he saith to him but his words are aimed at them all Amen Amen I say to you Ye shall see c. He applyeth his speech to all in general though he spake more singularly as the Text telleth to Nathaneel in prosecution of the discourse that had been betwixt them before Now the main difficulty of this speech lyeth in this in what sense to understand the opening of the Heavens and where and how these Disciples saw the Angels ascending and descending upon Christ The words are capable of a double construction and some give them the one and some the other some understand them literally that the Disciples did at some times see the Heavens opened indeed as John the Baptist had done Luke 3. and the Angels ascending and descending upon Christ indeed though never a one of the Evangelists mention it And fair arguments and probability they shew for this which I shall not spend time to mention But others conceive the words are to be interpreted in a Metaphorical and borrowed sense and not according to the letter and so taken some interpret them one way some another I confess that I have stood at this place tanquam in bivio a very long time and can hardly tell which way to take both the interpretations of the thing both the literal and the tropical carrying so fair a colour and appearance with them But I cannot but incline to the latter namely to conceive that Christ here speaketh in a borrowed sense and by the opening of Heaven and the ascending and descending of Angels that he meaneth not historically that that very thing was to be done but mystically meaneth some thing else which he thought good to express by these borrowed phrases And that which mainly swayeth me that way is besides the silence of all the Evangelists that never mention such a thing really done the force and signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our English and Erasmus render it hereafter and so have left the time at a very large and uncertain scantling But the Syriack and the Vulgar render it from this time or henceforward and so it is most properly and naturally meaneth For it signifieth not only a date of time and some one action done after that date at a time uncertain but a continuance of such actions or things from that date forward Now our Saviours meaning in this phrase is that from this very time forward he would declare and shew himself in his Ministery gloriously and with power and henceforward should his Disciples see and perceive so much by glorious demonstrations of him that they might know that he was the Christ. His expressions of the Heavens opened and the Angels ascending and descending refer and allude to Ezekiels vision at Chebar Ezek. 1. 1. and to Jacobs at Bethel Gen. 23. two as glorious revelations of Christ as any vision the Old Testament mentioneth His meaning may be given in a paraphrase thus Nathaneel dost thou think it so great a matter that I could see thee though thou wert so close and private and secret under the figtree thou shalt see far greater things than these for I tell you all From this time forward I must begin to preach the Gospel and ye shall perceive that I have such knowledge of things as if heaven it self were open to me and such power of miracles and doing wonders as if the Angels were continually going on errands for me and doing my will And accordingly the Evangelist relateth that on the very next day he shewed a miracle at Cana in Galilee and manifested forth his glory and in the latter end of the same Chapter he speaketh of his miracles at Jerusalem and his knowledge of all men ver 24. So that henceforth Christs Ministery in preaching and doing miracles doth begin the place Cana the time some two months after his Baptism or thereabouts for ought is to be perceived from the Evangelists to the contrary § The Son of Man This title of Christ which is so frequent in the Evangelists and yet which is observable never but in his own words meaneth not only to express a man according to the Syrian Dialect then used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bar nosho nor only to express Christs humanity or that he was truly man in all things like unto us sin only excepted nor doth it only intimate his humility when he doth not disdain to call himself so oft by this humble name though it may have some aim at all these things but it seemeth to be used so oft by our Saviour concerning himself as intimating him to be the second Adam and referring to that promise that was made to Adam instantly after his fall of the seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents head And to this very purpose as we observed in its place the Evangelist Luke at the story of his Baptism when he was to be installed into his Minstery and had that glorious testimony from heaven deriveth his pedegree up to the first Adam to draw all mens eyes to that first promise and to cause them to own him for that seed there promised and for that effect that is there mentioned of dissolving the works of Satan And as that Evangelist giveth that hint when he his now entring this quarrel with Satan even in the entrance of his Ministery so doth he himself as he goeth along in it very frequently and commonly by this very phrase give the same intimation for the same purpose Nathaneel had proclaimed him the Son of God he instantly titles himself the Son of Man not only to shew his humanity for that Nathaneel was assured of by the words of Philip who calls him Jesus of Nazeret the son of Joseph but to resolve the thoughts of the hearers to the first promise and to lead them to look for restoring of that by this second Adam which was lost in the first To him was heaven shut upon his fall and he lost his former converse and attendance of Angels but ye shall see heaven open and the Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man that you may know that the second Adam is here It is true indeed that Ezekiel and Daniel are called either of them Son of Man Ezek. 2. 1. c. Dan. 8. 17. and that all men in general are called the sons of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 62. 9. as nomen naturae and so we deny not but this title doth denote and shew Christs humanity and may tell us to what honour God raised our nature in him But when he doth often stile himself by the title with such an Emphasis it draws the eyes and thoughts of all to meditate also and consider upon this further thing SECTION XIII S. JOHN CHAP. II. Christs first miracle changing of forms His first Passover AND a a a a a a The third day There is much difference whence to date this day whether from Johns last testimony of Christ or from
c c c Ioh. 20. 1. while it was yet dark Mary Magdalen and the other Mary d d d Ioh. 19. 25. the wife of Cleopas and e e e Luke 24. 10. Mark 15. 48. mother of James and Joses and f f f Mark 16. Salome g g g Compare Matth. 27. 56. Mark 15. 40. the mother of Zebedees children and h h h Luke 24. 10 Joanna the wife of Chusa Herods Steward and other women that were with them set out to see the Sepulchre and brought the Spices with them that they had prepared i i i Luke 8. 3. And as they went they k k k Mark 16. 3 said Who shall roul the Stone away for â—â— But when they came to the Sepulchre l l l Mark 16. 2. the Sun being by this time risen they found the stone rolled away For there had been m m m Matth. 28. 2 a great earthquake and the Angel of the Lord had descended from Heaven and rouled back the stone from the door and sate upon it as the Women came unto the Sepulchre they saw this n n n Mark 16. 5 Angel like a young man sitting on the right hand of the entry in in a long white robe and they were sore troubled o o o Matth. 28. 5 Mark 16. 6. But he said unto them Fear ye not I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here for he is risen come see the place where they laid him And p p p Luke 24. 3. they entred into the Cave and found not the Body in the Sepulchre but there they see q q q Ioh. 12. 12. two Angels more in shining garments the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body had lain r r r Luke 24. 5. who spake to them Why seek ye the dead among the living s s s Ibid. 9. Mark 16. 8. The Women having seen this go in hast and tell the Disciples t t t Joh. 20. 2 3 4 c. Whereupon Peter and John run to the Sepulchre and see the linnen cloaths but see not the Angels u u u Ibid. 10. 11. c. When they were gone home again Mary Magdalen who had again followed them to the Sepulchre standing at the door seeth the Angels again within and turning her self she seeth Jesus without whom at first she took for the Gardiner So that the first apparition of our Saviour being risen was to her alone Joh. 20. vers 1. Apparition 11. to 19. The same day he appeareth to the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. 13. the 2. Apparition one of them was Cleopas vers 18. the Father of James and Joses and the husband of the other Mary Compare John 19. 25. and Matth. 15. 40. and the other was Simon Peter Luke 24. 34. 1 Cor. 15. 5. That night he appeareth to the twelve as the Apostle calls them 1 Cor. 15. 5. or to the 3. Apparition eleven and them that were with them Luke 24. 36 39. John 20. 19 20. and sheweth them his hands and feet and eateth a piece of broiled fish and an honey-comb with them Luke 24. 43. Eight days after he appeareth to the Disciples and convinceth Thomas Joh. 20. 26. 4. Apparition At the Sea of Tiberias he appeareth again to seven of his Disciples and fore-telleth 5. Apparition Peter of his suffering for the Gospel Joh. 21. This John calleth his third appearing vers 24. namely which he had made to any number of his Disciples together and which John himself had mentioned On a mountain in Galilee he sheweth himself to the eleven Matth. 28. 16. and to five 6. Apparition hundred brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. 6. for so it may be supposed seeing Galilee and this mountain was the place of rendevouz that he had appointed not only from the time of his resurrection Matth. 28. 7. but even before his passion Matth. 26. 32. and to this convention seemeth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next verse to have reference of which in its proper place The Apostle mentioneth another appearance of his to James 1 Cor. 15. 7. But neither 7. Apparition do any of the Evangelists tell when or where it was nor make they mention of any such thing nor doth Paul determine which James it was Lastly He appeared to all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15. 7. being gathered to Jerusalem by 8. Apparition his appointment Acts 1. 4. and thence he led them forth to Bethany and was taken up Luke 24. 50. §. By many infallible Proofs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By many Signs say the Syrian and Arabick Arguments saith the Vulgar Latine But the word includeth Signs of undoubted truth and arguments of undoubted demonstration and accordingly hath our English well expressed it By infallible proofs These were very many exhibited and shewed by Christ which evidenced his resurrection and they may be reduced to these three purposes First To shew that he was truly alive again as his eating walking conferring and conversing with his Disciples Secondly To shew that he had a true and real body as offering himself to be handled as Luke 24. 39. Thirdly To shew that it was the same body that suffered when he sheweth the scars in his hands feet and sides as Joh. 20. 20 27. Every apparition that are reckoned before and are mentioned by the Evangelists had one or more of these demonstrations and yet were there certain appearances and divers such proofs which are not recorded Joh. 20. 30. §. Being seen of them forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophylact not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Christ was not continually conversing with his Disciples but he came among them at certain times Yet do the Syrian and Arabick translate it in Forty days Forty years after this a year for a day as Numb 14. 33 34. was Jerusalem destroyed and the Nation of the Jews rooted out because they would not believe in Christ who had so mightily declared himself to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead and who had so plainly declared his Resurrection from the dead by so many appearings and infallible proofs for forty days And that the sin might be fully legible in the Judgment they were besieged and closed up in Jerusalem at a Passover as at a Passover they had slain and crucified the Lord of life Now that this remarkable work of the Lords Justice upon this Nation in suiting their judgment thus parallel to their sin and unbelief in regard of these years and this time of the year may be the more conspicuous to the mind of the Reader for the present it will not be much amiss to lay down the times of the Roman Emperors from this time thitherto for even by their times and stories this time and truth may be measured and
The whole Quire of Angels sang and shouted for joy to see that great work of the Creator to go so wonderfully And it was worthy of all their shouting and singing and rejoycing But here is a business that God himself joyns himself with the Quire and rejoyces and triumphs with Angels too And what can move God and Christ and Angels to rejoyce but this Think seriously of this question What could move them to rejoyce but only this Look all the World through and think what in it might move joy in Heaven but this Gold and silver and wealth and earthly pomp is but a drug as we say reputed there And bring tidings of that and what is that to Heaven That that we so dote on that we are ready to venture Soul Body Eternity all for i. e. the pelf and prosperity of the World offer it to God Christ Angels or glorified Spirits by bags barns by heaps by mountains what are all these to Heaven As much despised as Earth is below Heaven No it could be none of these earthly treasures that moved the joy of Heaven nothing but the repentance of a sinner Most true God and Christ would be never the less blessed and holy and glorious if never man in the World should repent For God receiveth no addition from man but man from God And the blessed Angels would be never the less blessed and happy if never Person should repent For their happiness is Primitive and Original to them and not Accidental If all the World were in Hell what were God less in Majesty and Glory And what were the Angels less in blessedness and purity And therefore it is the more ravishing a consideration that God and Angels should rejoyce when any come to Heaven But the Repentance and Salvation of men is not a thing that God could not be without For he was the same God before there was a World that he will be for ever Nor is it a thing the Angels could not be without For the Angels were what they are before man was in being But God would not Angels would not be without mens repentance and salvation and as I may say with reverence they are not satisfied will not be satisfied without mens salvation The principle of this desiring is in the goodness of their own will not in any pinching urgency in their own want A poor miserable begger a poor miserable prisoner that the one should come to a better estate and the other obtain his liberty if we have any whit Divine or Angelick hearts we should wish it should be so and we should rejoyce if it were so but this not out of any pinching need we have of the bettering of their estate for we are not the worse while they are in poverty and prison and we should not be bettered by their being out But something within of Love Charity Pity and Goodness is that that moves us to desire their bettering at least should do And how many inward Principles as with reverence I may call them there are to move God and Christ and Angels so to desire mans repentance the way to his salvation not a small time would serve to discourse I shall only observe these two things concerning it First God created the World for Man and Man in the World more especially to shew and communicate his Goodness Consult Psal. CXXXVI and it will inform that the bottom of Gods design in creating all things was to impart his Mercy He made the Heavens Why Because his Mercy endureth for ever He stretcheth the Earth upon the Waters Why Because his Mercy endureth for ever That made two great Lights Because his Mercy endureth for ever c. Shewing all along that that which moved God to create the World was Mercy and because he would impart Mercy to the Creature especially Man for whom he created all things It is true that he Created the world to shew his Eternal Power and Godhead and so the Apostle intimates Rom. I. 20. But he created the World more especially to shew that which he meant to communicate which was his Mercy whereas his Eternal Power and Godhead he cannot so communicate But Secondly By the fall of man the brave workmanship and design of God is ruined Man that he created to be his servant is now become the Devils bondslave and he to whom he intended his mercy hath now utterly lost his mercy and is under the worst of misery Satan hath now got the day and all is his own but the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts will not suffer it Mercy doth not forsake poor man in misery but doth double it self and become Grace Mercy had made him of a condition happy Grace restores him from a condition miserable Mercy had made him able to do for himself and when that was lost Grace raiseth up Christ to do and suffer for him Mercy had made him partaker of the Divine Image Grace makes him partaker of the Divine Nature There is a Principle in God as I may call it that cannot but be moving for the good of man And a Principle in Angels that cannot but delight in that Principle of God I say that cannot but be moving when indeed the wheel that stirs all and necessitates that notion is only the goodness of God and the Love of Angels to Men. As the moving so the reason of the moving is within themselves Object Why then are not all men saved If there be such an essential moving in God for the good of Man why do not all men partake of that goodness And if such joy in Heaven for a sinners repentance why doth not God bring all the World to repentance For if he would he could do it and if he so delight in it why doth he not do it Answer I remember the saying of the Prophet The Lord is pleased for his righteousness sake to magnifie the Law and make it glorious As the Lord is pleased to magnifie his Grace in mans Salvation so God is pleased to magnifie the means of Grace and that man should magnifie the means of Grace or no Salvation God never intended that men should leap into Heaven without more ado but that they should take Jacobs ladder the means that he hath appointed to get up thither In that opposition that God sets in the Prophet betwixt his ways and mens ways Are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal he plainly directs to take his ways whosoever intends to come to him For it is not mans ways it is no other way that will bring to him Now the means of Grace and Salvation we may distinguish into what God hath afforded for mans direction and forewarning and what a man is to practise according to that direction The Word and Ordinances of God is that that God hath afforded for direction and forwarding And for the Practical means I shall mention but these three instead of more A mans striving to get clear from Satan his labouring to
14. for Trachonitus r. Trachonitis l. 57. for 23. r. c. 33. p. 452. l. ult for fonte Abila r. fonte Abila p. 446 447. in the top should be Luke Chap. 2. p. 454. Luke 3. for Matth. p. 742. for Cainite read Canaanite A Map of CANAAN According to D r. Lightfoot A Chronicle of the Times AND THE ORDER OF THE TEXTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WHEREIN The Books Chapters Psalms Stories Prophecies c. are reduced into their proper order and taken up in the proper places in which the natural Method and genuine Series of the Chronology requireth them to be taken in WITH Reason given of dislocations where they come And many remarkable Notes and Observations given all along for the better understanding of the Text the difficulties of the Chronicle declared the differences occurring in the relating of Stories reconciled and exceeding many Scruples and Obscurities in the Old Testament explained The Book of GENESIS CHAP. I. Days of the Creation I THE ALMIGHTY TRINITY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having dwelt from all eternity in and with it self when it saw good to communicate it self did in the beginning of the being of things create Heaven and Earth the two parts of the World of nothing in a moment Verse 1. The earth newly created lay covered all over with water and there was darkness through the world in that vast vacuity that was between the face of that great deep which covered the earth and the clouds or cataracts of Heaven which were the inferior part of Heaven and were created in the same instant with the Heavens full of water and the Heavens in the instant of their creation were set a * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moving by the Spirit that garnished them in a constant and continued motion and with their motion the course of nature began and the clock of time was set a going Verse 2. Twelve hours was there universal darkness through all the world and then was light created in this upper Horizon and there it inlightned twelve hours more and then flitted away as the light of the Sun now doth to the other Hemisphere and thus was the measure and work of the first day Verse 3 4 5. Days of the Creation II The air spread out through that great space that was betwixt the waters that covered the Earth and the waters that were in the cataracts of Heaven and as the light did remove the universal darkness so doth this spreading out of the air remove the emptiness and vacuity and this was the work of the second day but of this days work it is not said That God saw it good as it is said of the others because the partition and separation of all waters is not fully perfected till the next day Vers. 6 7 8. Days of the Creation III The waters that covered the Earth are brought into their channels and the dry land appearing is stored with trees and plants on this days work it is twice said That God saw it good once for the full and intire separation of the waters and again for the fructification of the ground Vers. 9 10 11 12 13. Days of the Creation IV When the light at the close of the third day was departed from this Horizon the Moon and Stars began to appear in the Sky and in the morning the Sun rose in the East and began his course and so this visible host of Heaven was the work of the fourth day The invisible host of Angels was in most probability created in the very same instant with the Heavens themselves Vers. 14 15 16 17 18 19. Days of the Creation V Fowle and fish and * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crocodiles Hippopotames c. Amphibia created and the first blessing of generation pronounced upon them Vers. 20 21 22 23. Days of the Creation VI With Chap. I. from Vers. 24. to the end read Chap. II. from Vers. 4. to the end Beasts created and all manner of creeping things of the clean sorts of beasts there were seven created of every kind three couple for breed and the odd one for Adams sacrifice upon his fall which God foresaw Adam created in holiness and righteousness and high honor and happiness Dominion is given to him over all the creatures which is more clearly evidenced to him in that they are brought to him to receive their names from him which by the great wisdom that was in him he giveth them even at the first sight agreeable to their natures among them all he seeth no mate meet for himself but he observeth them all fitly mated one to another and so becometh the more sensible of his own being mateless therefore the Lord provideth a fellow meet for him even out of his own body having cast Adam the mean while into a trance God marrieth them together puts them in the garden and gives them a command Now fell the Angels for they seeing the honor and happiness in which man was created and set and the Lord giving the Angels themselves a charge concerning him to keep him in his ways and to be ministring spirits to him for his good some of them spited this his honor and happiness and despised this their charge and ingagement and so through pride against the command of God and for envy at the felicity of man they fell CHAP. III. THese Angels that were now become Devils through spite at man had no comfort at all left them in their fall but this miserable and mischievous one to bring man into the same condemnation with them For the effecting of this they lose no time but attempt it by tempting him in his wife the weaker vessel she not yet knowing that there were any Devils at all but well knowing that God had allotted her and her husband the custody of Angels mistook the Devil that spake in a Serpent for a good Angel and so was deceived by him and sinned and drew her husband into the same transgression with her this was about high noon the time of eating And in this lost condition into which Adam and Eve had now brought themselves did they lie comfortless till towards the cool of the day or three a clock afternoon Then cometh God to censure them but first promiseth Christ to be a Redeemer to them and a destroyer of Satan Curseth the earth that they might not fix their minds on things below doometh them to labour misery and mortality that they might look for rest in Heaven Adam layeth hold on the promise and in faith therein nameth his wife Eve or Life God teacheth him the rite of sacrifice and with the skins of the sacrificed beasts cloatheth them and expelleth them out of Eden and so fell Adam on the day that he was created and brought in death and so the first thing that dyeth in the world is a sacrifice or Christ in a figure CHAP. II. Ver. 1 2 3. At the end of the third Chapter in order of
into the Christian Church and the seven are chosen to this work out of the number of the hundred and twenty that are mentioned Chap. 1. 15. and that company only was the choosers of them and not all the Believers in Jerusalem The reason why the Hebrews neglected the widows of the Hellenists may be supposed either because they would stick to their old rule mentioned once before That a widow was to be maintained by her husbands children Talm. in chetub per. 11. Maym. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 18. compare 1 Tim. 5. 4. or because the Hebrews of Judea had brought in more into the common stock for the poor by sale of their Goods and Lands then those that had come from forrain Countries had done they not having Goods and Lands so ready to sell. All that had been brought in hitherto had been put into the Apostles hands and they had been burdened with the care and trouble of the disposal of it but now they transfer that work and office to the seven solemnly ordaining them by Imposition of hands into it and here only the Imposition of the Apostles hands confers not the Holy Ghost for these men were full of the Holy Ghost before Stephen an eminent man among them is quarrelled by certain of the Libertines and the Hellenists Synagogue Libertini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are exceeding frequently spoken of in the Jews Writings And the Alexandrian Synagogue one of the Hellenists is mentioned in Jerus in Megillah fol. 73. col 4. and Juchas fol. 26. who tell that R. Eliezer bar Zadoc took the Synagogue of the Alexandrians that was at Jerusalem and imployed it to his own use When they are not able to overpower him by argument and disputation they take a ready way to do it by false accusation and conventing him before the Sanhedrin where being accused of vilifying Moses and speaking of the destruction of that place he is vindicated even miraculously before he pleadeth his own cause by his face shining like the face of Moses and bearing an Angelical aspect and Majesty for indeed he spake but what was spoken by the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9. 26 27. In his Apology he speaketh to the heads of his accusation but somewhat abstrusely yet so as to them to whom he spake to be well understood his discourse being according to their own Rhetorick and Logick To what was laid to his charge for vilifying Moses and saying his customs should be changed he rehearseth in brief the whole history of Moses and shews he was Orthodox to him but yet he driveth all to this that as the times before Moses were still moving and growing on to settlement in Moses so when Moses himself had setled all he had to do yet he pointed them to a Prophet yet to come to whom they should hearken as the ultimate Oracle which was this Jesus that he preached to them And whereas he was accused for speaking of the destruction of the Temple he first shews that fixedness to this or that place is not so much to be stood upon as appears by the flitting condition of the Patriarchs whose flittings he giveth the story of at large and by the moving condition of the Tabernacle before the Temple was built And when the Temple was built it was not because God would confine himself to one place for the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands ver 48. c. He inserteth two or three sharp and true accusations of them whereas theirs of him had been but false and causeless As that their fathers had persecuted those tha◠foretold of Christ as they did him for now preaching him and they followed their fathers steps nay went further for they had murdered Christ whereas their fathers had but murdered his Prophets And whereas they were so punctual about the Ceremonious rites given by Moses they neglected the moral Law which was given by the disposition of Angels This cuts them to the heart that they pass a rancourous and furious sentence of death upon him but he hath a sight of the high bench of Heaven God and Christ at his right hand their judge and his A most fit prospect for the first Martyr They cast him out of the City and stone him for blasphemy For these were to be stoned He that went in to his mother or to his fathers wife or to his daughter in Law or to a male or to a beast and he that blasphemed or that committed Idolatry c. And the place of stoning was out from the place of Judgment nay out of the City as the Gemarists resolve it because it is said Bring him that cursed out of the Camp And A crier went before him that was to die proclaiming his fault Sanhedr per. 6. 7. When he was come within four cubits of the place of stoning they stript him naked only covered his nakedness before Ibid. And being come to the very place first the witnesses laid their hands upon him Maym. in Avodah Zarah per. 2. and then stripping off their coats that they might be more expedite for their present work first one of them dasheth his loins violently against a stone that lay for that purpose if that killed him not then the other dasheth a great stone upon his heart as he lay on his back and if that dispatched him not then all the people fell upon him with stones Talm. ubi sup Steven in the midst of all this their fury and his own anguish gets on his knees and prays for them and having so done he fell asleep The Jews do ordinarily use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Dying which properly signifies sleeping especially when they speak of a fair and comfortable death which word Luke translates here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that were stoned were also hanged up upon a tree Talm. ubi sup Whether Steven were so used is uncertain but it is evident that he had a fair burial and not the burial of a malefactour CHRIST XXXIV ACTS CHAP. VIII A Great persecution followeth the death of Steven in which Saul was a chief agent Scholar of Gamaliel President of the Sanhedrin and it may be the busier for that In Talm. Bab. Sanhedr fol. 43. col 1. they say Jesu had five Disciples Mathai Nakai Netser Boni and Thodah and they are urging reasons there why they should all be put to death c. All the hundred and twenty Ministers mentioned Chap. 1. 15. are scattered abroad only the twelve stay at Jerusalem as in the furnace to comfort and cherish the Church there in so sad a time and they preach all along as they go and so Satan breaks his own head by his own design for by persecution by which he had contrived to smother the Gospel it spreads the more The first plantation of it mentioned is in Samaria and that according to Christs own direction and foretelling Act. 1. 8. Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and
