danger themselves Here was a prize for the greedy appetite of Tiberius when so many of the best rank and purses were fallen into his lurch and their moneys lent fallen into forfeiture because of their unlawfull lending The guilty Senate obtain the Emperours pardon and eighteen moneths are allowed for bringing in of all mens accompts In which time the scarcity of mony did pinch the more when every ones debts did come to rifling and in the nick of that there followed a great disturbance about buying Lands which before was invented for a remedy against the former complaints But the Emperour was glad to salve up the matter by lending great sums of mony to the people gratis for three years § 3. Tiberius still cruel With this one dram of humanity he mingled many ounces of cruelty and blood-shed For Considius Proculus as he was celebrating his birth day without fear and with Festivity is haled out of his own house brought to the bar and condemned and his Sister Sancia interdicted fire and water Pompeia Maâ—rina banished and her Father and Brother condemned and slew themselves But this year there is no reckoning of the slaughtered by name for now their number grew numberless All that were imprisoned and accused for conspiracy with Sejanus he causeth to be slain every mothers son Now saith mine Author there lay an infinite massacre of all sexes ages conditions noble and ignoble either dispersed or together on heaps Nor was it permitted to friends or kindred to comfort bewail or behold them any more but a Guard fet which for the greater grief abused the putrified bodies till they were haled into Tiber and there left to sink or swim for none was suffered to touch or bury them So far was common humanity banished and pity denyed even after death revenge being unsatisfied when it had revenged and cruelty extended beyond it self Nor did the accusers speed better than the accused for he also caused them to be put to death as well as the other under that colour of justice and retaliation satisfying his cruelty both ways to the greater extent It were to be admired and with admiration never to be satisfied were it not that the avenging hand of God upon the bloody City is to be acknowledged in it that ever a people should be so universally bent one against another seeking the ruine and destruction one of another and furthering their own misery when they were most miserable already in him that sought the ruin of them all A fitter instrument could not the Tyrant have desired for such a purpose than themselves nor when he had them so pliable to their own mischief did he neglect the opportunity or let them be idle For as he saw accusations encrease so did he encrease his Laws to breed more insomuch that at the last it grew to be capital for a servant to have fallen before or near the image of Augustus or for any man to carry either coin or ring into the Stews or house of Office if it bare upon it the image of Tiberius §. 3. A wicked accusation Who can resolve whether it were more vexation to suffer upon such foolish accusations or upon others more solid but as false as these were foolish That was the fortune of Sextus Marius an intimate friend of the Emperours but as it proved not the Emperour so of his This was a man of great riches and honour and in this one action of a strange vain-glory and revenge Having taken a displeasure at one of his Neighbours he inviteth him to his house and there detained him feasting two days together And on the first day he pulleth his house down to the ground and on the next he buildeth it up far fairer and larger than before The honest man when he returned home found what was done admired at the speed of the work rejoyced at the change of his house but could not learn who had done the deed At the last Marius confessed that he was the agent and that he had done it with this intent to shew him that he had power to do him a displeasure or a pleasure as he should deserve it Ah blinded Marius and too indulgent to thine own humours seest thou not the same power of Tiberius over thee and thy fortunes pinned upon his pleasure as thy neighbours upon thine And so it came to pass that fortune read him the same lecture that his fancy had done another For having a young beautiful Daughter and such a one as on whom the Emperour had cast an eye and so plainly that the Father spyed it he removed her to another place and kept her there close and at distance lest she should have been violated by him who must have no denyal Tiberius imagined as the thing was indeed and when he seeth that he cannot enjoy his love and satisfie his lust he turneth it to hate and revenge And causeth Marius to be accused of incest with his daughter whom he kept so close and both Father and Daughter are condemned and suffer for it both together § 5. A miserable life and death In these so feareful and horrid times when nothing was safe nothing secure when silence and innocency were no protection nor to accuse no more safeguard than to be accused but when all things went at the Emperours will and that will always cruel what course could any man take not to be intangled and what way being intangled to extricate himself The Emperours frowns were death and his favours little better to be accused was condemnation and to accuse was often as much that now very many found no way to escape death but by dying nor to avoid the cruelty of others but by being cruel to themselves For though self-murder was always held for a Roman valour yet now was it become a meer necessity men choosing that miserable exigent to avoid a worse as they supposed and a present end to escape future evils So did Asinius Gallus at this time for the one and Nerva the other This Gallus about three years ago coming to Tiberius upon an Ambassy was fairly entertained and royally feasted by him but in the very interim he writeth letters to the Senate in his accusation Such was the Tyrants friendship and so sour sawce had poor Asinius to his dainty fare A thing both inhumane and unusual that a man the same day should eat drink and be merry with the Emperour and the same day be condemned in the Senate upon the Emperours accusation An Officer is sent to fetch him away a Prisoner from whence he had but lately gone Ambassadour The poor man being thus betrayed thought it vain to beg for life for that he was sure would be denyed him but he begged that he might presently be put to death and that was denyed also For the bloody Emperour delighted not in blood and death only but in any thing that would cause other mens misery though it were their life So having once committed one of
2 3. The great Angel is Christ the old Serpent is the Devil there Christ binds and imprisoneth him and that with the great chain of the Gospel Observe the passage He shut him up in the bottomless pit What In Hell for ever That he should never go abroad again Yea you have him loose again vers 7. and he hath been always going about as in 1 Pet. V. but he tyes him up that he should not deceive the Nations vers 3. and when he is loosed again vers 8. it is his being loose to deceive the Nations Observe by the way the phrase He shuts him up that is restrains him from deceiving and seducing people It is Hell and Prison to the Devil not to be doing mischief So the Psalmist speaks of the wicked children of the Devil They sleep not rest not if they do not evil It is a torment to them if they may not be sinning Well how doth Christ bind Satan that he do not deceive By sending the Gospel to undeceive them So that this is the Victory of Christ against the Devil The very telling of his Death and Merits is that that overcomes the Devil the very Word of his Death and Resurrection is that that overthrows the Devil and his power So is 1 Cor. VI. 3. to be taken Know ye not that we shall judge Angels Now needed Christs soul to go to Hell to tell the Devil these tidings and to triumph there He felt the building of his Kingdom fall about his ears every moment He needed no such message to go and tell him he had conquered him This is the Triumph of Christ over the Devil by the virtue and power of his death and not by any Vocal or actual Declaration of it by his Soul now separate from his Body IV. As to Christs Soul triumphing over the damned needed there any such thing Or could his Soul do any such thing Think you Christs Soul doth or could rejoyce in the damnation of the damned There is joy in Heaven when a sinner is saved Is there joy too when he is damned That tender expression of God As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner doth it give us any room to think that he can rejovce in their damnation That tender Soul of Christ that but six or eight days before wept for the destruction of Jerusalem with O! that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace Can we think that that Soul could go to Hell to triumph and insult over poor damned Souls He had cause to triumph and rejoyce over the conquered Devils but had he the like cause or heart to triumph over damned Souls What was the reason of his triumphing over the Devils Because he had subdued themselves only He mastered them while alive in casting them out and commanding them at his pleasure He cast them into Hell by his Divine Power as soon as they had sinned but his triumph over them by his Death and Resurrection was for his peoples sake We cannot say Christ hath any pleasure in the damnation of the very Devils but he had pleasure in the Conquest of Devils because he had delivered his people from them Ah! most Divine Soul of Christ so infinitely full of charity that gave it self a Sacrifice for sin that men might not be damned can that rejoyce and insult over poor Souls damnation Look but upon Christs tenderness and earnestness for Souls here that they come not to damnation and then guess how little delight he taketh in it when they are damned Let us apply these two passages to this Ezek. XVIII 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye And vers 31. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In the Hebrew it is in the strictest propriety In the death of him that is dead I have not pleasure that he dye and no pleasure in his death when he is dead What is there more plain in Scripture and in all Gods actings than this That God would not have men damned if they would embrace Salvation What speak these expressions 1 Tim. II. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Pet. III. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Certainly whatsoever else this is plain enough that God had rather men should be saved than damned How is this written in Scripture as in letters of gold that he that runs may read it How was it written in letters of Christs own blood that was shed that men might not be damned but that whosoever believeth might have eternal life And how is this written in Gods patience beseechings in his affording means of Salvation I need not to instance in particulars Well men will not be saved but choose death before life Doth Christ delight rejoyce to damn them when they must come to it Think ye he pronounceth Go ye cursed with as much delight as Come ye blessed That he insults triumphs over poor damned wretches in their damnation Read his heart in such passages as these Gen. VI. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart What Because he had made them No but because he having made them must now destroy them Lam. III. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men So he doth not damn willingly nor destroy the children of men And once for all Esa. XLII 14. I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will cry and destroy but it is grievous to God as pangs of a travailing woman Thus much as hath been spoken may shew how unlikely and indeed how unchristian a thing it is to conceive that Christs Soul went purposely into Hell to triumph and insult over the miserable and damned And so you see that this Article cannot mean his Souls descending into the place of torment to triumph over the Devils and damned so that we must yet look for another sense of it III. A third interpretation then is this That it means the Torments he suffered in Soul III. upon his Cross. Some word it That he suffered the extream wrath of God some the very torments of Hell some that he was for the time in the state of the damned I reluct to speak these things but this Gloss some make upon this Article and while they go about to magnifie the Love of Christ in suffering such things for men they so much abase and vilifie his Person in making it lyable to such a condition The sense of the Article we must refuse unless we should speak and think of Christ that which doth not befit him The dearly beloved of the Soul of God to lye under the heaviest wrath of God The Lord of Heaven and Earth to
judgment 2. They allotted only that murder to be judged by the Council or Sanhedrin that was committed by a man in propria persona Let them speak their own sense A murderer is he that kills his neighbour with a Stone or with Iron or that thrusts him into water or fire out of which it is not possible to get out again if the man die he is guilty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he thrust him into fire or water out of which it is possible to get out again though he die yet he is quit He sets on him a Dog or a Serpent he is quit He intended to kill a stranger and kills an Israelite To kill a little one and kills one of stature To hit him on the loins and such a blow on the loins could not kill him but it misses the loins and hits him on the heart and kills him he is quit He intended to hit him on the heart and such a blow on the heart was enough to kill him but it lights on the loins and such a blow on the loins was not enough to kill him yet he dies he is quit He intended to strike one of stature and the blow was not enough to have killed one of stature but it lites on a little one and there was enough in the blow to have killed a little one and he dies yet he is quit He intended to hit a little one and there was enough in the blow to kill a little one but it lights on one of stature and there was not enough in the blow to kill one of stature yet he dies he is quit R. Simeon saith Though he intended to kill one and kills another he is quit c. Talm. in Sanhedr per. 9. Any one that kills his neighbour with his hand as if he strike him with a sword or with a stone that kills him or strangles him till he die or burns him in the fire seeing that he kills him any how in his own person lo such a one must be put to death by the Sanhedrin But he that hires another to kill his neighbour or that sends his servants and they kill him or that violently thrusts him before a Lion or the like and the beast kills him Any one of these is a shedder of blood and the guilt of shedding of blood is upon him and he is liable to death by the hand of Heaven but he is not to be put to death by the Sanhedrin And whence is the proof that it must be thus Because it is said He that sheds mans blood by man shall his blood be shed This is he that slays a man himself and not by the hand of another Your blood of your lives will I require This is he that slays himself At the hand of every beast will I require it This is he that delivers up his neighbour before a beast to be rent in pieces At the hand of man even at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man This is he that hires others to kill his neighbour In this interpretation requiring is spoken of all the three behold their judgment is delivered over to Heaven or God And all these manslayers and the like who are not liable to death by the Sanhedrin if the King of Israel will slay them by the Judgment of the Kingdom and the Law of Nations he may c. Maym. ubi supr per. 2. You may observe in these wretched traditions a twofold killing and a twofold judgment a mans killing another in his own person and with his own hand and such a one liable to the judgment of the Sanhedrin to be put to death by them as a murderer And a man that killed another by proxy not with his own hand but hiring another to kill him or turning a beast or serpent upon him to kill him This man not to be judged and executed by the Sanhedrin but referred and reserved only to the judgment of God So that from hence we see plainly in what sense the word Judgment is used in the latter end of the preceding verse and the first clause of this namely not for the Iudgment of any of the Sanhedrins as it is commonly understood but for the Judgment of God In the former verse Christ speaks their sense and in the first clause of this his own in application to it Ye have heard it said that any man that kills is liable to the Iudgment of God But I say to you that he that is but angry with his brother without a cause is liable to the Iudgment of God You have heard it said That he only that commits murder with his own hand is to be judged by the Council or Sanhedrin as a murderer But I say to you that he that but calls his brother Racha as common a word as ye make it and a thing of nothing he is liable to be judged by the Sanhedrin Lastly He that saith to his brother Thou fool wicked one or cast-away shall be in danger of Hell fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are two observable things in the words The first is the change of case from what was before there it was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon S. Petit in his variae Lectiones lib. 1. cap. 1. professeth that he cannot wonder enough that Expositors should not observe this variation and what he himself maketh of the observation of it I shall not insist upon but refer the Reader to his own words Surely he little minds the Greek Text that sees not this in it and there needs not any far fetched Exposition to satisfie about it It is but an Emphatical raising of the sense to make it the more feeling and to speak home He that saith to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the Council but he that says Thou fool he shall be in danger of a penalty even to Hell fire And thus our Saviour doth equal the sin and penalty in a very just parallel Injust anger with Gods just anger and judgment Publick reproach with publick correction by the Council And censuring for a child of Hell to the fire of Hell 2. It is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the fire of Hell but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To a Hell of fire in which expression he doth still set the Emphasis higher And besides the reference to the valley of Hinnom he seemeth to refer to that penalty used by the Sanhedrin of burning the most bitter death that they used to put men unto the manner of which was thus They set the malefactor in a dunghil up to the knees and they put a towel about his neck and one pul'd one way and another another till by thus strangling him they forced him to open his mouth Then did they pour scalding lead into his mouth which went down into his belly and so burnt his
