so long ago that he had now found some just cause so much time intervening to steer his course another way For 2. It appears that when he wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews he intended very shortly to set for Iudaea if so be he sent the Epistle to the Jews of Iudaea as hath been shewed most probable he did So that trace him in his intentions and hopes and you finde him purposing to go to Philippi Phil. 2.23 24. Nay yet further to Colosse Philem. ver 22. Nay yet further into Iudaea It is like that the Apostacy and wavering that he heard of in the Eastern Churches shewed him more need to hasten thither then to go westward 3. He waited a little to see whether Timothy now inlarged would come to him in that place of Italy where he now was which if he did he intended to bring him along with him but whether they met and travelled together or what further became of either of them we shall not go about to trace lest seeking after them we lose our selves CHRIST LXIII NERO. IX IT hath been observed before how probable it is that Albinus came into the government of Iudea in Festus room in this ninth year of Nero. And if so then was Iames the Apostle who was called Iames the lesse martyred this year Iosephus gives the story of this Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. Caesar saith he understanding the death of Festus sendeth Albinus governour into Iudea And the King Agrippa put Ioseph from the Highpriesthood and conferred it upon Ananus the sonne of Ananus Now this Ananus junior was extreme bold and daring and he was of the sect of the Saduces which in judging are most cruell of any of the Iews Ananus therefore being such aâ—one and thinking he had got a fit opportunity because Festus was dead and Albinus was not yet come he gets together a Councill and bringing before it Iames the brother of Iesus who was called Christ and some others as transgressors he delivered them up to be stoned But those in the City that were more moderate and best skilled in the Laws took this ill and sent to the King privately beseeching him to charge Ananus that he should do so no more And some of them met Albinus as he came from Alexandria and shewed him how it was not lawfull for Ananus to call a Councill without his consent Whereupon he writeth a threatning Letter to Ananus And King Agrippa for this fact put him from the Highpriesthood when he had held it but three moneths and placed Iesus the sonne of Damneas in his room THE EPISTLE OF IAMES Although therefore the certain time of his writing this Epistle cannot be discovered yet since he died in the year that we are upon we may not unproperly look upon it as written not very long before his death And that the rather because by an expression or two he intimates the vengeance of Ierusalem drawing very near Chap. 5.8 9. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh and Behold the Iudge standeth before the door He being the Apostle residentiary of the Circumcision in Iudea could not but of all others be chiefly in the eyes of those that maliced the Gospel there and the Ministers of it So it could not but be in his eye to observe those tokens growing on apace that his Master had spoken of as the forerunners and forwarders of that destruction coming False Prophets Iniquity abounding Love waxing cold betraying and undoing one another that he could not but very surely conclude that the Judge and judgement was not far from the door Among other things that our Saviour foretelleth should precede that destruction this was one Matth. 24.14 This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse unto all Nations and then shall the end come And so did the Gospel reach all the twelve Tribes as well as other Nations even the ten Tribes as well as the other two Therefore Iames a Minister of the Circumcision doth properly direct this Epistle to all the twelve Tribes scattered abroad The whole Nation was at this time some at the very height of unbelief and crossenesse against the Gospel and others at the very depth of suffering for it therefore he comforts the one Chap. 1. and denounceth their just doom against the other Chap. 4 and 5. He striveth to beat down four things especially which were not only unbecoming the Christian profession but even enemies against it The first was estimating men according to their gorgeous outside and so the poor preachers and professors of the Gospel were contemned Secondly Their having many masters or teachers whereby errours and schismes were easily scattered and planted among them and much mischief done by unbridled tongues Thirdly Their reliance upon their historicall faith they thinking that enough and neglecting to bring forth the fruits of a faith saving and lively And lastly Their common and vain oaths to which the Jewish nation and that by the lenity and toleration of their own Canons was exceeding loose In the close of the Epistle he speaketh of the Elders anointing the sick with oyl Chap. 5.14 which may receive some explication from these things observed in their own writings 1. That anointing with oyl was an ordinary medicinall application to the sick Talm. Jerus in Baracoth fol. 3. col 1. R. Simeon the sonne of Eleazar permitted R. Meir to mingle wine and oyl and to anoint the sick on the Sabbath And he was once sick and we sought to do so to him but he suffered us not Id. in Maasar Sheni fol. 53. col 3. A tradition Anointing on the Sabbath is permitted If his headake or if a scall come upon it he anoints with oyl Talm. Bab. in Joma fol. 77.2 If he be sick or scall be upon his head he anoints according to his manner c. Now if we take the Apostles counsell as referring to this medicinall practice we may construe it that he would have this Physicall administration to be improved to the best advantage namely that whereas Anointing with oyl was ordinarily used to the sick by way of Physick he adviseth that they should send for the Elders of the Church to do it not that the anointing was any more in their hand then in anothers as to the thing it self for it was still but a Physicall application but that they with the applying of this corporall Physick might also pray with and for the patient and apply the spirituall Physick of good admonition and comforts to him Which is much the same as if in our Nation where this physicall anointing is not so in use a sick person should send for the Minister at taking of any Physick that he might pray with him and counsell and comfort him Or 2. It was very common among the Jews to use charming and anointing together of persons that were sick of certain maladies of this the Ierus Talm. speaketh in Schab fol. 14. col 