Feast-days the Jews were not wont so much as to tast any thing of meat or drink nor indeed hardly of other days o o o o o o Maimo Sch ib. cap. 30. This was the custom of the Religions of old first to say over his morning prayers on the Sabbath-day with those additional ones in the Synagogue and then go home and take his second repast For he had taken his first repast on the evening before at the entrance of the Sabbath Nothing might be tasted before the prayers in the Synagogue were finisht which sometimes lasted even till noon-day for so the Gloss upon the place When they continue in the Synagogue beyond the sixth hour and an half which is the time of the great Minchah for on a Feast-day they delay'd their coming out of the Synagogue then let a man pray his prayer of the Minchah before he eat and so let him eat And in those days it was that that commonly obtain'd which Targ. in Coheleth noteth p p p p p p Cap. 10. 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After they had offer'd the daily Sacrifice they eat bread in the time of the four hours i. e. in the fourth hour In Bava Meziah q q q q q q Fol. 83. 2. a certain officer of the Kings teacheth R. Eleazar the Son of R. Simeon how he should distinguish betwixt Thieves and honest men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã go saith he into the Taberne on the fourth hour and if thou seest any person drinking Wine and nodding while he holds his Cup in his hand c. Where the Gloss hath it The fourth hour was the hour of eating when every one went into the Taberne and there eat So that these whom ye deride O ye false mockers are not drunk for it is but the third hour of the day that is it is not yet the time to eat and drink in VERS XVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the last days THE Prohet Joel hath it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After these things Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After these things Where Kimchi upon the place hath this note ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And it shall come to pass after these things is the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it shall come to pass in the last days We have elsewhere observed that by the last days is to be understood the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish Oeconomy viz. when the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the end of the Jewish world r r r r r r Vide Matth. XXIV 3. 1 Cor. X. 11. drew near And there would be the less doubt as to this matter if we would frame a right notion of that great and terrible day of the Lord that is The day of his vengeance upon that place and Nation Which terror the Jews according to their custom and fashion put far off from themselves and devolve it upon Gog and Magog who were to be cut off and destroyed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh The Jews cautiously enough here though not so honestly apply this Prophesie and promise to Israel solely as having this for a Maxim amongst them That the Holy Ghost is never imparted to any Gentile Hence those of the Circumcision that believed were so astonished when they saw That on the Gentiles also was poured out the Gift of the Holy Ghost Chap. X. 45. But with the Jews good leave whether they will or no the Gentiles are beyond all question included within such like promises as these All flesh shall see the Salvation of God Isai. XL. 5. And All flesh come and worship before the Lord Isai. LXVI 23 c. VERS XIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And vapor of smoke THE Prophet hath it in the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and pillars of smoke St. Luke follows the Greek who as it should seem are not very solicitous about that nice distinction between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pillaring smoke or smoke ascending like a staff and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Smoke dispersing it self here and there A distinction we meet with in Joma s s s s s s Fol. 38. 1. where we have a ridiculous story concerning the curiosity of the Wisemen about the ascending up of the smoke of Incense As to these prodigies in blood fire and smoke I would understand it of the slaughter and conflagrations that should be committed in that Nation to a wonder by seditious and intestine broils there They were monsters rather than instances than which there could never have been a more prodigious presage of the ruine of that Nation than that they grew so cruel within themselves breathing nothing but mutual slaughters and desolations VERS XXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Him being delivered by the determinate Council and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken c. WE may best fetch the reason why St. Peter adds this clause from the conceptions of the Jews Can he be the Messiah think they that hath suffered such things What! The Messiah Crucified and slain Alas how different are these things from the character of the Messiah ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã t t t t t t Rambam in Artic. fid Iud. Sanhedr fol. 121. 1. To him belongs honour and glory and preeminence above all Kings that have ever been in the world according as all the Prophets from Moses our Master to whom be peace to Malachy to whom be peace have Prophesied concerning him Is he then the Messiah that was spit upon scouged thrust through with a Spear and Crucified Yes saith St. Peter these things he suffered ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God And these things had been foretold concerning him from Moses to Malachy so that he was never the less their Messiah though he suffered these things nor did he indeed suffer these things by chance but by the determinate counsel of God What the learned have argued from this place concerning God's decrees I leave to the Schools VERS XXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Having loosed the pains of death LET these ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be either the pains of death or the hands of death yet is it doubtful whether St. Peter might speak only of the death of Christ or of death in general so that the sense may be that God raised him up and by his Resurrection hath loosed the bands of death with respect to others also But supposing the expression ought to be appropriated to Christ only whom indeed they do chiefly respect then by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã we are not to understand so much the torments and pangs in the last moments of death as those bands which followed viz. the continued separation of Soul and Body the putrefaction and corruption of the body in the Grave which two things are those which St. Peter acquits our Saviour from in the following words For however it be a great
a singular raging against the Gospel the devil bestirring himself in them now he knew their time was so short THE EPISTLE OF JUDE As the second Epistle of Peter and this of Jude are very near akin in style matter and subject so it is fairly conjecturable in them that they were not far removed in time speaking both of wicked ones and wickedness at the same height and ripeness They are one to another as the Prophesie of Obadiah and Jerem. 49. 14 c. speaking the same thing using the same manner of arguing and oftentimes almost the same words It may be Jude stands up in his brother James his charge among the Circumcision of Judea and directs his Epistle to all those that were sanctified and preserved in those Apostatizing times as his brother had done to all the twelve Tribes in general In citing the story of Michael the Archangel contending with the devil about the body of Moses ver 9. he doth but the same that Paul doth in naming Jannes and Jambres namely alledge a story which was current and owned among the Nation though there were no such thing in Scripture and so he argueth with them from their own Authors and concessions It is harsh to strain Zech. 3. 1 2. to speak such a story when neither the name Michael is mentioned nor any thing like the body of Moses or akin to it But among the Talmudicks there seems to be something like the relicks of such a matter viz. of Michael and the Angel of death disputing or discoursing about fetching away the soul of Moses His alledging the Prophesie of Enoch is an arguing of the very like nature as citing and referring to some known and common tradition that they had among them to this purpose The Book Sepher Jesher an Hebrew Writer speaketh of Enoch after such a tenour And in both these he useth their own testimonies against themselves as if he should thus have spoken at large These men speak evil of dignities whereas they have and own a story for current that even Michael the Archangel did not speak evil of the devil when he was striving with him about the body of Moses c. And whereas they shew and own a Prophesie of Enoch of God coming in Judgment c. why these are the very men to whom such a matter is to be applied c. It is no strange thing in the New Testament for Christ and the Apostles to deal and argue with the Jews upon their own concessions THE THREE EPISTLES OF JOHN Among all the Apostolick Epistles there is none about whose time of writing we are so far to seek as we are about these And it is neither satisfactory to remove their place nor is it satisfactory to take their time according to their place or to conceive them to be written after the Epistles of Peter because they are placed after them Any conjecture that is to be had of them may best be taken from the third Epistle Gaius to whom that Epistle is directed by that encomiastick character that John giveth of him seemeth to be Gaius the Corinthian the host of the whole Church Rom. 16. 23. for since he is commended for entertainment and charity both to the Church and strangers particularly to those who had preached among the Gentiles taking nothing of them we know not where to find any other Gaius to whom to affix this character but only this and we have no reason to look after any other And upon this probability we may observe these other I. That that third Epistle was written when those that preached to the Gentiles and took nothing of them were still abroad upon that imployment for he urgeth him to bring them forward on their journey ver 6. Now under that expression of taking nothing of the Gentiles we can understand none but Paul and Barnabas and those that were of their several companies for the Scripture hath named none other And if it refer to Paul and his company for we find not that Barnabas had any thing to do with Gaius then we must conclude that it was written a good while before this time that we are upon unless we will suppose Paul after his freedom from imprisonment at Rome was got travelling and preaching in those parts again But I should rather suppose that John sent this third Epistle to Gaius to Corinth by Timothy from Ephesus who was setting away thence for Rome upon Pauls sending for him to come to him thither 2 Tim. 4. 9 11 21. In which journey as we have shewed before he was to call at Corinth and to take Mark along with him who was there And of them may Johns advice to Gaius be well understood Whom if thou bring forward on their journey thou shalt do well For for his sake they went out taking nothing of the Gentiles Mark with Barnabas and Timothy with Paul II. Before John wrote this Epistle to Gaius he had written another Epistle to some Church it may be that of Corinth of which Gaius was I wrote saith he unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence receiveth us not This must needs be understood of The first Epistle of John unless we will conceive unwarrantably that I may say no worse that any of Johns writings are lost III. Upon and with the forementioned supposal that John sent his Epistle to Gaius by Timothy from Ephesus we cannot but also suppose that John spent some time in the Asian Churches to which afterward from Patmos he writes his Epistles And if any one be not satisfied with that interpretation that was given before about the Epistle from Laodicea Colos. 4. 16. let him rather understand it of The first Epistle of John as written by him from Laodicea then think it was an Epistle written by Paul from Laodicea and that that Epistle is lost In both his later Epistles he intimateth his hopes and purpose shortly to come to them from which we may construe that his intention was to travel from Asia the less where he now was and from whence he wrote all his three Epistles westward into Greece and in this journey you have him got into Patmos Rev. 1. from whence he writes back to Asia again In all his Epistles he exhorteth to love and constancy in the truth a lesson most needful in those divided and Apostatizing times He giveth notice of many Antichrists now abroad and these he sheweth to have been such as had once professed the truth but were apostatized from it They went out from us but they were not of us c. And this Apostacy he calleth The sin unto death To such he adviseth they should not so much as say God speed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in their vulgar language Jerus Taamith fol. 64. col 2. The Rabbins saw a holy man of Caphar Immi and went to him and said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God speed But he answered them nothing Id. in Sheviith fol. 35. 2.
truth that death is the wages of sin yet is it not to be understood so much of those very pangs whereby the Soul and Body are disjoyned as the continuation of the divorce betwixt Soul and Body in the Grave VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell IT is well know what the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies in Greek Authors viz. the state of the dead be they just or unjust And their Eternal state is distinguished not so much by the word it self as by the qualities of the persons All the just the Heroes the followers of Religion and Vertue according to those Authors are in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hades but it is in Elysium in joy and felicity All the evil the wicked the unjust they are in Hades too but then that is in Hell in torture and punishment So that the word Hades is not used in opposition to Heaven or the state of the blessed but to this world only or this present state of life which might be made out by numberless instances in those Authors The Soul of our Saviour therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã descended into Hell i. e. he passed into the state of the dead viz. into that place in Hades where the Souls of good Men went But even there did not God suffer his Soul to abide separate from his body nor his body to putrifie in the Grave because it was impossible for Christ to be holden of those bands of death seeing his death was not some punishment of sin but the utmost pitch of obedience he himself being not only without sin but uncapable of committing any VERS XXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let me speak freely c. IT is doubted whether ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã should be rendred I may or let me If that which R. Isaac saith obtained at that time viz. Those words my flesh shall rest in hope teach us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That neither worm nor Insect had any power over David u u u u u u Mâdr Till fol. 13. 4. then was it agreeable enough that St. Peter should by way of Preface crave the leave of his Auditory in speaking of David's being putrified in the Grace and so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is well rendred let me But I may pleaseth me best and by this Paraphrase the words may be illustrated That this passage Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell c. is not to be applied to David himself appears in that I may confidently averr concerning him that he was dead and buried and never rose again but his Soul was left ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the state of the dead and he saw corruption for his Sepulchre is with us unto this day under that very notion that it is the Sepulchre of David who dyed and was there buried nor is their one syllable any where mentioned of the Resurrection of his body or the return of his soul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the state of the dead I cannot slip over that passage w w w w w w Hieros Chaâig fol. 78. 1. R Jose ben R. ben saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã David dyed at Pentecost and all Israel bewailed him and offered their Sacrifices the day following VERS XXXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The Lord said unto my Lord. c. SEEING St. Peter doth with so much assurance and without scruple apply these words to the Messiah it is some sign that that Comment wherewith the later Jews have gloz'd over this place was not thought of or invented at that time Glossing on the words thus The Lord said unto Abraham sit thou on my right hand x x x x x x Sanhedr fol. 108. 2. Sem the great said unto Eleazar when the Kings of the East and of the West came against you how did you do He said unto him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God took up Abraham and made him sit at his right hand He threw dust upon them and that dust was turned into Swords Stubble and that Stubble was turned into Darts so it is said in David's Psalm the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand Where the Gloss very cautiously notes that these words The Lord said unto my Lord are the words of Eleazar whose Lord of right Abraham might be called y y y y y y Nederim fol. 32. 2. R. Zechary in the name of R. Ismael saith God had a purpose to have drawn the Priesthood from Sem according as it is said he was the Priest of the Most high God But when he pronounced his blessing of Abraham before his blessing of God God derived the Priesthood from Abraham For it is said and he blessed him saying Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God possessor of Heaven and Earth and blessed be the Most High God Abraham saith unto him doth any one put the blessing of the Servant before the blessing of his Lord Immediately the Priesthood was given to Abraham As it is said The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand It is written afterward thou art a Priest for ever ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the words of Melchizedek who had not placed his blessings in due order And forasmuch as it is written And he was a Priest of the Most High God it intimates to us that he was a Priest but his seed was not Can we think that this Gloss was framed at that time when St. Peter so confidently as though none would oppose him in it applied this passage to the Messiah which also our Saviour himself did before him to the great Doctors of that Nation and there was not one that opened his mouth against it Matth. XXII 44. VERS XXXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Be Baptised every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ. BEZA tells us That this doth not declare the Form of Baptism but the scope and end of it Yet this clause is wanting in the Syriack Interpreter Wherever he might have got a Copy wherein this was wanting yet is it not so in other Copies But to let that pass What he sayeth that this doth not declare the Form of Baptism is I fear a mistake for at that time they Baptised amongst the Jews in the name of Jesus although among the Gentiles they Baptised in the Name of the Father and the Son and holy Ghost that Jesus might be acknowledged for the Messiah by them that were Baptised than which nothing was more tenacionsly and obstinately denyed and contradicted by the Jews Let the Jew therefore in his Baptism own Jesus for the true Messiah and let the Gentile in his confess the true God three in one VERS XLI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There were added about three thousand souls AND Chap. IV. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã About five thousand To which I would referr that passage in Psal. CX 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
Text agrees with this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He finisht his work on the sixth day c. You will say the Greek Version translated according to the Samaritan Text. I say the Samaritan Text was framed according to this Greek Version Who shall determine this matter between us That which goes current amongst the Jews makes for me viz. that this alteration was made by the Seventy two h h h h h h Megill fol. 9. 1. Massech Sopher cap. 1. But be it all one which followeth the other in this agreement we next produce in the same Chapter Gen. II. 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord God had formed out of the ground The Greek words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord God formed as yet out of the ground The Samaritan Text agrees ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We will not enquire here which follows which but we rather complain of the boldness of both the one to add the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as yet which seems to perswade us that God after he had created Adam and Eve did over and above create something anew which as yet to me is a thing unheard of and to whom is it not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That there is no resurrection In my notes upon Matth. III. 9. I take notice out of the Gloss upon Bab. Beracoth if he be of any credit that there were Hereticks even in the days of Ezra who said that there is no world but this which indeed falls in with Sadducism though the name of Sadducee was not known then nor a long time after But as to their Heresie when they first sprung up they seem principally and in the first place to have denyed the immortality of the Soul and so by consequence the resurrection of the body I know that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Jewish Writers is taken infinite times for the Resurrection from the dead but it is very often taken also for the life of the dead So as the one denotes the resurrection of the body the other the immortality of the Soul In the beginning of the Talmudick Chapter Helec where there is a discourse on purpose concerning the life of the world to come they collect several arguments to prove ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the life of the dead out of the Law for so let me render it here rather than the resurrection of the dead And the reason of it we may judge from that one agrument which they bring instead of many others viz. i i i i i i Sanhedr fol. 90. 2. Some do say that it is proved out of this Scripture He saith unto them But ye did cleave unto the Lord your God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are alive every one of you this day Deut. IV. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is plain that you are now alive when Moses speaks these things but he means this that in the day wherein all the world is dead ye shall live That is ye also though dead shall live which rather speaks out the immortality of the Soul after death than the resurrection of the body So our Saviours answer to the Sadducees Matth. XXII 31 32. from those words I am the God of Abraham c. is fitted directly to confute their opinion against the immortality of the Soul but it little either plainly or directly so proves the resurrection of the body but that the Sadducees might cavil at that way of proof And in that saying of the Sadducees themselves concerning the labourer working all the day and not receiving his wages at night there is a plain intimation that they especially considered of the state of the Soul after death and the non-resurrection of the body by consequence Let the words therefore be taken in this sense The Sadducees say Souls are not immortal and that there are neither Angels nor Spirits and then the twofold branch which our sacred Historian speaks of will the more clearly appear when he saith but the Pharisees confess both It is doubtful from the words of Josephus whether the Essenes acknowledge the resurrection of the body when in the mean time they did most heartily own the immortality of the Soul k k k k k k Iâs de excidâ lib. 2. c. 12. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This opinion prevails amongst them that the body indeed is corruptible and the matter of it doth not endure but Souls endure for ever immortal So that the question chiefly is concerned about the Souls Imortality ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Neither Angel nor Spirit They deny that the soul is immortal and they deny any spirits in the mean time perhaps not denying God to be a Spirit and that there is a Spirit of God mentioned Gen. I. 2. And it is a question whether they took not the occasion of their opinion from that deep silence they observe in Moses concerning the Creation of Angels or Spirits or from something else There is frequent mention in him of the apparitions of Angels and what can the Sadducee say to this Think you the Samaritans were Sadducees If so it is very observable that the Samaritan Interpreter doth once and again render the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Angels So Gen. III. 5. Ye shall be as Elohim Samar ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye shall be as Angels Chap. V. 1. In the similitude of God Samar ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the similitude of Angels So also Chap. IX 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the similitude of Angels And whereever there is mention of Angels in the Hebrew Text the Samaritan Text retains the word Angels too Did not the Sadducees believe there were Angels once but their very being was for ever vanisht that they vanisht with Moses and were no more Did they believe that the soul of Moses was mortal and perisht with his body and that the Angels died with him otherwise I know not by what art or wit they could evade what they meet with in the Books of Moses concerning Angels that especially in Gen. XXXII 1. You will say perhaps that by Angels might be meant good motions and affections of the mind The Pharisees themselves do sometimes call evil affections by the name of Devils ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an evil affection is Satan But they do not call good affections Angels nor can ye your selves apply that passage so The Angels of God met him and he called the name of that place Mahanaim i. e. two Camps or two hosts One of those Camps consisted of the multitude of his own family and will you have the other to consist of good affections If the Sadducees should grant that Angels were ever created Moses not mentioning their Creation in his History I should think they acknowledged the being of Angels in the same sense that we do in the whole story of the Pentateuch but that they conceived that after the History of
true when he said Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life What will any man take for his life to pass it away What jewels what rubies what riches will buy his life from him No he accounts it too precious to part with his life for mony or monies worth And this doth enhance the preciousness of life that it is not only so excellent a being in it self but without it all things are nothing to him that hath lost it Bring a dead man bags of gold and heaps of silver fill his coffin up with pearls and jewels strew his grave with diamonds and rubies there is no hearing no minding no affecting when his jewel that was more worth then all these his life is gone Now who is the Preserver of this dear jewel while we carry it about us Is it we our selves The Psalmist tells us that It is he that made us and not we our selves Psal. C. And reason may tell us that it is he that preserves us and not we our selves For can we any more preserve our lives of our selves than we can give life to our selves When a desperate danger is ready to swallow us up if God withdraw his preserving providence can man bring his life out of danger In Scripture Phrase for a man to put his life in his own hand Judg. XII 3. is to venture it to danger where there is no safety but in the hands of God it is secure while he will take charge of it Feeling is that passage of Daniel to Belshazzar Dan. V. 23. The God in whose hand is thy breath Canst thou take it into thine own hand and there hold it The Jews tell a story of the Angel of death sent to take away the soul of Moses but Moses withstood him and he could not do it but when God saw his time to take it no withstanding The Angel of death in their meaning is the Devil and the Apostle speaks to their opinion Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that âad the power of death that is the Devil Now wherein lies the reason why Satan takes not away our lives when he pleaseth Is it in our selves Would not he think you carry away all men bodily to his den if it were in his power And is it our power that doth restrain him Think of those poor possessed ones in the Gospel whom the Devil hurried so up and down at his pleasure Is it our own power that doth restrain him that he useth not us so When we read or hear such stories have we not cause if we had hearts to look up at a higher power than our own that we are not as they were in his power And was it his courtesie that he spared their lives when God had given him liberty to use their bodies as he did Or was it not that God restrained him you may guess it by Jobs case betwixt whose life and Satans malice against him God had put this bar Only take not away his life But when God himself comes by death resolvedly to take away any mans life whose power is it in to hinder When he is resolved to tear body and soul assunder who shall say what dost thou When he will preserve life no longer who can make it out and preserve it himself The Lord giveth life and the Lord taketh it away in his hand only is the disposal of our life and being Secondly God shews himselves tender of our lives doth not only preserve them but shews that he is tender of them and willing to preserve them God is the fountain of being and giver of life and it is agreeable to his nature to maintain the being of men and their lives but it is not so agreeable to him to destroy them it is said of him that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. III. And he saith of himself that he hath no pleasure in the death of the sinner Ezek. XVIII And no wonder for it is somewhat besides his nature q. d. for it is his nature to give being and not to destroy it Now that God is tender of the lives of men and preservs them willingly and tenderly you have it evidenced in the mouth of three or four witnesses that the truth of it may be established 1. He is tender of the lives of very birds and beasts and therefore forbids all cruelty towards them Balaam for cruelty towards his poor Ass is reproved both by the Angel and the Ass her self And how does God forbid to kill a beast and her young on the same day to take a bird and her young at the same time but if he take the young to let the dam go forbids to seeth a kid in his dams milk and in a word it is a token the Holy Ghost gives of a good man that he is merciful to his very beast 2. Is it not an evidence that God is tender of mens lives when he hath made so severe a Law against murther or taking them away And what strange discoveries hath he made of murthers and murtherers that he that hath taken away a mans life may not go unpunished So tender is God of the life of man that as man hedgeth in a choice tree or plant that he is tender of so hath God mans life with such a siry law as well as he doth also with his providence 3. Doth not God tender the life of man when he would have all men to spin out their lives to life eternal and shewed them a way how to do it if they would but take his way God had rather thy life should reach Heaven and Eternity there than to drop into Hell in the end and be drowned in eternal death And this is one thing amongst others that doth highly enhance the preciousness of mans life that it may be translated to Eternity 4. And Lastly If you yet need any evidence and demonstration of Gods tenderness to mens lives and willingness to preserve them and unwillingness to destroy them look upon your selves as you are alive here this day And whence is it that you are so Can you give any other proper reason than this because God is tender of your lives and is not willing to destroy them Hath he not power enough to have cut them off and destroyed them long ago And have we not given him cause enough to have destroyed them over and over Whence is it then that we are all here this day God hath spared our lives preserved our lives tenderly preserved them or our souls had long ago dwelt in silence And are we not in debt to God for this care and tendering of us Is there nothing to be paid him not one half shekel for all our preservation Doth not all the reason in the world dictate that when we live by him we should live as he would have us that when he spares and preserves our lives we should lead and
of these Commandments or to go beyond the Sea to learn the equity of these precepts Do we need to dig deep to find a reason why we should be bound to these things Do they not of themselves speak all equity and reason in the World And as it is Rom. XII that we should offer up our selves a holy living sacrifice to God is it not a most reasonable service that is required of us Upon what hath been spoken these two consequences must needs be concluded First That if there be so great reason to keep the Commandments of God how unreasonable a thing then is it not to keep them The Scripture speaketh not in vain when it calls wicked men Fools for they go against all reason and have even lost their reason unreasonable men as the Apostle calls them men that are without all reason Is there any pleading for Baal as Gideons Father spoke Is any reason to be pleaded for mens transgressing the Commands of God Produce your arguments bring forth your strong reasons to plead for your Idols and Idolatry saith God in derision to those that worshipped stocks and stones Produce your arguments bring forth your strong reasons why you should transgress any of the Commands of God And think you you can answer or satisfie God with all the arguments you can invent I must break such a Command or I shall lose my pleasure such a Command or I shall lose my profit such a Command or I am crost and shall lose my will Excellent reasons Wherewithal to out-argue the divine will of God and excellent pleadings To lay before God at the great day of judgment and very likely to come off fairly with A good man according to S. Peters counsel should be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in him Can a wicked man give any reason either of any hope in him or of the evil that proceedeth from him Sinning is a thing unreasonable and where there is so great reason for the keeping of Gods commands the breaking them must needs be against all reason And from this very thing if there were no other must the Conscience of ungodly men in Hell torture them for ever because reason is now awaked with them which they lulled a sleep in their lusts here and now they see how it was against all reason that they transgressed Gods commands Secondly If there be so great reason and equity to bind men to keep the Commandments of God certainly there is some reason and equity to bind them over to punishment if they keep them not Does God ever Command and never demand what becomes of his Commands Did he give them in such terror and will no terror follow the breach of them A SERMON Preached upon REVELAIONS XX. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first Resurrection WHAT is meant by the first Resurrection here is to be discerned by the verses preceding They tell you of Christ the Great Angel binding the Devil in a great chain and casting him into the bottomless pit a thousand years 1 2 3 verses and of thrones set and some sitting on them and judgment given to them and those that were martyred for the profession of Christ living and reigning with him a thousand years vers 4. But the rest of the dead lived not again c. The end for which Christ thus bound the Devil being considered will help to clear and unfold the whole matter and that you have vers 3. That he should deceive the Nations no more i. e. that he should not delude the Heathen or Gentiles as he had done From the casting off the Gentiles at Babel the Devil had kept all the world under a perpetual cheat to worship Idols to sacrifice to Devils to live and walk in all the ways of the Devil till Christ sent his Gospel among them to teach them better This then was the Chain whereby the Great Angel of the Covenant Christ tyed up the Devil that he should not cheat the world as he had before done viz. sending the Gospel among them by the preaching and power of which he restrained and quelled that power and deluding of the Devil The Heathen by the instruction of the Gospel come to know and worship and fear the true God to cast away their Idols to defy the Devil and his works and to laugh his Oracles and delusions to scorn Dagon is now fallen before the Ark of God and his head and hands broken off and now Dagon is left but a meer stump Jericho's walls are fallen flat with no other Engin but only the sound of Trumpets made of rams-horns the strong hold of Satan cast down with the only sound of the great trump of the Gospel and he himself tyed up that he shall no more cheat and cousin the world till a thousand years be expired and then he is loosed again and cousins the world by Popery now as he had done by Heathenism then The poor Heathen thus recovered out of the power of Satan by the coming in of the Gospel among them did creep out of their graves of Ignorance Idolatry and Sinfulnss in which they had layn stinking and rotting so many ages together had life put into them to live to God they are awaked out of their dust and long sleep to see and act and live as the children of God And this is that which is here called The first Resurrection And the very same title doth our Saviour give to the very same thing John V. 25. Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live That he speaks of the first resurrection and of the last at vers 28 29. Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation And do but consider how great and near a parallel there is twixt this first and that last resurrection That last shall raise men from the death of the body this raised the Heathen from the death of the Soul That shall be by the powerful sound of the Trump of God this was by the powerful sound of the Trumpet of the Gospel That will be acted by an infinite power raising men dead in the grave this was acted by an infinite power raising men dead in sins But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished And did they live then The Millenary will tell you Yes For his conceit about these thousand years is this That at the begining of the thousand years those that suffered martyrdom for Christs sake shall be raised out of their graves and reign with Christ a thousand years and when the thousand years are
finished there shall be the general resurrection And accordingly they construe the words before us to this sence The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished And then lived An opinion as like the opinion of the Jews as one egg is like another They think Christ shall reign among them on earth a thousand years pompous reign So do these They think that at the beginning of his reign the holy Prophets and Patriarchs shall be raised from death and reign with him So these They think that at the end of his thousand years reign there shall be the general resurrection and world of Eternity so do these So that the Millenary doth Judaize and he knows it not he is fallen into the Jews opinion and is not aware of it This book of Revelations is exceeding full of expressions that allude to the Jewish customs and opinions I say again is exceeding full but it were ridiculous to think that such passages are to be construed in the same literal sense that the Jews took them in Only those common and well known things as being familiar to the Nation are used to signifie or illustrate some spiritual sence or matter Expressions are used in this place that are agreeable in sound to the opinion of the Jews but not agreeable in sence but signifying something else They conceit a personal pompous reign of Christ on earth a thousand years in all earthly state and gallantry These words speak of a reign of Christ a thousand years but they mean his reign and ruling by his Word and Spirit and of his subduing and bringing the Nations into subjection and obedience but by the Ministry of the Gospel They speak of those that had been martyred reigning with him but the meaning only is to intimate that the children of his kingdom must suffer persecution and that they shall lose nothing by their persecution but as the Apostle speaks If they suffer with him they shall also reign with him Let us read the verse before I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God And which had not worshiped the beast neither his image neither had received his his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished And did they live then That is not imaginable the time of reviving being then past and over For at the end of the thousand years Satan is let loose again brings in Popery and Mahumetism and the World grows as Heathenish as it had been before Satans binding and imprisoning So that they had lost the opportunity of reviving which was in the thousand years The word Until signifies doubly either concluding or else excluding you may see my meaning by these examples The Master in the Parable gives Talents to his servants and bids them Occupy till I come Here the word until concludes that he would come again This iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye Es. XXII 14. Here the word till excludes them from ever having their iniquity purged The word until in the text is of this latter construction and means that they let slip and embraced not the opportunity of reviving all the thousand years when was the time of reviving and so they lived not again at all And if we well observe the Histories both of the Heathen and of the Church we shall find that all along this time that the Gospel was dispersing through the World there were multitudes of Heathens that would not forsake their Heathenism and multitudes in the Church in a little time fell to superstition and worshiping of Images and so even turned to Heathenism also Therefore God suffers Satan to be let loose again to go about in the world again with his delusions he brings in Popery in the West and Mahumetism in the East and so the whole World is returned to blindness and darkness again because when the light shone they would none of the light They would not embrace the offer of reviving when the time and opportunity of reviving was therefore they lived not again till those thousand years were finished and then the time of living again was over So that in the words before us we observe three things I. That the raising of the Gentiles from the Death of Sin is called the first Resurrection II. That in that time of raising some lost the opportunity and would not be raised III. That they losing the opportunity of rising and living missed always of rising and living I. As to the first thing named That the raising of the Gentiles from the death of sin is called the first Resurrection It gives us occasion to consider how a mans getting out of the state of sin into the state of grace is a Resurrection or a rising from the dead And with all to compare this first and last resurrection together and to see what connexion there is between them I. To Sadduces and Atheists that deny the resurrection at the last day because they can see no reason for it I should propose this question Whether there hath not been a raising of dead souls from the death of sin Abraham once an Idolater was not his soul dead then Yet afterwards he was the great Father of the faithful Was there not then a Resurrection of that dead soul Manasseh the King an Idolater a Conjurer a Sacrificer of his Sons to Molech was not this man dead in trespasses and sins and yet this man afterwards was a Penitent a Convert a Promoter of piety and the true worship of God Was not here a Resurrection of a dead Soul Is God less able to raise a dead body out of the grave than to raise a dead soul out of its sins Nay is not this as great a work of God as that will be Christ that can make such vile souls that they may be like unto his most glorious soul cannot he make these vile bodies that may be like his most glorious body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself II. But let us look upon this first resurrection a little and blessed and holy is he that hath part in it over such an one shall the second death have no power In some things it is not parallel or like to the second resurrection in more it is First The Second Resurrection shall be of all bodies this First is not of all souls And if we come to seek for the reason of the difference where shall we find it Cannot the same power that shall raise all bodies also raise all souls The reason of the difference lies not in the difference of that power Were it not as much for the glory of God to raise all souls as to raise all bodies The reason of the difference lyes not there neither For God chooseth freely the
ways of glorifying himself and is not tyed to this or that way by any necessity But the reason of the difference lyeth First In his own Will as the Apostle resolves it He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth But Secondly As in reference to the persons raised he raiseth what souls he raiseth by virtue of his Covenant of grace but he raiseth not all the bodies he raiseth by the same virtue It is said concerning Christ himself that God brought him from the dead by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. XIII 20. So doth he by the blood and virtue of the same Covenant bring from the dead every soul that he brings from the dead but he doth not so every body that he brings from the dead Now the tenor of the Covenant is Hearken to my voice and live Es. LV. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live And to the very same tenor are those word of our Saviour mentioned before Joh. V. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and they that hear shall live What kind of language is this The Dead shall hear All the Dead shall hear and yet only they that hear shall live What needed more to have been said than that the Dead shall hear his voice and live But his meaning is all the dead Heathen shall have the Gospel and hear the word of it brought among them and they that hear it that is obey it and follow it shall live Let me repeat that which I alledged from Esay LV. 3. and add what follows there Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Now that by sure mercies of David is meant the resurrection of Christ the Apostle teacheth us in Act. XIII 34. And as concerning that he raised him from the dead now no more to return to corruption he said on this wise I will give you the sure mercies of David The resurrection of Christ therefore are the sure mercies of Christ. For that by David is meant Christ it were easy to shew and it is so confessed by the Jews themselves in their expositions of that place It was the sure mercy that God gave to Christ himself of which he so rejoyceth Psal. XVI 9. My heart is glad my glory rejoyceth and my flesh also shall rest in hope Because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell c. And it is the sure mercy of Christ that God gave to the members of Christ that he raised him from the dead and imparts to them the benefit of his Resurrection And this is called there an Everlasting Covenant that he makes with them That as he gave Christ a resurrection so he will give them a resurrection The first and the latter rain the first and the latter resurrection First to raise their Souls by the virtue of his Covenant from the death of sin in his good time and to raise their bodies by virtue of the same Covenant at the last day Of which last our Saviour speaks three times over Joh. VI. ver 39. This is my Fathers will which hath sent me that of all that he hath given I should lose none but raise him up at the last day ver 40. And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have eternal life and I will raise him up the last day And ver 44. None can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Will Christ raise up all persons in the world at the last day upon these terms Ye see No but only those that comply with his Covenant to come to him see him believe in him His power and justice will raise all others the virtue of his Covenant will raise these Now I suppose you easily see how to distinguish twixt the Tenor of his Covenant and the Virtue of his Covenant The Tenor of his Covenant is Hear and obey my voice and live The Virtue of his Covenant is his unfailing truth power goodness that will give life to them that hear his voice and obey him Thus you see one reason of the difference why he raiseth but some souls here from the death of sin but will raise all bodies from the death of the grave Thirdly Another reason of difference may be given for that at the last day he will raise all the persons in the world from their graves that he may glorifie himself but he raiseth only some few from their sins that they may glorify him And there is a great deal of difference twixt Gods glorifying himself upon men as he did upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians and bringing men heartily and laboriously to glorifie him and to live to his glory But Secondly a main difference in these two resurrections the soul from sin and the body from the grave is that the first resurrection is with the desire of him that is raised the latter will be in despite of thousands that will have no mind of it God will bring thee to jugement Eccles. XI 9. is a cutting saying but all the World shall never be able to take the edge of it off But let wicked men struggle and strive and tug never so hard against the resurrection God will bring them to it and no resisting But the first resurrection or the raising a soul from the death of sin how sweet how welcome how comfortable is it to every one to whom it comes Thy people will be willing in the day of thy power and help forward their own rising as much as they can and the Spirit and Bride say come and the soul and heart say Come Lord Jesus come quickly and let me see this resurrection And thus have we seen some circumstances in which the first and second resurrection differ and are at distance let us now consider wherein they agree and shake hands one with another Observe that the Scripture speaks in some places of the Resurrection as if it were to be no Resurrection but of just and holy ones only as you may take notice in 1 Cor. XV. and 1 Thes. IV. That there shall be a Resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just the Scripture assures us over and over again but it more especially calls that a Resurrection that is a Resurrection indeed and and not a raising to be cast down again Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more as the Apostle tells us Death hath no more dominion over him And the Scripture doth more especially call that a Resurrection that is written after his Copy for a man to rise from the dead to die no more That man is but little helped which we read of in the Prophet that in the way met a Lyon and flying
and as thy soul is risen from the death of sin so mayest thou expect thy bodies rising from death in the grave The Jews speak of a little bone in some part of a mans body they call it Luz which they say will never be consumed in the grave but will be as it were a seed sown in the ground out of which will spring the Resurrection of the whole body I may say graciousness in the soul is rather the seed of the Resurrection of the body that will cause it to rise to life and happiness And thus much concerning the first Observation II. That in the time of the first Resurrection that is the raising the Gentiles from the Death of sin some lost the opportunity and would not be raised The rest of the dead lived not again because they were not raised by a first Resurrection when season and opportunity of living again was in date that is for the thousand years mentioned in the Text. Whether you take the thousand years for a certain determinate time of exactly so many years or that a certain number is used for an uncertain and this number the rather because it is used by the Jews whether the one or the other you are to begin to count from the time the Gospel was first sent among the Gentiles And count such a space of time forward and you will find in story that though the Gospel had gone through the world in that time and made the world Christian and vast numbers were converted to Christianity yet there was still a struggling to have kept the World Heathen and multitudes were unwilling to come off from their old Heathen and Idolatrous Religion For three hundred years the Emperors and all the Magistrates were enemies to the Gospel and if any of them did not persecute the Christians as but few but did yet they maintained their Heathen Religion might and main And the great wise men of the World as they were esteemed the Philosophes and learned ones were the greatest sticklers for the maintaining of the worshiping of their many false and idol Gods all along when the Emperours were become Christians Which may very well make us to remember the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. I. 26. Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise I cannot omit two remarkable passages The one of Julian the Emperor who was brought up a Christian but turned Heathen nay who as stories relate of him had been a Lecturer in a Christian congregation but became the bitter enemy to Christianity He when the Emperors had been Christian for two successions viz. Constantine and Constantius and the Christian Religion had flourished in their times well towards forty years and the Heathen Idolatrous Temples shut up and Christian Churches opened He opens the Heathen Temples shuts up the Christian promotes Idolatry again and the worship of the Heathen Gods and hath many Heathen Philosophers Jamblichus Maximus Ecebolus Libanius and I know not how many more to spur him on to it And the other passage I have is a clause in a letter of Adrian the Emperor to one of his Nobles in which he tells him I have been in Egypt and there I observed the Christians worshiping Christ and Idols yea the Christian Bishops worshiping Christ and Serapis Which Serapis was the great God and Idol of the Egyptians By all which we may see the truth of what is asserted in the Text That the rest of the dead lived not again but continued still in their dead condition of blindness and Heathenism And may also see the reason why they lived not again viz. because they would not but chose death before life to continue in their dead condition of being Heathens rather than to become Christians and live And from this we may see how just it was with God to let Popery and Mahumetism invade the world and to reduce it to its heathenish ignorance blindness and superstition again because it was so unwilling to part with its ignorance blindness and superstition Because they would not receive truth in the love of it as the Apostle sayes it was just with God to give them up to strong delusions to believe a ly And by that sad example we may observe how men lose and let slip the opportunities that God affords them for their own good and so losing them they lose themselves Jerusalem knows not the time of her Visitation and the things of her peace and so poor Jerusalem is lost and her opportunity gone for ever There is a critical time when there is a season opportune for the good of the Souls and the clock strikes Time is but foolish men too commonly take so little notice of it that the brazen head cryes Time is past and breaks to pieces If we should take up the Dispute whether God do not set his time and stint how long he will let men have opportunity of rising from the death of sin are there not many evidences for the affirmative that he doth He sets his stint and date how long he will afford a man the opportunity that his body may live and doth he not the like for the living of the Soul Doth not God shut the gates of mercy against sinful Souls even in this life and doth he not shut the gates of Repentance These in the Text that lived not again was not all possibility of living again taken again from them because they had let the time and opportunity of reviving let slip and go and neglected it Esau lost his opportunity and having lost that he found no place of recovery though he sought it with tears And Joh. XII 39 40. They could not believe because Esaias had said he hath blinded their eyes c. Why were Esaias words a charm to them that they could not believe No they could not believe because those words of Esaias were verified upon them And they had so long wilfully blinded their own eyes and hardned their hearts that God had put to his Seal and blinded and hardned them that they were now past all possibility of believing In that great dispute and iniquiry how God hardneth mens hearts of which there is so frequent mention and intimitation in Scripture the first crisis toward the determination of it is that God hath set such men a time how long they may be in a possibility of repenting and believing which when it is come and they are still impertinent and unbelieving and will not repent and believe he shuts the door against them that they shall not repent and believe Upon the consideration of all which we have advertisement what we have to do viz. to strive after this first Resurrection while the Lord affords time and opportunity and when God offers the advantage of our living again not to be enemies of our own reviving A SERMON Preached upon 2 SAMUEL XIX 29.
