School of Rabbi came thither to intercalate the year but an evil eye came in upon them and they died all at one time Jerus Sanhedr fol. 18. col 3. For they might not intercalate the year but in Judea Maym. in Kiddush Hodesh per. 4. but upon this mischance they removed that business into Galilee Here it seems the Sanhedrin sat also sometimes or at least they had a great Bench of their own for there is mention of stoning ben Satda at Lydda on the eve of the Passover Ibid. fol. 25. 4. To reckon the stories and eminent men belonging to this place were endless at the least it is needless here But the mention and gender of Saron which is also named with Lydda Act. 9. 35. may plead excuse if we alledge one or two Talmudick passages for the clearing of it Jerus in Sheviith fol. 38. 4. From Bethoron to Emmaus was hilly from Emmaus to Lydda plain and from Lydda to the Sea vale Idem in Sotah fol. 18. 4. R. Jochanan and R. Eliezer went from Jabneh to Lydda and met with R. Joshua in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bekin Gittin per. 1. hal 1. He that bringeth a bill of Divorce from a Heathen Country must be able to say In my presence it was written and sealed in my presence Rabban Gamaliel saith Yea he that brings one from Rekam and Chagra R. Eleazer saith Yea he that brings one from Caphar Lodim to Lod. Rabbi Nissim upon the place saith thus Caphar Lodim was out of the Land near to Lod which was within the Land and it was so called because Lyddans were always found there Jerus in Beracoth fol. 3. 1. They brought a chest full of bones from Caphar Tobi and set it openly at the entring in to Lod. Tudrus the Physician came and all the Physicians with him c. Besides observing that Tobi is the name of a man Rabban Gamaliels servant Beracoth per. 2. hal 7. as Tabitha is the name of a woman in the story before us the word Saron being of the masculine gender it plainly tells us that it is not the name of a Town but of the plain or flat where divers Towns stood and among others it may be these mentioned ACTS CHAP. X. all the Chapter LIttle inferiour to these places for Learned men was Caesarea upon the Sea and beyond them for other eminencies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Doctors of Caesarea are of exceeding frequent and exceeding renowned mention in both Talmuds and by name R. Heshai the great R. Achavah R. Zeira R. Ada R. Prigori R. Ulla R. Tachalipha and several others It was antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stratons tower but sumptuously built and beautified by Herod the great in honour of Caesar it was called Caesarea It was mixedly inhabited by Jews and Gentiles and much of an equal number and most commonly well fraught with Roman souldiers because the Governours residence was ordinarily here Of some of these Bands was Cornelius a Captain a man come to an admirable pitch of piety and it is hard to imagine how he came by it For that he was not so much as a Proselyte is apparent in that they at Jerusalem cavil at Peter for going to him as to a Heathen And whether he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sojourning stranger as they called some is not much material since by their own judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sojourning stranger was as a Gentile to all purposes Jerus Jebamoth fol. 8. col 4. Whencesoever he learned faith in Christ his full knowledge of Christ he learned from Peter he having a warrant by vision to send for Peter and he a warrant by vision to go to him Here the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to Peter so long ago Matth. 16. do their work opening the door of faith first to the Gentiles which never was shut since nor ever will be whilest there is a Church to be upon the Earth Jonah at Joppa and Simon bar Jona there both sent to the Gentiles compare together Upon Peters preaching the Holy Ghost falls upon those Gentiles that were present to the amazement of those of the Circumcision that had come with Peter for they had not only not seen the like before but had been trained up while in their Judaism under a maxime of a clean contrary tenour which taught them That the Holy Ghost would dwell neither upon any Heathen nor upon any Jew in a Heathen Country Caesarea was as the Jews reputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the borders that is a place disputable whether to account within the Land or without or indeed both Juchas fol. 74. And so were also other places upon this Western border of the Land the great Sea shore as Acon or Ptolemais Jerus challah fol. 60. col 2. Ascalon Idem Sheviith fol. 36. 3. and divers others but all things computed no fitter place in the Land could have been chosen for the beginning of this great work of bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one bound then this not only because this City was both Jew and Gentile within the Land and without but also because here was the Roman Court the chief of the Gentiles and the mentioning of Cornelius his being of the Italian Band hinteth such an observation The Holy Ghost at this its first bestowing upon the Gentiles is given in the like manner as it was at its first bestowing upon the Jewish Nation Act. 2. namely by immediate infusion at all other times you find mention of it you find mention of Imposition of hands used for it But here it may be observed withal that whereas the fruit of this gift of the Holy Ghost was that they spake with Tongues vers 46. it confirmeth that which we spake at Chap. 2. viz. that the first fruit of this gift of Tongues was that they that had it were inabled to speak and understand the Originals of the Scripture And here it appeareth more plainly then there And more plainly still in those twelve at Ephesus Acts 19. 6. And those that spake with Tongues in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 14. For to what purpose was it for them to speak there with Tongues where they all understood the same Language It was not to gibber and talk in strange Language that men might admire but not understand but it was for edification of others yea and for edifying of himself that so spake 1 Cor. 14. 4. He that speaketh a Tongue edifieth himself How What could he speak in any strange Language to his own edification which he might not as much edifie himself by had he spoken it in his own native Tongue But only that this is meant his ability by the gift of Tongues to understand and speak the Original language of the Scripture was both for his own edification and the edification of others Suppose one in the Church of Corinth could speak Persick Arabick Ethiopick c. and did chatter these Languages among them he could
of the Jews bringeth forth her chief child and the Devil seeketh to destroy him He is pictured 1. A great red Dragon Old Pharaoh who sought to devour new born Israel is much of the like character Isa. 27. 7. Psal 74. 13 c. 2. With seven heads So many had the persecuting Monarchies Dan. 7. the Lion one the Bear one the Leopard four and the fourth beast one 3. And ten horns Parallel to the Syrogrecian persecutors Dan. 7. 7 c. 4. With his tail he drew and cast down the third part of the Stars As the Tyrant Antiochus had done Dan. 8. 10. So that by these allusive descriptions phrases of old stories fetched to express new is shewed the acting of the Devil now by his mischievous and tyrannical instruments with as much bitterness and bloody-mindedness as he had done in those The womans fleeing into the Wilderness alludes to Israels getting away into the Wilderness from the Dragon Pharaoh Exod. 14. c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty days speaks Christs preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and days like the days of Antiochus This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it to the ruine of Jerusalem and their preservation in all that extremity The battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon is of the same aim and time with the former but it speaks thus much further that the Church is not only preserved but the Dragon conquered and cast to the Earth Heaven all along in this Book is the Church the Earth therefore may be properly understood of the World and here more especially of that part of worldly ones the unbelieving Jews and that the rather because the Gentiles here are called the Wilderness as they be also in several other places in Scripture The Devil therefore is cast out of the Church by the power of Michael the Lord Christ that he cannot nestle there and he goes into the rest of the Nation that did not believe much like the tenor of that parable Matth. 12. 43 44 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings alluding to Exod. 19. 4. and gets into the Wilderness the persecuted Church and Gospel gets among the Gentiles The Devil casts venom as a flood after the woman-Woman-Church and the Earth swallows it up the unbelieving Jews do as it were drink up all the poyson of the Devil and together with raging against the Church they grow inraged one against another and against the Romans till they become their own destroyers And indeed though it were a most bitter time with the Church while she was among the combustions that that Nation had within it self yet their raging one against another the more it increased in their particular quarrels the more it avenged her quarrel and turned their edge from off her upon themselves The Devil seeing this betakes himself to fight against the Womans seed the Church of the Gentiles and the Treatise of that begins in the next Chapter REVEL CHAP. XIII WHEN Rome hath slain Christ and destroyed Jerusalem Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it and that deservedly as to one most like to be his chief and most able agent to act his fury She is described here a Beast bearing the shape of all the four bloody Monarchies Dan. 7. in power and cruelty matching nay incomparably exceeding them all There is but little reason to take Rome for the fourth Monarchy in Daniel and the so taking it bringeth much disjointing and confusion into the interpreting of that Book and this and into the stating of affairs and times spoken of in them The Jews like such a gloss well as whereby they do conclude that the Messias is not yet come because the fourth Monarchy the Romane say they is not yet utterly destroyed And truly I see not how they can conclude less upon such a concession For it is plain in Daniel that the four Kingdoms there spoken of must come to nothing before the first appearing of Messias and that the Romane is not is most plain since this Book makes Rome Heathen and Papal but as one The Holy Ghost by Daniel shews the four Monarchies the afflicters of the Church of the Jews till Messias his first coming The Babylonian The Mede-Persian The Grecian and The Syrogrecian and John now takes at him and shews a fifth Monarchy the afflicter of the Church of Jews and Gentiles till his second coming Daniel indeed gives a hint of the Romane but he clearly distinguisheth him from the other four when he calls him the Prince that was to come Dan. 9. 26. beyond and after those four that he had spoken of before Him John describes here as carrying the character of all those four A Beast with ten horns such a one had been the Syrogrecian Dan. 7. 7 like a Leopard as the Grecian was vers 6. his feet as a Bears such the Persian vers 5. his mouth like a Lion such the Babylonian vers 4. This therefore could not be any of those when it was all and by this description of it by characters of them all it shews the vast power and incomparable cruelty and oppression of it equalling them all nay it infinitely went beyond them put all together in extent of Dominions Power Continuance and Cruelty both to the Church and to the World Balaam long before Rome was in being doth set it out for the great afflicter Numb 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim and shall afflict Assur and shall afflict Eber That Chittim means Italy or Rome is granted even by some Romanists themselves it is asserted by the Jews and confirmed by other places of Scripture and even proved by the very sense and truth of that place It afflicts both the afflicted and the afflicter Eber and Assur and that hath been the garb of it since its first being How may this be read in her own stories In her bloody Conquests over all the world in the titles of honour but which speak oppression Britannicus Germanicus Africanus and the like And to take up all in Epitome and that you may conjecture ex ungue Leonem what whole Rome hath done in all her time for slaughter oppression and destroying take but the brief of one of her Commanders Pompey the Great of whom Pliny speaks to this purpose Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26. He recovered Sicily subdued Africk subjected eight hundred and seventy six Towns about the Alpes and coasts of Spain routed and slew 2183000 men Sunk and took eight hundred and forty six Ships took in one thousand five hundred and thirty eight fortified places and triumphed from his Conquest of Asia Pontus Armenia Paphlagonia Cappadocia Cilicia Syria Judea Albania Iberia Creet and Basterna What hath Rome done by all her agents in all her time And she is this year 1654 two thousand four hundred and eight years old She is described here with seven heads and ten
down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the Earth till the World was become Christian and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again The destruction of which is set down vers 9. by fire from Heaven in allusion to Sodom or 2 King 1. 10 12. and it is set close to the end of the World the Devil and the Beast Rome imperial and the false Prophet Rome Papal are cast into fire and brimstone vers 10. where John speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet the Devils agents and what became of them Chap. 19. vers 20. And now the story of the Devil himself for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart and now he brings the confusion of all the three together and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark and whose names were not written in the Book of life REVEL CHAP. XXI THE Jerusalem from above described The phrase is used by Paul Gal. 4. 26. and it is used often by the Jews Zohar fol. 120. col 478. Rabbi Aba saith Luz is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem which is above which the holy blessed God gives for a possession where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all Compare Revel 21. 27 22. 15. Midras Till in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Jochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Jerusalem that is above until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Jerusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that John taketh at here and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65. 17 18. joyneth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth and so stateth the time of building this new Jerusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new People new Ordinances new Oeconomy and the old World of Israel dissolved Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst theâ—â— as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 26. 11 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow death nor pain vers 4. which if taken litterally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed be a figure but here as the other things are it is to be taken mystically or spiritually to mean the taking away the curse of the Law and the sting of death and sin c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife vers 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54. 1 5. Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain Compare Ezek. 40. 2. That great City holy Jerusalem c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiels Jerusalem as also to the squareness the three gates of a side c. The glory of it described from thence and from Isa. 58. 8. 60. 2 3. 54. 11 12 c. The wall of it twelve thousand furlongs square or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter East West North and South three thousand miles about and fifteen hundred miles high Wall of salvation Isa 26. 1. 60. 14. The foundations of the walls garnished with twelve precious stones see Isa. 54. 11. as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate three upon every side as these were three and three in a row The first foundation stone here is the Jaspar the stone of Benjamin for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles The Jerus Talmud in Peah fol. 15. col 3. saith expresly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone for it saith Benjamins Jaspar was once lost out of the Ephod and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it Some said Damah the son of Nethina hath one c. And I saw no Temple therein c. vers 22. here this Jerusalem differs from Ezekiels that had a Temple this none and it is observable there that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of but the City of a compass larger then all the Land which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things they promised them an earthly Temple which was built by Zerobabel but foretold a heavenly Jerusalem which is described here REVEL CHAP. XXII FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides John doth still magnifie the glory happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually Ezek. 7. 1 9. Cant. 4. 15. The Tree of Life lost to Adam and Paradise shut up against him to keep him from it here restored Then a curse here There shall be curse no more vers 3. See Zech. 14. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema non erit amplius c. He concludeth These sayings are faithful and true so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19. 9. and again at his beginning of the story of the new Jerusalem Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Prophesies that had been of these things and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness He is commanded not to seal his Book as Daniel was Dan. 12. 4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door within three and an half or thereabout to come if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year There are two years more of Nero and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho Vitellius and Vespasian and the next year after Jerusalem falls And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament as by the consent of all it was then may we say Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing and from
