A Table of the years from the birth of Christ to the Fall of Ierusalem XIII The Iewish Christian Roman History Anno Christi XXXVI XIV The Chronology and History of Dioclesian Constantine and Constantius Indeed some of these were only Notes and Memoranda for his own private use but several of them undoubtedly were intended to have seen the Light at one time or other but that he found the Press so loth to receive things of that nature and so he cast them by some only begun and as it were in Design all of them imperfect but One. IX Encomiums given him by Learned Men. ALL these Labours of his published and unpublished and those deep notions in the way of his Learning that he communicated by Letters or in Conversation raised high and Venerable opinions of him amongst the best and most knowing Men. It would be endless to recount what large Testimonials and Commendations they have given him Some we have read already Let us hear a few more Your Name saith Dr. Castel is indeed a sweet Odour poured out into all Nations who are all bound to pray heartily for you your health welfare prosperity longevity And again Nemini notus quin te humani generis aestimet delicias nemini ignotus cui non absconditus maximus sub Coelo Thesaurus And if you will once more in another Letter Chaldea whose antient glory and multiplicity of Sciences are by the wheels of Nature in the long decurse of time rolled into Munden Which you Sir a right Trismegistus for Christian Jewish and Ethnic literature will make to after ages more illustrious than either Babylon or Athens were of old Another namely Mr. Samuel Clark speaks thus Your own great worth is sufficient to preserve your memory verdant with me or any other that hath any sense of Learning or Goodness Mr. Bernard does violence to the Doctors modesty in these words I know your self and Doctor Pocok to be the very Pillars of Sacred Learning like the Monuments of Seth in a corrupt and vain age God add I beseech him yet to your years and health so advantageous to his Church And for forainers besides what we have heard from them already take the Value they had for him by the words of one of them named before viz. Johannes Henricus Otto He was a Learned young Man of Bern who it seems had travailed into France and other places for his improvement and at last came into England and being at Oxon sends a Letter to our Doctor wherein apologizing for his address he tells him That the fame of his Piety and singular Learning had so spred it self over the World that there was no Scholar who loved him not in his mind and was not ambitious of his friendship Plurimi sunt qui nondum meruerunt a te cognosci qui tamen inter alias Gentes famam nominis tui exceperunt post praeclarorum scriptorum tuorum lectionem in cultum tui venerabundi iverunt But especially he assures him all studious of Hebrew do applaud him And instanceth in Turretius junior at Geneva Justellus Tormentinus Tenevottus Capellanus Ferrandus at Paris Toignard at Orleans not to speak any thing saith he of mine own Country and Germany also whose Names this Letter would scarcely contain Abundance more I might produce both of our own Country-Men and Strangers but he stands not in need 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Letters of Commendation X. Concerning his love to and endeavours of promoting Oriental Learning THERE was no Man under the Sun our Author more reverenced and honoured than Buxtorph Professor of Divinity and Hebrew in Basil and the reason was because next to his piety he had been so instrumental by his published Labours in furthering the knowledge of Jewish Learning to which from his Youth the Doctor had a strong and almost natural inclination and it continued with him to the end of his Life When Dr. Buxtorph had writ a Letter to him by the Hands of one who had formerly been his Scholar our good Man received both Letter and Bearer with the highest resentments of joy and complacency for the sake of the Reverend Professor And when he had signified in a Letter to our Doctor that by reason of age and infirmities growing upon him and finding himself greatly to decline in strength of body and mind he must lay aside all thought of publishing any thing more this our Doctor took heavily to heart and lamented in a Letter he sent him For by him he acknowleged himself to have arrived to what skill he had in his Rabbinical Learning and from the grateful sense he had of this arose a vast love and reverence for him Placet saith he Honoratissimo Domino de peritia mea in Talmudicis loqui quae siqua est quam scio quam sit exigua tota tibi ipsi referenda est incomparabili Parenti tuo c. It pleaseth you most honoured Sir to speak of my skill in the Talmudists which if it be any and how small it is I well know is wholly owing to you and to your incomparable Father Plowing with your Oxen using your Lexicons I have sowed and if any crop comes of it it is yours And what Christian is there I pray who reads over the Talmudick Writings that ows not the same tribute So much is the whole Christian World endebted to the great name of Buxtorph And then he professes to him he could not read it without tears when he told him that by reason of the weaknesses and indispositions of old age he must promise the World no more of his Writings This was in the later end of the year 1663. And indeed the death of that Learned Professor happened not long after namely in the beginning of September the year after For whom the Magistrates of Basil had such a great esteem that before the Fathers death they chose his very young Son to succeed him in the Hebrew Professorship as in his other of Divinity Dr. Zwinger descended of that famous Man of his name was also elected And one of the last respects Dr. Lightfoot could pay the memory of that great Man he wrote an Epicedium upon him and got Sir Tho. Brograve to write another in some of the Oriental Languages and so also did Dr. Castel which were sent to the Friends of the deceased And when not long after the young Professor came into England he received a most kind and obliging reception from our Doctor as well for his Father as for his own sake It was his love of this Learning and his great desires to see it more Studied that made him so great a friend to Dr. Castel under his ruinating and destructive Undertaking as he himself truly called it and under that which was the bitterest pill of all for him to swallow namely the scornful reproaches of his pains that he met with from some as if they were of little or no use This had quite broke his almost
very properly where it lieth because it was fit that the whole story which concerned the conquest and the possession of the land should be handled all together before any other particulars and emergencles should interpose and interrupt it World 2570 Ioshua 17 JOSHUA dieth one hundred and ten years old the age of his old father Joseph Gen. 50. 26. He had divided Jordan shouted down Jericho walls stopt the Sun conquered Canaan set up the Tabernacle settled the people buried the bones of the Patriarchs at Sichem the head City of the land ingaged the people to Religion and done gloriously in his generation A type of Christ in the most of these things With those Chapters of Joshua that do treat concerning the division of the land and setling of the Tribes in their several possessions it may not be unproper nor unprofitable to read those Chapters in the first Book of Chronicles that do mention the Fathers and chief men in every Tribe and who were planters and raisers of families in these several possessions as with Josh. 13. that relateth the inheritance of the two Tribes and half to read 1 Chron. 5. With Josh. 15. that describeth the possession of Judah to read 1 Chron. 2 3 4. to verse 24. With Josh. 16 17. that handleth the lot of Ehphraim and Manasseh to read 1 Chronicles 7. from verse 14. to verse 30. With Joshua 18. from verse 11. to the end about the possession of Benjamin to read 1 Chron. 7. from verse 6. to verse 13. and 8. all With Josh. 19. to verse 10. read 1 Chron. 4. from verse 24. to the end With Josh. 19. from verse 19. to verse 24. read 1 Chron. 7. to verse 6. With Josh. 19. from verse 24. to verse 31. read 1 Chron. 7. from verse 30. to the end With Josh. 19. verse 32. c. 1 Chron. 7. verse 13. With Josh. 21. read 1 Chron. 6. And with these Chapters of Joshua as an exposition of some of them read 1 Chronicles 9. But as for the casting the several Texts and parcels of these Chapters in the Book of Chronicles into their proper times and to take in every man named there and his story into the Chronicle in the age where he lived would not only be difficult if possible but would be confused in this Work we have in hand A close Commentary upon the first Book of Chronicles would be a matter of singular value and might be conducible for this and for other very material purposes The Book of JUDGES THE Book of Judges containeth an history of two hundred ninety and nine years from the death of Joshua to the death of Samson taken up in these sums and parcels Othniel of Judah 40 years Judg. 3. 11. Ehud of Benjamin 80 years Judg. 3. 15 20. Shamgar Barak of Naphtali 40 years Judg. 4. 6. 5. 31. Gideon of Manasseh 40 years Judg. 6. 15. 8. 28. Abimelech Gideons son 3 years Judg. 9. 22. Tola of Issachar 23 years Judg. 10. 1 2. Jair of Manasseh 22 years Judg. 10. 3. Jephtah of Manasseh 6 years Judg. 11. 1. 12. 7. Ibsan of Judah 7 years Judg. 12. 8 9. Elon of Zebulon 10 years Judg. 12. 11 12. Abdon of Ephraim 8 years Judg. 12. 13 14. Samson of Dan 20 years Judg. 13. 2. 15. 20. 16. 31. The total Sum 299. Now besides these years under these Rulers there is also mention of one hundred and eleven under oppressours as under Cushan Rishathaim 8 years Judg. 3. 8. Eglon of Moab 18 years Judg. 3. 14. Jabin of Canaan 20 years Judg. 4. 3. Midian 7 years Judg. 6. 1. Ammon 18 years Judg. 10. 8. Philiftims 40 years Judg. 13. 1. The total Sum 111. But these years of the oppressors are to be included in the years of the Judges and not to be reckoned as so many years apart by themselves as whereas it is said Chap. 3. Cushan Rishathaim oppressed eight years vers 8. And the land had rest forty years and Othniel died ver 11. those eight years of Cushans oppression are to be included in Othniels forty and we are not to reckon them forty eight And the eighteen of Eglon are to be included in Ehuds eighty and so of the rest Paul indeed reckoneth the years of the Judges so as that he counteth the years of the oppressions in a distinct sum from them Acts 13. 20. where he speaketh of Judges for the space of 450 years until Samuel but he uttereth it with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a manner or in some kind of reckoning but not in exact propriety Again whereas it is said The land had rest forty years in the times of Othniel Chap. 3. 11. And the land had rest eighty years in the times of Ehud Chap. 3. 30. It is not to be so understood as if there were forty years or eighty years peace in the land uninterrupted for in Othniels time Israel was busling with the Canaanites as Chap. 1. and among themselves as Chap. 20. and in Ehuds time they were disquieted by Moab Chap. 3. 14. but it is thus to be understood that upon the delivery by Othniel the land had rest till forty years were up from the death of Joshua And upon the delivery by Ehud the land had rest till eighty years were up from the death of Othniel and so of the rest that carry that phrase And in the same sense and tenour is that phrase taken in Numb 14. 33. Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and ver 34. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land even forty days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even forty years Not that they were to wander in the wilderness full forty years from the time that this is spoken but to make up full forty years from the time of their coming out of Egypt and divers others of the same tenour may be observed in the Scripture The first forty years that followed after the year of Joshua's death are ascribed to the rule of Othniel Judg. 3. 11. not that Othniel was sole Ruler or Monarch in the land for the Sanhedrin or great councel bare the rule in their places and inferiour Magistrates in theirs but that Othniel was a valiant and fortunate commander in the wars and wrought special deliverance for the people The many occurrences that befel in his time are not pointed out to their exact and fixed years and therefore cannot Chronically be set down every thing in its very time more then by conjecture and probability but it will be enough for the right carrying of the Chronicle on if we reduce what was done in his forty years to those forty years in general though we cannot particularly give every occurrence to its very year CHAP. 1. World 2571 Othniel 1 ISrael being assured by Joshua before his death that the Canaanites that were Othniel 2 yet left in the land should and must be subdued Josh. 23. 5. they inquire
to be known introductory to such a Work Where he purposed to treat largely and freely upon these five things Oh! that it had pleased God so to have disposed his future occasions and opportunities that he might have accomplished these his useful and brave Designs I. To fix the certain year of our Saviours birth II. To dispose in their proper places all the dislocations of Texts and Stories in the Old Testament which are exceeding many That such dislocations in the New Testament might be thought the less strange III. To make a Chorographical Description of the Land of Canaan and the places adjoyning Which would help to the clearer understanding of much of the Story of the Gospel And IV. A Topographical Description of Jerusalem and of the Fabrick of the Temple to facilitate divers passages in the Gospel of no small obscurity And V. To give some History of the State and Customs of the Jews in those times when the Gospel began and was first preached out of their own Authors What an excellent Book would this have been And this he set himself roundly and in good earnest about and had chosen him a Patron viz. A Noble Man of his own Country to whom to dedicate the whole For this Work he had laid in many materials and made a good progress in it in so much that he foresaw it was like to swell to a great Volume This began to discourage him not his own pains that he saw by what he had already done would be very great but the injurious Press that in those times refused any thing but what was very brief This put him upon a new labour namely to contrive how to Epitomize and Abbreviate what he had written and to send out his Studies piece-meal into the World as he did afterwards Whereby his Method was broken many of his useful Notions suppressed by studying brevity and all that after saw the Light but a kind of confused Harmony Whereas what a Noble and excellent Treatise would it have appeared if it had been digested according to the Authors first project into one just Volume Indeed had it pleased God to lengthen out his life sometime longer we might possibly have seen all his pieces compiled and digested into a Method by his own Hand and reduced probably in such an Order as he had originally designed them For upon the resort of some Booksellers to him and their desire that he would revise and prepare all his formerly published Works he gave them his promise that he would consider their proposal But his death prevented the bringing this to any effect But it may be some satisfaction to all those that value Doctor Lightfoot and his Learning that though the World enjoys not this Labour in the Method and Perfection it was at first intended yet he lived so long as to impart to us at several times the sum and substance of it For to look back upon the design of that Harmony and Preface before mentioned Of the four parts whereof the Harmony was to consist the two last namely the explaining of the difficulties of the Language and illustrating the sense are effected in part in his last and best Labours The Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations and we lament only that his leisure or his Life permitted him not to have gone through all the Books of the New Testament in that Method as well as the Four Gospels the first Epistle to the Corinthians and some part of the Acts of the Apostles and a scrap of the Romans And the two former parts of the said Harmony namely the Order of the Texts and his Reasons for so ordering them we have in his Three Harmonies afterwards published and especially in his last published in the year 1655. The chief thing we want here is the full Text of the Four Evangelists laid down before us in its true Order of time And this he had transcribed curiously and exactly from end to end by his own Hand in that Order and Series as things occurred Whereby those four Divine Historians were reduced into one compleat Story and might have been read with far more ease and pleasure and understanding But he offered it to the Press and found its passage difficult because it would swell the Book too much as he tells us in his Epistle before that Book This M S. lyes in a private Hand and may hereafter if occasion serve see the Light As for the five Parts of the Preface designed the two first were compleated and published long since by him Annis 1644 1647. And for the two next the Land of Canaan is Chorographically described and the situation of Jerusalem and the Temple in some measure shewn in his Disquisitions prefixed before his several Horae Hebraicae and in his distinct Treatise of the Temple And this last Edition of his Works exhibits all this in three Maps one of Jerusalem another of the Holy Land drawn according to the Doctors own judgment and a third of the Temple it self accurately drawn by the Doctors own Hand upon Vellam and now Printed from that Original This Map he mentions in his Epistle before the Prospect of the Temple Which it seems he himself had a good conceit of athing he seldom had of his own performances so as he would fain for the excellent use of it have had it published with the Book but it would not then pass Hear his own commendation of it He calls it A full plain punctual and exact Prospect and Description of the Temple its Situation Dimension Platform Fabrick and Furniture both within and without the Walls Gates Courts Cloisters Chambers and Buildings that were about it the Altar Lavers Stations for Men Slaughter places for Beasts and all the Offices belonging to it A Delineation so copious and plain in all the particulars of that holy ground that had it had the hap to have come to the publick view I should not have feared to have made the Reader the Judge and Censor upon the nature and use of the thing He seldom speaks so confidently but the Hap of becoming publick is not happened unto it Though now at last by good hap it is But however the World has at length gained this Map so long suppressed yet his Chorographical Description of Canaan and the places adjoyning is irrecoverably lost You will be the more sensible of the loss of it if you will hear what the Design of it was and what pains he had taken about it Take it from his own pen in one of his Epistles He intended to describe the Land of Israel in a way somewhat new indeed and untrodden and as he believed unattempted he means out of the Writings of the Jews For he had observed three sorts of things that might be picked up out of the Talmuds and other Jewish Authors if dextrously managed in reference to the Land of Canaan I. In exceeding many passages when they come to speak of places of the Land that are mentioned in Scripture
