Now if the Samaritan may knead dough in an Israelites house it is evident the Israelite might use the Samaritan d d d d d d Hieros Jeramoth fol. 9. 1. An Israelite may circumcise a Cuthite but a Cuthite may not circumcise an Israelite because he is circumcis'd into the name of mount Gerizzim R. Josah saith let him circumcise him and let him pass into the name of mount Gerizzim till he departs this life If therefore it was lawful for the Israelite to circumcise the Cuthite or Samaritan and the Samaritan the Israelite then the Jews had dealings with or did use the Samaritans What then must be the proper meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to answer it e e e e e e Hieros Avsdah Zara fol. 44. 1. The Cuthites of Caesarea asked R. Abhu saying Your fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our fathers why then do not you the same to us Let us gather the sense from something like it it was a trite and common saying among the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me as Mat. XV. 5. According to which form of speech I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not the Samaritans be profitable to the Jews and in this sense I would understand the words now in hand The Jews have no such dealings with the Samaritans as to be obliged to them for any courtesie or benefit receiv'd from them They ask or receive nothing from them gratis they borrow nothing of them which is not forbidden them as to any other Nations f f f f f f Avodah Zara cap. 1. hal ◠For three days before the feasts of the Idolaters it is forbidden the Jews either to give to or receive from them to ask or lend or borrow of them But for any other parts of the year it was not forbidden them But as to the Samaritans it was not permitted the Jews to borrow or receive any thing from them at any time gratis Nor indeed can the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place intend any thing else For whereas it was lawful for the Jews to converse with the Samaritans buy of them use their labour answer to their benedictions Amen as we find in Beracoth g g g g g g Cap. 8. hal 8. lodg in their Towns Luk. IX 52. I would fain know in what sense after all this can it be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in this only that they would not be oblig'd to them for any kindness Which may a little serve to illustrate that of Luk. X. 33 c. and it does very well agree with the matter in hand For the words before seem to be what the woman speaks and not what the Evangelist and they spoken scoptically or with sarcasm Doest thou who art a Jew ask water of me who am a Samaritan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for you Jews despise all courtesie of the Samaritans to receive the least kindness of them and do you ask me for water The Greek Lexicons back this Exposition who render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only by commercium habeo to have dealings but also by mutuo accipio utendum rogo to borrow for use c. VERS XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence then hast thou that living water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living water The woman mistakes our Saviour's meaning as if he intended only what was usually exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bubbling or springing waters So that when our Saviour talks to her of a water that he had to give which whosoever should drink of should thirst no more the woman laughs in her sleeve indeed and with all the scorn that could be saith Sir pray give me of this water that I may never have any thirst or give my self the trouble of coming hither to draw for so we ought to conceive of her answer to be rather by way of scoff not supplication VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thou hast had five husbands c. CHRIST stops her fleering mouth with the dung of her own unchast conversation charging her with that infamous sort of life she had hitherto liv'd q. d. Thou for thy impudent adulteries hast suffer'd divorce from five husbands already and that which thou now hast is not thy husband but an adulterer h h h h h h Kiddushin ubi supr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cuthites do not understand the Law about betrothings and divorcings They had their customs of affiancing and divorcing and perhaps by how much the less accurate they were about their divorces I mean with respect to the Jewish rules the neerer they might come to the first institution of Moses who allow'd no divorces but in the cause of adultery That this woman was dismist from her husbands for these infamous faults of hers seems evident partly from the extraordinary number of Husbands partly that our Saviour mentions her Husbands as well as him that then liv'd adulterously with her as if he would intimate that she liv'd dishonestly under her Husbands as well as with this man VERS XX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worshipped in this mountain THE story of that Temple on Gerizzim out of Josephus and others is very well known It was built in emulation and envy to that at Jerusalem as of old were Dan and Bethel Hence that irreconcileable hatred between the two Nations and the apostacy of divers Jews The Samaritans attributed a certain holiness to the mountain even after the Temple had been destroy'd but for what reason they themselves could not well tell However for the defence of it the Samaritan Text hath notoriously falsified the words of Moses in Deut. XXVII 4. For whereas the Hebrew hath it Ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mount Ebal The Samaritan Text and Version hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mount Gerizzim as I have elsewhere observ'd i i i i i i Beresh rabba Sect. 32. R. Jochanan going to Jerusalem to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he past by that mountain Gerizzim a certain Samaritan seeing him askt him Whether goest thou I am saith he going to Jerusalem to pray To whom the Samaritan Were it not better for thee to pray in this holy mountain than in that cursed house Whence comes this mountain to be so holy saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because saith the other it was not over-flown by the waters of the deluge A doughty reason indeed k k k k k k Ibid. Sect. 81. R. Ismael the Son of R. Joseph going to Jerusalem to pray past by that mountain a certain Samaritan meeting him asks where art thou going I am going saith he to Jerusalem to pray Saith the other were it not better for thee to pray in this blessed
they died this power and privilege died with them It is easie apprehending what this wily wretch had in his thoughts and design viz. an affectation both of lucre and vain-glory Otherwise it might have been abundantly enough for him to have requested give me also the gift of Tongues and Prophesie as ye have given to these VERS XXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pray ye to the Lord for me IF he begged this in earnest and from his heart it is a wonder he should afterward break out into so much blasphemy and wickedness that Church-history reports concerning him if that say true d d d d d d Irenae lib. 1. cap. 20. And when he did still more and more disbelieve God and set himself more greedily in an opposition against the Apostles c. e e e e e e Euseb. lib. 2. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Simon the great adversary of the great and Holy Apostles c. For him to beseech the Apostles earnestly to pray for him and yet from thenceforth to oppose them to the utmost of his power This certainly is the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity We have if we believe the story St. Peter and this Simon meeting with one another again at Rome where the Apostle by his prayers tumbles this Magician headlong to the ground while he was flying in the Air and so Simon Magus breaths his last If it had been taken notice of that if Philostratus may be believed it is probable St. Peter and Apollonius Tyanaeus were at one and the same time together in Babylon doubtless there would have been some such tale as this framed about St. Peters triumphing over him also That in Justin Martyr concerning a statue erected at Rome to Simon Magus with this inscription Simoni Sancto Deo To Simon the Holy God is shewn by learned Men to have been so called by mistake when it was rather a Statue erected Simoni Sango Deo I fear there is some such mistake concerning St. Peters chair erected in Rome as there was concerning the Statue of Simon erected at Rome VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Gaza which is desert WHO is it speaks this clause which is desert the Angel or the Historian Strabo indeed tells us f f f f f f Lib. 16. that Gaza antiently was a noble City destroyed by Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and continues desert But why is this added in this place and by whom is it so I would suppose it is added by the Angel and that for this reason because there was another Gaza not very far from that place where Philip now was viz. in the Tribe of Ephraim 1 Chron. VII 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sichem with the Towns thereof to Gaza with the Towns thereof this was the dwelling of the children of Ephraim Here is Gaza of Ephraim but Philip must go to Gaza of the Philistins VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians IN a French Treatise lately publisht that bears the Title of Histoire de la haut Ethiopie pag. 15. all the Ethiopian Kings are named and reckoned up and Candace not mentioned But at the end there is this animadversion upon it Dans cette Chronologie iâ— n'est point parle ny de la Râ—ine Candace ny de l' Imperatrice Helene c. In this Chronology there is no mention of the Queen Candace nor of the Empress Helen The Abyssins no more than the Jews use not to name the women in their Genealogies a thing very common with all the Eastern Nations However that there was a certain Candace Queen of the Ethiopians nay that there were several Queens of that name is so very plain both from Pliny and Strabo that it would be an impertinent thing to seek for this Candace of ours any where else The head of the Kingdom saith Strabo was Meröe a City of the same name with the Island it self Now the Country Meröe was made an Island by the river Nile Westward and the river Astabora Eastward g g g g g g Ptol. tab 4â— Africa If our Eunuch here came indeed from Meröe then may we call to mind that passage in Zeph. III. 10. From beyond the rivers of Aethiopia my suppliants c. But from what part soever of Candace's Empire he might come and what way soever he went that might be true of him and a very long journy he must needs take before he could arrive at Jerusalem But the Ethiopick Version cuts the journy much shorter when it makes him travailing to the City Gaza So rendring that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who had the charge of all her treasure but who was over all Gaza I am apt to imagine this devotionist might come to Jerusalem upon the same errand that had brought the Jews from all Countries Acts II. viz. led hether by the Prophesie of Daniel which had foretold the appearance of the Messias about this time And one would wonder that whiles he was at Jerusalem he should have heard nothing concerning Jesus Or perhaps what he heard of him was the occasion of his studying at this time that passage in Isaiah's Prophesie Where now were the Apostles and the rest of that holy College and company that so great a person and one of such devotion should be let go untaught and unsatisfied concerning the Lord Jesus Is it possible that he could be ignorant of the talk of his Death and Resurrection abiding in the City although as yet he might not believe it But his instruction and conversion is reserved to a more peculiar miracle that should render it the more famous and better known VERS XXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter THE Text in Isaiah is indeed exprest here according to the Greek Version but whether the Eunuch used that Version or no is no unjust question As also whether he were a Jew or a Proselyte whether a Proselyte made or a meer Gentile whether an Eunuch in the strict or in the larger sense Which things are not to be enquired into because we can no where be resolved about them The perversness of the Jews is more obvious who to elude these express and plain things about the sufferings of the Messiah do divert the whole sense of this Chapter to another thing It goes current amongst them that the afflicted people of Israel are the subject of this Prophesie although there are those that would apply part of it to Jeremy others part of it to R. Judah the holy nay some there are that will allow some part of it to the Messias himself in the mean time providing that they admit not of his death it would be very tedious to set down particularly their triflings and elusions in this matter I rather enquire who it is that the Greek Interpreters apply this passage to Whether they plainly
their Works quoted IV. Of Hebrew and Greek words explained V. Of Principal Matters or Things Alphabetically digested AN ELENCHUS OF The several Tracts and Discourses of the AUTHOR contained in the SECOND VOLUME Horae Hebraicae or Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon St. Matthew upon St. Mark upon St. Luke upon St. John upon The Acts of the Apostles upon Some Chapters of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans upon I Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians XLVI Sermons preached on several Occasions never before Published A short Tract upon the Fourth Article of the Creed never before Published There are also in this Second Volume At the Beginning THE Publishers Epistle Dedicatory and Preface A Map of the City of JERUSALEM drawn according to the AUTHOR'S Chorography Page 20. At the End A Chorographical Table or Description of the several places contained and described in the Two Volumes of Dr. Lightfoots Works by Mr. John Williams Five other Tables I. Of Scriptures illustrated explained or reconciled II. Of some places of Scripture differently read from the ordinary Translation III. Of Authors or their Works quoted IV. Of Hebrew and Greek words explained V. Of Principal Matters or Things Alphabetically digested THE PREFACE TO THE READER ALthough this very Learned Author's Epistles and Prefaces to many of the English pieces contained in this Volume may save me much the labour of a general Preface to them all Yet it may be convenient to add something concerning the use of this kind of Learning the Author himself and these English Tracts of his AS for the First the Reader must not expect a Treatise about it in a Preface to Anothers Book But only some brief suggestions for the direction and encouragement of the Studious that the Author might not seem to have employed so much time and tedious labour too fruitlesly in Writing nor my self somewhat of both in Reviewing Correcting and Publishing what is here presented to him There seems to me two chief Points of a more comprehensive Wisdom the one is justly to estimate and prize the several parts of Knowledge and that principally from their usefulness not so much from their Antiquity their being esteemed and cultivated perhaps by great Personages or the like slight and pedantique considerations any further than as they are signs or arguments of the former The other is to understand the inclinations capacity and ability of any person for one or more of them These two things are principally to be observed by those who apply themselves to any study and indeed to any imployment in making their choice Which is in it self of greatest use and importance and which a person can make most progress in what is best in it self and what he can best do If any thing be of no good use or advantage it is not to be undertaken at all if a man wants ability or capacity for it it is not to be attempted by him Although there be truly great difference between the several sorts of Science in respect of their value yet there is hardly any which hath not its use and oft-times much more than the ignorance or envy or fashion or humor of an Age will allow There are four things which our Author hath been very diligent and laborious in and where we may be considerably benefited by the Reading of these Tracts I. The Chronology of the Holy Scriptures II. Their Chorography III. Their Original Texts and various Versions IV. Talmudical and Rabbinical Authors First For Chronology it is nothing but the knowledge of the Relation and the existence of things one to another before with or after and particularly with the conversions and situations of the Sun and Moon i. e. years months weeks days as being the most constant and the most universally known Though the time of a things existence may be and frequently is characterized by the existence of other things likewise nor is it so casie to define what is the first measure of time But this is not so much to our purpose The uses of the knowledge both of the times of writings and of their matter or contents are very considerable and in short these among others First From thence we collect many other circumstances and consequently a more full and adequate knowledge of things such as place Authors qualities conditions persons to whom reasons why and twenty others Whence it frequently helps to the discovery of the true writing in an Author or of its meaning and sense and in prophane and fallible writings the truth or falshood of things themselves therein delivered Instances of the former are numerous in the Scriptures for as to the latter the truth of what is delivered therein we are secure As in pag. 80. of the ensâ—ing Volume according to our Author the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of the Kingdom of Asa 2 Chron. XVI 1. in the thirty sixt year of which Baasha King of Israel is said to come up against Judah is not his personal but his National Kingdom if I may so call it not his Reign but the Kingdom of Judah in opposition to that of the ten Tribes since their division This appears from the Chronology or computation of Baasha's reign who is said 1 Kings XV. 33. to begin it in the third of Asa and to continue it but twenty four years that is to the twenty seventh of Asa and this according to all the translations too Baasha therefore could not come up against Israel in the thirty sixt of Asa's reign being understood of his personal reign or Kingdom Wee 'l take leave to argue from the Chronology of the Scripture especially where all Copies and Translations agree notwithstanding the assertions and conjectures of the late famous Critick * Praf to Crit. Hist. of Old Testament That no exact Chronology what for no time can be stated upon the Authority of these Books till he lays surer foundation for his Opinion and more particularly explains it However this and other following instances are proofs and illustrations of what use Chronology may be although the integrity and truth of the present writing in the Hebrew Copies be only supposed not proved Thus also Omri's beginning to reign over Israel twelve years in the thirty first year of Asa King of Judah according to the Hebrew Text and all the Versions must have the sense which Chronology will there allow vid. Harmony of the Old Testament pag. 81. In p. 87. Ahaziah's being forty two years old when he began to reign 2 Chron. XXII 2. and Jehojachin eight years old 2 Chron. XXXVI 9. must be otherwise rendred than it usually is to make it consistent with Chronology supposing no error in the Hebrew Text. But both the Greek and Oriental Versions in the first place having the number twenty two or twenty instead of forty two and in the other place the Oriental Versions having eighteen instead of eight makes it probable that there is a mistake Grotius's confident assertion concerning the
Though it be confessed too that the exact agreement of the story in both places according to the Samaritan is on the other hand considerable for the readding of the Samaritan Text. The Repetitions of the Samaritan in Exod. XVII after vers 14 19 22. from Deut. XXIV V. with some alterations as in many other places and the interposition of a whole sentence Exod. XXII 10. and elsewhere these I say being all absent from all the Translations are arguments of the integrity of the Hebrew copy in general and particularly in those places Nor can I believe but in that vexatious question of the two Cainans Gen. X. 24. and Luke III. 36. the Septuagint is corrupted and the Hebrew Copy in the right since the Samaritan Text and Version and all other Translations agree with the Hebrew And even the Vatican Copy of the Septuagint in 1 Chron. I. hath quite left out the second Cainan and the Alexandrine Copy as it once hath it so it hath once omitted it also But then 2 on the other hand it is to be acknowledged that sometimes the consent of other Versions are an argument of defect or error in our present Hebrew Copies For through the Hebrew Copies we have be beyond all comparison the best and nearest the Originals yet it is too much partiality or superstition to believe that there are not therein some faults considerable to be corrected by the translations of which examples are frequent in the restoring of other Authors and particularly Ignatius's his Epistles by Primate Usher In that known place Psal. XXII 16. the English translation hath truly read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they pierced my hands and my feet But in our present Hebrew Copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a Lyon my hands and my feet That there is a defect in all these Hebrew Copies and that it was formerly written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have pierced or digged my hands and my feet all the Versions except the Chaldee Paraphrase confirm Besides that the present reading is non-sense except it be supplied with some Verb as it is by the Chaldee Paraphrast which upon this Book of the Psalms and upon the Hagiographa is of no great antiquity where we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. like a Lion biting my hands and my feet But this is very Precarious and such an Ellipsis though the Hebrew abounds with that figure as seems contrary to the Genius of the Biblical Hebrew and perhaps without example Not now to mention that according to the Masora it self it must be here read in another sense than as a Lion for it here notes that in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is twice found in the Bible with the Vowel â— but in two different significations and that the other place is Isa. XXXVIII 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our English translation I reckoned till morning that as a Lyon so will he break all my bones In this last place no doubt but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie as a Lyon therefore in the first place of Psal. XXII it must not signifie so but some other sense These are things known sufficiently to the Learned but not to beginners in this sort of Literature nor in our Language and therefore it may not be superfluous to mention them Nor that of Psal. CXLV 14. where all the Translations except the Chaldee Paraphrase again interposing a whole verse to this sense The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works makes it highly probable besides the argument from the Alphabetical beginning of every verse one of which will be wanting without that interposition that so much is left out in all our modern Hebrew Copies which was in the more ancient whatever the industrious and laborious Hottinger may briskly and warmly after his Thâ—s Philolog manner say in defence of them though the repetition of that verse with the alteration of two words in the seventeenth verse may be some argument on the other side That famous place of difficulty Exod. XII 40. The sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years would be justly suspected of defect from the Samaritan Text and Alexandrine Copy of the Seventy though there was no evidence from Chronology Both of which have it The sojourning of the children of Israel and of their Fathers in Egypt and Canaan and even the Roman edition of the Seventy adds the land of Canaan to Egypt In old Jacobs Prophesie concerning his youngest son Joseph Gen. XLIX 22. The Samaritan Text confirmed by the Seventy seems much the better reading than the Hebrew In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which our English translation renders whose branches run over the wall But indeed according to the present punctation it can hardly be construed But in the Samaritan Text it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Joseph my youngest son which also well answers that in the prediction concerning Reuben vers 3. Reuben my first born In Gen. IV. 8. The agreement of the Samaritan Text and Version the Syriack Septuagint Vulgar Latine for the interposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Samaritan Text i. e. let us go into the field in the speech of Cain to Abel besides the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he said necessarily requiring it and a void space left in the Hebrew Copies makes it extreamly probable that those words are really wanting in our present Books As for the great difference of the intervals or sum of years from the Creation to the Flood and from the Flood to Abraham's birth which is between the present Hebrew the Samaritan and the Septuagint I leave it to Chronologers This is not a place to dispute it That there are also many Errata's and faults in many places of the present Hebrew of single letters both consonants and vowels I mean the sounds not the characters of vowels which without doubt are very late cannot reasonably be denyed by one unprejudiced as principally from other arguments so from one or more of the Versions I do not allow of all the Examples produced by Learned Men and some of them as much partial on the other hand and almost spiteful against the Hebrew But I think some instances are just and reasonable As to single out one or two Psal. II. 9. we read now in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Thou shalt break them with a rod or rather a scepter of Iron But in the Septuagint and in the New Testament as Rev. I. 27. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt feed or rule them to which agree all the other translations except the Chaldee Paraphrase Whence we have very likely reason to believe that they did read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew which signifies thou shalt feed
〈◊〉 of two repugnant significations because the Arabick sometimes translating it according to some of their Lexicographers is of that kind I know that the English to lett signifying to permit comes from the Dutch word Belaten not from letten but the word lett in English signifying to hinder is written with the same letters and answers to the Dutch letten in one sense whence one might infer that letten in the Dutch should have the same significations But I fear I shall almost tyre my Reader before I come to that I principally designed which was the benefit and advantages of Talmudical and Rabbinical Learning the chief talent of this learned and laborious Author This kind of study hath now flourished in these Western parts about the space of one Century and somewhat more But at present begins as it seems to be neglected and laid aside partly because it is thought that the best of it is already extracted and prepared to our hands by the hard and assiduous labours of many both Learned and Judicious Men in which may be much mistake partly because it requires much time and pains not attended with such secular Advantages as other Studies more easie and delightful Since its restauration it hath had somewhat the fortune of Chymistry and hath been by degrees inspected improved and used not only by men of whimsey memory or vanity but by the more Wise Judicious and Philosophical Many of both sorts have given us a large account and examples of the great usefulness of it perhaps besides some more instances of what they have observed I may suggest or more insist on one or two which they have not taken so much notice of First then The very knowledge of the opinions and customs of so considerable a part of mankind as the Jews now are and especially have been heretofore is valuable both for pleasure and use It is a very good piece of History and that of the best kind viz. of Humane Nature and that part of it which is the most different from us and commonly the least known to us And indeed the principal advantage which is to be made by the wiser sort of men of most writings is rather to see what men think and are than to be informed in the Natures or Truth of things they write of To observe what thoughts and passions have run through mens minds what opinions and manners they are of Particularly it is of good importance here to take notice of the strange ignorance the putid fables the impertinent trifling the ridiculous discourses and disputes the odd conceits the fantastical observations and explications the childish reasonings the groundless arrogance and self-conceit the superstitious temper of this people universally except Maimonides and one or two Modern more Philosophically given who yet had enough of it too The very Spirit of Hypocrisie Weakness Pride and Superstition which our Saviour and the Prophets those illustrious Preachers of inward and real Righteousness of a solid and intelligent Piety and Virtue reproved and inveighed against in their times runs still generally through their writings It appears yet by them how blindly or hypocritically they prize the smaller matters of their Religion and their own additional circumstances beyond the weightiâ—r and more important They make a great noise of their being Gods peculiar people in special Covenant with him of the Divinity of their Religion and the jus Divinum of all their little institutions and non-sensical mysteries especially of their Cabbala either from the groundless and whimsical interpretation of some command of their Law or from uncertain or false tradition when in the mean time they little mind the great end and design of what is true and useful in them They will dispense with Charity and Humanity it self to observe their own decisions while they think it lawful to compass the Death of an Israelite who wears Linsey-woolsey and unlawful to take up a Heathen out of the Sea ready to perish They talk as if God were so enamoured of their Ancestors and doted on their posterity that he made the World only for their sake and thought himself still so obliged to them for their honour they do to him by preferring and chusing him and his Laws and Religion before others that he must needs be their Protector and Saviour nor ever suffer one of those his dear people to perish or scarce come to any harm This is a disease in all Religions and but too ready to creep into the best of Religions Christianity it self Which hath so expresly discover'd and severely condemned it in the foolish Hypocrites of the Mosaical Religion to which it succeeds We may further also observe how much the Jews and other Oriental people are given to strange uncouth and strong imaginations especially about intellectual things like the Pythagorean's and Platonists who had their Learning and Notions from the East and the South which as it hath its use for invention and discovery sometimes of more than what ever enters into the thoughts of the dull generality of mankind so it is a great disadvantage of nature too stuffing the mind with a great many impertinencies follies and falshoods and that believed with great pertinacity unless it be managed by the supreme faculties of understanding reason and judgment After all this a man may meet with some opinions among them either by chance or Tradition and many Institutions Rites and Laws with the explication and application of them which may be good hints to Wiser Men. Though I have been generally inclinable to believe that the most of the considerable Doctrines among them about intellectual matters in Divinity and Philosophy As concerning the Nature and Attributes of God some things of the Messia the nature and orders of Angels of the Holy Spirit and Divine presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Resurrection of the dead the Immortality of Souls and their states after death of the first and second death of a kind of Purgatory of the day of judgment of original sin c. of some of which there is some account in the Theol. Jud. of Du Voisin I say I have been always prone to think that the Jews especially the Modern such as Ramban Rasi Saadia Kimchi Abarbanel c. have received them though insensibly and not known to themselves and with some mixture and interpolation of their own from Heathen and Christian Philosophers Fathers Schoolmen who first taught them and set them about in the World I have said the most not all and this I think I could make probable in many particulars if this were a place for it But this is enough for the first Advantage A second use of the Talmudical and Rabbinical Authors may be the confirmation of the History of our Saviour Jesus the true Messias That there were such persons as Jesus and his Disciples who lived in such a Country and in such an Age that he performed such actions and delivered such
find he hath here taken little notice of the first and I think most genuine interpretation and started a new one Because of the Angels that is saith he because of the messengers or deputies of espousals the Women were permitted the liberty either of unvailing their faces to shew their comliness and beauty or of vailing them to shew their modesty Which interpretation as it shews his notable conjectural faculty so it seems to me remote and improbable For first It is hard to find any instance in the Scripture where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any addition signifies an office and not an order of beings which we call Angels nor in the Rabbines themselves as he acknowledgeth do we find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying those deputies unless they have been before mentioned together Secondly The Apostle speaks not only of Women to be married but of Women in general married or unmarried whereas the reason by this interpretation of the Womens having power on their Heads would reach only the unmarried But this only occasionally and to fill up a Page In the late ill and unjust Times he was not for nothing taken from his Country employment and put into the Mastership of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge By those who out of interest did oftimes respect and draw in Persons of some Account and Reputation for Learning Here he continued till the happy Return of our Sovereign to the rightful possession of his Crown and Kingdom when he soon ranged himself in the Church of England in which his Innocency and Learning were so far taken notice of by his Superiours and especially the late most Reverend and Generous Archbishop and the Lord Keeper Bridgman two impartial countenancers of honest Men and Scholars that as I have been informed they always used him with kindness respect and liberality And indeed his Dedicatory Epistles before his Latine Commentaries on St. Mark and St. John are sufficient witnesses both of his Benefactors and his gratitude By their care and bounty it was that what he had before his Majesties Restauration was continued to him and moreover a Prebendary of Ely bestowed upon him In those Stations he followed his Studies and constantly and honestly discharged his duty till his Death which hapned in December in the year 1675. And thus much of the Author Much more without doubt might be said to his Advantage by those who had more acquaintance with him or knew him better I have done what right I could to his Worth and Memory It remains only in the last place that we say something concerning this Edition of these several pieces of the Author and so conclude this somewhat long Preface All his Writings being in very good esteem here among us and in greater beyond Sea where I have been more than once enquired of about them and his English ones being grown scarce some Booksellers were desirous to reprint these in English and put them altogether in one fair Volume In order to which they requested me to Dispose Revise Correct and put some Preface before them which I have now done I have ordered them according to their more natural use not according to the time of publishing them by the Author and therefore I have put in the first place The general Harmonies of the Old and New Testaments then the particular Books as the Harmony of the four Evangelists his Observations on Genesis and Exodus his Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles and in the rear his two Tracts of the Temple Service and Miscellanies which contain many Observations applicable and useful to the interpretation of the Scriptures The latter of which was written by him when very young and when that Learning was not so much cultivated nor dispersed by others Works and therefore no wonder if there be in it many things now more ordinary and well known I have Corrected hundreds of Errors both in the Texts and History and in the Chronology and Figures In the first notwithstanding I left some small Matters as being uncertain whether they were the Printers faults or the Authors own way of Writing which was sometimes a little out of the common road My principal care was in the Hebrew Talmudical and Rabbinical quotations which were generally misprinted This I thought more worth the pains because the many Citations and Translations of these Authors are a very considerable help for young beginners to understand them otherwise tedious and difficult enough They are many and very useful examples so that many good notions may be gotten at the same time with the Language In the Chronology were a great number of faults likewise to be mended Those which were more manifest and plain I did alter but some which to me seemed mistakes yet uncertain whether it was the Authors opinion I have left to the observation and correction of others if they see cause And indeed it would have been endless to have examined all the little accuracies as the Interregnums the concurrent reigns of several Kings especially the last and first years when they were compleat and in order succeeding one another when they were in part coincident and concurrent so that the last year of one should be the first of another There is one thing generally altered for the best Whereas in the former Edition the numbers of several Epocha's answering one another were set any how as the Printer could hit it now they are put one over against another in the same line except here and there where the Printers have neglected my directions in the Copy of which I shall presently advise by an instance or two There is also a place or two where I know not how to reconcile the numbers as in pag. 99 100. For Jotham's first year and Uzziah's last and the 3252 d year of the World should be concurrent according to the Author himself unless he gives a double sense to the word reign of Jotham namely one more improper as Deputy to his Father Uzziah struck with Leprosie in his last year and the other more proper by himself alone the year after his Fathers death which is a way of Solution he sometimes useth How far it is to be allowed I am not here to say I am not to set down my own but my Authors sense be it what it will or what others can make of it And in general once for all I hope no man will think me oblig'd to applaud or approve every notion or remark of these Treatises It is not my business to make an Author but to give him made not to tell what the Author should say but what he hath said every one may take or leave as he pleaseth For he seems I confess too seriously to make and imitate Cabbalistical and Rabbinical observations such as that of the Talmudists and Baal Hatturim But sometimes perhaps the importance of the matter of the observation more than the certainty or probability of
Learning and in the fame of his Coat and of his Country The next Book to the Polyglot Bible for Labour and Worth and which is always to be named with it is the Heptaglot Lexicon to the laborious Author of which our Doctor also contributed his aid A Work it was of seventeen years a seventeen years drudgery as he styles it in one of his Letters in which besides his own pains he maintained in constant salary seven English and as many strangers for his assistants all which died some years before the Work was finished and the whole burthen of it fell upon himself Though by Gods grace he at last finished it before it finished him And here I cannot but turn a little out of my way to condole with this Author that wore out himself and his Estate too in a Work so generally beneficial and had little thanks after for his labour See and pity his condition as he sets it out in one of his Letters to Dr. Lightfoot where he says He had spent twenty years in time to the publick service above 12000 l. of his own estate and for a reward left in the close of the Work above 1800 l. in debt Thus he kept his resolution though it was as fatal to him as useful to the World For in the beginning of the undertaking he resolved to prosecute it though it cost him all his Estate as he told Mr. Clark This forced him to make his condition known unto his Majesty wherein he petitioned That a Jaylmight not be his reward for so much service and expense T is pity such true Learning and hard Labour should meet with no better encouragement But to go back whence for mere charity and commiseration we diverted In this great undertaking Dr. Castel more than once acknowledgeth the help of our Author Sure I am my Work could never have been so intire as it is without you All pretenders to the Oriental Tongues must confess their great obligation to you And in another Letter with which he sent him his Lexicons he tells him That his Name ought to have shined in the Front who had given the most orient splendor if there be any such in them unto all that is Printed and may therefore most justly saith he be called Yours And again He calls him His greatliest and most highliest honoured Master Father and Patron Indeed our Doctor did frequently encourage and comfort him with his Letters got him Subscribers and Friends afforded him his Lodgings at Katherine Hall whensoever he came to Cambridge to read his Arabick Lectures for some years and such like kindnesses For which he always professed a most dear affection and honour for him Another great Man in this kind of Learning I mean Mr. Samuel Clark one employed in both the aforesaid great Labours applied to him for his Counsel and help in a learned Work that he designed for the publick Which was the publishing of the Targum upon the Chronicles with his own Translation which was a part of the Hebrew Bible belonging to the Library of the University of Cambridge A MS. it seems that the University set so highly by that he made three journies to Cambridge before he obtained it But he borrowed it at last by Dr. Lightfoots means about the year 1659. And by the Doctors interest had it continued to him for some years This he designed as soon as he had finished it to joyn with some other Additionals to the Polyglot Bible Which design he communicates to our Doctor before he came to a resolution about it telling him that if he and such as he approved the design it would be an encouragement to him to proceed in it That the Doctor approved of his purpose it appears from that constant assistance that he gave him afterwards about it Mr. Clark sending it as he transcribed and translated sheet by sheet for the Doctors review and correction For which in a Letter dated from Holywel Sep. 3. 1667. He professeth himself exceedingly engaged to him for the great pains he had taken and that he had so freely declared his judgment in some places he had noted being so far from unwillingness saith he to have my errors shewed me that I am very thankful to you for it and entreat you to go on as freely with the rest This Targum it seems by a place in the Talmud mentioning Onkelos the Doctor was moved to think Onkelos might be the Author of For which discovery Mr. Clark heartily thanks him telling him that he would do him a great favour if he would please to let him know his sense of it whether he conceived that passage of weight enough to entitle him to this his Targum as he calls it upon the Chronicles This same worthy Person had Printed that Tract of the Talmud called Beracoth which he sent to our Doctor desiring his impartial judgment upon his performance therein and begging him to signifie to him wherein he might be guilty of mistake Nor ought we to forget the assistance he gave to the Author of the Synopsis of the Criticks upon his desire For he cheerfully devoted himself to the publick good First He encouraged him with an ample Testimonial of the usefulness of the design in general and of the careful and impartial management of it by the undertaker Then as to his pains in the Work it self he seems to have reviewed it piece by piece as it passed from the hand of Mr. Pool before it went to the Press For in one Letter he tells the Doctor that he therewith sent him one part upon Numbers begging still his thoughts upon any thing as he should meet with it He likewise promised him in such places as he observed to be most defectively done to give him some explications tending to the clearing of the Hebrew words or phrases or matter which Mr. Pool designed to bring â—nto a distinct Volume as Paralipomena to go under the Doctors name by themselves with some other things as Appendices to his Work as De Nummis ponderibus mensuris De Templo Quaestiones Chronologicae Chorograpicae Historicae c. Some sheets of these Explications of Scripture I have seen which he had sent to Mr. Pool according to his promise There is all the Book of Josua and some Chapters of Exodus and Numbers Where the Doctor proceeds Chapter by Chapter briefly to give the sense or illustration of difficult passages according to the Talmudists and Rabbins But this last designed additional Volume I think Mr. Pool never published And this was not all for in another Letter he takes notice of a promise made him by the Doctor of his assistance in reference to the Historical Books of the Old Testament from Josua to Job out of the Rabbins and Talmud unless perhaps this was the same with the former VI. The addresses of Learned Men to him IT would be endless to mention the Applications of Learned Men to him The deeply Learned Mr. Herbert Thorndike in the
