thirty years of age or after a manner and in such a way of reckoning as the Scripture ordinarily useth accounting the very first day of a year as that year ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã One day of the year is reputed that year Tal. Bab. Rosh hashanah fol. 2. 2. John baptized half a year before Jesus came to be baptized of him for he was half a year younger than John Luk. 1. 26. and as Christ was baptized and entred his Ministry just when he was beginning to enter upon his thirtieth year so John had begun his Ministry at the same age and both according to the Law Numb 4. 3. Christ was baptized in September at what time of the year he had been born For the phrase of Luke mentioned before doth plainly confirm that his Baptism was close to that time of the year that had been the time of his Birth 4. For the synchronizing therefore of the year of Christ with the year of Tiberius we must lay Tiberius his fifteenth collateral in Annal accounting with Christs nine and twentieth whether you reckon Tiberius his year from the very time of the year that he began to reign which was the 20th of August and then in September when Christ was baptized his sixteenth year was begun and Christs thirtieth or whether you reckon according to the common accounting of the Roman Fasti from January to January and then though Christ indeed spent three months of his thirtieth year in Tiberius his fifteenth so accounted yet he spent three times three months of it in his sixteenth The fifteenth year of Tiberius then and the nine and twentieth of our Saviour was the great year of the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching and baptizing of John who began this work about Passeover time or in the month Abib otherwise called Nisan The time of the year that Abraham had received the Promise Isaac was born Israel was redeemed out of Egypt and the Tabernacle was erected in the Wilderness The Jews speak more than they are aware of when they say that As in Nisan there had been redemption so in Nisan there should be redemption Tal. Bab. ubi supr fol. 11. The Gospel began and Christ died in that month Now whereas it may seem strange that upon Johns beginning to baptize he introducing so strange a practise and doctrine among them yet the People should flock to him in so great multitudes as the Evangelists shew they did and receive his Baptism with so much readiness besides that general satisfaction that may be given to this from the consideration of Gods special hand and work providing entertainment for his Gospel now setting forth these four things also may be pertinently observed 1. This was the time that the Nation expected that the Messia should appear See Luke 19. 11. Gabriels seventy in Dan. 9. had so plainly and exactly pointed to this very time that not only the pious and the studious among the Nation could not but observe it but it had even raised an expectation through a great part of the World of some great Potency to arise among the Jewish Nation about these times which should subdue and be Ruler of all the World Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus constans opinio esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaea profecti rerum potirentur Sueton. in Vesp. cap. 4. An old and a constant opinion had grown through the whole East that some coming out of the East should be Master of all Nay so evident was the time and truth in Daniel that the Jerusalem Gemarists that could be well content to deny that Messias was already come as the rest of their Nation do yet they cannot but confess it in Beracoth fol. 1. col 1. in this Story Our Doctors say the Name of King Messias is David R. Joshua ben Levi saith His Name is The branch Zech. 3. 8. R. Judah the Son of R. Ibhu saith His Name is Menahem the Comforter And this helps to prove that which R. Judah saith namely this example of a certain Jew who as he was plowing his Ox lowed A certain Arabian passing by and observing his Ox low said O Jew O Jew loose thine Oxen and lay by this Plow for behold your Sanctuary is destroyed The Ox lowed a second time He saith to him again O Jew O Jew yoke thine Oxen and tie on thy Plow for behold King Messias is born He saith to him What is his Name the other answered Menahem the Comforter And what is his Fathers Name He answered Hezekiah the strong God He saith to him Whence is he He answered from the Royal Palace of Bethlehem Judah He went and sold his Oxen and sold his Plow and Gears and went about from City to City selling swadling-cloaths for babes When he came to that City all the Women bought of him but the Mother of Menahem bought not He heard the voice of the Women saying O Mother of Menahem thou Mother of Menahem Bring some things sold here to thy Child She answered Now I pray that all Israels enemies may be hanged for on the day that he was born the house of the Sanctuary was destroyed He saith to her We hope as it is destroyed at his feet so it will be built at his feet She saith to him I have no money And why saith he doth he suffer for that If thou have no money now I will come again after two days and receive it After the days he came to the City and saith to her How does the Child She answered him Since the time that thou sawest me there came winds and storms and took him out of my hands A clear confession of Christs being already come and of the poverty of his Mother 2. They expected a great change of things when Messias should come That Promise in the Prophet of new Heavens and a new Earth to be created raised this expectation Hence have they this saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The holy blessed God will renew the World for a thousand years Aruch in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã John speaks their own Language when he speaks of reigning with Christ a thousand years Rev. 20. 4. which is no more to be understood of the time yet to come then Messias is yet to be expected as not come Hereupon they call the days of the Messias ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A new Creation as 2 Cor. 5. 17. In Midras Tillin fol. 4. col 3. R. Houne speaketh of three Ages and the last that he mentioneth is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the age of the Messias And when that comes saith he the holy blessed God saith Now it lies upon me to Create a new Creation They likewise call that time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the World to come because of the change of things that they expected then as if a new World were created Tanchum fol. 77. col 3. In the world to come I will send my messenger speedily and he shall prepare the way before
when they lead us far further CHAP. XLVI The time and manner of the Creation MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three Heathen opinions namely theirs that thought the World was Eternal for he saith in the beginning c. Secondly theirs that thought there was no God for he saith Elohim created Thirdly theirs that thought there were many gods for he saith * * * Even those that have not Hebrew can tell there is a mystery of the Trinity in Elohim bara but few mark how sweetly this is answered with the same Phrase in manner in the Haphtara which is read by the Jews to this portion of Moses viâ Esa. 42. 5. Jehovah bore âa shamaâlm venotehem Jehovah being singular and âotehem plurall which might be rendred Deus creans coelos Deus extendentes eos Elohim he created Heaven and Earth The fird word in the beginning may draw our minds and thoughts to the last thing the latter end and this thought must draw our affections from too much love of the World for it must have an end as it had a beginning I will not stand to comment upon the word Berishith in the beginning for then I know not when to come to an end To treat how the divers expositors labour about the beginning of the world is a world of labour How the Jerus Targ. translates it In wisdom and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum and many Jews How Targ. Jonath useth an Arabian word Min Awwala a primo Onkelos in primis or in principio Jarchi in principio creationis creavit How Basil the great Saint Ambrose and hundreds others do interpret this is a work endless to examine Satisfied am I with this that the world and all things had their beginning from God that in the beginning created Heaven and Earth Some of the Jews do invert the word Bereshith and make it Betisri that is in the month Tisri was the world created This month is about our September and that the world was created in this month to let other reasons alone this satisfies me that the Feast of Tabernacles which was in this month is called the end of the year Exod. 23. 16. And this I take to be the reason why the Jews began to read the Bible in their Synagogues at the Feast of Tabernacles viz. that they might begin the lecture of the Creation in Gen. 1. at that time of the year that the world was created The manner of the Creation shews the workman powerful and wise The making of the Angels concealed by Moses lest men should like those hereticks in Epiph. think they helped God in the Creation For if their day of their Creation * * * Bab. Solom holds they were made the second day which was in most likelihood the first had been named wicked men would have been ready to have taken them for actors in this work which were only spectators Therefore as God hides Many Divines hold for the fourth Moses after his death so Moses hides the Creation of them lest they should be deisied and the honour due to the Creator given to the creature God in framing the world begins above and works downward and in three days he lays the parts of the world and in the three other days he adorns those parts The first day he makes all the Heavens the matter of the Earth and comes down so low as the Light The second lower and makes the Firmament or Air. The third lowest of all and makes distinction of Earth and Water Thus in three days the parts or body of the World is laid in three days more and in the same order they are furnished For on The fourth day the Heavens which were made the first day are deckt with Stars The fifth day the Firmament which was made the second day is filled with Birds The sixth day the Earth which was laid fit the third day is replenished with Beasts and lastly * * * The Seventy Interpreters on Gen. 2. 2. instead of God had finished on the seventh day read he finished on the sixth day Man Thus God in the six days finished all his work of Creation â â â Chaldee Paraph on Numb 22. and Iarch on Deut. 34. and Pirke Abhoth For the ten things that the Chaldee Paraphrast saith God created on the evening of the Sabbath after the World was finished I refer them to their Authors to believe them R. Jarchi on Gen. 2. observes that God created one day superior things and another day inferior his words are to this purpose On the first day he created Heaven above and Earth beneath On the second day the Firmament above On the third let the dry Land appear beneath On the fourth day Lights above On the fifth day let the Waters bring forth beneath On the sixth he must create both Superiour and Inferiour as he had done on the first lest there should be confusion in his Work therefore he made Man of both his Soul from above and his Body from beneath R. Tanchumah shews how the making of the Tabernacle harmonizeth with the making of the World The Light of the first day answered by the Candlestick for Light the first work and the spreading of the Firmament like a curtain answered by the Curtains the second work and so of the rest Every one knows the old conceit of the worlds lasting six thousand years because it was made in six days and of Elias Prophesie among the Jews of the world ending at the end of six thousand which Prophesie of his is flat against the words of Christ Many believe these opinions yet few prepare for the end which they think is so near God hath taught us by the course of the Creation of the old world what our proceedings must be that we may become a new Creation or new Heavens and a new Earth renewed both in Soul and Body 1. On the first day he made the Light so the first thing in the new Man must be Light of Knowledge so saith Saint Paul Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must know that he is 2. On the second day he made the Firmament so called because of its * * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In Hesâod ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã surness so the second step in Mans new Creation must be Firmamentum Fidei the sure foundation of Faith 3. On the third day the Seas and Trees bearing fruit So the third step in the new Hom. Odys 3 Man is that he become Waters of repentant Tears and that he bring forth Fruit worthy of these Tears Bring forth Fruit worthy of Repentance saith the Baptist Matth. 3. 4. On the fourth day God created the Sun that whereas on the first day there was light but without heat now on the fourth day there is light and heat joyned together So the fourth step in the new Creation of a new Man is that he joyn the heat of Zeal with the light
flesh which was the message that they were sent upon this violence could add nothing but vexation fear and trouble to Noah and to those that were with him in the Ark whom God had inclosed there not to perplex but to preserve 2 Flood 3 Flood 4 Flood 5 Flood 6 Flood 7 Flood 8 Flood 9 Flood 10 Flood 11 Flood 12 Flood 13 Flood 14 Flood 15 Flood 16 Flood 17 Flood 18 Flood 19 Flood  20 Flood  21 Flood  22 Flood  23 Flood  24 Flood  25 Flood  26 Flood  27 Flood  28 Flood  29 Flood  Sivan the ninth moneth Part of May and June 1  This day the Waters begin to abate 2 Ebbing water This is called the seventh moneth Vers. 4. not from the beginning of the year for from thence it was the ninth but from the time of the flood or waters for the Holy Ghost reckoneth the duration of that and pointeth directly at the end of the 150 days In Cisleu the 40 days rain ceased and the seventh moneth from thence is this in hand 3 Ebbing water 4 Ebbing water 5 Ebbing water 6 Ebbing water 7 Ebbing water 8 Ebbing water 9 Ebbing water 10 Ebbing water 11 Ebbing water 12 Ebbing water 13 Ebbing water  14 Ebbing water  15 Ebbing water  16 Ebbing water  17  The Ark resteth upon the mountains of Ararat that is upon one of them 18 Ebbing water 19 Ebbing water  20 Ebbing water  21 Ebbing water  22 Ebbing water  23 Ebbing water  24 Ebbing water  25 Ebbing water  26 Ebbing water  27 Ebbing water  28 Ebbing water  29 Ebbing water  30 Ebbing water  Tamuz the tenth moneth Part of June and July 1 Ebbing water The Ark drew water eleven cubits as appeareth by this collection On the first day of the moneth Ab the mountain tops were first seen as shall be shewed there and then the waters had fallen fifteen cubits which they had been threescore days in doing namely from the first day of Sivan and so they had abated the proportion of one cubit in four days By this account we find that on the sixteenth day of Sivan they had abated but four cubits and yet on the next day the Ark resteth on a hill when the waters yet lay eleven cubits above it 2 Ebbing water 3 Ebbing water 4 Ebbing water 5 Ebbing water 6 Ebbing water 7 Ebbing water 8 Ebbing water 9 Ebbing water 10 Ebbing water 11 The raven sent out 12 Ebbing water 13 Ebbing water 14 Ebbing water 15 Ebbing water 16 Ebbing water 17 Ebbing water 18 Ebbing water  19 The dove sent out  20 Ebbing water  21 Ebbing water  22 Ebbing water  23 Ebbing water  24 Ebbing water  25 Ebbing water  26 Ebbing water  27  The dove sent out again and returneth at even with an olive leaf in her mouth which she had plucked from a tree that now began to appear from under water 28 Ebbing water 29 Ebbing water Ab the eleventh moneth Part of July and August 1  The mountain tops appear this is called the tenth moneth Vers. 5. not of the year but of the flood for the Text sets it self to measure out the time of the waters 2 Ebbing water 3 Ebbing water 4 Ebbing water 5 Ebbing water 6  The dove sent out returneth no more For now she hath the mountain tops dry to rest upon The waters now being got within the compass of the mountains do abate a deal faster then they did when they lay above them for whereas then they were threescore days in abating but fifteen cubits in threescore days more they abate the depth of the highest mountain For whereas on the first day of the moneth Ab the mountain tops appear on the first day of Tisri which is but two moneths after the face of all the earth is dry Vers. 13. 7 Ebbing water 8 Ebbing water 9 Ebbing water 10 Ebbing water 11 Ebbing water 12 Ebbing water 13 Ebbing water 14 Ebbing water 15 Ebbing water 16 Ebbing water 17 Ebbing water 18 Ebbing water 19 Ebbing water 20 Ebbing water 21 Ebbing water 22 Ebbing water  23 Ebbing water  24 Ebbing water  25 Ebbing water  26 Ebbing water  27 Ebbing water  28 Ebbing water  29 Ebbing water  30 Ebbing water  Elul the twelfth moneth Part of August and September 1 Ebbing water Thus hath the heat of all the Summer helped to the drying up of the waters which by the end of this moneth are clean gone For on the first day of the next moneth which is the beginning of a new year of the world the waters are dried up from off the earth And thus hath passed this sad year of the world in which not only all flesh hath perished from under Heaven save what was in the Ark but even the very course of nature hath been strangely changed for day and night summer and winter have not kept their course The world that then was being overflowed with waters perished but the Heaven and the Earth which now are are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3. 6 7. 2 Ebbing water 3 Ebbing water 4 Ebbing water 5 Ebbing water 6 Ebbing water 7 Ebbing water 8 Ebbing water 9 Ebbing water 10 Ebbing water 11 Ebbing water 12 Ebbing water 13 Ebbing water 14 Ebbing water 15 Ebbing water 16 Ebbing water 17 Ebbing water 18 Ebbing water 19 Ebbing water 20 Ebbing water 21 Ebbing water 22 Ebbing water 23 Ebbing water  24 Ebbing water  25 Ebbing water  26 Ebbing water  27 Ebbing water  28 Ebbing water  29 Ebbing water  CHAP. VIII From Verse 13. to the end NOW is begun a new year of the world namely the year 1657. and on the first day of Tisri the waters are clean gone from off the earth and on the 27th day of Marhesvan the earth is clean dry and Noah cometh that day out of the Ark. He staid a moneth and sixteen days after the waters were quite gone that the earth which was moist soft and muddy with so long a flood might be hardned and dried and thus hath he been in the Ark a just complete year of the sun His coming out was about the beginning of November when winter was already come and no provision then to be had for the beasts till the next spring but what they had out of the Ark. Noah instantly after his coming out of the Ark buildeth an Altar and offereth the odd clean beasts that he had taken in of every kind for that purpose and the Lord accepteth him and promiseth never to destroy the world with water again and thus as the old world so also this new beginneth with Sacrifice CHAP. IX AS God had blessed Adam and his wife at their creation with the blessing of increase and multiplication and of dominion over the creatures so doth
now over them and neither would they now themselves nor would they suffer others as far as they could hinder to submit unto them 3. The unbelieving Jews were generally sworn enemies and prosecutors of those that believed And 4. which we have observed before multitudes of those that had believed and imbraced the Gospell fell away and became either seduced or the greatest seducers and brought in horrid heresies and pollutitions So that in these various and malignant distempers of men there had been continual confusions tumults firings murderings and plunderings among them for many years and they had been the unquietest and most tumultuous Nation that had been under Heaven and they had often provoked the Roman power against themselves yet till this year had they never so visibly and professedly taken up Arms and open War against that power The first spark kindled in Caesarea upon the sea about an inchroachment that a Gentile there made upon the way that went to the Jews Synagogue and from thence it grew into a flame so fast through the whole Country Florus the Governour helping it on that by the sixteenth of May his Souldiers by his Commission have plundred Jerusalem slain 3600. persons and even Berenice sister to King Agrippa escaped very narrowly with her life The Jews and Romans have divers skirmishes Massada Castle taken and the Roman Garison put to the sword The Temple and several parts of the Cities made Garisons for several parties and suffer much by fire and battery Twenty thousand Jewsslain in Caesarea on a Sabbath whereupon all the Nation rise about to avenge this slaughter and in Syria Phaenicea Samaria Peraea and all round about destroy Towns Cities and persons all before them Cestius the Governour of Syria rises with his forces and destroys the Jews again and their Towns all before him and on the thirtieth of October enters Jerusalem and fires a good part of the City Yet do the Jews give him a brush upon his march away and cut off above 4000 of his men with which success they are so fleshed that they resolve to fight it out and accordingly platform themselves into the model and posture of a long War and the Country is only full of Fire Sword War and destruction The abomination of desolation had now begun to stand in the holy place Matth. 24. 15. when the Temple is made a Garrison and filled with slaughter Antonia the Castle of the Temple besieged taken and the Roman Garrison put to the sword The ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tabernae or part of the buildings at the East wall of the mountain of the House the place where the Sanhedrin had once sitten fired and burnt down Jerus in Peah fol. 16. col 3. And in a word the Temple from this time forwards never but a Garrison and full of slaughter and confusion till it be raked up in ashes Now it was time for those that were in Judea who believed Christs prediction to get into the Mountains and to shift for themselves for now begins the tribulation beyond parallel such as was not since the beginning of the world nor ever must again Matth. 24. 21. It is commonly asserted that the Christians fled to Pella a City beyond Jordan Euseb Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which how to reconcile with Josephus who saith Pella was one of the Cities that the Jews destroyed in avengement of the slaughter of the 20000 in Caesarea De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 33. let the Learned find About these times therefore we may well conceive to have been the writing of THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER And that the rather from what he speaks in Chap. 1. ver 14. I know that I must shortly put off this tabernacle as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me In which words his thoughts reflect upon what Christ had spoken to John and him about their ends John 21. where he not only gave intimation to Peter that he should be Martyred ver 18. but that he should be so before his coming in Judgment against Jerusalem which John must live to see but he must not ver 22. He therefore in Babylon understanding how affairs went in Judea and with the Jewish Nation all thereabout and reading therein from the words of his Master Matth. 24. that the desolation was drawing on apace concludes that his time was not long and therefore improves the time he hath remaining the best he can not only in teaching those amongst whom he was but by writing this Epistle instructeth those that were remote and at distance from him in which he doth more especially give them caution against false teachers and characters the terrour of the judgment coming and exhorts to vigilancy and holiness The first character that he gives of the false teachers is that they bring in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them Chap. 2. 1. which he speaketh from Deut. 32. from whence also he useth other expressions ver 6. Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee not meaning that these wretches were redeemed by Christ yet became such wretches as some would interpret it but by buying is meant his buying out of Egypt this people for a peculiar people which these wretches boasted and stood upon yet by their introducing and practising the prophane principles they did of fornication and communicating with Idols they denied the true God which bought that people for his peculiar He calls them spots ver 13. from Deut. 32. 5. and parallels them with the old world Sodom Balaam nay the very fallen Angels He sets forth the destruction of that cursed Nation and their City in those terms that Christ had done Matt. 24. and that the Scripture doth elsewhere Deut. 32. 22 23. 24. Jer. 4. 23. namely as the destruction of the whole world The heavens passing away the elements melting and the earth burnt up c. And accordingly he speaks of a new heaven and a new earth from Isa. 65. 17. a new state of the Church under the Gospel among the Gentiles when this old world of the Jews state should be dissolved He citeth Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews and giveth an honourable testimony to that and to the rest of his Epistles but acknowledgeth that in some places they are hard to be understood and were misconstrued by some unlearned and unstable ones to their own ruine yet neither doth he nor Paul who was yet alive and well knew of this wresting of his Epistles clear or amend those difficulties but let them alone as they were for the holy Ghost hath so penned Scripture as to set men to study And here is the last that we hear in Scripture of this great Apostle Peter His Martyrdom he apprehends to be near and it was to be before Jerusalem was destroyed which was not now full four years to come We may well conceive him to have been put to death by the Jews in Babylonia where he now was a madness having come upon that Nation in all parts and
Father had sent among them as vers 38. Him ye believe not vers 40. Ye will not come to me vers 43. I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not whereas another coming in his own name ye will receive c. And for this might he deservedly make a return of their contempt of him to the Father which sent him by praying and complaining to God against them but Think not that I will accuse you c. Did they think of any such thing Or did they regard whether he accused them to God or no Answ. 1. There might be places alledged out of their Talmudical writers in which they bring in the Messias sometimes complaining against his generation and it is their confession that in the generation when the Son of David should come ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there should be accusations against the Scholars of the Wise Cetuboth in Gemar ad fin 2. It might be supposed they measured the temper of Christ by their own dispositions or by common humane manners He was now before the High Court from which whither should he appeal if he be wronged by it but to God And so would passionate and meer men be ready to do and pray to God against and they might judge that he would be of the same temper and practice But 3. Our Saviours meaning is that he needed not to accuse them to the Father for disregarding him though the Father had sent him for they had their accuser already even Moses in whom they trusted Not the person of Moses accusing them but his doctrine As when the Apostles are said to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel it meaneth by their doctrine and not in their persons They trusted in Moses doctrine as looking to be justified by the works of the Law whereas his doctrine tended all along to drive men to Christ. And therefore a just accusation lay against them even in his writings which mainly aimed to shew justification by Christ when they taking on them to be so observant Scholars of Moses yet utterly disregarded and refused him whom Moses had clearly chiefly and solely proposed as the main and ultimate end of his Law And so our Saviour in these words doth apparently aver the Law of Moses to be a doctrine of Faith The End of the Third Part. A Few and New OBSERVATIONS UPON THE BOOK OF GENESIS THE Most of them Certain the rest Probable all Harmless Strange and rarely heard of before ALSO AN Handful of Gleanings OUT OF THE BOOK OF EXODUS By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII A Few and New OBSERVATIONS UPON THE BOOK OF GENESIS CHAP. I. THE Scripture the Word of Knowledge beginneth with the Story of the Creation because first the first step towards the knowledge of God is by the Creature Rom. 1. 20. Secondly the Story of the Creation pleadeth for the justice of God in planting and displacing of Nations as he pleaseth since the Earth is his own and he made it Thirdly the Resurrection is taught by the Creation and the end of the world from the beginning for God that made that to be that never was can much more make that to be that hath been before namely these our Bodies Heaven and Earth Center and circumference created together in the same instant and clouds full of water not such as we see made by evaporation but such as are called the Windows or Cataracts of Heaven Gen. 7. 11. 2 Kings 7. 19. Mal. 3. 10. created in the same instant with them vers 2. The earth lay covered with waters and had not received as yet its perfection beauty and deckage and that vast vacuity that was between the convex of those waters and the concave of the clouds was filled as it were with a gross and great darkness and the Spirit of God moved the Heavens from the first moment of their Creation in a circular motion above and about the earth and waters for the cherishing and preservation of them in their new begun being v. 3. Twelve hours did the Heavens thus move in darkness and then God commanded and there appeared light to this upper Horizon namely to that where Eden should be planted for for that place especially is the story calculated and there did it shine other twelve hours declining by degrees with the motion of the Heavens to the other Hemisphere where it inlightned other twelve hours also and so the first natural day to that part of the world was six and thirty hours long so long was Joshua's day Josh. 10. And so long was our Saviour clouded under death Vers. 6. When the light began to set to the Horizon of Eden and the evening or night of the second day was come God commanded that the Air should be spread out instead of that vacuity which was betwixt the waters upon the Earth and the waters in the clouds and in four and twenty hours it was accomplished and the Air spread through the whole universe with the motion of the Heavens In this second days work it is not said as in the rest that God saw it good because whereas this days work was about separation of waters they were not perfectedly and fully parted till the waters which covered the Earth were couched in their channels which was not till the third day and there it is twice said that God saw it good once for the intire separation of the waters and again for the fructification of the ground Vers. 9. In the new created Air the Lord thundered and rebuked the waters Psal. 104. 7. So that they hasted away and fled all westward into the channels which the Lord had appointed for them And still as they flowed away and dry land appeared the Earth instantly brought forth Trees and Plants in their several kinds This production was only of the bodies and substances of them for their verdure and maturity was not till the sixth day And now was Eden planted with the bodies of all trees fit for meat and delight which by the time that Adam is created are laden with leaves and fruit Vers. 14. The Moon and some Stars created before the Sun She shone all the night of the fourth day in her full body and when the Sun appeared in the morning then was her light augmented yet her body obscured from the World till the sixt day at even which was her prime day and she shewed her crescent and gave light to Adam who was but newly got at that time out of the darkness of his fall by the lustre of the promise Vers. 21. Whales only of all brutes specified by name to shew that even the greatest of living creatures could not make it self Vers. 25. Beasts wild and tame created and all manner of creeping things and the World furnished with them from about Eden as well as with men of clean beasts were seven created three
c. * Doves how offered 935 Dreams intimating various events 20 Dreamers and Interpreters of Dreams were common among the Jews even the most Learned of them taught their Scholars this sort of delusion 371 Drink Offering what 938 939 Drought mingled with fire from Heaven 92 Drought or want of Rain great 116 Dust shaking dust off the feet what p. 291. Dust that was to be put into the Water of Jealousie whence to be taken 1080. * E. EARTH burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation p. 338. Earth new Earth and new Heaven denote the new State of the Church under the Gospel 338 Earthly and Heavenly Things what as used by Christ. 576 Easter how old its celebration 548 Edom by this term the Hebrew Writers commonly express the Romans 349 Egyptian Deities what 1027 Elders one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers p. 223. They were Ordained by Imposition of Hands p. 289. They were of two sorts in every Synagogue one that ruled in Civil Affairs another that laboured dayly in the Word and Doctrine p. 302. This should be imitated in the Christian Churches Christ and the Apostles keeping close to the Platform of the Synagogue p. 302. Their several Qualifications p. 308. Both Peter and John stile themselves Elders intimating that the Apostick Function must ceâse but the Ministerial abide p. 340. Every Synagogue had two Elders one that ruled that was a Student in Divinity another that was the Minister of the Congregation called the Angel of the Church and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Overseer 611 612 Elders for Seniors and Senators of some of the Tribes 760 Eldest son a younger reckoned for eldest 384 Elements melting and Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation Page 338 Elias his History p. 82. What opinions the Rabbins had of his first and second coming with his Estate after his first departure and his frequent invisible coming as at every Circumcision c. p. 522 523. What he shall do at his second visible coming p. 523 524. Also multitudes of Ancient and Modern Christian Writers have asserted that before Christs second coming Enoch and Elias should come again visibly to destroy Antichrist to Convert the Jews c. confuted 524 Elisha his History 86 87 Elohim denotes distinction of Persons in the Trinity 394 Elymas which is the same in sense with Magus was a Magical Jew who with tricks and wonders went up and down confronting the Gospel 289 Emblem of the Divine Glory at the Temple mentioned in several Scriptures explained p. 2052 to 2060. * The Moral of it 2055 to 2060* Emmanuel Nomen Naturae 419 End coming Matth. 24. 14. And the coming of the Lord drawing nigh and the Judge standing at the door expressions only shewing destruction and vengeance upon Jerusalem drawing near 332 333 335 End of things the Heavens passing away the Elements melting and the Earth burning up only denoted the destruction of Jerusalem and that cursed Nation 338 England some remarkable Things referring to its antient State p. 328. It was invaded by the Roman General and afterwards by his Master Claudius the Emperor An. Dom. 44. p. 888. England and these parts of the World was planted by Javans posterity 996 Enochs Prophesie was some common Tradition among the Jews p. 339. Enoch many Christian Writers hold that he and Elias should visibly come again to destroy Antichrist and to convert the Jews before the second coming of Christ. 524 Ephah what sort of Measure 545 546 Ephod of the High Priest what 727 905 Epicurus was a term used among the Jews for such as despised the Doctors 297 Epiphany or the Wise-mens coming to Christ on the thirteenth day after his birth or within forty days shewed to be improbable and that they came not till about two years after his Birth 432 to 434 Episcopus an Overseer is a Synagogue Term so are most of his Qualifications fetched thence p. 308. So the Angel or Minister in the Synagogue stood over those that read to see that they read right hence called Chasan that is Episcopus Overseer c. 375 611 to 618 Epistle from Laodicea is an Epistle from that Church to Paul 326 Er and Hezekiah were born when their Fathers were very young 105 Esau all hairy when born like a kid 14 Eser but an additional Title for the Assyrian Monarchs 104 Esseans though they differed from other Hereticks yet they harmonized with the rest to oppose the Gospel and Christianity p. 373. Their Original Name Quality and Principles 457 458 459 Evangelists one of the Titles of the Gospel Ministers 223 Eunuch his Conversion and who he was 281 Eutyches and Valentius averred Christ to have only a Body in appearance confuted 397 Execution of Malefactors among the Jews was attended by their bewailing p. 268. Where and how performed 2006 2007. * Ezra the Sacred Writer considered as President of the Sanhedrin with the time of his Death 2007 2008. * Exorcists Vagabond Jews that went up and down to oppose the Gospel with Magical Tricks p. 289. See Barjesus Expiation day what service belonged to it the High Priest was ingaged in all the Service of it p. 971. The Scape Goat was the principal business besides other Offerings p. 971 c. It was a strict Fasting day Page 972 F. FAction Division and Schism producing sad Effects in the Church of Corinth some of them mentioned Page 301 to 304 Faith it makes improbable things to be accepted of God p. 49. Jewish and Evangelical what p. 247. Faith why set after Repentance 630 Fall of Man p. 2. Of Adam 1022 Fan of Christ is the Gospel with the Preaching and Publishing thereof 468 Fasting and Praying used in the Synagogues p. 925. Of Christ wonderful considering the Time Place his present Posture he fasted nights as well as days 502 503 Fasting Day the Day of Expiation was a strict Fasting Day 792 Fasts of the Captived Jews were kept in several Months p. 143. Publick Fasts what p. 288. They were upon important Occasions used by the Jews 289 Fathers what to teach their Children 295 Festivals Three principal ones The Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles all the Men that were Free were to appear at them 950 951 Feast Governour of the Feast who he was called Architriclinus He was not the same with the Symposiarchus the Governour or Moderator of the Heathen Feasts p. 547. Feast of Tabernacles the Actions attending it p. 243. The Nature Occasion and Reasons of its Institution p. 477. Feast of Charity or Agapae what 315 Feasting among the Jews was performed upon Beds 539. Marg. Feasts Women were not bound to appear at the three solemn Feasts of the Jews yet they usually did 956 Feet anointed of ordinary use among the Jews 252 Felix shewed to be an ill Man 320 Figs ripened at differing seasons 253 First Fruits and first Fruit Sheaf the way of gathering and offering them 969
and of Christ. p. 630. The Jewish Writers stole some things out of it 1003 Governor of the Feast what 547 Governors both Civil and Sacred were in every Synagogue 302 Grace for Grace largely explained 519 Grecians put for Hellenists 777 c. 815 856 Greek Tongue was the common Language of the Jews in Christs time and the Septuagint their Bible p. 220 230 231. All the World used the Old Testament in Christs time in the Greek Tongue unless such as had the Hebrew Tongue 419 Greek Translation of the fifth of Genesis c. full of false Chronologies 1028 Groaves why consecrated 13 695 Ground holy Ground the circuit of the Wall encompassing it according to our English measure what p. 1051. * Ezekiels holy Ground is bounded and measured Saint Johns in the Revelation is not and why p. 1051. * The length and breadth of the Gates encompassing the holy Ground p. 1052. * All within the Wall which encompassed the holy Ground was called the Temple 1063. * Guards were kept by night within Jerusalem 1062. * Guilt for sin is not to be concluded from sufferings 24 H. H Not used in the Middle and End of Greek words hence it is that we see it wanting in Hebrew words when changed into Greek Page 415. Marg. Habdala Kiddush are words of blessing the Sabbath 218 Hades denotes the State of Souls departed 754 Hallelujah is used among the Jewish Writers and in Scripture 35â Hallel the Lesser or the Egyptian Hallel was an Hymn gathered out of the Psalms sung eighteen days and one night in the year to commemorate the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt c. p. 957 c. The Greater Hallel sung at the Passover c. what 958 Hand of the Lord for his Assistance or Gift of Prophesie 422 Hand bredth was compounded of four fingers laid close 1051 Hands the imposition of them the use and ends thereof 281 285 289 788 Harel and Ariel what they signifie and how they differ 2034 2035. * Head the Head was not to be uncovered even in the Temple among the Jews at their Prayers 949 Heathenism began at Babel p. 9. It is again advanced by the Papacy 355 Heathens were cast off at the Confusion of Babel 842 Heaven being put for God was of common use among the Jews 568 Heavens new and Earth new denotes a new state of the Church under the Gospel as Isa. 65. 17. p. 338. Heavens opening after Christs Baptism what p. 479 480. And how far seen or not seen by those that stood by p. 481. Heaven opened put for themighty things said and done in Christs Ministry 336 337 Heavenly and Earthly things what were used by Christ. 576 Hebrew Tongue was not the common Language of the Jews in Christs time being then lost and to be Learned or not known p. 215 220. Canaan spoke this Language before Joshua came there p. 1009 to 1011. It was the Tongue of Adam and the Tongue of God it began with the World and the Church The Letters of it The whole Tongue is contained in the Bible Most of the Eastern Tongues use the Hebrew Characters or Letters It s a lofty graceful Language p. 1012 1013. Of the Vowels p. 1013. The Vowels are as ancient as the Letters 1014 Hebrews were Jews inhabiting Judea p. 279. Paul the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews p. 329. What part of the Jewish Nation it was directed to p. 330. It was writ in Greek as was Matthew not in Hebrew as some suppose because Hebrew at this time was only understood by Learned Men the Greek now was their Vulgar Tongue 330 331 Hebron a famous place 60 204 Helenists were Jews inhabiting other Countries dispersed among the Greeks p. 279. They were the greatest enemies to Paul because he had been one of them p. 283. Hellenists Acts 11. 19. means not Jews as it did Acts 6. 1. but Heathens their Language being a mixture of Syrian and Greek p. 286. Called Greatians in our Translation whether they were Greeks that lived among Jews or Jews that lived among Greeks Greeks converted to the Jewish Religion or Jews that used the Greek Tongue The last seems to be the proper meaning 777 Hellena or as some will have it Selene of Tyrus a Sorceress was Simon Magus his Whore supposed to be Jezâbel mentioned Rev. 2. 20. p. 787. Hellena the Queen of Adrabeni was famous and a great Benefactor to the Jews 1078 2049. * Heman the Psalmist and Heman the chief Singer were two differing Men. 70 Heresies the most desperate in the first Ages of the Christian Church sprung from the Jewish Talmudical Writers Page 372 Hereticks what p. 371. Simon Cerinthius Menander Ebion Basilides c. Sprung from amongst the Jews 372 373 Herod signifies fear trembling c. p. 397. Marg. His Pedigree Advancement Character and End p. 434 435. His manner of Death and Cruelty before it 444 Herod the Great his Pedigree or Family His numerous and strange marriages and wickednesses p. 588 to 592. He and Herodias lost all and were banished into Lyons in France 852 Herodians what they were 606 Herodias was married to Herod while her former Husband was alive 591 Hezekiah and Er both born when their Fathers were very young p. 105. His sickness when 110 High Places were Synagogues p. 608. They were lawful till the Tabernacle was set up in Shilo 2060. * High Priest disowned by Paul because Christ was the High Priest though he afterwards seems to own him and why p. 320. The High Priest represented Aaron p. 454. His Government what p. 723. His Office descended to the first born he was Installed by the Sanhedrim his Garments Coat Breeches Girdle Ephod Breast-plate p. 905. His Miter and the Golden Plate that was fastened on it he was exceeding Pompous and his Dignity high an eminent Type of Christ his Office was for life p. 906. The Succession of the High Priest till the building of the Temple p. 907. From the Building of the Temple to the Captivity p. 907 908. Under the second Temple p. 908 to 911. High Priest what Garments he had which the other Priests had not p. 2050. * He was consecrated under the Second Temple by putting on the Holy Vestments 2051. * Hillel's and Shammai's Scholars were in constant quarrel p. 514. Hillel President of the Sanhedrim one of the most eminent both for Learning Rule and Children part of his History 2008. * Hin what sort of measure 546 History is put by it self so is Prophesie in the Scriptures in Chapters as well as Books notwithstanding they were not so delivered p. 121 134. History distant in time and place laid together As the mentioning of the Institution of the Sabbath p. 3 220 608. The Death of Noah p. 9. Esaus going to Ismael before Jacob's Vision at Bethel p. 16. Jethros History is Anticipated p. 27. Moses brings in his own Exclusion out of Canaan thirty eight years before it was p. 38. Aaron is said to dye
Bethsaida p. 237. How Miracles were wrought in the Name of Jesus by one that was not a Disciple p. 241. To change the Form of a Creature is the greatest Miracle p. 504. The first Miracle Christ worketh was at a Marriage with the reasons of it p. 540. They first began when Moses was in the Wilderness before he went into Egypt p. 701 702. Miracles were wrought by the shadow of Peter as it seemeth 764 Mishnah is all the Jews Cabbala or Traditional Law in one Volume compiled by Rab. Judah President of the Sanhedrim about Anno Dom. 190 or 200 and one hundred and fifty years after Jerusalem was destroyed p. 369. The Jews deeply engage themselves to stand by this and the Talmuds p. 372. It s one part of the Talmud 997 Miter and the golden Plate that was fastned on it what 906 Moloch what sort of Idol whence the Name where and how worshipped in his Seven Chappels p. 783 784. Molech Milcham Malcham the same with Moloch which was also called Baal Page 783 784 Monarchies the five Monarchies were the Babilonian the Mede-Persian the Grecian the Syrogrecian and the Roman which begun in the Monarchy of the Cesars 348 Month in the year which the most famous 427 Money changers what 213 550 551 Moon and Sun being darkned signifies the eclipsing the Glory and Prosperity of a Kingdom or People p. 344. New Moon the strange laborious way the Jews had notice of its appearance 950 951 Moral Law what p. 475 476. The Moral and Ceremonial Law differ much from the Gospel 500 Moriah within Jerusalem what p. 1049. Where situate whence the derivation of it 1049 1050 Morning Sacrifice the killing of it 943 944 Moses how born how a Type of Christ. p. 24. How low before his ascending the Government p. 25. He sojourned where Mahomet rose p. 25. Moses and Aaron what their fault that they were debarred the entring into Canaan p. 36. His birth was supernatural p. 700. He was highly guilty of distrust or unbelief concerning Israel's coming out of Egypt p. 25 702 703. He fasted three Fasts of forty days apiece 715 716 Mountain put for Imperial Power 343 Mountain of the Temple how large p. 1050. * It s prospect 1053. * Mountains what 's meant by removing them 254 Mout Acra Moriah Sion were within Jerusalem p. 1049. * Mount Olivet faced Jerusalem and was divided from it by the Valley of Tophet c. 1052 1053. * Mount Olivet why used by Christ to preach in 257 Murder strangely punished 1002 Musick divine among the Jews what 923 924 Musick used in the Temple what 919 to 924 N. NAMES in Scripture are frequently changed or inverted by the Holy Ghost and by the People c. and why p. 78 79 84 88 122. Names given to Children how when and by whom p. 421. Names changed in Scripture is frequent and most commonly for the better p. 531. How and why they are changed p. 531 532. Several Names given to Men in Scripture did arise from some singular Quality or Action referring to them p. 534. Names or Titles among the Egyptians had two distinguishing things to be observed in them p. 704 705. Names in Scripture Phrase denote Men rather than Women 743 Name of God is put for God himself 396 Naming of Children sometimes was by the Mother as soon as born sometimes by the Standers by but the Father at the Circumcision had the casting voice whether the Name should remain so or no. 421 Nazarites where they offered how durable or short their Vow if they cut their Hair in the Country they were to bring it to the Temple at Jerusalem to burn 1092. * Negation sometimes is only of Trial when it seems to be of Denial as Gen. XIX 2. Matth. XV. 26. 544 Negative and Affirmative words are commonly used together in Scripture for Elegancy 513 Neighbour who is such an one 244 245 Nero the Emperor in his first five years did exceed the most in goodness p. 300. But afterwards he destroyed the Christians for a Plot laid by himself against them The Heathens for real Plotting against him p. 334 335. In the close he grew endless cruel Page 334 335 Nestorius made two Persons of the two Natures confuted 397 New Heaven what 450 New Earth what 450 New Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Heaven begun Anno Mundi 4000. just when the City and Temple were destroyed 487 Nicholaitans what 779 Nicodemus one of the great Sanhedrim p. 213. Supposed to be mentioned in some great Story in the Talmud 565 Night for the Study of the Law was highly valued by the Jews 566 Niniveh's Conversion was a very wonderful thing 1006 1007 Ninth hour used for three a Clock in the afternoon 843 Noah's Flood its Nature time of beginning and duration p. 6 to 9. His Drunkenness was some number of years after the Flood 9 Number twenty six is something rare p. 37. Singular put for the Pleural why p. 420. Marg. Number difference in it in Scripture is no strange thing 496 O. OBADIAH who he was and when he prophesied Page 96 Offences there ought to be three causes of their punishing 415 Offending Brother how to be delt with 241 Offering any Woman might come into the Court through the Gate of the Women when she brought an offering 1020. * Offerings were of several sorts c. 926 940 See Burnt Offering Drink Offering Meat Offering Peace Offering Sin Offering Trespass Offering Officers in the Sanctuary their Names and Offices p. 1104. * In the Temple and their Offices 2012. * Officiousness unthanked 801 c. Old Testament how divided by the Jews 264 265 Omer what sort of measure 546 Ophitae Evia what 1022. * Ordination was first performed by Christ near Capernaum p. 223. Ordination till Hillels time a publick Teacher having been ordained himself had authority and used to Ordain his Scholars as he saw them fit but for honour to Hâllel Ordination was in time centered in the Sanhedrim 612 Overseers or Presidents over the Times of Service the Doors the Guards the Singers the Symbal Musick the Lots the Birds the Seals or Tickets the Drink-offerings the Sick the Waters the Making of Shew-bread Incense the Vail and Garments for the Priests what 903 904 Oyl to anoint the sick used by the Primitive Christians as Physick not as a charm as the Jews used it and the Elders to be present to pray and instruct p. 333. The Anointing Oyl how compounded p. 2051. * This Oyl was not used in the second Temple and therefore the High Priest was consecrated by putting on the Holy Vestments 2051. * P. PAPACY even at its first beginning helped to set up Heathenism again Page 355 Parbar the Gate where situate 1056. * Parables why Christ spoke so much in them Page 229 Pardon is to be obtained by repentance 1000 Paschal Lamb how prepared 260 Pashur there were two of the Name 118 Passage of Israel through Jordan took up twelve miles which was about