I might mention the care and regard he ever had to the family of the Cottons And I do remember that when I was a Student of Katharine Hall there was one who was a Cotton and an heir of that Family was likewise a Student and admitted there by the Doctors means over whom he had a more especial Eye and frequently had him sent for into his Lodgings to eat with him and confer with him and to shew kindness to him for Jonathans I mean his Great Uncles sake And out of respect to that dear name he caused one of his sons to be called Cottonus Nay he loved the very name of Bellaport the seat of Sir Rowland And I have a Letter which Sir Rowland wrote Anno 1629. in answer to his Epistle Dedicatory to him before his first Book that he published this beloved Letter the Doctor preserved unto his dying day as a kind of Sacred Relique upon which was wrote with his own hand Sir Rowland Cottons Letter And for a conclusion of our Discourse of Sir Rowland Cotton whom we have spoke so largely of and of whom Dr. Lightfoot could never talk enough hear the Conclusion of his Funeral Sermon upon him prepared though not Preached upon what occasion I know not That blessed Soul that is now with God in the night of its departure laid the burthen of this present Work upon me in these words You are my old acquaintance do me the last Office of a Friend make my funeral Sermon but praise me not A hard task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I who of all Men this day have the greatest cause to mourn for his loss that is departed should of all Men this day be allowed the least liberty of mourning because of this present work And a strange task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I must make to you all a Funeral Sermon and yet must tell to none of you for whom t is made For if I do but call him Sir Rowland Cotton I commend him It was not a time to say so then but now I dare say it over again a hard task Fathers and Brethren is laid upon me when I must have much cause of tears for his death and yet not be allowed to weep and such reason of remembrance of his life and yet be denyed to praise I obey Blest Soul I obey but I am full I cannot hold Dispence with me something for I cannot hold It is for your sake Worthy Audience that I must hold tears lest they should hinder my speech Be pleased to give me liberty of speech in recompence of my restrained tears And it is for thy sake Blest Soul that I must withhold commendation lest I should break thy command give me liberty of indignation against that command in recompence of my restraint from thy Commendation Meus Tuus noster imo Christi as Hierom of Nepotianus so we of him whose departure we may commemorate My Sir Rowland Cotton Yours the Countries nay Christs hath forsaken us and because Christs therefore he hath forsaken us to go to him whose he wholly was Oh! that my head were waters or rather words for only that manner of mourning and my Tongue a fountain of tears for only that instrument of weeping is allowed me now that I might weep day and night not for him that is gone for he is gone where he always was and where he would be but for my self but for you but for the Country It is not my ambition but my sorrow that I claim the first place and to be first served in this heavy dole of lamentation For I have lost I cannot tell you what My Noble Patron my best Friend my Father my my Self I should lose if I should but begin to tell what he was to me Why should I speak more For should I speak my self away I could never speak enough Oh! my Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof How thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of Women And is it nothing to you O ye that sâ—â— by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger He it was that first laid the foundation of my poor Studies and always watered them with his discourse and encouragement and now the Lord hath taken my Master from my head He it was under whose branches I sheltred when any storm was up and now my Tree of defence is cut down He it was that was my Oracle both for things of this life and of a better and now my Prophet is not any more He it was that was all things to me that man could be but now can be nothing to me but sorrow And is this nothing to you O all ye that sit by Yes the Cup is gone among you also and a great Man is fallen in your Israel Hath not the Magistracy hath not the Gentry hath not the Country lost such a Man as was But you must speak out the rest for his Command stops my mouth You of the Magistracy know how he had Wisdom in an high degree as was his calling and withal care and conscience answerable to his Wisdom to discharge his calling And you may commend this rarity in him I dare not You of the Gentry know that he was a prime Flower in your Garland that he spake a true Gentleman in all his actions in his comportment in his attendance in his talk once for all in his hospitality even to admiration and you may commend him I dare not c. A sensible strain of Rhetorick which passion and inward sorrow had as large a share in dictating as Art XIII His Relations HAving expatiated thus largely in our notices of this Man that we may omit nothing that is material we will now begin to consider him in his more private and personal capacity His Reverend Father had five Sons whereof our John was the second His eldest was Thomas the only of all his Sons bred to a secular employment being a trades Man The third Peter a very ingenious Man and practised Physick in Uttoxeter and besides his Art he was of great usefulness in that Country and often in Commissions for ending of differences He also had intended to have writ the Life of his Brother Dr. John Lightfoot but was prevented by death The next was Josiah who succeeded his Brother Dr. Lightfoot in his Living of Ashley the only of the Brothers now living The youngest was Samuel a Minister also but long since deceased And as it was his Honour that he was derived of an honest and gentile stock by both Father and Mother so it was a part of his Happiness that God blest him with a Posterity He was twice married and both times into Families of Worship His first Wife was Joyce the Daughter of Crompton of Staffordshire Esquire a Gentleman of a very antient
time and story come in the three first Verses of the second Chapter and the story lyeth thus Dayes of the Creation VII GOD having thus created all things * * * Read ver 2. For on the seventh day God had ended his work otherwise there may be a doubt upon it whether God created not something on the seventh day This the lxx Saw and therefore they translate it different from the Original word And God ended his works on the sixth day in six days and man having thus fallen and heard of Christ and of death and eternal life and other like things on the sixth day the Lord ordaineth the seventh day for a Sabbath or holy rest and Adam spendeth it in holy duties and in meditation of holy things The mention of the institution of the Sabbath is laid in the beginning of the second Chapter though the very time and place of that story be not till after the end of the third 1. Because the holy Ghost would dispatch the whole story of the first week or seven days of the world together without interposition of any other particular story 2. Because he would shew that Adam should have kept the Sabbath though he had never sinned And therefore the mention of the Sabbath is before the mention of his sin CHAP. IV. THE exact times of the stories of the fourth Chapter are not to be determined and therefore they must be left to be taken up by conjecture in the times of the fifth as they are cast into the following table and so conjecturally also must we measure out the parallel and collateral times of the generations of Cain and Seth that are either named here or hereafter to the floud Cain and Abel born twins yet the one the seed of the Serpent and the other of the Woman In Cain was legible the poyson that Satan had breathed into fallen man and in Abel the breathing of grace into the elect and a figure of the death of Christ. God fireth Abels sacrifice from heaven but despiseth Cains yet readeth to him the first doctrine of repentance That if he did well he should certainly be accepted and though he did not well yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin-offering lieth at the door if he repented there was hope of pardon Thus as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam in the promise of Christ Chap. 3. 15. so doth he the first lecture of repentance to Cain under the doctrine of * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very commonly taken for a sin offering and the sacrifices were constantly brought to the Tabernacle door a sin-offering But Cain despiseth his own mercy is unmerciful to his brother and is denied mercy from the Lord. He beggeth for death that he might be shut out of that sad condition to which God hath doomed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now therefore let it be that any one that findeth me may kill me but this God denieth him and reserve th him to a longlife that he might reserve him to long misery Lamech a branch of this root bringeth into the world the abomination of Polygamie or of having more wives at once than one for which God smiteth him with horrour of conscience that he himself might be a witness against that sin that he had introduced and he censureth himself for a more deplorate and desperate wretch than Cain For that Cain had slain but one man and had only destroyed his body but he himself had destroyed both young and old by his cursed example which was now so currently followed and entertained in the world that ere long it was a special forwarder of its destruction that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold Lamech deserved seventy and seven-fold In this stock of Cain also began Idolatry and worshipping the creature instead of the Creator blessed for ever and in a mournfull feeling of this dishonour done to God by it Seth calls his Son that was born to him in those times Enosh or sorrowfull because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then began profaness in calling upon the name of the Lord. Noah in 2 Pet. 2. 5. seemeth to be called the eighth in reference to these times namely the eighth in succession from Enosh in whose times the world began to be profane CHAP. V. THis fifth Chapter measureth the time and age of the world between the Creation and the Flood which was 1655. years compleat Being cast into a Table it will not only shew the currency but the concurrency of those times or how those Patriarchs whose times it measureth lived one with another The Reader will not need any rules for the explaining of the Table his own Arithmetick will soon shew him what use to make of it The first Age of the World From the Creation to the Flood This space is called Early in the morning Mat. 2. Hilar. in loc Ten Fathers before the Flood  Adam hath Cain and Abel and loseth them both Gen. 4. unhappy in his children the greatest earthly happiness that he may think of Heaven the more 130 130 Seth born in original sin Gen. 5. 2 3. a holy man and father of all men after the Flood Numb 24. 17. to shew all men born in that estate 235 235 105 Enosh born corruption in Religion by Idolatry begun Gen. 4. 25. Enosh therefore so named Sorrowful 325 325 195 90 Kainan born A mourner for the corruption of the times 395 395 265 160 70 Mahalaleel born A praiser of the Lord. 460 460 330 225 135 65 Jared born when there is still a descending from evil to worse 622 622 492 387 297 227 162 Enoch born and Dedicated to God the seventh from Adam Jude 14. 687 687 557 452 362 292 227 65 Methushelah born his very name foretold the Flood The lease of the world is only for his life 874 874 744 639 549 479 414 252 187 Lamech born A man smitten with grief for the present corruption and future punishment 930 930 800 695 605 535 470 308 243 56 Adam dieth having lived 1000. years within 70. Now 70 years a whole age Psal. 90. 10. 987  857 752 662 592 527 365 300 113 57 Enoch translated next after Adams death mortality taught in that immortality in this 1042 Enoch the seventh from Adam in the holy line of Seth prophecâ—ed against the wickedness that Lamech the seventh from Adam in the cursed line of Cain had brought in 912 807 717 647 582 Enoch lived as many years as there be days in a year via 365. and finished his course like a Sun on earth 355 168 112 55 Seth dieth 1056   821 731 661 596  369 182 126 69 14 Noah born a comforter 1140   905 815 745 680  453 266 210 153 98 84 Enosh dieth 1235    910 840 775  548 361 305 248 193 179 95 Kainan dieth 1290     895 830  603 416 360 303 248 234 150 55
hath 600 men with him a Guard to himself and an help to Achish against Saul David dwelleth at Ziklag and invades the Countries thereabouts c. I CHRON. XII from beginning to Verse 8. World 2959 Sam. Saul 40 THither divers of Sauls own Tribe and kinred resort unto him and these are named in this Chapter before the men of Gad that had fallen to him before because these mens coming to him was most remarkable as being of Sauls own kinred CHAP. XXVIII SAULS end is now approaching He consulteth a witch He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after he had despised and persecuted both He seeth a Devil in Samuels likeness and heareth of his own ruine CHAP. XXIX THE Philistims dare not trust David in battel And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish nor fight against his own people I CHRON. XII Vers. 19 20 21 22. AS he went forth with the Philistims towards the battel and as he came back again from them divers fell to him of Manasseh CHAP. XXX XXXI I CHRON. X. DAVID returning home findeth no home at all Ziklag fired A Band of Amalekites slain and as it were sacrificed to Sauls Funeral Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation The second Book of SAMUEL CHAP. I. DAVID heareth of the death of Saul and lamenteth him And chargeth the young men of Judah to learn the use of the Bow that they might match the Philistims in Archery and so be avenged on them for Sauls death for by Archery they had slain him The Story of the Amalekite to David was not a lye to curry favour or to obtain a reward but it was a very and a real truth Saul had fallen upon his own sword indeed as was related in the preceding Chapter but his Coat of mail had hindred that he had not given himself a wound so speedily deadly but that the Philistims might come and catch him alive and abuse him and so he stands bleeding at that and at his other wounds leaning on his Spear till this Amalekite came by His Armour Bearer was dead already and these words When his Armour Bearer saw that Saul was dead he fell on his sword and died also are to be understood in this sense That when he saw Saul had given himself so deadly a wound he did the like and died indeed But Sauls wound was not so quick of dispatch therefore he desireth the Amalekite to kill him out For says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Coat of Mail hath withheld me so that my life is all this while in me And thus Saul that had been so cruel to David is now cruel to himself and he that had spared the Amalekites is now slain by one of that Nation CHAP. II. World 2950 David 1 DAVID anointed King of Judah in Hebron being 30 years old Compair David 2 Gen. 41. 46. Numb 4. 3. Luke 3. 23. In Hebran Abraham had had his David 3 first Land and much residence Here lay the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob David 4 and their wives buried and here was John Baptist born and our Saviour David 5 conceived There is long busling between the House of David and the house of David 6 Saul Abner still striving to make a party strong enough to settle one of Sauls David 7 Sons in the Kingdom Thereupon is Ishbosheth anointed in Sauls stead He is called Ishbaal 1 Chron. 8. 33. for Baal was commonly called Bosheth or Shame as Jerubbaal is called Jerubbosheth 2 Sam. 11. 21. and Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9. 12. called Meribaal 1 Chron. 8. 34. see also Jer. 11. 13. Abners vapouring causeth a desperate duell of twelve and twelve men and so layeth the foundation of a continual War in an equal bloodshed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 27. If thou hadst not said saith Joab what thou didst say in the morning let the young men rise and play before us surely the people had gone away every man from his brother even in the morning and there had been never a blow struck but thou didst provoke it CHAP. III. DAVIDS six Sons born to him in Hebron in his seven years and six Months reign there are here reckoned together that that Story and matter may be dispatcht at once Abner upon discontent at Ishbosheth turneth to David and confesseth that Kingdom which hitherto he had willingly and wittingly opposed But God will not suffer such a man and upon such grounds to be a promoter of Davids throne he is slain by Joab even in a place of Judicature and with a wound parallel to that that he had given Asahel CHAP. IV. ISHBOSHETH slain by two Benjamites brethren in evil They came into the midst of the house as if they would setch wheat vers 6. that is with a sack in their hands to put his head in c. Instantly before the Text falls upon the Story of Ishbosheth it relateth the Story of Mephibosheth because he was now all the stock left of Sauls house but only Rizpahs children a Concubine and Morahs a daughter CHAP. V. from beginning to Ver. 11. And I CHRON. XI all World 2957 David 8 DAVID anointed King over all Israel at Hebron and from thence brought by all Israel to Jerusalem to settle him there and to make that the Royal City He reigned in all 40 years in Hebron seven years and an half and at Jerusalem 32 years and an half And this latter was exactly the time of our Saviours life upon earth Joab after Davids curse upon him for Abners murder is yet made Commander in chief for his taking of Jerusalem The prosperity of David at Jerusalem and his building of it is presently set down after the Story of the taking of the City as beginning from that time and continuing and going along with the times of the following Stories and so to be carried in mind Then doth the Book of Chronicles give account of Davids Worthies Which Catalogue is also mentioned by this Book of Samuel but with this difference of place that in the Chronicles it is set in the beginning of Davids Reign and in Samuel in the latter end And both very properly and much like to the placing of our Saviours Genealogy in Matthew and Luke the one giving it at his Birth and the other at his Baptism and both upon singular reason And so here the Book of Chronicles reckons up these men as those that helped David to his settlement in the Kingdom and therefore it mentions them in the beginning of his reign and the Book of Samuel reckons them up at the latter end of his reign as those that had stuck to him all the time of his reign and helped to keep him in that settlement In both the Books there is first reckoned a Triumvirate or three gallant men that were of a rank by themselves and none were equal with them or like
captive saith in his seventh year they were three thousand and twenty three Jews and in his eighteenth three thousand and thirty two from Jerusalem in which if the Reader ruminate well upon the matter he will find a great deal of difficulty For 1. He never mentioneth in this reckoning either the Captivity in the fourth of Jehoiakim which was the first Captivity not the Captivity of Jechoniah in which the most people were carried away And. 2. There is no mention else-where of Nebuchad-nezzars carrying away into captivity from Jerusalem either in his seventh year or in his eighteenth but of his doing so in his eighth there is mention 2 King 24. 12. and in his nineteenth Jer. 25. 12. Now for answer 1. To the First The Prophet doth not here speak simply of the persons that were captived but of persons that were captived and put to death for that was the very tenour of his speech in the verse immediately before And for the confirming of this it is observable that in these two verses he mentioneth only the Captives that were caused by an open Rebellion Jehoiakims and Zedekiahs and upon those followed slaughter upon cold blood but in the fourth of Jehoiakim when Daniel and his fellows were captived and when Jechoniah was captived with 18000 more there was no such slaughter because there was no such rebellion And by this very consideration we may learn what was the end of Jehoiakim against whom Jeremy threatned the burial of an Ass although the Scripture hath not clearly expressed it else-where To the second we have given some piece of an answer before more fully now Nebuchad-nezzars first year was properly in Jehoiakims third for then is the first news you hear of him Dan. 1. 1. but withal his first year is counted with Jehoiakims fourth in which the seventy years Captivity began for then he had captived Jerusalem and according to these two reckonings the Scripture reckons sometime by the first as Nebuchad-nezzars first year properly some-time by the second as being his first year over Israel and of the seventy of Captivity after which matter the Scripture looketh with special notice Now Jehoiakims Captivity was in Nebuchad-nezzars eighth according to the first date but it is said to be in his seventh according to the second and the rather because Jechoniah was captived the same year and so the one is distinguished from the other And so Zedeliahs captivity was in Nebuchadnezzars nineteenth according to the first date and propriety but said here to be in the eighteenth according to the second and the rather to include in the number of the captived and slain those whom Nebuchad-nezzar caught of the Jews when he marched away from the siege of Jerusalem the year before when the King of Egypt raised it for then it is not imaginable but he caught some and how he would deal with them they being in open rebellion we may well suppose JEREMY XL. from vers 7. to the end And XLI all 2 KING XXV vers 22 23 24 25. THE dispersed Captains and Companies that had fled for their safety up and down for fear of the Chaldean Army do ralley and come together to Gedaliah the Governour for protection Jeremy amongst these reckoneth Jonathan and the Sons of Ephai the Netophathite which the Book of Kings omitteth either for that these were slain with Gedaliah by Ismael as Jer. 41. 3. and never came to Egypt whither the Book of Kings and Jeremy bringeth those rallied Captives and People after Gedaliahs death Or that Jonathan came as an inferiour to Johanan his brother and that these sons of Ephai the Netophathite came under the colours of Seraiah the Netophathite and so the Book of Kings reckons only the Colonels or chief Commanders In the seventh Month Ismael some younger brother of the Royal blood and ten Nobles of the Court envying Gedaliahs promotion do traiterously murder him This was a very solemn month in it self for the Feast of Trumpets expiation and Tabernacles that should have been in it and in this month of old had Salomon kept the dedication of the Temple and sent the people home with joyful hearts afterwards but how is the matter altered now Ismael also killeth seventy Samaritan Proselites such as were coming to the Feast of Tabernacles and casteth them into a trench that Asa had made to be a stop betwixt the Samaritans and himself then made to keep off Samaritans enemies to their Religion now filled with Samaritans friends to it The little dealing that the Jews had with the Samaritans and the flying about of the Chaldean Troopers had made such interception of intelligence that these poor men knew not of the firing of the Temple though it were in the fifth month till they be upon the way towards it and then understanding of it they rent their clothes c. JEREMY XLII XLIII And 2 KING XXV vers 26. THE Captains and people upon the death of Gedaliah go into Egypt though they had promised to be ruled by the voice of the Lord and though the Lord had flatly forbidden them to go thither and so had done of old that they should never return to Egypt Poor Jeremy is carried along with them and when he comes there he prophesieth both against Egypt and them World 3421 Captivity 20 The Jews are now setled in Egypt and in time they fall to a common and open Idolatry for which Jeremy reproveth them and threatneth them very sore In vers 9. he seemeth to give a close touch upon the Idolatry of Salomons wives the first original of Idolatry to the Kings of Judah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wickednesses of the Kings of Judah and the wickednesses of his wives which indeed may be well construed of every one of their wives But the quaintness of the phrase seemeth to hint some such a particular thing and it may the rather be so understood because he is here taxing the present Idolatry of the Jews wives in Egypt and ripping up the sore to the very head which indeed was first those wives of Solomon Observe in vers 25. how the Hebrew Syntax seemeth to twit these mens base uxoriousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the Verb in the feminine Gender though he speak to the men Now in the 45 Chap. of this Book of Jeremy vers 1. It is said that Baruch had written these words in a Book at the mouth of Jeremy in the fourth year of Jehoiakim what these very last words mentioned before But this is very unlikely for these last speeches appear to be uttered upon emergency the meaning of it therefore is that Jeremy in the fourth of Jehoiakim had uttered Prophesies to this purpose that Jerusalem should be destroyed and the Land left desolate and the people captived and mischief and misery following them which is cleered to be accomplished in the story of these Chapters and therefore this 45 Chapter is laid here though the story
