at last he did which put him out of office There was a certain Impostor Joseph Ant. l. 18 c. 5. See how Egesippus relateth this story De excid Hieros l. 1. c. 5. among the Samaritans Simon Magus as like as any that would perswade the people that in mount Gerizim he could shew them holy vessels which Moses had hid and laid up there with his own hand The credulous vulgar meet by multitudes at a certain Village called Tirathaba intending when their company was full to go see these sacred reliques But Pilate before-hand takes the passages with his Horse and Foot and falling upon those that were thus assembled some he slew others he took captive and the rest fled Of those that he captived he caused the noblest and most principal to be put to death For this fact the chief men of Samaria accuse him to Vitellius who commands him to Rome there to answer before the Emperor what should be objected against him and in his stead he made Marcellus a friend of his own the Governor of Judea but before Pilate came to Rome Tiberius was dead Yet hath Eusebius put off the testimony that Pilate is said to have given to Tiberius concerning the death and resurrection of Christ and concerning the wonders wrought by him till the next year following A relation doubtful in it self but more than doubtful in the issue For first though it be granted that Pilate bare witness to the works and wonders done by Christ and gave testimony to his Resurrection which yet to believe requireth a better evidence than I can find any Yet secondly the Epistle that is pretended for this his certificate by * * * In Anacephal in Biblioth Patr. Tom. 7. Hegesippus cannot be that original one that Tertullian and out of him Eusebius do mention because it is indorsed to Claudius and not to Tiberius Thirdly though both these were confessed and agreed unto that Pilate wrote a Letter to Tiberius to such a purpose and that this was the Letter or some other that Tertullian had seen yet can I never find the Emperor of so good a nature and respective a disposition as to give the desert of goodness its due be it never so eminent and conspicuous or be it in what kind soever Fourthly and lastly that which maketh all the rest of the story to be doubted of and which may justly hinder the entertainment of it is what is added in the common relation of the story That Tiberius referring this matter to the Senate with his vote that Christ should be numbred among the Gods and Christianity among their holy things the Senate crossed him in it with flat contrariety because Pilate had written of it to him and not to them Now in the Stories that have been related before concerning the state and affairs of Rome and by other stories that might be produced in other years it is but too miserably evident that the Senate was in too great a fear and slavery to the Tyrant than to dare to affront him so palpably and plainly Pilate after this as * * * Chron. ad annum Chr. 41. Eusebius alledgeth out of the Roman Historians falling into many miseries ended himself with his own hand the common and desperate Roman remedy against distress * * * In Chron. Cassiodorus hath placed his death under the Consulship of Publicola and Nerva And the common report hath given it in that the place was Vienna §. 2. Agrippa his journey to Rome This Agrippa was the son of Aristobulus who died by the cruelty of his father Herod and he was a man that had sufficiently tried the vicissitudes of fortune heretofore but never so much as he is about to do now A good while ago he had lived in Rome and in the familiarity of Drusus the son of Tiberius That great acquaintance caused great expences partly in his own port and pomp and partly in gifts and benificence bestowed upon others When Drusus died then Agrippa's estate is not only dead but his hopes also so that he is forced to flee from Rome into Judea for debt and poverty and thence into a certain Tower in Idumea for shame and discontent His wife Cyprus by sollicitation and suing to Herodias obtaineth Herods favour so far that he was removed to Tiberius made a chief Governor or Officer of the City and allowance given him for his Diet. But this lasted not long ere Herod and he fell out whereupon he removed away and betook himself to Flaccus the then Governor of Syria who had been his old acquaintance at Rome Long he had not continu'd there neither but Aristobulus his brother wrought him out of his favour and abode there From thence he went to Ptolomais intending to have set from thence for Italy but was forced to stay till he had borrowed some monies before Being now furnished and shipped he was again stopped by Herennius Capito the Governor of Jamnia for some money that he ought to the Treasury of Tiberius And what must he do now He must not go till he have paid the sum and when he hath paid it then he cannot go for want of more He taketh on him to obey the arrest while it was day but at might he cut cables and set away for Alexandria There he reneweth his borrowing again of Alexander Alabarcha and obtaineth of him five talents for his viaticum and now this year namely as Josephus noteth it the year before Tiberius his death he setteth away for Italy again This Alabarcha is not the proper Name of any man but the title of men that bare Rule over the Jews in Alexandria For I observe that as Josephus in one place calleth it Alabarcha and Alabarchus so in another he calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixing it thereby as a title rather to any man that bare such an Office than as a proper name to any man at all And if conjecture may read its denotation and Etymology it seemeth to be compounded of the Arabick Article Al which they fix before all their Nouns and the Egyptian word Abrech which in that language importeth dignity and honour as we have observed elsewhere as may be collected from the proclamation before Joseph Gen. 41. 43. Agrippa being arrived at Puteoli sendeth to the Emperor to Capreae to certifie him of his coming and of his desire to wait upon him there Tiberius giveth him admission and entertainment according to his mind till Letters from Herennius Capito spoiled that chear For the Emperor understanding by them how he had slipped the collar at Jamnia from his Officer and from his own debt he doth flatly forbid him any more access unto him till the money be paid Now is Agrippa in a worse case than ever for there is no paltering with Tiberius though there were with Capito and no shifting from Capreae though he had found such an opportunity at Jamnia Nor is there any such thought to be entertained For now his
destroyeth Senacheribs Army yet should Judah at last be also cast off and become Lo-ammi and then the Gentiles should be called in in Israels and Judahs stead And thus having laid the generals of his Prophesie down in the first Chapter he goeth on in the second to particularize upon those heads and to shew the reason and manner of the Jews rejection and the manner and happiness of the Gentiles calling And thus the time of these two first Chapters is reasonably apparent 3. His third and fourth Chapters may be supposed to have been delivered by him at the same time because in Chap. 4. 3. he speaketh of the Plagues of Locusts and that Amos and Joel had spoken of fore-telling them also as they had done In the third Chapter under the parable of another marriage with an adulterous wife he fore-telleth the iniquity of the people after their return out of Babel into their own Land and also their state in their present rejection when they neither follow Idols nor God when neither as a wife they adhere to God nor yet to any other god as to another husband The fourth Chapter taketh the people up as they were in their present posture in the Prophets time and sheweth their wickedness and what Judgments the Lord had in store for them and according to this tenor he goeth on through the rest of his Book 5. The rest of the Book may be supposed coincident some of it with the times of Ahaz and some of it with the former times of Ezekiel even to the captiving of the ten Tribes as shall be observed when we come there The Prophesie of JOEL all IN these latter days of Jeroboam the second and much about the times of Amos his first prophecying among Israel did Joel also appear and begin to prophecy among Judah Some of the Hebrew Doctors have conceived him to have lived in the time of Elisha and that these threatnings of his of famine were accomplished in the seven years famine in that time 2 King 8. 1. others have supposed him to have lived and prophesied in the times of Manasseth King of Judah casting his time as much too forward as the other was too backward but his Subject matter will declare his time for seeing he speaketh of the same Plague of Locusts and of drought and fire that Amos doth it is an argument sufficient to conclude that Amos and he appeared about the same time He sadly bemoaneth and describeth in his two first Chapters the miserable famine and grievous condition that the people were brought into through the Plagues of Locusts and Drought and painteth out the Catterpillars and Cankerworms and Locusts which he calleth the Northern Army as if they were an Army of men indeed They came in at the North part of the Land from towards Syria and Hamath and kept as it were in a body and devoured all before them as they went along to the South part and there as they were facing about to go off below the point of the dead Sea the barrenness of that part affamished them who had affamished the whole Country The Prophet yet concludes afterwards with comfortable promises of Rain after the Drought and flourishing Trees and times after these Locusts And upon that discourse of the restitution of temporal blessings he riseth to speak of spiritual blessings in the days of Christ in the gift of Tongues and in the wonders that should attend Christs death and that should go before the destruction of Jerusalem and concludes in the third Chapter with threatnings against the enemies of Jerusalem and particularly foretelleth the destruction of the Army of Senacharib against which the Lord caused his mighty ones to come down vers 11. namely his Angels and destroyed them in the valley of Jehoshaphat before Jerusalem This Hosea also had particularly pointed at Hos. 1. 7. The Book of AMOS all THIS Prophesie is so clearly dated that there needeth not to use many words to shew in what time to lay it It was uttered in the days of Jeroboam and in the days of Uzziah that they lived together and of this Prophets prophesying in any Kings reign further there is no mention Almost at the end of his Book he telleth us that Jeroboam was then alive and Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would have stirred him up against Amos as against a Traytor Chap. 7. 10. c. so that this Book is to be taken in in the latter times of Jeroboam and the proper order of it falleth between the seven and twenty and eight and twenty verses of 2 King 14. And in the same place also come in the Books of Hosea and Joel And so we may observe the dealing of the Lord with Israel the plainer For whereas they had been brought very low by their enemies and their miseries were become exceeding great the Lord yet would not destroy them but would try them with one kindness more and so he gives them great ease and deliverance by Jeroboam But when both Jeroboam and they continued still in the Idolatry of the old Jeroboam and in the wickedness of their own ways the Lord sendeth these Prophets amongst them to foretel their final destruction and overthrow Amos neither a Prophet nor a Prophets son by education Chap. 7. 14. that is neither Tutor nor Scholler in the Schools of the Prophets but a Shepherd of Tekoa and of a rude breeding yet like the Galilean fishers becomes a glorious Scholler in the School of the Lord and a glorious Teacher in the Congregation of Israel He began to prophesie two years before the Earthquake and told of it before it came that the Lord would smite the Winter house with the Summer house Chap. 3. 15. and the Lintel of the door of the Idolatrous Temple should be smitten and the posts shake Chap. 9. 1. and so there should be a rent and breach in the Idoll Temple at Bethel when the Lord now came to visit them as there was at the Temple in Jerusalem at the death of Christ. It is very generally held by the Jews that this Earthquake was at that very time when Uzziah was struck Leprous but that that cannot be we shall observe when we come forward to the year of his death Amos prophesieth against six Nations besides Israel and Judah and concludeth them all under an irreversible decree of destruction for so should that clause be rendred which in every one of the threatnings breedeth so much difficulty of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not revoke it For the sense lieth thus The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem And thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke it That is I will not revoke that voyce but Damascus shall be destroyed and so of the rest For the masculine affixe in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot possibly be referred to any thing that went before but only to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His
their fathers life-time and I see not why they may not go in the first place with any that deserved reproof and on whom it lighted under the name of the Kings Children 2 CHRON. XXXV from vers 20. to end 2 KING XXIII vers 29. 30. World 3398 Division 369 Iosiah 31 JOSIAH slain by Pharaoh Necho yet dies in peace 2 Kings 22. 20. because in Gods favour The King of Assyria had conquered Carchemish a great while ago Esay 10. 9. And Necho or his Predecessors had recovered it and he went now to strengthen the Garrison there or to recover it and passing some part of Josiahs Country with an Army Josiah takes a quarrel at him though it may be he was in league with him and is slain at Megiddo This Zech. 12. 10. alluded to The mourning of Hadadrimmon and in the valley of Megiddo there is an Ellypsis of the conjunction Vaâ— 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 1 2 3 4. 2 KING XXIII vers 31 32 33 34 35. JEHOAHAZ is made King by the people of the Land as one best beloved by them for he was two years younger then Jehoiakim Compare 2 King 23. vers 31. 36. He is called Shallum 1 Chron. 3. 15. Jer. 22. 11. He reigned but three months and is deposed by Pharaoh Necho His three months reign is to be reckoned in the last year of Josiah as Jeremy maketh the account plain Jer. 25. 3. And therefore I must here retract and I retract it with wonder how it ever was so mistaken what is said in Prolegon to harmony of Evang That some years of trouble passed between the death of Josiah and the reign of Jehoiakim 2 KING XXIII vers 36 37. 2 CHRON. XXXVI Vers. 4 5. World 3399 Division 370 Iehoiaikim 1 JEHOIAKIM reigneth eleven years set up by Pharaoh Necho Division 371 Iehoiaikim 2 and named Jehoiakim by him instead of Eliakim In which change of name Pharaoh shewed rather his power then any thing else unless he would not indure the word Jehovah in Jehoiakims name for Jehoiakim and Eliakim is but one and the same in signification JEHOIAKIM doth wickedly like as his wicked predecessors had done And his eyes and his heart are not but for covetousness and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to do it Jer. 22. 17. Amongst other of his wickednesses this was not the least committed in the beginning of his raign that he slew Urijah the Prophet Read here Jer. 26. ver 20 21 22 23. JEREMY XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXII to ver 24. IT was observed before that Chapter 11. was most properly to be referred to Josiahs times as pointing to the Covenant that he caused the people to enter into and that the twelfth Chapter joyned to it viz. vers 5 6. of Chap. 12. to vers 21 22 23. of Chap. 11. And so with the end of the twelfth Chapter are ended the Prophesies of Jeremy of Josiahs time And it was also observed before that ver 18. of Chap. 13. pointed at the time of Jehoiakim and so doth also the 18. vers of Chap. 22. And therefore since we have no date nor direction for any of the Chapters between to fix them to any other time we may very well take in all these Chapters of Jeremy from the beginning of the thirteenth to the 24 verse of the two and twentieth in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim The one and twentieth Chapter only is to be set out for it is plainly dated by the time of Zedekiah Now the reason of setting this Chapter so forward as among those that were in the beginning of Jehoiakims time whereas it was in Zedekiahs which was many years after may be conjectured to be because of the correspondency of something in the twentieth Chapter and it In the twentieth a Pashur in the time of Jehoiakim sets Jeremy in the stocks for foretelling destruction to Jerusalem by the Babylonian And in the one and twentieth a Pashur in the time of Zedekiah seeks to Jeremy for remedy against the Babylonian who had made good Jeremies Prophesie so far as that he had besieged Jerusalem This was a thing remarkable that one Pashur should thus oppose Jeremies prophesying and another Pashur should thus assert it And for the better marking of this the two Chapters that contain the two stories are laid together The two and twentieth to ver 24. doth shew that it was delivered in Jehoiakims time when Shallum or Jehoahaz was not long before captivated It biddeth Weep not for the dead Josiah but weep sorely for Shallum that was gone for he should return no more vers 10. See 2 Kings 23. 34. JEREMY XXVI all and XXVII to vers 12. THE beginning of these two Chapters bear the date of the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim which in this Prophets language is not precisely the first year of his reign the first second or third year singly he nameth not but it is taken in a larger sence and construction as there is an evidence from the like expression used concerning another King and expounded Chap. 27. 1. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah in the fourth year Here Zedekiah is in the fourth year of his reign and yet it is called The beginning of his reign and the reason of the Phrase is because of the double condition and change that either of these Kings underwent in the time of their reign Jehoiakim for above two years reigned by the deputation of Pharaoh Necho but the rest of his time by the deputation of Nebuchad-nezzar and Zedekiah for four years at the least reigned under the subjection of the King of Babel Jer. 51. 59. but the rest of his time he reigned as rebelling and casting off the yoke of the Babylonian 2 King 24. 20. therefore the time of either of these Kings before this change and alteration befel them is called The beginning of their reign Now as for the order and method of these two Chapters under hand let us a little look back to the portion where we left before and that was at the three and twentieth verse of the two and twentieth Chapter for from thence to this 26 Chapter all that comes between is dislocated and laid there by anticipation The four and twentieth verse of Chapter twenty two beareth the date of the raign of Jehoiachin or Coniah which was not till Jehoiakim had reigned eleven years whereas divers Prophesies which were uttered in those eleven years of Jehoiakim are set after as Chap. 25. 26. 27. and very many more Now the reason of this method is this that the threatnings against the father Jehoiakim and the son Jehoiachin might be laid together and the rather because the time of Jehoachins reign was but very short namely three months and therefore the prediction of his captivity is fitly joyned to the prediction of his fathers since his reign is reputed as nothing Chap. 36. 30. And when the Text is fallen upon