hill Luke 4. 29. Nazaret in the Arabick Tongue signifieth Help in the Hebr. a Branch by which name our Saviour is called Esa. 11. 1. Vers. 27. To a Virgin Rabbi Oshua the Son of Levi said Israel was comforted in a Virgin as saith Jeremy The Lord â—roateth a new thing in the earth A Virgin shall compass a Man Jer. 31. 21. Beresh Rabb See also Lyra and Gloss. intenlin in loc Vers. 28. Highly favoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is used by the Greek Scholiast in Psal. 18. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word from which it is derived in Ephes. 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which let the indifferent Reader view and judge of the propriety of our English translation here in comparison of the vulgar Latine The Virgin had obtained the highest earthly favour that ever mortal did or must do to be the mother of the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost useth a singular word to express so much Superstition is ever too officious but it hath shewed it self more so to the Virgin Mary then to any other For as it hath deified her now she is in Heaven so hath it magnified her in all her actions while she was upon the earth So that no relation or story that concerneth her but it hath strained it to the utmost extremity to wring out of it her praises though very often to a senseless and too often to a blasphemous issue As in this story of the annuntiation there is not a word nor tittle that it thinketh will with all its shaping serve for such a purpose but it taketh advantage to patch up her Encomions where there is no use nor need nor indeed any truth of and in such a thing This word that is under hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears the bell that ringeth lowdest with them to such a tune For having translated it in their vulgar Latine Gratia plena or full of grace they hence infer that she had all the seven gifts of the Spirit and all the Theological and moral vertues and such a fulness of the graces of the Holy Ghost as none ever had the like Whereas first The use of Scripture is when it speaketh of fulness of grace to express it by another phrase as Joh. 1. 14. Act. 6. 5. c. Secondly The Angel himself explaineth this word in the sense of our translation for favour received and not for grace inherent Vers. 30. Thou hast found favour with God Thirdly And so doth the Virgin her self also descant upon the same thing throughout her Song Fourthly Joseph her husband suspected her for an adultress Matth. 1. 18. which he could never have done if he had ever seen so infinite fulness of grace in her as the Romanists have spied and he was the likelier to have espied it of the two Fifthly Compare her with other renowned women and what difference but only this great favour of being the mother of the Messias They had the spirit of Prophesie as well as she they had the spirit of sanctification as well as she and she no more immunity from sin and death then they Sixthly She was one of the number of those that would have taken off Christ from preaching Mark 3. and this argued not such a fulness of grace Seventhly See Jansenius one of their own side expounding this word according to our reading of it in loc The Lord is with thee Many understand this of the Incarnation it self or of the Lords being in her womb Whereas first This is to take a common manner of speech out of the common manner of interpreting it Secondly The Lord was not at this very instant come in that manner into her womb But the words only mean the Lords being with her in regard of that favour and respect which he was about to shew her as Judg. 6. 12. And this among other things sheweth how senseless Popery is in its Ave Maries using these words for a Prayer and if occasion serve for it for a charm As first Turning a Salutation into a Prayer Secondly In fitting these words of an Angel that was sent and that spake them upon a special message to the mouth of every person and for every occasion Thirdly In applying these words to her now she is in Heaven which suited with her only while she was upon Earth As first to say full of grace to her that is full of glory And secondly to say The Lord is with thee to her that is with the Lord. Blessed art thou among women Not above but among them See Gen. 30. 13. Judg. 5. 24. Vers. 29. And when she saw him So readeth the Syrian Arabick and generally all other translations but only the vulgar Latin that swarving as it is to be suspected wilfully from the truth of the Original that hereby there might be the greater plea and colour for the Virgins familiarity with Angels Whereas indeed apparition of Angels till this very occasion to Zachary and the Virgin was either exceeding rare or just none at all What manner of salutation c. Judge how Superstition straineth the Text to the Virgin Maries praises when it infers from hence that she had never been saluted by a man in all her life before An opinion and gloss not worth the examining Vers. 31. Behold thou shalt conceive c. From Esa. 7. 14. the Angel giveth her to understand that she is the Virgin spoken of in that place and of her apprehension of this ariseth her question Vers. 4. And shalt call his Name This followeth the same Prophesie still and is one of the significations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it hath more then one For first it denoteth the third person feminine as Deut. 31. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it is to be taken in that Prophesie And she shall call his Name Immanuel Secondly It betokeneth also the second person as the Chaldee the Lxx and the other two Greek translations render it and the Angel here And thou shalt call Thirdly It is also applied to the third person plural as in the Greek Matth. 1. 23. and in the Chaldee Esa. 60. 18. Jesus The same with Jehoshua in Hebrew as Act. 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. and Joshua in Chaldee Ezra 2. 2. These were two renowned ones before the one whereof brought the people into Canaan after the death of Moses and the other that brought them thither out of Babel and so were both lively figures of our Jesus that bringeth his people to the heavenly Canaan Vers. 32. The Son of the Highest From 2 Sam. 7. 14. as it is explained Heb. 1. 5. the Angel now draweth the Virgin to remember that glorious promise made to David as the words following concerning an eternal Throne and Kingdom do evince and upon the rumination upon that to reflect upon her self and to consider that she was of the seed of David and so he leadeth her on by degrees to believe and
coming unto her in visible appearance as Chapter 18. 14. At the time appointed I will return c. Or it may be taken in connexion to the sense of the Verses preceding That after the defect of Prophecy the dawning of that gift and after the darkness of the Doctrine of Salvation as it was in the Law the day-spring of it from an high came now to visit us in the brightness of the Gospel Vers. 80. And was in the deserts Of Ziph and Maon 1 Sam. 23. 14. 25. which were places not far from Hebron where John was born Josh. 15. 54 55. His education was not in the Schools at Jerusalem but in these plain Country Towns and Villages in the Wilderness Till the day of his shewing unto Israel That is when at thirty years of age he was to be brought to the Sanctuary service Numb 4. 3. to which he did not apply himself as the custom was but betook himself to another course SECTION VI. S. LUKE CHAP. II. CHRIST born published to the Shepherds rejoyced in by Angels circumcised presented in the Temple confessed by Simeon and Anna. AND it came to pass in those days that there went out a a a a a a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek in Dan. 6. 8 12. a decree from b b b b b b Câ—sar the common name of the Roman Emperors as Abimelech of the Philistims Kings Ols. 34. in tit and Pharaoh of the Egyptians from Julius the first Emperor who was of this name but the name Caesar was long before him see Plin. l. 7. cap. 9. Caesar Augustus that c c c c c c As Ezr. 1. 2. all the World should be taxed 2. And that taxing was first made when d d d d d d In the Roman Historians he is called Quirinus Cyrenius was Governor of Syria 3. And all went to be taxed every one into his own City 4. And Joseph also e e e e e e Taking a journy in Scripture be it whither soever it will is called indifferently a going up or going down as Numb 16. 12 14 Jer. 21. 2. Judg. 16. 18. Gen. 42. 3. Judg. 15. 8. 1 Sam. 26. 10. went up from Galilee out of the City of Nazareth into Judea unto the City of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the stock and linage of David 5. To be f f f f f f This word here and in vers 1. 3. hath various translations That they might be enrolled Syr. Arab. Rhem. That they might profess Vulg. Eras. That they might be taxed Erasm. again and our English All these laid together make up a compleat description of the manner of their taxing First They were taken notice of who were in every Town and City and were Inrolled upon their inrolling they professed subjection to the Roman State and upon this profession they payed some money at which they were assessed taxed with Mary his espoused wife being great with Child 6. And so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered 7. And she brought forth her first-born Son and g g g g g g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Gr. in Job 38. 6. and Ezek. 16. 4. some deriving the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To reâ—d conceive that is meant that his swaddles were poor and ragged and that this is expressed as a particular of his abasement wrapped him in swadling cloaths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for him in the Inn. 8. And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock h h h h h h Christ born by night for if he were born by day why should the revealing of it be forborn till night by night 9. And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid 10. And the Angel said i i i i i i This message of the Angel as it was full of comforts so also was it of plainness according to the condition of the men to whom he spake Fear not for behold I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be to all people 11. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign unto you ye shall find the babe wrapped in swadling cloaths lying in a manger 13. And suddenly there was with the Angel k k k k k k Or the multitude a multitude of the Heavenly host praising God and saying 14. l l l l l l Or the good will of God towards men is glory to God in the Highest and peace on the earth Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will towards men 15. And it came to pass as the Angels were gone away from them into Heaven the m m m m m m It hath been held that these Shepherds were about the Tower of Edar Gen. 35. 21. and that this was about a mile from Bethlehem Shepherds said one to another Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us 16. And they came with hast and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger 17. And when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child 18. And all they that heard it wondred at those things which were told them by the Shepherds 19. But Mary kept all these things and pondred them in her heart 20. And the Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them 21. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child his name was called Iesus which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb 22. And when the days of her purification n n n n n n Levit. 12. according to the Law of Moses were accomplished they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 23. As it is written in the Law of the Lord o o o o o o Exod. 13. 1. every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. 24. And to offer a Sacrifice according to that which is said in the Law of the Lord p p p p p p Maries poverty in that her hand could not reach to a Lamb which was the proper offering that the Law required Levit. a pair of Turtle Doves and two young Pigeons 25. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same Man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and q q q q q q The spirit of Prophesie It had been long a stranger among
out of the Inn and thus the free-woman and her Son are cast out of doors as the bond-woman and her Son had been Gen. 21. Vers. 8. And there were Shepherds c. The Patriarchs to whom Christ was more especially promised were of this vocation Gen. 47. 3. especially Abraham and David to whom the promise was more clearly made peculiarly David who was feeding Sheep near to Bethlehem when he was taken a Father and type of Christ 1 Sam. 16. 11 12. And it doth illustrate the exactness of the performance the more and doth Harmonize with the giving of it the better when to Shepherds it is first revealed as to Shepherds it was first promised Compare this with the Visions of Jacob and Moses with their flocks Gen. 31. 10. Exod. 3. 3. and of Sampsons mother in the field §. Keeping watch over the flock by night Greek Keeping the watches of the night For the night was divided by the Jews into four watches of three hours a piece The first or beginning of watches is mentioned Lam. 2. 19. The second and third Luke 12. 38. The fourth Matth. 14. 25. this was called also the morning watch Exod. 14. 24. Howbeit the Talmud from Judg. 7. 19. divideth it only into three Be it the one or the other these Shepherds it seemeth observed such an order as that they watched by course while others slept or not to take it so very strictly they lay now in the fields and watched their flocks all night which had been in a manner impossible to have done in the deep of winter at which time our Kalendar hath placed Christs Nativity Vers. 9. The glory of the Lord shone c. That is an exceeding great glory for so do the Hebrews heighten their expressions as Cedars of the Lord that is goodly Cedars Such an exceeding great glory shone about Paul Act. 26. 13. That at noon day this in the dead of the night Vers. 13. A multitude of the Heavenly host c. It might not unproperly be rendred The multitude as importing that all the Quire of Angels or the whole multitude of that Celestial Militia was now knit together in a consort for the praises and acknowledgment of Christ according to that of the Apostle Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him And thus as all the Angels sang at the beginning of the old World or at the Creation Job 38. 7. So do they at the beginning of the new and of the redemption Angels are called the Heavenly host 1 King 22. 19. Joh. 25. 3. And in this sense Rab. Menahem understandeth Gen. 2. 1. Thus were the Heavens and the Earth finished and all their Host that is saith he the Angels whose Creation Moses nameth not elsewhere Vers. 14. Glory to God in the Highest c. The last words of this verse the Vulgar Latine readeth to men of good will contrary to the Syrian Arabick and to the ancient Greek Copies as appeareth by Greg. Nazianzen Orat. 42. Andreas Jerusolomitanus in Orat. de Salutatione Angeli c. The whole Verse is but one Proposition or Axiom in which the last clause of all is the subject and the two former are predicated of it And it lieth in this sense The good will of God to men shewed in the Incarnation of our Saviour when God himself disdained not to take the nature of man is glory to him in the Highest and is peace upon the Earth And that this is the genuine and proper meaning and posture of the words may be observed First By the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And put between Glory to God and Peace on Earth and none between them and good will And secondly the very sense and matter it self inforceth this construction For first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beareth the same sense here that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth Matth. 3. 17. 17. 5. of Gods good-will or well-pleasedness with men Now secondly this well-pleasedness of his with men was expressed and evidenced at this time in the birth of our Saviour in that God had assumed the nature of men and it had never been so cleared and demonstrated before So that thirdly the birth of Christ being the occasion of the Angels singing this song the good will of God towards men revealed in this his birth must needs be the subject of their Song And then fourthly the other two things expressed in the two other clauses glory on High and peace on Earth must needs be understood as Predicates seeing that being laid to this expression of God of his good will towards men they are but as fruits and consequences of it And this reading and construction how facil and plain is it in comparison of these intricacies and obscurities that those readings bring with them that either break the verse into three distinct axioms or into two or that read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Genitive case or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Dative as may be seen in Expositors Now how the good-will and well-pleasedness of God towards men exhibited and shewed in the incarnation and birth of our Saviour did glorifie God in the highest in all his attributes of wisdom truth justice power mercy c. And how it wrought peace on earth betwixt man and himself and man and Angels and man and man and man and his own conscience might be shewed at large if we were common-placing in stead of commenting Ver. 21. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising c. It was necessary that Christ should be circumcised that he might both bear the badge of a child of Abraham and have upon him an obligation to the keeping of the Law For he that was circumcised was a debtor to the whole Law Gal. 5. 3. Ver. 22. And when the days of her purification c. At forty days old Levit. 12. 1 2 3 4. the Lord cometh to his own Temple and by an old man and an old woman is proclaimed both to young and old that expected redemption Herod had heard no tidings of him as yet by the Wismen for otherwise this had been an opportunity for him to have put in practice his bloody and malicious intent Mary is purified according to the custom of the Law although she had contracted no pollution by her childing and bringing forth partly that Christ in nothing might be wanting to the Law and partly that this might be an occasion for the first publick declaration of him by Simeon and Anna. Ver. 25. A man whose name was Simeon This Simeon seemeth to be he whom the Jewish Authors name for the son of Hillel and who was the first that bare the title of Rabban the highest title that was given to their Doctors and which was given but to seven of them Hillel was the famous head or principal of that School that is so renowned in the Jewish Authors by the name of Beth
the clouds by that is used here namely Heaven As The Lord that gave the Law out of a cloud Exod. 19. 16. is said to have spoken from Heaven Exod. 20. 22. So the like voice to this here that came out of a cloud Luke 9. 35. yet is said to come from Heaven 2 Pet. 1. 18. And Elias that by his prayer shut up the clouds that there was no rain is said to have shut up Heaven Luke 4. 25. The opening of the Heavens then was the renting of the clouds as we see them rent when the lightning comes forth and out of that rent came the Holy Ghost in visible shape and the heavenly voice And thus did the Gospel or Preaching of Christ begin with the opening of the Heavens which the Law had shut and thus were the heavens shaken when the desire of all Nations came first to be revealed openly as Hag. 2. 6 7. The very same difference of expression that is betwixt Saint Mark and the other Evangelists is betwixt the Hebrew and the LXX in Isa. 64. 1. for the Original readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou wouldest or hast rent but the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou open the Heavens c. Matth. 3. ver 16. The Heavens were opened to him To him to whom To Christ or to John Why to the eyes and beholding of them both for in that John saith he saw the Holy Ghost coming from or out of Heaven like a Dove Joh. 1. 32. he maketh it past denial that he saw the opening of the Heavens but the word to him in this place must be reserved and referred in a singular peculiarity to Christ and the opening of the Heavens to him importeth a more emphatical propriety than their opening to his sight For the Syntax and Grammatical construction that Mark useth maketh it impossible to fix the words to him any other ways than upon Christ And straightway saith he coming up out of the water he saw the Heavens rent or cloven c. This then being the propriety of the words that the Heaven was opened to our Saviour and yet since it was also opened to the sight of John it doth necessarily inforce us to understand it otherwise than only to his view or beholding namely to his prayer as the phrase is used by him himself Knock and it shall be opened unto you For had the Evangelist intended only to shew how he saw this apertion in the Heaven he might have joyned John with him in the same sight but he would give us to understand by the phrase that he hath used singularly of Christ alone that the Heavens were not only opened to his sight but for his sake And from hence may be confirmed what was spoken before concerning his prayer namely that it aimed at such a thing as Elias prayed and the Heaven was opened and fire came down upon his Sacrifie Thus Heaven that was shut to the first Adam because of his sin is opened to the second because of his righteousness and to all that by faith are partakers of it Mark 1. Ver. 10. He saw the Heavens cloven This is to be understood as that before of Christ only and after the same sense or to the same purport But since it is certain that John saw this as well as he as is also observed before and yet none of the three Evangelists that record the Story have given any undoubted or plain evidence of any such a thing it may likewise be questioned whether the rest of the people which were there present did see this sight as well as Christ and John Theophylact is peremptory in the affirmative For all of them saith he saw the Spirit coming upon Jesus lest they should think that the voice This is my beloved Son had been spoken concerning John but upon the sight of the Holy Ghost they might believe that that voice was concerning Christ. And of this opinion are very many others with him and no marveil for who could conceive any other thing And yet upon the weighing of these Reasons following we may very well be perswaded to believe the contrary or that this Heavenly spectacle and divine voice was conspicuous and audible to none but only to Christ and John First Because John after this doth himself tell those that were present at this time that there had stood one among them but they knew him not that that was he that was to come after him For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1. 26. must of necessity be rendred in its preterfect signification for John spake not those words till after Christ was baptized and gone for he was at that time in his temptation in the wilderness Secondly Because Christ himself also telleth the Jews that they had never heard his Fathers voice John 5. 37. and among those to whom he speaketh were divers that had imbraced the doctrine and baptism of John ver 35. and it may very well be supposed some that were present at his baptism at this very time The maintainers of the contrary Opinion have spied this scruple and difficulty arising upon that Text and have gone about to salve it but with a very improper and dangerous plaister holding that though they heard this voice yet they heard not the voice of the Father but of an Angel which spake in his Name which shall be examined by and by Thirdly It is improbable that when Christ had such another testimony from Heaven at his transfiguration that he should conceal it from nine of his Disciples and charge the three silence that heard it and saw what was done Matth. 17. 9. and yet should let this voice and vision from Heaven be so publick as to be heard and seen of all the people Fourthly John himself telleth that this Revelation was given chiefly if not only for his sake John 1. 33. Fifthly The preaching of the Baptist was the means that God had ordained to bring the people to the knowledge of Christ John 1. 7 31. and this Revelation to bring the Paptist to it Sixthly Had all the people been partakers of this sight and voice John had needed no more to have pointed Christ out but the people would have known him as well as he nor could the opinion have ever prevailed as it did that valued John above him Seventhly When John shewed him forth with the finger with Behold the Lamb of God presently Disciples followed him which they would have done much more had they thus seen and heard him pointed out from Heaven but it is plain they did not the one and thereupon it may be boldly concluded that they did not the other Eighthly To which may be added that God ordained preaching partly of John partly of Christ himself and partly of his Disciples the way to bring the world acquainted that he was Messias And these divine Revelations were for the instruction and confirmation of them his preachers who were chosen witnesses for such a purpose