testimony of John the Evangelist nay of Christ himself that it plainly appears that Mary the sister of Lazarus and Mary Magdalen was but one and the same person For when in Bethany the same sister of Lazarus annointed the feet of Jesus and Judas did thereupon take offence Jesus himself checking the boldness of the furious Disciple said Let her alone that she may keep it against the day of my burial Now that she that brought the oyntment to the sepulcher for the annointing of the body of Jesus was Mary Magdalen is affirmed by Mark and that she with Mary the Mother of James and Salome did that office When therefore neither in him nor in any other of the Evangelists there is any mention of Mary the Sister of Lazarus who was foretold by our Saviour that she should do that office it may easily be known that both these Maries were but one and the same At Joh 12. 7. we shall shew that that speech must be construed to such a sense as he hath put on it save only that following the vulgar Latin he reads sine ut servet which indeed makes his sense the fuller but though not so read yet will that sense be full enough It is to be objected indeed that Mary was called Magdalen from the place Magdala of which there is mention Matth. 15. 29. and in Tal. Jerus in Maazaroth fol 50. col 3. in This passage R. Jochanan in the name of R. Simeon ben Jochai He had two inclosures one in Magdala the other in Tiberias c. And in Beracoth fol. 13. col 1. there is mention of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Juda of Magdala now Magdala being in Galilee as some seat it or over against Galilee beyond Jordan as others it was so very far distant from Bethany that Mary the sister of Lazarus whose Town was Bethany could not possibly be called Magdalen from Magdala To which we may first give Baronius his answer who also mentioneth this objection That though she were of Bethany by original and the native seat of her fathers house yet might she also be of Magdala by marriage or some occasional residence otherwise And in the second place we may adduce what the Talmudicks speak of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary Magdalen or Megaddala for the word is of doubtful pointing whom they character for a notorious strumpet in those times that Jesus of Nazareth lived Alphez in Gittin fol. 605. Some man finds a fly in his cup and takes her out and will not drink and this was the temper of Papus the son of Judah who locked the door upon his wife whensoever he went out The glossaries R. Solamon and Nissim upon this passage comment thus Papus the son of Judah was husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Mary Magdala and whensoever he went forth he locked the door upon his wife lest she should speak with any man which was a usage unfitting and hereupon there arose discord between them and she plaid the whore against him Now they construe the latter word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as signifying one that broided or plated her hair which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peter blames in women 1 Pet. 3. 3. Tal. Babyl Venet. in Sanhedr per. 7. is speaking of one that inticed to Idolatry and how he was brought to the Sanhedrin and stoned And thus say they they did to Ben Saida in Lydda and hanged him on the Passeover eve Ben Saida was the son of Pandira They call our Saviour blasphemously by this name Ben Saida And a little after His mother was Saida His mother was Mary Magdalen Mary the platter of womens hair vid etiam Schab fol. 104. And in Chagigah fol. 4. The Angel of death said to his messenger Go fetch me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary the broider of womens hair He went and fetched Mary Magdala or Mary the broider of hair for young men Now whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be read Magdela or Magdila a Participle in Hiphil which is most proper and so warranted by Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Kelim per. 15. or Megaddela in Piel either of them in a Greek dress especially the former come so near the sound of the word in hand that we may very well construe Mary Magdalen in this Talmudick construction for a woman of common infamy and that hath this nick-name of Magdila from her lascivious dress and carriage Observe Lukes expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary which was called Magdalen which manner of phrase is rarely used when persons are named after their Country SECTION XXXV MATTH Chap. XII from Ver. 22 to Ver. 46. MARK Chap. III. from the last clause of Ver. 19. And they went into an house to Ver. 31. A Devil cast out Christ called Belzebub Blasphenty against the holy Ghost THe series and consequence of this Section will require some cleering 1. The reader here seeth that Mark hath not mentioned any thing from the ordaining of the twelve Apostles unto this place for the holy Ghost that held all their pens did so dispose them that sometimes one should speak the story sometimes another and sometimes more or all of them together Now though the first clause of this Section in Mark And they went into an house be joyned so close to the Apostles ordaining as if that were the next thing done yet the current of the story in the rest of the Evangelists doth shew that it is not to be taken in at that instant and indeed the progress of the story even in Mark himself doth shew that this is the proper place of it as will appear to him that shall precisely observe it 2. Matthew hath laid this story of casting out a Devil c. next after two stories that occurred before the Sermon in the Mount as hath appeared in its place the reason of which may be supposed to be because he would take up the exceptions of the Scribes and Pharisees together That this story in Matthew lieth in juncture to these next succeeding will readily appear in them 3. There is a story in Luke 11. so like this that one would think it were the very same for there is mention of the same miracle casting out a Devil and the same cavil of the Pharisees and the same answer of Christ and yet the progress of the history of Luke thither and especially the coming off from that story do perswade that it was another story For Luke chaineth such following passages to it that cannot possibly be brought in concurrent with the current of these Evangelists now before us And we shall observe hereafter that Christ in his latter time did repeat over again very many of those things that he had spoken a good while before as Moses his Deutronomy was but a rehersal of things that had been acted and spoken in his former time The same devillishness was in the Scribes and Pharisees in all places and it was accordingly to be met
were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the less offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used Maymon in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use yea even his dung bones horns hoofs skin yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart and that alone offered Divers other things used in Idolatry are mentioned and prohibited The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these properly were not one and the same thing for every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buâ—… contra every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering which themselves were not offered as knives dishes and the like which cannot be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean and prohibited to be used About not eating of blood they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point unto this purpose He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive if presumptuously he is to be cut off and if ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6. By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self or that was not killed as it ought to be And he that eat to the quantity of an olive of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self or of any beast or any fowl that died of it self was to be whipt as it is said Ye shall eat no carcase and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting is reputed as if dying of it self Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat of which the Talmudick Treatise Cholin discusseth at large Now as concerning fornication it is controverted first whether it mean bodily or spiritual and secondly how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent as the other named were it self being of no such indifferency whethersoever is meant the one or the other The former certainly is not meant for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reacheth that to the full and more needed not to be spoken to that point The later therefore is meant but why named here with things indifferent Not because it was indifferent as well as they Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other for they made but little of fornication themselves according to the common taking of the word fornication but fornication here seemeth to translate their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited which the Gentiles made no matter about and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law Levit. 18. Before we part from this Council as it is commonly called we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe that it was not a convention premediated and solemnly summoned but only occasional and emergent and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in nor indeed needed any such thing for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voices as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem The matter being determined Letters are dispatched with the Decrees unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas they come to Antioch and there abide a while and at last go their several ways Judas to Jerusalem and Paul Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party and Peter Jameâ— and John on the other that those two should go among the Gentiles and these three among the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of that Country Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East and John at Patmos in the West and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth they disagree about Marks going with them Barnabas being his uncle would have had his company but Paul denied it because of his departure from them before Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also Gal. 2. 11. and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas and go their several ways and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society as we shall observe afterward CHRIST LI CLAUDIUS XI ACTS CHAP. XVI PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia come to Derbe and Lystra there he Circumciseth Timothy whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death Timothy was a young man of very choice
that performed it not but plainly demonstrated that none could perform it and so left all under a curse and these words Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things c. conclude both So that the Law was not given for justification but to be subservient to the Covenant of Justification not to cross the Covenant but to serve it not purposely to leave under the curse but to shew the curse and to drive men to get from under it So that men might live in it but not by it It was the way in which men were to go to seek for Justification but it was not the cause or means whereby they were justified See Gal. 3. 5. The Jews made the Moral Law cross to the Covenant of Grace whilst they sought to be justified by works and they made the Ceremonial Law cross the Moral whilest they resolved all duty into Ceremony and so the Law which in it self was holy and pure and good they turned to death unto themselves by their abuse They might have lived in the Moral Law had they used it aright though not by it for the more a man sets himself to the exact performance of it the more he sees he cannot perform it and therefore he is driven the more to Christ But they resolved all into Ceremonious performance and so lost sincerity toward the Moral and hereupon the Ceremonial Law good in it self became to them Statutes not good and Judgments wherein they could not live Exek 20. 25. From Rome also and reasonable early in this year Paul wrote THE EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY and in it urgeth Timothy to come to him before Winter Timothy was now at Ephesus when this Epistle was directed to him as may be observed out of the Epistle it self by these collections 1. In that he willeth him to salute the houshold of Onesiphorus Chap. 4. 19. who was an Ephesian Chap. 1. 16 18. 2. In that he biddeth him take Troas in his way as he comes to him Chap. 4. 13. which had been the way that Paul himself had gone from Ephesus 2 Cor. 2. 22. and to Ephesus again Acts 20. 5. 3. In that he warneth him of Alexander Chap. 4. 14. who was an Ephesian 1 Tim. 1. 20. Act. 19. 33. There is one passage in this Epistle which hath caused some to doubt about the time of its writing for about the place there is no doubt and that is what he saith Chap. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand which would make one think that he was now ready to be martyred and taken away and it hath made some believe that this was the last Epistle that ever he wrote but when we compare his own words again in ver 17 18. and Phil. 1. 25. and Philem. ver 22. it maketh it past controversie that he speaketh not of his sudden Martyrdoom but that he is to be understood in some other sense But what is that Baronius giveth this gloss The words of Paul concerning his speedy death seem not possibly otherwise to be understood then that God had revealed it to him that he should suffer death under Nero. For that time might very well seem near which was to be fulfilled under the same Prince I but Nero for his age might have reigned 50 or 60 years after the Apostles writing of this Epistle and so the last words of this gloss are but a very poor salving And indeed the resolution of the difficulty lieth open and conspicuous in the text it self Paul looked upon Timothy as the prime and choice man that was to succeed him in the work of the Gospel when he himself should be dead and gone as being a young man not only of singular qualifications for that work but of whom there had been special Prophesies and predictions to such a purpose 1 Tim. 1. 18. as was observed before He exhorts him therefore in this place to improve all his pains and parts to the utmost to do the work of an Evangelist and to make proof of his Ministry to the full for that he himself could not last long being now grown old and worn with travel and besides all this in bonds at present and so in continual danger therefore must Timothy be â—itting himself daily to take his work up when he was gone With Timothy he desires that Mark may come along with him to Rome whom we observed to be at Corinth at Pauls last coming thither and one clause in this Epistle seemeth also to speak to that matter Chap. 4. 20. Erastus abode at Corinth but Trophimus I left at Miletum sick Erastus abode at Corinth Why that Timothy knew without any information for he was with Paul all along that journey when Erastus went to Corinth and staied there And Trophimus I left at Miletum sick Why Timothy could not but know that too without Pauls telling him so from Rome Miletum and Ephesus were so very near together nay it is more than probable that Timothy was left at Miletum too when Trophimus was left there But when was he left Not when Paul went towards Jerusalem and sent for the Elders of Ephesus to Miletum Acts 20. for Trophimus went and was with him at Jerusalem Acts 21. 19. But it was when Paul returned from Jerusalem in bonds to Rome as hath been said though it be not particularly mentioned that he touched there Some would have the word Miletum to be read Mileta among whom is Beza who is ever one of the forwardest to tax the Text for corrupt when he cannot clear it Poâ—ius conjicio legendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he quod vocabulum facile fuit in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depravare Luke saith plainly that at Pauls coming away from Judea in his voyage to Rome it was their resolution to sail by the coasts of Asia Act 27. 2. which had been a far fairer ground to have concluded upon that Paul was at Miletum in that voyage since that was a part of those Asian coasts then to change Miletum into Melita upon no ground at all And certainly the very scope of the Apostle in that passage will not admit of that change for he is not telling Timothy of Erastus his abode at Corinth or of Trophimus his sick stay at Miletum as things unknown to him but as things very well known yet mentioned to him as making to the Apostles present purpose He had sent for Timothy and Mark to come away to him to Rome and to forward them to that journey he doth these two things 1. He sheweth how all his company was scattered from him ver 9. 10. and therefore he had need of them in that destitution 2. He telleth how supply might be made in their places though they came away for though Mark should come from Corinth yet Erastus might be a supply for Erastus abode there And Timothy come away from Ephesus yet Trophimus is there ready to supply his place for
some machination against himself he had now shut up in prison and intended him presently for the execution but that his sickness whereof he died seizing on him gave some more space to the imprisoned and some hopes and possibilities of escaping His disease was all these mixed together an inward burning and exulceration an insatiable greediness and devouring the Chollick the Gout and Dropsie his loins and secrets crawling with lice and a stink about him not to be indured These wringings and tortures of his body meeting with the peevishness of old age for he was now seventy and with the natural cruelty which always had been in him made him murderously minded above all measure insomuch that he put to death divers that had taken down a golden Eagle which he had set up about the Temple And when he grew near to his end and saw himself ready to die he slew his Son Antipater and caused great multitudes of the Nobility and People to be closed up in a sure place giving command to slay them as soon as he was dead for by that means he said he should have the Jews truly and really to sorrow at his death Vid. Joseph Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 8 9 10. and de Bel. lib. 1. cap. 21. Vers. 20. For they are dead that sought the young childs life The like saying is to Moses Exod. 4. 19. where the word they may be understood of Pharaoh and his servants which jointly sought his life for the Egyptians sake whom he had slain and were now all dead and worn out in the fourty years of his being in Midian But here it is true indeed that the seeking of the childs life may well be applied to Herods Servants as well as himself but that all they died with him or about the time of his death who in flattery or favour or obedience to him had promoted the slaughter at Bethlehem and had sought the childs life I know not upon what ground it should be conceived I should therefore by the they in this place understand Herod and his Son Antipater jointly together For if it be well considered how mischievous this Antipater was against his own Brethren and how he wrought their ruine and misery for fear they should get betwixt him and the throne yea how he sought the destruction of his own Father because he thought he kept him out of the Throne too long it may very well be believed that he would bloodily stir against this new King of the Jews that the wisemen spake of for fear of interception of the Crown as well as his Father He died but five days before his fathers death as it was touched before out of Josephus and thus God brought this bloodliness of the Father and the Son and the rest of their cruelties to an end and upon their own heads at once and in a manner together and thus may the words of the Angel be very fairly understood Take the child and return to the Land of Israel for Herod and Antipater are dead that sought his life Ver. 22. Archelaus did reign in Iudea in the room of his Father Herod Herod had first named Antipater for his Successor in the Throne of Judea but upon detection of his conspiracy against him he altered his mind and his will and nominated Antipas and changing his mind yet again he named Archelaus and he succeeded him a man not likely to prosper in a Throne that was so bebloodied His conclusion was that in the tenth year of his reign he was accused by the Nobles of Judea and Samaria to Augustus banished to Vienna and his estate confiscate Jos. Ant. lib. 17. cap. 15. Ver. 23. He shall be called a Nazarene From Isa. 11. 1. where the Messias is called by the title Nezer which indifferently signifieth A branch and the City Nazaret one and the same word denoting Christ and the place where he should be born SECTION VIII S. LUKE CHAP. II. Christ sheweth his wisdom at twelve years old Ver. 40. AND a a a a a a Compare Exod. 2. 10. 1 Sam. 2. 26. Jud. 16. 24. the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him 41. Now his Parents went to Ierusalem b b b b b b Exod. 23. 15. 17. every year at the Feast of the Passover 42. And when he was twelve years old they went up to Ierusalem after the custom of the Feast 43. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned the Child Iesus tarried behind in Ierusalem and Ioseph and his mother knew not of it 44. But they supposing him to have been in the company went a days journey and they sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance 45. And when they found him not they turned back again to Ierusalem seeking him 46. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the Temple sitting in the middest of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them questions 47. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers 48. And when they saw him they were amazed and his mother said unto him Son why hast thou thus dealt with us Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing 49. And he said unto them How is it that ye sought me Wist ye not that I must * * * * * * Or In my Fathers house be about my Fathers business 50. And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them 51. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart 52. And Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men Reason of the Order THE Order of this Section dependeth so clearly upon the proper Order of that preceding that that being made good to lie where it doth as in the proper place the subsequence of this to it can nothing at all be doubted of For whereas all the Evangelists have unanimously passed over in silence all those years of Christs minority which intervened or passed between his return out of Egypt and this passage of his at twelve years old there is nothing possible to be found in the Gospels that can come between to interpose this order and connexion The carriage and demeanour of our Saviour in the time between is only briefly comprised in the first verse of this portion And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Harmony and Explanation Ver. 40. And the child grew c. TWO years Old he was when he went into Egypt and there he aboad in his Exile a very small time it may be some two or three months about such a space as Moses had been hid in Egypt in his Fathers house from the fury of Pharaoh When he returned to Nazareth his Mothers City being now about two years and a quarter old he
