else the direction had been uncertain MATTHEW MAtth. 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Change your minds or repent Whereof must they Repent or wherin must they change their minds Whereas formerly all which had Abraham to their Father were Members of the visible Church of Israel now every person must bring forth good fruit of his and her own or else he and shee must not be Members of this new Church which Christ and John the Baptist were about to found in the New Testament which Church is meant when the Kingdom of Heaven is said to be hand Matth. 4.6 Cast thy self down No marvell though Christians be tempted to a presumptuous neglect of means when Christ him self was so tempted It is one of Satans Engins to tempt Christians to a presumptuous neglect of means under pretence of greater confidence Look to it Professors of Christianity Matth. 4.7 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God This thou is not Satan as if Christ or Moses had forbidden Satan to tempt The Law was not given to Satan or his fellow-evill Angels but unto men and men of Israel The devils had never so much honor or hope as to have a law prescribed unto them since their fal As we say of life so may we say of the Law so long as God will prescribe us Lawes there is hope The poore are not hopelesse so long as the rich will set them at work Of something doing something commeth Only put a man out of service and then he becometh a vagabond As it is said be of good comfort he calleth thee So it may be said be of good comfort he commandeth thee Thus the Law is mingled with Gospel Wherefore they which cast off the Law cast off their comfort But this Thou is first meant every man of Israel Secondly and in this place Christ translateth it to himself for the meaning is as if Christ had said I must not tempt the Lord my God whom I should indeed sinfully tempt if I should cast my self down when by ordinary steps or staires I may safely descend Where note that what once of old God delivered to Israel in commandement that Christ taketh as commanded to himself Thus Christ himself was not exempted from the Law but was under the Law What kind of men then do they make themselves in our dayes who tell us that they are not under the Law by vertue of Christianity taking the word Law for the morall Law in Pauls Epistle to the Romans not through too much learning where it is meant of naturall descent from Abraham as in Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that will be under the Law had not Abraham two sons And this salvation by vertue of Abrahams descent was the great expectation of the carnall Jewes which Paul every where laboureth to disprove not the least intending in that place the morall Law for of the morall Law he saith elsewhere that he himself is under the Law to Christ 1 Cor. 9.21 Matth. 9.5 Whether is it easier to say thy sinnes be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk By the word say is meant effectuall saying which is doing For to say thy sinnes are forgiven or to say take up thy bed are both easie if we mean a meer saying But the meaning is Whether is it easier to forgive sins or to cause a lame man to take up his bed and walk as if he should say the forgivenesse of sinnes is as easie to declare as to make a palsied man to take up his bed and walk But this latter I have done which cannot be done without a divine power Ergo I may do the lesser or easier if either be lesser or easier then the other Matth. 10.11 There abide till ye go thence Abide in that house till ye go out of that Citie go not from house to house as elsewhere it is as it were expounded Luke 10.7 Matth. 10.14 Shake off the dust off your feet not in indignation but to testifie your freedome from covetousnesse or lucre it was a kind of reall and significant Proclamation in the streets of the City whereby the Apostles did put themselves upon the triall of the whole City as if they should have said thus long have we been among you upon this and that errand we came tell us now before we go whether we have behaved our selves unseemly or covetously as Joshua and Samuel said Whose Oxe have I taken whose Asse have I taken whom have I defrauded where have I borrowed and not payed again to whom have I been chargeable tell us here before all the City if any man can say that we came for base ends Now if any could have said I you shake off the dust of your feet as if nothing of ours did cleave unto you but I am sure you goe away with my mony or mony worth and it 's idlenesse which setteth you upon this work he had had a fit opportunity so to upbraid them But if no man could say this or the like then the Apostles had thorowly cleered themselves Whence it seemeth to follow seasonably that hee which is not guilty of covetousnesse in dispensation of the Gospel is not usually overtaken with other grosse evils But thus more cleerly that Professors of religion ought to carry themselves so blamelesly that they may put themselves upon triall before all the world as concerning any just reproach for this shaking off the dust was to be done in the streets of the City so saith the Text Get yee out into the streets of the City c. Shake off the dust c. Luk. 10.10 Matth. 