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
seeing it is most holy and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make attonement for them before the Lord. Let me ask those that hold this Opinion two or three questions Was Christ so much as punished by God Much less then was he overwhelmed by the wrath of God damned by God Was a Lamb punished that was sacrificed He was afflicted but not punisht for punishment argues a crime or fault preceding Lam. III. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Were the sad sufferings of Christ laid on him as punishments Certainly not for his own sins no nor for ours neither He suffered for our sins bare our sins but his sufferings were not punishments for our sins For observe two things First Christ merited by suffering Is it good sense to say he merited by being punished Strange sense to say he merited Salvation for his by being punisht for their sins but most divine to say by suffering for the redeeming of them He suffered as a Sacrifice to attone not as a sinner to be punished Secondly Did Christ dye upon any debt to the Law Much less upon any debt that he owed to Gods wrath Did the Law lay any thing to Christs charge did the Law condemn him And then can we dream of the wrath of God charging him and damning him It is true that it is said Gal. III. 13. Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree But doth this mean accursed of God Was the good Thief accursed of God when he hung upon the cross The meaning is that he appeared so to the view of men So that as it is impossible that Christ should lye under the wrath of God for any fault of his own so it is not imaginable that he did for ours V. It is impossible that Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned A Priest could not fall under the Plague of Leprosie and yet is the high Priest under a damned condition Certainly if his Body could not see corruption his Soul could not feel damnation If his Body were not under that which the Bodies of the best Saints fall under certainly his Soul could not be under that which damned Souls fall under I might clear this by considering especially three things which are the chief torments of Hell 1. Separation from God without any glimpse of his favour 2. Horror and Hell in the Conscience because of guilt 3. Utter despair Now need I to shew that it was not possible that any of these should seize upon Christ And these things be spoken to shew first what is not the meaning of this Article Now to come to the sense of the Article And for a beginning I may say as Moses does Numb XI 29. Would all the Congregation were Prophets So would all the Congregation were Grecians for then this would be easie The Creed was written in Greek and in the interpretation of this Article we are not tyed to the strictness of the English word but we must fly for refuge to the sense of the Greek word And if any of the opinions mentioned before should urge It is Hell therefore must be so understood as he said once To the Law and to the Testimony so I would answer To the original Greek and to the propriety of the phrase there In Isa. XXIX 10. The Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of Slumber In the Greek and in Rom. XI 8. it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã compunction clean contrary to the Prophets meaning What shall we do here Not stick to the strict propriety of the Greek Translation but have refuge to the word in the original Hebrew and construe the Greek word by that So in our English Translation Hell seems to speak that that is neither warrantable by Scripture nor reason therefore we must not stick to the strict propriety of the word but to the Greek In the Greek it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He went down to Hades Which I shall explain to you by and by I. The Article refers to the passage of Christs Soul after his death I say of his Soul For what was done to his Body is specified in the Articles before Crucified dead and buried But what became of his Soul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He descended into Hell Now this Article is left out of divers Confessions of Faith in the Fathers and out of divers Creeds Vice plurium instead of more observe the Nicene Creed Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was buried And the third day he rose again Which shews it was added occasionally and for some illustration Councils and Fathers commonly inserted some Articles into Confessions to face some Heresie then appearing And this Article was inserted to outface some error about Christs person The Heresies and mistakes about Christs person were numerous and among others this was one that he had not a real humane Body but Airy and again that though he had a real Body yet he had not a humane Soul but that the Divine Nature supplied the place of his Soul These Articles that concern his death outface both these He had a real Body for he was really Crucified dead and buried And a real Soul for when dead he went to Hades Or whether it had been enough to have said He died and was buried but of him such addition was not needless because of misconstruction II. The Heathens owned another World and the immortality of the Soul though they had no Bible to tell them it yet they believed that there was another World after this Socrates discoursed of this before his death which Cleombrotus reading cast himself from a Tower that he might become immortal A strange affectedness with this point and a strong perswasion It is a wonder the Sadducees that had the Scriptures should deny this and Christians that hear so much of it be affected so little Tully shews arguments whereby they gathered that men lived in another World one of which was from the apparitions of some dead men In which thing while the Devil went about to cosin them to think them dead men which indeed was his own appearing yet he cosined himself too while he taught them by it to believe a life after death How they came thorowly to be grounded in this point I shall not insist upon to examine but they did believe that there was another World after this when the dead lived again III. This place and state they called Hades that is a place obscure and invisible The Phrase is infinitely frequent Achilles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sent him before to Hades Sophocles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Before the going to Hades Leonidas to his Souldiers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To sup in Hades that is in another World Shall I give you
their character of Hades 1. They thought it was a place under the Earth And the reason is because they thought none went to Heaven but those that were to be gods all others went to Hades Hence Aeneas and Ulysses went down into the Earth to the World of Souls there to confer with some dead friends Hence the cheat of the Devil to bring Ghosts as ascending out of the Earth 1 Sam. XXVIII 13. 2. This place of Souls had two parts viz. Elysium and Tartarus and those parted with a deep gulph of a deadly River and that from one side they could see and talk to the other According to this common opinion Christ frames his Parable Luke XVI 23. He in Hades in the place of torment looks over the gulph and talks with Abraham So that both good and bad when dead went to Hades the good to the place of rest and delight the bad to the place of sorrow and pain So the Greek Poet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Both go to Hades c. Lazarus went to Hades and so did the rich man too but to contrary conditions IV. In this sense then is the Article to be taken as speaking according to the common notion That Christs Soul went to Hades to the other World to the place where good Souls went which Scripture hath taught us is Heaven The word Hell now is come to signifie only the place of torment but of old it signified larger as the word Hades does and by the Greek word and its signification we must construe it Let me give you a word parallel The word Knave is now taken only in a bad sense of old it signified a Servant So some old Translations express A Servant of the Lord by A Knave of the Lord. When we read that we do not construe it by the present sense of the word but by the old and by the original Hebrew So when in this Article we read the word Hell we must not construe it according to our present common acceptation but as of old it signified the place and state of all Souls departed And so in this Article there are these three Doctrines comprised I. That Christ had a true humane Soul like other men Like to us he had a Soul that was reasonable that inlivened the Body that was whole in it and not the Divinity that inlivened and actuated his Body II. That when Christ died there was a real separation of Soul and Body as it is with other men The Soul slept not with the Body but was separate from it Though it was to come into the Body again yet it forsook the Body and was separate III. As soon as it was departed it went into another World of Souls to a place where holy Souls go viz. to Heaven And there continued till it was to return to the Body It was in Paradise all the while the Body was in the grave Object Is this the meaning of Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell or Hades If Hades mean Paradise why should Christ pray against being left in Hades My Flesh shall rest in hope that it shall not be left in Hades and hopes he not that his Soul shall not be left in Hades as he hopes his Body shall not see corruption Answer He doth not pray thus as if it were not well with his Soul in Hades as to what it enjoyed but that it was not well while separate from the Body for that it was while Christ was under death As if he should say Thou wilt not leave me under death my Soul in separation This would be the Triumph of the Devil Observe Christs Soul was in glory the while his Body was in the Grave and yet desires to return to the Body Why That he may finish the work of God by his Resurrection to conquer death As I said It is Hell to the Devil not to be doing evil so it is Heaven to Christ to do the Will of God He left the bosom of the Father to come into the World and when his Soul was in the bosom of his Father again in those joys that are not expressible yet it would rather do the work of God Ask a Soul there wouldest thou be on Earth again No. But wouldest thou be on Earth to do God service there Yes it is as Heaven to be doing any thing for God Ubi Imperator ibi Roma Where the Emperor is there is Rome so wheresoever a man can please God it is Heaven to him Here is the happiness of Saints in Heaven that their Will is wholly swallowed up in the Will of God It is a question where Lazarus his Soul was while he was four days dead Why undoubtedly no where but in Heaven But the reason of the objection is Because it was but a wrong or misery to his Soul to send it from Heaven again Blessed Soul dost thou think so No any thing to obey the Will of God So the Soul of Christ was in glory in the midst of unspeakable joys yet he would not have it continue there till the work of God was done Soul thou art well be content keep in Paradise still let the Body lye in the Grave it feels not hurt Ah! but all this while Satan Death is not conquered Gods cause is not pleaded and finished let that work first be done and then both to glory That that I speak to and that that the Article aims at is that Christ had a humane Soul like other men but that not sinful and that it departed as the Souls of other men Some on Gen. I. 26 27. And God said Let us make man in our image say God set Christ before him and made man after the image of Christ as though they would say God made the first Adam in the image of the second whereas we should say the contrary God made the second Adam in the image of the first So Phil. II. 7 8. He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man c. Not man at first created in the likeness of Christ but Christ was brought into the World in the likeness of man And how Christs Soul was like other mens I shall observe to you in three things I. In its infusion into the Body II. In its existence and acting in the Body III. In its going out of the Body Men saw his Body like other mens and in these his Soul shewed it self like other mens also I. By its infusion or induction into the Body But here you will say the Copy is darker than to know what to write after it It is controverted how Souls are put into the Body and there are two mistakes about it viz. Praeexistence and Generation which this may rectisie Some hold Praeexistence of Souls that they were created at the beginning of the World and put in at last into Bodies And
they would argue from this reason God finished creating in Principio in the beginning therefore he creates not a Soul now I answer He finished creating genere specierum the kinds of all species but not Species generum the Species of all kinds When he brought Frogs and Lice on Egypt it was a creation of the things but the kind was created from the beginning The same must be said of Souls Let Christs Soul be the instance Was the Soul of the Messias created at the beginning If so what did it all the while till it was united to the Body Where was it What did it Was Christs Soul ever not acting for the good of his people As soon as ever it was put into the Body it began the work of Redemption viz. Christ there sanctifying our Nature by the Union of the humane nature to the Divine His Soul is now in Heaven in the work of mediation for his people It is hard to think that his Soul should be almost four thousand years in being and doing nothing for mens Salvation And we cannot call Christ Christ till he be compleated in our nature Soul and Body So that Christs Soul as ours was infused by immediate Creation in the Body which Body was prepared in the womb for the receiving of it So that though he was not like to us in regard of his begetting in the womb yet he was like in the Union of his Soul to his Body there For II. Christ had a Soul like ours in all things sin excepted It is a question Whether all Souls are equal There is some colour for it Psal. XXXIII 15. Hesashioneth their hearts alike And thence some argue the equality of Souls But I answer 1. That place may be taken thus That God alike is the Creator of all Souls rich and poor wise and foolish 2. It is undoubted all Souls are alike in regard of the ' Essentials of Souls they are all intellectual Spiritual immortal and in regard of their Essential faculties Whether they are alike as to the use and excellency of those faculties I shall not dispute Doubtless Christs Soul was the most excellent and yet like ours in all things that simply relate to the Essence of Souls or the humane nature I need not speak of the Essentials of a Soul he had the Infirmities of a humane Soul viz. those that in themselves are sinless I might so apply that Matth. VIII 17. Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses He was subject to grief in Soul Matth. XXVI 38. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã My Soul is exceeding sorrowful To fear Heb. V. 7. In that he feared Joh. XI 33. He groned in spirit and was troubled These are natural infirmities or affections to humane Souls Adam might have had these in innocency if occasion offered The Apostle makes comfortable use of this likeness of Christs Soul to ours Heb. IV. 15. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin And so may a Christian in sadness fear hunger persecution he may refuge to a High Priest that himself was sensible what these things were Non ignara mali c. Oh! what access hath God given to sinners Not only to one in their own nature but that partook of the very infirmities of nature Except sin Name but one that he had not A poor man dying assaulted with Satan fearing pains How comfortably may he refuge to Christ who by experience knew all these III. He was like other Souls in the manner of his departure out of the body and going to another World And this I shall speak to in three Particulars I. Although the reason of Christs death was different from the reason of the death of all other men yet the nature and definition of Christs death agrees withal Though the conception and birth of Christ was different from all others yet the nature of his death was not different the manner of dying indeed differed That in Heb. IX penult reacht Christ as well as others it was appointed for him to dye though upon a far different reason from what other men dye It is worth observing that Christs death was published and pronounced of before the death of Adam was denounced against him In Gen. III. 15. the death of Christ is mentioned in vers 19. the Death of Adam Which speaks that Christ died not of the Plague of mortality of which Adam and all his posterity dye but that his death was upon another kind of account Though Christ the second Adam was incomparably above the first in his innocence in regard of the Perfection of his nature and Person yet in regard of the certainty of Death as I may say he was beneath him For the excellency of his nature so far beyond him that whereas Adam was without sin Christ was without possibility of sinning But for certainty of dying so far otherwise that whereas Adam might not have dyed Christ could not but dye Socinians say Adam was created mortal because he was in a possibility to dye and because he died whereas indeed actually he was created immortal not as yet having any seeds or principles of mortality in his nature sin not being yet come there Christ was so much more without principles of mortality in him as that whereas Adam was sinless He could not sin and yet as I may say he had the principles of dying in him but not so much in his body as mind not in any failing of nature but in the holy bent of his own Will Death was not to him the wages of sin as it is to others nor to end sinning as it is to others but from clear contrary principles viz. Love to Man and Obedience to God The Death of Adam and of all other Men proceeded from disobedience the Death of Christ only from obedience The Death of Adam because he loved not himself nor his seed the death of Christ because he loved his people more than himself So that as to the reason of the death of Christ Jordan was driven back the stream ran a clean contrary way to the reason why other men dye and yet as to the nature and definition of his dying it agreed with the nature of the dying of other men For II. Define death What is it It is the separation of Soul from Body Mortal thou must once find this definition to be most true The Soul that that inliveneth the Body that gives it freshness of colour warmth life and motion when the Soul is departed all these are gone and the Body dead Here is the difference twixt death and a swoon or trance God shewed in Enoch and Elias what he would have done if man had continued innocent viz. Have translated Body and Soul to glory But when sin came in death came in and Soul and Body must be parted the Body to corruption the Soul into the World of
Souls to be disposed of according to its sinfulness or goodness But why should God thus dispose as to the taking men out of this World Why not the wicked Soul and Body to Hell and no more ado And why not the holy Soul and Body to Heaven I might say That Simeon and Levi that have been brethren in Evil might be scattered in Jacob that they conspire evil no more That Soul and Body that have been compartners in âinning might be severed from conjoyning to sin any more But what need we say more than that God hath thus sentenced upon sin that the Body that was created immortal should dye and see corruption and that Soul and Body that were in the nearest conjunction in this World should be disunited and the bonds of life dissolved and Soul and Body parted into two several Regions Oh! how bitter is this parting how dreadful the very thought of it to most in the World Why Christ did as really undergo this separation in his death as any other whatsoever Observable is the expiring of Christ upon his cross both in regard of the thing it self and of the manner of it Comparing the Evangelists together we shall see it the better S. John seems to make It is finished his last words Joh. XIX 30. S. Luke Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke XXIII 46. And add but the construction that the Centurion makes upon his crying out Mark XV. 39. Truly this was the Son of God They all say in our English He gave up the Ghost Which two of them viz. Mark and Luke express ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He breathed out his Spirit according as other dying persons do But Matthew and John have expressions very feeling Matthew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He let go his Spirit or his Soul And John ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He delivered it up Christ could not dye nay I may say he would not dye till all things were fulfilled that were written concerning his death Therefore when he had hung above three hours and knowing it was written They gave me Vinegar c. he said I thirst He tastes and finds it Vinegar and says It is finished now all is accomplished so he bows his Head and composeth himself to dye and cries Father into thy hands c. And having so said He let go his Soul and Delivered it up into the hands of God Remember that Joh. X. 17 18. and you see the sense of these expressions I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again He had life in his own hand and the Jews could not take it from him but he let it go himself and delivered it up When the Centurion saw that he thus cried out and gave up the Ghost he said Surely this man was the Son of God Doubtless this man hath the Disposal of his own life So strong a cry is not the cry of one that is spent and dying through weakness and faintting but it argues life strong and vigorous to be still in him and therefore he dies not of weakness but gives up his life at his own pleasure Shall we pass this great passage of our Saviour without a meditation Mortal men and women if your Lives and Souls were so at your own disposal could you so readily so willingly part with them and give them up to God They are not and time is a coming when we must part with them whether we will or no. Our Saviour hath taught us what to do against they be called for to get them in readiness to be comfortably willing to part with them and give them up into his hands I remember that passage of a good man dying Egredere anima quid times c. Go Soul depart why art thou affraid Thou hast served a good Master be not affraid to go to him It will be a hard pull to have the Soul and Body parted We had need to be getting the Soul loosned that when God calls it may not be unwilling and hang on and stick and be loth to go It was a hard perplexity with him that cried out Animula vagula blandula c. Ah! poor Soul thou must go and whither art thou to go To leave all thy worldly pleasures and delights and must away thou knowest not whither The hard and dreary parting is when the Soul is chained to the World as well as to the Body when it sticks to these things as well as to the Body and must be torn from all these too He that is dead to the World how easie how comfortable is it for that man to dye When he dies he hath nothing else to do but to resign his Soul to him that gave it So that though the manner of Christs parting Soul and Body were extraordinary yet his Soul and Body were as really parted at his death as other mens are III. His Soul thus parted from his Body went to Hades into another World to the place whither holy Souls go after death which himself expresseth in those words to the good Thief To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What does a Soul instantly after its departure Some say Walks the regions of Air and sees the secrets of nature there But Souls go not into another World to study but to receive rewards And I may say of any Soul departed as Christ of Peter Joh. XXI 18. When thou wast young thou girdest thy self and walkest whither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not So when the Soul was in the Body it went whither it would moved the Body whither it thought good did what it pleased was at its own pleasure but now being departed another hath girded it and if it be an evil Soul he carries it whither it would not if even the best Soul he hath fixed it that it is not at its own liberty as it was before The other World is the fixing of Souls in their place and condition that they flit no more change no more that as the Soul then is not in a mutable condition as it is here so not in a self-moving condition as here Observe that Eccles. XII 7. Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it A good Soul returns to God and a bad Soul too returns to God that gave it both return to God How Now they come intirely into Gods hands to be disposed of according to what was done by them in the flesh and he instantly disposeth them into Heaven or Hell That is the very day of retribution See Luke XVI 22 23. And it came to pass that the Begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom The rich man also died and was
buried And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torment c. Both suddainly disposed of the one to Heaven the other to Hell So we may take example from the two Thieves on the Cross the good Thief went presently to Paradise and the bad to his place and both these to Hades the word in the Creed Christ commends his Soul into his Fathers hands and it went into the hands of God What to do For God to dispose of it And how think you God would dispose of the Soul of Christ The Schools question whether Christ merited Salvation pro se for himself because the reason of the question is whether he set himself to merit pro se Did he or did he not the Soul of Christ after so holy a life and death could not but go to Salvation For what had the Soul of Christ now to do more towards mans Salvation and what could be done more towards its own Now having done all this what had the Soul of Christ to do more but to go to its rest till it be put again into its Body for the raising of that As the Scripture tells us holy Souls go to rest till at the last day they must meet their Bodies and then both shall rest together This passage of our Saviours Soul to Heaven upon his death is called his going to Hades the World of Souls and the place of holy Souls a place invisible to mortal Eyes which though it seems harshly expressed He descended into Hell yet must be interpreted from the Greek expression in this sense And the Phrase in the Greek teacheth that the Soul sleepeth not with the Body stayeth not here on Earth where the Body doth but hath a life when the Body is dead and goeth into another World to have a living or dying life Christs Soul to be separate but thirty six hours and yet it doth not stay and sleep with the Body but takes wing and flies into another World The Sadducee that thought the Soul died with the Body little considered what the nature of the Soul was Christian dost thou consider it Dost thou know what it is No I cannot see it But I may say as it is Rom. I. 20. The invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made So the invisible things of the Soul i. e. its spiritualness and immortality may be seen by the things it acts Prov. XX. 27. The Spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord. It s the Lords candle like that in the Tabernacle that never went out but was drest Morning and Evening and kept burning continually It is the Lords candle Searching all the inward parts of the Belly that is able to acquaint man with himself with his conscience his thoughts affections A candle that searcheth the things of nature looketh into the things of God Compare this Spirit with the Spirit of a Beast a Swine an Ox the acting of the Soul of Man in Wisdom Learning Contrivance with the acting of a Brute and then guess what is the nature of the Soul And if it be so active in the Body when fettred in flesh what think you it will be when loosed out And that it will be one day and go into another World not to be at its own liberty there but it goes to God to dispose of it and so he doth to Heaven or Hell Go away then with this meditation in thy bosom and keep it there My Soul must certainly one day go into the hands of God to receive her due reward FINIS A Chorographical Table OF THE Several Places contained and described in the Two Volumes of Dr. LIGHTFOOTS Works By Iohn Williams THe Jewish Writers divide the World into the Land of Israel and without the Land Vol. II. Pag. 1. The Land of Israel first called the Land of the Hebrews then Canaan and Palestine c. may be considered as to its length and breadth v. II. p. 327. The length of it is said in Scripture to be from Dan to Beersheba and from the entring in of Hamath North to the Sea of the Plain or Dead Sea South v. I. p. 90. v. II. p. 44 The Jews do reckon it from the Mountains of Amana or the upper Tarnegola which is at the neck of Anti-Libanus to the River of Egypt v. II. p. 3 62 517 Others do measure it by the Coast and if Phaenicia be included then from Sidon to Rhinocorura or the River of Egypt is 232 miles according to Antoninus But if Phaenicia be excluded then from the South bounds of that to Rhinocorura are 189 miles according to Pliny v. II. p. 10 322 The breadth of the Land within Jordan is not always the same since the Seas bounding on all sides here the Mediterranean there those of Sodom Genesaret and Samochonitis with the River Jordan cannot but make the space very unequal by their various Windings But if we take the measure of it from the Bay of Gaza to the Shoar of the Dead Sea it is upward of 50 miles and if we extend it also beyond Jordan then from Gaza to Pâtra the Metropolis of Moab is 110 miles as may be computed from Ptolomy and Pliny v. II. p. 320 321 The Jews do say That the Land of Israel contained a Square of Four hundred Parsae a Parsa is four miles which make 1600 miles v. II. p. 318 And they have a Tradition and not amiss that the utmost Bounds of the Land of Israel including the Land beyond Jordan was within three days Journey of Jerusalem v. II. p. 319. Sometimes the Land of Israel is bounded with Euphrates East as indeed the Holy Scriptures do and contiguous with Mesopotamia the River only between v. II. p. 365 The several Divisions of the Land It was anciently divided according to the People and Nations that inhabited it viz. the Canaanites Perizzites c. Vol. II. p. 202 328 When first possess'd by the Children of Israel it was parted among the twelve Tribes and upon the Division of the ten Tribes they were known by the two Names of Judab and Israel But after their return from Babylon it was divided by the Jews into Judea Galilee and the Land beyond Jordan or Peraea excluding Samaria To which if we add Idumea then was Palestine divided into five Countries viz. Idumea Judea Samaria Galilee and the Country beyond Jordan Vol. I. Pag. 282 â64 Vol. II. Pag. 4 61. There was also an Imperial Division of it viz. 1. Into Palestine more especially so called the Head of which was Caesarea 2. Palestine the second the Head of which was Jerusalem And 3. Palestine called Salutaris or the Healthful which its likely was the same with Idumea the less the Head of which may be supposed to be Gaza Asâalon or Elâutheropolis v. II. p. 293. A. ABel Abila are one and the same the Hebrew Abel being according to the Greek Termination Abila or Abella There were many places of that name Vol. II.