see the full setling of the Law in their houses And when God had fetched him a people out of Egypt and laid the foundation of a glorious Church with signs and wonders then he thought it fit for their restriction as also ‖ ‖ ‖ Vid. Jarchi on Ruth cap. 1. for their distinction from the Heathen to give the Law from his own mouth the more to procure reverence to him For Heaven and Earth must needs hearken when the Lord speaketh Isa. 1. 2. And thus did †††Numa Minos c. the Heathen fain they received their Laws from a Deity that was never seen and yet their Laws were the better observed for that reason CHAP. LIX Of the place where it was given and manner GOD gave the Law in Arabia so wicked Mahomet gave his Law in Arabia A worse and a better thing no one Country every afforded God gave his Law in Sinai a bushy place as it seems by * * * Seneh signifies a bush Exodus 3. the name agreeable to the giving of so perplexing a matter Carry along with thee gentle Reader as thou readest the Scripture thus much care at my request as to mark that the Law of Moses was given in two places Sinai and the Tabernacle as also to consider that some part of this Law did only concern the Jews and some part did also concern all the World The Ceremonial Law that concerned only the Jews it was given to Moses in private in * * * Levit. 1. the Tabernacle and fell with the Tabernacle when the veil rent in twain The Moral Law concerns the whole World and it was given in sight of the whole World on the top of a mountain and must endure as long as any mountain standeth The Judicial Law which is more indifferent and may stand or fall as seems best for the good of a Common-wealth was given neither so publick as the one nor so private as the other but in a mean between both The Law on Sinai was with fire and trumpets so shall Christ come with fire and trumpet at the latter day to take an account how men have kept this fiery Law as it is called Deut. 33. 2. Fiery because given out of the fire as the Jerusalem and Babilonian Targums hold though I think there is more meant by the words than so for it is Eshdath which may be rendred the fire of a Law CHAP. LX. Of the effects of the Law THE letter of the Law is death but the Spirit giveth life The Jews stand upon the letter and think to gain life by the works of it but them the Apostle frequently Vid. Hillar Hieron in loc confuteth And I take the aim of Christs Parable Matth. 20. about the penny to extend to no less Some came into the Vineyard at the Dawning of the Day or the Age before the Flood and some at the third hour or in the time before the Law and some at the sixth and ninth hour or under the heat and burden of the Jewish Law and some at the last under the Gospel Those under the Law plead for merit we have born the heat and burden of the day that is costly Sacrifices sore Ceremonies c. To whom the Master answers that his penny is his own and if he give it it is not for their merit but his good will St. Paul calls the Law a School-Master and so it is indeed and such a School-Master as that that Livy and Florus speak of in Italy who brought forth his children that were trusted with him to Hannibal who if he had not been more merciful than otherwise they had all perished So they that rely upon the works of the Law are in fine constrained by the Law to come to Christ who more merciful than the Law does deliver them And if you well weigh it you shall find that as the whole Law so every part from one to another brings us to Christ. The Moral Law shews us what we should do and with the same sight we find that we cannot do it This makes us to seek to the Ceremonial for some Sacrifice or Ceremony to answer for our not doing it There we see that burning a dead beast is but poor satisfaction for the sins of men living and that outward purifyings of mens selves can avail but little to the cleansing of a soiled soul this then delivers us to the Judicial Law and by it we see what we deserve and thus in fine we are constrained to seek to Christ * * * It was Jesus or Josuah and not Moses or the Law that brought Israel into the Land of Canaan Jesus for there is no other name whereby we must be saved The Parable that our Saviour propounds in the tenth of Luke I think tends somethink to this purpose A man saith he went from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among theeves and they robbed him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead A certain Priest came that way and when he saw him he turned aside A Levite came that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side But a good Samaritan came as the Text imports and pitied him and salved him and lodged him and paid for him Such a one is man fallen among Satan Sin and Death and by them stopt stript and striped Satan dismounts him off his Innocency that should sustain him Sin strips him of all Righteousness that should array him Death strikes him with guiltiness and wounds him Here is a man in a woful case and none to aid him By comes a Priest that is first come the Sacrifices of the legal Priesthood and they may pass by him but they do not nor they cannot help him By comes a Levite that is the Ceremonies of the Levitical Law and they may pass by him but they do not they cannot help him Or by comes a Priest that is the Angels may see him thus but they let him lie for they cannot help him By comes a Levite that is Men and the World may see him thus but they let him alone for ever for they cannot succour him But by comes a good Samaritan that is our Saviour himself who is called a Samaritan and is said to have a Devil and he pities him salves him lodges him and pays for him He pities him in very bowels therefore he says as I live I would not the death of a sinner He salves him with his own blood therefore t is said By his stripes we are healed He lodges him in his own Church therefore the Church saith He brought me in the winecellar and love was his banner over me And he pays for him what he deserved therefore he saith I have troad the Winepress alone It is said in the Book of Kings that when the Shunamites dead child was to be raised Elisha first sent his staff to be laid upon him but that did no good but when Elisha
Judah part of his History 2009. * Judaism is the Body of the Jews Religion differing in it self yet all contrary to Christianity 372 373 Judas twice told of betraying Christ at two distinct Suppers with Jesus one two days before the Passover the other at the Passover p. 260. The Traytor was with Christ at the Sacrament p. 260 261. He was strangled by the Devil in the air and cast down Headlong 744 Judas the Galilean a Sectary led people away under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience and of Persons against the Romans 766 Judas Maccabeus part of his History 2067 to 2069. * Judges were not Monarchs but chief Commanders and Instructors in the way of God and Undertakers for them in danger for the Sanhedrim bore the sway p. 47. There were two Courts of Judges consisting of Twenty three in the Temple beside the Sanhedrim 447 Judgments are against sin p. 921. Just. 1002. Judicial Deaths the manner of them among the Jews 2006 2007. * Justification as by faith in Christ. 314 315 K. KAB what sort of measure Page 546 Kadesh Barnea why so called 35 Kalender or Almanack Jewish with their Feastivals the Attendance of the Priests and the Lessons of the Law and Prophets 401 to 406 Katholikin there was two of them Head Treasurers to the Temple Page 912 Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven what 237 238 Kiddush Habdala words of blessing the Sabbath 218 King how he was to read the Law 980 Kingdom of Christ misunderstood 250 Kingdom of God for the Gospel day or age p. 450. Kingdom of God or Heaven what in the Gospel acceptation 569 570 Kingdom of Heaven and its coming when the Messias came what p. 213. The Kingdom of Heaven signifies the Preaching the Gospel also the Preaching of it to the Gentiles with their Conversion p. 456. The Kingdom of Heaven and the New Jerusalem began Anno Mund. 4000. just when the City and Temple were destroyed p. 487. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God one and the same in sense p. 567 568. The Kingdom of Heaven among the Jewish Writers was taken for the height zeal and strictness of their Devotion joyned with Punctual ceremoniousness and Phylactery Rites p. 568. The Kingdom of Heaven in the Language of the Jews in the Gospel and some of their own Writers did signifie the day of the Messias and the Glorious times that would then be p. 568 569 570. Our Saviour and the Disciples did use the same Phrase but did understand it of Spiritual Things not Worldly the difference between them is shewed p. 569. The Kingdom of Heaven far differently understood and used by the Jews and by Christ and what its being at Hand p. 628 632. The Kingdom of Heaven is put for the receiving the Gentiles into Favour and into the Gospel 845 Kingdom to be restored to Israel i. e. a worldly Kingdom a great mistake p. 737. Articles against this opinion of the Jews and Milinaries that concur with them in many things 738 Kingdom of the World which Satan offered Christ what 507 to 510 Kings were called by several Names in several Countries 423. Marg. Know we know signifies that the thing is well known 566 567 L. LAKE of Genesareth Galilee Tiberias and Cinnereth Sea all one Page 632 633 Lamb Pascal how prepared p. 260. Where the Lambs were kept for Sacrifice 2019. * Lamb of God what and why Christ was so called 529 Lamechs sin he complains of was Poligamy and his staying was by setting an ill example 693 Lamentations of Jeremy an elegant Writing 129 Lamp ere the Lamp of God went out what 1082. * Lamps used in the Temple what 1082. * Language of the Jews much followed in the stile of the New Testament 313 314 Languages of the two Testaments are the Old in Hebrew and Chaldee the New in Greek c. 1014 1015 Languages are not so many as there were Nations at Rabel 694 Laodicea the Epistle from Laodicea is an Epistle from that Church to Paul 326 Last day called also sometimes the Kingdom of God and sometimes a New Heaven and a New Earth Last days in exceeding many places both in the Old and New Testament denotes the Last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish State not of the World 276 Latine Translation renders ill Righteousness for Alms. 1018 Laver for water what 722 Laver where it stood and its cize p. 2042. * The manner of washing in it p. 2043. * Solomons ten Lavers the Holy Ghost is very copious in their description p. 2044. * Their fashion and use Page 2044 2045. * Law and going to Law among unbelievers what and how vile 301 302 Law broken by Adam was both the Tables of the Law 1027 Law Moral and Ceremonial what they were and how Christ is said to fulfil them p. 475 476. They differ much from the Gospel both as to Grace and Truth 500 Law Ceremonial obliged as single Men or as Members of the Congregation and People of Israel the Passover and other Festivals were of the later Form which made Christ observe them against Separatists 548 549 Law unwritten among the Jews was their Cabbalah or Traditions 652 653 Law and the Prophets put for all the Old Testament and how 533 534 Law supposed by the Jews to be new at Christs coming how far it was so p. 631. The Jews Tenet concerning the Law by which they reduce six hundred and thirteen Precepts into One which was living by faith and so witnesseth against themselves because they were altogether for Works 314 Law given at Sinai what p. 1028. Why the Law was published then and not before of the place where it was given and the manner p. 1028. Of the Effects of the Law p. 1029 1030. Of the Ten Commandments 1030 1031 Laying on of hands upon the Head of the Burnt-Offering or Sacrifice before offered what 926 929 Learned Men might of necessity teach the People among the Jews because the Scriptures were in an unknown Tongue to the common People p. 357. Learned Men at Christs coming had filled the Nation by the Tutorage of the two great Doctors Shammai and Hillel p. 440. The Distinction and Division of the Learned Men of the Jewish Nation what 651 to 659 Learning among the Jews at Christs coming was advanced to a mighty height by the labours of the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the Sanhedrin p. 207. Learning Jewish what 996 c. Leven the way of the Jews searching for it with the Prayer before they set upon that search 953 Leven of Herod was Sadduceism 235 Lepers the Priests could only pronounce not make them clean nor give them leave to come into Cities c. p. 219 c. The Attonement for their cleansing what p. 983. Their Room for cleansings where 1093. * Leprosie cured by Christ when the Priests could not yet Christ was tender of their reputation 648 Letters who first had the use of them c. 1011 1013 Lethech what sort of measure
whom the ends of the World are come Not the very best times of the World for the World hath lasted sixteen hundred years since Paul spake that and how long yet it may last who knoweth but the end of that old World of the Jewish State which then hasted on very fast In the same sense are the words of our Apostle in his first Epistle Chap. IV. 7. The end of all things is at hand Not the end the World but of that City Nation and oeconomy the like is that James V. 9. Behold the Judge standeth before the door and divers other of the like nature III. The vengance of Christ upon that people in that final destruction is set out and called his coming his coming in his Kingdom and in clouds and with power and great glory His coming Joh. XXI 22. In his Kingdom Matth. XVI ult In power and glory Matth. XXIV 30. Nor is this any figure for observe vers 34. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled Accordingly the day of that vengeance is called The day of the Lord. IV. The state of the Church and Gospel after that dissolution of that old World is called sometimes the World to come Heb. II. 5. sometimes new Heavens and new Earth as in the Text sometimes all things new as II Cor. V. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new So that by this time you see plainly the meaning of our Apostle at this place In the verses before he speaks of the dissolution of the Jewish Church and State in such terms as the Scripture useth to express it by as if it were the dissolution of the whole World And in the words of the Text of the new face and state of the Church and World upon the dissolution when a new people and new oeconomy took place We according to his promise The promise is in Esa. LXV 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Where if you look into the context before you shall find the sense justified that I put upon the words and these new Heavens and new Earth created after the Jews casting off and destruction It is a strange opinion that would perswade you that the most glorious things that are foretold by the Prophets should come to pass when the Jews are called which calling is yet expected whereas those glorious things are plainly enough intimated to come to pass at the Jews casting off I might name many places I shall not expatiate upon that subject here this very Chapter speaks enough to justifie what I say In the second verse God complains I have spred out my hands all the day long to a rebellious people This the Apostle in the tenth of the Romans and the last applies unto that people But to Israel he saith All the day long have I stretched forth my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people The Prophet along the Chapter telleth what shall become of that people At vers 6. I will not keep silence but will recompence even recompence into their basom Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills therefore c. At vers 12. I will number you to the sword and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter At vers 13. Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry c. At vers 15. You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen And then follows the promise that is related to in the Text For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Though you are gone yet all the World shall not be gone with you For though I destroy my old people the old Heavens and Earth of the old oeconomy yet I shall provide my self a new people of the Gentiles when the Jews shall be a people no more and when that old World is destroyed I will create new Heavens and a new Earth Such another passage is that of our Saviour Matth. XXIV 31. where when he had described the ruine of the Jewish Nation in the terms we have spoken of before and it might be questioned what then shall become of a Church and where shall it be The Son of man saith he shall send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of the trumpet of the Gospel and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the Heaven to the other among all Nations Thus had Peter read this great promise in Esay the Evangelical Prophet thus had he heard it from the mouth of the great Prophet his sacred Master and therefore it is no wonder if when it is confirmed by the mouth of two such witnesses he undoubtedly look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to such a promise But what is meant by righteousness in this place 1. Not Gods primitive or distributive righteousness or justice for that was ever Gen. XVIII The Judge of all the World did right ever since the World was In the old World in all the World and the same for this yesterday and to day and for ever 2. Not that men were more righteous toward the latter end of the World than before as some dream of such glorious things yet to come for there is no such promise in all the Scripture True indeed that promise of such glorious things was in the last days of Jerusalem but where is any promise of any such things in the last days of the World 3. Nor doth it mean the glorified estate for where do you find righteousness applied to that estate It is commonly applied to the state of believers here 4. Therefore it means justification of sinners or that righteousness by which they are justified The righteousness of God which is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe as the Apostle most divinely doth expound it This is the righteousness that is so gloriously spoken of throughout all the Scriptures Dan. IX 24. To bring in everlasting righteousness Esa. LVI 1. My righteousness is near to be revealed to which that is agreeable Rom. I. 17. In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith Why Was not the righteousness of God revealed in all times before Was not his justice revealed in the Law Yea his condemning justice but his justifying justice in the Gospel This the meaning of the Apostle here That as God had promised to Create new Heavens and a new Earth a new Church and People and oeconomy among the Gentiles when the old Judaick one should be destroyed so in this new created World justifying righteousness should dwell most evidently and appear most glorious when such abominable ones as the Gentiles had been should be justified Justifying righteousness had shewed it self in the World in all generations from Adam and righteous Abel