12.27 By whom doe your children cast them out As much as to say Your disciples do not cast out divels at all Those will be apt to vilifie the good works of others who cannot themselves doe the like Matth. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned That is by thy words amongst other things but not by thy words alone so that words aswell as works shall come into judgement Matth. 12.38 39. Three dayes and three nights That is but three dayes and three nights at the most restrictivè not that he shall be there three dayes and three nights extensivè We sold the land for so much that is but for so much Acts 5.8 The third day is prefixed as the last day wherein he shall be held of death in all places where it is foretold of his resurrection The third day I shall rise again and goe before you into Galilee and expresly he diminisheth the time saying Yet a little while and yee shall see mee and a little while and yee shall not see mee So that it was but a little while wherein they should not see him And in three dayes he would raise again the temple of his body implying the diminution of the time not the extension of the time as if hee must needs be three dayes in raising of it No he which saith I will finish
put for the Sabbath Or rather by way of a facetious jesting Asteismos against the hypocriticall Sabbatism of the high priests who would so workiday-like beg the body seal the sepulchre and set a watch on the Sabbath for which Sabbath they seemed to prepare so devoutly before it came For to prepare sabbathly for the Sabbath before it come and to keep it unsabbathly when it is come is worthy of scorn Let not me be here thought to scorn at preparation for the Sabbath It is farre from my thought yea I am an enemy to them which do scorn thereat MARKE MArk 6.12 They went preaching that men should Repent And that else they should not be Members of the Church Hence 't is called the Baptisme of Repentance For of the Baptisme of Repentance we do read and not of any other Mark 7.10.11 Corban When the Father and Mother did require any help from their able Son or Daughter the Sonne or Daughter answered Corban Corban as much as to say I have given all that I am able to spare to the holy Church to pious uses So the Father and Mother must want Thus piety is made a cloak not only of covetousnesse but of unnaturall crying cruelty Mark 10.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is easier for a Camel to go through a needles eie By shreds possibly a Camel may be forced through a needles eie but a Rich man must enter willingly into the Kingdome where he must forsake all his riches and life also This Kingdome is hard to be willingly entred Mark 3.33 Who is my Mother or my Brethren Perhaps to save his Father and Mother from being noted by the Pharises then present Christ may put off the propounder with this kind of answer especially if the propounder was Malignant as by his unseasonablenesse he may seem to be Mark 10.31 Last first first last Bold demand doth not so soon speed as modest silence Mark 14.51 A young man with linnen about his bare body The sheet of his bed perhaps whence he started out of bed to see what noise and stirre that was which he heard in the night Men will leave all and runne away naked rather then suffer with Christ whereas they should leave all to suffer with him naked Christ is left to suffer alone Mark 15.36 He who brought the Vinegar is said to say Let alone let us see c. And in Mat. 27.49 others are said to say so to him His staying at their bidding was a reall saying and both of them a reall mocking Mark 16.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the whole creation Creation put for the people in the whole creation An ordinary Metonymie of the conteining for the conteined More rationall then the preaching of the Gospel to every creature as it is fabled that a Popish Saint Francis from this Text took occasion to do LUKE Luke 1.15 HE shall be filled with the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now from his Mothers wombe The spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters to cherish and preserve them Gen. 1. shall be present with him to cherish and preserve him and as his capacity shall more and more grow so shall the same spirit be more and more exhibited unto him Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis When he was a Child hee could but receive as a Child As it was with John the Baptist so it may be with other Children And it was not for any thing I know otherwise with him then it may be with another child Luke 1.17 Hee shall turne the hearts of the Parents upon the Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall turne that is shall put the hearts that is the understanding of Fathers that is of the ripest in age upon the Children that is upon the meanest Member of the Church As much as to say the Kingdome of heaven or the Church which he shall preach and constitute shall consist of knowers which was not in the old Testament insomuch that the meanest Member there shall know as much as the sagest Father or Patriarch did there Sutable to the new Covenant Heb. 8.11 They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them Luke 1.24 Elizabeth hid her self Concealed that she was with child till she was sure that she was with child and till appearance proved to others that she was with child People