year 1669. writ to him a long Letter desiring him to communicate the sum of his judgment concerning Morinus his Exercitations of the Jews in the second Book of his Exercitationes Biblicae Mr. James Calvert a Learned Man of York begs his advice about the right position of the Priests portion in the holy square of Ezekiel This Learned Man for the clearer understanding of divers passages in the Prophetical writings was inclined to think that that Vision of Ezekiel commonly understood mystically is rather literal and historical The only or main objection against this Hypothesis is the placing of the Priests Portion for if the Temple be either five or thirty miles distant from the City there can be no question but that the Vision is mystical they are his words but if there be an error in placing of the Priests portion and that the City and Sanctuary may meet together the greatest objection against the literal sense will be removed And thus concludes his Letter Sir I do not know your person but I have both read and heard so much of your excellent Learning and your candid and ingenuous nature that it emboldens me to write thus freely to you and to entreat you that as you have hitherto so you would still make this one great end of your rare Learning to illustrate the Scripture Text that instead of too many aerial and subtil speculations the Church of Christ may be fed with solid food I mean the simple and sincere meaning of the Holy Ghost be it History or Mystery It would be too long to tell of young Buxtorph upon whom the Magistrates of Basil conferred his Fathers Hebrew Professors place at seventeen years of age Maximo Parente spe major filius as Dr. Castel characters him John Henricus Ottho a Learned Man of Berne in Switzerland Frederick Miege a Noble Learned and Ingenious German D. Knory a very Learned Man of Silesia Theodore Haac and many other forrainers of divers Nations that came into England chiefly to see Dr. Lightfoot and to be directed in their Rabbinical Studies by him All whom he did with much humanity and affability receive and from him they departed with great satisfaction as by their Letters to him after their departure does appear VII His Correspondences HE held a Learned Correspondence especially with persons most eminent for that recondite Learning that he was so famed for and was dear unto and highly valued by them Namely The great Buxtorph while he lived and at home the Right Reverend Father in God Brian Lord Bishop of Chester deceased Dr. Pocok Hebrew Professor at Oxon Dr. Castel Arabick Professor at Cambridge Dr. Marshal the Reverend and Learned Rector of Lincoln College Oxon Mr. Samuel Clark sometime Keeper of the Famous Library of the University of Oxon Dr. Worthington sometime Master of Jesus College in Cambridge Mr. Bernard of S. Johns College Oxon all Men famous in their generation whose names we need only mention and among the laity he held a most intimate friendship and correspondence with Sir Tho. Brograve of Hertfordshire Baronet his Neighbour and Kinsman a Gentleman well seen in those abstruser Studies Nor did their Letters consist of vain strains of Complements nor were they stuffed with idle and unprofitable News of affairs in the State but they carried deep and Learned enquiries about difficulties of Scripture or doubts in their Oriental Studies they conferred about brave and high Designs for the better promoting of Truth and Religion and solid useful Learning One Conference I meet with between Dr. Castel who was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Propounder and our Doctor The Resolver was upon this subject proposed by the former Whether when the ordinary Interpretation of any Hebrew words renders the sense hard and rough recourse may not be had to the Interpretation of those words according as they signifie in Syriac Chaldee or Arabic This question had been occasioned from Dr. Lightfoots excellent Interpretation of that difficult place Ezek. VIII 17. Upon which place he put a fair sense as it seems by Interpreting some word or words there according to some of those Languages Whereupon he tells him That he met often with many seeming contradictions and absurdities in our English though one of the best as well as in other Versions As Job III. 5. Let the shaddow of death stain it in the margent chalenge A Catacresis I remember not to be found elsewhere But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word there used in the Arabic use is Excipere Colligere as the LXX not there alone best Chap. XV. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou speaking to Job restrainest prayer Whereas Job was often in Prayer in Arabic in which Language many words with him occur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to Protract and Multiply as the Syriac and Arab there render it Thou art much in complaints Chap. XVIII 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aucupia Verborum again from the Arab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contradicendi vices as the Arab and Chaldee both Chap. XVI 18. O Earth cover not thou my blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that there should be no place to my cry Because blood is a Crying sin To pray his Cry should have no place I am a Davus to that sense Prov. XXIII 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he thinks in his heart and yet his heart is not with thee seem very repugnant Whereupon he propounds this Question That meeting with a World of these seeming contradictions every day he â—râ—â—es his judgment Whether the Arab Chaldee Syrian may not sometime sit upon the Bench and pass their Vote concerning their old Mothers meaning All the News communicated between these Correspondents was about the further progress of Oriental Learning the discovery of more Books of that Nature c. which was the best and joyfullest news to them It may be it will not be amiss to communicate a Letter or two of this nature The one is of the aforesaid Dr. Castel written 1664. Sir Though I perish it comforts me not a little to see how Holy Writ flourishes I lately received an Armenian Psalter given me by Professor Golius come newly off the Press where they are Printing at Leyden the whole Bible in that Language The Old Testament is there Printing in the Turkish Language perfected by Levinus Warnerus The New Testament in Turkish done by Mr. Seaman is just now in the Press at Oxford of which I have some sheets by me as I have also of the old Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels now Printed with a Glossary to them at Leyden Mr. Petreus hath Printed some parts of the Old Testament in Ethiopic and hath many more prepared both in that and the Coptic Language The Lithuanian of which I have a good part by me and the New England Bibles I need not name I have a specimen of a Turkish Dictionary Printed at Rome and of a Chaldee Dictionary in folio in the Hebrew Language composed by the Learned Coken
destroyeth Senacheribs Army yet should Judah at last be also cast off and become Lo-ammi and then the Gentiles should be called in in Israels and Judahs stead And thus having laid the generals of his Prophesie down in the first Chapter he goeth on in the second to particularize upon those heads and to shew the reason and manner of the Jews rejection and the manner and happiness of the Gentiles calling And thus the time of these two first Chapters is reasonably apparent 3. His third and fourth Chapters may be supposed to have been delivered by him at the same time because in Chap. 4. 3. he speaketh of the Plagues of Locusts and that Amos and Joel had spoken of fore-telling them also as they had done In the third Chapter under the parable of another marriage with an adulterous wife he fore-telleth the iniquity of the people after their return out of Babel into their own Land and also their state in their present rejection when they neither follow Idols nor God when neither as a wife they adhere to God nor yet to any other god as to another husband The fourth Chapter taketh the people up as they were in their present posture in the Prophets time and sheweth their wickedness and what Judgments the Lord had in store for them and according to this tenor he goeth on through the rest of his Book 5. The rest of the Book may be supposed coincident some of it with the times of Ahaz and some of it with the former times of Ezekiel even to the captiving of the ten Tribes as shall be observed when we come there The Prophesie of JOEL all IN these latter days of Jeroboam the second and much about the times of Amos his first prophecying among Israel did Joel also appear and begin to prophecy among Judah Some of the Hebrew Doctors have conceived him to have lived in the time of Elisha and that these threatnings of his of famine were accomplished in the seven years famine in that time 2 King 8. 1. others have supposed him to have lived and prophesied in the times of Manasseth King of Judah casting his time as much too forward as the other was too backward but his Subject matter will declare his time for seeing he speaketh of the same Plague of Locusts and of drought and fire that Amos doth it is an argument sufficient to conclude that Amos and he appeared about the same time He sadly bemoaneth and describeth in his two first Chapters the miserable famine and grievous condition that the people were brought into through the Plagues of Locusts and Drought and painteth out the Catterpillars and Cankerworms and Locusts which he calleth the Northern Army as if they were an Army of men indeed They came in at the North part of the Land from towards Syria and Hamath and kept as it were in a body and devoured all before them as they went along to the South part and there as they were facing about to go off below the point of the dead Sea the barrenness of that part affamished them who had affamished the whole Country The Prophet yet concludes afterwards with comfortable promises of Rain after the Drought and flourishing Trees and times after these Locusts And upon that discourse of the restitution of temporal blessings he riseth to speak of spiritual blessings in the days of Christ in the gift of Tongues and in the wonders that should attend Christs death and that should go before the destruction of Jerusalem and concludes in the third Chapter with threatnings against the enemies of Jerusalem and particularly foretelleth the destruction of the Army of Senacharib against which the Lord caused his mighty ones to come down vers 11. namely his Angels and destroyed them in the valley of Jehoshaphat before Jerusalem This Hosea also had particularly pointed at Hos. 1. 7. The Book of AMOS all THIS Prophesie is so clearly dated that there needeth not to use many words to shew in what time to lay it It was uttered in the days of Jeroboam and in the days of Uzziah that they lived together and of this Prophets prophesying in any Kings reign further there is no mention Almost at the end of his Book he telleth us that Jeroboam was then alive and Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would have stirred him up against Amos as against a Traytor Chap. 7. 10. c. so that this Book is to be taken in in the latter times of Jeroboam and the proper order of it falleth between the seven and twenty and eight and twenty verses of 2 King 14. And in the same place also come in the Books of Hosea and Joel And so we may observe the dealing of the Lord with Israel the plainer For whereas they had been brought very low by their enemies and their miseries were become exceeding great the Lord yet would not destroy them but would try them with one kindness more and so he gives them great ease and deliverance by Jeroboam But when both Jeroboam and they continued still in the Idolatry of the old Jeroboam and in the wickedness of their own ways the Lord sendeth these Prophets amongst them to foretel their final destruction and overthrow Amos neither a Prophet nor a Prophets son by education Chap. 7. 14. that is neither Tutor nor Scholler in the Schools of the Prophets but a Shepherd of Tekoa and of a rude breeding yet like the Galilean fishers becomes a glorious Scholler in the School of the Lord and a glorious Teacher in the Congregation of Israel He began to prophesie two years before the Earthquake and told of it before it came that the Lord would smite the Winter house with the Summer house Chap. 3. 15. and the Lintel of the door of the Idolatrous Temple should be smitten and the posts shake Chap. 9. 1. and so there should be a rent and breach in the Idoll Temple at Bethel when the Lord now came to visit them as there was at the Temple in Jerusalem at the death of Christ. It is very generally held by the Jews that this Earthquake was at that very time when Uzziah was struck Leprous but that that cannot be we shall observe when we come forward to the year of his death Amos prophesieth against six Nations besides Israel and Judah and concludeth them all under an irreversible decree of destruction for so should that clause be rendred which in every one of the threatnings breedeth so much difficulty of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not revoke it For the sense lieth thus The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem And thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke it That is I will not revoke that voyce but Damascus shall be destroyed and so of the rest For the masculine affixe in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot possibly be referred to any thing that went before but only to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His
to be found in any of the Evangelists that can interpose The four Monarchies which Daniel had told should be and should expire before the coming of Christ have now run their course and a fifth is risen far more potent and fully as cruel as all the four put together and therefore it is pictured with the badges of all the four Rev. 13. 2. compared with Dan. 7. 4 5 c. A Decree of Augustus given out at Rome becomes an occasion of accomplishing a Decree of the Lords namely of the Birth of the Messias at Bethlehem He is born under a Roman taxation and now that Prophesie of Chittim or Italy afflicting Heber Numb 24. 24. beginneth livelily to take place The time of his Birth was in the Month Tisri which answereth to part of our September and about the Feast of Tabernacles as may be concluded upon by observing that he lived just two and thirty years old and an half and died at Easter That Month was remarkable for very many things In it the World was created the Tabernacle begun and the Temple consecrated and as the Jerusalem Gemarists well observe In it were the Fathers before the Flood born In Rosh hashanah fol. 56. cap. col 4. His Birth was in the night and attended with the Song of a whole Quire of Angels as Heb. 1. 6. and compare Job 38. 7. and with a glorious Light about Bethlehem Shepherds to whom this great Shepherd is first revealed At eight days old he is Circumcised and made a Member of the Church of Israel At forty days old he is presented in the Temple in the East Gate of the Court of Israel called the Gate of Nicanor and Maries poverty is shewed by her Offering compare ver 24. with Lev. 12. 6 8. yet her Child is owned as the consolation and expectation of Israel The first year of his Age and Infancy Christ spent at Bethlehem for whereas the Lord by the Prophet had appointed his Birth there Mich. 5. 2. his Parents had no warrant for his Education in any place but there till the Lord should give them an express for it which he did by an Angel Mat. 2. 22. Therefore how the words of Luke in chap. 2. ver 39. are to be understood we shall observe upon the next Section SECTION VII MATTH Chap. II. All the Chapter CHRIST II CHRIST homaged by the Wise Men Persecuted by Herod flies into Egypt THE order of this Section and Story is cleared by ver 7. and ver 16. by which it appeareth that Christ was two years old when the Wise Men came to him For Herod had enquired diligently of them the time when the Star appeared and according to the time that they had told him he slew the Male Children from two years old and under From two years old because they had told him it was so long since the Star appeared And under two years old because he would make sure work as to that scruple that might arise namely whether the Star were a fore-runner or a concomitant of the Birth of that King of the Jews that they spake of Now that the Star appeared at the instant of his Birth cannot but be concluded upon this consideration if there were no more That otherwise it left the Wise Men so uncertain of the time when he should be born as that they could not tell whether he were born or no no not when they were come to Jerusalem The appearance of the Star therefore was on the night when he was born and they having told Herod how long it was since it appeared he accordingly slayeth all the Children of two years old for so old according to their information did he account the Child to be for whom he sought and yet withal he slew all the Children under that age that he might be sure to hit and not fail of his design This considered it sheweth that Christ was in his second year at the Wise Mens coming and withal it proveth the order of this Section to be proper and that this Story is to be laid after the Story of Maries Purification and not before as many have laid it It may be objected indeed that Luke having given the Story of his presenting in the Temple concludeth When they had performed all things according to the Law they returned into Galilee Now if they returned into Galilee when Christ was 40 days old how was he found at Bethlehem at two years old Answ. Luke is to be understood in that passage according to the current of his own Story He had nothing to say about this matter of the Wise Men nor of Christs Journey into Egypt because Matthew had handled that to the full before and the next thing that he hath to relate is his coming out of Galilee to Jerusalem to one of the Festivals having nothing therefore to insert between his presenting in the Temple at forty days old and his coming again to the Temple at twelve years old he maketh this brief transition between when they had performed all things according to the Law they returned into Galilee that he might thereby bring Christ to Galilee from whence he came when he shewed his wisdom at twelve years old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture is always taken in the worst sense for men practising Magical and unlawful Arts and if it be to be understood so in this place it magnifieth the power and grace of Christ the more when men that had been of such a profession become the first Professors of Christ of any among the Gentiles They seeing a new and uncouth Star in the Heavens it may be the light that shone about Bethlehem-Shepherds seemed to them at distance a new strange Star hanging over Judaea are informed by God two years after what it signified and are wrought upon by his Spirit to come and homage Christ whom it pointed out Herod at the report of the King of the Jews born and that with the attendance of such a glorious Star looks upon him as the Messiah yet endeavours to murder him He is sent by the direction of an Angel with his Mother into Egypt where there was at this time an infinite number of the Jewish Nation Succah cap. 5. At Alexandria there was a great Cathedral double cloistered and sometime there were there double the number of Israel that came out of Egypt and there were 71 Golden Chairs according to the 71 Elders of the great Sanhedrin And there was a Pulpit of wood in the middle where the Minister of the Congregation stood c. The Babylon Talmud saith Alexander the Great slew these multitudes but the Jerusalem saith Trajanus did And the Author of Juchasin will shew you a truth in both For In the days of Simeon the Just saith he Alexandria which was Amon Min No was full of Israelites double the number of those that came out of Egypt c. But they were all slain by Alexander But after this it was re-peopled again
Challah fol. 58. col 3. R. Jesi in the name of R. Shabeai and R. Cajashin the name of Simeon Ben Lachish say thus A man should walk four miles to the washing of his hands It is a tradition that washing before meat is arbitrary but after meat it is duty Only that at his washing before he saies over some prayer but after not R. Jacob bar R. Isaac hereupon retorted Dost thou say he washeth and saith over a prayer and yet dost thou say that washing is arbritrary It is said he should go four miles to the washing of his hands and yet dost thou say it is arbitrary How they prized this and other traditions of the Elders above the word of God and so by and for them made that of no weight may be read too numerously in them in such like blasphemous passages as these The words of the Scribes are more lovely then the words of the Law and more weighty then the words of the Prophets And He that saith there are no Phylacteries and in so saying transgresseth against the words of the Law he is not guilty but he that saith there is five Phylacteries and in so saying addeth to the words of the Scribes he is guilty Jerus Beracoth fol. 3. col 2. The written Law is narrow but the traditional is longer then the earth and broader then the sea Tanchum fol. 4. col 4. Our Saviour damning these cursed Traditions doth instance only in that unnatural tenet of theirs that extinguisheth all filial assistance to needy Parents as if a son said to his father or mother It is Corban c. Their Canons set down the duty of a son to his father as to give him meat and drink if he stood in need and to cloath him to wash his hands feet and face and if he need to lead him in and out Tosapht in Kiddushin per 1. And yet with this superinduced Tradition they destroyed all such duty About the word Corban in the sense in which it is used here the Talmudick Treatises Nedarim and Nazir and the Tosaphtoth upon them are good explications where it is often used His resolving the case about meats not defiling the man overthrew a great part of Pharisaism for this washing before meat was meerly out of their Traditions and it was a great part of their sanctimony Moses indeed had forbidden divers things as unclean to be touched and by the touching of which the person was legally defiled but that with this reference that he was unclean as to Gods service or to the Congregation but this pretended uncleanness of theirs for which they appointed washing before meat had respect simply neither to the one nor the other Christ to a Heathen woman that begged the dispossessing of her daughter calls the Heathens Dogs and she readily understands his meaning as that being a common title that the Jews put upon them Midr. Till fol. 6. col 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nations of the world are compared to Dogs No sign given to the Pharisees when they demand one but the sign of Jonah the Prophet whereby Christ doth not only intimate his own burial and resurrection but he chiefly intendeth to hint the calling of the Gentiles after his resurrection as the Ninivites were after Jonahs which was a thing the Jews could not endure to hear of SECTION LI. MARK Chap. VIII Ver. 22 23 24 25 26. A blind man restored to sight at Bethsaida MARKS authority warrants the connexion here especially it being considered that in the preceding Section Christ and his Disciples are crossing over the Sea and here they are arrived at Bethsaida A journey by sea thither they had when Jesus fed the the five thousand in Sect 47. and now being come up to that place where that miracle was wrought it was a strange construction the Disciples made of the words of their master Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees when they thought he blamed them for not bringing bread the very place where they were might have confuted their misprision Christ openeth the eyes of a blind man but will not do it in Bethsaida but leads the man out of the Town nor will he suffer him to go into the Town when he is cured nor to tell it there He had a good while ago as hath been said denounced wo against Bethsaida Matth. 11. 21. and for her perverseness he will no more strive with her for her good He had gathered out of her those that belonged to himself SECTION LII MATTH Chap. XVI from Ver. 13 to the end of the Chapter MARK Chap. VIII from Ver. 27. to the end of the Chapter And Chap. IX Ver. 1. LUKE Chap. IX frrom Ver. 18. to V. 28. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heavengiven to Peter c MATTHEW and Mark establish the order Upon Peters confession that Jesus was The Christ the Son of the living God 1. He promiseth to build his Church upon the Rock of that Truth and the Rock confessed in it from Isa. 28. 16. Psal. 118. 22 c. 2. He promiseth the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter only of all the Apostles meaning thereby that he should be the man that should first unlock the door of faith and of the Gospel unto the Gentiles which was accomplished in Act. 10. And 3. he giveth him power of binding and loosing and this power the other Disciples had common with him Matth. 18. 18. Binding and loosing in the language and stile most familiarly known to the Jewish Nation and it can little be doubted that Christ speaketh according to common and most familiar sense of the language did refer more properly to things then to persons Therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Matth. 18. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To bind and to loose in their vulgar speech meant to prohibit and to permit or to teach what is prohibited or permitted what lawful what unlawful as may appear by these instances a few produced whereas thousands might be alledged out of their writings Talm. in Pesachim per. 4. halac 5. Our wise men say that in Judah they did work on the Passover eve till noon but in Galilee not at all And as for the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The School of Schammai bound it that is forbad to work on it or taught that it was unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the School of Hillel loosed it till sun rising or taught that it was lawful to work till sun-rise Jerus in Shabb. fol. 6. col 1. They are speaking about washing in the Bathes of Tiberias on the Sabbath and they determine how far this was lawful in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bound washing to them but they loosed sweating meaning they taught that it was lawful to go into the Bath to sweat but not to bathe for pleasure Ibid. fol. 4. col 1. They
Christ from beyond Jordan into Judea again He staies two days after he had received the message in the same place where the messenger found him and in the story of this Section he is set forward And being now upon his last journey to Jerusalem he foretelleth to his Disciples what should become of him there They followed him with fear and amazement before foreseeing that he went upon his own danger and yet when he had spoken the thing out to them at the full they understood him not SECTION LXVIII MATTH Chap. XX. from Ver. 20. to Ver. 29. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 35. to Ver. 46. The request of Zebedees sons They are told of their Martyrdom THe order is plain of it self and yet the connexion is somewhat strange for in the last words before Christ had foretold of his death yet the Sons of Zebedee here desire to sit on his right hand and left in his Kingdom Galatius resolves it thus Discipuli in errore aliquando fuerunt credentes Christum illico post resurrectionem terreni regni sceptro potiturum unde quidam eorum super caeteros primatum ambientes c. The Disciples sometimes were mistaken conceiving that Christ presently after his resurrection should obtain the scepter of an earthly Kingdom whereupon some of them ambitious of priority above the rest desired to sit on his right hand and left c. lib. 4. cap. 1. It is true indeed that the Jewish Nation and the Disciples with them erred in judging about Messias his Kingdom Act. 1. but they erred as far also about Messias his Resurrection till experience had informed them better Therefore it cannot well be imagined that the Wife and Sons of Zebedee thought of Christs Resurrection in this their request but conceived of his temporal Kingdom according to the notions of the rest of the Nation about it What therefore our Saviour had spoken instantly before of his being scourged crucified killed and Rising again they understood in some figurative sense or other but the Evangelists plainly tell us they understood it not in the sense that he spake it It may be his naming these two The sons of thunder gave them some blind incouragement to such a request Christ foretels his own death and their suffering Martyrdom under the title of Baptism in which sense the Apostle also useth the word 1 Cor. 15. 29. The Jewish baptizings or dippings in their purifications was a very sharp piece of Religion when in frost and snow and wind and weather they must over head and ears in cold water from which the phrase was used to signifie death and the bitterest sufferings The Jerusalem Gemarists do tell us that the Women of Galilee grew barren by reason of the cold in their purifyings R. Aha in the name of Tanchum bar R. Chaia saith In the days of R. Joshua ben Levi they sought to abolish this dipping because of the women of Galilee which were made barren by reason of the cold R. Joshua ben Levi saith Do ye seek to abolish a thing that fenceth Israel from transgression c. Beracoth fol. 6. col 3. SECTION LXIX LUKE Chap. XVIII Ver. 35. to the end MATTH Chap. XX. from Ver. 29. to the end MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 46. to the end Blind healed CHRIST in his journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany for the raising of Lazarus passeth through Jericho and he healeth one blind man as he entreth into Jericho of which Luke speaketh and another as he goeth out of which the other two Matthew indeed speaketh of two healed as he came out of Jericho comprehending it may be the story of him that was healed on the other side of the Town and this together in one story for briefness sake Or if there were two healed on this side of the Town Mark only mentions one because he rather aimeth at shewing of the manner or kind of the miracle then at the number as we have observed the like before at Sect. 39. SECTION LXX LUKE Chap. XIX from the beginning to Ver. 29. Zaccheus a Publican converted THe order lies plain in ver 1. Christ was passed through Jericho before he met with Zaccheus c. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai hath made the name Zaccai or Zaccheus renowned in Jewish writings his Father Zaccai might very well be now alive and for any difference of the times might well enough be the Zaccheus before us but that some other circumstances do contradict it Whosoever this man was it is observable that though his name Zaccheus speak him a Jew yet Christ reputes him not a Child of Abraham till he believe ver 19. Ver. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of Heaven should immediately appear Observe this this they had learned from Dan. 9. where the time is so punctually determined that they that looked for the consolation of Israel could not but observe it and they that observed could not but see it now accomplished SECTION LXXI JOHN Chap. XI from Ver. 17. to the end of the Chapter Lazarus raised Caiaphas Prophecieth NOw is Christ come up to Bethany Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Talm. Bab. Pasachin fol. 53. facie 1. where they speak of the figs of Bethhene and the dates of Tubni be the same with this Bethany we shall not dispute here Both a Town and some space of ground about it was called by this name Bethany As he had staied in the place where he was when he heard of Lazarus sickness purposely that he might die before he came to him that God might be the more glorified by his raising ver 15. so did he make sure to stay long enough after he was dead before he came that the glory might be the more He had been four days dead ver 39. Compare with this these sayings of the Jews Maym. in Gerushin per. ult If one look upon a dead man within three days after his death he may know him but after three days his visage is changed Jerus in Moed Katon fol. 82. col 2. Three days the Soul flies about the body as if thinking to return to it but after it sees the visage of the countenance changed it leaves it and gets it gone Upon the miracle wrought the Jews seek to kill Jesus and Lazarus both whereupon Jesus goeth to a City called Ephraim ver 54. Talm. Bab. in Menachoth fol. 85. fac 1. Juchne and Mamre Jannes and Jambres said to Moses Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim Gloss. Ibi. Juchne and Mamre were the chief Sorcerers of Egypt they when Moses began to do miracles thought he had done them by magick they said Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim Ephraim was a place that exceedingly aboundeth with corn and darest thou bring Corn thither meaning Dost thou bring Sorceries into Egypt that abounds so with Sorceries Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephraim was a City in the Land of Israel where there was abundance of Corn. Where is the chiefest provision for Offerings The chiefest
punishments but they had of corporal namely of scourging to fourty stripes save one Hence it is that Christ foretels his Disciples In the Synagogues you shall be beaten Mark 13. 9. and hence had Paul his five scourgings 2 Cor. 11. 24. So that in every Synagogue there were Elders that ruled in Civil affairs and Elders that laboured in the Word and Doctrine And all things well considered it may not be so monstrous as it seems to some to say it might very well be so in those times in Christian Congregations For since as it might be shewed that Christ and his Apostles in platforming of the model of Christian Churches in those times did keep very close to the platform of the Synagogues and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Jews in Judaism and Jews that were turned Christians nor betwixt those Religions for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity why might not Christian Congregations have and exercise that double Function of Ministry and Magistracy in them as well as the Jewish Synagogues And if that much controverted place 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a sense it were neither irrational nor improbable Nor to interpret Paul speaking to such a tenour here Only his appointing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the less esteemed in the Church to be appointed for that work is of some scruple what if it allude to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Committee of private men Of which there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Doctors See Maymon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 253. col 1. 3. It was the old Jewish garb when they went to pray to hide head and face with a vail to betoken their ashamedness and confusion of face wherewithal they appeared before God And hence is the conjunction of these two words so common in their Writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He vailed himself and prayed And this for a current rule The wise men and their schollars may not pray unless they be vailed Maymon in Tephillah per. 5. To which let us add that of Sueton. in Vitell. cap. 2. Lucius Vitellius saith he had an excellent faculty in flattering he first set afoot the worshipping of Caius Caesar for a God when returning out of Syria he durst not go to him but with his head vailed and then turning himself about he fell prostrate Again it was the custom of the Jewish women to go vailed or their faces covered whensoever they went into publick A woman saith Maymony may not go into publick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if she have not a vail on In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 24. And this the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jewish Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The garb of modesty Chetubboth per. 7. and Alphes ibid. Where they say that that those women transgress the Jewish Law that go forth unvailed or that spin in the streets or that talk with every man Now in this Church of Corinth the men retained the Jewish custom that they prayed vailed or with their head and face covered but the women transgressed their Jewish Law for they went unvailed and bare faced into the publick Congregation and their reason was as it seemeth by the Apostles discourse because they in regard of their beauty and comly feature needed less to be ashamed before God in his worship then the men The Apostle reproves both and argues that if the man pray vailed who is the Image and glory of God then much more should the woman who is but the glory of the man But he cries down the mans praying vailed as dishonouring his head and exhorts that the woman have power on her head because of the Angels cap. 11. 10. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we observed instantly before out of Maymony signified a womans vail doth also signifie power or dominion and accordingly the Apostle speaketh Let the Woman have power on her head But what means he by Because of the Angels I should answer Because of the Devils for these he had called Angels also a few Chapters before viz. Chap. 6. 3. And his words may be construed to this sense that Women should not expose their faces openly in the Congregation lest the Devil make a bait of their beauty and thereby intangle the eyes and hearts of the men who should be then better imployed then gazing and longing after beauty There are that by Angels understood the Ministers and interpret it that Women should be vailed lest the Ministers eyes should be intangled by their faces which exposition if it be admitted it may speak for the admission of that also which we give which provides for the eyes of the whole congregation as well as of the Ministers 4. In the same eleventh Chapter he also blameth their disorder in receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the height of their heats and contestations Wherein they did not only not discern the Lords body a Symbole and tye of communion but they even transgressed that rule now Christians which those of them that were Jews would not have done in their Judaism It was then a Canon current and binding amongst them that none should eat and drink in their Synagogues and none should sleep Jerus in Megilla fol. 74. col 1. Maym. in Tephillah per. 11. and Gloss. in Maym. in Shabb. 30. But now as they ate and drank the Bread and the Cup in the Sacrament in their Churches and that warrantably so did they also presume unwarrantably to eat their own common Suppers there and that only in defiance one of another the rich to outface the poor and one party another with their good commons some banketing and feasting to the full whilst others sat hungry by and looked on See how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 21. signifies in the LXX Gen. 43. 34. Cant. 5. 1. Thus did they eat and drink judgement to themselves in the Sacrament whilst they would receive the symbole of communion and yet shew such signs and evidences of disunion at the very instant And the Lord accordingly overtook some of them with evident judgements weakness sickness and death avenging at once upon them the indignity done to his Sacrament and the indignity done to their brethren Much like surfeting Nabals case and end 5. And as the people were thus irregular in this part of worship in their publick assemblies so were their Ministers faulty in others namely about the managing of spiritual gifts there The pretence to the Spirit where indeed it was not hath alwaies been the great usherer in of all errour and delusion And to this the very unbelieving Jews pretended and often backed their pretences with magical impostures and of this the Apostle speaks Chap. 12. 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God as these men took on them to do can call Jesus accursed as they called him And on the other hand some that had spiritual gifts indeed failed in