travelleth hath brought forth * * * * * * Mic. V. 3. VERS XXVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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. Reâ 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ten Virgins THE Nation of the Jews delighted mightily in the number ten both in sacred and civil matters ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Synagogue consisted not but
more than these might it not have been enough to have said as well as these For what reason had he to expect that Peter should love him more than the rest did especially more than St. John whom Christ himself had so loved and who had stuck so close to him Christ seems therefore to reflect upon Peter's late confidence not without some kind of severity and reproof q. d. Thou saidst O Simon a little while ago that thou wouldst never forsake me no not though all the other Disciples should thou didst profess beyond all the rest that thou wouldst rather dye than deny me thou wouldst follow me to prison to death nay lay down thy own life for me What saist thou now Simon Doest thou yet love me more than these If thou thinkest thou art provided and canst hazard thy life for me feed my sheep and for my sake do thou expose thy life yea and lay it down for them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feed my Lambs If there be any thing in that threefold repetition feed feed feed we may most fitly apply it to the threefold object of St. Peters Ministry viz. the Gentiles the Jews and the Israelites of the ten Tribes I. To him were committed by his Lord the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. XVI that he might open the door of Faith and the Gospel to the Gentiles which he did in his preaching it to Cornelius II. In sharing out the work of Preaching the Gospel amongst the three Ministers of of the Circumcision his lot fell amongst the Jews in Babylon James his lot was amongst the Jews in Palestine and Syria And John's amongst the Hellenists in Asia III. Now amongst the Jews in Babylon were mixed the Israelites of the ten Tribes and to them did the Gospel come by the ministry of St. Peter as I have shewn more at large in another Trearise To this therefore have the words of our Saviour a plain reference namely putting Peter in mind that whereas he had with so much confidence and assurance of himself made such professions of love and constancy beyond the other Disciples pretending to a wonderful resolution of laying down his very life in that behalf that he would now shew his zeal and courage in feeding the sheep of Christ. Thou canst not Simon lay down thy life for me as thou didst once promise for I have my self laid down my own life and taken it up again Feed thou my sheep therefore and be ready to lay down thy life for them when it shall come to be required of thee So that what is here said does not so much point out Peter's Primacy as his danger nor so much the priviledge as the bond of his Office and his Martyrdom At last for that our Saviour had this meaning with him is plain because immediately after this he tells him by what death he should glorifie God vers 18. VERS XXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If I will that he tarry till he come TILL I come that is till I come to destroy the City and Nation of the Jews As to this kind of phrase take a few instances Our Saviour saith Matth. XVI 28. There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kindom Which must not be understood of his coming to the Last Judgment for there was not one standing there that could live till that time nor ought it to be understood of the Resurrection as some would have it for probably not only some but in a manner all that stood there lived till that time His coming therefore in this place must be understood of his coming to take vengeance against those enemies of his which would not have him to rule over them Luke XIX 12 27. Perhaps it will nor repent him that reads the Holy Scriptures to observe these few things I. That the destruction of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish state is described as if the whole frame of this world were to be dissolved Nor is it strange when God destroyed his Habitation and City places once so dear to him with so direful and sad an overthrow his own people whom he accounted of as much or more than the whole world beside by so dreadful and amazing Plagues Matth. XXIV 29 30. The Sun shall be darkned c. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man c. which yet are said to fall out within that Generation vers 34. 2 Pet. III. 10. The Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat c. Compare with this Deut. XXXII 22. Heb. XII 26. and observe that by Elements are understood the Mosaick Elements Gal. IV. 9. Coloss. II. 20. and you will not doubt that St. Peter speaks only of the Conflagration of Jerusalem the destruction of the Nation and the abolishing the dispensation of Moses Revel VI. 12 13. The Sun became black as sackcloth of hair c. and the Heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together c. Where if we take notice of the foregoing Plagues by which according to the most frequent threatnings he destroyed that people viz. the Sword vers 4. Famine vers 5 6. and the Plague vers 8. Withal comparing those words They say to the Mountains fall on us and cover us with Luke XXIII 30. it will sufficiently appear that by those phrases is understood the dreadful judgment and overthrow of that Nation and City With these also agrees that of Jerem. IV. from vers 22. to 28. and clearly enough explains this phrase To this appertain those and other such expressions as we meet with 1 Cor. X. 11. On us the ends of the world are come and 1 Pet. IV. 7. The end of all things is at hand II. With reference to this and under this notion the times immediately preceding this ruine are called the last days and the last times ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That is the last times of the Jewish City Nation Oeconomy This manner of speaking frequently occurs which let our St. John himself interpret 1 Joh. II. 13. There are many Antichrists whereby we know it is the last time and that this Nation is upon the very verge of destruction whenas it hath already arrived at the utmost pitch of Infidelity Apostacy and wickedness III. With the same reference it is that the times and state of things immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem are called a New Creation New Heavens and a New Earth Isai. LXV 17. Behold I create a New Heaven and a New Earth When should that be Read the whole Chapter and you will find the Jews rejected and cut off and from that time is that New Creation of the Evangelical world among the Gentiles Compare 2 Cor. V. 17. and Revel XXI 1 2. where the old Jerusalem being cut off and destroyed a new one succeeds and New Heavens and a New Earth are created 2 Pet. III. 13. We according to his promise look for New Heavens and
a New Earth The Heavens and the Earth of the Jewish Church and Commonwealth must be all on fire and the Mosaick Elements burnt up but we according to the promise made to us by Isaiah the Prophet when all these are consumed look for the New Creation of the Evangelical state IV. The day the time and the manner of the execution of this vengeance upon this people are called the day of the Lord the day of Christ his coming in the Clouds in his Glory in his Kingdom Nor is this without reason for from hence doth this form and mode of speaking take its rise Christ had not as yet appeared but in a state of Humility contemned blasphemed and at length murdered by the Jews His Gospel rejected laught at and trampled under foot His followers pursued with extream hatred persecution and death it self At length therefore he displays himself in his Glory his Kindom and Power and calls for those cruel enemies of his that they may be slain before him Acts II. 20. Before that great and notable day of the Lord come Let us take notice how St. Peter applies that prophesie of Joel to those very times and it will be clear enough without any commentary what that Day of the Lord is 2 Thess. II. 2. As if the day of Christ was at hand c. To this also do those passages belong Heb. X. 37. Yet a little while and he that shall come will come James V. 9. Behold the judge is at the door Revel I. 7. He cometh in the Clouds and XXII 12. Behold I come quickly With many other passages of that nature all which must be understood of Christ's coming in judgment and vengeance against that wicked Nation and in this very sense must the words now before us be taken and no otherwise I will that he tarry till I come For thy part Peter thou shalt suffer death by thy Country-men the Jews but as for him I will that he shall tarry till I come and avenge my self upon this generation and if I will so what is that to thee The story that is told of both these Apostles confirms this Exposition for it is taken for granted by all that St. Peter had his Crown of Martyrdom before Jerusalem fell and St. John survived the ruins of it VERS XXIV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And we know that his testimony is true THE Evangelist had said before Chap. XIX 35. He knoweth that he saith true and here in this place he changeth the person saying We know that his testimony is true I. One would believe that this was an Idiotism in the Chaldee and Syriack Tongue to make ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We know and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I know the same thing which is not unusual in other Languages also Joshua II. 9. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I know The Targumist hath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which you would believe to be We knew 1 Sam. XVII 28. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I knew Targumist ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We knew So amongst the Talmudists ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which seems to be We know we say And indeed sometimes nay most frequently they so signifie But sometimes the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I is included So that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã should be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so of the rest which appears very clearly in that Expression * * * * * * Beracoth fol. 56. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tell me what I am to see in my dream For that so it must be rendred I am to see the Gloss and Context directs us where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We will not therefore in this place take ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We know for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I know although the sense might not be very disagreeable if we did so But II. We suppose the Evangelist both here and Chap. XIX 35. referreth to an eye witness or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For in all judicial causes the ocular testimony prevailed If any person should testifie that he himself saw the thing done ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his witness must be received For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã True when it is said of any testimony does not signifie barely that which is true but that which was to believed and entertained for a sure and irrefragrable evidence So that the meaning of these words is this This is the Disciple who testifies of these things and wrote them And we all know that such a testimony obtains in all judgments whatever for he was an eye witness and saw that which he testifies Soli Deo Gloria HORAE Hebraicae Talmudicae HEBREW AND TALMUDICAL EXERCITATIONS UPON THE ACTS of the Apostles And upon some CHAPTERS of the Epistle of Saint PAUL TO THE ROMANS By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. late Master of Katharine-Hall in the University of CAMBRIDGE LONDON Printed by William Rawlins for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIV HEBREW AND TALMUDICAL EXERCITATIONS upon the ACTS of the Apostles CHAP. I. VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The former treatise have I made c. WE may reduce to this place for even thus far it may be extended what our Historian had said in the very entrance of his Gospel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It seemed good to me also to write to thee in order where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In order seems to promise not only an orderly series of the History of the actions of our Saviour but successively even of the Apostles too For what passages we have related to us in this Book may very well be reckoned amongst the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the things which were most surely believed amongst them Indeed by the very stile in this place he shews that he had a design of writing these stories joyntly that is to say first to give us a narration of the Actions and Doctrine of Christ and then in their due place and order to commit to writing the Acts and sayings of the Apostles As to most of the things contained in this Book St. Luke was both ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Eye-witness yea and a part also but how far he was spectator of those acts of our Saviour which he relates in his other book none can say What he speaks in the Preface of that work is ambiguous ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and leaves the Reader to enquire whether he means he had a perfect understanding of things from the first by the same way only which those had that undertook to compile the Evangelical Histories from the Mouth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of those that were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Or whether he came to this understanding of things from the first he himself having been from the beginning an Eye-witness and a Minister Or lastly Whether he does not by the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
spoken in Scripture of this righteousness of God and indeed never enough My righteousness is never to be revealed To bring in everlasting righteousness New Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness c. Never enough spoken never enough conceived of this Righteousness the most mysterious acting of Heaven the wonder of wonders among men the Justice of God in justifying a sinner A Divine Justice that exceeds divine Justice Divine Justice turned into Mercy You may think I speak strangely if I do it I am something excusable with Peter ravished with the Transfiguration I am upon a subject that may swallow up all minds with amazement but I clear my meaning In Rom. I. 17. It is said Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith Revealed in the Gospel not in the Law Was there no revelation of Justice till the Gospel came Yes the Law revealed Justice but it was condemning Justice as that Text speaks From faith to faith so from righteousness to righteousness Gods Justice was most divine that appeared in the Law to condemn but that Justice exceeded in the Gospel to justifie Where are they that talk of being justified by their own works Then must they have a righteousness of their own that must out-vy Gods condemning justice which is infinitely just But his own justifying justice doth out-vy it As it is said Where sin abounded Grace did superabound So where condemning Justice was glorious justifying Justice was much more glorious I said Justice was turned into mercy I say the greatest Justice into the greatest mercy How are we justified and saved By Mercy True and yet by Justice become mercy not ceasing to be Justice what it was but becoming Mercy what it was not Here is a lively Copy before you God so loveth so acteth justice that he will satisfie it upon his own Son that he might glorifie it by way of mercy on all justified His greatest mercy appeareth in this acting of his justice and you are the greatest Mercy to a people when you do them the most Justice A third and last Copy that I would set before you all that hear me this day is fairly yet seems strangly written with Gods own hand in the Gospel In divers places of the New Testament where mention is made of the Law and where you would think it meant both the Tables it comes off only with mention of the Second Matth. XIX 17. If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments You would look for all the Ten but look forward and he pitcheth only upon the second Table So Rom. XIII 8. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law You would look for the whole Law to be mentioned there but look forward in vers 9. and only the second Table is mentioned So Jam. II. 8. If you fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture c. you would look for the whole Law but he concludes all under this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Why where are the Duties of the first Table See how God put even all religion in the second Table As it is said Behold how he saved Lazarus so Behold how God loveth honest upright charitable dealing 'twixt man and man I shall not insist to shew you the reason of this strange passage I might tell you it is because whatsoever men pretend of Religion towards the Commands of the first Table it is nothing if it appear not in our obedience to the second I might tell you God puts you to that that is more in your own power as to obey the second Table is more so than the first But I leave the Copy in your own hands to read and comment on And when you have studied it the most you will find this to be the result how God requires how God delights in our righteous upright charitable dealings one with another A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 13. 1663. JUDG XX. 27 28. And the Children of Israel enquired of the Lord. For the ark of the Covenant of the Lord was there in those days And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron stood before it in those days AND it was time to enquire of the Lord considering their present condition and exigent and it was well they had the Ark in those days to enquire at considering the evil of those days and their exceeding wickedness And it was strange that Phinehas was then there considering the time of the story when he is thus brought in The three clauses in the Text that hint their inquiring and the manner of their inquiring and the Person by whom they inquired of the Lord and they inquired at the Ark of the Covenant and they inquired by Phinehas require each one a serious explication and each one explicated it may be will afford something of information that every one hath not observed before I. They enquired of the Lord. And it was time to enquire indeed when business went so crosly with them that though the Lord himself had encouraged them to that war yet they lose so many thousands in the battel At their first mustering they ask counsel of God and he allows their quarrel and appoints their Captain vers 18. And the Children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of God and said which of us shall go up first to the battle against the Children of Benjamin And the Lord said Judah shall go up first And yet when they come to fight they lose two and twenty thousand men vers 21. They ask counsel of God again and he bids them go up and yet when they come to fight again they lose eighteen thousand men more And now after the loss of forty thousand men they inquire again and indeed it was very full time But what was it they inquired about If why they thus fell when God himself had encouraged them to the War which was a very just Quaere Had I or you been there we might have resolved them without an Oracle There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee O Israel and a very strange accursed thing that it is not strange that thou canst not stand but fallest thus before thine enemies In the Chapter before a Levites Concubine plays the whore and runs from him and as he fetches her again she is paid in her kind and whored with at Gibeah till it cost her her life Hereupon all Israel musters in arms as one man and solemnly vows and resolves to avenge her quarrel But in the Chapter before that Idolatry is publickly set up in the Tribe of Dan. And in the Chapter before that it is publickly enough set up in the Town of Micah and yet not one man that stands up or stirs in the quarrel of the Lord. Oh Israel that art thus zealous in the quarrel of a Whore and hast been no whit zealous in the cause of the Lord it is no wonder if thou fall and fall
shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days for the child shall dye an hundred years old That is there shall be so clear and great means of knowledge by the Gospel that none needed to be a child in understanding if they would but labour to know and that even the young child might speak it self to be as it were an hundred years old for knowledge if men would apply themselves to the means afforded for knowledge They produce that in I Joh. II. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you c. Whereas the Apostle himself doth explain what that anointing is namely Truth But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth which is the very common title of the Gospel in the Gospel To speak fully to this matter I should clear this I. That after God had compleated and signed the Scripture Canon Christians must expect Revelations no more It was promised by God that he would pour down of his Spirit in the last days but it means the last days of Jerusalem and when she had finished her days and seen her last the Spirit in such kind of effusion is to be looked for no more II. I should shew that the Scripture containeth all things necessary for us to know or to enquire of God about T is not for you to know the times and the seasons Act. I. T is not for Peter to enquire what should become of John What is that to him Joh. XXI 22. But what is necessary for us to know to the Law and to the Testimony there you may learn it I need not to tell you that you may enquire there and learn what to believe what to do what to avoid how to demean your selves towards God towards your Neighbours towards your Selves how to come to Heaven and the like For I hope none come hither at this time upon the present occasion but have consulted with this Oracle to direct them Whether to go to suite with their Neighbour or no how to bear Witness how to Counsil how to Determin But the common curiosity of men is ready to enquire how should I know my Fortune Why I may tell them from this Oracle if I may use the term Fortune in such a case Esa. III. 10 11. Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him But shall I propose a case of the greatest concernment that a man can possibly enquire about and that is How shall I know whether my sins are pardoned whether I have the favour and love of God whether I shall be saved At Urim and Thummim they never enquired about any of these things and I believe such questions were rarely proposed by any to any Prophet And yet this Oracle we are speaking of the Law and Testimony will resolve this Quaere as far as is needful for any man to know so little are we behind them in the advantage of inquiring of God Is there any here that proposeth this question from a good heart and for a good end Let me close with him in the words of God Esa. XXI 12. If ye will enquire enquire ye But first let me tell him That a man may be saved though he do not know he shall be saved till he come to Salvation And I doubt not but there are many in Heaven that were never certain that they should come there till they came thither A good man may die doubting fearing trembling and yet his estate be sure for blessedness though he be never assured of it till he enjoy it For it is Faith that secures Salvation and is absolutely necessary for it Assurance is not so absolutely necessary If he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Job A strong Faith but little Assurance and yet his eternal state secure enough Secondly A man may have Faith and yet not know that he hath it As how many of the dear Saints of God have groned under this doubtfulness And answerably a man may have Certainty of Salvation as to the thing it self though not Assurance as to his own apprehension I deny not all this while that Assurance may be had though it be not obtained by all and that it is to be striven after according to that give all diligence to make your calling and election sure But to the coming to satisfaction upon this inquiry do as the Priest in his inquiries put on the brest-plate and go and stand before the Ark of the Covenant and there inquire Bring your Covenant to face the Law and then consult with it For this purpose consider these properties of Conscience 1. The actings of Conscience are only about things twixt us and God 2. The actings of Conscience in this case and indeed in all are not directly but by reflexion the very name of Conscience imports no less a knowledge by reflection Thus a sinner by his Conscience knows he hath sinned How By reflecting on the Law knows he hath deserved wrath by the Law 3. As Conscience condemns in the same method it comforts and acquits In Rom. II. 15. Conscience accuses or excuses in the same way both by reflexion upon a Law For 4. The ultimate resolution in this inquiry must be from the Mandatory part of the Covenant not the Promissory Many a man deceives himself undoes himself by judging his case from the promises and not taking his Resolution thence whence it should come viz. his Conscience and Gods Commandments laid together God hath promised pardon mercy salvation therefore I doubt not saith a secure soul but all will be well with me But how knowest thou these promises belong to thee Go to the Mandatory part of the Covenant the Moral and Evangelical Law and lay Conscience to that as face and glass and there what seest thou The Law commands thus and thus look in Conscience hast thou done thus If so thou mayst conclude that thou shalt participate of the promises that are affixt to such Commandments Thou canst not look on the Sun in Heaven but mayst see it in a pail of water Thou canst not immediately discover whether God loves thee has pardoned thee intend thee for Salvation but thou canst do it by reflexion twixt Law and Conscience twixt this and the Conditions of the Covenant Peter does not conclude Lord thou lovest me but Lord I love thee Look on the Command Love the Lord then look in Conscience and that gives the reflexion and so thou mayest be secured A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 29. 1663. II. PET. III. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousnes IT is well they might so and had warrant of promise so to do otherwise where had their expectation been The verses immediately before speak nothing but devastation and ruine of Heaven and
Earth and if there had been nothing beyond that to be looked after their hopes and expectancy had been ruined also but we says our Apostle look for new Heavens and a new Earth But of what nature they is all the question I doubt some men construe these words of the Apostle as far distant from his sense almost as the Earth is distant from the Heavens whilst they conceive from hence that after the dissolution of all things yet there shall be a renewing of Heaven and Earth and they shall be as before as to their substance and form only their quality changed To this they apply Rom. VIII 19 20. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God c. They would make our Apostle say Sibboleth whether he will or no whereas he speaks Shibboleth plain enough to a far differing sense For the discovery of his meaning have patience a little whilst I make this observation clear unto you which may be useful to you in reading several places of Scripture That the ruine and destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish commonwealth and oeconomy is set forth in Scripture in such expressions as if it were the destruction and dissolution of the whole world Moses beginneth this stile in Deut. XXXII 22. where he is speaking of that vengeance For a fire is kindled in mine anger and it shall burn to the lowest hell and it shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains Would you not think that the dissolution of all things were in mention Look upon the context and you find it to mean no other than the destruction of that Nation Jeremy yet higher Chap. IV. 23. I beheld the earth and âo it was without form and void and the heavens and they had no light You would think all the world were returning there to her old chaos again Add yet further I beheld the mountains and lo they trembled and all the hills moved lightly I beheld and lo there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled You would think that the whole universe were dissolving but look but in the 27 vers and it speaks no other than the dissolution of that people For thus hath the Lord said The whole land shall be desolate Our Saviour yet higher Matth. XXIV 29. The sun shall be darkned and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man c. who would not conclude that these expressions mean no other thing in the world than the last dissolution of the World and Christs coming to Judgment yet look well upon the context and it speaketh plainly that the meaning is only of the dissolving of the Jews City and State and Christ speaks it out most plainly at vers 34. where he afferts that that present generation should not pass till all those things were fulfilled The beloved Disciple follows his Masters stile upon the very same subject in the sixth of his Revelation where after he had described the means of the destruction of this wretched people under the opening of certain seals by Sword Famine and Plague he comes at last in vers 12 13 14. to speak their final dissolution it self in the very like terms The Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the Moon became as blood And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth and the Heavens departed as a scroll that is rolled together and every mountain and Island were removed out of their places One would think the final dissolution of all the world were spoken of but look in the 16th verse and you find the very same words that our Saviour applies to the destruction of that people Luke XXIII 30. They said unto the mountains fall on us and hide us c. Our Apostle Peters meaning is no other in the expression before my Text where when he speaks of the Heavens being dissolved by fire the Earth and the works therein burnt up and the elements melting with fervent heat he intends no other thing then the dissolving of their Church and oeconomy by firy vengance the consumption of their State by the flame of Gods indignation and the ruine of their elements of Religion by Gods fury Not the Elements in Aristotles sense of Fire Air Earth and Water but the Elements in his brother Pauls sense whom he mentions presently after my Text the carnal and beggerly Elements of their Mosaick rites and traditionary institutions By this time you plainly see in what sense The new Heavens and the new Earth is to be taken in the Text but for the fuller and clearer understanding of these things still give me yet a little further patience to shew you that as the destruction of that old World of the Jewish people and oeconomy is uttered by such expressions as if it were the destruction of the whole universe so the times going near before and concurrents going along with that destruction are phrased by expressions also sutable And this I shall observe to you in four heads I. There is much mention of the last days in Scripture which in most places is not to be understood of the last days of the World as some take them and so mistake but of the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish State And indeed the greatest mercies that were promised to that people were promised to occur in those last days as Esa. II. 2. Hos. III. 5. Joâl II. 28. as he is cited by this our Apostle Act. II. 17. these things are not to be allotted to the last days of the World but to the last days of that City as Peters very allegation out of Joel makes it plain if there were no more proof Now saith he is fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel In the last days I will pour out c. These are the last days there intended and now the thing hath received its accomplishment For how improper is it to construe him in such a sense as some do This is that which Joel foretold should come to pass in the last days of the world two or three thousand years hence And so on the contrary the worst of men and times are foretold to be in those last days of Jerusalem because they did not improve those mercies I Tim. IV. 4. and II Tim. III. 1. and our Apostle in the third verse of this Chapter let the Apostle John explain all I Joh. II. 18. Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time II. In such a sense are such Phrases as these to be understood I Cor. X. 11. Upon
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
upon all that believed but upon the believing Gentiles most especially both because of the multitude that were justified and men that before had been so far from righteousness You may see a picture of what is intended in this Text in the fourth of the Revelation where there is a scheme of this new World that our Apostle speaketh of from the promise in the Prophet There is a scene fashioned of Christ sitting in the midst of the Gospel Church platformed according to the form of Gods dwelling in the midst of the people of Israel in his Tabernacle and upon the mercy seat His throne is said to be in Heaven in the second verse but it means in his Church for so Heaven is taken in most places in the Revelation And observe before his Throne in Heaven is a Sea of glass vers 6. as the molten Sea was before the Temple there is an Altar before the Throne and offering of Incense Chap. VIII 3. as there was at the Temple nay there is the Temple it self filled with smoke Chap. XV. 8. as the Tabernacle and Temple were at their Dedication About his Throne were First four living Creatures on the four sides of it as the four squadrons of Priests and Levites pitched on the four sides of the Tabernacle betwixt God and the people On the outside of them sat four and twenty Elders the representative of the whole Church as the squadrons of the people pitched on the one side of the squadron of the Priests and Levites And it is said these four and twenty Elders were clothed in white which speaks the very things we are speaking of for so doth the Holy Ghost himself explain it in the XIX Chap. vers 8. The fine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints And in Chap. VII 14. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Strange washing washt them white in blood You would think that should make them of another colour but the whiteness that we are speaking of is the pure white of Justification and nothing can purifie to that dye but the blood of Christ. And here let me also crave your patience a little to speak to another Text of Scripture which speaketh fully to the matter we are upon but which is not so clearly rendred to its proper purpose but that it hath produced no little controversie And that is these words in Rom. IV. 11. Abraham received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised Generally all Translations run in the same tenor whereas these words which he had yet are not at all in the Original as you that cannot read the Original may see by that that they are written in a different character The Greek hath it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã verbatim to be rendred thus He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith in the uncircumcision And not to be understood of the righteousness of faith which Abraham had in his uncircumcision though it is true he had it but a seal of the righteousness by faith which was to be in the uncircumcision or in the believing Gentiles And that this sense is most agreeable to the intent of the Apostle in that place needs no more proof then the serious observing of the nature of his discourse from those words forward And that it is most agreeable to the end of the institution of circumcision needs no more proof than the serious observing of the story of its institution That you have in Gen. XVII where this promise is given to Abraham Thou shalt be the father of many Nations In what sense the father of many Nations the Apostle clears in the words next following those that we are upon That he might be the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them also So that this was the Covenant that God makes with Abraham there that the uncircumcision should believe and become the sons of Abraham imbracing his faith This Covenant and promise God confirms with a double seal 1. With the change of his name from Abram to Abraham from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a high father to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the father of a great multitude and 2. With the seal of Circumcision A seal of the righteousness by faith which should be in the uncircumcision or in the Gentiles that should believe Ponder the words and the context and the story of the institution of Circumcision well and you will find this to be the main aim and end of it Not a seal of the righteousness by faith which Abraham had being uncircumcised but of the righteousness by faith that the uncircumcision should have when they came to believe And it speaks the very same thing with the Text that when God should create the new Heavens and the new Earth of the Gentile Church when the Jewish should be cast off that righteousness or justification by faith should dwell and shine in it I have been something long in the explanation of the words but the necessity of the thing may plead my excuse And now they being thus explained they offer three most noble Themes for discourse before us I. Here is mention of a new World II. Of Gods Promise III. Of Justification or Righteousness And upon which of these shall I fix Any of the three would take up the time that is allotted therefore I will lay my right hand upon Ephraims head which is the youngest The word righteousness you see is last born in the Text and yet indeed the birthright is due unto it It is the first aim of our Apostle that he looketh at and the other two are but appendices to it in his aim Follow his eye with yours and see where he sixeth Righteousness is the thing he looketh after the new Heavens and the new Earth are the state and place where he looketh for it and the promise is the prospective through which he looked at it I shall therefore pitch upon that as the main subject of the Text and from the eye of the Apostle so intent upon it Observe How desirable a thing to be looked after righteousness is as it speaks justification Me thinks Peter speaks here concerning this righteousness much like the tenour that the Psalmist doth concerning God in Psal. LXXIII 25. Their is nothing in the new Heaven but thee and nothing in the new Earth that I look after besides thee His brother Paul is of the same mind and song Phil. III. 8 9. I do count all things but dung that I may win Christ. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith Offer him as Satan once did to our Saviour and try him with haec omnia tibi dabo Paul choose through all the World what thou wilt have honours riches pleasures profits
Apostles and Disciples and should pick out a man that we all know was no Apostle that no one knows whether he were a Disciple or no. But II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive that as the man to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem was Daniel a man greatly beloved so that the John to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World was John the Disciple greatly beloved III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated that he would that he should tarry till âe came Joh. XXI 22. that is till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them for that his coming both in that place and in divers other places in the New Testament doth mean in that sense it were very easie to make evident should we take that subject to insist upon Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old when that was ruined laid in ashes and come to nothing He saw it in Vision we see it in the Text and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse for we need not speak more of him that saw it In the verse before he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth and in this verse a new Jerusalem I. Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth And in the verse next following Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing The expressions intimate the great change of affairs that should be in the World under the Gospel from what had been before A new Heaven or a change of Church and Religion from a Jewish to a Gentile Church and from Mosaick to Evangelical Religion A new Earth or a change in the World as to the management or rule of it from Heathenism to Christianity and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies Dan. VII to the Saints or Christians to iudge the World 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change as the old Jerusalem had been before the change came There is none but knoweth that Jerusalem in Scripture language is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then standing That City was the Church in little because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances the Assemblies of the Saints the Worship of the true God by his own appointment and the presence of God himself in the midst of all And can any doubt but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense and upon the like reason The Church of God under the Gospel this inriched with all those excellencis and privileges that that was yea and much more There was the Doctrine of Salvation but wrapped up in Types and Figures and dark Prophesies but here unfolded to the view of every Eye and Moses vail taken off his face There Ordinances of divine Worship but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth There an assembly only of one People and Nation here a general assembly compacted of all Nations There God present in a cloud upon the Ark here God present in the communication of his Spirit Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City because of these things II. which is the second circumstance considerable in the words I saw the new Jerusalem The holy City It is observable that the second old Jerusalem for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity was called the holy City when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City and become a stranger there When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments and endowments that contributed so much to the holiness of the place and City The Ark the cloud of Glory upon it the Oracle by Urim and Thummim the fire from Heaven upon the Altar these were all gone and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation yet even then it is called the holy City in this her nakedness Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves and Jerusalem no better if not worse when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had turned all Religion upside down and out of doors and worshiped God only according to inventions of men yet even then and when she is in that case she is termed the holy City Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies the Lord of life and glory even then he calls her the holy City Chap. XXVII 53. The bodies of many Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said then and so might others say of her for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City when she was a City so very unholy She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy and yet comparatively The holy City because there was not a place under Heaven besides which God had chosen to place his Name there and there he had and that was it that gave her that name and title And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing she kept the name but at last forfeited both and then God finds out another City where to place his Name A new Jerusalem A holy City a holier City her younger sister fairer than she Holy under the same notion with the other because God hath placed his Name only III. there Holier than she because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her as was touched before And Holier still because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did as we shall touch hereafter And she cannot but be holy as I said before when she comes down from Heaven and is sent thence by God And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward seeth her pitched here below when she is
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The beginning of the year for telling the year it from September ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 âell 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
