that what he undertook was a great Work that it was Magnum mentis opus nec de Codice paranda Attonitae And now he betakes himself in good earnest to these obstruse and perplexing Studies He defrauds himself of his rest and ease withdraws from his Friends and abstracts himself from the World and all Secular intanglements and early and late pursues his wise and worthy End His Motto seems to have been for we find it written in one of his Note Books under his Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting his resolution to rise up early and sit up late in the pursuit after knowledge Our Author had not the helps of Tutors to instruct him in these Studies he had not the time of Students in the Universities who need take no care for their dayly bread He had not the advantage of Books and learned Society which those Men have who live in Cities nor had he the advantages of Wealth or Dignities to provide himself of helps nor interest in great Persons who might have encouraged his Studies and yet when he appeared in the World he gave the greatest proofs of his abilities He drew after him the Eyes of the Learned part of the Kingdom and exceeded far the expectation of all Men. What would not our Author have done if he had had the advantages which he wanted Had he been assisted by States and Kingdoms encouraged with a supply of all Foreign helps excited by some great Rewards placed in a better Light directed in his first attempts and Studies by the wisest Guids and Masters which the Age could afford He was not only a Man of great Learning and exemplary Diligence but of great Modesty and Humility and Gratitude and Candor He did not swell with pride upon the account of his Learning or his Labours He was far removed from any great opinion and conceit of himself or a low and mean one of his neighbour Those who knew him will confess this Indeed he was so far from thinking highly of himself and his own performances that some Men have thought him extream and something faulty and that he did not value himself as he ought to have done There did not perhaps live in the World a Man of more profound humility than our Author was A Man ready to hear others speak willing to be put in mind of any thing that was a mistake or slip full of the sense of another Mans worth and without a just sense of his own The most grateful and modest Man and of the greatest Candor and Humanity and sweetness of Temper our Author was He died at Ely Decemb. 6. 1675. To the great loss of the whole Kingdom and particularly of the Inhabitants of Munden to whom he was a Father a diligent Pastor and a bountiful Friend Among them he spent the greatest part of his time for many years He was not at ease when he was absent from his Flock It was not the Fleece he regarded but the Sheep They had also a great regard for their Shepheard they gladly heard his Voice and did not go astray in his time Thus I have given some short account of this excellent Man and of his useful Life in the World He lived to great purpose died much lamented and hath left us who survive an excellent Example God grant that we may closely and vigorously follow every thing that in our Author or any others was Virtuous and Exemplary we shall in due time reap if we faint not An APPENDIX or COLLECTION of some more Memorials of the Life of the Excellent Dr. John Lightfoot most of them taken from Original Letters or MSS. of his own I. Concerning the Occasion Reason and Method of his undertakings in Harmonizing the NEW TESTAMENT THE Original cause of those Books of Harmony that this excellent Man published at several times was an ardent Love of the Holy Scriptures which put him upon an earnest search into them that if possible he might at length arrive to a true and sure understanding of them This account he gives of himself * Ep. before his Hor. Hebr. upon 1 Cor. It was neither arrogance nor rashness that made me employ my self in these obscurities but a studious mind breathing after the knowledge of the Scriptures and something restless when in difficult places it knew not where to fix And that he might read the Scriptures with the better advantage this was his constant course in his private use of them to take the Bible before him and to read it according to the proper Order of its Times and Stories always carefully observing where the method of it is direct and where transposed and how and where to place those transpositions This as he somewhere tells us he proposed to himself and practised many years together By which he gathered no little help for the apprehending the right sense of those Holy Pages This encouraged him not only to proceed still in that method himself but seriously to recommend it unto others And for the helping and furthering all pious Students of Holy Scriptures he resolved to communicate this his Course by publishing an Harmony for the use of all And now he bends all his Study and Thoughts to do this fully and exactly so as it might answer the Religious and good ends he intended it for Vast and long pains it cost him for the Course of his Studies was employed in elaborating to use his own most true expression the Harmony of the four Evangelists And both Nature and Providence assisted him in this noble intended Work For he was naturally of a stronge and hail constituion and his lot fell to be seated in a private Country Living free from noise and secular business and importunate Visits Here in his beloved Study built by himself in the midst of a Garden he plods hard at it night and day and for divers years allowed himself but some few hours in the night for sleep And the Scheme he drew out and propounded to himself for the method of this great and useful work was I. * Vid. Ep. to the Harmony publish 1644. To lay the Texts in that Order that the nature and progress of the Story doth require II. To give his reasons for his so disposing them III. To give some account of the difficulties of the Language in the Original as he should meet with them IV. To clear and open the sense all along The way that he took in prosecuting these two last was to examine Translations in divers Languages to alledge the various Expositions and Opinions of Commentators both Antient and Modern and also of others who spake to such and such places occasionally and then lastly to pass his own conjecture of the probability or improbability of them Which seemed to be the same course that the Learned Doctor Pocock afterwards took in his late admirable Commentary upon Micah and Malachi To all this he designed a large Preface which should contain Prolegomena of divers things fit
when they lead us far further CHAP. XLVI The time and manner of the Creation MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three Heathen opinions namely theirs that thought the World was Eternal for he saith in the beginning c. Secondly theirs that thought there was no God for he saith Elohim created Thirdly theirs that thought there were many gods for he saith * * * Even those that have not Hebrew can tell there is a mystery of the Trinity in Elohim bara but few mark how sweetly this is answered with the same Phrase in manner in the Haphtara which is read by the Jews to this portion of Moses viâ— Esa. 42. 5. Jehovah bore â—a shamaâ—lm venotehem Jehovah being singular and â—otehem plurall which might be rendred Deus creans coelos Deus extendentes eos Elohim he created Heaven and Earth The fird word in the beginning may draw our minds and thoughts to the last thing the latter end and this thought must draw our affections from too much love of the World for it must have an end as it had a beginning I will not stand to comment upon the word Berishith in the beginning for then I know not when to come to an end To treat how the divers expositors labour about the beginning of the world is a world of labour How the Jerus Targ. translates it In wisdom and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum and many Jews How Targ. Jonath useth an Arabian word Min Awwala a primo Onkelos in primis or in principio Jarchi in principio creationis creavit How Basil the great Saint Ambrose and hundreds others do interpret this is a work endless to examine Satisfied am I with this that the world and all things had their beginning from God that in the beginning created Heaven and Earth Some of the Jews do invert the word Bereshith and make it Betisri that is in the month Tisri was the world created This month is about our September and that the world was created in this month to let other reasons alone this satisfies me that the Feast of Tabernacles which was in this month is called the end of the year Exod. 23. 16. And this I take to be the reason why the Jews began to read the Bible in their Synagogues at the Feast of Tabernacles viz. that they might begin the lecture of the Creation in Gen. 1. at that time of the year that the world was created The manner of the Creation shews the workman powerful and wise The making of the Angels concealed by Moses lest men should like those hereticks in Epiph. think they helped God in the Creation For if their day of their Creation * * * Bab. Solom holds they were made the second day which was in most likelihood the first had been named wicked men would have been ready to have taken them for actors in this work which were only spectators Therefore as God hides Many Divines hold for the fourth Moses after his death so Moses hides the Creation of them lest they should be deisied and the honour due to the Creator given to the creature God in framing the world begins above and works downward and in three days he lays the parts of the world and in the three other days he adorns those parts The first day he makes all the Heavens the matter of the Earth and comes down so low as the Light The second lower and makes the Firmament or Air. The third lowest of all and makes distinction of Earth and Water Thus in three days the parts or body of the World is laid in three days more and in the same order they are furnished For on The fourth day the Heavens which were made the first day are deckt with Stars The fifth day the Firmament which was made the second day is filled with Birds The sixth day the Earth which was laid fit the third day is replenished with Beasts and lastly * * * The Seventy Interpreters on Gen. 2. 2. instead of God had finished on the seventh day read he finished on the sixth day Man Thus God in the six days finished all his work of Creation ‖ ‖ ‖ Chaldee Paraph on Numb 22. and Iarch on Deut. 34. and Pirke Abhoth For the ten things that the Chaldee Paraphrast saith God created on the evening of the Sabbath after the World was finished I refer them to their Authors to believe them R. Jarchi on Gen. 2. observes that God created one day superior things and another day inferior his words are to this purpose On the first day he created Heaven above and Earth beneath On the second day the Firmament above On the third let the dry Land appear beneath On the fourth day Lights above On the fifth day let the Waters bring forth beneath On the sixth he must create both Superiour and Inferiour as he had done on the first lest there should be confusion in his Work therefore he made Man of both his Soul from above and his Body from beneath R. Tanchumah shews how the making of the Tabernacle harmonizeth with the making of the World The Light of the first day answered by the Candlestick for Light the first work and the spreading of the Firmament like a curtain answered by the Curtains the second work and so of the rest Every one knows the old conceit of the worlds lasting six thousand years because it was made in six days and of Elias Prophesie among the Jews of the world ending at the end of six thousand which Prophesie of his is flat against the words of Christ Many believe these opinions yet few prepare for the end which they think is so near God hath taught us by the course of the Creation of the old world what our proceedings must be that we may become a new Creation or new Heavens and a new Earth renewed both in Soul and Body 1. On the first day he made the Light so the first thing in the new Man must be Light of Knowledge so saith Saint Paul Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must know that he is 2. On the second day he made the Firmament so called because of its * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Hesâ—od 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surness so the second step in Mans new Creation must be Firmamentum Fidei the sure foundation of Faith 3. On the third day the Seas and Trees bearing fruit So the third step in the new Hom. Odys 3 Man is that he become Waters of repentant Tears and that he bring forth Fruit worthy of these Tears Bring forth Fruit worthy of Repentance saith the Baptist Matth. 3. 4. On the fourth day God created the Sun that whereas on the first day there was light but without heat now on the fourth day there is light and heat joyned together So the fourth step in the new Creation of a new Man is that he joyn the heat of Zeal with the light