what 358 Council of the Jews of what Authority in the time of Christ of its place of residence and what sort and number of Men it was compounded of p. 248 to 251. The Council of the Jews transgressed many of their own Canons in Judging Jesus Christ. p. 263. Council used for Sanhedrin 355 Courses of the Priests in the second Temple did something differ from those in the first p. 377. Course of Abiah what p. 377. How many Courses were there and what were their turns in which they did Circulate p. 377 378 379 380. Stationary Men among the Courses what 378 Court of the Gentiles among the Jewish Writers is ordinarlly called the Mountain of the House those that were unclean might enter into this p. 28 29. The Gates of it 29 Court of the Women its dimensions situation Gates and parts 29 30 Court of the Temple its parts its length and breadth 32 33 Courts of Judicature there were three in the Temple 395 Coins some of the Jews Coins of the smaller value mentioned 142 Creation God created all things in six days and why not in a moment p. 1322. The World was created in September p. 1322 c. A new Creation or Redemption was performed on the day Adam was created p. 1315. Creation and Resurrection of Christ whether the greater work 1330 Creature all Creatures or every Creature a speech common among the Jews by which is understood all Men or all Nations but especially the Gentiles 359 360 1149 Criminals capital Criminals if Israelites were not Judged by the Sanhedrin with the Reasons why p. 611 to 614. The Sanhedrin gave to Jewish criminals a full hearing even after sentence if they themselves or any other had any thing to say for them p. 675. They were buried in differing places from other Men and had the Stone Wood Sword or Rope wherewith they were executed buried with them 676 Cruelty of the Jews great most barbarously destroying two hundred and twenty thousand Greeks and Romans at one time feeding on their flesh eating their bowels besmearing themselves with their blood and covering themselves with their skins c. p. 686 c. They also in Egypt and Cyprus destroyed two hundred and forty thousand Men in a most barbarous manner p. 686 687. Cruelty or slaughter prodigious in the East Indies 1295 Cup that Cup which Christ used was mixed with water 777 Cup in the Sacrament is not only the sign of the Blood of Christ and a Seal as a Sacrament but the very Sanction of the New Testament 778 Curses in the Old Testament the Jews applied to the Gentiles not to themselves 535 Cursing and Blessing how practised among the Jews 136 Custom of the Jews in praying what p. 1139. They said not Amen in the Temple but in Houses and in Synagogues p. 1139. What they said by way of response in the Temple 1139 Cutheans were Israelites and very exact in the Jewish worship c. 52 53 Cuthites and their Kingdom what p. 496. Cuthites for the Samaritans and whence p. 503. How far their Victuals were lawful to the Jews p. 538. What dealings the Jews might have or not have with them these Cuthites here spoken of were Samaritans 539 Cutting off in Scripture doth not intend Excommunication but the Divine Vengeance 142 Cymbal and tinkling Cymbal were two Balls of brass struck one against another 782 D. DAlmanutha what and whence the Name Page 307 309 310 Damascus spoke to as the scene of Paul's conversion 682 Damned it is impossible Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned p. 1350. The Damned not tormented under Ground 1342 Dan why not named among the sealed of the twelve Tribes Rev. 7. 1067 Dancing one way of expressing joy 196 Daniel how he came to scape when Nebucadnezzer's Image was set up as say the Jews 657 Daphne and Riblah the same Josephus mentions another Daphne 62 to 64 David put for the Messias 691 Day of the Lord Christ's coming in Glory and in the Clouds signifie only Christ's taking vengeance on the Jewish Nation p. 244 624. The Son cometh was exprest to be the same 245 Day of Judgment and Day of Vengeance put for Christ's coming with Vengeance to judge the Jewish Nation there are six differing ways of expressing it 346 Days of the week how reckoned by the Jews by the name of first and second c. of the Sabbath p. 274. The third Day much taken notice of by the Rabbins 481 Days of the Messias and the World to come sometimes distinguished sometimes confounded 743 Daemons Angels and Spirits distinguished among the Jews 483 Deacons there were three Deacons or Almoners in the Jews Synagogues 132 134 662 Dead what mourning was used for the Dead also what feasting and company p. 173. The Dead live in another World p. 230 231. The Jews had an opinion that the Dead did discourse one among another and also with those that were alive p. 457. Mourning for the Dead the way and method of it The Jews used to comfort the Mourners both in the way and at home p. 581 582. The washing used after touching a dead Body what p. 790. Praying for the dead founded by the Rhemists on that Text 1 John 5. 16. refuted 1094 Deaf and Dumb unfit to sacrifice c. 210 384 Death looks awakening and terrible upon the most Moral and Learned Men p. 16. Four kinds of Death were delivered into the Hands of the Sanhedrin p. 683. They are continued say the Jewish Writers by a Divine Hand now the Sanhedrin is ceased p. 705. Death what it is p. 1353. Why do Men dye i. e. why are they not removed Soul and Body into the other World without any more ado p. 1354. The difficulty of the Soul and Bodies parting at death 1354 Death of sin God stints the time of Mens rising from it which slipped is not to be retrieved 1238 1239 Decapolis the Region of it not well placed 314 Deciarii were one sort of Publicans 466 Dedication the Feast of it why called by the name of Lights 576 577. The Feast of Dedication is mentioned but once in all the Scripture and that only by bare naming of it in John 10. 22. p. 1033. The Original institution of this Feast of Dedication collected out of the Talmud Maimonides Josephus and the first Book of Maccabes p. 1035. It was kept on the twenty fifth day of the Month Cisâen or November p. 1035. Dedication the strange custom of lighting up of Candles therein used 1039 Defendant and Plaintif chose their Judges c. among the Jews 755 Degree and Pomp of the World countervail nothing with God 1210 1211 1212 Demoniacks why so many in Christs time more than at other times Page 175 Denarius and Luz were of the same value amongst the Rabbins 343 c. Dens and Caves vastly large and very numerous in the Land of Israel many of these were digged out of Mountains and Rocks by the
prophaned but when a scandalous person comes c. Our Respondent denyed the Major The other in proving it construed To tread under foot as much as To neglect or slight Which received this answer That neither the word in the Hebrew in the Old Testament nor in the Greek in the New siguifieth in that sense And that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies not prophaning but a higher maliciousness than ordinary slighting Again they used that Text for suspension from the Sacrament in 2. Thes. III. 6. That ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly Where our Doctor desired to know how this private proof would come up to a positive proposition For the proposition is of suspending another from the Sacrament and this of suspending our selves from company with another To which Dr. B. gave this answer That though the terms be different in the Proposition and Text yet the sense is the same Against which our Champion argued thus That in Matth. I. 19. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Put her away Erasmus and Brucioli the Italian render it He would depart from her This he conceived did much change that sense and spake not of any divorse at all from Joseph but makes him Passive Mr. P. answered again That the Apostle giving so strict a charge makes the Passive an Active He replied ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Law speaks in the Language of Man that the Reader or Hearer may best understand Now if the Apostle had mainly intended Actively I conceive saith he he would have spoke Actively Yet this Text being put to the Vote was carried in the Affirmative nemine contradicente but Dr. Lightfoot I perceive I must beg the Readers pardon for so large a relation of the canvasing of one single point But the use and pleasure of it may countervail its tediousness Whereby may be observed the manner of proceeding in that Assembly which it may be may be a curiosity at least not unacceptable to some ingenious persons and particularly the courage honesty quickness learning and intimate knowledge of the Holy Scriptures that appeared in the worthy Man of whom we are speaking Let us not be weary to hear his thoughts and discourse upon the other Sacrament of Baptism as we have heard him upon that of the Lords Supper Our Doctor did allow of private Baptism in some cases This was opposed by some who would have Baptism celebrated in publick only Here the Doctor insisted upon these things I. That in 1 Cor. I. I baptized the House of Stephanas was in Ecclesia constituta and the phrase importeth that it was not in a Synagogue II. Whereas some had asserted that Circumcision was publick he proved that it was generally private 1. Otherwise in great Towns every day sometimes would have been as a Sabbath for every day would some Child come to be eight days old 2. Moses his Wife and Judah at Chezib circumcised Children distant from any Congregation III. All the Nation was baptized when they were to come out of Egypt but this could not be in the Congregation IV. The Jews Pandect tells us That a Proselyte was to be baptized at home as a Servant by his Master but if either Servant or Master refuse then should he be brought before the Congregation Then was there a Learned discourse between our Author and another well skilled in Hebrew Learning concerning the import of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The one in a large discourse making it to mean dipping over head and cars Which Dr. Lightfoot largely also proved to imply no more but Sprinkling And finally made a challenge to them all to produce any one place in all the Old Testament where Baptizare when it is used De Sacris and in a Transient action is not used of Sprinkling And so assured he was of this That he declared he held Dipping unlawful and an ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a piece of Wilworship Concerning Keeping the Sabbath the first Proposition was That the Sabbath is to be remembred before it come c. That Phrase Before it come Our Doctor spake against as putting a Gloss upon the Commemoration of the fourth Commandment never heard of before But howsoever it was carried in terminis But he succeeded better in his dislike of the third Proposition which was That there be no feasting on the Sabbath he instancing in Christs feasting Luke XIV and in his feasting at least Dining with all his Disciples in Peters House Matth. VIII Whereupon it was thus proposed That the Diet on the Sabbath day be so ordered that no servants or others be unnecessarily kept from the publick Service The Assembly discoursing concerning Marriage whether it should be denyed to be a part of Gods Worship or whether it were to be held out as a mere civil thing Mr. G. alledged Eccles. VIII 2. I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God to shew obedience to Magistrates to be a mere Civil thing and yet it lays a tie of Obedience from God Dr. Lightfoot denyed that Gloss of the place and said That the Oath there is not an Oath taken by the Subject to David but the Oath made by God to Davids House When the Assembly had expounded the meaning of that Article He descended into Hell to be that he continued under the power of death he impleaded that sense as too short and not reaching to the meaning of the Greek phrase For saith he 1. There is not so much difference between He was dead till he rose again and He continued under the power of death till he rose again as to make two distinct Articles of the Creed 2. The Greek phrase is a phrase used among the Heathen originally and therefore from them best to be understood 3. That ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã among them signifies properly and constantly in relation to the Souls departed For this he cited Homer Diphilus and other Heathens which prove this undeniably 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã imports locomotion and there is a plain difference between Descending and Continuing in 5. It is without doubt that this Article came into the Creed upon emergent occasion because it was inserted after so many scores of years absence out Now the detention of Christ under death was not such an emergency as to cause an Article of so obscure a nature for expression of that which was so well known But it seems rather to have come in upon the Heresie of Apolinarius who denied Christ to have had a true humane Soul These things he pleaded at large and at last prevailed to have this clause In the state of the dead added to the explication but could not strain it to any expression of his Soul Of this Article he hath a just and learned Discourse in the second Volume of his Works That Proposition Christs whole Obedience is imputed to us the Assembly proved from that place among others Rom. V. 9 17 18 19. Against this
I might mention the care and regard he ever had to the family of the Cottons And I do remember that when I was a Student of Katharine Hall there was one who was a Cotton and an heir of that Family was likewise a Student and admitted there by the Doctors means over whom he had a more especial Eye and frequently had him sent for into his Lodgings to eat with him and confer with him and to shew kindness to him for Jonathans I mean his Great Uncles sake And out of respect to that dear name he caused one of his sons to be called Cottonus Nay he loved the very name of Bellaport the seat of Sir Rowland And I have a Letter which Sir Rowland wrote Anno 1629. in answer to his Epistle Dedicatory to him before his first Book that he published this beloved Letter the Doctor preserved unto his dying day as a kind of Sacred Relique upon which was wrote with his own hand Sir Rowland Cottons Letter And for a conclusion of our Discourse of Sir Rowland Cotton whom we have spoke so largely of and of whom Dr. Lightfoot could never talk enough hear the Conclusion of his Funeral Sermon upon him prepared though not Preached upon what occasion I know not That blessed Soul that is now with God in the night of its departure laid the burthen of this present Work upon me in these words You are my old acquaintance do me the last Office of a Friend make my funeral Sermon but praise me not A hard task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I who of all Men this day have the greatest cause to mourn for his loss that is departed should of all Men this day be allowed the least liberty of mourning because of this present work And a strange task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I must make to you all a Funeral Sermon and yet must tell to none of you for whom t is made For if I do but call him Sir Rowland Cotton I commend him It was not a time to say so then but now I dare say it over again a hard task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I must have much cause of tears for his death and yet not be allowed to weep and such reason of remembrance of his life and yet be denyed to praise I obey Blest Soul I obey but I am full I cannot hold Dispence with me something for I cannot hold It is for your sake Worthy Audience that I must hold tears lest they should hinder my speech Be pleased to give me liberty of speech in recompence of my restrained tears And it is for thy sake Blest Soul that I must withhold commendation lest I should break thy command give me liberty of indignation against that command in recompence of my restraint from thy Commendation Meus Tuus noster imo Christi as Hierom of Nepotianus so we of him whose departure we may commemorate My Sir Rowland Cotton Yours the Countries nay Christs hath forsaken us and because Christs therefore he hath forsaken us to go to him whose he wholly was Oh! that my head were waters or rather words for only that manner of mourning and my Tongue a fountain of tears for only that instrument of weeping is allowed me now that I might weep day and night not for him that is gone for he is gone where he always was and where he would be but for my self but for you but for the Country It is not my ambition but my sorrow that I claim the first place and to be first served in this heavy dole of lamentation For I have lost I cannot tell you what My Noble Patron my best Friend my Father my my Self I should lose if I should but begin to tell what he was to me Why should I speak more For should I speak my self away I could never speak enough Oh! my Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof How thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of Women And is it nothing to you O ye that sââ by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger He it was that first laid the foundation of my poor Studies and always watered them with his discourse and encouragement and now the Lord hath taken my Master from my head He it was under whose branches I sheltred when any storm was up and now my Tree of defence is cut down He it was that was my Oracle both for things of this life and of a better and now my Prophet is not any more He it was that was all things to me that man could be but now can be nothing to me but sorrow And is this nothing to you O all ye that sit by Yes the Cup is gone among you also and a great Man is fallen in your Israel Hath not the Magistracy hath not the Gentry hath not the Country lost such a Man as was But you must speak out the rest for his Command stops my mouth You of the Magistracy know how he had Wisdom in an high degree as was his calling and withal care and conscience answerable to his Wisdom to discharge his calling And you may commend this rarity in him I dare not You of the Gentry know that he was a prime Flower in your Garland that he spake a true Gentleman in all his actions in his comportment in his attendance in his talk once for all in his hospitality even to admiration and you may commend him I dare not c. A sensible strain of Rhetorick which passion and inward sorrow had as large a share in dictating as Art XIII His Relations HAving expatiated thus largely in our notices of this Man that we may omit nothing that is material we will now begin to consider him in his more private and personal capacity His Reverend Father had five Sons whereof our John was the second His eldest was Thomas the only of all his Sons bred to a secular employment being a trades Man The third Peter a very ingenious Man and practised Physick in Uttoxeter and besides his Art he was of great usefulness in that Country and often in Commissions for ending of differences He also had intended to have writ the Life of his Brother Dr. John Lightfoot but was prevented by death The next was Josiah who succeeded his Brother Dr. Lightfoot in his Living of Ashley the only of the Brothers now living The youngest was Samuel a Minister also but long since deceased And as it was his Honour that he was derived of an honest and gentile stock by both Father and Mother so it was a part of his Happiness that God blest him with a Posterity He was twice married and both times into Families of Worship His first Wife was Joyce the Daughter of Crompton of Staffordshire Esquire a Gentleman of a very antient
172 Ismael 86 Isaac 72 Iacob 12 their proper time it is most usual in Scripture thus Abrah 173 Ismael 87 Isaac 73 Iacob 13 to do in reckoning up mens ages as Genesis 5. and Abrah 174 Ismael 88 Isaac 74 Iacob 14 11. c. ABRAHAM dieth here read Gen. 25. vers 7 8 9 10. Isaac is of the very same age when Abraham dieth that Abraham was when the Promise came to him viz. seventy five years old The Promise now is come upon Isaac EBER dieth read Gen. 11. 17. He was the longest liver born since the Flood the father of the Hebrews and denominator of the Hebrew Tongue Religion staid in his family when all the world lost it beside and he liveth to see it gloriously setled in the families of Abraham and Isaac CHAP. XXVI THE time that Esau sold his birth-right and that Isaac went Ismael 98 Isaac 84 Iacob 24 to Gerar are both undated but it seemeth by Ismael 99 Isaac 85 Iacob 25 the Text that they were near together and that the famine Ismael 100 Isaac 86 Iacob 26 that caused Esau to part with his birth-right caused Isaac Ismael 101 Isaac 87 Iacob 27 to depart out of his own residence to go elsewhere to seek Ismael 102 Isaac 88 Iacob 28 for sustenance It appeareth that there was great scarcity of Ismael 103 Isaac 89 Iacob 29 victuals when Jacob is brought to his lentil pottage and Ismael 104 Isaac 90 Iacob 30 when Esau if he got not some of these pottage is like to Ismael 105 Isaac 91 Iacob 31 famish Many precious things were wrapped up in the Ismael 106 Isaac 92 Iacob 32 birth-right as the Priority the Promise the Priest-hood Ismael 107 Isaac 93 Iacob 33 and excellent priviledges and Esau for a mess of pottage Ismael 108 Isaac 94 Iacob 34 despiseth them all Compare this with Adams losing his Ismael 109 Isaac 95 Iacob 35 own and his posterities happiness for a morsel of meat Ismael 110 Isaac 96 Iacob 36 Isaac as his father had done denyeth his wife A Philistim Ismael 111 Isaac 97 Iacob 37 King sheweth here more conscience then he he prospereth Ismael 112 Isaac 98 Iacob 38 exceedingly in the land of the Philistims to the envy of the Ismael 113 Isaac 99 Iacob 39 inhabitants there World 2208 Ismael 114 Isaac 100 Iacob 40 ESAU marrieth Canaanitish wives a vexation to his Ismael 115 Isaac 101 Iacob 41 holy parents for this his impious Polygamy he is called a fornicator Ismael 116 Isaac 102 Iacob 42 Heb. 12. 16. for Polygamy is called fornication Ismael 117 Isaac 103 Iacob 43 or whoredom Hos. 4. 11. and upon this it seemeth that the Holy Ismael 118 Isaac 104 Iacob 44 Ghost giveth one of his wives the name of Adah the wife Ismael 119 Isaac 105 Iacob 45 of the first Polygamist in the world see Gen. 36. 2. and Gen. Ismael 120 Isaac 106 Iacob 46 4. 19. Esau here lay under a double offence namely for Polygamy Ismael 121 Isaac 107 Iacob 47 and for marrying in the stock of cursed Canaan Ismael 122 Isaac 108 Iacob 48 Polygamy in the men of the holy generation as Jacob David Ismael 123 Isaac 109 Iacob 49 and Solomon c. was of a more tolerable nature and Ismael 124 Isaac 110 Iacob 50 of more dispensableness because they sought to multiply Ismael 125 Isaac 111 Iacob 51 the holy seed which Esau was out of capacity to do Ismael 126 Isaac 112 Iacob 52 Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Ismael 127 Isaac 113 Iacob 53 Jacob and hated Esau Mal. 1. ver 2 3. What shall we say then Ismael 128 Isaac 114 Iacob 54 Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid For he saith Ismael 129 Isaac 115 Iacob 55 to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I Ismael 130 Isaac 116 Iacob 56 will have compassion on whom I will have compassion Rom. 9. Ismael 131 Isaac 117 Iacob 57 14 15. Both the Prophet and the Apostle do rather take Ismael 132 Isaac 118 Iacob 58 their example for election and reprobation in Jacob and Ismael 133 Isaac 119 Iacob 59 Esau then in Cain and Abel at the beginning of the old Ismael 134 Isaac 120 Iacob 60 world or in Sem and Ham in the beginning of the new Ismael 135 Isaac 121 Iacob 61 partly because the free acting and disposing of God is the Ismael 136 Isaac 122 Iacob 62 better shewed in the contrary disposal of these two that were known to be born at one birth and partly because in Jacob there began to be a distinguished people from all the world and the foundation of a distinct visible Church laid and partly since both were born of parents under the Promise that the spiritual and temporal vertue of the Promise might be differenced ISMAEL dieth 137 years old here read Gen. 25. from verse 12. to verse 19. and 1 Chron. 1. verse 28 29 30 31. There may be some argument that he was saved though once he persecuted World 2231 Ismael 137 Isaac 123 Iacob 63 and mocked and was expelled Abrahams house as Abrahams Isaac 124 Iacob 64 prayer for him and Gods promise towards him Gen. 17. 18 20. Isaac 125 Iacob 65 the reckoning of his age and using the very same expression of his Isaac 126 Iacob 66 death as are used of Abrahams Esau going to marry in his stock Isaac 127 Iacob 67 when his Canaanitish matches displeased his parents c. But howsoever Isaac 128 Iacob 68 it was with Ismael himself in matter of piety it is certain his Isaac 129 Iacob 69 posterity grew impious and were constant enemies to Israel they Isaac 130 Iacob 70 and the rest of the seed of Abraham by Keturah lived together in Isaac 131 Iacob 71 Arabiah and were brethren in evil The Turks are held by some to Isaac 132 Iacob 72 be of the seed of Ismael and their using Circumcision is used as an Isaac 133 Iacob 73 argument to confirm it but that may speak them as well if not rather Isaac 134 Iacob 74 the off-spring of the Jews captivated into the Northern parts Isaac 135 Iacob 75 of the world by Assyria and Babylon and now increased into these Isaac 136 Iacob 76 vast multitudes and poured out toward the western parts CHAP. XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX World 2245 Isaac 137 Iacob 77 ISAAC is now come to that age at which his brother Ismael died 14 years ago namely 137 and it is not improbable that the thought of his death at that age puts Isaac in mind of his own end and he accordingly disposeth towards it by conveying of the blessing and setling it upon one of his sons his sending Esau to hunt for venision that he might eat of his savoury meat and his soul might bless him was not because meat or drink would conduce for that spiritual purpose but he puts him to this that he might know whether he should bless him or no for his missing of venison
Christ from beyond Jordan into Judea again He staies two days after he had received the message in the same place where the messenger found him and in the story of this Section he is set forward And being now upon his last journey to Jerusalem he foretelleth to his Disciples what should become of him there They followed him with fear and amazement before foreseeing that he went upon his own danger and yet when he had spoken the thing out to them at the full they understood him not SECTION LXVIII MATTH Chap. XX. from Ver. 20. to Ver. 29. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 35. to Ver. 46. The request of Zebedees sons They are told of their Martyrdom THe order is plain of it self and yet the connexion is somewhat strange for in the last words before Christ had foretold of his death yet the Sons of Zebedee here desire to sit on his right hand and left in his Kingdom Galatius resolves it thus Discipuli in errore aliquando fuerunt credentes Christum illico post resurrectionem terreni regni sceptro potiturum unde quidam eorum super caeteros primatum ambientes c. The Disciples sometimes were mistaken conceiving that Christ presently after his resurrection should obtain the scepter of an earthly Kingdom whereupon some of them ambitious of priority above the rest desired to sit on his right hand and left c. lib. 4. cap. 1. It is true indeed that the Jewish Nation and the Disciples with them erred in judging about Messias his Kingdom Act. 1. but they erred as far also about Messias his Resurrection till experience had informed them better Therefore it cannot well be imagined that the Wife and Sons of Zebedee thought of Christs Resurrection in this their request but conceived of his temporal Kingdom according to the notions of the rest of the Nation about it What therefore our Saviour had spoken instantly before of his being scourged crucified killed and Rising again they understood in some figurative sense or other but the Evangelists plainly tell us they understood it not in the sense that he spake it It may be his naming these two The sons of thunder gave them some blind incouragement to such a request Christ foretels his own death and their suffering Martyrdom under the title of Baptism in which sense the Apostle also useth the word 1 Cor. 15. 29. The Jewish baptizings or dippings in their purifications was a very sharp piece of Religion when in frost and snow and wind and weather they must over head and ears in cold water from which the phrase was used to signifie death and the bitterest sufferings The Jerusalem Gemarists do tell us that the Women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the cold in their purifyings R. Aha in the name of Tanchum bar R. Chaia saith In the days of R. Joshua ben Levi they sought to abolish this dipping because of the women of Galilee which were made barren by reason of the cold R. Joshua ben Levi saith Do ye seek to abolish a thing that fenceth Israel from transgression c. Beracoth fol. 6. col 3. SECTION LXIX LUKE Chap. XVIII Ver. 35. to the end MATTH Chap. XX. from Ver. 29. to the end MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 46. to the end Blind healed CHRIST in his journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany for the raising of Lazarus passeth through Jericho and he healeth one blind man as he entreth into Jericho of which Luke speaketh and another as he goeth out of which the other two Matthew indeed speaketh of two healed as he came out of Jericho comprehending it may be the story of him that was healed on the other side of the Town and this together in one story for briefness sake Or if there were two healed on this side of the Town Mark only mentions one because he rather aimeth at shewing of the manner or kind of the miracle then at the number as we have observed the like before at Sect. 39. SECTION LXX LUKE Chap. XIX from the beginning to Ver. 29. Zaccheus a Publican converted THe order lies plain in ver 1. Christ was passed through Jericho before he met with Zaccheus c. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai hath made the name Zaccai or Zaccheus renowned in Jewish writings his Father Zaccai might very well be now alive and for any difference of the times might well enough be the Zaccheus before us but that some other circumstances do contradict it Whosoever this man was it is observable that though his name Zaccheus speak him a Jew yet Christ reputes him not a Child of Abraham till he believe ver 19. Ver. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of Heaven should immediately appear Observe this this they had learned from Dan. 9. where the time is so punctually determined that they that looked for the consolation of Israel could not but observe it and they that observed could not but see it now accomplished SECTION LXXI JOHN Chap. XI from Ver. 17. to the end of the Chapter Lazarus raised Caiaphas Prophecieth NOw is Christ come up to Bethany Whether ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã mentioned by Talm. Bab. Pasachin fol. 53. facie 1. where they speak of the figs of Bethhene and the dates of Tubni be the same with this Bethany we shall not dispute here Both a Town and some space of ground about it was called by this name Bethany As he had staied in the place where he was when he heard of Lazarus sickness purposely that he might die before he came to him that God might be the more glorified by his raising ver 15. so did he make sure to stay long enough after he was dead before he came that the glory might be the more He had been four days dead ver 39. Compare with this these sayings of the Jews Maym. in Gerushin per. ult If one look upon a dead man within three days after his death he may know him but after three days his visage is changed Jerus in Moed Katon fol. 82. col 2. Three days the Soul flies about the body as if thinking to return to it but after it sees the visage of the countenance changed it leaves it and gets it gone Upon the miracle wrought the Jews seek to kill Jesus and Lazarus both whereupon Jesus goeth to a City called Ephraim ver 54. Talm. Bab. in Menachoth fol. 85. fac 1. Juchne and Mamre Jannes and Jambres said to Moses Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim Gloss. Ibi. Juchne and Mamre were the chief Sorcerers of Egypt they when Moses began to do miracles thought he had done them by magick they said Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim Ephraim was a place that exceedingly aboundeth with corn and darest thou bring Corn thither meaning Dost thou bring Sorceries into Egypt that abounds so with Sorceries Aruch in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ephraim was a City in the Land of Israel where there was abundance of Corn. Where is the chiefest provision for Offerings The chiefest
for fine Flower are Micmash and Zanoah and next to them Ephraim in the Vale. JOHN Chap. XII from begin to Ver. 12. A Supper at Bethany Jesus his feet anointed THe connexion of this story to the preceding Chapter is plainly made by the Evangelist himself Compare ver 55. of Chap. 11. and ver 1. of this Though there were a Proclamation out against Jesus for his life Chap. 11. 57. yet cometh he for Jerusalem and Lazarus at Bethany is not afraid to entertain him He may well venture his life for him who had received it from him It was their Sabbath day at night when he had this Supper a time that they used to have extraordinary cheer Mary who had anointed his feet before Luke 7. 38. doth the like again There is a groundless and a strange opinion of some that the Supper in Matth. 26. 6 7. and Mark 14. 3. was the same with the Supper in John 12. An imagination that I cannot enough admire at seeing there are so many things plainly to gainsay it but the discussion of it shall be deferred till we come to those Chapters Only one particular here may not be omitted without observation and which will make something at present toward the confutation of that opinion and that is our Saviours answer in the vindication of Maries act Let her alone against the day of my burial hath she kept this or rather She hath kept it Not that he meaneth that this anointing of his feet was her anointing him against his burial but that she had kept some of this oyntment yet for that purpose hereafter Judas repined at the expence of the oyntment that she used for the anointing of his feet and pleaded that it had been better bestowed upon charitable uses for the poor Why saith Christ she hath kept it yet and not spent all that she may bestow it upon a charitable use the anointing of my body to its burial For 1. neither the text doth any whit assert that she spent the whole pound that she brought nor indeed in reason was so great a quantity needful 2. It was not so proper to apply it to his burial now when as he was to ride in triumph to Jerusalem to morrow as it was two daies before the Passover when the other Supper and anointing was which was the very night when Judas compacted for his betraying 3. Then Christ saith she poured it upon his body Matt 26. 12. which cannot be of the same sense with pouring it upon his feet only She therefore six days before the Passover anointed his feet which was an ordinary use among the Jews to have their feet anointed and the Talmudists give some rules about it in Talm. Jerus Sanhedr fol. 21. col 1. and this she doth in dear love and affection to him But two daies before the Passover she doth not so much anoint his head as pour the Ointment upon his head that it might run all over his body and this she did towards his burial not only in his construction but in her own intention she being the first we read of that believed his death as she was the first that saw him after his resurrection Her faith and fact he foresaw and therefore saith now at the anointing of his feet that she yet kept it for the anointing of his body which when she did he extols the fact with this encomion that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached that action of her the example of the first faith in his death should be published in memorial of her Thus did this Mary who as hath been shewed was Mary Magdalen anoint Christ three several times his feet at her first conversion and his feet again at this time six daies before the Passover and his head and body two daies before the Passover even that night that Judas first went about to make his bargain for betraying him SECTION LXXII MATTH XXI from the beginning to Ver. 17. MARK XI from the begin to the middle of Ver. 11. LUKE XIX from Ver. 29. to the end JOHN XII from Ver. 12. to Ver. 20. CHRIST rideth upon an Ass into Jerusalem JOHN maketh the connexion plain when he saith On the next day c. And sheweth that as Christ went up at this time in the evidence and accomplishment of that Prophesie Zech. 9. 9. so he also went up in the equity and answering of that Type of taking up the Paschal Lamb on the tenth day Exod. 12. 3. for this was on that very day and the Lamb of God doth now go in as giving up himself for the great Paschal John telleth us that he lay at Bethany the night before this and yet the other Evangelists have related it that when he came to Bethpage and Bethany he sent two of his Disciples for the Ass c. The Jews Chorography will here help us out They tell us 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Two thousand cubits was the Suburbs of a City Maym. in Schabh per. 27. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Two thousand cubits were the bounds of a Sabbath or a Sabbath days journey Talm. in Sotah per. 5. 3. Bethpage was of this nature it was not a Town upon mount Olivet as it hath been very generally supposed and accordingly placed in the most Maps but it was some buildings and that space of ground that lay from Jerusalem wall forward towards mount Olivet and up mount Olivet to the extent of two thousand cubits from the wall or thereabout and hereupon it was reputed by the Jews of the same qualification with Jerusalem as a part of it in divers respects Talm. Bab. Pesachin fol. 63. fac 2. He that slays a Thanksgiving Sacrifice within while the bread belonging to it is without the wall the bread is not holy What means without the wall R. Jochanan saith Without the wall of Bethpage The Gloss there âaith Bethpage was an outer place of Jerusalem And the same Gloss useth the very same words again upon the same Tract fol. 91. fac 1. And again in the same Treatise fol. 95. fac 2. the Mishna saith thus The two loaves and the shewbread are allowable in the Temple Court and they are allowable in Bethpage Nay the Gloss in Sanhedr fol. 14. fac 1. saith Bethpage was a place which was accounted as Jerusalem for all things So that the place so called began from Jerusalem and went onwards to and upon mount Olivet for the space of a Sabbath daies journey or thereabout and then began the coast that was called Bethany And hence it is that Luke saith that Christ when he ascended into Heaven led forth his Disciples as far as Bethany Luke 24. 50. which elsewhere he sheweth was the space of a Sabbath days journey Acts. 1. 12. which cannot be understood of the Town Bethany for that was fifteen furlongs or very neer two Sabbath daies journey from Jerusalem but that he led them over that space of ground which was called Bethpage to that part of Olivet
some machination against himself he had now shut up in prison and intended him presently for the execution but that his sickness whereof he died seizing on him gave some more space to the imprisoned and some hopes and possibilities of escaping His disease was all these mixed together an inward burning and exulceration an insatiable greediness and devouring the Chollick the Gout and Dropsie his loins and secrets crawling with lice and a stink about him not to be indured These wringings and tortures of his body meeting with the peevishness of old age for he was now seventy and with the natural cruelty which always had been in him made him murderously minded above all measure insomuch that he put to death divers that had taken down a golden Eagle which he had set up about the Temple And when he grew near to his end and saw himself ready to die he slew his Son Antipater and caused great multitudes of the Nobility and People to be closed up in a sure place giving command to slay them as soon as he was dead for by that means he said he should have the Jews truly and really to sorrow at his death Vid. Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 8 9 10. and de Bel. lib. 1. cap. 21. Vers. 20. For they are dead that sought the young childs life The like saying is to Moses Exod. 4. 19. where the word they may be understood of Pharaoh and his servants which jointly sought his life for the Egyptians sake whom he had slain and were now all dead and worn out in the fourty years of his being in Midian But here it is true indeed that the seeking of the childs life may well be applied to Herods Servants as well as himself but that all they died with him or about the time of his death who in flattery or favour or obedience to him had promoted the slaughter at Bethlehem and had sought the childs life I know not upon what ground it should be conceived I should therefore by the they in this place understand Herod and his Son Antipater jointly together For if it be well considered how mischievous this Antipater was against his own Brethren and how he wrought their ruine and misery for fear they should get betwixt him and the throne yea how he sought the destruction of his own Father because he thought he kept him out of the Throne too long it may very well be believed that he would bloodily stir against this new King of the Jews that the wisemen spake of for fear of interception of the Crown as well as his Father He died but five days before his fathers death as it was touched before out of Josephus and thus God brought this bloodliness of the Father and the Son and the rest of their cruelties to an end and upon their own heads at once and in a manner together and thus may the words of the Angel be very fairly understood Take the child and return to the Land of Israel for Herod and Antipater are dead that sought his life Ver. 22. Archelaus did reign in Iudea in the room of his Father Herod Herod had first named Antipater for his Successor in the Throne of Judea but upon detection of his conspiracy against him he altered his mind and his will and nominated Antipas and changing his mind yet again he named Archelaus and he succeeded him a man not likely to prosper in a Throne that was so bebloodied His conclusion was that in the tenth year of his reign he was accused by the Nobles of Judea and Samaria to Augustus banished to Vienna and his estate confiscate Jos. Ant. lib. 17. cap. 15. Ver. 23. He shall be called a Nazarene From Isa. 11. 1. where the Messias is called by the title Nezer which indifferently signifieth A branch and the City Nazaret one and the same word denoting Christ and the place where he should be born SECTION VIII S. LUKE CHAP. II. Christ sheweth his wisdom at twelve years old Ver. 40. AND a a a a a a Compare Exod. 2. 10. 1 Sam. 2. 26. Jud. 16. 24. the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him 41. Now his Parents went to Ierusalem b b b b b b Exod. 23. 15. 17. every year at the Feast of the Passover 42. And when he was twelve years old they went up to Ierusalem after the custom of the Feast 43. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned the Child Iesus tarried behind in Ierusalem and Ioseph and his mother knew not of it 44. But they supposing him to have been in the company went a days journey and they sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance 45. And when they found him not they turned back again to Ierusalem seeking him 46. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the Temple sitting in the middest of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them questions 47. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers 48. And when they saw him they were amazed and his mother said unto him Son why hast thou thus dealt with us Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing 49. And he said unto them How is it that ye sought me Wist ye not that I must * * * * * * Or In my Fathers house be about my Fathers business 50. And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them 51. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart 52. And Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men Reason of the Order THE Order of this Section dependeth so clearly upon the proper Order of that preceding that that being made good to lie where it doth as in the proper place the subsequence of this to it can nothing at all be doubted of For whereas all the Evangelists have unanimously passed over in silence all those years of Christs minority which intervened or passed between his return out of Egypt and this passage of his at twelve years old there is nothing possible to be found in the Gospels that can come between to interpose this order and connexion The carriage and demeanour of our Saviour in the time between is only briefly comprised in the first verse of this portion And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Harmony and Explanation Ver. 40. And the child grew c. TWO years Old he was when he went into Egypt and there he aboad in his Exile a very small time it may be some two or three months about such a space as Moses had been hid in Egypt in his Fathers house from the fury of Pharaoh When he returned to Nazareth his Mothers City being now about two years and a quarter old he
