The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts There are two main things here intended First To shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan and secondly The nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs Kingdom and his conquering Satan and his Saints reigning with him that common place is briefly handled here That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles they called in unto the Gospel Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomless pit that he should deceive no more as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones saith John and they sate upon them c. ver 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning But how do they reign with him Here John faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp and shews that the matter is of a far different tenour that they that suffer with him shall reign with him they that stick to him witness for him dye for him these shall sit inthroned with him And he nameth beheading only of all kinds of deaths as being the most common used both by Jews and Romans alike as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr per. 7. halac 3. And the first witness for Christ John the Baptist died this death He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years and so reign all together with him those years out as is the conceit of some as absolute Judaism as any is for matter of Opinion but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along suffering and standing out against sin and the mark of the Beast and the like whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousness But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living when Satan was bound and truth and life came into the world The Gentiles before the Gospel came among them were dead in Scripture phrase very copiously Ephes. 2. 1 2. 4. 18. c. but that revived them Joh. 5. 25. This is the first resurrection in and to Christs Kingdom the second is spoken of at the twelfth verse of this Chapter that we are upon Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing namely a raising from darkness and sin by the power of the Gospel Rom. 11. 15. Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles Satan going down and Christs Kingdom advanced and the Gospel bringing in life and light as Joh. 1. 4. those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witness to him but closed with the mark of the Beast sin and sinful men these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished that is while they lasted though that were a time of receiving life Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection for on them the second death hath no power ver 6. The second death is a phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33. 6. thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Jonathan Isa. 65. 6. thus Behold it is written before me I will not grant them long life but I will pay them vengeance for their sins and deliver their carcases to the second death And ver 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. vers 29 30 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people and would make them his Priests and Levites And then see how fitly this verse answers those In stead of these cursed people these are blessed and holy and might not see the second death and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father In this passage of John scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretâ—â—â—â—n of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally think some dead were really raised out of their graves came into the Land of Israel begat children and died a second time Nay they stick not to tell who these men were and who were their children Talm. Babyl in Sanhedr ubi supra After the thousand years are expired Satan is let loose again and falls to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again ver 8. Zohar fol. 72. col 286. hath this saying It is a tradition that in the day when judgment is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgment then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low he is found destroying the world and taking away souls When the Papacy began then Heathenism came over the world again and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever then Idolatry blindness deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still the Gospel prevailed and laid all flat But when the Papacy came then he was loose again and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of John or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery especially begin them from the fall of Jerusalem where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand when if the Devil were not let loose when was he He calls the enemies of the Church especially Antichrist Gog and Magog the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy the great persecutor Ezek. 38. 39. Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog lib. 5. cap. 23. So that John from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new using known terms from Scripture and from the Jews language and notions that he might the better be understood So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world under these two sums first the beating
common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their Schools they commonly use these words Amern rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in four letters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus say our Doctors of blessed memory But when they speak of holy men in the Old Testament they usually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in brief thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus when they mention Moses Solomon David or others this is the memorial they give them The Arabians have the like use in their Abbreviation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verb and so may be construed two ways On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his judgement herein shall be my Law To take it the latter way seems to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Jews did not directly do yet in manner they appear to do no less in one part of their Common Prayer Book called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Souls which being not very long I thought not amiss to Translate out of their Tongue into our own that the Reader may see their Jewish Popery or Popish Judaism and may bless the Creator who hath not shut us up in the same darkness CHAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of souls in the Iews Liturgy Printed at Venice THE Lord remember the soul or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the son of N. who is gone into his world wherefore I vow to give Alms for him that for this his soul may be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which be in the garden of Eden Amen The Lord remember the soul of Mrs. N. the Daughter of N. who is gone to her World Therefore I vow c. as in the other before Amen The Lord remember the soul of my father and my mother of my grandfathers and grandmothers of my uncles and aunts brethren and sisters of my cosens and consenesses whether of my fathers side or mothers side who are gone into their world Wherefore I vow c. Amen The Lord remember the soul of N. the son of N. and the souls of all my cosens and cosenesses whether on my fathers or mothers side who were put to death or slain or stabd or burnt or drowned or hanged for the sanctifying of the Name of God Therefore I will give Alms for the memory of their souls and for this let their souls be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which are in the garden of Eden Amen Then the Priest pronounceth a blessing upon the man that is thus charitable as it followeth there in these words He that blessed our father Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses and Aaron David and Salomon he bless Rabbi N. the son of N. because he hath vowed Alms for the souls whom he hath mentioned for the honour of God and for the honour of the Law and for the honour of the day for this the Lord keep him and deliver him from all affliction and trouble and from every plague and sickness and write him and seal him for a happy life in the day of Judgment and send a blessing and prosper him in every work of his hands and all Israel his brethren and let us say Amen Thus courteous Reader hast thou seen a Popish Jew interceding for the dead have but the like patience a while and thou shalt see how they are Popish almost entirely in claiming the merits of the dead to intercede for them for thus tendeth a prayer which they use in the book called Sepher Min hagim shel col Hammedinoth c. which I have also here turned into English Do for thy praises sake Do for their sakes that loved thee that now dwell in dust For Abraham Isaac and Jacobs sake Do for Moses and Aarons sake Do for David and Salomons sake Do for Jerusalem thy holy Cities sake Do for Sion the habitation of thy glories sake Do for the desolation of thy Temples sake Do for the treading down of thine Altars sake Do for their sakes who were slain for thy holy Name Do for their sakes who have been massacred for thy sake Do for their sakes who have gone to fire or water for the hallowing of thy Name Do for sucking childrens sakes who have not sinned Do for weaned childrens sakes who have not offended Do for infants sakes who are of the house of our Doctors Do for thine own sake if not for ours Do for thine own sake and save us Tell me gentle reader 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. whether doth the Jew Romanize or the Roman Judaize in his devotions This interceding by others is a shrewd sign they have both rejected the right Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus The prophane Heathen might have read both Jew and Papist a lecture in his Contemno minutos istos Deos modo Jovem propitium habeam which I think a Christian may well English let go all Diminutive Divinities so that I may have the great Jesus Christ to propitiate for me CHAP. XLI Of the Latine Translation of Matth. 6. 1. ALms in Rabbin Hebrew are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedhakah righteousness which word the Syrian Translator useth Matth. 6. 1. Act. 10. 2. and in other places From this custom of speech the Roman vulgar Translateth Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis One English old manuscript Testament is in Lichfield Library which hath it thus after the Latine Takith hede that you do not your rightwisnes before men to be seyne of hem ellis ye shullen have no mede at your fadir that is in hevenes Other English Translation I never saw any to this sense nor any Greek copy It seems the Papist will rather Judaize for his own advantage than follow the true Greek The Septuagint in some places of the Old Testament have turned Tsedhakah Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds or little or to no sense As the Papists have in this place of the New Testament turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness to as little purpose In the Hebrew indeed one word is used for both Tsedhakah for Almsdeeds which properly signifies Righteousness upon what ground I know not unless it be to shew that S◠Chrysostom hath such ◠touch Alms must be given of rightly gotten good or else they are no righteousness or they are called Zadkatha in Syrian Hu ger zadek le mehwo they are called righteousness because it is right they should be given and given rightly The Fathers of the Councel of Trent speak much of the merit of Alms whom one may