any want of power but it relateth to his will and to the rule by which he went in doing his works such another phrase see Gen 19. 22. When it is said by the same Evangelist He marveled at their unbelief it meaneth not that he marvelled because they had not saving faith but he marvelled because they believed no more then they did SECTION XLIV MATTH Chap. IX Ver. 35 36 37 38. Another perambulation of Galilee MATTHEW himself joyns this portion to the stories in Sect. 42. and the last words of Mark in the Section preceding he went round about the villages teaching are concurrent with the first words in this and so do assert the connexion CHRIST at his former rejection at Nazaret begins to go abroad preaching through their Synagogues as in Sect. 18. and so he doth now and so great multitudes resort unto him that he now resolveth upon sending forth his Disciples to preach abroad also SECTION XLV MATTH Chap. X. all the Chap. And V. 1. of Chap. IX MARK Chap. VI. V. 7 8 9 10 11. LUKE Chap. IX Ver. 1 2 3 4 5 6. The twelve Apostles sent out to preach THe order in Matthew and Mark shews and clears it self The twelve had been ordained for Apostles a great while since and all that while had been with Christ as probationers to see his works and to learn his Doctrine and since their pointing out to be Apostles it is observable how much Christ hath applied himself to Doctrine that they might learn the Gospel of the Kingdom and be stored with what to preach when he should send them forth Hitherto they had been learners and as for the gifts of the Spirit they as yet differed nothing from the rest that followed him but now he gives them power of healing and casting out devils and now is the power of miracles restored So that they cured diseases by the Spirit but they preached not by the Spirit but taught that only which they had learned from the mouth of Christ. He sendeth them out by two and two and so it is like the twelve spies divided themselves when they went to search the Land It may be the Apostles went in these couples that Matthew had reckoned them in What Christ forbiddeth them to take with them for their journey was 1. to inure them to depend upon his protection and not upon their own carefulness And 2. He hereby intimates that they should find such good entertainment in their Ministry that they should find safety and maintenance wheresoever they came Therefore when in Luke 22. 6. Now take purse and scrip c. he thereby would not signifie that his care of them was any whit abated of what it was now but that they should meet with worse times and worse entertainment then they had had now Whereas in Matthew and Luke they are forbidden to take staves in Mark it is said they should take nothing for their journey save a staffe only not staves for weapons or for their defence but a staff for their resting on for their ease in the journey as Gen. 32. 10. They are confined to preach to Israel only though many Gentiles dwelt intermixedly with them in their Cities because the Lord would own the peculiarity of the Nation in the first preaching of the Gospel as he had done all along in the Oeconomy of the Law when they had forfeited their priviledge of being a peculiar people by crucifying him that sent the Gospel amongst them then is the Apostles commission inlarged to go to the Gentiles Matth. 28. SECTION XLVI MARK Chap. VI. from Ver. 14. to Ver. 30. MATTH Chap. XIV from the beginning to Ver. 13. LUKE Chap. IX Ver. 7 8 9. JOHN beheaded his Disciples come into Christ. MARY and Luke do justifie the order for both of them have laid this story next to the story of Christs sending forth his Disciples Matthew when he saith At that time he useth the word in its latitude as it is often used in Scripture not precisely or determinately for the very day or season when a thing wasdone but in the current of time then in being And yet in this expression he seemeth also to have respect to the story that he had related next before though that were some reasonable space of time before this For there he had told that Christ coming into his own Country was slighted and undervalued and they were offended in him yet Herod was amazed at the wonders that he heard of him Here are two times regardable in this Section namely the time of John Baptists death and the time of Herods hearing of the fame of Jesus and the juncture of the stories is very close As the Disciples were preaching up and down according to Christs mission Herod beheaded the Baptist and by their preaching in the name of Jesus the fame of Jesus cometh to Herods hearing and the Disciples again hearing of the murder of John get in to their master So that the story of Johns death is related here in the proper place and time when it did occur And from one passage in John the Evangelist in the next following Section there is the ground of a fair conjecture of the time of his beheading For we shall see in the beginning of the next Section that all the four do speak of Christ departing privately into a desert place Matthew particularly gives the reason namely because he had newly heard by Johns Disciples of the death of their master Now John the Evangelist in giving that story of Christs retiring hath inserted this passage And the Jews Passover was nigh whereby we may conclude that the Baptists death was a little before the time of the Passover And from hence we may take up the whole space of his Ministry and imprisonment He began to Preach and Baptize in the year of Christ 29 at the spring of that year or about Easter Half a year after Jesus is baptized by him about the Feast of Tabernacles Till after the Feast of Tabernacles come twelve month viz. in the Year of Christ 30 he is still abroad baptizing in Bethabara and Aenon About October in that Year he is imprisoned and so lieth in restraint till almost Easter twelve month which was in the Year of Christ 32. And so his story is of three years space the better half of which he preached at liberty and the other half he lay in prison Herod upon the hearing of the fame of Jesus is struck with horror of conscience upon thought of the murder of John and if the leaven of Herod was Sadduceism his horrour makes him deny his Sadducaical principles and to think that John was Risen from the dead SECTION XLVII MATTH Chap. XIV from Ver. 13. to the end of the Chapter JOHN Chap. VI. from beginning of Chap. to V. 22. MARK Chap. VI. from V. 30. to the end of the Chap. LUKE IX from V. 10. to Ver. 18. Five thousand fed miraculously Christ walketh on the Sea ALL the
a time sheweth his doubting to be the more and the appearing of an Angel when such apparitions were as rare as Miracles should have made it to have been the less For after the death of Zachary and Malachi and those later Prophets the Holy Ghost departed from Israel and went up and ceased to exhibite his familiarity among them in Vision Prophesie and the work of Miracles So that this apparition of the Angel and this sign given to Zachary and wonders done in the birth of the Baptist were as the very entrance and beginning of the restoring of those gifts and the very dawning to that glorious day of such things as was now to follow For I am old The very same was the doubt of Sarah Gen. 18. 12. And here first the distrust of Zachary doth shew the more in that he that was a Priest and should have instructed others was himself to seek in one of the first elements and Catechistical principles of Religion concerning the Almighty power and All-sufficiency of God Secondly The very place where the message came to him being the place of Gods immediate Oracles and the time being the time of his praying and who could have wished for a better return of his prayers Do aggravate his unbelief Ver. 19. I am Gabriel It signifieth A man of God being taken in the same form of construction with Malchizedek He breaketh out to utter his name which Angels at other times and it may be himself had refused to do because he would recal Zacharies thoughts to the book of Daniel and convince his hesitation by that very Scripture Dan. 9. That stand before God That is that minister to him as Dan. 7. 10. 1 Sam. 16. 22. 2 King 5. 25. c. Therefore those that from this phrase would collect that Gabriel is an Arch-angel or one of the prime order of Angels do build but upon a very sandy foundation Ver. 20. Behold thou shalt be dumb The sign given is in Zachary himself and not in any thing without him partly because his doubting arose from the consideration of himself and partly that he might carry about him a punishment for his diffidence as well as a sign for his confirmation Now his punishment was twofold deafness and dumbness both for because he had not hearkned to the Angels speech he was struck deaf and because he had gain-said it he was made dumb For first the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 22. and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Syrian rendreth it do signifie both deaf and dumb And secondly in ver 62. it is said They made signs to him which had not needed if he could have heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This latter clause of the verse might not unfitly be rendered thus Thou shalt be dumb c. until the day that these things for which thou hast not believed my words shall be performed And thus is his dumbness limited or extended the clearer till the accomplishing of the things of which he doubted Ver. 22. He could not speak to them The Priest at the dismission of the people when the service of the Temple was finished was to pronounce the blessing in Numb 6. 24 25 26. Which when Zachary is now to do he is speechless and cannot perform it for the Levitical Priesthood is now growing dumb and he that was to bless indeed namely Christ is near at hand Ver. 23. Assoon as the days of his Ministration were accomplished The dumb and deaf Priest officiateth in that service which the lot had cast upon him a certain time either more or less after he was faln under this double imperfection For first neither of these are named among those defects and blemishes that secluded from the service in the Sanctuary Secondly The Priesthood of the Law consisted mainly and chiefly of manual actions or offices for the hands as offering sprinkling waving and such others to which sense the Targums expound The works of Levies hands Deut. 33. 11. and so it might the better â—e speechless But the Ministry of the Gospel cannot admit of dumbness because it consisteth of Preaching and for that purpose was furnished and indowed at the beginning and entrance of it with the gift of Tongues Ver. 24. Elizabeth hid her self saying c. This her retiredness and hiding of her self proceeded partly from devotion and partly from respect of the child that she had conceived For the words or thoughts that proceed from her at this her retiring must needs shew the reason why she did it Now she said Because the Lord hath done thus to me when he looked upon me to take away my reproach where two distinct things are plainly remarkable First Gods taking away her reproach by giving her a child after so long barrenness this is not the thing that she hideth for but Secondly His dealing thus with her when he would take that reproach away as to Thus Emphatical and giveth a clear resolution of this place which hath scrupled many into strange and harsh expositions for not observing it as that she should hide her self for fear that she should not prove with child Others that she did it for shame lest she should be reputed lascivious for being with child c. Judicet lector give her such a child that was to be of so eminent a calling and so great a Prophet And for this it was that she betook her self to this retiring and reclusiveness partly that she might ply her devotion so much the closer upon so great a benefit and chiefly that she might sequester from all occasions of uncleanness or defiling since she carried one in her womb that was to be so strict a Nazarite As see the like Judg. 13. 14. Vers. 26. And in the sixth month This sixth month from the conception of the Baptist was the tenth month of the months of the year or the month Tabeth which answereth to part of our December the time at which a long error hath laid the nativity At the very same time of the year Esther another Virgin had been promoted to honour and royalty by Ahashuerus Esth. 16. 17. Unto a City of Galilee Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet the Jews said once in the scorn of our Saviour slanderously and very falsly Joh. 7. 52. For out of Galilee arose the renowned Prophet Jonah of Gath Hepher 2 King 14. 25. in the Tribe of Zebulon Josh. 19. 13. And in Galilee was much of the converse of Elias but especially of Elisha at Shunem 2 King 4. 8. in the Tribe of Issachar Josh. 19. 18. And all these three famous Prophets of the Gentiles And no place could be fitter for the bringing forth of Christ and his Apostles that were to be the Converters of the Gentiles then Galilee of the Gentiles Nazaret See 2 King 17. 9. the tower of Nozarim which if Chorography would suffer might be understood of this City which was built like a watch-tower on the top of a steep
miracle of his birth his adoration by the Wisemen his wisdom at 12 years old the voice from heaven and his saftety among wild beasts at this time shew that impossible But concluding the thing it self to be so he argueth from it to perswade Christ to act as the Son of God and to do things miraculously And the If in his speech is not so much of doubting as of assurance as the If in those words of Lamech If Cain shall be avenged seventy fold and he forceth it as the consequence upon a thing undoubted Seeing thou art the Son of God as the voice from heaven did proclaim thee it is very agreable to thy so being that thou shouldst exert thy divine power and command these stones into bread for the satisfying thy hunger And so in the other temptation that carryeth the same front Seing thou art the Son of God it is very fit thou shouldest act according thereunto and not go down the stairs as men do but cast thy self headlong and shew thy power In both which temptations though a close perswasive to distrust Gods provision for him in the wilderness to rely too much upon second causes and to presume without warrant upon a promise be included yet Satans main bent and aim is to move him to act according to the dictate and direction of the Devil And as he had perswaded Eve from the commandement of God to follow his advice so would he fain do Christ from that work and injuction which God had laid upon him for the Ministery and for mans redemption to do things tending nothing at all to that purpose but rather to vain-glory and self-exalting and the Devil had had enough if he could have moved the Redeemer to have acted any thing upon his instigation Ignatius Martyr Hilary and others of old and Beza Chemnitius some others of late suppose that Satan knew not yet the mystery of the incarnation no more than the Disciples did till after the resurrection but that he proposeth this if thou be the Son of God as doubting of the truth of the thing and seeking to be resolved in it nay that by the phrase the Son of God is to be understood and was so in Satans apprehension only a very holy and an extraordinary qualified man as whereas the Centurion calls Christ the Son of God Mat. 27. 4. Luke expresseth it only a righteous man Luke 23. 47. Answer 1. It is most true indeed that the mystery of the Incarnation is a mystery most high and deep and which created understandings cannot fadome and that the Disciples were exceedingly ignorant of it till more than flesh and blood revealed it to them but yet for all this the Angels good and bad might know the truth of the thing though they could not reach the mystery of it and the Disciples have some light of it before though they had the more perfect understanding of it after the resurrection as see Mat. 16. 16. The Devil was not ignorant of the Angels proclaiming him Christ the Lord or Jehovah Luke 1. 16 17. 2. 11. of an Angels and Gods proclaiming him The Son of God Luke 1. 35. 3. 22. Of the Prophets calling him Jehovah Jer. 23. 6. And the mighty God and Father of Eternity Esay 9. 6. and an hundred such expressions as these which could not but put him past all questoning who it was with whom he dealt 2. It is true indeed that the Church and people of God are called his Sons but it will be hard to find this applyed to any one particular person or single man in all the Scripture That in 2 Sam. 7. 14. Psalm 89. 28 27. is readily known to be spoken of Christ and that in Luke 3. 38. we have explained before 3. It is likewise true that whereas the Centurion in Matthew is brought in saying This was the Son of God Luke hath brought him saying This was a righteous or just man but must it therefore follow that he took him not for the Son of God but that he called him so only because he was a holy man In very many of the Evangelists various expressions we are not always to take the one to mean the other but we must take them both in their proper sense to make up the full sense as will fall to be observed in divers places And so is it to be done here The Centurion and his company upon the sight of the wonders that attend our Saviours death concluded that not only he was a most holy man but some rose higher and sure say they He was the Son of God Compare and examine the places Now the daring impudence of the Devil thus to assault and assail him whom he knew to be the Son of God will be the less wondrous and strange if we consider joyntly with his pride desperate wickedness and malice the ground that he might think he had to undertake such an attempt as this to go about to foil him who his own heart told him was the Son of God And that was from those words of God in the garden to him when upon the denunciation upon him that the seed of the woman should break his head yet God tells him withall That he should bruise his heel Hence did his impudence take its rise to do and dare what he did and dared at this time and the having this very passage in ones eye and consideration upon the reading of this story of the temptation will help exceedingly to clear inlighten and explain it For whereas two main scruples may arise about this temptation besides this that we have in hand of the Devils daring to assault Christ thus namely how chance it was now and not before and why it is said by Luke after these temptations that the Devil departed from him for a season the consideration of this thing doth give so much satisfaction to both these doubts For 1. it is indeed some matter of wonder that Christ should live to thirty years and the Devil never attempt to tempt him of long a time but should now come to assail him when he had a testimony from heaven that he was the Son of God and when he had the fulness of the Spirit in him above measure which were greater disadvantages to Satan than ever but the reason was because that now Christ was offered to the Duell in an apparent manner which he never had been before to try that mastery with the Devil about breaking and brusing head and heel and the Devil having an assurance that he should bruise his heel undertakes the combate and dares be thus impudent And 2. when he saw that he could not prevail with him this way to bruise him namely by temptation he departs from him for a season till he can find an opportunity for another way to do it namely by open and actual persecution Sect. Command that these stones be made bread To change the form of a Creature is the greatest miracle as
little that so we may the better skan and try whether our Architriclinus here and their Symposiarchus there were the same yea or no. He was one chosen among the guests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was most festivous of all the company and that would not be drunk and yet that would drink freely He was to rule the company and to prohibit their being disorderly yet not prohibiting their being merry He was to observe the temper of the guests and how the wine wrought upon them and how every one could bear his wine and accordingly to apply himself to them to keep them all in a harmony and an equilibrial composure that there might be no disquiet nor disorder For the effecting of this he used these two ways first to proclaim liberty to every one to drink what he thought good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am Symposiarchus said he and I license every one to drink at this time as they will And secondly upon observing who among the guests was most ready to be touch'd and distempered with wine to mingle the more water with his wine thereby to keep him in an equal pace of sobriety with the other And so the work and office of this Symposiarchus or governour of the Feast was especially double to take care that none should be forced to drink and to take care that none should be drunk though unforced Of such another office might the Architriclinus be conceived here namely someone that was specially appointed to give entertainment and that had special employment about the distributing and disposing of the wine And this might seem to appear the rather because our Saviour directeth the Servitors to bring the miraculous wine to be tasted first by him But I should understand rather by Architriclinus here the chief guest at the feast than such a Symposiarchus which it may be some question whether he were in use among the Jews or no For not to go about to give account of their manner of sitting at their Feasts in this place it will be more proper elsewhere though from thence might be shewed something toward the proof of this my supposal let it but be considered that the Architriclinus in mention was a meer stranger to the business of the wine and knew not how it went Had Pluâ—archs Symposiarchus been here he would readily have known what quantity of wine and what variety there was in the house he would have well known that all the wine was gone and that they were at a loss for more for the Yeomanry of the wine was his office at that time above all other things and above all other men but this Architriclinus knew none of these things but thought the Bridegroom had used a friendly deceit to reserve the best wine to make up their mouths whereas others used to reserve the worst And he speaks as a guest and not as a Yeoman of the Feast And our Saviour sends the wine to him as to the chiefest man at the Table and as the fittest from whom the taste of the wine and the tast of the miracle wrought might be distributed and dispersed throughout all the company of the Feast Vers. 12. After this he went down to Capernaum and continued not there many days Capernaum was his own City as was said before and his return is still thither as Samuel after his circuit his return was still to Ramah for that was his own City 1 Sam. 7. 17. see Matth. 4. 14. 8. 5. Matth. 9. 1. compared with Mark 2. 1. Matth. 17. 24. John 6. 17. c. Now his stay was but a little there because the Passeover calls him up to Jerusalem And thus when the Passeover comes there is half a year passed since he was baptized forty days of which he spent in the Wilderness in his fast before the Tempter came to him beside what time was spent in the threefold temptation and in his going to and coming from the Wilderness Three days you have account of him at Jorclan and going into Galilee John 1. ver 29 35 43. and the next day after he is at Cana at a Feast this was the fourth day from his first appearing from the Wilderness but the third from his saving and entertaining any Disciples So that we have but the account of six weeks or thereabouts upon record of all the time he spent betwixt his Baptism and his first Passeover The rest is concealed and much of it was spent in his peragration and preaching through Galilee to which he addresseth himself John 1. 43. Vers. 14. And the Iews Passover was at hand and Iesus went up to Ierusalem There are none other of the Evangelists that mention any Passover at all after Christs Baptism but that at which he suffered but John reckoneth not only that but three before and so still amongst all the four Evangelists the story is made up and compleated that there is nothing wanting Three of his Passovers John nameth plainly and expresly by name viz. this here and another Chap. 6. 4. and his last Chap. 18. 39. but a fourth he hath not so openly named but meaneth it in Chap. 5. 1. as shall be cleared by Gods permission when we come there And now hath Christ three years to his death and he hath had half a year since his Baptism and so is his time from his anointing by the Spirit for the work of the Gospel till his offering up upon his Cross three years and an half see the notes on Luke 3. 21. Now whereas the Evangelist calleth the Passover the Passover of the Jews Jansenius is of opinion that he doth it for distinction of it from the Easter of the Christians which saith he was observed by them throughout all Asia when John wrote his Gospel And Baronius yet goes further and would prove it from John's calling the Christian Sabbath the Lords day Rev. 1. Annal. ad annum 159. It is not worth the labour at least not in this place to look after the antiquity and originall of the celebration of Easter amongst the Christians in the Primitive times the quarrel about the day between the Eastern and Western Churches is famous in Ecclesiastical Stories but that this is not the intention of the Evangelist in this place we need to go no further to prove than to his own expression of the same thing in another where he calleth it The Passover a Feast of the Jews Chap. 6. 4. and so sheweth that in this short Phrase The Jews Passover he meaneth not so much to distinguish it from any festival of the Christians as to shew what it was to Jews and to distinguish it from other festivals of theirs § And Jesus went up to Jerusalem 1. In obedience to the Law of the males appearing before the Lord Exod. 23. 17. from which none were excepted but for some infirmity or incapacity All are bound to appear but only the deaf fools little ones the man that is bruised in his genitals Hermophrodites
