testimony of John the Evangelist nay of Christ himself that it plainly appears that Mary the sister of Lazarus and Mary Magdalen was but one and the same person For when in Bethany the same sister of Lazarus annointed the feet of Jesus and Judas did thereupon take offence Jesus himself checking the boldness of the furious Disciple said Let her alone that she may keep it against the day of my burial Now that she that brought the oyntment to the sepulcher for the annointing of the body of Jesus was Mary Magdalen is affirmed by Mark and that she with Mary the Mother of James and Salome did that office When therefore neither in him nor in any other of the Evangelists there is any mention of Mary the Sister of Lazarus who was foretold by our Saviour that she should do that office it may easily be known that both these Maries were but one and the same At Joh 12. 7. we shall shew that that speech must be construed to such a sense as he hath put on it save only that following the vulgar Latin he reads sine ut servet which indeed makes his sense the fuller but though not so read yet will that sense be full enough It is to be objected indeed that Mary was called Magdalen from the place Magdala of which there is mention Matth. 15. 29. and in Tal. Jerus in Maazaroth fol 50. col 3. in This passage R. Jochanan in the name of R. Simeon ben Jochai He had two inclosures one in Magdala the other in Tiberias c. And in Beracoth fol. 13. col 1. there is mention of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Juda of Magdala now Magdala being in Galilee as some seat it or over against Galilee beyond Jordan as others it was so very far distant from Bethany that Mary the sister of Lazarus whose Town was Bethany could not possibly be called Magdalen from Magdala To which we may first give Baronius his answer who also mentioneth this objection That though she were of Bethany by original and the native seat of her fathers house yet might she also be of Magdala by marriage or some occasional residence otherwise And in the second place we may adduce what the Talmudicks speak of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary Magdalen or Megaddala for the word is of doubtful pointing whom they character for a notorious strumpet in those times that Jesus of Nazareth lived Alphez in Gittin fol. 605. Some man finds a fly in his cup and takes her out and will not drink and this was the temper of Papus the son of Judah who locked the door upon his wife whensoever he went out The glossaries R. Solamon and Nissim upon this passage comment thus Papus the son of Judah was husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Mary Magdala and whensoever he went forth he locked the door upon his wife lest she should speak with any man which was a usage unfitting and hereupon there arose discord between them and she plaid the whore against him Now they construe the latter word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as signifying one that broided or plated her hair which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peter blames in women 1 Pet. 3. 3. Tal. Babyl Venet. in Sanhedr per. 7. is speaking of one that inticed to Idolatry and how he was brought to the Sanhedrin and stoned And thus say they they did to Ben Saida in Lydda and hanged him on the Passeover eve Ben Saida was the son of Pandira They call our Saviour blasphemously by this name Ben Saida And a little after His mother was Saida His mother was Mary Magdalen Mary the platter of womens hair vid etiam Schab fol. 104. And in Chagigah fol. 4. The Angel of death said to his messenger Go fetch me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary the broider of womens hair He went and fetched Mary Magdala or Mary the broider of hair for young men Now whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be read Magdela or Magdila a Participle in Hiphil which is most proper and so warranted by Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Kelim per. 15. or Megaddela in Piel either of them in a Greek dress especially the former come so near the sound of the word in hand that we may very well construe Mary Magdalen in this Talmudick construction for a woman of common infamy and that hath this nick-name of Magdila from her lascivious dress and carriage Observe Lukes expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary which was called Magdalen which manner of phrase is rarely used when persons are named after their Country SECTION XXXV MATTH Chap. XII from Ver. 22 to Ver. 46. MARK Chap. III. from the last clause of Ver. 19. And they went into an house to Ver. 31. A Devil cast out Christ called Belzebub Blasphenty against the holy Ghost THe series and consequence of this Section will require some cleering 1. The reader here seeth that Mark hath not mentioned any thing from the ordaining of the twelve Apostles unto this place for the holy Ghost that held all their pens did so dispose them that sometimes one should speak the story sometimes another and sometimes more or all of them together Now though the first clause of this Section in Mark And they went into an house be joyned so close to the Apostles ordaining as if that were the next thing done yet the current of the story in the rest of the Evangelists doth shew that it is not to be taken in at that instant and indeed the progress of the story even in Mark himself doth shew that this is the proper place of it as will appear to him that shall precisely observe it 2. Matthew hath laid this story of casting out a Devil c. next after two stories that occurred before the Sermon in the Mount as hath appeared in its place the reason of which may be supposed to be because he would take up the exceptions of the Scribes and Pharisees together That this story in Matthew lieth in juncture to these next succeeding will readily appear in them 3. There is a story in Luke 11. so like this that one would think it were the very same for there is mention of the same miracle casting out a Devil and the same cavil of the Pharisees and the same answer of Christ and yet the progress of the history of Luke thither and especially the coming off from that story do perswade that it was another story For Luke chaineth such following passages to it that cannot possibly be brought in concurrent with the current of these Evangelists now before us And we shall observe hereafter that Christ in his latter time did repeat over again very many of those things that he had spoken a good while before as Moses his Deutronomy was but a rehersal of things that had been acted and spoken in his former time The same devillishness was in the Scribes and Pharisees in all places and it was accordingly to be met
now in Capreae having forsaken the City living in all filthiness and cruelty 770. Divers cruelties ibid. Strange accusing 771. The boldness of Sejanus and Terentius 772. Divers cruelties more and other occurrencies ibid. Tiberius troubled in mind 773. Among the Jews A Commotion among them occasioned by Pilate ibid. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXIV Tiberius XIX In the Church Hellenists murmuring against the Hebrews Act. 6. Seven Deacons chosen And their office 777. c. Stephen Martyred 780 c. Act. 7. Bitter persecution against the whole Church 785. Act. 8. Dispersion of the hundred and eight upon the Persecution ibid. Samaria receiveth the Gospel 786. Simon Magus ibid. The Holy Ghost given by imposition of hands 787. The Ethiopian Eunuch converted 789 c. Paul converted and baptized ibid. Act. 9. to ver 10. In the Empire Velleius Paterculus flourisheth 795. Troubles in Rome about Usury 796 c. Tiberius still most bloudily cruel ibid. Strang accusations among the People ibid. Marius and his daughter wrongfully slaughtered ibid. The miserable end of Asinius Gallus and Nerva ibid. The miserable end of Agrippin◠and Drusius ibid. Other Massacres ibid. Occurrences in the Year of Christ XXXV Tiberius XX. In the Church No particular occurrence of the Church mentioned this year 801. In the Empire Tiberius Reign proclaimed for ten years longer and the Consuls punished for it ibid. Many cruelties of the Emperour 802. A feigned Drusus ib. Among the Jews A commotion and slaughter of them caused by Pilate 803 Philip the Tetrach of Trachonitis dyeth ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVI Tiberius XXI In the Church No particular Occurrence mentioned this year Among the Jews Vitellius Governour of Judea he cometh to Jerusalem is courteous to the Iews 809. Caiaphas removed from the High Priesthood 810. In the Empire A Rebellion in Parthia ib. Tiberius still cruel and shameless 811. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVII Tiberius XXII In the Church Paul cometh to Jerusalem 813. Act. 9. vers 23 c. to vers 32. The Disciples afraid of him 814. Persecution lasteth yet ib. Paul presented to the Apostles preacheth boldly is persecuted and goeth to Tarsus 815. In the Empire The Parthian War yet uncomposed 816 817. Artabanus restored to his Kingdom ib. A commotion in Cappadocia ib. Cruelties at Rome ib. Mishaps there through fire and water ib. The death of Thrasyllus the Astrologer ib. Among the Jews A commotion in Samaria 818 c. Pilate put out of Office ib. Agrippa his journey to Rome ib. His imprisoment there ib. War betwixt Herod the Tetrach and Aretas King of Arabia ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVIII Tiberius XXIII Being also the first year of Caius No particular Occurrence of the Church specified this year In the Empire Macro all base 823. A wicked woman 824. Preparations of War against Aretas 825 c. An Omen to Agrippa in Chains ib. Tiberius near his end ib. His choice of a successor ib. Tiberius his Death ib. Caius his successor ib. Tiberius in a manner cruel being dead ib. Agrippa in perplexity and enlarged 825 c. His dissimulation ib. He beginneth to shew himself in his own colours ib. His cruelty ib. Young Tiberius brought to a miserable end ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXIX Caius II. No Occurrence of the Church mentioned this year In the Empire Cruelties at Rome 831. An end of Macro 832. Among the Jews Great troubles of the Jews in Alexandria 832 c. Agrippa at Alexandria abused ib. A Pageant of one and more madmen ib. Sad outrages upon the Jews ib. Caius will be a God ib. More of their Miseries ib. Agrippa in his own kingdom ib. Yet more Occurrences in the Empire Caius the new God little better than a Devil 836 c. Many and many cruelties of his ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XL. Caius III. In the Church Peter visiting divers parts 839 840. Act. 9. ver 32. Yet not at Antioch in this visitation ib. Dorcas raised 841. Act. 10. Cornelius converted 842. The keys of the kingdom of Heaven now only used 845. The Holy Ghost given to the Gentiles 847. In the Empire Caius still cruel 848 c. A most inhumane cruelty ib. Caius his luxury and prodigality ib. His strange bridge of Ships ib. His covetousness ib. Among the Jews Herod and Herodias before the Emperour 852. The Alexandrian Jews still perplexed ib. Flaccus his downfall ib. The Jews still distressed for all that ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLI Caius Caligula IV. In the Chuhch Antioch receiveth the Gospel 855. Barnabas cometh thither ib. Act. 11. ver 19. to ver 26. Among the Jews Troubles at Jamnia 856 c. Caius his image to be set up in the Temple causing troubles ib. Petronius his Letter hereupon to the Emperour ib. Agrippa his mediation for the Jews ib. Flaccus Avilius his end ib. The Ambassadors of the Alexandrian Jews before the Emperour Apion ib. Philo the Jew and his Writings ib. In the Empire Caius still foolish and cruel 862. Caius profane ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXII Caius V. Claudius I. In the Empire Caius his death contrived 865 c. The manner of his death ib. The sequel ib. Dissention about the government ib. Claudius ib. Caesonia and her child slain ib. Claudius made Emperour ib. His demeanour at the beginning ib. In the Church The name of Christian first used 871. Act. 11. ver 26. Among the Jews The Theraputae 872. The affairs of the Jews in Alexandria and Babylonia ib. The rebellion of some Jews ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLIII Claudius II. In the Church A famine in Judea and all the world 877. Paul rapt into the third heaven ib. Act. 11. ver 28. Peter not this year at Rome 888. Among the Jews Herod Agrippa his coming to Jerusalem 879 c. Imperial acts in behalf of the Jews ib. Peter not imprisoned this second year of Claudius ib. In the Empire The Moors subdued 881. Claudius beginneth to be cruel and his Empress Messalina wicked ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLIV Claudius III. In the Church The martyrdomn of James the great 883. Concerning the Apostles Creed 884. Concerning Traditions 885. Peters imprisonment and delivery ib. In the Empire Some actions of Claudius 887. Messalina abominably wicked ib. An expedition into England ib. A whorish trick of Messalina ib. Among the Jews The fatal end of Herod Agrippa 889. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES CHAP. I. Vers. 1. The former Treatise have I made c. THE Syrian and Arabick render it The former * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 1. 1. book have I written and so is the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Heathen Authors not only for an oration by word of mouth but also for a Treatise or Discourse that
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 Cheâ—ubboth 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a playting or curling of the hair a thing usual with harlots Let us see what is spoken by the Talmudists concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely Mary the plaiter of women's hair as they say in Pombeditha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring me Mary the plaiter of womens hairs He went and brought to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magdala and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Plaiter of hair We leave it to the learned to decide VERS LVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josi A very usual name in the Talmudists g g g g g g Jerus â—â—vamâ—tâ— fol. 2. 2. five were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever suffers a dead body to lye all night unburied violates a negative precept but they that were put to death
A Table of the years from the birth of Christ to the Fall of Ierusalem XIII The Iewish Christian Roman History Anno Christi XXXVI XIV The Chronology and History of Dioclesian Constantine and Constantius Indeed some of these were only Notes and Memoranda for his own private use but several of them undoubtedly were intended to have seen the Light at one time or other but that he found the Press so loth to receive things of that nature and so he cast them by some only begun and as it were in Design all of them imperfect but One. IX Encomiums given him by Learned Men. ALL these Labours of his published and unpublished and those deep notions in the way of his Learning that he communicated by Letters or in Conversation raised high and Venerable opinions of him amongst the best and most knowing Men. It would be endless to recount what large Testimonials and Commendations they have given him Some we have read already Let us hear a few more Your Name saith Dr. Castel is indeed a sweet Odour poured out into all Nations who are all bound to pray heartily for you your health welfare prosperity longevity And again Nemini notus quin te humani generis aestimet delicias nemini ignotus cui non absconditus maximus sub Coelo Thesaurus And if you will once more in another Letter Chaldea whose antient glory and multiplicity of Sciences are by the wheels of Nature in the long decurse of time rolled into Munden Which you Sir a right Trismegistus for Christian Jewish and Ethnic literature will make to after ages more illustrious than either Babylon or Athens were of old Another namely Mr. Samuel Clark speaks thus Your own great worth is sufficient to preserve your memory verdant with me or any other that hath any sense of Learning or Goodness Mr. Bernard does violence to the Doctors modesty in these words I know your self and Doctor Pocok to be the very Pillars of Sacred Learning like the Monuments of Seth in a corrupt and vain age God add I beseech him yet to your years and health so advantageous to his Church And for forainers besides what we have heard from them already take the Value they had for him by the words of one of them named before viz. Johannes Henricus Otto He was a Learned young Man of Bern who it seems had travailed into France and other places for his improvement and at last came into England and being at Oxon sends a Letter to our Doctor wherein apologizing for his address he tells him That the fame of his Piety and singular Learning had so spred it self over the World that there was no Scholar who loved him not in his mind and was not ambitious of his friendship Plurimi sunt qui nondum meruerunt a te cognosci qui tamen inter alias Gentes famam nominis tui exceperunt post praeclarorum scriptorum tuorum lectionem in cultum tui venerabundi iverunt But especially he assures him all studious of Hebrew do applaud him And instanceth in Turretius junior at Geneva Justellus Tormentinus Tenevottus Capellanus Ferrandus at Paris Toignard at Orleans not to speak any thing saith he of mine own Country and Germany also whose Names this Letter would scarcely contain Abundance more I might produce both of our own Country-Men and Strangers but he stands not in need 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Letters of Commendation X. Concerning his love to and endeavours of promoting Oriental Learning THERE was no Man under the Sun our Author more reverenced and honoured than Buxtorph Professor of Divinity and Hebrew in Basil and the reason was because next to his piety he had been so instrumental by his published Labours in furthering the knowledge of Jewish Learning to which from his Youth the Doctor had a strong and almost natural inclination and it continued with him to the end of his Life When Dr. Buxtorph had writ a Letter to him by the Hands of one who had formerly been his Scholar our good Man received both Letter and Bearer with the highest resentments of joy and complacency for the sake of the Reverend Professor And when he had signified in a Letter to our Doctor that by reason of age and infirmities growing upon him and finding himself greatly to decline in strength of body and mind he must lay aside all thought of publishing any thing more this our Doctor took heavily to heart and lamented in a Letter he sent him For by him he acknowleged himself to have arrived to what skill he had in his Rabbinical Learning and from the grateful sense he had of this arose a vast love and reverence for him Placet saith he Honoratissimo Domino de peritia mea in Talmudicis loqui quae siqua est quam scio quam sit exigua tota tibi ipsi referenda est incomparabili Parenti tuo c. It pleaseth you most honoured Sir to speak of my skill in the Talmudists which if it be any and how small it is I well know is wholly owing to you and to your incomparable Father Plowing with your Oxen using your Lexicons I have sowed and if any crop comes of it it is yours And what Christian is there I pray who reads over the Talmudick Writings that ows not the same tribute So much is the whole Christian World endebted to the great name of Buxtorph And then he professes to him he could not read it without tears when he told him that by reason of the weaknesses and indispositions of old age he must promise the World no more of his Writings This was in the later end of the year 1663. And indeed the death of that Learned Professor happened not long after namely in the beginning of September the year after For whom the Magistrates of Basil had such a great esteem that before the Fathers death they chose his very young Son to succeed him in the Hebrew Professorship as in his other of Divinity Dr. Zwinger descended of that famous Man of his name was also elected And one of the last respects Dr. Lightfoot could pay the memory of that great Man he wrote an Epicedium upon him and got Sir Tho. Brograve to write another in some of the Oriental Languages and so also did Dr. Castel which were sent to the Friends of the deceased And when not long after the young Professor came into England he received a most kind and obliging reception from our Doctor as well for his Father as for his own sake It was his love of this Learning and his great desires to see it more Studied that made him so great a friend to Dr. Castel under his ruinating and destructive Undertaking as he himself truly called it and under that which was the bitterest pill of all for him to swallow namely the scornful reproaches of his pains that he met with from some as if they were of little or no use This had quite broke his almost
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 sâ—â— 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
time and story come in the three first Verses of the second Chapter and the story lyeth thus Dayes of the Creation VII GOD having thus created all things * * * Read ver 2. For on the seventh day God had ended his work otherwise there may be a doubt upon it whether God created not something on the seventh day This the lxx Saw and therefore they translate it different from the Original word And God ended his works on the sixth day in six days and man having thus fallen and heard of Christ and of death and eternal life and other like things on the sixth day the Lord ordaineth the seventh day for a Sabbath or holy rest and Adam spendeth it in holy duties and in meditation of holy things The mention of the institution of the Sabbath is laid in the beginning of the second Chapter though the very time and place of that story be not till after the end of the third 1. Because the holy Ghost would dispatch the whole story of the first week or seven days of the world together without interposition of any other particular story 2. Because he would shew that Adam should have kept the Sabbath though he had never sinned And therefore the mention of the Sabbath is before the mention of his sin CHAP. IV. THE exact times of the stories of the fourth Chapter are not to be determined and therefore they must be left to be taken up by conjecture in the times of the fifth as they are cast into the following table and so conjecturally also must we measure out the parallel and collateral times of the generations of Cain and Seth that are either named here or hereafter to the floud Cain and Abel born twins yet the one the seed of the Serpent and the other of the Woman In Cain was legible the poyson that Satan had breathed into fallen man and in Abel the breathing of grace into the elect and a figure of the death of Christ. God fireth Abels sacrifice from heaven but despiseth Cains yet readeth to him the first doctrine of repentance That if he did well he should certainly be accepted and though he did not well yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin-offering lieth at the door if he repented there was hope of pardon Thus as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam in the promise of Christ Chap. 3. 15. so doth he the first lecture of repentance to Cain under the doctrine of * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very commonly taken for a sin offering and the sacrifices were constantly brought to the Tabernacle door a sin-offering But Cain despiseth his own mercy is unmerciful to his brother and is denied mercy from the Lord. He beggeth for death that he might be shut out of that sad condition to which God hath doomed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now therefore let it be that any one that findeth me may kill me but this God denieth him and reserve th him to a longlife that he might reserve him to long misery Lamech a branch of this root bringeth into the world the abomination of Polygamie or of having more wives at once than one for which God smiteth him with horrour of conscience that he himself might be a witness against that sin that he had introduced and he censureth himself for a more deplorate and desperate wretch than Cain For that Cain had slain but one man and had only destroyed his body but he himself had destroyed both young and old by his cursed example which was now so currently followed and entertained in the world that ere long it was a special forwarder of its destruction that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold Lamech deserved seventy and seven-fold In this stock of Cain also began Idolatry and worshipping the creature instead of the Creator blessed for ever and in a mournfull feeling of this dishonour done to God by it Seth calls his Son that was born to him in those times Enosh or sorrowfull because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then began profaness in calling upon the name of the Lord. Noah in 2 Pet. 2. 5. seemeth to be called the eighth in reference to these times namely the eighth in succession from Enosh in whose times the world began to be profane CHAP. V. THis fifth Chapter measureth the time and age of the world between the Creation and the Flood which was 1655. years compleat Being cast into a Table it will not only shew the currency but the concurrency of those times or how those Patriarchs whose times it measureth lived one with another The Reader will not need any rules for the explaining of the Table his own Arithmetick will soon shew him what use to make of it The first Age of the World From the Creation to the Flood This space is called Early in the morning Mat. 2. Hilar. in loc Ten Fathers before the Flood  Adam hath Cain and Abel and loseth them both Gen. 4. unhappy in his children the greatest earthly happiness that he may think of Heaven the more 130 130 Seth born in original sin Gen. 5. 2 3. a holy man and father of all men after the Flood Numb 24. 17. to shew all men born in that estate 235 235 105 Enosh born corruption in Religion by Idolatry begun Gen. 4. 25. Enosh therefore so named Sorrowful 325 325 195 90 Kainan born A mourner for the corruption of the times 395 395 265 160 70 Mahalaleel born A praiser of the Lord. 460 460 330 225 135 65 Jared born when there is still a descending from evil to worse 622 622 492 387 297 227 162 Enoch born and Dedicated to God the seventh from Adam Jude 14. 687 687 557 452 362 292 227 65 Methushelah born his very name foretold the Flood The lease of the world is only for his life 874 874 744 639 549 479 414 252 187 Lamech born A man smitten with grief for the present corruption and future punishment 930 930 800 695 605 535 470 308 243 56 Adam dieth having lived 1000. years within 70. Now 70 years a whole age Psal. 90. 10. 987  857 752 662 592 527 365 300 113 57 Enoch translated next after Adams death mortality taught in that immortality in this 1042 Enoch the seventh from Adam in the holy line of Seth prophecâ—ed against the wickedness that Lamech the seventh from Adam in the cursed line of Cain had brought in 912 807 717 647 582 Enoch lived as many years as there be days in a year via 365. and finished his course like a Sun on earth 355 168 112 55 Seth dieth 1056   821 731 661 596  369 182 126 69 14 Noah born a comforter 1140   905 815 745 680  453 266 210 153 98 84 Enosh dieth 1235    910 840 775  548 361 305 248 193 179 95 Kainan dieth 1290     895 830  603 416 360 303 248 234 150 55
