compared with Nehem. 3. and at first called Solomons Pool but now Bethesda or the place of mercy from its beneficiall virtue It was supplied with water from the fountain Sileam which represented Davids and Christs Kingdom Isa. 8 6. The five porches about it and the man when healed carrying his bed out of one of them calls to minde the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mevuoâ—h or Entries that are so much spoken of in the treatise Erubhin the carrying of any thing out of which into the street on the Sabbath day was to carry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a private place into a publick and was prohibited He is hereupon convented before the Sanhedrin and there he doth most openly confesse and prove himself to be the Messias And he asserteth that all Power and Judgment is put into his hand and that he hath the same authority for the dispensing of the affairs of the new Testament that the Father had for the old And this he doth so plainly that he leaveth their unbelief henceforward without excuse The Jews speak of divers ominous things that occurred fourty years before the destruction of the City As It is a tradition that fourty years before the Sanctuary was destroyed the western Lamp went out and the scarlet list kept its rednesse and the Lords lot came up on the left hand And they locked up the Temple doors at even yet when they rose in the morning they found them open Jerus in Joma fol. 43. col 3. And Sanhedr fol. 18. col 1. Fourty years before the Temple was destroyed power of judgeng in capitall matters was taken away from Israel Now there are some that reckon but thirty eight years between the death of Christ and the destruction of the City and if that be so then these ominous presages occurred this year that we are upon It being just fourty years by that account from this Passeover at which Christ healeth the diseased man at Bethesda to the time of Titus his pitching his Camp and siege about Ierusalem which was at a Passeover But of this let the Reader judge SECTION XXV LUKE Chap. VI. from the beginning to Ver. 12. MARK Chap. II. from Ver. 23 to the end and Chap. III. from the beginning to Ver. 7. MARK Chap. XII from the beginning to Ver. 15. The Disciples plucking ears of Corn. A withered hand healed on the Sabbath THe words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Luke hath used ver 1. being rightly understood will help to cleer the order of this Section and to confirm the order of the preceding The Law enjoyned that the next morrow after the eating of the Passeover should be kept holy like a Sabbath Exod. 12.16 and accordingly it is called a Sabbath Lev. 23.7 11. And there the Law also enjoyns that the next day after that Sabbaticall day they shall offer the sheaf of first-fruits to the Lord and from that day they should count seaven Sabbaths to Pentecost which was their solemn festivall and thanksgiving for that half harvest viz. Barley harvest which they had then inned Lev. 23.15 16 17. That day therefore that they offered their first Barley sheaf and from which they were to count the seaven Sabbaths or weeks forward being the second day in the Passeover week the Sabbaths that followed did carry a memoriall of that day in their name till the seaven were run out as the first was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first second-day Sabbath The next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second second-second-day Sabbath the next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third second-second-day Sabbath and so the rest all the seaven through Now let it be observed 1. That no Corn no not ears of Corn might be eaten till the first-fruits sheaf was offered and waved before the Lord Lev. 23.14 2. That it was waved the second day of the Passeover week 3. That this was the first Sabbath after that second day when the Disciples pluckt the ears of Corn and it will plainly evince that we must look for a Passeover before this story and so it will shew the warranty and justnesse of taking in the fifth of Iohn next before it But the order of Matthew may breed some scruple and that the rather because that though he hath placed this story after divers occurrences that are yet to come yet he hath prefaced it with this circumstance At that time Now this expression doth not alwayes center stories in the same point of time but sometimes it hath made a transition betwixt two stories whose times were at a good distance asunder as Gen. 38.1 Deut. 10.8 and so likewise the phrase In these dayes Mat. 3.1 The latter story about healing the man with the withered hand is so unanimously ordered by all the three after the other that there is no doubt of the method of it It was a speciall part of religion which the Jews used on the Sabbath to eat good meat and better then they did on the week dayes yea they thought themselves bound to eat three meals on that day as was said before and for this they alledge Isa. 58.13 Nid Kimch ibid. Tamh fol. 1. Talm. Maym. in Shab c. compare Phil. 3.19 Observe how farre the Disciples are from such an observance and from such provision when a few ears of Barley for that was the Corn plucked must make a dinner The plucking of ears of Corn on the Sabbath was forbidden by their Canons verbatim Talm. in Shab par 7. Maymon Shab par 7 8. He that reapeth Corn on the Sabbath to the quantity of a fig is guilty And plucking Corn is as reaping And whosoever plucketh up any thing from it growing is guilty under the notion of reaping Christ before his healing the withered hand is questioned by them Is it lawfull to heal on the Sabbath day Their decretals allowed it in some cases Tanch fol. 9. col 2. our Doctors teach the danger of life dispenseth with the Sabbath And so doth Circumcision and the healing of that But this is rule saith Rabbi Akibah that that which may be done on the eve of the Sabbath dispenseth not with the Sabbath Talm. in Shabb. par 19. Such was this case Compare Luk. 13.14 They accounted that this might have been done any other day SECTION XXVI MARK Chap. III. from Ver. 7 to Ver. 13. MATTH Chap XII from Ver. 15 to Ver. 22. Great multitudes follow Christ who healeth all that come to him THe connexion that both these Evangelists have at this story doth abundantly assert the order The Pharisees took counsell to destroy him but when Iesus knew it he departed c. The Herodians joyn with them in their plotting which seem to have been these learned and great men of the Nation who had gone into the service of Herod the Great and now of his sonne mentioned before SECTION XXVII LUKE Chap. VI. from Ver. 12 to Ver. 20. MARK Chap. III. from Ver. 13. to the middle of Ver. 19. MATTH Chap.