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Amen Min Ne was full of Israelites double the number of those that came out of Egypt c. But they were all slain by Alexander But after this it was re-peopled again from the time of Onias who built there a great Temple and an Altar and all the men of Egypt went thither c. And there was a great Congregation there double to the number of those that came out of Egypt Fol. 14. Of this Temple built by Onias in Egypt Iosephus maketh mention Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 6. And the Talmud in Menacheth cap. 13. So that Christ being sent into Egypt was sent among his own Nation who had filled that Countrey The time that he was in Egypt was not above three or four moneths so soon the Lord smote Herod for his butchery of the innocent children and murtherous intent against the Lord of Life Ioseph and Mary being called out of Egypt after Herods death intend for Iudaea again thinking to go to Bethlehem but the fear of Archelaus and the warning of an Angel directs them into Galilee They knew not but that Christ was to be educated in Bethlehem as he was to be born there therefore they kept him there till he was two years old and durst not take him thence till fear and the warrant of an Angel dismisseth them into Egypt And when they come again from thence they can think of no other place but Bethlehem again till the like fear and warrant send them into Galilee CHRIST III. IV. V. VI. VII VIII IX X. XI There is none of the Evangelists that recordeth any thing concerning Christ from the time of his return out of Egypt till he come to be twelve years old which was for the space of these years For the better understanding of which times let us take up some few passages in Iosephus Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. Herod saith he reigned 34 years from the time that Antigonus was taken away and 37 years from the time that he was first declâ—red King by the Romans And again in the same Book cap. 15. In the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus the people not enduring his cruelty and tyranny they accused Archelaus to Caesar and he banished him to Vienna And a little after Cyrenius was sent by Caesar to tax Syria and to confiscate Archelaus his goods And lib. 18. cap. 1. Coponius was also sent with Cyrenius to be governour of Judea And ibid. cap. 5. Coponius returning to Rome Marcus Ambibuchus becometh his Successor in that government And after him succeeded Annius Rufus in whose time died Caesar Augustus the second Emperour of the Romans Now when Augustus died Christ was fourteen years old as appeareth from this that he was 29. years old compleat and beginning to be thirty in the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Emperour next succeeding Luke 3.1 2. Reckon then these times that Iosephus hath mentioned between the death of Herod and the death of Augustus namely the ten years of Archelaus and after them the government of Coponius and after him Ambibuchus and after him Rufus and it will necessarily follow that when Herod slew Bethlehem children Christ being then two years old it was the very last year of his reign SECTION VIII LUKE Chap. II. from Ver. 40. to the end of the Chapter CHRIST at twelve years old sheweth his wisedom among the Doctors At the same age had Solomon shewed his wisedom in deciding the controversie between the two harlots Ionic Martyr in Epist. ad Mignos World 3939 Rome 765 Augustus 42 CHRIST XII Archelaus 10 IT is very easie to see the subsequence of this Section to that preceding Since there is nothing recorded by any of the Evangelists concerning Christ from his infancy till he began to be thirty years old but only this Story of his shewing his wisedom at twelve years old among the Doctors of some of the three Sanhedrins that sate at the Temple for there sate one of 23. Judges in the East-gate of the Mountain of the house called the gate Shushan Another of 23. in the gate of Nicanor or the East-gate of the Court of Israel And the great Sanhedrin of 71. Judges that sate in the Room Gazith not farre from the Altar Though Herod had slain the Sanhedrin as is related by Iosephus and divers others yet was not that Court nor the judiciary thereof utterly extinguisht but revived again and continued till many years after the destruction of the City His Story about this matter is briefly thus given by the Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 3. facic 2. Herod was a servant of the Armenian Family He set his eyes upon a girl of it One day the man heard a voice from Heaven Bath Kol which said Any servant that rebelleth this year shall prosper He riseth up and slayeth all his Musters but left that girl c. And whereas it is said Thou shalt set a King over thee from among thy brethren which as the glosse there tells us their Rabbies understood of the chiefest of thy brethren he rose up and slew all the great ones only he left Baba ben Bora to take counsell of him The glosse upon this again tells us That he slew not utterly all the great ones for he left Hillel and the sons of Betirah remaining and Iosephus relateth also that he spared Shammai to which Abraham Zaccuth addeth that Menahim and 80 gallant men of the chief of the Nation were gone over to his service and to attend upon him So that these of themselves and by ordination of others did soon repair that breach that his sword had made in the Sanhedrin he not resisting its erection again when he had now taken away the men of his displeasure Hillel was president and sate so fourty years and died by the Jews computation applied to the Christian account much about this twelfth year of Christ. For they say that he lived an hundred and twenty years the last fourty of which he spent in the Presidency of the Sanhedrin entring upon that dignity an hundred years before the destruction of the City Menahem was at first Vicepresident with him but upon his going away to Herods service Shammai came in his room and now two as eminent and Learned men sate in those two chairs as ever had done since the first birth of traditions Hillel himself was so deserving a man that whereas in the vacancy of the Presidentship by the death of Shemaiah and Abtalion R. Iudah and R. Ieshua the sons of Betirah might have taken the chairs they preferred Hillel as the worthier person Talm. Ierus in Pissachin fol. 33. col 1. He bred many eminent scholers to the number of fourscore the most renowned of which by name were Ionathan ben Vzziel the Chaldee Paraphrast and Rabban Iocanan ben Zaccai both probably alive at this year of Christ and a good while after The latter was undoubtedly so for he lived to see the destruction of the City and Temple and sate President in the