honour l l l l l l Hieros Jevamâ—th fol. 3. 1. Bab. Jevamâ—th fol. 16. 1. in a far different signification the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking its derivation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to decline from VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deputy THIS is a word much in use amongst the Talmudists with a little variation only in the reading m m m m m m Hieros Beraceth fol. 9. 1. R. Chaninah and R. Joshua ben Levi passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deputy of Caesarea He seeing them rose up to them His own people say unto him Doest thou rise up to these Jews He answered them and said I saw their faces as the faces of Angels See the Aruch upon the word VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Perga in Pamphylia FROM Paphos in Cyprus whether old or new both being Maritim places situated on the Western shore of the Island they seemed to Sail into the mouth of the river Cestrus concerning which Strabo hath this passage n n n n n n Geograph lib. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then there is the river Cestrus which when one hath sailed sixty furlongs he comes to the City Perga near which is the Temple of Diana of Perga in an high place where every year there is a solemn convention Ptolomey also speaks of the river Cestrus and of the Cataract concerning which Strabo hath some mention But Mela o o o o o o Mela lib. 1. cap. 14. hath this passage Thence there are two strong rivers Oestros and Cataractes Oestros is easily navigable but Cataractes hath its name from the violence of its running amongst these is the City Perga c. One may justly suspect an error in the Writer here writing Oestros for Cestros and it is something strange that Olivarius hath taken no notice of it We may conjecture there was no Synagogue of Jews in Perga because there is no mention of it nor any memorable thing recorded as done by the Apostles here only that John whose Sirname was Mark did in this place depart from them for what reason is not known VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Antioch in Pisidia STrabo reckons up thirteen Cities in Pisidia p p p p p p Strabo lib. 12 from Artemidorus amongst which he makes no mention of Antioch But Pliny q q q q q q Plin. lib. 5. cap. 27. tell us Insident vertici Pisidiae quondam Solymi appellati c. There are that inhabit the top of Pisidia who were once called Solymites their Colony is Casarea the same is Antioch And Ptolomey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The inland Cities in Pamphilia are Sileucia of Phrygia and Antioch of Pisidia Where the Interpreter most confusedly Civitates sunt in Provincia Mediterranea Phrygia quidem Pisidiae Seleucia Pisidiae Antiochia that is there are Cities in the midland Country Phrygia of Pisidia Seleucia of Pisidia Antioch and in the margin he sets Caesarea VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets BUT in what Language were the Law and the Prophets read in this Synagogue It is generally supposed that in the Synagogues of the Hellenists the Greek Bible was read But was that Tongue understood amongst the Pisidians Strabo at the end of his thirteenth Book tells us The Cibratian prefecture was reckoned amongst the greatest of Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cibyrates used four Languages the Pisidian the Solyman the Greek and Lydian Where we see the Pisidian Tongue is expresly distinguisht from the Greek If Moses and the Prophets therefore were read here in the Greek Tongue were they understood by those in Pisidia Yes you will say for the very name of the City Antioch speaks it to have been a Greek Colony Grant this but then suppose a Jewish Synagogue in some City of Pisidia that was purely Pisidian such as Selge Sagalessus Pernelissus c. or in some City of the Solymites or of the Lydians in what Language was the Law read there Doubtless in the same Tongue and the same manner that it was read in the Synagogue of the Hebrews i. e. in the Original Hebrew some Interpreter assisting and rendring it to them in their mother Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sat down So it is exprest commonly of any one that teaches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sat down And if the Rulers of the Synagogue had no other knowledge of Barnabas and Saul they might gather they were Preachers from this that when they entred the Synagogue they sat down according to the custom of those that Taught or Preached VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And ye that fear God THAT is Proselytes r r r r r r Bemedv rab fol. 227. 2. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his ways Psal. CXXVIII 1. He doth not say Blessed is Israel or blessed are the Priests or blessed the Levites but blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the Proselytes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that fear the Lord. According as it is said of Israel Blessed art thou O Israel so is it said of these blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. Now of what proselyte is it said that he is blessed It is said of the proselyte of justice Not as those Cuthites of whom it is said that they feared the Lord and yet worshiped their own Gods VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to exclude the reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word we meet with in the Seventy Deut. I. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God did indeed bear with them full forty years and so you will say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not wide from the truth But the Apostle adding the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the time of forty years seems chiefly to respect that time which went between the fatal decree that they should not enter the land and the going in VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven Nations THE Rabbins very frequently when they mention the Canaanitish people give them this very term of the Seven Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS XX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the space of four hundred and fity years AMongst the many things that are offerd upon this difficulty I would chuse this that in this number are reckoned the years of the Judges and the years of those Tyrants that opprest Israel computing them disjunctly and singly which at first sight any one would think ought to be so reckoned but that 1 Kings VI. 1. gives a check to a too large computation 1. The years of the Judges and Tyrants thus distinguisht answer the Sum exactly The Iudges Othniel XL. Eliud LXXX Deborah XL. Gideon
say unto him I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Country which the Lord sware unto our Fathers for to give us And the Priests shall take the basket out of thine hand and set it down before the Altar of the Lord thy God And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and soiourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous c. likewise there was a form appointed to be said over the beheaded Heifer XXI Deut. 6 7. c. And all the Elders of that City that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the Heiser that is beheaded in the Valley And they shall answer and say Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it Be merciful O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people Israels charge The Priests when they blessed the people had also a form prescribed them VI. Numb 23 24. c. Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace And David appointed Psalms for the Tabernacle 1 Chron. XVI 7. And the Schools of the Prophets no doubt had Forms delivered to them So John and Christ taught their Disciples to Pray as wellas to Preach He had not been the Great Teacher had he not taught a Form of Prayer We should have been left untaught in not the least thing Consider also in the behalf of prescribed Forms that we poor creatures short fighted in divine things know not what we ought to pray for Peter at the Transfiguration prayed he knew not what IX Luke 33. We often as Adonijah are ready to ask our own Bane There is no man but if God had granted all that ever he asked it would have been worse with him Midas his wish may teach this But that place of the Apostle will be objected against me in Rom. VIII 26. The Spirit helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered Therefore we need no forms as long as what we are to pray is dictated to us by the Spirit But I answer T is the Spirit not an Oracle within us to teach us immediately The Word teaches us what and how to ask But the Office of the Spirit is to help our infirmities in asking our infirmities of memory our want of application to ourselves of what we know to be our wants So in the application of Doctrines of Promises the Spirit teaches us no new thing but minds us and brings home to the feeling of our Souls those things we learnt from the Word Consider moreover we had need to be taught of God what language to use when we are speaking to God T is no small thing to betake our selves before him and to speak to him who is the great and living God Now is it an easie thing to speak as we ought to do unto him Jobs friends spake not right things of God XLII Job 7 8. For which God tells them his wrath was kindled against them and requires them to make attonement for it by offering up seven Bullocks and seven Rams Moses could not speak unto Pharaoh IV. Exod. 10. Much less how shall the poor creature address unto the great God Therefore we are advised by the Prophet Hosea when we approach unto God to take words along with us XIV Hos. 2. Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our lips Where you see are express words put into our Mouths to use when we go and make our Confessions unto God Ah! Gracious God how ready art thou to give that biddest us Ak and teachest us to ask also That puttest Words into our Mouths and teachest us what to say to thee He must needs be ready to pardon sin that would prevent sin in our prayers that are begging for pardon Christ well knew the Majesty of God and the necessities of men the need of Prayer and our disability to pray and therefore he left not himself without a witness of infinite mercy and condescention nor us without one of the greatest things that we could have prayed for when he left us this Platform of Prayer When ye pray say c. And so I come to the Prayer or Form it self When ye pray say Our Father c. It is an opinion then that I can rather wonder at then understand that bids when we pray Say not Our Father As I have often grieved to see the neglect and disuse of the Lords Prayer and to hear the reproach that some have cast upon it so have I as seriously as I could considered what ground these have had for the disusing of it and to this hour I rest admiring and no way satisfied why they should refrain it when Christ hath commanded the use of it as plain as words can speak Matth. VI. 9. After this manner pray ye and again in the Text When ye pray say The Cavils that are made against the use of it are obvious I. To avoid superstition for unto such ends it hath been used Here I cannot but think how wild it is to extinguish a thing good per se because another useth it ill To cut down Vines to avoid drunkenness How subject is he that makes it all his Religion to run from a Superstition to run he knows not whether II. Such a narrow Form straitens the heart is too strait stinting the exercise of the gift of Prayer And here I cannot but think of Soloecisms in pride of apparel It is monstrous to make cloths our pride which are only a badge of sin and cover of shame So it is a Soloecism to cast away this Prayer upon presumption that we can pray so well when it is mainly given because we cannot pray at all III. It is generally questioned whether it be a Form of Prayer or a Copy to pray by IV. If a Form yet what warrant have we to subjoyn it to our Prayers as we usually do V. And if both yet that it is not lawful for every one to say Our Father I shall not dispute these Questions The words of the Text plainly answer the most of them Nor that I go about to give the sense of the Petitions There are many good Comments upon them I shall only consider the nature of the Prayer and the manner of its giving that we may be the better satisfied in the manner of its use First As the Ten Commandments are
with it see the notes at Numb 12. 5. The Priests could not make any man clean but only pronounce him clean 6. He that was Leprous all over and no place free was to be pronounced clean for it appeared that all the poyson was come forth and the danger of infecting others was past but he that had any part that was not scabby over he was unclean he that appears before God in any of his own righteousness like the proud Pharisee he hath his answer in that Parable but that humble confession of a poor sinner that shews him Leprous all over like that of the Publican obtains the best answer 7. The Leper that was cleansed had not his disease healed but the danger of the infection being over he was restored to the society of men again so that he was not so much clean unto himself as unto the Congregation CHAP. XVI THE solemn and mysterious Feast of Reconciliation instituted to be on the tenth day of the month Tisri the day that Moses had come down from the Mount with tydings of reconciliation betwixt God and the People as was said be-before And as the solemnity and carriage of the work of this day was a figure of good things to come in Christ so the very time it self had some respect that way for if Christ were not born and came into the World a Reconciler on that very day yet was he born and baptized nine and twenty years after in that very month CHAP. XVII XVIII XIX XX. XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV DIvers Laws are given concerning Offerings Marriages Festivals the Priests and other things and the main end of them all Piety Sanctity Charity and in them a distinction of Israel from other people CHAP. XXVI XXVII SAD denunciation of judgment upon disobedience and the valuation of persons in reference to redemption of vows Hosea speaketh in allusion to the rates and values mentioned here when he saith I bought her to me for fifteen shekels of silver and for an homer of barly and half an homer of barly Hos. 3. 2. The fifteen shekels was the value of a man above sixty years old Lev. 27. 7. The homer of barly which valued fifty shekels ver 16. was the value of a man from twenty years old to sixty ver 3. And half an homer which valued five and twenty shekels was for one from five years old to twenty twenty shekels ver 5. And from a month old to five years five shekels ver 6. World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 The Book of NUMBERS CHAP. I. ON the first day of the second month the Lord provided for the pitching of their camp as on the first day of the first month they had begun to erect the Tabernacle First the people are numbred from twenty years old and upwards and their sum amounteth to 603550. men of all which number only two men enter the land The Levites are not reckoned in this sum nor with this reckoning and accordingly they fall not under the same curse with the others of not entring into his rest Not a man impotent through old age in Israel CHAP. II. THeir Camp is pitched and the Sanctuary set just in the middle of it for Religion is the heart of a State The Levites pitch next unto it in a quadrangular body round about it at a certain distance The whole body of the army pitcheth at an other distance about them in the same form and 2000 cubits distance from the Tabernacle every side of the square carried its several colours Judah a Lion Ephraim a Bullock Reuben a Man Dan an Eagle Compare the description of Christ dwelling in the middest of the Christian Church Rev. 4. 4. The Ark the strength of the Lord Pitcheth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh Psal. 80. 2. CHAP. III. IV. THE Levites taken for the first-born of Israel and so interessed in every family among them The first-born had been Priests till the consecration of the Levites now that function must be confined to that Tribe The Levites ingaged to their service from nine and twenty years old compleat or thirty currant till fifty Our Saviours age at his entrance into his Ministry Luke 3. 23. answereth to this type CHAP. V. VI. A Law concerning uncleanness and offences that the Camp might continue in purity and unity chastity and unchastity tried miraculously The Law concerning Nazarites the only votaries of the people The Congregation to be blessed by the Priests in the name of the Trinity CHAP. VII VIII THE Princes offer to the Sanctuary and more ordinances are given about it That they offered not till they were ordered into their standards is plain by the order and method of their offering The Levites to be five years probationers at the Sanctuary before they take their office Chap. 8. 24. compared with Chap. 4. 23. CHAP. IX from Ver. 15. to the end And CHAP. X. to Ver. 11. BEfore the reading of the fifteenth Verse the Reader is to suppose a Passover to be kept the fourteenth day of this second month although the keeping of it be not expresly mentioned but only hinted for on the fourteenth day of the first month which was the proper day for the Passover some men because they were unclean could not observe it and upon their acquainting Moses with their case he presently gives them a warrant to keep it the fourteenth day of the next month which they did no doubt accordingly although it be not in plain terms related For the occurrences mentioned in the Book hitherto came to pass in the first thirteen days of the month save only the offering of the Princes which indeed began before the fourteenth day but continued World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 beyond it notwithstanding the Holy Ghost would conclude the story of their offering all together and on the fourteenth day those that had been unclean at the proper time of the Passover kept the Passover by a new ordinance so that the order of the story of this new Passover is most genuine and proper here but Moses could not relate the thing but he must relate the occasion namely because some could not keep it at the right time therefore he giveth the story of the right time here which as we shewed before lieth properly between the tenth and eleventh Chapters of Leviticus From the fifteenth Verse of this Chapter to the eleventh Verse of the tenth Chapter there is mention of two special things namely the dwelling of the cloud upon the Tabernacle and the making of the silver Trumpets which however they were indeed somewhat afore this time for the Cloud descended and the Trumpets were made before the fourteenth day of this month yet are they brought in here as relating to the removal of the Army which is mentioned in Chap. 10. vers 11. for then the Cloud was taken up and the Trumpets were sounded EXODUS XVIII BEtween the tenth and eleventh Verses of the tenth of Numbers as
wandering in the wilderness Here at Kadesh they continued a good space before they removed for so Moses saith Ye abode in Kadesh many days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the days that ye had made abode namely at Sinai as ver 6. and so they spent one whole year there for so they had done at Sinai and whereas God bids them upon their murmuring to turn back to the Red-sea Deut. 1. 40. his meaning was that at their next march whensoever it was they should not go forward towards Canaan but clean back again towards the Red-sea from whence they came Moses 84 Redemption from Egypt 4 And so they do and so they wander by many stations and marches Moses 85 Redemption from Egypt 5 from Kadesh Barnea now till they come to Kadesh Barnea again some seven Moses 86 Redemption from Egypt 6 or eight and thirty years hence Their marches mentioned in Numb 33. Moses 87 Redemption from Egypt 7 were these from Kadesh or Rithmah to Rimmon Parez to Libnah to Moses 88 Redemption from Egypt 8 Rissah to Kehelathah to Mount Shapher to Haradah to Makheloth to Moses 89 Redemption from Egypt 9 Tahath to Tarah to Mâ—â—hcah to Hashmonah to Moseroth to Horhagidgad Moses 90 Redemption from Egypt 10 to Jotbathah to Ebronah to Ezion Gaber to Kadesh again in the Moses 91 Redemption from Egypt 11 fortieth year And thus whereas it was but eleven days journey from Horeb Moses 92 Redemption from Egypt 12 by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea Deut. 1. 2. they have now Moses 93 Redemption from Egypt 13 made it above three times eleven years journy The occurrences of all Moses 94 Redemption from Egypt 14 this time were but few and those undated either to time or place some Moses 95 Redemption from Egypt 15 Laws are given Chap. 15. Korah Dathan and Abiram rebel Chap. 16. Moses 96 Redemption from Egypt 16 Korah for the Priest-hood from Aaron as being one of the Tribe of Levi Moses 97 Redemption from Egypt 17 and Dathan and Abiram for the principality from Moses as being of Moses 98 Redemption from Egypt 18 Reuben the first-born An earth-quake devoureth them and all theirs Moses 99 Redemption from Egypt 19 and a fire devoured the 250 men that conspired with them only Korahs Moses 100 Redemption from Egypt 20 sons escape Chap. 26. 11. and of them came Samuel and divers famous Moses 101 Redemption from Egypt 21 Moses 102 Redemption from Egypt 22 singers in the Temple 1 Chron. 6. 22. c. Aarons Priest-hood that was Moses 103 Redemption from Egypt 23 so opposed is confirmed by the budding of his withered rod and upon Moses 104 Redemption from Egypt 24 Moses 105 Redemption from Egypt 25 this approval divers services for the Priests are appointed Chap. 17. 