do they use the hallowing words in the Synagogue Because of travellers that do eat and drink there Where the Glosse upon the place comments thus It is evident that they did not eat in their Synagogues at all as it is apparent in the eleventh Chapter of Maymonies Treatise of prayer but in a house near the Synagogue and there they sate at the hearing of the hallowing of the Sabbath c. It may be observed from hence that strangers and travellers were intertained in a place near the Synagogue compare Act. 18.7 which was as a publick Xenodochion or receptacle of strangers at the charge of the Congregation which laudable custome is almost apparent was transplanted into the Christian Churches in those times as compare such passages as those Heb. 13.2 Acts 15.4 And possibly those Agapae or feasts of charity spoken of in the Epistles of the Apostles are to be understood of these loving and charitable intertainment of strangers Iude v. 12. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear False teachers travelling abroad undiscovered and being intertained in these publick receptacles for strangers and at the publick charge would finde there a fit opportunity for themselves to vent their errors and deceptions In this sense may Gaius very properly be understood the Host of the whole Church as being the officer or chief overseer imployed by the Corinthian Church for these intertainments In which also it was almost inevitable but some women should have their imployment according to which custom we may best understand such places as these Phaebe a servant of the Church at Ceneâ—rea she hath been a succourer of many Ver. 6. Mary bestowed much labour on us And see 1 Tim. 5.9 10 c. He speaketh also of other women of whom he giveth this testimony that they laboured much in the Lord as Tryphena and Tryphosa and Persis ver 12. which may either be understood in the like sense or if not so of their great pains some other way for the honour and promotion of the Gospel and benefit of the Saints and themselves as by visiting and relieving the poor and sick taking pains in following the Ministers of the Gospel and venturing themselves with them hiding and cherishing them in times of danger and so venturing themselves for them and so he saith Priscilla and Aquila for his life laid down their own necks c. He salutes three of his own kinsmen Andronicus and Iunia and Herodion the two first were converted before him and were of note among the Apostles either being of the number of the 70 Disciples or eminent converts and close followers of Christ or of the Apostles in those first times He cals them his fellow prisoners but if he had called them his prisoners it had been easier to have told when and how For they were in Christ whilst he was a persecutor but when they were imprisoned with him after his conversion is hard to finde out Among all that he salutes so kindly where is Peter If he were now at Rome how was he forgotten ACTS CHAP. XX. Ver. 6. And we came to them to Troas in five daies Where we abode seven daies And so to Ver. 17. of CHAP. XXI FRom Philippi after Easter he setteth away for Corinth where he staied so little that he came to Troas within five daies after the company was come thither which had gone before for so are the five daies to be understood not that Paul in five daies went from Philippi to Corinth and Troas but that his company which was set out with him but set directly for Troas had staied but five daies at Troas before he came up to them There he celebrates the Lords day and the Lords Supper and preacheth and discourseth all night a thing not altogether strange in the Jewish customs Ierus Sâ—tah fol. 16.4 R. Meir was teaching profoundly all the night of the Sabbaths in the Synagogue of Chamath So that Eutychus sleeps and sals and is taken up dead but recovered by miracle The change and beginning and end of the Christian Sabbath may be observed here When he goes now from thence it is most likely it was the time when he left his Cloak Books and Parchments with Carpus 2 Tim. 4.13 His Cloak for he was now going among his own Nation in Iudea and there he was to wear his Jewish habit and he left his Roman garb here till he should come into those Roman quarters again It may be the Parchments were the Originals of those Epistles that he had already written for that he sent transcripts and reserved the Originall copies may be collected from these passages I Tertius who wrote out this Epistle Rom. 16.22 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand 1 Cor. 16.21 Col. 4.18 which was the token in every Epistle 2. Thess. 3.17 for all the Epistle beside was written with another hand From Troas by severall journeys he cometh to Miletum and thither he sends for the Elders of the Church of Ephesus which City was near at hand But who were these Not Timothy and Trophimus for they were in his company already and had been with him in his journey hither but these twelve men upon whom he had laid his hands and bestowed on them the holy Ghost and so fitted them for the Ministry Act. 19.6 and whomsoever besides Timothy had ordained into the Ministry whilest he was there Although the Ephesian and the rest of the Asian Churches were but in an ill case at this time in regard of false doctrines and much Apostacy that had corrupted and cankered them yet doth the Apostle foresee that the case will be worse and worse with them still and that grievous Wolves should yet break in upon them And this he concludeth not only from the boldnesse that he was assured false teachers would use and assume to themselves when he was gone but from those predictions of Christ that had foretold what sad Apostacy should occurre and what false teachers should arise before the great day of Ierusalem came which was now coming on apace ACTS CHAP. XXI Ver. 17. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly c. PAUL is now got to Ierusalem And the first thing that we have to do about his story there is to calculate the time and consider what Year it was when he came thither and to prove if we can that it was the second Year of Nero according as we have superscribed that Year for this is of import as to the fixing of those chronicall observations that we are to take up hereafter The common consent in all times hath fixed his coming to Ierusalem and apprehension there to this Year and yet amongst all that have so concluded upon it there is none that hath given any one clear proof or evidence at all for such an assertion Eusebius Ado Cassiodore Baronius Lorinus and divers others are of this minde yet whereupon they
we are upon Titus coming into Iudaea and there gathering all his forces together marcheth against Ierusalem and pitcheth his siege against it when now the Passeover festivall had called all the people of the Country in thither For as the turbulencies and intestine commotions in the bowels of the Empire it self the last year had given the Jews some respite from the Roman Armies so had they given them some boldnesse and security seeing Vespasian and his Forces were now forced to turn their faces another way and they hoped they would hardly have turned towards them again How much they were deceived Titus without and Famine and all miseries within did soon shew them What were the passages in this siege and what Famine Pestilence Civil slaughters and various kindes of death the besieged suffered in it are so largely described by Iosephus that it were but a needlesse rehearsall to speak of them The end was that the Temple and City were raked up in ashes eleven hundred thousand perished in the siege almost an hundred thousand taken prisoners and the Nation ruined from what they had been That this desolation is phrased in Scripture as the desolating of the whole world as we have had occasion to observe divers times by severall passages that we have met withall referring thereunto it will appear no wonder if we consider that it was the destroying of the old peculiar Covenanted people of the Lords own habitation Ordinances and place chosen by him above nay alone of all the places of the world to put his Name there A people once highest in his favour now deepest in his displeasure once blessed with his greatest dignations above any nay above all the people under heaven and now fallen under his heaviest indignation A people of his curse and who have left their name for a curse to his chosen And a new world as it were now created a new people made the Church a new Oeconomy and Old things past and all things become new 2 Cor. 5.17 We are now upon a very remarkable and eminent Period where should I write an Ecclesiasticall History I should begin as at the beginning of a new world not but that the Calling of the Gentiles had begun before for the Gospel was now gone through all the world and the Jews were also given up before as to the generality of them when the holy Ghost cals them dogs and a Synagogue of Satan but their State and Oeconomy was not till now rooted up nor the Divine Ordinances once planted among them till now extinguished and their casting off sealed by the ruine of their City dispersion of their Nation and their finall obduration §. I. The Desolation of the Temple and City THe Temple was burnt down as Iosephus a spectator setteth the time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the tenth day of the moneth Lous which he saith was a fatall day to the Temple for it had been burnt down by the Babylonians