blasphemed Christ 1 John II. 22. Who is ◠lyar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son And that then was the Jew Secondly When they were destroyed then Rome began to persecute till Constantine Thirdly When that was quieted then the Arian and the Macedonian appeared in the Jewish Spirit Fourthly That cursed Spirit was hardly laid but then the Papacy begins t◠rise and brings in all Judaism against the honour of Christ. And Fifthly That unmasked in the Reformation the Jewish Spirit appears again in the Socinian A SERMON PREACHED AT ASPEDEN April 5. 1660. 1 COR. X. 2. And were all baptised unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea ONE great breach in England is the breach about the Sacraments It is the policy of the Devil to divide Christians even there where there is the greatest bond of Communion As poison is to our Victuals which makes that which in its own nature is the great means of the preservation of our health and lives to become the destroyer of it Our knitting together must be in these Sacraments but they are made the means of our disuniting Therefore if the present occasion called not for it yet the present necessity of our Nation does to inform our selves about these bonds For your instruction in the Sacrament or Bond of Baptism I have chosen these words Wherein we may observe these four things I. Israel was Baptized II. All were baptized III. Unto Moses IV. In the Cloud and in the Sea I. Israel was baptized when they came out of Egypt From whence I make this Doctrine That Baptism was no new thing when Christ ordained it in the Church of the Gospel This Observation is of excellent use It is said concerning the times of the Gospel that there should be new Heavens and a new Earth All new When God set aside that old people he chose him a new people viz. The Gentiles This change of new for old consisted in two things First Some things were laid aside And Secondly some old things were reserved but the end of them changed All the Ceremonial Law laid aside but the Moral reserved and the Doctrine cleared The publick Worship of the Temple laid aside of the Synagogue reserved But some old things were reserved and changed At the Passover the Lamb was laid aside Bread and Wine reserved but the end changed And in this Sacrament where Baptism was added to Circumcision Circumcision was laid aside Baptism received The first mention of Baptism is in Gen. XXXV 2. And Jacob said unto his houshold and unto all that were with him Put away the strange Gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments Be clean the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mundate vos That Baptism is meant here is confest by the Jews The next mention is this in the Text They were all Baptized unto Moses c. And this is the more considerable that they should be Baptized now when they were but newly circumcised to wit in the three days darkness that was upon the Egyptians during which time Israel was circumcised to qualifie them to eat the Passover For no uncircumcised Person may eat thereof Exod. XII A third mention of Baptism is at Sinai So the Jews And they speak of Proselytes Admission now The Anabaptists will not hear this nothing but the letter of Scripture But that is a dangerous Text. T is true we are to require it for the foundation of Faith but by ininsisting upon it too rigorously for other matters we lose infinite profit that may accrue to us by Examples and Explications But let us reason with them that Baptism could be no new thing in those times First The Scribes and Pharisees were not so easie to be brought to follow Novelty But they came in multitudes to Johns Baptism Matth. III. 7. Secondly See I. Joh. 25. The Jews sent Pharisees to John the Baptist and they asked him why baptisest thou then if thou be not that Christ Whereby you may see they never questioned the thing and shewed also that they were easily perswaded that the Messias would make use of their rite of baptizing for the admitting Disciples Take this in the dispute about Poedobaptism They tell us that there is no example in the Scripture of children baptized I answer True but no such example needed to be recorded for Christ took up Baptism as he found it in the Jewish Church and they baptized Infants as well as grown persons And if Christ would not that Baptism should have been administred to children he would have forbidden it Therefore there is no Rule or Example given in Scripture of baptising children Luke wrote enough in XVI Act. 15. 32. where he tells us of the Baptism of Lydia and her houshold and of the Jaylor and all his Now one reading these passages in Judaea how would he have understood it Undoubtedly according to the ordinary practise of Baptism as it was used among them in admitting of their Proselytes which was that when the Master of the house was baptized for a Proselyte all his family children and all were baptized too T is the best rule to come to the understanding of the Phrases of Scripture to consider in what sence they were taken in that Country and among that People where they were written II. They were All baptized Who All our Fathers vers 1. All passed through the Sea Were there not children here How Was there no child in arms did they carry none on their backs when they passed through the Sea What say the Anabaptists here This Text saith All were baptized They say None ought to be baptized that are children because they are not capable of understanding the Ordinance What then Were the Jewish children more capable than the children of Christians There are two opinions of the Anabaptists which we are to be informed in else we may fall into mistake First That Baptism is not to be administred to any that are without knowledge Secondly That it is not to be administred to any unless he be verus filius foederis a true son of the Covenant To these I will put answer into your mouths To the first God never ordained Sacraments that their nature should be changed pro captu recipientis according to the capacity of him that received them Ordinances retain their nature whosoever receives them As sin is sin though not felt and the Word is the Word of God though he that hears it is not benefitted by it So Sacraments are Sacraments as to their nature whatsoever the Receivers be T is true their fruit is pro captu recipientis but not their nature The Sacrament is a seal whosoever receives it Again You read of Baptism without knowledge in Matth. XXVIII 19 20. Go and Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name c. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you c. Baptize and Teach
Apostles and Disciples and should pick out a man that we all know was no Apostle that no one knows whether he were a Disciple or no. But II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive that as the man to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem was Daniel a man greatly beloved so that the John to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World was John the Disciple greatly beloved III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated that he would that he should tarry till â—e came Joh. XXI 22. that is till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them for that his coming both in that place and in divers other places in the New Testament doth mean in that sense it were very easie to make evident should we take that subject to insist upon Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old when that was ruined laid in ashes and come to nothing He saw it in Vision we see it in the Text and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse for we need not speak more of him that saw it In the verse before he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth and in this verse a new Jerusalem I. Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth And in the verse next following Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing The expressions intimate the great change of affairs that should be in the World under the Gospel from what had been before A new Heaven or a change of Church and Religion from a Jewish to a Gentile Church and from Mosaick to Evangelical Religion A new Earth or a change in the World as to the management or rule of it from Heathenism to Christianity and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies Dan. VII to the Saints or Christians to iudge the World 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change as the old Jerusalem had been before the change came There is none but knoweth that Jerusalem in Scripture language is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then standing That City was the Church in little because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances the Assemblies of the Saints the Worship of the true God by his own appointment and the presence of God himself in the midst of all And can any doubt but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense and upon the like reason The Church of God under the Gospel this inriched with all those excellencis and privileges that that was yea and much more There was the Doctrine of Salvation but wrapped up in Types and Figures and dark Prophesies but here unfolded to the view of every Eye and Moses vail taken off his face There Ordinances of divine Worship but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth There an assembly only of one People and Nation here a general assembly compacted of all Nations There God present in a cloud upon the Ark here God present in the communication of his Spirit Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City because of these things II. which is the second circumstance considerable in the words I saw the new Jerusalem The holy City It is observable that the second old Jerusalem for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity was called the holy City when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City and become a stranger there When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments and endowments that contributed so much to the holiness of the place and City The Ark the cloud of Glory upon it the Oracle by Urim and Thummim the fire from Heaven upon the Altar these were all gone and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation yet even then it is called the holy City in this her nakedness Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves and Jerusalem no better if not worse when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had turned all Religion upside down and out of doors and worshiped God only according to inventions of men yet even then and when she is in that case she is termed the holy City Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies the Lord of life and glory even then he calls her the holy City Chap. XXVII 53. The bodies of many Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said then and so might others say of her for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City when she was a City so very unholy She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy and yet comparatively The holy City because there was not a place under Heaven besides which God had chosen to place his Name there and there he had and that was it that gave her that name and title And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing she kept the name but at last forfeited both and then God finds out another City where to place his Name A new Jerusalem A holy City a holier City her younger sister fairer than she Holy under the same notion with the other because God hath placed his Name only III. there Holier than she because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her as was touched before And Holier still because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did as we shall touch hereafter And she cannot but be holy as I said before when she comes down from Heaven and is sent thence by God And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward seeth her pitched here below when she is
come down She is above and yet she is beneath much as the case was at Mount Sinai there was a Tabernacle above the heavenly pattern on the top of the Mount and there was a Tabernacle beneath the material building and fabrick at the foot Jerusalem that is above intimating that it is not a material building but a spiritual that the Builder is not man but God and yet that Jerusalem is come down and is also here below because it is among men and consists of men Men as lively stones being built up into a spiritual house and building as it is 1 Pet. II. 5. Most commonly in this book of the Revelations she is called by the very name of Heaven it self that where you read Heaven you must understand the Church partly because she is the only Heaven that is upon Earth partly because of the presence of God in the midst of her as in Heaven and partly because of the holy and heavenly things that are in her and partly because she is the gate of Heaven and the only passage whereby to come thither Upon all which accounts together it is no wonder that she carries the name of the heavenly Jerusalem the holy City and the holy City that came down from God And let this suffice to be spoken concerning the meaning of the New Jerusalem or what it is viz. the Gospel Church The great question and dispute is where it is And whereas our Apocalyptick saw it coming down from Heaven the great inquiry is where it lighted pitched and took its station Where is the house of the Prince and where is this City of the great King Where is the true Church this new Jerusalem The finding where it is not will be some direction how to seek it where it is and let us begin there first I. First therefore Let me say in this case much like what was said of old by the Historian concerning the City Samnium You may look for Samnium there where Samnium stood and cannot find it If you look for the new Jerusalem there where the old Jerusalem stood you will not find it there though the Jew would have you to look no where else and have it to be found no where else It is well known what the conception and expectation of that Nation is in this point how they look for a most stately Jerusalem to be built where the old one stood for a pompous Kingdom setled in the Land of Canaan sutable to such a City and for a pompous Messias riding in the midst of both with stateliness sutable to both I shall say no more to this opinion but briefly only this for it is not worth speaking much unto That this opinion helped forward the murther of the true Messias when he came among them And I much wonder whether the opinion that produced so bad an effect then can come to any good effect at any time Because our Saviour Poor Jesus did not bring so much pomp and gallantry with him as that opinion expecteded he was looked upon by them as a false Messias and under that notion they made him suffer And it is more than suspitious that such an opinion can prove good solid and succesful never that proved so very fatal and mischievous then It is true indeed that the Prophet Ezekiel doth delineate his visionary Jerusalem as seated in the very place where the old