forty or the eighteen years of Eglons afflicting were the last eighteen Ehud 27 years of Ehuds eighty for by this means Othniel and Ehud are made Ehud 28 to start up in the very end of these sums of years and get a victory and no Ehud 29 Ehud 30 more news of them whereas it is apparent not only by the years of the Ehud 31 men lately cited and by Chap. 2. 19. but also by other passages that the Ehud 32 Ehud 33 Judge was not only their deliverer in one fought battle or the like but Ehud 34 that he was their instructer and helped and strove to keep them to the fear Ehud 35 Ehud 36 of the Lord Chap. 2. 17. and when any of the Judges did not so they are Ehud 37 noted for it as Gideon about his Ephod Abimeleck about his brethren Ehud 38 Ehud 39 and Samson about his women so that in what time of these fourscore years Ehud 40 of Ehud to place the eighteen of Eglons afflicting it is not certain nor is it Ehud 41 very much material seeing it is certain that they fell out sometime within Ehud 42 Ehud 43 those fourscore years A good space of time may we allot for Israels falling Ehud 44 to Idolatry after Othniels death and for Gods giving them up to their enemies Ehud 45 Ehud 46 power upon their Idolatry but whensoever that affliction comes it Ehud 47 comes so home that a King of Moab is King of Israel and hath his very Ehud 48 Ehud 49 Court and Palace in the Land of Canaan in the City of Jericho That City Ehud 50 was inhabited by Israelites before Eglon and his Moabites Ammonites and Ehud 51 Ehud 52 Amalekites drove them out and yet had not Joshua's curse seized on them Ehud 53 for that had reference only to Rahabs kindred and family to prohibite Ehud 54 Ehud 55 them for ever going about to fortifie and build it for a Canaanitish Town Ehud 56 again and Hiel that went about that work in Ahabs time was of that Ehud 57 Ehud 58 stock and that light upon him accordingly as will be touched there The Ehud 59 oppressours of Israel at this time were the very same Nation that came Ehud 60 against Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. Namely Moabites Ammonites and Meunims Ehud 61 Ehud 62 or Amalekites and Edomites that dwelt promiscuously among Ammon as see Ehud 63 the Notes when we came there and those that are here spoken of are generally Ehud 64 Ehud 65 fat men ver 29. as was Eglon himself extraordinarily Ehud was a Ehud 66 man of Benjamin and probably of Gibeah for he was of the same family in Ehud 67 Benjamin that King Saul was of afterwards and thus the honour of Benjamin Ehud 68 Ehud 69 was somewhat restored in him and as Judah in Othniel hath the first Ehud 70 honour of Judge-ship so Benjamin in Ehud had the second Eglon is destroyed Ehud 71 Ehud 72 with a two edged sword compare Rev. 1. 16. About the latter end Ehud 73 of Ehuds life we may indeed suppose some of the passages of the Book of Ehud 74 Ruth to have come to pass for that Book containeth the story of a very Ehud 75 Ehud 76 long time but the exact place in the Book of Judges where and the exact Ehud 77 time in Chronicle when to lay any particular of those occurrences is not Ehud 78 Ehud 79 to be found nor determined World 2690 Ehud 80 EHUD dieth The Book of RUTH TOwards the aiming and concluding upon the time of the story of the Book of Ruth these things may not unprofitably be taken into consideration 1. That Salmon who came with Joshua into the land married Rahab and of her begat Boaz who married Ruth Matth. 1. 5. 2. That from Salmons coming into the land to the birth of David were 366 years namely 17 of Joshua 299 of Judges 40 of Eli and 10 of Samuel and yet was this long space of time taken up by four men viz. Salmon before he begat Boaz of Rahab and Boaz before he begat Obed of Ruth and Obed before he begat Jesse and Jesse before he begat David so that you must allow to every one of them near upon a hundred years before he begat his son 3. That from their coming into Canaan to Ehuds death were 137 years 4. Now grant that Rahab lived sixty years in Israel before she had Boaz by Salmon and that Boaz lived an hundred years before he was married to Ruth both which are fair allowances yet will this his marriage with Ruth fall but three years after Ehuds death So that this Book of Ruth may be taken in between the third and fourth Chapters of the Book of Judges The Book of Ruth setteth out the great providence of God in bringing light out of darkness Ruth a mother of Christ out of the incest of Lot a special mark over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Lots eldest daughter lying with her father Gen. 19. 34. and a special mark in a great letter in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the story of Ruth going to Boaz his bed Ruth 4. 13. seem to relate one to the other and both together to point at this providence Boaz born of a Heathen woman and married to a Heathen woman but both these become Israelites and holy After the reading of the Book of Ruth the Reader and story return to the fourth of Judges JUDGES CHAP. IV. V. World 2691 Deborah 1 Deborah 2 DEBORAH and BARAKS forty years begin Israel after the death Deborah 3 of Ehud fall to their old Idolatry again and for that ere long fall under Deborah 4 Deborah 5 oppression Shamgar got one wonderful victory for them but wrought Deborah 6 not a perfect deliverance Deborab a woman of Ephraim ariseth after him and Deborah 7 Deborah 8 judgeth the people she being a Prophetess and by the spirit of Prophecy stirreth Deborah 9 up Barak of Nephtali to fight with Sisera whom he overcometh by an army Deborah 10 of Galileans but Sisera himself falleth by the hand of a Proselytess woman Deborah 11 Deborah 12 Then Deborah and Barak sang Here the man of Nephtali giveth goodly Deborah 13 words They tell the sad case of Israel in Shamgars and Jaels times before the Deborah 14 Deborah 15 victory was gotten over Sisera that men durst not go in the common ways nor Deborah 16 dwell in villages and unwalled Towns for fear of the enemy The rich and Deborah 17 Deborah 18 gallant men that used to ride on white Asses durst not ride in those times and Deborah 19 the rulers durst not sit in Judgment for fear of being surprised and people Deborah 20 Deborah 21 durst not go to the Town wells to draw water for fear of the enemies archers Deborah 22 but now all these may speak of the actings of God towards the forsaken villages Deborah 23 Deborah 24 and towards the forlorn places of Judicature in the gates for they
hath 600 men with him a Guard to himself and an help to Achish against Saul David dwelleth at Ziklag and invades the Countries thereabouts c. I CHRON. XII from beginning to Verse 8. World 2959 Sam. Saul 40 THither divers of Sauls own Tribe and kinred resort unto him and these are named in this Chapter before the men of Gad that had fallen to him before because these mens coming to him was most remarkable as being of Sauls own kinred CHAP. XXVIII SAULS end is now approaching He consulteth a witch He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after he had despised and persecuted both He seeth a Devil in Samuels likeness and heareth of his own ruine CHAP. XXIX THE Philistims dare not trust David in battel And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish nor fight against his own people I CHRON. XII Vers. 19 20 21 22. AS he went forth with the Philistims towards the battel and as he came back again from them divers fell to him of Manasseh CHAP. XXX XXXI I CHRON. X. DAVID returning home findeth no home at all Ziklag fired A Band of Amalekites slain and as it were sacrificed to Sauls Funeral Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation The second Book of SAMUEL CHAP. I. DAVID heareth of the death of Saul and lamenteth him And chargeth the young men of Judah to learn the use of the Bow that they might match the Philistims in Archery and so be avenged on them for Sauls death for by Archery they had slain him The Story of the Amalekite to David was not a lye to curry favour or to obtain a reward but it was a very and a real truth Saul had fallen upon his own sword indeed as was related in the preceding Chapter but his Coat of mail had hindred that he had not given himself a wound so speedily deadly but that the Philistims might come and catch him alive and abuse him and so he stands bleeding at that and at his other wounds leaning on his Spear till this Amalekite came by His Armour Bearer was dead already and these words When his Armour Bearer saw that Saul was dead he fell on his sword and died also are to be understood in this sense That when he saw Saul had given himself so deadly a wound he did the like and died indeed But Sauls wound was not so quick of dispatch therefore he desireth the Amalekite to kill him out For says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Coat of Mail hath withheld me so that my life is all this while in me And thus Saul that had been so cruel to David is now cruel to himself and he that had spared the Amalekites is now slain by one of that Nation CHAP. II. World 2950 David 1 DAVID anointed King of Judah in Hebron being 30 years old Compair David 2 Gen. 41. 46. Numb 4. 3. Luke 3. 23. In Hebran Abraham had had his David 3 first Land and much residence Here lay the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob David 4 and their wives buried and here was John Baptist born and our Saviour David 5 conceived There is long busling between the House of David and the house of David 6 Saul Abner still striving to make a party strong enough to settle one of Sauls David 7 Sons in the Kingdom Thereupon is Ishbosheth anointed in Sauls stead He is called Ishbaal 1 Chron. 8. 33. for Baal was commonly called Bosheth or Shame as Jerubbaal is called Jerubbosheth 2 Sam. 11. 21. and Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9. 12. called Meribaal 1 Chron. 8. 34. see also Jer. 11. 13. Abners vapouring causeth a desperate duell of twelve and twelve men and so layeth the foundation of a continual War in an equal bloodshed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 27. If thou hadst not said saith Joab what thou didst say in the morning let the young men rise and play before us surely the people had gone away every man from his brother even in the morning and there had been never a blow struck but thou didst provoke it CHAP. III. DAVIDS six Sons born to him in Hebron in his seven years and six Months reign there are here reckoned together that that Story and matter may be dispatcht at once Abner upon discontent at Ishbosheth turneth to David and confesseth that Kingdom which hitherto he had willingly and wittingly opposed But God will not suffer such a man and upon such grounds to be a promoter of Davids throne he is slain by Joab even in a place of Judicature and with a wound parallel to that that he had given Asahel CHAP. IV. ISHBOSHETH slain by two Benjamites brethren in evil They came into the midst of the house as if they would setch wheat vers 6. that is with a sack in their hands to put his head in c. Instantly before the Text falls upon the Story of Ishbosheth it relateth the Story of Mephibosheth because he was now all the stock left of Sauls house but only Rizpahs children a Concubine and Morahs a daughter CHAP. V. from beginning to Ver. 11. And I CHRON. XI all World 2957 David 8 DAVID anointed King over all Israel at Hebron and from thence brought by all Israel to Jerusalem to settle him there and to make that the Royal City He reigned in all 40 years in Hebron seven years and an half and at Jerusalem 32 years and an half And this latter was exactly the time of our Saviours life upon earth Joab after Davids curse upon him for Abners murder is yet made Commander in chief for his taking of Jerusalem The prosperity of David at Jerusalem and his building of it is presently set down after the Story of the taking of the City as beginning from that time and continuing and going along with the times of the following Stories and so to be carried in mind Then doth the Book of Chronicles give account of Davids Worthies Which Catalogue is also mentioned by this Book of Samuel but with this difference of place that in the Chronicles it is set in the beginning of Davids Reign and in Samuel in the latter end And both very properly and much like to the placing of our Saviours Genealogy in Matthew and Luke the one giving it at his Birth and the other at his Baptism and both upon singular reason And so here the Book of Chronicles reckons up these men as those that helped David to his settlement in the Kingdom and therefore it mentions them in the beginning of his reign and the Book of Samuel reckons them up at the latter end of his reign as those that had stuck to him all the time of his reign and helped to keep him in that settlement In both the Books there is first reckoned a Triumvirate or three gallant men that were of a rank by themselves and none were equal with them or like
the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for this thing for so should the words be rendred as craving pardon for Idolatry past and not begging leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come Gehazies covetousness brings upon him Naamans Leprosie the Text hath divinely omitted a letter in one word that it might the more brand him with a blot for this his villany I will run after Naaman saith he and will take of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blot instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat ver 20. The third year Elisha maketh Iron to swim preventeth the Syrians ambushments and striketh those with blindness that were sent to catch him and bringeth them into the middest of Samaria and there feasteth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 6. 23. So the bands of Syria came no more as yet into the land of Israel for so the very next verse teacheth that it should be translated for it relateth that after this Benhadad gathered all his Host and besieged Samaria So is the like passage to be rendred 2 King 24. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the King of Aegypt came no more as yet or at that time out of his Land for in Jer. 37. 5. The King of Aegypt is a foot with his Army and abroad again The fourth year Jehoshaphat dieth Edom rebelleth and shaketh off Judahs yoke which David had laid upon them Till Jorams time there was no King in Edom of absolute power and rule but a Deputy under the Kings of Judah was King 1 King 22. 47. but now Edom revolteth from under the hand of Judah and made a King over themselves 2 King 8. 20. Then Libnah revolteth also Joram goeth against them and by night smiteth their Squadrons which were pitched about him to give him battel the next morning The fifth year Samaria is besieged by Benhadad and the famine becomes so great in the City that women eat their own Children as Deut. 28. 53. 56. and men women and children eat Doves dung All the fault is laid upon Elisha and he must be beheaded but he foretelleth a suddain and wonderful delivery and a strange and miraculous plenty which accordingly came to pass An unbelieving Prince is trod to death The sixth year Philistims and Arabians oppress Joram King of Judah and captive his wives and children leaving him only one son behind Here he is met with for the murder of his own Brethren The seventh year Joram is fallen into the sad disease of his bowels 2 Chron. 21. 19. And it came to pass after the end of two years his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness for he shewed no bowels to his brethren This year the famine endeth at Harvest and at that Harvest the Shunamites child dieth and is recovered by Elisha his death and reviving is related instantly after the Story of his birth though when he died he was able to follow the reapers because his Story might be related together and not long after his Mother goeth to the King to beg and petition to be setled in her estate again and there she finds leprous Gehazi with him The first verse of Chapter 8. should chronically be translated as of the time past Now Elisha had spoken to the woman c. ver 2. And the woman had risen and done after the saying of the man of God c. This year Elisha is at Damaseus Benhadad sick Hazael stifles him with a wet cloth and reigns in his stead 2 CHRON. XXII to ver 10. 2 KING VIII 25. to the end World 3117 Iehoram 8 Iehoram 12 Division 88 AHAZIAH the son of Joram reigneth and dieth this year by the sword of Jehu 2 King 8. 26. In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab King of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram King of Judah begin to reign Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem and his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri King of Israel And 2 King 9. 29. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to raign over Judah 2 Chron. 22. 2. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign c. Here the Reader seeth two plain and visible differences the one about the age of Ahaziah and the other about the time when he began to reign The same Book of Kings saith he began to raign in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab and he began to raign in the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab Now the reconciling of this difference is easie when it is observed that Joram the son of Ahab reigned one whole year in the life time of his father and eleven years afterward And so one Text calleth his last year his twelfth that is of his whole raign and another Text calleth it his eleventh that is of his sole reign after his fathers death But the other difference is both the more visible and the more difficult for the Book of Kings saith Ahaziah was but two and twenty years old when he began to raign and the Book of Chronicles saith he was two and forty and so this latter reckoning maketh him two years older then his father for his father began to raign when he was two and thirty years old and and reigned eight years and so died being forty 2 King 8. 17. Now for the reconciling of this scruple the Original helpeth us which in our translation is not visible The Original meaneth thus Ahaziah was the son of the two and forty years namely of the house of Omri of whose seed he was by the mothers side and he walked in the ways of that house and came to ruine at the same time with it This the Text directed us to look after when it calleth his mother the daughter of Omri which was indeed the daughter of Ahab Now these forty two years are easily reckoned by any that will count back in the Chronicle to the second of Omri Such another reckoning there is about Jechoniah or Jehojachin 2 King 24. 8. Jehojachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign But 2 Chron. 36. 9. Jehojachin was the son of the eight years That is his beginning of reign fell in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar and of Judahs first captivity as shall be shewed there World 3117 Iehoram 8 Iehoram 12 Division 88 JORAM King of Israel fighteth at Ramoth Gilead is wounded comes to be healed of his wounds at Jezreel and is there slain by Jehu Ahaziah had been with Joram at Ramoth and is slain with Joram at Jezreel 2 CHRON. XXII vers 10 11 12. and 2 KING XI ver 1 2 3. World 3118 Athaliah 1 Iehu 1 Division 89 ATHALIAH destroyeth Athaliah 2 Iehu 2 Division 90 the rest of the Seed Royal Athaliah 3 Iehu 3 Division 91 that were left besides the forty Athaliah 4 Iehu 4 Division 92 two slain by Jehu she her Athaliah 5
captive saith in his seventh year they were three thousand and twenty three Jews and in his eighteenth three thousand and thirty two from Jerusalem in which if the Reader ruminate well upon the matter he will find a great deal of difficulty For 1. He never mentioneth in this reckoning either the Captivity in the fourth of Jehoiakim which was the first Captivity not the Captivity of Jechoniah in which the most people were carried away And. 2. There is no mention else-where of Nebuchad-nezzars carrying away into captivity from Jerusalem either in his seventh year or in his eighteenth but of his doing so in his eighth there is mention 2 King 24. 12. and in his nineteenth Jer. 25. 12. Now for answer 1. To the First The Prophet doth not here speak simply of the persons that were captived but of persons that were captived and put to death for that was the very tenour of his speech in the verse immediately before And for the confirming of this it is observable that in these two verses he mentioneth only the Captives that were caused by an open Rebellion Jehoiakims and Zedekiahs and upon those followed slaughter upon cold blood but in the fourth of Jehoiakim when Daniel and his fellows were captived and when Jechoniah was captived with 18000 more there was no such slaughter because there was no such rebellion And by this very consideration we may learn what was the end of Jehoiakim against whom Jeremy threatned the burial of an Ass although the Scripture hath not clearly expressed it else-where To the second we have given some piece of an answer before more fully now Nebuchad-nezzars first year was properly in Jehoiakims third for then is the first news you hear of him Dan. 1. 1. but withal his first year is counted with Jehoiakims fourth in which the seventy years Captivity began for then he had captived Jerusalem and according to these two reckonings the Scripture reckons sometime by the first as Nebuchad-nezzars first year properly some-time by the second as being his first year over Israel and of the seventy of Captivity after which matter the Scripture looketh with special notice Now Jehoiakims Captivity was in Nebuchad-nezzars eighth according to the first date but it is said to be in his seventh according to the second and the rather because Jechoniah was captived the same year and so the one is distinguished from the other And so Zedeliahs captivity was in Nebuchadnezzars nineteenth according to the first date and propriety but said here to be in the eighteenth according to the second and the rather to include in the number of the captived and slain those whom Nebuchad-nezzar caught of the Jews when he marched away from the siege of Jerusalem the year before when the King of Egypt raised it for then it is not imaginable but he caught some and how he would deal with them they being in open rebellion we may well suppose JEREMY XL. from vers 7. to the end And XLI all 2 KING XXV vers 22 23 24 25. THE dispersed Captains and Companies that had fled for their safety up and down for fear of the Chaldean Army do ralley and come together to Gedaliah the Governour for protection Jeremy amongst these reckoneth Jonathan and the Sons of Ephai the Netophathite which the Book of Kings omitteth either for that these were slain with Gedaliah by Ismael as Jer. 41. 3. and never came to Egypt whither the Book of Kings and Jeremy bringeth those rallied Captives and People after Gedaliahs death Or that Jonathan came as an inferiour to Johanan his brother and that these sons of Ephai the Netophathite came under the colours of Seraiah the Netophathite and so the Book of Kings reckons only the Colonels or chief Commanders In the seventh Month Ismael some younger brother of the Royal blood and ten Nobles of the Court envying Gedaliahs promotion do traiterously murder him This was a very solemn month in it self for the Feast of Trumpets expiation and Tabernacles that should have been in it and in this month of old had Salomon kept the dedication of the Temple and sent the people home with joyful hearts afterwards but how is the matter altered now Ismael also killeth seventy Samaritan Proselites such as were coming to the Feast of Tabernacles and casteth them into a trench that Asa had made to be a stop betwixt the Samaritans and himself then made to keep off Samaritans enemies to their Religion now filled with Samaritans friends to it The little dealing that the Jews had with the Samaritans and the flying about of the Chaldean Troopers had made such interception of intelligence that these poor men knew not of the firing of the Temple though it were in the fifth month till they be upon the way towards it and then understanding of it they rent their clothes c. JEREMY XLII XLIII And 2 KING XXV vers 26. THE Captains and people upon the death of Gedaliah go into Egypt though they had promised to be ruled by the voice of the Lord and though the Lord had flatly forbidden them to go thither and so had done of old that they should never return to Egypt Poor Jeremy is carried along with them and when he comes there he prophesieth both against Egypt and them World 3421 Captivity 20 The Jews are now setled in Egypt and in time they fall to a common and open Idolatry for which Jeremy reproveth them and threatneth them very sore In vers 9. he seemeth to give a close touch upon the Idolatry of Salomons wives the first original of Idolatry to the Kings of Judah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wickednesses of the Kings of Judah and the wickednesses of his wives which indeed may be well construed of every one of their wives But the quaintness of the phrase seemeth to hint some such a particular thing and it may the rather be so understood because he is here taxing the present Idolatry of the Jews wives in Egypt and ripping up the sore to the very head which indeed was first those wives of Solomon Observe in vers 25. how the Hebrew Syntax seemeth to twit these mens base uxoriousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the Verb in the feminine Gender though he speak to the men Now in the 45 Chap. of this Book of Jeremy vers 1. It is said that Baruch had written these words in a Book at the mouth of Jeremy in the fourth year of Jehoiakim what these very last words mentioned before But this is very unlikely for these last speeches appear to be uttered upon emergency the meaning of it therefore is that Jeremy in the fourth of Jehoiakim had uttered Prophesies to this purpose that Jerusalem should be destroyed and the Land left desolate and the people captived and mischief and misery following them which is cleered to be accomplished in the story of these Chapters and therefore this 45 Chapter is laid here though the story
doth confirm the order JOHN from Machaerus Castle where he lay Prisoner sendeth two of his Disciples to Christ to enquire of him Whether he were he that should come Not that John was ignorant who he was having had so many demonstrations of him as he had had and having given so ample testimony of him as he had done Joh. 1. 34 36. 3. 29 30. Nor that Johns Disciples were so wilfully ignorant of him as not to be perswaded by their Master that he was he but his message to him seems to this purpose John and his Disciples had heard of the great and many miracles that Christ had done healing the sick and raising the dead c. and it may be they thought it strange that Christ amongst all his miraculous workings would not work Johns liberty out of thraldom who lay a prisoner for him and for the Gospel he preached before him And this may be was the bottom of their question Art thou he that shall come or look we for another As expecting somewhat more from the Messias then they had yet obtained They received a full answer to their question by the miracles they saw wrought which abundantly proved that he was he that was to come But as to their expectation of his miraculous enlargement of John his answer was that his work was to preach the Gospel and that it was a blessed thing not to take any offence at him but to yield and submit to his wise dispensations And accordingly when the messengers of John were returned he giveth a glorious testimony concerning him to the people but yet sheweth how far one truly and fully acquainted and stated in the Kingdom of Heaven went beyond him in judging of it who looked for temporal redemption by it The Method of Matthew is somewhat difficult here but he seemeth purposely to have joyned the mission of Christs Disciples and Johns Disciples together I suppose Christ was at Jerusalem when Johns messengers came to him and if it were at the feast of Pentecost John had then been seven or eight months in prison SECTION XXXII MATTH Chap. XI from Ver. 20. to the end of the Chapter Chorazin and Bethsaida upbraided BEsides Matthews continuing this portion to that that went before the upbraiding of these Cities is so answerable to the matter contained in the end of the former Section that it easily shews it to be spoken at the same time See Ver. 17 18 19. of this Chapter When Christ saith that if the things done in these Cities had been done in Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrha they would have repented and would have remained till now he understandeth not saving grace and saving repentance in them but such an external humiliation as would have preserved them from ruine As the case was with Nineveh they repented and were delivered from the threatned destruction their repentance was not to salvation of the persons but to the preservation of their City as Ahabs humbling prevented the present judgment and not his final condemnation SECTION XXXIII LUKE Chap. VII from Ver. 36. to the end of the Chapter Mary Magdalen weepeth at Christs feet and washeth them with tears c. THE continuation of this portion in Luke to that in Sect. 31. will plead for its order and the reader will easily observe that the interposition of the preceding Section in Matthew is so far from interrupting the story that it is necessarily to be taken in there and is an illustration of it The actings of the two several parties in this Section the Pharisee that invited Christ to eat with him and the woman sinner that comes and weeps at his feet for mercy may seem to have had some rise from or some occasional reference to the speech of Christ in the two Sections next preceding In the former he had said The son of man came eating and drinking and this possibly might induce the Pharisee to his invitation and in the latter he had said Come unto me â—e that are weary and heavy laden and that might invite the woman to her address This woman was Mary the sister of Lazarus who was also called Mary Magdalen of whom there is mention in the very beginning of the next Chapter That she was Mary the sister of Lazarus John giveth us ground to assert John 11. 2. as we shall shew when we come there where we shall evidence that these words It was that Mary which annointed the Lord with oyntment and wiped his feet with her hair can properly be referred to no story but this before us And that Mary the sister of Lazarus was called Mary Magdalen we shall prove in the next Section Christ in the story in Sect. 31. when Johns disciples came to him we supposed to be at Jerusalem and answerably it may be conceived that this passage occurred at Bethany where Simon the Pharisee may not improbably be held to be the same with Simon the Leper Matth. 26. 6. where this very woman again annointed him SECTION XXXIV LUKE Chap. VIII Ver. 1 2 3. Certain women that followed Christ. LUKE again is the warrant for the order In the former story he had spoken of one woman that had found healing and mercy with Christ and he speaks here of divers and among them Mary Magdalen Now that she was Mary the sister of Lazarus let but these two arguments be weighed not to insist upon more The first is this If Mary Magdalen were not Mary the sister of Lararus then Mary the sister of Lazarus gave no attendance at Christs death nor had any thing to do about his buriall or at least is not mentioned as an agent at either which is a thing so incredible to conceive that it needs not much discourse to set forth the incredibility of it There is mention of Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salom Mark 15. 40. and Joanna Luk. 24. 10. but not a word of Mary the sister of Lazarus She had twice annointed Christ in the compass of that very week she had ever been as neer and as zealous a woman disciple as any that followed him and her residence was at Bethany hard by Jerusalem and what is now become of her in these two great occasions of attending upon Christs death and imbalming Had she left Christ and neglected her attendance on him at this time above all others or have the Evangelists whilst they mention the other that attended left her out It is so unreasonable to believe either of these that even necessity inforceth us to conclude that when they name Mary Magdalen they mean Mary the sister of Lazarus And Secondly take this Argument of Baronius which hath more weight in it then at first sight it doth seem to have who in his Annals ad Annum Christi 32 goes about to prove this thing that we assert and he shews how it also was the opinion of the Fathers and those in former times His words are these We say upon the