before on that day De Bell. lib. 6. cap. 27. And yet his Countrimen that write in the Hebrew tongue fix both these fatalities to the ninth day of that moneth which they call the moneth Ab and they account that day fatall for three other sad occurrences besides On the ninth day of the moneth Ab say they the decree came out against Israel in the wildernesse that they should not enter into the Land On it was the destruction of the first Temple and on it was the destruction of the second On it the great City Bitter was taken where there were thousands and ten thousands of Israel who had a great King over them Ben Cozba whom all Israel even their greatest wise men thought to have been Messias But he fell into the hands of the Heathen and there was great affliction as there was at the destruction of the Sanctuary And on that day a day allotted for vengeance The wicked Turnus Rufus plowed up the place of the Temple and the places about it to accomplish what is said Sion shall become a plowed field Talm. in Taanith per. 4. halac 6. Maymon in Taanith per. 5. It is strange men of the same Nation and in a thing so signall and of which both parties were spectators should be at such a difference and yet not a difference neither if we take Iosephus his report of the whole story and the other Jews construction of the time He records that the Cloister walks commonly called The Porches of the Temple were fired on the eight day and were burning on the ninth but that day Titus called a Council of Warre and carried it by three voices that the Temple should be spared but a new busling of the Jews caused it to be fired though against his will on the next day Ioseph ubi supr cap. 22 23 24. Now their Kalendar reckons from the middle day of the three that fire was at it as from a Center and they state the time thus It was the time of the evening when fire was put to the Temple and it burnt till the going down of the Sunne of the next day And behold what Rabban Iochanan ben Zaccai saith If I had not been in that generation I should not have pitched it upon any other day but the tenth because the most of the Temple was burnt that day And in the Ierusalem Talmud it is related that Rabbi and Ioshua ben Levi fasted for it the ninth and tenth daies both Gloss. in Maym. in Taanith per. 5. Such another discrepancy about the time of the firing of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar may be observed in 2 King 25.8 9. where it is said that In the fifth moneth on the seventh day of the moneth came Nebuzaradan Captain of the guard and burnt the House of the Lord. And yet in Ierem. 52.12 it is said to have been In the fifth moneth on the tenth day of the moneth Which the Gomarists in the Babylon Talmud reconcile thus It cannot be said on the seventh day because it is said On the tenth Nor can it be said On the tenth day because it is said On the seventh How is it then On the seventh the aliens came into the Temple and ate there and defiled it the seventh eight and ninth daies and that day towards night they set it on fire and it burnt all the tenth day and was the case also with the second Temple Taanith fol. 29. The ninth and tenth daies of the moneth Ab on which the Temple was burnt down was about the two and three and twentieth of our Iuly and the City was taken and sacked the eight day of September following Ioseph ubi supr cap. 47. That day being their Sabbath day Dion fol. 748. After eleven hundred thousand destroyed and perished in the siege and sacking and ninety seven thousand taken prisoners Titus commanded City and Temple to be razed to the ground only three of the highest Towers left standing Phasaelus Hippicus and Mariamme and the Western Wall of the City those
extraordinary cheer Mary who had anointed his feet before Luke 7.38 doth the like again There is a groundlesse and a strange opinion of some that the Supper in Matth. 26.6 7. and Mark 14.3 was the same with this Supper in Ioh. 12. An imagination that I cannot enough admire at seeing there are so many things plainly to gainsay it but the discussion of it shall be deferred till we come to those Chapters Only one particular here may not be omitted without observation and which will make something at present toward the confutation of that opinion and that is our Saviours answer in the vindication of Maries act Let her alone against the day of my buriall hath she kept this or rather She hath kept it Not that he meaneth that this anointing of his feet was her anointing him against his buriall but that she had kept some of this oyntment yet for that purpose hereafter Iudas repined at the expence of the oyntment that she used for the anointing of his feet and pleaded that it had been better bestowed upon charitable uses on the poor Why saith Christ she hath kept it yet and not spent all that she may bestow it upon a charitable use the anointing of my body to its buriall For 1. neither the text doth any whit assert that she spent the whole pound that she brought nor indeed in reason was so great a quantity needfull 2. It was not so proper to apply it to his buriall now when as he was to ride in triumph to Ierusalem to morrow as it was two daies before the Passeover when the other Supper and anointing was which was the very night when Iudas compacted for his betraying 3. Then Christ saith she poured it upon his body Mat. 26.12 which cannot be of the same sense with pouring it upon his feet only She therefore six daies before the Passeover anointed his feet which was an ordinary use among the Jews to have their feet anointed and the Talmudists give some rules about it in Talm. Ierus Sanhedr fol. 21. col 1. and this she doth in dear love and affection to him But two daies before the Passeover she doth not so much anoint his head as pour the ointment upon his head that it might run all over his body and this she did towards his buriall not only in his construction but in her own intention she being the first we reade of that beleeved his death as she was the first that law him after his resurrection Her faith and fact he foresaw and therefore saith now at the anointing of his feet that she yet kept it for the anointing of his body which when she did he extols the fact with this encomion that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached that action of her the example of the first faith in his death should be published in memoriall of her Thus did this Mary who as hath been shewed was Mary Magdalen anoint Christ three severall times his feet at her first conversion and his feet again at this time six daies before the Passeover and his head and body two daies before the Passeover even that night that Iudas first went about to make his bargain for betraying him SECTION LXXII MATTH XXI from the beginning to Ver. 17. MARK XI from the begin to the middle of Ver. 11. LUKE XIX from Ver. 29. to the end JOHN XII from Ver. 12. to Ver. 20. CHRIST rideth upon an Asse into Ierusalem JOHN maketh the connexion plain when he saith On the next day c. And sheweth that as Christ went up at this time in the evidence and accomplishment of that Prophesie Zech. 9.9 so he also went up in the equity and answering of that Type of taking up the Paschall Lamb on the tenth day Exod. 12.3 for this was on that very day and the Lamb of God doth now go in as giving up himself for the great Paschal Iohn telleth us that he lay at Bethany the night before this and yet the other Evangelists have related it that when he came to Bethpage and Bethany he sent two of his Disciples for the Asse c. The Jews Chorography will here help us out They tell us 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two thousand cubits was the Suburbs of a City Maym. in Schabh per. 27. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two thousand cubits were the bounds of a Sabbath or a Sabbath daies journey Talm. in Setah per. 5. 3. Bethpage was of this nature it was not a Town upon mount Olivet as it hath been very generally supposed and accordingly placed in the most Maps but it was some buildings and that space of ground that lay from Ierusalem wall forward towards mount Olivet and up mount Olivet to the extent of two thousand cubits from the wall or thereabout and hereupon it was reputed by the Jews of the same qualification with Ierusalem as a part of it in divers respects Talm. Bab. Pesachin fol. 63. fac 2. He that slayes a Thanksgiving Sacrifice within while the bread belonging to it is without the wall the bread is not holy What means without the wall R. Iochanan saith Without the wall of Bethpage The Glosse there saith Bethpage was an outer place of Ierusalem And the same Glosse useth the very same words again upon the same Tract fol. 91. fac 1. And again in the same Treatise fol. 95. fac 2. the Mishnah saith thus The two loaves and the shewbread are allowable in the Temple Court and they are allowable in Bethpage Nay the Glosse in Sanhedr fol. 14. fac 1. saith Bethpage was a place which was accounted as Ierusalem for all things So that the place so called began from Ierusalem and went onwards to and upon mount Olivet for the space of a Sabbath daies journey or thereabout and then began the coast that was called Bethany And hence it is that Luke saith that Christ when he ascended into heaven led forth his Disciples as farre as Bethany Luke 24.50 which elsewhere he sheweth was the space of a Sabbath daies journey Acts 1.12 which cannot be understood of the Town Bethany for that was fifteen furlongs or very near two Sabbath daies journey from Ierusalem but that he led them over that space of ground which was called Bethpage to that part of Olivet where it began to be called Bethany and at that place it was where Christ began his triumphant riding into the City at this time It is very observable that he is entertained with the solemnity of the Feast of Tabernacles for carrying of Palm branches and crying Hosanna was never used but only at that Feast but now translated to this occasion which may help somewhat to the explaining of Zech. 14.16 Count from hence the daies to the Passeover as the Evangelists have reckoned them and you will finde that this was the first day of the week the Lords day afterward and this day seven night he rose from the dead In the midst of his triumph he weepeth over the City