no small induction to him of the writing of this Epistle and sheweth the desperate danger of it Chap. 6. 4 5 c. and Chap. 10. 26 27 c. In which his touching of it we may see how far some had gone in the Gospel and yet so miserably far fallen from it as that some of them had had the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost and yet now sinned willingly and wilfully against it In describing their guilt one of his passages that he useth is but harshly applied by some Chap. 10. 29. Hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing when they say that this horrid Apostate wretch that treads Christ under foot was once sanctified by the blood of Christ whereas the words mean Christs being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant according to the same sense that Christ is said to be brought again from the dead by the blood of the Covenant in this same Epistle Chap. 13. 20. And the Apostle doth set forth the horrid impiety of accounting the blood of the Covenant a common thing by this because even the Son of God himself was sanctified by it or set apart as Mediator And so should I understand the words He hath trodden under-foot that Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified an unholy thing He magnifieth faith against those works that they stood upon and sought to be justified by and sheweth that this was the all in all with all the holy men both before the Law and under it When he gives them caution Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau c. Chap. 12. 16. he doth not only speak according to the common tenet of the Nation that Esau was a fornicator as see Targ. Jerus in Gen. 25. but he seemeth to have his eye upon the Nicolaitan doctrine that was now rise that taught fornication to which he seemeth also to refer in those words Chap. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable c. And now henceforward you have no more story of this Apostle what became of him after the writing of this Epistle it is impossible to find out by any light that the Scripture holdeth out in this matter The two last verses but one of this Epistle trace him as far forward as we can any way else see him and that is but a little way neither Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty with whom if he come shortly I will see you By which words these things may be conjectured 1. That after his inlargement out of bonds he left Rome and preached in Italy He mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans his desire and intent to go preach in Spain Rom. 15. 24. but that was so long ago that he had now found some just cause so much time intervening to steer his course another way For 2. It appears that when he wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews he intended very shortly to set for Judea if so be he sent the Epistle to the Jews of Judea as hath been shewed most probable he did So that trace him in his intentions and hopes and you find him purposing to go to Philippi Phil. 2. 23 24. Nay yet further to Colosse Philem. ver 22. Nay yet further into Judea It is like that the Apostacy and wavering that he heard of in the Eastern Churches shewed him more need to hasten thither then to go westward 3. He waited a little to see whether Timothy now inlarged would come to him in that place of Italy where he now was which if he did he intended to bring him along with him but whether they met and travelled together or what further became of either of them we shall not go about to trace lest seeking after them we lose our selves CHRIST LXIII NERO. IX IT hath been observed before how probable it is that Albinus came into the Government of Judea in Festus room in this ninth year of Nero. And if so then was James the Apostle who was called James the less martyred this year Josephus gives the story of this Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. Caesar saith he understanding the death of Festus sendeth Albinus governour into Iudea And the King Agrippa put Ioseph from the High-priesthood and conferred it upon Ananus the son of Ananus Now this Ananus junior was extreme bold and daring and he was of the sect of the Saduces which in judging are most cruel of any of the Iews Ananus therefore being such a one and thinking he had got a sit opportunity because Festus was dead and Albinus was not yet come he gets together a Council and bringing before it Iames the brother of Iesus who was called Christ and some others as transgressors he delivered them up to be stoned But those in the City that were more moderate and best skilled in the Laws took this ill and sent to the King privately beseeching him to charge Ananus that he should do so no more And some of them met Albinus as he came from Alexandria and shewed him how it was not lawful for Ananus to call a Council without his consent Whereupon he writeth a threatning Letter to Ananus And King Agrippa for this fact put him from the Highpriesthood when he had held it but three months and placed Iesus the son of Damneas in his room THE EPISTLE OF JAMES Although therefore the certain time of his writing this Epistle cannot be discovered yet since he died in the year that we are upon we may not unproperly look upon it as written not very long before his death And that the rather because by an expression or two he intimates the vengeance of Jerusalem drawing very near Chap. 5. 8 9. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh and Behold the Judge standeth before the door He being the Apostle residentiary of the Circumcision in Judea could not but of all others be chiefly in the eyes of those that maliced the Gospel there and the Ministers of it So it could not but be in his eye to observe those tokens growing on apace that his Master had spoken of as the forerunners and forewarners of that destruction coming False Prophets Iniquity abounding Love waxing cold betraying and undoing one another that he could not but very surely conclude that the Judge and judgment was not far from the door Among other things that our Saviour foretelleth should precede that destruction this was one Matth. 24. 14. This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations and then shall the end come And so did the Gospel reach all the twelve Tribes as well as other Nations even the ten Tribes as well as the other two Therefore James a Minister of the Circumcision doth properly direct this Epistle to all the twelve Tribes scattered abroad The whole Nation was at this time some at the
the matter in their heart and put it not to question it is far more probable that John came to know this their thought by some outward expression of their own For among so great a multitude when they were all in the same doubt and hesitation it was impossible but there would break out some whisperings questions arguings or other token of the general conceit that even a slow and dull apprehension might in short time have found it out §. I indeed baptize you c. All the Evangelists have this answer of the Baptist in regard of the substance but in some circumstances there is difference among them As first whereas Luke saith that these words were occasioned from him by the thoughts of the people Matthew that hitherto hath joyned with him in this story even to the very words that hath no such thing as about the questions aforementioned nor about this supposal but joyneth this as a continued speech to the Pharisees and Sadduces but this needeth to breed no scruple seeing that it is not only usual but also necessary among the four one to relate what another hath omitted and one to declare at large what another hath done in brief Secondly Whereas both Luke and Matthew have set this testimony of the Baptist after other speeches of his made before Mark as was mentioned before hath set it the first of all his Preaching and indeed hath mentioned no speech else But this he hath done partly because he would hasten to the Baptism Preaching and Miracles of Christ partly because Matthew had set out the matter at large before but chiefly to give us to know that this witness went along with John in all his Sermons and to all companies that came to be baptized Thirdly Whereas Luke hath alledged this speech as an answer to the peoples thoughts John hath brought it as an answer to an open question Joh. 1. 25 26 27. And here it may be questioned indeed whether these two speak of one and the same thing and of the same time But the resolution is easie that they do not For as it is plain by Luke that these words mentioned by him proceeded from John before the Baptism of Christ so is it as plain by John that those in him came from him after for in ver 26. he intimateth that Christ himself had already stood among them but they knew him not No nor he himself but by the Holy Ghost which he saw descend upon him ver 33. By which is confimed what was said even now that John made sure to bear this witness to Christ at all times and before all companies Now because the eyes of the people upon himself looked at the strangeness of his Baptism and the sanctity of his person therefore doth he apply this his testimony accordingly by comparing Christ and himself and his baptism and his together and proclaiming his own inferiority in both as far as baptism with water only is below baptizing with the Holy Ghost and further then the servant that unties his Masters shoos below him that wears them §. I baptize you Mark hath it in another tense I have baptized which either may import the continuedness of Johns baptizing this being compared with Matthew and Luke as Jansenius hath conjoyned them I have baptized and do baptize you Or rather doth it intimate that he still baptized the companies that came unto him and then gave this testimony to them concerning Christ. For his preaching was first of repentance and then having won the people to be baptized he brought them to the water and baptized them in the name of him that was to come after him Act. 19. 4. So that these seem to have been the words that he used in sprinkling or applying the water I baptize thee with water but a mightier then I cometh who shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire §. With water In the Greek it is indifferently with or in answerable to the significancy of Beth the Hebrew preposition either local or instrumental And according to both senses it may be taken here For as it is undoubted that John brought those that were to be baptized into the River Matth. 3. 6. 16. So is it almost as little to be doubted that when they were there he threw and sprinkled the water upon them both to answer the types of sprinkling that had preceded in the Law and the predictions thereof that were given by the Prophets Ezek. 36. 25. understood by Hierome of baptism Epist. 83. So Act. 8. 38. The Eunuch first goeth into the water and then Philip baptizeth him §. Water As the form of the Church was changed at the coming of Christ from Jewish to Christian and from Legal to Evangelical so is it no wonder if the Sacraments were changed therewithal For if Christ were to give a new law as Moses did the old which the Jews themselves confess that he must and the Prophets had foretold that he should do it was also necessary that he should give these new as well as other things But it is some wonder that seeing he instituted the Sacrament that should succeed the Passover so near to the nature of the Passover as that it was a supper as well as it that there should such a main distance and difference be between Baptism and Circumcision the one of which should succeed the other for what affinity betwixt washing with water and cutting off of the foreskin For the better viewing of the reason of which difference it will be necessary to consider the main particulars of either Sacrament apart and then may the Reader compare them together in their variety First then Circumcision to Abraham was a seal of the promise thou shalt be the father of many Nations but to his seed of the promise of the Land of Canaan I will give to thee and to thy seed all the Land of Canaan therefore thou and thy seed after thee shall keep my Covenant Gen. 17. 8 9. And such a different end may be observed in the administration of baptism to Christ himself and the administring of it unto Christians The Text alledged sealeth the lease of the Land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham with the seal of Circumcision and confineth that Ceremony only to that Land and only to their continuance there And upon this inference I will give thy seed the Land of Canaan therefore shall they keep my Covenant it was that Joshua as soon as ever they had set foot upon that Land was commanded to circumcise them Josh. 5. And from hence it will follow first that that Land must be considered dilated as far as Circumcision went with the seed of Abraham in Ishmaelites Midianites Edomites and others Secondly Hence they will be found to erect circumcision again in the Church of Christ that hold the called Jews shall have a temporal Kingdom again in the Land of Canaan And thirdly hence it may be resolved why that Sacrament was deferred
Jews Barnaba and Barabba Consider 3. How common the Greek Bible or the LXX was in use among the Jews at this time and how much mixture of Greek words was used in their common language at this time as appeareth by the Syriack translater the Chald. Paraphrasts the Talmuds and others the most ancient Jewish Writers and then we have good cause to think that they that used the whole Bible in Greek and that used to speak so much Greek mingled with their Syriack language continually would not stick to utter one letter that sounded of the Greek when that letter was only and properly added to denote a proper name But you will say that the New Testament writeth Ezekias Josias Jonas and the like with s in the end as these words are written and yet there is none that can think that the Jews uttered those words so but as they are written in the Old Testament Ezekiah Josiah Jonah It is true that it is most like they did so but the difference betwixt them and these words that we have in hand is so apparent that it is hardly needful to shew it those were proper names originally these were common names made proper those had s added in the end not to shew that they were proper names but to supply the Hebrew h or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek in the end of a word cannot utter but these have s added in the latter end purposely and intentionally to make them proper names and to shew that they are so And 4. let it be observed How it could be possible for the Disciples in those words of our Saviour Tu es Petrus super hanc petram Math. 16. 18. to understand them otherwise than that Peter should be called the Rock if Christ used Cepha in both places Thou art Cepha and upon this Cepha Thou art a Rock and upon this Rock will I build my Church let any one but judge what interpretation they could make of it by his own construing and interpreting it according to the propriety as the words lie before him Therefore it is more than probable that Christ called his name Cephas uttering and sounding the s in the latter end and that the addition of that letter was not from the Evangelist but from Christ himself and that in the speech mentioned he thus differenced the words Thou art Cephas and upon this Cepha will I build my Church II. Now the reason why our Saviour giveth him this name Cephas or Rocky was not so much for that he was built upon the Rock for so were all the rest of the Apostles except Judas but because he had a special work to do about that building which Christ was to found upon the Rock For in those words upon this Rock will I build my Church he meaneth the Church of the Gentiles which was now in founding and in that building Peter had this special and singular work and priviledge that he was the first that preached the Gospel to the Gentiles Act. 10. Acts 15. 7. §. Which is by interpretation Peter For so should the word be rendred and not as our English hath it which is by interpretation a stone This is a passage like that in the verse preceding Messias which is by interpretation Christ and that Acts 9. 39. Tabitha which is by interpretation Dorcas where our Translaters have very properly observed and followed the intention of the Evangelists which is to give these proper names out of one language into another and not to give them out of proper names into common nouns And here they should have followed the same course which they have done in the margin but have refused it in the Text The Arabick and Vulgar Latine and divers others translate it Petrus according to our sense but the Syriack translateth not the clause at all Vers. 43. The day following Jansenius dare not suppose this to be the next day after that Andrew and the other Disciple followed Jesus to his own home but he thinks it was the day after Christ had named Simon Cephas The cause of his doubting is this because it being late towards night when Jesus and Andrew and the other Disciple came to the place where Jesus dwelt ver 39. he cannot suppose how Peter should be found and brought to Christ before the next day and yet he confesseth Epiphanius to be of opinion against him But it being observed that Peter and Andrew were brethren that they dwelt together Mar. 1. 29. that they fished together Matth. 4. 18. c. it will be no difficulty to conceive how Andrew might find out Peter upon a sodain and bring him to Jesus that very night that they came into Capernaum though it were late and accordingly there is no scruple to expound this day following of the very next day after Vers. 44. Bethsaida This was a Town that stood beside the lake of Gennesaret changed by Philip the Tetrarch into the form or state of a City and named by him Julia after the name of Caesars daughter so Josephus witnesseth Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Town Bethsaida by the lake of Gennesaret he brought to the dignity of a City both in multitude of inhabitants and in other strength and called it after the name of Julia the daughter of Caesar. Bethsaida signifieth the house or place of hunting and it seemeth to have been so called because it stood in a place where was store of Deer or Venison And to this sense is that passage of Jacob to be understood Gen. 49. 21. Nephthali a Hind let loose that is Nephthali shall abound in Venison as Asher with bread and oyl ver 20. and Judah with wine ver 11. view the places in the original Now Bethsaida stood either in or very near the tribe of Nephthali as shall be shewed elsewhere §. The City of Andrew and Peter Andrew and Peter after this removed and dwelt in Capernaum Mark 1. 21 29. because they would be near Christ whose residence was there as was observed before And there Peter pays tribute for himself as in proper place Matth. 17. 27. §. We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write c. Now to insist upon the studiousness of Philip and Nathaneel in the Law and Prophets as some collect it out of this expression there are these things most observable out of these words 1. That the whole Scriptures of the Old Testament are comprehended under these two heads the Law and the Prophets And so again Matth. 11. 13. Luke 16. 29. For though indeed the Law and the Prophets only were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day as Acts 13. 15. yet the third part of the Old Testament called Cetubhim or Hagiographa did prophesie of Christ as well as the other two and so must of necessity be included here For what book of Scriptures is more full of prophesies of Christ than the book of Psalms And what
speak of these properties indifferently without restriction of them to the one nature or the other 4. That when it doth so speak of them it doth it not in abstracto as ascribing the properties of the Godhead to the manhood or of the manhood to the Godhead but in concreto and in reference to the whole person as ascribing the properties of the one nature not to the other but to him that carried the other nature and under the title that related to that nature As it is never said that the glorious Godhead was crucified for that is nothing short of blasphemy and that were to ascribe to the Divine Nature a property or infirmity of the Humane which it is utterly uncapable of but it is said that the Lord of Glory was crucified applying the property of the manhood not to the Godhead but to the person that was God and under that title that refers to the Godhead as meaning that he that was the Lord of Glory was crucified So it were meer blasphemous to say that the Godhead with its own blood did purchase the Church but it is divinely said that God with his own blood did purchase it Act. 20. 28. To have and to shed it blood was proper only to the manhood and not to the Godhead and yet it is ascribed not to the Godhead in the abstract but personally and in concreto to him that was God And according to this sense is this place in hand to be understood The Son of man which is in Heaven He saith not the manhood which is in Heaven for that was not there till Christ ascended bodily but he meaneth that he that was man or the Son of man was also in Heaven whilest he was talking with Nicodemus upon earth Vers. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. In the former verse Christ sheweth that he is to be believed because none could fetch the heavenly Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven from Heaven but himself In this verse and forward he sheweth that he is to be believed in and that not only the believing him was to be the ground of knowledge but that believing in him is the only way of Salvation And this Doctrine he illustrates by that type of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness where the very looking upon the Serpent lifted up was healing to any that were stung nay as the Rabbins upon that story will have it to any that was wounded or hurt by any beast whatsoever The story is in Numb 21. and the occurrence was in the last year of their travail in the wilderness and the biting of the fiery Serpents was the last visible means that God used for the cutting off of the remnant of that Generation upon which he had passed a decree and sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest For we have no more related of them till they be passed over the river Zared but only that they removed to Oboth to lie Abarim and so over that River Numb 21. 10 11 12. And by that time all the Generation of the men of War were consumed as the Lord had sworn Deut. 2. 14. And this miracle wrought in the matter of the Brazen Serpent was the last miracle that was done in the hand of Moses whilest he lived And so his first and last miracle was about serpents compare Exod. 4. 3. That Christ when he speaketh here of his lifting up intendeth his being lift up upon his cross is apparent not only out of Joh. 8. 28. and Joh. 12. 32 33. where the same expression is used clearly to that sense but also out of this very comparison that he doth propose from the Brazen Serpent for he saith as that was lift up so must he be lift up now that was lift up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which R. Sol. interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon a pole or upon a post and so is Christs lifting up here to be understood upon his Cross. It is the general observation of the Jews upon that story 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were plagued by Serpents because they had done the actions of the old Serpent in using an evil tongue against God and Moses and Manna R. Tanch and Baal Turim c. Let the Serpent come saith God who was cursed for an evil tongue and be avenged on them for their evil Tongue R. Solomon How ever there was such a parallel betwixt their present sin and the old sin of the Serpent certainly there is a most sweet Harmony and parallel between the manner of their cure and the fruit of Christ crucified The Brazen Serpent was lifted up so was Christ that was the likeness of a cursed creature so Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh was made a curse for us that by Faith in him we might be cured of the wounds given us of the spiritual Serpent as these by looking upon that were healed of the venemous bitings of those corporal ones what a Doctrine of Faith was in that story and occurrence The Talmud in Rosh hashanah applies it thus What Could that Serpent kill or recover But at what time Israel looked upward and humbled their hearts before their Father which is in Heaven they were healed but if not they were brought low Per. 3. Vers. 15. That whosoever believeth in him c. This is a new and strange doctrine to Nicodemus to hear of obtaining everlasting life by believing in another whereas he had been taught all his life to expect it by the works of the Law and by performances of his own But for this Christ giveth him so plain a demonstration and argument from that story and effect of looking upon the Brazen Serpent that he cannot find wherewithal to gainsay it And so is the other part of Christs Doctrine somewhat new to Nicodemus also to hear tell of whosoever believing should obtain Salvation and that God did so love the world that he gives his only Son c. For he had dreamed with the rest of the Nation of Salvation only belonging to the Jews and of the Messias only coming to the Jews and as for the rest of the world that it was utterly unregarded and neglected of God and the people of the Nations but dogs and swine Vers. 16. For God so loved the World Some Expositors are of a mind that these are the words of the Evangelist and not a continuation of the Speech of our Saviour which is not much material whether they be apprehended for the words of the one or of the other but they appear rather to be a continuation of our Saviours speech their connexion with the words before it so close and their sense so near and making up the sense of the former The verse calls for a hearty meditation upon it rather than for a verbal explication of it for as there is no difficulty in the words but their sense is easily understood so is there abundance of
people and places equal to the misery of the despisers of the Gospel and of Christ for these places saw light again after their captivity but those shall be driven to utter darkness And thus doth the Prophet these two main things in this Prophesie 1. He foretelleth the first appearing and arising of the Gospel in these places where captivity first appeared And 2. He denounceth a sadder plague to befal those places and all other among the Jews for despising the Gospel than what had befallen them for despising the Law and breaking the commandments and Nazareth in the foregoing Section doth first visibly fall under that plague And now according to this first scope and intention of the Prophet our Evangelist in the allegation of his Text doth most pertinently fix upon those words that do most properly hold out that sense or prediction of the Gospel beginning where the captivity first began He omitteth the words in the Prophet that import the forepast misery of these places for his aim is at their light and happiness to come And he medleth not with those words that compare the misery to come of those that should despise the Gospel with the misery that those places had past for he intends the Gospels first appearing and not the Gospels last despising and therefore he leaveth out all the first part of the verse and takes up only with the latter which only speaketh to his purpose And such another abridgment may be observed in Hosea who when he is speaking of Israels and Judahs sins misery and rejection he calls them Lo-ammi and Lo-ruchamah No people and Not pitied Hos. 1. 6. 9. But when he is speaking of their conversion and calling home he leaves the first word or syllable out which carried a sense contrary to the scope that he had then in hand and he calls them Ammi and Ruchamah A people and Pitied Hos. 2. 1. The land of Zabulon c. In Esays Hebrew the word the land is in the accusative case as following a verb that went before it but the Evangelist hath set it in the nominative case as going before the verb that next comes after to be construed in this sense The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthali That people saw great light c. §. By the way of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being understood according to an usual Hebrew Idiom In the Text of the Prophet this clause and the rest that follow lie in this sense The latter Captiver did heavily afflict the way of the Sea or those places that lay upon the Sea coast he did heavily afflict the coast beyond Jordan and he did heavily afflict Galilee of the Gentiles But in the Text of the Evangelist it is sweetly changed to this comfortable tune The land of Zabulon and Nephthali which are by the way of Sea or on the Sea-coasts And also Peraea or the Country which lies beyond Jordan and likewise Galilee of the Gentiles or the upper Galilee even the people of all these several places saw great light c. And thus the clauses of the Text being severed and considered apart as they ought to be for there is only a want of the conjunction which is a thing most usual in the Hebrew tongue the sense lies clear and facil where as some expositors jumbling them altogether as if they spake but of one place have intricated and perplexed the sense and have been necessitated to make bold with the language to put a construction upon some part of it which it is very unwilling and not used to bear And so they will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be not trans but secus Jordanem and to be the land of Zabulon and Nephthali and Galilee of the Gentiles to be the land of Zabulon and Nephthali too and they clutter all together in the land of Zabulon and Nephthali not distinguishing where they should distinguish between Galilee superior or Galilee of the Gentiles and Galilee inferior or the land of Zabulon and Nephthali and Peraea or the Country and Region of the two Tribes and half that lay beyond Jordan In these three several Regions had the captiver afflicted and captivity had begun In Galilee Superior or Galilee of the Gentiles at the taking of Jion Dan Abel-beth-Maachah c. In the lower Galilee at the taking all Nephthali and in the Country beyond Jordan in the taking of Gilead and carrying away the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh as the Texts alledged ere while do give testimony And answerably in these three Regions did the Gospel appear most radiantly even in Christs own Ministry and his presence there as may be observed copiously in the Evangelists The Chaldee Paraphrast translates this passage of the Prophet exceeding strangely he gives it thus For none shall be weary that shall come to afflict them as at the first time the People of the land of Zabulon and the people of the land of Nephthali were captived and as for the rest a mighty King shall captive them because they remembred not the mighty power at the Sea the wonders at Jordan and the war with the Cities of the Nations The people of the House of Israel that walked in Aegypt as in darkness came forth to see a great light c. How the Septuagint hath spoiled the sense of the verse in the Prophet by pulling it too much in pieces as many expositors have done by crowding it too much together I shall not trouble the Reader with instance the learned will observe it of themselves §. Beyond Jordan This is to be taken as an intire clause of it self and neither to be joyned with that that went before nor that that follows after And therefore it is but a needless pains which Beza spends to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies secus not beyond but along Jordan which he could never be able to prove and so he would have Zabulon and Nephthali to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not minding the tautology of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they were so to be applied to one place and thing nor observing the Prophets aim in these various expressions which he useth in the Text. §. Galilee of the Gentiles Here the conjunction and is to be understood as it is ordinary in the holy language to leave it out and yet to understand it as was said before Now as for the title of Galilee of the Gentiles it was not the appellation of all Galilee wholly but of a part of it namely that which was called the upper Observe Josephus his division of these two and their common distinct names in these words of his in Vita sua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Towns in the upper Galilee I walled and the Cities and Towns in Galilee I fortified The lower he calls Galilee only and the other he calls
Galilee the upper And so ran the distinction there was Galilee and Galilee of the Gentiles that is indeed Galilee the lower and the upper Vers. 16. The people sat in darkness c. In the Hebrew of Esay it is The people which walked in darkness and so it is uttered also by the Septuagint but our Evangelist hath expressed it The people which sat according to the sense of the Prophet though not according to his syllables To sit or To walk in Scripture when they are used in a borrowed sense do indifferently signifie To be or To continue as Gen. 15. 2. I walk childless Lam. 1. 1. The City sitteth solitary c. And in such a sense are the words of the Prophet and the Evangelists to be taken The people that have been and continued in darkness c. The people here spoken of may generally mean all the dark people and places of the world whither the Gospel should come but more especially it is to be understood of the people of those places that are mentioned immediately before And so the next verse in the Prophet may be interpreted according to that restriction to those places and people Thou hast increased the Nation in restoring those places to be peopled again but thou hast not increased their joy in that they sit still in darkness of ignorance and error yet the time shall come when they shall rejoyce before thee as the joy in harvest c. Or if this verse in hand be construed largely of all Nations seeing light by the Gospel then that verse may be understood thus that the Nation of Israel was increased when the Gentiles came in as Hos. 1. 11. but the joy of the Jews was not increased by it for the calling of the Gentiles was their vexation God angring them by a foolish Nation But in the Hebrew there is a double reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not in the Text and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him or it in the margin which latter is followed by the Chaldee which if it be imbraced the words carry no difficulty with them applied to the joy that the increase of the Church and light of the Gospel should bring to every true Israelite SECTION XIX St. LUKE Chap. V. NOW it came to pass as the people pressed on him to hear the Word of God he stood by the lake of Gennesareth 2. And saw two ships standing by the lake but the fisher-men were gone out of them and were washing their nets 3. And he entred into one of the ships which was Simons and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship 4. Now when he had left speaking he said unto Simon Lanch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught 5. And Simon answering said unto him Master we have toiled all the night and taken nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net 6. And when they had done this they inclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net brake 7. And they beckned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink 8. When Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Iesus knees saying Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. 9. For he was astonished and all that were with him at the draught of the fishes which they had taken 10. And so was also Iames and Iohn the sons of Zebedee which were partners with Simon And Iesus said unto Simon Fear not for from henceforth thou shalt catch men 11. And when they had brought their ships to land they forsook all and followed him St. MATTH Chap. IV. Vers. 17. FROM that time Iesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand 18. And Iesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the Sea for they were fishers 19. And he saith unto them Follow me and I will make you fisher of men 20. And they straightway left their nets and followed him 21. And going on from thence he saw other two brethren Iames the son of Zebedee and Iohn his brother in a ship with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them 22. And they immediately left the ship and their Father and followed him St. MARK Chap. I. Vers. 14. JESUS came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God 15. And saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand repent â—e and believe the Gospel 16. Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the Sea for they were fishers 17. And Iesus said unto them Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men 18. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him 19. And when he had gone a little further thence he saw Iames the son of Zebedee and Iohn his brother who also were in the ship mending their nets 20. And straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him Reason of the Order THERE is not so much doubtfulness of the subsequence of this Section or at the least of some of it to the Section preceding for the transition in Matthew doth make it clear as there is of something contained within the Section it self Luke had related Christs unkind usage and danger by his Townsmen of Nazareth and that thereupon he slipt away from them and went to Capernaum There Matthew takes at him and tells how divinely that Prophesie of Esay came now to be fulfilled by his dwelling in those parts The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthali c. And then he comes on with a special note of conjuction of the stories From that time Jesus began to preach c. And how Mark doth joyn with him in bringing on this story before us in the present Section though he doth it very briefly not mentioning any of his actions in Galilee till this in hand yet is it so apparent and conspicuous that there needeth nothing to be said of it But in the body of the Section now under hand lie these two queries Quest. 1. Whether is this story in Luke about Peter and Zebedees sons the same with that in Matthew and Mark For some particular circumstances do seem to difference them as whereas Matthew and Mark say Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee and saw Peter and Andrew casting a net into the Sea and called them Luke relates how he was in Peters ship and spake to him to cast his net into the Sea c. Again Matthew and Mark say when he had gone a little further he saw James and John mending their nets c. but Luke relateth
the Prophet setting forth the glorious state of the Church in the days of the Messiah and so the Rabbins understand the place he addeth this as a singular and eminent privilege those times should have above the times that had gone before and that was that whereas they had been taught by Prophets and by men in those times God himself in visible appearance conversing among men in humane nature should be their Teacher From such prophesies as these whereof there is great store in the Old Testament the expectation of the Nation was raised to look that Messias when he came should preach the glad tidings of deliverance should give a new Law as Moses at Sinai had done the old and should be the great Teacher and Instructor of the people So the Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth the two and twentieth verse of the 2d Chap. of the Lamentations Thou wilt proclaim liberty to thy people the house of Israel by the hand of Messias as thou didst by the hand of Moses and Aaron on the day of the Passover And the Jerusalem Targum on Exod. 12. Moses came out of the midst of the wilderness and King Messias out of the midst of Rome The one spake in the head of a cloud and the other spake in the head of a cloud and the Word of the Lord speaking between them and they walking together And the Targum on Cant. 8. 2. When King Messias shall be revealed to the Congregation of Israel the Children of Israel shall say unto him Come be with us as a brother and we will go up to Jerusalem and will suck in with thee the sense of the Law as a child sucketh his mothers breasts c. And I will take thee O King Messias and will bring thee to the house of my Sanctuary and thou shalt teach me to fear the Lord and to walk in his Law King Messias shall say to them I adjure you O house of Israel my people c. Stay here a little till the enemies of Jerusalem be destroyed and after that the Lord will remember you with the mercies of the righteous and it will be his good pleasure to deliver you To such promises of the Prophets and such expectation of the Nation examples of which might be given many more if it were needful that Messias when he came should be as another Moses not only a Deliverer but also a Lawgiver and the great Prophet and Teacher after the great decay of Prophesie and instruction it is that Christ looketh and hath reference when he calleth on them to believe the Gospel As if he should have spoken thus at large You expect according to the prediction of the Prophets that when Messias comes he shall be another Teacher and Lawgiver to you as Moses that he shall preach and proclaim to you deliverance and redemption that he will instruct you in the ways of the Lord and shew you how to walk in his paths Behold this doctrine that I shall now teach is that great promise and expectation I am he whom the Lord hath anointed and sent to preach these glad tidings believe ye therefore the Gospel which I preach and as it hath been your great expectation when it would come so let it be intertained and received now it is come among you And here is the reason why John the Baptist joyned not this admonition to believe the Gospel to the other of repenting because John was not to be the preacher of the Gospel in this sense but he that was to publish it so was then to come Now though both these parts of Christs doctrine Repent and believe the Gospel were levelled so directly and pertinently toward the Jews in reference to their opinions about these things yet are the doctrines and duties of that perpetuity and necessity that they reach both Jew and Gentile to the end of the world And then the word Gospel doth not only signifie the good tidings of Salvation nor only as published and preached by Messias two high and eminent excellencies but also as the clearest and last way of God for mans Salvation IV. And lastly whereas he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be questioned whether he mean it was now come or near in coming And indeed it was both For the term The Kingdom of Heaven hath a latitude in its signification as was observed before and according to that latitude is the sense of that word also dilated That meaneth the revealing of the Messias and the state of Church affairs and dilating of the Church under his revealing Now the revealing of Christ was by degrees as is the dawning of the morning growing to a perfect day The first Epocha of his revealing was from the beginning of Johns baptizing Matth. 11. 12 13. Mark 1. 1 2. Because then he began to be preached as near at hand and some change in the Church Oeconomy began by the introduction of Baptism But from his own Baptism his revealings increased more and more in the power of his preaching and infinite miracles but most especially in his resurrection So that when he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand he meaneth the revealing of the Messias in such evidences and demonstrations especially by his rising again from the dead as Rom. 1. 4. that they that were not wilfully blind might have seen the Salvation of God to be then revealed For conclusion of this discourse concerning the great doctrine of the Gospel repentance and believing take one Maxime of the Jews more The day of expiation and sin offerings and trespass offerings do not expiate but only for those that repent and believe their expiation Maym. in Shegagah per. 3. Luke 5. vers 1. As the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God There were two things that caught the people and made them thus importunate to hear him and those were the tenor of his doctrine which proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven which they so much expected and the authority of his person whom they looked on as a Prophet at least if not as Messias When it is said they pressed upon him to hear the Word of God the expression The Word of God hath its singular Emphasis and those passages They were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the Scribes Mark 1. 22. Mark 7. 28 29. do readily tell us in what sense the people take the Word of God namely in a higher strain and signification than the Doctrines and Preachings of their Pharisees and Scribes for these look upon Christ as a Prophetick teacher and from him they desire to hear the Word of God as from a Prophet And if they took him not for the Messias yet do they look upon him as one sent from God and another kind of Teacher than all their Doctors The long absence of Prophesie and the present expectation of Messias did easily beget this opinion when they also