were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the less offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used Maymon in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use yea even his dung bones horns hoofs skin yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart and that alone offered Divers other things used in Idolatry are mentioned and prohibited The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these properly were not one and the same thing for every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buâ—… contra every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering which themselves were not offered as knives dishes and the like which cannot be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean and prohibited to be used About not eating of blood they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point unto this purpose He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive if presumptuously he is to be cut off and if ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6. By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self or that was not killed as it ought to be And he that eat to the quantity of an olive of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self or of any beast or any fowl that died of it self was to be whipt as it is said Ye shall eat no carcase and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting is reputed as if dying of it self Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat of which the Talmudick Treatise Cholin discusseth at large Now as concerning fornication it is controverted first whether it mean bodily or spiritual and secondly how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent as the other named were it self being of no such indifferency whethersoever is meant the one or the other The former certainly is not meant for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reacheth that to the full and more needed not to be spoken to that point The later therefore is meant but why named here with things indifferent Not because it was indifferent as well as they Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other for they made but little of fornication themselves according to the common taking of the word fornication but fornication here seemeth to translate their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited which the Gentiles made no matter about and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law Levit. 18. Before we part from this Council as it is commonly called we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe that it was not a convention premediated and solemnly summoned but only occasional and emergent and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in nor indeed needed any such thing for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voices as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem The matter being determined Letters are dispatched with the Decrees unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas they come to Antioch and there abide a while and at last go their several ways Judas to Jerusalem and Paul Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party and Peter Jameâ— and John on the other that those two should go among the Gentiles and these three among the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of that Country Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East and John at Patmos in the West and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth they disagree about Marks going with them Barnabas being his uncle would have had his company but Paul denied it because of his departure from them before Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also Gal. 2. 11. and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas and go their several ways and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society as we shall observe afterward CHRIST LI CLAUDIUS XI ACTS CHAP. XVI PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia come to Derbe and Lystra there he Circumciseth Timothy whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death Timothy was a young man of very choice
hill Luke 4. 29. Nazaret in the Arabick Tongue signifieth Help in the Hebr. a Branch by which name our Saviour is called Esa. 11. 1. Vers. 27. To a Virgin Rabbi Oshua the Son of Levi said Israel was comforted in a Virgin as saith Jeremy The Lord â—roateth a new thing in the earth A Virgin shall compass a Man Jer. 31. 21. Beresh Rabb See also Lyra and Gloss. intenlin in loc Vers. 28. Highly favoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is used by the Greek Scholiast in Psal. 18. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word from which it is derived in Ephes. 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which let the indifferent Reader view and judge of the propriety of our English translation here in comparison of the vulgar Latine The Virgin had obtained the highest earthly favour that ever mortal did or must do to be the mother of the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost useth a singular word to express so much Superstition is ever too officious but it hath shewed it self more so to the Virgin Mary then to any other For as it hath deified her now she is in Heaven so hath it magnified her in all her actions while she was upon the earth So that no relation or story that concerneth her but it hath strained it to the utmost extremity to wring out of it her praises though very often to a senseless and too often to a blasphemous issue As in this story of the annuntiation there is not a word nor tittle that it thinketh will with all its shaping serve for such a purpose but it taketh advantage to patch up her Encomions where there is no use nor need nor indeed any truth of and in such a thing This word that is under hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears the bell that ringeth lowdest with them to such a tune For having translated it in their vulgar Latine Gratia plena or full of grace they hence infer that she had all the seven gifts of the Spirit and all the Theological and moral vertues and such a fulness of the graces of the Holy Ghost as none ever had the like Whereas first The use of Scripture is when it speaketh of fulness of grace to express it by another phrase as Joh. 1. 14. Act. 6. 5. c. Secondly The Angel himself explaineth this word in the sense of our translation for favour received and not for grace inherent Vers. 30. Thou hast found favour with God Thirdly And so doth the Virgin her self also descant upon the same thing throughout her Song Fourthly Joseph her husband suspected her for an adultress Matth. 1. 18. which he could never have done if he had ever seen so infinite fulness of grace in her as the Romanists have spied and he was the likelier to have espied it of the two Fifthly Compare her with other renowned women and what difference but only this great favour of being the mother of the Messias They had the spirit of Prophesie as well as she they had the spirit of sanctification as well as she and she no more immunity from sin and death then they Sixthly She was one of the number of those that would have taken off Christ from preaching Mark 3. and this argued not such a fulness of grace Seventhly See Jansenius one of their own side expounding this word according to our reading of it in loc The Lord is with thee Many understand this of the Incarnation it self or of the Lords being in her womb Whereas first This is to take a common manner of speech out of the common manner of interpreting it Secondly The Lord was not at this very instant come in that manner into her womb But the words only mean the Lords being with her in regard of that favour and respect which he was about to shew her as Judg. 6. 12. And this among other things sheweth how senseless Popery is in its Ave Maries using these words for a Prayer and if occasion serve for it for a charm As first Turning a Salutation into a Prayer Secondly In fitting these words of an Angel that was sent and that spake them upon a special message to the mouth of every person and for every occasion Thirdly In applying these words to her now she is in Heaven which suited with her only while she was upon Earth As first to say full of grace to her that is full of glory And secondly to say The Lord is with thee to her that is with the Lord. Blessed art thou among women Not above but among them See Gen. 30. 13. Judg. 5. 24. Vers. 29. And when she saw him So readeth the Syrian Arabick and generally all other translations but only the vulgar Latin that swarving as it is to be suspected wilfully from the truth of the Original that hereby there might be the greater plea and colour for the Virgins familiarity with Angels Whereas indeed apparition of Angels till this very occasion to Zachary and the Virgin was either exceeding rare or just none at all What manner of salutation c. Judge how Superstition straineth the Text to the Virgin Maries praises when it infers from hence that she had never been saluted by a man in all her life before An opinion and gloss not worth the examining Vers. 31. Behold thou shalt conceive c. From Esa. 7. 14. the Angel giveth her to understand that she is the Virgin spoken of in that place and of her apprehension of this ariseth her question Vers. 4. And shalt call his Name This followeth the same Prophesie still and is one of the significations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it hath more then one For first it denoteth the third person feminine as Deut. 31. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it is to be taken in that Prophesie And she shall call his Name Immanuel Secondly It betokeneth also the second person as the Chaldee the Lxx and the other two Greek translations render it and the Angel here And thou shalt call Thirdly It is also applied to the third person plural as in the Greek Matth. 1. 23. and in the Chaldee Esa. 60. 18. Jesus The same with Jehoshua in Hebrew as Act. 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. and Joshua in Chaldee Ezra 2. 2. These were two renowned ones before the one whereof brought the people into Canaan after the death of Moses and the other that brought them thither out of Babel and so were both lively figures of our Jesus that bringeth his people to the heavenly Canaan Vers. 32. The Son of the Highest From 2 Sam. 7. 14. as it is explained Heb. 1. 5. the Angel now draweth the Virgin to remember that glorious promise made to David as the words following concerning an eternal Throne and Kingdom do evince and upon the rumination upon that to reflect upon her self and to consider that she was of the seed of David and so he leadeth her on by degrees to believe and
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
by any of Sems sons was now past because of the late conquest but only of Aram the youngest who had no chalengers or children in the war of him was Eliezer descended who was Abrahams chief servant and whereas the title by Sems resignation was to descend to Abram and his heirs Eleazer was like to be next if Abram had no child of his own When this jealousie somewhat troubleth Abram God removeth it by the promise of a Son of his own Loyns and by a Covenant with sacrifice even of all manner of creatures that were to be sacrificed CHAP. XVI Abram assured of a son of his own body but not whether by Sarah or not taketh Hagar to compass the promise she wearied out by Sarai's strictness is travailing to her own Country Aegypt and by the way hath a vision of the Angel of the Covenant which was strange to her to have visions out of Abrams house therefore she called the Name of the Lord that spake unto her Thou art the God of vision for she said Did I here also look after a vision in a place so far distant from Abrams family And the well also where he spake unto her was called The well of the lively one of vision CHAP. XVII Circumcision instituted in Hebron and about the time of Easter the place and time of the year where and when the Baptist was born who was to bring in Baptism instead of Circumcision Abram and Sarah upon Circumcision saith Rabbi Menahem were as new creatures and therefore also must they have new names CHAP. XVIII The three Persons in the Trinity in the shape of three men appear to Abraham and dine with him and eat the First flesh that is mentioned eaten in all the Scripture Abraham beggeth for Sodom till he thought he had been gotten within the compass of righteous ones in Lots family and then he ceaseth CHAP. XIX The Son and the Holy Ghost come into Sodome to destroy it and now they are called Angels because they were sent by the Father Lots wife is struck dead with lightning and stiffened and fixed in the place where she stood and of a salt and brackish smell and therefore called a pillar of salt Sodom destroyed by a strange fire and the memorial of so great a Judgment preserved to this day by as strange a water Jordan before that time had an issue further but from that time it pleased God to stop it and to lay that valley up on a fatal pool Lot had two Daughters at the least that perished in the fire and brimstone as well as he had two that escaped It is observable how soon after the institution of Circumcision those Cities came to destruction which so hideously abused that member wherein the Covenant for the land was sealed CHAP. XX. XXI Abraham flitteth into the Land of the Philistims that Isaac might be born out of the Land of Canaan properly so called for the greater mystery to his birth God himself cometh in visible form as chap. 18. Sarah hath once a greater measure of the Spirit of Prophesie than Abraham namely in the matter of casting out the bond woman and her son There is good probability of Ismaels salvation Abraham consecrateth a grove at Beersheba that he might have hallowed wood for his sacrificing fires as well as holy fire for his sacrifices CHAP. XXII Abraham passed through ten temptations and the sacrificing of his son the last and greatest CHAP. XXIII When Rebeceahs son is risen in the last Chapter Sarah sets in this The first foot of Land and all the Land that Abraham hath in Canaan in possession is only a place of burial God by this very thing drawing him and his to look after the spiritual part of the promise CHAP. XXV At what time Abraham married Keturah is uncertain the Text hath laid it after Isaacs marriage because it was fit that all the actions of Abraham which any whit concerned the promise should be handled first and together before the other which either did not at all or did it the less But that Abraham was married to this woman long before Isaacs marriage or Sarahs death is probable upon these conjectures 1. He that held it strange to have a son at an hundred years old it is not like he would marry at an hundred and forty 2. In chap. 24. 36. when the servant is to make the match for Isaac he saith that Abraham had given all his estate to Isaac which had been unnecessary to mention had he had no more children but Ismael who was gone from his house long before Abrahams disposing of his sons into the East Countries or Arabia was not upon usurpation but upon just claim by conquest chap. 14. All these Countries were of the Land of Canaan and of the promise and therefore are circumcised ones seated in them instead of Canaanites When the Text hath recited these sons of Abraham and their settlement it bringeth him and Ismael to their graves Not that they died before the birth of Jacob and Esau as the Text hath laid it for Abraham lived till they were fifteen years old and Ismael till they were at their climacterical year of sixty three but now hath Moses no more to say of them and therefore he concludeth their story at once Esau born all hairy over like a Kid but of a reddish colour and therefore they called him Esau Factus made and perfected already as having both his beard and pubes as soon as he was born In a sore year of famine in the Land Esau selleth his birth-right for want of meat CHAP. XXVI The famine that had caused him to part with his birth-right causeth Isaac his father to part out of the Land of Canaan The Philistims Africans by descent Gen. 10. 14. and tawny like them do soon espy the beauty of Rebeccah a white woman CHAP. XXVII Isaac being arrived at the age of one hundred and thirty seven years at what age Ismael his brother had died by his example beginneth to think of his own death and to dispose himself for that He sendeth Esau to hunt for venison for a trial whether he should bless him or no for missing of venison before he had lost his birth-right and if he miss to day as he did then it would be a sure sign that he must lose the blessing And so though Isaac had passed away the main blessing at unawars yet when Esau cometh home sped of a prey he seeth that it was the will of God he should have some blessing and so blessed him also Esaus garments in which Jacob obtained the blessing were the garments of the Priesthood which belonged to the first born CHAP. XXIX XXX Jacob stronger than three men and rolleth away the stone from the wells mouth alone which they could not do with all their strength united he is deceived by Laban by a suborned person and imbraced Leah thinking he had imbraced Rahel as he deceived his father by a suborned person
indeed that women might and did receive some of these extraordinary gifts but it was by immediate influence from Heaven and not by any imposition of hands So that now if we look upon this Story and upon others of the like nature through these spectacles it will appear that this Imposition of the Apostles hands was not upon all the Samaritans but upon some selected number nor upon those selected ones for their confirmation in grace but for their ordination to the Ministery and with the imposition of hands they received the Holy Ghost to inable them for that work Vers. 26. Which is desart This is to be applyed to the way to Gaza and not to Gaza it self and so the Syriack and Arabick apply it expresly and warrantably seeing the way was through the wilderness of Judah and there was but one Gaza Vers. 27. A man of Aethiopia There is mention of a double Cush or Aethiopia in Scripture for so is it rendred the one in Arabia and the other in Africk and Homer even in his time speaketh of a twofold Aethiopia Odys 1. but it is questionable whether he mean the same with the Scripture or no since he calleth them Eastern and Western whereas these were East and South Now this man is held and that upon good ground to be of Aethiopia in Africk where the name of Candace is renowned even in Heathen Authors Vers. 33. Who shall declare his generation This Prophecy of Esay which the Eunuch was reading is exceedingly much mistaken by the Jews and this clause of the Prophecy is exceedingly controverted among Christians The Jews understand it some of them concerning Josiah others concerning the whole people of Israel but the Holy Ghost hath in this place put us out of all doubt of whom it speaketh But as for the sense of this clause some Christians understand it concerning the ineffablity of Christs Eternal generation others concerning the ineffability of his incarnation or the generation of his humane Nature united to the Godhead others concerning the wondrous generation of the Church and faithful for it followeth For he was cut off from the Land of the Living and yet the generation of his faithful ones increased But it seemeth to me that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood of the age and generation in which Christ lived rather than of his own generation or descent and so is it used by the Holy Ghost in other places as Gen. 6. 9. Acts 13. 36. c. and so is it intepreted here by the Chaldee and other Jewish glossaries Now the meaning of the verse and of this clause is to this purpose He was taken away and hurryed from Prison and from Judgment to Execution and as the LXX hath enlarged the sense by change of Phrase In his poor and dejected estate his Judgment was utterly taken away and no right done him and who can sufficiently speak of the looseness and wickedness of that generation called in the Gospel the viperous adulterous wicked untoward generation which dealt so unjustly and wretchedly with him as to take and cut him off from the Land of the Living Vers. 39. And the Eunuch went on his way rejoycing Dorotheus in Synopsi if he might be believed will tell you what became of this Eunuch afterward as that he preached the Gospel in Arabia in the Isle of Taprobane and all about the red Sea and that he is reported to have suffered matyrdom gloriously and to have been buried there Biblioth patr tom 7. But believe it that list for this I observe to be the constant and common officiousness of Superstition to make any man that is mentioned in the New Testament with a good report to become a Preacher and commonly a Bishop and constantly a Matyr Acts IX § 1. Paul converted IN this year must be placed the conversion of Paul and the reasons to prove time shall be given anon A man a wonder for so will * * * Hiâ—â—on some have his name to signifie in whom was shewed as much as can be seen in man both for want of grace and for abundance Inferior to none in wickedness but only in this that it was not final and inferiour to none in holiness no not to the greatest Apostles A scene on which at one time corrupt Nature shewed her cursed vigor and at another time sanctifying Grace her sacred power and both to such an extent as not many parallels He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia a free City of the Romans and himself a Freeman of that City His Parents were both Jews and therefore he calleth himself an Hebrew of 2 Cor. 11. 21. Phil. 3. 5. Rom. 11. 1. the Hebrews or an Hebrew both by Father and Mother His discent was of Benjamin which from the general division under Jeroboam the first had adhered constant to the Tribe of Juda and so kept Registers of their Genealogies as that Tribe did According to his double Nation he also bare a double name Saul as he was an Hebrew by birth and Paul as he was a Roman by freedom His education was in the Schools of Tarsus where as Strabo recordeth were Scholars no whit inferiour to the Students in Athens Here he attained the Greek Language and Learning and grew expert in Tit. 1. 12. Acts 17. 28. 1 Cor. 1â— 33. Act. 22. 3. Gal. 1. 14. Acts 18. 3. their Philosophy and Poems his skill wherein he sheweth in alledging Epimenides Aratus and Menander From thence he was sent to the University at Jerusalem for the study of Divinity and of the Jewish Law His Tutor was Gamaliel a Pharisee a man of special note and reverence among the people His proficiency was above many of his equals of his own Nation he being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the Fathers From his youth he also learned a handy trade of making Tents and joyned the working in that by some vicissitudes with his studies which thing was common with the Scholars of the Jews partly for the earning of their maintenance and partly for the avoiding of idleness and sin So Rabbi Juda the great Cabalist bare the name and trade of Hhajat a Shoomaker or Taylor Yet was the learning of this great Scholar but gorgeous ignorance and his forward zeal but the more excellent impiety When he thought he followed holiness he persecuted it and when his studies should have overtaken the truth then had he lost both them and it and himself and all As for Saul saith Luke he made havock of the Church entring into every house and Acts 8. 3. and 22. 4. Acts 26. 11. haling men and women committed them to prison He began now to write his positions in blood and it must be no less than death or abjuration not to be of his opinion Neither was this his fury confined within the walls of Jerusalem or the compass of Judea but overflowed also unto forreign Cities where the Jewish Synagogues acknowledging subjection to the
his friends to a most miserable and intolerable imprisonment and being solicited and earnestly sued unto that he might be speedily executed and put out of his misery he flatly denyed it saying That he was not grown friends with him yet Such was the penance that he put poor Gallus to a life far worse than a present death for he ought him more spite and torture than a suddain execution The miserable man being imprisoned and straitly looked to not so much for fear of his escape by flight as of his escape by death was denyed the sight and conference of any one whosoever but him only that brought him his pitiful dyet which served only to prolong his wretched life and not to comfort it and he was forced to take it for he must by no means be suffered to dy Thus lived if it may be called a life a man that had been of the honourablest rank and office in the City lingring and wishing for death or rather dying for three years together and now at last he findeth the means to famish himself and to finish his miserable bondage with as miserable an end to the sore displeasure of the Emperour for that he had escaped him and not come to publick execution Such an end also chose Nerva one of his near friends and familiars but not like the other because of miseries past or present but because of fear and foresight of such to come His way that he took to dispatch himself of his life was by total abstinence and refusal of food which when Tiberius perceived was his intent he sits down by him desires to know his reason and begs with all earnestness of him that he would desist from such a design For what scandal saith he will it be to me to have one of my nearest friends to end his own life and no cause given why he should so die But Nerva satisfied him not either in answer or in act but persisted in his pining of himself and so dyed § 6. The miserable ends of Agrippina and Drusus To such like ends came also Agrippina and Drusus the Wife and Son of Germanicus and Mother and Brother of Caius the next Emperour that should succeed These two the Daughter in law and Grandchild of Tiberius himself had about four years ago been brought into question by his unkind and inhuman accusation and into hold and custody until this time It was the common opinion that the cursed instigation of Sejanus whom the Emperour had raised purposely for the ruine of Germanicus his house had set such an accusation on foot and made the man to be so cruel towards his own family but when the two accursed ones had miserably survived the wicked Sejanus and yet nothing was remitted of their prosecution then opinion learned to lay the fault where it deserved even on the cruelty and spite of Tiberius himself Drusus is adjudged by him to die by famine and miserable and woeful wretch that he was he sustaineth his life for nine days together by eating the flocks out of his bed being brought to that lamentable and unheard of dyet through extremity of hunger Here at last was an end of Drusus his misery but so was there not of Tiberius his cruelty towards him for he denyed the dead body burial in a fitting place he reviled and disgraced the memory of him with hideous and feigned scandals and criminations and shamed not to publish in the open Senate what words had passed from the pining man against Tiberius himself when in agony through hunger he craved meat and was denyed it Oh what a sight and hearing was this to the eyes and ears of the Roman people to behold him that was a child of their darling and delight Germanicus to be thus barbarously and inhumanely brought to his end and to hear his own Grandfather confess the action and and not dissemble it Agrippina the woeful Mother might dolefully conjecture what would become of her self by this fatal and terrible end of the poor Prince her Son And it was not long but she tasted of the very same cup both of the same kind of death and of the same kind of disgracing after For being pined after the same manner that it might be coloured that she did it of her self a death very unfitting the greatest Princess then alive she was afterward slandered by Tiberius for adultery with Gallus that died so lately and that she caused her own death for grief of his She and her Son were denyed burial befitting their degree but hid in some obscure place where no one knew which was no little distast and discontentment to the people The Tyrant thought it a special cause of boasting and extolling his own goodness that she had not been strangled nor dyed the death of common base offenders And since it was her fortune to die on the very same day that Sejanus had done two years before viz. Octob. 17. it must be recorded as of special observation and great thanks given for the matter and an annual sacrifice instituted to Jupiter on that day Caius her Son and Brother to poor Drusus took all this very well or at least seemed so to do partly glad to be shut of any one that was likely to have any colour or likelyhood of corrivality with him in his future reign and partly being brought up in such a School of dissimulation and grown so perfect a Scholar there that he wanted little of Tiberius This year he married Claudia the daughter of M. Silanus a man that would have advised him to good if he would have hearkned but afterward he matched with a mate and stock more fitting his evil nature Ennia the Wife of Macro but for advantage resigned by her Husband Macro to the adulterating of Caius and then to his marriage § 7. Other Massacres The death of Agrippina drew on Plancina's a Woman that never accorded with her in any thing but in Tiberius his displeasure and in a fatal and miserable end This Plancina in the universal mourning of the state for the loss of Germanicus rejoyced at it and made that her sport which was the common sorrow of all the State How poor Agrippina relished this being deprived of so rare a Husband can hardly be thought of without joyning with her in her just and mournfull indignation Tiberius having a spleen at the woman for some other respect had now a fair colour to hide his revenge under to call her to account and that with some applause But here his revenge is got into a strait for if he should put her to death it may be it would be some content to Agrippina and therefore not to pleasure her so much he will not pleasure the other so much neither as with present death but keepeth her in lingring custody till Agrippina be gone and then must she follow but her resoluteness preventeth the Executioner and to escape anothers she dieth by her own hand Let us make up the heap