Paul taketh the world to come in this sense Heb. 2.5 3. Baptisme had been in long and common use among them many generations before Iohn Baptist came they using this for admission of Proselytes into the Church and baptizing men women and children for that end Talm. in Jobamoth cap. 4. and Moym in â—ssure biah cap. 13. A person is not a proselyte till he be both circumcised and baptized Id. in Chittubeth cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A little one they baptize by the appointment of the Consistory And Maym. in Avadim cap. 8. An Israelite that takes a little Heathen childe or that findes an Heathen infant and baptizeth him for a proselyte behold he is a proselyte Hence a ready reason may be given why there is so little mention of baptizing Infants in the new Testament that there is neither plain precept nor example for it as some ordinarily plead The reason is because there needed no such mention baptizing of Infants having been as ordinarily used in the Church of the Jews as ever it hath been in the Christian Church It was enough to mention that Christ establisht baptism for an Ordinance under the Gospel and then who should be baptized was well enough known by the use of this Ordinance of old Therefore it is good plea Because there is no cleer forbidding of the baptizing of Infants in the Gospel ergo they are to be baptized for that having been in common use among the Jews that Infants should be baptized as well as men and women our Saviour would have given some speciall prohibition if he intended that they should have been excluded so that silence in this case doth necessarily conclude approbation to have the practise continued which had been used of old before Iohns baptism differed from that before only in this that whereas that admitted proselytes to the Jewish religion this admitted and translated Jews into the Gospel religion that was a baptisme binding them over to the performance of the Law as their Circumcision did but this was a baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes as was observed before 4. Though some of the Nation expected that the Messias would come and redeem them though they were impenitent as some of the Gentiles plead in Talm. Bab. Sanhedr cap. 10. R. Samuel in articulis fidei Iudaicae yet was it more generally held and with good reason that the Messias would look for a repenting generation and thereupon others of the Gomarists in the place alledged say If Israel repent but one day presently the Messias cometh Upon the consideration of these things it will appear the lesse strange that the people flowed in to Iohns baptisme in so great a conflux this being the time about which the Nation expected the appearing of Messias baptisme being a thing most commonly known and used among them and this baptisme of repentance administred preparatively toward the entertainment of Christ now ready to come being sutable to their own apprehensions of the necessity of repentance against his coming Baptisme was besides other tendencies of it as a badge whereby those that received it and stuck to it were marked out for safety and preservation against that destruction that was to come upon the Nation for unbelief Therefore Iohn construes their coming to be baptized their fleeing from the wrath to come and Peter in the same sense doth say that baptisme doth now save 1 Pet. 3.21 as the Ark had done in the destruction of the old world so this from the destruction now coming And Acts 2.40 to his admonition to Repent and be baptized he addeth Save your selves from this untoward genenation § MATTH Chap. III. from Ver. 13. to the end § MARK Chap. I. Ver. 9 10 11. § LUKE Chap. III. Ver. 21 22. CHRIST XXX CHRIST is baptized being thirty years old initiant Iosephs age at his appearing before Pharaoh Gen. 41.46 The Priests at their entrance into their office Numb 4. and Davids when he began to raign 2 Sam. 5.4 He hath now three years and an half to live and to be a publike Minister of the Gospel as the Angel Gabriel had told Dan. 9.27 that in half of the last seaven of the years there named he should confirm the Covenant R. Iochavan saith Three years and an half the divine glory stood upon the mount of Olives and cried Seek the Lord while he may be found Midr. Till fol. 10. col 4. This space of time had been renowned before by Elias his shutting up Heaven Luk. 4.25 Iames 5.17 and now Heaven is opened by the persecution of Antiochus when all religion was destroyed Dan. 12.7 11. and now redemption and restoring is come Christ therefore living three years and an half and dying at Easter it followes that he was baptized in Tizri about the Feast of Tabernacles at which time of the year he had been born and was now when he was baptized nine and twenty years old compleat and just entring upon his thirtieth to which add his three years and an half after his baptisme and it resulteth that he died being two and thirty years old and an half the exact time of Davids reign in Ierusalem 1 King 2.11 The dayes that David reigned over Israel were fourty years seven years reigned he in Hebron and thirty and three years reigned be in Ierusalem that is in Hebron seaven years and an half 2 Sam. 5.5 and in Ierusalem two and thirty years and an half so the Ierus Talm. counteth well in Rosh hashavah fol. 1. col 2. As Christ by Circumcision was admitted a member of the Church of the Jews so is he by baptisme of the Church of the Gospel being withall installed into his Ministeriall function by baptisme and unction of the holy Ghost as the Priests were into theirs by washing and annointing SECTION X. LUKE Chap. III. from Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter CHRISTS Genealogy by his Mothers side MATTHEWS Genealogy and this as they run by a different line so they are brought in upon different ends Matthew intends to shew that Iesus Christ was the Son promised to David Luke shews him the seed of the woman promised to Adam Gen. 3.15 who in the next following Section begins to break the head of the Serpent Therefore when that promise to Adam beginneth to take place in Christs entring upon his Ministry and in his being sealed for the Messias by the holy Ghost this Genealogy is divinely woven in Matthew derives his line by the pedigree of Ioseph his supposed Father and drawes it from Solomon Luke by the pedigree of Mary his Mother and drawes it from Nathan For as the Jews looked on him as the Son of David they would regard the masculine line and the line Royall therefore Matthew giveth it at his birth But looked on as the seed promised to Adam the seed of the woman he was to be looked after by the line of his Mother And whereas this seed of the woman was to destroy the