it did begin So though the Passover be appointed to be in that first month that began the new year and be called an Everlasting Ordinance Exod. XII 16. Yet upon occasion the Lord ordained it to be kept in the second month Numb IX To this we may add Gods changing the very end and memorial of the Sabbath to Israel themselves Changing said I or rather adding a new memorial which it had not before In Exod. XX. the memorial is to remember Gods creating and resting in Deut. V. where the Ten Commandments are repeated it is in memorial of their redemption out of Egypt Not unclothed of its first end and memorial but clothed upon So if Adam had continued innocent he must have kept the Sabbath and then it had been to him but the memorial of Gods creating and resting But when Christ and redemption by him was set up and come in before the Sabbath came in then it was clothed with another memorial viz. the remembrance of the redemption II. Christ had power and authority to change the Sabbath Mark II. 28. The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath He had power over all Divine Ordinances Hebr. III. 5 6. Now Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant c. But Christ as a Son over his own house He is not a Servant in the house but a Son to dispose of the affairs of the house as he sees good He is greater than the Temple and so may order the affairs of the Temple as he saw good If a Jew question why he laid by the Ceremonies of Moses The answer is ready because he was greater than Moses Lord of the house in which Moses was but a Servant Nay it was he that appointed Moses those Ceremonies and he might unappoint them at his pleasure That is observable Act. VII 38. This is that Moses that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him at Mount Sinai and with our Fathers who received the lively Oracles to give us With the Angel who was that It was Christ the great Angel of the Covenant as he is called Mal. III. 1. The Angel of Gods presence as he is called Esai LXIII 9. Then who spake with Moses at Mount Sinai It was Christ. Who gave him the Lively Oracles Laws Testimonies Statutes It was Christ. And then might Christ that gave them dispose of them as seemed him good So that if a Jew question why Christ changed Circumcision into Baptism the Paschal Lamb into Bread and Wine the Jewish Sabbath into the Christian Sabbath The answer is ready he was Lord of them and might dispose of them Het set up Circumcision the Passover the Jewish Sabbath and might take them down and alter them as he pleased III. Ye read once and again in Scripture of Gods creating a new world Esai LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth 2 Pet. III. 13. We according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth Rev. XXI 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth Now when was this done The Apostle tells us when viz. in his own time 2 Cor. V. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature The meaning of it is Gods creating a new Estate of things under the Gospel a new Church the Jews cast off and the Gentiles taken in new ordinances in his Church Ceremonious worship taken down and Spiritual set up new Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper instead of the Circumcision and Passover a new Command of love to one another a new Covenant a new and living way into the most holy a new Creature and in a word all things become new Then certainly a new Sabbath was fit for a new Creation Lay these two places together Gen. I. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and Esai LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth In fulness of time God created new Heavens and a new Earth and as the first Creation had the old Sabbath so was it not fit the new Creation should have a new Sabbath As our Saviour speaks Mat. IX 17. New cloth must not be put into an old garment nor new wine into old bottles but new wine must be put into new vessels and both are preserved So in this case a new manner of worship new Ordinances new Sacraments to be committed to the old Sabbath This is improper but a new Sabbath must be for these as well as they themselves are new How pied would Christianity have looked if it had worn a Coat all new in other respects but had had on the shirt or piecing of the old Sabbath And how unfit was it to have tyed Christians to the observation of the old Sabbath of the Jews IV. The Resurrection of Christ was the day of his birth and beginning of his Kingdom Observe the quotation Acts XIII 33. The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled to us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee When was the day wherein Christ was begotten In the day that God raised him from the dead That is strange for as he was God was he not begotten from Eternity and as he was man was he not conceived by the Holy Ghost and born three and thirty years and an half before his Resurrection Yes both most true and yet that true too that he was begotten from the day of his Resurrection And the Apostle tells you how to understand it viz. He was the first begotten and first born from the dead begotten that day to the Gentiles and all the world from thenceforward a Saviour to them and by his Resurrection as the Apostle saith Rom. I. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead So likewise his Resurrection was the beginning of his Reign and Kingdom Consider upon that Mat. XXVI 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom That is when I am risen from the dead And see Mat. XXVIII 18. Now I begin to reign All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth For now he had conquered all his Enemies Devil Death and Hell Now was not the first day of the week the day on which Christ rose fitter to be made the Sabbath to commemorate his Birth-day from the dead and his entrance into his Kingdom than the last day of the week the old Sabbath on which day he lay in the grave and under death Kings and Potentates use to celebrate their Birth-day and the day of entrance into their Kingdom and this King of Kings was it not fit that such a memorial should be of his Birth-day and entrance into his Dominion And compare the Creation and Christs Resurrection whether of
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 * * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 * * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
send not letters by the hand of a Gentile on the eve of the Sabbath nor on the fifth day of the week Nay on the fourth day of the week ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The School of Schammai bound it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the School of Hillel loosed it Ibid. fol. 7. col 4. Women may not look in a Looking glass on the Sabbath but if it were fastned upon a wall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rabbi loosed the looking into it but the wise men bound it Id. in Jom tobh fol. 60. col 1. R. Jochanan went from Tsipporis to Tiberias he saith Why brought ye to me this Elder ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For what I loose he bindeth and what I bind he looseth Maym. in Hhamets umatsah per. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Scribes have bound leaven that is they have prohibited it Tanchum fol. 1. col 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They have upon necessity loosed salutation on the Sabbath that is they have permitted it or taught that it was lawful Thousands of instances of this nature might be produced by all which it is clear that the Jews use of the phrase was of their Doctors or learned mens teaching what was lawful and permitted and what unlawful and prohibited Hence is that definition of such mens office and work in Tosaphta ad Jebamoth per. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A wise man that Judgeth Judgment maketh unclean and maketh clean bindeth and looseth that is teacheth what is clean and unclean what is permitted and prohibited And Maymony in Sanhedr per. 4. giving the relation of their ordaining of Elders and to what several imployments they were ordained saith thus A wise man that is fit to teach all the Law the Consistory had power to ordain him To Judge but not to teach Bound and loos or power to teach Bound and loos but not a Judge in pecuniary matters or power to both these but not to Judge in matters of mulct c. So that the Ordination of one to that Function which was more properly Ministerial or to teach the people their duty as what was lawful what not what they were to do and what not to do was to such a purpose or in such a tenour as this Take thou power to bind and loose or to teach what is bound and loose for they use both the expressions ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By this vulgar and only sense of this phrase in the nation the meaning of Christ using it thus to his Disciples is easily understood namely that he first doth instate them in a Ministerial capacity to teach what bound and loose what to be done and what not and this as Ministers and thus all ministers successively to the end of the world But as they were Apostles of that singular and unparelled order as the like never in the Church again he gives them power to bind and loose in a degree above all Ministers that were to follow namely that whereas some part of Moses Law was now to stand in practice and some to be laid aside some things under the Law prohibited were now to be permitted and some things then permitted to be now prohibited he promiseth the Apostles such assistance of his Spirit and giveth them such power that what they allowed to stand in practice should stand and what to fall should fall what they bound in Earth should be bound in Heaven c. SECTION LIII MATTH Chap. XVII from the beginning to Ver. 24. MARK Chap. IX from Ver. 2. to Ver. 33. LUKE IX from V. 28. to Ver. 46. CHRIST Transfigured A Devil cast out of a Child MATTHEW and Mark link this story to the preceding with this link After six days c. which Luke hath uttered About an eight days after which is but the same in sense Six days compleat came between the day that Christ had spoken the words before and the day of his transfiguration So that the day of his Transfiguration was the eight day from the day when Christ said There are some standing here that shall not taste of death till they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power This story of Christs Transfiguration relateth to that prediction concerning the great Prophet Deut 18. 18. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee c. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him A Prophet that is a succession of Prophets till the great Prophet should come who should seal Vision and Prophesie Christ had been sealed for the great Priest at his Baptisme when entring into his Ministry at the same age that the Priests entred into their Office he is attested from Heaven This is my wellbeloved Son in whom I am well pleased He is sealed for the great Prophet here by the like attestation from Heaven with the same words This is my wellbeloved Son in whom I am well pleased but withal it is added Hear him answerable to those words Whosoever will not hearken c. Deut 18. 19. Moses the first Prophet had all his Oracles out of a Cloud and a Cloud of Glory that lead Israel in the Wilderness departed at his death think of that when you see a cloud here overshadowing and a Divine Oracle given out of it at the sealing of the Prophet greater then he Moses was the first Prophet of the Jews and Elias the first Prophet of the Gentiles and they both now appear to attend their Master Christ and the three Disciples were in this mount of his Transfiguration all night for Luke saith It came to pass the next day when they were come down c. ver 37. Compare Christ transfigured and his face shining with the shining of Moses his face and so compare that first Prophet and this great Prophet again together The Disciples that had authority and power given them over all Devils Luke 9. 1. are not able here to cast one out and their Master sheweth a double reason why namely because of their unbelief and because that kind went not out but by Fasting and Prayer Now that their unbelief should be any more then it had been before for they had cast out Devils before this Matth. 6. 13. it might seem strange but that here were some concurrents towards that more then they had met with before now and that we may observe especially in these two things 1. There were divers diseases which in their own nature were but natural diseases which yet the Jews did commonly repute as seizure and possessing by the Devil especially those that distempered the mind or did in more special manner convulse the body and according to this common language and conception of the Nation the language of the Gospel doth speak exceeding frequently Examples of this kind of Dialect among the Jews we might produce divers as that in Maym. in Gerushin
of the Jews bringeth forth her chief child and the Devil seeketh to destroy him He is pictured 1. A great red Dragon Old Pharaoh who sought to devour new born Israel is much of the like character Isa. 27. 7. Psal 74. 13 c. 2. With seven heads So many had the persecuting Monarchies Dan. 7. the Lion one the Bear one the Leopard four and the fourth beast one 3. And ten horns Parallel to the Syrogrecian persecutors Dan. 7. 7 c. 4. With his tail he drew and cast down the third part of the Stars As the Tyrant Antiochus had done Dan. 8. 10. So that by these allusive descriptions phrases of old stories fetched to express new is shewed the acting of the Devil now by his mischievous and tyrannical instruments with as much bitterness and bloody-mindedness as he had done in those The womans fleeing into the Wilderness alludes to Israels getting away into the Wilderness from the Dragon Pharaoh Exod. 14. c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty days speaks Christs preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and days like the days of Antiochus This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it to the ruine of Jerusalem and their preservation in all that extremity The battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon is of the same aim and time with the former but it speaks thus much further that the Church is not only preserved but the Dragon conquered and cast to the Earth Heaven all along in this Book is the Church the Earth therefore may be properly understood of the World and here more especially of that part of worldly ones the unbelieving Jews and that the rather because the Gentiles here are called the Wilderness as they be also in several other places in Scripture The Devil therefore is cast out of the Church by the power of Michael the Lord Christ that he cannot nestle there and he goes into the rest of the Nation that did not believe much like the tenor of that parable Matth. 12. 43 44 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings alluding to Exod. 19. 4. and gets into the Wilderness the persecuted Church and Gospel gets among the Gentiles The Devil casts venom as a flood after the Woman-Church and the Earth swallows it up the unbelieving Jews do as it were drink up all the poyson of the Devil and together with raging against the Church they grow inraged one against another and against the Romans till they become their own destroyers And indeed though it were a most bitter time with the Church while she was among the combustions that that Nation had within it self yet their raging one against another the more it increased in their particular quarrels the more it avenged her quarrel and turned their edge from off her upon themselves The Devil seeing this betakes himself to fight against the Womans seed the Church of the Gentiles and the Treatise of that begins in the next Chapter REVEL CHAP. XIII WHEN Rome hath slain Christ and destroyed Jerusalem Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it and that deservedly as to one most like to be his chief and most able agent to act his fury She is described here a Beast bearing the shape of all the four bloody Monarchies Dan. 7. in power and cruelty matching nay incomparably exceeding them all There is but little reason to take Rome for the fourth Monarchy in Daniel and the so taking it bringeth much disjointing and confusion into the interpreting of that Book and this and into the stating of affairs and times spoken of in them The Jews like such a gloss well as whereby they do conclude that the Messias is not yet come because the fourth Monarchy the Romane say they is not yet utterly destroyed And truly I see not how they can conclude less upon such a concession For it is plain in Daniel that the four Kingdoms there spoken of must come to nothing before the first appearing of Messias and that the Romane is not is most plain since this Book makes Rome Heathen and Papal but as one The Holy Ghost by Daniel shews the four Monarchies the afflicters of the Church of the Jews till Messias his first coming The Babylonian The Mede-Persian The Grecian and The Syrogrecian and John now takes at him and shews a fifth Monarchy the afflicter of the Church of Jews and Gentiles till his second coming Daniel indeed gives a hint of the Romane but he clearly distinguisheth him from the other four when he calls him the Prince that was to come Dan. 9. 26. beyond and after those four that he had spoken of before Him John describes here as carrying the character of all those four A Beast with ten horns such a one had been the Syrogrecian Dan. 7. 7 like a Leopard as the Grecian was vers 6. his feet as a Bears such the Persian vers 5. his mouth like a Lion such the Babylonian vers 4. This therefore could not be any of those when it was all and by this description of it by characters of them all it shews the vast power and incomparable cruelty and oppression of it equalling them all nay it infinitely went beyond them put all together in extent of Dominions Power Continuance and Cruelty both to the Church and to the World Balaam long before Rome was in being doth set it out for the great afflicter Numb 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim and shall afflict Assur and shall afflict Eber That Chittim means Italy or Rome is granted even by some Romanists themselves it is asserted by the Jews and confirmed by other places of Scripture and even proved by the very sense and truth of that place It afflicts both the afflicted and the afflicter Eber and Assur and that hath been the garb of it since its first being How may this be read in her own stories In her bloody Conquests over all the world in the titles of honour but which speak oppression Britannicus Germanicus Africanus and the like And to take up all in Epitome and that you may conjecture ex ungue Leonem what whole Rome hath done in all her time for slaughter oppression and destroying take but the brief of one of her Commanders Pompey the Great of whom Pliny speaks to this purpose Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26. He recovered Sicily subdued Africk subjected eight hundred and seventy six Towns about the Alpes and coasts of Spain routed and slew 2183000 men Sunk and took eight hundred and forty six Ships took in one thousand five hundred and thirty eight fortified places and triumphed from his Conquest of Asia Pontus Armenia Paphlagonia Cappadocia Cilicia Syria Judea Albania Iberia Creet and Basterna What hath Rome done by all her agents in all her time And she is this year 1654 two thousand four hundred and eight years old She is described here with seven heads and ten
down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the Earth till the World was become Christian and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again The destruction of which is set down vers 9. by fire from Heaven in allusion to Sodom or 2 King 1. 10 12. and it is set close to the end of the World the Devil and the Beast Rome imperial and the false Prophet Rome Papal are cast into fire and brimstone vers 10. where John speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet the Devils agents and what became of them Chap. 19. vers 20. And now the story of the Devil himself for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart and now he brings the confusion of all the three together and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark and whose names were not written in the Book of life REVEL CHAP. XXI THE Jerusalem from above described The phrase is used by Paul Gal. 4. 26. and it is used often by the Jews Zohar fol. 120. col 478. Rabbi Aba saith Luz is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jerusalem which is above which the holy blessed God gives for a possession where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all Compare Revel 21. 27 22. 15. Midras Till in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Jochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Jerusalem that is above until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Jerusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that John taketh at here and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65. 17 18. joyneth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth and so stateth the time of building this new Jerusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new People new Ordinances new Oeconomy and the old World of Israel dissolved Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst theââ as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 26. 11 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow death nor pain vers 4. which if taken litterally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed be a figure but here as the other things are it is to be taken mystically or spiritually to mean the taking away the curse of the Law and the sting of death and sin c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife vers 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54. 1 5. Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain Compare Ezek. 40. 2. That great City holy Jerusalem c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiels Jerusalem as also to the squareness the three gates of a side c. The glory of it described from thence and from Isa. 58. 8. 60. 2 3. 54. 11 12 c. The wall of it twelve thousand furlongs square or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter East West North and South three thousand miles about and fifteen hundred miles high Wall of salvation Isa 26. 1. 60. 14. The foundations of the walls garnished with twelve precious stones see Isa. 54. 11. as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate three upon every side as these were three and three in a row The first foundation stone here is the Jaspar the stone of Benjamin for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles The Jerus Talmud in Peah fol. 15. col 3. saith expresly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone for it saith Benjamins Jaspar was once lost out of the Ephod and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it Some said Damah the son of Nethina hath one c. And I saw no Temple therein c. vers 22. here this Jerusalem differs from Ezekiels that had a Temple this none and it is observable there that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of but the City of a compass larger then all the Land which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things they promised them an earthly Temple which was built by Zerobabel but foretold a heavenly Jerusalem which is described here REVEL CHAP. XXII FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides John doth still magnifie the glory happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually Ezek. 7. 1 9. Cant. 4. 15. The Tree of Life lost to Adam and Paradise shut up against him to keep him from it here restored Then a curse here There shall be curse no more vers 3. See Zech. 14. 11. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Anathema non erit amplius c. He concludeth These sayings are faithful and true so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19. 9. and again at his beginning of the story of the new Jerusalem Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Prophesies that had been of these things and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness He is commanded not to seal his Book as Daniel was Dan. 12. 4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door within three and an half or thereabout to come if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year There are two years more of Nero and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho Vitellius and Vespasian and the next year after Jerusalem falls And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament as by the consent of all it was then may we say Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing and from
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Greek in Dan. 6. 8 12. a decree from b b b b b b Câsar 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã See the Gr. in Job 38. 6. and Ezek. 16. 4. some deriving the word from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã To reâd 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
Text of Daniel from whence the phrase is taken and by divers places in the Gospel where it is used but the full clearing of this I have chosen to refer to that difficult place which will call for it to be cleared when the Lord shall bring us thither Matth. 16. 19. To thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where I conceive Christ to have foretold to Peter that he should be the first that should Preach the Gospel and open the door of Faith unto the Gentiles as Acts 15. 7. and 10. Now The Kingdom of Heaven signifying thus not barely and simply the Preaching of the Gospel but the Preaching of it to the Gentiles and their conversion it sheweth how proper and pregnant an argument this was to inforce the doctrine and practice of Repentance upon the Jews because the calling of the Gentiles was near at hand which would prove their rejection and casting off if they did not repent as Deut. 32. 21. Before the coming of Christ these four Earthly Kingdoms that are mentioned by Daniel in the Chapters cited bare all the sway and domineered over all the world with cruelty and tyranny but when they were destroyed at his coming he set up a Kingdom of his own and swayed the Scepter of Righteousness over all Nations and ruled them with his word and Spirit And whereas before his coming also the Church consisted but of one Nation and Kingdom and was couched upon a small parcel of Earth the Land of Canaan ând had earthly promises and earthly rites when he came and published the Gospel he gathered a Church of all Kingdoms and Nations and Languages under Heaven and built it up with Heavenly and Spiritual promises and instructions and thus The Kingdom of Heaven may fitly be understood in opposition to these two earthly ones Luke 3. ver 5. Every valley shall be filled c. These borowed phrases intend the removing of obstacles and stumbling blocks out of the way and plaining and clearing the way for men to come to Christ and to the obedience of the Gospel The Jews conceive that the cloud of glory that led the people of Israel in the wilderness did really and according to the letter do what is here spoken of for facilitating of their march and journey as that it levelled Mountains raised vallies and laid all of a flat that it burnt up bushes and smoothed rocks and made all plain that they might travail without trouble or offence And some of them also say that when Jeroboam set up his goden calves and Idolatry in Bethel and Dan that he and his wicked agents laid ambushments and scouts in the ways to Jerusalem to catch up every one that should go thither to worship and to this purpose they apply that saying of the Prophet Hos. 5. 1. O ye Priests and O ye house of the King ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net upon Tabor And the revolters are profound to make slaughter c. If either of these things were undoubtedly so as they suppose how properly might this passage of the Prophet Esay and of the Evangelist from him be thought to refer thereunto but since they be but surmisals it is safest to take the words for a borrowed speech to express what was said before the removing of obstacles in the way to Christ. Mat. 3. ver 6. Confessing their sins Not to John but to God For neither was it possible for John to hear their confessions nor was it necessary Not possible because of the vast multitudes that came to be baptized nor necessary for to tell him they had comitted such and such sins what conduced it either to their baptism or forgiveness Nor was this their confession of their sins before there being baptized but after For first if we should strictly take the Grammatical construction of the word that importeth their confessing it is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which would have denoted that they had confessed before they were baptized but it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in both the Evangelists that speak of that matter Secondly It was far more agreeable to the end and doctrine of Baptism that their confession of sin should be after their baptizing then before in that they were baptized to repentance ver 11. and not e contra the Sacrament was more intentionally to enter them into repentance then repentance to enter them into the Sacrament For as was said before it obliged them more properly to repentance after the receiving of it then before Thirdly the gesture of our Saviour after his Baptism seemeth to have been according to the common custom and gesture of the people and as he coming out of the water fell to prayer so they when they came out used to do to make their penitent confession to the Lord. Mat. 3. ver 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Saduces coming to his baptism The Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans the three Sects of the Jews Josephus Antiq. lib. 13. c. 9. are those three Sheepherds spoken of Zech. 11. 8. whom our Saviour at his coming was to cut off The two former whom we have now in hand are very frequent in mention in the Gospel men of enmity one against another yet both joynt enemies to Christ and to his Apostles The original of the Pharisees is not so easie to go back unto as that of the Sadduces nor is the significancy of their name so readily determined and fixed upon as the other The Sadduces it is well known were so called from Sadoc the first Author of their Sect and he the Scholar of Antigonus Rabbi Nathan in his Aboth Perek 5. hath thus clearly given us their original Antigonus of Socoh saith he received his learning from Simeon the just This was his saying Be not as servants that serve their Master because of receiving Vid. Talm. Bab. Basileae tom 6. in fine * * * * * * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a portion a reward but be as servants that serve their Master not for the receiving of a reward but let the fear of God be upon you This Antigonus had two Scholars which changed his words they changed them to their Scholars and their Scholars to theirs They stood up and taught after them and said what saw our Fathers to say thus is it possible that a work-man may do his work all the day and not receive his wages at even But if our Fathers had known that there is a world to come and that there shall be a resurrection of the dead they would never have said thus They stood up and separated from the Law and from them broke out the two Sects the Sadduces and Baithusaeans the Sadduces after the name of Sadoc and the Baithusaeans after the name of Baithus So he Now this Antigonus whose good doctrine had this bad construction was Scholar to Simeon the just whom we shall have occasion to look after by and by But the time and
that it is not much material which way your allowance doth turn them for the Quaere it self is of far more curiosity then necessity For why might not John baptize him in varyed words As I baptize thee with water to the Preaching of the Gospel or why might he not baptize him without any words at all since he received baptism not so much for a Sacrament as for satisfaction of the typical Law Let the Readers judgment weigh down the scale Mat. 3. Ver. 16. He went up streight out of the water The invention of Auricular confession hath invented a strange Exposition of this clause For the rest of the people say some standing in the waters I know not how deep after they were baptized confessed their sins unto John before they came out being detainded there by him until they had so done but Christ because he had no sin needed no such confession and therefore he came suddenly out of the water after he was baptized A gloss that includeth impossibilities For neither was it possible that so great multitudes should be baptized in so short a time if every one made a singular confession of their sins to John nor was it possible that John should indure so long in the water as this work would require and never come out for if they stood up to the neck in the river I cannot think but that he also stood some deepness in the water But this speedy coming of our Saviour out of the water after he was baptized is expressed by the Evangelist only to shew how near and close the opening of the heavens was to his baptizing namely that it was almost in the very same instant as Mark explaineth it And straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened c. Luke 3. vers 21. And praying This it seemeth was the manner of those that were baptized as soon as they were baptized to come up out of the water and pray and this explaineth that before about confessing their sins that it was not to John but to God as soon as they came out of the water Now since Christ had no sins to confess of his own the tenour of his prayer tended to another purpose If we think it was for the glory of God for the conversion of many by his Ministry which he was now beginning for the preservation of the Elect and the sanctifying of the Church and the like we think not much amiss since we find his prayers in other places to be made and tendered to the same effect But it seemeth rather that his prayer at this time was for what followed upon his prayer the sending down of the Holy Ghost and the glorifying of him by a testimony from Heaven For first the Text hath laid his prayer and the opening of the Heavens so closely and so consonantly withal together Jesus praying the Heavens were opened as that it seemeth to point out what was the tenour of his prayer by the consequent upon it Secondly In another place there is the like return upon the like prayer Joh. 12. 28. Father glorifie thy name there came therefore a voice from Heaven c. Thirdly It being considered that our Saviour was to enter now upon the great work of Redemption and the preaching of the Gospel it will be the less strange to conceive that he prayed for the visible sealing of him to that work and office by the Holy Ghost and for a testimony of him that he was the Messias Matth. 3. ver 16. Lo the Heavens were opened There is no material difference in the thing though Luke hath put the Heaven in the singular number and Matthew the Heavens in the plural for one followeth the Idiome of the Hebrews and the other of the Greeks For the Hebrews cannot call the Heaven by its proper name but in the plural or dual number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Heavens but the Greeks can in the singular And so little doth the Syriack make of this difference of number in the two Evangelists that he translateth it just cross Matthews plural in the singular and Lukes singular in the plural About the opening of the Heavens or the manner of the same as it is of far more consequence to inquire so it is of difficulty to resolve because of diversity of opinions and probabilities several ways First Some deny the opening of the Heavens at all but understand that Christ saw them opened and the Holy Ghost descending intellectually only or by spiritual vision as Ezekiel saw the Heavens opened Ezek. 1. 2. But this exposition is very improper for John saw the same also and the descending of the Holy Ghost was in a bodily shape and not imaginary and the voice was Articulate and Audible and not visionary Secondly Others deny also the opening of the Heavens but with another manner of evasion and exposition For there was say they no seisure or parting of the Heavens asunder because they are incorruptible but a great glorious and miraculous light shone round about Christ as if the very highest Heaven had been open and the light thereof imparted clearly to the Earth But this opinion also is confuted by the word that Mark useth differing from the other two For though the phrase The Heavens were opened would admit of such a Metaphorical or comparative exposition yet when Mark saith expresly that the Heavens were cloven or parted asunder for so is his word in the Original the Syriack expresseth it by the very same word that the Chaldee Paraphrast useth in Lev. 11. for parting of the hoof it inforceth us to look for a literal interpretation in it and not a tropical Thirdly Aquinas evadeth the real opening of them with this gloss stranger than both the other and by another intellectual vision than that that was spoken of before For it may also be understood saith he of an intellectual vision namely that Christ baptism being now sanctified saw Heaven open unto men But this exposition the word of Saint Mark newly mentioned confuteth much more than it did the other Fourthly Mark therefore tying us to a litteral sense and to understand a real and proper cleaving of the Heavens indeed the doubt now only resteth what Heaven it was whether the Aereal or Aethereal for so are the heavens properly distinguished according to the significancy of the Hebrew word Shamaiim which importeth a duality or a thing doubled Answer It was only the Aereal for that is called Heaven and the Firmament Gen. 1. 8 20. as may be confirmed by these reasons First Because there needed no further seisure in the Heavens than the renting of the clouds in the middle Region either for the descending of the Holy Ghost or of the voyce or for the satisfying of the eyes and ears of the spectators and hearers that they came from Heaven Secondly Because the Scripture in other places speaking of things which came but out of the clouds yet useth the very same term to express
to be the proper reason why the Evangelist useth the preterimperfect tense which Beza could see no reason why he should because he speaketh of Christ which had been with John at Jordan and was but newly gone out of his sight So that the first verse of this Section according to this construction doth properly come in its order in the time between Christs baptizing and his getting into the wilderness and accordingly it might have been laid after the very first verse of the last Section and there have made this series of the Story And immediately after the baptism of Jesus the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness and when he was rapt away and but newly out of sight John bare witness and cried saying This was he of whom I spake but I was unwilling to part that story which lieth so joined and it is timely enough to give notice of the order in this place Now the next story in this Section of the discourse betwixt the messengers of the Jews and John they questioning who he was and what he meant to baptize it was just in the time while Christ was under the last temptation or as he was returning from the high mountain wheresoever it was to Jordan again for the Text telleth expresly that on the next day after this dispute Jesus appeareth at Jordan in the sight of John ver 29. and from thence forward the connexion of the stories following is so clear ver 35. 43. that it needeth no further demonstration Harmony and Explanation Ver. 15. Iohn bare witness of him and cried c. THE Evangelist from the beginning of the Chapter to this place and in it doth purposely go about to shew what declarations and demonstrations were given of Christ both before his coming in the flesh and after what before we shewed in their proper place upon the Chapter to the fourteenth vers what after is shewed in this verse and the next that follows In the fourteenth verse he tells that Christ declared himself to be the only begotten of the Father by conversing among his Disciples full of grace and truth And in this verse he sheweth how John declared and published him to all that came to be baptized and in the next verse how his Disciples received of his fulness c. Now Johns manner of testimony of him he expresseth by these two words He beareth witness and cried words of different tenses as was observed before and of some difference of sense in that diversity The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the present tense is properly to be understood 1. Of Johns whole Ministery Function and Office as vers 7. explaineth it He came for a witness not to be restrained to this or that particular vocal and verbal testimony that John gave of Christ no nor to all the vocal testimonies that he gave of Christ but to be dilated to Johns whole course and ministry that he beareth witness to Christ in that God raised up such a one to be his fore-runner And the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the praeter tense is to be applied to the particular testimony that John gave of Christ in that his ministery so that the former word referreth to Johns person and his whole function and the latter only to the manner of his executing of one particular of that function 2. The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã may also include Johns martyrdom for the truth by which he beareth witness unto Christ even unto this time as Abel being dead yet speaketh as Heb. 11. 4. And in this sense should I understand those words of this same Evangelist in his first Epistle Chap. 5. vers 6 8. Jesus Christ came by water and blood and the Spirit beareth witness And there are three that bear witness in earth the Spirit and the Water and Blood that is the Spirit of Prophesie Baptism and Martyrdom all three agreeing in one testimony of Christ that he is he The Prophets speaking so jointly of him Baptism bringing in so many unto him and Martyrs sealing unto him with their dearest blood The scores that have prophesied of him the thousands that have suffered death for him and the many thousands that have been baptized into him bearing witness of him on earth as the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost do in heaven §. He that cometh after me is preferred before me We do not find that John had at any time before Christs baptism given any such testimony as these words He had said indeed A mightier than I cometh after me whose shoos I am not worthy to bear and whose shoo latchet I am not worthy to unloose as the other three Evangelists agree in the relating of it but these words He is preferr'd before me for he was before me we heard not of till now Yet is it to be conceived that the Baptist speaketh to the same sense now that he did before as vers 27. sheweth his intention though he have altered his expressions For it is a very common custom of Scripture in alledging of former speeches to give the sense but not to keep exactly to the words And yet it is not without its weight that whereas Johns constant testimony of Christ before his baptism was A mightier than I cometh he should as constantly after his baptism use this He coming after me is preferr'd before me as here and vers 27. 30. Now the reason of this seemeth to be because Christ had now appeared and no mighty work had been yet shewed among the people by him no nor any thing done in their eyes or hearing which might give them occasion to conceive that he was mightier or stronger than John The appearance of the Holy Ghost and the voice from heaven they had neither seen nor heard only his catching away from Jordan at this time it is probable they saw therefore John to clear their apprehensions from any carnal misconstruction of his words explains himself that by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A mightier than I they were not so to understand as to look for any present visible demonstration of power or miraculousness from him but that they should take notice that he of whom he spake those words was before him in rank and dignity for he was before him in time and office nature and qualifications though he came after him §. Is preferr'd before me ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which the Vulgar Latine hath dangerously translated Ante me factus est he was made before me and accordingly the Arians in ancient time made use of this place in this sense against the eternity of the Son Whereas the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Beza well observeth it in the New Testament doth constantly refer to place and not to time as Mar. 1. 2. Matth. 17. 2. Luke 12. 8. 19. 27 28. and divers other places and therefore our English hath well expressed it with an intimation of such a thing is preferr'd before me For ãâã ãâã ãâã
with Christ near upon half a year seen his miracles heard his Doctrine and never been from him and therefore it is not imaginable but that they had learned exceeding much concerning Christ and the Gospel and it cannot be conceived but they would be uttering and publishing those things And so the whole verse may be understood in much facility to this sense I and these my Disciples that do and whosoever shall preach these things of the Kingdom of God speak things known and tried not as your Doctors do that teach you know not what and yet thou and the rest of thy judgment and opinion will not intertain and believe our Doctrine Christ and his Disciples had known and seen he al-knowing and they in experience the reality and truth of the New birth and divers other mysteries of the Kingdom of God but how is his taxation of the others unbelief proper upon this ground when they were as ignorant or knew as little that he and they had known and seen these things as they were ignorant of the things themselves Answ. 1. He speaks this in that style of opposition that was mentioned before Ye are believed though ye teach ye know not what and yet will not ye believe us that know and have seen what we teach 2. He seemeth to allude to that that was taken for a competent witness before any of the Judicatories for he is speaking to one that was a Judge in the highest Court and that was this that the witness saw and knew the fact Lev. 5. 1. And is a witness whether he hath seen or known of it if he spake upon certain knowledge or sight his witness was intertained but we speak what we know and testifie what we have seen but ye receive not our witness 3. Nicodemus had confessed Christs miracles to be most admirable and divine and therefore Christ might very well conclude that he would also give weight unto his words and acknowledge the truth of this that he spake though he knew not the certainty of it upon his own knowledge and experience Vers. 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not c. By earthly things divers understand diversly Some conceive Christs speech to look so far back as to his discourse with the people at Jerusalem at the Passover about building up of the Temple in three days and that his words do result to this sense It is no wonder that thou dost not believe this high mysterious doctrine of Regeneration when the Jews could not entertain that more facil and plain Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Messias on the third day Others retaining the same opinion that heavenly and earthly things do signifie the difference of more sublime and more facil doctrines do expound it thus If ye believe not these plain and first rudiments of the Doctrine of the Gospel namely about Regeneration how will you believe those high and sublime mysteries about the eternal generation of the Son the procession of the Holy Ghost c But the most received construction of these words is this If ye believe not when I speak to you in a plain and low style and explain things by earthly comparisons as Gal. 3. 15. How will you believe if I should teach the great things of salvation in their own abstract and simple notions lingua Angelorum as Grotius expresseth it for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as is the common Rabbinick Maxime The Lord speaketh in the Scripture in such expressions as best suit with the capacity of the hearers that they may understand for the simple abstract Doctrines of Divinity are too hard for dull apprehensions Christ is discoursing with Nicodemus about the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Gospel state He first teacheth him about denying of his birth priviledge from Abraham and about the Doctrine of Baptism by which a man is brought into that visible Gospel-state And now saith Christ If you believe not when I tell you of the earthly things of the Kingdom of Heaven that is those things that are most visible and apparent to be understood how will you believe if I should speak of the high things of the Kingdom the incarnation righteousness by Faith peace and joy in the Holy Ghost c Vers. 13. And no man hath ascended up into Heaven c. To clear the conjuncture of these words with the preceding is of some difficulty and that hath caused variety of guesses upon it Some tie them not to the last words of all but to some that lie a great way off namely to Nicodemus first words to our Saviour in verse 2. Whereby he sheweth that he took Christ only for a Prophet Now these words of this verse satisfie him say they against that bare opinion when Christ telleth him that he is not as the Prophets were who indeed were sent of God but never were off the earth but lived continually upon it but he himself came down from Heaven c. Others that do tie them to the very last words preceding do give them in this sense and juncture How will you believe if I speak unto you heavenly things And yet if I should speak such things I deserve to be believed because I came down from Heaven and though none ever preached such things before me nor though I can produce no witnesses with me of what I speak yet am I to be believed because though no man had been in Heaven yet I have been there for I came thence c. Others conceive that they fall in with the last words thus that whereas in the former verse he had spoken of uttering heavenly things he comes on now and doth speak of some such things as namely of his two natures in this verse and of Salvation by his passion and Faith in him in the next Other conjectures at this matter might be alleadged which are severally made but they shall be spared and we will fall upon the words themselves and hearken after their meaning and connexion with the former by the observation of these three things 1. That in all the words of Christ following to the end of his speech viz. to vers 22. his main aim is apparently this namely to shew that he is set up as the object of Faith or he who is to be believed and to be believed in and by believing in whom everlasting life is to be obtained as this scope is most plain in verse 14 15 16. 18. 2. That by the phrase No man hath ascended his meaning is No man can ascend into Heaven as No man hath seen God at any time Joh. 1. 18. meaneth No man hath seen him or can see him 1 Tim. 6. 16. Who hath known the mind of the Lord Rom. 11. 34. meaneth his ways are unsearchable and his Judgments past finding out ver 33. and who can know them c. 3. That Ascending into Heaven is intended to the same purpose and sense with that in Deut. 30.