18. Moses 106 Redemption from Egypt 26 19. and so we have no more occurrences mentioned till the first day of Moses 107 Redemption from Egypt 27 Moses 108 Redemption from Egypt 28 their fortieth year They went under four or five continual miracles Moses 109 Redemption from Egypt 29 as the appearing of the Cloud of glory the raining of Manna the following Moses 110 Redemption from Egypt 30 Moses 111 Redemption from Egypt 31 of the Rock or the waters of Horeb the continual newness of Moses 112 Redemption from Egypt 32 their cloaths and the untiredness of their feet yet did they forget and Moses 113 Redemption from Egypt 33 were continually repining against him that did all these wonders for them Moses 114 Redemption from Egypt 34 Moses 115 Redemption from Egypt 35 They repined when they came out of Egypt that they must come out of Moses 116 Redemption from Egypt 36 Egypt Exod. 14. 12. They repined when they came near Canaan that Moses 117 Redemption from Egypt 37 Moses 118 Redemption from Egypt 38 they must go into Canaan Numb 14. and so they repined all the way between Moses 119 Redemption from Egypt 39 Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee c. Deut. 32. 6. CHAP. XX. World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 ISRAEL is now come to Kadesh Barnea again an unhappy place for there they had been eight and thirty years ago and received the doom of not entring into the land and the same doom falleth upon Moses and Aaron there now It is said They came into the desert of Zin to Kadesh in the first moneth but nameth not the year for it referreth to the decree made in that very place of forty years wandering and this is the first month of the fortieth year and so Numb 33. 8. and Deut. 2. 7 14. make it undoubted Miriam dieth at Kadesh and is buried there being a great deal above 120 years old The people murmur here now for water as they had done here before about the land and the Holy Ghost by a most strange word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most sweetly sheweth their confusedness They had lain here a whole twelve-month at their being here before but then no want of water for the rock or the waters of Horeb had followed them hither but how World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 that was now departed is not expressed Moses and Aaron are excluded Canaan for not believing the Lord and not sanctifying him before the people their particular fault is diversly guessed at it seemeth to me that it was this What say they ye rebels must we bring water out of this rock as we did out of Horeb Is all our hopes and expectation of getting out of the wilderness come to this We never fetched you water out of a rock but once and that was because ye were to stay a long time in the wilderness and that was to serve you all the while as we have seen it did by experience Now that water is gone and must we now fetch you water out of another rock O ye rebels have you brought it to this by your murmuring that we must have a new stay in the wilderness and a new rock opened to yield you water for your long stay as Horeb did Are we to begin our abode in the wilderness anew now when we hoped that our travel had been ended and so we shall never get out And so he smote the rock twice in a fume and anger And thus they believed not the promise of entring the land after forty years and thus they sanctified not the Lord in the sight of the people to incourage them in the Promise but damped them in it and thus they spake unadvisedly in their lips and so they were excluded Canaan It was a sign that the Promise aimed at better things then the earthly Canaan when the holiest persons in all Israel are debarred from coming thither from Kadesh Barnea they turn back toward the Red-sea again as they had done before Deut. 1. 40. because Edom would not now give them passage Aaron dieth in
them to be humbled some for their fathers guilt some for their own and some for both and to acknowledge that their being alive till now and their liberty to enter into the Land was a free and a great mercy for their own and their fathers faults might justly have caused it to have been otherwise with them 2. They had imitated their fathers rebellion to the utmost in their murmuring at Kadesh at their last coming up thither and in the matter of Baal Peor and therefore he might very well personate them by their fathers when their fathers faults were so legible and easie to be seen in them 4. He reckoneth not their second journy to Kadesh by name but slips by it Chap. 2. 1 4. Nor mentions their long wanderings for seven and thirty years together between Kadesh and Kadesh but only under this expression We compassed mount Seir many days Chap. 2. 1. because in that rehearsal he mainly insisteth but upon these two heads Gods decree against them that had first murmured at Kadesh and how that was made good upon them and Gods promise of bringing their children into the land and how that was made good upon them therefore when he hath largely related both the decree and the promise he hastens to shew the accomplishment of both 5. In rehearsing the Ten Commandments he proposeth a reason of the Sabbaths ordaining differing from that in Exodus there it was because God rested on the seventh day here it is because of their delivery out of Egypt and so here it respecteth the Jewish Sabbath more properly there the Sabbath in its pure morality and perpetuity And here is a figure of what is now come to pass in our Sabbath celebrated in memorial of Redemption as well as of Creation In the fifth Commandment in this his rehearsal there is an addition or two more then there is in it in Exod. 20. and the letter Teth is brought in twice which in the twentieth of Exodus was only wanting of all the letters 6. In Chap. 10. ver 6. 7 8. there is a strange and remarkable transposition and a matter that affordeth a double scruple 1. In that after the mention of the golden Calf in Chap. 9. and of the renewing of the Tables Chap. 10. which occurred in the first year after their coming out of Egypt he bringeth in their departing from Beeroth to Mosera where Aaron died which was in the fortieth year after now the reason of this is because he would shew Gods reconciliation to Aaron and his reconciliation to the people to Aaron in that though he had deserved death suddenly with the rest of the people that died for the sin of the golden Calf yet the Lord had mercy on him and spared him and he died not till forty years after and to the people because that for all that transgression yet the Lord brought them through that wilderness to a land of rivers of waters But 2. there is yet a greater doubt lies in these words then this for in Numb 33. the peoples march is set down to be from Moseroth to Bene Jahaan ver 31. and here it is said to be from Beeroth of Bene Jaahan to Moseroth there it is said Aaron died at mount Hor but here it is said He died at Moseroth now there were World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 seven several incampings between Moseroth and mount Hor Numb 33. 31 32 c. Now the answer to this must arise from this consideration that in those stations mentioned Numb 33. From Moseroth to Bene Jaahan to Horhagidgad c. they were marching towards Kadesh before their fortieth year and so they went from Moseroth to Bene Jaahan But in these stations Deut. 10. 6. they are marching from Kadish in their fortieth year by some of that way that they came thither and so they must now go from Bene Jaahan to Moseroth And 2. how Moseroth and mount Hor Gudgodah and Horhagidgad were but the * * * As Horeb and Sinai were though they be counted two several incampings of Israel Exod. 17. 1 6. and 19. 1. compared same place and Country and how though Israel were now going back from Kadish yet hit in the very same journies that they went in when they were coming thither as to Gudgodah or Horhagidgad to Jotbathah or Jotbath requires a discourse Geographical by it self which is the next thing that was promised in the Preface to the first part of the Harmony of the Evangelists and with some part of that work by Gods permission and his good hand upon the Work-man shall come forth 7. It cannot pass the Eye of him that readeth the Text in the Original but he must observe it how in Chap. 29. ver 29. the Holy Ghost hath pointed one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To us and to our Children belong the revealed things after an extraordinary and unparalleld manner to give warning against curiosity in prying into Gods secrets and that we should content our selves with his revealed will 8. Moses in blessing of the Tribes Chap. 33. nameth them not according to their seniority but in another order Reuben is set first though he had lost the birth-right to shew his repentance and that he died not * * * So the Chaldee renders ver 6. Let Reuben live and not die the second death the second death Simeon is omitted because of his cruelty to Sichem and Joseph and therefore he the fittest to be left out when there were twelve Tribes beside Judah is placed before Levi for the Kingdoms dignity above the Priest-hood Christ being promised a King of that Tribe Benjamin is set before Joseph for the dignity of Jerusalem above Samaria c. 9. The last Chapter of the Book was written by some other then Moses for it relateth his death and how he was buried by the Lord that is by Michael Jude 9. or Christ who was to bury Moses Ceremonies The Book of JOSHUA THIS Book containeth a history of the seventeen years of the rule of Joshua which though they be not expresly named by this sum in clear words yet are they to be collected to be so many from that gross sum of four hundred and eighty years from the delivery out of Egypt to the laying of the foundation of solomons Temple mentioned 1 Kings 6. 1. for the Scripture hath parcelled out that sum into these particulars forty years of the people in the wilderness two hundred ninety and nine years of the Judges forty years of Eli forty of Samuel and Saul forty of David and four of Solomon to the Temples founding in all four hundred sixty three and therefore the seventeen years that must make up the sum four hundred and eighty must needs be concluded to have been the time of the rule of Joshua CHAP. I. World 2554 Ioshua 1 JOSHUA of Joseph succeedeth Moses the seventh from Ephraim 1 Chron. 7. 25. and in him first appeared Josephs birth-right 1 Chron. 5. 1. and
