it as you may observe it doth in ver 15 18 19. but here there is no such thing expressed therefore it is so to be understood and the Apostles words to be construed to this sense Wherefore it is or the case is here as it was in Adam as by one man sin entered into the world c. there imputation so here The second is ver 18. in the Originall verbatim thus As by the transgression of one upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of one upon all men to justification of life What upon all men Our Translation hath added some words to clear the sense but the shortnesse of the Apostles style doth better clear his intent namely to intimate imputation as speaking to this purpose As by the transgression of one there was that that redounded to all to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of one there is that that redoundeth to all to justification of life And to clear that he meaneth not that all that were condemned by Adams Fall were redeemed by Christ he at once sheweth the descent of Originall sin and the descent of it for all the death and righteousnesse of Christ Quae tamen profuerunt antequam fuerunt Ver. 13. For till the Law sinne was in the world but sinne is not imputed where there is no Law Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses By what Law was sinne sinne and did death reign when the Law was not yet given Namely by that Law that was given to Adam and he brake the guilt of which violation descends to all Having to the end of the fifth Chapter stated and proved Justification by faith in Chap. 6 7 8. he speaks of the state of persons justified which though they be not without sinne yet their state compared with Adams even whilest he was sinnelesse it is farre better then his He invested in a created finite changeable humane righteousnesse they in the righteousnesse of God uncreate infinite unchangeable He having the principles of his holinesse and righteousnesse in his own nature they theirs conveyed from Christ He having neither Christ nor the Spirit but left to himself and his naturall purity they having both See Chap. 8.1 2 9 10 c. At the nineteenth verse of Chap. 8. he begins upon the second mystery that he hath to treat upon the calling of the Gentiles whom he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Creation or Every creature by which title they also are called Mark 16.15 Coloss. 1 23. and he shews how they were subject to vanity of Idolatry and the delusions of the devil but must in time be delivered from this bondage for which deliverance they now groaned and not they only but they of the Jews also which had received the first-fruits of the Spirit longed for their coming in waiting for the adoption that is the redemption of their whole body for the Church of the Jews was but the child-like body and accordingly their Ordinances were according to child-like age of the Church but the stature of the fulnesse of Christs mysticall Body was in the bringing in of the Gentiles Being to handle this great point of the Calling of the Gentiles and Rejection of the Jews he begins at the bottome at the great doctrine of Predestination which he handles from ver 29. of Chap 8. to Chap. 9.24 and then he fals upon the other That Israel stumbled at Messias and fell seâ—king indeed after righteousnesse but not his but their own and that they are cast away but not all A remnant to be saved that belonged to the Election of Grace As it was in the time when the world was Heathen some of them that belonged to the Election came in and were proselyted to the worship of the true God so some of these while all the rest of their Nation lie in unbelief And in this unbelief must they lie till the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in and then all Gods Israel is compleated The most that he salutes in the last Chapter appear to have been of the Jewish Nation and the most of them though now at Rome yet sometime to have been of Pauls company and acquaintance in some other place The expulsion of the Jews out of Rome by Claudius Decree might very well bring many of them into his converse as well as it did Priscilla and Aquila whom he names first among them Epenetus was one of his own converts of Achaia Mary had bestowed much labour on him yet he hitherto had never been near Rome He that would dispute the point of the first planter of the Gospel at Rome might do well to make the first muster of his thoughts here And whereas the Apostle speaks of the saith of the Roman Church as spoken of throughout the world Chap. 1. ver 8. it is very questionable whether he look to the times before the Decree of Claudius or those since Claudius death when all the scattered were returned again and many of those that had come out unbeleeving Jews had returned Christians thither as I beleeve the case was of Aquila and Priscilla and some converted in other places had now taken up their residence there as Epenetus Andronicus and Iunia c. Those whose salutations he sendeth thither may be the better judged of who they were by observing who were of his retinue at this time which are named Act. 20.4 as 1. Timothy 2. Lucius who seemeth to be Luke called now by a Latine name in an Epistle to the Latines He was with Paul at Corinth at the sending away of the Epistle for having mentioned the others that were gone to Troas these saith he staied for us joyning himself in Pauls company going now to Corinth 3. Iason seemeth to be he that is called Secundus Act. 20.4 the one his Hebrew name and the other the same in Latine for Secundus is said to be a Thessalonian and so was Iason Acts 17.7 4. Sosipater here in all probability he that is called Sopater of Berea there 5. Tertius that wrote out the Epistle it may be was Silas an Hebrician will see a fair likelihood of the one name in the other it being written in Hebrew letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew names to the Romans are rendred in the Roman Idiome 6. Gaius the same in Greek with the ordinary Latine name Caiâ—s it appears that he was a Corinthian 1 Cor. 1.13 and in that Paul here cals him Mine host and the host of the whole Church to the understanding of which the observing of a custom of the Jews may give some illustration Maymony in his Treatise concerning the Sabbath speaketh about that rite that they used of hallowing the Sabbath with a seâ— form of words at his coming in per. 30. hath this saying This hallowing of the Sabbath may not be used but only in the place where they eat as for example he may not use the hallowing words in one house and eat in another Why then
for the proof and cleering of the order to be as we have laid it these things are to be observed 1. That this story wherewithall this Section beginneth One said to him Lord Are few to be saved c. was on the same day that he crieth out O Ierusalem Ierusalem c. ver 31 34. Now that this was when Christ was no more to come up to Ierusalem till his last coming up thither is evident from his words ver 35. Ye shall no more see me till the time when ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord So that this was after his coming up to the Feast of Dedication And those words were spoken whilest he was yet at Ierusalem before he went away thence from that Feast to go beyond Iordan The word Then therefore wherewith this Section beginneth in our English tranâ—lation doth not enforce the necessary conjunction of the times for in the Originall it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Whereas it is said in Chap. 17.11 That as he went to Ierusalem he passed through Samaria and Galilee it is to be understood of his last journey thither and the manner of expression doth help to confirm our order as we shall see there Herod was now at Ierusalem as compare ver 31 34. and it may be he being Ruler of Galilee had helped forward the death of these Galileans whom Pilate had slain as they were sacrificing and an intimation of such like danger from him is given Iesus And this may be conceived one cause that sets him out of the City and to go beyond Iordan which is recorded in the last verses of the preceding Section Ioh. 10.40 and how the order of story is to be cast in the readers thoughts it is easie to see Christ being at the Feast of Dedication at Ierusalem one comes and asks him Lord are few to be saved Luk. 13.23 And the same day ver 31. some Pharisees tell him of danger from Herod He answers that it was true indeed that he was to die at Ierusalem for a Prophet could not be tried but by the great Council there Talm. in Sanhedr per. 11. but he had yet some time to walk and work miracles before and so he goes away from Ierusalem Chap. XIV He healeth the Dropsie on the Sabbath and pleadeth the lawfullnesse of the action from their own pity to their beasts to pull them out of a pit on the Sabbath of which Maym. in Schabb. Per. 25. R. Abuhabh in praesat ad Ner. 7. hath a Parable somewhat like that passage at ver 8. and forward Three men saith he were bidden to a feast A Prince a wise man and an humble man The Prince sate highest next him the wise man and the humble man lowest The King observed it and asked the Prince why sittest thou highest He said Because I am a Prince To the wise man Why sittest thou next He said Because I am a wise man And to the humble man Why sittest thou lowest Because I am humble The King seated the humble man highest and the wise man still in his place and the Prince lowest Chap XV. By three eminent and feeling Parables is set forth Gods readinesse to receive sinners c. in the last of which is a cleer intimation of the calling of the Gentiles Chap. XVI The Parable of the unjust steward of the rich man and Lazarus from Psal. 49. Lazer is used constantly in the Jerus Talm. for Eleazer The word signifies God help me or God is my help a fit name under which to personate a begger Ahrahams bosome a phrase used by the Jews That day that Rabbi died R. Ada ben Ahava said This day he sits in Abrahams bosome Juchasin fol. 77. col 4. That the tongue of the damned in hell thirsts for water as ver 24. is also their conception Talm. Ierus in Chagigah fol. 77. col 4. is relating a story of a good man and a bad man that died And the good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no buriall rites but the bad man had Afterward one in a vision saw the good man walking in gardens and among pleasant fountains of waters but the bad neer a river and his tongue reach after water but could not reach it Chap. XVII At ver 11. it is said As he went through Ierusalem he passed through Samaria and Galilee This meaneth his last journey thither but the expression is somewhat strange Had it been as he went to Ierusalem he passed through Galilee and Samaria this had set his face towards Ierusalem but uttered as it is it seems to set his back upon it But by this passage the Evangelist helpeth to explain what Iohn and the other Evangelists speak of his journey from Ierusalem beyond Iordan namely that he went not to Iericho and so the next way to the next place beyond Iordan but that he went through Samaria up into Galilee and there crossed over Iordan to Bethabara which was over against Galilee From ver 20. and forward there is a speech of Christ much like that in Matth. 