terrible sports and when he came off victorious he caused him and his father to be slain and divers others with them inclosing them in a strong Chest or Press When once there were not enough of poor condemned wretches to cast to the wild beasts he caused divers that stood upon the Scaffolds for spectators to be cast unto them causing their tongues first to be cut out that they might not cry or complain yet did he with these cruelties mingle some plausible actions tending to popularity as creating of Knights priviledging the commons and lavishing in gifts that strengthing himself with these curtesies in the hearts of some men he might with the more confidence be cruel to other § 2 An end of Macro It cannot be expected that he should come to a good end himself that had brought so many to a bad His course is now come to tast of the same sauce that he had provided for so many others and it would half move the spectator to some kind of pity to see him slaughtered for such a cause as he was slaughtered for How he had been a means to curry Caius favour with Tiberius and to skrew him into the Empire and himself into his good opinion even by the prostitution of his own wife we have heard before and this his extraordinary officiousness he did not forelet or slacken when he had brought him where he desired to have him to the Empire But now he turned his observance a better way and what he had done before by baseness flattery and senseless obsequiousness to bring him to the rule he changeth into good counsel to keep him well in it For when he saw him fall asleep at Banquets amongst his cups he would freely check him for it as being neither for his credit nor for his safety The like would he do when he saw him misbehave himself by lightness profuse laughter and ridiculous gestures in the Theater and in beholding of plaies In brief so round and plain was he with him when he saw just cause that in fine the uncounselable humorist became his enemy and at last his death His end is reported to have been the same with young Tiberius forced to slay himself and Ennia his wife or the wife of Caius whether you will to have been constrained to the same extremity and end with him An end well befitting and well deserved of them both but from all men living least deserved from Caius Philo after the death of Macro placeth the death of M. Silanus which upon the warrant of Dion we have set before and in things so indifferent will not spend labour to examine PART II. The JEWISH Story § 1. Troubles of the Jews in Alexandria FLACCUS Avilius was now Governour of Aegyt and had been so for some years before A man that ruled well while Tiberius lived but after his death could not govern himself For when he heard of the death of the old Emperour and the succession of the new sorrow for the one and fear of the other did so transport him besides himself that forgetting the bravery and glory wherewith he had governed hitherto he let loose the reins of himself to these two passions and the reins of the government to desperate carelesness and neglect He did nothing but weep for the loss of old Tiberius to whom he had been very intimate and dear and he might well weep the more because he could meet hardly with any that would bear any part and share in that sorrow with him This his grief was augmented by the fear that he had of Caius and of his displeasure and that by the intelligence that his conscience gave him that he had deserved it partly for his propensity to young Tiberius and siding with him but chiefly because he had had some hand or at least some consent and inclination to the death of Agrippina Caius his Mother Both these his miserable passions were brought to their height when he heard of the death of young Tiberius and of his old friend Macro The thought of these two was the only comfort he had against his dejectedness and discontent for all his hope was that these two might make his peace with Caius whose displeasure he so much doubted But what must he do now when they cannot make their own peace He yeeldeth himself therefore wholly to his discontented mood and neglecteth utterly both himself and the State His old friends he groweth jealous of and rejecteth his professed enemies he receiveth to his favour and to his counsels These rule him that should have ruled Egypt and he had done it worthily but now is drawn any whither that ill advise fullenness and melancholy doth direct him These his wicked Counsellors invent a course to procure his peace and the Emperours favour a course indeed bloody barbarous and inhumane but such as suited with their own malice and as it proved took place with the Governors desperateness and cowardize if so be he may be called a Governor still Caius the Emperour say they is an enemy to the Jews and a friend to the Alexandrians Let this be the opportunity whereby to work thy reconciliation to suffer the City to rise against the Jews and to commit outrage upon them and thou canst not perform an act more acceptable to the Prince nor more profitable for thy self The wretched Flaccus that took to heart no mans misery but his own and cared not who suffered so he might escape gave ear to this damnable and devilish counsel and put it in practice first plotting mischief against the Jews in secret then oppressing them in judgment and in their suites openly and at the last professing and publishing himself their resolved enemy § 2. Agrippa at Alexandria an unexpected and unwilling occasion of further troubles Those incendiaries that had kindled this fire will be sure to lose no blast that may make it flame and keep it burning Agrippa that had not long ago departed from Alexandria a poor private man returneth now thither in prosperity and a King Caius that had promoted him to his kingdom did lovingly direct him by Alexandria as the safest way to it Thither he came with as great privacy as such a personage could do and yet was he espied by the jealous eyes of these rare counsellours and his coming misconstrued through their malice to the Jews They perswade Flaccus that his coming thither was an affront to him in his own Province that his Pomp and Train was more sumptuous than his that the eyes of all men were upon the new King Agrippa and in short that his presence there was his present disgrace and would prove his future disadvantage The ill governed Governour was ready enough to hearken to such buzzings as these and to yeeld them impression in his mind yet durst he not put any thing in execution against the King for fear of him that sent him He therefore thought it best to carry a fair outside to Agrippa and to his
is exceedingly delighted with and given to the cruelty of the Sword-plays in which he swept away a world of Servants and Freemen that had been accusers of their Masters in the time of Caius And which was most ridiculous he caused the statue of Augustus to be removed out of the place because it should not behold such bloody work being inhumanely himself delighted in that butchery which he thought too barbarous for a brazen statue to look upon These bloody spectacles brought him to an habit of cruelty which was augmented and hardened in him by the damnable counsels of his Empress Messalina a woman wicked above parallel or expression and by the spurrings on of other sycophants C. Appius Silanus is put to death because he refused to incestuate Messalina when she desired him for he had married her mother but because Claudius must not hear of this beastly cause of her displeasure Narcissus a freeman of the Emperor accused him for this that in a dream he had seen Appius slay the Emperor Upon his death the people began to expect no more goodness from Claudius at all but gave him up for a Tyrant like the two that had gone before him whereupon Annius Vincianus and Futius Camillus Scribonianus and others conspired against him but being deserted of their souldiers in the enterprize they are glad to end their lives by their own hands that they might escape the executioners Messalina and Narcissus and others of their faction using the stupid folly of the Emperor to the compassing of their own wills involve in false accusations and in miserable deaths an infinite multitude of men and women honorable and inferior of all qualities and conditions according as the spleen of any of them moved or was provoked Among them that thus perished Arria the wife of Caecinna is upon record for her Roman valour for when her husband trembled and was afraid to slay himself she took the sword out of his hand and fell upon it and gave it him again reeking with her blood with these words Behold boy how I feel no pain And now saith my Author were matters come to such a pass that nothing was reputed a greater vertue than to die valiantly and like a Roman To such a cruelty had custom and evil counsel brought him that of himself was of a reasonable gentle nature but wanted constancy and discretion to manage it THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman Of the Year of CHRIST XLIV And of the Emperor CLAUDIUS III. Being the Year of the WORLD 3971. And of the City of ROME 796. Consuls Claudius Caesar III. L. Uitellius ACTS CHAP. XII Vers. 2. And he killed Iames. §. 1. The Martyrdom of James the great WE are now come to the time of Great James his death For Agrippa coming the last year into Judea as we saw from Josephus and it not being probable that he should do this exploit before Easter as the circumstances told us we may justly take this year for its proper time and place Now about that time saith St. Luke Herod the King the Syriack addeth who is called Agrippa stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Jews and he killed James the brother of John with the sword The first words About that time relate to what went before in the preceding Chapter vers 28. and meaneth in the days of Claudius Caesar. Now what should be the incentive of the spleen of Agrippa against the Church is not specified it may well be supposed it proceeded from that his Ceremoniousness and strict observance of Mosaick Rites which is mentioned by Josephus Concerning the Martyrdom of James under this his spleen we will content our selves with the words of the Text He killed James the brother of John with the sword accounting all other additional circumstances which may be found in officious Authors to be nothing else but gilded legends and fond inventions As that mentioned by Eusebius out of Cleniens his Hypotyposeon concerning his accuser that seeing his constancy to the death confessed the faith and was martyred with him That by Epiphanius that he lived and died a Virgin and that by * * * Tom. 2. Iulii 25. Surius who is the bell-weather for old winter tales that telleth That his body after his martyrdom was shipped by Ctesiphon and his fellow-Bishops for Spain that the Ship in six days was directed thither without Pilot or Compass but only by the influence of the Corps that it carried That at the landing the body was taken up into the air and carried near the place of its burial twelve miles off That Ctesiphon and his fellows werâ— led to it by an Angel And more such trash that it is but labour lost either to read or mention §. 2. The Apostles Creed The Creed was made upon this occasion saith a a a De Institut Cleric l. 2. c. 56. extat in Auctario ad Biblioth Patrum â—ol 620 Rabanus Maâ—…s as our Ancestors have delivered unto us The Disciples after the Ascension of our Saviour being inflamed with the Holy Ghost c. And being charged by the Lord to go to all Nations for the preaching of the Gospel when they are to part one from another they first make a common platform among themselves for their future preaching Lest being severed in place divers and different things should be preached to those that were invited to the faith of Christ. Being therefore together in one place and filled with the Holy Ghost they compose a short platform for their preaching conferring together what they thought And this they appoint to be given to them that believe and to be called Symbolum c. Thus he and very many others with him conceiving that the Apostles supplied not only the matter of the Doctrine contained in the Creed but the very form and words also For Peter said say they I believe in God the Father Almighty John The maker of Heaven and Earth James And I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Andrew Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Philip Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried Thomas He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead Bartholomew He ascended into Heaven sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty Matthew From thence shall he come to judge both the quick and the dead James the son of Alpheus I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church Simon Zelotes The communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins Judas the brother of James The resurrection of the flesh Matthias The life everlasting Amen Thus the hundred and fifteenth Sermon de Tempore that goeth under the name of b b b Tom. 10. col 849. Austen but apparent that it is not his by this that here is reckoned the descent into Hell which in his book c c c Tom. 3. p. 143. de Fide Symbolo is quite omitted Now were this
of Israel From the gate of the mountain of the House to the gate of Nicanor the camp of Levi and from the gate of Nicanor inward the camp of the divine glory SECT I. How the unclean were kept from the Temple UPON the observation of what persons were prohibited access to the Temple lest they should defile it two things methodically do come to hand to be considered thereupon as referring to it and those are 1. What course was taken for the prohibiting of the unclean from coming there And 2. What was the penalty of those that were in their uncleanness yet would dare to come The former inquiry is not of so easie resolution as is the latter and the reason is because thousands of persons might come that were not in a fit case to have come thither and yet it was impossible without immodesty and uncivility unless it were by oath to discover in what case they were There were indeed Porters and Guards at the gates but thousands of unclean persons might pass them and they never the wiser unless they should have put the passengers to an oath which I believe was never yet dreamed of by any writer that hath handled the Jews customs Men in issues of blood or seed and women in their ordinary or extraordinary fluxes could neither be discerned by their face in what case they were nor do we find that they were ever at all examined much less sworn or searched They might repel and keep back indeed what or whosoever carried with them visible defiling as one that appeared to be a Leper one that came with things about him that might not be brought into the Temple or they might keep back those that would go beyond their bounds or they might have an eye to any that came suspiciously either to steal or to disturb the Service or they might check those that shewed any lightness at their coming in or being entred or they might direct those that were not well acquainted with the place what to do and how to behave themselves there or they might admonish all that came to take heed of coming there if they were unclean But as for keeping out all that were in any uncleanness and such as whereby the place might receive defilement it was a thing so far impossible that it is far from being imaginable A man might have touched a dead Corps or might have touched a Woman in her separation or suffered Gonorrhoea in the night or twenty such like cases as these and he cometh to enter into the Temple and no one in the world knew how the case was with him but himself how should this man be possibly discovered or restrained unless it were by the spirit of Prophesie or by giving him an oath which power we never read the Porters to have had nor is there any ground or colour to suppose such a thing The security of the place therefore from such pollutions lay more in the severity of the penalties that were sentenced against and inflicted upon those that were deprehended offenders in this kind than it did in any possible care or practical prevention they could use that they should not come there And as the rigour and strictness of Laws and execution upon offenders in other cases is the surest prevention of such offences the like was the way of caution and prevention here SECT II. Penalties doomed upon unclean Persons found in the Temple Death by the hand of Heaven and Cutting off FOur sad and severe punishments for punishments I cannot but call them all were severally allotted two in sentence or doom and two in execution upon those that presumingly by their uncleanness did violate the Holiness of the place and service some upon one degree of offending and some upon another And those were these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death by the hand of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whipping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rebels beating 1. There is a penalty of which the Jews do speak exceeding often due as they hold to divers sorts of offenders and amongst other to some of those that we are speaking of namely such as being unclean yet would for all that go into the Temple and they do call it Death by the hand of Heaven or by the hand of God a a a Vid. Eliu Levit. in Tisbi in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they do very commonly call God Heaven b b b Maymon in Biath Mikdash per. 4. An unclean person saith Maymony that serveth in the Sanctuary profaneth his service and is guilty of Death by the Hand of Heaven though he stay not there And again c c c Ibid. per. 5. A Priest that serveth and washeth not his hands and feet in the morning he is guilty of Death by the hand of Heaven And again d d d Ibid. per. 4. Men or Women with Fluxes Women in their Separation and upon Childbirth or one unclean by a creeping thing or by a carcase or the like may not deal with the service nor go into the Court But if they do they are liable to cutting off for their going in thither and to Death by the hand of Heaven for their serving And divers other instances and examples might be given in other delinquencies and offences to which Death by the hand of Heaven is doomed as the proper punishment of them but these may be sufficient to our present purpose 2. There is likewise as frequent mention if not more among the Hebrew Writers of another doom or penalty upon divers offenders and amongst others upon those of whom we are speaking who would go into the Temple in their uncleanness knowing how the case was with them which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kereth or Cutting off And the Talmud in the Treatise Kerithuth which bears the name upon this very subject doth reckon up six and thirty offences to which if wilfully committed this penalty accrewed It may not be amiss to give the matter at large in their own words and that the rather because we have not only some occasion to look after them now but shall have again also when we come to treat concerning sin-offerings which was a part of their service and which as we shall see then and even in the words now before us had somewhat to say to the matter of Cutting off Their words are these e e e Kerithuth per. 1. There are six and thirty cuttings off in the Law He that lieth with his mother or his fathers wife or his daughter in Law or with a male or with a beast or a woman lying with a beast or a man lying with a woman and her daughter or with another mans wife or with his own sister or his fathers sister or his mothers sister or his wifes sister or his brothers wife or his fathers brothers wife or with a woman in her separation or he that blasphemeth or comitteth Idolatry or giveth
and they say he is not able to bear forty then he is quit they allot him to receive eighteen and as he is in whipping they say he is able to bear forty yet he is quit How do they whip him His hands are tied to two pillars or posts and the Officer of the Court lays hold of his garments and rip or rent it is no matter he pulls them down till he have bared his breast Now there was a stone lay behind him upon which the Officer of the Court stood with a whip of whit-leather in his hand platted four plats and two lashes hanging by it the handle was a hand bredth long and the whip a hand bredth broad and the end of it raught to his belly A third part of his stripes he gave him before on his belly two parts behind And he beats him not standing nor sâ—â—ting but bowed down as it is said The Judge shall cause him to lie down and he strikes him with one hand with all his might And in the mean while one standing by reads or says these portions of Scripture But if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law c. Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed c. Deut. 28. 58 59. And therefore ye shall keep the words of this Covenant c. And he concludes with But he being full of compassion forgives iniquity and destroyeth not Psal. 78. 28. This was the manner of their scourging a very sharp penalty thirteen lashes with a three-lash whip which by that triplication arose to forty save one or if the number were allotted less yet it was as many stripes as they conceived the party could bear 2. There was the penalty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rebels beating the beating or the mawling by the people which was a terrible rugged beating by all the people without any sentence of the Judges passed upon him at all and without any measure As in divers cases if a man were deprehended faulty in such or such an offence the people made no more ado but fell upon him pell mell with fists staves or stones and mawled him unmeasurably and very often to death Rabbi Nathan describes it thus b b b Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beating according to the Law is of those that transgress against negative precepts and it is by measure and for admonition and with a three corded whip But he that transgresseth against affirmative speeches they beat him till his life depart and not with a threefold whip And likewise whosoever transgresseth against the words of the wise men they beat him without number and measure and they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rebels beating because he hath rebelled against the words of the Law and against the words of the Scribes The reason of this beating c c c Gloss. in Maym. in Sobbath per. 1. saith another Jew is because he transgressed against a prohibition of theirs in a thing which hath its foundation in the Law and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Son of Rebellion The frequent taking up of stones by the People to have stoned our Saviour and that incursion upon him Mat. 26. 67. and upon Stephen Act. 7. 57 58. for blasphemy as they would have it and upon Paul Act. 21. 31. for defiling the Temple as they supposed were of this nature Thus he that committed a transgression for which he became liable either to Death by the hand of Heaven or to Cutting off he did not escape barely with that liableness but either he was to be whipt or thus mawled or in some cases was to suffer death by the sentence of the Judges d d d Maym. in Blath Mikdash per. 4. Every negative precept saith Maymony upon which they become liable to death by the hand of Heaven they are beaten for it Much more where there is a liableness to cutting off which is the greater guilt And the same Author e e e Id. in San. per 19. reckons eighteen offences that fell under liableness to death by the Hand of Heaven and for which the Offenders were whipt and twenty one that fell under liableness to cutting off and for which the Offenders were also whipt and were not put to death by the Judges Amongst those transgressions that deserved these penalties going into the Sanctuary in uncleanness fell under as many of them as any one offence whatsoever It were too tedious to insist upon all particulars let us take up these few and guess and conjecture of the rest by them A Priest or any other that went into the Court being unclean fell under the guilt of being cut off and if they served there in their uncleanness the Priest at the Altar and any other person in laying on of his hands on the sacrifice or waving any part of it they then became liable to death by the hand of Heaven And such a Priest being deprehended thus faulty f f f Id in Biath Mikd. ubi supr they never brought him before the Sanhedrin g g g Talm. in Schedr per. 9. but the young men of the Priests thrust him out of the Court and dasht out his brains with the billets And the like they did by the other persons A Leper that entred into the Mountain of the House was beaten with eighty stripes He that was defiled by the dead or unclean for a day if he went into the Court of the Women he was to be beaten with the Rebels beating And so was he that came in having eaten or drunk any unclean thing or after a seven days uncleanness would go into the Court of Israel before his atonement was made And he that brought in a Vessel or came in any Clothes which one that was defiled by the dead had toucht was to be whipt And not to multiply particulars whosoever came within the holy Ground being unclean and knowing of it and yet would come in he incurred the guilt of cutting off ipso facto and if he were discovered and the matter proved by witness he was sure either to be whipt or else to be mawled with the Rebels beating the former always most terrible the latter deadly very oft It is indeed a common saying among the Talmudick Writers that for such or such offences though a man be not whipt yet is he beaten with the Rebels beating as if the latter were the gentler castigation they do not mean that the Rebels beating was the less penalty but they intend this that though there be no express in the Law that appoints his whipping yet the decrees of the Wise-men which he hath broken appoint him to be beaten h h h Talm. in Maccoth per. 3. Whosoever had incurred the guilt of being Cut off after he is whipt is acquitted from that guilt as it is said Lest thy brother be vile in thine eyes Behold after he is whipt he