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
speak of these properties indifferently without restriction of them to the one nature or the other 4. That when it doth so speak of them it doth it not in abstracto as ascribing the properties of the Godhead to the manhood or of the manhood to the Godhead but in concreto and in reference to the whole person as ascribing the properties of the one nature not to the other but to him that carried the other nature and under the title that related to that nature As it is never said that the glorious Godhead was crucified for that is nothing short of blasphemy and that were to ascribe to the Divine Nature a property or infirmity of the Humane which it is utterly uncapable of but it is said that the Lord of Glory was crucified applying the property of the manhood not to the Godhead but to the person that was God and under that title that refers to the Godhead as meaning that he that was the Lord of Glory was crucified So it were meer blasphemous to say that the Godhead with its own blood did purchase the Church but it is divinely said that God with his own blood did purchase it Act. 20. 28. To have and to shed it blood was proper only to the manhood and not to the Godhead and yet it is ascribed not to the Godhead in the abstract but personally and in concreto to him that was God And according to this sense is this place in hand to be understood The Son of man which is in Heaven He saith not the manhood which is in Heaven for that was not there till Christ ascended bodily but he meaneth that he that was man or the Son of man was also in Heaven whilest he was talking with Nicodemus upon earth Vers. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. In the former verse Christ sheweth that he is to be believed because none could fetch the heavenly Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven from Heaven but himself In this verse and forward he sheweth that he is to be believed in and that not only the believing him was to be the ground of knowledge but that believing in him is the only way of Salvation And this Doctrine he illustrates by that type of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness where the very looking upon the Serpent lifted up was healing to any that were stung nay as the Rabbins upon that story will have it to any that was wounded or hurt by any beast whatsoever The story is in Numb 21. and the occurrence was in the last year of their travail in the wilderness and the biting of the fiery Serpents was the last visible means that God used for the cutting off of the remnant of that Generation upon which he had passed a decree and sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest For we have no more related of them till they be passed over the river Zared but only that they removed to Oboth to lie Abarim and so over that River Numb 21. 10 11 12. And by that time all the Generation of the men of War were consumed as the Lord had sworn Deut. 2. 14. And this miracle wrought in the matter of the Brazen Serpent was the last miracle that was done in the hand of Moses whilest he lived And so his first and last miracle was about serpents compare Exod. 4. 3. That Christ when he speaketh here of his lifting up intendeth his being lift up upon his cross is apparent not only out of Joh. 8. 28. and Joh. 12. 32 33. where the same expression is used clearly to that sense but also out of this very comparison that he doth propose from the Brazen Serpent for he saith as that was lift up so must he be lift up now that was lift up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which R. Sol. interprets ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon a pole or upon a post and so is Christs lifting up here to be understood upon his Cross. It is the general observation of the Jews upon that story ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that they were plagued by Serpents because they had done the actions of the old Serpent in using an evil tongue against God and Moses and Manna R. Tanch and Baal Turim c. Let the Serpent come saith God who was cursed for an evil tongue and be avenged on them for their evil Tongue R. Solomon How ever there was such a parallel betwixt their present sin and the old sin of the Serpent certainly there is a most sweet Harmony and parallel between the manner of their cure and the fruit of Christ crucified The Brazen Serpent was lifted up so was Christ that was the likeness of a cursed creature so Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh was made a curse for us that by Faith in him we might be cured of the wounds given us of the spiritual Serpent as these by looking upon that were healed of the venemous bitings of those corporal ones what a Doctrine of Faith was in that story and occurrence The Talmud in Rosh hashanah applies it thus What Could that Serpent kill or recover But at what time Israel looked upward and humbled their hearts before their Father which is in Heaven they were healed but if not they were brought low Per. 3. Vers. 15. That whosoever believeth in him c. This is a new and strange doctrine to Nicodemus to hear of obtaining everlasting life by believing in another whereas he had been taught all his life to expect it by the works of the Law and by performances of his own But for this Christ giveth him so plain a demonstration and argument from that story and effect of looking upon the Brazen Serpent that he cannot find wherewithal to gainsay it And so is the other part of Christs Doctrine somewhat new to Nicodemus also to hear tell of whosoever believing should obtain Salvation and that God did so love the world that he gives his only Son c. For he had dreamed with the rest of the Nation of Salvation only belonging to the Jews and of the Messias only coming to the Jews and as for the rest of the world that it was utterly unregarded and neglected of God and the people of the Nations but dogs and swine Vers. 16. For God so loved the World Some Expositors are of a mind that these are the words of the Evangelist and not a continuation of the Speech of our Saviour which is not much material whether they be apprehended for the words of the one or of the other but they appear rather to be a continuation of our Saviours speech their connexion with the words before it so close and their sense so near and making up the sense of the former The verse calls for a hearty meditation upon it rather than for a verbal explication of it for as there is no difficulty in the words but their sense is easily understood so is there abundance of
metropolitan See submit to her letters and are too ready to perform her will Among the rest he obtaineth commission for Damascus whither a poor Church having but lately overrun persecution is ready now to be overrun by it again But by the way he is met with by Christ and from a Lion made a Lamb and he that went to lead captivity is himself captived In the story of this great wonder the Text and the matter it self calleth upon us to consider these things 1. That the most notorious persecutor that the Gospel had yet found is chosen of all others to be the Doctor of the Gentiles that even his own example or rather the glorious example of Gods mercy in his conversion might be a comfortable Doctrine to those notorious sinners of the Gentiles as well as his preaching 2. That the like divine violence was never used for the converting of a sinner either before or since but 1. it was necessary that he should see Christ as Vers. 17. because it was a necessary ingredient toward the making of an Apostle to have seen the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 1. And 2. it was needful that the Lord should appear to him in such daunting power not only for his own quelling but also for the terrour of all persecutors for the time to come 3. This appearance of the Lord unto him was not so much in his person as in his glory nor what he saw of him besides the light that stroke him blind was with the eyes of his body but of his spirit 4. The place was near Damascus from whence had sprung one of the sharpest persecutors that Israel had groaned under 2 Kings 11. 32. Amos 13. compare Gen. 14. 15. 5. The manner is so plainly set down in the Text that it is needless to insist upon it only these two or three things may not unfitly be touched upon and taken to thought 1. That more was spoken from heaven than Luke hath here related as appears by Pauls own relation of it Acts 26. 16 17 18. but the Holy Ghost frequently useth to speak out stories to the full some parts in one place some in another challenging the readers pains and study to pick them up 2. That whereas in Chap. 6. 7. it is said that those that travailed with Paul heard the voice but in Chap. 22. 9. that they heard not the voice it is to be understood that they heard the voyce of Paul speaking to Christ but not Christs voice to him or if they heard the voice from heaven yet they understood not what it said 3. Whereas in Chap. 9. 7. it is said these men stood speechless but in Chap. 26. 14. that they fell all to the ground the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Chap. 9. 7. standeth in opposition to their going forward and not to their falling to the earth and meaneth that their amazedness fixed them that they could not flee nor stir § 2. The year of his conversion Some have conceived that he was rapt into the third heaven and learned the Gospel by revelation as 2 Cor. 12. in those three days that he was blind after the sight of this glorious light and whilst he fasted and prayed Act. 9. 9. And from this conceit hath another grown as a supporter of that that bred it namely that he was not converted till seven years after our Saviours Ascension This latter opinion was first invented that his writing of the second Epistle to the Corinthians might be brought within the compass of about fourteen years after his conversion for so long a time and no more he setteth betwixt his rapture and that Epistle 2 Cor. 12. 2. and it was also originially grounded upon this supposition that his rapture was in the time of that his blindness Two surmises probable and plausible enough to behold at distance but approaching nearer to them they will lose of their beauty and upon serious weighing they will prove but a shadow The question how he came to the knowledge of the Gospel so soon in so much that he so soon preached it very likely gave the first occasion of the first opinion namely of his rapture in his three days blindness A question to which an answer may be easily given and yet no such consequence concluded upon it 1. It is true indeed that he received not the knowledge of the Gospel of man nor was he taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ as himself saith Gal. 1. 12. yet might he have such a revelation without any such rapture For there were three other special ways whereby God used to reveal himself and his will to his Prophets and Servants and those were by dreams by visions and by a suddain and immediate suggestion or revelation which is called telling in the ear as 1 Sam. 9. 15 17. 2 King 20. 4. And as for raptures they were the most extraordinary and the least familiar of all other And how easily might Paul be taught the mistery of the Gospel by some of the other means especially since the Text hath expresly told that he had his visions Acts 9. 12. 2. Paul himself telleth of an extasie or rapture that he was in as he was praying in the Temple at Jerusalem Acts 22. 17. Now that that was in the second year of Claudius as shall be shewed by and by when he went to carry the almes of the Disciples to Jerusalem Acts 11. 30. it may be confidently concluded upon because that God in that his rapture telleth him that he must thence forward go far away to preach unto the Gentiles Acts 22. 21. and when he returneth from Jerusalem to Antioch he is sent by the Church upon that imployment by a special charge of the Holy Ghost Acts 13. 2. And that from that time to the time of his writing the second Epistle to the Corinthians were about fourteen years as himself summeth it we shall evidence by some particulars before we part from this Subject Thus then in the first place we see that neither his rapture was at the time of his conversion nor that his conversion is to be cast six or seven years forward that it may be within fourteen of that Epistle in regard of his rapture But not to intricate our selves any more in the variety of opinions that have fixed some one time some another to the conversion of this Apostle the next readiest and surest way that I have found to resolve upon this doubtful question and to determine this scruple is to go by these collections and degrees I. That the famine prophecied of by Agabus and which is said to have fallen out in the time of Claudius the Emperour Acts 11. 28. fell out and came to pass in his second year And for this we have the testimony of a Roman Historian even Dion Cassius who under the Consulship of Claudius II. and Caius Largus which was in the second year of Claudius his reign speaketh of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which
Kingdom of Heaven and so it grew on more and more till Jerusalem was destroyed and then was the perfect day when the Gentiles only were become the Church of Christ and no Church or Commonwealth of Israel to be had at all but they destroyed and ruined Secondly here Peter hath the keys of the Kingdom and unlocked the door for the Gentiles to come in to the Faith and Gospel which till now had been shut and they kept out And Peter only had the keys and none of the Apostles or Disciples but he for though they from hence forward brought in Gentiles dayly into the Kingdom of Heaven by converting them to the Gospel yet it was he that first and only opened the door and the door being once opened was never shut nor never shall be to the end of the world And this was all the priority that Peter had before the other Apostles if it were any priority and how little this concerneth Rome or the Papacy as to be any foundation of it a child may observe 3. Peter here looseth the greatest strictness and what was the straitest bound up of any thing that was in all the policy of Moses and customs of the Jews and that was the difference of clean and unclean in the legal sense And this he looseth on earth and it is loosed in heaven for from heaven had he an immediate warrant to dissolve it And this he doth first declaratively shewing that nothing henceforward is to be called common or unclean and shewing his authority for this doctrine and then practically conforming himself to this doctrine that he taught by going in unto the uncircumcised and eating with them Binding and loosing in our Saviours sense and in the Jews sense from whose use he taketh the phrase is of things and not of persons for Christ saith to Peter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whatsoever thou bindest and not whomsoever and to the other Apostles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Matth. 18. 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whatsoever things and not whatsoever persons so that though it be true indeed that Jews and Gentiles are loosed henceforward one to the communion of another yet the proper object of this loosing that is loosed by Peter was that Law or doctrine that tied them up and so concerning the eating of those things that had been prohibited it is true indeed that the Jews were let loose henceforward to the use of them in diet and to eat what they thought good but this loosing was not so properly of the men as the loosing of that prohibition that had bound them before And this could be no way but doctrinally by teaching that Christian liberty that was given by the Gospel Now though Peter only and none but he had the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven yet had all the Apostles the power of binding and loosing as well as he and so have all the Ministers of the Gospel as well as they and all in the same sense namely doctrinally to teach what is bound and loose or lawful and unlawful but not in the same kind for the Apostles having the constant and unerring assistance of the Holy Ghost did nullifie by their doctrine some part of Moses Law as to the use of it as Circumcision Sacrifices Purifyings and other legal Rites which could not have been done by men that had not had such a spirit for there must be the same spirit of Prophecy to abrogate a Law which had set it in force This matter therefore of Cornelius his calling in as the first-fruits of the Gentiles is a thing that deserves very high regard and consideration as in which are includââ and involved so many things of note as have been mentioned and divers others that might be added thereunto and in the consideration of the matter the time of it is not to be neglected which to the serious and considerate Reader and weigher of things in the ballance of Judgment will appear to be in this year in which we have laid it especially that being concluded upon which before we proved undeniable that the Famine was in the second year of Claudius And this time is the rather to be looked upon because that some do foolishly misconstrue a clause in Daniel 9. 27. by missing of the right time of this occurence of Cornelius For looking no further into the text than in our English translation which there hath not spoken the mind of the Original they conceive that Christ dyed in the midst of the last seven years of the seventy sevens namely when three years and an half of the seven were gone and that at the end of the other three and an half Cornelius was converted and so they will make those seventies to end in that his conversion and not in Christs death which were scarcely worth answering though we had time and season to do it seeing it riseth from a mistake in the Text and sets in a mistake of the time Vers. 30. Four days ago I was fasting c. The Greek hath it From the fourth day until this hour I was or have been fasting by which it seemeth that Cornelius had now been fasting four days together as Paul was three days at his conversion Chap. 9. 9. But it is not much material whether we understand it so or as it is commonly understood of his fasting four days since till such an hour of that day as it was now of this day when he is speaking to Peter unless we will make any thing of it that the Jews espcially upon their solemn days used to taste nothing till noon and Cornelius herein follows there custome and that it was about noon when Peter comes to Cornelius as it was about noon when Cornelius messengers came to Peter And so the distance betwixt Caesarea Joppa to be a days journey and an half Vers. 36. The Word which God sent Beza supposeth that this verse ought to be referred and joyned to the verse that went before and they two together to be construed to this sense Now I know that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him which is the very doctrine which God sent among the children of Israel by Moses and the Prophets preaching peace by them by Jesus Christ. And one main induction that he hath to this construction is because otherwise it would be improper for Peter to say Cornelius and his friends knew this word when it was Peters very errand to instruct them in it and teach it to them But the words are to be read and taken in the sense that our English hath well made of them namely as following the word ye know For all the Country knew that Jesus preached and preached peace and the like and thousands though they knew that he preached and what he preached yet did they not
three reason First when they cannot carry their minds Aug. de Trin. lib. 1. cap. 1. further than their senses and so think God hath a Body as they have that is coloured c. Secondly when they measure God by themselves and so make him passionate like man For men not able to conceive what God is what his Nature what his Power c. fall into such opinions that they frame Gods of themselves and as is their own humane nature so they attribute to God the like for his will actions and intentions saith Arnobius Arnob. con lib. Thirdly when they mount above Nature and Sense and yet not right feigning that God begat himself c. Hence came the multitude and diversity of Deities among the Heathen minting thousands of Gods to find the right and yet they could not Hence their many names and many fames made by them that it seems thought it as lawful to make Gods as it was for God to make them At first they worshipped these their Deities without any representation only by their Names Caelites Inferi Heroes Sumani Sangui and thousands others the naming of which is more like conjuring than otherwise Nature it self taught men there was something they must acknowledge for supream superintendent of all things This light of Nature led them to worship something but it could not bring them to worship aright Hence some adored bruit Beasts some Trees some Stars some Men some Devils Some by Images some without some in Temples some without Thus was Gideons fleece the Heathen piece of the World all dry set in the darkness of the shadow of death But in Jury was God known and his Name great in Israel By his name Jehovah he exprest himself when he brought them from Egypt and his glory he pitched among them They knew him by his Names and Titles of Elohim Adonai El Shaddai Elion and his great Name Jehovah as the Jews do call it There the Scriptures of the Law and Prophets did teach them yet they thus nearly acquainted with the true God forsook him so that wrath came upon Israel The Rabbinical Jews beside Scripture words have divers Phrases to express God by in their Writings As frequently they call him Hakkadhosh baruch hu the holy blessed he in short with four letters ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sometime they use El jithbarech the Lord who is or be blessed Sometimes Shamaiim Heaven by a Metonymy because there he dwelleth The like Phrase is in the Gospel Father I have sinned against Heaven Luke 15. 18. The like Phrase is frequent in England The Heavens keep you Shekinah they use for a Title of God but more especially for the Holy Ghost So saith Elias levita in Tishbi Our Rabbins of happy memory call the Holy Ghost Shekinah gnal shem shehu shaken gnal hannebhiim because he dwells upon the Prophets Accordingly saith our Nicene Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets Shem a name or the name they use for a name of God and Makom a place they place for the same because he comprehendeth all things and nothing comprehendeth him Gebhurah Strength is in the same use They are nice in the utterance of the name Jehovah but use divers Periphrases for it Shem shel arbang the name of four letters Shem hammejuhhad the proper name and others One in Eusebius hath eloquently expressed it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Seven sounding Letters ring the praise of me Th' Immortal God th' Almighty Deity The Father of all that cannot weary be I am th' Eternal Viol of all things Whereby the melody so sweetly rings Of Heavens Musick which so sweetly sings What these seven Letters are that do thus express God is easie to guess that they be the Letters of the name Jehovah which indeed consisteth but of four Letters but the Vowels must make up the number Of the exposition of this name Jehovah thus saith Rabbi Salomon upon these words I appeared to them by the name of God Omnipotent but by my name Jehovah I am not known to them Exod. 6. 3. He saith unto him saith the Rabbin I am Jehovah faithful in rendring a good reward to those that walk before me and I have not sent thee for nothing but for the establishing of my words which I spake to their fathers And in this sense we find the word Jehovah expounded in sundry places I am Jehovah faithful in avenging when he speaks of punishing as and if thou profane the name of thy God I am Jehovah And so when he speaketh of the performing of the Commandments as And you shall keep my Commandments and do them I am Jehovah faithful to give to you a good reward thus far the Rabbin The Alchymistical Cabalists or Cabalistical Alchymists have extracted the name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or number whether you will out of the word Jehovah after a strange manner This is their way to do it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which great Mystery is in English thus Ten times ten is an hundred five times five is twenty five behold 125. Six times six is thirty six behold 161 and five times five is twenty five behold ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or 186. Thus runneth their senseless multiplication multiplying numberless follies in their foolish numbers making conjectures like Sybils leaves that when they come to blast of trial prove but wind Irenaeus hath such a mystical stir about the name Jesu which I must needs confess I can make nothing at all of yet will I set down his words that the Reader may skan what I cannot Nomen Jesu saith he secundum propriam Hebraeorum linguam c. The name Jesu according to the proper speech of the Hebrews consisteth of two letters and an half as the skilful amongst them say Signifying the Lord which containeth Heaven and Earth For Jesu according to the old Hebrew signifieth Heaven and the Earth is called Sura usser Thus that Father in his second Book against Hereticks Cap. 41. on which words I can critick only wit hdeep silence Only for his two letters and half I take his meaning to be according to the Jews writing of the name Jesu ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who deny him the last letter of his name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because they deny him for a Saviour So the Dutch Jew Elias Levita saith in express words The Christians say that their Messias was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the commandment of the Angel Gabriel because he should save all the world from Gehinnom but because the Jews do not confess that he is a Saviour therefore they will not call him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jeshuang but they leave ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the last letter out and call him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jesu After this kind of writing as Irenaeus saith the word consisteth of two letters ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and half a letter that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which may be so called because it
6. and then their Tongue shall revive again as they surmise But the divine Apocaliptick writing after Jerusalem was ruined might teach them what the second Jerusalem must be not on Earth but from Heaven Apoc. 21. 2. But to return to their Tongue The Characters we now have the Hebrew Tongue in Scaliger thinks are but of a latter hatch and not the same that the Jews used from Moses till the destruction of the Temple For that they used the Phaenician or Cananaean Character which now is called the Samaritan How truly I refer to the Readers judgment The Character we now have is either a set or a running letter the first the Bible is ordinarily Printed in in the latter the most of the Rabbins The whole Tongue is contained in the Bible and no one book else in the World contains in it a whole Language And this shews that the Scripture speaks to all sorts of people since it speaks of all sorts of things This Language is as God said the Jews should be if they would keep his Law A lender to all and a borrower of none All Tongues are in debt to this and this to none The Eastern most especially must acknowledge this Some men in the East saith Origen reserve their old speech meaning by likelihood the Hebrew and have not altered it but have continued in the Eastern Tongue because they have continued in the Eastern Countries No Eastern Tongue that I have heard of is Hebrew now so that what to say to Origen I cannot tell unless he mean that those that have continued in the East have kept nearest this holy Tongue because nearest the holy Land this to be true is known to the meanest Learned In their speech it is apparent and by their writing confirmed All of them have learned from the Hebrew to write from the right hand to the left or as we usually call it in England to write and read backward The China and Japan writing excepted which is indeed from the right hand to the left but not with the lines crossing the leaf as other Tongues do but the lines down the leaf A strange way by it self Again most of the Eastern Tongues do use the Hebrew Character for quick writing or some other end The Chaldee letter is the very same The Syrian though it have two or three kinds of its own yet is content sometime to take upon it the Hebrew Character The Arabian doth the like especially the Jews in Turky use in hatred of Mahumetans to write down their matters of Religion in the Hebrew Character though in the Arabian Tongue So do the Christian Arabians for the same cause in their holy things use the Arabian Tongue but Syrian Letter And I take a place in Epiphanius to be meant to this purpose also about the Persian Tongue His words out of another are these The Persians besides their own Letters do also use the Letters of the Syrians as in our times many Nations use the Greek though almost every Nation hath a proper Character I refer to the Reader to judge whether he mean not that the Persians as other Countries about them did did use the Hebrew Character for their quick writing which is called Syrian by Theodoret. To speak of the grace and sweetness and fulness of the Hebrew Tongue is to no purpose to relate for even those that cannot read this Tongue have read thus much of it CHAP. XXXI Of Vowels EAstern Tongues especially the Hebrew and her three Dialects Chaldee Syrian and Arabian are written sometimes with vowels sometimes without with for certainty without for the speedier writing we have Hebrew Bibles of both kinds The Septuagint it seems translated by the unpricked Bible as St. Hierome in his Commentary upon the Prophets seemeth to import and as to any one that examineth it is easie to find Instead of all other places in Gen. 4. 7. it is apparent where the seventy Translators reserving the Letters have strangely altered the Vowels The Hebrew hath it thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Halo imtetibh Seeth weim lo tetibh lappethahh hhatath robhets which is in English thus If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted And if thou do not well sin lieth at the door they Translate it as pointed thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Halo im tetibh seeth weim lo tetibh lephatteahh hhatatha rebhats Which is If thou do well in offering and do not well in dividing thou hast sinned be quiet This follow with one consent the Greek and many of the Latine Fathers They could not thus translate because they knew not the Text or because they wanted pointed Bibles but on set purpose to hide Pearls from Swine as the best Learned think But that they did always miss on set purpose where they missed their many lapses seem to deny but sometime they mistook the unpricked Text and so misconstrued A vowelled Bible they might have had but would not Some there be that think the vowels of the Hebrew were not invented for many years after Christ. Which to mee seemeth to be all one as to deny sinews to a body or to keep an Infant unswadled and to suffer him to turn and bend any way till he grow out of fashion For mine own satisfaction I am fully resolved that the Letters and Vowels of the Hebrew were as the Soul and Body in a Child knit together at their conception and beginning and that they had both one Author 1. For first a Tongue cannot be learned without Vowels though at last skill and practise may make it to be read without Grammar and not Nature makes men to do this and this also helped out with the sence of the place we read 2. That Masorites should amend that which the Septuagint could not see and that they should read righter than the other who were of far greater Authority I cannot believe 3. Our Saviour in his words of one Jota and one small kerai not perishing from the Law seems to allude to the least of the Letters Jod and the least Vowel and Accent 4. Lastly It is above the skill of a meer man to point the Bible nay scarcely a verse as it is The Ten Commandments may puzzle all the World for that skill CHAP. XXXII Of the Language of two Testaments THE two Testaments are like the Apostles at Jerusalem when the confusion of Tongues at Babel was recompensed with multiplicity of Tongues at Sion speaking in different Languages but speaking both to one purpose They differ from each other only in Language and time but for matter the New is veiled in the Old and Old reveiled in the New Isaiah in his vision heard the Seraphins cry Zeh elzeh one to Isa. 6. 2. another Holy Holy Holy Lord God of tsebhaoth So the two Testaments like these two Seraphins cry Zeh elzeh one to another the Old cries to the New and the New ecchoes to the Old The Old cries Holy is the Lord that hath promised the
answer in the very words of their vulgar Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis Take heed you do not make them your Justification CHAP. XLII An Emblem A Wall in Rome had this picture A man painted naked with a whip in one hand and four leaves of a book in the other and in every leaf a word written In the first Plango I mourn Is the second Dico I tell In the third volo I will and in the fourth facio I do Such a one in the true repentant He is naked because he would have his most secret sins laid open to God He is whipped because his sins do sting himself His book is his repentance His four words are his actions In the first he mourns in the second he confesses in the third he resolves and in the fourth he performs his resolution Plango I mourn there is sight of sin and sorrow Dico I tell there is contrition for sin and confession Volo I will there is amending resolution Facio I do there is performing satisfaction CHAP. XLIII Mahhanaiim Gen. 32. 2. AND Jacob went on his way and the Angels of God met him And Jacob said when he saw them This is the Host of the Lord and he called the name of the place Mahanaim The word is dual and tels of two Armies and no more what these two Armies were the Jews according to their usual vein do find strange expositions To omit them all this seems to me to be the truth and reason of the name There was one company with Jacob which afterwards he calls his army and there was another company of Angels which he calls the Army of God These are the two Armies that gave name to Mahanaim two Armies one heavenly and the other earthly and from this I take it Salomon compares the Church * to the company of Mahanaim for so the Church consisteth Cant. 6. 12. of two Armies one heavenly like these Angels which is the Church triumphant and the other travailing on earth like Jacobs Army which is the Church militant CHAP. XLIV The book of Psalms THE Psalms are divided into five books according to the five Books of Moses and if they be so divided there be seventy books in the Bible the unskilful may find where any one of these five books end by looking where a Psalm ends with Amen there also ends the book As at Psal. 41. 72. 89. 106. and from thence to the end These may even in their very beginnings be harmonized to the books of the Law Gensis The first book of Moses telleth how happiness was lost even by Adams walking in wicked counsel of the Serpent and the Woman Psal. 1. The first book of Psalms tells how happiness may be regained if a man do not walk in wicked counsel as of the Serpent and Woman the Divel and the Flesh. This allusion of the first book Arnobius makes Exodus The second book of Moses tells of groaning affliction in Egypt Psal. 42. The second book of Psalms begins in groaning affliction Psal. 42. 43. Leviticus The third book of Moses is of giving the Law Psal. 73. The third book of Psalms tells in the beginning how good God is for giving this Law This allusion Rab. Tanch makes very near Numbers The fourth book of Moses is about numbring Psal. 90. The fourth book begins with numbring of the best Arithmetick numbring Gods mercy Psal. 90. 1. and our own days vers 12. Deuteronomy The last book of Moses is a rehearsal of all Psal. 107. So is the last book of the Psalms from Psal. 107. to the end In the Jews division of the Scripture this piece of the Psalms and the books of the like nature are set last not because they be of the least dignity but because they be of least dependance with other books as some of them being no story at all and some stories and books of lesser bulk and so set in a form by themselves The Old Testament books the Jews acrostically do write thus in three letters ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã every letter standing for a word and every word for a part of the Bible ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for Aorajetha or Torah the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for Nebhiim the Prophets ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for Cethubhim or books of Holy Writ this division is so old that our Saviour himself useth it in the last of Luke and vers 44. All things written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms By the Psalms meaning that part of Cethubhim in which the Psalms are set first CHAP. XLV Of the Creation TWO ways we come to the knowledge of God by his Works and by his Word By his Works we come to know there is a God and by his Word we come to know what God is His Works teach us to spell his Word teacheth us to read The first are as it were his back parts by which we behold him a far off The latter shews him to us face to face The World is as a book consisting of three leaves and every leaf Printed with many Letters and every Letter a Lecture The leaves Heaven the Air and Earth with the Water The Letters in Heaven every Angel Star and Planet In the Air every Meteor and Soul In the Earth and Waters every Man Beast Plant Fish and Mineral all these set together spell to us that there is a God and the Apostle saith no less though in less space Rom. 1. 20. For the * * * In the Syrian translation it is the hid things of God invisible things of him that is his eternal Power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the World being considered in his Works And so David Psal. 19. 1. It is not for nothing that God hath set the Cabinet of the Universe open but it is because he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure Neither is it for nothing that he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure but because he hath given us Hearts to admire upon our beholding If we mark not the Works of God we are like Stones that have no Eyes wherewith to behold If we wonder not at the Works of God when we mark them we are like Beasts that have no Hearts wherewith to admire And if we praise not God for his Works when we admire them we are like Devils that have no Tongues wherewith to give thanks Remarkable is the story of the poor old man whom a Bishop found most bitterly weeping over an ugly Toad being asked the reason of his Tears his answer was I weep because that whereas God might have made me as ugly and filthy a creature as this Toad and hath not I have yet never in all my life been thankful to him for it If the works of the Creation would but lead us to this one Lecture our labour of observing them were well bestowed How much more
I have of mine own proper good of Gold and Silver which I have given to the House of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy House Even three thousand talents of Gold of the Gold of Ophir and seventy thousand talents of refined Silver to overlay the Walls of the Houses withal where these two things are remarkable First That he saith this preparation was above what he had prepared for the holy House and yet he saith he had prepared it for the House of God And secondly That here is mention of Silver to overlay the Walls withal whereas it is plain that within the Temple it self all the overlaying was of Gold Therefore it is thus to be understood that beside the store of Gold that David had provided for the gildings of the House within in the Holy and most Holy place he had also laid by a stock of Gold and Silver both to gild and overlay the Chambers over the Porch for there were upper Chambers diverse in it the height of it being one hundred and twenty cubits and to beautifie the side Chambers and the other Chambers that were about the Courts Now in the Temple after the Captivity we do not find that they were so curious to reduce the compass of the most Holy place to a cubick form but that the height of it did exceed the breadth it being twenty cubits long and twenty cubits broad like that of Solomons but the height far more for ought I find determined to the contrary SECT IV. The Cherubims and Ark. AS there were two Cherubims upon the Ark it self so also did Solomon cause two Cherubims besides to be made to stand over the Ark it standing between them they are so plainly and facilely described in 1 Kings VI. 23. that I shall refer the Reader thither for the story of them and say no more concerning them but only this that as the two Cherubims upon the Mercy seat may very well be resembled to Christs two natures so these two that stood by to the two Testaments which in their beginning and end reach the two sides of the World The Creation and the last Judgment and in the middle do sweetly join one to another The Ark the strength and presence of the Lord Psal. CV 4. and the glory of Israel 1 Sam. IV. 22. the most pregnant and proper resemblance of our Saviour in whom God dwelleth among men described Exod. XXV 10 c. and XXXVII 1. c. a a a Maym. in beth babbech per. 4. was set upon a stone up toward the West-end of the most Holy place even under the middle wings of the two tall Cherubims that stood besides it For the Cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the Ark and the Cherubims covered the Ark and the staves thereof above And they drew out the staves that the ends of the staves were seen out in the Holy place before the Oracle and they were not seen without 1 King VIII 7 8. 2 Chron. V. 8 9. For before the Temple was built while the Ark was in a moving posture the staves whereby the Ark was born were of an equal length on either side it ready for the Priests shoulders when there was occasion for the Ark to flit but now when they had brought it into Solomons Temple where it was to fix and remove no more they drew out the staves towards that side that looked down the most Holy place b b b R. Lev. Ger. in 1 King VIII Levi Gershom is of opinion that these staves were not the same that were made by Moses but of a longer size and that they raught down to the very Door and that though there were Doors betwixt the Holy and most Holy place yet those Doors could not shut because of these staves c c c Kimch ib. K. âol ibid. And Kimchi and Jarchi come up very near to the same supposal conceiving that the Ark stood not up near the Western Wall of the House but more downward towards the Door and that the staves raught down to the Door and on the day of Expiation when the High Priest went into the Holy place he went up to the Ark between these staves and could not go off to one hand or other But that that hath strained from them this conception is 1. Because they have strictly taken the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Text in the Book of Kings for the Holy place without the Veil whereas the Book of Chronicles doth expresly render it by the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Ark for whereas the one place saith that the heads of the staves were seen ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the other hath it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã meaneth not the whole room either of the Holy or most Holy place but that singularly Holy place that was under the wings of the Cherubims for of that place had the Text spoken immediately before when it said The Priests brought the Ark into the most Holy place under the wings of the Cherubims For the Cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark c. and then he comes on and saith And they drew out the staves so that the ends of the staves appeared out of that holy place meaning under the wings of the Cherubims And 2. The Authors alledged have strictly taken ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to mean so as one standing at the Door betwixt the Holy and most Holy place had the most Holy place before him whereas it signifieth in the same sense that it doth in that clause in Gen. I. 20. Let the Fowl flie upon the Earth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which our English hath well rendred in the open Firmament of Heaven And so is it to be taken here and the verse in hand may be properly understood thus And they drew out the staves at length so that the ends of the staves were seen from that Holy place in the open face of the Oracle but they were not seen without The staves were the same that were made by Moses and their length not great but only so much as to fit a Mans shoulder on either side of the Ark and now when they had set the Ark between the two standing Cherubims on the Floor the Cherubims inner wings covered the Ark and the staves that were above at the ends of the Ark but the rest of the staves drawn out downward toward the Oracle Door shot out from under the Cherubims wings and appeared in the open Face of the most Holy place and the High Priest when he came to offer Incense at the Ark on the day of Expiation he stood before the Ark between the staves d d d Maym. ubi sap It is fancied by the Jews that Solomon when he built the Temple foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed he caused very obscure and intricate Vaults under ground