they are called also by the wise men Sadduces and Baithusaeans they began to oppose the Cabbalah or traditions and to expound the Text as themselves thought good without hearkning to any of the wise men at all In Avoth per. 1. And Elias Levita thus Antigonus of Socoh had two Scholars Sadoc and Baithus which grew exceeding wicked and denied the Traditional Law and believed only what was written in the written Law therefore they called them Karaites The Sadduces were addicted to a Ceremonious Religion as well as the Pharisees though in all things they went not so far and in the same things they went not always alike They used Phylacteries as well as the Pharisees but they wore them not after the very same fashion Megil fol. 24. Nay somtimes some of the Priests administred the service at the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the way of the Saduces different from the Ordinary way but such as the Jerusalem Talmud relateth dyed strange deaths And the matters wherein they followed the way of the Sadduces were all about Ceremony But they would own â—one of the Ceremonies they used as derived from Tradition but as they pretended deduced in all points from Moses his Text For they would acknowledge nothing but what was written though oftentimes they did not so much find it to be written so as they made it so by their construction and joyned in many things with the Traditional Ceremonies but scorned to receive them from Tradition but would make shift to find ground for them in the Text even as many amongst us at this day hold Arminian Socinian or Popish Tenets yet scorn to fetch them or to acknowledge them fetcht from Arminius Socinus or Rome but will seem to fetch them out of the very Text of Scripture Let me conclude this matter with some words of Josephus to shew how they despised and rejected traditions and with a passage in Maimonides that sheweth how they would have nothing but what was to be seen in the Text of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Pharisees saith Josephus delivered many things unto the people as appertaining to the Law by Traditions from the Fathers which are not written in the Law of Moses And therefore the Sect of the Sadduces cast them off saying that these things are to be accounted for Laws which are written but that these things that come by Tradition from the Fathers ought not to be kept And about these matters were often great disputes and differences betwixt them Antiq. lib 13. cap. 18. And It is unlawful saith Maymonides for a man to teach when he is drunk but if he teach a thing that is so plain in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that even the Sadduces will acknowledge it then is it lawful as that a creeping thing is unclean a frog clean blood forbidden c. In biath hammikdash per. 1. Sect. V. Of the Pharisees As the Sadduces on the one hand made nothing of Traditions at all so the Pharisees on the other hand did make exceedingly too much not only beyond the Sadduces but also the rest of the Nation that walked in the high way of the State-Religion separating and singling themselves in a more strict course of Ceremonious devotion from other people The Jews do write their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parush Parushim with u in the second Syllable But the Greek of the New Testament and Josephus as also the Syriack and Arabick do read it with i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pharish Suitable to the Chaldee and Syriack language which was then spoken The word Parash is used but once in Scripture for separation as ii is observed by Elias Levita whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Parash saith he betokeneth division and separation and it is found in Scripture but only once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 34. 12. His scattered or parted sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint rendred by the Latine oves seperatae yet our Rabins of happy memory have used it exceeding much And from hence is the Noun Parush and Parushim that is Pharisee and Pharisees and they were men separate from the ways of the world as were the Nazarites Baal Aruch yet clearet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Pharisee saith he is he that separateth himself from all uncleaness and from all unclean meats and from the common people that understand not the exact orders for meats c. According to this sense of separation Juchasin calleth Merlins mother a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pharisee that is a Nun or recluse His story of him and her is briefly thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the days of Pope Leo was the great wise man Merlin in England And they say he was the son of a Spirit Now his mother was a Kings daughter A Nun And he made many books fol. 144. col 1. And divers other passages in the Jewish writers might he produced by which they shew the general acceptation of the word Pharisee namely that it signified and imported separation and that the Pharisees were Separatists from others of the Nation Now about the separation of the Pharisees from other persons two things are to be examined 1. In what their separation did consist And 2. from what persons it was that they did separate As to the first their Separation from others was not about the publick Ordinances or refraining the publick Assemblies as the Separatists of our times do but it considered in some other thing In Mat. 12. 9 13. Luke 6. 6 7. there were Pharisees in the Synagogue at the publick Worship c. And Separation from the publick Assemblies was against their own position 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The prayer of the Congregation saith their Tradition is always heard Yea though sinners be among them yet the Holy blessed God refuseth not the prayer of the Assembly Therefore it is necessary that a man joyn himself with the Congregation and pray not alone at any time when he may pray with the Congregation And let a man ever go to Morning and Evening prayer in the Synagogue for his prayer is not always constantly heard but in the Synagogue And every one that hath a Synagogue in his City and prayeth not in it with the Congregation he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil neighbour Maymon in Tephillah per. 8. Nor did their Separation consist in refraining the company and converse of others for they sate in the Sanhedrin with Sadduces Acts 23. 6. Mark 3. 6. see also Mat. 16. 1. they to other mens houses Mark 16. 16. c. Conversed with any sorts of men to make them Proselytes Mat. 23. 15. conferred ordinarily with Christ and his Disciples Mat. 15. 1. 12. 1 2 c. And indeed it will be a hard thing to find in the Jews antiquities mention of Separation of any of the Nation from
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
matter if we can be sure it was not in the forty years in the Wilderness And that appears to be so by the very scope of Stevens speech for 1. he telleth that they made a golden calf in the verse before and that God for this Idolatry gave them up to worship all the host of heaven whereupon it is evident that this Idolatry with the calf was neither of these mentioned in this verse neither with Moloch nor Remphan but as it were a cause of these for for it the Lord gave them up to these 2. He seemeth to handle this justice of God upon them in giving them up to Idolatry under these two heads 1. In neglect of Gods own service in the Wilderness ye offered me no sacrifice for forty years And 2. in their choosing of Idols to worship afterward So that the two verses seem to run in this sense O house of Israel ye were not content to offer me sacrifices for forty years together in the wilderness but ye were well content to sacrifice to Idols and to worship all the host of heaven afterward III. The Tabernacle of Moloch In the Hebrew in Amos it is Siccuth Malkekem which is rendred by some Siccuth your King by others the Tabernacle of your King by a third sort the observance of your King as if it were derived from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 27. 9. Vid. Ab. Ezr. in loc Kimchi in Michlol The Seventie in the unprickt Bible read it Succoth a Tabernacle which Steven followeth and they both do not cross but illustrate the sense of the Hebrew Now Molech or Moloch was the Idol of the children of Ammon 1 King 11. 17. prohibited to Israel in a singular manner Lev. 18. 21. and 20. 2. yet did they worship him most familiarly 2 Chron. 28. 3. Jer. 7. 31. And Solomon built an high place for him on mount Olivet before Jerusalem 1 King 11. 7. The Valley between was called Tophe and the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom 2 King 23. 10 c. This Idol and Idolatry is thus described by the Rabbins Our Rabbins of happy memory say Although all houses of Idolatry were in Jerusalem Molech was without Jerusalem and the Image was made hollow set within seven Chappels Now whosoever offered flower they opened to him the first of them who so offered Turtles or Pigeons they opened to him the second whosoever offered a Lamb they opened to him the third whosoever offered a Ram they opened to him the fourth whosoever offered a Calf they opened to him the fifth whosoever offered an Ox they opened to him the sixth but whosoever offered his Son they opened to him the seventh Now his face was like a Calf and his hands were stretched out as a mans that reacheth out to receive something from his neighbour And they set him over a fire and the Priests took the child and put him between the arms of the Idol and there the child gave up the Ghost D. Kimch on 2 King 23. 10. He was made of brass and was heat with fire under till he was glowing hot and then the Priests put the child into his arms and there he was burnt and the Priests made a noyse in the mean while with Drums that the Father might not hear the childs cry And therefore it was called Tophet from Toph a Drum or Taber Vid. R. Sol. on Jer. 7. 31. These seven Chappels if there be truth in the thing help us to understand what is meant by Molechs Tabernacle and seem to give some reason why in the Prophet he is called Siccuth or the Covert God because he was retired within so many Cancelli for that word Kimchi useth before one could come at him And so the translation of the Seventy is but a gloss or exposition of that phrase in the Prophet ye took up Siccuth or the Covert God your King which they render according as the Nation readily understood the thing the Tabernacle of Moloch that Idol you so highly prize as your chiefest King Now Molech or Moloch or Milchom or Malcham for all these names are but one and the same was also called Baal in a special and distinctive sense as is apparent by Jer. 7. 31. and 19. 5. compared together and this consideration helpeth to understand divers places where the word Baal is singly used as 1 King 16. 31 32. and 18. 19 c. And according to this sense should I understand the matter of Baal-peor in which Israel was joyned to him to have been sacrificing their children to Molech And answerably should I interpret that speech of the Psalmist They ate the sacrifices of the dead Psal. 106. 28. that is sacrifices offered up when they offered up their children to be burnt And this was the first time they committed this horrid Idolatry in the very close of the forty years in the Wilderness in which forty years they had not cared to offer any sacrifices to God And this abomination with Molech they committed also presently after they were come into the Land Psal. 106. 35 36 37. Judg. 2. 13. IV. And the Star of your God Remphan Here is the main difficulty of this Verse and that not only in regard of the difference of these words of Stephen from those of Amos but also in regard of the obscurity of the matter it self Amos readeth thus Chijun your Images the Star of your God Now the question in the first place is what is meant by Chijun and it may be scrupled whethere it be the proper name of an Idol as some think or a word appellative to another sense I should rather take it the latter way although I know generally it is construed for an Idols name either for Hercules who among the Egyptians was called Chon or for Saturn who among the Arabians was called Chevan as see Aben Ezra on Amos and Beza on this place For there are two things in this passage of Stephen and Amos very considerable toward the understanding of this place 1. That Stephen saith God gave them up to worship all the host of heaven now if Chijun betoken but one Idol or one Planet this cometh very short of the intent that he aimeth at their worshipping of all 2. That Amos saith Chijun Tsalmekem the latter word in the plural number and as it seemeth by the very posture of it the latter of two Substantives and not in apposition For if Chijun were but one Idol it is somewhat improper to say Chijun your images as speaking of more I should therefore construe Chijun appellatively for the ordering or disposing of their Images as that it meaneth thus that they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or representations as Stephen calls them of the whole heaven and host of it in one Series or in one body as see Ezek. 8. 10. beset with variety of Stars and Figures representing this or that Planet and this or that constellation And that Amos meaneth thus you took up Siccuth
begin to fall about it for when there were additional sacrifices besides the dayly as the Passover or the like then it was necessary for them to begin to prepare the sacrifices from that time that it was lawful to begin about them which from that time of the day it was all the time from thence forward till night being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the Evenings according to the letter of the Law Exod. 12. 6. Numb 28. 4. And to this sense speaketh the Text 1 King 18. 19. When noontide was passed and they had now prophecied till the offering of the Minchah not till the very time of the very firing of the sacrifice for that the verses following deny but to the time of the Minchah in that sense that we have in hand and to this purpose the difference of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 36. is very remarkable So that Peter in this practise of praying about the sixth hour intimated the custom of the Jews and though he had so long been a Convert to the Gospel yet doth he not forsake their manner of worship no more did the other Disciples as hath been shewed elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An extasie fell upon him and so Chap. 22. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in an extasie This was the highest and excellentest way of all other of revelations when a man was rapt even from himself into heaven for so Paul calls it 2 Cor. 12. 2. and was wholly in the spirit for so John calls it Rev 1. 10. being for the time as it were out of the body and in the very next degree to souls departed enjoying God Seven manner of extraordinary ways did God use to reveal himself and his will to his people in ancient times 1. By Dreams 2. By Apparitions when they were awake 3. By Visions when they were asleep 4. By Voyce from heaven 5. By Urim 6. By Inspiration or Revealing of the ear 7. By Rapture or Extasie and this last the excellentest as to him that did injoy it And of this should I understand that deep sleep that fell upon Adam Gen. 2. 21. Vers. 12. Fourfooted Beasts and wild Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beasts tame and wild for so doth the Scripture most frequently distinguish them Vers. 15. That call not thou common Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not thou pollute that is do not thou call or account polluted Vers. 28. For so is the use of Scripture very frequently to speak as in an effective or active sense and to intend only a declarative as Gen. 41. 13. Me he restored to my office but him he hanged Ezek. 43. 3. When I came to destroy the City The Priest did make clean or make unclean the Leper Lev. 13. 6. 8. c. which was only pronouncing clean or unclean as our English hath well rendred it or teaching what was clean and what unclean as Chap. 14. 57. And in the very same sense is the binding and loosing to be understood Matth. 16. 19. and 18 18. for teaching what is bound and what loose what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews speak or what lawful what unlawful Vers. 28. Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Iew to keep company c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By which words is not to be understood as if a Jew might have no dealing at all with a Gentile for they might walk and talk and traffick with them and it was within a little of impossible to do otherwise they living exceeding many of them in heathen Cities And Gentiles came continually in way of trade to Jerusalem Neh. 13. 16. But the unlawfulness of their conversing with the Gentiles was conversing in near and more close society as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth and that especially in these two things not to eat with them and not to go into their houses And this is that for which they of the Circumcision excepted at Peter upon his return Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them Chap. 11. 3. § But God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean This vision that Peter had when this satisfaction was given him to learn to call nothing common was only of beasts and fowles and creeping things yet might he learn that the lesson was also to be understood of men because the distinction between men and men in regard of common and unclean was first made and most strictly made by the difference betwixt meats and meats For the very first distinguisher that ever began to inclose Israel for a peculiar from other people was the not eating of the sinew that shrank Gen. 32. Circumcision distinguished the seed of Abraham from other people but this began to distinguish Israel from the other seed of Abraham And it is observable that that ceremony or distinctive rite was first taken up when Jacob first received the name of Israel Now it is true indeed that their forbearing to eat the sinew that shrank was not as if they accounted it common or unclean but it was in regard of the honorable memorial â—â—at they read upon it yet was that ceremony the first and proper distinguisher of an Israelite from all other people under heaven some hundreds of years till more distinctive rites came in and more things were prohibited to be eaten for the surer distinction There was distinction of clean and unclean beasts before the flood as appeareth Gen. 7. 8. but this was in reference to sacrifice only and not in reference to diet at all for till the flood they ate nothing but the fruits of the ground till God gave Noah liberty to eat flesh and to eat any thing that was wholesome for diet And in this liberty did the world continue till the Law given at Sinai save only an Israelites not eating the sinew that shrank And this liberty some Jews themselves confess shall be in the days of Messias which now first taketh place at this vision of Peter and forward And here doth Peter begin to put in use and ure that power of binding and loosing which Christ had put into his hands when he put into his hands the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven And this very place doth so clearly expound and interpet that speech of our Saviour to him that it is a wonder that ever there should be such scruple and controversie about it For 1. Here beginneth the Kingdom of Heaven when the Gentiles are received to favour and to the Gospel who had been so long cast off and layn in ignorance and idolatry and when no difference is made betwixt them and the Jews any longer but of every nation they that fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him as well as Israel This is the very first beginning or dawning to the
Rabbi Solomon upon the place It teacheth that they urged him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be whether he would or no. But the text saith he must do it of his own freewill How then They urged him till he said I am willing A second scruple about these sacrifices is concerning the time of their presenting and offering A man that lived at a great distance from Jerusalem was faln under such an offence as that a sacrifice was due from him what must he do Must he away presently thither to offer his offering Must he neglect his implovements at home and travel up to Jerusalem at a charge double and treble and more to the charge of the sacrifice that he was to offer and lay all things aside till that be done The Provision in this case was That he that became liable to any offering might stay the paying of it till the next solemn Festival of the three came when all must appear before the Lord at Jerusalem And so his pains and cost of going up thither did accrew upon that general and comprehensive Command for their appearance and not from his own private and particular occasion They make this one of the Two Hundred Eight and Forty affirmative precepts that they pick up in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l Maym. in Prâ—f ad Iad That a man should bring all his offerings that are either due from him or voluntarily dedicate at the solemn festival that cometh next And so as the Lord by appointing those three solemn times in the Spring and Summer did provide for the ease and accommodation of the people in that general service so by this Law was provision made for every mans particular exigent and devotion And this command and practise they ground upon those words Deut. 12. 5 6. Unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your Tribes to put his name there even to his habitation shall ye seek and thither shalt thou come And thither shall ye bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices c. Eight things saith m m m Baal Hat in Deut. 12. Baal Hatturim are named here according to the eight times using the words Before the Lord in the Law concerning the three festivals And so would he construe that Text to the sense that we are discoursing of by a Massoretick Arithmetical collection as it is his common way and use to do but those that go more seriously to work conclude their bringing of their particular and occasional devotions at those general appearances from that Text by expounding the seeking and going to the habitation of the Lord of the most eminent and singularly commanded going thither According to this construction and practise the Chaldee Paraphrast understands what is said concerning Elkanah that he went up out of his City to Shiloh to worship and to sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 1. 3. for he hath rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the time of one solemn Festival to another what exceptions there might be in this matter and whether and upon what occasions the bringing of those their sacrifices might be deferred beyond the next coming Festival to another and how those that were nearer to Jerusalem and were so minded might come with their gifts at other times it is not much requisite to insist upon CHAP. IX The manner and managing of the dayly Service ON the North-side of the Court of the Temple well towards the North-west corner of it as we have observed in its due place there was a great piece of building which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a Talm. in Tam â—â—r 3. in Miâ—…oth per. 1. Maym. in Beth habbech per. 5. Beth Mokadh the fire room or the House of burning and the reason of the name was because in that room there was constantly a fire kept in all cold weather both by day and by night By day for the Priests to warm themselves by when they came from the service and by night for them to keep their guard by for this was the chiefest Court of guard of the Priests of all the three Here the Elders of the House of their Fathers warded and had the keys of the Court gates hanging by them being committed to them by Amarcalin If they had a mind to sleep at any time there were benches round about the room on which they laid them down and slept And the younger Priests that were with them for such also were there when they would sleep they laid themselves down on the ground and the holy garments in which they were to serve they wrapped up and laid under their heads as it were a pillow and slept in their ordinary wearing garments Now betimes in the morning against the President of the service should come they had bathed themselves in water and put on the garments of the service and made themselves ready against he came They had this Maxim concerning their bathing in water for the service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b Talm. â—â— Ioma per. 3. That a man yea though he were clean yet might he not go into the Court to serve till he had bathed himself in water And for this purpose they had their bathing places in several rooms some for the High-priest and some for the other Priests which places we have particulary observed in our survey Having bathed themselves in the morning they needed not to do that again of all the day unless upon doing their easments of nature by seige but they washed their hands and their feet upon their making of water and as oft as ever they came within the Court about the service did they go out and in never so oft And to this custom our Saviour seemeth to allude Joh. 13. 10. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit At last the President cometh and knocketh at the door and they open to him what President it was whether of the Lots or the Sagan we will not dispute c c c Maym. in Tam. per. 6. Maymony saith it was the president of lots but the Talmudick dispute about the time of his coming may be worth our marking d d d Tam. per. â— At what hour saith the Treatise Tamid did the President come And it answers thus Not at all times alike sometimes he comes at Cocks crowing sometimes near unto it sometimes before it and sometimes after which nominated uncertainty of the time and yet their readiness for him whensoever he came is so parallel to those words of our Saviour Mark 13. 35. that if those were not spoken in some allusion to this custom yet may they be well illustratedby it e e e Ibid. Out of the room Beth mokadh they go through a wicket into the Court carrying candles in their hands and there as soon as they were all come in they divide themselves and half of
off the Roof of the Temple see Psal. 84. 34. yet upon the so concurrent testimony of the Hebrew Writers as is to be found joined with the thought of what an ornament it would add to the building it self it may very well be concluded that there were pinnacles upon the battlements round about as Kings Colledge Chappel in Cambridge is decked in the like manner to its great beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is construed according to this sense by divers Expositors Matth. IV. 5. The roof was not a perfect flat as was the roof of other houses but rising in the middle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 z z z Semajah in Mid. till the very crest of the middle came up as high as the height of the battlement as Kings Colledge Chappel may be herein a parallel also And the like battlements and pinacles are likewise to be alloted to the lower Leads CHAP. XII The Breadth Chambers and Stairs of the Temple THUS were the risings of the Temple to its height in the parcels named it is now equally requisite to take notice also of the length and breadth of it and to observe into what lesser measures those dimensions were divided a a a Mid. per. 4. The length of it was from East to West and it was an hundred cubits and so was the breadth from North to South in some part of it but not in all That part of it that bare this breadth was only the Porch for the building behind it was only seventy cubits broad And the Porch stood before it as a cross building reaching fifteen cubits South and fifteen cubits North further out than the breadth of the Temple which spaces on eitheâ—â—â—de were thus taken up b b b Maym. in Beth babbechir per. 4. The thickness of the wall of the Porch at either end was five cubits and from that wall to the wall of the Temple on either side were ten cubits So fair a Front there was at the entring an hundred cubits broad and an hundred and twenty cubits high for so is Josephus to be understood when speaking of the Temple built by Herod he saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c Ioseph Ant. lib. 15. cap. 4. An hundred long and twenty cubits above an hundred high Not all the house throughout so high for that the Talmud denies giving so particular and exact account of an hundred only as we have observed but the Porch of this height rising twenty cubits above the height of the rest of the house Just in the middle of this fair Front d d d Mid. per 3. was the Gate of the Porch forty cubits high and twenty cubits broad e e e Maym. ubi sup It had no doors to it at all but f f f Ioseph de Bell. lib. 5. cap. 14. it was an open Gate into which whosoever stood in the Court might look and see the space of the Porch within 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All this front was gilt with gold and through it all the first house that is the Porch within might be seen and that glittered with gold also Now by all this Front Josephus for they are his words meaneth not the whole face of the Porch or all the hundred cubits long and hundred and twenty high but the very front of the Gate or entrance only which he sheweth to have been seventy cubits high and twenty five broad And herein the Talmud and he do not clash though the Talmud say that the height was only forty cubits and the breadth but twenty for it speaks only of the very hollow entrance but he speaks also of the Posts and head or front of the whole Gate-house as we observed about the other Gates before g g g Mid. ubi sup The Talmud likewise speaks of five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beams of some choice wood the Learned Buxtorfius translates it quercinae that were laid over this Gate curiously wrought with knots and flowers and a row of stone still laid between beam and beam The lowest beam that lay on the head of the Gate was a cubit on either side longer than the Gate was broad then was laid on that a row of stone After that another carved beam a cubit on either end longer than the other and then a row of stone Then another beam and so of the rest every beam being a cubit at either end longer than that that lay below it These were thus laid over the Gate to bear the weight that was above they rose to a great height were curiously ingraven and gilt and from the highest there was a neat descending border gathered at either end of the beams still inward and inward as the beams shortned and at last it ran down by the cheeks of the entry two cubits and an half broad on either side the Gate And this was the front that Josephus meaneth And now turn behind this Porch at whether end you will and look Westward There ran the body of the Temple it self pointing exactly upon the middle of the Porch or just upon this entrance that we have been speaking of the breadth of it between wall and wall just equal with the breadth of this entrance but the walls and chambers built on either side of such a breadth as that the whole came to seventy cubits broad and thus doth Ariel or the Lion of God as the Jews interpret it represent the proportion of a Lion broad before in the large front the Porch which was of an hundred cubits breadth and narrow behind in the buildings of the house reduced in breadth to seventy cubits which breadth to take up in its several parcels we will begin at the North side and thus we find these particular measures h h h Ibid. per. 4. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wall of the Gallery five cubits thick this was the outmost wall of all and it rose to the battlements or first Leads mentioned before where the foundation for six cubits high was said to be six cubits thick but that odd cubit is not here reckoned because they count it not from the very foundation but from the wall above as any one would count in such a building 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gallery three cubits broad 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wall of the chambers five cubits thick 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The chambers themselves six cubits broad 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wall of the Temple six cubits thick 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The breadth of the Temple within from wall to wall twenty cubits 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other wall of it six cubits thick 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The breadth of the chambers six cubits 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wall of the chambers five cubits thick 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The place of the coming down of the water three cubits broad 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Temple that we are surveying which was the Temple built by Herod the Temple that was in the days of our Saviour though Ezekiel speak of such Pillars at the door of his Temple Chap. XL. 49. yet because we desire to give account chiefly of what we find recorded in Scripture concerning the Temple in general we cannot pass over two such memorable Monuments as these two Pillars of whom the Story and relation is held out by the Scripture so largely and exactly 1. These two Pillars which were of brass consisted either of them of two parts the Pillar it self and the Boll and Chapiter that was set on the head of it The Pillar it self was hollow the circle incompassing the hollow four fingers thick and the compass of that circling twelve cubits about Jer. LII 21. 1 King VII 15. a a a R. Sol. in 1 King VII R. Lev. Gers. ibid. the whole thickness or diameter of either Pillar four cubits or three cubits and four fifth parts of a cubit as is the reckoning of Levi Gersom The Chapiter or Boll likewise of either Pillar was hollow and was a huge piece of Brass Boll or oval fashion which had a very large hole in it into which the top of the Pillar was let and so this Chapiter sate upon it 2. The length or height of either Pillar was eighteen cubits besides the Chapiter for the Text doth clearly reckon the height of Pillar and Chapiter distinctly Now the Book of Chronicles summeth the length of both Pillars together and saith they were five and thirty cubits high 2 Chron. III. 15. in which it cometh short a cubit of that account and summ that is given in the Book of Kings and Jeremiah which say That either Pillar was eighteen cubits and so the whole of both was six and thirty But half a cubit of either Pillar was taken up and hid in the hole of the Chapiter that sate upon it and so that Text in the Book of Chronicles measures them as they stood with the Chapiters upon them two and twenty cubits and an half high Pillar and Chapiter and all 3. The Chapiter or oval on the head of either Pillar is called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Rabbi Solomon renders in the vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pumels Kimchi A Crown with which the Chaldee agrees who expresseth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corona but Levi Gershom more exactly saith it was like two Crowns joined together It was a huge great oval of five cubits high and did not only sit upon the head of the Pillars but also flowred or spread them being larger about a great deal than the Pillars themselves 4. Whereas it is said both in 1 King VII 16. Jer. LII 22. that the height of either Chapiter was five cubits and yet in 2 King XXV 17. it is said that the height of the Chapiter was three cubits it is generally and well answered by the Jews that the lowest two cubits of the Chapiter were plain and without any graving or imbroidering but the three upper cubits were of such imbroidery To which may be added and some of them do add it that the two lower cubits were but the rising into the spreading or belly of the Chapiter and that they there are not reckoned in that place but only from the belly upward the account is taken 5. The ingravery or imbroidery or both of these Chapiters is thus described by the Holy Ghost in various particulars As. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King VII 17. which our English renders Nets of Checker-work And so the Seventy useth the word Nets also The original word doth properly signifie the inwrapping and infolding of the branches of Trees one within another as Neh. I. 10. Gen. XXII 13. Jer. IV. 7. Esai X. 34. As Vines or Thickets saith b b b Michol in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kimchi explaining the word that are caught and infolded one within another And so some others express this clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the imbroidery was like the branches of Palm Trees or like the handful of branches they used to carry in their hands at the Feast of Tabernacles This I conceive to be the proper meaning of the words that the Chapiters were curiously wrought with branch-work seven goodly branches standing up with their feet from the belly of the oval and their boughs and leaves curiously and lovelily intermingled and inwoven one with another And the words might not improperly be translated thus for the clearer understanding of their meaning and of the manner of the work it self With thickets of branch-work and wreaths of chain-work 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wreathes of Chain-work The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deut. XXII 12. signifies the fringes that they wore upon their Garments for memorials of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Chaldee Paraphrast And according to such a sense is it to be taken here that about the belly of the Chapiter was a curious Fring or border of wreathen and intwined work upon which border stood the feet or root of the branch-work spoken of before and those branches from thence went upward spreading upon the swelling of the Chapiter and bowing toward the top of the oval as the oval bowed and they there growing into their contracted tops 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two rows of Pomgranates were wrought artificially below the boughs of these branches as if they had been the Apples that those branches bare but only that they were not scattered dispersedly among the branches as Apples use to be in their Trees but were ranked into two several rows or borders severally below them But here we had need to look upon the Text with much seriousness for in two things about this very thing it speaks obscurely and with much difficulty For first in speaking of these rows it saith That the Chapiters were above or upon the Pomgranates 1 King VII 18. Now it is so harsh to hear of the Chapiters being upon the Pomgranates whereas it is most undoubted that the Pomgranates were upon the Chapiters that some Copies as David Kimchi tells us have been so bold as to change the word and instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the head of the Pomgranates to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the head of the Pillars but as he well observes the Masoreth by putting a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon it or a note that it is not read so any where else doth conclude that it is and must be read so here upon the head of the Pomgranates Now the construction of this may be fetched from 2 Chron. III. 16. where it is said That he put the Pomgranates upon the chains that is the two rows of the Pomgranates were close above the Fring or border of chain-work which was as it were the bottom and basis of the imbroidery and so the bulk and body of the Chapiter where the imbroidery was was above
man who shall make an Idol or molten Image and both the one and the other answered Amen And so of the rest And at last Turning their faces to Gerizim they began with the blessing Blessed is the man who shall continue in all the words of the Law and the Answer on both sides is Amen Turning their faces to Ebal they pronounce the curse Cursed is every one that shall not continue in all the words of the Law and the answer from both sides is Amen c. In like manner Christ here having begun with blessings Blessed Blessed thundereth out curses Wo Wo Luke VI. 24 25 26. That which many do Comment concerning the octonary number of Beatitudes hath too much curiosity and little benefit It hath that which is like it among the Jews For thus they write b b b b b b Midr. Tillin upon Psal. 1. R. Sol. upon Esa. V. There is a Tradition from the School of R. Esaiah ben Korcha that twenty blessings are pronounced in the book of the Psalms and in like manner twenty Woes in the book of Esaiah But I say saith Rabbi that there are two and twenty blessings according to the number of the two and twenty letters c c c c c c Baal Tâ—rin upon Gen. XII Abraham was blessed with seven blessings d d d d d d Targ. upon Ruth III. These six are blessed every one with six blessings David Daniel and his three companions and King Messias VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are the pure in heart HArken O Pharisee all whose praise lies in outward cleanness How foolish is this boasting of a Jew e e e e e e Bab. Schaâ— fol. 13. 1. Come and see saith R. Simeon ben Eleazar how far the purity of Israel extends it self when it is not only appointed that a clean man eat not with an unclean woman but that an unclean man eat not with an unclean man that a Pharisee that hath the Gonorrhea eat not with a comon person that hath the Gonorrhea VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are the Peacemakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Peah cap. 1. hal 1. Making peace between neighbours is numbred among those things which bring forth good fruit in this life and benefit in the life to come VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law c. I. IT was the opinion of the Nation concerning the Messias that he would bring in a new Law but not at all to the prejudice or damage of Moses and the Prophets But that he would advance the Mosaic Law to the very highest pitch and would fulfil those things that were foretold by the Prophets and that according to the Letter even to the greatest pomp II. The Scribes and Pharisees therefore snatch an occasion of cavilling against Christ and readily objected that he was not the true Messias because he abolished the Doctrines of the Traditions which they obtruded upon the people for Moses and the Prophets III. He meets with this prejudice here and so onwards by many arguments as namely 1. That he abolished not the Law when he abolished Traditions for therefore he came that he might fulfil the Law 2. That he asserts that not one Jota should perish from the Law 3. That he brought in an observation of the Law much more pure and excellent than the Pharisaical observation of it was which he confirms even to the end of the Chapter explaining the Law according to its genuine and spiritual sense VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily I say unto you I. SUCH an asseveration was usual to the Nation though the syllables were something changed g g g g g g Bab. Bâ—rac fol. 55. 1. A certain Matron said to R. Judah bar Allai Thy face is like to a Swineherd or an Usurer To whom he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In truth both is forbidden me The Gloss there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In truth is a manner of speech used in swearing II. But our Saviour useth this phrase by the highest divine right 1. Because he is Amen the faithful witness Rev. II. 14. 2 Cor. I. 20. See also Esa. LXV 16. and Kimchi there 2. Because he published the Gospel the highest truth Joh. XVIII 37 c. 3. By this asseveration he doth well oppose his divine oracles against the insolent madness of the Traditional Doctors who did often vent their blasphemous and frivolous tales under this seal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They speak in truth and wheresoever this is said say they it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Tradition of Moses from Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One jot The Jerusalem Gemarists speak almost to the same sense h h h h h h Sanhedr fol. 20. 3. The book of Deuteronomy came and prostrated it self before God and said O Lord of the Universe Thou hast wrote in me thy Law but now a Testament defective in some part is defective in all Behold Solomon endeavours to root the letter Jod out of me to wit in this Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall not multiply wives Deut. XVII 5. The holy blessed God answered Solomon and a thousand such as he shall perish but the least word shall not perish out of thee R. Honna said in the name of R. Acha the letter Jod which God took out of the name of Sarai â—ur Mother was given half to Sara and half to Abraham A Tradition of R. Hoshaia the letter Jod came and prostrated it self before God and said O eternal Lord Thou hast rooted me out of the name of that holy woman The Blessed God answered Hitherto thou hast been in the name of a woman and that in the end Viz. in Sarai but henceforward thou shalt be in the name of a man and that in the beginning Hence is that which is written And Moses called the name of Hoshea Jehoshua The Babylonians also do relate this translation of the letter Jod out of the name of Sarai to the name of Joshua after this manner i i i i i i Sanhedr fol. 107. 1. The letter Jod saith God which I took out of the name of Sarai stood and cried to me for very many years how long will it be ere Joshua arise to whose name I have added it You have an Example of the eternal duration of this very little letter Jod in Deut. XXXII 18. where in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is written even less than it self and yet it stands immortal in that its diminutive state unto this very day and so shall for ever k k k k k k Bab. Taanith fol. 21. 2. There is a certain little City mentioned by name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Derokreth which by reason of the smalness of it was called Jod in the Gloss. l l l l l l Fol.
