a punishment of those faults for which there was no other punishment decreed either in the Holy Scriptures or in the Traditions I believe he scarcely was excommunicated among the Jews for whose offence the punishment either of Cutting off or of Death or of Whipping or of Restitution of double or fourfold c. was openly appointed either by the Law or by the Fathers of the Traditions But in those things concerning which there was no such appointment of punishment what was to be done There were faults worthy of punishment but neither Law nor Scribes assign them any of all those punishments which were named but certainly provision ought to be made that such things be not done without punishment Hence Excommunication was invented as the general punishment of such faults The thing it self if I mistake not speaks this if we well weigh those things for which Excommunication was inflicted II. The causes or reasons of Excommunication were generally two namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For mony and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Epicurism This distinction we meet with in a place e e e e e e Bab. Moed Katon fol. 16. 1. in their Talmud where they treat at large of Excommunication and whence we have many things concerning this subject Excommunication for mony was not when one owing another mony did not pay it for an Action at Law laid against him but when he was summoned into Court and adjudged by the Bench to pay it and yet paid it not What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicurism means we may learn from the definition of Epicurus f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 99. 2. Epicurus is he that despiseth the words of God Epicurus is he that despiseth the Scholars of the wise Men. The Aruch saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is he that speaks with an ill tongue he is Epicurus Among the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes one that is presumptuous dissolute a man governed by no rule Thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicurus Lawless dissolute not circumscribed within the Laws of the Scribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g g g g g g Megill fol. 25. 2. The Hereticks have
But read and read again the whole story Act. XIX and there is not a syllable of any wrong that Paul at that time endured in his person VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would the Talmudists say Sot mad man g g g g g g Gloss. In Taanith fol. 1â— 1. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai answered the Baithuseans denying also the Resurrection of the dead and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fools whence did this happen to you c. VERS XLV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so it is written c. OF the former no doubt is made for it is written Gen. XI 7. But where is the latter Throughout the whole sacred book thence the Jews speak so many things and so great of the Spirit of Messias and of Messias quickning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit Job XIX 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth Job seems to me in this place in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam Of the former Adam it was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return And I know saith Job that my Redeemer liveth and he shall arise from the dust another or a latter and I shall see the Lord made of the same flesh that I am of c. Intimating the Incarnation of the Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A quickning Spirit The Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters Gen. I. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Spirit of King Messias So the Jews speak very frequently And also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messias shall quicken those that dwell in the dust It cannot be past over without Observation by what authority Paul applies those words of Psal. XCII Thou Lord in the beginning hast founded the earth c. to the Messias Heb. I. 10. to prove his Deity and dignity But thou art deceived O Paul would a Hebrew say These words are to be applied to God the Father not to the Messias The Apostle hath what to reply from the very confession of the Jewish Nation You acknowledge that Spirit which was present at and president over the Creation was the Spirit of the Messias It ought not also be past by without observation that Adam receiving from him the promise of Christ and believing it named his wife Chava that is Life So the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Adam called his wives name Life Gen. III. 20. What Is she called life that brought in death But Adam perceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam exhibited to him in the Promise to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A quickning Spirit and had brought in a better life of the Soul and at length should bring in a better of the body Hence is that Joh. I. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In him was life VERS XLVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second man is the Lord. GEn. IV. 1. Eve conceived and brought forth Cain and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have possessed or obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man the Lord that is That the Lord himself should become man For let me so turn it depending upon these reasons I. That this Interpretation is without any manner of wresting the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is according to its most proper signification and use II. That without doubt Eve had respect to the promise of Christ when she named her son as Adam had respect to the promise in the denomination of Eve VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O death where is thy c. HOs XIII 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seventy read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where is thy revenge O Death And thus speaks Aben Ezra There are some which invert the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be as though it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where And very truly as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 10. Where is thy King Where the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not I will be thy King but Where is thy King So that the Greek Interpreters and the Apostle after them translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where properly and truly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Prophet is rendred by the Targumist and the Rabbins to signifie A Word but some as Kimchi acknowledges understand it to signifie The Plague and that upon good ground because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destruction is joyned with it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destruction and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Plague are joyned together Psal XCI Where see the Targum and R. Solomon and compare the Greek Interpreters with them CHAP. XVI VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now concerning the Collection for the Saints UNLESS I am much deceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Jerusalem Writers denotes in the like sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Collection for the wise men They have this story a a a a a a Hoâ—aioth fol. 48. 