in Matth. 23. yet that they were uttered at two severall times and upon two severall occasions will appear by that time that we come to that Chapter In Chap. XII He rehearseth many things that he had spoken before the same doctrine being needfull to be inculcated over and over though to the same audience much more when new auditors were still coming in Therefore Christ towards his latter end did like Moses making his Deuteronomium rehearse the doctrine that he had taught before Chap. XIII The first verse beareth this link of connexion and continuance of story There were present at that season c. Pilates bloody act in mingling some Galileans blood with their sacrifices cannot be looked for so properly in any place as at the Temple Iosephus his story in Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 5. is farre from it Siloam was in the middest of the City Ierus in Chagigah fol. 76. col 1. a place of great concourse where the fall of the Tower slew eigteen men SECTION LXI JOHN Chap. IX and Chap. X. all the Chapters A blind man from his birth healed Christ the good shepherd The Feast of Dedication THat this healing of the blind man was at Ierusalem appeareth by this that Christ sends him to the pool of Siloam to wash ver 7. which lay upon the western part of the City For Christ was now come up to the Feast of Dedication Chap. 10.22 so that this cleers the order and time He cures blind eyes on the Sabbath by putting clay upon them made of his spittle a ready way one would have thought to have put seeing eyes out Maym. in Shabb. per. 21. Fasting spittle is forbidden to be put so much as upon the eye on the Sabbath Maladies of children that were extraordinary the Jews did very much ascribe to some sinne of the parents and the traditionaries used this conceit as a means to awe men to the observance of their traditions So they conceit of this man Chap. 9.2 34. Thou wast altogether born in sinnes We alledged before their fancie about Shibta an evil spirit that seized upon children by the neck and shrunk up their sinews And whence say they comes this And they give this answer If the mother come from the house of office and give the child suck presently c. A fetch meerly to awe women to wash after such occasions and to put the more repute upon their traditions about washings The man upon whom the miracle is wrought taketh Jesus to be a Prophet upon it but as yet doth not know him for Messias ver 17. And when he saith to the Jews Will ye also be his Disciples ver 27. he speaketh it seriously and from a good heart urging them to own him for a Prophet as he did And when he was vehement with them in this pious asserting they cast him out of the Synagogue For they had agreed already that if any man did confesse that he was the Messias he should be cast out of the Synagogue ver 22. A passage very well worth observing both towards some discovery of the nature of their excommunication and for illustration of severall matters in this divine history Chap. X. CHRIST from Ezek. 34. and Zech. 11. asserteth himself the great Shepherd and condemneth the evil shepheards that undid the flock especially the three that his soul loathed Zech. 11.8 The Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans He feeding his flock with two shepherds sâ—aves called Beauty and Bands at the last breaketh them His staff Beauty dissolving the Covenant of peculiarity once made with Israel by which they alone were his people but that peculiarity now gone and the Gentiles taken in And his staff Bands dissolving the brotherhood twixt Israel and Iudah that now there is a difference betwixt a true Israelâ—te and a Jew and Israelites owning Christ and they that own him not are no more brethren It was at Ierusalem the feast of the Dedication ver 22. Vnder the second Temple when the Grecian Kings decreed decrees against Israel and abolished their Law and suffered them not to practise the Law and Commandments and laid their hands upon their goods and upon their daughters and went into the Temple and made breaches in it and defiled the pure things and Israel was in exceeding great straits because of them and they afflicted them with great affliction until the Lord God of their fathers had pitty on them and delivered them out of their hand and the Asmenian high Priests prevailed against them and slew them and delivered Israel out of their hands and set up a King of the Priests and the Kingdom returned to Israel more then two hundred years even to the second destruction And when Israel prevailed against their enemies and slew them it was the five and twentieth day of the moneth Cisleu and they went into the Temple and found not of pure oyl in the Sanctuary but only one bottle and there was not in it so much as to light above one day yet they lighted the lamps with it for eight dayes until they had beaten their Olives and got pure oyl And because of this the wise men that were in that generation ordained that those eight dayes beginning from the 25th of Cisleu should be dayes of rejoycing and thankesgiving and they light up candles on them in the evening at the doors of their houses every night of the eight for the declaring and setting forth of that miracle and those dayes are called The Dedication c. Maym. in Chanuchah per. 1. See 1 Maccab. 4.59 These eight dayes of Cisleu fell about the middle of our December And so by this intimation Iohn hath kept the clock of time going that we may tell how the story goes Since Christs being at the Feast of Tabernacles hitherto was about two months and somewhat more The three last verses of this tenth Chapter which mention Christs going beyond Iordan speak the same thing with Matth. 19.1 and Mark 10.1 and might very properly be set collaterall with those texts but since it was somewhat long after Christs departure from Ierusalem to his arrivall beyond Iordan these may be taken in here and understood as spoken of his setting forth from Ierusalem and shewing whither he intended to go SECTION LXII LUKE Chap. XIII Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter And Chap. XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII to Ver. 15. THe order here is somewhat obscure and that especially from these two things 1. Because of the first verse of all the Section which may seem to be linked to the time of the verse preceding it in Luke He went thorow the Cities and villages teaching and journeying towards Ierusalem Then said one to him c. 2. Because of that passage in Chap. 17.11 And it came to passe as he went to Ierusalem he passed thorow the mids of Samaria and Galilee which might seem to be the same journey with that Chap. 13.22 and that all the occurrences in these Chapters were in that journey But