h h h h h h De Bell. Sacr. lib. 10. cap. 31. VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He will reprove the world of sin c. THE Holy Spirit had absented himself from that Nation now for the space of four hundred years or thereabout and therefore when he should be given and pour'd out in a way and in measures so very wonderful he could not but evince it to the world that Jesus was the true Messiah the Son of God who had so miraculously pour'd out the Holy Spirit amongst them and consequently could not but reprove and redargue the world of sin because they believed not in him VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of righteousness c. THAT this righteousness here mention'd is to be understood of the righteousness of Christ hardly any but will readily enough grant but the question is what sort of righteousness of his is here meant whether his personal and inherent or his communicated and justifying righteousness we may say that both may be meant here I. Because he went to the Father it abundantly argu'd him a just and righteous person held under no guilt at all however condemn'd by men as a malefactor II. Because he pour'd out the Spirit it argu'd the merit of his righteousness for otherwise he could not in that manner have given the Holy Spirit And indeed that what is chiefly meant here is that righteousness of his by which we are justify'd this may perswade us that so many and so great things are spoken concerning it in the Holy Scriptures Isai. LVI 1. My Salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed Dan. IX 29. To bring in everlasting righteousness Jer. XXIII 6. This is his name by which he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS And in the Epistles of the Apostles especially those of St. Paul this righteousness is frequently and highly celebrated seeming indeed the main and principal subject of the Doctrines of the Gospel In the stead of many others let this serve for all Rom. I. 17. For therein viz. in the Gospel is the righteousness of God reveal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from faith to faith which words may be a good Comment upon the foregoing Clause I. The Law teacheth faith that is that we believe in God But the Gospel directs us to proceed from faith to faith viz. from faith in God to faith in Christ for true and saving faith is not a meer naked recumbency immediately upon God which faith the Jews were wont to profess but faith in God by the mediation of faith in Christ. II. In the Law the righteousness of God was reveal'd condemning but in the Gospel it was reveal'd justifying the sinner And this is the great mystery of the Gospel that sinnes are justify'd not only through the grace and meer compassion and mercy of God but through Divine justice and righteousness too that is through the righteousness of Christ who is Jehovah the Lord our righteousness And the Spirit of Truth when he came he did reprove and instruct the world concerning these two great articles of faith wherein the Jews had so mischievously deceiv'd themselves that is concerning true saving faith faith in Christ and also concerning the manner or formal cause of Justification viz. the righteousness of Christ. But then how can we form the Argument I go unto the Father therefore the world shall be convinc'd of my justifying righteousness I. Let us consider that the expression I go unto the Father hath something more in it than I go to Heaven So that by this kind of phrase our Saviour seems to hint That work being now finisht for the doing of which my Father sent me into the world I am now returning to him again Now the work which Christ had to do for the Father was various The manifestation of the Father Preaching the Gospel vanquishing the enemies of God sin death and the Devil but the main and chief of all and upon which all the rest did depend was that he might perform a perfect obedience or obediential righteousness to God God had created man that he might obey his Maker which when he did not do but being led away by the Devil grew disobedient where was the Creator's glory The Devil triumphs that the whole humane race in Adam had kickt against God prov'd a rebel and warr'd under the banners of Satan It was necessary therefore that Christ clothing himself in the humane nature should come into the world and vindicate the glory of God by performing an intire obedience due from mankind and worthy of his Maker He did what weigh'd down for all the disobedience of all mankind I may say of the Devils too for his obedience was infinite He fulfilled a righteousness by which sinners might be justify'd which answer'd that justice that would have condemned them for the righteousness was infinite This was the great business he had to do in this world to pay such an obedience and to fulfill such a righteousness and this righteousness is the principal and noble theme and subject of the Evangelical Doctrine Rom. I. 17. of this the world must primarily and of necessity be convinc'd and instructed to the glory of him that justifieth and the declaration of the true Doctrine of Justification And this rightequsness of his was abundantly evidenced by his going to the Father because he could not have been receiv'd there if he had not fully accomplisht that work for which he had been sent II. It is added not without reason and ye see me no more i. e. Although you are my nearest and dearest friends yet you shall no more enjoy my presence on earth by which may be evinced that you shall partake of my merits especially when the world shall see you enricht so gloriously with the gifts of my Spirit VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of judgment because the Prince c. IT is well known that the Prince of this world was judged when our Saviour overcame him by the obedience of his death Heb. II. 14. and the first instance of that judgment and victory was when he arose from the dead the next was when he loos'd the Gentiles out of the chains and bondage of Satan by the Gospel and bound him himself Revel XX. 1 2. which place will be a very good Comment upon this passage And both do plainly enough evince that Christ will be capable of judging the whole world viz. all those that believe not on him when he hath already judg'd the Prince of this world This may call to mind the Jewish opinion concerning the judgment that should be exercis'd under the Messiah that he should not judg Israel at all but the Gentiles only nay that the Jews were themselves rather to judg the Gentiles than that they were to be judg'd But he that hath judg'd the Prince of this world the author of all unbelief will also judg every unbeliever too VERS XII
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
forty years old but by all this it appears he had read much and maturely digested his reading especially Jewish Learning Nay long before this he was an Author For he published his Erubhin or Miscellanies at seven and twenty years of age By the frequent quotations in which Book it appears that he had then read and studied even to a prodigy For he doth not only make use of divers Rabbinical and Cabbalistical Authors and of Latine Fathers but he seemed well versed in the Greek Fathers also as Clemens Alexandrinus Epiphanius Chrysostome c. well read in antient Greek prophane Historians and Philosophers and Poets Plutarch Plato Homer c. well seen in Books of History Ecclesiastical and prophane of our own Nation and in a word skilled in the modern Tongues as well as the Learned as is evident from his quotation of the Spanish Translation of the Bible and a Spanish Book And of what worth and value the Book it self was you may guess by the Censure that a Man of great Learning and Wisdom gave of it I mean that Worshipful person to whom he dedicated it his Patron Sir Rowland Cotton Who in a Letter to him upon the receit of the Book tells this young Author That he had read it over and that there were many rarities nothing so Vulgar that he needed to fear his Books entertainment unless it lapsed into the hands of an envious or stupid Dunce And that he joyed much in his proficiency IV. Some Remarks upon his Horae Hebraicae Talmudicae I Design not to give a particular account of his Works as they came forth something hath already been spoken of them his several Epistles before them will shew that only of his last pains that crowned all the rest I mean his Horae Hebraicae I would remark something and that is the universal approbation and applause they met with in the Learned World both at home and in forain parts When our Author had sent his Horae upon S. Mark to the great and profound Linguist Dr. Castel he calls it an unutterable obligation laid upon him that it was a learned and much longed for work and that it enriched his poor Library with an addition so excellent and delightful c. And upon the Doctors sending him his Horae upon St. John he writes thus I received last week by your appointment a gift auro quovis gemmisque contra non charum that all the riches of the Levant congested together cannot equal such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as will justly deserve to be enrolled among the very next Records to those of Infallibility And truly Sir all your rare discoveries of Celestial Verities seem to me to be at such above the reach either of doubt or hesitation And again Your Criticism of Bethabara and Bethany saith he is so native proper genuine and ingenious I no sooner read it but straitway said to my self Securus jurarem in Verba Magistri T is like all the other births of your blest Minerva And upon the edition of another of those pieces Mr. Bernard of S. Johns Oxon a Man of known learning worth and piety writes thus to him I most humbly thank you for the happy hours on the more copious Evangelist by which that most excellent part of Holy Scripture is finisht and compleatly expounded in the most proper and yet untrodden way God reward you both here and in the better World for this and the rest of your labours in this sort which posterity will admire and bless when they see them altogether Dr. Worthington another person of great judgment learning and goodness treats our Doctor with these words in a Letter wrote to him Feb. 166◠concerning the same subject I wish you length of life health vacancy and freedom for what remains I hope that you are still proceeding and are not weary in well doing though Books sell but little those that are able to buy less mind Books and those that would buy are less able having little to spare from what is necessary for their families But your labour will not be in vain in the Lord nor here neither The learned Men beyond the Seas had also an high value for these pieces let some of them speak for themselves Frederick Mieg son to a great Councellor of the Elector Palatine once brought up under Buxtorph in Hebrew and Rabbinical Studies and of whom he gives a high character thus writes to our Doctor from Paris 1664. concerning those precious Hours as he styles them and publick Labours Publicos enim labores non vereor appellare quos in publicum literarii Orbis commodum redundare nemo est qui ignoret And tells him besides that there were no learned Men as he knew on that side the Seas but did summis anhelitibus earnestly pant after his Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians which he had then ready for the Press And begs him in his own Name and in the Name of that love those Studies ut lucem non invideas scripto luce dignissimo neque illud intra privatos parietes consenescere sinas unde tantum imminet publico emolumentum That he would not envy it the light since it was so worthy of it nor suffer that to lie longer concealed within private walls whence so great profit would accrue to the publick In a Letter from Nicholas Hoboken Secretary to the Dutch Ambassador here in England written to Dr. Lightfoot in the year 1659. he acquaints him with the sense Gisbertus Voetius Professor of Divinity and a Man of great Name in Holland had of his Chorographical Century before his Horae upon S. Matthew namely That he had expressed to him the said Secretary the complacency that he took from those Geographical illustrations of his fetched out of the Talmudists ita tamen ut spe largiori frui desideret plura Lucubrationum ejusmodi tuarum videndi And if we should travail into France there we shall find a Man of as great fame as the other was in Holland and it may be of greater Learning I mean Monseir Le Moyn who in a Letter to Dr. Worthington Anno 1666. expressing the value he had of Dr. Lightfoots Books and among the rest of his sacred Chorography before S. Matthew he saith that his Library is proud of them But the judgment of the Venerable Buxtorph is instar omnium who in a Letter to Dr. Castel in the year 1664. earnestly desires to know what Dr. Lightfoot did and saith That by his Talmudick Hours he began greatly to love his Learning and Diligence and wished heartily to see more of them And in the year before that in a Letter to our Doctor himself he thus accosts him Ex quo Horas tuas Hebraicas Talmudicas in Matthaeum vidi legi coepi te amare pro merito aestimare Tantam enim in eis Talmudicae lectionis peritiam ad illustrationem SS literarum dexteritatem tantam etiam
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