they served and indeed what needed any Gate here at all so far from the service and behind the Temple There was indeed at the back of the Court-wall in the middle betwixt the North and South corners of it a building standing in the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chel where the Levites kept a Guard which was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Guard behind the mercy seat but there is no evidence that there was any door out of it into the Court and if there had been it was but a door and not a Gate Of the Guards of the Priests and Levites about the Temple the Record is thus e e e Mid. per. 1. In three places the Priests kept Guards in the Temple in the Chamber of Abhtines in Beth Nitsots and in Beth Mokadh And the Levites in one and twenty places five at five Gates of the mountain of the House Four at the four corners of it within Five at five Gates of the Court and four at the four corners of it without One in the Chamber of Corban One in the Chamber over against the Vail and one behind the place of the Mercy seat CHAP. XXVIII The Gates and building in the Court-wall on the North-side WE are now come to the North-side of the Court where before we fall to surveying of the Gates and Buildings that were there in the times of the second Temple it will not be amiss to look what we find there in the times of the first in that passage of Ezekiel Chap. 8. vers 3 5 14. He brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem to the Door of the inner Court-gate that looketh toward the North where was the seat of the Image of jealousie which provoketh to jealousie And he said unto me Son of Man lift up now thine Eyes the way towards the North so I lift up mine Eyes the way towards the North and behold North-ward of the Gate of the Altar this Image of Jealousie in the entry And he brought me to the Door of the Gate of the Lords House which was towards the North and behold there sat Women weeping for Tammuz Here are two Gates specified on the North-side of the Court and they are called the Gate of the Altar and the Gate of the Lords House towards the North because the one was over against the Altar and the other over against the Body of the Temple To that over against the Altar is the Prophet first brought in his vision and there he seeth the Image of Jealousie not in this Gate of the Altar but in the mountain of the House Northward of this Gate and of the Prophet as he stood in it For the Prophet is not brought within the Court at this Gate but is set without it and there he is bidden to look Northward and there he seeth that Image This was not any Picture or Image to represent Jealousie by but it is called the Image of Jealousie because it provoked the jealous God to jealousie it being set even in his Sanctuary and before his Altar what Idol this was is but lost labour to go about to determine I should as soon conjecture Molech as any other because that was the highest Idolatry and most provoking namely their burning of their Children in the fire and because they were exceeding taxable and taxed for this Idolatry Whether there were this Idol in the Temple at this very instant when Ezekiel had the vision which was in the sixth year of Zedekiah or whether the vision represent to him the Idolatry that had been in the Temple at any time is not much easier to determine neither but be the Idol what it would and mean he the time when he will it was no small abomination when an Idolatrous Chappel or Mansion is erected in the mountain of the Lords House even facing the very Gate that opened upon the Altar This Gate was the lower North-gate which in the times of the second Temple was called the Gate Nitsots or of the Song Before the Prophet is brought to the upper North-gate the Text saith he was brought to the door of the Court vers 7. that is to the East-gate which was the commonest way of entrance and in that Gate the Sanhedrin used to sit in those times and there he seeth their Council-chamber painted all about with imagery and the Seventy members of the Sanhedrin themselves offering Idolatrous incense Then is he brought to the upper North-gate which opened upon the Body of the Temple and there he seeth Women weeping for Tammuz what Tammuz was or what their weeping meant it is not to our subject to insist upon here I will only leave the Gloss of David Kimchi upon this matter with the Reader and trouble him with no more discourse about it Some interpret it saith he that they kept a feast to the Idol in the beginning of the month Tammuz others interpret the the word Tammuz to signifie burnt from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dan. III. 19. meaning that they wept for him that was burnt because they burnt their Sons and Daughters in fire Others that they had a trick to convey water into the Idols Eyes which was called Tammuz so that he seemed to weep and to beseech them that they would serve him But our great wise Man Rabbi Moses bar Maiemon writes that it is found in the Books of the ancient that there was a Man of the Idolatrous Prophets whose name was Tammuz and he called to a certain King and commanded him to worship the seven Planets and the twelve Signs and the King slew him And on the night of his death all the Idols from all parts of the Earth were gathered into the Temple at Babel to the golden Image which was the Image of the Sun which Image hung between Heaven and Earth and it fell into the midst of the Temple and all the Images about it It told them what hath happened to Tammuz the Prophet and all the Idols wept and lamented all that night and when it was morning they flew to their own homes So this became a custom to them on the first day of the month Tammuz every year to bewail and lament Tammuz But some interpret Tammuz to be the name of a Beast which they worshipped Thus may we suppose upon this Text of Ezekiel that in the Temple before the captivity there were but two Gates on the North-side of the Court or at least there is not mention of any more but in the second Temple there were three The names of them going from West to East were these 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã b b b Mid. per. 2. The Gate of Corban 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Gate of the Women And 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Gate of the Song Now every one of these Gates is owned by a double name for the Gate of Corban is also called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beth Mokadh The Gate of the Women is also called ãâã
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. It hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self c. THE Law forbids perjury Levit. XIX 12. c. To which the Fathers of the Traditions reduced the whole sin of swearing little caring for a rash oath In this Chapter of Oaths they doubly sinned I. That they were nothing at all solicitous about an Oath so that what was sworn were not false They do but little trouble themselves What How How often how rashly you swear so that what you swear be true In the Talmudick Tract ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Shevuoth and in like manner in Maimonides oaths are distributed into these four ranks First ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Promissory oath when a man swore that he would do or not do this or that c. And this was one of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã twofold Oaths which were also fourfold that is a negative or affirmative Oath and again a negative or affirmative Oath concerning something past or a negative or affirmative oath concerning something to come namely when any one swears that he hath done this or that or not done it or that he will do this or that or that he will not do it Whosoever therefore swears any of these four ways and the thing is not as he swears for example That he hath not cast a stone into the Sea when he hath cast it that he hath cast it when he hath not that he will not eat and yet eats that he will eat and yet eateth not behold this is a false oath or perjury f f f f f f Maimon in ãâã c. 1. g g g g g g âaâmâd in Sââvââth c. 3. Whosoever swears that he will not eat and yet eats somethings which are not sufficiently fit to be eaten this man is not guilty Secondly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A vain or a rash oath This also is fourfold but not in the same manner as the former 1. When any asserted that with an oath which was contrary to most known truth as If he should swear a man were a woman a stone-pillar to be a pillar of gold c. or when any swore that was or was not which was altogether impossible as that he saw a Camel flying in the air 2. When one asserted that by an oath concerning which there was no reason that any should doubt For example that Heaven is Heaven a stone is a stone c. 3. When a man swore that he would do that which was altogether impossible namely that he would not sleep for three days and three nights That he would tast nothing for a full week c. 4. When any swore that he would abstain from that which was commanded as that he would not wear Phylacteries c. These very examples are brought in the places alledged Thirdly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã An oath concerning something left in trust Namely when any swore concerning something left in trust with him that it was stollen or broke or lost and not embezzel'd by him c. Fourthly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Testimonial Oath before a Judg or Magistrate In three of these kinds of swearing care is only taken concerning the truth of the thing sworn not of the vanity of swearing They seemed indeed to make some provision against a vain and rash oath namely 1. That he be beaten who so swears and become cursed which Maimonides hints in the twelfth Chapter of the Tract alledged with whom the Jerusalem Gemarists do agree h h h h h h Shâveth fol. 34. 4. He that swears two is two let him be beaten for his vain oath 2. They also added terror to it from fearful examples such as that is in the very same place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There were twenty four assemblies in the South and they were all destroyed for a vain oath And in the same Tract i i i i i i Fol. 37. 1. a woman buried her Son for an oath c. yet they concluded vain oaths in so narrow a circle that a man might swear an hundred thousand times and yet not come within the limits of the caution concerning vain swearing II. It was customary and usual among them to swear by the Creatures k k k k k k Maimonid in the place above cap. 12 If any swear by Heaven by Earth by the Sun c. although the mind of the swearer be under these words to swear by him who created them yet this is not an Oath Or if any swear by some of the Prophets or by some of the Books of the Scripture although the sense of the swearer be to swear by him that sent that Prophet or that gave that Book nevertheless this is not an Oath l l l l l l Talmud in the place above cap. 4. If any adjure another by heaven or earth he is not guilty l l l l l l Bab. Berac fol. 55. They swore by Heaven ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By heaven so it is They swore by the Temple n n n n n n Cherithuth cap. 1. hal 7. When Turtles and young Pigeons were sometime sold at Jerusalem for a peny of gold Rabban Simeon Ben Gamaliel said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By this Habitation that is by this Temple I will not rest this night unless they be sold for a peny of silver o o o o o o Ketubboth cap. 3. Tosapht ibid. R. Zechariah ben Ketsab said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By this Temple the hand of the woman departed not out of my hand p p p p p p Bab. Kiddushin fol 71. 1. R. Jochanan said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By the Temple it is in our hand c. q q q q q q Juchas fol. 56. col 1. Bava ben Buta swore by the Temple in the end of the tract Cherithuth and Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel in the beginning ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And so was the custom in Israel Note this so was the custom They swore by the City Jerusalem r r r r r r Tosapht ad Nedarim cap. 1. R. Judah saith He that saith By Jerusalem saith nothing unless with an intent purpose he shall vow towards Jerusalem Where also after two lines coming between those forms of swearing and vowing are added ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Jerusalem For Jerusalem By Jerusalem The Temple For the Temple By the Temple The Altar For the Altar By the Altar The Lamb For the Lamb By the Lamb. The Chambers of the Temple For the Chambers of the Temple By the Chambers of the Temple The Word For the Word By the Word The Sacrifices on fire For the Sacrifices on fire By the Sacrifices on fire The Dishes For the Dishes By the Dishes By all these things that I will do this to you They swore by their own heads s s s s s s Sanbedr
blood of thy neighbour but this is not thy neighbour And further m m m m m m Ibid. cap. 13. An Israelite who alone sees another Israelite transgressing and admonisheth him if he repents not is bound to hate him VERS XLVI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Do not even the Publicans the same HOW odious the Publicans were to the Jewish Nation especially those that were sprung of that Nation and how they reckoned them the very worst of all mankind appears many ways in the Evangelists and the very same is their character in their own Writers n n n n n n Maimon in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cap. 5. It is not lawful to use the riches of such men of whom it is presumed that they were thieves and of whom it is presumed that all their wealth was gotten by rapine and that all their business was the business of extortioners such as Publicans and robbers are nor is their money to be mingled with thine because it is presumed to have been gotten by rapine o o o o o o Nedarim cap. 3. hal 4. Publicans are joined with cut-throats and robbers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They swear to cut-throats to robbers and to Publicans invading their goods This is an offering c. He is known by his companion p p p p p p âââ Sââââdr fol. 25. 2. Among those who were neither fit to judg nor to give a testimony in judgment are numbred ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Collectors of Taxes and the Publicans They were marked with such reproach and that not without good reason partly by reason of their rapine partly that to the burthen laid upon the Nation they themselves added another burthen q q q q q q Mâiâon in âhâ place above When are Publicans to be reckoned for thieves when he is a Gentile or when of himself he takes that office upon him or when being deputed by the King he doth not exact the set summ but exacts according to his own will Therefore the father of R. Zeira is to be reputed for a rare person r r r r r r ãâ¦ã 2. who being a Publican for thirteen years did not make the burthens of the taxes heavier but rather eased them s s s s s s Gaon in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ruch in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When the King laid a Tax to be exacted of the Jews of each according to his Estate these Publicans being deputed to proportion the thing became respecters of persons burthening some and indulging others and so became Plunderers By how much the more grievous the Heathen yoak was to the Jewish people boasting themselves a free Nation so much the more hateful to them was this kind of men who though sprung of Jewish bloud yet rendred their yoke much more heavy by these rapines CHAP. VI. VERS I. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Take heed that ye do not your Alms c. IT is questioned whether Matthew writ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Alms or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Righteousness I answer I. That our Saviour certainly said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Righteousness or in Syriac ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I make no doubt at all but that that word could not be otherwise understood by the common people than of Alms there is as little doubt to be made For although the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according to the idiom of the old Testament signifies nothing elss than Righteousness yet now when our Saviour spoke those words it signified nothing so much as Alms. II. Christ used also the same word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Righteousness in the three verses next following and Matthew used the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Alms but by what right I beseech you should he call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Righteousness in the first verse and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Alms in the following when Chriât every where used one and the same word Matthew might not change in Greek where our Saviour had not changed in Syriac Therefore we must say that the Lord Jesus used the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in these four first verses but that speaking in the dialect of common people he was understood by the common people to speak of Alms. Now they called Alms by the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã righteousness in that the Fathers of the Traditions taught and the common people believed that Alms conferred very much to justification Hear the Jewish Chair in this matter a a a a a a Bab. Bava Bathra fol. 10. 1. Midr. Tillin upon Psal XVII 15. For one farthing given to a poor man in Alms a man is made partaker of the beatifical vision Where it renders these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I shall behold thy face in righteousness after this manner I shall behold thy faâe because of Alms. One saith b b b b b b Bab. Rosh hashanaâ fol. 4. 1. This mony goes for Alms that my sons may live and that I may obtain the world to come c c c c c c Id. Beracoth fol. 55. 1. A mans Table now expiates by Alms as heretofore the Altar did by Sacrifice d d d d d d Hieroâ Pâaâ fol. 15. 2. If you afford Alms out of your purse God will keep you from all dammage and harm e e e e e e Ibid. Monobazes the King bestowed his goods liberally upon the poor and had these words spoke to him by his kinsmen and friends your ancestors encreased both their own riches and those that were left them by their fathers but you wast both your own and those of your Ancestors To whom he answered my Fathers layd up their Wealth on earth I lay up mine in heaven as it is written Truth shall florish out of the Earth but Righteousness shall look down from Heaven My father 's laid up treasures that bear no fruit but I lay up such as bear fruit as it is said It shall be well with the just for they shall eat the fruit of their works My Fathers treasured up where power was in their hands but I where it is not as it is said Justice and Judgment is the habitation of his throne My Fathers heaped up for others I for my self as it is said And this shall be to thee for Righteousness They scraped together for this world I for the World to come as it is said Righteousness shall deliver from death These things are also recited in the f f f f f f Bava Bathra fol. 11. 1. Babylonian Talmud You see plainly in what sense he understands Righteousness namely in the sense of Alms and that sense not so much framed in his own imagination as in that of the whole Nation and which the Royal Catechumen had imbibed from the Pharisees his Teachers Behold the justifying and saving virtue of
examples of this nature Let a third Decad also be added that nothing may be left unsaid in this matter giving examples of the parts of the phrase distinctly and by themselves 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i i i i i i Maimon Mamrim cap. 2. The things which they bound not that they might make a hedg to the Law 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã k k k k k k Id. in Hameâs Matsah cap. 1. The Scribes bound the leaven 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã l l l l l l Id. ibid. cap. 5. They neither punished nor bound unless concerning the leaven it self 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã m m m m m m Id. ib. cap. 9. The wise men bound the eating of leaven from the beginning of the sixth hour of the day of the Passover 5. n n n n n n Hieros Avod Zarah fol. 39. 2 R. Abhu saith R. Gamaliel ben Rabbi asked me What if I should go into the Market ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And I bound it him 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã o o o o o o Maimon Mamrim cap. 2. The Sanhedrin which looseth two things let it not hasten to loose three 2. p p p p p p Tanchum fol. 1. 3. R. Iochanan saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They necessarily loose saluting on the Sabbath 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã q q q q q q Id. fol. 74. 3. The wise men loose all oyls or all fat things 4. r r r r r r Schabb. cap. 1. Hal. 5. The School of Shammai saith They do not steep ink colours and vetches on the Eve of the Sabbath unless they be steeped before the day be ended ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the School of Hillel looseth it Many more such like instances occur there 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã s s s s s s Hieros Schab fol. 3. 1. R. Meir loosed the mixing of wine and oyl to anoint a sick man on the Sabbath To these may be added if need were the frequent shall I say or infinite use of the phrases ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Bound and Loosed which we meet with thousands of times over But from these allegations the Reader sees abundantly enough both the frequency and the common use of this phrase and the sense of it also namely first that it is used in Doctrine and in Judgments concerning things allowed or not allowed in the Law Secondly that to bind is the same with to forbid or to declare forbidden To think that Christ when he used the common phrase was not understood by his hearers in the common and vulgar sense shall I call it a matter of laughter or of madness To this therefore do these words amount When the time was come wherein the Mosaic Law as to some part of it was to be abolished and left off and as to another part of it was to be continued and to last for ever he granted Peter here and to the rest of the Apostles Chap. XVIII v. 18. a power to abolish or confirm what they thought good and as they thought good being taught this and led by the Holy Spirit as if he should say Whatsoever ye shall bind in the law of Moses that is forbid it shall be forbidden the Divine Authority confirming it and whatsoever ye shall loose that is permit or shall teach that it is permitted and lawful shall be lawful and permitted Hence they Bound that is forbad Circumcision to the Believers eating of things offered to Idols of things strangled and of blood for a time to the Gentiles and that which they bound on earth was confirmed in Heaven They loosed that is allowed Purification to Paul and to four other Brethren for the shunning of scandal Act. XXI 24. and in a word by these words of Christ it was committed to them the Holy Spirit directing that they should make Decrees concerning Religion as to the use or rejection of Mosaic Rites and Judgments and that either for a time or for ever Let the words be applied by way of Paraphrase to the matter that was transacted at present with Peter I am about to build a Gentile Church saith Christ and to thee O Peter do I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven that thou maist first open the door of faith to them but if thou askest by what Rule that Church is to be governed when the Mosaic Rule may seem so improper for it thou shalt be so guided by the Holy Spirit that whatsoever of the Law of Moses thou shalt forbid them shall be forbidden whatsoever thou grantest them shall be granted and that under a sanction made in Heaven Hence in that instant when he should use his Keys that is when he was now ready to open the Gate of the Gospel to the Gentiles Act. X. he was taught from Heaven that the consorting of the Jew with the Gentile which before had been bound was now loosed and the eating of any Creature convenient for food was now loosed which before had been bound and he in like manner looses both these Those words of our Saviour Joh. XX. 23. Whose sins ye remit they are remitted to them for the most part are forced to the same sense with these before us when they carry quite another sense Here the business is of Doctrine only not of Persons there of Persons not of Doctrine Here of things lawful or unlawful in Religion to be determined by the Apostles there of persons obstinate or not obstinate to be punished by them or not to be punished As to Doctrine the Apostles were doubly instructed 1. So long sitting at the feet of their Master they had imbided the Evangelical Doctrine 2. The Holy Spirit directing them they were to determine concerning the Legal Doctrine and practice being compleatly instructed and enabled in both by the Holy Spirit descending upon them As to the Persons they were endowed with a peculiar gift so that the same spirit directing them if they would retain and punish the sins of any a power was delivered into their hands of delivering to Satan of punishing with diseases plagues yea death it self which Peter did to Anââias and Saphira Paul to Elymas Hymeneus and Philâtus c. CHAP. XVII VERS II. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And was Transfigured WHEN Christ was Baptized being now ready to enter upon his Evangelical Priesthood he is sealed by a heavenly voice for the High Priest and is anointed with the Holy Spirit as the High Priests were wont to be with holy oyl In his Transfiguration he is sealed for the High Priest for mark 1. How two of the greatest Prophets Moses and Elias resort to him 2. How to those words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased which also were heard from Heaven at his Baptism is added that Clause Hear ye him which compare with the words of Moses concerning a Prophet to be raised up by God Deut. XVIII 19. Whosoever shall
not hearken to my words which I shall put into his mouth c. 3. How the Heavenly voice went out of the Cloud that overshadowed them when at his Baptism no such Cloud appeared Here that is worthy observing which some Jews note and reason dictates namely That the Cloud of Glory the Conductor of Israel departed at the death of Moses for while he lived that Cloud was the peoples guide in the Wilderness but when he was dead the Ark of the Covenant led them Therefore as that Cloud departed at the death of Moses that Great Prophet so such a Cloud was now present at the Sealing of the Greatest Prophet 4. Christ here shines with such a brightness nay with a greater than Moses and Elias now glorified and this both for the honour of his Person and for the honour of his Doctrine both which surpassed by infinite degrees the Persons and the Doctrines of both of them When you recollect the face of Christ transfigured shining with so great luster when he talked with Moses and Elias acknowledg the Brightness of the Gospel above the cloudy obscurity of the Law and of the Prophets VERS IV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let us make here three Tabernacles c. THE Transfiguration of Christ was by night Compare Luk. IX 37. The form of his face and garments is changed while he prays and Moses and Elias came and discourse with him concerning his death it is uncertain how long while as yet the Disciples that were present were over-charged with sleep When they awaked O what a Spectacle had they being afraid they observe and contemplate they discover the Prophets whom now departing Peter would detain and being loth that so noble a Scene should be dispersed made this Proposition Let us make here three Tabernacles c. Whence he should know them to be Prophets it is in vain to seek because it is no where to be found but being known he was loth they should depart thence being ravished with the sweetness of such society however astonished at the terrour of the Glory and hence those words which when he spake he is said by Luke Not to know what he said and by Mark Not to know what he should say which are rather to be understood of the misapplication of his words than of the sense of the words He knew well enough that he said these words and he knew as well for what reason he said them but yet he knew not what he said that is he was much mistaken when he spake these words while he believed that Christ Moses and Elias would abide and dwell there together in Earthly Tabernacles VERS V. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. While he yet spake behold a cloud c. MOses and Elias now turning their backs and going out of the Scene Peter speaks his words and as he speaks them when the Prophets were now gone Behold a Cloud c. they had foretold Christ of his death such is the cry of the Law and of the Prophets that Christ should suffer Luk. XXIV 44. He Preaches his Deity to his Disciples and the Heavenly voice seals him for the true Messias See 2 Pet. I. 16 17. VERS X. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Why therefore say the Scribes that Elias must first come I. IT would be an infinite task to produce all the passages out of the Jewish Writings which one might concerning the expected coming of Elias We will mention a few things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in passing which sufficiently speak out that vain expectation and the ends also of his expected coming 1. Let David Kimchi first be heard upon those words of Malachi Behold I send you Elias the Prophet God saith he shall restore the soul of Elias which ascended of old into Heaven into a created body like to his former body for his first body returned to Earth when he went up to Heaven each Element to its own Element But when God shall bring him to life in the body he shall send him to Israel before the day of Judgment which is the Great and Terrible day of the Lord and he shall admonish both the fathers and the children together to turn to God and they that turn shall be delivered from the day of Judgment c. Consider whether the Eye of the Disciples looks in the Question under our hands Christ had commanded in the verse before Tell the Vision of the Transfiguration to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead But now although they understood not what the Resurrection from the dead meant which Mark intimates yet they roundly retort Why therefore say the Scribes that Elias shall first come That is before there be a Resurrection and a day of Judgment for as yet they were altogether ignorant that Christ should rise They believed with the whole Nation that there should be a Resurrection at the coming of the Messias 2. Let Aben Ezra be heard in the second place We find saith he that Elias lived in the days of Ahaziah the son of Ahab we find also that Joram the son of Ahab and Jehoshaphat enquired of Elisha the Prophet and there it is written This is Elisha the son of Shaphat ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who poured water upon the hands of Elijah And this is a sign that Elias was first gone up into Heaven in a whirlwind because it is not said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who poureth water but Who poured Moreover Elisha departed not from Elijah from the time that he first waited upon him until Elias went up And yet we find that after the death of Jehoshaphat in the days of Ahasiah his son It was written And a letter came to him from Elijah the Prophet And this proves that he then writ and sent it for if it had been written before his Ascension it would be said A letter was found or brought to him which Elias had left behind him And it is without controversie that he was seen in the days of our Holy Wise Men. God of his Mercy hasten his Prophesie and the times of his coming So he upon Mal. IV. 3. The Talmudists do suppose Elias keeping the Sabbath in Mount Carmel a a a a a a Hieros Pesach fol. 30. 2. Let not the Truma saith one of which it is doubted whither it be clean or unclean be burnt lest Elias keeping the Sabbath in Mount Carmel come and testifie of it on the Sabbath that it is clean 4. The Talmudical books abound with these and the like trifles b b b b b b Maimon in Gizelah c. 13. If a man finds any thing that is lost he is bound to declare it by a publick outcry but if the owners come not to ask for it let him lay it up by him until Elias shall come And c c c c c c Bava Mezia cap. 1. Hal. ult c. If any find a Bill of Contract between his Country men and knows
is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That is the terrors and the sorrows which shall be in his days i i i i i i Shâaâ fol. 118. 1. He that feasts thrice on the Sabbath day shall be delivered from three miseries ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã From the sorrows of Messiah from the judgment of Hell and from the War of Gog and Magog Where the Gloss is this From the sorrows of Messias For in that age wherein the Son of David shall come there will be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an accusation of the Scholars of the Wise men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã denotes such pains as women in child birth endure VERS XXXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But of that day and hour knoweth no man OF what day and hour That the discourse is of the day of the destruction of Jerusalem is so evident both by the Disciples question and by the whole thread of Christs discourse that it is a wonder any should understand these words of the day and hour of the last judgment Two things are demanded of our Saviour ver 4. The one is When shall these things be that one stone shall not be left upon another And the second is What shall be the sign of this consummation To the latter he answereth throughout the whole Chapter hitherto To the former in the present words He had said indeed in the verse before Heaven and Earth shall pass away c. not for resolution to the question propounded for there was no enquiry at all concerning the dissolution of Heaven and Earth but for confirmation of the truth of thing which he had related As though he had said ye ask when such an overthrow of the Temple shall happen when it shall be and what shall be the signs of it I answer These and those and the other signs shall go before it and these my words of the thing it self to come to pass and of the signs going before are firmer than Heaven and Earth it self But whereas ye enquire of the precise time that is not to be enquired after For of that day and hour knoweth no man We cannot but remember here that even among the Beholders of the destruction of the Temple there is a difference concerning the Day of the destruction that that day and hour was so little known before the event that even after the event they who saw the flames disagreed among themselves concerning the Day Josephus an eye witness saw the burning of the Temple and he ascribed it to the Tenth day of the month Aâ or Louâ For thus he l l l l l l De Bell. lib. 6. cap. 26. The Temple perished the tenth day of the month Lous or August a day fatal to the Temple as having been on that day consumed in flames by the King of Babylon Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai saw the same conflagration and he together with the whole Jewish Nation ascribes it to the ninth day of that month not the tenth yet so that he saith If I had not lived in that age I had not judged it but to have happened on the tenth day For as the Gloss upon Maimonides m m m m m m In Taanith cap. 5. writes It was the evening when they set fire to it and the Temple burnt until sun-set the tenth day In the Jerusalem Talmud therefore Rabbi and R. Josua ben Levi fasted the ninth and tenth days See also the Tract Bab. Taanith n n n n n n Fol. 29. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Neither the Angels For o o o o o o Bab. Sanhedr fol. 99. 1. the day of Vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed comâth Esai LXIII 4. What means The day of Vengeance is in my haert R. Jochanan saith I have revealed it to my heart to my members I have not revealed it R. Simeon ben Lachish saith I have revealed it to my heart ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but to the ministring Angels I have not revealed it And Jalkut on that place thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã My heart reveals it not to my mouth to whom should my mouth reveal it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nor the Son ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Neither the Angels nor the Messias For in that sense the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Son is to be taken in this place and elsewhere very often As in that passage Joh. V. 19. The Son that is The Messias can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do ver 20. The Father loveth the Messias c. ver 26. He hath given to the Messias to have life in himself c. And that the word Son is to be rendred in this sense appears from verse 27. He hath given him authority also to execute judgment because he is the Son of man Observe that Because he is the Son of man I. It is one thing to understand the Son of God barely and abstractly for the second person in the Holy Trinity another to understand him for the Messias or that second person incarnate To say that the second Person in the Trinity knows not something is blasphemous to say so of the Messias is not so who nevertheless was the same with the second Person in the Trinity For although the second Person abstractly considered according to his mere Diety was co-equal with the Father co-omnipotent co-omniscient co-eternal with him c. Yet Messias who was God-man considered as Messias was a servant and a messenger of the Father and received commands and authority from the Father And those expressions The Son can do nothing of himself c. will not in the least serve the Arians turn if you take them in this sense which you must necessarily do Messias can do nothing of himself because he is a Servant and a Deputy II. We must distinguish between the execellencies and perfections of Christ which flowed from the Hypostatical union of the two natures and those which flowed from the donation and anoynting of the Holy Spirit From the Hypostatical Union of the Natures flowed the infinite dignity of his Person his impeccability his infinite self-sufficiency to perform the Law and to satisfie the divine justice From the anoynting of the Spirit flowed his Power of miracles his fore-knowledg of things to come and all kind of knowledg of Evangelic Mysteries Those rendred him a fit and perfect Redeemer these a fit and perfect Minister of the Gospel Now therefore the fore-knowledg of things to come of which the discourse here is is to be numbred among those things which flowed from the anoynting of the Holy Spirit and from immediate revelation not from the Hypostatic Union of the Natures So that those things which were revealed by Christ to his Church he had them from the revelation of the Spirit not from that Union Nor is it any derogation or detraction from the Dignity of his Person
we must not render they do not fold up but they do not unfold or unrol the Book of the Law in the Synagogue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã t t t t t t Massech Sopherim cap. 11. They unrol a Prophet in the Congregation but they do not unrol the Law in the Congregation That is as the Gloss hath it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã u u u u u u Megill fol. 32. 1. They unrol from one place or passage to another passage in another place So they were wont to do in the Prophets but not in the Law And upon this account was it permitted for the Reader to skip in the Prophet from one place to another because it was permitted them to unrol the Prophet either a single Prophet or the twelve lesser in the Synagogue but as to the Law it was not allowed them so to do And they put the question ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã x x x x x x Megil fol. 24. 1. How far may he skip ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So that he that Interprets do not break off The Gloss is Let him not skip from the place he reads unless that he may ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unrol the Book and be ready to read the place to which he skips when the Interpreter ceaseth And because it was not lawful for him so to unrol the Law in the Synagogue On the Kalends of the month Tebeth if it proved to be the Sabbath day they brought three Books of the Law and read in one of them the place for the Sabbath in another that for the Kalends in the third that for the Feast of dedication y y y y y y Joma fol. 70. 1. The words therefore of our Evangelist ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to me seem not barely to mean that that he unfolded or opened the Book but that being opened he unrolled it from folio to folio till he had found the place he designed to Read and Expound Which though it was not the Section appointed by the Rubrick for the day yet did not Christ much recede from the custom of the Synagogue which allowed the Reader to skip from one place to another VERS XXIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Physician heal thy self YOU will say unto me this Proverb Physician heal thy self I would express it thus in the Jerusalem language ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã z z z z z z Beresh rab sect 23. Tanchum fol. 4. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Physician heal thine own lameness VERS XXV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When the heavens were shut up three years and six months THIS number of three years and six months is much used both in the Holy Scriptures and in Jewish Writings concerning which we have more largely discoursed in another place And although both in the one and the other it is not seldom used allusively only yet in this place I can see nothing hinder why it should not be taken according to the letter in its proper number however indeed there will be no small difficulty to reduce it to its just account That there was no rain for three years together is evident enough from 1 Kings XVII c. But whence comes this addition of six months Elijah said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If there shall be these years These words include three years at the least because he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Years in the plural and not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Years in the Dual And Chap. XVIII The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying Go shew thy self unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth In the third year where then shall we find the six Months I. Doubtless both our Saviour and his Apostle St. James Chap. V. vers 17. in adding six months do speak according to the known and received opinion of that Nation which is also done elsewhere sometimes in Historical matters in the New Testament St. Stephen tells us Acts VII 16. that the bones of the twelve Patriarchs were carried over from Egypt and buried in Sichem when Holy Writ mentions only the bones and burial of Joseph Wherein he speaks according to the vulgar opinion of the Nation a a a a a a See Hierosâ⦠Sotah fol. 18 3. and Bab. Bava kama fol. 92. 1. Again Vers. 30. he tells us That Moses was forty years old when he fled into the Land of Midian and that he tarried there forty years more when Moses himself mentions nothing of this circumstance This he speaks agreeably to the opinion of that people b b b b b b See Beresh rab sect 100. II. Neither our Saviour nor St. James say that Elijah shut up the Heavens three years and six months but Christ tells us That the Heaven was shut up in the days of Elias three years and six months And St. James That Elias prayed that it might not rain and it rained not upon the Earth by the space of three years and six months May I therefore have leave to distinguish in this manner Elijah shut up the Heaven for three years that there might be no rain as in the Book of Kings And there was no rain for three years and a half as our Saviour and St. James relate III. The words of Menander in Josephus may help a little toward the untying this knot c c c c c c Antiqâ lib. 8. cap. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Menander also makes mention of this drought in the acts of lihobalus King of Tyre saying There was no rain from the month of October to the month of October the year following It is true he shortens the space of this drought by making it continue but one year but however having placed the beginning of it in the Month of October gives us a key that opens us a way into things more inward and secret IV. Consider the distinction of the former and the latter rain ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Deut. XI 14. Jerem. V. 24. Joel II. 23. d d d d d d Taanith fol. 6. 1. The Rabbins deliver ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The former is in the Month Marheshvan the latter in the Month Nisan The Targumist in Joel II. 23. Who hath given you the first rain in season ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the latter in the month Nisan See also our Note upon Chap. II. vers 8. R. Solomon upon Deut. XI differs a little but we are not solicitous above the order which should be the first either that in the Month Marheshvan or that in the Month Nisan that which makes to our purpose is that rains were at those stated times and for the rest of the year generally there was no rain V. Those six Months mentioned by our Saviour and St. James must be accounted before
