stir 3. For a man to fall down before that that he can cast into the fire water dirt and trample under feet and the Image not able to say What doest thou 4. It being in the power of man to make his image in the likeness of man or beast then when it is made to think it hath power over him and he to owe homage and duty and sacrifice and devotion to it So brutish foolish besotted a thing is man when left unto himself and his own wisdom And therefore there was need of such a Commandment against such sottishness and of tyes and terrors added to affrighten men from the folly as there are two you see in the words I have read I. That God proclaims himself a jealous God II. That he professeth he visiteth the fathers upon the children I. It is no wonder God proclaims himself a jealous God in this case when the love service and worship due to him is given to an Idol to a piece of wood or stone silver or gold Conceive in your hearts what jealousie is and you will find it no wonder he is so in this case or indeed in any other where his honour is given away and bestowed upon any creature This title is oft given him in Scripture and if we well consider what jealousie is in man or woman we will read terror in the tittle when God giveth it to himself He professeth it to be his Name Exod. XXXIV 14. The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God Read it again and tremble The Lord whose Name is Jealous is a jealous God Moses glosses upon it with a gloss of more terror Deut. IV. 25. The Lord thy God is a consuming fire even a jealous God As if he had said Does any ask what Gods jealousie means It means a consuming fire And so the Prophet Zephany explains it also Chap. I. 18. The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie And again Chap III. 8. For all the Earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousie What fire was that that devoured Sodom and Gomorrha The fire of Gods jealousie What fire was that that consumed Jerusalem and laid it in ashes Was it the fire the Chaldeans put to it at the first sacking of it and the Romans at the second No it was indeed the fire of Gods jealousie What is that that consumeth ungodly men as stubble that unquenchable fire that devoureth the chaff when God cometh to purge his floor It is the fire of Gods jealousie The Prophet Nahum doth yet clear it further Chap. I. 2. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance of his adversaries and reserveth wrath for his enemies The rest of the verse is an exposition of the first clause God is jealous What means that And read the first clause in the Text I the Lord thy God am a jealous God What means that An avenging God a God that avengeth in fury that taketh vengeance on his adversaries and reserveth wrath and vengeance in store for his enemies and them that hate him But that we may view Gods jealousie the better and with the more dread and trembling and oh that we could ever feelingly consider that the Lord our God is a jealous God let us first consider the nature of jealousie in men or women and by that arise to apprehend what this jealousie is in God Zealous and jealous are comprehended under one and the same word in the Hebrew Tongue and Zealousness and jealousie are uttered in that Language in the very same syllables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both In those allegations out of Zephany The land shall be devoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the fire of his jealousie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the fire of my jealousie Now the same word is used elsewhere in a sense most sweet and comfortable That whereas it comes in some places like Elias his fire and earthquake and wind that rent the Rocks in terror and dreadfulness in other places it comes like the still voice in sweetness and comfort In Esa. IX 6 7. Where he is speaking of Christ his Names and Kingdom that he should be called Wonderful Counseller c. And that of the encrease of his government and peace there should be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order and establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth ever for ever he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this And so Esa. XXXVII 32. where he promiseth comfortable things to his distressed people and saith Out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this And one for all Esa. LXIII 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where is thy zeal thy strength and the sounding of thy bowels In zeal is a fervent tincture of Love The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up that is the fervent Love I have to thy house And in jealousie is a high tincture of Love And accordingly Love and Jealousie are joyned and made as one thing Cant. VIII 6. In zeal is Love and forwarding that we are zealous of In jealousie Love and anger at that that provokes to jealousie A man is jealous of his wife or the wife of her husband the bottom of it is Love but the top is Anger The bottom Love How It is said that jealousie is too much Love But that rule fails For a man may be jealous of his wife he loves not And yet the bottom of jealousie is love For a man though he love not the person of his wife yet he loves to have the affection of his wife intirely to himself and cannot endure that her affections that are due to him should be given to another but disdains it and is angry at it By this we may conceive of the jealousie of God only adding the observation of that expression that is so frequent viz. Gods complaining that his people went a whoring from him Hos. I. 2. The Land hath committed great whoredom in departing from the Lord and so went a whoring after other Gods God takes it in anger and disdain that men should give away those hearts affections that love and service that is due to God to any thing besides God God doth very oft title the Church of Israel his children and oft his wife that he had married to himself Jer. III. 1. He had taken them for his wife she had played the harlot with many lovers yet if she would return he would take her again So Hos. III. 1. and in divers other places And the expression is very proper for he had forsaken all other Nations and clave only to her I shall not insist to shew how far the parallel fits any Christian Nation that God hath taken more peculiarly to himself by the administration of his Covenant among
the very first day of the month as is more probable The reason therefore why the story of the institution of it is laid after this plague is because the Holy Ghost would handle that matter of the Passover all at once and though the command for it and the observation of it fell at some days distance yet hath he brought both together and handled the story of its institution at that time when fell out the story of its observation namely on the fourteenth day CHAP. X. from Vers. 21. to the end And XI all And XII from Vers. 21. to the end THE plague of Darkness for three days In it the Egyptians saw the apparition of Devils and evil Spirits and in the time of this Darkness the Israelites are circumcised Moses on the Passover day morning giveth warning to Pharaoh of the death of the first-born on the fourteenth day in the morning he giveth charge for preparation of the Passover against even which is accordingly done and the Passover kept At midnight all the first-born of Egypt are slain and Israel even driven out by the Egyptians CHAP. XIII XIV XV. XVI XVII World 2514 Moses 81 Redemption from Egypt 1 THE command for observing the Passover renewed and a command for dedicating the first-born given The cloud of glory is their conductor their march was measured by these times On the fifteenth day of Nisan even while it was yet night they began their march and go out in the sight of all Egypt while they are burying their dead this day they go from Rameses to Succoth The sixteenth day they come to the edge of the wilderness of Etham the Red-sea pointeth so into this wilderness that before they pass through the Red-sea they are in the wilderness of Etham and when they are passed through they are in it again The wilderness of Etham and Shur are one and the same see Numb 33. 7 8. and compare Exod. 15. 22. On the seventeenth day they come to Hiroth On the eighteenth day it is told Pharaoh that the people fled for till their third days march they went right for Horeb according as they had desired to go three days journey to sacrifice but when they turned out of that way toward the Red-sea then Pharaoh hath intelligence that they intended to go some whither else then whither they asked to go thereupon he and Egypt prepair to pursue them for their Jewels and their Servants On the nineteenth day they pursue On the twentieth day towards even they overtake them and Israel entereth the Sea and by break of day are all marched through and the Egyptians drowned On the one and twentieth day of the moneth in the morning betime they came out of the Sea this was the last holy day of the Passover week they sung for their delivery and after three days march they come to Marah and from thence to Elim and there they pitch divers days On the fifteenth day of the month Ijar they come to the wilderness of Zin murmur for bread as they had done at Marah for water and they have Quails sent them and Manna The Sabbath now first mentioned but not now first commanded in Egypt they had neglected the Sabbath since their coming thence they had marched on it now a rule is given for its constant observation The people murmur a fourth time and it is for water which they obtain out of the rock but are scourged by Amalek for their repining Amalek conquered by Moses his prayer CHAP. XIX THE eighteenth Chapter that containeth the story of Jethro is anticipated and is to be taken in at the tenth of Numbers betwixt the tenth and eleventh Verses and the reason of this dislocation and proof of the order shall be shewed there On the first day of Sivan Israel cometh to Sinai On the second day Moses called by the Lord goeth up into the Mount talketh with God and when he cometh down relateth the words of the Lord unto the people On the third day he goeth up and relateth the peoples answer unto God On the fourth and fifth day he sanctifieth the people and boundeth the mountain CHAP. XX. XXI XXII XXIII XXIV World 2514 Moses 81 Redemption from Egypt 1 ON the sixth day of the moneth Sivan in the morning the Ten Commandments are given by Christ with such terror that the people are not able to abide it but desire Moses to be a Mediator he drawing near to God in the thick darkness receiveth seven and fifty Precepts Ceremonial and Judicial which when he cometh down from the Mount he telleth the people of and writeth in a book On the next day which was the seventh day of the month Sivan in the morning he buildeth an altar to represent Christ and setteth up twelve pillars to represent the twelve Tribes and with blood besprinkled upon both he bringeth the people into covenant with God after the making of which covenant the elders of Israel that before might not come near the Lord now see him and eat and drink before him and he layeth not his avenging hand on them And from among them he calleth Moses up into the Mount to himself and he goeth up and from hence he beginneth his forty days fast which upon occasions he doubleth yea trebleth and concludeth his third or last fast on that day which was from thence forward ordained the day of expiation CHAP. XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX XXXI WHile Moses is in the Mount with God he sheweth him a Tabernacle pitched with all the utensils of it and a Priest arrayed in all his habiliments and giveth him charge and instructions to make another according to that pattern and appointeth Bezaleel and Aholiah for chief work-men CHAP. XXXII XXXIII XXXIV MOses on the seventeenth day of the month Tammuz cometh down from the Mount and findeth a golden Calf breaketh it and breaketh the two Tables for whereas God had given him the two Tables written at the end of his first forty days fast Moses brake those Tables at the sight of the golden Calf to shew that Israel had made themselves unworthy of so great a Jewel and whereas the Lord had given him a pattern and a command for the making and setting up of a Tabernacle and the service of it that benefit is also forfeited by their calvish Idolatry and neither Tables restored nor Tabernacle to be made till Moses by long and earnest prayer had made Israels peace Moses having destroyed the golden calf and slain the Idolaters returns the next day to God by prayer but is returned back the same day with a sad message whereupon Israel is humbled the tent of Moses which hitherto had been in stead of a Tabernacle is removed out of the unclean camp and then the cloud of glory which had been taken away because of Idolatry is restored The next day Moses goeth up to the Mount again and falleth into a second forty days fast and as in his first forty days fast he
hath 600 men with him a Guard to himself and an help to Achish against Saul David dwelleth at Ziklag and invades the Countries thereabouts c. I CHRON. XII from beginning to Verse 8. World 2959 Sam. Saul 40 THither divers of Sauls own Tribe and kinred resort unto him and these are named in this Chapter before the men of Gad that had fallen to him before because these mens coming to him was most remarkable as being of Sauls own kinred CHAP. XXVIII SAULS end is now approaching He consulteth a witch He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after he had despised and persecuted both He seeth a Devil in Samuels likeness and heareth of his own ruine CHAP. XXIX THE Philistims dare not trust David in battel And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish nor fight against his own people I CHRON. XII Vers. 19 20 21 22. AS he went forth with the Philistims towards the battel and as he came back again from them divers fell to him of Manasseh CHAP. XXX XXXI I CHRON. X. DAVID returning home findeth no home at all Ziklag fired A Band of Amalekites slain and as it were sacrificed to Sauls Funeral Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation The second Book of SAMUEL CHAP. I. DAVID heareth of the death of Saul and lamenteth him And chargeth the young men of Judah to learn the use of the Bow that they might match the Philistims in Archery and so be avenged on them for Sauls death for by Archery they had slain him The Story of the Amalekite to David was not a lye to curry favour or to obtain a reward but it was a very and a real truth Saul had fallen upon his own sword indeed as was related in the preceding Chapter but his Coat of mail had hindred that he had not given himself a wound so speedily deadly but that the Philistims might come and catch him alive and abuse him and so he stands bleeding at that and at his other wounds leaning on his Spear till this Amalekite came by His Armour Bearer was dead already and these words When his Armour Bearer saw that Saul was dead he fell on his sword and died also are to be understood in this sense That when he saw Saul had given himself so deadly a wound he did the like and died indeed But Sauls wound was not so quick of dispatch therefore he desireth the Amalekite to kill him out For says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Coat of Mail hath withheld me so that my life is all this while in me And thus Saul that had been so cruel to David is now cruel to himself and he that had spared the Amalekites is now slain by one of that Nation CHAP. II. World 2950 David 1 DAVID anointed King of Judah in Hebron being 30 years old Compair David 2 Gen. 41. 46. Numb 4. 3. Luke 3. 23. In Hebran Abraham had had his David 3 first Land and much residence Here lay the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob David 4 and their wives buried and here was John Baptist born and our Saviour David 5 conceived There is long busling between the House of David and the house of David 6 Saul Abner still striving to make a party strong enough to settle one of Sauls David 7 Sons in the Kingdom Thereupon is Ishbosheth anointed in Sauls stead He is called Ishbaal 1 Chron. 8. 33. for Baal was commonly called Bosheth or Shame as Jerubbaal is called Jerubbosheth 2 Sam. 11. 21. and Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9. 12. called Meribaal 1 Chron. 8. 34. see also Jer. 11. 13. Abners vapouring causeth a desperate duell of twelve and twelve men and so layeth the foundation of a continual War in an equal bloodshed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 27. If thou hadst not said saith Joab what thou didst say in the morning let the young men rise and play before us surely the people had gone away every man from his brother even in the morning and there had been never a blow struck but thou didst provoke it CHAP. III. DAVIDS six Sons born to him in Hebron in his seven years and six Months reign there are here reckoned together that that Story and matter may be dispatcht at once Abner upon discontent at Ishbosheth turneth to David and confesseth that Kingdom which hitherto he had willingly and wittingly opposed But God will not suffer such a man and upon such grounds to be a promoter of Davids throne he is slain by Joab even in a place of Judicature and with a wound parallel to that that he had given Asahel CHAP. IV. ISHBOSHETH slain by two Benjamites brethren in evil They came into the midst of the house as if they would setch wheat vers 6. that is with a sack in their hands to put his head in c. Instantly before the Text falls upon the Story of Ishbosheth it relateth the Story of Mephibosheth because he was now all the stock left of Sauls house but only Rizpahs children a Concubine and Morahs a daughter CHAP. V. from beginning to Ver. 11. And I CHRON. XI all World 2957 David 8 DAVID anointed King over all Israel at Hebron and from thence brought by all Israel to Jerusalem to settle him there and to make that the Royal City He reigned in all 40 years in Hebron seven years and an half and at Jerusalem 32 years and an half And this latter was exactly the time of our Saviours life upon earth Joab after Davids curse upon him for Abners murder is yet made Commander in chief for his taking of Jerusalem The prosperity of David at Jerusalem and his building of it is presently set down after the Story of the taking of the City as beginning from that time and continuing and going along with the times of the following Stories and so to be carried in mind Then doth the Book of Chronicles give account of Davids Worthies Which Catalogue is also mentioned by this Book of Samuel but with this difference of place that in the Chronicles it is set in the beginning of Davids Reign and in Samuel in the latter end And both very properly and much like to the placing of our Saviours Genealogy in Matthew and Luke the one giving it at his Birth and the other at his Baptism and both upon singular reason And so here the Book of Chronicles reckons up these men as those that helped David to his settlement in the Kingdom and therefore it mentions them in the beginning of his reign and the Book of Samuel reckons them up at the latter end of his reign as those that had stuck to him all the time of his reign and helped to keep him in that settlement In both the Books there is first reckoned a Triumvirate or three gallant men that were of a rank by themselves and none were equal with them or like
the Chronicles saith All Israel were eleven hundred thousand men and the Book of Samuel saith they were only eight hundred thousand men here are three hundred thousand difference and the Book of Samuel saith that the men of Judah were five hundred thousand but the Book of Chronicles saith they were only four hundred and seventy thousand Here is thirty thousand difference Now for the reconciling of this great and double diversity it is to be observed That there were four and twenty thousand Souldiers and Officers that attended David monthly so many every month these make in all two hundred eighty eight thousand 1 Chron. 27. These were as it were a standing Guard about the King every Month and ready for any sudden expedition There were besides these the Rulers of the Tribes and Officers under them and the Overseers and Rulers of the Kings imployments and Officers under them but the number of these was not put into the account of the Chronicles of David vers 24. so that here is the resolution of the scruple the whole number of men able to bear Arms in Israel were eleven hundred thousand and five hundred thousand in Judah but of these there were three hundred thousand of Israel and thirty thousand of Judah that were already listed and in the constant service and imployment of the King and these Joab gave not in the account because their number and list had been known long and because the King would not lay Taxes on his own servants Amongst all this number Levi and Benjamin were not reckoned For before Joab came home to sum them for he began furthest off first a plague began among the people and now the Lord began to cut off them that David had begun to make his pride and intended to make his profit The Lord proposeth to David three things among the rest whether three years famine should come upon the Land 2 Chron. 21. 12. which the Book of Samuel expresseth Shall seven years famine come vers 13. that is Shall three years famine come to make up those that have been already to be seven There had been already three years famine for the Gibeonites and this year of numbering the people was almost out and shall three years famine more come to make up seven And so we have a very good direction and guide about the order and times of the Stories that went last before concerning the three years famine and this joyned to it and this helpeth still to confirm that Series in which we have laid them or indeed rather in which they lye of themselves Where Abraham had his knife unsheathed to slay his Son but was stayed by command from Heaven In the very same place had the destroying Angel his sword drawn to slay Jerusalem but was restrained by the Lord the place was a threshing floor on Mount Moriah that belonged to Ornan or Araunah or Auranah for it is twice so written in the Text And by these several names one near another was he called A man that was descended of the Royal blood of the Jebusites and that now lived with and was the chief among other Jebusites that injoyed estates in and about Jerusalem under a Tribute This place David purchaseth in two several parcels and for two several sums The very floor and the Oxen and materials for sacrifice he bought for 50 shekels of silver 2 Sam. 24. 24. But the whole place of the Mount of the house which was a very large compass cost him six hundred shekels of gold 1 Chron. 21. 25. There David builds an Altar and sacrificeth and the Lord answereth him by fire from Heaven and from Heaven doth by this token point out the place where the Temple should be built I CHRON. XXII Vers. 1. 2 3 4 5. World 2989 David 40 DAVID prepareth for the building of the Temple He setteth Proselites or converted Gentiles a work to get stones for it This was a Type of the spiritual Temple to be built up by Gentiles under the Gospel The first Book of KINGS CHAP. I. all DAVID in his old age is struck with a cold dead palsie that no clothes can keep him warm whereupon his Phisicians perswade him to marry a young fresh Damzel which proveth to be Abishag of Shunem in the County of Issachar Adonijah upon the Kings age and decrepitness stands up for the Kingdom the Kings darling and like Elies Sons spoiled by his father for want of reproof his next child to Absalom by another woman and like Absalom in beauty and rebellion His aspiring to the Kingdom causeth David to anoint Solomon to put the matter out of question But here is a matter of some question about the time of Solomons anointing and about the order of this Chapter We find three times mention of Solomons being made King namely twice in the Book of Chronicles and once here see 1 Chron. 23. 1. 29. 22. Now the doubt lieth in this whether he were three times made King indeed and so all the three Texts that speak of it to be taken severally or whether only twice as 1 Chron. 29. 22. seemeth to settle and then this Story to be concurrent with one of those relations in the Chronicles That that must give light in this obscurity is this That this anointing of Solomon mentioned in this 1 King 1. upon this aspiring of Adonijah was the first time that ever David shewed who should raign after him see ver 20 27. and therefore it must needs be held concurrent or the same with that making Solomon King in 1 Chron. 23. 1. and the current of the Story will make it plain Only that scruple that lies yet in the way that being supposed is this That David at this first unction of Solomon should be in his chamber and upon his bed and exceedingly decrepit And yet at his second anointing should be in the midst of his Princes and Commanders and standing upon his feet 1 Chron. 28. 2. But this also will be removed if it be but considered that Davids present infirmity was not sickness but coldness and benummedness and old age he was heart whole and head whole but he was old and palsick and therefore though his most common and most commodious posture and composure was to be in his chamber and upon his couch yet upon such an occasion as to Crown Solomon again before all Israel he can come forth and stand upon his feet and make Orations and give advice for things to come I CHRON. XXII from vers 6. to the end And XXIII vers 1. THE juncture of the Story here lieth plain and easie David having caused Solomon to be anointed because of the ambition of Adonijah and that conspiracy being broken he first giveth him in charge the building of the House of the Lord as the first thing to be looked after And thus when David was old and full of days he made solomon King as is related in 1 King 1. and so the first verse
Months 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 19. which the Rabbins interpret And one Officer which was in the Land for the Leap-year or for the thirteenth Month which befel every third year Solomon had four thousand Stables of Horses and Chariots 2 Chron. 9. 25. that is forty thousand Stalls of Horses for his Chariots 1 King 4. 2. one Horse in every Stall and ten Horses to a Chariot and in a Stable So seven hundred Chariots 2 Sam. 10. 18. is rendred seven thousand 1 Chron. 19. 18. that is seven thousand men with seven hundred Chariots ten to a Chariot Solomon is said to be wiser then Heman and Ethan and Chalcol and Darda that is in humane learning for these men lived in Egypt in the time of Israels affliction there and it seemeth were singularly skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians Yet Solomon went beyond them in Philosophy CHAP. II. from vers 39. to the end And CHAP. III. vers 1 2. ABout the latter end of Solomons third year or beginning of his fourth Shimei compasseth his own death by breaking the bonds and bounds of his consinement And as the Jews held Solomon after that marrieth Pharaohs daughter The time is uncertain and the determination of it not much material Solomon preferreth her before the rest of his wives for they were of Nations that were his Subjects but she the daughter of an intire King and by this match he allieth that potent King to him and secureth himself the better abroad especially from Hadad his Enemy who had married a Lady from the same Court 1 King 11. 19. CHAP. VI. all And VII from vers 13. to the end 2 CHRON. III IV. World 2993 Solomon 4 THE foundation of the Temple laid on Mount Moriah where Isaac had Solomon 5 been offered It is said That the foundation of the house of the Lord was Solomon 6 laid in Solomons fourth year in the month Zif or the second month and in the eleventh year in the month Bul which is the eighth month it was finished and Solomon 7 Solomon 8 so was he seven years in building it It was exactly seven years and six months Solomon 9 in building but the odd six months are omitted for roundness of the sum as Solomon 10 the six odd months are of Davids reigning in Hebron Compare 1 King 2. 11 with 2 Sam. 5. 5. Now the beginning of the seventh Chapter of 1 Kings relateth the Story of Solomons building his own house before it come to mention the furniture of the Temple because the Holy Ghost would mention all Solomons fabricks together or the piles of his buildings before it come to speak of the furniture of any CHAP. VIII all 2 CHRON. V. VI. VII to ver 11. World 3000 Solomon 11 THE Temple finished in the three thousand year of the world and dedicated by Solomon with Sacrifice and Prayer and by the Lord with fire from Heaven and the cloud of glory This dedication of the Temple was in the month Tisri or Ethanim the seventh month answering to part of our September at which time of the year our Saviour whom this Temple typified Joh. 2. 19. was born and 29 years after Baptized And thus have we an account of three thousand years of the world beginning with the Creation and ending with the finishing of Solomons Temple CHAP. VII From vers 1. to vers 13. World 3001 Solomon 12 SOLOMON after the building of the house of the Lord buildeth his Solomon 13 own house in Jerusalem and buildeth a summer house in Lebanon and an Solomon 14 house for Pharaohs Daughter and his own Throne so sumptuous as there was Solomon 15 not the like And thus doth he take up twenty years in this kind of work in Solomon 16 building the house of the Lord and his own houses His wisdom power Solomon 17 Solomon 18 peace and magnificence exceeding all Kings upon earth did make him not only Solomon 19 renowned among all people but also in these he became a type of Christ. Solomon 20 Thus high in all eminencies and perfections that earth could afford did the Solomon 21 Lord exalt him and yet afterward suffered him so fouly to fall that he like Solomon 22 Adam in happiness might exemplifie that no earthly felicity can be durable and Solomon 23 that here is nothing to be trusted to but all things vanity but the Kingdom Solomon 24 that is not of this world CHAP. IX From beginning to Vers. 10. 2 CHRON. VII From Vers. 11. to the end SOLOMON hath an answer to his prayer made in the Temple thirteen years ago Then the Lord made a return to it by fire and a cloud and here he doth the like again by an apparition this is the second time that the Lord appeareth to him The first was when he was even entring and beginning upon his Kingdom and this is now he is come to the height of settlement and prosperity in it CHAP. IX From Vers. 10. to the end 2 CHRON. VIII all Solomon 25 SOLOMON buildeth Cities up and down the Country conquereth Solomon 26 Hamath Zobah setleth Pharaohs Daughter in the house he had built for her Solomon 27 setteth out a Fleet at Ezion-Geber for Ophir is growing still more and Solomon 28 more potent rich and magnificent Is constant still and forward in Religion Solomon 29 and offereth a constant rate of Sacrifices every day and extraordinary ones at Solomon 30 the solemn festivities The Book of the PROVERBS AMong the Stories of Solomons renown in other things may be inserted also and conceived his uttering of his Proverbs three thousand in number as is related 1 King 4. 32. and the making of his Songs one thousand and five as is storied in the same place Now it is no doubt but the most of these are lost as also are his Books of Philosophy But these that are now extant in the Book of the Proverbs and the Song of Songs we may very properly conceive to have been penned by him in some of those times that have been mentioned The very exact time is uncertain and therefore not curiously to be enquired after but the time at large betwixt his Sons growing to capacity whom he instructeth and his own fall by the inticement of his Idolatrous Wives The Book of the Proverbs falleth under several divisions As 1. From the beginning of the first Chapter to the end of the ninth which whole piece seemeth to have been compiled by him more especially for the instruction of his Son 2. From the beginning of the tenth Chapter to the latter end of the four and twentieth wherein are lessons framed for the instruction of others 3. From the beginning of the five and twentieth Chapter to the end of the twenty ninth are Proverbs of Solomon found in some Copy of his in the time of Ezechiah as Moses his Copy of the Law was found in the days of Josiah 4. The thirtieth Chapter is a script of Agur the Son of Jakeh
Potectors Amaziah 10 Ierob 24 Division 169 whilst Uzziah is in his Amaziah 11 Ierob 25 Ierob 26 Division 170 Division 171 minority 2 KING 14 ver 23. to 29. Amaziah 27 Ierob 13 Division 158 Jehu even from the entring Amaziah 28 Ierob 14 Division 159 in of Hamath on the North World 3189 Amaziah 29 Ierob 15 Division 160 to the Sea of the plain or Amaziah 1 Ierob 16 Division 161 the dead Sea South He also Amaziah 2 Ierob 17 Division 162 restoreth Hamath it self Amaziah 3 Ierob 18 Division 163 and Damascus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amaziah 4 Ierob 19 Division 164 to Judah in Israel Amaziah 5 Ierob 20 Division 165 2 King 14. 28. David had Amaziah 6 Amaziah 7 Ierob 21 Division 166 conquered them and they Amaziah 8 Ierob 22 Division 167 being now revolted he rerecovers Amaziah 9 Ierob 23 Division 168 them to Israel in Amaziah 10 Ierob 24 Division 169 Judahs title as fitter to Amaziah 11 Ierob 25 Division 170 be subject to the Seed of Ierob 26 Division 171 Israel then to Syria Judah was not able to recover his own right for they had lately been subject to Jeroboams father and he had sacked Jerusalem and done with it what pleased and now Jeroboam his son being a far more potent King and Judah continuing still in its wickedness as having never recovered strength since Jehoash conquered Amaziah and pulled down Jerusalem wall and withal there being now no King on the throne of Judah this Jeroboam when he had recovered the two Tribes and half beyond Jordan from Syria in the right of the Kingdom of Samaria he also recovers Hamath and Damascus to himself and Israel in the right and title of Judah Judah being now exceeding much in his power since his father had so miserably brought them under Of these Victories over the Syrians Jonah the Prophet prophesied who lived in these times but his journey to Niniveh was not as yet but some space hereafter as shall be observed anon 2 KINGS XIV ver 21 22 15. ver 1 2 3 4. World 3201 Uzziah 1 Ieroboam 27 Division 172 UZZIAH crowned he Uzziah 2 Ieroboam 28 Division 173 is also called Azariah Uzziah 3 Ieroboam 29 Division 174 both the names sounding to Uzziah 4 Ieroboam 30 Division 175 the same sence the one The Uzziah 5 Ieroboam 31 Division 176 Lord is my strength the other Uzziah 6 Ieroboam 32 Division 177 The Lord is my help as 2 Chron. Uzziah 7 Ieroboam 33 Division 178 26. 7. Uzziah 8 Hereabout was the time that Uzziah 9 Ieroboam 34 Division 179 Hosea and Joel began to prophesie Uzziah 10 Ieroboam 35 Division 180 and presently after Amos Uzziah 11 Ieroboam 36 Division 181 also beginneth Uzziah 12 Ieroboam 37 Division 182 There had been Prophets before Uzziah 13 Ieroboam 38 Division 183 this time continually but Uzziah 14 Ieroboam 39 Division 184 none left their Prophesies behind Uzziah 14 Ieroboam 40 Division 185 in writing but now ariseth a company of Prophets World 3215 Uzziah 15 Ieroboam 41 Division 186 that do 2 CHRON. XXVI ver 1 2 3 4. 2 KING XIV ver 29. World 3201 Uzziah 1 Ieroboam 27 Division 172 IN the twenty and seventh Uzziah 2 Ieroboam 28 Division 173 year of Jeroboam began Uzziah 3 Ieroboam 29 Division 174 Azaâ—iah to reign two and Uzziah 4 Ieroboam 30 Division 175 fifty years He built Elath or Eloth Uzziah 5 Ieroboam 31 Division 176 in the Country of Edom Deut. Uzziah 6 Ieroboam 32 Division 177 2. 8. 2 Chron. 17. And restored Uzziah 6 Ieroboam 32 Division 177 it to Judah after that the King Uzziah 7 Ieroboam 33 Division 178 Amaziah slept with his fathers Uzziah 8 Uzziah 9 Ieroboam 34 Division 179 that is even in those eleven Uzziah 10 Ieroboam 35 Division 180 years before his Coronation Uzziah 11 Ieroboam 36 Division 181 whilst he was yet in his minority Uzziah 12 Ieroboam 37 Division 182 Uzziah 13 Ieroboam 38 Division 183 A fearful Earthquake happens Uzziah 14 Ieroboam 39 Division 184 before the death of Jeroboam Uzziah 14 Ieroboam 40 Division 185 and Amos fore-tells it two years before it comes and foretells World 3215 Uzziah 15 Ieroboam 41 Division 186 of Jeroboams death by the sword Amos 7. The order and time of these former PROPHETS THE Murder of Zacharias the son of Barachias or Jehoiada was the first ruine of Judah and the beginning of their first rejection For when they slew that Prophet and Priest of the Lord in the Court of the Temple and besides the Altar they plainly shewed how they despised and rejected the Lord and his Temple Priest-hood and Prophesie From that time did their state decay and was mouldring towards ruine and that from thence forward fell into sad diseases as well as King Joash did that commanded the Murder This Hosea toucheth upon as the very Apex of their wickedness when they so brake out as that blood touched blood Hos 4. 2. the blood of the Sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the Sacrifice as Luke 13. 1. And the very Apex of their incorrigibleness in that they proved a people that strove with the Priest Hos. 4. 4. And this wicked act of theirs our Saviour makes as the very period and Catastrophe of their State and Kingdom Matth. 23. 35. How they declined from that time both in Religion Joash and Amaziah and the people with them becoming open Idolaters and in the State by the oppression of Syria and of Joash is so apparent in the Story that he that runneth may read and he that readeth not the cause with these effects readeth not all that may be read But more especially in these times that we have in hand in the latter times of Jeroboam the Lord spake indignation from Heaven in more sensible and more singular and terrible manner in three dreadful judgments the like to which neither they nor their fathers had seen nor heard and the sight and feeling of which when it did not avail with them for their conversion and bettering the Lord hath a company of Prophets that are continually telling them of worse judgments namely of final subversion to come upon them The first of these fearful judgments was an earthquake so terrible that it brought them to their wits ends and put them to flee for their lives but they knew not whether Ye shall flee as they fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah Zech. 14. 5. This was as the beginning of their desolation and the shaking of the earth was as a sign unto them that their State and Kingdom should ere long be shaken Amos prophecied of this two years before it came Amos 1. 1. and that the Lord would roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem as did Joel also some time before Joel 2. to 11. This earthquake was in the days of Jeroboam as well as in the days of Uzziah for so Amos sheweth
destroyeth Senacheribs Army yet should Judah at last be also cast off and become Lo-ammi and then the Gentiles should be called in in Israels and Judahs stead And thus having laid the generals of his Prophesie down in the first Chapter he goeth on in the second to particularize upon those heads and to shew the reason and manner of the Jews rejection and the manner and happiness of the Gentiles calling And thus the time of these two first Chapters is reasonably apparent 3. His third and fourth Chapters may be supposed to have been delivered by him at the same time because in Chap. 4. 3. he speaketh of the Plagues of Locusts and that Amos and Joel had spoken of fore-telling them also as they had done In the third Chapter under the parable of another marriage with an adulterous wife he fore-telleth the iniquity of the people after their return out of Babel into their own Land and also their state in their present rejection when they neither follow Idols nor God when neither as a wife they adhere to God nor yet to any other god as to another husband The fourth Chapter taketh the people up as they were in their present posture in the Prophets time and sheweth their wickedness and what Judgments the Lord had in store for them and according to this tenor he goeth on through the rest of his Book 5. The rest of the Book may be supposed coincident some of it with the times of Ahaz and some of it with the former times of Ezekiel even to the captiving of the ten Tribes as shall be observed when we come there The Prophesie of JOEL all IN these latter days of Jeroboam the second and much about the times of Amos his first prophecying among Israel did Joel also appear and begin to prophecy among Judah Some of the Hebrew Doctors have conceived him to have lived in the time of Elisha and that these threatnings of his of famine were accomplished in the seven years famine in that time 2 King 8. 1. others have supposed him to have lived and prophesied in the times of Manasseth King of Judah casting his time as much too forward as the other was too backward but his Subject matter will declare his time for seeing he speaketh of the same Plague of Locusts and of drought and fire that Amos doth it is an argument sufficient to conclude that Amos and he appeared about the same time He sadly bemoaneth and describeth in his two first Chapters the miserable famine and grievous condition that the people were brought into through the Plagues of Locusts and Drought and painteth out the Catterpillars and Cankerworms and Locusts which he calleth the Northern Army as if they were an Army of men indeed They came in at the North part of the Land from towards Syria and Hamath and kept as it were in a body and devoured all before them as they went along to the South part and there as they were facing about to go off below the point of the dead Sea the barrenness of that part affamished them who had affamished the whole Country The Prophet yet concludes afterwards with comfortable promises of Rain after the Drought and flourishing Trees and times after these Locusts And upon that discourse of the restitution of temporal blessings he riseth to speak of spiritual blessings in the days of Christ in the gift of Tongues and in the wonders that should attend Christs death and that should go before the destruction of Jerusalem and concludes in the third Chapter with threatnings against the enemies of Jerusalem and particularly foretelleth the destruction of the Army of Senacharib against which the Lord caused his mighty ones to come down vers 11. namely his Angels and destroyed them in the valley of Jehoshaphat before Jerusalem This Hosea also had particularly pointed at Hos. 1. 7. The Book of AMOS all THIS Prophesie is so clearly dated that there needeth not to use many words to shew in what time to lay it It was uttered in the days of Jeroboam and in the days of Uzziah that they lived together and of this Prophets prophesying in any Kings reign further there is no mention Almost at the end of his Book he telleth us that Jeroboam was then alive and Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would have stirred him up against Amos as against a Traytor Chap. 7. 10. c. so that this Book is to be taken in in the latter times of Jeroboam and the proper order of it falleth between the seven and twenty and eight and twenty verses of 2 King 14. And in the same place also come in the Books of Hosea and Joel And so we may observe the dealing of the Lord with Israel the plainer For whereas they had been brought very low by their enemies and their miseries were become exceeding great the Lord yet would not destroy them but would try them with one kindness more and so he gives them great ease and deliverance by Jeroboam But when both Jeroboam and they continued still in the Idolatry of the old Jeroboam and in the wickedness of their own ways the Lord sendeth these Prophets amongst them to foretel their final destruction and overthrow Amos neither a Prophet nor a Prophets son by education Chap. 7. 14. that is neither Tutor nor Scholler in the Schools of the Prophets but a Shepherd of Tekoa and of a rude breeding yet like the Galilean fishers becomes a glorious Scholler in the School of the Lord and a glorious Teacher in the Congregation of Israel He began to prophesie two years before the Earthquake and told of it before it came that the Lord would smite the Winter house with the Summer house Chap. 3. 15. and the Lintel of the door of the Idolatrous Temple should be smitten and the posts shake Chap. 9. 1. and so there should be a rent and breach in the Idoll Temple at Bethel when the Lord now came to visit them as there was at the Temple in Jerusalem at the death of Christ. It is very generally held by the Jews that this Earthquake was at that very time when Uzziah was struck Leprous but that that cannot be we shall observe when we come forward to the year of his death Amos prophesieth against six Nations besides Israel and Judah and concludeth them all under an irreversible decree of destruction for so should that clause be rendred which in every one of the threatnings breedeth so much difficulty of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not revoke it For the sense lieth thus The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem And thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke it That is I will not revoke that voyce but Damascus shall be destroyed and so of the rest For the masculine affixe in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot possibly be referred to any thing that went before but only to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His