Captain of our Salvation and such an one is he held out in this story and such an one is he offered to this combate by the Holy Ghost 1. That the work of the Redemption might begin to parallel the fall for both of them were with temptations 2. That Christ from the very first entrance into his function might be looked on as the subject of the promise Gen. 3. 15. That seed of the woman that shoul break the head of the Serpent in the end when he thus bruised him in the beginning 3. That this beginning of his Ministry might vindicate and glorifie his Ministry all along when the Prince of this world had come and found nothing in him And 4. that a greater than Adam in innocency might be acknowledged here for he by temptation had been overcom but this in temptation overcame Other reasons of Christ being tempted referring to men may be given diverse As 1. to shew that even the holiest of men cannot expect to be free from temptations 2. That Christ might teach us how to combate against the temptations of Satan namely with fasting prayer and the Word of God 3. To shew that we are to overcom through him who overcame temptations for us as he overcame death for us 4. For our assurance of help and succour in our trials since our Redeemer was tempted like unto us as Heb. 4. 15. See Aquin. part 3. quest 41. Art 1. Luke IV. ver 1. And Iesus being full of the Holy Ghost For the better understanding of these words there are two things very material to take into consideration The first is what need there was of Christs being now filled with the Holy Ghost when all the fulnese of the Godhead had dwelt in him hitherto And secondly in what the fulness of the Holy Ghost that was in Christ these gifts that were in him did differ from that fulness and from those that were in other men For the first it is to be observed 1. That by the term the Holy Ghost is to be understood the Prophetick gifts wherewithal Christ was filled for the preaching and publishing of the Gospel as the revealing of the will of God and working miracles The expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Holy Ghost is a phrase and manner of speech used by the Jews in their writings and very common and frequent there and from them must the sense of it be explained for from them it is taken and most commonly and constantly used in their sense in the New Testament Now the Jewish Authors do constantly mean by it the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which he bestowed upon Prophets and Prophetick men enabling them for that employment unto which they were called As if we should go about to multiply examples from them to this purpose we might do it infinitely The Holy Ghost say they was one of the five things that were wanting in the second Temple Massecheth Ioma cap. 1. cited by R. Sol. and Kimchi on Hag. 1. 8. Thou hast shewed that the Holy Ghost dwelleth not on thee to know that I am not drunk Rasi on 1 Sam. 1. 13. The Holy Ghost was gone from Eli therefore prophecy came to Samuel D. Kimch on 1 Sam. 3. 2. The Holy Ghost was born in him from that day and forward and he uttered Psalms and Songs by the Holy Ghost that was born in him for under this general term the Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of power or strength understood Idem on 1 Sam. 16. 13. The Holy Ghost rested on the false Prophet Idem on 1 King 13. 20. Our Wisemen say before Elias was taken away the Holy Ghost was in Israel when he was taken away the Holy Ghost departed R. Sam. Lanjade on 2 Kings 2. In all which speeches and in divers others which might be produced it is apparent that the Jews by this phrase the Holy Ghost do constantly and continually intend Prophetick gifts wherewith men and women were indued either for the managing of some publique employment to which they were called or for the suiting to some singular and special occasion wherewithal they met And in this sense is the expression most constantly to be taken in the New Testament when it speaketh not of the third person in Trinity it self as Luke 1. 15 41 67. John 7. 3 9. Acts 2. 4. 8. 18. 10. 44. 13. 52. 19. 2. and in very many other places And so is it to be understood here that Christ being now to enter upon the publique Ministery of the Gospel and to act as the great Prophet of his Church and people he is at his baptism anointed and ever after filled with the gifts of the Holy Ghost befitting so great a work and befitting so great a Prophet Now 2. it is to be observed that these Prophetick gifts that the Holy Ghost bestowed upon some particular persons did really and very far differ from the grace of sanctification which he bestoweth upon all his Saints They might indeed sometimes be and very often they were in one and the same person but they were very far from being one and the same thing For 1. Prophetical gifts were sometimes in wicked and prophane men as in Balaam the false Prophet at Bethel Judas c. 2. These were given for the benefit of others rather than for his own that had them but sanctifying grace is given for his benefit chiefly that doth enjoy it 3. They did not make a man any whit the holier towards God but only the more able for some occasions amongst men So that by this expression Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost is not intended any addition of grace or sanctity which he had not before but the collation of Prophetick qualifications at the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him which he had not till then For though by the union of the humane nature to the Godhead that nature did partake of glorious and most excellent perfections arising and resulting from that union yet did it not partake of these gifts or perfections that we have in hand because these were not properly fruits of that union but of a donation And not things conducing to the satisfaction of God in the work of Redemption but to the satisfaction of men in his work of the Ministry The proper fruits of that union were the qualifying of the person of Christ so as that he should be absolutely without sin that he might exactly perform the Law and might be able to satisfie Gods justice and overcom death for these were the proper ends and reasons for which such an union was required but to work miracles to expound difficulties to heal diseases to teach divinity to foretel things to come and the like were not so properly the fruit of that union for even meer men have been enabled to do the same nor did they so directly tend to the most proper end of the incarnation namely the satisfaction of Gods justice
his birth and education could not but acknowledge what he spake and gave testimony to his words they were so gracious And this makes them wonder comparing his present powerful and divine discourse with his mean and homely education and to be amazed among themselves and to say Is not this the son of Joseph as Mark 6. 2 3. Vers. 23. Ye will surely say to me this Proverb c. He taketh occasion of these words from their present wonderment and questioning among themselves about him As if he had spoken out to them thus at large Ye look upon me as Josephs son as one that was bred and brought up among you and therefore ye will be ready to urge me with the sense of that Proverb Physician heal thy self and expect that I should do some miracles here in mine own Town as I have done in other places nay rather in this Town than in others because of my relation to it § Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum Jansenius from this passage concludeth that this Sermon of Christ in the Synagogue of Nazareth was not of a great while after his coming into Galilee but that he had first passed and preached through Galilee because as yet according to the order in which we have laid the story there is but one miracle mentioned that he had done at Capernaum which was the recovering of the Rulers son Now that miracle was enough to have occasioned these words though he had done no more But Capernaum was Christs very common residence upon all occasions and it is like he had done divers miracles there though they be not mentioned for when he came from Samaria the Text relateth that he avoideth his own Town of Nazereth because he knew that there he should find but cold intertainment and little honour but that he went into some other parts of Galilee and the Galileans whither he went received him having seen all that he did at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover John 4. 44 45. Now Capernaum was as likely a place whether he would betake himself and where he would stay if he stayed in any City as any other Vers. 25. When the Heaven was shut up three years and six months This sum lyeth very obscure in the Text of the Book of Kings for there it is only said that Elias said there shall not be dew nor rain these years 1 Kings 17. 2. And that after many days in the third year Eliah shewed himself to Ahab and there was rain c. 1 Kings 18. 1 And it were not strange that Christ the Lord of time did for all the difficulty of the Text determine it but it seemeth by his speech to these Nazarites that it was a reckoning and sum commonly known and received of them And so when the Apostle James useth the same account James 5. 17. it is likely that he speaketh it to the Jews as a thing acknowledged and confessed But how to pick it up in the Book of Kings is very intricate to him that shall go about it Yet thus far we may go 1. That it was a year after the drought began before the Brook Cerith dried up for it is said that at the end of days the Brook dried now for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Days to be used for to signifie a year examples might be given exceeding copiously 2. Those words in the third year God said to Eliah Go shew thy self to Ahab and I will send rain cannot be understood of the third year of drought for this his coming to Ahab was not in the third year but after it for he had told him there should be no rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these three years at the least as the learned in the Hebrew tongue will easily observe out of the number of the word which is not dual but plural And therefore the third year is to be referred to Elias sojourning with the Sareptane widow He had been one year by Cherith and above two years at Sarepta and after many days in the third year he shews himself to Ahab and there were rains Now how to bring these many days to half a year is still a scruple how to fix it or to go any whit near thereunto unless it be by casting the times of the year when the drought began and when it ended and there might be very probable reasons produced to shew that it began in Autum and ended in the Spring which two times were their most constant times of rains Joel 2. But truth hath spoken it here and it is not to be disputed but only thus much is spoken to it because it seemeth that he speaketh it to the Jews here as men consenting and agreeing in the thing already The Rabbins do quaintly descant upon the last verse of 1 King 16. where there is mention of Hiels building Jericho and losing his two sons in the work according to the word of Joshua and the first verse of Chap. 17. where Eliah foretels the restraint of rain thus Ahab and Eliah say they went to comfort Hiel for the death of his sons Ahab said to Elijah it may be the word of the servant Joshua is performed but the word of the Master Moses will not be performed who saith Ye will turn away and serve other Gods and the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up heaven that there be no rain c. Thereupon Elias swore and said As the Lord liveth before whom I stand there shall be no rain This number and term of time of three years six months just half the time of the famine in Egypt is very famous and renowned in Scripture as hath been observed before But in nothing more renowned then this that it was the term of Christs Ministery from his Baptism to his death he opening Heaven for three years and six months and raining down the Divine dew of the Gospel as Elias had shut Heaven so long and there was no rain at all Vers. 28. And all they in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath c. Here is such another change of affection in these Nazarites one while giving testimony to the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth and presently ready to murder him for his words as there was in the men of Lycaonia Act. 14. who one while would worship Paul and Barnabas for Gods and immediately stone them with stones The matter that gave such offence in these words of Christ to his Countrymen was double 1. Because he so plainly taught and hinted the calling of the Gentiles and refusing of the Jews as was to be seen in the double instance that he alledged that Elias should harbour no where with any Israelite but should be recommended by God to a heathen widow for so were the Sareptanes being of Sidon and that not one Israelite leper should ever be healed but Naaman a Heathen Syrian should be This doctrine about
from death to life in a spiritual sense which argues that he intends the same sense here 3. In that he ascribeth reviving to his Voice here as he did there to his Word 4. Because he distinguisheth upon hearing his voice The dead shall hear it and as many as hear it shall live which is applicable a great deal more fairly to the bare and to the effectual hearing of the Gospel than to dead in corporal sense And 5. lastly Because there are so great things spoken of the calling of the Gentiles in the Scripture and of Christs work about that matter and their Heathenish condition so expresly called death and their imbracing the Gospel a resurrection that when Christ is speaking of his actings in the New Testament and useth such words as these before us we may not unproperly apply them in that sense It would have prevented many controversies and not a few errors if the Phrases the last days and the day of the Lord and the end and new Heavens and new Earth and the dead raised c. had been cautelously understood and as the Scripture means them in several places But as for the raising of the dead in the verse in hand it needeth not very much curiosity to fix it to either of those as a determinate sense since taken either way that hath been mentioned it carries a fair construction most agreeable to the truth and not very disagreeable to the scope and context Vers. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself It is needless to dispute here how far the second person in the Trinity may be said to have or not to have his being of himself for the words do not consider him simply as the second person but as the Messias God and Man as is the tenour of speech all along And in this acceptation we may give the words this construction 1. That they are a Paraphrase upon the name Jehovah which betokeneth Gods eternal being in himself and his giving of being to the Creature and that they mean that as the Father is Jehovah so also hath he given to the Son the Messias that name above all names as Philip. 2. 9. to be owned and worshipped for Jehovah having life in himself as being the eternal and living God and having the disposal of life in his power as being the God of all living 2. That as the Father is the eternal and immortal God so also is the Messias and though he stand there before the Sanhedrin in humane appearance yet should he never see corruption as Psalm 16. 10. but declare himself mightily to be the Son of God and to have life in himself by his raising himself from the dead Rom. 1. 4. Being the first and last He that liveth though he died and is alive for evermore Amen and hath the Keys of Hell and death at his disposal Rev. 1. 17 18. 3. As the words before may be applied to Christs raising from the dead those that were either bodily or spiritually deceased so these are a reason and proof of that assertion because as the Father hath the absolute disposal of life in his own power so hath he given to the Messias the same disposal Vers. 27. And hath given him authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man By this passage it is apparent in what sense our Saviour useth the term The Son and The Son of God all along this discourse namely for the Son of God as he was also the Son of Man or the Messias There hath been some scruple made as was mentioned before upon the reason given of Christs authority of Judging namely because he was the Son of Man which will be removed by rightly stating the sense of the Son of Man which we may take up in these three particulars 1. The Phrase the Son of Man may be taken to signifie simply A Man and then the words are to be understood in this sense He hath given him authority of judging because he is a man and then is the reason current and apparent under this construction First Because the Son of God humbled himself and became man for the redemption of man therefore the Lord hath given him authority to be judge of man as Phil. 2. 8 9. And secondly He hath given the Messias authority of judging because he is man that man might be judged by one in his own nature as Act. 17. 31. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead 2. The title The Son of Man which our Saviour so oft applieth to himself in the Gospel doth not speak him barely A Man but it owns him as that singular and peculiar seed of the woman or Son of Man that was promised to Adam to be a repairer of ruined mankind and the destroyer of the works of Satan as the term hath been cleared before And in this construction the reason of Christs authority of judging because he was the Son of Man is yet cleared further namely because he was the Son of that promise the Heir of the world and Redeemer of mankind and Destroyer of Devils therefore the Lord did give authority to him to be Lord of the World and Judge of Men and Devils to destroy the Serpent and his seed that were his enemies and to perfect and save the holy seed that should believe in him and obey him and to do and order all things here in this world that were in tendency either to the one or the other end 3. The Messias is thus charactered in Dan. 7. 13 14. Behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him Upon which words R. Saadias glosseth thus This is Messias our righteousness But is it not written concerning the Messias lowly and riding upon an Ass Because he shall come in humility and not in pomp riding upon Horses And with the Clouds of Heavens meaneth the Angels the Host of Heaven this is the abundance of greatness which the Creator shall give unto the Messias c. Our Saviour in the words that we are upon seemeth to point at those words of Daniel and whereas it was confessed by the Nation that the Son of Man there spoken of to whom all Dominion was given was the Messias he doth here plainly aver that it was himself and that all Authority and Judicature was given him because he was the Son of Man Observe how purposely he changeth expressions In ver 25. He speaketh of raising the dead by the voice of the Son of God and here of executing judgment because he is the Son