Law to divorce her Deut. 24.1 in the former shewing the desert of the fact in the latter permitting to mitigate of the rigour of that Law and as our Saviour here interprets it to prevent those cruel effects that their hardnesse of heart might have produced had there been no mitigation They brag of that Law of divorce as if favoured them as a peculiar priviledge Ierus kiddushen fol. 58.3 R. Chaijah Rabbah said Divorces are not granted to the nations of the world meaning not to the Gentiles as they were to the Jews whereas truth here informs us that it was permitted only because of the hardnesse of their hearts and to avoid greater mischief When permission of divorce was given after a Law to punish adultery with death for a mitigation of it it requires most serious weighing whether a Law to punish adultery with death should be undispensable now after the Law of divorce given and continued by our Saviour in case of fornication SECTION LXIV MATTH Chap. XIX from Ver. 13. to the end of the Chapt. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 13. to Ver. 32. LUKE Chap. XVIII from Ver. 15. to Ver. 31. INFANTS brought to Christ. A rich man departs sorrowfull MATTHEW and Mark do evidence the order and as Luke had helped out their briefnesse before so do they now also again help us out about his order Whose children were these that were brought to Christ Not unbeleevers doubtlesse but the children of some that professed Christ Why did they bring them Not to be healed of any disease doubtlesse for then the Disciples would not have been angry at their coming for why at theirs more then at all others that had come for that end Their bringing therefore must needs be concluded to be in the name of Disciples and that Christ would so receive them and blesse them And so he doth and asserteth them for Disciples and to whom the Kingdom of heaven belonged taking the Kingdom of heaven in the common acceptation of the Gospel Observe Mark 10.19 c. that mention being made by Christ of the Commandments as if he spake of the whole Law yet he instanceth only in the second table And see the like again Rom. 13.8 c. Iames 2.8 9 10 c. The demeanour of men toward the second table is a sure triall how they stand to the first It is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle An expression common in the Nation Talm. Bava meria fol. 38. facie 2. It may be thou art of Pumbeditha where they can bring an Elephant through the eye of a needle SECTION LXV MATTH Chap. XX. from the beginning to Ver. 17. Labourers in the Vineyard c. THe first word For makes plain the order and connexion joyning this speech to that before The Ierus Talm. in Beracoth hath a Parable somewhat like to this but wildly applied to a far different purpose A King hired many workmen and there was one of them hired for his work for more then what was enough What did the King He took him and walked with him up and down At the time of the evening the workmen came to receive their wages and he also gave him his full wages with them The workmen repined and said We have laboured all the day and this man laboured but two hours and thou hast given him full wages with us The King said to them This man hath laboured more in two hours then you have done all day So R. Bon laboured more in the Law in twenty nine years then another in a hundred c. fol. 5. SECTION LXVI JOHN Chap. XI from the beginning to Ver. 17. Tidings come to Christ of Lazarus sicknesse AT Sect. 63. Christ goeth beyond Iordan the occasion of his coming back was the message of Mary and Martha to him to desire his help to their sick brother The story of this therefore is necessary to be related before the story of his coming thence which is the next thing that the other three Evangelists fall upon after they have done with what is set down in the preceding Sections The words of the second verse It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with oyntment and wiped his feet with her hair are most generally construed as pointing to that story in the next Chapter Ioh. 12.3 Then took Mary a pound of oyntment of Spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Iesus and wiped his feet with her hair Which seemeth very improper and unconsonant upon these reasons 1. To what purpose should Iohn use such an anticipation It was neither materiall to the story that he was entring on Chap. 11. to tell that Mary anoynted Christs feet a good while after he had raised her brother nor was it any other then needlesse to bring in the mention of it here since he was to give the full story of it in the next Chapter 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of such a tense as doth properly denote an action past and is so to be rendred if it be rendred in its just propriety It was Mary which had anointed 3. Whereas no reason can be given why Iohn should anticipate it here if he meant it of an anointing that was yet to come a plain and satisfactory reason may be given why he speaks of it here as referring to an anointing past namely because he would shew what acquaintance and interest Mary had with Christ which did imbolden her to send to him about her sick brother for she had washed and anointed his feet heretofore The words of Iohn therefore point at an action past and indeed they point at that story of the woman-sinner washing the feet of Christ with â—ears and anointing them with ointment and wiping them with her hairs Luke 7. It is true indeed that Iohn who useth these words that we are upon had not spoken of any such anointing before whereunto to refer you in his own Gospel but the passage was so well and renownedly known and recorded by Luke before that he relateth to it as to a thing of most famous notice and memoriall SECTION LXVII LUKE Chap. XVIII Ver. 31 32 33 34. MARK Chap. X. Ver. 32 33 34. MATTH Chap. XX. Ver. 17 18 19. CHRIST foretelleth his suffering THe message from Mary and Martha about their sick brother inviteth Christ from beyond Iordan into Iudea again He staies two daies after he had received the message in the same place where the messenger found him and in the story of this Section he is set forward And being now upon his last journey to Ierusalem he foretelleth to his Disciples what should become of him there They followed him with fear and amazement before foreseeing that he went upon his own danger and yet when he had spoken the thing out to them at the full they understood him not SECTION LXVIII MATTH Chap. XX. from Ver. 20. to Ver. 29. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 35. to Ver. 46. The request of Zebedees sons They