Sanctuary Eli 18 with a Sacrifice and a Song The year of his birth is not determinable Eli 19 Eli 20 no not so much as whether it were in the Judgeship of Eli though it be undoubted Eli 21 that it was in his Priest-hood Eli's sons commit theft and adultery in Eli 22 the very Sanctuary they ravin from the men that came to sacrifice and they Eli 23 ravish the women that * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 2. 22. Women that had some office and attendance at the Tabernacle As Num. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to do the Sanctuary service Anna was such a woman Luke 2. 37. waited on the Sanctuary and so they cause the Ordinances Eli 24 of the Lord to be abhorred Under such example is Samuel educated Eli 25 Eli 26 yet falleth not under that taint A Prophet sharply reproveth Eli for not reproving Eli 27 his sons This Prophet the Jews held to be Elkanah himself and say Eli 28 that he was one of the eight and forty Prophets that prophesied to Israel In Chap. Eli 29 2. Vers. 11. it is said that Elkanah returned to Ramoth to his own house and yet Eli 30 verse 20. it is said that Eli blessed Elkanah which is to be understood that Eli 31 he had done so from Samuels first dedication and so did as oft as he came to Eli 32 Shiloh Samuel himself becomes a Prophet first against Elies house and then Eli 33 afterward to all Israel Chap. 3. 1. Impiety had exceedingly banished Prophesie Eli 34 Eli 35 in these times amongst them but now the Lord begins to restore it for prediction Eli 36 of ruine and then for direction of reformation Urim and Thummim Eli 37 were ere long to be lost from the Priests with the loss of the Ark Eli 38 and God pours the Spirit of Prophesie upon a Levite to supply that Eli 39 want CHAP. IV. World 2909 Eli 40 THE Ark first touched and taken with the hands of uncircumcised ones The two sons of Eli come to fatal ends at this last service of the Ark as the two sons of Aaron Nadab and Abihu did at the first Eli himself dieth the very death of an unredeemed Ass Exod. 13. 13. Shiloh laid waste Jer. 7. 14. and the birthright lost from Joseph and Ephraim Psal. 78. 60. c. The Tabernacle had been at Shiloh 340 years and somewhat more The Idol of Dan hath now out-lived it Judg. 18. 31. Ah poor Israel World 2910 Eli 1 Here begin the forty years of Samuel and Saul mentioned Act. 13. 20 21. He gave them Judges after a manner four hundred and fifty years that is the years of the oppressors also reckoned in the Judges 299. the oppressors 111. and Eli 40. until Samuel the Prophet And afterward they desired a King and God gave them Saul by the space of forty years that is to the expiration of forty years from Elies death the last of the Judges CHAP. V. VI. THE Ark is all the spring and summer of this year in the land of the Philistims For its sake the Lord smiteth Dagon the god of their Corn and destroyeth the harvest of their Corn as it grew on the ground with an army of Mice He striketh the people with Emerods in their hinder parts Psal. 78. 66. and bringeth a shameful soreness on them in a contrary part and in a contrary nature to the honourable soreness of Circumcision They restore the Ark again with strange presents with abundance of golden Mice Et cum quinque anis vel podicibus aureis quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Kine knew their owner as Esa. 1. 3. Hophni and Phineas knew him not The Bethshemites though Priests yet slain by the Lord for too much boldness with the Ark. CHAP. VII Vers. 1. And the first half of the second Samuel 2 THE Ark setled in Kirjath-jearim the City of the woods to this the Samuel 3 Psalmist speaketh Psal. 132. 6. We heard of it at Ephratah or at Shiloh Samuel 4 in Ephraim we found it in the fields of the wood or at Kirjath-jearim there an Samuel 5 Eleazar looketh to it when both the line of Eleazar and Ithamar are out of Samuel 6 that service And it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kirjath-jearim the time Samuel 7 Samuel 8 was long for it was twenty years This is not to be understood for the whole Samuel 9 time that it was there for it was above six and forty years there before David Samuel 10 fetched it up 2 Sam. 6. namely thirty nine years of Samuel and Saul and Samuel 11 seven David born in the tenth year of Samuel years of Davids reign in Hebron but it is to be thus understood and construed Samuel 12 that the Ark was twenty years in Kirjath-jearim before the people of Israel Samuel 13 minded it or looked after it but they followed and adhered to their former Samuel 14 Idolatries and corruptions and therefore it is said by Samuel afterward vers 3. Samuel 15 Samuel 16 If you do return unto the Lord put away the strange gods Ashteroth from among Samuel 17 you c. Their Idolatry and prophaneness was so deep rooted having been so Samuel 18 long and so customary with them that neither the loss of the Ark nor the Samuel 19 slaughter of Israel had wrought upon them but that twenty years together Samuel 20 they are lost to the Ark though the Ark were not then lost to them CHAP. VII Vers. 2. The latter half of it * * * The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be translated not And but Then they lamented Then all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord and so to the end of the 7 Chapter and Chapter 8. all World 2930 Samuel 21 A Spirit of repentance and conversion cometh generally upon all the people a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture one only parallel to it and that is in Acts 2. and 3. at the great conversion there There were to that time these sums of years four hundred ninety years from hence to the beginning of the Captivity seventy years of the Captivity and four hundred ninety years from the end of the Captivity thither The seventy of the Captivity are the midst of years Hab. 3. 2. And Samuel according to this chain is the first of the Prophets Acts 4. 24. Samuel 22 Israel is baptized from their Idols Samuel though no Priest yet by special They drew water and poured it before the Lord Chap. 7. 6 To be understood of their washing themselves from their idols as Gen. 35. 2. Exod. 19. 14. Samuel 23 warrant sacrificeth by Prayer destroyeth the Philistims with thunder Chap. 2. Samuel 24 20. Psal. 99. 6. they were subdued in that very place where they had subdued Samuel 25 Israel and taken the Ark one and twenty years before Samuel rideth in circuit Samuel 26 and judgeth Israel Judah recovereth
to a sin offering and in reference to those precepts whose violation deserved cutting off but it being doubtful whether the offence was committed this doubtful and suspensive offering was to be offered to keep off the cutting off the danger of which it is possible he lay under See Lev. 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certain or apparent trespass offering is so called because the Law doth punctually and determinatively appoint as what is to be offered so by what persons and upon what occasions it was to be offered and those are five 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h Tosapht ubi supr Tal. in Zevachin per. 5. Maym. in Shegag per. 9. The trespass offering for a thing stolen or unjustly gotten or detained of which is mention Levitious 6. 2 3 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The trespass offering for sacriledge of which there is mention Levit. 5. 16. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The trespass offering concerning a bond maid about which the Law is given Lev. 19. 20 21. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The trespass offering of the Nazarite Numbers 6. 12. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The trespass offering of the Leper Levit. 14. 12. i i i Maym. in Corban per. 9. Now the manner of disposing of these Sacrifices when they came to be offered was according to the disposal of the sin offering They were killed flead the inwards taken out washed salted and burnt like that and the flesh eaten by the Males of the Priests in the Court Only about the sprinkling of their bloud there was some difference k k k Zevach. ubi â—pr for whereas the bloud of the sin offering was put upon the horns of the Altar the bloud of these was sprinkled with that sprinkling which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two sprinklings which were sour that is at two corners of the Altar forementioned and into the fashion of the Letter Gamma those were sprinkled above the red line that went about the middle of the Altar and these below as was the bloud of the burnt offering And among all the rest the Nazarites Ram of trespass offering was accounted one of the lesser Sacrifices or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas all the rest went in the rank of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most holy offerings and whereas those were slain on the North side of the Court this was on the South and those were eaten only by the Males of the Priests and in the Court but this might be eaten by others and in the City The eating of the most holy offerings in the Court is very commonly called by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eating within the Curtains in which expression they allude to the Court of the Tabernacle incompassed with Curtains round about For as within those Curtains there was that space which was called the Camp of the Lord the Camp of Levi being pitcht without so from the Gate of Nicanor inward only was reputed the Lords Camp the Camp of the Levites being that without to the Gate of the Mountain of the Temple Now it was an express Command that every oblation meat offering sin offering trespass offering should be holy for the Priests and for their sons and should be eaten in the most holy place that is in the Court Numb 18. 10. Ezek. 42. 13. David Kimchi upon the latter place cited hath these words l l l Kimchi iâ— Ezek 42. The most holy offerings were eaten within the Court of Israel more innerly and that was called Emphatically the Court and that was the holy place for the eating of the most holy things if they were so minded But in the Court of the Priests which was within the Court of Israel there were Chambers of the Priests and there they eat their holy things In which passage he both reduceth the eating of the most holy offerings into a narrower compass than either was needful or than the rest of his Nation do and also he findeth Buildings and Chambers for the Priests within the Court of the Priests which unless they were those Chambers joyning to the body of the Temple are not imaginable nor have been discovered by any hitherto As the Command confined the Priests within the Compass of the Court whilst they were eating these things so it may well be supposed that the place of their eating of them was according to the season and the best conveniency in warm Weather under the Cloysters in open Air and in colder seasons in some of the Chambers that stood within the Court as Gazith Mokadh Nitsots or what if in some of the Rooms joyning to the Temple It appeareth by the Tradition concerning their eating of these things that they fell not aboard with them till towards the Evening and made them not their dinner at any time but their supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence is the common saying of the Talmudists They might eat of them till midnight but after that it was unlawful And in the Treatise Beracoth this is set as it were the Clock to fix the time for the evening rehearsal of their Phylacteries m m m Beracheth per. 1. Sect. 1. From what time say they do they say over their Phylacteries at even and it is answered from the time that the Priests go in to eat their Offerings c. Whether the Priests fasted all day till this time or no and whether the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did any whit follow this Copy of their Temple Feasts and whether this their feasting before the Lord were not a resemblance of the blessed society of the glorified in the Presence of God we shall not argue but refer it to the Reader Among these Offerings that we have mentioned of Bullocks Goats Rams and Lambs we must not forget that there were the like Offerings of Birds and of all Birds there were only two kinds allowed and these were Turtles and young Pigeons and they were ever offered by Couples In the Talmud Language they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or nests of which Title and upon which subject there is a Treatise in that Code and they were ordinarily sold in the Temple Joh. 2. 14. and Women especially though not only dealt in this kind of Offering of all other For the cases concerning their uncleanness issues births abortions besides their vows and free gifts were so many that they multiplied these Offerings to an incredible number Let one Example give evidence concerning the rest A woman n n n Kerithuth per. 1. saith the Treatise Kerithuth that hath the doubtfulness of five births together and five fluxes she is to bring one offering and she may eat of the Sacrifices and there is no further offering due from her Hath she five Births certain and five fluxes certain she is to bring one Offering and she may eat of the Sacrifice but there is a due from her for the rest There was this passage