from place to place by the evil spirit is a thing that hath no parallel in all the Scripture from end to end Now whether it be not probable that the Devil would have possessed our Saviour bodily if he could have done it and when he could not do it betook himself to this violent Rapture of him be it also referred to the Readers consideration § Into the holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple There are two main scruples and questions arise out of these words 1. Why the Devil bringeth Christ to this place in this temptation And 2. whether his flying in the air and standing on the Temple were visible or no. As to the first It cannot be doubted but something more was in the Devils thoughts when he brought our Saviour hither than meerly his precipitation or casting down headlong or flying in the air For had that been all he might have found promontories rocks precipices by hundreds from whence to have got him cast down would have served the turn as well as from hence if his precipitation had been all that was intended and aimed at But certainly there was some reflecting in Satans mind upon the very place as well as upon the very thing And that being apprehended what it was if it be possible to apprehend it it will help to resolve both the questions at once Conjecture is all that we can go upon here and it is better to conjecture at Satans mind in such a thing as this than to be acquainted in it and in a matter of this nature if one fail in conjecture it is as excusable on that hand as it is difficult to hit aright on the other 1. Therefore it may be conceived that the Devil according to his constant practice would make the utmost advantage he could of his deceipts in this passage and temptation and that he meant not only evil to our Saviour whom he had in hand but some delusion also to the men of Jerusalem amongst whom he brought him For why should he take him from the solitude of the wilderness into the middle of a City if he meant no more than what he might have equally acted in that solitariness or why should he set him upon the Temple if he intented no more than what he might have done upon any precipice in the desert 2. It seemeth therefore and is very probable that our Saviour as he flew in the air and as he stood on the Temple was visible and conspicuous to the eyes of the people and that Satan acted thus that the people might be deluded with some misapprehensions concerning him And truly I cannot but conjecture that he intented to deceive them with misprision concerning Elias who was so much in their thoughts and expectation to come personally as the fore-runner of the Messias For he having been rapt away into the air and so into heaven when the Lord took him from the earth as is related in the story of his translation 2 King 2. how readily might the people have their thoughts on him when they saw a man in a mantle flying in the air and taking his pitch upon the Temple and away again and this they might be deceived in the rather because of the misconstruction which they blindly made of those words of the Prophet Mal. 3. 1. Of the Angel of the Covenant coming to the Temple which they understand of Elias as see D. Kimch in loc But it will be said what could Satan gain by this deceit Why this that they would be confirmed in the mistake of Elias his personal coming at the last converse among them and so the preaching of the Baptist and the appearing of Christ after him would be the less regarded 3. Now the acting of the Devil in reference to Christ affords us these considerations 1. That whereas in his former temptation he would have injected into Christ diffidence and despair in God now would he do the clean contrary and instigate him to presumption then would he have suggested that God was mindless of him and that there was no trust to be had in providence for he must either turn stones into bread or be without but now he will have him to cast all upon providence and promises presumptuously and neither to use any means nor regard any rule 2. That the Devil doth here somewhat parallel his first temptation of our first parents for that was in the garden a place of happiness this is on the Temple the place of holiness that in the paradise of delight this in the paradise of Religion 3. That though the Devil could set Christ on the top of the Temple yet could he not throw him off Our Saviour refused not to suffer him to bring him to a temptation but he would not suffer him to have the least power over him in it either to perswade him into the least sin or to cast him into the least danger 4. Whereas Christ had used Scripture to him before he useth Scripture to Christ now and so goes about to assault him with his own weapon 5. That he might the more feasibly cast him upon a presumptuous relyance on the guard of Angels he hath now brought him to a place as likely to have Angels ready about it as any place under heaven for where might they more readily be thought to be than about the Temple What part of the Temple it was that Christ was set upon at this time it is in vain to go about to determine whether on some turret of it as is conceived by some or on the battlement ledge as by others or on some of the flying fanes as by a third sort or on the sharp broches that were set there to keep off birds as by a fourth it is as little material as it is little determinable only take this testimony of Josephus concerning the terrible height of some part of the Temple and then be it left to ruminate upon He speaking concerning the South side of the Temple and of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kings porch there he saith thus It was one of the most renowned works under the Sun for there being a great depth of a valley even not to be seen to the bottom of if any one above looked down Herod raised a vast height of a Porch over it so that if any one from the roof of it looked down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his head would be giddly his sight not reaching to the unmeasurable depth Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 14. Vers. 8. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain It is as undeterminable what mountain this was as it is what part of the Temple it was that he set him upon and it is as little material Only this is conceivable upon good probability that this mount was beyond Jordan eastward because the first appearing of Christ after this amongst men is at Bethabara on that side Joh. 1. 28. Now whether it were Pisgah Nebo
birth of his mother to conduce to it For if Christ did use an undoubted word to signifie from above and Nicodemus did undoubtedly understand him to speak of being born from above yet certainly he could not understand it of being born from Heaven locally any more than when he saith that Christ was sent from God he understood that locally too which none will say he did And then if he did not understand this birth from above locally his answer though indeed improper in it self yet is as proper to that phrase of being born from above as to the other of being born again from above he cannot b b b b b b To see the Kingdom of God is to enter into it vers 5. or to partake of it as to see corruption Psal. 16. 10. to see Death Luke 2. 26. Joh. 8. 51. to see evil Psal. 90. 15. to see sorrow Rev. 18. 7. to see good Eccles. 6. 6. c. is to be in these estates or to partake of them See vers 36. To see life is to have life see the Kingdom of God 4. Nicodemus saith unto him How can a man be born c c c c c c Being old So is the Greek verbatim and being so rendred it leaveth the matter less scrupulous than being expressed when he is old for that might seem to restrain the new birth ever till a man be old The Syrian hath kept close to the sense given Can an old man be born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being old Can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee d d d d d d Except a man be born in ver 3. is here explained Ye must be born And so doth not only shew a command included in a doctrinal lesson but also that the words We and Ye are sometimes to be taken indefinitely though they seem only to speak of a fixed number And so in vers 2. We know that thou art a Teacher the word we must be so taken compare Matth. 5. 3 4 5. c. where it is said blessed are they with Luke 6. 20 21. where blessed are ye Ye must be born again 8. The e e e e e e The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used hath been understood by some for the holy Spirit which word indeed is used constantly for it in the Scripture and some of that opinion have strengthened themselves in it by this because a voluntary action is ascribed unto it It bloweth where it listeth which cannot be ascribed say they unto the wind The word indeed in the Greek is of various signification as is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew and as it doth very commonly and very properly signifie the eternal Spirit the Holy Ghost and the created Spirits Angels and the souls of men so doth it also the sensible Spirits the breath of our mouths and the wind of Heaven In this last sense which is the sense that we have in hand it is taken by the Septuagint Gen. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord brought a wind over the Earth And 1 King 18. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a mighty strong wind c. but the Lord was not in the wind c. And so doth Aristotle confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. de Mund. And in that sense do Cyrill Chrysostome Theophylact his mouth and other of the Fathers take it here For 1. otherwise here would be no comparison which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So doth shew there is And to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the holy Spirit in the beginning of the verse as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter end is to be taken in that sense would make a very harsh and rugged construction 2. It is very improper to say that Nicodemus now had heard the sound or voice of the Holy Ghost being as he was yet so far to seek in the things of Salvation And 3. whereas it is said the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bloweth where it listeth as if a voluntary action were ascribed to it it is but such another speech as when the Sun is said to know his going down Psal. 104. 19. Now there is as little knowledge in the Sun as there is voluntariness in the wind unless with the Jews we will hold the Sun Moon and Stars to be intellectual creatures and yet such an expression is used of it for elegancy and fulness of expression wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit 9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him How can these things be 10. Iesus answered and said unto him Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things 11. Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen and ye receive not our witness 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things 13. And no man hath ascended up into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth in him should no perish but have eternal life 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved 18. He that believeth on him is not condenined but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God 19. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil 20. For every one that g g g g g g By this he expresseth the Hebrew phrase so common in the Old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which is used generally of all the Kings of Israel and of too many of the Kings of Judah He did evil in the sight of the Lord. doth evil hateth light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved 21. But he that h h h h h h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gen. 24. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be manifest
12. that is who shall ascend into Heaven to fetch the knowledge of the Word from thence or the Doctrine of the Gospel the Word of Faith Rom. 10. 6 7 8. And so upon the observation of these three things thus laid down the connexion of this verse that we have in hand with the former and the sense of it in its self doth easily and evidently arise to this sense Ye believe not when I speak to you but the familiar and visible things of the Kingdom of Heaven and how then will you believe if I should speak of the highest and most heavenly mysteries of it And yet from me alone are those things to be learned and known for none can go up to Heaven to fetch the knowledge of them from thence but I came down from Heaven to reveal the will of God and to declare the Doctrine and Mysteries of Salvation and therefore if you believe not what I speak unto you you will never attain to the knowledge of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven And thus doth Christ tax Nicodemus and the Jews for a double unbelief 1. As in reference to him the Teacher whom they believed not though he alone was he who could and who was come to teach and reveal the great mysteries of the Gospel 2. As in reference to the things now taught which they believed not though they were the most visible and facil things of the Kingdom of Heaven And withal he holdeth out unto them a double instruction 1. That they should believe him about these heavenly things because he came down from Heaven And 2. That if they would not believe him in these things they must never expect to know them for none could go up to Heaven to fetch them thence The very same thing in sense with that in Chap. 1. 18. §. But he that came down from Heaven Here doth Christ speak one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the verse preceding a most heavenly point of the doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven and that is about his own incarnation and he doth clearly shew the distinction of his two natures in one person his humane nature intimated in the title The Son of man the Divine Nature in that he saith he came down from Heaven and the union of these two when he saith that the Son of man is in Heaven Now Christ is said to come down from Heaven as Joh. 6. 51. first to intimate his Divine Nature and to shew that he was more than a meer man and so the Apostle interprets and applies the phrase 1 Cor. 15. 47. The first man is of the earth earthly The second man is the Lord from Heaven And so likewise when it is said of Christ that he was the Manna that came down from Heaven Joh. 6. 58. it sheweth and meaneth that he was a bread of a more high and eminent nature than the Manna that the Israelites eat in the wilderness and yet that was rained from Heaven too Neh. 9. 15. but Heaven here and in that place admitteth of a differing construction Secondly It is the usual speech of Scripture when it is relating the appearing of any of the persons in the Trinity in a visible evidence to say that God came down Exod. 3. 8. Exod. 19. 18. the Holy Ghost came down Luke 3. 22. c. And so may it be used of Christ in humane flesh when the Son of God appeared so visibly amongst men as that he conversed with them in their own nature it may very significantly be said of him that he came down from Heaven Not that the Godhead can change places which filleth all things nor that Christ brought his humane nature locally out of Heaven as hath been erred by some nor yet only because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost as it is construed by others but because he being the invisible God did appear visibly and in humane nature among the Sons of men §. The Son of man which is in Heaven Here is the truth and reality asserted both of his manhood and of his Godhead his manhood in that he is called The Son of man His Godhead in that he is said to be in Heaven And this doth not only confute those Heresies that have maintained that either Christ had not a real humane body or that he had not a real humane soul or that he consisted not of two distinct natures or that he was two distinct persons but this doth also set a plain and large difference detween the appearing of Angels in humane shapes and the appearing of Christ in humane flesh They were indeed in the shape of men but they were not the Sons of men but Christ was they when they were apparent upon earth in such shapes were not then in Heaven but he was Now how the Son of man may be said to be in Heaven whilest he was now speaking to Nicodemus on Earth may be resolved with a double answer 1. Because his conversation all the while he was upon the earth was intirely in Heaven For so is the conversation of the Saints of God on Earth said to be Phil. 3. 20. Et quanto magis Christi qui semper inspexerit Patris intima And how much more saith Grotius was the conversation of Christ there who always beheld the very bosom of the Father As Joh. 1. 18. And so doth Cajetan understand it that Christs humane soul did enjoy the beatifical vision of God continually and therefore he may well be said to be in Heaven even whilest he was on Earth But secondly this may properly be understood per communicationem idiomatum as Divines express it that is in such a sense as the Scripture intends when it applies the several properties of the two distinct natures in Christ indifferently to the whole person For the understanding of which and for the construing of this and divers other places of this nature these things may be taken into consideration 1. That as in the blessed Trinity there is distinction of persons but not distinction of natures so on the contrary in our blessed Saviour there is distinction of natures but not distinction of persons His Divine Nature one thing his Humane another but the person but one as in the constitution and being of our selves the soul is one thing and the body another and yet they constitute and make up but one man 2. That these two distinct natures in our Saviour had their distinct and several properties which were not communicable from the one to the other essentially as the manhood did not rise to infinity like the Godhead nor to those properties that are essential to infinity nor the Godhead descend to infirmity like the manhood nor to those properties that are essential to the infirmity of manhood 3. That though there were in Christ these really distinct natures and really distinct properties of these natures yet in regard of their union in his one person the Scripture doth not seldom
from death to life in a spiritual sense which argues that he intends the same sense here 3. In that he ascribeth reviving to his Voice here as he did there to his Word 4. Because he distinguisheth upon hearing his voice The dead shall hear it and as many as hear it shall live which is applicable a great deal more fairly to the bare and to the effectual hearing of the Gospel than to dead in corporal sense And 5. lastly Because there are so great things spoken of the calling of the Gentiles in the Scripture and of Christs work about that matter and their Heathenish condition so expresly called death and their imbracing the Gospel a resurrection that when Christ is speaking of his actings in the New Testament and useth such words as these before us we may not unproperly apply them in that sense It would have prevented many controversies and not a few errors if the Phrases the last days and the day of the Lord and the end and new Heavens and new Earth and the dead raised c. had been cautelously understood and as the Scripture means them in several places But as for the raising of the dead in the verse in hand it needeth not very much curiosity to fix it to either of those as a determinate sense since taken either way that hath been mentioned it carries a fair construction most agreeable to the truth and not very disagreeable to the scope and context Vers. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself It is needless to dispute here how far the second person in the Trinity may be said to have or not to have his being of himself for the words do not consider him simply as the second person but as the Messias God and Man as is the tenour of speech all along And in this acceptation we may give the words this construction 1. That they are a Paraphrase upon the name Jehovah which betokeneth Gods eternal being in himself and his giving of being to the Creature and that they mean that as the Father is Jehovah so also hath he given to the Son the Messias that name above all names as Philip. 2. 9. to be owned and worshipped for Jehovah having life in himself as being the eternal and living God and having the disposal of life in his power as being the God of all living 2. That as the Father is the eternal and immortal God so also is the Messias and though he stand there before the Sanhedrin in humane appearance yet should he never see corruption as Psalm 16. 10. but declare himself mightily to be the Son of God and to have life in himself by his raising himself from the dead Rom. 1. 4. Being the first and last He that liveth though he died and is alive for evermore Amen and hath the Keys of Hell and death at his disposal Rev. 1. 17 18. 3. As the words before may be applied to Christs raising from the dead those that were either bodily or spiritually deceased so these are a reason and proof of that assertion because as the Father hath the absolute disposal of life in his own power so hath he given to the Messias the same disposal Vers. 27. And hath given him authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man By this passage it is apparent in what sense our Saviour useth the term The Son and The Son of God all along this discourse namely for the Son of God as he was also the Son of Man or the Messias There hath been some scruple made as was mentioned before upon the reason given of Christs authority of Judging namely because he was the Son of Man which will be removed by rightly stating the sense of the Son of Man which we may take up in these three particulars 1. The Phrase the Son of Man may be taken to signifie simply A Man and then the words are to be understood in this sense He hath given him authority of judging because he is a man and then is the reason current and apparent under this construction First Because the Son of God humbled himself and became man for the redemption of man therefore the Lord hath given him authority to be judge of man as Phil. 2. 8 9. And secondly He hath given the Messias authority of judging because he is man that man might be judged by one in his own nature as Act. 17. 31. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead 2. The title The Son of Man which our Saviour so oft applieth to himself in the Gospel doth not speak him barely A Man but it owns him as that singular and peculiar seed of the woman or Son of Man that was promised to Adam to be a repairer of ruined mankind and the destroyer of the works of Satan as the term hath been cleared before And in this construction the reason of Christs authority of judging because he was the Son of Man is yet cleared further namely because he was the Son of that promise the Heir of the world and Redeemer of mankind and Destroyer of Devils therefore the Lord did give authority to him to be Lord of the World and Judge of Men and Devils to destroy the Serpent and his seed that were his enemies and to perfect and save the holy seed that should believe in him and obey him and to do and order all things here in this world that were in tendency either to the one or the other end 3. The Messias is thus charactered in Dan. 7. 13 14. Behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him Upon which words R. Saadias glosseth thus This is Messias our righteousness But is it not written concerning the Messias lowly and riding upon an Ass Because he shall come in humility and not in pomp riding upon Horses And with the Clouds of Heavens meaneth the Angels the Host of Heaven this is the abundance of greatness which the Creator shall give unto the Messias c. Our Saviour in the words that we are upon seemeth to point at those words of Daniel and whereas it was confessed by the Nation that the Son of Man there spoken of to whom all Dominion was given was the Messias he doth here plainly aver that it was himself and that all Authority and Judicature was given him because he was the Son of Man Observe how purposely he changeth expressions In ver 25. He speaketh of raising the dead by the voice of the Son of God and here of executing judgment because he is the Son
saith that the dispersed preached to the Jews only of which I believe these Countries afforded a very small number And 2. the legend saith that Mary Magdalen Martha and Joseph of Arimathea and others were the travailers who where they had a calling to the ministery is yet to seek These persons and others with them are driven by the blast of a common report to Marseils in France Aix in Provence Glasenbury in England and I know not whither It would be sufficient to give the reader but some particulars of the Legend and then would he easily judge of the whole but it is not worth the labour It is more pertinent to consider who they are that the Evangelist meaneth and whose story he followeth when he saith here they were all scattered and in Chap. 11. 19. that they travailed as far as Phenice c. Certainly it cannot be meant of the whole Church of Jerusalem or of all the members of it which were now many thousands but of the 108. that were of the Presbtery or society with the Apostles For 1. The Evangelist setteth himself to follow the story of the hundred and twenty from the very beginning of the book and he keeps to it still 2. By instancing so suddenly in Philip he sheweth what kind of men he meaneth when he saith they were all scattered 3. He saith they went every where preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word is never used but of Preachers by function 4. Persecution would far sooner look after the Preachers than the common members 5. There were common members at Jerusalem while Paul stayed there vers 3. and yet the all that the Evangelist meaneth were scattered before Vers. 5. To the City of Samaria Samaria here and in otherplaces in the new Testament is not the name of a City but of the Country And so is Luke to be understood here Philip came down to the City of Samaria that is to the Metropolis of that Country which indeed was Sychem and so saith Josephus Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Samaritans had then Sichem for their Metropolis And in the same Chapter he saith again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which his Latine interpreter hath rendred thus Illis Samaritis dicentibus Hebraeos quidem se esse sed Sichimitas vocari a Sidoniis which translation how true it is and whether Josephus mean not that the Samaritans said that they were indeed Hebrews but were called Sidonians that dwelt at Sichem and whether in that story they call not themselves so for advantage let the learned censure This City John the Evangelist calleth Sychar instead of Sychem Joh. 4. 5. not that the text is there corrupted as some have held but that the Jews seem to have pronounced the word so corruptly in derision of the Samaritans to whom they were bitter enemies For by this name they reviled them for drunkards for so the word signifieth and this taunt seemeth to have been taken up from Esay 28. 1. woe to the drunkards of Ephraim of which Sichem was the chief City Vers. 6. And the people gave heed c. §. 3. Samaria converted Our Saviour gave it in lesson to his disciples both by precept and his own example that they should preach first in Jerusalem then in Judaea and then in Samaria For so did he himself Joh. 1. and 2. and 4. So commanded he them to do Acts 1. 8. and so do they now Act. 8. Philip one of the seven travailing in the common affliction and in preaching the Gospel as the rest of the 108. did being backed with this warrant of his master goeth down to Samaria and preacheth there though they were enemies to the Jews It was but three years or little more since Christ had been there among them himself Joh. 4. and whether it were the good remembrance of what he had taught them then or the extraordinary hand of God with what was delivered now or both together such effect have Philips doctrine and miracles that the City for the general doth believe and in baptized Vers. 13. Simon himself believed §. 4. Simon Magus He who had long caused the people to wonder at his miraculous delusion is now himself amazed at Philips real miracles But conceiving that he had wrought them by a Magical faculty above his own and desiring to fish and get the trick out of him he insinuateth himself the more nearly into his company by taking on him to believe so that he is baptized for any other belief of Simon Magus is not imaginable For when he saw that Peter and John exceeded Philip as he thought Philip did exceed himself for to Apostles only belonged to bestow the Holy Ghost the whole venome and mischief of his heart brake forth at once first by offering mony for the same Apostolical power and then in a scornful intreaty of the Apostles to pray for him when they advised him to repent and pray for so should I understand his words Vers. 24. Pray ye to the Lord for me for an Ironical taunt and finally by open Heresie and opposal of the Gospel He had a whore which he led about with him was called Helena or as some will have it Selene of Tyrus Of whom if we understand Rev. 2. 20. which speaketh of Jezabel that called her self a Prophetess it would not be unconsonant for as Simon like Ahab was of Samaria so Helena like Jezable was of Tyre Nor were there doctrines much different for the one seduced men to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols and the other taught them to do what they would and not to fear the threats of the Law for that they should be saved by the grace of Simon Many such monsters of Doctrine and Hydra's of opinion did this Lerna of Heresie breed and this firstborn of Satan vomit forth As these that in Judea he was the Son of God in Samaria the Father and in other Nations the Holy Ghost That Helena bred Angels and Angels made the world That he himself came down from Heaven for his Helena and that she was the lost sheep mentioned in the Gospel and that she was that Helena that occasioned the destruction of Troy And a great deal more of such hideous and blasphemous matter recorded by Irenius Epiphanius Augustine Philastrius and others Histories have traced this Magical wretch from Samaria to Rome and there have brought Simon Peter and him contending before Nero in working of miracles and Peter bringing him to harm and shame which shall be tried in its proper place § 5. The Holy Ghost given vers 17. The Apostles at Jerusalem hearing the glad tydings of the conversion of Samaria send down unto them Peter and John And why these two rather than any other of the twelve is not so easie to resolve as it is ready to observe that if in this imployment there was any sign of Primacy John was sharer of it as well as Peter Being come they pray and
