of the Gospel and if my poorness could some contribution towards the building of Sion The Method that I prescribed to my self in this undertaking some glimpse whereof thou maist see in this present Parcel was 1. To lay the Text of the Evangelists in that order which the nature and progress of the Story doth necessarily require 2. To give a Reason of this Order why the Text is so laid more largely or more briefly according as the plainness or difficulty of the connexion doth call for it 3. To give some account of the difficulties in the language of the Original as any came to hand either being naturally so in the Greek it self or being made difficulties when they were not so by the curiosity misconstruction or self-end-seeking of some Expositors 4. And lastly to clear and open the sense and meaning of the Text all along as it went especially where it was of more abstruseness and obscurity These two last things did I assay and go on withal a great way in the work with much largeness and copiousness both concerning the language and the manner For for the first I did not only poise the Greek in the ballance of its own Country and of the Septuagint but I also examined translations in divers languages produced their sense and shewed cause of adhering to or refusing of their sense as I conceived cause And for the second I alledged the various Expositions and interpretations of Commentators both ancient and modern and others that spake to such and such places occasionally I examined their Expositions and gave the Reader reason to refuse or imbrace them as cause required When seeing the Work in this way likely to rise to vastness of bulk it self and of trouble to the Reader I chose to abridg this first part for a trial and therein having expressed only those things which were most material for the understanding of the Text where it is less plain for where it is plain enough why should I spend time and labour about it And spoken mine own thoughts upon it and omitted unless it be for a taste of what I had done the glosses and thoughts of others I now wait for the direction and advice of my learned and loving Friends and Readers whether to exhibite the other parts that are to follow by Gods good blessing and assistance in that large and voluminous method that at the first I prescribed to my self or in that succiseness that this present parcel holdeth out I have partly chosen and have partly been constrained to tender this work to publick view by pieces whereof only this and this but a small one neither appears at this time I have chosen so to do that I might give the world my thoughts upon the Evangelists as the Lord giveth time for who would defer to do any thing of such a work till he have done all since our lives are so short and uncertain and the work so long and difficult And I have been constrained thus to do partly because of mine other occasions many and urgent which deny me opportunity to follow that business as such a bulk would require and partly because of the straits of the times which have straitned our Presses that they Print but rarely any thing voluminous Every year by Gods permission and good assistance shall yield its piece till all be finished if the Lord spare life health and liberty thereunto Divers things were fitting to have been premised to a work of this nature but because that if they should all be set before this small piece that we now exhibit the Preface or Prolegomena would be larger than the Book it self therefore have I reserved to every piece that shall come forth it s own share and portion And the things that I have thought upon and hewed out unto this purpose are these 1. To fix the certain year of our Saviours birth as a thing very fit to be looked after and to shew the certain grounds whereupon to go that our fixing upon such a year may be warranted and without wavering This have I premised to this first part wherein comes the Story and Treatise of our Saviours birth 2. To give account of all the dislocations of Texts and Stories in the Old Testament which are exceeding many to shew where is their proper place and order and to give the reason of their dislocation And this being so copious and frequent in the Old Testament the like will be thought the less strange and uncouth in the New 3. To make a Chorographical description of the Land of Canaan and those adjoyning places that we have occasion to look upon as we read the Gospel a thing of no small necessity for the clearer understanding of the Story 4. To make a Topographical description of Jerusalem and of the Fabrick of the Temple which will facilitate divers passages in the Gospel which are of no small obscurity 5. To give some account and Story of the State and Customs of the Iews in these times when the Gospel began and was first preached among them out of their own and other Writers which things the Evangelists mention not and yet which conduce not a little to the understanding of the Evangelists These as things very necessary for the matter in hand shall wait severally upon the several parts that shall follow as the Lord shall please to vouchsafe ability time health and safety From my Chamber in Westminster Octob. 1. 1644. PROLEGOM I. The Age of the World at our Saviours birth fixed the account proved the chiefest difficulties in the Scripture Chronicle resolved IN the Stories of times the times of the stories do challenge special notice and observation and of all other that of our Saviours birth being the fulness of time may best as best worthy make such a challenge A time to which all the holy ones that went before it did bend their eyes and expectation and a time from which all the Christians that have lived since have dated their Chronical accounts and computation And yet how unfixed is this time and age of the world in which so great a mystery came to pass and upon which so general accounting doth depend in the various reckonings of learned and industrious men It is not only to be seen in their writings wondered at in regard of the great difference at which they count but the fixed time is the more to be studied for upon this very reason because such men do so greatly differ among themselves The only way to settle in such variety is to take the plain and clear account and reckoning of the Scripture which hath taken a peculiar care to give an exact and most certain Chronicle to this time and not to rely upon the computation of Olympiades Consuls or any other humane calculation which it cannot be doubted must of necessity leave the deepest student of them in doubting and uncertainty Now the Scripture carrying on a most faithful reckoning of the times from
from death to life in a spiritual sense which argues that he intends the same sense here 3. In that he ascribeth reviving to his Voice here as he did there to his Word 4. Because he distinguisheth upon hearing his voice The dead shall hear it and as many as hear it shall live which is applicable a great deal more fairly to the bare and to the effectual hearing of the Gospel than to dead in corporal sense And 5. lastly Because there are so great things spoken of the calling of the Gentiles in the Scripture and of Christs work about that matter and their Heathenish condition so expresly called death and their imbracing the Gospel a resurrection that when Christ is speaking of his actings in the New Testament and useth such words as these before us we may not unproperly apply them in that sense It would have prevented many controversies and not a few errors if the Phrases the last days and the day of the Lord and the end and new Heavens and new Earth and the dead raised c. had been cautelously understood and as the Scripture means them in several places But as for the raising of the dead in the verse in hand it needeth not very much curiosity to fix it to either of those as a determinate sense since taken either way that hath been mentioned it carries a fair construction most agreeable to the truth and not very disagreeable to the scope and context Vers. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself It is needless to dispute here how far the second person in the Trinity may be said to have or not to have his being of himself for the words do not consider him simply as the second person but as the Messias God and Man as is the tenour of speech all along And in this acceptation we may give the words this construction 1. That they are a Paraphrase upon the name Jehovah which betokeneth Gods eternal being in himself and his giving of being to the Creature and that they mean that as the Father is Jehovah so also hath he given to the Son the Messias that name above all names as Philip. 2. 9. to be owned and worshipped for Jehovah having life in himself as being the eternal and living God and having the disposal of life in his power as being the God of all living 2. That as the Father is the eternal and immortal God so also is the Messias and though he stand there before the Sanhedrin in humane appearance yet should he never see corruption as Psalm 16. 10. but declare himself mightily to be the Son of God and to have life in himself by his raising himself from the dead Rom. 1. 4. Being the first and last He that liveth though he died and is alive for evermore Amen and hath the Keys of Hell and death at his disposal Rev. 1. 17 18. 3. As the words before may be applied to Christs raising from the dead those that were either bodily or spiritually deceased so these are a reason and proof of that assertion because as the Father hath the absolute disposal of life in his own power so hath he given to the Messias the same disposal Vers. 27. And hath given him authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man By this passage it is apparent in what sense our Saviour useth the term The Son and The Son of God all along this discourse namely for the Son of God as he was also the Son of Man or the Messias There hath been some scruple made as was mentioned before upon the reason given of Christs authority of Judging namely because he was the Son of Man which will be removed by rightly stating the sense of the Son of Man which we may take up in these three particulars 1. The Phrase the Son of Man may be taken to signifie simply A Man and then the words are to be understood in this sense He hath given him authority of judging because he is a man and then is the reason current and apparent under this construction First Because the Son of God humbled himself and became man for the redemption of man therefore the Lord hath given him authority to be judge of man as Phil. 2. 8 9. And secondly He hath given the Messias authority of judging because he is man that man might be judged by one in his own nature as Act. 17. 31. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead 2. The title The Son of Man which our Saviour so oft applieth to himself in the Gospel doth not speak him barely A Man but it owns him as that singular and peculiar seed of the woman or Son of Man that was promised to Adam to be a repairer of ruined mankind and the destroyer of the works of Satan as the term hath been cleared before And in this construction the reason of Christs authority of judging because he was the Son of Man is yet cleared further namely because he was the Son of that promise the Heir of the world and Redeemer of mankind and Destroyer of Devils therefore the Lord did give authority to him to be Lord of the World and Judge of Men and Devils to destroy the Serpent and his seed that were his enemies and to perfect and save the holy seed that should believe in him and obey him and to do and order all things here in this world that were in tendency either to the one or the other end 3. The Messias is thus charactered in Dan. 7. 13 14. Behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the antient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him Upon which words R. Saadias glosseth thus This is Messias our righteousness But is it not written concerning the Messias lowly and riding upon an Ass Because he shall come in humility and not in pomp riding upon Horses And with the Clouds of Heavens meaneth the Angels the Host of Heaven this is the abundance of greatness which the Creator shall give unto the Messias c. Our Saviour in the words that we are upon seemeth to point at those words of Daniel and whereas it was confessed by the Nation that the Son of Man there spoken of to whom all Dominion was given was the Messias he doth here plainly aver that it was himself and that all Authority and Judicature was given him because he was the Son of Man Observe how purposely he changeth expressions In ver 25. He speaketh of raising the dead by the voice of the Son of God and here of executing judgment because he is the Son
world he being Lord of all What reason can we give but that he by his own proceeding and acting would set the clock of time and measure out days and a week by which all time is measured by his own standard Evening and Morning to make a natural day i. e. day and night and seven natural days to make a week six days of labour the seventh for rest six for man the seventh for God Shall we trace the story of the six days a little that we may the more plainly observe the Rest and blessing of the Sabbath when it came That the world was made at Aequinox all grant but differ at which whether about the eleventh of March or twelfth of September to me in September without all doubt All things were created in their ripeness and maturity Appels ripe and ready to eat as is too sadly plain in Adam and Eves eating the forbidden Fruit. To this we might add that God attributed the beginning of the year to March upon Ecclesiastical account upon their coming out of Egypt Exod. XII Which argues it had begun from some time else before And so the Jews well observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of the year for telling the year it from September 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of the year for stating of the feasts is from March See Exod. XXIII 16. The feast of in-gathering in the end of the year After which a new year was presently to begin when they had gathered in grapes c. So that look at the first day of the Creation God made Heaven and Earth in a moment The Heaven as soon as created moved and the wheel of time began to go And thus for twelve hours there was universal darkness This is called the Evening meaning Night Then God said Let there be Light and light arose in the East and in twelve hours more was carried over the Hemisphere and this is called Morning or Day And the Evening and Morning made the first natural days twelve hours darkness and twelve light Accordingly did God proceed in the works of the six days as Moses hath informed us at large which I shall not insist upon but come to the works of the sixth day On that day God created creeping things and beasts and lastly man And that which is needful to observe towards the Lords resting and sanctifying the seventh day is that before the seventh day came sin was come into the world and Christ was promised On the sixth day all was marred again Before that day was ended sin was got into the world and spoiled the best of the Creation of God Men and some Angels This we have to speak to wich giveth some illustration concerning the institution of the Sabbath of the seventh day That Adam fell on the very day that he was created needs not so much dispute about for it is easie to be proved as it needs sorrow and wonder Wonder that he placed in so incomparable happyness and having perfect power to continue in it should set so light by that happiness as to pass it off for an Apple and that he should lose that happiness on his first day when he was able to have kept it all his days And Sorrow that the noblest of natures that God had created should be so soon overthrown and overthrown so sorely For proof of this we may have recourse to Scripture to Reason and to the Correspondence that was twixt the Fall and the Redemption I. To prove it by Scripture First Observe that Psal. XLIX 12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish The Psalmist in the verse before shews the carnal confidence of worldly men Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations c. And in this verse he shews how vain such confidences are For that man hath no abiding here in his house or honour but he must away And he lays it down not only as a thing undoubted in it self in the words that you have before you in your English Bibles but in the Original he includes the most proof of it that could be produced For in the Original the words speak literally thus Adam in honour lodged not all night but was flitted out of his honour before his first night came And if it were so with him in his great honour and in his great ability to have stood and remained in his honour it is much more so with man that is become sinful mortal and nothing but fading I say the words in the Original bear also this sense that Adam in honour lodged not all night And so they speak and prove the thing we are upon that he â—ell and faded on the very day he was created and lost his honour and happiness before night came Secondly Observe that Joh. VIII 44. He was a murtherer from the beginning The Syriac renders it from in the beginning the common phrase whereby the Jewish Nation expressed the days of Creation So is it their common expression whereby they denote the works of the Creation to call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works in the beginning And the Jews that stood by and heard Christ speak these words He was a murtherer from the beginning could not otherwise understand it than that he was a murtherer even from the days of the Creation that he murthered Adam on the very day that he was created And so Christ meant in the words as speaking according to the common and familiar Language of the Nation For II. To clear this by Reason which the Scripture thus hinteth First It is without all question that the Devil would slack no time but as he was fallen himself through his spite and malice at the happiness and honour of Adam so he would hasten all he could to bring him out of his happiness and honour which he so much spited and maliced It is disputed what day the Angels were created It is the most probable they were created the first day with the Heavens and that they were spectators of Gods works in the creation and praised and magnified the Lord for his works all along so God himself the great Creator tells us Job XXXVIII 4 5 6 7. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth c. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who layd thâ— corner stone thereof When the morning Stars sung together and all the Sons of God shooted for joy By Stars and Sons of God is plainly meant the Angels and they are singing and shouting when God lays the foundations of the earth as they did at the laying the foundation of the Temple Ezra III. Now the foundation of the earth was laid in the first day the first work of the Creation when God in one and the same instant created Heaven
Office he discharged with great care and diligence though he had at that time a multiplicity of affairs to divert him especially that of perusing the sheets of the Polyglott as they were wrought off from the Press He was extreamly solicitous during his being Vice-Chancellor that he might not do any wrong to any Man or any unkindness to his friend He did once fear during that year that he had by a Sentence determined injuriously against a Friend of his This was so great a torment to his mind that he told a Friend that is yet alive that he thought it would accompany him with sorrow to his grave But the good Man was soon satisfied that what he had determined was not only just but necessary also Nor were our Authors Labours confined to the University and to his Rectory For besides the many excellent Books which he wrote of which I forbear to give any account here because I find it done to my Hand he was concerned in the useful undertakings which were begun and finished in his time Among which the Edition of the Polyglott Bible which was finished in the year 1657. deserves to be mentioned in the first place This excellent and useful Work was in great measure accomplished by the indefatigable pains of the Learned and Reverend Brian Walton D. D. and afterwards Lord Bishop of Chester and remains a monument of the exemplary diligence and eminent Learning of that excellent Prelate I shall only at present consider how far our Author was concerned in that Work I find him consulted about that whole Work by Doctor Walton at his first entrance upon it in a Letter of the Doctors to him bearing date Jan. 2. 1653. In which he begs our Authors assistance as to the Samaritan Pentateuch which he bestowed much pains about Vid. Dec. Chorograph in S. Marc. Cap. X. § 5. Nor was this the first application which had been made to him for by that Letter it appears that our Author had modestly declined the employment upon the score of his inability to which the Doctor in that Letter replies that our Author had given sufficient and publick Testimony to the World of his ability I find also that Doctor Walton as appears by his Letters bearing date Feb. 23. 1653. and April 24 1654. and June 14. 1654. and several others sent our Author the several Alphabets of sheets as they came off from the Press and desired him to peruse them as he had done and note the mistakes he should meet withal In one of which he tells him that as to the Samaritan his Diligence and Judgment had been so exact that there would be little cause to alter much less to censure and correct I find also that our Author assisted in that Work several other ways not only by procuring Subscriptions toward its encouragement but by furnishing him with several M S S. out of the University Library viz. a Syriac M S. of the Prophets which the Doctor acknowledges in a Letter bearing date Nov. 7. 1655. and a Syriac Lexicon a MS. He assisted him likewise in rectifying the Map of Judaea as appears by another Letter dated July 23. 1656. and with certain Notes out of the Jerusalem Talmud as appears by another Letter Nov. 4. 1657. Besides this our Author sent him his Chorographical Observations which we find prefixed to the Polyglott Bible under his Name Next to the Polyglott Bible and in order to render that the more useful also the greatest Work of this last age and indeed of any other of that kind is that incomparable Book the Lexicon Heptaglotton by Edmund Castell D. D. published in the year 1669. I find that Dr. Castell a Man for his great Piety incomparable Learning and incredible Diligence not to be mentioned without a Preface of honour before he entred upon that Work consulted our Author about it and submitted it to him either to stifle or give it life as he expresseth himself in a Letter to him bearing date Dec. 2. 1657. To which when the Doctor had received our Authors Answer in which he approves his excellent design in a second Letter the Doctor returns him his thanks and after his acknowledgments he adds And truly says he had we not such an Oracle to consult with bootless and in vain it would be to attempt such an undertaking And a little afterwards he adds O nos felices ter amplius quibus contigit Te vivo opus hoc tam grande quam arduum auspicato suscepisse Et benedictus ob hoc semper sit summus ille rerum Arbiter This Letter is not dated but must be written upon the beginning of that great undertaking I forbear to relate in how many particulars his Advice and Assistance toward that excellent Work was requested The Doctor tells our Author in a Letter dated Feb. 22. 1663. what his sense of him was in these word your Worth and Works so transcendent to the Vulgar way of writing all the learned World doth and ought highly to esteem I have and shall as does become me in this Work now upon me sundry times with honour mention c. Our Author did not only advise and commend and speak well These are cheap things He assisted by supplying with Money and supporting the excellent undertaker This I find acknowledged by the Doctor in a Letter bearing date March 14. 1663. How far our Author gave his assistance this way I know not but this I find that in that Letter the Doctor is transported that in these three Kingdoms says he to our Author there should be one found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a second has never yet appeared to me who has manifested such a sentiment of my ruined and undone condition He does indeed except in that Letter the Bishop of Exon whose kindness to him was incomparably great Doctor Lightfoot indeed was very much concerned for that most Worthy undertaker and did I find do his utmost to support the Good Man in that excellent Work He wrote often to him and failed not by all manner of ways to encourage him in his Labours The Doctor tells him in a Letter bearing date Nov. 15. 1664. next to the Divine I meet with no lines like yours that so sweetly refresh and delight my Soul when quite wearied with labour c. When the first Volume of that excellent Book came out I find the Doctor giving our Author the notice of it and promising him to transmit it with a request to give a Censure of it none being either more able to judge or that will do it with greater Candor especially he desires his more severe scanning of the Arabick This he does in a Letter dated Jan. 14. 1667. He acquaints him also with the finishing of the Second Volume in a Letter dated to him June 9. 1669. By this it appears how far our Author was concerned in the encouraging of this excellent Work For the Synopsis Critiâ—orum undertaken by Mr. Matthew Pool I find our
time and story come in the three first Verses of the second Chapter and the story lyeth thus Dayes of the Creation VII GOD having thus created all things * * * Read ver 2. For on the seventh day God had ended his work otherwise there may be a doubt upon it whether God created not something on the seventh day This the lxx Saw and therefore they translate it different from the Original word And God ended his works on the sixth day in six days and man having thus fallen and heard of Christ and of death and eternal life and other like things on the sixth day the Lord ordaineth the seventh day for a Sabbath or holy rest and Adam spendeth it in holy duties and in meditation of holy things The mention of the institution of the Sabbath is laid in the beginning of the second Chapter though the very time and place of that story be not till after the end of the third 1. Because the holy Ghost would dispatch the whole story of the first week or seven days of the world together without interposition of any other particular story 2. Because he would shew that Adam should have kept the Sabbath though he had never sinned And therefore the mention of the Sabbath is before the mention of his sin CHAP. IV. THE exact times of the stories of the fourth Chapter are not to be determined and therefore they must be left to be taken up by conjecture in the times of the fifth as they are cast into the following table and so conjecturally also must we measure out the parallel and collateral times of the generations of Cain and Seth that are either named here or hereafter to the floud Cain and Abel born twins yet the one the seed of the Serpent and the other of the Woman In Cain was legible the poyson that Satan had breathed into fallen man and in Abel the breathing of grace into the elect and a figure of the death of Christ. God fireth Abels sacrifice from heaven but despiseth Cains yet readeth to him the first doctrine of repentance That if he did well he should certainly be accepted and though he did not well yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin-offering lieth at the door if he repented there was hope of pardon Thus as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam in the promise of Christ Chap. 3. 15. so doth he the first lecture of repentance to Cain under the doctrine of * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very commonly taken for a sin offering and the sacrifices were constantly brought to the Tabernacle door a sin-offering But Cain despiseth his own mercy is unmerciful to his brother and is denied mercy from the Lord. He beggeth for death that he might be shut out of that sad condition to which God hath doomed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now therefore let it be that any one that findeth me may kill me but this God denieth him and reserve th him to a longlife that he might reserve him to long misery Lamech a branch of this root bringeth into the world the abomination of Polygamie or of having more wives at once than one for which God smiteth him with horrour of conscience that he himself might be a witness against that sin that he had introduced and he censureth himself for a more deplorate and desperate wretch than Cain For that Cain had slain but one man and had only destroyed his body but he himself had destroyed both young and old by his cursed example which was now so currently followed and entertained in the world that ere long it was a special forwarder of its destruction that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold Lamech deserved seventy and seven-fold In this stock of Cain also began Idolatry and worshipping the creature instead of the Creator blessed for ever and in a mournfull feeling of this dishonour done to God by it Seth calls his Son that was born to him in those times Enosh or sorrowfull because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then began profaness in calling upon the name of the Lord. Noah in 2 Pet. 2. 5. seemeth to be called the eighth in reference to these times namely the eighth in succession from Enosh in whose times the world began to be profane CHAP. V. THis fifth Chapter measureth the time and age of the world between the Creation and the Flood which was 1655. years compleat Being cast into a Table it will not only shew the currency but the concurrency of those times or how those Patriarchs whose times it measureth lived one with another The Reader will not need any rules for the explaining of the Table his own Arithmetick will soon shew him what use to make of it The first Age of the World From the Creation to the Flood This space is called Early in the morning Mat. 2. Hilar. in loc Ten Fathers before the Flood  Adam hath Cain and Abel and loseth them both Gen. 4. unhappy in his children the greatest earthly happiness that he may think of Heaven the more 130 130 Seth born in original sin Gen. 5. 2 3. a holy man and father of all men after the Flood Numb 24. 17. to shew all men born in that estate 235 235 105 Enosh born corruption in Religion by Idolatry begun Gen. 4. 25. Enosh therefore so named Sorrowful 325 325 195 90 Kainan born A mourner for the corruption of the times 395 395 265 160 70 Mahalaleel born A praiser of the Lord. 460 460 330 225 135 65 Jared born when there is still a descending from evil to worse 622 622 492 387 297 227 162 Enoch born and Dedicated to God the seventh from Adam Jude 14. 687 687 557 452 362 292 227 65 Methushelah born his very name foretold the Flood The lease of the world is only for his life 874 874 744 639 549 479 414 252 187 Lamech born A man smitten with grief for the present corruption and future punishment 930 930 800 695 605 535 470 308 243 56 Adam dieth having lived 1000. years within 70. Now 70 years a whole age Psal. 90. 10. 987  857 752 662 592 527 365 300 113 57 Enoch translated next after Adams death mortality taught in that immortality in this 1042 Enoch the seventh from Adam in the holy line of Seth prophecâ—ed against the wickedness that Lamech the seventh from Adam in the cursed line of Cain had brought in 912 807 717 647 582 Enoch lived as many years as there be days in a year via 365. and finished his course like a Sun on earth 355 168 112 55 Seth dieth 1056   821 731 661 596  369 182 126 69 14 Noah born a comforter 1140   905 815 745 680  453 266 210 153 98 84 Enosh dieth 1235    910 840 775  548 361 305 248 193 179 95 Kainan dieth 1290     895 830  603 416 360 303 248 234 150 55