a man use irreverence before this Gate of Nicanor or the East Gate And so in the first Chapter of Sotah In the Gate of Nicanor they make the suspected wife drink the bitter water and they purifie women after Childbirth and Lepers And in the end of the Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the seventh Chapter of the Treatise Pesachin It is said that the Gate of Nicanor was not holy as the Court because Lepers stood there and put in their thumbs and great toes into the Court And so in the third Chapter of Joma and the second Chapter of Tosaphta there it is said there were wonders wrought with the doors of Nicanor and they mention it renownedly And if so then had it been fit to have recorded him The story is thus This Nicanor was one of the Chasiddim and he went to Alexandria in Egypt and made there two brazen doors with much curiosity intending to set them up in the Court of the Temple and he brought them away by sea Now a great storm happening the mariners cast one of the doors over board to lighten the ship and intended also to throw over the other also Which when Nicanor perceived he bound himself to the door with cords and told them that if they threw that in they should throw him in too And so the Sea ceased from her rage And when he was landed at Ptolemais and bemoaned the loss of his other door and prayed to God about it the Sea cast up the door in that place where the holy man had landed But some say a great fish cast it up And this was the miracle that was done about his doors and they set them up on the East side of the Court before the Temple But in the books of Joseph ben Gorion he saith That the Gate of Nicanor was so called because a wonder was done there for there they slew Nicanor a Prince of the Grecians in the time of the Asmoneans and so it seemeth in the later end of the second Chapter of the Treatise Taanith Thus Jucasin I shall not insist upon it to dispute it out whether of these things alledged were the cause of the name of this Gate or whether something else Some other conjectures might be added as whether Nicanor that sent the doors from Alexandria were not he that was the Kings Chief Master of the Ceremonies there of whom Josephus maketh mention q q q Ios. Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. and relateth how he provided Chambers and Diet for the Septuagint Translaters or whether this Gate were not so called in honour of Seleucus Nicanor the first King of Syria who was a great favourer of the Jewish Nation r r r Ibid. cap. 3. as the same Josephus also relateth But I shall leave the searching after the Etymology and original of the name to those that have mind and leasure thereunto it sufficeth to know the Gate by its name which was so renowned and famous in all Jewish Writers only as to the story about Nicanor a Grecian Prince being slain here compare 1 Maccab. VII 33 34. c. Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 17. Before we part from this Gate we must remember to say something about the Gate Sur and the Gate of the Foundation of which there is mention 2 King XI 6. 2 Chron. XXIII 5. because that these are held by some as was shewed before to have been but names of this East-Gate of the Court that we are about The Texts where these names are mentioned do speak to this purpose in our English Translation 2 King XI 2 Chron. XXIII Vers. 5. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the Kings house Vers. 4. A third part of you entring in on the Sabbath of the Priests and of the Levites shall be porters of the doors 6. And a third part shall be at the Gate Sur and a third part at the Gate behind the guard c. 5. And a third part shall be at the Kings house and a third part at the Gate of the foundation c. 7. And two parts of you that go forth on the Sabbath even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the King c.  The two Courses of the Priests and Levites now present namely that course that came in on the Sabbath and the other that had served their week and were now going out Johoiada divides either of them into three parts into six in all They that came in on the Sabbath were to be 1. A third part of them for the Altar and service the Priests for the Sacrifices and the Levites for Singers and Porters as in the constant duty and attendance For it was now the Sabbath day and had it been any other day it is not to be imagined that Jehoiada would neglect the affairs of God though he went about the affairs of the King But he provides for both so that the Temple Service may have its due attendance as well as the Kings coronation And therefore vers 5. of 2 King XI is necessarily to be rendred thus A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath that is a third part of you shall be as those that come in on the Sabbath to attend the Service as at other times And is so 2 Chron. XXIII 4. to be translated A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath for Priests and Levites and Porters that is to attend the Altar Song and Gates as in the constant service 2. Another third part for Keepers of the Watch at the Kings House 3. And another third part at the Gate Sur which is also called the Gate of the Foundation Thus the Text in the two Books laid together do plainly distribute the course that was to come in on the Sabbath as he will see that will carefully compare them together in the original The course that was going out on the Sabbath was disposed 1. One third part of them to the Gate behind the Guard 2. Two third parts to keep the watch of the House of the Lord for the safety of the King Now the very disposal of these Guards will help us to judge concerning the Gates that we have in mention and will resolve us that they were not any Gates of the Temple at all but that they stood in some place else For the Gates of the Temple were guarded by the Porters of the course that came in as in the ordinary manner and there was an extraordinary Guard added besides throughout all the Mountain of the House and in the Court of that course that was going out 2 King XI 7 8. 11. Therefore the Gate Sur or the Gate of the Foundation which was guarded by a third part of those that come in on the Sabbath cannot be supposed for any Gate of the Temple since the Temple was guarded by two
being the signification of this appearance and Glory in general we are next to look upon the particulars of it which will more fully also confirm and clear this matter and first we will begin with the living Creatures or Cherubins For the better discovery of them what they were and what they meant these things do deservedly challenge special considering and observation 1. That they are plainly distinguished from Angels For in Rev. V. 11. there is mention of many Angels round about the Throne and about the living Creatures and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands And in Rev. VII 11. All the Angels stood round about the Throne and about the Elders and the four living Creatures So that here is apparent difference between Angels and living Creatures both in their names and in their placing For the living Creatures were about the Throne the twenty four Elders about the living Creatures and the innumerable multitude of Angels about all 2. That they were such as Christ redeemed from the Earth For observe in Rev. V. 8 9. The four living Creatures as well as the four and twenty Elders fall down before the Lamb c. saying Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests c. So that the living Creatures were redeemed and were of People and Nations and were made Kings and Priests as well as the twenty four Elders which cannot be applied to Angels 3. That these living Creatures or Cherubins are never mentioned but in vision or Hieroglyphick In vision as in these places that have been cited of Esay Ezekiel and the Revelation and in Hieroglyphick as the Cherubins covering the Ark and wrought in the Tabernacle Curtains and on the Temple Walls It is true indeed that it is said in Gen. III. God placed Cherubins at the Gate of Eden which is only for the fuller and more feeling apprehension of the thing the Cherubins being such forms as with which the People were best acquainted seeing them in the Tabernacle Curtains 4. They therefore being thus constantly held out in a Doctrinal and significative tenor as Visions and Hieroglyphicks are they are to be expounded to such a Doctrinal and Figurative sense and so is the whole body of Glory as I may so call it the whole visionary Theatre or spectacle that is before us to be taken And first to begin with the quadrature or four-square posture of the whole appearance which was touched before and now a little more to be considered on There is intimation enough in Ezekiel that the four living Creatures stood square with a fire in the midst of them and the Wheels in a square on the outside of the square of the living Creatures but in the Revelation it is yet more plain for there it is said the four living Creatures stood round about the Throne which could not be but in a quadrature one before another behind and one of either side for how else could four stand round about it The Throne then meaning the Temple as was shewed before this double quadrature about it doth call us to remember the double Camp that pitched about the Tabernacle upon the four sides of it East West North and South When the Lord did first platform and order the incamping of Israel in the Wilderness 1. He pitched his own Tabernacle in the middle as that being the very Center Heart and Life of the Congregation and they being all to attend upon it and God thereby declaring himself to be in the midst of them Lev. XXVI 11 12. 