from any other 1. Because just now was the middle time betwixt the revolt of the ten Tribes and the burning of the Temple which whole sum and space was three hundred ninety years so summed Ezek. 4. 5. and so shall the Reader see by them when we come there If any will strictly have these sixty five years reckoned from the time of Esays uttering the Prophesie in the time of Ahaz we shall lend them a conjecture hereafter AFter the death of Jeroboam World 3216 Uzziah 16 the Throne of Israel Division 187 Uzziah 17 Interregnum 1 was empty twenty two Division 188 Uzziah 18 Interregnum 2 years for Zachariah the son Division 189 Uzziah 19 Interregnum 3 and next successor of Jeroboam Division 190 Uzziah 20 Interregnum 4 beginneth not to reign till the Division 191 Uzziah 21 Interregnum 5 thirty eight year of Uzziah Division 192 Uzziah 22 Interregnum 6 2 King 15. 8. The reason of this Division 193 may be supposed to be partly World 3223 Uzziah 23 Interregnum 7 Interregnum 8 sedition and disturbance in the Division 194 State for when a King doth reign he is presently slain 2 King 15. 10. and partly the bitterness of the Plagues which had begun in Jeroboams time ESAY I. 2. The people of Jerusalem much more of Samaria were now become so abominable that they are as Sodome and Gomorrah vers 10. full laden with iniquity vers 4. nothing amended by the sad judgment past vers 5. and therefore now determinately given up vers 7. 24. And Heaven and Earth called to witness these things as they were called to witness when these things were foretold Deut. 32. so that this is a proper place to count the ruine of the ten Tribes when it was a time of fixing the ruine of Jerusalem 2 CHRON. XXVI VI. VII VIII World 3224 Uzziah 24 UZZIAH overcometh the Division 195 Uzziah 25 Philistims and dismantleth Division 196 Uzziah 26 their chief Garrisons of Interregnum 9 Interregnum 10 Division 197 Uzziah 27 Gath Jabueh and Ashdod Interregnum 11 Division 198 Uzziah 28 and buildeth Cities and Garrisons Interregnum 12 Division 199 Uzziah 29 of his own in the midst of Interregnum 13 Division 200 Uzziah 30 them He subdueth the Ammonites Interregnum 14 Division 201 Uzziah 31 and some Arabians and Interregnum 15 Division 202 Uzziah 32 here some part of the Prophesie Interregnum 16 Division 203 Uzziah 33 of Amos against the Philistims Interregnum 17 Division 204 Uzziah 34 and Ammon beginneth to Interregnum 18 Division 205 Uzziah 35 take place Amos 1. 8. 13. but Interregnum 19 Division 206 Uzziah 36 to be accomplished in a more Interregnum 20 Division 207 World 3237 Uzziah 37 compleat desolation by the Assyrians Interregnum 21 Division 208 and Babilonian afterward Interregnum 22 the waters of a great flood that swept down all before them as Esay 8. 8. World 3224 Uzziah 24 THE vacancy still continueth Division 195 Uzziah 25 in the Kingdom of Division 196 Uzziah 26 Uzziah 27 Israel Interregnum 9 Interregnum 10 Division 197 Division 198 Uzziah 28 Interregnum 11 ESAY II III IV. Division 199 Uzziah 29 Uzziah 30 Interregnum 12 Interregnum 13 Esay the Evangelist is a Prophet Division 200 Division 201 Uzziah 31 Interregnum 14 at Jerusalem He foretelleth Division 202 Uzziah 32 Interregnum 15 Interregnum 16 the beginning of the Gospel Division 203 Uzziah 33 Interregnum 17 in the last days of Jerusalem Division 204 Uzziah 34 Interregnum 18 and the conflux of people Division 205 Uzziah 35 Interregnum 19 to that light of the Lord Division 206 Uzziah 36 Interregnum 20 and to that Law that should Division 207 World 3237 Uzziah 37 come from Sion as a Law of Division 208 Interregnum 21 old had done from Sinai that Interregnum 22 there should be no longer that quarrelling that had been by all Nations against the Jews because of their Religion for now Religion should be imbraced by all Nations that mens reliance upon their own righteousness should be abolished and the doctrine of Repentance take place That Christ the Branch shall be glorious and the members of the new Jerusalem holy but the people of the times of his Prophesying so abominable that he prayeth against them Chap. 2. 9. as Elias had done against the ten Tribes 1 King 19. 14. and threatneth sore destruction and judgments both upon men and women Thus was it with the people in manners though it were so prosperous with Uzziah for Victories the Lord intended to try Judah with kindnesses still as he had done Israel in the days of Jeroboam the second He fore-saw the issue he would leave them without excuse and had something yet to do for the glorifying of his Name and his Ordinances before he would deliver his people into his enemies hand 2 CHRON. XXVI from vers 9. to vers 16. World 3238 Uzziah 38 UZZIAH keepeth up Division 209 Zechariah 1 an Army of 307500. Builds Towers and Forts and maketh warlike Engines and groweth exceeding strong and feared of the Kings round about him ESAY V. Shallum 1 World 3239 Uzz. 39 Shallum 40 ALthough the Prophet Esay Menahem 1 Division 210 Uzz. 41 prophesied almost thirty Menahem 2 Division 211 Uzz. 42 years in the time of Uzziah Menahem 3 Division 212 Uzz. 43 yet have we no more but the Menahem 4 Division 213 Uzz. 44 five first Chapters left of all his Menahem 5 Division 214 Uzz. 45 Prophesies in so long a space Menahem 6 Division 215 Uzz. 46 and of those we have not the Menahem 7 Division 216 Uzz. 47 certain years neither but must Menahem 8 Division 217 take them up at conjecture Menahem 9 Division 218 In this fifth Chapter he singeth a Song for Christ his beloved concerning his beloveds Vineyard as they used to â—â—ng at their Vintages but it is a dolefull ditty concerning the unfruitfulness and wilde Grapes World 3248 Uzz. 48 of the Vineyard of Israel after Menahem 10 Division 219 so much husbandry Some of those sour Grapes he reckons up under several woes after his Song From this place Christ useth the parable of the Vineyard and the Jews from hence do soon understand it Matth. 21. 34 45. 2 KING XV. ver 5. to ver 23. World 3238 Uzziah 38 ZECHARIAH the son Division 209 Zechariah 1 of Jeroboam reigneth six months and is slain and here endeth Jehues house and here Hosea's Prophesie taketh place Hosea 1. 4 5. Shallum 1 SHALLUM reigneth a moneth having slain Zechariah Uzz. 39 World 3239 Uzz. 40 MENAHEM slayeth him Menahem 1 Division 210 Uzz. 41 Menahem 2 and reigneth ten years he rippeth Division 211 Uzz. 42 Menahem 3 up the woman with child Division 212 Uzz. 43 Menahem 4 of Tiphsah Ammon like Amos Division 213 Uzz. 44 Menahem 5 1. 13. Menahem doth evil in Division 214 Uzz. 45 Menahem 6 the sight of the Lord following Division 215 Uzz. 46 Menahem 7 Jeroboams Idolatry He is Division 216 Uzz. 47 Menahem
if they scape that Army Why eat this year what groweth of it self and what may be found up and down on the Trees and the ground But what must they do the next year Which was a year of release and rest as every seventh year was and they might not till the ground Why Providebit Deus God will also then provide for them of what grows of it self again and then the third year sow and reap and return to your old peace and prosperity ESAY XXXVIII 2 KING XX. to ver 12. 2 CHRON. XXXII ver 24. HEZEKIAHS sickness of the Plague seemeth to have been in the very time while the Assyrian Army lay about Jerusalem for though the destruction of that Army by the Angel be related before the Story of his sickness yet that his sickness was while that Army was alive may be conjectured upon these two collections First It is past all doubt that his sickness was this very same year that the Assyrian Army was destroyed by the Angel for if he reigned nine and twenty years as 2 King 18. 2. and that stroke of the Angel upon that Army was in his fourteenth year as vers 13. of that Chapter and he lived fifteen years after his sickness as 2 King 20. 6. then it makes that matter past controverting Secondly The Lord in his sickness doth not only promise him recovery from his disease but also that he will deliver him and that City out of the hand of the King of Assyria which shews there was then danger to him and Jerusalem from that King And this may be conceived one cause that made Hezekiah to weep so bitterly when the message of death was denounced unto him because he was to leave Jerusalem and Judea under the pressure and danger of the Assyrian Tyrant and must not see the delivery of it Therefore though the whole story of Sennacherib be laid together as was fit yet can I not but in my thoughts insert this story of Hezekiahs sickness before the destruction of his Army as no doubt it came to pass before Sennacheribs death and yet is that storyed before it for the concluding of his History all at once To Hezekiah alone is it given to know the term of his life and the Sun in the Firmament knoweth not his going down that Hezekiah may know his 2 KING XX. from vers 12. to vers 20. ESAY XXXIX all 2 CHRON. XXXII vers 25 26. MErodach or Berodach-Baladan the King of Babel visiteth Hezekiah by his Embassadors to congratulate his recovery and to inquire after the miracle of the Sun turning back The Lord left Hezekiah to try what was in his heart and it shewed folly The Lord foretels by the Prophet the captivity into Babel which City and Kingdom is now small and under the power of the Assyrian before it rise to be the golden head For observe in 2 Chron. 33. 11. that Babel is in the hand of the King of Assyria The Captains of the host of the King of Assyria carried Manasseth unto Babel It might very well be that Eser-haddon who succeeded Sennacherib in the Assyrian Monarchy took offence at Merodach-Baladan for his intimacy and familiarity with Hezekiah and thereupon set upon Babel and took it out of his hands Babel had been tributary to the Crown of Assyria hitherto the Assyrian having built it for some of his servants that traded upon Euphrates in Ships and made it a fair City but now Eser-haddon subdued it and defaced it Esay 23. 13. 2 CHRON. XXXII from vers 27. to end 2 KINGS XX. vers 20 21. Division 267 Hezekiah 15 HEZEKIAH liveth these fifteen years in safety and prosperity Division 268 Hezekiah 16 having humbled himself before the Lord for his pride to the Embassadors Division 269 Hezekiah 17 of Babel The degrees of the Suns reversing and the fifteen Division 270 Hezekiah 18 years of Hezekiahs life prolonging may call to our minds the fifteen Division 271 Hezekiah 19 Psalms of degrees viz. from Psalm 120 and forward There were Hezekiahs Division 272 Hezekiah 20 songs that were sung to the stringed instruments in the House of Division 273 Hezekiah 21 the Lord Esay 38. 21. whether these were picked out by him for that Division 274 Hezekiah 22 purpose be it left to censure The Jews hold they were called Psalms Division 275 Hezekiah 23 of degrees because they were sung upon the fifteen stairs that rose into Division 276 Hezekiah 24 the Courts of the Temple Who so in reading those Psalms shall have Division 277 Hezekiah 25 his thoughts upon the danger of Jerusalem by Sennacherib and her delivery and the sickness of Hezekiah and his recovery shall find that they fit those occasions in many places very well But I assert nothing but leave it to examination Division 278 Hezekiah 26 1 CHRON. IV. from vers 34. to the end Division 279 Hezekiah 27 IN the time of Hezekiah some of the Simeonites subdue the Meunims Division 280 Hezekiah 28 and the Amalekites It is most likely it was not in the former fourteen years of Hezekiah when the Assyrian Army was all abroad and none durst peep out but in his last fifteen years when that Army was destroyed and gone World 3310 Division 281 Hezekiah 29 Hezekiah dieth ESAY XXIII ESAY XL XLI c. to the end of the Book THE prophesying of Esay is concluded by the Title of his Book in the times of Hezekiah though the Hebrews of old have held that he lived and died in the days of Manasseh and was sawn asunder by him The Epistle to the Hebrews may seem to speak to that Heb. 11. 37. therefore according to the Chronology of the title of the Book in the first verse of it these Chapters that are set after the Story of Hezekiahs fourteenth year or after the Story of the destruction of the Assyrians and Hezekiahs recovery are all to be allotted to the fifteen years of his prolonged life since there is no direction to lay all of them or any of them in any time else c. The three and twentieth Chapter also falleth under the same time even towards the latter end of Hezekiahs reign when the King of Assyria had now taken Babel This is apparent by ver 13. spoken of a little before for there the Lord threatneth Tyrus by the example of Babel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that City had been founded by the Assyrian * * * For Ships and for men of the Desert thereupon Babel is called The desert of the Sea Esay 21. 1. for his Ships and Ship-men to traffick upon Euphrates as Tyrus was built on the Sea for the like purpose but now the Assyrian had brought that to ruine and so should the case of Tyrus be by the Babilonians Nebuchad-nezzar destroyed Tyrus Ezek. 29. 18. Now the reason why this Chapter that fell so late in Hezekiahs time is yet laid in that place where it is is this because the Prophesies against those Countries
which was a comfortable word for Baruch in Egypt in the threatnings of Egypt the 46 Chapter which was also delivered in this fourth of Jehoiakim is laid next that all the threatnings against Egypt though at several times delivered yet might come together and that the accomplishment of this Prophesie delivered in Jehoiakims time and fulfilled upon Pharaoh Nechos Army might be a confirmation that Israel in Egypt must expect the like truth of the Prophesies against it delivered to them there of misery to come upon it by Nebuchadnezzar Of the same date with the 46 Chapter we may well suppose the 48 49 Chapters to be also because the second verse of Chapter 46. doth use a comprehensive expression The Word of the Lord against the Gentiles as concluding all these Sermons and Prophesies against these several Nations under one date and head only Chap. 47. and vers 34. of Chap. 49. are of several specified dates of which when we come to them JEREMY XXXVI from vers 9. to end World 3403 Divvision 374 Years of Captivity 2 Iehoiakim 5 IN the fifth year of Jehoiakim in the ninth month Jehoiakim cuts in pieces and burns Jeremies Prophesie a wickedness not to be paralleld Let the Reader weigh whether Baruchs reading the Book in the fourth year of Jehoiakim on the Fast day vers 6. and his reading it now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim at an extraordinary Fast in the ninth month be above the space of two months asunder It is very well worth the pondering I cannot but conclude affirmatively and I believe upon very good ground and this observed and concluded doth help to count the seventy years captivity the more exactly if it do not also teach us to begin the year from the time of the first captivity from its antient date in Tisri till Redemption altered the date and brought it to Abib which I believe Captivity hath now altered again The preceding Chapter and this and divers forward are Historical and therefore they are laid together after those that are more fully Prophetical we shall observe the like in the Book of Daniel ere it be long Divvision 375 Years of Captivity 3 Iehoiakim 6 There is no particular occurrence mentioned this sixth year of Jehoiakim 2 KING XXIV the latter end of vers 1. and vers 2 3 4. JEHOIAKIM rebelleth against the King of Babel for which he is miserably invaded and Judah spoiled and this misery continueth all his time DANIEL I. from vers 18. to end World 3405 Divvision 376 Years of Captivity 4 Iehoiakim 7 DANIEL and his three fellows are presented to the King and higly approved of JEREMY XXXV THE Story and matter of Jeremies setting wine before the Division 377 Years of Capt. 5 Iosiah 8 Rechabites c. is said to be in the days of Jehoiakim but in Division 378 Years of Capt. 6 Iosiah 9 what year is not mentioned only this may be collected out of the Division 379 Years of Capt. 7 Iosiah 10 Text that it was after Jehoiakims rebelling against Nebuchad-nezzar for they say in vers 1. that they fled to Jerusalem for fear of the Army of the Chaldeans and the Army of the Syrians which are the Army mentioned to have come against him upon his rebelling 2 King 24. 2. This Story therefore fell out in these latter years of Jehoiakim Now it is laid so far in the Book as after divers Prophesies dated by the times of Zedekiah partly because it is Historical and so is set after Prophetical things and partly because this Story of the Rechabites doth set off the impiety of the Jews mentioned in the preceding Chapter the more for there he sheweth how false the people were to their Covenant with God in recalling their freed servants and here how faithful the Rechabites were to an ingagement of their father 2 KING XXIV vers 5 6 7. 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 6 7 8. World 3409 Division 380 Years of Capt. 8 Iosiah 11 JEHOIAKIM captived slain and buried with the burial of an Ass. JER LII vers 28. NEBUCHAD-NEZZAR captiveth three thousand and twenty three Jews This is to be understood of the captivity of Jehoiakim it is called the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar because his siege against Jerusalem began in his seventh and he took the City in the beginning of his eight and partly to distinguish this from the captivity of Jehoiakin which was in his eight when he carried away many thousands 2 King 24. 12 14 16. 2 KING XXIV vers 8. 9. 2 CHRON. XXXVI vers 9. JEHOIACHIN the son of Jehoiakim reigneth three months He is called also Jeconiah and Coniah the name Jeho or Jahu a contraction of Jehovah being sometime set before his name and sometime after and the first syllable of his name sometime cut off and he called Coniah That his three months are to be taken in in Jehoiakims last year there is evidence sufficient in 2 King 25. 2 8. where the eleventh year of Zedekiah and the nineteenth of Nebuchad-nezzar are coincident or fall in together And in 2 Chron. 36. 10. where it is said that when the year was expired the King of Babel captived him thither There is one main doubt and scruple ariseth in comparing his Story in the Book of Kings and Chronicles together for the Book of Chronicles saith he was eight years old when he began to reign and the Book of Kings saith he was eighteen Now in expressions that are so different propriety is not to be expected in both but the one to be taken properly and that is that he was eighteen years old when he began to reign and the other that he was the Son of the eighth year or fell in the lot of the eighth year after any Captivity of Judah had begun for the beginning of his reign was in the eighth year of Nebuchad-nezzar 2 King 24. 12. and in the eighth year of the seventy of captivity And so the Holy Ghost dealeth here as he doth about Ahaziah 2 King 8. 26. and 2 Chron. 22. 2. compared together as was observed there JEREMY XXII from vers 24. to the end JEHOIACHIN or Jeconiah is no sooner upon the Throne but Jeremy denounceth his captivity and the failing of Solomons house in him And this doth but as it were take at that Prophesiy which he uttered before against Jehoiakim his father Chap. 36. 30. He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David When the ending of Solomons House is to be denounced he calleth the Earth Earth Earth to hear the word of the Lord that the earthly Kingdom was now to decay and therefore a Kingdom of another nature was to be looked after JEREMY XXIII all THIS King and Kingdom is described in this Chapter and when he had denounced the failing of Solomons house and the ruine of the earthly Kingdom of the house of David in the Chapter before he now telleth of the everlasting King and Kingdom of David vers 5. 6. and denounceth woe against those cursed
Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 39 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 40 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 41 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 42 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 43 Captivity 44 Nebuchad-nezzar restored to his wits and Kingdom again Captivity 45 2 KINGS XXV vers 27 28 29 30. JEREMY LII vers 31 32 33 34. World 3446 NEbuchad-nezzar dieth and Evil-merodach reigneth This is the thirty Captivity 46 seventh year of the Captivity of Jechoniah On the five and twentieth Captivity 47 day of the twelfth moneth Evil-merodach bringeth him out of Captivity 48 prison and on the seven and twentieth day he promoted him above all the Captivity 49 Kings of Babel and feedeth him all his life it may be Nebuchad-nezzars seven Captivity 50 years madness and misery had wrought some humility and gentleness upon Captivity 51 this his Son Jechoniah was now fifty five years old and had indured seven Captivity 52 and thirty years imprisonment and now the Lord releaseth him and he nameth Captivity 53 Salathiel as his next heir to Davids Throne and Principality for Jechoniah Captivity 54 had no heir of his own The time of the three Babylonian Kings that Captivity 55 took up the whole space of that Monarchy are easily to be collected by the Captivity 56 Scripture namely Nebuchad-nezzar to have reigned five and forty years current Captivity 57 Evil-merodach three and twenty current and Belshazzar three The Captivity 58 first is plain by this that the seven and thirtieth of Jechoniah is called Evilmerodachs Captivity 59 first The last will be made plain by and by and the apparency of Captivity 60 the second will result from both these Evil-merodach by the Septuagint in Captivity 61 Jer. 52. is called Ulamadachar but he is called far nearer to his own name by Captivity 62 them in 2 King 25. Josephus calleth him Abilamaridochus Antiq. lib. 10. cap. 12. Captivity 63 There is a general silence in Scripture of any thing done in his time besides Captivity 64 his inlarging of Jechoniah whereas there are very wondrous and remarkable Captivity 65 matters mentioned and recorded to have been done in Babylon in the time of Captivity 66 Nebuchad-nezzar his father and of Belshazzar his Son World 3468 Captivity 67 Belshazzar reigneth three years DANIEL VII IN this first of Belshazzar Daniel seeth the Vision of the four Kingdoms that troubled the World but especially the Church from the first rising of Nebuchad-nezzar till the coming of the everlasting Kingdom of Christ in the Gospel viz. Babylonian Mede-Persian Grecian and Syrogrecian All the time of the Kingdoms before the Babylonian is not medled withal because handled before along in the Bible and all the times of the Roman State after the coming of Christ is not medled withal neither but left to be treated of by a beloved Disciple as these are by a beloved Prophet viz. in the Revelation The dislocation of this Chapter will easily be spied by any eye that looketh but upon the two Chapters next before it for the fifth speaks of Belshazzars end of reign and this of his beginning and the sixth speaks of matters done in Darius his time which was after Belshazzars death and this of matters done in the first of Belshazzers reign but the reason of this dislocation is almost as conspicuous as the dislocation it self and that is because the Historical things of this Book are set by themselves first and the visionary or prophetical things afterward Captivity 68 Belshazzar 2 In this second of Belshazzar there is no particular occurrence mentioned DANIEL V. World 3470 Captivity 69 Belshazzar 3 BABYLONS Sins are now come to the full Belshazzar toppeth them up by abuse of the Vessels of the House of God at a drunken and Idolatrous Feast to the despite and scorn of him that owed them and to the grief of those that had concernment in them Hereupon that Divine hand that had written the two Tables for a Law to his people writeth the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall viz. the ruine of these his enemies This turneth the night of the Kings pleasure into fear unto him as Esay had Prophesied of him long ago Esay 21. 4. and Jeremy Jer. 50. 43. The Wise Men of Babylon are become fools and cannot read this writing though it were in their own Language Daniel readeth and interpreteth it and that both in an Hebrew and a Chaldee construction for the words were both Languages Mene Mene He hath numbred and finished Tekel in Chald. He hath weighed In Heb. Thou art too light Parsin in Heb. The Persians Paresin in Chald. Dividing and Daniel interprets it according to the extent of the words in both Tongues for both Hebrews and Chaldeans were concerned though differently in the issue of the matter Presently the enemy that lay about the Town began to storm and the Centinels and Watch-men in the Watch Towres give the Alarme Arise ye Princes and anoint the Shield see Esay 21. 5. And one Post runs to meet another to shew the King of Babylon that his City is taken at one end Jer. 51. 31. and that night is Belshazzar slain And Darius the Median took the Kingdom being sixty two years old and so it appears he was born in the year of Jehoiaâ—ims and Jehoiachins captivity and thus did the Lord provide that in that very year when the Babylonian was most busie to captive and destroy the captiver and destroyer of Babylon should be born The Reader will here observe in the Chronicle in the Margin that the third of Belshazzar proves but the sixty ninth year of the Captivity and not the seventy But if he do but withal observe that part of Jehoiakims third was properly the beginning of those seventy years he will also see that part of Belshazzars third was in the like reckoning some of the seventieth year and the rest of that year was taken up in Cyrus and Darius setling the Monarchy before the Decree for building Jerusalem come forth Cyrus the Persian was joyned with Darius the Median in the expedition against Babel and so in the rule of the Monarchy when they had obtained it and therefore the Prophet Esay describeth the enemies of Babel by a Chariot with a couple of Horse-men a Chariot of Asses and a Chariot of Camels Esay 21. 7. 9. and Daniel interprets the hand-writing on the wall that the Babylonian Monarchy should be divided betwixt the Median and the Persian But Darius only carrieth the name here because he was far the older man and because indeed he was Cyrus his Grand-father If we may conjecture any thing from the Heathen Writers They speak of Astyages the Median King who had one only Daughter called Mandane and she the Mother of Cyrus by Cambyses the King of Persia vid. Xenoph Herod Justin. Now this being the general consent of all the Writers of the best repute among the Heathen that there was no King of Media at that time but only Astyages Cyrus his Grand-father we may very well conclude that this
to trial as soon as they could and that his trial was reasonable early this year it appeareth by his own words in the second Epistle to Timothy where he speaketh of his Answer that he had been at and requireth Timothy to come to him before winter 2 Tim. 4. 16. 21. As he appealed to Nero himself so Nero himself heard his cause Phil. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 16. and here it was possible Paul and Seneca might see each other at which time all that had owned him before withdrew themselves for fear and durst not stand by him or appear with him in this danger Tacitus mentioneth a case much like his which had been tried two years before namely of Pomponia Graecina a noble Lady of Rome concerning a strange Religion Superstitionis externae rea mariti judicio permissa Isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque conjugis cognovit insontem nuntiavit This that he calleth externa superstitio cannot well be understood of any Religion but either Judaism or Christianity for any Heathen superstition did relish so well with them that it could hardly have brought her into danger If her peril of life then were because of Christianity as very well it might it was a terrible example that lay before the Christians there and if it were not then this trial of Paul being of a doubtful issue and consequent and full of danger it made poor Pauls friends to shrink aside in this his extremity and to be to seek when he had most need of them At my first answer saith he none stood with me but all forsook me In which words he doth not so much refer to what or how many more answers he was called to as the postscript of that Epistle seemeth to construe it as he doth intimate that even at the very first pinch and appearance of danger all that should have been his assistants started from him It may be Demas his imbracing of the present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. signifieth in this sense that he forsook Paul and shifted for himself and sculked to avoid the danger or if it be taken that he returned to his worldly impolyment again or that he returned to his Judaism again mean it what it will we shall see in the story of the next year that he returned to Paul and to his station again So that his failing was but as Peters denial of his Master repented of and recovered It was a hard case and a great trial with the Apostle when in so signal an incounter and so imminent danger of his life none of the Church that was at Rome not any of those that were of his own retinue durst own him or stand by him in his exigent but the Lord was with him and brought him off safe from the Lions mouth He being assured by this providence of God to him and for him in his great danger that he was reserved for the further benefit of the Church and propagating of the Gospel applieth himself to that work the best way he can considering his condition of imprisonment and whereas he cannot travel up and down to the Churches to preach to them as he had done he visiteth divers of them with his Epistles And first he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS and sendeth it by Crescens as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4. 10. For though Demas and Crescens and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse yet the reason of their departure cannot be judged to have been alike for however Demas started upon some caâ—nal respect yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek Syriack Arabick and divers other Translations doth generally date it from Rome Beza from Antioch Erasmus from Ephesus but all upon conjecture for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver 2. And all the brethren which are with me saith thus Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari inde scriptam hanc Epistolam c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch and that this Epistle was written from thence at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their return into Asia from their first journey forth and the coming of those troubles to Antioch Acts 14. 28. But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others was not then begun and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted And the former answer may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epidemically infest the Churches was but then beginning And this is one reason why I suppose it written from Rome at this time that we are upon because that gangrene in the Eastern Churches was now come to ripeness as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy which was written this same year See 2 Tim. 1. 15. False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel to their old Ceremonious performances again and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Justification which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and James and John the Ministers of the Circumcision and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars and he shews how those approved of him and it And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law at which was the great stumbling and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon their living in it The Lord had laid a stone in Sion which the Jews could not step over but stumble at even to this day and that is that which is said in Levit. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11. and in otherplaces which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle Chap. 3. 12. from whence they concluded that no living no justification but by the works of the Law The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case and resolves all into faith The first is in ver 17. namely that the Law was not given to cross the Covenant of Grace but to be subservient to it The second in ver 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it but it left a man under the curse Observe that he saith not As many as fail of the works of the Law but As many as are of the works of the Law shewing that the Lawdid not only denounce a curse upon all
as Egypts did through dreadful apparitions in the dark The drying up of Euphrates for the Kings of the East under the sixth Vial seems to speak much to the tenor of the sixth Trumpet the loosing of the four Angels which were bound at Euphrates Those we conceived the Turks to plague Christendom these we may conceive enemies to plague Antichrist The allusion in the former seems to be to the four Kings from beyond Euphrates that came to scourge Canaan Gen. 14. this to the draining of Euphrates for Cyrus and Darius to take Babylon For having to treat here of a Babylon as ver 19. the scene is best represented as being laid at the old Babylon Now the Historians that mention the taking of Babylon by Cyrus tell us it was by draining the great stream of Euphrates by cutting it into many little channels The Egyptian plague of Frogs is here translated into another tenour and that more dangerous three unclean Spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon Beast and false Prophet Spirits of Devils working miracles c. This is named betwixt the sixth and seventh Vial though the acting of the delusions by miracles were all the time of the Beast and false Prophet because of the judgment now coming for though all deluders and deluded received their judgments in their several ages yet being here speaking of the last judgments of Antichrist they are all summed together He is here called the false Prophet as being the great deluder of all The fruit of all these delusions is to set men to fight against God whose end is set forth by allusion to the Army of Jabin King of Canaan Judg. 5. 19. broken at the waters of Megiddo The word Armageddon signifies a mountain of men cut in pieces Here that solemn caution is inserted Behold I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments The Priest that walked the round of the Temple guards by night had torches born before him and if he found any asleep upon the guard he burnt his clothes with the torches Middoth per. 1. halac 2. The seventh Vial concludes the Beasts destruction The great City is said to be divided into three parts either as Jerusalem was Ezek. 5. 11 12. a third part to pestilence a third part to the sword and a third part to dispersion and destruction in it or because there is mention of an Earthquake this speaks its ruining in general as Zech. 14. 4 5. A tenth part of it fell before Chap. 11. 13. and now the nine parts remaining fall in a tripartite ruine REVEL CHAP. XVII MYSTICAL Babylon pictured with the colours of the old Babylon Rome so called as being the mother of Idolatry as Babel was the beginning of Heathenism and the mother of persecution Babylon destroyed Jerusalem so did Rome and made havock of the Church continually She is resembled to a woman deckt with gold c. as Isa. 14. 4. sitting upon a seven-headed and ten-horned Beast as Chap. 13. 1. Which Beast was and is not and yet is it shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and shall go to perdition Rome under the Papacy was not the same Rome it had been and yet it was Not Rome Heathen and Imperial as it had been before and yet for all evil Idolatry persecution c. the same Rome to all purposes It is plainly described as sitting upon seven hills upon which there is hardly a Roman Poet or Historian but makes a clear comment The seven heads denoted also seven Kings or kinds of Government that had passed in that City Five are fallen vers 10. Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Triumvirs and one then was when John wrote namely Emperors And one not yet come Christian Emperors which continued but a short space before the Beast came which was and is not He is the eight and he of the seven They that hold Rome to be the fourth Monarchy in Daniel cannot but also hold from this place that that Monarchy is not yet extinct The ten horns upon the Beast in Dan. 7. 24. are ten Kings arising and succeeding one another in the same Kingdom but here at ver 12. they are ten several Kingdoms all subject to the Beasts both Imperial and Papal but at last shall rise up against the mystical Whore and destroy her It is like there must yet be conversion of some Kingdoms from the Papacy before it fall REVEL CHAP. XVIII XIX to Vers. 11. AN Elegy and a Triumph upon the fall of Babylon The former Chap. 18. almost verbatim from Isa. 13. 14. 21. 34. Jer. 51. Ezek. 27. The later also Chap. 19. the phrase taken from the Old Testament almost every word The triumphant Song begins with Halleluja several times over The word is first used at the later end of Psal. 104. where destruction of the wicked being first prayed for Let the sinners be consumed out of the Earth and let the wicked be no more he concludes with Bless thou the Lord O my soul. Hallelujah The observation of the peoples saying over the great Hallel at the Temple or their great Song of praise doth illustrate this The Hallel consisted of several Psalms viz. from the one hundred and thirteenth to the end of the one hundred and eighteenth and at very many passages in that Song as the Priests said the verses of the Psalms all the people still answered Hallelujah Only here is one thing of some difference from their course there for here is Amen Hallelujah ver 4. whereas It is a tradition That they answered not Amen in the Temple at all What said they then Blessed be the Name of the glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever Jerus in Beracoth fol. 13. col 3. But the promises of God which are Yea and Amen being now performed this is justly inserted as Christ for the same cause in this Book is called Amen Chap. 3. 14. The marriage of the Lamb is now come and his Wife is ready ver 7. the Church now compleated REVEL CHAP. XIX from Ver. 11. to the end of the Chapter HERE begins a new Vision as it appeareth by the first words And I saw Heaven opened and here John begins upon his whole subject again to sum up in brief what he had been upon before Observe what is said in vers 19. I saw the Beast and the Kings of the Earth and their Armies gathered together to make war against him that sate on the Horse and against his Army and observe withal that there is the story of the destruction of the Beast before Chap. 18. and of the marriage and marriage Supper of the Lamb before Chap. 19. 7 8 9. therefore the things mentioned here cannot be thought to occur after those this therefore is a brief rehearsal of what he had spoken from the twelfth Chapter hither about the battel of Michael and his Angels with the Dragon and his Angels REVEL CHAP. XX. THE preceding Section spake what
vengeance that had been so abundantly given but may the better judge wherein that vengeance did chiefly consist CHRIST LXVII NERO. XIII IN this thirteenth Year of Nero therefore Vespasian cometh General into Judea to undertake that War A second Nebuchadnezzar an instrument of the Lord raised up to execute his vengeance upon that Nation now the Nation of his curse and to destroy their City and Temple as the other had done And as several strange occurrences befel that destroyer recorded in the Book of Daniel so did divers strange things also befal this recorded by the Roman Historians with one consent As Nilus flowing a handful higher on that day that he came into Alexandria then ever it did in one day before A Vision that he had in the Temple of Serapis of his servant Basilides who was known to be at that instant fourscore miles off sick And especially his healing of a blind mans eyes by anointing them with his spittle and curing a lame mans hand by treading upon it with his foot To which may be added those that were accounted the presages of his reigning as a cypress tree in his ground clean rooted up by the winds over night grew strait up again and well in the morning An Ox came and laid him down at his feet and laid his neck under his feet at one time as he sat at meat and a dog came and brought him a dead mans hand at another Now not to dispute whether all these things were true or no nor by what power they were wrought certainly they set the man in the eyes of men as a man of rarity and as he was designed by God for a singular work so did these things make him to be a man looked upon as one of some singular omen and fortune His work in the Jewish Wars this year was more especially in Galilee where first coming to Ptolemais the men of Sipphoris the greatest City there come peaceably and yielding to him and they had done so indeed before to Cestius Gallus Josephus who afterward wrote the History of these Wars was now a great party in them having fortified many Cities and places in Galilee and being the chiefest that in those parts stood against the Romans First he finds them work at Jotepata which indures a very sharp siege and puts the Romans to very sharp service before it be taken At last after about fifty days siege Vespasian enters it July 1. There Josephus himself is taken and foretels Vespasian that he should be Emperour Joppa taken presently after and Tiberias yielded and Taricheae taken and 6500 slain there Gamala gained Octob. 23. and divers other places brought in this year either by storm or surrender which Josephus recordeth the story of de Bello lib. 3. through the whole Book and lib. 4. to the end of the ninth Chapter which he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus was all Galilee subdued CHRIST LXVIII NERO. XIV VESPASIAN therefore having subjected and setled Galilee he falls this year to work in Judea and indeed there the Jews fall to bitter work among themselves For all the unquiet spirits whom the War had prosecuted and hunted from other parts or whose turbulency desired to be in action were flocked hither so that Jerusalem and Judea were filled full of men and trouble and quickly full of famine blood and all manner of misery The doleful story Josephus gives at large as also what the Romans did among them this year de Bello lib. 4. whither the reader may have recourse This year Nero died by his own hand to escape publick and more shameful execution In him ended 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 month 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 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 this first conspiring against him But the present quarrel shook a good part of the Empire with sidings and preparations and came to a pitcht battel 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 days VESPASIAN 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 Jupiters 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 wild beasts whom when they rent not in pieces it heightned 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 Wars of the Jews as we have touched instantly before And there the Armies in Egypt Judea and Syria swear fealty to him in the month of July 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