Africa 789 Affirmative and Negative Word or Phrase are used together commonly in Scripture for Elegancy 513 Agapae Feasts of Charity what 315 Age of Man shortned at the flood building of Babel and in the Wilderness 11 34 Ages of the World 4 11 Ages it 's very common in Scripture in reckoning the ages of Men and other things to count the year which they are now passing for a year of their age be it never so lately begun 487 Agrippa his Original Succession to his Uncle-Brother zeal to the Jewish Law p. 321. His miseries p. 818 to 820. His case hopeful p. 825. He is fully enlarged and Crowned and not long after slew James and imprisoned Peter to please the Jews for he was much their friend p. 828 858 879 889. His Death miserable 889 Ahasuerosh the same with Artaxerxes a greater Prince than Darius c. 140 Alabarcha not the name of a Man but an Office 819 Allegory The Jews did usually turn the Scriptures into Allegory which did not only taint their own Posterity but also the Church of Christ. 373 Allegations Citations or Quotations when taken out of the Old Testament by the New are sometimes two places couched together as if they were one yet maketh it sure that the first is that very place which it taketh on it to cite though the second be another 451 Alexander the Conqueror had the Prophesie of Daniel shewed to him p. 2065. * The Occurrences of the Temple under Alexander 2065 2066. * Almanach or Kalendar Jewish with the Festivals Attendance of the Priests and the Lessons out of the Law and Prophets 401 to 406 Alms not unclean though given by an Heathen 843 Alpha and Omega so Christ is called an usual phrase in the Jewish Writers 341 Alpheus and Cleopas the same Man p. 242 270. He had four Sons Apostles 660 Altar of Incense what p. 721 1083. * Of Burnt Offerings what p. 722 2029. * The manner and way of burning up Wood for it p. 984 c. How so much burnt Offerings could be offered on it in so small a time p. 2029 2030. * When the Altar was whited p. 2036. * Brazen Altar put on the North side the Altar what p. 2036. * Of what nature and use the Horns of the Altar were 2033. * Amen The Jews used it as a solemn Affirmation upon or in a sort of swearing p. 515. In the Old Testament it s used in a way of wishing or praying Christ useth it by way of assertion or affirming with the reasons p. 535 536. Why our Saviour useth it so often ibid. Amen Amen Christ often useth it double John always and why 535 536 Anathama Maranatha what 304 305 Ananias and Saphira their History p. 762 c. They were destroyed for despising the Spirit of the Messias p. 278. For affronting the Holy Ghost ibid. And often not a Conjuctive Particle but only illustrating or explicatory p. 518. This Conjunctive Particle And is very oft cut off by Ellipsis in Scripture 782 Andrew the Apostle called one of the first yet ever put after the rest in the mentioning of them p. 635. Had a suspension for a time in his attendance on Christ. 633 635 Angels created with the Heavens in probability fell out of envy to Man p. 2. Angels for Devils or Ministers 303. Angels was one of the Titles of the Ministers of the Jewish Synagogue as also of the Gospel Ministry afterward p. 323 341 616 617. Angels are called The heavenly Host. p. 428. When the Scripture speaketh of the coming or going of Angels or Spirits it generally meaneth after a visible and an apparent manner p. 512. The Ministration of Angels what p. 668 669. Angel Tutelar or Guardian 886 Annas supposed to have been the Nasi or Head of the Sanhedrim when Christ was had before him p. 454. But he was indeed the Sagan or Vicegerent to the High Priest at that time 912 Anointing much in use among the Jews our Saviour was three times anointed by Mary Magdalen twice his feet once at her Conversion and again six days before the Passover a third time his Head and Body two days before the Passover p. 251 252. Anointing the sick with Oyl was used by the Jews for a Charm by the Christians as Physick in order to a cure the Elders of the Church being present to pray for a blessing and to instruct the sick p. 333. Christs anointing was his setting a part for Mediator and Minister of the Gospel c. also his apparent Instalment into that Office by the Holy Ghost p. 616 617. Anointing Oyl how compounded 2051. * Antichrist Paul looks upon the Jewish Nation so obstinate and unreasonable as the Antichrist p. 296. See Man of Sin St. John tells of many Antichrists these were such as were Apostates from the Gospel p. 339. Antichrist of the second Edition was much inlarged in Rome Heathen and especially Papal p. 344. At first Antichrist was the perverse Jews in their differing Sects partly unbelieving and partly apostatizing p. 373. until the Papal Antichrist arose which took up the like quantity of Traditions Legends false Miracles Ceremonys c. and then the two Parts make one entire Antichrist p. 373. The first Generation of the Jews in the Apostles time was Antichrist and the same Spirit being still in that Nation or People for any thing I know they may be destroyed with the Romish Antichrist notwithstanding a Remnant may be saved p. 376. Antichrist and his Dominion was offered to Christ. 508. Antigonus of Soto President of the Sanhedrim part of his History 2080. * Antioch a Seat of the Roman Government one of the first places planted with Christianity 286 Antiochus Epiphanes part of his History 2087 2088. * Antonia the Tower described 1060. * Antoninus Philosophus Marcus Aurelius the Emperor supposed to have many discourses with the Jewish Rabbins yea to become a Proselyte to them 369 Apion his original his writing against the Jews his end 860 Apollinaris supposed Christ to have no humane soul confuted 396. Marg. Apocrypha ill placed by the Papists between the two Testaments 1014 Apostacy or a falling away upon the first planting of the Gospel 297 298 Apostles were ordained by Christ in a Mount near Capernaum to found and carry on the Gospel Church p. 223. Their number three Ends of their appointment ibid. After they were ordained they remained about a year with Christ as Probationers to see his Works and learn his Doctrin p. 223 233. Apostles one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers ibid. They had the Spirit given them to heal Diseases and cast out Devils some considerable time before they had it given them with commission to preach the Gospel p. 234. Why they were sent out unfurnished as to mony c. ibid. Upon Christs appearing to them at Supper after his Resurrection they receive the Holy Ghost to give them a power of Life and Death distinct from what they had yet received or were to
of Israel for thou art to be crowned with higher dignity for from thee shall go forth a Ruler c. And in effect to this sense unless I mistake does the Chaldee Paraphrast plainly render it whom I suspect to be present at this very Councel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art within a little to become chief See the same sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Targum upon Psal. LXXIII 2. Hos. I. 4. c. VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Star which they saw in the East went before them IT is probable the Star had shone in the very birth night and thence forward to this very time it had disappeared The Wise men had no need of the Star to be their guide when they were going to Jerusalem a City well known but going forward thence to Bethlehem and that as it seems by night it was their guide VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Departed into Egypt EGYPT was now replenished with Jews above measure and that partly by reason of them that travailed thither under Jochanan the son of Karcah Jer. XLIII partly with them that flocked thither more latewardly to the Temple of Onias of which d d d d d d Antiq. lib. 13 cap. 6. Josephus writes and e e e e e e In Menacoth ch 13. Succah ch 5. Hieros Ioma fol. 43. 4. both Talmuds When Simeon the Just said I shall dye this year They said to him Whom therefore shall we put in thy place He answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold my son Onias is before you They made Onias therefore High Priest But his brother Simeon envyed him Onias therefore fled first into the Royal Mountain and then into Egypt and built there an Altar repeating that of the Prophet In that day there shall be an Altar to the Lord in the midst of Egypt f f f f f f Id. Succah fol. 55. 1 2. He that hath not seen the Cathedral Church of Alexandria hath never seen the Glory of Israel It was after the manner of a Court Walk double cloistred There were sometimes there so many as doubly exceeded the number of those that went out of Egypt There were seventy golden Chairs set with gems according to the number of the Seventy Elders A Wooden Pulpit also placed in the middle in which the Bishop of the Synagogue stood And when the Law was read after every benediction a sign being given by a private person waving an handkerchief they all answered Amen But they sat not confusedly and mixedly together but every artificer with the Professors of the same art So that if a stranger came he might mingle himself with the workmen of the same trade c. These did wicked Trajane destroy c. g g g g g g Succah fol. 51. 2. The Babylonian Gemara repeats almost the same things alledging these last matters after this manner They sate not confusedly but the Artificers by themselves the Silver Smiths by themselves the Braziers by themselves the Weavers by themselves c. so that if a poor stranger came in he might know his own fellow workmen and betake himself to them and thence receive sustinence for himself and family So provision was made for the poverty of Joseph and Mary while they sojourned in Egypt at Alexandria probably partly by selling the Presents of the Wise men for food and provision by the way and partly by a supply of Victuals from their Country-folks in Egypt when they had need There are some footsteps in the Talmudists of this journey of our Saviour into Egypt but so corrupted with venomous malice and blasphemy as all their Writings are that they seem only to have confessed the truth that they might have matter the more liberally to reproach him For so they speak h h h h h h Bab. Sanhedr fol. 107. 2. When Jannai the King slew the Rabbins R. Josua ben Perachiah and Jesus went away unto Alexandria in Egypt Simeon ben Shetah sent thither speaking thus From me Jerusalem the holy City to thee O Alexandria in Egypt my Sister Health My husband dwells with thee while I in the mean time sit alone Therefore he rose up and went And a little after He brought forth four hundred trumpets and anathematized Jesus And a little before that Elizaeus turned away Gehazi with both his hands and R. Josua ben Perachiah thrust away Jesus with both his hands i i i i i i Schabb. fol. 104. 2. Did not ben Satda bring inchantments out of Egypt in the cutting which was in his flesh Under the name of Ben Satda they wound our Jesus with their reproaches although the Glosser upon the place from the authority of R. Tam denies it For thus he R. Tam saith This was not Jesus of Nazareth because they say here Ben Satda was in the days of Paphus the son of Judah who was in the days of R. Akiba but Jesus was in the days of R. Josua the son of Perachiah c. VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From two years old and under IT was now two years ago or thereabouts since the Star had shone and Christ was born The reason of the tarrying of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem was this that they believed that the Messias who according to the Prophet was born there should have been brought up no where but there also nor dared they to carry him elsewhere before they had leave so to do by an Angel from Heaven The Jewish Nation are very purblind how and whence the Messias shall arise and whence is that Nemo novit no man knows whence the Son of man is Joh. VII 27. that is from what original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was doubted b whether k Hieros Berac fol. 5. 1. he should come from the living or from the dead Only it was confessed by all without controversie that he should first make some shew of himself from Bethlehem which the Priests and Scribes of the people assert vers 4. Hence you have Christ now in his second year at Bethlehem whether Joseph and Mary had again betaken themselves with him when they had now presented him in the Temple according to the Law being forty days old Luke II. 22. And had taken care for his education in this place and not elsewhere until he himself going forth from hence might shew himself openly the Messias if they had not been sent away some where else by permission from Heaven VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be called a Nazarene THOSE things which are brought from Esa. XI 1. concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Netzer the Branch and those things also produced concerning Samson the Nazarite a most noble Type of Christ have their weight by no means to be despised We add that Matthew may be understood concerning the outward humble and mean condition of our Saviour And that by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazarene
or forty nine years from the giving of Cyrus his Patent for the rebuilding Jerusalem to the finishing the rebuilding of it by Nehemiah 2. Into sixty two weeks or four hundred thirty four years Namely from the finishing the building of the City to the beginning of the last week of the seventy In which space of time the times of the Persian Empire which remained after Nehemiah if indeed there was any time now remaining and the times of the Grecian Empire and of Syro-Grecian were all run out and those times also wherein the Romans ruled over the Jews 3. The holy Text divides the last week or the last seven years into two equal parts vers 27. which I thus render And he shall strengthen or confirm the Covenant with many in that one week and the half of that week shall make the sacrifice and oblation to cease or in the half of that week he shall make to cease c. Not in the middle of that week but in the latter half that is the latter three years and an half of the seven First Seven weeks having been reckoned up before and then sixty two weeks vers 25. now there remained one only of the seventy and in reference to that in the middle of it the Messias shall begin his Ministry which being finished in three years and an half the latter halved part of that week he shall make the sacrifice and oblation to cease c. The Nation could not but know could not but take great notice of the Times so exactly set out by the Angel Gabriel Since therefore the coming of the Messias was the great wish and desire of all and since the time of his appearing was so clearly decreed by the Angel that nothing could be more and when the latter half of the last seven years chiefly to be observed was now within a very little come it is no wonder if the people hearing from this venerable Preacher that the Kingdom of Heaven was now come should be stirred â—â— beyond measure to meet him and should flock to him For as we observed before They thought that the Kingdom of God would immediately be manifested Luke XIX 11. II. Another reason of it was this The Institution of Baptism for an Evangelical Sacrament was first in the hand of the Baptist who the Word of the Lord coming to him Luke III. 11. went forth backed with the same authority as the chiefest Prophets had in times past But yet the first use of Baptism was not exhibited at that time For Baptism very many centuries of years backwards had been both known and received in most frequent use among the Jews and for the very same end as it now obtains among Christians namely that by it Proselytes might be admitted into the Church and hence it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism for Proselytism and was distinct from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism or washing from uncleanness See the f f f f f f Fol. 45. 2. in the Gloss. Babylonian Talmud in Jevamoth I. I ascribe the first use of it for this end to the Patriarch Jacob when he chose into his family and Church the young women of Sichem and other Heathens who then lived with him Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him Put away from you the strange Gods and be ye clean and change your garments c. Gen. XXXV 2. What that word means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be ye clean Alben Ezra does very well interpret to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The washing of the body or Baptism which reason it self also perswades us to believe II. All the Nation of Israel do assert as it were with one mouth that all the Nation of Israel were brought into the Covenant among other things by Baptism g g g g g g Issure Biah cap. 13. Israel saith Maimonides the great Interpreter of the Jewish Law was admitted into the Covenant by three things namely by Circumcision Baptism and Sacrifice Circumcision was in Egypt as it is said None uncircumcised shall eat of the Passover Baptism was in the Wilderness before the giving of the Law as it is said Thou shalt sanctifie them to day and tomorrow and let them wash their garments III. They assert that that infinite number of Proselytes in the days of David and Solomon were admitted by Baptism h h h h h h Maimonid ibid. The Sanhedrins received not Proselytes in the days of David and Solomon Not in the days of David lest they should betake themselves to Proselytism out of a fear of the Kingdom of Israel Not in the days of Solomon lest they might do the same by reason of the glory of the Kingdom And yet abundance of Proselytes were made in the days of David and Solomon before private men and the great Sanhedrin was full of care about this business For they would not cast them out of the Church because they were baptized c. IV. i i i i i i Id. ibid. Whensoever any Heathen will betake himself and be joyned to the Covenant of Israel and place himself under the wings of the Divine Majesty and take the yoke of the Law upon him voluntary Circumcision Baptism and Oblation are required but if it be a Woman Baptism and Oblation That was a common Axiom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man is a Proselyte untill he be circumcised and baptized It is disputed by the Babylonian Gemara k k k k k k Iâ—vamoth fol. 46. 2. A Proselyte that is circumcised and not baptized what of him R. Eliezer saith Behold he is a Proselyte for so we find concerning our Fathers that they were circumcised but not baptized One is baptized but not circumcised what of him R. Joshua saith Behold he is a Proselyte For so we find concerning the maidservants who were baptized but not circumâ—â—sed But the wise men say is he baptized and not circumcised Or Is he circumcised and not baptized He is not a Proselyte until he be circumcised and baptized But Baptism was sufficient for women so far forth as this held good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—â—am fol. 45 â— One baptizeth a Heathen woman in the name of a woman we can assert that for a deed rightly done Where the Gloss is thus To be baptized in the name of a woman was to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the washing of a woman polluted and not with the baptism to Proselytism But we may nevertheless assert her who is so baptized for a compleat Proselytess because that Baptism of washing for uncleanness serves for Proselytism to her for a Heathen woman is not baptized or washed for uncleanness V. They baptized also young children for the most part with their Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m m m m m m â—â—â— Châ—â—â—bb fol. 11. 1. They baptize a little Proselyte according to the judgment of the Sanhedrin that is as the
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk any more in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him 3. It was not unusal to defer the payment of the half Shekels of this year to the year following by reason of some urgent necessity Hence it was when they sat to collect and receive this Tribute the Collectors had before them two chests placed in one of which they put the h See Shekal cap. 2. Maimon ibid. Tax of the present year in the other of the year past u But it may be objected Why did the Collectors of Capernaum require the payment at that time when according to Custom they began not to demand it before the fifteenth day of the month Adar I answer 1. It is certain there were in every City money changers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to collect it and being collected to carry it to Jerusalem Hence is that in the Tract cited The fifteenth day of the month Adar the Collectors sit in the Cities to demand the half Shekel and the five and twentieth they sit in the Temple 2. The uncertain abode of Christ at Capernaum gave these Collectors no unjust cause of demanding this due whensoever they had him there present at this time especially when the feast of Tabernacles was near and they about to go to Jerusalem to render an account perhaps of their Collection But if any list to understand this of the Tax paid the Romans we do not contend And then the words of those that collected the Tribute Does not your Master pay the Didrachm seem to sound to this effect Is your Master of the Sect of Judas of Galilee CHAP. XVIII VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven IT cannot be passed over without observation that the ambitious dispute of the Disciples concerning Primacy for the most part followed the mention of the death of Christ and his Resurrection See this Story in Mark IX 31 32 33. And Luke IX 44 45 46. He said to his Disciples Lay up these discourses in your ears for the time is coming that the Son of man is delivered into the hands of Men. But they knew not that saying c. and there arose a contest between them who among them should be greatest Also Matth. XX. 18 19 20. He said to them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the Chief Priests c. Then came to him the Mother of Zebedees children with her sons saying Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand c. And Luke XXII 22 23 24. The Son of man indeed goeth as it is determined c. and there arose a Contention among them who of them should seem to be the greater The dream of the earthly Kingdom of the Messias did so possess their minds for they had suck'd in this Doctrine with their first milk that the mention of the most vile death of the Messias repeated over and over again did not at all drive it thence The image of earthly pomp was fixed at the bottom of their hearts and there it stuck nor by any words of Christ could it as yet be rooted out no not when they saw the death of Christ when together with that they saw his Resurrection for then they also asked Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel Acts I. 6. However after Christ had oftentimes foretold his death and resurrection it always follows in the Evangelists that they understood not what was spoken yet the opinion formed in their minds by their Doctors That the Resurrection should go before the Kingdom of the Messias supplied them with such an interpretation of this matter that they lost not an ace of the opinion of a future Earthly Kingdom See more at Chap. XXIV 3. VERS VI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good for him in Talmudick Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be said in distinction from those very small Mills wherewith they were wont to grind the spices that were either to be applied to the wound of Circumcision or to be added to the delights of the Sabbath Hence the Gloss of R. Solomon upon Jer. XXV 10. The sound of Mills and the light of the candle the sound of Mills saith he wherewith spices were ground and bruised for the healing of Circumcision That Christ here speaks of a kind of death perhaps no where certainly never used among the Jews he does it either to aggravate the thing or in allusion to drowning in the dead Sea in which one cannot be drowned without some weight hung to him and in which to drown any thing by a common manner of speech implied to devote to rejection hatred and execration which we have observed elswhere VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Their Angels in Heaven do always behold c. THIS one may very well expound by laying to it that which is said Heb. I. 14. The Angels are Ministring Spirits sent to minister for them who shall be heirs of the salvation to come As if he should say See that ye do not despise one of these little ones who have been received with their believing parents into the Gospel Church for I say unto you that after that manner as the Angels minister to adult Believers they minister to them also VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If he lose one does he not leave the ninety and nine c. A Very common form of speech a a a a a a Peah cap. 4. Hal. â— In distributing some grapes and dates to the poor although ninety nine say Scatter them and only one Divide them They hearken to him because he speaks according to the Tradition b b b b b b â—ieros Schabh fol. â—4 â— If ninety nine die by an evil eye that is by bewitching and but one by the hand of Heaven that is by the stroke of God c. If ninety nine die by reason of cold but one by the hand of God c. VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tell him his fault between thee and him alone THE reason of the precept is founded in that charitable Law Levit. XIX 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but thou shalt surely reprove him and shalt not suffer sin in him Here the Talmudists speak not amiss c c c c c c Bab. â—â—achin fol. 1â— â— The Rabbins deliver Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart Perhaps he does not beat him he does not pull off his hair he does not curse him the Text saith In thy Heart speaking of hatred in the heart But whence is it proved that he that sees his brother doing some foul action is bound to reprove him Because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
travelleth hath brought forth * * * * * * Mic. V. 3. VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For as the lightning c. TO discover clearly the sense of this and the following clauses those two things must be observed which we have formerly given notice of 1. That the destruction of Jerusalem is very frequently expressed in Scripture as if it were the destruction of the whole world Deut. XXXII 22. A fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn unto the lowest hell the discourse there is about the wrath of God consuming that people See vers 20 21. and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains Jerom. IV. 23. I beheld the Earth and low it was without form and void and the Heavens and they had no light c. The discourse there also is concerning the destruction of that Nation Isa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred c. And more passages of this sort among the Prophets According to this sense Christ speaks in this place and Peter speaks in his second Epistle third Chapter and John in the sixth of the Revelations and Paul 2 Cor. V. 17. c. 2. That Christs taking vengeance of that exceeding wicked Nation is called Christs coming in Glory and His coming in the clouds Dan. VII It is also called The day of the Lord. See Psal. L. Mal. III. 1 2. c. Joel II. 31. Matth. XVI 28. Re◠I. 7. c. See what we have said on Chap. XII 20. XIX 28. The meaning therefore of the words before us is this While they shall falsly say that Christ is to be seen here or there Behold he is in the desart one shall say another Behold he is in the secret chambers He himself shall come like lightning with sudden and altogether unexpected vengeance They shall meet him whom they could not find they shall find him whom they sought but quite another than what they looked for VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For wheresoever the carcass is c. I Wonder any can understand these words of pious men flying to Christ when the discourse here is of quite a different thing They are thus connected to the foregoing Christ shall be revealed with a sudden vengeance For when God shall cast off the City and People grown ripe for destruction like a Carcass thrown out the Roman Soldiers like Eagles shall straight fly to it with their Eagles Ensigns to tear and devour it And to this also agrees the answer of Christ Luke XVII and the last when after the same words that are spoke here in this Chapter it was enquired where Lord He answered Wheresoever the carcass is c. Silently hinting thus much That Jerusalem and that wicked Nation which he described through the whole Chapter would be the Carcass to which the greedy and devouring Eagles would fly to prey upon it VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sun shall be darkned c. THAT is the Jewish Heaven shall perish and the Sun and Moon of its glory and happiness shall be darkned and brought to nothing The Sun is the Religion of the Church The Moon is the Government of the State and the Stars are the Judges and Doctors of both Compare Esa. XIII 10. and Ezek. XXXII 7 8 c. VERS XXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man THEN shall the Son of Man give a proof of himself whom they would not before acknowledge a proof indeed not in any visible figure but in vengeance and judgment so visible that all the Tribes of the Earth shall be forced to acknowledge him the Avenger The Jews would not know him now they shall know him whether they will or no as Esay XXVI 11. Many times they asked of him a sign now a sign shall appear that he is the true Messias whom they despised derided crucified namely his signal vengeance and fury such as never any Nation felt from the first foundations of the World VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And he shall send his Angels c. WHEN Jerusalem shall be reduced to ashes and that wicked Nation cut off and rejected then shall the Son of Man send his Ministers with the Trumpet of the Gospel and they shall gather together his Elect of the several Nations from the four corners of Heaven so that God shall not want a Church although that ancient people of his be rejected and cast off but that Jewish Church being destroyed a new Church shall be called out of the Gentiles VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This generation shall not pass c. HENCE it appears plain enough that the foregoing verses are not to be understood of the last Judgment but as we said of the destruction of Jerusalem There were some among the Disciples particularly John who lived to see these things come to pass With Matth. XVI last compare Joh. XXI 22. And there were some Rabbins alive at the time when Christ spoke these things that lived till the City was destroyed viz. Rabban Simeon who perished with the City R. Jochanan ben Zaccai who out-lived it R. Zadoch R. Ismael and others VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man knoweth no not the Angels THIS is taken from Deut. XXXII 34. Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But as the days of Noe were c. THUS Peter placeth as parallels the ruine of the old World and the ruine of Jerusalem x x x x x x 1 Pet. III. 19. 20 21. and by such a comparison his words will be best understood For 1. See how he skips from the mention of the death of Christ to the times before the flood in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses passing over all the time between Did not the Spirit of Christ preach all along in the times under the Law Why then doth he take an example only from the times before the flood Namely that he might fit the matter to his case and shew that the present state of the Jews was like theirs in the times of Noe and that their ruine should be like also So also in his second Epistle Chap. III. vers 6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y y y y y y Sanhedr cap. 10. hal 2. The age or generation of the flood hath no portion in the World to come thus Peter saith that they were shut up in prison and here our Saviour intimates that they were buried in security and so were surprised by the flood CHAP. XXV VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ten Virgins THE Nation of the Jews delighted mightily in the number ten both in sacred and civil matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Synagogue consisted not but