work upon and that in all probability was the main induction that brought them into the Temple at this time That they should go thither to institute the Canonical hours by their own example as Baronius dreameth is a fancy that far better deserveth laughter than any answer Vers. 2. The gate of the Temple which was called Beautiful This was the Gate that entred into the second Court or out of the Court of the Gentiles into the Court of the Jews And there this Creeple lay begging of the Jews that came into the Temple but disdaining as it seemeth to beg of the Gentiles This seemeth to be that gate that Josephus calleth the Corinthiack Gate and which he describeth to be of so much gorgiousness and bravery de Bello Jud. lib. 5. 14. and which we shall have occasion to describe in another work fully and on set purpose Vers. 11. The porch called Solomons Not that the very porch built by Solomon was now standing for that was burnt and destroyed by the Babylonians as well as the rest of the Temple but because this was built on the very same pile that his was built upon For the Temple standing upon an high and steep hill with a deep and sharp precipice about it Solomon to make room for the floor of the mount which was too strait filled up the ditch on the East side with huge stones strongly joynted together and he built his porch upon that pile and because this of Herods was erected also upon that very same foundation it therefore is called Solomons porch It was the first gate or entrance into the mountain of the House and not only the very building of the porch but the Court within bare the same name Josephus ubi supra Vers. 12. And when Peter saw it he answered c. Here Peters Sermon is registred again but Chap. 4. 1. it is said As they spake which resolveth that John preached as well as he Vers. 16. Through faith in his name c. Faith is twice named in this verse because of the Apostles faith in doing and the Creeples faith in receiving the miracle the former was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 17. Through ignorance ye did it So Christ said himself Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do This their ignorance proceeded mainly from mistaking the place of Christs birth for they supposed it had been Nazaret and from mistaking the Kingdom of the Messias for they expected it would have been pompous and full of worldly glory the title on the Cross Jesus of Nazaret King of the Jews spake out both the ignorances that carried them on to so wretched an act Vers. 19. When the times of refreshing shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Syriack readeth it That your sins may be blotted out and the times of refreshing may come and so the Arabick and Ireneus or at least his interpreter cited by Beza the Vulgar ut cum venerint but concludeth not the clause to make it sense Beza postquam venerint but what sense he would make of it I do not well understand He pleadeth much to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifi◠postquam and it is not denied him but he cannot deny withal that it signifieth ut likewise and so may it best and most properly be understood That your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come The Apostle Peter taketh his speech from Esa. 28. 12. where the Prophet at once prophesieth of the gift of Tongues vers 11. of the preaching of the Gospel vers 12. and the infidelity and obduration of the Jews vers 13. and speaketh of these very times and occasions that are now in hand And accordingly is the Apostle to be understood that speaketh from him concerning the present refreshing by the Gospel and Gods present sending Christ among them in the power and Ministery of that and not of a refreshing at the calling of the Jews which is yet to come and Gods sending Christ personally to come and reign among them as some have dreamed and it is but a dream For let but this Text be seriously weighed in that sense that opinion would make of it Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come As meaning this Repent you now that your sins may be blotted out 2000 or I know not how many hundred years hence when the calling of the Jews shall come If this be not the sense that they make of this Text that produce it to assert Christs personal reign on earth for a thousand years I know not why they should then produce it and if this be the sense I must confess I see no sense in it The words are facil and clear and have no intricacy at all in them if the Scripture may be suffered to go upon its own wheels and they may be taken up in this plain and undeniable Paraphrase Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing by the Gospel may come upon you from the presence of the Lord and he may send Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel to you to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Vers. 20. And he send Iesus Christ. As Vers. 26. God having raised his Son Jesus sent him to bless you Now this cannot possibly be understood of Christs personally and visibly coming among them for who of this audience ever saw him after his Resurrection But of his coming among them now in this means and offer of Salvation and in the same sense is this clause in hand to be understood and so the 22 verse interpreteth it of the sending of Christ as the great Prophet to whom whosoever will not hearken must be cut off Not at the end of the world when he shall come as a Judge but in the Gospel which is his voice and which to refuse to hearken to is condemnation Peters exhortation therefore is to repentance that their sins might be blotted out so that refreshing times might come upon them and Christ in the Gospel might be sent among them according as Moses had foretold that he should be the great instructer of the people §. Which before was preached unto you The very sense of the place confirmeth this reading for though Beza saith that all the old Greek Copies that ever he saw as also the Syrian Arabick and Tertullian read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore-ordained yet the very scope and intention of Peters speech in this place doth clearly shew that it is to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which before was preached to you namely by Moses or the Law vers 22. and by all the Prophets vers 24. Vers. 21. Until the restitution of all things Or the accomplishment of all things and to that sense
the Land of Canaun much more might they in forain Countries Samuel a Levite was born upon his Fathers own Land which had been purchased by his great Grandfather Zuph 1 Sam. 1. 1. 9. 5. Now Barnabas had one motive more to sell his Land than other of the common believers had namely those words of our Saviour to those Disciples that were to be Preachers Provide neither silver nor gold c. Matth. 10. 9 10. and this was the ground of Peters answer Silver and gold have I none Chap. 3. 6. ACTS CHAP. V. Vers. 1. But a certain man named Ananias AMong the offerings of others that sold their Lands there ereepeth in the hypocrisie of Ananias and Saphira a couple that at once would have served God and Mammon Vain-glory or Policy or both did here strive with covetousness and distrust or rather to speak truly indeed did conspire They had the formality to sell their Lands as others did but they had not the sincerity to part with the money as others had Their double dealing both in word and deed is fearfully punished with suddain death at this beginning of the Christian Church as Nadab Abihu and the Sabbath-breaker were at the beginning of the Jewish that future times might learn from this to beware dissembling with God and not to dishonour and shame the gifts of the Holy Ghost Vers. 3. To lye to the Holy Ghost or rather to belie the Holy Ghost It was not the sin only barely and simply considered that provoked and procured so fearful a Judgment upon him but the sin as it was circumstantiated and aggravated by some respects For it seemeth that Ananias was not a common or ordinary believer but one of the Ministerial rank and one that had received the gift of the Holy Ghost as well as the rest of the 120. And considerable to this purpose are these two things First That as soon as the Evangelist hath mentioned the pious and upright dealing of Barnabas which was a Preacher in the sale of his Lands he cometh to the story of Ananias as a man of the same function and relateth his wretchedness in the sale of his Secondly That though it be said in vers 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he lied to God yet is he said in the third verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To belie the Holy Ghost By which Phrase it seemeth that he had received the Holy Ghost among the rest that did receive it and yet for all that excellent gift in himself and the excellent gift that he knew in the Apostles he durst by this base dissembling belie and shame the gifts that were in himself and tempt the power of the Holy Ghost that was in Peter And thus was Ananias much like Judas exceedingly qualified and eminently gifted with the gifts of the Spirit but like him undone with covetousness and for it perished by an exemplary end There was none among all the twelve so fit to give sentence upon this fact as Peter as who might hereby shew his own repentance for his lying and perjury in denying his Master and that he was intirely repaired and recovered from it when he durst pass so heavy a doom and judgment upon a lie Vers. 13. And of the rest none durst joyn himself unto them It is some difficulty to resolve who these rest were that durst not knit themselves to the Apostles the matter may be construed so many ways that it is hard to fix which is the right First It is understood by Beza of such as were as yet out of the Church and yet not strangers to the Kingdom of God but such as for fear durst not shew themselves either because of the Jews or because of the judgment afflicted on Ananias Secondly It may be understood of those that were within the Church yet durst not joyn themselves in Consistory or Presbyterial society with the 120 Disciples but kept their distance in regard of judging though they knit with them in communion Or thirdly It may be understood of the 108 Disciples that were appointed by Christ to be Ministers and kept in continual society and consistorial association with the Apostles yet durst not joyn themselves to them in the form or dignity of Apostleship nor durst offer to parallel themselves to that rank yet the people magnified them also And this I take to be the very meaning of the place and that upon these grounds First Because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to import a residue or the rest of their own company and not the people that were out of the Church for of them it had been more proper to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the skilful in the Greek language will readily judge Secondly The joyning here spoken of in regard of the object to whom is to the Apostles and not to the Church as is apparent by the very Grammatical construction Especially thirdly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vers 12. being understood not of the Congregation or whole company of believers but of the Apostles as the words immediately before might argue or rather of the whole number of the 120 as it is taken Chap. 2. 1. And so the sense of all redounds to this that besides that terrible and dreadful work that was done by Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira all the other eleven Apostles did great and wondrous miracles among the people and the whole College and Presbytery of the 120 were unanimously in Solomons Porch joyning together in association and advancing the Gospel but the rest of the 120 durst not one of them joyn themselves to the twelve in the peculiar office and dignity of Apostleship properly so called having seen so lately the dreadful judgment that one of the twelve had brought upon Ananias one of their own number and seeing the continual wonders that they did in an extraordinary manner among the people howbeit the people magnified them also they also having the admirable and wondrous gifts of the Spirit upon them Vers. 15. §. Peters shadow Many miracles were wrought by the Apostles hands and many as it seemeth by Peters shadow but the Text hath left it so indifferent that it is hard to determine whether it is to be taken in a good sense or a bad and indeed some that have taken it the better way have made it the worst of all Luke saith only thus They brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them But it neither telleth who they were that laid them nor a word at all that those were healed that were laid And it may be thought they were unbelieving Jews that laid them as well as otherwise for believers might have brought them to the Apostles or brought the Apostles to them And it may possibly be thought that they laid them there either out of a superstitious
the State desire that it might be deferred for a certain space which accordingly was done in regard of the greatness of the men The King in the mean time goeth up to Ctesiphon the Imperial City attending the coming of these two Nobles who when they put it off from day to day Surena in the presence and by the approval of very many Crowneth him on their Country manner These two Nobles and many others that were absent from this solemnity some for fear of the Kings displeasure some for hatred of Abdageses his favorite and some no doubt upon a plot premeditated betake themselves to Artabanus their old King again Him they find in Hyrcania hunting in the woods with his bow for his food rusty and dirty in habit and attire and overgrown with filth and neglect of himself At his first sight of them it is no wonder if he were stricken with amazement but their errand being related it converted that passion into equal joy For they complain of Tridates his youth and effeminacy of the Diadems translation out of the blood of the potency of Abdageses and the loss of their old King whom they now are come to desire again Artabanus believeth them and consenteth and raising speedily what Scythians he could marcheth away towards his Kingdom again But his Royal apparel he wore not with him but the poor and rugged garb of his misery and exile thereby to move the more to pity and used all his wits and policy to make himself a party strong on his side all the way as he went But he needed not all this cautelousness and preparation for Tiridates but hearing of his approaching towards Seleucia under colour of going to raise up forces departed into Syria and parted with his new Kingdom with as much facility as he had obtained it §. 2. Artabanus giveth hostages to Rome When the power and policy of Tiberius and his agent Vitellius that had served to get Artabanus out of his Kingdom would not serve the turn to keep him thence they send to treat of friendship with him suspecting what trouble such a spirit might procure should it bend it self against the Roman Empire The King wearied with the â—oils of War and knowing without a prompter what it was to defie the Romans condescendeth readily to the motion and Vitellius and he meeting upon a bridge made over Euphrates for that purpose each with a guard about him conclude upon Articles of agreement and Herod the Tetrarch entertaineth them both in a pavillion curiously seated in the midst of the stream Not long after this Artabanus sendeth Darius his son for an hostage to Tiberius and withal he sendeth Eleazar a Jew of seven cubits high for a present and many other gifts §. 