24. which still giveth us occasion to observe how Christ rehearsed things over and over Chap. XVIII By two Parables he sheweth the needfullnesse and efficacy of fervency constancy and humility in prayer In the Pharisees prayer ver 11. we may observe what kinde of faith in God the Judaich faith was He waited for good from God but grounded this in himself because of his own righteousnesse But in the Gospel the righteousnesse of God is revealed and that from faith to faith In the Publicans posture in his prayer two of their Canonicall gestures in prayer are exhibited standing and looking downward Maym. in Deah per. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A scholer of the wise must look downward when he stands praying The Pharisees fasting twice a week may be explained from Ierus Taanith fol. 64.3 Maym. Taanith per. 1. SECTION LXIII MATTH Chap. XIX from the beginning to Ver. 13. MARK Chap. X. from the beginning to Ver. 13. CHRIST beyond Iordan Concerning Divorce MATTHEW saith When Iesus had finished these sayings he departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Iudea beyond Iordan Which sayings that he speaketh of were finished a long while ago at Sect. 55. but because he setteth down nothing betwixt that time and this journey over Iordan therefore he thus joyneth their stories together The time and actions that he hath omitted we have seen how Luke and Iohn have supplied Were there any Coasts of Iudea beyond Iordan Either the conjunction And is to be understood He came into the coasts of Iudea and beyond Iordan as it is understood Psal. 133.3 Acts 7.16 c. or by Fines Iudaeae trans Iordanem is meant Fines Iudaeorum because the Syrians also dwelt in the coasts beyond Iordan Moses at the very same instant of time gave a Law to put an adulterous wife to death Deut. 22.22 and a
holy Ghost for these men were full of the holy Ghost before Stephen an eminent man among them is quarrelled by certain of the Libertines and the Hellenists Synagogue Libertini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are exceeding frequently spoken of in the Jews Writings And the Alexandrian Synagogue one of the Hellenists is mentioned in Jerus in Megillah fol. 73. col 4. and Juchas fol. 26. who tell that R. Eliezer bar Zadoc took the Synagogue of the Alexandrians that was at Ierusalem and imployed it to his own use When they are notable to overpower him by argument and disputation they take a ready way to do it by false accusation and conventing him before the Sanhedrin where being accused of vilifying Moses and speaking of the destruction of that place he is vindicated even miraculously before he pleadeth his own cause by his face shining like the face of Moses and bearing an Angelicall aspect and Majesty for indeed he spake but what was spoken by the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9.26 27. In his Apology he speaketh to the heads of his accusation but somewhat abstrusely yet so as to them to whom he spake to be well understood his discourse being according to their own Rhetorick and Logick To what was laid to his charge for vilifying Moses and saying his customs should be changed he rehearseth in brief the whole history of Moses and shews he was Orthodox to him but yet he driveth all to this that as the times before Moses were still moving and growing on to settlement in Moses so when Moses himself had setled all he had to do yet he pointed them to a Prophet yet to come to whom they should hearken as the ultimate Oracle which was this Iesus that he preached to them And whereas he was accused for speaking of the destruction of the Temple he first shews that fixednesse to this or that place is not so much to be stood upon as appears by the flitting condition of the Patriachs whose flittings he giveth the story of at large and by the moving condition of the Tabernacle before the Temple was built And when the Temple was built it was not because God would confine himself to one place for the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands ver 48. c. He inserteth two or three sharp and true accusations of them whereas theirs of him had been but false and causelesse As that their fathers had persecuted those that foretold of Christ as they did him for now preaching him and they followed their fathers steps nay went further for they had murdered Christ whereas their fathers had but murdered his Prophets And whereas they were so punctuall about the Ceremonious rites given by Moses they neglected the morall Law which was given by the disposition of Angels This cuts them to the heart that they passe a rancourous and furious sentence of death upon him but he hath a sight of the high bench of heaven God and Christ at his right hand their judge and his A most fit prospect for the first Martyr They cast him out of the City and stone him for blasphemy For these were to be stoned He that went in to his mother or to his fathers wife or to his daughter in Law or to a male or to a beast and he that blasphemed or that committed Idolatry c. And the place of stoning was out from the place of Iudgement nay out of the City as the Gomarists resolve it because it is said Bring him that cursed out of the Camp And A crier went before him that was to die proclaiming his fault Sanhedr per. 6. 7. When he was come within four cubits of the place of stoning they stript him naked only covered his nakednesse before Ibid. And being come to the very place first the witnesses laid their hands upon him Maym. in Avodah Zarah per. 2. and then stripping off their coats that they might be more expedite for their present work first one of them dasheth his loins violently against a stone that lay for that purpose if that killed him not then the other dasheth a great stone upon his heart as he lay on his back and if that dispatched him not then all the people fell upon him with stones Talm. ubi sup Steven in the midst of all this their fury and his own anguish gets on his knees and prayes for them and having so done he fell asleep The Jews do ordinarily use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Dying which properly signifies sleeping especially when they speak of a fair and comfortable death which word Luke translates here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that were stoned were also hanged up upon a tree Talm. ubi supr Whether Steven were so used is uncertain but it is evident that he had a fair buriall and not the buriall of a malefactour ACTS CHAP. VIII CHRIST XXXIV A Great persecution followeth the death of Steven in which Saul was a chief agent scholar of Gamaliel President of the Sanhedrin and it may be the busier for that In Talm. Bab. Sanhedr fol. 43. col 1. they say Iesu had five Disciples Mathai Nakai Netser Boni and Thodah and they are urging reasons there why they should all be put to death c. All the hundred and twenty Ministers mentioned Chap. 1.15 are scattered abroad only the twelve stay at Ierusalem as in the furnace to comfort and cherish the Church there in so sad a time and they preach all along as they go and so Satan breaks his own head by his own design for by persecution by which he had contrived to smother the Gospel it spreads the more The first plantation of it mentioned is in Samaria and that according to Christs own direction and foretelling Act. 1.8 Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Ierusalem and in all Iudea and in Samaria c. He had forbidden them before Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans do not enter Matth. 10.5 but now that partition wall that had been between is to be broken down Of all Nations and people under heaven the Samaritans were the most odious to the Jews and a main reason was because they were Jews Apostates For though the first peopling of that place after the Captivity of the ten Tribes was by Heathens 2 King 17. yet upon the building of the Temple on mount Gerizim such multitudes of Jews continually flocked thither that generally Samaritanism was but a mongrell Iudaism They called Iacob their father expected Messias had their Temple Priesthood Service Penteteuch c. And to spare more take but this one passage in Talm. Jerus Pesachin fol. 27.2 The Cuthaeans all the time that they celebrate their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are to be beleeved concerning their putting away of leaven If they do not keep their unleavened bread feast with Israel they are not to be beleeved concerning their putting away of leaven Rabban Gamaliel saith All the
phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33.6 thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Ionathan Isa. 65.6 thus Behold it is written before me I will not grant them long life but I will pay them vengeance for their sins and deliver their carcases to the second death And ver 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. ver 29 30 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people and would make them his Priests and Levites And then see how fitly this verse answers those In stead of these cursed people these are blessed and holy and might not see the second death and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father In this passage of Iohn scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretation of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally think some dead were really raised out of their graves came into the Land of Israel begat children and died a second time Nay they stick not to tell who these men were and who were their children Talm. Babyl in Sanhedr ubi supra After the thousand years are expired Satan is let loose again and fals to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again ver 8. Zohar fol. 72. col 286. hath this saying It is a tradition that in the day when judgement is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgement then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low he is found destroying the world and taking away souls When the Papacy began then Heathenism came over the world again and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever then Idolatry blindnesse deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still â—he Gospel prevailed and laid all flat But when the Papacy came then he was loose again and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of Iohn or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery especially begin them from the fall of Ierusalem where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand when if the devil were not let loose when was he He cals the enemies of the Church especially Antichrist Gog and Magog the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy the great persecutor Ezek. 38. 39. Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog lib. 5. cap. 23. So that Iohn from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new using known terms from Scripture and from the Jews language and notions that he might the better be understood So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world under these two summes first the beating down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the earth till the world was become Christian and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again The destruction of which is set down ver 9. by fire from heaven in allusion to Sodom or to 2 King 1.10 12. and it is set close to the end of the world the Devil and the Beast Rome imperiall and the false Prophet Rome Papall are cast into fire and brimstone ver 10. where Iohn speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The devill was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet the devils agents and what became of them Chap. 19. v. 20. And now the story of the devill himself for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart and now he brings the confusion of all the three together and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark and whose names were not written in the Book of life REVEL CHAP. XXI THe Ierusalem from above described The phrase is used by Paul Gal. 4.26 and it is used often by the Jews Zohar fol. 120. col 478. Rabbi Aba saith Luz is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierusalem which is above which the holy blessed God gives for a possession where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all Compare Rev. 21.27 22.15 Midras Till in Psal. 122. Ierusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Iochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Ierusalem that is above untill I have gone into Ierusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Ierusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spirituall Ierusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that Iohn taketh at here and that is the Ierusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65.17 18. joyneth the creating new heavens and a new earth and so stateth the time of building this new Ierusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5.17 A new people new Ordinances new Oeconomy and the old world of Israel dissolved Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst them as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 26.11 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow death nor pain ver 4. which if taken litterally could referre to nothing but the happy estate in heaven of which the glory of this Ierusalem may indeed be a figure but here as the other things are it is to be taken mystically or spiritually to mean the taking away the curse of the Law and the sting of death and sinne c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Iesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife ver 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54.1 5. Ver. 10. He carried me away in the
ver 57. Thou art not yet fifty years old mean Thou art not yet come within the compasse of old age no not to the first skirts of it for fifty years was the beginning of superannuation to the Levites at the Temple Numb 4. and the Jews had a common opinion that whosoever died before fifty or at least fifty two died untimely and as it were by cutting off SECTION LX. LUKE Ch. X. from Ver. 17. to the end of the Chapter And Chap. XI and XII and XIII to Ver. 17. THe observing of the beginning and end of this Section will cleer the subsequence of this to the preceding and the order of all the stories comprehended in it It begins with the seventy Disciples returning from the imployment upon which their Master had sent them Now that they returned to him at Ierusalem whither he was gone to the Feast of Tabernacles appears by this that after they are come up to him he is in Bethany in the house of Mary and Martha Luk. 10.38 39. The Section ends with this relation And he went through the Cities and villages teaching and journeying towards Ierusalem Luk. 13.22 So that in Chap. 10.17 he is at Ierusalem having come thither to the Feast of Tabernacles And in Chap. 13.22 He hath been abroad and is now travelling up to Ierusalem again to the Feast of Dedication Therefore this whole Section is the story of his actions from the one Feast to the other Chap. X. Upon the Disciples relating that the Devils were subject to them in his Name he answers I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightening Which referreth partly to his death shortly to be by which Satan was overthrown and partly if Heaven mean the Church of the Iews and the state of Religion there as it means not seldome to the power of the Gospel this very year and forward among them casting him out With these words of Christ and the consideration of the time they refer to we may fitly compare severall places which give and receive light mutually with it As Matth. 12.45 where Satan cast out of this nation returns again 1 Cor. 6.3 Rev. 12.9 Rev. 20.1 2 c. Unto a Lawyer Christ defineth who is a Neighbour by the Parable of the wounded man and the good Samaritan vastly differing from the doctrine of the Pharisees in that case Take these two or three assertions of their own Schools for some illustration of this Parable 1. They accounted none under the terme Brother but an Israelite by blood and none under the terme Neighbour but those that were come in to their Religion Aruch in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By using the word Neighbour are excluded all the Heathen Maym. in Retseah per. 2. An Israelite that slayeth a stranger sojourning among them is not to be put to death by the Sanhedrin for it because it is said If a man come presumptuously upon his Neighbour By which it is apparent they accounted not such a one a Neighbour 2. They have this bloody and desperate tenet Hereticks that is Israelites that follow Idolatry or such as commit provoking transgressions as to eat a carcasse or to wear linsey-woolsey for provocation this is an Heretick And Epicureans which are such Israelites as deny the Law and Prophets it is commanded that a man kill them if he have power in his hand to kill them and he may boldly kill them with the sword but if he cannot he shall subtilly come about them till he can compasse their death As if he see one of them fallen into a well and there was a ladder in the well before let him take it up and say I must needs use it to fetch my sonne from the top of the house and then I will bring it thee again But Heathens betwixt whom and us there is not warre as also the feeders of small cattell of Israel and such like we may not compasse their death but it is forbidden to deliver them if they be in danger of death Observe this As if one see one of them fall into the Sea he shall not fetch him up for it is said Thou shalt not stand up against the blood of thy Neighbour But such a one is not thy Neighbour 3. Of all other people of the world they abhorred Samaritans as appeareth by Ioh. 4.9 8.43 and by exceeding many expressions to that purpose in their own writings and therefore our Saviour urging for cleer and free charity in this Parable exemplifieth in a Samaritan the unlikeliest man in the world to do any charitable office for a Jew and he a neighbour though so remoâ—e in blood religion and converse Christ is at Bethany ver 30. in the house of Mary and Martha Martha was an usuall womans name in the nation Ioshua the sonne of Gamla married Martha the daughter of Baithus Iuchas fol. 57. Abba the sonne of Martha Id. fol. 72. and Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isaac bar Shemuel bar Martha Jerus in Shab fol. 3. col 4 c. And now let the Reader cast his eye back from hence and calculate when or how it was that Christ came so acquainted with this family and he will finde no time or occasion so likely as when the woman-sinner washed his feet Luk. 7. which we proved there was Mary the sister of Lazarus who was also called Magdalen Chap. XI ver 2. The Lords prayer rehearsed Christ had taught it almost a year and a half ago in his Sermon in the mount and now being desired to teach them to pray he gives the same again They that deny this for a form of prayer to be used either know not or consider not what kind of prayers the eminent men among the Jews taught them Iohn had taught his to pray after the same manner and use of the nation and Christ being desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had taught his rehearseth this form which he had given before They that again deny this Prayer is to be used by any but reall Saints because as they say none but such can call God Our father either know not or consider not how usuall this compellation was among the nation in their devotions and Christ speaketh constantly according to the common and most usuall language of the country At ver 14. and forward there is a story of casting out a Devil so like that in Sect. 35. the Jews cavill and our Saviours words about it are the very same and yet the current of the history evinceth them for two severall stories for as the Jews alwayes carried the same malicious construction of his miracles so doth he justly alwayes return them the same answer as hath been observed already At ver 27. there is a link that chains the time and stories As he spake these things and another at ver 29. if compared with ver 16. and again at ver 37. where his denouncing wo against the Pharisees although it be much the same for sense with that