ãâã ãâã ãâã to perceive or apprehend For the Baptist seems in these words to rebuke the incredulity and stupidity of these men q. d. Ye see by this very instance of your selves that no man can learn perceive or believe unless it be given him from Heaven For ye your selves are my witnesses that I did prefer Jesus before my self that I testifyed of him that he was the Son of God the Lamb of God c. and ye now would cavil against him and prefer me before him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. It is apparent that no one can perceive or discern what he ought to do unless it be given from Heaven Compare with this vers 32. No man receiveth his testimony VERS XXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the friend of the Bridegroom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of which we have already spoken in our Notes upon Chap. II. a a a a a a Sanhedr fol. 27. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his friend that is his Shoshebin Where the Gloss hath this passage which at first sight the Reader may a little wonder at ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The friend of the Bridegroom is not allowed him all the days of the nuptials The sense is he is not admitted to be a Judge or witness for him all that time wherein for certain days of the Nuptials he is his Shoshebin or the friend of the Bridegroom VERS XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that is of the earth is earthly MArk but the Antithesis and you will not suspect any Tautology 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that is of the Earth and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that cometh from Heaven Where the Antithesis is not so much between Christ and John as betwixt Christ and all mankind 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He is of the Earth and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He is above all He that is of the Earth is only of earthly degree or rank and he that is from Heaven is above all degree 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He speaks of the Earth and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth He that is of the Earth speaketh earthly things and what he hath learnt upon the Earth but he that is from Heaven speaketh those things which he learnt in Heaven viz. those things which he hath seen and heard from God The Baptist seems to allude to the manner of bearing witness and teaching in matter of fact there was need of an eye-witness in matter of doctrine they delivered what they had heard from their Master CHAP. IV. VERS IV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He must needs go through Samaria JOsephus tells us a a a a a a Antiqu. lib. 20. cap. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It was the custom for the Galileans in their journeying to Jerusalem to their Feasts to go through Samaria Our Country-man Biddulph describes the way which he himself travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem Anno Dom. 1601. out of whom for the Reader 's sake I will borrow a a few passages He tells us That on March XXIV they rode near the Sea of Galilee and gives the computation of that Sea to be in length about eight leagues and in breadth five Now a league is three miles After they had gone about seven miles having the Sea of Galilee on their left hands they went up an Hill not very steep but very pleasant which he saith is said to be the Hill mentioned Joh. VI. 3. Although here indeed either I am mistaken or his guides deceived him because that Mountain was on the other side the Sea However he tells us That from the top of this Hill they discerned Saphetta the Jews University All the way they went was infinitely pleasant the Hills and Dales all very fruitful And that about two a Clock in the Afternoon they came to a certain Village called by the Arabians Inel Tyger i. e. The Merchants Eye When they had taken some food and sleep their mind leaped within them to go up Mount Tabor which was not far off I fear his guides deceived him here also concerning this Mount On the twenty fifth of March they spent the whole day in traversing the pleasant fields of Basan near the Hill of Basan In the way they saw some rubbish of the Tower of Gehazi 2 Kings V. 24. and came to a Town commonly called Jenine of old Engannim Josh. XV. 34. more truly Good man Josh. XIX 21. distant from Tabor two and twenty miles a place of Gardens and waters and places of pleasure There they stayed all the next day upon the occasion of a Turkish Feast called Byram Mar. XXVII Riding by Engannim they were twice in danger once by Thieves dwelling hard by another time by the Arabs in a Wood about twelve miles thence That night they came to Sychar a City of Samaria mentioned Joh. IV. distant from Engannim seven and twenty miles They stayed there the next day It is now called Napolis Jacob's Well is near it the waters of it sweet as milk March XXIX they went from Sychar toward Jerusalem the nearer to which place they came the more barren and unpleasant they found the soil At length coming to a large Grove or Wilderness full of Trees and Hills perhaps this was Mount Ephraim From the top of the Hill they saw the Sea on the right hand and little Vessels upon it passing to Joppa About three or four in the Afternoon they came to a ruinous Town called Beere of old as was reported to them Beersheba a great City but more probably Beeroth mentioned Jos. XVIII 25. It is said that was the place where Christs Parents first mist him in their journey Luke II. 44. They would have lodged there that night being weary and hungry and having spent their Provision but they could have nothing fit for themselves or their Horses and being from Jerusalem but ten miles they went on and after having travelled five or six miles had a view of the City Thus our Country-man a Clergy-man tells us in his Book This interposition of Samaria between Galilee and Judea must be remembred when we read the borders and portions of the Tribes set out Ezek. XLVIII where Manasseh and Ephraim the Country of Samaria are bounded and set out as formerly but must not be reckoned undââ the notion of Samaria as they had been Necessity it self found or made a way betwixt Judea and Galilee through Samaria because indeed there was no other way they could go unless a long way about through the Country beyond Jordan Nor was there any reason why they should make any difficulty of going through Samaria unless the hostility of the Country For h h h h h h Hieros ãâ¦ã dah Zar. fol. 44. 4. For the Country of the Cuthites is clean So that without scruple they might gather of the fruits and products of it The gatherings of their waters are clean So that a Jew might drink or wash himself in
me saith our Saviour not because you did see the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled Were all these so very poor that they had need to live at another man's charge or should follow Christ meerly for Bread It is possible they might expect other kind of dainties according to the vain musings of that Nation Perhaps he was such a kind of slave to his belly that said Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Luke XIV 15. k k k k k k Rambam in Sanhedr cap. 10. Many affirm that the hope of Israel is that Messiah shall come and raise the dead and they shall be gathered together in the Garden of Eden and shall eat and drink and satiate themselves all the days of the world And that there are Houses built all of precious stones Beds of Silk and Rivers flowing with Wine and spicy Oyl l l l l l l Shemâth raââa sect 25. He made Manna to descend for them in which were all manner of tastes and every Israelite found in it what his palate was chiefly pleased with If he desired fat in it he had it In it the young men tasted Bread the old men Honey and the Children Oyl So it shall be in the world to come the days of the Messiah he shall give Israel peace and they shall sit down and eat in the Garden of Eden and all Nations shall behold their condition as it is said behold my Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Isai. LXV 13. Alas poor wretches how do you deceive your selves for it is to you that this passage of being hungry whiles others eat does directly point Infinitââ¦re the dreams of this kind particularly about Leviathan and Behemoth that are to be served up in these Feasts m m m m m m Bava bathra fol. 74. 2. Targ. Jonath in Gen. 1. 21. Pirke R. Eliezer cap. 11. II. Compare with this especially what the Jews propound to themselves about their being fed with Manna n n n n n n Midras Schir fol. 16. 4. The later redeemer that is Messiah for he had spoken of the former Redeemer Moses immediately before shall be revealed amongst them c. And whether will he lead them Some say into the Wilderness of Judah others into the Wilderness of Sihon and Og. Note that our Saviour the day before when he fed such a multitude so miraculously was in the Desert of Og viz. in Batanea or Bashan ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And shall make Manna descend for them N. B. So Midras Coheleth o o o o o o Fol. 86. 4. The former Redeemer caused Manna to descend for them in like manner shall our latter Redeemer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cause Manna to come down as it is written there shall be an handful of Corn in the Earth Psal. LXXII 16. VERS XXXII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven THE Gemarists affirm that Manna was given for the merits of Moses p p p p p p Taanith fol. 9. 1. There were three good Shepherds of Israel Moses Aaron and Miriam and there were three good things given us by their hands a Well a Cloud and Manna The Well for the merits of Miriam the pillar of the Cloud for the merits of Aaron Manna ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the merits of Moses Contrary therefore to this opinion of theirs it may well be said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Moses did not give you this Bread i. e. it was by no means for any merits of his But what further he might intend by these words you may learn from the several Expositors VERS XXXIX ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Should raise it up again at the last day SO also vers 40. 44. the emphasis lyes in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The last day I. They looked as hath been already said for the Resurrection of the dead at the coming of the Messiah Take one instance q q q q q q Hieros Kilaim fol. 32. 2. R. Jeremiah said when I dye bury me in my shirt and with my shooes on c. that when Messiah comes I may be ready drest to meet him Apply here the words of our Saviour Ye look for the Resurrection when Messiah comes and since you seek a sign of me perhaps you have it in your minds that I should raise some from the dead Let this suffice that whoever comes to me and believes in me shall be raised up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã at the last day II. It was the opinion of that Nation concerning the Generation in the Wilderness The Generation in the Wilderness have no part in the world to come neither shall they stand in judgment r r r r r r Sanhedr cap. helek halac 3. Now as to this Generation in the Wilderness there had been some discourse before vers 31. viz. of those that had eaten Manna in the Wilderness But that Manna did not so feed them unto Eternal Life as you yourselves confess as that they shall live again and have any part in the world to come I am therefore that Bread from Heaven that do feed those that eat of me to eternal life and such as do eat of me i. e. that believe in me ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will raise them up so that they shall have part in the world to come VERS XLV ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And they shall be all taught of God ISAI LIV. 13. And all thy Children shall be taught of God The Children of Israel of Jerusalem and of Zion are very frequently mentioned by the Prophets for those Gentiles that were to be converted to the Faith taught before of the Devil by his Idols and Oracles but they should become the Children of the Church and be taught of God The Rabbins do fondly apply these words of the Prophet when by thy Children they understand ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Disciples of the wise men s s s s s s Beracoth fol. 67. 1. The Disciples of the wise men multiply peace in the world as it is written all thy Children shall be taught of God and great shall be the peace of thy Children ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Do not read Baneca thy Children but Boneca thy Builders But who were there among mortals that were more taught of men and less of God! being learned in nothing but the Traditions of their Fathers He must be taught of the FATHER that would come to the Son not of those sorry Fathers he must be taught of God not those masters of Traditions VERS LI. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Bread which I give is my Flesh. HE Tacitly confutes that foolish conceipt of theirs about I know not what dainties the Messiah should treat them with and slights those trifles by teaching that all the dainties Christ had provided were himself Let them not look for
Church Mercy to our Estates for their preservation mercy to our Lives for their security mercy to the Nation for its peace mercy to Widows for their incouragement mercy to the Gospel for its maintaining mercy to Souls for their reducing Such a mercy is a Christian Magistracy and so is the end and such the fruit of the execution of their Office the execution of Judgment which is the third thing I have to speak to from the third clause in the Text and Judgment was given unto them III. He saith not Power for that would not have included Judgment but he saith Judgment which includeth also lawful power yea and something else Righteousness and Justice I am assured there is none that hear me this day is so little acquainted with the stile of Scripture but he knoweth that when it speaketh of Judgment as the work of the Magistrate it meaneth the execution of Justice or of right Judgment Shall not the Judge of all the World do right Gen. XVIII 25. The very title of Judge speaketh doing right as it was with the Judge of all the World so with the Judges of any part of it This my Lords and Gentlemen is your work and imployment to judge righteous Judgment to plead the cause of the oppressed to relieve the fatherless and widow and him that hath no helper to reward every one according to the Justice of his cause before you As you carry the stamp of Christs own image in your Power so it is no whit to the life if Justice be not stamped there also And your being a mercy to the people is by doing Justice to the people I shall not here go about to teach you what you have to do in your Imployment and Function I am far from supposing that either you know not your duty or that I know it better than your selves Only give me leave to be your remembrancer a little of what is the charge that lies upon you and that not by setting any rules before you but by setting some Divine copies before you most fairly written upon which to look with a single eye may be enough to stir you up to your duty and that the more because we are commonly more wrought upon men by example than by precept I shall only propose three two copied out by God in his own example and the third a singular copy set out in his Word The first I shall be bold to offer to you of the Magistracy The second to all that have to do with you at the present occasion Counsel Jurors and Witnesses and the third before all that hear me The first is this You know Gods Attributes Power Mercy and Justice Now God acteth not any of his Attributes according to the utmost extent of the infiniteness of it but according to the most wise and most holy counsel and disposal of his own Will God never acted his Power according to the utmost infinity of his Power for else whereas he made one World he might have made a Thousand He never acted his Mercy according to the utmost infinity of his Mercy for then whereas he saveth but a little flock he might have saved all Men and Devils Nor did he ever act his Justice according to the utmost infinity of his Justice for then all flesh would fail before him and the Spirits that he hath Created But his Will as I may speak it acts as Queen Regent in the midst of his Attributes and limits and confines their acting according to the sacred disposal of that So that he sheweth his Power not when and where he can but when and where and how he will shew his Power He sheweth his Justice not when and where he can but when and where he will shew his Justice And he will shew Mercy not on whom he can but on whom he will shew Mercy Rom. IX 18. Look upon this copy and then reflect upon your selves and your Function You have your Attributes let me so call them of Power Mercy Interest in the people and the like now how are these to be acted by you An unjust Magistrate like him Luke XVIII would be ready to miswrite after the copy and say I will act these after mine own will as God acteth his after his own will No he is mistaken let him look better on his Commission The Judgment that is put into his hand is the Will of God put into his hand As the Apostle saith This is the Will of God even your Sanctification so This is the Will of God even the Judgment that is given him his Commission carries it not sic velis sic jubeas do not thou with thy Power what thou wilt but sic volo sic jubeo Do in thine Office as it is my Will and as I Command The Sun in Heaven sends down his shine upon the Earth and we are to set all our dials by that light and not by any candle of our own The Will of God as it is the rule of all his own actions so he sends down the beams of it in his Word to men to be the rule of theirs By the Ministry God puts his Will revealed in his Word into the hands of men to do according to that rule and not by any rule of their own Will So the Commission that he puts into the hands of the Magistracy is the Will of God to act by as he hath revealed in his Word not to act according to their own mind Not to shew Mercy Justice Power and Favour as they please but as Gods Will appears in their Commission It was the custom in Israel that when the King was Crowned the book of the Law was put into his hand the Will of God to be his rule and not his own So when Joshua is made chief Magistrate God instates him in his Power and with all put the Law into his hand Josh. I. 8. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth c. And so at the Crowning of young Joash I King XI 12. They put the Crown upon him and gave him the Testimony Look then upon the Copy that is before you and look upon the Commission he hath given you His Will in Heaven acts all his glorious Attributes and as I may speak it with reverence his Will rules them He hath transcribed his Will in little in your Commission to act all yours Now his Will be done by you upon Earth as it is done by himself in Heaven A second Copy that I would present before you and before all that have any thing to do with you at present about Judicature Counsel Witnesses and Jurors is Gods own righteousness and that especially in one particular example It is needless to tell you from Scripture that the righteous God loves righteousness delights in righteousness practises righteousness commands righteousness That one acting of his does demonstrate all these to admiration and that is his Justice in justifying a sinner Much is
will become of you when you die When as you have been taught from your child-hood He that forsaketh his Judaism shall have no part in the World to come You forsook to follow a certain Jesus have forsaken the Religion of your Fathers and what will you do in the latter end when ye come to die Why saith the Apostle Doubt not but as many as sleep in Jesus Jesus will bring with him and raise them even as God raised Jesus Now this might trouble the minds of the Apostles They had forsaken their Judaism and turned their backs upon the Religion they had been trained up in from their cradle to follow the new doctrine and precepts of their Master and now their Master is going from them and what have they to comfort themselves against that dagger-doctrine He that forsakes his Judaism c. why Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God be not affraid to believe also in me on the terms that I have told you even to the forsaking of your Judaism and to the embracing of my new way of administration For in my Fathers house are many mansions Mansions for you that believe in me as well as for them that under Judaism believe in the Father mansions for them under the Gospel administration under which I have brought you as well as for them that are under Legal administrations which you have left If it were not so I would have told you and will not deceive you III. It was a common and received doctrine and opinion of the Nation that Messias should have a pompous Kingdom that he should give splendid entertainment to his followers upon earth feasting banqueting great state and bravery And the Apostles themselves were not yet cleared of that opinion as appears by the request of Zebedees sons that one of them might sit on his right hand and the other on his left in his Kingdom and by that question of the Disciples Act. I. 6. c. Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel c. Now these poor men took Jesus indeed for the Messias but as yet they have seen no such entertainment at all They poor and their Master poor too He so far from giving any such treatment that he had not where himself to lay his own head and they so far from finding any such entertainment that they had met with nothing but poverty danger contempt and obloquy And now their Master is going from them and what is become now of their expectation of that bravery and Kingdom Why Let not your hearts be troubled I have noble entertainment for you but that is not to be here but in my Fathers house and thither I am going to prepare it and a place for you and I will come again and take you to my self to treat you there So that reading the words with the foil and set off of those two opinions which help to illustrate the sence by reflexion you may observe in them these Two things I. That Christs entertainment of his people is in Heaven II. That there they all meet in that blessed entertainment though here they were under various and different administrations Many mansions in the Text speaks not several and divided places in Heaven as the several Cabbins in Noahs Ark but it reflects upon the many administrations they were severally under upon earth though under various and different and almost contrary administrations on earth yet all meet in his Fathers house for there are many mansions and there is the place of his entertaining them I shall not need to prove that by his Fathers house he meaneth Heaven the very words following I go to prepare c. make that plain enough But I shall speak to both the Propositions before us as it were twistedly together in the method in which Christ acteth as to the things spoken of And first this I. Christ saw it good to bring his Church through various administrations of the matters of Religion and of the way of Salvation I say not through various Religions and ways of Salvations but through various administrations of the matters of Religion and of the way of Salvation before the Law under the Law and under the Gospel I shall not need to clear this in particulars it is so conspicuous and so well known to all that it were but expence of time to insist upon the proof of it Only let me say this upon it that God used these various administrations to his Church according to the diversity of the age of that mystical body Child-hood nonage and consistency And this the Apostle speaks plainly for me Gal. IV. at the beginning where he tells us that as the heir in nonage differs nothing from a Servant but is under Tutors and Governors and subjection so we when we were Children that is while Christs body was under age were in bonduge under the rudiments of the World till the fulness of time come Before the Law the Church was in its child-hood small and little confined within the compass of one or few families and then God brought it up upon his own knees documenting it as a mother does her child beford she send it to School with his own lively Voice in Visions Revelations or his own Words spoken from Heaven When it grew bigger and so very numerous in Egypt God then set it forth to School under the written Law a School-Master as the Apostle calls it and a sharp one too and it was no more than needed that it should be put under the lash and ferule of so severe a discipline For now the youth began to wax wanton and to forsake God that had so tenderly brought it up and to betake it self to the Idols of Egypt as Ezekiel tells you in his twentieth Chapter Therefore to School child to School under the lash of a seveer Law to keep under that youthfulness that was so ready to grow exorbitant And in this School the Church yet under age was under a twofold administration viz. under the Law with Prophets and Revelations under the first Temple and under the Law without Prophets and Revelations under the second At last comes in the Gospel and the Church is taken from School and put to the University and how it comes up to perfect manliness the Gentiles are called in and that makes up the compleat body It might be an Inquiry why the Church was to grow up towards consistency three thousand nine hundred twenty eight years viz. ere Christ came That is the perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ which the Apostle speaks of Ephes. IV. 13. which some conceive to mean the stature of the bodies of the Saints when they shall rise from the dead just proportionated to the stature of Christs body when he died which is as far from the meaning of the Apostle as it is from hence to the Resurrection but he means the perfect growth and full
cursed that Adam and all the Saints of God might not look for blessedness upon the Earth but in Christ nor for Christ nor his Kingdom upon this cursed Earth but in Heaven O Jew the Earth is cursed where canst thou find a place upon it for Messias blessed Kingdom All is but as Meshek and the Tents of Kedar to him he finds not a place here to lay his head I may say the title over Christs head was and is a stumbling block under the Jews feet where it was written Jesus of Nazareth and they looked for Messias of Bethlehem King of the Jews and they saw nothing in him but poverty and contempt In Joh. XVII 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Where I am where is that Not here wherein is poverty contempt and dishonor as he experienced when he was here but to see my glory there where he is glorified Alas What treatment can he provide for them here Can he spread a table for their full satisfaction in this Wilderness where he found none for himself The dish he sets before them is In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good chear there is better chear provided for you in my Fathers house This is but a Wilderness you are passing through Canaan is the land provided for the flowing with milk and hony In my Fathers house there are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã many abiding places here you are flitting from place to place and no abiding but I have prepared a Rest for the people of God An unfit place here where there is nothing but changes and vicissitudes and where in a moment Amnons mirth and feasting may be turned into mourning and misery All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cometh saith Job Why he met with changes enough but he means his great change when he should be changed no more than that that he looks for and trusts in An unfit place this when the house may be blown down whilst we are feasting in it as it happened to Jobs children This World then is no fit place for Christ to entertain his people in Secondly A believer in this World is not yet capable of the Entertainment that Christ has to give him therfore that is reserved for him in his Fathers house As Christ tells his Disciples I have many things to speak to you but you cannot bear them So I say in our present case Christ hath many excellent treatments to entertain them withal but here they are not fit for them while we are in this corruptible flesh we want the wedding garment Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God So corruptible bodies are not garments fit for these divine entertainments 1. The Soul in these bodies does not act to the utmost extent its nature is capable of It is like a bird that let out injoys a whole World of liberty but not before There is a kind of immensity in the Soul and this is one part of Gods image Any one Soul among us could hold as much wisdom goodness c. as God in its degree and capacity but it is straitned in these bodies that it cannot act to such an extensiveness As the River is straitned within its banks till it fall into the Ocean so the Soul here is straitned by ignorance infirmities pressures but at death it slips into the Ocean of Eternity where there is no more straitness 2. How impossible is it in these mortal bodies to see God as he is How hard through the fogs of flesh to see the things of God How impossible to behold God in his essence In the mount will the Lord be seen and not in the low vallies of mortality and corruption Oh! I cannot but with rapture consider of the strange and blessed change that blessed Souls find as soon as ever departed Here we are groping after him and much ado we have to discern a little of him here one cloud or other is interposing twixt our contemplation and that Sun But as soon as we are got out of the body we behold that incomprehensible light as he is Oh! what rapture of Soul will it be to see all clouds dispelled and to look with open full eye upon the Sun Oh! this is our God we have groped we have waited for him What the Apostle saith II Cor. III. ult But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory This is of transcendent comfort for believers it being their happiness here to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same image What ravishment of Joy will it be to find it effected to the utmost in Eternity 3. How impossible is it to keep the heart fixed on God here While flesh hangs on it that will be making it to flag aside A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise April 6. 1666. I JOHN V. 16. There is a sin unto death I do not say that he should pray for it AND it is a deadly sin indeed that outvies and excludes the charity of this Apostle A man as his Writings evidence of him and as Ecclesiastical History testifies concerning him composed altogether of Charity His Epistles evidence to you how urgent he is for love one to another and Ecclesiastical History will tell you that his common salutation to all he met was Let us love one another But here he hath met with a wretch to whom he cannot find in his heart to say God speed A deadly sin and a deadly sinner to whom he cannot allow the Christian the Common the needful Charity of his own or other mens prayers O no It is a sin unto death The uttering of the first clause There is a sin unto death may not undeservedly nor impertinently move such another inquiry in the Congregation as the uttering of those words of our Saviour One of you shall betray me did move at his Table every one then to say Is it I and every one here to say is the sin mine As it was time for every one of Israel to look about him lest the thing should fall to his share when Joshua proclaimed among them There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee O Israel Josh VII 13. So when the Holy Ghost proclaimeth in the words of the Text There is a sin unto death is it not time is it not pertinent for every one that is within hearing to look about and take heed lest this dead Concubine do lie at the threshold of his door as she did in Gibeah Judg. XIX And what hath any notorious sinner to say for himself why the Law of the Text should not proceed against him and condemn his profaneness uncleanness wickedness unconscionableness under the name and title of a sin unto death seeing it seemeth a great deal more currant that
there is sin unto death than that there should be any sin that is not unto death as our Apostle saith there is in the words immediately going before these that I have chosen In these that I have chosen you see there are two clauses and out of either of them arise two Questions Out of the former I. What sin it is the Apostle means And II. Why he titles it by such a name A sin unto death Out of the latter I. Why he forbideth to pray for it And II. Why he forbideth not to pray for it I mean why he speaketh not out in down right terms I say that he should not pray for it but says only I say not that he should The Rhemists Popish Expositors upon the place will answer you even all these questions with a breath if you will but take their words and little more than their bare word must you expect for the proof and confirmation of what they tell you 1. They will tell you that the sin our Apostle means is any sin whatsoever that any one lives in unrepentant all his time 2. They will tell you that it is titled A sin unto death because he lives in it till his death and so dies in it 3. They will tell you that the Apostle by not praying for him means not praying for him when he is dead but he that sins not a sin unto death that is that lives not in his sin till he die but repents of it before for him you must pray after his death For that the place is most properly or only meant of praying for the departed say they this convinced that neither the Church nor any man is debarred here from praying for any sinner while living nor for remission of any sin in this life And so they go on When I read these mens Annotations on this Scripture they often mind me of Benhadads servants with ropes about their necks catching at any word that fell from the King of Israels mouth that might be for any advantage to their forlorn and lost cause and condition These mens Popish cause hath had the rope about its neck now a long time and been in a lost and forlorn case and I cannot tell whether I should laugh or frown to see what pitiful shift and shameful scrambling they make for it by catching at any word or syllable in the Scripture or Fathers and wresting and twisting and twining it to any seeming or colourable advantage to their condemned cause to save it from execution Certainly they are at a very hard pinch for proof of praying for the dead when they make such a scraping in this portion of Scripture to rake it out thence whereas the words are as far from meaning the living praying for the dead as the dead praying for the living And at the very same game they be in their notes upon our Saviours words concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost that it shall never be forgiven in this World nor in the World to come Matth. XII 32. Their note is that some sins may be remitted in the next life and consequently this proves Purgatory As the poor frantick distracted wretch at Athens that fed and pleased himself with this fancy that every ship that came into the Port was his ship that all the goods that came into the Town were his goods whilst he himself in the mean time was miserably poor naked and ready to famish so these men think every verse in Scripture brings in something to their stock every saying of the Fathers something to their bank whilst in the mean while their pitiful cause walks starven and poor and blind and naked and stands in need of all things The sin against the Holy Ghost indeed is distinct and something different from this sin unto death that our Apostle speaketh of yet since there is such a particular sin against the Holy Ghost that is so deadly why should not these men think that sin in the Text that carries so deadly a name is a particular sin likewise It is true indeed that a sin in which a man continues unrepenting until his death and in which he dies may very justly be called A sin to death that is a sin until his death and it will prove A sin to death eternal but that the Apostle means here a particular sin and that he estimates it not by its length but by its weight not by how long the party continues in it but by how grievous the sin is in it self will appear as we go along partly by discovery of the reason of the title he puts upon it and partly by discovery of the very sin it self that is here intended But before we begin with the discovery of the reason of the title let us a little look first into the meaning of those words of our Saviour Joh. XX. 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Do not the Apostles here receive a new power or priviledge or guift which Christ had not imparted to them before Else why such an action as he had never used toward them before so breathing on them The common acceptation of these words whose soever sins ye remit or retain are remitted or retained is to make them to mean the same thing with what ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. But besides that the expressions are of a vast difference why if Christ had given them the very same power in those words that he doth in these why should he repeat it especially why should he use such a solemn and unusual rite toward them to breath upon them He had given them power of miracles and healing and casting out Devils before without breathing upon them He had given them power of binding and loosing that is of establishing or abolishing the rites and Laws of Moses for so the Phrase in the common acceptation of the Nation did only signifie and this he did without breathing upon them Therefore certainly in this his new action and these his new words as I may call them he gives them some new power and that in two kinds 1. In his breathing upon them and bidding them receive the Holy Ghost he gives the Holy Ghost to give again or he gives them power by the imposition of their hands to bestow the Holy Ghost as the sacred Story tells you the Apostle did and none but the Apostles could do And 2. In his words whose soever sins ye remit or retain he gives them a punitive or executive double power viz. To strike desperate or incorrigible and horrid transgressors with some corporal punishment or stroke or else to give them up to Satan to be tortured and scourged in body and vexed and disquieted in mind Where had Peter his warrant to strike Ananias and Sapphira with death but from these words And Paul
II. Concerning this great Judges judging all the World at the last day I shall but offer to you that Prospect Rev. XX. 12. I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away and there was no place found for them And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and they were judged Heaven and Earth fled away before God but no fleeing for small and great but they must be judged Heaven and Earth that were in being are dissolved and gone but the dead small and great that were not in being are brought into being that they may be brought to judgment And so Chap. VI. 14. Heaven departs as a scroll that is rolled up together and every mountain and Island is removed out of his place But in the next verse there is a World of wretches that would fain be gon too but it will not be would fain be hid fince they cannot go but that will not be neither That say to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand II. Now what assurances or earnests as I may call them hath God given of this that II. he will Judge all the World which is the second thing I mentioned I might mention divers The Apostle makes the destruction of the World by water and Sodome by fire to be such 2 Pet. II. 9. Another Apostle makes the raising him from the dead that is to be Judge to be such assurance Act. XVII 31. But I only name three more That he hath set up Judicatures in the World That he hath set up a Judicature in every mans soul. And that he hath given his Law and Word by which men must be judged I. Are not the Tribunals and Judicatures that he hath set up in the World evidence and assurance given that he will Judge the World Magistracy whose image and superscription doth it carry The great Caesars the great Magistrate of Heaven and Earth And if that deal in matters that concern the body may we not read in it that he that ordained it will dispose both of bodies and souls Take to thoughts that of the Apostle 1 Cor. VI. 2. Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World i. e. That a Christian Magistracy shall judge among men And Know ye not that we shall judge Angels i. e. That a Christian Ministry shall judge against Devils Weigh the words seriously and I believe you will find them to rise to this sence And then know you not that the ultimate judging of Men and Devils must rest in him that instituted Magistracy and Ministry both I said you are Gods for in your function you carry his representation and character but I said he is much more God that ordained you Gods and he much more Magistrate and Judge that ordained you Magistrates and Judges In you Judgment is drawn in little in him it is in full proportion Filia exscripsit Patrem as he of old of a good daughter that she had copied out a good father Your function hath copied out Divine Authority but yours is but a Copy the original incomparably fairer II. Is not the Judicature that God hath set up in every mans soul an undoubted assurance of Gods judging of all When a very proper definition of Conscience is That it is Praejudicium judicii a foretaste a preface to the judgment to come doth it not give assurance of the judgment to come And that to every soul when there is a conscience in every soul. That as our Saviour when the Jews ask him what appearance was there of the Kingdom of Heaven gives them this answer The Kingdom of Heaven is with in you as some read it so if any one ask what proof and assurance is within you Ask Felix also Act. XXIV 25. As Paul reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come Felix trembled And how comes a Roman valour to be so shaken at the word of a poor Jew A great Judge trembling at the words of his prisoner He had that within him that gave testimony to every word that Paul spake that it was true A strange thing to him as well as a dreadful to hear of the Judgment to come in manner as the Divine Orator set it out But there was that within him that could not but assent to the truth of all he spake III. Gods very giving of his Law to the World is an assurance abundant that he will once judge the World Let me draw your thoughts to the foot of mount Sinai to stand with Israel there while the Law is giving Do you not see the dreadful terror in which it is given fire and smoke and earth-quake and sound of trumpet And do you think that the great Lawgiver that comes in such dread to give it will never come to demand an account of it how men have dealt with it Must those Words be scattered in the Air and God never take more care or account of them And let me lead your eyes to mount Calvary and there let them observe the great God sealing his Covenant and Gospel in the blood of his own Son See Christ bleeding there hands feet and heart bleeding out his last drop of blood to confirm and seal that Truth and Gospel that he had preached to the World And will God and Christ never take account how men use the Gospel that as I may say cost so dear engrossing This very thing is an undoubled assurance that God will Judge all the World because he cannot but call men to account how they have demeaned themselves to his Law and revealed will As sure as a Law and a Gospel have been given so sure a judgment to come to inquire what usage Law and Gospel have found among men and a reward accordingly The Jews in their writings do oft bring in the Law complaining to God of injuries done to her by such and such persons and begging that he would do her right Hath a despised Law a contemned Gospel a scorned Word of God no cry in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth and hath the Lord no care to plead their cause Are they only to cry to men and if men abuse them have they no cry to God And hath the despised blood of Christ and trodden under foot no cry to God I cannot but remember the Talmudish story about Zacharies blood that was shed betwixt the Temple and the Altar that no rains no pains no water could wash it off the pavement of the Temple but still and still it was bubbling there and would never be quiet till execution of judgment quieted it the King of Babylon slaying near an hundred thousand persons in the same place The application is easie The judgment of wicked men lingreth not and their damnation slumbreth not 2
sung at the Passover which were ordinarily used by the Jews for that occasion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