had been for indeed there was then a Jerusalem to be built there as it was after the return out of captivity But whosoever shall take measure of the dimensions that he giveth to his City in space and compass will find it to come near if not to equal the space and compass of the whole Land of Canaan And this Apocalyptick the best interpreter of that Prophet measuring his square new Jerusalem at vers 16. of this Chapter finds it to be twelve thousand furlongs or fifteen hundred miles upon every side of the square six thousand miles about and the wall about it also fifteen hundred miles high The wall of Salvation Esa. XXVI 1. So that these things considered a mystical or spiritual sense is enforced here and for a literal one there is left little or no room at all And we must look for the new Jerusalem somewhere else then where the old one stood for there is not room for it Where then shall we seek next since we cannot find it there Here II. I cannot but remember the story in 2 Kings VI. The Syrians are seeking Elisha at Dothan and he strikes them blind and this is not the way says he this is not the City but follow me and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek and he brought them to Samaria We are seeking the new Jerusalem and there are those that will tell you but you must let them blindfold you the first that you of London we of England are out of the way if we look for any new Jerusalem any true Church here among us but follow them and they will lead you where it is and they will bring you to Rome A place where I should as little seek for the new Jerusalem as I should have sought for the old Jerusalem in Samaria or as I should have sought for true worshippers and the place of true worship at Sichem and mount Gerizim When they pretend to lead you to the new Jerusalem and bring you to Rome they could hardly lead you to any place under Heaven more unlikely where to find the new Jerusalem then there Our Divines in their writings have evidenced this abundantly and I shall not trouble you with rehearsing any thing they have spoken I shall only lay these four Scriptural considerations before you easie to understand and carry away and even out of them let any impartial judgment censure and determine in this case And first Two concerning the place and City And then two concerning the Church and Religion I. Concerning the Place and City First As the new Jerusalem is never mentioned in Scripture but with an honourable and noble character so Rome on the contrary is never spoken of under any name or title but with a character as black and dismal One Memoir only excepted which is in her story as Abijah was in the family of Jeroboam 1 King XIV 13. the only one there in whom was found any thing that was good And that is that there was once a Church there whose faith was renounedly spoken of through the whole world Rom. I. 8. There was so indeed and there could not be an Antichristian Church there unless there had been a Christian Church there first since There must be a falling away first that the man of sin might be revealed 2 Thes. II. 3. The first mention that you have of Rome in Scripture is in Numb XXIV 24. under the name of Chittim and there it is branded for the great oppressor and afflicter of Nations and it is finally doomed to perish for ever Secondly
it did begin So though the Passover be appointed to be in that first month that began the new year and be called an Everlasting Ordinance Exod. XII 16. Yet upon occasion the Lord ordained it to be kept in the second month Numb IX To this we may add Gods changing the very end and memorial of the Sabbath to Israel themselves Changing said I or rather adding a new memorial which it had not before In Exod. XX. the memorial is to remember Gods creating and resting in Deut. V. where the Ten Commandments are repeated it is in memorial of their redemption out of Egypt Not unclothed of its first end and memorial but clothed upon So if Adam had continued innocent he must have kept the Sabbath and then it had been to him but the memorial of Gods creating and resting But when Christ and redemption by him was set up and come in before the Sabbath came in then it was clothed with another memorial viz. the remembrance of the redemption II. Christ had power and authority to change the Sabbath Mark II. 28. The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath He had power over all Divine Ordinances Hebr. III. 5 6. Now Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant c. But Christ as a Son over his own house He is not a Servant in the house but a Son to dispose of the affairs of the house as he sees good He is greater than the Temple and so may order the affairs of the Temple as he saw good If a Jew question why he laid by the Ceremonies of Moses The answer is ready because he was greater than Moses Lord of the house in which Moses was but a Servant Nay it was he that appointed Moses those Ceremonies and he might unappoint them at his pleasure That is observable Act. VII 38. This is that Moses that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him at Mount Sinai and with our Fathers who received the lively Oracles to give us With the Angel who was that It was Christ the great Angel of the Covenant as he is called Mal. III. 1. The Angel of Gods presence as he is called Esai LXIII 9. Then who spake with Moses at Mount Sinai It was Christ. Who gave him the Lively Oracles Laws Testimonies Statutes It was Christ. And then might Christ that gave them dispose of them as seemed him good So that if a Jew question why Christ changed Circumcision into Baptism the Paschal Lamb into Bread and Wine the Jewish Sabbath into the Christian Sabbath The answer is ready he was Lord of them and might dispose of them Het set up Circumcision the Passover the Jewish Sabbath and might take them down and alter them as he pleased III. Ye read once and again in Scripture of Gods creating a new world Esai LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth 2 Pet. III. 13. We according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth Rev. XXI 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth Now when was this done The Apostle tells us when viz. in his own time 2 Cor. V. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature The meaning of it is Gods creating a new Estate of things under the Gospel a new Church the Jews cast off and the Gentiles taken in new ordinances in his Church Ceremonious worship taken down and Spiritual set up new Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper instead of the Circumcision and Passover a new Command of love to one another a new Covenant a new and living way into the most holy a new Creature and in a word all things become new Then certainly a new Sabbath was fit for a new Creation Lay these two places together Gen. I. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and Esai LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth In fulness of time God created new Heavens and a new Earth and as the first Creation had the old Sabbath so was it not fit the new Creation should have a new Sabbath As our Saviour speaks Mat. IX 17. New cloth must not be put into an old garment nor new wine into old bottles but new wine must be put into new vessels and both are preserved So in this case a new manner of worship new Ordinances new Sacraments to be committed to the old Sabbath This is improper but a new Sabbath must be for these as well as they themselves are new How pied would Christianity have looked if it had worn a Coat all new in other respects but had had on the shirt or piecing of the old Sabbath And how unfit was it to have tyed Christians to the observation of the old Sabbath of the Jews IV. The Resurrection of Christ was the day of his birth and beginning of his Kingdom Observe the quotation Acts XIII 33. The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled to us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee When was the day wherein Christ was begotten In the day that God raised him from the dead That is strange for as he was God was he not begotten from Eternity and as he was man was he not conceived by the Holy Ghost and born three and thirty years and an half before his Resurrection Yes both most true and yet that true too that he was begotten from the day of his Resurrection And the Apostle tells you how to understand it viz. He was the first begotten and first born from the dead begotten that day to the Gentiles and all the world from thenceforward a Saviour to them and by his Resurrection as the Apostle saith Rom. I. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead So likewise his Resurrection was the beginning of his Reign and Kingdom Consider upon that Mat. 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 when I am risen from the dead And see Mat. XXVIII 18. Now I begin to reign All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth For now he had conquered all his Enemies Devil Death and Hell Now was not the first day of the week the day on which Christ rose fitter to be made the Sabbath to commemorate his Birth-day from the dead and his entrance into his Kingdom than the last day of the week the old Sabbath on which day he lay in the grave and under death Kings and Potentates use to celebrate their Birth-day and the day of entrance into their Kingdom and this King of Kings was it not fit that such a memorial should be of his Birth-day and entrance into his Dominion And compare the Creation and Christs Resurrection whether of
horns as the Dragon whose deputed she is is pictured Chap. 12. 3. the horns crowned with power and the heads with blasphemies One of his heads had been wounded to death but his deadly wound was healed This seemeth to mean her Monarchical or Kingly power which was extinguisht with the Tarquins but revived in the Caesars and hereby is given intimation from whence to account the beginning of this fifth Monarchy namely from Romes beginning again to be Monarchical and we may well take a hint of this from Luke 2. where at the birth of Christ all the world is taxed by Caesar Augustus Not that Monarchical Government is therefore the worse because thus abused by Rome Heathen no more then Religion is the worse for being abused by Rome Papal Another Beast ariseth like this for power and cruelty but far beyond him in cousenage and delusion Rome Heathen dealt always openly and in down right terms of bloodiness professedly setting it self to destroy Religion But Rome Papal is a mystery of iniquity it goes to work by deceiving and carrying fair pretences therefore it is said that it spake as a Dragon but had horns like a Lamb. It revives the Tyranny of Rome Heathen and Imperial and none must thrive before it that will not bear its badge either some mark or its name or the number of its name which number was the number of a man and his number is six hundred and sixty six In Hebrew numerals Sethur the name of a man in Numb 13. 13. comes just to this number and which being interpreted signifies Hidden or Mystery the very inscription of Rome it self Chap. 17. 5. In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fits it which is the old name of the Roman And in Gencalogical Arithmetick the number of Adonikams family suits with it Ezra 5. 13. which mans name signifies A Lord rising up REVEL CHAP. XIV THE warring 'twixt Michael and his Angels and the Dragon and his Angels and the Dragons making war with seed of the Woman Chap. 12. receiveth illustration in the thirteenth Chapter and in the beginning of this For in Chap. 13. he resigns his Power and Throne to the Beast Rome and makes him chief leader in his Wars and his Angels are men that receive his mark Here the Lamb upon mount Zion is Michael and his Angels and followers are marked with his Fathers Name in their foreheads as Chap. 7. And now as in the eighth ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters the relation is concerning those things that should be against the Church from henceforth the Prophesie is more especially of things that make for the Church and against her enemies As 1. The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles ver 6 7. 2. The proclaiming of the ruin of the mystical Babylon proclaimed even from its first rising up a persecutor as Isaiah did Prophesie against the Eastern even before its tyrannical being 3. The Ministry of the Word giving caution against joyning with the Beast and his Image and the danger and damnation that should follow upon joyning with him and the torments described ver 9 10 11. Here the patience of the Saints tried ver 12. and John by a voice from Heaven commanded to write them blessed that die in the Lord from thenceforth ver 13. at once shewing the bitterness of the persecution caused by the Beast that even death should be desirable to deliver the Saints from the trouble and incouraging to stand out against the Beast and his Image even to the death These bitter dealings against the Church ripen the sins of the world ready for cutting down and thereupon Christ is described coming as against Egypt Isa. 19. 1. riding upon a cloud and with a sickle in his hand to reap the Earth As Joel 3. 13. betokening his vengeance against his enemies So the Earth is reaped Harvest and Vintage and all This is a general intimation of Gods judgment and vengeance which is more particularly handled in the pouring out of the Vials Chap. 16. It is observable that the word for reaping of the Earth comes out from the Temple yea though Christ have the sickle in his hand yet an Angel out of the Temple calls to him to reap and another Angel comes out of the Temple with a sickle and a third out of the Temple calls to him to reap As this may be understood to Doctrinal information that the cries and urgencies of the Church to Christ stir him up to avenge them on their enemies Luke 18. 7. so the expressions may be explained by allusive application The putting in of the first sickle to reap the first corn in Judea was by the word and warrant of the Priests and Rulers sitting in the Temple and they that were to reap when they were come to the corn put not in the sickle till the word was given Reap The manner and managing of this business viz. the reaping of the first sheaf is recorded and related by the Talmud Menachoth per. 10. and in Tosaphta ibid. These three men say they that were appointed by the Sanhedrin to reap went out into the valley of Kidron with a great company following them on the first day of the Passover week when now it grew towards evening with three sickles and three baskets One when they came to the place said to them On this Sabbath on this Sabbath on this Sabbath In this basket in this basket in this basket With this sickle with this sickle with this sickle Reap to whom the three answer Well well well I will reap The other says Reap then Then they reap c. Thus phrases taken from known customs do speak the plainer And so is the expression taken from common speech and opinion when it is said in ver 30. The wine-press was troden without the City and blood came out of the wine-press even to the horse bridles Here is treading a wine-press of blood as Christ treadeth in Edom Isa. 63. 1 3. Edom is the common name by which the Hebrew Writers call the Romans The wine-press was without the City alluding to the wine and oyl presses which were without Jerusalem at the foot of mount Olivet Blood came up to the horse bridles An hyperbole by which they expressed great slaughter and effusion of blood So Talm. Jerus in Taanith fol. 69. col 1. describing the woful slaughter that Hadrian made of the Jews at the destruction of the City Bitter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The horses waded in blood up to the nostrils by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs Of that space and extent doth R. Menahem on gen fol. 60. reckon the largeness of the Land of Israel REVEL CHAP. XV. WHAT was spoken in general in the conclusion of the preceding Chapter concerning the treading of the Wine press of Gods wrath is here more particularly prosecuted in the story of the seven Vials At the beginning of which John again calls us to reflect upon the scheme of the Temple