thus Thou wilt be call'd the Rock and let us apprehend our blessed Lord speaking Prophetically and foretelling that grand error that should spring up in the Church viz. that Peter is a Rock than which the Christian world hath not known any thing more sad and destructive VERS XLVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and see NOthing more common in the Talmudick Authors than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and behold come and see sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS XLVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Israelite indeed COmpare it with Isai. LXIII 8. I saw thee saith Christ when thou wert under the fig-tree What doing there doubtless not sleeping or idling away his time much less doing any ill thing This would not have deserv'd so remarkable an Encomium as Christ gave him We may therefore suppose him in that recess under the fig-tree as having sequestred himself from the view of men either for prayer meditation reading or some such Religious performance and so indeed from the view of men that he must needs acknowledg Jesus for the Messiah for that very reason that when no mortal eye could see he saw and knew that he was there Our Saviour therefore calls him an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile because he sought out that retirement to pray so different from the usual craft and hypocrisie of that Nation that were wont to pray publickly and in the streets that they might be seen of men And here Christ gather'd to himself five Disciples viz. Andrew Peter Philip Nathanael who seems to be the same with Bartholomew and another whose name is not mention'd ver 35. 40. whom by comparing Joh. XXI 2. we may conjecture to have been Thomas VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily Verily IF Christ doubled his affirmation as we here find it why is it not so doubled in the other Evangelists if he did not double it why is it so here I. Perhaps the asseveration he useth in this place may not be to the same things and upon the same occasion to which he useth the single Amen in other Evangelists II. Perhaps also St. John being to write for the use of the Hellenists might write the word in the same Hebrew letters wherein Christ used it and in the same letters also wherein the Greeks used it retaining still the same Hebrew Idiom III. But however it may be observ'd that whereas by all others the word Amen was generally used in the latter end of a speech or sentence our Lord only useth it in the beginning as being himself the Amen Revel III. 14. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai. LXI 16. The God of Truth So that that single Amen which he used in the other Evangelists contained in it the Gemination Amen Amen I the Amen the true and faithful witness Amen i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a truth do say unto you c. Nor did it become any mortal man to speak Amen in the beginning of a sentence in the same manner as our Saviour did Indeed the very Masters of Traditions who seem'd to be the Oracles of that Nation were wont to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak in truth but not Amen I say unto you IV. Amen contains in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea and Amen II Cor. I. 20. Revel I. 7. i. e. truth and stability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai. XXV 1. Interlin Veritas firmitas Faithfulness and truth The other Evanglists express the word which our Saviour useth St. John doubles it to intimate the full sense of it I have been at some question with my self whether I should insert in this place the blasphemous things which the Talmudick Authors belch out against the Holy Jesus in allusion shall I say or derision of this word Amen to which name he entitled himself and by which asseveration he confirm'd his Doctrines But that thou mightest Reader both know and with equal indignation abhor the sâ—arlings and virulency of these men take it in their own words although I cannot without infinite reluctancy alledg what they with all audaciousness have utter'd a a a a a a Schabb. fol. 116. 2. They have a Tradition that Imma Shalom the wife of R. Eliezer and her brother Rabban Gamaliel went to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Philosopher the Gloss hath it a certain Heretick of very great note for his integrity in giving judgment in matters and taking no bribes The woman brings him a golden candlestick and prayeth him that the inheritance might be divided in part to her Rabban Gamaliel objects It is written amongst us that the daughter shall not inherit instead of the son But the Philosopher answer'd Since the time that you were removed from your land the Law of Moses was made void 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Aven was given he means the Gospel but marks it with a scurrilous title and in that it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son and the daughter shall inherit together The next day Rabban Gamaliel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought him a Lybian Ass then saith he unto them I have found at the end of Aven i. e. the Gospel that it is written there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Aven came not to diminish but to add to the Law of Moses where he abuseth both the name of our Blessed Saviour and his words too Mat. V. 17. And now after our just detestation of this execrable blasphemy let us think what kind Judg this must be to whose judgment Rabban Gamaliel the President of the Sanhedrin and his sister wife to the great Eleazar should betake themselves A Christian as it should seem by the whole contexture of the story but alas what kind of Christian that should make so light of Christ and his Gospel However were he a Christian of what kind soever yet if there be any truth in this passage it is not unworthy our taking notice of it both as to the History of those times as also as to that question whether there were any Christian Judges at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ye shall see heaven open and the Angels of God There are those that in this place observe an allusion to Jacob's Ladder The meaning of this passage seems to be no other than this Because I said I saw thee under the fig-tree believest thou Did this seem to thee a matter of such wonder Thou shalt see greater things than these For you shall in me observe such plenty both of revelation and miracle that it shall seem to you as if the heaven's were opened and the Angels were ascending and descending to bring with them all manner of revelation authority and power from God to be imparted to the Son of man Where this also is included viz. that Angels must in a more peculiar manner administer unto him as in the vision of Jacob the whole Host of Angels had been shew'd and promis'd to him in
such as I described unto you false Teachers that pretended to the Spirit and to preach and work Miracles by the Spirit And I shall discourse a little concerning the great delusion that is by pretence of the Spirit and this the rather that I may speak something like in subsequence to that I treated upon at our last Meeting Then I exhorted you to hold Communion by the example of Christ. For separation I then told you was the undoing of our Church Now I give caution against the pretence of those that Preach and Expound Scripture by the Spirit For that is the cause of Separation and hath proved the ruine of Religion And although this change of times doth seem to promise that this delusion in time will dye so that the present discourse may seem not so very pertinent yet doth that mischief now live move delude and captivate silly souls little less than it hath done all along Therefore give me leave a little to discover this delusion to you that you may not only be the better fenced against it that it do not deceive you but that you may be the better furnished to stop the mouths of those that pretend to it For the prosecuting this argument you must distinguish between the false pretence to the Spirit of Sanctification and to the Spirit of Revelation By the former men deceive themselves by the latter others They deceive themselves by conceiving they have the former because they have something like it but these deceive others by the pretence of the latter though they have nothing like it There is no grace but there is a false coin minted by the Devil to dissemble it As the Harlot takes the live-child from the unwitting mother and fosters the dead one in the room and so lyes the poor woman deceived and so the poor man is deceived and thinks he hath saving grace when t is but common and the Spirit of Sanctification when t is but the Spirit of Bondage But I shall not insist on this But proceed to the other pretence viz. to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophesie whereby these in the Text deceived others I shall not need to shew you how this hath been the great cheat in all times There were false Prophets before the captivity and false Prophets after it such pretenders almost in all times I shall strip this delusion naked and whip it before you by observing these four things I. No degree of holiness whatsoever doth necessarily beget and infer the Spirit of Revelation as the cause produceth the effect It is the first cheat that these men put upon themselves and others by concluding I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit and I preach and expound Scripture by the Spirit whereas I say no degree of Sanctification doth necessarily beget and produce that of Revelation I clear this from the nature of the thing it self and by examples First From the nature of the thing The Spirit of Holiness and Revelation are far different therefore the one is not the cause of the other The cause and the effect have a parity and similitude one with another but these are far from being so 1. They are impartible to different subjects Holiness only to holy men the Spirit of Revelation sometimes to wicked men So it was imparted to Balaam Numb XXIII so likewise to Judas and Caiaphas 2. They are bestowed upon different ends Holiness for the good of him that hath it Revelation for the benefit of others 3. They are of different manners and operations The Spirit of Sanctification changeth the heart Paul is a Saul no more Revelation doth not Judas is Judas still 4. They are of different Diffusion in the Soul Sanctification is quite through I Thess. V. 23. Revelation only in the understanding 5. They are of different Effects Sanctification never produceth but what is good Revelation may produce what is evil Knowledge puffeth up Now see what a cheat they are in This to themselves if they believe it themselves and to others that believe it in this argumentation I am holy therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation To the further confuting of this add but two Examples 1. The first Adam He was as holy as created nature could be and yet had he the Spirit of Revelation Not the Spirit at all He was most holy yet had not the Spirit of Sanctification most full of knowledge yet had not the Spirit of Revelation but all his holiness was founded only in his nature as he was created God made him holy and left him to stand upon his own holiness and had not the assistance of the Spirit at all So he had great knowledge yet not the Spirit of Revelation either to know things to come or to know things beyond their natures and causes But 2. Consider the second Adam He was holiness it self yet had he not the Spirit of Revelation by that holiness In Christ there were two things The holiness of his person by union with the Godhead and the Indowment of the Spirit upon his person He was so holy that he was not only without sin but he was impeccable Rom. VIII 2. as we are a Law that cannot but sin so he contra Now this holiness of Christs person or nature is to a clean different end to what the guifts of the Spirit upon him were His person was so holy that he might perform the Law satisfie justice pay obedience conquer Satan But the guifts of the Spirit were to fit him for Mediatorship to cast out Devils to reveal the will of God to work Miracles to confirm that Doctrine As these differ in their ends so are they from different originals holiness from the purity of his nature indowments by extraordinary donation If he had the Spirit in extraordinary guifts of Revelation and Miracles by vertue of his holy nature why was that Spirit given so visible Matth. III. and given when he was to begin his Mediation Consider his own words Mark XIII 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father Some are ashamed to confess their ignorance of any thing yet he doth it plainly For the Divine Nature in Christ acted not to the utmost of its power T is clear from this passage of Christ that by his nature he had not the Spirit of Revelation but he had it by the immediate guift of God For it pleased not God so to reveal that day and hour to him while he was here on Earth So that by this example you may see much more the fallacy of that argument I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation Whereas Christ himself could not say so II. The Spirit of Revelation is given indeed to Saints but means little that sence that these men speak of but is of a clean different nature The Apostle prays Ephes. I. 17. That God would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom
but sin is alike in all But my discourse shall light down and stay upon that which in the Text is the lighting down of the happiness of being justified viz. That such have peace with God The very word to have Peace with God may make a Christians heart to leap within him it speaks so much happiness Did not our hearts burn within us say they in the Gospel upon Christs gracious discourses with them It is enough to warm a heart if it be not if it will not be a stone if it be sensible if it will be sensible what it is to be a sinner to hear that an offended just dreadful all-powerful God will be at peace with him that hath offended him Why art thou so dull O my Soul why so stupid within me as not to stir not to be affected at the sounding of such tidings as these that it is possible for a sinner to have peace with God Cain why art thou so unquiet in thy conscience if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted but if thou do not there is a sin offering lies at the door and thou mayest have an attonement Wretch that thou art if thy heart relent not at such tidings as these When the Devil had set enmity twixt God and Man at the fall of Adam it was a lovely dawning towards mans recovery when God set enmity twixt Man and the Devil for their friendship had been Mans undoing But it was the glorious Sun-rising or noon-tide rather when God abolished the enmity betwixt Man and himself and brought and spake Peace In the Angels song that they sung at the birth of our Saviour that part of the Ditty spake a great deal of happiness that spake of Peace on Earth twixt man and man which was not to be by reconciling Jew and Gentile in the Gospel but that part of it spake more happiness that spake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods good will towards men or Peace twixt Men and God Now what it is to have peace with God who can utter T is a fit Theme for an Angel from Heaven to discourse upon who never had enmity with God or rather for a Saint in glory who had once been at enmity but now knows what the sweetness of peace with God is in its full enjoyment Take the prospect of it thus reflexly Take your stand in your thoughts from a death-bed a very convenient stand to take our view in all our actions Think of your dying condition and conceive all your sins then mustered before you the vanity folly and wretchedness of an ill led life presenting themselves before you in their horror and confusion your conscience flashing the very flames of Hell into your faces imagine that you beheld God frowning and his face full of indignation in a word that you saw plainly your lost and undone Condition and then speak heart what is it to have peace with God Solomon wilt thou have riches Sinner wilt thou have preâ—erments wealth pleasure all contents the World can afford No Lord let me have Peace with God which is above ten thousand Worlds It is very incident to any that treateth upon this Subject to be carried by a kind of delightful impulse and inforcement to discourse what happiness it is to have Peace with God And no wonder when the field is very pleasant to spatiate in But I shall according to the proper rule of method first inquire into the nature of the thing it self and then if time permit speak of that happy fruit of it Of the former of these I shall discourse Negatively and Positively I. Negatively what is not this Peace nor any sign of it but is counterfeit coin And 1. Outward Peace or prosperity in the things of this World is no sign at all of Peace with God The men of the World are willing to delude themselves with this Sophism All things go well with me therefore 't is so twixt God and me 'T is true outward prosperity in Scripture-phrase is often termed by the name of Peace and it is true also that outward prosperity is often promised upon pleasing God in obedience to his Commandments as in Levit. XXVI and Deut. XXVIII and in multitudes of other places And hence some may be ready upon the enjoyment of worldly prosperity to think they may conclude upon the favour of God and that they are at peace with him and all well 'twixt God and them But that promise of the Covenant is to be interpreted according to the tenor of the Covenant it self which is That it is absolutely a Covenant of Grace and Peace but it is conditionally the Covenant of somewhat else viz. of temporal things In 1 Tim. IV. 8. Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Of the life to come absolutely of this conditionally Gods Covenant is that they that keep his Covenant shall have grace that is absolute and it may be prosperity it may be adversity that is conditional But this may be spoils all By no means Thou shalt have prosperity if best thou shalt have adversity if best Riches if good for thee prosperity if better And in that question whether wicked men have right to the creature the determination is made more easie this being observed That there is a great deal of difference betwixt a right to the Creature and a Covenant-right which is that the use of the Creature be for our good For Dominium temporale non fundatur in gratia It is not grace that gives interest to the use of the Creature but to the blessing on the Creature I Tim. IV. 5. The creature is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer The matter is not whether we have the use of the Creature but whether the Creature be sanctified and becomes a blessing God hath promised keep my Covenant and be blessed in thy basket and thy store c. and yet thousands have kept Gods Covenant and walked hungry and naked as in Heb. XI 36 37. These good men if they had not well understood the tenor of the Covenant of Grace might have disputed with God Thou hast promised to them that keep thy Covenant that they shall be so and so blessed we have done it but where is the promise As they plead Psal. XLIV 11. 17. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat c. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant But saith God and they knew it well The tenor of the Covenant absolutely is Grace and that you have but other things are but conditional viz. as they may be best for you Let no man then deceive himself seek not the living among the dead A full bag and chest and barn is a very improper place to seek for the Peace of God in A mans outward condition is not a sign of his interest in the Covenant of Grace and Peace but
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
take what thou wilt and have Lord let me have the righteousness which is of God by faith All things in the World are but dung to it His great Master had taught him and teacheth us all that this is the thing so desirable and to be longed after Matth. V. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness How shall I speak upon this subject A theme fit to be discoursed on by the Tongue of an Angel or by the Tongue of a Saint in glory If a Lazarus should come out of Heaven to preach on Earth as the rich man would have had him in that parable how would he upon his own experience of the excellency of it magnifie this righteousness Nay if a Dives could return from Hell to preach to his brethren and advise them that they should not come into the place of torment he would tell them that all things in the world are but dung and there is but unum necessarium to get that righteousness which is of God by faith Lazarus how camest thou to Heaven Why I was justified Rom. VIII 30. Whom he justified them he also glorified Dives how camest thou to be damned Because I was not justified I shall not enter into any of the various and nice disputes about Justification I shall only speak something of the incomparable excellency of it that if it may be I may warm your hearts a little in the desire and longing after it which is so desirable and to be longed after And this I shall do by considering the nature of it and the effects and I need to look no further It s like the Ark of the Covenant overlaid with gold within and without T is all glorious within in its own nature and all glorious without in its fruits and effects For the first the nature of justification How shall I define or describe it As the Apostle doth Faith Heb. XI 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen not so exactly desining it to speak out its whole nature but as best applicable to his present discourse So I of this to speak of it according to the theme proposed as it is desirable and to be longed after let me say Justification is a mans being interessed in all Christs righteousness and if any thing be to be longed after sure that is To be interessed in all Christs righteousness Laban spake high when he said All these things thou seest are mine these Children are my Children c. XXXI Gen. 43. But how high and glorious is that that may be said of a justified person All thou hearest of Christ is thine his life is thine his death is thine his obedience merit righteous spirit all is thine The Jews speak much when they say all the six hundred and thirteen precepts are comprehended in Justus ex fide vivet The just shall live by faith But they are far from construing the thing aright when they look for justification by their own works and it is a monster of Doctrine in their ears that men are to be justified by the righteousness of another and by the obedience of another But the Gospel as the Apostle tells us Reveals that great mystery For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith Rom. I. 17. Here are two scruples 1. Did not the Law reveal the righteousness of God How then is it ascribed to the Gospel that it reveals it And 2. How doth it reveal it from faith to faith True indeed the Law revealed Gods condemning righteousness but the Gospel his justifying righteousness the righteousness of God in a more singular excellency Glorious is the righteousness of God in all its actings his condemning justice his rewarding justice but most singularly glorious is his justifying justice and this most especially is exalted in Scripture as the righteousness of God of the choicest eminency And secondly this Righteousness is revealed in the Gospel from faith to faith How is that I cannot take it only from one degree of faith to another but from one kind of faith to another The Jews that expected justifying by their own works yet had they a faith in God they believed in him looked for good from him but they knew not what faith in God through Christ was they looked for justifying from God and had a faith or belief they should observe it but were utter strangers to justifying through faith in Christ this therefore the Gospel reveals as the great mystery of salvation The righteousness of God justifying a sinner and this from immediate believing in God to believing in him through Christ Jesus and expecting justifying from by our own righteousness to expecting justifying by the righteousness of Christ. The Apostle in Rom. V. from vers 12. forward confirms that that I propose that justification is by imputation of Christs righteousness and the comparison that he there useth clears the matter fully He to open that great point of justification by the righteousness of Christ takes a parallel from the imputation of Adams sin and you may see how all along he sets the one against the other let us speak a little to that parallel 1. Does not the matter of imputation in his discourse there and in deed in it self argue some descending relation as I may tell it Imputation is upon relation of descention He speaks of Adams sin imputed to whom To them that are in relation to him in descent all his posterity The Angels sin is not imputed to him nor his to Angels nor Angels to Angels but Adams to all his posterity because of their relation to him The sin in violating the command given him is imputed to all his posterity because his posterity for they all were in him and inclosed in the Covenant for it was made not with Adam as one man but with all humane nature included in him and so his guilt descended to them upon that relation So the righteousness of Christ is imputed to whom To those that are related to him his seed such as are born of him The comparison of the Apostle must run parallel Adams sin imputed to his seed Christs righteousness to his 2. All the seed of Adam are made sinful alike by his sin so all the seed of Christ are justified a like by his obedience Original sin hath not magis minus but all originally sinful alike though all not actually sinful alike So Justification hath not magis minus but all that are justified are justified alike Sanctification hath its degrees Adams righteousness and holiness were equally perfect but the righteousness and holiness of Saints not so for they are justified by an infinite righteousness but they are not sanctified by an infinite holiness 3. All the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him Not one Saint one part another another but every one all As anima tota in toto tota in qualibet parte So all the righteousness
stature of Christs mystical body the Church which was growing up from generation to generation and now when the Gentiles came in their full conflux was come to its full consistency and manhood And of the same body is his meaning in that obscure and much mistaken place Rom. VIII 23. And not only they i. e. the whole creation or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every creature which means no other thing than the Gentile or Heathen World not only they grone to come into the Evangelical liberty of the children of God but we also of the Jewish Nation who have the first fruits of the Spirit grone within our selves waiting for the redemption to wit the adoption of our body we wait for the redeeming and adopting of the Gentiles to make up our mystical body To the same sence is the meaning of the same Apostle in that also mistaken place Heb. XI ult That they without us should not be perfect He little means that they that believed before the coming of Christ were not perfectly saved as the Papists from thence would prove their Limbo But his meaning is they without us were not the perfect body of Christ but we under the Gospel came in to make that up nor they so perfect in the Doctrine of Salvation as under the revealing of the Gospel at our coming in So that this is the first thing That Christ saw good to bring his Church through various administrations II. Secondly Though the manner of administration were thus various yet the way of Salvation in them all but one and the same viz. by Faith in Christ as the Apostle plainly evidenceth in the Chapter just now cited Heb. XI As the brazen Oxen under the Laver their faces looked several ways but their hinder parts met in one centre under the Laver so these Administrations indeed looked divers ways without Law with Law with Prophets without Prophets without Gospel with Gospel yet agreed in all one and the same centre Faith in Jesus Christ. I have a large field before me to shew that all the holy ones that lived and died before Christ were saved by believing in Christ. But I shall confine my self to observe this by a rule of contraries namely thus It is something to be wondred at that in our reckoning the various administrations under which Christ brought his Church to glory we may not number the firstborn administration that was in the World and which one would think was the likeliest way to have brought to Heaven and that was the state of innocency But this we must except from the general rule and leave it quite out He that will observe shall find that Christ descended most of younger brothers and answerably Salvation descended not from this elder brother in Gods administration that state of innocency but something else had the birth-right Ruben lost it and it descended to Joseph It was never Gods intent to bring men to Salvation by the way of innocence in which Adam was created This appears plain enough by the Issue Nay did God bring the holy Angels to Salvation by the way of the perfection of their nature in which they were created Meerly being in Heaven doth not denominate Salvation The Angels that fell were there and it proved but little Heaven to them And merely beholding God face to face doth not denominate Salvation for we have no cause to think but the Angels that fell had beheld his face as well as they that stood but this is Salvation to behold him as he is and to be like unto him I Joh. III. 2. Like him not in infinity omnipotency ubiquity but like him in holiness holy as he is holy Now though Adam was like unto him by Creation being formed in his Image and the Angels like unto him by Creation as eminently also carrying the same Image yet herein both come short of that Image that doth consummate the Saints and Angels in glory viz. that though they were perfectly holy by Creation yet they were not unchangeably holy for unchangeableness was not to be found in created nature And what the holy Man in the book of Job saith concerning Wisdom we may say concerning immutability Where is unchangeableness to be found and where is the place of immutability The Sea saith it is not in me and the Earth saith it is not in me Men say it is not in us the Angels say it is not in us but the Truth saith it is only in God Therefore to bring Men and Angels into the Estate of Glory that set Infinity aside they should be like unto God perfectly holy and unchangeably holy as God is holy eternally holy as God is holy it was needful not to leave them bottomed only upon the excellency of their created natures be that never so excellent but to ingraff and as I may say incorporate them even into the unchangeable God himself the Lord Christ. The Saints in glory are unchangeable how Both in nature and affection their estate unchangeable yea their very thoughts which were so unfixed and fluid become unchangeable They are so infinitely ravished with the beauty and love of God in beholding him as he is that they cannot turn the least thought away or aside from him And they are so ingraffed and united into Christ that the corruptibleness of them being now laid aside they are become unchangeable as Christ himself is unchangeable The Angels that fell wanted this uniting so that though they beheld the face of God yet their hearts turned away from him because they had no other uniting to God then what lay in their own created holiness which was changeable and soon changed So that I say God never intended to bring man to Salvation by the way of created innocency because he intends to glorifie grace and not nature and to bottom all that were to be saved upon Christ and not on themselves It may seem strange that Adam when his wife had brought in sin and death into the World should name her Eve life whereas before he had only named her Woman Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said unto him Call me not life but call me death and misery for I have been the unhappy introducer of both But Adam had now heard of Christ he had received his promise and laid hold on it and found a better life now by him than before And to this refers that in Joh. 1. 4. In him was life and that life was the light of men In the verse next before he had said All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was Then had all living things that were created their life from him What need he then to add in him was life Namely because he intends that life in Christ that we are speaking of Which life he saith was the light of men And the light shone in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not Life in Christ held out in the promise to