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
voyce in vers 2. and to some thing that went before it it must of necessity be referred The fourth transgression of every Nation is particularly specified for so is that clause also to be understood in every one of the threatnings For three transgressions of Damascus but especially for the fourth I will not revoke the voice that is gone out against it and so the like phrase is used Prov. 30. 15 18 21. The Prophesie of OBADIAH THERE is no undoubted certainty of the times of this Prophet and there is some controversie about his person The Hebrew Doctors most generally hold that this Obadiah was he that lived with Ahab 1 King 18. and that he was a proselited Idumean they express it thus The holy blessed God said Of them and among them will I raise up one against them there shall come Obadiah who dwelt with two wicked persons Ahab and Jezabel and learned not their works and he shall take vengeance of Esau who dwelt with two righteous persons Isaac and Rebecca and learned not their works But Aben Ezra moderately and discreetly refuseth this opinion For saith he where it is said Obadiah feared the Lord if it had been this very Prophet how doth he call him a fearer of the Lord and not rather a Prophet seeing that Prophesie was a degree more honourable And withal when Jezabel sought to destroy all the Lords Prophets how could Obadiah have escaped if he had been a Prophet being always at Court in Jezabels eye Had this Obadiah been Ahabs Courtier it were easie enough to tell in what time and place to lay this Prophesie but since he was not as is apparent by these Arguments alledged and might be confirmed by more we are still to seek who this Prophet was and in what time he lived It appeareth by the matter of his Prophesie that Judah and Jerusalem had been under great calamity and captivity and that Edom had helped forward the misery see ver 10 11 12 13 14. strangers had carried away captive the forces of Jerusalem and forreiners had entred into her gates and cast Lots upon her and Edom was as one of them Now whether this meaneth the Babilonish captivity or some riffling of Jerusalem some time before there is the question At the sacking of it by the Babilonians the Edomites were busie to help on the ruine as it is related in Psal. 137. 7. and they cryed Rase it rase it even to the foundation and if this Prophesie refer to that time then should it be laid after the Prophesie of Jeremy for time and order But these two arguments do perswade that this Prophesie of Obadiah and this spleen of Edom against Jerusalem were of a timelier and sooner date 1. Because there is no mention at all of any such a Prophet at and after the destruction of Jerusalem when men of the best note and eminency are reckoned very carefully 2. Because he mentioneth only the Captivity of Israel and Judah in Zarephath and Sepharad not in France and Spain as the words are commonly interpreted but in Sarepta of Zidon and in other places thereabout or in Edom Now if this his Prophesie had been after the Babilonian had destroyed Jerusalem it had been proper to have spoken of the Captivity of Israel in Assyria and of Judah in Babilon and not of a small parcel of Captives in two small Towns or Places Therefore I cannot but conceive that Obadiah lived contemporary with these men with whose Prophesies his is laid Hosea Amos and Jonah and that this malicious carriage of the Edomites against Jerusalem and Judah was either when it was sacked by Shishak King of Egypt 1 King 14. 25. or by the Philistims and Arabians 2 Chron. 21. 16 17. or by Joash King of Israel 2 Chron. 25. 21. and that these Captives of Israel and Judah in Sarepta and Sepharad were like those in Amos 1 6 9. taken by the Sidonian and by whosoever inhabited Sepharad to be delivered up to Edom. The Book of JONAH all IN Hosea Joel and Amos is shewed the rejection and ruine of Isruel and Judah and in Obadiah the desolation of Esau the next Kinsman and when the seed of Jacob and Esau is thus decreed to ruine and casting off then it was seasonable to send Jonah out to fetch in the Gentiles He lived in the same time with these Prophets named in the days of Jeroboam the second and Prophesied of his Victories and in his time or not long after he goeth to Niniveh He at first declineth his Embassage for love to his own people knowing that the coming in of the Gentiles would be the casting off of the Jews and he was unwilling to be the forwarder and instrument of it At Joppa he diverts from his errand compare Acts 10. and the like unwillingness in Simon Bar Jona taketh Ship for Tarshish a City now in the territories of Ninevehs dominion but comes a shore in a Whales belly a type of Christs Burial and Resurrection before the Gentiules calling Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah denouncing destruction but forty days off but about forty years after or less it is destroyed indeed under the effeminate King Sardanapalus 2 CHRON. XXVI ver 5. UZZIAH seeketh God World 3216 Uzziah 16 and prospereth Zechariah Division 187 Uzziah 17 a Prophet is as it were his Division 188 Uzziah 18 houshold Chaplain and following Interregnum 1 Division 189 Uzziah 19 his directions it goeth well Interregnum 2 Division 190 Uzziah 20 with him There is mention in Interregnum 3 Division 191 Uzziah 21 Esay 1. 2. in the times of Ahaz Interregnum 4 Division 192 Uzziah 22 of one of the same name Zechariah Interregnum 5 Interregnum 6 Division 193 World 3223 Uzziah 23 Esay beginneth to Prophesie Interregnum 7 Interregnum 8 Division 194 in this three and twentieth year of Uzziah when it was now threescore and five years to the captiving of the ten Tribes for so seems that passage to be dated and understood Esay 8. 8. within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken off that it be not a people For to what other date can it be referred if it mean barely the ten Tribes captiving Not from the time that Esay uttered that Prophesie in the time of Ahaz for from the first year of Ahaz to the breaking of Ephraim was but twenty years nor from the beginning of Amos his Prophesying as the Jews do cast it for he began in Jeroboams time and from Jeroboams last to the breaking of Ephraim was above seventy years but it is to be counted from the time when Esay himself began to Prophesie He began in the days of Uzziah and had continued all the time of Jotham and now it was the reign of Ahaz and the Lord fixeth him this term for Ephraims Kingdom that count from the beginning of his own prophesying sixty five years forward and then the ten Tribes should be captived Now the Holy Ghost reckoneth from that date rather then
should see too much of the true Religion there but that Ahaz might shew himself a worshipper of strange gods as well as the King These sad times and this expedition the Prophet speaketh of in that tenth Chapter but in the eleventh and twelfth he again comforts the house of David with the vertue of the anointing or with the operation of the promise to the Throne of David that his lamp should not go quite out till the Branch of the root of Jesse should bud and a King from thence should bear rule over all Nations And in Chap. 13. 14. he Prophesieth against the Kingdom of Babilon which indeed was but now newly sprung that this stock of Jesse should out-wear both Assyria and it and that the anointing or decree that God had made concerning Davids everlasting Throne should be their ruine that strove against it 2 KINGS XVIII ver 1. 2 3. 2 CHRON. XXIX World 3281 Ahaz 14 Hezekiah 1 Hoshea 3 Division 252 HEZEKIAH reigneth in the third year of Hoshea and so first it is evident that he reigned in his fathers life time for if Hoshea began in the twelfth of Ahaz as he did 2 King 17. 1. and Hezekiah began in the third of Hoshea as he did 2 King 18. 1. then doth it follow inevitably that Hezekiah began his Reign in the fourteenth of Ahaz and said to reign sixteen years 2 King 16. 2. The reason of this is also resolved out of that observation before about Shalmanezers first expedition against Samaria and his then expedition against Jerusalem for he had subdued and deposed Ahaz and made him to become as a private man and set up Hezekiah on the Throne in his stead whom God had reserved for the benefit of his people and for an instrument of much glory to himself out of the bloody sacrifices of Ahaz to Molech and out of the massacring hand of the enemy that slew some of his sons See 2 Chron. 28. 3. 7. It is said in 2 King 18. 7. That Hezekiah rebelled against the King of Assyria and served him not intimating that he had been under the Assyrian homage but he would bear it no longer and that in time provoked Sennacherib against him Secondly Observe how very young Ahaz was when he begat Hezekiah He was twenty years old when he began to reign 2 King 16. 2. and in the fifteenth year of his reign his son Hezekiah begins to reign being then five and twenty years old current 2 King 18. 2. and so was born when Ahaz was but ten years old the like not to be parallelled again in all the Scripture unless it was in the very young age of Judah when he begat his eldest son Er Gen. 38. World 3281 Ahaz 14 Hezekiah 1 Hoshea 3 Division 252 HOSHEA reigneth wickedly but not so wickedly as the Kings of Israel had done that had been before him This is remarkable that the last King of all that succession should be the best and yet under him the Kingdom destroyed 2 CHRON. XXIX XXX XXXI World 3282 Ahaz 15 Hezekiah 1 Hoshea 4 Division 253 HEZEKIAHS first year properly and so is it reckoned 2 King 18. 9. 10. for his fourth year is said to be Hosheas seventh and his sixth Hosheas 9. For though the beginning of his reign was somewhat coincident with the third of Hoshea yet was it but a little time and that year was soon out therefore the Holy Ghost doth tell us when it was that he began his reign at the very first namely in Hosheas third yet he rather counteth the beginning of his first year from the first day of a new year and from his entring upon the work of reformation then from the other date Hezekiah upon the first day of the year beginneth to cleanse the house of the Lord and even in the life time of Ahaz casteth out those defilements that Ahaz had brought into the Temple in eighty and eight days the Priests do cleanse the house and the Court and by Sacrifices they make a new Dedication In the second Month they appoint and keep the Passover and Hezekiah and the Princes send throughout all the ten Tribes to invite them to come in to the true Religion this overture of reconciliation to God and to the house of David they have now before they be destroyed some of them imbrace it come and eat the Passover but not purified yet by Hezekiahs prayer all goes well with them The people departing from this Passover go abroad through the land and break down Idols not only in Judah but also in divers places of the Country of the ten Tribes Hezekiah at Jerusalem restoreth the Priests to their courses and the Tithes to the Priests In this purging and cleansing of the Temple which Hezekiah performed in the beginning of his reign it may well be supposed that that Copy of Solomons Proverbs was found mentioned Prov. 25. 1. and was transcribed by some of Hezekiahs servants out of the old Manuscript which it is like was much soiled and spotted with time and neglect 2 KING XVII ver 3. World 3282 Ahaz 15 Hezekiah 1 Hoshea 4 Division 253 HOSHEA after his subjection to the King of Assyria and receiving his Crown from him yet revolteth and relieth upon the King of Egypt Thus did the ten Tribes trust in Egypt before their captiving and so likewise did Judah before her captivity as they had both trusted on Assyria 2 KING XVI vers 19 20. 2 CHRON. XXVIII ver 26 27. World 3283 Ahaz 16 Hezekiah 2 Hoshea 5 Division 254 AHAZ dieth having lived a good while a deposed King and having seen his Son depose the Idolatry that he had erected World 3283 Ahaz 16 Hezekiah 2 Hoshea 5 Division 254 EGypt becomes a broken Reed to Israel they lean upon it but it does pierce their hand and not support them ESAY XIV from vers 28. to the end IN the year that Ahaz died Esaiah prophesieth against the Philistims that whereas Uzziah had been a Serpent to them and had bitten them sore as 2 Chron. 26. 6. but when he was dead they insulted over Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 18. that now Hezekiah should prove a Cockatrice to them and smite them again as it came to pass 2 King 18. 8. That God would first bring upon them a famine and then Hezekiahs sword and finally a Northern power that should utterly dissolve them But that the terrible Messengers of the Assyrian Nation that should come against Jerusalem as Rabshakeh and Rabsaris c. should receive this answer That God hath founded Zion and the poor of his people should trust in it and the Assyrian should not prevail against it HOSEA VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV ABOUT this time were all these Chapters of Hosea delivered as may be collected by these three observations 1. The common and constant speech that the Prophet maketh to Ephraim in them sheweth that these things were spoken to the ten Tribes before they were captived whose Captivity
the Gentiles A mission that might not be granted but by such a divine warrant considering how the Gentiles had always lain behind a partition wall to the Jews For although Peter in the case of Cornelius had opened the door of the Gospel to the Heathen yet was this a far greater breaking down of the partition wall when the Gospel was to be brought into their own Lands and to their own doors When God saith Separate them to the work whereunto I have called them it further confirmeth that it was and had been known before that they should be Ministers of the uncircumcision The Romish glossaries would fain strain the Mass out of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Rhemists think they have done us a courtesie that they have not translated it to that sense whereas besides that the word naturally signifieth any publick ministration the Holy Ghost by the use of it seemeth to have a special aim naimely to intimate to us that this was a publick fast as well as another publick ministration Publick fasts were not ordinary services and they were not taken up but upon extraordinary occasions and what the present occasion might be had been a great deal better worth studying upon then how to make the Greek word speak the Mass which it never meant How publick fastings and days of humiliation were used by the Jews and upon what occasions there is a special Treatise in the Talmud upon that subject called Taanith and the like in Maymony that beareth witness and it was no whit unsuitable to the Gospel upon the like exigencies to use the like kind of service and devotion And the present famine that was upon all Countries might very well minister occasion to this Church at Antioch at this present for such a work for we cannot but suppose that the famine was now in being Whatsoever the occasion was the Lord in the midst of their humiliation pointeth out Paul and Barnabas for an imployment of his own who were but a while ago returned from an imployment of the Churches And so the other three Simeon Lucius and Menaen understanding what the Lord meant and having used another solemn day in fasting in prayer lay their hands upon them and set them apart by Ordination According as the ordaining of Elders among the Jews was by a Triumvirate or by three Elders Sanhedr per. 1. halac 3. This is the second Imposition of hands since the Gospel began which did not confer the Holy Ghost with it for these two were full of the Holy Ghost before and this is the first Ordination of Elders since the Gospel that was used out of the Land of Israel Which rite the Jewish Canons would confine only to that Land Maym. Sanhedr per. 4. Which circumstances well considered with the imployment that these two were to go about and this manner of their sending forth no better reason I suppose can be given of this present action then that the Lord hereby did set down a platform of ordaining Ministers in the Church of the Gentiles to future times Paul and Barnabas thus designed by the Lord and ordained and sent forth by this Triumvirate and guided by the Holy Ghost they first go to Seleucia most likely Seleucia Pieriae of which Strabo saith that it is the first City of Syria from Cilicia Geogr. lib. 14. to which Pliny assenteth when he measureth the breadth of Syria from Seleucia Pieriae to Zeugma upon Euphrates Nat. hist. lib. 5. cap. 12. The reason of their going thither may be judged to be that they might take ship for Cyprus whither they intended for that this was a Port appeareth by what follows in Strabo when he saith That from Seleucia to Soli is about a thousand furlongs sail and so it is plain in Lukes Text when he saith they departed unto Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus where let us now follow them Cyprus was a Country so exceeding full of Jews that it comes in for one in that strange story that Dion Cassius relates in the life of Trajan The Jews saith he that dwelt about Cyrene choosing one Andrew for their Captain slew the Greeks and Romans and eat their flesh and devoured their inwards and besmeared themselves with their blood and wore their skins Many they sawed asunder from the head downward others they cast to wild beasts many they made to slay one another so that there were two hundred and twenty thousand destroyed in this manner There was the like slaughter made in Egypt and Cyprus where there also perished two hundred and fourty thousand From whence it is that a Jew may not since come into Cyprus and if any by storms at Sea be driven in thither they are slain But the Jews were subdued by others but especially by Lucius whom Trojan sent thither This was the native Country of Barnabas Act. 4. 36. Although these two Apostles were sent to the Gentiles yet was it so far from excluding their preaching to the Jews that they constantly began with them first in all places where they came They begin at Salamis the place next their landing and there they preached in the Synagogues of the Jews having John Mark for their Minister From thence they travailed preaching up and down in the Iland till they come to Paphos which was at the very further part of it toward the Southwest Angle There they meet with a Magical Jew called Barjesus and commonly titled Elymas which is the same in sense with Magus Such Jewish deceivers as this went up and down the Countries to oppose the Gospel and to shew Magical tricks and wonders for the stronger confirming of their opposition Such were the vagabond Jews exorcists Act. 19. 13. and of such our Saviour spake Matth. 24. 24. and of some such we may give examples out of their own Talmudical Writers And here we may take notice of a threefold practice of opposition that the Jews used in these times and forward against the Gospel and the spreading of it besides open persecution unto blood 1. Much about these times was made the prayer that hath been mentioned which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The prayer against Hereticks which became by injunction one of their daily prayers Maymony speaketh the matter and intent of it in his Treatise Tephillah in these words In the days of Rabban Gamaliel Hereticks increased in Israel by Hereticks he meaneth those that turned from Judaism to Christianity and they troubled Israel and perswaded them to turn from their Religion He seeing this to be a matter of exceeding great consequence more then any thing else stood up he and his Sanhedrin and appointed a prayer in which there was a petition to God to destroy those Hereticks and this he set among the common prayers and appointed it to be in every mans mouth and so their daily prayers became nineteen in number Perek 2. So that they daily prayed against Christians and Christianity 2. The Jews had
to the charge of the Jews yet you never find them blamed in the least degree for this that they went about to corrupt the letter of the Text The sense indeed they spoiled with their glosses and so made the Word of God of no effect and this they hear of throughly but not a word of their spoiling the letter of the Text. 4. Had they been never so desirous to have imposed upon Christians by falsifying the Text they could not possibly do it For First Every Synagogue in the world having the purest Copy that possibly was to be got how impossible was it such legerdemain should be when there were so many thousand Copies to discover it unless they were all corrupt alike and multitudes out of the Synagogues Rulers and People were converted to the Gospel Secondly As learned men as any they had among them and that as well understood what Text was pure what corrupt Joseph of Arimathea Nicodemus Paul and multitudes of the Priests imbraced the Gospel and so multitudes of pure Copies were in the hands of Christians upon the first rising of the Gospel and multitudes that had such Copies in their hands were converted daily 5. To which may be added that the same power and care of God that preserves the Church would preserve the Scriptures pure to it and he that did and could preserve the whole could preserve every part so that not so much as a tittle should perish SECTION XII Concerning the Calling of the Iews BY what hath been spoken concerning the state of the Jews in their own Land after the fall of their City it may be observed wherein it is that the Lords vengeance upon that Nation doth especially consist namely in his rejection of them from being his people and in their obduration The unspeakable miseries and slaughter that they indured in the siege and ruine of Jerusalem speak as dreadful punishment as ever fell upon a Nation and yet this was but short and small in comparison of that fearful blindness and hardness that lies upon them and hath done for this sixteen hundred years together Seventy years in bodily bondage in Babel did finish the punishment of their forefathers for all the Idolatry bloodshed and impiety that they had committed But these after above twenty times seventy years under dispersion and obduration have now as little appearance of amendment of their hearts and of their condition as there was so many hundred years ago The same blindness the same doting upon traditions the same insisting upon their own works for salvation the same blind confidence that they are Gods only beloved people the same expectation of Messias to come the same hatred of Messias already come and the same opposition against the Gospel is in them still that was in that first generation that crucified the Lord of life That generation is plainly and often asserted by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament to be Antichrist and the very same Antichristian spirit hath continued in all the generations of them ever since even to this day Into the thoughts therefore concerning their Calling after so long and so extream crosness against the Gospel and the Lord of it I cannot but take these things into consideration For though I am unwilling to recede from that charitable opinion of most Christians that there shall once be a Calling of them home yet see I not how that supposal of the universal Call of the whole Nation as of one man which some entertain can be digested without some allay and mitigation 1. That all Israel both Jews and they of the ten Tribes have had as full an offer of the Gospel as any of the Gentiles have had both in the time of the Apostles and since Of the two Tribes there can be no scruple and of the ten almost as little if their sin that cast them off the place of their seating when carried out of their own Land and the carriage of the Gospel through the whole world be well considered Now that their refusing of the Gospel so offered to them in that manner as they have done should be followed with so universal a Call and Conversion is somewhat hard to believe especially when it is observed that the Gentiles despising the Gospel are doomed to the everlasting deprivation of it and to a worse condition then Tyre and Zidon 2. It is true indeed that Gods Covenant with their fathers is of special weight and observation in this business and the Apostle toucheth it in this question Rom. 11. 28. but how is this to be understood God made a twofold Covenant with their fathers viz. the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Peculiarity and the later was but a manner of the administration of the former The Covenant of Grace was made with Adam and belongs to all the seed of Christ before the Law under it and after it Jews and Gentiles Now the Oeconomy of Moses was such an administration of this Covenant of Grace as made Israel a peculiar people This effect of the Covenant with their fathers namely that they still are and ever shall be Gods peculiar is their conceit all along but little warrant for us to hold it since under the Gospel there is no distinction of Jew and Gentile And as for the other that many of them yet belong to Election and the Covenant of Grace made with their fathers it is not to be doubted which yet doth little make for so general a calling 3. It was a good sign of the general conversion of the Heathen once to be in that there were multitudes of them proselyted daily before the general Call by the Gospel came an hundred three and fifty thousand in the days of Solomon and that when Religion was then in a very narrow compass But of these how few in comparison have come in in all this long time though they have had incomparably more means and opportunity then ever those had Their sin that cast them off was more horrid then the sin that cast off the Heathen and so their blindness and obduration is beyond theirs And which deserves observation The sin of the two Tribes was beyond the sin of the ten 4. Since the New Testament doth ordinarily stile that first generation Antichrist and since as is apparent the very same spirit is in the Nation to this day I see not how we can look upon the conversion of the Jews under a lower notion then the conversion of a brood of Antichrist Therefore can I no more look for the general calling of them then I look for the general call of the Antichristian brood of Rome We see indeed by happy experience that several Nations have fallen off from the Roman Antichrist as the Protestant Countries that are at this day but Antichrist is yet in being and strong and his end will be not by conversion but perdition So can I not but conceive of the Jewish Nation That although numerous multitudes of them may