Text of Daniel from whence the phrase is taken and by divers places in the Gospel where it is used but the full clearing of this I have chosen to refer to that difficult place which will call for it to be cleared when the Lord shall bring us thither Matth. 16. 19. To thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where I conceive Christ to have foretold to Peter that he should be the first that should Preach the Gospel and open the door of Faith unto the Gentiles as Acts 15. 7. and 10. Now The Kingdom of Heaven signifying thus not barely and simply the Preaching of the Gospel but the Preaching of it to the Gentiles and their conversion it sheweth how proper and pregnant an argument this was to inforce the doctrine and practice of Repentance upon the Jews because the calling of the Gentiles was near at hand which would prove their rejection and casting off if they did not repent as Deut. 32. 21. Before the coming of Christ these four Earthly Kingdoms that are mentioned by Daniel in the Chapters cited bare all the sway and domineered over all the world with cruelty and tyranny but when they were destroyed at his coming he set up a Kingdom of his own and swayed the Scepter of Righteousness over all Nations and ruled them with his word and Spirit And whereas before his coming also the Church consisted but of one Nation and Kingdom and was couched upon a small parcel of Earth the Land of Canaan â—nd had earthly promises and earthly rites when he came and published the Gospel he gathered a Church of all Kingdoms and Nations and Languages under Heaven and built it up with Heavenly and Spiritual promises and instructions and thus The Kingdom of Heaven may fitly be understood in opposition to these two earthly ones Luke 3. ver 5. Every valley shall be filled c. These borowed phrases intend the removing of obstacles and stumbling blocks out of the way and plaining and clearing the way for men to come to Christ and to the obedience of the Gospel The Jews conceive that the cloud of glory that led the people of Israel in the wilderness did really and according to the letter do what is here spoken of for facilitating of their march and journey as that it levelled Mountains raised vallies and laid all of a flat that it burnt up bushes and smoothed rocks and made all plain that they might travail without trouble or offence And some of them also say that when Jeroboam set up his goden calves and Idolatry in Bethel and Dan that he and his wicked agents laid ambushments and scouts in the ways to Jerusalem to catch up every one that should go thither to worship and to this purpose they apply that saying of the Prophet Hos. 5. 1. O ye Priests and O ye house of the King ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net upon Tabor And the revolters are profound to make slaughter c. If either of these things were undoubtedly so as they suppose how properly might this passage of the Prophet Esay and of the Evangelist from him be thought to refer thereunto but since they be but surmisals it is safest to take the words for a borrowed speech to express what was said before the removing of obstacles in the way to Christ. Mat. 3. ver 6. Confessing their sins Not to John but to God For neither was it possible for John to hear their confessions nor was it necessary Not possible because of the vast multitudes that came to be baptized nor necessary for to tell him they had comitted such and such sins what conduced it either to their baptism or forgiveness Nor was this their confession of their sins before there being baptized but after For first if we should strictly take the Grammatical construction of the word that importeth their confessing it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would have denoted that they had confessed before they were baptized but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both the Evangelists that speak of that matter Secondly It was far more agreeable to the end and doctrine of Baptism that their confession of sin should be after their baptizing then before in that they were baptized to repentance ver 11. and not e contra the Sacrament was more intentionally to enter them into repentance then repentance to enter them into the Sacrament For as was said before it obliged them more properly to repentance after the receiving of it then before Thirdly the gesture of our Saviour after his Baptism seemeth to have been according to the common custom and gesture of the people and as he coming out of the water fell to prayer so they when they came out used to do to make their penitent confession to the Lord. Mat. 3. ver 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Saduces coming to his baptism The Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans the three Sects of the Jews Josephus Antiq. lib. 13. c. 9. are those three Sheepherds spoken of Zech. 11. 8. whom our Saviour at his coming was to cut off The two former whom we have now in hand are very frequent in mention in the Gospel men of enmity one against another yet both joynt enemies to Christ and to his Apostles The original of the Pharisees is not so easie to go back unto as that of the Sadduces nor is the significancy of their name so readily determined and fixed upon as the other The Sadduces it is well known were so called from Sadoc the first Author of their Sect and he the Scholar of Antigonus Rabbi Nathan in his Aboth Perek 5. hath thus clearly given us their original Antigonus of Socoh saith he received his learning from Simeon the just This was his saying Be not as servants that serve their Master because of receiving Vid. Talm. Bab. Basileae tom 6. in fine * * * * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a portion a reward but be as servants that serve their Master not for the receiving of a reward but let the fear of God be upon you This Antigonus had two Scholars which changed his words they changed them to their Scholars and their Scholars to theirs They stood up and taught after them and said what saw our Fathers to say thus is it possible that a work-man may do his work all the day and not receive his wages at even But if our Fathers had known that there is a world to come and that there shall be a resurrection of the dead they would never have said thus They stood up and separated from the Law and from them broke out the two Sects the Sadduces and Baithusaeans the Sadduces after the name of Sadoc and the Baithusaeans after the name of Baithus So he Now this Antigonus whose good doctrine had this bad construction was Scholar to Simeon the just whom we shall have occasion to look after by and by But the time and
28 45. 12. 19. 42. and divers other places be well weighed and it will be utterly unimaginable that there should be less believers in Jerusalem now than many hundreds much more unimaginable that these one hundred and twenty were all who were all Galileans and no inhabitants of Jerusalem at all This number therefore mentioned by the Evangelist of one hundred and twenty is not to be thought all the Church in that City but only the society and company that were of Christs own train and retinue whilst he was upon earth that companied with him all the time that he went in and out among his Disciples Acts 1. 21. And this company though it be mingled and dispersed among the Congregations in the City for preaching the Word and administring the Sacraments and joyning in acts of worship yet did they keep together as a more intire and peculiar society and standing Presbytery Act. 4. 21. and of the rest durst none joyn himself unto them Acts 5. 13. and thus they continued till the persecution at Stephens death dispersed them all but the Apostles Acts 3. 1. Vers. 16. This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled I apprehend not what the word have doth in this clause for it had been both more proper for the sense and more facil for the reader to have it read This Scripture must needs be fulfilled Now the application of these places so pertinently and home to Judas sheweth the illumination and knowledge that the breathing and giving of the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 22. had wrought in the Disciples Vers. 18. This man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity Not that he himself bought this field for Matthew resolves the contrary Matth. 27. 7. and tells that it was bought by the Chief Priest for his damned bribe Nor was any such thing in his intention when he bargained for his money but Peter by a bitter irrision sheweth the fruit and profit of his wretched covetise and how he that thought to inlarge his Revenues and to settle his habitation by such horrid means came home by it with the contrary his revenues to purchase land for others his habitation to be desolate and himself to come to so sad an end §. And falling headlong c. Universality antiquity and consent have so determinately concluded that Judas hanged himself that there is no gainsaying yet hath the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 left it so indifferent whether he hanged himself or were strangled by the Devil that if I were not tied up by the consent of all to the contrary I should the rather take it the latter way And if I durst so interpret it I should render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this purpose that Satan took him away bodily strangled him in the air and then flung him headlong and burst out his bowels For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui vel a seipso vel ab alio praecipitatur saith Stephanus And to this purpose may that verse of Matth. 27. 5. be very well interpreted And he cast down the silver pieces in the Temple and departed and going away he was strangled the Devil catching him away and stifling him and then casting him headlong and bursting out of him with the eruption of his intrals and this terrible occurrence would soon be noted of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem Acts 1. 19. Vers. 19. Accldama 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a field of blood by a double relation First Because it was bought with a price of blood Math. 27. 7. And secondly Because it was sprinkled with his blood that took that price for so this verse intimateth Vers. 21. Wherefore of these men that have companied with us §. Observations upon the election of Matthias First That there was a necessity the Apostles be twelve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and this that the Founders of the Christian Church might be parallel to the twelve Tribes the founders of the Jewish for now Jews and Christians were to join together and this is hinted in the twenty four Elders the representative body of the Church so often mentioned in the Revelation and spoken out Rev. 21. 12. 14. Secondly That Matthias and Joses being chosen to the presented to the Apostles the election was not the choice of the whole Church as if every member of the Church and believer in Jerusalem either did or might give his vote to the choosing of them but it was only the choice of the whole Presbytery or the hundred and eight among themselves for so is it most plain vers 15. 21. being compared together Observe the phrase Of these men that have companied with us Thirdly That the Apostles could not ordain an Apostle by imposition of hands as they could ordain Elders but they are forced to use a divine lot which was as the immediate hand of Christ imposed on him that was to be ordained that opinion took little notice of this circumstance that hath placed Bishops in the place of the Apostles by a common and successive ordination Vers. 25. Ioseph called Barsabas who was sirnamed Iustus This seemeth to be he that is called Joses Mark 6. 3. 15. 40. the brother of James the less and the rather to be so supposed because he is surnamed Justus as James was And so saith Beza one old Copy readeth Joses here and the Syriack for Joses readeth Joseph in Chap. 4. 36. so indifferently are the names used one for another And from this indifferency have some concluded that Joseph here and Joses in that Chapter are but one and the same person the nearness of the sound of Barsabas and Barnabas helping forward that supposal But first that Joses or Joseph in Chap. 4. 36. was born in Cyprus this Joseph or Joses here was born in Galilee Secondly Although the Apostles belike had named these two Josephs to distinguish them the one Barsabas and the other Barnabas two names that are not far asunder in sound and utterance yet are they in sense and in the Apostles intention if they named the one as they did the other Barnabas is interpreted by the Evangelist himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred generally the Son of consolation but the Greek may as well bear the Son of exhortation for so it is known well enough the word familiarly signifieth The Syriack useth indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for consolation Luke 6. 24. Phil. 2. 1. Rom. 12. 8. 2 Cor. 1. 4 5. and in the place in hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the place last cited before it but whether Barnabas may not equally be deduced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prophesie or instruct I refer to the Reader Be it whether it will certain it is the Etymology and notation doth very far recede from that of Barsabas Some conceive that this signifieth the son of an Oath others the son of fulness but the notation to me seemeth to be the son of wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if we would be
Tradition as true as it is punctual it would readily plead for its own place in Chronology namely about this time at which we now are before James his death for he gave in his symbolum according to this tradition among the rest But that this opinion of the Apostles casting in every one his parcel is of no validity but a presumptuous and false surmise may be evinced by these Arguments First d d d Mr. Pâ—rk on the Creed Because the title of The Catholick Church is neither used in any of the Apostles writings nor is it likely that it came into use till after the Apostles days when the Church was dispersed into all parts of the earth Secondly Because the Article He descended into Hell is not owned or acknowledged at all by the Nicene Creed nor by any of the ancientest Fathers next the Apostles times in their reckoning up of the Articles of the Creed as see instances in abundance in e e e Pag. 410. Polanus his Syntagma lib. 6. cap. 21. Thirdly If the matter and words of the Creed had been from the Apostles themselves why is it not then Canonical Scripture as well as any of the sacred Writ Fourthly In the giving in of their several Symbols or parcels after the manner opinionated before there is so great disproportion and inequality some giving so much and some so little that it maketh the contribution it self to be very suspitious Fifthly The Summary Collection of the points of Christian Religion taught by the Apostles and delivered by them to others to teach by consisteth of two heads Faith and Love 2 Tim. 1. 13. But the Creed consisted of faith only I rather think therefore saith Mr. Perkins that it is called the Apostles Creed because it doth summarily contain the chief and principal Points of Religion handled and propounded in the Doctrine of the Apostles and because the points of the Creed are conformable and agreeable to their Doctrine and Writings §. 3. Traditions With their framing of the Creed before their parting hath Baronius joyned also their delivery of Traditions Sicut symbolo saith he ita etiam aliis absque Scriptura traditionibus Ecclesiae imperitis diviserunt sibi ad quas singuli proficiscerentur orbis terrae provincias Having thus imparted the Creed and also traditions without Scripture to the Church they parted among themselves what Country every one of them should go unto These Traditions the a a a Sâ—ss 4. decret 1. extat â—om 4. conciliâ—rum par 2. Councel of Trent divideth into those which were received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ or delivered from hand to hand from the Apostles to our times the Holy Ghost dictating them unto them And these those Fathers hold of equal authority with the Scriptures and the Councel curseth them that shall willingly and knowingly contemn them And well do they deserve it if they did but certainly and assuredly know that they came from such hands Bellarmine b b b Liâ— 4. de verbo non script c. 2. extat tom 1. pag. 166. hath stretched the name and piece of Traditions to one tainterhook higher For Traditions saith he are Divine Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Divine are those which were received from Christ himself teaching his Apostles and yet are not to be found in the Scriptures such are those which concern the matter and form of the Sacraments Apostolical are those which were instituted by the Apostles not without the assistance of the Holy Ghost and yet are not to be found in their Epistles Ecclesiastical traditions are properly called certain old customs begun either by Prelates or by people which by little and little by the tacit consent of the people obtained the power of a Law Under these heads especially under the two first hath he placed these particulars c c c Ibid. c. 9. The perpetual Virginity of Mary the number of the Canonical books Baptizing of Infants blessing the water before bidding them renounce Satan and his works signing them with the sign of the cross anointing them with oyl not re-baptizing after Heretiques Lent Ember week inferior Orders in the Church worshipping of Images c. To which d d d Vid Whitaker de S. Script controv 1. q. 6. c. 5. others add The oblation of the Sacrament of the Altar Invocation of Saints Prayer for the dead the Primacy Confirmation Orders Matrimony Penance extreme Unction Merits necessity of Satisfaction Auricular Confession c. Into which controversie not to enter concerning the thing it self which so many grave and learned pens have handled sufficiently reckoned by Bellarmine though with small good will in his entry upon this question let but reason and indifferency censure concerning that which is more proper to this discourse namely the time of delivering these Traditions whether this or any other And here in the first place let the Reader but consider that at this time there was no more of the New Testament written than the Gospels of Matthew and Mark if so be that those also were written at this time And then let him judge how sensless a thing it is to speak of delivering unwritten Traditions to the Church when almost all the New Testament was yet to be written Or take it at the Councel at Jerusalem which was divers years hence when all the Apostles were all together and giving rules to the Church or take it at Pauls apprehension at Jerusalem when imagine all the Apostles to be together again and even at either of those times will the same absurdity follow still for no more of the New Testament was written or very little more than now And then how ridiculous doth it appear That the Apostles should offer to give rules to the Church by unwritten Tradition when they had all their Epistles for rules of the Church yet to write If they would leave the Church to be regulated by unwritten Traditions why should they write after And if they would have her regulated by their writings why should they give her unwritten Traditions before A quick wit will nimbly answer that they left her such Traditions as were not to be expressed in their writings but let an honest conscience and an unprejudicate judgment censure whether this will abide the test yea or no. For is it within any compass of likelihood that these Apostles did know what things Paul would not write of in his Epistles that they should deliver such things before-hand for Tradition when as yet they hardly knew whether he was to be an Apostle of the Gentiles or no when they did not know whether he would write any Epistles or no much less did they know what Epistles he would write Appello conscientiam and so much for Traditions Vers. 3. He proceeded to take Peter also c. §. Peters imprisonment and delivery James his death was seconded by Peters imprisonment but his time for martyrdom was not yet come as was the others