Matth. 5. was not barely to appear to the eleven for that had he done before and that could he have done at Ierusalem but it was an intended meeting not only with the eleven but with the whole multitude of his Galilean and other Disciples and therefore he published this appointment so oft before and after his Resurrection and we cannot so properly understand his being seen of above five hundred brethren at once of which the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 15.6 of any other time and place as of this He had appointed the place and the concourse argueth that he had appointed the time too or at least this concourse waited at the place till his time should come And here may we conceive that he kept the Lords day or the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath with this multitude of his Disciples revealing himself clearly to them and preaching to them of the things that concerned the Kingdom of God Particularly he gives command and commission to go and disciple all Nations For whereas hitherto he had confined them to preach only to Israel now must they preach to every creature Mark 16.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Colos. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Jews ordinary language that is to all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon in his Proverbs makes known Theory and Practice to the creatures Kafvenaki in Prov. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He causeth the holy Ghost to dwell upon the creatures Mid◠Til. in Psal. 135. Nimrod made Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and caused the creatures to erre Tanch fol. 8.4 The Lord requires that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the creatures should pray before him Id. fol. 16.4 In which and an hundred other instances that might be given the word Creatures signifieth only Men and their charge and commission to preach the Gospel to every creature means to all men the Gentiles as well as the Jews Warrant then and charge is given for the fetching of them in the great mystery Ephes. 3.4 6. who had lain subject to vanity of Idolatry and under the bondage of all manner of corruption ever since their casting off at Babel 2203 years ago They had been taught of the devil his oracles and delusions c. but now they must all be taught of God Isa. 54.13 by the preaching of the Gospel They had in some few numbers in this space been taught by Israel to know the Lord and proselyted into their Religion but now such proselyting should not need for all must come to the knowledge of God Heb. 8.11 the Gospel carrying the knowledge of him and it being carried through all Nations Those of them that had come into the Church of Israel and the true Religion had been inducted and sealed into it by being baptized Talm. in Iebam per. 4. c. And so that proselyte Sacrament as I may so call i◠must be carried and continued among all Nations as a badge of homage and subjection to Christ to whom all power is given in heaven and earth and of the profession of the true God The Father Sonne and holy Ghost against all false Gods and false worship Infants born of Christian parents are to bear this badge though when they undertake it they understand not what they do because none in Christian families should continue without the note of homage to Christs soveraignty and this distinctive mark against Heathenism that worshippeth false Gods as no male among Israel after eight daies old must be without the badge of Circumcision Discipling was not of persons already taught but to that end that they should be taught and if the Disciples understood this word in Christs command after any other sense it was different from the sense of the word which the Nation had ever used and only used For in their Schools a person was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Scholar or Disciple when he gave in himself to such a Master to be taught and trained up by him and in the Discipling of Proselytes to the Jews Religion it was of the very like tenour That sense therefore that many put upon these words viz. that none are to be baptized but those that are throughly taught is such a one as the Apostles and all the Jewish Nation had never known or heard of before That wretched and horrid opinion that denieth the Godhead of Christ and the Godhead of the holy Ghost little observeth or at least will not see why the administration of Baptism among the Gentiles must be in the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost whereas among the Jews it was only in the Name of Iesus Act. 2.38 namely for this reason that as by that among the Jews Iesus was to be professed for the true Messias against all other so by this among the Gentiles who had worshipped false Gods The Father Sonne and holy Ghost should be professed the only true God And it would be but a wild as well as an irreligious Paraphrase that that opinion would make of this passage Go preach the Gospel to every creature and Baptize them in the Name of the Son a creature and the holy Ghost a creature He promiseth the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost to them that should beleeve not to all but to some for the confirmation of the Doctrine and chargeth the Disciples to return to Ierusalem and there to stay till he should pour down the holy Ghost upon them to inable them for this Ministry among all Nations to which he had designed them Mark and Luke do briefly adde the story of his ascension because they will dispatch his whole story but that is related more amply Act. 1. A seventh appearing To Iames. After the appearing to above five hundred Brethren at once which we suppose and not without ground to have been that last mentioned the Apostle relateth that he was seen of Iames 1 Cor. 15.7 and then of all the Apostles which doth plainly rank this appearance to Iames between that to the five hundred Brethren on the mountain in Galilee and his coming to all the Apostles when they were come again to Ierusalem Which Iames this was Paul is silent of as all the Evangelists are of any such particular appearance It is most like he means Iames the lesse of whom he speaks oft elsewhere and so doth the story of the Acts of the Apostles as one of specialler note in the time of Pauls preaching among the Gentiles We reade oft in the Gospels of Peter and Iames and Iohn three Disciples of singular eminency in regard of the privacy that Christ vouchsafed to them at some speciall times more then to the other Apostles and in that he badged them with a peculiar mark of changing their names and did not so by any of the other But that Iames was the sonne of Zebedee Now when he was Martyred Act. 12. you finde that Iames the sonne of Alpheus called Iames the lesse came to be ranked in the like
till their Synagogue service was done Maym. in Schab per. 30. which was not of a good while after nine a clock His alleadging of Ioel In the last daies I will pour out my Spirit c. teacheth us how to construe the phrase The last daies in exceeding many places both of the Old Testament and the New as Isa. 2.1 1 Tim. 4.1 2 Tim. 3.1 1 Pet. 4.7 1 Ioh. 2.19 c. namely for the last daies of Ierusalem and the Jewish State For to take his words in any other sense as some do for the last daies of the world is to make his allegation utterly impertinent and monstrous Three thousand converted are Baptized In the Name of the Lord Iesus ver 38. which no whit disagreeth from the command Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son c. Matth. 