2. He pitched the Tribe of Levi in four Squadrons on the four sides of the Tabernacle next unto it for they being the Ministers that attended upon the Publick Service and that drew near unto the Lord and were Mediators 'twixt God and his People the Lord caused them to Incamp next unto his Sanctuary and betwixt the Camp of the People and Himself 3. The outmost of all in four main Bodies on the four sides of the Tabernacle and of the Levites Camp did the whole Congregation pitch and so there were two quadratures the Levites about the Sanctuary and the Congregation about the Levites See Numb II. Answerable is the platform here and the quadrangular posture is in reference and allusion to that and from thence must we explain it In the midst was a Quadrangle of fire and upon every side of that Quadrangle a Cherub and on the outside of the Cherubins even before every one of them was a Wheel And in the Revelation A Throne in the middle four living Creatures next about it and the twenty four Elders about them So that by this parallel to Israels Camp from whence the platform both in the Prophet and the Apocalyptick is taken the four living Creatures did signifie the Priests and Ministers of the Lord and the Wheels in the one and the twenty four Elders in the other did represent the People or the Congregation And this will arise clearer and clearer still to our observation as we go along to consider their Place Actions and Descriptions 1. I know it is conceived by some that the twenty four Elders in the Revelation were nearer the Throne than the Cherubins and that Opinion must needs conclude the like in Ezekiel but the contrary is apparent by these Observations First That besides what hath been said upon vers 15. in Ezek. X. 6. a man clothed in linnen being bidden to take fire from between the Wheels from between the Cherubins he first goeth in within the compass of the Wheels and then a Cherub taketh fire from the midst of the Cherubins and reacheth it to him Secondly It is said there again at vers 9. that the four Wheels were by the Cherubins whereas if the Wheels had been inmost it had been proper to have said the Cherubins were by the Wheels Thirdly And at vers 18. It is said the Glory of the Lord stood over the Cherubins and Chap. I. 22 26. c. it is said the Throne of God was just over their Heads and there is no mention of being over the Wheels which shews it very unlikely that the Wheels were in the middle of the Cherubins Fourthly In Rev. V. 6. the platform is named thus In the midst of the Throne and of the four living Creatures and in the midst of the Elders the Throne in the midst the living Creatures next and the Elders outmost and so again in vers 11. c. Fifthly In Chap. IV. 4. It is said that about the Throne were four and twenty seats and on them four and twenty Elders sitting and at vers 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a hard piece of Greek to construe because there is an Ellipsis of a particle which not observed hath produced but harsh Interpretations of the place The Syriack hath rendred it In the midst of the
went indeed to preach but withal he joyned with the Congregation in other parts of Divine Service as he desired that they should joyn with him in that We will alledge but one example having a further hint about this to give hereafter It is said Luke IV. 16. That as his custom was he went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read It had been his constant custom to go to that Synagogue of Nazareth his Parish Church every Sabbath day but this is the first time that he Preached there And in the clause He stood up for to read there is more than every one observes He Preached in other Synagogues but he Read in none but this For he that read in the Synagogue was a member of the Synagogue and he by reading shewed that he owned himself and was owned to be one of This. Now what a kind of people the Congregation of Nazareth was we may somewhat guess from that passage Can any good thing come out of Nazareth But plainly enough from what follows in the same story that they would have murthered him because his Doctrine pleased them not vers 29. And yet did he keep himself till then to that Congregation owned himself a member of it read in it as a member of it till his function called him and the fear of his life forced him thence And thus much be spoken of his Publick Devotions from thence we pass to his Gospel Institutions and they speak to the very same tenour that the other did that he held Communion with the Church of the Jews in which he lived Of which I shall give you these four instances I. His Institution of Baptism Think not that Baptism was never used till John Baptist came and baptized It was used in the Church of the Jews many generations before he was born and for the very same end that he used it and it hath been used ever since viz. for Introduction and Admission into the Church The Jews did not only use Baptism in their legal Washings and Purifications but also in the way that we do viz. to admit into their Church There own Records enemies sufficient to our Christian Baptism yet thus far bear witness also to it and an Enemies testimony is a double witness For they tell that when any Proselytes came in from among the Heathen to embrace the Faith and Religion of the Jews they first Circumcized them and when they were whole then they Baptized them and that they so Baptized the whole family where the Master came in even Wife and Children with him So that Baptism of Men Women and Children was no new thing among them when John Baptist came Baptizing but a thing as well known as with us now And hence it was that Christ gave no rule how to Baptize or when to Baptize because they knew the manner and knew that Men Women and Children were Baptized as we know it now It pleaded no precept to Baptize Infants and no example It needed not for Christ took up Baptism as he found it a thing commonly known and it was needful only to give a precept to make it an Evangelical Ordinance As for other circumstances how to Baptize and when to Baptize there needed no such rule since common custom and use of the Ordinance had taught that for many ages before The Parliament makes a Law let every one resort to the publick Congregation on the Sabbath and expresses no more He would be laughed at that in after times should deny that Praying Preaching Singing Psalms c. should not be used in the Congregation because there is no such Command in the Parliaments Act. Common and known custom and the constant use of such things in the Congregation made it needless to insert those particulars And so it is in this case Doth not this speak Christs Communion with the Church of the Jews and his compliance with the publick exercise of their Religion when he would take one of their Ordinances and no one knew who first instituted it among them and make it an Evangelical Ordinance I might speak the like of his Institution of the other Sacrament the Lords Supper but I need to speak no more of that than what I said about his keeping of the Passover before II. His Institution of a standing Ministry under the Gospel speaks also his conformity to the Church of the Jews They had a standing Ministry so would he They ordained their Teachers by Imposition of Hands he ordained the like Ordination Remarkable is that of the Apostle Heb. VI. 2. Observe here the Doctrine of Imposition of Hands in Ordination is a fundamental Point as well as the Doctrine of Faith and Repentance See vers 1. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God of the doctrine of Baptism and of laying on of hands c. As the Doctrine of Faith is a fundamental point so this That a Gospel principle so this And what a point of Faith it is may be seen by proposing this Question with the Church when the Apostle wrote would propose Whither must we go for instruction when the Apostles and inspired men are gone Why saith the Apostle this is a fundamental Point that Christ hath set up a standing Ministry by Ordination Hence that Evangelical promise and prediction Esa. LXVI 21. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites saith the Lord. Not Priests and Levites as they offered Sacrifices at the Temple but as they were the standing Ministry through the Nation And see v. 20. They shall bring all their brethren for an offering unto the Lord. Think you if Christ had despised the current of the publick practise of Religion among the Jews he would have so confirmed to it in a thing of such weight III. His institution of Gods publick worship under the Gospel speaks also the same conformity The publick worship of God among the Jews was twofold At the Temple and in the Synagogues At the Temple Sacrificing Washings Purifyings c. In the Synagogues Reading Preaching Hearing Praying That at the Temple was Ceremonial and that Christ abolished having fulfilled what Ceremonies meant But the worship in the Synagogue was moral and perpetual and so translated by him into the Christian Church In that great Controversie that hath been so much canvased about Church Government I should first lay down this for a foundation which may I conceive be very clearly made good That Christ by himself and his Apostles platforming the model of Churches under the Gospel did keep very close to the platform of Synagogues and Synagogue-worship under the Law This might be shewed by shewing parallel practises in the Apostolick Churches to those that were in the Synagogues As a publick Minister Deacons Reading Preaching Praying Collections for the Poor and Love-Feasts or entertainment of strangers at
2. Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World i. e. know ye not that there shall be a Christian Magistracy that Christians shall be Kings and Magistrates to rule and judge the World And the very same sense speaketh Dan. VII 18. 26 27. from whence both my Text and that passage of Paul are taken know ye not saith he that the Saints shall judge the World How should they know it Why Plainly enough out of that place in Daniel where in vers 18. it is foretold That the Saints of the most High should take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever and ever And in vers 26 27. The Judgment shall sit as in the Text and the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven should be given to the people of the Saints of the most High Two considerations will put the matter out of all question I. That the word Saints means not strictly nor really Sanctified in opposition to men not really sanctified but it means Christians in general in opposition to Heathens And so the Apostle himself clears it in the verse before that I cited Dare any of you go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints What is meant by the unjust there Heathens or Infidels as he calls them vers 6. And then what is meant by Saints But Christians in opposition to Heathens II. Observe the tenor of the contents in Daniel and that will illustrate the sense of these verses that I produced He speaks before of the four Heathen Monarchies the Babylonian Mede-Persian Grecian and Syrogrecian that had had the Kingdom and Dominion and Rule in the World and had tyrannized in the World especially against the Church that was then being but at last they should be destroyed and upon their being destroyed Christ should come and set up his Kingdom through the World and then the Kingdom and Rule and Dominion in the World should be put into the hands of Saints or Christians and they should Rule and Judge in the World as those Heathen Monarchies had done all the time before And thus you have the words unfolded to you and I hope according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost And now my Lords and Gentlemen you may see your own picture in the glass of the Text for you are of the number of those of whom it speaketh In it you may see your selves Imbenched Commissioned and your work put into your hands In the first clause The institution of the Function the ordaining of Magistracy and Judicature I saw Thrones set In the second The Commissionating of Christians unto that Office and Function They sat upon them In the last The end of this Office and the employment they are set upon in it Judgment was given unto them Thrones set by whom By him that had been the great agent in the verse before Christ that had bound the Devil and chained him up They sat upon them Who They that are the persons mentioned in the verse before Men of the Nations undeceived from the delusions of Satan and brought into the truth of the Gospel Judgment was given them for what end For Judgment sake that they might execute judgment and righteousness among the Nations And so I have my words fairly cut out before me and the matter and the method of the Text calls upon me to speak unto these three things I. Of the institution of Magistrates as an ordinance of Christ. II. Of Christian Magistracy as a Gospel mercy III. The great work the all in all of Magistracy The execution of Judgment I. Of all the offices of Christ he executed only one of them peculiarly and reservedly himself without the communicating of any acting in it to any other but as to the execution of the other two he partly acteth himself and partly importeth some acting therein by deputation to others His Priestly office that that most concerned and had the greatest stroke in mans redemption he executed intirely himself and no other had share no other could have share in the executing of that with him None could be capable of offering any of his all-sufficient Sacrifice with him none could be capable of offering the incense of mediation with him But in his Kingly and Prophetick offices he acteth himself and he deputeth others to act for him As the great Prophet he teacheth his Church himself by giving of the Scriptures and instructing his holy ones by his Spirit yet withal hath he deputed Ministers to be her Teachers And as the great King of the Church and of all the World he ruleth in both himself in the hearts of his people by his Word and Spirit and amongst his enemies with a rod of Iron yet withal hath he deputed Kings Judges and Magistrates to be Rulers for him These two great Ordinances you have couched in this very place In the verse before the Text Christ chaineth up the Devil that he should no more deceive poor men as he had done before And how did he this By the Ministry of the Word and Preaching of the Gospel And in the words of the Text he setteth up Thrones and sets men upon them for what To execute Magistracy and to administer Judgment And so likewise are they closely hinted in that place of the Apostle that I cited I Cor. VI. Know ye not that the Saints shall iudge the World or Christians be Magistrates and in the next verse following know ye not that we shall judge Angels or we Apostles and Ministers judge Devils and overthrow their Idols Oracles Miracles and Delusions by the Ministry of the Gospel And so if I should take Pastors and Teachers Ephes. IV. 11. for Magistrates and Ministers I believe there were no soloecisme in the thing and I am sure the Jews called their chiefest Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pastores in their common speech And if the Apostle may be shewed there to speak in their vulgar dialect as he doth indeed all along his Epistles it would save a controversie and question that is raised upon that place These two Functions are the two standing Pillars and Ordinances the Jachin and Boaz that our great Solomon hath set up in his Temple to stand with the Temple while it standeth These are two choice strainings and distillings of the precious ointment that was poured on the head of our great Aaron that runs down upon the skirts of his clothing Yours my Lords and Gentlemen is a beam of that lustre that shineth in the Royal Crown of Christs Kingly office It is a coin stamped with the Image and superscription of the great Cesar of Heaven and Earth sitting in his Empire and Dominion over all I remember a Phrase of Pliny in his Epistles speaking of a vertuous and gallant daughter that imitated to the life the vertues and gallantry of a noble Father Filia patreni exscripserat the daughter had copied out her father to the life Magistracy is a daughter of
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
the Justice of God that Christ was to satisfie and if he could not have done that then there would have been some reason he should have suffered his wrath The Justice of God challenged obedience of men or no coming to Heaven satisfaction for disobedience or they must to Hell Here is enough saith Christ to serve for both ends They have disobeyed here is obedience more than all their Disobediences do or can come to They cannot obey as they should here is that that makes it out viz. Obedience infinite III. The truth was that Christ had to deal with the wrath of the Devil but not at all with the wrath of God Consider but these passages and see what was the stress that Christ had to deal withal in his Passion First That Gen. III. 15. He shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Satan the seed of the woman shall destroy thee This is explained Heb. II. 14. For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil And then observe that Joh. XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me And Luke XXII 53. When I was daily with you in the Temple ye stretched forth no hands against me but this is your hour and the power of darkness While I preached there was a restraint upon you because my hour was not come but now you and Hell are let loose to have your full swing against me There was a Combate proposed in the sufferings of Christ before God and Angels Twixt whom Christ and the wrath of God No but twixt Christ and Satan and all his power What doth God in this quarrel Doth God fight against Christ too as well as the Devil Was his wrath against him as well as the Devils wrath What against his own Champion his own Son No he only tries him by affliction not overwhelms him with his wrath He only lets him alone to him to be the shock of Satan He little assists Satan by his wrath laid on his own Champion See the great Mystery of this great Dispensation in brief God had created the first Adam and endued him with abilities to have stood Thus endued he leaves him to stand of himself and permits Satan to tempt him and he overcomes him and all mankind are overthrown God raised up a second Adam endued with power to foil Satan do he his worst and not only with power to withstand Satan if he will but a will that could not but withstand Satan He sets him forth to encounter and leaves him to himself lets Satan loose to do his worst Satan vexeth him with all the vexation Hell could inflict upon him Did not God love his Son look with dear bowels upon him all this while It is a very harsh opinion to think that Christ undertaking the combate for the honour of God against his arch-enemy that obeying the Will of God even to the death that retaining his holiness unmoveable in the midst of all his tortures paying God an infinite obedience it is harsh I say to think that God should requite him with wrath and look upon him as a wretched damned person No it was the wrath of the Devil that Christ had to combate with not the wrath of God at all IV. Though Christ is said to bear sins yet for all that God did not look upon him any whit the more wrathfully or in displeasure but rather the more favourably because he would bear the sins of his people For God looked on Christ not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice and the Lord was not angry at him but loved him because he would become a Sacrifice Joh. X. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life Esa. LIII 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his Soul unto death Do those words speak the anger of God No his wel-pleasedness his rewarding him for that he would be numbred with transgressors being none but a Lamb without spot and blemish Some say That Christ was the greatest sinner murderer c. because he bare the sins of those that were so which words border upon blasphemy and speak besides a great deal of imprudence and inconsideration See Levit. XVI 21 22. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and consess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities Is it not sensless now to say That the Goat was the greatest sinner in Israel Was he any whit the more sinful because the sins of the people were put upon him And so of other sacrifices on whose heads hands were laid and sins put was the wrath of God upon the Sacrifice No the pleasure of God was upon it for attonement In such sense are those places to be taken Isa. LIII 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 1 Pet. II. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 2 Cor. V. 21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin He bare our sins not as a sinner but as a Sacrifice And that Joh. I. 29. makes it plain Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World As a Lamb at the Temple bare the sins of the people so Christ bare our sins How Was the Lamb guilty or sinful No as an attonement and sacrifice And so God looked on Christ as a Sacrifice well pleasing to him not as sinful at all Need we any more illustration Observe that Exod. XXVIII 36 38. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet Holiness to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aarons forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Holiness to the Lord because he bare iniquity It should rather have been Unholiness if Aaron had been any whit the more sinful for bearing the peoples iniquities But he is said to bear their iniquities because he by his office undertook to attone for them How did God look upon Aaron in his Priesthood With anger because he bare the iniquity of the people Nay with favour and delight as so excellent an instrument of attonement Such another passage is that Levit. X. 17 c. Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place