was both the expectation of the Jews and the fear of Herod that he would come with a conquering and victorious temporal Sword and restore them to a pompous Earthly State and expel him out of his Kingdom Now for the Evangelist to have directed in this quotation to look for Christ among the thousands of Juda had backed these Opinions for the term soundeth of War and it had been a direction where likelier to find an earthly Warrier then the Prince of Peace among the thousands or among the Militia And therefore he qualifieth the term to the best satisfaction of Herod and the People Among the Princes There is that saith it might be construed In Princes and not among them and the meaning to be this Thou Bethlehem art not the least in the Princes of Juda that is in breeding or bringing them forth but this relisheth more of wit then solidity and agreeth better with the Latin then with the Greek Original §. For out of thee shall come a Governor The Chaldee readeth it in the Prophet Out of thee shall come Messias and so is it expounded by Rabbi Solomon and David Kimchi And therefore that is most true which is inferred by Lyranus that those Catholicks that interpret it of Ezekiah do more judaize then the Jews themselves Some Jews indeed saith Theophylact do apply this to Zorobabel but as he answereth it is like that Zorobabel was born in Babel and not in Bethlehem And St. Matthew hath plainly taught both Jews and Gentiles to understand it in another sense But here again doth he differ from the Letter of the Prophet but cometh so near the sense that the difference is as no difference at all Vers. 7. Herod privily called the Wisemen Privily For had the Jews heard of his pretences they had so long been acquainted with his policy tyranny and ambition they could readily have descried his mischievousness and spoiled his bloody contrival by better information given to the wisemen §. Enquired diligently of them the time when the Star appeared Had they taken their journy instantly upon the Stars appearing Herod could easily have computed the time by the length of their journy but by this his enquiry it is apparent that they had told him of its appearance at some good space before which in ver 16. is plainly resolved to be two years by the Wisemens own acknowledgment and resolution Vers. 11. Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe The mysterious application of these presents as Myrrham homini uncto aurum c. be left to them that delight and content themselves in such things the plain and easie interpretation of the matter is that they tendred to Christ the chiefest and choicest commodities that their Country could afford which they carried in their treasures as the Text calleth it that is in and among those commodities that the men of those Nations used to carry with them when they travailed especially when they meant to present any one to whom they went as Gen. 24. 53. 1 King 10. 2. Vers. 15. Out of Egypt have I called my Son The two allegations produced here out of the Old Testament this and that out of Jeremy in Rama was a voice heard are of that fulness that they speak of two things a piece and may very fitly be applied unto them both and shew that the one did resemble or prefigure the other as this Text of Hosea aimeth both at the bringing of the Church of Israel in old time and of the head of that Church at this time out of Egypt Then a Joseph nourished his father now a Joseph doth so to his redeemer then was Egypt deadly to every male child that was born now is it a place of refuge and preservation to this child Ver. 18. In Ramah was there a voice heard c. Ramah stood not far from Bethlehem though they were in two Tribes and the cry that the poor Parents and children made in Bethlehem when this matchless butchery was in hand reach't to Ramah and was plainly heard thither Now observe the fulness of this Scripture as it is uttered by the Prophet and as it is applied by the Evangelist It was fulfilled in one kind in the time of Jeremy himself and then was the lamentation and weeping in Ramah it self for hither did Nebuzaradan bring his Prisoners after he had destroyed Jerusalem and there did he dispose of them to the Sword or to Captivity as seemed good unto himself Jer. 40. 1. And imagine what lamentation and crying was then in that City when so many were doomed there either to be slain in that place or to go to Babel never to see their own Land again Then was the cry in Ramah and it was heard no doubt to Bethlehem But now the Prophesie is fulfilled in another kind when Herod destroyeth so many Children in Bethlehem and in the Suburbs and Borders belonging to it And now the cry is in Bethlehem and it is heard to Ramah §. Rachel weeping for her children c. Rachels grave was betwixt Bethlehem and Ramah or at least not far distant from either of them Gen. 35. 16 20. 1 Sam. 10. 2. The Holy Ghost therefore doth elegantly set forth this lamentation by personating Rachel who died in the birth of her Ben-Oni the Son of her sorrow sorrowing for her Sons and Children that were thus massacred And this sheweth that the Text in the Prophet aimeth in the first place and intention at the matter of Nebuzaradan for in Bethlehem Rachel properly had no children at all that City being inhabited by the children of Judah which descended of Leah but in Ramah dwelt Rachels children that being a Town of Ephramites descended from Joseph Howsoever Rachel may be said to weep for the Babes of Bethlehem as her own children though they were not strictly and properly her seed in regard of the interest that she had in all the tribes of Israel as being wife unto their Father as Joseph is often called the Father of Christ being only husband to his mother And see such another phrase Gen. 37. 10. Shall I and thy mother come to bow down before thee Whereas Josephs mother was dead already Vers. 19. But when Herod was dead c. The end of Herod was not long after the massacre of these infants and his bloodiness which he had used all his life long and topped up in the murder of these innocents and in desire to have done as much to the Lord of life the Lord doth now bring upon his own head This matter with the children of Bethlehem we conceive to have been some three months more or less before his end in which space this was his behaviour as may be collected out of Josephus He had slain long before this his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus and now was he about to do as much by his Son Antipater a child too like the Father and one whom he left by will the Successor in his Kingdom Him suspected by him for
They had both the same end repentance For though our Christian baptism is called the Baptism for remission of sins Act. 2. 38. c. and a great deal of preeminence of this above that of John picked as is thought out of that title yet is it no more then what is said of the baptism of John Mark 1. 4. Fourthly Whereas it is commonly said that one end of our Saviours being baptized was that he might sanctifie our baptism how can this be supposed if he received not our baptism but one different from it Fifthly The Disciples were baptized with no baptism but that of John for Christ baptized them not and who other should do it cannot be imagined and therefore if this of ours be more excellent then Johns we have a better baptism then the Apostles that first administred it Sixthly and lastly Howsoever the Schools without any stumbling do hold rebaptization of those that had received the baptism of John this crosseth their own tenet that his was a degree above the washings under the Law for their imperfection was shewed by their reiteration and in this they make his to differ nothing at all And whereas it is said Act. 19. 5. that some that were baptized with the baptism of John upon Pauls instruction of them were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus it was rather their renewing to their baptism then their baptism to them and not that they took any other then that of John but that they now began to entertain and apply it to the right intent As it may be exemplified in circumcision in any heathen son of Abraham as in Jethro for an instance He was circumcised while he was an unbeliever because he was a Midianite a child of Abraham now when he came to be a convert and imbraced the true Religion he was not to be circumcised again for that was not possible but he then began to know and apply the right use and meaning of his circumcision and so was renewed to it and not it to him Or those words When they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus may be understood to be the words of Paul and not of Luke as see Beza in loc This phraze of baptizing with the Holy Ghost sheweth first the restoring of the Holy Ghost which long ago was departed from Israel and gone up Secondly The abundance and plenteousness of that gift when it should be exhibited that it should be as water poured upon them as the word is used Joel 2. 28. Thirdly It sheweth whither all the washings and purifyings of the Law aimed and had respect namely to the washing and purging of men by the Holy Ghost §. You. That is some of you as 1 Sam. 8. 11. He will take your sons that is some of them or You that is the people as Deut. 18. 15. The Lord shall raise to thee a Prophet that is to thy people and unto him you shall hearken that is the Nation of your posterity §. And with fire From Isa. 4. 4. The Lord shall wash the filthiness of the Daughter of Zion and purge the blood of Jerusalem out of the middest thereof by the spirit of Judgment and by the spirit of burning It is easily to be resolved what John meaneth here by fire seeing our Saviour himself hath applied the other part of his speech to the coming down of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost day when we know he appeared in the visible shape of Tongues of fire Act. 2. Now Christs baptizing in this manner with fire was 1. That the giving of the Holy Ghost might fully answer the giving of the Law both for time and manner for both were given at Pentecost and both in fire 2. To express the various operations of the Holy Ghost which are fitly resembled and represented by the effects of fire As 1. To inlighten with knowledge 2. To inflame with zeal 3. To burn up corruption 4. To purifie the nature 5. To turn the man to its own qualification of sanctity as fire maketh all things that it seiseth like it self 3. To strike terror in the hearts of men lest they should despise the Gospel and to win reverence to the Holy Ghost for fear of the fire 4. Hereby was clearly and fully shewed the life and significancy of the sacrifices under the Law upon whom there came a fire from Heaven intimating that they are lively sacrifices and accepted who are inflamed by the Holy Ghost from above And thus the two elements that have and shall destroy the world water and fire hath God been pleased to use for the benefit and salvation of his chosen Vers. 17. Whose fan is in his hand By the fan in the hand of Christ the most Expositors understand the power of judgement that God the Father hath committed to him For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son Joh. 5. 22. And thus some take it for an argument against security to all and others against Apostasie to those that have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and that as the Baptist in the former words hath told what Christ would do at his first coming and appearance so in these what he will do at his second but I rather adhere to the interpretation of them that by the Fan of Christ understand the Gospel and his preaching and publication of the same and that upon these reasons First Because unless it be thus taken we have not here any testimony at all given by the Baptist to the people concerning that part of the Office of Christ. Now that being a matter of so great importance as that the Prophets do more insist upon the preaching of Christ and his power in the Gospel then upon any other thing that concerned him in the work of Redemption and this being in several respects more regardable then his baptizing with the Holy Ghost it cannot be imagined that John should omit to bear witness of him for such a thing nay it had been to neglect to bear witness of him for the chief thing of all Secondly Because the Gospel or the Word of God is the proper touchstone that trieth and differenceth betwixt gold and dross truth and falshood pure and vile and this is the instrument wherewith he confoundeth every strong hold that exalteth it self against himself Isa. 11. 4. 2 Thes. 2. 8. Revel 1. 16. 2. 16. And Thirdly Because John speaketh of Christ as he should presently shew himself among them as it is apparent in the verse preceding and not as he should shew himself at the end of the world §. His floor If these words and those that follow be applied to the whole Church in all places and at all times in general the application may be very profitable and pertinent as giving warning to all men to bring forth the fruits of repentance for fear of the judgement to come and so the end of this verse may be of the same use
9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
sewed together were just so broad and so they covered only the top and sides but hung not down at the end which was Eastward but the most holy was but five yards long and the five Curtains over that did not only cover the top but also hung down at the West end to the silver bases Secondly the looping together of the Curtains five and five on a piece with a golden tye doth sweetly resemble the uniting of the two natures in Christ divinity and humanity into one person which two natures were not confounded as Curtains sewed together but were sweetly knit together by golden and ineffable union Thirdly this might also fully signify the two Churches of Jews and Gentiles knit together by Christ that so they make but one spiritual Tabernacle Now come and measure the Curtains again imagining them thrown length way over the Tabernacle they were fourteen yards long and twenty yards broad when they were all sewed and looped together This breadth covered the length of the building which was fiftéen yards and it hung down behind the West end even to the foundation The East end was still left open Of the length of them five yards were taken up in covering the flat top of the house which was five yards broad between wall and wall A quarter of a yard was taken up on either side with covering the thickness of the planks so that on either side they hung down four yards and one quarter which was three quarters of a yard short of the silver foundation or little less SECTION XXXVI Of the Goat-hair Curtains TO help this defect as also to shelter the rich Curtains from weather were made Curtains of Goates hair eleven in number in breadth each one two yards as was the breadth of other but being one Curtain more than the other they were two yards broader than the other when they were all coupled together Each Curtain was thirty cubits or fifteen yards long and consequently a yard longer than those spoken of before These were sewed six together on one piece and five on another These two main pieces were linked together with fifty claspes of brass as the other were with fifty of gold But when these curtains were laid upon the other over the Tabernacle they were not so laid as these brazen loops did light just upon the golden ones over the vail but three quarters of a yard more Westward so that the five curtains that went West did reach to the ground and half a Curtain to spare Exod. 26. 12. The other six that lay East reacht to the end covered the pillars whereon that vail hung and they hung half a curtain breadth or a yard over the entrance Their length of fifteen yards reacht half a yard lower on either side than the other Curtains did and yet they came not to the ground by a quarter of a yard so that the silver foundations were always plain to be seen every where but at the West end Thus had the Tabernacle two coverings of Curtains yet both these on the flat roof would not hold out rains and weather wherefore there was made for the top a covering of Rams skins dyed red signifying well the blood of Christ the shelter of the Church Above that was also another covering of Tahash skins a beast not perfectly known what he was but well Englished a Badger and guessed well because of his during hide Thus if you view this building erected and thus covered you see the silver foundation always open to view Half a yard above that hid only under one curtain all the side above that under two and the top with four SECTION XXXVII Of the most holy place THE Priests entred into the Tabernacle at the East end of it and so must we where pace up ten yards forward and you come to the vail which parted between the Holy place and the most Holy of all The Holiest place of all was filled and furnished before the vail was hung up and so it shall be first handled This place was five yards long five yards high and five yards broad a perfect square the figure of firmness herein fitly signifying Heaven In this place at the West end stood the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the world John 3. 11. typifying Christ by whom God is come into Covenant with Gentiles as well as Jews The Ark was made like a Chest hollow that it might receive things within it It was a yard and a quarter long and three quarters broad and three quarters high made of Shittim boards and it was gilded both within and without representing Christs purity both in inward thoughts and outward actions It had no feet but the bottom stood upon the ground a figure of Christs abasing himself upon the earth On the outside of the upermost brink was made a Golden Crown round about representing say the Jews the Crown of the Law but most fitly Christ Crowned with glory At each corner was struck in a staple or ring of Gold wherein were put two staves of Shittim wood gilded over to bear the Ark withall which staves were never to be taken out but there to stay continually teaching the Priests as some say to be ready prest for their service but rather shadowing out Christs Deity supporting his humanity never to be parted from it Now for the cover of this Chest or Ark it was made of pure Gold beaten or formed to the just length and breadth of the Ark that when it was laid on it touched the Golden Crown round about At either end was made a Cherub or the form of an Angel like a child standing bowed with wings reaching over the Ark so that the wings of one Cherub touched the wings of another They were of Gold beaten out of the same piece that the cover of the Ark was of Their faces were one to another and both toward the cover of the Ark. This cover both by the Old and New Testament is called the Propitiatory vulgarly in our English the Mercy-seat So called because from hence God mercifully spake to his People View this part well and you see Christ fully First the two Cherubims bowed toward the Mercy-seat So all Angels to Christ. Secondly They looked each at other but both toward the Mercy-seat So both Testaments Old and New look each at other and both at Christ. So do the two Churches of Jews and Gentiles Thirdly This covered the Law so doth Christ that it plead not against his people to condemn them Fourthly God speaks to Israel from hence so God by Christ to us Heb. 1. 2. SECTION XXXVIII Of the holy place without the vail THUS was the Sanctum Sanctorum or the most holy of all for fabrick and furniture To separate this from the holy place was hung up a vail of the same stuff and work that the rich curtains of the Tabernacle were The hanging up of this vail was thus Just under the golden claspes that linked the curtains
the New Testament beside and by how the more frequently in this Story It is used in reference to the twelve Apostles alone Chap. 1. 15. it is used here in reference to the whole hundred and twenty and to the whole number of believers Chap. 2. 46. Now the reason why the Evangelist doth so often harp upon this string and circumstance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of their conversing together with one accord may be either in respect of the twelve and one hundred and twenty or in respect of all the believers First The Apostles had been exceedingly subject in the lifetime of Christ to quarelsomness and contention about priority and who should be the chiefest as Mark 9. 34. Mark 20. 24. Yea even at the very Table of the Lords last Passover and Supper Luke 22. 24. And therefore it hath its singular weight and significancy and sheweth a peculiar fruit of Christs breathing the Holy Ghost upon them Joh. 20. 22. when it is related that they now so sweetly and unanimously converse together without emulation discord or comparisons Secondly The 108 Disciples were in a subordinate or lower form in regard of some particulars to the twelve Apostles and yet was there no heart-burning scorning or envying no disdaining defying or controlling of any one towards another but all their demeanor carried in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of Peace Thirdly If those two places in Chap. 2. 46. 5. 12. be to be applied to the whole multitude of believers of the latter there may be some scruple the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there doth singularly set out the sweet union that the Gospel had made among them though they were of several Countries several conditions and several Sects yet in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in singleness of heart as they did convenire in the tertio of the Gospel so did they convenire affectionately inter se. And this began to be the accomplishment of those prophesies that had foretold the peacemaking of the Gospel as Esa. 11. 6. 60. 18. 65. 25. 66. 42. Zeph. 3. 9. c. and it was an eminent fruit of Christs doctrine Joh. 15. 12. of his prayer Joh. 12. 17. and of his legacy Joh. 14. 27. Vers. 2. Cloven Tongues like as of fire Vers. 3. They began to speak with other Tongues §. Of the gift of Tongues The confusion of Tongues was the casting off of the Heathen Gen. 11. For when they had lost that language in which alone God was spoken of and preached they lost the knowledge of God and Religion utterly and fell to worship the Creature in stead of the Creator Rom. 1. Two thousand two hundred and three years had now passed since that sad and fatal curse upon the world the confusion of Languages and millions of souls had it plunged in Error Idolatry and Confusion And now the Lord in the fulness of time is providing by the gifts of Tongues at Sion to repair the knowledge of himself among those Nations that had lost that Jewel by the confusion of Tongues at Babel The manner of exhibiting this gift was in Tongues of fire that the giving of the Holy Ghost at the initiating of the Christian Church might answer and parallel the giving of the Law at the initiating of the Jewish and so it did both in time and manner that being given at Pentecost and in appearing of fire and so likewise this as was said before Vers. 5. And there were dwelling at Ierusalem Iews c. It was indeed the Feast of Pentecost at this time at Jerusalem but it was not the Feast of Pentecost that drew those Jews from all Nations thither First It was not required by the Law that these Jews that dwelt dispersed in other Nations should appear at Jerusalem at these Feasts Secondly It was not possible they should so do for then must they have done nothing else but go up thither and get home again Thirdly These Jews are said to dwell at Jerusalem and they had taken up their residence and habitation there but those that came up to the Festivals stayed there but a few days and so departed to their own homes The occasion therefore of these mens flocking so unanimously from all the Nations of the world was not the Feast of Pentecost but the general knowledge and expectation of the whole Nation of the Jews that this was the time of Messias his appearing and coming among them This they had learned so fully from the Scriptures of the Old Testament especially from Dan. 9. that both the Gospel and their own writers witness that this was the expectation of the whole Nation that the Messias was now ready to appear In the Scripture these passages assert this matter Luke 2. 26. 38. 3. 15. 19. 11. and Joh. 1. 20 21. In the Hebrews own writings we may find divers that speak to the same matter as that The Son of David shall come about the time when the Romans have reigned over Israel nine months from Mic. 5. 3. that his appearing shall be under the second Temple that it shall be not very long before Jerusalem should be destroyed and many such passages fixing the time of the Messias his coming to the very time that Jesus of Nazaret did appear and approve himself to be the Christ as may be seen in Sanhedrin cap. Helek Galat. lib. 4. Jeronym a Sancta Fide Mornaeus de Veritat Christ. rel And this so clearly and undeniably that when the wretched and blasphemous Jews cannot tell what to say to their own Doctors that assert the time so punctually agreeable to the time of Christs appearing they have found out this damnable and cursed way to suppress that truth as to curse all those that shall be industrious to compute these times for they have this common execration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let their spirit burst or expire that compute the times And to these assertions of the Jews own Authors concerning this opinion of their Nation we may add also the testimony of Suetonius affirming the very same thing Percrebuerat Oriente toto saith he vetus constans opinio esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judea profecti rerum potirentur In Vespas And so likewise Tacitus Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri eo ipso tempore fore ut valesceret Oriens profectique Judea rerum potirentur Histor. lib. 5. That is An old and constant opinion had grown through the whole East that it was foretold that at that time some coming out of Judea should obtain the rule of things And many were perswaded that it was contained in the old records of the Priests that at that very time the East should prevail and some coming out of Judea should obtain the rule which though the blind Authors apply to Uespasian and Titus their obtaining of the Empire yet there can be no Christian eye but will observe that this opinion that was so prevalent
strange Languages when they did speak them but conceived they had babbled some foolish gibberish and canting they themselves could make nothing of as drunken men are used to do And this caused their so wretched a construction of so Divine a Gift For the Jews of the strange Nations and Languages that perceived and understood that the Disciples did speak in their Languages were amazed and said one to another What meaneth this Vers. 12. But these other Jews Natives of Jerusalem and Judea that understood only their own Syriack and did not understand that they spake strange Languages indeed these mocked and said These men are full of new or sweet wine grounding their accusation the rather because that Pentecost was a feasting and rejoycing time Deut. 16. 11. And according to this conception it is observable that Peter begins his speech Ye men of Judea Vers. 14. But Peter standing up with the eleven said c. Reason it self if the Text did not would readily resolve that it was not Peter alone that converted the 3000 that are mentioned after but that the rest of the Apostles were sharers with him in that work For if Peter must be held the only Orator at this time then must it needs be granted that either the 3000 which were converted were all of one Language or that the one Language that he spake seemed to the hearers to be divers Tongues or that he rehearsed the same speech over and over again in divers Languages any of which to grant is sensless and ridiculous and yet unless we will run upon some of these absurdites we may not deny that the rest of the twelve preached now as well as Peter But the Text besides this gives us these arguments to conclude the matter to be undoubted First It saith Peter stood forth with the eleven vers 14. Now why should the eleven be mentioned standing forth as well as Peter if they spake not as well as he They might as well have sitten still and Peters excuse of them would as well have served the turn It was not Peter alone that stood forth to excuse the eleven but Peter and the eleven that stood forth to excuse the rest of the hundred and twenty Secondly It is said They were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles What shall we do Why should they question and ask counsel of the rest of the Apostles as well as Peter if they had not preached as well as he Thirdly And it is a confirmation that so they did in that it is said Vers. 42. They continued in the Doctrine of the Apostles of the rest as well as Peter Fourthly If that were the occasion that we mentioned why they suspected the Apostles and the rest drunk then will it follow that Peter preached and spake in the Syriack Tongue chiefly to those Jews of Judea and Jerusalem that would not believe because they could not understand that the Disciples spake strange Languages but thought they canted some drunken gibberish And to give some probability of this not only his preface Ye men of Judea but also his laying flatly the murder of Christ to their charge Vers. 22. 23. do help to confirm it and the conclusion of his Sermon and of the story in the Evangelist doth set it home that if Peter preached not only to these Natives of Judea yet that he only preached not at this time but that the others did the like with him in that it is said They that gladly received his words were baptized and then as speaking of another story he saith there were added about the same day 3000 souls Now the reason why Peters Sermon is only recorded and the story more singularly fixed on him we observed before §. Brief observations upon some passages in Peters Sermon Vers. 15. It is but the third hour of the day And on these solemn Festival days they used not to eat or drink any thing till high noon as Baronius would observe out of Josephus and Acts 10. Vers. 17. In the last days The days of the Gospel because there is no way of salvation to be expected beyond the Gospel whereas there was the Gospel beyond the law and the law beyond the light of the ages before it Yet is this most properly to be understood of those days of the Gospel that were before Jerusalem was destroyed And the phrase the last days used here and in divers other places is not to be taken for the last days of the world but for the last days of Jerusalem the destruction of which and the rejection of the Jews is reputed the end of that old world and the coming in of the Gentiles under the Gospel is as a new world and is accordingly called a new Heaven and a new Earth Upon all flesh Upon the Heathens and Gentiles as well as upon the Jews Act. 10. 45. contrary to the axiome of the Jewish Schools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine Majesty dwelleth not on any out of the Land of Israel Vers. 20. Before the great and notable day of the Lord come The day of Jerusalems destruction which was forty years after this as was observed before so that all these gifts and all the effusion of the Spirit that were to be henceforward were to be within the time betwixt this Pentecost and Jerusalem destroyed And they that from hence would presage prophetick and miraculous gifts and visions and revelations to be towards the end of the world might do better to weigh what the expression The great and terrible day of the Lord meaneth here and elsewhere in the Prophets The blood of the Son of God the fire of the Holy Ghosts appearance the vapour of the smoke in which Christ ascended the Sun darkned and the Moon made blood at his passion were all accomplished upon this point of time and it were very improper to look for the accomplishment of the rest of the prophesie I know not how many hundreds or thousands of years after Vers. 24. Having loosed the pains of death or rather Having dissolved the pains of death meaning in reference to the people of God namely that God raised up Christ and by his resurrection dissolved and destroyed the pangs and power of death upon his own people Vers. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Thou wilt not give my soul up And why should not the very same words My God my God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be translated to the same purpose Why hast thou left me and given me up to such hands and shame and tortures rather than to intricate the sense with a surmise of Christs spiritual desertion In Hell Gr. Hades the state of souls departed but their condition differenced according to the difference of their qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diphilus apud Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. Vers. 38. Be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that their Baptism was not
tell particularly of the Wonders done in Egypt and of the manner of their deliverance and of Gods various goodness towards them and as the Talmud briefly relates it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He began with their disgrace and ended with their glory and expounded from that Text A Syrian ready to perish was my Father even through out to the end of the Section which as the Glossaries give the sense meaneth thus that he began his discourse with the Idolatry of Terah and their fathers beyond the flood and he led on the story to their bondage in Egypt and the wonders done for their deliverance and the Lords giving them his Law and making them his People and particularly he took up that Text in Deut. 26. 5 6 c. and enlarged himself upon it and the more the more commendably Then are the Dishes that were taken away from before him set before him again and then he saith 15 15 15 Ibid. This is the Passover which we eat because that the Lord passed over the houses of our Fathers in Egypt And holding up the bitter herbs in his hand he saith These are the bitter herbs that we eat in remembrance that the Egyptians made the lives of our fathers bitter in Egypt And holding up the unleavened bread likewise in his hand he saith This is the unleavened bread which we eat because the dough of our fathers had not time to be leavened before the Lord revealed himself and redeemed them out of hand Therefore are we bound to give thanks to praise to laud to glorifie to extol to honour to praise to magnifie him that hath done for our fathers and for us all these wonders who hath brought us from bondage to freedom from sorrow to rejoycing from mourning to a good day from darkness to a great light from affliction to redemption therefore must we say before him Hallelujah praise ye the Lord praise ye servants of the Lord praise the name of the Lord c. And so he said over the hundred and thirteenth and the hundred and fourteenth Psalms and concludeth with this prayer Blessed be thou O Lord our God King everlasting who hath redeemed us and redeemed our Fathers out of Egypt and brought us to this night to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs And then he and all the company with him drank off the second cup of Wine VII 16 16 16 Maym. ubi supr And now he washeth his hands again using the same ejaculation or short prayer that he had done at washing before And then taking the two cakes of unleavened bread he breaketh one of them in two and layeth the broken upon the whole and giveth thanks to God who bringeth bread out of the earth Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first giving thanks and then breaking as was the order of our Saviour Mat. 26. 26. Mark 14. 22. Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24. for that action of Christ was farther in the supper than we are yet come but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he first brake and then gave thanks and the Jews do make a business of the method For he might not give thanks by their Tradition either over both or either of the Cakes whilest they were whole but over it when it was broken And they give this reason because it was the bread of poverty and affliction and the poor have not whole Cakes to give thanks over but are glad to do it over bits and pieces Hence the phrase and practice of breaking of bread seemeth to have its original I shall 〈…〉 follow the Dispute that is taken up by the Hebrew Writers about the number of these Cakes whether they were two or three for some assert the one number and some the other and I believe both the Opinions are true applied to different and several times for before the fall of the Temple or in those times to which our discourse pointeth 17 17 17 Vi. Maym. ubi supr there were but two used as may be collected by the best records of those times but in after times they used three 18 18 18 Vid. Buxt Lex Talm. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either in reference to the threefold division of the Nation into Priests Levites and People 19 19 19 Gâ—oss in Maym. in loc citat or parallel to the three cakes that a delivered captive was to offer for his deliverance for Israel was delivered out of slavery at a Passover It is more of import to look a little after that which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aphicomen about which one would think they had two positions one contrary to another The Mishueh of the Talmud hath this Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 20 20 20 Pesach per. 10. halac 8. they dismiss not the company after the Passoever with an Aphicomen And yet this is a current saying amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 21 21 21 Gloss. in Maym. ubi supr He breaketh one of the cakes in two pieces and leaveth one half for the Aphicomen Now the seeming difference of these two positions is reconciled by referring them to several times as the number of the cakes was before The word Aphicomen in their sense doth mean the last dishes they used at meals namely of Nuts Apples or Sweet-meats wherewithall they closed up their meals when they saw good but such a closure they might not make at the Passover supper and the reason was because they would eat some of the Paschal Lamb last and close up the meal with that as the chiefest dish Last of all saith Maymony he eateth of the flesh of the Paschal at the least the quantity of an Olive and he is to taste no other meat after it at all But now he eateth to the quantity of an Olive of unleavened bread and tasteth nothing at all after that that is while the Temple stood and they had a Paschal Lamb to eat that was ever the last meat they ate but in after times when they used no Lamb they closed the meal with unleavened bread in stead of it and after that might eat nothing And so the same Author relateth again when he saith It is from the words of the Scribes that they ate nothing after the unleavened-bread nor cracknels nor nuts or the like but if he eat unleavened bread and eat other meats after or fruits he must return and eat unleavened bread last to the quantity of an Olive and so he concludes Now when they ate unleavened bread for a closure of all in this manner the cake that was broken in two that we are speaking of was half of it after the breaking of it given to some one in the company to reserve for the Aphicomen or for the last bit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he laid it under his Napkin but the other half and if that were not enough the other cake also and if they reserved not an Aphicomen the
end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the Feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing The circumstances of time place and person for this reading the Jews do determine thus ‖ ‖ ‖ Talm. in Sotab per. 7. R. Sol. in Deut. 31. Maym. in Hagigah per. 1. The reader was to be the King the place in the Court of the women and the time towards the end of the first holy day in the Feast of Tabernacles weeks There was then a pulpit of wood set up in the midst of the Court of the women for thither might women and children come to hear as they were injoyned per. 12. which they might not do into the upper Court And the King goes up into the Pulpit and sits him down The Minister of the Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes the Book of the Law and gives it to the chief of the Congregation or Head of the Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The chief of the Congregation or Head of the Synagogue for now they were in a Synagogue model gives it to the Sagan the Sagan gives it to the High-priest and the High-priest to the King The King stands up to receive it and standing uttereth a Prayer as every one did that was to read the Law in publique before he read and then if he thought good he might sit down and read but if he read standing it was thought the more honorable and so it is recorded that King Agrippa did when he was upon this imployment He began to read at the beginning of Deuteronomy and read to vers 10. of the 6. Chap. Thence he skipt to the thirteenth verse of the eleventh Chapter and read to the two and twentieth verse of the same Chapter There he skipt again to the two and twentieth verse of the fourteenth Chapter and read to the second verse of the nine and twentieth Chapter For they thought it was enough if he read those portions only that were most pregnant and pertinent for the stirring of them up to the observing of the Commandments and for the strengthening of their hands in the Law of truth And the Talmud relates of King Agrippa that when he was upon this Service and came to read that passage in Deut. 17. 15. One from among thy brethren thou shall set King over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother his eyes trickled down with tears in remembrance that he was not of the seed of the Jews so that the people were glad to chear him up and cried out three times to him Fear not Agrippa thou art our brother The reading is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lection of the King and it is reckoned by the Jews to be one of those eight things that must undispensably be uttered in the Hebrew Tongue Those eight things are these 1. The words of him that presented his first fruits Deut. 26. 5. 2. The words of the woman that pull'd off the shoe Deut. 25. 7 8 9. 3. The blessings and the curses Deut. 27. 28. 4. The blessing of the Priests Numb 6. 24 25 26. 5. The blessing of the High-priest on the day of Expiation 6. This lection of the King 7. The words of the Priests incouraging to battel Deut. 20. 3. 8. The words of the Elders over the beheaded Heifer Deut. 21. 7 8. SECT II. The Priests burning of the red Cow THE Law about burning a red Cow to ashes and the use of those ashes for the purifying of those that were unclean by the dead is given and described at large in Num. 19. and the significancy of that rite and other sprinklings is touched upon Heb. 9. 13. The manner of their going about and performing this great business for so it was not unjustly held because it was for the cleansing from the greatest uncleanness was exceeding curious and their circumspection about the matter was so nice and great that in none of the Ceremonious performances they shewed more Ceremony than in this Not to trace their great curiosities in choosing out a Cow that was exactly fit for this business and how many exceptions and cautions and scrutinies they had about her which are nicely discussed in the two first Chapters of the Treatise Parah Nor to dispute whether a a a Vid. Iuchas fol. 13. R. Sol◠in Numb 19. this work of burning her belonged only to the High-Priest or whether another might do it as well as he the managing of that business when it came to it was after this manner b b b Talm. in Parah per. 3. in Mishueh Ioma per. in Gemarah Seven days before a Cow was to be burnt the Priest that was to burn her was put apart into a Chamber of the Temple which stood in the North-east Angle of the Court of Israel which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The house of stone meaning The house of stone vessels as we have cleared it in the survey and description of it And the reason of this his separation was that he might be sure to be free for all that time from any Pollution by a Grave or Corps For since the ashes of this burnt Cow was the great and only purger from that defilement it was their choise care and heedfulness that they should be clear from that defilement that went about the burning of her or sprinkling her ashes When the day of her burning came the Priest that was to do it and they that were to accompany him in that work c c c Middoth per. 1. marched out at the East-gate of the Mountain of the Temple which Gate was also called Shushan and went over the Valley of Cidron to Mount Olivet to a pitch of the Hill just over against the Gate where they had come out and in the face of the Temple d d d Maym. in Parah per. 3. Sheka im per. 4. Talm. in Parah ubi supr all the way over the Valley was a Causey made upon double Arches that is one Arch still standing upon two Arches and so levelied on the surface as made a plain and even way all along And the reason of this great cost and curiosity was that all the way might be secure against unseen or unknown graves by which these passengers might have been defiled the stone Arches not permitting to interre a Corps The like Arches for the like prevention we have observed in its due place were all under the Courts of the Temple and the like Archedness was there on Mount Olivet under the very place where the Cow was to be burnt for the same security The Elders of the People marched before the Priest and his company all along this Causey to the place of the burning and there when the Priest came up they laid their hands upon