Alms from the very work done according to the doctrine of the Pharisaical chair And hence the opinion of this efficacy of Alms so far prevailed with the deceived people that they poynted out Alms by no other name confined within one single word than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness Perhaps those words of our Saviour are spoken in derision of this doctrine Yea Give those things which ye have in Alms and behold all things shall be clean to you Luke II. 41. With good reason indeed exhorting them to give Alms but yet withall striking at the Covetousness of the Pharisees and confuting their vain opinion of being clean by the washing of their hands from their own opinion of the efficacy of Alms. As if he had said ye assert that Almes justifies and saves and therefore ye call it by the name of Righteousness why therefore do ye affect cleanness by the washing of hands and not rather by the performance of charity See the praises of Alms somewhat too high for it g g g g g g Bab. Bava Bathra fol. 8 9 10 11. in the Talmud h h h h h h Bab. Chagig fol. 5. 1. R. Jannai saw one giving mony openly to a poor man to whom he said It is better you had not given at all than so to have given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Otherwise ye have no reward He therefore seems the rather to speak of a reward because they expected a reward for their almes doing without all doubt and that as we said for the mere work done i i i i i i Hieros Pâ—ah fol. 21. 1. R. Lazar was the Almonâ—r of the Synagogue One day going into his house he said what news They answered some came hither and eat and drank and made prayers for thee Then saith he there is no good reward Another time going into his house he said what news It was answered some others came and eat and drank and railed upon you Now saith he there will be a good reward VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not sound a Trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the Synagogues and in the Streets IT is just scruple Whether this sounding a trumpet be to be understood according to the latter or in a borrowed sense I have not found although I have sought for it much and seriously even the least mention of a trumpet in Almsgiving I would most willingly be taught this from the more Learned You may divide the ordinary Alms of the Jewes into three parts I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Alms Dish They gave Alms to the publick dish or basket 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tamchâ—i according to the definition of the Author of Aruch and that out of Bava Bathra in the place lately cited was a certain Vessel in which bread and food was gathered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the poor of the World You may not improperly call it The Alms basket he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Dish By the poor of the world are to be understood any beggers begging from door to door yea even Heathen Beggers Hence the Jerusalem Talmud in the place above quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Alms Dish was for every man And the Aruch moreover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Alms was gathered daily by three men and distributed by three It was gathered of the Townsmen by Collectors within their doors which appears by that caution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Collectors of Alms may not separate themselves one from another unless that one may go by himself to the gate and another to the shop That is as the Gloss explains it They might not gather this Alms separately and by themselves that no suspition might arise that they privily converted what was given to their own use and benefit This only was allowed them when they went to the gate one might betake himself to the gate and another to a shop near it to ask of the dwellers in both places yet with this proviso that withall both were within sight of one another So that at each door it might be seen that this Alms was received by the Collectors And here was no probability at all of a Trumpet when this Alms was of the lowest degree being to be bestowed upon vagabond strangers and they very often Heathen II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The poors chest They gave Alms also in the publick poors box which was to be distributed to the poor only of that City The Alms dish is for the poor of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Alms chest for the poor only of that City This was collected of the Townsmen by two Parnasin of whom before to whom also a third was added for the distributing it The Babylonian Gemarists give a reason of the number not unworthy to be marked A Tradition of the Rabbins The Alms chest is gathered by two and distributed by three It is gathered by two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they do not constitute a superior office in the Synagogue less than of two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is distributed by three as Pecuniary judgments are transacted by three This Alms was collected in the Synagogue on the Sabbath compare 1 Cor. XVI 2. and it was distributed to the poor on the Sabbath Eve Hence is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Almes chest is from the Sabbath Eve to the Sabbath Eve the Alms dish every day Whether therefore the Trumpet sounded in the Synagogue when Alms were done it again remains obscure since the Jewish Canonists do not openly mention it while yet they treat of thess Alms very largely Indeed every Synagogue had its Trumpet For 1. They sounded with the Trumpet in every City in which was a Judiciary Bench at the coming in of the new year But this was not used but after the destruction of the Temple See k k k k k k Cap. 4. hal â— Rosh hashanah 2. They sounded with the Trumpet when any was excommunicated Hence among the untensils of a Judge is numbred l l l l l l Bab. Sanhedr fol. 7. 2. a Trumpet For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instruments of Judges as appears there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rod A Whip A Trumpet and a Sandal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Trumpet saith the Gloss for Excommunication and Anathematizing and a Sandal for the taking off the shoe of the husbands brother m m m m m m fol. 107. â— And in the same place mention is made of the excommunicating of Jesus four hundred trumpets being brought for that business 3. The Trumpet sounded six times at the coming in of every Sabbath that from thence by that sign given all people should cease from servile works Of this matter discourse is had in the Baâ—ylonian Talmud n n n n n n fol. 35. 2. in the Tract of the Sabbath Thus there was a Trumpet in every Synagogue
which God forbid as it was to Abraham from whom proceeded Ismael and to Isaac from whom proceeded Esau. His sons said unto him Hear Israel the Lord our God is one Lord as in thy heart there is but one so in our hearts there is but one At that time our father Jacob began and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed be the Name of the Glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever The Rabbins said What shall we do Shall we say this Doxology Our Master Moses said it not Shall we not say it Our Father Jacob said it Therefore it was appointed to say it softly c. You see how very publick the use of this Doxology was and how very private too Being a Response it was pronounced in the Temple by all with a loud voice being an ejaculation it was spoken in the Phylacterical prayers by every single man in a very low voice And you see how great an agreement it hath with the Conclusion of the Lords prayer For thine is the Kingdom c. III. As they answered Amen not at all in the publick prayers in the Temple so they seldom joyned it to the end of their private prayers In the Synagogue indeed the people answered Amen to the prayers made by the Minister and also at home when the Master of the family blessed or prayed but seldom or indeed never any one praying privately joyned this to the end of his prayers And now to apply those things which have been said to the matter under our hands consider the following things 1. That this prayer was twice delivered by our Saviour first in this Sermon in the Mount when he was not asked and afterwards when he was asked almost half a year after Luke XI 2. That this Conclusion is added in St. Matthew For thine is the Kingdom c. But in St. Luke it is not In St. Matthew is added moreover the word Amen but in St. Luke it is wanting Upon the whole matter therefore we infer I. That Christ in exhibiting this form of prayer followed a very usual rite and custom of the Nation II. That the Disciples also receiving this form delivered to them could not but receive it according to the manner and sense of the Nation usual in such cases since he introduced no exception at all from that general rule and custom III. That he scarcely could signifie his mind that this prayer should be universally and constantly used by any marks or signs more clear than those which be made use of For First He commanded all without any exception or distinction After this manner pray ye And When ye pray say Our Father c. Secondly As according to the ordinary custom of the Nation Forms of prayer delivered by the Masters to their Scholars were to be used and were used by them all indifferently and without distinction of persons so also He neither suggested any thing concerning this his prayer either besides the common custom or contrary to it Thirdly The Form it self carries along with it certain characters both of its publick and private and constant use It may certainly with good reason be asked why since Christ had delivered this prayer in such plain words in his Sermon upon the Mount this command moreover being added After this manner pray ye it was desired again that he would teach them to pray What had they forgotten that prayer that was given them there Were they ignorant that it was given them for a form of prayer and so to be used But this seems rather the cause why they desired a second time a form of prayer namely because they might reckon that first for a publick form of prayer since this might easily be evinced both by the addition of the Conclusion so like the publick Response in the Temple and especially by the addition of Amen used only in publick Assemblies therefore they beseech him again that he would teach them to pray privately and he repeats the same form but omits the Conclusion and Amen which savoured of publick use Therefore you have in the Conclusion a sign of the publick use by the agreement of it to the Response in the Temple and of the private by the agreement of it to the ejaculation in the Phylacterical prayers A sign of the publick use was in the addition of Amen a sign of the private use was in the absence of it a sign of both in the conformity of the whole to the custom of the Nation Christ taught his Disciples to pray as John had taught his Luke XI 1. John taught his as the Masters among the Jews had theirs by yeilding them a form to be used by all theirs daily verbatim and in terms VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They disfigure their faces THAT is they disguised their faces with ashes as he heretofore upon another cause 1 King XX. 38. f f f f f f Taanith c. 2 In the publick fasts every one took ashes and put upon his head g g g g g g Juchasin f. 59 They say of R. Joshua ben Ananiah that all the days of his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his face was black by reason of his fastings h h h h h h Bab. Sotah fol. 12. 1. Why is his name called Ashur 1 Chron. IV. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because his face was black by fastings Here let that of Seneca come in i i i i i i Epist. 5. This is against nature to hate easie cleanliness and to affect nastiness VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But thou when thou fastest anoint thy head c. FOR those that fasted neither anointed themselves nor washed k k k k k k Joma cap. 8. hal 1. On the day of expiation it was forbidden to eat to drink to wash to anoint themselves to put on their Sandals to lye with their wives But the King and the Bride may wash their faces and a midwife may put on her Sandals See the l l l l l l Fol. 77. 2. Babylonian Gemara here See also the Babylonian Talmud in the Tract m m m m m m Fol. 12. 2. 8 132. Taanith concerning other fasts and the fasts of private men They were wont to anoint their bodies and heads upon a threefold reason I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For â—iner dress n n n n n n Hieros in Maasar Sheni fol. 53. 2. Schab fol. 12. 1 Anointing is permitted to be used on the Sabbath whether it be for ornament or not for ornament On the day of expiation both are forbidden On the ninth day of the month Ab and in the publick fasts anointing for dress is forbid anointing not for dress is allowed II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They anointed themselves often not for excess or bravery or delight but for the healing of some disease or for the health of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o
separation and then returns to his drinking a a a a a a Maimon Schab cap. 29. II. The proper limits of the Sabbath were from Sunset to Sunset This is sufficiently intimated by St. Mark when he saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Sun was now set they brought the sick to be healed which they held unlawful to do while the Sun was yet going down and the Sabbath yet present The Talmudic Canons give a caution of some works that they be not begun on the day before the Sabbath if they may not be ended and finished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 While it is yet day that is as they explain it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 While the sun is not yet set b b b b b b Schab cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that lights a Sabbath candle let him light it while it is yet day before Sun-set c c c c c c Maimon in Schabb. cap. 5. c. On the Sabbath Eve it is permitted to work until Sun-set d d d d d d Hieros Shevith fol. 33. 1. The entrance of the Sabbath was at sun-set and so was the end of it III. After the setting of Sun a certain space was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bin Hashmashuth concerning which these things are disputed e e e e e e Hieros Berac fol. 2. 2. What is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Tanchuma saith It is like a drop of blood put upon the very edge of a sword which divides its self every where What is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is from that time when the Sun sets whilst one may walk half a mile R. Josi saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like a wink of the eye c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies Between the Suns and the manner of speech seems to be drawn thence that there are said to be two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunsets Concerning which read the Glosser upon f f f f f f In Schab cap. 5. Maimonides Where thus also Maimonides himself From the time that the Sun sets till the three middle stars appear it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Between the Suns and it is a doubt whether that time be part of the day or of the night However they every where judge of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to render the office heavy Therefore between that time they do not light the Sabbatical candle and whosoever shall do any servile work on the Sabbath Eve and in the going out of the Sabbath is bound to offer a sacrifice for sin So also the Jerusalem Talmudists in the place last cited Does one Star appear Certainly as yet it is day Do two It is doubted whether it be day Do three It is night without doubt And after a line On the Sabbath Eve if any work after one star seen he is clear if after two he is bound to a sacrifice for a transgression if after three he is bound to a sacrifice for sin Likewise in the going out of the Sabbath if he do any work after one star is seen he is bound to a sacrifice for sin if after two to a sacrifice for transgression if after three he is clear Hence you may see at what time they brought persons here to Christ to be healed namely in the going out of the Sabbath if so be they took care of the Canonical hour of the Nation which is not to be doubted of VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Himself took our infirmities DIVERS g g g g g g Bab. Sanhedr fol. 98. 2. names of the Messias are produced by the Talmudists among others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbins say His name is The Leper of the house of Rabbi as it is said Certainly he bare our infirmities c. And a little after Rabh saith If Messias be among the living Rabbenu Haccodesh is He. The Gloss is If Messias be of them that are now alive certainly our holy Rabbi is he as being one that carries infirmities c. R. Judah whom they called the Holy underwent very many sicknesses of whom and of his sicknesses you have the story in the Talmud h h h h h h Hieros Kilâ—im fol. 32. 1. Thirteen years Rabbi laboured under the pain of the teeth c. Because of which there were some who were pleased to account him for the Messias because according to the Prophets Messias should be A man of Sorrows and yet they look for him coming in pomp This allegation of Matthew may seem some what unsuitable and different from the sense of the Prophet For Esay speaks of the Messias carrying our infirmities in himself but Matthew speaks concerning him healing them in others Esay of the diseases of the Soul see 1 Pet. II. 24. Matthew of the diseases of the body But in this sense both agree very well that Christs business was with our infirmities and sorrows and he was able to manage that business his part was to carry and bear them and in him was strength and power to carry and bear them In this sense therefore is Matthew to be understood He healed the Demoniacs and all diseased persons with his word that that of Esay might be fulfilled He it is who is able to bear and carry our sorrows and sicknesses And so whether you apply the words to the diseases of the mind or the body a plain sense by an equal easiness does arise The sense of Esaiah reacheth indeed further namely That Messias himself shall be a man of sorrows c. but not excluding that which we have mentioned which Matthew very fitly retains as excellently well suiting with his case VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into the Country of the Gergesens IN Mark and Luke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gadarens both very properly for it was the City Gadara whence the Country had its name there was also Gergasa a City or a Town within that Country which whether it bare its name from the ancient Canaanite stock of the Gergasities or from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gargushta which signifies Clay or Dirt we leave to the more learned to discuss Lutetia a word of such a nature may be brought for an Example VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Two possessed with Devils coming out of the Tombs c. THESE are the signs of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mad man He goes out in the night and lodges i Hiros Trumoth fol. 40. 2. among the Sepulchres and teareth his garments and tramples upon whatsoever is given him R. Honna saith But is he only mad in whom all these signs are I say Not. He that goes out in the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Chondriacus Hypondriacal He that lodgeth anights among the Tombs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burns incense to Devils He that tears his garments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Melancholic And he that
should live should proceed to that degree of impiety and wickedness that it should surpass all expression and history We have observed before how the Talmudists themselves confess that that Generation in which the Messias should come should exceed all other Ages in all kinds of amazing wickedness III. That Nation and Generation might be called Adulterous literally for what else I beseech you was their irreligious Polygamy than continual Adultery And what else was their ordinary practise of divorcing their wives no less irreligious according to every mans foolish or naughty will VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the sign of Ionah the Prophet HERE and elswhere while he gives them the sign of Jonah he does not barely speak of the Miracle done upon him which was to be equalled in the Son of Man but girds them with a silent check instructing them thus much that the Gentiles were to be converted by him after his return out of the bowels of the earth as Heathen Niniveh was converted after Jonah was restored out of the belly of the Whale Than which doctrine scarce any thing bit that Nation more sharply VERS XL. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth I. THE Jewish Writers extend that memorable station of the unmoving Sun at Joshua's Prayer to six and thirty hours for so Kimchi upon that place According to more exact interpretation The Sun and Moon stood still for six and thrity hours For when the fight was on the Eve of the Sabbath Joshua feared lest the Israelites might break the Sabbath therefore he spread abroad his hands that the Sun might stand still on the sixth day according to the measure of the day of the Sabbath and the Moon according to the measure of the night of the Sabbath and of the going out of the Sabbath which amounts to six and thirty hours II. If you number the hours that passed from our Saviours giving up the Ghost upon the Cross to his Resurrection you shall find almost the same number of hours and yet that space is called by him three days and three nights when as two nights only came between and only one compleat day Nevertheless while he speaks these words he is not without the consent both of the Jeâ—ish Schools and their computation Weigh well that which is disputed in the Tract x x x x x x Cap. 9. Haâ— 3. Schabbath concerning the uncleanness of a woman for three days where many things are discussed by the Gemarists concerning the computation of this space of three days Among other things these words occur R. Ismael saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y y y y y y Bab. fol 86. 1. Sometimes it contains four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onoth sometimes five sometimes six z z z z z z Bab. Avod Zar. fol. 75. 1. a Schabb. fol. 12. 1. But how much is the space of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Onah R. Jochanan saith Either a day or a night And so also the Jerusalem Talmud a R. Akiba sixed a day for an Onah and a night for an Onah But the Tradition is That R. Eliazar ben Azariah said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Day and a night make an Onah and a part of an Onah is as the whole And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Ismael computed a part of the Onah for the whole It is not easie to translate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onah into good Latin For to some it is the same with the half of a natural day to some it is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a whole natural day According to the first sense we may observe from the words of R. Ismael that sometimes four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onoth or Halves of a natural day may be accounted for three days And that they also are so numbred that one part or the other of those halves may be accounted for an whole Compare the latter sense with the words of our Saviour which are now before us A day and a night saith the Tradition make an Onah and a part of an Onah is as the whole Therefore Christ may truly be said to have been in his Grave three Onath or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three natural days when yet the greatest part of the first day was wanting and the night altogether and the greatest part by far of the third day also the consent of the Schools and Dialect of the Nation agreeing thereunto For The least part of the Onah concluded the whole So that according to this Idiom that diminutive part of the third day upon which Christ arose may be computed for the whole day and the night following it VERS XLV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So shall it be to this evil Generation THESE words foretel a dreadful Apostasie in that Nation and Generation I. It is something difficult so to suit all things in the Parable aforegoing that they may agree with one another 1. You can hardly understand it of unclean spirits cast out of men by Christ when through the whole Evangelick History there is not the least shadow of probability that any Devil cast out by him did return again into him out of whom he had been cast 2. Therefore our Saviour seems to allude to the casting out of Devils by Exorcisms which art as the Jews were well instructed in so in practising it there was need of dextrous deceits and collusions 3. For it is scarcely credible that the Devil in truth finds less rest in dry places than in wet But it is credible that those Diabolical Artists have found out such kind of figments for the honour and fame of their Art For 4. It would be ridiculous to think that they could by their Exorcisms cast out a Devil out of a man into whom he had been sent by God They might indeed by a Compact with the Devil procure some lucid intervals to the possessed so that the inhabiting Demon might deal gently with him for some time and not disturb the man But the Demoniacal heats came back again at last and the former outrages returned Therefore here there was need of deceits well put together that so provision might the better be made for the honour of the Exorcistical Art as that the Devil being sent away into dry and wast places could not find any rest that he could not that he would not always wander about here and there alone by himself without rest that he therefore returned into his old mansion which he had formerly found so well fitted and prepared for him c. Therefore these words seem to have been spoken by our Saviour according to the capacity of the common people or rather according to the deceit put upon them more than according to the reality or truth of the thing it self taking a parable from something commonly believed and entertained that he might express the thing which
not what it means let him lay it up until Elias shall come 5. That we be not tedious it shall be enough to produce a few passages out of d d d d d d Fol. 43. 2. Bab. Erubhin Where upon this subject If any say Behold I am a Nazarite on the day wherein the Son of David comes it is permitted to drink wine on the Sabbaths and feast days it is disputed what day of the week Messias shall come and on what day Elias where among other things these words occur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elias came not yesterday that is the same day wherein he comes he shall appear in publick and shall not lie hid to day coming yesterday The Gloss thus If thou say'st perhaps he shall come on the Eve of the Sabbath and shall preach the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Sabbath you may answer with that Text Behold I send you Elias the Prophet before the day of the Lord come you may argue that he shall preach on that very day in which he shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Israelites are certain that Elias shall come neither on the Sabbath Eves nor on the Eves of the feast days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By reason of labour And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elias cometh not on the Sabbath day Thus speak the Scholars of Hillel e e e e e e Hieros Pesach fol. 30. 2. We are sure Elias will not come on the Sabbath nor on a feast day The Glossers give the Reason Not on the Sabbath Eves or the Eves of the feast days by reason of labour that is by reason of the preparation for the Sabbath namely lest they should leave the necessaries for the Sabbath unfinished to go to meet him nor on the Sabbaths by reason of labour in the Banquets that they omit not those feastings and eatings which were esteemed so necessary to the Sabbath whilst they went out to meet Elias Let these three Observations out of the Glossers upon the page cited serve for a conclusion 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the coming of the Son of David Elias shall come to preach of him 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messias cometh not on the first day of the Sabbath because Elias shall not come on the Sabbath Whence it appears that Elias is expected the day before the Messias appeared 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is not Messias ben Ioseph to come first II. We meet with numberless Stories in the Talmudists concerning the apparitions of Elias according to that which was said before by Aben Ezra It is without controversie that Elias was sâ—… in the days of our wise men There is no need of Examples when it may not be so much doubted who of these wise men saw Elias as who saw him not For my part I cannot esteem all those stories for mere Fables but in very many of them I cannot but suspect Witchcrafts and the appearances of Ghosts which we also said before concerning the Bath Kol For thus the Devil craftily deluded this Nation willing to be deceived and even the capacity of observing that the coming of the Messias was now past was obliterated when here and there in this age and in the t'other his Forerunner Elias appeared as if he intended hence to let them know that he was yet to come VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he shall restore all things THE Jews feign many things which Elias shall restore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Bab. Kiddâ—shin fol. 71. 1. Kimchi in Zach. Chap. IX He shall purifie the Bastards and restore them to the Congregation He shall render to Israel the pot of Manâ—a the Viol of Holy oyl the Viol of water and there are some who say the Rod of Aaron g g g g g g Tanchum in Exod. I. c. Which things alas how far distant are they from those which are spoken concerning the Office of Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall restore or make up not into the former state but into a better There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Times of restitution of all things determined by God Acts III. 21. wherein all things were to be framed into a Gospel state and a state worthy of the Messias A Church was to be founded and the Doctrine of the Gospel dispersed the hearts of the Fathers the Jews to be united to the Sons the Gentiles and the hearts of the Sons the Gentiles to the Fathers the Jews which work was begun by the Baptist and finished by Christ and the Apostles Which term of the Restitution of all these expiring the Common-wealth of the Jews expired also and the gifts of Revelation and Miracles granted for this purpose and so necessary to it failed However therefore ye have crucified Christ saith Peter in that place of the Acts now cited yet God shall still send you Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel to fulfil these things Him indeed as to his person the Heavens do contain and shall contain until all these things be perfected Expect not therefore with the erring Nation his personal presence always on Earth but he shall make up and constitute all things by us his Ministers until the Terms determined and prefixed for the perfecting of this Restitution shall come VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is Lunatick LUke IX 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A spirit taketh him Mark IX 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hath a dumb spirit I. He that is skilled in the Talmudick Writings will here remember what things are said concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A deaf and mad man concerning whom there is so much mention in their Writings h h h h h h Truma cap. 1. Hal. 1. There are five who do not pay the Trumah but if they do their Trumah is no Trumah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The deaf and dumb the lunatick c. i i i i i i Cholin cap. 1. Hal. 1. Any one is fit to sacrifice a Beast except 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A dumb and deaf a lunatick and a child and very many passages of this nature c. I have rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deaf and dumb according to the sense of the Masters who in the place first cited do thus interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which the wise men speak is he who neither heareth nor speaketh See there the Jerusalem Gemara where among other things this occurs not unworthy our noting That all the sons of R. Jochanan ben Gudgoda were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deaf and dumb II. It was very usual to the Jews to attribute some of the more grievous diseases to evil spirits specially those wherein either the body was distorted or the mind disturbed and tossed with a phrensie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k k k k Maimon in Gerushâ—n cap. â— If any one vexed with an evil Spirit
travelleth hath brought forth * * * * * * Mic. V. 3. VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For as the lightning c. TO discover clearly the sense of this and the following clauses those two things must be observed which we have formerly given notice of 1. That the destruction of Jerusalem is very frequently expressed in Scripture as if it were the destruction of the whole world Deut. XXXII 22. A fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn unto the lowest hell the discourse there is about the wrath of God consuming that people See vers 20 21. and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains Jerom. IV. 23. I beheld the Earth and low it was without form and void and the Heavens and they had no light c. The discourse there also is concerning the destruction of that Nation Isa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred c. And more passages of this sort among the Prophets According to this sense Christ speaks in this place and Peter speaks in his second Epistle third Chapter and John in the sixth of the Revelations and Paul 2 Cor. V. 17. c. 2. That Christs taking vengeance of that exceeding wicked Nation is called Christs coming in Glory and His coming in the clouds Dan. VII It is also called The day of the Lord. See Psal. L. Mal. III. 1 2. c. Joel II. 31. Matth. XVI 28. Re◠I. 7. c. See what we have said on Chap. XII 20. XIX 28. The meaning therefore of the words before us is this While they shall falsly say that Christ is to be seen here or there Behold he is in the desart one shall say another Behold he is in the secret chambers He himself shall come like lightning with sudden and altogether unexpected vengeance They shall meet him whom they could not find they shall find him whom they sought but quite another than what they looked for VERS XXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For wheresoever the carcass is c. I Wonder any can understand these words of pious men flying to Christ when the discourse here is of quite a different thing They are thus connected to the foregoing Christ shall be revealed with a sudden vengeance For when God shall cast off the City and People grown ripe for destruction like a Carcass thrown out the Roman Soldiers like Eagles shall straight fly to it with their Eagles Ensigns to tear and devour it And to this also agrees the answer of Christ Luke XVII and the last when after the same words that are spoke here in this Chapter it was enquired where Lord He answered Wheresoever the carcass is c. Silently hinting thus much That Jerusalem and that wicked Nation which he described through the whole Chapter would be the Carcass to which the greedy and devouring Eagles would fly to prey upon it VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sun shall be darkned c. THAT is the Jewish Heaven shall perish and the Sun and Moon of its glory and happiness shall be darkned and brought to nothing The Sun is the Religion of the Church The Moon is the Government of the State and the Stars are the Judges and Doctors of both Compare Esa. XIII 10. and Ezek. XXXII 7 8 c. VERS XXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man THEN shall the Son of Man give a proof of himself whom they would not before acknowledge a proof indeed not in any visible figure but in vengeance and judgment so visible that all the Tribes of the Earth shall be forced to acknowledge him the Avenger The Jews would not know him now they shall know him whether they will or no as Esay XXVI 11. Many times they asked of him a sign now a sign shall appear that he is the true Messias whom they despised derided crucified namely his signal vengeance and fury such as never any Nation felt from the first foundations of the World VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And he shall send his Angels c. WHEN Jerusalem shall be reduced to ashes and that wicked Nation cut off and rejected then shall the Son of Man send his Ministers with the Trumpet of the Gospel and they shall gather together his Elect of the several Nations from the four corners of Heaven so that God shall not want a Church although that ancient people of his be rejected and cast off but that Jewish Church being destroyed a new Church shall be called out of the Gentiles VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This generation shall not pass c. HENCE it appears plain enough that the foregoing verses are not to be understood of the last Judgment but as we said of the destruction of Jerusalem There were some among the Disciples particularly John who lived to see these things come to pass With Matth. XVI last compare Joh. XXI 22. And there were some Rabbins alive at the time when Christ spoke these things that lived till the City was destroyed viz. Rabban Simeon who perished with the City R. Jochanan ben Zaccai who out-lived it R. Zadoch R. Ismael and others VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man knoweth no not the Angels THIS is taken from Deut. XXXII 34. Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But as the days of Noe were c. THUS Peter placeth as parallels the ruine of the old World and the ruine of Jerusalem x x x x x x 1 Pet. III. 19. 20 21. and by such a comparison his words will be best understood For 1. See how he skips from the mention of the death of Christ to the times before the flood in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses passing over all the time between Did not the Spirit of Christ preach all along in the times under the Law Why then doth he take an example only from the times before the flood Namely that he might fit the matter to his case and shew that the present state of the Jews was like theirs in the times of Noe and that their ruine should be like also So also in his second Epistle Chap. III. vers 6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y y y y y y Sanhedr cap. 10. hal 2. The age or generation of the flood hath no portion in the World to come thus Peter saith that they were shut up in prison and here our Saviour intimates that they were buried in security and so were surprised by the flood CHAP. XXV VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ten Virgins THE Nation of the Jews delighted mightily in the number ten both in sacred and civil matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Synagogue consisted not but
to Solomon Most true indeed for that Hiram gave to Solomon some Cities in his jurisdiction appears beyond all controversie from thence that Solomon is said to build Tadmor in the wilderness 1 King IX 18. But what is that place Tadmor Josephus will teach us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c c c c Jos. Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. ◠Thadamor saith he the Greeks call Palmyra And the Vulgar Interpreters read He built Palmira Therefore we must by no means think that Hiram rejected the Cities that were given him by Solomon however they pleased him not but kept them for his own which Solomon also did with them which Hiram gave to him But whence should the Greek Interpreters render that place called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chabul by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coast when there is no affinity at all between the significations of the words SECT III. The Greek Interpreters noted THE Greek Interpreters are not seldom wont to render the names of places not by that name as they are called in the Hebrew Text but as they were called in after times under the second Temple which is also done often by the Chaldee Targumists Of this sort are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cappadocians for Caphtorim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rhinocorura for the River of Egypt of which we have spoke before and among very many examples which might be produced let us compare one place out of the Talmudists with them The Jerusalem Talmudists calling some Cities mentioned Jos. XIX both by their antient and present names speak thus at vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Hieros Megill sol 70. 1. Kattath is Katonith The LXX render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Katanath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nahalal is Mahalol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shimron is Simonia The LXX render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symoon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irala is Chiriah The LXX render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jericho He that observes shall meet with very many such And from this very thing you may perhaps suspect that that Version savours not of the Antiquity of the times of Ptolomeus Philadelphius The same that they are wont to do elsewhere we suppose is done by them here and rejecting the former name whereby that Region of Galilee was called in the more antient ages namely Chabul they gave it the name and title whereby it now ordinarily went that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bound or the Coast. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suspect denotes the very same thing in that Tradition in the Jerusalem Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * * * * * Hieros Demai sol 22. 4. Those Cities are forbidden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the border or coast Tsur Shezeth and Bezeth c. and those Cities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are permitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the border or coast Nebi Tsur Tsiiar c. The permission or prohibition here spoke of as much as we may by guess fetch from the scope of the place is in respect of tithing and the determination is from which of those Cities tithes were to be required and taken and from which not They were to be required of the Israelites not from the Heathen which thing agrees very well with the Land of Chabul where Cities of this and that jurisdiction seem to have been mixed and as it were interwoven SECT IV. Midland Phenicia THERE was a Midland Phenicia as well as a Phenicia on the Sea coast That on the Sea coast all know of the Midland thus Ptolomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The e e e e e e Tabb Asiae p. 139. midland Cities of Phenicia are Arca Paleobiblus Gabala Cesarea of Paneas Whether Midland Phenicia and Syrophenicia be to be reckoned all one I am in doubt I had rather divide Phenicia into three parts namely into Phenicia on the Sea coast Midland Phenicia and Syrophenicia And the reason is because I ask whether all Midland Phenicia might be called Syrophenissian and I ask moreover whether all Syrophenicia were to be reckoned within the bounds of Tyre and Sidon Certainly Nicetas Choniates mentions the Syrophenissian Cities as far as Antioch For he in the story of John Comnenus hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He resolved to set upon the Syrophenissian Cities bordering upon Antioch which were possessed by the Agarens But now will you reckon those Cities as far as Antioch to be within the jurisdiction of Tyre and Sidon But certainly there is nothing hinders but you may reckon those to be so which Ptolomey esteems to belong to Midland Phenicia only the scruple is about Cesarea of Paneas which is Cesarea Philippi and that we shall see belonged to the Decapolitan Cities and may be determined without any absurdity to be within that jurisdiction of Tyre and Sidon as also Leshem of old which was the same City Judg. XVIII 28. Let one clause of the Talmudists be added and then those things which are spoken may be reduced into a narrower compass They reducing the bounds of the Land under the second Temple fix for a bound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f f f f f f Hieros Sheviith sol 36. 3. Tarnegola the Upper which is above Cesarea Observe that Cesarea is a City of Midland Phenicia according to Ptolomey and yet Tarnegola which bends more Northward is within the Land of Israel according to the Hebrews So that in this sense Christ might be within the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and yet be within the limits of the Land of Israel We must therefore suppose and that not without reason that he when he healed the possessed Maid was 1. In that Country in the outermost coasts of Galilee which formerly was called Chabul in the Seventy called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Coast in the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The border which antiently was given by Solomon to the King of Tyre and from that grant in the following ages it belonged to the right and jurisdiction of Tyre and Sidon however it were within those boundaries wherein the Land of Israel was circumscribed from the beginning yea wherein it was circumscribed under the second Temple 2. We suppose him to have been not far from the spring or stream of Jordan which being passed over he could not come to the Sea of Galilee but by the Country of Decapolis SECT V. Of the Sabbatic River WHEN we are speaking of Syro-Phenicia we are not far off from a place where the Sabbatic River either was or was feigned to be and I hope the Reader will pardon me if I now wander a little out of my bounds going to see a River that kept the Sabbath for who would not go out of his way to see so astonishing a thing And yet if we believe Pliny we are not without our bounds for he fixeth this River within Judea g g g g g g Nat. Hist. lib.
Kimchi upon the place There are some who by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand Merchants according to that which is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The men of Orbo of thy merchandize Ezech. XXVII 27. Hence you may smell the reason why the Arabic renders it Orabimos To which sense our R. Judah who thinks that they were not â—avens but the Inhabitants of the City of Orbo that ministred to Elias But here the objection of Kimchi holds God commanded Elias saith he that he should hide himself that none should know that he was there And we see that Achab sought him every where c. But omitting the triflingness of the dream we are searching after the Chorogaphical concern and if there be any truth in the words of R. Judah that there was a City by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orbo by name near Bethshan we find the situation of the brook Cherith or at least where he thought it ran That brook had for ever laid hid in obscurity had not Elias lay hid near it but the place of it as yet lies hid There are some Maps which fix it beyond Jordan and there are others fix it on this side some in one place and some in another uncertainly without any setled place But I especially wonder at Josephus who saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 z z z z z z Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 7. He went away towards the North and dwelt near a certain brook When God in plain words saith And thou shalt turn thee or go towards the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he was now in Samaria God adds Hide thee at the brook Cherith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is before Jordan So you will say was every brook that flowed into Jordan But the sense of those words which is before Jordan is this which brook as thou goest to Jordan is flowing into it on this side Jordan So that although the Rabbin mistakes concerning the creatures that fed Elias yet perhaps he does not so mistake concerning the place where the brook was The story of the Syrophenissian Woman beseeching our Saviour for her possessed daughter and of his return thence by Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee hath occasioned a discourse of the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and the Region of Decapolis And now having finished the search after the places let us speak one word of the woman her self She is called by Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Syrophenissian Greek which is without all scruple but when she is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Canaanitish woman by Matthew that is somewhat obscure If those things which in our animadversions upon Matthew we have said upon that place do not please any let these things be added 1. That Canaan and Phenicia are sometimes convertible terms in the LXX Jos. IV. 1. 12. c. 2. If I should say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Greek woman and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Canaanitish woman were also convertible terms perhaps it may be laughed at but it would not be so among the Jews who call all Men servants and Women servants not of Hebrew bloud Canaanites It is a common distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Hebrew Servant and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Canaanite Servant and so in the feminine sex But now a Canaanite Servant say they is a servant of any nation besides the Hebrew nation Imagine this woman to be such and there is nothing obscure in her name because she was a Servant woman of an Heathen stock and thence commonly known among the Jews under the title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of a Cnaanite woman Servant CHAP. VIII Some Measurings I. The Measures of the Iews II. Their measuring of the Land by diets III. And the measuring of the length of the Land within Iordan IV. Ptolomy consulted and mended V. Pliny to be corrected VI. The length of the Land out of Antoninus VII The bredth of the ways VIII The distance of the Sepulchres from the Cities SECT I. The Measures of the Iews IT obtained among the Jews a a a a a a Gloss in Bava Mezia fol. 28. 1. That the Land of Israel contained the square of four hundred Parsae And they are delighted I know not how nor why with this number and measure b b b b b b Megil f. 3. 1. Jonathan Ben Uzziel interpreted from the mouth of Haggai Zachariah and Malachi and the Land of Israel was moved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Four hundred Parsae every way c c c c c c Bava Kama fol. 82. 2. When a hog was drawn up upon the walls of Jerusalem and fixed his hoofs upon them the Land of Israel shook four hundred Parsae every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Parsa contains in it four miles Ten d d d d d d Gloss in Pesach fol. 93. 2. Parsae saith the Gloss at the place in the Margin are forty miles Which might be proved largely elsewhere if need were So that four hundred Parsae or so many thirty furlongs made a thousand six hundred miles Which measure why they ascribed it to the Land of Israel on every side of the square of it whether from the measurings of Ezechiel or from somewhat else we do not here enquire But we cannot but observe this that the same number is mentioned and perhaps the same measure understood Revel XIV 20. Bloud issued out of the Lake to the horses bridles for a thousand six hundred furlongs Where the Arabic reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the space of a thousand six hundred miles The Talmudists measure sometimes by miles sometimes by Parses sometimes by Diets Every one of these you will meet with in them very frequently Of the Talmudic mile take this admonition of theirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Namely that it e e e e e e Bava Mezia fol. 33. 1. consisted not of eight as the Greek and Roman did but of seven furlongs and an half For by what other word to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know not nor do I think it to be rendred by any other And of the Diet take this f f f f f f Pesachin fol. 93. 2. R. Jochanan saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How much is a mans journey in one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ten Parses From the first dawning of the morning to Sun rise five miles From Sunset until stars appear five miles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There remain thirty Fifteen from morning to noon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fifteen from Noon till Even Behold a days journey of forty miles in one sense that is as much as may be dispatched in one day and of thirty in another that is as much as most usually was wont to be dispatched Where you are admonished by them also that these are computed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Equinoctial day They g g g g g g Midr. Till fol. 7.