sung at the Passover which were ordinarily used by the Jews for that occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual Songs were other Songs in Scripture besides Davids So you read of the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb in XV. Revel 3. 3. Observe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. V. The English translates it to your selves i. e. inter vos mutuo among your selves as Beza well and as that in Col. III. explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admonishing one another Which speaks it a publick exercise and of communion where all joyned and stirred up one another III. Further examples of this Exercise in the New Testament we might observe in the Revelations That Book speaks of the State of the Christian Church and one great work of it is singing Rev. V. 9. And they sung a new song c. The ordinary practise was to sing the Psalms of David but they sung a new song and that is there set down Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood c. So in Rev. XIV 23. And I heard the voice of Harpers harping with their harps And they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the Earth This place speaks according to the acceptation of the Jews how they shall sing when Messiah brings them out of Captivity for there is mention among them of one hundred and forty four thousand of the twelve Tribes And so upon other occasions you find the Church singing as in XV. Chap. 2 3. But that that I shall fix on is that in 1 Cor. XI 5. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head What is meant by the woman prophesying Not preaching For that is forbidden them in the Chapter wherein the Text is 34. vers Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted them to speak c. Nay nor so much as to ask any question which in the Jewish assemblies at their Sermons was ordinary vers 35. And if they will learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home Neither is meant by this prophesying prophesying in the proper sense i. e. foretelling things to come For it is a question whether any woman in Corinth nay in rerum natura now Philips daughters excepted Act. XXI 9. did thus prophesie But it is plain the Apostle speaks of the ordinary Service which whole Congregations joyned in and the praying and prophesying here used is praying and praising or singing Psalms Take the Apostles own gloss in this Chapter vers 15 I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Understanding also I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the Understanding also As all the Congregation joyned in prayer with the Minister and said Amen vers 16. So all the Congregation Men and Women joyned with him that had and gave the Psalm and sung with him For the Conclusion I might produce even endless Encomiums and Extollings of this work in Christian Writers viz. That it is the work of Angels the Employment of glorified Saints the musick of Heaven c. I confess I want words to express the excellency of this Duty Now to make some Use of what I have said I. If I were in a vulgar or unlearned Congregation I would give rules for singing of Psalms with profit and among divers especially these two 1. To mind what is sung not only that the Heart go along with the Tongue in general but to be carefully observant of what is sung There is variety of matter in most Psalms they pass from one thing to another This we should carefully observe now I pray now I mourn for my sins for the Church of God c. To this I may apply that in vers 15. I will sing with the understanding if the place speaks in reference to a mans own understanding of what he prays or sings but the Apostle there means of singing and praying to be understood by others 2. To apply to our selves the matter we sing as far as it may concern us To bear a part with David not in word and tune but affection This way we must use in hearing or reading the Scripture to bring it home to our own concernment So likewise in this action of singing Thus did they Revel XV. 3. They sung the song of Moses that is they applied Moses song in Exod. XV. unto themselves And this the leisure for meditation gives you opportunity to do At male dum recitas incipit esse tuus He that illy repeats another mans verses makes them ill verses but withal makes them his own But here I will alter the words a little Si bene recitas If you sing right sing Davids Psalms but make them your own Let the skill of composure be His the life of devotion yours II. If I thought there were any here that made scruple of this ordinance I would speak a word or two to them Let me say but two things First There is no plain ground why to refrain from singing but most plain grounds why to sing A thousand times we are bidden Sing never forbidden Sing not So of the holy Sacrament t is commanded in Scripture Do this but never Do it not Secondly Where a Duty is commanded and a scruple ariseth from some circumstance it is safer to go with the Command than from it It is commanded in Psal. XXXIV 3. O magnifie the Lord with me c. The scruple is that some prophane persons sing that set forms are too narrow c. It is warrantable now notwithstanding these scruples to keep up to the Command but not contra not warrantable to omit the Command because of these scruples There is no extinguishing a Duty because of some particular doubts concerning it This rule holds good of the reception of the holy Sacrament III. I might speak by way of incitation to all to make Conscience of this Duty Fail not to joyn with the Congregation in the performance of it stir up your hearts while you are conversant about it Say to your selves as David to his Instruments Awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early I will say but this Qui vult cantare in Coelo discat cantare in terris He that will sing in Heaven let him learn that divine exercise on Earth As S. Paul saith of Charity 1 Cor. XIII 8. Charity never faileth but whether there be prophesies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away But charity only remains and goes to Heaven with us So I say of this Duty Praise only of all the Services we perform to God here goes along with us to Heaven There is no
praying no hearing no receiving Sacraments there nothing but praising lauding and celebrating God and that is the work of Saints and Angels to all Eternity Amen A SERMON PREACHED ON Novemb. v. MDCLXI DAN X. 21. And there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your Prince THE words of an Angel and strange because of the singularity spoken of in them But one Angel and Michael to stand for the people of God Where are all the heavenly host in such a pinch At first sight the words are obscure we must clear them First by the Context Secondly by the thing it self In verse the second Daniel is mourning three weeks And the reason of it was because of the hindring the building of the Temple Ezra IV. 24. Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem So it ceased unto the second year of the raign of Darius King of Persia. It was hindred several years but it was only three weeks before Daniel had comfortable tidings of it That is called one and twenty days vers 13. But the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days By Prince of Persia some understand the tutelar Angel as if Angels fought with Angels but he means the King of Persia Artaxerxes So vers 20. Now will I return to fight with him Here observe Gods dispencing Daniels prayer must first make way for victory God intended good concerning his Temple and his People but gave not commission to the Angel Gabriel till Daniel had prayed and then he goes out Here a wheel on Earth moves the wheel in Heaven Such power hath the prayer of the faithful and such delight hath God in their prayers that he takes as it were the Watchword from them Where is Praying to Angels Had Daniel done so what would it have availed since this Angel had not yet his commission Well now he hath upon Daniels prayers I shall not question whether he had knowledge of his success before If I should say he had not it would be no Soloecism since the will of God is revealed to Angels not all at once but as they are to be employed And observe that in Mark XIII 32. Of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven But I shall not insist on that Now he hath knowledge of the Will of God and his Commission to fight against the King of Persia. And here we may understand a parallel Phrase Judg. V. 20. They fought from Heaven the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Angels are called Stars Job XXXVIII 7. When the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Well he goes to fight with the King of Persia but he goes alone None holdeth with me Where are the thousands of Angels There were many against Sisera and none here Is not the cause the same Jacob to have an army of Angels Gen. XXXII 2. and the whole people of God but one Where are they or where is their mind The meaning is not tending this way not but that the Angels are ready always to help and stand up for Gods people But the meaning is that God would do this work by himself Only Michael must do it by his Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not one either man or Angel must serve for this but Michael your Prince stands with me and that is enough That by Michael is meant Christ this very place evidenceth in that he is called your Prince For who is the Prince of the Church but Christ And Chap. XII 1. He is called the great Prince And in Revel XII mention is made of Michael and the Dragon that is Christ and Satan He is called the Archangel Jud. vers 9. And so 1 Thes. IV. 16. The Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel Which elsewhere is expressed shall hear the voice of the Son of God Joh. V. 25. He is the Archangel in two respects either as the chief Angel or messenger that ever God employed or as Chief or head of the Angels As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a chief Priest or the Chief of Priests So that hence the meaning is clear I will go fight with the Prince of Persia and Michael or Christ is with me and so the work shall be done miraculously without any other strength for no other needeth In the words then may two things be Observed I. That Christ standeth for his people II. That if he stand for them no matter though there be no other As the Apostle speaks if he be with us who can be against us So may we say If he be with us no matter whether there be any other for us I might speak here of the Ministration of Angels But that I shall wave at present and fix upon this Doctrine That Christ sets himself against them that set themselves against Religion The truth of the Doctrine will appear here in the Text and in this days Commemoration The King of Persia thought he might do what he would with the Jews who were now his own people had information against them that their City had been rebellious and hurtful unto Kings and Provinces and thereupon forbad the building it Ezra IV. But yet Michael there Prince takes their part against the Prince of Persia. So they for our deliverance from whom this day is celebrated what sought they Who defeated them if Christ had not been on our side We need not particular proofs Look into the Scripture and into story who ever opposed Religion and prospered Christ is a stone to bruise his enemies to powder Now the reason of this is First Because Religion is Christs own child of his begetting and he will defend it He created it in the beginning and he will maintain it to the end Secondly Because opposing Religion is the highest wickedness Other wickedness may be of weakness or for the satisfaction of the flesh but this is the direct part of the Devil and direct opposition of Christ. Thirdly Because Christ delights in Religion He dwelt upon the Ark he walkt in the Candlesticks The zeal of thine house saith he hath eat me up And there are two things in Religion that makes him take this pleasure in it the one is that it glorifies him and the other that it tends to the saving of Souls Of this discourse we may make this Use. First To tremble to oppose Soul-saving Religion Secondly We may see the certain induring and continuance of it because Christ defends it And thirdly We may learn to what to ascribe our deliverance this day Not to us not to us but to thy Name give the glory In Scripture Gods gracious dealing with his people is ascribed to his mercy and to his Name And to that alone must the glory of this our deliverance be given also A SERMON PREACHED AT ELY Novemb. v. MDCLXIX REVEL XIII 2. And the Dragon gave him his
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
Judaism again to their old Mosaick rites which sometime had been right but now antiquated and to their traditional principles which had never been right but now least of all to have been embraced and to a deadly hatred and persecution of the Gospel that they once professed How the Apostles speak of and against this Apostasie in their Epistles I need not tell you he that runs may read it But he that stands still and reads presely will find that they find The Antichrist that then was in that Apostasie I say the Antichrist that then was For the Scripture gives a hint of a twofold Antichrist one in the Epistles and the other in this Book of the Revelation one that was in those times and the other that was to be afterwards one among the Jews that had embraced the Gospel and the other among the Gentiles which should embrace it And if you will let the unbelieving Jew to be one part of the Antichrist that then was the Apostatized Jew was much more Many Antichrists in those times as this our Apostle tells us 1 Joh. II. 18. but those were they especially of whom he speaks immediately after They went out from us but they were not of us And the like character do these Apostates carry in other places in the Epistles in terms equivalent Now therefore the nearest way to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after times among the Gentiles is by observing his likeness and similitude to the former viz. in apostatizing from the pure and sincere profession of the Gospel to Judaism or to Mosaick manner of worship and Judaick principles and Religion Which how the Church of Rome hath done it would require a long time to compare in all particulars but it will require a far longer time for her to clear her self from that just accusation How near doth she come to Judaism in the doctrine of Justification how near in the doctrine of opus operatum How near in the doctrine of expiation by bare Confession How near in the doctrine of the value of Traditions And one for all how near in turning all Religion into Ceremony Their present year of Jubilee is it not Mosaick And were you there at it and saw the manner of their devotions their formal Services and Ceremonious Worship would you not think you were in the old Jerusalem among the Scribes and Pharisees rather than in the the new where the true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth So that when we departed from the Church of Rome we did but the same thing that the Apostles Disciples and other holy converts of the Jewish Nation did they forsook Judaism to embrace the purity of the Gospel And so did we And in the way that they call Heresie we worship God If I have trespassed too much upon your patience by so prolix a discourse upon so unpleasing a subject I must crave your pardon We enquiring after the new Jerusalem where we might find it come to the place where your ways parted and one went right and the other wrong The wrong way is the broader pleasanter and more trodden and not a few that stand in it and cry This is the right way and no other It is good to give warning it is needful to take warning that we be not misled that the men and the way do not deceive us And having thus far observed where the new Jerusalem is not to be found let us now look where it is And first we must not expect to find it in any one particular place as you might have done the old Jerusalem but it is dispersed here and there abroad in the World It is the Catholick Church as we are taught in our Creed and it is not in one only but in this and that and the other Nation When the new Jerusalem is to be measured in Zach. II. an Angel bids O run after yonder young man that is to measure it and tell him that Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a City without walls for the multitude of men and cattel that shall be therein It is a City unlimited and therefore not to be bounded within this or that compass We may use this Paradox of it That it is a fluid and yet a fixed body nay fixed because fluid that is it is moving sometime into one place sometime into another and therefore it shall never fade or perish The Jews accused S. Stephen of Heresie and blasphemy because he said that the Church and Religion should not alway be pinned to that City and Temple but taken away In his answer he sheweth that the Church and Religion is a Pilgrim one while in one place another while in another in Mesopotamia in Charran in Canaan in Egypt And our own observation may tell us that when it failed in Egypt and Israel followed the Idols and manners of that Land as Ezek. XX. that then God found himself a Church in the family of Job and his three friends The saying of our Saviour may suffice for this The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a people that shall bring forth the fruits of it And this is that that makes it fixed or never failing because when it decayeth in one place it groweth in another And that promise of our Saviour will ever maintain it in life and being Upon this rock will I build my Church of the Gospel and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it as they have done against the Church of the Jews In Matth. XXIV when Christ foretels of the desolation of that City Church and Nation that their Sun and Moon and Stars Religion and Church and State should be darkned and fall and come to nothing and they should then see the Son of man whom they would never own coming in a thick cloud and storm of vengeance against them it might be questioned where then will God have a Church when that is gone He gives an answer That the Son of man should send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet of the Gospel and gather him a Church from all the corners under Heaven To which may not improperly be applied that Heb. XII 22. Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels God will never want his Church but if it be not in one place it will be in another Secondly There is an invisible Church as well as a visible Pauls Jerusalem which is above and out of sight as well as Ezekiels Jerusalem pitched here below There is commonly some invisible Church within the visible as Ezekiels wheel within a wheel But there is sometimes an invisible Church where there is none visible as those seven thousand men in the days of Elias when he could not discern one The Apostle speaking of the new Jerusalem that we are speaking of in that place of the Epistle to the Hebrews before alledged among other things saith Ye are not come to the Mount that might
blessed for ever So that the great Angel Christ at the giving of the Law was the speaker and all the created Angels his silent Attendants And this Observation might be useful in some points of Divinity that Christ gave the Law as well as he gave the Gospel But Thirdly The Prophets and Ministers in Scripture phrase are usually called Angels Do I need to give instance Eccles. V. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say before the Angel or Minister at the Temple that it is an error Mal. II. 7. The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger or Angel of the Lord of Hosts And Chap. III. 1. Behold I send my Angel i. e. my messenger before thy face And to spare more you remember that in Revel I. ult The seven stars are the Angels or Ministers of the seven Churches So that the words before us may be reduced to this sense Ye received the Law by the disposition preaching and explaining of the Prophets and Ministers and have not kept it And to this sense speaks that Heb. II. 2. For if the word spoken by Angels that is Gods messengers the Prophets were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. That is If the word in the mouth of the Prophets might not be transgressed but there was a just recompence of reward paid to the transgressor much more he must be paid that neglects the Salvation spoken by the Lord Christ. And to the like sense may that be taken in Gal. III. 19. The Law was added because of transgression being ordained disposed of preached by Angels i. e. Prophets and Ministers in the hand of a Mediator And this sense of Angels in the Text agrees very well with the words of Steven a little before Your Fathers persecuted and killed the Prophets the Lords Angels or Messengers and ye have received the Law by such Angels or Ministers but have not kept it For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Angel in the Greek Tongue signifies any messenger among men as frequently as it does the Angels in Heaven And so taking all these constructions together the words do fairly lead us to consider what cause or reason God hath given men to keep his Law and Commandments but men will not keep them Some have written large and excellent Discourses concerning the equity and reasonableness of Christian Religion And how large a discourse might be made upon this particular in our Religion How it is agreeable to all the reason in the World to obey and keep Gods Commandments which he hath given The Socinian requires a natural reason for what is supernatural or else he must not believe it Because it cannot be demonstrated in Logick Philosophy Mathematicks how three should be one and one should be three therefore we must not believe that there are three Persons in the Trinity and but one God But the wiser and more solid discourse would be rather to shew a reason why we are to believe such a thing than to seek a reason why or how such a thing is For there may be a plain reason to believe an article of Faith the reason of which thing reason cannot fathom So it may be but a sawcy wild inquiry what reason God had to give such and such particular commands But it may be a pious and humble inquiry to search what reason we have to keep his Commandments now he hath given them I. And the first reason we meet withal in all regular method and order is because he hath given them therefore we should keep them Ye received the Law by the disposition of Angels therefore ye should have kept it The Command in it self does not only challenge our obedience of it but the very giving of it does also challenge it There is a bond in the giving as well as a bond in the Command it self viz. a bond of love and mercy that would impart his Will and Commands David in Psal. CXLVII ult accounts it an incomparable mercy that Israel had above other Nations That God made his Law known to Jacob and his statutes to Israel And dealt not so with any Nation besides neither had they knowledge of his Law And God himself instituted the Feast of Pentecost at that just time of the year when the Law was given that they might celebrate the Memorial of that great mercy as he had instituted the Feast of the Passover at that just time of the year when they were delivered out of Egypt that they might commemorate the memory of that mercy He would have them to own the giving of the Law an equal mercy with their delivery out of bondage And what was the treasure of the Ark or the precious things that were laid up there The two Tables and Pot of Manna The Pot of Manna that minded them of the merciful and miraculous food wherewithal the Lord fed their bodies and the two Tables which minded them of the divine and heavenly food of their Souls that Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God That passage is worthy a great deal of meditation Luke XII 47 48. He that knew his Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew it not and committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with a few stripes Now whether do you think it better to know our Masters will or not to know it To have God to impart his Commands to us or not to impart them Herein it might seem better not to know his Commands because it we keep them not not knowing them there will follow the fewer stripes but the more if we know them and break them But this weighs the ballance down on the other side that it is impossible to avoid stripes if there be not the knowledge of Gods Commands it is possible to avoid them if there be knowledge More stripes indeed will be added if we keep them not but if we keep them no stripes at all If we should dispute this question whether God shewed more mercy in giving his Law and Commandments or in giving the Gospel and promises This might make some stand about the determination because though the promises are given of an infinite mercy yet there is no possibility of coming up to the attaining of the promises but in the way of the Commandments In the Promises God shews that he would do good to us and save us and in the Commandments he shews that he would have us to do good to our selves and save our selves Say not therefore that it was any severity in God to lay any such binding Commandments upon men acknowledge it mercy that he would make known his Will and Commandments to thee Wouldst thou