New answers Holy is the Lord that hath performed The Old says Holy is the Father that gave the Law the New saith Holy is the Son that preached the Gospel and both say Holy is the Holy Ghost that penned both Law and Gospel to make men holy The two Cherubins in Salomons 2 Chron. 3. Temple stood so that with their outmost wings they touched the sides of the house and their other wings touched each other So the two Testaments one way touch the two sides of the house and the other way touch each other In their extent they read from the beginning of the World to the end from in the beginning to come Lord Jesus In their consent they touch each other with He shall turn the Heart of the Fathers to the children Mal. 4. 6 and He shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the children Luke 1. 17. Here the two wings joyn in the middle Tertullian calls the Prophet Malachi the bound or skirt of Judaism and Christianity a stake that tells that there promising ends and performing begins that Prophecying concludes and Fulfilling takes place there is not a span between these two plots of holy ground the Old and New Testament for they touch each other What do the Papists then when they put and chop in the Apocripha for Canonical Scripture between Malachi and Matthew Law and Gospel What do they but make a wall between the Seraphins that they cannot hear each others cry What do they but make a stop between the Cherubins that they cannot touch each others wing What do they but make a ditch betwixt these grounds that they cannot reach each others coasts What do they but remove the Land mark of the Scriptures and so are guilty of Cursed be he that removes his neighbours mark Deut. 27. 17. And what do they but divorce the mariage of the Testaments and so are guilty of the breach of that which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder These two Testaments are the two paps of the Church from which we suck the sincere milk of the Word One pap is not more like to another than are these two for substance but for Language they vary in colour The Old as all can tell is written in Hebrew but some forraign Languages are also admitted into Scripture besides the Hebrew as forraign Nations were to be admitted also to the Church besides the Hebrews A great piece of Ezra is Chaldee because taken from Chaldee Chronicles Those parts of Daniels visions that concern all the World are written in the Chaldee the Tongue then best known in the World because the Chaldeans were then Lords of the World The eleventh verse of the tenth of Jeremy is in the same Tongue that the Jews might learn so much of their Language as to refuse their Idolatry in their own Language Other words of this Idiom are frequent in the Scripture as I take two names given to Christ as Bar the son in Psal. 2. 10. and Hhoter the rod of Jesses stem Isa. 11. to be natively Chaldee Hhutra used by all the Targums for a rod in divers places words and for that they do shew the greater mystery viz. that this Son and this Rod should belong to Chaldeans and Gentiles as well as to Jew or Hebrews Infinite it is to trace all of this nature and Language The Arabian is also admitted into Scripture especially in the Book of Job a man of that Country whether Philistin Phrases and other adjacent Nations Dialects be not to be found there also I refer to the Reader to search and I think he may easily find of the eloquence of some pieces above others and the difficulty of some books above others those that can even read the English Bible can tell I would there were more that could read it in its own Language and as it were talk with God there in his own Tongue that as by Gods mercy Japhet dwells now in the tents of Sem or the Gentiles have gained the preheminence of the Jews for Religion so they would water this graffing of theirs into this stock with the juyce of that Tongue thereby to provoke them the more to Jealousie CHAP. XXXIII Of the New Testament Language or the Greek THE Greek Tongue is the key which God used to unlock the Tents of Sem to the sons of Japhet This glorious Tongue as Tully calls it is made most glorious by the writing of the New Testament in this Language God hath honoured all the Thucyd. lib. 1 letters by naming himself after the first and the last as Homer shews the receit of all the Grecian ships by shewing how many the greatest and how few the least contained Javan is held both by Jews and Christians to have planted the Country The Tongue is likely to be maternal from Babel The Jews upon Genesis the forty ninth think that Jacob curseth his sons Simeon and Levies fact in one word of Greek Macerothehem that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their swords but all the Chaldees and other Translations render it better their habitations Gen. 49. 5. The ancientest Heathen Greek alive is Homer though the Tongue was long before and Homers subject of Ilias treated of in Greek verse by Evanders Wife of Arcadia as some have related Homer watered the Tongue and in succeeding ages it flourished till it grew ripe in the New Testament The Dialects of it familiarly known to be five The Attick the Jonick c. The Macedonian was something strange as appears in Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 5. Especially their devout Macedonian or about their oraisons How God scattered and divulged this Tongue of the Greeks over the World against the coming of Christ and writing of the New Testament is remarkable Alexander the great with his Macedonians made the Eastern parts Grecian The Old Testament at Ptolomaeus his request translated into Greek was as an Usher to bring in the New Testament when Japhet should come to dwell in the Tents of Sem. The Jews used to keep a mournful fast for that Translation but as Jews mourn so have Gentiles cause to rejoyce In like sort for the preparation for the Gospel of late which as far as Antichrist his power could reach lay depressed but not overwhelmed the Greek Tongue at the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks was sent into these Western climates that we might hear Christ speak in his own Language without an Egyptian to interpret to us as Joseph had to his brethren What need we now to rely upon a Latine foundation when we have the Greek purity Never did the Turk any good to Christianity but this and this against his will but God worketh all things for his own glory And we may say of the poor inhabitants of Grecia as of the Jews by their impoverishing we are inriched As Athens in old time was called the Grecia of Grecia so the New Testament for Language may be stiled the Greek of Greek In it as upon the
quarter let us take our prospect outward as we have done from the two sides we have been upon before As you stood on the middle of this wall Millo lay before you and there might you see besides the Kings stables and other buildings the Pool of Siloam and the Kings Gardens On the left hand was the descent of Acra and the buildings of Jerusalem upon it on the right hand the rising of Sion and the stairs that went up into the City and by which the King came down to Shallecheth and so into the Temple And as you rose higher was the place of the Sepulchers of Davids family and another Pool Neh. III. 15 16. CHAP. VI. The North-Gate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tedi or Tadde ON the North-side to which we are now come there was but one gate as there was but one on the East quarter which was situate just in the middle of the wall between the East and West end of it but how to give it its right-name there is some dispute a a a Misnajoth in Octavo in Midd. Some write it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teri with r which signifieth moistness or purulency because that they of the Priests whose seed went from them by night went through this gate to bath themselves from that uncleanness But the reading of old hath been C. â—emper ibid. pag. 13. so resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with d Tedi b b b Talm. Bab. Aruch or as some vowel it c c c Bâ—xâ— Talm. â—â—x Tadde that Pisk Tosaphoth ad Middoth goeth about to give its Etymology He mentions a double notation namely that either it betokens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscurity and shamefac'dness because of its rare use and passage and because the Priests that had suffered Gonorrhaea by night went out through it to the Bath with some shame and dejectedness Or that the word refers to Actors or Poets and he produceth a sentence in which by its conjunction with another word it seems so to signifie for other sense I know not to put upon it The sentence is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tragedians and Poets used it before the chief of the Captivity But what sense he would make of this Etymology I do not understand But be the notation of the word what it will the Talmud setteth two distinguishing marks upon the Gate it self for which it was singular from all the rest of the gates that we have mentioned d d d Talm. in Mid. per. 2. The first is that it had not so fair a rising Gate-house and chambers above it as the rest had but only stones laid flat over it and the battlement of the wall running upon it and no more And the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e Ibid. pet 1. That it was not a common and ordinary passage in and out as the other Gates were but only a passage upon occasion the uselessness whereof we shall have occasion to look at again ere it be long The Mount Moriah did afford some space of ground upon this side without the Wall and compass of the Holy ground which it did upon none of the sides beside for here was built the large and goodly Tower of Antonia which we shall survey by and by whereas on every one of the other sides the incompassing Wall that closed in the Holy ground did stand near upon the very pitch and precipice of the hill So that looking about you as you stood out at this Gate this Tower Antonia stood on your left hand and spoyled your prosect on that side and you could see nothing that way but it Before you was Mount Sion and the goodly buildings of the Kings Palace and other houses upon the bending toward the East angle was the place called Ophel or Ophla the habitation of the Nethenims Neh. III. 26. and when Ophla was turned East then was there the horse-gate and water-gate before the Temple Thus lay the Mountain of the Lords House incompassed with the City round about and enclosed with a fair and high Wall which separated it from the common ground On the one side of it lay Sion the seat of the King on the other side Jerusalem the habitation of the people and the Temple and its service in the middle between even as the Ministery is in mediation betwixt God and his people That Wall that encompassed it had eight gates of goodly structure and beauteous fabrick all of one fashion save only that the North and East gates were not topped the one in height and the other in fashion as the other were At all these gates were Porters by day and at five of them were guards by night as we shall observe hereafter the access to them on the East and West was by a great ascent but facilitated by steps or causeys for the peoples ease and for the coming up of the Beasts that were to be sacrificed of which there were some that came up dayly On the South side the ascent was not so very great yet it had its rising in the like manner of access as had the other On the North what coming up there was it was more for the accommodation of the residents in the Tower Antonia than for the entrance into the Temple the North gate Tedi being of so little use as hath been spoken At any of the Gates as you passed through the entrance if self through which you went was ten cubits wide twenty cubits high and twelve cubits over six of which cubits were without the Holy ground and six within and as you entred in at the East gate had you seen the ground before any buildings were set in it or any thing done to it but only the building of this Wall you might have seen the hill rising from the East to the West in such an ascent that the Western part of it was very many cubits higher than where you stood as we shall have occasion to observe as we pass along This bank was once well stored with bushes and brambles Gen. XXII 13. and afterward with worse briers and thorns the Jebusites who had it in possession till David purchased it for divine use and structure that we are looking after Here was then a poor threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite but afterward the habitation of the God of Jacob A place and fabrick as sumptuous and eminent as it was possible for man and art and cost to make it the glory of the Nation where it was and the wonder of all the Nations round about it but in fine as great a wonder and monument of desolation and ruine as ever it had been of beauty and gloriousness Before we step further toward the survey of it as it stood in glory we must keep yet a while along this Wall about which we have been so long and observe some buildings and beauties that joyned and belonged to iâ— besides the Gates that we have surveyed in it alread
I have of mine own proper good of Gold and Silver which I have given to the House of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy House Even three thousand talents of Gold of the Gold of Ophir and seventy thousand talents of refined Silver to overlay the Walls of the Houses withal where these two things are remarkable First That he saith this preparation was above what he had prepared for the holy House and yet he saith he had prepared it for the House of God And secondly That here is mention of Silver to overlay the Walls withal whereas it is plain that within the Temple it self all the overlaying was of Gold Therefore it is thus to be understood that beside the store of Gold that David had provided for the gildings of the House within in the Holy and most Holy place he had also laid by a stock of Gold and Silver both to gild and overlay the Chambers over the Porch for there were upper Chambers diverse in it the height of it being one hundred and twenty cubits and to beautifie the side Chambers and the other Chambers that were about the Courts Now in the Temple after the Captivity we do not find that they were so curious to reduce the compass of the most Holy place to a cubick form but that the height of it did exceed the breadth it being twenty cubits long and twenty cubits broad like that of Solomons but the height far more for ought I find determined to the contrary SECT IV. The Cherubims and Ark. AS there were two Cherubims upon the Ark it self so also did Solomon cause two Cherubims besides to be made to stand over the Ark it standing between them they are so plainly and facilely described in 1 Kings VI. 23. that I shall refer the Reader thither for the story of them and say no more concerning them but only this that as the two Cherubims upon the Mercy seat may very well be resembled to Christs two natures so these two that stood by to the two Testaments which in their beginning and end reach the two sides of the World The Creation and the last Judgment and in the middle do sweetly join one to another The Ark the strength and presence of the Lord Psal. CV 4. and the glory of Israel 1 Sam. IV. 22. the most pregnant and proper resemblance of our Saviour in whom God dwelleth among men described Exod. XXV 10 c. and XXXVII 1. c. a a a Maym. in beth babbech per. 4. was set upon a stone up toward the West-end of the most Holy place even under the middle wings of the two tall Cherubims that stood besides it For the Cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the Ark and the Cherubims covered the Ark and the staves thereof above And they drew out the staves that the ends of the staves were seen out in the Holy place before the Oracle and they were not seen without 1 King VIII 7 8. 2 Chron. V. 8 9. For before the Temple was built while the Ark was in a moving posture the staves whereby the Ark was born were of an equal length on either side it ready for the Priests shoulders when there was occasion for the Ark to flit but now when they had brought it into Solomons Temple where it was to fix and remove no more they drew out the staves towards that side that looked down the most Holy place b b b R. Lev. Ger. in 1 King VIII Levi Gershom is of opinion that these staves were not the same that were made by Moses but of a longer size and that they raught down to the very Door and that though there were Doors betwixt the Holy and most Holy place yet those Doors could not shut because of these staves c c c Kimch ib. K. â—ol ibid. And Kimchi and Jarchi come up very near to the same supposal conceiving that the Ark stood not up near the Western Wall of the House but more downward towards the Door and that the staves raught down to the Door and on the day of Expiation when the High Priest went into the Holy place he went up to the Ark between these staves and could not go off to one hand or other But that that hath strained from them this conception is 1. Because they have strictly taken the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text in the Book of Kings for the Holy place without the Veil whereas the Book of Chronicles doth expresly render it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ark for whereas the one place saith that the heads of the staves were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth not the whole room either of the Holy or most Holy place but that singularly Holy place that was under the wings of the Cherubims for of that place had the Text spoken immediately before when it said The Priests brought the Ark into the most Holy place under the wings of the Cherubims For the Cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the Ark c. and then he comes on and saith And they drew out the staves so that the ends of the staves appeared out of that holy place meaning under the wings of the Cherubims And 2. The Authors alledged have strictly taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mean so as one standing at the Door betwixt the Holy and most Holy place had the most Holy place before him whereas it signifieth in the same sense that it doth in that clause in Gen. I. 20. Let the Fowl flie upon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English hath well rendred in the open Firmament of Heaven And so is it to be taken here and the verse in hand may be properly understood thus And they drew out the staves at length so that the ends of the staves were seen from that Holy place in the open face of the Oracle but they were not seen without The staves were the same that were made by Moses and their length not great but only so much as to fit a Mans shoulder on either side of the Ark and now when they had set the Ark between the two standing Cherubims on the Floor the Cherubims inner wings covered the Ark and the staves that were above at the ends of the Ark but the rest of the staves drawn out downward toward the Oracle Door shot out from under the Cherubims wings and appeared in the open Face of the most Holy place and the High Priest when he came to offer Incense at the Ark on the day of Expiation he stood before the Ark between the staves d d d Maym. ubi sap It is fancied by the Jews that Solomon when he built the Temple foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed he caused very obscure and intricate Vaults under ground
Solomon will spare me as he did Abiathar For that â—he laying hold of the Altar in this kind had a Vow in it for the future as well as a present safety might be argued from the nature of the Altar which made holy what touched it and from the very circumstance of laying hold upon it But Joab to the wilful murder of Abner and Amasa had added contempt and opposal of the King upon Davids Throne which figured him that was to Reign over the House of Israel for ever and therefore unfit to escape and uncapable to be any such votary 4. A cubit above the first rising of the horns of the Altar the square narrowed a cubit y Mid. ubi supr Ataym ubi supr again and so was now but four and twenty cubits every way and so held on to that flat of it on the top where the fire lay The cubits-ledge that the abatement made to be as a bench round about was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place whereupon the Priests went and stood about the Altar to lay on the pieces of the Sacrifice or to stir them as they lay in the fire And this helpeth us to judge concerning the manner and fashion of the horns spoken of last namely that they did not rise directly upright higher than the Altar it self for then it had been impossible for the Priest to go about the Altar upon this ledge for the horns would have hindred if they had risen a full cubit square up hither but their form is to be conceived as was said before namely that they rose indeed up even with this ledge but they so sharpened and bended outward when they came level with it that the Priests had passed between them and the Altar From the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circuit of the Altar upward which was four cubits was that part which more peculiarly was called Harel and Ariel Ezek. XLIII 15. And Harel was four cubits and from Ariel upwards were the four horns He had described the gradual risings of the Altar hitherto in the Verses before in these characters and descriptions Vers. 13. The bottom shall be a cubit and the breadth a cubit This was the Foundation of which we have spoken a cubit high and a cubit broad And the border thereof by the edge thereof round about a span The edge of this Foundation was not sharp as are the edges of stone steps but it was wrought as are the stone borders of our Chimney-hearths with a border of a span over and so the blood that was poured upon this Foundation could not run off to the Pavement but was kept up that it might run down at the holes fore-mentioned into the Common-shore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus was the top of the Altar The top of the Altar was also finished with such another bordering Vers. 14. And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle two cubits Not that the Foundation called here the lower settle was two cubits thick in the flatness of it as it lay upon the ground for the Verse before saith that the bottom was but a cubit but that from this Foundation there arose a slope rising a cubit height which was somewhat thicker than the body of the Altar presently above it and so from the ground to the top of this rising where the square narrowed were two cubits and from the top of this sloping where the square narrowed to the Circuit was properly but four cubits but from the Foundation five And so though the Talmud speaketh differently from the Prophet when it saith the Foundation or lower settle was but one cubit high and he two and when it saith the height from the lower to the higher settle or from the Foundation to the circuit was five cubits and the Prophet saith but four yet do they both mean but one and the same thing but understood as hath been spoken namely the one taketh the Foundation or lower settle barely as it lay flat upon the ground and the other takes it with this cubital slope rising from it made leaning a cubit height to the body of the Altar and this interpretation helpeth to understand that which David Kimchi professeth he cannot tell what to make of and that is why the upper settle which was narrower by two cubits in the square is called the greater and the lower which was larger in the square is called the lesser The reason whereof is this because the upper though it were less in compass yet was larger in bredth because this leaning slope rising that we speak of took up a good part of the bredth of the lower and so the walk upon it was not so clear and large as it was upon the other And then the Prophet tells us that when the body of the Altar was thus risen six cubits high to the upper settle which the Talmudicks call the circuit That thence Harel was to be four cubits and from Ariel and upward the four horns There a a a Kimch in loc â—â—â—â—t Lemp in Mid. p. 97. are some that conceive that Harel and Ariel are indeed but one and the same word though so diversly written from whom I cannot much differ as to point of Grammar because the Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do admit of such alternancy in the language yet me thinks the difference of the words should hold out some difference of the sense and Harel to signifie the Lords Mountain and Ariel the Lords Lion upon the Mountain the lower part at the horns more properly Harel and the upper more properly Ariel But since the Text gives the b b b Vid. R. Sol. ibid. name Ariel to all that part that was from the Root of the horns upward we shall not much stick upon it The word Harel if you will construe it the Mountain of the Lord David Kimchi tells you that it is as much as to say The House of the Lord and because they served other Gods in every place upon high Hills this which was the Hill of the Lord was but four cubits high And if you will take the word Ariel our Rabbins of happy memory saith he say the Altar was called Ariel or the Lords Lion because the holy fire that came down from Heaven couched on it like a Lion The word Ariel doth also signifie one exceeding strong 2 Sam. XXIII 20. and so doth Arel Esai XXXIII 7. But take it whether way you will here either for a strong thing or for the Lords Lion the Altar was very properly so called either because of the devouring of many Sacrifices Lion like or because of the great strength and prevalency the people had by Sacrifice the Lord owning them wonderfully in that service whilest gone about according to his Will or because of the strong Lion Christ whom the Altar and Sacrifices did represent Jerusalem and especially Zion the City where David Dwells is also called Ariel the strong one or the Lion of
Gloss renders it If he be deprived of his father and his mother brings him to be made a Proselyte they baptize him because none becomes a Proselyte without Circumcision and Baptism according to the judgment or rite of the Sanhedrin that is that three men be present at the Baptism who are now instead of a father to him And the Gemara a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If with a Proselyte his sons and his daughters are made Proselytes also that which is done by their father redounds to their good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Joseph saith When they grow into years they may retract Where the Gloss writes thus This is to be understood of little children who are made Proselytes together with their father n n n n n n Ievam. fol. 78 1. An Heathen woman if she is made a Proselytess when she is now big with child the child needs not baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Baptism of his mother serves him for baptism Otherwise he were to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Maimon in Avadim cap. 8 If an Israelite take a Gentile child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or find a Gentile infant and baptizeth him in the name of a Proselyte behold he is a Proselyte We cannot also pass over that which indeed is worthy to be remembred p p p p p p Hieros Ievamoth fol. 8. 4. Any ones servant is to be circumcised though he be unwilling but any ones son is not to be circumcised if he be unwilling R. Johanan enquired Behold a little son do you circumcise him by force Yea although he be as the son of Urâ—an R. Hezekiah saith Behold a man finds an infant cast out and he baptizeth him in the name of a servant in the name of a freeman do you also circumcise him in the name of a freeman We have therefore alledged these things the more largely not only that you may receive satisfaction concerning the thing propounded namely how it came to pass that the people flocked in so universal a concours to Johns Baptism because Baptism was no strange thing to the Jews but that some other things may be observed hence which afford some light to certain places of Scripture and will help to clear some knotty questions about Baptism First You see baptism inseparably joyned to the Circumcision of Proselytes There was indeed some little distance of time For q q q q q q Ievam. fol. 45. 2. they were not baptized till the pain of circumcision was healed because water might be injurious to the wound But certainly baptism ever followed We acknowledge indeed that Circumcision was plainly of divine Institution but by whom Baptism that was inseparable from it was instituted is doubtful And yet it is worthy of observation our Saviour rejected Circumcision and retained the Appendix to it and when all the Gentiles were now to be introduced into the true Religion he preferred this proselytical Introductory pardon the expression unto the Sacrament of Entrance into the Gospel One might observe the same almost in the Eucharist The Lamb in the Passover was of divine Institution and so indeed was the Bread But whence was the Wine But yet rejecting the Lamb Christ instituted the Sacrament in the Bread and Wine Secondly Observing from these things which have been spoken how very known and frequent the use of Baptism was among the Jews the reason appears very easie why the Sanhedrin by their messengers enquired not of John concerning the reason of Baptism but concerning the authority of the Baptizer not what Baptism meant but whence he had a licence so to baptize Joh. I. 25. Thirdly Hence also the reason appears why the New Testament doth not prescribe by some more accurate rule who the persons are to be baptized The Anabaptists object It is not commanded to baptize Infants therefore they are not to be baptized To whom I answer It is not forbidden to baptize Infants therefore they are to be baptized And the reason is plain For when Pedobaptism in the Jewish Church was so known usual and frequent in the admission of Proselytes that nothing almost was more known usual and frequent 1. There was no need to strengthen it with any precept when Baptism was now passed into an Evangelical Sacrament For Christ took baptism into his hands and into Evangelical use as he found it this only added that he might promote it to a worthier end and a larger use The whole Nation knew well enough that little children used to be baptized There was no need of a precept for that which had ever by common use prevailed If a Royal Proclamation should now issue forth in these words Let every one resort on the Lords day to the publick assembly in the Church certainly he would be mad who in times to come should argue hence that Prayers Sermons Singing of Psalms were not to be celebrated on the Lords day in the publick assemblies because there is no mention of them in the Proclamation For the Proclamation provided for the celebration of the Lords day in the publick Assemblies in general but there was no need to make mention of the particular kinds of the Divine Worship to be celebrated there when they were always and every where well known and in daily use before the publishing of the Proclamation and when it was published The case is the very same in Baptism Christ instituted it for an Evangelical Sacrament whereby all should be admitted into the profession of the Gospel as heretofore it was used for admission into Proselytism to the Jewish religion The particulars belonging to it as the manner of baptizing the age the sex to be baptized c. had no need of a rule and definition because these were by the common use of them sufficiently known even to Mechanics and the most ignorant men 2. On the other hand therefore there was need of a plain and open prohibition that infants and little children should not be baptized if our Saviour would not have had them baptized For since it was most common in all ages foregoing that little children should be baptized if Christ had been minded to have that custom abolished he would have openly forbidden it Therefore his silence and the silence of the Scripture in this matter confirms Pedobaptism and continueth it unto all ages Fourthly It is clear enough by what hath been already said in what sense that is to be taken in the New Testament which we sometimes meet with namely that the Master of the family was baptized with his whole family Act. XVI 15 33. c. Nor is it of any strength which the Antipedobaptists contend for that it cannot be proved there were infants in those families for the inquiry is not so proper whether there were infants in those families as it is concluded truly and deservedly If there were they had all been to be baptized Nor do I
we have produced is plain and without any difficulty as if he should say It is an old Tradition which hath obtained for many ages VERS XXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I say unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I say the words of one that refutes or determines a question very frequently to be met with in the Hebrew Writers To this you may lay that of Esaiah Chap. II. vers 3 And he will teach us of his ways c. When Kimchi writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Teacher is King Messias And that of Zacharias Chap. XI vers 8. Where this great shepherd destroys three evil shepherds namely the Pharisee and the Saduâ—ee and the Essene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause c. First let us treat of the Words and then of the Sentences With his Brother The Jewish Schools do thus distinguish between a Brother and a Neighbour that a Brother signifies an Israelite by nation and blood a Neighbour an Israelite in religion and worship that is a Proselyte The Author of Aruch in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Son of the Covenant writes thus The Sons of the Covenant these are Israel And when the Scripture saith If any ones Ox gore the Ox of his Neighbour it excludes all the Heathen in that it saith of his Neighbour Maimonides writes thus t t t t t t in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ch. 2. It is all one to kill an Israelite and a Canaanite Servant for both the punishment is death But an Israelite who shall kill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A stranger inhabitant shall not be punished with death because it is said Whosoever shall proudly rise up against his Neighbour to kill him Ex. XXI 14. And it is needless to say he shall not be punished with death for killing a Heathen Where this is to be noted that Heathens and stranger Inhabitants who were not admitted to perfect and compleat Proselytism were not qualified with the title of Neighbour nor with any privileges But under the Gospel where there is no distinction of Nations or Tribes Brother is taken in the same latitude as among the Jewes both Brother and Neighbour was that is for all professing the Gospel and is contradistinguished to the Heathen 1 Cor. V. 11. If any one who is called a Brother And Mat. XVIII 15. If thy Brother sin against thee c. ver 17. If he hear not the Church let him be a Heathen But Neighbour is extended to all even such as are strangers to our religion Luk. X. 29 30 c. He shall be guilty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words signifying guilt or debt to be met with a thousand times in the Talmudists Es. XXIV v. 23. They shall be gathered together as Captives are gathered into prison Where R. Solomon speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty of Hell unto Hell which agrees with the last clause of this verse Of the Councel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sanhedrin that is of the Judgment or Tribunal of the Magistrate For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment in the clause before is to be referred to the Judgment of God will appear by what follows Raka 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn very usual in the Hebrew Writers and very common in the mouth of the Nation u u u u u u Tanchum fol. 5. col 2. One returned to repentance his wife said to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka if it be appoynted you to repent the very girdle wherewith you gird your self shall not be your own x x x x x x Id. fol. 18. col 4. A Heathen said to an Israelite Very sutable food is made ready for you at my house What is it saith the other To whom he replied swines-flesh Raka saith the Jew I must not eat of clean beasts with you y y y y y y Midras Tillin upon Psal. CXXXVII A Kings daughter was married to a certain durty fellow He commands her to stand by him as a mean Servant and to be his Butler To whom she said Raka I am a Kings daughter z z z z z z Id. fol. 38 col 4. One of the Scholars of R. Jochanan made sport with the teaching of his Master but returning at last to a sober mind Teach thou saith he O Master for thou art worthy to teach for I have found and seen that which thou hast taught To whom he replied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka thou hadst not believed unless thou hadst seen a a a a a a Bab. Berac fol. 32. 2. A certain Captain saluted a religious man praying in the way but he saluted him not again He waited till he had done his prayer and saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raka It is written in your Law c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into Hell fire The Jews do very usually express Hell or the place of the damned by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gehinnom which might be shewn in infinite examples The manner of speech being taken from the vally of Hinnom a place infamous for foul Idolatry committed there for the howlings of Infants roasted to Molech filth carried out thither and for a fire that always was burning and so most fit to represent the horror of Hell b b b b b b Bab. Erubhin fol. 19. 1. There are three doors of Gehenna one in the Wilderness as it is written They went down and all that belonged to them alive into Hell Num. XVI 33. Another in the Sea as it is written Out of the belly of Hell have I called thou hast heard my voice Jon. II. 2. The Third in Jerusalem as it is written Thus saith the Lord whose fire is in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem Esai XXXI 9. The Tradition of the School of R. Ismael Whose fire is in Sion this is the Gate of Gehenna The Chaldee Paraphrast upon Esai ch XXXIII ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gehenna eternal fire c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gehenna of eternal fire We come now to the sentences and sense of the Verse A threefoid punishment is adjudged to a threefold wickedness Judgment to him that is angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without cause Judgment also and that by the Sanhedrin that calls Raka Judgment of Hell to him that calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool. That which is here produced of the threefold Sanhedrin among the Jewes pleases me not because passing over other reasons mention of the Sanhedrin is made only in the middle clause How the Judgment in the first clause is to be distinguished from the Judgment of the Sanhedrin in the second will very easily appear from this Gloss and Commentary of the Talmudists Of not killing c c c c c
a little colt In that Treatise Mezia they speak concerning an hired Ass and the terms that the hired is obliged to m m m m m m Chap. 6. Halac 3. Among other things there the Babylon Gemara hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever transgresses against the will of the owner is call'd a robber n n n n n n Fol. 78. 1. For instance If any one hires an Ass for a journey on the plains and turns up to the mountains c. Hence this of our Saviour appears to be a miracle not a robbery that without any agreement or terms this Ass should be led away and that the Owner and those that stood by should be satisfied with these bare words The Lord hath need of him VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meek and sitting upon an Ass. THIS triumph of Christs compleats a double prophesie 1. This prophesie of Zacharia here mentioned 2. The taking to themselves the Paschal Lamb for this was the very day on which it was to be taken according to the command of the Law Exod. XII 3. In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb It scarce appears to the Talmudists how those words of Daniel concerning the Messias that he comes with the clouds of heaven o o o o o o Dan. VII 13. are consistent with these words of Zacharie that he comes sitting upon an ass p p p p p p See Bab. Sanhedr fol. â—â— â— If say they the Israelites be good then he shall come with the clouds of heaven but if not good then riding upon an Ass. Thou art much mistaken O Jew for he comes in the clouds of heaven as a Judg and Revenger because you are evil and very wicked but sitting upon an Ass not because you are but because he is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King Sapores said to Samuel you say your Messias will come upon an Ass I will send him a brave horse He answers him you have not a horse with a hundred spots as is his Ass. q q q q q q Ibid. In the greatest humility of the Messias they dream of grandure even in his very Ass. VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strowed branches in the way NOT that they strowed garments and boughs just in the way under the feet of the ass to be trod on this perhaps might have thrown down the rider but by the way side they made little tents and tabernacles of clothes and boughs according to the custom of the feast of Tabernacles John also adds that taking branches of palm trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their hands they went forth to meet him That book of Maimonides intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tabernacles and Palm branches will be an excellent comment on this place and so will the Talmudic treatise Succah We will pick out these few things not unsuitable to the present story s s s s s s Maimon Succah chap. 5. artic 17. Doth any one spread his garment on his tabernacle against the heat of the sun c. it is absurd but if he spread his garment for comeliness and ornament it is approved Again t t t t t t Chap. 7. â—â—â—v XXIII 40. The boughs of Palm trees of which the Law speaks u are the young growing sprouts of Palms before their leaves shoot out on all sides but when they are like small staves and these are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after It is a notable precept to gather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young branches of Palms and the boughs of myrtle and willow and to make them up into a small bundle and to carry them in their hands c. VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hosannah to the Son of David SOME are are at a loss why it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Son and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Son Wherefore they fly to Caninius as to an Oracle who tells us that those very bundles of boughs are called Hosanna and that these words Hosanna to the Son of David signifie no more than Boughs to the Son of David w w w w w w See Baronius at the year of Christ 34. We will not deny that bundles are sometimes so called as seems in these clauses x x x x x x Bab. Succah fol. 37. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it is plain that a branch of Palm is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lulab and boughs of Mirtle and Willow bound together are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hosanna y y y y y y See the Gloss But indeed if Hosanna to the Son of David signifies Boughs to the Son of David what do those words mean Hosanna in the highest The words therefore here sung import as much as if it were said We now sing Hosanna to the Messias In the Feast of Tabernacles the great Hallel as they call it used to be sung that is the CXIII CXIV CXV CXVI CXVII CXVIII Psalms And while the words of the Psalms were sung or said by one the whole company used sometimes to answer at certain clauses Halleluia Sometimes the same clauses that had been sung or said were again repeated by the company sometimes the bundles of boughs were brandished or shaken But when were the Bundles shaken The Rubric of the Talmud saith At that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give thanks unto the Lord in the beginning of Psalm CXVIII and at the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and at that clause save now I beseech thee O Lord Psalm CXVIII 25. as saith the School of Hillel But the School of Shammai saith also At that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity R. Akibah said I saw R. Gamaliel and R. Joshuah when all the company shook their bundles they did not shake theirs but only at that clause save now I beseech thee O Lord. z z z z z z Succah cap. 3. halac 9. On every day of the feast they used once to goround the Altar with bundles in their hands singing this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Save now I beseech thee O Lord I beseech thee O Lord send now prosperity But on the seventh day of the feast they went seven times round the Altar c. a a a a a a Maimon on Succah cap. 6. The tossing or shaking of the bundles was on the right hand on the left hand upwards and downwards b b b b b b Bah Succah sol 27. 2. The reason of the bundles was this because it is written Then let all the trees of the wood sing Psal. XCVI 12. And afterwards it is written Give thanks unto the Lord because he is good Psal. CVI. 1. And afterwards Save us O Lord O our God c. Psalm CVI. 47. And the reason is mystical