she was now returned home from her Cozin Elizabeth See Luke 1. 56. and compare Gen. XXXVIII 24. The Masters of the Traditions assign this space to discover a thing of that nature A Woman o o o o o o Maim in Geâ—â—â—hin cap. 1. â—aâ—â—â— in Ieâ—aâ—â—â—n cap. 4. â—â—etabboth cap. 5. largely say they who is either put away from her husband or become a Widdow neither marrieth nor is espoused but after ninety days Namely that it may be known whether she be big with child or no and that distinction may be made between the offspring of the first husband and of the second In like manner a husband and wife being made proselytes are parted from one another for ninety days that judgment may be made between children begotten in holiness that is within the true Religion See 1 Cor. VII 14. and children begotten out of holiness VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But Ioseph being a just man c. THERE is no need to wrack the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just to fetch out thence the sense of gentleness or mercy which many do for construing the clauses of the verse separately the sense will appear clear and soft enough Joseph being a just man could not would not indure an adulteress but yet not willing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make her a publick example being a merciful man and loving his wife was minded to put her away privily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To make her a publick Example This doth not imply death but rather publick disgrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To make her publick For it may not without reason be enquired whether she would have been brought to capital punishment if it had been true that she had conceived by adultery For although there was a Law promulged of punishing adultery with death Levit. XX. 10. Deut. XXII 22. and in this case she that was espoused would be dealt withal after the same manner as it was with her who was become a wife yet so far was that Law mollified that I say not weakned by the Law of giving a bill of Divorse Deut. XXIV 1. c. that the husband might not only pardon his adulterous wife and not compel her to appear before the Sanhedrin but scarcely could if he would put her to death For why otherwise was the bill of Divorse indulged Joseph therefore endeavours to do nothing here but what he might with the full consent both of the Law and Nation The Adulteress might be put away she that was espoused could not be put away without a bill of Divorse concerning which thus the Jewish Laws p p p p p p Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap 1 A woman is espoused three ways by mony or by a writing or by being lain with And being thus espoused though she were not yet married nor conducted into the mans house yet she is his wife And if any shall lye with her beside him he is to be punished with death by the Sanhedrin And if he himself will put her away he must have a bill of divorse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Put her away privily Let the Talmudic Tract Gittin be looked upon where they are treating of the manner of delivering a bill of Divorse to a wife to be put away among other things it might be given privately if the husband so pleased either into the womans hand or bosom two witnesses only present VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a Virgin shall be with child THat the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Prophet denotes an untouched Virgin sufficiently appears from the sense of the place Esa. VII King Achaz there was affraid lest the enemies that were now upon him might destroy Jerusalem and utterly consume the House of David The Lord meets with this fear by a signal and most remarkable promise namely that sooner should a pure Virgin bring forth a child thaâ— the family of David perish And the promise yields a double comfort namely of Christ hereafter to be born of a Virgin and of their security from the imminent danger of the City and house of David So that although that Prophesie of a Virgins bringing forth a son should not be fulfilled till many hundreds of years after yet at that present time when the Prophesie was made Ahaz had a certain and notable sign that the house of David should be safe and secure from the danger that hung over it As much as if the Prophet had said Be not so troubled O Ahaz does it not seem an impossible thing to thee and that never will happen that a pure Virgin should become a Mother But I tell thee a pure Virgin shall bring forth a son before the House of David perish Hear this O unbelieving Jew and shew us now some remainders of the House of David or confess this Prophesie fulfilled in the Virgins bringing forth or deny that a sign was given when a sign is given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is being interpreted § In what language Matthew wrote his Gospel I. All confess that the Syriac Language was the Mother Tongue to the Jewish Nation dwelling in Judea and that the Hebrew was not all understood by the common people may especially appear from two things 1. That in the Synagogues when the Law and the Prophets were read in the original Hebrew an Interpreter was always present to the Reader who rendred into the Mother Tongue that which was read that it might be understood by the common people q q q q q q Bab. Megill fol. 25 c. Massech Sopherim cap. 11. 12 c. Hence those rules of the office of an Interpreter and of some places which were not to be rendred into the Mother Tongue 2. That Jonathan the son of Uzziel a Scholar of Hillel about the time of Christs birth rendred all the Prophets that is as the Jews number them Joshua Judges Samuel the Books of the Kings Esaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and the twelve lesser Prophets into the Chaldee Language that is into a Language much more known to the people than the Hebrew and more acceptable than the Mother Tongue For if it be asked why he translated them at all and why he translated not rather into the Mother Tongue which was known to all and if it be objected concerning S. Matthew and S. Paul that writing to the Jews one his Gospel the other his Epistle to the Hebrews must have written in the Syriac Tongue if so be they wrote not in Hebrew that they might be understood by all We answer First It was not without reason that the Paraphrast Jonathan translated out of the Hebrew original into the Chaldee Tongue because this Tongue was much more known and familiar to all the people than the Hebrew The holy Text had need of an Interpreter into a more known Tongue because it was now in a Tongue not known at all to the Vulgar For none knew the
in white and had a white veil and entred and ministred with his Brethren the Priests 2. We meet also with mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Council-house of the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q q q q q q Bab. Joma fol. 66. 1. in Gemara The High Priests made a Decree and did not permit an Israelite to carry the scape Goat into the wilderness But in the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Council of the Priests did not permit this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r r r r r r Chetubh chap. 1. hal 5. The Council of the Priests exacted for the portion of a Virgin four hundred Zuzees and the wise men did not hinder it First This was that Council of which we spoke before in the Chamber of the Councellors Secondly That which was decreed by them concerning the carrying away of the scape Goat belonged meerly to the Service of the Temple as being a caution about the right performance of the office in the day of Attonement Thirdly And that about the portion of a virgin was nothing else but what any Israelite might do and so the Gemarists confess If any noble family in Israel say they would do what the Priests do they may The Priests set a price upon their virgins and decreed by common consent that not less than such a portion should be required for them which was lawful for all the Israelites to do for their virgins if they pleased 3. s s s s s s â—â—â— Hashanah chap. 1. hal 7. There is an example brought of Tobias a Physician who saw the New Moon at Jerusalem he and his Son and his servant whom he had freed The Priests admitted him and his Son for witnesses his servant they rejected but when they came before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bench they admitted him and his servant and rejected his Son Observe 1. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Council is here opposed to the Priests 2. That it belonged to the Council to determine of the New Moon because on that depended the set-times of the Feasts this is plain enough in the Chapter cited 3. That what the Priests did was matter of Examination only not Decree 4. t t t t t t Jerus 〈◊〉 fol. 2â— 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elders of the City Deut. XXII 18. are the Triumvirat Bench. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At the Gate v. 24. means the Bench of the chief Priest The matter there in debate is about a married woman who is found by her husband to have lost her virginity and is therefore to be put to death Deut. XXII 13 c. In that passage among other things you may find these words ver 18. And the Elders of that City shall lay hold of that man and scourge him The Gemarists take occasion from thence to define what the phrase there and in other places means The Elders of the City and what is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word Gate when it relates to the Bench. That say they signifies the Triumvirat Bench This the Bench or Council of the High Priest that is unless I be very much mistaken every Council of twenty three which is clear enough both from the place mentioned and from reason it self 1. The words of the place quoted are these R. Bon bar Chaija enquired before R. Zeira What if the Father of the Virgin should produce witnesses which invalidate the testimony of the husbands witnesses if the Fathers witnesses are proved false he must be whipped and pay a hundred Selaim in the Triumvirat-Court but the witnesses are to be stoned by the Bench of the Twenty three c. R. Zeira thought that this was a double judgment but R. Jeremias in the name of R. Abhu that it was but a single one But the Tradition contradicts R. Abhu for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the Elders of the City ver 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is To the Triumvirat Bench. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But at the Gate means the Bench of the High Priest It is plain that the Bench of the High Priest is put in opposition to the Triumvirat-Bench and by consequence that it is either the chief Council or the Council of the Twenty three or some other Council of the Priests distinct from all these But it cannot be this third because the place cited in the Talmudists and the place in the Law cited by the Talmudists plainly speaks of such a Council which had power of judging in capital causes But they that suppose the Ecclesiastical Council among the Jews to have been distinct from the Civil scarce suppose that that Council sat on capital causes or passed sentence of death much less is it to be thought that that Council sat only on life and death which certainly ought to be supposed from the place quoted if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Council of the High Priest did strictly signifie such a Council of Priests Let us illustrate the Talmudical words with a Paraphrase R. Zeira thought that that cause of a husband accusing his wife for the loss of her virginity belonged to the judgment of two Benches namely of the Triumvirat which inflicted whipping and pecuniary mulcts and of the Twenty three which adjudged to death but Rabbi Abhu thinks it is to be referred to the judgment of one Bench only But you are mistaken good Rabbi Abhu and the very phrase made use of in this case refutes you for the expression which is brought in To the Elders of the City signifies the Triumviral Bench and the phrase at the Gate signifies the Bench of Twenty three for the chief Council never sat in the Gate 2. Now the Council of Twenty three is called by the Talmudists the Bench or the Council of the chief Priest alluding to the words of the Law-giver Deut. XVII 9. where the word Priests denotes the inferiour Councils and Judg the chief Council II. In the chief Council the President sat in the highest seat being at this time when Christ was under examination Rabban Gamaliel as we said but the High Priest excelled him in dignity every where for the President of the Council was chose not so much for his quality as for his learning and skill in Traditions He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a phrase very much used by the Author of Juchasin applied to Presidents that is Keeper Father and deliverer of Traditions and he was chose to this office who was fittest for these things Memorable is the story of Hillel's coming to the Presidentship being preferred to the Chair for this only thing because he solved some doubts about the Passover having learnt it as he saith himself from Shemaiah and Abtalion u u u u u u Jerus Pesach fol. 33. 1. We will not think it much to transcribe the story The Sons of Betira once forgot a Tradition for when the fourteenth day on which the Passover was to be
keep Cocks at Jerusalem because of the holy things for Israelites have eaten there peace-offerings and thank-offerings but now it is the custom of dunghil Cocks to turn over dunghils where perhaps they might find creeping things that might pollute those holy things that are to be eaten By what means and under what pretence the Canon was dispensed with we do not dispute 'T is certain there were Cocks at Jerusalem as well as at other places And memorable is the story of a Cock which was stoned by the sentence of the Council for having killed a little child i i i i i i Jerus Erubbin fol. 26. 1. VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gethsemane THE place of the Olive-presses at the foot of Mount Olivet In John it is a garden beyond Kidron k k k k k k Chap. XVIII 1. * * * * * * Bava Kama in the place above They do not make Gardens or Paradices in Jerusalem because of the stink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gloss Because of the stink that riseth from the weeds which are thrown out besides it is the custom to dung Gardens and thence comes a stink Upon this account there were no Gardens in the City some few Gardens of Roses excepted which had been so from the days of the Prophets l l l l l l Avoth R. Nathan fol. 9. 1. but all were without the walls especially at the foot of Olivet VERS XLIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kissed him IT was not unusual for a Master to kiss his Disciple but for a Disciple to kiss his Master was more rare Whether therefore Judas did this under pretence of respect or out of open contempt and dirision let it be enquired VERS LX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many false witnesses came ENquire Whether these are to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which the Talmudists speak at large especially in the Treatise Maccoth m m m m m m Chap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are commonly rendred False witnesses and deservedly and yet Maimonides reckons up these as necessary in that City where the Council of twenty three is placed Why saith he is such a Council not set up but in a City where there are an hundred and twenty men Namely that there may be three and twenty for the Council and three ranks consisting of sixty nine men and ten men to attend upon the affairs of the Synagogue two Scribes two Bishops two to be judged two witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The reason of the thing is a little obscure the characters of the men you may take in these examples The witnesses say We testifie that N. killed N. They say to them How do you depose this when the killer or he that was killed was with us in such a place on that day These as yet are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if they should say How can you testifie this when you were with us on that day n n n n n n Maccoth Chap. 1. hal 6. c. On which Mishnah thus Maimonides The witnesses depose that Reuben killed Simeon and afterwards Kohath and Hushim come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and disprove their testimony there come afterwards other witnesses and depose the same with the former namely that Reuben killed Simeon and Kohath and Hushim disprove their testimony also if a second third and fourth nay if a thousand pair come and depose the same thing while those two so disprove them they must all dye by the testimony of these two c. There was the like Testimony in other things thus in the first Halacah of the Chapter quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How are witnesses made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We testifie concerning N. that he is the Son of a divorced Woman c. They do not say Let this witness if he prove false be made the Son of a divorced Woman instead of the other but he is beaten with forty stripes The words are obscure enough but their meaning is this Since a false witness was by the Law to suffer the same things which by his perjury he had designed to bring upon another it is here enquired in what cases a witness is so far to be accounted false as to undergo such a retaliation And it is answered Not in all and this reason is alledged If any one by false witness should endeavour to deprive another of his legitimacy and by consequence of the privilidges of being legitimate by saying that he is the Son of a divorced Woman though he were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false witness yet he must not be punished in the like kind to be made as the Son of a divorced Woman but he must be whipped But in capital cases the custom was that whosoever endeavoured to procure death to another person by false witness must himself be put to death VERS LXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the High Priest rent his clothes o o o o o o Maimon in Avod Zarah cap. 2. WHEN witnesses speak out the blasphemy which they heard then all hearing the blasphemy are bound to rend their clothes See more there p p p p p p Sanâ—edr cap. 7. hal 10. They that judge a blasphemer first ask the witness and bid him speak out plainly what he hath heard and when he speaks it the Judges standing on their feet rend their garments and do not sow them up again c. See there the Bab. Gemara discoursing at large why they stand upon their feet why they rend their garments and why they may not be sowed up again CHAP. XXVII VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When the morning was come c. LET us trace a little the proceedings of this Council I. They spend the night in judging on a capital cause which is expresly forbid by their own Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They handle capital causes in the day time and finish them by day q q q q q q Sanâ—edr cap. 4. hal 1. Mony matters indeed that were begun by day might be ended in the night which is asserted in that place but capital causes were only to be handled by day But here in sitting upon the life and death of our Saviour there is need of night and darkness This judgment is begun in the night and carried on all the night through in a manner II. This night was the evening of a Feast-day namely of the first day of the Paschalweek at what time they were also forbid to sit in judgment r r r r r r Moed Katon chap. 5. hal 2. They do not judg on a Feast-day How the Lawyers are divided on this point I will not trouble you now with recounting This very Canon is sufficient ground for scruple which we leave to them to clear who through rankor and hatred towards Christ seem to slight and trample under
Mary whom he had espoused had owned Jesus for his Son from his first birth he had redeemed him as his first-born he had cherisht him in his childhood educated him in his youth and therefore no wonder if Joseph be called his Father and he was supposed to be his Son II. Let us consider what might have been the judgment of the Sanhedrin in this case only from this story s s s s s s Kiddushin fol. 80. 1. There came a certain Woman to Jerusalem with a child brought thither upon shoulders She brought this child up and he afterward had the carnal knowledge of her They are brought before the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin judged them to be stoned to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because he was undoubtedly her Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because he had wholly adhered to her Now suppose we that the blessed Jesus had come to the Sanhedrin upon the decease of Joseph requiring his Stock and Goods as his heir Had he not in all equity obtained them as his Son Not that he was beyond all doubt and question his Son but that he had adhered to him wholly from his cradle was brought up by him as his Son and always so acknowledged III. The Doctors speak of one Joseph a Carpenter t t t t t t Sect. 13. of the same Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 u u u u u u Shemoth rabba fol. 128. 4. Abnimus Gardieus askt the Rabbins of blessed memory whence the earth was first created they answer him there is no one skilled in these matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but go thou to Joseph the Architect He went and found him standing upon the rafters It is equally obscure who this Joseph the Carpenter and who this Abnimus was although as to this last he is very frequently mentioned in those Authors They say w w w w w w Beresh rabba fol. 73. 4. That Abnimus and Balaam were two the greatest Philosophers in the whole world Only this we read of him x x x x x x Midr. Ruth fol. 43. 2. That there was a very great familiarity betwixt him and R. Meir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which was the Son of Heli. I. There is neither need nor reason nor indeed any foundation at all for us to frame I know not what marriages and the taking of Brothers Wives to remove a scruple in this place wherein there is really no scruple in the least 1. Joseph is not here called the Son of Heli but Jesus is so for the word Jesus viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be understood and must be always added in the Reader 's mind to every race in this Genealogy after this manner Jesus as was supposed the Son of Joseph and so the Son of Heli and of Matthat yea and at length the Son of Adam and the Son of God For it was very little the business of the Evangelist either to draw Joseph's Pedigree from Adam or indeed to shew that Adam was the Son of God which not only sounds something harshly but in this place very enormously I may almost add blasphemously too For when St Luke Vers. 22. had made a voice from Heaven declaring that Jesus was the Son of God do we think the same Evangelist would in the same breath pronounce Adam the Son of God too So that this very thing teacheth us what the Evangelist propounded to himself in the framing of this Genealogy which was to shew that this Jesus who had newly received that great testimony from Heaven this is my Son was the very same that had been promised to Adam by the seed of the Woman And for this reason hath he drawn his Pedigree on the Mother's side who was the Daughter of Heli and this too as high as Adam to whom this Jesus was promised In the close of the Genealogy he teacheth in what sense the former part of it should be taken viz. that Jesus not Joseph should be called the Son of Heli and consequently that the same Jesus not Adam should be called the Son of God indeed in every link of this chain this still should be understood Jesus the Son of Matthat Jesus the Son of Levi Jesus the Son of Melchi and so of the rest And thus the Genealogical stile agrees with that of Moses Genes XXXVI 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which words if you should render Aholibamah the Daughter of Anah the Daughter of Zibeon you emasculate Anah and make a Woman of him who was a Man and the Father of Aholibamah Vers. 24 25. 2. Suppose it could be granted that Joseph might be called the Son of Heli which yet ought not to be yet would not this be any great solecisme that his Son-in-law should become the Husband of Mary his own Daughter He was but his Son by Law by the Marriage of Joseph's Mother not by Nature and Generation y y y y y y Hieros Chagigah fol 77. 4. There is a discourse of a certain person who in his sleep saw the punishment of the damned Amongst the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I would render thus but shall willingly stand corrected if under a mistake He saw Mary the Daughter of Heli amongst the shades R. Lazar ben Josah saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That she hung by the glâ—ndles of her breasts R. Josah bar Haninah saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the great bar of Hell's gate hung at her ear If this be the true rendring of the words which I have reason to believe it is then thus far at least it agrees with our Evangelist that Mary was the Daughter of Heli and questionless all the rest is added in reproach of the blessed Virgin the Mother of our Lord whom they often vilifie elsewhere under the name of Sardah VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The son of Rhesa the son of Zorobabel the son of Salathiel the son of Neri I. THAT Pedaiah the Father of Zorobabel 1 Chron. III. 19. is omitted here is agreeable with Ezra V. 2. Hagg. I. 1 c. but why it should be omitted either here or there is not so easie to guess II. As to the variation of the names both here and 1 Chron. III. this is not unworthy our observation That Zorobabel and his Sons were carried out of Babylon into Judea and possibly they might change their names when they changed the place of their dwelling It was not very safe for him to be known commonly by the name of Zorobabel in Babylon when the import of that name was the winnowing of Babel so that he was there more generally called Sheshbazzar But he might securely resume the name in Judea when Cyrus and Darius had now fanned and sifted Babylon So his two Sons Meshullam and Hananiah could not properly be called one of them Abiud the glory of my Father and the other Rhesa a Prince while they were
e e e e R. Abuhabh in praesat ad Ner. 7. There were three persons invited to a Feast a Prince a wise man and an ordinary person the wise man sate next to the Prince being askt by the King why he did so he answered because I am a wise man f f f f f f Hieros Bâ—racoth fol. 11. 2. Janneus the King sitting at table with some of the Nobles of Persia Simeon ben Shetah that had been invited placed himself betwixt the King and Queen being asked why so He answered in the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Ben Sirah it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exalt wisdom and she shall exalt thee and make thee to sit among Princes It is much such advice as this of our Saviour's that is given us in Prov. XXV 7. upon which place we have this passage g g g g g g Vajiâ—r rabâ— fol. 164. 4. R. Aquilah in the name of R. Simeon ben Azzai thus expounds it go back from thy place two or three seats and there sit that they may say unto thee go up higher c. VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With one consent to make excuse A Very ridiculous as well as clownish and unmannerly excuse this if it grew toward night for it was supper time A very unseasonable time to go see a piece of ground new bought or to try a yoke of Oxen. The substantive therefore that should answer to the adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would not seek any other where than as it is included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the sense of it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they began all for one cause to make excuse i. e. for one and the same aversation they had to it VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go into the high-ways and hedges INTO the high ways that he might bring in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the travellers but who were those that were among the hedges we have a parallel place 1 Chron. IV. 23. These were the Potters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that dwell in Ataim and Gader But the vulgar Habitantes in plantationibus sepibus dwelling in Plantations and Hedges To the same purpose R. Solomon and Kimchi They employed themselves in making pots in planting in setting hedges and making mud-walls The Targumist here is very extravagant These are those disciples of the Law for wose sake the world was made who sit in judgment and stablish the world and their daughters build up the wast places of the house of Israel with the presence of the Eternal King in the service of the Law and the intercalation of months c. VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But if the salt hath lost its Savour THIS hath a very good connexion with what went before Our Saviour had before taught how necessary it was for him that would apply himself to Christ and his Religion to weigh and consider things before-hand how great and difficult things he must undergo lest when he hath begun in the undertaking he faint and go back he Apostatize and become unsavoury salt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suits very well with the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which both signifies unsavoury and a fool h h h h h h Job VI. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt i i i i i i Lament II. 14. Thy Prophets have seen for thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanity and that which is unsavoury The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain things and folly k k k k k k Job I. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gave not not that which is unsavoury to God The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did not give folly to God CHAP. XV. VERS IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ninety and nine THIS was a very familiar way of numbering and dividing amongst the Jews viz. betwixt one and ninety I have given instances elsewhere let me in this place add one more a a a a a a Vajicr rabb fol. 197. 2. Of those hundred cryes that a Woman in travail uttereth ninety and nine of them are to death and only one of them to life VERS VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which need no repentance HERE we are to consider the distinction commonly used in the Jewish Schools I. All the good and those that were to be saved at last they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just persons It is opposed to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked persons as we may observe more than once in the first Psalm Hence this and the like passage very frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paradise is for the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good things laid up for the just Let us by the way play a little with the Gemarists as they themselves also play with the letters of the Alphabet and amongst the rest especially the letterr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsadi b b b b b b Schabbath fol. 104. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is Tsadi that begins a word or the crooked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tsadi that ends a word or the steight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What follows from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is the just person that is crooked or bowed down and there is the just person that is erect or streight Where the Gloss hath it It is necessary that the man that is right and streight should be bowed or humble and he shall be erect in the world to come Aruch acknowledgeth the same Gloss but he also brings another which seems of his own making That there is a just person who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mild or humble but there is also a just person who is not so Let him tell if he can what kind of just person that should be that is not mild or humble But to return to our business II. They divide the just into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are just and no more and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are perfectly just Under the first rank they place those that were not always upright but having lived a wicked and irreligious life have at length betaken themselves to repentance and reformation These they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penitents Under the latter rank are they placed who have been always upright and never declined from the right way These they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfectly just and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just from their first original As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy or good men and men of good works Such an one did he account himself and probably was so esteem'd by others that saith these all have I kept from my youth c c c c c c Matth. XIX 20. And such an one might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy man be thought d