8. Matth. 3. 4. Seventhly Both of them had Heaven opened to them near Jordan To which two parallels more might be added if these two opinions of the Jews concerning Elias might be believed First That he was of the Tribe of Levi for they take him to be Phinehas as see R. Lev. Gersh on 1 King 17. Secondly That he restored circumcision when it was decayed from those words in 1 King 19. 14. They have forsaken thy Covenant To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children That is The hearts of the Jews to the Gentiles For first the hatred of a Jew against a Gentile was deadly and it was a special work of the Gospel and consequently of John that began to Preach it to bring both these to imbrace Christ and for and in him to imbrace one another Secondly Experience it self confirmeth this exposition for as the Gospel belonged to the Gentiles as well as the Jews and as John came for a witness that all through him might believe so did he convert and baptize Roman Souldiers as well as Jewish Pharisees Thirdly Baptism at its first institution was the Sacrament for admission of Heathens only to the Church and true Religion when therefore the Jews also begin to desire it and to consent to the Heathens in the undertaking of it then was the heart of the fathers turned to the children Fourthly It is the common and constant use of the Prophets to stile the Church of the Gentiles by the name of children to the Church of the Jews as Isa. 54. 5 6 13. 60. 4 9. 62. 5. 66. 12 13. Fifthly The Talmud expounding these words in Malachi seemeth to understand them of such a communion or reconciliation as is spoken of Vid. R. Sol. in loc Malach. Herod saith Josephus Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 7. slew John the Baptist being a good man and injoyning the Jews that exercising vertue and using right dealing one towards another and piety towards God they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convene or knit together in Baptism And the disobedient c. In Malachi it is And the hearts of the children to the fathers But first the Holy Ghost is not so punctual to cite the very letter of the Prophet as to give the sense Secondly It was not very long after the Baptizing and Preaching of John that the Jews ceased to be a Church and Nation nay even in the time of John himself they shewed themselves enemies to the Gospel and the professors of it as concerning the general or the greatest part of them therefore he saith not that the heart of the children the Gentiles should be turned to their fathers the Jews which should cease to be fathers and should cease to be a people but to the wisdom of the righteous ones The disobedient As in this clause he refuseth to use the term of Fathers for the reason mentioned so doth he also of the correlative children because of his refusing that And yet he coucheth the sense of that title under the word disobedient which word in its most proper and natural signification reflecteth upon untowardly children disobedient to their parents As therefore by his omitting to call the Jews fathers he insinuateth their opposition against the Gospel so by terming the Gentiles disobedient in stead of children he sheweth what they were before they imbraced it In the wisdom of the righteous For so is it in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in and not to Wisdom in Scripture is often taken for Religion As Psal. 111. 10. Deut. 4. 6. c. and so is it to be understood here And this Wisdom is not to be held the terminus ad quem or the ultimate end to which these disobedient Gentiles were to be converted but in this wisdom or religion unto God For first let the two clauses of this speech be laid in Antithesis or opposition one to another as naturally indeed they lie the one aiming at the Jews as the proper subject and the other at the Gentiles and it appeareth plainly that two several acts were to be performed by the Baptist as concerning the Jews and their conversion First That he should turn their hearts or affections to God as in the verse preceding He shall turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God And secondly That he should turn their hearts and affections also to the Gentiles whom they hated before as here He shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children Secondly According therefore to this double work of John upon the Jews in that part of the Angels speech must the like duplicity be looked for in this that concerneth the Gentiles and to be understood though it be not expressed For the Angel in this part purposely changeth his stile and neither calleth the Gentiles children but disobedient because they were generally so before the coming of Christ nor the Jews Fathers because they ceased to be so shortly after nor mentioneth he the Gentiles turning to God but includeth it partly because he had set that as the chiefest work and bent of the Baptist of all to go before the Lord and turn men to him and partly he includeth it in this phrase In the wisdom of the righteous Thirdly It is not without divine reason that the hearts of the Gentiles are not said to be turned to the Jews as on the contrary it was said of the Jews to the Gentiles but that they should be turned in the wisdom of the righteous For the enmity feud and detestation that was betwixt Jew and Gentile and Gentile and Jew proceeded not from the same cause and Original The Jew abhorred the Gentile not of ignorance but of scorn and jealousie partly because they stood upon their own dignity of being the people of God which the other were not and partly because they were provoked with suspition that the other should be the people of God when they should not And therefore when the reconciliation is to be wrought between them it is said that their hearts or affections should be turned to them for they were point blank or diametrically against them before But a Gentile abhorred a Jew out of ignorance because of his Religion hating him as a man separate from and contrary to all men and accounting that to be singular and senseless superstition which was indeed the divine command and wisdom of God and not so much detesting his person for it self as for his religion and profession Therefore when the Gentiles must be brought to affect and to unite to the Jews it must be in the wisdom of the righteous or in the understanding knowledge and imbracing of that religion which the righteous ones professed which the Gentiles till they knew and understood what it meant accounted but vanity singularity and foolishness Ver. 18. Whereby shall I know this The Jew requireth a sign 1 Cor. 1. 22. And his so doing in these times when miracles had been ceased so long
many other places of the like nature wherein the Holy Ghost having penned a thing in one place doth by variety of words and sense inlarge and expound himself in another And the same divine authority and Majesty doth he also use in the New Testament both in parallel places in it self and in citations in it from the Old So that this difference in hand betwixt My face in Malachy and thy face in Mark is not contradictory or crossing one another but explicatory or one explaining another and both together do result to the greater mystery For Christ is the face or presence of the Father and so is he plainly called Exod. 33. 14. and in Christ the Father came and revealed himself among men and the words in both places both in the Prophet and in the Evangelist are to be taken for the words of the Father in the one spoken of the Son and in the other to him In Malachy thus Behold I send my Messenger before me to prepare the way before my face that is before the Son as he is in his own nature the very brightness of the glory of the Father and the express image of his person Heb. 1. 3. and in Mark thus to prepare the way before thy face that is before thee O Son when thou comest to undertake the work of Redemption and to publish the Gospel And this change of persons in Grammatical construction is usual in the Hebrews Eloquence and Rhetorique as 1 Sam. 2. 23. My heart rejoyceth in the Lord I rejoyce in thy salvation There is none holy as the Lord for there is none beside thee c. Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him and 14. 5. The Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee Luke 3. ver 1. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. This Tiberius was the third Emperor of the Romans the son of Livia the wife of Augustus and by him adopted into the family of the Caesars and to the Empire A man of such subtilty cruelty avarice and bestiality that for all or indeed for any of these few stories can shew his parallel And as if in this very beginning of the Gospel he were produced of such a constitution to teach us what to look for from that cruel and abominable City in all ages and successions Now Tiberius his fifteenth was the year of the world 3957. And the time of the year that John began to Baptize in it was about Easter or the vernal Equinox as may be concluded from the time of the Baptism of our Saviour For if Jesus were baptized in Tisri or September as is cleared hereafter he being then but just entring upon his thirtieth year as the Law required Numb 4. And if John being six months elder then our Saviour as it is plain he was did enter his Ministry at the very same age according to the same Law it readily follows that the time mentioned was the time when he began to Preach It was indeed Tiberius his fifteenth when John began to baptize but it may very well be questioned whether it were so when our Saviour was baptized by him For the exact beginning of every year of Tiberius his reign was from the fourteenth of the Kalends of September or the eighteenth of August at what time Augustus died Sueton. in Aug. cap. 100. That fifteenth of the Emperor therefore in the Spring time of which John began to baptize was expired before September when our Saviour was baptized and so his baptism is to be reputed in the year of the world 3958. which was then but newly begun and in the sixteenth year of Tiberius but newly begun neither unless you will reckon the year of the Emperor as the Romans did the year of the Consuls from January to January But this we will not controvert nor cross the common and constant opinion of all times that holdeth our Saviour to have been baptized in Tiberius his fifteenth §. Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea Here is called Procurator Judeae by Tacitus Annal. lib. 15. and hath this brand set upon him by Egisippus that he was Vir nequam parvi faciens mendacium De excid Jerus l. 2. c. 5. A wicked man and one that made little conscience of a lie from which unconscionable disposition those words of his What is truth Joh. 18. 38. seem to proceed in scorn of truth and derision of it He succeeded Gratus in the government of Judea managed it with a great deal of troublesomness and vexation to the nation and at last was put out of his rule by Vitellius and sent to Rome to answer for his misdemeanours Joseph Antiq lib. 18. c. 3. 4 5. Philo in legatione §. Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee This was Antipas the son of Herod the great and called also Herod after his Father a man that after a long and wicked misdemeanour in his place was at last banished by Caius upon the accusation of his Nephew Herod Agrippa and Herodias his incestuous mate with him as shall be shewed in a more proper place §. Tetrarch Some tying themselves too strictly to the signification of the Greek word understand by Tetrarch him that governeth the fourth part of a Kingdom for the Original word includeth four and accordingly have concluded that the Kingdom of Herod the great was divided by Augustus after his death into four parts and given to his four sons Archelaus in whose room they say succeeded Pontius Pilate Herod Antipas Philip and Lysanias In this strictness hath the Syrian Translator taken the word rendring it thus Herod being the fourth Ruler in Galilee and Philip the fourth ruler in Iturea And the Arabick thus Herod being head over a fourth part even Galilee and so in the rest But if the opinion be narrowly examined these absurdities will be found in it First It maketh a Tetrarchy to be nothing else but exactly the fourth part of a Kingdom whereas Pliny lib. 5. cap. 18. speaketh of Tetrarchies that were like Kingdoms and compacted into Kingdoms and he nameth Trachonitis for one His words are these Intercurrunt cinguntque has Uerbes Tetrarchiae regnorum instar singulae in regna contribuuntur Trachonitis Paneas in qua Caesarea cum supradicto fonte Abila And in chap. 23. he saith Caelosyria had seventeen Tetrarchies Tetrarchias in regna descriptas barbaris nominibus decem septem Secondly It divideth Herods kingdom into four parts whereas it was parted only into three to his three Sons Joseph Ant. lib. 17. Thirdly It maketh Lysanias to be Herods son which he was not at all A Tetrarch therefore seemeth rather to be one that was in the fourth rank or degree of excellency and government in the Roman Empire the Emperor that was Lord of all the Empire being the first the Proconsul that governed a Province the second a King the third and a Tetrarch the fourth So Mishueh and Shalish in the Hebrew
the time is now come that he that will be taken for a true worshipper must neither worship as the Jews do ceremoneously but in spirit nor as the Samaritans do erroneously but in truth Thus may we very well divide the two words Spirit and truth to serve these two purposes as thus to answer about the worship of either Nation the one whereof worshipped God altogether in external Rites and Ceremonies and the other worshipped they knew not what and they knew not how But generally the word Spirit and truth are taken by Expositors to signifie but one and the same thing and stand in opposition only to the carnal Rites and shadowy types in which their whole Worship in a manner did consist His using of the term Father for God is not so much in reference to the other persons in the Trinity or because the woman was acquainted with that mystery but because the Jews and it is like the Samaritans also used the word very commonly in their prayers and speeches as Our Father which art in Heaven do to us as thou hast promised by the Prophet And Let the prayers and requests of all the House of Israel be accepted before their Father which is in Heaven c. Maym. in Tephilloth Vers. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him c. Here ariseth a question upon the very first reading of the verse the words Spirit and truth being interpreted as is mentioned immediately before and that is why did God so punctually ordain and so long continue a Typical and Ceremonious Worship if those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth Answer That very worship was for this end and purpose that men should learn to worship God in spirit and truth For all these rites and types were but doctrines of the way of Salvation through Christ till Christ came and the very use of them was to this end that out of them men should spel this spiritual and true worship namely to worship God in Christ and to look after his benefits for their salvation which those rites doctrinally held unto them and which lesson the true worshippers or believers did attain unto Vers. 25. I know that Messiah cometh c. he will teach us all things The Samaritans had learned from the Jews to expect Messias and how the Jews expected this to be the time of his coming we have shewed before and it may be the woman speaketh this as meaning that she looked for Messias to come shortly which occasioned Christs answer I am he as taking at her words in that sense Thou sayest Messias will come shortly and resolve all things I tell thee Messias is come already and I am he Now her referring the resolution of this doubt to Messias his coming it sheweth she did not throughly digest and entertain Christs answer to her question although she took upon her to acknowledge him for a Prophet She had no mind the thing should be so as he had resolved and therefore she had no mind to believe it How Christ was expected as the great teacher we shall observe afterward Vers. 29. A man which hath told me all things that ever I did The Disciples having now bought all things that they would have for dinner for it was now dinner time return to the well to their Master and upon their return Christs discourse and the womans is broken off and she slips a way into the City and bids come see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did But Christ did not so for he told her only of one particular or two about her husbands but besides that the word All in Scripture is not always stretched to the utmost extent of its signification he had told her so much that she concludes that he that could tell her that could have told her also all things else such expressions as these in earnest and pathetical narrations are not strange Vers. 35. Say ye not there are yet four months c. The coherence and connexion of this verse with those before which is the first thing to be looked after in it lyeth thus The Disciples had been in the City and bought some meat and when they had set it ready they invite him to dine He answers No he hath other meat to feed upon than they are aware of and that was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work And what work was that Why the very work that he had been just now about preaching the Gospel and converting a soul and which work he knew was increasing upon him by the coming of the Samaritans to hear him whom either he now saw coming in flocks towards him or knew they would come In these words therefore he answers his Disciples to this purpose You would have me to eat but I have somewhat else to do which is meat to me which is to finish my Fathers work in preaching the Gospel for look you yonder whereas ye say it is four months to harvest see what a Gospel harvest is coming yonder what a multitude of people is yonder coming to hear me ready for the harvest therefore it is not a time to talk of eating of meat that perisheth but to fall to this harvest work which is my meat in doing the will of him that sent me The harvest of the Jews began at the Passover for on the second day of the Passover the Law injoyned them to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest and wave it before the Lord and from that day they counted seven weeks to Pentecost See Levit. 23. 10. 15. Four months therefore before the Passover which was the fourteenth day of the first month falls to be towards the latter end of our November or thereabout as is easily cast by any This therefore helps to set the clock of the time reasonable well both for the reckoning of what times are past and for the better fixing of the next Passover that is to come As 1. It shews about what time Johns imprisonment befel and how long he preached namely from Passover was twelvemonth to this November a year and a half and a month and some days above for it is like that Christ stayed not long in Judea after Johns imprisoning 2. It shews that Christ had spent some eight months in Judea from the Passover hitherto and had in this time converted abundance of people to his doctrine 3. It will help to clear that the feast of the Jews spoken of in the next Chapter is the next Passover that was to come as we shall observe when we come there In the former part of the words Say ye not There are four months and then cometh harvest He speaketh literally of their harvest of corn but in the latter the fields are already white to harvest he speaketh parabolically or spiritually of the multitudes of people both among Jews and Gentiles that were ready to be reaped and gathered
them verified of himself to the utmost extent as being anointed Preaching the acceptable year of the Lord with an Emphasis put upon the word the and some other particulars as may be observed It is an ordinary style with the Prophets to speak things as in their own persons or of themselves which sometimes were not punctually and literally applicable to them only nay which sometimes were not so applicable to them at all but whose truth and sense was made good only in Christ as Psal. 16. 10. with Acts 13. 36. Psal. 22. 16. They pierced my hands and my feet Esay 8. 18. with Heb. 2. 13. Zech. 11. 12 13. with Matth. 27. 9. c. How the Spirit of the Lord came upon Christ and dwelt upon him in measure above measure hath been observed before only let the Reader observe how sutable this Text in the mouth of Christ is to the words of the Evangelist in the beginning of this Section Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit § Because he hath anointed me The Greek expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so rendred by some Expositors on the one hand some on the other that in a manner a clean contrary sense is put upon it Some thus The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath anointed me and so they make the reason of his anointing to be because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him To this sense the Syriack renders it who utters it thus The Spirit of the Lord is upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because of this he hath anointed me and so Beza Cujus rei gratia unxit me The Vulgar propter quod Brucioli Per cagione del quale c. But others amongst which is Erasmus and our English do read it The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me which though it speak not the literal construction of the Greek particle so very punctually yet doth it the Hebrew by which the Greek is to be stated and which the Chaldee so reads as that they do make the Lords anointing him to be the cause of the Spirits being upon him which is a far more easie and profitable sense Object But was not his anointing by the very coming of the Spirit upon him at his Baptism and so these two things are so far from being the cause and effect one of another that indeed they were but one and the same thing the holy Spirits coming upon him was his anointing and his anointing was nothing but the Holy Spirits coming upon him Answer If by anointing we will understand his exalting and setting up and apart as the Jews expound the word in the text of Esay for this office and work that the Text speaketh of than was his anointing before the Spirit of the Lord came upon him for he was set apart for Mediator and Minister of the Gospel before and so his anointing was the cause and reason why the Spirit came upon him namely to fit him and act him to that office to which he was set apart But if by anointing we will understand a visible and an apparent instalment of him into the present execution of that office unto which he was designed before than was his anointing and the Spirits coming upon him but the very same thing for the Spirits coming upon him was that anointing And in this sense are we to understand his anointing here and yet even in this sense are we to take his anointing to be the cause of the Spirits being upon him though the Spirits coming upon him was the very way and manner of his anointing but we are to understand it thus with difference and distinction of time At the very instant of the Holy Ghosts coming upon him at his Baptism that was his anointing and installment into the execution of his function but all the time following while he executed his function the Holy Ghost rested upon him why Because the Lord had anointed him with the Holy Ghost at his Baptism and so the Emphasis of the clause lies in the verb understood and limited to its time the Holy Ghost is now upon me and continueth still upon me because the Lord hath heretofore anointed me with the Holy Ghost And herein is the difference apparent of the measure and manner of the Holy Spirits being upon the Prophets and his being upon Christ They had not the actings of the Spirit alwas upon them nor are they visibly anointed with it as he was both § To preach the Gospel to the Poor c. Here are six particulars in this portion of Scripture as parts of Christs Ministery which though they may be all applyed to any one particular person to whom the Gospel and Ministery of Christ powerfully and effectually came for such a poor wretch had the Gospel preached to him his broken heart was heald he heard of deliverance from the bondage of Satan c. yet have they all their singular and several intentions and meanings and so are to be expounded and understood for the taking up of the verse in its full sense and life 1. Christ was sent to preach the Gospel to the Poor in the Text of Esay it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the meek or humble and accordingly rendred by the Chaldee Paraphrast and so the sense is made the readier namely that by the poor here is meant the poor in Spirit as Mat. 5. 3. Such as went out of their own righteousness and by the convictions of the Law did find themselves to be nothing and worse than nothing to such Christ was sent to Preach the Gospel and such received it Mat. 9. 12 13. 11. 5. Christ preached to to all that came about him to hear him but he speaketh here of his Preaching the Gospel in the proper power and fruit of it viz. so as that it was received Now this is the first composure to the receiving and intertaining of the Gospel when a soul by the power of the Preaching of the Law is thrust off from all security either in sin or self-righteousness and becomes so poor in his own spirit that he finds himself nothing but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and in need of all things The title of poor is as common a name for the Saints of God especially in the Old Testament as any name whatsoever and that not only because of their depressed and oppressed condition by the wicked but because of their poverty of spirit and abasedness in their own eyes they knowing how poor they are and living by continual begging of grace at the hands of God The Hebrew word is sometime written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poor in the text and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humble in the margin as Psalm 9. 13. and sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the margin as in the same Psalme verse 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated poor by the
by such like passages as these All the commandments of the Law be they preceptive or prohibitive if a man transgress against any of them either erring or presuming when he repents and turns from his sin he is bound to make confession Whosoever brings a sin or trespass offering for his error or presumption his sin is not expiated by his offering until he make a verbal confession And whosoever is guilty of death or of whipping by the Sanhedrin his sin is not expiated by his whipping or his death unless he repent and make a confession And because the Scapegoat is an atonement for all Israel the High Priest maketh a confession for all Israel over him The Scapegoat expiateth for all transgressions mentioned in the Law be they great or little Maym. in Teshubah per. 1. This their wild doctrine about repentance and pardon being considered in which they place so much of the one and the other in such things as that the true affectedness of the heart for sin or in seeking of pardon is but little spoken of or regarded we may well observe how singularly pertinent to the holding out of the true doctrine of repentance this word is which is used by the Holy Ghost which calleth for change of mind in the penitent and an alteration of the inward temper as wherein consisteth the proper nature and vertue of repentance and not in any outward actions or applications if the mind be not thus changed And thus as our Saviour urging the duty of repentance upon them from this reason because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand argueth to them from one of their own confest opinions so in this original word by which repentance is called for another opinion of theirs seemeth also to be looked upon but with gainsaying and confutation because they placed so much of repentance if not all repentance in outward things And so when the Ministery of the Gospel calleth for Repentance and in such a word as betokeneth a change and alteration of the mind it doth at once confute the double error that was amongst them which was either about not needing of repentance but insisting upon legal righteousness or if they were to repent it was to be chiefly performed by confession or offerings or some outward action III. Thirdly It is observable in this preaching of Christ that to his admonition to repent he also adjoyneth the other To believe the Gospel which John the Baptist that we read of had not done Matth. 3. 2. And yet John preached the Gospel too for his Ministery is called the beginning of it Mark 1. 1 2. and he preached that they should believe Joh. 1. 7. But his doctrine did mainly aim at the declaring of him that was to preach the Gospel that when he came to preach it he might the more readily be believed Joh. 1. 31. Act. 19. 4. Johns chiefest and most intended task and purpose was to point out Christ and to bring the people to be acquainted with his person and to take notice of him as the Messias the great Prophet to whom it was reserved to publish the great things of the Gospel that when he came openly to preach it as now he doth he might be the better intertained and hearkned after And thus John makes ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. 17. And now that this great Preacher for whom attention and regard was prepared by all the bent of Johns Ministery is come to preach and publish the Gospel in its full clearness and manifestation He calleth for repentance and belief of it as Act. 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith or believing in order of the work of grace is before repentance that being the first and mother grace of all others yet is it here and in other places named the latter 1. Because though faith be first wrought yet repentance is first seen and evidenced both to the heart of him that hath it and to the eyes of others 2. Because a poor broken and penitent heart is the most proper receptacle of the Gospel Esay 61. 1. Matth. 11. 5. Now by the Gospel is not only here meant the good and glad tidings of Salvation as the word signifies in the original and as it is taken in other places but it is also held out here by our Saviour with a singular emphasis and circumstance namely as the new Law and Covenant which God had promised to give unto his people and which they expected from the Messias The Gospel as it signifies the good tidings of Salvation and Salvation by Christ was very abundantly held out in the Law and the Prophets and if Christ proposed the word here but in that sense he proposed his Ministery but like unto theirs But as in the Synagogue of Nazareth he had begun to assert himself the highly anointed one of the Lord for the singular work of publishing the new Law Luk. 4. 18. so now and forward he doth openly proclaim himself to be he whom the Lord had appointed and anointed for that end and that his Ministry and doctrine was that Gospel or glad tidings which God had promised to send by the Messias And in this sense it is that he calls upon them to believe the Gospel not only in regard of the tenour but also in regard of the dispenser and dispensation of it he the great Prophet and that according to the promises of God and the expectation of the Nation The Lord had foretold them copiously by the Prophets that Messias should be the great Teacher and Lawgiver in the last days and this had put them in expectation of a new Law and doctrine when he should come Esay 2. 1 2 3. In the last days the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains c. And many people shall say Come and let us go up c. And he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths c. This Teacher saith David Kimchi is the Messias And wheresoever it is said in the last days it meaneth the days of Messias And so in Esa. 11. 4. With righteousness shall be judge the poor and reprove with equity This the Chaldee Paraphrast expresly and nominatim understandeth of Messias And so he doth that in Esa. 42. 1. c. And so in Esa. 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings or that preacheth the Gospel which though the Apostle in Rom. 10. 15. apply generally to the Ministry of the Gospel yet doth the Context in the Prophet shew that it is primarily and especially to be understood of Christ whom the Chaldee Paraphrast nameth Syllabically at vers 13. Such another Prophesie of Christ being the great Teacher when he should come is that which is so much retched and abused towards the countenancing of Enthusiasm Esa. 54. 13. And all thy children shall be taught of God where