3. A Commotion in Cappadocia Whilst matters went thus unquietly in Parthia the Calitae a Nation of Cappadocia grew discontented about paying tribute to the Romans and so departed into the mountain Taurus and there fortifie resolving as they never had used to pay such taxations so never to learn nor to use to do so Archelaus was now King but not now King of them for the strength of the mountains and the desperateness of their resolution do animate them to withstand him and to rebel against the Romans When tydings of this was brought to Vitellius into Syria he dispatcheth away M. Trebellius with four thousand legionary Souldiers and some other Forces raised otherways to bring the Rebels to obedience or to ruine Trebellius invironeth with Works and Men two hills Cadra and Davara where they were the most strongly trenched and those that were so hardy as to come forth he subdueth with the sword and the rest with famishing §. 4. Bloodshed at Rome These diseases of the Roman body were far from the heart and yet was the heart the City it self but little the better for though some veins were opened in these wars which one would have thought should have turned the blood another way yet did the City through the cruelty of the Emperor bleed inwardly still For L. Aurelius and some others died by the hand of the Executioner and C. Galba two of the Blesii and the Lady Aemylia Lepida by their own hands But the example of the greatest terror was Vibulenus Agrippa a Knight who being at the bar when he had heard what his accusers could say against him and despairing to escape he took poyson out of his bosom in the face of the Court Dion saith he sucked it out of his Ring and swallowed it and sank down and was ready to die yet was he haled away to prison and there strangled §. 5. Mishaps Besides this deluge of blood which overflowed the City continually there was also this year a deluge of water For Tiber rose so high and violently into the Town that many Streets became navigable and where men had walked lately on their feet they might have passed now up and down in ships And a greater misfortune happened this year likewise by the contrary element for a terrible fire consumed the buildings of the mount Aventine and that part of the Circus that lay betwixt that and the Palace For the repair of all which again Tiberius out of his own Treasure gave a great sum of money Tacitus saith Millies Sestertium which according to the value and reckoning of our English coin amounted to eight hundred thousand pounds within nineteen thousand A sum not strange in an Emperors coffer at Rome where the vastness of the Empire brought in vast revenues but somewhat strange out of the purse of Tiberius for so good a purpose whose covetousness was larger than those whole revenues And therefore as I cannot but observe the difference of Dion about this liberality of the Emperor from Tacitus and the difference of his translator from his Text so can I not but conceive his computation and account to be the more probable in regard of the niggardise of the Emperor For whereas the sum of Tacitus is eight hundred thousand within nineteen he hath so far come short of such a reckoning that he maketh nineteen thousand pounds to be the whole account For Tiberius saith he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two thousand and five hundred thousand meaning 2500 sestertia and each sestertium containing a thousand Sestertios this accreweth to about the sum last named of 19000 l. and yet hath his translator forsaken his Greek and followed Tacitus Latine to so vast a difference PART III. The JEWISH Story §. 1. A commotion in Samaria Pilate out of office A Great space of time is past since we heard any news of Pontius Pilate and news it is indeed that his malicious and stirring spirit hath not entertained us with some bloody Tragedy or other of all this while His Government draweth now near its expiration for he is going upon the tenth year of it and it is a kind of miracle if so mischievous an agent should part without acting some mischief before his exit and this
his neck and offers it to every one he meets as his reward if he would kill him At last he is paid in his own coin and hires his own murderer with that price wherewith he himself was hired And so perish all such whose feet are swift to shed-blood and he that strikes with an unlawful sword be strucken with a lawful again This mans case makes me to think of Cain the old grandsire of all murderers Of his heavy doom and misery and burden and banishment David once groaned under the burden of blood guiltiness but God at his repenting eased him Psal. 51. Judas takes a worse course than even Cain did to be released of the sting of bloodshed Matth. 27. God grant I never know what it is to be guilty of shedding of blood but only by reading CHAP. XVIII Of the name of the Red Sea IN Hebrew it is called Suph the Sea of weeds Because saith Kimchi there grew abundance of weeds upon the sides of it In Greek Latine and English and other Western Tongues it is commonly called the Red Sea Divers reasons are given by divers persons why it is so called the best seems to me to be from the redness of the ground about it And so Herodotus speaks of a place thereabout called Erythrobolus or the red soil It is thought our Country took the name of Albion from the like occasion but not like colour As from the white rocks or clifts upon the Sea side The Jews hold that Whale that swallowed Jonah brought him into the Red Sea and there shewed him the way that Israel passed through it for his eyes were as two windows to Jonah that he looked out and saw all the Sea as he went A whetstone yet they will needs have some reason for this loud lie and this is it because Jonah in Chap. 2. 5. saith Suph hhabhush loroshi which is the weeds were wrapped about my head which they construe the Read Sea was wrapped about my head And to help the Whale thither Rabbi Japhet saith that the Red Sea meets with the Sea of Japho or the Mediterranean unless the Rabbin means that they meet under ground guess what a Geographer he was and if he find a way under ground guess what a deep Scholar A long journey it was for the Whale to go up to Hercules pillars into the Ocean and from thence to the Red Sea in three days and nights but the fabling Jews must find some sleight to maintain their own inventions CHAP. XIX Of the word Raca Matth. 5. 22. WHosoever shall say unto his brother Raca shall be worthy to be punished by the Councel The word is a Jewish nick-name and so used in the Talmud for a despiteful title to a despised man as Our Rabbins shew a thing done with a religious man that was praying in the high way by comes a great man and gives him the time of the day but he saluted him not again He stayed for him till he had finished his prayer after he had done his prayer he said to him Reka is it not written in your law that you shall take heed to your selves Had I struck off thy head with my sword who should have required thy blood c. And so goes the angry man on Irenaeus hath a Phrase nigh to the signification of this word qui expuit cerebrum a man that hath no brains and so Raka signifies a man empty whether of understanding or goodness so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently taken CHAP. XX. Wit stollen by Iews out of the Gospel Gospel Jews OUR Saviour saith to his Disciples the harvest truly is great but the labourers are few Matth. 9. 38. RAbbi Simeon saith to day is the harvest and the work is much and the labourers are idle and the reward great and the Master of the house urgent Pirk Abhoth Per. 2. Whosoever heareth these sayings and doth them I will liken him to a man that built his house upon a rock And the rain descended and floods came c. He that learneth the Law and doth many good works is like a man that built his house the foundation of stone and the rest of brick and the waters beat and the stone stood c. And every one that heareth these sayings and doth them not shall be likened to a foolish man that built his house upon the sand Matth. 7. 24 25. c. But he that learneth the Law and doth not many good works is like a man that built his house the foundation of brick and the rest of stone c. and the brick wasted c. Abhoth Rabbi Nathan Of every idle word that men speak they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement Matth. 12. 36. The very same words almost in Orehhoth hhajim With what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 2. Rabbi Mair saith With the measure that a man measureth they measure to him again Sanhedrin The whole Lords Prayer might almost be picked out of their works for they deny not the words though they contradict the force of it The first words of it they use frequently as Our Father which art in Heaven in their Common Prayer book fol. 5. and Humble your hearts before your Father which is in Heaven in Rosh hashava But they have as much devotion toward the Father while they deny the Son as the Heathens had which could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * * Frequent in Homer Our Father Jupiter and worshipped an unknown god Act. 17. They pray almost in every other Prayer Thy Kingdom come and that Bimherah bejamenu quickly even in our days but it is for an earthly Kingdom they thus look and pray They pray Lead me not into Temptation fol. 4. Liturg. while they tempt him that lead them in the Wilderness as did their Fathers Psal. 95. By this Gospel which they thus filch they must be judged CHAP. XXI Saint Cyprians nicety about the last Petition in the Lords Prayer SAint Cyprian it seemeth is so fearful of making God the Author of evil that he will not think that God leadeth any man into temptation The Petition he readeth thus Ne nos patiaris induci in tentationem Suffer us not to be lead into temptation but deliver us from evil leaving the ordinary current and truth of the Prayer because he will not be accessary to imagine that God should lead man into temptation whereas all men as well as he do think that God doth not lead man into evil temptations as Sathan doth and yet that God doth tempt men So he is said in plain words to have tempted Abraham And Rabbi Tanchum wittily observes that Abrahams two great temptations begin both with one strain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee gone The first Get thee gone out of thy Country from thy kindred and fathers house Gen. 12. The second Get thee gone to the land of Moriah and offer thy son Isaac
Text that saith that it contained two thousand Baths meaneth the common and constant quantity of Water that was in it that was fit and served for their washing and the other that saith it contained three thousand Baths meaneth that it would hold so much being filled up to the brim About the Body of this huge Vessel there were two borders of Ingraving the Work of which the Book of Kings calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Chaldee and the Jews interpret Ovals but the Book of Chronicles calleth them Oxen not in their full proportion but the Heads only and the rest in an Oval in stead of the Body and it is conceived by some that out of these Heads or out of some of them the Water issued forth they being made as Cocks or conveyances for that purpose The supply of Water to these huge Vessels and that so abundantly that they were not only always full but continually ran out and yet were full still was from the Well Etam of which we have spoken before And the Jerusalem Talmud in the Treatise Joma speaking particularly of this Molten Sea and how it was for the Priests to bath their Bodies in against they came to the Service it proposeth this question d d d Talm. Ierus in Ioma per. 3. Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maym. in Beth Mikd. per. 5. But is it not a Vessel Yes but Rabbi Jehoshua the son of Levi saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Pipe of Water cometh into it out of the well Etam The meaning of the dispute is this It was not lawful to bath for Purification in a Vessel but in a gathering of Waters upon the ground and how then might the Priests bath in the Molten Sea which was a Vessel To this Rabbi Joshua giveth this satisfaction That the Sea was as it were a spring of Water for Water ran into it continually out of the Well Etam and accordingly Water ran continually out of it SECT IV. Basins Chargers Dishes c. King Ptolemies and Queen Helens tables IT is not to be imagined that either the numbers or the names or the several fashions or the several uses of all the Vessels in the Sanctuary should be given it is ods there were but a very few Priests though they waited there that were able to give a precise distinct account about these things therefore our going about to speak of them it is rather because we would not say nothing than from any hope or possibility we have to give an estimate or description of them any whit near unto the full Their number was so great that they were reckoned to five thousand and four hundred in Ezr. I. 11. and ninety and three are averred by the a a a Tamid per. 3. Talmud to be used every day about the dayly Sacrifice and in the Treatise Joma it appeareth that b b b Ioma per. 3. there were special Vessels for the Service of the day of expiation and that King Monobazes made golden handles to them and so other peculiar Services had their peculiar Vessels in so much that partly because of the multitude of imploiments of Vessels at some certain times and partly because of the change of Vessels at special times the number could not but be very great nor is it to be supposed certain the piety of one or other still offering one Vessel or other in devotion The several fashions and cizes of them are rather to be guessed at than determined and the uses to which they were put must help us better towards such a conjecture than either their names do or any description we can find of them 1. There were Basins in which the Blood was taken when the Beast for the Sacrifice was slain as Exod. XXIV 6. and these the Jerusalem Talmud thinketh to be those that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agartalin Ezr. I. 9. c c c Talm. Ierus in Ioma per. 3. Thirty Agartalin of Gold R. Samuel bar Nachman saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In it they gathered the Blood of Lambs A thousand Agartalin of Silver R. Simeon ben Lachish saith It was that wherein they took the Blood of Bullocks 2. There were dishes out of which the Blood was sprinkled on the Altar and these are held to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kephorim in the place alledged out of Ezra and to be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mizrakim of which word there is frequent mention in the Scripture d d d R. Sol. in Ezr. I. Kephorim saith Solomon Jarchi are Mizrakim and they are called Kephorim which betokeneth cleansing because he that took the Blood in this Vessel wiped off the drops and Blood that stuck on his Hand on the side of the dish which action we have taken notice of in handling the manner of sprinkling the Blood on the Horns of the Altar So that in these Jews construction Ezra reckoneth by name but the two sorts of Vessels that were first and most certainly used in the Service namely the great Chargers or Basins in which they took the Blood and the lesser dishes out of which they sprinkled it And it may be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every one of the twelve Princes offered at the dedication of the Tabernacle Numb VII were these two sorts of Vessels The Mizrakim are said to be before the Altar Zech. XIV 21. 