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boanerges I. SEE what Beza saith here To which our very learned Hugh Broughton a man very well exercised in these studies replies The Jews to this very day pronounce Ceva by oa as Noabhyim for Nebhyim So Boanerges When Theodore Beza will have it written Benerges the very Jews themselves will defend our Gospel Certainly it is somewhat hard and bold to accuse the Scripture of St. Mark as corrupt for this manner of pronunciation when among the Jews the pronouncing of some letters vowels words was so different and indifferent that they pronounced one way in Galilee another way in Samaria and another way in Judea And I remember saith the famous Ludouicus de Dieu b b b b b b In his Preface ad Apoc. Syriac that I heard the excellent Expenius say that he had it from the mouth of a very learned Maronite that it could not be taught by any Grammatical rules and hardly by word of mouth what sound Scheva hath among the Syrians That Castel of noted fame which is called Masada in Josephus Pliny Solinus and others in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Strabo is Moasada very agreeable to this our sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c c c c c c Strab. Geograph lib. 16. Some scorched rocks about Moasada Where without all controversie he speaks of Masada II. There is is a controversie also about the word Erges It is obscure in what manner it is applyed to Thunder But give me your judgment courteous Reader what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in this story d d d d d d Megil fol. 29. 1. The Father of Samuel sat in the Synagogue of Shaph and Jathib in Nehardea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine Glory came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He heard the voice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and went not out the Angels came and he was affrighted Of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rigsha the Glossers say nothing And we do not confidently render it Thunder nor yet do we well know how to render it better if so be it doth not denote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sound as of a mighty rushing wind Act. II. 2. But let the Reader judg III. As obscure is the reason of the name imposed upon these two Disciples as the derivation of the word We have only this certain in this business that we never find them called by this name elsewhere Christ called Simon Peter and likewise others called him Peter and he calls himself so But you never find James called Boanerges or John so called either by themselves or by others We must trust conjecture for the rest IV. It is well enough known what the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bath Kol the daughter of thunder means among the Jews Our Saviour using another word seems to respect another Etymology of the name But it is demanded what that is He calls Simon Peter with respect had to the work he was to ply in building the Church of the Gentiles upon a rock For he first opened the door to let in the Gospel among the Gentiles Whether were James and John called Sons of thunder with respect had to their stout discoursing against the Jews we neither dare to say nor can we deny it James did this as it seems to the loss of his life Act. XII But what if allusion be here made to the two Registers or Scribes of the Sanhedrin whereof one sat on the right hand and the other on the left one wrote the Votes of those that quitted the other the Votes of those that condemned e e e e e e Sanhedr fol. 35. 1. Maimon in Sanhedr cap. 1. Or to the President himself and the Vice-President Whose definitive sentence summing up the Votes of the whole Sanhedrin was like thunder and lightning to the condemned persons and seemed to all like the Oracles given from Sinai out of lightning and thunder V. But whatsoever that was in the mind of our Saviour that moved him to imprint this name upon them when these two Brethren above all the other Disciples would have fire fall from Heaven upon that Town of the Samaritans which refused to give Christ entertainment Luke IX 54. they seem to act according to the sense of this surname And when the Mother of these desired a place for one of them on Christs right hand and for the other on his left she took the confidence of such a request probably from this that Christ had set so honourable a name upon them above the other Disciples And when John himself calls himself The Elder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was sufficiently known to those to whom he writ under that bare title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elder I cannot but suspect this distinguishing Character arose hence All the Apostles indeed were Elders which Peter saith of himself 1 Pet. V. 1. but I ask whether any of the twelve besides this our Apostle his Brother James being now dead could be known to those that were absent under this title The Elder by a proper not additional name as he is in his two latter Epistles VERS XXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is beside himself IN the Talmudists it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His judgment is gone and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His understanding is ceased f f f f f f Maimon Gâ—resch cap. 2. If any becomes mute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet is of a sound mind and they say to him shall we write a bill of Divorce for thy wife and he nods with his head and they try him thrice c. And it is necessary that they make trial of him more exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest perhaps he might be deprived of his senses This is to be understood of a dumb person made so by some Paralytical or Apoplectical stroke which sometimes wounds the understanding The g g g g g g Moâ—d Katon fol. 26. 2. Rabbins deliver If any one is sick and in the mean time any of his friends die they do not make it known to him that such a one is dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lest his understanding be disturbed One h h h h h h Bava Mezia fol. 84. 1. thus lamented R. Simeon ben Lachish Where art thou O Bar Lachish Where art thou O bar Lachish And so cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Until his understanding perished For so the Gloss renders it How fitly this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresseth these Phrases is readily observed by him who understandeth both Languages And a Jew reading these words in Mark would presently have recourse to the sense of those phrases in his nation which do not always signifie madness or being bereft of ones wits in the proper sense but sometimes and very frequently some discomposure of the understanding for the present from some too vehement passion So say Christs friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Preparation of Pentecost and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The preparation of the Feast of Tabernacles That is the Day and manner of preparing food for the following mirth of the Feast In the same sense was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preparation of the Sabbath namely The preparation of food and things necessary to the Sabbath Of which we shall speak at Vers. 42. Having thus dispatched these things let us now come to the hour it self It was the Preparation of the Passover saith John and about the sixth hour when Pilate delivered Christ to be crucified And it was the third hour saith Mark and they crucified him It is disputed by the Gemarists l l l l l l In Bab. Pesach fol. 11. 2. how far the evidences of two men may agree and consent whereof one saith This I saw done in that hour and the other saith I saw it done another hour One saith the second hour another the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Testimony consist together One saith The third hour another the fifth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Testimony is vain as R. Meir saith But saith R. Judah Their Testimony consists together But if one saith The fifth hour another the seventh hour their testimony is vain because in the fifth hour the Sun is in the East part of Heaven in the seventh in the West part They dispute largely concerning this matter in the place alledged and concerning evidences differing in words nevertheless as to the thing it self they conclude that both may be true because witnesses may be deceived in the computation of hours Which to conclude concerning the Evangelists were impious and blasphemous But there is one supposes the Copiers were deceived in their transcription and would have the computation of John corrected into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it was about the third hour Too bodly and indeed without any reason For it is neither credible nor possible indeed that those things which went before our Saviours crucifixion should be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the words of the Talmudists m m m m m m Sanhedr fol. 105. 2. in the three first hours of the day The Harmony therefore of the Evangelists is to be fetched elsewhere I. Let us repeat that out of Maimonides The great Sanhedrin sat from the morning dayly Sacrifice until the afternoon daily Sacrifice But now when the morning dayly Sacrifice was at the third hour the Sanhedrin sat not before that hour Take heed therefore Thou that wouldst have the words of John And it was about the sixth hour to be changed into And it was about the third hour lest thou becomest guilty of a great Solecism For Pilate could not deliver Christ to be crucified about the third hour when the Sanhedrin sat not before the Third hour and Christ was not yet delivered to Pilate But you will say The words of Mark do obscure these things much more For if the Sanhedrin that delivered up Christ met not together before the third hour one can no way say that they crucified him the third hour We do here propound two things for the explanation of this matter Let the first be taken from the day it self and from the hour it self That day was the Preparation of the Passover a day of high solemnity and when it behoved the Priests and the other Fathers of the Sanhedrin to be present at the third hour in the Temple and to offer their Chagigahs that were preparative to the whole seven days festivity but they employed themselves in another thing namely this You may observe that he saith not It was the third hour when but It was the third hour And they crucified him That is When the third hour now was and was passed yet they omitted not to prosecute his crucifixion when indeed according to the manner of the Feast and the obligation of Religion they ought to have been employed otherwise I indeed should rather sit down satisfied with this interpretation than to accuse the holy Text as depraved or to deprave it more with my amendment But Secondly There is another sense also not to be despised if our judgment is any thing which we fetch from a custom usual in the Sanhedrin but from which they now swerved n n n n n n Sanhedr fol. 46. 2. They are treating concerning a guilty person condemned to hanging with whom they deal in this process 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They tarry until Sunset approach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then they finish his judgment and put him to death Note that They finish not his judgment until Sunset draw near If you ask the reason a more general one may be given which respected all persons condemned to dye and a more special one which respected him which was to be hanged I. There was that which is called by the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The affliction of judgment by which Phrase they understand not judgment that is not just but when he that is condemned after judgment past is not presently put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Sanhedr fol. 35. 1. If you finish his judgment on the Sabbath mark that and put him to death on the first day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You afflict his judgment Where the Gloss is As long as his judgment is not finished it is not the affliction of judgment because he expects every hour to be absolved But when judgment is ended he expects death c. Therefore they delayed but little between the finishing of judgment and execution II. As to those that were to be hanged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They delayed the finishing his judgment and they hanged him not in the morning lest they might grow slack about his burial and might fall into forgetfulness and might sin against the Law Deut. XXI 23. but near Sunset that they might presently bury him So the Gloss. They put him to death not sooner for this reason they finished not his judgment sooner for the reason above said And now let us resume the words of Mark And it was the third hour and they crucified him The Sanhedrin used not to finish the judgment of hanging until they were now ready to rise up and depart from the Council and Bench after the Mincha the day now inclining toward Sunset but these men finished the Judgment of Jesus and hastened him to the Cross when they first came into the Court at the third hour at the time of the dayly sacrifice which was very unusual and different from the custom VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eloi Eloi IN Matthew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eli Eli in the very same Syllables of Psal. XXII 1. Mark according to the present dialect namely the Chaldee useth the pronunciation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or at least according to the pronunciation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eloi
Judg. V. 5. in the LXX VERS XLII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preparation that is the day before the Sabbath YOU will ask whether any day going before the Sabbath was called Parasceue The Preparation Among the Hebrews indeed it is commonly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Eve of the Sabbath But be it granted whence is it called The Preparation Either that they prepared themselves for the Sabbath or rather that they prepared provisions to be eaten on the Sabbath And that by the Law On the sixt day they shall prepare c. Whatsoever ye will bake bake to day and whatsoever ye will seeth seeth to day c. Exod. XVI 5 23. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Preparation is a very usual word with them in this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p p p p p p Maimon in Jom tobh c. 1. A common day prepares for the Sabbath and a common day prepares for a feast day q q q q q q Gloss ibid. in cap. 6. But those reasons do not hold good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to forbid the Preparation while as yet there remains much of the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preparation But you will say If a Feast day prepares not for the Sabbath which Maimonides saith such an Interpretation will not suit with the words which we are now handling that it should be called The Preparation in respect of provisions prepared for the Sabbath on that day Let the Masters themselves answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r r r r r r Bab. Jom tobh fol. 15. 1. On a feast day which happens on a Sabbath Eve let not a man in the beginning seeth food after the Feast day for the Sabbath day but let him seeth for the Feast day and if any remains let it be reserved fâ—r the Sabbath But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the letter Let him make a boyling but the sense is Let him prepare food on the Eve of the Feast day and let him depend upon it for the Sabbath The School of Shammai saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A twofold food that of Hillel saith One food Maimonides speaks plainer s s s s s s Jom tobh cap. 6. On a Feast day that falls in with a Sabbath Eve they do not bake nor seeth on the Feast day what they eat on the Sabbath And this prohibition is from the words of the Scribes namely That none seeth on a Feast day for a common day for this is arguing a majori ad minus from the greater to the less if a man seeth not for the Sabbath day much less for a common day But if he provides food on the Eve of the Feast day on which he may depend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then if he bake or seeth on the Feast day for the Sabbath it is permitted and that on which he depends is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mixing of food And why it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A mingling together Namely as that mixing which they make concerning the Courts or the Vesteries on the Sabbath Eve is for acknowledgment that is that they should not think that it is lawful to carry any thing from place to place on the Sabbath So this food is for acknowledgment and remembrance that they should not think or imagine that it is lawful to bake any thing on a Feast day which is not eaten that day therefore this food is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mixing of food Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mixing of Courts we speak 2 Cor. X. 16. The sum of the matter is this many families dwelt by one common Court now therefore when it was not lawful to carry out any thing on the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a place which was of one right and condition to a place which was of another therefore it was not lawful for any of those families to carry out any thing out of his house into the Court joyning to his door and on the contrary All partook of the communion and mixture of the right and that by eating together of that food which was brought together by them all and then it was lawful So in this case whereof we are now treating Since it was not lawful by the Canons of the Scribes to prepare any food on a Feast day for the Sabbath that followed on the morrow and since of necessity something was to be prepared for the Sabbath they mollified the rigor of the Canon thus that first some food should be prepared on the Feast day which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mixture as it were of right and depending upon this thus prepared they might prepare any thing for the morrow Sabbath Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mixture of foods mention occurs in the Talmudists infinite times and these things which have been spoke concerning them afford not a little light to the clause which we are now handling and to others where the word Preparation occurs and make those things plainer which we have said concerning the Preparation of the Passover namely that it denoteth not either the preparation of the Paschal Lamb nor the preparation of the people to eat the Lamb but the preparation of meats to be eaten in the Passover week Nor in this place if it be aplyed to the Sabbath doth it denote any other thing than the preparation of food for the Sabbath now approaching So that that day wherein Christ was crucified was a double preparation in the double sense alledged Namely the whole day but especially from the third hour was The Preparation of the Passover or of the whole week following and the Evening of the day was the Preparation of the Sabbath following on the morrow Of that Sabbath John saith which we cannot let pass that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the day of that Sabbath was a great day Chap. XIX 31. For it was the day of the peoples appearance in the Temple it was the day of the offering of the sheaf of firstfruits and I ask whether before that day Christs persecuters had offered their Chagigahs VERS XLIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An honourable Councellor THE Vulgar reads Nobilis Decurio A noble Officer Erasmus Honestus Senator An honourable Senator Beza Honoratus Senator An honourable Senator The Talmud may serve here instead of a Lexicon Was it t t t t t t Bab. Joma fol. 8. 2. the Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the chief Men Was it not the Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Councellors First it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chamber of the Councellors but when the high priesthood was brought with mony and yearly changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cheif Councellors of the King are yearly changed thence it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Proedri
in Babylon but in Judea they were names sit and suitable enough III. Of the variation of names here and in Matth. I. I have already spoken in that place To wit that Neri was indeed the Father of Salathiel though St. Matthew saith Jechoniah who died childless Jerem. XXII 30. begat him not that he was his Son by nature but was his heir in succession VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The son of Cainan I Will not launch widely out into a controversie that hath been sufficiently bandied already I shall dispatch as briefly as I may what may seem most satisfacton in this matter I. There is no doubt and indeed there are none but will grant that the Evangelist hath herein followed the Greek Version This in Genes XI 12 13. relates it in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arphaxad lived an hundred and five and thirty years and begat Cainan and Cainan lived an hundred and thirty years and begat Salah And Cainan lived after he had begot Salah three hundred and thirty years Consulting z z z z z z Theophil ad Autolych lib. 3. about this matter I cannot but observe of this Author that he partly follows the Greek Version in adding to Arphaxad an hundred years and partly not when he omits Cainan for so he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arphaxad when he was an hundred and thirty five years of age begot Salah Nor can I but wonder at him that translates him that he should of his own head insert Arphaxad was an hundred and thirty five years old and begat a son named Cainan Cainan was an hundred and thirty years old and begat Salah When there is not one syllable of Cainan in Theophilus A very faithful Interpreter indeed 1. I cannot be perswaded by any arguments that this passage concerning Cainan was in Moses his Text or indeed in any Hebrew Copies which the Seventy used but that it was certainly added by the Interpreters themselves partly because no reason can be given how it should ever come to be left out of the Hebrew Text and partly because there may be a probable reason given why it should be added in the Greek especially when nothing was more usual with them than to add of their own according to their own will and pleasure Huic uni forsan poteram succumbere culpae I might perhaps acknowledge this one slip and be apt to believe that Cainan had once a place in the original but by I know not what fate or misfortune left now out but that I find an hundred such kind of additions in the Greek Version which the Hebrew Text will by no means own nor any probable reason given to bear with it Let us take our instances only from proper names because our business at present is with a proper name Gen. X. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elisa is added among the sons of Japhet And Vers. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another Cainan among the sons of Shem. Gen. XLVI 20. Five Grand-children added to the sons of Joseph Malach. IV. 5. The Tishbite Exod. I. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the City On is added to Pithon and Raamses 2 Sam. XX. 18. the City Dan is added to Abel Not to mention several other names of places in the Book of Josua Now should I believe that these names ever were in the Hebrew Copy when as some of them are put there without any reason some of them against all reason particularly Dan being joyned with Abel and the Grand-children of Joseph and all of them with no foundation at all II. I question not but the Interpreters whoever they were engaged themselves in this undertaking with something of a partial mind and as they made no great Conscience of imposing upon the Gentiles so they made it their Religion to favour their own side And according to this ill temperament and disposition of mind so did they manage their Version either adding or curtailing at pleasure blindly lazily and audaciously enough sometimes giving a very foreign sense sometimes a contrary oftentimes none And this frequently to patronize their own Traditions or to avoid some offence they think might be in the Original or for the credit and safety of their own Nation The tokens of all which it would not be difficult to instance in very great numbers would I apply my self to it but it is the last only that is my business at this time III. It is a known story of the thirteen places which the Talmudists tell us were altered by the Seventy two Elders when they writ out the Law I would suppose in Hebrew for Ptolomey They are reckoned up a a a a a a Hierosol Megill fol. 71. 4. Bab. Migillah fol. 9. 1. Massech Sopherim cap. 1. and we have the mention of them sprinkled up and down b b b b b b In Beresh rab fol. 10. 3. and fol. 12. 4. and fol. 41. 4. and fol. 110. 1. as also c c c c c c Shemoth rab fol. 123. 1. where it is intimated as if eighten places had been altered Now if we will consult the Glosses upon those places they will tell us that these alterations were made some of them lest the sacred Text should be cavill'd at others that the honour and peace of the Nation might be secured It is easie therefore to imagine that the same things were done by those that turned the whole Bible The thing it self speaks it Let us add for example's sake those five souls which they add to the Family of Jacob numbering up five Grand-children of Joseph who as yet were not in being nay seven according to their account Genes XLVI 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children that were born to Joseph in the Land of Egypt even nine souls Now which copy do we think it is most reasonable to believe the Greek or the Hebrew and as to the question whether these five added in the Greek were antiently in Moses his Text but either since lost by the carelessness of the Transcribers or rased out by the bold hand of the Jews let reason and the nature of the thing judge For if Machir Gilead Sutelah Tahan and Eden were with Joseph when Jacob with his Family went down into Egypt and if they were not why are they numbred amongst those that went down then must Manasseh at the age of nine years or ten at most be a Grand-father Ephraim at eight or nine Can I believe that Moses would relate such things as these I rather wonder with what kind of Forehead the Interpreters could impose such incredible stories upon the Gentiles as if it were possible they should be believed IV. It is plain enough to any one that diligently considers the Greek Version throughout that it was composed by different hands who greatly varied from one another both in stile and wit So that this Book was more learnedly rendred than that the Greek reading more elegant in this Book than in
that and the Version in this Book comes nearer the Hebrew than in that And yet in the whole there is something of the Jewish craft favouring and patronizing the Affairs of that Nation There is something of this nature in the matters now in hand the addition of Cainan and the five souls to the Seventy that went down into Egypt How mightily the Jewish Nation valued themselves beyond all the rest of mankind esteeming those Seventy souls that went down with Jacob into Egypt beyond the Seventy Nations of the world he that is so great a stranger in the Jewish Affairs and Writings that he is yet to learn let him take these few instances for it would be needless to add more d d d d d d Zohar in Exod Col. 22. Seventy souls went down with Jacob into Egypt that they might restore the Seventy Families dispersed by the confusion of tongues For those Seventy souls were equal to all the Families of the whole world And he that would be ruling over them is as if he would usurp a tyranny over the whole World e e e e e e Tâ—rg in Cantic IV. 10. How good is thy love toward me O thou Congregation of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is more than that of the Seventy Nations f f f f f f Remidb rab fol. 210. 3. The Holy blessed God created Seventy Nations but he found no pleasure in any of them save Israel only g g g g g g Beresh rab fol. 43. 2. Saith Abraham to God Didst thou not raise up seventy Nations unto Noah God saith unto him I will raise up that Nation unto thee of whom it is written how great a Nation is it The Gloss is That peculiar people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excelling all the Seventy Nations that holy Nation as the holy language excells all the seventy languages There are numberless passages of that kind Now when this arrogant Doctrine and vain-gloryiny if familiarly known amongst the Gentiles could not but stir up a great deal of hatred and consequently danger to the Jews I should rather think the Interpreters might make such additions as these through the caution and cunning of avoiding the danger they apprehend than that ever they were originally in the Text of Moses To wit by adding another Cainan and five souls to those Seventy in Jacobs retinue they took care that the Gentiles should not in the Greek Bibles find exactly the Seventy Nations in Gen. X. but seventy two or seventy three if we reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elisa also as also not Seventy but Seventy five souls that went down into Egypt It was the same kind of craft they used in that Version Deuter. XXXII 8. whence that comparison between the Seventy Souls and the Seventy Nations took its rise Moses hath it thus When the most high divided the Nations when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Children of Israel But they render it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God A sense indeed most foreign from that of Moses yet what served to obscure his meaning so far as might avoid any danger that might arise from the knowledge of it Making the passage it self so unintelligible that it needs an Oedipus to unridle it unless they should allude to the Jewish Tradition which I do a little suspect concerning the Seventy Angels set over the Seventy Nations of the world V. But now if this Version be so uncertain and differs so much from the original how comes it to pass that the Evangelists and Apostles should follow it so exactly and that even in some places where it does so widely differ from the Hebrew fountain Answ. I. It pleased God to allot the Censers of Korah Dathan and Abiram to sacred use because they were so ordained and designed by the first owners So doth it please the Holy Ghost to determine that Version to his own use being so primarily ordained by the first Authors The minds indeed of the Interpreters were not perhaps very sincere in the Version they made as who designed the defence and support of some odd things So neither were the hearts of Korah Dathan and Abiram sincere at all but very perverse in offering their Incense but so long as their Incense had been dedicated to sacred use it pleased God to make their Censers holy So the Greek Version designed for sacred use as designed for the Holy Bible it was so kept and made use of by the Holy Ghost II. Whereas the New Testment was to be wrote in Greek and come into the hands chiefly of the Gentiles it was most agreeable I may say most necessary for them to follow the Greek Copies as being what the Gentiles were only capable of consulting that so they examining the Histories and quotations that were brought out of the Old Testament might find them agreeing with and not contradicting them For instance when they consult their Greek Bibles for the names from David backward to Adam and there find Cainan the Son of Arphaxad If St. Luke should not also have inserted it how readily might they have called his veracity in question as to the other part of the Genealogy which had been extracted out of Tables and Registers not so familiarly known III. If there be any credit to be given to that Story of Greek Version which we meet with in Aristeas and Josephus then we may also believe that passage in it which we may find in Aristeas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When the Volumes of the Law had been read through the Priests and interpreters and Elders and Governours of the City and all the Princes of the people standing by said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Forasmuch as this Interpretation is rightly religiously and in every thing so very accurately finished it is fit that all things should continue as they are and no alteration should be made When all had by acclamations given their approbation to these things Demetrius commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that according to their custom they should imprecate Curses upon any that should by addition or alteration or diminution ever make any change in it This they did well in that all things might be kept intire and inviolate for ever If this passage be true it might be no light matter to the Jew when quoting any thing in Greek out of the Old Testament to depart in the least from the Greek Version and indeed it is something a wonder that after this they should ever dare to undertake any other But supposing there were any credit to be had to this passage were the sacred Pen-men any way concerned in these Curses and Imprecations who saith they were But however who will not say that this was enough for them to stop the mouths
but an Adulteress They make this Papus co-temporary with Rabban Gamaliel he of Jafneh and R. Joshua a a a a a a Hieros Bava batra fol. 15. 1. and with R. Akibah b b b b b b Gloss in Schabb. fol. 104. 2. who all lived both before and after the destruction of Jerusalem So that the times do not very much disagree And probable it is that the Gemarists retained some memory of our Mary Magdalene in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magdila II. We further observe in our Notes upon Joh. XII that there was a certain Town near Jerusalem called Magdala of a very ill fame which perhaps was Bethany it self or be it it some other yet might our Mary if she was the Sister of Lazarus not unfitly be called Magdalene either as she might have lived there some time being there married or have imitated the whorish customs of that place But I am apt to think that Bethany it self might go under the name of Magdala 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of whom went seven devils As to the number seven we contend not when there is hardly any thing more usual than to put this certain number for an uncertain Our difficulty is whether these words are to be taken according to their letter or according to the Jewish sense who were wont to call vices by the name of Devils as An evil affection is Satan c c c c c c Gloss in Joma fol. 67. 2. Drunkeness by new wine is a devil d d d d d d Gittin fol. â—7 2 c. If this Mary be the same with the Woman that was a sinner in the foregoing Chapter as is believed then by devils seems to be understood the vices she was addicted to especially when both the Pharisee and Evangelist call her a sinner rather than Demoniack But this we leave at the choice of the Reader VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wife of Chusa WE meet with such a name in Haman's Genealogy e e e e e e Massech Sopher cap. 13. The King promoted Haman the Hammadethite the Agathite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of Chuza c. The Targumist Esth. 5. reckoning up the same Genealogy mentions not this name and differs in others Only this let us take notice of by the way That Chuza is a name in the Family of Hamon the Edomite and this Chuza here was in the Family of Herod who himself was of the blood of the Edomites VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that hath shall be given GOD's f f f f f f Succah fol. 46. 2. measure is not like the measure of flesh and blood The measure of flesh and blood is this An empty vessel is receptive but a full one can take in no more But God's measure is this The full vessel is receptive of more but the empty vessel receives nothing according as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If hearing thou wilt hear that is if thou hearest thou shalt hear if thou dost not hear thou shalt not hear The Gloss is If thou accustom thy self to hear then thou shalt hear and learn and add That is not much unlike g g g g g g Beracoth fol. 55. 1. God doth not give wisdom but to him with whom is wisdom already CHAP. IX VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither have two coats apiece EITHER my computation of times very much deceives me or the Winter was now coming on when the Apostles were sent forth and yet Christ forbids that they should be clothed with a double garment It was not much that that they should be forbid to take money or provision for their journey because they were to have their food administred to them as the reward of their preaching the Gospel But to strive with the cold and winter without sufficient clothing seems something hard I. It was not an unusual thing in that Nation that some out of a more Religious severity did cloth themselves but with a single garment of which thing we have already spoken in Notes upon Mark XIV 51. to which probably that passage may have some reference a a a a a a Schabb. fol. 118. 2. R. Jose saith Let my portion be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with those who dye of the disease in their bowels for saith Mar Very many righteous men dye of the disease in their bowels viz. a disease contracted by the austerities of their life both as to food and clothing And so it is said particularly of the Priests b b b b b b Gloss. in Shekalim cap. 5. The Priests walkt barefoot upon the pavement they used water and were not clad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but with a single garment And from this custom their natural vigor languished and their bowels grew infirm For this very reason was there a Physician appointed in the Temple upon whom the charge lay of remedying this evil Whom we might not unfitly call the Bowel-Doctor Now it may be enquired whether our Lord from this example prescribed this severity to his Apostles not allowing them more than a single garment when this journeying of theirs to Preach the Gospel was a Winters work For they returned from this journey a little before the Passover Compare the 10th Vers. of this Chapter and so on with Joh. VI. 4. and so on But let us a little enlarge upon this subject In both the Talmuds c c c c c c Hieros Schabb. fol. 15. 4. Bab. Schabb. fol. 120. 1. there are reckoned up eighteen several garments wherewith the Jew is clothed from head to foot amongst the rest two shoes two buskins c. but those which are more properly called garments and which are put upon the body are reckoned these 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mactoren which word is variously rendered by several men By the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose a Mantle By Aruch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cloake by others an Hood In the Gloss upon Bava bathra c c c c c c Fol. 57. 2. it is made the same with Talith d d d d d d Avodah Zarah fol. 58. 2. Resh Lachish went to Bozrah and seeing some Israelites eating of fruits that had not been tithed forbad them Coming before R. Jonathan he saith to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even while thy Mactoren or Cloak is upon thee go and recal thy prohibition 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kolbin of thread Which the Babylonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kolbon The ordinary Jewish garment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talith the outward garment and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaluk the inward But in the place quoted is no mention of Talith in so many syllables at all but instead of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Greek word for an Hebrew one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is
fol. 30. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ancients were call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numberers because they number'd all the letters of the Law for they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vau in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levit. XI 42. is the middle letter in the whole Book of the Law The Gloss gives another reason out of the Jerus Talm. namely because they number'd all the points and contents of the Law as the forty principal servile works save one c. Should we indeed grant that the first original of the word had such narrow bounds as this yet does not this hinder but that it afterward enlarg'd it self so far as to denote any person learned in the Law and every Doctor of it nay that it extended it self even to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Schoolmasters that taught children if not to the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libellarii those whose business it was to write out bills of divorce and forms of Contracts c. of which two there is mention made amongst the ten sorts whereof if none should happen to be in a City it was not fit for any disciple of the wise to abide in it b b b b b b Sanhedr fol. 17. 2. II. That the fathers of the Sanhedrin were more emphatically call'd the Scribes it is so well known that it needs no confirmation That passage in the Evangelist sufficiently shews it c c c c c c Mat. XXIII 1. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chair that is on the Legislative bench or in the Sanhedrin where also the Sadducees that were of that Council are called Scribes And the Scribes are distinguisht there from the Pharisees not that they were not Scribes but because all the Scribes there were not Pharisees III. There was a certain degree of Doctors or Scribes that were in the Sanhedrin but were not members of it these are commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who gave judgment in the presence of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for the office of Legislators but not yet admitted Such were Simeon ben Azzai and Simeon ben Zumah d d d d d d Horaioth fol. 2. 2. Such also was Simeon the Temanite of whom we have made mention elsewhere out of Sanhedr fol. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he judg'd in the presence of the Sanhedrin sitting upon the ground He did not sit on the bench with the fathers as not being one of their number but on the seats below nearer the ground him the father 's consulted in difficult matters A shadow of which we have in England of the Judges men learned in the Laws who have their seats in our house of Lords He that was particularly call'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wise man whether he was of the number of the fathers or only of these kind of Judges I shall not at present dispute but leave the Reader to judg from this story e e e e e e Horaioth fol. 13. 2. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the President of the Sanhedrin R. Meir was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chacam or the wise man and R. Nathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vice governour Now when Rabban Simeon had decreed something that disparag'd R. Meir and R. Nathan Saith R. Meir to R. Nathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Chacam or the wise man And thou art the vice-president Let us remove Rabban Simeon from the Presidency then thou wilt be the President and I the Vice-president There is nothing more common and yet nothing more difficult than that saying the School of Hillel saith so and so and the School of Schammai so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the wise men say otherwise It is very obscure who these wise men should be If we should say the Sanhedrin it is plain that one part of it consisted of the Shammaeans and another part of the Hillelites If so then it should seem that these wise men are those Judges of whom we have spoken unless you will assign a third part to the Sadducees to whom you will hardly attribute the determination of the thing and much less the Emphatical title of the wise men But this we leave undecided III. Let us a little enquire out of the Sanhedrin we shall find variety of Scribes and Doctors of the Law according to the variety of the Law it self and the variety of teaching it Hence those various Treatises amongst the Rabbins The Micra Mishneh Midras Talmud Agadah c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Micra is the Text of the Bible it self its reading and literal Explication 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mishneh the doctrine of Traditions and their Explication 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Midrash the mystick and allegorical doctrine and exposition of the Scriptures a a a a a a Act. XV. 21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day Now these were the ways and methods of preaching him I. As to the written Law for every one knows they had a twofold Law written and oral as they call'd it As to the written Law therefore they had a twofold way of declaring it viz. explaining and applying it according to the literal sense of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for edification exhortation and comfort as the Apostle hath it b b b b b b 1 Cor. XIV 3. Or else by drawing Allegories mysteries and far fetcht notions out of it As to the former way the rulers of the Synagogue seem to have respect to it in what they said to Paul and Barnabas c c c c c c Act. XIII 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ye have any word of exhortation for the people say on As to the latter the instances are endless in the Jewish writings every where so far that they have even melted down the whole volume of the Scriptures into tradition and allegory It is not easily determin'd whether these Preachers were so of a different order that the one should wholly addict himself to the plain and literal exposition and application of the Scriptures the other only to the mystical and more abstruse way of teaching there is no question but both these did frequently meet both in one Preacher and that in one and the same Sermon and indeed I cannot tell but that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agadah may sometimes denote both these ways of expounding and interpreting the Law d d d d d d Beresh rab fol. 90. 3. When a certain person being interrogated about certain traditions could give no answer the standers by said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perhaps he is not skill'd in the traditional doctrine but he may be able to expound And so they propound to him Dan. X. 21. to explain To which that also agrees well enough a a a a a a Gloss.