Law to divorce her Deut. 24.1 in the former shewing the desert of the fact in the latter permitting to mitigate of the rigour of that Law and as our Saviour here interprets it to prevent those cruel effects that their hardnesse of heart might have produced had there been no mitigation They brag of that Law of divorce as if favoured them as a peculiar priviledge Ierus kiddushen fol. 58.3 R. Chaijah Rabbah said Divorces are not granted to the nations of the world meaning not to the Gentiles as they were to the Jews whereas truth here informs us that it was permitted only because of the hardnesse of their hearts and to avoid greater mischief When permission of divorce was given after a Law to punish adultery with death for a mitigation of it it requires most serious weighing whether a Law to punish adultery with death should be undispensable now after the Law of divorce given and continued by our Saviour in case of fornication SECTION LXIV MATTH Chap. XIX from Ver. 13. to the end of the Chapt. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 13. to Ver. 32. LUKE Chap. XVIII from Ver. 15. to Ver. 31. INFANTS brought to Christ. A rich man departs sorrowfull MATTHEW and Mark do evidence the order and as Luke had helped out their briefnesse before so do they now also again help us out about his order Whose children were these that were brought to Christ Not unbeleevers doubtlesse but the children of some that professed Christ Why did they bring them Not to be healed of any disease doubtlesse for then the Disciples would not have been angry at their coming for why at theirs more then at all others that had come for that end Their bringing therefore must needs be concluded to be in the name of Disciples and that Christ would so receive them and blesse them And so he doth and asserteth them for Disciples and to whom the Kingdom of heaven belonged taking the Kingdom of heaven in the common acceptation of the Gospel Observe Mark 10.19 c. that mention being made by Christ of the Commandments as if he spake of the whole Law yet he instanceth only in the second table And see the like again Rom. 13.8 c. Iames 2.8 9 10 c. The demeanour of men toward the second table is a sure triall how they stand to the first It is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle An expression common in the Nation Talm. Bava meria fol. 38. facie 2. It may be thou art of Pumbeditha where they can bring an Elephant through the eye of a needle SECTION LXV MATTH Chap. XX. from the beginning to Ver. 17. Labourers in the Vineyard c. THe first word For makes plain the order and connexion joyning this speech to that before The Ierus Talm. in Beracoth hath a Parable somewhat like to this but wildly applied to a far different purpose A King hired many workmen and there was one of them hired for his work for more then what was enough What did the King He took him and walked with him up and down At the time of the evening the workmen came to receive their wages and he also gave him his full wages with them The workmen repined and said We have laboured all the day and this man laboured but two hours and thou hast given him full wages with us The King said to them This man hath laboured more in two hours then you have done all day So R. Bon laboured more in the Law in twenty nine years then another in a hundred c. fol. 5. SECTION LXVI JOHN Chap. XI from the beginning to Ver. 17. Tidings come to Christ of Lazarus sicknesse AT Sect. 63. Christ goeth beyond Iordan the occasion of his coming back was the message of Mary and Martha to him to desire his help to their sick brother The story of this therefore is necessary to be related before the story of his coming thence which is the next thing that the other three Evangelists fall upon after they have done with what is set down in the preceding Sections The words of the second verse It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with oyntment and wiped his feet with her hair are most generally construed as pointing to that story in the next Chapter Ioh. 12.3 Then took Mary a pound of oyntment of Spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Iesus and wiped his feet with her hair Which seemeth very improper and unconsonant upon these reasons 1. To what purpose should Iohn use such an anticipation It was neither materiall to the story that he was entring on Chap. 11. to tell that Mary anoynted Christs feet a good while after he had raised her brother nor was it any other then needlesse to bring in the mention of it here since he was to give the full story of it in the next Chapter 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of such a tense as doth properly denote an action past and is so to be rendred if it be rendred in its just propriety It was Mary which had anointed 3. Whereas no reason can be given why Iohn should anticipate it here if he meant it of an anointing that was yet to come a plain and satisfactory reason may be given why he speaks of it here as referring to an anointing past namely because he would shew what acquaintance and interest Mary had with Christ which did imbolden her to send to him about her sick brother for she had washed and anointed his feet heretofore The words of Iohn therefore point at an action past and indeed they point at that story of the woman-sinner washing the feet of Christ with â—ears and anointing them with ointment and wiping them with her hairs Luke 7. It is true indeed that Iohn who useth these words that we are upon had not spoken of any such anointing before whereunto to refer you in his own Gospel but the passage was so well and renownedly known and recorded by Luke before that he relateth to it as to a thing of most famous notice and memoriall SECTION LXVII LUKE Chap. XVIII Ver. 31 32 33 34. MARK Chap. X. Ver. 32 33 34. MATTH Chap. XX. Ver. 17 18 19. CHRIST foretelleth his suffering THe message from Mary and Martha about their sick brother inviteth Christ from beyond Iordan into Iudea again He staies two daies 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 Ierusalem 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
of Zechary under the name of Ieremy doth but alleadge a Text out of the volume of the Prophets under his name that stood first in that volume And such a manner of speech is that of Christ Luke 24.44 All things must be fulfilled which are written of me in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalmes in which he follows the generall division that we have mentioned only he calleth the whole third part or Hagiographa by the title the Psalmes because the Book of Psalmes stood first of all the Books of that part In that saying Matth. 16.14 Others say Ieremy or one of the Prophets there is the same reason why Ieremy alone is named by name viz. because his name stood first in the volume of the Prophets and so came first in their way when they were speaking of the Prophets CHRISTS Arraignment before Pilate The chief Priests and Elders bring Iesus to Pilate but would not go into his house the house of a Heathen lest they should be defiled but that they might eat the Passeover Ioh. 18.28 Why They had eaten the Passeover over night at the same time that Jesus ate his and well they had spent the night after it But this day that was now come in was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their day of presenting themselves in the Temple and offering their sacrifices and peace offerings of which they were to keep a solemn feasting and this Iohn cals the Passeover In which sense Passeover bullocks are spoken of Deut. 16.2 2 Chron. 30.24 35.8 9. The School of Shammai saith their appearing was with two pieces of silver and their chagigah with a Meah of silver But the School of Hillel saith their appearing was with a Meah of silver and their chagigah with two pieces of silver Their burnt offerings at this solemnity were taken from among common cattell but their peace offerings from their tithes He that keepeth not the chagigah on the first day of the feast must keep it all the feast c. Chagigah per. 1. Pilate conceives him brought to him as a common malefactor and therefore he bids them take him back and Judge him by their own Bench and Law and in these words he meant really and according as the truth was that it was in their power to judge and execute him and needed not to trouble him with him And when they answer We may not put any man to death Joh. 18.31 They speak truly also and as the thing was indeed but the words of Pilate and theirs were not ad idem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a tradition that fourty years before the Temple was destroied capital Iudgements were taken away from them Jerus in Sanhedr fol. 18 col 1. But how Not by the Romans for they permitted them the use of their Religion Laws Magistracy capitall and penall executions and judgements in almost all cases as freely as ever they had and that both in their Sanhedrins within the Land and in their Synagogues without as far as the power of the Synagogues could reach at any time as might be proved abundantly if it were to be insisted on here The words then of these men to Pilate are true indeed That they could put no man to death but this was not as if the Romans had deprived the Sanhedrin of its power but because theeves murderers and malefactors of their own Nation were grown so numerous strong and heady that they had overpowred the Sanhedrins power that it could not it durst not execute capitall penalties upon offenders as it should have done And this their own Writings witnesse Juchasin fol. 21. The Sanhedrin flitted fourty years before the destruction of the Temple namely from that time that the Temple doors opened of their own accord and Rabban Iochanan ben Zaccai rebuked them and said O Temple Temple Zechary of old prophecied of thee saying Open thy doors O Lebanon that the fire may enter c. And also because that murderers increased and they were unwilling to judge Capitall matters they flitted from place to place even to Iabneh c. which also is asserted in Shabb. fol. 51. Avodah Zarah fol. 8. When they perceive that Pilate no more received the impression of their accusation of him as a malefactor like others they then accuse him of Treason as forbidding to pay Tribute to Cesar and as saying that he himself was a King and this they thought would do the businesse Pilate hereupon takes him in into his Judgement Hall for hitherto the Jews conference and his had been at his gate and questions him upon this point and Iesus plainly confesseth that he was a King but his Kingdom not of this world and therefore he needed not from him to fear any prejudice to the Romane power and so well satisfies Pilate that he brings him out to the gate again where the Jews stood and professeth that he found no fault in him at all Then the Jews lay in fresh accusations against him to which he answereth not a word Brought before Herod Pilate by a word that dropt from them understanding that he was of Galilee Herods Jurisdiction sent him to Herod who was now at Ierusalem partly because he would be content to have shut his hands of him and partly because he would court Herod towards the reconciling of old heart-burnings between them And now Iesus sees the monster that had murthered his forerunner Herod was glad to see him and had desired it a long time and now hoped to have got some miracles from him but he got not so much as one word though he questioned him much and the Jews who had followed him thither did vehemently accuse him The old Fox had sought and threatned his death before Luke 13.31 32. and yet now hath him in his hands and lets him go only abused and mocked and gorgeously arraied and so sends him back to Pilate that so he might court him again more then for any content he had that he should escape his hands See Acts 4.27 Before Pilate again Pilate at his gate again talks with the Jews and motions the release of the Prisoner and whether him or Barabbas and leaves it to their thoughts and goeth to his Judgement seat again By this time is his Lady stirring and understanding what business was in hand she sends to him about her dream He goes to the gate again inquires what is their vote about the Prisoners release they are all for Barabbas He puts it to the vote again and they are the same still he urgeth a third time and pleadeth the innocency of Iesus but they still urge for his crucifying Then cals he for water and washeth his hands but instantly imbrues them in his blood By this time it was the third hour of the day or about nine a clock the time of the beginning of the morning Sacrifice Hence Mark begins to count Mark 15.25 namely from the time that Pilate delivered him up He is whipped by Pilate led into the