3. There were great Voiders or Trays as I may call them of Gold or Silver in which the inwards of the Beasts were taken and brought to washing and brought when they were washed to the Altar And dishes in which Salt was brought for the salting of all the Sacrifices And dishes in which the Meat-offering was mingled and other dishes in which it was offered And it may be these that brought the Inwards or the Meat-offering were those that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth if that word meaneth any Vessel at all as it is thought it doth in 2 Chron. XXIV 14. Some think it meaneth Pestels saith Kimchi wherewith they pounded the spices for the Incense But in mine opinion it was a little Vessel wherewithal they took Wine out of the Hin for the Drink-offerings And so it is used in the words of the Rabbins The Maids of the House of Rabbi as he was teaching them in the Language of Wisdom said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go into the Tankard That is the little Vessel wherewithal they drew Wine out of the Tankard c. I shall not trouble my self nor the Reader about this Word nor about his Opinion the Translation that our English hath made of it is not only very facil but also very warrantable 4. There were Vessels out of which they poured the Drink-offering it may be those are they that Josephus calls Phialas Vials e e e Iof. Aut. lib. 11. cap. 1. as he reckoneth the holy Vessels upon the place
be rooted out partly they propound to themselves to reproach her while they compare that City for the most part Heathen with Ekron the City of Beelzebub When the Asmoneans had snatched away this City out of the hand of the Grecians the name of it was changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The taking of the Tower Shur as the Gemarists tell us in the place alledged or as the Author of Juchasin b b b b b b Juchas fol. 74. 1. The taking of the Tower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tzur or as the Jerusalem Talmudists unless my conjecture deceives me c c c c c c Hieros Shevith fol. 36. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tower Sider Whether out of these words you can make out the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tower of Strato it is your part to study that certainly was the denomination of this place before it was called Cesarea It was distant six hundred furlongs or thereabout from Jerusalem that is seventy five mile as Josephus relates in that story of an Essene Jew that prophesied d d d d d d Joseph Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 19. â—â— Bâ—â— lib. 1. cap. â—3 Who when he saw Antigonus the brother of Aristobulus passing by in the Temple having been now sent for by his brother indeed that he might be slain by treachery O strange saith he now it is good for me to die because that which I foretold proves a lie For Antigonus lives who ought this day to die and Stratoes Tower is the place appointed for his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is distant six hundred furlongs hence and there remains yet four hours of day But the very time makes my prediction false Having said these things the old man remained perplexed in his thoughts but by and by news was brought that Antigonus was slain in a certain place under ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a certain dark passage which also was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stratoes Tower Herod built the City to the honour and name of Cesar and made a very noble haven at vast expences e e e e e e Idem ibid cap. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He built all the City with white stone and adorned it with most splendid Houses in which especially he shewed the natural greatness of his mind For between Dori and Joppa in the middle of which this City lay it happened that all the Sea coast was destitute of Havens c. He made the greater Haven of Pireus c. And at the mouth of it stood three great statues c. There were houses joyning to the Haven and they also were of white stone c. Over against the Havens mouth was the Temple of Cesar situate upon a rising ground excellent both for the beauty and greatness of it and in it a large statue of Cesar c. The rest of the works which he did there was an Amphitheatre a Theatre and a market all worthy to be mentioned c. See more in Josephus Cesarea was inhabited mixedly by Jews Heathens and Samaritans Hence some places in it were profane and unclean to the Jews f f f f f f Hieros Nazir fol. 56. 1. R. Nichomi bar R. Chaija bar Abba said My father passed not under the Arch of Cesarea but R. Immi passed R. Ezekiah R. Cohen and R. Jacob bar Acha walked in the Pallace of Cesarea when they came to the Arch R. Cohen departed from them but when they came to a clean place he again betook himself to them This story is recited Beracoth fol. 6. 1. and there it is said that they walked in the palace of Zippor g g g g g g Id. Gittin fol. 43 2. One brought a bill of divorce from the Haven of Cesarea Concerning which when judgment was had before R. Abhu he said There is no need to say It was written I being present and I being present it was sealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Haven of Cesarea is not as Cesarea Of the various strifes and uproars between the Cesarean Greeks and Jews in which the Jews always went by the worst Josephus hath very much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h h h h De Bello lib. 2. cap. 23. Another disturbance saith he was raised at Cesarea of the Jews mingled there rising up against the Syrians that were in it The Contest was about priority and chiefdom and it was transacted before Nero i i i i i i Ibid. cap. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And the Greeks of Cesarea overcame c. Where the Reader will observe that the Syrians and Greeks are convertible terms l l l l l l Ibid. In this City were the first seeds of a direful war by reason of Work-shops built by a certain Greek of Cesarea near a Synagogue of the Jews m m m m m m Ibid. cap. 3â— Twenty thousand men were slain there afterwards on one Sabbath day You may read of more seditions and bloodshed at that place before the destruction of the Nation in the Author quoted Long after the destruction of it here the Schools and Doctors of the Jews flourished so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbines of Cesarea are celebrated every where in the Talmudical books I. R. Hoshaia Rubba or the Great n n n n n n Hieros Trâ—mith fol. 47. 1. R. Jochanan said We travailed to R. Hoshaia Rubba to Cesarea to learn the law II. o o o o o o Juchas in fol 7. 1. R. Abhu R. Abhu appointed divers sounds of the trumpet at Cesarea p p p p p p Id. ibid. R. Abhu sent his son from Cesarea to Tyberias to the University c. The q q q q q q Hieros Avod Zar. fol. 44. 4. Cutheans of Cesarea asked R. Abhu saying Your Fathers were contented with our things why are not ye also He answered Your fathers corrupted not their works but you have corrupted them III. R. Achavah and R. Zeira r r r r r r Id. Challah fol. 57. 1. R. Mena said I travailed to Cesarea and I heard R. Achavah and R. Zeira VI. R. Zerikan s s s s s s Id. Pesachin fol. 28. 1. R. Mena said I heard R. Zerikan at Cesarea V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t t t t t t Idem Trumoth fol. 47. 4. R Prigori of Cesarea VI. u u u u u u Id. Pesachin fol. 30. 1. Ulla of Cesarea And VII x x x x x x Id. Rosh Hashanah fol. 59. 3 R. Ada of Cesarea and R. Tachalipha c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mention is made of y y y y y y Id. Nazir fol. 56. 1. the Synagogue Mardatha or Maradtha of Cesarea we do not enquire of the reason of the name for it is written elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 z
there continued for many ages It was innobled by b b b b b b Bab. Berac fol. 30. 2. thirteen Synagogues among which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c c c c Hieros Kilaim fol. 32. 3. The antient Serongian Synagogue was one It was famous also for the Sanhedrin sitting there for the Talmudic Mishna perhaps collected here by R. Judah and for the Jerusalem Talmud written there for certain That very Volume does openly speak the place where it was published in which the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hither do most plainly design Tiberias almost in infinite places But there is a greater controversie about the time it is agreed upon by very many learned Men that this Talmud was written about the year of Christ CCXXX which I do indeed wonder at when the mention of the Emperor Diocletian unless I am very much mistaken does occur in it Let us note the places d d d d d d Beracoth fol. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the King Docletinus came hither to Tiberias they saw R. Chaija bar Abba climing a Sepulchre to see him This story is repeated in e e e e e e Naz. fol. 56. 1 Nazir and he is there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doclinus by an error as it seems of the Coppiers f f f f f f Kilaim fol. 32. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dicletinus gathered the Rivers together and made the Sea of Apamia And this story is recited in g g g g g g Chetubh fol. 35 2. Chetubboth and there he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Docletianus h h h h h h Joma fol. 41. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Docletinus had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most fine gold even to the weight of a Gordian peny i i i i i i Shevuoth fol. 34 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When Docletianus came thither he came with an hundred and twenty myriads k k k k k k Trumoth fol. 46. 2 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The boys of R. Judah the Prince bruised Diclot the keeper of hogs with blows That King at length escaped and coming to Paneas sent for the Rabbines c. He said to them Therefore because your Creator worketh miracles for you you contemn my Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To whom they said we contemned Diclot the hogheard we contemned not Diocletianus the King Hence arose a suspition among some learned Men that this was not to be understood of Diocletian the Emperor but of some little King I know not whom of a very beggerly original of which opinion I also was sometime until at last I met with something that put the thing past all doubt That you find in l l l l l l Avod Zar. fol. 39. 4. Avodah Zarah There enquiry is made by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What of the Mart of Tsur There is this Inscription there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Diocletianus the King built this Mart of Tsur or Tyre to the fortune of my Brother Herculius eighty days The very sound perswades to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herculius and the agreeableness of the Roman History from which every one knows how near a kin there was between Diocletian and Maximian Herculius m m m m m m Of the life of Consâ—ant lib. 1. cap. 13. Eusebius mentions the travailing of Diocletian through Palestine and all the Roman Historians speak of his sordid and mean birth which agree very well with the things that are related by the Talmudists These are all the places unless I am much mistaken where this name occurs in this Talmud one only excepted which I have reserved for this place that after we have discovered by these quotations that this was Diocletian the Emperour some years after him might be computed That place is in Sheviith n n n n n n Shev fol. 38. 