now in Capreae having forsaken the City living in all filthiness and cruelty 770. Divers cruelties ibid. Strange accusing 771. The boldness of Sejanus and Terentius 772. Divers cruelties more and other occurrencies ibid. Tiberius troubled in mind 773. Among the Jews A Commotion among them occasioned by Pilate ibid. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXIV Tiberius XIX In the Church Hellenists murmuring against the Hebrews Act. 6. Seven Deacons chosen And their office 777. c. Stephen Martyred 780 c. Act. 7. Bitter persecution against the whole Church 785. Act. 8. Dispersion of the hundred and eight upon the Persecution ibid. Samaria receiveth the Gospel 786. Simon Magus ibid. The Holy Ghost given by imposition of hands 787. The Ethiopian Eunuch converted 789 c. Paul converted and baptized ibid. Act. 9. to ver 10. In the Empire Velleius Paterculus flourisheth 795. Troubles in Rome about Usury 796 c. Tiberius still most bloudily cruel ibid. Strang accusations among the People ibid. Marius and his daughter wrongfully slaughtered ibid. The miserable end of Asinius Gallus and Nerva ibid. The miserable end of Agrippin◠and Drusius ibid. Other Massacres ibid. Occurrences in the Year of Christ XXXV Tiberius XX. In the Church No particular occurrence of the Church mentioned this year 801. In the Empire Tiberius Reign proclaimed for ten years longer and the Consuls punished for it ibid. Many cruelties of the Emperour 802. A feigned Drusus ib. Among the Jews A commotion and slaughter of them caused by Pilate 803 Philip the Tetrach of Trachonitis dyeth ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVI Tiberius XXI In the Church No particular Occurrence mentioned this year Among the Jews Vitellius Governour of Judea he cometh to Jerusalem is courteous to the Iews 809. Caiaphas removed from the High Priesthood 810. In the Empire A Rebellion in Parthia ib. Tiberius still cruel and shameless 811. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVII Tiberius XXII In the Church Paul cometh to Jerusalem 813. Act. 9. vers 23 c. to vers 32. The Disciples afraid of him 814. Persecution lasteth yet ib. Paul presented to the Apostles preacheth boldly is persecuted and goeth to Tarsus 815. In the Empire The Parthian War yet uncomposed 816 817. Artabanus restored to his Kingdom ib. A commotion in Cappadocia ib. Cruelties at Rome ib. Mishaps there through fire and water ib. The death of Thrasyllus the Astrologer ib. Among the Jews A commotion in Samaria 818 c. Pilate put out of Office ib. Agrippa his journey to Rome ib. His imprisoment there ib. War betwixt Herod the Tetrach and Aretas King of Arabia ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXVIII Tiberius XXIII Being also the first year of Caius No particular Occurrence of the Church specified this year In the Empire Macro all base 823. A wicked woman 824. Preparations of War against Aretas 825 c. An Omen to Agrippa in Chains ib. Tiberius near his end ib. His choice of a successor ib. Tiberius his Death ib. Caius his successor ib. Tiberius in a manner cruel being dead ib. Agrippa in perplexity and enlarged 825 c. His dissimulation ib. He beginneth to shew himself in his own colours ib. His cruelty ib. Young Tiberius brought to a miserable end ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXXIX Caius II. No Occurrence of the Church mentioned this year In the Empire Cruelties at Rome 831. An end of Macro 832. Among the Jews Great troubles of the Jews in Alexandria 832 c. Agrippa at Alexandria abused ib. A Pageant of one and more madmen ib. Sad outrages upon the Jews ib. Caius will be a God ib. More of their Miseries ib. Agrippa in his own kingdom ib. Yet more Occurrences in the Empire Caius the new God little better than a Devil 836 c. Many and many cruelties of his ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XL. Caius III. In the Church Peter visiting divers parts 839 840. Act. 9. ver 32. Yet not at Antioch in this visitation ib. Dorcas raised 841. Act. 10. Cornelius converted 842. The keys of the kingdom of Heaven now only used 845. The Holy Ghost given to the Gentiles 847. In the Empire Caius still cruel 848 c. A most inhumane cruelty ib. Caius his luxury and prodigality ib. His strange bridge of Ships ib. His covetousness ib. Among the Jews Herod and Herodias before the Emperour 852. The Alexandrian Jews still perplexed ib. Flaccus his downfall ib. The Jews still distressed for all that ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLI Caius Caligula IV. In the Chuhch Antioch receiveth the Gospel 855. Barnabas cometh thither ib. Act. 11. ver 19. to ver 26. Among the Jews Troubles at Jamnia 856 c. Caius his image to be set up in the Temple causing troubles ib. Petronius his Letter hereupon to the Emperour ib. Agrippa his mediation for the Jews ib. Flaccus Avilius his end ib. The Ambassadors of the Alexandrian Jews before the Emperour Apion ib. Philo the Jew and his Writings ib. In the Empire Caius still foolish and cruel 862. Caius profane ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XXII Caius V. Claudius I. In the Empire Caius his death contrived 865 c. The manner of his death ib. The sequel ib. Dissention about the government ib. Claudius ib. Caesonia and her child slain ib. Claudius made Emperour ib. His demeanour at the beginning ib. In the Church The name of Christian first used 871. Act. 11. ver 26. Among the Jews The Theraputae 872. The affairs of the Jews in Alexandria and Babylonia ib. The rebellion of some Jews ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLIII Claudius II. In the Church A famine in Judea and all the world 877. Paul rapt into the third heaven ib. Act. 11. ver 28. Peter not this year at Rome 888. Among the Jews Herod Agrippa his coming to Jerusalem 879 c. Imperial acts in behalf of the Jews ib. Peter not imprisoned this second year of Claudius ib. In the Empire The Moors subdued 881. Claudius beginneth to be cruel and his Empress Messalina wicked ib. Occurrences in the year of Christ XLIV Claudius III. In the Church The martyrdomn of James the great 883. Concerning the Apostles Creed 884. Concerning Traditions 885. Peters imprisonment and delivery ib. In the Empire Some actions of Claudius 887. Messalina abominably wicked ib. An expedition into England ib. A whorish trick of Messalina ib. Among the Jews The fatal end of Herod Agrippa 889. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES CHAP. I. Vers. 1. The former Treatise have I made c. THE Syrian and Arabick render it The former * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 1. 1. book have I written and so is the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Heathen Authors not only for an oration by word of mouth but also for a Treatise or Discourse that
terrible sports and when he came off victorious he caused him and his father to be slain and divers others with them inclosing them in a strong Chest or Press When once there were not enough of poor condemned wretches to cast to the wild beasts he caused divers that stood upon the Scaffolds for spectators to be cast unto them causing their tongues first to be cut out that they might not cry or complain yet did he with these cruelties mingle some plausible actions tending to popularity as creating of Knights priviledging the commons and lavishing in gifts that strengthing himself with these curtesies in the hearts of some men he might with the more confidence be cruel to other § 2 An end of Macro It cannot be expected that he should come to a good end himself that had brought so many to a bad His course is now come to tast of the same sauce that he had provided for so many others and it would half move the spectator to some kind of pity to see him slaughtered for such a cause as he was slaughtered for How he had been a means to curry Caius favour with Tiberius and to skrew him into the Empire and himself into his good opinion even by the prostitution of his own wife we have heard before and this his extraordinary officiousness he did not forelet or slacken when he had brought him where he desired to have him to the Empire But now he turned his observance a better way and what he had done before by baseness flattery and senseless obsequiousness to bring him to the rule he changeth into good counsel to keep him well in it For when he saw him fall asleep at Banquets amongst his cups he would freely check him for it as being neither for his credit nor for his safety The like would he do when he saw him misbehave himself by lightness profuse laughter and ridiculous gestures in the Theater and in beholding of plaies In brief so round and plain was he with him when he saw just cause that in fine the uncounselable humorist became his enemy and at last his death His end is reported to have been the same with young Tiberius forced to slay himself and Ennia his wife or the wife of Caius whether you will to have been constrained to the same extremity and end with him An end well befitting and well deserved of them both but from all men living least deserved from Caius Philo after the death of Macro placeth the death of M. Silanus which upon the warrant of Dion we have set before and in things so indifferent will not spend labour to examine PART II. The JEWISH Story § 1. Troubles of the Jews in Alexandria FLACCUS Avilius was now Governour of Aegyt and had been so for some years before A man that ruled well while Tiberius lived but after his death could not govern himself For when he heard of the death of the old Emperour and the succession of the new sorrow for the one and fear of the other did so transport him besides himself that forgetting the bravery and glory wherewith he had governed hitherto he let loose the reins of himself to these two passions and the reins of the government to desperate carelesness and neglect He did nothing but weep for the loss of old Tiberius to whom he had been very intimate and dear and he might well weep the more because he could meet hardly with any that would bear any part and share in that sorrow with him This his grief was augmented by the fear that he had of Caius and of his displeasure and that by the intelligence that his conscience gave him that he had deserved it partly for his propensity to young Tiberius and siding with him but chiefly because he had had some hand or at least some consent and inclination to the death of Agrippina Caius his Mother Both these his miserable passions were brought to their height when he heard of the death of young Tiberius and of his old friend Macro The thought of these two was the only comfort he had against his dejectedness and discontent for all his hope was that these two might make his peace with Caius whose displeasure he so much doubted But what must he do now when they cannot make their own peace He yeeldeth himself therefore wholly to his discontented mood and neglecteth utterly both himself and the State His old friends he groweth jealous of and rejecteth his professed enemies he receiveth to his favour and to his counsels These rule him that should have ruled Egypt and he had done it worthily but now is drawn any whither that ill advise fullenness and melancholy doth direct him These his wicked Counsellors invent a course to procure his peace and the Emperours favour a course indeed bloody barbarous and inhumane but such as suited with their own malice and as it proved took place with the Governors desperateness and cowardize if so be he may be called a Governor still Caius the Emperour say they is an enemy to the Jews and a friend to the Alexandrians Let this be the opportunity whereby to work thy reconciliation to suffer the City to rise against the Jews and to commit outrage upon them and thou canst not perform an act more acceptable to the Prince nor more profitable for thy self The wretched Flaccus that took to heart no mans misery but his own and cared not who suffered so he might escape gave ear to this damnable and devilish counsel and put it in practice first plotting mischief against the Jews in secret then oppressing them in judgment and in their suites openly and at the last professing and publishing himself their resolved enemy § 2. Agrippa at Alexandria an unexpected and unwilling occasion of further troubles Those incendiaries that had kindled this fire will be sure to lose no blast that may make it flame and keep it burning Agrippa that had not long ago departed from Alexandria a poor private man returneth now thither in prosperity and a King Caius that had promoted him to his kingdom did lovingly direct him by Alexandria as the safest way to it Thither he came with as great privacy as such a personage could do and yet was he espied by the jealous eyes of these rare counsellours and his coming misconstrued through their malice to the Jews They perswade Flaccus that his coming thither was an affront to him in his own Province that his Pomp and Train was more sumptuous than his that the eyes of all men were upon the new King Agrippa and in short that his presence there was his present disgrace and would prove his future disadvantage The ill governed Governour was ready enough to hearken to such buzzings as these and to yeeld them impression in his mind yet durst he not put any thing in execution against the King for fear of him that sent him He therefore thought it best to carry a fair outside to Agrippa and to his
speech now made among them in the Senate and reviving an act of treason for speaking against the Prince he suddainly departed out of the Senate and the City In what case the Senate and the people were that were guilty of either words or actions that he had charged them with all it is readily guessed but how they shall come off and what they shall do to escape is not easily to be resolved Their presentest help is to fawn and speak fair and that course they take praising him infinitely at their next meeting for his justice and piousness and giving him as infinite thanks that he suffered them to live and decreeing that sacrifices should be offered annually to his clemency on that very day that those charges were published against so many seeking to appease his senseless and foolish anger by as senseless and foolish a pacification But how little they could sacrifice or pray or praise him into any better mind than he hath been in hitherto you shall see by the sequel § 2. An inhuman Cruelty Among the many cruelties of this monster the murder of Esius Proculus may bear some bell because he slew him for nothing but only for this for that he was such an one as God had made him This man was the goodliest man of person and shape in all the City insomuch that he was commonly called Colosseros for his extraordinary properness and stature One day as he sate a spectator upon the scaffolds of the bloody sports below Caius commanded him suddainly to be put down among the combatants and there to fight for his life When he had had a tryal with two several men and came off victorious the inhuman Tyrant caused him speedily to be bound and arraied in tatters and rags to be led about the City shewed to the women and then slain So much of beast had this monster in him that he could not indure the goodliness of a man § 3. Caius his Luxury Lavishness and prodigality Thus bestial was he towards men and no less was he in another kind towards women This appeared in the deflouring of his own sisters and adulterating the most of the noble Ladies of the City He was his own Pimp and purveyer for his lust with this open and hideous way of brothelry He would invite the great men and their Ladies to supper and as the women passed by him in way of salutation he would earnestly and leasurely view them mercantium more saith my Author as they do that are to buy any thing and if any matron for modesty held down her head he would lift it up that he might have his full survey she that pleased him he took into a retiring room and adulterated and presently would he bring her forth again and tell openly whether she had given him content or no. Nor was he content with this choice and variety of women neither but that he might be beastly in every kind he abstained not from the abomination of Sodomie with men But let us stay no longer upon him in this his filthiness but trace him a little in his more tolerable vices of fantastickness and prodigality He seemed to affect a singularity in these three things singing working and spending according to the uncontroledness of his will the vastness of his command and the hugeness of his revenue He invented new manner of bathings and prodigious kinds of meats and feasts he would disolve most rich and precious Jewels in Vinegar and then drink them off And because he doubted as it seemeth that he could not wast his treasure fast enough with such tricks as these he would stand upon a Tower divers days together and fling great sums of mony among the people To all which ways of lavishing and expensiveness he joyned monstrous works and machinations which shewed at once his folly in their undertaking and the vastness of his power in their performance As levelling mountains to even the plain and in other places filling up the plain to equal mountains sometimes causing rocks of flint to be cut through to make a passage and sometimes foundations of houses or walls to be laid in the bottom of the Sea bringing soil and rubbish to fill up the place and to make it firm ground ambitious to bring to pass seeming impossibilities and cruelly hasty in the accomplishing of what he undertook punishing the slacking of the work with certain death § 4. His strange Bridge and Ships In the list of these his vanities and ungodly ways of spending let his bridge between Puteoli and Bauli come in the first place or else you do it some injury These two places were about three miles and a half distant an arm of the Sea of that breath severing them and lying between The ambition of the vain Emperour was to ride on horseback and in his chariot between these two places What his fancy or Phrenzy rather was that stirred up such a humor in him is diversly related and it is no great matter to inquire after it Some say it was that he might terrifie Germany and Britain against whom he intended hostility with the very rumor of so great a work others that he might intimate or rather excel Xerxes who made a bridge of Ships over the Hellespont But the rumor of it at Court where his mind was likeliest to be best known was that he did it in confutation of a prediction of Thrasillus who had told Tiberius that Caius should no more rule then ride over the bay of Baiae on hoseback Dion guesseth this to have been his reason that whereas the Senate upon their fear and fawning mentioned before had decreed an Ovation for him or a kind of triumphant riding on horseback he thought it too poor a thing to ride so by land and therefore invented this trick of his own vain head to ride so by Sea For this purpose all the ships that could be got were sent for in and when they were not enough others were made and so they all were set two and two linked together till they made a bridge of that three miles and an half long Then caused he an infinite number of workmen to carry on earth and make a causey like the Apion road over all those ships from the continent to the Island If this were not a Pontifex Romanus with a witness let all men judge When his dear bought way was thus prepared he prepares for it and for his Phantastick journey over it His garb in which he would ride was this He put a breast plate on which he said had been Alexanders and over that a rich purple robe then his sword and buckler and an oaken garland about his head and having sacrificed to Neptune and to the other Gods and even to the Deity Envy lest the bridge should miscarry he sets forth on horseback with a great troop of armed men attending him and takes his strange and idle voyage When he had ridden thus one day on horseback he
and they say he is not able to bear forty then he is quit they allot him to receive eighteen and as he is in whipping they say he is able to bear forty yet he is quit How do they whip him His hands are tied to two pillars or posts and the Officer of the Court lays hold of his garments and rip or rent it is no matter he pulls them down till he have bared his breast Now there was a stone lay behind him upon which the Officer of the Court stood with a whip of whit-leather in his hand platted four plats and two lashes hanging by it the handle was a hand bredth long and the whip a hand bredth broad and the end of it raught to his belly A third part of his stripes he gave him before on his belly two parts behind And he beats him not standing nor sâ—â—ting but bowed down as it is said The Judge shall cause him to lie down and he strikes him with one hand with all his might And in the mean while one standing by reads or says these portions of Scripture But if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law c. Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed c. Deut. 28. 58 59. And therefore ye shall keep the words of this Covenant c. And he concludes with But he being full of compassion forgives iniquity and destroyeth not Psal. 78. 28. This was the manner of their scourging a very sharp penalty thirteen lashes with a three-lash whip which by that triplication arose to forty save one or if the number were allotted less yet it was as many stripes as they conceived the party could bear 2. There was the penalty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rebels beating the beating or the mawling by the people which was a terrible rugged beating by all the people without any sentence of the Judges passed upon him at all and without any measure As in divers cases if a man were deprehended faulty in such or such an offence the people made no more ado but fell upon him pell mell with fists staves or stones and mawled him unmeasurably and very often to death Rabbi Nathan describes it thus b b b Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beating according to the Law is of those that transgress against negative precepts and it is by measure and for admonition and with a three corded whip But he that transgresseth against affirmative speeches they beat him till his life depart and not with a threefold whip And likewise whosoever transgresseth against the words of the wise men they beat him without number and measure and they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rebels beating because he hath rebelled against the words of the Law and against the words of the Scribes The reason of this beating c c c Gloss. in Maym. in Sobbath per. 1. saith another Jew is because he transgressed against a prohibition of theirs in a thing which hath its foundation in the Law and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Son of Rebellion The frequent taking up of stones by the People to have stoned our Saviour and that incursion upon him Mat. 26. 67. and upon Stephen Act. 7. 57 58. for blasphemy as they would have it and upon Paul Act. 21. 31. for defiling the Temple as they supposed were of this nature Thus he that committed a transgression for which he became liable either to Death by the hand of Heaven or to Cutting off he did not escape barely with that liableness but either he was to be whipt or thus mawled or in some cases was to suffer death by the sentence of the Judges d d d Maym. in Blath Mikdash per. 4. Every negative precept saith Maymony upon which they become liable to death by the hand of Heaven they are beaten for it Much more where there is a liableness to cutting off which is the greater guilt And the same Author e e e Id. in San. per 19. reckons eighteen offences that fell under liableness to death by the Hand of Heaven and for which the Offenders were whipt and twenty one that fell under liableness to cutting off and for which the Offenders were also whipt and were not put to death by the Judges Amongst those transgressions that deserved these penalties going into the Sanctuary in uncleanness fell under as many of them as any one offence whatsoever It were too tedious to insist upon all particulars let us take up these few and guess and conjecture of the rest by them A Priest or any other that went into the Court being unclean fell under the guilt of being cut off and if they served there in their uncleanness the Priest at the Altar and any other person in laying on of his hands on the sacrifice or waving any part of it they then became liable to death by the hand of Heaven And such a Priest being deprehended thus faulty f f f Id in Biath Mikd. ubi supr they never brought him before the Sanhedrin g g g Talm. in Schedr per. 9. but the young men of the Priests thrust him out of the Court and dasht out his brains with the billets And the like they did by the other persons A Leper that entred into the Mountain of the House was beaten with eighty stripes He that was defiled by the dead or unclean for a day if he went into the Court of the Women he was to be beaten with the Rebels beating And so was he that came in having eaten or drunk any unclean thing or after a seven days uncleanness would go into the Court of Israel before his atonement was made And he that brought in a Vessel or came in any Clothes which one that was defiled by the dead had toucht was to be whipt And not to multiply particulars whosoever came within the holy Ground being unclean and knowing of it and yet would come in he incurred the guilt of cutting off ipso facto and if he were discovered and the matter proved by witness he was sure either to be whipt or else to be mawled with the Rebels beating the former always most terrible the latter deadly very oft It is indeed a common saying among the Talmudick Writers that for such or such offences though a man be not whipt yet is he beaten with the Rebels beating as if the latter were the gentler castigation they do not mean that the Rebels beating was the less penalty but they intend this that though there be no express in the Law that appoints his whipping yet the decrees of the Wise-men which he hath broken appoint him to be beaten h h h Talm. in Maccoth per. 3. Whosoever had incurred the guilt of being Cut off after he is whipt is acquitted from that guilt as it is said Lest thy brother be vile in thine eyes Behold after he is whipt he