trained up and which had been as it were an inheritance to them from their fathers This bred this disturbance at the present and in time an Apostacy from the Gospel of exceeding many Antiquity hath held that Cerinthus was the chief stickler in this businesse but whosoever it was that kindled it it was a spark enough to have fired all had it not been timely prevented Paul and Barnabas who had chiefly to deal in the ministration to the Gentiles are sent from Antioch to Ierusalem to consult the Apostles about this matter This is the same journey and occasion that is spoken of Gal. 2. Then fourteen years after I went up again to Ierusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me And I went up by revelation c. Not but that he was sent by the Church as Luke hath asserted here ver 2. but that the Church was directed by revelation to take this course for the setling of the question namely to send up to the Apostles at Ierusalem And hence we may fix the time of this business if it be resolved from whence the beginning of these fourteen years is to be dated namely whether he mean fourteen years after his first conversion or fourteen after his former journey to Ierusalem mentioned Gal. 1.18 which he took three years after his conversion The later is the more undoubted upon these two observations 1. It were exceeding obscure and is exceeding unagreeable to Scripture accounting to reckon the later summe of fourteen years from the time of his conversion and not from the number or time that went next before which was his being at Ierusalem three years after he was converted 2. His scope in that his discourse is not to shew barely what journeys he took to Ierusalem after his conversion but to shew how long he preached among the Gentiles and abroad out of Iudea time after time and yet when he came to the Apostles to Ierusalem they found no fault with him nor with the course he took in his Ministry After I was converted I went not to Ierusalem to consult the Apostles but went into Arabia and back again to Damascus and so preached up and down one utterly unknown by face to the Apostles yet when after three years thus doing I came up to Peter the Minister of the Circumcision he was so farre from contrarying the course that I had gone that he gave me fifteen daies entertainment And after that time I went through Syria and Cilicia and abroad among the Gentiles yet after fourteen years imployment in this kinde when I went up to Ierusalem again I found fair respect with the Apostles and they gave me the right hand of fellowship This drift of the Apostle being observed in that place which cannot be denied if his main purpose through the whole Epistle be observed it evidently stateth the time of this journey to Ierusalem to be seventeen years after his conversion When Paul and Barnabas came to Ierusalem they applied themselves singularly to Peter Iames and Iohn the Ministers of the Circumcision and imparted to them the doctrine and manner of dealing that they had used among the Gentiles Gal. 2.2 And this they did that they might clear themselves of all false rumours that might be laid to their charge as if they crossed the doctrine and minde of the Apostles and that they might have their judgement and concurrence along with them With Paul there was Titus who hitherto had been uncircumcised all along in his attending and accompanying Paul and even now at Ierusalem though he were before the Apostles of the Circumcision yet was he not forced to be circumcised there neither because there were some false brethren who lay upon the catch to observe and scandall the liberty of the Gospel that the Apostles used and they were unwilling to give way to them in any such condescension least they should have wronged the Gospel For though Paul allowed the Circumcision of Timothy and though even these Apostles perswaded Paul to use some of the Mosaick ceremonies Act. 21.24 for avoiding offence to the weak and for the more winning of those that were well satisfied yet would they not yield an inch in any such thing to these catchpoles that lay upon the lurch to spy out something if it might have been whereby they might have disgraced the Gospel Well the result of the Apostles conference is that the three of the Circumsion neither detracted from what the two of the uncircumsion had done already nor added any more things to be done by them hereafter But they agree that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Heathen and they themselves to the Circumcision desiring only that though they went among the Gentiles yet they would remember the poor of the Circumcision which they consented to and all was well concluded betwixt them But they that urged for the imposition of Moses his yoke would not be so satisfied but the matter must come to a publick canvasse and so the Elders also met together with those Apostles to consider of it Peter would have none of Moses burdens laid upon the Gentiles because he himself had seen them to have been partakers of the holy Ghost in as free and full a measure as they had been that had been most Mosaicall Paul and Barnabas affirmed that they had seen the like and therefore what needed the Gentiles to be troubled with these observances seeing they were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these adde to them But Iames findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the lesse offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to refrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as uselesse when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Councill upon the motion of Iames think it fit that the Gentiles should thus farre Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needlesse niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and
Ephesus By the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one Acts 20.31 And yet Luke in this Chapter specifieth only two years and a quarter ver 8.10 The comparing of which two summes together doth help us to measure the time of his abode there mentioned from ver 20. and forward Namely that he spent three moneths in disputing in the Jews Synagogue and two years in the School of Tyrannus and three quarters of a year after in going up and down Asia The expiration of his three years was about Pentecost in the first year of Nero. CHRIST LV NERO. I ACTS CHAP. XIX Ver. 21 22. After these things were ended Paul purposed in spirit when he had passed thorow Macedonia and Achaia to go to Ierusalem saying When I have been there I must also see Rome 22. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministred to him Timotheus and Erastus but he himself staid in Asia for a season PAuls thoughts of going to Rome do argue the death of Claudius who had banished all the Jews from thence Acts 18.2 and that by the coming in of Nero a new Emperour that Decree was extinct and freedom of access to Rome opened to them again For it can be little conceived that Paul should think of going thither when he could neither finde any of his nation there nor he himself come thither without certain hazzard of his life as the case would have been if Claudius and his Decree were yet alive It is therefore agreeable to all reason that the death of Claudius and the succession of Nero was now divulged and Paul thereupon knowing that it was now lawfull again for a Jew to go to Rome intendeth to take a farewell journey and visit to Macedonia Achaiah and Ierusalem and then to go and preach there Claudius died the 13th day of October as was said before and Nero instantly succeeded him A Prince of so much clemency and mansuetude in the beginning of his reign that Titus the Emperour afterward used to say that the best Princes exceeded not the first five years of Nero in goodnesse And Seneca if he flatter not the Prince or his own tutorage of him gives him this among many other Encomiums of him Lib. de Clementia which he dedicates to him Potes hoc Caesar praedicare audacter omnium quae in fidem tutelámque tuam venerunt nihil per te neque vi neque clam reipublicae ereptum Rarissimam laudem nulli adhuc principum concessam concupisti innocentiam Nemo unus homo uni homini tam charus unquam fuit quam tu populo Romano magnum longumque ejus bonum It must be some space of time before Claudius death could come to be reported at Ephesus it is like the new year after the Romane account might be stept in Whensoever it was that Paul heard the news and that a door of access to Rome was opened for the Jews again he sets down his determination to stay at Ephesus till Pentecost and then to set for Macedon and back to Ierusalem and then to Rome Upon this resolution he sendeth Timothy and Erastus into Macedon before him appointeth them to call at Corinth in the way and intends himself to stay at Ephesus till they should come thither again to him 1 Cor. 16.10 11. Between Ver. 22. and Ver. 23. of this XIX CHAP. of the ACTS falleth in the time of Pauls writing THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS He being now at Ephesus and having set down the time of his removing thence namely at Pentecost coming 1 Cor. 16.8 He had now been at Ephesus well towards three years and had met with many difficulties yet had so prevailed by the power of the Gospel that not only all along hitherto many people were continually converted but even now alate many conjurers and such as used magicall arts devoted themselves to the Gospel and their books to the fire and became the renewed monuments of the power and prevalency of the divine truth This was that great and effectuall door opened to him of which he speaketh 1 Cor. 16.9 and which occasioned his stay at Ephesus still when he had sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia Acts 19.21 In the time of which stay there Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus come from Corinth 1 Cor. 16.17 with Letters from the Church to Paul 1 Cor. 7.1 and he upon their return returns his answer in this Epistle sent by Titus and another 2 Cor. 12.18 Some Postscripts have named Timothy for the bearer antedating his journey to Corinth which was not in his going to Mecedon but in his return back and when this Epistle had already given them notice of his coming that way 1 Cor. 16.10 Apollos when Paul wrote this Epistle was with him at Ephesus and was desired by Paul to have gone along with the brethren to Corinth but he would not 1 Cor. 16.11 it may be because he would not countenance a faction there by his presence which was begun under his name The Church was exceedingly broken into divisions which produced very dolefull effects among them These severall enormities raged in that Church though so lately and so nobly planted and all originally derived from this first mischief of faction and schisme 1. A member of the Church had married his fathers wife yea as it seemeth 2 Cor. 7.12 his father yet living which crime by their own Law and Canons deserved death For he that went in to his fathers wife was doubly liable to be stoned both because she was his fathers wife and because she was another mans wife whether he lay with her in his fathers life time or after his death Talm. in Sanhed per. 7. Maym in Issure biah per 1. 2. And yet they in the height of the contestings they had among themselves did not only not take away such a wreth from among them nor mourn for the miscarriage but he had got a party that bolstered him up and abetted him and so while they should have mourned they were puffed up His own party in triumph that they could bear him out against the adverse and the other in rejoycing that in the contrary faction there was befallen such a scandall Or both as taking this Libertinism as a new liberty of the Gospel The Apostle adviseth his giving up to Satan by a power of miracles which was then in being So likewise did he give up Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 The derivation of this power we conceived at Act 5. in the case of Ananias and Saphira to be from that passage of Christ to the Disciples Ioh. 20.22 He breathed on them and said whose sinnes ye retain they are retained c. and so were the Apostles indued with a miraculous power of a contrary effect or operation They could heal diseases and bestow the holy Ghost and they could inflict death or diseases and give up to Satan Now though it may be questioned whether any in the Church of