28.19 For the form of Baptism in those first daies of the Gospel of which the New Testament giveth the story may be considered under a threefold condition 1. Iohn the Baptist baptized in the Name of Messias or Christ that was then ready to come but that Iesus of Nazareth was he he himself knew not till he had run a good part of his course Ioh. 1.31 as was observed before 2. The Disciples baptizing the Jews baptized them in the Name of Iesus upon this reason because the great point of controversie then in the Nation about Messias was Whether Iesus of Nazareth were he or no. All the Nation acknowledged a Messias but the most of them abominated that Iesus of Nazareth should be thought to be he therefore those that by the preaching of the Gospel came to acknowledge him to be Messias were baptized into his Name as the criticall badge of their imbracing the true Messias But 3. among the Gentiles where that question was not afoot they baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost And so that baptizing in the Name of Iesus was for a season for the setling of the evidence of his being Messias and when that was throughly established then it was used no more but Baptism was in the Name of the Father and Son c. Of the same cognizance were those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit evidences of Iesus his being the Messias and means of conveying the Gospel through the world and when both these were well established then those gifts ceased for ever All that beleeved were together and had all things common ver 46. The children of those that beleeved must come under the title of Beleevers too or they must famish For this community of goods being for the relief of the poor as we shall shew at the fourth Chapter the children babes and infants of beleeving parents that were poor must be taken in under this expression All that beleeved c. or how did they for support If the community of goods reacht them as well as their parents the title must reach them too When a Master of a family was baptized his children were they never so young were baptized with him and hence the mention of baptizing whole housholds Act. 16.15.33 They that pleading against Infants Baptism do cavill that it may be there were no Infants in those families that are mentioned bewray that they little understand the manner of administring Baptism in its first use For the stress of the business lies not in this whether it can be proved that there were Infants in those families where it is recorded that whole housholds were baptized but the case is this that in all families whatsoever were there never so many Infants they were all baptized when their parents were baptized Thus was the constant custom among the Jews for admission of Proselytes and thence this Canon That a woman proselyted and baptized when she was great with child her childe needed not then to be baptized when it was born Maym. in Issure biah per. 13. For if he had been born before she was baptized he must have been baptized with her And the New Testament gives so little evidence of the altering this custom at those first baptizings under the Gospel that it plainly on the contrary shews the continuance of it when it speaketh of the Apostles baptizing whole housholds ACTS CHAP. III IV. PEntecost Feast lasted eight daies as well as their other Feasts Passeover Tabernacles and Dedication did Ierus in Moed Katon and Chagigah at large The occurrences of the very day of Pentecost it self are related already Now whether the healing of the Creeple and the consequences upon that contained in the third Chapter befell upon the same day in the afternoon or on the next day after which was the day when all the males appeared before the Lord in the Temple or further in the Feast is not certain but that they were within the compasse of the Feast is more then probable by the great multitude that was converted at one Sermon Peter and Iohn go into the Temple at the ninth hour the hour of prayer Talm. in Pesachin per. 5. The dayly sacrifice of the evening was killed at the eight hour and a half and offered at the ninth hour and an half Joseph Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Twice a day nvmely in the morning and about the ninth hour they offered on the Altar There as they go in at the East-gate that led into the Court of the women they finde and heal a Creeple which had been so from his birth The Jews looked upon this miracle as wrought by their own holinesse as appears by the Apostles answer to them ver 12. For such a conceit walked among the Nation that extraordinary holinesse might attain to miraculous workings R. Phinehas ben Iair saith Industry bringeth to purity Purity to cleannesse Cleannesse to holinesse Holinesse to humblenesse Humblenesse to fear of sin Fear of sin to partaking of the holy Ghost Jerus Schab fol. 3. col 3. Yet are they imprisoned that night and the next morning convented before the Councill Among others which are named of the Councill which were Priests Alexander and Iohn mentioned ver 6. seem to be Alexander Alabarcha or his son and Rabban Iochanan ben Zaccai the later Vice-president at this time under Rabban Gamaliel They dismissed come to their own company and related what had occurred and upon joynt prayer the place is shaken and they are again filled with the holy Ghost Why What could be added to them they having been so filled with the holy Ghost before In their prayer they petitioned these two things That God would give them boldnesse to speak his Word and that Healings and Signes and Wonders might be done in the Name of Iesus And the power of both these fals now upon them and especially it may be conceived that Wonder of Wonders upon the twelve power to bestow the holy Ghost The community of goods with the mention of which the second and the fourth Chapters conclude may be considered
he and they as He came to Derbe ver 1. They went through the Cities ver 4. c. he cometh now to joyn himself and to use the word We and Vs. After he had seen the vision immediatly we indeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us ver 10. Yet was this City mixed also of abundance of Iews living among them as that people was now dispersed and sowed in the most places of the Empire from Rome it self Eastward however it was on this side On the Sabbath by a river side where the women it seemed used their bathings for purification and where was a Synagogue they preach and convert Lydia a proselytesse and she is instantly baptized and her houshold before she go home for ought can be found otherwise in the text from whence we may observe what beleeving gave admission to Baptism to whole housholds In this Roman Colony it is observable that the Synagogue is called Prossucha and that it is out of the Town Paul casteth out a spirit of divination and is therereupon beaten and imprisoned he and Silas but inlarged by an earthquake and the Jaylour is converted and he and his family instantly baptized After a little while Paul and Silas depart having laid the foundation of a very eminent Church as it proved afterward from which Paul in his Epistle thither acknowledgeth as many tokens of love received as from any Church that he had planted and to which he made as many visits afterward When he departeth he had ordained no Ministers there for ought can be gathered from the text and it may be he did not till his return thither again which was the course he had used in other Churches Acts 14.23 He speaketh of divers fellow-labourers that he had there in the Gospel both men and women Philip. 4.3 which cannot be understood of preaching but that these being converted they used their best indeavour to perswade others to imbrace the same Religion c. ACTS CHAP. XVII PAUL and Silas or Silvanus and Timothy come to Thessalonica where they make many converts but withall finde very much opposition In three weeks space or very little more they convert some Jews many Proselytes and not a few of the chief Gentiles women of the City which number considered with the shortnesse of the time in which so many were brought in and the bitternesse they indured from the unbelieving made their piety to be exceedingly renowned all abroad 1 Thessal 1.6 7 8. Persecution driveth the Apostles to Beraea another Town of Macedonia Plin. lib. 4. cap. 10. there they found persons better bred and better learned then that rabble mentioned ver 5. that they had met withall at Thessalonica The Jews called their learned men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filii nobilium it may be Lukes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 11. translates that The rabble from Thessalonica brings the persecution hither also so that Paul is glad to depart to Athens but Silas and Timothy abide at Beraea still At Athens there was a Synagogue of Jews and Proselytes ver 17. so that it is undoubted the scholars of the University had heard from them the report of the true God therefore Paul is not so much cried out upon for telling them of the true God in opposition to the false as for preaching of Iesus crucified risen and glorified which neither they nor even the Jews Synagogue there had ever heard of before for this he is convented before their great Court of Areopagus where his discourse converts one of that Bench Dionysius ACTS CHAP. XVIII FRom Athens Paul cometh to Corinth Vrbs olim clara opibus post clade notior nunc Romana colonia saith Pomp. Mâ—la lib. 2. cap. 3. A little view of the City may not be uselesse It stood in the Isthmus or that neck of Land that lay and gave passage betwixt Peloponesus and Attica upon which Isthmus the sea pointing in on either hand made Corinth a famous and a wealthy Mart Town by two Havens that it had at a reasonable distance from it on either side it the one Iochaeum at which they took shipping for Italy and those Western parts and the other Cenchraea at which they took shipping for Asia Merchandise arriving at these ports from those severall parts of the world were brought to Corinth which lay much in the middle between them and so this City became the great Exchange for those parts It lay at the foot of a high promont called Acrocorinthus or the Pike of Corinth The compasse of the City was some fourty furlongs or five miles about being strongly walled In it was a Temple of Venus so ample a foundation that it had above a thousand Nuns such Nuns as Venus had to attend upon it The City was sacked by L. Mummius the Roman Generall as for some other offence that it had given