Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bind_v	heaven_n	loose_v	4,825	5	10.6036	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48432	A commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles, chronicall and criticall the difficulties of the text explained, and the times of the story cast into annals : the first part, from the beginning of the Booke, to the end of the twelfth chapter : with a briefe survey of the contemporary story of the Jews and Romans / by John Lightfoot ...	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1645 (1645)	Wing L2052; ESTC R21614	222,662	354

universall Bishopship that hee was invested withall but rather because hee was the most singular minister of the Circumcision for his bringing in of the Gentiles would stop the mouth of the Judaizing beleevers the more Eighthly and for this thing hee had a speciall ingagement and deputation from our Saviour a good while agoe as hee himselfe speaketh Act. 15.7 And that was when Christ giveth him the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 that is putteth into his hand the peculiar priviledge to open the doore of faith and the Gospel to the Gentiles and giveth him power withall to bind and to loose the use of Moses Law among the Heathens when hee brought the Gospell among them some of it to fall and some to stand according as the Spirit should direct him and accordingly it should bee ratified in heaven And that this is the genuine proper and onely meaning of that so much disputed place will bee undeniable to him that shall consider what is the proper meaning of the kingdome of heaven in Scripture and loosing●n ●n Jewish authors from whom that Phrase is taken Vers. 1. In Caesarea Called of old Turris Stratonis Stratons Tower but new built by Herod the great and named Caesarea in honour of Augustus It lay upon the Sea shore betwixt Ioppa and Dorae saith Iosephus Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 13. where hee describeth it at large Sect. The Italian band Not to spend time in inquiring what Italian band this was whether Ferrata or Dives or Voluntariorii or the like it seemeth to me that the consideration of the place it selfe where Cornelius was will help ●o understand what Luke intendeth by it For Caesarea was the place where the Roman Governor or Proconsull resided as appeareth Act. 23.23 24. and 24.6 and that partly for the bravery of the Citie and chiefly for the commodiousnesse of the haven Now this Italian band may very properly bee understood of that band that attended the Governours person or were his life-guard and which had come out of Italy for this purpose to bee his defence and the defence of the Citie where hee lay Vers. 2. A devout man c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man that worshipped the true God and followed not Idolatry And a man that feared Good indeed as well as hee worshipped him in profession Sect. Which gave much almes to the people To the Jewes to whom almes was not uncleane though given by a heathen to which thing our Saviour seemeth to allude in that speech Luk. 11.41 But rather give almes of such things as yee have and behold all things are cleane unto you And upon this respect it is like that almes are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousnesse so commonly among the Jewish authors and used by the Syriack and Arabick here because they lost not their nature or qualitie of cleannesse or puritie and righteousnesse though they came even from an uncleane yea a heathen person Sect. And prayed to God alway Beza hath made this clause the beginning of the next verse and that as hee saith with the warrant of one copy The Arabick doth the like They thinke they mend the sense with it in which they mistake because they mind not the scope For it is the intent of the holy Ghost to shew the constant carriage of Cornelius in his devoutnesse as Vers. 4. and not his devoutnesse as occasion of his vision Vers. 3. Hee saw in a vision evidently The word evidently or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to shew that he saw it waking and with his bodily eyes for there were visions in dreames as Gen. 20.3 and 28.12 Iob 4.13 Sect. About the ninth houre The houre of the evening sacrifice three a clocke after noone compare Dan. 5.21 Cornelius though hee were not yet proselyted by circumcision to the Jewish Church yet followed hee their manner and forme of worship Vers. 9. To pray about the sixt houre About twelve a clocke or high noone and this was the time of the Mincha gedolah as the Jewes called it or the very beginning of it And so doe they expound Dan. 6.10 and Psal. 55.17 accordingly Daniel prayed three times a day that is say R. Saadias and R. Solomon Morning Evening and at the Minchah And Evening and Morning and at noone will I pray R. Sol. Evening Morning and at Minchah the three times of prayer Now this Minchah time is described by their Doctors thus Minchah gedolah is the beginning of the time of the daily sacrifice betweene the two evenings when the Sun begins to decline which is from the sixth houre and forward untill night some say from the sixth houre and an halfe which was according to our phrase in hand about the sixth houre Now this their accounting was not for that they alwayes began to fall about their evening sacrifice at twelve a clock or half an houre after but because that it was lawfull then to begin to fall about it for when there were additionall sacrifices besides the daily as the Passeover or the like then it was necessary for them to begin to prepare the sacrifices from that time that it was lawfull to begin about them which from that time of the day it was all the time from thence forward till night being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the evenings according to the letter of the Law Exod. 12.6 Numb 28.4 And to this sense speaketh the Text 1 King 18.29 When noonetide was passed and they had now prophecied till the offering of the Minchah not till the very time of the firing of the sacrifice for that the verses following deny but to the time of the Minchah in that sense that wee have in hand and to this purpose the difference of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 36. is very remarkable So that Peter in this practise of praying about the sixth houre imitated the custome of the Jewes and though hee had so long been a Convert to the Gospell yet doth hee not forsake their manner of worship no more did the other Disciples as hath been shewed elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An extasie fell upon him and so Chap. 22.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in an extasie This was the highest and excellentest way of all other of revelations when a man was rapt even from himselfe into heaven for so Paul calls it 2 Cor. 12.2 and was wholly in the spirit for so Iohn calls it Rev. ● 10 being for the time as it were out of the body and in the very next degree to soules departed enjoying God Seven manner of extraordinary wayes did God use to reveale himselfe and his will to his people in ancient times 1. By dreames 2. By apparitions when they were awake 3. By visions when they were asleepe 4. By voyce from heaven 5. By Vrim 6. By inspiration or revealing of the eare 7. By rapture or extasie and this last the excellentest as to him