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diocletianus afflicted the men of Paneas they said therefore to him We will depart hence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Sophist said to him Either they will not depart or if they do they will return again but if you would have an Experiment of it let two young Goats be brought hither and let them be sent to some place afar off and they will at last come back to their place He did so for the Goats were brought whose horns he gilded and sent them into Africa and they after thirty years returned to their own place Consider that thirty years passed from this action of Diocletian which if you compute even from his first year and suppose that this story was writ in the last year of those thirty you come as far as the ninth or tenth year of Constantine Mention also of King Sapor occurs if I do not fail of the true reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Nedarim fol. 37 4. A Serpent under Sapor the King devoured Camels Yea I have I know not what suspicion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lulianus the King of whom there is mention in that very same place does denote Julianus the Emperor When Lulianus the King say they came thither an hundred and twenty myriads accompanied him But enough of this There are some who believe the Holy Bible was pointed by the wise men of Tiberias I do not wonder at the Impudence of the Jews who invented the story but I wonder at the credulity of Christians who applaud it Recollect I beseech you the names of the Rabbines of Tiberias from the first situation of the University there to the time that it expired and what at length do you find but a kind of men mad with Pharisaim bewitching with Traditions and bewitched blind guileful doting they must pardon me if I say Magical and monstrous Men how unfit how unable how foolish for the undertaking so divine a work Read over the Jerusalem Talmud and see there how R. Judah R. Chaninah R. Judan R. Hoshaia R. Chaija Rubba R. Chaija bar Ba R. Jochanan R. Jonathan and the rest of the grand Doctors among the Rabbines of Tiberias behave themselves how earnestly they do nothing how childishly they handle serious matters how much of sophistry froth poyson smoke nothing at all there is in their Disputes And if you can believe the Bible was pointed in such a School believe also all that the Talmudists write The pointing of the Bible savours of the work of the Holy Spirit not the work of lost blinded besotted men R. Juda who first removed the University to Tiberias sat also in Zippor for many years and there died so that in both places were very famous Schools He composed and digested the Mishnaioth into one volume For when he saw the Captivity was prolonged they are the words of Tsemach David translated by Vorstius and the
harmoniously agree with the said axiome as scarcely any thing can do more clearly 2. That from his Baptism to his cross he lived three years and an half This is intimated by the Angel Gabriel Dan. IX 27. In the half of a week that is In three years and an half he shall make the sacrifice and oblation to cease and it is confirmed from the computation in the Evangelists but especially in John who clearly mentioneth four Passovers Chap. II. 13. V. 1. VI. 4. XIII 1. after his forty days fast and not a little time spent in Galilee II. Therefore we suppose Christ was baptized about the feast of Tabernacles in the Month Tisri at which time we suppose him born and that John was born about the feast of the Passover and at that time began to baptize For when Christ lived two and thirty years and an half and died at the Feast of the Passover you must necessarily reduce his birth to the Month Tisri and about the time of the feast of Tabernacles and when John the Baptist was elder than he by half a year you must necessarily suppose him born about the feast of the Passover But of these things we have said something already VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And behold a voice from Heaven CHRIST was honoured with a threefold testimony pronounced by a voice from Heaven according to his threefold office See what we say at Chap. XVII 2. You find not a voice sent from Heaven between the giving of the Law and the baptism of Christ. What things the Jews relate of Bath Kol they must pardon me if I esteem them partly for Jewish fables partly for Devilish witchrafts They hold it for a Tradition n n n n n n Bab. Sanhedr fol. 11. 1. After the death of the last Prophets Haggai Zachariah Malachi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Spirit departed from Israel which was most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But they used thenceforth the Bath Kol The Bath Kol was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Piske Tosaph in Sanhedr cap. 1. art 29. When a voice or Thunder came out of Heaven another voice came out from it But why I pray was Prophesie withdrawn if Heavenly oracles were to be continued Why also was Urim and Thummim taken away Or rather why was it not restored after the Babylonian captivity For p p p p p p Hieros Taanith fol. 65. 1. five things say they were wanting under the second Temple which were under the first namely the fire from Heaven The Ark Urim and Thummim the Oyl of anointing and the Holy Spirit It would certainly be a wonder if God taking away from his people his ordinary oracles should bestow upon them a nobler oracle or as noble and that when the Nation had degenerated and were sunk into all kind of impiety superstition heresie When the last Prophets Haggai and the rest were dead the Sadducean heresie concerning the Resurrection crept in and the Pharisaical heresie also weakening all Scripture and making it of none effect by vain Traditions And shall I believe that God should so indulge his people when they were guilty of so grievous Apostasie as to vouchsafe to talk familiarly with them from Heaven and to afford them oracles so sublime so frequent as the Prophets themselves had not the like If I may speak plainly what I think I should reduce those numberless stories of the Bath Kol which occur every where under these two heads namely that very many are mere fables invented for this purpose that hence the worth of this or that Rabbin or story may be illustrated the rest are mere Magical and Diabolical delusions When I read these and such like passages That q q q q q q Bab. Sanhedr in the place above the Bath Kol in Jericho gave witness to Hillel that he was worthy to have the Holy Ghost abide upon him that the Bath Kol in Jabneh yielded the same testimony to Samuel the little That r r r r r r Hieros Berac fol. 3. 2. the Bath Kol again in Jabneh determined the controversies between the Schools of Shammai and Hillel for those of Hillel and innumerable other stories of that kind I cannot but either suspect these to be tales or that these voices were framed by art Magick for the honour of the Rabbins It is remarkable what is related in the Jerusalem Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s s s s s s Scbab fol. 8. 3. R. Eliezer saith They follow the hearing of Bath Kol And a little after R. Jochanan and R. Simeon ben Lachish desired to see the face of Samuel the Babylonian Doctor let us follow say they the hearing of Bath Kol Travailing therefore near a School they heard a boys voice reading in 1 Sam. XXV 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Samuel died They observed this and so it came to pass for Samuel of Babylon was dead R. Jonah and R. Josah went to visit R. Acha lying sick let us follow say they the hearing of Bath Kol They heard the voice of a certain woman speaking to her neighbour The light is put out To whom she said let it not be put out nor let the light of Israel be quenched Behold Reader a people very well contented to be deceived with a new kind of Bath Kol Compare these things with Virgils lots of which the Roman Historians speak frequently Not to be more tedious therefore in this matter let two things only be observed 1. That the Nation under the second Temple was given to Magical arts beyond measure And 2. That it was given to an easiness of believing all manner of delusions beyond measure And one may safely suspect that those voices which they thought to be from Heaven and noted with the name of Bath Kol were either formed by the Devil in the air to deceive the people or by Magicians by Devilish art to promote their own affairs Hence the Apostle Peter saith with good reason that the word of Prophesie was surer than a voice from Heaven 2 Pet. I. 19. The very same which I judge of the Bath Kol is my opinion also of the frequent appearances of Elias with which the leaves of the Talmud do every where abound namely that in very many places the stories are false and in the rest the Apparitions of him were Diabolical See the notes upon the tenth verse of the seventeenth Chapter CHAP. IV. VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted c. THE War proclaimed of old in Eden between the Serpent and the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman Gen. III. 15. now takes place when that promised seed of the Woman comes forth into the field being initiated by Baptism and anointed by the Holy
turned into Glory Faith into fruition Sanctification into impeccability and there will be no need of the Spirit in our sense any more So that Having the Spirit is understood of man considered only under the Fall II. Having the Spirit speaks of having it for mans Recovery The Spirit is given for his Recovery viz. what God will have recovered Let us look back to the Creation That lesson is divine and pertinent Eccles. XII 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth There is more in it than every one observes It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Creators in the plural and teaches two things That as the first lesson Youth is to learn is to know his Creator so therewith to learn to know the Mystery of the Trinity that created him God created all things and man an Epitomy of all by the Word and Spirit Son and Holy Ghost XXXIII Psal. 6. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his Mouth Joh. I. 3. All things were made by him and without him was not any made that was made Job XXXIII 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Now when Gods creation in man was spoiled by Son and Spirit it is repaired So that as Christ saith of himself I come to seek and to save that which was lost so the Spirit came to restore and repair what was decayed This is the meaning of the new creature 2 Cor. V. 17. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature Eph. II. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Who works this Christ and the Spirit Something Christ doth by his blood viz. restores righteousness the rest by his Spirit viz. recovers holiness Nay I may add the Spirit is given only for mans Recovery The Spirit created man so perfect to try him Spiritus movens the Spirit moving is to try man outward administrations are to try him but when sanctification comes it hath a further purpose Compare man in innocency with man after the fall His state in which he then was was to try him But will the Spirit alway have his work of so uncertain issue Will he never act but for trial and leave the issue to the will of man God when he intended not innocency for the way of Salvation left man to himself Doth the Spirit the like in a way intended for Salvation Who then could be saved Spiritus movens the Spirit moving I said was given to try inhabitans inhabiting only and undoubtedly to Recover III. Having the Spirit presupposeth having of Christ vers 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christs contra If any have the Spirit he hath Christ. These terms are convertible He that hath Christ hath the Spirit and vice versa he that hath the Spirit hath Christ. As He that hath the Father hath the Son and he that hath the Son hath the Father also As Son and Spirit cooperated in mans creation so in his renovation Personal works are distinct but never separate Christ to Justifie the Spirit to Sanctifie but never one without the other The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ is it possible then to have the Spirit absque Christo without having Christ And he is called his Spirit not only quia procedit a filio because he proceeded from the Son but because he gives him and is a purchase of his blood As the Spirit moved on the Waters so he moves on the blood of Christ he comes swimming in that and it is ex merito sanguinis from the merit of his blood whosoever hath him See Gods way of cleansing the Leper which is an Emblem of cleansing a sinner XIV Levit. 14 15 17. And the Priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and the Priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed c. And the Priest shall take some of the Log of oyl c. And the Priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear c. First Blood and then Oyl On whom is the unction of the Spirit on him is first the unction of blood As the person is accepted before his Service Gen IV. 4. The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering So the person is first Justified before Sanctified God doth not new-create a person whom he accepts not IV. He that hath the Spirit hath a twofold work of the Spirit common grace and sanctifying grace We may consider the Spirit as Creator and Sanctifier and thirdly acting in a Work between both When he teacheth man arts indues him with intellectual abilities he then works as Creator in bonum Universi for the good of the Universe When he sanctifieth he doth it for the recovery of the Soul Now there is a work between both that is more than he doth as Creator and less than as Sanctifier but in tendency to the latter but as yet it is not it viz. Common grace Such is Illumination to see ones Condition Conviction with feeling Conscience active thoughts of Soul This is called grace because more than nature Common because wicked men have it sometimes as appears by Heb. VI. 4. And you read of Felix his trembling at S. Pauls Sermon Now the Spirit never worketh sanctifying grace but first useth this to make way He plows the heart by common grace and so prepares it for sanctifying grace In this Chapter at vers 15. There was the Spirit of fear before that of adoption As the Law was given first so the work of the Law is first Rom. VII 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I died As Moses delivered the people of Israel into the hand of Joshua so the Law when it hath sufficiently disciplined us commits us into the hand of Grace As in Gal. III. 17. The Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law c. cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect The Law is subservient to the promise so this work of the Law to Grace Is a meer work of the Law sanctifying Grace True the work of the Law goes along with grace hence many a gracious heart is under terrors But is the first work of the Law Grace No it is to fit the heart to receive Grace Many now a days say I have the Spirit How came they by it If they have it it is an unnatural birth not bred and born after Gods ordinary way To day debauched to morrow turn Sectary and then have the Spirit That was a wonder in the Prophet speaking of one that before she travailed was delivered such a wonder is this if it be so No God causeth this work of Common Grace to prepare and fit us for the reception of the Holy Spirit V. The Spirit worketh both these by the