brought to the Mony-changers and they gave less coin for it namely pence and half pence and the like Ver. 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords c. This action of our Saviour at his first appearing in his own Temple did fulfill that prophecy of Malachi Chap. 3. 1 2 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi c. There was an Officer that used to walk up and down this Court and the others to see that every one stood to his charge and did his duty He was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man of the mountain of the House He went about from ward to ward and â—anales â—ighted before him and wheresoever any man stood not upon his charge the man of the mountain of the House said Peace be upon thee and if it proved that he was asleep he struck him with his rod and he had authority to set fire on his coat and they said What noise is that in the Court Why it is the noise of a son Levi that is beaten and his cloaths burnt because he was asleep upon his guard Massecheth middoth per. 1. A greater than this man nay a greater than the Temple it self is now come and Christ by this passage doth not only shew his zeal most divine and fervent but he acteth in the authority of a Prophet and as one come from God and so the Jews understand that he took upon him to do when they propose to him as for the tryal of a Prophet that he would shew a sign and work a miracle The cords of which he maketh his whip it is like he found lying up and down the floor which had tyed some sacrifices or some other things and after that use of them were cast there Now he useth a whip rather than a staff because there were no staves brought into the Temple A man may not come into the mountain of the House with his staff nor with his shooes with his purse nor with the dust upon his feet Massecheth Beracoth per. 9. Our Saviour seemeth to allude to this when he bids his Disciples as they go to preach To take neither staves nor shooes nor gold nor silver nor brass in their purses and to shake off the dust of their feet Mat. 10. 9. 10. No mony in their girdles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloss. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A hollow girdle in which travellers put their mony Compare this zealous action of our Saviour with Nehem. 13. 25. Vers. 16. My Fathers House He useth the same phrase in the same place viz. in the Temple when he was found there among the Doctors at twelve years old Why sought you me know you not where to find me know you not that I must be in my Fathers House Luke 2. 49. And he cometh off thus openly and plainly with the Jews as to call God his Father 1. To assert himself for the Messiah and to distinguish him from other Prophets who at the utmost could but call God my God There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esay 57. 21. but he can and doth call him Father and doth so from his first appearing here in publick that he might reveal himself to the full and leave the obstinate without excuse 2. He seemeth to have special respect to that passage 2 Sam. 7. 12 13. where when God is promising to David Christ to sit upon his Throne for ever and Solomon to sit upon his Throne for a while he saith He shall build an House for my Name and I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever I will be his Father Vers. 18. What sign shewest thou The power of miracles had never been seen in the Land since their return out of captivity nay nor the Spirit of Prophecy since the death of Zachary and Malachi by their own Authors confession and therefore the restoring of miracles and prophecy was as the opening of heaven and Angels ascending and descending When they were ready to depart into Babylon Habakkuk prayeth that God would keep alive his work of the power of miracles in that midst of years while they were in Babylon and that they might not lose it now they went into a strange Land And there he continued it among them in the hands of the three Children as they are called but more especially in the hands of Daniel Daniels tying up the mouths of the Lions was the last miracle that had been done by man till water was turned into wine at Cana in Galilee They had Prophets indeed came with them out of their captivity and these saw visions and had strange things done to them by God but none ever since they came up till now had done any miracles or strange things from God And after that first generation after their return their Prophets were ceased and gone and they had no more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Haggai Zachary and Malachi Prophecy ceased D. Kimch on Zech. 5. And therefore besides the constant unbelief of the Jew that would be still requiring a sign it is no wonder if they demand one of one that now appeared and acted under the notion of a Prophet when signs and Prophets had been so long strangers amongst them Nor was this all that strained this question from them but it is like that his calling God in such singularity his Father did move them to demand some thing from him as from a singular man which thing might be suitable to such a relation as he owned In John 5. 17. they are ready to fly in his face because he calleth God his Father for there was scandalum acceptum an offence taken at him though none was given they were moved at him for that he had broken the Sabbath as they interpret it and then they are ready to catch at every word that fell from him for they had entertained prejudice against him but as yet he hath done here nothing that should cause them to be offended the driving of the market out of the Temple was a thing so reasonable and so Religious that they could not open their mouth against it and his calling of God his Father is yet without offence if he can answer both his action and his word by doing something agreeable to them Vers. 19. Destroy this Temple 1. Christ giveth them not a sign otherwise then by telling them of that great sign that he should once shew which would mightily declare him to be the Son of God and that is the raising of his body from the dead which very thing he also meaneth though somewhat more be included in it when he giveth them afterward the sign of Jonas Matth. 12. 39. He did many miracles instantly
here to Moses the first Prophet of the Church of Israel it also descended to a succession of Prophets in that Congregation from time to time But with this excellent gift it was also given Moses himself to know and so likewise them that did succeed that they had this double power not from themselves but from another Moses his stammering tongue taught himself and them so much for Prophesie and his leprous hand taught so much for Miracles This succession of Prophets began from Samuel and ended in the death of Christ Acts 3. 24. Not that there were not Prophets betwixt Moses and Samuel but because they were not expressed by name as also because vision in that space of time was exceeding rare 1 Sam. 3. 1. Now from the beginning of the rule of Samuel to the beginning of the captivity in Babel were four hundred and ninety years and from the end of that captivity to the end of Christs life upon earth were four hundred and ninety years more The seventy years of captivity between which were the seventh part of either of these two Numbers that lay on either side are called by Habbakkuk The midst of years namely from the beginning of Prophesie in Samuel to the sealing of Prophesie in the death of Christ. Revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known Then was it justly to be feared that the spirit of Prophesie would quite have ceased from Israel when they were captived among the Heathen This made the Prophet to pray so earnestly that God would preserve alive or revive his work of Miracles in the midst of years and in those times of captivity that he would make known things to come by that gift of Prophesie And he was heard in what he prayed for and his supplication took effect in the most prophetick and powerful Spirit of Daniel The Jews had an old Maxim That after the death of Zachary Malachy and those last Prophets the Spirit of God departed from Israel and went up So that from thence forward prediction of future things and working of miracles were rarities among them To this aimed the answer of those holy ones Act. 19. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Not that they doubted of such a person in the Trinity but that whereas they had learned in their Schools that the Holy Ghost departed away after the death of Malachy they had never yet heard whether he was restored again in his gifts of Prophesie and Miracles till now or no. SECTION VII The two first miracles Exod. 4. 1. THE turning of Moses rod into a Serpent did utterly disclaim any power of the Devil in these wonders which he was to work which power only the Magicians wrought by For as a Serpent was the fittest Embleme of the Devil as Gen. 3. and Revel 12. 9. 80 was it a sign that Moses did not these Miracles by the power of the Devil but had a power over and beyond him when he can thus deal with the Serpent at his pleasure as to make his rod a Serpent and the Serpent a rod as he seeth good Yet it is worth the observing that he is commanded to take it by the tail vers 9. for to meddle with the Serpents head belonged not to Moses but to Christ that spake to him out of the bush as Gen. 3. 15. His rod at Sinai is said to be turned into Nahash a common and ordinary Snake or Serpent but when he casts it down before Pharaoh it becometh Tannin Chap. 7. 10. a Serpent of the greatest dimensions be like a Crocodile which beast the Egyptians adored and to whose jaws they had exposed the poor Hebrew Infants in the River 2. His Leprous hand disclaimed also any power of Moses his own in these wonders which he wrought for it was not possible that so great things should be done by that impure and unclean hand but by a greater 3. Both of these Miracles which were the first that were done by any Prophet in the world did more specially refer to the Miracles of that great Prophet that should come into the world by whose power these Miracles were done by Moses at this time For as it belonged to him only to cast out the power of the Devil out of the soul and to heal the soul of the leprosie of sin so was it reserved for him first to cast out the Devil out of the body and to heal the leprosie of the body For though the Prophets from Moses to Christ had the gift of doing Miracles and performed wonders many of them in an high degree yet could never any of them or any other cast out a Devil or heal a Leper till the great Prophet came Elisha indeed directed Naaman how he should be healed but he neither touched him nor came out to him at all that he might shew that it was not his power but such cures were reserved for Christ to come SECTION VIII Moses in danger of death because of distrust Exod. 4. 24. THE fault of Moses that brought him into this danger was not the uncircumcision of his Son as it is commonly held for that had been dispensable withal in him as it was with thousands afterwards of the Israelites in the Wilderness but his fault was grievous diffidence and distrust For this is that that makes him so much so oft and so earnestly to decline so glorious and honourable a message as the Lord would send him on and this was that that brought him into this danger of death when he was even going on this message Observe therefore his evasions and how they sound exceeding hollow and empty of belief First Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh Chap. 3. 11. This the Lord answereth I will be with thee and this my appearing to thee may be an undoubted token to thee that I have sent thee vers 12. Secondly But who shall I say hath sent me For forty years ago they refused me saying Who made thee a Prince and a Ruler over us Chap. 4. 1. This scruple the Lord removeth by giving him the power of miracles Thirdly But I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to me for though I may work miracles upon others yet is not this wrought upon my self that I speak any whit better than I did before This receiveth this answer I will be with thy mouth vers 10. 11 12. Fourthly But I pray thee send by that hand that thou wilt send or stretch out vers 13. for thou saidst to me I will stretch out mine hand and smite Egypt c. Chap. 3. 20. Now therefore I pray thee stretch out this hand of thine for the hand of man is not able to perform it At this the Lords anger was kindled against him and that deservedly For in this he denied the mystery of the Redemption which was to be wrought by a man the God-head going along with him Now it
critical we might observe the various qualifications of a Pastor and Teacher from these two surnames the one a son of wisdom and the other of exhortation but our intention only is to shew that the two Josephs in mention differed in person for they differed in name §. And Matthias Who or whence this man was we cannot determine certain it is the sense of his name is the same with Nathaneel though not the sound and I should as soon fix upon him for the man as any other and some probabilities might be tendred for such a surmisal but we will not spend time upon such conjectures CHAP. II. Vers. 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place §. 1. The time and nature of the Feast of Pentecost THE expression of the Evangelist hath bred some scruple how it can be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day to be compleated or fulfilled when it was now but newly begun and the sight of this scruple it is like hath moved the Syrian Translater and the Vulgar Latine to read it in the plural number When the days of Pentecost were fulfilled Calvin saith compleri is taken for advenire to be fulfilled for to be now come Beza accounts the fulness of it to be for that the night which is to be reckoned for some part of it was now past and some part of the day also In which exposition he saith something toward the explanation of the scruple but not enough Luke therefore in relating a story of the feast of Pentecost useth an expression agreeable to that of Moses in relating the institution of it Lev. 23. 13. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering seven Sabbaths shall be compleat Even unto the morrow after the seven Sabbath shall ye number fifty days It will not be amiss to open these words a little for the better understanding and fixing the time of Pentecost First The Sabbath that is first mentioned in the Text in these words Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath is to be understood of the first day of the Passover week or the fifteenth day of the month Nisan the Passover having been slain on the day before And so it is well interpreted by the Chaldee Paraphrast that goeth under the name of Jonathan and by Rabbi Solomon upon this Chapter at the 11 verse And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord after the holy day the first day of the Passover And it was called a Sabbath be it on what day of the week it would as it was on the Friday at our Saviours death because no servile work was to be done in it but an holy convocation to be held unto the Lord vers 7. and the Passover Bullock Deut. 16. 2 7. 2 Chron. 30. 24. 35. 8. to be eaten on it Joh. 18. 28. as the Lamb had been eaten the night before and this Bullock was also called a Passover and the day the preparation of the Passover Joh. 19. 14. as well as the Lamb and the day before had been This helpeth to understand that difficult phrase Matth. 28. 1. about which there is such difference and difficulty of expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the evening of the Sabbath saith the Syriack and the Vulgar And o utinam for then would the Lords day be clearly called the Sabbath the Sabbath of the Jews being ended before the evening or night of which he speaketh did begin In the end of the Sabbath saith Beza and our English but the Sabbath was ended at Sun-setting before It is therefore to be rendred after the Sabbaths for so signifieth * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch post regls tempora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post tempora Trojana 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post noctem c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after in Greek Writers as well as the Evening and the plural number of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to have its due interpretation Sabbaths Now there were two Sabbaths that fell together in that Passover week in which our Saviour suffered this Convocational or Festival Sabbath the first day of the Passover week and the ordinary weekly Sabbath which was the very next day after the former was a Friday and on that our Saviour suffered the latter a Saturday or the Jewish Sabbath and on that he rested in the grave and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after these Sabbaths early in the morning on the first day of the week he rose again Secondly The morrow after this Sabbath of which we have spoken or the sixteenth day of the month Nisan was the solemn day of waving the sheaf of the first fruits before the Lord and the day from which they began to count their seven weeks to Pentecost Lev. 23. 11. Deut. 16. 9. This day then being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day in the Passover week and being the date from whence they counted to Pentecost all the Sabbaths from hence thither were named in relation to this day as the first Sabbath after it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. Not as it is rendred the second Sabbath after the first but the first Sabbath after this second day the next Sabbath after was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the rest accordingly Thirdly Now in their counting from this morrow after the Sabbath or this day of their first-fruit sheaf to Pentecost seven Sabbaths or Weeks were to be compleat whereupon R. Solomon doth very well observe that the count must then begin at an evening and so this day after the Sabbath was none of the fifty but they were begun to be counted at Even when that day was done so that from the time of waving the first-fruit sheaf Pentecost was indeed the one and fiftieth day but counting seven weeks compleat when an evening must begin the account it is but the fiftieth Fourthly To this therefore it is that the phrase of the Evangelist speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English hath very well uttered the day of Pentecost was fully come thereby giving an exact notice how to fix the day that is now spoken of from our Saviours death and to observe that he speaketh of the time of the day indeed and not of the night which was now over and the day fully come The dependence of Pentecost upon this day of waving the first-fruit sheaf was upon this reason because on this second day of the Passover barley harvest began and from thence forward they might eat parched corn or corn in the ear but by Pentecost their corn was inned and seasoned and ready to make bread and now they offered the first of their bread This relation had this Festival in the common practise but something more did it bear in it as a memorial for