not own that there is some indication of it in the Law he denies a fundamental So that whereas Moses seemed not clearly and in terminis to express himself as to the Resurrection the Sadducees would not admit it as an article of their Faith though something like it may have occur'd in the Prophets so long as those expressions in the Prophets may be turn'd to some other sense either Historical or Allegorical But if they had apprehended any thing plain and express in the Books of Moses the Prophets also asserting and illustrating the same thing I cannot see why we should not believe they were receiv'd by them It is something of this kind the passage now in hand where we find the Samaritan woman using the word Messias which though it is not to be met with in the Books of Moses yet Moses having clearly spoken of his coming whom the Prophets afterward signaliz'd by the name of the Messias this foundation being laid the Sadducees and the Samaritans do not stick to speak of him in the same manner and under the same title wherein the Prophets had mention'd him But then what kind of conceptions they had of the person Kingdom and days of the Messiah whether they expected the fore-runner Elias or the Resurrection of the dead at his coming as the Scribes and Pharisees did is scarcely credible VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They marvel'd that he talked with the woman THEY marvel he should talk with a woman much more with a Samaritan woman z z z z z z Erubhim fol. 53. 2. R. Jose the Galilaean being upon a journey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am much mistaken if it should not be writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found Berurea in the way to whom he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what way must we go to Lydda She answered O thou foolish Galilean have not the wise men taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not multiply discourse with a woman Thou oughtest only to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way to Lydda Upon what occasion this woman should be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berurea is not our business at present to enquire but that the Reader may know something of her she was the wife of R. Meir a learned woman and a teacher her self a a a a a a Juchasin fol. 40. 2. His wife Berurea was a wise woman of whom many things are related in Avodah Zarah Another story we have of her b b b b b b Erubhin ubi supr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berurea found a certain Scholar reading mutteringly and spurn'd at him c. c c c c c c Kiddushin fol. 7â— 1 Samuel saith they do not salute a woman at all d d d d d d Bâ—mid ir rabba fol. 135. 4. A certain Matron askt R. Eleazar why when the sin of the Golden Calf was but one only should it be punisht with a threefold kind of death he answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a woman ought not to be wise above her Distaff Saith Hyrcanus to him because you did not answer her a word out of the Law she will keep back from us three hundred measures of Tythes yearly but he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the words of the Law be burn'd rather than committed to women e e e e e e Vid. Joma fol â—6 2 Ibid. fol. 240. 2. Let no one talk with a woman in the street no not with his own wife VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Left her water-pot T WAS kindly done to leave her water-pot behind her that Jesus and his Disciples whom she now saw come up to him might have wherewithal to drink VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who hath told me all things that ever I did c. THIS passage doth something agree with the Jewish notion about their Messiah's smelling f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 93. 2. It is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shall make him of quick scent or smell in the fear of the Lord Isa. XI 3. Rabba saith he shall be of quick scent and shall judg as it is written he shall not judg by the sight of his eyes c. Ben Cozibah reign'd two years and an half and said to the Rabbins I am the Messiah They say unto him it is said of the Messiah that he shall be of quick scent and shall judg let us see if you can smell and judg which when he could not do they killed him The Samaritan woman perceiv'd that Jesus had smelt out all her clandestine wickednesses which she had perpetrated out of the view of men for which very reason she argu'd it with her self that this must be the Messiah And by her report her fellow Citizens are encourag'd to come and see him They see him hear him invite him receive and entertain him and believe in him Is it not probable therefore that they as well as the Jews might have expected the coming of the Messiah about this time if so whence should they learn it from the Jews or from the Book of Daniel VERS XXXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are yet four months and then cometh the harvest THE beginning of the harvest that is the barley-harvest was about the middle of the month Nisan Consult Levit. XXIII 10 c. Deut. XVI 9. Bava Mezia fol. 106. 2. Half Tisri all Marheshvan and half Cisleu is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seeds time Half Cisleu whole Tebeth and half Shebat is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the winter Half Shebat whole Adar and half Nisan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the winter solstice Half Nisan all Ijar and half Sevan is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the harvest Half Sivan all Tammuz and half Ab is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Summer Half Ab all Elul and half Tisri is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great heat They sow'd the wheat and spelt in the month Tisri and Marheshvan and so onward Targ. upon Eccles. XI 2. Give a good portion of thy seed to thy field in the month Tisri and withhold thou not from sowing also in Cisleu They sow'd barley in the months Shebat and Adar i i i i i i Gloss. in Râ—sh hashanab fol. 16. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lateward seed or that which is hid and lieth long in the earth the wheat and the spelt which do not soon ripen are sown in Marheshvan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the early seed the barley which soon ripens is sown in Shebat and Adar k k k k k k Menacoth fol. 85. 1. They sow seventy days before the Passover The Barley therefore the hope of an harvest to come after four months was not yet committed to the ground and yet our Saviour saith Behold the fields are already white unto the harvest Which thing being a little observ'd will help to illustrate the words and design of
almost with one consent do note that this story of the woman taken in adultery was not in some ancient Copies and whiles I am considering upon what accident this should be there are two little stories in Eusebius that come to mind The one we have in these words a a a a a a Hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Papias tells us also another History concerning a woman accus'd of many crimes before our Lord which History indeed the Gospel according to the Hebrews makes mention of All that do cite that story do suppose he means this adulteress The other he tells us in his life of Constantine b b b b b b Lib. 4. cap. 36. he brings in Constantine writing thus to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I think good to signifie to your prudence that you would take care that fifty Volumes of those Scriptures whose preparation and use you know so necessary for the Church and which beside may be easily read and carryed about may by very skilful pen-men be written out in fair parchment So indeed the Latin Interpreter but may we not by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand the Gospels compacted into one body by way of Harmony the reason of this conjecture is twofold partly those Eusebian Canons form'd into such a kind of Harmony partly because cap. 37. he tells us that having finisht his work he sent to the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 threes and fours which words if they are not to be understood of the Evangelists sometimes three sometimes four the greater number including the less imbody'd together by such an harmony I confess I cannot tell what to make of them But be it so that it must not be understood of such an Harmony and grant we further that the Latin Interpreter hits him right when he supposes Eusebius to have pickt out here and there according to his pleasure and judgment some parts of the Holy Scriptures to be transcribed surely he would never have omitted the Evangelists the noblest and the most profitable part of the New Testament If therefore he ascrib'd this story of the Adulteress to the Trisler Papias or at least to the Gospel according to the Hebrews only without doubt he would never insert it in Copies transcribed by him Hence possibly might arise the omission of it in some Copies after Eusebius his times It is in Copies before his age viz. in Ammonius Tatianus c. VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went to the mount of Olives BUT whether to the Town of Bethany or to some Booth fixed in that mount is uncertain For because of the infinite multitude that had swarm'd together at those Feasts it is probable many of them had made themselves Tents about the City that they might not be too much streightned within the walls though they kept within the bounds still of a Sabbaths-days journey c c c c c c Gloss. in Pesachin fol. 95. 2. And thou shalt turn in the morning and go into thy Tents Deut. XVI 7. The first night of the Feast they were bound to lodg within the City after that it was lawful for them to abide without the walls but it must be within the bounds of a Sabbath-days journey whereas therefore it is said Thou shalt go into thy Tents this is the meaning of it Thou shalt go into thy Tents that are without the walls of Jerusalem but by no means into thine own house d d d d d d Vid. Aben Ezra in Deut. XVI It is said Chap. VII That every one went to his own house ver 53. upon which words let that be a Comment that we meet with e e e e e e Pische Tosaphoth in Sanhedr Artic. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the daily evening sacrifice the fathers of the Sanhedrin went home The eighth day therefore being ended the History of which we have in Chap. VII the following night was out of the compass of the Feast so that they had done the dancings of which we have spoken before The Evangelist therefore does not without cause say that every one went to his own house for otherwise they must have gone to those dancings if the next day had not been the Sabbath VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A woman taken in Adultery OUR Saviour calls that generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Adulterous Generation Mat. XII 39. See also Jam. IV. 4. which indeed might be well enough understood in its literal and proper sense f f f f f f Sotah fol. 47. 1. From the time that murderers have multiplied amongst us the beheading of the Heifer hath ceased and since the encrease of Adultery the bitter waters have been out of use g g g g g g Maimon in Satah cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Since the time that Adultery so openly prevailed under the second Temple the Sanhedrin abrogated that way of tryal by the bitter water grounding it upon what is written I will not visit your Daughters when they shall go a whoring nor your Wives when they shall commit Adultery The Gemarists say that Rabban Jochanan ben Zacchai was the Author of this Counsel he lived at this very time and was of the Sanhedrin perhaps present amongst those that set this Adulterous Woman before Christ. For there is some reason to suppose that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scribes and Pharisees here mentioned were no other than the Fathers of the Sanhedein VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That such should be stoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such Who what all Adulteresses or all taken in Adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act There is a third qualification still For the condition of the Adulteress is to be considered whether she was a married Woman or betrothed only God punisheth Adultery by death Levit. XX. 10. but the Masters of Traditions say That wherever death is simply mentioned in the Law that is where the kind of death is not expressly prescribed there it is to be supposed no other than strangling Only they except 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Daughter of an Israelite if she commit Adultery after she is married must be strangled if only betrothed she must be stoned A Priest's Daughter if she commit Adultery when married must be stoned if only betrothed she must be burnt * * * * * * Sanhedr fol. 51. 2. Hence we may conjecture what the condition of this Adulteress was either she was an Israelitess not yet married but betrothed only or else she was a Priests Daughter married rather the former because they say Moses in the Law hath commanded us that such should be stoned See Deut. XXII 21. But as to the latter there is no such command given by Moses VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iesus stooped down and wrote on the ground
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that comfort ought to sit no where but upon the floor II. The mourner himself sits chief A custom taken from these words Job XXIX 25. I chose out their way and sate chief Like him who comforts the mourners Ibid. III. It was not lawful for the comforters to speak a word till the mourner himself break silence first The pattern taken from Job's friends Job II. IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Johanan saith if the mourner nod his head the comforters are to sit by him no longer The Gloss is If by nodding his head he signifie to them that he hath comforted himself Hence that frequently said of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would not receive comfort that is they gave signs by nodding their head that they had sufficiently comforted themselves These and many other things about this matter do occur in Moed Katon and Rabbenu Asher and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Treatise as also in Massecheth Semachoth where by the way take notice that that Treatise which hath for its subject the Mourners for the dead is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Treatise of gladness So the Sepulchres of the dead are often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Houses of the living Let us take a little taste of the way of consolation they used x x x x x x Moed Katon fol. 28. 2 The Rabbins deliver that when the Sons of R. Ishmael dyed four of the Elders went in to him to comfort him viz. R. Tarphon R. Jose the Galilean R. Eliezer ben Azariah and R. Akibah R. Tarphon saith unto them Ye must know that this is a very wise man well skilled in Exposition Let not any of you interrupt the words of his fellow Saith R. Akibah I am the last R. Ishmael began and said the mourner here breaks silence His iniquities are multipled his griefs have bound him and he hath wearied his Masters Thus he said once and again Then answered R. Tarphon and said It is said and your brethren of the House of Israel shall bewail the burning Levit. X. 6. May we not argue from the less to the greater If Nadab and Abihu who never performed but one command as it is written and the Sons of Aaron brought blood to him then much more may the Sons of R. Ismael be bewailed R. Jose the Galilean answered saying All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him 1 Kings XIV 13. And must we not argue from the greater to the less If they wept so for Abijah the Son of Jeroboam who did but one good thing as it is said because in him there is found some good thing how much more for the Sons of R. Ismael Of the same nature are the words of R. Eliezar and R. Akibah but this is enough either to raise laughter or make a man angry In the same page we have several forms of speech used by the Women that either were the mourners or the comforters As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grave is as the robe of Circumcision to an ingenuous man whose provisions are spent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The death of this man is as the death of all and Diseases are like putting money to usury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He ran and he fell in his passage and hath borrowed a loan With other passages very difficult to be understood The first three days of weeping were severer than the other because on the first day it was not lawful for the mourner to wear his Phylacteries to eat of holy things nor indeed to eat any thing of his own All the three days he might do no servile work no not privately and if any one saluted him he was not to salute him again The first seven days let all the beds in the house be laid low Let not the man use his Wife Let him not put on his Sandals Let him do no servile work publickly Let him not salute any man Let him not wash himself in warm water nor his whole body in cold Let him not anoint himself Let him not read in the Law the Mishneh or the Talmud Let him cover his head All the thirty days let him not be shaved Let him not wear any clothing that is white or whitened or new Neither let him sew up those rents which he made in his garments for the deceased party c. y y y y y y Rambam in Moed Katon cap. ult VERS XXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Resurrection BE It so O Jew if you will or it can be that the little bone Luz in the back-bone is the seed and principle of your resurrection As to us our blessed Jesus who hath raised himself from the dead is the spring and principle of ours z z z z z z Midr. Coheleth fol. 114. 3 Hadrian whose bones may they be ground and his name blotted out asked R. Joshuah ben Hananiah How doth a man revive again in the world to come He answered and said From Luz in the back-bone Saith he to him demonstrate this to me Then he took Luz a little bone out of the back bone and put it in water and it was not steeped He put it into the fire and it was not burnt he brought it to the mill and that could not grind it He laid it on the Anvil and knocked it with an Hammer but the Anvil was cleft and the Hammer broken c. Why do ye not maul the Sadducees with this Argument VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Followed her a a a a a a Erubhin fol 18. 2. IT is a tradition Let not a man follow a Woman upon the way no not his own Wife If this grain of Salt may be allowed in the explication of this passage then either all that followed Mary were Women or if men they followed her at a very great distance or else they had a peculiar dispensation at such solemn times as these which they had not in common conversation But the observation indeed is hardly worth a grain of salt VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he hath been dead four days THE three days of weeping were now past and the four days of Lamentation begun so that all hope and expectation of his coming to himself was wholly gone b b b b b b Massecheth Semacoth cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They go to the Sepulchres and visit the dead for three days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither are they solicitous lest they should incur the reproach of the Amorites The story is they visited a certain person and he revived again and lived five and twenty years and then dyed They tell of another that lived again and begot Children and then died c c c c c c Beresh rabba fol. 114. 3. It is a Tradition of Ben Kaphrae's The very height of mourning is not till the third day For three days the spirit wanders about the Sepulchre expecting if it may
exercise his power and strength to the utmost of what he either could or would because he knew his Champion Christ was strong enough not only to bear his assaults but to overcome them III. He was to overcome not by his Divine power for how easie a matter were it for an omnipotent God to conquer the most potent created Being but his victory must be obtain'd by his obedience his righteousness and his holiness IV. Here then was the rise of that trouble and agony of Christs soul that he was presently to grapple with the utmost rage of the Devil the Divine power in the mean time suspending its activity and leaving him to manage the conflict with those weapons of obedience and righteousness only It was about this therefore that that petition of our Saviour and the answer from Heaven was concern'd which may be gather'd from what follows ver 31. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out Now is my soul troubled saith he and what shall I say It is not convenient for me to desire to be saved from this hour for for this very purpose did I come that therefore which I would beg of thee O Father is that thou wouldst glorifie thy name thy promise thy decree against the Devil lest he should boast and insult The answer from Heaven to this prayer is I have already glorify'd my name in that victory thou formerly obtainedst over his temptations in the wilderness and I will glorifie my name again in the victory thou shalt have in this combat also Luk. IV. 13. When the Devil had ended all his temptations he departed from him for a season He went away baffled then but now he returns more insolent and much more to be conquer'd And thus now the third time by a witness and voice from Heaven was the Messiah honoured according to his Kingly office As he had been according to his Priestly office when he enter'd upon his Ministry at his Baptism Mat. III. 17. and according to his Prophetick office when he was declar'd to be him that was to be heard Mat. XVII 5. compared with Deut. XVIII 15. VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince of this world a sort of phrase much us'd by the Jewish Writers and what they mean by it we may gather from such passages as these l l l l l l Sanbedr fol. 94. 1. When God was about to make Hezekiah the Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Prince of the world to him O eternal Lord perform the desire of this just one Where the Gloss is The Prince of this world is the Angel into whose hands the whole world is delivered Who this should be the Masters tell out m m m m m m Bemidb. rabâ— fol. 277. 4. When the Law was deliver'd God brought the Angel of death and said unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole world is in thy power excepting this Nation only the Israelites which I have chosen for my self R. Eliezer the Son of R. Jose the Galilean saith The Angel of death said before the Holy blessed God I am made in the world in vain The Holy blessed God answered and said I have created thee that thou shouldst overlook 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nations of the world excepting this Nation over which thou hast no power l l l l l l Beresh rabb fol. 86. 4. If the Nations of the world should conspire against Israel the Holy blessed God saith to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Prince could not stand before Jacob c. Now the name of the Angel of Death amongst them is Samael m m m m m m Targ. Jonath in Gen. III. 6. And the Woman saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Samael the Angel of death and she was afraid c. The places are infinite where this name occurs amongst the Rabbins and they account him the Prince of the Devils n n n n n n Ellâ—h haddâ—bharin rabba fol. 302. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wicked Angel Samael is the Prince of all Satans The Angel of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He who hath the power of death that is the Devil Heb. II. 14. They call indeed Beelzebul the Prince of the Devils Matth. XII but that is under a very peculiar notion as I have shown in that place They conceive it to be Samael that deceived Eve So the Targumist before And so Pirke R. Eliezer o o o o o o Cap. 13. The Serpent what things soever he did and what words soever he uttered he did and uttered all from the suggestion of Samael Some of them conceive that it is he that wrastled with Jacob. Hence that which we have quoted already The Holy blessed God saith to the Nations of the World your Prince could not stand before him Your Prince that is the Prince of the Nations whom the Rabbins talk of as appearing to Jacob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the shape of Archilatro or a chief Robber And R. Chaninah bar Chama saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was the Prince of Esau i. e. the Prince of Edom. Now the Prince of Edom was Samael p p p p p p Gloss in Maccoth fol. 12. 1. They have a fiction that the seventy Nations of the world were committed to the government of so many Angels they will hardly allow the Gentiles any good ones which opinion the Greek Version favours in Deut. XXXII 8. When the most high divided the Nations into seventy say they when he separated the Sons of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God Over these Princes they conceive one Monarch above them all and that is Samael the Angel of Death the Arch-Devil Our Saviour therefore speaks after their common way when he calls the Devil the Prince of this World and the meaning of the phrase is made the more plain if we set it in opposition to that Prince whose Kingdom is not of this world that is the Prince of the world to come Consult Heb. II. 5. How far that Prince of the Nations of the world had exercised his tyranny amongst the Gentiles leading them captive into Sin and Perdition needs no explaining Our Saviour therefore observing at this time some of the Greek that is the Gentiles pressing hard to see him he joyfully declares that the time is coming on apace wherein this Prince must be unseated from his throne and tyranny And I when I shall be lifted up upon the cross and by my death shall destroy him who hath the power of Death then will I draw all Nations out of his dominion and power after me VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have heard out of the Law OUT of the Law that is as the phrase is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the words