1. R. Eliezer R. Josua and R. Akiba went up to Chelath of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Employed in the Collection for the wise Men. One Abba Judah was there who performed the Law with a good Eye Being now reduced to poverty when he saw the Rabbins he was dejected He went home with a sad countenance His wife said to him Why doth thy countenance languish He answered The Rabbins are come and I know not what to do She said to him You have one field left Go and sell half of it and give to them Which he did And when they were departed he went to plow in the half of his field and found a great treasure c. I produce this the more willingly that it may be observed that collections were made among the Jews in forrain Nations for the poor Rabbins dwelling in Judea in the same manner as they were made among Christians in forrain Nations for the poor Jews converted to Christianity in Judea VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first of the Sabbath would the Talmudists say I. That day was every where celebrated for the Christian Sabbath and which is not to be past over without observing as far as appears from Scripture there is no where any dispute of that matter There was controversie concerning circumcision and other points of the Jewish Religion whether they were to be retained or not retained but no where as we read concerning the changing of the Sabbath There were indeed some Jews converted to the Gospel who as in some other things they retained a smatch of their old Judaism so they did in the observation of days Rom. XIV 5. Gal. IV. 10. but yet not rejecting or neglecting the
out its own Eyes and chuse to be blind and live in darkness when it hath Eyes and light A doleful thing that men should be killed because they will not be fools Think of the hundreds that have gone to the fire and faggot because they could not believe Transubstantion because they could not believe that which is contrary to Reason Religion and the trial of the Sences therefore they must be put to a most cruel death Poor England because she will not be Popish must be no more because she will not lose her wits she must lose her life Poor Abel must be murthered because he will not be such a wretch hypocrite and vilain as Cain This is all the quarrel they had against us because we would not be of such a Religion as they are of and had no mind to build our Salvation upon straw and stubble Think of this and of the constant practise of Rome to seek to destroy those that will not be of her mind and Religion then guess who is the Gog and Magog in the Text that takes up persecution and fighting against those that will not be deceived by Satan as they themselves are The design of this day engageth us to hate Popery that must be maintained and propagated with blood and force I shall not dispute which is the true Religion the Protestant or the Popish Only set Jacob and Esau before you whether of the two is more lovely Popery is rough and rugged witness the Inquisition the Massacre the Marian days and the fift of November Think of these and hate Popery Let me enlarge my self a little upon this subject what a great cheat Satan puts on men when he deceives them to become enemies to true Religion There was hardly ever any persecutor of the truth in the World but he would confess this truth so that I might need no other proof of it but the confession of such enemies Paul when he murthered the members of Christ without mercy or measure he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat the Devil puts upon men when he sets them to be enemies to persecute the true Religion but this Sect of Nazarens that I persecute they are Hereticks Apostates and t is a good deed to persecute them for they are fallen from the Religion of their Fathers Bonner that Butcher of Hell that so bloodily murthered so many of the Saints of God in Queen Maries time he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat of the Devil to set men upon persecuting true Religion but these Lollards these Protestants are desperate Hereticks horrid Apostates that have fallen away from holy Mother Church of Rome and it is fit such men should not live And none that hates and persecutes another for Religion but he will be ready to say in the like kind this being one arrand and very general cheat of Satan to make all men though of the falsest worst and most damnable Religion or profession of Religion to believe theirs is the best The greatest Dispute in the World is which is the true Religion and as the Apostles upon Christs speaking of one betraying him every one asked Is it I So will every Religion in the World upon this Question Which is the true Religion answer It is I. The Jew saith His the Turk His the Papist His the Protestant His one Protestant his manner of worship and profession is best another His and a third His. Like the two Hostesses before Solomon about the living and dead child one saith the dead Religion is thine and the living mine and another nay my Religion is the living but thine the dead How is it possible to determine this controversie about which there hath been so much quarreling and so many many vast Volumes written And if we do not determine which is true Religion we can make nothing of the Doctrine before us which speaks of Sataus cheating men to be enemies to it It would speak high to undertake to determine when dispute is betwixt so Learned Men. But let me give you these two marks of it which also may help to give some caution against being enemy to it I. That is the true Religion and true Religiousness that the Devil hates most That is the King of Israel that the Captains of the Syrians bend themselves most to fight against 1 Kings XXII Need I to tell you how the Devil in the Revelations is continually fighting against the true Saints of God and their Religion It hath been his quarrel ever since God set the enmity between the Womans seed and him Gen. III. 15. Now certainly it may be a very pregnant mark of discerning what a mans Religion and Religiousness is by computing whether the Devil have reason to hate it or no. In the great question twixt Papists and us whether is the true Religion Bring them to the touchstone hath the Devil any cause to hate worshiping of Images to hate the casting away the Scripture and taking up the wretched Traditions of Men to hate their nurseling of the people in Ignorance and the blind leading the blind into the ditch to hate the Popes pride and arrogance against God and Christ and Kings and Princes the Clergies domineering over the Consciences of Men to keep them blind and so as they may make a prey of them In a word hath the Devil any reason to hate that Religion that is nothing but paint and show and outside and no life of Religion at all in it These things make for him and are on his side and bring him Souls to Hell heaps upon heaps and he hath no reason to be an enemy to these Hath the Devil reason to hate or hinder the Religion and Devotion of him that is huge devout in the Church in all ceremonial and formal appearance and they would take him for a Saint or an Angel but out of the Church he is loose covetous malicious cruel prophane and no better than a Devil Such mens Religion will never do the Devil any disadvantage or be any diminishment to his Kingdom But that Religion that gives God his due in holy and spiritual Worship in holy and spiritual walking that devotion that serves God in Spirit and Truth that Ministry that in care and constancy and conscientiousness is always striving to bring Souls to God and to bring them beyond the form to the power of godliness and to deliver them from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of Gods dear son Let any man of reason and understanding guess whether Satan do not cannot choose but hate such a Religion Devotion Ministry So that as Solomon judged this live child is that Womans because her bowels earn towards it so may we very well judge that to be the true and best Religion and Religiousness that the Devils bowels earn against that he cannot but hate and be enemy to II. That is the best and truest Religion and Religiousness that sheweth forth