words of Christ the man had received healing though he had said no more to him since none that came to him in faith went away not sped Yet herein lyeth some scruple and question how the forgiveness of his sins could have influence into the healing of his disease Since that is the cure of the soul and not of the body and since justified persons are as incident to diseasdness and to death as those that are not justified There is a passage in the Prophet Esay something agreeable to this matter in hand and that is in Chap 33. 24. The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity Now in such passages as these there seemeth reference to be had to those curses threatned for violation of the Law in Deut. 28. amongst which there are sad diseases of body and mind mentioned and denounced vers 21 22 27 28 35 59 60 61. And from that ground seemeth to have risen their giving up men that were palpable offenders to a Cherem or a curse and the giving up of men to Satan For as for incorrigible offenders that would not be reclaimed by correction and for whom there was no express and positive Law to put them to death what was there to be done with them But to devote them solemnly and to leave them to those curses that God denounced against such violaters of his commandements which Judicial process founded upon the warrant and belief of his word it pleased the Lord very often to follow with answerable effect and such a person became a curse among his people as Numb 5. 27. And this I suppose to be the giving up to Satan mentioned in the Scripture as devoting such a wretch out of the care and protection of God to the power and disposal of the Devil And this that common and proverbial speech among the Jews ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pack to Satan which is to be found in their Talmudical writers seemeth to have respect and reference unto And accordingly divers diseases in the Gospel are ascribed to the inflicting of Satan as Luke 13. 16. 11. 14. c. And the giving up of the person to Satan 1 Cor. 5. must be for the destruction of the flesh vers 5. Vers. 5. Whether it is easier to say Thy sins be forgiven thee c. It was indeed a truth that the Scribes aimed at when they said this man blasphemeth namely that none can forgive sins but God only but their ignorance concerning the person about whom they spake did cause themselves to blaspheme when they said he blasphemed In this answer of Christ to them whether it is easier to say c. 1. He meaneth not whether is it easier to pronounce those words but whether is it easier to effectuate those words that is to do those things that the words do mean namely to forgive sins or to heal a palsie 2. He meaneth that it had been an easier thing to have said Rise take up thy bed and walk and so to have recovered the man of his malady as a Prophet or one indued with the gift of miracles might have done But 3. that he said Thy sins are forgiven thee purposely that they might take notice not only by his uttering of the words but also by the effect that was to follow them that he had power to forgive sins As he had mightily revealed his power in the two cures that he had wrought in the stories before in casting out a Devil and healing a Leper so doth he here shew this power a greater power than either of those and it may be conceived That he purposely useth those word Thy sins are forgiven thee for the mans healing rather than Rise take up thy bed not only because he would shew his own power to forgive sins but because he would glorifie the doctrine of forgiveness of sins before these Pharisees who stood altogether upon legal righteousness And so at once would shew the great work of the Messias to save his people from their sins as Matt. 1. 18. and the great tenor of the Gospel faith and remission of sins He saw their Faith and said Thy sins are forgiven Vers. 9. He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the Receipt of Custom Matthew is now writing his own story and he is not ashamed to speak the worst of himself that the grace of God might be the more magnified in him and to tell you that he was of the worst sort of men namely a Publican as he speaks it out Chap. 10. 3. He was also called Levi for so Mark and Luke do style him and whether he carried these names one before his calling and the other after it is but needless to enquire since double-namedness among the Jews was so familiar He was the Son of Alpheus or Cleopas and so Christs kinsman and thus that one man hath four sons that were Apostles namely James called the less and Judas called also Lebbeus and Thadeus and Simon called the Canaanite and Levi called also Matthew Matthew it seemeth was a Publican at Capernaum Custom-house on the Sea side for so it appeareth by the relation of Mark to gather tribute or Custom of Passengers over the water and of those whose imployment lay in that Sea of Galilee And here I cannot but mention a Gloss of Rabbi Solomon on Judg. 5. 10 11. You saith he that walk afoot by the way speak and mention this deliverance which you have from the noise of those that shot at you from Ambushes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thieves and Publicans that lay in wait by stocks to surprise those that came over the waters And the Chaldee Paraphrast at the same place speaketh of the Publicans sitting besides the waters And to this purpose also may be produced that Tradition in the Treatise Sabbath per. 8. To carry out ink on the Sabbath to write with it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one of the Publicans Tickets and to carry out one of the Publicans Tickets was unlawful The Gemarists there explain what these Publicans Tickets were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã How big say they was one of these Publicans Tickets It was two great Letters written in Paper or on something else c. And the intent of these Tickets were that he that had paid his whole toll or Custom on this side the water shewing it when he came on the other side of the water he was freed from paying any more Now Publicans were of two sorts either those that voluntarily set themselves to a mony-changing and mony-breaking trade and in that trade by cheating and oppression raised profit and such Baal Aruch meaneth when he speaketh of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Publican that sets up of himself or such as were set up by the Romans to gather their Tribute of the Jews as saith Haggaon and they favoured some in partiality and on others they laid load and exacted more than right and proved but thieves Aruch
doth hereby more clearly open that mystery of God in Christ than if he had spoken only of believing himself or only of believing the Father 2. There are some that conceive that he speaketh of believing him that sent him rather than of believing him himself that by this humble reference of all to God he might make his speech more accceptable to the hearers 3. Compare this passage with Exod. 20. 19. and Deut. 18. 16 17 18. His expression of passing from death to life seemeth to refer either to the doom upon Adams not hearkening to the voice of God thou shalt die the death or to the codition under which every man is left by the Law namely under a curse from which hearkning to the voice of the Gospel is deliverance Or it may be it is spoken in some parallel to the case of the man healed for he by hearkening to the Word of Christ received health of body so whosoever heareth his Word obtains life of the Soul And thus doth Christ still make good the word that he had spoken to the man for a dispensation with the Sabbath and argueth that he might do such a thing because he was to give the Law and Word of the New Testament as the Father had done of the Old and sheweth that though violation of the Sabbath deserved and had been punished with death yet obedience to his Word and Command was discharge and a passing from death to life Vers. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God c. 1. These words are most generally understood as aiming at those dead that Christ raised by his voyce or word to life again as saying to Jairus daughter Talitha Kumi to the widdows son of Naim Young man arise and to Lazarus Lazarus come forth And being taken in such a relation the connexion of them to the words going immediately before lyeth thus Christ had spoken there of his spiritual reviving whosoever should believe his Word and here he either produceth a proof and evidence of what he had there spoken or else alledgeth it as another wonder and virtue of his power that by his voyce he would raise those that were bodily deceased And he ascribeth this reviving to the hearing of his voyce partly because he had ascribed the spiritual reviving to the hearing of his Word and partly to distinguish his rasing of those dead from the raising of those that were revived under the Old Testament for they were not raised by a word but by other applications 1 King 17. 21. 2 King 4. 34. 13. 21. 2. It was the opinion of the Jews that there should be a resurrection in the days of Messias The Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth Hos. 6. 2. thus He will revive us in the days of consolation Luke 2. 25. which are to come in the day of the Resurrection of the dead And Hos. 14. 8. thus They shall be gathered out of their captivity they shall sit under the shadow of their Messias and the dead shall revive and good shall be multiplyed on the Earth And Esay 49. 9. I give thee for a Covenant to the people to raise the righteous that lye in the dust And Kimchi on Esay 26. 19. The Holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of deliverance And in Jer. 23. 20. In that he saith Ye shall consider it and not They shall consider it it intimateth the Resurrection of the dead in the days of the Messias And on Ezek. 37. It may be God shewed Ezekiel the vision of the dead bones reviving to signifie to him that he would raise the dead of Israel at the time of deliverance that they also might see the deliverance Ab. Ezr. in Dan. 12. 2. The righteous that dyed in the captivity shall revive when the Redeemer cometh c. And this was so far the opinion of the Nation that they understood the term The World to come of the state of glory and yet of the days of Messias as shall be shewed when we meet with that phrase Now there was a Resurrection in the days of the Messias accordingly not only of those three that have been named but also of divers Saints whose graves were opened and bodies arose Mat. 27. 52. And if the words that we have in hand be applyed to the raising of dead in a bodily sense they may most properly be pointed to that Resurrection which was so parellel to the expectation of the Jews and Christ asscribing such a matter to himself doth prove himself to be the Messias even they and their own opinion being Judges 3. But the raising of the dead is taken in Scripture also in a borrowed sense namely for the reviving and quickning of those that were dead in trespasses and sins c. as Ephes. 2. 1. And that sense doth seem more agreeable to this place because our Saviour in the verse before doth apparently speak of such spiritual reviving The calling in of the Gentiles to the Gospel is called a Resurrection in divers places of the Scripture as Esa. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my Body they shall rise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out her dead What dead these are that were to rise with Christs body from the dead is not so much intimated in that passage of the Evangelist The bodies of divers Saints arose Matth. 27. 52. as in that saying of our Saviour There shall no sign be given them but the sign of Jonah the Prophet By which he doth not only signifie his own death and Resurrection but he doth also gall the Jews with an intimation of the calling of the Gentiles upon his Resurrection as the Ninivites were called upon Jonahs Resurrection out of the grave of the Whales belly And that dew of his that should inliven men as the dew doth herbs is the dew of the Doctrine of the Gospel as Deut. 32. 2. And so likewise Hos. 6. 2. speaketh to the very same tenor of Christs raising the dead in a spiritual sense upon his own Resurrection which was on the third day And so is the Resurrection in Ezek. 37. plainly expounded in that very chapter to be in a spiritual sense and so the Apostle construes it Rom. 11. 15. Amd the calling of the Gentiles is styled the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 5. c. That Christ meaneth the dead and the raising of the dead in this sense in this place might be argued upon these observations 1. Because throughout his speech hitherto and some steps further the scope of his discourse is namely to prove his all powerful rule and disposal of the affairs under the Gospel equal to what the Father had under the Law of which the calling of the Gentiles was one of the most eminent and remarkable 2. Because as was said before his very last words preceding were of passing
Bullock whereof mention is made Deut. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 35. 7 8 9. Now these Bullocks were indeed slain at Passover time but not for the Passover beast properly taken for that must be of a Lamb or Kid unalterably but these Bullocks were slain as attendants upon the Paschal from the nature of which Sacrifice they differed in these particulars First the Paschal Lamb was always and all of him rosted these were sodden 2 Chron. 35. 13. Secondly the Paschal Lamb was rosted whole and eaten without breaking the bones these were broken piecemeal and so parted among the people The Paschal Lamb was a necessary service to which they were bound by command these were arbitary according to their stay in Jerusalem in the Passover week for if they would they might return home the next morning after the Paschal Lamb was eaten Deut. 16. 7. and then they needed no Bullock to be killed for their dyet the rest of the Feast but if they stayed any more days of the Feast at Jerusalem than the first then was not their dyet arbitary to eat any thing what they would but they must eat of these Bullocks because their dyet must be holy at time Hence resulteth another difference betwixt the Paschal Lamb and these which is this that these were not of the first institution of the Passover nor had they any Bullocks slain at the Passover in Aegypt but Lambs only SECTION XIX That the supper in Ioh. 13. was not the Passover Supper FIRST It is very commonly held that the Supper in John 13. was the Passover Supper and that Judas stayed not the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for that our Saviour having dipped a sop into the bitter or sowre sawce which they used to the Paschal Lamb and given it to him Satan with it entring into him he packed him away with What thou doest do quickly An opinion mistaken in the ground-work that it builds upon and consequently in the structure built upon it For that that was no passover at all the Evangelist makes it most plain in ver 1. when he saith it was before the Feast of the Passover and Matthew in Chap. 26. 2. telleth it was two days before and indeed two miles from Jerusalem namely in Bethany The serious Harmonizing of the four Evangelists together at this place will make this most clear Secondly if then it were not the Passover Supper there can be no Paschal Lamb looked for at it nor no Haroseth or sawce of bitter herbs to eat it with but the meat that they were then eating and the sawce in which our Saviour dipped the sop was ordinary meat and ordinary sawce Thirdly Judas when he was packed away with his Quod facis fac cito went not from Jerusalem to Gethsemanai where Christ was apprehended by him on the Passover night but he went from Bethany to Jerusalem to bargain with the chief Priest for his betraying which when he had done he returned to Bethany again SECTION XX. Borrowing Egyptian Iewels Exod. 12. 35 36. IT may be equally questionable whether Israel shewed less honesty in borrowing what they meant not to restore or Aegypt less wisdom in lending what they knew would not be restored For the first it is easily aswered that they had the express warrant of God who cannot command unrighteousness and whom to obey in all things is piety The second is as easily resolved thus that Idolaters in the worship of their Idols used to deck themselves with Jewels and Ear-rings and fine things thereby to make them as they thought the more acceptable to their fine decked Diety So do the Aegyptians now conceive of Israel that seeing they desired these their fine knacks being now going to sacrifice they intended to sacrifice to the Aegyptian gods as they had done heretofore and they thought sure there can be no danger of departing the Land because they still adhere to our Religion For Moses had but still spoken of going three days journey into the Wilderness to worship SECTION XXI Rameses and Succoth vers 37. THE most famous of the Dieties of Aegypt was their Goddess Isis mentioned in all Heathen Authors of her doth the last Syllable in Raam-ses and Rame-ses seem to sound as being Towns that bare the name of this Goddess and importing the Town or Temple or some such thing of Isis. For that which the Aegyptians called Ses or Sis other Languages in pronouncing would augment with a vowel before for so was it ordinary Aegypt at home was called Cophti but forreigners did call it Ecopti and so it came to be Egypti So the Sea that lay among the Gentiles of Greece was in Hebrew Mare Goiim the Sea of the Gentils but other Nations would put E before and so it came to be called Egoiim or Egaeum The Syrian and Arabick Testaments and the writing of Jewish Authors are full of examples of this nature Succoth is held to have been so called because Israel here lodged and pitched their tents in their March out of Aegypt but they marched too much in suspition of Pharaohs pursuit to settle a Camp and to pitch tents so near him But it rather seemeth to have taken denomination from the cloud of glory coming upon them in this place which was as a covering to them Psalm 135. 39. This their Divine conducter stayed with them till Moses death save that it was taken up for a while because of the golden Calf as Moses death it departed from them for when they are to march through Jordan the Ark is to lead the way which while the cloud was with them it never did but went in the body and very heart of the Army As the cloud departed at the death of Moses the first Prophet so is it restored and seen apparently at the sealing of the great Prophet Luke 9. 30. SECTION XXII The decree at Marah Exod. 15. 25. SHAM Sam lo hhok umishpat There he set a decree and a judgment for them God is beginning now to compose and platform the people into a setled policy which while they were under the fear and danger of Pharaoh could not be done And here he passeth a decree and judgment upon them what they must look for in the wilderness according to their dealing with him If they will diligently hearken to his words c. he will heal and keep them free from diseases as he healed those brackish waters and of bitter had made them sweet but if otherwise they must expect accordingly Those that have obscured this place by questioning whether this Ordinance at Marah were for the Sabbath or for the red Cow or for the trial of the suspected Wife or for the dimensum of their diet in the Wilderness have made obscurity where there is none at all and have supposed this to have been an Ordinance whereafter Israel was to walk whereas it was rather a decree whereafter God would deal with them according to their walking And answerably seem the latter words Vesham Nissahu to
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. Thou wilt not give my soul up And why should not the very same words My God my God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diphilus apud Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. Vers. 38. Be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that their Baptism was not
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 Maârina 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
Apostle or Antioh a chief Church above others more than by humane preferring or Antioch yet a Church and were all these proved which never will be yet is the inference or argumentation thereupon but of small value and validity 6. His last Argument is from Authorities which at last he gathereth into the Center of a Councel at Rome pag. 332. But Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica veritas As for his answers to Eusebius that calleth Evodius the first Bishop of Antioch his answer to Ignatius that saith he was placed there by the Apostels more than one and to Onuphrius that maketh Peter Bishop of Rome before he was Bishop of Antioch be they referred to the perusal of his own Text for the matter is not worth the labour of examining them Vers. 32. Lydda This seemeth to be the same with Lod 1 Chron. 8. 12. A City in the Tribe of Benjamin mentioned Ezra 2. 33. Vers. 35. Saron Heb. Sharon A fertile valley famous in Scriptures as 1 Chron. 27. 29. Esa. 33. 9. Cant. 2. 1 c. where the Targum renders it the garden of Eden and the LXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a field or plain the masculine Article sheweth it is not named of a City And so do the LXX article it Esa. 33. 9. There is mention of a Sharon beyond Jordan 1 Chron. 5. 16. inhabited about by Gileadites by which it seemeth it was a common name for plain champion grounds wheresoever Vers. 36. Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas Tabitha the Syriack and Dorcas the Greek do both signifie a Hind or Doe Capream as Beza renders it Now the reason why Luke doth thus render the one into the other seemeth to be because Tabitha was a Grecizing Jewesse and so was commonly called by these two names by the Syrian among the Hebrews and by the Greek among the Greeks Vers. 37. Whom when they had washed Whether it were a common custom among the Jews to wash all their dead bodies before they buried them as is concluded by many upon this place we will not insist to question nor whether it were in token of the resurrection or no as some apply it only the other application that they make hereupon I cannot pass over untouchââ which is that Paul spake in reference to this custom and to that intention is this custom when he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. 1 Cor. 15. 29. Else what shall they do which are baptised for the dead c. as our English reads it as if the Apostle produced this custom as an argument for the resurrection as meaning to what purpose should dead bodies be washed if not to betoken this thus he is conceived to argue whereas by the juncture of the thirtieth verse to this it seemeth that he intended a clean contrary or different thing by being baptized ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã namely being baptized so as baptism signifieth death by matyrdom or suffering for the truth as Matth. 20. 22 23. Luke 12. 50. And his arguing is to this sense if the dead rise not again what will become of those that are baptized with a martyrial baptism or that do suffer death for the profession of the truth why are they then baptized for the dead yea and why stand we in jeopardy every hour of such a baptism and matyrdom also Why do they suffer and why are we daily in danger to suffer for the truth if there be no resurrection And so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to signifie not vice or supra but pro that is in such a sense and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to mean In such a sense as baptized meaneth dead or martyred As ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is taken in this clause ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fabius delivered the power or Army to Minucius under this intent and meaning or condition that he should not fight Plut. in Fab. § They laid her in an upper chamber This probably was the publick meeting room for the believers of that Town Dorcas being a woman of some good rank as may be conjectured by her plenteousness of good works and alms-deeds Now they purposely disposing of the dead corps that Peter if he would come might exercise a miracle upon it they lay it in that publick room that the company might be spectators of the wonder but Peter would not suffer them so to be for some singular reason vers 40. Acts X. § Some things remarkable about the calling in of Cornelius First the Gospel had now dilated it self to the very utmost bounds of the Jews territories in Canaan Judaea Samaria and Galilee had been preached to and through and now is it got to the very walls of their dominions round about And there wanteth nothing but laying the partition wall flat that the Gospel may get out unto the Gentiles and that is done in this Chapter where the great partition and distance that was betwixt Jew and Gentile is utterly removed and taken away by God himself who had first pitched and set it betwixt them Secondly the two first and mainest stones of interposition that were laid in this wall were circumcision and diet the one in the time of Abraham Gen. 17. the other in the time of Jacob Gen. 32. 32. And in reference to these two it is that they of the Circumcision contend with Peter upon his return to Jerusalem for they are grieved that he went in to men uncircumcised and ate with them Chap. 11. 3. These were the proper distinguishers betwixt Israel and other Nations for all their other Ceremonies were not so much to distinguish them from other people as to compose them among themselves and towards God they being first distinguished from others by these Of these two singularity of Dyet or Prohibition of certain meats was the more proper difference and the more strict distinctive For all the seed of Abraham was circumcised and so in regard of that Ceremony there was no difference betwixt an Ismaelite and a Jew But abstaining from such and such meats was a proprium quarto modo a singularity that differenced an Israelite from all the world besides Thirdly therefore it was most proper and of most divine reason that the liberty of eating any meats did denote and shew a liberty of conversing with any nation and that the inlarging of the one is the inlarging of the other Fourthly the first-fruits of this inlargement and entertainment beyond the partition wall is Cornelius a Convert but not a Proselyte a man that was already come in to God but not come in to the Church of Israel a man as far contrarily qualified for such a business in all humane appearance as what could be most contrary as being a Roman a Souldier a Centurion and yet he of all men chosen to be the first-fruits of the Gentiles that God herein might be the more plainly shewed to be no respecter of persons Fifthly it had been now 2210 years since the Heathen were cast
his seed to Molech or useth Sorcery or profaneth the Sabbath or eateth holy things in his uncleanness or that cometh into the Sanctuary he being unclean or that eateth fat or blood or what is left of the sacrifice or any sacrificed thing not offered in season or that killeth or offereth up a sacrifice out of the Court or that eateth leaven at the Passover or that eateth ought on the day of Expiation or doth any work on it or that makes oil or incense like the holy or that anoints with holy oil that delayeth the Passover or Circumcision for which there are affirmative precepts All these if done wilfully are liable to cutting off and if done ignorantly then to the fixed sin-offering and if it be unknown whether he did it or no then to a suspensive trespass-offering but only he that defiles the Sanctuary and its holy things for he is bound to an ascending or descending offering Now that we may the better understand what Death by the hand of Heaven and Cutting off mean we are first to take notice that neither of them was any penalty inflicted by the hand or sentence of man but both of them do import a liableness to the wrath and vengeance of the Lord in their several kinds And the Jews do ever account Cutting off to be the higher and more eminent degree of Divine vengeance As to spare more evidences of this which might be given copiously this passage of Maymonides is sufficient and it is remarkable when he saith f f f Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 4. Is it possible for a Priest that serveth in his uncleanness to stay so little in the Court ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As that he should be guilty of death by the hand of Heaven only and not guilty of cutting off He had had those words but a little before which were cited even now An unclean person that serveth in the Sanctuary profaneth his Service and is guilty of death by the hand of Heaven although he stay not there and then he comes on and is it possible saith he that he should stay so little as to be guilty only of death by the hand of Heaven and not to be guilty of cutting off Apparently shewing that cutting off was the deeper degree and die of guilt and vengeance by the hand of God and Divine indignation By Death by the hand of Heaven in their sense therefore is to be apprehended some such a sodain avengeful stroke as the Lord shewed upon Nadab and Abihu or Ananias and Saphira to take them away And this may the better be collected by two passages usual in the Rabbins about this matter First In that they give up the offence of the Priests drinking wine before they went to serve which is held to have been the offence of Nadab and Abihu g g g âââ per. 1. to death by the hand of Heaven which argues that they mean such a kind of stroke as they two had And secondly In that wheresoever the Law enjoyneth Aaron and his sons and the people about the affairs of the Sanctuary they shall or they shall not do thus or thus lest they die they interpret this of death by the hand of Heaven But what to understand by Cutting off is not so readily agreed among them h h h Kimchi in Esay â8 Kimchi alledgeth it as the opinion of their Doctors That Dying before fifty years old is death by cutting off Compare Joh. 8. 57. i i i R. Sol. in Gââ 17. Rabbi Solomon saith It is to die childless and to die before his time Baal Aruch giveth this distinction between Cutting off and Death by the hand of Heaven that k k k Arââh in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cutting off is of himself and of his children but Death by the hand of Heaven is of himself but not of his children But mean it which of these you will or all these together or which may have good probability to conceive a liableness to cutting off from the life of the world to come both this and Death by the Hand of Heaven were held by that Nation with whom the phrases were so much in use to mean not any censure or punishment inflicted by man but an impending vengeance of God and a continual danger and possibility when indignation should seize upon him that was faln under these gilts Anathema Maran Atha one under a curse whensoever the Lord shall come to inflict it as Joh. 3. 18 36. SECT III. Penalties inflicted upon unclean persons found in the Temple Whipping and the Rebels beating IT was not a small awe that this might work in the hearts of the people towards their restraining from going into the Sanctuary in their uncleanness to have this impressed and inculcated upon them as it was continually that such a venture did hazard them both body and soul and brought them ipso facto into Gods dreadful displeasure and into undoubted danger of accrewing judgment But did they let the offender thus alone that had offended as if he was fallen under the guilt of death by the Hand of Heaven or under the guilt of cutting off that they had no more to do with him but leave him to the justice of God and to judgment when it should fall upon him Many a wretch would make sleight of this matter and because sentence upon his evil work was not executed speedily his heart would be fully set in him to do so again as Eccles. 8. 11. Therefore they let not the Delinquent so escape but as he had fallen under the wrath of God so they also brought him under a penalty by the hand of man And this penalty was twofold either ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whipping by the appointment of the Judges or mawling and beating by the people 1. There was the penalty of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whipping or scourging upon the censure of the Judges according to the Law Deut. 25. 2. Where he was to receive forty stripes but their Tradition brought it to forty save one 2 Cor. 11. 24. And the reason of this was because they would make a hedge to the Law and whereas that commands that they should not give to a Delinquent that was whipt above forty stripes lest their brother should seem vile unto them they abated one of forty to make sure to keep within compass The measure and manner of their whipping is largely described in the Treatise Maccoth thus in their own words a a a Maccoth per. 3. How many stripes do they give him saith the Mishueh there Why forty lacking one As it is said by a certain number forty stripes that is a number near to forty Rabbi Judah saith he is beaten with full forty and where hath he the odd one above thirty nine Between his shoulders They allot him not stripes but so as they might be triplicated They allot him to receive forty he hath had some of them
common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their Schools they commonly use these words Amern rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in four letters thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thus say our Doctors of blessed memory But when they speak of holy men in the Old Testament they usually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in brief thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus when they mention Moses Solomon David or others this is the memorial they give them The Arabians have the like use in their Abbreviation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verb and so may be construed two ways On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his judgement herein shall be my Law To take it the latter way seems to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Jews did not directly do yet in manner they appear to do no less in one part of their Common Prayer Book called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Souls which being not very long I thought not amiss to Translate out of their Tongue into our own that the Reader may see their Jewish Popery or Popish Judaism and may bless the Creator who hath not shut us up in the same darkness CHAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of souls in the Iews Liturgy Printed at Venice THE Lord remember the soul or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the son of N. who is gone into his world wherefore I vow to give Alms for him that for this his soul may be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which be in the garden of Eden Amen The Lord remember the soul of Mrs. N. the Daughter of N. who is gone to her World Therefore I vow c. as in the other before Amen The Lord remember the soul of my father and my mother of my grandfathers and grandmothers of my uncles and aunts brethren and sisters of my cosens and consenesses whether of my fathers side or mothers side who are gone into their world Wherefore I vow c. Amen The Lord remember the soul of N. the son of N. and the souls of all my cosens and cosenesses whether on my fathers or mothers side who were put to death or slain or stabd or burnt or drowned or hanged for the sanctifying of the Name of God Therefore I will give Alms for the memory of their souls and for this let their souls be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which are in the garden of Eden Amen Then the Priest pronounceth a blessing upon the man that is thus charitable as it followeth there in these words He that blessed our father Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses and Aaron David and Salomon he bless Rabbi N. the son of N. because he hath vowed Alms for the souls whom he hath mentioned for the honour of God and for the honour of the Law and for the honour of the day for this the Lord keep him and deliver him from all affliction and trouble and from every plague and sickness and write him and seal him for a happy life in the day of Judgment and send a blessing and prosper him in every work of his hands and all Israel his brethren and let us say Amen Thus courteous Reader hast thou seen a Popish Jew interceding for the dead have but the like patience a while and thou shalt see how they are Popish almost entirely in claiming the merits of the dead to intercede for them for thus tendeth a prayer which they use in the book called Sepher Min hagim shel col Hammedinoth c. which I have also here turned into English Do for thy praises sake Do for their sakes that loved thee that now dwell in dust For Abraham Isaac and Jacobs sake Do for Moses and Aarons sake Do for David and Salomons sake Do for Jerusalem thy holy Cities sake Do for Sion the habitation of thy glories sake Do for the desolation of thy Temples sake Do for the treading down of thine Altars sake Do for their sakes who were slain for thy holy Name Do for their sakes who have been massacred for thy sake Do for their sakes who have gone to fire or water for the hallowing of thy Name Do for sucking childrens sakes who have not sinned Do for weaned childrens sakes who have not offended Do for infants sakes who are of the house of our Doctors Do for thine own sake if not for ours Do for thine own sake and save us Tell me gentle reader ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. whether doth the Jew Romanize or the Roman Judaize in his devotions This interceding by others is a shrewd sign they have both rejected the right Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus The prophane Heathen might have read both Jew and Papist a lecture in his Contemno minutos istos Deos modo Jovem propitium habeam which I think a Christian may well English let go all Diminutive Divinities so that I may have the great Jesus Christ to propitiate for me CHAP. XLI Of the Latine Translation of Matth. 6. 1. ALms in Rabbin Hebrew are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tsedhakah righteousness which word the Syrian Translator useth Matth. 6. 1. Act. 10. 2. and in other places From this custom of speech the Roman vulgar Translateth Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis One English old manuscript Testament is in Lichfield Library which hath it thus after the Latine Takith hede that you do not your rightwisnes before men to be seyne of hem ellis ye shullen have no mede at your fadir that is in hevenes Other English Translation I never saw any to this sense nor any Greek copy It seems the Papist will rather Judaize for his own advantage than follow the true Greek The Septuagint in some places of the Old Testament have turned Tsedhakah Righteousness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Almsdeeds or little or to no sense As the Papists have in this place of the New Testament turned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Almsdeeds by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Righteousness to as little purpose In the Hebrew indeed one word is used for both Tsedhakah for Almsdeeds which properly signifies Righteousness upon what ground I know not unless it be to shew that Sâ Chrysostom hath such â touch Alms must be given of rightly gotten good or else they are no righteousness or they are called Zadkatha in Syrian Hu ger zadek le mehwo they are called righteousness because it is right they should be given and given rightly The Fathers of the Councel of Trent speak much of the merit of Alms whom one may
Covenant made with Israel to which they were sworn was Ceremonial and Judicial containing fifty seven Precepts they were not sworn to the Ten Commandments 714 715 Covenant of Grace This was made with Adam did belong to Jew and Gentile both before the Law and also after it 376 Covetousness the strange consequences of it in a Prince 850 851 Council of the Chief Priests were of the seed of Aaron of the Scribes were of the Tribe of Levi and of the Elders were of the People who were mear Laymen 439 440 Courage of the Jews and their Resolution admirable 773 Court of the people what 721 722 Courts there were two Courts of Judges consisting of twenty three in the Temple besides the Sanhedrim p. 447 Courts of the Temple described with their use p 549 to 551. 1088. * Court of Women described not called by that name in Scripture p. 1090. * Court of the Priests 2025 to 2029. * Cow red Cow how the Priest was to prepare himself in order to the burning her 2024. * Coyns Jewish the value of several of them 1096. * Creation three usual Observations from it p. 691. Creation of Man was performed about nine a Clock in the Morning p. 692. This shews a God The time and manner of the Creation with the divine improvement of the Doctrine of it 1020 1021 Creation new the divers steps of it 1021 1022 Creatures such creatures came in homage to the Second Adam as did not come to the First 634 Creed of the believing Jews contained in ten Articles drawn out of the Law of Moses with a Comment 712 to 714. The Apostles Creed was not made by the Apostles 884. Cruelty of the Jews most barbarous and unparalleld they murdered at one time of Greeks and Romans four hundred and sixty thousand men eat their flesh devoured their intrals daubed themselves with their blood p. 289 366. And after this multitudes of thousands of Jews were destroyed viz. above four hundred thousand Adrian walled a Vineyard sixteen miles about with dead bodies a Man's height The Brains of three hundred Children were found upon one stone p. 368. Cruelty great 796 to 799 802 Cruelty moves pity 333 334 Cubit there was one of five and another of six hands breadth 1051. * Cup of Blessing what 964 965 Curious and Chaldean Arts what 820 Custom in a way of Religion often carry's it against Truth Page 1007 Cutting off meaning by the Divine Hand there was thirty six sorts of it how distinguished from Death by the Hand of Heaven p. 900 902. For what it was to be done a great penalty 929 930 933 972 Cyrus was joyned with Darius in Conquest and Government p. 134 135. He was a greater Prince than Darius 137 D. DAniel his Seventy weeks what p. 136. His Prophesie was read to Alexander the Great Page 2065. * Darius and Cyrus were joyned in Conquest and Government p. 134 135. Darius his History as referring to the Scripture p. 2064 2065. * Darius and Astyages the same 135 Darkness at high noon when Christ was crucified what 268 David a glorious Type of Christ. 71 Day of the week First Second Third c. is a Phrase purely Judaical p. 270. The Day begun from Sun-setting among the Jews yet they made Midnight a distinctive Period so as that which was done before Midnight was looked upon as done the Day before p. 643 644. The first Natural Day was thirty six hours long to that part of the world where Eden stood 691 Days last Days often put for the days foregoing the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish State not the World 276 Deacons such as had charge of the poor were of common use in all the Jews Synagogues and thence translated into the Christian Church p. 279. How the seven Deacons came to be chosen p. 279. Their several Qualifications p. 308. This Office was to provide for and take care of the poor c. 778 Dead Minstrels used to play in a mournful tone over the dead p. 232. The Jews used to wash the Bodies of their dead 841 Death of the Patriarchs c. usually mentioned in Scripture by Anticipation p. 15. Death sometimes called Baptism 250 Death second a phrase used by the Jewish Writers p. 354. Death miserable 797 Deaths Judicial the manner of them amongst the Jews 2006 2007. * Dedication The Feast thereof 98 979 Deities of the Egyptians what 1027 Demas his embracing the present World may denote his returning to his worldly Employment c. for we find him the next year with Paul again 322 323 326 Denial of Christ by Peter was foretold by Christ at two distinct times 249 Desks the Desks of the Levites described p. 2025 to 2029. * Devils whence their original p. 2. The Devil hath several ways of undoing Men the Church by persecution the World by delusion of Oracles Idolatry False Miracles c. p. 353. Three of his Names p. 496. The Devil hurrying Christ about in the time of his Temptations affords some material and profitable Considerations 506 Devout Man a Title for the first Professors of the Gospel 871 Diana's Temple what 305 306 Dionisius the Areopagite one of the Bench at Athens converted by Paul 295 Dipping in Baptism not always practised in the beginning of the Gospel 584 585 Disciples why they could not cast out one evil Spirit 339 340. The Seventy Disciples sent forth by Christ to go and Preach to those places where he himself was to come because he intended now fully to reveal himself to be the Messias p. 242. Christ received young Infants as Disciples declaring them to be such and blessed them p. 248. Disciples called Children p. 759. When or where first called Christians p. 871. A Title given to the first Professors of the Gospel Page 871 Discipling was not of Persons already taught but such as entred themselves that they might be taught 272 Dissembler his Character in Tyberius p. 768. In Cain 828 829 Divinity of the Jews when Christ came into the World was only to instruct in Carnal Rites and heighten their Spirits to Carnal performances c. but they knew nothing of Regeneration or the work of Grace 574 575 Division the Jews were generally divided among themselves yet all oppose Christianity to the utmost even when they themselves were in their greatest Afflictions p. 371. Division Faction and Schism produced sad effects in the Church of Corinth some of them mentioned 301 to 304 Doctors one of the Titles the Jews gave their Learned Men and Scribes also any that were ordained were so called c. 566 638 653 654 Doing by another is the same as if one do it by himself for it is ordinary in Scripture to ascribe that as done by a Man himself that is done by another at his appointment 581 Door through which none was to pass what p. 1079. * The Great Door was ever opened before the morning Sacrifice was killed 1079. * Doors of the Holy Place described 1078