would not have beleeved it but would have scoffed her But now it is the more admirable and to her the more honourable Let God go before us in the discovery of things Luke 1.33 Of his Kingdom there shall be no end Why Because his Kingdome consisteth in sufferings For so long as persecutors last there will be sufferings There shall be no end of the comfort and glory which commeth by suffering For the sufferings of this present life do breed a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory So that sufferings shall last till the worlds end and then shall come comfort and glory which shall have no end Luke 1.52 He hath put down the mighty from their seat In comparison of me and the honour which I have by bearing this Saviour Kings and their honour are as it were no honour as a Candle-light is no light where the Sunne shineth The honour which commeth by suffering for Christ is greater honour then that which commeth by ruling a Kingdome The honour of Paul and of other Martyrs of Christ is greater honour then that of Alexander which conquered the world Who would not be in that Apostles condition rather then in the condition of Alexander the great Luke 6.35 Lend looking for nothing again Such may the case bee as that we may and must lend without expectation of the principall Not that we are alwayes bound to lend much lesse to forgoe the principall Indefinite propositions do not binde semper ad semper but with their limitations Luke 10.30 Wounded betwixt Jerusalem and Iericho The party to whom Christ used this Parable would have been content to have received this kindnesse from a Samaritan though himself was a Jew if he had been wounded and half dead as that Jew which is supposed in this Parable yet did he not think himself bound to shew the like kindnesse to a Samaritane wherefore Christ correcteth him teaching him to do to a Samaritane as hee would receive from a Samaritane Professors of Religion will be content to receive kindnesse where they will not bestow kindnesse but it is unconscionable Religion so to do Let such as shall sequester themselves into scanty societies examine whether they do not thereby exempt themselves from Offices of Love and Charity to the bodies and soules of such as are not of their fellowship as if they were not bound to feed cloath nor yet to minister a wholsome word of reproof or exhortation to reduce the soule of any out of sinne but such as are of themselves The poor may feare that such communities will
Israel implying that now they doubted whether it was hee or no. This antidote I give you before-hand to preserve your faith from failing though not from some fainting for if I can foretell my death with all the circumstances thereof then I am a God though I die like a man 2. You must be witnesses of mee in Jerusalem and through the world that I am the Messiah the Son of God and Saviour of the world Fit witnesses you cannot be except you take notice that I foretell my death with all the circumstances thereof but if you doe take notice that I foretell my death with all the circumstances thereof then are yee the fitter witnesses of mee For howsoever every man may and must dye like a man and I like an evill man yet no man can foretell his death with all the circumstances thereof but a God And by my breaking bread with you in like sort after my resurrection you shall know that I am risen and that it is no ghost in my likenesse Quest But why dost thou use bread and wine in the prediction of thy death Answ 1. Because bread and wine are visible tangible mandible you have forgot what you heard you will surely remember what you see touch taste eat and drink 2. And secondly because every god true or false hath his tables where his disciples eat and drink to his honour and for his memoriall therefore doe yee thus eat and drink in remembrance of mee after I am risen again and ascended untill I shall return again to judgement and salvation Quest But on what fashion wouldst thou that we should remember thy death untill thou come in thus doing Or how doth this bread and wine shew forth thy death Answ Thus Hee which by bread and wine foretold his death with all the circumstances thereof howsoever hee was put to death like a man and like an evill man yet he was God But Jesus did by bread and wine foretell his death with all the circumstances thereof when no enemy touched him nor appeared against him Ergo Jesus is God And if Christ who was God suffered death 1. Then doe not you wonder though you suffer at the hands of Magistrates evill ones would crucifie God himself if they had him in the likenesse of a man 2. If Christ God-man thus suffered be you patient in suffering and look for suffering 3. If Christ thus suffered who was able to foretell his death and who rose again then shall ye also be raised again after your death Thus the bread and wine is neither his body nor bloud as the Papists say neither yet any otherwise a signe of his body and bloud then his commentary upon them made them to be signes and that is not of their own nature for the bread doth not hold so neer a resemblance or similitude with his body as one body doth with another or as one bread with some other bread or as Cesars image with Cesar himselfe or as a lively picture of that thing or person whereof it is a picture or as that was the House of the Lord and the Altar of burnt-offering for Israel which David said was so 1 Chron. 