shouldest value or think of him and the Son of man that thou shouldest make account of him Man is like to vanity his days are like to a shadow that departeth away Psal. CXLIV 3 4. And yet upon such an one God setteth his eye upon such an one he setteth some value He was to offer God half a shekel for his Soul God lays not this Tax to rate men according to their worth for that was nothing nor to lay any heavy burthen upon them for the tax was small but it was to instruct them That God requires some tribute of men for their preservation Men must not think to live on free cost and that God maintains their lives for nothing but rather let them know that he looks for some pay and tribute from them The Apostle tells us that what was written aforetime was written for our learning and so what was written for them is written for us too Only the punctual rate and payment of half a shekel lies not upon us as it did upon them but what is intimated by the payment of this rate is intimated to us as well as it was to them The intimation was that they Men owe God a debt and payment for the preservation of their lives and he expects it from them This payment of half ashekel mony ceased when the Jews ceased to be a Nation but the equity and intimation that it read and carried with it ceased not but takes hold upon us as it did on them The Ceremonial appointments of the Jewish Nation did not only prescribe the external action but also enjoyned the signified Duty too They were enjoyned to offer sacrifice The outward action was killing a beast and offering him upon the Altar for an attonement for their sins The thing siynified was the sacrificing of Christ the great oblation for the sins of men The Duty intimated was that they should look to the death of Christ and by that believe to obtain the forgiveness of their sin and not barely by their sacrifice So that they were bound both to the moral Duty to believe in the death of Christ for the attonement of sin and they were to offer sacrifice too thereby to signifie his death in which they believed And the like might be said of the other ceremonious burthens that were laid upon them But we will only take instance in that before us They were enjoyned to offer this half shekel yearly to God for the preservation of their lives The thing signified was that their lives depended upon God and to him they must look for their preservation The moral Duty intimated and required was That they were bound to pay atribute of obedience to God for his preserving them For it was not mony that God looked after but to obey is better than sacrifice The ceremonial part of their work was laid down long ago but the moral Duty that it signified lays still upon all of us and all men in the World By the way let me tell you this out of the Roman Histories that when Vespasian had conquered and destroyed Jerusalem he commanded that the Jews should pay this half shekel that they used to pay to God for their lives to his Idol Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome A sad thing to pay that that was to be paid to God their Preserver to the Devil the Destroyer For his God Jupiter Capitolinus was no better than a Devil And I wish in the parallel it be not too true with too many that they pay what they owe to God for their lives and preservations to the Devil Well the first thing taught in the payment was That we should learn and observe that God doth not preserve and take care of mens lives for nought but that he expects some tribute and payment for it And truly that he may in all reason in the World if we will but compare his case and mens together Every shepherd every shepherds boy must be paid for keeping another mans flock and must the great shepherd have no pay for keeping and leading Israel like a flock Nay Satan himself sees it all the reason in the World though he speak it with a venomous intent that if God have hedged Job round about as he had done and taken such care of him that he pay him with fear and careful walking before him Doth Job fear God for naught Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side I. Chap. 9 10. Therefore it is no wonder if he fear thee it is all the reason in the World he should There is no care in the world taken of one person by another but it is repayed with some fair repayment or other Even the care of Parents to their Children which you will say nature it self binds them to yet they expect to be paid with their obedience That challenge of God is but most just Mal. I. 6. A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Maste where is my fear It is the very title and profession of God that he is the Preserver Keeper Saviour of men and no pay to him from men for all this Job VII 20. O thou preserver of men The word signifies Observer too As God looks to men so he looks after men to see what they do and how they demean themselves to him that looks to them So Samuel hints to Saul and Nathan to David I have done thus and thus to you kept you dignified promoted prospered you and is this the requital you make to me Need I to tell you that God is called the Watch man of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth but continually takes care of them But the Apostle 1 Tim. IV. 10. goes further and tells you that he is not only the Preserver of Israel but even of all men We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe Some from the word Saviour would conclude universal grace and redemption but the word means as in the Book of Judges a Preserver or Deliverer and so God is to all especially those that believe Though he preserve not unbelievers in the very same manner and degree that he doth believers yet he preserveth them and looks for requital from them for their preservation Now that in all equity some payment is due to God in this case let us a little consider of these things First The preciousnes of life that very thing may argue that it is not a small debt we owe to him that preserves it It hath the proper name of precious Prov. VI. 26. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adultress will hunt for the precious life And do you not think that Solomon speaks very true when he calls life precious and do you not think that even the father of lies speaks