were not that Egyptian that not long before that time had made an insurrection Iosephus giveth his story Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. thus At that time there cometh one to Ierusalem out of Aegypt pretending himself to be a Prophet and he counselled the common people that they should go with him to Mount Olivet and that there he would shew them how at his command the walls of Ierusalem would fall But Felix understanding this sent some horse and foot against them and slew 400 of them our text here saies 4000 and took two hundred prisoners ACTS CHAP. XXII PAUL Apologizeth to the people telleth his Education Conversation and Conversion and relating how by a Divine Vision he was appointed to go to the Gentiles they begin a new commotion which the chief Captain again pacifieth but yet thinks Paul some notable villain or else that there would never have been so terrible cries against him He would now have scourged him but that he understood he was a Romane therefore he turns to another course and the next day brings him before the Sanhedrin The sitting of that Bench was little at Ierusalem now For as we have observed they were unnested from Ierusalem divers years ago and their most constant residence at present was at Iabneh only they were now come up to the Festivall ACTS CHAP. XXIII XXIV to Ver. 27. RAbban Simeon the sonne of Rabban Gamaliel Pauls Master was President of the great Councill at this time for Gamaliel was dead some two or tâ—ree yeares ago Of him the Jewes have this saying in Sotah per. 9. From the time that old Rabban Gamaliel died the honour of the Law ceased for till then they read and learned the Law standing but after his death sitting Onkelos the Targumist of the Law burne a great quantity of frankincense for him at his Obsequies Iuchasin fol. 53. Whether Rabban Simeon the President were present at this Session or no Ananias the Highpriest is as busie as if he had been chief President himself But Paul cares for him as little as he busied himself much He cals him whited wall or arrant painted hypocrite And when he was checked for reviling Gods Highpriest I knew not brethren saith he that he is Highpriest for if I took him for such a one I would not â—o have spoken to him since it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of my people It is not possible that Paul should not know who and what Ananias was but 〈◊〉 is very indifferent whether we understand this as not owning this man for a lawfull Highpriest or not owning any lawfull Highpriesthood now at all The man base and usurping and the Function of the Highpriesthood disanulled by the great Highpriest who had accomplished all that it typified and the place of the Highpriesthood being become a common Merchandise obtained by money and favour and disâ—â—â—ching one another By a holy policy he divides the Councill and professing himself by education a Pharisee and of that belief in the point of the Resurrection he not only sets Phariseâ— and Sadduces to a hot contestation between themselves but he makes the Pharisâ—â—s so farre as to that opinion to take his part It had been possible to have set the Hilâ—elian and Shammaean party together by the ears by a bone handsomly cast 〈◊〉 them for the Councill had these factions in it and their feud was as deadly bâ—t Paul could own no article of their divisions that was worth his owning they were so 〈◊〉 and below his cognisance It is the confession of the Ierusalem Gomarists in Iâ—ma fol 38. col 3. That the fault of their great ones under the second Temple was love of money and hatred one of another Paul in the hubbub is rescued again by the Souldiery and that night by revelation is warranted to appeal to Caesar by being informed he must go to Rome A Conspiracy of a pack of cut-throats to murder him is prevented and he is sent to Caesarea to Felix where he lies prisoner two years By such packing and combining of murderers it may easily be conjectured what temper the Nation was now in Iosephus his character of it at these times is That the affairs of the Iews grew daily worse and worse 〈◊〉 that the Country was full of theeves and sorcerers but Felix was daily picking them up to penalty after their desert the greater thief the lesse for his character yields 〈◊〉 no better Tacitus saies enough of him when he speaks but this Antonius Felix per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit Histor. lib. 5. cap. 2. Upon which Iosephus will give you a large comment of his intolerable covetousnesse polling cruelty sacriledge murderings and all manner of wickednesse His injuriousnesse to Paul in the story before us and the very naming 〈◊〉 wife Drusilla may be brand enough upon him for her by inticements and magicall 〈◊〉 he allured to himself from her husband and married her And him he kept prisoner two years wrongfully because he would not bribe him In his pleading before him he makes him tremble but it is but a qualm and away CHRIST LVII NERO. III PAUL is a prisoner this year at Caesarea under Felix A great City of Jews and Greeks mixtly the place where the first spark of Jews Warres kindled afterward A famous University of Jews in time if so be it was not so at this time ACTS CHAP. XXIV Ver. 27. CHRIST LVIII NERO. IV PAUL still a prisoner at Caesarea under Felix for the first part of this year Then cometh Festus into the Government and Felix packeth to Rome to answer for his misdemeanours ACTS CHAP. XXV XXVI PAUL answereth for himself first before Festus alone then before Agrippa and his sister Bernice this Agrippa was his sonne whose death is related Acts 12. he by the favour of Claudius the Emperour succeeded his brother in Law-Uncle Herod for such relations did that Incestuous family finde out in the Kingdom of Chalcis For Berenice his sister had married Herod King of Chalcis her Uncle and his who was now dead and this Agrippa succeeded him in his Kingdom being also King of Iudea Of this Agrippa as it is most probable there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Writers as particularly this that King Agrippa reading the Law in the later end of the year of release as it was injoyned and coming to those words Deut. 17.15 Thou shalt not set a stranger King over thee which is not of thy brethren the tears ran down his cheeks for he was not of the seed of Israel which the Congregation observing cried out Be of good comfort O King Agrippa thou art our brother He was of their Religion though not of their blood and well versed in all the Laws and customs as Paul speaks chap. 26.3 Berenice his sister now a widow lived with him and that in more familiarity then was for their credit afterward she fell into the like
his life none of the Church that was at Rome nor any of those that were of his own retinue durst own him or stand by him in his exigent but the Lord was with him and brought him off safe from the Lions mouth He being assured by this providence of God to him and for him in his great danger that he was reserved for the further benefit of the Church and propagating of the Gospel applieth himself to that work the best way he can considering his condition oâ— imprisonment and whereas he cannot travell up and down to the Churches to preach to them as he done he visiteth divers of them by his Epistles And first he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS and sendeth it by Crescens as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4.10 For though Demas and Crescens and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse yet the reason of theâ—r departure cannot be judged to have been alike for however Demas started upon some carnall respect yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek Syriack Arabick and divers other Translations doth generally date it from Rome Beza from Antioch Erasmus from Ephesus but all upon conjecture for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver 2. And all the brethren which are with me saith thus Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari inde scriptam hanc Epistolam c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch and that this Epistle was written from thence at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their return into Asia from their first journey forth and the coming of those troubles to Antioch Acts 14.28 But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others was not then begun and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted And the former answer may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epidemically infest the Churches was but then beginning And this is one reason why I suppose it written from Rome at this time that we are upon because that gangrene in the Eastern Churches was now come to ripenesse as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy which was written this same year See 2 Tim. 1.15 False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel to their old Ceremonious performances again and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Justification which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and Iames and Iohn the Ministers of the Circumcision and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars and he shews how these approved of him and it And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law at which was the great stumbling and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon their living in it The Lord had laid a stone in Sion which the Jews could not step over but stumble at even to this day and that is that which is said in Levit. 