to that state so more especially for some abuse shewed to the Roman Embassadors there But it was repaired again by the Romans and made a Colony Vid. Strabo lib. 8. Plin. lib. 4. cap. 4. Paul coming hither findeth Priscilla and Aquila lately come from Italy because of Claudius his Decree which had expelled all the Iews from Rome Of this Decree Suetonius speaketh as he is generally understood In Claudio cap. 25. Iudaeos impulsore Christo assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit Claudius expelled the Iews out of Rome who continually tumultuated because of Christ. In some copies it is written Christo but so generally interpreted by Christians in the sense mentioned that we shall not at all dispute it The same quarrell was got to Rome with the Gospel that did attend it in all parts of the world where it came among the Jews they still opposing it and contesting against it and so breeding tumultuousnesse The Apostle here in a strange place and out of moneys betaketh himself to work with his hands for his subsistence as also he did in other places upon the same exigent His work was to make Tents of skins such as the Souldiery used to lodge in when they were in the field Hence the phrase Esse sub pellibus This Trade he learned before he set to his studies It was the custom of the Jewish Nation to set their children to some trade yea though they were to be students What is commanded a father towards his son To circumcise him to redeem him to teach him the Law to teach him a Trade and to take him a wife R. Iudah saith He that teacheth not his sonne a trade does as if he taught him to be a thief Rabban Gamaliâ—l saith He that hath a trade in his hand to what is he like He is like to a Vineyard that is fenced Tosapht in Kiddushin per. 1. So some of the great wise men of Israel had been cutters of wood Maym. in Talm. Torah per. 1. And not to instance in any others as might be done in divers Rabban Iochanan ben Zaccai that was at this
is said Thy people shall all of them be righteous But these have no share in the world to come He that saith The resurrection is not taught in the Law and that the Law is not from God and Epicurus Now by Epicurus they mean not luxurious one as the word Epicure is commonly used by us but as the Gemara explains it there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that despiseth their Doctors and elsewhere they yoke it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostates and Epicures Resh hashanah per. 1. and so they brought all that started from the vain doctrine of their traditionaries under this title and under that terrour of having no share in the world to come 2. They went about to perplex the mind of these converts with urging how near the day of the Lord was The Scripture and the Apostl◠had spoken of the day of the Lords coming when he should come to take vengeance of the Jewish Nation for their wickednesse and unbelief and these would terrifie this Church with inculcating the nearnesse of it pretending for this partly revelation and partly the words or writing of the Apostle The aim in this terrour was to amaze the new beleevers and to puzzle them about what to hold and what to do in that sad time which they pretended was ready to fall upon their heads The Apostle resolves that there was some good space of time to be before for there was to be a falling away and the man of sin to be revealed The phrase The man of sin and childe of perdition is plainly taken from that place Isa. 11.4 With the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one and the Apostle makes it clear that he referreth to that place by using the very words of the Prophet at ver 8. Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth The Jews put an Emphasis upon that word in the Prophet The wicked one as it appeareth by the Chaldee Paraphrast who hath uttered it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall destroy the wicked Roman And so the Apostle puts an Emphasis upon it and translates it the Man of sin And in that Christ is introduced in the Prophet as having a speciall quarrell and vengeance against him he is called the son of perdition or he that is so certainly and remarkably to be destroyed It is true this meaneth the Roman as the Chaldee and our Protestant Divines by the warrant of Iohn in the Revelation do interpret it but in the first place and sense it meaneth the Jewish Nation which proved Antichrist as well as Rome ever did and as far as Rome ever did and before Rome ever did and as long and longer then Rome hath yet done As Iews and Rome joyned in the murder of Christ so are they joyned in this character of Antichrist but the Jews to be understood first See ver 7. the mystery of iniquity was already working when the Apostle wrote this Epistle which cannot possibly be understood but of the Jewish Nation and so it is explained again and again 1 Iohn 2.18 4.3 2 Ioh. v. 7 c. The severall characters that the Apostle gives of the Man of sinne agree most throughly to that generation and Nation and so the Scripture plainly applies them to it 1. There was a falling away in that Nation of multitudes that had imbraced the Gospel See Matth. 24.12 Christ foretelling it and Paul from thence 1 Tim. 4.1 by the later times that he there speaks of meaning the last daies of Ierusalem and the Jewish state as the phrase is used in that sense abundantly Such apostacy may be observed hinted in the Epistle to the Galatians to the Hebrews Colossians Rev. 2.4 2 Tim. 1.15 and to spare more observe the conclusion of that Parable Matth. 12.43 44 45. So shall it be with this wicked generation The devil once cast out of it by the Gospel but returned by their Apostacy 2. How this Nation was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great opposer of the Gospel needeth no instance to any that hath read the new Testament And he that reades the Jewish Records shall finde evidence enough of it of which we have given some brief account at Chap. 13. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which exalts himself against every thing that is called God or worshipped were it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against God it were most true to the very letter their Scribes in the Temple of God it self sitting and setting up their traditions above the commands of God Mat. 15.6 But how they exalted themselves against every thing called God or the Magistracy and those that were set over them we may observe in such passages as these 2 Pet. 2.10 They despise government c. Iude v. 8 They despise dominion and speak evil of dignities c. and in their own stories to endlesse examples 4. As for the fourth mark mentioned ver 9. namely his coming after the working of Satan with all Magicall power and delusion our Saviour had foretold is of that generation Matth. 24.24 compared with ver 34. of that Chapter and it is abundantly asserted by Scripture by Iosephus and other of their own Writers as we have given some examples before Now what the Apostle meaneth when he speaketh of one that letted ver 6. And now ye know what withholdeth and ver 7. He who now letteth will let is of some obscurity we may without offence give this conjecture As the term The day of the Lord is taken in Scripture especially in this double sense for his day of judging the Iewish Nation and for his day of judging all the world so are we to understand a falling away and a Man of sin of the Jewish Nation before the former and a falling away and Antichrist betwixt the former and the later This last is readily concluded upon to be the Papacy and he that letted to mean the Imperiall power but what was he that letted in the former that the Antichrist among the Jews was not revealed sooner I should divide this stake betwixt Claudius the Emperour who by his decree against the Jews in Rome Act. 18.2 give a check by the appearance of his displeasure to all the Jews elsewhere that they durst not tyrannize against the Gospel whilest he lived as they had done And Paul himself who by his uncessant travelling in the Gospel and combatting by the truth every where against the Jews did keep down very much their delusions and Apostacy whilest he was at liberty and abroad but when he was once laid up then all went to ruine as see Act. 20.29 2 Tim. 1.15 c. Paul when he departs from Corinth leaves a Church fairly planted there but how soon and how miserably it grew degenerate we shall meet vvith cause to observe before it be long He cometh to Ephesus striving to get up to one of the feasts at Ierusalem he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there