words when he saith He loved the wages of iniquity We will first consider of him a little and his Copy after which these men write and then we will consider of their writing after it You have him here described by his Parentage and by his qualities By his Parentage I. he is Balaam the son of Bozor by his qualities He loved the wages of unrighteousness That you may read of him in his story in Moses though not in such terms yet in equivalent but his fathers name to be Bosor that you find not there but all along he is called there and wheresoever named in the Old Testament Balaam the son of Beor Those that are apt to tax the Originals of Scripture of corruption and interpolation may chance think it is so here and that some carelesness or unhappy dash of the pen made it Bosor here when it should have been Beor I remember the eleventh verse of the Tenth Chapter of Jeremiah that it is written in the Chaldee tongue and so is no other passage in all his prophesy Thus shall ye say to them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens These words come not into the Chaldee tongue by chance or any inadvertency but by sacred wisdom to put so much of the Chaldee language into the mouths of the Jews against the time when they should be captivated into Chaldea in Babylon that if they could speak no more of that language yet they might have thus much of it as to be able to answer the Chaldeans if they should be braging of their Gods or intice them to worship them That the Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth should perish from the Earth c. The change of the name Beor into Bosor relishes of the Chaldee language too as they that are versed in that language may very well observe Ain being ordinarily changed into Sin and Sin into Ain And our Apostle doth neither mistake himself in so pronouncing the name nor hath any transcriber miswritten it after him but he uttered it according to the Chaldee Ideom and propriety and by this very word gives intimation that he was in Chaldea when he wrote this Epistle He dates his former Epistle from Babylon Chap. V. 13. The Church which is at Babylon doth salute you And this word uttered in the Chaldee Idiom doth evidence that it was Babilon in Chaldea though some would have it to mean Rome which in mistery is called Babylon We might by the way upon change of the name Beor into Bosor observe these three things First That Peter spent his latter days in Chaldea and that there he dyed whereas it is so confidently asserted but can never be prov'd that he dyed at Rome For he himself tells in Chap. I. 14. that he was now old when he wrote this Epistle and looked dayly when he should lay down the Tabernacle of his body Secondly That no tittle in Scripture is idle but ought to have its consideration according to the saying of the Jews That there is no tittle in Scripture but even mountains of matter hang upon it And as our Saviour saith one jot or tittle of the Law shall not perish so not one jot or tittle in Scripture but hath its weight Here is one poor letter which one would think were crept in by some oversight yet that carries with it matter of important and weighty consideration Thirdly How necessary humane learning is for the understanding and explaining of Scripture which is so much cryed down and debas'd by some They that cry out against humane learning and take on them that they can expound the Scripture by the Spirit I doubt they would be very hard set to clear this place and to reconcile Moses and this Apostle about the pronunciation of the word Beor and Bosor Well however these names differ yet Balaam is the same both in name and nature and no changing He loves the wages of unrighteousness to day and he loves them to morrow and wheresoever he goes that goes with him and he is always at the same lock with it It is a strange passage in his story that God should forbid him to go with the first Messengers of Balak and yet suffer him to go with the second that when he had permitted him to go with these second he should by his Angel meet him and stop him with a drawn sword and with danger of his life and that after that stop he should permit him to go again and restrain him no more God saw his heart how it hankered to curse Israel that he might get the wages of iniquity the mony and reward which Balak had promised So that one while God permits him to go that he might try him what he would do another while he stops him from going because he saw his heart was set on mischief At last he shews himself after his dissimulation all along and when he had told Balak that he would speak nothing in favour to him but only what the Lord should command him and had told his Servants that though Balak would give him his house full of silver and gold he would not step one word aside from what the Lord should dictate to him yet his heart run after his covetousness all this while and the silver and gold and honours that Balak promised run in his mind and his mind upon them he cannot but hanker after those wages of unrighteousness Therefore whereas God did so overpower and overrule him that he could not curse Israel as with his heart he would have done before he would have lost that mony he finds a trick to make them make themselves accursed by counselling Balak to intangle them in whoredom with Midinatish women Cursed counsel indeed it was and proceeded from a most cursed heart A wretch that knew by such experience as he did that God would not have the people cursed yet he rather then lose his mony will make them to make themselves curses A wretch that prefers his bag of mony before the welfare of a whole Nation that cares not how many of them perish both soul and body rather than he should fail of his prize This is Balaam this is the way of Balaam thus to love thus to purchase the wages of unrighteousness For I need not to shew why they are called the wages of unrighteousness when they are thus gotten This is the Copy that they follow in the Text and write so fair after if the following of II. such a foul copy may be said to be writ fair And who they were the first clause in the Text doth give some notice of that they had been in the right way and had forsaken it and so had Balaam been so far in the right way while he blessed Israel if he could have kept him there but he forsook that way and betook to the way to make them cursed
come down She is above and yet she is beneath much as the case was at Mount Sinai there was a Tabernacle above the heavenly pattern on the top of the Mount and there was a Tabernacle beneath the material building and fabrick at the foot Jerusalem that is above intimating that it is not a material building but a spiritual that the Builder is not man but God and yet that Jerusalem is come down and is also here below because it is among men and consists of men Men as lively stones being built up into a spiritual house and building as it is 1 Pet. II. 5. Most commonly in this book of the Revelations she is called by the very name of Heaven it self that where you read Heaven you must understand the Church partly because she is the only Heaven that is upon Earth partly because of the presence of God in the midst of her as in Heaven and partly because of the holy and heavenly things that are in her and partly because she is the gate of Heaven and the only passage whereby to come thither Upon all which accounts together it is no wonder that she carries the name of the heavenly Jerusalem the holy City and the holy City that came down from God And let this suffice to be spoken concerning the meaning of the New Jerusalem or what it is viz. the Gospel Church The great question and dispute is where it is And whereas our Apocalyptick saw it coming down from Heaven the great inquiry is where it lighted pitched and took its station Where is the house of the Prince and where is this City of the great King Where is the true Church this new Jerusalem The finding where it is not will be some direction how to seek it where it is and let us begin there first I. First therefore Let me say in this case much like what was said of old by the Historian concerning the City Samnium You may look for Samnium there where Samnium stood and cannot find it If you look for the new Jerusalem there where the old Jerusalem stood you will not find it there though the Jew would have you to look no where else and have it to be found no where else It is well known what the conception and expectation of that Nation is in this point how they look for a most stately Jerusalem to be built where the old one stood for a pompous Kingdom setled in the Land of Canaan sutable to such a City and for a pompous Messias riding in the midst of both with stateliness sutable to both I shall say no more to this opinion but briefly only this for it is not worth speaking much unto That this opinion helped forward the murther of the true Messias when he came among them And I much wonder whether the opinion that produced so bad an effect then can come to any good effect at any time Because our Saviour Poor Jesus did not bring so much pomp and gallantry with him as that opinion expecteded he was looked upon by them as a false Messias and under that notion they made him suffer And it is more than suspitious that such an opinion can prove good solid and succesful never that proved so very fatal and mischievous then It is true indeed that the Prophet Ezekiel doth delineate his visionary Jerusalem as seated in the very place where the old had been for indeed there was then a Jerusalem to be built there as it was after the return out of captivity But whosoever shall take measure of the dimensions that he giveth to his City in space and compass will find it to come near if not to equal the space and compass of the whole Land of Canaan And this Apocalyptick the best interpreter of that Prophet measuring his square new Jerusalem at vers 16. of this Chapter finds it to be twelve thousand furlongs or fifteen hundred miles upon every side of the square six thousand miles about and the wall about it also fifteen hundred miles high The wall of Salvation Esa. XXVI 1. So that these things considered a mystical or spiritual sense is enforced here and for a literal one there is left little or no room at all And we must look for the new Jerusalem somewhere else then where the old one stood for there is not room for it Where then shall we seek next since we cannot find it there Here II. I cannot but remember the story in 2 Kings VI. The Syrians are seeking Elisha at Dothan and he strikes them blind and this is not the way says he this is not the City but follow me and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek and he brought them to Samaria We are seeking the new Jerusalem and there are those that will tell you but you must let them blindfold you the first that you of London we of England are out of the way if we look for any new Jerusalem any true Church here among us but follow them and they will lead you where it is and they will bring you to Rome A place where I should as little seek for the new Jerusalem as I should have sought for the old Jerusalem in Samaria or as I should have sought for true worshippers and the place of true worship at Sichem and mount Gerizim When they pretend to lead you to the new Jerusalem and bring you to Rome they could hardly lead you to any place under Heaven more unlikely where to find the new Jerusalem then there Our Divines in their writings have evidenced this abundantly and I shall not trouble you with rehearsing any thing they have spoken I shall only lay these four Scriptural considerations before you easie to understand and carry away and even out of them let any impartial judgment censure and determine in this case And first Two concerning the place and City And then two concerning the Church and Religion I. Concerning the Place and City First As the new Jerusalem is never mentioned in Scripture but with an honourable and noble character so Rome on the contrary is never spoken of under any name or title but with a character as black and dismal One Memoir only excepted which is in her story as Abijah was in the family of Jeroboam 1 King XIV 13. the only one there in whom was found any thing that was good And that is that there was once a Church there whose faith was renounedly spoken of through the whole world Rom. I. 8. There was so indeed and there could not be an Antichristian Church there unless there had been a Christian Church there first since There must be a falling away first that the man of sin might be revealed 2 Thes. II. 3. The first mention that you have of Rome in Scripture is in Numb XXIV 24. under the name of Chittim and there it is branded for the great oppressor and afflicter of Nations and it is finally doomed to perish for ever Secondly
be touched meaning Mount Sinai but ye are come to Mount Sion One would think when he spake of Mount Sinai he should rather have called it the Mount that might not be touched for God charged that neither man nor beast should touch it Exod. XIX But you may see the Apostles meaning That the Mystical Mount Sion is not such a gross earthly thing as Mount Sinai was that was subject to sense and feeling to be seen and felt and trod upon but that Sion is a thing more pure refined and abstract from such sensibleness spiritual and heavenly And from this undeniable notion of a Church invisible we may easily answer that captious and scornful question that you know who put upon us Where was your Church and Religion before Luther Why it was in the Jerusalem that is above out of the reach and above the ken of mans discerning it was upon Mount Sion above the sphere of sight and sense It was in such a place and case as the Church and Religion was in when there were seven thousand men that never bowed the knee ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Golden Heiser at Dan or Bethel and yet the greatest Prophet then being could not discern the least sign of any Church at all Now Thirdly The new Jerusalem must be known by her Pearls and Jewels upon which it is founded and built up True Religion is that that must distinguish and discover the true Church And where that is it is like the Wisemens Star over the house at Bethlehem that points out and tells Jesus and his Church is hero I must confess I do not well understand that concession of some of our Protestant Divines that yield That the Church of Rome is a corrupt Church indeed but yet a true Church For I do not well understand how there should be a true Church under a false Religion If the Church of the Jews under the great corruption of Religion that was in it might be called a true Church that was all it could look for And it must have that title rather because there was never a Church in the World beside it than from any claim by Religion But what do you call true Religion 1. First That which is only founded on the Word of God as the Wall of the new Jerusalem in vers 14. of this Chapter is founded upon twelve pearls engraven with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. 2. That Religion that tends directly to the honouring of God and saving of souls and is adequate to these ends In short That Religion that can bring to Heaven For I so little believe that any man may be saved in any Religion that I believe there is only one Religion in which any man may be saved And when Moses can bring Israel only to the skirts of the Land of Promise I hardly believe that any Religion will bring them into it Though one should not stick to grant that a person may be saved in the Church of Rome yet should I question whether in the Faith of Rome And it is the Faith or Doctrine of a Church more especially that I mean by the Religion of it Let a Romanist ride all the stages of his Religion from his uncouth kind of Baptism to his extream Unction through his auricular Confessions and Absolutions through his Penances and Pardons through his Massings and Crossings through all his Devotions and Austerities will all these bring to Heaven if the main fundamentals of Faith be faulty and failing Nay if the main fundamentals of belief be clean contrary to the way of God to Heaven A Scribe or Pharisee in old Jerusalem is as devout in Religion and as strict and severe in outward conversation as is imaginable that you would think sanctity it self were there yet will all this bring to Heaven when the chief principles of his Faith are directly contrary to the way of Salvation while he believes to be justified by his own works and places all in opere operato in a little formal and ceremonial service Like him in the story and on the stage that cried O! Heaven and pointed down to the Earth these pretended for Heaven in their practical Devotions but pointed downward in their Doctrinal principles I shall not insist to illustrate those particulars that I mentioned I suppose they carry their own proof and evidence with them that they are most proper touchstones whereby to try the truth of a Church and Religion And it is our comfort that we can that we do that we desire to bring our Religion to such Tests and touchstones and refuse not but most gladly appeal to the impartial Judge the Word of God to give judgment of it I shall not therefore undertake so needless a task as to go about to prove the truth of our Faith and Religion since so many Protestant pens have so clearly and so abundantly done it far more learned than my Tongue And since I may make such an Appeal to you as the Apostle did to King Agrippa King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou believest Fathers and Brethren believe you the Truth of our Religion I know you believe it Then I have no more to do but to offer two or three words of humble exhortation and entreaty viz. Prize it Cleave to it Beautifie it I. Prize it for it is the chiefest jewel in all our Cabinet And the wisest Merchant in all your City cannot find out a Pearl of greater price It is the life of our Nation at home and it is the honour of our Nation abroad It is that that makes our Land a Royal Street of the new Jerusalem It is that that must make your City a holy City We see a new London as our Apocalyptick saw a new Jerusalem The buildings stately and magnificent the furniture sumptuous and very splendid the shops rich and bravely furnished the wealth great and very affluent but your Religion the all in all As it was said in old time that Athens was the Greece of Greece and as it may be said at this time that London is the England of England so let your Religion be the London of London It is that by which your City must stand and flourish by which your prosperity must be watered and maintained and the Anâile which kept in safety will keep us in safety II. Keep therefore close to your Religion and leave it not Dread revolting from the true Religion The Apostasie in the Apostles times was the sin unto death in our Apocalypticks first Epistle and last Chapter And there is an Apostasie in our time but too common and to be deplored with tears to a Religion but too like to that to which they then revolted I would therefore that those that are tempted either by the lightness of their own hearts or by the Emissaries of Rome to revolt from their Religion would remember that dreadful saying of the Apostle Heb. X. 26. If we sin wilfully after
killed by a Lion V. That this poor man should suffer so severely for violating but one command of God Eat not and Jeroboam should escape so secure that had violated the greatest command in the two Tables Thou shalt have none other Gods but me and Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image This poor man is induced to sin by another and that by ignorance and he speeds so sore and Jeroboam induceth all Israel to sin and that wilfully and yet he is Jovial and feels and fears no dangers VI. It is something obscure what this old Prophet of Bethel was a true Prophet or a false a good or a bad If a true Prophet why did he lie to him If a false how could he foretel him of his end He was a true Prophet and this poor good man knew that he was a true Prophet and the lie that he told was not with intention of any hurt to him but an officious lie to perswade him to go home with him He desired to have the company of this good man and to give him some entertainment at his house He sees no arguments will perswade him therefore he minteth that lie that an Angel had spoken to him and commanded him to bring him back and so is the poor man deceived and undone In this story of his fatal end we may first consider a little upon the instrument of his death a Lion and then concerning his death and fate it self I. A Lion met him and slew him How much praise have you in Scripture of the Land I. of Canaan that it was the pleasant Land the glory of all Lands Ezek. XX. 15. The Land flowing with milk and honey in multiudes of places A Land upon which the eye of the Lord was from one end of the year to the other A Land of Vineyards and Olive-yards c. And yet how sadly and dangerously was that Land infested with ravenous cruel wild beasts Where almost might a man be safe Samson walking by the vineyard of Timnah a Lion sets upon him and had served him as this Lion served this poor man if he had not met with his match and Samson had been too hard for him And a Lion and a Bear ravin upon Davids flock and had rob'd him of a Lamb and Kid had not he also been too strong for them But every one was not so As Jacob doubted concerning Joseph Certainly an evil beast hath devoured him undoubtedly my son Joseph is so dead What a sad havock was it when about this very place Bethel where the Lion destroys this Peophet two she-Bears at one clap tear in pieces two and forty Children And that passage is very remarkable in the story concerning the battel betwixt Davids men and Absaloms in the wood of Ephraim 2 Sam. XVIII 8. The battel was scattered over the face of all the Country and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured The wood devoured How Why the Lions and Bears and ravenous beasts that were in the wood they pickt the men up as they were scattered up and down and made a greater slaughter than the sword It is something obscure that which is said Deut. VII 22. The Lord thy God will put out these Nations before thee by little and little thou mayst not consume them at once lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee And among other things that might be inquired upon it this might be one why God did not drive out the wild beasts out of the Land as well as he drove the Canaanites out And the answer might be various I. That he might shew that there is no absolute quiet and happiness and security to be expected here Canaan the choice Country upon Earth the only paradise on this side Heaven and yet even Canaan is not without its inconvenience and molestation There were Gardens and Orchards and Vine-yards and Olive-yards but it may be a Lion or Bear lurking in them there was all pleasure and plenty but there were wild and ravenous beasts ranging abroad that one could never say I will walk without danger So would God teach them that it was not their earthly Canaan that they were to look after but they must look higher if they would look for rest and quiet and secure habitation A man sat under his Vine or under his Fig-tree it may be on a suddain a wild beast rusheth upon him and he scapes narrowly if he scape devouring A man is binding sheaves in the field or a woman gleaning and suddainly a Lion or Bear is at their back that there is but a span betwixt them and death if there proved so much This was a very evincing lesson that absolute quiet and safety was not to be had there for all the bravery of the Land but that they must look for another Land of promise if they would be perfectly safe quiet and free from danger II. These wild and ravenous beasts in the Land were as it were a rod or scourge ready in the hand of God to whip transgressors withal as he saw cause as he did this poor transgressor in the Text. And he reckons them among the Plagues and punishments that he used to avenge himself by upon the rebellious Ezek. XIV 15. If I cause noisom beasts to pass through the Land and they spoil it so that it be desolate that no man may pass through because of the noisom beasts And vers 21. How much more when I send my four sore iudgments upon Jerusalem the sword and the famine and the noisom beast and the pestilence You have some emblem of a man persecuted with noisom beasts Amos V. 19. A man flees from a Lion and a Bear meets him and he gets home and leans his head upon the wall and a Serpent bites him And you have a real example of it 2 King XVII 25. They feared not the Lord therefore the Lord sent Lions among them which slew some of them And God doth give this as a promise of a singular blessing Levit. XXVI 6. I will give peace in the land and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will rid evil beasts out of the land And how can we choose but remember the mercy of God to this our Land in this particular That no such ravenous dangerous beasts do range in our Nation if men themselves would not be Wolves and Bears and Lions one to another A man may take his journey and never fear being set upon by any wild beast No father sending out his son needs to fear any evil beast devouring him and no mother hath cause to weep with the women of Bethel for their children torn in pieces by he or she-Bears God hath so blessed our Land that such dangers are least feared of us We see no Lions or bears unless it be under grates and bars It is to be bemoaned with tears that we are such Lions and Bears and brute beasts one to another
deliverance answering and verifying the promise of deliverance they might be built up in belief and expectation of the truth of the promise of the great Deliverer when he should come But when Christ was come and had done that great Work and there being now no such peculiar people to be born up in hope of their subsistence till Christ should descend of them but the Church of God being scattered through the World and Christ having sanctified the bearing of the cross to them by his own bearing it and having allotted the cross to them for their portion and assured them 1 Cor. X. 13. That they should not be tempted above what they were able but that with the temptation he would make way to escape that they might be able to bear it First It cannot be imagined that every particular Church in the World should be acquainted with what persecutions and afflictions should come upon them and how long they should last and when they should be removed as God was pleased to acquaint that peculiar Church Nor Secondly Is it requisite that God should punctually and exactly tell them the end of their persecution and affliction but that they should always be kept to their duty waiting patience and dependance When Peter would be curious to enquire concerning what should become of John Christ answers If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow thou me Look not thou at his end but mind thou thine own duty So if any people now should be inquisitive How long Lord and what and when will be the end of this calamity God might justly answer It is not for you to know the times and the seasons but keep to your duty possess your Souls in patience and wait to see the salvation of God in his own time and way For let me repeat my Doctrine again and now come to clear it further The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with him He knows it nay he hath set it For these two are the main things we shall speak to in this Point That no times no mens times are hidden from God Job makes it a principle as of which there is no questioning Job XXIV 1. Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty do they that know him not see his days The latter half of the verse is of some scruple and translations are various and scrupulous upon it but the former is of no scruple but of undoubted concession that times are in no wise hidden from God Only the botching Greek Translation which some would authorize above the divine Hebrew original reads it clean contrary Why are times hidden from God As if they were hidden from him Point the latter clause right as you should do for I observe in some Bibles it is mispointed and the passage is much cleared Why since times c. do they that know him not see his days Or not more consider of his Eternity Dan. VIII 13. There is a word something strange in the Original ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the English Text reads it That certain Saint Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the Vision c. But the margent reads it The numberer of secrets or the wonderful numberer His name is Wonderful Esa. IX 6. And Judg. XIII 18. Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret Marg. Wonderful When he is now treating concerning times he is called the wonderful numberer of them Mene mene Tekel He numbers and he finishes the Times of Men and Kingdoms he weighs men and their Times and their Conditions He is the Wonderful Numberer in whose hand and knowledge and disposal are the times of all men as David saith of his own Psal. XXXI 15. My times are in thy hand Concerning Gods knowing and dating the Times of men and their affairs I might largely speak to these two things for evidence to it I. His foretelling of times and affairs before they come By this very thing he proves himself to be the true God and by coming short of this the Gods of the Heathen to be but lies and vanity Esa. XLI 22 23. Let them bring forth and shew us what shall happen let them declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods But Chap. XLIII 12. saith God of himself I have declared and saved and shewed when there was no strange God among you And Chap. XXVI 9 10. I am God there is none like me Declaring the end from the beginning and from antient times the things that are not yet done saying My Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure How did he determine the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel before their coming out of Egypt four hundred and thirty years before to the very day Exod. XII 40 41. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that the Hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt How did he foretel of the Death of Christ seventy sevens of years even four hundred and ninety years before it was to the very hour Dan. IX 21. At the hour of the evening sacrifice the Angel Gabriel tells Daniel the time to that very hour Christ should suffer for he suffered at that hour Is not the time of the affliction of his people determined with him who foresees foretels of times and affairs to a day to an hour so many hundred of years before they came II. His harmonizing of times in so sweet an union as he hath done doth not that shew that he is the wonderful Numberer of times and Numberer of times of the affliction of his people The Scripture is most copious and the providence of God most sweet and heavenly in this kind of consort and it may much refresh and ravish the Reader of Scripture to observe such harmony Henock that glorious shining light upon Earth to run his course here just in as many years three hundred sixty five years as the Sun doth his course in Heaven days three hundred sixty five days Gen. V. 23. David to reign exactly so long a time in Jerusalem as Christ the son of David lived here upon earth thirty two years and an half 1 Kings II. 11. No rain in Elias time three years and an half Luk. IV. 25. Antiochus desolating of Religion three years and an half in the verse before the Text and Christs Ministery to be three years and an half Dan. IX 24. Doth not this Harmony tell that God is the wonderful Numberer of time and Weigher of all affairs Multitudes of such Harmonies of times are to be found in Scripture which all âound out this truth we are upon
that was lost than for the ninety and nine that went not astray So I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than c. In the words you see there are two assertions The one Positive the other Comparative The Positive That there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth The Comparative That there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety nine just persons c. The former something strange but very comfortable The later more strange and something difficult It is something to hear of joy in Heaven for a sinners repentance But more strange to hear of any men on Earth that need no repentance There is nothing but joy in Heaven and one would think enough and enough again in the fruition of God It may seem something strange that any addition should be made to it by the conversion of men And it were no great news to hear of ninety nine thousand that did not repent but strange news to hear of any one person that needed no repentance The wisest of Men tells us That there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. VII 2. And then is there a just Man upon Earth that needeth no repentance for his sinning And the Apostle James assures us in Chap. III. 2. That in many things we offend all and that very thing may assure us that we have need to repent of many things For the apprehending of the meaning of our Saviour in this Comparison we may observe that he speaks either by way of opposition to something in the opinion of those to whom he speaks or directly in reference to the Persons of whom he speaks It was common with the Nation of the Jews to distinguish just Men into two sorts I. Those that had been sinners but had repented and were become new Men these they acknowledged to be just Men in comparison of wicked Men and in comparison of what themselves had been before But those that had not been sinners and faulty and vitious Men but had led a fair course of life all their time like that young Man Matth. XIX that had kept all the Commandments from his youth these Men they account ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã good or holy Men and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã perfectly just Men. And oh How far were these beyond those Men that had needed repentance How they speak plainly and copiously to this Tenor in their writings it were easie to produce I shall give you but two instances according to the two things I mention viz. Their making such a distinction and their under-ranking Men of repentance below the other As to the first I. At the Feast of Tabernacles while the Temple stood the Elders and Grandees of the Nation used to dance in the Temple every night and to sing these Songs Some of them this Blessed be my youth that hath no way shamed my old age These were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã say they good and holy Men and that had been Men of good works ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from their first sprouâing or growing The other sung this Blessed be my old age that hath made amends and expiated for my youth And these they say were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Men of repentance And II. How far they undervalued these Penitents and Repentance below the other they speak in their interpretation of those words Esa. LXIV 4. From the beginning of the World Men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him The good things say they that the Prophets prophesied of were for Men of Repentance and those things were revealed to the Prophets but the things that are laid up for those that are perfectly Just never Prophets Eye saw nor Ear heard nor were they ever known to any but God This distinction the Apostle alludes to Rom. V. 7. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one dye that is for one that is barely a righteous Man by repenting himself of his unrighteous ways yet peradventure for a good Man some will venture to dye that is for one that is perfectly just from the beginning and that needeth no repentance They do indeed prefer Repentance before perfect righteous ones in this one regard that Penitents have tasted the pleasures and sweet of sin and have forsaken them and cast them off when it is doubtful say they whether those perfect righteous ones would have done so if they had tasted the pleasures of Sin as the others did Yet howsoever they account it better always to have been of a holy conversation than once to have been unholy though now become holy And better never to have needed repentance than to have needed it and betaken to it And if you understand our Saviour as facing this Opinion of theirs there is no difficulty in his words but they are plain and easie As if he should thus speak out at large You think your selves very righteous and that ye need no repentance and therefore ye despise these poor creatures Publicans and Sinners as men of a hopeless and desperate condition but I say unto you There is more joy in Heaven over such an one repenting than over an hundred such as you conceive your selves to be not needing any repentance at all Or doth our Saviour speak of those that have been Good not in their own conceit II. but indeed and in reality from the very first and never run into any extravagancies from a child As Josiah sought the Lord from eight years old and so continued and as Timothy trained up in piety from a child and as others that have been so happy as to remember their Creator in the days of their youth and have begun to be pious and so have continued from their cradle Doth our Saviour speak of such as these on the one hand as well as he speaks of sinners that come at last to repent on the other Is there more joy in Heaven for a penitent Thief upon the Cross that had been a vilain to that very time than for a good Obadiah that had feared God from his youth More joy in Heaven for a Mary Magdalene repenting who had been an arrant strumpet a long time than for a holy Hannah that had never trod awry It seems so by the Parable of the Prodigal and his elder Brother more joy for the return of that mad rambling debauched vitious fellow than for his elder brother who had ever kept at home with his father and never transgressed his commands And how the Parable may admit this construction we shall observe afterwards However though as to the comparison there may be some difficulty and about the Person that is said to need no repentance yet as to the Positive and about a sinner that repents there is no scruple at all And so we will speak
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
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
but he tries whether the door will be opened to give him entertainment And in this regard it is no wonder if men be said to resist and quench the Spirit because he comes only to try whether they will imbrace or resist quench or cherish This work of his differs from the effectual working of grace when he comes resolvedly to overcome and overpower A SERMON PREACHED upon ROMANS IX 3. For I could wish that I my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the flesh A Dreadful passage at the first reading and which may make us even to tremble a man to wish himself to be accursed from Christ accursed from Christ The very words may make us to quake to think of such a thing And can we believe that a Paul should make such a wish that he might be accursed of Christ who knew so well what it was to be blessed of him Can he make such a wish Or rather can any one but such an one as he make such a wish upon such a ground upon such a condition upon such a warrant The Apostle is here beginning his Discourse concerning the casting off of the Jewish Nation and seed of Israel as at the nineteenth verse of the Chapter foregoing he is beginning his Discourse about the Calling of the Gentiles Them there he stiles by the title of the whole Creation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an expression usual among the Jews to signifie in that construction These here he calls his Brethren and Kinsmen for so nature had made them he and they coming of the same stock and original He speaks there of some mourning out of desire that the Calling of the Gentiles should be accomplished Here he speaks of himself mourning out of grief for the casting off of his own Nation There the whole Creation of the Gentiles themselves groaning to be delivered from the bondage of their sinful corruption Here himself grieving for the not delivering of his own people from theirs at ver 2. he hath grief and great grief and sorrow and continual sorrow for them and could wish himself to be accursed from Christ on condition it might be better with them And one would think he had very small cause to be thus affected towards them if it be well considered how they had continually demeaned themselves toward him They had continually bred him trouble always persecuted him five times beaten him constantly sought his life and contrived his death And yet the good man grieves for them that grieved not for themselves and that always were grieving him and could wish himself to be accursed for them that could wish him cursed to the pit of Hell A strange wish and a strange charity that he himself might be accursed that they might not be so that he might be separated from Christ that so they might be united to him A passage so strange that it hath but one parallel viz. that of Moses Exod. XXXII 32. where he prays God to blot him out of his Book when God was now ready to cut off the seed of Israel A passage so strange that it seems directly to cross the whole course of his profession and practise He professeth Phil. III. 8. That all things in the world were but loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus And yet here he can upon some condition be content to lose him He practiseth 1 Cor. IX ult to bring his body into subjection lest when he had preached to others he himself might be a cast-away And yet he could wish upon some condition to prove a cast-away So strange a passage that some Expositors cannot endure to look upon it in its full proportion but take as it were a diminishing glass to look upon it withal and they make those words of the Apostle to speak less a great deal than ever they meant They will have his meaning to be but this For my Brethrens sake the seed of Israel I could be content to be separate from Christ for a while and to continue upon earth from that glory that is prepared for me in Heaven that I might labour for their salvation Do you think that being Anathema or accursed from Christ means no more than this Others conceive that the Apostle only useth an high expression whereby to signifie how intirely he desireth the good of his own Nation As if he had needed so full and feeling an asseveration as I speak the truth in Christ Jesus my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost ver 1. to intimate that he so intirely desired their salvation But to omit more by this strong asseveration it is plain that he thinks as he speaks and speaks as he thinks For it was so strange a wish that he himself sees reason to use many asseverations to shew that he speaks in good earnest otherwise he would hardly be believed As First His double asseveration affirmatively and negatively ver 1. I speak the truth I lye not Secondly He lays his Conscience for earnest that he did not lye but spoke truth My Conscience bearing me witness Thirdly He doth as it were call Christ and the Holy Ghost to witness I speak the truth in Christ my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost And so under the attestation of three witnesses his Conscience Christ and the Holy Ghost he would have what he says to be confirmed for a truth and that he may be believed Well we believe that he speaks from his very heart and as he thinks that he wishes himself accursed from Christ for his Brethren his Kinsmen according to the flesh Doth he piously in so wishing or prudently St. Austin once wished that he might have heard him Preach but what would he have thought think you at such a wish as this Doth he not curse himself when he wisheth to be accursed And doth he not undervalue Christ when he could wish to be separate from Christ That passage My conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost doth plainly evidence that what he doth is neither rashly done nor impiously nor imprudently but from a good conscience good affection and not without the Warrant of the Holy Spirit Indeed at ver 38. of the Chapter next going before He is perswaded that neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor any creature is able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus And yet at this place he could wish that he were separate from Christ on the condition he proposeth Not that either he undervalueth his uniting to Christ or that he thought he should be separated from him or that he simply desired it but comparatively he could wish it on condition the seed of Israel his Brethren and Kinsmen might be united to him He could wish to be damned on condition they might be saved Which may seem a dreadful wish but so much doth he value the salvation of so
hard thing to make a fair probability of the truth of it So that as he was rapt into Heaven to attain to his revelations so he is wrapt as it were into an altitude and sublimity of these two things above other men when he prefers Gods glory in saving his Nation before his own salvation and the Souls of his Nation before his own Soul And this abounding superabounding Zeal and Charity is that that moves him to make such a Wish and his Conscience and the Holy Ghost warrant it I speak the truth in Christ I lye not My Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I could wish my self accursed c. But to return then to the former Question Must an ordinary Christian write after this copy and come up to such a pitch of Charity and Zeal I might answer the occasion is extraordinary the person extraordinary the measure of Charity and Zeal extraordinary And therefore it cannot serve for an ordinary Rule Again I might briefly answer as we sometimes answer Children For pardon me if I take up that homely and familiar comparison It is ordinary with Children when they have meat in their hand to be greedy and think they have not enough but they cry for more But we commonly still them with bidding them first eat up that they have and then they shall have more God hath put thy task into thy hand Christian viz. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Ply take out digest that task and then it may be seasonable to ask What must I do more Here the love of the Apostle to others is more than to himself God requires of thee to love thy Neighbour as thy self Go and do that and never trouble thy self to question what thou hast more to do toward thy Neighbour till thou hast done that Keep but pace with the Apostle as he paceth like a Christian this is the task God requires of us He requires not that we keep pace with him as he paceth like an Apostle We poor Children cannot expect to keep even pace with so great a Father of the Church as this Apostle was It is our work to follow his steps though Non passibus oequis though not with even pace yet as well as we can But to consider of this case more particularly and distinctly Concerning our Duty or what we are to do we are to consider What is possible what is lawful and what is required For that may be lawful which is not possible and that may be lawful which is not required For example it were very lawful for a man to be as wise as Solomon if he could attain to it but that is impossible So it is very lawful for a man to speak with the tongue of Men and of Angels if he could do it but it is not possible to be done So on the other hand It is very lawful for a man to spend all his life in study and reading of Books but this is not required of all because they have other just and lawful callings to follow So it is very lawful for a Man as Timothy to drink nothing but water but it is not required since God hath afforded other wholesome Drinks and every creature of God is good being received with thanksgiving So as to our Duty or what we are to do we are to determine what is lawful by what is required I speak of our Christian Duty for as to our Christian Liberty that is not to be determined by what is required but by what is warranted Now as to the thing before us I. It is impossible we should reach to that height of Grace that this great Apostle attained to We cannot look that our poor spark of Grace if it be any should shine so bright as this glorious star of the first magnitude nor that we poor worms creeping altogether upon the Earth should soar to that pitch that he did that was rapt into the third Heaven And therefore not being in the same capacity with him in Grace we cannot think we are in the capacity of making the same wish with him which came merely from the abounding Grace of Zeal and Charity that was in him II. Then which we must especially look after is it required from us that we should wish such a wish to our selves to be accursed from Christ for any mans salvation Is it either our Christian Duty and we bound to do it or is it with in our Christian Liberty and we licenced to it I check my self for that I go about to discuss such a case as this when there is a great deal more need to bewail the sad want of common Duty that the Apostle passed through to come to that pitch he did Which when any man hath passed through then if he have warrant as the Apostle had let him wish as he did The pitch that he came to was to love his Neighbour above himself when he could wish so much evil to himself for their good But the way that he went up thither was by loving his Neighbour as himself And this is the way that we are to set into and to keep in and to write after him in this though we cannot nor are required to do in the other There are then three steps or degrees of the Apostles Charity First He hated no man in the world Secondly He loved his Neighbour as himself Thirdly He loved him above himself Now it is without all doubt in the two former of these we are all absolutely bound to follow him I. to hate no man in the world to be enemy to none That Gloss that the Jews made upon the Command Matth. V. 43. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy was a Gloss from Hell and not from Heaven from Satan and not from God And how our Saviour confutes it and how he teaches what a Christian is to do in that case you may see there Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you As he of old said He knew not what to morrow meant because he looked upon every present day as his last So a true Christian knows not what enmity or hatred to any Man means because he looks upon every Man as his Brother And it was a most noble commendation that one gives of another Our Friend Sturmius hated no Man but only Vice Wickedness Heresie and the Devil A true Christian hates no Man upon his own quarrel David professeth to God Do not I hate them that hate thee Yes I hate them with a perfect hatred But it was upon no quarel of his own but because they hated God Nor was it their Persons he hated but their Qualities So this Apostle would have those that loved not the Lord Jesus to be accursed 1 Cor. XVI 22. It was not because they loved not him or he them but because they loved not Christ. There is nothing in the world more common than the hate of