c. * Doves how offered 935 Dreams intimating various events 20 Dreamers and Interpreters of Dreams were common among the Jews even the most Learned of them taught their Scholars this sort of delusion 371 Drink Offering what 938 939 Drought mingled with fire from Heaven 92 Drought or want of Rain great 116 Dust shaking dust off the feet what p. 291. Dust that was to be put into the Water of Jealousie whence to be taken 1080. * E. EARTH burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation p. 338. Earth new Earth and new Heaven denote the new State of the Church under the Gospel 338 Earthly and Heavenly Things what as used by Christ. 576 Easter how old its celebration 548 Edom by this term the Hebrew Writers commonly express the Romans 349 Egyptian Deities what 1027 Elders one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers p. 223. They were Ordained by Imposition of Hands p. 289. They were of two sorts in every Synagogue one that ruled in Civil Affairs another that laboured dayly in the Word and Doctrine p. 302. This should be imitated in the Christian Churches Christ and the Apostles keeping close to the Platform of the Synagogue p. 302. Their several Qualifications p. 308. Both Peter and John stile themselves Elders intimating that the Apostick Function must ceâse but the Ministerial abide p. 340. Every Synagogue had two Elders one that ruled that was a Student in Divinity another that was the Minister of the Congregation called the Angel of the Church and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Overseer 611 612 Elders for Seniors and Senators of some of the Tribes 760 Eldest son a younger reckoned for eldest 384 Elements melting and Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation Page 338 Elias his History p. 82. What opinions the Rabbins had of his first and second coming with his Estate after his first departure and his frequent invisible coming as at every Circumcision c. p. 522 523. What he shall do at his second visible coming p. 523 524. Also multitudes of Ancient and Modern Christian Writers have asserted that before Christs second coming Enoch and Elias should come again visibly to destroy Antichrist to Convert the Jews c. confuted 524 Elisha his History 86 87 Elohim denotes distinction of Persons in the Trinity 394 Elymas which is the same in sense with Magus was a Magical Jew who with tricks and wonders went up and down confronting the Gospel 289 Emblem of the Divine Glory at the Temple mentioned in several Scriptures explained p. 2052 to 2060. * The Moral of it 2055 to 2060* Emmanuel Nomen Naturae 419 End coming Matth. 24. 14. And the coming of the Lord drawing nigh and the Judge standing at the door expressions only shewing destruction and vengeance upon Jerusalem drawing near 332 333 335 End of things the Heavens passing away the Elements melting and the Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation 338 England some remarkable Things referring to its antient State p. 328. It was invaded by the Roman General and afterwards by his Master Claudius the Emperor An. Dom. 44. p. 888. England and these parts of the World was planted by Javans posterity 996 Enochs Prophesie was some common Tradition among the Jews p. 339. Enoch many Christian Writers hold that he and Elias should visibly come again to destroy Antichrist and to convert the Jews before the second coming of Christ. 524 Ephah what sort of Measure 545 546 Ephod of the High Priest what 727 905 Epicurus was a term used among the Jews for such as despised the Doctors 297 Epiphany or the Wise-mens coming to Christ on the thirteenth day after his birth or within forty days shewed to be improbable and that they came not till about two years after his Birth 432 to 434 Episcopus an Overseer is a Synagogue Term so are most of his Qualifications fetched thence p. 308. So the Angel or Minister in the Synagogue stood over those that read to see that they read right hence called Chasan that is Episcopus Overseer c. 375 611 to 618 Epistle from Laodicea is an Epistle from that Church to Paul 326 Er and Hezekiah were born when their Fathers were very young 105 Esau all hairy when born like a kid 14 Eser but an additional Title for the Assyrian Monarchs 104 Esseans though they differed from other Hereticks yet they harmonized with the rest to oppose the Gospel and Christianity p. 373. Their Original Name Quality and Principles 457 458 459 Evangelists one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers 223 Eunuch his Conversion and who he was 281 Eutyches and Valentius averred Christ to have only a Body in appearance confuted 397 Execution of Malefactors among the Jews was attended by their bewailing p. 268. Where and how performed 2006 2007. * Ezra the Sacred Writer considered as President of the Sanhedrin with the time of his Death 2007 2008. * Exorcists Vagabond Jews that went up and down to oppose the Gospel with Magical Tricks p. 289. See Barjesus Expiation day what service belonged to it the High Priest was ingaged in all the Service of it p. 971. The Scape Goat was the principal business besides other Offerings p. 971 c. It was a strict Fasting day Page 972 F. FAction Division and Schism producing sad Effects in the Church of Corinth some of them mentioned Page 301 to 304 Faith it makes improbable things to be accepted of God p. 49. Jewish and Evangelical what p. 247. Faith why set after Repentance 630 Fall of Man p. 2. Of Adam 1022 Fan of Christ is the Gospel with the Preaching and Publishing thereof 468 Fasting and Praying used in the Synagogues p. 925. Of Christ wonderful considering the Time Place his present Posture he fasted nights as well as days 502 503 Fasting Day the Day of Expiation was a strict Fasting Day 792 Fasts of the Captived Jews were kept in several Months p. 143. Publick Fasts what p. 288. They were upon important Occasions used by the Jews 289 Fathers what to teach their Children 295 Festivals Three principal ones The Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles all the Men that were Free were to appear at them 950 951 Feast Governour of the Feast who he was called Architriclinus He was not the same with the Symposiarchus the Governour or Moderator of the Heathen Feasts p. 547. Feast of Tabernacles the Actions attending it p. 243. The Nature Occasion and Reasons of its Institution p. 477. Feast of Charity or Agapae what 315 Feasting among the Jews was performed upon Beds 539. Marg. Feasts Women were not bound to appear at the three solemn Feasts of the Jews yet they usually did 956 Feet anointed of ordinary use among the Jews 252 Felix shewed to be an ill Man 320 Figs ripened at differing seasons 253 First Fruits and first Fruit Sheaf the way of gathering and offering them 969
that they might receive their hire and he gave him a compleat hire with the rest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And the labourers murmured saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have laboured hard all the day and this man only two hours yet he hath received as much wages as we The King saith to them He hath laboured more in those two hours than you in the whole day So R. Bon plied the Law more in eight and twenty years than another in a hundred years ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Early in the morning b b b b b b Gloss. in Bab. Bava Mezia fol. 83. 2. The time of working is from Sun-rising to the appearing of the Stars and not from break of day And this is prov'd from the Chapter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the President of the Priests saith to them c c c c c c Joma Chap. 3. Tamid Chap. 3. where they say 'T is light all in the East and men go out to hire labourers whence it is argued that they do not begin their work before the Sun riseth It is also proved from the Tract Pesachin where it is said that it is prohibited on the day of the Passover to do any servile work after the Sun is up intimating this that that was the time when labourers should begin their work c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To hire Labourers Read here if you please the Tract Bava Mezia Chap. VII which begins thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that hireth Labourers and Maimonides ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Tract intitled d d d d d d Chap. 9. 11. Hiring VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Agreed for a penny a day A Penny of silver which one of gold exceeded twenty four times for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A penny of gold is worth five and twenty of silver e e e e e e Gloss. on Cherithuth Chap. 2. The Canons of the Hebrews concerning hiring of labourers distinguish as reason requires between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã being hired by the day and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã being hired only for some hours which may be observ'd also in this Parable for in the morning they are hired for all the day and for a penny but afterwards for certain hours and have a part of a penny allotted them in proportion to the time they wrought VERS VIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Call the Labourers FOR it is one of the Affirmative precepts of the Law that a hired labourer should have his wages paid him when they are due as it is said You shall pay him his wages in his day and if they be detain'd longer it is a breach of a negative precept as it is said The Sun shall not go down upon him f f f f f f Maimon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 11. c. VERS XIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Didst not thou agree with me for a penny IN hiring of labourers the custom of the place most prevail'd hence came that Axiom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Observe the custom of the City f f f f f f Beb. Bava Mezia fol. 83. 2. speaking of this very thing There is also an example g g g g g g Hierof Mezia fol. 11. 2. Those of Tiberias that went up to Bethmeon to be hired for labourers were hired according to the custom of Bethmeon c. By the by also we may observe that which is said by the Babylonians in the place last cited ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is as the Gloss renders it Notice must be taken whether they come from several places for at some places they go to work sooner and at some later Hence two things may be clear'd in the Parable before us 1. Why they are said to be hired at such different hours namely therefore because they are supposed to have come together from several places 2. Why there was no certain agreement made with those that were hired at the third sixth and ninth hour as with those that were hired early in the morning but that he should only say Whatsoever is right I will give you that is supposing that they would submit to the custom of the place But indeed when their wages were to be paid them there is by the favour of the Lord of the vineyard an equality made between those that were hired for some hours and those that were hired for the whole day and when these last murmured they are answer'd from their own agreement ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã You agree'd with me Note here the Canon h h h h h h Maimon as before Chap. 9. The master of the family saith to his servant Go hire me labourers for four pence he goes and hires them for three pence although their labour deserves four pence they shall not receive but three ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because they bound themselves by agreement and their complaint ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã murmuring in the 11th verse is against the servant VERS XXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The baptism that I am baptized with THE phrase that goes before this concerning the cup is taken from divers places of Scripture where sad and grievous things are compared to draughts of a bitter cup. You may think that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The cup of vengeance of which there is mention in Bab. Beracoth i i i i i i Fol. 51. 2. means the same thing but it is far otherwise give me leave to quote it though it be somewhat out of our bounds Let them not talk say they over their cup of blessing and let them not bless over their cup of vengeance ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã What is the cup of vengeance The second cup saith R. Nachman bar Isaac Rabbena Asher and Piske are more clear ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If he shall drink off two cups let him not bless over the third The Gloss He that drinks off double cups is punisht by Devils But to the matter before us So cruel a thing was the Baptism of the Jews being a plunging of the whole body into water when it was never so much chilled with Ice and snow that not without cause partly by reason of the burying as I may call it under water and partly by reason of the cold it us'd to signifie the most cruel kind of death The Hierusalem Talmudists relate That in the days of Joshua ben Levi some endeavoured quite to take away the washings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Baptisms of women because the women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the coldness of the waters k k k k k k Berac 6. 3. which we noted before at the sixth verse of the third Chapter CHAP. XXI VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã An Ass and her fold IN the Talmudists we have the like phrase ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã l l l l l l Hierof Bava Mezia Fol. 11. 1. An ass and
truth as to the thing it self for from the Resurrection of Christ the glorious Epoch of the Kingdom of God took its beginning as we said before which he himself also signifieth in those words Mat. XXVI 29. and when he arose not a few others arose with him What they thought of the Resurrection that was to be in the days of Messias besides those things which we have already mentioned you may see and smile at in this one example y y y y y y Jerus Cheâubboth fol. 35 â R. Jeremiah commanded when you bury me put shoes on my feet and give me a staff in my hand and lay me on one side that when the Messias comes I may be ready VERS LIV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Truly this was the Son of God THAT is This was indeed the Messias Howsoever the Jews deny the Son of God in that sense in which we own it that is as the second person in the holy Trinity yet they acknowledged the Messiah for the Son of God not indeed by nature but by adoption and deputation see Mat. XXVI 63. from those places I Chron. XVII 13. Psal. II. 12. LXXXIX 26 27. and such like The Centurion had learnt this from the people by conversing among them and seeing the Miracles which accompanied the death of Christ acknowledged him to be the Messias of whom he had heard so many and great things spoken by the Jews In Luke we have these words spoken by him z z z z z z Chap. XXIII 47. Certainly this was a righteous man Which I suppose were not the same with these words before us but that both they and these were spoken by him Certainly this was a righteous man Truly this was the Messias the Son of God Such are those words of Nathaniel Joh. I. 49. Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Peter when he declared that Christ was the Son of the living God Mat. XVI 16. spoke this in a more sublime sense than the Jews either owned or knew as we have said at that place VERS LVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdalen THAT Magdalen was the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus Baronius proves at large a a a a a a Annal. ad An. Christ. 32. pag. 147 148 c. whom see It is confirmed enough from this very place for if Mary Magdalene was not the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus then either Mary the sister of Lazarus was not present at the Crucifixion of Christ and at his burial or else she is past over in silence by the Evangelists both which are improbable whence she was called Magdalene doth not so plainly appear whether from Magdala a Town on the Lake of Genesareth or from the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies a playting or curling of the hair a thing usual with harlots Let us see what is spoken by the Talmudists concerning ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdala who they say was Mother of Ben Satda b b b b b b Bab. Sanhedr fol. 67. 1. They stoned the Son of Satda in Lydda and they hanged him up on the evening of the Passover Now this Son of Satda was Son of Pandira Indeed Rabh Chasda said the husband of his mother was Satda her husband was Pandira her husband was Papus the Son of Juda but yet I say his mother was Satda ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã namely Mary the plaiter of women's hair as they say in Pombeditha ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã she departed from her husband These words are also repeated in Schabbath c c c c c c Fol. 104. 2. c Chagigah fol. 4. 2. Rabh Bibai at a time when the Angel of death was with him said to his Officer Go ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã bring me Mary the plaiter of womens hairs He went and brought to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary the plaiter of young mens hair c. The Gloss The Angel of death reckoned up to him what he had done before for this story of Mary the Plaiter of women's hair was under the second Temple for she was the mother of N. as it is said in Schabbath See the Gloss there at the place before quoted d d d d d d Gittin fol. 90. 1. There are some who find a fly in their cup and take it out and will not drink such was Papus ben Judas who lockt the door upon his wife and went out Where the Glossers say thus Papus ben Juda was the husband ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Mary the Plaiter of womens hair and when he went out of his house into the street he lockt his door upon his wife that she might not speak with any body which indeed he ought not to have done and hence sprang a difference between them and she broke out into adulteries See Alphesius on Gittim e e e e e e Fol. 605. I pronounce ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ben Satda not that I am ignorant that it is called Ben Stada by very learned men The reason of our thus pronouncing it we fetch from hence that we find he was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ben Sutdah by the Jerusalem Talmudists f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 25. 4. to which the word Satda more agrees than Stada By the like agreement of sounds they call the same Town both ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Magdala and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mugdala as we have observed elswhere As they contumeliously reflect upon the Lord Jesus under the name of Ben Satda so there is a shrewd suspition that under the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mary Magdala they also cast reproach upon Mary Magdalen The title which they gave their Mary is so like this of ours that you may with good reason doubt whether she was called Magdalene from the Town Magdala or from that word of the Talmudists ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Plaiter of hair We leave it to the learned to decide VERS LVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ioses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Josi A very usual name in the Talmudists g g g g g g Jerus ââvamâtâ fol. 2. 2. five were called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Be R. Josi Ismael Lazar Menahem Chelpatha Abdimus Also h h h h h h Ibid. fol. 4. 3. R. Jose ben R. Chaninah c. g g g g g g See Jathasiâ fol. 61. 62. One may well enquire why this Mary is called the mother of James and Joses and not also of Judas and Simon as Mark VI. 3. VERS LVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Begged the body of Iesus IT was not lawful to suffer a man to hang all night upon a tree Deut. XXI 23. Nay nor to lye all night unburied ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whosoever suffers a dead body to lye all night unburied violates a negative precept but they that were put to death
shalt dye by the sword Epiphanius gives some countenance to this exposition a a a a a a Haeres 78. cap. 23. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Whether the Holy Virgin died and was buried her death was crowned with infinite honour she made a most chaste end and the crown of her virginity was given her ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or whether she was put to death as it is written a sword shall pass through thine own soul she is possest of glory and a crown amongst the Martyrs VERS XXXVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Anna a Prophetess the Daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Aser THere were therefore Prophets at this time among the people It is not to be denied that at this time there were that is when the morning of the Gospel began to dawn but for four hundred years past there had been one that had deserved that name however the Jews vainly enough had honoured the memories of some with that title which we shall not meddle with at this present But was this Anna accounted a Prophetess by the Jews if so whence that Proverbial expression out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Joh. VII 52. She was certainly a Galilean and for that very reason probably it is here remark't that she was of the Tribe of Aser What think we of that passage in Vajierah rabba fol. 174. 4. and Bemidbar rabb fol. 250. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The King Messiah who is placed on the North shall come and build the House of the Sanctuary which is placed on the South Doth not this favour something of Christ's coming out of Galilee VERS XXXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Departed not from the Temple I. IT may be doubted whether any Women ever discharged any office in the Temple Some think they did But that which they alledge out of 1 Sam. II. 22. concerning the Women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation is quite another thing from any publick ministring if we will admit the Targumist and the Rabbins for Expositors So Exod. XXVIII 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Women assembling by troops at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation The Targumists both here and in the place newly quoted have it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Women that came to pray The Greek Interpreters read it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for they render it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And by the same boldness or blindness wholly left out that clause 1 Sam. II. 22. And how they lay with the Women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation It is apparent that Women were wont to come from other parts to the Tabernacle for devotion 's sake not to perform any ministry So this Anna by birth of the Tribe of Aser had changed her native soil and fixt her abode at Jerusalem partly for devotion that she might be the more at leisure for praying in the Temple and partly as a Prophetess that she might utter her Prophesies in the great Metropolis II. She departed not from the Temple that is not in the stated times of Prayer according as it is commanded Aaron and his Sons Levit. X. 7. Ye shall not go out from the door of the Tabernacle Where Siphra fol. 24. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not in the time of their ministry VERS XLII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And when he was twelve years old a a a a a a Chetubb fol. 50. LET a man deal gently with his Son till he come to be twelve years old ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but from that time let him descend with him into his way of living That is let him diligently and with severity if need be keep him close to that way rule or art by which he may get his living b b b b b b Joma fol. 82. 1. At twelve years old they were wont to inure Children to fasting ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from time to time or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from hour to hour that they might be accustomed to it and so be capable of fasting upon the day of attonement Christ being now twelve years old ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã applies himself to his proper work ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be about his Fathers business c c c c c c Ignat. Mart. Epist. ad Magnes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Solomon when twelve years old judged between the two Women d d d d d d Shemoth rabb R. Chama saith that Moses when he was twelve years old was taken from his Fathers House VERS XLIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And when they had fulfilled the days HEre ariseth a question whether it was lawful to depart from Jerusalem before the seven days were ended If not why did Peter and Cleophas go away on the third day if they might how then is that precept to be understood about eating the unleavened bread throughout the whole seven days I. It is controverted amongst the Doctors about that passage Deut. XVI 6 7. thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at the even at the going down of the Son and thou shalt turn in the morning and go into thy tents Whether it be lawful after they had eaten the Lamb to go every one to his own House This is denied and that not without reason For as it is in the Gloss a a a a a a In Chagigah fol. 1â 2. On the day of the Feast that is the first day of the seven the sabbatical limits forbad it For on the Feast day no man ought to exceed the bounds of a Sabbath days journey That therefore say they that is said thou shalt go into thy tents is to be thus understood thou shalt go into thy tents that are without the walls of Jerusalem but by no means into thine own house II. Was it lawful then to return home on the second day of the Feast No it was not For on that day was the general appearance in the Court and presentment of their offerings And this seems hinted by R. Elhanani in another Gloss upon the place newly cited There were two reasons saith he of their lodging in Jerusalem the one because of the Feast day the other because of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Offering III. It was not unlawful to depart on the third day if necessity of affairs required it But as in many other cases the Doctors were wont to speak so might it be said in this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it was much more commendable for them to abide in Jerusalem till all the seven days were ended and that especially because of the last day which was a Festival or Holy-day b b b b b b Pesikta fol. 75. 3. R. Jose the Galilean saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There are three things commanded to be done in the Feast 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Chagigah 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
They read it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when in the original it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and yet is not washed from its filthiness VERS LI. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When the time was come that he should be received up IT is a difficulty amongst some why there should be any mention ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of his receiving up when there is no mention of his death But let it be only granted that under that expression ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is included the ascension of Christ and then the difficulty is solved The Evangelist seeming from thence to calculate Moses and Elias had spoken of his departure out of this world that is of his final departure when he took leave of it at his ascension into heaven And from thence forward till the time should come wherein he should be received up he stedfastly set his face toward Jerusalem resolving with himself to be present at all the Feasts that should precede his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or receiving up He goes therefore to the Feast of Tabernacles and what he did there we have it told us John VII After ten weeks or thereabout he went up to the Feast of Dedication Chap. XIII 22. and Joh. X. 22. and at length to the last Feast of all his own Passover Chap. XVII 11. VERS LII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Into a Village of the Samaritans IT may be a question whether the Jews in their journeying to and from Jerusalem would ordinarily deign to lodge in any of the Samaritan Towns But if necessity should at any time compel them to betake themselves into any of their Inns we must know that nothing but their mere hatred to the Nation could forbid them For m m m m m m Hieros Avod Zarah fol. 44. 4. Their land was clean their waters were clean their dwellings were clean and their roads were clean So that there could be no offense or danger of uncleanness in their dwelling and so long as the Samaritans in most things came the nearest the Jewish Religion of all others there was less danger of being defiled either in their meats or beds or tables c. VERS LV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of WHat Elias once did to those of Samaria the Sons of Zebedee had an ambition to imitate in this place dreaming as it should seem that there were those thunders and lightnings in their very name Boanarges that should break out at pleasure for the death and destruction of those that provoked them But could you not see O ye Sons of Zebedee how careful and tender your master was from the very bottom of his soul about the lives and well-being of mankind How he healed the sick cured those that were possest with Devils and raised the dead and will you be breathing slaughter and fire and no less destruction to the Town than what had happened to Sodom Alas you do not know or have not considered what kind of spirit and temper becomes the Apostles of the Messiah VERS LX. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let the dead bury their dead THE Jews accounted of the Gentiles as no other than dead n n n n n n Chetubboth fol. 3. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the people of the earth that is the Gentiles do not live And as the Gentiles so even amongst themselves these four sorts are so esteemed o o o o o o Shemoth rabb fol. 123. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã These four are accounted as dead the blind the leprose the poor and the childless CHAP. X. VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Seventy WHY the Vulgar should have seventy and two they themselves I suppose are able to give no very good reason Much less the Interpreter of Titus Bostrensis when in the Greek Copy before him he saw only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã why he should render Septuaginta duos seventy two who can tell Aben Ezra upon the story of Eldad and Medad a a a a a a Numb XI hath this passage The wise men say that Moses took six out of every tribe and the whole number amounted to seventy and two but whereas the Lord had commanded only seventy the odd two were laid aside Now if God laid aside two of those who had been enrolled and endowed with the Holy Spirit that so there might be the just number of seventy only we can hardly imagine why our Saviour should add two to make it LXXII and not LXX d d d d d d Vajicra rabba fol. 178 1. It was said to Moses at Mount Sinai Go up thou and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel so will the holy blessed God ordain to himself in the world to come ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a counsel of Elders of his own people Now the number of this Consistory the Doctors determine to be no other than seventy A Council of Seventy two was never heard of amongst the Jews but once only at Jabneh a a a a a a Jadaim cap. 3. hal 3. R. Simeon ben Azzai saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I receiv'd it from the mouths of the LXXII Elders on the day when they made R. Eliezar ben Azariah one of the Sanhedrin Nor did they then remove Rabban Gamaliel although he had displeas'd them VERS III. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As lambs among wolves IT is added in another Evangelist b b b b b b Mat. X. Be ye wise as serpents c. with which we may compare that in Midr. Schir c c c c c c Fol. 17. 3. The holy blessed God saith concerning Israel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Those that belong to me are simple as Doves ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but amongst the Nations of the world they are subtle as serpents VERS IV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Salute no man by the way I. WE have a passage something like this elsewhere d d d d d d 2 King IV. 29. If thou meet any man salute him not that is as is commonly expounded do not hinder thy journey by discoursing with any in the way But the same reason doth not hold in this place the business of these Disciples not requiring such mighty expedition They were commanded out two by two to this or the other place or City where Christ himself was to come in person nor was it necessary they should run in so great hast that they should make no stay in the way Only having appointed them to such and such places their business indeed lay no where but in those very places to which they had been particularly sent to proclaim the coming of Christ there and not to be telling it in the way The twelve Apostles that were sent their business was to declare the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven these the coming of the King himself No wonder therefore if the Apostles were
q q q Fol. 98. 2. there is a certain beggar called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diglus Patragus or Petargus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã poor infirm naked and famished But there could hardly be invented a more convenient name for a poor beggar than Lazar which signifies the help of God when he stands in so much need of the help of men But perhaps there may be something more aimed at in the name when the discourse is concerning Abraham and Lazarus who would not call to mind Abraham and Eleazar his servant r r r r r r Gen. XV. one born at Damascus a gentile by birth and sometime in posse the heir of Abraham but shut out of the inheritance by the birth of Isaac yet restored here into Abraham's bosom Which I leave to the judgment of the Reader whether it might not hint the calling of the Gentiles into the faith of Abraham The Gemarists make Eleazar to accompany his Master even in the Cave of Macpelah s s s s s s Bava bathra fol. 58. 1. R. Baanah painted the sepulchres when he came to Abraham's cave he found Eleazar standing at the mouth of it He saith unto him what is Abraham doing To whom he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he lieth in the embraces of Sarah Then said Baanah go and tell him that Baanah is at the door c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Full of sores In the Hebrew language ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Stricken with Ulcers Sometimes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã His body full of Ulcers as in that Story t t t t t t Taanith fol. 21. 1. They tell of Nahum Gamzu that he was blind lame of both hands and of both feet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in all his body full of sores He was thrown into a ruinous house the feet of his bed being put into basins full of water that the Ants might not creep upon him His Disciples ask him how hath this mischief befallen thee when as thou art a just man He gives the reason himself viz. Because he deferr'd to give something to a poor man that begged of him We have the same story in Hieros Peah u u u u u u Fol. 21. 2. where it were worth the while to take notice how they vary in the telling it VERS XXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He was carried by Angels THE Rabbins have an invention that there are three bands of Angels attend the death of wicked men proclaiming there is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked x x x x x x âemidb rabb fol. 245. 4. But what conceptions they have of Angels being present at the death of good men let us judge from this following passage y y y y y y Hieros Kilaim fol. 32. 3. The men of Tsippor said whoever tells us that Rabbi Judah is dead we will kill him Bar-kaphra looking upon them with his head veiled with an hood said unto them Holy men and Angels took hold of the tables of the Covenant and the hand of the Angels prevailed so that they took away the tables They said unto him is Rabbi dead then The meaning of this parabolizer was this Holy men would fain have detained R. Judah still in the land of the living but the Angels took him away ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Into Abraham's bosom So vers 23. in the plural number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which doth not alter the sense but strengthens it The Jewish Schools dispose of the Souls of Jews under a threefold phrase I can hardly say under a threefold state I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the garden of Eden or Paradise Amongst those many instances that might be alledged even to nauseousness let us take one wherein this very Abraham is named z z z z z z Midras Tillin fol. 3. 1. He shall be as a tree planted by the Rivers of waters This is Abraham whom God took and planted in the land of Israel or whom God took and planted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Paradise Take one instance more of one of equal fame and piety and that was Moses a a a a a a Tâmurah fol 11â 1. When our Master Moses departed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã into Paradise he said unto Joshua if thou hast any doubt upon thee about any thing enquire now of me concerning it II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Under the throne of glory We have a long story in Avoth R. Nathan b b b b b b Cap. 10. of the Angel of death being sent by God to take away the soul of Moses which when he could not do God taketh hold of him himself and treasureth him up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã under the throne of glory And a little after Nor is Moses his soul only placed under the throne of glory but the souls of other just persons also are reposited under the throne of glory Moses in the words quoted before is in Paradise in these words he is under the throne of glory In another place c c c c c c Pesikta fol 93. 1. he is in Heaven ministring before God So that under different phrases is the same thing exprest and this however made evident that there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the garden of Eden was not to be understood of an earthly but an heavenly Paradise That in Revel VI. 9. of souls crying under the Altar comes pretty near this phrase of being placed under the throne of glory For the Jews conceived of the Altar as the throne of the Divine Majesty and for that reason the Court of the Sanhedrin was placed so near the Altar that they might be filled with the reverence of the Divine Majesty so near them while they were giving judgment Only whereas there is mention of the Souls of the Martyrs that had poured out their blood for God it is in allusion to the blood of the Sacrifices that were wont to be poured out at the foot of the Altar III. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In Abraham's bosom Which if you would know what it is you need seek no further than the Rhemists our County-men with grief be it spoken if you will believe them For they upon this place have this passage The bosom of Abraham is the resting place of all them that died in perfect state of grace before Christ's time heaven before being shut from men It is called Zachary a Lake without water and sometimes a prison but must commonly of the Divines Limbus patrum for that it is thought to have been the higher part or brim of hell c. If our Saviour had been the first author of this phrase than might it have been tolerable to have lookt for the meaning of it amongst Christian Expositors but seeing it is a scheme of speech so familiar amongst the Jews and our Saviour spoke no other than in the known and vulgar dialect of that Nation the meaning