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
undoubted sign of love towards God VERS XXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sell what thou hast and give to the poor WHEN Christ calls it perfection to sell all and give to the poor he speaks according to the Idiom of the Nation which thought so and he tries this rich man boasting of his exact performance of the Law whether when he pretended to aspire to eternal life he would aspire to that perfection vvhich his Countrymen so praised Not that hence he either devoted Christians to voluntary poverty or that he exhorted this man to rest ultimately in a Pharisaical perfection but lifting up his mind to the renouncing of vvorldly things he provokes him to it by the very Doctrine of the Pharisees vvhich he professed f f f f f f Peah Cap. 1. Hal. ◠For these things the measure is not stated for the corner of the field to be left for the poor for the first-fruits for the appearance in the Temple according to the Lavv Exod. XXIII 15 17. where what or how great an oblation is to be brought is not appointed for the shewing mercy and for the study of the Law The Casuists discussing that point of shewing mercy do thus determine concerning it A stated measure is not indeed prescribed to the shewing of mercy as to the affording poor men help with thy body that is with thy bodily labour but as to money there is a stated measure namely the fifth part of thy wealth nor is any bound to give the poor above the fifth part of his estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unless he does it out of extraordinary devotion See Rambam upon the place and the Jerusalem Gemara where the example of R. Ishbab is produced distributing all his goods to the poor VERS XXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Camel to go through the eye of a needle c. APhrase used in the Schools intimating a thing very unusual and very difficult There where the discourse is concerning dreams and their interpretation these words are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ff ff ff ff ff ff Rab. Berac fol. 55. 2. They do not shew a man a Palm-tree of Gold nor an Elephant going through the eye of a needle The Gloss is A thing which he was not wont to see nor concerning which he ever thought In like manner R. Sheshith answered R. Amram disputing with him and asserting something that was incongruous in these words g g g g g g Bava Mezia fol. 38. 2. Perhaps thou art one of those of Pombeditha who can make an Elephant pass through the eye of a needle that is as the Aruch interprets it Who speak things that are impossible VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye that have followed me in the Regeneration THAT the World is to be renewed at the coming of the Messias and the Preaching of the Gospel the Scriptures assert and the Jews believe but in a grosser sense which we observe at Chap. XXIV Our Saviour therefore by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regeneration calls back the minds of the Disciples to a right apprehension of the thing implying that Renovation concerning which the Scripture speaks is not of the body or substance of the world but that it consists in the renewing of the Manners Doctrine and a dispensation conducing thereunto Men are to be renewed regenerated not the Fabrick of the World This very thing he teaches Nicodemus treating concerning the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Son of man shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory ye also shall sit THESE words are fetched out of Daniel Chap. VII ver 9 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words I wonder should be translated by the Interpreters Aben Ezra R. Saadia and others as well Jews as Christians Thrones were cast down R. Solomon the vulgar and others read it righter Thrones were set up where Lyranus thus He saith Thrones in the plural number because not only Christ shall judg but the Apostles and perfect men shall assist him in judgment sitting upon Thrones The same way very many Interpreters bend the words under our hands namely that the Saints shall at the day of judgment sit with Christ and approve and applaud his judgment But 1. besides that the Scene of the last Judgment painted out in the Scripture does always represent as well the Saints as the wicked standing before the Tribunal of Christ Mat. XXV 32. 2 Cor. V. 10. c. we have mention here only of Twelve Thrones And 2. we have mention only of judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel The sense therefore of the place may very well be found out by weighing these things following I. That those Thrones set up in Daniel are not to be understood of the last Judgment of Christ but of his judgment in his entrance upon his Evangelical Government when he was made by his Father chief Ruler King and Judg of all things Psal. II. 6. Mat. XXVIII 18. Joh. V. 27. For observe the scope and series of the Prophet that after the four Monarchies namely the Babylonian the Mede-Persian the Grecian and the Syro-Grecian which Monarchies had vexed the World and the Church by their Tyranny were destroyed the Kingdom of Christ should rise c. Those words The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand that Judiciary Scene set up Rev. IV. V. and those Thrones Rev. XX. 1. c. do interpret Daniel to this sense II. The Throne of Glory concerning which the words before us are is to be understood of the Judgment of Christ to be brought upon the treacherous rebellious wicked Jewish people We meet with very frequent mention of the coming of Christ in his Glory in this sense which we discoursed more largely of at Chap. XXIV III. That the sitting of the Apostles upon Thrones with Christ is not to be understood of their Persons it is sufficiently proved because Judas was now one of the number but it is meant of their Doctrine as if he had said When I shall bring judgment upon this most unjust Nation then your Doctrine which you have Preached in my Name shall judg and condemn them See Rom. II. 16. Hence it appears That the Gospel was Preached to all the twelve Tribes of Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem CHAP. XX. VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who went out early in the morning to hire labourers YOU have such a Parable as this but madly applied in the Talmud we will produce it here for sake of some Phrases a a a a a a Hierof Berac fol. 5. 3. To what was R. Bon bar Chaija like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To a King who hired many labourers among which there was one hired who perform'd his work extraordinar◠well What did the King He took him aside and walkt with him to and fro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When even was come those labourers came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
that they might receive their hire and he gave him a compleat hire with the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the labourers murmured saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have laboured hard all the day and this man only two hours yet he hath received as much wages as we The King saith to them He hath laboured more in those two hours than you in the whole day So R. Bon plied the Law more in eight and twenty years than another in a hundred years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Early in the morning b b b b b b Gloss. in Bab. Bava Mezia fol. 83. 2. The time of working is from Sun-rising to the appearing of the Stars and not from break of day And this is prov'd from the Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the President of the Priests saith to them c c c c c c Joma Chap. 3. Tamid Chap. 3. where they say 'T is light all in the East and men go out to hire labourers whence it is argued that they do not begin their work before the Sun riseth It is also proved from the Tract Pesachin where it is said that it is prohibited on the day of the Passover to do any servile work after the Sun is up intimating this that that was the time when labourers should begin their work c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To hire Labourers Read here if you please the Tract Bava Mezia Chap. VII which begins thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hireth Labourers and Maimonides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tract intitled d d d d d d Chap. 9. 11. Hiring VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agreed for a penny a day A Penny of silver which one of gold exceeded twenty four times for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A penny of gold is worth five and twenty of silver e e e e e e Gloss. on Cherithuth Chap. 2. The Canons of the Hebrews concerning hiring of labourers distinguish as reason requires between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being hired by the day and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being hired only for some hours which may be observ'd also in this Parable for in the morning they are hired for all the day and for a penny but afterwards for certain hours and have a part of a penny allotted them in proportion to the time they wrought VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Call the Labourers FOR it is one of the Affirmative precepts of the Law that a hired labourer should have his wages paid him when they are due as it is said You shall pay him his wages in his day and if they be detain'd longer it is a breach of a negative precept as it is said The Sun shall not go down upon him f f f f f f Maimon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 11. c. VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Didst not thou agree with me for a penny IN hiring of labourers the custom of the place most prevail'd hence came that Axiom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observe the custom of the City f f f f f f Beb. Bava Mezia fol. 83. 2. speaking of this very thing There is also an example g g g g g g Hierof Mezia fol. 11. 2. Those of Tiberias that went up to Bethmeon to be hired for labourers were hired according to the custom of Bethmeon c. By the by also we may observe that which is said by the Babylonians in the place last cited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as the Gloss renders it Notice must be taken whether they come from several places for at some places they go to work sooner and at some later Hence two things may be clear'd in the Parable before us 1. Why they are said to be hired at such different hours namely therefore because they are supposed to have come together from several places 2. Why there was no certain agreement made with those that were hired at the third sixth and ninth hour as with those that were hired early in the morning but that he should only say Whatsoever is right I will give you that is supposing that they would submit to the custom of the place But indeed when their wages were to be paid them there is by the favour of the Lord of the vineyard an equality made between those that were hired for some hours and those that were hired for the whole day and when these last murmured they are answer'd from their own agreement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You agree'd with me Note here the Canon h h h h h h Maimon as before Chap. 9. The master of the family saith to his servant Go hire me labourers for four pence he goes and hires them for three pence although their labour deserves four pence they shall not receive but three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they bound themselves by agreement and their complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murmuring in the 11th verse is against the servant VERS XXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The baptism that I am baptized with THE phrase that goes before this concerning the cup is taken from divers places of Scripture where sad and grievous things are compared to draughts of a bitter cup. You may think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cup of vengeance of which there is mention in Bab. Beracoth i i i i i i Fol. 51. 2. means the same thing but it is far otherwise give me leave to quote it though it be somewhat out of our bounds Let them not talk say they over their cup of blessing and let them not bless over their cup of vengeance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is the cup of vengeance The second cup saith R. Nachman bar Isaac Rabbena Asher and Piske are more clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he shall drink off two cups let him not bless over the third The Gloss He that drinks off double cups is punisht by Devils But to the matter before us So cruel a thing was the Baptism of the Jews being a plunging of the whole body into water when it was never so much chilled with Ice and snow that not without cause partly by reason of the burying as I may call it under water and partly by reason of the cold it us'd to signifie the most cruel kind of death The Hierusalem Talmudists relate That in the days of Joshua ben Levi some endeavoured quite to take away the washings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptisms of women because the women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the coldness of the waters k k k k k k Berac 6. 3. which we noted before at the sixth verse of the third Chapter CHAP. XXI VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Ass and her fold IN the Talmudists we have the like phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Hierof Bava Mezia Fol. 11. 1. An ass and