meditate therein when thou sittest down and risest up when thou sittest in the house when thou walkest in the way and various such passages as these require and ingage all sorts and conditions of people to this study and meditation according to their several capabilities and atcheivances In some important points of Divinity some men have sometimes mistaken in stating them by mens benefit rather than by their duty If you did so in this point it would make one very good piece of an argument study the Scriptures for you may benefit by study of them But take the other and it argueth more strongly study the Scripture for it is your duty God calls for it lays his command upon you to do it the best you can II. Therefore upon this we may make such another inference as Samsons mother doth Judg. XIII 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have accepted an offering neither would he have shewed us all these things If the Lord were pleased that the Scriptures should not be understood he would never have written them he would never have charged all to study them God never writ the difficulties of the Scripture only to be gazed upon and never understood never gave them as a book sealed and that could never be unsealed that learned and unlearned alike might never see what is in them but that they might be more seriously read more carefully studied that so being understood and practised they might become the means of Salvation unto all A SERMON Preached upon DANIEL XII 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days 13. But go thou thy way till the end for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of days DOTH he not speak riddles T is hard to tell whether verse is harder And I have chosen to speak to them partly that I may explain them partly in subsequence to my late discourse about Gog Rev. XX 8. I shewed that meant an enemy to true Religion and more particularly the Pope styled by the name of the old Enemy Ezek. XXXVIII XXXIX I shewed that Gog was Antiochus that laid wast the Jews Religion and would force them to turn to the manners of the Heathen that forbad them Circumcision Law Religion forbad the daily Sacrifice and profaned the Altar with Swines flesh and sacrifices abominable and offered to Idols I cited that that speaks concerning him Chap. VII 25. He shall speak great words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High c. until a time and times and the dividing of time that is a year two years and half a year or three years and an half In the verse before the Text there is mention of the same matter and there are reckoned only a thousand two hundred and ninety days From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days For the Holy Ghost reckons by round sums near about three years and an half which he calls a time times and half a time and does not punctually fix upon the very exact sum And so in the Book of the Revelations where allusion is made to the same space of time viz. three years and an half it is sometimes expressed by a thousand two hundred and sixty days as Rev. XII 6. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days Sometimes by forty two months Chap. XIII 5. And there was given to the beast a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given him to continue forty and two months You have both in Chap. XI 2. They that tread the holy City under-foot forty and two months And vers 3. I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days Now let your thoughts conceive the case and state of the people and Temple in this time a thousand two hundred and ninety days three years and an half or there abouts no Law no Religion no Sacrifice but what is abominable the Temple filled with Idols the Heathen there sacrificing swines-flesh and other abominable things to their abominable gods Ah! Poor Jerusalem what case art thou in How is the gold become dim nay changed to dros What desolation of Religion is come upon thee and what bondage and thraldom under irreligion How it goes against their heart not to circumcise their children But they dare not do it How grievous to see the Books of the Law burnt and they upon pain of death dare not save them nor use them How bitter to see Altar Temple Holy of Holies all defiled with abomination and all Religion laid in the dust and they cannot help it dare not resist it What should these poor people do Wait Gods deliverance for Haec non durabunt in secula These things will not always last Stay but till one thousand three hundred thirty five days but forty five above the thousand two hundred and ninety of the Temples defilement in the verse before and there is deliverance And read two verses together From the time that the dayly sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days Add but forty five days further the sum to come up to a thousand three hundred thirty five days and there is some remarkable thing done as pleading the cause of the people and Religion that had been so abused which in all probability was the death of the Tyrant that had brought this misery upon them or at least some signal thing done by God for the relief of the people who had been so oppressed But I rather believe the former The story of whose actions and death you may read in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. I. beginning The story of which book goes almost step by step with Josephus However his death was the Mercy or some other special providence the words afford plainly these two Truths I. That the time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God II. That it is a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination The former Observation lies in the latter clause the latter in the former The two things the latter an inference upon the former or the former a Doctrine the latter the Use and Application of it I shall handle in the same method and order The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with God Therefore it will prove a blessed thing for the afflicted to wait his time and determination In prosecuting either I shall not so much prove as clear
Spirit had glossed upon the words of the whole Sanhedrin in vers 47 48. What do we For this man doth many miracles If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation If they grant he did so many miracles why were they afraid that men should believe on him Why did they not believe on him themselves And afraid the Romans should destroy their City and Nation if he were believed in Whereas their destruction was because they did not believe in him Truly Caiaphas said but truly of them though he aimed it at another sense Ye know nothing neither do ye consider No nor thou O Caiaphas neither For had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of life had they considered they had not brought that guilt upon themselves and the City that they did But in what sense he makes them so senseless is somewhat obscure Ye know not neither consider that it is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people and that the whole Nation perish not That they knew as well as himself that any States-man any reasonable man might know well enough that it was better to put to death a ring-leader of mischief as they took Christ to be than that a whole Nation perish That old Maxim in Politicks and reason Pereat unus potius quam unitas would easily be observed by less States-men than they And the one that they would have to dye they all agreed in but herein Caiaphas resolution seems to have out-vied theirs namely that whereas they were afraid to take Christ off for fear of the multitude he blusters through that doubt and scruple and would have it resolved that he must dye and be taken away So that in those words of his you may observe him speaking as a Caiaphas and as a Prophet As a wretched Caiaphas counselling the Sanhedrin not to fear or boggle at the business but resolve on it for it is expedient he should dye And as a Prophet or one inspired signifying that it was necessary Christ should dye for the preservation of that Nation that it should not perish namely those that believed in him and so for the preserving of all in other Nations that should also believe The former he spake and meant with all his heart to stir up the Bench to destroy Christ for all the danger of the multitude But this later he spake indeed but meant it not neither understood what he spake and therefore the Text tells us This