were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the less offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used Maymon in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use yea even his dung bones horns hoofs skin yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart and that alone offered Divers other things used in Idolatry are mentioned and prohibited The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these properly were not one and the same thing for every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buâ—… contra every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering which themselves were not offered as knives dishes and the like which cannot be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean and prohibited to be used About not eating of blood they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point unto this purpose He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive if presumptuously he is to be cut off and if ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6. By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self or that was not killed as it ought to be And he that eat to the quantity of an olive of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self or of any beast or any fowl that died of it self was to be whipt as it is said Ye shall eat no carcase and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting is reputed as if dying of it self Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat of which the Talmudick Treatise Cholin discusseth at large Now as concerning fornication it is controverted first whether it mean bodily or spiritual and secondly how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent as the other named were it self being of no such indifferency whethersoever is meant the one or the other The former certainly is not meant for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reacheth that to the full and more needed not to be spoken to that point The later therefore is meant but why named here with things indifferent Not because it was indifferent as well as they Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other for they made but little of fornication themselves according to the common taking of the word fornication but fornication here seemeth to translate their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited which the Gentiles made no matter about and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law Levit. 18. Before we part from this Council as it is commonly called we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe that it was not a convention premediated and solemnly summoned but only occasional and emergent and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in nor indeed needed any such thing for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voices as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem The matter being determined Letters are dispatched with the Decrees unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas they come to Antioch and there abide a while and at last go their several ways Judas to Jerusalem and Paul Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party and Peter Jameâ— and John on the other that those two should go among the Gentiles and these three among the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of that Country Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East and John at Patmos in the West and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth they disagree about Marks going with them Barnabas being his uncle would have had his company but Paul denied it because of his departure from them before Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also Gal. 2. 11. and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas and go their several ways and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society as we shall observe afterward CHRIST LI CLAUDIUS XI ACTS CHAP. XVI PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia come to Derbe and Lystra there he Circumciseth Timothy whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death Timothy was a young man of very choice
whether the women might go forth with this Ornament upon their heads on the Sabbath And there they tell that R. Akibah made a golden City for his wife and when Rabban Gamaliels saw it she was envious at it A pretty way of mourning by pride and to carry Jerusalam in gold on their heads when Jerusalem lies in ashes under their feet Much like did they by their Ceremonies and Traditions when at the ruine of the City they should by right have been all buried in ashes with it they inhanced them and made them more high and gallant then ever before It is needless to instance their derision and detestation of Christ and Christianity their blasphemy against his blessed name their hatred and mischievousness against the professors of it their Writings proclaim their impiety and when many of the ancient Fathers have been put to write against the Jews it argues they were busie and stirring as far as they might They had continual opposings among themselves yet they all agreed like Simcon and Levi brethren in evil to oppose vilifie and blasphem the Gospel Hardly one of the Grandees that we have named but he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his opposite one or the other that stood out in contestation of opinion with him Nay they went sometimes to it by the ears as R. Eliezer and R. Josi are so strugling together that they rent the Book of the Law betwixt them Jerus Shekalim fol. 47. col 1. and as we observed before the Shammaeans and Hillelians fought it to blood and death Rabban Gamaliel at Jabneh deposed R. Akibah from his Rectorship at Lydda Rosh hashan fol. 57. col 1. And divers such bickerings which still ended in an unanimous consent to oppose Christianity as much as possible We speake before of the commonness of Magick amongst them one singular means whereby they kept their own in delusion and whereby they affronted ours The general expectation of the Nation of Messias coming when he did had this double and contrary effect That it forwarded those that belonged to God to believe and receive the Gospel and those that did not it gave incouragement to some to take upon them they were Christ or some great Prophet and to others it gave some perswasion to be deluded by them These deceivers dealt most of them with Magick and that cheat ended not when Jerusalem ended though one would have thought that had been a fair term of not further expecting Messias but since the people were willing still to be deceived by such expectation there rose up deluders still that were willing to deceive them The Jerusalem Talmud will furnish us with variety of examples of this kind and I cite it the oftner because it was made among these men we are speaking of the Jews in Judaea To begin with dreamers and interpreters of dreams which was a degree of delusion with them In Maasar Sheni fol. 45. col 2 3. there is mention of Rabbi Josi ben Calpatha of this trade and R. Ismael ben Rabbi Josi and R. Lazar and R. Akibah and there are many dreams recorded that they interpreted and it seemeth by a passage in the place that they taught their Scholars this trick as a piece of their learning And finding of R. Akibah in this Catalogue we cannot but think how well Ben Coziba and he were met for if the one were a cheater in one kind the other was a deceiver in another If that of the Apostle Jude in his Epistle ver 8. These filthy dreamers should be construed in this litteral sense it would find enow in those times to make it good In Shabb. fol. 3. col 2. it speaks of an apparition to one of their religious men that was studying the Law Ibid. fol. 8. col 2 3. and fol. 14. 3. there is mention of several charmings as reading some verses over a wound laying the Book of the Law or Phylacteries upon a sick person charming against serpents and an evil eye c. And now we are speaking of an evil eye or witchery we may take in that Sanhedr fol. 18. col 3. Four and twenty of the School of Rabbi Judah came to Lydda to intercalate the year and an evil eye came in among them and they all died In Sotah fol. 16. col 2. A story related of R. Meir and an Inchantresse and he proving hard enough for her In Sanhedr fol. 25. col 4. There are three stories of Magical feats done by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hereticks one at Tiberias and two at Tsipporis but R. Joshua outvying one of them and a fourth at Rome and he making his part good there too What may be ment by Hereticks must be divided betwixt Samaritans and some wretches that had forsaken their Judaism and professed Christianity but were such as the Apostle calls false Apostles And to conclude all the many stories they have of Bath kol or a voice from Heaven most commonly coming for the magnifying of some of their Doctors as see Sotah fol. 24. col 2. are either forgeries or if there were any such seeming voices they were forged upon the anvil of Magick How can a Nation but carry the visibe mark of perdition when vain traditions are their standing Religion and Magick and Inchantments a common practise To this kind of legerdemain we may add another not altogether indeed of so deep a die yet that which came from the same father and that was the loud legends they invented of their great Rabbines thereby to awe the people to the reverence of their Persons Memories and Doctrines and of others devoutly zealous in their doting Religion of whom they tell strange wonders for the magnifying of it I shall name none for shame these are they that do most disgrace their writings and make them most ridiculous A last thing to be named that they did toward the intayling folly unbelieve and obduration upon their Nation to all posterity is their ingaging them to their Canons and Traditions as they delivered them especially to the Mishnah when Rabbi Judah had published it and to the two Talmuds when they came forth especially the Babylonian which stands as a Standard to all the Nation for her Rule and Religion to this day they being generally Pharisaicall and scarce a Karaite that we hear of amongst them SECTION X. How far these Iews in the first generation of Christianity might infect or infest it WE need not speak of their crossing the Gospel and persecuting and mischieving the professors of it when it lay in their power that needs no clearing A twofold infection more especially they diffused into the Christian Church which tainted many and where it caught proved pestilential enough even that which was the least dangerous and these were that out of this sink rose the desperate heresies of the first Ages of the Gospel and from these men came the Allegorizing of the Scriptures which was but one degree less profitable if not less deadly then their
to be the proper reason why the Evangelist useth the preterimperfect tense which Beza could see no reason why he should because he speaketh of Christ which had been with John at Jordan and was but newly gone out of his sight So that the first verse of this Section according to this construction doth properly come in its order in the time between Christs baptizing and his getting into the wilderness and accordingly it might have been laid after the very first verse of the last Section and there have made this series of the Story And immediately after the baptism of Jesus the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness and when he was rapt away and but newly out of sight John bare witness and cried saying This was he of whom I spake but I was unwilling to part that story which lieth so joined and it is timely enough to give notice of the order in this place Now the next story in this Section of the discourse betwixt the messengers of the Jews and John they questioning who he was and what he meant to baptize it was just in the time while Christ was under the last temptation or as he was returning from the high mountain wheresoever it was to Jordan again for the Text telleth expresly that on the next day after this dispute Jesus appeareth at Jordan in the sight of John ver 29. and from thence forward the connexion of the stories following is so clear ver 35. 43. that it needeth no further demonstration Harmony and Explanation Ver. 15. Iohn bare witness of him and cried c. THE Evangelist from the beginning of the Chapter to this place and in it doth purposely go about to shew what declarations and demonstrations were given of Christ both before his coming in the flesh and after what before we shewed in their proper place upon the Chapter to the fourteenth vers what after is shewed in this verse and the next that follows In the fourteenth verse he tells that Christ declared himself to be the only begotten of the Father by conversing among his Disciples full of grace and truth And in this verse he sheweth how John declared and published him to all that came to be baptized and in the next verse how his Disciples received of his fulness c. Now Johns manner of testimony of him he expresseth by these two words He beareth witness and cried words of different tenses as was observed before and of some difference of sense in that diversity The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the present tense is properly to be understood 1. Of Johns whole Ministery Function and Office as vers 7. explaineth it He came for a witness not to be restrained to this or that particular vocal and verbal testimony that John gave of Christ no nor to all the vocal testimonies that he gave of Christ but to be dilated to Johns whole course and ministry that he beareth witness to Christ in that God raised up such a one to be his fore-runner And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the praeter tense is to be applied to the particular testimony that John gave of Christ in that his ministery so that the former word referreth to Johns person and his whole function and the latter only to the manner of his executing of one particular of that function 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may also include Johns martyrdom for the truth by which he beareth witness unto Christ even unto this time as Abel being dead yet speaketh as Heb. 11. 4. And in this sense should I understand those words of this same Evangelist in his first Epistle Chap. 5. vers 6 8. Jesus Christ came by water and blood and the Spirit beareth witness And there are three that bear witness in earth the Spirit and the Water and Blood that is the Spirit of Prophesie Baptism and Martyrdom all three agreeing in one testimony of Christ that he is he The Prophets speaking so jointly of him Baptism bringing in so many unto him and Martyrs sealing unto him with their dearest blood The scores that have prophesied of him the thousands that have suffered death for him and the many thousands that have been baptized into him bearing witness of him on earth as the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost do in heaven §. He that cometh after me is preferred before me We do not find that John had at any time before Christs baptism given any such testimony as these words He had said indeed A mightier than I cometh after me whose shoos I am not worthy to bear and whose shoo latchet I am not worthy to unloose as the other three Evangelists agree in the relating of it but these words He is preferr'd before me for he was before me we heard not of till now Yet is it to be conceived that the Baptist speaketh to the same sense now that he did before as vers 27. sheweth his intention though he have altered his expressions For it is a very common custom of Scripture in alledging of former speeches to give the sense but not to keep exactly to the words And yet it is not without its weight that whereas Johns constant testimony of Christ before his baptism was A mightier than I cometh he should as constantly after his baptism use this He coming after me is preferr'd before me as here and vers 27. 30. Now the reason of this seemeth to be because Christ had now appeared and no mighty work had been yet shewed among the people by him no nor any thing done in their eyes or hearing which might give them occasion to conceive that he was mightier or stronger than John The appearance of the Holy Ghost and the voice from heaven they had neither seen nor heard only his catching away from Jordan at this time it is probable they saw therefore John to clear their apprehensions from any carnal misconstruction of his words explains himself that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A mightier than I they were not so to understand as to look for any present visible demonstration of power or miraculousness from him but that they should take notice that he of whom he spake those words was before him in rank and dignity for he was before him in time and office nature and qualifications though he came after him §. Is preferr'd before me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Vulgar Latine hath dangerously translated Ante me factus est he was made before me and accordingly the Arians in ancient time made use of this place in this sense against the eternity of the Son Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Beza well observeth it in the New Testament doth constantly refer to place and not to time as Mar. 1. 2. Matth. 17. 2. Luke 12. 8. 19. 27 28. and divers other places and therefore our English hath well expressed it with an intimation of such a thing is preferr'd before me For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
strange Languages when they did speak them but conceived they had babbled some foolish gibberish and canting they themselves could make nothing of as drunken men are used to do And this caused their so wretched a construction of so Divine a Gift For the Jews of the strange Nations and Languages that perceived and understood that the Disciples did speak in their Languages were amazed and said one to another What meaneth this Vers. 12. But these other Jews Natives of Jerusalem and Judea that understood only their own Syriack and did not understand that they spake strange Languages indeed these mocked and said These men are full of new or sweet wine grounding their accusation the rather because that Pentecost was a feasting and rejoycing time Deut. 16. 11. And according to this conception it is observable that Peter begins his speech Ye men of Judea Vers. 14. But Peter standing up with the eleven said c. Reason it self if the Text did not would readily resolve that it was not Peter alone that converted the 3000 that are mentioned after but that the rest of the Apostles were sharers with him in that work For if Peter must be held the only Orator at this time then must it needs be granted that either the 3000 which were converted were all of one Language or that the one Language that he spake seemed to the hearers to be divers Tongues or that he rehearsed the same speech over and over again in divers Languages any of which to grant is sensless and ridiculous and yet unless we will run upon some of these absurdites we may not deny that the rest of the twelve preached now as well as Peter But the Text besides this gives us these arguments to conclude the matter to be undoubted First It saith Peter stood forth with the eleven vers 14. Now why should the eleven be mentioned standing forth as well as Peter if they spake not as well as he They might as well have sitten still and Peters excuse of them would as well have served the turn It was not Peter alone that stood forth to excuse the eleven but Peter and the eleven that stood forth to excuse the rest of the hundred and twenty Secondly It is said They were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles What shall we do Why should they question and ask counsel of the rest of the Apostles as well as Peter if they had not preached as well as he Thirdly And it is a confirmation that so they did in that it is said Vers. 42. They continued in the Doctrine of the Apostles of the rest as well as Peter Fourthly If that were the occasion that we mentioned why they suspected the Apostles and the rest drunk then will it follow that Peter preached and spake in the Syriack Tongue chiefly to those Jews of Judea and Jerusalem that would not believe because they could not understand that the Disciples spake strange Languages but thought they canted some drunken gibberish And to give some probability of this not only his preface Ye men of Judea but also his laying flatly the murder of Christ to their charge Vers. 22. 