must be fetcht thence not from any Greek or Roman Lexicon That which we are to enquire after is how it was understood by the auditory then present and I may lay any wager that the Jews when they heard Abrahams bosom mentioned did think of nothing less than that kind of limbo we have here described What Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses c. in a lake without water in prison on the very brim of Hell Is this to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Paradise is this to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã under the throne of glory And was Lazarus carried thither by Angels when he was carried into Abrahams bosom We meet with a phrase amongst the Talmudists a. Let us borrow a little patience of d Kiddushin fol. 72. It is quoted also from Juchasin fol. 75. 2. the Reader to transcribe the whole passage Rabbi Judah saith to Levi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã represent the Persians to me by some similitude He saith they are like to the host of the house of David ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Represent to me the Iberians They are like ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Angels of destruction Represent to me the Ismaelites ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They are like the Devils of the stinking pit Represent to me the disciples of the wise that are in Babylon They are like to ministring Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When R. Judah dyed he said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hemnia is in Babylon and consists of Ammonites wholly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mesgaria is in Babylon and wholly consists of spurious people ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Birkah is in Babylon where two men interchange their wives ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Birtha Sataia is in Babylon and at this day they depart from God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Acra of Agma is in Babylon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ada bar Ahava is there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This day he sits in Abraham's bosom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This day is Rabh Judah born in Babylon Expositors are not well agreed neither by whom nor indeed concerning whom those words are spoken this day he sits in the bosom of Abraham And for that reason have I trascribed the whole period that the Reader may spend his judgment amongst them The Author of Juchasin thinks they may be the words of Adah bar Ahavah spoken concerning Rabbi Judah Another Gloss saith they are spoken of Adah bar Ahavah himself Let us hear them both e e e e e e Iuchasin The day that Rabbi dyed Rabh Adah bar Ahavah said by way of Prophesie this day doth he sit in Abraham's bosom f f f f f f Gloss. There are those indeed that expound this day doth he sit in Abraham's bosom thus that is this day he dyed Which if it be to be understood of Adah bar Ahavah the times don't suit It seems to be understood therefore this day he sits in Abraham's bosom that is this day is Adah bar Ahavah circumcised and entred into the Covenant of Abraham But the Reader may plainly see having read out the whole period that these words were spoken neither by Adah nor of him but by Levi of whom we have some mention in the beginning of this passage and spoken concerning Rabbi Judah that was now dead It is Levi also that saith that in his room on that very self-same day was Rabh Judah born in Babylon according to the common Adage of their Schools which immediately follows A just man never dyes till there be born in his room one like him So saith R. Meir when R. Akibah dyed Rabbi Judah was born When Rabbi Judah dyed Rabh Judah was born When Rabh Judah dyed Rabba was born When Rabba dyed Rabh Isai was born We have here therefore if we will make up the story out of both Talmuds another not very unlike this of ours In the Jerusalem Talmud Rabbi Judah is conveighed by Angels In the Babylonian he is placed in Abraham's bosom neither would the Glosser have doubted in the least either of the thing or of the way of expressing it so as to have fled to any new exposition had he not mistook the person concerning whom these words were uttered He supposeth them spoken of Adah bar Ahavah wherein he is deceived and because the times do not fall in right if they were to be understood of his death he therefore frames a new interpretation of his own whiles in the mean time he acknowledgeth that others expound it otherwise We may find out therefore the meaning of the phrase according to the common interpretation by observing first that it was universally believed amongst the Jews that pure and holy souls when they left this body went into happiness to Abraham Our Saviour speaks according to the received opinion of that Nation in this affair when he saith Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Give me leave to transcribe a Story a little more largely than usual g g g g g g Midras Echah fol. 68. 1. There was a Woman the Mother of seven Martyrs So we find it also 2 Maccab. VII When six of her Sons were slain and the youngest brought out in order to it though but a child of two years and an half old The Mother saith to Caesar by the life of thy head I beseech thee O Caesar let me embrace and kiss my child This being permitted her she plukt out her Breasts and gave it suck Then she by the life of thy head I entreat thee O Caesar that thou wouldst first kill me and then the child Caesar answered I will not yield to thee in this matter for it is written in your own Law the Heifer or Sheep with its young one thou shalt not kill on the same day To whom she ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã O thou foolishest of all mortals hast thou performed all the commands that this only is wanting He forthwith commands that the Child should be killed The Mother running into the embraces of her little Son kissed him and said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Go thou O my Son to Abraham thy Father and tell him thus saith my Mother do not thou boast saying I built an Altar and offer'd my Son Isaac For my Mother hath built seven Altars and offered seven Sons in one day c. This Woman questionless did not doubt of the innocence and purity of the Soul of this Child nor of its future happiness for we will suppose the truth of the Story which happiness she expresseth sufficiently by this that her Son was going to his Father Abraham There are several other things to the same purpose and of the same mould that might be produced but let this suffice in this place However see Notes upon Vers. 24. Now what this being in Abraham's bosom may signifie amongst the Jews we may gather from what is spoken of the manners and the death of this R. Judah concerning whom it is
Israel The Lord thy God is one Lord. And so being blind as to the mystery of the Trinity are the more hardened to deny that Our Saviour strenuously asserts here the God-head of the Son or Messiah namely that he hath the same power with the Father the same honour due to him as to the Father that he hath all things in common with the Father and hence he makes this reply upon them about healing on the Sabbath my Father worketh on the Sabbath day so do I also VERS XIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Son can do nothing of himself THAT is The Messiah can do nothing of himself For he is a Servant and sent by his Father so that he must work not of his own will and pleasure but his Father's Isai. XLII 1. Behold my servant Targ. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold my Servant the Messiah So Kemch in loc and St. Paul Philip. II. 7. The Jew himself however he may endeavour to elude the sense of that phrase The Son of God yet cannot deny the truth of this Maxim That the Messiah can do nothing but according to the will and prescription of his Father that sent him Which he also will expound not of the weakness and impotency but the perfection and obedience of the Son that he so doth VERS XXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The hour cometh and now is when the dead shall hear c. THE Jews as we have said before looked for the Resurrection of the dead at the coming of Messiah and that truly and with great reason though it was not to be in their sense The Vision of Ezekiel about the dry bones living Chap. XXXVII and those words of Isaiah thy dead men shall live c. Chap. XXVI 20. suggesting to them some such thing although they grope exceedingly in the dark as to the true interpretation of this matter That of R. Eliczer is well enough n n n n n n Chetub âol 3. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The people of the Earth the Gentiles do not live which somewhat agrees with that of the Apostle Ephes. II 2. Ye were dead in trespasses and sins Nor does that of Jeremiah Bar Abba sound much differently o o o o o o Sanhedr fol. 92. 2. The dry bones Ezek. XXXVII are the Sons of men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in whom is not the moisture of the Law It is true many bodies of the Saints arose when Christ himself arose Matth. XXVII 52. But as to those places in Scripture which hint the Resurrection of the dead at his coming I would not understand them so much of these as the raising the Gentiles from their spiritual death of sin when they lay in ignorance and Idolatry to the light and life of the Gospel Nor need we wholly expound Ezekiel's dry bones recovered to life of the return of the Tribes of Israel from their Captivity though that may be included in it but rather or together with that the resuscitation of the Israel of God that is those Gentiles that were to believe in the Messiah from their spiritual death The words in the Revel XX. 5. This is the first Resurrection do seem to confirm this Now what and at what time is this Resurrection When the great Angel of the Covenant Christ had bound the old Dragon with the Chains of the Gospel and shut him up that he should no more seduce the Nations p p p p p p ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by lying Wonders Oracles and Divinations and his False-gods as formerly he had done that is when the Gospel being published amongst the Heathen Nations had laid open all the devices and delusions of Satan and had restored them from the death of sin and ignorance to a true state of life indeed This was the first Resurrection That our Saviour in this place speaks of this Resurrection I so much the less doubt because that Resurrction he here intends he plainly distinguishes it from the last and general Resurrection of the dead vers 28 29. this first Resurrection from that last which he points therefore to as it were with his finger the hour is coming and now is c. VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To execute judgment also because he is the Son of man DAN VII 13. Behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds and came to the Antient of days and there was given him dominion and glory c. To this our blessed Saviour seems to have respect in these words as the thing it self plainly shews R. Solomon upon the place One like the Son of man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is the King the Messiah R. Saadias ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is the Messiah our righteousness When our Saviour declared before the Sanhedrin Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds they all said art thou Christ the Son of the blessed God by which they imply that the Son of God and Christ are convertible terms as also are Christ and the Son of Man And it plainly shews that their eyes were intent up-this place Art thou that Son of Man spoken of in Daniel who is the Son of God the Messiah So did Christ in these words look that way VERS XXX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As I hear I judge HE seems to allude to a custom amongst them q q q q q q Sanhedr cap. ult hal â The Judge of an inferior Court if he doubts in any matter goes up to Jerusalem and takes the determination of the Sanhedrin and according to that he judgeth VERS XXXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A burning and shining light HE speaks according to the vulgar dialect of that Nation who were wont to call any person famous for life or knowledge ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Candle r r r r r r Beresh rabba fol. 95. 4. Shuah the Father-in-law of Judah Gen. XXXVIII was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Candle or light of the place where he lived The Gloss is One of the most famous men in the City inlightning their eyes hence the title given to the Rabbins ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Candle of the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lamp of light VERS XXXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Search the Scriptures THIS seems not to be of the imperative but indicative mood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye search the Scriptures and in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come to me that ye might have life What ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã means is not unknown to any that have but dipt into Jewish Authors It denotes a something more narrow search into the Scriptures something between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an enquiry into the literal and Cabbalistical sense of the words as R. Bechai in every leaf shews by several
send drink-offerings the drink-offerings are offered but if he send no drink-offerings drink-offerings are offered at the charge of the Congregation Observe that We have the same elsewhere b b b b b b Fal. 166. 2. Vajicra Rabba fol. 166. 2. And it is every where added that this is one of the seven things that were ordain'd by the great Council and that the sacrifice of a Gentile is only a whole burnt-offering ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the thank-offerings of a Gentile are whole burnt-offerings and the reason is given ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The mind of that Gentile is toward heaven Gloss. He had rather that his sacrifice should be wholly consum'd by fire to God than as his thank-offerings be eaten by men d d d d d d See also Menacoth fol. 72. 2. Temuraâ fol. 103. 1 c. That of Josephus is observable e e e e e e De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 30. Eleazar the Son of Ananias the High Priest a bold young man perswaded those that ministred in holy things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that they should accept of no sacrifice at the hands of a stranger ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This was the foundation of the war with the Romans For they refus'd a sacrifice for Cesar. f f f f f f Ibid. cap. 31. The Elders that they might take off Eleazar and his followers from this resolution of theirs making a speech to them among other things say this That their fore-fathers had greatly beautify'd and adorn'd the Temple ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from things devoted by the Gentiles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Always receiving the gifts from forreign Nations not having ever made any difference in the sacrifices of any whomsoever for that would be irreligious c. When they had spoken this and many more things to this purpose they produc'd several Priests skill'd in the ancient customs of their forefathers who shew'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that all their ancestors received offerings from the Gentiles II. Nor did the Gentiles only send their gifts and sacrifices but came themselves personally sometimes to the Temple and there worship'd Hence the outward Court of the Temple was call'd the Court of the Gentiles and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the common Court to which that in the Book of the Revelations alludes Chap. XI 2. But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given to the Gentiles And of those there shall innumerable numbers come and worship And they shall tread the Holy City forty and two months It is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall tread it under foot as enemies and spoilers but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall tread it as worshippers So Isa. I. 12. g g g g g g Remidâ rab fol. 224. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Syrians and those that are unclean by the touch of a dead body enter'd into the mountain of the Temple h h h h h h Hieros Avodah Zarah fol. 40. 1. Rabban Gamaliel walking in the Court of the Gentiles saw an heathen woman and blessed concerning her i i i i i i Ioseph ubi supâ They would provoke the Roman armes espouse a war with them introduce a new worship and perswade an impiety with the hazard of the City ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If no stranger but the Jews only may be allow'd to sacrifice or worship Hence that suspicion about Trophimus being brought by Paul into the Temple is not to be suppos'd to have been with reference to this Court but to the Court of the women in which Paul was purifying himself k k k k k k Pesachin fol. 3. 2. There is a story of a certain Gentile that eat the Passover at Jerusalem but when they found him out to be an heathen they slew him for the Passover ought not to be eaten by any one that is uncircumcised But there was no such danger that an uncircumcised person could run by coming into the Court of the Gentiles and worshipping there VERS XXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Except a corn of wheat HOW doth this answer of our Saviours agree with the matter propounded Thus Is it so indeed do the Gentiles desire to see me The time draws on wherein I must be glorify'd in the conversion of the Gentiles but as a corn of wheat doth not bring forth fruit except it be first thrown into the ground and there die but if it die it will bring forth much fruit so I must die first and be thrown into the earth and then a mighty harvest of the Gentile world will grow up and be the product of that death of mine Isa. XXVI 19. Thy dead men shall live ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã together with my dead body shall they arise so our translation with which also the French agrees Rescusciteront avec mon corps They shall rise with my Body But it is properly Corpus meum resurgent They shall arise my Body so the interlineary Version The Gentiles being dead in their sins shall with my dead body when it rises again rise again also from their death Nay they shall rise again my Body that is as part of my self and my Body Mystical VERS XXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I have both glorify'd it and will glorifie it again THIS Petition of our Saviours Father glorifie thy name was of no light consequence when it had such an answer from heaven by an audible voice And what it did indeed mean we must guess by the Context Christ upon the Greeks desire to see him takes that occasion to discourse about his death and to exhort his followers that from his example they would not love their life but by losing it preserve it to life eternal Now by how much the deeper he proceeds in the discourse and thoughts of his approaching death by so much the more is his mind disturbed as himself acknowledgeth ver 27. But whence comes this disturbance It was from the apprehended rage and affault of the Devil whether our Lord Christ in his agony and passion had to grapple with an angry God I question but I am certain he had to do with an angry Devil When he stood and stood firmly in the highest and most eminent point and degree of obedience as he did in his sufferings it doth not seem agreeable that he should then be groaning under the pressures of Divine wrath but it is most agreeable he should under the rage and fury of the Devil For I. The fight was now to begin between the Serpent and the seed of the woman mention'd Gen. III. 15. about the glory of God and the salvation of man In which strife and contest we need not doubt but the Devil would exert all his malice and force to the very uttermost II. God loosed all the reins and suffered the Devil without any kind of restraint upon him to
lookt toward one another but when they did not then they turn'd their faces toward the walls Thus Onkelos comments upon this place of the Chronicles I hardly think he Targumizeth on the Book for the Targum at least that is in our hands renders it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã both the Cherubins are made of lilly-work VERS XVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended c. THESE words relate to what he had spoken formerly about sending the Comforter and that he would not leave them comfortless c. And this probably Mary Magdalen's mind was intent upon when she fell at his feet and would have embraced them But he I must first ascend to my Father before I can bestow those things upon you which I have promised do not therefore touch me and detain me upon any expectation of that kind but wait for my Ascension rather and go and tell the same things to my Brethren for their encouragement VERS XXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted HE had formerly given them a power of binding and loosing and therefore probably bestows something more upon them now than what he had conferr'd before For I. It would seem a little incongruous for our Saviour to use an action so new and unwonted such as was his breathing upon them to vest them only with that power which he had before given them II. The power of binding and loosing was concern'd only in the articles and decisions of the Law this power which he now gives them reacht to the sins of mankind That power concern'd the Doctrines this the persons of men Now that we may understand the words that are before us let us a little consider what is said Luk. XXIV 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Which words we may suppose he spoke before he utter'd what is in this verse And so might there not upon the occasion of those words arise some such scruple as this in the Apostles breasts Is it so indeed must remission of sins be Preached to those in Jerusalem who have stain'd themselves with the blood of the Messiah himself Yes saith he For whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them To this those words of his upon the Cross have some reference Luk. XXIII 34. Father forgive them c. And indeed upon what foundation with what confidence could the Apostles have preacht remission of sins to such wretched men who had so wickedly so cruelly murder'd their own Lord the Lord of life unless authoriz'd to it by a peculiar commission granted to them from their Lord himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whose soever ye retain they are retained Besides the negative included in these words that is If you do not remit them they shall not be remitted there is something superadded that is positive That is I. There is granted to them a power of smiting the rebellious with present death or some bodily stroke II. A power of delivering them over to Satan Whence had St. Peter that power of striking Ananias and Sapphira with so fatal a bolt whence St. Paul that of striking Elymas blind whence of delivering over Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan if not from this very commission given them by Christ Christ himself never exercis'd this power himself it was not one person whom he stroke either with death or any afflictive disease some indeed he raised when they had been dead and infinite numbers of the sick and diseased whom he cured He snatcht several from the power of the Devils he deliver'd none to them That the Apostles therefore might be capable of performing things of so high a nature it was necessary they should be backt and encourag'd by a peculiar authority which if we find not in this clause Whose soever sins ye retain they are retained where should we look for it And therefore when he endows his Apostles with a power which he never thought fit to exercise in his own person no wonder if he does it by a singular and unusual action and that was breathing upon them ver 22. But we must know that whereas amongst other mighty powers conferr'd we reckon that as one viz. delivering over unto Satan we are far from meaning nothing else by it but Excommunication What the Jews themselves meant by that kind of phrase let us see by one instance d d d d d d Succah fol. 53. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Those two men of Cush that stood before Solomon Elihoreph and Ahijah the Scribes Sons of Shausha On a certain day Solomon saw the Angel of Death weeping he said why weepest thou He answer'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Because these two Cushites entreat me that they may continue here ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Solomon deliver'd them over to the Devil who brought them to the borders of Luz and when they were come to the borders of Luz they dy'd Gloss. He calls them Cushites Ironically because they were very beautiful They entreat me that they might continue here For the time of their death was now come But the Angel of death could not take their souls away because it had been decreed that they should not die but at the Gates of Luz Solomon therefore deliver'd them over ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Devils for he reign'd over the Devils as it is written And Solomon sat upon the Throne of the Lord for he reigned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã over those things that are above and those things that are below Josephus also makes mention of the power that Solomon had over Devils e e e e e e Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God taught him an art against Demons The belief of either of these stories is at the liberty of the Reader Only from the former we may make this observation that a power of delivering over to Satan was even in the Jews opinion divine and miraculous We acknowledg this to have been in the Apostles and in the Apostles only and I know no where if not in the words we are now treating of from whence otherwise the original of this power and authority can be deriv'd III. It seems further that at this very time was granted to the Apostles a commission to confer the Holy Spirit on those whom they found qualify'd and that in these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost i. e. Receive ye it to distribute it to others For although it cannot be deny'd but that they receiv'd the Holy Ghost for other reasons also and to other ends of which we have already discours'd yet is not this great end to be excluded which seem'd the highest and noblest endowment of all viz. that Christ breathing upon them inspir'd them with the Holy
use of this Sacrament might shew that they renounced their Judaism and professed the Faith and Oeconomy of the Gospel III. Our Communion therefore in this Sacrament is not so much Spiritual as External and declarative of our common and joynt profession of the Christian Faith We are far from denying that the Saints have a Spiritual Communion with God and among themselves in the use of the Eucharist yea we assert there is a most close Communion between true believers and God But what is that Spiritual Communion of Saints among themselves Mutual love one heart prayers for one another c. But they may exercise the same Communion and do exercise it when they meet together to any other part of Divine Worship They may and do act the same thing when they are distant from one another Therefore their Communion in this Sacrament which is distinctly called the Communion of the Eucharist is that they meet together and by this outward sign openly and with joynt minds profess that they are united in one sacred knot and bond of Christian Religion renouncing all other Religions IV. When therefore we approach to the Eucharist in any Church we do not only communicate with that congregation with which we associate at that time but with the whole Catholic Church in the profession of the true Evangelic Religion VERS XXVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ye do shew the Lords death IT is known what the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Passover Supper was namely a Declaration of the great works of God in the deliverance of the people out of Egypt The same as it seems would these Judaizing Corinthians retain in the Lords Supper as if the Eucharist were instituted and superadded only for that commemoration The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã does very well answer to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Declaration and while the Apostle admonisheth them that the death of Christ is that which is to be declared it may be gathered that they erred in this very thing and looked some other way VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Unworthily THE Apostle explains himself vers 29. Where we also will speak of this verse VERS XXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let a man examine himself c. HE had said before verse 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That they which are approved may be made manifest And in the same sense he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let a man approve himself in this place not so much Let him try or examine himself as Let him approve himself that is Let him shew himself approved by the Christian Faith and Doctrine So Chap. XVI 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whomsoever ye shall approve We meet with the word in the same sense very often VERS XXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the Lords body THIS is to be meant of the proper act of the understanding viz. Of the true judgment concerning the nature and signification of the Sacrament If it were said indeed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the Lord it might be rendred in the same sense as He knew not the Lord that is he loves him not he fears him not he worships him not But when it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not discerning the body it plainly speaks of the act of the understanding He does not rightly distinguish of the body of the Lord. And this was a grievous error of these Judaizing Corinthians who would see nothing of the body of Christ in the Eucharist or of his death their eyes being too intent upon the commemoration of the Passover They retained the old Leaven of Judaism in this new Passover of the Eucharist And this was their partaking of the Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unworthily as assigning it a scope and end much too unworthy much too mean Ther are alas among Christians some who come to this Sacrament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unworthily but whether this unworthily of the Corinthians be fitly applied to them I much doubt How mean soever I am let me speak this freely with the leave of good and pious men that I fear that this discourse of the Apostle which especially chastized Judaizers be too severely applyed to Christians that Judaize not at all at least that it be not by very many Interpreters applied to the proper and intended scope of it Of these Corinthians receiving the Eucharist unworthily in the sense of which we spake the Apostle speaks two dreadful things I. That they became ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord vers 27. With this I compare that of the Apostle Heb. X. 29. He hath trampled under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified a common thing And Heb. VI. 6. They crucify again to themselves the Son of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and put him to an open shame Of whom is the discourse Not of all Christians that walked not exactly according to the Gospel rule although they indeed esteem and treat Christ too ignominously but of those that relapse and Apostatize from the Gospel to Judaism whether these Corinthians too much inclined and are admonished seasonably to take care of the same guilt for when any professing the Gospel so declined to Judaism that he put the blood of Christ in subordination to the Passover and acknowledged nothing more in it than was acknowledged in the blood of a Lamb and other Sacrifices namely that they were a mere commemoration and nothing else oh how did he vilify that blood of the eternal Covenant He is guilty of the blood of the Lord who assents to the shedding of his blood and gives his vote to his death as inflicted for a mere shaddow and nothing else which they did II. That they ate and drank ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Judgment to themselves But what that judgment is is declared vers 30. Many are sick c. It is too sharp when some turn ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Damnation when the Apostle saith most evidently vers 32. that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When we are judged we are chastened that we should not be condemned Thus as in the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation God vindicated the honour of the Sabbath by the death of him that gathered sticks and the honour of the worship in the Tabernacle by the death of Nadab and Abihu and the honour of his Name by the stoning of the Blasphemer so he set up like monuments of his vengeance in the beginning of the Gospel Dispensation in the dreadful destruction of Ananias and Sapphira for the wrong and reproach offered to the Holy Ghost in the delivery of some into the hands of Satan for contempt of and enmity against the Gospel in this judgment for the abuse of the Eucharist in the destruction of some by the Plague for Nicolaitism Revel II. 23 c. VERS XXXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
But read and read again the whole story Act. XIX and there is not a syllable of any wrong that Paul at that time endured in his person VERS XXXVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fool. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã would the Talmudists say Sot mad man g g g g g g Gloss. In Taanith fol. 1â 1. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai answered the Baithuseans denying also the Resurrection of the dead and said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fools whence did this happen to you c. VERS XLV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And so it is written c. OF the former no doubt is made for it is written Gen. XI 7. But where is the latter Throughout the whole sacred book thence the Jews speak so many things and so great of the Spirit of Messias and of Messias quickning ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit Job XIX 25. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth Job seems to me in this place in the words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to speak in the same sense with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The last Adam Of the former Adam it was said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return And I know saith Job that my Redeemer liveth and he shall arise from the dust another or a latter and I shall see the Lord made of the same flesh that I am of c. Intimating the Incarnation of the Messiah ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A quickning Spirit The Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters Gen. I. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is the Spirit of King Messias So the Jews speak very frequently And also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Messias shall quicken those that dwell in the dust It cannot be past over without Observation by what authority Paul applies those words of Psal. XCII Thou Lord in the beginning hast founded the earth c. to the Messias Heb. I. 10. to prove his Deity and dignity But thou art deceived O Paul would a Hebrew say These words are to be applied to God the Father not to the Messias The Apostle hath what to reply from the very confession of the Jewish Nation You acknowledge that Spirit which was present at and president over the Creation was the Spirit of the Messias It ought not also be past by without observation that Adam receiving from him the promise of Christ and believing it named his wife Chava that is Life So the Seventy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And Adam called his wives name Life Gen. III. 20. What Is she called life that brought in death But Adam perceived ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The last Adam exhibited to him in the Promise to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A quickning Spirit and had brought in a better life of the Soul and at length should bring in a better of the body Hence is that Joh. I. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In him was life VERS XLVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The second man is the Lord. GEn. IV. 1. Eve conceived and brought forth Cain and said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I have possessed or obtained ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A man the Lord that is That the Lord himself should become man For let me so turn it depending upon these reasons I. That this Interpretation is without any manner of wresting the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yea it is according to its most proper signification and use II. That without doubt Eve had respect to the promise of Christ when she named her son as Adam had respect to the promise in the denomination of Eve VERS LV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. O death where is thy c. HOs XIII 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Seventy read it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where is thy revenge O Death And thus speaks Aben Ezra There are some which invert the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will be as though it were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where And very truly as it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vers 10. Where is thy King Where the Chaldee ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not I will be thy King but Where is thy King So that the Greek Interpreters and the Apostle after them translated ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where properly and truly The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Prophet is rendred by the Targumist and the Rabbins to signifie A Word but some as Kimchi acknowledges understand it to signifie The Plague and that upon good ground because the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Destruction is joyned with it as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Destruction and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Plague are joyned together Psal XCI Where see the Targum and R. Solomon and compare the Greek Interpreters with them CHAP. XVI VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now concerning the Collection for the Saints UNLESS I am much deceived ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Jerusalem Writers denotes in the like sense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Collection for the wise men They have this story a a a a a a Hoâaioth fol. 48. 1. R. Eliezer R. Josua and R. Akiba went up to Chelath of Antioch ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Employed in the Collection for the wise Men. One Abba Judah was there who performed the Law with a good Eye Being now reduced to poverty when he saw the Rabbins he was dejected He went home with a sad countenance His wife said to him Why doth thy countenance languish He answered The Rabbins are come and I know not what to do She said to him You have one field left Go and sell half of it and give to them Which he did And when they were departed he went to plow in the half of his field and found a great treasure c. I produce this the more willingly that it may be observed that collections were made among the Jews in forrain Nations for the poor Rabbins dwelling in Judea in the same manner as they were made among Christians in forrain Nations for the poor Jews converted to Christianity in Judea VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã On the first day of the Week ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the first of the Sabbath would the Talmudists say I. That day was every where celebrated for the Christian Sabbath and which is not to be past over without observing as far as appears from Scripture there is no where any dispute of that matter There was controversie concerning circumcision and other points of the Jewish Religion whether they were to be retained or not retained but no where as we read concerning the changing of the Sabbath There were indeed some Jews converted to the Gospel who as in some other things they retained a smatch of their old Judaism so they did in the observation of days Rom. XIV 5. Gal. IV. 10. but yet not rejecting or neglecting the
cursed that Adam and all the Saints of God might not look for blessedness upon the Earth but in Christ nor for Christ nor his Kingdom upon this cursed Earth but in Heaven O Jew the Earth is cursed where canst thou find a place upon it for Messias blessed Kingdom All is but as Meshek and the Tents of Kedar to him he finds not a place here to lay his head I may say the title over Christs head was and is a stumbling block under the Jews feet where it was written Jesus of Nazareth and they looked for Messias of Bethlehem King of the Jews and they saw nothing in him but poverty and contempt In Joh. XVII 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Where I am where is that Not here wherein is poverty contempt and dishonor as he experienced when he was here but to see my glory there where he is glorified Alas What treatment can he provide for them here Can he spread a table for their full satisfaction in this Wilderness where he found none for himself The dish he sets before them is In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good chear there is better chear provided for you in my Fathers house This is but a Wilderness you are passing through Canaan is the land provided for the flowing with milk and hony In my Fathers house there are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã many abiding places here you are flitting from place to place and no abiding but I have prepared a Rest for the people of God An unfit place here where there is nothing but changes and vicissitudes and where in a moment Amnons mirth and feasting may be turned into mourning and misery All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cometh saith Job Why he met with changes enough but he means his great change when he should be changed no more than that that he looks for and trusts in An unfit place this when the house may be blown down whilst we are feasting in it as it happened to Jobs children This World then is no fit place for Christ to entertain his people in Secondly A believer in this World is not yet capable of the Entertainment that Christ has to give him therfore that is reserved for him in his Fathers house As Christ tells his Disciples I have many things to speak to you but you cannot bear them So I say in our present case Christ hath many excellent treatments to entertain them withal but here they are not fit for them while we are in this corruptible flesh we want the wedding garment Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God So corruptible bodies are not garments fit for these divine entertainments 1. The Soul in these bodies does not act to the utmost extent its nature is capable of It is like a bird that let out injoys a whole World of liberty but not before There is a kind of immensity in the Soul and this is one part of Gods image Any one Soul among us could hold as much wisdom goodness c. as God in its degree and capacity but it is straitned in these bodies that it cannot act to such an extensiveness As the River is straitned within its banks till it fall into the Ocean so the Soul here is straitned by ignorance infirmities pressures but at death it slips into the Ocean of Eternity where there is no more straitness 2. How impossible is it in these mortal bodies to see God as he is How hard through the fogs of flesh to see the things of God How impossible to behold God in his essence In the mount will the Lord be seen and not in the low vallies of mortality and corruption Oh! I cannot but with rapture consider of the strange and blessed change that blessed Souls find as soon as ever departed Here we are groping after him and much ado we have to discern a little of him here one cloud or other is interposing twixt our contemplation and that Sun But as soon as we are got out of the body we behold that incomprehensible light as he is Oh! what rapture of Soul will it be to see all clouds dispelled and to look with open full eye upon the Sun Oh! this is our God we have groped we have waited for him What the Apostle saith II Cor. III. ult But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory This is of transcendent comfort for believers it being their happiness here to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same image What ravishment of Joy will it be to find it effected to the utmost in Eternity 3. How impossible is it to keep the heart fixed on God here While flesh hangs on it that will be making it to flag aside A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise April 6. 1666. I JOHN V. 16. There is a sin unto death I do not say that he should pray for it AND it is a deadly sin indeed that outvies and excludes the charity of this Apostle A man as his Writings evidence of him and as Ecclesiastical History testifies concerning him composed altogether of Charity His Epistles evidence to you how urgent he is for love one to another and Ecclesiastical History will tell you that his common salutation to all he met was Let us love one another But here he hath met with a wretch to whom he cannot find in his heart to say God speed A deadly sin and a deadly sinner to whom he cannot allow the Christian the Common the needful Charity of his own or other mens prayers O no It is a sin unto death The uttering of the first clause There is a sin unto death may not undeservedly nor impertinently move such another inquiry in the Congregation as the uttering of those words of our Saviour One of you shall betray me did move at his Table every one then to say Is it I and every one here to say is the sin mine As it was time for every one of Israel to look about him lest the thing should fall to his share when Joshua proclaimed among them There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee O Israel Josh VII 13. So when the Holy Ghost proclaimeth in the words of the Text There is a sin unto death is it not time is it not pertinent for every one that is within hearing to look about and take heed lest this dead Concubine do lie at the threshold of his door as she did in Gibeah Judg. XIX And what hath any notorious sinner to say for himself why the Law of the Text should not proceed against him and condemn his profaneness uncleanness wickedness unconscionableness under the name and title of a sin unto death seeing it seemeth a great deal more currant that