these two things observable I. That our Saviour brings in this clause which in so many terms is not in Moses where the rest are c c c c c c Deut. VI. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Greek both of the Roman and Alexandrian Edition render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy might but where is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pass by other copies wherein though is some varying yet there is not this which is now before us Our Saviour hath the same clause elsewhere d d d d d d Mark XII 30. but not in the same order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy mind and with all thy strength here it is with all thy strength and with all thy mind What shall we say therefore Shall we suppose it writ to this sense in the Hebrew in their Phylacterics this we can hardly think Was it added by the Greek Interpreters and so the Evangelists take it from thence we see it not so What then doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both strength and mind Here indeed the hinge of the question turns That it denotes strength no one doubts yea and the Rabbins suppose it denotes Mammon too with whom the Syriack and Targumist agree but still where doth it signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind 1. Take such a Gloss as is frequently in use amongst the allegorizing Doctors e e e e e e Beracoth fol. 54. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With what measure he shall meet to thee do thou praise him exceedingly Where we see they play with the sound of words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a very common thing with them to do Aben Ezra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly exceedingly and intends thus much love him exceedingly as much as ever thou art able and let thy love le perfect in thine heart 2. To this we may add if we think fit what they commonly require in all Religious services viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation and the intention of the mind From all which we may conceive that this was the common interpretation of that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thy whole mind was not added without just cause but upon some necessity there being something of obscurity in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so we might be apt to apply it only to our bodily or outward strength and might Moses his words therefore are rendred by the Evangelists not strictly and according to the letter as they are in him or were in the Parchments in the Phylacteries but both according to their full sense and tenour as also according to the common and received interpretation of that Nation f f f f f f Hieros Sotah fol. 21. 2. R. Levi bar Chaiothah went to Caesarea and heard them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reciting their Shemaah or their Phylacteries Hellenistically i. e. in Greek c. Now whether the clause we are now handling was inserted there it would be in vain to enquire because not possible but to know But if the Jews thought it included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not unlikely then is it probable that the Hellenists used it expressly in the Greek tongue I cannot but take notice of the words of the Jerusalem Targumist just now alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What should that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mean Aruch quoting this passage hath it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is redundant which is not unusual with the Babylonian Talmud but with the Jerusalem hardly ever or very rarely The second thing observable in this mans answer is that he adds And thy neighbour as thy self which indeed was not written in the Schedules of their Phylacteries otherwise I should have thought the man had understood those words of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how readest thou as if he had said How dost thou repeat the sentences of the Phylacteries for he reciteth the sentence as it was in their Phylacteries only adds and thy neighbour c. Now the usual expression for the recitation of their Phylacteries was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word for word is they read the Shemaa which also is rendred by some when indeed they commonly repeat them without book a a a a a a Megill fol. 17. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that reads the Book of Esther orally i. e. as the Gemara explains it without book or by heart b b b b b b Hieros Berac fol. 3. 3. It is quaeried Why they repeat those two Sections every day c c c c c c Deut. VI. 4 c. XI 13. c. R. Levi saith because the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue are comprehended therein Shewing further how they are comprehended saving only which is very observable the Second Commandment Afterward indeed they confess it was very fitting they should every day repeat the very Decalogue it self but they did not repeat it lest the Hereticks should say that only those Commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai However they did repeat those passages wherein they supposed the Decalogue was summed up Whether therefore this Lawyer of ours understood the words of our Saviour as having respect to that usage of repeating their Phylacteries or whether he of his own accord and according to his own opinion would be giving the whole summ of the Decalogue he shews himself rather a textual than a traditional Doctor although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lawyer seem to point out the latter rather VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who is my neighbour THIS doubt and form of questioning he had learnt out of the common School where it is taught in Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He excepts all Gentiles when he saith thy neighbour d d d d d d Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 2. An Israelite killing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stranger Inhabitant he doth not dye for it by the Sanhedrin because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one lift up himself against his neighbour It is not necessary to say he does not dye upon the account of a Gentile For they are not esteemed by them for their neighbour e e e e e e Ibid. cap. 4. The Gentiles amongst whom and us there is no war and so those that are keepers of sheep amongst the Israelites and the like we are not to contrive their death but if they be in any danger of death we are not
〈◊〉 declare that he understood all these things from Heaven and from above We have taken it in this last sense in our notes upon that place as being beyond all controversie that he was divinely inspir'd and the Spirit from above govern'd his pen while he was writing those things But whether it might not mean according to the second sense for the first we wholly disallow viz. that St. Luke was amongst those who adhered to our Saviour Christ from his very first preaching of the Gospel I leave it to the enquiry of the Reader to determine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of all that Iesus began to do c. I am sensible that in the common dialect to begin to do and to do is one and the same thing But I suppose the phrase in this place is to be taken relatively q. d. In the former treatise I discours'd of all those things which Jesus himself began to do and to teach In this I am to give a relation of those things which were continu'd by his Apostles after him VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through the Holy Ghost EXpositors place these words differently The Syriack one of the Arabick Copies Beza and the Italian place them next after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he had chosen that the sense according to them is after that he had given Commandment to the Apostles whom he had chosen through the Holy Ghost But the other Arabick as also the Vulgar the French and English translations retain the same order of the words as we find them in the Greek Text most rightly rendring it after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandment Which also of old had been done by God to the Prophets dictating to them by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit what they should Teach and Preach The Apostles had indeed cast out Devils and heal'd diseases through the Spirit but it is a question whether they had as yet taught any thing but what they had heard verbatim from the mouth of their great Master He had given them a promise that they should bind and loose the Law of Moses he had told them that there were several things yet behind that must be revealed to them which as yet they could not bear concerning which they should be further instructed by the inspiration of the Spirit When therefore he had risen and breath'd in their face saying receive ye the Holy Ghost from that time they were endu'd with the Spirit as the Prophets of old who dictated to them what they should preach what they should require and what they should ordain And now nothing was wanting but the gift of Tongues that what was dictated to them they might declare and make known to all men in their own Languages VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being seen of them forty days a a a a a a Sanhedr fol. 43. 1. IT is a tradition On the evening of the Passover they hang'd Jesus And a cryer went before him for forty days saying Behold the man condemn'd to be stoned because by the help of Magick he hath deceiv'd and drawn away Israel into an Apostasie Who ever hath any thing to alledge in testimony of his innocency let him come forth and bear witness But they found none that would be a witness in his behalf But he himself O thou Tongue fit to be cut out gives a sufficient testimony of his own innocence having for the space of forty days conversed amongst men after his Resurrection from death under the power of which he could not be kept by reason of his innocence b b b b b b Ibid. fol. 99. 1 It is a tradition R. Eliezer saith The days of the Messiah are forty years according as it is said Forty years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall I be grieved with this generation The Gloss is Because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the future tense it is a sign the Prophesie is concerning the time to come It is ingenuously done however of these Jews that they parallel that faithless generation that were in the days of the Messiah with that perverse and rebellious generation that had been in the wilderness For they will both of them prove a lothing and offence to God for the space of forty years And as those forty years in the wilderness were numbered according to the forty days in which the Land had been searching Numb XIV 34. So also may those forty years of the Messiah be numbered according to the forty days wherein he was conversant amongst mankind after his Resurrection from â—he dead But you must compute warily lest you stumble at the threshold about the year of Tiberius wherein Christ rose again or at the close about the year of Vespasian wherein Jerusalem was taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus c c c c c c De ex id lib. 6. cap 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem was taken in the second year of Vespasian's reign When indeed according to the Fasti Consulares it was taken in his first year but his second year from the time wherein he had been declared Emperor by the Army He is saluted Emperor by the Army in Egypt at the very Calends of July and the fifth of the Ides of July in Judaea So that his first year from the time of his being declared Emperor was compleat on the Calends of July the year following but indeed it was but half his first year according to the computation of the Fasti Now Jerusalem was sackt on the eighth of September following VERS IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And being assembled together with them commanded them c. WE will make some enquiry both as to the place and time wherein these things were spoken and doâ—e I. We derive the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salt but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Assembly or Congregation So the Lexicons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Assembly d d d d d d Herodot Polymn cap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou shalt give notice to the Persians to gather their forces together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus having gathered together his fathers flocks and herds of Goats and Sheep and Oxen sacrificed them c. e e e e e e Id. Clio cap. 126. II. Our Saviour after his Resurrection never appeared amongst his Disciples but by surprize and unexpectedly excepting that one time in the Mountain of Galilee where he had appointed to meet with them Matth. XXVIII 16. So that I would refer these words therefore to that passage in Saint Matthew so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify his meeting with them in the Mountain of Galilee according to the appointment he had made Nor do those words hinder that it is said he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem c. as if
of the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morrow of the Sabbath there hath arose a controversie betwixt the Scribes and Baithusians whether by the Sabbath ought to be understood the weekly Sabbath or as the Scribes commonly call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath of the Creation or whether it should be understood of the Sabbatical day i. e. the first day of the seven days of Passover which was a solemn day Exod. XII 16. the Baithusians contend vehemently for the former and will not have the sheaf offer'd but after the weekly Sabbath As suppose the first day of the Passover should fall out upon the first day of the week they would stay till the whole week with the Sabbath-day was run out and then on the morrow of that Sabbath i. e. the first day of the following week they offer'd the sheaf But the Scribes very differently keep strictly to the sixteenth day of the Month Nisan for offering the first-fruits without any dispensation after the Sabbatical-day or the first day of the Feast is over And amongst other arguments by which they strengthen their opinion those two different places of Scripture Exod. XII 15. Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread and Deut. XVI 8. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread they according to the sense they have do thus reconcile Seven days indeed you shall eat unleavened bread that is unleavened bread of the old wheat on the first day of the Feast the sheaf being not yet offer'd and unleaven'd bread of the new wheat the remaining six days after you have offered the first-fruits l l l l l l Sipâ—ra fol. 51. 1. Pesikta fol. 21. 1. Menach fol. 66. 1 II. If the day of the first-fruits be to be taken into the number of the fifty days which the Authors now quoted do clearly enough affirm out of those words Deut. XVI 9. Number the seven weeks to thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when thou beginnest to put the sickle into the corn then it will appear plain enough to any one that upon whatsoever day of the week the sheaf-offering should fall on that day of the week the day of Pentecost would fall too And hence the Baithusians contended so earnestly that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morrow after the Sabbath on which it is commanded that the sheaf of the first-fruits should be offer'd should be understood of the first day of the week that so the day of Pentecost might fall out to be the first day of the week too not so much in honour of that day which is indeed our Lords-day but that the Pentecost might have the more Feast-days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Israelites might delight themselves for two days together as one of them speaks out their meaning * * * * * * Menac fol. 65. 1. III. As to the year therefore we are now upon wherein Christ ascended and the Holy Ghost came down the sheaf-offering was on the Sabbath-day For the Paschal lamb was eaten on Thursday so that Friday on which day our Saviour was Crucified was the first day of the Feast the Sabbatical or Holy-day And the following-day which was their Sabbath was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second on which the sheaf was offered whiles Christ lay in the grave and for this very reason was it said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an high day of the Sabbath Joh. XIX 31. IV. Let us enquire therefore whether the day of Pentecost fell out on their Sabbath-day I know indeed that the fifty days are reckoned by some from the Resurrection of our Lord and then Pentecost or the fiftieth day must fall on the first day of the week that is our Lords-day but if we number the days from the common Epocha that is from the time of offering the sheaf of first-fruits which account doubtless St. Luke doth follow then the day of Pentecost fell out upon the Jewish Sabbath And here by the good leave of some learned men it may be question'd Whether the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Disciples on the very day of Pentecost or no. The reasons of this question may be these I. The ambiguity of the words themselves ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be either render'd as we have done in English When the day of Pentecost was fully come or as they in the Italian Et nel finire del giorno de la Pentecoste q. d. when it was fully gone So that the phrase leaves it undetermin'd whether the day of Pentecost was fully come or fully gone and what is there could be alledg'd against it should we render it in the latter sense II. It is worthy our observation that Christ the Antitype in answering some Types that represented him did not tye himself up to the very day of the Type its self for the fulfilling of it but put it off to the day following So it was not upon the very day of the Passover but the day following that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ our Passover was sacrific'd for us 1 Cor. V. 7. It was not on the very day that the sheaf of the first-fruits was offer'd but the day following that Christ became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. XV. 20. So also did he institute the Christian Sabbath not the same day with the Jewish Sabbath wherein God had finisht the work of his Creation but the day following wherein Christ had finisht the work of his Redemption And so it was agreeable to reason and to the order wherein he dispos'd of things already mentioned that he should indulg that mysterious gift of the Holy Ghost not upon the day of the Jewish Sabbath but the day following the day of his own Resurrection from the grave that the Spirit should not be pour'd out upon the same day wherein the giving of the Law was commemorated but upon a day that might keep up the commemoration of himself for ever III. We can hardly invent a more fit and proper reason why upon this day they should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All with one accord in one place than that they were so gather'd together for the celebration of the Lords-day So that although we have adveutur'd to call it into question whether the Holy Ghost was pour'd out upon the very day of the Jewish Pentecost yet have we not done it with any love to contradiction but as having considerable reason so to do and with design of asserting to the Lords-day its just honour and esteem for on that day beyond all controversie the Holy Ghost did come down amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They were all with one accord c. Who were these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these ALL here mention'd probably the CXX spoken of Chap. I. 15. and the connexion falls in well enough with the foregoing story Those All were together when the Election of the twelfth
Hearers while those things were rendred truly which that Mystical and Sacred Language contained in it The foundations of Churches were now laying and the foundations of Religion in those Churches and it was not the least part of the Ministerial task at that time to prove the Doctrine of the Gospel and the person and the actions and the sufferings of Christ out of the Old Testament now the Original text was unknown to the common people the Version of the Seventy Interpreters was faulty in infinite places the Targum upon the Prophets was unconstant and Judaized the Targum upon the Law was as yet none at all so that it was impossible to discover the mind of God in the Holy Text without the immediate gift of the Spirit imparting perfect and full skill both of the Language and of the sense that so the foundations of Faith might be laid from the Scriptures and the true sense of the Scriptures might be propagated without either error or the comments of men The Apostle saith Let him pray that he may interpret vers 13. And Interpretation is numbred among the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit Now let it be supposed that he spake Latine Arabick Persian either he understood what he spake or he did not if he did not then how far was he from edifying himself And yet the Apostle saith He that speaks in a Tongue edifies himself If he understood what he spake how easie was it for him to render it in the Corinthian Language There are many now Learned by study who are able to translate those Tongues into the Corinthian or the Greek without that extraordinary gift of Interpretation immediately poured out by the Holy Ghost But let it be supposed which we do suppose that he spake in the Hebrew Tongue that he either read or quoted the holy Text in the original Language and that he either preached or prayed in the phrases of the Prophets it sufficed not to the Interpretation to render the bare words into bare words but to understand the sense and marrow of the Prophets Language and plainly and fully to unfold their mysteries in apt and lively and choise words according to the mind of God which the Evangelists and Apostles by a divine skill do in their writings Hear the judgment of the Jews concerning a just Interpretation of the holy Text. a a a a a a Bab. Kiddush fol. 49. 1. They are treating of the manner of espousing a woman Among other things these passages occur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbins deliver If he saith Be thou my Espouser if I read If he read three verses in the Synagogue behold she is espoused R. Judah saith Not until he read and interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be interpret according to his own sense But the Tradition is this R. Judah saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that interprets a verse according to his own form behold he is a lyar If he add any thing to it behold he is a Reproacher and Blasphemer What therefore is the Targum Or what Interpretation is to be used Our Targum The Gloss there writes thus He that Interprets a verse according to his own form that is according to the literal sound For example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. XXIII 2. He that interprets that thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not testifie against judgment is a lyar for he commands that judgment be brought forth into light But let him so interpret it Thou shalt not restrain thy self from teaching any that enquire of thee in judgment So Onkelos renders it If he add any thing to it If he say Because liberty is given to add somewhat I will add wheresoever it lists me he sets God at nought and changeth his words For wheresoever Onkelos added he added not of his own sense For the Targum was given in Mount Sinai and when they forgat it he came and restored it And Rab. Chananeel explains those words He that Interprets a verse according to his own form by this example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. XXIV 10. He that shall render it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they saw the God of Israel is a lyar for no man hath seen God and shall live And he will add to it who should render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they saw the Angel of God For he attributes the Glory of God to an Angel But let him interpret it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they saw the Glory of the God of Israel So Onkelos again So great a work do they reckon it to interpret the sacred Text. And these things which have been said perhaps will afford some light about the gift of Interpretation But although the use of the Hebrew Tongue among these Ministers was so profitable and necessary yet there was some abuse which the Apostle chastiseth namely that they used it not to edification and without an Interpreter and further while I behold the thing more closely I suspect them to Judaize in this matter which we have before observed them to have done in other things and that they retained the use of the Hebrew Language in the Church although unknown to the common people and followed the custom of the Synagogue Where I. The Scripture is not read but in the Hebrew Text yea as we believe in the Synagogues even of the Hellenists as we dispute elsewhere of that matter II. Publick prayers in the Synagogue were also made in Hebrew one or two excepted which were in Chaldee b b b b b b Gloss. in Beracoth fol. 3. 1. They were wont to repeat the prayer whose beginning is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after Sermon For the common people were there present who understood not the holy Language Therefore this prayer they composed in the Chaldee Tongue that all might understand The rest they understood not III. He that taught or preached out of the chair spoke Hebrew and by an Interpreter c c c c c c Gloss. in Joâ—a fol. 20. 2. The Interpreter stood before the Doctor who preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Doctor whispered him in the ear in Hebrew and he rendred it to the people in the mother Tongue And there in the Gemara a story is related of Rabh who was present as Interpreter to R. Shillah and when R. Shillah said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cock crows Rabh rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he should have rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence there is very frequent mention in the Books of the Talmudists of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter of this and that Doctor While I consider these things used in the Synagogues of the Jews and remember that a great part of the Church of Corinth consisted of Jews I cannot but suspect that their Ministers also used the same Tongue according to the old custom Namely that one read the Scripture out of the Hebrew Text
And now let us briefly weigh what things are said on the contrary side CHAP. X. What things are objected for the Affirmative I. FIRST That passage is objected a a a a a a Hieros Sotah cap. 7. R. Levi went to Cesarea and hearing them read the Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schma Deut. VI. in Greek would hinder them R. Jose observing it was angry saying He that cannot read in Hebrew shall he not read at all Yea let a man read in any Tongue which he understands and knows and so satisfie his Duty So the words are rendred by a very learned Man But the Gemara treats not of reading the Law in the Synagogues but concerning the repeating of the passages of the Phylacteries among which the first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O Israel Deut. VI. Therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be rendred reading but repeating In which sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occurs very frequently in the Masters As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b b b b Bab. Megill fol. 17. 1. She recites the book of Ester by her mouth that is without book And c c c c c c Biccurim fol. 86. 1. Heretofore every one that could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recite that passage used in offering the first fruits Deut. XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recited And he that could not recite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they taught him to recite or they recited for him II. That example and story is urged concerning reading the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia Act. XIII 15. To which there is no need to answer any thing else but that it begs the Question III. That also of Tertullian is added d d d d d d Apoleget cap. 18. Sed Judaei palam lectitant Vectigalis libertas vulgo auditur or aditur singulis Sabbatis But the Jews also read openly the liberty of the Tax is heard or gone unto every Sabbath day I answer Be it granted that Tertullian speaks of the Greek Version which is not so very evident that which was done under Severus doth not conclude the same thing done in the times of the Apostles but especially when Severus was according to the sense of his name very severe towards the Jews as Baronius teacheth and Spartianus long before him Under whom Sabbaths could not be kept by the Jews but under a Tax And be it granted that the Greek Version was read then by them at Rome as the Glosser upon Tertullian describes the scene of the affair that was also under a Tax not by the choise of the people but by pure compulsion IV. That of Justin Martyr is produced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e e e e Orâ—â— Pâ—ranâ—â— ad Graecos But if any say that these books belong not to us but the Jews and therefore they are to this day preserved in their Synagogues And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. f f f f f f Apolog. â— The books remained even among the Egyptians hitherto and are every where among all the Jews who reading them understand them not V. But that is instead of all that Philo and Josephus follow the Greek Version and that which is still greater the holy Pen-men do follow it in the New Testament in their allegations taken out of the Old Therefore without doubt say they that Version was frequent and common in the Synagogues and in the hands of men and without doubt of the highest authority among the Jews yea as it seemeth of divine These are the arguments which are of the greatest weight on that side That I may therefore answer together to all let us expatiate a little in this enquiry CHAP. XI By what Authors and Counsils it might probably be that that Greek Version came forth which obtains under the Name of the Seventy I. IT was made and published without doubt not for the sake of the Jews but of the Heathen We have Josephus a witness here in his story of the Seventy granting him to be true in that relation what moved Ptolomey so greedily to desire the Version to purchase so small a Volume at such vast expenses Was it Religion Or a desire of adorning his Library By that paint does Josephus colour the business but reason will dictate a third cause and that far more likely For both the Jewish and Heathen Writers teach that Egypt at that time was filled with an infinite multitude of Jews and what could a prudent King and that took care of himself and his Kingdom do else than look into the manners and institutions of that Nation whether they consisted with the peace and security of his Kingdom since that people was contrary to the manners and Laws of all other Nations When therefore he could neither examine nor understand their Law which comprized their whole Religion Polity and Occonomy being writ in Hebrew it was necessary for him to provide to have it translated into their Vulgar Tongue Hence arose the Version of the five Elders as we may well suppose and lest some fraud or collusion might creep in the assembling of the Seventy two Elders was occasioned hence also And does it not favour of some suspicion that he assembled them being altogether ignorant what they were to do For let reason tell us why we should not rather give credit to the Talmudists writing for their own Country-men than to Josephus writing for the Heathen And if there be any truth in that relation that when he had gathered them together he shut them up by themselves in so many chambers that still increaseth the same suspicion II. Let it be yielded that they turned it into Greek which as we have seen is doubtful yet the speech in the Gemarists is only concerning the Books of Moses and concerning the Law only in Josephus Who therefore Translated the rest of the Books of the Holy Volume It is without an Author perhaps should we say the Jerusalem Sanhedrin but not without reason For III. The Jews wheresoever dispersed through out the World and they in very many Regions infinite in their numbers made it their earnest request that they might live and be governed by their own Laws and indeed they would live by none but their own But what Prince would grant this being altogether ignorant what those Laws were They saw their manners and rites were contrary to all other Nations it was needful also to see whether they were not contrary to the peace of their Kingdoms That very jealousie could not but require the Version of those Laws into the common Language and to force it also from them how unwilling soever they might be The great Sanhedrin therefore could not consult better and more wisely for the safty and security and religion of the whole Nation than by turning their Holy Books into the Greek Language that all might know what it was that they professed They could
the publick charge but I shall fix particularly upon the publick Minister All the Titles that are given to Ministers of the Gospel are the very same that were given to the publick Minister in the Synagogue A Gospel Minister is called Angelus Ecclesiae so was the Minister in the Synagogue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel or Messenger of the Congregation The Ministers of the Gospel are called Episcopi Bishops or Overseers so was the Minister in every Synagogue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chazan Hacconeseth the overseer of the Congregation They are called Rulers Elders and those that are set over the people so were the Ministers of the Synagogue called in every title Now doth not all this speak Christs owning conformity to the Plat-form Discipline and Worship in the Synagogues when he thus translated all into the Christian Church And this doth plainly shew what we hinted before that Christs resorting constantly to the Synagogue was to joyn with them in the Worship there as well as to preach or to heal what diseased he met with there IV. His institution of the Lords Prayer tells that he held Conformity with the Church in the publick exercise of Religion They that are of opinion that the Lords Prayer was not given for a form to be used toâ—idem verbis that it is not fit to be joyned with our Prayers that it is not fit to be said by all because all may not call God Our Father did they but clearly see in what conformity to the practise in the Jewish Church both the Prayer was given and every petition and phrase in it doth go they would be of another opinion if they be not espoused to their own The surest and safest construction of phrases and passages in the New Testament is not by framing a sence of our own which we think fair and probable but by observing how such phrases and passages wereunderstood by them to whom they were then uttered according to the common use and signification of such phrases and passages in the vulgar sence and use of the Nation It is not what conceits or constructions we can mint out of our invention to maintain the opinions about this Prayer that I mentioned before but it is best to cast how the Disciples to whom it was given did or could conceive of it upon such observations on it as these They knew that such short forms of Prayer were usual in the Nation That such forms were given by Masters to their Scholars to be used verbatim That such were to be subjoyned to their other Prayers That the most common title whereby the whole Nation called God was Our Father which art in Heaven That every petition in this Prayer was such as was also usual in the Nation So that they saw that Christ had given this Prayer directly according to the custom stile and form of the Nation and that he had given no exception to them about it Therefore how could they understand or conceive of it according to the common custom of the Nation in such cases but that it was to be used in terminis and to be joyned to their Prayers By these few examples indeed of multitudes that might be produced you see an evident proof of his holding communion all along his practise Thus have I done with the former part of the Doctrine viz. That our Saviour held in communion with the Church of the Jews in the publick exercise of Religion I should now take up the latter That he conformed to the common customs of the Nation in civil converse And here we are come into as large a field as the other if not larger a subject of abundant proof and clearness and which if I should go about to evidence by all examples that might be produced the day would fail me I shall say no more upon it but this That besides that what is said already doth abundantly prove it one that hath perused the Jews Writings and observed both the common dialect and the customs of the Nation in those times may observe Christs conformity almost to their customs in every one of his actions and his conformity to their Phrase Language and Manner of speech almost in every one of his Speeches And as here is Wisdom so here is Learning from knowledge of their Customs and Languages to unlock the phrases and passages of the New Testament to which it alludes all along It is not what we can guess upon these and the other speeches of Christ where he is obscure but the best way to find out the sence is to observe how such words which are their own Language would be taken according to the common acceptation of them in the Nation and how they understood them to whom they were spoken I might be large in Application And indeed in our divided times one can never speak too much upon this subject But what need I do more among Christians than to leave so plain a copy of Christ before them I shall leave only this request with you concerning what hath been spoken Deal as the Bereans Search the Scriptures diligently Let this hint your poor Countryman hath given you go along with you as you read the New Testament See there whether ever you find Christ but going on in that communion I have spoken And till you find him dividing I hope there is none here but will account his Example a rule inviolable And let me give you caution against that Opinion that by mistake of a Text or two sticks not to say that the Gospel doth naturally produce division Matth. X. 34 35. Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth I come not to send peace but a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his father c. And Luke XII 51 52. Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on Earth I tell you nay but rather Division c. It were strange if these should be natural effects of the Gospel of peace and how doth such production agree with that of Esa. II. 4. They shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation c. And Chap. XI 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain And it were strange that Christ and his Gospel should be of so different tempers he to keep so close to communion himself and to give a Gospel that should break it But mistake not the Texts They speak not that Christ would send those divisions by the Gospel but by his vengeance He was most fearfully to destroy the cursed unbelievers the Nation of the Jews and one dreadful way of the execution of that vengeance was by sending a Spirit of division among the Nation whereby they even destroyed themselves The stories of their horrid Civil Wars Burnings Plunderings Assassinations one of another the like example is in no stories is a most plain exposition of those Texts and a
dreadful accomplishment of that denuntiation The other Texts I mentioned they shew the natural and genuine product of the Gospel They shall beat their swords into plow shares c. But when will that be Never according to universal obtaining Ever have been Wars and ever will be because ever will be Lusts. And yet these are fulfilled in the sence proposed by the Prophets viz. that God hath fully afforded means for this The Gospel hath enough in it to move men to peace but the fault is in themselves God hath not failed but men fail As it is in Rom. III. 3. What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect So what if some be unpeaceable shall their divisions make the Gospel of peace of none effect So in other prophesies to make like construction Jer. XXXI 34. They shall no more teach every man his neighbour for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest It never was never will be Esa. LXV 20. There shall be no more thence an Infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days It never was nor will be Yet God hath accomplished what he promised He hath afforded means that it might be so Let me therefore leave this great copy of peaceableness and communion with you A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE Staffordshire-Natives At St. Mary Wolchurch LONDON Novemb. 22. 1660. S. JUDE Vers. 12. These are spots in your Feasts of Charity I Must take up that Stile and Strain of excuse to begin withal that St. Paul doth to his Countrymen about his Appeal unto Coesar I have nothing saith he to accuse my Nation of though I have been put upon it to make such an Appeal So I I have nothing Dear Country-men to accuse this your Feast of Charity of nor nothing to accuse any of that are to come to it though I have chosen these words that speak so point blank of spots that occurred in such kind of Feasts But I have fixed upon the words partly that I might speak in some kind of parity to that discourse that I made to you at our last meeting upon this occasion and chiefly that I might give you caution against such that to Feasts are spots to Charity destructive and to all meetings dangerous Who they were that our Apostle meaneth I shall clear to you by these two Observations I. That as it was foretold by the Holy Spirit in the Prophets that the best and most comfortable things that ever should accrue to the Church of the Jews should accrue to them in the last days that is of Jerusalem For so is that expression the last days in most places of Scripture to be understood So was it also foretold by the same Spirit that the worst things that ever should accrue to it should be in those last days also It was foretold that in those last days Esa. II. 2. That the mountain of the Lords house should be established in the top of the mountains and should be exalted above the hills and that all Nations should flow unto it That in those last days Joel II. 29 30 c. God would pour out his Spirit upon the servants and upon the handmaids and that he would shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth c. That in those last days Hos. III. 5. the Children of Israel should return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and should fear the Lord and his goodness And all other things of the greatest comfort So it was also foretold That in those last days perilous times and persons should come II Tim. III. 1. In those last days there should come scoffers walking after their own lusts II Pet. III. 3. In those last days there should be many Antichrists I Joh. II. 18. And by this we know that it is the last time Among all other the sad things that befel in those last days of Jerusalem and the Commonwealth of the Jews one of the greatest was that there was a most horrid and very general Apostacy or falling away from Faith in the most Churches of the Jews that had embraced the Gospel they turning back to their old Judaism and vain Traditions again Of this the Spirit had spoken expresly I Tim. IV. 1. Of this our Saviour had foretold in that sad application of the Parable Matth. XII 45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he saith I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation The Devil had been cast out of a very great part of the Nation of the Jews He thought to find rest there but found none such notable success had the Gospel of Christ found in that Nation Upon which the Devil marshalleth up all his malice strength and subtility taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and so he at last prevails to cause a grievous defection in the People from Christianity they enter in and dwell there and their last state was worse than their first So was it with that generation Of this he had foretold Matth. XXIV 12. And because iniquity shall abound the Love of many shall wax cold Of this the Apostle speaketh II Thess. II. That before the terrible day of the Lord and his vengeance against Jerusalem for â—â— that phrase doth signifie almost continually there should be a falling away Of this you find sad footings in the Church of Galatia Gal. III. 3. IV. 9 10. of Colosse Col. II. 20. of Ephesus Revel II. 4. And indeed you may track the footing of it in all the Epistles of the Apostles II. The chief cursed promoters and procurers of this backsliding was that multitude of false Teachers of the Jewish Nation that went about pretending to have the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelation and many of them working Miracles by the power of Magick so shaâ—â—ing the minds of men and drawing them away from the Faith of the Gospel of Christ. Of these our Saviour had foretold when he foretold of the miseries that should occur in those last days of Jerusalem Matth. XXIV 24. Of these the Apostle foretold when he spake of the Jewish Antichrist for of the Jew he speaks II Thes. II. and saith he would come after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders vers 9. And of these the same Apostle speaks in that obscure place I Cor. XII 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed For divers went about pretending to the Spirit and yet cursed our Lord Jesus Mention and footing of these you may