Egypt Then he lifts up the bitter herbs in his hand and saith we therefore eat these bitter herbs because the Egyptians made the lives of our Fathers bitter in Egypt He takes up the unleavened bread in his hand and saith We eat this unleavened bread because our Fathers had not time to sprinkle their meal to be leavened before God revealed himself and redeemed them We ought therefore to praise celebrate honour magnifie c. him who wrought all these wonderful things for our Fathers and for us and brought us out of bondage into liberty out of sorrow into joy out of darkness into great light let us therefore say Hallelujah Praise the Lord. Praise him O ye servants of the Lord c. to And the flint stone into fountains of waters that is from the beginning of the CXIII to the end of the CXIV Psalm And he concludes Blessed be thou O Lord God our King Eternal redeeming us and redeeming our Fathers out of Egypt and bringing us to this night that we may eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs and then he drinks off the second cup. VII Then washing his hands and taking two loaves he breaks one and lays the broken upon the whole one and blesseth it Blessed be he who causeth bread to grow out of the earth and putting some bread and bitter herbs together he dips them in the sauce Charoseth and blessing Blessed be thou O Lord God our Eternal King he who hath sanctified us by his precepts and hath commanded us to eat he eats the unleavened bread and bitter herbs together but if he eats the unleavened bread and bitter herbs by themselves he gives thanks severally for each And afterwards giving thanks after the same manner over the flesh of the Chagiga of the fourteenth day he eats also of it and in like manner giving thanks over the Lamb he eats of it VIII From thence forward he lengthens out the Supper eating this or that as he hath a mind and last of all he eats of the flesh of the Passover at least as much as an olive but after this he tasts not at all of any food Thus far Maimonides in the place quoted as also the Talmudists in several places in the last Chapter of the Tract Pasachin And now was the time when Christ taking bread instituted the Eucharist but whether was it after the eating of those farewell morsels as I may call them of the Lamb or instead of them It seems to be in their stead because it is said by our Evangelist and Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As they were eating Jesus took Bread Now without doubt they speak according to the known and common custom of that Supper that they might be understood by their own people But all Jews know well enough that after the eating of those morsels of the Lamb it cannot be said As they were eating for the eating was ended with those morsels It seems therefore more likely that Christ when they were now ready to take those morsels changed the custom and gave about morsels of bread in their stead and instituted the Sacrament Some are of opinion that it was the custom to tast the unleavened bread last of all and to close up the Supper with it of which opinion I confess I also sometimes was And it is so much the more easie to fall into this opinion because there is such a thing mentioned in some of the Rubricks about the Passover and with good reason because they took up this custom after the destruction of the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed and brake it First he blessed then he brake it Thus it always used to be done except in the Paschal bread One of the two loaves was first divided into two parts or perhaps into more before it was blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One of them is divided They are the words of Maimonides who also adds But why doth he not bless both the loaves after the same manner as in other feasts Because this is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bread of poverty Now poor people deal in morsels and here likewise are morsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Bab. Berac fol. 47. 1. Let not him that is to break the bread break it before Amen be pronounced from the mouths of the Answerers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my Body These words being applied to the Passover now newly eaten will be more clear This now is my body in that sense in which the Paschal Lamb hath been my body hitherto And in the twenty eighth verse This is my blood of the New Testament in the same sense as the blood of Bulls and Goats hath been my Blood under the Old Exod. XXIV Heb. IX VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cup. BREAD was to be here at this Supper by Divine Institution but how came the Wine to be here And how much And of what sort I. A Tradition b b b b b b Jerus Pesachin fol 37. 2. It is necessary that a man should chear up his wife and his children for the feast But how doth he chear them up With Wine The same things are cited in the Babylonian Talmud * * * * * * Pesach fol. 109. 1. The Rabbins deliver say they That a man is obliged to chear up his Wife and his Domesticks in the feast as it is said And thou shalt rejoyce in thy feast Deut. XVI 14. But how are they cheared up With wine R. Judah saith Men are cheared up with something agreeable to them Women with that which is agreeable to them That which is agreeable to Men to rejoyce them is Wine But what is that which is agreeable to Women to chear them Rabh Joseph saith Died garments in Babylon and linnin garments in the land of Israel II. Four cups of Wine were to be drunk up by every one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All are obliged to four cups men women and children R. Judah saith But what have children to do with Wine But they give them wheat and nuts c. The Jerusalem Talmudists give the reason of the number in the place before quoted at full Some according to the number of the four words made use of in the history of the Redemption of Israel out of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I will bring forth and I will deliver and I will redeem and I will take Some according to the number of the repetition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cup in Gen. XL. 11. 13. which is four times Some according to the number of the four Monarchies Some according to the number of the four cups of vengeance which God shall give to the Nations to drink Jer. XXV 15. LI. 7. Psal. XI 6. LXXV 8. And according to the number of the four cups which God shall give Israel to drink Psal. XXIII 5. XVI 5. CXVI 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
thus Thou wilt be call'd the Rock and let us apprehend our blessed Lord speaking Prophetically and foretelling that grand error that should spring up in the Church viz. that Peter is a Rock than which the Christian world hath not known any thing more sad and destructive VERS XLVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and see NOthing more common in the Talmudick Authors than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and behold come and see sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS XLVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Israelite indeed COmpare it with Isai. LXIII 8. I saw thee saith Christ when thou wert under the fig-tree What doing there doubtless not sleeping or idling away his time much less doing any ill thing This would not have deserv'd so remarkable an Encomium as Christ gave him We may therefore suppose him in that recess under the fig-tree as having sequestred himself from the view of men either for prayer meditation reading or some such Religious performance and so indeed from the view of men that he must needs acknowledg Jesus for the Messiah for that very reason that when no mortal eye could see he saw and knew that he was there Our Saviour therefore calls him an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile because he sought out that retirement to pray so different from the usual craft and hypocrisie of that Nation that were wont to pray publickly and in the streets that they might be seen of men And here Christ gather'd to himself five Disciples viz. Andrew Peter Philip Nathanael who seems to be the same with Bartholomew and another whose name is not mention'd ver 35. 40. whom by comparing Joh. XXI 2. we may conjecture to have been Thomas VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily Verily IF Christ doubled his affirmation as we here find it why is it not so doubled in the other Evangelists if he did not double it why is it so here I. Perhaps the asseveration he useth in this place may not be to the same things and upon the same occasion to which he useth the single Amen in other Evangelists II. Perhaps also St. John being to write for the use of the Hellenists might write the word in the same Hebrew letters wherein Christ used it and in the same letters also wherein the Greeks used it retaining still the same Hebrew Idiom III. But however it may be observ'd that whereas by all others the word Amen was generally used in the latter end of a speech or sentence our Lord only useth it in the beginning as being himself the Amen Revel III. 14. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai. LXI 16. The God of Truth So that that single Amen which he used in the other Evangelists contained in it the Gemination Amen Amen I the Amen the true and faithful witness Amen i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a truth do say unto you c. Nor did it become any mortal man to speak Amen in the beginning of a sentence in the same manner as our Saviour did Indeed the very Masters of Traditions who seem'd to be the Oracles of that Nation were wont to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak in truth but not Amen I say unto you IV. Amen contains in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea and Amen II Cor. I. 20. Revel I. 7. i. e. truth and stability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai. XXV 1. Interlin Veritas firmitas Faithfulness and truth The other Evanglists express the word which our Saviour useth St. John doubles it to intimate the full sense of it I have been at some question with my self whether I should insert in this place the blasphemous things which the Talmudick Authors belch out against the Holy Jesus in allusion shall I say or derision of this word Amen to which name he entitled himself and by which asseveration he confirm'd his Doctrines But that thou mightest Reader both know and with equal indignation abhor the sâ—arlings and virulency of these men take it in their own words although I cannot without infinite reluctancy alledg what they with all audaciousness have utter'd a a a a a a Schabb. fol. 116. 2. They have a Tradition that Imma Shalom the wife of R. Eliezer and her brother Rabban Gamaliel went to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Philosopher the Gloss hath it a certain Heretick of very great note for his integrity in giving judgment in matters and taking no bribes The woman brings him a golden candlestick and prayeth him that the inheritance might be divided in part to her Rabban Gamaliel objects It is written amongst us that the daughter shall not inherit instead of the son But the Philosopher answer'd Since the time that you were removed from your land the Law of Moses was made void 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Aven was given he means the Gospel but marks it with a scurrilous title and in that it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son and the daughter shall inherit together The next day Rabban Gamaliel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought him a Lybian Ass then saith he unto them I have found at the end of Aven i. e. the Gospel that it is written there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Aven came not to diminish but to add to the Law of Moses where he abuseth both the name of our Blessed Saviour and his words too Mat. V. 17. And now after our just detestation of this execrable blasphemy let us think what kind Judg this must be to whose judgment Rabban Gamaliel the President of the Sanhedrin and his sister wife to the great Eleazar should betake themselves A Christian as it should seem by the whole contexture of the story but alas what kind of Christian that should make so light of Christ and his Gospel However were he a Christian of what kind soever yet if there be any truth in this passage it is not unworthy our taking notice of it both as to the History of those times as also as to that question whether there were any Christian Judges at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ye shall see heaven open and the Angels of God There are those that in this place observe an allusion to Jacob's Ladder The meaning of this passage seems to be no other than this Because I said I saw thee under the fig-tree believest thou Did this seem to thee a matter of such wonder Thou shalt see greater things than these For you shall in me observe such plenty both of revelation and miracle that it shall seem to you as if the heaven's were opened and the Angels were ascending and descending to bring with them all manner of revelation authority and power from God to be imparted to the Son of man Where this also is included viz. that Angels must in a more peculiar manner administer unto him as in the vision of Jacob the whole Host of Angels had been shew'd and promis'd to him in
Synagogues on the Sabbath-day or whether they read them not that is the Hagiographa It is likely that the Sadducees and Samaritans I mean those Samaritans that liv'd about our Saviours time and before might disown the Prophets and the Holy writings much after the same manner and no more For is it at all probable that they were either ignorant of the Histories of Joshua Judges Samuel the Kings and the writings of the Prophets or that they accounted them tales and of no value There were some amongst the Samaritans as Eulogius in Photius q q q q q q Cod. CCXXX tells us who had an opinion that Joshuah the Son of Nun was that Prophet of whom Moses spake that God would raise up to them out of their brethren like to him Do we think then that the History and Book of Joshua were unknown or disown'd by them However I cannot omit without some remarks some few passages we meet with in Sanhedr r r r r r r Fol. 90. 2. The Sadducees asked Rabban Gamaliel whence he could prove it that God would raise the dead from the Law saith he and from the Prophets and from the Holy Writings And accordingly he alledgeth his proofs out of each Book which I hope may not be very tedious to the Reader to take notice of in this place I prove it out of the Law where it is written And the Lord said to Moses Deut. XXXI 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and rise again They say probably it is meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This people will rise up and go a whoring I prove it out of the Prophets according as it is written thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Isa. XXVI 19. But perhaps say they this may be meant of those dead which Ezekiel raised I prove it out of the Hagiographa according as it is writien The roof of thy mouth is like the best wine for my beloved that goeth down sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak Cant. VII 9. But perhaps say they it is meant they move their lips in the world I add say they though it is not I confess in the Gemarists Text because reason and sense makes it evident that this ought to be added and the Gloss confirms it Now it would have been a most absurd thing for Gamaliel to have offer'd any proofs of the Resurrection either out of the Prophets or the Hagiographae against the Sadducees if those Books had been either not known or of no authority amongst them And we see that the Books themselves out of which these proofs were brought were not excepted against but the places quoted had another sense put upon them and pleaded for by them s s s s s s Hieros Jevamoth fol. 3. 1. It is a Tradition of R. Simeon ben Eliezer I said unto the Scribes of the Samaritans ye therefore err because you do not interpret according to R. Nehemiah for it is a Tradition of R. Nehemiah's where ever we meet with a word which ought to have the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning of it if it have it not you must then put an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the end of it e. g. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they answer R. Nehemiah but behold it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now those that return this answer to R. Nehemiah if they be the Samaritan Scribes then do they themselves quote the ninth Psalm But further the Book of Ezekiel is quoted by a Samaritan in this story t t t t t t Ellâ—h haddthherim Rabba fol. 292. 2. 3. Rabban Jonathan went to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neapolis i. e. Sychar of the Samaritans A certain Samaritan was in his company When they came to Mount Gerizzim the Samaritan saith unto him How comes it to pass that we are gotten to this holy mountain R. Jonathan saith how comes this mountain to be holy the Samaritan answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was never plagu'd with the waters of the deluge saith R. Jonathan how prove you this the Samaritan answer'd is it not written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of man say unto her thou art the land not cleansed nor rain'd upon in the day of indignation Ezek. XXII 24. If it were so saith R. Jonathan then should the Lord have commanded Noah to have gone up into this mountain and not have built himself an Ark. We also meet with a Sadducee quoting the Prophet Amos Cholin fol. 87. 1. A certain Sadducee said to a certain Rabbi He that created the Hills did not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spirit or the wind And he that created the wind did not make the hills for it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind Amos V. 13. The Rabbi answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou fool go on but to the end of the verse and thou wilt find the Lord of Hosts is his name That passage also is remarkable x x x x x x Schabb. fol. 116 1. They do not snatch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Books and Volums of the Hereticks from the flames they may be burnt where they are The Gloss is The Books of Hereticks i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolaters or those that use any strange worship who wrote out the Law the Prophets and the Holy writings for their own use in the Assyrian character and holy language But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the place renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They snatch not away the Volums and Books of the Sadducees If by Hereticks the Sadducees are to be understood as the latter Gloss would have it then comparing it with the former they had the Law Prophets and the Holy writings writ in the Assyrian Character in the Holy language If by Hereticks the Christians are understood as in the former Gloss for as to the Gentiles there is no room to understand it of them in this place then we see what Copies of the Old Testament the Hebrew-Christians anciently had in use It may be objected that if the Sadducees admitted the Books of the Prophets and the Holy writings with this exception only that they had them not read in their Synagogues how came they to deny the Resurrection from the dead when it is so plainly asserted in those Books To this may be answer'd that this argument might have something in it if it had not been one fundamental of the Sadducees Faith that no article in Religion ought to be admitted that cannot be made out plainly from the five Books of Moses Compare this with that of the Pharisees y y y y y y Gloss in Sanhedr fol. 90. 1. However any person may acknowledg the Resurrection from the dead yet if he does
26. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All his pleasure There is a dispute in the place newly quoted whether it be lawful to alienate a Synagogue from its sacred to a common use and it is distinguisht betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Synagogue of one man and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a public Synagogue And upon permitting that the former may be alienated but the later not there is this story which I have newly quoted objected to the contrary and this passage further added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Alexandrians build that Synagogue at their own charge which doth both attest to what our sacred Historian mentions of a Synagogue of Alexandrians at Jerusalem and argues that they were divers Synagogues here spoken of one of the Libertines another of the Cyrenians and so of the rest which may be so much the more credible if that be true which is related in the same place viz. that there were CCCCLXXX Synagogues in Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And them of Cilicia Saint Paul seems to have been of this Synagogue but of the School of Gamaliel for the Jewish youth sent out of far Countreys to Jerusalem for education being allotted to this or that Synagogue chose this or that Master for themselves according to their own pleasure Saint Paul had been brought up in a Greek Academy from his very childhood viz. that of Tarsus I call Tarsus both an Academy and a Greek one too upon the credit of Strabo who speaks thus concerning it f f f f f f Geogr. lib. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tarsus was built by the Argives that wandred with Triptolemus in the search of 10. And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They of Tarsus had so great a love to Philosophy and all liberal Sciences that they excelled Athens Alexandria and if there were any other place worth naming where the Schools and disputes of Philosophy and all human arts were maintained Hence is it so much the less strange that Saint Paul should be so well stockt with the Greek Learning and should quote in his discourses the Poets of that nation having been educated in so famous an University from his very youth VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it had been the face of an Angel GOD himself by a miracle bears witness to the innocence of this holy man and shews he had done no wrong to Moses when he makes his face shine as Moses's had formerly done and gave him an Angelical countenance like that of Gabriel for if he had said that Jesus should destroy that place c. he had but said what Gabriel had said before him CHAP. VII VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia g g g g g g Beresh Rabba fol. 32. 3. ABRAHAM is like the friend of a King who when he saw the King walking in darksome Galleries gave light to him by a window which when the King saw he said unto him because thou hast given me light through a window come and give me light before my face So did the Holy Blessed God say to Abraham because thou hast given light to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of my Mesopotamia and its Companious come and give light to me in the Land of Israel Whether or no it be worth the while to enquire why God should term it my Mesopotamia as also what should be the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her Consorts or Companions yet can I not but take notice that this adjunct doth once and again occur in the writings of the Jews h h h h h h Ib. fol. 48. 1. O seed of Abraham my friend I took thee from the ends of the Eurth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. from Mesopotamia and her Companions i i i i i i Ib. fol. 66. 1. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord This is Abraham who walketh in darkness Who came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Mesopotamia and her Consorts and knew not whither like the man that dwelleth in darkness It is written indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it should be out of Spain but I correct it by the authority of the Aruch and indeed the very sense it self corrects it The Gloss hath nothing but this trifling passage in it I have found the interpretation of Mesopotamia viz. that it is the name of a City in Aram Naharaim The Geographers do indeed distinguish betwixt Mesopotamia and Babylon or Chaldaea So in Ptolomys fourth Table of Asia to omit other authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Country of Babylon is bounded on the South lieth Mesopotamia c. And yet Babylon may in some measure be said to be in Mesopotamia partly because it lay between the two Rivers Euphrates and Tigris but especially according to the propriety of Scripture Language because it was beyond the River Which we may take notice was observed by the Vulgar Interpreter in Josh XXIV 3. where what in the Hebrew is I took your Father Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the other side of the flood he hath rendred it I took your Father Abraham De Mesopotamiae finibus from the borders of Mesopotamia Josephus speaking of Abraham and his removing from his Country hath this passage k k k k k k Antiqu. lib. 1. cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore the Chaldeans and other Mesopotamians moving tumults against him he thought fit to remove his seat c. Where we see the Chaldeans amongst others are called those of Mesopotamia Nor indeed without cause when as Eratosthenes in Strabo tells us l l l l l l Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Mesopotamia with the Country of Babylon is contained in that great compass from Euphrates and Tigris And so perhaps the Rabbin newly quoted distinguisheth that that is Mesopotamia which he makes to be called by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Mesopotamia is Charran where the worship of God had been kept up in the family of Nahor and which had been the native Country and breeder up of eleven Patriarchs And so let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her Consorts Babylon and Chaldea for in what other signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here can be taken in I cannot well tell In that Stephen speaks of God appearing to Abraham while he was yet in Chaldea before he removed to Charran when Moses rather ascribes that passage to Terah his Father Gen. XI he speaks with the Vulgar according to the commonly received opinion of his Countrymen Who not only taught that Abraham acknowledged and worshipt the true God even while his Father Terah worshipped Idols bur further that Terah was so zealous an Idolater that he delivered his son Abraham to Nimrod to be cast into a fiery furnace We have the tale in Bereshith Rabba * * * * * * Fol. 42. 2. ridiculous
prove that he was admitted to Communion with the Church by Circumcision That stamped him for an Israelite and joyned him to Israel In Exod. XII 44. But every mans servant that is bought for money when thou hast circumcised him then shall he eat thereof Circumcise him and thou bringest him into Communion then he may eat nay then he must eat the Passover III. Now as he was a member of the Church of the Jews as a Jew and admitted to the full Communion with it by Circumcision so there were two things besides ingaged him that he did not that he might not depart from that Communion 1. The obligation of the Law was upon him for things of Divine Institution And 2. The tenderness of his own Heart not to give offence in things indifferent First The Apostle tells us Gal. IV. 4. That he was made under the Law He was under the Moral Law as Man bound to observe it upon duty as all men are He was also put under it as Mediator that he might fulfil it and so he saith himself Matth. V. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil It is a strange quotation the Apostle makes in Heb. III. to prove that Christ was not ashamed to call his Saints brethren vers 12. I will declare thy Name amongst my brethren that is plain and pregnant but vers 13. And again I will trust in him How doth the proof speak to the thing proposed Why very properly thus As the Saints trusted in God so did he as it was their duty so it was his he being bound as Man to the obedience of the Moral Law as well as any of his and to it as Mediator for the fulfilling of it in behalf of his Nay he was put under the whole Law and oeconomy of Moses the Ceremonial Law which was the great Law of their Religion as well as the Moral Take their Ceremonial Religion in all its relations and he was under the bond of all 1. As it was a badge of distinction to difference an Israelite from all other Nations so he was bound under it as being a Jew 2. As it was a way of Gods instituted Worship so he was bound under it as one Religious 3. As it was the bond of Israels Communion in Gods Worship so he was bound under it as a member of that Church True you will say he was bound to these rites that were of Divine Institution but a great part of their Religion consisted then of Humane Inventions which neither were of Divine Authority nor some of them seemed of any great Solidity Yet Secondly Even in these things whilst they were not sinful in themselves he would not break off Communion from the way of their Religion because he would not give offence That reason that he gives about paying the half Shekel went along with him in other things Matth. XVIII 27. Lest we give them offence He might have stood upon the argument that he useth in vers 26. his own immunity from such payments as being the great Kings Son to whom they were paid He might have stood against the present imployment of the mony so paid It was for the repair of the Temple and now the Temple was become a den of thieves It was for buying things for the service at the Altar and he might have pleaded the corruption of the Priests and of the service but he stands not out but complies upon this account lest we should give them offence When he had healed a Leper in Matth. VIII 4. He commands him to go and shew himself to the Priest and to offer his gift due upon such occasions And why should he injoin him the ordinary observance when his cleansing was extraordinary Why should he send him to undergo the common rites of cleansing when he was intirely cleansed already And these rites also seeming not to carry much solidity with them For he must stand in the Court gate of the Temple and not himself go in but thrust his head in that the blood of his offering might be put upon the tip of his ear For neither might the blood be brought out of the Court because it was holy nor might he go into the Court because he was not yet cleansed but thus standing and thrusting in his head he saved both cautions A strange rite and posture you will say yet will Christ for all that have the man to undergo those common rites used in that part of Service because he would not give offence either by crossing or hindring His own precept speaks not only his own practise but even his own mind and sence and he would never go contrary to that to which he exhorted others in Matth. XXIII 1. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair they are the chief Magistrates and sit in the Legislative chair therefore whatsoever they command you in things not sinful do And it was a great deal easier to bring in sinless humane inventions into Divine Worship then than it is under the Gospel For when even their whole Religion given and appointed by God himself consisted namely of Ceremony it was less to add Ceremony to Ceremony than it is now under the Gospel whose simplicity hath excluded such Ceremoniousness altogether God by Moses had given general rules for Sacrifice Purifications Worship and other things Now there were some particulars necessary for the carrying on of those generals which either were not at all or not plainly set down by Moses Now if the Learned Leaders of that Nation finding it needful that something should be stated in those particulars and did according to their best judgment determine such and such things it was but helping forward Ceremoniousness by Ceremoniousness and stating particular practises suitable to the general end and intent which how any Ceremoniousness may be to the Gospels is not so easie if possible at all to find out or digest And therefore although I would set before you the great example of our Lord and Master of holding Communion with the Church yet upon this very thing that we are now speaking of it may give every one a time to consider whether Humane Inventions do so well and sinlesly comply with Divine Worship now as they might do then And thus having considered Christs obligations to hold Communion now let us come to observe his practise And that we shall take up in these two heads His Publick Devotions and his Gospel Institutions And the former in observing his demeanor at the Festivals in Jerusalem and in the Synagogue As to the first God appointed the three Festivals Passover Pentecost and of Tabernacles for Religion and for Communion and for Communion the rather I say for Communion the rather For the Services that Israel were to perform at them at Jerusalem might have been done by them there had they severally gone up thither but God would have them to go up and meet there altogether and to do those things altogether that he might tie them
of the Covenant I need not instance hundreds of places do evidence it But what could any one see in the Ark that might speak Gods Covenant There was indeed the Mercy seat upon it and the two Cherubims at the several ends of it and the cloud oft between and this was all that any Israelite could see that looked upon it But this was not that that intitled it to that Title but the two Tables of the Law that were in it And so Moses himself doth make the exposition Exod. XXXIV 28. He wrote upon the Tables the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments Deut. IX 11. At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two Table of stone the Tables of the Covenant And to spare more instances you find the terms Covenant and Commands to be convertible or to mean one and the same thing Psal. CV 8. He hath remembred his Covenant the word which he Commanded And Psal. CXI 9. He Commanded his Covenant for ever He Commanded his Covenant a strange expression and a comfortless expression as one would think his Covenant to be nothing but a company of impossible Commands his Covenant to be nothing but a Law the Ministration of which the Apostle tells us was the Ministration of death II Cor. III. As he I thought he would have stroked his hand over the sore and prayed and he bids only Go wash in Jordan So one would think it should be said He hath promised tendred ingaged his Covenant and it comes off only with this He hath Commanded his Covenant And here we are come to the great question Under what notion the Moral Law stands in the Covenant of grace You know who they were that have held and I doubt too many hold it at this day that to Israel it was a Covenant of Works and thereupon infer that Christians are delivered from the obligation of the Moral Law because they are not under the Covenant of Works but the Covenant of Grace And accordingly they understand that distinction of the old Covenant and new mentioned so much by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the old Covenant means the Moral Law and the new Covenant the Gospel To these men let me first speak in the style of God to Abraham Gen. XV. 5. Look up to Heaven and count the Stars if thou canst number them So look up to Heaven and see the old Moon and the new and observe them Are they really two several Moons No but one and the same Moon under various shapes Or look on the Earth upon a person now Regenerated he was before an old Creature now he is a new II Cor. V. 17. What is he now a really distinct person from what he was before No but of a different condition only the same man but his condition and temper changed So the Covenant of Grace is the same like Christ the chief Tenor of the Covenant yesterday and to day and the same for ever the same from the first day that it was given to Adam to the last day of the World and till Time shall be no more The same under the Law the same under the Gospel but clothed in different garments in administrations of various fashions The Covenant of Grace to the Jew was Believe in Christ and be saved as it is to us as the Apostle clears in all his Epistles more particularly in Heb. XI But to them God added thus Because the Doctrine of Christ is not yet so clear use these Ceremonies which figure out the actings and Office of Christ the Priesthood his Mediating the Sacrifices his Death cleansing with Blood his purging of Sin and the like And because no other people is yet to be admitted to the Church and true Religion but themselves use these Ceremonies to distinguish you from all other people till time come that the Gentiles come to be admitted So that these Ceremonies were not the Covenant of Grace to them nor a Covenant of Works to them but only the manner and mode of the administration of the Covenant of Grace till the Gospel should come which when it came and Christ was come then the Doctrine of Christ was clear and all Nations were come in then were these Ceremonies laid aside and a clean different administration of the Covenant of Grace brought in and under these reasons are these different administrations called the old and new Covenant So that the Ceremonial part of the Law is called the old Covenant but the Moral doth not fall under that title nor vanish as the other did And secondly To these that we are speaking of let me propose this question Did God go backward in his Covenanting first to give a Covenant of Grace to Adam when he had broke his Covenant of Works and after to give a Covenant of Works to Israel and to lay by his Covenant of Grace The Sun in the sky stood still once and went backward once but the glorious Son of Righteousness that rose in the Covenant of Grace the first day of Adam never stood still never went back but is still keeping his course to save by Grace to save in the Covenant of Grace and not by Works If I go to Jonathans house again saith Jeremy I shall surely die and if God send man back to a Covenant of Works when Adam himself failed in his Covenant of Works man is but lost for ever And thirdly Let us read the Draught of the Covenant it self This Indenture made betwixt the great God and poor dust and ashes sinful and miserable witnesseth That God of his infinite Love and Grace and Mercy doth promise and demise and let to this poor creature Grace and Glory interest in himself and Heaven Provided always That man keep his Law and do those Commands that God lays upon him For God could not make a Covenant of Grace but it must include Commandments and a Law unless he would have conditioned thus with him Do what thou wilt live as thou wilt Eat Drink Revel be Epicure be Atheist and yet thou shalt enjoy me for ever thou shalt be blessed for ever We may tremble at such Language The Stool of wickedness could do no more And how cheap and vile a thing were God if to be enjoyed on such terms as these Man as he is a Creature must have a Law from his Creator or else God should resign his authority and let man be his own God Our obedience to God is founded in God himself If God be God serve him an argument so urgent that t is never to be dissolved And therefore that clause is set before the ten Commandments and set after divers Commands afterwards I am the Lord as an argument sufficient to challenge obedience There is nothing can dissolve the bond of mans obedience to his Creator unless God would cease to be God for if God be God serve him And therefore the Covenanting for Grace is so far from abating of a
at Jerusalem sat near the Altar of burnt offerings half the room where they sat being in that holy Court where the Altar stood And they thought they were bound to sit so near the Altar as long as they might and they thought they were bound while they sat there to execute impartial justice because of the nearness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine presence which they accounted was always upon the Altar A very needful useful and proper conception and remembrance for every Court of Judicature to take up to think how near the Divine presence is unto them to overlook them how God is close by them near unto them nay as David tells us sitting among them seeing and observing their doing and demeanour in that great employment Therefore being to speak to such a Court if I should be so bold a◠to take on me to direct the way to the impartial administration of justice I could find no more proper way of direction in that case than to mind you of the noble copy you have before you viz. the great Judge Or if I should set my self to exhort to the execution of it I could use no more enforcing and perswasive arguments or exhortations than to mind you how near this great Judge is unto you Behold the Judge standeth before the door But do we behold him Could we see him with these bodily eyes as we see that honourable Person I should need to say no more Such a sight would be Text and Sermon enough and enough again for us But is there no other eye to see him that is invisible It is a true Christians motto I have set the Lord always before me and he sees him though he sees him not and with God in his eye he frameth all his demeanor and carriage and lives and walks and does and suffers and dies as seeing him that is invisible as it is said of Moses Heb. XI 27. But to see him as the great Judge is as I may say a second contemplation of God and as needful as the first The first I call that when the Soul contemplates God as the chiefest choicest only and most desirable Good and so all its affections desires and longings are laid out upon him striving for the enjoyment of him But withal the good soul contemplates God so as to make him his fear and his dread as well as his portion and delight he owns him infinitely just as well as he owns him infinitely good and as he looks upon him as his God so he looks upon him as his Judge Job IX 15. Whom though I were right yet would I not answer but I would make supplication to my Judge Such a Contemplation of God may the very present occasion call upon us to take up For can so great and remarkable an occasion pass us without some spiritual reflection and heavenly meditation Occasional meditation is a second sacred concoction as I may call it that when the body or sence hath or hath had the use of an earthly occurrence turns it to the good and nourishment of the soul. And shall such an occasion as this you are now entring on pass without some such beneficial spiritual improvement For what kind of heart does he carry that can see the day of an Assise and never think of the great day of judgment that can see a Judge a tribunal arraignings sentencings and never remember that We must all stand before the tribunal seat of Christ nor remember with himself For all these things God will bring thee to judgment Therefore Sursum Corda let us lift up our hearts and let their thoughts carry us beyond sight and sence and pick up the hony of some spiritual meditation from so noble a flower And the Text in some particulars directs us how to do it viz. that as we see the Judge already come and ready to enter upon the work of the Assise so to remember the great Assise is coming the great Judge is coming For he cometh for he cometh to judge the Earth Nay behold he standeth behold he standeth before the door But there may be some question what is our Apostles immediate and most intent and direct sence in these words For there are several expressions of the like nature in Scripture which seem to intend more especially the nearness of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation For as Christs pouring down his vengeance in the destruction of that City and people is called his coming in his glory and his coming in judgment and as the destruction of that City and Nation is charactered in Scripture as the destruction of the whole World so there are several passages that speak of the nearness of that destruction that are suited according to such characters Such is that in 1 Cor. X. 11. Upon us the ends of the world are come 1 Pet. IV. 7. The end of all things is at hand Heb. X. 37. Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry And to the very same tendency may this be in the words of the Text Behold the Judge standeth before the door As also that in the Verse before The coming of the Lord draweth nigh There is very much mention in Scripture of the last days and both of exceeding much good and exceeding much evil that should accrew in them Our present dealing is about the latter By the last days are meant the last days of Jerusalem and of that Nation And there is foretold of them that in the last days there should be perillous times 2 Tim. III. 1. That in the last days there should come mockers 2 Pet. III. 3. That in the last times there should come many Antichrists which was an evidence that those were the last times 1 Joh. II. 18. Under those sad times did the poor professors of the Gospel live till God gave them some recovery and refreshment by the ruine of the City and Nation They were times of mockings and scourgings and imprisonments and of most bitter persecution of the Church both by the Jews that never believed and by Apostates that had believed but were revolted from the Gospel and become enemies to it A sad hour of temptation Rev. III. 10. Judgment began at the house of God 1 Pet. IV. 17. A fiery tryal at the thirteenth verse of the same Chapter Therefore the Apostles to bear up the hearts of the poor persecuted and afflicted Saints of God mind them concerning Christs coming in vengeance against that City and people to make an end of the persecution by making an end of the persecutors Instances might be given of this numerously if I would insist upon it Such an one I suppose is that in the verse before Be patient Brethren till the coming of the Lord Be patient for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh And that in the verse of the Text Grudge not Brethren one against another lest you be condemned with them that grudge at you