Messias when he came should do no miracles at all this position is asserted in the Talmud in Sanhedrin in that famous Chapter called Helek where the Gemarists do speak exceeding much concerning the Messias and about his coming And from thence it is produced by Maymony in Melachin Umilcha moth per. ult The wretched deceivers having this poor shift to answer to all the miracles that Christ did which indeed were infinite To which they have also 2. joyned another more visibly blasphemous than indeed this but both rancorous alike at the heart and that is That what miracles Jesus did he did them by the power of the Devil as Matth. 12. 24. The Pharisees said This man casteth not out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And so the Talmudists in the Treatise Shabbath fol. 104. Did not the son of Satda so they title our Saviour and there is a blasphemy in it bring Sorceries out of Egypt What the unprejudiced opinion of the people was in these two points we may observe in John 7. 31. And many of the people believed on him and said When Christ cometh will he do more miracles than this man hath done In which they conclude fairly and plainly against the two blasphemous and rancorous opinions that have been alledged and assert That Messias when he came should do miracles and that the miracles that Jesus did were sutable to those of the Messias the Scripture spake the former and his miracles themselves the latter so plainly that it was not reasonable but brutish and devillish to deny either And when our Saviour in the beginning of the verse calls his works The works which the Father had given him to finish he both sheweth that his works were from God and that God had appointed that the Messias should do such works Esay 53. 10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand It was the Lords pleasure and he performed it accordingly The works that God gave appointment and authority for the Messias to do were indeed the actions of his whole life for he was doing the Will of God continually but those that he meaneth more especially here when he saith they were given him to finish may be reduced to these three heads His fulfilling the Law in the holiness of his life his Preaching the Gospel in the demonstration of abundance of the Spirit and his working miracles for the good of the people There was none of these three taken singly but they did resplendently bear witness of him that he was the person he took on him to be much more did they give an undeniable testimony of him being considered altogether The Phrase To finish seemeth to reflect upon that Prophesie in Esa. 42. 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the Earth Wherein is foretold that the Messias should accomplish and finish whatsoever in the work of his Mediatorship he should undertake And the title that God puts upon him in the first verse of that Chapter My servant declareth that his works were given him to finish by the Father 1. The holiness of his conversation was so exact that we need not to go to Testimony of Scripture that doth so highly celebrate it he himself doth challengethe Jews who were sufficiently captious to accuse him of sin if they could or to find any mote in his holiness and do their worst His lowliness meekness zeal and earnestness to do good and all these acted in an unfading constancy and in the highest activity and that to the continual hazard of his person might be illustrated to this purpose if it were needful As Johns extraordinary sanctity was the greatest testimony that raised him in the hearts of the people for miracles he did none and his Doctrine and Baptizing they could not tell so well what to say to as to his holiness which was so visible So Christ in this kind had a testimony beyond him and as far beyond him as real and cordial holiness is beyond Ceremonial For though it is true indeed that John was really and cordially holy yet that Sanctity that the people admired in him was in his external and Ceremonial strictness of rayment dyet and conversation 2. His Doctrine and Preaching was so parallel to the predictions of the Old Testament concerning the Doctrine that was to be revealed by him it was so high in discovery of the things of Heaven it was so clear in opening the hard things of the Law it was so convincing of the Errors of their false Teachers it was so Divine in its tenor it was so gracious in his mouth and so piercing in the hearts of the hearers that where wilful malice and mischief had not blinded they could not but confess That never man spake like him Joh. 7. 46. 3. His miracles were done in such power and number without difficulty or restriction upon men and Devils healing all diseases and denying healing to none that sought it and all this when working miracles had been dead so long and in all this he seeking no glory to himself these gave a testimony so fully of a vertue above humane nay above Prophetick that where again malice and mischief had not blinded they could not deny that the Messias could not do greater miracles than he did Joh. 7. 31. Vers. 37. And the Father himself which hath sent me hath born witness of me This is the third Testimony that he produceth for himself namely the witness of the Father which may be taken either for the testimony which God had given him of old in the Law and Prophets or a late by a voice from Heaven when he was baptized If we understand the words in the former sense then the context following Ye have neither heard his voice c. may be taken thus Though God hath never to your eyes nor ears born witness to me from Heaven by any sensible demonstration and evidence yet hath he given abundant testimony of me in the Word of the Scriptures But if we take them in the latter sense than the context speaketh to this tenor Although it be a most rare thing to hear any audible voice or to see any visible appearance of God from Heaven and you never heard or saw any such thing in your Generations yet for my sake and to bear witness of me there hath been such a voice and appearance Or if we understand them joyntly both of the Testimony that God gave of the Messias in the Old Testament and of the witness that he gave by a voice from Heaven the sense of the words following ariseth to this The Father of old in the Scriptures and of late by a voice from Heaven hath born witness of me but as ye never heard his voice from Heaven nor saw his shape so neither do you regard nor retain his Word since ye believe not him whom he hath sent Vers. 39. Ye search the Scriptures c. Besides those reasons that have been alledged
is time for Moses to set for Egypt when he seeth God angry at his excusing he doth so but he taketh his diffidence along with him in that he taketh his wife and children with him One would think that had been a special piece of charity but it being looked into will prove a special piece of distrust For when God appeareth to him at the very first he giveth him assurance of the peoples delivery and that they should come in their journies to that very place When thou hast brought the people forth out of Egypt ye shall serve God upon this mountain Chap. 3. 12. Now if Moses had believed certainly this promise and that undoubtedly he and the people should come thither he would never have taken wife and children with him to trouble them and himself in so long a journey and in so earnest a business but would have left them still with Jethro till he and Israel should march up to them But this he feared that this his journey would be to no effect that Israel would accept of none and therefore should obtain no delivery that this message would produce nothing unless danger to himself and that while he spake of delivering others he might incur bondage himself so that if he left wife and children behind him it was odds he should never see them again And therefore to make sure work he will take them with him and for this his distrust the Lord meets him and seeks to kill him Nor was this distrust and diffidence little or small in him but if the circumstances be considered it will appear to be very great and his want of faith exceeding much Zipporah his wife was now lying in Childbed a weak woman but lately delivered and therefore far unfit for so long a journey and the new-born child as unfit if not unfitter than she and yet Mother and child in this weak case must travel to the hazzard of both their lives for he durst not leave them behind him for fear he and they should never meet again For this it is that Zipporah twice calleth him a bloody husband before the childs circumcision and after before because he had hazzarded both their lives in bringing them forth both of them being in their blouth and blood and after because she through him was put to Circumcise the child which bloodiness a tender mother must needs abhor and for this also is the word circumcisions in the plural number vers 26. A bloody husband Lemuloth because of the circumcisions SECTION IX Zipporah but very lately delivered of her child THAT Zipporah was so lately delivered of child is plain by observing these things First That Jethro her Father was circumcised both he and his houshold for he was a Midianite a Son of Abraham by Keturah and all Abrahams children after the flesh were circumcised and that not by usurpation or unwarrantable imitation but by the bond and tye of the institution therefore though Moses had been absent never so long or never so far off yet would Jethro have taken care of the childs circumcision on the eighth day but now the child may not stay till he be eight days old and whole again upon his circumcision but must travel young and uncircumcised as he is Secondly Observe the childs name which was usually given at Circumcision and if the child were older than we speak of then had he been so long without a name or had had another name than Eliezer Thirdly He called his name Eliezer for the God of my fathers said he hath been mine help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh Chap. 18. 4. Now Moses was not secure of Pharaohs sword till just at his setting for Egypt For after he came from Horeb into Midian again the Lord tells him that all those are dead which sought his life vers 19. This doth aggravate his diffidence the more Who though he had seen such wonders at Horeb and heard of other wonders done for him by God in Egypt in cutting off his enemies there yet durst he not trust the promise of God for his returning to his wife and children but will take them along with him For this God brings him into danger of his life visibly which Zipporah poor woman thought to have been for the uncircumcision of her Son therefore she taketh and circumciseth him but Moses being conscious of his own infidelity or distrust in this so great a danger rubbeth up his faith again and the peril refineth it as silver so that now he betaketh himself wholly to God by confidence in the promise and to express this his faith he calleth his Son when the mother had circumcised him Eliezer God is mine helper so that I shall escape danger from Pharaoh and the Egyptians in this mine errand And the Lord saw his faith and let him go SECTION X. Of the name Jehovah and how it was unknown to the Fathers Exod. 6. 3. THIS is the uncommunicable name of God not given at any time unto the Creature Esay 42. 8. This name in its sound and letters was known unto the Fathers yea even in its signification Abraham calls mount Moriah Jehovah Jireh Gen. 22. 14. Isaac called upon the name of Jehovah Chap. 26. 25. And Jacob saith Jehovah thy God hath brought it to me Chap. 27. 20. The name Jehovah signifieth three things First Gods eternal being in himself without dependence or mixture upon or with any other thing For his being undependent it is rendred the first and the last and which is and which was and which is to come For his being without mixture or composition it is said here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not By my name Jehovah I was not known Nor My name Jehovah was not known But My name Jehovah I was not known to shew that God and his Name are not two things united by composition but one and the same thing Secondly Jehovah betokeneth Gods giving of being to the Creature To this purpose it is observable that God is never called Jehovah till all the Creation be perfected and every thing have received its being Gen. 2. 4. So in all the speeches that pass between Job and his friends God is never called Jehovah but once where mention is made of the Creatures receiving their being Job 12. 10. Thirdly Jehovah signifieth the faithfulness of God in his promise and in this sense it is rendred Amen true and faithful In this sense it is set after so many commands Thou shalt or thou shalt not do thus and thus I am Jehovah And in all these significations it is justly prefixed before all the Commandments Exod. 20. I am Jehovah thy God As this name is not communicable to any Creature but only appropriate to the Godhead so it is severally given to every Person in the Trinity First To the Father Psal. 110. 1. For he is the fountain of being in himself Secondly To the Son Jer. 23. 6. For he is the giver of being to the Creature
c c c Ioh. 20. 1. while it was yet dark Mary Magdalen and the other Mary d d d Ioh. 19. 25. the wife of Cleopas and e e e Luke 24. 10. Mark 15. 48. mother of James and Joses and f f f Mark 16. Salome g g g Compare Matth. 27. 56. Mark 15. 40. the mother of Zebedees children and h h h Luke 24. 10 Joanna the wife of Chusa Herods Steward and other women that were with them set out to see the Sepulchre and brought the Spices with them that they had prepared i i i Luke 8. 3. And as they went they k k k Mark 16. 3 said Who shall roul the Stone away for â—â— But when they came to the Sepulchre l l l Mark 16. 2. the Sun being by this time risen they found the stone rolled away For there had been m m m Matth. 28. 2 a great earthquake and the Angel of the Lord had descended from Heaven and rouled back the stone from the door and sate upon it as the Women came unto the Sepulchre they saw this n n n Mark 16. 5 Angel like a young man sitting on the right hand of the entry in in a long white robe and they were sore troubled o o o Matth. 28. 5 Mark 16. 6. But he said unto them Fear ye not I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here for he is risen come see the place where they laid him And p p p Luke 24. 3. they entred into the Cave and found not the Body in the Sepulchre but there they see q q q Ioh. 12. 12. two Angels more in shining garments the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body had lain r r r Luke 24. 5. who spake to them Why seek ye the dead among the living s s s Ibid. 9. Mark 16. 8. The Women having seen this go in hast and tell the Disciples t t t Joh. 20. 2 3 4 c. Whereupon Peter and John run to the Sepulchre and see the linnen cloaths but see not the Angels u u u Ibid. 10. 11. c. When they were gone home again Mary Magdalen who had again followed them to the Sepulchre standing at the door seeth the Angels again within and turning her self she seeth Jesus without whom at first she took for the Gardiner So that the first apparition of our Saviour being risen was to her alone Joh. 20. vers 1. Apparition 11. to 19. The same day he appeareth to the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. 13. the 2. Apparition one of them was Cleopas vers 18. the Father of James and Joses and the husband of the other Mary Compare John 19. 25. and Matth. 15. 40. and the other was Simon Peter Luke 24. 34. 1 Cor. 15. 5. That night he appeareth to the twelve as the Apostle calls them 1 Cor. 15. 5. or to the 3. Apparition eleven and them that were with them Luke 24. 36 39. John 20. 19 20. and sheweth them his hands and feet and eateth a piece of broiled fish and an honey-comb with them Luke 24. 43. Eight days after he appeareth to the Disciples and convinceth Thomas Joh. 20. 26. 4. Apparition At the Sea of Tiberias he appeareth again to seven of his Disciples and fore-telleth 5. Apparition Peter of his suffering for the Gospel Joh. 21. This John calleth his third appearing vers 24. namely which he had made to any number of his Disciples together and which John himself had mentioned On a mountain in Galilee he sheweth himself to the eleven Matth. 28. 16. and to five 6. Apparition hundred brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. 6. for so it may be supposed seeing Galilee and this mountain was the place of rendevouz that he had appointed not only from the time of his resurrection Matth. 28. 7. but even before his passion Matth. 26. 32. and to this convention seemeth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next verse to have reference of which in its proper place The Apostle mentioneth another appearance of his to James 1 Cor. 15. 7. But neither 7. Apparition do any of the Evangelists tell when or where it was nor make they mention of any such thing nor doth Paul determine which James it was Lastly He appeared to all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15. 7. being gathered to Jerusalem by 8. Apparition his appointment Acts 1. 4. and thence he led them forth to Bethany and was taken up Luke 24. 50. §. By many infallible Proofs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By many Signs say the Syrian and Arabick Arguments saith the Vulgar Latine But the word includeth Signs of undoubted truth and arguments of undoubted demonstration and accordingly hath our English well expressed it By infallible proofs These were very many exhibited and shewed by Christ which evidenced his resurrection and they may be reduced to these three purposes First To shew that he was truly alive again as his eating walking conferring and conversing with his Disciples Secondly To shew that he had a true and real body as offering himself to be handled as Luke 24. 39. Thirdly To shew that it was the same body that suffered when he sheweth the scars in his hands feet and sides as Joh. 20. 20 27. Every apparition that are reckoned before and are mentioned by the Evangelists had one or more of these demonstrations and yet were there certain appearances and divers such proofs which are not recorded Joh. 20. 30. §. Being seen of them forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophylact not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Christ was not continually conversing with his Disciples but he came among them at certain times Yet do the Syrian and Arabick translate it in Forty days Forty years after this a year for a day as Numb 14. 33 34. was Jerusalem destroyed and the Nation of the Jews rooted out because they would not believe in Christ who had so mightily declared himself to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead and who had so plainly declared his Resurrection from the dead by so many appearings and infallible proofs for forty days And that the sin might be fully legible in the Judgment they were besieged and closed up in Jerusalem at a Passover as at a Passover they had slain and crucified the Lord of life Now that this remarkable work of the Lords Justice upon this Nation in suiting their judgment thus parallel to their sin and unbelief in regard of these years and this time of the year may be the more conspicuous to the mind of the Reader for the present it will not be much amiss to lay down the times of the Roman Emperors from this time thitherto for even by their times and stories this time and truth may be measured and
proved and in the progress of the discourse to come the particulars both for year and time may be cleared more fully Now the times of the Roman Emperors that came between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem are thus reckoned by the Roman Historians themselves Tiberius began to reign about August the 18. He reigned 22 years 7 months and 7 days Dion And died in the 23 of his reign Suet. He died March 26. Dion Or the 17 of the Calends of April Sueton. Caius Caligula began March 27. Reigned 3 years 9 months 28 days Dion Or 3 years 10 months 8 days Sueton. Died January 23 or the 9 of the Calends of February Suet. Claudius began January 24. Reigned 13 years 8 months 20 days Dion He died in the 14 year of his reign Suet. Died October 13. Dion Or the 3 of the Ides of Octob. Suet. Nero began Octob. 14. Reigned 13 years 8 months Dion Galba reigned 9 months 13 days Dion Died in his 7 month saith Suet. Otho reigned 90 days Dion 95 days Suet. Vitellius reigned 1 year wanting 10 days Dion Vespasian reigned 10 years wanting six days Dion In his second year Jerusalem is destroyed by his son Titus Joseph de Bello Judaic lib. 7. cap. 18. And now if we cast up the times from the 18 of Tiberius to the second of Vespasian and compare and parallel them with the years of our Saviour we shall find them running together in this manner Christ Tiberius Christ Claudius 33 18 54 13 34 19 55 14 35 20 56 1 Nero. 36 21 57 2 37 22 58 3 38 1 Caius begins in March 27. 59 4 39 2 60 5 40 3 61 6 41 4 62 7 42 1 Claudius begins Ianuary 24. 63 8 43 2 64 9 44 3 65 10 45 4 66 11 46 5 67 12 47 6 68 13 48 7 69 14 49 8 70 1 Galba and Otho 50 9 71 1 Vitellius 51 10 72 1 Vespasian 52 11 73 2 Ierusalem destroyed 53 12   Vers. 4. And being assembled together with them There is no small difference among Interpreters about rendring this clause out of the Original Some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others leave the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out as thinking the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient some render it Eating with them as the Syrian Arabick Oecumenius Chrysostome Vulgar Latine Deodate and our English in the Margin the Rhemists and those that follow the Vulgar which Valla thinketh was mistaken and read convescens in stead of conversans Others Assembling them or being assembled with them as Beza Camerarius Deodate and our English in the Text the Tigurine Spanish French Erasmus and others Epiphanius as he is cited by Camerarius readeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Valla as he is cited by Erasmus saith it is so written in some Greek Copies For the setling therefore of the right construction of this place First It is the concurrent agreement of all men this last excepted to read the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word indeed the thing it self will not bear for though Christ conversed and was much among his Disciples after his Resurrection yet do we not read that he ever lodged with them which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly import Secondly In the difference about the translation whether to render it eating or being assembled with them the current of Greek Authors in the use of the word do vote for the latter sense and not at all for the former as Beza and Camerarius do prove at large and more proofs might be given were it needful Now this phrase seemeth to refer to Christs meeting his Disciples on the mountain of Galilee which he himself had appointed for a meeting place Matth. 28. 16. And the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may not be wanting For in other of his appearings it was accidental and unexpected when he came among them but upon this mount he was assembled together with them upon appointment And here it is like were the five hundred Brethren mentioned by Paul and spoken of before for where was it so likely so many should have the sight of Christ at once as in that place where he had promised that he would meet them and had appointed to assemble with them §. Commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem Not that they were at Jerusalem when they received this command but that he commandeth them now to Jerusalem and there to contine Till they were come into Galilee they had no warrant to stay at Jerusalem at all but command to the contrary for he commanded them away from thence into Galilee Matth. 28. 7. 16. because he would appear to all those at once that had been most constant Auditors of him for there had been his greatest converse and being there assembled together with them according to his promise and his appointment he then chargeth them to return to Jerusalem and not to depart from thence till the promise of the Father be come Christ confineth them to Jerusalem for the receiving of the Holy Ghost 1. Because of the Prophesie Esay 2. 3. Out of Zion shall go forth the Law c. 2. Because there would be the greatest company to be spectators of that great work and to be wrought upon by it as is proved by the sequel 3. Because that this great work of Christs power was fittest to be shewed there where had been his great humiliation and that those that would not be convinced by the resurrection might be convinced by this miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost Vers. 6. They asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel This was and is the great delusion of that Nation unto this day and not a few Christians do side with them in it supposing that at the Jews conversion they shall be brought home to Canaan there inhabit with Christ visibly among them Jerusalem built again and their peace and prosperity so great as never the like and so constant as never interrupted To this tune spake the petition of Salome the wife of Zebedee and James and John her two sons Matth. 20. 20. and the speech of Cleopas Luke 24. 21. And how common this Doctrine is among the Jewish Authors it is needless for it might be endless to recite it is evidence enough in that we see it the common and general quaere of all the Disciples met together Christ since his Resurrection had spoken to them of the things that concerned the Kingdom of God and they find belike that he had passed a great Article of their belief unspoken of about restoring the Kingdom of Israel Our Saviour answers their curiosity with a check as he had done Poter Joh. 21. 22. and diverts their thoughts to the more needful consideration of the calling that he would set them about as in the next verse and sheweth that the Kingdom of
critical we might observe the various qualifications of a Pastor and Teacher from these two surnames the one a son of wisdom and the other of exhortation but our intention only is to shew that the two Josephs in mention differed in person for they differed in name §. And Matthias Who or whence this man was we cannot determine certain it is the sense of his name is the same with Nathaneel though not the sound and I should as soon fix upon him for the man as any other and some probabilities might be tendred for such a surmisal but we will not spend time upon such conjectures CHAP. II. Vers. 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place §. 1. The time and nature of the Feast of Pentecost THE expression of the Evangelist hath bred some scruple how it can be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day to be compleated or fulfilled when it was now but newly begun and the sight of this scruple it is like hath moved the Syrian Translater and the Vulgar Latine to read it in the plural number When the days of Pentecost were fulfilled Calvin saith compleri is taken for advenire to be fulfilled for to be now come Beza accounts the fulness of it to be for that the night which is to be reckoned for some part of it was now past and some part of the day also In which exposition he saith something toward the explanation of the scruple but not enough Luke therefore in relating a story of the feast of Pentecost useth an expression agreeable to that of Moses in relating the institution of it Lev. 23. 13. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering seven Sabbaths shall be compleat Even unto the morrow after the seven Sabbath shall ye number fifty days It will not be amiss to open these words a little for the better understanding and fixing the time of Pentecost First The Sabbath that is first mentioned in the Text in these words Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath is to be understood of the first day of the Passover week or the fifteenth day of the month Nisan the Passover having been slain on the day before And so it is well interpreted by the Chaldee Paraphrast that goeth under the name of Jonathan and by Rabbi Solomon upon this Chapter at the 11 verse And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord after the holy day the first day of the Passover And it was called a Sabbath be it on what day of the week it would as it was on the Friday at our Saviours death because no servile work was to be done in it but an holy convocation to be held unto the Lord vers 7. and the Passover Bullock Deut. 16. 2 7. 2 Chron. 30. 24. 35. 8. to be eaten on it Joh. 18. 28. as the Lamb had been eaten the night before and this Bullock was also called a Passover and the day the preparation of the Passover Joh. 19. 14. as well as the Lamb and the day before had been This helpeth to understand that difficult phrase Matth. 28. 1. about which there is such difference and difficulty of expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the evening of the Sabbath saith the Syriack and the Vulgar And o utinam for then would the Lords day be clearly called the Sabbath the Sabbath of the Jews being ended before the evening or night of which he speaketh did begin In the end of the Sabbath saith Beza and our English but the Sabbath was ended at Sun-setting before It is therefore to be rendred after the Sabbaths for so signifieth * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch post regls tempora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post tempora Trojana 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post noctem c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after in Greek Writers as well as the Evening and the plural number of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to have its due interpretation Sabbaths Now there were two Sabbaths that fell together in that Passover week in which our Saviour suffered this Convocational or Festival Sabbath the first day of the Passover week and the ordinary weekly Sabbath which was the very next day after the former was a Friday and on that our Saviour suffered the latter a Saturday or the Jewish Sabbath and on that he rested in the grave and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after these Sabbaths early in the morning on the first day of the week he rose again Secondly The morrow after this Sabbath of which we have spoken or the sixteenth day of the month Nisan was the solemn day of waving the sheaf of the first fruits before the Lord and the day from which they began to count their seven weeks to Pentecost Lev. 23. 11. Deut. 16. 9. This day then being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day in the Passover week and being the date from whence they counted to Pentecost all the Sabbaths from hence thither were named in relation to this day as the first Sabbath after it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. Not as it is rendred the second Sabbath after the first but the first Sabbath after this second day the next Sabbath after was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the rest accordingly Thirdly Now in their counting from this morrow after the Sabbath or this day of their first-fruit sheaf to Pentecost seven Sabbaths or Weeks were to be compleat whereupon R. Solomon doth very well observe that the count must then begin at an evening and so this day after the Sabbath was none of the fifty but they were begun to be counted at Even when that day was done so that from the time of waving the first-fruit sheaf Pentecost was indeed the one and fiftieth day but counting seven weeks compleat when an evening must begin the account it is but the fiftieth Fourthly To this therefore it is that the phrase of the Evangelist speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English hath very well uttered the day of Pentecost was fully come thereby giving an exact notice how to fix the day that is now spoken of from our Saviours death and to observe that he speaketh of the time of the day indeed and not of the night which was now over and the day fully come The dependence of Pentecost upon this day of waving the first-fruit sheaf was upon this reason because on this second day of the Passover barley harvest began and from thence forward they might eat parched corn or corn in the ear but by Pentecost their corn was inned and seasoned and ready to make bread and now they offered the first of their bread This relation had this Festival in the common practise but something more did it bear in it as a memorial for