there is sin unto death than that there should be any sin that is not unto death as our Apostle saith there is in the words immediately going before these that I have chosen In these that I have chosen you see there are two clauses and out of either of them arise two Questions Out of the former I. What sin it is the Apostle means And II. Why he titles it by such a name A sin unto death Out of the latter I. Why he forbideth to pray for it And II. Why he forbideth not to pray for it I mean why he speaketh not out in down right terms I say that he should not pray for it but says only I say not that he should The Rhemists Popish Expositors upon the place will answer you even all these questions with a breath if you will but take their words and little more than their bare word must you expect for the proof and confirmation of what they tell you 1. They will tell you that the sin our Apostle means is any sin whatsoever that any one lives in unrepentant all his time 2. They will tell you that it is titled A sin unto death because he lives in it till his death and so dies in it 3. They will tell you that the Apostle by not praying for him means not praying for him when he is dead but he that sins not a sin unto death that is that lives not in his sin till he die but repents of it before for him you must pray after his death For that the place is most properly or only meant of praying for the departed say they this convinced that neither the Church nor any man is debarred here from praying for any sinner while living nor for remission of any sin in this life And so they go on When I read these mens Annotations on this Scripture they often mind me of Benhadads servants with ropes about their necks catching at any word that fell from the King of Israels mouth that might be for any advantage to their forlorn and lost cause and condition These mens Popish cause hath had the rope about its neck now a long time and been in a lost and forlorn case and I cannot tell whether I should laugh or frown to see what pitiful shift and shameful scrambling they make for it by catching at any word or syllable in the Scripture or Fathers and wresting and twisting and twining it to any seeming or colourable advantage to their condemned cause to save it from execution Certainly they are at a very hard pinch for proof of praying for the dead when they make such a scraping in this portion of Scripture to rake it out thence whereas the words are as far from meaning the living praying for the dead as the dead praying for the living And at the very same game they be in their notes upon our Saviours words concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost that it shall never be forgiven in this World nor in the World to come Matth. XII 32. Their note is that some sins may be remitted in the next life and consequently this proves Purgatory As the poor frantick distracted wretch at Athens that fed and pleased himself with this fancy that every ship that came into the Port was his ship that all the goods that came into the Town were his goods whilst he himself in the mean time was miserably poor naked and ready to famish so these men think every verse in Scripture brings in something to their stock every saying of the Fathers something to their bank whilst in the mean while their pitiful cause walks starven and poor and blind and naked and stands in need of all things The sin against the Holy Ghost indeed is distinct and something different from this sin unto death that our Apostle speaketh of yet since there is such a particular sin against the Holy Ghost that is so deadly why should not these men think that sin in the Text that carries so deadly a name is a particular sin likewise It is true indeed that a sin in which a man continues unrepenting until his death and in which he dies may very justly be called A sin to death that is a sin until his death and it will prove A sin to death eternal but that the Apostle means here a particular sin and that he estimates it not by its length but by its weight not by how long the party continues in it but by how grievous the sin is in it self will appear as we go along partly by discovery of the reason of the title he puts upon it and partly by discovery of the very sin it self that is here intended But before we begin with the discovery of the reason of the title let us a little look first into the meaning of those words of our Saviour Joh. XX. 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Do not the Apostles here receive a new power or priviledge or guift which Christ had not imparted to them before Else why such an action as he had never used toward them before so breathing on them The common acceptation of these words whose soever sins ye remit or retain are remitted or retained is to make them to mean the same thing with what ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. But besides that the expressions are of a vast difference why if Christ had given them the very same power in those words that he doth in these why should he repeat it especially why should he use such a solemn and unusual rite toward them to breath upon them He had given them power of miracles and healing and casting out Devils before without breathing upon them He had given them power of binding and loosing that is of establishing or abolishing the rites and Laws of Moses for so the Phrase in the common acceptation of the Nation did only signifie and this he did without breathing upon them Therefore certainly in this his new action and these his new words as I may call them he gives them some new power and that in two kinds 1. In his breathing upon them and bidding them receive the Holy Ghost he gives the Holy Ghost to give again or he gives them power by the imposition of their hands to bestow the Holy Ghost as the sacred Story tells you the Apostle did and none but the Apostles could do And 2. In his words whose soever sins ye remit or retain he gives them a punitive or executive double power viz. To strike desperate or incorrigible and horrid transgressors with some corporal punishment or stroke or else to give them up to Satan to be tortured and scourged in body and vexed and disquieted in mind Where had Peter his warrant to strike Ananias and Sapphira with death but from these words And Paul
God the true Messias And the Jews that would not believe that no sign would serve to make them believe That indeed you 'l say gave assurance to all men that he was the Son of God the true Messias but how did that give assurance that there should be an universal Judgment and he the Judge Truly he that knows what the true Messias means needs no more proof and demonstration of that than his very Character He is heir of the World he is Prince and Saviour he is King in Sion he is set up above all Principality and power as the Scripture speaks these and divers other things of him and doth any man need more evidence of his being judge of all the World But our question is how that is inferred or argued from his Resurrection The Resurrection of Christ did beget and effectuate a double Resurrection for you have mention of a two fold Resurrection in Scripture First There is mention of the first Resurrection Rev. XX. 5. The Millenary not able to clear the notion whereof nor to spell out the meaning hath bewildred himself in those wild conceptions as he hath done The first Resurrection began and took place presently after our Saviours own Resurrection for it means no other than the raising the Heathen from their death in sin blindness and Idolatry to the life light and obedience of the Gospel And so the Apostle titles their estate writing to the Ephesians which had been some of them Ephes. II. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And to that very tenor are those words of the Prophet Esay XXVI 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise The Gentiles to be raised from their spiritual death presently upon his raising from his bodily And who so shall well weigh those words of our Saviour Joh. V. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live will clearly find them to mean nothing else So that the Resurrection of Christ had first influence and virtue to cause this spiritual Resurrection the Resurrection of souls the raising up of the Gentiles from the death of sin And whence it had this influence it is easie to read viz. because by his Resurrection he had conquered the Devil who had so long kept the poor Heathen under that spiritual death Will you have a Commentary upon that passage in Psal. CX 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power First His Resurrection day of power Rom. I. 4. Then look into the story of the Acts of Apostles the history of the times next following his Resurrection You may wonder there to see people coming in by flocks and thousands to the acknowledgment and entertaining of the Gospel three thousand at one Sermon Chap. II. five thousand at another Chap. III. and further in that book in a little time the Gospel running through the World and imbraced and intertained of all Nations Oh! It was the day of his power and thy people shall be willing in day of thy power He had now Conquered Hell and Satan by his death and rising again whose captives those poor heathen had been two and twenty hundred years and now he said to the captives Go free and to the prisoners Go forth and so they did And upon the very like account his Resurrection hath influence to the causing and effectuating the general Resurrection at the last day For though it might be a little too long to hold that the wicked shall be raised by the very same virtue of Christs Resurrection that the godly shall yet it is not too large to hold that they shall be raised by some virtue of his Resurrection viz. as his Resurrection had conquered death and brought him to those articles that he must in time give up and restore all prisoners and dead that they may come and give account to him that conquered him I have the keys of the grave and death faith he in the Revelations he had wrung the keys out of the jaylors hand and opened the prison doors that the prisoners should come out when he calls Very observable to the purpose we are upon viz. that Christs Resurrection did assure that judgment and that he should be judge is that in Phil. II. 8. 9. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him Obedience was that debt that was to be paid to God Whereas much stress is laid upon the torments that Christ suffered it is very true that he suffered as much as I may say God could lay upon him short of his own wrath and as much as the Devil could withal his wrath but that was not the debt that was due and to be paid to God Wrath and torment and damnation was rather the debt that was to be paid to man But the debt was obedience For easie is it to observe how Satan had got the day of God as with reverence I may speak it when he had brought the chief creature of Gods creation and in him all mankind to disobey God and to be obedient to him and had carried it for ever had not an obedience been paid again to God that outvied that disobedience How might Satan triumph Man that is the darling creature to the Creator and that is set up Lord and Ruler of all Creatures and to whom even the Angels are appointed to be ministring Spirits I have brought this brave Gallant to forsake his Creator and to follow and obey me But forth steps this noble Champion of God and in the form of a servant incounters this triumpher and mauger all his spite and power and vexatiousness he pays God an obedience incomparably beyond the obedience that Adam should have paid incomparably outweighing the disobedience that Adam shewed He paid an obedience that should answer for the disobedience of all his people An obedience that should be a stock for all his people Nay he paid an obedience that outvied all the disobediences of all men and Devils For he paid an obedience that was infinite Now his Resurrection did demonstrate that he had made full payment or else Satan and Death might have kept him still in the grave their prison if a farthing had been yet unpaid Now he having by his Resurrection consummated the payment of so great obedience and vindicated the honour and quarrel of God against his enemies In all justice and equity the Lord exalted him above all that all should be subject and homagers to him and that he might take account and reward accordingly those that obey him and that obey him not And so the Lord hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by him whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him from the dead And are you assured that there will be
sin should never be changed the contents of the Flesh and the World should never have an end And how sadly and miserably do we feel the contrary to our eternal sorrow Oh! Satan thou hast deceived us and we have been deceived thou hast proved stronger than we and hast undone us For indeed Satans strength lies in his Cosenage cut but these locks of his like Sampsons and he is weak and can do little Satan with all his strength and power cannot force any man to sin and therefore his way is to cheat them to sin If Satan could force any soul to sin all souls must go to Hell and no flesh should be saved for he would spare none but since he cannot force and compel the Will he cheats and cosens the Understanding and so perswades the Will The subtil Serpent winds into the Will and Consent by deceiving the Fancy and Intellect as the Apostle speaks of sin Rom. VII 11. Sin deceived me and so slew me Satan deceives and so destroies How he does insinuate and inject his deceit and illusions upon the minds of men how he strikes fire that the tinder of the soul may take some kindling is not so easie for discovery as it is sad in experience It is a depth of Satan hard to be known as to his managing of it but too well known in the effect and operation I shall not therefore trouble you with any discourse upon that subject though something might be said about it both from Philosophy and Divinity II. It is a Masterpiece of his cheating to cheat men in matter of Religion To deceive the Nations with a false Religion instead of a true as he did the Heathen before he was bound and as he hath done the greatest part of the World with Popery and Mahumetism since he was let loose As it is the great work of Christ to propagate the truth and to promote the Gospel which is the great Truth of God and Mystery of Salvation so Satan makes it his business to sow tares among the wheat to corrupt the truth as much as possible and to muddy the wholsom waters of Religion of which the Sheep of Christ should drink as much as he can that no man may drink but durt and puddle As he himself abode not in the truth Joh. VIII so he cannot abide that men should abide in it if he can prevent it In 2 Cor. IV. 4. The God of this World blindeth mens minds that the brightness of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ should not shine to them The Devil plays not the small game of cheating men of their mony of their lands and worldly interests as men cheat one another but of their Religion of the soundness of truth of solid and wholesom principles Whence else such Idolatrous principles among the Heathen such damnable traditions among the Jews such cursed heresies among Christians The enemy hath done this who cannot abide the fair growing of the Wheat but if possible he will choke it with Tares Do you not hear of Doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. IV. 1. and of damnable heresies 2 Pet. II. 1. T is the Devils damnable plot and design to destroy men by their very principles of Religion to poyson the fountains out of which they should drink wholsom water that they drink death and damnation where they should drink wholsom refreshing It is a cheat too sad when the Devil cosens men to the hurt of their souls by their chusing and using things for their bodies outward condition but it is a Mastery of his delusions when he cheats them in matters and principles of Religion which they chuse and use for their souls T is a great and a sad mastery of his when he brings men to sin out of the very principles of their Religion to establish mischief by a Law As the vilest Act that ever was committed in the World viz. the crucifying the Lord of life the Jews did it out of the very Principles of their traditional Religion which ingaged them not to endure such a Messias And the horrid fact that this day commemorates which even amazeth all stories and the like to which no Age or Nation can produce or parallel they did it out of the very principles of their Religion their Faith being Faction and their Religion Rebellion as our Churches have many a time heard that character of them It is not a trifling business for men to take up principles and practises in Religion out of fancy and humor and self conceit though that hath been very much in fashion in our days It is Satans masterpiece of Policy to make men forsake the Waters of Siloam that run softly and to dig themselves Cisterns that will hold no water and so to perish for thirst Is it not a desperate cheat of Satan that men should out of principles of Religion refuse the publick Ministry out of principles of Religion should rant and become Atheists out of principles of Religion should do as they were about to have done by us this day to destroy those that are not of the same principles and Religion A sad thing when that which should be a mans balm becomes poison and those things which should have been for his greatest good should turn to his greatest evil when his principles of Religion become his greatest ruine Surely a very powerful cheat of Satan is there when men chuse darkness to be their light poison their diet and doctrines of Devils to be their way of Salvation I shall only mind you of the Apostles counsel 1 Joh. IV. 1. Beloved believe not every spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God for many false Prophets are come into the World And that of another Apostle Prove all things and hold that which is good And Be not led away with every Doctrine The present occasion calls upon us to remember what men seduced by Satan would have done to us and what the God of truth and mercy hath done for us and we cannot better do either than with reflection upon Religion The Text before us tells us that Satan deceives all he can and musters an Army of those that he hath deceived to fight against those that will not be deceived For ask that Army why do you fight against the Camp of the Saints and why do you besiege the beloved City And what answer in the World can they give but this Because they will not be deceived by Satan as we are And ask our Gunpowder Plotters Why do you go about to destroy King Parliament and Nation What quarrel have you against them that you would bring so horrid a ruin upon them What wrong have they done you that you will take so severe and cruel a revenge Why they will not be as we are blind as we are blind befooled and deceived as we are befooled and deceived A sad case that a Nation must be destroyed because it will not be cheated by Satan because it will not put
II. And thus much of the instrumental cause of this poor Prophets death A Lion The efficient cause was his transgressing a command of God Upon which if any heart be moved any whit to murmur or dispute against the severity of God in this case let me calm it much after the manner that Joabs messenger must calm David If the Kings anger arise and he seem vexed and displeased saith Joab to the messenger then say thou to him Thy servant Uriah is dead also If thy heart sinner arise against Gods dealing here and thou think it very severe that this poor man must die thus let me say this to calm thee But thou art not dead who art as great a transgressor as he Why he died a reason may be given but canst thou or all the World give a reason why thou art a live This then let it be the first application of this story Every one to consider with themselves That they after all their sinning are yet alive when this poor man but for one sin came to so fatal a death Let me use our Saviours stile and question a little Think you that these Galileans were sinners above all others or that those eighteen on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were sinners above all others Thinkest thou this man was a greater sinner than thou art that he came so to his end and to so fatal an end Nay speak heart from the very bottom and in sincerity Thinkest thou not that this man was an hundred fold a thousand fold less sinner than thou art And yet he was thus taken away and thou yet alive He a good man a holy man a holy Prophet and yet he so fearfully cut off for violating but one command and deceived into that miscariage too And how many commands hast thou broke knowingly wittingly wilfully and how far how many degrees art thou short of the holiness of this man and yet alive Hast thou any heart to complain of Gods severity against this poor man look home and see what cause thou hast to stand amazed at his patience toward thee He for breaking one command How many ones hast thou broken Nay if God had reckoned to cut thee off at the hundredth the thousandth breach of his commands had not the account been up an hundred a thousand times over And yet thou art here David questions Lord what is man Take the Philosophers answer Homo mirum Man is a wonder And so he is a wonder in his creation and so David himself owns Psal. CXXXIX I am fearfully and wonderfully made A wonder in his preservation when there are so many concurrents that might dash him all to pieces and yet he lives I will draw nigh saith Moses and see this great sight that is before me The bush burning and yet is not consumed And a great sight indeed that fire that devours all things that it lays hold on should burn so vehemently in the bush and yet the bush nothing at all impaired Draw nigh and turn thine eyes to such a kind of sight in thine own preservation So many things concurring that might cause thy consuming dust and ashes frailty mortality sinfulness provoking of God and yet not consumed What account can we give of our preservation First Let us look upon this man and then let us look upon our selves As the man that fell among thieves travailing from Jerusalem to Jericho lay by the way side half dead So this poor man is fallen into the paâs of the Lion and lieth by the way side wholly dead And is this nothing to us that we should like the Priest and Levite thus slightly pass by him The man was a good and holy man and I make no question but he was saved though he came to such a fatal end Saved Will you say when he came to such an end for transgressing Gods command He died in his sin certainly and can we think that he was saved 1. Consider what follows immediately in his story 28. ver The Lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the Asse God that so severely punished him to the death yet shewed a miracle for him when he was dead Which sheweth that God had not cast away all care of him though he had so sorely punished him And it was a very fair sign that God had not suffered the great roaring Lion to devour his soul in that he suffered not this Lion to devour his carcass It s Davids saying Doest thou shew wonders for the dead Yes in one sense he did here And can we think that God would shew such a miracle for a castaway and for one whose soul was now in Hell would he shew such a wonder for his body 2. It s true indeed that he died for transgressing of Gods command but had he not repented of that transgression It s observable what is said of the Prophet that had brought him back again vers 21. That he cried to the man of God that he had brought back When God had revealed to him what wrong he had done in lying to the poor Prophet and making him transgress Gods command and what a sad fate should befal him for his transgression he cried out with sadness and affection and told him how it should be with him And can we think that the good man having his sin so laid before him and his dreadful punishment was not deeply touched with the sense of his sin and with all earnestness sought to God for pardon We may not judge of him by our selves we little take to heart what we have misdone and what is denounced by God against our sinning A holy Prophet was of better temper and of a tenderer heart and deeply sorrowed for his transgression when he was convinced of it and sought for pardon and obtained it So that though he died for his sin yet he died not in it The case of David may give some illustration to this case When Nathan told him home of his sin about Uriah and his wife he instantly repents is pardoned that he falls not under condemnation for it but he is not quit from temporal judgment and punishment for it The sword shall never depart from thine house And the child shall die So this man is told of his fault by the other Prophet he repents is pardoned that he falls not under condemnation but he is not acquitted from a temporal punishment and that a severe one that cost him his life We may here take notice of divers things First Of the wild opinions of Antinomians that say a Believer is not punished for his sins whatsoever befals him But the reason they give spoils what it would prove For Christ say they hath born his punishment which if it be true yet it is punishment as to satisfaction not to castigation For who among us ever said that a Believer was punished for the satisfaction of his sin God punisheth him upon other accounts Davids sin was pardoned and satisfied for by Christ
from him into the house a Scorpion bit him And can you call that a Resurrection cheerfully and favourly when a man is raised from one death to die another Blessed and holy is he saith this our Apocaliptic that hath part in the first Resurrection over such an one the second death shall have no power But if he have no share in the first Resurrection at the second Resurrection his rising is but to remove out of one death into another out of one deadly room in the prison into a worse Therefore the Scripture in the places mentioned speaks of the Resurrection as if belonging only to the holy and righteous speaking of it as it is in its proper definition arising again from death and not flitting from one death to another it speaks of the second Resurrection as it is akin and related to the first that being an arising from one death this from another And this is the first Parallel that we may make between them they are both a rising I from death that neither in the one nor in the other death hath any more dominion not the death of sin in the first Resurrection nor death in the grave in the second Shall we dispute whether the first or second Resurrection be the greater work the greater business They are as it were brethren and to whether belongs the priviledg of birthright It hath been said of old that sleep is the elder brother of death and certainly with as much right we may call rising from the death of sin elder brother to rising from death in the grave May we not call sin the elder brother of Damnation and on the contrary Grace the elder brother of Glory and the rising of the Soul elder brother to the rising of the body What is the first formulation or corner stone that is laid for the building up of a happy and blessed Resurrection at the last day Will you lay it in the Power of God That can raise men to damnation as well as salvation Will you lay it in the Will of God That will raise up some to damnation as well as some to salvation But you must lay it in the first Resurrection or the rising of the soul out of the grave of sin Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption The word is so written in Hebrew that it may be read Holy one or Holy ones We know the Holy one of God did not could not see corruption and the reason was because he was so holy an one and it must be holiness that must be the beginning the great promoter of our incorruption And get but the soul happily raised and cleared of her corruption the happy raising and clearing from the corruption of the body will certainly follow You remember the expression of the Apostle If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Col. III. 1. We risen with Christ It is well worth considering how that is done There were some that arose with him indeed out of their graves at his Resurrection Mat. XXVII Of these it might well be said you are risen with Christ but how of others The meaning is Not only you are risen as Christ is risen but you are ingrafted into Christs Resurrection and risen united to his risings The Apostle warrants the expression of ungrafted Rom. VI. 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection So that in the instant of the first Resurrection that any man attains to rising from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that man is ingrafted implanted into Christ and as sure of a happy Resurrection as that Christ is risen A Second Parallel of the first and second Resurrection is in regard of the instrumental II. cause of both The second Resurrection will be effectuated by the all powerful voice of Christ calling all out of their graves Joh. V. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth This the Apostle calls the Voice of the Archangel and Trump of God 1 Thes. IV. 16. And in 1 Cor. XV. The trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised Let us by the way pause a little and take up some thoughts of this Trump or Trumpet The Father of old said That whether he were eating or drinking or whatsoever he did he still thought he heard this Trumpet sounding this alarm Arise ye dead and come to judgment Suppose you heard it now would it not startle you We have been startled many a time with a dreadful clap of thunder what amazement and dread would you be in if you heard this alarm the voice of the Trumpet that will make Heaven and earth to quake and to vanish away the Voice of the Archangel and his Trumpet that will rouze and awake all the world and whosoever hath slept the longest in the dust The alarm of the Trumpet that will not only force all to awake but to rise and to come and appear at the Judgment Now what parallel doth the first Resurrection bear to this Why that is an alarm also of the Trumpet of the Gospel How oft is the Ministry of the word of God compared to a Trumpet Esay XXVII 13. The great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come that were ready to perish in Assyria and the out casts in the land of Egypt and they shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem That is the sound of the Gospel shall gather them and bring them to worship the true God Mat. XXIV 31. He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds That is he shall send his Ministers with the sound of the Gospel Think of the sound of the Trumpet at Sinai and think of the Trumpet at the last day at Sinai to cause a first Resurrection or to bring Israel out of their sinful condition to rise and live to God and at the last day to call to account about the keeping of that Law that was then given So that would you know Whether you shall have a happy Resurrection at the last day consider with your self whether you have come to the first Resurrection even to this day And if you would know whether you have attained that consider whether you have been raised by the Trump of the Gospel It is to thy first Resurrection thou must look to judge of thy speeding at the second These two are linked together and have relation one to another as the Feast of Pentecost when barly harvest was now got in had relation to the second day in Passover week when barly harvest first begun The Resurrection will be a fit harvest for every man to reap according as he hath sowed There is none but would willingly have a Resurrection at the last day to life and not to damnation begin thy Resurrection here
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 Dâââl 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 deâie 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 âaith 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
understanding immortal substance that is not extinguished by sin nor cannot be by any thing And so when God forbids Murther he doth it with this argument That he that kills a Man destroys one that carries the image of God And yet then the likeness of God in Man Holiness and Righteousness was utterly gone but the image of God in these essential constitutives in soul were still remaining in him Upon that saying of God Whoso sheddeth Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he Man if any Man question Is this meant of every Man in the world Can any doubt it Unless the Murther of some Men were allowed though of others forbidden Upon the very same argument we may urge the love of every man to every man because in the Image of God he created him And if thou canst find any man without the Image of God in his Soul then hate him and spare not But then it will further be Objected Then by this Argument I should love the Devil for he was created in the Image of Cod that is He is a spiritual intellectual immortal substance as well as any mans Soul I Answer He is so indeed but these two things make now the vast difference First He is in a sinful estate utterly irrecoverable And so we cannot say of any soul in the world The Apostle saith of the Angels that fell That God cast them down into Hell upon their Fall 2 Pet. II. They are damned already irrecoverably but you cannot say of any soul in the World absolutely that it cannot be saved Whether all Souls in the World be salvabiles in a savable condition we shall not dispute nor whence their salvability comes if it be so But certainly you and I nor no Man in the world can say of any Man that he cannot be saved True we may truly and justly say that if he continue and dye in such and such sins and wicked courses he cannot be saved But of his soul considered in its bare essence we cannot say so Nay we must pray for his Salvation This then is that that beautifies a Soul and makes it lovely and upon which we are to love every Man because he hath a soul capable of enjoying God and Salvation Shall I hate any Mans soul It may be united to God Hate any Mans body It may be a Temple of the Holy Ghost any Mans Person He may be an Inheritor of Eternal Glory Scorn not poor Joseph for all his rags and imprisonment he may come to sit upon a Throne Despise not poor Lazarus for all his Sores and Tatters he may be carried by Angels into Abraham ' s bosom Secondly Christ dyed for Souls he dyed not for Devils And this is no small demonstration of the Excellency and preciousness of a Soul viz. That the Son of God himself would dye for it It is therefore the Apostles Argument once and again Offend not him for whom Christ dyed Destroy not him for whom Christ dyed Rom. XIV 1 Cor. VIII Darest thou hate him for whom Christ dyed Darest thou wrong him for whom the Son of God would shed his blood A SERMON PREACHED upon GENESIS III. 20. And Adam called his Wives name Eve because she was the Mother of all living ADAMS story is all wonder Dust so raised to become so brave a Creature that Bravery so soon lost so soon repaired and so hughly repaired to a better condition That he is sensible of in the Text therefore he calls his Wives name Eve because Mother to all living He had named her quoad sexum as to her sex Chap. II. 23. Now he gives her another name of distinction Then she was called Woman because she was taken out of Man Now Eve because all living were to come out of her Adam shewed Wisdom in naming the Beasts here he shews that and more viz. Faith and sense of his better Estate She was rather the Mother of Death having done that that brought death into the world but he sensible of a better life to come in by her calls her Eve Life as the word signifies Lay this to that in Joh. I. 4. In him was life speaking of Christ and the life was the light of men Eve was the Mother of all living viz. of Christ and all that live by him So that hence I make this Observation That Adam and Eve believed and obtained life For the proof of this let us view their story I. God saith I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel vers 15. Satan had accompanied with them till this Promise came He keeps to them to chear them he perswaded them to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. But now she sets him at defyance She sees her error The Serpent saith she deceived me grows at enmity with him having now a surer comfort promised to rely upon II. God clothed them with skins vers 21. Which is an evidence that they sacrificed For they had no need of slaying Beasts for any other purpose Flesh they might not eat They were slain for sacrifice and their skins served for clothing Thus Body and Soul were provided for And in these Sacrifices they looked after Christ and saw him in figure The first death in the world was Christs dying in figure Noah knew clean and unclean Beasts and sacrificed This undoubtedly he had learned from the beginning III. Observe that Luk. I. 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Hinting that from the very beginning of the world there were Prophets of the Messias Thus Adam was a Prophet of Christ and prophesied of him in the name of Eve signifying life And Eve prophesied of him in the name of Cain Gen. IV. 1. She conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord Or I have begotten a man the Lord as the words may be rendred And in the name Seth Gen. IV. 25. She bare a Son and called his name Seth For God saith she hath appointed me another seed IV. The promise of the Messiah was not given to a Castaway It was given to Abraham and David and others that were righteous men V. Religion began to be planted by Adam Cain and Abel brought Sacrifice to God Which shews that Religion had been planted before VI. Christ prevailed against the Serpent from the beginning and had a seed The Church began with Adam Else what confusion would there have been in the world VII The Sabbath was given from the beginning and Adam kept it VIII All Gods dealings with him were to forward Faith in him Such were his Cursing the ground his expelling him out of Eden his enjoyning him Sacrifice and the Sabbath IX Adam is ranked with holy ones Gen. V. These things laid together may be sufficient to prove that Adam and Eve believed
ye are of the murtherer Secondly The first man dying was Christ in figure as the first death that of Sacrifice was Christ in figure also The Jews say that when Cain killed his Brother he made wounds in his hands and feet Thirdly That Cain who was first born into the world should so miscarry So the first estate of Man miscarried Eve hoped well of him when she named him Cain saying I have gotten a man from the Lord or a man the Lord. But the first born miscarried And so Esau the first born lost his birth-right But to return to our subject He slew his Brother We may cry Murther Murther with a witness If it had been a stranger that had been slain or an enemy or one that had been too many in the world but a Brother an only Brother the only man in the world this vastly aggravates the crime Fratricide is horrid this without parallel or possibility of parallel It is justly said that he was of that Wicked one Else this story would have choaked all belief How think you was Adam amazed when he heard it but when he resolved it thus he is of him that murthered mankind this ceased his wonder From hence I raise this Doctrine How much devilishness can the Devil infuse into Mans Nature This story is set first after the Fall to shew how much of Devil breathed in our Nature and how far it may be enhanced to devilishness Seth was begotten in the image of Adam Cain of the Devil See against how many Divine and Humane Laws and bonds he did this Act. 1. It was besides reason There was room enough in the world for both It was not with them as it was afterwards with Lot and Abraham Gen. XIII 6. The Land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together Nor as it was after that with Jacob and Esau Chap. XXXVI 7. Their riches were more than that they might dwell together and the Land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their Cattel 2. It was contrary to reason 1. In that they should have been mutually helpful And 2. Why should not Abel live as well as he 3. It was contrary to Nature He was his Brother-twin with him 4. Contrary to the tender dealing of God 5. Contrary to all reason and Religion He slew him because his works were righteous As Caligula slew a man because he was a proper man But Cain was not alone I might shew as much Devilishness appearing in others as in Pharaoh Ahab Nero c. Men in all things like the Devil and Cain And the reasons of this are I. Because the Soul of Man is capable of all evil to all extremity Not only that Gen. VI. 5. that the wickedness of Man was great and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually but he is capable of all manner and degrees of evil Not only that in Matth. XV. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Murthers Adulteries Fornications Thefts false-witness Blasphemies but these to the utmost extremity That in Rom. VII 18. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing is short of the utmost extremity by far 1. The Soul is large enough to hold all evil Immensity is part of the Image of God in it desires it hath never satisfied covetuousness voluptuousness never satisfied it is a gulph that never says Enough 2. The spawn of Original Sin contains all sin in it As a spark is enough to consume all if fuelled As the Mud after the overflowing of Nilus produceth all Monsters And the Leprosie spreads all over if let alone Consider these three things of our Nature First It being contrary to God contains all evil as he all good It is a question in the Schools whether sin is contrary to Gods Nature or Will Our sinful nature is contrary to both To his Will 1 Thess. IV. 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification To his Nature He light but we are darkness He holiness but we sin and impurity Other Creatures are not contrary to God but divers and different from him but sinful Creature is contrary Our nature as evil is contrary to the Divine Nature Our misery is not only in the loss of the Image of God but in the obtaining the contrary Image Secondly There is nothing in our nature to limit its breaking out to evil It is an untamed Heifer will bear no yoke It is like waters running downwards without bounds Nay there is that in us that breaks all bounds as the stirring of Conscience the Motions of the Spirit Education Laws all bounds but those of Grace Our principle is to please self to have our own Wills Now this consists of an hundred unsatiable gulphs to satisfie Pride Covetousness Envy Lust. Self Conjures up these Devils but there is nothing in us to conjure them down again The body breeds a disease but can master it but the Soul cannot because it is overcome with content in its disease Thirdly These distempers of our Nature are boundless in themselves No bottom no stop but Grace or Death II. Another reason how it comes to pass that there is so much Devilishness in some Mens nature is because the Devil is still urging and never saith Enough As we are ever stirring evil in our selves so he is hatching evil in us We read of some that were taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. II. 26. But I will not insist any longer on the proof Let us consider in the next place what sins are most devilish and how men come up to them James III. 15. This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish There are degrees of sin first earthly then sensual and lastly devilish The Devil himself is without an earthly mind and without sensuality He is not covetous he offers Christ all the Kingdoms of the world Matth. IV. Nor is he lascivious They misconstrue Gen. VI. 2. that thought from thence that the Angels lay with Women Nor is he luxurious No the Devil flies at higher game to defy God and damn souls All sin bears his stamp but some his picture As namely these that follow 1. Pride and to be puffed up against God and his charge and bounds which he hath set This is the Devils peculiar sin See 1 Tim. III. 6. Not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil 2. Hatred and cruelty Satan is an Enemy a Murtherer Joh. VIII 44. a roaring Lion and devours them that serve him 3. Enmity against Righteousness and the ways of God See vers 10. of this Chapter His name is Satan that is an Enemy to what is good 4. Lying and falshood That appeared sufficiently in the story of the Fall And in Joh. VIII 44. He is a Lyar and the Father of it Now are not some as devilish as the Devil himself in these 1. In Pride Some will be