the Blood and Family of the Caesars And now that mystery of State was discovered That an Emperour could be made though not of that Blood and elsewhere then at Rome and the misery of the State accrewed by that discovery when the longest sword did make the Emperour and the trying which was the longest undid the Empire The souldiery in Spain proclaimed Galba to succeed him against whom riseth up Otho and cuts him off when he was now reigning but in his seventh moneth having only brought the Royalty into his family and himself to misery and ruine by it When he was slain a common souldier cut off his head and putting his finger into his mouth for he was bald and therefore he could not bear it by the hair he carried it to Otho who gave it to the scum and black guard of the Camp and they fixing it upon a pole carried it up and down in derision CHRIST LXIX OTHO 1 OTHO was scarce set in the Throne when Vitellius riseth up against him and the determination of this competition was not so speedy and unsensible as was that betwixt Galba and Otho For Otho slew Galba without any noise and when himself had but three and twenty associates at his first conspiring against him But the present quarrell shook a good part of the Empire with sidings and preparations and came to a pitcht battell before it came to an end Otho's men lost the field and when tidings of his defeat came to him he resolved to strive no longer but to render up his Empire and life together and so slew himself He reigned if it may be called a reign but 95 daies VITELLIVS VITELLIUS is now Lord of all who indeed is not Master of himself A man of that untemperance and luxury that few equalled him and divers that did follow him and his course died of surfets Divers men and Cities were undone by his riotous excesses and the souldiers became effeminate by his example In the time of his reign which ended before this year was out there were divers prodigies A Comet Two Suns at the same time one in the East another in the West The Moon twice eclipsed unnaturally In the Capitol the footsteps seen of many and great Daemones coming down from thence And Iupiters Temple opened of its own accord with horrid noise And let this be reckoned for a prodigy too Maricus a man of an ordinary extraction among the Boii raised a considerable number of men and proclaimed himself a God He was soon overthrown and thrown to the wilde beasts whom when they rent not in pieces it heightened the peoples opinion in thoughts that he was a God indeed but Vitellius found another way to put him to death and so his Godship was spoiled There were divers petty mutinies of the Armies and destroying of Towns in Italy and other parts before Vespasian stird but when he stood up there were concussions that made all the Empire to shake as it had hardly ever done before He was then in the East about the Warres of the Jews as we have touched instantly before And there the Armies in Egypt Iudaea and Syria swear fealty to him in the moneth of Iuly And in a short time all the Provinces even to Achaia did the like The Legions in Maesia Illyricum Pannonia fall to him and letters are sent into Britain and Spain to move them to the like and they prevail with them Vitellius this while follows his riotous courses and marches towards Rome with 60000 men in Arms but in no discipline and a rabble of Ruffians that were of his roaring humour exceeding that number And these numbers were made numberlesse by the conflux of all sorts of people out of the City to meet him Corn was trod down the souldiers quarrelled the people was abused wounded and slain and they had the face of a Warre among themselves In such a confused march they come into the City and there take up their quarters but in all looseness luxury and security At last Vespasians party breaks into Italy and gives them a through Alarm in a short time they come to a battell at Cremona where that poor Town is ruined and left as a monument of those combustions and another memoriall not to be omitted A sonne on the one party killed his father on the other and perceived and deplored what he had done as soon as he had done it And thus these tumults grew on to that height that in fine they fight it out in Rome it self fire the Capitol plunder the City slay Vitellius subdue his party and Vespasian becomes conquerour and Emperour Think here of Matth. 24.7 CHRIST LXX VESPASIAN I VESPASIAN all this while was in Egypt at Alexandria he receives tydings of his parties successe and thither is such conflux of Friends Ambassadors and Allies to congratulate and homage him that that City though the second in the Empire was little enough to intertain the company gathered thither Vitellius his fall was in December the later end of the last year and Vespasian did wait in the beginning of this but till he could settle affairs there where he was and till he might have good weather at sea and then he sets for Italy and Titus his son parting with him at Alexandria sets for Iudea to make some end of those Warres And here we cannot but take in two passages for Chronology sake which help well to measure the time that we are just now upon The one is this of Dion Cassius in the life of Vespasian From the death of Nero to the reign of Vespasian there intercurred but one year and two and twenty daies And I write this least any should misreckon giving the whole time to every one that reigned For they did not succeed one another but one reigned in the time of another So that their years are not to be counted by their succeeding one another but according to the exact course of the time it self The other is out of Iosephus who once and again tels that the fall of Ierusalem was in the second year of Vespasian De Bell. lib. 6. cap. 47 c. And yet in recording the story and times of the sacking of it he doth plainly place it in that year that the Roman Annals write Vespasians first as it will be obvious to observe to any that peruseth them and him His computation therefore must be cast by his own counters for he accounteth the beginning of his reign from the time that the Armies in the East proclaimed him and swore fealty to him which was in Iuly and in September twelvemoneth after Ierusalem was taken at which time Vespasian was entred indeed upon a second year from the time of his proclaiming and according to this calculation it is that Iosephus reckoneth whereas Vitellius was alive and fought it out many moneths after Vespasian was proclaimed therefore the Roman Fasti do very properly begin his first year from the beginning of Ianuary this year that
that they might remain as monuments of the strength of the place and thereby of the renown of the Roman Conquest and this that it might be of some use to the Roman Garrison that was left there which was the tenth Legion Their chief Captain was Terentius Rufus a man of exceeding frequent mention in the Hebrew Writers but his former name a little shortened yet a little added which makes it long enough for they constantly call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turnus Rufus the wicked one There are endlesse disputes betwixt him and R. Akibah mentioned about the Jews Law and Religion and when he died R. Akibah married his widow now become a Proselytesse Amongst those that perished in the fate of the City the names most famous were Iochanan Simeon and Eleazar the three ringleaders of sedition names famous for faction But the person of the best rank that perished was Rabban Simeon the President of the Sanhedrin a man educated with Paul at the foot of Gamaliel his father The Sanhedrin had sitten at Iabâ—eh a long while but the Feast of the Passeover had now brought them up to Ierusalem and there he is caught The Bab. Talmud in the place lately cited relates that he was once in danger but one of the Roman Commanders was a means of his delivery But at last he was caught and slain and in the Jews Martyrology he is set the first of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ten slain by the Kingdom meaning ten eminent ones that were put to death by the Romans All the ten are reckoned by Midras Tillin upon Psal. 9. fol. 10. col 3. He forgetteth not saith he the cry of the poor that is he forgetteth not the blood of Israel to require it of the Nations nor the blood of those Righteous ones that were slain viz. Rabban Simeon the son of Gamaliel Rabbi Ismael the son of Elisha R. Ishbab the Scribe R. Hotspith the Interpreter R. Iose R. Iudah bâ—n Baba R. Iudah Hannachtom R. Simeon ben Azzai R Hananiah ben Teradion and R. Akibah But the Author of â—semach David reckoning up these next after Rabban Simeon nameth Ananias the Sagan or the second Priest and saith that he was slain at the destruction of the City when Rabban Simeon was slain Of this Ananias Sagan there is mention in the Talmud text severall times we will take but one instance Shekalim per. 6. halac 1. There were thirteen worshippings or bowings in the Temple but the house of Rabban Gamaliel and the house of Ananias Sagan made fourteen The Sagan was as it were Vice-Highpriest the next to him in Dignity and Office and is sometimes called the Highpriest as Luk. 3.2 And it may be this was the man and bare that title Act. 23.2 4. the enemy of Paul and whose character and doom he reads that he was a whited wall and God would smite him accomplished when he perished in the fall of the City We may not omit the calculation of the time that the Jews make further of the Temples burning When the first Temple was destroyed say they it was the evening on the ninth of Ab it was the going out of the year of release and it was the going out of the Sabbath And so was it with the second Temple Tal. Bab. ubi supr Observe by their confession the Temple was burnt down upon the Lords day or on the Christian Sabbath Fire put to it upon their Sabbath and it burnt all ours And so the City fell upon their Sabbath as was mentioned out of Dion even now §. II. The face and state of the Country after the Cities ruine WE will first begin at Ierusalem it self It was laid so desolate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That travellers by could see no sign that it had been ever inhabited they are the words of Iosephus De Bell. lib. 7. cap. 1. The Friars there and the Maps here with us that point out places so