when they lead us far further CHAP. XLVI The time and manner of the Creation MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three Heathen opinions namely theirs that thought the World was Eternal for he saith in the beginning c. Secondly theirs that thought there was no God for he saith Elohim created Thirdly theirs that thought there were many gods for he saith * * * Even those that have not Hebrew can tell there is a mystery of the Trinity in Elohim bara but few mark how sweetly this is answered with the same Phrase in manner in the Haphtara which is read by the Jews to this portion of Moses viâ— Esa. 42. 5. Jehovah bore â—a shamaâ—lm venotehem Jehovah being singular and â—otehem plurall which might be rendred Deus creans coelos Deus extendentes eos Elohim he created Heaven and Earth The fird word in the beginning may draw our minds and thoughts to the last thing the latter end and this thought must draw our affections from too much love of the World for it must have an end as it had a beginning I will not stand to comment upon the word Berishith in the beginning for then I know not when to come to an end To treat how the divers expositors labour about the beginning of the world is a world of labour How the Jerus Targ. translates it In wisdom and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum and many Jews How Targ. Jonath useth an Arabian word Min Awwala a primo Onkelos in primis or in principio Jarchi in principio creationis creavit How Basil the great Saint Ambrose and hundreds others do interpret this is a work endless to examine Satisfied am I with this that the world and all things had their beginning from God that in the beginning created Heaven and Earth Some of the Jews do invert the word Bereshith and make it Betisri that is in the month Tisri was the world created This month is about our September and that the world was created in this month to let other reasons alone this satisfies me that the Feast of Tabernacles which was in this month is called the end of the year Exod. 23. 16. And this I take to be the reason why the Jews began to read the Bible in their Synagogues at the Feast of Tabernacles viz. that they might begin the lecture of the Creation in Gen. 1. at that time of the year that the world was created The manner of the Creation shews the workman powerful and wise The making of the Angels concealed by Moses lest men should like those hereticks in Epiph. think they helped God in the Creation For if their day of their Creation * * * Bab. Solom holds they were made the second day which was in most likelihood the first had been named wicked men would have been ready to have taken them for actors in this work which were only spectators Therefore as God hides Many Divines hold for the fourth Moses after his death so Moses hides the Creation of them lest they should be deisied and the honour due to the Creator given to the creature God in framing the world begins above and works downward and in three days he lays the parts of the world and in the three other days he adorns those parts The first day he makes all the Heavens the matter of the Earth and comes down so low as the Light The second lower and makes the Firmament or Air. The third lowest of all and makes distinction of Earth and Water Thus in three days the parts or body of the World is laid in three days more and in the same order they are furnished For on The fourth day the Heavens which were made the first day are deckt with Stars The fifth day the Firmament which was made the second day is filled with Birds The sixth day the Earth which was laid fit the third day is replenished with Beasts and lastly * * * The Seventy Interpreters on Gen. 2. 2. instead of God had finished on the seventh day read he finished on the sixth day Man Thus God in the six days finished all his work of Creation ‖ ‖ ‖ Chaldee Paraph on Numb 22. and Iarch on Deut. 34. and Pirke Abhoth For the ten things that the Chaldee Paraphrast saith God created on the evening of the Sabbath after the World was finished I refer them to their Authors to believe them R. Jarchi on Gen. 2. observes that God created one day superior things and another day inferior his words are to this purpose On the first day he created Heaven above and Earth beneath On the second day the Firmament above On the third let the dry Land appear beneath On the fourth day Lights above On the fifth day let the Waters bring forth beneath On the sixth he must create both Superiour and Inferiour as he had done on the first lest there should be confusion in his Work therefore he made Man of both his Soul from above and his Body from beneath R. Tanchumah shews how the making of the Tabernacle harmonizeth with the making of the World The Light of the first day answered by the Candlestick for Light the first work and the spreading of the Firmament like a curtain answered by the Curtains the second work and so of the rest Every one knows the old conceit of the worlds lasting six thousand years because it was made in six days and of Elias Prophesie among the Jews of the world ending at the end of six thousand which Prophesie of his is flat against the words of Christ Many believe these opinions yet few prepare for the end which they think is so near God hath taught us by the course of the Creation of the old world what our proceedings must be that we may become a new Creation or new Heavens and a new Earth renewed both in Soul and Body 1. On the first day he made the Light so the first thing in the new Man must be Light of Knowledge so saith Saint Paul Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must know that he is 2. On the second day he made the Firmament so called because of its * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Hesâ—od 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surness so the second step in Mans new Creation must be Firmamentum Fidei the sure foundation of Faith 3. On the third day the Seas and Trees bearing fruit So the third step in the new Hom. Odys 3 Man is that he become Waters of repentant Tears and that he bring forth Fruit worthy of these Tears Bring forth Fruit worthy of Repentance saith the Baptist Matth. 3. 4. On the fourth day God created the Sun that whereas on the first day there was light but without heat now on the fourth day there is light and heat joyned together So the fourth step in the new Creation of a new Man is that he joyn the heat of Zeal with the light
is and I will do it a a a a a a Hieros I have done my duty that the Command may be performed according to it The Aruch thus As though he should say There is no man can shew me wherein I have transgressed 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Pharisee of fear such as Iob. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Pharisee of love as Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b b b b Hieros Among all these none is worthy to be loved but the Pharisee of love Whether Pharisaism ran out into any of these Sects in the days of the Baptist we dispute not Let it be granted that the best and the most modest of that order came to his baptism the best of the Pharisees certainly were the worst of men And it is so much the more to be wondred at that these men should receive his baptism after that manner as they did when it was highly contrary to the rule of the Pharisees to converse among the common people of whom there was so great a concourse to John and highly contrary to the Doctrine of the Pharisees so much as to dream of any righteousness besides that which was of the works of the Law which the Doctrine of John diametrically contradicted The original of the Sadducees learned men as well Jews as Christians do for the most part refer to one Zadoc a Scholar of Antigonus Socheus which Antigonus took the chief seat in the Sanhedrin after the death of Simeon the Just. Of him thus speaks the Tract Avoth c c c c c c Chap. 1. Antigonus of Socho received Traditions of Simeon the Just. He said Be not as servants who wait upon their Master for the sake of the reward but be ye like servants who wait upon their Master not for the sake of the reward but let the fear of the Lord rule you The Wise man saith Rambam upon the place had two Scholars Zadoc and Baithus who when they heard this from their Master said among themselves when they were gone away our Master in his Exposition teacheth us that there is neither reward nor punishment nor any expectation at all for the future For they understood not what he meant Therefore they mutually strengthned one another and departed from the rule and forsook the Law and some company adhered to both The Wise men therefore called them Sadducees and Baithusees And a little after But in these Countries namely in Egypt they call them Karaites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Sadducees and Baithusees are their Names among the Wise men d d d d d d Chap. 5. See also the Avoth of R. Nathan e e e e e e Bab. Berac fol. 5◠Yet that raiseth a scruple here At the conclusion of all prayers in the Temple they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever But when the Hereticks brake in and said There was no age but one it was appointed to be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For ever and ever or from age to age Upon these words thus the Gloss In the first Temple they said only Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever But when the Hereticks brake in and said There was no age but this Ezra and his consistory appointed that it should be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For ever and ever or from age to age to imply there is a double world this and one to come to root out of the heart the opinion of those that deny the Resurrection of the dead Take notice Reader that there were some who denied the Resurrection of the dead in the days of Ezra when as yet Zadoc the father of the Sadducees was not born After Ezra and his great Synagogue which indured many a year after Ezra was dead sat Simeon the Just performing the office of the High Priest for the space of forty years and Antigonus Socheus the Master of Zadoc succeeded him in the chair of the Sanhedrin So that although the Sadducees with good reason do bear an ill report for denying the Resurrection and that was their principal Heresie yet that Heresie was when as yet there were no Hereticks called by the name of Sadducees To which perhaps those words do agree which sufficiently taste of such a Heresie Ye have said it is in vain to serve God c. Mal. III. 14. It is not therefore to be denied that the Sadducee Hereticks were so named from Zadoc but that the Heresie of the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection was older than that name one may suppose not without reason nor that that cursed Doctrine first arose from the words of Antigonus illy understood by Zadoc and Baithus but was of an antienter original when as yet the Prophets Zacharias Malachi and Ezra himself were alive if that Ezra were not the same with Malachi as the Jews suppose Therefore I do rather think that Heresie sprang from the misunderstanding of the words of Ezekiel Chap. XXXVII which some understanding according to the letter and together with it seeing no Resurrection dreamt that there would be none afterwards And this Doctrine encreased and exalted it self into a Sect when at length Zadoc and Baithus asserted that it was so determined out of the Chair by their Master Antigonus the President of the Sanhedrin When I fetch the rise of the Sadducees not much after the death of Simeon the Just that does not unseasonably come into my mind which is mentioned by the Talmudists that the state of things became worse after his death f f f f f f Hieros Ioma fol. 43. 3. All the days of Simeon the Just the scape Goat had scarce come to the middle of the precipice of the Mountain whence he was cast down but he was broken into pieces but when Simeon the Just was dead he fled away alive into the desert and was eaten by Saracens While Simeon the Just lived the lot of God in the day of Expiation went forth always to the right hand Simeon the Just being dead it went forth sometimes to the right hand and sometimes to the left All the days of Simeon the Just the little scarlet Tongue looked always white but when Simeon the Just was dead it sometimes looked white and sometimes red All the days of Simeon the Just the West light always burnt but when he was dead it sometimes burnt and sometimes went out All the days of Simeon the Just the fire upon the Altar burnt clear and bright and after two pieces of wood laid on in the morning they laid on nothing else the whole day but when he was dead the force of the fire languished in that manner that they were compelled to supply it all the day All the days of Simeon the Just a blessing was sent upon the two loaves and the Shewbread so that a portion came to every Priest to the quantity of an Olive at least and there were some who eat till they were satisfied and there were
truth as to the thing it self for from the Resurrection of Christ the glorious Epoch of the Kingdom of God took its beginning as we said before which he himself also signifieth in those words Mat. XXVI 29. and when he arose not a few others arose with him What they thought of the Resurrection that was to be in the days of Messias besides those things which we have already mentioned you may see and smile at in this one example y y y y y y Jerus Cheâ—ubboth fol. 35 â— R. Jeremiah commanded when you bury me put shoes on my feet and give me a staff in my hand and lay me on one side that when the Messias comes I may be ready VERS LIV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly this was the Son of God THAT is This was indeed the Messias Howsoever the Jews deny the Son of God in that sense in which we own it that is as the second person in the holy Trinity yet they acknowledged the Messiah for the Son of God not indeed by nature but by adoption and deputation see Mat. XXVI 63. from those places I Chron. XVII 13. Psal. II. 12. LXXXIX 26 27. and such like The Centurion had learnt this from the people by conversing among them and seeing the Miracles which accompanied the death of Christ acknowledged him to be the Messias of whom he had heard so many and great things spoken by the Jews In Luke we have these words spoken by him z z z z z z Chap. XXIII 47. Certainly this was a righteous man Which I suppose were not the same with these words before us but that both they and these were spoken by him Certainly this was a righteous man Truly this was the Messias the Son of God Such are those words of Nathaniel Joh. I. 49. Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Peter when he declared that Christ was the Son of the living God Mat. XVI 16. spoke this in a more sublime sense than the Jews either owned or knew as we have said at that place VERS LVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary Magdalen THAT Magdalen was the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus Baronius proves at large a a a a a a Annal. ad An. Christ. 32. pag. 147 148 c. whom see It is confirmed enough from this very place for if Mary Magdalene was not the same with Mary the sister of Lazarus then either Mary the sister of Lazarus was not present at the Crucifixion of Christ and at his burial or else she is past over in silence by the Evangelists both which are improbable whence she was called Magdalene doth not so plainly appear whether from Magdala a Town on the Lake of Genesareth or from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a playting or curling of the hair a thing usual with harlots Let us see what is spoken by the Talmudists concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary Magdala who they say was Mother of Ben Satda b b b b b b Bab. Sanhedr fol. 67. 1. They stoned the Son of Satda in Lydda and they hanged him up on the evening of the Passover Now this Son of Satda was Son of Pandira Indeed Rabh Chasda said the husband of his mother was Satda her husband was Pandira her husband was Papus the Son of Juda but yet I say his mother was Satda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely Mary the plaiter of women's hair as they say in Pombeditha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she departed from her husband These words are also repeated in Schabbath c c c c c c Fol. 104. 2. c Chagigah fol. 4. 2. Rabh Bibai at a time when the Angel of death was with him said to his Officer Go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring me Mary the plaiter of womens hairs He went and brought to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary the plaiter of young mens hair c. The Gloss The Angel of death reckoned up to him what he had done before for this story of Mary the Plaiter of women's hair was under the second Temple for she was the mother of N. as it is said in Schabbath See the Gloss there at the place before quoted d d d d d d Gittin fol. 90. 1. There are some who find a fly in their cup and take it out and will not drink such was Papus ben Judas who lockt the door upon his wife and went out Where the Glossers say thus Papus ben Juda was the husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mary the Plaiter of womens hair and when he went out of his house into the street he lockt his door upon his wife that she might not speak with any body which indeed he ought not to have done and hence sprang a difference between them and she broke out into adulteries See Alphesius on Gittim e e e e e e Fol. 605. I pronounce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ben Satda not that I am ignorant that it is called Ben Stada by very learned men The reason of our thus pronouncing it we fetch from hence that we find he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ben Sutdah by the Jerusalem Talmudists f f f f f f Sanhedr fol. 25. 4. to which the word Satda more agrees than Stada By the like agreement of sounds they call the same Town both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magdala and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mugdala as we have observed elswhere As they contumeliously reflect upon the Lord Jesus under the name of Ben Satda so there is a shrewd suspition that under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mary Magdala they also cast reproach upon Mary Magdalen The title which they gave their Mary is so like this of ours that you may with good reason doubt whether she was called Magdalene from the Town Magdala or from that word of the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Plaiter of hair We leave it to the learned to decide VERS LVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josi A very usual name in the Talmudists g g g g g g Jerus â—â—vamâ—tâ— fol. 2. 2. five were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be R. Josi Ismael Lazar Menahem Chelpatha Abdimus Also h h h h h h Ibid. fol. 4. 3. R. Jose ben R. Chaninah c. g g g g g g See Jathasiâ— fol. 61. 62. One may well enquire why this Mary is called the mother of James and Joses and not also of Judas and Simon as Mark VI. 3. VERS LVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Begged the body of Iesus IT was not lawful to suffer a man to hang all night upon a tree Deut. XXI 23. Nay nor to lye all night unburied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever suffers a dead body to lye all night unburied violates a negative precept but they that were put to death