the bones were gathered and buried in the graves of their fathers Talm. ubi supr fol. 46.1 The proper writing and pronunciation of the word had been Golgolta but use had now brought it to be uttered Golgotha which very pronunciation the Samaritan Version useth in Num. 1. They first strip him and then offer him intoxicating wine which when he tasted he refused to drink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When any person was brought forth to be put to death they gave him to drink some frankincense in a cup of wine that it might stupifie him as it is said Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts And there is a tradition that the Gentlewomen of Ierusalem afforded this of their good will c Tal. Bab. ibid. fol. 43.1 And let it not be impertinent to adde that which immediatly follows in the same page A crier went before him that was to be executed which proclaimed N. the son of N. is going to execution because he hath committed such a fact and N. and N. are witnesses against him if there be any that can clear him let them speak And instantly after There is a tradition that they hanged Iesus on the eve of the Passeover and a Crier went before him fourty daies Such a one goes to be put to death because he hath bewitched deceived and perverted Israel if any one can say any thing for his clearing let him come and speak but they found no clearing of him therefore they hanged him upon the eve of the Passeover c. He is nailed to his Crosse hands and feet and so the Jews themselves confesse Abel his figure to have been wounded by Cain Tanch fol. 3. col 4. and Isaac to have been bound on the Altar Idem fol. 12. col 2. And with him are crucified two malefactors compare Ioseph betwixt two offendors Gen. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iosephus his construction will help us to understand the sense of the word here Four souldiers part his garments and cast lots for his coat and sit down to watch him Over his head was his cause written in the expression of which the variety of the Evangelists shews their stile and how where one speaks short another inlargeth and what need of taking all together to make up the full story Mark hath it The King of the Iews Luke This is the King of the Iews Matthew This is Iesus the King of the Iews Iohn Iesus of Nazareth the King of the Iews Where the main thing regarded is that he was condemned for taking on him to be King of the Iews as they pretended which was also pretended to be Treason against Cesar and to this point all the Evangelists speak alike and their variety is only in wording this for the readers understanding and he that spake shortest spake enough to expresse the matter of his accusation and the rest that speak larger are but a comment upon the same thing The three tongues in which this was written Hebrew Greek and Latine are thus spoken of in Midras Tillin fol. 25. col 4. R. Iochanan saith There are three tongues The Latine tongue for warre The Greek tongue for speech and the Hebrew for prayer All sorts of people had followed him to the execution Some openly wept for him and bewailed him which was not a thing usuall in such cases In the Talmudich Tract last cited fol. 46.2 there is this strange doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bewailed not him that went to be executed but only mourned inwardly for him And what think you was the reason The Glosse tels you thus They bewailed him not because his disgrace might be his expiation meaning that whereas they accounted that the more shame and punishment a condemned person suffered the more these tended to his expiation they therefore would not openly bewail him for that would have been some honour to him and so would have abated of his expiation but none lamenting for him it was the greater disgrace and the greater the disgrace the better was his sinne as they thought expiated and atoned for This strange custom and opinion doth set forth this publick bewailing of Christ the more remarkably Others when he was now raised upon his Crosse reviled him among whom were the chief Priests Scribes and Elders who had so little to do or rather their malice so much as to attend the execution They were at first in some hesitancy whether he would not deliver himself by miracle but when they saw he did not then they triumph and insult at no measure Nay the theeves that were crucified with him spared him not for so Matthew and Mark tell us but at last one of them becomes a convert and receives assurance of being that day with him in Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a phrase very usuall with them Compare the case of Iosephs fellow prisoners Gen. 40. the one desiring him to remember him and escaping and the other not It may be the darknesse now begun in an extraordinary and dreadfull manner was some means of working upon this thief for his conviction that Iesus was the Messias For instantly upon his raising upon his Crosse it was now the sixth hour or high Noon compleat and the darknesse began and continued till three a clock afternoon the very space of time of the day that Adam lay in darknesse without the promise from the time of his Fall till God came and revealed Christ to him By the Crosse stood the mother of Iesus now a widow and as it seemeth destitute of maintenance therefore he commendeth her to the care and charge of his beloved Disciple Iohn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A widow was to be maintained out of the estate of her husbands heirs untill she received her dowry Maym. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 18. But the poverty of Ioseph and Mary afforded neither heritage nor dower nor had they any children but Iesus who was now dying If those that are called the brethren of Iesus were the sons of Ioseph by another wife as some have thought them they had been fittest to have been charged with the maintenance of the widow About the ninth hour Jesus crieth out Eli Eli lama sabachthani that is My God my God why hast thou left me Not forsaken him as to the feeling of any spirituall desertion but why left to such hands and to such cruel usage Some said hereupon he called Elias but was this said in mockery or indeed did they think his words Eli Eli meant Elias Two things might make them really think so the unusualnesse of the word Eli or Elohi in their Syriack tongue the word Mari being it by which they commonly expressed the sense of that And 2. the common opinion and legends that they had of Elias his coming to comfort and resolve men in distresse and perplexity of which their Talmuds give not a few examples Complaining of thirst he had vinegar given