18.5 Ezek. 20.11 and in other places which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle Chap. 3.12 from whence they concluded that no living no justification but by the works of the Law The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case and resolves all into faith The first is in ver 17. namely that the Law was not given to crosse the Covenant of grace but to be subservient to it The second in ver 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it but it left a man under the curse Observe that he saith not As many as fail of the works of the Law but As many as are of the works of the Law shewing that the Law did not only denounce a curse upon all that performed it not but plainly demonstrated that none could perform it and so left all under a curse and these words Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things c. conclude both So that the Law was not given for justification but to be subservient to the Covenant of Justification not to crosse the Covenant but to serve it not purposely to leave under the curse but to shew the curse and to drive men to get from under it So that men might live in it but not by it It was the way in which men were to go to seek for Justification but it was not the cause or means whereby they were justified See Gal. 3.5 The Jews made the Morall Law crosse to the Covenant of grace whilest they sought to be justified by works and they made the Ceremoniall Law crosse the Morall whilest they resolved all duty into Ceremony and so the Law which in it self was holy and pure and good they turned to death unto themselves by their abuse They might have lived in the Morall Law had they used it aright though not by it for the more a man sets himself to the exact performance of it the more he sees he cannot perform it and therefore he is driven the more to Christ But they resolved all into Ceremonious performance and so lost sincerity toward the Morall and hereupon the Ceremoniall Law good in it self became to them Statutes not good and Iudgements wherein they could not live Ezek. 20.25 From Rome also and reasonable early in this year Paul wrote THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY and in it urgeth Timothy to come to him before Winter Timothy was now at Ephesus when this Epistle was directed to him as may be observed out of the Epistle it self by these collections 1. In that he willeth him to salute the houshold of Onisephorus Chap. 4.19 who was an Ephesian Chap. 1.16 18. 2. In that he biddeth him take Troas in â—is way as he comes to him Chap. 4.13 which had been the way that Paul himself had gone from Ephesus 2 Cor. 2.22 and to Ephesus again Act. 20.5 3. In that he warneth him of Alexander Chap. 4.14 who was an Ephesian 1 Tim. 1.20 Act. 19.33 There is one passage in this Epistle which hath caused some to doubt about the time of its writing for about the place there is no doubt and that is what he saith Chap. 4 6. I am now ready to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand which would make one think that he was now ready to be martyred and taken
the persecution caused by the Beast that even death should be desirable to deliver the Saints from that trouble and incouraging to stand out against the Beast and his Image even to the death These bitter dealings against the Church ripen the sinnes of the world ready for cutting down and thereupon Christ is described coming as against Egypt Isa. 19.1 riding upon a cloud and with a sickle in his hand to reap the earth As Ioel 3.13 betokening his vengeance against his enemies So the earth is reaped Harvest and Vintage and all This is a generall intimation of Gods judgement and vengeance which is more particularly handled in the pouring out of the Vials Chap. 16. It is observable that the word for reaping of the earth comes out from the Temple yea though Christ have the sickle in his hand yet an Angel out of the Temple cals to him to reap and another Angel comes out of the Temple with a sickle and a third out of the Temple cals to him to reap As this may be understood to Doctrinall information that the cries and urgencies of the Church to Christ stirre him up to avenge them on their enemies Luke 18.7 so the expressions may be explained by allusive application The putting in of the first sickle to reap the first corn in Iudaea was by the word and warrant of the Priests and Rulers sitting in the Temple and they that were to reap when they were come to the corn put not in the sickle till the word was given Reap The manner and managing of this businesse viz. the reaping of the first sheaf is recorded and related by the Talmud Menachoth per. 10. and in Tosaphta ibid. These three men say they that were appointed by the Sanhedrin to reap went out into the valley of Kidron with a great company following them on the first day of the Passeover week when now it grew towards evening with three sickles and three baskets One when they came to the place said to them On this Sabbath on this Sabbath on this Sabbath In this basket in this basket in this basket With this sickle with this sickle with this sickle Reap to whom the three answer Well well well I will reap The other saies Reap then Then they reap c. Thus phrases taken from known customs do speak the plainer And so is the expression taken from common speech and opinion when it is said in ver 30. The wine-presse was troden without the City and blood came out of the wine-presse even to the horse bridles Here is treading a wine presse of blood a◠Christ treadeth in Edom Isa. 63.1 3. Edom is the common name by which the Hebrew Writers call the Romans The wine-presse was without the City alluding to the wine and oyl presses which were without Ierusalem at the foot of mount Olivet Blood came up to the horse bridles An hyperbole by which they expressed great slaughter and effusion of blood So Talm. Ierus in Taanith fol. 69. col 1. describing the wofull slaughter that Hadrian made of the Jews at the destruction of the City Bitter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The horses waded in blood up to the nostrils by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs Of that space and extent doth R. Menahem on gen fol. 60. reckon the largenesse of the Land of Israel REVEL CHAP. XV. WHat was spoken in generall in the conclusion of the preceding Chapter concerning the treading of the wine presse of Gods wrath is here more particularly prosecuted in the story of the seven Vials At the beginning of which Iohn again cals us to reflect upon the scheme of the Temple in heaven which all along speaks according to the platform of the Temple at Hierusalem Here is a sea of glasse mingled with fire and harpers harping by it c. singing the song of Moses which as it cals to minde Moses and the peoples singing upon the red sea shore upon their delivery from Egypt Exod. 15. so doth it plainly allude to the musick at the Temple by the laver or sea and which standing near the Altar was as a sea of glasse mingled with fire Moses and Israel sing after the destruction of Egypt for their deliverance was by her destruction but those here that have got victory over the Beast sing before he is destroyed for they are delivered from him and prevail against him though he stand in his strength and his destruction be not yet come The Gospel grew and Sanguis Martyrum was semen Ecclesiae do Satan and Antichrist what they can After this song The Temple of the Tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened ver 5. All the whole building upon Mount Moriah was called the Temple the Courts and Cloisters and Chambers c. but the very house it self The Holy and Holy of Holies was only and properly The Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony And the song mentioned before ver 2. is represented as being in the Court near the Altar and laver but now the very House it self is opened Parallel to what is spoken Chap. 11.19 The Temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Covenant The Lord in pouring out vengeance upon Antichrist will manifest his judgements as ver 4. and open his Counsels and Covenant for while the enemy raged and raved and destroyed those that would not worship him and when even all the world in a manner did worship him the Lords judgements were hid and his Covenant with his people as it were out of sight or as if no such thing had been but when this vengeance shall come then all will be plain The seven Angels that pour out the seven Vials are charactered in the garb of Priests coming out of the Temple in white linen and girded over the breasts as the Priests were One of the living creatures gives the Vials into their hands the very same sense and carriage with that Ezek. 10.7 REVEL CHAP. XVI WEre the Stage where the things of this Book were to be acted and the time of their acting of as little compasse as was that of the things of Daniel one might with more probability allot the severall things mentioned to their severall times as the things in him may be done But since the scene here is as large as all the world where the Gospel was to come and the time as long as time shall be 1600 years past already and how much behinde none knoweth to undertake to apply every thing in this Book to its particular time place and occasion is to runne a hazardous undertaking In some places indeed the things are so plain that they speak themselves but in many so obscure that he that will venture to bring them to particular application doth it more upon his own venture then upon any good textuall warrant And amongst those obscurities these Vials are not the least Take them in a generall interpretation as I beleeve they are