22.1 The rain-bow in its owne nature is not a signe of non-drowning the world for wee might long see the rainbow before we could read that in the face of it that God will not drown the world for there were rainbowes before the floud as well as after How then came the rainbow to be a sign after the floud of non-drowning the world more then before Even because God called and made the rainbow a signe of non-drowning after and not before for otherwise the rainbow had as much inherent signification of non-drowning before the floud as after So bread and wine did as much resemble Christs body and bloud before that Supper of his and Institution as after and perhaps neither before nor after so neerly as that any man would have said This is so like to the body and bloud of Christ as that the one is like the other at all Then it is the word and institution of Christ onely which maketh the bread and wine to be signes of his body or bloud And how signes of his body and bloud They are rather tokens of commemoration then signes What is to be commemorated That he was God as well as man whose body and bloud this is said to be Why how will that follow from this bread and wine thus used in commemoration and by vertue of this institution that he was God whose body and bloud is commemorated hereby Thus He which could foretell his death with all the circumstances thereof when yet hee sate eating drinking and instructing his disciples where no hand appeared against him hee must needs be God howsoever he suffer and die as man even as an evill man But such was Christ this did he foretell institute to be commemorated to his memoriall untill he shall return Ergo The commemoration which is done by bread and wine to that end instituted of Christ doth rightly commemorate his godhead 1. It implyeth that the commemorators are in the same danger that he was in That 2. Though they be yet they have no cause to be afraid nor ashamed for their enemies did and would again crucifie God if they could reach him in the likenesse of man as they did Christ who was God No marvell therefore if they crucifie us Note here also That as his prophecie of his death did declare him to be God so also his eating and drinking did imply the truth of his humanity and that he was not a Ghost in likenesse of a man To that end the Apostle argueth wee ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead That hee did eat and drink with them that bread and wine the word this implyeth Besides that he would drink it no more till he drank it new with them in his Fathers kingdome Till I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdome That is till I be risen from the dead For then the Church of the New Testament took its full state which is said to be that kingdome which was at hand And at Emmaus in Galilee hee brake bread with them the first night Breaking of bread is Synecdochically put for the whole Supper mention of wine needed not to be repeated it s presumed he would and did drink it with them sith he promised to drink it with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee sate with them the words at meat are corruptly added Beza renders it in discumbendo cum illis Luke 24. v. 30. And by this drinking it new with them or by breaking bread which Synecdochically is all one they did know him to be the same risen which was crucified and not a ghost in his likenesse Matth. 27.5 compared with Act. 1.18 Judas seems rather to throw himself down some rock then to hang himself Matth. 27.62 Now the day which followed the preparation Ironically
shortly future and consequently of his God-head Maâ—th 26.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It had been good for him iâ— he had not beene borne that man or if he had never become that man A softer speech then to say it had been good for that man if he had never been borne like that of Peter upon the same Judas where it is said He is gone to his proper place Acts 1.25 to teach us modest censure of immoderate sinners Matth. 26.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saist thou it Interrogative not affirmative else Christ had discovered Judas to become the betrayer which Christ modestly forbare save that he revealed him unto John upon request in his eare periphrastically by the Son lest Christ should be thought ignorant of the betrayer It is an easie thing I do not say a good thing for a Printer to omit an interrogative point Matth. 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say it comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangulo but compared with Acts 1.18 may it not come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figo α non tollendo augmentum interponendo γ. that is unfastened himself as Acts 1.18 he ran headlong burst in the midst Matth. 27.11 Of Christ unto Pilate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saist thou it witnesse the same answer of the same Christ to the same Pilate upon the same question in another Evangelist interrogatively Saist thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me viz. that I am a King John 18.34 It seemeth rationall to forbeare the direct information of his regality before Caesars Deputy Because that was the capitall snare which the Jewes laid for his life Matth. 