in his two great works viz. His offering himself a sacrifice by his death and his offering the continual incense of his mediation And how methodically did the representation proceed suitable to the reality For first the Priest offered the Sacrifice upon the Altar and then went in within the Tabernacle and offered incense So Christ first offered himself at his death and then went into the highest Heaven to make Intercession The Papists in their Mass take upon them to offer Christ as a Propitiatory sacrifice for quick and dead So they are the Altar and Christ is the offering But we learn better to make Christ the Altar and we our selves and our services the offering offered upon it For the clearing of the thing before us and to reduce these words of the Apostle to a Doctrine of Faith whither he intends them let us premise these four things I. That every Christian hath three spiritual Sacrifices to offer to God Himself his Devotions and Religious services and his good works and Religious walking 1. Himself Rom. XII 1 2. I beseech you Brethren that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God 2. His prayers Devotions and Religious services Mal. I. 11. In every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering And 3. His holy walking 16 ver of this Chapter To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased Christ is to be offered to God no more as Papists take on them to offer him every Mass but man is to offer himself to God the only sacrifice that God now requireth Now II. On what Altar is this spiritual Sacrifice to be offered and presented to God On some spiritual Altar as it is a spiritual offering Those Sacrifices that were earthly and material required an earthly and material Altar but those that were spiritual must be offered on some spiritual Altar else the manner of offering them contradicts their nature Now what the Apostle speaks concerning the Rock in the Wilderness The Rock was Christ so we may say concerning the Altar under the Gospel The Altar is Christ. In the Law the offering was to be put into the hands of a Priest or it could not be accepted so our services are to be put into the hands of Christ to be presented to God else no acceptance And the sacrifice was to be laid upon the Altar or it could not be accepted so must ours be laid on the altar Christ or no acceptance For III. The Altar must sanctifie the Sacrifice to make it acceptable and so our Saviour tells Mat. XXIII 19. It was not enough that the Sacrifice was a clean Beast and not unclean nor that it was without fault or blemish to make it an acceptable Sacrifice But it must be laid upon the Altar for that to sanctifie it and to make it a right Sacrifice IV. And here I cannot but take up the Jewish Doctors most true and pertinent explication of that point about the Altars sanctifying the gift viz. The Altar sanctified that that was fit for it The Altar could not sanctifie an unclean Beast a Dog or an Ass or a Cat to make it a Sacrifice but only a Beast that was clean And if the Beast were a clean Beast in his nature yet if he had faults or blemishes the Altar did not sanctifie him for a sit Sacrifice but it sanctified only that that was fit for it By all which laid together we may learn and observe the great Doctrine of Faith about our acceptance with God only by Christ. Which to view particularly let us begin from this First None can come to God to find acceptance with him but he must first give himself into the hand of Christ to bring him to God for acceptance The Apostle tells us that all acceptance is in the Beloved and to be expected no other way Ephes. I. 6. This is the great mystery of the Gospel For the want of which duly owned Turks and Jews are at loss and are lost from God for ever They both pretend for Religion pretend for Heaven but they both miss the door by which alone they are to enter and so are excluded eternally missing of Christ by whom only we come there Our Saviour indeed speaks of entring and getting into the sheepfold some other way than at the door but he saith they are thieves and robbers His meaning is of false teachers that can find a way to creep into the sheepfold the Church to seduce and destroy the sheep some other way than at the right door But whosoever will get either into Heaven or indeed into the true and sincere Religion that leadeth thither must enter by Christ the Door or he will never come there Joh. XIV 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life none can come to the Father but by me Consider of that I am so the Way that none can come to the Father but by me Then sure the Papists are out of the way as well as Turks and Jews when they think to come to God by the mediation of Saints and Angels None can come to God but by me saith our Saviour but I can come to God saith a Papist by the Virgin Mary by Peter Paul and the mediation of other Saints in Heaven Certainly they must have some nice distinction here or they contradict Christ to his face and take his honour and give it to another Heb. VII 25. Christ having an unfailing Priesthood is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him If you come to God you must come by him and that only is the way to be saved But if you expect to come to God by any other means whatsoever you are out of the way and will be lost 1 Pet. III. 18. Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God If there were any other way to come to God than by Christ the death of Christ was but to little purpose and our believing in him to as little And we may justly say with the Apostle 1 Cor. XV. 14. Our preaching is in vain and your faith is also vain It is said of Christ that he is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Psal. CX Though he died and offered himself the great Sacrifice for sinners yet he is a Priest for ever still offering sacrifice to God but no more himself but his peoples sacrifice And that offering is twofold viz. offering the persons of his people to God as an acceptable living sacrifice and offering their services as an acceptable spiritual sacrifice to God Of the former you have testimony from his own words Isa. VIII 18. Behold I and the children which the Lord hath given me Of the later Revel VIII 3. where you read of his offering the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne What the manner of Christs mediation is is
to that especially and speak to the Comparison as occasion offers it self The Positive being this There is joy in Heaven for a sinner that repenteth Joy in Heaven when a sinner repenteth Or for a sinner that repenteth When we have wondred a while at the thing it self then we may ask Joy among whom And truly we have very just cause to wonder at the thing it self And it is as feeling a passage as likely we can meet with in all the Scripture Joy in Heaven upon a sinners repenting How then may you construe that expression Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy Masters joy Mutual joy thou rejoycing in thy Master and thy Master rejoycing in thee The good servant by his very repentance rejoycing his Lord as well as his salvation with his Lord rejoycing him I cannot but think of that passage concerning the Eunuch Act. VIII That when he was converted and baptized he went away rejoycing And there was rejoycing in Heaven for it by our Saviours relation here as well as there was with him on earth one deep calling upon another through the noise of the water-pipes And like two Lutes tuned in Union the very same string of joy sounding in Heaven that was struck here upon Earth Not much unlike the stile of that passage What ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven We read of some that upon reading or hearing some particular Texts of Scripture have been converted and become new men So was S. Austin by reading a verse or two in Rom. XIII Junius by reading three or four verses of Joh. I. And so others by others Now can you find a more winning melting piercing passage almost any where in all the Bible than this if we well consider of it There is joy in Heaven over a sinner that repenteth That for yours or mine or any of our repentances there should be joy in Heaven Alas if we were all in Hell what were Heaven the worse for it And yet that it should be joyful news to Heaven if we repent Do we not know how joyful news takes upon Earth And do we not wonder that our repentance should bring joyful news to Heaven We read how Jacob was ravished and revived when the joyful news came to him that his son Joseph was alive And are there those in Heaven would be so affected if we repent Yes the great King of Heaven tells us so That there is joy in Heaven c. How full are we if we have good news to tell till we tell it Ahimaaz and Cushi ran as if they ran for their lives who shall first bring the good news of Victory over Absalom And is it possible for any of us to bring good news to Heaven Yes the Text tells us we may For our repentance would set Heaven a rejoycing and be very gladsome tidings there And who is it that runs astrife that he may first bring such rejoycing news thither As the four Lepers said at the Camp of the Syrians We do not well that we tarry here for this is a day of good tidings and we are to blame if we go not and tell them Men and Brethren more joyful news cannot come to Heaven than of our repenting And are we not moved at the thoughts of it and do we not blame our selves for delaying to send such news thither Do we by muddling here for mony and pleasures and preferments and I know not what as those Lepers did in the Tents of the Syrians when our repenting and turning to God would set Heaven it self on rejoycing for us It is no wonder if a Soul rejoyce when it gets to Heaven but it may ravish us with wonder and amazement that Heaven should rejoyce for a mans making thither For what need hath Heaven of such poor wretched creatures as we are Who would not dwell upon such a subject as this But it must be rather in Meditation than Elocution For astonishment at the thing may swallow up words that we are not able to speak of it to speak it out Make out by your memory meditation and admiring what my Tongue wants in expressing and uttering Let such a ravishing truth as this That there is joy in Heaven c. never slip out of your memory Cherish the warm thoughts of it in your spreading meditation Meditate your selves into rapture at such comfortable tidings from Heaven that your repentance would be joyful tidings to Heaven that there would be joy in Heaven for your repenting But joy among whom there And let that be a second thing to meditate of and to warm II. our meditation The Text only tells of joy in Heaven and particularizes no more but the rest of the Chapter speaks out with whom The last Parable in the Chapter tells you there is joy with God the Father by that intimation How the Father rejoyced upon the return of his lost Prodigal son The first Parable in the Chapter tells you there is joy with Christ the great shepherd by that intimation How the man rejoyced upon the finding and bringing again his wandring and lost sheep And the application of the middle Parable speaks it out vers 10. That there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Joy with God the Father joy with Christ the Son joy with the holy Angels Do we need to enquire whether with the blessed Saints in Heaven We have more reason to stand admiring at this that is so plain before us than to intricate our selves with that that is more obscure God and Christ and the Angels know a mans repenting here which the glorified Saints in Heaven for ought we know know not And God and Christ and Angels can be helpful to a Soul in the ways of repentance here which the glorified Saints in Heaven cannot be I know who they be that will maintain that the Saints in glory know a mans repentance and can be helpful to him in the ways of repentance And that therefore they are to be prayed unto But we leave them to their proofs and practises we have no such Doctrine nor custom nor the Churches of Christ. We doubt not but First The Saints in glory desire the consummating of the mystical body of Christ in glory It is their desire here and it leaves them not there Rom. VIII 23. They grone here for the Adoption that is the Redemption of the Body And they carry the same affection of desire of it into Heaven Secondly We may very well conceive that the Saints in glory rejoyce as this his mystical Body comes on to be glorified when a Soul comes to Heaven But that they know what men do here below is neither proved nor is it material to be believed Therefore I shall not intangle my self in that question but leave it to them that do believe it to prove it when they are able That God and Christ and Angels rejoyce over a sinner that repenteth is that
that is before us and it is a thing that may be wondrous in our Eyes and we can never meditate too much upon it That God should rejoyce over a repenting sinner with Oh! this my Son was dead and gone but he is alive and found again That Christ should rejoyce with Oh! this my sheep was wandred and quite lost but here he is found out and brought back again And that the Angels should rejoyce with Oh! here is a poor Groat that was quite lost and gone but now found and recovered again Certainly these are strange things to hear and who could have believed such a report but that word of it is brought from Heaven by him that came to reveal the will of the Father which is in Heaven Upon the hearing of it whether shall we first stand to admire the wondrous goodness of God Christ and Angels or to consider the admirable excellency and virtue of repentance that comes off so happily and comfortably with the rejoycing of God Christ and Angels When we rank Angels so roundly with Christ and God it is only in reference to the particular we are speaking of their rejoycing for the Conversion of a sinner For who else knoweth not the great distance between them as between the Creator and Creatures But in reference to the subject before us let us consider these two things of them I. That their Wills are so intirely agreeing with the Will of God that they can will nothing but as he willeth Their Dial goeth exactly with his Sun and their Will set only by His Psal. CIII 20. They do his Commandments and harken to the voice of his words And they cannot go a hair bredth from it to the right hand or left That is the fair Copy we have before us in that petition when we pray Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven So that what God mindeth towards the good of men they do the like Doth he desire the salvation of men They do the same Doth he look and wait for any mans repentance They do so also Doth he rejoyce for a sinners conversion They rejoyce also And that II. Not only out of their intire agreement with the Will of God but also out of their intire love of Men. They are Ministring-spirits for the good of them that shall be saved Heb. I. ult And they do their Ministration most willingly and readily and out of intire love and desire of the good of men Guess them by their contrary the Angels that fell The Devils seek the mischief of man all that they can the good Angels seek his good The Devils do heartily desire that all men might be damned the good Angels desire that all may be saved The Devils rejoyce in any mans Perdition the good Angels rejoyce for his Conversion And they willingly and readily attend upon men for that end as God doth appoint them and they require no pay or reward for their attendance more than the mans amendment and repentance and that he would do as God would have him The Papists will tell you of worshipping Angels and the Apostle tells you there were some so deceived as to worship Angels Col. II. 18. But will you hear what an Angel himself saith upon that point Read Rev. XXII 8 9. I fell down to worship before the feet of the Angel which shewed me these things Then saith he unto me See thou do it not For I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book Worship God Yes that is all they desire for their attendance about us Let us worship God fear God serve God and they account themselves very well paid Their Will is so intirely resolved into the Will of God that they desire no more for all their service than that our Will might be resolved so too And their love and affection is so intire to man that for their Ministration they desire no better pay than that man would love God for his own everlasting good Therefore though Angels be infinitely below God as being his creatures and though they cover their faces before God Esa. VI. as owning themselves so infinitely below him yet when the good of man is the business that is transacted as the seeking of his good rejoycing for his good it is no wonder if Angels be also named with God and Christ in some concurrence for such a thing But in what sense are we to understand God and Christ and Angels rejoycing at a sinners repentance Are they subject to such a kind of passion and such a change of passion and affection as we are Consider the contrary As God is said to rejoyce at sinners repentance so he is said to be grieved at their sinning and impenitency Psal. LXXVIII 40. and XCV 10. and Ephes. IV. 10. c. Now is their such a change in God as one while to be grieved another while to rejoyce one while to be sad another while to be glad This is for such changeable things as we are that are twenty things in an hour but not for the Lord of Hosts with whom is no change nor shaddow of turning But these expressions are used concerning God the things themselves Joy and Grief being so well known to us that from these known things we might judge how God looks upon sin and impenitency and how he looks upon repentance how the one takes with him and how the other Joy is the highest expression of our Contentment and being well pleased for it speaks that we have sped of that contentment we desired For consider of these three degrees Desire Hope and Joy There is a thing that would give us contentment if we could obtain it and thereupon we desire it Hope to obtain it doth somewhat add to the contentment and doth warm the Desire after it But Joy comes when we have obtained it Our joy is in our enjoying that content we desire So that by God Christ and Angels rejoycing at a sinners repentance is expressed how great contentment and satisfaction and well pleasing a sinners repentance is to them It is that that they have mainly and earnestly desired and now when it is obtained oh how contentive and well pleasing is it to them I have now found the Sheep that I long looked for I have found the Groat that I long desired to find and my lost Son that I have long longed for his return is now come safe home again There is nothing more desireable to God Christ and Angels than a sinners repentance Let that be the first thing that we spend our present thoughts upon Wine glads God and Man Judg. IX So Repentance glads God and Angels I remember that Job XXXVIII 7. where there is mention of the creation of the World and of laying the foundation of the Earth and the corner stone of it and then it is said The morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy
any Resurrection It follows Neither Angel nor Spirit Now why he should deny this is a great deal harder to find out than to find out why he denyed the Resurrection For that he denyed because he could not find mention of it in plain terms in all Moses But he finds mention of Angels and Spirits in terms plain enough there There is indeed no mention in Moses of the creation of Angels in the History of the Creation And that might haply give the Sadducee occasion to think there were no such creatures made But then what will he say when he meets with the mention of Angels so frequently after Gen. XXXII 1. Jacob went on his way and the Angels of God met him And Jacob called the name of that place Mahanaim that is two Armies viz. The army of the Angels that met him and the other army or great train of his own Family An Army of Angels then and not one now Thousands of Angels at Sinai Deut. XXXIII 2. and not one extant now What could a Sadducee think was become of those Angels of which there is so frequent mention in Moses Were they dead and not in being or were they confined to Heaven and no more to converse with men It is not easie to unriddle an Hereticks fancy a Sadducees mistery And it is very excusable ignorance to be ignorant of the depths of Satan of the depths of a Sadducean Heretick There is not indeed mention of Spirits in Moses in such plain terms but only of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Men. But though there were no more yet one would have thought that enough to have stopped his mouth that he should not say There was no Spirit when it is said in the very second verse in all Moses The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters And Numb XXVII 16. Let the Lord the God of the Spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation The First that offers it self to our consideration in this case is The distinction that is I. here made twixt Angels and Spirits Neither Angel nor Spirit And in the next verse The Pharisees cry out We find no evil in this man but if a Spirit or Angel have spoken to him let us not fight against God Where the question is What is meant by a Spirit thus distinguisht from Angels when the Angels themselves are called Spirits A further distinction of the Jews may help to clear this They in their writings thus distinguish Angels and Spirits and Devils And among other sayings that hold out this distinction they have this All things are subservient to the will and command of the Holy Blessed God Angels and Spirits and Devils Where what is meant by Angels and Devils is easie to understand but what is meant by Spirit when so distinguisht from both viz. walking Ghosts of the dead as they supposed or Spectra appearing in the shape of this or that Person that was dead So the appearing of a representation of Samuel raised by the Witch of Endor they would account a Spirit And that remarkable passage Luke XXIV 36 37. As they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them Peace be unto you But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit That is They did not think that it was Jesus in his own person that stood in the midst of them but some apparition only in his shape Now the Pharisees thought there were such Ghosts and Apparitions And so did the Heathen also conceive And Tully a Heathen from that very thing doth plead the Immortality of the Soul For saith he since men that are dead appear to the living it is a sign that they also live though they be dead and that they are not quite extinguished That there have been and may be such Apparitions there is no question and Histories give us some instances in this kind As one among many that famous story of the Ghost of Julius Cesar after his being murthered in the Senate appearing to Brutus who had had a chief hand in the murther and telling him Videâ—is me apud Philippos Thou shalt see me again at Philippi And so he did And the very forbidding of Necromancy in Scripture doth argue that there may be such Apparitions Deut. XVIII 10 11. There shall not be found among you an Inchanter or a Witch or a Charmer or a consulter with familiar Spirits or a Wizzard or a Necromancer Now what is a Necromancer The very Greek word speaks it that it is one that consults or asks Council of the Dead as the Witch of Endor would do of Samuel And there is a hint of such a thing Esai VIII 19. should not a people seek unto their God should they seek for the living to the dead Now though the Pharisees with the Law condemned this wickedness and witchcraft of consulting the dead yet if any such Apparition offered it self voluntary without such calling forth by Sorcery they accounted it to be harkened to Therefore they say If a Spirit or an Angel have spoken to him let us not fight against God But the Sadducees denied there was any such thing as Spirit or Angel Where a Second question ariseth Whether they thought there were no such Incorporeal II. substances as Angels or Spirits Or whether their meaning was that the appearing of Angels and Spirits was now ceased and to be no more There is an expression something like this later Joh. VII 39. The Holy Ghost was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified The Holy Ghost was not yet for so the original Greek hath it exactly And was there ever a time when the Holy Ghost was not in being Our English hath well resolved it in adding one word The Holy Ghost was not yet given He was in being from all Eternity but he was not given and bestowed upon men as he was to be when Jesus should be glorified And so in that answer of certain Ephesians to Paul Act. 19. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Yes they had heard that a thousand times over that there was an Holy Ghost But their meaning is we have not heard whether he be restored again to Israel since his departing away after the death of Zechary and Malachi and those last Prophets So if the Sadducees did acknowledg such things in being as Angels and Spirits yet they might deny that such things were in acting then No appearing of Angels and Spirits then for that was clean vanished It was most true that after the death of those last Prophets the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation departed from Israel till the coming in of the Gospel For a matter of four hundred years no Vision no Prophesie no appearing of Angels no Oracle by Urim and Thummim no extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost Samsons locks and strength shaved off and gone And those great privileges that that people had
world he being Lord of all What reason can we give but that he by his own proceeding and acting would set the clock of time and measure out days and a week by which all time is measured by his own standard Evening and Morning to make a natural day i. e. day and night and seven natural days to make a week six days of labour the seventh for rest six for man the seventh for God Shall we trace the story of the six days a little that we may the more plainly observe the Rest and blessing of the Sabbath when it came That the world was made at Aequinox all grant but differ at which whether about the eleventh of March or twelfth of September to me in September without all doubt All things were created in their ripeness and maturity Appels ripe and ready to eat as is too sadly plain in Adam and Eves eating the forbidden Fruit. To this we might add that God attributed the beginning of the year to March upon Ecclesiastical account upon their coming out of Egypt Exod. XII Which argues it had begun from some time else before And so the Jews well observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of the year for telling the year it from September 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of the year for stating of the feasts is from March See Exod. XXIII 16. The feast of in-gathering in the end of the year After which a new year was presently to begin when they had gathered in grapes c. So that look at the first day of the Creation God made Heaven and Earth in a moment The Heaven as soon as created moved and the wheel of time began to go And thus for twelve hours there was universal darkness This is called the Evening meaning Night Then God said Let there be Light and light arose in the East and in twelve hours more was carried over the Hemisphere and this is called Morning or Day And the Evening and Morning made the first natural days twelve hours darkness and twelve light Accordingly did God proceed in the works of the six days as Moses hath informed us at large which I shall not insist upon but come to the works of the sixth day On that day God created creeping things and beasts and lastly man And that which is needful to observe towards the Lords resting and sanctifying the seventh day is that before the seventh day came sin was come into the world and Christ was promised On the sixth day all was marred again Before that day was ended sin was got into the world and spoiled the best of the Creation of God Men and some Angels This we have to speak to wich giveth some illustration concerning the institution of the Sabbath of the seventh day That Adam fell on the very day that he was created needs not so much dispute about for it is easie to be proved as it needs sorrow and wonder Wonder that he placed in so incomparable happyness and having perfect power to continue in it should set so light by that happiness as to pass it off for an Apple and that he should lose that happiness on his first day when he was able to have kept it all his days And Sorrow that the noblest of natures that God had created should be so soon overthrown and overthrown so sorely For proof of this we may have recourse to Scripture to Reason and to the Correspondence that was twixt the Fall and the Redemption I. To prove it by Scripture First Observe that Psal. XLIX 12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish The Psalmist in the verse before shews the carnal confidence of worldly men Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations c. And in this verse he shews how vain such confidences are For that man hath no abiding here in his house or honour but he must away And he lays it down not only as a thing undoubted in it self in the words that you have before you in your English Bibles but in the Original he includes the most proof of it that could be produced For in the Original the words speak literally thus Adam in honour lodged not all night but was flitted out of his honour before his first night came And if it were so with him in his great honour and in his great ability to have stood and remained in his honour it is much more so with man that is become sinful mortal and nothing but fading I say the words in the Original bear also this sense that Adam in honour lodged not all night And so they speak and prove the thing we are upon that he â—ell and faded on the very day he was created and lost his honour and happiness before night came Secondly Observe that Joh. VIII 44. He was a murtherer from the beginning The Syriac renders it from in the beginning the common phrase whereby the Jewish Nation expressed the days of Creation So is it their common expression whereby they denote the works of the Creation to call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works in the beginning And the Jews that stood by and heard Christ speak these words He was a murtherer from the beginning could not otherwise understand it than that he was a murtherer even from the days of the Creation that he murthered Adam on the very day that he was created And so Christ meant in the words as speaking according to the common and familiar Language of the Nation For II. To clear this by Reason which the Scripture thus hinteth First It is without all question that the Devil would slack no time but as he was fallen himself through his spite and malice at the happiness and honour of Adam so he would hasten all he could to bring him out of his happiness and honour which he so much spited and maliced It is disputed what day the Angels were created It is the most probable they were created the first day with the Heavens and that they were spectators of Gods works in the creation and praised and magnified the Lord for his works all along so God himself the great Creator tells us Job XXXVIII 4 5 6 7. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth c. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who layd thâ— corner stone thereof When the morning Stars sung together and all the Sons of God shooted for joy By Stars and Sons of God is plainly meant the Angels and they are singing and shouting when God lays the foundations of the earth as they did at the laying the foundation of the Temple Ezra III. Now the foundation of the earth was laid in the first day the first work of the Creation when God in one and the same instant created Heaven