h h h h h h De Bell. Sacr. lib. 10. cap. 31. VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He will reprove the world of sin c. THE Holy Spirit had absented himself from that Nation now for the space of four hundred years or thereabout and therefore when he should be given and pour'd out in a way and in measures so very wonderful he could not but evince it to the world that Jesus was the true Messiah the Son of God who had so miraculously pour'd out the Holy Spirit amongst them and consequently could not but reprove and redargue the world of sin because they believed not in him VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of righteousness c. THAT this righteousness here mention'd is to be understood of the righteousness of Christ hardly any but will readily enough grant but the question is what sort of righteousness of his is here meant whether his personal and inherent or his communicated and justifying righteousness we may say that both may be meant here I. Because he went to the Father it abundantly argu'd him a just and righteous person held under no guilt at all however condemn'd by men as a malefactor II. Because he pour'd out the Spirit it argu'd the merit of his righteousness for otherwise he could not in that manner have given the Holy Spirit And indeed that what is chiefly meant here is that righteousness of his by which we are justify'd this may perswade us that so many and so great things are spoken concerning it in the Holy Scriptures Isai. LVI 1. My Salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed Dan. IX 29. To bring in everlasting righteousness Jer. XXIII 6. This is his name by which he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS And in the Epistles of the Apostles especially those of St. Paul this righteousness is frequently and highly celebrated seeming indeed the main and principal subject of the Doctrines of the Gospel In the stead of many others let this serve for all Rom. I. 17. For therein viz. in the Gospel is the righteousness of God reveal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from faith to faith which words may be a good Comment upon the foregoing Clause I. The Law teacheth faith that is that we believe in God But the Gospel directs us to proceed from faith to faith viz. from faith in God to faith in Christ for true and saving faith is not a meer naked recumbency immediately upon God which faith the Jews were wont to profess but faith in God by the mediation of faith in Christ. II. In the Law the righteousness of God was reveal'd condemning but in the Gospel it was reveal'd justifying the sinner And this is the great mystery of the Gospel that sinnes are justify'd not only through the grace and meer compassion and mercy of God but through Divine justice and righteousness too that is through the righteousness of Christ who is Jehovah the Lord our righteousness And the Spirit of Truth when he came he did reprove and instruct the world concerning these two great articles of faith wherein the Jews had so mischievously deceiv'd themselves that is concerning true saving faith faith in Christ and also concerning the manner or formal cause of Justification viz. the righteousness of Christ. But then how can we form the Argument I go unto the Father therefore the world shall be convinc'd of my justifying righteousness I. Let us consider that the expression I go unto the Father hath something more in it than I go to Heaven So that by this kind of phrase our Saviour seems to hint That work being now finisht for the doing of which my Father sent me into the world I am now returning to him again Now the work which Christ had to do for the Father was various The manifestation of the Father Preaching the Gospel vanquishing the enemies of God sin death and the Devil but the main and chief of all and upon which all the rest did depend was that he might perform a perfect obedience or obediential righteousness to God God had created man that he might obey his Maker which when he did not do but being led away by the Devil grew disobedient where was the Creator's glory The Devil triumphs that the whole humane race in Adam had kickt against God prov'd a rebel and warr'd under the banners of Satan It was necessary therefore that Christ clothing himself in the humane nature should come into the world and vindicate the glory of God by performing an intire obedience due from mankind and worthy of his Maker He did what weigh'd down for all the disobedience of all mankind I may say of the Devils too for his obedience was infinite He fulfilled a righteousness by which sinners might be justify'd which answer'd that justice that would have condemned them for the righteousness was infinite This was the great business he had to do in this world to pay such an obedience and to fulfill such a righteousness and this righteousness is the principal and noble theme and subject of the Evangelical Doctrine Rom. I. 17. of this the world must primarily and of necessity be convinc'd and instructed to the glory of him that justifieth and the declaration of the true Doctrine of Justification And this rightequsness of his was abundantly evidenced by his going to the Father because he could not have been receiv'd there if he had not fully accomplisht that work for which he had been sent II. It is added not without reason and ye see me no more i. e. Although you are my nearest and dearest friends yet you shall no more enjoy my presence on earth by which may be evinced that you shall partake of my merits especially when the world shall see you enricht so gloriously with the gifts of my Spirit VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of judgment because the Prince c. IT is well known that the Prince of this world was judged when our Saviour overcame him by the obedience of his death Heb. II. 14. and the first instance of that judgment and victory was when he arose from the dead the next was when he loos'd the Gentiles out of the chains and bondage of Satan by the Gospel and bound him himself Revel XX. 1 2. which place will be a very good Comment upon this passage And both do plainly enough evince that Christ will be capable of judging the whole world viz. all those that believe not on him when he hath already judg'd the Prince of this world This may call to mind the Jewish opinion concerning the judgment that should be exercis'd under the Messiah that he should not judg Israel at all but the Gentiles only nay that the Jews were themselves rather to judg the Gentiles than that they were to be judg'd But he that hath judg'd the Prince of this world the author of all unbelief will also judg every unbeliever too VERS XII
〈◊〉 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
sin unto death viz. that brought to an immediate liableness to cutting off by divine vengeance Now this was a sin of presumption and despising the Word of God as Moses explains what that presumptuous sinning is in a high degree which as the Apostle tells in the same Chapter that it was a treading under foot the Son of God c. Therefore it is no wonder if with Paul there be no Sacrifice for it and with this Apostle no praying for it But why does not this our Apostle speak out and say I say he should not pray for it but says only I do not say that he should Let me lay to this expression that passage of our Saviour Matth. XVIII 17. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican By which our Saviour doth not excommunicate such a one out of the Church for he saith not let him be to the Church but thee as a Heathen But he dischargeth and acquitteth the party injured from those duties and offices which he ought otherwise to him as a brother Our Apostles expression is much like to the same tenor He takes care of the Consciences of the people of God as well as he sheweth the two conditions of the sinner he speaketh of There were some that might be in a strait what to do in this case They were commanded by their Lord and Master to pray for their enemies these enemies of theirs were become so like their Father the Devil that it might pose their Consciences whetheâ— they should pray for them or no. Therefore this divine Apostle useth a happy temper that he will lay no charge on them that are so pinched to pray for them nor indeed forbid those to pray for them that are more inlarged for undoubtedly the indifferent expression of the Apostle as I may call it seems plainly to carry with it such a consideration Ye see here in the Text a deadly wounded wretch like Amasa II Sam. XX. wallowing in his own blood if you call in Moses and Paul to give their Coroners verdict concerning the manner and cause of his death from those Texts of theirs that we have cited they will tell you that he is felo de se that he destroied himself and they will tell you that it was by wilful sinning after the knowledge of the truth wilful sinning against the Word of God That sin is the more desperately deadly by how much it is the more desperately wilful Hos. V. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the Commandment One would think it should be because he did not willingly walk after the Commandment but by Commandment is meant the idolatrous Commandment of Jeroboam the Statutes of Omri and Ephraim was broken in pieces because he walked after them and broke the more because he walked after them willingly If the motions of sin which are by the Law do work in them to bring forth fruit unto death as the Apostle says Rom. VII 5. much more the motions of sin which are clean against the Law I must confess I do not understand the irritating or provoking power of the Law which some collect from this place for to me it is without doubt that the meaning of the Apostle is The motions of sin that were by the Law mistaken not efficiently for such was the Judgment of the Jews concerning the Law viz. That it did restrain only the outward action but regarded not the internal motion and so the Apostle seems to give some hint of his own mistake a while of the Law about the point of lust Now if the fruit of those motions of sin which are by the mistake of the Law be so deadly how must the actings of sin which are against the known Law wilfully committed be much more deadly Among the grains shall I call them or the talent weights that are cast into the scales to make sin weigh exceeding sinful this adds not the least aggravation if it do not indeed the greatest that it was done knowingly and wilfully And therefore in that cousen german sin to this we are speaking of for to me they are clearly distinct the sin against the Holy Ghost the grievousness of it in comparison of sinning against the Son lies not in regard of the persons sinned against as if the Holy Ghost were a nobler person than the Son but in regard of the manner of sinning the Son they knew not in so much humility and so blasphemed him out of ignorance but they saw the apparent evidence of the Holy Ghost in the miracles they saw and yet blasphemed him wilfully This dies the sins of wicked men of so deep a dye above the sins of the Saints of God because those sin with whole propensity of mind these of infirmity and against their wills And I cannot but remember the determination of St. Austin in a point of this nature About chaste Christian matrons and virgins that were ravished by the enemy when he broke into the City he determines well that they were not defiled though they were defiled their minds pure though the body polluted and he concludes Duo fuerunt ast unus adulterium commisit there were two in the action but one of them in the adultery And that here one sinned wilfully the other had no mind to the sin at all This then if there were nothing else doth sufficiently aggravate the grievousness of wilful sinning that it carries the very image and superscription of the sin of the Devil it is as it were flesh and bone of his bone and sin of his sin very Devil of very Devil Does any ask me what was that sin of the Devil It has been conceived by many that it was such a Pride as made him aspire to be equal with God or above him to set his Throne even with God or to unthrone him and to this purpose have those words been applied Esa. XIV 12 13. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning c. For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God c. I will be like the most High Which words indeed mean only the arrogance and haughtiness of the proud King of Babylon Does any one then ask me what was the sin of the Devil I should answer desperate malicing the honour and happiness of man in which God had placed him and desperate despising and scorning of that charge and command that God had laid upon Angels concerning man that they should attend him and keep him in all his ways And both these desperately wilful for he could sin at no lower rate for he could not sin of ignorance being an Angel and an Angel could have no tempter to sin but himself I shall not go about to define or circumscribe exactly the bounds wherin to conclude wilful sinning I shall not confine this evil spirit with any circle
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
finished there shall be the general resurrection And accordingly they construe the words before us to this sence The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished And then lived An opinion as like the opinion of the Jews as one egg is like another They think Christ shall reign among them on earth a thousand years pompous reign So do these They think that at the beginning of his reign the holy Prophets and Patriarchs shall be raised from death and reign with him So these They think that at the end of his thousand years reign there shall be the general resurrection and world of Eternity so do these So that the Millenary doth Judaize and he knows it not he is fallen into the Jews opinion and is not aware of it This book of Revelations is exceeding full of expressions that allude to the Jewish customs and opinions I say again is exceeding full but it were ridiculous to think that such passages are to be construed in the same literal sense that the Jews took them in Only those common and well known things as being familiar to the Nation are used to signifie or illustrate some spiritual sence or matter Expressions are used in this place that are agreeable in sound to the opinion of the Jews but not agreeable in sence but signifying something else They conceit a personal pompous reign of Christ on earth a thousand years in all earthly state and gallantry These words speak of a reign of Christ a thousand years but they mean his reign and ruling by his Word and Spirit and of his subduing and bringing the Nations into subjection and obedience but by the Ministry of the Gospel They speak of those that had been martyred reigning with him but the meaning only is to intimate that the children of his kingdom must suffer persecution and that they shall lose nothing by their persecution but as the Apostle speaks If they suffer with him they shall also reign with him Let us read the verse before I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God And which had not worshiped the beast neither his image neither had received his his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished And did they live then That is not imaginable the time of reviving being then past and over For at the end of the thousand years Satan is let loose again brings in Popery and Mahumetism and the World grows as Heathenish as it had been before Satans binding and imprisoning So that they had lost the opportunity of reviving which was in the thousand years The word Until signifies doubly either concluding or else excluding you may see my meaning by these examples The Master in the Parable gives Talents to his servants and bids them Occupy till I come Here the word until concludes that he would come again This iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye Es. XXII 14. Here the word till excludes them from ever having their iniquity purged The word until in the text is of this latter construction and means that they let slip and embraced not the opportunity of reviving all the thousand years when was the time of reviving and so they lived not again at all And if we well observe the Histories both of the Heathen and of the Church we shall find that all along this time that the Gospel was dispersing through the World there were multitudes of Heathens that would not forsake their Heathenism and multitudes in the Church in a little time fell to superstition and worshiping of Images and so even turned to Heathenism also Therefore God suffers Satan to be let loose again to go about in the world again with his delusions he brings in Popery in the West and Mahumetism in the East and so the whole World is returned to blindness and darkness again because when the light shone they would none of the light They would not embrace the offer of reviving when the time and opportunity of reviving was therefore they lived not again till those thousand years were finished and then the time of living again was over So that in the words before us we observe three things I. That the raising of the Gentiles from the Death of Sin is called the first Resurrection II. That in that time of raising some lost the opportunity and would not be raised III. That they losing the opportunity of rising and living missed always of rising and living I. As to the first thing named That the raising of the Gentiles from the death of sin is called the first Resurrection It gives us occasion to consider how a mans getting out of the state of sin into the state of grace is a Resurrection or a rising from the dead And with all to compare this first and last resurrection together and to see what connexion there is between them I. To Sadduces and Atheists that deny the resurrection at the last day because they can see no reason for it I should propose this question Whether there hath not been a raising of dead souls from the death of sin Abraham once an Idolater was not his soul dead then Yet afterwards he was the great Father of the faithful Was there not then a Resurrection of that dead soul Manasseh the King an Idolater a Conjurer a Sacrificer of his Sons to Molech was not this man dead in trespasses and sins and yet this man afterwards was a Penitent a Convert a Promoter of piety and the true worship of God Was not here a Resurrection of a dead Soul Is God less able to raise a dead body out of the grave than to raise a dead soul out of its sins Nay is not this as great a work of God as that will be Christ that can make such vile souls that they may be like unto his most glorious soul cannot he make these vile bodies that may be like his most glorious body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself II. But let us look upon this first resurrection a little and blessed and holy is he that hath part in it over such an one shall the second death have no power In some things it is not parallel or like to the second resurrection in more it is First The Second Resurrection shall be of all bodies this First is not of all souls And if we come to seek for the reason of the difference where shall we find it Cannot the same power that shall raise all bodies also raise all souls The reason of the difference lies not in the difference of that power Were it not as much for the glory of God to raise all souls as to raise all bodies The reason of the difference lyes not there neither For God chooseth freely the
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
in his two great works viz. His offering himself a sacrifice by his death and his offering the continual incense of his mediation And how methodically did the representation proceed suitable to the reality For first the Priest offered the Sacrifice upon the Altar and then went in within the Tabernacle and offered incense So Christ first offered himself at his death and then went into the highest Heaven to make Intercession The Papists in their Mass take upon them to offer Christ as a Propitiatory sacrifice for quick and dead So they are the Altar and Christ is the offering But we learn better to make Christ the Altar and we our selves and our services the offering offered upon it For the clearing of the thing before us and to reduce these words of the Apostle to a Doctrine of Faith whither he intends them let us premise these four things I. That every Christian hath three spiritual Sacrifices to offer to God Himself his Devotions and Religious services and his good works and Religious walking 1. Himself Rom. XII 1 2. I beseech you Brethren that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God 2. His prayers Devotions and Religious services Mal. I. 11. In every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering And 3. His holy walking 16 ver of this Chapter To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased Christ is to be offered to God no more as Papists take on them to offer him every Mass but man is to offer himself to God the only sacrifice that God now requireth Now II. On what Altar is this spiritual Sacrifice to be offered and presented to God On some spiritual Altar as it is a spiritual offering Those Sacrifices that were earthly and material required an earthly and material Altar but those that were spiritual must be offered on some spiritual Altar else the manner of offering them contradicts their nature Now what the Apostle speaks concerning the Rock in the Wilderness The Rock was Christ so we may say concerning the Altar under the Gospel The Altar is Christ. In the Law the offering was to be put into the hands of a Priest or it could not be accepted so our services are to be put into the hands of Christ to be presented to God else no acceptance And the sacrifice was to be laid upon the Altar or it could not be accepted so must ours be laid on the altar Christ or no acceptance For III. The Altar must sanctifie the Sacrifice to make it acceptable and so our Saviour tells Mat. XXIII 19. It was not enough that the Sacrifice was a clean Beast and not unclean nor that it was without fault or blemish to make it an acceptable Sacrifice But it must be laid upon the Altar for that to sanctifie it and to make it a right Sacrifice IV. And here I cannot but take up the Jewish Doctors most true and pertinent explication of that point about the Altars sanctifying the gift viz. The Altar sanctified that that was fit for it The Altar could not sanctifie an unclean Beast a Dog or an Ass or a Cat to make it a Sacrifice but only a Beast that was clean And if the Beast were a clean Beast in his nature yet if he had faults or blemishes the Altar did not sanctifie him for a sit Sacrifice but it sanctified only that that was fit for it By all which laid together we may learn and observe the great Doctrine of Faith about our acceptance with God only by Christ. Which to view particularly let us begin from this First None can come to God to find acceptance with him but he must first give himself into the hand of Christ to bring him to God for acceptance The Apostle tells us that all acceptance is in the Beloved and to be expected no other way Ephes. I. 6. This is the great mystery of the Gospel For the want of which duly owned Turks and Jews are at loss and are lost from God for ever They both pretend for Religion pretend for Heaven but they both miss the door by which alone they are to enter and so are excluded eternally missing of Christ by whom only we come there Our Saviour indeed speaks of entring and getting into the sheepfold some other way than at the door but he saith they are thieves and robbers His meaning is of false teachers that can find a way to creep into the sheepfold the Church to seduce and destroy the sheep some other way than at the right door But whosoever will get either into Heaven or indeed into the true and sincere Religion that leadeth thither must enter by Christ the Door or he will never come there Joh. XIV 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life none can come to the Father but by me Consider of that I am so the Way that none can come to the Father but by me Then sure the Papists are out of the way as well as Turks and Jews when they think to come to God by the mediation of Saints and Angels None can come to God but by me saith our Saviour but I can come to God saith a Papist by the Virgin Mary by Peter Paul and the mediation of other Saints in Heaven Certainly they must have some nice distinction here or they contradict Christ to his face and take his honour and give it to another Heb. VII 25. Christ having an unfailing Priesthood is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him If you come to God you must come by him and that only is the way to be saved But if you expect to come to God by any other means whatsoever you are out of the way and will be lost 1 Pet. III. 18. Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God If there were any other way to come to God than by Christ the death of Christ was but to little purpose and our believing in him to as little And we may justly say with the Apostle 1 Cor. XV. 14. Our preaching is in vain and your faith is also vain It is said of Christ that he is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Psal. CX Though he died and offered himself the great Sacrifice for sinners yet he is a Priest for ever still offering sacrifice to God but no more himself but his peoples sacrifice And that offering is twofold viz. offering the persons of his people to God as an acceptable living sacrifice and offering their services as an acceptable spiritual sacrifice to God Of the former you have testimony from his own words Isa. VIII 18. Behold I and the children which the Lord hath given me Of the later Revel VIII 3. where you read of his offering the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne What the manner of Christs mediation is is