were ever Bishop of Jerusalem at all or no is very well worth taking into some consideration but that will be most proper to handle when we come to those places in the Acts of the Apostles where a singular mention of James hath given occasion of this opinion But as for his prototype of Miters the peoples woodden devotion to his chair and the rest of that legendary invention he is little acquainted with the officiousness of superstition that knoweth not out of what mint that cometh and he hath little to do that should go about to examine the truth of it but he hath the least of all to do that should believe it THE CHRISTIAN JEWISH AND ROMAN HISTORY OF The Year of CHRIST XXXIV And of the Emperor TIBERIUS XIX Being the Year of the WORLD 3961. Consuls Sergius Sulpitius Galba L. Cornelius Sulla By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII Sect. An account of the Chronologie ALthough the proper reckoning of every year of our Saviour be from September to September for at that time of the year he was born and so his three and thirtieth year should have been ended by us within 4 months or little more after the giving of the Holy Ghost yet because it will not be possible to date the times of things in any of the three stories that we have in hand from such a beginning and because both the Roman Historians do reckon the years of their City as also the Christian Histories the years of Christ from January to January I have chosen to follow that computation and manner of accounting or rather to speak properly indeed I have been inforced to follow it there being not only various and pregnant helps both from Romans and Christians to forward us in that manner of reckoning but there being also an utter impossibility to reckon or compute from any other beginning or calculation now as for those stories that we are to follow in the Acts of the Apostles the holy Ghost hath not been so punctual and exact to give us the times of the things as to give us things themselves The Chronicle chain of the times indeed is drawn up by the Scripture from the Creation to the death of our Saviour which was the fulness of time with all care and accurateness but from thence forward not so strictly or observantly exhibited and held forth nor indeed was it requisite that it should so be To annalize therefore the story of this book of the Acts as it cannot but prove a matter of great difficulty so will it prove but a matter of conjecture when we have done what we can and both these proceed from this ground and reason because the holy Ghost hath been very sparing if not utterly silent in giving account of the times in the new Testament from the death of Christ forward that great business in his death being accomplished and fufilled for which alone the succession of times was reckoned and recorded we shall therefore in the casting of passages and occurences into several years as we go along present them under their proper notion of conjecture yet shewing some ground work and reason of what we do and though it may be we may not always hit aright in fixing every thing to its proper year yet hope we to find here and there some such main pins as whereon to hang a sum of divers years joyned together and to settle them fast although we cannot so perfectly find a general nail whereby to fasten the occurrences of every several year by it self We may take an instance in the story at which we now are the choosing of the seven Deacons It is not possible positively to determine at what time this was done it may be it was before the three and thirtieth year of our Saviour was expired namely before September next after his Ascension it may be again it was not before September but betwixt it and January next following or it may be it was not before January but after it in this year that we are entring upon there is alike uncertainty in all these things if we should come to try the times of this particular thing by it self but when we shall come to examine and take up the time of Pauls conversion then will some steadiness of the time of this appear and the nail that fastneth that will so clench up all the stories betwixt that and the descension of the Holy Ghost or all the stories from the end of the second Chapter to the beginning of the ninth that they will not hang altogether loose but have some fixedness to their proper time Acts VI. Vers. 1. There was a murmuring of the Grecians IN the Greek it is Of the Helenists which word is also used Chap. 9. 29. and 11. 20. and is of no small controversie for the sense whether it mean Greeks that lived among the Jews or Jews that lived among the Greeks Whether Greeks that were converted to the Jewish Religion or Jews that used the Greek tongue but the latter seemeth to be the proper meaning of it upon these grounds 1. Because proselyted Greeks which some think Hellenistae means are expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 12. 20. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Ant. lib. 18. cap. 4. And not Hellenistae 2. Because the very form of the word Hellinista doth more properly import a Jew ingrafted into the Greeks than a Greek ingrafted into the Jews 3. Because whereas Judaeus and Hellen distinguish the two nations Jew and Greek all along in the Scripture Hebraeus and Hellenista must needs signifie something else here 4. Because if by Hellenistae had been meant the converted Greeks it had been most proper in contradiction to them to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. Because the story from the beginning of this book hither maketh the Church to consist most especially of Jews as Chap. 2. 5 22. and 3. 12. and though it mention proselytes among them yet seemeth it most improbable that their number shall be so great as to have seven Deacons chosen for them 6. Because Nicolas one of the seven is expresly called a Proselyte of Antioch which had been somewhat improper if all the business had only concerned Proselytes By these and some other reasons that might be produced it is most proper to apprehend and conceive that these Hellenists were Jews of the Grecian dispersion and plantations that lived among the Greeks and used their language and which may be called the western dispersion not only in regard of the situation of their dwellings but chiefly in difference from the Eastern captivities carried away by the Assyrians and Persians and also because they used Western tongues And to this sense it soundeth when it is said the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews namely that both they that murmured and they that were murmured against were Jews
see the full setling of the Law in their houses And when God had fetched him a people out of Egypt and laid the foundation of a glorious Church with signs and wonders then he thought it fit for their restriction as also ‖ ‖ ‖ Vid. Jarchi on Ruth cap. 1. for their distinction from the Heathen to give the Law from his own mouth the more to procure reverence to him For Heaven and Earth must needs hearken when the Lord speaketh Isa. 1. 2. And thus did †††Numa Minos c. the Heathen fain they received their Laws from a Deity that was never seen and yet their Laws were the better observed for that reason CHAP. LIX Of the place where it was given and manner GOD gave the Law in Arabia so wicked Mahomet gave his Law in Arabia A worse and a better thing no one Country every afforded God gave his Law in Sinai a bushy place as it seems by * * * Seneh signifies a bush Exodus 3. the name agreeable to the giving of so perplexing a matter Carry along with thee gentle Reader as thou readest the Scripture thus much care at my request as to mark that the Law of Moses was given in two places Sinai and the Tabernacle as also to consider that some part of this Law did only concern the Jews and some part did also concern all the World The Ceremonial Law that concerned only the Jews it was given to Moses in private in * * * Levit. 1. the Tabernacle and fell with the Tabernacle when the veil rent in twain The Moral Law concerns the whole World and it was given in sight of the whole World on the top of a mountain and must endure as long as any mountain standeth The Judicial Law which is more indifferent and may stand or fall as seems best for the good of a Common-wealth was given neither so publick as the one nor so private as the other but in a mean between both The Law on Sinai was with fire and trumpets so shall Christ come with fire and trumpet at the latter day to take an account how men have kept this fiery Law as it is called Deut. 33. 2. Fiery because given out of the fire as the Jerusalem and Babilonian Targums hold though I think there is more meant by the words than so for it is Eshdath which may be rendred the fire of a Law CHAP. LX. Of the effects of the Law THE letter of the Law is death but the Spirit giveth life The Jews stand upon the letter and think to gain life by the works of it but them the Apostle frequently Vid. Hillar Hieron in loc confuteth And I take the aim of Christs Parable Matth. 20. about the penny to extend to no less Some came into the Vineyard at the Dawning of the Day or the Age before the Flood and some at the third hour or in the time before the Law and some at the sixth and ninth hour or under the heat and burden of the Jewish Law and some at the last under the Gospel Those under the Law plead for merit we have born the heat and burden of the day that is costly Sacrifices sore Ceremonies c. To whom the Master answers that his penny is his own and if he give it it is not for their merit but his good will St. Paul calls the Law a School-Master and so it is indeed and such a School-Master as that that Livy and Florus speak of in Italy who brought forth his children that were trusted with him to Hannibal who if he had not been more merciful than otherwise they had all perished So they that rely upon the works of the Law are in fine constrained by the Law to come to Christ who more merciful than the Law does deliver them And if you well weigh it you shall find that as the whole Law so every part from one to another brings us to Christ. The Moral Law shews us what we should do and with the same sight we find that we cannot do it This makes us to seek to the Ceremonial for some Sacrifice or Ceremony to answer for our not doing it There we see that burning a dead beast is but poor satisfaction for the sins of men living and that outward purifyings of mens selves can avail but little to the cleansing of a soiled soul this then delivers us to the Judicial Law and by it we see what we deserve and thus in fine we are constrained to seek to Christ * * * It was Jesus or Josuah and not Moses or the Law that brought Israel into the Land of Canaan Jesus for there is no other name whereby we must be saved The Parable that our Saviour propounds in the tenth of Luke I think tends somethink to this purpose A man saith he went from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among theeves and they robbed him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead A certain Priest came that way and when he saw him he turned aside A Levite came that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side But a good Samaritan came as the Text imports and pitied him and salved him and lodged him and paid for him Such a one is man fallen among Satan Sin and Death and by them stopt stript and striped Satan dismounts him off his Innocency that should sustain him Sin strips him of all Righteousness that should array him Death strikes him with guiltiness and wounds him Here is a man in a woful case and none to aid him By comes a Priest that is first come the Sacrifices of the legal Priesthood and they may pass by him but they do not nor they cannot help him By comes a Levite that is the Ceremonies of the Levitical Law and they may pass by him but they do not they cannot help him Or by comes a Priest that is the Angels may see him thus but they let him lie for they cannot help him By comes a Levite that is Men and the World may see him thus but they let him alone for ever for they cannot succour him But by comes a good Samaritan that is our Saviour himself who is called a Samaritan and is said to have a Devil and he pities him salves him lodges him and pays for him He pities him in very bowels therefore he says as I live I would not the death of a sinner He salves him with his own blood therefore t is said By his stripes we are healed He lodges him in his own Church therefore the Church saith He brought me in the winecellar and love was his banner over me And he pays for him what he deserved therefore he saith I have troad the Winepress alone It is said in the Book of Kings that when the Shunamites dead child was to be raised Elisha first sent his staff to be laid upon him but that did no good but when Elisha
had none This Dichotomy is shewed out of the Jewish Writers p. 651 to 658. Jewish Affairs p. 773 825. Their troubles in Alexandria p. 832 834 835 852 853 859. In their own Land p. 856 857. They are again in favour p. 879. Phrases taken from the Jewish Writers are used in the New Testament as Gehenna the World to come Maranatha Raka Jannes and Jambres Beelzebub 1005 1006 Jews a great number were all along in Egypt p. 205. Their Language and Stile is much followed in the New Testament p. 213 214. They had three ways of opposing the Gospel by a Prayer against Hereticks by Emissaries whose business were to cry it down and preach every where against it by the use of Magick in doing strange things exceeding many of them being skilled therein p. 290. They generally every where opposed the Gospel p. 294 295 296 297. Both within and without Judea they were generally Judged by their own Magistracy p. 302. They used to pray only for themselves and their own Nation p. 309. In Babilon in the days of Saint Peter they were grown to so great and distinct a Nation since the time of the Captivity that they had a Prince of their own and three Universities 335. About Christs appearance and especially some little after they were the most unquiet and tumultuous Nation under Heaven p. 337. Besides their common wickedness they had four Additions monstrous and unparalleld p. 337. The cruelty of the Jews was most unparalleld they murdered at one time of Greeks and Romans 460000 Men eating their flesh devouring their Intrals daubing themselves with their Blood and wearing their Skins c. p. 289 366. After this multitude of thousands of Jews were destroyed 400000. Adrian walled a Vineyard sixteen miles about with dead Bodies a Mans height The Brains of three hundred of their Children were found upon one stone p. 368. He destroyed fifty of their strongest Garisons and nine hundred eighty five of their fairest Towns this was sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem 366 367. They had five hundred Schools and in every one five hundred Scholars Rab. Akibah had 24000 Disciples p. 368. They were more mad of their Traditions and Carnal Rites after the fall of Jerusalem than before p. 370 371. They were generally divided among themselves yet all of them opposed Christianity to the utmost when they themselves were in their greatest afflictions p. 371. They deeply engage themselves to stand by the Mishnah and Talmud p. 372. The Talmud of Babilon is their Standard for Rule and Religion to this day 372. Their miserable Estate to this day doteing on Traditions Their own Works for salvation Their being the Children of God that their Messias is to come hating him that is already come up p. 375. They make a part of the remaing Antichrist and are to be destroyed with him c. p. 376. There may be a calling of the Jews but not so universal as some suppose p. 375 376 377. In Galilee and Judea they differed in many things p. 605. Jews put for Sanbedrim or Rulers very common in the Evangelists p. 662 670. Their Admirable Resolution and Courage 773. How their-own Historians differ 774. Their Commotions p. 773 803 818 874 875. Vitellius becomes their friend p. 809. The difference between the Jews and the Gentiles went away when Christ came p. 845 to 847. Several Hereticks sprang from among them as Simon Cerinthius Menander Ebion Basilides c. p. 372 373. Jannes and Jambres a form taken from the Jewish Writers 1005 1006 Jezabel mentioned Apoe 2. 20. might possibly be one that was a Whore to Simon Magus 787 If is sometimes a Note of Assurance and not of Doubting 503 Image of Jelousy what 2017. * Immarcalin were seven in number they carried the Keys of the Gates of the Court and one could not open them without the rest c. 913 914 Imposition of Hands p. 281. This way the Holy Ghost was sometimes given p. 285. This way the Apostles in likelihood never used but to ordain unto some Office in the Church and not for Confirmation 788 Incarnation is a mystery high and deep 504 Incense burning what 945 946 Incense The Altar of Incense what p. 1083. * The way of pounding and compounding it 2012. * Inspiration two Degrees of it viz. to Prophesie and to be Pen Men of Divine Writ John had both these 341 342 Inversion of Words or Names very common in Scripture 84 88 122 Joab his self-deceit in laying hold of the Horns of the Altar with the Reason of it 2033. * Jocanan ben Zaccai Rabban part of his History 2009. * Job was contemporary with Israel in Egypt p. 23. He was an Heathen Man yet so good 1026 John the Baptist when he began to Preach and Baptize p. 208 209. How exceedingly People flocked to his Ministry and Baptism p. 209. His Ministry lasted three years the half of which almost he lay in Prison p. 234. He was born at the same time and place when and where Circumcision was instituted p. 13. Josepbus his Testimony of him p. 592. His excellent Character with what opinion the Jews even the Sanhedrim had of him at first p. 681 682. How he received his Commission for the Ministry and the Institution of the Sacrament of Baptism p. 454. How he performed these 455 John the Evangelist his departure from Paul and Barnabas at Perga the occasion guest at p. 290. He is called The Beloved Disciple c. with the Reason 634 635 John the same with Jochanan frequent in the Old Testament 398. Marg. Jona applied to Peter with emphasis when Prophet Jonah and he are compared together 531 Jonah the Prophet was a Man of Wonders as his History refers to Niniveh 1006 1007 Jordan Israels passage through Jordan was very many miles taking up about all the length of the River that was in Judeah 478 528 Joseph had the Birthright as Rachel's first Born by Jacob's Choice in his life and Gift at his death p. 17 19 21. His Birthright in the division of Canaan is served next after Judah's Royalty 41 Joshua did great things 42 Joshua the son of Perehiah part of his History 2008. * Josi or Joseph ben Joezer part of his History 2008. * Jota or one Title of the Law did not perish 374 Journey taking a Journey in Scripture be it whither it will is commonly called going up and going down p. 423. A Sabbath days Journy what 252 739 to 742 Isaac his birth how he was a Type of Christ. 13 14 Isaiah is called the Evangelist 98 Israelite indeed what 534 Israel's afflictions in Egypt with the Reason of their suffering p. 1024. Israels Camp according to the Chaldee Paraphrast what 1025 1026 Iturea Ituria what Country and whence it had its Name 453 Jubilee Year what resemblance of Christs Redemption p. 619. It was the Jubilee year at Christs birth 243 Judah the son of Tabbai part of his History p. 2008. * Rabbi
would do him no more wrong than you would do his brother Matthew when you should say that he was a Publican 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscariot It may be ennquired whether this name was given him while he was alive or not till after his death If while he was alive one may not improperly derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Skortja which is written also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Bab. Nedarim fol 55. 2. Iskortja Where while the discourse is of a man vowing that he would not use this or that garment we are taught these things He that tyes himself by a vow of not using garments may use sackcloth vailing cloth hair cloth c. but he may not use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which words the Gloss writes thus These are garments some of leather and some of a certain kind of clothing The Gemara asketh What is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iskortja Bar bar Channah answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Tanners garment The Gloss is A leathern Apron that Tanners put on over their cloths So that Judas Iscariot may perhaps signifie as much as Judas with the Apron But now in such Aprons they had purses sown in which they were wont to carry their mony as you may see in Aruch in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we shall also observe presently And hence it may be Judas had that title of the purse bearer as he was called Judas with the apron Or what if he used the art of a Tanner before he was chose into Discipleship Certainly we read of one Simon a Tanner Act. IX 43. and that this Judas was the son of Simon Joh. XIII 26. But if he were not branded with this title till after his death I should suppose it derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara Which word what it signifies let the Gemarists speak k k k k k k Bab. Berac fol. 8. 1. Nine hundred and three kinds of death were created in the World as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the issues of death Psal. LXVIII 20. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Issues arithmetically ariseth to that number Among all those kinds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara is the roughest death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the easiest Where the Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara in the mother Tongue is Strangulament By Learned Men for the most part it is rendred Angina The Quinsie The Gemara sets out the roughness of it by this simile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Schabb. fol. 33. 1. The Iscara is like to branches of thorns in a fleece of Wool which if a man shake violently behind it is impossible but the wool will be pulled off by them It is thus defined in the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Iscara begins in the bowels and ends in the throat See the Gemara there When Judas therefore perished by a most miserable strangling being strangled by the Devil which we observe in its place no wonder if this infamous death be branded upon his Name to be commonly stiled Judas Iscariot or that Judas that perished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by strangling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who also betrayed him Let that of Maimonides be observed m m m m m m In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 8. It is forbidden to betray an Israelite into the hands of the Heathen either as to his person or as to his goods c. And whosoever shall so betray an Israelite shall have no part in the world to come Peter spake agreeably to the opinion of the Nation when he said concerning Judas He went unto his place Act. I. 25. And so doth Baal Turim concerning Balaam Balaam went to his place Numb XXIV 25. that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went down to Hell VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not OUR Saviour would have the Jews priviledges reserved to them until they alienated and lost them by their own perversness and siâ—s Nor does he grant the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles or Samaritans before it was offered to the Jewish Nation The Samaritans vaunted themselves sons of the Patriach Jacob Joh. IV. 12. which indeed was not altogether distant from the truth they embraced also the law of Moses and being taught thence expected the Messias as well as the Jews nevertheless Christ acknowledges them for his sheep no more than the Heathen themselves I. Very many among them were sprung indeed of the seed of Jacob though now become Renegades and Apostates from the Jewish Faith and Nation and hating them more than if they were Heathens and more than they would do Heathens Which also among other things may perhaps be observed in their very language For read the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch and if I mistake not you will observe that the Samaritans when by reason of the neerness of the places and the alliance of the Nations they could not but use of the language of the Jews yet used such a variation and change of the Dialect as if they scorned to speak the same words that they did and make the same language not the same II. In like manner they received the Mosaic law but for the most part in so different a writing of the words that they seem plainly to have propounded this to themselves that retaining indeed the law of Moses they would hold it under as much difference from the Mosaic Text of the Jews as ever they could so that they kept something to the sense n n n n n n Hieros Sotah fol. 21. 3. Bab. Sotah fol. 33. 2. R. Eliezer ben R. Simeon said I said to the Scribes of the Samaritans Ye have falsified your Law without any manner of profit accruing to you thereby For ye have writ in your Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Near the Oaken Groves of Morâ—h which is Sichem c. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added Let the Samaritan text at Deut. XI 30. be looked upon III. However they pretended to study the religion of Moses yet in truth there was little or no difference between them and Idolaters when they knew not what they worshipped which our Saviour objects against them Joh. IV. 22. and had not only revolted as Apostates from the true religion of Moses but set themselves against it with the greatest hatred Hence the Jewish Nation held them for Heathens or for a people more execrable than the Heathens themselves A certain Rabbin thus reproaches their idolatry o o o o o o Hieros Avodah Zarah fol. 44. 4. R. Ismael ben R. Josi went to Neapolis that is Sâ—chem the Samaritans came to him to whom he spake thus I see that you adore not this Mountain but the Idols which are under it for it is written Jacob hid the strange Gods under the