distinction is taught by phrases that speak both parties viz. them that profess and them that do not and sometimes by a single word that speaks them that profess only I will mention these few 1. 1 Cor. VII 12 13. But to the rest speak I not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away And the woman which hath an husband which believeth not and if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him Brother in opposition to unbeliever The Apostle here starts the point of Christians married with infidels whether they should divorse because of Religion and what rank their Children were in To the rest speak I not the Lord. He spake not without the Lord but he means that there was not a Text for this case in the Law See vers 10. And unto the married I command yet not I but the Lord. Let not the wife depart from her husband And see Chap. IX 8. Say I these things as a man or saith not the Law the same also If any brother i. e. Christian. See 1 Cor. V. 11. If any man that is called a brother be a Fornicator or Covetous c. whereby Brother is plainly meant a Christian. A wife that believeth not viz. a Pagan And so along The same case is handled 2 Cor. VI. 15. What concord hath Christ with Belial and what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel There Believer and Infidel are opposed Believer here is as large as professor in opposition to Jew or Pagan 2. Those Phrases Within and Without 1 Cor. V. 12. What have I to do to judge them that are without do not ye judge them that are within It is a Jewish phrase and they straiten the sence that take those that are without to be meant of Christians In one word sometime Believer alone the opposite not named Act. II. 44. And all that believed were together and had all things common And here whole families children and all are understood Sometime Disciples and Christians Act. XI 26. The Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch In this sence Church most commonly is taken viz. for the Professors of Christ in opposition to Jews and Pagans that professed him not XVI Matth. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church Which is meant of the Church of the Gentiles in general So III. Ephes. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God So by Saints are meant nothing else but Professors of Christian Religion 1 Cor. VI. 1 2. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to Law befare the unjust and not before the Saints Do ye not know that the Saints shall Judge the World And VII Chap. 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were their children unclean but now are they holy Now are they Saints answering to the usual Hebrew phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Sanctitate Here is a study for a young Divine to be setled in the sense of these words There are great divisions and great misconstruction of one another from mistake of these things II. That God hath appointed Sacraments as external and visible marks whereby to sign out this distinction Badges of Homage as in the Text Disciple all Nations baptizing them So under the Law Circumcision served for that end to be a mark of a Jew and therefore the Heathen are called uncircumcised And when some of the circumcised seed degenerated that they wanted that mark to distinguish them then God ordained the Passover So under the Gospel Baptism is the Mark as in the Text. Children are baptized that there may be none in our families that bear not the badge of Homage Christ ordained it for this end to badge out the owning of his Power and to introduce into the Profession of him III. Gal. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. See Joh. III. 5. Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Speech is there had of Christs Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth or the state under Christ. See vers 2 3. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said unto him Rabbi we know thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Where mark how Christs answer suits He observed in Nicodemus words signifying that he thought he saw the dawning of the Kingdom of Heaven and now it was that the Jews thought it would come upon them and this further confirmed him that Christ was the Messias To this therefore Christ answers and intimates to Nicodemus to be baptized Why would Christ himself be baptized Because he would own the proper way of introduction into the Gospel which he was now to preach So the Lords Supper is a badge of this distinction See 1 Cor. X. 14 16. Wherefore my dearly beloved flee from Idolatry The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ As much as if he should have said because we have the Sacrament of the Communion of the body and blood of Christ therefore avoid Idolatry It is the badge of those that profess Christ in opposition to Heathenism I might speak how the word Sacrament speaks such distinction but that is well enough known III. As Baptism hath several coordinate ends so all or most of them are suitable to that that we are speaking of viz. introducing into the Profession of Christ. Both Sacraments have several ends therefore it is proper in the dispute now about them to consider whether it is fit to apply them to one only end 1. Baptism hath a doctrinal end It is a visible word Loquitur Deus ut videas As it is a visible sign so a visible doctrine As God speaks in Jer. II. 31. O generation see ye the Word of the Lord. The Lord to come home to our capacity brings divine things to our eyes 1 Joh. I. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon Thus Baptism when we see it administred reads the doctrine of our natural defilement and purging from it Ezek. XXXVI 25. is so understood Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you So circumcision in the member of generation shewed a check to our
III. An Instance or two of the practise of all the Church And all this will serve for illustrating the second thing I propounded for the clearing this Duty viz. Secondly The Evidence of the use of it in the first times I. Our Saviour the very next thing he did after signing sealing and sanctionating the New Testament was to sing a Psalm And who then can doubt of the institution of this as a New Testament-duty Matth. XXVI 28. 29 30. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom And when they had sung an Hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives Let us stick here a little and from this singing of an hymne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may observe three things 1. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number Beza approves of Erasmus here for departing from the Vulgar That hath it Hymno dicto He cum cecinissent Beza hereupon Ut intelligatur Apostolos una cum Christo cecinisse That men might understand that the Apostles joyned with Christ in singing And very true for it was the custom among the Jews in all companies that celebrated the Passover so to do for though one chiefly rehearsed yet all had some share in the Quire And so in the case in the Text though the Psalm were of their own composing yet the Congregation bare some part in it as Miriam with Moses XV. Exod. 21. Apostolos cecinisse the Apostles sung Was Judas there or no I wonder it is not confessed by all the World it is so plain that he eat the Passover received the Sacrament and stayed the Psalm and was present till all rose from the Table And Christ knew him and yet gave the Psalm and sung with the whole Table And Peter and John knew him and yet it were peevishness to think that they joined not in the Quire when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they had sung What can they say to this that refuse to joyn with us in this exercise Will they can they say that Judas was not there But if that be granted that he was gone yet at the eating the Passover it is well known every company sung together without bogling 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having sung What The very same that every company did viz. The great Hallel as it was called which began at the CXIII Psalm and ended at the end of the CXVIII No expositor but grants this and no reason to the conrary for Christ complied with all the rites of the Passover and started not from them in this Here the Lord of David sings the Psalms of David What Christ saith by way of posing If David in Spirit call him Lord how is he his Son We may say the like by way of admiration If David in spirit call him Lord how did he descend to make use of his Poetry What says our Caviller now Set forms are too strait for the Spirit He that had the Spirit above measure thinks not so but useth such He that gave the Spirit to David to compose sings what he composed That All-blessed Copy of peace and order could have indited himself could have inspired every Disciple to have been a David but submits to order which God had appointed sings the Psalms of David and tenders the Peace of the Church and takes the same course the whole Church did 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having sung a Hymn In what Language Here is a question indeed and that might provoke a Scholastical dispute both in Divinity and Antiquity In Divinity Did they sing in the original Hebrew That was not now understood In Antiquity Had they a translation of the Psalms and Hagiographa now Yea they had the LXX But all that sung understood not the LXX But had they a Vulgar Translation in their own Tongue This draws into another question viz. What was their Tongue I should answer Not the Syriack we now read but the old Syriack or Chaldee which they call Turgumica And I should answer to the former question That they had the Hagiographa now in the Tongue as well as the Prophets of Jonathans translation and I find in both Talmuds that each speaks to it to confirm it However who thinks they sung in a Tongue they understood not or in any other but the Vulgar And here is our warrant for our framing the Psalms into our Tongue and Metre Thus have we seen the Example nay institution of our great Master II. Now let us hear our great Apostle the Apostle of the Gentiles In two places he speaks to this subject besides what he says in this Chapter Ephes. V. 18 19. Be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. And Col. III. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom Teaching and Admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Where let us take up three things as we did in the former 1. Observe how spiritual a pitch he set this at and what elevation of Heart he ascribes to it Be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymus c. It is the very vent and issue whereby a spiritual frame breaks out in its chiefest demonstration The more we are filled with the Spirit the more we break out this way and a most fit vent it is to the Spirit when both Tongue and Heart speak and put forth themselves in their best vigor by singing to the praise of God when the heart is full of spiritual fervor this excellent way So in that place to the Colossians Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you When it does it will break out in all wisdom and in Teaching and Admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns c. 2. Observe the three Titles he useth Psalms Hymns Spiritual Songs They are variously indeed taken but very generally for the Psalms of David Psalms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Psalms upon any subject Hymns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Psalms of Praise Spiritual Songs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cantica magis artificiosa Psalms about which is employed greater art and curiosity Others differ upon particulars but agree upon this that by these three are meant the Psalms of David and other Songs in Scripture What If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the Psalms of David upon any subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymns be such Psalms as are picked out and used for special occasions as Hallel those of Degrees and for every day So that word seems to imply from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is used to express the Psalms that Christ and his Apostles
and all destroyed before Christ came in the flesh as is apparently to be observed there They were the Babylonian Mede-Persian Grecian and Syro-Grecian and after them rose the fift this of the Roman And which is observable and which may be observed out of Roman Records It began most properly to be a Monarchy that very year that our Saviour was born as might be shewed out of Dion c. if material and so Christ and this Roman Beast born and brought forth at the very same time Well the Devil gave his Seat and Power to this Beast this City If you look for any thing but Devilishness and mischief from it you look for Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles True there was in the beginning of the Gospel a flock of Christ there holy and their Faith famous Rom. I. 8. but poor men they were underlings and of no power We speak of Rome in its pomp and power acting in its authority and dominion as it ruled over all the World and as it was invested in the Authority and Seat of the Dragon himself And why did the Devil give his Seat and Power and great Authority to it You may easily guess for what viz. that it should be an enemy to that and them to whom he himself was chiefly an Enemy Christ and his Gospel and his People We cannot say that Rome conquered Nations and subdued Kingdoms by the power of the Dragon so properly as that Rome fought against Christ and his Gospel and People by the power of the Dragon And this was the very end why the Dragon gave him his Seat and Power And that City hath done that work for her Lord and Master the Dragon as faithfully zealously constantly as the Dragon himself could have done For indeed the spirit of the Dragon hath all along acted her and been in her The first cast of her office for her Master and which shews what she would do all along for him was that she murthered Christ himself the Lord of life I said before that it is not said of the Monarchies before that the Dragon gave his power and his seat and great authority to them nor indeed could it so properly be said of them as of Rome For the Dragon had something for Rome to do which they did not could not viz. to murther the Saviour of the World the Lord of Glory In Rev. XI 8. where mention is made of the witnesses Prophesying and being martyred it is said Their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified When you hear of the City where our Lord was crucified you will think of Jerusalem but when you hear of the great City this Apostle teaches us to look at Rome And who can but observe that which our Saviour himself saith concerning himself Luke XVIII 32 33. The Son of man shall be delivered to the Gentiles and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated and spitted on And they shall scourge him and put him to death Who was it that so spitefully entreated and put to death the Son of God The Gentiles And who those Gentiles The Evangelists tells you who Pilate the Roman Governor and the Roman Souldiers and that by the Authority and Tyranny of Rome and in the cause of Rome that would have no King but Cesar. There were two Nations that had a hand in the conspiracy of Christs murther the Jew and the Roman and whether of them deeper in the murther The Evangelists tell and the Jews themselves tell that the Roman must do it or it could not be done Joh. XVIII 31. Pilate said unto them Take ye him and judge him according to your Law the Jews therefore said unto him It is not lawful for us to put any man to death Therefore thou must do it or it will not be done And he did it And now as Hannibals father brought him to an Altar and engaged him in an oath to be an enemy to Rome so let me bring your thoughts to Christs cross and engage your hearts in such another enmity Christian it was Rome that murthered thy Saviour and need I to say any more As oft as you read repeat the History of our Saviours bitter passion remember Rome for it was Rome that caused him so to suffer and Pontius Pilate brought him to it by the Authority of Rome And the very frame of the Article in the Creed Suffered under Pontius Pilate hints you to observe and remember such a thing For if it had meant to intimate Christs sufferings only it had been enough to have said He suffered without saying any more but when he saith He suffered under Pontius Pilate it calls you to think of that Power and Tyranny by which he suffered viz. the Power and Tyranny of Rome which Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor acted and exercised And here let us argue with a Romanist according to the cue of his own Logick He saith Peter was at Rome c. Ergo. We argue likewise Pilate was at Jerusalem c. Ergo. Here was a sad beginning and that which speaks plainly why it was that the Devil made Rome his Deputy and invested it in his Seat and Power viz. that it might murther his great enemy the Lord Christ. And this was but too plain a prognostick what it would do to the members of Christ in succeeding generations which how it did there are so many thousand stories written in blood that I need not to mention them I might begin with the Ten Persecutions raised by the Heathen Emperors against the Professors of Christ and his Gospel wherein so many thousand poor Christians were destroyed with the most exquisite torments that could be invented and whereby that City and Empire shewed how zealously it wrought for its Master and would not spare the dry tree when it had cut down the green would not spare Christ in his members who had so little spared him himself in his own person But a Papist will say True indeed Heathen Rome was even as you say but Papal Rome is of another kind of temper It is the Church of Christ the Mother Church the chief of Churches It was Babylon and Sodom and Egypt in the Heathen Emperors time and the seat of the Devil but under the Popes it is Jerusalem Sion and the City of God I should ask him that pleads thus one question and ere ever I should turn Romanist I I. would be resolved of but I doubt the infallible chair it self is not able to resolve it and that is this Whence it is that since the Jew that had a hand in murthering Christ hath laid under a curse ever since and hath been utterly cast off of God for it and is like to be to the end how comes it to pass that the Roman that had a hand as deep in that horrid act if not deeper should be so blessed as to be the only people and
a man does or should do when he makes a Vow And first let us begin with this question Whether a man be bound to make Vows or no Is a man bound to lay such a bond upon his Soul It is enjoyned Psal. LXXVI 11. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God Let all that are round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be seared Now doth this bind a man to make Vows or only bind him to pay them if he have made them And if it bind to make Vows doth it bind under the Gospel as well as under the Law where most of their Vows were vowing of sacrifices And so that latter clause of the words cited give intimation Bring presents c. And so some construe that Eccles. V. 4 6. If thou hast made a Vow defer not to pay it Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say before the Angel it was an error Where by Angel they understand the Priest that should receive the sacrifice Thou Vowedest say not before him thou wast mistaken Now for the resolution of this Question many things are to be spoken and especially the nature of a just Vow considered To the constitution then of a lawful Vow these two things are requisite and essential I. That it be for a Religious end II. That it have a Religious warrant And both these must be concurrent else a Vow cannot be lawful A Vow is a matter of Religion by which a man ties himself in a bond to God and Religiousness must be that that must give it life and warrant The Scripture calls a Vow a bond laid by the person that Vows upon the Soul in the place above cited And therefore the thing refers unto the Soul and so is something betwixt the Soul and God To bind the Soul in reference to any thing of the World is both contrary to the interest of the Soul and not agreeable to the proper nature of a Vow I will instance in one as likely colourable and common as may be viz. A Vow never to be surety nor bound for any man This may be a good resolution possibly but hardly possibly a good Vow For a Resolution and a Vow may admit of a clear distinction And a man may resolve wisely justly and warrantably such and such things concerning his estate and affairs in the World Whereas such Resolutions may not be fit to be turned into Vows Thou mayest do wisely in resolving never to be bound for any man or to resolve I will spend but thus much weekly monthly or yearly in houskeeping But thou mayest not do wisely or warrantably to bind thy self to these things by a Vow to bind thy Soul under a bond and consequently under a curse if thou break thy bond for such worldly things as these To call in God to witness and to engage to him about such earthly concerns as these The Phrase of the Apostle is observable 1 Cor. VII 36. where he is speaking of Virginity which the Papists would bring under a Vow If any man thinketh he behaveth himself unseemly towards his Virgin if she pass the flower of her age and need so require let him do what he will Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his Virgin he doth well You find not here either Vow of Virginity or oath not to marry but only a steady resolution Standing steadfast in his heart and decreeing in his heart not laying any bond of Vow or oath upon his Soul You find not in Scripture of any Vow of any good man but it was aimed at a Religious end and in tendency to the service of God and not to any worldly interest or respect I mean when considerately made Such an one was Jacobs Gen. XXVIII 20. Such another Vow was that of David Psal. CXXXII 2. And without all controversie Pauls Vow Act. XVIII 18. had a higher aim and end than any earthly or worldly concernment Nay even men of no Religion yet accounted that a Vow aimed at a religious end Even Absalom when he made his Vow in Geshur pretends to such an end 2 Sam. XV. 8. And the mariners in the Ship with Jonah sacrificed Sacrifices and vowed Vows Jonah I. 16. And their Sacrifices and Vows without question looked both the same way and aimed at the same end religious worship And that Vow that the Israelites made Numb XXI 2. Israel vowed a Vow unto the Lord and said if thou wilt deliver and give this people into mine hand then I will utterly destroy their Cities Though it may seem somewhat hard and unreasonable yet they aimed at a religious end in it viz. obedience to Gods command that had enjoyned them to destroy the Canaanites and not to spare them These Vows mentioned you see were Conditional and the persons ingaged in them desired in them as it were to bind God to do something for them and they engaged to do something for God But there were and are vows absolute and without any such condition whereby men out of conscience of their duty bound or bind themselves to as strict obedience and service of God as they can such is that of David Psal. CXIX 106. I have sworn and will perform it to keep thy righteous judgments And such was the general end of the vow of the Nazarites to set themselves peculiarly to some service of God Numb VI. 2. When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto the Lord. Nazaritism was properly a Vow of humiliation that a man would chastise himself and deny himself his ordinary delight of liberty and neatness I say of liberty for he bound himself to a strict avoiding of every thing that might desile him And this required not a little care and circumspection and denied him that liberty of walking at freedom that he might have had It is said of Elizabeth the Mother of the Baptist that when she conceived with child she hid her self five months And why Because she carried a Nazarite in her womb lest she should be any prejudice to the Nazarite she bore by lighting upon any thing unclean to defile her She thus reclused her self from all company that she might be sure to be far from all defilement And the Nazarite denied himself the liberty of eating or meddling with any thing that came of the Vine Wine Grapes Raisins or any thing the Vine bred And I say he denied himself of the common neatness and comliness that both he might have had and every body else had And that was in that he let his hair grow and did not cut it as others did For however long hair among us be accounted a bravery and men be grown effeminate like women yet among the Jewish Nation it was accounted cloan contrary a sluttery nastiness and deformity And they
is very tender and loving to our Souls It is the great dispute Whether an Infant in Baptism be capable to have a Vow and bond laid upon him And thereupon some deny Infant baptism because he is not able to stipulate or take any bond upon him for he knows not what a bond or a Vow means Man is born as a wild Asses colt saith Job and a wild Asse colt little understands any religious concernment and an Infant when he is baptized as little Very true and yet Anabaptists cannot say A wild Asse colt is as fit to have a bond laid upon him as an Infant An Infant hath a Soul and ows duty to God a wild Asse colt wants both which moves God to deal after another manner with an Infant than with an Asse colt An Infant hath sin and guilt upon it and so hath not an Asse colt and upon this account also God deals in another manner with an Infant than an Asse colt An Infant is born a child of wrath as the Apostle saith all are Ephes. II. 2. God surprizes it as soon as born and makes it enter into bonds with him that it may come out of the state of wrath But further in answer to this objection consider these three things I. The child indeed then understands not what it does and cannot stipulate again in words to God as God by his Word doth to it but the very equity of the things that God lays upon it doth tie the child in the bond and wrap him in the obligation as justly and forceably as if the child had said Amen to every particular For it is the equity of Gods commands that lays the obligation of obedience upon men and not their own consent For as the Prophet speaks whether they hear or whether they forbear yet the obligation lies upon them Because it is so meet fit and just that they should do what God commands them By this equity God lays his obligations upon us in our baptismal bond And though as Infants we cannot understand nor consent to it yet by the justness of the things enjoyned we are inwrapped in it And Gods Vows are upon us and the more because he lays them on for our good viz. to deliver us from the wrath under which we are born The bond is to forsake the Devil and his works to believe in God and to serve him And can there be any thing more just and equal And though we are not then able to give consent to the bond and obligation and though none others should undertake for us yet doth not the very equity of the thing required oblige us II. God by the continual preaching of his Word minds us of the obligation We know not what we did nor what it was laid upon us but he all along now teaches us to know it and daily is refreshing to us the sight and sense of our bond and as it were anew tying it on It is considerable that the Commands are called the Covenant and the two Tables of the Ten Commandments the Tables of the Covenant And whose Covenant Both Gods and Mans. Gods because God hath indented with man upon such conditions And Mans especially because the condition of the obligation is his And God is continually warning him that it is his obligation There is a voice behind him continually telling him this is his duty III. As God in Baptism lays his obligation upon us when we knew not of it and in preaching of the Word is continually urging of us to know it so in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper he would have us willingly and knowingly to take it upon us They know not what the Lords Supper means that own not an obligation in it As in that Sacrament there is taught living by Christ so there is challenged a living to him The Sacrament reads that Christ died for men and that very thing reads that men are not to live to themselves There is a benefit pertaking of Christ to live by him but there is an obligation also a bond to live to him For as the Covenant is obligatory so this seal or administration of the Covenant is so too Now he that in receiving the Sacrament owns not such an obligation and takes not that bond upon him understands not what he does And if his heart do not engage to live to Christ as much as he desires to live by Christ he seeks to serve his own turn and not Christs A SERMON Preached upon 1 KINGS XIII 24. And when he was gone a Lion met him by the way and slew him and his carcass was cast in the way And the Asse stood by it the Lion also stood by the carcass IN this Chapter there is mention of one or two miracles and there is intimation of two wonders The miracles are the Altar at Bethel renting and Jeroboams head withered and at the Prophets prayer restored again The wonders are that so brave a Prophet should be deceived as he was should be destroyed as he was and its wondrous that the Lion that destroyed him should not also destroy his Asse I know you know the story He was sent to cry out against the Idolatrous Altar at Bethel and so he did He is commanded not to eat or drink in that place and he did not though the King kindly invited him home But by the deceiving of another Prophet he is brought back again when he was got out of Town he eats and drinks in the Town contrary to what he was commanded and when he goes out again a Lion meets him by the way and kills him There is no difficulty at all in the wordsof the story it is very easie to be understood but there is mysteriousness in the providential disposal of God that appears in the story I. The good Prophet to be so destroyed How would this incourage Jeroboam and the Idolaters at Bethel in their Idolatry Oh! this man was but a false Prophet all he said against our golden Calf and Altar was but a scarbabe for otherwise he would never have come to such an end And how might they boast that their new God at Bethel had met with him for his sauciness against him II. And how might this discourage other Prophets to go on the message of the Lord when this poor man sped no better than to be killed with a Lion III. That one Prophet should so deceive another as the old Prophet at Bethel deceived this poor man to his undoing by telling a lye and making him transgress the command of God How might this disadvantage the function and credit of the Prophets for who will believe them when they lie one to another and deceive one another IV. A poor man to be cheated and deceived into a transgression having that fair excuse The old Prophet did deceive me and I did it And yet to be so dreadfully punished for it as that it must cost him his life and in such a manner too as to be
when Nathan tells him the Lord hath done away thy sin but the punishment followed viz. the Sword which was not to depart from his house And the reason of his punishment was because he had given occasion to the enemy to blaspheme therefore God to vindicate his own honour and the honour of Religion punished him that men might see that God was righteous and hated iniquity wheresoever he saw it Secondly Let us remember here that strange passage Amos III. 2. You have I known of all the families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities You have I known owned chosen of all the families of the Earth What then One would think he should infer Therefore I will not punish you but he says the contrary Therefor I will The children of God are punished many and many a time as to temporal punishments when wicked and ungodly men scape This poor holy man falls under so sad a fate while Jeroboam the wickedest wretch upon Earth that made all Israel to sin eats and drinks and sleeps and no hurt comes to him Some will think that speaks strangely others will think it speaks as they would have it in Hos. IV. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery This is as they would have it for then they may whore and drab and adulterate and fear no colours But that is a sad Diapason Jer. V. ult What will you do in the end thereof And that 2 Pet. II. 9. God knoweth how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished That of the Apostle may state the case on both hands 1 Cor. XI 32. When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World When wicked men are not judged it is a sore sign that they are to be condemned with the World When God neither judgeth them nor they judge themselves there will be a judgment to come will pay for all For a man to go on uncontrouled in his sinning is the very preface of destruction and especially if his own conscience do not now and then controul him for that is sometime the whip wherewith God doth chasten God saith of some persons I will not punish I will not chasten him when he sins against me but Let Ephraim alone he is joyned to Idols so let him be Let the Scribes and Pharisees alone they are blind leaders of the blind and let them be so still Wouldst thou change thy afflicted state with one of these Wouldst thou part with thy smarting conscience for such â—eared stupid past feeling souls and such as God will have nothing to do withal God hath thee in hand and is chastening thee for thy good these he hath utterly cast off all care of and will have nothing to do with But what kind of chastening was this to this poor man that it cost him his life and cut him off whereas God useth to do good to his people by his chastisements Heb. XII 11. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that be exercised thereby But what fruit was there with this man when the very chastening was his death A Jew will tell you that his death did expiate for his sin and was a means to attone for it and a Papist will almost be of the same opinion But Gods intention in the dispencing of this providence looked another way viz. to vindicate his own honour and to shew to the World how tender he is of his own commands And that is the third thing we may read in this great and dreadful severity viz. Thirdly That God will not abide to have his Commands dallied and trifled withal that we are not to account that common which he hath sanctified He is a jealous God that will not hold him guiltless that breaks his Commandments Hos. VIII 12. I have written unto them the great things of my Law The things of his Law and commands are great things and what one of them is little or so to be dealt withal Though they are one less than another if compared among themselves yet none of them are to be reputed little by us One is less than another in regard of their matter yet all alike of reverence and dread to us in regard of their Author A small business you would think for this man being hungry and weary to eat and refresh himself in Bethel and that being invited by another Prophet and told too by him that an Angel had commanded him to invite him But because he had a command from God to the contrary you see how dear it cost him A small thing you would think for Saul to save Agag alive and to bring away some of the Amalekites cattel especially when it was to sacrifice to God yet how severely doth he smart for it because in it he transgressed Gods command to the contrary How might the poor man have pleaded as he went to be stoned for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day Alas this was not so great a crime to gather a few sticks especially when I wanted them for the necessity and benefit of my family But friend there is an express command and Word of God against it the Word of the Lord is sharper than a two edged sword That title of the Law is regardable and dreadful in Deut. XXXIII 2. From his right hand went a firy Law for them Or as it is in the Original the fire of a Law for them A Law not only given in fire as it was in Mount Sinai but a Law that it self is Fire to consume and destroy those that transgress it As our God is a consuming fire so his Law and Commandment is a consuming fire Hos. VI. 5. I have hewen them by the Prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth His word is a weapon of slaughter to them that disobey and rebel against it And whereas it is said Man shall live by the Word of God if he obey it he shall die by the Word of God if he transgress it The Commandments of God are edged tools if slightly meddled withal they cut to the quick and prove as that stone if they fall upon one they will grind him to powder Not one command but the transgression binds over to eternal condemnation and therefore it speaks less to say it binds over to temporal punishment Fourthly and lastly This mans repentance so little a time before his death as we spake of before and obtaining pardon some may chance take hold of and use it as an argument for puting off repentance till his death bed and latter end For may his carnal heart thus argue if this Prophet repented of his transgression but an hour or two before his death and obtained pardon I hope I may do so too and obtain pardon as well as he
them and to begin with the former I must begin with clearing a scruple or objection or discouragement T is true will an afflicted people and person say that in the times of the Old Testament God did determine the time of his peoples affliction but we can find no such determination now The affliction in Egypt determined to four hundred years Gen. XV. 13. And though the time were long yet they knew when it would expire and there might be the more patient bearing because the end was known and the end would come So for their wandring in the wilderness God told them before that it should be forty years and they might the more contentedly bear it because they saw some shore and knew that that calamity would last but to such a time So the affliction upon Judah by Israel or Ephraim it was told before hand that it should last so long and no longer Esa. VII 8. Within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people What need I speak of the Captivity in Babylon told of before and limited to seventy years and no longer And these miseries of the people in the Text it is told them before that they should expire at the end of a thousand three hundred thirty five days But now there is no such prediction no such limitation that men can know of Poor afflicted Christians may take up that mournful Ditty Psal. LXXIV 9. There is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long We are afflicted oppressed trodden under foot and we cannot tell when these things will come to an end How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood c. is their cry Rev. VI. 10. But they cannot tell how long that How long will be Is not this some disadvantage to poor Christians above what those had in antient times that God hath not doth not certifie them before hand of the end of their calamities Their case seeming something like theirs Esa. LIX 10 11. We grope for the wall like the blind we grope as if we had no eyes We roar like bears and mourn sore like doves we look for salvation but cannot discover how far it is from us I shall not insist to discuss why God gave that people of Israel such revelations before hand of the term and date of their miseries and hath not imparted such forehand discoveries to his people now It is enough to say as the Apostle These things were done to them and are written before us for our learning that since he is the same God still that changeth not and hath the same regard of the afflictions of his own people yesterday and to day and the same for ever we might believe and be assured that the affliction of his people is determined now with him as well as then that he sets his period now as well as then that he numbers the days of it now as he does theirs in the Text. But what am I the better as to my comfort if I know not when this period date and time is set I remember the story of him that carrying a basket covered very close and being asked what was in it Answered It is covered so close purposely that none should ask or know what is in it And I remember withal the saying of our Saviour Act. I. 7. It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power That was spoken in the beginning of the going forth of the Gospel and may very well be taken notice of in all ages after It pleased God so to reveal the term and end of Israels affliction to them as being a peculiar people and a people of whom Christ should at last descend and they not fail from being a people till Christ was come of them Therefore when such calamities came upon them it pleased God to tell them still of the end of them that they might still bear up in their subsistence and expectation of Christ to come Let me observe these two things to you I. That you have some old women and barren till old bare children in some generations before Christ Elizabeth in the very half year before Christs birth but you read of no such thing after The reason whereof is because their supernatural child bearing was to make way to the belief of the supernatural child bearing of the Virgin Mary For thus may reason justly argue if these bear children when past the course of nature why not a Virgin beyond the course of nature But after the birth of Christ such births of old women ceased because in the birth of Christ that which they related to was fulfilled II. That the Holy Ghost draws up a Chronicle of times from the Creation to the Redemption from the beginning of time to the fulness of it viz. from the beginning of the World to the Death of Christ and there he leaves and counts the time no further save only that he mentions Pentecost fifty days after The reason whereof is because by links and links of time God would draw men on to observe how God was numbring and counting out times toward that great time of promise and expectation and to observe when that great matter was accomplished how faithful God was through all changes and vicissitudes of times to carry on that great promise Accordingly it pleased God in the time before that great work of Redemption to certifie his people oft when they fell into misery nay oft before how long the time of their affliction and oppression should be that still they might be carried on to look for deliverance and by the deliverance might still have an eye to the promise and be confirmed in the promise concerning deliverance by Christ. So Jacob foreseeing in Gen. XLIX 17. the great deliverance of Israel from the Philistins by Samson of the Tribe of Dan that he should be as a Serpent by the way and an Adder in the path that bites the Horse-heels that he throws his rider So he caught the heels of the Philistins Horse the posts of the house on which they were mounted and overthrew house and riders even three thousand I say Jacob foreseeing this presently cries out vers 18. O Lord I have waited for thy salvation His eyes look beyond that deliverance of Samson to the deliverance or salvation of Christ and in the sight of that Type his belief of that greater matter signified is confirmed So in this very thing we are speaking of Till Christ came God very frequently acquainted his people before hand of what times were to come upon them What miseries What deliverances What oppressions What deliverance Seventy years captivity in Babylon and then deliverance three years and half oppression under Antiochus and then deliverance and so in other examples that still in their afflictions their hearts might be held up patiently to wait Gods time of deliverance and the
deliverance answering and verifying the promise of deliverance they might be built up in belief and expectation of the truth of the promise of the great Deliverer when he should come But when Christ was come and had done that great Work and there being now no such peculiar people to be born up in hope of their subsistence till Christ should descend of them but the Church of God being scattered through the World and Christ having sanctified the bearing of the cross to them by his own bearing it and having allotted the cross to them for their portion and assured them 1 Cor. X. 13. That they should not be tempted above what they were able but that with the temptation he would make way to escape that they might be able to bear it First It cannot be imagined that every particular Church in the World should be acquainted with what persecutions and afflictions should come upon them and how long they should last and when they should be removed as God was pleased to acquaint that peculiar Church Nor Secondly Is it requisite that God should punctually and exactly tell them the end of their persecution and affliction but that they should always be kept to their duty waiting patience and dependance When Peter would be curious to enquire concerning what should become of John Christ answers If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow thou me Look not thou at his end but mind thou thine own duty So if any people now should be inquisitive How long Lord and what and when will be the end of this calamity God might justly answer It is not for you to know the times and the seasons but keep to your duty possess your Souls in patience and wait to see the salvation of God in his own time and way For let me repeat my Doctrine again and now come to clear it further The time of the affliction of the people of God is determined with him He knows it nay he hath set it For these two are the main things we shall speak to in this Point That no times no mens times are hidden from God Job makes it a principle as of which there is no questioning Job XXIV 1. Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty do they that know him not see his days The latter half of the verse is of some scruple and translations are various and scrupulous upon it but the former is of no scruple but of undoubted concession that times are in no wise hidden from God Only the botching Greek Translation which some would authorize above the divine Hebrew original reads it clean contrary Why are times hidden from God As if they were hidden from him Point the latter clause right as you should do for I observe in some Bibles it is mispointed and the passage is much cleared Why since times c. do they that know him not see his days Or not more consider of his Eternity Dan. VIII 13. There is a word something strange in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the English Text reads it That certain Saint Then I heard one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake How long shall be the Vision c. But the margent reads it The numberer of secrets or the wonderful numberer His name is Wonderful Esa. IX 6. And Judg. XIII 18. Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret Marg. Wonderful When he is now treating concerning times he is called the wonderful numberer of them Mene mene Tekel He numbers and he finishes the Times of Men and Kingdoms he weighs men and their Times and their Conditions He is the Wonderful Numberer in whose hand and knowledge and disposal are the times of all men as David saith of his own Psal. XXXI 15. My times are in thy hand Concerning Gods knowing and dating the Times of men and their affairs I might largely speak to these two things for evidence to it I. His foretelling of times and affairs before they come By this very thing he proves himself to be the true God and by coming short of this the Gods of the Heathen to be but lies and vanity Esa. XLI 22 23. Let them bring forth and shew us what shall happen let them declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods But Chap. XLIII 12. saith God of himself I have declared and saved and shewed when there was no strange God among you And Chap. XXVI 9 10. I am God there is none like me Declaring the end from the beginning and from antient times the things that are not yet done saying My Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure How did he determine the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel before their coming out of Egypt four hundred and thirty years before to the very day Exod. XII 40 41. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that the Hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt How did he foretel of the Death of Christ seventy sevens of years even four hundred and ninety years before it was to the very hour Dan. IX 21. At the hour of the evening sacrifice the Angel Gabriel tells Daniel the time to that very hour Christ should suffer for he suffered at that hour Is not the time of the affliction of his people determined with him who foresees foretels of times and affairs to a day to an hour so many hundred of years before they came II. His harmonizing of times in so sweet an union as he hath done doth not that shew that he is the wonderful Numberer of times and Numberer of times of the affliction of his people The Scripture is most copious and the providence of God most sweet and heavenly in this kind of consort and it may much refresh and ravish the Reader of Scripture to observe such harmony Henock that glorious shining light upon Earth to run his course here just in as many years three hundred sixty five years as the Sun doth his course in Heaven days three hundred sixty five days Gen. V. 23. David to reign exactly so long a time in Jerusalem as Christ the son of David lived here upon earth thirty two years and an half 1 Kings II. 11. No rain in Elias time three years and an half Luk. IV. 25. Antiochus desolating of Religion three years and an half in the verse before the Text and Christs Ministery to be three years and an half Dan. IX 24. Doth not this Harmony tell that God is the wonderful Numberer of time and Weigher of all affairs Multitudes of such Harmonies of times are to be found in Scripture which all â—ound out this truth we are upon