sins of their fathers unto the third and fourth generation This leaves a lesson to Parents That they would pity their children and when they sin think of them and of the misery they entail upon them A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 11. For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it THE greatest obscurity we have to speak about is in the last clause He hallowed it and yet at first sight that seems least obscure of all The two former clauses may rather one would think set us at a stand and yet the great dispute is about the last viz. in regard of that Sabbath we now celebrate When we look upon the world it may set us at a wonder that this vast bulk of all things should be made in six days Heaven and Earth and Seas in six days How many houses in the world have cost the work of six years Solomon was building the Temple seven years and his own house twenty years and this great Universe and all things in it to be built in six days And yet if we look at the power of him that made it we have as much cause to wonder that he should be six days about it He that made all things by his word could have done it in one moment as well as six days and with one word as well as six And he that made all things of nothing could also have made all things in no length of time but in an instant in a moment of time in the twinkling of an eye as he will change all things 1 Cor. XV. 52. And so concerning his resting If he were weary with working that he needed resting why did he work till he was weary And if he were not weary why had he need to rest Such frivolous impious and Atheistical Disputes may flesh and blood and carnal reason move about the actings of God that hath not learned to resolve all his wonderful actings into these two great principles his Power and Will That he created all things with the word of his mouth of nothing is no scruple if we resolve it into his Power And that he took six days to do it who could have done it in a moment is as little if we resolve it into his Will That he was not weary with doing so great a work it is no scruple if we resolve it into his Power And that he rested though he were not weary is as little if we resolve it into his Will And therefore how can we better begin our discourse about the matter we are upon viz. his creating all things by his word and yet taking six days to do it and his not being weary with so great a work and yet resting though he were not weary than by adoration of his Power and Will And therefore as David for all his hast of fleeing from Absalom yet when he came to the top of the Mount Olivet he worshipped God 2 Sam. XV. 32. So let us make so much a stop in the current of our discourse as to give the Lord his due of his power and pleasure before we go further And that let us do in the words and Oh! that we might ever do it in the devotion of the four and twenty Elders Revel IV. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created All Israel hears more Divinity and Philosophy in these few words In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day c. than all the great wisdom and philosophy of the Heathen was able to spell out in a thousand years Some of them were so wide from knowing that the world was made by God that they thought it was never made at all but was Eternal and never had beginning Others that it was a God it self and made it self Others that it grew together at hap hazzard of Atomes or motes flying up and down which at last met and conjoyned in this fabric of the world which we behold So blind is sinful man to the knowledge of his Creator if he have no better eys and light to look after him by than his own Israel hath a Divine light here held out before them whereby they see and learn in these few words That the World was not Eternal but had a beginning and that it was made and that it made not it self but was made by God that it was not jumbled together by hap hazzard of I know not What and I know not How but that God made it in six days That which God speaks so short here Moses afterward when he set pen to paper to write his books enlarges upon and tells you in the beginning of Genesis in what manner God proceeded in this great work and what he created every day With that you see the Bible begins the story of the Creation the proper foundation that every Scholar should say of his learning there namely to know his Creator and to know of whom and through whom are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen as the Apostle devoutly Rom. XI 36. Let us consider the two things severally That God made Heaven and Earth and secondly That he made them in six days When I look up to Heaven the work of thy fingers the Moon and Stars which thou hast I. ordained I say saith David What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him We may also say upon such a prospect Oh! what is God what a divine and infinite power and wisdom and glory that made so great so beautiful so stately a fabrick Our God made the Heavens is the Israelites plea against the Gods of the Heathen pittiful pieces of wood and stone that could neither see nor hear nor smel nor stir but Our God made the Heavens There is a passage very remarkable Jer. X. 11. Thus shall ye say to them the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these Heavens That verse is in the Chaldee Tongue whereas every clause of his book besides is Hebrew and not a Syllable of Chaldee in it And what is the reason The people were ere long to be captived into Chaldea and when they came there the Chaldees would be ready to be perswading them to worship their Gods Poor Israel new come thither could not speake their Language nor dispute the case with them in their own Tongue Therefore the Lord by the Prophet puts so much Chaldee into their mouths as to make a profession of their own God and to deride and curse the others Your Gods made not Heaven and Earth and therefore shall perish from the Earth and be confounded but Our God made the Heavens O! what an excellent
study is it to study God as the great Maker of Earth and Heaven to look seriously upon this great Fabric the Variety Order Beauty of the Creatures and deeply to think what kind of thing is God that made all these things with the word of his mouth How great dreadful terrible is the Creator with whom we have to do Study upon the first verse of Genesis God created the Heavens and the Earth And can you find it otherwise there than that he did that in a moment that in an instant in the twinkling of an eye he made these two parts of the world Center and Circumference spread out this great Canopy over us like a Curtain and hung this vast Ball upon which we tread upon nothing both at once and both in a moment Oh! what an amazing power is here to think of Oh! what a God have we to deal withall How can this God crush a sinner check the pride and presumption of wicked dust and ashes when he can do such wondrous and incomprehensible things as these How can this God create comforts to a poor afflicted child of his own How can he find out means to deliver and releive a poor distressed Saint that puts his trust in him when with a word he can make a world nay if he had pleased could have made a thousand Such use and other might we make of the study of our Creator and his creating And O! that he that created us and all things would create in us frequent solid meditations of him and of his mighty power and working whereby he made all things of nothing It was once questioned by one What did God before he made the world And answered by another He created Hell for curious and impertinent enquirers It was once asked by another With what instruments tools and engines did God make the world if he made it His own Spirit gives answer to this By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made c. But we may not unusefully and unchristianly move this question Wherefore was it that God made the world The Scripture answers this too Prov. XVI 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself Rev. IV. 11. For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created But this leaves us to our inquiring still viz. In what sense to understand his making all things for himself and what his Will and pleasure aimed at Did God create Creatures because he had need of Creatures Did he make the Heavens because he wanted a House for himself And the Earth because he could not be without Tenants in those tenements below And the nayl of this question might be driven further why did he make this world seeing he will mar it in time and bring it to desolation Why made he millions of men whose end proves to be damned for ever Had it not been as good this house of the Universe had never been as to be built and to be fired and burnt down again Had it not been better for millions that they had never been born than to be born and brought into the world for a little time and then to be damned to Eternity But O vain man who art thou that disputest against God Shall the pot or vessel say to him that made it why madest thou me thus or why at all For his will and pleasure were all things made and it is not fit to dispute his will or pleasure that could make all things But that we may receive satisfaction in this poynt and that we may not be ignorant of so great a matter as the reason why God made the world First we may resolve it without any sticking that he that created all things stood in need of nothing and that gave being to all needed not any thing from the Creature to amend his own well-being That is a most just challenge of all the world if it can to shew that God is beholden to any or had ever need of any the Apostle makes it Rom. XI 35 36. Who hath been the Lords Councellor to teach him or who hath first given to him c. But Secondly We may give him that for a proper and direct reason of Gods creating all things which the Apostle says Rom. IX 23. That he might make known the riches of his glory viz. That he might glorifie himself and that he might impart of his own riches to his Creature It might almost be questioned whether God could choose but create the world not to put a necessity or compulsion upon God who doth freely whatever he doth and hath no other tie upon him for his actings than his own Will But in regard of that infinite goodness that is in God could that do other than flow out upon the Creature God from all Eternity dwelt in and with himself blessed ever blessed in the enjoyment of himself and needed nothing beside himself But could that infinite Ocean of goodness that was in him be kept within those bounds of self enjoyment and not communicate it self to the Creature A lively full flowing fountain cannot contain its ever-flowing waters within its own brims but it must flow out to refresh and water the places that are about it The Sun cannot keep its light and heat within it self but must impart it to the world We shall not impose any such necessity upon God as he hath done upon these Creatures And yet if we should say God the everlasting fountain of Being of Goodness could not but impart Being and his Goodness to Creatures this would speak no imperfection in God but his infinite perfection But we will take the thing up in terms of Scripture He was willing to make known his goodness it was his pleasure to create the world that he might communicate the riches of his glory God would give being to Creatures that he might glorifie his own being would communicate of his goodness to his Creatures that he might glorifie his own goodness So all terminates and centers in that great end his own glory He created the world to glorifie his power gave being to Creatures that he might glorifie his own being shews goodness to them that he may glorifie his own goodness and receive glorifying from them And at last will destroy the world to glorifie his power and justice damn the wicked to glorifie his truth and justice and glorifie his Saints to glorifie his grace So that God made all things for himself that is for his own glory doth all things for his own glory created thee me and all flesh that he might reap glory from us But let us consider of the second thing as it tends to the End of this Command II. the setting forth the reason of the Institution of the Sabbath That he created all things in six days And what needed he take six days that could have done all in a moment He had as little need to take time for his work as he had of the
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 âickleness 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
need of Explication to bring it to common reason or Analogy of Faith The course I shall take in Explication of it shall first be to clear it from that meaning that is improper and offensive and that carries not probability with it and then to unfold the proper and genuine meaning of it I. The general interpretation of it in the Church of Rome is That his Soul really and I. locally descended into the place of torment but upon some other errand namely as they themselves express it That Christ in his Soul went to Hell to deliver the Patriarchs and all just men there holden in bondage till his death So the Rhemists on Act. II. 27. To this they apply Eph. IV. 9. Now he that ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the Earth Where the same Rhemists He meaneth specially of his descending into Hell Likewise they apply to the same sense 1 Pet. III. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in prison And there they go further and say that Christ also preached in Hell and delivered some thence that had been there since the days of Noah Some that were good men but had not believed Noah his word about the flood but when they saw it come believed and were sorry for their error and indeed died by the flood corporally but in the state of salvation and being chastised in the next life for their unbelief were delivered by Christs descending thither Do you not see plainly whither all this ado tends Namely To prove their Purgatory and to maintain the profit they get by it The Doctrine of which business is this That some dying not so bad as to be damned yet not so absolutely good yet as to go to Heaven are sent to Purgatory and there their sins scoured away by fire and torment yet some after an hundred some after two hundred years c. go to Heaven but that the Pope by his power and the Priests by their singing Masses and Dirges can bring them out sooner than otherwise their time should be And hence so vast revenues have been bestowed upon their Monasteries Chappels and Chanteries upon this reason that the Priests there should say Masses and use Dirges and Prayers for the Souls of the Founders to deliver them out of Purgatory And thus they make this Article of Christs descent a matter rather of Profit than of Faith of Mony rather than of Edification And were not profit or worldly advantage in the Wind there would never be such strugling with them to maintain points against reason and religion as there is Some Protestants hold Local descent but under another notion viz. That Christ went to triumph over the Devils and damned To which opinion viz. The Local ascent to speak in gross and to these particular reasons of it First Let us take up the two places last alledged for the first I shall take up afterwards Ephes. IV. 9. Now that he ascended what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the Earth Where it is first observable that they conclude Hell to be under the Earth or within it which is a fancy of the Heathen Poets and others that concluded both the place of torment and of happiness to be down in the Earth These men have learned from Scripture that the place of the blessed is above in Heaven and so they refuse that part of the Heathens opinion but retain the other that Hell is under ground Upon what ground who can shew It is neither agreeable to reason nor at all to Scripture Not to reason to imagine a place under ground to be a place for Souls and Spirits which are so far from an earthly substance Not to Scripture which tells us Ephes. II. 2. That the Devil is the Prince of the Air and not dwelling under ground That tells us Rev. XIV 10. That the damned are tormented before the Angels and before the Throne of the Lamb not in the bottom of the Earth or under ground And time will be when there will be no Earth at all and where will Hell be found then May we never know where the place of Hell is but certainly it is a most sensless and irrational thing to hold it to be within this Earth And to take up the words of the Apostle he speaks of Christs ascending and descending And whence did Christ ascend to Heaven Not from Hell but from off the Earth Act. I. And what then means his descending but from Heaven to Earth And whereas he saith To the lower parts of the Earth he compares Earth to Heaven not Earth with it self As if he should say He descended from Heaven to these lower parts of the Earth to dwell among men as the Scripture doth generally expound his descending from Heaven in such a sense 1 Pet. III. 19. By which he went and preached to the Spirits in prison It is plain here S. Peter speaks of Christs preaching by his Spirit in the mouth and Ministry of Noah As I have somewhere explained it These Texts thus spoken to whereby they would prove Christ descended into Hell to preach to and deliver Souls now let us take their opinion in pieces and consider them several And first comes to be observed how improbable ridiculous and irreligious an opinion it is to conceive that the Patriarchs were in Limbo Dato uno absurdo multa sequuntur Yield one absurdity and many more follow So grant this and these rough and rugged absurdities follow 1. That it was almost four thousand years before any Soul went to Heaven Christ died Anno Mundi MMMDCCCCLX but forty short of four thousand and is it not absurd to think Heaven empty all that while At the Creation the Earth the Air the Waters were filled with Inhabitants and Heaven to be a Tenement that stood empty Sure God was a very hard Landlord that would take in no Tenant of so long a time 2. It is as absurd a thing to think a Thief should be the first that went to Heaven For by this Opinion the good Thief did so The house to stand long empty and a Thief that repents but at the last gasp taken in first and Abraham Isaac and Jacob not yet entertained nor admitted there Publicans and Harlots shall enter in before you Yes before you Scribes and Pharisees that shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven against your selves But for Abraham and Moses and the other antient Prophets and good men that sought after Heaven all their time to be shut out and a Thief and a Robber let in before them this is hardly hansom to conceive 3. It is an absurd thing that Abraham while he lived should be a friend of God converse with God entertain God at his Table and when he is dead he is become a meer stranger to God thrust into a hole where there is no sight of God no communion with him but God and Abraham now are
their character of Hades 1. They thought it was a place under the Earth And the reason is because they thought none went to Heaven but those that were to be gods all others went to Hades Hence Aeneas and Ulysses went down into the Earth to the World of Souls there to confer with some dead friends Hence the cheat of the Devil to bring Ghosts as ascending out of the Earth 1 Sam. XXVIII 13. 2. This place of Souls had two parts viz. Elysium and Tartarus and those parted with a deep gulph of a deadly River and that from one side they could see and talk to the other According to this common opinion Christ frames his Parable Luke XVI 23. He in Hades in the place of torment looks over the gulph and talks with Abraham So that both good and bad when dead went to Hades the good to the place of rest and delight the bad to the place of sorrow and pain So the Greek Poet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Both go to Hades c. Lazarus went to Hades and so did the rich man too but to contrary conditions IV. In this sense then is the Article to be taken as speaking according to the common notion That Christs Soul went to Hades to the other World to the place where good Souls went which Scripture hath taught us is Heaven The word Hell now is come to signifie only the place of torment but of old it signified larger as the word Hades does and by the Greek word and its signification we must construe it Let me give you a word parallel The word Knave is now taken only in a bad sense of old it signified a Servant So some old Translations express A Servant of the Lord by A Knave of the Lord. When we read that we do not construe it by the present sense of the word but by the old and by the original Hebrew So when in this Article we read the word Hell we must not construe it according to our present common acceptation but as of old it signified the place and state of all Souls departed And so in this Article there are these three Doctrines comprised I. That Christ had a true humane Soul like other men Like to us he had a Soul that was reasonable that inlivened the Body that was whole in it and not the Divinity that inlivened and actuated his Body II. That when Christ died there was a real separation of Soul and Body as it is with other men The Soul slept not with the Body but was separate from it Though it was to come into the Body again yet it forsook the Body and was separate III. As soon as it was departed it went into another World of Souls to a place where holy Souls go viz. to Heaven And there continued till it was to return to the Body It was in Paradise all the while the Body was in the grave Object Is this the meaning of Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell or Hades If Hades mean Paradise why should Christ pray against being left in Hades My Flesh shall rest in hope that it shall not be left in Hades and hopes he not that his Soul shall not be left in Hades as he hopes his Body shall not see corruption Answer He doth not pray thus as if it were not well with his Soul in Hades as to what it enjoyed but that it was not well while separate from the Body for that it was while Christ was under death As if he should say Thou wilt not leave me under death my Soul in separation This would be the Triumph of the Devil Observe Christs Soul was in glory the while his Body was in the Grave and yet desires to return to the Body Why That he may finish the work of God by his Resurrection to conquer death As I said It is Hell to the Devil not to be doing evil so it is Heaven to Christ to do the Will of God He left the bosom of the Father to come into the World and when his Soul was in the bosom of his Father again in those joys that are not expressible yet it would rather do the work of God Ask a Soul there wouldest thou be on Earth again No. But wouldest thou be on Earth to do God service there Yes it is as Heaven to be doing any thing for God Ubi Imperator ibi Roma Where the Emperor is there is Rome so wheresoever a man can please God it is Heaven to him Here is the happiness of Saints in Heaven that their Will is wholly swallowed up in the Will of God It is a question where Lazarus his Soul was while he was four days dead Why undoubtedly no where but in Heaven But the reason of the objection is Because it was but a wrong or misery to his Soul to send it from Heaven again Blessed Soul dost thou think so No any thing to obey the Will of God So the Soul of Christ was in glory in the midst of unspeakable joys yet he would not have it continue there till the work of God was done Soul thou art well be content keep in Paradise still let the Body lye in the Grave it feels not hurt Ah! but all this while Satan Death is not conquered Gods cause is not pleaded and finished let that work first be done and then both to glory That that I speak to and that that the Article aims at is that Christ had a humane Soul like other men but that not sinful and that it departed as the Souls of other men Some on Gen. I. 26 27. And God said Let us make man in our image say God set Christ before him and made man after the image of Christ as though they would say God made the first Adam in the image of the second whereas we should say the contrary God made the second Adam in the image of the first So Phil. II. 7 8. He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man c. Not man at first created in the likeness of Christ but Christ was brought into the World in the likeness of man And how Christs Soul was like other mens I shall observe to you in three things I. In its infusion into the Body II. In its existence and acting in the Body III. In its going out of the Body Men saw his Body like other mens and in these his Soul shewed it self like other mens also I. By its infusion or induction into the Body But here you will say the Copy is darker than to know what to write after it It is controverted how Souls are put into the Body and there are two mistakes about it viz. Praeexistence and Generation which this may rectisie Some hold Praeexistence of Souls that they were created at the beginning of the World and put in at last into Bodies And
Gygantick Canaanites for the use of war 88 89 Dependance upon God for Life and Being is to be owned and acknowledged by all good Christians 1205 1206 Descent of Christ into Hell the improper meaning as to what the Church of Rome understands by it p. 1341 1347. His Descent into Hell is supposed by some to be the Torments he suffered on the Cross. Destruction of Jerusalem is frequently exprest in Scripture as if it were the Destruction of the whole World 244 Devil how he is the Prince of this World p. 591 592. The sin of the Devil what it was p. 198. How he deceived the Nations or Heathen before the Gospel p. 1171. How when and why and how long let loose by Christ. p. 1172 1173 1174. He is called the Angel of death by the Jews p. 1299. The end for which Christ bound the Devil a Thousand years p. 1233. The Gospel was the chain with which he was bound p. 1233 The Devil is denominated That wicked one why 1306 Devilishness how much thereof the Devil can infuse into Mans nature with the reason of it 1308 1309 Devils were cast out by one that did not follow Christ how possible p. 346. Devils called Angels how Saints shall Judge them p. 754. Angels put for Devils 773. The Souls of Men are in a better state than Devils p. 1302 The sin of the Devils is wretched beyond pardon 1305 Dew of Christ is his quickening Power 691 Dialect the Dialect of the Galileans differed much from the Dialect of the Jews 78 79 Didrachma Tribute mony two things perswade that it was the half Shekel paid yearly in the Temple 211 212 Diet a Diet was thirty Miles 319 Diocletian the Emperor was once Diclot the keeper of Hogs 7 Dipping in Baptism indeavoured to be laid aside because it caused the Women of Galilee to grow barren p. 121 122. Why sprinkling was used in stead of dipping 121 Disciple and Singular what They are terms sometimes confounded and sometimes distinguished 433 Disciples of Christ mentioned by the Talmudists p. 171. Why they were twelve and for what end they were chosen 174 Disciples or Learners after the days of Rabban Gamaliel did use to sit while they were instructed p 395 396. They had power to ask the Doctors any questions as they went along in their Expositions and Lectures 396 Discoursing the dead discoursing one among another and also with those that were alive was the opinion of the Jews 457 Diseases grievous attributed usually by the Jews to evil Spirits p. 211. Diseases were supposed by the Jews to be inflicted by the Devil 441 Disputes the power and will of God being well understood and submitted to take off abundance of carnal Atheistical Disputes 1320 1321 Divinity the Mystery of it not contrary to reason how to be understood 1103 Divorces what among the Jews p. 146 147. A Bill of Divorce its manner of giving with a Copy of such a Bill how confirmed how delivered p. 147 148. Christ permits not Divorce except in the case of Adultry 148 Doctors of the Law were of several sorts p. 421. What 434 Dogs and Swine were forbidden the Jews with the Reasons thereof p. 168. Dogs put for Gentiles or Heathens Page 202 Doors and Gates lying on the North-side of the Temple what 32 Dositheus or Dosthes was a famous Seducer of the Samaritans 483 504 Dowery in the donation of it the Galileans differed from the Jews 77 78 Drachm what 468 Dreams none in the World more fond of dreams than the Jews using art to make themselves dream and nice Rules of interpreting dreams p. 243. Dreams some were strange and odd 1257 Drink the Jewish Doctors say that to drink a Quart of Wine makes one drunk so much every one of them drank in their sacred Feasts judge then how soberly they carried it in those Feasts if they mingled not much Water with their Wine p. 61. This is proved in Rabban Gamaliel 61 Drinking and Eating used frequently in a metaphorical sense by the Jews p. 553 554. Drinking the Blood and eating the Flesh of Christ is of necessity Metaphorical 553 554 Drunk Vide Drink Dumb such Persons were unfit to Sacrifice c. 210 384 Dust white Dust for Potters Clay c. 12 Dust of the Feet what it was to shake it off 179 Dying called Martyrdom for others to save their Country what 326 E. EARTH and Heaven made by God and wherefore he made them 1321 Eating and Drinking commonly used in a Metaphorical sense by the Jews 553 554 Eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ must of necessity be Metaphorically understood 553 554 Ebal how far from Jordan p. 79 80. Ebal Mount its situation 505 Fedippa formerly called Chezib and Achzib the name of a place 61 Edom rendred Rome 292 Edomites rendred Romans 292 Egypt was full of Jews there they had a Temple and all their Offices and Ordinances 111 112 Elder a Title proper to Saint John 337 Elders Chief Priests and Scribes how distinguished p. 469. Elders ordained by whom and how p. 686. They were to judge in Pecuniary Affairs 755 Elect what it signified and who they were 1146 Election admits not of magis and minus 1147 Elements used for Mosaick Rites 626 Elias the frequent appearance of him we meet with in the Writings of the Jews were either Stories or Diabolical Apparitions p. 129. His coming how vain the expectation of it was among the Jews the Ends also of his expected coming as they propose them what p 209 c. They looked for his coming before the Messias p. 210. Elias put for John the Baptist. 382 383 Elijah put for John the Baptist. 382 383 Elizabeth why she hid her self when with child 1220 Elymas and Barjesus the reason of the two Names for the same Person and what they both signifie 687 1192 Emims what 363 Emmaus six Furlongs from Jerusalem p. 42. What p. 293. It was from Jerusalem seven Miles and an half the same with Nicopolis p. 371. It s situation p. 372 373 Encoenia or the Feasts of Dedication So the Feast of Dedication among the Jews why called Lights It was kept for eight days all over the Land Page 576 577 578 Enchantments there were hardly any People in the World that more used Enchantments than the Jews p. 243. Which consisted in Amulets Charms Mutterings and Exorcisms p. 243. So skilful were they in Conjurings Enchantments and Sorceries that they wrought great signs and wonders and many Villanies by them p. 244. Hence arose false Christs p. 244. Some sort of Hereticks used Enchantments or Sorceries to cause Men to follow them 497 End and Beginning as referring to things to be debated or explained what p. 565 566. End of all things and of the World put for the end of the Jewish State 1074 Engedi is ill placed in the Maps p. 7. Engedi is Hazezon Tamar 296 Enmity why the Lord put Emnity between Man and Devil 1171 Ephraim a Town so called p. 49
Hellenists p. 808. By what Authors and Counsels it might probably be that the Greek Version came forth which obtains under the name of the Seventy performed with more craft than Conscience why therefore did the Apostles and Evangelists use it 809 to 811 Greeks and Hebrews who properly so called p. 659 660. The Gentiles were called Greeks by the Jews and why p. 704. The Greeks call all Countries but their own Barbarians 704 Guph or Goph a place where the Jews did suppose that Souls did Pre-exist 569 H. HADES what in the opinion of the Heathen World p. 1351. If Hades mean Paradise why should Christ pray against it Page 1352 Hair long Hair divers Nations did wear long Hair p. 774. The Nazarites also wore long Hair among which number Absolom was one p. 774. Why the Nazarites let their hair grow long p. 774. The Jews cut their hair very often especially ever before a Feast 774 Hallell the great Hallel what p. 223 224. Hallel the Hymn that was sung at the Passover what p. 353 354. The Great Hallel and Hymn that was sung at the close of every Passover whence taken and how it was sung p. 444 445. Hallel an Hymn or Song made up of six Psalms 560 hands the plunging and washing them what and how they differ p. 344 345. The laying of Hands upon the Sacrifice what and for what end 531 Harvest Seed-time Plowing Sowing Mowing Dressing of Vines and all the management of the Gardens Grounds Fields and Vineyards lay in the Hands of the Fathers of the Traditions so that the Country-man did none of these things but by the Traditional Rule p. 87 88. Harvest and Seed-time were early among the Jews p. 184 185. When 543 544 Hatred we are to hate no Man in the World 1300 Hauran what the Name and where the Place 364 365 Hazerim the Region of the Avites it was a part of new Idumea 29â Hazezon Tamar in Engedi Page 296 Head covered shewed humility reverence shame c. uncovered confidence not fearful not ashamed c. 769. 770 Heart its hardness what 217 Hearts Tongues and Actions of Men can be and are overpowered by the Spirit of God so as to serve the design of God's glory 1290 1291 1292 Heathenism from whence it sprung 644 Heathens how the Jews esteem them 215 Heaven put for God very usual in the Jewish Dialect p. 114. What Saints in Heaven do referring to Saints or Sinners on Earth p. 1268. Heaven and Earth made by God and wherefore he made them 1321 1322 Hebrew was not the Jews Mother-Tongue in the time of the Apostles but the Syriac p. 101 to 104. The Hebrew Letter was the Original Letter of the Law p. 138 139. Whether the Text be corrupted p. 139 140. Hebrew Language put for the Chaldee Language 543 544 Hebrew Bible some would have it corrected by the Greek Version and contend that those Interpreters were inspired p. 710 711 712. Hebrew Bible read in the Synagogues of the Hebrews p. 802. The Jews thought not so honourably of any Version as they did of the Hebrew Bible 803 804 805 Hebrew Text added to by the Greek Version and Chaldie Paraphrast 707 Hebrew Tongue contained all the Things of true Religion all other Languages at Babel wanted them from whence sprung Heathenism p. 644. What Language was the Hebrew Tongue in the time of the Apostles p. 658 c. The Syriack or Armenian under the second Temple was that which went under the Name of the Hebrew p. 659. Both Hebrew and Greek Tongues were native to some Jews p. 661. Hebrew Tongue or Language was used by the Jews in reading the Scripture Prayers and Preaching and so it s supposed the Corinthian Church did though the common People of the one and the other did not understand it 783 784 787 Hebrews or the Land of the Hebrews was so called from Heber from the confusion of Tongues p. 327. Hebrews and Greeks who properly so called p. 659 to 662. Hebrews or Jews and Hellenists distinguished with the reason of the distinction p. 798. Hebrews in Babilon and the adjacent Countries were supposed by the Jews to be vastly numerous and of a purer and more noble blood than those that went up from Babilon p. 799. They had three Universities in Babilon the Ten Tribes also were placed there and in Assyria 800 801 Hebron the situation of it and the reason of its name 46 47 Hell called by the name of Gehinnon and Gehenna why p. 141. The Jews say that there are eight Doors of Gehenna p. 141. Christ's descent into Hell the improper meaning as what the Church of Rome understood by it p. 1341 to 1347. Some Protestants hold his local descent into Hell but not as the Papists do p. 1341. Christs descent into Hell is supposed by some to be the torments he suffered on the Cross. p. 1347. It s impossible Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the Damned p. 1350. What is the meaning of Christ's descent into Hell p. 1350 c. Hell did once signifie the same with Hades now it is only used for the Place of Torment 1350 Hellenists were Jews that were scattered among the Greeks and used their Tongue p. 558. Hellenists whether Jews or no p. 659 660 661. Hellenists and Hebrews or Jews distinguished with the reason of the distinction 798 Helps were such as accompanied the Apostles and Baptised such as were converted by them 781 Heresies why Saint Paul says they must be whence is the unhappy necessity of them p. 1279 1280. The immediate Causes and Originals of Heresies what p. 1280 Popery Socinianism and Quakerism are great Heresies Page 1280 1281 Hereticks some sort of them used Sorcery or Enchantments to cause Men to follow them p. 497. There were Hereticks in the days of Ezra which said there was no world but this 702 Hermite or Eremite denotes a Country-man more properly than one that lives in a Desart 113 Hermon the same say some with the Mountain of Snow 62 Herod his manner of rise from a servant to a King p. 109. His Dominion enlarged 361 c. Herodians the rise of them and what they were 229 Herodium a Palace or Castle built by Herod near the Moabitish Arabia 500 High Places built up to Idols and the same also to God 718 High Priest whether sometimes there were not two High Priests p. 397. High Priest and the President of the Sanhedrim compared together the High Priest shewed to be the greater Officer p. 681. How he prepared himself with the help of others for the day of Attonement 554 555 High Priesthood and other Priesthood only differed in two things p. 585. High Priesthood lost from one family to another when 1218 High Priest's Office often possessed by unlearned Men and often bought 508 Hippo the very same with Susitha p. 68 70. Where 309 Historian officiousness a great fault in an Historian 1142 1143 History Ecclesiastical History very subject
Adam was the light that all holy men from Adam forward looked after and walked by And that light shone in the darkness of mans now sinful and undone condition That light shone in the darkness before the Law when their was no light of a Law but what was written in the heart of man That light shone in the darkness of the Types and Figures that were in the Law when the Law was given And that light shone in the darkness and obscurities of the cloudy Prophesies of the Prophets And at last it shone out fully without any darkness at his coming in the Gospel and that at verse the ninth was the true light that inlightneth every man that came into the world that inlightneth the Gentiles even all the World So that all along even from the first day of Adam under the various administrations in which it pleased God to carry on this Light this was the life and light of men None but Christ none but Christ. They that went before him before the Law and under the Law and they that come after under the Gospel crying Hosanna to him expecting and finding Salvation from him III. And this leads me to the third thing we are to speak of viz. Christs entertaining all his that thus under these several Administrations believed in him in his Fathers house in Salvation and Eternity I at the last he did so will the Romanist say but first by your leave were all the believers before Christ came entertained in Limbo Truly very course entertainment when the good men had served God all the day and at night should have received their wages there was yet none for them but they must to Limbo and wait yet it may be two or three thousand years and then they shall be paid Poor Abel served his Master faithfully and truly all his time dies in his Masters service and for his Masters sake and when he comes to expect his reward in Heaven no Abel thou must to Limbo and there stay till Christ come and fetch thee out about three thousand five hundred years after thou comest thither Very hard payment And a strange business that Abraham whilst he lived should converse with God as a friend and walk and talk with him and entertain God at his Table and when he is dead he is become a mere stranger to God thrust into a hole in Limbo where no light of God no communion with him at all but God and Abraham are now mere strangers Such mad absurdities doth the limiting of the Spirit and operation of Christ to the bodily presence of Christ produce and bring into the World Such is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and such this of Limbo Transubstantiation that maintains that there is no receiving Christ virtually in the Sacrament unless we receive him bodily his very flesh and blood And this of Limbo that none went to Heaven till Christ went in his real presence to Limbo after his Death to fetch them thence and bring them to Glory I had thought Abraham had been in glory before For when Christ before his death doth propose that parable of Abraham in joys and Lazarus in his bosom certainly he is proposed not as being in Limbo but in Heaven And when Moses appears to Christ in Glory Luke IX 31. do you think he came out of Limbo in that glory But what need I trouble you with the confutation of such absurdities If it be the Spirit and Power of Christ that operates for mans Salvation and not his bodily presence if it be the fruit and effect of Faith to unite to Christ and to bring into the enjoyment of all the benefits of Christ grace and glory and if all the holy ones under those various administrations before the Law under the Law and under the Gospel had such faith in Christ what doubt can be made of their Salvation when they died and that they were received and entertained by Christ in the Mansions of his Fathers house The last word You in the Text I suppose is that where the Emphasis especially lies I go to prepare a place for you as I have prepared place for others before you for Enoch Abraham c. before the Law for Moses Aaron Joshua David c. under the Law I am now going also to prepare a place for you and there is place for you that are come under an administration clean different from all theirs For in my Fathers house are many mansions Being then to speak of Christs entertaining all his in Heaven let me begin my discourse with sursum Corda Christians lift up your hearts that that you have to look after is above It is the Voice of my beloved I am going to prepare for you in my Fathers house O my soul look not after any lower preparation The husks and draff of this World is not the provision that Christ makes for his And why should I feed upon Onyions and Garlick when if I will seek after it there is Manna enough for me the food of Angels I am going to prepare a place for you in my Fathers house is a word that might make a Soul never to be quiet till it come there and that might make it to scorn and slight all this trash here below in reaching out and breathing after the provisions that are there Lift up your heads and hearts ye afflicted and dejected and despised servants of the Lord Jesus though your bread here be bread of affliction and you mingle your drink with weeping though ye walk in hunger and poverty under derision and persecution and trouble though oppressed afflicted tormented yet here is enough to make amends in the end for all I go to prepare for you Be content with your dinner of bitter herbs and sower sauce apud superos coenaturi there is a supper provided for you in eternal mansions What entertainment Jew and Millenary look for in Christs personal reign upon Earth let them enjoy when they can meet with it but if you be risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God preparing for you Let us begin at the lowest step of Jacobs ladder and climb up gradatim to the top of it where it is lodged in Heaven First This World is not a place for Christs entertaining of His as it proved but a course Entertainment of Christ when he was here My Kingdom saith he is not of this World nor indeed can it be let Jew and Millenary conceit what they please For observe that passage in III. Gen. 17. where as soon as Adam is fallen the Earth is cursed Cursed be the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it Did I say as soon as he was fallen the Earth is cursed I should rather say as soon as Christ is promised the Earth is cursed for there is as proper a connexion between those two as between his fall and that curse Christ is promised and the Earth is