other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
conquer Hell then If he did what was it with What did his Soul there to conquer Hell How he conquered Hell and Death by dying and rising we can tell but how his Soul conquered with bare going thither who can tell you Or did he augment the torments of the Devils and damned That needed not nor indeed could it be done as I shall shew afterwards What then did Christs Soul there in its Triumph unless as He Veni vidi vici I came I saw I overcame it conquered Hell by looking into it Natura nihil facit frustra Nature does nothing in vain much less the God of nature And Christ in his life time never did spoke thought any thing in vain And it is unhansom to think that his Soul after death should go out of the bosom of his Father into Hell to do no body can imagine what For who can tell what it did in Triumphing there II. Was not Christ under his Humiliation till his Resurrection Was he not under it whilst he lay in the grave He himself accounts it so Psal. XVI 10. Thou wilt not suffer my Soul being in the state of separation my Body to see corruption to be trampled on by death to be triumphed over by Satan that yet had it there If you imagine his Soul triumphing or vapouring in Hell for I cannot imagine what it should do there unless to vapour how might Satan vapour again Thou Soul of Jesus dost thou come to triumph here Of what I pray thee Have I not cause to triumph over thee Have I not procured his death Banished thee out of his body and got it into the grave And dost thou come to triumph here Let us first see whether he can get out from among the dead before we talk of his triumph over him that had the power of death So that if we should yield to so needless a point as Christs going to triumph in Hell yet certainly it would be but very unseasonable to have gone thither when he had not yet conquered but his body was still under death and as yet under the conquest of Satan This had been to triumph before Victory as Benhadads vapour was to Ahab when he received that answer Let not him that girdeth on his sword boast himself as he that putteth it off The beginning of Christs Kingdom was his Resurrection for then had he conquered death and him that had the power of death the Devil And so the Scripture generally states it I need cite no proof but two of his own speeches Matth. XXVI 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom that is after my Resurrection when I have conquered the Enemies of God and set up his Kingdom And Matth. XXVIII 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth And this was after his Resurrection But is it not improper to dream of a Triumph before a Conquest That Christ should Triumph as King before he had put on his Kingdom As Esth. V. 3. On the third day she put on the Kingdom For so it is in the Hebrew The days before she had been under fasting mourning humiliation and that was not a time of Royalty and Triumph So on the third day Christ rose and put on his Kingdom the days before he had been under death had abased himself a very unfit and unseasonable time for his Soul to go and triumph III. As concerning Christs triumphing over Devils His Victory over Satan was of another kind of nature than to go amongst them to shew terribly or speak terribly for what else can we imagine his Soul did in that Triumph in Hell It is said Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil Destroy him How We may say of him as he of the Traitor Vivit etiam in Senatum venit He lives yea he comes into the Council-house So Is the Devil destroyed He is alive walketh rageth ruleth He walked about the Earth before Christs death Job I. So hath he done ever since 1 Pet. V. 8. Your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour He was a murtherer from the beginning to Christs death Joh. VIII 44. So hath he been ever since he goes about seeking to devour and he doth devour He wrought in the children of disobedience before and he now worketh Eph. II. 2. And how hath Christ conquered destroyed him You must look for the Conquest and Triumph of Christ over him not so much in destroying his Person as destroying his Works 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil I might here speak of many things I shall only mention two or three particulars wherein the Victory of Christ over the Devil by his death doth consist 1. By his death he hath conquered the very clamors of Satan paying a ransom for all his people Rom. VIII 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Satan is ready to say I lay a charge and claim to them for they have been disobedient But Christ hath paid a satisfaction for all their disobedience Satan thou art cast in thy suit the debt is paid How is the Devil confounded at the loss of such a prize as he expected And how does the Death and Merits of Christ here Triumph Now Goliah David defies thee touch one in the Camp of Israel if you can or dare they are all redeemed and ransomed thou hast nothing to do with them And the ransomed of the Lord shall go to Sion with everlasting joy Rejoyce O Heathens for the false accuser is cast out Here is a glorious Triumph by the righteousness and holiness of Christ delivering all his people 2. By his death he brake the partition wall and brings in the Heathen Oh! how did Satan hold them in slavery Pharaoh let my people go No. I know not the Lord nor will I let them go But thou shalt be brought to it and by the death of a Paschal Lamb they shall go whether thou wilt or no. Two thousand years had they been in his slavery sure thought he this shall be for ever But by the death of poor despised Jesus at Jerusalem the prison doors are open and all these captives are gone free Rejoyce ye prisoners of hope as they are called Zech. IX 11 12. I cannot but think of the case of Paul and Silas Act. XVI in an inner prison their feet in the stocks the doors fast and a strong guard and there comes one shake and all fly open and all the prisoners are loosed Jaylor what sayest thou now Thou mayst even draw thy sword and end thy self all thy prisoners are gone 3. Nay yet further Jaylor thou must to prison thy self Ponder on those words Rev. XX. 1
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
not altogether groundless That since God had made those waters of so high a resemblance as to betoken so high a Kingdom and since that that resemblance held out by God himself had brought those waters into so high an esteem and observation with the people It pleased him against the coming and appearing of that promised King and Kingdom to honour and indue those waters with such soveraign and healing virtue as the story we are upon speaketh of that as they had hitherto represented his Kingdom so their healing virtue given them against his appearing did represent his healing power as Mal. 4. 2. And not only that but also gave occasion to the people to think that the glory of Davids Kingdom was near at hand when such unwonted and wondrous excellency did now appear in those waters that did signifie it So when the time of the promise to Israel in Egypt drew nigh God bestowed a miraculous and supernatural course of nature if we may so call it for the Generation and Birth of their children Act. 7. 17. V. I shall not strive to conclude any under this opinion with me I shall only conclude with two things which are remarkable about the waters of Siloam from which Fountain I do suppose the waters of Bethesda to have their flowing 1. The first is that as this collection of Siloam waters in Bethesda was honoured with this miraculous virtue of healing of all diseases so that in Joh. 9. Christ honoured the other pool that was filled from Siloam with the miraculous cure of eyes born blind 2. Secondly Let it be observed how strangely and one would wonder to what purpose the Holy Ghost doth construe the Hebrew word Siloam into a Greek expression Joh. 9. 7. Go wash in the Pool of Siloam which is by interpretation sent Who sent Let the Reader but examine whether he can find any to whom the construction may so properly be applied as to Christ sent of God whom that Fountain or waters signified §. Having five Porches We observed before that these Porches are to be understood for Cloister walks five in number according to the quinque lateral or five-angle form of the pool and place for so it is more proper to hold concerning the number rather than to look after allusions and allegories about it which give but little satisfaction as to the historical matter whether these Cloisters were built before the healing virtue of the water first appeared for the conveniency of those that had occasion to come to the waters or after the appearing of that miraculous excellency for the accommodation of them that stayed there for healing it is not much worth the labour to inquire and there is but little hope to find it out It is more generally thought that they were built upon the latter occasion and so we leave them The general silence of the Jews about the race and wondrous virtue of this pool is something strange who in the abundant praises and privileges and particulars of Jerusalem which they give yet speak not one syllable that I have ever found towards the story of Bethesda though it might have been a story of so remarkable recognisance which makes me the rather to believe that this healing virtue of it was and was taken for a presage of the near approach of the Messias as we have spoken because they to weaken the truth of his coming have subtilly been silent in such a matter I may not utterly omit to say something about the opinions of others concerning the soveraign efficacy of these waters the two that are the most current and that carry the fairest probability and colour with them are these 1. That in this pool the Sacrifices were washed and God would honour the rite of Sacrifice with such a miraculous work in the place where they were washed and fitted for the Altar which if the thing were true were not impertinent in the application but the truth I question For if they mean that the beasts that were to be sacrificed were washed here whilst they were alive as some and those not a few will have it it is neither to be proved by the Scripture nor dreamed of by any Jews that write upon that subject that any sacrificed beast was to be washed till he was slain But if they mean that the inwards of the slain Sacrifice was washed here as the inwards indeed were the only things except the legs that were to be washed Lev. 1. 9. it is easie to be proved by Scripture that the inwards were washed at the Temple and never brought out thence and the Talmudists shew us a room at the Temple for this very purpose called The washing room which we have spoken of in its place where they had their first scouring and marble Tables in the Court where they had a second 2. Another opinion is that God by this wondrous virtue of Bethesda waters would antedate as it were honour to the waters of Baptism which was now to come in But might not the Pharisees as well misconstrue the matter and say it sealed the honour of their washings which were of use already and so long before as well as of Baptism that was now coming in I am not ignorant of the conception of Tremellius in this matter in his marginal notes to Nehem. 3. but when I consider what kind of man Eliashib was to whom that opinion refers so much I can see but little satisfaction in that conjecture especially considering how dead the appearing of Angels or miracles had been from the times of Eliashib till near the appearing of Christ in humane flesh Vers. 4. For an Angel went down at a certain season c. It is but a kind of labour lost to stand to debate whether this season were fixed to all the three festivals or to Passover time alone or to Pentecost alone or to some other determinate time of the year for these opinions are severally asserted it is most probable the time was uncertain and the waiters there could not guess when the Angel would come but stood in continual expectation and attendance for his coming Whether he appeared in visible shape is also questionable but though he were not to be seen which is the more probable yet did he give so visible and apparent evidence of his being there by troubling the water either causing it to boyl or tumble in waves or some such thing that the parties present did perceive well enough when he was come The Lord would use an Angel in this imployment and the Angel must use the troubling of the water for the healing effect not only because it is Gods ordinary way of providence to use the ministration of Angels in such things nor altogether because the meer troubling of the water did produce such an efficacy but because the people might the more visibly observe the restoring of sensible ministration of Angels and of works miraculous which had been either a very meer stranger or if at
all appearing exceeding rare ever since the death of the last Prophets or thereabout And upon this reason I cannot but hold that this miraculous virtue was but of a later date because miracles and Angels had not been so conspicuous among them till near Christs coming Vers. 5. A certain man which had an infirmity 38. years Our Saviour is pleased to choose out for his cure a man and malady of the longest languishing and of the greatest unlikelihood of recovery If we run back these eight and thirty years to the first beginning of his infirmity we shall find that he was entred into this his disease seven years and an half before Christ was born for Christ was now compleat thirty years old and an half and it may be his disease was as old as was this virtue of Bethesda waters It began upon him immediately after the Temple was finished and completed by Herod as it will appear to him that will calculate and compute the times Now I should assoon date this healing virtue of Bethesda from about those times as any times I can think upon For as the providence of God did bring on and usher in the coming of the Messias when it drew near by several dispensations and degrees so the bringing of the Temple to the highest glory that ever it must have but only that the King of glory came into it and the restoring of Angelical and miraculous administrations were not the least of those dispensations But be it how it will whether the mans disease were as old as the pools virtue or no it was so old as doubtless the oldest in all the pack and as to glorifie the power of Christ most singularly in the healing of it Vers. 6. He saith unto him Wilt thou be made whole Christ doth not question this as doubting of his desire but to stir up his faith and expectation His lying and waiting there so long did resolve the question That he would be made whole but the greater question was Whether he had faith to be healed as Acts 14. 7. and that our Saviour puts to trial by this interrogation Vers. 8. Iesus saith unto him Rise take up thy bed and walk Here is a question also not unjustly moved Why would Christ injoyn him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day It was contrary to the letter of the Law Jer. 17. 21 22. Bear no burden on the Sabbath day c. It was extreamly contrary to their Traditions For bringing a thing out and in from one place to another was a work and one of the special works forbidden to be done on the Sabbath day Mayim in Shab per. 12. And he that carryeth any thing on the Sabbath in his right hand or left or in his bosom or upon his shoulder he is guilty Talm. in Sab. per. 10. And it was dangerous to bring him either to whipping or to suffer death The most general answer that is given is that Christ would have him hereby to shew that he was perfectly and entirely healed when he that could not stir before is able now to carry his bed and so by this action at once he gives a publick testimony of the benefit received and an evident demonstration of the perfectness of the cure But both these might have been done abundantly only by his walking sound and well seeing that he could not walk nor stir of so long before A man that had been so diseased so long a space and had lain at these waters so great a time for him now to walk strongly and well would shew the benefit received and the cure done as well as walking with his bed on his back There was therefore more in this command of Christ than what did barely refer to the publication of the miracle and that may be apprehended to have been partly in respect of the man and partly in respect of the day In respect of the man it was to trie his faith and obedience whether upon the command of Christ he durst and would venture upon so hazardous an action as to carry his bed on the Sabbath day which might prove death or sore beating to him and he relies upon the word of him that commanded and casts off fear and does it And to this sense his own words do construe the command when the Jews question him upon the fact He that made me whole gave me warrant to do it for he bad me and said Take up thy bed and walk He whose power was able for such a cure his word was warrant for such an action And as our Saviour stirs up his faith in his question before Wilt thou be made whole so he tries what it is in this command Take up thy bed and carry it home for so we must construe that Christ ment by walking from the like expression Mark 2. 9. with vers 11. In respect of the day it was to shew Christs power over the Sabbath And as in healing of the palsick man Mark 2. 9. he would not only shew his power over the disease but also over sin and so forgave it So it pleased him in this passage to shew his power over the Sabbath to dispence with it and to dispose of it as he thought good as he shewed his command over the malady that he cured And here is the first apparent sign toward the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath in regard of the day that we meet withall and indeed a greater we hardly meet with till the the alteration of the day came To heal diseases and to pluck off ears of corn for necessary repast on the Sabbath day had their warrant even in the Law it self and in all reason but to enjoin this man to carry his bed on that day and to bear it home whereas the bed might very well have lain there till the Sabbath was over and his home was no one knows how far off certainly it sheweth that he intended to shew his authority over the Sabbath and to try the mans faith and obedience in a singular manner It was easie to foresee how offensive and unpleasing this would be to the Jews for it stuck with them a long time after Joh. 7. 23. and how dangerous it might prove to the man himself and yet he purposely puts him upon it that he might hereby assert his own divine power and God-head as it appeareth by his arguing for it when they cavil at him all along the Chapter Even the same power that could warrant Abraham to sacrifice his own son and Joshua to march about Jericho on the Sabbath day Vers. 14. Afterward Iesus findeth him in the Temple c. The Faith and Obedience of the man upon Christs command though it were of so nice consequence do argue to us that his appearance at the Temple was to render his thanks for the great benefit he had received The poor wretch had hardly been at this Temple for eight and thirty years together the date of Israels wandring