what is contrary to Right and Good Sometimes Heresie is bred of ignorance sometimes of too much knowledge sometimes of too much carlesness about the word of God sometimes of too much curiosity sometimes of leaning too much to sence and sometimes too much to carnal reason most commonly of pride of mens seeking themselves of crosness of boldness about divine things and ever of mens wilfulness to have their own minds Might I not instance and give example in all these things And hath not the Church had too sad experience of these things in all generations Weeds ever creeping up in that garden out of one peice of cursed ground or other and is never free of them There must be Heresies saith the Apostle there have been Heresies saith Experience and there will be Heresies saith the corrupt nature and heart of man that will be seeking it self and hath no mind of obeying the truth Weighty is that saying of the Apostle 2 Thes. II. 10 11. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved For this cause God sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie It is more proper to say and it is more commonly done that men rather fall into Heresie than that Heresie falls upon them That is that they rather choose it themselves than that they are any way inforced to it Heresie is a Greek word put into an English dress And the word in Greek as Grammarians will tell you signifies a Wish a choise Heresie is a thing that a man takes up of his own wish and choice And I think it might be a disputable poynt Whether a Heretic ever took up and maintained his opinions purely out of conscience The great Heresie abroad in one party is Popery And can I or you believe that the ring-leaders of that Religion that lead the poor silly people blindfold do maintain that Religion purely out of the principles of a good conscience when we see they make no conscience of Massacres Powder-Plots killing Kings and disquieting Kingdoms The great Heresie abroad in another party is Socinianism And can I think or believe that the ring-leaders in that doctrine do maintain that doctrine purely out of the principles of conscience when even the whole System and Body of that Divinity doth clearly speak it self to be a crossing even all the Articles of Religion of what hath been received for sound and orthodox in the Church in all ages And I must be excused if I take Quakerism to be a direful Heresie and that it is hard to find out that the ring-leaders in it do maintain it purely out of the principles of conscience while they are so bitter high cross and censorious You remember the saying of the Apostle The Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated Jam. III. 17. If their wisdom or profession carry those marks and if their Doctrine carry even any badg of Truth we do not yet understand it or them And as for the Heresie that the Text speaks of the Sadducees denying those great Articles of Religion The Resurrection Angels and Spirits Can we think they maintained their opinions meerly out of the princiâ—ples of conscience and not rather out of Faction Sectarism or some other by respect and regard Our Saviour chargeth them with Ignorance in the Scripture and in judging concerning God Do ye not err saith he not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God And it is not very suspicious that there was wilfulness in the matter too that they were resolved to stick to their opinion for some by-ends that they had of their own Let us a little consider of the Persons and then of their Opinions I. Of the Persons We read not of Sadducees but under the second Temple or after the return out of Captivity but when and how they rose then is something questionable Some think there were Sadducees in the time of Ezra and the Prophets that lived after the Captivity Haggai Zechariah and Malachi And they think that those words Mal. III. 13. Your words are stout against me do refer to the Sadducees And there are of the Jewish Writers that say that in the time of Ezra there were Sadducees that denyed the World to come And therefore to affront that Heresie they of the great Council ordained that in the end of some prayers instead of saying Amen they should say for ever and ever As instead of Blessed be the Lord Amen they should say Blessed be the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For ever and ever or as the words do properly signifie To worlds of worlds or to ages of ages Others ascribe the original of Sadducees to a later date and that one Sadoc was the first author of the Heresie divers years after these holy Prophets were dead and gone Which opinion is most embraced both by Jews and Christians II. Well be it the one way or the other the first singularity of this sect was that they would receive no poynt of Faith but what they could see plainly grounded in the Books of Moses For the other Books of the Old Testament they admitted not of to be of such authority as were the Books of Moses And because they could not find the I. Resurrection and the World to come spoke of in plain terms in all Moses therefore they would not take those Articles into their Creed They would be their own choosers and what they will have to be Scripture must be Scripture and what they would not have must not be The great cause of Heresie which we mentioned before mens wilfulness to have their own minds It is a blessed thing to be led by Scripture for that will lead to Truth and to Heaven But on the contrary a cursed thing to lead the Scripture whether a man would have it For that will certainly end in error and miscarriage It is but too common a thing for men to take up an opinion or doctrine of their own heads or minds and as please themselves and then to lead and strain the Scripture to speak to their opinion and to maintain it to make the divine Oracles of God to truckle to their fancies Like that that Solomon accounts so absurd and preposterous to set Servants on horseback and Princes to lacquy by their horse side and to trudge afoot These Sadducees had learned from their Master Sadoc that there was no Resurrection nor world to come And to maintain that opinion they will make so bold with Scripture that that which speaks not plainly of those things shall be Scripture but that that does shall not be at all How the Church of Rome dealeth in this kind is very well known That Church hath taken up cursed and abominable Opinions and Doctrins and she cries down the Scriptures and would not have them meddled with And you know who among us talk so much of the light within them as all-sufficient for their guidance and salvation and
them Nor shall I insist to shew how far England may be called the spouse of God by his choise It is undenyable that we have all married our selves to God by our Baptismal Covenant and by our Sacramental and other engagements And then what doth the Lord require of us but that we should be faithful to our husband and not give our selves our hearts and affections to any thing besides him not our worship to an Idol not our affections to the World our hearts to pleasure or profit or earthly vanities which is to go a whoring from our husband The Lord our God is a jealous God and what can we expect if we serve him so but that his jealousie will break out in fire and vengeance By his Law concerning jealousie twixt man and wife he hath shewed thee O man what thou mayest expect twixt thee and God Numb V. 12. to the end He appointed that the suspected wife be brought to trial undertakes to work a miracle for her discovery and if guilty upon drinking the bitter waters her belly was to swell her thigh to rot and she to become a curse And doth not the Lord discover whether thy heart hath played the whore and will he not bitterly punish in his own cause as he did in the cause of men But to return to Gods jealousie against the sin of Idolatry particularly as this title of his that he is a jealous God is peculiarly affixed to the Command against Idolatry And here I shall shew some particular evidences and instances of Gods jealousie against this sin And I shall name three passages of the Spirit of God in his style in Scripture by which he doth hint his distast and abominating of this sin of Idolatry and three passages of God in his providence and disposal that intimate the same and all such as are not obviously observed by every Reader of Scripture First To mention the passages of the Holy Ghost's stile in reference to this sin I. Observe That in 2 Sam. XI 21. who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbosheth Abimelech was the son of Jerubbaal or Gedeon as you may see Judg. IX where you have Abimelechs story Why then does the Holy Ghost here misname Gedeon and instead of Jerubbaal call him Jerubbosheth The reason is because Baal was the general name of an Idol and the Holy Ghost in detestation of Idolatry changeth the name Baal which signifieth a Lord into Bosheth which signifies Shame And he calleth Gedeon Jerubbosheth instead of Jerubbaal because Gedeon had made an Idol that all Israel went a whoring after Judg. VIII 27. Of the same observation is that that the son of Saul whom his father named Eshbaal the Holy Ghost in his story nameth Ishbosheth You have a large story of Ishbosheth Sauls son in 2 Sam. II. Now look among Sauls sons where they be reckoned and you find no such name 1 Chron. VIII 33. Saul begat Jonathan and Malchishna and Abinadab and Eshbaal That Eshbaal is he whom the Holy Ghost in his story calls Ishbosheth as detesting the name Baal the name of an Idol changing it into the name Bosheth shame As the same Holy Ghost explains himself and this matter Jer. XI 13. According to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up Altars to that Shame even Altars to burn incense to Baal II. In reading Revelations VII where the Sealed of the Lord of the twelve Tribes are mentioned and numbred have you observed that the Tribe of Dan is wanting and the Tribe of Ephraim not named You will find Manasses there but not Ephraim by name but Joseph instead of Ephraim vers 8. And what is the reason of this Publick Idolatry first began in Dan Judg. XVIII And the golden Calves were set up by Jeroboam of Ephraim and the one in Ephraim and the other in Dan. And the Holy Ghost doth point as it were with the finger at those Idolatries and shew his distast and abhorring of them when he will not so much as name the names where they began among the Lords sealed for salvation III. As here mention is made of visiting to the third and fourth generation observe that passage Matth. I. 8. and see whether the stile of the Holy Ghost do not hint the very same thing Joram begat Ozias Now look in the story of the Kings and Chronicles and you will find that Joram begat Ahaziah and Ahaziah Joash and Joash Amaziah and Amaziah Ozias So that here three descents are wanting or dashed out and Ozias is grand child to Joram in the fifth generation What is the reason Look into the story of Joram and you will find that he married the daughter of Ahab the great Idolater and that he walked in the Idolatries of Ahab 2 King VIII 18. And here the Holy Ghost to hint his distast of such Idolatry blots out his children to the third nay fourth generation out of the Line and Genealogy of our Saviour These and other things of the like nature may be observed in the very stile and dialect the Holy Ghost useth in Scripture Whereby he setteth a brand upon Idolatry and Idols as things odious and abominable and abhorred of God in special manner Shall I also give you three like passages of Providence which it may be all of you have not observed in your reading which speak the same thing and proclaim the jealousie of God against Idolatry I. Observe that Deut. IX 21. And I took your sin the Calf which ye had made and burnt it with fire and stamped it and ground it very small until it was as small as dust and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount And why all this ado to burn stamp grind it And why cast the dust into the brook and not on the earth or into the air Why not into the dunghil rather than into the water that the people must drink By this very thing God would shew that he was a jealous God against Idolatry by putting the people to the very same trial for this Idolatry that the wife suspected of Adultery was to be put to by the jealous husband Numb V. she was put to drink water and dust and if she proved guilty her belly swelled and her thigh rotted and so gave plain evidence of her guilt So in this cases Moses bids the Levites Exod. XXXII 13. Put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour Now how could they know who had committed Idolatry among so many hundred thousands How could they pick out the men that were guilty Why the discovery is in the very same way The people drink the water in which was the dust of the Calf and thereupon those that were guilty their bellies swelled and some other miraculous evidence was given whereby they were discovered and whereby God discovered
all to pieces and the noblest Creature to whom God put all other Creatures in subjection was himself become like the beasts that perish the beasts that were put in subjection to him and when Satan the enemy of God as well as man had thus broke all to pieces the chief work-manship of God here the world was mar'd as soon as made And as God in six days made Heaven and Earth and all things therein so before the sixth day went out Satan had mar'd and destroyed him for whom all these things were created God therefore coming in with the promise of Christ who should destroy Satan that had destroyed all and having now created a new world of grace and brought in a second Adam the root of all were to be saved and having restored Adam that not only from his lost condition but into a better condition than he was in before as having ingrafted him and all believers into Christ a surer foundation than natural perfection which he had by Creation but had now lost then he rested as having wrought a greater work than the Creation of nature But then you will say that the first Sabbath was of Evangelical institution not of moral that then the law for keeping of it was not written in Adams heart but was of Evangelical revelation I may answer truly that it was both For though Adam had not sinned yet must he have kept the Sabbath And to this purpose it is observable that the institution of the Sabbath is mentioned Gen. II. before the fall of Adam is mentioned Gen. III. partly because the Holy Ghost would mention all the seven days of the first week together and partly to intimate to us that even in innocency there must have been a Sabbath kept a Sabbath kept if Adam had continued in innocency and in that regard the Law of it to him was Moral and written in his heart as all the Laws of piety towards God were It is said Gen. II. 15. The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress and keep it Now if Adam had continued in innocency do you think he must have been at work dressing and keeping the Garden on the Sabbath day as on the other six He had Gods own copy so laid before him of working six days and resting the seventh that he could not but see that it was laid before him for his Example But you will say All the Moral Law was written in Adams heart as soon as he was created now the Law to keep the Sabbath could not be because the Sabbath was not yet created nor come And by then the Sabbath came the Law in his heart was blurred by sin and his fall I answer The Law writ in Adams heart was not particularly every Command of the two Tables written as they were in two Tables line by line but this Law in general of piety and love toward God and of justice and love towards our neighbour And in these lay couched a Law to all particulars that concerned either to branch forth as occasion for the practice of them should arise As in our natural corruption brought in by sin there is couched every sin whatsoever too ready to bud forth when occasion is offered So in the Law in his heart of piety towards God was comprehended the practice of every thing that concerned love and piety towards God as occasion for the practice was offered Under this Law was couched a tie and Law to obey God in every thing he should command And so though the command Eat not of the forbidden fruit was a Positive and not a Moral Command yet was Adam bound to the obedience of it by virtue of the Moral Law written in his heart which tyed him to love God and to obey him in every thing he should command And so the Sabbath when it came although you look upon it as a positive command in its institution yet was it writ also in Adams heart to obey God in that Command especially when God had set him such a Copy by his own resting II. A second thing observable in that first Sabbath and which was transmitted to posterity as a Law to keep is that now it had several ends As in man there is something of the perfection of every Creature a Spirit as Angels Life as Beasts Growth as Trees a Body as Stones so the Sabbath hath something of the excellency and of the end of every Law that was or could be given There are four sorts of Laws which God hath given to men Moral Commentorative Evangelical and Typical Moral Laws are given in the Ten Commandments Commemorative Laws as the Law of the Passover to commemorate the delivery out of Egypt Pentecost to commemorate the giving of the Law Typical as Sacrifices Priesthood Purifications sprinkling of blood to signifie good things to come as the Apostle speaks and to have their accomplishing in Christ Evangelical such as repentance self-denial believing c. Now the Sabbath is partaker of all these Ends together and hath the several excellencies of all these ends included in its self And so had that first Sabbath appointed to Adam First The Moral end is to rest from labours So in this fourth Commandment six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work c. So Jer. XVII 21. Thus saith the Lord Take heed to your selves to bear no burthen on the Sabbath day nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem Neither bring forth a burthen out of your houses neither do you any work but hallow the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers Oh! then I celebrate the Sabbath saith the Sabbath-breaker for I do no work but play and recreate and drink and sit still and do no work at all Friend dost thou think God ever established idleness and folly by a Law That he hallowed the Sabbath day to be a playing fooling sporting day But Christian how readest thou as a Christian The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God not a Sabbath for thy lust and laziness And in it thou shalt do no manner of work of thine own but the work of the Lord thy God And the rest that he hath commanded is not for idleness but for piety towards God for which end he gave all the Laws of the first Table viz. to leave communion with the world and worldly things that day and to have it with God as in Esai LVIII 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy days and call the Sabbath a delight As Moses to betake our selves to the mount of God and there to have communion with him To get into the Mount above the world and there to meet God and converse with him To be in the Spirit on the Lords day and not to recreate the Body but the Soul
added another end as the Sabbath was given to his peculiar people given at Sinai with all these ends and this more viz. To distinguish the Jews from all others for Gods own people See Deut. V. 15. And remember that thou wast a Servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day And so in Exod. XXIII 12. And the Sabbath is reckoned with the Jewish Festivals Col. II. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath days They were distinguished by Times from all other people But how is this Sabbath distinctive I answer 1. None in the world kept the like resting day Therefore the Jews were scoffed at by other Nations as Idle and taken advantage of on that day 2. They kept this Rest as a redeemed people Deut. V. How had they toyled in Egypt and had not the liberty of a Sabbath Now on the contrary when they were delivered out of Egypt they kept the Sabbath as a signification of their rest from their labours there And now look on the Sabbath in its Moral Commemorative Evangelical Typical and Ceremonial End Look on it in its Royal Dress with what possible it can put on as Queen Esther was drest and then view its beauty First in its Antiquity It was from the beginning as it is said of the word of God 1 Joh. I. 1. Ask after the antient paths and the Sabbath will be found to be one of them This is not of the Law but of the Fathers It is the first born of Ordinances and hath a double portion of honour due to it It was the first day of comfort in the world after Adam was adjudged to toyl and misery The Jews say of it that it is a Mediator The Consideration of these Ends of the Sabbath may serve to assoyl that controversie about the Antiquity of its Institution viz. Whether its institution was not before the giving of the Law In the Dispute about the Sabbath afoot in England some years ago there were some went so high shall I say or so low as to maintain that our Sabbath was not of Divine Institution but Ecclesiastical only not ordained by God but the Church And to make good this assertion they would perswade you that there was no Sabbath instituted before the giving of the Law None from the beginning but that the world was two thousand five hundred and thirteen years without a Sabbath for so long it was from the Creation to Israels going out of Egypt and that then and not before was the Law for the Sabbath given Then I pray why should Moses speak of Gods sanctifying the Sabbath when he is speaking of the first week of the world if he meant not that the seventh day of that week was sanctified And what sense were it to read the Command thus For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day therefore two thousand five hundred and thirteen years after he blessed the seventh day and hallowed it But read it as it lies before you He rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it and must it not needs mean he blessed that seventh day that he rested and sanctified it and so the seventh successively in following generations But you may observe in Moses that the Sabbath is given upon two reasons or accounts here because God rested but in Deut. V. 15. because God delivered them out of Egypt Thou O Israel thou must keep the Sabbath day in remembrance of thy deliverance out of Egypt but withall he bids them Remember to keep the Sabbath in memory of Gods resting Therefore certainly the Sabbath was kept in remembrance of that before it was given to Israel to keep in memory of the deliverance out of Egypt I said Adam should have kept the Sabbath had he continued in innocency then certainly he had more need of a Sabbath for the benefit of his Soul when he was become a sinner And those four Ends of the Sabbath already mentioned were also ends of the Sabbath to him as well as to us The beauty then of the Sabbath consists First in its Antiquity Secondly In the Universality of its reception throughout of all ages One generation left it to another from Father to Son And it is known to all Churches Thirdly The Bravery of its institution It had Gods example God hallowed blessed drest it nobly but his example is an addition without parallel Fourthly The nobleness of its nature 1. In it there was some of every part of the Law It was Moral Typical Ceremonial As there is something of man in all the Creatures so there is something in the Sabbath of all the Law 2. By it is the propagation of Religion See Es. LXVI 23. And it shall come to pass that from one new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. As Psal. XIX 2. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge So from Sabbath to Sabbath God is spoken of and knowledge of divine things revealed This was the Market-day that still furnished the Jews with what was needful for their spiritual food and sustenance All marketing was forbidden on it Neh. XIII 15 c. because a greater market was to be minded So Manna was not rained on that day because better things were rained 3. By it came benefit to man and beast It gave them rest from labour and renewed their strength Fifthly Its Durableness Exod. XXXI 16 17. The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel for ever It reacheth as the Cherubins wings from one end of the World unto the other Hence also we may see what little difference there is twixt our Sabbath and the first Sabbath of the world Both commemorate the Creation both the Redemption but only that ours is removed one day forward the Sabbath of old on the seventh day of the week ours on the first Much dispute hath been about this change into which I will not ravel only observe these things in reference to this that it is changed to the day of Christs Resurrection I. As great a Change as this do we not read in the Old Testament viz. the change of the beginning of the year from September to March Exod. XII The year had a natural interest to begin in September because then the world the year and time began and yet when God wrought for Israel an extraordinary work in redeeming them from Egypt a figure of our redemption by Christ he thought good to change the year from that time that naturally
by considering what is the proper end and aim of mens living Friend wherefore camest thou hither Why did God bring thee into the world and why dost thou live A question very pertinent and very considerable For the greatest number of Men and Women in the world go out of the world before they know or consider why they came in Much like Ahimaaz 2 Sam. XVIII 29. That entreats Joab to let him run to David and runs hard and when he comes to David to his journeyes end all that he can relate is When Joab sent thy Servant I saw a great tumult but I cannot tell what it was God brings men into the world to run their race they see a great bustle in the world and they keep a great stir themselves and when they come to their journeyes end they cannot give account what the business was for which they came into the world What do you think he thought he came into the world for that when he dyed commanded this to be written on his Tomb-stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I have eaten much and drunken much and done much mischief in my time and now here I lye Who among thousands in his life or indeed in his thoughts owns the proper end of living The Apostle tells us what it is Act. XVII 26 27. God hath made all Nations of men c. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him c. And the same Apostle 2 Cor. V. 15. They which live should not live to themselves but to him by whom they live The Schools do very truly tell us that God created reasonable creatures Men and Angels that they might serve God and partake of God which unreasonable creatures cannot do So that here is the proper answer to the question Why do we live And the proper end of our living to serve God by whom we live and to get interest in him and participation of him to live to God here that we may live with him and enjoy him hereafter And by this are we to judge of the blessing of a long life and not by any earthly thing or occurrence in our lives Long life is not therefore a blessing to any because he lives long in peace and prosperity because he gets much wealth much credit experience wisdom in so long a time but because he hath got much interest in God and done much service to God That of Solomon must be understood prudently and we must be sure to take his right meaning in it Eccles. III. 4. Better than either living or dead is he that hath not yet been Is this absolutely true No but only relatively viz. relating to earthly miseries For the missing of these he scapes best that never was and never saw the evil done under the Sun But as to the thing it self absolutely considered that paradox that is sometimes maintained in dispute in the Schools is true in some kind and degree Praestat esse miserum quam non esse It is better to be miserable than not to be at all He that never was nor never shall be he that never lived nor never shall live shall never praise God never see the works of God never enjoy God and that is worse than induring the miseries that Men meet withal upon Earth This is the proper end of life and the blessing of life viz. to praise serve enjoy God And by this we must state the blessing of a long life viz. as allowing more time and space to accomplish and perfect those ends And upon the aim at these ends it is that the Saints of God have begged of God for long life Psal. XXXIX ult That I may recover strength and be fitter for my duty and thy work and fitter for thee when thou callest Psal. LXXI 18. Now also when I am old forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come Esai XXXVIII 19. The living the living he shall praise Thee as I do this day This was the end and blessing of prolonging Ezekiah's life that he was still alive to praise God And this is the work of those whose lives are preserved and prolonged To prove the blessing of prolonging life let me first appeal to any here Man or Woman art thou prepared to dye if God should call at this very instant If God send a messenger to bid thee set thy house in order for thou shalt die couldst thou take it better than Ezekiah did Dost thou not desire that God would spare and yet give some more respite some longer time some more space added to thy life And why Thou darest not say that I may enjoy the world take my pleasure gather wealth live in earthly delights yet longer Why then O! that I may be better fitted for Heaven that I may have more repentance a better composure of heart a better stock good works and provision for Eternity This by thy confession is the blessing and a choice blessing of a long life that a man may do God the more service serve his generation the more stock himself the more fully with grace for glory Herein then properly is the blessing of prolonged life that men have time to do for God and their Souls to lay up good store for Heaven and Eternity to stock up the comforts of a good Conscience and store of grace which in old age makes them fresh and flourishing and does as it were revive them and make them young again And now Brethren let my Exhortation be to you that are aged and gone far in years to consider seriously with your selves whether your prolonged time hath been made a blessing to you by your improvement or not Let me be a Monitor this day to all gray heads here to remember their age God hath prolonged your time some to fifty sixty seventy years some to more What blessing hath this prolonging been to you And to youth that desire long life my Exhortation to them is to set in a good course betime that God may delight to prolong their life and that the lengthning of their life may be a Blessing A DISCOURSE UPON THE FOURTH ARTICLE OF THE Apostolic Creed He descended into Hell THE ground of this Article of the Creed is in Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell The reason of its insertion we shall see afterwards An Article obscure and that hath bred many disputes and the rendring of it so in English some offences For it seemeth harsh that Christs soul descended into Hell which in our English Language speaketh most plainly and usually The place of the damned a place very improper to look for the soul of Christ in when departed out of his body He and his betrayer Judas to meet in the same place He that had by death purchased Heaven for others himself after death to descend into Hell Not an Article in our Christian Faith hath more
conquer Hell then If he did what was it with What did his Soul there to conquer Hell How he conquered Hell and Death by dying and rising we can tell but how his Soul conquered with bare going thither who can tell you Or did he augment the torments of the Devils and damned That needed not nor indeed could it be done as I shall shew afterwards What then did Christs Soul there in its Triumph unless as He Veni vidi vici I came I saw I overcame it conquered Hell by looking into it Natura nihil facit frustra Nature does nothing in vain much less the God of nature And Christ in his life time never did spoke thought any thing in vain And it is unhansom to think that his Soul after death should go out of the bosom of his Father into Hell to do no body can imagine what For who can tell what it did in Triumphing there II. Was not Christ under his Humiliation till his Resurrection Was he not under it whilst he lay in the grave He himself accounts it so Psal. XVI 10. Thou wilt not suffer my Soul being in the state of separation my Body to see corruption to be trampled on by death to be triumphed over by Satan that yet had it there If you imagine his Soul triumphing or vapouring in Hell for I cannot imagine what it should do there unless to vapour how might Satan vapour again Thou Soul of Jesus dost thou come to triumph here Of what I pray thee Have I not cause to triumph over thee Have I not procured his death Banished thee out of his body and got it into the grave And dost thou come to triumph here Let us first see whether he can get out from among the dead before we talk of his triumph over him that had the power of death So that if we should yield to so needless a point as Christs going to triumph in Hell yet certainly it would be but very unseasonable to have gone thither when he had not yet conquered but his body was still under death and as yet under the conquest of Satan This had been to triumph before Victory as Benhadads vapour was to Ahab when he received that answer Let not him that girdeth on his sword boast himself as he that putteth it off The beginning of Christs Kingdom was his Resurrection for then had he conquered death and him that had the power of death the Devil And so the Scripture generally states it I need cite no proof but two of his own speeches Matth. XXVI 29. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom that is after my Resurrection when I have conquered the Enemies of God and set up his Kingdom And Matth. XXVIII 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth And this was after his Resurrection But is it not improper to dream of a Triumph before a Conquest That Christ should Triumph as King before he had put on his Kingdom As Esth. V. 3. On the third day she put on the Kingdom For so it is in the Hebrew The days before she had been under fasting mourning humiliation and that was not a time of Royalty and Triumph So on the third day Christ rose and put on his Kingdom the days before he had been under death had abased himself a very unfit and unseasonable time for his Soul to go and triumph III. As concerning Christs triumphing over Devils His Victory over Satan was of another kind of nature than to go amongst them to shew terribly or speak terribly for what else can we imagine his Soul did in that Triumph in Hell It is said Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil Destroy him How We may say of him as he of the Traitor Vivit etiam in Senatum venit He lives yea he comes into the Council-house So Is the Devil destroyed He is alive walketh rageth ruleth He walked about the Earth before Christs death Job I. So hath he done ever since 1 Pet. V. 8. Your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour He was a murtherer from the beginning to Christs death Joh. VIII 44. So hath he been ever since he goes about seeking to devour and he doth devour He wrought in the children of disobedience before and he now worketh Eph. II. 2. And how hath Christ conquered destroyed him You must look for the Conquest and Triumph of Christ over him not so much in destroying his Person as destroying his Works 1 Joh. III. 8. For this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil I might here speak of many things I shall only mention two or three particulars wherein the Victory of Christ over the Devil by his death doth consist 1. By his death he hath conquered the very clamors of Satan paying a ransom for all his people Rom. VIII 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Satan is ready to say I lay a charge and claim to them for they have been disobedient But Christ hath paid a satisfaction for all their disobedience Satan thou art cast in thy suit the debt is paid How is the Devil confounded at the loss of such a prize as he expected And how does the Death and Merits of Christ here Triumph Now Goliah David defies thee touch one in the Camp of Israel if you can or dare they are all redeemed and ransomed thou hast nothing to do with them And the ransomed of the Lord shall go to Sion with everlasting joy Rejoyce O Heathens for the false accuser is cast out Here is a glorious Triumph by the righteousness and holiness of Christ delivering all his people 2. By his death he brake the partition wall and brings in the Heathen Oh! how did Satan hold them in slavery Pharaoh let my people go No. I know not the Lord nor will I let them go But thou shalt be brought to it and by the death of a Paschal Lamb they shall go whether thou wilt or no. Two thousand years had they been in his slavery sure thought he this shall be for ever But by the death of poor despised Jesus at Jerusalem the prison doors are open and all these captives are gone free Rejoyce ye prisoners of hope as they are called Zech. IX 11 12. I cannot but think of the case of Paul and Silas Act. XVI in an inner prison their feet in the stocks the doors fast and a strong guard and there comes one shake and all fly open and all the prisoners are loosed Jaylor what sayest thou now Thou mayst even draw thy sword and end thy self all thy prisoners are gone 3. Nay yet further Jaylor thou must to prison thy self Ponder on those words Rev. XX. 1
of the Gadarens reconciled with Matth. 8. 28. 70 7. 26. A Greek a Syrophenician by Nation reconciled with Matth. 15. 22. 202 8. 10. Parts of Dalmanutha reconciled with Matth. 15. 29. 307 10. 21. Iesus looked upon him and loved him 596 11. 13. The time of Figs not yet why then was the Figtree cursed for having no Figs upon it 225 to 228  25. Love to stand praying 156 12. 7. This is the heir come let us kill him 583  4. The Treasury 299 13. 32. But of that day and hour knoweth no Man not the Angels neither the Son but the Father 1407 15. 23. Wine mingled with Myrrhe reconciled with Matth. 27. 34. 267 617  25. It was the third hour reconciled with Iohn 19. 14. 356 357 16. 15. Go ye and preach the Gospel to every creature 1149 LUKE Ch. vers  Page 1. 80. JOhn was in the deserts 113 4. 16. He went to the Synagogue and stood up for to read 1040 9. 51. When the time was come that he should be received up 556 12. 47 48. He that knew his Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes 1230  51 52. Suppose ye that I come to give peace on Earth I tell you nay but rather division reconciled with Isa. 2. 4. 11. 9. 1042 1061 17. 11. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee 362  21. The Kingdom of God is within you 116 18. 11. To stand praying 156  12. The Pharisee fasted twice a week 167  32 33. The Son of Man shall be delivered to the Gentiles c. 1167 20. 38. Not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him 1118 21. 18. Not an hair of your head perish 1251 22. 30. That ye may sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 1058  53. This is your hour and the power of darkness 1255 24 44. In the Psalms 265 26. 29. Until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom 691 JOHN Ch. vers  Page 1. 4. IN him was life and that life was the light of Men. 1090 4. 35. Say ye not there are four months and then cometh harvest c. 1147 1148 5. 25. The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live 1057 1105 1123 7. 27. When Christ cometh no Man knoweth whence he is 112  37 38. Jesus stood and cryed if any Man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water 1039  39. The Holy Ghost was not yet 1283 8. 6. Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground as though he heard them not 1080 1081  44. He was a murderer from the beginning 1323 10. 17 18. I lay down my life no Man taketh it from me that I may take it up again 1354 11. 47 48. This Man doth many miracles if we let him alone c. 654  51. But being High Priest that year he prophesied 1068  54. A City called Ephtaim 50 13. 1 2. And Matth. 26. 6. The Suppers here mentioned were the same however otherwise interpreted 252 to 254 260 261  38. The Cock shall not crow c. 261 14. 30. The Prince of the World cometh and hath nothing in me 1256 16. 7. It is expedient that I go away from you for if I go not away the Comforter c. 1129  13. When he the Spirit of truth cometh he will guide you into all truth 1034 17. 24. Father I will 413 18. 31. It is not lawful for us to put any Man to death 248 1080 1108 1109 c.  39. Release one at the Passover 356 19. 14. About the sixth hour reconciled with Mark 25. 25. 356 357 29. Put it upon Hyssop reconciled with Matth. 27. 48. 617 20. 23. Whose sins ye remit 207 21. 22. Tarry till I come viz. in vengeance 1074 28. 29. All that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth 1233 The ACTS Ch. vers  Page 2. 17. IT shall come to pass in the last days Understood of the end of Ierusalem not the World 1048  20. Before the great and notable day of the Lord come 626 3. 21. Times of restitution of all things 210 4. 6. Iohn Suspected for Rabban Iocanan 16  16 17. That indeed a notable miracle is done by these Men But that it spread no further c. 1275 5. 37. â—udas of Galilee 362 6. 9. Synagogue of the Alexandrians and of the Libertines 35 36 7. 14. Threescore and fifteen Souls compared and reconciled with Gen. 46. 27. 667  16. The bones of the Patriarchs where buried 408  30. When forty years were expired concerning the age c. of Moses ibid. 9. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost 1283  36. Tabitha much mentioned amongst the Talmudists 18 10. 34 35. God is no respecter of persons 1210 1211 13. 33. As it is written thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee 1104 19. 13. Calling over them in the Name of Jesus 162 23. 5. I wist not that it was the High Priest 1289 1290 ROMANS Ch. vers  Page 1. 17. RIghteousness of God revealed from faith to faith 1051 1052 1064 1075 1077 1078 2. 11. God is no respecter of Persons 1210 1211 3. 19. Whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them which are under the Law 535 4. 11. Sign of circumcision the seal of the righteousness of faith which he had being yet uncircumcised 273 274 1076 1126 1133 1134 7. 5. The motions of sin which were by the Law did work 1098 8. 15. Abba Father what 354  19 20 21 22 23. For the earnest expectation of the Creature waited for the manifestation of the Sons of God c. 359 360 1089 1147 to 1149 11. 5. The Elect and the remnant according to the election of grace explained of the Elect of the Jews 574 1146 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers 230 marg 1 CORINTHIANS Ch. vers  Page 6. 2. DO ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World explained of Christian Magistracy 1158 1159 1119 7. 12. But to the rest speak I not the Lord. 1124  36. If a Man thinketh he behaveth himself unseemly towards his Virgin c. 1219 10. 11. Upon whom the ends of the World are come explained of the destruction of Ierusalem c. and the end of the Jewish State 1074 1117 11. 19. There must be Heresies among you 1279  21. Every one taketh before other his own Supper 658  32. When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we may not be condemned of the World 1226 2 CORINTHIANS Ch. vers  Page 1. 8 9. WE were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life c. 790 4.