23. do help to confirm it and the conclusion of his Sermon and of the story in the Evangelist doth set it home that if Peter preached not only to these Natives of Judea yet that he only preached not at this time but that the others did the like with him in that it is said They that gladly received his words were baptized and then as speaking of another story he saith there were added about the same day 3000 souls Now the reason why Peters Sermon is only recorded and the story more singularly fixed on him we observed before §. Brief observations upon some passages in Peters Sermon Vers. 15. It is but the third hour of the day And on these solemn Festival days they used not to eat or drink any thing till high noon as Baronius would observe out of Josephus and Acts 10. Vers. 17. In the last days The days of the Gospel because there is no way of salvation to be expected beyond the Gospel whereas there was the Gospel beyond the law and the law beyond the light of the ages before it Yet is this most properly to be understood of those days of the Gospel that were before Jerusalem was destroyed And the phrase the last days used here and in divers other places is not to be taken for the last days of the world but for the last days of Jerusalem the destruction of which and the rejection of the Jews is reputed the end of that old world and the coming in of the Gentiles under the Gospel is as a new world and is accordingly called a new Heaven and a new Earth Upon all flesh Upon the Heathens and Gentiles as well as upon the Jews Act. 10. 45. contrary to the axiome of the Jewish Schools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine Majesty dwelleth not on any out of the Land of Israel Vers. 20. Before the great and notable day of the Lord come The day of Jerusalems destruction which was forty years after this as was observed before so that all these gifts and all the effusion of the Spirit that were to be henceforward were to be within the time betwixt this Pentecost and Jerusalem destroyed And they that from hence would presage prophetick and miraculous gifts and visions and revelations to be towards the end of the world might do better to weigh what the expression The great and terrible day of the Lord meaneth here and elsewhere in the Prophets The blood of the Son of God the fire of the Holy Ghosts appearance the vapour of the smoke in which Christ ascended the Sun darkned and the Moon made blood at his passion were all accomplished upon this point of time and it were very improper to look for the accomplishment of the rest of the prophesie I know not how many hundreds or thousands of years after Vers. 24. Having loosed the pains of death or rather Having dissolved the pains of death meaning in reference to the people of God namely that God raised up Christ and by his resurrection dissolved and destroyed the pangs and power of death upon his own people Vers. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Thou wilt not give my soul up And why should not the very same words My God my God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be translated to the same purpose Why hast thou left me and given me up to such hands and shame and tortures rather than to intricate the sense with a surmise of Christs spiritual desertion In Hell Gr. Hades the state of souls departed but their condition differenced according to the difference of their qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diphilus apud Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. Vers. 38. Be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that their Baptism was not
Theudas whose Sect had begun before that of Judas Vers. 41. That they were counted worthy Or That they had obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeming to interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so common among the Rabbins which soundeth to that sense and so is it not only most easily but so it must be most commonly rendred in them And of the very same sense is the Latine word Mereri when it is applied to man with reference to good generally in the Fathers As when it is said that the Virgin Mary meruit esse mater redemptoris she obtained to be the mother of the redeemer not she deserved Mary Magdalen Audire meruit Fides tua te salvam fecit she obtained to hear it said Thy faith hath saved thee and a thousand such examples might be given which too many thousands interpreting by the word merit wrest an harmless word to their own destruction R. Solomon speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meritum volucrium the priviledge of birds and some fathers speaking of our obtaining Gods favour and salvation and the like express it sine merito nostro meruimus we have obtained it without our merit PART II. The ROMAN Story §. 1. The state of the City hitherto THE City Rome was built by Romulus in the year of the World 3175. in the fifteenth year of Amaziah King of Judah and in the first year of Jeroboam the second the King of Israel It had stood from the time of its first foundation to this year in which it put the Lord of life to death seven hundred fourscore and five years And had undergone and passed thorough two different and diverse kinds of government and was now but lately entred upon a third The first was under Kings for 243 years and the foundation of this government as of the City it self was laid in the blood of Remus shed by his brother Romulus who was the founder of the City The second was under Consuls 467 years from the expulsion of Tarquin the last King to the Consulship of Hirtius and Pansa which was the year that Augustus began to rule with Antony and Lepidus This change of the government was likewise founded in blood as the former had been namely of Lucrece Aruns and Brutus and in the extirpation of Tarquins house A third manner of government had the City and Empire now begun upon and had been under it threescore and two years namely a monarchy again but the name only changed from a King to an Emperor And the foundation of this change was also laid in blood as the other had been namely in the death of Julius Caesar Antony and Cleopatra The carriage of Tarquin the last of the Kings had brought the City into an opinion that Monarchy was an enemy to Liberty And the growth and flourishing of that State under another manner of government had so confirmed this opinion that they were sooner put out of their Liberty than out of belief of that Position Brutus and Collatinus who were the expellers of Tarquin and of Monarchy with him had found out a government likely enough in all humane judgment to heal all these mischiefs and miscarriages that Monarchical Tyranny did bring upon them when they appointed two supreme Governors in stead of one and their Power and Rule to be but annual in stead of for life The success was agreeable to the policy and so happily and prosperously did the State grow under these rulers and some others mixt as occasion urged that to offer to reduce it to Monarchy again was infallibly held to be to reduce it to slavery and Julius Caesar found how deeply grounded this opinion was in the heart of a Roman by the loss of his life they supposing his affecting the Empire single aimed at the loss of their Liberties Augustus his Nephew and adopted son though he had before his eyes in Julius his death a clear and convincing Lecture how dangerous and desperate an attempt it was to affect the monarchy yet did he dare it but managing his desires and designs with so much discretion and noislesness that the government was gotten into his hands alone and the Empire slipt into a monarchical subjection even before it was aware Tacitus hath described this strange transition to this purpose After that Brutus and Cassius being slain there was now no publick hostility Pompey was crushed at Sicily and Lepidus being stripped of his power and Antony slain there remained now no commander on Julius his party but only Caesar he laying down the name of Triumvir and bearing himself as Consul and as content with the Tribunate for the defense of the Commons when he had won the Souldiers with gifts the people with provision and all men with the sweetness of peace he began to get up by degrees and to draw to himself the power of the Senate Magistrates and Law no man gainsaying him For the fiercest persons were either dispatcht in the armies or by banishment the rest of the Nobles by how much the more they were the readier for vassallage by so much the more they were preferred with wealth and honours and being thus inriched by these innovations they desired rather the safe and present condition than the ancient and dangerous Nor did the Provinces refuse this state of things they having the rule of the Senate and people in suspition because of the quarrellings of the great ones and the avarice of the Magistrates the Laws affording no relief but themselves destroyed by power prowling or money Thus did the very posture of things as it were conspire with the desires of Augustus to bring the Roman state into a Monarchy and himself to be the Monarch the decrees and determination of Heaven having so ordered that here should begin a fifth Monarchy after the destruction of the four Dan. 2. 7. which should equal all the four in power pomp and cruelty and should be the continual persecutor of the Church of the Christians as they had been of the Church of the Jews And thus doth the Gospel and the State that should persecute it in a manner arise at once and Christ and Antichrist after a sort are born together §. 2. The qualities of Tiberius the present Emperor his damnable dissimulation Augustus as he had got the sole government into his hands by a great deal of wisdom and daring so did he keep it with the same wisdom and as much moderation He sat Emperor for the space of four and forty years honoured and beloved and died desired and lamented though he had thus impropriated as it was conceived the whole liberty of the Empire into his own hand Now whether it were the native gentleness and goodness of the Emperor that kept him in such a sweetness and moderation or whether it were some policy mingled with it as knowing it not to be safe to be too busie and rigid so near the change he so demeaned himself for the benefit of the City and
your King and the frame or disposal of your Images in one compact piece the stars of your Gods which you have made to your selves shewing that when they would worship all the host of heaven in Images and representations that they made a fabrick and compacture in one bulk or in one room representing in several fashions and forms in it the several planets and constellations of Heaven and this he calleth Chijun Tsalmekem the ordering or disposing of your Images See 2 King 23. 4 5. V. Now for the word Remphan in which lieth the most obscurity of all many conjectures are given upon it The Seventie hath rendred Chijun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mistaking one piece of a letter as it is conceived by Buxtorfius and reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza conceiveth it was purposely done for that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Giant is to be understood Hercules and yet he scrupleth whether it should not be rather read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as aiming at the God of the Syrians 2 King 5. 18. But not to insist upon producing such variety of conjectures upon this matter which are to be seen in several authors it seemeth to me 1. that Stephen doth something follow the Seventy in this word as well as he doth in the rest of the Text and for the new Testament to follow them differently from the Hebrew Text is no wonder and needeth nothing to be said upon it 2. That Stephen doth add a letter to the word or doth a little change it from those very Syllables that the Septuagint use that he might give the sense of the Prophet the more clearly and speak out the matter he hath in hand the more plainly And the word Remphan seemeth to be compounded either of an Hebrew and a Greek word or of two Hebrew words together and to mean either the high shiner of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the high representation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter the more probable For as the Prophet in the word Chijun expressed the Fabrick of the host of heaven which the Idolatrous people had wrought and represented in one piece so would Stephen speak to the very same sense and therefore forsaketh the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he found in the Septuagint and taketh up or formeth it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the high face or high representation or that whole piece that represented the whole heaven which he calleth their God because in that they adored all the Stars and hosts of Heaven at once and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but one number put for another one star for many VI. I will carry you away beyond Babylon Both in the Hebrew of Amos and in the Greek of the Septuagint it is Beyond Damascus which Stephen seemeth purposely to have changed into beyond Babylon because that as he had treated in the beginning of the Chapter of Abrahams coming out of those parts into that land he would now shew e contra how they for their Idolatry should be carried out of that land into those parts again Acts VIII Vers. 1. And there was a great persecution c. §. 1. Persecution THE spite and cruelty of the adversary was not quenched by the blood of Stephen but rather inflamed Stephens confuting and confounding the great Scholars of the Synagogue of the Libertines Cyrenians Alexandrians and Cilicians had bred in them so hateful a disdain of being put to a nonplus and his cutting words at his death to all the people Acts 7. 51 52 53. had galled them so sore And especially his denouncing of ruine to Moses ceremonoies and to the Temple as they charged him with it had so exasperated their blind zeal that it is not sufficient as they think to have Stephen put to death only but it is not fit that others should live who were of the same heresie and blasphemy with him for so they construed it Hence ariseth a bitter persecution to destroy the Church at Jerusalem because it held an opinion that Jerusalem and the rites there should be destroyed In this Tragedy was Saul a chief actor sparing neither place from search Sex from apprehension nor the apprehended from torture or imprisonment Such a Testimony doth Luke give of him Acts 8. 3. and such a confession doth he make of himself Act. 22. 4. and 26. 11. By which the Epistle of Lucianus concerning the finding out of the body of Stephen may again be challenged for forgery when it maketh Gamaliel a most zealous convert and professor of the Gospel and that at this time insomuch that he took care for the burial of Stephen and received Nicodemus when the Jews had cast him out which will prove incredible in regard of his scholar Saul For who can believe either that the scholar should be so great a persecutor when the master was so great a professor or that if it were so Gamaliel of all other should scape with his life when his scholar of all other could not but know where to find him out and how to follow him close or who can imagine that Paul when he was answering for his life for being a Christian should plead his education under Gamaliel if he were as notorious a Christian as â—e This had been to bring his master into danger and not himself out and to mar another mans cause not mending his own Vers. 1. And they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles § 2. Dispersion upon the persecution Out of the darkness of persecution the Lord bringeth forth the light and the propagation of the Gospel Providing at once for the safety of some by their flight and for the calling home of many more by their dispersion At that time saith Luke there was a great persecution against the Church that was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles Where as the preservation of the Apostles in the very centre of the Tyrant is admirable so the scattering of the other into their several places is considerable For that they travailed into Judea and Samaria Damascus Phoenicia Cyprus and Syria the Text is plain in this and in other places but since it mentioneth none of their journeys any further what is said of them more is but groundless conjectures or rather ridiculous Fables For though it were granted that they scattered through other Countries of the Heathen yet to bring them as far as France and England as some do is almost as far from reason as these places are distant from Jerusalem unless some other cause can be alledged of this their flight than to avoid the danger Yes it may be said they took so long a journey to preach the Gospel but 1. the Text
indeed that women might and did receive some of these extraordinary gifts but it was by immediate influence from Heaven and not by any imposition of hands So that now if we look upon this Story and upon others of the like nature through these spectacles it will appear that this Imposition of the Apostles hands was not upon all the Samaritans but upon some selected number nor upon those selected ones for their confirmation in grace but for their ordination to the Ministery and with the imposition of hands they received the Holy Ghost to inable them for that work Vers. 26. Which is desart This is to be applyed to the way to Gaza and not to Gaza it self and so the Syriack and Arabick apply it expresly and warrantably seeing the way was through the wilderness of Judah and there was but one Gaza Vers. 27. A man of Aethiopia There is mention of a double Cush or Aethiopia in Scripture for so is it rendred the one in Arabia and the other in Africk and Homer even in his time speaketh of a twofold Aethiopia Odys 1. but it is questionable whether he mean the same with the Scripture or no since he calleth them Eastern and Western whereas these were East and South Now this man is held and that upon good ground to be of Aethiopia in Africk where the name of Candace is renowned even in Heathen Authors Vers. 33. Who shall declare his generation This Prophecy of Esay which the Eunuch was reading is exceedingly much mistaken by the Jews and this clause of the Prophecy is exceedingly controverted among Christians The Jews understand it some of them concerning Josiah others concerning the whole people of Israel but the Holy Ghost hath in this place put us out of all doubt of whom it speaketh But as for the sense of this clause some Christians understand it concerning the ineffablity of Christs Eternal generation others concerning the ineffability of his incarnation or the generation of his humane Nature united to the Godhead others concerning the wondrous generation of the Church and faithful for it followeth For he was cut off from the Land of the Living and yet the generation of his faithful ones increased But it seemeth to me that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood of the age and generation in which Christ lived rather than of his own generation or descent and so is it used by the Holy Ghost in other places as Gen. 6. 9. Acts 13. 36. c. and so is it intepreted here by the Chaldee and other Jewish glossaries Now the meaning of the verse and of this clause is to this purpose He was taken away and hurryed from Prison and from Judgment to Execution and as the LXX hath enlarged the sense by change of Phrase In his poor and dejected estate his Judgment was utterly taken away and no right done him and who can sufficiently speak of the looseness and wickedness of that generation called in the Gospel the viperous adulterous wicked untoward generation which dealt so unjustly and wretchedly with him as to take and cut him off from the Land of the Living Vers. 39. And the Eunuch went on his way rejoycing Dorotheus in Synopsi if he might be believed will tell you what became of this Eunuch afterward as that he preached the Gospel in Arabia in the Isle of Taprobane and all about the red Sea and that he is reported to have suffered matyrdom gloriously and to have been buried there Biblioth patr tom 7. But believe it that list for this I observe to be the constant and common officiousness of Superstition to make any man that is mentioned in the New Testament with a good report to become a Preacher and commonly a Bishop and constantly a Matyr Acts IX § 1. Paul converted IN this year must be placed the conversion of Paul and the reasons to prove time shall be given anon A man a wonder for so will * * * Hiâ—â—on some have his name to signifie in whom was shewed as much as can be seen in man both for want of grace and for abundance Inferior to none in wickedness but only in this that it was not final and inferiour to none in holiness no not to the greatest Apostles A scene on which at one time corrupt Nature shewed her cursed vigor and at another time sanctifying Grace her sacred power and both to such an extent as not many parallels He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia a free City of the Romans and himself a Freeman of that City His Parents were both Jews and therefore he calleth himself an Hebrew of 2 Cor. 11. 