punctually as to tell you Here was Pilates Palace here the Highpriests here the dolorous way c. must receive more curtesie from your belief then they can give proof to their assertion It appears by the constant and copious testimony of the Jews that the City and Temple were not only laid flat by fire ruine and demolishment but that Turnus Rufus brought a plow over them to make good that Prophesie Zion shall be plowed as a field The plowman would finde but rugged work They allot it as observed before to have been on the same day of the year and so a twelvemoneth at the least must intercede What the beauty of the place had been needs no Rhetorick to set it forth nor what the populousnesse the Temple if there had been no other goodly structures was enough to speak the one and the multitude of their Synagogues the other their own records summe them up to four hundred and threescore R. Phinehas in the name of R. Hoshaiah saith there were 460 Synagogues in Ierusalem and every one had a house for the Book of the Law for the publick reading of that and a house for the publick teaching and explaining the traditions Jerus Chetub fol. 35. col 3. which in Megillah fol. 73. col 4. and in R. Solomon upon the first of Isaiah are reckoned up to four hundred and fourscore But now not one relick left of Temple Synagogue Midrash House or any thing else but rubbish and desolation Her people used this custom while she stood that on all other daies of the year the unclean walked in the middle of the street and the clean by the houses sides and the unclean said unto them Keep off But on the daies of the festivals the clean walked in the middle of the street and the unclean by the house sides and then the clean bid Keep off Jerus Shekalin fol. 51. col 1. But now where is that company that nicenesse nay where are the streets Titus himself some time after the desolation coming that way could not but bemoan the fall of so brave a City and cursed the Rebels that had occasioned so fatall a destruction Ioseph De Bell. lib. 7. cap. 15. How the Country neer about was wasted with so long and terrible a siege and indeed the whole Country with so dreadfull a Warre it is easier conceived then expressed Iosephus tels particularly much of it and this thing for one That all the timber twelve miles about the City was cut down and brought in to make forts and engines for the siege lib. 6. cap. 40. We may take a view of the whole Country as to the surface and situation of it in this prospective of their own The Land say they that Israel possessed that came out of Babylon was these three Countries Iudaea Galilee and Beyond Iordan and these were severally tripartite again There was Galilee the upper and Galilee the neather and the Vale. From Caphar Hananiah upward all that bears not Sycamores is Galilee the upper and from Caphar Hananiah downward all
faults may be in a part of the Bible and yet it lawfull to read in The books of Hagiographa say they If there be two or three faults in every leaf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He may mend it and read The Books of Hagiographa they read not in their Synagogues as they did the Law and the Prophets therefore this is to be understood of a mans private reading and of his own Bible which if faulty there were true Copies whereby he might mend it and so read Nay in Taanith fol. 68. col 1. there is mention of a faulty Copy that was laid up in the publick records They found three books in the Court of the Temple The book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in two it was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 33.27 And they approved the two and refused the one In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in two it was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 24.5 They approved the two and refused the other In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in two it was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They approved of the two and refused the other That alteration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the second mentioned the Babylonian Gomarists and Massecheth Sopherim per. 1. say was one of the thirteen alterations that the Septuagint made in the Law for Ptolomy King of Egypt Which seems to argue that as they translated the Bible into Greek in which they made thousands of alterations from the text so that they copied an Hebrew copy for him and in that made these and this that was found in the Court of the Temple a transcript of that Copy 3. In every Synagogue they had a true Copy And it was their care every where to have their Bible as purely authentick as possible as may be seen by the curious rules that are given to that purpose in Massecheth Sophorim newly cited and Megillah For this they accounted their treasure and their glory And in the reading of the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogue it was their great care that not a tittle should be read amisse and for this purpose the Minister stood over those that read and oversaw that they read aright and from this as Aruch tels us he was called Chazan that is Episcopus or Overseer In Ierus Sotah fol. 21. col 3. the Samaritans are blamed by the Jews for wilfully corrupting their own Penteteuch R. Eliezer ben R. Simeon said I said to the Scribes of the Samaritans You have falsified your Law and yet reap no advantage by it for you have written in your Law By the plain of Moreh which is Sichem And was it not manifest enough without that addition that it was Sichem But you construe not a pari as we do It is said here The plain of Moreh and it is said elsewhere The plain of Moreh there it is no other but Sichem no more must it be here The addition cavilled at which is Sichem is so in the Samaritan Penteteuch now extant at Deut. 11.30 But amongst all the wickednesse that Christ and his Apostles laid to the charge of the Jews yet you never finde them blamed in the least degree for this that they went about to corrupt the letter of the Text The sense indeed they spoiled with their glosses and so made the Word of God of no effect and this they hear of throughly but not a word of their spoiling the letter of the Text. 4. Had they been never so desirous to have imposed upon Christians by falsifying the Text they could not possibly do it for 1. Every Synagogue in the world having the purest Copy that possibly was to be got how impossible was it such legerdemain should be when there were so many thousand Copies to discover it unlesse they were all corrupt alike and multitudes out of the Synagogues Rulers and people were converted to the Gospel 2. As learned men as any they had among them and that as well understood what Text was pure what corrupt Ioseph of Arlmathea Nicodemus Paul and multitudes of the Priests imbraced the Gospel and so multitudes of pure Copies were in the hands of Christians upon the first rising of the Gospel and multitudes that had such Copies in their hands were converted daily 5. To which may be added that the same power and care of God that preserves the Church would preserve the Scriptures pure to it and he that did and could preserve the whole could preserve every part so that not so much as a tittle should perish §. XII Concerning the Calling of the Iews BY what hath been spoken concerning the state of the Jews in their own Land after the fall of their City it may be observed wherein it is that the Lords vengeance upon that Nation doth especially consist namely in his rejection of them from being his people and in their obduration The unspeakable miseries and slaughter that they indured in the siege and ruine of Ierusalem speak as dreadfull punishment as ever fell upon a Nation and yet this was but short and small in comparison of that fearfull blindnesse and hardnesse that lies upon them and hath done for this sixteen hundred years together Seventy years in bodily bondage in Babel did finish the punishment of their forefathers for all the Idolatry bloodshed and impiety that they had committed But these after above twenty times seventy years under dispersion and obduration have now as little appearance of amendment of their hearts and of their condition as there was so many hundred years ago The same blindnesse the same doting upon traditions the same insisting upon their own works for salvation the same blind confidence that they are Gods only beloved people the same expectation of Messias to come the same hatred of Messias already come and the same opposition against the Gospel is in them still that was in that first generation that crucified the Lord of life That generation is plainly and often asserted by the holy Ghost in the New Testament to be Antichrist and the very same Antichristian spirit hath continued in all the generations of them ever since even to this day Into the thoughts therefore concerning their Calling after so long and so extream crosness against the Gospel and the Lord of it I cannot but take these things into consideration For though I am unwilling to recede from that charitable opinion of most Christians that there shall once be a Calling of them home yet see I not how that supposall of the universall Call of the whole Nation as of one man which some entertain can be digested without some allay and mitigation 1. That all Israel both Jews and they of the ten Tribes have had as full an offer of the Gospel as any of the Gentiles have had both in the time of the Apostles