answer in the very words of their vulgar Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis Take heed you do not make them your Justification CHAP. XLII An Emblem A Wall in Rome had this picture A man painted naked with a whip in one hand and four leaves of a book in the other and in every leaf a word written In the first Plango I mourn Is the second Dico I tell In the third volo I will and in the fourth facio I do Such a one in the true repentant He is naked because he would have his most secret sins laid open to God He is whipped because his sins do sting himself His book is his repentance His four words are his actions In the first he mourns in the second he confesses in the third he resolves and in the fourth he performs his resolution Plango I mourn there is sight of sin and sorrow Dico I tell there is contrition for sin and confession Volo I will there is amending resolution Facio I do there is performing satisfaction CHAP. XLIII Mahhanaiim Gen. 32. 2. AND Jacob went on his way and the Angels of God met him And Jacob said when he saw them This is the Host of the Lord and he called the name of the place Mahanaim The word is dual and tels of two Armies and no more what these two Armies were the Jews according to their usual vein do find strange expositions To omit them all this seems to me to be the truth and reason of the name There was one company with Jacob which afterwards he calls his army and there was another company of Angels which he calls the Army of God These are the two Armies that gave name to Mahanaim two Armies one heavenly and the other earthly and from this I take it Salomon compares the Church * to the company of Mahanaim for so the Church consisteth Cant. 6. 12. of two Armies one heavenly like these Angels which is the Church triumphant and the other travailing on earth like Jacobs Army which is the Church militant CHAP. XLIV The book of Psalms THE Psalms are divided into five books according to the five Books of Moses and if they be so divided there be seventy books in the Bible the unskilful may find where any one of these five books end by looking where a Psalm ends with Amen there also ends the book As at Psal. 41. 72. 89. 106. and from thence to the end These may even in their very beginnings be harmonized to the books of the Law Gensis The first book of Moses telleth how happiness was lost even by Adams walking in wicked counsel of the Serpent and the Woman Psal. 1. The first book of Psalms tells how happiness may be regained if a man do not walk in wicked counsel as of the Serpent and Woman the Divel and the Flesh. This allusion of the first book Arnobius makes Exodus The second book of Moses tells of groaning affliction in Egypt Psal. 42. The second book of Psalms begins in groaning affliction Psal. 42. 43. Leviticus The third book of Moses is of giving the Law Psal. 73. The third book of Psalms tells in the beginning how good God is for giving this Law This allusion Rab. Tanch makes very near Numbers The fourth book of Moses is about numbring Psal. 90. The fourth book begins with numbring of the best Arithmetick numbring Gods mercy Psal. 90. 1. and our own days vers 12. Deuteronomy The last book of Moses is a rehearsal of all Psal. 107. So is the last book of the Psalms from Psal. 107. to the end In the Jews division of the Scripture this piece of the Psalms and the books of the like nature are set last not because they be of the least dignity but because they be of least dependance with other books as some of them being no story at all and some stories and books of lesser bulk and so set in a form by themselves The Old Testament books the Jews acrostically do write thus in three letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every letter standing for a word and every word for a part of the Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Aorajetha or Torah the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Nebhiim the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Cethubhim or books of Holy Writ this division is so old that our Saviour himself useth it in the last of Luke and vers 44. All things written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms By the Psalms meaning that part of Cethubhim in which the Psalms are set first CHAP. XLV Of the Creation TWO ways we come to the knowledge of God by his Works and by his Word By his Works we come to know there is a God and by his Word we come to know what God is His Works teach us to spell his Word teacheth us to read The first are as it were his back parts by which we behold him a far off The latter shews him to us face to face The World is as a book consisting of three leaves and every leaf Printed with many Letters and every Letter a Lecture The leaves Heaven the Air and Earth with the Water The Letters in Heaven every Angel Star and Planet In the Air every Meteor and Soul In the Earth and Waters every Man Beast Plant Fish and Mineral all these set together spell to us that there is a God and the Apostle saith no less though in less space Rom. 1. 20. For the * * * In the Syrian translation it is the hid things of God invisible things of him that is his eternal Power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the World being considered in his Works And so David Psal. 19. 1. It is not for nothing that God hath set the Cabinet of the Universe open but it is because he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure Neither is it for nothing that he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure but because he hath given us Hearts to admire upon our beholding If we mark not the Works of God we are like Stones that have no Eyes wherewith to behold If we wonder not at the Works of God when we mark them we are like Beasts that have no Hearts wherewith to admire And if we praise not God for his Works when we admire them we are like Devils that have no Tongues wherewith to give thanks Remarkable is the story of the poor old man whom a Bishop found most bitterly weeping over an ugly Toad being asked the reason of his Tears his answer was I weep because that whereas God might have made me as ugly and filthy a creature as this Toad and hath not I have yet never in all my life been thankful to him for it If the works of the Creation would but lead us to this one Lecture our labour of observing them were well bestowed How much more
c. * Doves how offered 935 Dreams intimating various events 20 Dreamers and Interpreters of Dreams were common among the Jews even the most Learned of them taught their Scholars this sort of delusion 371 Drink Offering what 938 939 Drought mingled with fire from Heaven 92 Drought or want of Rain great 116 Dust shaking dust off the feet what p. 291. Dust that was to be put into the Water of Jealousie whence to be taken 1080. * E. EARTH burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation p. 338. Earth new Earth and new Heaven denote the new State of the Church under the Gospel 338 Earthly and Heavenly Things what as used by Christ. 576 Easter how old its celebration 548 Edom by this term the Hebrew Writers commonly express the Romans 349 Egyptian Deities what 1027 Elders one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers p. 223. They were Ordained by Imposition of Hands p. 289. They were of two sorts in every Synagogue one that ruled in Civil Affairs another that laboured dayly in the Word and Doctrine p. 302. This should be imitated in the Christian Churches Christ and the Apostles keeping close to the Platform of the Synagogue p. 302. Their several Qualifications p. 308. Both Peter and John stile themselves Elders intimating that the Apostick Function must ceâ—se but the Ministerial abide p. 340. Every Synagogue had two Elders one that ruled that was a Student in Divinity another that was the Minister of the Congregation called the Angel of the Church and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Overseer 611 612 Elders for Seniors and Senators of some of the Tribes 760 Eldest son a younger reckoned for eldest 384 Elements melting and Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation Page 338 Elias his History p. 82. What opinions the Rabbins had of his first and second coming with his Estate after his first departure and his frequent invisible coming as at every Circumcision c. p. 522 523. What he shall do at his second visible coming p. 523 524. Also multitudes of Ancient and Modern Christian Writers have asserted that before Christs second coming Enoch and Elias should come again visibly to destroy Antichrist to Convert the Jews c. confuted 524 Elisha his History 86 87 Elohim denotes distinction of Persons in the Trinity 394 Elymas which is the same in sense with Magus was a Magical Jew who with tricks and wonders went up and down confronting the Gospel 289 Emblem of the Divine Glory at the Temple mentioned in several Scriptures explained p. 2052 to 2060. * The Moral of it 2055 to 2060* Emmanuel Nomen Naturae 419 End coming Matth. 24. 14. And the coming of the Lord drawing nigh and the Judge standing at the door expressions only shewing destruction and vengeance upon Jerusalem drawing near 332 333 335 End of things the Heavens passing away the Elements melting and the Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation 338 England some remarkable Things referring to its antient State p. 328. It was invaded by the Roman General and afterwards by his Master Claudius the Emperor An. Dom. 44. p. 888. England and these parts of the World was planted by Javans posterity 996 Enochs Prophesie was some common Tradition among the Jews p. 339. Enoch many Christian Writers hold that he and Elias should visibly come again to destroy Antichrist and to convert the Jews before the second coming of Christ. 524 Ephah what sort of Measure 545 546 Ephod of the High Priest what 727 905 Epicurus was a term used among the Jews for such as despised the Doctors 297 Epiphany or the Wise-mens coming to Christ on the thirteenth day after his birth or within forty days shewed to be improbable and that they came not till about two years after his Birth 432 to 434 Episcopus an Overseer is a Synagogue Term so are most of his Qualifications fetched thence p. 308. So the Angel or Minister in the Synagogue stood over those that read to see that they read right hence called Chasan that is Episcopus Overseer c. 375 611 to 618 Epistle from Laodicea is an Epistle from that Church to Paul 326 Er and Hezekiah were born when their Fathers were very young 105 Esau all hairy when born like a kid 14 Eser but an additional Title for the Assyrian Monarchs 104 Esseans though they differed from other Hereticks yet they harmonized with the rest to oppose the Gospel and Christianity p. 373. Their Original Name Quality and Principles 457 458 459 Evangelists one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers 223 Eunuch his Conversion and who he was 281 Eutyches and Valentius averred Christ to have only a Body in appearance confuted 397 Execution of Malefactors among the Jews was attended by their bewailing p. 268. Where and how performed 2006 2007. * Ezra the Sacred Writer considered as President of the Sanhedrin with the time of his Death 2007 2008. * Exorcists Vagabond Jews that went up and down to oppose the Gospel with Magical Tricks p. 289. See Barjesus Expiation day what service belonged to it the High Priest was ingaged in all the Service of it p. 971. The Scape Goat was the principal business besides other Offerings p. 971 c. It was a strict Fasting day Page 972 F. FAction Division and Schism producing sad Effects in the Church of Corinth some of them mentioned Page 301 to 304 Faith it makes improbable things to be accepted of God p. 49. Jewish and Evangelical what p. 247. Faith why set after Repentance 630 Fall of Man p. 2. Of Adam 1022 Fan of Christ is the Gospel with the Preaching and Publishing thereof 468 Fasting and Praying used in the Synagogues p. 925. Of Christ wonderful considering the Time Place his present Posture he fasted nights as well as days 502 503 Fasting Day the Day of Expiation was a strict Fasting Day 792 Fasts of the Captived Jews were kept in several Months p. 143. Publick Fasts what p. 288. They were upon important Occasions used by the Jews 289 Fathers what to teach their Children 295 Festivals Three principal ones The Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles all the Men that were Free were to appear at them 950 951 Feast Governour of the Feast who he was called Architriclinus He was not the same with the Symposiarchus the Governour or Moderator of the Heathen Feasts p. 547. Feast of Tabernacles the Actions attending it p. 243. The Nature Occasion and Reasons of its Institution p. 477. Feast of Charity or Agapae what 315 Feasting among the Jews was performed upon Beds 539. Marg. Feasts Women were not bound to appear at the three solemn Feasts of the Jews yet they usually did 956 Feet anointed of ordinary use among the Jews 252 Felix shewed to be an ill Man 320 Figs ripened at differing seasons 253 First Fruits and first Fruit Sheaf the way of gathering and offering them 969
of which he was the chief Minister or that of the Gentiles concerning which the discourse here is principally of unto which he made the first entrance by the Gospel VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I will give thee the Kyes of the Kingdom of Heaven THAT is Thou shall first open the door of Faith to the Gentiles He had said that he would build his Church to endure for ever against which the gates of Hell should not prevail which had prevailed against the Jewish Church and to thee O Peter saith he I will give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven that thou mayst open a door for the bringing in the Gospel to that Church Which was performed by Peter in that remarkable story concerning Cornelius Act. X. And I make no doubt that those words of Peter respect these words of Christ Act. XV. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel by my mouth and believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth c. I. We believe the Keys were committed to Peter alone but the power of binding and loosing to the other Apostles also Ch. XVIII 18. II. It is necessary to suppose that Christ here spake according to the Common people or he could not be understood without a particular Commentary which is no where to be found III. But now To bind and loose a very usual Phrase in the Jewish Schools was spoken of things not of persons which is here also to be observed in the Articles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What and Whatsoever Chap. XVIII One might produce thousands of Examples out of their writings We will only offer a double Decad the first whence the frequent use of this word may appear the second whence the sense may 1. k k k k k k Hieros Jom Tob. fol. 60. 1. R. Iochanan said to those of Tiberias Why have ye brought this Elder to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever I loose he binds whatsoever I bind he looseth 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Id. ibid. fol. 60. 1. Thou shalt neither bind nor loose 3. m m m m m m Id. ibid. fol. 63. 1. Nachum the brother of R. Illa asked R. Iochanan concerning a certain matter To whom he answered Thou shalt neither bind nor loose 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n n n n n n Bab. Megillah fol 26. 7. This man binds but the other looseth 5. o o o o o o Hieros Orlah fol. 61. 2. R. Chaiia said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever I have bound to you eliswhere I 'le loose to you here 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p p p p p p Id. Schabb. fol. 16. 4. Bab. Avodah Zarah fol. 7. 1. He asked one wise man and he bound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not ask another wise man lest perhaps he loose 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q q q q q q Demai cap. 6. hal 11. Maimon in Gezelah cap. 4. The mouth that bindeth is the mouth that looseth 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r r r r r r Tosaphta in Jevam. cap. 1. Although of the Disciples of Shammai and those of Hillel the one bound and the other loosed yet they forbad not but that these might make purifications according to the others 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s s s s s s Id. ib. cap. 4. A wise man that judgeth judgment defileth and cleanseth that is he declares defiled or clean he looseth and bindeth The same also is in t t t t t t In Mamrim cap. 1. Maimonides 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether is it lawful to go into the necessary house with the Phylacteries only to piss u u u u u u Bab. Berac fol. 23. 