hardned their faces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gloss renders it h h h h h h Moed Katon fol. 16. 1. He reproacheth the Messenger of the Sanhedrin More particularly i i i i i i â—rach Chaaiâ— cap. 359. Rambam of blessed memory saith For twenty four causes they Excommunicate either man or woman and these are they that are to be Excommunicated 1. He that vilifies a wise Man yea after his death 2. He that vilifies the Messenger of the Sanhedrin 3. He who calls his companion Servant 4. He that sets at nought one word of the Scribes There is no need to say he that sets at nought the Law 5. Who appears not at the day set him by the Bench. 6. Who submits not to the judgment of the Bench they excommunicate him till he do submit 7. Who keeps any hurtful thing for example a fierce Dog or a broken Ladder they excommunicate him till he put it away 8. Who sells his farm to a Heathen they excommunicate him until he take upon himself all the wrong which may thence come to an Israelite his neighbour 9. Who gives evidence against an Israelite before a Heathen Tribunal and by that Evidence wracks mony from him they excommunicate him until he pay it back again 10. A Butcher Priest who divides not a portion to the other Priest they excommunicate him until he gives it 11. Who profaneth the second Feast day of the Captivity although it be according to custom Of this day see Maimonides l l l l l l In Kiddush Hodesh cap. 5. 12. Who doth any servile work on the Passover Eve afternoon 13. Who mentioneth the name of God in vain either in an Oath or in Words 14. Who compels the people to eat the holy things out of the bounds 15. Who compels the people to prophane the Name of God 16. Who intercalates the year or months without the Land of Israel 17. Who lays a stumbling block before the blind 18. Who hinders the people from performing the precept 19. The Butcher who offers a torn beast 20. The Butcher who sheweth not his knife to a wise Man to be approved of 21. Who hardens himself against knowledge 22. Who hath put away his wife and yet hath partnership and dealing with her 23. A wise Man that lies under an ill fame 24. Who excommunicates him that deserves not excommunication These you have likewise in the Learned Buxtorph his Talmudick Lexicon in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niddui By how much the more carefully I look upon the causes and reasons of Excommunication so much the more I persist in my opinion that Excommunication was invented as a punishment for those faults for which no kind of punishment was decreed either by the Law or by any Traditional Canons Consider them singly and perhaps you will be of my opinion III. He against whom they were to proceed by Excommunication was first cited and a day set him wherein to appear by a Messenger sent him by the Bench which certified him of the day and of the persons before whom he was to appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m m m m m m Moed Katon fol. 16. 1. They appoint him the second day of the week on which day they sit in the Court and assemble in the Synagogue and the fifth day of the week on which day also there is an Assembly and a Session and the second of the week following If he appeared not on the day first appointed they look for him unto the day that was secondly appointed and thirdly appointed And this was when the case was about mony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if it were for Epicurism if he made not his appearance on the first day appointed they Excommunicate him without delay IV. They first struck him with simple Excommunication which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niddui in which there was not absolute cursing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n n n n n n Piske 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moed Katon art 55. In Niddui was not absolute cursing For they said only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let N. be under Excommunication V. This Excommunication was for thirty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Hieros Moed Katon fol. 81. 3 Excommunication Niddui was not less than for thirty days As it is said Until a month until the flesh come out of your nostrils Numb XI 20. But if the Excommunicated person appeased those that Excommunicated him within that time they absolve him forthwith VI. But if he persisted in his perversness the thirty days being ended they Excommunicate him again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adding also a curse And this second Excommunication they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shammatha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p p p p p p Bab. Moed Katon in the place before Whence is it that we Shammatize In that it is written Curse ye Meroz Judg. V. 23. Rabbenu Asher upon the place q q q q q q Fol. 34. 2. Barak Shammatized Meroz as it is written Curse ye Meroz which is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excommunication and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cursing for in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both Excommunication and Cursing VII They published his offence in the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r r r r r r Moed Katon in the place before We particularly publish his crime in the Synagogue The Gloss is They said to his fellow Citizens For this and this cause we Shammatize him VIII If he persist still for these thirty days in his perversness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They Anathematized him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They Excommunicate him and after thirty days they again Excommunicate Shammatize him and after sixty they Anathematize Rabbenu Asher s s s s s s In the place above saith They Anathematize saying Let him be under Anathema And this much more heavy than either Niddui or Shammatha For in this is both Excommunication and Cursing and the forbidding the use of any men unless in those things only which belong to the sustaining of life And they Anathematize not but when a man hath hardened himself against the Bench once and again IX They give the reason of these proceedings in Moed Katon t t t t t t In the place alledged in these words Whence is it that they send a messenger to him from the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the house of judgment Because it is written And Moses sent to Dathan and Abiram Whence is it that they summon him to judgment Because it is written And Moses said to Korah Be thou and all thy company present Whence is it that they cite him before some great and eminent man Because it is written Before the Lord. Whence is it that it is before N. or such a man Because it is writien Thou and they and Aaron Whence is it
of Christ is to all believers and all to every one As a million of men are in the Sun and one partakes not one of one part of his light and beams and another of another but every one of all So here as the first inhancement of the desirableness of justification it makes us partakers of Christs righteousness Oh what a treasure is this A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 17. 1664. JOHN VIII 9. And they being convinced by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last EVEN so be it with all that deal in falshood as these persons do that are spoken of by the Text. So be it with every one who at this time and occasion when Conscience should be stirring and doing its just work toward the forwarding the execution of Justice can find in his heart to hinder it or to perswade it to the contrary Any one that can swallow down and choak his Conscience with a false Oath any one that shall intend a false Testimony lay in a false accusation or maintain a wrong cause Awake Conscience awake and do thy duty fly in his face and make him blush and be ashamed admonish chastise correct and hinder him that he being convinced of his own Conscience may either get him out or at least it may get him off from being so injurious to others or to his own soul. There is hardly any Commentator upon the Gospel or this Chapter but he will tell you that this story of the adulterous woman was wanting and left out of some Greek Testaments in ancient time as appears by this that some of the Fathers setting themselves to expound this Gospel make no mention at all of any part of this story So Nonnus turning all this Gospel into Greek verse hath utterly left out this whole story and so hath the Syriac New Testament first printed in Europe and so Jerome tells us did some old Latine translations When I cast with my self whence this omission should proceed I cannot but think of two passages in Eusebius The one is in his third Book of Ecclesiastical History the very last clause in that Book where he relates that one Papias an old Tradition-monger as he characters him did first bring in this Story of the adulterous woman out of a book called the Gospel according to the Hebrews For so is that passage of Eusebius commonly understood The other is in his fourth Book of the Life of Constantine Chap. 36 37. Where he relates That Constantine enjoyned him and committed to his trust to get transcribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the last Translation renders fifty Copies of such parts of Scripture as he thought might be most useful for the Churches of Constantinople But his Greek expression seems rather to mean fifty Copies of the Gospel compacted into one body by way of Harmonizing them together which I am the rather induced to believe partly because of those Canones Eusebiani which are so famous and were in tendency to such a purpose partly because he relates that he finished the work according to the Emperors command and sent him the books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ternions quaternions which seems to mean three or four Evangelists compacted together according as they joyntly related the story Now if Eusebius believed that this story was introduced by Papias as he seems to do you may well conclude that he would be sure to leave out this story in all his fifty Copies which he thought unfit to be compiled with the Evangelical Story as having no better authority than the introduction of it by such a man Or if the ages before Eusebius were of the same belief with him in this matter you may see why this story might also be wanting in those times But I shall not trouble you about this matter which is now past all dispute For I believe it is hardly possible in all the World to find now a printed New Testament either in the Original Greek or in any other language either Eastern or Western wherein this story is not inserted without any question Nor had the thing been ever disputed if the story it self had bee searched to the botom for then of it self it would have vindicated its own authority to be Evangelical and Divine It tells of a Woman taken in adultery in the very Act I could easily be perswaded to say And in the very Temple too For as our Saviour saith They had made that House of prayer a den of Thieves so I doubt they made it sometimes a nest of Whores And at this time there was offered an extraordinary occasion and opportunity for such a lewdness For as the Chapter preceding tells you at vers 37. That the day next before this occurrence was the great and last of the Feast of Tabernacles so the Jews Records will tell you that that night as also others of the same Feast was spent by the chief men in the Nation in dancing singing sporting and even revelling in the Temple-Court vast companies of men and women looking on Now if such night-work as that did produce such a deed of darkness as this it was no wonder But I leave this as not asserted The Scribes and Pharisees bring this woman to Christ as he sat teaching in the Temple to have his sentence upon her as it is like she was first brought to them to have theirs If I should construe the Scribes and Pharisees here for the Members of the Sanhedrin or bench of Judicature it might plead the warrant of the words of our Saviour Matth. XXIII 2. where he useth the same expression in the same sence The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair i. e. the Sanhedrin sit in Moses Legislative Magistratical seat As also the warrant of his words in this very story where asking the woman Hath no man condemned thee he seems to intimate that those that accused her had also power to judge and condemn her However it is well known that Scribes and Pharisees in Scripture language speak the men of the most eminency and dignity in the Nation They propose the case to Christ as a point of Scruple though they intend something worse in it This woman was taken in adultery in the very act Now Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou And indeed there were two scruples in the case One was as to a point in their Civil Law viz. whether a woman taken in the very act of Adultery might not have the benefit of Divorce as well as a woman deprehended an Adulteress by some other discovery since that permission of divorce was to mitigate the sharpness of the Law of putting her to death The second was as to a point of Civil Policy which you may pick out of their words to Pilate Joh. XVIII 31. The Jews said unto him It is not lawful for us to put any man to death It is very generally understood
stature of Christs mystical body the Church which was growing up from generation to generation and now when the Gentiles came in their full conflux was come to its full consistency and manhood And of the same body is his meaning in that obscure and much mistaken place Rom. VIII 23. And not only they i. e. the whole creation or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every creature which means no other thing than the Gentile or Heathen World not only they grone to come into the Evangelical liberty of the children of God but we also of the Jewish Nation who have the first fruits of the Spirit grone within our selves waiting for the redemption to wit the adoption of our body we wait for the redeeming and adopting of the Gentiles to make up our mystical body To the same sence is the meaning of the same Apostle in that also mistaken place Heb. XI ult That they without us should not be perfect He little means that they that believed before the coming of Christ were not perfectly saved as the Papists from thence would prove their Limbo But his meaning is they without us were not the perfect body of Christ but we under the Gospel came in to make that up nor they so perfect in the Doctrine of Salvation as under the revealing of the Gospel at our coming in So that this is the first thing That Christ saw good to bring his Church through various administrations II. Secondly Though the manner of administration were thus various yet the way of Salvation in them all but one and the same viz. by Faith in Christ as the Apostle plainly evidenceth in the Chapter just now cited Heb. XI As the brazen Oxen under the Laver their faces looked several ways but their hinder parts met in one centre under the Laver so these Administrations indeed looked divers ways without Law with Law with Prophets without Prophets without Gospel with Gospel yet agreed in all one and the same centre Faith in Jesus Christ. I have a large field before me to shew that all the holy ones that lived and died before Christ were saved by believing in Christ. But I shall confine my self to observe this by a rule of contraries namely thus It is something to be wondred at that in our reckoning the various administrations under which Christ brought his Church to glory we may not number the firstborn administration that was in the World and which one would think was the likeliest way to have brought to Heaven and that was the state of innocency But this we must except from the general rule and leave it quite out He that will observe shall find that Christ descended most of younger brothers and answerably Salvation descended not from this elder brother in Gods administration that state of innocency but something else had the birth-right Ruben lost it and it descended to Joseph It was never Gods intent to bring men to Salvation by the way of innocence in which Adam was created This appears plain enough by the Issue Nay did God bring the holy Angels to Salvation by the way of the perfection of their nature in which they were created Meerly being in Heaven doth not denominate Salvation The Angels that fell were there and it proved but little Heaven to them And merely beholding God face to face doth not denominate Salvation for we have no cause to think but the Angels that fell had beheld his face as well as they that stood but this is Salvation to behold him as he is and to be like unto him I Joh. III. 2. Like him not in infinity omnipotency ubiquity but like him in holiness holy as he is holy Now though Adam was like unto him by Creation being formed in his Image and the Angels like unto him by Creation as eminently also carrying the same Image yet herein both come short of that Image that doth consummate the Saints and Angels in glory viz. that though they were perfectly holy by Creation yet they were not unchangeably holy for unchangeableness was not to be found in created nature And what the holy Man in the book of Job saith concerning Wisdom we may say concerning immutability Where is unchangeableness to be found and where is the place of immutability The Sea saith it is not in me and the Earth saith it is not in me Men say it is not in us the Angels say it is not in us but the Truth saith it is only in God Therefore to bring Men and Angels into the Estate of Glory that set Infinity aside they should be like unto God perfectly holy and unchangeably holy as God is holy eternally holy as God is holy it was needful not to leave them bottomed only upon the excellency of their created natures be that never so excellent but to ingraff and as I may say incorporate them even into the unchangeable God himself the Lord Christ. The Saints in glory are unchangeable how Both in nature and affection their estate unchangeable yea their very thoughts which were so unfixed and fluid become unchangeable They are so infinitely ravished with the beauty and love of God in beholding him as he is that they cannot turn the least thought away or aside from him And they are so ingraffed and united into Christ that the corruptibleness of them being now laid aside they are become unchangeable as Christ himself is unchangeable The Angels that fell wanted this uniting so that though they beheld the face of God yet their hearts turned away from him because they had no other uniting to God then what lay in their own created holiness which was changeable and soon changed So that I say God never intended to bring man to Salvation by the way of created innocency because he intends to glorifie grace and not nature and to bottom all that were to be saved upon Christ and not on themselves It may seem strange that Adam when his wife had brought in sin and death into the World should name her Eve life whereas before he had only named her Woman Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said unto him Call me not life but call me death and misery for I have been the unhappy introducer of both But Adam had now heard of Christ he had received his promise and laid hold on it and found a better life now by him than before And to this refers that in Joh. 1. 4. In him was life and that life was the light of men In the verse next before he had said All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was Then had all living things that were created their life from him What need he then to add in him was life Namely because he intends that life in Christ that we are speaking of Which life he saith was the light of men And the light shone in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not Life in Christ held out in the promise to
tyranny in the one and the Jews malice and mischievousness in the other and upon the full view the Roman and the Jew conspiring together and becoming guilty of this horridest fact that ever was committed under the Sun the murthering of the Lord of life and glory Let us begin first with Pilate who stands first in mention in the Text as he stands representative of Rome whose authority he carried and whose Tyranny in this case he exercised Methinks there is hardly a more remarkable passage in the whole book of the Revelations then that Chap. XIII 2. The Dragon gave his power and seat and great authority unto the Beast Which in plain English is this The Devil gave his power and seat and great authority to Rome For that by the Dragon is meant the Devil there is none but grant and that by the Beast is meant Rome even Romanists themselves do not deny When you read that passage in S. Luke IV. 5 6. that the Devil shewed our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them do you not presently conceive that he shewed him Rome her Empire and Glory For then where was the pomp and glory of the World but within that City and Empire And when you read that he said unto him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them do you not presently conceive that he offered to make him Caesar or Lord of that vast Empire if he would fall down and worship him And how pat do these words of his for that is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give them agree with these in the Revelations The Dragon gave his power and seat and great authority unto the beast It neither is nor indeed could be said so of the other Monarchies or Empires that had gone before It is not said the Dragon gave his power to the Babylonian Empire nor to the Persian nor Grecian nor Syrogrecian nor indeed could it be so truly and pertinently said so concerning them as concerning Rome For the Dragon had a business for Rome to do which the other neither did nor could do for him which was to put the Lord of life to death The old Serpent knew from of old that he was to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman that he was to compass the death of Messias and it was reserved to Rome and her power and tyranny to be the instrument of such an action and the Dragon gave his power seat and authority to that City for that purpose that it might do his business in murthering Christ and his members after him Pilate who carried with him the authority and commission of that City confessed him innocent and yet condemned him pleaded for him that he was not guilty and yet crucified him and that mainly upon the account of Rome and for her sake because forsooth there must be no King but Caesar or who was set up or kinged by Caesar. In Revel XI 8. where mention is made of slaying the two witnesses it is said their dead carcasses shall lie in the streets of that great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified The last clause where also our Lord was crucified may seem to direct your eyes to Jerusalem but the title The great City which Chap. XVII ult is defined The great City which ruleth over the Kings of the Earth calls them back again to look at Rome as our Lords crucifier by whom that work must be done or not done at all for to such a tenour do the Jews tell Pilate in the Text when they say It is not lawful for us Before ever I should turn Romanist I must be satisfied in this scruple and question How comes the Jew and Jerusalem so cursed a Place and Nation for the murther of our Lord and the Romanist and Rome so blessed as to be the holy mother Church of all the World when that City and Nation had as deep and bloody a hand in the murther of the Saviour of the World as the other if not deeper I remember the story of one of the Grand Seigniors that when he had received a foul and base foil before a poor and contemptible Town Scodra if I mistake not the name for very rancour and vexation and that he might be whetting on himself continually to revenge he commanded him that waited nearest on him to be minding him continually with these words Remember Scodra May I be so bold as to hint such a memorandum to you against Rome As oft as you read or rehearse or hear rehearsed that article in our Creed He suffered under Pontius Pilate Remember Rome and that under that it was our Saviour suffered and the article minds you of so much and if it were not intended for such a memorandum had it not been enough to have said He suffered without any mention of Pontius Pilate at all Let us reason with the Romanist a little after the manner of his own Logick He argues thus Peter was at Rome and sat Bishop there and suffered martyrdom and died there Ergo Rome is the mother Church and head of all Churches We argue in like manner Pilate was at Jerusalem sat Judge there condemned and crucified the Lord of life there and that by the Power and Authority of Rome Ergo let Rome look to it how she clears her self of that fact and guiltiness And so I have done with the first party in mention in the Text Pilate and he invested with the Roman authority The other party are the Jews more peculiarly the Sanhedrin invested also wiâ—â— the Jewish power and Representatives of the whole Nation How busie and active the Jews were in this bloody business needs no illustration of mine the Sacred pens of the Evangelists have done that abundantly Only I might speak to this circumstance and not impertinent question whether the Jews did not indeed think him to be the Messias and yet murthered him Pilate condemned him though he knew him innocent and did not they murther him though they knew him to be the very Christ Methinks that passage in the Parable of the husbandmen in the Vineyard speaks very fairly for the Affirmative Matth. XXI 38. When the husband men saw the Son they said this is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance They knew him to be the heir and yet they kill him nay they kill him because they know him to be the heir and that by killing him they shall get the inheritance It is said indeed they knew him not Act. XIII 27. which if you interpret that they knew not the dignity of his person and that he was God as well as man the Jews will not be perswaded of the Godhead of Messias to this day that does not deny but that they might take him for the Messias howsoever But I shall not dispute this case If they took him for Messias they thought he was not
be dissolved Any one may be ready to say upon it as Ahab doth to Benhadad That which my Lord sent to me for at the first I will do but this second thing I cannot do The first thing proposed To look for the day of God I shall willingly agree to but to hasten the day of God this is a hard saying For who as the Judge standeth before the door dare invite him in Who dares say as Laban to Abrahams servant Come in thou blessed of the Lord come in why standest thou without The generality of men thinketh the day of God hasteneth fast enough of it self and that there is little need to hasten it And yet that very consideration is a great perswasive so to do I am sure it is so argued Matth. XXV Behold the Bridegroom cometh go forth to meet him Not sit still till he come up to you for he is coming but because he is coming go forth to meet him It was a noble confidence and valour in David that when Goliath came out against him he ran and made hast to meet him And he had but coursely incountred that great giant had he not had that confidence and valour That man or woman will but coldly incounter death and judgment that sit still till death and judgment come upon them and never make out to meet them that when the Judge stands at the door have no mind of his entring and coming in It were worth disputing how far a good man may be willing to die or how far unwilling but I shall not enter upon that at this time It is past all dispute that every one should be preparing to die and to meet the Judge when he cometh He standeth at the door it is happy to be prepared against he cometh in Let us all leave our thank-offerings at the Judges altar for his great patience and long-suffering towards us that he is still standing at the door and hath not broken in upon us that his Patience is not outwearied by us after our so great exercising of it And let us ever carry the words of the Text sounding in our ears and hearts That the Judge standeth at the door beholding all our actions beholding all our hearts noting and observing all we do to demand an account of us at his day of Judgment A SERMON PREACHED AT S. MARIES Cambridge Octob. 7. 1655. MATTH XXVIII 19. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost SEven things may be taken notice of from these words at first sight I. A permission and commission to bring the Gospel among the Gentiles The Apostles had been tied up before Matth. X. 5. Jesus sent forth the twelve and commanded them saying Go not into the way of the Gentiles But now he inlargeth them II. The end of this inlargement to bring the Gentiles in to be Disciples So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as we shall see anon III. The way to initiate them for Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make them Disciples by baptizing them IV. The form of the administration of Baptism In nomine Patris c. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost V. This is the fourth establishment of Baptism The first was in the hand of John Secondly Christ himself was baptized Thirdly The Disciples baptized in his Name Joh. III. 22. Joh. IV. 2. Fourthly Here in the Text is the full establishment of it VI. The Doctrine of the Trinity is in the Text and professed in every Baptism VII The Office of Ministers To teach and administer the Sacraments Two Heresies especially misconstrue this Text Anabaptism and Socinianism For I must call that Heresie that unchurches all Churches and ungods God I shall not intangle my self in these disputes only consider the sense and propriety of the Text as before us and that in these parts named First I shall consider the Apostles commission to fetch in the Gentiles This is called a Mystery Ephes. III. 4 5 6 c. Whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the Mystery of Christ. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel c. This is the great business in the Prophets To bring thy sons from far All the Ends of the Earth shall see the Salvation of God c. In a word this is a great monument of the Riches of grace that when the Gentiles had lain rejected so long as two and twenty hundred years so deep as to commit all sin and not know of sin so inslaved as to adore Devils so far from the means of grace as that they never heard of it yet not length of time depth of sin power of Satan nor vastness of distance could hinder the light of the Gospel breaking in upon them O! the heighth depth bredth and length of the grace of God! Here is a large field to consider this Grace As first how the Gospel was slighted by the Jews yet this Grace was not worn out of patience but God sends it also to the Gentiles And secondly how it was brought to them that cared not to come to it I might speak here of our share of this grace who were Heathen It was good tidings to all people as to the Romans Chap. I. 6. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ But I shall keep close to the words of the Text. I shall observe two things concerning this Commission I. The time when this Commission was given II. The work which the Apostles were to do by vertue of this Commission First The time Christ being now risen And the reasons why Christ took this time to deliver this Commission to his Apostles were these 1. One reason of it appears in the word Therefore In the 18 vers All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore All power as Mediator He dispenced things before after his own Will by vertue of his Soverainty Rom. IX 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy But add to this that now he had paid a price for the Heathens he had earned his wife as Jacob had conquered Satan that had them captive had exhibited a Righteousness to save the wickedest where they would apply it had broken down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile In Ephes. II. 13 14. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our Peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us And in vers 15. he shews you how Having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the Law of commandments contained in Ordinances c.