21. Phil. 3. 5. Rom. 11. 1. the Hebrews or an Hebrew both by Father and Mother His discent was of Benjamin which from the general division under Jeroboam the first had adhered constant to the Tribe of Juda and so kept Registers of their Genealogies as that Tribe did According to his double Nation he also bare a double name Saul as he was an Hebrew by birth and Paul as he was a Roman by freedom His education was in the Schools of Tarsus where as Strabo recordeth were Scholars no whit inferiour to the Students in Athens Here he attained the Greek Language and Learning and grew expert in Tit. 1. 12. Acts 17. 28. 1 Cor. 1â— 33. Act. 22. 3. Gal. 1. 14. Acts 18. 3. their Philosophy and Poems his skill wherein he sheweth in alledging Epimenides Aratus and Menander From thence he was sent to the University at Jerusalem for the study of Divinity and of the Jewish Law His Tutor was Gamaliel a Pharisee a man of special note and reverence among the people His proficiency was above many of his equals of his own Nation he being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the Fathers From his youth he also learned a handy trade of making Tents and joyned the working in that by some vicissitudes with his studies which thing was common with the Scholars of the Jews partly for the earning of their maintenance and partly for the avoiding of idleness and sin So Rabbi Juda the great Cabalist bare the name and trade of Hhajat a Shoomaker or Taylor Yet was the learning of this great Scholar but gorgeous ignorance and his forward zeal but the more excellent impiety When he thought he followed holiness he persecuted it and when his studies should have overtaken the truth then had he lost both them and it and himself and all As for Saul saith Luke he made havock of the Church entring into every house and Acts 8. 3. and 22. 4. Acts 26. 11. haling men and women committed them to prison He began now to write his positions in blood and it must be no less than death or abjuration not to be of his opinion Neither was this his fury confined within the walls of Jerusalem or the compass of Judea but overflowed also unto forreign Cities where the Jewish Synagogues acknowledging subjection to the
is man deserted and left unto himself that he will be a God when he is in the next form to a Devil The plain and rustick Gaule hit him right and spake but the truth when seeing him in these his postures of his foolish Diety and laughing and being asked by Caius what he thought of him that he laughed he answered boldly and escaped with it That he seemed to him to be a great folly § 6. The miseries of the Alexandrian Jews How these manners of the Prince might redound to the calamity of the Jews who would worship no God but their own it is easie to guess by the common advantages that are always taken in the like cases by men that are armed with power and weaponed with malice As this humour of the Emperour was blown up with flattery and blasphemous clawing at home so was it soon blazoned and divulged abroad and they that delighted in many Gods it was good contentment to have them all met in the Center of the new God all-God their Prince But what will become of the Jews the only opposers of such impiety and what especially of the Alexandrian Jews whose tragedy was begun already This opportunity suited with the spiteful desires of their adversaries as their adversaries themselves could have desired For now thinks Flaccus he may ingratiate himself to Caesar indeed by being ungratious to the Jews and now have the Alexandrians a double forwarding beside their own malice their Governour and their Prince First Flaccus deprived the Jews of their Synagogues Oratories and houses of prayer and therewith as much as in him lay of their Religion then of the benefit of the City and Country Laws proclaiming them strangers and forreigners and at last gave free and open liberty to the Alexandrians to use their wills upon them in what manner and measure their malice thought meet And now their Tragedy begins The Jews in the City were above two parts of five the Alexandrians driving them out of their own houses and ransacking the houses as they went they force them into a strait place of the City where they had not room to stir one for another much less to make any orderly battalia for defence of themselves or for resistance In this strait both of place and fortune it is no wonder if they speedily suffered famine who had nothing of their sustenance left them unless they would have devoured one another Here are many mouths and no meat and great complaining but no relief Plenty enough there was in the City but none for them and abundance of every thing necessary but pity The poor crowded straved and distressed people those that had any hope or courage to shift for themselves streak abroad and steal forth of their inclosure for food and fresh air some to the shore some into the City some one way some another but the misery of them also was no less than theirs that staid impounded but that it was not so lingring For wheresoever they were caught as no where could they go but descried they were either stoned clubbed or burned to death yea often man wife children and whole families so murdred all of a heap Some they smoaked and choaked to death in a fire where they wanted fewel to burn them out some they haled with ropes tied about their ankles up and down the streets till they were dead and then neither spared they the dead bodies but mangled them in pieces Their Synagogues they all burnt down with the loss also of some of the Alexandrians houses adjoyning their houses they defaced and their lives they took away when and wheresoever they could catch them Flaccus in this bloodiness had done enough by connivance and toleration but he is not content with this passive tyranny unless he be an actor himself in the Scene and be not behind other in this mischief as he was before them in authority Eight and thirty of their Judges and Counsellors for a Senate of their own was tolerated by Augustus and allowed them he sendeth for by his officers and binding their hands behind them causeth them thus to be led along the streets for a derision and then caused them to be publickly scourged some to death some to the lingring out of a miserable life He caused also a pretended search to be made throughout all the Jews houses for armour pretending a suspicion of their insurrection but intending thereby to give the Souldiers the more advantage for their pillaging and oppression He spared neither age nor sex against whom he could take an occasion or find cavil nor reverenced he any festival for their execution nor omitted any kind of cruelty for their torture Here is the first smarting blow to count of that this nation felt since they called for the blood of the just one upon themselves and upon their children and some of this City were nimble agents for the comapssing of the death of his first Matyr Steven Act. 6. 9. § 7. Agrippa in his own Kingdom You may well presume that the stay of Agrippa would not be long at Alexandria where his intertainment was so foul and his invitation to his own home was so fair and good His welcome thither was not so full of scorn and disgrace as in the other place but as full of unkindness because the unkindness was from his own sister Herodias the incestuous wife of Herod the Tetrarch and once some comfort to this her brother whilest he was in distress growes now the bitter envier of his prosperity A woman ever active to the mischief of others but now beginning to twine a whip for her own back It griveth her to see the unlooked for pomp of the new King Agrippa A man that had so lately been under the hatches of fortune and in her bilboes debt and danger that had but the other day fled from his wife country and friends for poverty and shame unable to pay the monies that he ought and which was worse as unable to borrow more and now he is returned again with a Kingdom a Crown and with pomp and train agreeable to both Oh how this grated her haughty and emulative spirit though he were her brother Well whether it were in spite to his promotion or in disdain to her degree that was now below him which is the more like the shower and storms of her discontents do shower upon her husband She lays in his dish the present spectacle of Agrippa's glory and his own inferioritie Taxeth him with dulness and sleepiness that would not seek for a higher dignity which might be had for a journey to Rome twitteth him for being an underling when he might prevent it perswadeth him to spare no cost nor travail for that prevention and in fine worketh so with him by uncessant clamours that though he could well have been contented to have sitten quiet at home yet he is induced or driven to travail and she with him to Rome to Caius Agrippa was not unacquainted
look first to what use these several rooms were constantly put and then we shall be the better inabled to judge of this matter n n n Mid. ubi supr 1. That in the South East corner was a room for Nazarites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For there they boiled their peace-offerings polled their hair and put it under the pot according to the Law Numb VI. 18. o o o Nazir per. 1. Nazarism was most ordinarily for thirty days though sometime it was for years and sometime for term of life He whose vow was expired was to bring three beasts one for a burnt-offering another for a sin-offering and a third for a peace-offering p p p Ibid. per. 6. If he polled his head in the Country as Paul did at Cenchrea he was to bring his hair and burn it under the Caldron where his peace-offering was boiling which was in this place that we are speaking of And if he polled it here it was the readier The Jews in the Treatise alledged in the Margine above speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Samson Nazarite and an everlasting Nazarite not but that Samson was a Nazarite always but they use this distinction in reference to the manner of the Vow making He that took on him to be a Nazarite like Samson as saying Behold I will be a Nazarite like Samson or like the Son of Manoah or like the husband of Delilah or like him that carried away the gates of Azzah or like him whose eyes the Philistines put out such an one might never cut his hair but it must ever grow upon him and such a Nazarite did Absalom take upon him to be but he was forced to cut his hair once every year it was so heavy But he that was a Nazarite everlasting that is that took upon him Nazarism upon other terms as he that said I will be a Nazarite according to the number of the hairs of my head or the dust of the Earth or sand of the Sea shore he might poll his head once in thirty days but his hair was not to be thus burnt because his vow was not out But he whose vow was expired wheresoever he polled his head was to come to this place and here to boyl his Peace-offeting and to burn his hair and the Priest took the shoulder as it boiled and a Cake and a Wafer of unleavened bread and put all upon the hands of the Nazarite and waved them and then was the Nazarite at liberty to drink wine and to be defiled by the dead But R. Simeon saith that as soon as any of the blood of any of the Lambs was sprinkled on him he was at this liberty The same Tract also speaketh of women Nazarites as o o o Ibid. per. 3. Queen Helena who was a Nazarite first by her own ingagement seven years and by coming into the Land of Israel seven years more and by a defilement seven years more one and twenty in all p p p Ibid. per. 6. And Mary of Tarmud who whilst the blood of her offerings was sprinkling on her word was brought her that her daughter was in danger of death and she went away the sprinkling half done and half undone and found her daughter dead and came again and was sprinkled out Now to enquire whether these women cut their hair at the expiring of their vow is not much to this place and purpose and therefore we shall not trouble our selves at present to hearken after it But me thinks that q q q Iuchasin fol. 15. trac 1. passage of Simeon the Just was to purpose who in all his life time would take a Sin-offering but of one Nazarite only and his reason was because he thought they made their vows in some passion and repented of it when they had done 2. r r r Mid. ubi supr The North-East rooms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the place of the wood where the Priests that had blemishes did search the wood for worms for any wood that had worms in it was unclean for to burn upon the Altar s s s Maym. in biath hamiâ—dash per. 6. Mid. per. 5 The great Sanhedrin sate in the building Gazith and a main work of theirs continually was that they judged of the Priesthood and tryed the Priests as concerning their genealogy whether they were truly of the Priestly line or no and concerning blemishes whether they were fit to serve or no every one that was found failing of the right pedegree was clothed with black and vailed with black and got him out of the Court But whosoever was found right and perfect was clothed with white compare Rev. III. 4. VII 9. and went in and served with the Priests his brethren Whosoever was found of the right blood of the Priests but some blemish was found in him he went and sate him down in the Wood-room and wormed the wood for the Altar and had his portion in the holy things with the men of the house of his father and eat with them And when a Priest was found without blemish they made holy day and great rejoycing and blessed God for it with a Solemn prayer t t t Mid. ubi sup 3. The North-West room 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the room of the Lepers After the many rites for the cleansing of the Leper abroad in the Country at his own house u u u Maym. in Tâ—mâ—ach tsoreah per. 11. as killing a Sparrow and besprinkling him with the bloud mingled with water sending another sparrow flying in the open air shaving himself with a razor every hair off c. On the seventh day he was to shave himself again and to wash himself in water and then he was clean from defiling and might come within Jerusalem On the eighth day he brought three Lambs for a Sin-offering Trespass-offering and Burnt-offering w w w Talm. in Negain per. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He bathed himself in the Lepers room and went and stood in the gate of Nicanor and there the Priests besprinkled him c. The manner of which we have observed elsewhere x x x Mid. ubi sup 4. The South-West room was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The house of the oyl y y y Ibid. Maym. in Beth. â—abbâ—â—h per. 5. For there they laid up the wine and the oyl whereof there was so frequent and constant use by the appointment of the Law in their meat and drink offerings see Numb XV. And now that we have seen the use and imployment to which these rooms were put it is the more seasonable to consider of that which we mentioned before namely whether these four rooms in the four corners of the Court of the women were quite open to the skies or roofed over and in what sense to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two things do here meet us which are considerable 1. That these places in
is Recorded to have lived in the time of King Jannai called also Alexander the Son of Hyrcanus This Hyrcanus was likewise called Jannai he affected the Kingdom and thereupon the wise men or great ones of that time would have put him from the High Priesthood but he maintained his station by the sword for he slew divers of the wise men which caused Joshua the Son of Perahiah to flee to Alexandria but he was recalled upon the mediation of Simeon ben Shetah 6. Judah the Son of Tabbai President Simeon ben Shetah Vice-President A gallant pair for integrity and justice Were their lives to be written most eminent actions of theirs might be related which are recorded of them as that they hanged fourscore Witches in one day Judged King Jannai the one of them wept daily for an error of Judgment that he had committed and the other preferred the execution of justice before the safety of his own Son This Simeon ben Shetah is he whom we suppose the builder of this Room Gazith that we are surveying 7. Shemaiah President and Abtalion Vice-President These were Kinsmen and of the posterity of Sennacharib but their Mother was an Israelite 8. Hillel President and Shammai Vice-President At first it was Hillel and Menahem but Menahem departed to the service of Herod Hillel was one of the eminentest that ever was among the Jewish Doctors both for birth learning rule and children He was of the seed of David by his Mothers side being of the posterity of Shephatiah the Son of Abital David's Wife He was brought up in Babel from whence he came up to Jerusalem at forty years old and there studied the Law forty years more under Shemaiah and Abtalion and after them he was President of the Sanhedrin forty years more The beginning of his Presidency is generally concluded upon to have been just an hundred years before the Temple was destroyed by which account he began eight and twenty years before our Saviour was born and died when he was about twelve years old He is renowned for his fourscore Scholars one among which was Jonathan ben Uzziel the Chaldee paraphrast c. 9. Rabban Simeon Hillel's Son This man was first dignified with the title Rabban he is supposed to be the Simeon mentioned Luk. II. that took Christ in his Arms and for that it is conceived that he is not of so frequent and honourable mention among the Jewish Writers as others of the same rank with him are they not well relishing his confession of Christ whom they deny He began his Presidentship about the thirtenth year of our Saviours age if the date and account of Hillel's rule mentioned before be current and how long he sate President no one mentions but some assert that his rule was not long The Author of Juchasin relateth that he is never mentioned in the Mishneh or in the Code of the Jews Traditions it may be his embracing Christianity made him cool towards their Traditions so that there is none to Father on him as there are on the other Doctors It is like he was a secret professor of Christ as Nicodemus was and kept both his place and profession 10. Rabban Gamaliel Simeons Son This was he under whom Paul was brought up Act. XXII 3. and see Act. V. 34. He was President of the Council when Christ was arraigned and lived two and twenty years after Onkelos the Targumist of the Law did solemnly celebrate his Funerals He is commonly styled Rabban Gamaliel the old either because he was the first of that name or because he was of a long life Of him they have this saying in the last Chapter of the Treatise Sotah From the time that Rabban Gamaliel the old died the honour of the Law failed and purity and Pharisaism died 11. Rabban Simeon Gamaliel's Son He was slain at the destruction of the Temple and so should his Son also have been had not Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai being in favour with Caesar begged his life And thus have we followed the succession of the Presidents of the Sanhedrin till the Temple and City fell but the Sanhedrin fell not as yet but continued in a flitting and languishing condition for a good space still and had its Presidents till it fell also which were these 12. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai He was not of the blood of Hillel but he was his Scholar He came to be President upon the death of Rabban Simeon last mentioned his Sanhedrin sate at Jabneh 13. Rabban Gamaliel of Jabneh This was Rabban Simeon's Son whom Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai begged from death of the hands of Caesar at the slaughter of his Father his minority made him unfit for the Presidency when his Father was slain therefore Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai bare that place and after his death this Rabban Gamaliel succeeded 14. Rabban Simeon the Son of Gamaliel of Jabneh 15. Rabbi Judah the Son of this Rabban Simeon He is eminently called Rabbi and Rabenu haccadosh He collected and compiled the Mishnaioth 16. Rabban Gamaliel the Son of Rabbi Judah Here the title Rabban expired and the Sanhedrin was gone CHAP. XXIII The Draw-Well Room 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AT the West end of this famous Room Gazith there was the House which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the House or Room of the Draw-Well and the reason of the name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a Mid. per. â— Because there was a Well sunk there with a wheel over it and from thence they fetched up water to serve all the Court. It was not a little water that was used and spent at the Temple for the filling of the Lavers boiling the Offerings washing the Sacrifices nay for washing of the Court and filling Cisterns for the Priests to bath in It was not a small quantity of water that did serve these turns and yet the Temple never wanted but had it always in great abundance The place it self was dry rocky and without water b b b Maym. in Bâ—â—â—h Mikdaâ—h per. 5. but they conveyed their water in pipes thither from a place at some distance where there was a spring head that lay convenient for such a purpose which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fountain Etam Of this the Babylon Talmud discourseth in the place alledged in the Margin and to this purpose c c c Zâ—vachin per. 5. fol. 54. fac 2. The House of the Sanctuary was higher than the Land of Israel and the Land of Israel was higher than other Lands They knew not the like as they produce in the Book of Joshua It is written throughout The border went down and the border went up and the border reached c. But of the Tribe of Benjamin it is written the border went up but it is not written the border went down Learn from hence that this was a place thought â—it to build the Sanctuary in by the Fountain Etam because it was high But they said let