Israel The Lord thy God is one Lord. And so being blind as to the mystery of the Trinity are the more hardened to deny that Our Saviour strenuously asserts here the God-head of the Son or Messiah namely that he hath the same power with the Father the same honour due to him as to the Father that he hath all things in common with the Father and hence he makes this reply upon them about healing on the Sabbath my Father worketh on the Sabbath day so do I also VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son can do nothing of himself THAT is The Messiah can do nothing of himself For he is a Servant and sent by his Father so that he must work not of his own will and pleasure but his Father's Isai. XLII 1. Behold my servant Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold my Servant the Messiah So Kemch in loc and St. Paul Philip. II. 7. The Jew himself however he may endeavour to elude the sense of that phrase The Son of God yet cannot deny the truth of this Maxim That the Messiah can do nothing but according to the will and prescription of his Father that sent him Which he also will expound not of the weakness and impotency but the perfection and obedience of the Son that he so doth VERS XXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The hour cometh and now is when the dead shall hear c. THE Jews as we have said before looked for the Resurrection of the dead at the coming of Messiah and that truly and with great reason though it was not to be in their sense The Vision of Ezekiel about the dry bones living Chap. XXXVII and those words of Isaiah thy dead men shall live c. Chap. XXVI 20. suggesting to them some such thing although they grope exceedingly in the dark as to the true interpretation of this matter That of R. Eliczer is well enough n n n n n n Chetub â—ol 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The people of the Earth the Gentiles do not live which somewhat agrees with that of the Apostle Ephes. II 2. Ye were dead in trespasses and sins Nor does that of Jeremiah Bar Abba sound much differently o o o o o o Sanhedr fol. 92. 2. The dry bones Ezek. XXXVII are the Sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom is not the moisture of the Law It is true many bodies of the Saints arose when Christ himself arose Matth. XXVII 52. But as to those places in Scripture which hint the Resurrection of the dead at his coming I would not understand them so much of these as the raising the Gentiles from their spiritual death of sin when they lay in ignorance and Idolatry to the light and life of the Gospel Nor need we wholly expound Ezekiel's dry bones recovered to life of the return of the Tribes of Israel from their Captivity though that may be included in it but rather or together with that the resuscitation of the Israel of God that is those Gentiles that were to believe in the Messiah from their spiritual death The words in the Revel XX. 5. This is the first Resurrection do seem to confirm this Now what and at what time is this Resurrection When the great Angel of the Covenant Christ had bound the old Dragon with the Chains of the Gospel and shut him up that he should no more seduce the Nations p p p p p p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by lying Wonders Oracles and Divinations and his False-gods as formerly he had done that is when the Gospel being published amongst the Heathen Nations had laid open all the devices and delusions of Satan and had restored them from the death of sin and ignorance to a true state of life indeed This was the first Resurrection That our Saviour in this place speaks of this Resurrection I so much the less doubt because that Resurrction he here intends he plainly distinguishes it from the last and general Resurrection of the dead vers 28 29. this first Resurrection from that last which he points therefore to as it were with his finger the hour is coming and now is c. VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To execute judgment also because he is the Son of man DAN VII 13. Behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds and came to the Antient of days and there was given him dominion and glory c. To this our blessed Saviour seems to have respect in these words as the thing it self plainly shews R. Solomon upon the place One like the Son of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the King the Messiah R. Saadias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Messiah our righteousness When our Saviour declared before the Sanhedrin Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds they all said art thou Christ the Son of the blessed God by which they imply that the Son of God and Christ are convertible terms as also are Christ and the Son of Man And it plainly shews that their eyes were intent up-this place Art thou that Son of Man spoken of in Daniel who is the Son of God the Messiah So did Christ in these words look that way VERS XXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I hear I judge HE seems to allude to a custom amongst them q q q q q q Sanhedr cap. ult hal â— The Judge of an inferior Court if he doubts in any matter goes up to Jerusalem and takes the determination of the Sanhedrin and according to that he judgeth VERS XXXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A burning and shining light HE speaks according to the vulgar dialect of that Nation who were wont to call any person famous for life or knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Candle r r r r r r Beresh rabba fol. 95. 4. Shuah the Father-in-law of Judah Gen. XXXVIII was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Candle or light of the place where he lived The Gloss is One of the most famous men in the City inlightning their eyes hence the title given to the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Candle of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lamp of light VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search the Scriptures THIS seems not to be of the imperative but indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye search the Scriptures and in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me yet ye will not come to me that ye might have life What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means is not unknown to any that have but dipt into Jewish Authors It denotes a something more narrow search into the Scriptures something between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enquiry into the literal and Cabbalistical sense of the words as R. Bechai in every leaf shews by several
water hath never seen any rejoycing at all This offering of water they say was a Tradition given at Mount Sinai a a a a a a Rambam in loc and that the Prophet Jonah was inspired by the Holy Ghost upon this offering of water b. If you ask what foundation this usage hath Rambam will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— Gloss in lot there are some kind of remote hints of it in the Law however those that will not believe the Traditional Law will not believe this article about the sacrifice of water I. They bring for it the authority of the Prophet Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of drawing for it is written Ye shall draw waters with joy c. Isa. XII 3. b b b b b b Succah fol. 50. 2. This rejoycing which we have describ'd before they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rejoycing of the Law or for the Law for by waters they often understand the Law Isa. LV. 1. and several other places and from thence the rejoycing for these waters II. But they add moreover that this drawing and offering of water signifies the pouring out of the Holy Spirit c c c c c c â—…h rabba fol. 70. 1. Why do they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of drawing because thence they draw the Holy Spirit Gloss in Succah ubi supr In the Jerusalem Talmud it is expounded that they draw there the Holy Spirit for a divine breathing is upon the man through joy Another Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Flute also sounded for encrease of the joy Drawing of water therefore took its rise from the words of Isaiah they rejoyc'd over the waters as a symbol and figure of the Law and they lookt for the Holy Spirit upon this joy of theirs III. But still they add further d d d d d d â—oh Hashaâ—â—h fol. 16. Why doth the Law command saying offer ye water on the feast of Tabernacles The Holy Blessed God saith offer ye waters before me on the Feast of Tabernacles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the rains of the year may be blest to you For they had an opinion that God decreed and determin'd on the rains that should fall the following year at that Feast Hence that in the place before mention'd e e e e e e â— Taanith fol. 2. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Feast of Tabernacles it is determin'd concerning the waters And now let us reflect upon this passage of our Saviour Whosoever believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water They agree with what he had said before to the Samaritan woman Chap. IV. 14. and both expressions upon the occasion of drawing of water The Jews acknowledg that the latter Redeemer is to procure water for them as their former Redeemer Moses had done f f f f f f Midras Coheleth fol. 85. But as to the true meaning of this they are very blind and ignorant and might be better taught by the Messiah here if they had any mind to learn I. Our Saviour calls them to a belief in him from their own boast and glorying in the Law and therefore I rather think those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Scripture hath said should relate to the foregoing clause Whosoever believeth in me as the Scripture hath spoken about believing in Isa. XXVIII 16. I lay in Sion for a foundation a try'd stone He that believeth c. Habak II. 4. The just shall live by faith And the Jews themselves confess g g g g g g Maccoth fol. 24. 1. that six hundred and thirteen precepts of the Law may all be reduc'd to this The just shall live by faith And to that of Amos v. 6. Seek the Lord and ye shall live II. Let these words then of our Saviour be set in opposition to this rite and usage in the Feast of Tabernacles of which we have been speaking Have you such wonderful rejoycing at drawing a little water from Siloam He that believes in me whole rivers of living waters shall flow out of his own belly Do you think the waters mention'd in the Prophets do signifie the Law they do indeed denote the Holy Spirit which the Messiah will dispense to those that believe in him and do you expect the Holy Spirit from the Law or from your rejoycing in the Law the Holy Spirit is of faith and not of the Law Gal. III. 2. VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this Holy Ghost was not yet THESE words have relation to that most receiv'd opinion of the Jews about the departure of the Holy Spirit after the death of Zachary and Malachi to this also must that passage be interpreted when those of Ephesus say Act. XIX 2. We have not yet heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. That is we have indeed heard of the Holy Ghosts departure after the death of our last Prophets but of his return and redonation of him we have not yet heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in midst of the years make known Hab. III. 2. He calls the seventy years of Captivity the midst of the years For on the one hand it had been seven times seventy years from the birth of Samuel the first of the Prophets to the Captivity Act. III. 24. and on the other hand it was seven times seventy years from the end of the Captivity to the death of Christ. The prayer is that the gift of Prophesie might not be lost but preserv'd whiles the people should live exil'd in an heathen Country And according to the twofold virtue of Prophesie the one of working miracles the other of foretelling things to come he uses a twofold phrase revive thy work and make known Nor indeed was that gift lost in the Captivity but was very illustrious in Daniel Ezekiel c. it return'd with those that came back from the Captivity and was continu'd for one generation but then the whole Canon of the Old Testament being perfected and made up it departed not returning till the dawn of the Gospel at what time it appear'd in inspiring the Blessed Virgin John Baptist and his Parents c. and yet the Holy Ghost was not yet come that is not answerably to that large and signal promise of it in Joel II. 28. VERS XLIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This people c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people of the earth in common phrase oppos'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disciples of the wise men whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy people h h h h h h Setah fol. 39. 1. but the former they call the accursed VERS LII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou also of Galilee IT seems to be spoken scoffingly Art thou of those Galileans that believe in this Galilean CHAP. VIII EXPOSITORS
and fury of the Romans I beg your pardon for that saith Caiphas you know nothing neither consider for be he the Messiah or be he not it is expedient nay it is necessary he should dye rather than the whole Nation should perish c. VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Prophesied IS Caiphas among the Prophets There had not been a Prophet among the Chief Priests the Priests the People for these four hundred years and more and does Caiphas now begin to Prophesie It is a very foreign fetch that some would make when they would ascribe this gift to the office he then bore as if by being made High-Priest he became a Prophet The opinion is not worth confuting The Evangelist himself renders the reason when he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being the High-Priest that same year Which words direct the Reader 's eye rather to the year than to the High-Priest I. That was the year of pouring out the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelations beyond whatever the world had yet seen or would see again And why may not some drops of this great effusion light upon a wicked man as sometimes the Childrens crums fall from the table to the Dog under it that a witness might be given to the great work of Redemption from the mouth of our Redeemer's greatest enemy There lies the emphasis of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same year for Caiphas had been High-Priest some years before and did continue so for some years after II. To say the truth by all just calculation the office of the High-Priest ceased this very year and the High-Priest Prophesies while his office expires What difference was there as to the execution of the Priestly Office between the High-Priest and the rest of the Priesthood none certainly only in these two things 1. Asking counsel by Urim and Thummim 2. In performing the service upon the day of Expiation As to the former that had been useless many ages before because the Spirit of Prophesie had so perfectly departed from them So that there remained now no other distinction only that on the day of expiation the High-Priest was to perform the Service which an ordinary Priest was not warranted to do The principal ceremony of that day was that he should enter into the Holy of Holies with blood When therefore our great High-Priest should enter with his own blood into the Holiest of all what could there be left for this High-Priest to do When at the death of our great High-Priest the Veil that hung between the Holy and the Holy of Holies was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Math. XXVII 51. there was clear demonstration that all those Rites and Services were abolished and that the Office of the High-Priest which was distinguished from the other Priests only by those usages was now determined and brought to its full period The Pontificate therefore drawing its last breath prophesies concerning the Redemption of mankind by the great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls that he should dye for the people c. That of the Apostle Acts XXIII 5. I wist not that it was the High-Priest may perhaps have some such meaning as this in it I knew not that there was any High-Priest at all because the Office had become needless for some time For grant indeed that St. Paul did not know the face of Ananias nor that Ananias was the High-Priest yet he must needs know him to have been a Magistrate because he had his seat amongst the Fathers of the Sanhedrin now those words which he quoted out of the Law Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People forbad all indecent speeches toward any Magistrate as well as the High-Priest The Apostle therefore knowing Ananias well enough both who he was and that he sate there under a falsely assumed title of the High-Priest does on purpose call him whited wall because he only bore the colour of the High-Priesthood whenas the thing and office it self was now abolished Caiaphas in this passage before us speaketh partly as Caiaphas and partly as a Prophet As Caiaphas he does by an impious and precipitate boldness contrive and promote the death of Christ and what he uttered as a Prophet the Evangelist tells us he did it not of himself he spoke what himself understood not the depth of The greatest work of the Messiah according to the expectation of the Jews was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reduction or gathering together the Captivities The High-Priest despairs that ever Jesus should he live could do this For all that he either did or taught seem'd to have a contrary tendency viz. to seduce the people from their Religion rather than recover them from their servile state of bondage So that he apprehended this one only remedy left that care might be taken so as by the death of this man the hazard of that Nations ruin might blow over If he be the Messiah which I almost think even Caiaphas himself did not much question since he can have no hope of redeeming the Nation let him die for it himself that it perish not upon his account Thus miserably are the great Masters of Wisdom deceiv'd in almost all their surmizes they expect the gathering together of the Children of God in one by the life of the Messiah which was to be accomplisht by his death They believe their Traditional Religion was the establishment of that Nation whereas it became its overthrow They think to secure themselves by the death of Christ when by that very death of his their expected security was chiefly shaken O blind and stupid madness VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To purifie themselves R. f f f f f f Rosh hashanah fol. 16. 2. Isaac saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is bound to purifie himself for the Feast Now there were several measures of time for purifying He that was unclean by the touch of a dead body he requir'd a whole weeks time that he might be sprinkled with the water of Purification mixt with the ashes of the red heifer burnt the third and the seventh day which ceremony we may see and laugh at in Parah cap. 3. Other purifyings were speedilier perform'd amongst others shaving themselves and washing their garments were accounted necessary and within the Laws of purifying g g g g g g Moed-katon fol. 13. 1. These shave themselves within the Feast he who cometh from an heathen Country or from captivity or from prison Also he who hath been excommunicated but now absolv'd by the wise men These same also wash their garments within the Feast It is suppos'd that these were detain'd by some necessity of affairs that they could not wash and be shav'd before the Feast for these things were of right to be perform'd before lest any should by any means approach polluted unto the celebration of this Feast but if by some necessity they were hinder'd from doing it before