he spake not of himself but being High Priest c. There had not been a High Priest a Prophet among the Nation for above four hundred years before and must Caiaphas now become a Prophet Nay the Jews tell us and they tell us truly that there had not been any Prophet at all in the Nation of so long a time and it is wonder God should now inspire such a wretch as Caiaphas They tell us that upon the death of Haggai Zechariah and Malachi those last Prophets the spirit of Prophesie left Israel departed and was no more In which they spoke just as Caiaphas does here very truly and very maliciously very maliciously because they would exclude the Apostles and Disciples of Christ from having the Prophetick spirit but withal very truly as to the space between the death of those last Prophets and the appearing of Christ and his Apostles There was not a man endued with the spirit of Prophesie in all that space of time nay not a man that did pretend to the spirit of Prophesie in all that time It is observable that about the coming of Christ many arose pretending themselves to be Christ or to be Prophets but ye find not that any from the death of Malachi had done so before And the reason was because the Prophet Daniel had so exactly pointed out the time of Christs coming that the Nation knew the time and expected it and when it came such Deluders then start up with such pretences because they knew there would be then a brave change of times But till that came they lay still convinced that the Spirit was departed and should not be restored till Messias coming What I speak there is clear proof for in the New Testament That they knew when Messias should appear is plain by these words Luke XIX 11. He added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought the Kingdom of God should immediately appear And by that concourse of all the Nation out of all Nations to Jerusalem Act. II. 5. being instructed by Daniel in his ninth Chapter of the compleat time of Messias sealing Vision and Prophesie and bringing in everlasting righteousness which he had pointed out to the very hour And that they were convinced of the departure of the Holy Ghost not to be restored till the coming of Messias appears plainly by the answer of those Jews at Ephesus Act. XIX 2. Paul said unto them have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed And they said unto him We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Not that they doubted at all of the being of the Holy Ghost but that they had learned with the whole Nation that the Holy Ghost was departed upon the death of those Prophets and they had never yet heard that he was restored The Jews say again that from that time there was no Urim and Thummim with the High Priest under the second Temple And there is confirmation for it in Nehem. VII 65. And the Tirshatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a Priest with Urim and Thummim And the reason of its ceasing was because Prophesie was ceased For the Oracle by Urim as I once shewed you was given by the Priest being inspired and prophesying Now after all the long ceasing of Phrophesying in the Nation and of Prophesying among the Priest-hood for a Caiaphas to stand up a Prophesier seems something strange and what shall we say to it The Rhemists will resolve you the scruple with a wet finger if you will but believe them Will you give me leave to give you their Gloss upon the place Marvel not say they that Christ preserveth his truth in the Church as well by the unworthy as the worthy Prelates thereof the gift of the Holy Ghost following their order and office as we see here in Caiaphas and not their merits and person And they conclude How may we then be assured that Christ will not leave Peters seat though the persons that â—ecupy the same were as ill as the blasphemous and malicious mouths of Hereticks do affirm The assertion false and the inference ridiculous The assertion that Caiaphas prophesied by virtue of the order of his Priesthood being most false For none of that order had prophesied of four hundred years before And the Inference ridiculous And it
The Wicked one in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy one As the unclean Spirit is opposed to the holy Spirit so the wicked to the holy As the Children of God and the Children of the Devil are opposed vers 10. so here in regard of their nature There are some therefore that define the Devil by what is most contrary to God 1. He is become contrary As Christ and Belial light and darkness 2 Cor. VI. 14 15. In what Not in regard of his essential subsistence as he is a spirit intellectual immortal nor in regard only of want of righteousness and holiness but in regard of the bent of his will As in our selves we may read too much of the Devil in that respect that our Wills run so contrary to Gods No contrary to that that will be contrary as Hannibal was to the Romans For 2. He sets himself to be contrary He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that opposeth His contrariety is resolved and wilful In the first Fall he set himself up against God to be head He despised his charge and would head the creature against him And he continually fights against Gods Will and ways See those two things vers 10. which distinguish the Children of God and of the Devil Love and Righteousness the same make the distinction between God and the Devil God loves Man He hates him God loves Righteousness He opposeth it He stands up against Christ. There are two Heads in the world Christ and the Devil and he by his own pride and putting on Secondly He is the Wicked one as he is the Father of Wickedness As Joh. VIII 44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do Ask who begat wicked works the answer must be The Devil 1. He is Father of his own wickedness He is his own Tempter and begat his sin within himself Whereas Adam had something ab extra from without that tempted him 2. He is the Father of others wickedness vers 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil He was the Father of the first Sin How might Adam have stood if not tempted by one above him He could not have believed a Creature could be against God but believed him one that was as a Messenger from God as Angels were He is the Father of all sins He hath concurrence to every sin we commit A general concurrence by poison infused into our Nature As sin hath a general concurrence to death so the Devil hath such a concurrence to sin And such a particular concurrence as we cannot say any sin is without him As no grace is without the spirit I shall not speak of his presence with all his influence with all Thirdly He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wicked one in that he is perfectly wicked That is perfect Cui nihil addi potest vel detrahi To which nothing can be added or taken away So God is perfect and so is the Saints Happiness in Glory perfect happiness The Devil can be no more wicked or less as God can be no more or less good In Satans first sin he could sin no more than he did nor against more light nor could his sin be of more pride and malice He knew he should be damned if he fell yet he sinned and fell His continual sinning cannot be more than it is he cannot have more hate of God than he hath For he hates every thing that is like God or likes him And that not because God damned him but because God is God above him Nor can he be less wicked For an Angel cannot sin at a less rate than the deepest willfulness and malice cannot be tempted deceived ignorant wants not power to stand And thus we see