he heard of Peters trouble and danger that he had been in at Ierusalem and desired to see him for that he had some speciall interest and familiarity with Peter may be collected from 1 Pet 5.14 and in that Peter was so well acquainted at his mothers house Act. 12.12 c. Or whether in regard of this his relation to Peter the Minister of the Circumcision he made it nice to go among the Gentiles into the thickest of which he saw they were coming every day more then other For at Paphos where they had last been was a Temple of Venus and at Perga where they now are was a Temple of Diana Strab. lib. 14. Pomp. Mela. lib. 1. cap. 14. Or whatsoever the matter was his departure was so unwarrantable that it made a breach betwixt him and Paul for the present nay it occasioned a breach betwixt Paul and Barnabas afterward And so we leave him in his journey to Ierusalem whither when he came he staied there till Paul and Barnabas came thither again ACTS CHAP. XII from Ver. 20. to Ver. 24. CHRIST XLIV CLAVDIVS IV HERODS death was in the beginning of this year the fourth of Claudius or neer unto it according as Iosephus helpeth us to compute who testifieth that the third year of his reign was compleated a little before his death Vid. Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 7. He left behinde him a sonne of seventeen years old in regard of whose minority and thereby unfitnesse to reign Claudius sent Cuspius Fadus to Govern his Kingdom His daughters were Berenice sixteen years old married to Herod King of Chalcis her fathers brother And Mariam ten years old and Drusilla six who afterward married Felix ACTS CHAP. XIII from Ver. 14. to the end of the Chapter And CHAP. XIV CHRIST XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII XLIX CLAVDIVS V. VI. VII VIII IX AT the fifteenth Chapter we have some fastnesse of the time viz. in what year the Council at Ierusalem as it is commonly called did occurre which certainty we have not of the times of the occurrences henceforward thitherto so that since we cannot determinately point any passage to its proper year we must cast them in grosse under this grosse summe of years and distribute them to their proper seasons by the best conjecture we can From Perga in Pamphilia Paul and Barnabas come to Antioch in Pisidia and on the Sabbath day going into the Synagogue are invited by the Rulers of the Synagogue after the reading of the Law and Prophets to speak a word of exhortation to the people But how could the Rulers know that they were men fit to teach It may be answered By former converse with them in the City and it is very like that the Rulers themselves had drunk in some affection to the Gospel by converse with them which made them so ready to urge them to preach For it is not imaginable that this was the first time that they had seen them nor that they came to Town that very day but that they had had some converse before Paul preacheth and the Synagogue broke up and the Jews gone out the Gentiles desired that the same words might be preached to them in the week between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely on the second and fifth daies of the week following which were Synagogue daies on which they met in the Synagogues as on the Sabbath day And which daies their traditions said were appointed for that purpose by Ezra Talm. in Bava Kamah per. 7. R. Sol. and Nissim in Chetubboth per. 1. in Alphes Their preaching on those daies had so wrought that on the next Sabbath almost all the City was gathered together to hear the word and many of the Gentiles receive it but the Jews stirred up some female unbelieving proselytes against them and some of the chief of the City so that they drave them out of those coasts and they shaking off the dust of their feet against them go to Iconium This Ceremony injoyned them by their Master Matth. 10.14 was not so much for any great businesse put in the thing it self as that even from a tenet of their own they might shew how they were to be reputed of It was their own Maxime That the dust of a Heathen Country or City did defile or make a person unclean Tosaphta ad Kelim per. 1. hath this saying In three things Syria was like unto any Heathen Land The dust of it made a person unclean as the dust of any other Heathen Country did c. So that their shaking off the dust of their feet against them was to shew that they reputed them and their City as Heathenish ACTS CHAP. XIV AT Iconium they continue long and with good effect but at last they are in danger of stoning and thereupon they slip away to Lystra and Derbe Cities of Lycaonia and to the region that lieth round about That region Strabo describeth lib. 12. where among other particulars he tels that Derbe lay coasting upon Isauria and in his time was under the dominion of Amyntas At Lystra or Derbe Paul converteth Lois and Eunice and Timothy and as some will tell you here or at Iconium he converteth Tecla For healing a Creeple they are first accounted Gods but presently by perswasion of some Jews Paul is stoned but being reputed dead recovereth miraculously From thence they go to Derbe and return to Lystra Iconium and Antioch and ordain Elders in those Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 24. is unproperly rendred here Per suffragia creantes Presbyteros for so they could not do there not being a man in all these Churches fit to be chosen a Minister or qualified with abilities for that Function unlesse the Apostles by Imposition of hands bestow the holy Ghost upon them which might inable them For the Churches being but newly planted and the people but lately converted it would be hard to finde any among them so thoroughly completed in the knowledge of the Gospel as to be a Minister but by the Apostles hands they receive the Holy Ghost and so are inabled It is true indeed the Greek word in the first sense denoteth suffrages but that is not the only sense And so doth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the proper sense signifie laying on of hands yet there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordination that was without it Maym. in Sanhedr 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How is ordination to be for perpetuity Not that they lay their hands on the head of the Elder but call him Rabbi and say Behold thou art ordained c. ACTS CHAP. XV. CHRIST L CLAVDIVS X WE are now come up to the Council at Hierusalem The occasion of which was the busie stirring of some who would have brought the yoke of Mosaick observances upon the neck of the converted Gentiles Multitudes of the Jews that beleeved yet were zealous of the Law Act. 21.20 and it was hard to get them off from those Rites in which they had been ever