day the Psalm Sing aloud unto God our strength c. Because of the variety of Creatures that were made that day to praise his name On the Sixth day the Psalm The Lord reigneth he is cloathed with Majesty c. Because on the sixth day God finished his works made man who understands the glory of the Creator and the Lord ruled over all his works Thus they descant 4. 7 7 7 Ibid. Now the singers in singing of these Psalms divided every one of them into three parts making three large pauses or rests in them and ceased their Musick and Singing for a while these parts and pauses the Talmudicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they say thus of them that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausings or intermissions in the vocal musick and when the voices ceased the instruments ceased also and so in every Psalm the musick made three intermissions 5. At these intermissions the Trumpets sounded and the People worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For at every pause saith the Talmud there was a souning with the Trumpets and at every sounding there was a worshipping their sounding with the Trumpets was as hath been spoken before a Taratantara as we have chosen to call it and they never sounded otherwise than so when they sounded namely three strains a plain a quavering and a plain again and thus did the Trumpets sound one and twenty blasts every day three at the opening of the Court gate nine at the morning sacrifice and nine at the evening sacrifice namely three soundings at the three pausings of the Musick and the three strains named at every sounding and so we see that the Trumpets were never joyned with the Quire in Consort but sounded only when the Quire was silent Thus was the Song and these were the Psalms sung ordinarily throughout all the year but at some certain days there were other Psalms and Songs used and the Trumpets also sounded extraordinary soundings besides that number now mentioned As 1. 8 8 8 Succ. per. 5. On the Eve of the Sabbath the Trumpets sounded two soundings more than they used to do at other days namely one which consisted of the three strains to cause the People to cease from work and another to distinguish between the common day and the holy day that was now come in 2. On the Sabbaths themselves there was an additional sacrifice besides the daily sacrifice according to the appointment Num. 28. 9 10. 9 9 9 Maym. in Tamid per. 6. And at the time of this additional sacrifice the Levites sang Moses his Song in Deut. 32. Hear O Heavens and I will speak c. but they sang it not all at one time but divided into six parts and sang one part of it every Sabbath and so in six Sabbath days they finished it and then began again Thus did they at the additional morning sacrifice and at the evening sacrifice they sang Moses song in Exod. 15. And the consideration of this that on the Sabbaths they sang both the songs of Moses helpeth to illustrate that passage in Rev. 15. 3. where the Saints are said to sing the Song of Moses the servant of God because they were now come to their everlasting Sabbath having gotten the Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name and having the Harps of God in their hands 10 10 10 Succah uot jup. Now at the additional sacrifice and song of the Sabbath the Priests sounded their Trumpets three times more as they did at the ordinary songs the singers making their pauses and stops in those songs as well as in the other 3. 11 11 11 Rosh hash ubi sup Maym. ubi sup At the Additional sacrifices which were appointed for the first day of the year Num. 29. 1 2 c. which was called the feast of Trumpets because the Trumpets then sounded to give notice of the years beginning the Levites sang the eighty first Psalm Sing aloud unto the God our strength c. And if the first day of the year fell upon the fifth day of the week for which day this Psalm was appointed in the ordinary course then they said it twice over once at the daily sacrifice and once at the additional sacrifice but beginning at one of the times at the sixth verse I removed his shoulder from the burthen c. 4. At the evening Sacrifice of the first day of the year they sang the nine and twentieth Psalm The voice of the Lord shaketh the Wilderness c. And if the first day of the year chanced to light upon the Sabbath the Psalms of the first day of the year were sung and took place of the Psalms for the Sabbath 5. At the Passeover and at some other times as hath been related they sang the Hallel which to describe we will refer till we come to take up the Celebration of the Passeover in its due place SECT III. Of the Stationary men or Israelites of the Station AS there were four and twenty Courses of the Priests and as many of the Porters and Singers so also were there four and twenty Courses of Israelites for the station This indeed is a title that is a stranger to the Scripture and not mentioned there and yet the thing it self seemeth not to want its ground nor the men themselves their warrant from thence There were two Maximes in reference to their Sacrifices which were as premises out of which was necessarily deduced the conclusion for Stationary men and those were these 1. A mans Sacrifice could not be offered up unless he himself were present at it and standing by it and so is the undoubted Tenet in both Talmuds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a Vid. Talm. utrumque in Taanith per. 4. Maym. in Kele Mikd. per. 6. A mans Sacrifice may not possibly be offered up if he himself be not present at it And hence it was that although Women were at all other times forbidden coming into the Court of Israel yet when any Woman had a Sacrifice to be offered up for her she had admission into the Court and there was a kind of necessity that she should be there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b Tosaph in Erach per. 2. A Woman might not be seen in the Court but only at the time of her Offering and then she might be nay then she must be present there And the reason of this was because of that command that whosoever had a burnt Sacrifice to offer up c c c Ab. Ezr. in Lev. 1. he must bring it to the Sanctuary himself and if Bullock or Lamb he must put his hand upon the head of it Levit. 1. 3. and 3. 2. 8. 2. There were some Sacrifices that were the Sacrifices of all Israel or of the whole Congregation and particularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d Tal. Ieru in Pesachin per. 3. the continual
Sacrifices were slain at the place of the rings and so upon this occasion an Israelite might and must come within the Court of the Priest 6. The manner was thus * * * Tosaph in Menachoth per. 10. Maym. ubi supr the Sacrifice was so set as that the offerer standing with his face towards the West laid his two hands between his horns and confessed his sin over a sin offering and his trespass over a trespass offering and over a burnt offering he confesseth his transgression both against affirmative and negative precepts and his confession was in this wise I have sinned I have done perversly I have rebelled and done thus and thus but I return by repentance before thee and let this be my expiation And presently after this his confession was the beast to be slain 3. The killing of the Sacrifice was regularly and ordinarily the Priests work and office yet might it upon occasion be done by another or if it were done by another it was allowable For whereas the Law saith And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord and the sons of Aaron the Priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it Levit. 1. 5. as making a distinction betwixt the he that killed the bullock and the Priests that took the blood the Hebrew Doctors have observed not impertinently from hence that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g g g Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 9. in Corbonoth per. 5 R. Sol. in Lev. 1. The killing of the Sacrifices was lawful by strangers yea of the most holy sacrifices were they the sacrifices of a particular person or of the whole Congregation And upon these words And the sons of Aaron the Priests shall bring the blood it is a received tradition that from thence most properly did begin the Priests office more peculiarly see 2 Chron. 30. 16 17. 4. The fleaing of the slain Sacrifice was not so inseparably the Priests office but that a stranger or one that was not a Priest might do it And so Maimonedes asserteth in the place cited above that the fleaing of the sacrifice and the dividing of it into pieces and bringing wood to the Altar done by strangers was lawful This they did especially at the Passover and other festival times when the Paschal Lambs and the other offerings were so many that the Priests could not serve to kill and flea them but whosoever killed or flead the Priests ever sprinkled the blood and none else might do it When the number of the beasts to be flead were not too many for that receipt they hung him by the legs upon the hooks that were fastned in the lower pillars which we have described elsewhere and in the transom over them for that purpose i i i Ibid. Sect. 9. but at Passover when there were more Lambs than that room would admit two men took a staff or bar divers of which staves stood there for that end and laying it upon their shoulders they hung the Lamb upon it and as he hung thus between them they flead him Rabbi Eliezer saith if the Passover fell on the Sabbath on which day they might not meddle so well with carrying of Staves a man laid his hand upon his fellows shoulder and his fellow laid his hand upon his shoulder and upon their arms they hanged up the Lamb and so flead him All the skins of the most holy sacrifices that is burnt offerings sin offerings and trespass offerings fell to the Priests and the Priests of the Course salted them all week and on the eve of the Sabbath divided them but the skins of the other sacrifices fell to the offerers or owners themselves 5. The sprinkling of the blood was to be before the sacrifice was flead for this was the rule and that agreeable to the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They flead them not till one had sprinkled the blood for in the Law there is mention of the sprinkling the blood before there is mention of fleaing Lev. 1. 5 6. The manner of their sprinkling of the blood upon the Altar and the circumstances about that were very various we will take up the chiefest of them in their order First The blood that was to be sprinkled was to be taken in a dish or vessel of the service and not in a common vessel of a mans own and that is a constant and rational maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k Vid. Zevac per. 5. per totum That the taking of the blood of the Sacrifices must be in a vessel hallowed for the service Secondly l l l Ibid. per. 2. ab initio These several sorts of people might not take the blood to sprinkle it and if they did it was polluted 1. A stranger or one that was not a Priest 2. A Priest a mourner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he that had one dead in his family that day for m m m Glosse in Misâ—ajoâ—h ibid. whosoever had one dead in his house all that day of the parties death he was called a mourner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. He that had been unclean so that he was to wash that day and his Sun was not yet down 4. He that had been under a longer uncleanness and his atonement not yet made 5. A Priest that had not all the holy garments on that he ought to wear 6. One uncircumcised 7. One that was unclean 8. One that sate or stood on any thing whilest he took the blood but on the very pavement of the Court for in the service they might not stand upon any vessel or beast or hide or on his neighbours foot but on the bare pavement 9. He that took the blood with the left hand some held it unlawful but others were of another mind Thirdly n n n Zevech ib. Whereas there was a red line about the Altar just in the middle between the bottom and the top the blood of some sacrifices were to be sprinkled beneath that line and some above and if that that was to be sprinkled below was sprinkled above and if that that was to be sprinkled above was sprinkled below it was unlawful Fourthly o o o Maym. in Corbanoth per. 5 The sprinkling of the blood of burnt offerings and trespass offerings and peace offerings went all by one rule and manner and it was thus The Priest bringing it to the Altar was to sprinkle it below the red line and he was to sprinkle it into the fashion of the Greek Gamma or into this form Γ for so is the tradition in the Gemara of p p p Zevach. per 5. fol. 53. the Treatise Zevachim cited ere while and so is the meaning of Maymony when he saith it was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the meaning of the thing is this He was to go as the margin of the Talmud glosseth to a corner of the Altar and to cast the blood out of the vessel so as that it
the other Abarbinel disputing concludeth thus a a a Abarbinel in Exod. 12. fol. 151. that it lay in this because it signified unto them the hastiness of their coming out of Egypt insomuch that they had not time to leaven their bread as Exod. 12. 39. and he addeth withal that in those hot Countries bread will not keep above a day unless it be leavened so that the command of unleavened bread might read unto them in that respect a Lecture of dependance upon Providence when they were enjoyned to forsake the common and known way of preserving their bread and to betake themselves to a way extraordinary and unsafe but only that they had the Command of God and his Injunction for that way and they must learn to live by the word of God The Jews to meet with this Command that was so exceeding strict and to make sure to provide for its observance soon enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b Talm. in Pesachin per. 1. Did on the fourteenth day while yet there was some light make search for leaven by the light of a Candle Thus is the Tradition in which by the light of the fourteenth day their Glossaries tell us that we must understand c c c R. Sol. Gloss. R. Alphes in Pesach per. 1. Maym. in Hâ—amets â—matsah per. 2. the thirteenth day at even when it began to be duskish and candle-lighting The rubrick of the Passeover in the Hebrew and Spanish tongues renders it in Hebrew Letters but in the Spanish Language thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 En entrada di quatorze del mez de Nisan d d d Seder Haggadah Shel Pesach fol. 1. At the entrance of the fourteenth day of the Month Nisan they searched for leaven in all the places where they were wont to use leaven in Barnes Stables and such out houses they needed not to search even in holes and cranies and that not by light of Sun and Moon or Torch but by the light of a wax candle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 con candela di cera And the reason why they used a Candle rather than any other light was e e e R. Alphes ubi supr because it is the fittest for searching holes and corners f f f Tosapht in Pesach per. 1. and because the Scripture speaketh of searching Jerusalem with Candles g g g Seder Haggadah ubi supr After the evening of the fourteenth day was come in which was after Sun setting they might not go about any work no not to the study of the Law till they had gone about this search therefore h h h Maym. ubi supr there was not so much as Divinity Lectures that evening lest they should hinder that work i i i Id. ibid. cap. 3. Seder Haggad â—â—isâ—p Before he began to search he said this short ejaculation Blessed be thou O Lord our God the King everlasting who hath sanctified us by his commandments and hath enjoyned us the putting away of leaven And he might not speak a word betwixt this praying and searching but must fall to work and what leaven he found he must put it in some box or hang it up in such a place as that no Mouse might come at it And he was to give it up for nul in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the leaven that is within my Possession which I have seen or which I have not seen be it null be it as the dust of the earth SECT II. The passages of the forenoon of the Passeover day WHen the Passeover day it self was now come which the New Testament commonly called the first day of unleavened bread from their custom newly mentioned but the Jewish Writers do ordinarily call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passeover eve some part of the People made it a Holiday by ceasing from bodily labour all the day long and others made it but half holiday by leaving work at noon a a a Talm. in Pesach per. 4. c. the Talmud relates that in Galilee they left work all the day long from morning till night but in Judea that they wrought till noon and then gave over which may seem somewhat strange that those further off were so observant of the Passeover and those nearer hand were so much less but the reason is this because in Galilee those that were at home on that day had nothing else to do towards the Passeover but only to meditate upon it and rest from labour in honour of it but those in Judea it may be they travelled all forenoon to get up to Jerusalem or had some work to do towards the forwarding of the Passeover or to dispatch that they might follow their Passeover work the better It is in dispute in the place cited immediately before concerning resting from labour on this day that we have in hand and it proves a controversie between the schools of Shammai and Hillel whether they should not also rest from labour the night before but at last the determination comes so low as that it gives liberty to works that were begun on the thirteenth day to be finished on the fourteenth nay yet lower that where the custom was to leave off work for all day there they should leave work and where it was the Custom to work till Noon there they should do according to the Custom But whatsoever they did in this case cease from their labour in the forenoon or cease not one work they must not fail to do and that was to cast out and put away leaven out of their houses this day as they had searched for it the night before and that it might not be seen nor found amongst them The Law indeed concerning this work doth pitch upon the fifteenth day for the doing of it as if it were soon enough to do it on the fourteenth day at Even Exod. 12. 18 19. but the Jews do not impertinently observe that the expelling of leaven was by the Law to be before the time wherein the eating of it was forbidden b b b Maym. in Hbamets umats per. 2. For whereas it is said on the first day you shall put leaven out of your houses their tradition taught them that by the first is meant the fourteenth day And a proof for this there is from what is written in the Law Thou shalt not kill the bloud of my sacrifice with leaven that is Thou shalt not kill the Passeover whilest leaven is yet remaining non the killing of the Passeover was on the fourteenth day in the afternoon On this fourteenth day therefore for a good part of the forenoon they might eat leaven or leavened bread and c c c Pesach per. 2. in Mishu. might give it to any Bird or Beast or might sell it to a stranger but the fixing of the certain time is not without some debate d d
all his kinred even seventy five souls Act. 7. 14. As the Jews seek to retain this their assumed dignity over the seventy Nations by this sleight so do they maintain their Tenet of just seventy Nations by a double reason First They count polls in the plain of Shinaar as Moses did in the Wilderness and they find in the tenth of Genesis just seventy men and therefore by necessary consequence just seventy Nations The Chaldee upon these words of God Gen. 11. 5. Come let us go down * * * Julian the Heretick both denies the Trinity to be meant in this place and saith God alone was unable for this work Cyril Tom. 3. l. 4. loses the sweet mystery of the Trinity but finds I know not how many strange fancies for thus he descants The Lord said unto the seventy Angels that are before him come now let us go down and confound there their Tongue that a man shall not understand his fellow And a little after he saith And with him that is with God were seventy Angels according to the seventy Nations I doubt not but the tenth Chapter was his ground for so many men but I know not where he should find so many Angels Seventy men are indeed named in the tenth Chapter but were all those at Babel And if they were must those seventy needs speak seventy Tongues A whole dozen of them Canaan and his eleven sons sit down close together in or at least not far out of the small compass of Canaan where they all differed not if any at all did in Language being seated so nigh together That Edomites Moabites Amalekites and Ammonites spake not Hebrew is * * * Quaest. 60. on Gen. Theodorets opinion but that all these and Canaan differed in maternal Tongues before Israel planted it I cannot conceive Nay that Canaan spake Hebrew before Joshua came there I could be perswaded to believe for three reasons First The old names of Canaan Towns are significant in Hebrew Jebus troden down by Heathens then as it is now by the Turks Kirjath arbang the City of Arbang Josh. 14. 15. Jericho he shall smell it the City of Palm-trees The sinful City Zeboim hath in the Text a fair Hebrew name Zebhiim that is the Roes a name too good for so bad a Town therefore the margin gives it another name Zebhojim Infinite it is to trace all Hebrew Canaanitish names who will may try at pleasure and leasure Secondly Sure I am that one chief Town in Canaan if not then also as afterward the chiefest that is Jerusalem was Hebrew when it was governed by Melchizedek or Sem who were all one as the * * * See the Targums on Gen. 10. Chaldees ‖ ‖ ‖ Vid. Mr. Broughtons Melchiz Jews and most Christians do hold Then did Sem make Canaan a servant Gen. 9. 26. under his rule and I doubt not but under his Tongue also Thirdly I see that a woman Rahab understands the Hebrews at the first sight and speaks to them for ought we find without interpreter I find the Amorites and Sidonians differing in the name of Hermon one calling it Sirion and the other Shenir Deut. 3. 9. But I see not but both the Hebrews and some Canaanites agree in the name Hermon This groundwork then of seventy mens being named in the tenth of Genesis to import necessarily seventy Tongues in the eleventh Chapter I cannot entertain yet refer my self to better judgement The second reason for seventy Tongues they fetch out of Moses Deut. 32. 8. from these words When the most High divided to the Nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel What all Jews thought and gathered from that place let two speak for the rest Those be Jonathan ben Uzziel and Rasi Jonathan reads the verse in Chaldee thus When the Highest gave possession of the World to the people that descended of the sons of Noah when he divided Letters and Tongues to the sons of men in the age of the division c. at that time he sets the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the souls of Israel that went down into Egypt Thus the Chaldee Rasi Comments to the same purpose in these words When the holy-blessed-He gave to those that provoked him the portion of their inheritance he overwhelmed and drowned them When he scattered the generation of the division it was in his power to have passed them out of the World yet did he not so but sets borders of the people He reserves them and does not destroy them According to the number for the number of the children of Israel which were to come of the sons of Sem and according to the number of the seventy souls of the sons of Israel that went down into Egypt He set bounds of the people Seventy Tongues Thus far the Rabbin Who is so confident of this number of Seventy Languages that he saith there were men of the Seventy Nations in the Ship with Jonah Jonah 1. Thus are the Jews current for Seventy the * * * Clem. Alex. Epiphanius Comestor c. Greeks for seventy two upon what ground I know not unless the two Cainans in Gen. 10. in the Greek Bible make up this number to them Some Linguists have summed up the usual Tongues and Dialects but seventy or seventy two maternals I never saw Modern Tongues are like the old ship Argo patched up with so many pieces that it is hard to tell which is a piece of old Argo CHAP. XXIX Of Letters THAT the Hebrew Tongue was from the foundation of the World none deny but whether the Letters be so ancient some question Some hold that those Letters that God wrote with his own Hand in the two Tables were the first Letters that ever were written The studious Pliny thinks that among the Assyrians letters have been always but Gellius thinks they were invented in Egypt by Mercury and others think among the Syrians If we examine Pliny well we shall find him true in the first and last however in the middle If the Assyrian Tongue were the Chaldee Tongue as most like it was then were those Letters from the beginning of the World the Hebrew and Chaldee Letter being all one unless the Assyrian differed from both If you take Syrian in the sence that Theodoret does for Hebrew then Pliny speaks true that Letters were first among the Syrians For Theodoret calls the Hebrew Tongue Syrian as the Gospel calls the Syrian Tongue Hebrew Joh. 19. 20. But Pliny concludes that Cadmus first brought Letters into Greece out of Phaenicia Justin Martyr saith that Greece thinks so her self Athanasius holdeth the Phaenicians for the first inventors of Letters That the Phaenicians and Syrians first found out Letters is a received opinion in Clemens Alexandrinus Eupolemus thinks that the Phaenicians received Grammar from the Jews and the Greeks
and twentieth of the Kings reign there was nothing done towards repairing Thereupon the King seeing either the slackness or falshood or both of the Priests requires them to meddle no more with receiving money nor with repairing since the business under their Hands went on no better which they irreligiously and surlily are content to do not caring whether the Temple be repaired or no. But good Jehoiada slacketh not but sets a Chest with a hole in it besides the Altar that what money might be had might be put in there for the use appointed But when that did not avail to do the work nor to buy any Vessels for the House and Service of the Lord for the money went still through the Priests fingers the Chest being in their Court Joash the King either removes that Chest or makes another and sets it without the Court at the coming in whither every one might have access to it and proclaims through all the Country that they should bring in the money appointed by Moses the Princes and People come readily and joyfully and bring it in so that there was enough to perfect repairs and withal to make those vessels for the Temple that were wanting CHAP. XXXI The room of Salt of Parvah and of the washing AS there were three rooms between the middle Gate Corban which was also called the Gate of the Women and the more Westward Gate Corban which was also called the Gate Beth Mokadh namely two Treasuries and a Levites ward between the two So were there three rooms also between the same middle Gate Corban and the Gate more Eastward which was called the Gate Nitsots and those were a a a Mid. per. 5. The room of the Salt the room of Parvah and the room of the Washers The room of the Salt was the most Westward of the three and joyned to the Gate of the Women and it was so called because they there laid up the Salt for the use of the Temple For howsoever Salt and Wine and Oil and such things were sold in the Tabernae for the use of particular persons offerings yet for the publick offerings and service these things were stocked up at the publick charge in several rooms appointed for them The use of Salt at the Temple was exceeding much b b b Maym. in is sure mizbeah per. 5. for nothing was laid on the Altar unsalted but only the Wood the Blood and the Wine of the drink-offering and how much Salt might be spent upon all their Sacrifices let any one imagine for this was the Law with all thine offerings thou shalt offer Salt Lev. II. 13. And they had not this way only for the spending of Salt but they also salted the skins of all the Sacrifices when they had flayed them off For the skins belonged to the Priests as their Fee the course therefore of the Priests that was in serving did still Salt the skins of what Sacrifices they offered that they might not be offensive and kept them till the end of the week of their Service and on the Eve of the Sabbath towards night they divided them to every one his share The place where they salted and laid up the skins till that time was in the room of Parvah which joyned to this room of the Salt on the East and which is the next piece of building that we are to survey The reason of the name is somewhat doubtful the Gemarites in the Treatise Joma debating it conclude in this Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c Ioma per. 3. halacah 6. what is meant by Parvah Rab Joseph saith Parvah was a Magician d d d Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Rabbi Nathan is to this purpose Parvah is the name of a man who was a Magician And there are some of the wise Men that say that he digged a vault under ground till he could come to see what the High Priest did on the day of Expiation And the wise Men were aware of this vault that he had made and they found him in it and they called this Chamber by his name The short Gloss upon the Mishnaioth in octavo goes yet further A Conjurer saith he whose name was Parvah built this room by Magick And some say that he digged through the Wall to see the service of the High Priest and there he was slain Magick was a matter more in use at the Temple among some of the Grandees there than one could have possibly thought that it could have been for the e e e Talm. Ierus in Ioma per. 3. Jerusalem Talmud relates that some of the High Priests used to destroy one another with it f f f R. Shemaiah in Mid. But others deduce the reason of the name Parvah from Parim which signifieth Bullocks because of the many Hides or Skins of Bullocks that were laid up there About which matter we shall not be curious to sway the ballance one way or other but shall leave the reason of the name to be disputed by them that have a mind to such a business it is enough to our survey to take notice of the place and name and use of it without more circumstances At the East end of this building of Parvah there was another piece of building which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The room of the Washers And the reason of the name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g g g Mid. ubi sup Because in this room they washed the inwards of the Sacrifices according to the Law Lev. 1. 9. It hath been a very general conceit of washing the beasts that were to be offered in the pool of Bethesda of which there is mention Joh. V. If that opinion mean the washing of the Beast whilest he was alive I know not where the least footstep of any such custom is to be found either in Scripture or in Jewish monuments of antiquity And if it mean the washing of the Inwards after the Beast was slain the room that we are about was the place where that was done and they went no further and when they had first washed them here they did it again upon the Marble Tables of which we shall speak ere it be long h h h Ibid. Out of this room of washing there was a pair of winding Stairs to the top of the room Parvah i i i Ioma per. ◠and on the top of that room there was a Bath where the High Priest did bathe himself on the day of expiation the several bathings that he was to bathe on that day but only the first which was in the Bath on the top of the room Abhtines as hath been observed before It appeareth that here was a great issue or running cock of Water in this washing room which served for the washing of so many Intrails as there was occasion to wash continually and that there was a conveyance of Water to