killed by a Lion V. That this poor man should suffer so severely for violating but one command of God Eat not and Jeroboam should escape so secure that had violated the greatest command in the two Tables Thou shalt have none other Gods but me and Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image This poor man is induced to sin by another and that by ignorance and he speeds so sore and Jeroboam induceth all Israel to sin and that wilfully and yet he is Jovial and feels and fears no dangers VI. It is something obscure what this old Prophet of Bethel was a true Prophet or a false a good or a bad If a true Prophet why did he lie to him If a false how could he foretel him of his end He was a true Prophet and this poor good man knew that he was a true Prophet and the lie that he told was not with intention of any hurt to him but an officious lie to perswade him to go home with him He desired to have the company of this good man and to give him some entertainment at his house He sees no arguments will perswade him therefore he minteth that lie that an Angel had spoken to him and commanded him to bring him back and so is the poor man deceived and undone In this story of his fatal end we may first consider a little upon the instrument of his death a Lion and then concerning his death and fate it self I. A Lion met him and slew him How much praise have you in Scripture of the Land I. of Canaan that it was the pleasant Land the glory of all Lands Ezek. XX. 15. The Land flowing with milk and honey in multiudes of places A Land upon which the eye of the Lord was from one end of the year to the other A Land of Vineyards and Olive-yards c. And yet how sadly and dangerously was that Land infested with ravenous cruel wild beasts Where almost might a man be safe Samson walking by the vineyard of Timnah a Lion sets upon him and had served him as this Lion served this poor man if he had not met with his match and Samson had been too hard for him And a Lion and a Bear ravin upon Davids flock and had rob'd him of a Lamb and Kid had not he also been too strong for them But every one was not so As Jacob doubted concerning Joseph Certainly an evil beast hath devoured him undoubtedly my son Joseph is so dead What a sad havock was it when about this very place Bethel where the Lion destroys this Peophet two she-Bears at one clap tear in pieces two and forty Children And that passage is very remarkable in the story concerning the battel betwixt Davids men and Absaloms in the wood of Ephraim 2 Sam. XVIII 8. The battel was scattered over the face of all the Country and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured The wood devoured How Why the Lions and Bears and ravenous beasts that were in the wood they pickt the men up as they were scattered up and down and made a greater slaughter than the sword It is something obscure that which is said Deut. VII 22. The Lord thy God will put out these Nations before thee by little and little thou mayst not consume them at once lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee And among other things that might be inquired upon it this might be one why God did not drive out the wild beasts out of the Land as well as he drove the Canaanites out And the answer might be various I. That he might shew that there is no absolute quiet and happiness and security to be expected here Canaan the choice Country upon Earth the only paradise on this side Heaven and yet even Canaan is not without its inconvenience and molestation There were Gardens and Orchards and Vine-yards and Olive-yards but it may be a Lion or Bear lurking in them there was all pleasure and plenty but there were wild and ravenous beasts ranging abroad that one could never say I will walk without danger So would God teach them that it was not their earthly Canaan that they were to look after but they must look higher if they would look for rest and quiet and secure habitation A man sat under his Vine or under his Fig-tree it may be on a suddain a wild beast rusheth upon him and he scapes narrowly if he scape devouring A man is binding sheaves in the field or a woman gleaning and suddainly a Lion or Bear is at their back that there is but a span betwixt them and death if there proved so much This was a very evincing lesson that absolute quiet and safety was not to be had there for all the bravery of the Land but that they must look for another Land of promise if they would be perfectly safe quiet and free from danger II. These wild and ravenous beasts in the Land were as it were a rod or scourge ready in the hand of God to whip transgressors withal as he saw cause as he did this poor transgressor in the Text. And he reckons them among the Plagues and punishments that he used to avenge himself by upon the rebellious Ezek. XIV 15. If I cause noisom beasts to pass through the Land and they spoil it so that it be desolate that no man may pass through because of the noisom beasts And vers 21. How much more when I send my four sore iudgments upon Jerusalem the sword and the famine and the noisom beast and the pestilence You have some emblem of a man persecuted with noisom beasts Amos V. 19. A man flees from a Lion and a Bear meets him and he gets home and leans his head upon the wall and a Serpent bites him And you have a real example of it 2 King XVII 25. They feared not the Lord therefore the Lord sent Lions among them which slew some of them And God doth give this as a promise of a singular blessing Levit. XXVI 6. I will give peace in the land and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will rid evil beasts out of the land And how can we choose but remember the mercy of God to this our Land in this particular That no such ravenous dangerous beasts do range in our Nation if men themselves would not be Wolves and Bears and Lions one to another A man may take his journey and never fear being set upon by any wild beast No father sending out his son needs to fear any evil beast devouring him and no mother hath cause to weep with the women of Bethel for their children torn in pieces by he or she-Bears God hath so blessed our Land that such dangers are least feared of us We see no Lions or bears unless it be under grates and bars It is to be bemoaned with tears that we are such Lions and Bears and brute beasts one to another
them and to begin with the former I must begin with clearing a scruple or objection or discouragement T is true will an afflicted people and person say that in the times of the Old Testament God did determine the time of his peoples affliction but we can find no such determination now The affliction in Egypt determined to four hundred years Gen. XV. 13. And though the time were long yet they knew when it would expire and there might be the more patient bearing because the end was known and the end would come So for their wandring in the wilderness God told them before that it should be forty years and they might the more contentedly bear it because they saw some shore and knew that that calamity would last but to such a time So the affliction upon Judah by Israel or Ephraim it was told before hand that it should last so long and no longer Esa. VII 8. Within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people What need I speak of the Captivity in Babylon told of before and limited to seventy years and no longer And these miseries of the people in the Text it is told them before that they should expire at the end of a thousand three hundred thirty five days But now there is no such prediction no such limitation that men can know of Poor afflicted Christians may take up that mournful Ditty Psal. LXXIV 9. There is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long We are afflicted oppressed trodden under foot and we cannot tell when these things will come to an end How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood c. is their cry Rev. VI. 10. But they cannot tell how long that How long will be Is not this some disadvantage to poor Christians above what those had in antient times that God hath not doth not certifie them before hand of the end of their calamities Their case seeming something like theirs Esa. LIX 10 11. We grope for the wall like the blind we grope as if we had no eyes We roar like bears and mourn sore like doves we look for salvation but cannot discover how far it is from us I shall not insist to discuss why God gave that people of Israel such revelations before hand of the term and date of their miseries and hath not imparted such forehand discoveries to his people now It is enough to say as the Apostle These things were done to them and are written before us for our learning that since he is the same God still that changeth not and hath the same regard of the afflictions of his own people yesterday and to day and the same for ever we might believe and be assured that the affliction of his people is determined now with him as well as then that he sets his period now as well as then that he numbers the days of it now as he does theirs in the Text. But what am I the better as to my comfort if I know not when this period date and time is set I remember the story of him that carrying a basket covered very close and being asked what was in it Answered It is covered so close purposely that none should ask or know what is in it And I remember withal the saying of our Saviour Act. I. 7. It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power That was spoken in the beginning of the going forth of the Gospel and may very well be taken notice of in all ages after It pleased God so to reveal the term and end of Israels affliction to them as being a peculiar people and a people of whom Christ should at last descend and they not fail from being a people till Christ was come of them Therefore when such calamities came upon them it pleased God to tell them still of the end of them that they might still bear up in their subsistence and expectation of Christ to come Let me observe these two things to you I. That you have some old women and barren till old bare children in some generations before Christ Elizabeth in the very half year before Christs birth but you read of no such thing after The reason whereof is because their supernatural child bearing was to make way to the belief of the supernatural child bearing of the Virgin Mary For thus may reason justly argue if these bear children when past the course of nature why not a Virgin beyond the course of nature But after the birth of Christ such births of old women ceased because in the birth of Christ that which they related to was fulfilled II. That the Holy Ghost draws up a Chronicle of times from the Creation to the Redemption from the beginning of time to the fulness of it viz. from the beginning of the World to the Death of Christ and there he leaves and counts the time no further save only that he mentions Pentecost fifty days after The reason whereof is because by links and links of time God would draw men on to observe how God was numbring and counting out times toward that great time of promise and expectation and to observe when that great matter was accomplished how faithful God was through all changes and vicissitudes of times to carry on that great promise Accordingly it pleased God in the time before that great work of Redemption to certifie his people oft when they fell into misery nay oft before how long the time of their affliction and oppression should be that still they might be carried on to look for deliverance and by the deliverance might still have an eye to the promise and be confirmed in the promise concerning deliverance by Christ. So Jacob foreseeing in Gen. XLIX 17. the great deliverance of Israel from the Philistins by Samson of the Tribe of Dan that he should be as a Serpent by the way and an Adder in the path that bites the Horse-heels that he throws his rider So he caught the heels of the Philistins Horse the posts of the house on which they were mounted and overthrew house and riders even three thousand I say Jacob foreseeing this presently cries out vers 18. O Lord I have waited for thy salvation His eyes look beyond that deliverance of Samson to the deliverance or salvation of Christ and in the sight of that Type his belief of that greater matter signified is confirmed So in this very thing we are speaking of Till Christ came God very frequently acquainted his people before hand of what times were to come upon them What miseries What deliverances What oppressions What deliverance Seventy years captivity in Babylon and then deliverance three years and half oppression under Antiochus and then deliverance and so in other examples that still in their afflictions their hearts might be held up patiently to wait Gods time of deliverance and the
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
the Justice of God that Christ was to satisfie and if he could not have done that then there would have been some reason he should have suffered his wrath The Justice of God challenged obedience of men or no coming to Heaven satisfaction for disobedience or they must to Hell Here is enough saith Christ to serve for both ends They have disobeyed here is obedience more than all their Disobediences do or can come to They cannot obey as they should here is that that makes it out viz. Obedience infinite III. The truth was that Christ had to deal with the wrath of the Devil but not at all with the wrath of God Consider but these passages and see what was the stress that Christ had to deal withal in his Passion First That Gen. III. 15. He shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Satan the seed of the woman shall destroy thee This is explained Heb. II. 14. For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil And then observe that Joh. XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me And Luke XXII 53. When I was daily with you in the Temple ye stretched forth no hands against me but this is your hour and the power of darkness While I preached there was a restraint upon you because my hour was not come but now you and Hell are let loose to have your full swing against me There was a Combate proposed in the sufferings of Christ before God and Angels Twixt whom Christ and the wrath of God No but twixt Christ and Satan and all his power What doth God in this quarrel Doth God fight against Christ too as well as the Devil Was his wrath against him as well as the Devils wrath What against his own Champion his own Son No he only tries him by affliction not overwhelms him with his wrath He only lets him alone to him to be the shock of Satan He little assists Satan by his wrath laid on his own Champion See the great Mystery of this great Dispensation in brief God had created the first Adam and endued him with abilities to have stood Thus endued he leaves him to stand of himself and permits Satan to tempt him and he overcomes him and all mankind are overthrown God raised up a second Adam endued with power to foil Satan do he his worst and not only with power to withstand Satan if he will but a will that could not but withstand Satan He sets him forth to encounter and leaves him to himself lets Satan loose to do his worst Satan vexeth him with all the vexation Hell could inflict upon him Did not God love his Son look with dear bowels upon him all this while It is a very harsh opinion to think that Christ undertaking the combate for the honour of God against his arch-enemy that obeying the Will of God even to the death that retaining his holiness unmoveable in the midst of all his tortures paying God an infinite obedience it is harsh I say to think that God should requite him with wrath and look upon him as a wretched damned person No it was the wrath of the Devil that Christ had to combate with not the wrath of God at all IV. Though Christ is said to bear sins yet for all that God did not look upon him any whit the more wrathfully or in displeasure but rather the more favourably because he would bear the sins of his people For God looked on Christ not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice and the Lord was not angry at him but loved him because he would become a Sacrifice Joh. X. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life Esa. LIII 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his Soul unto death Do those words speak the anger of God No his wel-pleasedness his rewarding him for that he would be numbred with transgressors being none but a Lamb without spot and blemish Some say That Christ was the greatest sinner murderer c. because he bare the sins of those that were so which words border upon blasphemy and speak besides a great deal of imprudence and inconsideration See Levit. XVI 21 22. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and consess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities Is it not sensless now to say That the Goat was the greatest sinner in Israel Was he any whit the more sinful because the sins of the people were put upon him And so of other sacrifices on whose heads hands were laid and sins put was the wrath of God upon the Sacrifice No the pleasure of God was upon it for attonement In such sense are those places to be taken Isa. LIII 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 1 Pet. II. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 2 Cor. V. 21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin He bare our sins not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice And that Joh. I. 29. makes it plain Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World As a Lamb at the Temple bare the sins of the people so Christ bare our sins How Was the Lamb guilty or sinful No as an attonement and sacrifice And so God looked on Christ as a Sacrifice well pleasing to him not as sinful at all Need we any more illustration Observe that Exod. XXVIII 36 38. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet Holiness to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aarons forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Holiness to the Lord because he bare iniquity It should rather have been Unholiness if Aaron had been any whit the more sinful for bearing the peoples iniquities But he is said to bear their iniquities because he by his office undertook to attone for them How did God look upon Aaron in his Priesthood With anger because he bare the iniquity of the people Nay with favour and delight as so excellent an instrument of attonement Such another passage is that Levit. X. 17 c. Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place
19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise 590   And compared with Iohn 5. 20. Ephes. 2. 1. 1105 28. 16. I lay in Sion a foundation a stone c. 205 35. 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief 1255 40. 3. Wilderness for Heathen World 296 45. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. 1057 53. 4. Surely he hath born our griefs c. reconciled with Matth. 8. 17. 167  7. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter 680  8. Who shall declare his generation 1112 55. 3. Hear and your Souls shall live c. Even the sure mercies of David 1235 56. 1. Keep judgment and do justice 1114 63. 4. The day of vengeance is in my heart c. 351  8. Children that will not lye compared with Iohn 1. 47. 524 65. 13. Behold my servants shall eat but they shall be hungry 552  17. I create a new Heaven and a new Earth 244 626 1075  20. There shall be no more than an infant of days 573 1071 66. 7 8. Before she travailed she brought forth before her pain came she was delivered c. 244 350 351  20. They shall bring their Brethren c. 347  21. I will take of them for Priests and Levites saith the Lord. 1040  24. Their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched 38 346 347 JEREMIAH Ch. vers  Page 2. 31. SEE the Word of the Lord. 1125 4. 23. Earth without form c. 244 31. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour for they shall all know me 1071 EZEKIEL Ch. vers  Page 8. 17. THEY put the branch to their nose 602 15. 2. What is the Vine-tree more to me than any tree c. 602 27. 7. Wheat of Minith and Pannag 684 38. 39. 17. Concerning Gog and the Land of Magog 1173 1247 DANIEL Ch. vers  Page 7. 9. THrones were cast down c. 220  10. The judgment was set c. 220  13 14. Kingdom of Heaven 115  18 26 27. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom c. 1058 1059  24. The ten horns are ten Kings that shall arise 1035  25. A time and times and the dividing of times 1035 9. 24. Seventy years c. 116  27. He shall confirm the Covenant c. 117 12. 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake 1085 HOSEA Ch. vers  Page 3. 5. IN the later days compared with Acts 2. 17. 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 1. 1 Ioh. 2. 18. 1 Cor. 10. 11. 1 Pet. 4. 7. and interpreted of the end of the Jewish State 1074 4. 8. They eat up the sins of my people 1243 5. 11. Ephraim is oppressed c. Because he willingly walked after the commandment 1098 8. 12. I have written to him the great things of my Law c. 11â—7 AMOS Ch. vers  Page 3. 2. YOU have I known of all the families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities 1226 4. 3. And ye shall go out at the breaches c. 673 5. 18. Wo to you that desire the day of the Lord reconciled with Chap. 6. 3. 1120  25. Have ye offered unto me 671  26. The Tabernacle of Moloch c. compared and harmonized with Luke 7. 43. 671 to 673 6 3. Wo to you that put the evil day far away reconciled with Chap. 5. 18. 1120 OBADIAH vers  Page 20. ZArephath 368 HAGGAI Ch. vers  Page 2. 9. THE glory of this later house shall be greater than of the former 531 ZECHARIAH Ch. vers  Page 11. 8. THree Shepherds c. interpreted of Pharisees Sadducees and Esseans 1037 1102 11. 1 2 3 6 7 8 10 14. Concerning the great Shepherd 573 574 14. 16 17. It shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations c. 107 MALACHI Ch. vers  Page 4. 5. BEhold I will send Elijah 382 c. MATTHEW Ch. vers  Page 1. 17. FOurteen Generations c. thrice said but squares not exactly Vindicated 99 100 3. 5. The Region about Jordan 43 298 c.  7. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come 1128 4. 15. Beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles 362 6. 9. After this manner pray ye 1138 c. 8. 17. Himself took our infirmities reconciled with Isa. 53. 4. 167  28. The Country of the Gergasins reconciled with Mark 5. 1. 70 10. 5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles 273  29 30. The hairs of your head are numbred 1251  34 35. Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth reconciled with Isa. 2. 4. 11. 9. 1042 1061 12. 32. It shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come 1095  43 44 45. When the unclean Spirit is gone out of c. Even so shall it be to this wicked generation Meant of the Apostacy of the Jews from Christianity 1044 1096 15. 22. A woman of Canaan reconciled with Mark 7. 26. 202  39. Coasts of Magdala reconciled with Mark 8. 10. 307 16. 28. Shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom 625 1074 18. 17. Let him be to thee as an Heathen or a Publican 1097 19. 28. Ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 1057 21. 19. No figs but leaves why was the figtree cursed when as it was not time for figs 87 225 to 228  38. The Husbandmen seeing the Son said among themselves this is the heir let us kill him c. 654 23. 2 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat Therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do 1038 1080 24. 22 24. For the Elect sake Deceive the very Elect. 1146  29 30. The Sun shall be darkned c. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven 608 1074 1201  31. Son of Man send his Aâ—geiâ— c. 1201 26. 6. And Iohn 13. 1 2. The Suppers here mentioned were the same however otherwise interpreted 252 to 254 260 261 24. This night before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice 1086  37. Thou art a Galilean for thy speech betrayeth thee 78 27. 33 34. Vinegar to drink mingled with Gall reconciled with Mark 15. 23. 267 617  48. Put it on a reed reconciled with Iohn 19. 29. 617 28. 19. Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 1122 to 1124 MARK Ch. vers  Page 1. 40. BEseeching him and kneeling to him 347 3. 28 29. All sins shall be forgiven c. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness c. 1130 5. 1. The Country