were not that Egyptian that not long before that time had made an insurrection Iosephus giveth his story Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. thus At that time there cometh one to Ierusalem out of Aegypt pretending himself to be a Prophet and he counselled the common people that they should go with him to Mount Olivet and that there he would shew them how at his command the walls of Ierusalem would fall But Felix understanding this sent some horse and foot against them and slew 400 of them our text here saies 4000 and took two hundred prisoners ACTS CHAP. XXII PAUL Apologizeth to the people telleth his Education Conversation and Conversion and relating how by a Divine Vision he was appointed to go to the Gentiles they begin a new commotion which the chief Captain again pacifieth but yet thinks Paul some notable villain or else that there would never have been so terrible cries against him He would now have scourged him but that he understood he was a Romane therefore he turns to another course and the next day brings him before the Sanhedrin The sitting of that Bench was little at Ierusalem now For as we have observed they were unnested from Ierusalem divers years ago and their most constant residence at present was at Iabneh only they were now come up to the Festivall ACTS CHAP. XXIII XXIV to Ver. 27. RAbban Simeon the sonne of Rabban Gamaliel Pauls Master was President of the great Councill at this time for Gamaliel was dead some two or tâ—ree yeares ago Of him the Jewes have this saying in Sotah per. 9. From the time that old Rabban Gamaliel died the honour of the Law ceased for till then they read and learned the Law standing but after his death sitting Onkelos the Targumist of the Law burne a great quantity of frankincense for him at his Obsequies Iuchasin fol. 53. Whether Rabban Simeon the President were present at this Session or no Ananias the Highpriest is as busie as if he had been chief President himself But Paul cares for him as little as he busied himself much He cals him whited wall or arrant painted hypocrite And when he was checked for reviling Gods Highpriest I knew not brethren saith he that he is Highpriest for if I took him for such a one I would not â—o have spoken to him since it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of my people It is not possible that Paul should not know who and what Ananias was but 〈◊〉 is very indifferent whether we understand this as not owning this man for a lawfull Highpriest or not owning any lawfull Highpriesthood now at all The man base and usurping and the Function of the Highpriesthood disanulled by the great Highpriest who had accomplished all that it typified and the place of the Highpriesthood being become a common Merchandise obtained by money and favour and disâ—â—â—ching one another By a holy policy he divides the Councill and professing himself by education a Pharisee and of that belief in the point of the Resurrection he not only sets Phariseâ— and Sadduces to a hot contestation between themselves but he makes the Pharisâ—â—s so farre as to that opinion to take his part It had been possible to have set the Hilâ—elian and Shammaean party together by the ears by a bone handsomly cast 〈◊〉 them for the Councill had these factions in it and their feud was as deadly bâ—t Paul could own no article of their divisions that was worth his owning they were so 〈◊〉 and below his cognisance It is the confession of the Ierusalem Gomarists in Iâ—ma fol 38. col 3. That the fault of their great ones under the second Temple was love of money and hatred one of another Paul in the hubbub is rescued again by the Souldiery and that night by revelation is warranted to appeal to Caesar by being informed he must go to Rome A Conspiracy of a pack of cut-throats to murder him is prevented and he is sent to Caesarea to Felix where he lies prisoner two years By such packing and combining of murderers it may easily be conjectured what temper the Nation was now in Iosephus his character of it at these times is That the affairs of the Iews grew daily worse and worse 〈◊〉 that the Country was full of theeves and sorcerers but Felix was daily picking them up to penalty after their desert the greater thief the lesse for his character yields 〈◊〉 no better Tacitus saies enough of him when he speaks but this Antonius Felix per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit Histor. lib. 5. cap. 2. Upon which Iosephus will give you a large comment of his intolerable covetousnesse polling cruelty sacriledge murderings and all manner of wickednesse His injuriousnesse to Paul in the story before us and the very naming 〈◊〉 wife Drusilla may be brand enough upon him for her by inticements and magicall 〈◊〉 he allured to himself from her husband and married her And him he kept prisoner two years wrongfully because he would not bribe him In his pleading before him he makes him tremble but it is but a qualm and away CHRIST LVII NERO. III PAUL is a prisoner this year at Caesarea under Felix A great City of Jews and Greeks mixtly the place where the first spark of Jews Warres kindled afterward A famous University of Jews in time if so be it was not so at this time ACTS CHAP. XXIV Ver. 27. CHRIST LVIII NERO. IV PAUL still a prisoner at Caesarea under Felix for the first part of this year Then cometh Festus into the Government and Felix packeth to Rome to answer for his misdemeanours ACTS CHAP. XXV XXVI PAUL answereth for himself first before Festus alone then before Agrippa and his sister Bernice this Agrippa was his sonne whose death is related Acts 12. he by the favour of Claudius the Emperour succeeded his brother in Law-Uncle Herod for such relations did that Incestuous family finde out in the Kingdom of Chalcis For Berenice his sister had married Herod King of Chalcis her Uncle and his who was now dead and this Agrippa succeeded him in his Kingdom being also King of Iudea Of this Agrippa as it is most probable there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Writers as particularly this that King Agrippa reading the Law in the later end of the year of release as it was injoyned and coming to those words Deut. 17.15 Thou shalt not set a stranger King over thee which is not of thy brethren the tears ran down his cheeks for he was not of the seed of Israel which the Congregation observing cried out Be of good comfort O King Agrippa thou art our brother He was of their Religion though not of their blood and well versed in all the Laws and customs as Paul speaks chap. 26.3 Berenice his sister now a widow lived with him and that in more familiarity then was for their credit afterward she fell into the like