c Sanhedr cap. â— hal 1. He is a manslayer Whosoever shall strike his Neighbour with a stone or iron or thrust him into the water or fire whence he cannot come out so that he die he is guilty But if he shall thrust another into the water or fire whence he might come out if he dy he is guiltless A man sets a dog or serpent on another he is guiltless See also the Babylonian Gemara there d d d d d d Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. Whosoever shall slay his Neighbour with his own hand striking him with his sword or with a stone so that he kills him or shall strangle or burn him so that he die in any manner whatsoever killing him in his own person behold such an one is to be put to death by the Sanhedrin But he that hires another by a reward to kill his neighbour or who sends his servants and they kill him or he that thrusts him violently upon a Lion or upon some other beast and the beast kill him or he that kills himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one of these is a shedder of blood and the iniquity of manslaâ—ghter is in his hand and he is lyable to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by hand of God but he is not to be punished with death by the Sanhedrin Behold a double manslayer Behold a double judgment Now let the words of our Saviour be applyed to this Gloss of the antients upon the Law of Murder Do ye hear saith he what is said by the ancients Whosoever shall kill after what manner soever a man shall kill whether by the hand of one that he hath hired or by his Servants or by setting a beast on him he is guilty of the Judgment of God though not of the Judgment of the Sanhâ—drin and whosoever shall kill his Neighbour by himself none other interposing this man is lyable to the Judgment of the Sanhedrin but I say unto you that whosoever is rashly angry with his Brother this man is lyable to the Judgment of God and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raka he is lyable to the Sanhedrin These words of our Saviour perhaps we shall more truly understand by comparing some more phrases and doctrines very usual in the Jewish Schools Such as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e e e e Hieros Bava Kâ—ma fol. 5. 2. Absolved from the Judgment of men but guilty in the Judgment of Heaven that is of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death by the Sanhedrin and death by the hand of Heaven And in a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off speaks vengance by the hand of God They are very much deceived who understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off of which there is very frequent mention in the holy Bible concerning the cutting off from the publick assembly by Ecclesiastical censure when as it meaâ—s nothing else than cutting off by divine Vengeance There is nothing more usual and common among the Hebrew Canonists than to adjudge very many transgressions to cutting off in that worn phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he shall do this out of presumption he is guilty of cutting off but if he shall do it out of ignorance he is bound to a sacrifice for sin When they adjudge a thing or a guilty person to cutting off they deliver and leave him to the Judgment of God nevertheless a censure and punishment from the Sanhedrin sometimes is added and sometimes not Which might be illustrated by infinite examples but we are affraid of being tedious Let these two be enough on both sides I. Of mere delivering over to the judgment of God without any punishment inflicted by the Sanhedrin those words speak which were lately cited He is absolved from the judgment of men but lyable to the judgment of Heaven II. Of the Judgment of God and of the Sanhedrin joyned together these words in the same place speak If he that is made guilty by the Sanhedrin be bound to make restitution Heaven or God doth not pardon him until he pay it But he that bears a punishment layd on him by the Sanhedrin is absolved from cutting off f f f f f f Bab. Megil fol. 7. 2. All persons guilty of cutting off when they are beaten are absolved from their cutting off as it is said And thy Brother become vile in thy sight When he shall be beaten behold he is thy brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyable or guilty even to the Hell fire He had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty of Judgment and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Councel before but now he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Hell and that in a higher Emphasis as if he should have said Whosoever shall say to his brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool shall be guilty of Judgment even unto the Judgment of Hell But what was there more grievous in the word Fool than in the word Raka Let King Solomon be the Intepreter who every where by a Fool understands a Wicked and Reprobate person foolishness being opposed to spiritual wisdome Raka denotes indeed morosity and lightness of manners and life but Fool judgeth bitterly of the spiritual and eternal state and decreeth a man to certain destruction Let the judgings and censures of the Scribes and Pharisees concerning the common people serve us instead of a Lexicon They did not only suffer themselves to be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisemen but also arrogated it to themselves as their merit and due But what do they say of the common people This people that knoweth not the Law is cursed Joh. VII 49. You have a form of speaking not much unlike this which is now under our hands g g g g g g Bab. Kiddushin fol. 28. 1. Cherubb fol. 50. 1. abd elsewhere He that calls his Neigbour Servant let him be in excommunication The Gloss is They therefore excommunicate him because he vilified an Israelite him therefore they vilifie in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he call him Bastard let him be punished with forty stripes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Wicked man let it descend with him into his life that is according to the Gloss Into misery and penury After this manner therefore our Saviour suits a different punishment to different sins by a most just parity and a very equal compensation To unjust anger the just anger and judgment of God to publick reproach a publick Tryal and Hell fire to the censure that adjudgeth another thither VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That thy Brother hath ought against thee c. THE Emphasis is chiefly in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that which the Jews restrained only to pecuniary damages Christ extends to all offences against our Brother h h h h h h Bava Kama cap. 9. hal 12. He that offers an Oblation not
that blood still bubbled but their blood did not bubble Discover the matter to me said he or I will tear your flesh with iron rakes Then they said to him this was a Priest a Prophet and a Judg who foretold to Israel all these evils which we have suffered from you and we rose up against him and slew him But I saith he will appease him He brought the Rabbins and slew them upon that blood and yet it was not pacified He brought the children out of the School and slew them upon it and yet it was not quiet He brought the young Priests and slew them upon it and yet it was not quiet So that he slew upon it ninety four thousand and yet it was not quiet He drew near to it himself and said O Zacharias Zacharias Thou hast destroyed the best of thy people that is they have been killed for your sake would you have me destroy all Then it was quiet and did not bubble any more c. The truth of this story we leave to the relators that which makes to our present purpose we observe That it was very improbable nay next to impossible that those that heard the words of Christ concerning Zacharias slain between the Temple and the Altar could understand it of any other but of this concerning whom and whose blood they had such famous and signal memory and of any other Zacharias slain in the Temple there was a profound silence In Josephus indeed we meet with the mention of one Zacharias the son of Baruch which is the same thing with Barachias killed in the Temple not long before the destruction of it whom some conjecture to be prophetically marked out here by our Saviour But this is somewhat hard when Christ expresly speaks of time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye slew and when by no art nor arguments it can be proved that this Zacharias ought to be reckoned into the number of Prophets and Martyrs There are two things here that stick with Interpreters so that they cannot so freely subscribe to our Zacharias 1. That he lived and dyed long before the first Temple was destroyed when the example would have seeemed more home and proper to be taken under the second Temple and that now near expiring 2. That he was plainly and notoriously the Son of Jehoiada but this is called by Christ the Son of Barachias To which we after others who have discoursed at large upon this matter return only thus much I. That Christ plainly intended to bring examples out of the old Testament and he brought two which how much the further off they seemed to be from deriving any guilt to this generation so much heavier the guilt is if they do derive it For a Jew would argue what hath a Jew to do with the blood of Abel killed almost two thousand years before Abraham the father of the Jews was born And what hath this generation to do with the blood of Zacharias which was expiated by cruel plagues and calamities many ages since Nay saith Christ this generation hath arrived to that degree of impiety wickedness and guilt that even these remote examples of guilt relate and are to be applied to it And while you think that the blood of Abel and the following Martyrs doth nothing concern you and believe that the blood of Zacharias hath been long ago expiated with a signal punishment I say unto you that the blood both of the one and the other and of all the righteous men killed in the interval of time between them shall be required of this generation 1. Because you kill him who is of more value than they all 2. Because by your wickedness you so much kindle the anger of God that he is driven to cut off his old Church namely the people that hath been of a long time in covenant with him For when Christ saith That on you may come all the righteous blood c. It is not so much to be understood of their personal guilt as to that blood as of their guilt for the killing of Christ in whose death the guilt of the murder of all those his types and members is in some measure included and it is to be understood of the horrible destruction of that generation than which no former ages have ever seen any more woful or amazing nor shall any future before the funeral of the world it self As if all the guilt of the blood of righteous men that had been shed from the beginning of the world had flowed together upon that generation II. To the second which has more difficulty namely that Zacharias is here called the Son of Barachias when he was the Son of Jehoiada we will observe by the way these two things out of the writings of the Jews before we come to determine the thing it self 1. That that very Zacharias of whom we speak is by the Chaldee Paraphrast called the Son of Iddo For thus saith he on Lament Chap. III. vers 20. Is it fit that the daughters of Israel should eat the fruit of their womb c. The rule of Justice answered and said Is it also fit that they should slay a Priest and Prophet in the Temple of the Lord as ye slew Zacharias the Son of Iddo the High Priest and faithful Prophet in the house of the Sanctuary on the day of expiation c. 2. In the place of Isaiah o o o o o o Chap. VIII 2. concerning Zachariah the Son of Jebarichiah the Jews have these things p p p p p p Bab. Maccâ—th fol. 24. 1. 2. It is written I took unto me faithful witnesses to record Uriah the Priest and Zachariah the Son of Barachiah o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writ without Jod prefixed Esa. VIII 1. But what is the reason that Uriah is joyned with Zachariah For Uriah was under the first Temple Zachariah under the second but the Scripture joyneth the prophesie of Zachariah to the prophesie of Uriah By Urias it is written For your sakes Sion shall be plowed as a field By Zachariah it is written As yet old men and ancient women shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem When the prophesie of Uriah is fulfilled the prophesie of Zachariah shall also be fulfilled To the same sense also speaks the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place And I took unto me faithful witnesses The curses which I foretold I would bring in the prophesie of Uriah the Priest behold they are come to pass likewise all the blessings which I foretold I would bring in the Prophesie of Zachariah the son of Jebarechiah I will bring to pass See also there R. R. Jarchi Kimchi From both these we observe two things 1. If Iddo did not signifie the same thing with Jehoiada to the Jewish nation why might not our Saviour have the same liberty to call Barachia the father of Zacharia as the Chaldee Paraprhast had to call him Iddo 2. It is plain that the Jews looked
upon those words of Isaiah as the words of God speaking to Isaiah not of Isaiah relating a matter of fact historically which indeed they conjectur every truly and exactly according to the printing of the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the conjunction Vau being pointed with Ceva it is a certain token that the Verb is to be rendred in the future Tense not in the Preter which also the interlineary version hath well observed rendring it thus Et testificari faciam mihi testes fideles And I will make faithful witnesses testifie to me For if it had been to be construed in the Preter tense it should have been pointed by Camets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et testificari seci And I caused to witness Which being well observed as I confess it hath not been by me heretofore the difficulty under our hand is resolved as I imagine very clearly and I suppose that Zachariah the Son of Jebarechia in Isaiah is the very same with our Zachariah the Son of Jehoiadah and that the sense of Esay comes to this In that and the foregoing Chapter there is a discourse of the future destruction of Damascus Samaria and Judea q q q q q q See Cap. VII 8 17 18 c. Chap. VIII 4 7 8 c. For a confirmation of the truth of this prophesie God makes use of a double testimony First he commands the Prophet Isaiah to write over and over again in a great volumn from the beginning to the end Le maher shalal hash baz that is To hasten the spoil he hastned the prey and this volumn should be an undoubted Testimony to them that God would certainly bring on and hasten the forementioned spoyling and destruction And moreover saith God I will raise up to my self two faithful Martyrs or Witnesses who shall testifie and seal the same thing with their words and with their blood namely Uriah the Priest who shall hereafter be crowned with Martyrdom for this very thing Jer. XXVI 20. 23. and Zachariah the Son of Barachia or Jehoiada who is lately already crowned He the first Martyr under the first Temple this the last Hear thou Jew who taxest Matthew in this place your own Authors assert that Uriah the Priest is to be understood by that Uriah who was killed by Jehoiachim and that truly We also assert that Zechariah the Son of Jehoiadah is to be understood by Zachariah the Son of Jebarachiah and that Matthew and Christ do not at all innovate in this name of Barachias but did only pronounce the same things concerning the Father of the Martyr Zacharias which God himself had pronounced before them by the Prophet Esay It may be objected But since our Saviour took examples from the old Testament why did he not rather say From the blood of Abel to the blood of Uriah the Priest that is from the beginning of the world to the end of the first Temple I answer 1. The killing of Zacharias was more horrible as he was more high in dignity and as the place wherein he was killed was more holy 2. The consent of the whole people was more universal to his death 3. He was a more proper and apparent type of Christ. 4. The requiring of vengeance is mentioned only concerning Abel and Zachariah r r r r r r Gen. IV. 10. Behold the voice of thy brothers blood cryeth out to me And s s s s s s 2 Chron. XXIV 22. Let the Lord look upon it and require it 5. In this the death of Christ agrees exactly with the death of Zachariah that although the City and Nation of the Jews did not perish till about forty years after the death of Christ yet they gave themselves their deaths wound in wounding Christ. So it was also in the case of Zachariah Hierusalem and the people of the Jews stood indeed many years after the death of Zachariah but from that time began to sink and draw towards ruine Consult the story narrowly and you will plainly find that all the affairs of the Jews began to decline and grow worse and worse from that time when blood touched blood t t t t t t Hos. IV. 2. the blood of the sacrificer mingled with the blood of the sacrifice and when the people became contentions and rebellious against the Priest u u u u u u Id. vers 4. VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierusalem that killest the Prophets R. Solomon on those words * * * * * * Es. I. 21. But now Murtherers They have killed saith he Uriah they have killed Zechariah Also on these words x x x x x x Jer. II. 31. Your sword hath devoured your Prophets Ye have slain saith he Zachariah and Isaiah y y y y y y Bab. Jevam. fol. 49. â— Simeon ben Azzai said I have found a book of Genealogies at Jerusalem in which it was written Manasseth slew Isaiah c. CHAP. XXIV VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To shew him the buildings of the Temple z z z z z z Bab. Bava Bathra fol. 4. 1. Succah fol. 51. 2. HE that never saw the Temple of Herod never saw a fine building What was it built of Rabba saith of white and green marble But some say of white green and spotted marble He made the laver to sink and to rise that is the walls were built winding in and out or indented after the manner of waves being thus sitted to receive the plaister which he intended to lay on but the Rabbins said to him O let it continue for it is very beutiful to behold for it is like the waves of the Sea and Bava ben Buta made it so c. See there the story of Bava ben Buta and Herod consulting about the rebuilding of the Temple VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There shall not be left one stone upon another THE Talmudic Chronicles bear witness also to this saying Taanith c. 5. On the ninth day of the month Ab the City of Jerusalem was plowed up which Maimonides delivereth more at large a a a a a a Taanith cap. 4. hal 6. On that ninth day of the month Ab fatal for vengeance the wicked Turnus Rufus of the children of Edom plowed up the Temple and the places about it that that saying might be fulfilled Sion shall be plowed as a field This Turnus Rufus of great fame and infamy among the Jewish writers without doubt is the same with Terentius Rufus of whom Josephus speaks b b b b b b De â—ell llb. 7. cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terentius Rufus was left General of the army by Titus with commission as 't is probable and as the Jews suppose to destroy the City and Temple Concerning which matter thus again Josephus in the place before quoted c c c c c c Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