beginning of the Valley of Hinnom which after some space bending it self Westward ran out along the South side of the City There is no need to repeat those very many things which are related of this place in the Old Testament they are historical The mention of it in the New is only mystical and metaphorical and is transferred to denote the place of the damned Under the second Temple when those things were vanished which had set an eternal mark of infamy upon this place to wit Idolatry and the howlings of Infants roasted to Moloch yet so much of the filthiness and of the abominable name remained that even now it did as much bear to the life the representation of Héll as it had done before It was the common sink of the whole City whither all filth and all kind of nastiness met It was probably the common burying place of the City if so be they did now bury within so small a distance from the City They shall bury in Tophet until there be no more any place Jer. VII 32. And there was there also a continual sire whereby bones and other filthy things were consumed lest they might offend or infect the City There is a tradition according to the School of Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai b b b b b b Bab. Erubhin fol. 19. 1. There are two Paealm trees in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom between which a smoak arises and this is that we learn The Palms of the Mountain are fit for Iron And this is the door of Gehenna Some of the Rabbins apply that of Esaiah hither Chap. LXVI vers the last They shall go out and see the dead carcasses of the men that rebel against me for their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched Those Gentiles saith Kimchi upon the place who come to worship from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath shall go out without Jerusalem into the Valley of Jehosaphat and shall see the carkasses of Gog and Magog c. And a little after The just shall go out without Jerusalem into the Valley of Hinnom and shall see those that rebel c. What is to be resolved concerning the Valley of Jehosaphat he himself doubts and leaves undetermined c c c c c c Kimchi upon Joel 3. For either Jehosaphat saith he here erected some building or did some work or it is called the Valley of Jehosaphat because of judgment So also Jarchi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehosaphat means all one with the Judgment of the Lord. CHAP. XL. Mount Olivet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount of Olives 2 Sam. XV. 30. Zech. XIV 4. In the Rabbines commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount of Oyle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Joseph Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount called the Mount of Olives lying over against the City is distant five furlongs But Luke saith Act. 1. 12. Then they returned from the Mount called Olivet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath days journey But now a Sabbath days journey contained eight furlongs or a whole mile Neither yet for all this doth Luke fight against Josephus For this last measures the space to the first foundation of Olivet the other to that place of Olivet where our Saviour ascended The first foot of the Mount was distant five furlongs from the City but Christ being about to ascend went up the Mountain three furlongs further The Mount had its name from the Olive trees however other trees grew in it and that because the number of these perhaps was greater and the fruit better Among other trees two Cedars are mentioned or rather two monsters of Cedars b b b b b b Hieros Taanith fol. 69. 1. Two Cedars they say were in the Mount of Olivet under one of which were four shops where all things needful for purisications were sold out of the other they fetched every month forty Sea 's certain measures of Pigeons whence all the women to be purified were supplied It is a dream like that story that beneath this mountain all the dead are to be raised c c c c c c Targum upon Cant. 8. 1. When the dead shall live again say they Mount Olivet is to be rent in two and all the dead of Israel shall come out thence yea those righteous persons who died in captivity shall be rolled under the Earth and shall come forth under the Mount of Olivet There was a place in the Mount directly opposite against the East-gate of the Temple d d d d d d See Middoth cap. 1. hal 3. to which the Priest that was to burn the red Cow went along a foot-bridge laid upon arches as it was said before And e e e e e e Parah cap. 3. hal 9. when he sprinkled his blood there he directly levelled his eyes at the Holy of Holies Those signal flames also accustomed to be waved up and down on the top of this Mount in token of the New Moon now stated are worthy of mention The custom and manner is thus described f f f f f f Rosh Hashannah cap. 2. hal 2. 3. c. Formerly they held up flames but when the Cutheans spoiled this it was decreed that they should send Messengers The Gloss is this They held up the flames presently after the time of the New Moon was stated and there was no need to send messengers to those that were a far off in captivity to give them notice of the time for those slames gave notice and the Cutheans sometime held up flames in an undue time and so deceived Israel The Text goes forward How did they hold up the flames They took long staves of Cedar and Canes and Fat wood and the course part of the Flax and bound these together with a thred And one going up to the Mount put fire to it and shakes the flame up and down this way and that way until he sees another doing so in a second Mountain and another so in a third Mountain But whence did they lift up these flames first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Mount of Olivet to Sartaba From Sartaba to Gryphena From Gryphena to Hauran From Hauran to Beth Baltin And he who held up the flame in Beth Baltin departed not thence but waved his flame up and down this way and that way until he saw the whole captivity abounding in flames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gemarists enquire What From Beth Baltin means This is Biram What the Captivity means Rabh Joseph saith This is Pombeditha What means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it were a burning pit of fire There is a tradition that every one taking a torch in his hand goes up upon his house c. The Jews believe the Messias shall converse very much in this mountain which is agreeable to truth and reason
Levit. II. were by no means to be eaten but Meats unclean in themselves were lawful indeed to be eaten but contracted some uncleanness elswhere it was lawful to eat them and it was not lawful or to speak as the thing indeed is they might eat them by the Law of God but by the Canons of Pharisaism they might not IV. The distinction also between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane or polluted is to be observed Rambam in his Preface to Toharoth declares it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Profane or polluted denotes this that it does not pollute another beside it self For every thing which uncleanness invades so that it becomes unclean but renders not another thing unclean is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane And hence it is said of every one that eats unclean meats or drinks unclean drinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That his body is polluted but he pollutes not another Note that the body of the eater is polluted by unclean meats To which you may add that which follows in the same Maimonides in the place before alledged Separation from the common people c. conduces to the purity of the body from evil works the purity of the body conduceth to the sanctity of the soul from evil affections the sanctity of the soul conduces unto likeness to God as it is said And ye shall be sanctified and ye shall be holy because I the Lord that sanctifie you am holy Hence you may more clearly perceive the force of Christs confutation which we have ver 17 18 19 20. V. They thought that clean food was polluted by unclean hands and that the hands were polluted by unclean meats You would wonder at this Tradition g g g g g g Rambam in the place beâ—ore Unclean meats and unclean drinks do not defile a man if he touch them not but if he touch them with his hands then his hands become unclean if he handle them with both hands both hands are defiled if he touch them with one hand only one hand only is defiled VI. This care therefore laid upon the Pharisee Sect that meats should be set on free as much as might be from all uncleanness but especially since they could not always be secure of this that they might be secure that the meats were not rendred unclean by their hands Hence were the washings of them not only when they knew them to be unclean but also when they knew it not Rambam in the Preface to the Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of hands hath these words If the hands are unclean by any uncleaness which renders them unclean or if it be hid from a man and he knows not that he is polluted yet he is bound to wash his hands in order to eating his common food c. VII To these most rigid Canons they added also Bugbears and Ghosts to assright them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h Bab. Taanith fol. 20. 2. It was a business of Shibta Where the Gloss is Shibta was one of the Demoâ—s who hurt them that wash not their hands before meat The Aruch writes thus Shibta is an evil spirit which sits upon mens hands in the night and if any touch his food with unwashen hands that spirit sits upon that food and there is danger from it Let these things suffice as we pass along it would be infinite to pursue all that is said of this rite and superstition Of the quantity of water sufficient for this washing of the washing of the hands and of the plunging of them of the first and second water of the manner of washing of the time of the order when the number of those that sat down to meat exceeded five or did not exceed and other such like niceties read if you have leisure and if the toyl and nauseousness of it do not offend you the Talmudick Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of hands Maimonides upon the Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lavers and i i i i i i Fol. 45. 2 c. Bab. Beracoth and this Article indeed is inserted through the whole volume entitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleanness Let this discourse be ended with this Canon k k k k k k Hieros Chalâ—ah fol. 58. 3. For a cake and for the washing of hands let a man walk as far as four miles VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me c. I. BEside the Law alledged by Christ Honour thy father and thy mother c. they acknowledg this also for Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Tosaphta in Kiddushin cap. 1. A son is bound to provide his father meat and drink to cloth him to cover him to lead him in and out to wash his face hands and feet Yea that goes higher m m m m m m Hieros Kiddushin fol. 61. 2. 3. A son is bound to nourish his father yea to beg for him Therefore it is no wonder if these things which are spoken by our Saviour are not found verbatim in the Jewish Pandect for they are not so much alledged by him to shew that it was their direct design to banish away all reverence and love towards parents as to shew how wicked their Traditions were and into what ungodly consequences they oftentimes fell They denied not directly the nourishing of their parents nay they commanded it they exhorted to it but consequently by this Tradition they made all void They taught openly indeed that a father was to be made no account of in comparison of a Rabbin that taught them the Law n n n n n n Maimon iâ—â—â—z lah cap. 12. but they by no means openly asserted that parents were to be neglected yet openly enough they did by consequence drawn from this foolish and impious Tradition II. One might readily comment upon this clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a gift or as Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Corbam by what soever thou mayst be profited by me if he have read the Talmudiâ— Tracts Nedarim and Nazir where the discourse is of Vows and Oaths and the phrase which is before us speaks a vow or a form of swearing 1. Vows were distinguished into two ranks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vows of consecration and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vows of obligation or of prohibition A vow of consecration was when any thing was devoted to holy uses namely to the use of the Altar or the Temple as when a man by a vow would dedicate this or that for sacrifice or to buy wood salt wine c. for the Altar or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the reparation of the Temple c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A vow of obligation or prohibition was when a man bound himself by a vow from this or that thing which was lawful in it self As that he
〈◊〉 The cup of two salvations III. The measure of these cups is thus determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi Chaia saith Four cups contain an Italian quart of Wine c c c c c c Jerus Shaâ—â— fol. 11. 1. And more exactly in the same place How much is the measure of a cup Two fingers square and one finger and an half and a third part of a finger deep The same words you have in the Babylonian * Pesach Talmud at the place before quoted only with this difference that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the third part of a finger there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fifth part of a finger IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is commanded that he should perform this office with red Wine d d d d d d Hieros â—â— before So the Babylonian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary that it should taste and look like Wine The Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it should be red V. If he drinks Wine pure and not mingled with Water he hath performed his duty but commonly they mingled Water with it Hence when there is mention of Wine in the Rubrick of the Feasts they always use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They mingle him a cup. Concerning that mingling both Talmudists dispute in the forecited Chapter of the Passover which see e e e e e e Bab. Berac fol. 50. 2. The Rabbins have a Tradition over Wine which hath not Water mingled with it they do not say that blessing Blessed be he that created the fruit of the Vine but Blessed be he that created the fruit of the Tree The Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Wine was very strong and not fit to be drunk without water c. The Gemarists a little after The Wise agree with R. Eleazar That one ought not to bless over the cup of blessing till water be mingled with it The mingling of water with every cup was requisite for health and the avoiding of drunkenness We have before taken notice of a story of Rabban Gamaliel who found and confessed some disorder of mind and unfitness for serious business by having drunk off an Italian quart of Wine These things being thus premised concerning the Paschal Wine we now return to observe this Cup of our Saviour After those things which used to be performed in the Paschal Supper as is before related these are moreover added by Maimonides Then he washeth his hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and blesseth the blessing of the meat that is gives thanks after meat over the third cup of Wine and drinks it up That cup was commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cup of blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Talmudick dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cup of blessing is when they give thanks after supper saith the Gloss on Bab. Berac f f f f f f Fol. 51. 1. Where also in the Text many things are mentioned of this cup. Ten things are spoken of the cup of blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Washing and cleansing that is to wash the inside and outside namely that nothing should remain of the Wine of the former cups 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let pure Wine be poured into the cup and water mingled with it there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The crowning that is as the Gemara by the Disciples While he is doing this let the Disciples stand about him in a crown or ring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The veiling that is as Rabh Papa He veils himself and sits down as R. Issai he spreads a handkerchief on his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He takes up the cup in both hands but puts it into his right hand he lifts it from the table â—ixeth his eyes upon it c. Some say he imparts it as a gift to his family Which of these rites our Saviour made use of we do not enquire The Cup certainly was the same with the cup of blessing Namely when according to the custom after having eaten the farewel morsel of the Lamb there was now an end of Supper and thanks were to be given over the third Cup after meat he takes that Cup and after having returned thanks as is probable for the meat both according to the custom and his office he instituted this for a cup of Eucharist or thanksgiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cup of blessing which we bless 1 Cor. X. 16. Hence it is that Luke and Paul say that he took the Cup after supper that is that Cup which closed up the Supper It must not be past by that when he instituted the Eucharistical Cup he said This is my blood of the New Testament as Matthew and Mark nay as Luke and Paul This cup is the New Testament in my blood Not only the seal of the Covenant but the Sanction of the new Covenant The end of the Mosaical Oeconomy and the confirming of a new one The confirmation of the old Covenant was by the blood of Bulls and Goats Exod. XXIV Heb. IX because blood was still to be shed the Confirmation of the new was by a Cup of Wine because under the New Testament there is no further shedding of blood As it is here said of the Cup This cup is the New Testament in my blood so it might be said of the Cup of blood Exod. XXIV That cup was the Old Testament in the blood of Christ There all the Articles of that Covenant being read over Moses sprinkled all the people with blood and said This is the blood of the Covenant which God hath made with you And thus that old Covenant or Testimony was confirmed In like manner Christ having published all the Articles of the New Covenant he takes the Cup of Wine and gives them to drink and saith This is the New Testament in my blood and thus the New Covenant is established There was besides a fourth Cup of which our Author speaks also Then he mingles a fourth cup and over it he finisheth the Hallel and adds moreover the blessing of the Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Let all thy works praise thee O Lord c. and saith Blessed be he that created the fruit of the Vine and afterwards he tastes of nothing more that night c. Finisheth the Hallel that is he begins there where he left oft before to wit at the beginning of the CXV Psalm and goes on to the end of the CXVIII Psalm Whether Christ made use of this Cup also we do not dispute T is certain he used the Hymn as the Evangelist tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they had sung a Hymn at the thirtieth verse we meet with the very same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Midras Till * * * * * * Fol. 4 2. 42. 1. And now looking back on this Paschal Supper let me ask those who suppose the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wilderness of Judea concerning which the Gospels speak in the History of the Baptist. I. And first we cannot pass it over without observation that it was not only without Prophetical prediction that he first appeared Preaching in the Wilderness Isa. XL. 3. but it was not without a mystery also For when the Heathen world is very frequently in the Prophets called the Wilderness and God promiseth that he would do glorious things to that Wilderness that he would produce there Pools of waters that he would bring in there all manner of fruitfulness and that he would turn the horrid desert into the pleasure of a Paradice all which were to be performed in a spiritual sense by the Gospel it excellently suited even in the letter with these promises that the Gospel should take its beginning in the Wilderness II. I indeed think the Baptist was born in Hebron a City of Aaron in the Hill-Country of Judea Josh. XXI 11. Luk. I. 5 39. he being an Aaronite by Father and Mother The house of his Cradle is shewn to Travellers elswhere concerning which enquire whether Beth Zachariah mentioned in q q q q q q Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 14. Josephus and the Book of the r r r r r r 1 Mac. VI. 33. Maccabees afforded not a foundation to that Tradition It was distant from Bethsura only seventy furlongs or thereabouts as may be gathered from the same Josephus by which word the Seventy render South Bethel in 1 Sam. XXX 27. and whether the situation does not agree let them enquire who please A little Cell of his is also shewed further in the Wilderness as it is called of Judea cut out of a rock together with his bed and a fountain running by which we leave to such as are easie of belief the Wilderness certainly where he preached and baptized is to be sought for far elswhere III. Luke saith That the word of the Lord came to John in the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he went into all the Country about Jordan He sojourned from Wilderness to Wilderness In the Wilderness in the Hill-country of Judea he passed his youth as a private man not as an Eremite but employed in some work or study and assumed nothing of austerity besides Nazariteship before the thirtieth year of his age Then the spirit of Prophesie came upon him and the word of the Lord came unto him teaching him concerning his function and office instructing him about his food and clothing and directing him to the place where he should begin his Ministry The region about Jericho was that place or that Country that lay betwixt that City and Jordan and so on this side of it and on that about the same space also on this side Jericho towards Jerusalem A Country very agreeable to the title which the Evangelists give it and very fit for John's Ministry For I. It was sufficiently desert according to what is said John came preaching in the Wilderness s s s s s s De bello lib 4 cap. 27. The space saith Josephus from Jericho to Jerusalem is desert and rocky but towards Jordan and the Asphaltites more level but as desert and barren And Saligniac writes t t t t t t To◠IX cap. 5. The journey from Jerusalem is very difficult stony and very rough the like to which I do not remember I have seen Jericho is distant from Jordan almost ten miles c. II. This Country might for distinction be called the Wilderness of Judea because other Regions of Judea had other names as The Kings Mountain The Plain of the South The Plain of Lydda The Valley from Engedi The Region about Betharon u u u u u u Hieros Sheviith fol. 38. 4. c. III. Although that Country were so desert yet it abounded very much with people For besides that abundance of Villages were scattered here and there in it 1. Jericho it self was the next City to Jerusalem in dignity 2. There were always twelve thousand men in it of the courses of the Priests 3. That way was daily trodden by a very numerous multitude partly of such who travailed between those Cities partly of such who went out of other Parts of Judea and likewise out of the Land of Ephraim into Perea and of them who went out of Perea into those Countries 4. John began his Ministry about the time of the Passover when a far greater company flocked that way IV. This Country was very convenient for food and provision in regard of its Wild Hony of which let me say a few things SECT V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wild Hony Mark I. 6. WHEN it is so often repeated in the Holy Scripture that God gave to his people Israel a Land flowing with Milk and Hony hence 1. One would conclude that the whole Land flowed with it And 2. hence one would expect infinite hives of Bees But hear what the Talmudists say of these things x x x x x x Hieros Biccurim fol. 64. ◠R. Jonah saith The Land flowing with Milk and Hony is the Land some part of which flows with Milk and Hony And that part they say is in Galilee for thus they speak For sixteen miles every way from Zippor is a Land flowing with Milk and Hony of which thing and Country we shall speak elsewhere y y y y y y Biccurim cap. 1. hal 15. R. Jose of Galilee saith They bring not the first fruits out of the Country which is beyond Jordan because that is not the Land flowing with Milk and Hony And he that brought the first fruits was to say The Lord gave us this Land flowing with Milk and Hony And now I have brought the first fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given me Deut. XXVI 9 10. But that part that flowed how did it flow with Hony Learn that from Ramban upon the place When he saith And Hony he understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hony of Palms For the Palm Trees which are in the Plain and in the Vallies abound very much with Hony There was Hony also distilling from the Fig-trees z z z z z z Chetub fol. 111. 2. R. Jacob ben 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dositheus saith I went on a certain time from Lydda to Ono before day break up to the ankles in the Hny of Figs. This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wild Hony of which the Evangelists speak as of the Baptists food And how convenient for this the Region about Jericho was which was called The Country of Palm-trees is clear to every Eye Diodorus Siculus hath these words of a certain Nation of Arabians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Diod. Sic. lib. 19. They have Pepper from the Trees and much Hony called wild Hony which they use to drink with water Whether it were also as plentiful in Locusts