27.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two lyers in wait ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two theeves Why might they not be lyers in wait for bloud rather then for theft 1. Because Barrabas a murtherer is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 18.40 2. The penitent confesseth himself righteously crucified when by the law of Moses to the Jewes he might have pleaded four-fold restitution for the safety of his life MARK Marke 14.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hymning or praising For we finde the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put transitively with an accusative after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will praise thee not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will sing praise unto thee which same in Psal 22.23 whence it is fetched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will praise thee not I will sing to thee though singing in those dayes an ordinance more frequent then in these Therefore let singing make what shift it can for it self it cannot be proved out of this text Mark 16.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go preach the Gospel to the whole Creation Creation being understood metonymically for the people in the whole Creation It seemeth more rationall then that the Gospel should be preached to every creature and taketh away all occasion of that ridiculous preaching which hence that Popish Saint Francis is said to preach to the brute creatures or which any other profanely might object LUKE Luke 21.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not I am Christ A speech which God justly appropriateth unto himself because he hath his being of himself I am hath sent me unto you Exod. 3.14 yet proudly arrogated of poor wicked men as Isa 47.8 Babylon saith in her heart I am and again thou hast said in thine heart I am and there is name else beside me But of this more and more fitly in exposition It s the ordinary proud word of arrogant men in Scripture to say I am as if they should say I am the singular one It is I with emphasis and no other then I. Luke 24.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he sate with them not as he sate at meâ—t with them nor at table as in another reddition So that it was not common meat but the Supper of the Lord. Breaking of bread synechdochically put for the whole Supper The wine for brevity not mentioned is to be presumed because he promised to drink it new with them in his Fathers Kingdome which Kingdome was this Church of him raised from the dead And if he had not used the wine at this time as he promised and practised before his death how came the Disciples to know him by the breaking of bread For thus they argued That was our Master which brake bread and dranke wine in prediction of his death the night before his suffering promised to do the like after his resurrection in memoriall of his death This man doth break bread and drink wine in that signification Ergo it is our Master and not a Ghost in his likenesse The Papists prove themselves no Church by erring against the wine in this place And if they know not the meaning of that Scripture where Christ promiseth to drink the wine new with his Disciples in his Fathers Kingdome who will trust them to be aâ—â—errable in all other Scriptures But the Papists argue from this text that the cup is not necessary with the bread in the Supper of the Lord. Ergo one child in comparison may finde out that which their whole Catholike Church for the plainnesse doth not see and if their Church cannot erre then are they no Church for in this easie thing they erre how much more in other places of more difficulty The words at meat in our English are put in to obscure the gesture sitting which Christ and his Disciples did then and there use at the breaking of bread aswell as before his death a thing not espied of our ungreeked people by reason of the words at meat which maketh them think it to be common meat not the Supper of the Lord to this day but now they are warned as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no necessity to understand it of sitting to common meat What is that doctrine which teacheth Learning to be accursed from a spirituall use I say what is it but a lye of unlearned ones envying learning in those which have it because it obscures the glory of them which want it Luke 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He became disappearing that is he appeared not until that day sevennight on which day seven-night he appeared again Luke 24.36 John 20.26 to discountenance the seventh day and all the other six for having any more Sabbatisme in them A word provided of God to stop the mouths of those who would have the seventh day still to be the day of Sabbath especially if it be conferred with that 20. of John 26. and John 21.14 of which more in the next Scripture Luke 24.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at that speciall houre not the same houre that speciall houre or time is a periphrasis of the first day of the week For to what end should men and women dwellers in Galilee where Emmaüs was returne to Jerusalem at that time of the night whence