himself to be a jealous God visiting the sins of Idolaters II. A second passage is that about the battel at Gibeah Judg. XX. concerning which let us first take up the words of Deborah Chap. V. 8. For though the history of that war is set many Chapters after the story of Deborah yet was it a great while before her as might be shewed by many evidences if I would stand upon it They chose new gods saith she then was war in the gates Was there a sheild or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel No sooner Idolatry but vengeance no sooner new gods but war in the gates and war with a witness that destroyed forty thousand of Israel and above twenty thousand of Benjamin She speaks but of forty thousand that perished as if no sheild or spear had been among them all whereas in all there fell sixty five thousand But she hints the sad slaughter of Israel which was sent by God and encouraged by him to go against Benjamin and yet when they went to battel they fell forty thousand Strange to be sent by God and yet miscarry to be encouraged by God and yet fall Oh they had chosen new gods and thence this miscarriage The Tribe of Dan had set up Idolatry and all Israel quiet and stir not against it and so become partakers of it But when a Whore hath some unhansom and hard usage at Gibeah then all Israel is suddenly up in arms to revenge her quarrel Zeal for a Whore to revenge her quarrel against Gibeah but not zeal for the Lord to revenge his quarrel against Idolatry And therefore God takes the cause into his own hand and shews himself a jealous God against Idolatry and caused forty thousand to fall in battel though he had sent and encouraged them to it III. A third passage let be that which yet comes more near the Text nay seems not only to come up to it but to go beyond it and that is Exod. XXXII 34. where after the sin of the golden Calf and the Levites slaying three thousand men yet God still hath some anger in store for that sin and saith Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them When The Jews say That in every scourge and judgment that came upon them there was a remembrance and a lash for the golden Calf And S. Stephen speaks no less or more in Act. VII 41 42. They made a Calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the Idol c. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of Heaven c. This speaks God a jealous God against Idolatry and seems to speak that he visits the sins of the Fathers upon the children beyond the third and fourth generation succeeding To which thing we shall speak in course in handling of the words To which now we are come II. Then visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children c. All the question and scruple about the thing is Quo jure Where is Gods justice in this to visit the sins of him that sinned upon him that sinneth not sins of the fathers upon the children who probably were never witting or assenting to the Fathers sin It is Gods strict commandment to men Deut. XXIV 16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin And doth not he go contrary to that rule himself when he visits the sins of the fathers upon the children And it is his proclaiming again Ezek. XVIII 4. Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so also the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall dye And doth he not warp from that assertion when children are punished for the sins of their Fathers That God should impute the sin of Adam to all his posterity hath been cavilled at in antient times by some Hereticks and in these later some are not well satisfied about the matter and cannot or will not see how God is just in it Visiting sins unto the third and fourth generation sounds something harsh this far more visiting the sin of the first Father upon all generations Shall he condemn millions of millions for the fault they never committed charge upon them the crime they never consented to I shall not stay my discourse upon this The answer is ready in Adam was all mankind in his Covenant was enwrapped all humane nature and the violation of that Covenant was the sin and guilt of whole humane nature But we shall speak to other kind of examples that come nearer to the sense of the words before us And these are of two sorts viz. in reference to the body or outward condition or to the soul or inward First Was not that hard measure as you may think that when Corah Dathan and Abiram the Parents only had sinned that not only they should go down quick into the pit but their houses also and all that appertained to them Numb XVI 32. The like that when Achan only was in the transgression that his sons and daughters and his very cattel should be put to death as well as he Josh. VII 24. Secondly Seems it not hard measure that when that generation at the building of Babel had only sinned against God in that design for setting up Idolatry that not only they should be given up to Idolatry and blindness but the Heathen their posterity to scores of generations The like that when that generation only had sinned in murthering Christ not only they should bear the guilt of his blood but their posterity through so many ages For the unfolding of Gods dealings in these things particularly let me first move this general consideration What care Parents had need to take that they sin not so as to leave sin and guilt and a curse upon their children and posterity Among their cares to leave them well as the word in the world goes i. e. rich to be sure to take this care that while they leave them well they leave them not ill Sin not for thy childrens sake that they smart not for thy faults when thou art gone I mention two sins particularly that may draw misery and entail a curse upon the posterity cursing their children and unconscionably scraping a cursed estate together to leave to their children Now to assert the Justice of God in this case of visiting the iniquity of the fathers c. either for these sins or others whereas it seems a wrong to the children Consider these things I. It is most just with God to punish wicked men in their dearest delights that judgment may come home to them to the quick to take away the delight of their Eyes and Heart that punishment may make them smart in the tenderest part And when Parents are so fond of that part of themselves their children that they will venture soul and body
them was the greater matter whether of them the greater work Was not the Resurrection Not indeed in regard of the Power that effected both but in regard of the effect or concernment of man 1. By his Resurrection he had destroyed him and that that had destroyed the Creation viz. Sin and Satan and did set up a better world a world of Grace and Eternal Life 2. Had it not been better that Man as he now was sinful had never been created than Christ not to have risen again to save and give him life As it was said of Judas It were better if he had never been born so it were better for sinful men if they had never been born than that Christ should not have been born from the dead to restore and revive them Observe that the Resurrection of the Heathen from their dead condition took its rise and beginning from the Resurrection of Christ as Christ himself closely compares it from the example of Jonahs rising out of the Whales belly and converting Nineveh To that purpose is that prophesie Esai XXVI 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust The dead Heathen that had lain so long in the grave of sin and ignorance when Christs body rose had life put into them from that time and they rose to the life of grace For by his Resurrection he had conquered him that had kept them so long under death and bondage Now was it not most proper for the Church of the called Heathen to have a Sabbath that should commemorate the cause time and original of this great benefit accruing to them A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee THIS is the First Commandment of the Second Table and it is the first with promise Eph. VI. 2. Why it is the first of the second Table the reason is easie because when the second Table teaches our duty towards our Neighbour it is proper to begin with the Neighbour nearest to us such is our Father and Mother and with the Neighbour to whom we owe most peculiar Duty as we do to those that are comprehended under this title of Father and Mother But why this is called the First Commandment with promise is not so easie to resolve The difficulties are in these two things I. Because that seems to be a promise in the Second Commandment Shewing mercy unto thousands c. II. And if it be to be understood the first of the Second Table that hath a promise annexed unto it that is harsh also because there is no other promise in the Second Table and the First Commandment with promise argues some other Commandments with promise to follow after Now to these difficulties I Answer First That in the Second Commandment is rather a description of God than a direct Promise A jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children c. and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me As much Gall is mingled there as Honey as dreadful threatnings as comfort and therefore not to be looked on as a clear promise but as an argument and motive to Obedience taken from both mercy and judgment Secondly It is true there is never a promise more in the Second Table that comes after this but there are abundance of promises after in the rest of the Law And so may this be understood it is the First Commandment with promise in the whole Law from the Law given at Sinai to all the Law that Moses gave them afterwards And the first promise in the Law given to Israel is the promise of long life That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that here especially are four things to be spoken to I. The nature of the promise that it is a temporal promise concerning this life II. The matter of the promise Length of life in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee III. The suitableness of the Promise to the Command Honour thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long c. IV. The extent of the Promise to all that keep the Commandment Which four heads will lead us to the consideration of several Questions The first leads us to this Observation That the Promises given to Israel in the Law are I. most generally and most apparently promises temporal or of things concerning this life First look upon this Promise which is first in the Law and whereas it may be construed two ways yet both ways it speaks at first voice or appearance an earthly promise There may be an Emphasis put either upon Thy days shall be long or upon Thy days long in the land Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long that thou mayst have long life Or Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. That thou mayst have long possession of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and mayst not be cast out of it as the Canaanites were before thee Now take it either way what speaks it else but a temporal promise and that that refers to this life and to our subsistence in this world And so look upon those promises that are in Levit. XXVI and Deut. XXVIII and you find them all referring to temporal and bodily things And hereupon it may be observed that you hardly find mention of any spiritual promises especially not of eternal in all Moses Law No mention of Eternal Life joys of Heaven Salvation or Everlasting glory none but of things of this life Hence it was that the Sadducees denyed the Resurrection and the world to come because they only owned the five Books of Moses and in all his Books they found not mention of any such thing And therefore when our Saviour is to answer a Cavil of theirs against the Resurrection Mark XII 18 c. observe what he saith vers 26. Have you not read in the Book of Moses c. For he must prove the thing out of Moses to them or they would take it for no proof And observe also how he proves it by an obscure collection or deduction viz. because God says I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Therefore they lived though they were dead Which he would never have done had there been plain and evident proof of it And which if there had been they could never have denyed it And that which we are speaking to that the promises of the Law are of temporal things is also asserted by that Heb. VIII 6. He is the Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises If the promises of the Law had been Heavenly promises there could not have been better promises Had they been of Grace and Glory there could not have been better promises but those of the Law were
by considering what is the proper end and aim of mens living Friend wherefore camest thou hither Why did God bring thee into the world and why dost thou live A question very pertinent and very considerable For the greatest number of Men and Women in the world go out of the world before they know or consider why they came in Much like Ahimaaz 2 Sam. XVIII 29. That entreats Joab to let him run to David and runs hard and when he comes to David to his journeyes end all that he can relate is When Joab sent thy Servant I saw a great tumult but I cannot tell what it was God brings men into the world to run their race they see a great bustle in the world and they keep a great stir themselves and when they come to their journeyes end they cannot give account what the business was for which they came into the world What do you think he thought he came into the world for that when he dyed commanded this to be written on his Tomb-stone ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. I have eaten much and drunken much and done much mischief in my time and now here I lye Who among thousands in his life or indeed in his thoughts owns the proper end of living The Apostle tells us what it is Act. XVII 26 27. God hath made all Nations of men c. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him c. And the same Apostle 2 Cor. V. 15. They which live should not live to themselves but to him by whom they live The Schools do very truly tell us that God created reasonable creatures Men and Angels that they might serve God and partake of God which unreasonable creatures cannot do So that here is the proper answer to the question Why do we live And the proper end of our living to serve God by whom we live and to get interest in him and participation of him to live to God here that we may live with him and enjoy him hereafter And by this are we to judge of the blessing of a long life and not by any earthly thing or occurrence in our lives Long life is not therefore a blessing to any because he lives long in peace and prosperity because he gets much wealth much credit experience wisdom in so long a time but because he hath got much interest in God and done much service to God That of Solomon must be understood prudently and we must be sure to take his right meaning in it Eccles. III. 4. Better than either living or dead is he that hath not yet been Is this absolutely true No but only relatively viz. relating to earthly miseries For the missing of these he scapes best that never was and never saw the evil done under the Sun But as to the thing it self absolutely considered that paradox that is sometimes maintained in dispute in the Schools is true in some kind and degree Praestat esse miserum quam non esse It is better to be miserable than not to be at all He that never was nor never shall be he that never lived nor never shall live shall never praise God never see the works of God never enjoy God and that is worse than induring the miseries that Men meet withal upon Earth This is the proper end of life and the blessing of life viz. to praise serve enjoy God And by this we must state the blessing of a long life viz. as allowing more time and space to accomplish and perfect those ends And upon the aim at these ends it is that the Saints of God have begged of God for long life Psal. XXXIX ult That I may recover strength and be fitter for my duty and thy work and fitter for thee when thou callest Psal. LXXI 18. Now also when I am old forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come Esai XXXVIII 19. The living the living he shall praise Thee as I do this day This was the end and blessing of prolonging Ezekiah's life that he was still alive to praise God And this is the work of those whose lives are preserved and prolonged To prove the blessing of prolonging life let me first appeal to any here Man or Woman art thou prepared to dye if God should call at this very instant If God send a messenger to bid thee set thy house in order for thou shalt die couldst thou take it better than Ezekiah did Dost thou not desire that God would spare and yet give some more respite some longer time some more space added to thy life And why Thou darest not say that I may enjoy the world take my pleasure gather wealth live in earthly delights yet longer Why then O! that I may be better fitted for Heaven that I may have more repentance a better composure of heart a better stock good works and provision for Eternity This by thy confession is the blessing and a choice blessing of a long life that a man may do God the more service serve his generation the more stock himself the more fully with grace for glory Herein then properly is the blessing of prolonged life that men have time to do for God and their Souls to lay up good store for Heaven and Eternity to stock up the comforts of a good Conscience and store of grace which in old age makes them fresh and flourishing and does as it were revive them and make them young again And now Brethren let my Exhortation be to you that are aged and gone far in years to consider seriously with your selves whether your prolonged time hath been made a blessing to you by your improvement or not Let me be a Monitor this day to all gray heads here to remember their age God hath prolonged your time some to fifty sixty seventy years some to more What blessing hath this prolonging been to you And to youth that desire long life my Exhortation to them is to set in a good course betime that God may delight to prolong their life and that the lengthning of their life may be a Blessing A DISCOURSE UPON THE FOURTH ARTICLE OF THE Apostolic Creed He descended into Hell THE ground of this Article of the Creed is in Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell The reason of its insertion we shall see afterwards An Article obscure and that hath bred many disputes and the rendring of it so in English some offences For it seemeth harsh that Christs soul descended into Hell which in our English Language speaketh most plainly and usually The place of the damned a place very improper to look for the soul of Christ in when departed out of his body He and his betrayer Judas to meet in the same place He that had by death purchased Heaven for others himself after death to descend into Hell Not an Article in our Christian Faith hath more
Balaam loved the wages the wages of unrighteousness yet he could wish to dye the death of the righteous Numb XXIII 10. Even Conscience beareth witness to this truth that dying in any sin is damnable But how is it possible but some sin will stick to the best of men I answer II. True that there is no man living without sin but we are to distinguish upon two things First Twixt sin and guilt If we consider presly it is not the sin that immediately damns but the guilt of the sin A thief hanged the sin of robbing is past and gone but the guilt of it brings him to the gallows so sin as to the act is over and gone but the guilt sticks Now there is some sin which binds not a man over to guilt to condemn him Psal. XXXII 2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin There is sin but the guilt of it is not charged on men But what sin is that I might answer All sins already pardoned have they been never so great Rom. VIII 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth But we speak of sins that stick at the instant of death Therefore Secondly We distinguish upon the sticking of sin to the flesh and to the heart A Saint hath sin sticking to the flesh not to the heart Rom. VII ult With the mind I serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sin As if we get the disease from the heart it is not so deadly so Saints having got sin from their hearts it is not damning to them They hate it but it cleaves to their flesh So that the guilt of such sins is pardoned all along because the Saint all along strives and prays against them It is not I but sin in me Not my heart or consent but sin in my flesh that will neither be got out nor quiet In a word a dying sin cannot kill a dying man Sin is mortified all along and if in death it stirs yet it is dying and hath not power to kill And this have I spoken to remove that error about this Article of the Creed that Christ descended to Hell to fetch Souls to Heaven that yet wanted something to bring them thither II. A second opinion and interpretation is that he descended locally to triumph over II. the Devils and the damned An Interpretation that seems to carry more sense and innocence and yet is far from the meaning of the Article To take it into examination First To consider something concerning Christs Soul when separate from his body I. It is undoubted that it went to Heaven assoon as departed and it is very unwarrantable to look for it in Hell unless we have good evidence of the Scripture at least of reason for it His words on the Cross to the good thief were To day shalt thou be with me in Paradice Luke XXIII 43. and his last words to God were Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit vers 46. Now who can doubt but he was instantly in Heaven and his Soul with God And when and indeed why should it go to Hell Christ was dead but thirty six hours and his Soul to be on the Cross in Heaven and Hell in that time is a flitting up and down that unless the Spirit of Christ himself in Scripture tell us so how can we believe it That it flitted from the Cross to Heaven Scripture is plain but that it flitted from Heaven to Hell we are yet to seek Ye shall seek me and not find me Truly according to this opinion we know not where to seek him nor to find him in that time If you will take the propriety of his own words Luke XXIII 46. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And John XVII 11 13. I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee And now I come to thee you may certainly conclude that his Soul was with God while it was separate but that it was in Hell any moment of that time there is not one tittle of Scripture to give any evidence but Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell and this Article of which we shall shew a far other sense II. Was it possible that Christs Soul should go from Heaven to Hell The Souls of the glorified Saints cannot and I question whether Christs could or not See Luke XVI 26. Between us and you there is a great gulph fixed so that they which would pass from us to you cannot Whence I observe two things 1. What is meant by a great Gulph an unsuperable unpassableness from one to another But especially 2. They that would pass from hence to you Are there any in Heaven that ever would go to Hell The Devils indeed chose it but I question whether they understood what Hell meant so well as they do now But never blessed Soul did nor could do it They are too much delighted with the happy enjoyment of God to make such a choise But Christ by that expression in the Parable does the more shew how it is impossible for a Soul once in Heaven to go thence to Hell that if it could be supposed they would do it it cannot be done And could Christs Soul do it any more Could Christs Soul have any delight to leave the joys of Heaven to go to Hell III. There is no reason no Scripture to tell us that Christs Soul had any thing to do as to the work of Redemption or Mediatorship when separate from the body What will you make of this Triumphing Was it any part of his Redeeming or Mediatorship If it were not what was it If it were why not acted per totum Christum by whole Christ Christ performed the whole Law as Totus Christus whole Christ viz. As to his humane nature in Soul and Body He was upon the Cross as Totus Christus Whole Christ he rose ascended sits in Heaven as Totus Christus Whole Christ Body and Soul And we are bound to believe in toto Christo In whole Christ as Redeemer and Mediator as God so perfectly Man of Body and Soul consisting And it were but an improper piece of Faith to believe so great a thing as his work in Hell is made to be to be done by a part of Christ for his Soul was but one part of him But Secondly Let us speak a little to this Triumphing I. The opinion is taken up I suppose in allusion to the custom of the Romans They conquered and then led their prisoners in Triumph the Conqueror in his triumphal Chariot the Captives in chains after it Cleopatra would kill her self rather than be thus led in triumph Now what was this but a pompous proud and vain shew And what will they make of this Triumph of Christ Nothing but a shew For what did he in this Triumph Who can imagine what but shew himself there Did he
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
from other Men. 99 100 Nazareth its situation 495 496 Nazarites they were forbid the total use of Wine whether the Law about the Nazarites had not some reference to Adam while he was under that Prohibition in the state of innocency p. 382. Only two Nazarites were set apart by God viz. Sampson and the Baptist three hundred at once made themselves Nazarites by their own voluntary vow p. 384. They being forbid the total use of Wine how could they keep the commands referring to the keeping the Passover c. in which Wine was used p. 382. They wore long hair among whom Absolom was one p. 774. Why they let their hair grow long 774 Nazaritâsin what and how the Vow of it was sometimes laid aside 1219 1220 Neapolis the Jews in scorn called it Sychar 52 53 Neighbour and Brother what the difference between them p. 141. Neighbour the Jews denyed any Gentile to be their Neighbour p. 425. Who is our Neighbour p. 1298. We are to love our Neighbour as our selves what 1301 New Creation new Heaven and new Earth put for the times and state of things immediately following the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish State Page 626 New Jerusalem the Holy City why called New and why Holy City p. 1196 1197 1198. What it is not and what it is and where to be found 1197 to 1202 New Testament why it so exactly follows the Translation of the Septuagint in the Old Testament p. 403. New Testament Phrases and Passages the surest and safest way to understand them viz. is not to frame a sense of our own which we think fair and probable but to observe how they were understood by them to whom they were uttered 1041 1042 Nicholaitans that impure Sect did not spring from Nicholas the Deacon but took the Name from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Necola p. 662. They impudently did oppose the Decree of the Apostles p. 695 696. They were wicked Hereticks perswading to eat things offered to Idols and to commit Fornication p. 756. Notwithstanding the affirmation of Antiquity they did not spring from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons 756 Nicholaitism and Judaism were two errors on each hand the Gospel into which some Primitive Christians did fall 1097 Nicodemus the reason of his Name and what he was he was also called Bonai he was exceeding rich and yet his Family fell to great poverty 513 532 Nicoplois what 371 Noah's Flood was a prognostication and assurance of the Last Judgment 1104 Nob a City of the Priests from whence one might easily see Jerusalem 42 Numbers and Things near alike are said to be the same 99 100 Nunship or Virginity the vow of it among the Papists is accounted a devout and sacred Thing which is false and never to be proved by them 1216 1217 1219 O. OATHS in the Jewish Writings reduced to a Promissory Oath p. 148. A vain or rash Oath concerning which four Things and an Oath concerning something left in trust and a Testimonial Oath what p. 149. The Jews only took care of the truth of the thing sworn and not of the vanity of swearing it was customary among them to swear by Creatures Page 149 Obedience of Christ made his blood justifying and saving p. 1255. It conquered Satan and satisfied God p. 1256 Christ died meerly out of obedience p. 1257. His obedience does not dissolve the obedience of a Christian. 1263 Obeying and Believing are not to be separated 1263 Obolus what 468 Offering of water used at the Feast of Tabernacles how performed whence derived and what the meaning of it 560 Officiousness a great fault in an Historian 1142 1143 Old Testament how the Jews divided the writings of it p. 483 584. When any place of the Old Testament was cited by the Jews they delivered it always in the very Original Words p. 694. The Sadducees are said by some to refuse all the Books of the Old Testament except the Five Books of Moses 1101 Ono where and what 325 c. Opinion and a Scripture Text distinguished 758 Orbo the City 317 Original Text of the Hebrew whether corrupted or not 131 Orphan Amen or Psalm what 786 Outward Action the Jews thought the Law was to restrain and bind the Outward Action only not regarding the inward Thought Page 1098 Oyntment precious how prized 352 P. PALESTINE the third called Palestine the healthful whence the Name Page 293 294 Paneas or Panias the spring-head of Jordan there being none such thing as two Fountains 62 63 64 298 Papacy it followeth Jannes and Jambres and is the great Resister of the Truth of the Gospel 1188 1189 Papists the improbability ridiculousness and irreligion of their holding that the Patriarchs were in Purgatory 1342 1343 Parables were the Jews most familiar Rhetorick p. 193. Parables were used by Christ among the Jews because they would not see the Light 339 Paradise what the Jews understood by being in Paradise p. 477 478. Paradise put for the state of the blessed 1272 1273 Paras was the space of fifteen days immediately before the Passover Pentecost or the Feast of Tabernacles 635 Pardon and Salvation it s the greatest difficulty to make Men fit and capable for them p. 1276. What are the sure Grounds of hope for Salvation and Pardon p. 1277. Pardon is the gift of God as well as Repentance 1277 Parents It was the opinion of the Jews that Children born crooked maimed or defective was according to some sin of the Parents p. 568. Why the Children suffer for the Parents sins the Justice thereof p. 1316 1317. This only designs corporal or external punishment 1318 Parsa a Parsa was four miles 319 Paschal Supper the whole Method and Order of it in eight Particulars p. 257 258. How Wine came to be there and what quantity they drank 259 260 Passover or Paschal Lamb how made ready in five Particulars p. 255 256. Whether Christ kept his Passover the day before the Jews i. e. on the fourteenth not the fifteenth day of the Month. p. 353 356 357. The difference between the first Month and the second p. 354. Preparation of the Passover what p. 356 to 358. After the Lamb was eaten every Israelite was bound within that seven days Solemnity First To appear before the Lord in the Court and that with a Sacrifice this was called the Appearance p. 356. Secondly To solemn joy and mirth and that also with Sacrifices this was called Chagigah The Festival p. 356 357. Whether was it lawful to depart from Jerusalem till the seven days of the Passover were ended p. 394 395. How the Passover was prepared for many days before it actually began 550 Passovers four intervened between Christ's entrance into his publick Ministry and the time of his Death with the several Actions which he did about the time of each 1033 Patriarchs where they were buried p. 668. Whether their Souls were in Purgatory 1342 c. Paul and Saul his Roman and Hebrew Name and why p. 687 1191.
so long and not given to the World before Adam Enoch Noah Eber c. were not circumcised because to them a fixed and setled place for the Church to reside together was not designed but when such a one is designed to Abraham then circumcision is given also The Land of Canaan was bequeathed to Sem by his father Noah the occasion was because Cham and his Son Canaan derided Noahs nakedness as he lay asleep in the midst of his Tent when therefore that Land is to be setled upon the right heirs of Sem to which God in the Prophetick spirit of Noah intended it a seal and an assurance thereof is given in that member which had been derided by Canaan to his loss of that Land and to his perpetual slavery This was a main reason why Males alone were circumcised and why in that member because a male alone and that member in him was so derided Other reasons of the institution of the Ceremony and only for masculines and in that part might concur for instruction such as are given by Lumbard Aquinas Biel Lyra and others but that they were not of the nature or essence of the Sacrament and that this forementioned was the vigor and spirit of it may be concluded by these two things First That Circumcision concerned not the children of Israel only but the whole seed of Abraham For those children of his by his Concubines that lived in Arabia as Ismaelites Dedanites Medianites Midianites Shuhites Amalekites and the rest were circumcised as well as Israel in Palestina Those Countries whither Abraham had sent them to inhabite were once in the possession of Canaanites till he obtained them by conquest of the four Kings Gen. 14. and thither he sendeth them with the seal of Circumcision upon them which gave them interest in the Land there as well as Isaac had elswhere Abraham taught his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. which though this off-spring of his in Arabia did not long in other things yet in circumcision it did So that from hence may result the observation of another end and reason of the institution of this Ceremony namely for distinction not of Israel from other Nations as Lyranus would have it but of the seed of Abraham from all other people Secondly Howsoever all the Israelites dwelling before the coming of our Saviour out of the Land of Canaan as both of the Babylonian and Grecian dispersion used Cicumcision in Heathens Lands and used it lawfully yet it was because their claim and interest to the Land of Canaan did still continue nay this was one reason why it held up some store of years after Christ his coming and ascension but when Jerusalem was destroyed and their lease of that Land of promise either expired or forfeited or both then did this seal of it fall and come to ruine also and might not lawfully be used ever after and when they must for ever relinquish the Land they must for ever also relinquish this seal or Ceremony that had assured it This well considered will cause us also to observe First That the interest of Israel in the holy Land began to shake when baptism came to shoulder out Circumcision Secondly That John most properly preached much of the Kingdom of Heaven for their earthly one began to cease when baptism began to extinguish Circumcision As Circumcision it self had relation to the inheritance of the Land of the Canaanites so the fixed time for the administration of it namely the eighth day seemeth also to have some aim and respect to the same thing For seven nations were in that Land which the Children of Abraham were to subdue and dwell in their stead Canaanites Hittites Hivites Perizzites Girgashites Amorites and Jebusites Deut. 7. 1. Josh. 3. 10. In correspondency to this number of seven Nations that were to be subdued Jericho the first field fought in that Land is compassed seven days and seven times the seventh day And in like answerableness every child of Abraham for seven days was like the children of those seven Nations but on the eighth day he was to receive circumcision the pledge of that interest and claim that he had in that Land which those seven Nations had usurped This then was the ground-work and Original of that Sacrament that every Son of Abraham might bear in his body the seal of the inheritance of the Land of promise and the badge of distinction from all other people and that this visible sign might make him strive after the invisible grace which it sealed the inheritance of Heaven and walking as the peculiar of the Lord. From which appropriated and restrictive ends of the Rite the necessity of the changing of it at the coming of Christ doth plainly appear for when there was to be no more distinction betwixt the children of Abraham and other people and no one land more peculiarized then another but of every Land and Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him that badge of appropriation and seal of singularity must either clean come to nothing or become unnecessary Now that baptism did succeed in the stead thereof some reasons may be given As first because the Sacraments of the New Testament were to be gentle and easie in stead of the smart and burdensom ones of the Law Secondly Because God would comply with men even in their own common custom of washing children when they are newly born Ezek. 16. 4. 9. and turn the common to a sacred use thereby to catch and win them the more But thirdly this one main reason may serve for all namely the near correspondency that is between the Sacrament and the thing signified and the full significancy that the element beareth of the grace that it signeth forth To which fourthly might be added that baptism took place in the Christian Church to fulfil the types and predictions that had gone before of it under Moses Law and before As in the flood and Ark 1 Pet. 3. 21. in the passage through the red Sea and Jordan 1 Cor. 10. 2. in the purifications and sprinklings at the Sanctuary But especially in four remarkable particulars was this fore-signified and typed out in a special manner First In Jacobs admission of the preserved Sichemites to his family and communion Gen. 35. 2. And Jacob said to his houshold and to all that were with him Put away the strange Gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments Wherein he injoyneth them three things for their admission to his Church 1. To relinquish their idolatry 2. To wash or baptize their bodies for so must the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Make your selves clean be understood and so it is well rendred by Aben Ezra Especially 3. Since he giveth order for the changing of their garments All three containing the cleansing of their minds bodies and cloaths And there observe first that when Circumcision in the
next Chapter before had proved a Sacrament of death to the Sichemites Jacob useth baptism for admission of Proselytes in the stead thereof Secondly That the company to be admitted are females unless there were some Syrian male Idolaters for all the males of Sechem were slain Gen. 34. 25. or at the least the most of them and therefore he useth a Sacrament which women also might come under for under circumcision they did not come Secondly In the admission of the Israelites to the hearing of the Law by sanctification and washing Exod. 19. 10. from which the Jews themselves did ground the baptizing of Proselytes as a special ground Thirdly At the making of the Covenant at Sinai the introduction of Israel to the visible Church was by baptism or the sprinkling of water as well as of blood as saith St. Paul Heb. 9. 19. yea and even the Jews themselves Our Rabbins teach saith Rabbi Solomon that our Fathers entred into the Covenant and baptism and sprinkling of blood for there was no sprinkling of blood without baptism R. Sol. in loc 4. In that in the times of David and Solomon when heathens were converted to the Jews Religion by multitudes their admission to their Church was by baptism and not by circumcision And the groundwork of this their practise was because Israel coming out of Egypt washed their garments and the Priests coming from their common employments to their function washed their bodies Let all be concluded in the words of the Talmud Rabbi Akiba said O Israel you are blessed Before whom are ye justified or cleansed Or who is he that cleanseth you It is your heavenly Father as it is said I will pour clean water upon you In Kippurim Our Masters say That bastards and Gibeonites shall be all iustified in time to come And this is the doctrine of Ezekiel as it is written I will pour clean water upon you In Kiddushin Matth. 3. ver 11. Unto repentance Here the Schools think they find a main difference between the baptism of John and the baptism used in the Christian Church because that was only the baptism of repentance and the other of grace and remission of sins but that there was no essential or substantial difference between them shall be seen anon Luke 3. ver 16. But one mightier then I cometh Though by this mightiness of Christ above the Baptist his omnipotency or all-powerfulness as he is God may well and truly be understood as many Expositors do take it yet since John speaketh of him as he should shew himself among the people when he came and in comparison with himself as concerning preaching and baptizing it cannot be but his words have respect to some particular things wherein Christ shewed this mightiness above John yea even conversing among men in his humane flesh and in what respected his preaching and ministerial Office And these may be reduced unto these four heads First The power of miracles which Christ had but John had not For John wrought no miracle Joh. 10. 41. Nor was it fit he should since he in whom that power rested as in its proper center was so near to come and so ready to shew it Secondly In the different power of the Preaching of John and of our Saviour and their conversion of the people John many but Christ far more as Joh. 3. 26. Thirdly In the seal and confirmation of their Doctrine and Ministry for whereas John sealed it with his death our Saviour did not only so but also with his resurrection Fourthly In continuance and increase of their preaching and Disciples and this difference John sheweth himself Joh. 3. 30. To which may be annexed the excellency of Christs baptism above that of Johns which is the very thing that is in comparison I baptize you with water but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost §. The latchet of whose shoos I am not worthy to unloose The sense is but strained which delighteth so many namely that John confesseth under this simile that he is unable to resolve the great mystery of the incarnation Seeing Matthew giveth this his speech in other words and Mark by adding one word more to these maketh it more necessary to take them in their literal meaning For Matthew hath it thus Whose shoos I am not worthy to bear and Mark. The latchet of whose shoos I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose Both joyntly shewing that the Baptist hath no mystical and figurative meaning in this his speech but doth in plain and down-right terms aver his inferiority to Christ that was to come after him to be infinitely great and more then a servants that ties his Masters shoos or carries them is to his Master For these meanest and basest of offices of servant to Master he instanceth in that he might express the infinite distance betwixt him and Christ the more to the life and to the peoples apprehension §. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost Hence ariseth that opinion so mightily taken up in the Schools and imbraced concerning the great disparity and difference betwixt the Baptism used in the Christian Church and the Baptism of John for this say they could not confer grace but the other doth and Johns was but as a mean betwixt the purifications of the Jews and the baptism of Christians In which first the words of the Baptist are misconstrued and secondly there is a difference pretended where there is none at all For first John compareth not his own baptism with ours but his own with Christs For that he meaneth not the baptism that Christ instituted to be used by others but that he practised and exhibited personally himself is plain in that he mentioneth not water in Christs baptizing which our Saviour himself doth when he speaketh of the baptism that they mean Joh. 3. 5. and in that he saith personally that Christ should baptize which with water he never did Joh. 4. 2. Secondly By the Holy Ghost wherewith Christ should baptize is not meant the grace concomitant to our Christian baptism as they suppose but his sending down the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as is plain by our Saviours own exposition Act. 1. 5. For John indeed baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence Where using the very same words with these of the Baptist and applying the baptizing with the Holy Ghost plainly and undeniably to his sending down of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost day he hath given a sure plain and undoubted explanation of these words Thirdly Neither if the baptism of John and the baptism used in the Christian Church be well compared together will any such difference or diversity be found betwixt them nay set the form of words aside no difference at all For first They both had the same institution from Christ for he that sent the Apostles to baptize sent also the Baptist John 1. 33. Secondly They both had the same element water Thirdly