how the Devil is the Wicked one Now II. We come to the Description that is given of Cain and that is twofold viz. by his extraction he was of that wicked one And by his action And slew his Brother I. Let us consider him with relation to his Extraction He was of that wicked one Such a phrase you have Joh. VIII 44. mentioned before You are of your Father the Devil It may be Questioned Whether all in an unregenerate state may be said alike to be of the Devil They are all Children of wrath Eph. II. 2. Whether are they all alike Children of the Devil I Answer 1. All are alike guilty and Children of corruption Sin is come over all One hath as much original guilt as another Because Adams whole sin is on all as Christs whole righteousness is on His. 2. One hath as much sinfulness and depravation of nature as another Abel as much as Cain For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. III. 23. Because all alike from Adam 3. All Children of wrath alike Eph. II. 2. That is First Quoad meritum in respect of merit Secondly Quoad indignationem Dei in peccatum in respect of Gods indignation against sin But not Quoad aeternam iram in respect of Eternal wrath 4. All slaves to Satan alike which that expression doth suppose where it is said That we are delivered out of the power of darkness But all are not under the claim of Satan alike The Elect have God claiming something in them even before they escape from the bondage of Satan As Israel in Egypt before their redemption God had a claim to them Therefore Men are not said to be of the Devil but where the visible acting is according to the Devil So in the place quoted already Joh. VIII 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Works of your Father ye will do 1 Joh. III. 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil And in the Text Cain was of that wicked one and slew his Brother So the Pharisees were of the seed of the Serpent Elymas was the Child of the Devil And from hence I lay down this Doctrine That wicked mens wicked actings shew they be of the wicked one See vers 8. Cain had pious education taught to sacrifice His Parents could tell him more of God and the Devil than almost any since He made an outward profession for he brought his Sacrifice to God Yet his works manifested him to be of the wicked one So wicked ones by their wicked actings shew that they belong to the Wicked One. They are of him That is 1. Of his Kingdom and pay a subjection to it 2. Of his Spirit 3. Of his Acting And this brings us to the next particular Viz. II. To consider Cain with relation to his action He slew his Brother He was of that wicked one and slew his Brother Here we may observe three things obiter by the way First That malice and murther is justly referred to the first Murtherer As Joh. VIII 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do he was a murtherer from the beginning Ye would murther me because
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
seeing it is most holy and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make attonement for them before the Lord. Let me ask those that hold this Opinion two or three questions Was Christ so much as punished by God Much less then was he overwhelmed by the wrath of God damned by God Was a Lamb punished that was sacrificed He was afflicted but not punisht for punishment argues a crime or fault preceding Lam. III. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Were the sad sufferings of Christ laid on him as punishments Certainly not for his own sins no nor for ours neither He suffered for our sins bare our sins but his sufferings were not punishments for our sins For observe two things First Christ merited by suffering Is it good sense to say he merited by being punished Strange sense to say he merited Salvation for his by being punisht for their sins but most divine to say by suffering for the redeeming of them He suffered as a Sacrifice to attone not as a sinner to be punished Secondly Did Christ dye upon any debt to the Law Much less upon any debt that he owed to Gods wrath Did the Law lay any thing to Christs charge did the Law condemn him And then can we dream of the wrath of God charging him and damning him It is true that it is said Gal. III. 13. Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree But doth this mean accursed of God Was the good Thief accursed of God when he hung upon the cross The meaning is that he appeared so to the view of men So that as it is impossible that Christ should lye under the wrath of God for any fault of his own so it is not imaginable that he did for ours V. It is impossible that Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned A Priest could not fall under the Plague of Leprosie and yet is the high Priest under a damned condition Certainly if his Body could not see corruption his Soul could not feel damnation If his Body were not under that which the Bodies of the best Saints fall under certainly his Soul could not be under that which damned Souls fall under I might clear this by considering especially three things which are the chief torments of Hell 1. Separation from God without any glimpse of his favour 2. Horror and Hell in the Conscience because of guilt 3. Utter despair Now need I to shew that it was not possible that any of these should seize upon Christ And these things be spoken to shew first what is not the meaning of this Article Now to come to the sense of the Article And for a beginning I may say as Moses does Numb XI 29. Would all the Congregation were Prophets So would all the Congregation were Grecians for then this would be easie The Creed was written in Greek and in the interpretation of this Article we are not tyed to the strictness of the English word but we must fly for refuge to the sense of the Greek word And if any of the opinions mentioned before should urge It is Hell therefore must be so understood as he said once To the Law and to the Testimony so I would answer To the original Greek and to the propriety of the phrase there In Isa. XXIX 10. The Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of Slumber In the Greek and in Rom. XI 8. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunction clean contrary to the Prophets meaning What shall we do here Not stick to the strict propriety of the Greek Translation but have refuge to the word in the original Hebrew and construe the Greek word by that So in our English Translation Hell seems to speak that that is neither warrantable by Scripture nor reason therefore we must not stick to the strict propriety of the word but to the Greek In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went down to Hades Which I shall explain to you by and by I. The Article refers to the passage of Christs Soul after his death I say of his Soul For what was done to his Body is specified in the Articles before Crucified dead and buried But what became of his Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended into Hell Now this Article is left out of divers Confessions of Faith in the Fathers and out of divers Creeds Vice plurium instead of more observe the Nicene Creed Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was buried And the third day he rose again Which shews it was added occasionally and for some illustration Councils and Fathers commonly inserted some Articles into Confessions to face some Heresie then appearing And this Article was inserted to outface some error about Christs person The Heresies and mistakes about Christs person were numerous and among others this was