1. Rabbena looseth and Rabh Ada bindeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 x x x x x x Hieros Horaioth fol. 48. 3 The Mystical Doctor who neither bindeth nor looseth The other Decad shall shew the phrase applied to things 1. y y y y y y Pesachin cap. 4. hal 5. In Iudea they did servile works on the Passover Eve that is on the day going before the Passover until noon but in Galilee not But that which the School of Shammai binds until the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The School of Hillel looseth until the rising of the Sun 2. z z z z z z Ibid. cap. 6. hal 2. A festival day may teach us this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which they loosed by the notion of a servile work killing and boiling c. as the Gloss notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in which they bound by the notion of a Sabbatism that is as the same Gloss speaks The bringing in some food from without the limits of the Sabbath 3. a a a a a a Hieros Schab fol. 4. 1. They do not send Letters by the hand of a Heathen on the Eve of the Sabbath no nor on the fifth day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea the School of Shammai binds it even on the fourth day of the week but the School of Hillel looseth it 4. b b b b b b Id. ibid. They do not begin a voyage in the great Sea on the Eve of the Sabbath no nor on the fifth day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea the School of Shammai binds it even on the fourth day of the week but the School of Hillel looses it 5. c c c c c c Id ibid. fol. 6. 1. To them that bathe in the hot Baths on the Sabbath-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bind washing and they loose sweating 6. d d d d d d Id. ibid. fol. 7. 4. Women may not look into a Looking-glass on the Sabbath-day if it be fixed to a wall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi loosed it but the wise men bound it 7. e e e e e e Id. ibid. fol. 10. 2. Concerning the moving of empty vessels on the Sabbath-day of the filling of which there is no intention the School of Shammai binds it the School of Hillel looseth it 8. f f f f f f Id. Jom Tob. fol. 61. 1. Concerning gathering wood on a feast-day scattered about a field the School of Shammai binds it the School of Hillel looseth it 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g g g g g g Rab. Sanhedr fol. 100. 1. They never loosed to us a Crow nor bound to us a Pigeon 10. h h h h h h Truma cap. 5. hal 4. Doth a Seah of unclean Truma fall into an hundred Seahs of clean Truma The School of Shammai binds it the School of Hillel looseth it There are infinite
that he saith he knew not that day and hour of the destruction of Jerusalem yea it excellently agrees with his Office and Deputation who being the Fathers Servant Messenger and Minister followed the orders of the Father and obeyed him in all things The Son knoweth not that is It is not revealed to him from the Father to reveal to the Church Revel I. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him We omit enquiring concerning the Knowledge of Christ being now raised from death whether and how far it exceeded his knowledg while yet he conversed on earth It is without doubt that being now raised from the dead he merited all kind of Revelation See Revel V. 9. And they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain c. and that he conversing on earth before his death acted with the vigor of the Holy Spirit and of that unspeakable holiness which flowed from the Union of the Humane Nature with the Divine the Divine Nature in the mean time suspending its infinite activity of Omnipotence So that Christ might work miracles and know things to come in the same manner as the Prophets also did namely by the Holy Ghost but in a larger measure and might overcome the Devil not so much by the Omnipotence of the Divine Nature as by the infinite holiness of his Person and of his obedience So that if you either look upon him as the Minister and Servant of God or if you look upon the constitution as I may so call it and condition of his Person These words of his Of that day and hour knoweth not the Son also carry nothing of incongruity along with them yea do excellently speak out his substitution as a Servant and the constitution of his Person as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man The reason why the Divine Wisdom would have the time of the destruction of Jerusalem so concealed is well known to it self but by men since the time of it was unsearchable the reason certainly is not easie to be searched We may conjecture that the time was hid partly lest the Godly might be terrified with the sound of it as 2 Thes. II. 2. partly that the Ungodly and those that would be secure might be taken in the snares of their own security as Mat. XXIV 38. But let secret things belong to God CHAP. XIV VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Spikenard WHAT if I should render it Nardinum Balaninum Nardin of Balanus Nardin a a a a a a Pliny lib. 13. cap. 1. consists of Omphacium Balaninum Bulrush Nard Amomum Myrrhe Balsame c. And again b b b b b b Idem lib. 12. cap. 21. Myrobalanum is common to the Troglodytes and to Thebais and to that part of Arabia which divides Judea from Egypt a growing oyntment as appears by the very name whereby also is shewn that it is the maste of a tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all know among the Greeks is Glans Maste or an Acorn so also is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pistaca among the Talmudists There are prescribed by the Talmudists c c c c c c Bab. Gittin fol. 69. 1. various remedies for various diseases among others this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a Pluriâ—ie or as others will have it A certain disease of the head Take to the quantity of the Maste of Aâ—moniac The Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the maste of Cedar The Aruch saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the grain of a fruit which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glans The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nard is Hebrew from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nerd and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Syriac from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pistaca So that the Oyntment might be called Unguentum Balaninum Balanine oyntment in the composition of which Nard and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maste or Myrobalane were the chief ingredients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poured it upon his head In Talmâ—dic Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Bab. Chetubh fol. 17. 2. What are the Testimonies that the woman married is a Virgin If she goes forth to be married 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a veil let down over her eyes yet with her head not veiled The scattering of nâ—ts is also a testimony These are in Judea but what are in Babylon Rabh saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If oyntment be â—pon the head of the Rabbins The Gloss is the women poured oyntment upon the heads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Scholars and anoynted them Rabh Papa said to Abai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Does that Doctor speak of the aromatic oyntment used in bridg-chambers The Gloss is Are the Rabbins such to be anoynted with such Oyntments He answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Orphan that is O thou unacquainted with the Customs Did not thy â—other pour out oyntment for you at thy wedding upon the heads of the Rabins Thus a certain Rabâ—in got a wife for his son in the house of Rabbah bar Ulla and they said to him Rabbah bar ulla also got a wife in the house of a certain Rabbin for his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he poured out oyntment upon the heads of the Rabbins From the Tradition produced it may be asked whether it were customary in Judea to wet the heads of the Rabbins with oyntments in the marriages of Virgins as it was in Babylon Or whether it were so customary otherwise to anoynt their heads as that such an anoynting at weddings were not so memorable a matter as it was in Babylon Certainly in both places however they anoynted mens heads for healths sake it was accounted unfitting for Rabbins to smell of aromatical oyntments e e e e e e Hieros Berac fol. 11. 2. It is undecent say the Jerusalem Talmudists for a Scholar of the Wise men to smell of spices And you have the judgment of the Babylonians in this very place when it is enquired among them and that as it were with a certain kind of disatisfaction whether Rabbins be such as that they should be anoynted with aromatical oyntments as the more nice sort are wont to be anoynted From this opinion every where received among them you may more aptly understand why the other Disciples as well as Judas did bear the lavish of the oyntment with some indignation He out of wicked covetousness but they partly as not willing that so precious a thing should be lost and partly as not liking so nice a custom should be used towards their Master from which the Masters of the Jews themselves were so averse And our Saviour taking off the envy of what was done applies this anoynting to his burial both in his intention and in the intention of the woman that it might not seem to be done out
insist That our Saviour held in Communion with the Church of the Iews in which he lived in the publick exercise of Religion And I might add in conformity to the common custom of the Nation in Civil Converse An Observation that the Text plainly affordeth those considerations laid to it that I have mentioned For look upon this Feast as a thing of Religion and Religious Observation he is present at it as holding Communion with the Church in the publick exercise of Religion or look upon it only as a civil Commemoration and of a civil Institution he is present at it because he kept in conformity with the common customs of the Nation in civil Converse I begin with the former And we are upon a Subject very seasonable in these times of our great Divisions and Separations and not unseasonable for your Meeting and Feast of Love and Unity And I know no point that may more usefully and profitably be studied and looked into toward the reconciling our great Separations than this if so be the example of our Saviour be of Authority and value with us For clearing the way of our discourse let me first Observe these things to you I. That when I say he held Communion in the publick exercise of Religion I mean their National Religion by which indeed they were a National Church A National Religion and a National Church are phrases that will not now be allowed of by many among Christians though they will allow them for current among the Jews Though indeed there can be no clear reason given of the difference T is true indeed that no Nation can now be said to be a National Church in that restriction that the Jews were who were so a National Church that no people were of the Church besides yet is there the very same cause that made them a National Church that may make other Nations so now Their being a peculiar people did not make them a National Church for that made them only an only Church Nor did their Ceremonial Rites in Religion make them a National Church for that made them only a distinct Nation But that that did properly make and denominate them a National Church was the Worship of God and the exercise of Religion went through the whole Nation And I see not why Christian Nations where there is the very same reason may not also cary the very same name In the Apostles times indeed there was no National Church of the Gospel and that is most true that they plead that hold the contrary to what I assert namely that it is not said the Church of Achaia the Church of Galatia Indaea Macedonia c. but the Churches And there is very good reason why it is so said For those whole Nations had not yet received the Gospel but as there was a Christian Church in one place so there was a Heathen Temple in another and a Jewish Synagogue in another nay it may be three for one ten for one But when the whole Nation came to profess the Gospel and there were no Church but Christian then whole Achaia whole Macedonia c. were National Churches Observe that in Esay XIX 24 25. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the Earth When the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying Blessed be Egypt my people c. Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance Israel was a National Church because the whole Nation professed Religion and Worshipped God Egypt and Assyria could not be called so when Heathen Temples and Idolatrous Worship and Jews Synagogues and Judaismes were intermixed but when all Egypt and all Assyria came to own the same Religion and Worship of God in the way of the Gospel why might they not hear the same name of National Churches as well as Israel We mean then that Christ held Communion with the Church of the Jews in the publick exercise of that Religion which was the seated and fixed Religion of the Nation and which went through the Nation II. The Religion of the Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans was not the National Religion but Sects and excrescences from it therefore it no whit denies Christ Communicating with the Religion of the Nation though he did not Communicate with the Religion of these Sects You may take up in your thoughts the whole Nation of the Jews when Christ came among them in two parts and you may very well so take them up under the representation of an overflowing flood Let Jordan their own River be the instance It is said in Jos. III. 15. That Jordan overflowed his banks all barley harvest Then a great part of the water ran in the channel and another part flowed over the banks and wasted what was in the way So the greatest part of the Nation kept in the channel of their National Religion and a great part namely these Sects overflowed the bounds went beyond the proper current especially the first and the last and spoiled all with overdoing Now out of whether of these two parts did Christ gather those thousands nay those several ten thousands as Act. XXI 20. that came into the profession of the Gospel Some indeed from among those Sects but the far greatest part from among them that kept in the channel of the National Religion For observe what sad doom the Scripture passes upon those Sects severally and jointly The Pharisees single Christ curseth and denounceth wo against Matth. XXIII over and over again The Pharisees and Sadducees together John proclaimeth a generation of Vipers Matth. III. The Pharisees and Sadducees and Esseans altogether the three evil Shepherds that mislead the people Christ professeth that he hated them as they did him Zech. XI 8. Now it is no wonder if Christ Communicated not with the Religion of them that were so abominable in themselves and to him and their Religion so wild and it had been a wonder if he should not have Communicated with them to whom he came more especially to be a Minister and from among whom he was to gather so great an harvest And now having premised these things to come to prove and clear the assertion before us we shall first consider the obligations that lay upon Christ and bound him to hold Communion with the Church wherein he lived and the examples and instances that shew he did so The former will evince de jure the latter de facto I. Need I to prove that Christ was a member of the Church of the Jews And if that be granted it can hardly be denied that he was bound to keep Communion with the Church of which he was a member The Apostle in Rom. IX 5. tells us that Christ was of the blood of the Jews and was he of their Nation only and not of their Church He was Minister of the Circumcision and was he not of the Church of which he was Minister II. I need as little to