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
use of this Sacrament might shew that they renounced their Judaism and professed the Faith and Oeconomy of the Gospel III. Our Communion therefore in this Sacrament is not so much Spiritual as External and declarative of our common and joynt profession of the Christian Faith We are far from denying that the Saints have a Spiritual Communion with God and among themselves in the use of the Eucharist yea we assert there is a most close Communion between true believers and God But what is that Spiritual Communion of Saints among themselves Mutual love one heart prayers for one another c. But they may exercise the same Communion and do exercise it when they meet together to any other part of Divine Worship They may and do act the same thing when they are distant from one another Therefore their Communion in this Sacrament which is distinctly called the Communion of the Eucharist is that they meet together and by this outward sign openly and with joynt minds profess that they are united in one sacred knot and bond of Christian Religion renouncing all other Religions IV. When therefore we approach to the Eucharist in any Church we do not only communicate with that congregation with which we associate at that time but with the whole Catholic Church in the profession of the true Evangelic Religion VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do shew the Lords death IT is known what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Passover Supper was namely a Declaration of the great works of God in the deliverance of the people out of Egypt The same as it seems would these Judaizing Corinthians retain in the Lords Supper as if the Eucharist were instituted and superadded only for that commemoration The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very well answer to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Declaration and while the Apostle admonisheth them that the death of Christ is that which is to be declared it may be gathered that they erred in this very thing and looked some other way VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unworthily THE Apostle explains himself vers 29. Where we also will speak of this verse VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let a man examine himself c. HE had said before verse 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they which are approved may be made manifest And in the same sense he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man approve himself in this place not so much Let him try or examine himself as Let him approve himself that is Let him shew himself approved by the Christian Faith and Doctrine So Chap. XVI 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whomsoever ye shall approve We meet with the word in the same sense very often VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lords body THIS is to be meant of the proper act of the understanding viz. Of the true judgment concerning the nature and signification of the Sacrament If it were said indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lord it might be rendred in the same sense as He knew not the Lord that is he loves him not he fears him not he worships him not But when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the body it plainly speaks of the act of the understanding He does not rightly distinguish of the body of the Lord. And this was a grievous error of these Judaizing Corinthians who would see nothing of the body of Christ in the Eucharist or of his death their eyes being too intent upon the commemoration of the Passover They retained the old Leaven of Judaism in this new Passover of the Eucharist And this was their partaking of the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily as assigning it a scope and end much too unworthy much too mean Ther are alas among Christians some who come to this Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily but whether this unworthily of the Corinthians be fitly applied to them I much doubt How mean soever I am let me speak this freely with the leave of good and pious men that I fear that this discourse of the Apostle which especially chastized Judaizers be too severely applyed to Christians that Judaize not at all at least that it be not by very many Interpreters applied to the proper and intended scope of it Of these Corinthians receiving the Eucharist unworthily in the sense of which we spake the Apostle speaks two dreadful things I. That they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord vers 27. With this I compare that of the Apostle Heb. X. 29. He hath trampled under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified a common thing And Heb. VI. 6. They crucify again to themselves the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put him to an open shame Of whom is the discourse Not of all Christians that walked not exactly according to the Gospel rule although they indeed esteem and treat Christ too ignominously but of those that relapse and Apostatize from the Gospel to Judaism whether these Corinthians too much inclined and are admonished seasonably to take care of the same guilt for when any professing the Gospel so declined to Judaism that he put the blood of Christ in subordination to the Passover and acknowledged nothing more in it than was acknowledged in the blood of a Lamb and other Sacrifices namely that they were a mere commemoration and nothing else oh how did he vilify that blood of the eternal Covenant He is guilty of the blood of the Lord who assents to the shedding of his blood and gives his vote to his death as inflicted for a mere shaddow and nothing else which they did II. That they ate and drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to themselves But what that judgment is is declared vers 30. Many are sick c. It is too sharp when some turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Damnation when the Apostle saith most evidently vers 32. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When we are judged we are chastened that we should not be condemned Thus as in the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation God vindicated the honour of the Sabbath by the death of him that gathered sticks and the honour of the worship in the Tabernacle by the death of Nadab and Abihu and the honour of his Name by the stoning of the Blasphemer so he set up like monuments of his vengeance in the beginning of the Gospel Dispensation in the dreadful destruction of Ananias and Sapphira for the wrong and reproach offered to the Holy Ghost in the delivery of some into the hands of Satan for contempt of and enmity against the Gospel in this judgment for the abuse of the Eucharist in the destruction of some by the Plague for Nicolaitism Revel II. 23 c. VERS XXXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Adam was the light that all holy men from Adam forward looked after and walked by And that light shone in the darkness of mans now sinful and undone condition That light shone in the darkness before the Law when their was no light of a Law but what was written in the heart of man That light shone in the darkness of the Types and Figures that were in the Law when the Law was given And that light shone in the darkness and obscurities of the cloudy Prophesies of the Prophets And at last it shone out fully without any darkness at his coming in the Gospel and that at verse the ninth was the true light that inlightneth every man that came into the world that inlightneth the Gentiles even all the World So that all along even from the first day of Adam under the various administrations in which it pleased God to carry on this Light this was the life and light of men None but Christ none but Christ. They that went before him before the Law and under the Law and they that come after under the Gospel crying Hosanna to him expecting and finding Salvation from him III. And this leads me to the third thing we are to speak of viz. Christs entertaining all his that thus under these several Administrations believed in him in his Fathers house in Salvation and Eternity I at the last he did so will the Romanist say but first by your leave were all the believers before Christ came entertained in Limbo Truly very course entertainment when the good men had served God all the day and at night should have received their wages there was yet none for them but they must to Limbo and wait yet it may be two or three thousand years and then they shall be paid Poor Abel served his Master faithfully and truly all his time dies in his Masters service and for his Masters sake and when he comes to expect his reward in Heaven no Abel thou must to Limbo and there stay till Christ come and fetch thee out about three thousand five hundred years after thou comest thither Very hard payment And a strange business that Abraham whilst he lived should converse with God as a friend and walk and talk with him and entertain God at his Table and when he is dead he is become a mere stranger to God thrust into a hole in Limbo where no light of God no communion with him at all but God and Abraham are now mere strangers Such mad absurdities doth the limiting of the Spirit and operation of Christ to the bodily presence of Christ produce and bring into the World Such is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and such this of Limbo Transubstantiation that maintains that there is no receiving Christ virtually in the Sacrament unless we receive him bodily his very flesh and blood And this of Limbo that none went to Heaven till Christ went in his real presence to Limbo after his Death to fetch them thence and bring them to Glory I had thought Abraham had been in glory before For when Christ before his death doth propose that parable of Abraham in joys and Lazarus in his bosom certainly he is proposed not as being in Limbo but in Heaven And when Moses appears to Christ in Glory Luke IX 31. do you think he came out of Limbo in that glory But what need I trouble you with the confutation of such absurdities If it be the Spirit and Power of Christ that operates for mans Salvation and not his bodily presence if it be the fruit and effect of Faith to unite to Christ and to bring into the enjoyment of all the benefits of Christ grace and glory and if all the holy ones under those various administrations before the Law under the Law and under the Gospel had such faith in Christ what doubt can be made of their Salvation when they died and that they were received and entertained by Christ in the Mansions of his Fathers house The last word You in the Text I suppose is that where the Emphasis especially lies I go to prepare a place for you as I have prepared place for others before you for Enoch Abraham c. before the Law for Moses Aaron Joshua David c. under the Law I am now going also to prepare a place for you and there is place for you that are come under an administration clean different from all theirs For in my Fathers house are many mansions Being then to speak of Christs entertaining all his in Heaven let me begin my discourse with sursum Corda Christians lift up your hearts that that you have to look after is above It is the Voice of my beloved I am going to prepare for you in my Fathers house O my soul look not after any lower preparation The husks and draff of this World is not the provision that Christ makes for his And why should I feed upon Onyions and Garlick when if I will seek after it there is Manna enough for me the food of Angels I am going to prepare a place for you in my Fathers house is a word that might make a Soul never to be quiet till it come there and that might make it to scorn and slight all this trash here below in reaching out and breathing after the provisions that are there Lift up your heads and hearts ye afflicted and dejected and despised servants of the Lord Jesus though your bread here be bread of affliction and you mingle your drink with weeping though ye walk in hunger and poverty under derision and persecution and trouble though oppressed afflicted tormented yet here is enough to make amends in the end for all I go to prepare for you Be content with your dinner of bitter herbs and sower sauce apud superos coenaturi there is a supper provided for you in eternal mansions What entertainment Jew and Millenary look for in Christs personal reign upon Earth let them enjoy when they can meet with it but if you be risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God preparing for you Let us begin at the lowest step of Jacobs ladder and climb up gradatim to the top of it where it is lodged in Heaven First This World is not a place for Christs entertaining of His as it proved but a course Entertainment of Christ when he was here My Kingdom saith he is not of this World nor indeed can it be let Jew and Millenary conceit what they please For observe that passage in III. Gen. 17. where as soon as Adam is fallen the Earth is cursed Cursed be the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it Did I say as soon as he was fallen the Earth is cursed I should rather say as soon as Christ is promised the Earth is cursed for there is as proper a connexion between those two as between his fall and that curse Christ is promised and the Earth is
sin unto death viz. that brought to an immediate liableness to cutting off by divine vengeance Now this was a sin of presumption and despising the Word of God as Moses explains what that presumptuous sinning is in a high degree which as the Apostle tells in the same Chapter that it was a treading under foot the Son of God c. Therefore it is no wonder if with Paul there be no Sacrifice for it and with this Apostle no praying for it But why does not this our Apostle speak out and say I say he should not pray for it but says only I do not say that he should Let me lay to this expression that passage of our Saviour Matth. XVIII 17. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican By which our Saviour doth not excommunicate such a one out of the Church for he saith not let him be to the Church but thee as a Heathen But he dischargeth and acquitteth the party injured from those duties and offices which he ought otherwise to him as a brother Our Apostles expression is much like to the same tenor He takes care of the Consciences of the people of God as well as he sheweth the two conditions of the sinner he speaketh of There were some that might be in a strait what to do in this case They were commanded by their Lord and Master to pray for their enemies these enemies of theirs were become so like their Father the Devil that it might pose their Consciences whetheâ— they should pray for them or no. Therefore this divine Apostle useth a happy temper that he will lay no charge on them that are so pinched to pray for them nor indeed forbid those to pray for them that are more inlarged for undoubtedly the indifferent expression of the Apostle as I may call it seems plainly to carry with it such a consideration Ye see here in the Text a deadly wounded wretch like Amasa II Sam. XX. wallowing in his own blood if you call in Moses and Paul to give their Coroners verdict concerning the manner and cause of his death from those Texts of theirs that we have cited they will tell you that he is felo de se that he destroied himself and they will tell you that it was by wilful sinning after the knowledge of the truth wilful sinning against the Word of God That sin is the more desperately deadly by how much it is the more desperately wilful Hos. V. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the Commandment One would think it should be because he did not willingly walk after the Commandment but by Commandment is meant the idolatrous Commandment of Jeroboam the Statutes of Omri and Ephraim was broken in pieces because he walked after them and broke the more because he walked after them willingly If the motions of sin which are by the Law do work in them to bring forth fruit unto death as the Apostle says Rom. VII 5. much more the motions of sin which are clean against the Law I must confess I do not understand the irritating or provoking power of the Law which some collect from this place for to me it is without doubt that the meaning of the Apostle is The motions of sin that were by the Law mistaken not efficiently for such was the Judgment of the Jews concerning the Law viz. That it did restrain only the outward action but regarded not the internal motion and so the Apostle seems to give some hint of his own mistake a while of the Law about the point of lust Now if the fruit of those motions of sin which are by the mistake of the Law be so deadly how must the actings of sin which are against the known Law wilfully committed be much more deadly Among the grains shall I call them or the talent weights that are cast into the scales to make sin weigh exceeding sinful this adds not the least aggravation if it do not indeed the greatest that it was done knowingly and wilfully And therefore in that cousen german sin to this we are speaking of for to me they are clearly distinct the sin against the Holy Ghost the grievousness of it in comparison of sinning against the Son lies not in regard of the persons sinned against as if the Holy Ghost were a nobler person than the Son but in regard of the manner of sinning the Son they knew not in so much humility and so blasphemed him out of ignorance but they saw the apparent evidence of the Holy Ghost in the miracles they saw and yet blasphemed him wilfully This dies the sins of wicked men of so deep a dye above the sins of the Saints of God because those sin with whole propensity of mind these of infirmity and against their wills And I cannot but remember the determination of St. Austin in a point of this nature About chaste Christian matrons and virgins that were ravished by the enemy when he broke into the City he determines well that they were not defiled though they were defiled their minds pure though the body polluted and he concludes Duo fuerunt ast unus adulterium commisit there were two in the action but one of them in the adultery And that here one sinned wilfully the other had no mind to the sin at all This then if there were nothing else doth sufficiently aggravate the grievousness of wilful sinning that it carries the very image and superscription of the sin of the Devil it is as it were flesh and bone of his bone and sin of his sin very Devil of very Devil Does any ask me what was that sin of the Devil It has been conceived by many that it was such a Pride as made him aspire to be equal with God or above him to set his Throne even with God or to unthrone him and to this purpose have those words been applied Esa. XIV 12 13. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning c. For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God c. I will be like the most High Which words indeed mean only the arrogance and haughtiness of the proud King of Babylon Does any one then ask me what was the sin of the Devil I should answer desperate malicing the honour and happiness of man in which God had placed him and desperate despising and scorning of that charge and command that God had laid upon Angels concerning man that they should attend him and keep him in all his ways And both these desperately wilful for he could sin at no lower rate for he could not sin of ignorance being an Angel and an Angel could have no tempter to sin but himself I shall not go about to define or circumscribe exactly the bounds wherin to conclude wilful sinning I shall not confine this evil spirit with any circle