and Earth and in the same instant created the Angels with the Heavens Now these Angels that fell were not fallen doubtless before man was made For upon creating of Man who was the last of the Creation it is said Gen. I. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good and there was yet nothing bad or evil in the world no Angels fallen no sin at all But when those that fell saw the dignity and honour and happiness that God had placed man in a piece of clay a lump of earth dust of the ground and that he put all Creatures under his feet as it is Psal. VIII 5 6. yea and gave Angels charge to attend him as it is Psal. XCI 11 They maliced this happiness and honour and scorned this service and attendance and damned themselves meerly upon this spite at Man Would they therefore think you delay any time of tempting man to try whether they could shake him out of his happiness and honour and bring him into the same condemnation with themselves No the Devil never since slacked time and put off any opportunities of doing mischief much less would he then when he had mischieved himself with such a spleen Secondly I might speak of divers things As that if Adam had kept the Sabbath in innocency he had kept the Law that if he had continued any time without sin he had begot Cain without sin if Eve had been a little practised in obedience she had not so soon been shaken when she came to be tried that their speech sheweth that no fruit had been eaten before But that which is especially considerable is that the Redemption was to be shewed instantly upon the Creation Since Christ was to be set up Lord of all the Saviour of all that are saved and the second Adam repairer of the ruines of the first it was not only fit but indeed needful that he should be proclaimed King and Saviour even the first day of man I do not say it was needful that Adam should fall on his first day that Christ might be proclaimed on his first day and yet I say it was needful that Christ should be proclaimed that day viz. that he might be set up Lord of all men from the first day of man But especially that what stability or firmness there is in obedience and holiness it might be founded in Christ alone I could almost say it was needful that Adam should fall on the day of his Creation not in regard of any necessity God put upon him but in regard of the â—ickleness of created nature being left to it self When I say it was almost needful I mean almost inevitable but that he left intirely to himself and to his own strength should stand the temptation of an Angel a Creature so far above him by nature and so far wiser than he though he were full of wisdom And you see Satan did not so much tempt his strength as his wisdom and there he overturns him by a trick of subtility out-witting his wisdom However it was fit the Redeemer should be held forth even the first day of man as the heir of all things Heb. I. 2. as the root of all to be saved and the sure foundation of all holiness grace and eternal life And III. Do but observe what correspondence there is twixt the Fall and Redemption and the later will speak the former to have been on Adams first day Redemption was wrought on the sixth day as the Fall had been on the sixth day And when Christ had wrought that great work he rested the seventh day in his grave as God rested on the seventh day when he had wrought the great work of Creation To this purpose I might also apply the particular times of the one and the other About the third hour the hour afterwards of sacrifice and prayer it is very probable Adam was created And Mark tells you Chap. XV. 25. And it was the third hour when they crucified him that is when they delivered him up to Pilate to be crucified About the sixth hour or high noon Adam most probably fell as that being the time of eating And John tells you Chap. XIX 14. that about the sixth hour he was condemned and led away to be crucified And about the ninth hour or three a clock afternoon Christ was promised which Moses calls the cool of the day and about the ninth hour Christ cried out with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost Such Harmony may be found betwixt the day and hours of the one and of the other the later helping to prove and clear that Adam fell on the sixth day the day on which he was created and continued not in honour all night Ah! what a glassy brittle thing is poor humane nature when it is so shaken all to pieces from so great perfection that it holds not whole above three hours or thereabouts And that it held whole so long was because it had not yet met with a temptation And that Satan offered not a temptation all that while was because he would hold off till they came to their time of eating and their first meal proves their poyson But Ah! the glorious and divine power of the grace of the Lord Jesus that inables a poor sinful Soul to hold out against the shocks of all the temptation of Hell and to break through all and to get to glory Compare Adam shaken with the first temptation the Devil offers with Job not shaken with all that the Devil could do and to the praise of the glory of his grace as it is said Ephes. I. 6. we have cause to cry out all our lives and so do Saints in glory to eternity Great is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now read the words carrying this that hath been spoken in your minds In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it And on the sixth day Adam fell and Christ was promised and on the Seventh day God rested and blessed the Sabbath day c. And so the Chaldee Translater of the Psalms considers of the thing For upon Psalm XCII which is intituled for the Sabbath day he saith thus A Psalm or Song which Adam the first man sung concerning the Sabbath day And the same Chaldee Translater on Cant. I. yet more plainly When Adam saw that his sin was forgiven when the Sabbath came he sung a Psalm as it is said A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day And now looking on this first week of the world in this prospect viz. as sin come into the world and Christ promised before the seventh day came it will give us a clearer prospect of the Sabbath and of Gods resting viz. I. That God had created a new creation before he rested on the Sabbath For when Adam and mankind by his fall was shattered
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and how translated 1159 1160 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the dead 790 Φ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently denotes sinful corruption 708 709 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lights the Jewish Feast of Dedication so called and why 1039 Ω 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beautiful whence derived and what Gate of the Temple was signified by it Page 649 THE Fourth TABLE or Alphabetical Index is of Things or Principal Matters contained in the Second Volume A. ABEL what Page 367 Abilene what 366 367 Abraham's Bosome a Jewish Phrase for an hap py state p. 455 456. The ridiculous Notion the Rhemists have upon it p. 455. Son of Abraham by Faith and Nature what p. 467. Abraham's Seed the being of it much gloried in by the Jews p. 566. Several things of Abraham's History p. 665. What he bought in the Land of Canaan 669 670 Absolom was a Nazarite and for that reason wore long hair 774 Acceptance with God and coming to him is only through Christ. 1261 1262 Achzib it and Chezib changed into Ecdippa the Name of a place 61 Acon is a City of Galilee where there was a Bath of Venus 60 Actings of God extraordinary are not mens ordinary Rule 1276 Adam the City was in Perea this was the Centural Place where the waters parted when Israel entred Jordan 82 Adam although at first holy yet had not the Spirit of Revelation p. 1046. He had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Before his fall he is compared with a Believer sanctified p. 1152 1153. The fall of Adam and the fall of Angels compared together p. 1285. His Story is all wonder p. 1303. Adam and Eve believed and obtained Life p. 1303. A view of their Story in nine Particulars p. 1303 1304. The means of their believing and their condition under believing p. 1304. Adam fell on the sixth Day of the Creation viz. on the Day he was created p. 1323. The proof of this p. 1323 1324. He was created about nine a Clock in the Morning fell about Noon Christ was promised about three a Clock in the Afternoon p. 1324. A new Creation or Redemption was performed on the day that Adam was created p. 1325. Adam's first Sermon to his family the matter of it supposed p. 1327. Adam not created mortal against the Socinians 1353 Adoption or Sonship as referring to God how understood by the Jews 521 533 Adulteress how punished 563 Adultery the only case in which Christ permitted a Bill of divorce p. 148. The Divine Laws concerning it p. 218. How does the Law of Death for Adultery and that of Divorce consiâ—t together p. 218. Adultery practised probably in the Temple Court of the Jews in our Saviours time p. 1080. The story of the Adulterous Woman recorded John the 8. left out of some of the Ancient Greek Testaments and the first Printed Syriack and also some Latine Translations and the reason of this omission p. 1079 1080. Adultery is so common among the Jews that the custom of trying the Adulterous Woman by bitter water mentioned Numb 5. was omitted the pretended reason for this omission 1080 1111 Affairs and Times of Men how God knows and dates them 1250 c. Affliction of the people of God the duration of it is determined by the Lord. 1248 to 1251 Agapae or Love Feast they were appendages to the Lords Supper also they were when strangers were entertained in each Church at the cost of the Church Page 774 to 776 Age of Man the several abatements of it as to length at what time these abatements were made 1066 Aleph and Ain The mystical Jewish Doctors did not distinguish them 79 Alms why taken for Righteousness p. 153 c. The ordinary Alms of the Jews is divided into three parts what they put into the Alms Dish for the Poor of the World What into the Chest for the Poor of the City only What they lest in the field ungathered Whether a Trumpet was sounded when they did their Alms p. 154. 155. Alms given to the Poor of what nature they were to be 467 Almon and Alemoth the same 42 Altar the Rings and the Laver thereof described p. 33 34. What it was to leave a gift before the Altar p. 143. When or at what time the Ashes were swept off it p. 618. The several Offices belonging to it p. 765. The zeal of the Officers to serve at it p. 765. The custom of fetching water at the Fountain Siloam and pouring it on the Altar what it signified p. 1039. Altar put for the Communion Table but in a wrong sence p. 1259. Altar put for Christ how 1259 1260 Amana or Amanah a Mountain and a River 62 Amen verily why so much used by Christ p. 137. Why used double and single p. 533. All used Amen after Prayer or Thanksgiving p. 786. But not in the Temple for there they used another Clause instead of it p. 1139. Orphan Amen was when he that answered Amen knew not what he answered to 786 Amulets Charms Mutterings Exorcisms what 243 Anabaptists refuted 1125 1127 1128 1133 Ananias the madness of his sin his degree supposed to be higher than the Vulgar p. 655 656. Two of the Name one famous 698 Anathema sounds all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem it s taken in a threefold sence p. 795. To be Anathema from Christ what 1295 1296 Angels Doemons and Spirits distinguished among the Jews p. 483. Angels for Prophets and Ministers p. 674. Angels sometimes put on the shape of Men. p. 683 684. Angels foolishly denyed by the Sadducees p. 702 1282 c. The Jews called evil Angels Destroyers or Angels of Death and good Angels Ministring Angels p. 767 Angels put for Devils p. 754. Angels put for Devils Ministers and Messengers p. 773. Angels sight for the Church of God p. 1163. The Devil is called the Angel of Death by the Jews p. 1209. Christ is called the Angel by Stephen the Proto-Martyr upon the account of his delivering the Law on Mount Sinai this proves him to be God against the Arian and Socinian p. 1229. Angel and Angels for Christ Prophets and Ministers p. 1229. Why in some cases they are ranked with Christ and God p. 1268. Angels can will nothing but as God willeth 1268. The Fall of Angels and the Fall of Adam compared together p. 1285. Angels in probability were created the first Day with the Heavens p. 1323 1324. They fell not before Man was created 1324 Anger or wrath of God this Christ did not undergo but only the Justice of God in his sufferings 1348 1349 1350 Anointing of Bodies and Heads among the Jews had a threefold reason used for superstition little differing from a magical Design p. 161 162. The Anointing mentioned in the Epistle of James was for health but opposed to the Magical Anointing of the Jews p. 162. Anointing with precious Ointment when and wherefore used p. 352. Anointing
of the Souls of Men after death believed by the Jews 1283 Spirit of Prophesie and the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel from the death of the later Prophets p. 802. The false pretenders to the Spirit how they may be discovered p. 1046. Spirit of Revelation not necessarily inferred or begotten by any degree of Holiness whatever the truth of this proved at large p. 1046. The Spirit of Holiness and the Spirit of Revelation how they differed p. 1046. The Spirit of Sanctification how to know whether a Man hath it or no. p. 1047. What it is to have the Spirit p. 1150 1151 1152 c. Adam had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Saints in Glory have not the Spirit p. 1150. How the Spirit worketh by the Word The having of it implies not perfection p. 1152. The several conditions of having the Spirit p. 1151 1152 c. The Spirit never leaves them that have it p. 1153. To have the Spirit implies not the Gift of Prophesie p. 1153. The difference between the Spirit of Sanctification and Prophesie p. 1154. The Enthusiasts about every one having the Spirit and the ground of it refuted p. 1156. The Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and the Spirit of Grace and Holyness are greatly differing p. 1290. The Spirit of God can and does overpower the Hearts Tongues and Actions of Men so as to serve the design of God's Glory 1290 1291 1292 Spirits unclean what p. 175. Spirits evil and unclean the Jews supposed the first inflicted Diseases the second haunted Burying places p. 441 442. Spirits Angels and Demons distinguished among the Jews p. 483. The Sadducees denied the being of Spirits p. 1282 1284. Spirits and Angels how distinguished Page 1283 Spittle was accounted wholsom by the Jews for fore Eyes 570 Stationary Men what 278 Stock of Israel to be of the Stock of Israel the Jews supposed was sufficient to fit them for the Kingdom of Heaven 533 Stoned what sort of Persons or Criminals were to be stoned among the Jews 579 746 Stoning and other executions were without the City and why p. 266. How performed p. 349. The whole proceeding of it among the Jews 675 Strangled things what the meaning of the Apostolick Prohibition concerning them 697 Strato's Tower what 54 Streets some were memorable in Jerusalem 34 35 Stripes what number Malefactors were to be beaten with and what kind of Scourge 439 Subterraneous places as Mines and Caves were in the Land of Israel 88 Swearing among the Jewish Doctors little set by unless it amounted to forswearing 148 149 Sychem the Metropolis of Samaria called Neapolis the Jews in scorn called it Sychar 52 53 Synagogue or Synagogues a Synagogue was only formed where there were ten Learned Men of which number Three bore the Magistracy the next was the publick Minister of it called the Angel or Bishop then three Deacons or Almoners the eighth Man was the Interpreter the two last less known p. 132 to 134. Synagogue days were the seventh second and fifth in every week Synagogues were anciently builded in Fields but following times brought them into Cities and built them higher than the rest of the Houses every one was to frequent them at the stated times of prayer p. 134. On the Sabbath the Minister in the Synagogue called out any seven whom he pleased to read the Law there was also Prayer Catchising and Sermons in the afternoon a Divinity Lecture p. 135 136. There was a Synagogue in the Temple p. 395. In the Synagogue they read standing up p. 405. He that read was appointed by the Ruler of the Synagogue and called Maphtir and was to read one and twenty verses p. 406 Christ read and expounded as was usual in that Synagogue of which he was a Member p. 406. The Minister of the Synagogue kept the Sacred Books and brought them out to be read when the company was met together p. 407. A Synagogue might be made of a dwelling House an Heathen might build a Synagogue p. 413 414. The Synagogue Minister or Bishop of the Synagogue and Ruler how differing p. 172. There were in Jerusalem four hundred and sixty Synagogues or four hundred and eighty as say others p. 35 664. Synagogue of the Alexandrians what p. 36. In every Synagogue there were three Magistrates who judged of matters of contest arising within the place p. 179 180. Whether lawful to alienate a Synagogue from a sacred to a common use 664 Syriack or Aramtan Language under the second Temple was that which went under the Name of the Hebrew 659 Syrophenician what 202 T. TABERNACLE of the Levitical Priesthood why those that serve there have no right to eat at the Altar that Christians have Page 1264 Tabernacles the Feast of Tabernacles the preparation for it and the parts of it p. 554 555. How and wherefore the eighth Day was computed great by the Jews 559 560 Tabernae or Shops where things were fold for the Temple where situate 512 Tabitha is of eternal memory in Acts 9. and in the Pages of the Talmudists p. 18. Every Maid Servant of Rabban Gamaliel was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Mother Tabitha p. 18. Tabitha Kumi what it signifies 342 Table Gesture or the manner of the Jews sitting there with the form of the Table 595 596 Table second The Commands of the Second Table chiefly injoyned in the Gospel and why 1064 Tables of Mony Changers in the Temple which our Saviour overthrew what 1204 Tabor was not the Mount where Christ was transfigured p. 346. Mount Tabor what and where situate 495 c. Talent what 468 Talith was a Cloak which the Jews used to wear made of Linnin 355 417 Talmud of Jerusalem and it may be the Talmudick Mishna was written at Tiberias p. 72 73. The Jerusalem Talmud is like them that made it 73 74 Tamar and Engedi are the same 7 Tarichet was a City thirty furlongs from Tiberias 71 Tarnegola the upper called Gebar or Gabara by the Rabbins 77 Tarsus was a famous Greek Academy 644 Tauros a Mountain where situate 516 Teachers of the Law and Lawyers what p. 433 434. Teachers used to sit down when they had done reading while they taught 689 Teaching was even by the Jewish Doctors sometimes performed out of the Synagogues in Streets and ways 410 Temple of Jerusalem ten wonders referring to it p. 21. It s breadth and length p. 33 34. In easing nature within the view of the Temple though at a great distance immodest Parts were to be turned the contrary way p. 41. There was a constant Market in the Temple and Shops for that end p. 224. Some hints of the condition of the Second Temple p. 512 513 514 How long it was in building by Solomon Zorobabel and especially by Herod p. 529 530. How much the Second Temple came behind the first p. 530. There were three Temples one at Jerusalem another on Mount Gerizzim and a third in Egypt p. 540 541. The Second
Souls to be disposed of according to its sinfulness or goodness But why should God thus dispose as to the taking men out of this World Why not the wicked Soul and Body to Hell and no more ado And why not the holy Soul and Body to Heaven I might say That Simeon and Levi that have been brethren in Evil might be scattered in Jacob that they conspire evil no more That Soul and Body that have been compartners in â—inning might be severed from conjoyning to sin any more But what need we say more than that God hath thus sentenced upon sin that the Body that was created immortal should dye and see corruption and that Soul and Body that were in the nearest conjunction in this World should be disunited and the bonds of life dissolved and Soul and Body parted into two several Regions Oh! how bitter is this parting how dreadful the very thought of it to most in the World Why Christ did as really undergo this separation in his death as any other whatsoever Observable is the expiring of Christ upon his cross both in regard of the thing it self and of the manner of it Comparing the Evangelists together we shall see it the better S. John seems to make It is finished his last words Joh. XIX 30. S. Luke Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke XXIII 46. And add but the construction that the Centurion makes upon his crying out Mark XV. 39. Truly this was the Son of God They all say in our English He gave up the Ghost Which two of them viz. Mark and Luke express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He breathed out his Spirit according as other dying persons do But Matthew and John have expressions very feeling Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He let go his Spirit or his Soul And John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He delivered it up Christ could not dye nay I may say he would not dye till all things were fulfilled that were written concerning his death Therefore when he had hung above three hours and knowing it was written They gave me Vinegar c. he said I thirst He tastes and finds it Vinegar and says It is finished now all is accomplished so he bows his Head and composeth himself to dye and cries Father into thy hands c. And having so said He let go his Soul and Delivered it up into the hands of God Remember that Joh. X. 17 18. and you see the sense of these expressions I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again He had life in his own hand and the Jews could not take it from him but he let it go himself and delivered it up When the Centurion saw that he thus cried out and gave up the Ghost he said Surely this man was the Son of God Doubtless this man hath the Disposal of his own life So strong a cry is not the cry of one that is spent and dying through weakness and faintting but it argues life strong and vigorous to be still in him and therefore he dies not of weakness but gives up his life at his own pleasure Shall we pass this great passage of our Saviour without a meditation Mortal men and women if your Lives and Souls were so at your own disposal could you so readily so willingly part with them and give them up to God They are not and time is a coming when we must part with them whether we will or no. Our Saviour hath taught us what to do against they be called for to get them in readiness to be comfortably willing to part with them and give them up into his hands I remember that passage of a good man dying Egredere anima quid times c. Go Soul depart why art thou affraid Thou hast served a good Master be not affraid to go to him It will be a hard pull to have the Soul and Body parted We had need to be getting the Soul loosned that when God calls it may not be unwilling and hang on and stick and be loth to go It was a hard perplexity with him that cried out Animula vagula blandula c. Ah! poor Soul thou must go and whither art thou to go To leave all thy worldly pleasures and delights and must away thou knowest not whither The hard and dreary parting is when the Soul is chained to the World as well as to the Body when it sticks to these things as well as to the Body and must be torn from all these too He that is dead to the World how easie how comfortable is it for that man to dye When he dies he hath nothing else to do but to resign his Soul to him that gave it So that though the manner of Christs parting Soul and Body were extraordinary yet his Soul and Body were as really parted at his death as other mens are III. His Soul thus parted from his Body went to Hades into another World to the place whither holy Souls go after death which himself expresseth in those words to the good Thief To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What does a Soul instantly after its departure Some say Walks the regions of Air and sees the secrets of nature there But Souls go not into another World to study but to receive rewards And I may say of any Soul departed as Christ of Peter Joh. XXI 18. When thou wast young thou girdest thy self and walkest whither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not So when the Soul was in the Body it went whither it would moved the Body whither it thought good did what it pleased was at its own pleasure but now being departed another hath girded it and if it be an evil Soul he carries it whither it would not if even the best Soul he hath fixed it that it is not at its own liberty as it was before The other World is the fixing of Souls in their place and condition that they flit no more change no more that as the Soul then is not in a mutable condition as it is here so not in a self-moving condition as here Observe that Eccles. XII 7. Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it A good Soul returns to God and a bad Soul too returns to God that gave it both return to God How Now they come intirely into Gods hands to be disposed of according to what was done by them in the flesh and he instantly disposeth them into Heaven or Hell That is the very day of retribution See Luke XVI 22 23. And it came to pass that the Begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom The rich man also died and was
buried And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torment c. Both suddainly disposed of the one to Heaven the other to Hell So we may take example from the two Thieves on the Cross the good Thief went presently to Paradise and the bad to his place and both these to Hades the word in the Creed Christ commends his Soul into his Fathers hands and it went into the hands of God What to do For God to dispose of it And how think you God would dispose of the Soul of Christ The Schools question whether Christ merited Salvation pro se for himself because the reason of the question is whether he set himself to merit pro se Did he or did he not the Soul of Christ after so holy a life and death could not but go to Salvation For what had the Soul of Christ now to do more towards mans Salvation and what could be done more towards its own Now having done all this what had the Soul of Christ to do more but to go to its rest till it be put again into its Body for the raising of that As the Scripture tells us holy Souls go to rest till at the last day they must meet their Bodies and then both shall rest together This passage of our Saviours Soul to Heaven upon his death is called his going to Hades the World of Souls and the place of holy Souls a place invisible to mortal Eyes which though it seems harshly expressed He descended into Hell yet must be interpreted from the Greek expression in this sense And the Phrase in the Greek teacheth that the Soul sleepeth not with the Body stayeth not here on Earth where the Body doth but hath a life when the Body is dead and goeth into another World to have a living or dying life Christs Soul to be separate but thirty six hours and yet it doth not stay and sleep with the Body but takes wing and flies into another World The Sadducee that thought the Soul died with the Body little considered what the nature of the Soul was Christian dost thou consider it Dost thou know what it is No I cannot see it But I may say as it is Rom. I. 20. The invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made So the invisible things of the Soul i. e. its spiritualness and immortality may be seen by the things it acts Prov. XX. 27. The Spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord. It s the Lords candle like that in the Tabernacle that never went out but was drest Morning and Evening and kept burning continually It is the Lords candle Searching all the inward parts of the Belly that is able to acquaint man with himself with his conscience his thoughts affections A candle that searcheth the things of nature looketh into the things of God Compare this Spirit with the Spirit of a Beast a Swine an Ox the acting of the Soul of Man in Wisdom Learning Contrivance with the acting of a Brute and then guess what is the nature of the Soul And if it be so active in the Body when fettred in flesh what think you it will be when loosed out And that it will be one day and go into another World not to be at its own liberty there but it goes to God to dispose of it and so he doth to Heaven or Hell Go away then with this meditation in thy bosom and keep it there My Soul must certainly one day go into the hands of God to receive her due reward FINIS A Chorographical Table OF THE Several Places contained and described in the Two Volumes of Dr. LIGHTFOOTS Works By Iohn Williams THe Jewish Writers divide the World into the Land of Israel and without the Land Vol. II. Pag. 1. The Land of Israel first called the Land of the Hebrews then Canaan and Palestine c. may be considered as to its length and breadth v. II. p. 327. The length of it is said in Scripture to be from Dan to Beersheba and from the entring in of Hamath North to the Sea of the Plain or Dead Sea South v. I. p. 90. v. II. p. 44 The Jews do reckon it from the Mountains of Amana or the upper Tarnegola which is at the neck of Anti-Libanus to the River of Egypt v. II. p. 3 62 517 Others do measure it by the Coast and if Phaenicia be included then from Sidon to Rhinocorura or the River of Egypt is 232 miles according to Antoninus But if Phaenicia be excluded then from the South bounds of that to Rhinocorura are 189 miles according to Pliny v. II. p. 10 322 The breadth of the Land within Jordan is not always the same since the Seas bounding on all sides here the Mediterranean there those of Sodom Genesaret and Samochonitis with the River Jordan cannot but make the space very unequal by their various Windings But if we take the measure of it from the Bay of Gaza to the Shoar of the Dead Sea it is upward of 50 miles and if we extend it also beyond Jordan then from Gaza to Pâ—tra the Metropolis of Moab is 110 miles as may be computed from Ptolomy and Pliny v. II. p. 320 321 The Jews do say That the Land of Israel contained a Square of Four hundred Parsae a Parsa is four miles which make 1600 miles v. II. p. 318 And they have a Tradition and not amiss that the utmost Bounds of the Land of Israel including the Land beyond Jordan was within three days Journey of Jerusalem v. II. p. 319. Sometimes the Land of Israel is bounded with Euphrates East as indeed the Holy Scriptures do and contiguous with Mesopotamia the River only between v. II. p. 365 The several Divisions of the Land It was anciently divided according to the People and Nations that inhabited it viz. the Canaanites Perizzites c. Vol. II. p. 202 328 When first possess'd by the Children of Israel it was parted among the twelve Tribes and upon the Division of the ten Tribes they were known by the two Names of Judab and Israel But after their return from Babylon it was divided by the Jews into Judea Galilee and the Land beyond Jordan or Peraea excluding Samaria To which if we add Idumea then was Palestine divided into five Countries viz. Idumea Judea Samaria Galilee and the Country beyond Jordan Vol. I. Pag. 282 â—64 Vol. II. Pag. 4 61. There was also an Imperial Division of it viz. 1. Into Palestine more especially so called the Head of which was Caesarea 2. Palestine the second the Head of which was Jerusalem And 3. Palestine called Salutaris or the Healthful which its likely was the same with Idumea the less the Head of which may be supposed to be Gaza Asâ—alon or Elâ—utheropolis v. II. p. 293. A. ABel Abila are one and the same the Hebrew Abel being according to the Greek Termination Abila or Abella There were many places of that name Vol. II.