and began to be called Bethany Concerning which we have discoursed more largely in another place VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They went up into an upper room 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To an upper room in Talmudic Language I. It was very familiar with that Nation that when they were to concern themselves with the Law or any parts of Religion out of the Synagogue they went up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper Room some uppermost part of the house q q q q q q Juchasin fol. 23. 2. Abniah a very rich man invited Rabban Johanan ben Zacchai and his Disciples and Nicodemus c. to a Feast which he made at the Circumcision of his Son when the feast was done Rabban Johanan and his Disciples went up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper Room and read and expounded till the fire shone round about them as when the Law was given at Mount Sinai Abniah was amazed at the honour that was given to the Law and so devoted his Son to the Law Take notice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an upper-room is distinct from a dining-room where they dined and supped and there it was they handled the Law and divine things to which if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 large upper room mentioned Mark XIV 15. and Luke XXII 12. where our Saviour celebrated the Passover had any affinity it seems to have been something different from a common dining-room II. Such a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room I presume was the Beth Midras of this or that Rabbin r r r r r r Juchas fol. 45. 2. R. Simeon saith I saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sons of the upper room that they were few in number that is if I take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aright the Sons or Disciples of Beth Midras but I will not contend in this matter s s s s s s Hieros Schab fol. 3. 3. Those are the traditions which they delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the upper room of Hananiah ben Hezekiah ben Garon and many instances of that kind Of this kind seems that upper chamber at Troas mentioned Acts XX. 8. And so where we meet with the Church in such or such an ones house it seems to look this way viz. some upper part of the house sequestred on purpose for the assembling of the Church in the same manner that the Beth Midras was set apart for the meeting of the Disciples of this or that Rabbin And as the Beth Midras was always in the house of some Rabbin so probably for the most part were these Churches in the house of some Minister or Doctor of the Church Was not Aquila such an one in whose house we find a Church mentioned Rom. XVI 5. compared with Acts XVIII 26. Was not Philemon such an one Philem. ver 2. VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About an hundred and twenty THE same number was Ezra's great Synagogue t t t t t t Juchas fol. 13. 2. Ezra was the head of all he was the twenty second receiver of Traditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his whole Sanhedrin consisted of an hundred and twenty Elders There was no stated Council in any City under this number u u u u u u Sanhedr fol. 17. 2. Maimon Sanhedr cap. 1. How many men are requisite in a City that it might be capable of having a Council setled in it An hundred and twenty What is their office Three and twenty are to make up the number of the lesser Sanhedrin And there are three classes of twenty three behold there are ninety two There are ten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be at leisure for the Synagogue behold there are an hundred and two Two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Plantiff and the Defendant who have business before the Sanhedrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two crafty witnesses those who by their counter-evidence might implead the witnesses if possible of a lie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two counter witnesses against those counter witnesses Two Scribes Two Chazanim two collectors of the Alms and a third to distribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Physitian The Gloss hath it one to circumcise Infants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Artificer Chirurgion the Gloss is one to let blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Libellary i. e. one that was to write bills of Espousals Divorces Contracts c. and a Schoolmaster behold an hundred and twenty If you will pick any thing out of this parity of number you may However certainly the number of those we have now before us ought always to occur to mind when we read such passages as these They were all with one accord in one place Act. II. 1. They were all scattered abroad excepting the Apostles Chap. VIII 1. So Chap. XI 19. c. Beside the Twelve Apostles and Seventy two Disciples who can tell us who those other thirty six were that were to fill up the number what kind of men of what degree and quality who though they were neither of the number of the Twelve Apostles nor the Seventy Disciples yet were admitted members of that great and holy Consistory Reason it self seems against it that any women should be accounted of that number As also it is plain that though there were more in the City that believed yet these were for some special cause and reason ascribed into this peculiar fellowship and number As to the Twelve and the Seventy we need not enquire as to the rest let us see whether it may not be intimated to us ver 21. that they had been the followers of Christ in company with the others from the very first of his publishing the Gospel That Peter should be always in the head of them and have the chief parts in the whole History as their Prolocutor and chief actor must be attributed 1. To his Seniority he being older than any of the other twelve And whereas under this notion of his age he had been their chief speaker all the while that our Saviour conversed amongst them it was but just and reasonable he should hold the same place and quality now that their Lord was gone 2. To his repentance As what was but necessary that he who had so scandalously fallen might by his future zeal and religion as much as possible give some considerable testimonies both of his repentance and recovery 3. He was design'd to the Apostleship of Circumcision as the chief Minister it was fit therefore that he should be chief amongst those of the Circumcision But when we stile him the chief Minister of the Circumcision we do not dream of any Primacy he had over the other Ministers of the Circumcision only that the greatest work and the widest space of that Ministry fell to his lot viz. Mesopotamia or the Babylonish and Assyrian Captivity namely the Jews in Babylon and the Ten Tribes mixt with them
And when we speak of him as acting the chief and principal parts we do not believe the rest of the Apostles idle we know they were endowed with equal authority an equal gift of Miracles equal number of Tongues equal wisdom and an equal power of Preaching the Gospel but that he for the reasons above mention'd had shewn his zeal industry and activity in some ways and measures very extraordinary VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst THE Vulgar and Erasmus have it Suspensus crepuit medius Being hang'd he crackt asunder in the midst So the Italian Translation Appicato crepo pelmezzo rendring St. Matthew rather than St. Luke and I question indeed whether they do rightly take the mind of St. Matthew while they so strictly confine the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to being hang'd I have produced my conjecture concerning this business at Mat. XXVII viz. that the Devil immediately after Judas had cast back his money into the Temple caught him up into the air strangled him threw him headlong and dasht him in pieces upon the ground For I. It is questionable enough whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do necessarily and singly denote he hanged himself and not as well he was hanged or choaked And indeed whether the word always suppose the Halter how the learned Hiensius hath defended the negative we may consult him upon this place and upon Mat. XXVII II. If Judas hanged himself as is commonly believ'd and commonly so painted how could it be said of him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fell headlong Grant that upon the breaking of the Halter he might fall upon the ground yet what matter is it whether he fell on his face or that he fell backward But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grammarians would have it it may be headlong as well as upon the face that is as upon the face is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to supine or backward III. Histories tell us of persons strangled by the Devil That is a known passage in Tob. III. 8. Asmodeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in the Heb. of P. Fagius strangled Sarahs seven husbands c. and it may be the less wonder if the Devil being corporally seated in this wretch should at last strangle him IV. There are also Histories of the Devil snatching up some into the air and carrying them away with him Now of all mortals no wretch did ever more deserve so direful a fate than this Traytor not did any other death become the most impious of all mankind than the dreadfullest the Devil to whom he was intirely given up could inflict as what might be of most horrour to himself and terrour to others V. The words immediately following That this was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem ver 19. argue it was a thing of no common and ordinary event and must be something more than hanging himself which was an accident not so very unusual in that Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all his bowels gushed out w w w w w w Cholin fol. 56. 8. A certain Syrian saw a man who fell from the roof of his house upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his belly burst and his bowels gusht out The Syrian brought the Son of him that had thus fallen and slew him before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but at length it seem'd so The Gloss telleth us he did not strike or hurt the boy but made as if he would have killed him because he being loth to meddle with the mans bowels himself for fear lest he should any way displace them he seem'd as if he had kill'd the boy that so the father upon the sight of it groaning and fetching strong and deep sighs might draw in his bowels into their proper place again The Devil had dwelt in this wretch for three days or thereabout from the time that he had enter'd him upon his receiving the Sop Joh. XIII and now by an horrid eruption tearing out his bowels he goes out again VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aceldama 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A field of blood so call'd both as it had been purchas'd with the price of blood and as it had been water'd with the blood of this Traytor for hither I presume the Devil had thrown him headlong and upon this event it was that the Priests were mov'd to purchase this very field and so in a twofold sense it might be said of this Traytor that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he purchased a field both as it was bought with his money and seal'd with his blood If Aceldama was in that quarter of the City that it is now shewn in to strangers that is between the East and the South as Borchard tells us then it was in the valley of Hinnom or thereabout VERS XXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might go to his own place BAlaam x x x x x x Baal turim in Numb XXIV 25. went to his own place that is into Hell It is not said of the friends of Job that they each of them came from his own house or his own City or his own Country but from his own place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from a place cut out for them in Hell y y y y y y Midra◠Cohtleth fol. 100. 4. The Gloss is from his own place that is from Hell appointed for Idolaters z z z z z z Maimon in Covel umazzi cap. 8. Whosoever betrays an Israelite into the hands of the Gentiles hath no part in the world to come If so then where must he have his place that betray'd the very Messiah of Israel VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioseph called Barsabas I. AMongst the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jose and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph are one and the same name a a a a a a Bava kama fol. 83. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Jose saith in Babylon the Syrian tongue c. which being recited in Sotah b b b b b b Fol. 49. 2. is thus exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Joseph said In Babylon c. So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Jose in Hieros Jom tobh c c c c c c Fol. 61. 3. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Joseph in Bab. Berac d d d d d d Fol. 19. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jose ben Johanan in Avoth e e e e e e Cap. 1. hal 4. is Joseph ben Johanan in Maimonides Preface to Misnah And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Mat. XXVII 56. and Mark VI. 3. is render'd in the Vulgar Joseph See Beza upon the place now before us II. I would therefore suspect that this Joseph who is call'd Barsabas might be Joses the Son of Alpheus the brother of James the less who as James also was