him What could be said to the comfort of such a bleeding soul Should a soul wounded with these words of the Apostle cry out as that Prophet in another case My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my liver is cut through as with a javelin to hear that there is no sacrifice for sin that sinneth wilfully after receiving the Knowledge of the Truth and I have sinned so of and so wilfully against that Knowledge and Truth as I have done What plaister What lenitive could be applied to allay the aking smart and torture of so sad a cut As our Saviour of the smarting and cutting days of affliction before the ruine of Jerusalem Except those days should be shortned no flesh should be saved So if there were no allay to the foreness of such a stroke and case what flesh could but perish But there is some allay and that is this That the Apostle speaks not of that common willing or wilful sinning to which who is not incident at one time or other in one degree or other But of a willing wilful total apostatizing and revolting from the Truth and Gospel once professed and received If you observe in the Epistles of the Apostles and in the story of the New Testament you will find that the very topping up of the wickedness of the Jewish Nation and of their perdition was this that as the unbelieving part of the Nation continued enemies to Christ and his Gospel so those that had believed did by infinite numbers and drovâ—s revolt and apostatize from what they had belived and became if possible worse enemies than the others and drew as many of the believing Gentiles as they could into the same Apostasie and condemnation with themselves I might evidence this by instances heaps upon heaps And hardly any one of the Apostolick Epistles but it is so plain in it that he that runs may read it I shall only give you three passages instead of scores that might be given First Weigh that 1 Joh. II. 18. Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists And who were they vers 17. They went out from us but were not of us Once Professors and following the Apostles now revolting and fallen from them once Disciples and now Apostates and Antichrists Secondly Who can pass that of the Apostle without serious observing 2 Tim. I. 15. This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia are turned away from me A sad Apostasie Ah poor Paul all turned away from thee Where now hast thou any friend Nay rather Ah poor souls ah unhappy souls that turned away from S. Paul and the blessed Gospel that he brought with him Thirdly And that for all How sadly does our Saviour foretel this in the Parable of the Devil cast out of the possessed but comes again with seven other spirits worse than himself and repossesses And observe the cadence at Matth. XII 45. Even so shall it be also with this wicked generation The Application is easie Of such Apostasie it is the Apostle speaks at vers 26. where he calls it wilful sinning after receiving the knowledge of the Truth And of such an Apostate he speaks in this verse when he saith He hath trod underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing Many think that the Apostle speaks here of the sin against the Holy Ghost I am sure he speaks of that sin unto death of which the Apostle John hath mention 1 Joh. V. 16. Not but that the sin against the Holy Ghost is a sin unto death but the sin unto death may be distinguisht from the sin against the Holy Ghost in this respect that the Scribes and Pharisees whom our Saviour layeth under the guilt of sinning against the Holy Ghost never received the knowledge of the Truth and acknowledgment of the Gospel But this wretch that sins this sin unto death had received that knowledge but was apostatized and revolted from it Their Apostasie or falling back from the Truth was into a two fold gulf Some fell to horrible Libertinism to abuse the liberty of the Gospel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication Of which you have intimation in several places of the Epistles and particularly in Revel II. 15. But the most general Apostatizing was from the true liberty of the Gospel to the slavery of Judaism again to seek justification by the works of the Law Against this you find the Apostle speaking copiously almost in all the Epistles and particularly S. Paul the pen-man of this Epistle For I make no doubt at all to ascribe it to him sets himself purposely to stay the Hebrews to whom he writes from staggering and falling in such Apostasie And you may observe how in the whole current of his discourse he bends himself to shew that those Mosaick ceremonies and services by which they thought and looked to be justified and saved were but shaddows that did but signifie greater things to come but shaddows that were but for a time and were to fade away The same subject that he is upon at this portion of Scripture he is handling in Chap. VI. 4 5 6. Where we may have an exposition of some words or passages in our Text. Receiving the knowledge of the Truth he calls there Being inlightned tasting of the heavenly gift of the good Word of God of the powers of the World to come Sinning wilfully here is falling away there with him and the fate and punishment of such a wretch here is no sacrifice for sin there in few words it is impossible to renew them again to repentance His wickedness in this verse is threefold and his judgment in the verses before threefold also I. He hath trodden under foot the Son of God For as the Apostasie generally was from the grace of the Gospel to seek to be justified by their own works then what need of Christ at all What value is he of to such wretches any more than the mire under their feet As S. Paul Act. XIV was first accounted a God then presently stoned So these wretches used Christ not much unlike First They professed him embraced him looked to be justified and saved by him presently they looked to be justified by the works of the Law and cast away Christ and scornfully trample upon him as a thing altogether useless II. He accounted the blood of the Covenant a thing unholy or a thing common as the Greek word most strictly signifies Not so holy not so valuable as the blood of Goats and Calves For that blood was shed for something but this wretch makes Christs blood shed for nothing And indeed what was his blood shed for if men can justifie and save themselves III. He hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace Or hath reproached despised the Spirit of grace and the grace of the Spirit he is now
high when I say He suffered as much as God could put him to suffer and that I speak too low when I say short of his own wrath I dare not say He suffered the wrath of God as many do but the Prophets and Apostles teach me that he suffered the tryings of God And more he could not be put to suffer than what he did It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief Esa. LIII 10. And more could not be laid upon him than what was laid Have you seriously weighed the meaning of those words of our Saviour himself Luke XXII 53. This is your hour and power of darkness The plain English of it is This is your hour that God hath let you loose upon me to do with me what you will without restraint And so hath he let loose upon me the Kingdom of darkness in its utmost power at the full length of the chain to do against me the utmost it can do I was daily with you in the Temple and ye stretched out no hands against me For then Providence restrained them because the Hour was not yet come But this is your hour and now Hell and all its power and all its Agents are let loose against him and Providence does not check them with any restraint I might insist to shew you that whereas God from the day of Adams fall had pitched a combate and field to be fought twixt the Serpent and the seed of the Woman in which the Serpent should bruise his heel and he break the Serpents head the hour of that incounter being now come the Godhead of Christ suspends its acting the providence of God suspends its restraining and lets Satan loose to do the utmost of his power and malice and leaves Christ to stand upon the strength of his own unconquerable holiness The Providence of God hath the Devil in a chain yea as to wicked and ungodly men Else why are they not carried bodily to Hell by him Why are they not hurried to their own place by him body and soul together But here God let the chain quite loose Satan do thy worst against him use all thy power rage and malice but all would not do for God very well knew what a Champion he had brought into the field to incounter him And therefore I may very well say it again That God put him to suffer as much as he could put him to suffer on this side his own wrath and the Devil put him to suffer as much as he could do with all his rage and power But his sufferings were not all that gave his blood and death that virtue that most justly is ascribed to it of justifying and saving The torments that he suffered were not the Godfather that named his blood by that precious Name of justifying and saving but it was that infinite Obedience that he shewed in bowing so low as to undergo those sufferings And there especially does the Scripture lay and lodge the stress of it Rom. V. 19. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Phil. II. 8. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. Heb. V. 8. Though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered Our Saviour in his sufferings and death for to that I will consine my discourse concerning his Obedience as the Text confines us to treat only of his blood and as the Scripture more peculiarly lodges his Obedience there For though he performed Obedience to God all his life yet the Obedience that he shewed to and in the shedding of his blood was the very apex and top-stone of his obedience And for this it is that I scruple to say that he suffered the wrath of God in his sufferings because it is hard to think that he lay under the depth of Gods displeasure when he was now in the highest pitch of obeying and pleasing God I say That Our Saviour in his sufferings and death had to deal with God and Satan upon different accounts with God to satisfie him with Satan to destroy him And with one and the same instrument as I may call it his Obedience he effected these contrary effects As the pillar of â—ire Exod. XIV was darknes to the Egyptians but light to Israel So his Obedience was destruction to the Devil and satisfaction to God I. Christ was to break the head of the Serpent as the Serpent had broke the head of Adam and all mankind He was to conquer the Devil who had conquered Man And what was that by which he conquered him By his divine power as he was God That had been no great Mastery for the great God by his omnipotent power to conquer a creature When he did but exert a little of his divine power at his apprehension he made Judas and all his band of Ruffians to go backward and fall to the ground Joh. XVIII 6. But he was to conquer Satan by righteousness holiness and obedience to God He had not needed to have been incarnate to conquer the Devil by his omnipotent divine power but he was to conquer him and he did conquer him by obedience and holiness Joh. XIV 30. The Prince of this World cometh saith he and hath nothing in me And he came with all his forces all his fury all his power and do all he could he could find nothing in him that could serve his turn All that he did or could do could not move him one hairs bredth from obeying God and persisting in his holiness The Apostle in the ninth of this Epistle vers 14. saith He offered himself without spot to God One spot had spoiled all the offering but the Devil could not fix one spot upon him though he flung against him all the sink of Hell but still he keeps to his obedience and holiness Vicisti Galilaee Julian a child of the Devil once said O Galilaean thou hast overcome me The Devil himself hath cause to say so now The Devil let loose upon him to do the utmost against him that he could without any restraint to bring him from his obeying of God and so to foil him and all will not do All the temptations and tricks and assaults that the anvil of Hell could forge and sharpen were bent and used against him and all return blunted and avail nothing All that Satan can do cannot bring from him one repining word for all his tortures not one desponding thought for all his pangs not one unbecoming passage for all his passion But still he will oby God come what will he will still retain his holiness and integrity let Devils and Men do what they will Satan art thou not conquered O Devil where is thy power now O Hell where is thy victory Thanks be given to God that hath given us such victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Satan thou hast not the first Adam now in handling who was foiled by one Devil and in one
and the first temptation presented to him Now all the power and army of Hell is let loose all the machinations of the bottomless pit put in practise against the second Adam but all to no purpose he stands like a rock unmoved in his righteousness and obedience and by such a death destroys him that had the power over death the Devil II. As the Dâ—â—â—l must be conquered so God must be satisfied And as Christs obedience did the one work so it did the other Obedience was the debt of Adam and mankind and by disobedience they had forfeited their Bonds Then comes this great Undertaker and will satisfie the debt with full interest yea and measure heaped and running over Does not the Apostle speak thus much Rom. V. from vers 12. forward particularly at vers 19. By the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Nor was this all that mans debt must be paid but Gods honour lay at stake too and that must be vindicated God had created man his noblest creature that he might glorifie and honour his Creator by his obedience Satan brings him to disobey his Creator and to obey him How might Satan here triumph and the honour of God lie in the dust I have mastered the chief Creation of God might Satan boast and made him that carried the badge and livery of his image now to carry mine I have frustrated the end and honour of the Creator and now all is mine own How sad a time were those three hours or thereabouts that passed betwixt the Fall of Adam and the promise of Christ Adam in darkness and not the least glimpse of promise or comfort Satan triumphing and poor manking and Gods honour trampled underfoot But then the Sun of righteousness arose in the promise that the seed of the woman should break the head of the Serpent And shall this uncircumcised Philistin thus deâ—ie the honour and armies of the living God saith Christ shall Satan thus carry the day against man and against God I will pay obedience that shall fully satisfie to the vindication of Gods honour to confound Satan and to the payment of mans debt to his reinstating and recovery And that was it that he paid consummatively in his Obedience to the death and in it and to the shedding of his blood Of which to speak in the full dimensions of the height depth length bredth of it what tongue can suffice what time can serve T is a Theme the glorified Saints deservedly sing of to all Eternity I shall speak in little of that which can never be extolled enough these two things only I. That he died merely out of obedience The Apostle tells us in Phil. II. 8. He became obedient to the death the death of the Cross. And what can ye name that brought him thither but Obedience Christs dead body imagine lies before you Call together a whole College of Phisitians to diffect it and to tell you what it was of which he died And their Verdict will be Of nothing but Love to man and Obedience to God For Principles of death he had none in his nature And the reason of his death lay not in any mortality of his body as it does in ourâ— but in the willingness of his mind Nor was his death his wages of sin as it is ours Rom. VI. ult but it was his choise and delight Luke XII 50. I have a baptism to be baptised withal and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Ask the first Adam why he sinned when he had no principles of sin in him and the true answer must be Because he would sin And so ask the second Adam why he died when he had no principles of death in him his answer must be to the like tenor He would lay down his life because he would be obedient to the death He came purposely into the World that he might dye Behold I tell you a mystery Christ came purposely into the World that he might dye and so never did Man but himself never will man do but himself True that every Man that comes into the World must dye but never Man came purposely that he might dye but only He. And he saith no less than that he did so Joh. XII 27. Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour And John XVIII 37. For this cause came I into this World to bear witness to the Truth Even to bear witness to the Truth to Death and Martyrdom II. Now add to all this the dignity of his Person who performed this Obedience that he was God as well as Man That as he offered himself according to his Manhood so he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit or as he was God as this Apostle saith Chap. IX 14. And now his obedience his holiness that he shewed in his death is infinite And what need we say more So that lay all the disobedience of all men in the World on an heap as the dead frogs in Egypt were laid on heaps that they made the land to stink again yet here is an Obedience that out-vies them all For though they be infinite in number as to mans numbring yet lay them all together they are finite upon this account because committed by creatures finite But here is an Obedience a holiness paid down by him that is infinite And now Satan where is thy Triumph Thou broughtest the first Adam to fail of perfect Obedience that he should have paid his Creator and here the second Adam hath paid him for it infinite Obedience And what hast thou now gained Therefore to take account from whence comes that infinite Virtue of Christs blood and death that the Scripture so much and so deservedly extols and magnifies Because as the Evangelist â—aith Out of his side came water and blood so out of his wounds came obedience and blood holiness and blood righteousness and blood and that obedience holiness righteousness infinite because he that paid it down and performed it was infinite And now judge whether it may not very properly be said That Christ was sanctified by his own blood As Aaron was sanctified for his Priesthood by his Unction and Garments Christ was consecrated fitted capacitated by his infinite obedience and righteousness which he shewed to the death and in it to be an High Priest able to save to the uttermost all those that come to him For first as in reference to himself it is said by this Apostle that he was raised from the dead by the blood of the Covenant Chap. XIII 20. And it was not possible but he should be raised for when he had performed such obedience and righteousness as in it was infinite in its validity subdued Satan in its alsufficiency satisfied the justice of God it was impossible that he should be held of death which is the wages of sin and disobedience And as he was thus raised by