〈◊〉 Of the Destroyer THE Jews call evil Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroyers and good Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministring But I enquire whether the Apostle speaks to this sense in this place For where can we find the people destroyed and slain by an evil Angel They perished indeed by the Pestilence and by the plague for Baal-Peor concerning which the Apostle spake before but here he distinguisheth the destroying of them by the Destroyer from that kind of death Therefore the Apostle seems to me to allude to the notion very usual among the Jews concerning the Angel of death the great destroyer called by them Samael concerning whom among very many things which are related let us produce this only f f f f f f Bava Mezia fol. 36. 1. A Question is propounded of a Cow delivered to a Keeper hired with a price carefully and faithfully to keep her She strayes in a Fen and there dyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the common manner that is by no violent death it is demanded how far the Keeper is guilty And it is determined that if she had perished being devoured by Wolves or drove away by thieves and slain then the Keeper were guilty by reason of negligence But this they say was the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Angel of death For they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the Angel of death had suffered her she had lived in a Thiefs house And the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of death â—ight kill her even in the house of him who hired the Keeper You see how they ascribe it to the Angel of death when any violent known and ordinary cause and evident kind of death doth not appear So the Apostle in this place mentioneth the known and evident ways of death serpents pestilence ver 8 9. and now he speaks of the common kind of death and not of some evident plague whereby the whole multitude of those that murmured perished Num. XIV within forty years He saith they perished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that great Destroyer the Angel of Death VERS XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. On whom the ends of the World c. HE saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ends of the Ages not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ends of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Age in the Scripture very ordinarily is the Jewish age In which sense Circumcision the Passover and other Mosaic rites are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For an age So the Disciples Mat. XXIV 3. enquire of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the end of the age and he answereth concerning the destruction of Jerusalem In the same sense should I render the words of the Apostle Tit. I. 2. To the hope of eternal life which God hath promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the times of the Jewish ages that is God promised eternal life before the Mosaic Oeconomy that life therfore is not to be expected by the works of the Law of Moses Thus therefore the Apostle speaks in this place These things which were translated in the beginning of the Jewish ages are written for an example to you upon whom the ends of those ages are come And the beginning is like to the end and the end to the beginning Both was forty years both consisted of temptation and unbelief and both ending in the destruction of unbelievers that in the destruction of those that perished in the wilderness this is the destruction of those that believed not in the destruction of the City and Nation VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing So was that Cup in the Passover called over which thanks were given after meat and in which our Saviour instituted the Cup of the Eucharist of which we have spoken largely at Mat. XXVI 27. When therefore the Apostle marks out the Cup of the Lords Supper with the same name as the Jews did their Cup he hath recourse to the first institution of it and implies that giving of thanks was continued over it by Christians although new under another notion Thus his reasoning proceeds as we in the eating of bread and drinking of the Eucharistical Cup communicate of the body and blood of Christ so in eating things offered to Idols men communicate of and with an Idol You communicate of the blood of Christ therefore fly from Idolatry I speak to wise men do you judge of the argument For the very participation of the Eucharist seals you up against Idolatry and things offered to Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we all partake of one bread The manner of reasoning We all are one body because we partake of one bread recals that to mind which among the Jews was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mixing or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communion The manner and sense of which learn out of Maimonides g g g g g g In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. By the words of the Scribes saith he it is forbid neighbours to go on the Sabbath day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a place appropriated to one where there is a division into divers habitations unless all the neighbours one the Sabbath Eve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enter into communion Therefore Solomon for they make him the author of this Tradition and Custom appoynted that each place be appropriated to one man there where there is a division into divers Habitations and each of the Inhabitans receive there a place proper to himself and some place also is left there common to all so that all have an equal right in it as a Court belonging to many houses which is reckoned a place by right common to all And every place which each hath proper to himself is reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proper place And it is forbid that a man carry any thing from a place proper to himself into the place common to all that is on the Sabbath but let every one use the place appropriate to himself alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until all enter into communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how is that Communion made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They associate together in one food which they prepare on the Eve of the Sabbath as though they would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We all associate together and we have all one food nor does any of us separate a propriety from our neighbour but as we all have an equal right in this place which is left common to us so we have all an equal right in the place which every one takes to himself for his own And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The consorting together which those that dwel among themselves in the same Court make is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Communions of Courts And that consorting together which they make
use of this Sacrament might shew that they renounced their Judaism and professed the Faith and Oeconomy of the Gospel III. Our Communion therefore in this Sacrament is not so much Spiritual as External and declarative of our common and joynt profession of the Christian Faith We are far from denying that the Saints have a Spiritual Communion with God and among themselves in the use of the Eucharist yea we assert there is a most close Communion between true believers and God But what is that Spiritual Communion of Saints among themselves Mutual love one heart prayers for one another c. But they may exercise the same Communion and do exercise it when they meet together to any other part of Divine Worship They may and do act the same thing when they are distant from one another Therefore their Communion in this Sacrament which is distinctly called the Communion of the Eucharist is that they meet together and by this outward sign openly and with joynt minds profess that they are united in one sacred knot and bond of Christian Religion renouncing all other Religions IV. When therefore we approach to the Eucharist in any Church we do not only communicate with that congregation with which we associate at that time but with the whole Catholic Church in the profession of the true Evangelic Religion VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do shew the Lords death IT is known what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Passover Supper was namely a Declaration of the great works of God in the deliverance of the people out of Egypt The same as it seems would these Judaizing Corinthians retain in the Lords Supper as if the Eucharist were instituted and superadded only for that commemoration The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very well answer to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Declaration and while the Apostle admonisheth them that the death of Christ is that which is to be declared it may be gathered that they erred in this very thing and looked some other way VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unworthily THE Apostle explains himself vers 29. Where we also will speak of this verse VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let a man examine himself c. HE had said before verse 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they which are approved may be made manifest And in the same sense he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man approve himself in this place not so much Let him try or examine himself as Let him approve himself that is Let him shew himself approved by the Christian Faith and Doctrine So Chap. XVI 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whomsoever ye shall approve We meet with the word in the same sense very often VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lords body THIS is to be meant of the proper act of the understanding viz. Of the true judgment concerning the nature and signification of the Sacrament If it were said indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lord it might be rendred in the same sense as He knew not the Lord that is he loves him not he fears him not he worships him not But when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the body it plainly speaks of the act of the understanding He does not rightly distinguish of the body of the Lord. And this was a grievous error of these Judaizing Corinthians who would see nothing of the body of Christ in the Eucharist or of his death their eyes being too intent upon the commemoration of the Passover They retained the old Leaven of Judaism in this new Passover of the Eucharist And this was their partaking of the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily as assigning it a scope and end much too unworthy much too mean Ther are alas among Christians some who come to this Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily but whether this unworthily of the Corinthians be fitly applied to them I much doubt How mean soever I am let me speak this freely with the leave of good and pious men that I fear that this discourse of the Apostle which especially chastized Judaizers be too severely applyed to Christians that Judaize not at all at least that it be not by very many Interpreters applied to the proper and intended scope of it Of these Corinthians receiving the Eucharist unworthily in the sense of which we spake the Apostle speaks two dreadful things I. That they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord vers 27. With this I compare that of the Apostle Heb. X. 29. He hath trampled under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified a common thing And Heb. VI. 6. They crucify again to themselves the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put him to an open shame Of whom is the discourse Not of all Christians that walked not exactly according to the Gospel rule although they indeed esteem and treat Christ too ignominously but of those that relapse and Apostatize from the Gospel to Judaism whether these Corinthians too much inclined and are admonished seasonably to take care of the same guilt for when any professing the Gospel so declined to Judaism that he put the blood of Christ in subordination to the Passover and acknowledged nothing more in it than was acknowledged in the blood of a Lamb and other Sacrifices namely that they were a mere commemoration and nothing else oh how did he vilify that blood of the eternal Covenant He is guilty of the blood of the Lord who assents to the shedding of his blood and gives his vote to his death as inflicted for a mere shaddow and nothing else which they did II. That they ate and drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to themselves But what that judgment is is declared vers 30. Many are sick c. It is too sharp when some turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Damnation when the Apostle saith most evidently vers 32. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When we are judged we are chastened that we should not be condemned Thus as in the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation God vindicated the honour of the Sabbath by the death of him that gathered sticks and the honour of the worship in the Tabernacle by the death of Nadab and Abihu and the honour of his Name by the stoning of the Blasphemer so he set up like monuments of his vengeance in the beginning of the Gospel Dispensation in the dreadful destruction of Ananias and Sapphira for the wrong and reproach offered to the Holy Ghost in the delivery of some into the hands of Satan for contempt of and enmity against the Gospel in this judgment for the abuse of the Eucharist in the destruction of some by the Plague for Nicolaitism Revel II. 23 c. VERS XXXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
when the Judge cometh to plead their cause and behold the Judge standeth before the door If we should take the words in this sence and pointing at such a time and matter I suppose it might not be far from the Apostles meaning But do his words reach no further Are not these things written for our learning as well as for theirs to whom he wrote Is it not a truth spoken to us as well as it was spoken to them Behold the Judge standeth before the door Dispute it not but rather down on our knees and bless and magnifie the patience and goodness of this Judge for that he is standing at the door and hath not yet broke in upon us In handling of the words I suppose I need not to spend time in explaining the Phrases For none that hears of this Judge but he knows who is meant and none can but know what is meant by his standing at the door viz. as near at hand and ready to enter And if the Apostle speak here of the nearness of the destruction of Jerusalem our Saviours words of the very same subject may help to explain him Matth. XXIV 33. So likewise ye when ye see all these things know that it is near even at the doors So behold the Judge is near even at the door But the Judge of whom And at the door of whom These shall be the two things that my discourse shall enquire after The Jews in their Pandect mention several things of which they say they are two and yet are four and when they explain themselves they shew they speak very good sence I may speak much like of the Propositions that rise out of the words that they are two but indeed are four The two are these That there is a Judge or God is a Judge and That this Judge stands before the door But the very stile and expression doth double it That God is the Judge of all and That this Judge stands at the door of all Because there is no exception about whom he judgeth nor any exception at whose door he standeth I cannot say it is as essential to God to be a Judge as it is essential to him to be holy infinite eternal good c. because he had been there had these never been creature to judge as he was these from eternity before the creature was but since there is a creature to judge I may say it is as essential to God to be Judge of his creature as it is to be God For we may truly say if he were not Judge he were not God For what kind of God were that that had not to do about judging the creature I need not to produce places of Scripture to prove that that is before us for what more plain what more frequent than such testimonies That God is Judge himself Psal. L. 6. That he is the Judge of all the Earth Gen. XVIII 25. That he is the Lord the righteous Judge 2 Tim. IV. 8. That he sits upon the Throne judging right Psal. IX 5. That with righteousness he shall judge the world and the people with equity Psal. XCVIII ult But because the language of the Text is Behold the Judge let me speak as I may say unto your eyes according to the expression O generation see ye the word of the Lord Jer. II. 31. So let me lead your eyes to behold some specimens of this great Judges judging and some demonstrations and assurances that he hath given that he will so judge Eternal Judgment is one of the first principles of Christian Religion Heb. II. 6. viz. the judgment that doth determine of every mans state for eternity for of Gods temporal judgments we shall not speak here And that judgment is either particular passed upon every one at death or general which shall be at the last day Of either of these I shall take some prospect I. Concerning the particular Judgment When mans day is done the day of the Lord begins with him and when his work is done he is to receive his wages according as his work hath been good or evil Lazarus and the rich man no sooner dead but the one is in torment and the other in Abrahams bosom And how come they there Conceive you see their passage The souls of all good or bad as soon as ever departed out of the body are slipt into another world And what becomes of them there Do they dispose of themselves Do they go to Heaven or Hell by their own disposal There would never soul go to Hell if it were at those terms But the departed soul meets with its Judge as soon as ever it is departed and by him it is doomed and disposed to its eternal estate The Judge stands at the very door of that World of Spirits to dispose of all that come in there to their everlasting condition according as their works have been here good or evil So that those words of the Apostle as they speak the subsequence of judgment to death so they may very well speak this nearness It is appointed for all men once to die and then cometh the judgment Heb. IX ult Those words of our Saviour are very regardable Luk. XX. 30. He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Though dead and gone to the World and to themselves yet to him they are not dead but alive and he deals with them as such as are alive And though he be not the God of all that so live yet he is the Judge of them all He calls himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob when they had been now dead and in the dust a long time for they lived though they were dead And so Cain and Cham and Pharaoh lived though they were dead that is were not utterly extinct and yet God was far from owning himself the God of Cain Cham and Pharaoh but he was their Judge And do but think how these men looked upon their Judge when they met him A carnal wretch that never thinks of God never dreams of judgment but is all for his pleasures and delights here when he dies and instantly meets his dreadful Judge to doom him Can any tongue express what a horrid surprizal that soul is taken at I cannot but take some scantling of conception of it from that passage Rev. I. 17. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead The beloved Disciple to be thus terrified at the sight of his beloved Master He that used friendly to lean in his bosom now to fall at his feet for fear as dead And Christ not coming to him neither with any message of terror but in a friendly manner with instructions concerning things that were to come to pass thereafter And if so dreadful a consternation fell upon him upon meeting and seeing the glory of his dear what is the wretched souls case when it so unexpectedly meets with the dreadful terrors of its angry Judge
from him into the house a Scorpion bit him And can you call that a Resurrection cheerfully and favourly when a man is raised from one death to die another Blessed and holy is he saith this our Apocaliptic that hath part in the first Resurrection over such an one the second death shall have no power But if he have no share in the first Resurrection at the second Resurrection his rising is but to remove out of one death into another out of one deadly room in the prison into a worse Therefore the Scripture in the places mentioned speaks of the Resurrection as if belonging only to the holy and righteous speaking of it as it is in its proper definition arising again from death and not flitting from one death to another it speaks of the second Resurrection as it is akin and related to the first that being an arising from one death this from another And this is the first Parallel that we may make between them they are both a rising I from death that neither in the one nor in the other death hath any more dominion not the death of sin in the first Resurrection nor death in the grave in the second Shall we dispute whether the first or second Resurrection be the greater work the greater business They are as it were brethren and to whether belongs the priviledg of birthright It hath been said of old that sleep is the elder brother of death and certainly with as much right we may call rising from the death of sin elder brother to rising from death in the grave May we not call sin the elder brother of Damnation and on the contrary Grace the elder brother of Glory and the rising of the Soul elder brother to the rising of the body What is the first formulation or corner stone that is laid for the building up of a happy and blessed Resurrection at the last day Will you lay it in the Power of God That can raise men to damnation as well as salvation Will you lay it in the Will of God That will raise up some to damnation as well as some to salvation But you must lay it in the first Resurrection or the rising of the soul out of the grave of sin Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption The word is so written in Hebrew that it may be read Holy one or Holy ones We know the Holy one of God did not could not see corruption and the reason was because he was so holy an one and it must be holiness that must be the beginning the great promoter of our incorruption And get but the soul happily raised and cleared of her corruption the happy raising and clearing from the corruption of the body will certainly follow You remember the expression of the Apostle If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Col. III. 1. We risen with Christ It is well worth considering how that is done There were some that arose with him indeed out of their graves at his Resurrection Mat. XXVII Of these it might well be said you are risen with Christ but how of others The meaning is Not only you are risen as Christ is risen but you are ingrafted into Christs Resurrection and risen united to his risings The Apostle warrants the expression of ungrafted Rom. VI. 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection So that in the instant of the first Resurrection that any man attains to rising from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that man is ingrafted implanted into Christ and as sure of a happy Resurrection as that Christ is risen A Second Parallel of the first and second Resurrection is in regard of the instrumental II. cause of both The second Resurrection will be effectuated by the all powerful voice of Christ calling all out of their graves Joh. V. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth This the Apostle calls the Voice of the Archangel and Trump of God 1 Thes. IV. 16. And in 1 Cor. XV. The trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised Let us by the way pause a little and take up some thoughts of this Trump or Trumpet The Father of old said That whether he were eating or drinking or whatsoever he did he still thought he heard this Trumpet sounding this alarm Arise ye dead and come to judgment Suppose you heard it now would it not startle you We have been startled many a time with a dreadful clap of thunder what amazement and dread would you be in if you heard this alarm the voice of the Trumpet that will make Heaven and earth to quake and to vanish away the Voice of the Archangel and his Trumpet that will rouze and awake all the world and whosoever hath slept the longest in the dust The alarm of the Trumpet that will not only force all to awake but to rise and to come and appear at the Judgment Now what parallel doth the first Resurrection bear to this Why that is an alarm also of the Trumpet of the Gospel How oft is the Ministry of the word of God compared to a Trumpet Esay XXVII 13. The great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come that were ready to perish in Assyria and the out casts in the land of Egypt and they shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem That is the sound of the Gospel shall gather them and bring them to worship the true God Mat. XXIV 31. He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds That is he shall send his Ministers with the sound of the Gospel Think of the sound of the Trumpet at Sinai and think of the Trumpet at the last day at Sinai to cause a first Resurrection or to bring Israel out of their sinful condition to rise and live to God and at the last day to call to account about the keeping of that Law that was then given So that would you know Whether you shall have a happy Resurrection at the last day consider with your self whether you have come to the first Resurrection even to this day And if you would know whether you have attained that consider whether you have been raised by the Trump of the Gospel It is to thy first Resurrection thou must look to judge of thy speeding at the second These two are linked together and have relation one to another as the Feast of Pentecost when barly harvest was now got in had relation to the second day in Passover week when barly harvest first begun The Resurrection will be a fit harvest for every man to reap according as he hath sowed There is none but would willingly have a Resurrection at the last day to life and not to damnation begin thy Resurrection here