whom the ends of the World are come Not the very best times of the World for the World hath lasted sixteen hundred years since Paul spake that and how long yet it may last who knoweth but the end of that old World of the Jewish State which then hasted on very fast In the same sense are the words of our Apostle in his first Epistle Chap. IV. 7. The end of all things is at hand Not the end the World but of that City Nation and oeconomy the like is that James V. 9. Behold the Judge standeth before the door and divers other of the like nature III. The vengance of Christ upon that people in that final destruction is set out and called his coming his coming in his Kingdom and in clouds and with power and great glory His coming Joh. XXI 22. In his Kingdom Matth. XVI ult In power and glory Matth. XXIV 30. Nor is this any figure for observe vers 34. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled Accordingly the day of that vengeance is called The day of the Lord. IV. The state of the Church and Gospel after that dissolution of that old World is called sometimes the World to come Heb. II. 5. sometimes new Heavens and new Earth as in the Text sometimes all things new as II Cor. V. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new So that by this time you see plainly the meaning of our Apostle at this place In the verses before he speaks of the dissolution of the Jewish Church and State in such terms as the Scripture useth to express it by as if it were the dissolution of the whole World And in the words of the Text of the new face and state of the Church and World upon the dissolution when a new people and new oeconomy took place We according to his promise The promise is in Esa. LXV 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Where if you look into the context before you shall find the sense justified that I put upon the words and these new Heavens and new Earth created after the Jews casting off and destruction It is a strange opinion that would perswade you that the most glorious things that are foretold by the Prophets should come to pass when the Jews are called which calling is yet expected whereas those glorious things are plainly enough intimated to come to pass at the Jews casting off I might name many places I shall not expatiate upon that subject here this very Chapter speaks enough to justifie what I say In the second verse God complains I have spred out my hands all the day long to a rebellious people This the Apostle in the tenth of the Romans and the last applies unto that people But to Israel he saith All the day long have I stretched forth my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people The Prophet along the Chapter telleth what shall become of that people At vers 6. I will not keep silence but will recompence even recompence into their basom Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills therefore c. At vers 12. I will number you to the sword and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter At vers 13. Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry c. At vers 15. You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen And then follows the promise that is related to in the Text For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth Though you are gone yet all the World shall not be gone with you For though I destroy my old people the old Heavens and Earth of the old oeconomy yet I shall provide my self a new people of the Gentiles when the Jews shall be a people no more and when that old World is destroyed I will create new Heavens and a new Earth Such another passage is that of our Saviour Matth. XXIV 31. where when he had described the ruine of the Jewish Nation in the terms we have spoken of before and it might be questioned what then shall become of a Church and where shall it be The Son of man saith he shall send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of the trumpet of the Gospel and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the Heaven to the other among all Nations Thus had Peter read this great promise in Esay the Evangelical Prophet thus had he heard it from the mouth of the great Prophet his sacred Master and therefore it is no wonder if when it is confirmed by the mouth of two such witnesses he undoubtedly look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to such a promise But what is meant by righteousness in this place 1. Not Gods primitive or distributive righteousness or justice for that was ever Gen. XVIII The Judge of all the World did right ever since the World was In the old World in all the World and the same for this yesterday and to day and for ever 2. Not that men were more righteous toward the latter end of the World than before as some dream of such glorious things yet to come for there is no such promise in all the Scripture True indeed that promise of such glorious things was in the last days of Jerusalem but where is any promise of any such things in the last days of the World 3. Nor doth it mean the glorified estate for where do you find righteousness applied to that estate It is commonly applied to the state of believers here 4. Therefore it means justification of sinners or that righteousness by which they are justified The righteousness of God which is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe as the Apostle most divinely doth expound it This is the righteousness that is so gloriously spoken of throughout all the Scriptures Dan. IX 24. To bring in everlasting righteousness Esa. LVI 1. My righteousness is near to be revealed to which that is agreeable Rom. I. 17. In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith Why Was not the righteousness of God revealed in all times before Was not his justice revealed in the Law Yea his condemning justice but his justifying justice in the Gospel This the meaning of the Apostle here That as God had promised to Create new Heavens and a new Earth a new Church and People and oeconomy among the Gentiles when the old Judaick one should be destroyed so in this new created World justifying righteousness should dwell most evidently and appear most glorious when such abominable ones as the Gentiles had been should be justified Justifying righteousness had shewed it self in the World in all generations from Adam and righteous Abel
be touched meaning Mount Sinai but ye are come to Mount Sion One would think when he spake of Mount Sinai he should rather have called it the Mount that might not be touched for God charged that neither man nor beast should touch it Exod. XIX But you may see the Apostles meaning That the Mystical Mount Sion is not such a gross earthly thing as Mount Sinai was that was subject to sense and feeling to be seen and felt and trod upon but that Sion is a thing more pure refined and abstract from such sensibleness spiritual and heavenly And from this undeniable notion of a Church invisible we may easily answer that captious and scornful question that you know who put upon us Where was your Church and Religion before Luther Why it was in the Jerusalem that is above out of the reach and above the ken of mans discerning it was upon Mount Sion above the sphere of sight and sense It was in such a place and case as the Church and Religion was in when there were seven thousand men that never bowed the knee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Golden Heiser at Dan or Bethel and yet the greatest Prophet then being could not discern the least sign of any Church at all Now Thirdly The new Jerusalem must be known by her Pearls and Jewels upon which it is founded and built up True Religion is that that must distinguish and discover the true Church And where that is it is like the Wisemens Star over the house at Bethlehem that points out and tells Jesus and his Church is hero I must confess I do not well understand that concession of some of our Protestant Divines that yield That the Church of Rome is a corrupt Church indeed but yet a true Church For I do not well understand how there should be a true Church under a false Religion If the Church of the Jews under the great corruption of Religion that was in it might be called a true Church that was all it could look for And it must have that title rather because there was never a Church in the World beside it than from any claim by Religion But what do you call true Religion 1. First That which is only founded on the Word of God as the Wall of the new Jerusalem in vers 14. of this Chapter is founded upon twelve pearls engraven with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. 2. That Religion that tends directly to the honouring of God and saving of souls and is adequate to these ends In short That Religion that can bring to Heaven For I so little believe that any man may be saved in any Religion that I believe there is only one Religion in which any man may be saved And when Moses can bring Israel only to the skirts of the Land of Promise I hardly believe that any Religion will bring them into it Though one should not stick to grant that a person may be saved in the Church of Rome yet should I question whether in the Faith of Rome And it is the Faith or Doctrine of a Church more especially that I mean by the Religion of it Let a Romanist ride all the stages of his Religion from his uncouth kind of Baptism to his extream Unction through his auricular Confessions and Absolutions through his Penances and Pardons through his Massings and Crossings through all his Devotions and Austerities will all these bring to Heaven if the main fundamentals of Faith be faulty and failing Nay if the main fundamentals of belief be clean contrary to the way of God to Heaven A Scribe or Pharisee in old Jerusalem is as devout in Religion and as strict and severe in outward conversation as is imaginable that you would think sanctity it self were there yet will all this bring to Heaven when the chief principles of his Faith are directly contrary to the way of Salvation while he believes to be justified by his own works and places all in opere operato in a little formal and ceremonial service Like him in the story and on the stage that cried O! Heaven and pointed down to the Earth these pretended for Heaven in their practical Devotions but pointed downward in their Doctrinal principles I shall not insist to illustrate those particulars that I mentioned I suppose they carry their own proof and evidence with them that they are most proper touchstones whereby to try the truth of a Church and Religion And it is our comfort that we can that we do that we desire to bring our Religion to such Tests and touchstones and refuse not but most gladly appeal to the impartial Judge the Word of God to give judgment of it I shall not therefore undertake so needless a task as to go about to prove the truth of our Faith and Religion since so many Protestant pens have so clearly and so abundantly done it far more learned than my Tongue And since I may make such an Appeal to you as the Apostle did to King Agrippa King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou believest Fathers and Brethren believe you the Truth of our Religion I know you believe it Then I have no more to do but to offer two or three words of humble exhortation and entreaty viz. Prize it Cleave to it Beautifie it I. Prize it for it is the chiefest jewel in all our Cabinet And the wisest Merchant in all your City cannot find out a Pearl of greater price It is the life of our Nation at home and it is the honour of our Nation abroad It is that that makes our Land a Royal Street of the new Jerusalem It is that that must make your City a holy City We see a new London as our Apocalyptick saw a new Jerusalem The buildings stately and magnificent the furniture sumptuous and very splendid the shops rich and bravely furnished the wealth great and very affluent but your Religion the all in all As it was said in old time that Athens was the Greece of Greece and as it may be said at this time that London is the England of England so let your Religion be the London of London It is that by which your City must stand and flourish by which your prosperity must be watered and maintained and the Anâ—ile which kept in safety will keep us in safety II. Keep therefore close to your Religion and leave it not Dread revolting from the true Religion The Apostasie in the Apostles times was the sin unto death in our Apocalypticks first Epistle and last Chapter And there is an Apostasie in our time but too common and to be deplored with tears to a Religion but too like to that to which they then revolted I would therefore that those that are tempted either by the lightness of their own hearts or by the Emissaries of Rome to revolt from their Religion would remember that dreadful saying of the Apostle Heb. X. 26. If we sin wilfully after
the son of Zerviah when he urged him for revenge upon Shimei but puts him back with what have I to do with you ye sons of Zerviah vers 22. Certainly he would not be so harsh and inexorable to Mephibosheths fair and just Apology and vindication of himself Upon these reasons that I have mentioned to spare more I must crave leave to refuse the common and very generally received exposition and interpretation of these words of David that tends not a little to his crimination and reproach And let me crave your patience and pardon if I take the humble boldness to construe his words to a clear contrary sense and a construction that tends to his honour and vindication When David takes Mephibosheth first to his notice friendship and Table 2 Sam. IX He hath these words first to Mephibosheth at vers 7. Fear not Mephibosheth for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy fathers sake And this at vers 3. he Phraseth shewing the kindness of God But surely it was neither kindness of God nor kindness of man if he should so unkindly at last take his land from him and be so kind as give it to his servant At vers 10. he hath these words to Ziba I have given to thy masters son all that partained to Saul and all his house Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy masters son may have food to eat but Mephibosheth thy masters son shall eat bread alway at my table A piece of a riddle and who can unriddle it Thy masters son shall always have food at my table and yet thou must till the land that thy masters son may have his food to eat We must plow with Samsons heifer to find out the riddle and the twelfth verse is that that will help us And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth And now upon this Text and this case let me ask these two questions First Who was it that Ziba must till the land for that he might have food It was for Micha for Mephibosheth himself had food at the Kings Table But Secondly Whence must Mephibosheth have to maintain himself in clothes and to maintain his port and retinue at the Court according to his place and rank and quality Did David find him these as he did find him meat and drink Certainly when he took him to his Table upon the restoring of Sauls land to him we can little think that he did it because he would have him to live of mear alms but he did it out of pure respect to him for his fathers sake Not so much as if Mephibosheth had need to be at the Kings finding when he had now all his grandfathers land but that the King would honour him with the participation of his own table and friendship and because he would injoy his company So in this Chapter out of which the Text is taken the King invites Barzillai to go and live with him at Jerusalem and he would feed him at his own table vers 33. What Would he have Barzillai to live purely upon his alms No that he knew he needed not for the verse before tells that Barzillai was a very great man and that he had provided the King sustenance whilst he lay at Mahanaim And because he had done so the King invites him to his own table not out of mear alms but out of kindness and gratitude and because he would injoy his good society Do you not by this time see how Mephibosheths land is divided twixt him and Ziba Not to make Ziba a Proprietor but a Tenant or rather a Bailiff or Steward He to till the land and to bring in the profits and the one part to go to find Micha food and maintenance and Zibas house and the other part to go for Mephibosheths maintenance and the maintaining his retinue at the Court. And thus he and Ziba divide the land from the very first and it was Davids own project from the very first that it should be thus divided Ziba to injoy half for the maintenance of Micha and to pay rent for the other half for the maintenance of Mephibosheth And to this purpose is observable that it is said That all that dwelt in Ziba's house were servants to Mephibosheth And how could they be so when Mephibosheth and they lived so far a sunder as he at the Court in Jerusalem and Zibas house in the land of Benjamin's but that they were all servants to him in this sense that they were all under him as chief Landlord that they were Bailiffs for him upon his land and demesnes for the maintenances of his son who was with them in the house and Mephibosheth himself who was at the Kings table When David was surprized with Ziba's lie then he said Behold thine is all that partaineth to Mephibosheth Chap. XVI 4. But did he mean withal behold thine is all that partaineth to Micha That had been yet a more unjust act than giving away Mephibosheths land for he had no accusation against Micha though he had against Mephibosheth So that then it was at this point Ziba and Micha divide the land for poor Mephibosheth was clean shut out But when David was come again to Jerusalem and come again to himself then it is at this Now Mephibosheth and Ziba divide the land as it was in the first contrival and disposal Ziba to have one part for Micha's maintenance and Mephibosheth the other for his And to this sense may his saying I have said be very well applied to Davids first determination about the land though I know it may also be applicable to his present saying why speakest thou any more of thy matters I said fom the very first when I gave thee thy fathers land and took thee to mine own table that the land should be so divided twixt thee and Ziba for the use of thy self and thy son Micha and I hold to the same determination and I say so still Thus have I laid before you with all humble submission to better Judgments my thoughts and conceptions upon these words And now what can I say more upon this Text To take up from it any observation or doctrine either dogmatical or practical I know not how For I must either frame it according to the common sense given upon the words which I refuse and then I should lay the foundation of my building upon ground I like not Or I must frame it according to mine own sense that I have given and then I shall lay the foundation of my building upon a ground which it may be you like not Therefore I shall to avoid these rocks on either hand steer a middle course and speak to that which the very ambiguity of the Text and the dislocation of the story out of which it is taken may justly call
have part in Christ and his glorifying God by obedience Here are the reasons of the joy in Heaven when a sinner repents Because a Soul is delivered from Satan Because there is one come in towards the making up of the Body of Christ and to the glorifying of God and his Word and his Son and Grace I might enlarge copiously upon all these particulars Now though there be such joy in Heaven for a sinners repentance upon these reasons yet can we not think for all that joy that men should be brought to repentance that either despise such means or are far from applying themselves to them Upon theâ—e things that we have hitherto spoken we may the better judge of our Saviours comparison here of more and less rejoycing over a penitent sinner and a just person A person that hath followed righteousness from his youth this man is not lost to God because he hath always been in his ways But a person that never came into the ways of God and hath always been extravagant that man is as yet lost to God He is twice or thrice lost in Adam in himself and by both lost to God Now when such a person as this repents and turns into the ways of God Oh! how is God and Christ delighted and well pleased to see such a conversion Not but that God tenders the soul of a Just person as well as such a Penitents but by how much the greater and more apparent danger he is delivered from the more is God as I may speak affected with his Deliverance and his own Grace and Word is the more apparently glorified in such a Deliverance A SERMON PREACHED upon LUKE XXIII 42 43. And he saith unto Iesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kindom And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou he with me in Paradise OUR Saviour upon his Cross was like Joseph in his Prison in regard of this circumstance that he was between two Thieves that had offendded against the Law of the Land as Joseph was between two Servants of Pharaoh that had offended against the Law of the life of their Master One of these Delinquents was delivered and the other Executed as one of these Thieves is saved and the other perished But here is a very great difference and discord that Joseph intreats one of these Offenders to remember him when it should be well with him but he forgot him but here one of the Offenders intreats Christ that he would remember him when he came into his Kingdom and he does it and forgets him not O! Who would not love thee O thou King of mercies though the King of sorrows that forgetest thine own tortures to remember a poor Petitioner and mindest not the wrecking of thine one Cross to take care of another souls deliverance And who would be ashamed nay who would not triumph in a Crucified Jesus that evidenceth such Salvation in his very Crucifying That in the deepest of his shame and in the highest of his pain and greatest of his weakness shews such pity such strength such deliverance towards a poor wretch when there is but a span betwixt him and destruction when the roaring Lion had him in his mouth and it was but three or four hours journey to have got him into his Den. But in comes this great deliverer in the very needful nick of time and in the midst of all his weakness and anguish he wrings the Lamb out of the jaws of the devourer and secures him Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise For the construction of the words only these two carry some difficulty with them One in the Thief 's Petition What he means by Christs Kingdom And the other in Christs Answer What he means by Paradise The former we will refer to speak to afterwards and indeed the explication of the later will explain the former But as for the later who shall explain it to us If you will believe some they will make it something different from the highest and happiest Heaven though if the Apostle were wrapt into the highest Heaven he saith he was taken up to Paradise But here you must believe that our Saviour spake according to the common notion and apprehension of the Nation and our surest way to understand it is to take the sense in which they understood it In their Writings they commonly speak of The Garden of Eden which speaks but the same thing with Paradise and that what they meant by it was the place and state of the Blessed may appear by these two things I. That they constanly oppose it to Hell or Gehennah Instances out of their Writings might be given numberless Their explication of those words of Solomon may suffice Eccles. VII 14. God hath set the one against the other that is say they the Garden of Eden and Gehennah i. e. Paradise and Hell Now as Hell in their construction was the place of the wicked and damned in torment so Paradise on the contrary in their construction was the place of the righteous and blessed in glory And II. This appears in their Writings more plain in that they tell us that Abraham when he dyed went to Paradise Moses when he dyed went to Paradise Which elsewhere they express after this manner That Abraham and Moses and all righteous ones when they dye are laid up under the very throne of God To which that seems to allude Rev. VI. where mention is made of the holy Souls under the Altar For the Altar they accounted the seat of the Divine Presence The Thief very well understood the meaning for he was no stranger to the phrase in the Nation and he knew his Petition of being remembred by Christ in his Kingdom was sufficiently granted when Christ secured him To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise So that in the two verses you have the Thief turned to Christ and Christ to him I. the Thief petitioning and Christ promising the Thief begging for Heaven and Christ granting it the great power and work of divine grace appearing in the Thiefs conversion and the great freeness and abundance of divine grace appearing in Christs pardon The mans request as happy a prayer as ever man made and our Saviours return as happy an answer as man could desire We must first look upon the man and his Prayer The man in the Evangelists character I. of him was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thief for so one calls him and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Malefactor for so another one that had traded in mischief and it had now brought him to the Gallows And on the Gallows for a while bad enough too if you will take the words of Matthew in strict propriety for he joyns both the Thieves as companions together in reviling of Christ Chap. XXVII 44. The Thieves also that were Crucified with him cast the same in his teeth That is the same that
A Residence and University of the Jews in the Country of Babylonia v. I. p. 874 Nebo A Hill in the Plains of Moab from whence Moses had a prospect of Canaan Deut. 34. v. II. p. 296 Nephthali was in the upper Galilee Its length was Northward from Lebanon and the Springs of Jordan and Southward to the South part of the Lake Genesareth which was about forty miles It s breadth was East and West having Asher and the Coasts of Tyre betwixt it and the Great Sea It abounded in Venison and there was the Gospel first Preached v. I. p. 21 v. II. p. 59 66 Neptoah Vid Etam Netophah Jer. 40. 8. in the Tribe of Judah 1 Chron. 2. 54. and 9. 16. v. I. p. 130 Nibshan A City in the Wilderness of Judah Josh. 15. 62. v. II. p. 499 Nicopolis A City in Macedonia Titus 3. 12. that bore the name and badge of the Victory that Augustus obtained against Antony v. I. p. 309 310 Vid. Emaus Nilus The great Delty of the Egyptians and the chief River of Egypt but not the same with what the Scripture calls The River of Egypt v. I p. 26. v. II. p. 9 Vid. Sihor Nineveh The chief City of Assyria prophesied against by Nahum and Jonah some thirty or forty years before it fell and was swallowed up by Babylon vol. I. p. 110 114 Nisibis There was a noted Consistory of the Jews v. II. p. 85 Noaran A place three miles from Jericho v. II. p. 515 Nov Isai. 10. 32. was a City in Benjamin belonging to the Priests so near Jerusalem that it might thence be seen Here the Tabernacle was before it was translated to Gibeon in both which it rested seven and fifty years saith Maimon v. I. p. 56. v. II. p. 42. Nomades were Arabians that lived in Moab v. II. p. 501 O. OBoth The seven and thirtieth Mansion of the Israelites in the Wilderness Vol. I. Pag. 36 Og Wilderness was in Batanea or Bashan the Desert where our Saviour fed 5000 with five Barly Loaves c. Josh. 6. 9. v. II. p. 552 Olivet Mount faced Jerusalem viz. the part of the City so called the Temple and Sion on the East winding North and was so called from the abundance of Olives that were upon it or rather a part of it That part which was nearest Jerusalem being called Bethphage from the Figs thag grew there the next to that Olivet from the Olives and the farthest part Bethany from the Palms or Dates The Foot of it was five Furlongs from Jerusalem saith Josephus The top of it Acts 1. 12. called a Sabbaths days Journy which was about eight Furlongs or a Mile and was the place according to the later sense of our Author where the Tracts of Bethphage and Bethany met Here our Saviour ascended and where he got upon the Ass when he rode into Jerusalem Perhaps it 's the same with 2 Sam. 15. 32. where David taking his leave of the Ark and Sanctuary looked back and Worshipped which place is called by the Greek Interpreters Ros. On this Mount was the Red Heifer burnt Num. 19. 2. directly before the East-gate of the Temple and from this to that was a Bridge made And upon it were two great Cedars under which in Shops were all things sold for Purification On the top of the Mount were the Signal Fires to give notice of the New Moon and which by several places was signified to the Captivity On the right hand as you stood in the East-gate of the Temple was the Mount of Corruption in the face of the Temple At the Foot of it toward the North was Gethsemane the place of Oyl-presses v. I. p. 65 262 349 740. Temple cap. 3. v. II. p. 37 39 40 304 305 485 486 636 637 Ono was three miles from Lydda and not as the Maps near Jordan not far from Jericho It had a Plain near it of the same name Neh. 6. 2. c. which was either the same with Saron or a part of it Betwixt this and Lydda or near to them was the Valley of Craftsmen Nehem. 11. 35. v. II. p. 18 325 Ophir A place in the East part of the World and for which they set out from Ezion Gebar a Port Town on the Red Sea 1 King 9. 26 28. v. I. p. 74 Opotos A City that is watered by the River Chrysorrhoas and which Pliny reckons amongst the Decapolitan v. I. p. 644. v. II. p. 314. Orbo Ezek. 27. 27. A City in the Borders of Bethshan whereabout Elijah was when sed by the Ravens v. II. p. 318 Ornithon or The City of Birds A little City betwixt Sarepta and Sidon v. II. p. 10 Oronas A City in Moab Joseph v. II. p. 316 Orontes formerly called Typhon a River springing between Libanus and Anti-Libanus near Heliopolis and so it should be raised higher in the Map It seems to derive its name from Hauran v. II. p. 365 Vid. Hauran There was another Orontes near Seleucia Pieriae Vid. Seleucia Ostracine Was from Rhinocorura 24 miles from Cassium 26 miles Antoninus v. II. p. 322 P. PAlaeo Biblus A City in the Mldland Phaenicia v. II. p. 312 Palae-Cyrus or old Tyrus is thirty Furlongs or three Miles three quarters beyond Tyre It was destroyed by Nebucbadnezzar v. I. p. 127. v. II. p. 10 Palestine was in length from the Confines of Arabia South to Phaenicia North which began at Ptolemais 139 miles saith Pliny Arabick was there the Mother Tongue Vol. II. p. 10 59 687 Palmyra Vid. Tadmor Paltathah A place not far from Tiberias v. II. p. 71 Paneas or Panium and by the Rabbins Pameas is the place whence arose the Springs of Jordan which Josephus thus describes Near Panjum is a most delightsom Cave in a Mountain c. and under the Cave rise the Springs of the River Jordan Sometimes the Fountain it self is called by that name and sometimes Caesarea Philippi is called also Paneas To this perhaps Acts 7. 43. may have a respect and Remphan may be no other than the Calf of Phan or Panias which is the same with Dan. Vol. II. Pag. 63 673. Vid. Caesarea Philippi Papath A place three miles from Sipporis v. II. p. 74 Paphos Acts 13. 6 13. Was a City in the South-west Angle of the Island Cyprus there was the old City and new and both Maritim places Here was a Temple of Venus v. I. p. 289 290. v. II. p. 688 Paran Numb 10. 12. and 12. 16. was the general name of the terrible Wilderness that lay on the South Point of the Land of Canaan It was from Libanus 100 miles v. I. p. 34. v. II. p. 8 Pareccho A Fortified Town in the Nether Galilee v. II. p. 57 Patmos An Island in the Iâ—arean Sea of about thirty miles compass where St. John had his Visions Vol. I. Pag. 341 Pella A City of Moab the furthest Northern Coast of Peraea and the South Coast of Trachonitis It was a Decapolitan City and rich in Waters It is commonly
Bullock whereof mention is made Deut. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 35. 7 8 9. Now these Bullocks were indeed slain at Passover time but not for the Passover beast properly taken for that must be of a Lamb or Kid unalterably but these Bullocks were slain as attendants upon the Paschal from the nature of which Sacrifice they differed in these particulars First the Paschal Lamb was always and all of him rosted these were sodden 2 Chron. 35. 13. Secondly the Paschal Lamb was rosted whole and eaten without breaking the bones these were broken piecemeal and so parted among the people The Paschal Lamb was a necessary service to which they were bound by command these were arbitary according to their stay in Jerusalem in the Passover week for if they would they might return home the next morning after the Paschal Lamb was eaten Deut. 16. 7. and then they needed no Bullock to be killed for their dyet the rest of the Feast but if they stayed any more days of the Feast at Jerusalem than the first then was not their dyet arbitary to eat any thing what they would but they must eat of these Bullocks because their dyet must be holy at time Hence resulteth another difference betwixt the Paschal Lamb and these which is this that these were not of the first institution of the Passover nor had they any Bullocks slain at the Passover in Aegypt but Lambs only SECTION XIX That the supper in Ioh. 13. was not the Passover Supper FIRST It is very commonly held that the Supper in John 13. was the Passover Supper and that Judas stayed not the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for that our Saviour having dipped a sop into the bitter or sowre sawce which they used to the Paschal Lamb and given it to him Satan with it entring into him he packed him away with What thou doest do quickly An opinion mistaken in the ground-work that it builds upon and consequently in the structure built upon it For that that was no passover at all the Evangelist makes it most plain in ver 1. when he saith it was before the Feast of the Passover and Matthew in Chap. 26. 2. telleth it was two days before and indeed two miles from Jerusalem namely in Bethany The serious Harmonizing of the four Evangelists together at this place will make this most clear Secondly if then it were not the Passover Supper there can be no Paschal Lamb looked for at it nor no Haroseth or sawce of bitter herbs to eat it with but the meat that they were then eating and the sawce in which our Saviour dipped the sop was ordinary meat and ordinary sawce Thirdly Judas when he was packed away with his Quod facis fac cito went not from Jerusalem to Gethsemanai where Christ was apprehended by him on the Passover night but he went from Bethany to Jerusalem to bargain with the chief Priest for his betraying which when he had done he returned to Bethany again SECTION XX. Borrowing Egyptian Iewels Exod. 12. 35 36. IT may be equally questionable whether Israel shewed less honesty in borrowing what they meant not to restore or Aegypt less wisdom in lending what they knew would not be restored For the first it is easily aswered that they had the express warrant of God who cannot command unrighteousness and whom to obey in all things is piety The second is as easily resolved thus that Idolaters in the worship of their Idols used to deck themselves with Jewels and Ear-rings and fine things thereby to make them as they thought the more acceptable to their fine decked Diety So do the Aegyptians now conceive of Israel that seeing they desired these their fine knacks being now going to sacrifice they intended to sacrifice to the Aegyptian gods as they had done heretofore and they thought sure there can be no danger of departing the Land because they still adhere to our Religion For Moses had but still spoken of going three days journey into the Wilderness to worship SECTION XXI Rameses and Succoth vers 37. THE most famous of the Dieties of Aegypt was their Goddess Isis mentioned in all Heathen Authors of her doth the last Syllable in Raam-ses and Rame-ses seem to sound as being Towns that bare the name of this Goddess and importing the Town or Temple or some such thing of Isis. For that which the Aegyptians called Ses or Sis other Languages in pronouncing would augment with a vowel before for so was it ordinary Aegypt at home was called Cophti but forreigners did call it Ecopti and so it came to be Egypti So the Sea that lay among the Gentiles of Greece was in Hebrew Mare Goiim the Sea of the Gentils but other Nations would put E before and so it came to be called Egoiim or Egaeum The Syrian and Arabick Testaments and the writing of Jewish Authors are full of examples of this nature Succoth is held to have been so called because Israel here lodged and pitched their tents in their March out of Aegypt but they marched too much in suspition of Pharaohs pursuit to settle a Camp and to pitch tents so near him But it rather seemeth to have taken denomination from the cloud of glory coming upon them in this place which was as a covering to them Psalm 135. 39. This their Divine conducter stayed with them till Moses death save that it was taken up for a while because of the golden Calf as Moses death it departed from them for when they are to march through Jordan the Ark is to lead the way which while the cloud was with them it never did but went in the body and very heart of the Army As the cloud departed at the death of Moses the first Prophet so is it restored and seen apparently at the sealing of the great Prophet Luke 9. 30. SECTION XXII The decree at Marah Exod. 15. 25. SHAM Sam lo hhok umishpat There he set a decree and a judgment for them God is beginning now to compose and platform the people into a setled policy which while they were under the fear and danger of Pharaoh could not be done And here he passeth a decree and judgment upon them what they must look for in the wilderness according to their dealing with him If they will diligently hearken to his words c. he will heal and keep them free from diseases as he healed those brackish waters and of bitter had made them sweet but if otherwise they must expect accordingly Those that have obscured this place by questioning whether this Ordinance at Marah were for the Sabbath or for the red Cow or for the trial of the suspected Wife or for the dimensum of their diet in the Wilderness have made obscurity where there is none at all and have supposed this to have been an Ordinance whereafter Israel was to walk whereas it was rather a decree whereafter God would deal with them according to their walking And answerably seem the latter words Vesham Nissahu to
bear this sense for there he had tryed them The word Hhok is taken in a signification agreeable to this Psal. 2. 7. I declare it for a decree that since the Lord hath said unto me Thou are my Son c. That therefore ye Kings and Potentates c. submit to the obedience of him or else his anger will shortly kindle c. SECTION XXIII That this story of Jethro is misplaced and why THAT this story is misplaced is plainly by these things First Jethro Moses Father in Law took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God vers 12. Secondly Now on the morrow Moses sate to judge the people vers 13. and made them know the Statutes of God and his Laws vers 16. But as the story lyeth here there was no Tabernacle nor Altar for Sacrifice yet built Neither as yet did Moses know the Statutes and Laws of God himself for as yet they are not come to Sinai Thirdly Moses himself telleth that the choosing of Judges and Elders which was done upon Jethroes Counsel was not till their departing from Sinai The Lord your God spake unto us in Horeb saying You have dwelt long enough in this mountain c. And I spake unto you at that time saying I am not able to bear you my self alone c. Deut. 1. from vers 7. to 19. So that this story should lye at the 10 of Numbers and come in betwixt the tenth and eleventh verses of that Chapter and the story to be conceived thus When Moses had received all the Laws which God would give him at Sinai from Exod. 20. to the Law of the silver Trumpets which was the last Numb 10. then came Jethro and brought Moses's Wife and Children and seeing him toyling in judgment he adviseth him to chuse Judges to ease him which being done ere long the cloud removed and they must flit from Sinai vers 11. When they are ranked to march Moses desireth Hâ—bab or Jethro his Father in Law to go along with him which he denyeth but returneth to his own Country Numb 10. 29 30 31 32. compared with the last verse of this Chapter Thus lyeth the order of the story Now the reason why it is misplaced is this In the last verse of the preceding Chapter there is a perpetual curse decreed against Amaleck The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amaleck from generation to generation Now the Midianites and Amalekites lived so promiscuously together that they were as one people and the Kenites or the family of Jethro dwelt in the midst of them 1 Sam. 15. 6. Therefore that it might be observed that Jethro fell not under that curse of Amaleck Moses bringeth him in coming to the Camp of Israel and to God as soon as ever the curse is uttered that every eye might presently observe that Jethro was exempted from it Object But Moses and Israel by this account lay almost a twelve month at Sinai before his Wife and Children came at him and can this be thought that they should be so unnatural one to another Answ. This was Moses his doing not of unnaturalness but piety to restrain their coming till his great task of receiving and giving the Law and building the Tabernacle was over Letters and Visits passed betwixt them there is no doubt and they kept at distance thus by consent for a season That letters passed may be collected from vers 6. 7. And Jethro Moses Father in Law said unto Moses I Jethro thy Father in Law come to thee And Moses went out to meet his Father in Law Jethro said not thus to Moses his face I am come to thee For then why or how upon this tidings could Moses go forth to meet him when they spake face to face already Nor could this speech be delivered by a messenger for it had been an improper and senseless speech of a messenger to say I Jethro come to thee but this Jethro himself telleth Moses by letter before he cometh at him whereupon Moses goeth forth to meet him SECTION XXIV Israels march from Rephidim to Sinai Saint Paul explained 1 Cor. 10. 4. Quest. HOW can it be said that they departed from Rephidim and came to Sinai whereas Rephidim and Sinai were all one For every one knoweth that the mountain whereon the Law was given is called Horeb and Sinai indifferently as Exod. 19. 18. compared with Malach. 4. 4. Now when they were at Rephidim chap. 17. 1. they were at Horeb vers 2. So that to go from Rephidim to Sinai is to go from Horeb to Horeb. Answ. The hill on which the Law was given had indeed two names and as Bellonius saith two tops the one side of it was called Horeb from the rocky drought of it being utterly devoid of water The other side was called Sinai from the bushes and brambles that grew upon it in one of which Moses saw the Lord in a flame of fire if so be it took not the name from Sini the Son of Canaan Gen. 10. Now when Israel lay at Rephidim they lay upon Horeb side and there out of the droughty rock Moses miraculously bringeth forth water Their march from Rephidim is at the skirts of the hill from Horeb to Sinai side of the mountain And in the same sense is Paul to be understood 1 Cor. 10. 4. They drank of the Rock that followed them Not that the Rock stirred and went along with them but that the water which miraculously gushed out of the one side of the hill Horeb ran along with them as they marched at the foot of the hill till they came to the other side of the hill Sinai And so is Moses himself to be understood I cast the dust of the golden Calf into the brook that descended out of the Mount Deut. 9. 21. Not that the brook gushed out of the mount on that side on which the Calf was erected but on the other and at the skirt of the hill came running to that SECTION XXV The Station and Posture of Israel before Sinai Exod. 19. ON the first day of the month Sivan which was towards the middle of our May in the year of the world 2513. they come from Rephidim to Sinai and pitch in their main body more especially on the South and South East side of the Mount See Deut. 33. 2. and compare the situation of Seir in the point of the Compass In three parts or squadrons did their Camp sit down before it 1. Next to the hill pitched the Elders or 70 heads of the chief families which had gone into Aegypt these are called the house of Jacob Vers. 3. as Gen. 46. 27. 2. Next behind them pitched the People in their main body consisting of so many hundred thousands these are called the children of Israel vers 3. And this distinction is observed vers 7. 8. And Moses called the Elders c. And all the people answered 3. On the outside of all lay the mixed multitude or the Aegyptians that