otherwise where had their expectation been The verses immediately before speak nothing but devastation and ruine of Heaven and Earth and if there had been nothing beyond that to be looked after their hopes and expectancy had been ruined also but we says our Apostle look for new Heavens and a new Earth But of what nature they is all the question I doubt some men construe these words of the Apostle as far distant from his sense almost as the Earth is distant from the Heavens whilst they conceive from hence that after the dissolution of all things yet there shall be a renewing of Heaven and Earth and they shall be as before as to their substance and form only their quality changed To this they apply Rom. VIII 19 20. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God c. They would make our Apostle say Sibboleth whether he will or no whereas he speaks Shibboleth plain enough to a far differing sense For the discovery of his meaning have patience a little whilst I make this observation clear unto you which may be useful to you in reading several places of Scripture That the ruine and destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish commonwealth and oeconomy is set forth in Scripture in such expressions as if it were the destruction and dissolution of the whole world Moses beginneth this stile in Deut. XXXII 22. where he is speaking of that vengeance For a fire is kindled in mine anger and it shall burn to the lowest hell and it shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains Would you not think that the dissolution of all things were in mention Look upon the context and you find it to mean no other than the destruction of that Nation Jeremy yet higher Chap. IV. 23. I beheld the earth and â—o it was without form and void and the heavens and they had no light You would think all the world were returning there to her old chaos again Add yet further I beheld the mountains and lo they trembled and all the hills moved lightly I beheld and lo there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled You would think that the whole universe were dissolving but look but in the 27 vers and it speaks no other than the dissolution of that people For thus hath the Lord said The whole land shall be desolate Our Saviour yet higher Matth. XXIV 29. The sun shall be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man c. who would not conclude that these expressions mean no other thing in the world than the last dissolution of the World and Christs coming to Judgment yet look well upon the context and it speaketh plainly that the meaning is only of the dissolving of the Jews City and State and Christ speaks it out most plainly at vers 34. where he afferts that that present generation should not pass till all those things were fulfilled The beloved Disciple follows his Masters stile upon the very same subject in the sixth of his Revelation where after he had described the means of the destruction of this wretched people under the opening of certain seals by Sword Famine and Plague he comes at last in vers 12 13 14. to speak their final dissolution it self in the very like terms The Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the Moon became as blood And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth and the Heavens departed as a scroll that is rolled together and every mountain and Island were removed out of their places One would think the final dissolution of all the world were spoken of but look in the 16th verse and you find the very same words that our Saviour applies to the destruction of that people Luke XXIII 30. They said unto the mountains fall on us and hide us c. Our Apostle Peters meaning is no other in the expression before my Text where when he speaks of the Heavens being dissolved by fire the Earth and the works therein burnt up and the elements melting with fervent heat he intends no other thing then the dissolving of their Church and oeconomy by firy vengance the consumption of their State by the flame of Gods indignation and the ruine of their elements of Religion by Gods fury Not the Elements in Aristotles sense of Fire Air Earth and Water but the Elements in his brother Pauls sense whom he mentions presently after my Text the carnal and beggerly Elements of their Mosaick rites and traditionary institutions By this time you plainly see in what sense The new Heavens and the new Earth is to be taken in the Text but for the fuller and clearer understanding of these things still give me yet a little further patience to shew you that as the destruction of that old World of the Jewish people and oeconomy is uttered by such expressions as if it were the destruction of the whole universe so the times going near before and concurrents going along with that destruction are phrased by expressions also sutable And this I shall observe to you in four heads I. There is much mention of the last days in Scripture which in most places is not to be understood of the last days of the World as some take them and so mistake but of the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish State And indeed the greatest mercies that were promised to that people were promised to occur in those last days as Esa. II. 2. Hos. III. 5. Joâ—l II. 28. as he is cited by this our Apostle Act. II. 17. these things are not to be allotted to the last days of the World but to the last days of that City as Peters very allegation out of Joel makes it plain if there were no more proof Now saith he is fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel In the last days I will pour out c. These are the last days there intended and now the thing hath received its accomplishment For how improper is it to construe him in such a sense as some do This is that which Joel foretold should come to pass in the last days of the world two or three thousand years hence And so on the contrary the worst of men and times are foretold to be in those last days of Jerusalem because they did not improve those mercies I Tim. IV. 4. and II Tim. III. 1. and our Apostle in the third verse of this Chapter let the Apostle John explain all I Joh. II. 18. Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time II. In such a sense are such Phrases as these to be understood I Cor. X. 11. Upon
Church of God That Jerusalem for that fact should be a curse a hissing and an everlasting desolation and that Rome that was as guilty every whit should be a blessing a renown and the prime Church of all Churches Let a Papist solidly unriddle me this and he says something And to speak to what he pleads we may first answer with that common saying Ubi lex II. non distinguit c. what the Word of God doth not distinguish we are not to make any distinction about but of any differences of qualities twixt Rome Heathen and Papal the Word of God doth not distinguish unless it shew the Papal to be the worse of the two In this Chapter indeed it distinguishes of the change of state and government from Imperial to Pontifical but for mischievousness and abomination there is no such distinction Rome Heathen in the beginning of the Chapter is a Beast like a Leopard with feet like a Bear and a mouth like a Lion And Rome Papal at vers 11. a beast like a Lamb but it speaks like a Dragon and exerciseth all the power of the former Beast and is not behind it a whit in wickedness and cruelty A Lamb in shew but a Dragon a Devil in speech and the very former beast in demeanor the former beast had the mouth of a Lion this of a Dragon the former bad this worse And look but at several places that speak of this City and you find they speak of it without any such distinction of quality but that Rome all along is her self i. e. stark naught till her latter end and till she perish The first time you meet with any hint of Rome in Scripture is Numb XXIV 24. And I. ships shall come from the coast of Chittim and shall afflict Asshur and shall afflict Eber and he also shall perish for ever Where by Chittim that Rome and Italy are meant it is the consent both of Jews and Christians both of Protestants and Papists and the very intent and story of the passage doth so enforce it to be taken And the words shew how Ships and Souldiers from Rome should afflict and conquer Assyria who had been once the great afflicter and that they should afflict and conquer Heber or the Hebrews the afflicted people yea afflict Christ the chief child of Heber for Rome as I said put him to death All which History sheweth to be most true And he also that is Chittim Rome or Italy shall perish for ever The word also parallels her perdition with Amaleck of which there is mention vers 20. Amaleck was the first of the Nations that is he was the first of the Nations that fought against Israel Exod. XVII and that Nation shall perish for ever So Chittim or Rome is the last of the Nations that shall afflict Heber and the Israel of God and he also shall perish for ever Now do you find any such distinction here as that Rome Papal should be holy blessed and the most excellent Church in the World when the conclusion the period of Chittim is that he shall perish for ever And the last time that there is discourse in Scripture of Rome it makes this distinction II. indeed of the state and government of it that Rome Heathen is the Beast and Papal is the false Prophet but it leaves both under the same condemnation and perishing for ever Revel XIX 20. And the Beast was taken and the false Prophet And both these were taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone Antichrist in Scripture is charactered under the character of Apostasie or falling away III. from the Truth 2 Thes. II. 3 4. There must be a falling away first and then the Man of sin shall be revealed And Rev. IX 1. I saw a star fall from Heaven unto the Earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the Air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit And there came out of the smoke Locusts upon the Earth c. He that lets Hell loose and opens the bottomless pit and le ts out smoke that darkneth all the World and le ts out Locusts that devour all before them He is a Star a Churchman an Angel a Minister of the Church as Chap. I. 20. The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches but a Star fallen from Heaven a Minister apostatized and revolted from the Truth or else he would not rightly resemble his father the Devil who abode not in the truth but fell from it and became an enemy Now let any one judge whether Rome Heathen or Papal be this apostatized wretch and whether of them hath departed from the truth Rome Heathen never embraced the truth and so could never fall from it Rome Papal hath done it with a witness And lastly That much mistaken place in Revel XX. speaks to this very tenour we are IV. upon First The old Dragon which is the Devil and Satan is bound by Christ a thousand years that he should no more deceive the Nations vers 3. The old Serpent had deceived the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heathen for above two thousand years with Idolatry false miracles false oracles and with all blindness of superstition Now Christ sending the Gospel by his Apostles and Ministers among the Heathen or Gentiles bound the Devil and imprisoned him curbed his power and delusion that he should not deceive the World in manner as he had done but the World now becomes Christian and Heathenism is done away and this is there called the first Resurrection viz. the Resurrection of the dead Heathen as Ephes. II. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And Joh. V. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Well thus the Devil is bound a thousand years during which time the Gospel runs through the World and prevails and makes it Christian. At vers 7. the Devil is let loose again and by Popery he makes the World as blind deluded heathenish as it had been in the worst times under Heathenism And it were no hard thing out of History to shew that Rome Papal did equal nay exceed Rome Heathen in all blindness wickedness cruelty uncleanness and in all manner of abomination But an hour a day a week would not serve the turn to describe that full Parallel The Text gives a full summary of all though in few words when it tells us that the Dragon the Devil gave his power seat and authority to Rome and it hath and doth and will act in that spirit while it is Rome and can any thing but mischief be expected from such a spirit This days memorial is evidence enough instead of more A Plot and Design of
condemnation The ceremonial Law was given by Moses a ministration of types and shadows but truth came by Jesus Christ substantiating and resolving all III. Look into the Gospel it self It is the greatest and most Divine truth that can be given And as the Devil when he brought in the Heathen Religion brought in the greatest lie that could be imposed upon men So when God brought in the Gospel he brought in the greatest Truth that could be received by men And should I exceed my bounds if I said The greatest Truth that could be revealed by God For what could God reveal to mortal men more than he hath done in it himself his Son his Spirit his Grace his Salvation More than what is revealed in the Gospel shall never be revealed to men on this side Heaven And is not Heaven it self revealed very plainly in it And yet there are men in the Text and men in the World that make it their work to resist this Truth This light to lighten Gentiles they would put out This glory of the people Israel they would corrupt and this great and Divine Oracle of God they would silence and stop its mouth Very fitly resembled in the Emblem where the candle being lighted and set up the Devil the Turk the Pope and a company of Hereticks and Persecutors set with all their earnestness and indeavour to blow it out More than an Emblem of such an indeavour was the great plot and design of this day from the stroke of which we are here met to render our acknowledgment and thanksgiving An indeavour to have blown up and blown out the Truth of God and the purity and power of the Gospel out of this nation for ever In the words before us you plainly see two things an Act and the Agents resisting of the Truth and the men that resisted it But do you not also observe one out of sight or behind the vail viz. the providence of God looking on and permitting such a thing to be done A mystery of iniquity in the cursed acting of the persons and a mystery of providence and dispensing in suffering them so to act I. Concerning the persons and their acting The Truth might take up the complaint and expostulation of David It was not an open enemy that did me this evil for then I should have born it neither was it an open adversary that magnified himself against me for then peradventure I might have hid my self from him but it was thou my companion and familiar which took counsel with me together and we walked to the House of God as friends He that eateth at my table hath lift up his heel against me These men and the Truth or Gospel had been old acquaintance they had conversed and been familiar together they had taken counsel together and gone to Church too as friends but now they become her enemies because she is Truth They had approved the Gospel been initiated into it profest it and it may be some of them had preached it but now they become its enemy because she is Truth They had once received the knowledge of the Truth but now they wilfully sin against it Heb. X. 26. They had once known the way of Righteousness but now were utterly turned away from it 2 Pet. II. 21. They had once run well as Gal. III. but now they run clear counter to what they had done and seek to destroy the Gospel which they had once professed and resist the Truth with as much nay more fervency and earnestness than ever they owned it It was Pauls honour and comfort that He now preached the Gospel which he once destroyed Gal. I. 22. but it was these wretches dread and condemnation that they destroyed the Gospel which they once preached That general Apostasie or revolting from Truth that was then in the Church brought forth twins of a clear contrary complexion as different as Jacob and Esau if I may use Jacobs name with such persons when both of them are of the manners and conditions of Esau and you could hardly tell which of them was the worse For some Apostatized to pure Judaisme some to meer or worse than Heathenism some to dote upon the rites of Moses and to look to be justified by the works of the Law and to betake themselves to a Pharisaical austerity hoping thereby to be justified Others revolted to all loosness of life and Atheism abusing the liberty of the Gospel to libertinism and turning the grace of God into wantonness and accounting all things lawful that might content the flesh and please a carnal mind Now the Apostles give intimation of both these and sadly complain and invey against them I need not to particularize he that runs may read it more especially in the Epistle to the Galatians concerning the former and in 2 Pet. II. and Jude concerning the latter I might speak how these wretches did resist the Gospel or what instruments or machinations they used for the opposing of it As 1. Venting damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Devils as our two Apostles tell us 1 Tim. III. 1. 2 Pet. II. 2. Using the trade of Jannes and Jambres conjuration and sorcery and lying miracles as our Law had foretold Matth. XXIV 24. That they should shew signs and wonders to deceive the very elect if it were possible And the Apostle tells it was so as our Saviour had foretold 2 Thes. II. 9. That the coming of this mystery of iniquity was according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders 3. They used the trade that the Roman Emperors afterward used of bitter sharp and cruel persecution Of which you have several memorials in the Epistles ravening Wolves breaking into the Church in sheeps clothing and making sad havock of the flock all before them This was the judgment that begun at the house of God 1 Pet. IV. 17. The hour of temptation that came upon all the Earth Rev. III. 10. I might by the way observe How far a man may fall from the true profession of the Gospel viz. so far as to become the worst of men and the Gospels most bitter enemy And that the bitterest enemies of the Gospel have ever been some that have pretended to the Gospel Persecution never did that mischief in the Church that Heresie hath done And the sorest wounds that the Gospel ever received were like his in Zach. in the house of her friends but this I shall not insist on You see Jannes and Jambres have here met with their match but is there any match to be found for these men that have matched them Yes look at Rome and you find them there As many Protestants and Papists by the last days do indeed understand the last days of the World So many Protestant Divines do attribute all the characters of those wretched men to the Papacy And indeed they are so like that it is no wonder if they be not clearly discerned asunder Though the Papacy would