and the first temptation presented to him Now all the power and army of Hell is let loose all the machinations of the bottomless pit put in practise against the second Adam but all to no purpose he stands like a rock unmoved in his righteousness and obedience and by such a death destroys him that had the power over death the Devil II. As the Dâ—â—â—l must be conquered so God must be satisfied And as Christs obedience did the one work so it did the other Obedience was the debt of Adam and mankind and by disobedience they had forfeited their Bonds Then comes this great Undertaker and will satisfie the debt with full interest yea and measure heaped and running over Does not the Apostle speak thus much Rom. V. from vers 12. forward particularly at vers 19. By the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Nor was this all that mans debt must be paid but Gods honour lay at stake too and that must be vindicated God had created man his noblest creature that he might glorifie and honour his Creator by his obedience Satan brings him to disobey his Creator and to obey him How might Satan here triumph and the honour of God lie in the dust I have mastered the chief Creation of God might Satan boast and made him that carried the badge and livery of his image now to carry mine I have frustrated the end and honour of the Creator and now all is mine own How sad a time were those three hours or thereabouts that passed betwixt the Fall of Adam and the promise of Christ Adam in darkness and not the least glimpse of promise or comfort Satan triumphing and poor manking and Gods honour trampled underfoot But then the Sun of righteousness arose in the promise that the seed of the woman should break the head of the Serpent And shall this uncircumcised Philistin thus deâ—ie the honour and armies of the living God saith Christ shall Satan thus carry the day against man and against God I will pay obedience that shall fully satisfie to the vindication of Gods honour to confound Satan and to the payment of mans debt to his reinstating and recovery And that was it that he paid consummatively in his Obedience to the death and in it and to the shedding of his blood Of which to speak in the full dimensions of the height depth length bredth of it what tongue can suffice what time can serve T is a Theme the glorified Saints deservedly sing of to all Eternity I shall speak in little of that which can never be extolled enough these two things only I. That he died merely out of obedience The Apostle tells us in Phil. II. 8. He became obedient to the death the death of the Cross. And what can ye name that brought him thither but Obedience Christs dead body imagine lies before you Call together a whole College of Phisitians to diffect it and to tell you what it was of which he died And their Verdict will be Of nothing but Love to man and Obedience to God For Principles of death he had none in his nature And the reason of his death lay not in any mortality of his body as it does in ourâ— but in the willingness of his mind Nor was his death his wages of sin as it is ours Rom. VI. ult but it was his choise and delight Luke XII 50. I have a baptism to be baptised withal and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Ask the first Adam why he sinned when he had no principles of sin in him and the true answer must be Because he would sin And so ask the second Adam why he died when he had no principles of death in him his answer must be to the like tenor He would lay down his life because he would be obedient to the death He came purposely into the World that he might dye Behold I tell you a mystery Christ came purposely into the World that he might dye and so never did Man but himself never will man do but himself True that every Man that comes into the World must dye but never Man came purposely that he might dye but only He. And he saith no less than that he did so Joh. XII 27. Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour And John XVIII 37. For this cause came I into this World to bear witness to the Truth Even to bear witness to the Truth to Death and Martyrdom II. Now add to all this the dignity of his Person who performed this Obedience that he was God as well as Man That as he offered himself according to his Manhood so he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit or as he was God as this Apostle saith Chap. IX 14. And now his obedience his holiness that he shewed in his death is infinite And what need we say more So that lay all the disobedience of all men in the World on an heap as the dead frogs in Egypt were laid on heaps that they made the land to stink again yet here is an Obedience that out-vies them all For though they be infinite in number as to mans numbring yet lay them all together they are finite upon this account because committed by creatures finite But here is an Obedience a holiness paid down by him that is infinite And now Satan where is thy Triumph Thou broughtest the first Adam to fail of perfect Obedience that he should have paid his Creator and here the second Adam hath paid him for it infinite Obedience And what hast thou now gained Therefore to take account from whence comes that infinite Virtue of Christs blood and death that the Scripture so much and so deservedly extols and magnifies Because as the Evangelist â—aith Out of his side came water and blood so out of his wounds came obedience and blood holiness and blood righteousness and blood and that obedience holiness righteousness infinite because he that paid it down and performed it was infinite And now judge whether it may not very properly be said That Christ was sanctified by his own blood As Aaron was sanctified for his Priesthood by his Unction and Garments Christ was consecrated fitted capacitated by his infinite obedience and righteousness which he shewed to the death and in it to be an High Priest able to save to the uttermost all those that come to him For first as in reference to himself it is said by this Apostle that he was raised from the dead by the blood of the Covenant Chap. XIII 20. And it was not possible but he should be raised for when he had performed such obedience and righteousness as in it was infinite in its validity subdued Satan in its alsufficiency satisfied the justice of God it was impossible that he should be held of death which is the wages of sin and disobedience And as he was thus raised by
Spirit had glossed upon the words of the whole Sanhedrin in vers 47 48. What do we For this man doth many miracles If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation If they grant he did so many miracles why were they afraid that men should believe on him Why did they not believe on him themselves And afraid the Romans should destroy their City and Nation if he were believed in Whereas their destruction was because they did not believe in him Truly Caiaphas said but truly of them though he aimed it at another sense Ye know nothing neither do ye consider No nor thou O Caiaphas neither For had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of life had they considered they had not brought that guilt upon themselves and the City that they did But in what sense he makes them so senseless is somewhat obscure Ye know not neither consider that it is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people and that the whole Nation perish not That they knew as well as himself that any States-man any reasonable man might know well enough that it was better to put to death a ring-leader of mischief as they took Christ to be than that a whole Nation perish That old Maxim in Politicks and reason Pereat unus potius quam unitas would easily be observed by less States-men than they And the one that they would have to dye they all agreed in but herein Caiaphas resolution seems to have out-vied theirs namely that whereas they were afraid to take Christ off for fear of the multitude he blusters through that doubt and scruple and would have it resolved that he must dye and be taken away So that in those words of his you may observe him speaking as a Caiaphas and as a Prophet As a wretched Caiaphas counselling the Sanhedrin not to fear or boggle at the business but resolve on it for it is expedient he should dye And as a Prophet or one inspired signifying that it was necessary Christ should dye for the preservation of that Nation that it should not perish namely those that believed in him and so for the preserving of all in other Nations that should also believe The former he spake and meant with all his heart to stir up the Bench to destroy Christ for all the danger of the multitude But this later he spake indeed but meant it not neither understood what he spake and therefore the Text tells us This he spake not of himself but being High Priest c. There had not been a High Priest a Prophet among the Nation for above four hundred years before and must Caiaphas now become a Prophet Nay the Jews tell us and they tell us truly that there had not been any Prophet at all in the Nation of so long a time and it is wonder God should now inspire such a wretch as Caiaphas They tell us that upon the death of Haggai Zechariah and Malachi those last Prophets the spirit of Prophesie left Israel departed and was no more In which they spoke just as Caiaphas does here very truly and very maliciously very maliciously because they would exclude the Apostles and Disciples of Christ from having the Prophetick spirit but withal very truly as to the space between the death of those last Prophets and the appearing of Christ and his Apostles There was not a man endued with the spirit of Prophesie in all that space of time nay not a man that did pretend to the spirit of Prophesie in all that time It is observable that about the coming of Christ many arose pretending themselves to be Christ or to be Prophets but ye find not that any from the death of Malachi had done so before And the reason was because the Prophet Daniel had so exactly pointed out the time of Christs coming that the Nation knew the time and expected it and when it came such Deluders then start up with such pretences because they knew there would be then a brave change of times But till that came they lay still convinced that the Spirit was departed and should not be restored till Messias coming What I speak there is clear proof for in the New Testament That they knew when Messias should appear is plain by these words Luke XIX 11. He added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought the Kingdom of God should immediately appear And by that concourse of all the Nation out of all Nations to Jerusalem Act. II. 5. being instructed by Daniel in his ninth Chapter of the compleat time of Messias sealing Vision and Prophesie and bringing in everlasting righteousness which he had pointed out to the very hour And that they were convinced of the departure of the Holy Ghost not to be restored till the coming of Messias appears plainly by the answer of those Jews at Ephesus Act. XIX 2. Paul said unto them have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed And they said unto him We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Not that they doubted at all of the being of the Holy Ghost but that they had learned with the whole Nation that the Holy Ghost was departed upon the death of those Prophets and they had never yet heard that he was restored The Jews say again that from that time there was no Urim and Thummim with the High Priest under the second Temple And there is confirmation for it in Nehem. VII 65. And the Tirshatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a Priest with Urim and Thummim And the reason of its ceasing was because Prophesie was ceased For the Oracle by Urim as I once shewed you was given by the Priest being inspired and prophesying Now after all the long ceasing of Phrophesying in the Nation and of Prophesying among the Priest-hood for a Caiaphas to stand up a Prophesier seems something strange and what shall we say to it The Rhemists will resolve you the scruple with a wet finger if you will but believe them Will you give me leave to give you their Gloss upon the place Marvel not say they that Christ preserveth his truth in the Church as well by the unworthy as the worthy Prelates thereof the gift of the Holy Ghost following their order and office as we see here in Caiaphas and not their merits and person And they conclude How may we then be assured that Christ will not leave Peters seat though the persons that â—ecupy the same were as ill as the blasphemous and malicious mouths of Hereticks do affirm The assertion false and the inference ridiculous The assertion that Caiaphas prophesied by virtue of the order of his Priesthood being most false For none of that order had prophesied of four hundred years before And the Inference ridiculous And it
shews they are hard set when they must make Caiaphas a copy after whom to write the Infallibility of their Papal chair But they gazed so much upon the chair when they wrote this Note that they clean looked off the Book and Text they had before them For had they looked well upon that that would have given them a more proper reason of his prophesying and indeed the proper reason of it namely not so much because he was High Priest as because he was High Priest that year This he spake not of himself but being High Priest that year High Priest that year Why He had been High Priest several years before So Luke tells us Chap. III. that he was High Priest when Christ was baptized three years and an half ago and Josephus tells us as much and more and of his being High Priest after this year also And therefore why that circumstance added He was High Priest that year To speak the proper reason of his prophesying First I might say That was the year nay even the hour of the last gasp of the High Priesthood It prophesied and instantly breathed out its last There is much dispute upon those words of Paul Act. XXIII 5. which our English renders I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest If I should render it I knew not that there is an High Priest I am sure it hath warrant enough of the Original Greek and warrant enough of the truth of the thing it self Did not the High Priesthood dye and cease and was no more when the great High Priest of Souls died and by death made expiation for his people If you will allow the other Priesthood and the employment of it to live still after the death of Christ and his sacrifice offered by the eternal Spirit till the fall of Jerusalem and dissolution of the Temple yet can you find nothing that the High Priest had then to do that it should survive any longer after Christ was sacrificed The other Priesthood had something to do besides what was most plainly typical in it and referred to the death of Christ as sacrificing and sprinkling of blood did For they had to offer the first fruits of the people for their Thankfulness to purifie women after child-birth to present the first born to the Lord c. But the distinctive work of the High Priest in diversity from the other Priesthood was on the day of Expiation to go within the Vail into the most holy place with blood and make an Attonement Which when Christ had done through the Vail of his flesh through his own blood as the Apostle tells us Heb. X. 20. what had the High Priesthood to do any more To this peculiarly related that which occurred at the death of the great High Priest Matth. XXVII 15. The vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Which when you come narrowly to examine you will find to be the vail that hung between the holy and most holy place Which the Jews in their writings call by a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the vail that the High Priest turned aside as we do hangings at a door to go into the room And he went into the most holy place only once a year But now it is rent in pieces no such distinction or separation thenceforward to be had and no such work of the High Priest to be done any more So that if we take these words of Paul to the sense I mentioned viz. I knew not Brethren that there is now any High Priest or any High Priesthood at all that Function is long ago laid in the dust it was spoken like a Paul boldly and as one that very well understood and could well distinguish twixt substance and shadow and how long those Ordinances of that Oeconomy were to last and when to decay And if accordingly we take that circumstance in the Text He prophesied as being High Priest that year in the sense I mentioned namely that last year of the being and life of the High Priesthood it gives a story not much unlike that of the son of King Crâ—sus Who when he had been dumb from the birth and never spake word at last seeing in a battel an enemy ready to run his Father through he forced his Tongue so as that he broke the string of silence and cryed out O man do not kill Croesus So the High Priesthood having been dumb from Prophesying for above four hundred years together and never spoken one Prophetick word when now the King is ready to be slain its Tongue is loosed in Caiaphas and prophesieth of the Redemption of all the Israel of God and presently expireth But Secondly That year was the great year of pouring down the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation as in Act. II. the great year of sealing Vision and Prophesie as in Dan. IX And then it is the less wonder if this dog get some crumbs that fell from that plentiful table of the children and some droppings from that abundant dew that fell upon the Fleece of Gedeon Something like the case of Eldad and Medad but they were better men Numb XI 26. that in that great pouring out of the Spirit there had their share though they were not in the company of those that were assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation And thus was the case with Caiaphas as it was with Balaam that wretch inspired till then by the Devil but then by God Who went purposely to curse Israel but God so overpowered and turned the stream that he could not but bless them So this wretch inspired with malice from the Devil to plot and compass the death of Christ is now also inspired by the Spirit of Prophesie to foretel his death and to proclaim it Redemption to his people A very strange passage that while he was sinning against the Holy Ghost he prophesied by the Holy Ghost and that in those very words that he spake against Christ to destroy him he should prophesie of Christs death and Redemption to magnifie it So can the Spirit of God overpower the Hearts and Tongues and actions of Men to serve the design of his own glory And this is that that I shall speak to I might observe obiter how great diversity there is twixt the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of grace and holiness The same Spirit indeed is the Author of both but there is so much diversity in the thing wrought that a Balaam a Caiaphas have the Spirit of Prophesie who are as far from having the Spirit of Sanctification as the East is from the West Hell from Heaven A mistake hath taken the Spirits of too many to account this good Language and Divinity I am a believer converted sanctified therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation and I can preach and expound Scripture by that Spirit little considering the vast diversity of the gift of Prophesie