Gygantick Canaanites for the use of war 88 89 Dependance upon God for Life and Being is to be owned and acknowledged by all good Christians 1205 1206 Descent of Christ into Hell the improper meaning as to what the Church of Rome understands by it p. 1341 1347. His Descent into Hell is supposed by some to be the Torments he suffered on the Cross. Destruction of Jerusalem is frequently exprest in Scripture as if it were the Destruction of the whole World 244 Devil how he is the Prince of this World p. 591 592. The sin of the Devil what it was p. 198. How he deceived the Nations or Heathen before the Gospel p. 1171. How when and why and how long let loose by Christ. p. 1172 1173 1174. He is called the Angel of death by the Jews p. 1299. The end for which Christ bound the Devil a Thousand years p. 1233. The Gospel was the chain with which he was bound p. 1233 The Devil is denominated That wicked one why 1306 Devilishness how much thereof the Devil can infuse into Mans nature with the reason of it 1308 1309 Devils were cast out by one that did not follow Christ how possible p. 346. Devils called Angels how Saints shall Judge them p. 754. Angels put for Devils 773. The Souls of Men are in a better state than Devils p. 1302 The sin of the Devils is wretched beyond pardon 1305 Dew of Christ is his quickening Power 691 Dialect the Dialect of the Galileans differed much from the Dialect of the Jews 78 79 Didrachma Tribute mony two things perswade that it was the half Shekel paid yearly in the Temple 211 212 Diet a Diet was thirty Miles 319 Diocletian the Emperor was once Diclot the keeper of Hogs 7 Dipping in Baptism indeavoured to be laid aside because it caused the Women of Galilee to grow barren p. 121 122. Why sprinkling was used in stead of dipping 121 Disciple and Singular what They are terms sometimes confounded and sometimes distinguished 433 Disciples of Christ mentioned by the Talmudists p. 171. Why they were twelve and for what end they were chosen 174 Disciples or Learners after the days of Rabban Gamaliel did use to sit while they were instructed p 395 396. They had power to ask the Doctors any questions as they went along in their Expositions and Lectures 396 Discoursing the dead discoursing one among another and also with those that were alive was the opinion of the Jews 457 Diseases grievous attributed usually by the Jews to evil Spirits p. 211. Diseases were supposed by the Jews to be inflicted by the Devil 441 Disputes the power and will of God being well understood and submitted to take off abundance of carnal Atheistical Disputes 1320 1321 Divinity the Mystery of it not contrary to reason how to be understood 1103 Divorces what among the Jews p. 146 147. A Bill of Divorce its manner of giving with a Copy of such a Bill how confirmed how delivered p. 147 148. Christ permits not Divorce except in the case of Adultry 148 Doctors of the Law were of several sorts p. 421. What 434 Dogs and Swine were forbidden the Jews with the Reasons thereof p. 168. Dogs put for Gentiles or Heathens Page 202 Doors and Gates lying on the North-side of the Temple what 32 Dositheus or Dosthes was a famous Seducer of the Samaritans 483 504 Dowery in the donation of it the Galileans differed from the Jews 77 78 Drachm what 468 Dreams none in the World more fond of dreams than the Jews using art to make themselves dream and nice Rules of interpreting dreams p. 243. Dreams some were strange and odd 1257 Drink the Jewish Doctors say that to drink a Quart of Wine makes one drunk so much every one of them drank in their sacred Feasts judge then how soberly they carried it in those Feasts if they mingled not much Water with their Wine p. 61. This is proved in Rabban Gamaliel 61 Drinking and Eating used frequently in a metaphorical sense by the Jews p. 553 554. Drinking the Blood and eating the Flesh of Christ is of necessity Metaphorical 553 554 Drunk Vide Drink Dumb such Persons were unfit to Sacrifice c. 210 384 Dust white Dust for Potters Clay c. 12 Dust of the Feet what it was to shake it off 179 Dying called Martyrdom for others to save their Country what 326 E. EARTH and Heaven made by God and wherefore he made them 1321 Eating and Drinking commonly used in a Metaphorical sense by the Jews 553 554 Eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ must of necessity be Metaphorically understood 553 554 Ebal how far from Jordan p. 79 80. Ebal Mount its situation 505 Fedippa formerly called Chezib and Achzib the name of a place 61 Edom rendred Rome 292 Edomites rendred Romans 292 Egypt was full of Jews there they had a Temple and all their Offices and Ordinances 111 112 Elder a Title proper to Saint John 337 Elders Chief Priests and Scribes how distinguished p. 469. Elders ordained by whom and how p. 686. They were to judge in Pecuniary Affairs 755 Elect what it signified and who they were 1146 Election admits not of magis and minus 1147 Elements used for Mosaick Rites 626 Elias the frequent appearance of him we meet with in the Writings of the Jews were either Stories or Diabolical Apparitions p. 129. His coming how vain the expectation of it was among the Jews the Ends also of his expected coming as they propose them what p 209 c. They looked for his coming before the Messias p. 210. Elias put for John the Baptist. 382 383 Elijah put for John the Baptist. 382 383 Elizabeth why she hid her self when with child 1220 Elymas and Barjesus the reason of the two Names for the same Person and what they both signifie 687 1192 Emims what 363 Emmaus six Furlongs from Jerusalem p. 42. What p. 293. It was from Jerusalem seven Miles and an half the same with Nicopolis p. 371. It s situation p. 372 373 Encoenia or the Feasts of Dedication So the Feast of Dedication among the Jews why called Lights It was kept for eight days all over the Land Page 576 577 578 Enchantments there were hardly any People in the World that more used Enchantments than the Jews p. 243. Which consisted in Amulets Charms Mutterings and Exorcisms p. 243. So skilful were they in Conjurings Enchantments and Sorceries that they wrought great signs and wonders and many Villanies by them p. 244. Hence arose false Christs p. 244. Some sort of Hereticks used Enchantments or Sorceries to cause Men to follow them 497 End and Beginning as referring to things to be debated or explained what p. 565 566. End of all things and of the World put for the end of the Jewish State 1074 Engedi is ill placed in the Maps p. 7. Engedi is Hazezon Tamar 296 Enmity why the Lord put Emnity between Man and Devil 1171 Ephraim a Town so called p. 49
Vid. Lev. Gers. ibid. If this be spoken concerning the Lamps in the Candlestick this was somewhat before day for the Lamps burnt from Even till Morning yet did they sometimes some of them go out in the Night They put Oil into them by such a measure as should keep them burning from Even till Morning and many times they did burn till Morning and they always found the Western Lamp burning Now it is said that this Prophesie came to Samuel before the Lamps went out while it was yet Night about the time of Cocks crowing for it is said afterward that Samuel lay till Morning Or allegorically it speaks of the Candle of Prophesie as they say the Sun ariseth and the Sun sets Before the holy blessed God cause the Sun of one righteous Man to set he causeth the Sun of another righteous Man to rise Before Moses his Sun set Joshua's Sun arose before Elie's Sun set Samuel's Sun arose And this is that which is said Before the Candle of God went out The Lord needed no light of Candles no more than he needed Bread which was set upon the Shew-bread Table nor the Priests needed no Candles in this room neither for the Windows though they were high yet did they give light into the Room abundantly but God by these Candles did as it were enlighten the People to teach them Spiritual things by these Corporal and to acquaint them with the necessity of the light of his Word and the Bread of Salvation which came down from Heaven And therefore when Solomon did make d d d 2 Chron. IV. ten Candlesticks and ten Tables and set them intermixedly by five and five on either side the House he added nothing to God but he added only more splendor to the service and more lustre to the Doctrine of the necessity of the light of the Word and of the Bread of Life e e e Baal Hatturim in Lev. XXIV Our wise Men say saith Baal Hatturim that the Western Lamp which never went out was a testimony that the Divine glory dwelt amongst Israel SECT V. The Shew-bread Table ON the North-side of the House which was on the right Hand stood the Shew-bread Table of two cubits long and a cubit and a half broad a a a Exod XXV 23. in the Tabernacle of Moses b b b Maym. ubi sup but wanting that half cubit in breadth in the second Temple the reason of the falling short not given by them that give the relation It stood length ways in its place that is East and West and had a Crown of Gold round about it toward the upmost edge of it which c c c Vid. Baal hatturim in Exod. XXV the Jews resemble to the Crown of the Kingdom Upon this Table there stood continually twelve Loaves which because they stood before the Lord they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d Mark XII 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bread of setting before for which our English hath found a very sit word calling it the Shew-bread The manner of making and placing of which Loaves was thus e e e Maym. in Tamidâ—n per. 5. Out of four and twenty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sata three of which went to an Ephah that is out of eight bushel of Wheat being ground they sifted out f f f Lev. XXIV 5. four and twenty tenth Deals g g g Exod. XVI 36 or Omers of the purest Flower and that they made into twelve Cakes two Omers in a Cake or the fifth part of an Ephah of Corn in every Cake They made the Cakes square namely ten Hand breadth long and five broad and seven Fingers thick They were made and baked in a room that was in the great building Beth mokadh on the North-side of the Court as we shall shew anon and they were baked on the day before the Sabbath On the Sabbath they set them on the Table in this manner Four Priests went first in to fetch away the Loaves that had stood all the week and other four went in after them to bring in new ones in their stead Two of the four last carried the two rows of the Cakes namely six a piece and the other two carried either of them a golden dish in which the Frankincense was to be put to be set upon the Loaves and so those four that went to fetch out the old Bread two of them were to carry the cakes and the other two the dishes these four that came to fetch the old Bread out stood before the Table with their Faces towards the North and the other four that brought in the new stood betwixt the Table and the Wall with their Faces toward the South those drew off the old cakes and these as the other went off slipt on the new so that the Table was never without Bread upon it because it is said that they should stand before the Lord continually They set the cakes in two rows six and six one upon another and they set them the length of the cakes cross over the breadth of the Table by which it appears that the Crown of Gold about the Table rose not above the surface of it but was a border below edging even with the plain of it b b b R. Sol. in Exod. XXV as is well held by Rabbi Solomon and so the cakes lay two hand breadths over the Table on either side for the Table was but six hand breadth broad and the cakes were ten hand breadth long Now as for the preventing that that which so lay over should not break off if they had no other way to prevent it which yet they had but I confess that the description of it in their Authors I do not understand yet their manner of laying the cakes one upon another was such as that the weight rested upon the Table and not upon the points that hung over The lowest cake of either row they laid upon the plain Table and upon that cake they laid three golden Canes at distance one from another and upon those they laid the next cake and then three golden Canes again and upon them another cake and so of the rest save only that they laid but two such Canes upon the fifth cake because there was but one cake more to be laid upon Now these which I call golden Canes and the Hebrews call them so also were not like Reeds or Canes perfectly round and hallow thorow but they were like Canes or Kexes slit up the middle and the reason of laying them thus betwixt cake and cake was that by their hollowness Air might come to every cake and all might thereby be kept the better from moldiness and corrupting and thus did the cake lie hollow and one not touching another and all the golden Canes being laid so as that they lay within the compass of the breadth of the Table the ends of the cakes that lay over the Table on
either side bare no burden but their own weight On the top of either row was set a golden dish with a handful of Frankincense which when the Bread was taken away was burnt as Incense to the Lord Lev. XXIV 7. and the bread went to Aaron and his sons or to the Priests as their portions to be eaten What these Loaves did represent and signifie is variously guessed the number of twelve in two rows seem to refer to the Twelve Tribes whose names were so divided into six and six in the two Stones on the High Priests shoulders And as Bread is the chief subsistence and staff of our mortal life so the offering of these might denote an acknowledgment of the people of their receiving of all their subsistence from the Lord to whom they presented these as their Tribute and these aswell as the Lamps standing before the Lord might shew that their Spiritual and Temporal support were both before him But our pursuit is to look after the things themselves leaving the allegorizing of them unto others for in such things men are most commonly more ready to give satisfaction to themselves than to take it from others for as much as the things themselves may be bended and swayed to various application SECT VI. The Altar of Incense THE Candlestick stood on the one side of the House and the Table on the other and this Altar in the middle not just betwixt them but somewhat higher in the House toward the most Holy place than they were These three Ornaments and furnitures of the Holy place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a were set in a a a Maym. in Beth habhec per. 3. third part of the House that is whereas the House meaning the Holy place was forty cubits long when you had gone up six and twenty cubits and two third parts of a cubit into the room there stood the Table and Candlestick and somewhat further higher towards the Veil stood this Altar b b b Exod. XXX 1 2. Maym. ubi sup It was a cubit square and two cubits high had four Horns at the four corners of it and a Crown about the brim or edge of it which the Jews say denoted the Crown of the Priest-hood It stood not so nigh the Veil of the most Holy place but that one might go about it and so how the Priest did on the day of Expiation and besprinkled the Horns of it with Blood we observe elsewhere On this Altar commonly called the golden Altar Incense was offered Morning and Evening every day a Figure if you apply the action to Christ of his Mediation and if to man a resemblance of the duty of Prayer The twelve cakes which resembled the sustenance and sustentation of the Twelve Tribes which was ever before the Lord were renewed only once every week but the Lamps drest and the Incense offered twice every day for we have more need of the light of Gods Word and of Prayer than of our dayly food And if we will apply all the three to Christ The Kingly Office of Christ provided Bread for his People his Prophetick Office provided the light of his Word and his Priestly Office the Incense of Mediation CHAP. XV. The most Holy place SECT I. The Partition space 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Holy and the most Holy place were divided asunder by a threefold partition namely by a cubit space and by two Veils on either side of that space The partition space which a a a Mid. per. 4. was a cubit broad and no more by the Jews is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which b b b Aruch â—in voce Rabbi Nathan confesseth to be a Greek word and he saith it signifieth within or without as meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was doubtful to them whether it were within or without and thus it is interpreted c c c Talm. Ierus per. 5. in the Jerusalem Talmud d d d Beth habbec per. 4. Maymony helps us to their meaning thus In the Temple there was a Wall which parted between the Holy and most Holy place a cubit thick But when they builded the second Temple they doubted whether the thickness of that Wall belonged to the measure of the Holy place or to the measure of the most Holy place Therefore they made the most Holy place twenty cubits long compleat and they made the Holy place forty cubits long compleat And they left a space betwixt the Holy and most Holy place of a cubit breadth and in the second Temple they built not a Wall there but they made two veils one at the end of the most Holy place Eastward and the other at the end of the Holy place Westward and between them there was a cubits breadth according to the thickness of the Wall that had been in the first Temple But in the first Temple there was but one Veil The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is well conceived by the Learned e e e Const. Lemper in Mid. p. 164. Lempereur to be the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a disease in the Eye distempering the sight and hindering it and so were the Eyes of the understanding of the builders of the second Temple at a stand about this place whether it should belong to the Holy or most Holy place and thereupon they called the place it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wall that Solomon built for the parting of the Holy and most Holy place being a cubit thick in stead of which this space was left had these things regardable and considerable in it and not easie to be understood First For the entring of the Oracle he made doors of Olive-Tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King VI. 31. These later words are very difficult of construction and if we go to Glossaries for the explication of them they will give us variety of senses but little facility of understanding The Chaldee renders it only Their posts with its lintel were orderly set taking the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ranked in order and giving but very little light unto the obscure place David Kimchi and Rabbi Solomon seem to understand it that the posts of the doors were not four square but five square if we may use such a word or wrought into five ribs as their own words are But Levi Gershom hath a far fetch for it for he thinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth the fifth Gate that was in the Temple as you went forward the Temple door the fourth the Porch door the third the door of the inner Court the second and of the outer Court the first To me the words seem to bear this construction The post which was the door cheeks was at the fifth cubit meaning from either Wall of the House come inward five cubits and there was the door cheek and so the House being twenty cubits broad the door hereby is
thou hast promised by the Prophets And in another place this is thrice recited t t t t t t Sotah cap. 9 hal 15. Whom have we whereon to relye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides our Father which is in Heaven u u u u u u Joma cap. 8. hal 9. Blessed are ye O Israelites who cleanseth you your Father who is in Heaven x x x x x x Hieros Maaseroth fol. 50. 3. Ye gave not to your Father who is in Heaven but to me the Priest II. But in what sense did the Jews call God their Father in Heaven when they were altogether ignorant of the Doctrine and mystery of Adoption besides that Adoption whereby God had adopted them for a peculiar people I answer for that very cause they were taught by God himself so to call him Exod IV. 22. Deut. XXXII 6 c. Nor was there any among them who not only might not do this but also who ought not to do it While the Heathen said to his Idol Thou art my Father Jer. II. 27. the Israelite was bound to say Our Father which art in Heaven Es. LXIII 16. LXIV 8. III. When Christ useth this manner of speech so very well known to the Nation does he not use it in a sense that was known to the Nation also Let them answer who would have the Lords Prayer to be prayed and said by none but by those who are indeed Believers and who have partook of true adoption In what sense was our Saviour when he spake these words understood of the Hearers They were throughly instructed from their Cradles to call God the Father in Heaven they neither hear Christ changing the Phrase nor curtailing any thing from the latitude of the known and used sense Therefore let them tell me Did not Peter John and the rest of the Apostles think that it was as lawful for all Christians to say to God Our Father which art in Heaven as it was lawful for all Jews They called God Father because he had called them into the profession of him because he took care of them and instructed them c. And what I beseech you hinders but all Christians obtaining the same priviledges may honour God with the same compellation There is nothing in the words of Christ that hinders and there is somewhat in the very phrase that permits it VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hallowed be thy name Thy Kingdom come THIS obtained for an Axiom in the Jewish Schools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y y y y y y Bab. Beracoth fol. 40. 2. That prayer wherein there is not mention of the Kingdom of God is not a prayer Where these words are also added Abai saith like to this is that of Rabh to be reckoned that it is a tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not transgressed thy precepts nor have I forgot them they are the words of him that offereth the first fruits Deut. XXVI 13. I have not transgressed that is by not giving thanks And I have not forgot them that is I have not forgot to commemorate thy name and thy Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thy will be done as in Heaven c. z z z z z z Bab. Berac fol. 29. 2. What is the short prayer R. Eliezer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do thy will in Heaven and give quietness of spirit to them that fear thee beneath or in earth VERS XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Our daily bread THat is provide to morrows bread and give it us to day that we be not solicitous for to morrow as ver 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that which next follows not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super substantial from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The necessities of thy people Israel are many and their knowledge small so that they know not how to disclose their necessities let it be thy good pleasure to give to every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What sufficeth for food c. VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deliver us from Evil. a a a a a a Berac f. 16. 2. RAbbi Judah was wont thus to pray let it be thy good pleasure to deliver us from impudent men and impudence from an evil man and from an evil chance from an evil affection from an evil companion from an evil neighbour from Satan the destroyer from a hard judgment and from a hard adversary c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For thine is the Kingdom c. I. In the publick Service in the Temple the commemoration of the Kingdom of God was the Respond instead of which the people answered Amen when the Priests ended their prayers For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tradition is that they answered not Amen in the house of the Sanctuary What said they then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed by the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever b b b b b b Hieros Berac fol. 13. 3. Hence in the Tract Joma where the Rubrick of the day of Expiation is after various prayers recited which on that day the High Priest makes is added And the people answered Blessed be the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever See the c c c c c c Bab. Joma fol. 39. 1. 41. 2. but chiefly fol. 66. 1. places of that Tract noted in the margent There a short prayer of the High Priest is mentioned in which he thus concludes Be ye clean before Jehovah and these words are added But the Priests and people standing in the Court when they heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name Jehovah pronounced out in its syllables adoring and falling prostrate upon their face they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed be the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever See also the Tract d d d d d d Bab. Taanith fol. 16. 2. Taanith where a reason is given of this doxology in the Gloss there II. This also they pronounced softly and in a gentle whisper while they were reciting the Phylacteries e e e e e e Bab. Pesachin fol. 56. 1. It is said of the men of Jericho that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They folded up the Schmah It is disputed what this means And R. Judah saith that they made some small pause after the reciting of this period Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord but they said not Blessed be the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever But by what reason do we say so R. Simeon ben Levi explains the mystery who saith Our father Jacob called his sons and said Gather your selves together and I will declare unto you It was in his mind to reveal to them the end of days and the Holy Spirit departed from him he said therefore Perhaps there is something prophane in my bed
which God forbid as it was to Abraham from whom proceeded Ismael and to Isaac from whom proceeded Esau. His sons said unto him Hear Israel the Lord our God is one Lord as in thy heart there is but one so in our hearts there is but one At that time our father Jacob began and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed be the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever The Rabbins said What shall we do Shall we say this Doxology Our Master Moses said it not Shall we not say it Our Father Jacob said it Therefore it was appointed to say it softly c. You see how very publick the use of this Doxology was and how very private too Being a Response it was pronounced in the Temple by all with a loud voice being an ejaculation it was spoken in the Phylacterical prayers by every single man in a very low voice And you see how great an agreement it hath with the Conclusion of the Lords prayer For thine is the Kingdom c. III. As they answered Amen not at all in the publick prayers in the Temple so they seldom joyned it to the end of their private prayers In the Synagogue indeed the people answered Amen to the prayers made by the Minister and also at home when the Master of the family blessed or prayed but seldom or indeed never any one praying privately joyned this to the end of his prayers And now to apply those things which have been said to the matter under our hands consider the following things 1. That this prayer was twice delivered by our Saviour first in this Sermon in the Mount when he was not asked and afterwards when he was asked almost half a year after Luke XI 2. That this Conclusion is added in St. Matthew For thine is the Kingdom c. But in St. Luke it is not In St. Matthew is added moreover the word Amen but in St. Luke it is wanting Upon the whole matter therefore we infer I. That Christ in exhibiting this form of prayer followed a very usual rite and custom of the Nation II. That the Disciples also receiving this form delivered to them could not but receive it according to the manner and sense of the Nation usual in such cases since he introduced no exception at all from that general rule and custom III. That he scarcely could signifie his mind that this prayer should be universally and constantly used by any marks or signs more clear than those which be made use of For First He commanded all without any exception or distinction After this manner pray ye And When ye pray say Our Father c. Secondly As according to the ordinary custom of the Nation Forms of prayer delivered by the Masters to their Scholars were to be used and were used by them all indifferently and without distinction of persons so also He neither suggested any thing concerning this his prayer either besides the common custom or contrary to it Thirdly The Form it self carries along with it certain characters both of its publick and private and constant use It may certainly with good reason be asked why since Christ had delivered this prayer in such plain words in his Sermon upon the Mount this command moreover being added After this manner pray ye it was desired again that he would teach them to pray What had they forgotten that prayer that was given them there Were they ignorant that it was given them for a form of prayer and so to be used But this seems rather the cause why they desired a second time a form of prayer namely because they might reckon that first for a publick form of prayer since this might easily be evinced both by the addition of the Conclusion so like the publick Response in the Temple and especially by the addition of Amen used only in publick Assemblies therefore they beseech him again that he would teach them to pray privately and he repeats the same form but omits the Conclusion and Amen which savoured of publick use Therefore you have in the Conclusion a sign of the publick use by the agreement of it to the Response in the Temple and of the private by the agreement of it to the ejaculation in the Phylacterical prayers A sign of the publick use was in the addition of Amen a sign of the private use was in the absence of it a sign of both in the conformity of the whole to the custom of the Nation Christ taught his Disciples to pray as John had taught his Luke XI 1. John taught his as the Masters among the Jews had theirs by yeilding them a form to be used by all theirs daily verbatim and in terms VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They disfigure their faces THAT is they disguised their faces with ashes as he heretofore upon another cause 1 King XX. 38. f f f f f f Taanith c. 2 In the publick fasts every one took ashes and put upon his head g g g g g g Juchasin f. 59 They say of R. Joshua ben Ananiah that all the days of his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his face was black by reason of his fastings h h h h h h Bab. Sotah fol. 12. 1. Why is his name called Ashur 1 Chron. IV. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because his face was black by fastings Here let that of Seneca come in i i i i i i Epist. 5. This is against nature to hate easie cleanliness and to affect nastiness VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But thou when thou fastest anoint thy head c. FOR those that fasted neither anointed themselves nor washed k k k k k k Joma cap. 8. hal 1. On the day of expiation it was forbidden to eat to drink to wash to anoint themselves to put on their Sandals to lye with their wives But the King and the Bride may wash their faces and a midwife may put on her Sandals See the l l l l l l Fol. 77. 2. Babylonian Gemara here See also the Babylonian Talmud in the Tract m m m m m m Fol. 12. 2. 8 132. Taanith concerning other fasts and the fasts of private men They were wont to anoint their bodies and heads upon a threefold reason I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For â—iner dress n n n n n n Hieros in Maasar Sheni fol. 53. 2. Schab fol. 12. 1 Anointing is permitted to be used on the Sabbath whether it be for ornament or not for ornament On the day of expiation both are forbidden On the ninth day of the month Ab and in the publick fasts anointing for dress is forbid anointing not for dress is allowed II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They anointed themselves often not for excess or bravery or delight but for the healing of some disease or for the health of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o