Galilee the Universities in Babylonia from henceforward bearing all the renown yet were they not utterly extinct and out of them at last ariseth the famous R. Hillel grandchild of R. Iudah who stated the Jews Almanack into that posture in which it stands at this day And Hierom had for his help in the Hebrew tongue a learned man of Tiberias §. IX The posture and temper of the People HAving taken this brief account of their Scholastick and Magistratick History as also of some generall occurrences that befell the Nation in these times let us a little observe the carriage and temper of the men for the better discerning of the Lords dispensing in reference to them as a people of his curse rejection and abhorring They themselves little thought it but were yet as proud and self-confident of their being the only people of God as ever and unlesse it were in their plague by Ben Coziba a stander by would hardly think they lay under those curses that had been so oft and so terribly denounced against them and it may yet appear the more strange when we do consider the setled way of their Religion in which they walked with as much confidence and security as ever The Land full of Synagogues these frequented every Sabbath and the second and fifth daies of the week their paying Tithes observing purifyings clean and unclean meats and drinks and in a word all their Rites but what unseparably belonged to the Temple in as setled a course as they had done before the Temple fell But in this very thing was their misery and the vengeance upon them and that which they accounted was their happinesse and with which they sweetned their Captivity and desolation of their City was that very thing that was their unhappinesse and undoing A double badge of reprobation they visibly carried though themselves could not see it namely their doting upon their wretched Traditions and their rancour and enmity against the Gospel besides what other brands of a curse may be read upon them He that reads their Talmuds may observe this mark of perdition upon them in every page that the generations after the destruction of Ierusalem were more mad if possible after their foolish and wicked Rites and Traditions that made faith and the Word of God of no effect then the generations before had been A man that reades there may stand amazed to see a people of a lost and languishing condition yet building up of those toies and trifles an airy structure as if they were building an everlasting Kingdom It speaks a palpable blindnesse upon them that they took so little advertisement by the fall of their City of the fall of their carnall and beggerly Rites that they set them up more zealously then ever before Let any man observe who they are that make the greatest noise in the Talmuds and they will see this plain This mindes me of a fancy of the great women among them a ridiculous way that they used for the remembrance and mourning for Ierusalem namely by wearing a golden Crown upon their heads wrought in the fashion of a City they called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The golden City It is spoken of in Ierus Shabb. fol. 7. col 4. where they are disputing whether the women might go forth with this ornament upon their heads on the Sabbath And there they tell that R. Akibah made a golden City for his wife and when Rabban Gamaliels saw it she was envious at it A pretty way of mourning by pride and to carry Ierusalem in gold on their heads when Ierusalem lies in ashes under their feet Much like did they by their Ceremonies and Traditions when at the ruine of the City they should by right have been all buried in ashes with it they inhanced them and made them more high and gallant then ever before It is needlesse to instance their derision and detestation of Christ and Christianity their blasphemy against his blessed name their hatred and mischievousnesse against the professors of it their Writings proclaim their impiety and when many of the ancient Fathers have been put to write against the Jews it argues they were busie and stirring as farre as they might They had continuall opposings among themselves yet they all agreed like Simeon and Levi brethren in evil to oppose vilifie and blaspheam the Gospel Hardly one of the Grandees that we have named but he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his opposite one or other that stood out in contestation of opinion with him Nay they went sometimes to it by the ears as R. Eliezer and R. Iosi are so strugling together that they rent the Book of the Law betwixt them Ierus Shekalim fol. 47. col 1. and as we observed before the Shammaeans and Hillelians fought it to blood and death Rabban Gamaliel at Iabneh deposed R. Akibah from his Rectorship at Lydda Rosh hashan fol. 57. col 1. And divers such bickerings which still ended in an unanimous consent to oppose Christianity as much as possible We spake before of the commonnesse of Magick amongst them one singular means whereby they kept their own in delusion and whereby they affronted ours The generall expectation of the Nation of Messias coming when he did had this double and contrary effect That it forwarded those that belonged to God to believe and receive the Gospel and those that did not it gave incouragement to some to take upon them they were Christ or some great Prophet and to others it gave some perswasion to be deluded by them These deceivers dealt most of them with Magick and that cheat ended not when Ierusalem ended though one would have thought that had been a fair term of not further expecting Messias but since the people were willing still to be deceived by such expectation there rose up deluders still that were willing to deceive them The Ierusalem Talmud will furnish us with variety of examples in this kinde and I cite it the oftner because it was made among these men we are speaking of the Jews in Iudaea To begin with dreamers and interpreters of dreams which was a degree of delusion with them In Maasar Sheni fol. 45. col 2 3. there is mention of Rabbi Iosi ben Chalpatha of this trade and R. Ismael ben Rabbi Iosi and R. Lazar and R. Akibah and there are many dreams recorded that they interpreted and it seemeth by a passage in the place that they taught their Scholars this trick as a piece of their learning And finding of R. Akibah in this catalogue we cannot but think how well Ben Coziba and he were met for if the one were a cheater in one kinde the other was a deceiver in another If that of the Apostle Iude in his Epistle ver 8. These filthy dreamers should be construed in this literall sense it would finde enow in those times to make it good In Shabb. fol. 3. col 2. it speaks of an apparition to one of their
we touched before The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter Helek doth shew their full opinion about the daies of Messias and amongst other things they say thus as Aruch speaks their words in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead they shall no more return to their dust but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world he will give them wings as Eagles and they shall flee upon the waters The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin fol. 92. where the text indeed hath not the word thousand but the marginall glosse hath it and shews how to understand the thousand years And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and intertainment And so speaks R. Eliezâ—r in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col 2. The daies of the Messias are a thousand years As Iohn all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembring old ones and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to expresse them by but much allusion to customs language and opinions of the Jews that he might speak as it were closer to them and nearer their apprehensions so doth he here and forward This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog Ezek. 38. 39. and a new Ierusalem Ezek. 40. and forward So here a resurrection ver 5. Gog and Magog ver 8. and a new Ierusalem Chap. 21. 22. There a resurrection not of bodies out of the grave but of Israel out of a low captived condition in Babel There a Gog and Magog the Syrogrecian persecutors Antiochus and his house and then the description of the new Ierusalem which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land and to have Ierusalem built again as it was indeed in the daies of Ezra and Nehemiah but by the glory and â—â—rgenesse of it as it is described more in compasse then all the Land of Canaan they were taught to look further namely at the heavenly or spiritual Ierusalem the Church through all the world Now the Jews according to their allegoricall vein applied these things to the daies of Christ thus that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones then he to conquer Gog and Magog and then there must come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brave world to come that they dreamed of Beside what they speak to this tenour in the Talmudick Treatise last cited there is this passage in Ierus Megillah fol. 73. col 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times what the great Hallel was we shewed a little before And that part say they I love the Lord because he hath heard me refers to the daies of Messias that part Tye the sacrifice with cords to the daies of Gog and Magog And that Thou art my God and I will praise thee refers to the world to come Our Divine Apocalyptick follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs not as approving them but as speaking the plainer to them by them Here is a resurrection too but not of bodies neither for not a word of mention of them but of souls The souls of those that were beheaded for the witnesse of Iesus lived and reigned ver 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection ver 5. The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts There are two main things here intended First to shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan and secondly the nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs Kingdom and his conquering Satan and his Saints reigning with him that common place is briefly handled here That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles they called in unto the Gospel Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomlesse pit that he should deceive no more as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones saith Iohn and they sate upon them c. ver 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning But how do they reign with him Here Iohn faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp and shews that the matter is of a farre different tenour that they that suffer with him shall reign with him they that stick to him witnesse for him dye for him these shall sit inthroned with him And he nameth beheading only of all kindes of deaths as being the most common used both by Jews and Romans alike as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr per. 7. halac 3. And the first witnesse for Christ Iohn the Baptist died this death He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years and so reign all together with him those years out as is the conceit of some as absolute Judaism as any is for matter of opinion but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along suffering and standing out against sinne and the mark of the Beast and the like whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousnesse But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living when Satan was bound and truth and life came into the world The Gentiles before the Gospel came among them were dead in Scripture phrase very copiously Ephes. 2.1 2. 4.18 c. but that revived them Ioh 5.25 This is the first resurrection in and to Christs Kingdom the second is spoken of at the 12th verse of this Chapter that we are upon Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing namely a raising from darknesse and sin by the power of the Gospel Rom. 11.15 Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles Satan going down and Christs Kingdom advanced and the Gospel bringing in life and light as Ioh. 1.4 those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witnesse to him but closed with the mark of the Beast sin and sinfull men these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished that is while they lasted though that were a time of receiving life Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection for on them the second death hath no power ver 6. The second death is a