proves in the end to be but a curse as I have shewed before and they have the longer score to answer for the greater heaps of sin to be arraigned upon the sadder account of so much time mispent But for Answer to this as I said before There is no temporal thing which in it self is a blessing but wicked men by abuse of it make it a curse They make their Table a snare their wealth a trap their long life a curse And it is no wonder if they do so by these things for they make Divine Ordinances which in themselves are a savour of life to become to them the savour of death nay Christ himself to become a stumbling block and their ruine Now the goodness or blessing in things is not to be judged of by such mens using but by what they are in their own nature As thousands in Hell curse the time that ever they lived so thousands in Heaven bless God for ever that ever they lived here so long Long life to the one party was balm the other made it poison There is another Objection That long life to many proves but long misery therefore is not such a promise and blessing Such are the miseries of this life even to them that spend their time the best that Solomon tells us Eccles. VII 1. That the day of death is better than the day of birth And Chap. IV. 2 3. I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive Yea better is he than both that hath not yet been which hath not seen the evil which is done under the Sun And how many of the Saints of God that have spent their lives as well as ever men did as ever men could spend their lives yet because of the miseries of life have desired that their lives might be cut off and that they might live no longer How oft is this Job's mournful tune over and over Chap. VI. 8 9. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me and that he would loose his hand and cut me off And Chap. VII 15 16. My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than my life I loath it I would not live always And so alomst in every one of his speeches And the same tune is Elias at 1 King XIX 4. It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am no better than my Fathers And Jeremy sings the same doleful ditty when he curseth the day of his birth Chap. XX. 14. How is long life then a blessing when the sorrows of it make men so weary of it I Answer This were true indeed if the blessing of long life consisted only in enjoying earthly prosperity and then the Children of God were of all men most miserable For they have the least earthly prosperity But the blessing of long life consists in things of another nature For those holy mens desiring because of their afflictions here to have their lives cut off 1. We neither wronged them nor Religion should we say it was an humane frailty and failing in them But 2. It was not so much for that they undervalued the prolonging of their lives and the blessing in having life prolonged as that they placed not their blessedness in living here but were assured and longed after a better life Not one of them was unwilling to live but because he was very well prepared to dye therefore he wished for death rather And now that we may come to consider wherein the blessing of long life consisteth let us a little take up some places and passages of Scripture and some arguments in reason that declare and proclaim it as of it self to be a blessing 1. Prov. III. 16. Solomon urging men to espouse and marry Wisdom tells what Portion and Dower they shall have that get her Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honour Observe that he accounts length of days a right hand Dower and riches and honour but a left hand one And indeed what are riches and honour if a man have not length of days to enjoy And the same Solomon commending old age saith Prov. XVI 31. It is a Crown of glory or a glorious Crown if the long life that brought it up thither have been spent as it should I might heap up many such passages but these suffice II. Consider that it is threatned for a curse and punishment that the bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days Psal. LV. 23. That the men of Eli's House should dye in their prime 1 Sam. II. 31. But I will name but one for all how oft threatned such and such shall be cut off I need not to cite places the Books of the Law are full of such expressions shall be cut off from his people from the congregation c. Which some understand of Excommunication but it means cutting off by the hand of God by some untimely or fatal death or shortning of life It is threatned as a curse that his days shall not be prolonged but cut off III. Ye have holy men in Scripture praying for prolonging of their lives and that upon this warrant that God promised long life as a blessing Psal. XXI 4. He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him even length of days for ever and ever And Psal. XXXIX ult O spare me that I may recover strength And Psal. CII 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my days And so in the case of Ezekiah how bitterly did he take the tidings of the cutting off of his days Whether it were that it went sadly with him to dye of the Plague or that he saw not Jerusalem delivered from Sennacherib yet certainly it cost some tears to think he was to be taken away even in his prime and his life prolonged no further IV. To this may be added that God promised it for a peculiar blessing Thou shalt come to thy grave in a good old age Job V. 26. And how feeling a promise is that Zech. VIII 4. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts There shall yet old Men and old Women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his hand for every age Methinks I see the streets full of such venerable heads and gravity every one crowned with gray hairs and old age a crown of blessing But what need I arguments to prove this What one thing is there in the world that hath more votes and voices than this For who is there that desires not to live long and see many days And skin for skin and all that he hath will he give for his life that it may be prolonged And who but will be contented to part with any earthly blessing so his life may be preserved Now wherein it is that long life is a blessing is best observed
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
their character of Hades 1. They thought it was a place under the Earth And the reason is because they thought none went to Heaven but those that were to be gods all others went to Hades Hence Aeneas and Ulysses went down into the Earth to the World of Souls there to confer with some dead friends Hence the cheat of the Devil to bring Ghosts as ascending out of the Earth 1 Sam. XXVIII 13. 2. This place of Souls had two parts viz. Elysium and Tartarus and those parted with a deep gulph of a deadly River and that from one side they could see and talk to the other According to this common opinion Christ frames his Parable Luke XVI 23. He in Hades in the place of torment looks over the gulph and talks with Abraham So that both good and bad when dead went to Hades the good to the place of rest and delight the bad to the place of sorrow and pain So the Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Both go to Hades c. Lazarus went to Hades and so did the rich man too but to contrary conditions IV. In this sense then is the Article to be taken as speaking according to the common notion That Christs Soul went to Hades to the other World to the place where good Souls went which Scripture hath taught us is Heaven The word Hell now is come to signifie only the place of torment but of old it signified larger as the word Hades does and by the Greek word and its signification we must construe it Let me give you a word parallel The word Knave is now taken only in a bad sense of old it signified a Servant So some old Translations express A Servant of the Lord by A Knave of the Lord. When we read that we do not construe it by the present sense of the word but by the old and by the original Hebrew So when in this Article we read the word Hell we must not construe it according to our present common acceptation but as of old it signified the place and state of all Souls departed And so in this Article there are these three Doctrines comprised I. That Christ had a true humane Soul like other men Like to us he had a Soul that was reasonable that inlivened the Body that was whole in it and not the Divinity that inlivened and actuated his Body II. That when Christ died there was a real separation of Soul and Body as it is with other men The Soul slept not with the Body but was separate from it Though it was to come into the Body again yet it forsook the Body and was separate III. As soon as it was departed it went into another World of Souls to a place where holy Souls go viz. to Heaven And there continued till it was to return to the Body It was in Paradise all the while the Body was in the grave Object Is this the meaning of Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell or Hades If Hades mean Paradise why should Christ pray against being left in Hades My Flesh shall rest in hope that it shall not be left in Hades and hopes he not that his Soul shall not be left in Hades as he hopes his Body shall not see corruption Answer He doth not pray thus as if it were not well with his Soul in Hades as to what it enjoyed but that it was not well while separate from the Body for that it was while Christ was under death As if he should say Thou wilt not leave me under death my Soul in separation This would be the Triumph of the Devil Observe Christs Soul was in glory the while his Body was in the Grave and yet desires to return to the Body Why That he may finish the work of God by his Resurrection to conquer death As I said It is Hell to the Devil not to be doing evil so it is Heaven to Christ to do the Will of God He left the bosom of the Father to come into the World and when his Soul was in the bosom of his Father again in those joys that are not expressible yet it would rather do the work of God Ask a Soul there wouldest thou be on Earth again No. But wouldest thou be on Earth to do God service there Yes it is as Heaven to be doing any thing for God Ubi Imperator ibi Roma Where the Emperor is there is Rome so wheresoever a man can please God it is Heaven to him Here is the happiness of Saints in Heaven that their Will is wholly swallowed up in the Will of God It is a question where Lazarus his Soul was while he was four days dead Why undoubtedly no where but in Heaven But the reason of the objection is Because it was but a wrong or misery to his Soul to send it from Heaven again Blessed Soul dost thou think so No any thing to obey the Will of God So the Soul of Christ was in glory in the midst of unspeakable joys yet he would not have it continue there till the work of God was done Soul thou art well be content keep in Paradise still let the Body lye in the Grave it feels not hurt Ah! but all this while Satan Death is not conquered Gods cause is not pleaded and finished let that work first be done and then both to glory That that I speak to and that that the Article aims at is that Christ had a humane Soul like other men but that not sinful and that it departed as the Souls of other men Some on Gen. I. 26 27. And God said Let us make man in our image say God set Christ before him and made man after the image of Christ as though they would say God made the first Adam in the image of the second whereas we should say the contrary God made the second Adam in the image of the first So Phil. II. 7 8. He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man c. Not man at first created in the likeness of Christ but Christ was brought into the World in the likeness of man And how Christs Soul was like other mens I shall observe to you in three things I. In its infusion into the Body II. In its existence and acting in the Body III. In its going out of the Body Men saw his Body like other mens and in these his Soul shewed it self like other mens also I. By its infusion or induction into the Body But here you will say the Copy is darker than to know what to write after it It is controverted how Souls are put into the Body and there are two mistakes about it viz. Praeexistence and Generation which this may rectisie Some hold Praeexistence of Souls that they were created at the beginning of the World and put in at last into Bodies And
that they thereupon might the more confidently confirm the people And hereupon it is observable that while the Baptist was at liberty our Saviour contented himself with his testimony and preaching but when he was shut up then instantly chose he others Now if any doubt of the possibility of this and question how could John see and hear these things and the other company that was present not do so as well as he The answer may be readily given by example of Elishaes servant 2 King 6. 17. and the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. For the mountain was full of Horses and Chariots of fire and Elisha perceived them but his servant did not till his eyes were opened in a more special manner And Christ it is like was in the same shape and appearance upon the way when they knew him not that he was in the house when they did but till then their eyes were holden Yet if any one will suppose that the people saw the slashing of the opened Heaven and heard the noise of the voice that came from thence and took the one for lightning and the other for thunder as John 12. 29. we will not oppose it for now was the season of the year fit for lightning and thunder but that either they saw the Holy Ghost or distinguished the words of the voice any more then Pauls companions did Act. 9. 7. compared with Act. 22. 9. the reasons alledged do inforce to deny till better information Matth. 3. vers 16. And he saw the Spirit of God The Syntax and construction of Mark doth tye and fix these words He saw only to our Saviour as it did those before and both for the reason mentioned namely to shew the return and answer of his prayer But these words of Matthew are not so strict but that they may equally be applied unto John For first there may be observed a distinction in the verse and a kind of difference of speech betwixt what goeth before about the opening of the Heavens and this sight of the Holy Ghost For of that he speaketh thus And Jesus being baptized went straightway out of the water and lo the Heavens were opened unto him And then cometh he on with a distinct clause concerning the other And he saw the Spirit of God descending leaving it at the least in an indifferency whether to apply it to Christ or John But secondly it seemeth rather to be understood of John because he saith himself that this descending of the Holy Ghost was given to him for a sign and that he saw it and if it be not to be so taken here none of the three Evangelists have mentioned it in the story at all And thirdly the rather may it be taken of Johns seeing it because he saith He saw him descending and coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Had it been said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon himself it must needs have been understood of Christ upon whom the Spirit came that he saw the Spirit coming upon himself but since it i◠upon him without any reciprocation it may be the better applied to John that he saw it It is true indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth reciprocally himself as our Lexicons do give examples and as it is of force to be taken in Saint Mark in this place like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes doth not signifie reciprocally as in the LXX in Judg. 7. 24. But why should we take the word out of its commonest and properest sense unless there were necessity to do it which in Matthew there is not though in Mark there be Fourthly and lastly These words he saw being understood of John it maketh that the three Evangelists being laid together the relation ariseth out of them the more full and the story more plain For Luke telling that the Heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended Mark addeth that Jesus saw this and Matthew that John Matth. 3. ver 16. The Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters in the beginning of the old world and so doth it here of the new It is needless to instance how oft in Scripture the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of God as Gen. 41. 38. Exod. 31. 3. Numb 24. 2. and very many other places but it is most necessary to observe that wheresoever he is so called it is in the Hebrew the Spirit of Elohim in the plural number and sheweth his proceeding from more persons then one Contrary to the opinion of the Greek Church that holdeth that the Holy Ghost proceedeth not from the Father and the Son but from the Father only Luke 3. ver 22. The Holy Ghost As he is called the Spirit not so much in regard of his own nature as in regard of his manner of proceeding so also is he called Holy not so much in respect of his person for the Father and Son are Spirits and are holy as well as he but in regard of his Work and Office which is to sanctifie the Church of God And in this respect he is called by the Hebrews not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Spirit onely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruahh hakkodesh the Spirit of Holiness for this phrase the Holy Ghost is taken from the common speech of the Jews And so is he called by Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 4. and so doth the Syrian call him Rubba dekudsha in this place §. The Holy Ghost descended This descending of the Holy Ghost was first partly for the sake of John for this token had been given him when he first began to preach and baptize whereby to know Christ when he should come Joh. 1. 33. Secondly Partly for Christ that he might thus receive his Consecration and Institution for the Office that he was now to enter upon the Preaching of the Gospel This was as his anointing to instal him into his Function as Aaaron and his Sons were with material oyl to enter them into theirs as Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore hath he anointed me he hath sent me to Preach the Gospel And Thirdly Partly for the business and matter that was now to go in hand namely Christ beginning to preach accordingly For First The Gospel is the Spiritual Kingdom and Scepter of Christ in and by which he was to rule all Nations for ever and therefore it was agreeable that the Spiritualness of that should be sealed and confirmed by the Holy Spirits shewing himself even in the beginning of it The carnal rites of Moses were now to vanish and his Corporal and Ceremonial observances to be changed into a Spiritual Worship and neither at Jerusalem nor at mount Gerizim nor elsewhere must there be any more adoration with fleshly and earthly Ceremoniousness but he that will worship God must worship him in Spirit as Joh. 4. 21. Therefore it is no wonder if
the Holy Ghost doth now reveal himself now when his sway of spirituality and dominion by sanctification is to begin Secondly The Holy Ghost was departed from Israel after the death of the last Prophets as was observed before and now he is to be restored again therefore himself cometh visibly and apparently at this his restoring and lighteth upon him to whom it belonged to give and distribute the gifts of the Spirit to whom he pleased For as John had told that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost so is that power and priviledge now sealed unto him in the sight of John when the Holy Ghost cometh down upon him and there abideth §. Descended in a bodily shape God is said to descend not that he moveth from place to place or cometh where he was not before for he is incircumscriptible and every where and filleth all places but in that he sheweth this his presence upon Earth in such or such a place by some external sign and visible appearance And so he is said to come down to see whether the wickedness of Sodome were according to the cry that was come up unto him because he revealed himself to Abraham Lot and the Sodomites in the visible and conspicuous representation of men So is he said to have come down upon Mount Sinai because of the outward revealing and expression of his presence there And so the Chaldee Paraphrast understandeth the Trinities descending Gen. 11. 5. for a conspicuous appearance of it for he translateth The Lord revealed himself to take vengeance c. And so is the Holy Ghost said to descend in this story and in that in Act. 2. not but that he was present in the same places before by his power and Godhead but that he revealed and expressed his presence by so sensible an evidence and by and in so revealed a work §. In a bodily shape First It was convenient that the Holy Ghost should reveal himself at this time First for the sake of John who was to have a sensible sign whereby to inform him which was the Messias as Joh. 1. Secondly In regard of the Holy Ghost himself whose work in the Church was now in a more special and frequent manner to be shewed under the Gospel namely that he might be expressed and revealed to be a personal substance and not an operation of the Godhead only or qualitative vertue For qualities operations and acts cannot assume bodily shapes nor ought but what is in it self substantial Thirdly That a full and clear yea even a sensible demonstration of the Trinity might be made at this beginning of the Gospel For it may be observed in Scripture that the Holy Ghost hath a special regard to express this mystery upon singular occasions that we might learn to acknowledge the three Persons in one Godhead as he also doth the two natures of Christ that we might acknowledge them in one person So the very first thing that is taught in all the Bible is this very mystery For when Moses beginneth the Story of the Creation he beginneth also to teach that the three Persons in the Trinity were co-workers in it God Created there is the Father God said there is the Word or the Son And the Spirit of God moved there is the Holy Ghost And the very same mystery is intimated by the Prophet treating upon the very same Subject Isa. 42. 5. Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and they that stretched them out That we might learn that Of him through him and to him the Father Son and Holy Ghost are all things Rom. 11. 36. So Moses also when he is to teach concerning the creation of man he first teacheth that it was the Trinity that created him Gen. 1. 26. And God said Let us make man after our Image He saith Let us to shew the Trinity of persons and he saith In our Image not in our Images to shew the unity of essence That every man even from the reading of the story of his Creation might learn to remember his Creators in the days of his youth as Solomon with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boraiecha answereth the same mystery Eccles. 12. 1. So likewise at the confusion of Tongues the Trinity is expressed Gen. 11. 7. Let us go down and confound their Language as it is also at the gift of Tongues I will send the Comforter from the Father Joh. 15. 26. Act. 1. 4. Such a one also was the blessing pronounced by the Priest upon the people when he dismissed them from the daily service of the Temple in the name of the Trinity Numb 6. 24 25 26. the name Jehovah or the Lord three times repeated for denotation of the three Persons as Paul explaineth it 2 Cor. 13. 13. When Moses also beginneth to rehearse the Law to Israel and to explain it the first thing he teacheth them is the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one Three words answering the three Persons and the middle word our God deciphering fitly the second who assumed our nature as is well observed by Galatinus To these may be added the entrance of Moses his revelation with the Name of the Lord three times rehearsed Exod. 34. 6. The Vision of Esay with three Holies Isa. 6. 3. The beginning of Psal. 50. and of Psal. 136. and many of the like nature which the heedful reader will observe himself How fitting then was it that at the beginning of the new world and the new Law and the baptism of Christ the three Persons should be revealed especially since he ordained baptism to be administred in their Names Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. 28. 19. §. Like a Dove It is thought by Austin and after him by Aquinas that this was a very living Dove not of the flock indeed of common Doves but immediately created by God for this purpose but created as true a living Dove as any of them and the reason they give for this their opinion is this Because it is not to be said that Christ alone had a true body and that the Holy Ghost appeared deceiveably to the eyes of men but that both those are to be said to be true bodies for as it was not fit that the Son of God should deceive men so was it not fit that the Holy Ghost should deceive them neither But it was no difficulty to the Creator of all things to make a true body of a Dove without the help of other Doves as it was not hard for him to frame a true body in the womb of the Virgin without the seed of man So they too punctual where there is no necessity nor indeed any great probability For First What needed there a real living Dove when an apparent only would serve the turn For the descending of the Dove was that there might be a visible