one that he had not a real humane Body but Airy and again that though he had a real Body yet he had not a humane Soul but that the Divine Nature supplied the place of his Soul These Articles that concern his death outface both these He had a real Body for he was really Crucified dead and buried And a real Soul for when dead he went to Hades Or whether it had been enough to have said He died and was buried but of him such addition was not needless because of misconstruction II. The Heathens owned another World and the immortality of the Soul though they had no Bible to tell them it yet they believed that there was another World after this Socrates discoursed of this before his death which Cleombrotus reading cast himself from a Tower that he might become immortal A strange affectedness with this point and a strong perswasion It is a wonder the Sadducees that had the Scriptures should deny this and Christians that hear so much of it be affected so little Tully shews arguments whereby they gathered that men lived in another World one of which was from the apparitions of some dead men In which thing while the Devil went about to cosin them to think them dead men which indeed was his own appearing yet he cosined himself too while he taught them by it to believe a life after death How they came thorowly to be grounded in this point I shall not insist upon to examine but they did believe that there was another World after this when the dead lived again III. This place and state they called Hades that is a place obscure and invisible The Phrase is infinitely frequent Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sent him before to Hades Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the going to Hades Leonidas to his Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To sup in Hades that is in another World Shall I give you
with Oyl was a Medicine to cure the sick Page 342 Antichrist Rome Heathen could not be Antichrist because the Character of Antichrist is Apostasie p. 1168. Antichrist is two fold p. 1200. How to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after-times 1200 Antinomians say that Believers are not punished for sin a false opinion 1226 Antiochus and Epiphanes the bloodiest enemies that the People of the Jews and their Religion ever had 513 Antipatris the Name the Situation almost in all Maps mistaken some History concerning it 55 56 Apamia the Sea of it what upon conjecture 63 Apparitions of the Souls of Men or Spectra after death believed by the Jews 483 1283 Apostasie of the Jews caused chiefly by false Teachers p. 1044. The sad fruits of Apostasie 1181 1182 Apostles had a power of inflicting Death and giving the Holy Ghost 622 623 Arad Ascalon bears great affinity to it 14 15 Arbel a City of Galilee between Zippor and Tiberias 77 Ark of the Covenant why so called 1068 1069 1070 Ascalon a place now of no note but once was venerable how far from Jerusalem It bears a great affinity with Arad and Gerar a famous story of eight Witches there 14 15 Ashdod's Language what 505 Ashes of the red Cow which were most purifying when sprinkled what 37 Astarch was the setter forth of the Games 790 791 Asmodeus what sort of Devil he was the Author of Apostasie 429 430 Asphaltites the extent of it p. 6. The Coast of it 7 296 Assembly of Twenty three was held in the Gate of Susan 512 Assizes are an assurance and a fit representation of the last Judgment 1104 1117 1119 Assyrian Tongue or Language not the Original of the Old Testament 138 139 Attonement how the High Priest prepared himself with the help of others for the day of Attonement p. 554 555. The Attonement or Ransom for Souls how much and for what end p. 1204 1205 1208. And at what time it was paid p. 1205. And why the Poor therein was to give as much as the Rich. p. 1207. And why the Poor in wordly matters gave more than the Rich did in that which referred to God 1207 Attributes God acteth not any of his Attributes according to the utmost extent of their infiniteness proved by many instances 1063 Aven a term blasphemously used of Christ. 533 Avites the Country a part of the new Idumea called sometimes Hazerin sometimes Shur 292 Auranitis and Hauran what the Name where the Place 364 365 B. BAAL changed in the Names of Men into Bosheth which signifies shame in detestation of Idolatry Page 1315 Baalath or Baale what 42 Babilon Hebrews in Babilon and the adjacent Countries were supposed by the Jews to be vastly numerous and of a purer and more noble Blood than those that went up from thence p. 799. They had three Universities in Babilon the Ten Tribes were placed in Assyria and Babilon p. 800 801. Peter Preached the Gospel in Babilon p. 802. Babilon put for Rome p. 1141. Why Saint John in the Revelation calls Rome so rather than by its own proper Name p. 1143. Peter wrote his Epistle from Babilon in Chaldea and not from Rome as some would have p. 1144. Peter dyed there Page 1144 Bahurim a Levitical City Almâ—n and Alemoth the same 42 Balaam what was his way and wages and what the way of his Followers p 1180 1181. Balaam is described by his Parentage and by his Qualities 1180 Balaamites impudently opposed the Decree of the Apostles 697 Baptism whence it came to pass that the Baptism of John was so readily received p. 116 117. Baptism had been constantly used among the Jews from the days of Jacob and that for the same end for which we now use it viz. as an Entrance into the Church and not only of Proselytes but of all Israel p. 117 118. The Jews Baptised also young Children for the most part with their Parents p. 118. So did John and the Apostles p. 118 119 122. The Manner and Form which John used in Baptism p. 119. The use of Witnesses at Baptism was only for them that had no Parents to present them p. 118 119. The Baptism of Procelytes with its circumstances p. 117 to 112. The Baptism of John compared with the Baptism of the Jewish Procelytes and ours with them both p. 120 121 122. Among other things dipping is discoursed p. 120 121 122. Dipping in Baptism endeavoured to be laid aside because it caused the Women of Galilee to be Barren p. 121 122. Why Sprinkling was used in stead of Dipping p. 121. Infant Baptism argued for p. 273 274. At first Baptism was in the Name of Jesus why p. 274 275. Afterward in the Name of the Trinity why p. 275. Baptism without Circumcision gave a right to the Passover p. 353. Baptism in the Name of Jesus only among the Jews and why p. 647. Baptism taken for Martyrdom p. 789. Baptism used in the Jewish Church for Introduction and Admission many Generations before John the Baptist was born p. 1040 1132. Baptism four times established p. 1122. Why there is no particular Precept in Scripture for Infant Baptism p. 1128 1133. The difference between the Primitive and the Gospel Institution of it p. 1125 1127 1128. Baptism to be administred before Teaching p. 273. The same proved from Matth. 28. 19. p. 1124. The several ends of Baptism as a Sacrament p. 273 1125 1126. Three Forms of it used for Introduction p. 1129. How John the Baptist did Baptize in the Name of the Messias coming 1129. Why the Apostles Baptised at first in the Name of Jesus only p. 1129. Baptism was no new thing in our Saviours days p. 1128 1132 1133. Baptism its vow whether obligatory to Infants p. 1221. Baptism belongs to Children they being part of their Parents 1318 Barbarians the Greeks call all Countries Barbarians but their own 704 Barber an odd story of a Barber cutting the throats of many Jews 774 Barjesus and Elymas the same the reason of the two Names and what they both signifie p. 687 1192. His wickedness and method of perverting the ways of the Lord. 1192 1193 Bartimai Bartimeus may be rendred a Son of admiration or of profit c. 348 Batanea for Bashan 81 82 Bath Kol or voice from Heaven which the Jews pretended to upon the ceasing of the Prophesies Urim and Thummim were either Jewish Tables or Devilish witchcraft p. 128 129. A story of Bath Kol p. 181. Bath Kol the Daughter of Thunder p. 337. It was used for a Testimony from Heaven but was indeed performed by Magick Art 345 Bath of Venus in Aeeon Page 60 Baths warm Baths of Tiberias of good use 69 Bathurseans frequently mentioned in the Jewish Writings what they were 702 Be Abidan an House or Temple how used 795 Beelzebub the right readings of it is Beelzebul what And why the chiefest of the Devils 188 189 429 Beggers among the Jews what Form of words they used in begging 579