use of this Sacrament might shew that they renounced their Judaism and professed the Faith and Oeconomy of the Gospel III. Our Communion therefore in this Sacrament is not so much Spiritual as External and declarative of our common and joynt profession of the Christian Faith We are far from denying that the Saints have a Spiritual Communion with God and among themselves in the use of the Eucharist yea we assert there is a most close Communion between true believers and God But what is that Spiritual Communion of Saints among themselves Mutual love one heart prayers for one another c. But they may exercise the same Communion and do exercise it when they meet together to any other part of Divine Worship They may and do act the same thing when they are distant from one another Therefore their Communion in this Sacrament which is distinctly called the Communion of the Eucharist is that they meet together and by this outward sign openly and with joynt minds profess that they are united in one sacred knot and bond of Christian Religion renouncing all other Religions IV. When therefore we approach to the Eucharist in any Church we do not only communicate with that congregation with which we associate at that time but with the whole Catholic Church in the profession of the true Evangelic Religion VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do shew the Lords death IT is known what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Passover Supper was namely a Declaration of the great works of God in the deliverance of the people out of Egypt The same as it seems would these Judaizing Corinthians retain in the Lords Supper as if the Eucharist were instituted and superadded only for that commemoration The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very well answer to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Declaration and while the Apostle admonisheth them that the death of Christ is that which is to be declared it may be gathered that they erred in this very thing and looked some other way VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unworthily THE Apostle explains himself vers 29. Where we also will speak of this verse VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let a man examine himself c. HE had said before verse 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they which are approved may be made manifest And in the same sense he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man approve himself in this place not so much Let him try or examine himself as Let him approve himself that is Let him shew himself approved by the Christian Faith and Doctrine So Chap. XVI 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whomsoever ye shall approve We meet with the word in the same sense very often VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lords body THIS is to be meant of the proper act of the understanding viz. Of the true judgment concerning the nature and signification of the Sacrament If it were said indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the Lord it might be rendred in the same sense as He knew not the Lord that is he loves him not he fears him not he worships him not But when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not discerning the body it plainly speaks of the act of the understanding He does not rightly distinguish of the body of the Lord. And this was a grievous error of these Judaizing Corinthians who would see nothing of the body of Christ in the Eucharist or of his death their eyes being too intent upon the commemoration of the Passover They retained the old Leaven of Judaism in this new Passover of the Eucharist And this was their partaking of the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily as assigning it a scope and end much too unworthy much too mean Ther are alas among Christians some who come to this Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily but whether this unworthily of the Corinthians be fitly applied to them I much doubt How mean soever I am let me speak this freely with the leave of good and pious men that I fear that this discourse of the Apostle which especially chastized Judaizers be too severely applyed to Christians that Judaize not at all at least that it be not by very many Interpreters applied to the proper and intended scope of it Of these Corinthians receiving the Eucharist unworthily in the sense of which we spake the Apostle speaks two dreadful things I. That they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty of the body and blood of the Lord vers 27. With this I compare that of the Apostle Heb. X. 29. He hath trampled under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified a common thing And Heb. VI. 6. They crucify again to themselves the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put him to an open shame Of whom is the discourse Not of all Christians that walked not exactly according to the Gospel rule although they indeed esteem and treat Christ too ignominously but of those that relapse and Apostatize from the Gospel to Judaism whether these Corinthians too much inclined and are admonished seasonably to take care of the same guilt for when any professing the Gospel so declined to Judaism that he put the blood of Christ in subordination to the Passover and acknowledged nothing more in it than was acknowledged in the blood of a Lamb and other Sacrifices namely that they were a mere commemoration and nothing else oh how did he vilify that blood of the eternal Covenant He is guilty of the blood of the Lord who assents to the shedding of his blood and gives his vote to his death as inflicted for a mere shaddow and nothing else which they did II. That they ate and drank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to themselves But what that judgment is is declared vers 30. Many are sick c. It is too sharp when some turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Damnation when the Apostle saith most evidently vers 32. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When we are judged we are chastened that we should not be condemned Thus as in the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation God vindicated the honour of the Sabbath by the death of him that gathered sticks and the honour of the worship in the Tabernacle by the death of Nadab and Abihu and the honour of his Name by the stoning of the Blasphemer so he set up like monuments of his vengeance in the beginning of the Gospel Dispensation in the dreadful destruction of Ananias and Sapphira for the wrong and reproach offered to the Holy Ghost in the delivery of some into the hands of Satan for contempt of and enmity against the Gospel in this judgment for the abuse of the Eucharist in the destruction of some by the Plague for Nicolaitism Revel II. 23 c. VERS XXXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
43. And he saith unto Iesus Lord Remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Acts XXIII 8. For the Sadducees say That there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit But the Pharisees confess both John XI 51. This spake he not of himself but being High Priest that year he prophesied That Iesus should dye for that people Rom. IX 3. For I could wish that I my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the flesh Gen. III. 20. And Adam called his wifes name Eve because she was the Mother of all living 1 John III. 12. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother and wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous Gen. IV. 15. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain lest any finding him should kill him Exod. XX. 5. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me Exod. XX. 11. For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Exod. XX. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee A Discourse upon the fourth Article of the Apostles Creed He descended into Hell A SERMON PREACHED AT St. Michaels Cornhil Novemb. 25. 1658. Before the NATIVES of STAFFORDSHIRE JOHN X. 22 23. And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication and it was Winter And Iesus walked in the Temple in Solomons porch THE Text is suitable to the occasion Here is a Feast as well as yours a Feast in Winter as well as yours and as I shall shew you anon a Feast on the five and twentieth day of November as well as yours If Christ will vouchsafe his presence at yours as he did at this in the Text the parallel will not be so pregnant as it will be happy Of all the four Evangelists John is most punctual nay he only is punctual to give account of the Festivals that intercurred between Christs entrance into his Publick Ministry at his Baptism and the time of his Death that renowned and signal space of time of half a week of years as they be called Dan. 9. 27. or three years and an half in which Christ performed his Ministery and wrought Redemption And this he doth partly that he might the more remarkably count out the time and partly that he might shew how careful our Saviour was to observe those Festivals He names you the four Passovers that intervened The first Passover after his Baptism in Chap. II. when he whipped Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple The second in Chap. V. when he healed the long diseased Man at Bethesda The third in Chap. VI. 4. a little before which he fed five thousand Men miraculously The fourth and last in Chap. XVIII at which he suffered He gives you also account of his being at the Feast of Tabernacles Chap. VII and of his being at the Feast of Dedication in the words that I have read To the expounding of which the very way that I must go cannot but mind me to Observe this to you That Humane Learning is exceeding useful nay exceeding needful to the Expounding of Scripture The Text gives the rise of this Observation and it gives the proof of it Here is the mention of the Feast of Dedication and not one tittle else in all the Scripture concerning it And so there is the bare mention of Solomons porch and indeed it is mentioned once again in Act. III. 11. but neither here nor there any more than the bare name Certainly the Holy Ghost would never have mentioned these things if he would not have had us to have sought to know what they meant But how should we know them The Scripture gives not one spark of light to find them out but Humane Learning holds out a clear light of Discovery Would you know what this Feast of Dedication was Upon what occasion instituted How celebrated At what time of Winter it occurred The Scripture speaks not one word of all these but Humane Authors the Talmud Maimony Josephus the first book of Maccabes tell you all fully And would you know what Solomons porch was and where it was and in what part of the Temple it was in Scripture you can never find it but consult Humane Learning and Writers and they will tell you it was a Cloister-walk on the East bound of the utmost Court of the Temple and they will tell you the very space and fashion of it Here is a Text fallen into our Hands occasionally a Thousand others of the like nature might be produced let any of those that deny Humane Learning to be needful in handling of Divinity but expound me this Text without the help of Humane Learning and I shall then think there is something in their Opinion Two things lead them into this mistake 1. Because they conceive the New Testament which part of the Bible Christians have most to deal withal is so easie of it self that it needs no pains or study to the Expounding of it 2. And the less because say they the Spirit reveals it to the Saints of God and so they are taught of God and can teach others Give me leave partly for our settlement in the Truth about this Point and partly for the stopping the mouths of such gainsayers out of many things that might be spoken to commend these four to you I. That in the time when Prophecy flourished the standing Ministery that was to teach the people were not Prophets but Priests and Levites that became Learned by Study And for that end God disposed them into forty eight Cities which were as Universities where they were to Study the Law together that they might be inabled to teach the people And you may see the very Prophets themselves sending the people to them to be Instructed Hag. II. 2. Mal. II. 7. It is but a wild thing now when Prophesie is ceased so many hundred years ago to refuse Learning and a Learned Ministery and to seek instruction we know not of whom II. There is no ground in Scripture to believe nor promise to expect that God doth or ever will teach men the Grammatical or Logical construction of the Scripture Text. T is true indeed that he gives to a gratious Saint the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ as it is Ephes. I. 17. But how Revealing to him by experimental feeling that which he knew indeed before in Scripture but only by bare Theory As for example A man before his conversion knows by reading and hearing what Faith and Repentance are in their definitions but when he comes to
Law to be laid upon man that it requires it the more because in that he is not looked upon only as a Creature to serve his Creator but as a Creature that is to enjoy his Creator Accordingly when God created Adam he wrote a Law in his Heart and made a Covenant with him upon the full terms of the Law for perfect obedience and this is commonly called his Covenant of Works with Adam The short Draught of that Covenant is this If thou performest perfect obedience according to the tenor of this Law To love the Lord with all thy heart c. thou shalt be blessed and enjoy God for ever if not then thou shalt be cursed and perish for ever Now observe the two contrary parts of this Proposal of God which we cannot but conceive to have been the tenor of the Covenant of Works with him First The Promissory part If thou performest perfect obedience thou shalt be saved There is mercy that God promiseth Salvation as well as Justice that he requires obedience For Adams obedience was due from him as a Creature though there had been no Salvation for him But in the Threatning part there was nothing but Justice If thou performest not perfect obedience thou shalt perish and all the equity in the World in it For as such obedience was due from him to God so was he then able to perform it and deserved perdition if he did not But Adam fell and that Covenant of Grace came in and then what became of the equity of that Law Did the Covenant of Grace extinguish Gods just claim of mans obedience Nay of mans perfect obedience No for God must not lose one tittle of his right and due but that Grace that made the Covenant did contrive that Christ must pay the perfect obedience and the believer the best obedience he can As he under the Law that could not reach a Lamb c. his sacrifice was not remitted but that sacrifice abated and he was to bring what he could two Turtles So man is now grown poor and cannot perform perfect obedience yet the Covenant of Grace doth not remit his obedience but abates the execution takes perfect obedience in his behalf from Christ but requires the perfectest he can perform from him too So that a sinner though he cannot perform obedience is not therefore acquitted from the Laws challenge of obedience nor a Believer though Christ has paid perfect nay infinite obedience for him yet he is not acquitted from obeying the best he can And the reason is because nothing can disannul Gods just claim of obedience from his creature So that this Law of obedience being founded in Gods being God and in our being his creatures it is impossible that God should make a Covenant with man for Grace and Salvation and this not be included Now though in the Covenant of Grace it stands not as in Adams Covenant of Works as by the performance of which to be justified yet doth it so stand in it as without Works performed there is no participation of God nay without which the Covenant is no Covenant What is said of the Sacramental Elements the like may be said in this case Elementum adde verbum sit Sacramentum Here are the Elements add the word of institution and it becomes a Sacrament So hoc est promissum adde legem fit foedus Here is the promise add the Law and it is a Covenant For though Promise and Covenant be sometimes convertible yet the Promise barely considered is not the Covenant without the Conditions of the Law affixed to it And under this notion in Gods own Language the Commandments of God are the Covenant of God Psal. CIII 18. To those that keep his Covenant which is explained in the next clause which remember his Commandments to do them They that keep his Covenant One would think it should be To those to whom he keeps his Covenant But herein the main stress of the matter â—â—es if they keep his Commandments there is no doubt of the God of Truth performing his promise As the stress of Gods reconciliation to man is laid mainly in Scripture upon mans being reconciled to God II Cor. V. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself Col. I. 20. To reconcile all things to himself Not so much himself to the World as the World to himself not so much himself to all things as all things to himself for here is the great business to get man reconciled unto God and then no doubt of Gods being reconciled to man So there is no doubt of Gods performing his promise of Grace and Salvation but the great business is mans performing his part and keeping his Law And thus having spoken to that Question which in our enumeration came the second Why the Ark is called the Ark of the Covenant It hath made some way to answer the first How may Christians inquire of God in their doubtings as Israel did here and elsewhere in theirs I must answer briefly and that in the Words of Gods himself Esa. VIII 29. To the Law and to the Testament To the written Word of God Search the Scriptures As you might appeal to Balaam to bear witness concerning the blessedness of Israel whereas he was called forth to curse them So for the proof of this matter viz. That there is now no other way to enquire of God but only from his Word you may appeal to those very Scriptures that they produce that would maintain that there are Revelations and Inspirations still and that God doth still very often answer his People by them They produce that That they shall all be taught of God that is say they All the Saints shall be taught by the Spirit but that passage aims a clean other way as relating to the Gentiles as it doth in Esa. LIV. 13. hence it is quoted It means that whereas they in their Heathen blindness had been taught of the Devil by his Oracles Prophets Pythonesses and the like God would bring in the Gospel among them and so they now should be taught of God Or as relating to the Jews as Christ applies it Joh. VI. 45. the meaning is that whereas they had been taught by men either by Scribes and Pharisees which were evil men or by holy Priests and Prophets which were but men they should in time be taught and now were of God himself Christ Preaching among them as the Apostle observes Heb. I. 1. They produce that Heb. VIII 11. And they shall not teach every one his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest from Jer. XXXI whereas the meaning is but this that by the Word of the Gospel should come in so clear light and so great means of knowledge that none but might know God if they would seek to know him And to the very same sence and tenor speaks that strange expression Esa. LXV 20. There
Pet. II. Their sins will not let them linger and slumber but continually cry in the ears of God for judgment The injuries they do to Law Gospel and Blood of Christ will not let them linger nor slumber but these are continually crying to God to avenge their cause And will not God avenge his cause What need I speak of his Soveraignty challenging that he dispose of all mens eternal being as he brought them into being here What should I speak of his Justice challenging that every one be rewarded according to his work And indeed what need I to insist much to prove that God is Judge of all and that he will bring all to judgment to any that call themselves Christians and have the Bible in their hand And so I have done with the first double Proposition in the Text viz. That God is Judge and Judge of all And now briefly to speak to the second duplicity viz. He stands before the door and before the door of all I know the Apostles expression means in general the Judge is near but if it should come to particularizing of this or the other or any person would he not say the same And will not any say the same that will acknowledge a Judge or Judgment Who can say who dares say the Judge stands not before my door I am sure a good man dares not say so for he accounts his God and Judge near unto him Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways Psal. CXXXIX 3. And if any wretched man dare say so let him take heed that he finds not his Judge a great deal nearer than he supposes nay the nearer for his putting him so far off The Scripture speaks of two kinds of people but indeed are but one and they seem to look two several ways whereas indeed they look but one and the same way viz. those that put the evil day far from them and those that desire the evil days coming You have mention of them both near together in one and the same Prophet Of the former Amos VI. 3. Wo to you that put the evil day far away And of the latter Amos V. 18. Wo to you that desire the day of the Lord. How they put away the evil day in their own foolish fancy and conceit is no hard thing to understand I wish that too common experience had not acquainted us with that too much and too many a time But how do such wicked wretches desire the day of the Lord The Prophet Esay tells you of some Chap. V. 19. That say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsil of the holy one of Israel draw near and come that we may know it And all this in scorn as making a puff at the Word of the Lord that tells of an evil day and a day of the Lord to come Here is talk of the Word of the Lord I pray you let us see it and telling of the Lords coming where is it Let him come that we may know it Directly these mockers 2 Pet. III. 2. That say in scorn where is the promise of his coming Now is the Judge ever the farther off for these mens putting him and his judgment far away Nay is he not the nearer In that place of Esay the wretches that spake so in scorn are said to draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes And if they draw these do they not draw judgment on too Judgment is the nearest when the sinner is securest and when men cry peace peace then sudden destruction cometh upon them 1 Thes. V. But First At whose door doth not the Judge stand harkening and taking notice of mens behaviour Rev. III. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock He knocks that if it may be he may be admitted but if he be not he stands not in vain but takes notice of what passes in the house that he may take account of it in his due time Jer. VIII 6. I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done Mal. III. 16. The Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before him The Judge writes what passes and in time will have a reckoning about it And so may the counsil of the Apostle here be very well construed Grudge not brethren one against another grumble not repine not one against another for the Judge is at the door and he takes notice of every thing that passeth and you must account for it It were an excellent lesson for every Christian to get the hundred and nine and thirtieth Psalm not only by heart but in his heart and to be convinced and have a feeling of what is there spoken concerning Gods nearness to every man in what place and posture soever he is I need no more proof for that we are speaking of than only that Psalm I would every heart would make the Use of the doctrine there taught and make Application by his practise Secondly Who can say otherwise then that the Judge is at the door and may break in any moment by death and judgment And this needs no other proof than only to remember the uncertainty of death and judgment Isaac was of this belief when he said I know not the day of my death Gen. XXVII 2. whereas he lived many a fair year after And remarkable is that of the Apostle that when he is speaking of the Judgment to come he states it as if it were to come even in his time whereas so many hundred of years above a thousand are passed since his time We shall not all die but we shall all be changed 1 Cor. XV. And 1 Thes. IV. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him into the clouds Why Blessed Apostle dost thou think the resurrection and general judgment shall come while thou art alive Do it or do it not I have learned always to think that the Judge always stands before the door And I would teach all generations and ages to believe the same that the Judge standeth c. And Thirdly who can keep him out when he is pleased to break in Elisha could shut the door against the Kings messenger that was sent to take away his life can any man do it against the great Judge when he comes to do it Are any doors judgment proof when the Lord will batter against them Rather list up your heads O ye gates and be lift up O ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in Prepare to meet thy God O Israel that when he comes thou mayest comfortably entertain him It may seem a very hard passage that of the Apostle 2 Pet. III. 12. Looking for and hasting to the day of God when the heavens being on fire shall
of the nature of this work which will speak it moral and upon that account fit to be used in the Christian Church And secondly the Evidence of the use of it in the first times And first of the Nature of this Duty Many things are spoken of the excellency of the book of Psalms and many may be spoken of the Excellency of singing Psalms I may allude to that expression Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all So may I say in reference to this Duty all Duties are excellent but this includes all In singing of Psalms there is what is in other Services and more Prayer is our duty Praise speaking of Gods works singing are our Duties but this last is all it is like the holy Incense mixt of all these perfumes The excellency of this duty will appear further under these four heads First It is an action that helps up and keeps up the heart in a Spiritual frame as much as any See the Apostle arguing for singing upon this account V. Ephes. 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 V. James 13. Is any among you afflicted Let him pray Is any merry Let him sing Psalms If the heart would be up in mirth use this to help it up being not yet come into frame If it be up use this to keep it that it be not transported The Heart by spiritual musick is called up to beat in the right mean As David by his Harp calmed Sauls spirit so this is proper to beat down immoderate mirth And so on the other hand it is proper to free the mind of lumpishness and sadness as Elisha being put into a passion and disturbance at the sight of the King of Israel called for Temple Musick to pacifie and allay his discomposed mind 2 King III. 14 15. And Elisha said as the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehosaphat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee But now bring me a Minstrel And it came to pass when the Minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him See a strange passage in Jer. XX. at the 12. vers the Prophets heart is quite down O Lord of Hosts that tryest the righteous and seest the reins and the heart let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I opened my cause At the 14 vers his heart is lower yet Cursed be the day wherein I was born let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed But in the midst of these sorrows and dejections he falls to praising and singing unto God At the 13 vers Sing unto the Lord praise ye the Lord. He strives to wind up his heart to a right pitch with Sing unto the Lord. As God requires outward and inward worship so a spiritual frame for inward worship may be forwarded by the outward composure Gazing drowsiness hinders the activity of the Soul but the contrary temper furthers and helps it Singing calls up the Soul into such a posture and doth as it were awaken it t is a lively rowzing up of the heart Secondly This is a work of the most meditation of any we perform in publick It keeps the heart longest upon the thing spoken Prayer and hearing pass quick from one Sentence to another this sticks long upon it Meditation must follow after hearing the word and praying with the Minister for new sentences still succeeding give not liberty in the instant well to muse and consider upon what is spoken But in this you pray and meditate praise and meditate speak of the things of God and meditate God hath so ordered this duty that while we are imployed in it we feed and chew the cud together Higgaion or Meditation is set upon some passages of the Psalms as IX Psal. 16. The same may be writ upon the whole duty and all parts of it viz. Meditation Set before you one in the posture to sing to the best advantage eyes lift up to Heaven denote his desire that his heart may be there too hath before him a line or verse of prayer mourning praise mention of Gods works how fairly now may his heart spred it self in Meditation on the thing while he is singing it over Our singing is measured in deliberate time not more for Musick than Meditation He that seeks not finds not this advantage in singing Psalms hath not yet learned what it means Thirdly This is a Service in which we profess delight in the thing we have in hand Yea even in sad mourning ditty we delight so to mourn Psal. C. 1. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands serve the Lord with gladness T is a noise of joy and gladness It speaks that we delight in Gods Ordinances that we are about As Musick at Table shews we make a Feast of delight of what God hath provided Solatur voce laborem He that sings at his work shews that his work goes on with contentedness David at his harp and composing Psalms to the honour of God what delight did he take therein So that in singing there must be two things I. The Ditty to be applied by Meditation And II. Tuning the Voice to it in the best liveliness we can as delighting in the work Nay Fourthly This is a Service wherein one is cheared from another It is a joynt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One takes mirth life and warmth from another a holy servor and emulation as the Seraphins Esa. VI. strive to outvy one another in praising God Who is there but while he is joyning with the Congregation in this Duty feels such an impression and excitation his own string wound up by the consort of the Quire T is a story goes of St. Austin that it was one means of his conversion the hearing the heavenly singing of Psalms at Milan As all our Duties here in publick carry some bond and badge of communion we come to pray together hear together and so profess our selves Christians together we being all Scholars in the School of Christ so this of singing together more especially speaks it out But herein is not only a sign of communion but also mutual excitation As David speaks when he was at this work Psal XXXIV 3. O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together We do as it were joy one another to put on all as much as we can to joyn together in the praise and honour of God I need to say no more to shew that so excellent a Duty could not but be setled by Christ with others in the Christian Church the very nature of the thing may speak it I shall therefore only speak to three things I. The warrant of Christ for the observance of this Duty II. The admonitions of the Apostle for the same purpose And
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