〈◊〉 whatsoever things and not whatsoever persons so that though it bee true indeed that Jewes and Gentiles are loosed henceforward one to the communion of another yet the proper object of this loosing that is loosed by Peter was that Law or doctrine that tied them up and so concerning the eating of those things that had been prohibited it is true indeed that the Jewes were let loose henceforward to the use of them in diet and to eate what they thought good but this loosing was not so properly of the men as the loosing of that prohibition that had bound them before And this could bee no way but doctrinally by teaching that Christian libertie that was given by the Gospel Now though Peter onely and none but hee had the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven yet had all the Apostles the power of binding and loosing as well as hee and so have all the Ministers of the Gospel as well as they and all in the lame sense namely doctrinally to teach what is bound and loose or lawfull and unlawfull but not in the same kinde for the Apostles having the constant and unerring assistance of the holy Ghost did nullifie by their doctrine some part of Moses Law as to the use of it as Circumcision Sacrifices Pu●ifyings and other legall Rites which could not have been done by men that had not had such a spirit for there must bee the same spirit of Prophecy to abrogate a Law which had set it in force This matter therefore of Cornelius his calling in as the first-fruits of the Gentiles is a thing that deserves very high regard and consideration as in which are included and involved so many things of note as have been mentioned and divers others that might bee added thereunto and in the consideration of the matter the time of it is not to bee neglected which to the serious and considerate Reader and weigher of things in the ballance of judgement will appeare to bee in this yeare in which wee have laid it especially that being concluded upon which before wee proved undeniable that the Famine was in the second yeare of Claudius And this time is the rather to bee looked upon because that some doe foolishly misconstrue a clause in Daniel 9.27 by missing of the right time of this occurrence of Cornelius For looking no further into the text then in our English translation which there hath not spoken the minde of the Originall they conceive that Christ dyed in the midst of the last seven yeares of the seventy sevens namely when three yeares and an halfe of the seven were gone and that at the end of the other three and an halfe Cornelius was converted and so they will make those seventies to end in that his conversion and not in Christs death which were scarcely worth answering though wee had time and season to doe it seeing it riseth from a mistake in the Text and sets in a mistake of the time Ver. 30. Foure dayes agoe I was fasting c. The Greeke hath it From the fourth day untill this houre I was or have been fasting by which it seemeth that Cornelius had now been fasting foure dayes together as Paul was three dayes at his conversion Chap. 9.9 But it is not much materiall whether wee understand it so or as it is commonly understood of his fasting foure dayes since till such an houre of that day as it was now of this day when he is speaking to Peter unlesse we will make any thing of it that the Jewes especially upon their solemn dayes used to taste nothing till noone and Cornelius herein follows their custome and that it was about noone when Peter comes to Cornelius as it was about noone when Cornelius messengers came to Peter And so the distance betwixt Caesarea to bee a days journey and an half Vers. 36. The Word which God sent Bez● supposeth that this verse ought to bee referred and joyned to the verse that went before and they two together to bee construed to this sense Now I know that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation hee that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him which is the very doctrine which God sent among the children of Israel by Moses and the Prophets preaching peace by them by Iesus Christ. And one maine induction that hee hath to this construction is because otherwise it would bee improper for Peter to say Cornelius and his friends knew this word when it was Peters very errand to instruct them in it and teach it to them But the words are to bee read and taken in the sense that our English hath wel made of them namely as following the word ye know For all the Country knew that Iesus preached and preached peace and the like and thousands though they knew that hee preached and what hee preached yet did they not beleeve that hee was the Messias nor that hee was risen from the dead and these two last things it was that Peter came to teach Cornelius and not to tell him that Iesus of Nazareth had preached for that hee and all his friends knew Ver. 44. The holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word This was a second confirmation of the entertainment of the Gentiles to the Gospel or a miracle added by God to the doctrine preached by Peter that nothing now was to be accounted common or unclean for when God had powred the holy Ghost upon the uncircumcision as well as upon the circumcised it was evidence sufficient that now God made no difference betwixt them How these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit had been confined hitherto onely to the Nation of the Jewes it is not onely cleare by scripture but it is upon that cleerenesse thought by the Jewes that it must be confined thither ever and that neither any Gentile at all nor hardly any Jew out of the Land of Canaan could be capable of them and therefore when they here see the same measure and fulnesse and freenesse of the Spirit upon the Gentiles as had been upon the Jews they cannot but conclude that the difference was in vanishing and that God was setting up a Church among them when hee bestowed the spirit of Prophecy upon them Ver. 47. Can any man forbid water c. Peters thoughts in these words looke backe to those words of our Saviour Goe teach all Nations and baptize them Mat. 28.19 where he meaneth not that none should bee baptized but those that are capable of teaching but his meaning is this that whereas his Disciples had hitherto been limited and confined onely to preach to the Jews to go to none but to the lost sheep of Israel now had the Jews by the murdering of Christ shewed themselves unworthy and had forfeited the benefit of the Gospel and therefore Christ now inlargeth his Apostles and Disciples to goe now and to teach all Nations and to baptize them to preach to the Heathens and to bring them