the virtue of his blood i. e. of his obedience and righteousness so see what the same Apostle saith of his Exaltation Phil. II. 8 c. And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow c. And think here Christian what a stock of obedience and righteousness here is for thee to answer and satisfie for thy disobedience and unrighteousness if thou become a child of the Covenant as this blood was the blood of the Covenant It is said in Dan. IX 26. That Messiah should be cut off but not for himself This blood of the New Testament was not shed for himself but for many And here is enough for every soul that comes to him be they never so many Like the Widdows oyl in the Book of the Kings there is enough and enough again as long as any Vessel is brought to receive it And this may direct us toward the forming of the reliance of our Faith upon the blood of Christ the great work that a Christian hath to do for his Justification and Salvation Which will be the more cleared to us by considering how his blood is the blood of the Covenant Which is the next thing we should speak to had we time to do it A SERMON PREACHED UPON HEBREWS XIII 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle THERE is one that asks our Saviour Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Mat. XIX 16. And another that asks his great Apostle What must I do to be saved Act. XVI 30. The questions mean one and the same thing but only proposed in different expressions And the answers tend to one and the same purpose though proposed in terms very different Our Saviour answers If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments The Apostle answers If thou wilt be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The one proposeth Faith the other proposeth Good works not in such contrariety as the Apostle James speaks of Faith and Works Chap. III. but in such consonancy as that the one is subservient unto the other keeping of the Commandments towards the bringing on of Faith and Faith to the breeding and forwarding the keeping of the Commandments and both to obtain eternal life I will speak at present of the absolute necessity of Faith for the obtaining eternal life and therefore have I chosen these words which I have read to you which seem at first sight to be meer strangers to such a subject but when explained and rightly understood are very pertinent to such a matter I say rightly understood for there are many the Popish Expositors especially that understand them exceedingly wrong and as far from the Apostles meaning as likely can be By we have a Altar they understand the Altar in their Churches viz. the Table where they administer the Sacrament and thence they call the Sacrament The Sacrament of the Altar A title that hath been too common in England and which hath cost many a good man very dear The Lord grant the title be never known here any more But the title of the Altar is commonly known among us still and ask many why they call it an Altar they will be ready to produce this place of the Apostle We have an Altar As if the Apostle who had been crying down the service and sacrifices of the Altar all along this Epistle and shewed that they were but shadows and to vanish when the substance appeared should set them up again and build up anew what he had so earnestly set himself to destroy As if Gedeon that destroyed the Altar of Baal in the night should fall awork in the morning and build it up again But the Altar in the Apostles meaning here is Christ himself And as he had called him an High Priest and a Sacrifice along in the Epistle before so he calls him also the Altar here shewing that all those things did but represent him and that he was the substance and reality of those shadows He shews how he was the Great High Priest in the later end of the fourth and along the fifth Chapter He shews how he was the great Sacrifice in the ninth and tenth Chapters and how he was the great Altar he shews at this place We have an Altar And that he means Christ by the Altar is apparent by two things that follow to omit more that might be collected by the context The first is in the words immediately following For those beasts whose blood was brought by the High Priest into the holy place for sin their bodies were burnt without the Camp Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate His argumentation is this The great solemn Sacrifice for sin on the day of attonement was not burnt upon the Altar in the Temple but was burnt without the City so Christ was sacrificed without the gate so that whosoever will partake of that true Sacrifice for sin must go to the Altar there and not to the Altar within the Temple And in the next verse but one he shews yet more plainly that he means Christ by our Altar ver 13. Therefore by him let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God As on the Altar in the Temple they offered their Sacrifices and Thank-offerings so by him as on our Altar Let us offer our sacrifice of praise to God So that in the words you have an Affirmative assertion and a Negative The Affirmative That we have Christ for our Altar The Negative That they that serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of this Altar The Affirmative comfortable to every true Christian the later seems comfortless for every true Jew The reason of the Negative assertion we may inquire more particularly into afterwards To the former to speak at present we take up this Observation from it That he that will offer any sacrifice acceptable to God must go to Christ as the true Altar on which to offer it No sacrifice among the Israelites could be accepted if it were not offered on the Temple-altar And it was Gods special command Thou shalt not offer thy sacrifice in any of thy Cities but shalt go to the Altar of the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse Nor can any sacrifice be acceptable to God of any Christian but what is offered to him upon the Altar of his appointment the Lord Christ where alone is attonement for sinners As Priesthood and Sacrifice were typical and signified to this purpose so also was the Altar of the same signification And whereas there were two Altars at the Temple one for Sacrifice the other for Incense they did both but represent Christ and his acting
shews they are hard set when they must make Caiaphas a copy after whom to write the Infallibility of their Papal chair But they gazed so much upon the chair when they wrote this Note that they clean looked off the Book and Text they had before them For had they looked well upon that that would have given them a more proper reason of his prophesying and indeed the proper reason of it namely not so much because he was High Priest as because he was High Priest that year This he spake not of himself but being High Priest that year High Priest that year Why He had been High Priest several years before So Luke tells us Chap. III. that he was High Priest when Christ was baptized three years and an half ago and Josephus tells us as much and more and of his being High Priest after this year also And therefore why that circumstance added He was High Priest that year To speak the proper reason of his prophesying First I might say That was the year nay even the hour of the last gasp of the High Priesthood It prophesied and instantly breathed out its last There is much dispute upon those words of Paul Act. XXIII 5. which our English renders I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest If I should render it I knew not that there is an High Priest I am sure it hath warrant enough of the Original Greek and warrant enough of the truth of the thing it self Did not the High Priesthood dye and cease and was no more when the great High Priest of Souls died and by death made expiation for his people If you will allow the other Priesthood and the employment of it to live still after the death of Christ and his sacrifice offered by the eternal Spirit till the fall of Jerusalem and dissolution of the Temple yet can you find nothing that the High Priest had then to do that it should survive any longer after Christ was sacrificed The other Priesthood had something to do besides what was most plainly typical in it and referred to the death of Christ as sacrificing and sprinkling of blood did For they had to offer the first fruits of the people for their Thankfulness to purifie women after child-birth to present the first born to the Lord c. But the distinctive work of the High Priest in diversity from the other Priesthood was on the day of Expiation to go within the Vail into the most holy place with blood and make an Attonement Which when Christ had done through the Vail of his flesh through his own blood as the Apostle tells us Heb. X. 20. what had the High Priesthood to do any more To this peculiarly related that which occurred at the death of the great High Priest Matth. XXVII 15. The vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Which when you come narrowly to examine you will find to be the vail that hung between the holy and most holy place Which the Jews in their writings call by a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the vail that the High Priest turned aside as we do hangings at a door to go into the room And he went into the most holy place only once a year But now it is rent in pieces no such distinction or separation thenceforward to be had and no such work of the High Priest to be done any more So that if we take these words of Paul to the sense I mentioned viz. I knew not Brethren that there is now any High Priest or any High Priesthood at all that Function is long ago laid in the dust it was spoken like a Paul boldly and as one that very well understood and could well distinguish twixt substance and shadow and how long those Ordinances of that Oeconomy were to last and when to decay And if accordingly we take that circumstance in the Text He prophesied as being High Priest that year in the sense I mentioned namely that last year of the being and life of the High Priesthood it gives a story not much unlike that of the son of King Crâ—sus Who when he had been dumb from the birth and never spake word at last seeing in a battel an enemy ready to run his Father through he forced his Tongue so as that he broke the string of silence and cryed out O man do not kill Croesus So the High Priesthood having been dumb from Prophesying for above four hundred years together and never spoken one Prophetick word when now the King is ready to be slain its Tongue is loosed in Caiaphas and prophesieth of the Redemption of all the Israel of God and presently expireth But Secondly That year was the great year of pouring down the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation as in Act. II. the great year of sealing Vision and Prophesie as in Dan. IX And then it is the less wonder if this dog get some crumbs that fell from that plentiful table of the children and some droppings from that abundant dew that fell upon the Fleece of Gedeon Something like the case of Eldad and Medad but they were better men Numb XI 26. that in that great pouring out of the Spirit there had their share though they were not in the company of those that were assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation And thus was the case with Caiaphas as it was with Balaam that wretch inspired till then by the Devil but then by God Who went purposely to curse Israel but God so overpowered and turned the stream that he could not but bless them So this wretch inspired with malice from the Devil to plot and compass the death of Christ is now also inspired by the Spirit of Prophesie to foretel his death and to proclaim it Redemption to his people A very strange passage that while he was sinning against the Holy Ghost he prophesied by the Holy Ghost and that in those very words that he spake against Christ to destroy him he should prophesie of Christs death and Redemption to magnifie it So can the Spirit of God overpower the Hearts and Tongues and actions of Men to serve the design of his own glory And this is that that I shall speak to I might observe obiter how great diversity there is twixt the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of grace and holiness The same Spirit indeed is the Author of both but there is so much diversity in the thing wrought that a Balaam a Caiaphas have the Spirit of Prophesie who are as far from having the Spirit of Sanctification as the East is from the West Hell from Heaven A mistake hath taken the Spirits of too many to account this good Language and Divinity I am a believer converted sanctified therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation and I can preach and expound Scripture by that Spirit little considering the vast diversity of the gift of Prophesie
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
the Justice of God that Christ was to satisfie and if he could not have done that then there would have been some reason he should have suffered his wrath The Justice of God challenged obedience of men or no coming to Heaven satisfaction for disobedience or they must to Hell Here is enough saith Christ to serve for both ends They have disobeyed here is obedience more than all their Disobediences do or can come to They cannot obey as they should here is that that makes it out viz. Obedience infinite III. The truth was that Christ had to deal with the wrath of the Devil but not at all with the wrath of God Consider but these passages and see what was the stress that Christ had to deal withal in his Passion First That Gen. III. 15. He shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Satan the seed of the woman shall destroy thee This is explained Heb. II. 14. For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil And then observe that Joh. XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me And Luke XXII 53. When I was daily with you in the Temple ye stretched forth no hands against me but this is your hour and the power of darkness While I preached there was a restraint upon you because my hour was not come but now you and Hell are let loose to have your full swing against me There was a Combate proposed in the sufferings of Christ before God and Angels Twixt whom Christ and the wrath of God No but twixt Christ and Satan and all his power What doth God in this quarrel Doth God fight against Christ too as well as the Devil Was his wrath against him as well as the Devils wrath What against his own Champion his own Son No he only tries him by affliction not overwhelms him with his wrath He only lets him alone to him to be the shock of Satan He little assists Satan by his wrath laid on his own Champion See the great Mystery of this great Dispensation in brief God had created the first Adam and endued him with abilities to have stood Thus endued he leaves him to stand of himself and permits Satan to tempt him and he overcomes him and all mankind are overthrown God raised up a second Adam endued with power to foil Satan do he his worst and not only with power to withstand Satan if he will but a will that could not but withstand Satan He sets him forth to encounter and leaves him to himself lets Satan loose to do his worst Satan vexeth him with all the vexation Hell could inflict upon him Did not God love his Son look with dear bowels upon him all this while It is a very harsh opinion to think that Christ undertaking the combate for the honour of God against his arch-enemy that obeying the Will of God even to the death that retaining his holiness unmoveable in the midst of all his tortures paying God an infinite obedience it is harsh I say to think that God should requite him with wrath and look upon him as a wretched damned person No it was the wrath of the Devil that Christ had to combate with not the wrath of God at all IV. Though Christ is said to bear sins yet for all that God did not look upon him any whit the more wrathfully or in displeasure but rather the more favourably because he would bear the sins of his people For God looked on Christ not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice and the Lord was not angry at him but loved him because he would become a Sacrifice Joh. X. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life Esa. LIII 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his Soul unto death Do those words speak the anger of God No his wel-pleasedness his rewarding him for that he would be numbred with transgressors being none but a Lamb without spot and blemish Some say That Christ was the greatest sinner murderer c. because he bare the sins of those that were so which words border upon blasphemy and speak besides a great deal of imprudence and inconsideration See Levit. XVI 21 22. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and consess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities Is it not sensless now to say That the Goat was the greatest sinner in Israel Was he any whit the more sinful because the sins of the people were put upon him And so of other sacrifices on whose heads hands were laid and sins put was the wrath of God upon the Sacrifice No the pleasure of God was upon it for attonement In such sense are those places to be taken Isa. LIII 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 1 Pet. II. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 2 Cor. V. 21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin He bare our sins not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice And that Joh. I. 29. makes it plain Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World As a Lamb at the Temple bare the sins of the people so Christ bare our sins How Was the Lamb guilty or sinful No as an attonement and sacrifice And so God looked on Christ as a Sacrifice well pleasing to him not as sinful at all Need we any more illustration Observe that Exod. XXVIII 36 38. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet Holiness to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aarons forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Holiness to the Lord because he bare iniquity It should rather have been Unholiness if Aaron had been any whit the more sinful for bearing the peoples iniquities But he is said to bear their iniquities because he by his office undertook to attone for them How did God look upon Aaron in his Priesthood With anger because he bare the iniquity of the people Nay with favour and delight as so excellent an instrument of attonement Such another passage is that Levit. X. 17 c. Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place