of the Souls of Men after death believed by the Jews 1283 Spirit of Prophesie and the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel from the death of the later Prophets p. 802. The false pretenders to the Spirit how they may be discovered p. 1046. Spirit of Revelation not necessarily inferred or begotten by any degree of Holiness whatever the truth of this proved at large p. 1046. The Spirit of Holiness and the Spirit of Revelation how they differed p. 1046. The Spirit of Sanctification how to know whether a Man hath it or no. p. 1047. What it is to have the Spirit p. 1150 1151 1152 c. Adam had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Saints in Glory have not the Spirit p. 1150. How the Spirit worketh by the Word The having of it implies not perfection p. 1152. The several conditions of having the Spirit p. 1151 1152 c. The Spirit never leaves them that have it p. 1153. To have the Spirit implies not the Gift of Prophesie p. 1153. The difference between the Spirit of Sanctification and Prophesie p. 1154. The Enthusiasts about every one having the Spirit and the ground of it refuted p. 1156. The Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of Grace and Holyness are greatly differing p. 1290. The Spirit of God can and does overpower the Hearts Tongues and Actions of Men so as to serve the design of God's Glory 1290 1291 1292 Spirits unclean what p. 175. Spirits evil and unclean the Jews supposed the first inflicted Diseases the second haunted Burying places p. 441 442. Spirits Angels and Demons distinguished among the Jews p. 483. The Sadducees denied the being of Spirits p. 1282 1284. Spirits and Angels how distinguished Page 1283 Spittle was accounted wholsom by the Jews for fore Eyes 570 Stationary Men what 278 Stock of Israel to be of the Stock of Israel the Jews supposed was sufficient to fit them for the Kingdom of Heaven 533 Stoned what sort of Persons or Criminals were to be stoned among the Jews 579 746 Stoning and other executions were without the City and why p. 266. How performed p. 349. The whole proceeding of it among the Jews 675 Strangled things what the meaning of the Apostolick Prohibition concerning them 697 Strato's Tower what 54 Streets some were memorable in Jerusalem 34 35 Stripes what number Malefactors were to be beaten with and what kind of Scourge 439 Subterraneous places as Mines and Caves were in the Land of Israel 88 Swearing among the Jewish Doctors little set by unless it amounted to forswearing 148 149 Sychem the Metropolis of Samaria called Neapolis the Jews in scorn called it Sychar 52 53 Synagogue or Synagogues a Synagogue was only formed where there were ten Learned Men of which number Three bore the Magistracy the next was the publick Minister of it called the Angel or Bishop then three Deacons or Almoners the eighth Man was the Interpreter the two last less known p. 132 to 134. Synagogue days were the seventh second and fifth in every week Synagogues were anciently builded in Fields but following times brought them into Cities and built them higher than the rest of the Houses every one was to frequent them at the stated times of prayer p. 134. On the Sabbath the Minister in the Synagogue called out any seven whom he pleased to read the Law there was also Prayer Catchising and Sermons in the afternoon a Divinity Lecture p. 135 136. There was a Synagogue in the Temple p. 395. In the Synagogue they read standing up p. 405. He that read was appointed by the Ruler of the Synagogue and called Maphtir and was to read one and twenty verses p. 406 Christ read and expounded as was usual in that Synagogue of which he was a Member p. 406. The Minister of the Synagogue kept the Sacred Books and brought them out to be read when the company was met together p. 407. A Synagogue might be made of a dwelling House an Heathen might build a Synagogue p. 413 414. The Synagogue Minister or Bishop of the Synagogue and Ruler how differing p. 172. There were in Jerusalem four hundred and sixty Synagogues or four hundred and eighty as say others p. 35 664. Synagogue of the Alexandrians what p. 36. In every Synagogue there were three Magistrates who judged of matters of contest arising within the place p. 179 180. Whether lawful to alienate a Synagogue from a sacred to a common use 664 Syriack or Aramtan Language under the second Temple was that which went under the Name of the Hebrew 659 Syrophenician what 202 T. TABERNACLE of the Levitical Priesthood why those that serve there have no right to eat at the Altar that Christians have Page 1264 Tabernacles the Feast of Tabernacles the preparation for it and the parts of it p. 554 555. How and wherefore the eighth Day was computed great by the Jews 559 560 Tabernae or Shops where things were fold for the Temple where situate 512 Tabitha is of eternal memory in Acts 9. and in the Pages of the Talmudists p. 18. Every Maid Servant of Rabban Gamaliel was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Mother Tabitha p. 18. Tabitha Kumi what it signifies 342 Table Gesture or the manner of the Jews sitting there with the form of the Table 595 596 Table second The Commands of the Second Table chiefly injoyned in the Gospel and why 1064 Tables of Mony Changers in the Temple which our Saviour overthrew what 1204 Tabor was not the Mount where Christ was transfigured p. 346. Mount Tabor what and where situate 495 c. Talent what 468 Talith was a Cloak which the Jews used to wear made of Linnin 355 417 Talmud of Jerusalem and it may be the Talmudick Mishna was written at Tiberias p. 72 73. The Jerusalem Talmud is like them that made it 73 74 Tamar and Engedi are the same 7 Tarichet was a City thirty furlongs from Tiberias 71 Tarnegola the upper called Gebar or Gabara by the Rabbins 77 Tarsus was a famous Greek Academy 644 Tauros a Mountain where situate 516 Teachers of the Law and Lawyers what p. 433 434. Teachers used to sit down when they had done reading while they taught 689 Teaching was even by the Jewish Doctors sometimes performed out of the Synagogues in Streets and ways 410 Temple of Jerusalem ten wonders referring to it p. 21. It s breadth and length p. 33 34. In easing nature within the view of the Temple though at a great distance immodest Parts were to be turned the contrary way p. 41. There was a constant Market in the Temple and Shops for that end p. 224. Some hints of the condition of the Second Temple p. 512 513 514 How long it was in building by Solomon Zorobabel and especially by Herod p. 529 530. How much the Second Temple came behind the first p. 530. There were three Temples one at Jerusalem another on Mount Gerizzim and a third in Egypt p. 540 541. The Second