contabescere morbo corrodi to languish to pine away to be eaten up with some malady and if I miscount not you have it but three times in the Bible and those in the Psalms Psal. VI. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred by our English Mine eye is consumed because of grief by the Interlineary Latine Erosus est prae indignatione oculus meus And the very same words you have Psal. XXXI 9. where our English renders after the same manner and that Latine Contabuit and in the very next verse after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My bones are consumed Now the third person future of that word if you would write it in Greek letters you can hardly do it more properly than in the word Jesus that is before us And to this Hebrew word I cannot but conceive that the Syriack Translator had an Eye when he writes not Bar Jesus but Bar Shuma by which he means not Filius Nominis a man of Name or renown as some would have it and as indeed it might signifie but a man of sores swellings or breakings out for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken in Levit. XII 2. in the Targum of Jerusalem and Jonathan upon the Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Esa. I. 6. and elsewhere in the Targum of the other Jonathan upon the Prophets And how Bar Shuma a man of sores agrees with Bar Jesus a man wasting and languishing I need not tell you But how doth Elymas agree with both vers 8. Elymas the Sorcerer for so is his name by interpretation But there is some scruple which name is meant whether his name Bar Jesus or his title Magus And that that hath been the currentest rendring hath been by the Arabick word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ain inchoante which signifies a knowing a wise man and so may be bowed to the sense of Magus But both the Syriack and Arabick Translators begin the word Elymas with another Letter I learn from that incomparable work for pains and learning the Heptaglot Lexicon that Alima or Elima Eliph inchoant in the Arabian Tongue signifies Dolere or cruciari to be in pain or anguish And I think I need to look no further how Elymas doth interpret Bar Jesus when the one signifies contabescere and the other dolere the one morbo corrodi and the other cruciari the words being so near a kin It were worth inquiring why his Hebrew name is rendred into Arabick and not into Greek as is generally done all along the New Testament with other names But that discussion is not so proper for this time and occasion The mans sickly names therefore Bar Jesus or Contabescens and Elymas or dolens may justly make us to look upon him as some pitiful pining langushing diseased body Which whether that were so or no is not much material but certainly the titles that the sacred Historian and blessed Apostle do give him put it out of all question that he carried a very sad sickly and diseased soul. The Jewish Writers when they would speak out a very wicked man indeed they say that he brake out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the superfluity of naughtiness as our English renders the phrase turned into Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. I. 21. Now read this mans Epithites and guess whether he could have broken out further than he did The holy Pen-man calls him a Jew a false prophet a Sorcerer vers 6. The holy Apostle calls him full of all subtilty full of all mischief the child of the Devil and enemy of all righteousness in the verse before us Titles or Epistles or Stigmata or call them what you will so foul that an hours discourse can speak but little to them of what might be or what were requisite to be spoken to give every of them their due Therefore to confine my self to the time I shall confine my discourse only to his present action upon which the Apostles Eye is more peculiarly intent viz. that he perverted and ceased not to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Into which sink of his as into a common sewer flowed all the rest of his puddles here mentioned some as causes of his so acting and some as instruments Hither flowed as causes his being a Jew a false prophet a Sorcerer these set him on work And hither flowed as instruments his subtilty his mischievousness his Devilishness his enmity against all righteousness these helped him in his work And what his work was or what is meant by his perverting the right ways of the Lord we need not go far to learn the eighth verse resolves it fully he withstood the Apostles Barnabss and Paul and he sought to turn away the Deputy Sergius Paulus from the faith He opposed the preaching of the Gospel and he opposed the conversion of the Gentile And such Emissaries some will tell you the Jews had abroad in the World for such a purpose subtil and mischievous men sent abroad purposely to oppose and contradict and vilifie the Gospel and to hinder as much as possibly the conversion of any Heathen It were too bold to say this man was sent by the Sanhedrin upon such an employment If he were not they could hardly have fitted themselves better for such a business than with him so accomplished and accoutred for so cursed a design The very mildest title that he carries viz. as he was a Jew speaks him capacitated and principled sufficiently for such an Employment had he been neither false prophet nor Sorcerer Accordingly I shall only take up that Epistle and relation of his and let all the rest alone and consider him as a Jew and so acting as a Jew in this his cursed employment Not ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord or to oppose the Gospel If you scan and observe the demeanor of the Devil in the two different ages of the World under Heathenism and under the Gospel you will find this to have been his method and his shifting policy viz. That under Heathenism he foisted upon the World the greatest lie that could be forged in Hell to make the Heathen believe that the Devils that they served were Gods And under the Gospel when that lie would not do he set men to oppose and contradict that greatest truth that could be revealed from Heaven the truth and tenor of the Gospel And the first Agents that he employed in this business was the Nation of the unbelieving Jews A generation by the very principles of their Religion fermented into a sowrness and contrariety to the Gospel and the right ways of the Lord in it Our Apostle in Rom. XI 8. tells us They were under the spirit of slumber And 1 Thes. II. 15. he intimates how they were under a spirit of contradiction They are contrary to all men Under the spirit of slumber so that all their Religion was but ◠dream of men that slumbred And under the spirit of contradiction so that all their acting was
and obtained life Let us now in the next place view the means of their believing II. A New Covenant was made with them They were under two Covenants in one day As Noah saw two Worlds so Adam saw an old Creation and a new As it was said of him Idem dies vidit Consulem exulem The same day saw him Consul and a banished man So the same day saw Adam under two vastly different conditions according to the tenor of the two Covenants The form of either Covenant was not exprest plainly but resulting The Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works both somewhat obscure to him But I. The enjoyment of God was necessarily intimated in both not the enjoyment of the Creature Adam was made a reasonable Soul for this purpose II. Obedience was the way This is a Duty to God and this is the way of the enjoyment of him when we conform to God III. He saw he had now lost obedience and the power of obedience He had lost God and the power of the enjoyment of him IV. God held out one that should recover him And he 1. A root of a seed as Adam was 2. Of an infinite Righteousness and Obedience beyond Adam 3. One that should by Obedience destroy the works of the Devil for his own seed V. Adam saw no way of recovery but by trusting in him God must be satisfied he could not do it obeyed he could not obey Therefore he had no way but to cast himself on Christs obedience VI. The Covenant only held out Christ to be trusted and believed on Obedience was required even by the Law of Nature and creatureship Faith was therefore enforced because they could not perfectly obey VII The Promise given in the curse of Satan that God would put enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent and that the Womans seed should bruise the Serpents head this had that effect upon them that they set themselves to defy Satan and cleave to the seed promised VIII That Mercy that created them in an instant so perfect recovered them in an instant Let us now in the third place view their condition under believing III. I. They were now representative no more as they were of mankind before the Fall They were stated in another representative Christ. Now they acted for themselves and he for them Hence their Faith was not imputed to posterity though their sin was II. They were built on another foundation than they were before Then it was on Nature Self-holiness Freedom of Will sandy foundations because changeable Now on a Rock Grace and the Righteousness of Christ. III. Now they have the Spirit of God working in them With Christ God gave his Spirit whereas before they had only natural abilities IV. Now they were under a Promise before not That Christ should break the head of the Serpent contained the promise of all good things V. They were under such Evangelical revealings that they wanted nothing needful for Salvation The Improvement of this discourse shall be in two or three Uses I. This magnifies Gods Grace to them and mankind How great is this Grace which will appear if you consider these things 1. There was as much done to provoke God for ever as was possible Compute the sin of Adam with all its circumstances 2. Here was greater Mercy than to the Angels that fell 3. Nay than to the Angels that fell not 4. Grace restored man to a better condition than he was in before We may admire all this and resolve all into Grace What comfort then is here to poor sinners Look on an Example that of St. Paul who was the chief of sinners yet Grace was exceeding abundant towards him 1 Tim. I. 14 15. He was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious Here were sins like scarlet yet forgiven You that are under the pangs of conscience consider this Grace Thou canst not sin so hainously as Adam did if thou addest not wilfulness and impenitency nor fall so high nor damn posterity as he did and yet he obtained pardon Take one Example more There were some pardoned that Crucified the second Adam II. See the wretchedness of the sin of Devils that is beyond pardon Their unpardonableness in what lay it In these two things 1. They sinned of pride and malice Adam and Eve of ignorance and weakness Take heed of sinning proudly and presumptuously 2. They were in the state of Eternity therefore their change to evil was unchangable Man carried the plea of weakness in his nature they not III. There is the same Grace Christ Promise Covenant from the beginning A SERMON PREACHED upon 1 JOHN III. 12. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother and wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous THESE words refer to vers 11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another and indeed to the tenor of all John's Epistles every where exhorting to love and not to be as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother He had given two marks of one not born of God vers 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother They are both here in Cain Who was so far from love and righteousness that he hated his Brother and slew him Wicked mens sins are set down that we may avoid them as Rocks 1 Cor. X. 6. These things were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted But Cain's sin reads more It is the first story after the Fall And it shews I. The enmity 'twixt the seeds II. What poison Satan bad breathed into mans nature The Holy Ghost in that story bids us look on him Thou art the Man This is Man fallen Of Seth it is said Gen. V. 3. that he was begot in Adam's image here it needs not be said it is so plain In the words we have a description of the Father and the eldest son viz. the Devil and Cain I. The Devil described by a most proper denomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wicked one II. Cain by his extraction and action He was of the wicked one and slew his Brother We will first clear these and then make some observations from them I. The denomination of the Devil That wicked one So he is stiled Matth. XII 45. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other Spirits more wicked than himself Eph. VI. 16. Taking the shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the siery darts of the wicked So some understand that petition in the Lords Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deliver us from Evil that is the Evil one Nay Ephes. VI. 12. the Devil is called Wickedness in the Abstract We wrestle c. against spiritual wickedness in high places First He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
To gather Spiritual strength for that which it may be hath been scattered in our wordly employment Secondly There is a commemorative end of the Sabbath to remember Gods creating the world Which Adam might very well nay must have been employed about though he had never fallen When he had been all the week upon his employment dressing the Garden and keeping it then on the Sabbath to set himself to meditate upon Gods creating of the world and to study his power and wisdom and goodness shewed in that glorious workmanship and to spend the day in prayers to him Observe the work of that day to us and the same it should have been to him in Psal. XCII which is intituled a Psalm for the Sabbath day It tells you what the work of the day is vers 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most High And upon what reason ver 4. For thou hast made me glad through thy works I will triumph in the works of thy hands This is a Sabbath days work after our sixs days work to make it our employment to think of Gods to meditate of his wondrous works of Creation and Preservation and there will come in the thoughts of our Creator and Preserver and may mind us of our engagement to praise him to whet our thankfulness and faith with these thoughts 1. When we have laboured all the week to think of our Creator that hath sustained us fed cloathed brought us hitherto And here is a right Sabbath employment to let our thoughts stream from our wordly employment to God and to the remembrance of him in whom we live and move and have our being 2. To trust God with our support though we labour not on the Sabbath but spend it wholly to him and not to our selves He that created all things and that hath fed and preserved us hitherto can support us without our working on his day nay and will do it for do his work and undoubtedly thou shalt not want thy wages What a lecture did God read in his raining of Manna that on the Sabbath day he rained none thereby to shew his own owning of his Sabbath and checking and chiding those that for greediness and distrust would go out and think to gather some on that day And when he provided them Manna on the sixth day for the Sabbath also what a lecture did he read that he that observes the Sabbath and does Gods Will ceasing from his own labour and doing his shall never be unprovided for Thirdly There is an Evangelical end of the Sabbath referring to Christ and that in Adams Sabbath as well as ours Let us begin with his I have shewed that on the sixth day Adam sinned and Christ was promised So that the last work of God in the days of Creation was the setting up Christ and restoring fallen man by him And here God rested viz. He had brought in his Son in whom his Soul delighted and made him heir of all things and thus he rested in Christ finished his work in Christ rested refreshed delighted himself in Christ. Now the next day when the Sabbath came in what had Adam to do in it but to remember the Creation to remember his new creating when he was broke all to pieces and spoiled To remember his Creator and Redeemer It is said Gen. III. 21. Unto Adam and his wife did the Lork God make coats of skins and cloathed them The Lord and Lady of all the world clad in Leather Which our silks and sattens now would scorn to think of but from so mean a garb comes all our gallantry though now we scorn it But whence came those Skins Most probably they were the skins of beasts that were sacrificed For That sacrifice was from the beginning may be observed from that that Christ is called The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and that not only in prediction or that it was determined and foretold by God that he should be slain but in figure that sacrifice was offered from the beginning of the world which did presignifie his killing and offering up And this further appears from the sacrifices of Cain and Abel which rite and piece of Religion they had learned of their Father Adam Here then was work for Adam on the Sabbath to sacrifice in memory of Christ to be offered up for redemption and to praise God for creating the world but especially for vouchsafing Christ whereby a better world and Estate is created And would not Adam when he had a family preach to his family of these things upon the Sabbath day My Children learn to know and remember the Creator the blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit who in six days made Heaven and Earth and on the sixth day made me and your Mother both of us in his own image perfectly holy and righteous and endued with power of perfect obedience and to resist all temptations But that day we were deceived by the Devil and fell and undid our selves and our posterity and came into a state of death and damnation But God suffered us to lye so but a few hours but promised his own Son to take our flesh and to dye to deliver us from death and damnation and taught us this duty of sacrifice in comemoration of Christs death and appoynted this day to commemorate these things and to be employed in such service and meditations Oh! my Children learn to know your Creator to believe in Christ your Redeemer and to observe his Sabbath Such employment as this had Adam with his family on the Sabbath day that it was even a Christian Sabbath to him as ours is to us and the very same work is ours and was his on the Sabbath day but only that he also sacrificed Fourthly There is a Typical end of the Sabbath to signify Eternal Rest. Heb. IV. 3. For we which have belived do enter into rest As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world Where the Apostle signifies that the Sabbath hinted another rest to wit Gods Eternal Rest different from that rest when God ceased from the works of Creation The Sabbath typifies the end viz. Eternal Rest and the means viz. to rest in Christ. One end was to Adam in innocency both to us This is a lecture that may be read in the Sabbath in something that is visible to see something invisible as in the water to see the Sun This is a way to rest and resembles that great and last Rest as pleasant walks lead at length to the stately House at the end of them This is a fit thought for the Sabbath-day morning Now I rest from the world how shall I rest from it eternally Now I deal with God invisibly but one day visibly They who love Eternal Rest will certainly love the Sabbath To all these ends God
Earth with the everlastingness of God makes them as of no lastingness at all Psal. CII 26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end 2. The longest life compared with the Saints in Glory is as nothing 2 Cor. V. 1. This Tabernacle always dissolving what is it to an Eternal building in the Heaven Here we have none abiding City saith the Apostle but he saith again 1 Thess. IV. 17. that we shall be ever with the Lord. Here our life is but a vapour Jam. IV. as a Sleep Psal. XC as nothing but there we shall live as long as the Lord himself shall live 3. The longest life compared with the long lives that some have lived to wit the Patriarchs before the flood is but of very few days and but as an inch to an ell And so Jacob compares his life Gen. XLVII 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been That is few and full of misery have they been Jacob was of a very fair age an hundred and thirty years old and so old a Man as it is likely Pharaoh had never seen so aged and venerable a head and therefore you find him asking him but that one question How old art thou And yet in Jacob's computation his age was but short in comparison of his Fathers that had gone before him his hundred and thirty compared with Adam's nine hundred and thirty or Methuselah's nine hundred sixty nine So that we are not to judge of long life so comparatively but simply and to measure it by the common stint of Nature that God hath set Which Moses holds out to us Psal. XC 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years c. And so length of life is to be understood that that reacheth up to that stint and limit of nature So that though seventy or eighty years be but a short time in comparison of the Eternity of God and of Heaven and in comparison of the ages heretofore yet it is a long life because it reacheth up to the utmost on Natures allowance And it is a long time if we consider humane frailty that a poor piece of clay a Man as brittle as glass as unstable as water as fading and fleeting as a blast or shaddow a poor thing that carries death in its principle and walks in danger of death every moment should come up to seventy or eighty years and the pitcher and glass not broken It is a long time for that which is frailty it self to hold so from breaking So that though comparatively to come up to the full stint of Nature be but a short life yet simply considered it is a long time for so brittle a thing to hold out A long time for an ungodly Man to be provoking of God all along and a long time for a godly man to be from home in this sinful world and not got to Heaven But if long life be so frequent in the mouth of God as a promise of a blessing How was it that God shortned mens lives when they were at a fair length I have formerly observed to you that lives were shortned at the Flood and brought from a thousand years almost to about five hundred or not so much Shortned again at the building of Babel and cut from about five hundred to two hundred or little more And when God gives the Ten Commandments at Sinai and this promise in this Commandment he was to shorten lives again which he did within a year and an half or thereabout after he had given this promise at Sinai Now if long life were such a promise such a blessing why did he not suffer lives to stand at their first stint or at that length that those lived before the flood Let us a little consider the length of those first lives and then the shortning of them Some ascribe the length of them to natural causes as that then their bodies were more big strong and vigourous than men are now and that the Elements were then more pure and uncorrupted than they became after and that their diet was more moderate wholesome and nourishing Which if it were so though some question may be made of it yet certainly there was something more concurrent to the prolongation of their lives to that long extent than merely natural causes Their Diet indeed was changed after the flood from eating herbs and fruits of the ground to a liberty to eat flesh and to that referr the words of Lamech upon the naming of his Son Noah Gen. V. 29. And he called his Name Noah saying this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed That is he shall be a comfort to the world in that liberty to eat flesh that shall be granted to him which will be a great ease from the toil and tugging used before to get all the provision they used by toyling in the ground But were the Elements changed after the flood as well as their Diet was changed First We might ascribe the length of their lives something to the promise of life through Christ that was given to Adam And the nearer they were to the giving of the promise the more might we conceive they received bodily vigor from the promise for temporal life as well as spiritual life and vigor of soul to life eternal What was that that made Israel to multiply and to be so fruitful in Egypt even when they were overtoiled and worn out with labour St. Stephen tells you Act. VII 17. that is was the strength of the promise When the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt This it was and not the strength of nature that made the men though over spent with hard toil and labour yet to be vigorous for generation And this was it that made the Hebrew Woman so lively and quick in time of travail and delivery incomparably beyond the Woman of Egypt as the Midwives do relate of them to Pharaoh Exod. I. 19. For that was not a lye of the Midwives as divers Expositors will tell you it was but it was a true relation of them observing the wonderful hand of God in such a strange matter But Secondly We are to consider that in that minority of the world God spared men to very long lives for propagation sake and the peopling of the world And this methinks is hinted in that constant expression Gen. V. and XI and begat Sons and Daughters It might be some Question whether the holy and prophane before the flood and after had their lives lengthned alike Seth the Son of Adam a holy Man lived nine hundred and twelve
study is it to study God as the great Maker of Earth and Heaven to look seriously upon this great Fabric the Variety Order Beauty of the Creatures and deeply to think what kind of thing is God that made all these things with the word of his mouth How great dreadful terrible is the Creator with whom we have to do Study upon the first verse of Genesis God created the Heavens and the Earth And can you find it otherwise there than that he did that in a moment that in an instant in the twinkling of an eye he made these two parts of the world Center and Circumference spread out this great Canopy over us like a Curtain and hung this vast Ball upon which we tread upon nothing both at once and both in a moment Oh! what an amazing power is here to think of Oh! what a God have we to deal withall How can this God crush a sinner check the pride and presumption of wicked dust and ashes when he can do such wondrous and incomprehensible things as these How can this God create comforts to a poor afflicted child of his own How can he find out means to deliver and releive a poor distressed Saint that puts his trust in him when with a word he can make a world nay if he had pleased could have made a thousand Such use and other might we make of the study of our Creator and his creating And O! that he that created us and all things would create in us frequent solid meditations of him and of his mighty power and working whereby he made all things of nothing It was once questioned by one What did God before he made the world And answered by another He created Hell for curious and impertinent enquirers It was once asked by another With what instruments tools and engines did God make the world if he made it His own Spirit gives answer to this By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made c. But we may not unusefully and unchristianly move this question Wherefore was it that God made the world The Scripture answers this too Prov. XVI 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself Rev. IV. 11. For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created But this leaves us to our inquiring still viz. In what sense to understand his making all things for himself and what his Will and pleasure aimed at Did God create Creatures because he had need of Creatures Did he make the Heavens because he wanted a House for himself And the Earth because he could not be without Tenants in those tenements below And the nayl of this question might be driven further why did he make this world seeing he will mar it in time and bring it to desolation Why made he millions of men whose end proves to be damned for ever Had it not been as good this house of the Universe had never been as to be built and to be fired and burnt down again Had it not been better for millions that they had never been born than to be born and brought into the world for a little time and then to be damned to Eternity But O vain man who art thou that disputest against God Shall the pot or vessel say to him that made it why madest thou me thus or why at all For his will and pleasure were all things made and it is not fit to dispute his will or pleasure that could make all things But that we may receive satisfaction in this poynt and that we may not be ignorant of so great a matter as the reason why God made the world First we may resolve it without any sticking that he that created all things stood in need of nothing and that gave being to all needed not any thing from the Creature to amend his own well-being That is a most just challenge of all the world if it can to shew that God is beholden to any or had ever need of any the Apostle makes it Rom. XI 35 36. Who hath been the Lords Councellor to teach him or who hath first given to him c. But Secondly We may give him that for a proper and direct reason of Gods creating all things which the Apostle says Rom. IX 23. That he might make known the riches of his glory viz. That he might glorifie himself and that he might impart of his own riches to his Creature It might almost be questioned whether God could choose but create the world not to put a necessity or compulsion upon God who doth freely whatever he doth and hath no other tie upon him for his actings than his own Will But in regard of that infinite goodness that is in God could that do other than flow out upon the Creature God from all Eternity dwelt in and with himself blessed ever blessed in the enjoyment of himself and needed nothing beside himself But could that infinite Ocean of goodness that was in him be kept within those bounds of self enjoyment and not communicate it self to the Creature A lively full flowing fountain cannot contain its ever-flowing waters within its own brims but it must flow out to refresh and water the places that are about it The Sun cannot keep its light and heat within it self but must impart it to the world We shall not impose any such necessity upon God as he hath done upon these Creatures And yet if we should say God the everlasting fountain of Being of Goodness could not but impart Being and his Goodness to Creatures this would speak no imperfection in God but his infinite perfection But we will take the thing up in terms of Scripture He was willing to make known his goodness it was his pleasure to create the world that he might communicate the riches of his glory God would give being to Creatures that he might glorifie his own being would communicate of his goodness to his Creatures that he might glorifie his own goodness So all terminates and centers in that great end his own glory He created the world to glorifie his power gave being to Creatures that he might glorifie his own being shews goodness to them that he may glorifie his own goodness and receive glorifying from them And at last will destroy the world to glorifie his power and justice damn the wicked to glorifie his truth and justice and glorifie his Saints to glorifie his grace So that God made all things for himself that is for his own glory doth all things for his own glory created thee me and all flesh that he might reap glory from us But let us consider of the second thing as it tends to the End of this Command II. the setting forth the reason of the Institution of the Sabbath That he created all things in six days And what needed he take six days that could have done all in a moment He had as little need to take time for his work as he had of the